Dark Days in the GPNW

We woke up to yellow/grey skies and ash covering the pickup and the RV. The winds changed, blowing smoke out of eastern Washington to here.  The arrival of the smoke and ash happened last night, at the moment the winds are dead flat calm, so this atmosphere will be with us for awhile.
This is a terrible picture taken with my cell phone this morning at about 8:15.  It gives the general idea of the color of the sun and sky.



I scraped this from a facebook post put up by Friends of the Columbia Gorge.  The camera is currently positioned facing the Cascade Locks to give a live view of the Eagle Creek fire.  This is not the only fire burning in eastern Washington.



It does seem like the entire world is on fire, under water or under siege.
 
In Myanmar, 125,000 Rohingya refugees are walking barefoot through sucking mud to get to Bangladesh.  Daw Aung San Suu Kyi seemingly has not lifted a finger to prevent the military from destroying their villages and murdering the people.  The military says it’s retaliation for resistance by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.  This is ethnic cleansing.

Here, in the US, we have our president vowing to deport all the Dreamers who came here as children despite the fact that it will cost our GDP somewhere around $105 billion dollars over five years.  Enlightened self interest would suggest that we not do this evil thing.  He’s also threatening to cease trade with countries that trade with North Korea.  That would be China and Saudi Arabia to name two.  Where does he think steel comes from these days?  China.  He wants a trade war on top of everything else.  And let us not forget the cost to clean up Houston and after this weekend Florida with Hurricane Irma on the way.  Despite these looming expenditures, he wants to give the rich a tax break.  I don’t think good things are ahead for this country.  It’s a good time to be old.

On the not dark side, Jim is doing better.  Drug consumption is down and walking distances are up.