Where I live it isn't always nice. For example, summers tend to be called the "June Glooms" because it is overcast so much. However, this also has it's advantages too in that it seldom goes above 70 or 80 all summer long. So, if we don have a really sunny warm day that just brings in the fog within a day or two. So, it's sort of a natural air conditioner, the climate here.
So, when it's not raining from about November to April is some of the best weather we get all year. Like Today, sunny and 68 degrees. At the beaches nearest where I live I think I have never seen as many people at these beaches all year as I saw yesterday, Saturday. But, after all it is or was Thanksgiving weekend and a 4 day weekend at that. So, people tend to travel the most I think during Thanksgiving to see relatives and friends before the really heavy weather of winter sets in and it can get really dangerous with snow and flooding many places including California.
So, there are no high temperatures all week now below 65 degrees and that's nice too. Hopefully though we get some more rain eventually.
A friend told me that lives at around 4000 feet on Mt. Shasta that he has 4 feet of snow there. I said: "Will it melt off?" He said: "NO. It's likely there for the duration." 2 years ago he had 12 feet of snow outside his house even in April but then again that was 2 years ago now and he couldn't even see out of his first floor windows.
So, another nice day in Paradise here on the northern Coast of California!
We met former
German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a fitting place for her: the museum
in Berlin dedicated to the Wall, that great symbol of the Cold War
division between East and West. Parts of the wall have been preserved as
a reminder of those hard times, especially for someone who lived
through them.
She said images of the wall still conjure up highly emotional memories for her.
I asked, "When you look at the wall, what comes to mind to you immediately?"
"Between the ages of seven and 35, I had to live with this
wall," she replied. "I was, so to speak, behind the wall, and couldn't
come to this side. And of course, that's still very moving."
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with correspondent Mark Phillips, in Berlin.
CBS News
Merkel's new book, "Freedom: Memoirs 1954-2021"
(published by St. Martin's Press), is filled with moving memories of
what it was like growing up in the Communist-controlled police state
that was East Germany. Her family had moved there when she was an infant
because her father, a Protestant pastor, was assigned to a church
there. But it was the fall of the wall that spurred her political
awakening, and jump-started a career nobody would have bet on: A woman,
from the East, who would not only become Chancellor of Germany, but who
would hold the job for 16 years; who would be called the most powerful
woman in the world, and who would deal with its most powerful men.
The video player is currently playing an ad.
It turns out, life in the East actually had given her one advantage
for dealing with all those men in dark suits: Those bright pant suits of
hers weren't an accident. "In my book I write that maybe my love for
colorful clothes is due to the fact that in the East, everything was
very gray," she said.
Merkel's uniform became part of her
identity, and helped her break through the American pop-cultural
barrier, on "Saturday Night Live," the way few European leaders could.
Merkel
left power three years ago this week, and has gone into a kind of
self-imposed political radio silence since then, keeping her
recollections and opinions to herself.
Not anymore.
Among the more awkward memories: that first shocking, even embarrassing, meeting with President Donald Trump in 2017.
I
said, "I think it's fair to say your most difficult relationship with
an American president was with President Trump in his first term. You
talk about your first encounter in the Oval Office where he refused to
shake your hand, and you say that it occurred to you that he was
fascinated with Putin and with politicians with authoritarian and
dictatorial traits. Why did you say that?"
"Why he didn't want to
shake my hand, that, you'd have to ask him," Merkel replied. "I think he
often conveyed a message with a handshake. With some men he shook hands
for a long time."
"What were you thinking? Should I reach over? Will we shake hands? Won't we shake hands? What's he trying to do?"
"I
describe it in my book because it was so interesting. I whispered to
him, 'I think they want us to shake hands.' And at that moment when I
said it, I noticed that he wanted to convey a message. And I was quite
naïve, telling him that they want us to shake hands."
"But did you get what he was trying to do?" I asked. "Did you think, Oh, he's going to play it that way, that's how we're going to do it?"
"Yeah,
that's the way it was. I left being convinced that multilateral
cooperation would be difficult with Donald Trump," Merkel replied. "You
can make deals with Donald Trump because he always thinks in terms of
advantage and disadvantage. But in my experience, win-win situations are
not only good for one side, but for both sides. That's not really his
way of thinking."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Donald Trump meeting at the White House, March 17, 2017.
CBS News
Merkel's book, which is being
released around the world, went to press before last month's election.
In it, she wrote that she wishes "with all my heart that Kamala Harris
defeats her competitor and becomes president."
Of the election results, she said, "I was sad. First of all, I wanted
a woman to win. I was also in favor of Hillary Clinton. And secondly,
I'm closer to Kamala Harris' political conviction. But the American
voters have decided, and it was a democratic election."
St. Martin's Press
Merkel has come in for her own
share of criticism since she left office. Her decision to allow more
than a million refugees and migrants fleeing Syria into Germany is now
often cited as a reason for the rise of anti-immigrant, right-wing
political parties in Europe. She says those forces were on the rise
anyway.
Her decision to allow the German economy to become too
dependent on Russian natural gas is seen as another reason for Germany's
economic decline since the flow was stopped.
She says staying
engaged with Vladimir Putin seemed like the right idea at the time,
difficult though it was. And it didn't stop him from invading Ukraine.
I
asked, "You dealt a lot with Vladimir Putin. I take it, reading between
the lines of your book, that you found him a very difficult and
manipulative character as well, even an intimidating character at times.
Famously, you don't like dogs; he'd bring his dog to the meeting. Do
you think he did that in an intimidating kind of way? And how would you
suggest people deal with him, especially as things are heating up
again?"
"Without fear," she replied. "Of course, there are
attempts to see how people react under a certain amount of pressure. And
Putin can do that, too. And with the dog he expressed exactly that. But
it all depends on how I manage the situation. I'm used to political
pressure since childhood, so that did not shock me."
Despite all
her experience, Merkel says she now refrains from giving advice. But she
does give hints. She says that, in general, she is worried about
developments in the world: "I've always said that fear is not a good
advisor. Times have become rougher. We are now sitting in a place where
the world was divided in the Cold War, and then there was 1990. We had
great hopes that things would become easier after the end of the Cold
War. Things have not become easier."
Chief
Executive Officer of Stellantis Carlos Tavares attends the New York
International Auto Show, in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., April 5,
2023.
David Dee Delgado/Reuters/File
New YorkCNN
—
Stellantis, the maker of Chrysler, Jeep, Fiat and Peugeot
among other brands, announced on Sunday that embattled CEO Carlos
Tavares has resigned due to differences with the board and in the face
of disappointing sales and calls for his ouster.
The departure comes following a steep drop in Stellantis’ sales,
a glut of unsold vehicles on dealers’ lots, layoffs at several of its
plants and calls for his departure from the United Auto Workers union,
which represents its US workers, and also scathing criticism of his
tenure from a council of its US dealers.
Tavares and the Stellantis board of directors had “different
views,” which led to his resignation, Stellantis’ Senior Independent
Director Henri de Castries, said in the release.
Tavares, 66, a Portuguese businessman who was central to the
deal that merged French automaker PSA Group, maker of Peugeot, and the
European-American automaker Fiat-Chrysler, into the newly named
Stellantis, which is the fourth-largest automaker world behind Toyota,
Volkswagen Group and Hyundai Motor Group. He had been chairman of PSA
Group ahead of that deal, which closed in January 2021. Earlier this
year, it was announced that Tavares would retire at the end of his
contract in early 2026.
“The process to appoint the new permanent Chief Executive
Officer is well under way, managed by a Special Committee of the Board,
and will be concluded within the first half of 2025. Until then, a new
Interim Executive Committee, chaired by John Elkann, will be
established,” the company said in a news release.
The company said in an email to CNN that it has no further comments.
The decision for Tavares to step down came amid high prices
for its cars and trucks in North America that drove down sales and disappointed its traditional customer base.
Global sales volume for the first half of this year fell
10%, and in the third quarter plunged 20%. US sales are down 17% in the
first nine months of the year. Experts told CNN that the average price
of the Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler vehicles had gotten too high for
the core customers of those brands.
By the fourth quarter of 2023, the average Stellantis
vehicle sold for $58,000 in the United States, according to data from
automotive site Edmunds. While Stellantis’ US average price has declined
since then, it was still the second-highest average price in the
industry, at just under $55,000 in the third quarter.
The company laid off about 1,200 workers at its truck plant
in Warren, Michigan, coinciding with the discontinuation of the
entry-level Ram 1500 Classic pickup. The elimination of a shift at that
plant took effect in October. In November, Stellantis announced plans to
cut one of two shifts in January at its Toledo Assembly Complex South
plant, which builds the Jeep Gladiator pickup, indefinitely laying off
about 1,100 workers.
Those layoffs — and the company’s slow pace in bringing back
workers to a closed plant in Belvidere, Illinois — has the union threatening to wage a new strike
against Stellantis. The UAW said Stellantis was not living up to the
terms of the contract reached after strikes a year ago against the
automaker. Stellantis has denied it is in violation of the contract and
has vowed to challenge the legality of any new strike.
The strong profits in 2023 led Stellantis to pay Tavares
36.5 million euros in total compensation, which comes to $36.8 million
at current exchange rates. The pay package sparked strong criticism.
“The UAW welcomes the resignation of Stellantis CEO Carlos
Tavares, a major step in the right direction for a company that has been
mismanaged and a workforce that has been mistreated for too long,” the
UAW said in a statement. “We are pleased to see the company responding
to pressure and correcting course.”
In August, Kevin Farrish, chairman of the company’s US
dealers’ council, which represents the independent businesses that sell
its vehicles to car buyers, wrote a letter in which he placed much of
the problems on decisions made by Tavares. Farrish said Tavares put too
much emphasis on increasing profit margins and executive pay and not
enough on producing vehicles at competitive prices.
“In 2023, you engineered a record year of profitability for
Stellantis, earning you the title of highest compensated automotive
CEO,” Farrish wrote in the letter. “The reckless short-term
decision-making to secure record profits in 2023 has had a devastating,
yet entirely predictable, consequences in the US market.”
Farrish pointed to plant closing announcements and the loss of US market share, among other problems.
While Farrish told CNN last month that steps by Stellantis
to shake up its executive ranks and to offer incentives to buyers of its
vehicles had stemmed some of the worst of the problems, he still had
concerns about the direction of the company.
Farrish did not have an mmediate comment on Tavares’ departure.
In October, Stellantis cut its 2024 profit forecast because
of declining earnings and sales. It said Sunday that it stands by its
lowered earnings forecast for the year.
This story has been updated with additional content.
In
a letter to his wife, Olga, the playwright and political dissident
Václav Havel wrote, “Hope is a dimension of the spirit. It is not
outside us, but within us.” Havel sent the note from a Prague jail,
after being imprisoned for criticizing his country’s regime from 1979
until 1983.
Havel
could have been forgiven for rejecting hope. After the Prague Spring, a
brief period of political protest and social liberalization,
Czechoslovakia had veered back towards Soviet rule. Authoritarians had
tightened their grip on law, media, and culture, Havel forced to survey
it all from a tiny cell.
Some Americans might feel that the current moment runs parallel with Havel’s, in the wake of Donald Trump’s election to a second term as President. Many Democrats have abandoned hope in favor of cynicism: deciding that most of the voting public are selfish, bigoted enemies of democracy.
This
is an understandable response, but perhaps not a helpful one. Writing
off vast swaths of Americans fuels trends most of the nation abhors. Research finds
that people who mistrust their fellow citizens are most likely to
support “strong man” leaders who promise to protect people while
stripping away their freedoms. Donald Trump capitalized on this
phenomenon, offering a fever dream of American carnage that beguiled
many people into his camp. For instance, violent crime has been
declining across the U.S. for decades, but many Americans—especially if
they watch conservative media—falsely believe it’s on the rise. People who held that dark view favored Trump by more than 25 points. It’s not just crime. According to the Pew Research Center,
Americans’ faith in institutions—including education, science, and
government—has plummeted, but this drop is steepest among Republicans.
The
2024 U.S. election reflected deep cynicism among voters about the
nation and where it was headed. And if you are disheartened by the
outcome, you might reasonably fear where we’re headed now.
Optimism—the
idea that things will turn out well—could feel ridiculous with all
that’s happening. But what Havel knew, even while sitting in his cell,
is that hope is different: the idea that things could improve. It acknowledges that we have no idea how the future will unfold—and in that uncertainty, our actions still matter.
We
have stereotyped hope as naive, privileged, even toxic: sticking our
fingers in our ears and tuning out the world’s problems. It’s nothing of
the sort. Centuries ago, philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas described
hope as a struggle to reach goals that are “arduous and difficult to
obtain”—hardly a walk in the park. Modern psychologists have followed
suit, describing hope as a bulwark against despair in difficult times.
So how does it work? And more importantly, how can it be used to affect change in our lives and across our culture?
Hope
contains three experiences. First, a goal, something positive that may
or may not occur in the future. Second, will power, the desire to
achieve that goal, and third, way power, a path through which to pursue
it. Where an optimist might sit and wait for a bright future to arrive, a
hopeful person pulls themselves towards it, often through great effort.
And because of that, hope—more than optimism—predicts people’s ability to meet their goals.
If you’re upset by this year’s election, you can use hope in at least two ways. First, it can steady your well being. Research finds that hopeful people are more resilient when facing difficulties, such as chronic illness
and loss. Amid a swirl of experiences we can’t control, hope focuses us
on what we can. Restoring a sense of agency, it can bring peace,
purpose, and strength.
This
is not merely an exercise in wellness. The energy hope provides has
been a cornerstone of social movements around the world and throughout
history. Psychologists have examined decades of research
collective action, people’s willingness to struggle together for causes
in which they believe. One of the forces that most propelled collective
action was a sense of efficacy. People fight when they imagine the
fight could be won. In other words, when they feel hope.
One source of efficacy—and hope—among activists is the knowledge that even when systems are
unjust and harmful, most people are not. After his release from prison,
Havel got right back into the advocacy that had gotten him arrested in
the first place. But he was not alone. His dissident group, Charter 77,
led national strikes and demonstrations that swelled to hundreds of
thousands of people. With the media under state control, citizens hung
handmade protest signs from their windows. Each risked their safety, but
also signaled to each other how popular the movement was. Within a few
years, the regime had toppled, and Havel became the Czech Republic’s
first President.
Now,
too, good citizens are everywhere. Conservative voters are wrong about
crime statistics, but both sides misunderstand each other. Research
clearly demonstrates that more than 80% of Americans—including Democrats
and Republicans voters—would prefer greater peace between political parties; most respect democratic rule. Across surveys, a supermajority of the country support policies to protect poor people and the climate. But almost no one knows that.
Both
Democrats and Republicans vastly overestimate how extreme, hateful,
anti-democratic, and violent their opponents are. Media companies thrive
on outrage, inundating us with extreme and inflammatory portrayals of
the “other side.” When we uncritically consume these messages, we miss
out on vast swaths of common ground that most Americans share.
Succumbing
to cynicism might feel like a balm after this election, but it’s a
trap—one that leads us further from the solutions we need. Instead, we
must embrace the hard work of hope: recognizing our shared humanity,
seeking common ground, and building a coalition that transcends divides.
This isn’t wishful thinking; it’s strategic, deliberate, and essential.
In
their walk through the wilderness, Democrats will need to consider how
to build a broader coalition that can defeat the cynical populism of
Trump and his successors. In this mission, hope isn’t just a
mindset—it’s the plan.
