Picto Diary - 10 to 16 October 2022 - Hoover Institution Fall Retreat
Above: Happy Columbus Day. 10 October 2022.
And I still call the mountain, McKinley.
Above: Metaphor or Tree of Life sculpture. I-80, 26 miles east of Wendover, Great Salt Lake Desert, Utah. 11 October 2022.
Out and about on the Duc.
Swedish artist Karl Momen created the 87-foot-high tree between 1982-1986. He financed the project himself to bring bold color and beauty to the stark, flat, salty landscape. The sculpture is made of 225 tons of cement, almost 2,000 ceramic tiles and five tons of welding rod, and tons of minerals and rocks native to Utah.
Above: Ducati Multistrada V4. Fernley, Nevada. 12 October 2022.
Out and about on the Duc.
I don't use side panniers for a week or less motorcycle trip. A small roll suitcase strapped onto the rear does the trick.
Above: Mynduveroan rappels. Zion National Park, Utah. 12 October 2022.
Family life goes on elsewhere when Bishop is motorcycling. Image by mom, FeeBee.
Above: Kessler and Z. City of Rocks, Idaho. 12 October 2022.
Image by Z mom.
Family life goes on elsewhere when Bishop is motorcycling.
Above: In and Out Burger. Auburn, CA. 12 October 2022.
Out and about on the Duc.
In and Out Burger, Auburn, California. Obligatory lunch stop when motorcycling between Park City to the Bay Area on I-80.
Above: Selby's. Redwood City, CA. 12 October 2022. (Selby's file image)
Dinner here with some selected Hoover Retreat attendees. Advertised as a one-star Michelin restaurant, the Selby's ribeye's didn't measure up according to two diners in our group. Mine, ordered medium, came back medium-well, and it was too chewy for what should have been a tender, juicy USDA prime steak. Shamefully, having pretty loosey-goosy dining standards, I ate it anyway. For me, the steak was worth returning with the consequence of disrupting the dining event. A co-diner, with higher dining standards than mine, sent his overcooked, too-tough steak back. His return steak was cooked right but, was overly tough for what was advertised. I rarely turn back food. I probably should start doing so. I've been critical of some who turn back food or wine, but tonight, two of us were spot on about the substandard steak offering. All other diners (there were seven of us) reported a top-notch dining experience.
In dinner conversation, one of the Selby's diners, not holding back, said that DJT should not be the Pub party's nominee for president in 2024. This person, who held a very senior role in Bush (W) administration, cited Trump's mercurial personality, narcissism, and overall lack of foreign policy and government knowledge as reasons for not supporting DJT. There was reaction from some diners, benign and non-confrontational, to be sure, to the effect that DJT had put some strong points on the board notwithstanding the tsunami of resistance by the left to his presidency. I was to learn, as I drifted through the dinners and cocktails of the retreat over the next two days, that many I interacted with hold a "conservative-policy-good-but-not-DJT" view of the 2024 presidential election.
Note: Following notes on Hoover Fall Retreat are selective and don't include all speakers. Note taker, Mwah (sic), is fallible. Mistakes are mine.
Above: Hoover Fall Retreat. Hoover Institution, Palo Alto, CA. 13 October 2022.
Victor Davis Hansen, Hoover Senior Fellow
What keeps civilization intact?
Food
Fuel
Borders/Security
Bonding document
Economic system
Food: Only 1% of Americans are farmers. 99% of Americans don't know what it takes to make food. Sri Lanka, Netherlands recent dumb moves on food create economic chaos. There is no provision for protecting water in California's central valley.
Fuel: General population is ignorant on how energy is produced. Stupidly, Germany shuts down its nuclear power capability with idea of substituting so-called renewable sources of power. Germany 40% dependent on Russia gas. Due Ukraine/Russia war, Germans are now buying wood burning stoves. Germany, a putative sophisticated society, has decided to destroy itself. US energy is in peril. 2MM barrels a day incremental production in US makes US energy independent. Notwithstanding Biden, paying fealty to the gods of climate change, refuses to ramp up US energy production. Biden has cancelled Keystone Pipeline, shut down ANWAR, and denied new leases for drilling on federal land. The elites have no idea of the consequences of their restrictive energy policies.
Borders/Security. The US does not have a southern border. Immigration law is not enfoced. Reminds of Rome giving up border on the Danube. Citizen exclusivity is being diluted. This is dangerous for national security. How did we get here only forty years after Reagan wanted a missile defense system? Elites are losing focus on the importance of protecting the United States. US has a big military, but we are not protected. We no longer have a strong missile deterrent.
Bonding Document. There is fraying consensus on the validity of the US Constitution. People want to tamper with US founding principles ie. attack on the Electoral College; ending the filibuster; packing the Supreme Court; call for two more states. Tamper with the Constitution and reap the whirlwind.
Economic. US is $23 million in debt. US debt increasingly unsaleable.
In sum, it is now time to worry about the durability of US civilization.
Note: Note taker is fallible. Mistakes are his.
Above: Map of China and environs. Presentation by Admiral Gary Roughead, Hoover Senior Fellow, 29th Chief of Naval Operations, 2007 to 2011. 13 October 2022.
China threat to South China Sea grows.
China likely temporizing on invading Taiwan considering successful showing of Ukraine in fighting off the Russian invasion.
Japan increasing national preparedness in the face of growing Chinese threat.
In Q and A, a military veteran retreat participant indicated that his three, service academy educated, current military officer sons, were talking about leaving the service due to the military's increased emphasis in teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT) and other "woke" ideas to the military population. The questioner asked if Admiral Roughead had advice for his sons. In reply, Admiral Roughead admonished military members to stay the course... that there are few things more important than service to one's country.
Above: Hoover Director Condi Rice; former Secretary of State and former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. Hoover Fall retreat, Hoover Institution, Palo Alto, CA. 13 October 2022. (Hoover file image).
Mike Pompeo, Former US Secretary of State
I'm worried about our faith institutions. Some are too belligerent. Others are too weak. We need religion to play an important part in our public life.
I'm worried about our elections.
I'm worried about low confidence in our public institutions.
At the time I left my position as Secretary of State in 2021 I would have never believed that Russia would have invaded Ukraine.
We have lived in a climate change fantasy for the last fifty years. This will be very costly to the world. It should be an immediate priority for the US to deliver affordable energy.
Kansas farmers will make a ton of money this year selling their red wheat. Ukraine red wheat production is now at a standstill. Next year, Kansas farmers will not be able to afford fertilizer.
CCP far exceeds the threat today that the USSR posed to the West in the 1990's. An additional complication: China and the US have integrated economies, which was not the case with the USSR during the cold war.
Biden has set back Middle East relations due his appeasement of Iran.
I'm deeply worried about the American work ethic. 40% of US kids wake up never having seen a parent go to work. We need to build on the core institutions of family and faith, and to rebuild our work ethic.
Eric Wakin
Deputy Director/ Director of Library & Archives |Research Fellow (Hoover Image)
Paraphrased: As Secretary of State, George Shultz would ask newly minted US ambassadors to point to the country "they were representing" on his office globe. Many would point to the country where they were assigned. Shultz gave special praise, however, to those who would point at the United States on the globe..."the country they were to represent."
Above: The Village Pub Restaurant, Woodside, CA. 14 October 2022.
Dinner here with three attendees of the Hoover Fall Retreat.
No dinner complaints. The opposite. The restaurant very much lived up to its One Michelin Star ranking. Company even better.
Above: Stanford Park Hotel, Menlo Park California, 15 October 2022.
Out and about on the Duc.
Getting ready to depart to Park City via overnight in Winnemucca, NV. 350 miles. Total distance, 700 miles.
Above: Gas pump. Menlo Park, CA. 15 October 2022.
Out and about in the Duc.
Highest I've ever paid for gas in US.
Slab Reflections
A 350-mile ride today, east bound via I-80, (freeway in motorcycle argot is "slab') from Menlo Park, CA to Winnemucca, NV affords time for reflection. As the purring Ducati Multistrada V4 motorcycle "scrolls" the stark, dry, high desert Nevada landscape, random thoughts simultaneously scroll through my brain.
BYU Football: I grew up attending BYU football and basketball games. I was a BYU scholarship player on BYU freshman basketball team in 1964. In 1980, when living in the Philippines, I drove to Clark Air Base from Manila to listen to, via Armed Forces Radio, the Holiday Bowl, where BYU beat SMU in a game considered to be one of the greatest football comebacks ever. I attended BYU's football victory over Michigan in 1984 at the San Diego Holiday Bowl which resulted in BYU accomplishing an NCAA national championship. So, through the mid 80's, my BYU fan credentials were solid. Over the ensuing years, my interest in BYU football waned, largely because of the school's consistently mediocre football performance. Since 1984, celebrity quarterbacks winning in weak conferences notwithstanding, BYU has been a lower top 25 college team, say half the time, and out of the national rankings the rest. And so, this year also, one year away from BYU being a new member of the Big 12 football conference, the BYU football program, with a strong schedule, seems to be struggling to achieve a .500 win/loss record. To become a top five NCAA football program BYU needs a $5MM coach. The quality of the coach is the most important factor in building a successful program. All devolves from that... the quality of the assistant coaches, the quality of the recruits and so on. BYU pays its current coach, Kalane Sitake, neighborhood $1.5MM. To get BYU football the "next level," BYU needs to recruit a new coach. If having an LDS coach is important to the school, try Andy Reid or Kyle Whittingham, both $5MM coaches. Make the job offer sound like a mission call. Say, $6MM per annum, five-year contract, $5MM bonus if national championship is accomplished. Have LDS president Russel Nelson make the first recruiting call. Otherwise, the BYU Board of Trustees should consider whether having a perennial Division One mediocre football program enhances the superior, unique national image they want BYU to have. Short of the commitment to build an outstanding Division One program, BYU should consider fielding a Division Two team and redirect the school to building on its unique academic mission.
Taking Notes. At 77 years of age, I'm obsessed with memory. As I ride, I try to anticipate the names of the waypoints along this segment of I-80, a road segment that I have ridden twenty or more times. There is a summit coming up, halfway between Reno and Carlin. I can't think of its name. About a mile before reaching this summit, the name inexplicably pops into my head: Golconda Summit. Why can I not think of the name of this spot when I am not near it? Memory glitches like this happen to me all the time. Lacking confidence in my memory may be one of the reasons I have become such an inveterate note taker over the years. Mom died at 92 in 2011. During her 80's she, like I'm doing now, would take notes. Then, I wondered about her note taking habit. She would call for the weather report and write it down as it was being dictated. Her kitchen area would be strewn with yellow, foolscap pages of her notes. Today, considering my growing lack of confidence in my memory capability, I'm more sympathetic to Mom's practice of note taking. Some people have asked why I take and publish notes for speakers to our Park City based LSDM Romeo group. I do it to reinforce my memory! Others can review the notes at LSDM-parkcity.com and do the same!
Also, as a variation of taking notes, I keep a diary. I read a lot of biography and history. The sources of biographies are notes and records captured by the subject or by followers. I believe that all lives, not just famous lives, can evoke stories that can entertain or uplift others. Furthermore, by keeping a diary, one's descendants can benefit from knowing the histories of their forebears. In a way, recording life histories leads to securing some form of immortality. LDS are encouraged to keep diaries and I think I was conditioned by that thinking as I was growing up. Somewhere between memory insecurity and documenting my legacy is the source of my note taking compulsion.
DJT and Vlad. As national leaders, DJT and Vlad share a lot of commonalities. They are both vilified by the US corporate press. Each is a patriot for their different countries. Though neither is inherently religious, each is strongly supportive of traditional religion as a necessary underpinning of cultural strength. Each fight to restrain progressive, globalist forces from undermining traditional cultural values in their respective countries. Neither, Trump nor Putin seek world domination, but each seeks to advance nationalistic wellbeing for their own nations. To be sure, there is a huge difference in the governmental systems of Russia and the United States. As US president, Trump represented a democratic republic and Putin leads Russia as an autocrat. Still, were DJT to be elected president in 2024 one can easily see a possible rapprochement between Russia and the US based on DJT's and Vlad's shared common ground as enemies of progressive world reset.
Above: Slot. Pepper Mill Casino. West Wendover, NV. 16 October 2022.
Out and about on the Duc.
My system. Feed the dollar machine $100. Stop betting the first time you are ahead. Odds are that you will get ahead at least once on one hundred pulls of the handle. This time, I walk away with $22.00. How else am I going to pay for lunch?
Above: Duc. Park City, Utah. 16 October 2022.
Out and about on the Duc.
1500 miles round trip between Park City, UT and Menlo Park, CA. Rendu.