turning up the heat

Where the western United States is wracked and ravaged by wildfire and drought, here in the northeast, it is like living under a warm, wet cat. In the West,

Drought and heat have combined to make this fire season of the most active in the United States in recent years. Nearly 29,000 firefighters are battling some 100 large blazes across the West, including in Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Washington and California.

And as if this were not enough, the drought in California has forced farmers to dig deeper and deeper for water that is no longer near the surface. The result is "subsidence," the land sinking as much as two inches per month as deep pools and aquifers are tapped. Sinking land, in present and future, has the capacity to threaten a wide variety of structures (bridges, buildings, power lines, etc.) that rely on a steady landmass beneath their feet.

And, as another example of fiddling while Rome burns perhaps, Congress is on vacation and 17 Republican candidates, none displaying a coherent policy, dominate the political airwaves ... or worry about Hillary Clinton's email accounts. Not to mention involvement in widespread sectarian wars in the Middle East and a continuing U.S. mantram created to induce fear in a 'terrorist'-fearing electorate.

I'm not sure if it suggests the last laugh or the first tear, but there was this note out of Oklahoma:

OKTAHA — A member of a self-proclaimed Oklahoma patriot group was shot Tuesday morning in an apparent accident at an Oktaha survivalist store and gun range that last week made national headlines for posting a sign saying the establishment is “Muslim-free.”

I keep thinking that someone, somewhere, somehow will serious-up, but it is clear that what I see as fantasy and fantasmagoria in others is just my own fantasy run amok.