Trump's Calculation

 Trump's sudden U-turn on release of the Epstein files made headlines and raised questions about his motivation.  It seems to me the explanation is pretty simple.

Trump is counting on the fact that everyone - including his MAGA base - knows that he is a sleazy pervert who has made a habit of molesting women along with all his other abuses of power.  That is a pretty easy conclusion to reach since the wide knowledge of his character did not stop his being elected to the Presidency twice.

In addition to that it looked very likely that Congress was going to vote for release of the Epstein trove, leaving Trump's only option to be risking a veto which would only fuel evidence of guilt.  And, he is also counting on using his usual effective strategy of denying evidence and asserting that accusations are simply Democrat-sponsored lies.

Along with all of the above Trump will continue to intimidate the media and to create diversions, including the idea that he cares about affordability and healthcare.  More ominously, if the tide of opinion seems to be moving against him he may move beyond killing small boat drug runners to starting a war with Venezuela.

The Wednesday Ride

I am enjoying some renewed mobility thanks to my trike.  I think it is at least a couple years since since I've gotten to the end of 15th St. where the little nicho is located. 

The weather has been perfect for such excursions, and it looks like we'll enjoy another ten days before the first frost.

New Mexico was visited Tuesday night by the Northern Lights.  We could only see a hint of them to the North, but our daughter got a nice view from the eastern heights of the city

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PS: 

I see that I photographed the ikon in its nicho nearly five years ago with my then newly acquired Leotax Elite.

The Verdict

A walk in Old Town gave me an opportunity to try out the new phone grip.  The generous size of the images from the iPhone 14 allows for a lot of cropping, so the end results don't look much different than from those made with the naked phone.  However, I found the grip to produce a much more familiar and comfortable shooting experience. 

Carrying the phone with the grip also encouraged me to use the phone camera in a more sustained exploratory manner, so that instead of one or two targets of opportunity I ended up engaging with a variety of subjects.

A big plus for the grip is that it provides  much more steadiness, leading to more carefully framed compositions and a much better chance of level horizons and upright verticals.

So, a more satisfying experience in using the iPhone for photography, but not without some compromises compared to shooting a real camera.  Activating the shutter release and the zoom with the bluetooth connection produces a small time lag, so capturing action is a bit of a challenge.  My experience with using the phone camera is very limited, so I may have more to say about that and other issues down the road.  Meanwhile, I feel at this point that the small cost of the grip has been a good investment.

Get A Grip

 I have been impressed with the capabilities of the camera on my iPhone 14, but the ergonomics leave a lot to be desired.  I thought this Telesin Fun Shot Magnetic Grip2 might make using the iPhone camera closer to the experience of using an actual camera.

The grip attaches magnetically to the phone and is operated via a Bluetooth connection.  Exposures are made with a click of the red button and there is a lever for zooming.

I got the grip from Amazon for $32.99 plus shipping.

A Lesson In Resistance

 

I don't recall why I stopped following the blog posts of Yannis Varoufakis, economist and former Minister of Finance of Greece.  I think it may have been because he was not posting much at the time due to other priorities. Today I found a reason to restore a link to his blog from mine, and to listen again to what he has to say about the state of the world.  

Varoufakis has written a new book which, as he says,

"...is unlike anything I have written before. Setting aside high theory, it is the story of five women who, over of a hundred years, resisted fascism, authoritarianism and chauvinism. It is, I believe, a universal story of five remarkable women who taught me how to resist bullies, bigots and chauvinists, as well as the sense of futility that threatens to overwhelm us."

The first woman Varoufakis talks about is his mother, Eleni.  The excerpt from the book's beginning relates a brief incident while living under the Greek dictatorship in the 1960s as seen through the eyes of a young child.

In the few brief paragraphs of that opening story, the seemingly overwhelming power and brutality of the authoritarian regime is captured in the description of a visit to see Eleni's imprisoned brother.  Scroll down the page to PART ONE - Eleni to see how the stoic bravery of the prisoner and his sister contributed to undermining the dictatorship's agenda.

November 1st

Tiguex Autumn

Day of the Dead