The news from David S. Wieder

Why the West is allowing Ukrainians to Bleed and Die

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 10:59:04 GMT

During his “wilderness years,” Churchill understood Adolf Hitler’s ambitions, presciently shouting to a deaf world the dangers ahead. The Rhineland. Sudetenland. Czechoslovakia gobbled up while appeasers twiddled. England and France could have sent Hitler packing. Instead, they gave him three more years to arm. It was too late. Fifty million died.

Stalin, double-crossed by his former Poland-dividing German friend, decided too late that he had to fight. Millions of Soviets soldiers and civilians died because of his dithering. FDR had to contend with America Firsters and could have entered the war sooner; he had third term political considerations in in 1940; but he knew he had to fight, too. Eventually.

WE RELIVE THE MISTAKES OF HISTORY AT OUR OWN PERIL, LIKE WILEY CAYOTE CHASING THE ROAD RUNNER. PUTIN INVADED A SOVEREIGN COUNTRY. STOP HIM, GERMANS. STOP HIM, FRENCHMEN. STOP HIM, NATO. STOP HIM, AMERICA. UKRAINIAN CHILDREN ARE FREEZING AND STARVING. PEOPLE ARE LOSING THEIR LIVES TO A RUSSIAN BLOODTHIRSTY PYROMANIAC, A HANNIBAL LECTER.

Here’s the rub: using time as his weapon, like Hitler, Putin is conscripting, propagandizing, and gradually conscripting massive manpower—constructing his war machine, gaslighting his people, building support, slowly, craftily, cunningly, odiously. Russians believe his lies about Ukraine as a Nazi haven, a virtual pizza parlor filled with basement dwelling pedophiles, or in this case, jackbooted storm troopers. Despite President Zelensky’s Churchillian appearance before congress, we must move swiftly, because time is on Putin’s side. A war of attrition is not on Ukraine’s side. Even with US Ordinance, rockets, drones, artillery. Western fear is Putin’s ally. Time is Putin’s ally.

Wars start slowly but inevitably spiral out of control; aid the west provides the Ukrainians resembles aid the US gave to England in 1940, followed by exponential materiel increase from the great American “arsenal of democracy.” It was not enough. Not in 1940 and not enough in 2022; it will not be enough in 2023, 2024, 2025 as this war drags on. Too many Russians, too much manpower. Too much time.

Victory requires a credible threat of NATO mobilization—an army ready to do battle. And an ultimatum. But that will not happen, I fear.

Billions of dollars for weapons in a proxy war with Ukrainians fighting Russians has been impactful. Americans can watch Netflix war movies while Ukrainians bleed. They can watch Tom Hanks storm the beach at Normandy. Much less dangerous. Let’s just ship some more rockets to Ukraine instead. Yellowstone is on. Even so, it was heartening to see the bipartisan support for Ukraine in the Congress.

Military planners in the Pentagon and in Western European capitals should be preparing for a wider war. It would be malfeasant for them not to do. We just don’t realize it yet. NATO is obliged to tell Putin to get out of Ukraine or face an allied army to evict him. Putin must be given an ultimatum to get out or face military force. Germans and French, British and American, Canadian and Australian. Putin understands naked power. The west must mobilize. He does not understand anything else. Lenin said, “push forward the bayonet. If you find soft flesh, push. If you find steel, retreat.” Putin learned Lenin in school; Lenin is in his DNA. He learned it in the KGB. He learned it in Mother Russia. He wants it all. He is Czar Nicholas, Comrade Stalin, Comrade Lenin all rolled into a painting in the Hermitage, his hometown museum, where he went as a schoolboy, where his parents took him, where he learned of the greatness of Russia. Where the Czar had palaces.

Russians never had democratic traditions. Ask Nicholas II and his family, brutally executed by Bolsheviks. Ask the millions starved by Stalin in the Ukraine during his communized agriculture plan. Ask the people sent to the Gulag, or the Hungarians who dared to revolt against the Soviet hammer and sickle. Ask the subjugated Poles carved up by Stalin and Hitler. Ask all of the subjugated and terrorized people who suffered behind the iron curtain. Ask Alexi Navalny, a political prisoner, poisoned once, and now jailed in a Russian gulag.

A delusional revanchist KGB agent in the Kremlin tries to raise the Soviet corpse by terrorizing a sovereign nation. A nation which had its own history before Lenin and his desciples created a dark Bolshevik empire.

NATO, led by Germany and France and then the United States, face the eventual inevitability of mobilizing an army to kick Putin out of Ukraine and Crimea. The alternative is too grim to contemplate. Trench warfare. Stalemate. Ukrainians under siege. Massive Russian armies. Possibly being defeated. World economic disruption. Continued war crimes. A war of attrition, cold and misery. I hope I am wrong about this.

Western ambitions about this outrageous war ending through negotiation are delusional. If Putin sees that we are serious about the sovereignty of nations, he must face a serious military threat-- mobilization of NATO forces. Only then he will likely back down. Until then brave Ukrainians will bleed, freeze and die bearing the brunt of our fear.

George Bush has His New Book Out.....

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 05:42:40 GMT

George Bush has his new book out. I have not yet read it, but I have heard him interviewed on TV and have read reviews of the book. This frat boy, this pious peddler of religious virtue, this hypocrite now wants to sell his writing (if he wrote it at all) as though he would be regarded kindly by history. He will not. He lacks no chutzpah. Ignorance surely is bliss.

His absence of remorse for sending our young service men and women to fight and die or have a leg or an arm blown off, is an exemplar of hubris and rationalization with which history will be able to evaluate his Presidency for its true worthlessness. Claiming to "protect Americans," he invaded a country that did not present an existential threat to our national security, violating his oath of office to preserve, protect and defend the constitution. Arguably he is a war criminal, having authorized torture and assuming responsibility for the unnecessary deaths of thousands of American youths, as well as around 100,000 innocent civilian Iraqis.

Speaking of audacity, the current occupant of the White House could use some. His potential compromise of the Bush tax cuts, favoring the richest of Americans threatens to perpetuate a growing disparity between the super rich and the rest of us. Imposing taxes to implement social policy, despite Republican protestations, is not a new phenomenon.

Seems that the American people have been fed and are voraciously consuming the malarkey of the conservatives who, despite evidence to the contrary, still believe that these rich folk are benefactors who create more jobs when they fail to pay their fair share of taxes. These are the same people who spent two trillion dollars on two wars and insist that we need a fleet of warplanes and billion dollar aircraft carriers to fight an amorphous band of illiterate religious fundamentalist terrorist thugs who have to smuggle explosive-laden printer cartridges onto airplanes or fill a truck with explosives to attack us. Now we need to get spending under control, they say.

No present day politician, Republican, Democrat or Tea Partier seems to have the courage to tell us exactly what they will cut. Social Security? The defense budget? Veterans Benefits? Medicare? The truth be told, no one dares.

It must be the fault of the lawyers

Thank Goodness the Election is Over

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 05:39:45 GMT

This is my first blog entry, and a fine time it is for it, if I must say so myself.

Florida has now elected an ethically challenged Republican governor, who essentially flooded the airwaves with negative ads about Alex Sink, the democratic candidate. People who have voted for him will not be surprised if he disappoints by trying to shut the door to the courthouse to "protect" businesses which despoil the environment, drill for oil in pristine seas off the coast, or manufacture harmful products. On the national scene, people are amazed that tea partiers have gained so many seats in the House of Representatives, by mouthing standard platitudes of how they are going to slash spending. But where? They do not say.

Elected to the United States Senate is Marco Rubio, a 39 year old tea party conservative, who has railed against a woman's right to choose, waffled on global warming, and thinks that America is moving in the wrong direction. He expects to cure this problem by slashing the budget and making "hard choices," but has failed to specify which choices. Not social security because his 80 something mother is a beneficiary, but more likely because he fears the wrath of Florida's seniors. He is supposedly a rising star in the Republican party and since the other tea partiers are pretty crazy, he probably won't be around for his full term, unless he keeps his seat while running for higher office a la Joe Lieberman. The selling of candidates like bars of soap continues, and the insulting, demeaning ads are over, but the consequences of the electorate not having to think too much about the candidates or listen seriously to debates about complex issues should be troublesome to any thoughtful person. People in Florida should not be discouraged, however. Now that the GOP has some power, they will be held responsible by the punditry, including yours truly in the next election.

Israel at the Crossroads

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 06:11:15 GMT

"I have long believed that an experimentalist should not be unduly inhibited by theoretical untidiness. If he insists in having every last theoretical T crossed before he starts his research the chances are that he will never do a significant experiment. And the more significant and fundamental the experiment the more theoretical uncertainty may be tolerated. By contrast, the more important and difficult the experiment the more that experimental care is warranted. There is no point in attempting a half-hearted experiment with an inadequate apparatus."

May 6, 1916-March 4, 1997

- Biographical Memoirs, Robert Henry Dicke

The Iranian revolution of 1979 brought forth a great schism between the United States and that religiously fervid theocracy. And now the Obama administration is trying to achieve détente with a country that has viewed America as the “Great Satan” for the past 34 years. A nation that, in 1979, violated the international rules of diplomacy by imprisoning US diplomats and is still driven by religious zealotry and intolerance.

Whether the American gambit on the geo-strategic chessboard will be successful is one of those questions being debated at the highest levels of government and, at the same time, is causing a great deal of angst among American Jewry, especially conservatives, most of whom now believe, along with the Netanyahu government that Israeli abandonment is the soupe de jour. American interests and Israeli interests, in many respects, are diverging. The United States, realizing, after Iraq, that it is almost powerless to alter events in the Arab world, is seeking to get off the road and let the actors involved determine the hegemonic outcome. Israel, dependant on American military force is possibly facing existential threats from places that may no longer be controlled by American military power.

Strange times, these. Israel is in alliance against Iran with Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, and Egypt, now again a military dictatorship over 83 million people. The religious feuds between Shia and Sunni smolder deeply. These divisions have endured for 1,400 years and now have arisen to the surface of a world still militarily weaker than the United States, but increasingly less subject to its influence. The colonialism of the British, French and Germans, who divided amongst themselves, the Arab and African worlds no longer exists. It has vanished with the Raj that left India and Pakistan to their own antipathies.

The bipolar power struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union provided a type of stability that has faded away with the twentieth century. States that were the clients of the two former hegemons are now free to set their own agendas, which no longer include the seeking of a protective umbrella from either the United States or the Russians, but do aspire for military support from the great powers against each other. (Iran and Egypt) Our policy makers are now forced into the continual dilemma of who to support and picking the winner is not our great attribute.

Those who think that extra US aircraft carriers and bombs are the solution for our problems of loss of influence are deluding themselves in a haze of Theodore Rooseveltian reverie. Most conservatives long for the past, but it is never to return.

Instead, we are engaged in a world struggle for the minds of the newly empowered, tweeting, and disaffected youth of countries that have their own agendas that do not necessarily coincide with ours. Israel is not one of them--they are with us. This empowerment has upset the world order, and the great powers are struggling to devise a foreign policy that, to some extent, is mired in the past.

New foreign policy in the United States is attempting to move past the old order. "The forces of freedom against the forces of totalitarianism." Existential angst against interests that no longer believe in the same definition of "threat."

Our hope is that Iran, a nation of 70 million people and more than half of who are under 35 years of age, will move toward democracy. The same for Egypt, but possibly less likely. In examining the education level of the Iranian population, one could hope that reform will be swifter than we think. Young, educated people are increasingly secular, and more susceptible to democratic ideals than the ignorance and superstition peddled by the Ayatollahs. The present "faith based" Iran is reminiscent of 15th century Europe before the enlightenment, of Marxism before the collapse of the Soviet Union, and even Nazism. The latter two "isms” being religions of their own.

This enunciates a new reality for Americans, especially Jewish ones, who fear that any departure from the U.S.-Israel alliance constitutes the seeds of destruction for the Jewish State, which should perhaps pay more heed to the internal forces that threaten its existence: Ultra Orthodox zealotry, continued occupation of the territories, expansion of settlements and the possible incorporation of a very likely, due to higher birth rate, Arab majority into the Israeli body politic should Israel annex the west bank, which seemingly is the intention of the Likud government as evidenced by the expansionism in the settlements. These settlements are clear evidence of religious zealotry among the ultra Orthodox, who claim, without pretense, that God gave them the land of Judea and Samaria. Therein lies the existential threat to Israel.

Even, however, if Israel cedes the territories and settlements or does land swaps for peace, there is no guarantee that the arrangement will bear fruit, because the forces that are now sweeping the Arab world are not really concerned with Israel. They are concerned with promoting Shiite or Sunni prevalence. They are engaged in a cultural/religious war, advancing their concept of Allah to the denigration of the other tribe whose Allah is not as genuine as the other's Allah. It is not fanciful to say that generations may pass before the issue is resolved.

And now throw another ingredient into this nasty ragout--the incipient complete energy independence of the United States, making its need for middle east oil diminished to perhaps disruption of the entire OPEC economies; perhaps necessitating their own reformation, in education, the rights of women and in globalization.

All these forces render the problem seemingly more insoluble than the cold war. It is an increasingly distressing picture that defies even the most creative of minds, except perhaps those who advance the dubious solution of bare American power, a cascade of bombings and war to bring all these forces to heel. On the other hand, those of us who have lived long enough can remember the days when the Soviet monolith threatened to envelop the world in a wicked blanket of communism.

Thoughts on the Government Shutdown 2013

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 06:10:40 GMT

"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are the only safe depositories."

- Thomas Jefferson

It is painful, even agonizing, to behold the spectacle of the Republic being bludgeoned by a group of tea party representatives intoning to get their way, a way that has already been set aside by the voters and a way that does not connect on any level with the national interest.

These ideologues will have their comeuppance, eventually, but at what harm to the Nation?

After all, there was an election, and the President won. The House of Representatives arguably do not represent the people since the elected representatives have been the beneficiaries of extensive gerrymandering of congressional districts and hold office as an actual minority party. More voters on a national level voted for the democrats in the House than the Republicans in the 2012 election. The tea partiers, already in the minority party, are even more of a minority, but a very vocal yet vacuous one. They are the right wing answer to the Abbie Hoffmans of the 60s. They hold no mandate, yet they hold the government in a hammerlock.

The injustice of this arrangement becomes more and more obvious by the day. This is a stunning testament to the dysfunction of our present system. Not only is the Electoral College broken, but the methodology of electing congress is broken as well.

Somehow we have to reach an accommodation by which the elected representatives are actually representing the people.

They clearly are not, because the people, or at least a majority of them when calculated on a national level, did not vote for the tea party to be able to control the House of Representatives. And the House is being led by a mediocre politician who does not stand up to scrutiny as a leader. We have known Sam Rayburn, we have known Tip O’Neil, we have known Dennis Hastert, and although they were all tinged and were flawed men, they knew how to get votes together so that the government could work.

Some say the political climate is more divisive these days, but if one looks back at our history, we cannot be so certain of that. Even though we had a civil war, slavery, a union torn asunder, we did not have Fox News and instant punsters shouting and bloviating on the television, infesting the Internet with vitriolic banter. It is not a helpful or thoughtful atmosphere for accommodation and compromise.

Most of the voters, although subject to influence of pollsters asking questions of approval about national health care have expressed a favorable opinion concerning people with preexisting conditions being able to obtain insurance and to have access to health care. They have also expressed the opinion that if someone is ill and had lost their job, they should still be covered. Or that their children can remain on their policies until they are more independent. One really cannot argue with that by saying that “Obama care will put the government between you and your doctor.” That is a lie. Insurance companies are always feeding their bottom line and they have come between you and your doctor also, but Republicans do not like to point that out, because those are the lobbyists whom they serve. They advanced those arguments against a single payer, at the behest of those same insurance companies. Most seniors like Medicare and do not think that the government intrudes in their health care decisions.

Now we are faced with the spectacle of our government having been shut down by a minion of yokels who are afraid they will lose their primary to the more ideological ultra conservatives. What is even more disturbing is that these conservatives have misread the demographic trajectory on which the country is headed—more progressive, not more conservative. So the electorate will speak again next year and the results will be even more crushing for them in 2014 than they were in 2012. Perhaps then they will understand. Ted Cruz is a McCarthyesque caricature, the embodiment of demagoguery, and if he had been here 60 years ago he would have been railing about Communists taking over the world.

When one thinks that the House voted 42 times to repeal a law that they knew would not be passed by either the Senate or not vetoed by President, instead of working to address other important issues facing the country, such as immigration reform, tax reform, passing a budget, education, defense expenditure cuts, and foreign policy decisions, to name a few, it sends a shudder through us all, realizing that our government needs fixing both in the manner of electing representatives, the composition of the House, and of electing the President. We are delayed in our progress in an increasingly competitive world. And time is of the essence. American exceptionalism, if it existed at all, is threatened by knuckleheaded congressmen who belong elsewhere.

The arguments in earlier columns expressed in this space concerning a constitutional rewrite become more evident with each passing year, our 18th century constitution creaking and moaning under the strain of 21st century vicissitudes.

The Mormons, the Chief Rabbi and the State of Israel as well as other Miracles

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 06:10:12 GMT

“Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.”

- Thomas Jefferson

The Chief Rabbi

An article appeared in today's New York Times concerning the controversy over who will be the new chief Rabbi of Israel. One candidate, an ultra Orthodox and the other, a "moderate." The moderate rabbi seeks to create a dialog among the disparate secular Israeli Jews and the more orthodox that wishes to shutter the country on the Sabbath. There is a growing ultra Orthodox minority that seeks, as in most theocracies, to dominate political decisions in the running of the state. These are the same minions (excuse the pun) who wish not to serve in the army so they can study the Torah, a fourth century text, and as interpreted in the Talmud by various rabbinical authorities throughout the following centuries. The Torah, of course, written when people thought the world was flat and that if one approached the edge in a boat, they would plunge over the edge, sort of like going over Niagara falls in a barrel. This as a predicate for governing a modern state.

Really? Modern technocratic Israel in the throes of Ayatollah imitators? A chief Rabbi? A state based upon a burning bush and a staff turned into a serpent? The chief rabbi enjoys a ten year term. The article in the New York Times stated that the institution of the chief rabbi had its origins in the 17th century Ottoman empire, but that he is now paid $100,000 a year to dispense religious edicts and spiritual leadership, including who may marry in Israel, among which, the preposterous proposition of a woman's marital status being determined, among other things, by the husband granting a divorce if she were not a maiden. Women’s equality under Orthodox Judaism? Hardly an issue at all.

Many Israelis are now demanding that the state wrench religion away from the rabbinate and from the authority granted by the government. The rabbis argue that in the Middle East, strong religious strictures are required to compete with the antipathetic nature (religious and otherwise) of nearby Arab governments. They argue that only religion provides the cohesiveness to do so. These are the same people who push for more settlements on "God given" land, when in fact, it was the British and French who gave the land to two peoples at the dissolution of the Ottoman empire at the conclusion of World War I. Thank you very much.

Mormon disillusionment

At the same time, another article appeared this week concerning an elder of the Mormon church who was disillusioned over the false teachings of the church, its doctrine providing convenient mythology concerning Brigham Young and Joseph Smith who were actually polygamists and hucksters. The Book of Mormon holding that Native Americans were descendants of the Jews (the lost tribe) and the translation of that good Book appearing upon golden plates which were buried in upstate New York. This church elder, after believing all the hokum for 30 years has just awakened from a drug induced slumber? See http://nyti.ms/16Rx7GE

In reality Joseph Smith, a Mormon founder, was killed by a mob in Missouri after trying to hide his polygamy. He had published many revelations regarded as scripture according to his followers, who regard him as a prophet of the stature of Moses or Elijah. To this extent he probably was, but he did not have the centuries to provide a foundation for his fantasies. Brigham Young, the other Mormon founder, was actually born in Vermont and became a successor to Smith two years after Smith's ignominious demise. Young, aside from his polygamy, believed that those mixing the seed of white people with the African race should be subject to death and banned all black people from the Mormon priesthood. He was also implicated in a massacre of immigrants (Mountain Meadow) passing through Utah.

He deserves credit for founding Salt Lake City, however.

Miracles and other fantasies (as pointed out by a Roman Catholic friend of mine)

The Catholic church requires a formulary of miracles to occur for the foundations of Sainthood, according to Wikipedia:

The steps for the recognition of the miracle follow the new rules laid down in 1983 by the apostolic constitution, Divinus Perfectionis Magister. The new legislation establishes two procedural stages: the diocesan one and that of what is known as the Roman Congregation. The first takes place within the diocese where the prodigious event happened. The bishop opens the enquiry on the presumed miracle in which the depositions of the eyewitnesses questioned by a duly constituted court are gathered, as well as the complete clinical and instrumental documentation inherent to the case. In the second, the Congregation examines the documents sent and eventual supplementary documentation, pronouncing its judgment on the matter.

The miracle may go beyond the possibilities of nature either in the substance of the fact or in the subject, or only in the way it occurs. So three degrees of miracle are to be distinguished. The first degree is represented by resurrection from the dead (quoad substantiam). The second concerns the subject (quoad subiectum): the sickness of a person is judged incurable, in its course it can even have destroyed bones or vital organs; in this case not only is complete recovery noticed, but even wholesale reconstitution of the organs (restitutio in integrum). There is then a third degree (quoad modum): recovery from an illness, that treatment could only have achieved after a long period, happens instantaneously.

Miracles as a precedent to becoming a saint speak volumes as to the rationality of religious belief. Pope Pius XII, about whom books were written concerning his German advisers, his not speaking out about loathsome, grotesque Nazi crimes against humanity, and his pardoning of German war criminals, might prove miraculous itself were he elevated to Sainthood. Under the Reichskonkordat, (the agreement between the Vatican and the Third Reich) Pius made a deal with von Ribbentrop and Hitler. And as Einstein said, “how can you make a deal with God and Satin at the same time?” See Hitler's Pope (1999) by John Cornwell.

Pius XII is still shrouded in controversy and Pope Benedict/Ratzinger, before resigning, and German himself, did not declare Pius had met the criteria. Ratzinger was too busy shuffling priests around from parish to parish and spending church money to defend itself against civil and criminal activities, and finally resigning to avoid the intense heat, which is where people go who have sinned, we are told.

Educational Necessities in the Brave New World

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 06:09:11 GMT

The three laws of robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

- Isaac Asimov, "Runaround" (1942)

I know a few people who have interesting theories why American cities and society are in a state of decay, evincing a huge disparity of rich and poor. Some of these technocratic people believe that uneducated masses are not able to compete in an increasingly mathematically meritocratic environment. They believe that because these non-pocket protector dullards are not educated in math, science, engineering or physical science, they will fail, they will be subject to the whims of other societies with more technically adept citizens who can win the coming math-a-thon.

There is a superficial element of truth in this premise. But this is only a temporary transitional phase in the journey of mankind.

The world of new technology, they say, favors those scientifically trained; the people who lack that education will become increasingly unemployable. But that only forebodes a perhaps even more ambivalent human dénouement.

Those who argue that the uneducated will be obliged to inhabit an unteremenschen sector of the economy, doomed to flip burgers or wait tables fail to recognize that even some classes of those educated in science and technology can also easily be made unemployable and probably and inevitably will involuntarily be cast among their more less accomplished brethren.

This class of putative elites will be replaced by artificially intelligent machines that are exponentially increasing their abilities to learn, to work--to think. These machines are being engineered to make human technologic endeavor obsolete. They will be inevitably more competent than humans in calculations, engineering, equations, and any process that requires any form of mathematical skill. The skills will go beyond mathematics. In some respects they already do.

These machines are our children, our progeny, our descendents. No human can compete with a machine that does not die, that does not fail, that has no biologic or moving parts--a machine that can endure infinitely through self-maintenance, artificially obtained intelligence and self-replication. The precursors to these machines are here already although still somewhat primitive in form. The machines that answer the phone and ask us questions, that asks us to make choices, the robots that assemble cars, and a plethora of devices that have already replaced humans on the assembly line, in the bank, in the hospital and elsewhere.

They are more and more ubiquitous every day.

Anyone over 50 can remember what it was like before computers. Statements about science and technology requirements for human employment made today will have no bearing perhaps as early as ten or fifteen years from now. Admittedly, one would need that knowledge to get a job today, but we are not convinced that it will do any good as an exponential explosion of computing and robotic power will make the average human mathematician or engineer as unnecessary as a buggy whip. Already machines make medical diagnoses, beat humans at chess, and even play "Jeopardy" better than humans. Playing Jeopardy requires subtle understanding of plays on words, social nuance, and irony. While it is true that scientifically trained humans created these machines, these benevolent Frankensteins will ultimately take over all human scientific endeavor. Cyborgs will be programmed with the total sum of human knowledge; humans may remain their creators, but it is not certain they will remain their masters.

Humanities, philosophy, music and art will be what distinguish human from machine and even then we are not so certain. The law will protect us (see Isaac Asimov's laws of robotics, above) and remain even more relevant than ever before. But probably not in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Will machines compose symphonies? Pour their emotions out on great works of art? Feel pain? Be spiritual? Or will that be left to humans?

Emotions and feelings are not something in which machines are conversant.

Constitution 2.0

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 06:08:30 GMT

"The fault, dear Brutus is not in our stars. But in ourselves, that we are underlings."

- Julius Caesar (I,ii,140-141)

"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

Thomas Jefferson (The Declaration of Independence)

The Constitution of the United States has been amended 27 times, the last of which, proposed in 1789, was not ratified until 1992. The amendment dealt with congress being unable to raise its own pay until an election had intervened. Many Americans are familiar with some of the other amendments, limitation of Presidential terms to two, prohibition, repeal of prohibition, universal suffrage, and of course, the first ten amendments (the bill of rights).

Originalists like Antonin Scalia believe that the interpretation of the document should remain as though we all were living in the 18th century, when citizens and a militia used muskets with flintlocks, fighting savage Indians.

Amending the constitution is a difficult and lengthy process. It must first be passed by the Senate and the House and then be ratified by the states, taking years. Some amendments just die, not having been ratified, like the Equal Rights amendment.

The document serving us admirably throughout our history is in need of some changes. The intense debate over the second amendment and whether it is directed towards a militia or an individual’s right to bear arms has been a continuing subject for constitutional scholars and advocates for either side of the issue.

In addition, the rules of the U.S. Senate need revision. We are the only democracy in the world where the majority does not rule. In the old days, the filibuster had actually to be performed to avoid a vote. Now, only the threat of a filibuster prevents legislation from reaching the floor for a vote. And to make matters worse, there need be 60 votes out of 100 to pass important legislation. Two senators from a state representing 500,000 people have the same clout as two senators from a state with 35,000,000 people.

Tracing the origin of our federal system is a history replete with slave and free states being admitted to the Union under a system of compromise and discord. Now, we can no longer afford this absurd debate. If Puerto Rico, for example, chooses to be admitted as the 51st state, there will be no issue whether its people, who are already US citizens, will be slave or free or count as 3/5ths of a person for representational purposes.

The point of the matter is that a good bit of the constitution is anachronistic.. Except that we are laboring mightily to work our government under its weight.

It needs a rewrite.

Most of it is still awfully good and should be included in the 2.0 version. And the rewrite should include the bill of rights. The second amendment should be reinterpreted or re written so the blockheads at the NRA and the Supreme Court can understand it.

Unfortunately, powerful lobbyists govern and intimidate Senators from the job they must do--pass legislation for the sake of all Americans--not for the sake of the NRA, which for the most part, represents gun manufacturers. Why, for the sake of goodness, need there be 300 million guns in circulation, many of them assault type military rifles designed for maximum killing of other humans? A good plan would be for the government to buy back guns, as the Australians did, who saw an 90% drop in gun violence soon after the buyback.

The U.S. Senate, it seems , is populated by set of pusillanimous cowards, who care more about being re-elected than doing what is the greater good.

How, then can we possibly rewrite the constitution?

Retaining a bicameral legislature would not be harmful to this country. There could still be an upper and lower chamber, but the workings of them need to be governed by a majority vote, not a system designed to ensure gridlock. In this past election, for example, gerrymandered districts allowed representatives who were not elected by a majority of the popular vote to control the House of Representatives.

This is tantamount to disenfranchisement of voters who, in a recent poll, stated by 90% that they were in favor of background checks for gun buyers.

We need to have the courage to tell our representatives what we really want, and not allow our voices to be submerged by the slick machinery of those who would subvert our liberty for their own financial gain disguised by concern for the ability of Americans who think they need rapid fire weapons to protect themselves.

When we lose our voice and our representatives do not represent us, it is our duty to change them, to speak out, to make our wishes known. Our senators and congressmen are supposed to be working for us, but the evidence is that they are not.

Some alteration is in order.

The State of the Union 2013

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 06:07:34 GMT

President Obama has given a rhetorically flourished SOU address, setting forth much of his legislative agenda for the next year, a year in which he has been reelected under a considerable mandate, both in electoral and popular votes. His message included an appeal for education and tax reform, asking the Congress to create a high tech infrastructure, a report on the troops coming home soon, an appeal to cut expenditures, and for smarter Medicare and even gun control. Many ideas were not new; but still quite necessarily overdue. John Boehner sat stone faced next to an animated Joe Biden, Boehner deciding when and when not to applaud. It was a sort of surreal experience.

Time was when the President sent his State of the Union message to the Congress in written form, the live delivery of which did not begin until Woodrow Wilson, and really not annually until FDR began a tradition of a speech to both houses of Congress.

Republicans, through some highly creative gerrymandering, have retained control of the House of Representatives, albeit with somewhat less puissance than in the last congress. They are now scrambling to reinvent themselves to a demographically metamorphosized electorate consisting of more young, Latino and African-American voters who do not buy Republican theories of less government, less health care, more military spending and low taxes on super wealthy "job creators," many of whom collect dividends and do nothing in particular to create anything except an unusual amount of bloviation. That left of center demographic grew dramatically between 2008 and 2012. Even people like Newt Gingrich applauded the competence of the democratic campaign for its efficiency and delivery of its message.

Following the President's speech, a visibly nervous, hyperactive and perspiring Marco Rubio pleaded for an agenda that sounded like a retread of Mitt Romney's campaign stump speeches. Aggressively accusing the President of trying to wreck Social Security, the National defense and pleading the standard rightist arguments for less government, he excoriated a lack of free choice under Obamacare, unfettered support for the second amendment, and various other shopworn Republican trickle-down bromides. Leaning over for a drink of water as his rapid fire speech patterns betrayed a bit of stage fright, this being his first nationally televised appearance, he seemed, as a CBS commentator said, looked like a light fixture had fallen on his head.

In all fairness to young Rubio, who is only 41, and anointed on the cover of Time Magazine as the "Republican Savior" on its most recent cover, he was alone in a room and competing with the President who received a standing ovation every other sentence, and spoke for an hour. Rubio's appeal to prayer and to God is becoming less and less believable to voters as America increasingly secularizes.

Marco Rubio, nevertheless, seemingly tone-deaf delivered a message that had been repudiated by the electorate just two months ago.

If Rubio is counting on the electorate to move back to the right in 2016, he should do some real hard thinking about that prospect. Telling the story of his humble origins only goes so far. One could reasonably extrapolate that in another 4 years, the electorate will be even less receptive to Rubio's message than it was to Mitt Romney's this time around.

The idea that America is polarized is true, but one side of the polarity growing, whilst the other is shrinking. So if Republicans want to win another election they will have to continue to suppress voter rights, keep brainy immigrants out, or send out a different message. Protecting special interests and wealthy donors cannot be part of that message. All of the Super PAC candidates lost despite the efforts of Carl Rove, Sheldon Adelson, the Koch brothers, and others of their ilk.

If you watch a rerun of the SOU speech please note that John Boehner did not applaud when the President asked for a law to make it easier for people to vote; he was fearful of not keeping his tea party minions as large a plurality.

The Deadwood Culture in America

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 06:06:52 GMT

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

- Wayne LaPierre, CEO National Rifle Association

There have been many articles written this week about renewed efforts to control firearms among the people. Spurred on by public horror of the Sandy Hook elementary being turned into an abattoir by an enraged twenty year old, the U.S. Congress is possibly springing to action in time to lock the barn doors, once again, too late. Such incompetence is entirely reminiscent of a bad play; we squirm in our proverbial seats until the dreadful last act has been agonizingly concluded. Will the fiscal cliff be averted? Will congress pass tax reform? Will assault weapons be banned or controlled? Will we survive their ineptitude?

The United States is, in many ways, the victim of its own constitution. A document written in the 18th century the second amendment of which, ratified in 1791, has been subject to interpretation involving the placement of a comma is just one ludicrous example of its ossification. That second amendment, writ large in the time when people carried muzzle loaded muskets, is simply an invitation for boneheaded senators and even more dimwitted congressmen to hawk (no pun intended) their hunting skills and present advertisements of them shooting in some forest in order to impress their gun-toting constituents, who fear that "big government" will revoke their license to shoot whatever or whomever they please. And, of course, the American notion that our freedom will somehow disappear to tyrants should there be some more legislation restricting gun availability, this logic stemming from a mentality of frontier justice that is no longer relevant.

In this case, innocent, tender aged schoolgirls and schoolboys whose misfortune is now engraved in the tears of a generation of parents and grandparents, as well as anyone in America whose sensitivity quotient rises above that of a polar bear. The victims childish images stare out balefully from our televisions in a horrifying reminder that they now inhabit the crypt, the victims of Scalia-like logic who is probably right now murmuring, "get over it," as he did when interviewed about throwing the election of 2000 to George W. Bush.

United States Constitution Amendment II

"A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

Interpretation of this amendment has been the subject of rigorous debate among constitutional scholars, the United States Supreme Court and others. Does the amendment mean that the militia shall bear arms or that the people shall bear arms individually? Do individuals really stand a chance against an army? Do homicidal lunatics who die in a shootout render sufficient testimony to the folly of such privilege? It seems that they always die in the end, after a shoot out with the cops or by their own hand, but only after visiting their terror upon innocents. How then, are we safer, because a madman has access to a Bushmaster military weapon? Perhaps the debate is no longer relevant, since the second amendment was written at a time when slaves were commonplace, women could not vote, and weapons were far more primitive and could not, by hair trigger, slaughter 30 children and their teachers in a matter of seconds. Adam and Mrs. Lanza's legacy should be not a "prepper"(we have to defend ourselves because our government will not) mentality, but laws that will reduce the incidences of this type of grotesquerie. These events can never be eliminated completely, but they certainly can be reduced by appropriate legislation and if a troglodyte Supreme Court does not declare that legislation unconstitutional. Justice Scalia, an avid hunter and Dick Cheney amigo, hunts ducks. Using an assault weapon designed to kill humans has no place in a modern civil society.

Arguments that the teachers should be armed and that everyone should tote a weapon ring hallow; the converse to that argument being that we are less free to speak because we fear that someone may easily shoot us for expressing our opinion that may not coincide with theirs.

The gun enthusiasts and the prayer in the schools promulgators share the same religious zeal and inhabit the same universe. How would Jesus feel about killing innocent children with a rapid fire Bushmaster?

Thus fall Petreaus

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 06:06:06 GMT

And it shall come to pass in the end of the year of two thousand and twelve, that a great general shall have offendenth Congressman Eric Cantor for having committed the mortal sin of adultery; It shall also come to pass that the establishment journalists shall scream and shout with rage against such heinous and lascivious sin.

And that the great general shall have previously manifested a grand, illustrious and admirable career.

That the establishment journalists shall have shown innumerable pictures of the evil sirens who lavished the great general with their favors, as they paraded to and from their automobiles;

And the media shall have basked in its glory of exposing such Satanism.

And the sirens shall have waged an email and publicity battle over the great general and with each the other.

And the lords of CNN, MSNBC, CBS and the other networks shall have abided in the comfort of grand viewership in the post election sinking ratings aftermath of the election for the Lord President, who he himself abideth no evil;

And the political establishment shall have decried the evil the general manifested for his most unsavory, licentious, unwholesome behavior;

And the CIA shall be cleansed of its evil leadership that tolerated flying drones that killeth from on high.

For the great general, leader an agency of spies, criminals and spooks shall not any longer be a paradigm for such sterling personages that followed his countenance;

For he shall not be a leader any longer sayeth the Lord President, who always abideth within the boundaries of his carefully defined and propitious nature lest he betray his trust as Lord President and shall never be casteth as an angry risk-taking black man;

And the Lord President shall accepth the resignation of the great spy leader, instead of rejecting in the national interest the great talented spy leader's honorable resignation.

And the great spy leader shall repent of his sin by being cast into exile;

So that the Lord President may keepeth the fires of the family values hearth burning;

lest he be judged as understanding such adulterous and unbecoming pleasures of the flesh.

And by accepting the great general and spy leader's manly flaws.

American "Exceptionalism" in the 21st Century

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 06:05:22 GMT

"For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind..."

- Hosea 8:7

Houses on the Jersey shore torn to shreds like matchbooks. Homes burned to the ground in the Rockaways. Lower Manhattan flooded, subway tunnels awash, the largest public transport facility on Earth shut down because of weather, millions of people in the nation's most populated corridor still without electricity in late autumn cold, schools with no power, electricity wires strung on poles snagged by falling trees, the list can go on ad nauseum.

Politically expedient deniers of the almost universal scientific opinion about global warming have their work cut out for them. They are faced with what Andrew Cuomo says, "a once in a generation storm every two years."

Weather patterns are changing.

Building codes that allowed frame construction almost everywhere on the Atlantic seaboard are suddenly and unequivocally now subject to hasty revision. No justification possibly exists for such malfeasance. Hurricane Sandy was not, by any stretch of the wildest naysayer's imagination, unforeseeable. Floodgates have protected the low-lying areas of Europe for many years. If people insist on living near the frequently violent sea, they should be prepared for its fury. Global warming is showing the consequences of warmer seas--more violent storms and freakier weather patterns--all to the detriment of our feckless infrastructure, sown by generations of myopic politicians who, in all fairness, clearly did not see what was in store for stricken communities from DC to Massachusetts.

Now the wake up call has come. In Florida, there are building codes that have arisen since Hurricane Andrew have strengthened, however, FPL still thinks that burying power lines is economically not feasible; a few years ago, they replaced some of the traditional wooden poles in my neighborhood with higher concrete ones. The trees still overhang the lines anyway.

The early Republican debates were a cacophony of voices denying climate change; Mitt Romney still has nothing to say about it, his perfidious calculative demeanor evident. And frankly, the President has not done enough to awaken the public, which mostly cares now about the economy.

The tea partiers and fundamentalists are now calculating what a woman should do with her body and if the candidates are sufficiently religious to hasten the erosion of the constitutional wall of separation between church and state, instead of preparing for national disasters like Hurricane Sandy.

Deniers of man-made climate change include almost the entire Republican Party, and those who think that government serves no useful purpose except starting wars, nurturing the military industrial complex and transforming primitive Islamists into Jeffersonian democrats.

Florida continues to set a new low bar for election shenanigans.

The State Legislature, in concocting an indecipherable ballot has struck another new level of loathsomeness. It has composed ballot initiatives, among which is one that is labeled "Religious Freedom." It is fraudulently conceived and evilly promulgated. What it really represents is an attempt to interject religion in the educational system by providing state funding to religious schools, voucherized money that could be used instead to improve public education rather than defunding it. These are the same people who are apostles of the same ilk of creationists in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas who would teach creationism to our children. We are living a 21st century nightmarish re-run of Inherit the Wind.

The Presidential Campaign grinds to a lowly end.

There was seemingly no end to the negative commercials, the meaningless dialog, the emails during which both parties attempt convincing voters that the other side is going to ruin the country, the economy, the world itself.

The campaigns have been financed by copious amounts of super PAC cash coming from special interest groups airing offensive announcements denouncing each other's candidates, adding to a witch's brew of obfuscation, misinformation and distortion.

The debates, a glibness and disappointing appearance contest, droned on and on, giving the electorate only a superficial sample of what qualities a leader really requires. Nothing in the end was revealed but a continual and seemingly unending parade of talking points. The debates did not tell us who would be a good President or a bad President. Who would shine in a moment of crisis? Who is a deep thinker? A problem solver? A person who could break the legislative gridlock? A person with a definite agenda? None of this was revealed in the debates, even if it were fact.

A two-year, $2.5 billion election cycle slows down the efficiency of government and places politics above the national interest. Our Federal system is severely broken. The negativity of the past two years demeans those who do win and expands the polarized divide. It diminishes the governing ability of the winner, who inevitably suffers diminution by the misinformation saturating the airwaves. The election campaigns should last 6 months beginning to end; the Electoral College should be abolished. There should be public financing of the campaigns and a constitutional amendment shutting down of all the extra money that has distorted the process beyond all recognition.

Mythology in 2012 as a Political Force

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 05:59:58 GMT

"Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time."

- Richard Dawkins

Forty six percent of the American voters believe that religion is the litmus test for political leadership. Many of them believe that Mary ascended to heaven on a white cloud and that Mohammad ascended to heaven on a winged horse. Ultra-Orthodox Jews pray to God morning, noon and night, and relegate their women to wearing wigs and bandanas. They seem inhabit in America, a Saudi Arabian, burka-wearing world of subjugation, including the bearing of a child a year. Some believe that if people do not accept Jesus as a savior they are condemned to burn in hell in perpetuity. They discount the beliefs of others and the Roman Catholic Church has perpetuated the infallibility of church dogma for centuries, and used its dogma as a basis for burning people at the stake, racking heretics, refusing to respect the rights of women and generally promulgating a world view that is irreconcilable with notions of modern science as well as its own dogma by accumulating great wealth, denying basic human sexuality and creating an atmosphere often tolerant of sexual predators.

In addition, religious fundamentalists think that men walked the earth with dinosaurs; the bible is the literal word of God, and that those that do not respect its edicts will not be rewarded with heavenly afterlives. “My ancestor was not a monkey,” said one recent Republican candidate for the Presidency.

There are people who live in my neighborhood who actually believe that mutilating the foreskins of young males is a civilized practice, conducting religious services to celebrate the event. This practice, now the subject of medical debate, is a throwback to a primitive tribal ritual that binds the male child to its Judaic tribe. The practice was instituted at a time when men believed the world was flat and that the sun revolved around the earth. According to the Old Testament, Jacob died 2255 years after the creation of Adam. Jewish scholars first translated the Torah into Greek in the 3rd Century BCE. They were polytheists, tolerating local gods as well as their own. When monotheism came along, automatically discounting other’s gods, it sowed the seeds of intolerance that continued down through the holocaust, ultimately smiting its originators, the Jews.

Dating the world as a few thousand years old cannot, through the stretch of the wildest imagination, be reconciled with modern science.

Many of the fanatical Jewish zealots claim that Biblical injunctions prevent them from compromising their settlements with Muslims on the West Bank of the Jordan River. Muslims also claim that the land was given to them by God. The outcome of two distinct groups claiming deified backing cannot, by definition, be reconciled. Religion evolved as an adjunct to tribes being successful against competing tribes, mostly in combat.

The origins of Jews and the Exodus from Egypt have never been confirmed by any scientific, archeological, paleontological or genetic evidence. To the contrary, geneticists and primate paleontologists are now debating the origins of homo sapiens, and the general consensus is now that humans emerged from Africa some 50-60,000 years ago. Moreover, a story recently appeared in the New York Times about the debate among scientists and paleoanthropologists as to the origins of Homo sapiens, that modern humans arose in Africa 200,000 years ago and that all archaic species of humans then disappeared, surviving only outside Africa, as did the Neanderthals in Europe. New worlds of knowledge concerning human existence are emerging almost daily. Most of this knowledge is coming from fossil evidence, DNA evidence, the decoding of the human genome, and radioactive carbon dating, which incidentally, states the world, is 4-5 billion years old, not 5,000.

What it does not come from is some bronze age tract by which US politicians seem to be bound to hypocritically extol, in the hopes of garnering votes from an ignorant electorate.

Mythology still rules our lives and our politics and it is 2012.

Citizens United

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 05:59:43 GMT

Recently, a friend of mine, quite conservative, argued that the Citizens United case decided by the United States Supreme Court has not distorted the political process, but was a reaction to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law, which was the first serious attempt in ages to restore some sanity to the overwrought process of electing officials of our government. He argued that full disclosure of the source of financing would be the cure-all for the unlimited right of corporations to spend as much money as they wished to ensure the election of candidates that would be less threatening to their bottom line. He also unconvincingly argued that labor unions have the same rights as Exxon, for example and the same amount of monies to spend on their candidates.

Perhaps in an earlier time he would be correct in his assumptions. He referred to a political cartoonist, Thomas Nast, of the 19th century who exposed the Standard Oil trust with his acid pen. These days, however, the scene is quite different. There are so many talking heads on the networks that any position is overwhelmed by the breadth and penetration of varied points of view, but especially subject to advertising saturation ads, both negative and positive. The candidates who win are the ones who can raise the most money and feed it into the overwhelming media exposure they can buy.

The McCain Feingold Act was designed to address two issues: The increased role of soft money in campaign financing, by prohibiting national political party committees from raising or spending any funds not subject to federal limits, even for state and local races or issue discussion;

The proliferation of issue advocacy ads, by defining as “electioneering communications” broadcast ads that name a federal candidate within 30 days of a primary or caucus or 60 days of a general election, and prohibiting any such ad paid for by a corporation (including non-profit issue organizations such as Right to Life or the Environmental Defense Fund) or paid for by an unincorporated entity using any corporate or union general treasury funds. The decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission overturns this provision, but not the ban on foreign corporations or foreign nationals in decisions regarding political spending.

In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Citizens United, ruled that corporations and unions are entitled to the same political speech rights as individuals under the First Amendment. It found no compelling government interest for prohibiting corporations and unions from using their general treasury funds to make election-related independent expenditures. Thus, it struck down a federal law banning this practice and also overruled two of its prior decisions. Additionally, in an 8-1 decision, the Court ruled that the disclaimer and disclosure requirements associated with electioneering communications are constitutional.

These were horrible rulings and serve to do nothing more than further distort our political processes.

Now, “Super Pacs,” ostensibly not connected or coordinating with the candidates are spending untold millions on media commercials to sell the candidates, or even worse, fill the airwaves with negative information, much of it out of context and misleading.

My friend’s full disclosure caveat holds no water, I am afraid.

But from a conservative, the 19th century perspective is not surprising.

We live in an increasingly polarized atmosphere, burdened by the disappearance of moderate Republicans who used to be able to work with moderate democrats to accomplish useful legislation.

Now we cannot even have that. The Republican party has been hijacked by evangelical and social conservatives, backed by millions of dollars, to convince the electorate to vote against their own interests by using their checkbooks to take stands on gay marriage, abortion, contraception, religion in public places and creationism instead of trying to reach an accommodation on education, infrastructure investment, job creation, and expanding the middle class.

The United States in Afghanistan 2012

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 05:59:19 GMT

"A nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it."

- Winston Churchill

Among the follies of our foreign policy is the belief that the United States is serving its national interests by continuing its failing attempts to guarantee a democratic solution in a culture so primitive, so alien to our Western mores that it defies the boundaries of our collective imagination.

Cultures take centuries to change. Cultures imbued by theocracy take even longer. Afghanistan is such a place.

One only need compare the history of our own country to realize that the political and cultural forces militating against change are so embedded in the Afghan people that we are faced with a Sisyphean task so overwhelming, so impossible, that our efforts, no matter how noble, are doomed to ignominious failure.

As an historical analogy, the American Civil War ran roughly four years from Ft. Sumter to Appomattox, but actually continued for another 150 years thereafter. Vestiges linger even yet. Those states that seceded from the Union did so not only because they wanted to keep their slaves, but also because they were culturally different from their Northern brethren. Southern agrarian, slave-holding society bore a religious ethos, based upon inequality of the races, not only upon economic disparity between it and their northern countrymen. Southerners believed that white men had the God-given right to hold slaves. The morality of holding slaves was never really open to debate among Southerners. Holding slaves was the droit de seigneur. The South would fight to the death, and did, to uphold its principles. Northern culture was an anathema to it, a base, industrial, immoral society inhabited by crude, irreligious, and yes, heathen Yankees devoid of any pretense or genuineness of refinement, a threat to southern paradigms, virtues and ways of life. Margaret Mitchell wrote about it; we all viewed it in the 1939 classic film of her novel, the name of which does not here need repeating.

Evidence of those deeply held beliefs could not and did not change overnight, despite the posting of Federal troops in Charleston, Atlanta, and New Orleans after open hostilities had ended and after Lee surrendered. Nor was the imposition by the radical US Congress of black legislatures in the south which lasted only as long as Federal troops remained stationed there to override the deeply held beliefs of the populace. The sad history of reconstruction, of Jim Crow laws, of lynching, of black post-bellum economic servitude and segregation bears wretched testimony to the excruciatingly slow pace of cultural change. Yes, the south is different now, but it was not so different in 1960, a hundred years after the Civil War had ended. And this in a country with a Constitution founded on democratic principles authored by the founding fathers of all of America, many of whom were southerners.

Cultural differences in Europe now, for a further example, threaten to destroy the Euro, pitting hard working Germanic culture against profligate Greek culture. Germans do not wish to pay for Greek irresponsibility, but are forced to do so because the Greeks are their customers. This problem is almost intractable and Greece may very well be printing Drachmas again, rather than surrender to Germanic austerity. And this is a problem between culturally different democracies, a minor problem compared to the problems we face with Islamists and the Taliban, religious zealots all.

Space here does not allow a full history lesson, but the British were among the many nations interfering unsuccessfully in Afghan politics, the Brits using a divide and rule strategy between Afghani Pashtuns and Baloch territories. Later, Afghanistan experimented with reform in the 1920s including the banishing of the burqa and establishing co-educational schools, alienating religious leaders. All reforms were abandoned in 1929 when a new leader Mohammed Zahir Shah became king in 1933, ruling until 1973. After that, the United States financed the Mujahadeen religious warriors against the Soviets, who had invaded in 1979. After the Soviet defeat, (after killing 1 million Afghans), the Taliban assumed control of the country, ultimately creating an Islamofascist nightmare, women subjugated, religious police, and a culture that precluded the development of any modernity.

Now we delusionally expect that this primitive, Islamist, women-stoning society that executes women for adultery, is to grasp liberty and equality for all? A society that throws acid on the faces of women who dare to go to school to seek an education? A society that has a caste of theocrats that superstitiously believes in practices such as honor killings is going to find its Thomas Jefferson in an abbreviated epiphany under beneficent American auspices?

The politicians in Washington are dithering over a decision to abandon that place, a decision that should have been made long ago.

Religion and Politics in America 2012

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 05:58:47 GMT

"Verily, men gave themselves all their good and evil. Verily, they did not take it, they did not find it, nor did it come to them as a voice from heaven. Only man placed values in things to preserve himself--he alone created a meaning for things, a human meaning. Therefore, he calls himself 'man,' which means: the esteemer."

- F. Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Bk.1

Some liberal souls, I understand, have named Rick Santorum as an ideal 13th century president. The particulars of this appellation are well known to those who have been following the interminable Republican debates, some of which have actually revealed the vacuousness of a few of the candidates, including Rick Perry, the governor of Texas whose gaffe of not remembering which governmental agency he wished to guillotine or how many death row inmates in his state have actually met a similar fate, albeit with a needle instead.

Then there was Michelle Bachman whose IRS credentials, foster children, and bible-thumping husband presumably rendered her capable of running the world’s most powerful country.

After that we had Ron Paul, a libertarian, who plainly feels that the underclass should have their healthcare needs met by their local churches and charities, and that the US should disengage from the rest of the world. In some respects he is correct in alluding to the misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, hegemons do not voluntarily surrender their place in the world and most moderates do not think we should isolate ourselves from a world increasingly globalized based upon a 19th century interpretation of a constitution arguably in need of serious revision.

And then that inimitable paradigm of hypocrisy, Newt Gingrich, a miserable human being, powered by his somewhat hard to ignore intellectual credentials and his use of the words “profoundly,” and “fundamentally,” as well as his colossal arrogance. He seems to have learned, moreover, very little, from his ethics violations in Congress and his, to use his words, “profound” fall from grace. His conversion to Catholicism and his abandonment of his cancer-ridden wife for Calista, a helmet-headed blond with whom he prays often and who would, no doubt, be a loathsome first lady. His billionaire supporter Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate, single handedly has prevented Newt’s campaign from plunging over a cliff the size of Mount Rushmore, a place, fortunately, he will never inhabit, although Newt probably believes he should replace George Washington on the prominence. Mr. Adelson apparently has now hedged his bets and is rumored to be giving money to Mitt Romney, a man who cannot seal the deal even with moderate Republicans, let alone evangelicals who think that Mormonism is a devilish and heretical cult.

Mr. Romney bases his qualifications for the presidency because he was a successful venture capitalist and therefore understands how to run a profitable government (as though the government were a for profit corporation.) and that he is now a conservative who unsuccessfully denies his fostering a successful (egads! socialist) health care plan for Massachusetts. He is sinking fast, however. We are not sure he will not survive, however, since the Republicans usually pick the next in line.

That brings us back to the possibility of a Santorum nomination, a thought I suspect, not without some logical basis, that the American Union may be further infused with theocratic ideals, since Santorum has made pronouncements like President Obama is conducting a war against religion. The White House would be clearly gleeful if that happened, since Mr. Santorum was given the unceremonious boot by blue collar Pennsylvania after his undistinguished time in the United States Senate. Mr. Santorum also denies global warming and believes that he can single handedly cure the economy, but really does not say how. Dinosaurs really do walk the earth with people---Santorum being living proof discrediting the observations of Charles Darwin.

How the American public can swallow these arguments is stupefying. Are we back in the 1920s? Why are we even discussing issues like abortion? Birth control? Contraception? Who prays more? Which church is not inhabited by heretics? Are we about to have another Scopes monkey trial? No country in the western world has not left these issues far behind. But of course, the threat these intellectually challenged candidates envision is that the United States will become more like Europe. And Europe has uncivilized and heathen institutions like high speed rail, good roads, health care for all its citizens, and a more enlightened populace that does not tolerate such pandering infantilism in its political discourse.

Malefactors of Great Wealth

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 05:51:46 GMT

"Too much cannot be said against the men of wealth who sacrifice everything to getting wealth. There is not in the world a more ignoble character than the mere money-getting American, insensible to every duty, regardless of every principle, bent only on amassing a fortune, and putting his fortune only to the basest uses —whether these uses be to speculate in stocks and wreck railroads himself, or to allow his son to lead a life of foolish and expensive idleness and gross debauchery, or to purchase some scoundrel of high social position, foreign or native, for his daughter. Such a man is only the more dangerous if he occasionally does some deed like founding a college or endowing a church, which makes those good people who are also foolish forget his real iniquity. These men are equally careless of the working men, whom they oppress, and of the State, whose existence they imperil. There are not very many of them, but there is a very great number of men who approach more or less closely to the type, and, just in so far as they do so approach, they are curses to the country.”

- Theodore Roosevelt. February, 1895

I have been having a continuing dialogue with some Republican friends of mine, ardent defenders of our capitalist system. And so they should be. It is a system that has provided, all throughout the 20th century, a nation with probably the grandest middle class and the greatest lifestyle the world has ever known. But that lifestyle was not easily won, and is now again under threat by individuals and corporations not unlike the description voiced above by, can you imagine, a Republican President of the United States, who must now, by even the narrowest stretch of any imagination, be spinning in his proverbial grave.

These Republican gentlemen, having achieved considerable wealth on their own or by whatever device, now strain mightily to justify their unimaginable insensitivity to the problematic society in which we now live. One of them said that he wished he had an airplane, four homes instead of two, and other needless accoutrements of decadence. I have no problem with that, because he did not achieve it at the expense of the poor. However, such a mentality enables a “scorched earth” policy and a sanctioning of Congressional refuseniks who have been purchased by lobbyists to protect governmental subsidies of banking, corn, oil, and other interests too numerous to catalog in this meager column.

We now live in a country that no longer has a growing middle class. The American dream has, through a darkly lit tunnel, departed the station. We live in a country that is increasingly plutocratic, where those inhabiting the strata of the upper one percent control more of the wealth than ever before. The figures, staggering and depressing, advanced by a party that has lost its moral compass, looms as a guillotine over the heads of working people who have lost their homes, been evicted in the street, cannot afford health care, and can no longer buy food. Forty six million Americans are now living in poverty. People are taking to the streets.

Nightly news shows a litany of neighborhoods, such as in Cleveland, where Cuyuhoga county has decided that abandoned homes should be demolished, rather than bring lower the homes of those people who, either conscientiously or stupidly, make mortgage payments to banks that will not readjust their financing, even though they are “under water.” These souls, representing the essential staunch character of the American middle class, choose to stay in homes valued at $50,000 carrying $100,000 mortgages. They are faced with banks, which would choose to foreclose, evict and leave the home vacant, subject to scavengers and vandals thereby depreciating the entire neighborhood rather than adjust the financing based upon their diminished value since the housing bubble burst.

Of course, banks are in the business of making a profit. But in times like these, does it not make more sense for a bank to collect a lower payment rather than no payment at all? And with no one to whom the house may be sold? These are the same banks, bailed out by taxpayer dollars, too big to fail, that are sitting on hoards of cash and are refusing to lend any money. These are the same banks (Bank of America/Countrywide) that faces Justice Department fines that it charged African-Americans a higher interest rate than whites, purely based on race.

The Bank of America's Countrywide Mortgage was required today to pay $335 million in fines for discriminating against Black and Latinos who were steered to higher interest rates than white borrowers. Anthony Monzillo, the CEO of Countrywide earned $531 million during 2003-2008 based upon his misdeeds. This criminal has, to date, escaped prosecution. Countrywide did about 49% of all adjustable rate mortgages in the U.S. in 2008 and engaged in systemic fraud.

Republican politicians should fear the next election. People are now aware that they have been hoodwinked by a congress that is not responsive to the needs of its people and are dedicated solely to obstruct the present inhabitant of the White House, who, despite all his faults, including timidity, some pandering, some absence of courage to confront obstructionists, and who, may in this election year, find some way to bring a message to the people that their cause will not remain hijacked. Hijacked by the Malefactors of great wealth.

Miscellanea, November 2011 and the Religion of College Football

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 05:51:19 GMT

Miscellanea, November, 2011

I had written earlier about the Presidential debate format being changed to tête-a tête between the candidates. I was wrong.

The Republican debates have served a useful purpose, by showcasing the empty suits of most of the candidates, and by highlighting Mitt Romney’s stronger appeal to the general electorate. In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.

Rick Perry’s gaffe about abolishing government departments and then not remembering which one he was going to axe, is not really the important point. It was his lack of a policy understanding and a failure to prepare and be acquainted with policy positions rather than memorizing positions coming from his handlers’ talking point memos. His authenticity quotient swan dove into a media hurricane. Memories often fail when there is only rote memory of the thoughts behind the statement. That is why he could not remember.

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

- Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

Comments on the Religion of college football.

I cannot remember reading anything as loathsome as the Penn State football coach scandal except the ongoing priestly scandals plaguing Catholicism. The idea that men entrusted with the welfare and the education of children could be so callous and even depraved is unimaginable. The idea that football is a more important enterprise than the educational establishment to which it is wedded is evocative of the Catholic Church’s placing its hierarchical power structure before the interests of children, and the shuffling about of pedophilic priests to avoid responsibility for repulsive grotesqueries that would make even the most perverse Hollywood directors blush. You could not make a horror film on this subject. There is no film rating for this. It is just another life destroying mechanism that people will remember, like 9/11 or Pearl Harbor, without the bombs and explosions.

That is what the coaching staff including the legendary (now, in my opinion, disgraced) Joe Paterno as well as the sacked president of the University did, placing the University’s $76 million revenue machine ahead of the children whose lives have now been scarred by a monster.

The siege mentality of the Penn State football staff—them against us, the lack of transparency, the para-military discipline that robs young men of their dignity, sublimating their individuality to the team and that subjects their bodies to indentured battering in the name of an academic institution, has escorted our society to a new low of moral and intellectual bankruptcy. The fact that college football players are encouraged to take courses that do not demand much study, so they can devote their time to playing football is another indication of why our country is falling behind nations that prefer educating their studentry instead of head bashing them. Most of these misguided souls will not play professionally, and then when they graduate, if at all, they will not be trained in the skills necessary to succeed in an exponentially growing meritocracy. The origins of college football have been distorted and corrupted beyond all recognition. A game that began as an amateur pastime has lost its compass and the Penn State scandal is just another example of the decay, the rotting corpse of American big college football academia.

How much Coach Paterno knew, as well as his staff and the higher ups knew, will now be subject to the harsh scrutiny of the courts, both criminal and later, civil. Those who decry the legal system will now see it seek justice once again for those who could not protect themselves.

May the wheels of justice grind exceedingly fine.

Our Floundering Ship of State

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 05:50:47 GMT

"O Ship of State

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!

Sail on, O Union, strong and great!

Humanity with all its fears,

With all the hopes of future years,

Is hanging breathless on thy fate!

We know what Master laid thy keel,

What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,

Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,

What anvils rang, what hammers beat,

In what a forge and what a heat

Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!

Fear not each sudden sound and shock,

'Tis of the wave and not the rock;

'Tis but the flapping of the sail,

And not a rent made by the gale!

In spite of rock and tempest's roar,

In spite of false lights on the shore,

Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!

Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee.

Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,

Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,

Are all with thee, -are all with thee!"

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It is inconceivable that the President Obama has, during the last three months, raised about $70 million for his current reelection campaign. The election is more than a year away! The Republicans will be obliged to raise similar amounts of money for their campaigns. We are talking about estimates as high as a billion dollars between the two parties that could be better utilized for more constructive purposes than advertising, negative campaign ads, denigrating other candidates, and waterboarding the hapless television viewer.

There is something inherently wrong, something improvident about this cumbersome, agonizing process. It is destructive to our polity. It should not take so long, be so divisive, or be so expensive to run for office. It was not always so. There are more efficient ways to elect a leader and many more useful ways to spend money. Perhaps the old way of political parties picking the candidates in nominating conventions was better.

Less democratic, perhaps, but more efficient, and perhaps more productive of good candidates like Roosevelt, Truman, Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington, to name a few.

A year ago I wrote that I was grateful that the 2010 congressional and senatorial campaign was over. But wait! Now we are obliged to listen for another year to candidates for the Presidency in an essentially perpetual campaign. We cannot afford a perpetual campaign, diverting resources from the actual governance of the nation. A process that is devoted for years on end to divisiveness is a self fulfilling enterprise, a destructive song without end. The very length of the campaign is productive of even more divisiveness, not the cohesiveness we now so sorely need as a national goal to get us through the great economic global crisis in which we now lie, almost like a tortoise on its proverbial back, helplessly unable to right itself, ready to be devoured by predators.

Candidates, questioned by journalists about all manner of irrelevancies, including whether that candidate is a true follower of Jesus, Brigham Young, Mohammad, or is a true Christian. Who really cares if Mormons believed golden plates of Jesus were in New York and they moved to Missouri? Who cares if Jesus ascended to heaven on a cloud? What difference does it make that fundamentalist Christians pronounce fitness for office on how “Christian” a candidate is? These are not questions that should be asked of candidates. How deep and abiding faith guides a candidate is not the issue. Religion and government do not mix. Any candidate, who wishes to force upon the public social issues such as abortion, should be asked whether they also believe that putting people to death is contradictory to that premise. Why is our dialog so rudimentary, so infantile, and so juvenile in its exercise? What is it in the American vernacular that has happened to stunt our intellectual growth as an electorate?

The inanity of it all is a stupefying indictment of either the lack of intelligence of the voter or of the politicians or more likely, both.

Why do we need Wolf Blitzer and Chris Wallace to moderate debates? Why do we need any moderators at all? The idea of Michelle Bachman giving a straight answer to anything other than how much she is guided by her faith is so fantastical as to strain the imagination of J.K. Rowling. Mitt Romney, a homogenized, blow-dried, fabric softened mannequin, is now vying with the pizza man for front runnership. The “debates” are farcical, nincompoop enterprises, offering only a modicum of insight into who these people really are.

And the President, although disappointing, will probably get another term after all is said and done, given his less than courageous posture in standing up to a Republican party that has been taken over by social ideologues, who deny science, climate change, evolution, stem-cell research, instead harping on piety, religiosity and “values.”

Our political and electoral system is a broken, rusty, creaking locomotive, chugging up a hill that steepens every year, hampered by global competition, economic challenges, and countries which select their Prime ministers in 6 week campaigns from start to finish.

The Electoral College is an anachronism. Its origins, based upon state’s rights, disenfranchised women, slaves, and rural communities is in need of serious reform. We need direct popular election of the President, a dramatically shortened campaign, and a congress that remains in Washington, seeing to the business of governance, not partisanship driven by vote getting.

Billions spent to elect candidates and a rational discussion of the issues confronting the country, do not need years of campaigning.

Debates should be discussions among the candidates themselves, not howling, applauding audience extravaganzas on Fox and CNN. The discussions should include follow up questions, follow ups to the follow ups and not be a continuum of handler-generated sound bites.

People should understand that there should be a depth of knowledge generated by the discussion and a revelation (forgive the expression) of what these people are actually thinking and, more importantly, what they actually know.

Another Depressing Presidential Campaign is Underway

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 05:50:18 GMT

“Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.”

“The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.”

- Eric Hoffer (1902-1983)

Recently, some thoughtful friends of mine have been writing about how the personalities of Presidential candidates and their individual world view are not really crucial to the process of how they manage the economy. These friends equate the economy with all the reasons to elect a candidate. I suppose this is a rationalization of how to support a Texas top gun like Rick Perry or a crazy woman like Michelle Bachmann whose primitive social instincts are fantastically out of touch with the 21st century. The economy is important, of course, but there are other issues that trouble people, including a woman’s right to choose, birth control, education, a safety net for our citizens, and the government’s ability to create infrastructure and an environment in which people can live in safety.

Of course, economic policy is an adjunct to this, but it is not the sole thing.

I guess my perspective is different: I believe that the socio-religious-anti-science zealotry of some of the candidates, especially on the Republican side of the aisle that unctuously panders to the religious right is a disingenuous manifestation of a hypocritical vote solicitation-at-any-cost mantra. And when President Obama also does the same thing, “may God bless the United States of America,” at the end of every speech, he is no less obsequious. Earlier presidents did not need to wear flag pins or make ubiquitous and gratuitous religious references in order to please the voting public. Abraham Lincoln’s references to God were not done as a matter of course at the end of every speech. And certainly Thomas Jefferson did not do so.

I understand the perhaps human genetic need to believe in a supernatural force to provide social cohesion and an ability to war against other tribes, but why must it be a prerequisite to garner votes? Why must every speech be an appeal to piety? Are not Muslim fundamentalists the same as Jewish fundamentalists or the Catholic Church in their a priori discounting of other faiths, claiming their faith is the exclusive path to salvation?

At least the Catholic Church is somewhat consistent: no birth control, no capital punishment, and no abortion. But its hypocritical and certainly not biblical 16th century calls to celibacy among priests so that the church could perpetuate its property and estates are no indication of godliness. And there is a cogent argument that the celibacy requirement attracts sexually abusive individuals to its ranks. The Catholic religious hierarchy continues to mystify me.

Why is the American public so ostensibly pious? Europeans have already moved away from state religions, but in the United States, there is an almost secular state religion, an unintended consequence stemming from the tolerance set forth in the Constitution. The entire fringe religious fundamentalism in this country has a cult-like tenor to it, an irrationality that is almost indecipherable yet understandable at the same time. I think the candidates should be extensively questioned about whether they expect to govern by divine revelation. Michelle Bachmann has been particularly adept at dodging that question. George W. Bush, born again, took us into two wars costing trillions of dollars, which history has borne out to be unnecessary, given recent events in the Middle East.

I still remember the Republican debate in 2008 when the candidates were asked if they believe in the theory of evolution and all raised their hands in the negative. That question should be put to the candidates again.

At the same time, the ideological, proto-religious aspect of the economic arguments presented today is undeniable. On the right are the zealots who want to remove government from the economic process, yet wish to include it in the social agenda. Do not abort the child, but once it is born unwanted, abandoned, and neglected, let it inhabit the lower depths of a Dickensian untervelt of deprivation, ignorance and poverty.

America must find a rational alternative to this mind numbing debate: Moving beyond piety in its political dialogue, whether it be a religious or dogmatic view of economic solutions or its misappropriated social creed of imposing religious education and its anti science dogma in the public schools.

Focusing on the solutions to our social problems through ideology is neither productive nor encouraging of solutions.

Polarization in Washington and an Increasingly Dysfunctional Government

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 05:49:44 GMT

The Tea Party, a misnomer from the start, is, it seems, a yearning to return to what it perceives as an America of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is a faction of disenchanted, negative people who believe that government should be highly limited, a sort of return to the days when people lifted themselves up by their bootstraps, and needed no help from anyone. Days when people lived in log cabins, worked on agrarian lands, and tilled the soil. Those who inhabited the cities lived either in poverty or in monumental wealth. The days when the United States Constitution, a venerable document, perpetuated freedom of religion, non-voting women and, of course, that amazing gift to America—the institution of Slavery, which culminated in a Civil War, killing about 600,000 Americans. After the Civil War, the gilded age and the industrial revolution produced the beginnings of the middle class and a claque of millionaires and Robber Barons. Those good old days were not so good. But people “worked mighty hard for mighty little pay,” and understood no one was going to give them a handout. Along came the labor movement, strikes, and a progressive government that broke the trusts, thanks to Theodore Roosevelt. It was not an easy battle. But it was the beginning of a safety net for its citizens, and an attempt at hybridizing a partnership between government and laissez-faire capitalism. It was the beginning of a just society.

We are no longer that country. We have regressed. We are a nation of putatively entitled illiterates, a nation that does not understand its own history, and of politicians who barely understand the complexity of the issues that are overwhelming them. We are a nation with exponentially increasing disparity between rich and poor. Politicians hew to the call of CNN, Fox News, and a strident, brainless debate, taking positions that are not moderate or well thought out. Our government seems dysfunctional because it does not know how to cope with what may be increasingly an ungovernable situation.

I admire the optimism of those who think we are going to innovate and rise to the occasion. But I wonder.

Now we are engaged in a cultural and economic war, a war promulgated by a coterie of privileged corporations, their corrupt lobbyists, and “job creators,” who, the Republican party now believe, will restore our shattered economy through not having to pay more taxes and by shutting down the court system (so called tort reform) cutting social programs, education, pensions, social security, breaking labor unions, and lowering taxes. Tea partiers believe that more jobs will come out of favoring those who will invest if their taxes are lower and are not held to accountability by the law.

Different economic schools of thought cannot agree on whether to tax less spend less or to tax more, spend more on infrastructure and technology. Business might call this investment or capital expenditure. Make no mistake. The debate is more religious and ideologic, and while economists are a valuable resource to tell us what went wrong, they do not seem to be able to predict the future. What most economists do agree upon, however, is that it will take a partnership between government and free markets to perpetuate stability and a climate for innovation and investment. It has always been so and a dynamic market economy needs structure and regulation as well as a safety net for its citizenry. A centrist view of governance has always been America’s strength.

The problem is that we are no longer an agrarian or even an industrial economy. We are a post-industrial economy, with less ability to compete because of rising illiteracy, sloth, and a fundamental denial of what is happening beyond and within our borders. We are turning away educated immigrants, and exporting jobs overseas, because there is no one here to do them and because people in more ambitious countries are willing to work harder for less, are more skillful and better educated. A return to the American century (the 20th) is not at all likely. American Exceptionalism? We are withering in a sea of internal discord, rancor and disparity between rich and poor. The middle class, built through years of struggle and reform, if not already vanished, is clearly more ethereal.

On top of all that, we have leaders who do not seem to be able to rise to the occasion. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have anyone who is able to capture the imagination of the people, to motivate them, to seize the moment. The President seems a capable, intellectual pedant who is afraid to be branded an angry black man, so he tries to compromise and form a consensus that becomes more and more illusory. The Speaker of the House is a political hack that caters to his Tea Party minions with a revolting unctuousness—a disingenuousness that is so obvious it is shocking.

Harry Truman we need you now.

Rites of Tribal Initiation: 2011

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 05:49:08 GMT

Jews, have for millennia, circumcised their male offspring as a ticket to entry into the Tribe. Hitler’s minions, as a means of identification of male Jews, caused men to drop their pants in order to determine who should live and who should be gassed, tortured, or otherwise exterminated. Under those circumstances, it became more difficult for male Jews to escape doom and certainly argued against the procedure.

A friend of mine, a Rabbi, recently wrote an incensed article about what he termed an anti-Semitic tract, “Foreskin Man,” (www.kurtstone.typepad.com) which condemned circumcision and seeks to introduce a law criminalizing the practice. Aside from all the medical controversy, the differentiation between male circumcision and female genital mutilation seems, for me, a difficult distinction to make. Both procedures attack the genitalia of the victim.

Arguments that males benefit from the procedure and are less susceptible to sexually transmitted diseases do not really address the moral issues of the rights of an infant who is unable to consent to the procedure and must suffer the consequences of the decision of his parents who are usually religiously, not medically, motivated. On the other hand, waiting until one is 16 or even 18 renders the procedure painful and usually not done. This even though there is evidence that there is a reduction in urinary tract infections as well as a reduction in the incidence in penile cancer.

Recently the British Medical Association pointed to medical and psychological risks of the procedure, including anxieties, anger and even attempts of those circumcised to restore their foreskins. Some courts in Europe have declared the procedure illegal.

There has also been evidence that sexual sensation is diminished because the glans of the penis is desensitized. However, there is evidence to the contrary that no loss of sexual sensation occurs. There is no doubt, however, that there can be medical complications, including, among other consequences, fistulas, cysts, necrosis, and ulceration.

One thing is sure: there is little doubt that circumcision arose as a tribal rite and a methodology, according to Maimonides, to control male sexuality. There seems to be an increasing consensus among medical societies that male circumcision “should not be routinely performed.”

What is clear is that it is a primitive practice, and rationales by religious people have been carefully crafted to justify its perpetuation. Many Jewish parents decide to do it so that their children are not singled out for having a “different penis” in the locker room. (With no disrespect intended to recently tweeting Jewish congressmen.)

I have no answer to this conundrum. On the one hand, it is an accepted and routinely practiced custom. On the other, it is a form of genital mutilation, and when practiced on females, universally and rightly abhorred.

Whether the group currently promoting Elders of Zion caricatures of Jews who circumcise and Aryan looking anti circumcision claques who oppose it are evilly motivated are marginal to the issues of whether the practice remains morally or medically justifiable. The growing professional opinion seems to be against it.

And, if one is religious, even devoutly so, and believes that Man is created in God’s

image, why the necessity to improve on God’s creation? If one is not religious, would not Darwinian natural selection have eliminated foreskins by now anyway?

Is Religion the bête noir of Humanity?

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 05:48:40 GMT

I just finished a book by Sam Harris, “The End of Faith.”

A disturbing analysis of religion and theology, the book’s focus carries forth a recurring theme of the intolerance generated by all religions, and even sharply criticizes religious moderates. Traditional thinking had always been that religious moderation is an acceptable alternative to religious extremism. Not so, avers Harris, reasoning that religious moderation fosters a climate of acceptance of religious extremism. The acceptance of any religion, ergo, a priori allows an implicit acceptance of the most extreme forms of faith.

In a coolly rational discourse, Harris especially derides Islam, the conversion from which carries the penalty of death. Islam also tolerates the subjugation of women, honor killings, beheadings and suicide bombers; the idea that so sexually repressive a religion offers however many virgins in paradise as a reward for acts of grotesque terrorism speak to its ultimate abandonment of goodness. The idea that in the 21st century such a belief system can be food for any serious rational thought befuddles him.

He is no less forgiving of Catholicism, and refers to the Lateran council of 1252 which punished the Jews by removing them from society’s grace, promulgating thousands of years of anti-Semitism, including the blood libel, exploring a gruesome litany of disembowelments, heretic-burnings, rakings, witch-huntings and other nauseating acts of religious fervor, ultimately leading to the Holocaust. Fortunately, he says, the church abandoned such procedures, but not until the early 18th century and not before the seeds of the whirlwind had been sown.

Jews receive little less effusive acid pen treatment. Jewish fundamentalists cling to the anachronistic, bronze-age railings of the book of Leviticus, which Harris maintains is an exercise in the misogynistic demands of a paranoid God, who demands complete thoughtless subservience. He calls rigid adherence to primitive dietary laws and circumcision a paradigm of tribalism. Differences among the Arabs and the Jews in Palestine/Israel are still fueled by cultural differences and religious dichotomy, with fundamentalists on both sides stirring a witch’s brew of racism, terrorism, hatred and death.

He relegates theology to a non-science and does not even accord it philosophical heft, since he views religion as an evil in the world which denies people the essence of their humanity, the understanding that people do good things because of their own ethical code, giving the example of monkeys and other species protecting their young. Religion is not at all needed to produce morality. He defines love as a concern for other’s happiness and the placement of those values on a level with one’s own well being, without the necessity of priestly or clerical intercession.

This, says Harris, is the new ethic to which we should all aspire, an ethic that needs no class of priests to stand between ourselves and our reason or our humanity. In discounting the belief of others by virtue of “faith,” we automatically discount the “faith” of others. In my discussions with others about these undertakings, I have always encountered resistance and reluctance for the faithful to not abandon their sense of reason. The reaction is “I am not educated enough to talk to you about this,” or “I do not wish to discuss it.” People who are content to use reason during the week somehow feel free to abandon their sense of reason on Sunday, or Saturday.

Why?

The Mideast in Turmoil II

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 05:48:08 GMT

“All War represents a failure of diplomacy.”

- Tony Benn

Now that the Middle East has been rocked by the latest wave of freedom-seeking, it is interesting to speculate about how little influence we have over what may happen to us. Hosni Mubarak certainly did not. Surely he did not expect to leave office under the circumstances he did. Muammar Gaddafi, the murderous, insane leader of Libya is killing with impunity as the West looks on in a state of befuddlement, the punditry voicing a confused mixture of morality, pragmatism, and logistical analysis.

Nothing has really changed in our western, oil-addicted psyche. Washington politicians are ringing their hands about the “potential slaughter” of innocents, but what they are really thinking about is the same conundrum that has plagued them all along. Will pubescent Arab freedom choke off the world’s supply of oil and will the countries not yet in crisis be able to sustain the increased production necessary to alleviate the strangulating effect of oil shortages on the economic recovery in America and in the rest of its energy-seeking competitors?

Jeff Greenfield, the political analyst and former Presidential speechwriter, has a new book out that hypothesizes about how twists of fate turn the tide of history. The assassination of JFK, for example. Or the fact that a plot to truck dynamite the new President was foiled in December of 1960 because the assassin did not want his family to be involved when Jackie came to the door of their residence. Not wanting to kill the young President’s family led to a delay in the plot allowing the FBI time to foil it. This little known fact reveals how tenuous political and human fortunes are. A slight change of circumstance, a different leader here and there, matters over which even the most prescient leader has little or no control. The randomness of events, play out at the highest levels of government, potentially plunging the world into ever deepening chaos.

Should we do no fly zones in Libya ? Should we have fought in Viet-Nam? Was the removal of Saddam Hussein, empowering the Iranians helpful? Do nations enter wars with inadequate information and are decisions made with poor information, and impulsively misguided leaders? Of course. Decisions rendered in haste are often wrong, but sometimes they are correct. How can so imperfect an operation as government and its leadership really be trusted? Well, in fact, it cannot. Nathan Detroit is rolling the dice.

It is very easy to forget the threat of the Soviet Union, an imploded, decrepit economic house of cards, despite having projected enormous military power perpetuating its own empire, threatening Europe, Asia and the United States. How, in retrospect, could we have considered the threat so daunting? During the post World War II years and throughout the 1960s and 1970s, we lived in fear of a Communist takeover of the world. As schoolchildren we hid under our wooden desks, to protect us from a nuclear Armageddon. Others averred: had we not stood up to the nightmarish Leviathan, we would all be Russian vassals.

What really are the lessons of history? What can impel us to make the right decisions? Thoughtfulness, prudence, and reflection? The very qualities the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has have caused those critical of him to say he is vacillating, indecisive, and too cautious. George W. Bush was the contrary, embroiling us in two wars, killing thousands, neither of which bloody conflict has really proven its value. Mr. Truman, on the other hand, through courage and decisiveness, prevented North Korean domination of the South, allowing democracy and economic independence to thrive.

The questions of which wars are good wars and which are not remain unanswered.

They probably never will be.

The Mideast in Turmoil

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 05:46:45 GMT

Events in Egypt still bode uncertain for the West. The fluidity of the situation, now partially determined, has the scent of a youthful, computer-generated revolution, its forces young, vigorous and dynamic, the scenes in the streets of Cairo evoking tableaux of freedom-loving birds learning to fly.

The tired, corrupt government ministers who tried to blame “external influences” for their increasingly precarious grip had averred anarchy and chaos, the classically demagogic response to the change that threatened their grip on puissance. This, of course, was the manipulative tool of corrupted political forces and is not a new phenomenon from a historical perspective. Every dictator has, to a greater or lesser extent, utilized this fear to perpetuate their own power. The difference is that this time, it failed. Fear and terror lost to a burgeoning aroma of freedom.

We do not now know how this situation will play out. Will the revolution in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East wind up in the hands of Islamic extremists? Will western-influenced youth attain power through some leader who will not become an autocrat? Will a military strongman or fundamentalist Islamists stifle the democratic instincts of the people? Will the reigns of power corrupt whomever it embraces? Will Israel be threatened or find itself at war with the newer forces which might dominate the Arab world? Many other questions still remain unanswered.

In the 1960s, the United Arab Republic was a brief, ill-fated union between Egypt and Syria, which only lasted 2½ years, a paradigm of Arab disunity, almost like the scene in the tent from Lawrence of Arabia when Anthony Quinn entered and demonstrated how the feuding tribes could not hook up, even under British rule. Western attempts to amalgamate Arab countries into one monolith have always been a huge mistake. Too many tribes and nationalities, many of which cannot even agree on who is the scion of Mohammed, offer very little unifying potential. The Egyptians do not now, it seems, wish to reject the 30-year peace treaty with Israel. Nor do they seem to be flying to an Iranian smoke signal, Shia-Sunni Arab-Persian discrepancies momentously militating against that frightful result.

Interestingly and to his credit, John Boehner, on “Meet the Press,” stated that the President had handled the crisis about as well as he could have. A very risky statement, indeed, from the man who must pacify his tea party minions. Governing is far more difficult and complicated than simply leading the opposition.

The lessons taught by attempting governance will face the naifs in the freedom-seeking throngs in Egypt and in whatever other country is next to join them in a quest for democracy. Without a constitutional heritage and institutional foundations of democracy, it will be arduous. Have Facebook and Twitter replaced Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine and John Adams in Founding Fatherdom?

We are living in exciting, exhilarating times.

The Decline of Richesse

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 05:46:10 GMT

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961

A Republican friend of mine, whom I respect greatly for his intellect as well as his congeniality, recently opined that the Democratic propensity is to hate the military. This notion of a Democratic antipathy to the armed forces is supported by his assertion that the military vote ten to one for Republicans. Perhaps they do, although I have not checked the accuracy of that assertion, but it is a misconception that Democrats hate the soldiers, most of whom are volunteers for a duty others will not do. Today’s military is composed of an elite career officer corps and enlisted men who volunteer, often with the idea that service to their country is noble, sometimes because they are escaping poverty, and often for a secure, structured environment. Many of the volunteers are very young, and have not yet learned of the horror of war. George W. Bush, who himself avoided combat, had very little compunction in embroiling our country in two disastrous wars that still have not proven their value.

The fact that these gladiators are supported by war profiteers and legislators both from the Republican and Democratic parties, makes them no less victimized by the illusion that the United States is responsible for making the world safe from rogue governments that spring up around the globe or other threats from amorphous terrorists.

These “threats” supposedly justify a $700 billion defense budget, when we as a nation are struggling with underfunded schools, decrepit highways, and a 19th century rail system. This idea of an American colossus, a dynamic hegemonic enterprise straddling the globe has vanished with our manufacturing base, a decaying rust belt of post industrial cities, inhabited by the unemployed, the disenfranchised, the dispossessed.

The present Republican leadership believes that fewer taxes on their corporate benefactors will revive our flagging economy, and are busy selling the notion that all Americans will benefit from more jobs created by the effect of the long-discredited “trickle-down” theory. Democrats believe that the government should invest more, publicly fund research, invest in infrastructure and modestly raise taxes to do so. Somewhere between these two increasingly polarized positions should be a solution.

One thing is certain—the United States has neither the economic wherewithal nor the moral ability to police the world. Drunk on oil, hypocritically pious and in hoc, it now must co-exist in an increasingly hostile and threatening world. Faster jet planes and more expensive aircraft carriers are no longer the basis for projecting power. We need to turn inwardly strong. More education, better teachers, faster rail, better research, and energy independence—that is where we should be looking. Congressmen up for sale to defense contractors need to be put on notice that playing on the fears of their constituents will no longer get them reelected.

One would hope that the H.L. Mencken was wrong when he said that “no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” So far, unfortunately, he has been right.

Religion in the 21st Century

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 05:45:33 GMT

“In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.”

- Thomas Jefferson

Religion, it seems, has not done playing its hand in the affairs of mortals, who, despite accumulating scientific evidence, continue to believe in whatever divinities are comforting to their concept of human existence.

Because of this hope, men strive to gain some illusory reward after they die, including, but not limited to 73 virgins, floating upon a heavenly cloud, life in a virtual paradise, or whatever other notion they can conjure up. Because man is the only beast who knows that he will die, the other products of evolution are not beholding to a religious undertaking or to nature. Lions, for example, feel no remorse when they devour their prey. Snakes do not wilt when they poisonously bite their victims, porpoises do not tarry when they gulp their fish repast.

Man, obsessed with death, believes that if he lives according to the dogma of the church, mosque or synagogue that he will be somehow rewarded in perpetuity. He prays, fasts, renders beseechments, wails, moans, kneels prostrate and goes to confession. He does good turns not for the good in the deed itself, but for the promise of some unearthly reward. This actually diminishes the goodness of the deed, for the deed should, if honestly performed, should be reward enough in and of itself.

In the name of religion, men have killed, maimed, tortured, burned at the stake, and brutalized his fellows. In the name of religion, theocracies and true believers threaten the annihilation of other nations and seek nuclear bombs to do so. Only recently has religious dogma allowed for some toleration of the beliefs of others, mostly as a reaction to the information age and the holocaust. First, the holocaust erased institutional (but not all) anti-Semitism in the west, and second, the general diminution of misinformation that had been generated about contrary belief systems. People are exposed to the ways, in a global environment, of others. Ergo, they are less ignorant. Much of this has happened through the rise of television and of the movies, since many younger people do not read books or even newspapers. Even still, the institutional Church of Rome denies basic human sexuality and the need of men for love, fostering a class of prelate who is frustrated and unfulfilled, propelling them toward abuse and depredation.

Religious fundamentalists, including Hasidim, Islamists, Orthodox Jews, still indoctrinate their children with worthless, anachronistic dogma, dietary laws and fasts. They deny the right to marriage outside their respective faiths, they stone those who violate the Sabbath and who do not obey the precepts of their religion. Islamists execute adulterers and lop off the hands of petty thieves. They degrade and debase women as inferior beings. True believers inculcate in their children a credo that there is something worthwhile in praying to a god who has not the power to change anything on earth, and if he did, should shoulder the blame for the evil that men do, ostensibly in his name. The only thing that occurs as a result of this “educational” enterprise is hysteria and fear among those who have not been taught realistically to deal with the vicissitudes of life, other than doing dances, praying to the spirits, almost like the primitive souls lost and seeking comfort in the African Savannah, 50,000 years ago.

Not Much Christmas Spirit this Year

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 05:44:58 GMT

Recently, a Republican friend of mine (I do have Republican friends) sent me an email, recounting a tale of a Republican father and his hard-working student liberal Democrat daughter who, brainwashed by her profoundly elite college professors, berated her father for his selfishness. The father, giving as good as he got, reminded his prodigal child that Democrats were interested, through some ignorance of the Dickensian realities of life, to surrender all their freedoms; she simply did not understand that the progenitors of individual wealth should not be subjected to redistributionist taxation. Why did she not give part of her hard earned 4.0 GPA to her partying 2.0 GPA friend as a token of her undying friendship? When his daughter refused, he pronounced her a Republican.

The histoire continued in a vein of how Republicans benefited from hard work, self-reliance, control over the self, and how Democrats were willing to surrender all individual freedoms to the common good. Other included pronouncements were that conservatives who did not like guns did not buy them, homosexuals “quietly stayed at home,” (as if there were some shame to that), and how down-and-out conservatives lift themselves up by their bootstraps instead of looking for handouts. Like all exaggerations the tale had some truth to it, but a little truth is as good as a prevarication. Democrats are hard working people, Democrats are not Socialists, and yes, they have social consciences, they believe that society has a duty to help care for those who cannot care for themselves. Is that not what America says in its constitutional preamble? “We the people…promote the general welfare…?” Do conservatives want to ensure the elimination of the middle class, transforming its persona into a 21st century version of 19th century England? In 1970, the top 1% controlled 9% of the wealth. Now the top 1% control 35% of the wealth. It is of these figures revolutions are born. Perhaps conservatives should think of social progressivism as a way of preserving the societal structure we are now fortunate enough to inhabit.

Lately, the political discourse in America has degenerated to an almost religious dichotomy of thought. The willingness of right wingers to denounce all efforts to help the unfortunate, and the condemnation of social progressives for trying to do so has become the underlying theme of present political reality. And by the same unfortunate token, the progressives depicting conservatives as social brutes stoke the fires of more polarization.

Capital Punishment in an Age of Abolition

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 05:44:02 GMT

John Paul Stevens, 90, about ready to retire from the Supreme Court, has recently written a review for The New York Review of Books, on David Garland’s recent book, "Peculiar Institution: America’s Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition."

The role of capital punishment remains a barbaric remnant of an earlier time, when public executions satisfied the need for “community gratification and fascination with death.” It serves no useful purpose, Stevens maintains. Had he been able to change his vote in the landmark case of Furman v Georgia, he would have voted to abolish the institution entirely.

I frankly do understand the arguments made by death penalty proponents: That some people do not deserve to live, that through the crimes they have committed, they have forfeited their right to life. Serial killers, criminal monsters who have violated every social moray, do not deserve to inhabit the planet; it is hard to argue otherwise. I hold no brief for Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and the like. I am glad they are gone. But it is so complicated—and expensive for the state to put someone to death. If we shorten the appellate process, we risk rushing to a dénouement that no one really wants—the potential death of an innocent. And if we delay the process with individuals on death row for twenty years until they are executed, then we diminish and even make irrelevant the penalty.

The argument against capital punishment, therefore, is not the merits of keeping of death-deserving criminals alive; it is, however, the evil that our society perpetuates as a civilized undertaking (no pun intended). It has to do with the ability of our society to administer the punishment fairly. In that respect, we have failed miserably, because it is doled out without rhyme or reason, often for matters of race, or for the convenience of politicians being able to show to voters how tough they are on crime. Blacks who murder whites are 11 times more likely to receive the death penalty than whites who murder whites or blacks. Since 1972, 1,300 prisoners have been released from death row because of newly discovered evidence. We as a nation now inhabit the orb of Saudi Arabia, China, and Iran, to name a few other countries, which still put people to death. Criminality is not reduced by capital punishment. And the likelihood of an innocent man being killed is always present. Death is ever so final.

It is time for us to move beyond this primitive enterprise, and to have some leaders who are politically brave enough to say so.

Thanksgiving 2010

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 05:43:18 GMT

I am thankful to live in a country where even those who disagree with us are able to express their opinion, no matter how inane, stupid, or ignorant.

I am thankful for the Constitution of the United States that has, since the founding, provided a framework for such expression.

I am thankful for the knowledge that in order for us to continue such a tradition, we must be constantly vigilant.

I am thankful for living in a country that reveres such a sacred document.

I am thankful for an understanding of the faults of those in power and for a free press that lies as an underpinning of expression and a watchdog against those who would corrupt the system.

I am thankful for our system of laws, courts and trial by jury and for those who labor to make it work.

I am thankful for understanding that “power corrupts and that absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

I am thankful that religious fundamentalists, despite their efforts to dismantle the wall of separation of church and state, have not been able to impose theocracy upon us.

I am thankful to not be living in a place like Iran where governance so antipathetic to human dignity dwells in its most grotesque and loathsome form.

I am thankful that religious fundamentalism is marginalized in our society, despite those who would try to inform our daily lives by casting us as flawed human beings in need of some sort of salvation—and a priestly class that arrogates power to itself by promising to “perfect” us.

I am thankful for understanding that we must strive to do good on our own volition, that each of us can make the world a better place and that kindness and charitable acts are the sincerest form of human effort if they are done for their own sake, with no promise of reward beyond the act itself.

And finally, I am thankful that I am not obliged to be thankful for anything at all, if I do not wish.

Mack The Knife. A Short Story

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 04:23:00 GMT

A work of fiction

- By David Wieder

Mack Bronstein woke up, as he did every day, pissed off. He hated his life and everyone who, in his twisted perception, slighted him.

Mack had a grudge list, but most of all, he wanted his wife dead. Mack lived in a house that looked like someone had forgotten about it in the 1960s. Several large TVs populated the den and living room; a dated shag rug lay on the floor. His refrigerator reflected his tastes, smelling like an overripe salami. Mack liked to dine at a nearby Jewish Deli, where the food was copious, the prices were cheap, populated by an elderly crowd of ravenous local condominium dwellers. The deli was reminiscent of a Edward Hopper painting except there were many people sitting at the counter, stuffing their faces with kosher pickles, freshly baked rolls and huge cheesecakes. The countertop was trimmed in chrome around the worn, pink, cracking Formica. The changing demographics, causing the deli later to close, much to Mack’s chagrin, forced Mack to go to other less desirable restaurants, like a nearby buffet where he could chomp on frozen all-you- can eat shrimp. He loved Chinese buffets where he could stuff himself with as much food as possible, paying a minimum price and returning for unlimited seconds and thirds. If one would want to join Mack for dinner, it would have to be at a place of his choice, all others being “a rip off.” “They are all a rip-off” he would say if someone were to suggest another place. Cheesecake factory was a big favorite. “good value.” The Mack restaurant rating was based upon the size of the portions, rather than the quality of the food.

Most of all, back in 1970s, he loved to dine for free at his cousin Daniel’s father’s hotel, where he would eat enormous portions filling his 250-pound frame. Free food was great, and no limitation was imposed on seconds and even thirds and best of all, no bill. The hotel, filled with religious Jews, its clean environment and kitchen dispelled the parochialism of its clientele, many of whom were Holocaust survivors or down from the Bronx to consume as much food as at a Nathan’s Coney Island hot dog eating contest. To this Daniel’s parents had catered generously, and had made a not inconsiderable amount of money. Daniel was the first cousin of Mack’s wife, Dottie, a somewhat humorless, yet decent woman, who never could find her place, until she and Mack married, and probably not afterwards, either.

Dottie and Mack had been introduced by Daniel’s sister, Carole, and the engagement party was held at Daniel’s waterfront home. Carole, a scheming, spoiled woman, generally liked to get what she could out of people, and took advantage of Daniel, trying to sabotage his marriage, and sowing chaos and misinformation, to her and Daniel’s parents, generating familial discord in every manner she could. Daniel was an insecure, poor student, immature, and unmotivated. He sought approval from his Father but it never came. Daniel had some sort of attention deficit disorder and was inconsistent in his schoolwork, and getting through his classes by the skin of his teeth. He needed to be loved but it never really came. When he met his wife, Caroline, and began to work, he finally found his place, but never really overcame the scars of his neglected childhood. Mack had accepted him though, and what came out of that relationship’s destruction conferred enormous pain and another feeling of rejection that ate at Daniel without abate. The mystery of how he could be so casually cast aside by someone he cared for added acid to the witch’s brew of emotional instability that Daniel suffered from all his life.

“You know, Dottie, the reason Mark and Jon moved away to distant cities, and never call, is because I was strict and demanding. They knew not to be disrespectful to me, or I would have booted them out the door or slapped their face.”

“That’s not the reason, Mack. Or only part of the reason. You never listened to them, always hollering and telling them how they should do things, and not even acknowledging they had their own opinions; all you did was complain to them about anything and anyone who might be their friends, or who did not have money, or did not agree with your demented politics. You expected all your friends to suck upto you.”

“Bullshit.”

“It is not, and I’m sick and tired of your angry, bullying personality. You fight with everyone, the neighbors, your children, and my cousin Daniel.”

“Daniel is a jerk off Democrat who asked me to give him Jon’s number to work on the Kenyan candidate, Obama. “

“So, couldn’t Jon make up his own mind? He needed you to tell him what to do?

“He needed my guidance.”

“Hardly, Mack. He needed your guidance so much, he couldn’t wait to leave the house. And he certainly did not want to follow you into your dumpster fire law career.”

“Fuck off Dottie, you frigid bitch. I wish I were free of you. The only time you pay attention to me is when you put me down. I’m going out.”

“Where?”

“None of your fucking business.”

Mack drove over to his office, three rooms and a receptionist area. Belle, the receptionist was sitting at her desk, chewing Nicorette.

“Hi Belle,” Mack said, “glad you’re quitting smoking.”

“Thanks a lot. Charlie said he would fire me if I didn’t, because you told him. I need a cigarette now and then, and I always went outside, so why did you insist?”

“Because I can’t stand the smell of tobacco and I don’t want my lungs affected. Anyone who smokes is either stupid, suicidal or doesn’t care about others inhaling poison.”

“Thanks again Mack.” Belle hated Mack.

Charlie was sitting with his feet up on the desk. “Hey, Mack, I thought you were going to bring in some business. Plus, you are late on the rent.”

“I know I know, been having a rough time at home.”

“Why?”

“Well, the boys are no longer around, and I have to be with Dottie too much, she’s always ragging on me, and won’t fuck me, not that I want to.”

Charlie was not interested. “Listen Mack, you need to pay rent, you are three months behind, and you haven’t lived up to our deal. You promised some cases, you promised to do some TV spots, you said you had sources for business, and you can’t even pay the reduced rent.

“Charlie stop busting my balls, I’ll come through.” Mack stormed out the door. Charlie thought to himself, what an asshole.

Mack went to his office and decided that he wanted out of his marriage, his law firm and financial demands he could not meet. But he had a plan. He was fed up with his left-wing associates and his up-tight wife. He knew they all despised him. Robert, the other lawyer in the office, had plenty of business. Cheerful, young, aggressive, and hardworking, always had people coming in and out.

“Rob,” wanna get some lunch?”

“Mack, I am so busy, not today,” Rob knew lunch would be another tirade about how the world was out to get Mack, the Democrats were ruining the country, and the black president was not born in the US.

The time before when Rob did dine with Mack, Mack had a tirade.

“Obama is ruining the country, and the Democrats are so soft on crime. We need a law and order administration. Anyone who votes Obama is stupid.” Mack announced. Most of his colleagues ignored his right-wing tirades. “They’re trying to outlaw capital punishment. I say fry them all.” I don’t even speak to my wife’s cousin Daniel because he worked on the Obama campaign and asked me for my son’s phone number to tell him how to vote. He had the nerve to call me an asshole. Obama never even showed his birth certificate.”

“Mack, sorry, I have work to do.”

“OK Rob, see you later.” Mack was pissed that Rob dismissed him, and felt his blood rising, but held back, thinking Rob might need him in a case later on. In fact, there was no such possibility. Rob was convinced that Mack was a washed-up loser. Rob thought Mack should get a drink, but Mack neither drank nor smoked, confining his beverage to caffeine-free diet Coke.

“Welfare manipulators” he would say, causing him to rationalize his racist politics. “Liberals were satanic manifestations of Leon Trotsky. Obama was not born in America, a Kenyan, not fit to be president; moreover, a black person who was not born in the United States.”

Mack was Jewish, but acted like someone from the Alabama backwoods. Mack voiced his half- baked opinions as though they were gospel. If anyone disagreed with his rantings, they deserved no credibility. Mack was an iconoclast without portfolio. An Archie Bunker sans humor. Mack’s sense of humor died when he married Dottie, who never laughed at his jokes and evinced a sullen apathy herself.

Dottie had lost any semblance of her self-esteem, suffering psychological abuse for 40 or so years. She had taught school many years, achieved a substantial pension, and inherited money from her parents’ estate, as well as from a niggardly uncle who left her a part of his rather large fortune, because Uncle Vincent resided at poverty level, sporting a 50-year-old frazzled leather

belt that seemed like it would separate from its buckle at any moment and a worn polyester shirt looking as though it would spontaneously combust. Uncle Vincent, a confirmed bachelor and multi-millionaire, after selling his supermarket to a chain, was a constant presence at Mack and Dottie’s house. He enjoyed the free food, and the large televisions he found too extravagant to buy for himself. Uncle Vincent was gentle soul, though, as was Dottie’s father, Mitchell, certainly not a spendthrift either, a retired dentist who continually catered to his wife, Eleanor, Daniel’s aunt, until the day he died. Eleanor, Helen’s sister, lost her noodles, and mostly sat around Mack’s house in semi-catatonia. She no longer remembered anyone, even her children.

“Dottie, your cousin Daniel called me an asshole because I would not give him Jon’s number because he told me he was working on that Kenyan presidential candidate’s campaign and wanted Jonathan to help him. I’m never going to speak to him again,” exaggerating the context of the perceived insult to justify his sangfroid to his wife and sons.

“I told him, I thought you were a Republican. Can you imagine, he was a Democrat. I thought he supported Nixon, like me. I think he did at that time. What a dumb move, supporting a schvartza. They’re taking over our country.”

“Mack,” Dottie responded, “enough.”

“Dottie, shut up. You’re someone who I would have left a long time ago, but we had children. Your opinion is worthless. I’m sick and tired of listening to you, you are just plain stupid. Daniel is a prick, but I guess it runs in your family.”

Dottie had heard that all before. She, too, was tired of Mack’s abuse, but she did not want to extend the conversation. She knew she was locked into an unsalvable marriage and could not even bear to sleep in the same room. But she was fearful enough to remain in place. She had no friends either, no place to go.

“Listen, Dottie, we have to go to your brother’s son’s wedding in Washington, and I won’t speak Daniel, he’s a left wing socialist.”

Dottie did not respond, preferring to keep the peace, and too tired of arguing with a wall.

“Don’t answer any calls he may make to you, I won’t forgive you either, if you speak or meet with him. As far as I am concerned, he is dead to me.”

“Why do you have to be such a jerk? He’s my cousin.

“I am sick of you and your family; I should have divorced you a long time ago.”

“My family are good people, and you keep insulting them. Because of them we have money, certainly not through any hard work you did. And everything we inherited came from my family, certainly not yours. All we got from them was a psychodrama, with you playing the lead.”

Mack got up, approached her, and smacked her in the face.

Dottie, who had always acceded to Mack’s sociopathy, began to weep, hung her head and left the room, Why am I here?” she thought. She wanted him dead, but never would act on it.

At his cousin’s wedding in DC, Daniel approached Mack to apologize for calling Mack an asshole, a title which he richly deserved, but that Daniel should not have called him. “Mack,” Daniel said warmly, attempting to give him a hug.

Mack repulsed Daniel, who, to Mack, was a serial killer. “No, stay away from me.” “Why?” asked Daniel.

Mack did respond, glaring at Daniel with contempt. “I don’t want to have anything to do with you!” he shouted, his facing growing red.

Daniel walked away, realizing, but not completely understanding, why Mack had such strong antipathy toward him. He re-approached Mack.

Mack started yelling, “get away from me.”

“Why are you so angry?”

“Get away from me,” Mack shouted. By this time the other guests noticed the disturbance and Mack’s son, came over to separate Daniel and Mack. After that, they had no further communication, Daniel not wishing to disturb the wedding any further, but deeply shaken by the rebuff, the lack of forgiveness.

After, Daniel had phoned Dottie, curious as to what was really his offense, asked her to lunch, she accepted, then cancelled. The issue hardly could not have been only one aberrant conversation. It did not make sense. Excepting if Mack had exaggerated the exchange between him and Daniel. Dottie and Daniel had spent much of their childhood together, visiting Niagara Falls with her parents, riding the “Maid of the Mist” under the thundering water, and shared the same fate when Dottie’s father stopped them from swimming with her older brothers and cousins at Buttermilk falls outside of Ithaca New York, where Dottie’s uncle was a professor at Cornell. Daniel had accompanied his aunt and uncle on a trip as a seven-year-old. Daniel loved his aunt and uncle, who had been so kind to him. Daniel felt awful when his uncle Mel had died, and his aunt faded from dementia. Dottie sort of knew this but sublimated her feelings to pacify Mack. That trip to Niagara Falls, burned into Daniel’s memory endeared Dottie to him. She was emotionally detached, almost autistically indifferent to most other people. Dottie had had a hard time connecting with boys during her teenage years. She had crushes on boys, which went mostly unrequited. Dottie, like almost everyone else in the family, worked at Daniel’s father’s hotel for many summers and basically grew up with Daniel and his sister, Carole. Their childhoods were intertwined through the deep friendship of Daniel’s and Dottie’s parents. Hellen’s sister, Dottie’s mother, Eleanor had driven Hellen to the hospital that summer day in 1942 when Daniel was born.

Mack had again received repeated calls, emails containing apologies from Daniel after the Obama and wedding incidents, never responding. Mack angrily never wanted to reconcile with Daniel nor his estranged brother whom Mack viewed upon with a not an inconsiderable mixture of envy and contempt. Forgiveness was not in Mack’s vocabulary; he viewed the world as a conspiracy directed at him. Mack’s brother had moved on, but Daniel was consumed by the unexplained rejection. Mack’s younger brother had made a successful career idermatology, finally married, but was able to put Mack out of his mind. Daniel was not able to do that.

Mack, some years before, had drawn the will for Daniel’s mother, Hellen, much before his perceived insult from Daniel, making himself the alternate personal representative. Upon Hellen’s death a trust was set up for Daniel’s alcoholic sister, Carole.

Daniel remained persona non grata. Daniel had come to accept but not completely understand Mack’s hatred after trying to reconcile with him through emails and phone messages. “Please forgive me,” Daniel pleaded, even though he knew the attempts would bear no fruit. Daniel optimistically thought he would succeed but sometimes apologies do not work. Daniel, trying desperately, could not understand the opprobrium. Some people just can’t forgive. If it is true that forgiveness is more for the forgiver than Mack would continue to suffer, and Daniel felt compassion, even pity, for Mack, yet remained wounded psychologically with Mack’s refusal to even explain why he was hateful. Daniel hurt inside and could not help thinking that there was something more he could do to resolve his pain.

Much before all this, Daniel had represented Mack in a lawsuit against an African American man who sued him for assault, when Mack blocked him with a briefcase outside a courtroom trying to collect a debt on behalf of his father’s used car business. The debtor was an ignoramus, who had been a professional prize fighter, who did not accept Mack’s boisterous aggression, and punched Mack in the face, shattering his sunglasses and blackening his eye.

Mack went to Daniel to represent him in a lawsuit against the man, George, who had socked him in the eye in the courthouse hallway, all this having been witnessed by a police officer who promptly arrested George. George had pled guilty on the assault charge, and Mack had Daniel sue George for civil assault and battery. The trial judge directed a verdict in favor of Mack, which was later reversed on appeal. Daniel and Mack spoke frequently on the telephone, exchanging family news and pleasantries. They were friends in those years. Daniel also achieved a substantial settlement for Mack in a personal injury case. Mack and Daniel went to Epcot together and celebrated. Mack found some comfort there with a prostitute.

Mack’s son, Jonathan was to be married. And the wedding plan and invitations were to go out. Jonathan called Daniel, to explain why he could not invite him to his wedding.

“You know, Daniel, my father told me that if I invited you to my wedding, my dad would not come. He told me, “It was him or me.” Jonathan, who also must have suffered from abuse, complied with his father’s ultimatum.

Daniel, non plussed said, “sure Jonathan, I understand.”

But Daniel was surprised by Jon’s deference to his father who had given him an inappropriate ultimatum. Daniel thought that Jon should have stood up to the bullying. On the other hand, Jon’s gentle nature wished not to be excommunicated too. “He’s stubborn,” Jon said, and Daniel felt even more compassion for the difficult place his father had found for him.

Sometime later, Daniel ran into Mack in a noisy restaurant. The restaurant was a kind of an upscale Outback Steakhouse, where full dinners came at an inexpensive price, drawing a mostly elderly crowd in an undistinguished ambiance, the menus adorned with color photographs of steaks, chops and fries. The tables bore no cloths. There was a hardwood laminated floor, with a transparent look of cleanliness. Waitstaff scurried about, feigning familiarity by introducing themselves by name. “How are WE doing today?” Mack was seated at a table with about six others, including Dottie, who sat basically transfixed, almost in catatonia.

“Mack, do you have a minute?” Daniel wanted to again bury the hatchet, to clear the fetid air. Daniel, pained by the rejection, wanted to reconcile. Daniel had felt that he had done a lot for Mack, and had more than earned his forgiveness, despite Mack’s impulse to cut him out because he did not agree with him politically, or even worse, made a statement with which Mack did not agree and took hyperbolic defensiveness.

“No.” Mack replied.

“I just wanted to have a word in private...”

“No,” Mack interrupted.

Daniel, nonplussed, said “why not?”

No response from Mack, speaking as though Daniel was not there. Dottie sat closed mouth and incredulous. Daniel could not believe the immediate rejection.

“What kind of man tells his son, it’s him or me for your wedding?” Daniel announced to the group. Mack jumped out of his chair and threatened to punch Daniel in the face. “I’m bigger than you, if you stay here, I will flatten you,” clearly embarrassed by the confrontation that exposed Mack’s nakedly unforgiving, mean-spirited character, Daniel retreated, astonished by the behavior of a bully, who had called the manager to eject Daniel from the restaurant.

On his way out the door after dinner, Daniel loudly accused Mack of being Hitler.

But Daniel remained pathologically obsessed about what he had really done to create such hatred toward himself. He ruminated about it, but no one from Mack’s family wanted to reveal to him what Mack had thought he had done wrong. The mystery germinated into an obsession and Daniel’s children told him to “forget about it.” They could provide no clarity either. Daniel still agonized and continued to do so. His pain was evident to all who knew him. Rejection without explanation. Mack had achieved his goal, his schadenfreude.

II.

Mack fantasized about he could get rid of Dottie, but he did not know how. He thought of hiring someone to kill her, or creating an auto accident, running her down in the driveway or the street, or feeding her poison. Then he could find some younger woman who would have sex with him, but he could not get himself to do it. Maybe a staged home invasion with both of them as victims. He had an old client, Cliff, a convicted murderer, with whom he thought he could make a deal. He decided to meet Cliff in a seedy bar near downtown.

“Cliff, I can pay you $20,000 to off my wife.

“I dunno Mack, you did me a good turn when you represented me in my murder case, but I paid you plenty. I guess I owe you. You got me a really reduced sentence. They could have fried me.

“I don’t know either, Cliff, but I have the cash to pay you if you decide. But don’t do anything yet, I’m just thinking about it.”

“OK, Mack.”

The house was dark when Dottie and Mack arrived home. Mack looked at his bed, his wife and his life and felt a gloomy, existential pain. He found her repulsive. He wanted a way out, a way to be respected—a trophy wife. It was not to be, he thought, not enough money. He craved adulation, which never seemed to come his way.

“Dottie, my back is killing me, could you bring me some Advil?”

“Sure,” said Dottie. “Why don’t you try to get some sleep?”

“I can’t. I hate your fucking cousin. He keeps trying to contact me. I’ll never forgive him. Dottie took a step back, “Maybe you should take some sleep medication?”

“Nah, I’ll just lay here. I hate that bastard. The only reason he has money is because his father left it to him.”

“That’s not true, he is a lawyer just like you, except he goes to work.”

“Shut up Dottie, you are just an idiot. You’re not worth the trouble.”

Dottie, tired of Mack’s complaints, left the room to watch television. Since she had retired from schoolwork, she was obliged to spend too much time with Mack. She knew he could explode at any minute. Sitting down on the lounge chair, Mack called out to her.

“Dottie, get me some sleeping pills.” Dottie got up and brought Mack some Ambien. She hoped he would take the whole bottle. She returned to the lounge chair.

Dottie had compromised her life, she thought. She yearned to have some independence, some time to herself. Mack was in the way. He always complained to her about her lack of sexual desire. In reality, she found him repugnant, his big fat body, almost whale-like pressing her down, squeezing the air from her, making her unable to breathe. There was no tenderness, no intimacy, no love. But Dottie did not feed on those qualities. There was something missing anyway. It could not be found. Whether it ever existed is hard to visualize, given her unloving personality and his bombastic, misanthropic bravado. Their marriage was a psychodramatic, pathological, tragic undertaking.

Outside the house, dark skies warned of an incipient thunderstorm. Claps of thunder and lightning pierced the living room. Dottie awoke in a start and went to see if Mack was still sleeping. He was. His loud snoring outdoing the thunder. Dottie thought to herself, how could I be married to this man, this overwhelming bully who has divorced himself from my family?

The next morning, the skies cleared, a crisp cold front passing through. The sun shone. Awakening, Dottie still reflected upon her wretched state, married to a boor, isolated from her children, whom Mack had condemned for moving far away, not calling much, asking to speak to.

her, not him, when he picked up the telephone. Dottie knew that her sons did not respect their father and it was a cause of continuing worry. But Dottie did not like to face reality; it was easier to just ignore the bad or set upon unchartered waters. Her brow was wrinkled, and her jet-black hair dye job covered her completely white hair. She looked like some surreal feature of a Dali painting.

Mack said to her,

“What’s for breakfast?”

“I don’t know,” Dottie answered.

“What do you mean, you don’t know? Gimme some coffee and donuts, I brought them fresh from Dunkin Donuts. I like them hot.”

“Get them yourself.”

“You’re just like your fucking cousin. I should have divorced you years ago.”

Dottie started to weep. Mack did not care, he continued,

“You are just a dried-up old bitch. I knew I should never have married you. You were ugly then and you’re worse looking now. And I do not give a shit about your family and that Daniel who is worse than you, but not by much.” And don’t go reconciling or having lunch with him, or you’ll regret it. I have a friend who does a lot of divorce work, believe me, you won’t benefit. Dottie recoiled from the threat. How could this man, to whom I have given two wonderful sons and so many years, be such a brute? I worked much harder than he did over the years, teaching school and raising our two sons, while he “practiced” law, earning next to nothing.

The weather was changing, that night, Mack scarfed down some additional salami and eggs, washed down with a Diet Coke.

There had been many robberies and burglaries in the neighborhood, a small 1970s Levittown- type development in which their house was bordered by a huge concrete wall in the backyard behind which was a freeway. Dottie felt a fear creeping up her back and the hair on the back of her neck stood up. There was someone knocking on the front door. Dottie approached the front door and opened it. Two men pushed her aside and rushed in.

“Who are you?”

Cliff stepped in, slammed the door, and slapped Dottie in the face. “Shut the fuck up,” he said, and Cliff had a partner with him. “Shut up, bitch.”

Dottie screamed, and Cliff slapped her so hard, she fell to the floor. Cliff and his partner wore black masks.

Mack, sound asleep, snoring like a whale, attached to his CPAP machine, heard nothing. Another man, black hooded mask and turtleneck sweater, screamed at her, “Bitch, stay down on the floor.” Another man, similarly attired, who had followed him in through the door, walked by her as she lay terrorized on the floor.

Mack awakened in a fright.

Cliff’s partner grabbed Dottie, pulled down her slacks and panties, forced her to the floor and penetrated her while she screamed in pain. Then they exposed her breasts and raped her again. When they finished, they cut across her face with a knife, and cut her breasts. Dottie screeched in agony, knowing they would kill her. Mack watched dispassionately.

Another person who would no longer annoy him.

Cliff said, “give me the combination to the safe, Mack or I’ll kill you, too.”

Mack became frightened, gave the combination to Cliff, who opened the safe and found $90,000 inside.

“Cliff, we didn’t make a deal, why are you here?”

“I need the dough, Mack, and I’ll kill you and your wife for it.”

“Cliff, are you crazy? Or high?” Mack said.

“Don’t push it Mack, I am gonna do you a big favor.”

Mack protested, “No, No, No!!!” Cliff went over to Dottie, pointed a gun at her mid chest and pulled the trigger three times, killing Dottie. Blood exited her mouth and spilled onto the white ceramic tile floor. Mack winced in horror, but strangely was not unpleased.

The two then, while Mack watched, emptied the rest of the clip into Dottie’s corpse.

Then they walked over to Mack, with the butt of Cliff’s gun, smashed Mack in the mouth, knocking out his front teeth and leaving him with a bloody mouth.

They then duct taped him to the bed, hand and foot, cleaned up after themselves, and took their latex gloves, and the gun with them, but replacing the kitchen knife in its holder in the kitchen after thoroughly cleaning it.

III.

Mack struggled to untie his hands and after 20 minutes, succeeded. He ripped the duct tape from his bloodied mouth and dialed 911 as soon as he could.

“My wife’s been killed,” he screamed into the phone.

“Please hold,” the robot said. Thirty seconds passed.

“Can I help you?”

My wife’s been killed in a home invasion,” Mack said almost dispassionately. “What’s your address?”

After that, he called his two sons to tell them what had happened but did not talk about Dottie’s death yet.

“Geez, Dad, who did you antagonize?” Jon inquired.

“Goddamit, Jon, how dare you ask me that?”

“Because it seems like you have a lot of people you dislike or don’t talk to”

“Listen, Jon, “I have some bad news.” Your mother was killed by the two men who broke in.” “WHAT?”

“Your mother is dead.”

“You told me a long story about yourself and mentioned nothing about Mom? You just matter- of-factly say she is dead?”

“Listen, don’t give me shit, I’ve been through a lot of traumas, and the police will probably not do a thing.

And if you were a good son, you would live here in Miami, near us. I never hear from you.” “Dad, what the fuck? You don’t hear from us, because you never expressed any interest in our lives, and you never have anything nice to say. All you do is tell us how to live our lives. And you bring this up in the same phone conversation with the news that Mom is killed? How sick is that?”

“All you ever did was complain about Mom and my wife, and Mark. You’re probably glad she is gone.”

“Mark and I will be down for Mom’s funeral, but not to see you. You treated her like shit, which she wasn’t, she came from a good family, better than yours. All you ever wanted to do was wallow in your own misery and blame others for it. You are jealous of other family members who did better than you. I hate you.”

Mack thought, he’s an ungrateful little spineless shit, not caring whether he came or not with his sniveling little family that sent out picture New Year’s cards to everyone, who probably did not give flying shit about him anyway. Mack then plunged into gleeful thought about having a new girlfriend, preferably quite young. Maybe someone in their 20s and now that hag Dottie was gone, he would be free of all encumbrances. Except he thought that a younger woman would cost him money.

“If I were there, I would slap you in the face.”

Jon hung up the phone, preferring to say nothing to someone who meant nothing to him.

Mack dozed off after they removed the body.

Jon sank into despair; he loved his mom, who stood in the way of their father’s bullying. Now that she was gone, he felt like an orphan. His father was a prick and he knew it. Maybe he had something to do with his mother’s death. Maybe he plotted the entire thing. Why didn’t he invite his mother to come with him and Judy, his wife? Judy liked her mother-in-law but not that much. But since she always was quiet and minded her own business, she was tolerable. Judy hated Mack and saw him for what he was: a selfish, narcissistic, bullying asshole. She could not comprehend how quiet and sensitive Jon was, and the psychodramatic relationship with his father.

Jon called Mark. “I have some bad news.” “No, about Mom. Sit down.”

“What?”

“Mom was killed in a home invasion. She opened the front door, and two men broke in, raped and killed her and tied Dad up to his bed, but Dad untied himself and called the police. Mom’s body was mutilated, and she was shot a bunch of times, maybe 8-10.

“I wonder why they didn’t kill him too?” Mark said.

“Don’t know. We have to go down for Mom’s funeral. Will you pick me up in your plane, and we’ll go together. Too bad Dad will be there. I’m sorry it wasn’t him instead.”

“Sure, Jon, I am devastated.” Mark loved his mother even more than Jon and a sinking feeling came to him.

IV.

Mack woke up the next day to a ringing phone.

“Mr. Bronstein, this is Detective Ron LaFarge of the Miami-Dade Police Department. We would like to come by today to ask you a few questions.”

“What for?”

“We need to know some more details about the circumstances leading to the murder of your wife and your home invasion,” said LaFarge, his voice betraying skepticism when he said, “home invasion.”

“What time,” said Mack, “I have some clients to meet.”

“We need you to make yourself available.” LaFarge had already done some questioning of neighbors, learning that most of his neighbors had had tiffs with Mack, and characterized him as a very angry man. Some of his neighbors avoided him entirely and had said that they had heard enraged confrontations between him and Dottie. Everyone sort of agreed that Mack evinced a stubbornness and denial of the perceptions of his evident personality flaws gained by Mack’s neighbors. Mack was always angry or complaining about someone or something in a tone that was filled with rage. They thought that he had shouted often at Dottie. Mack had no ability to understand the feelings of others. A sociopathic narcissist.

“How about three this afternoon?”

“Ok, said Mack, “I’ll shift my meeting around.” Actually, Mack had no meeting to go to at all. “See you at three.”

A knock on the door. Mack answered. It was 3pm. Detective LaFarge and his partner, a young woman, Shirley Grant, were at the door.

“May we come in?”

“Sure, but crime scene forensics has already gone over this place with a fine-toothed comb.” “That’s why we want to talk to you.”

Mack grew anxious. “Ok, have a seat. Do you want anything? Coffee, soda, a bagel, something stronger?”

“No thanks, Mr. Bronstein, we are good. We want to ask you how all this happened.”

“I already explained everything to the uniformed guys.”

“Well,” LaFarge continued, “we have seen some inconsistencies in your story and what the lab reported.”

“What do you mean?”

“There was no sign of forced entry and the gun, which we found on a street nearby, had your fingerprints and DNA match the bullets found in your wife’s body. We ran a check on the gun, and it was sold locally. There is no record of it belonging to anyone else, so we have to assume it was yours. We are now checking gun shops and gun shows and we think you purchased that gun. Also, none of your neighbors saw anything or anyone suspicious going on at your house that night. The knife wounds on your wife match one of your kitchen knives. You untied yourself from the bed and the duct tape came from your garage cabinet. We have no evidence that there was anyone here that night except you and Dottie.”

Mack exploded, “are you accusing me of killing my wife?”

“Yes, we are. You are under arrest.” Put your hands out so we can handcuff you.”

“You must be kidding!” Mack screamed.

“Put your hands out!”

“NO. I did not do this, we were invaded!”

LaFarge drew his gun. Mack then extended his hands, was handcuffed, and led out of his house, with the cops locking the front door.

“At least let me turn off the water heater and the air conditioning.”

Mack was put in the police car, given his Miranda warnings, and taken to the County Jail.

Meanwhile, Mark and Jonathan had arrived in Miami, and went straight to the house. Not finding their father there, called the police to be informed that their father had been arrested for homicide, and was in jail.

Mark said, “Do you think Dad could have killed Mom?”

“Dunno, he could have,” said Jon.

“He was so mean to her, shouting and bullying her. She always wanted to avoid a fight.”

“And he was always looking for one. Let’s make funeral arrangements and then go down to see Dad at the jail.”

Mark knew his father for what he was, “Let’s just do the funeral arrangements and not go. I really can do without his denials,” evincing his conviction that his father killed his mother. Jon was a thoughtful, sensitive soul, and did not want his thoughts of doubt interfere with what seemed to be overwhelming evidence.

Jon reflected a moment, “ I think we have to go down to see him and at least hear him out.” “Well, OK, but I really have no desire to see him. I think he did it,” Mark said.

The funeral director sat in his office, behind a muted plain wood desk and wore a dark blue suit with a black tie, his partly bald pate had his hair slicked with some sort of pomade across his head, making him look somewhat like he had been anointed with Elmer’s glue. The room had some pictures of green landscapes, mountains and greenery in the distance, and an azure blue unclouded sky. The office seemed a not unsubtle allusion to a peaceful transition to the afterlife. The desk had a mini-Torah scroll on it, and a gold pen set with a leather blotter. “Gentlemen, I am so sorry for your loss,” he greeted them.

“Thank you,” Jon uttered, still not fully believing his mother’s corpse was in a fridge in a nearby room.

“Let me show you the selection of caskets.”

He led them into another room and there were many polished, finished caskets, but Jon and Mark decided on a plain pine box, as the rabbi had suggested, when they had met with him a bit earlier. A cemetery plot had been purchased at a place in West Miami and the funeral was to take place in a day or so. Jon paid the funeral director, and the two bereft sons headed south to the county jail, where their father was awaiting arraignment.

“What took you so long?” Mack said upon greeting his two sons. Mack did not seem distraught, there was a certain relief in his face, almost as though nothing had happened.

“We had to make funeral arrangements. Dad, what the fuck happened?” Mark said.

“Don’t use that language with me, you are not too old to get a smack. I don’t like your tone of voice.” Mack was behind a glass wall and had to use a telephone to speak, so Jon feared not of fatherly violence, of which he had been a subject of for many years.

“Mom’s dead and that is your response?” Jon interjected. “Yeah, I know, I know.”

Don’t you care?”

“The police said they think you killed her.”

Mack sat silent, not surprised by the statements of his two ungrateful sons, upon whom he had wasted his time. “I suppose you agree with them.”

“We don’t know, “said Jon.

“I ought to smack you in the mouth.”

“Go ahead, Dad, it won’t be the first time.”

“Get out of here, you ungrateful little shits, “ Mack rose in his seat, slammed the telephone behind the glass window, and left the prisoner’s area with the guard following behind.”

The next day Jon and Mark went to see Detective LaFarge.

“We think your father killed your mother,” LaFarge said, outlining the evidence.

“I guess he needs a lawyer,” said Mark.

Walking out into the Miami heat and humidity, Jon said, “should we go back to the house?” “Yeh,” Mark responded.

“Remember when we were young, how fearful we were of Dad? I was scared shitless most of the time. I always thought he was going to hit me. He used to talk about how grandpa used to smack him around. I guess he took a page from grandpa’s playbook.”

“You think?” said Mark. “He used to hit me all the time. It was like living with an animal trainer.

“I couldn’t wait to get out of there. Mom was so fearful of him also, I don’t know how she put up with him.”

“And now she’s dead, probably because of him, or some enemy he made. She was not courageous enough to do the right thing for herself. Abused people live in fear and I blame myself for not pushing her to leave,” said Jon.

“I can’t really wrap my head around it.”

“Why did she stay with him?”

“Why do you think? Because of us. Or maybe she was happier not rocking the boat, or out of fear.” Jon was not sure, and his insides were roiling. He called his therapist, who clearly observed Jon’s ambivalence towards his now dead mother. Jon felt like his insides were turning out, exacerbating his already abused, depressed psyche. “I’m pooped, let’s go get some lunch.”

They went to a nearby IHOP. The IHOP was a run-down dive. People sat around waiting for one waitress who never seemed to appear. The windows were clouded with a grey film of exterior dirt, and the tables had Formica rimmed with crenelated steel. It was crowded but so noisy that one could not hear conversation at the next booth. The waitress finally appeared, wearing a striped dress and white apron, slightly stained by coffee. “Hi boys, what will we have today?”

“Coffee, eggs, over light and bacon,” Mark responded. “What are you having?” Jon grimaced. “Wha,” she said. “Well, you said we,” Mark said. She frowned. Jon Grimaced at Mark’s sarcasm, which completely went over the waitress’ head.

“Me too,” said Jon. The waitress, doughty and about 60 years of age, said, “OK, back in a jif.” “She’s going to spit in your egg,” Jon murmured.

She slowly waddled off, and clearly the years carrying food weighed heavily upon her as she weaved through the tables, none of which looked very clean. Her wrinkled, ruddy face revealed thinly veiled despair. A desperate life, trapped in a job she of which she had had enough. All around, overweight customers consumed large breakfasts of eggs, pancakes, with faux maple syrup, muffins and food not worth the calories. It was a scene of middle America, flyover country right in North Miami Beach, thought Jon. It was one of Mack’s favorite restaurants. Mark was indifferent. But he did remember going often with his dad and mom, and his father usually having a dispute with someone at the next table or arguing about the service or the check.

“Mark, how scared were you of Dad?”

“Not that much, but I think you were. He did slap me around, though.”

“I was very fearful.” Jon said. “ I never knew how he was going to react. His fights with my teachers. His dislikes of girls I was dating, his always glaring disapprovals of anything I did. I never really knew how to handle him; he was always angry. He always seemed to have some comment of disapproval. I don’t know why, but I was such a wimp where he was concerned. There were so many times I wanted to step in when he was abusing or arguing with Mom. I guess I took after her and didn’t want the confrontation. I should have been more assertive.”

Mark looked at Jon, “Assertive? I think you should have told him fuck off. You know, you should not have given into him so easily on things that were important to you. Like not inviting people to your wedding who you cared about because he gave you an ultimatum. What was with that ‘him or me’ bullshit? It was so manipulative. Dad always was always pissed off one way or another. That’s why your wife doesn’t talk to him. And now you are mad at yourself, because you thought you abandoned Mom, but she could have made choices on her own, you know. The two of them were suited for one another, even though they did not realize it.

“Mark, you’re so cold and calculating.” “Just realistic, and I feel for you, brother.”

“I coped differently,” continued Mark, “I don’t wish him to die, but I can’t say I would shed any tears at his funeral. He really is a son of a bitch. I remember grandpa was a mean old fucker too, who used to slap him around. Never saw him crack a smile. And what about uncle Bart, the dermatologist? Dad hasn’t spoken to him for 40 years because of some twisted competition about Dad’s resentment that Bart did not give enough money to help grandpa and grandma. I spoke to Bart, and he spun a different story. Dad was just jealous that Bart was more financially successful than he was. Bart never got approval and was happy not to have Dad in his life. It was all about money. The sooner I got out of that house the better it was for me. I could not have lived far enough away. And what about Mom? He treated her like shit. I can’t believe she stayed with him.”

“She made her choice. Even detesting him she stayed, because she feared the outside world, or was indifferent to it. Her personality was stilted and narrow.”

Jon listened and knew that Mark was telling the truth.

“Now she’s dead and he probably had her killed, or he did it himself.” Mark said.

“We have no proof of that.”

“The police think so.”

“I don’t know who would stand up for him. I certainly won’t, I hate him. And in a way I hate her for not standing up for herself.”

“But she always put us first..”

“She just let things lie, she didn’t want to confront him. He was too much of a shit. And now she’s dead probably because of him but we don’t know that for sure.” Jon shed a tear but Mark did not.

“I didn’t want her to sacrifice for me, but still, she made her own bed, but I haven’t figured it out. It should have been horrible for her, but I’m not certain that it was. She had coping skills, almost robotic, that allowed her to stay in Dad’s crucible. I watched her at the dining room table, always grading papers for hours, in order to avoid talking to him.

She had cousins who was always nice to her, and she never even picked up the phone to say hello to any of them. She had become even more of a recluse than she had been all her life. I think she liked being alone and he proof is, she had no friends. And Dad cut off family members from her. She had no spine, and neither did I,” Jon lamented.

“Let’s go to the house and rest. I am so fucking tired,” Mark said. They drove up upper Biscayne Boulevard, a charmless exaggeration of every middle American city, its palm tree sections

interrupted by the insipid gentrification of most of the commercial streets in America, yet still Floridian, with palm tree and vegetation in some few areas that challenged the constant stream of big box stores. They arrived at the house of their now dead mother and jailed father and slept 10 hours.

Mack did not particularly enjoy his residence in the county jail, among those who resembled him more than he could discern. Now in his late 60s, could not physically threaten anyone and feared for his own self. He called the house, Jon answered.

“You need to get me out of here.”

“I have no control until the arraignment,” Jon responded. “Have you called any lawyers?”

“Yes, and they all want 25 grand to take you on. “What do you mean, you have a good job.” “Sorry.”

“Let me speak to Mark,” Mack screamed.

“Hold on.”

I don’t have the cash.”

Mark got on the phone. “Hey.”

“Jon says he does not have the money for a lawyer, I’ll pay him back. What about you?’

“You killed Mom. I wouldn’t put up a red cent for you. Get a public defender, and don’t expect any help from me.”

“You ungrateful shit. Fuck you.”

“Fuck you right back,

“I hope they put you away for life.” Mark slammed the phone so hard it cracked.

Arraignments in Florida are pretty brief.

“Florida v. Bronstein. Case No. 18-3637. Will the Defendant please step forward.”

Mack stood up, his public defender beside him.

“How do you plead?”

“Not guilty.”

The prosecutor, a young woman, Shirley Brown, said, “Your honor, the Defendant is an ill- tempered flight risk. He has considerable funds, probably hidden, and has no reason to stay around for trial. His sons have not offered to assist in his defense and have indicated no interest in helping him. In fact, they have expressed doubts about his innocence during police interviews. They are not in town.”

The public defender, Jack Harkness, barely out of law school, said, “Your honor, the defendant is a member of the Florida Bar, has never had any prior issues and we would request release on his own recognizance.”

“Your honor, this is a heinous murder, and all the evidence points to the defendant,” Brown responded.

“Bail is set at $3,000,000.” The judge banged the gavel.

Mack, not having the resources to post bail, was returned to his cell.

Neither son attended the arraignment, nor the did they contribute for an attorney. Finally, as Mack would have it, he was on his own. Three months later, he was tried in front of a mostly female jury, including four African American women on the charge of first-degree murder. Mack had fired his public defender, calling him incompetent, conducted his own defense, figuring he could indirectly testify without being cross examined.

Mack was convicted.

At sentencing, Mack showed no remorse, no one showed up to speak in his behalf, and he received a sentence of death by lethal injection. Mack, who had supported the right-wing governor, appealed to the governor but received no clemency. Mack’s confusion as to how he was denied life, was compounded by the fact that he had given the governor a $10,000 campaign contribution, confounding his understanding of his imagination of “how the system was rigged.”

As Jon had left Miami, he saw how the city had changed. The new towers, the cars speeding and honking, the new crowds in his old neighborhood. The manicured lawns and people saying hi to him as he left. It did not seem that any were unhappy that Mack was in jail. Most were indifferent about Dottie also. He was glad he no longer lived in his neighborhood.

Jon went home to Philadelphia, to his wife, Judy, suffering pangs of guilt about how he did not help his father.

“Judy, did I do the right thing on turning my back on my father?”

“I don’t know, Jon, he certainly mistreated you. But are you sure he is guilty?”

“Well, I talked to the police, but they were so certain. They had all the evidence, the DNA, the gun, the knife, the crime lab stuff. He certainly was a very angry and violent man. He fought with everyone, and everybody disliked him, including me and even you. You know how he treated you and why you never wanted to visit. And I understood your reasons. They were valid. I just can’t wrap my head around what has happened. My mother did not deserve to die such a grisly death.”

Jon called Mark, who had earned a good deal of money in tech and did not seem at all displeased with the result.

“The prick got what he deserved. He never did anything for anyone and treated us and Mom like shit. How many times do I have to tell you? He was toxic, and I have no feelings except to say I am glad I will never see him again.”

“Come on Mark, that’s so heartless.”

“Jon, he was not a true father, he was an asshole, and the sooner you come to terms with that, the easier it will be for you. I don’t want him to die, but if they give him life without parole, I’m good. And if he dies, I’ll piss on his grave.”

“Mark, you need to see a therapist.”

“No, Jon, I’m fine. It’s you who needs the therapist. Dad really fucked you up.” “Ok Mark, I understand.”

Jon was always more forgiving, more empathetic, more tolerant, more understanding of his father, Mark thought, and I guess it’s a good quality to have, but it turned him into something less than he could have been.

TEN YEARS LATER

Mack’s appeals to all the courts were exhausted, including to the Supreme Court of the United States. Mack had supported in words and voice all of the conservative justices who refused to commute his sentence.

The guard approached Mack’s death row cell door and said “it’s time.” Mack complained that the last meal was not up to his expectations. He had wanted a corned beef sandwich from Katz’s delicatessen flown in from New York. Instead, he got an overcooked steak, fried eggs and ice cream.

Mack, all the while, protesting his innocence was led to the death chamber, strapped to a gurney, and the needle inserted into his arm. Mark and Jon did not attend. The only witness from the family was his cousin Daniel, still seeking a last word of forgiveness from his cousin.

MV 2021

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 03:25:00 GMT

9.21.21

Martha’s Vineyard is lovely in mid-September. The evenings are cool, yet still comfortable outside, dining in a short-sleeved shirt. We are staying at a house that occupies a prominence of land over the ocean, and the vegetation is still green, scruffy salt-resistant growths that do not resemble their Floridian cousins. The plants do not grow high enough to obscure the view of the sea on this little tip of the western part of the island. The roads are all two lane and there are no traffic lights anywhere. Stop signs govern the passage of traffic, most of which must obey a speed limit of 30 miles per hour. Cyclists further inhibit the time in which it takes to get to Edgartown, the largest village on the Vineyard 25 miles away. Part of our trip there includes a trek down a gravely, ungraded road that tortures the suspension of any car. But it Is worth it.

Sitting out on the terrace of this house makes me contemplate the different culture here of the inhabitants, mostly affluent deserters of New York and Boston. Edgartown is a Disneyfied collage of gingerbread houses, dating from the 17th and 18th centuries, carefully maintained, curated, and restored. Some of it seems to be unreal in its reality, like some Hollywood set prepared for a screwball Katherine Hepburn-Cary Grant rom-com. The stores and restaurants exude a come hither feeling for crustacean-stuffed inside some super fattening butter rolls.

There are no streetlights on the roads, which host nearby trees that one slip of the wheel could kill. Still, the charm although a bit over the top, beckons one to return. With all its preserved authenticity, it seems surreal and almost disingenuous. Even so, there is no crime to speak of, because thieves would have to take the ferry to escape. Not very practical.

Being here helps to not consider all the problems of America. A rogue who wishes to destroy the rule of law, his enablers in the House and Senate who support his maledictions, and state governors and legislators, who, mounting an outrageous attack upon the franchise of the poor and the uneducated by exploiting the ignorance of their base whose attention span and literacy have now vanished into a fetid sea of social media, populism and tribal feuds, a divisive porridge of animosity, exacerbated by demagoguery. Here, on the Vineyard, it all seems so remote.

I am wondering how this all will end just as those who, in 1860, saw the Union, a house divided, tumbling into a sanguinary Civil war ripping the nation to shreds. Nations are born and die on a rule of law, designed to temper the passions of tribally impulsive inclinations, many of which are genetically violent. Our history is replete with demagogues preying upon the people for their own benefit, enabled by economic hard times and changes in technology.

The old trope of being condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past, is verified by the numerous wars and adventures culminating in failure since the end of World War II. I am not sure that the American public any longer has the capacity to understand the world around them. When so many can believe that suppressing the vote will make the Union better, will provide more democracy, will ensure a better life and keep America white, nationalist and tribal, then we are in for a rough ride indeed. If the Confederacy had won the “war between the states,” what would have been the result? Two nations? One red and one blue? Isn’t that what we have now? Would there have been a civil rights movement in the Confederacy?

Was that bloody war killing 700,000 Americans necessary? While our culture is evolving (for the better), some would argue, not that much. Think about it. A southern confederacy of states based upon slavery existed, at least longer than it should have, and a northern industrial behemoth, outstripping it, also based on divisive wealth and inequality prevailed over a southern agricultural economy, the industry of which was supplying cotton to the mills of the north and to Europe, the upper classes of which profited from slavery in the south and economic servitude in the north. Would that have changed if the Confederacy had survived?

Alternative histories as much as what really happened, are philosophical/political speculations, but they are instructive.

Philip Roth, in his prescient novel, “The Plot Against America” speculates what would have happened if Charles Lindbergh, a Germanophilic, racist Nazi sympathizer had been elected president in 1940, defeating FDR. Jewish boys are sent to work camps, and a rabbi who thinks that he will win personal and political advancement, mistakes patronization and manipulation by Lindberg to him, in order to convince the Jewish community to support Charles Lindbergh. An ironical rabbinic dupe, who through his gullibility misleads his kin into a maelstrom of deceit. At least he was just stupid, not a sociopathic liar. Well, that is for another time.

Now it is time to leave this splendid island and return to Miami Beach the other island in my life, it being filled with diversity, excitement, and at my stage of the game hopefully a better year than last.

A Halloween Scare

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 03:01:00 GMT

The election is coming, and I am frightened, yet hoping our nation will pass through this macabre dance with lies and propagandists on social media and right-wing news networks that have gone a long way to prove that telling a lie often enough makes it the truth.

Never, during my lifetime, have I seen such rampant, angry, cultural division in this nation. Never have I seen such demagoguery and hatred. Ginned up not only by extremist media, but a rogue former president, and a crew of cowardly congressional consenters. These are not mere policy differences.

I cannot, for the life of me, understand how the great arsenal of democracy, martialing its mammoth industrial might, fighting the odious tyranny of Nazidom, the cold war oppression of Stalinism, sacrificing the flower of its youth in two sanguinary world wars and an even bloodier civil war, could now fall victim to scoundrels whose only objectives are power based on the exploitation of the darker aspects of human nature and who now deny the validity of the most closely monitored election in the nation’s history. The big lie.

We have come through a great pandemic; the miracle of medical research has saved millions of lives. We are entering a period of exponential technological change, though frightening, that promises to save the planet from the worst outcomes of human despoliation. Humanity will inevitably triumph. Technology will improve human existence; it always has, even though it has often caused displacement, economic tribulation, and fear. Even if it is true that life must be a class struggle, as Marx wrote--class warfare, the arc of history has bent toward justice, as Dr. King said.

If human nature causes the remnants of tribalism and reptilian self-preservation to abnegate a more diverse and tolerant society, then the normative, civilized forward motion of society, the rule of law, means nothing. If this is true, then hope dims. Society is destined to a dark Trumpian dystopia. “I have got mine, so fuck the rest of you.” Let the rule of the jungle prevail. Every man for himself. This is not what the founding fathers intended. Even though the curse of slavery was baked into our constitution, this is not what they intended. They intended the Union to become more perfect. They knew it was not perfect—it was a compromise. But they hoped that it could move toward more perfection.

Even so, different factions militate to preserve their identity, fearing a loss of self, a “replacement” by those they think less worthy. What is that identity? How does it differentiate us from one another? Cultish religiosity and white supremacy that seeks to impose its rules on others, selfishly assuming that one culture is better than another? Human DNA is all the same. Differences in education and in societal norms are what separate us from beasts. Human sociology confirms this premise. Some believe that theology is the curse of mankind, others believe it is the salvation. The state has no place in this debate.

Ignorance is the seed of prejudice, education the seed of tolerance. But perhaps not always, some say, many educated Germans, the nation of Schiller, Wagner and Beethoven gave us Himmler and Heydrich. But that was an education based on lies—geared upon the debasement of human fellows—a grotesque version of Eugenics. Education perverted by lies is not education This behavior is true today of those who feed the public misinformation.

The norms of society rather than the capricious rule of men are what holds us above the savage beast. It is not just the written law, it is the understanding and compassion of society that makes it validate our existence as anything other than debased. Diminishing societal norms of decency and tolerance threaten our freedom.

Attaching oneself to convenient untruths often provides a path to power at the expense of the less entitled. Something about that resonates today, although institutional anti-Semitism in the 1930s and 1940s, for example, went hand in hand with the racist Jim Crow south. The United States abrogated open immigration in 1924. Before that almost anyone could come, and in coming, helped build the colossus of America—the railroads, the steel mills, the automobile and an ideal that America was exceptional. That reality is still true, if we let it be, moving the arc of history to the better. If the “evil that men do lives after them and the good is oft interred with their bones,” as Mark Antony cynically said in his eulogy to Caesar, then we are obliged as a society to make that not happen. We must strive to make the good live after us.

Somehow, I want to believe that we will come through, as “Americans will always do the right thing, after all other possibilities are exhausted,” attributed to either Abba Eban or Winston Churchill, take your pick.

But I still am frightened, in fact, scared stiff.

Embryos, Fetuses and Babies

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 01:57:00 GMT

American exceptionality does not apply to a woman’s right to choose, except in the most negative of interpretations. The Western Democracies have basically settled this issue, and for the last 50 years we thought we had overcome this contentious pinata.

If one believes that life begins at conception, the basic argument of the pro-life lobby, then abortion is a sin, an evil, a killing of a potential human being having no choice in the matter. This being will never exist, will never see the light of day, the first suckling of their mother’s breast, their first kiss, their first ball catch, their first love, the warmth of a fireplace, the gentle fall of rain from the heavens. That life has been snuffed out for eternity.

If you believe that life begins at viability, 28 weeks as delineated in Roe v. Wade, that a woman is entitled to her own choice concerning an unwanted pregnancy, or whose life is at stake, or that the social implications of back-alley abortions outweigh their moral opprobrium, then Roe should be upheld. Poor and disadvantaged, mostly minority women, will be forced to carry a baby to term, even if she is raped, even if the father is absent, even if she cannot afford to put food on the table or milk in the bottle because enraged political tribes, advocating freedom from government, following a distorted social polemic, wish the government to impose carrying a child to term, unwanted, uncared for, and unfed.

The magnitude of the political implications of the decision have been going round and round for 50 years. Jurists agonize whether the constitution specifies a right to privacy, and whether that right is an “emanation from the penumbra” of it. Valid legal arguments exist on both sides of the issue. And the constitution really is what the Supreme Court of the United States says it is, evolving, textual, or original. As I listened to the arguments advanced by both sides, I was happy that I was not going to decide. No matter the decision, a large portion of the population will vociferously disagree, and like, Donald Trump, will stick around like some enraged toxic cement. Analyzing federalism as a determinant of a woman being able to choose whether to abort early on seems like intellectual masturbation. Both sides present valid legal arguments as we know that the decision will be based on the faux sanctimony of the justices own beliefs, just as it was in Plessy v. Ferguson or in Dred Scott depriving rights, rather than conferring them, as in Brown v. Board of Education, noting that “separate but equal being inherently unequal.”

Clearly, the right answer is illusive and equally clear will be the consequences if Roe is overturned or eroded, or incrementally chipped away. Poor people living in the former confederate states, for the most part will be deprived of the rights set forth in Roe; economically comfortable people will fly to a blue state to get an abortion.

Ross Douthat, of the New York Times argues that laws preventing abortions have resulted in fewer abortions, buttressing his conventional arguments, that killing an embryo is the killing of a human organism and that women can still find work if they persevere despite childbearing, but mentions nothing about the state providing sustenance for unwanted babies. This agrees with most GOP legislators, be they from Alabama, Mississippi, or Texas. And do not forget our former president, although heaven knows how many abortions he financed.

Meanwhile Republicans in Congress, still believe that children can carry guns, semi-automatic rifles and large ammo clips to shoot up their schools, kill their classmates, reaping the harvest of death that pro-life advocates decry, with no regard for the social consequences that the prohibitions will evoke.

The rest of the world, except some authoritarian states in the Mid-East, laugh at the cognitive dissonance of our political class, including a supposedly apolitical Supreme Court of the United States.

We need term limits of 18 years on Supreme Court Justices, and in that way, each President will get two choices for a new Justice, consequently the Stonewalling of a nominee will become more difficult. And Congress should codify national abortion rights, as most of the public favors those rights, despite what they think in Mississippi, Texas and Alabama.

How did this happen?

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 01:54:00 GMT

“No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American Public”

- H. L. Mencken

The end is near; Trump is exiting stage right in an ignominious testament to greed, narcissism, mendacity and ignorance. The very idea of this Richard III presidency is something I have been trying to figure out for the past 4 years. The enigma is a mystery, wrapped inside a riddle, as the Winston Churchill coinage goes.

Arguments range from Trump preying on the gullibility of the American public, to the intense rationalization that he was even able to convince intelligent people that he would “drain the swamp,” and clean up the fetid mess of corruption that is Washington, DC, a slog of lobbyists in Gucci loafers and congressmen in a never-ending rotating door, stuffing their pockets with cash in brown envelopes at the expense of the taxpayer. Also, “job creating” plutocrats thinking Trump would improve their portfolios, keeping the stock market high and their taxes low. Only 20% of Americans own stocks.

The grift continues, Trump having raised hundreds of millions of dollars, ostensibly for a 2024 run, but which will certainly be diverted to his legal defense as he is pursued by numerous district attorneys, the justice department, and attorneys general. Not to mention his multitudinous oligarchical Deutche Bank creditors in Russia (Putin) and Saudi Arabia. And let’s not forget the rape and defamation suits by various women such as E. Jean Carol.

This week, a mob of insurrectionists invaded the Capitol, believing the lies promulgated by Trump, nakedly at a podium, lying to them, that he would march along with them toward the palace of our republic. Instead, he got into his hermetically sealed limo and skulked back to the White House to view the spectacle he had created and delighted in viewing an enraged mob ransacking the place. Trump probably entered nirvana when one of the invaders sat with his feet up on Nancy Pelosi’s desk, almost like his voyeuristic leering at the disrobed Miss Universe contestants in their dressing room.

While CNN pundits screeched outrage, “treason and sedition,” Laura Ingraham’s pallid, raspy imitation of Tallulah Bankhead’s voice discussed how the Democrats were trying to impeach Trump “never having given him the benefit of the doubt,” saying nothing about the desecration of the Capitol which Abraham Lincoln rushed to complete during the Civil War, emphasizing the strength of the Union. Where Franklin D. Roosevelt requested a declaration of war upon Japan on December 8, 1941. Where Winston Churchill spoke during a joint session of congress in December 1941, shortly after the United States entered the war against Germany and Japan. Where Woodrow Wilson advocated for the League of Nations after the bloodletting of World War I. Where Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, John Lewis, and other great statesman had lain in state. Our historic Capitol, the seat of our government, the triumph of our democracy, where notables, and the framers enjoy memorialization and statuary, invaded by a mob of rabid rioters stoked by a deranged and deluded president, falsely alleging the election had been stolen.

Earlier, Ted Cruz, described as a “serpent covered in Vaseline,” and Josh Hawley, his fist held mob-high, disgraced themselves, turning a ceremonial procedure registering the electoral votes, to their own political benefit, sending fund raising emails. History will not look kindly upon this sordid spectacle. They should apologize and resign.

We saw Lindsey Graham, jumping over the side of the sinking Titanic, pushing women and children out of the way, securing his seat on the lifeboat. This, after his demonstrated hypocrisy during the Merick Garland episode, the about face on Amy Barrett, and two switches from Trump denigrator to admirer. Calling Graham a prostitute insults the world’s oldest profession. The power-hungry Mitch McConnell, now minority leader, forgive the cliché, had also sowed the wind and now reaps the whirlwind. His enablement of Trump over the last four years will not sit well with historians, excepting perhaps the example of how power corrupts.

Responsibility for this abounds. Fox news hosts and Rupert Murdoch have contributed mightily to the lying and false narrative presented to the public. News used to be a nonprofit enterprise of the major networks, CBS, NBC and ABC, presented as a public service, now transmogrified into a greedy crucible determined by marketers and audience demographics. Ratings avarice on Tucker and Laura and Hannity clearly do not help our country. Orwellian presentation of the news divides the public and shames its progenitors.

Republican house members now see their ranks riven with mutual accusations of who bears the burden for the nation’s disheartening catastrophe. A split of Republicans of principle and those of amoral self-interest dwells on the horizon. Elected acolytes of Trumpian amorality should know that their day of reckoning has arrived.

The Runaway Train

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 00:28:00 GMT

Been wondering lately about all the haters, negativists, half-baked opinionators, talking heads of whom I have become wretchedly weary in these days of almost post pandemic and post Trumpian cauchemars.

Been thinking about the early days of the Republic when there were no restrictions on immigration. Actually, immigration was uncontrolled until 1921. Whoever wanted to come could. They faced sweatshops, unrestricted child labor, and unremitting social Darwinism. These immigrants, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Greek, German, and others all were white, and mostly able to read and write, enjoyed stable family structures upon which to build a semblance of a free life. Let them come again, but they stood on the shoulders of those who came before.

They, and the backs of slaves built this country. “Manifest destiny” was a euphemism for stealing land from native Americans and Mexicans. Although whites faced discrimination, they did not inherit the bones of Jim Crow as is manifested still by those who oppose the teaching of “critical race theory,” falsely claiming that it is teaching blacks to be racists, to hate whites. This is simply a bold-faced lie as wretched as the lie that that the capitol insurrection was “just a small riot,” as averred by such “patriots” as Ron Johnson, Ted Cruz and Marjorie Taylor Greene, all of whom supported the big lie and charge Democrat racism based upon a rejection of historical fact.

African American immigrants arrived in slave ships, were sold into bondage, their families separated by slavers, who sold children, mothers, sons and fathers to different masters. This stain on our history is comparable to the most unspeakable of human crimes. This grotesque history belies the premise that “all men are created equal.”

Now we are engaged in a possible transmogrification of our republic to a frightfully totalitarian dystopia, having a large portion of the population actually believing the ravings of a demented madman, that the election of 2020 was stolen from him, undermining the essential character of our Republic—free and fair elections. GOP efforts abound in Republican legislatures to suppress the vote with restrictions aimed at minorities.

When President Biden met Mr. Putin this week in Geneva, Putin shamelessly argued the false equivalence that the insurrection at our capitol, killing 5, trying to send even lickspittle Mike Pence to be hanged, wounding others and threatening senators with death if they did not overturn the will of the people by returning Trump to the White House.

Illustratively, Putin’s imprisonment of a political opponent he had poisoned unsuccessfully, successfully murdering other opponents, we see “How Democracies Die,” as the noted political historian Timothy Snyder of Yale has written. The big lie is happening here, just as in Putin’s Russia.

It is not only the rule of law that protects us, but also the respect for the norms of democracy that bind us together. Think about Weimar Germany and the rise of Hitler, who was democratically elected but incrementally turned the nation of Beethoven, Schiller, and Wagner to a nation of hate and murderous rage against helpless men, women and children.

Leadership matters, as Philip Roth documented in his monumental work, “The Plot Against America,” wherein a Nazi sympathizing Charles Lindbergh becomes President of the United States defeating Franklin Roosevelt, resulting in totalitarian overtones of fascism, sending Jewish children to workcamps.

The question that must be asked of all thinking people of whatever caste or persuasion, whatever socio-economic status, is what they would do to prevent an economic and political catastrophe or which policies would best serve our nation. Certainly, Mitch McConnell sees none, his Machiavellian breast to argue in the next election that Biden “did nothing.” Democrats must deliver, abolish the filibuster, before it is too late. Use the power now, because it is fleeting.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Lincoln famously said.

We fell into a bloody civil war. Brother against brother, father against son, families torn asunder, a war killing more than 700,000 on the bloody battlefields of Antietam, Manassas, Gettysburg and Chattanooga, among others.

And if we look back, this war took from 1787 until 1860 to develop. The original three fifths compromise, the Missouri compromise, the Kansas-Nebraska act. All attempts to place a band aid over gangrene. We face far greater challenges than how states would be admitted to the Union; we face a changing climate, international competition, rising authoritarianism, and we are anxious, depressed. Jim Crow is alive, still .

If, however, identity politics caused wars, it was the economic causes engendered by religion and prejudice that lit the fire. This tribal notion of “others” stealing our homes, our dignity and our fortunes certainly caused more war than religious disputes alone. These two shibboleths are inherent in the human psyche. Identity politics is the bête noir of society. Until we have overcome these demons there will be no peace. But the bad news is that cultures change very slowly; we are in a culture infused war both internally and worldwide.

One thing for sure, stilted propaganda TV is not helpful. And we are not even sure that education makes a difference. People may not agree on policy, but if they cannot agree that the sun shines during the day, we are on a runaway train without Denzel Washington to put on the brakes.

A Universe of Chaos

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 00:23:00 GMT

This past week, my grandson’s close friend and fraternity brother at U Chicago was shot in the neck by a stray bullet, while riding the L from a summer internship in downtown Chicago. A random bullet severed his cervical spinal column. Rushed to the hospital, placed on a ventilator, his family asked him to blink if he wanted to remain on life support. He was alert and his mother, herself a physician, told him he would not be able to eat, talk, or breathe off a ventilator. He responded that if he had to live that way, pull the plug. A rising junior at a solid institution, died a meaningless death.

Recently, a condominium collapsed not far from my home burying alive around 150 people whist they slept. Some of them were religious Jews who probably said a prayer to God before bedtime; some were secular or religious Christians who also said their nightly prayer.

Some of those people attended daily religious services, hoping their prayers would be answered. A friend of mine, deeply religious said she would “pray for them.”

The first hurricane of the season has passed by Miami; part of an insensitive, uncaring universe, surrounding us in a web of uncertainty. The hurricane will do damage elsewhere, nature randomly choosing another unfortunate destination. People will pray that it does not hit their location, that it goes elsewhere. But aren’t they indirectly praying that other people suffer instead of themselves?

If you are a deist, you believe that a force greater than yourself has created a mountain of chaos—the universe where there is no predestination, no plan, only a random lottery that determines where we are born, where our supposed choices take us, what sort of government will govern us, how we do not really understand the choices we make. Like the man who walks down the sidewalk, a plant pot drops from a window above, killing him, or just misses because he has passed by a moment earlier. By some accident of biology, we are born, fortunately not in Afghanistan.

Religion offers comfort to those who believe that prayer will cohere friends around them, and the habit of observing primitive dietary rules will cement their beliefs to a ritual that will strengthen their tribe. Catholics eat fish on Friday and a biscuit that represents the body of Christ. Jews will not eat pork or shrimp or mix meat and dairy, because of rules set forth in a Bronze age text of unknown authorship. Muslims will not eat pork. People belonging to organized religious groups thank whatever god they pray to will answer their prayers which are essentially selfish desires to make them stronger, to be protected in war, for victory over the enemy, to survive disease, to have the courage to move on or to be charitable, to help others, to give them a sense of community. Or does it create a parochialism that either anathematizes them to other communities, makes them different, or a likely scapegoat for people in other tribes? When disaster strikes, they achieve solace in thanking God for sparing them. If they die, loved ones say prayers to strengthen their own resilience.

Does this delusion really create order in a chaotic world?

If one argues about the survival of Jews, one could conclude that Judaism survived as a result of extraneous hate which prevented them from owning property or land, caused them to become moneylenders because the Church prohibited Christians from charging interest on loans to other Christians. Therefore, Jews were the only ones who could do so, ergo the perverse anti-Semitic trope that Jews were greedy merchants of finance.

I wonder how many people in the Champlain towers said prayers before going to sleep, how many Jewish children of the two million murdered during the Holocaust said “shema Yisrael,” before being gassed to death, incinerated by unspeakably evil people who had been indoctrinated to believe that those children were subhuman rodents--it was their duty to exterminate them. Those Nazis followed their own religion, that of a murderous cult. They did not evolve quickly; their religious indoctrination having followed 2000 years of church liturgy that said Jews were Christ killers, using the blood of Christian children to bake Matzos on Passover. Generations of Jews guilty of the death of Christ, himself born a Jew and dying a Jew. One cannot argue with the cult of Trump. It has become its own abandonment of reason, its own religion. His adherents believe his lies and attend his rallies as though they were a religious service. Jewish Zealots believe that God gave them the land of Judea and Samaria, when it was the British and French promising the and to two disparate peoples at the dissolution of the Ottoman empire which had ruled the land for centuries. The Ottomans picked the wrong side in the First World War. One cannot argue with religion.

Human moral codes historically evolved before religion; polytheistic religions were certainly more tolerant than monotheistic, the latter of which is responsible for the a priori negation of other faiths. Organized religion only evolved in the last 5000 years, on the evolutionary scale, an instant, on a geologic scale, a millisecond. The Earth is 4.5 billion years old. Yet during those 5000 years, it provided the justification for war, pogroms, crusades, charlatans, false prophets, and flocks of lemmings abandoning their sense of reason to hate others.

Granted, religion also aspires for people to be good, love thy neighbor, but has it succeeded? Evangelicals made a Faustian deal with a scoundrel and grifter, because they believed he would appoint a Supreme Court that would enforce an abnegation of the Founder’s strictures of separation of church and state, and that more of the country would join their megachurches, hypnotizing their congregations, compelling the flock to give the preacher a bigger house and a Rolex. Politicians fixated on these beliefs, unctuously cater to these fantasies so they can win elections. They do not understand the framer’s intent: Freedom from religion. Ergo, the thriving of religion in this nation, and aspirational tolerance of others. No state religion.

Elites like the brilliant Alexander Hamilton, thought that the common people were not able to govern themselves or devise our financial system, so he did it himself. He did not believe that some supernatural force would do it for him. Nor did he believe that evil would be dispelled by prayer.

Thomas Jefferson said to keep the preachers away from politics. Jefferson understood human frailty and, for his time, thought that the people should govern themselves, but God should be left to theologians, not politicians; the theologians would keep the illiterate masses quiet, including his slaves.

Abraham Lincoln never mentioned the trinity, and some people thought he was a Jew. He was not, but he invoked God in many of his speeches; perhaps he understood that his countrymen were not yet ready to liberate themselves from superstition so biblical allusions provoked loyalty in constituents or contributed profundity to his utterances. Or perhaps he was a deist as many at the time accused him.

Religion is an excellent germination point for hypocrisy; giving those who profess it the opportunity to manipulate the flock, to incite people not to think for themselves or develop their own philosophy of life. That is--to think for themselves. They demagogy of theology.

As science advances exponentially, religion has become more and more irrelevant, more difficult to reconcile with reality. A majority of young people today do not attend religious services. They engage in the new religions of Sports, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tinder. They seek meaning in a life that many find meaningless.

National Security Counsel Meeting

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 08:32:19 GMT

TRUMP: All right guys; let's get this meeting to order.

BANNON: Mr. President, aren't you going to take off your bathrobe?

FLYNN It's true, Mr. President, I know you are stressed out over those fuzzy headed judges icing your travel ban, but as commander in chief, it does not look very appropriate. You should be wearing a Marine Corps uniform to show strength.

TRUMP: If you have a problem with my bathrobe, Mike , I can fire you. Civilians control the military, remember? I am not a fascist, even though they say so on MSNBC. We don't need you here anyway. Who wants to listen to your opinions about Putin? I'm beginning to think that he is not as good a friend as I thought. He wants too big a cut on the division of the Arctic drilling rights. I know he has sent troops there in skis to check out the minerals and oil. We need to send a battalion up there to protect the new Trump oil company that my sons are organizing. And By the way, your dealing with the Russians without me is a no no. The next time you pull that crap you are out of here. Understand?

BANNON: Listen, Don, I mean, Mr. President. We need to concentrate on the radical Islamic threat to our country. After all the terrorists who have struck here represent a clear and present danger to our world. And all those children from Syria who were gassed by Assad all could be potential terrorists. Plus the democrats are planning demonstrations all over the country at town halls. We need to put a stop to that. Those damned judges interfering with my world view--Why don't you tweet about that?

TRUMP: Well, there is no danger coming from the countries where I have business dealings, like Saudi Arabia or Egypt, is there? After all I went through all that trouble with the left wing dishonest press and all those Senators asking to see about my investments and tax returns. It could have cost me the election. Already we are losing money at my golf clubs and hotels. People are boycotting Trump Steaks and Ivanka was ditched by those greedy bastards at Nordstrom's because they said her line was not selling. Can you imagine how embarrassing it will be to find her product at Nordstrom's rack or TJ Maxx at a steep discount when all those foreign dignitaries and heads of state bought retail plus 30% dresses and makeup at the hotel boutique? I mean they like bargains also.

GENERAL MATTIS: Mr. President, seriously we have to consider what North Korea is doing and try to convince the Chinese to reign them in. They are working on a missile that could reach LA or San Francisco.

TRUMP: Listen, Mad Dog, I am leaving that to you. All those illegal voters in CALIFORNIA who did not vote for me are not my concern. This drop in revenue is harming the Trump Organization. They even don't want me to come to the UK to visit my Scottish golf course. I put in those plaster of Paris statues in front and those unappreciative Scots say it is tacky. They cost me a fortune. So unfair. And now the GSA is going to try to negotiate a higher priced lease on the DC hotel. I may have to fire the administrator and put someone there that will not treat my sons so unfairly. Maybe I will send out a tweet about it.

FLYNN: Mr. President, can we concentrate on the Islamic threat? What can we do more than Obama did, by smoking all those leaders with drone strikes? We have to show we are strong and by aligning ourselves with Putin will insure that we win.

TRUMP: Listen Mike, I told you to pipe down. Those video fliers in Nevada are really good at remote control bombing. I think if I could just use some of that technology in my casinos we would not have gone broke. Plus I have an idea for a new Trump video game called, "Let's Nuke 'em." Should be a best seller. It will include a free night at one of my hotels. That's not an emolument, is it?

But if you want, we can shake things up by moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. That should be good for Lockheed-Martin. I have a large position.

A Profound Sadness

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 08:30:35 GMT

"The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them again in our lifetime."

- Sir Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary on the eve of World War I.

Across the world, women and people of conscience have marched in protest to what they perceive as the election of a scoundrel and a liar, a narcissistic, misogynistic impresario of Orwellian dimensions. All hopes between the election and the inauguration of a change in personality, a more presidential and healing persona have already been dashed. Republicans in congress have bent to the will of this force of darkness and pessimism. Our hopes that the separation of powers will protect us from this aberration, a perversion of our democratic government, grow dimmer with each day.

The inappropriate cabinet picks, the angry dystopian inaugural address, the rancor and divisiveness pervading this pathologically driven man has already defined the direction in which he intends to take our country. The Presidential powers conferred upon him are a threat to the tired, the poor, the dispossessed. Jobs that will never return, factories increasing the corporate bottom line with one-tenth the workforce, are the new reality, despite his promises. And the Republican congress is rushing to install vouchers instead of health care as a right of all Americans. You will have access and choice, they say.

Now, we are faced with how to chase this lying Caligula from office. How does the congress stiffen its spine and do the work at hand? How does the Republican Party reclaim its dignity? Only by placing country over party. The jury is out. But with a proven liar in the White House, how will the world believe our government when a crisis arises? Policy will be the prevailing battlefield, and not one that tweets about the size of the crowds at his coronation.

In 1933 Franklin Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler were elected to office. Both the United States and Weimar Germany were in dire economic straits. A world-wide great depression. The streets of Berlin suffered demonstrations of starving people, needing billions of marks to buy a loaf of bread. Germans, overwhelmed by French and English policymakers who devised war reparations unable to be paid, marched Unter der Linden. Victims desperately sought to find a way out. Hitler made promises of a one Volk, one Germany, one Fuhrer. He offered hope but a dark vision of the reasons Germany was suffering. He found his mantra, his dehumanizing of a whole segment of the German polity. Roosevelt, on the other hand, offered hope: "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." No scapegoat, but positive moves to revive the flagging American economy, marred by soup kitchens, starving veterans camping in Grant Park and on the Mall in Washington, chased away by troops commanded by Douglas MacArthur, unemployment reaching 25%. Grown men selling apples in the street, unable to feed their children.

Hitler offered scapegoats, the Jews, the Bolsheviks, the conjured enemies. Not unlike Vladimir Putin, the manifestation of a failed one-horse Russian democracy, now an authoritarian kleptocracy. Hitler was able to silence dissent by murdering his critics, and establish a climate of the legitimate fear of being killed or being sent to concentration camps.

Roosevelt offered a new deal to America, government jobs, WPA, TVA, CCC, infrastructure projects, public works projects and a hopeful, cheerful optimism, not unlike his successor; Ronald Regan did 50 years later. Hitler offered war, "lebensraum," expansion to the east, and the night of broken glass (Kristalnacht), racial hared and violence, the promise of conquest of other nations to alleviate German yearnings for prosperity and expansion, but through war, prodding internal economic growth.

Trump offers blame on the Chinese, immigrants, loose borders, Hispanics, Muslims and thinly veiled threats against minorities and people who are not as fortunate to have been born the scion of a real estate magnate. On the inauguration stage, we saw a white guy with children from three different wives in stark contrast to a dignified African American, the exemplar of class, fidelity, and integrity who became President of the United States. Great credit goes to our citizens for electing him. Did he make mistakes? Surely. But his decency, thoughtfulness and character was a credit to the Presidency and to his country. Throughout history we have learned that character is the hallmark of great leaders. Trump has none. And that is already being demonstrated.

When we think of America as exceptional, it is. Exceptional in the antiquity of its system of government and the gullibility of its people. We need to be able to issue a vote of no confidence rather than having an albatross hanging from our stretched necks for four years. The Constitution needs an amendment. And the interstate compact of awarding all the electoral votes of the individual states to the winner of the national popular vote needs to move ahead to abolish the anachronism of the Electoral College allowing a winner who claims a mandate though he received three million less votes than his opponent. This 18th century instrument, based upon slavery needs to be relegated to history's dustbin.

Trump's raised fist, his anger, his ego, belies his fragile character, his inability to withstand criticism, and his ad hominem attacks on his critics, rendering him unfit to occupy the White House. He is a boy-man, a privileged, spoiled, tweeting, grotesque caricature and a humiliation to our country.

And now, people who did not bother to vote are realizing that they should have.

The Manchurian Candidate

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 08:29:08 GMT

"The fool thinks himself to be wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."

- William Shakespeare

Donald J. Trump, elected President with the help of an authoritarian klepotcratic KGB murderer who had ordered hacking of the Democratic National Committee. Seventeen US intelligence agencies agree and reveal an extensive, detailed, declassified report to the President-elect.

Rather than acknowledge the facts of the reports, the President-elect disparages the intelligence professionals upon whom our nation depends, by alluding to the mistakes made in the run up to the Iraq war and intelligence demanded by our most stupid President, George W. Bush, who under the influence of Dick Cheney, plunged us into a quagmire from which we have not yet emerged. Trump uses this mistake to justify and denigrate the dedicated intelligence professionals who have compiled a record of Russian interference in our election. This Trumpian hubris endangers us all because even though the election is over, in his adolescent mind, it partially detracts from his "win." Donald needs to "win," placing his ego above the national interest. The cognitive dissonance of this all resembles the most insane Salvador Dali painting. The distorted clock, the horrified contorted faces, the horrifying improvidence of it all. Americans are gradually realizing that they have a psychologically deranged President about to leave the starting gate.

These are remarkable, frightening times. A President-elect who is in denial about intelligence reports, climate change, Nato alliances, and Putinesque wickedness. Many Cabinet appointments harboring a plethora of financial interests yet to be disclosed as required by law and a voting public a majority of whom voted against Trump now scared to death. Congressional hearings possibly to occur without full disclosure of his cabinet of gilded age billionaires. The ludicrous Mexican wall, the failure to disclose tax returns, the failure to divest. Red flags dominate political discourse.

Trump has still not had a press conference, communicating in tweet bursts, many of which are dangerous, disingenuous, and self-serving, threatening to undermine the ship of state, now rolling in a dark, tempest-torn sea. Trump exults in misinformation, utilizing classic propaganda techniques of Orwellian dimensions. Dr. Goebbels would be proud. Bypassing the media, yet utilizing it masterfully to pour out hatred, bigotry, birtherism, conspiracy theories; he has, with the help of an antiquated electoral system, stolen the election of 2016. Unconscionable, by any standard, the Electoral College, is complicit in this fiasco. And social media has distorted the landscape even further having been employed by a Machiavellian impresario.

A national movement must soon take place to restore our democracy: one-person one vote. All the nonsense advanced by traditionalists, originalists, or what have you, must be seen for what it is. An attempt to disproportionally favor rural America. Those who support the system argue that the electoral college governs space, not population centers and spreads the vote geographically. How preposterous is this notion? People in Wyoming have three times the representation as people in California. Rural America should deserve equal representation, just as should we all.

Republicans in congress, including the cowardly, pusillanimous Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell will not know how to handle the hurricane headed their way. They will rue the day that they could not get along with Obama, having sowed the wind, will now reap the whirlwind.

As Kathleen Parker noted in her column today in the Washington Post, the conspiracy theorists who thought Obama a Muslim, following the same logic can call Trump a Russian spy. Equally silly theories, yet not without appeal for Democrats who believe that the election was rigged, but not as Trump had suggested. If it is shown that Trump in any way knew beforehand what Vladimir was doing or had planned, here come the articles of impeachment. And perhaps a trial for treason. Why were they jubilant in Moscow when Trump got the 270 votes in the Electoral College? Why do we even retain such a slavery-induced system?

Three million Americans have been effectively disenfranchised. Their votes did not count. And Trump is going to be President of the United States.

We are engaged in cultural and religious wars both at home and abroad and are now saddled with a President who knows nothing, sees nothing except himself in a narcissistic, distorted, mirror of denial, deception and self-promotion.

We must ask ourselves how this all happened? And how could we have allowed our nation to fall into the hands of a latter day Juan Peron?

Thoughts of 2016 and 2017 Addressed to All My Miami Beach Friends, Along with Good Wishes for the New Year

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 08:27:08 GMT

"I think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability."

- Oscar Wilde

Somehow, the United States has elected a psychologically deranged, tweeter as its president, a man who cavalierly dismisses the Russian hacking of our election as something that should cause us to "get on with our lives." This echoes the voice of Antonin Scalia, who having installed W. as president, saying "get over it."

Both of our major political parties have failed us. The Electoral College has failed us. For the 5th time, electing a president who has won a minority of the popular vote and by a stupefying margin of almost 3 million votes, this victor claiming he would have won anyway, had he campaigned differently, by emphasizing that New York and California would have gone his way. This is an astonishing statement, given that he lost by almost 75% of the vote in New York and California.

Now an antiquated electoral system is doing irreparable damage to our country, where a few close states make the difference and the will of the majority of the country is subverted. What is democratic about this slavery-protecting 19th century system? Republicans do not want to change it because the more disenfranchised progressives, the better.

Here in Miami Beach, we are still saddled with an ethically challenged Mayor, who has gubernatorial aspirations. Some locals feel that he should run and if he wins, we will be rid of him. He cannot be any worse than Rick Scott who was never prosecuted for his Medicare fraud shenanigans, they say.

Sorry, fellow progressives. President Obama, a dignified, honest, deep thinker, is responsible for much of the Syrian tragedy. By refusing to engage no-fly zones, he has contributed mightily to the destabilization of the EU, and surrendered US influence in the Middle East to the Russians and the Iranians. The countless lives that could have been saved, European paranoia and nativism minimized, and Pax Americana maximized. Even conceding that we were war weary as a nation, history has taught us that American isolationism has led to European catastrophe two times in the last century. The global forces currently aligning in economics, technology and markets, will not bring the coal miners, auto workers, and other outmoded jobs back, despite Trump's empty promises.

2017 threatens to bring more warfare in the Middle East, and Obama's refusal to back Israel is an unprecedented fit of pique against Benjamin Netanyahu and his right wing coalition, many of whom would round all the Arabs up in trucks and transfer them out of the territories to Jordan ( their country before the 1967 war), and claim Israel now runs to the Jordan river. Of course this will not happen, but a one state solution as Netanyahu wants could mean the demographic demise of the Jewish state.

On the one hand, a state based upon a religion is inherently antipathetic to those in other religions (as shown in Iran) and as mentioned by Thomas Jefferson who said that the preachers must be kept away from the wheels of government. But, on the other hand, Jews having been a persecuted minority for most of their past, was given a state in 1948 and Arabs have been fulminating ever since, instead of providing an economic agenda for their people. Nevertheless, Israel could devolve into a secular democracy if all the West Bank Arabs are incorporated into its fabric. After all, that was not so bad for the United States. It might be the inevitable conclusion to a one state solution. This would dismay many Jews, but they may have no choice.

Now we have a President coming on board who understands nothing about foreign policy, has no compassion for anyone but himself, and butters up Vladimir Putin, a murderous, kleptocratic, KGB fascist, who has billions hidden worldwide through his cronies and is presiding over a collapsing Russian economy in need of malign distractions to keep its constituency in check. Those distractions might mean threats to the Baltic republics or even invasion. Trump needs to protect these Nato members no matter how little they pay up. Does he know that?

Will Trump be able to stand up to Putin? Maybe. Putin is a Russian chess player, not a job seeker on the Celebrity Apprentice. Another cold war could be on the way. Trump now is basking in the Putin charm, but a few missteps by Vladimir might have Trump tweeting a different tune. Skin so thin, and ego so fragile, who knows? General Mike Flynn ( Dr. Strangelove) is the national security adviser.

He sees conspiracy theories everywhere, and might soon be out of a job. Trump sure knows how to say, "you're fired."

Am I suicidal about this election? Do I think the world is coming to an end? Do I think my Miami Beach home will be inundated soon? Do I like the present mayor? Am I happy Trump will be President? The answers are no to all.

But, let us wish our new President well despite his obvious shallowness and deep character flaws and hope that he will not be impeached, leaving us with, Heaven forbid, Mike Pence who believes that evolution did not occur and that men walked the earth with dinosaurs.

President Obama's Evening with Vlad and the Donald

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:21:14 GMT

Somewhere secret

OBAMA: Listen Vlad, I do not appreciate your hacking into the DNC headquarters and fooling the FBI into releasing a report about Hillary’s emails. The next time you do this I will tell the Donald that you have looked into his eyes and seen a Capitalist pig and a lying one at that.

VLADY: And I will tell Donald that you are trying to use Nato to keep me from restoring the USSR. His casinos like gambling Russians, and I have assured him that if he plays along by giving me some vig, he will grow his measly $3.5 billion in net worth to approximate mine which is $85 billion, I mean I am almost as rich as Bill Gates and Carlos Slim put together. Plus, I will show him how to successfully hide it all from the nosy journalists, several of whom I have had to dump in the Volga. So do not think that you left such a good legacy. You had the chance to send in the Marines when I annexed Crimea, but you did not think it was worth it. And you did not follow that witch Hillary's advice to create a no fly zone in Syria. Of course we hacked your election. Wait until you see what I have in store for the Baltic Republics. They are part of the USSR.

For example, I did a real smart deal nationalizing Yukos oil and kicking that presumptuous oligarch, Kordokovsky out of the country and "nationalizing" his wealth. He even thinks he will be fed polonium in his tea, just like I fed Litvinenko who died a miserable death in a London hospital after my agents poisoned him. No one read about it in the Russian press, fortunately. He never wanted to do business with me and now sits in London, calling me a crook. Some nerve. I am working on this problem with some of my friends at the old KGB. Any fool would realize that controlling the information gives me an 85% approval rating among the Soviet people.

But I know that Donald does not drink Vodka or any liquor for that matter. But I do. And wasn't it your Amerikansi comedian WC Fields who said, if you drink before you are forty you are crazy and if you do not drink after 40 you are twice as crazy? Donald was my Manchurian candidate. And now Rex Tillerson at the State Department? My business partner? My medal friendship winner? What a feat. I am so manly and smartski.

TRUMP: Hey guys, can I get into this conversation?

VLADY: Of course you can. What ideas do you have to deal with US-Soviet (oops Russian) relations?

TRUMP: Well I am going to build a beautiful wall on the Mexican border to keep the Soviet Mexican agents out of Arizona and New Mexico. And, by the way Vlady, you did an amazing job in Syria, dropping barrel bombs on school children and hospitals. You are a strong leader. And President Obama, you stood by while Vlad took care of those rebels, destroying Aleppo and killing thousands, causing migrations to Turkey and Europe. Both of you have done an incredible job in destabilizing the EU. Even that German bitch Merkel is paying the price. But you have to be careful with the Germans. If they get angry enough, you could have another Stalingrad. But I have a secret plan. Not even I know how it works yet. I am leaving that to Mike Pence, who is planning a trip to Syria. He believes that all the problems there are caused by the failure of the Muslims to accept Jesus.

I am going to change all that with Trump hotels and casinos all over Eastern Europe to employ the Syrian refugees. I have already planned the new Trump Istanbul, to be built with tax credits to me because I might have to sell some of my holdings to prevent the appearance of a conflict of interest. I plan to create jobs for West Virginia coal miners by shipping them to Turkey to build Trump casinos and hotels. And it will save money for Medicare by preventing black lung disease.

By the way the new commissioner of Internal Revenue says he will be done with my routine audit after I have run for my second term in 2020 and then I can release my tax returns. Vlad wants to see them before he goes into business with me, so I may have to show my hand earlier.

And Rick Perry? The guy, who I said needed an IQ test to be President, will do a fine job at the Department of Energy. I picked him because he was not low Energy Bush and could not remember it when he had a brain fart and did not know which government department he wanted to abolish. Perfect choice, believe me.

General Mike Flynn, my new national conspiracy theory advisor tells me that there is a conspiracy here in the US and to use Dr. Ben Carson, the new head of Housing and Urban Development who has a direct line to stop Lucifer from ripping unborn babies from the womb in government housing developments.

We will fix all of that soon. But I cannot tell you both how. It's a secret.

Donald Trump's Inaugural Address

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:20:24 GMT

Friends, Americans, Countrymen, and Trumpsters:

The evil that men do lives after them; the good is 'oft interred with their bones. I come to praise Hillary, although I buried her at the polls. Even though she got 2.5million more popular votes, I stand before you as the winner of this election, thanks to my newly evolved position on how it protects the yokels in fly over country. I am a winner!

Despite the failing New York Time's efforts to defeat me and the fact that I did not receive the endorsement of any other major American newspaper, I stand before you as a testament to the stupidity of the electorate. After all, wasn't it PT Barnum who said that "there is a sucker born every minute?" or H.L. Mencken who said that "no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public?"

All this business of the popular vote? I mean if I had campaigned in California and New York, I would have persuaded all those Hollywood types and Eastern elitist liberals to vote for me, so I would have campaigned differently and won anyway. All this because I am a man of the people. My humble abode in Trump Tower proves that, and you can be sure I will never release my tax returns now. And so what if Tiffany customers cannot get into the store and Fifth Avenue is now blocked. But we have a rear entrance so Melania can buy. New Yorkers did not vote for me anyway. What traitors.

Now, I am going to select a junta of generals to run our foreign policy, even though I said I know more than they do. I brought Mitt Romney around to show how magnanimous I am and we had a great meal at that workman's establishment restaurant Jean Georges, to show how we eat just like the people. Neither Mitt nor I drink so we saved some money. I think it is at taxpayer expense, anyway, picking the cabinet, don't you?

Frankly, I think David Petraeus would make the best Secretary of State. After all he engineered the surge and was first in his class at West Point, even though he gave out national security secrets and pled his felony down to a misdemeanor, because he was grabbing some hot p***y. He paid his debt to society and deserves a second chance, unlike crooked Hillary who abused her email server and killed everyone in Benghazi.

And, of course, I picked Mike Pence as VP to ensure that I would not be impeached. He has a pea-sized brain, believing that people walked the earth with dinosaurs and evolution is just a "theory." After all, I descended from an orange Orangutan, proving evolution is real. Mike also thinks Newton's theory of gravity is unproven. If he becomes president, watch out.

And all those pundits who said I have no economic plan? Of course I do. Tax cuts for corporations, and sinking public schools through Betsy DiVos who never saw a public school she liked. After all she rose through the ranks of that great institution, the Amway Ponzi scheme, eminently qualifying her for office.

And my new Treasury Secretary? Steven Mnuchin What a gem. The Wall Street Journal (Fox News) loves him.

His qualification for the job is of the working class--a hedge fund operator making millions and a trader at Goldman Sachs as well as a Hollywood financier. He has a great feel for the coal miner or the auto assembly worker.

And then we have Wilbur Ross a billionaire investor in distressed assets, foreclosing on people and throwing them out of their homes. But he has assured me that his perspective has evolved, as has mine.

We will have a great winning team to greaten America.

I can't wait to bomb the shit out of Iran and ISIS, scotch the Iran deal and make America great again. Putin and the Iranians are overjoyed on the prospect that we are aligning ourselves with that great humanitarian Bashar Assad who is restoring order to his county by dropping barrel bombs on children and civilians. And Putin does deserve to increase his sphere of influence in eastern Europe. Just like the good old days.

So now, my fellow Americans, with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to bind up the nations wounds (if Melania can plagiarize, so can I).

God Bless the Trump organization and the United States of America.

The Twenty-Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:19:37 GMT

Election of the President and Vice President of the United States Elections; Term Limits for Congress

Election of the President and the Vice President of the United States shall be by the direct popular vote of the eligible voters in the various states of the Union. Said votes shall be counted locally in the states and then transmitted to a central location where they shall be tallied again.
The Electoral College shall be abolished and no longer utilized for the election of the President and Vice President of the United States.
Election campaigns shall be limited to 60 days and publicly financed with no individual contributions in excess of $2,500. A National primary election shall be effectuated, with all candidates on the ballot. In the event that no candidate achieves a majority of the vote, there shall be a run-off election to determine those two or three candidates with the largest plurality of votes and they shall be the candidates in the general election.
Corporations, by the terms of this amendment are not people and shall be limited to the same level of contribution as set forth above for natural persons.
United States Senators shall not serve more than two terms, or 12 years. Members of the House of Representatives shall serve no longer than 3 terms or 12 years. This amendment shall become effective 6 years after passage by the Congress and ratification by the states.
Congress shall have the power to enforce this amendment by appropriate legislation.

The Donald's Concession Speech

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:18:41 GMT

November 9, 2016

Good evening.

First of all, I want to congratulate Hillary for winning the Presidency. But I won the election. I am a WINNER, not a loser and here is why: I want all those blockheads who supported me not to make any trouble or claim that the election was rigged. It was designed by me to elect Hillary. I mean, wake up people. Do you think that some of the things I have said were not provocative enough to turn people off, especially women, who are of a lower mentality than men? They just do not have the stamina to figure out what I was doing.

I want everyone to know that I am really a Democrat. I was never a Republican. I am an eastern elitist, believe me. Do you think that I live in a gold plated Trump tower apartment and have a gold plated jet because I like people who live in Des Moines or St Louis? They are suckers. Losers. Out of touch with how to get ahead. Most of these yokels would vote for me if I shot Paul Ryan. I am a patriot, believe me. I even display big American flags in my buildings right next to the TRUMP flag. I want everyone to know that there will be a Hillary victory party in all the Trump buildings not in foreclosure tonight to celebrate what I and I alone have accomplished. No one could have pulled this off except me, believe me. I won the whole thing. What a winner I am. If I invited Vladimir Putin, he would come. He loves me, just like all my other followers. Vlad told me what a winner I am.

I entered this race and demolished the 16 pinhead candidates who had the nerve to run against me in the primaries. They tried to be politically correct in selling their agenda for the wealthy. The base saw through them and embraced me. All those things I said about low energy Jeb and Little Marco were true. LOSERS! and John Kasich? He is phonier than a three-dollar bill. And how about Chris Christie who will soon go to jail, standing behind me like my puppet? He looked like an overfed beagle. The rest of them were a bunch of religious nut cases who want to get inside women's vaginas, but not successfully as I have. Who cares about abortion? I am pro choice. Just like my hot daughter Ivanka, whom I never dated, believe me.

I ran to show how bankrupt the GOP is and, believe me, I know about bankruptcies. The country had to put up with George W Bush, who invited the Iranians to take over the Middle East. And Condoleezza Rice? The worst secretary of state, much worse than Hillary, who is now my friend. Well Condi might have gotten into Augusta National, but never Trump National, get it? Well maybe now that I have revealed my true feelings of liberalism. I live in New York City, come on. After all she did go to college. And I heard she's a pretty good golfer. I heard she plays a pretty mean piano. lots of rhythm.

And how about my running mate Mike Pence, who says he is a Christian before he is a Republican and an American? He needs to get a hot date. Spends too much time in church. And what about those spineless losers Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell twisting themselves into pretzels when I revealed all that stuff about my sexual exploits. Sure, I groped a few women, but what's the difference? Bill Clinton was a fat kid from Arkansas who became President so he could get p***y. That is the whole point of being President, isn't it? I gave a lot of money to Bill and when I release my tax returns tomorrow, it will show that. I could have built the wall with my own funds, but every one knows that is dumb. Better to do it with OMP.

So do not worry, Hillary, I am now on your side again. You are a real fighter. You do not give up and I respect that. But you are only President-elect, because I paved the way. I am the real winner.

I made myself into a Trojan (forgive the expression, I do not use Trojans) horse to show how stupid the American public is. None of them read the failing New York Times, the New Yorker or the Washington Post. They can hardly read at all. I know all this because I did well at Wharton where I learned to play everyone for a sucker. And tuition was not even that high then. It increased my attention span to a full 30 seconds. And believe me, I am not looking for a cabinet position although I would make a great Secretary of the Treasury negotiating 10c on the dollar for government bond obligations. And all those freeloading NATO partners. I never intended to make them pay up for defense. I get a lot of guests in my hotels from those countries.

So now it is time to pull together as Americans, respect the fact that I uncloaked the Republican fraud, and stand behind our new President. I am a patriot, believe me. Even though I will not be President, my face should be on the wall on the Rio Grande, just like Mt Rushmore. I want to talk to Hillary about that.

So my fellow Americans, God bless America. Let's get together behind Hillary, and come back to my casinos, my hotels and my golf courses. Business has fallen off a bit and I might have to declare another bankruptcy or even worse, lose my tax write offs.

We have only one President and she is all of our President., but I am responsible for her election. I won.

I was the one who rigged it all.

Insanity

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:17:42 GMT

"You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you."

- Eric Hoffer 1902-1983

This Presidential election cycle begs the question of whether the American public has become dumber or, more charitably, more cynical about elected officials, or even how we select our leaders.

On the one hand, the democrats have fielded a whip smart woman, perhaps too smart, a veteran of many years of public service, the wife of a former President, a former US Senator, a Secretary of State with impeccable academic credentials, a speedy and learned individual who invites vitriol from her opponents, adulation from her supporters, and intense scrutiny from a 24 hour unrelenting news cycle, but with a penchant for secrecy. Some of our past Presidents had secrets also, including some of the great ones. Franklin Roosevelt, who kept his severe health problems and paralysis under wraps and later on during the final years of World War II his skyrocketing blood pressure and heart failure, ultimately to kill him. JFK kept his Addison's disease secret as well as his addiction to painkillers and women. They and many other Presidents did not have to deal with CNN and FOX News and Matt Drudge. On the other hand, Donald Trump has to deal with a retinue of bloodhounds and his faults have become readily apparent to all who choose to see him for what he is. The facts are out there for Hillary also.

In 1861, the newly elected Abraham Lincoln snuck into Washington in a disguise, and changed trains in Baltimore fearing that angry southern sympathizers would assassinate him. In the years leading up to his election, Senators and Congressmen battled each other in the capitol, beating each other on the head with canes or whatever else was handy over the issue of whether states should be admitted to the Union free or slave. Lincoln himself bore ideas about the racial inferiority of black men, and even supported their migrating to a colony in Africa. The essential point at the time was not slavery, but the balance of new states entering the Union as free or slave. The dichotomy, if you will, of two clashing economies and more importantly, two different cultures. One agrarian and one industrial. The two were incompatible. We can draw some parallels from this lesson of history. Now America is faced with four other cultures: the relevantly educated and the unskilled, the religious and the increasingly secular. The theory that if one is born into great wealth, they will remain in this caste system. Those who wish to protect the status quo are delusional. People who are disabused of the notion that they can succeed when they cannot without more education, more relevant skills by voting for a quack will find no answer. Those who fight inclusiveness in our society of Twitter, Facebook and an incessant news cycle are tilting at windmills, and not the ones that are generating power. The religious are confronted with supporting a man with no religious values because they perceive Hillary as abortionist lying she-devil. The religious right is seeing their society disintegrate before them, lost to a secular tidal wave.

Polarization is rife.

150 years ago, Lincoln had engaged in a series of debates with Stephen A. Douglas over slavery and the composition of the expanding Union, which had just stolen mucho land from the Mexicans (who else?). This debate was settled by an enormous bloodletting and 700,000 dead, mangled and maimed. No other war in our history was so costly in blood and treasure. No other war cast brother against brother, family against family. Lincoln, in his speech at Cooper Union, before his election, had emphasized that the nation could not permanently endure half slave and half free. Southerners knew where he stood. The Lincoln-Douglas debates settled that ending in civil war.

History repeats itself. Now our culture war roils between the rich and the increasingly disappearing middle class. Between the coasts and the heartland. Between the educated and the not. Between a new mélange of white, colored, brown, and yellow. Between angry white religious fundamentalists and a country which virtually overnight embraced gay marriage and LGBT rights. Things are happening very fast, perhaps too much so. Cultures need time to adjust.

The middle class is the lifeblood of America. The class that built the great factories that produced 303,000 airplanes between 1939 and 1945 a to win the war. The class that once enjoyed a car, a home and the implied promise of the benefit of hard work paying off with the thought that its children would have a better life if it worked hard and obeyed the rules seems a distant cry, a despairing denouement to the American dream. Is this class inevitably succumbing to the existentially threatening global forces of cheap labor, robotic manufacturing and technology? Some think not, that people can be retrained to do more skilled work; some think that we can restore our economy to where it was 50 years ago, or at least tell people it can to get elected. Others think that we can resolve the deep seated education deficit of children who cannot read, cannot do math, and certainly cannot do computer coding. Poor people watch television and think that the life on reality tv will be theirs for the taking.

Trump says that coal miners are going to get their jobs back. They will not. Trump says that increased tariffs on imported goods will create new jobs in America. Respected economists think otherwise. They think that Trump's plans will throw our nation into a new recession, making goods more expensive to buy and making it harder for the poor to survive. Trump's prevarications and salesmanship, reminiscent of PT Barnum, appeals to a large segment of American voters. He stands outside his carnival tent beckoning people to come in with a disingenuous siren call. His character is well demonstrated by his behavior.

On the other hand, sometimes character is not the sine qua non of a politician. Many of such individuals who have succeeded for a little while, but then have fallen victim to their own hubris. Some of them have been Presidents of the United States. Richard Nixon, for example. Nixon perverted the constitution, created an enemies list, broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, covered it all up and lied about it. He ultimately fell because of his own paranoia. He secretly taped oval office conversations and they incriminated him. Lyndon Johnson did as well. But Nixon opened the door to China and Johnson passed monumental civil rights legislation, Medicare and transformed the lives of millions of Americans. Lyndon was crass also, he did not have the patrician elegance of FDR or Jack Kennedy, but he sure knew how to work with congress.

Throughout the 1930s, during the great depression, in the years leading up to World War II, America firsters fought against immigrants and other perceived threats from abroad. People lined up at soup kitchens, pitched tents on the Mall in Washington, and General MacArthur brought in troops to evict them. These were far from pleasant times. Trump claims that our country has never been in worse shape. Coal miners will get their jobs back and a wall will keep rapist Mexicans away from our women, believe me. The nation is not in as terrible shape as he says. We have been through much worse. Could the Republic survive a Trump Presidency? Probably. But we could also survive bubonic plague. Why bother?

Our history has played host to other demagogues--Huey Long, Father Coughlin, George Wallace, among others. who preyed on fears and the psychology of victimhood. They were going to cure everything and no one else could. Wallace claimed that the south would never desegregate. Passions inflamed by these predators harmed our country by invoking a primitive tribalism that should have been rejected long ago, but has now been reawakened by Donald Trump. He even appeals to evangelicals, who are in a real dilemma. Vote for the evil abortion supporting Hillary, or Donald Trump despite his three wives, misogyny and his own serial infidelity. He has sent out his surrogates. Chris Christie, the GW bridge facilitator, Newt Gingrich, married thrice, and who informed one of his wives, suffering from cancer that he was leaving her while she was in her hospital bed. And let's not forget Rudy Gulliani, who called a press conference to inform the public that he was getting divorced without even telling his wife, Donna Hanover. These surrogates now threaten to expose Hillary to the slings and arrows of Bill's unfaithfulness. Good luck with that strategy.

The first Presidential debate matched an experienced, polished politician against an unprepared Bulgarian. Surprisingly, Americans, judging from the polls, are not dramatically changing as a result of Hillary Clinton's superior performance. People are prognosticating that Trump will be better prepared for the next debate. According to Tony Schwartz who ghostwrote "The Art of the Deal," Trump has an attention span of 30 seconds, so his next performance, if that be true, will be no better than the last. Will people still be fooled by his bombast? Will the American voter overlook Hillary's perceived untruthfulness and secrecy be convinced that she is the lesser of two evils? Or will they understand that her length of time in the public eye lends itself to exaggeration of her flaws. Because no one inhabits that space of perfection, (except Donald).

How can we elect a man who wants to "renegotiate the national debt," (as though it were a shopping mall) have the Mexicans pay for his wall, encourage nuclear proliferation, cozy up to Vladimir Putin, not release his tax returns, evince secret plans on how he will defeat ISIS, deport 11 million immigrants, start a trade war with China, blow Iranian ships out of the water, call our military a "disaster," punish women who want an abortion, disband a health care program that now has 30 million signed up, call women pigs and slobs, fat-shame a former Miss Universe contestant, have a history of discriminating against African Americans and other minorities, know nothing about economic policy or foreign policy, scrapping 70 year old NATO alliances that has kept European peace under an American umbrella if they do not pay more to us, talk about winning as a function of his own ego, stiff his workers and go through serial bankruptcies, and says "that is business," complain about roads and infrastructure, but pay no taxes? "That makes me smart," he says. Other endearing items include bullying, coarseness, and even embarrassing his own political party. Many leading conservatives have abandoned him including George Will, Bill Kristol and Colin Powell.

The question that must be asked is why are his poll numbers so high if he is so clearly unqualified to be President? Is it because Hillary is perceived as untrustworthy? Is it because we are failing as a nation? Are we in decline? Is it the dumbing down of the electorate? Is it the fact that people are uninformed? Are we suckers for a candidate whose positions are not worth a warm bucket of spit? Is it that the world is transitioning to a different economy? Is it the loss of innocence? What about the disintegration of a respect for intellect? People who run for office are told that they must communicate on a 5th grade level to reach the electorate. Donald does that very well. Why do people fear elites? Elites founded our nation. Why is our discourse sunk so low?

Most importantly, what are the reasons that gave rise to such an unqualified candidate? We need to learn the truth.

Disconcertion over these issues is not easy to overcome because it is a reflection of where we are as a society. Are we less racist? Are we more tolerant? Have we lost all sense of reason? Or is it that the public is incurably stupid?

Travails of a Permanent American Presidential Campaign

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:16:36 GMT

"Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

- Albert Einstein

August 2016.

Late August in Vermont. The trees are beginning to show a touch of yellow, very slight, not yet beginning to turn. Some of the leaves have fallen, still green but barely hinting of the cold, short days to come. The swimming pool, heated to 75 degrees is less than I am used to, but still, refreshing after a walk on verdant mountain trails that meander up and down, their steepness growing each year.

Donald Trump has shed his campaign manager, Paul Manefort, a robotic, dyed-hair martinet, who apparently has failed in his attempt make Donald appeal to the broad center of American voter. When only 9% of voters has chosen the Republican nominee, there are many more votes that will be counted in the general election. And as discussed below, the Ukrainian-Putin connection having funneled money to Mr. Trump’s ex-consigliere.

Trump, according to Washington Post, has decided to run his campaign on the same basis as he ran his primary campaign and has selected a Breitbart executive Steve Bannon, to be his new campaign manager. Bannon is noted, according to the Post's EJ Dionne, having made a laudatory documentary of Sarah Palin, of all people, as a model for anti-establishment politics. The crux of this strategy is to appeal to the same angry white uneducated segment of the population to create more damage and negativity toward Hillary Clinton. And, for sure, letting Trump be Trump.

Waxing philosophically about this campaign is difficult because it requires a cynical perspective on the intelligence of the American electorate.

Stage left: Vladimir Putin championing Trump, since he will clearly, if one is to believe him, wreck the NATO alliance, because our allies are not paying "their fair share." Seventy years of American diplomacy going down like the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City is one of the most dangerous policy proposals ever advanced by any American politician since Jefferson Davis. As we all know by now ad nauseum , a litany of other proposals, the wall, the Mexicans paying for it, the deportations, the fearmongering, the appeal to tribalism, the ethos contrary to the American promise, etc. etc. etc.

September

Returning to a steamy Miami, paranoia about mosquitos, we have since learned that Manefort was linked to Ukrainian money, further discrediting Trump's claim that he is less corrupt than Hillary. Trump already owning the field in Washington Post Pinocchios, even with Hillary’s deservedly less than forthcoming reputation, including the email scandal as well as 40 years of being accused of non-existing sins.

Herein we see the flaw of the 25th amendment. The President could have easily won a third term. A scandal free administration, an exemplary President, thoughtful and considered, but hated for his being black by a large segment of the electorate. A stark reminder of how fragile our democracy is and how susceptible it is to demagoguery.

Even if Hillary wins this bedraggled campaign, one wonders if anything will be settled, unless the Democrats gain control of congress. Republican obstructionism has prevented many worthwhile Obama initiatives from succeeding. For example, a constitutional amendment that limits spending in Presidential campaigns would never pass the Republican house, even if the President proposed it. Already Ted Cruz is gearing up for 2020, sensing a Hillary landslide.

Hillary has just rolled out her new 757 aircraft in which she can transport the press in the same plane, proclaiming her unmitigated joy in having journalists share her multi-million dollar ride. Billions spent to elect a president. Insanity.

And then there are the endless emails, pontificating how Hillary needs help in defeating a person as odious as the Donald. “Give now to save our democracy,” pleads every other new email.

Why it is necessary for candidates to office at any level money-grub their way along the trail? There is certainly no guarantee that superior office holders emerge from an unseemly level of servitude created by the reception of such funds.

The system, which now binds Americans to perpetual campaigns anachronistically created by our past has no reason to exist. Why do we have to start in Iowa? Why do senators have to neglect their jobs running for office for two years? Why are there battleground states in a silly electoral college that was originally established in the 18th century to ensure the balance of power among slave and free states? Why are congressionally gerrymandered districts not against the law? Why is there not direct popular vote election of the President? The Federal system of government is not threatened by that. No one is advocating abolition of the congress.

Our system would not be harmed by a national open primary for President. One person one vote. Voting across party lines. Federally funded national debates and television interviews. A true Oxford Union format debate where each issue is advocated by the candidate, for example, "Resolved: that we should have a carbon tax" or “Resolved that taxes should be raised on incomes above $250,000." You get the picture. Then each candidate can expound, as did Lincoln and Douglas. No stupid gotcha questions such as "why do you treat women like pigs?' And please CNN, FOX, CBS, NBC, etc. Shut the f**k up. Present some news instead of bits of information and reasons for catheter ads. No young people are watching anyway.

Each candidate would then get to demonstrate his or her full level of knowledge, and not continue to insult the intelligence of the public, by answering prepared sound bites for already anticipated questions. Candidates would then have to stick to the important issues and give the voter enough information to make a decision, including the candidate’s level of knowledge on each subject.

Moreover, television ads should be strictly limited to the issues, if not should be banned despite the first amendment. A constitutional re-write is in order, governing campaigns, money, debates, advertising and lobbyists. The Citizens United case should be dumped as was Dred Scott. Both decisions are shameful.

Otherwise we will continue to suffer hamstringed government unable to do anything except have politicians continually run for office. If America is polarized as much as people say, this guarantees a majority unable to exert its will. This is a result of the slave/free state dichotomy created at the inception, and not yet negated, through civil war, civil rights movements and other national paroxysms of pain and tumult.

One source suggested, (I forget who) a board of historians to guide policy, so that the lessons of the past are not repeated, and because people forget that repeating the same failed policy is insanity.

Brexit and the United States Republican Convention Fiasco

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:15:17 GMT

DEMAGOGUE

A demagogue /ˈdɛməɡɒɡ/ (from Greek dēmagōgos, dēmos ‘the people’ + agōgos ‘leading’) or rabble-rouser is a political leader in a democracy who gains power by appealing to the passions, prejudices, and ignorance of the common people, tending to undermine democratic procedures and the rule of law.

With the Brexit vote, we see the ugliest aspect of populism and fear grip the country that has given the world and especially the United States, its dearest character of democracy, freedom and language. The world is in turmoil--uneducated people beginning to understand that their futures lie in great jeopardy because they no longer can compete or succeed in a global market, driven by cheap labor, interconnected information, with hucksters who believe they can empower themselves to even more riches and position preying on the circumstances of the 21st Century unskilled.

Donald Trump is one of these malefactors, determined to undermine the fabric of our tolerant and democratic society through insult, demagoguery and fear, promising to bring back jobs that no longer exist and which are becoming increasingly scarce without the requisite training to succeed. Notable is his disingenuous pledge to bring back jobs to unemployed coal miners, of all things. This is an unforgiveable exercise in bait and switch. Coal is as dead as the 20th century, yet Trump exacerbates hopes and dreams of West Virginian coal miners, whose interests would best be served by retraining financed by the government for 21st century skills.

David Cameron, the British prime minister addressed parliament, saying that the will of the people should be respected and implemented. He clearly miscalculated, ceding his wishes for advantage in the next election. Backfiring on his political ambitions, the vote has insured his demise and the end of his career in politics. But wait, maybe not. Maybe this entire fiasco, costing trillions of dollars in market value to American 401ks may not happen. Maybe there will be a second vote, the people realizing that they have shot themselves in the foot. This move does not insure the perpetuation of the British hegemonic entity. Churchill, the greatest devotee of the empire is spinning in his grave. The 307-year-old union may devolve into tiny England, the Scots and the Irish going their separate ways, considering that remaining in the EU being a more viable alternative than remaining in the UK. The EU, however may not want them, saying that membership only would be offered to sovereign nations.

Whether the majority was in fear of immigrants, a loss of national sovereignty, meeting requirements of Brussels bureaucrats, or trade issues, the British are in a pickle, mostly of their own making, with the demagoguery of the politicians playing upon it. Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, among others. Thoughtless people who only had their own interests in mind. Remind you of someone here at home?

Let that be a lesson to us every time we listen to Donald Trump, a danger to the Presidency and to American democracy.

The Donald, bolstered by cowardly or self-interested sycophants, think that Trump will make our country great again (not that it was ever not great) by returning to the 1950s. But even in the 50s, the public was moving toward an internationalist view of American power. President Eisenhower warned of the military-industrial complex, but we rested on the brink of a nuclear holocaust, were it not for the prudence of John F. Kennedy, a voice of reason and restraint. And what ever was so great about the 50s, a Madmen world of cigarettes, cancer, subordination of women, segregation, racism, lynching, a cold war, fear of communism and nuclear winter, Strangelovian politicians, Communist witch hunts, anti-Semitism, blacklists, and, I remember, schoolchildren hiding under wooden desks during air raid drills to protect us from being vaporized by an H Bomb. And don't forget, the nation had just emerged from World War II, and the Korean War. The good old days? Not so good.

Believe it or not, things have gotten much better. Nations do not war against each other, only amorphous thugs and Islamic fundamentalists. North Korea? Not mighty Nazi Germany, but bears watching. Methinks China will rein them in.

The dystopian picture painted by Trump is not the America, as most of our countrymen know it. Unemployment is below 5%, the stock market has never been higher and the markets exhibit optimism about our future as a nation. Productivity has never been higher. There is a greater concentration of wealth at the very top, but that can be cured with a new tax policy and better training to grow the once bigger middle class which is the underpinning of our democracy. Free college education? Why not? Europeans do it. And spend less than we do. And they spend less per capita on health care. And they have more vacations and paid family leave. Sure they pay higher taxes--but they get something in return, including modern infrastructure, better schools, better food for their children in school, free tuition and no crushing student debt.

Yes, there is lingering racism, conflict between African-Americans and an overly aggressive segment of police, but still, most realize that the police are there to protect us as citizens. Increased training and empathy needs more work and many good intentioned chiefs of police are working on programs so that cops do not use hair triggers in situations when heightened fear for their own lives is unjustified.

I have never seen a political convention the likes of the RNC last week. Our country was on the brink of defeat in all areas in which it is engaged, NATO, ISIS, health care, the economy, the absence of a strong leader at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and only Donald can come in, fire everyone and make it better in his first 100 days, including a huge wall on the Rio Grande. What he does not say is that the wall will keep people from leaving, not coming in, since the net flow is the other way. But Trump's speech sounded like Batman, the Dark Knight Rising, as one conservative commentator on CNN stated. We are all doomed unless we elect Trump because as he said, "I am the only one who can fix everything on day one." Even the wall will be built with Mexican dollars. So Trump has a bridge to sell you, for sure.

But Donald has no specifics on how he is gong to complete his plans, nothing the voter can understand, anyway, He is a classic demagogue, resembling Mussolini both in ideas and in facial expression and demeanor. That upward curling of his lips and upraised head, that inability to change or to apologize. Fascist is a strong word, so forgive me.

We do not need a strongman president. We need a president who is able to work with both sides of the gridlocked aisle, run in the senate by the odious Mitch McConnell, and in the house, by trickle down advocate Paul Ryan, offering the same bromides as McConnell, in a more appealing manner. The problem is that they are the same non-workable solutions as ever.

On the other hand, Hillary has her own problems. A reputation for untrustworthiness, secrecy, and not releasing her speeches made to Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms, undoubtedly for big bucks, not to mention the email "scandal," blown out of proportion by Republican Hillary haters. She should release them at the same time Donald releases his tax returns.

Many Republican stalwarts I know, detesting the Donald, and hating Hillary refuse to vote for either.

Some conservative columnists such as Bret Stevens of the Wall Street Journal, resentful of the hijacking of his party is probably voting for Hillary.

Republican former Presidents, both Bushes, John McCain and Ohio Governor John Kasich have refused to show up at the Trump three ring circus, where his Stepford kids and ding bat wife, sat as though in a prisoner dock at a Stalinist show trial. It was cringe worthy, if not downright ludicrous.

Notions of Surrealism

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:13:38 GMT

“Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.”

- Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind: And Other Aphorisms

When I was a lad in high school, bereft of many friends, certainly no popularity contest participant or winner, I found my solace not in my studies, but in reading encyclopedic reams of science fiction. All the greats—Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Bradbury, Dick, and others too numerous to mention. This did not help my academic achievements, which was only to graduate. I had few dates, no girlfriend only friends who were girls, many of whom probably were as lonely as I was.

Books transported me from my 1950s home to other worlds, to scientific discoveries, that could then only be counted as imaginary fantasies: Missions to Mars, spaceships that could go at warp speed or bend the space time continuum to reach worlds the distance of which could only be measured in light-years. My humdrum, stultified, early teen years, were wondrously engaged by this pastime. I did not play many sports in high school, because my athletic genes were sparse, I received no parental encouragement, and books were just there for the taking. 25c paperbacks, library books, books borrowed from friends allowing me to escape my father’s obsession with the holocaust and his extended absence from my life.

Many of the films of today and even the 1970s saw their genesis in the imaginations of those 1950s novels.

And yes, this is going somewhere.

In those days, people thought the devices we now enjoy were products of someone’s hyperkinetic imagination, thinking that phones and watches that were essentially computers were products of pure fantasy. People worked in factories, enjoyed the miracle of a tiny black and white television screen and even air conditioning that might filter out the radioactive fallout from a Soviet nuclear blast. During mandatory air raid drills we shuddered under wooden desks at school as if they would shelter us from kilotons of hydrogen bombs. I served in the ground observer corps, stationed in a ramshackle building on the 71st street beach, where diagrams of Soviet airplanes festooned the walls. We pored over the latest books of Russian aircraft and watched our own H-Bomb tests annihilate Pacific atolls, their mushroom clouds rising in the atmosphere, nightmarish images of what could happen to us. Peering over the horizon with our binoculars, we were certain that the Russians were clearly coming to Miami Beach.

Red baiters such as Joseph McCarthy and the house un-American activities committee "protected" us from the likes of Hollywood fellow travelers and “pinkos,” as my uncle, a rich 7th avenue dress manufacturer, used to call them. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, Jews, were executed as spies, after being represented by Jewish lawyers, prosecuted by a Jewish lawyer, and sentenced to death by a Jewish judge. They were the first spies to be executed in peacetime by the United States. Protests of the ultimate price they were doomed to pay manifested itself all over our country, and books were written about the injustice of the penalty. Hysteria, paranoia and fear permeated our lives. Protesters marched in Washington DC over the impending executions at Sing-Sing. Demagogues such as Roy Cohen and Joseph McCarthy terrorized ordinary citizens with their fear mongering, implicating innocents as communists, and destroying the lives of screenwriters, actors and artists, as well as many other citizens.

Fast forward to a world where much of the scientific imaginations of the past have come true.

But politically the same demagoguery is rampant in the Presidential campaign of 2016. With minds shaped by an Orwellian dystopic quest for power, the Republican political candidates seem no different than their earlier power-hungry prototypes. Trumpotopia, overtaking the panicked Republican establishment seems a surreal LSD-invoked hallucination of a psychedelic Woodstockian rock concert gone wild—a hodgepodge of stream of consciousness political huckster who has bamboozled “low information” voters into believing that America will be made “great again” by his Manichean, narcissistic, bombastic ramblings and who has actually appeared as an apocalyptic figure in a Joseph Conrad novel. Colonel Kurtz lives. He lives thanks to a corrupt, anachronistic political system infested by unlimited funds and super PACs on both sides of the aisle. But Republicans have excelled at the game, powered by corporate greed and a Supreme Court rationalizing that those same corporations are individuals who can buy elections. And no, I am not supporting Bernie.

This nightmare scenario has produced a zombie Dracula, coming to “take our country back.” The adoring masses of angry, disaffected white voters are massing in throngs to the demagogic drumbeat of isolationism, fear and despair. They cheer in unison at political rallies, reminiscent of Munich in 1939, the mad ravings of a man who people did not take seriously, and later plunging the world into an abyss.

All this is so hard to believe. President Obama, an analytical intellectual, has done his part to keep us from war, invested in infrastructure, clean energy, a deal keeping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, the treaty agreed to by a host of other nations, and who has initiated health care for 30 million Americans who had none and has conducted himself with class and dignity, besides being the first African-American President and a credit to his race. Even after enduring the slings and arrows of what can only be called racism from the right.

It all makes no sense.

Running for Mayor of Miami Beach, or How I Stopped Worrying and Love the People

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:12:29 GMT

Malefactors of great wealth

“. . . [these men] combine to bring about as much financial stress as possible, in order to discredit the policy of the government and thereby secure a reversal of that policy, so that they may enjoy unmolested the fruits of their own evil-doing. . . I regard this contest as one to determine who shall rule this free country—the people through their governmental agents, or a few ruthless and domineering men whose wealth makes them peculiarly formidable because they hide behind the breastworks of corporate organization.”

- Theodore Roosevelt 1907

The Miami Beach campaign is over. 11,000 of 48,000 registered voters have spoken, and Mayor Levine got over 6000 of those votes, and we got under 4000. Encouraged by activists into the lions den, I emerged chastened, more humble, yet unbowed. I realized some crucial mistakes, sorely needed debate preparation, and a media coach. The debate coaching should have included being able to meet Philip Levine's spiffy song and dance routine, because I emerged with the knowledge that the political debate in this election, consisted of dumbed-down discourse, platitudes, non-existent "accomplishments," and a non-stop retinue of mailers, pamphlets, banners, advertisements and slick videos of Mayor Levine descending from the heavens, with a voice over Hollywood, echo-chamber narrator, his deep tones preparing the Mayor for the next Papal beautification. "Mayor Philip Levine," it droned.

So the Mayor won, his great fortune deployed against me to protect his vested interest in the financial or political reward to be gained by the continued unfettered redevelopment of Miami Beach. Along the way, I had the good fortune to meet many interesting, dedicated people, who sincerely had the city's best interests at the center of their idealism. I wish to personally thank Daniel Ciraldo, Peter Erlich, Alex Fernandez, Randall Hilliard, Charles Urstadt, Clare McCord, Tonya Bhatt and last but not least, my faithful, loving wife Catherine who supported me throughout this entire speed-dating effort.

The editorial board of the Miami Herald, fecklessly endorsed Mayor Levine's candidacy as one that would, through "flashy TV ads” carve a more paradisiacal Miami Beach, a city that would inevitably succumb to his consolidation of power, his "vision" for its betterment. They hoped for his ethical rehabilitation as well as less arrogance during his second term. They confided to a colleague that I was "flat" in my presentation to them, the crux of which they affirmed in an intellectually dishonest editorial, praising me, questioning my experience (despite my twelve years of service) and toughness and endorsed the Mayor. There followed in succeeding days, simply a printed list of "names only" endorsements preceding the election. People carried that list into the booth. They did not think. They did not read. Ten percent of the vote probably gone in a puff of editorial smoke, cavalierly brushing aside the PAC, the shakedowns and the ethical issues that should have mattered to good journalists. Let's not even mention the early blackmail attempt reported to the MBPD, which later took only perfunctory steps to identify the perpetrator, despite a video identification by my campaign worker and a clear bank security photo of the messenger who dropped it off.

The mayor even attempted to have elected a intellectual dwarf who, sitting on the commission would have ensured an even more bullet-proof majority (he probably has one anyway). It might, however, be despoiled by a hard working candidate who was elected, despite the late endorsements of her opponents expressing fealty to the Mayor's slate.

The city charter is now effectively abrogated. Miami Beach will be here for "hundreds of years," Mayor Levine has said. After all, he sold his business for $300 million, so it must be true. And he is even featured in an article in this month's "Vanity Fair."

Perhaps Mayor Levine is correct. The city needs a Napoleon. Too many pesky gadflies, tree-huggers, preservationists, sea level rise believers, self-appointed retired lawyers who appear at city commission meetings and "scream," the Mayor said, ever magnanimous, in victory. Churchill needn't worry. The government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich--a true plutocracy backed by deep pocketed Russian oligarchs, constructing towers for hedge fund managers and ejecting the middle class. A town perhaps doomed to suffer the fate of looking like another gleaming, skyscrapered, hedge-fund Xanadu, a characterless zombie-like towered, Sunny Isles Beach-like entity where people believe that the sine qua non of status involves an elevator ride to one's apartment in your Porsche 911 turbo.

Stay tuned for more demolitions of historic homes on places like Star Island, the Venetian causeway, and on North Bay Road. Keep watching the other parts of our city as big block white houses replace the buildings of mid-century Miami Beach as bulldozers roam with impunity carrying demolition orders.

December is my last month after 12 years of service on two city boards and my last month as chairman of the Historic Preservation Board following six years of service there. I hope against hope that the city commission appoints people of the same quality with whom I had the privilege to serve. Insightful and aesthetically sensitive, we monitored almost 700 projects, most of which helped Miami Beach maintain its status as a predominant world destination.

I felt that I had an obligation to the dedicated community activists who so ardently supported me and who engaged an army of volunteers to fight a gigantically funded city political machine, headed by a twenty-first century Boss Tweed, despite whom, we defeated a major thrust into the treasured Ocean Terrace historic district. Keep fighting folks, be on guard, be vigilant and protect our precious city, our young city, only a 100-years-old fragile lady, now more vulnerable than ever.

We'll always have Paris.

I apologize for the absence of this blog since May. Running for office has its constraints, and some of them include not offending anyone. Those fetters are now removed.

Our local problems seem minuscule compared to the debate now surfacing in the wake of the Paris attacks by bloodthirsty, mayhem-spreading Islamist terrorists, their twisted version of a religious ethos compromising the normally safe feelings we feel in major Western cities. This climate where the practitioners of Islam refuse to speak out against the atrocities, is underwritten by a Saudi Arabia that practices the same brand of violence, subjugation of women, and religious intolerance, subsidizing a plethora of Mosques and radical Imams who preach hatred of the west. Our values are perverse, our women are prostitutes and for this, we deserve to die grisly deaths while sitting in Restaurants or attending a rock concert.

Here politicians scramble to sound tough, prescribing remedies, such as limiting war-torn refugees from entering the states, and recommending (Donald Trump) that all Muslims be "registered." Talk of this is reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

Police patrol the center of New York City, Paris, and London, armed to the teeth with submachine guns and riot gear, a Gestapo look and security panic mode in tow. And even here in Miami Beach, going to the movies even seems a bit risky, because targets here are softer than most places. Metal detectors in theaters cannot be too distant from now.

Since I last wrote about the Republican candidates, they seem to have entered a new level of craziness. Dr. Carson thinks that women should bear children of rape and incest, and that Jews would have shut down the Whermacht if they had been packing heat. Never mind that the mighty German Army shunted aside the armies of France and Belgium and almost destroyed the British army at Dunkirque, except for the miraculous evacuation. But Jews in the small villages, armed with handguns could have stopped it all. Only Christians should be President, he says. Really? Does the Constitution mention that?

The Donald would build a "beautiful" wall on the Mexican boarder and deport 11 million aliens and their children, whether born here or not, violating the constitution. He does not mention that immigration from Mexico is negative now, so the wall would keep them in, not out.

I could go on with this nonsense. But I will stop for now.

Great to be back!

Republicans on the March, Democrats, and a Socialist, too. Get ready America

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:11:07 GMT

"A national political campaign is better than the best circus ever heard of, with a mass baptism and a couple of hangings thrown in."

- H.L. Mencken

So now the race for the White House has begun. A Kentucky Derby field, eventually diminishing to a Preakness and a Belmont horse race of Republican politicians all of whom have a new prescription of their vision for the future, of course tempered by political expediency, PAC money and a host of other issues, not the least of which should be how they will govern. But the real issues reaching the American public will really be the distillation of focus groups, advertising slogans, negative ads, and last but not least the torrent of money from the Koch Brothers, and Sheldon Adelson, who are, shall we speculate, interested in advancing their bottom line through bought politicians (through unlimited campaign contributions.)

All this a result of the disastrous Citizen’s United case, conservative Republicans justifying it all by claiming that it has unleashed millions to the Unions thereby balancing the equation. In fact, it has not. The flood of PAC and super PAC money has corrupted the system, lengthened and polarized gullible voters with a flood of advertising from both sides of the aisle, 95% of which has no substance.

On top of all that, we have the warmonger class, the chicken hawks, here at home asserting that Iran should be bombed now and that if we do not bomb them now, we will be faced with a nuclear armed Iran, itching to explode the streets of Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem—to wipe out the Jewish State, interposing an Armageddon, an existential threat to the entire world. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, among others are beating the drums as loudly as they can. And, of course, denouncing any deal as another Munich, if you want to buy the argument of the false equivalence of Iran being another Nazi Germany.

CNN is already chomping at the bit, filling its 24 hour news cycle with repetitive irrelevancies such as Hillary’s hair color and the utterances of crazy people like Ted Cruz, who, I am assured by people who knew him at Princeton, was a brilliant debater. He had, supposedly, the ability to take a side in an argument, it did not matter which, and argue the other side into submission. Except he often outsmarted himself and came in second. I hope, of course, that he has not the ability to fool most voters who should see through his creepy façade. He even looks like Joseph McCarthy.

As I have written previously, the American Electoral system is a creaking remnant of the 19th century, except it was better then, because party bosses picked the candidates, and we were spared two years of primaries, talking heads and assorted other imbeciles who have no idea where it is all going, but sit on pundit panels prognosticating and picking out who will prevail.

Rand Paul, for example, has now moved from being a libertarian isolationist to a semi-hawkish statesman wannabe. This past week he sat with a bunch of Orthodox lunatics from Brooklyn, possibly telling them he is actually a member of the IDF and the Mossad, and also arguing at the same time that it was a mistake to take out Saddam Hussein and Mummar Quadafi. I am not making this up. This is not an acceptable position to the conservative base, but presumably he is already thinking about the general election.

Mike Huckabee is campaigning on his God and Jesus platform, clearly believing that the rapture is on its merry way, and that Jesus will return to the holy land and save Jews, who, incidentally will not qualify for heaven without converting to the true faith.

Jeb Bush, trying to overcome the baggage of his brother’s destruction of Middle Eastern power balances, and the invasion of Iraq on WMDs that did not exist, proclaiming "mission accomplished," is not quite sure which path to choose. He says his brother was a good President, but he also is stuck with the mess W. made, having to overcome the production of a lot of maimed and disabled Americans who have families that do not want another war at a cost of another three trillion dollars that might be better spent repairing our 19th century infrastructure. In addition, the science challenged, religiosity litmus test position of his brother’s administration in the appointments at the NIH the CDC and other government scientific agencies of religious sycophants does not help big brother (no pun intended) to convince Americans that another Bush is suitable for office. Tragically, though, he is the best the Republicans have.

Chris Christie, an arrogant, pompous, scandal encased leviathan of political ambition, does not seem to be made of Presidential timber, an office that requires a temperate, even well-ordered ability to relate to the voter. Not one that is inherently abrasive, who tells people to "shut up" if they happen to inquire about a position or even a personal family issue. Or, not to mention, a bridge scandal and political revenge baked into his obnoxious persona. And now, the kicker, his three staff members who have been indicted yesterday over the George Washington Bridge scandal, and may yet implicate him as a vengeful, retribution seeking dude who very well knew what was happening or at least created an atmosphere that allowed it to happen. Good riddance.

Scott Walker, who enraged working people for shutting down protests for a living wage, a man who disparaged the teachers union and other elements of Wisconsin society to advance his right wing political agenda. He mentions nothing about income inequality or that the top 1% now control 90% of the wealth.

Rick Santorum, a religious zealot, who does not understand the secular trend of American 21st century life, is considering another run, but he is yesterday’s news, thank goodness. He thinks women should stay home and bear children, not much else. He is a latter day Christian ayatollah and pretty stupid at that. His understanding of the new demographic of America is staggeringly ignorant.

Rick Perry thinks that there is a conspiracy to take away everyone's AK-47 assault rifles and is "studying up on Foreign Policy." Perhaps this time he will remember which country is which and which government department he will abolish. It certainly will not be the Defense Department.

And let us not forget the Donald, who this week blamed the Baltimore riots on the President, referring to him as African-American, but in a demeaning context. Can one imagine Trump as president “if he decides to run?” He has a fix for the Baltimore situation, but does not say what. Presumably he will unleash his concierges, headwaiters and croupiers to calm down the looters and rioters, when he emerges from his solid gold apartment on 5th avenue, leading his legions. I hope they are at least his Miss Universe contestants.

Last but not least, there is Marco Rubio, a panderer who will say anything to get elected. The thought of him becoming President is frightening. He talks about 21st century ideas, but is firmly stuck in the 1960s. Gay marriage? No. A woman’s right to choose? No. Religion in the schools? Yes. Immigration reform? Maybe. Trickle down economics that have not worked? Yes, for sure. Repeal Obama care? Yes. Any admission on the administration's progress on unemployment? No. Any admission that the Auto industry was saved? No. Any acceptance of climate change as a threat to future generations, or that his home state Florida may soon be under water? "I am not a scientist.." Well what about the 99% of climate scientists say so? "I am not a scientist, so I do not know." How about is your steak cooked enough? "I am not a chef."

On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders, a socialist who caucuses with the Democrats, but is an independent, seeking the Democratic nomination. Bernie, you are seeking the Democratic nomination, are you a Democrat? "No, I am an independent." Bernie, you need to be a party member if you want to win the nomination. If you want to win the lottery, buy a ticket.

Hillary and Bill are going to make a fine President and First Gentleman if they can overcome their integrity issues. Whitewater, Benghazi, and now we have the email “scandal.” I do not think they will make Mount Rushmore, but they may be the best choice we have. At least they have some ideas that might make the country functional, or semi-functional, depending upon one's point of view.

Auschwitz 70 years After

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:09:39 GMT

Prisoners were forced by the Nazi Guards to stand before the gallows and watch as a child hung from a noose, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front of him...

Behind me, I heard the same man asking,

"Where is God now?" And I heard a voice within me answer him:

"Where is He? Here He is--He is hanging here on the gallows."

- Elie Wiesel

Growing up with a secondary survivor.

My father, Bernard Wieder, 18, arrived in America in 1923 with big plans to bring his entire family here from the same small Hungarian town, Maramoros Sighet, where Elie Wiesel was born. He worked in Miami Beach as a busboy and then as a waiter in 1923 at the Nemo hotel in the winters and gambled at the dog track and horse tracks. He bought some striped pants and promoted himself to headwater. Miami Beach had only two policemen then and one of them was let go in the summer. "Nothing for the other one to do." he said wistfully. Miami Beach extended no further north than 5th Street. He met my mother, who was vacationing with her mother, in the 1930s at the Miami Beach Kennel Club on 1st Street. Her family did not like him, because he was not formally educated. He was self-educated, though, saying that he would read the New York Times, not the Forward when he first arrived to America "to learn English." He moved easily between Miami Beach and New York, where he had various jobs, eventually becoming a successful hotel owner in Sharon Springs, Lake Mahopac, as well as in Miami Beach.

But I do not want to get ahead of myself.

The US Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1924, announcing "Jews Keep Out" a year after my father arrived at Ellis Island. Dad had 6 brothers and sisters, conscientiously sending insulin to his diabetic father, until September 1939, when the war erupted with Hitler's panzers crushing Poland. As it happened, Dad had married my mother in November 1938, planning to take her to Hungary to meet his parents. Of course, that never happened. All his family perished except two younger sisters who managed to survive Auschwitz. They arrived in New York in 1946, and built lives for themselves, living in Brooklyn until they died in the 1990s.

How that happened is a story of courage.

In 1948, my father had returned to Miami Beach to live and became active here, participating in the construction of the louche Shore Club Hotel in 1950. I was an 8-year-old, swimming in the pool when the police raided the cabanas housing bookies in green eyeshades, who had always given me candies. Banks of black telephones lined the tables. "Here kid, take this chocolate," they said, semi-annoyed that I was distracting them from their calls. They knew I was the owner's son. Dad was partnered with another much wealthier man, whose also 8-year-old daughter was my swimming playmate. Her name was Priscilla. We lived two blocks away, in an post-war modern two-story apartment house, and during the hurricane of 1950 a two-by-four board crashed through the window almost killing my sister, aged 3 or me. I screamed, "Mommy! Mommy!," running in terror to her room. Mom was an optimistic stoic, extremely comforting.

My father was involved until the early 70’s in many Miami Beach iconic hotels, including the Martinique, which he sold in 1974. My father had completely transitioned in post-war America to the hotel business, after working in Long Island City at the Sperry plant making Norden bombsights during the war and also working as a dress salesman for my mother's brother, a successful 7th avenue dress manufacturer and hotel owner who was connected to people, some of whom were characters of Damon Runyonesque proportions, later appearing before the Kefauver committee investigating the rackets in New York City. One individual, particularly influential, was instrumental in helping my father achieve his goals of getting his sisters to America. He personally knew congressmen and that was what Dad needed for his mission of mercy. Mr. Al Cobb (name changed) had taken the 5th amendment a hundred times when called to testify before the Kefauver committee. If you wanted to move a dress out of your stitching factory, you had to use his trucking company, its tentacles spread all over the garment district.

It was through this connection that Dad was able to circumnavigate the American anti-Semitic immigration barriers to allow his sisters and 21 others from his home town entry into the United States, including posing as a Colonel in the US Army to get to Europe just after the liberation, and find his sisters. How he accomplished that is a story rife with intrigue. Dad had managed to obtain a “commission” as a US Army colonel, involving a trip to Washington, DC and a visit to a congressman who shall go unnamed and the details of which involved an exchange of, shall we say, consideration. Dad was introduced to some people at the War Department, received a brief orientation, a few uniforms festooned with eagles, and was told that if he was discovered, “we do not know you.” With his commission in hand, and MATS transit orders (military air transport command) he returned to New York, and headed to Roosevelt field to depart for Europe. He boarded a C-47, later known as a DC-3, flying to Gander, Newfoundland, Shannon, Ireland and on to Paris. At the time, no commercial air traffic was available from New York to France, where he was headed. Arriving in Paris, he set up his headquarters at the Hotel California, on the Rue de Berri, across from the New York Herald tribune and near the Etoile. It was from there that he needed to requisition an ambulance, a jeep and a driver to get to Hamburg and Bergen-Belsen. How he did all this required huge confidence and an abundance of testosterone. He knew that he did not want his sisters in a DP camp, where conditions were devastatingly filthy, and with many of the prisoners in near-death condition. Even George Patton had remarked that the Jews there were like filthy animals, the stench overwhelming. Patton, despite his military genius, was in line with the fashionable Antisemitism of the time and the racist mien of America. Dad knew that his two sisters could not survive much longer.

On route to Bergen-Belsen, he made the mistake of dropping into an officer’s mess (Colonels and up) and was almost discovered, because he was not properly attired. “I’m sorry, sir but I cannot admit you here in these clothes,” informed an MP. He was in fatigues and dress uniforms were de riguer. He promptly exited, fearing discovery. From then on, as he told us later, he stuck en route to enlisted men’s mess.

Undeterred, however, he was going to get his sisters to America; they would not have to wait for a year or two for a visa. Not his two sisters, 60 and 70 pounds each. Not the emaciated remnants of the young and beautiful sisters he had remembered, and in his mind, abandoned. Not the sisters who suffered because he did not act earlier. Not the sisters who were still now, under British occupation living in squalor and the walking dead. They told him about the gassing of their siblings and their mother. My grandfather died before that of diabetic shock, in 1940. “He was lucky,” Dad later told me.

Dad was about 5’10, with black hair and green eyes. Many people, especially women, said he was the spitting image of Spencer Tracy, and photographs reveal some of that, only Dad might have been a bit better looking. He had an easy time with women. While in Paris, he arranged for the Hungarian women in town who were there either through his efforts or some other means, to come to his hotel room for baths. He had hot water, a precious commodity. Through a common cousin and Auschwitz survivor, Olga Lengyel, (author of "Five Chimneys,") He met my future wife’s family in Paris and they housed my fragile aunts and his niece at their apartment while they were waiting for visas to come to America. Those visas were, I think, also provided through “the 7th Avenue connection.” Twenty years later, when I travelled to Europe for the first time as a student, he told me to look up his old friend, a Paris physician, who later became my father-in-law. My mother-in-law, still lucid at 100 years of age told me how charming and probably promiscuous my father was during those times.

My first memory of him was as a three year old, with my mother calling me to the phone for, in those days, was a "transatlantic call." He had been gone 18 months, leaving my mother to tend to me alone.

So my father was a survivor also, even though he spent the war in America. After the war, after he returned home, he thought about Auschwitz every day, he spoke about it every day, read about it continually and until the day he died, carried that torment and guilt with him of being unable to save his family. He cogitated in a darkened room, chain smoked, had his meals sent in, and at times, could not speak to anyone. As I grew up, I did not nearly understand the depth of his despair. He developed a schizophrenic relationship with religion. He popped Phenobarbitals. He wept for years. He spoke of a bloodthirsty God that he rejected because God was either "powerless or evil." He never overcame his depression and he visited it upon my sister, my mother and me. He needed us to be nearby, he was warm and financially generous to us, but emotionally he was not there. In the end we gravitated toward our mother who tried to protect us from his emotional storms.

I did not have the skills then to talk to him, to convince him it was not his fault. That only one in a thousand people would have had the courage to do what he did. I think often how different it would be if I could just talk to him one time now and tell him it was not his fault, not my fault that his guilt should abate, that he could let it go. But it was not to be. It is too late.

As a child and now as a grown man with my own grandchildren, I still cannot reconcile my Holocaust-torn relationship with my father, the damage it caused to our relationship and the scars from it that I carry to this very day, 70 years after Auschwitz.

A Few Thoughts on 2014 and Beyond

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:08:43 GMT

Pessimistic thoughts

This has been a year of war, pestilence, famine, terrorism, religious zealotry, as well as startling and gruesome examples of man's inhumanity to man.

The Arab world, convulsing in paroxysms of unspeakable religious sangfroid, hatred and brutality, provokes undue existential anxieties in the West. Our drones fly around and kill people without trial or jury, assuaging our fears, but not our consciences. We have been at war for thirteen years with no end in sight. The government snoops in our personal business and belongings and runs us through scanners to see if we are weaponized. Explosives become more sophisticated. Airliners are shot down by a kleptocratic, self-absorbed, homophobic, egomaniacal, murdering ex KGB officer who wishes to destabilize Europe to preserve his notions of being the next Czar and possibly forging a new Soviet Union. It will not happen; Russia is now a second rate power with a sputtering economy.

Google, Amazon, and other Internet giants invade our privacy, foretelling a dystopian, Orwellian denouement. The top 1% of the American public controls 90% of the wealth and the middle class is caught in a technology vice displacing their jobs, their security, and their self-esteem. Robots threaten to replace almost all human tasks within a hundred years. Many scientists, including Stephen Hawking say that we are engineering our own demise, and that evolution is about to take a quantum leap with the frail, imperfectly designed human about to be discarded on the slag heap of history. Either we will be slaves of the machines or their masters, probably the former, he says.

Climate change threatens to inundate coastal cities in a slew of super storms, melting glaciers and drowning polar bears.

Some light

Despite all that, in the short term, there is reason to hope that the world is getting better. Religious fervor is diminishing in most nations, the younger generation yielding to social pressures and the new religion of the Internet, technological innovation and scientific skepticism about age-old myths.

The Obama administration, empowered by its freedom from voter approval is set upon a course of leaving a transformational legacy, despite what promises to be a more ossified congress. The great recession is over, the doomsayers have been proven wrong about the economy, unemployment is at a new low, the US Auto industry is on the upswing, the stock market is at new highs, medical science is on the verge of curing a host of intractable diseases including many cancers and other maladies, corporate profits are roaring, the US is now energy independent, and Petro nations including Vladimir Putin's Russia are reeling from one trick pony economies that are in free fall. People have health care and cannot be dumped by their insurance companies for pre-existing conditions.

Cuba

Here in Miami, some old-line Cubans are decrying the new move toward relations with Cuba, long overdue. Fifty years of a failed policy, despite Marco Rubio's disingenuous bloviating, are correctly to be jettisoned along with an immigration policy that has failed miserably. On the other hand, the younger generation of Cuban-Americans, born here and with no intention of returning to Cuba to become sugar farmers, cigar rollers, or nightclub impresarios, are mostly happy with the new direction of US policy.

The Cuban government fears that its chief oil supplier, Venezuela, will be a failed government. Nicholas Maduro, the successor to Hugo Chavez, is running into increasing problems running his economy, because his oil revenues are down 60% and his social programs are not sufficiently funded, which could lead to riots in the street, not a good image for his socialist paradise. Watch out for this in 2015.

Some of us remember the Cuban missile crisis, the Bay of Pigs, the bungled CIA attempts to assassinate Fidel with an exploding cigar and a number of other intelligence fiascos involving Cuba. We have always conducted diplomacy with a host of dictatorships---Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Soviet Union, East Germany, etc. Why not Cuba? The arguments for punitive disengagement in the case of Cuba, a small nation just off our shores, and embargo is so 20th century. It has failed miserably. Nations follow their interests and do not always do well on a diet of morality, even be it the ultimate ideal.

Opposition lies in a small cadre of Cubans who have controlled Florida swing-state voting. Clearly that is why a moderate like Bill Nelson has voiced opposition to a movement he would normally favor, since he is ordinarily quite progressive.

National polls in other states mostly favor trade with Cuba, or at least diplomatic relations, and just think of it, those who still smoke Cuban cigars will no longer have to smuggle contraband through Canada. What is next for Florida? Humm, let me think. Legalized weed in Cuban cigars and Gay marriage?

Flying Misery Class 2014

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:07:55 GMT

I fondly remember flying Eastern Airlines from Miami to New York when I was a child. My dad made me put on a sport coat and tie, we rode to the airport, left our car in the small parking lot off Northwest 36th St., handed our bags to the clerk and boarded the DC 6 and were on our way. While on the plane, we were served with real food, on a linen tablecloth, and Eastern Airlines cutlery that included glassware and a hot entree. Dad had a complimentary Scotch and Soda, his drink of choice. The seats were spacious and comfortable and the flight attendants cheerful and buoyant. And that was not first class.

Last Sunday, November 30th my wife and I, after a family reunion, were to return home on an Air France flight from Paris to Miami.

Arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport three hours early to enable us to do some leisurely duty-free shopping and relax before the flight, we were greeted by a throng of perhaps 1000 people checking in to various flights, and only two ticket agents at the counter. (There were places for at least 10 agents.) The lines were totally gridlocked. The sight was horrifying. People, all in the same queue, resembled an assemblage of chickens in an industrial coop on a Perdue chicken farm (at which animal rights activists are concerned mightily about cruelty to animals) But I digress.

After fuming in the lines for about a half an hour and going nowhere, I proceeded to the counter to complain to the station manager. He apologized, but had advised my wife "he had no personnel." Enraged, I told him he should be sacked straight away.

A few feet away were some Air France people who were standing around doing nothing at the First Class check in area. When I remarked that they should go over and help the others check the passengers in he said, "That's not my job."

Advised that the flight would be delayed because of the overly lengthy check in times, we thought we would have time to shop and catch the plane. The check in process consisted of going to a bank of boarding pass machines, some of which were out of order or concealed by the throng, and no one to direct on using them or guide us through the process, then standing in another line to deposit one's bags.

By this time, 2 1/2 hours had passed and the information supplied by the check in agent that the flight would be delayed because of the length of check in turned out to be deceptive misinformation deliberately calculated to assuage an angry slew of passengers. The few check in agents were overwhelmed by total managerial incompetence, and disdainful of angry customers. "I am just one person," was the contemptuous response from one of the clerks.

After this passage through a depressing medieval Star Chamber clearly designed for religious heretics, we had to race down the one mile walkway, and then catch a train to the terminal. Along the way. we walked at break neck pace past shops we wanted to visit, but barely had time to make our plane, before they closed the doors. Chock full of people most of whom had already boarded from connecting flights, the overhead racks were full and we had to struggle to find a place for our carry-on bags. As we had passed through business and first class seating, we envied the priced-out-of-reach wide seats, some of which could be beds during the ten hour flight to Miami and the condescension of the first class passengers, who clearly felt superior. But they were not, they just had paid an unconscionable amount of money simply to be treated as human beings.

One cannot not justify the multi thousand-dollar price difference between the classes. After all this was not a two-week cruise where some semblance of a rationale for the price could be made. And being over 70 years old and wanting to have enough money to retire without living in the street is a reasonable argument for pragmatism.

As we struggled to our seats, they narrowed to the extent that anyone over the size of a Hobbit could fit. In addition, I suffer from a bad back, a result of back surgery that limits my sitting time. The armrests squeezed my hips and I knew that for ten hours, I would be crushed in an orthopedic vice, not to mention my knees colliding with the seat in front. Fortunately there was a nice young man in front of me who did not recline after I had knocked the wine off my tray table (if you want to call it that), spilling it on the passenger next to me, a pleasant German fellow who said he would not send me the cleaning bill.

My wife wrote a letter of complaint to the Air France and their apology consisted of an offer of a $50 gift certificate for her inconvenience. Thanks a lot. Two first class tickets would be an apology. A $50 gift certificate is an insult, and further evidence of the contempt with which the airlines regard their customers.

This is not a unique story and I know that I hate air travel more and more.

Update December 9: Since I wrote this rant, I received a slew of emails from readers who shared experiences not dissimilar to mine.

Election Post Mortem 2014

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:07:09 GMT

"As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests."

- Gore Vidal

"It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the vote decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything."

- Joseph Stalin

President Obama now faces a 2 year lame duckdom of dealing with a newly constituted congress, controlled by Republicans, and a new senate majority leader to be who had vowed to see to it that Mr. Obama was only a one term President. He did not get his wish, but now he has gotten his power. Mr. McConnell and Mr. Obama clearly have different perspectives and, even worse, bear each other no good will.

Now, in the majority, McConnell faces the prospect of doing something to endear his party to alienated Democratic and minority voters who, except in Kentucky, saw him and Mr. Boehner as the principal choreographers of obstructionism. That may not be entirely true now; they are freed of the Tea Party albatross since that group of feckless individuals are now consigned to the fringe where they belong. Progressives who are now either apoplectic or almost in a suicidal funk may not be as disappointed by the next two years as they think, since the "evolving values" of the GOP are now faced with the prospect of building some sort of defensible record against what will probably be the Clinton juggernaut. Now they must govern or at least create the perception that congress is getting something done. Angry voters will make them pay the price in two years if they do not.

The Democratic candidates were certain that they wanted less to do with the President during their campaigns than the Ebola virus. The President, increasingly isolated, was glad to oblige. He seems like a pale shadow of Woodrow Wilson, who could not sell his agenda to the American public either. Both are misplaced academics, with Obama having the additional strike against him of either race, or an unwillingness to deal with those in congress with whom he regards with thinly disguised contempt. His remarks at the national press club this year were telling, and although supposedly a joke, his revulsion of having a drink with McConnell was clearly enunciated. “You have a drink with Mitch McConnell,” he said in reply to those who suggested that he do so.

Despite all this animosity and polarization, and the lack of attention to pressing issues, the country faces a crisis of income inequality, climate change, decaying infrastructure, foreign policy threats, national defense, NSA eavesdropping and an economy that shows declining unemployment to a rate of now below 6%, a figure made less impressive by the fact that people who are not looking for jobs any longer because they cannot locate them and are not included in the lower figure for job growth. Although the United States is currently doing better than the rest of the advanced nations in terms of growth, and has an upcoming energy windfall (we will be a net exporter, not importer of energy). The fact remains that the old jobs done by many humans are now supplanted by robots and computers. So even though corporate profits are soaring, the stock market is booming, the sad problem is that most of the wealth generated in our new economy goes to the top 1%. The middle class is losing the battle of fulfilling the American dream of home ownership and having children who are doing better than their parents.

This angers and frightens voters and that is what happened in this election.

The campaigns, conducted mostly on a local level, as do most mid-terms, had focused on the incompetence of the national administration, and showered their opponents with negative ads. The gubernatorial race here in Florida set a new standard for money spent and unusually obnoxious negativity. No discussion of issues important to the state permeated any of the debates, if you want to call them that. Moreover, the obscene amounts of money spent for TV ads dissing the opponent may have won the election, but served no use in advancing a sane national agenda. If Florida can vote for an amoral businessman to “create jobs” (the economic recovery having nothing to do with it) then the voters get what they deserve.

On the other hand, a Republican friend of mine correctly pointed out that a President needs to lead and there was not much evidence of that leadership in the last few years. Aside from the isolation that is inherent in living at the White House, the President’s circle of friends and advisers has shrunken. Obama did not lead; he thought that his ideas were so good that opponents would fall in place because those ideas were of such quality they could not be disputed. Getting down and dirty to get what he wanted was out of the mix; LBJ did not do that. FDR did not. JFK did not. Neither did Lincoln. They were politicians who moved in a political world. It seems clear now that Obama is incapable of making any such gestures. He was fine as a campaigner, but in the business of governing a messy democracy, heavily influenced by talk radio, a 24/7 news cycle, huge amounts of advertising money, and pundits analyzing his speeches almost before they are finished, the evolution of the political animal must be as fast as tweets. People no longer tune into Walter Cronkite or Huntley and Brinkley. The network news is almost as anachronistic as Billy Graham, a cavalcade of hemorrhoid medications, blood pressure pills and other remedies for the geriatrics who tune in.

The fact is that Obamacare is increasingly successful, the stimulus worked, the auto industry was kept alive, the economy although weak, is recovering slowly. But many of the things which happen in the currents of history fall outside the scope of Presidential power. For example, the revolutions in the Middle East, financial collapse in 2008, the bubble in the stock market, Ebola, ISIS, Israeli-Palestinian inability to reconcile, Russian aggression and the limits of American power, emanating from a world that is increasingly amorphous and disparate as well as "allies" who now have national interests that differ from ours. And people, let’s not omit Junior Bush’s invasion of Iraq on hyped intelligence and following up with occupation misfeasance that set the wheels in motion for ISIS, and empowered Iranian ambitions for both nuclear weapons and Middle Eastern hegemony.

But in the final analysis the American public is more and more subject to the economic sledgehammer of inequality. That inequality stems from less and less of us able to afford a home, or a higher education for their children. CEOs making obscene salaries and 15% of the public living below the poverty level as well as the vanishing of the middle class. This does not make happy voters. Republicans or Democrats who ignore these issues do so at their peril and even worse, at the peril of our republic. Whether the Republican formula that funnels more tax breaks to the rich and ignores the needs of the middle class in their philosophy of "job creation" and trickle down economics works or will work is still open to question. It has not worked in the past. Moving to the center does work and that is what Republicans have not done, focusing instead on red herring social issues such as abortion, climate change denial, religious hypocrisy, and the 47% who are sucking at the teat of big government.

So, Republicans, I wish you success, because now, in your hands, rests the fate of our floundering ship of state.

Isis and Ebola On the Move

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:05:49 GMT

"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”

- Marie Curie

Ebola.

The media frenzy about the potential spread of Ebola in the United States is a typical overblown rumination on the 24/7 news cycle. We know it spreads in Africa, because of the absence of a health care infrastructure, stable governments, and the remnants of a British, French, Belgian and German system of empire that robbed the natural resources of lands of uneducated people who had not yet entered the 19th and 20th centuries.

America participated, of course, in these colonial enterprises by importing slaves in irons on boats that would not now be worthy of transporting animals, let alone humans.

So the question we must pose, is what are the causes of such primitive civilizations and why did not the African continent spawn more advanced societies? After all, they have had a few hundred years to do so. The reasons for this delay has not yet been fully answered, although many have offered their opinion, including scholars who are well-versed on this topic. Bernard Lewis, the great Princeton University scholar and author, argues that the conditions of Arab-Muslim primitivism are a result of self-inflicted wounds as a result of culture and religion and the subjugation of women rather than colonialism.

The same retrograde civilizations are now confronted with a monumental health challenge, including the prospect of 10,000 new cases of Ebola a week in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria. This is clearly catastrophic, and could make the Black Death of Europe look pallid by comparison. But the Black Death (bubonic plague) took place in Europe, reaching England in 1348 and killing half the population. It was finally discovered to have been spread by flea-infested rats and originated in China, travelling across the trade routes.

Ebola can now travel through people taking airplanes, but not is as easily spread, since it requires direct contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids. It is not an airborne virus. It is not at all encouraging, however, that a supposedly protected health care worker in the US has been infected by perhaps a slip-up in protocol while removing infected gear. It is evidence that the virus can be spread easily by direct contact and a slip in sanitary protocol. But now that so many people are potentially victims of this scourge, a vaccine may be around the corner, because big pharma can make money on it. Ebola, although around for 13 years or so, was never enough of a threat to warrant interest. Just a few dead Africans. Not enough to warrant investing in a cure.

Nevertheless, people at the CDC do not expect a pandemic here in the United States, nor in the more advanced countries of Western Europe. A person taking an airplane ride to anywhere, though, might harbor some fearful thoughts of who might be their seat mate or if they are passing a drink to a fellow passenger. What happened to the 300 pound fatso problem in the coach seat next to you? Seems like a wonderful experience by comparison.

This air travel paranoia already extends to underwear bombers, disappearing airplanes, homicidal maniacs, unruly passengers who are driven crazy by people reclining their seats in front of you and not to mention, poor service, surly flight attendants, and excruciatingly long lines in the airport. Maybe the Black Death was better. One could simply stay home and die surrounded by family and friends under the thatched roof, while warring armies fight each other over religious differences, heretics and let’s not forget heathens such as Jews and atheists.

ISIS/ISIL

ISIS or ISIL (synonymous) distills Islamism into a culture of violence, and gruesome snuff videos. ISIS criminals have had whatever essence of humanity degraded into a savagery not seen since the Holocaust. Thousands have been slaughtered in the name of religion. Thirteen years of American training of the Iraqi army has been squandered on people who have no moral courage to stand up for what is right. American tanks and weapons have been captured by ISIS fighters who now employ them to fight to establish a caliphate, driven by a madman-leader who seeks a world where women are slaves and those men who oppose them are beheaded online.

These actions have provoked debates whether Islam is an evil in and of itself, or a peaceful religion that has been distorted by fundamentalist zealotry. Prominent public intellectuals have been debating this issue on television, You tube, Twitter and in the print media. Some interpret passages from the Koran and cite examples of how it prescribes the death penalty for those who wish to leave the religion, and others maintain that such strictures occur in the misogynistic Old Testament and even in the Christian bible, quoting some calls by even Jesus to take up the sword. All the texts are contradictory—Christian, Jewish and Islamic because contrary instructions abound in all of them. And history shows they were written at different times, including the Old Testament.

It is hard to ignore religious persecutions throughout human history—the Crusades, the disembowelments of heretics, the burnings of witches and religious dissidents, the Holocaust, the Tutus, the Armenian slaughter, the slaughters at Srebrenica, ethnic cleansing, as exemplars of man’s basic inhumanity to man and the inability some of the people who do believe to achieve comfort from the inability of religion and prayer to have any of those prayers answered. Perhaps in few hundred years--the time it normally takes cultures to change--we will evolve beyond the primitive instincts of antipathy and the need of man to war with one another. But do not count on it any time soon.

The Middle East on the Anniversary of the Great War (to end All Wars)

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:03:20 GMT

"He Who sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind..."

- Hosea 8:7

One hundred years after the Central Powers fought the Allies in the forests of the Ardenne, Flanders, and the trenches throughout France where millions died excruciatingly in bloody disembowelment, dismemberment and gaseous clouds of poison, Europe is deluged with the remnants of their colonial empires. the Sykes-Picot treaty artificially carving up the Middle East and that presided over the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire still lives with us today--as a creaking anachronism. Some argue that the only real countries in the Middle East are Egypt, Persia (Iran) and Turkey. Recently, however, the boundary between artificially created Iraq and Syria is vanishing into a morass of perverted theocracy.

The warring tribes of Arabia, as depicted in T.E. Lawrence's classic tale, still exist in an even more virulent format. In one part of that great film, Anthony Quinn enters a tent to unify the Arab tribes in their British-inspired battle against the Turks. Bedlam ensues, the tribes shouting insults and homicidal threats against each other. Lawrence is aghast but phlegmatically persists in his quest to become Lawrence of Arabia.

Nothing really has changed in the Arab world, except an exacerbation of the old conflicts partially because of the technological empowerment and unification of previously amorphous individuals who heretofore were mostly disconnected, and exacerbating the old religious dichotomies between the sects. The tribes still exist, therefore, but with more cohesiveness because they are able to talk on cell phones, plotting a new Arab world order based upon Sharia law. Since the opinions as to whose Sharia is correct differ and there is little, if any rational discourse among the factions, we have religious war. In addition, US meddling created a power vacuum, filled by warring fundamentalists.

The Western colonial powers which had misanthropically built their oil-driven economies upon the subservience of these more primitive societies are now reaping the whirlwind. The European colonial powers, having participated in the carving up of the Middle East into artificial territories are now subsumed by immigrants derived from their colonial past.

However, in all fairness, it is not entirely their fault. The Islamic world simply has not yet had a Reformation. That Reformation occurred in Europe in the 16th century. The Islamists are just a few centuries behind, steeped in ignorance, subjugation of women and barbarism. Most of us in the West cannot really any longer understand fundamental religious wars although much of our civilization arose from them. Getting involved in them is a zero-sum game.

The Arab world, wracked by tribalism, Islamism, fundamentalism, and a perversion of the faith is on a great particle-accelerator cultural collision course with modernity. What is hard to understand is why, in a more modern world, these religious differences have become even more pronounced.

Were all the beheadings and slaughter of religious minorities always present, or are they just more visible today because of information technology? Was it simply the rule of steel-fisted autocrats who suffered no dissent that tamped down any opposition? It sort of begs the question that if the concentration camps in Poland had been visible through satellite imagery, would the Nazis have been able so secretly prosecute their unspeakable crimes?

Many of the youth, in Iran, for example, would like to shed the religious strictures cast upon them by their authoritarian theocracy. They just do not have enough steam to do it. The United States has lost much of its power to change the course of events, but perhaps can contribute to the destruction of the more radical elements through selective and covert activity and strategic bombing, such as is occurring now in Iraq and Syria. This, however, is problematic at best and useless at worst, because nation-building takes hundreds of years.

Here in the US there are some who fear that ISIS wishes to establish a caliphate and to kill all the infidels (us). Such marginal threats may exaggerate Islamophobia here, and fears of another 9/11, but with our security forces spying on everyone, it seems less likely that someone will bring a suitcase nuke to the Homeland anytime soon, although, who knows? This results in a demand for more vigilance, more effective means of defense strategy and less freedom.

But as dangerous as current threats seem, we have lived through much worse, such as over 700,000 Americans dead in a civil war, and 253,000 dead GIs in World War II and 53,000 dead in Viet Nam. War seems so 19th and 20th century, but the current television news broadcasts say not. President Obama in expressing this thought, invoked, of course, the ire of Lindsay Graham and John McCain, who, though not saying so, would probably like to send more US troops into the fray.

We think that moderation in addressing our problems today, as important as they are, seems more prudent than rushing into another war. Should the US be the world's policeman? Should we have been afraid of the Communists dominoes falling in Southeast Asia? Is South Korea a product of American determination? Should the Europeans, especially the Germans be devoting far more of their GDP to deter a egomaniacal kleptocratic, aggressive Vladimir Putin who has stifled dissent in Russia and has usurped control of the media? Believing that Putin has 80% internal approval means that Russians are stupid or that they do not have access to full information or, perhaps, Russian culture gravitates towards autocracy. After all, their democratic institutions are less than 35 years old. Finally, Russia reasserting control over Ukraine is not an entirely new condition. Why Putin wants a Ukrainian economic albatross around his neck does not entirely make sense, except an narcissistic, egomaniacal power trip, or a paranoid fear of NATO dominating what was former Soviet territory. In any event, paranoid egomaniacs have been in charge of large nations before and the result has not been, shall we say, utopian. This KGB gangster fits quite neatly in that paradigm.

Today, September 1st is the 75th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland, generating the conflagration of World War II, resulting in 50 million deaths. Churchill had warned about the dangers of appeasement. Does the moderation of the Obama administration represent the actions of Neville Chamberlain? These lessons of history are not so easy to interpret; today's world is far more open and, at the same time, more complex. The new world order is not, by any means a bipolar environment of America and the USSR. Republicans such as John McCain and Lindsey Graham plead for more active US involvement, but do not advocate direct US "boots on the ground." Democrats say that we need to do more to support the rebels. But which ones? Where are the moderates in the Arab world who speak out against ISIS?

The Middle Eastern whirlwind sowed by Bush and Cheney has not even begun to be played out.

Book Review: Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 06:14:41 GMT

Book Review:

"Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin"

- Timothy Snyder

A monumental feat of scholarship, meticulously researched, and marked by a deep understanding of the killing fields that comprised the Ukraine, Poland, and part of the Soviet Union, during 1933-1945, Snyder, a Yale historian, has carefully documented the unspeakable with a new perspective that staggers even the most macabre of imaginations.

Within the period covered by the book, and in what Snyder calls the Bloodlands, Nazi Germany murdered ten million people and Stalin another four million. These stupefying numbers (not including Western Europe or other parts of Europe) occurred because of some events that had gone as planned and some that had not. They occurred because of the personalities of two monstrous individuals, Hitler and Stalin, both of whom used their duplicity to rationalize their crimes to either consolidate their own power or to provide the justification for their acts. Hitler saw the war going the wrong way in 1941 and shifted his idea of victory to make Europe Judenrein (free of Jews). Stalin, when collectivization and modernization failed, caused massive starvation in the 1930s, created the “Great Terror,” murdering his own people by the millions through starvation, gunshot, and deportation to the Gulags in order to win a "victory" against his perceived enemies and the enemies of his brand of Communism.

This is a unique version of the history we are used to seeing in the countless books that have been written about World War II and the Holocaust.

Stalin's plans for modernization in the early 30s, causing great famine and in 1937 and 1938, the Soviets identified kulaks (peasant farmers) as enemies of Soviet power also including minorities on his “enemies” list, instituting mass murder of his own people.

In 1939 Hitler and Stalin invaded Poland as allies. There followed a policy of “belligerent complicity,” involving the killing of women and children on both sides of a line drawn by the German foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop and his Soviet counterpart, Viacheslav Molotov. This line was drawn in the bloodlands, mostly the Ukraine and down the middle of Poland.

Stalin never suspected that Hitler would later double-cross him in 1941, ignoring many warnings from his ministers and foreign heads of intelligence. This was followed by Hitler’s policy of General Plan Ost using the Western Soviet Union as a colony for Germany, wherein the local populace would be enslaved, murdered, deported or otherwise exterminated and then replaced with ethnic Germans. This plan had to be delayed, but when the Soviets were not conquered as quickly as Hitler expected, in 1941, Hitler then embarked on the Final Solution—the murder of all Jews he could touch. This would be his victory.

The two systems--Stalinism and Nazism, Snyder points out, created a symbiotic relationship, allowing each perversion to justify crimes committed at essentially the same time and place, an almost quantum mechanic of death.

This book is a must read for anyone who is interested in European history and the slaughter committed by civilized nations run by paranoid madmen--the nations of Goethe, Schiller, Beethoven, and Wagner and the other of Tolstoy, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff.

Bloodlands do not include non Jews who were killed in the millions as well as the above figures.

USSR: Bloodlands

Human losses of the USSR in World War II (included in the above figures of total war dead)

Putin's Folly

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 06:12:45 GMT

"Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others."

- Niccolo Machiavelli

Republican hawks, including the inimitable John McCain, are dyspeptically belching bellicosity over the expected Russian annexation of the Crimea and possibly Eastern Ukraine. "Obama is weak," they all sing, cacophonously. "Obama has sapped the strength of the United States. The North Koreans and the Iranians sense it. And we will pay the price for his gutting our military." "We are in danger of losing all our geo-strategic power." They make no mention of our invasions Iraq and Afghanistan having increased American influence.

The fact is that the US has lost much of its global empire, just as did the British. But now we are gaining a new empire--energy independence. Globalization does not function through territorial conquest or dominance and those who think so are residing in the last century, including the prominent senior senator from Arizona who, despite his heroism and captivity has never seen a war he does not like.

Global strength lies in homegrown economic success, but that is not to imply that the world should not speak out and sanction Russian thuggery, a naked power-grab by a latter-day Cossack.

The world, however, has changed since 1939, rendering the Munich--Chamberlain--Hitler appeasement analogies no longer the paradigm of international puissance. Angela Merkel, speaking to the Bundestag, voiced Germany's concern about Russian aggression, not speaking only for Deutschland, but speaking for 27 members of the European Union. Students of the alliances that led to the First World War (one hundred years ago) understand that alliances that led to that war and to World War II are no longer de rigueur. The United States, a reluctant entrant to that war as well as a semi-reluctant entrant to World War II twenty years later, should understand that nation-states no longer have the influence over their populace they once had. "Putin is engaging in 20th century politics," Merkel said angrily. She ought to know, her forebears were champion malefactors of the art.

The lessons of Iraq, Viet Nam, Afghanistan, and other failed wars costing thousands of American lives, garnished by trillions of lost dollars, have soured Americans on the unexpected consequences of poorly chosen battles. The empowerment of "everyman" through information technology enables people to clearly and more quickly see the misfeasance of their leaders. Putin, despite his attempts at suppressing internal dissent, is seen by most of the world community as the thug that he is, his preening Olympic strut in Sochi having vanished with the melting snows. Even if he annexes the Crimea and the dubious referendum provides a pretext to do so, he is going to pay the price with the world community, despite Republicans in congress heaping blame on the President for American "weakness."

There will be sanctions, served up by the world community for Vladimir Putin. But let's take a deeper look at his worldview. Historically part of Russia, and always an obsession since the Czars, the Russians enjoy contractual rights to the Crimea's warm water ports because the rest of the Russian northern ports are locked in ice for most of the year. Without warm water ports, Russian influence and global shipping diminishes exponentially, obliging them to rely on land transport, and even worse, needing access through other countries for a route to the seas. But these ports were not in jeopardy. And now, the war waged by the European Union and the United States will be economic and not military.

What some are forgetting that it is the Ukrainians themselves who are to blame for much of the current crisis. Their Slavic Polish brethren have managed to straighten out their economy as a prerequisite to having been admitted to the European Union, frightening Putin. Happy consolidating his power because of the Ukrainian government's incompetence, he can divert attention from the growing perception by his own people about manifold problems within Russia itself. Obsessing about NATO and the EU moving toward the Russian borders, Putin promulgates a Western conspiracy to undermine Russian hegemony. He is partially right; the West does seek incorporation of most of Europe into the EU, both as a war preventative and, just as importantly, as a key to growing the European Union economic sphere. This is not necessarily contrary to Russian interests, unless the leadership fears more transparency and integrity in government, the latter not a lesson taught in the KGB.

What Putin does not realize is that the same nationalist forces that caused the break up of the Soviet Union are still extant in Ukraine and even in the Crimea. Having not disappeared, those forces are simply exacerbated by a failing economy, the key to Western influence that Putin ignores in his imperial quest. The disparate forces in Ukraine, ethnic Russian speakers and ethnic Ukrainians are still going to clash, unless the basket case Ukrainian economy shows dramatic improvement, a process that will take years. The Russian economy, meanwhile, now dependent more than ever on energy and gas prices, will be obliged to sustain more impoverished geography without the wherewithal to do so, especially if energy prices tumble and sanctions bite. (This principle also applies to places like Venezuela, shoring up the sputtering Cuban economy with subsidies from oil revenues, whilst restless Venezuelans riot in the streets.)

Putin may find himself in an economic dungeon, sanctions operating against him; more discontented Russians, and no way out.

Russian natural gas is propping up an essentially gangster regime--a regime that suppresses dissent, stifles free expression and needs an external diversion to coalesce the Russian public over foreign "enemies." A classically cynical maneuver, it was the policy of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Lenin, Castro, Chavez, Arafat and even Assad and Saddam Hussein. Often this policy is successful in the short term but ultimately masks a deep, corrosive interior. It is said that Putin has become one of the world's wealthiest men with a fortune in excess of $100 billion. His efforts to rescue his comrade, Viktor Yanukovych, demonstrably a satiric clone of Putin himself, as depicted by the deposed Ukrainian President’s opulent palace, festooned with stuffed animals and ornate Sevres vases reminiscent of Versailles devolved into Las Vegas. No one ever said that dictators are tasteful.

One can hardly imagine Mr. Putin living in less Nero-like splendor.

Big Pharma and the Fountain of Youth or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Meds (as well as other thoughts.)

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 06:12:16 GMT

Those of us who are old enough to tune into the ridiculous network news on, say, CBS, for example, are treated to a few minutes of news whilst being berated by a slew of ads for neuropathic pain, high blood pressure, testosterone, Viagra, and Cialis among other bromides to cure septuagenarians, octogenarians, and other people of a certain age through the miracle of medical science, who by now, should be dead, or by the time they have finished the “newscast,” wish they were.

The network news with, for example, Scott Pelley is usually an inane conglomeration of human interest stories, snowstorms, heat waves, tornadoes (depending upon the season) and people who rescue dogs, cats and other creatures fortunate enough not to be subjected to the insulting prattle serving as a vehicle to sell products that should not be advertised at all. This, all bolstered by an unusually sappy Steve Hartman human interest story about someone who is usually in a wheelchair who has learned to play the oboe through the same straw he uses to operate his transportation. Fortunately, this only appears as the last segment on Friday night, when the mercies of the DVR allow a quick fast forward to spare us the last insult to even those with a modicum of intelligence.

“Talk to your doctor. It may be low T” Folks, more like, Talk to your doctor about how you can suffer a heart attack, stroke, shortness of breath, insomnia, rage, depression, suicidal impulses, prostate cancer, and various other side effects of this hormone, which naturally declines during the aging process. This is a blatant snake oil pitch, and there seems to be no restraining it, because the Supreme Court says that restrictions on commercial speech violate the first Amendment. These folks watch the CBS news, I can assure you.

Testosterone medications are marketed simply because they make money. There is no public policy reason to allow drug companies to cynically hawk these medications, no matter how beneficial, to the general public. These are products to be evaluated by physicians. The information concerning the medications during the “sale” phase of the ad, differs from the voice during the “warning” phase of the ad. It is conceived and designed to deceive the public, no less than the tobacco companies which lied about the dangers of tobacco.

The 1950s ads about the “T” zone and more doctors smoking Camels than other brands have simply morphed into a different phase of marketing. And now the phase is low “T” instead of the the “T” zone. Testosterone marketing is no less a danger to the public and it is clear that the marketing of it will eventually lead to a plethora of claims for the foreseeable harm that it causes.

Thoughts on the Presidential aspirations of a certain New Jersey Governor.

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

Abraham Lincoln

Governor Christie is in trouble, and deservedly so. His transparently false denials and his tossing his friends to the wolves speak volumes about his dubious character. There was something disingenuous about his two hour apologia marathon, something that did not ring true. His disavowal of his friendship with his high school friend, his denigration of his friend's status in high school as opposed to his own, rings a bell about those who are supposedly pristinely qualified for public office, who travel under the mantle of “plain speaking,” and who generally are exposed by the other Lincoln maxim of fooling some of the people some of the time but not fooling all of the people all of the time.

Now there is a feeding frenzy among the press and subpoenas will soon reveal that Mr. Christie is probably a fraud as well as a bully. Sometimes America is fortunate enough to learn why some men are not presidential timber before they are elected. That is not to say that politicians are not as flawed as the rest of us, or that they are saints, but some are more flawed than others and that is something we should be glad to know before the campaign even starts.

The Likud and the Boycott by the European Union

The Palestinians and the upcoming EU boycotts of Israel may have more of an impact on Israeli policy toward the eventual necessity of the two-state solution than all of the previous wars and violence perpetuated by Arab nationalists. Although Israel received rockets in return for their exit from Gaza, they may be faced with, in the eyes of the right wing government, an even more undesirable alternative. The impact on Israeli business and employment if the boycott takes effect.

This may have more influence on Israeli political decisions concerning the West Bank than the foolishly conducted violent Palestinian intifadas.

It seems like the Netanyahu government wishes to create a de facto annexation of the territories.

This, as I have written previously represents more of a threat to Israel than ending the occupation. If the EU carries out the boycott, there are many in Israel, including the newly popular potential prime minister, Yair Lapid, who believe that the 350,000 settlers will ultimately have to return to Israel, in exchange for NATO peacekeepers and what possibly might become a stable peace.

There are many Israelis who think that the climate has now changed enough to give peace a chance. Many Jewish American supporters of Israel agree.

Political Expediency versus Political Morality

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:49:38 GMT

A dilemma now stares at an increasingly divided Democratic party, having now been handed by Robert Mueller, a road map for impeachment of Donald Trump, a bible, if you will, of misfeasance and lawlessness, Nancy Pelosi and her minions must now decide which route to take--the dreaded "I" word or a substantive campaign for electoral victory.

On the one hand, many advocates for impeachment, including Elizabeth Warren, argue that it is the constitutional duty of the congress to protect our democracy from an unfit president by introducing a bill of impeachment. Nancy Pelosi believes that it is too soon to decide, knowing full well that the election is only 18 short (or long) months away, depending upon one’s point of view, and that impeachment hearings will create a distraction, paralyzing government, playing into Trump’s wheelhouse exacerbating his victimhood. He still holds his 40% approval among his base, many of whom believe in the Trumpian ability to shoot someone on 5th avenue, and suffer no consequence, possibly Nancy Pelosi or an undocumented immigrant, take your pick.

Moreover, the two-thirds vote for removal in the polarized senate is probably not possible, magnifying the arduous, Sisyphean moral imperative of how congress should act under present circumstances.

Others believe that this President is dangerous and is capable, through his masterful control of his base, able to manipulate public opinion escalating his “poor Donald” into another term. Nothing frightens Democrats more.

Watergate-like hearings take time. The parade of inevitable witnesses creates boardrooms full of fulminating cable network executives exalting over the volume of pharma medications they can sell to old people, watching 24/7. On the other hand, a full examination of the facts and testimony might very well convince many voters to vote against the president even if a bill of impeachment is not passed in the house or that he is not removed by the senate.

A currency to the moral obligation of congress quickly to proceed now with impeachment is persuasive. There is clarity to removing a president who, many think, has no regard for our institutions, the law or the consequences of his narcissistic fulminations. Mueller’s argument that DOJ regulations prohibit the indictment of a sitting president, because he would not be able to “clear his name” through a trial, resonates to some. Therefore, the only remedy is a trial in the Senate through impeachment.

Machiavelli proposed that governments do not function well on morality. Abraham Lincoln suspended the right of Habeas Corpus during the Civil War, and after Pearl Harbor Franklin Roosevelt interned loyal Japanese Americans in camps, ripping families apart and from their homes without judicial process. Clearly, these two actions violated the Constitution, but saving the Union or national security was the imperative, not historical rectitude. That came much later as would many questions about the stains of the American past, including slavery.

Legions of governments in the world modeled their constitutions after ours, and the lack of forbearance among the polity effectively abnegated the paper document, allowing the rise of totalitarianism. In our country, argue Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt in a new book, How Democracies Die, argue that our institutions are under threat by the loss of forbearance in our polarized society. The more polarization results in less forbearance, increasing the threat to our institutions. The tolerance needed to listen to others with whom we disagree is the foundation of our democracy, not a paper document alone, they argue. That tolerance has lately disappeared, to our detriment.

So, what is Congress to do? Bringing a bill of impeachment now, many think, poses a political risk to the Democrats but not bringing it poses a risk to the Republic by leaving an unfit president more time to erode our institutions, the very ones congress is charged to protect. Democrats must think long and hard whether the moral choice will ultimately lead to a more perfect union or whether it will lead to more disunion. A long and nasty impeachment resulting in the removal of this president might provide more fodder for his base than a resounding loss at the polls a mere 18 months from now.

Cruel and Unusual

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:46:25 GMT

Cruel and Unusual.

At 3am Friday, April 12, the Supreme Court of the United States contributed to our national voyage towards injustice and perhaps even totalitarianism.

The court ruled that a prisoner who chose to die by nitrogen hypoxia, more or less proven to be painless, was trying to delay his execution because he had not chosen this methodology in a timely fashion. The court ruled 5-4 along predictable lines, that the inmate, granted, a brutal murderer, did not, within the time limits imposed by the state, and therefore for procedural reasons, would have had to wait for a new death warrant to be signed. So, the court vacated the stay of execution of the lower court so that there would be no further delay in putting him to death. As though he would not be available for such purpose 30 days later.

The court did not even allow for Justice Bryers’s request to wait for a court conference the following morning in order to discuss the issue. The stay was vacated at 3am.

Recently, I visited London. A very knowledgeable guide told me and my grandsons how the English executed people in the 15th century as we traversed the innards of a venerable Westminster Abbey. First, they hanged them until almost dead. Then, they disemboweled them, burning their intestines in front of them, whilst they attached their limbs to four horses to draw and quarter them. Now, that is a real deterrent for stealing or treason or murder. My youngest grandson 11, his eyes wide open dropped his jaw. He will remember that tour, surely.

Now the Supreme Court of the United States is debating the efficacy of lethal injection or nitrogen hypoxia as the lesser of what constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment,” as a definition of what the Constitution proscribes. In fact, the practices as described in the previous paragraph is what prompted that prohibitory language in our constitution.

Arguably, the guillotine is a more humane form of punishment than the painful three-drug cocktail as utilized in the progressive state of Alabama, which only 70 years ago, preferred lynching as a methodology for enforcing its cultural ethos.

More crucially, capital punishment itself should be reexamined under the “evolving standards of decency” criteria as set forth by Chief Justice Earl Warren in Trop v. Dulles (1958), a case that articulated what punishment the courts may impose upon a defendant.

In Furman v. Georgia (1972) capital punishment was constituted as cruel and unusual in and of itself, leading to a 4-year moratorium on the medieval practice, until regressive state legislatures struggled to overcome the shortcomings of the system and Gregg v. Georgia (1976) effectively reinstated it by addressing the shortcomings of the system in Furman. Space does not here allow an extensive discussion here, but the reader is invited, if interested, to read the history of this sordid abuse of state power.

In his dissent in Dunn v. Alabama (2019) Justice Breyer, clearly upset, argued the priorities of the court as being skewed. And it is indubitable that capital punishment has no place in the pantheon of criminal justice in the 21st century. The idea that the state takes a life and that the highest court in the land, decides life or death based upon a procedural technicality, ludicrous in itself, strikes at the heart of our democracy. The murderer dies, the victim is not restored to life, the vengeful family gains nothing, deterrence is not effectuated, and the poor suffer the penalty disproportionately. More importantly, our societal humanity suffers a damaging blow.

The very idea that the Supreme Court of the United States occupies its time deliberating the timeliness of death appeals while scrutinizing the finality of execution and whether the condemned should die by hanging, firing squad, three-drug cocktail, nitrogen gas and the uncertainty of pain inflicted by the methodology in the context of the Constitution as it should be 2019, appeals only to the ghoulish instincts of people like Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and even Clarence Thomas, all products of a crypto-masochistic society that refuses to change the interpretation of an 18th century document. Chief Justice Roberts, who has recently shown some reason has joined in this charade, to his discredit.

Totalitarian states traditionally employ capital punishment as a method for keeping dissent under control as well as for apostacy, stealing bread, homosexuality, and other crimes not really eligible in the US for this most extreme of penalties. Other methods include torture, and in the case recently of Saudi Arabia, dismemberment by bone saw. This was clearly an act of state murder, and hard to distinguish from what is still happening in our country, differing only in pretext. As Justice Blackmun wrote in 1994, that he would “no longer tinker with the machinery of death,” so should the present Supreme Court no longer do so.

We sit with Saudi Arabia, China, Pakistan, and other totalitarian states in our employment of this barbarity, which is still applied unfairly against racial minorities, and the poor.

Profiles in Courage or in Cowardice—please choose, America

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:45:06 GMT

In Andrew Robert’s brilliant biography of Winston Churchill (a thousand have been written, including the official multivolume tome by Martin Gilbert), Roberts spins a tale of the overwhelming and crushing challenges faced by arguably the greatest political individual of the 20th century.

Facing derision for most of his career, and blundering by advocating for an invasion on the Gallipoli peninsula during World War I, as derided as well as upon many domestic issues, Churchill faced insurmountable problems on the path to the vindication of his wisdom during the 1930s when he was in the “wilderness,” pitting himself against the appeasers of Nazi Germany and the sentiment of a war weary British public with his calls for rearmament.

The story has been well-told and often, but it made me think of those Republican members of congress who sat in a hearing this week, during the testimony of Michael Cohen, who themselves had nothing to say except remind the public that Cohen was a liar and soon to go to prison for lying to the American public for his boss, the lying liar, Donald J. Trump. They mounted not a word of condemnation for their rogue president.

America, including the Trump base, have we, as did the appeasing British public during the years when Hitler was arming himself to the teeth in order to gobble up fledgling European democracies, taking the Rhineland, annexing Austria, taking the Sudetenland as part of Chamberlain’s deplorable bargain, are doing similarly in order to remain loyal to a president whose vision of loyalty is an abject lesson in the opposite.

Is there a point to the lessons of history that tell the tale of appeasing nations or leaders who deserve far less? What of character and morality? Do our new times abrogate such sentiments? Is the easier path simply to stare blankly into our little screens, abjuring the thundering storm of potential totalitarianism and deceit?

Franklin D. Roosevelt labored very hard, using much of his political capital during the great depression, enduring the scorn of his own class,(“I welcome their contempt”)the hatred of the America Firsters, the underlying anti-Semitism of America in the 1940s, the isolationist congress, to join the battle against fascism.

Edward R. Murrow used his courage as a journalistic icon to battle the evils of Joseph McCarthy and quote Shakespeare, “Brutus, the fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves,” driving home the jeopardy to the Republic presented by the demagogue from Wisconsin.

Walter Cronkite announced to the American Public, the misanthropy of the Viet Nam war and the disinformation of our own government in perpetuating the “Bright and Shining Lie,” as David Halberstam wrote in his book.

Martin Luther King spoke out about the injustice of segregation and the evils of discrimination in the American South, still the victim of a government that disemboweled the reconstruction as intended by Abraham Lincoln, himself slaughtered by racial hatred.

I have read recent articles in respected publications, seeking to understand how our nation has reached so low a plateau, so vituperative, so intensely polarized. Articles are being written about whether there will be a new civil war in the event the President loses the election and must be forcefully evicted from the White House after the results, refusing to concede to the will of the people.

We labor under an increasingly dysfunctional electoral college, originally conceived to perpetuate slavery, in order to compromisingly ratify the constitution, and which college has become an increasingly undemocratic institution, by magnifying the power of a small percentage of the voting population.

We labor under the partisanship of members of congress who fear the loss of their jobs more than the diminution of democracy.

Racism has no place in an America becoming increasingly diverse; “Make America Great Again,” exhibits a profile in cowardice, not courage, a thinly-veiled siren call to days of yore no longer possible, economically, demographically, or socially. People who rail against the tide of History, including President Trump, will be swept aside, eventually, but at what cost?

The True Believers of FOX News

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:43:44 GMT

Lies told often enough become alternative facts.....

Recently, I attended a dinner party at old friends’ house, and I expected a relaxed evening. The food was spectacular, a very finely nuanced codfish, served on a bed of exquisite lentils. That dish was preceded by a mango-yellow tomato soup, with really fine wines and a desert of homemade pie, fresh blueberries rolling off the top of a delectable key lime filling. Our hosts were flawlessly polite and gracious. Most of the meal was spent on polite conversation, where are you from, do you have kids, and other pleasantries.

Another couple attended, whom we did not know, and whom, I believe our hosts had just met. A neurologist on the staff of the University of Miami school of Medicine. Born in Mexico, he had been in the United States, I believe, for twenty years. He was an intelligent, soft-spoken fellow and but had some infuriating opinions, including a denunciation of Hillary Clinton’s emails and that President Obama was the worst president of the United States ever to inhabit the White House. He reluctantly admitted that Obama had been born in the United States, but had Muslim sympathies and was anti-Semitic.

He also professed his deep admiration for Benjamin Netanyahu and the excellence of Donald Trump’s moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem as a symbol of American strength, “the only things the Arabs understand.”

Other perorations included the inherent bias of the New York Times, The Washington Post, anti-Semitism of Thomas Friedman, and the bias of the American media, against Donald Trump. Although he said he did not object to a two-state solution, he defended the settlements and that Israel had no partner for peace negotiations, citing the result in Gaza when Israel pulled out and stating that the same thing would happen to the West Bank, should Israel cede sovereignty to the Palestinian authority.

He presented himself as an authority in these matters by stating that he had been to Israel many times and therefore was in a better position than American Jews to analyze the situation than those of us who had only visited a few times. Also, that since he came from Mexico, he understood America and its constitution better than ordinary Americans. He made no mention of the corruption of Mexican politics having any potential influence on his ideas.

I hate condescending people who confer greater expertise on themselves simply because they have visited a place a few more times than others or they simply had a different life experience.

He did recognize that 70% of Israelis wanted peace and were willing to give up the settlements for a peace treaty with the Palestinian authority but said that Israel would still have to occupy the territories to provide security for Israel. I did not disagree with him.

I argued with him, however, that most secular American Jews now believe that religious zealotry among those who are in the settlements are an impediment to a peace treaty, that the borders are basically already decided, and that with minor land swaps there could possibly be a settlement.

At that point the conversation returned to his advancing the argument that Trump was a great president, and that the economy was booming. Moreover, he claimed that Obamacare had destroyed the private practice of medicine in the United States, that President Obama was the worst president ever, and had lied about people keeping their own doctor. I was enraged that he created a false moral equivalence between the constant lies and criminality of Trump and Obama.

When I pointed out to him that 30 million people now were covered and that before they were not and that insurance companies could dismiss clients for preexisting conditions and now, they could not, it fell upon deaf ears.

I asked this gentleman where he got his news. He said he watched the FOX news channel, which he claimed was an unbiased arbiter of the facts, unlike the Times, the Washington Post, or the other biased news media such as MSNBC, ABC, NBC, PBS, and CNN. That all these organs had it in for the president and were purveyors of fake news.

He told me I should watch FOX between 6-7 pm for an unbiased news menu, ostensibly to prove that all of FOX was therefore “fair and balanced.” I said,” let me get this straight,

You want me to watch FOX for one hour and thereby come to the conclusion that the rest of the day is not propaganda?”

This gentleman, who had set himself up as a latter-day Mexican Alexis de Tocqueville was judging the American constitution based upon his marginal understanding of it. He thought the electoral college was set up as a fair governance of space, rather than a sorry compromise to get the constitution adopted in 1787 that enabled slave states to perpetuate their injustice throughout our turbulent history.

He sounded like a rerun of FOX and friends and had no understanding of the forces that should be dominating our national discussion: Climate change, technological displacement, and nuclear war. The distractions of the FOX news propaganda machine are not limited to the uneducated.

This led me to inevitably conclude:

FOX is an Orwellian propaganda channel that has been profoundly destructive of our national polity and that education is often no defense to persistent lies and propaganda, as Orwell had told us long ago.

FOX sits by itself as an organ of Trump and its hijacked Republican base, who despite their minority, have managed until now to dominate the legislative and executive branches of government, exploded the deficit, shut down the government, encouraged racists, divided the country, fed lies to the public, shredded the dignity of the Presidency, alienated our allies, conducted a needless trade war, provided subsidies to large corporations, disrespected the rule of law, obstructed justice, sullied all those around Trump, conducted a revolving door for respected diplomats and public servants, trashed our national intelligence services, including the CIA and the FBI, presided over the shrinking of the middle class, and is enraptured by a president who is a blaggard, a crook, a buffoon, a knave and a scoundrel.

I went home with a major headache despite the graciousness and charm of the hosts of the dinner party. I guess people really cannot talk any more.

Nancy at the Gates

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:42:10 GMT

Welcome to another week of Trump world. Trump surrendered to, of all things, a woman. A powerful one at that. Pelosiwoman! Faster than a speeding bullet, able to pontificate to the President of the United States in a single bound, tougher than nails, the woman of steel, pledged to defend the American way.

The government is open for the time being.

There she was in the Oval office in her green dress, looking regal, all but missing a crown, speaking for a strong Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, finally a coequal branch of government again, able to stand up to the Lex Luthor of presidents, whose Kryptonite had all but paralyzed his Republican minions in the Senate and the sniveling Paul Ryan House.

Paul has been banished to snow-covered, freezing Wisconsin, a former somebody who turned out to be a nobody. A man whose pretense of independence from the wicked Lex Luthor/Individual 1 presidential impersonator was thinly disguised by his aura of a baby face and sparkling blue eyes, a sort of Shirleytempleman defrocked from his Obamacare destroying, Medicare privatization, entitlement demolishing, trickle down agenda, all in service of a deficit exploding trillion-dollar tax cut. But hey, why should poor people who pay no taxes not be relegated to homelessness? After all, society owes them nothing. Let them eat cake. Good thing Paul is gone, he would be in a tumbrel headed for the widowmaker.

And let us not forget Mitch McConnell, the turkey-necked loathsome impresario of the Senate, known for his refusal to allow a vote for Merrick Garland and his plot to make Barack Obama a one-term president. Mitch now finds himself hostage to Pelosiwoman as well. He will be powerless to prevent his soon to be former Trumpist GOP colleagues from jumping off the rat-infested barge of incompetence. Now brought low by Lex Luthor’s plot to shut down the government over a diabolical wall, he is feeling the slings and arrows of a small minority-supported wall designed to inflame racial hatred. Keep out those poor Honduran children who will not make America great again.

What of 800,000 hard working federal employees who needed their pay checks, ordered to work without pay, and in some cases be fired if they did not work in indentured servitude, needing to meet their mortgage payments, food bills and living expenses? Well, Lex calls them “patriotic heroes” sacrificing for their country, just as he does. Just like Ivanka, Jared and the other misanthropes of this tragic undertaking, like Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and the rest of the unseemly rogue’s gallery now surrounding Lex.

But wait. Lex’s cohorts had trouble navigating the flight delays from Washington to New York, the optics of Air traffic controllers not showing up to work because they needed money and called in sick so they could bag groceries at Wall Mart or drive Ubers? My goodness, what hath Lex wrought? How could Mitch get back to Kentucky to pacify his base? What about Ted Cruz flying down to Dallas from Dulles? Let’s agree to open the government! In three weeks when the next Mueller indictment comes out, we can declare a national emergency to distract all the dumbass people who voted for me and are beginning to awaken to the con.

But now enter Pelosiwoman, Alexandriawoman, and others crying “let’s impeach the mother…ker.”

Now the walls are really closing in on Lex. Mueller will be issuing more indictments, Roger Stone, who says he will never testify against the President will be facing years in federal prison. We will see about how that turns out. Badly, for sure. Despite his bravado yesterday, either Stone will flip or Stone will be nursing his Nixon tattoo in Leavenworth. I think the flip eventually will come. And the Donald will soon face indictments of Jared, Don, Jr. and perhaps even the plastic surgeon’s dream, Ivanka.

Buckle up America. This will make “Survivor” look like a poor imitation of a reality show.

Unelected and Unhinged

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:40:41 GMT

“A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

- William Shakespeare

Think about it. Hillary Clinton got three million more votes than Donald Trump. Many Americans saw the handwriting on the wall before the election. An election hacked by the Russians, and aided by an inept, quiescent, uninspired campaign by the Democratic candidate, and the general antipathy toward Mrs. Clinton artfully employed by Mr. Trump, a master flim-flam man. A man who still knows how to appeal to the baser instincts of a dispossessed minority. A minority vulnerable to a cynical promise that they would get their coal mining and auto assembly jobs back, 80% of which are forever lost to technological displacement. When Trump made those mendacious promises, he probably knew they were wickedly disposed to fool misguided souls who supported him and still mostly do.

We have a president who does not have the confidence of close to 70% of the American public. If a vote of no confidence were held today, the president would not get more than 38% of the vote. And in a system that were fair he would never have been elected in the first place. We have an unelected president. And what is worse, an unelected president whose fealty is to himself alone and less able to accept responsibility than a raging Pinocchio.

The sorry fact remains that if the House of Representatives were decided by non-gerrymandered districts, it would have been Democratic all along, the midterm results starkly emphasizing gross abandonment by white, suburban, former (mostly educated white women) supporters. And if the electoral college had been abolished, there would have been no war in Iraq, climate change would have been addressed earlier, and the nation would not now be in the throes of being sold out to our adversaries by a corrupt criminal enterprise

All of this generated by the anachronistic electoral college and a system engineered over a compromise in 1789 Philadelphia where the framers were obliged to pacify landowners in Southern states more concerned with their sovereignty and perpetuating slavery than equal representation. The Constitution provided our nation the stability needed in the crucible of creation. Those present at the genesis that sizzling summer in Philadelphia knew that without it lay disunity and disunion. That did happen 80 years later anyway.

At the founding, the delegates to the constitutional convention feared the evils of centralized power and in that fear created a system for the thirteen colonies that distributed the power in the senate among states that were populated with only 3 million people. And now that system perpetuates representation that allows people in North Dakota with 500,000 people the same representation in the Senate as California with 40,000,000 people in a nation of over 300,000,000. (The system also provided that slaves were 3/5ths of a person in determining apportionment of the members of the House of Representatives with the members of the electoral college calculated on a similar basis.)

The advantages of this system of government no longer work. The rationale of a geographically balanced (power to vacant land) system has given us a minority president five times in our nation’s history, the most recent of whom were George W. Bush who lost the popular vote by 500,000 voters and now Donald Trump, no fitter for office than an errant school boy and loser of the popular vote by the largest number in the nation’s history.

But wait. It gets worse. There is much talk of impeachment, of "high crimes and misdemeanors," which are basically a political rationale for long vote of no confidence. Impeachment is a political, not a legal process. And it was designed by those same framers to excise unfit presidents; Impeachment starts in the House of Representatives, however, not one president has been convicted in the Senate and removed from office. Arguably, Richard Nixon (at least an intelligent crook) would have been removed but resigned having been told by a bipartisan group of Senators that he did not have the votes to remain.

Unlike George Washington whose humility manifested itself in his temperate and self-effacing behavior and who assembled a stellar cabinet of statesmen and turned down a crown, Trump has surrounded himself with sycophants, admires dictators and tyrants, would like a crown, and carving away at our institutions.

Those voicing policy differences with him are humiliated, fired or demeaned in tweets which could be better written by an angry seven-year-old. Many other presidents sought the best talent they could for their cabinet and not fearing but instead seeking diversity of opinion. Lincoln had a team of impressive rivals whose initial respect for him was slim, until he chose them to work together to save the union. His own team members called him an ignorant baboon before his election but by appealing to the better angels of their nature and of the nation he did save the union. Many presidents, good and bad, had different personalities, but none were so obviously unhinged as Trump. Perhaps that is a product of today’s unbridled media, or some other dark psychological processes, but still, the trauma imposed upon the nation is breathtaking.

The concept of humility and measured thought of what is occurring in the world, does not even register with a man who does not read, who does not think of others and thinks narcissistically how to bask in faux adulation. Tax cuts for corporations that buy back their own stock and enhance their bottom line, one robot displacing four workers in “value added zones,” as recent economic analysis shows, money distorting the electoral process, climate change denial, a plunging stock market, immigrant scapegoating, racist pandering, rampant corruption, abandonment of allies, criminality and just plain demagoguery. The two years left in the term (hopefully not) has produced a tranquilizer popping public riddled with anxiety.

Finally, what does this say about Republican members of congress who have enabled and even encouraged such behavior? I speak of Mitch McConnell, a reptilian paradigm of a power hungry zombie whose utterances debase us all. Let us not forget the departing Paul Ryan, a fraudulent unprincipled puppet whose master is party over country. What does it say about those who voted for this band of knaves? They are angry, mostly rural people who, having been ignored by the elites on the left and on the right vented their frustration and gave us Frankenstein instead. All this speaks volumes about FOX news propagandists who have enabled and encouraged the Trump metastases by giving a platform to pundits not worthy of the appellation.

What we really should be talking about are the three greatest threats to the world, hardly mentioned: climate change, technological displacement, and nuclear war as well as a need in the not too distant future for a Universal Basic Income and a renewed infrastructure. But the Trump conversation sucks all the air out of the room because it all seems like a horrid and surreal nightmare. People actually cannot believe what is happening. We are watching a grand guignol cinema verite horror show.

What will be the judgment of history about how a frenzy of anger over technological displacement amid those whom Theodore Roosevelt called the “malefactors of great wealth?”

Of such complacency and indifference of the political elite to a displaced, shrinking middle class, are revolutions born.

Wagging the Dog

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:38:59 GMT

Another year vanishes, its allegations of witness tampering, obstruction of justice, a resurgence of anti-Semitism, polarization of a restive public, promises of a new year to come of subpoenas, congressional hearings, a special prosecutor’s report cataloging misfeasance, mischief, sending echoes of “high crimes and misdemeanors “ rumbling through the capitol. Scoundrels never rest.

Ah, for years gone by when Democrats and Republicans came together, Watergate dominating the airwaves, the nation glued to its televisions on the three broadcast networks. Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley, trusted newsmen, just like Sean Hannity, telling us the facts, or in Hannity's case, alternative facts.

The president's acolytes and knaves face an ever increasingly frowning statue of Justice, the scales of which are growing more lopsided every day, weighted with each new incriminating tweet, revelation, indictment and guilty plea.

The president, increasingly frenetic, tweets tropes dedicated arguably to obstructing justice. Even Richard Nixon, although he had no twitter feed, was too smart (he never expected that his secret tapes would be revealed) to confirm allegations in public. But this president does not seem to understand about the ones to come, charges that will emanate from Bob Mueller's crew of tight lipped, eagle-eyed, OCD prosecutors zeroing in on them. Trump scurries about, tweeting and bloviating, like a steroid-injected chipmunk, now viewed as a meal for the eagle's newly hatched chicks. Mueller's reports, exponentially more incriminating, arrive just in time for a Merry Christmas. It is like watching "Love Actually" in reverse.

President Trump, seeking cover, attended the G20, formerly the G7, or 12 or whatever, suspends the Chinese tariffs that should not have been imposed in the first place citing a victory. Sending the army to the border to "protect" the nation from dispossessed, shirtless, starving migrants who were set to conduct an "invasion" across the Rio Grande and reclaim Texas for Mexico, or Honduras, take your scapegoat pick, did not reap the benefits he supposed. Those mothers whose children, armed to the teeth with AR15s supplied by Wayne La Pierre are ready to take on the 7th cavalry. "Play the Gary Owen,” shouts shout Trump’s minions,

Trump, our latter day Father Coughlin/ Hughey Long, apologizes for MBS whose bone sawing team brazenly tortures, murders, and dismembers a journalist in the Saudi consulate in Turkey. For Allah's sake, cries the despotic president of Turkey, Recip Tayip Erdogan, you are on my turf. Michael Corleone versus the Tatagglias. Erdogan spills the beans to the CIA, the director of which flies to Istanbul to listen to the rasping sounds of saw on bone and the screeches of a man who had gone into the consulate to get his marriage documents. Trump's CIA director, Gina Haspel reluctantly testifies before congress that the CIA has confirmed the responsibility of MBS, and Trump says. "Maybe he did and maybe he didn't." No smoking gun. No collusion. Witch-hunt.

Trump, despondent, because he cannot string up the entire staffs of the Washington Post, The New York Times, plus George Soros and Jeff Bezos. Even more despondent because now he will have to face an angry swarm of Democratic subpoenas, hearings and even articles of impeachment. Republicans, fearing the loss of their seats in 2020 will soon be jumping off the ship. One could argue that the tipping point is near, although many do not believe it. After all, two years have passed since Trump raged about "American carnage, " his dark vision of America, provided by the conspiracist Steve Bannon, now relegated to internet malevolence.

Those of us old enough to remember know that Watergate took a long time. But there was, finally, a tipping point when Republican senatorial supporters told Nixon finally he must go.

"I'm a business man, why shouldn't I offer a $50 million penthouse to Vladimir? After all he strongly denied any interference in our election and that tower I never built in Moscow with my name on it is coming soon. "I just dream about all those oligarchs and plutocrats paying millions of dollars for a gold plated view of the Kremlin. Can you imagine the money I will make on the extras? Gold plumbing fixtures, Italian marble counters, high end appliances and toilets that wash your bottom before arising from the gold-plated toilet seat?

Of course, I place the interests of the United States first. After all, I want payment in dollars, not rubles."

Will the money trail finally be revealed? Will those tax returns be made public?

Will Trump’s felons need a new prison wing?

Come on Bobby three sticks,

I hope they are in time for Christmas.

Immigration: Republican Abandonment of American Ideals

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:34:59 GMT

On a plaque in New York Harbor, at the base of the Statue of Liberty:

New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

- Emma Lazarus

The Presidentially ginned up fear of the immigrant “caravan’” of poor, dispossessed, and wretched souls looking for better lives in America is reprehensible. The silly border wall, keeping those in the caravan out of our country, would have to run through the middle of the Rio Grande, unless we ceded the river to Mexico, by placing the wall on the US side of the river.

Most of Trump’s base are probably not motivated by white supremacist racism, but instead, by a misguided fear of the destruction of their own financial security and racial homogeneity stoked by a lying demagogue. They are, to use plain words, suckers, gullible suckers. Purchasers of a Kool Aid dispensing lunatic. A Brooklyn Bridge selling grifter. A snake oil selling self-enriching crook. A latter day Elmer Gantry. The Pied Piper of low information Americans hoping he will improve their lives. The only life he is improving is his own and his cast of miscreants and knaves.

The uttered shop-worn trope of “welfare moms, and anchor babies.” This echo of Trumpian fear and mendacity, in an appeal to an enraged base fearing loss of their jobs from immigrants, does not accept that new immigrants only want to do work that Americans will not; that they are first stage immigrants as were so many of our own parents, grandparents and great grandparents. This anxiety ridden GOP base does not understand that 80% of jobs are now lost to automation and technological change, not immigration. They do not understand that we are in a profound cultural metamorphosis, prompted by technological change unseen since the early industrial revolution and the first gilded age. That the greatest challenge facing our country is technological displacement.

They believe dog-whistle racism and of a Machiavellian President that America is under attack from immigration. President Trump falsely claims that there “are middle easterners” among the poor, starving people walking across Mexico, just as he had said that Mexicans are rapists and bad people and “the blacks love me.” There are no middle easterners in a caravan of 15,000 poor souls. And the US admits 300,000 immigrants each year.

Thinly veiled racism and a tribal call to demonization of others disturb me deeply. It is a response to demagoguery, the same demagoguery that incited a homicidal Trump supporter to mail pipe bombs this week to prominent Trump opponents, including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, James Clapper, George Soros, John Brennan, and CNN, the network branded by Trump as an “enemy of the people.” The putative-alleged bomber was born in New York, not Benghazi. The President failed to recognize any of the potential well known victims or ask for respect for those public servants who oppose him. It is the same methodology employed by Joseph Goebbels.

And now, encouragement of anti-Semitic crazies who murder Jews in their synagogue, partially because of the inflammatory rhetoric of a madman.

I wistfully reminisced about long-time GOP statesman of inclusiveness from my youth, and remembered fondly the civil discourse of different policy decisions, based upon rational thinking and a desire to meet common goals on how to meet the needs of our country. I remember divisions between the two major parties, but mostly they were simply about policy. Race incitement did not play as important an issue, although it was there, probably wrongly swept under a musty old carpet in the rush to reach some consensus about tax cuts, higher budgets, less spending, the economy, military expenditures, the role of the United States in the world. But it concealed the slavery-ridden origins of our nation and the bitter Civil War that followed it by 80 or so years. It still lingers as a dark stain.

My father arrived in this country in 1923, with, he always said, 18 cents in his pocket. Given his penchant for exaggeration, it probably was a few more dollars than that, and his father had given him, upon his departure from an anti-Semitic Hungary, looking to draft him to serve in an even more anti-Semitic military, a gold watch, which he could always use to pawn if he needed a few more dollars.

From his first days in America, he looked to learn English, and read the American Newspapers, the New York Times, the New York Post, the Forward and lastly learn Yiddish for employment (he spoke none when he arrived. ) He ate strawberries and sour cream at HIAS (the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) which also helped him to find work and is now helping others who are not even Jewish.

Driven by an insatiable work ethic and a desire to succeed in the “Goldene Medina,” (a country where the streets were lined with gold,) he did forge a successful business career, marriage and family, dying in 1990.

He always remarked to me that he savored the famous Emma Lazarus poem when he arrived at Ellis Island to embark on a new life in America. When the great depression struck about six years after he arrived, he embraced Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. He became a life-long liberal Democrat, always valuing the idea of the inclusive and welcoming aspect of the American ideal. He did not understand those who would exclude people from coming to America.

The year after he arrived, the Congress of the United States passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1924, essentially excluding immigrants from Eastern Europe, most of whom were Jews who sought to escape from oppressive anti-Semitism in the former Austro-Hungarian empire, now divided into smaller countries by the British and French imperialists, leading to another worse war and the slaughter of six million Jews and millions of others. Most painfully to him it excluded five of his brothers and sisters, whom he wanted to come to join him in New York. The Nazis murdered all but two who spent horrific years in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.

The ethos of those involved in that Congressional act of discrimination was that Americans were under threat of “others” who were not the same as the earlier immigrants. Earlier, Fredrick Douglas Jackson’s call to the American frontier in the 19th century allowed those “others” to populate our Westward expansion (conducted at the expense of Native Americans). Those “others” included Irish, Asian, Scottish and Italians. Those intrepid frontiersmen went ahead to steal the states of California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas, and the lands of Native Americans.

Now the nativist call arises from a President who has no concept of American history, nor the imperatives of our Republic; he beckons to the basest of political instincts, tribalism, xenophobia, mendacity and misappropriated fear of potential contributors to the American dream who seek a better life for themselves and their children.

He does this to advance his own political agenda, his own narcissistic ignorance, thinking nothing of separating families or putting children in cages.

It is incumbent on all Americans who love our country to vote to restore some of the purloined values of the country we all think should reflect the values of Emma Lazarus inscribed on the great lady sitting in New York Harbor by disempowerment of one of the biggest electoral mistakes in our nation’s history.

Equal Justice Under Law

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:32:41 GMT

"At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst."

- Aristotle

Justice John Marshall, Justice Louis D. Brandeis, Justice Earl Warren, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Justice Felix Frankfurter, Justice Hugo Black, Justice William O. Douglas are shining stars of the judicial firmament of the Supreme Court of the Untied States. These legal giants did more to affect the history of the United States than most politicians, and reaffirmed that the rule of law is paramount even when democracy is challenged.

Since Marbury v. Madison the court has issued opinions affecting the fate of our republic. Many of the cases have been wrongly decided, especially Dred Scott, holding that African- Americans were not eligible for citizenship because at the time of the drafting of the Constitution they were not citizens of the United States. In Plessy v. Ferguson,(1896). The Court ruled on the concept of 'separate but equal' and set back civil rights in the United States for decades to come.

Plessy was considered precedent and not subject to change until being overruled by later cases, including Brown v. Board of Education, which effectively ruled that “separate but equal” was inherently unequal. Brown overturned precedent. Averments that Supreme Court candidates make about “settled law” therefore, in front of senate confirmation hearings mean not very much at all. Perhaps in the lower courts, but not in the highest court in the land which makes precedent, ergo the evasively disingenuous statement of Judge Kavenaugh about following precedent.

Throughout the 19th century, and even much of the 20th century, our nation has dealt with the ugly, demeaning results of the historically ignominious stain of racism and slavery, the genesis of a wellspring of global antipathy toward our nation, and a deep reminder how hypocritically sanctimonious it is for those who call America the land of the free and the home of the brave--the shining city on the hill.

Our national conscience is still obsessed with the values of “whiteness,” the detritus of our disambiguated antipathy towards those who do not meet the tribal standards of white America.

Even in times of historic dysmorphia from our Puritan Episcopalian roots, we cling to the notion that the “browning” of America is somehow an evil to be erased by white nationalism, shielded by a thin veil of economic and social fears stoked by demagoguery.

Somehow, somewhere these notions might disappear, but the inherent issue is whether it will take too long to save the Republic. Some think we are due for a second civil war. This war could possibly originate in the exacerbation of a meritocracy created by economic stratification of the masses through automation and educational disparities aggravated and created by governmental educational malfeasance, the malignant byproduct of a Dickensian rationale among the privileged classes that assumes racist disparities rendering huge numbers of our populace uneducable.

At Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln understood that the sacrifices made to save the Union could have been squandered, and in his second inaugural address, sought to “bind up the nation’s wounds,” with “malice toward none and with charity for all…”

Far we are from these thoughts today, the nation riven by a President who plays a cynical game of thrones. Imagine how he would serve in the arc of history had he re-appointed Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court? Or announced that Nazis were bad instead of commenting ignorantly that there were good people on both sides of the Charlottesville racial eruption, creating a false moral equivalence by pandering to the worst instincts of his base?

Perhaps he would have risked alienating the worst of his base, but he would have united much of the country at the center, and even further marginalized those who are motivated by resentment, fear and misappropriated rage.

So we must analyze the divisions of our polity. Is leadership the ability to unite disparate groups with an appeal to better angels or is it one that builds on animosities? Animosities seems an easier building block, given the tribal tendencies of humans and the sordid history of war and hatred of people who do not resemble us. The notion that humanity, as some scholars say, is improving apace and on an evolutionary scale, is not a long time. But for those who have lived through many episodes of it, it seems like an eternity.

The Robots are Coming

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:30:05 GMT

“Hal, Open the Pod Bay Doors”

“I can’t do that, Dave.”

- Arthur C. Clarke, 2001, A Space Odyssey

“Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be

the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks.”

- Stephen Hawking

The autumn has come to Vermont. The trees turn red and yellow, leaves floating to the ground and we are getting ready to head south.

Tonight, it will be 38° and the fireplace is blazing primaevally.

The media, consumed with the Kavanaugh confirmation potential sex scandal, fails to address the issues that are crucial to America. No one seems to be paying attention to Artificial Intelligence, climate change, technological displacement of workers and what America will look like thirty years from now. There is a shortage of vision in the political class or an examination how candidates feel about these overwhelming issues.

All around the world, scientific and technological advances render our current system of government increasingly challenging. Even the abolition of the Electoral College cannot gain any traction, not to mention the quality of people making decisions affecting our daily lives and well-being. Entire classes of workers are becoming irrelevant and even expendable. And no one in the political class speaks about these issues. The media is distracted by whether the president of the United States will get his money to build a wall on the Rio Grande, and, in fact whether he will be impeached by a new congress.

Existential questions are asked in a new book by Yuval Noah Harari, the Israeli author of the critically acclaimed Sapiens, Homo Deus, and now, 21 Lessons for the 21st century.

What will America look like 30-50 years from now? How will we provide income to those who become irrelevant, replaced by machines? How will those in that category make a living, fill their days, and fundamentally alter the American and international political landscape?

Increasingly evident to thinkers who look to the future are those questions as well as the fact that our government may not, as presently structured, be suitable for governance. For example, they see that the people who elect politicians cannot even reach a consensus on climate change. Some place short term goals such as lower taxes, corporate profits and employment above what the long-term goal should be to deal with massive unemployment in an increasingly unemployable work force. People who have already been displaced in coal mines, steel mills, farms, ranches and automobile assembly lines, and have grown enraged, blaming immigration when 80% of the jobs lost have been lost to technological changes and to automation. Companies that used to employ hundreds of thousands now can make more money with a tenth of the work force and be even more productive.

Others fail to see the implications of artificial intelligence disrupting the economy and lives of people who will never be able to find employment. Computers may not become sentient beings, but they certainly will be more competent in using algorithms to diagnose disease, drive vehicles, and do other tasks amenable to processing large amounts of data; this list grows exponentially.

Throughout history, societies have been riven by changes in technology. For example, our democratic institutions, crafted in the 18th century may no longer be workable in governing our society. Will democracy give way to a more efficient form of government? In China, an entire new infrastructure is being built without the messy decisions of a democratic process. Will representative democracy survive the change? If, for example, Harari argues, do passengers on a jetliner take a vote on whether the pilot should pull up on the throttle, or is better to leave the intricacies of governmental decision-making to experts in their fields?

In the 18th century, our constitution created a system allowing a government whereby white land-owning people elected representatives to represent them and stated that all people were entitled to the “pursuit of happiness.” Does that mean that people should not have to work on boring jobs that are only done for money? Is happiness a logical pursuit in a society that requires people to work on jobs they do not like? It is quite possible that happiness will be achieved by a new leisure class resembling the British aristocracy, hunting pheasants, and playing polo, machines having taken over the drudgery of work and creating greater productivity than ever before, but at the same time displacing workers. The irrelevance of workers succumbs, therefore, to a new definition of the pursuit of happiness and possibly a guaranteed annual income for those who can no longer work.

None of today’s candidates have articulated a view, Harari argues, that considers the three most important challenges to society: Nuclear war, climate change, and technological displacement through AI. Will intelligent robots displace 80% of the workforce, and thereby generate violent revolutionary change?

Politicians seeking office today need to answer these questions before they are elected. Politicians of both parties look at these pressing issues as though it might be how a unicorn spends its time. Long term issues of humanity are nowhere in the political dialog the crux of which is how does Trump keep his hair so orange, his television viewing habits or how often he golfs with his criminal contingent.

Ok, so Trump is a criminal, or an unindicted co-conspirator, or a Russian money launderer. How is that going to help us on these large looming threats? Nuclear War, Technological displacement, or climate change and rising seas?

Inside the House of Horrors

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:25:21 GMT

"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."

- William Shakespeare

Authoritarian leadership includes suppression of a free press, imprisonment of dissidents, police state tactics, and the perversion of law enforcement agencies, jailing or poisoning reporters and opposition government officials. Our current president espouses these principles as his idea of statecraft and admires those who can actually do those malevolences.

American institutions are strong, but numerous books, including the Road to Unfreedom by the noted Yale scholar Timothy Snyder, enumerate the steps in history that lead to dystopian or autocratic governments. George Orwell often pointed out that lies told often enough become an alternate reality to those who have no other source of information. People stuck on Fox News, for example, hear very little about the current madness at the White House, including an anonymous high level inside editorialist reflecting upon the “Crazytown” fulminations of President Trump. In his new book, “Fear,” Bob Woodward, the scrupulous journalist has compiled eyewitness, recorded documentation of the inherent agony of working in a crucible of disinformation, lies and alternative reality, with a president who does not have the patience to understand policy, empathize with others, or discern anything other than his own self-interest.

The people there are either saints or devils, struggling to inform America what may be coming next. A 25th Amendment removal around the corner? Is that what the NewYorkTimes op-ed was hinting? Impeachment beginning as early as the new congress takes office, not that long away, assuming a Democratic victory? And maybe Republicans will wake up if there is a wave election and their constituents push them to control the hurricane.

If the Democrats win the House of Representatives, there will be a parade of witnesses, subpoenas, hearings, bills protecting special counsel Muller, to name a few of the television treats for CNN, MSNBC, and FOX keeping their ratings stratospheric. We will have a show far worse than Watergate. Even Nixon respected the dignity of the Presidency and did not conduct Nurnberg type rallies to fire up his base, consisting of white people fearing brown and yellow people, stoked by Trump’s continuing divisive con. America’s racism is on steady display and Trump’s demagoguery is fueling the inferno.

None of us have any idea, though, what will happen. Pundits on CNN decry the crisis, pundits on FOX say Trump is delivering for the American people. All manner of civility has disappeared from the national dialog. Tax cuts, trade deals, military expenditures to make us strong, they argue. But is Trump really doing that or he a stooge for Putin, or the subject of Kompromat? Will the Republicans in congress put country above party? Are the Democrats sensing blood? How far should partisanship be carried? Becoming increasingly clear is that the Trump Organization has operated for many years as a gigantic money laundry for Russian oligarchs and probably Vladimir Putin. One can be sure that Muller has all this information, including the surreptitious tax returns of the President. It is quite possible that following the money will be far larger than any “Russian collusion.”

Trump calls the anonymous New York Times op-ed cowardly; he may be right. The author should perhaps have the courage to identify himself and then resign. If it is a cabal of more than one, (A Murder on the Orient Express scenario ) then they all should resign en masse to protest what they consider to be unfitness of the President to lead our country. The notion that they are staying on to protect the Republic because there are “adults” still in the room rings hollow. Moreover, they have not been elected to a regency. No one voted for them. Stealing papers off the President’s desk so he will not do something impulsive or rash seems like a de facto coup d’etat. It is almost like a three year old being fenced in to keep him away from the swimming pool or a dog put in what politically correct owners say is a crate, but is really a cage, preventing Fido from peeing on the rug.

On the other hand, some argue that they are working in the interest of the country by putting a leash on the president. But there are constitutional methods to remove the president. Impeachment is an unwieldy, long vote of no confidence. In the UK for example, if the Prime Minister were insane, his party or Parliament could remove him with a vote of no confidence.

Clearly, our electoral system is broken, the Constitution not functioning very well, the Republican Party, hijacked by a gerrymandered congress and a minority president, laying waste to what Lindsay Graham says is that if you want to appoint supreme court justices, you must win elections. The thing is that our system has effectively disenfranchised more than 3,000,000 Americans and the prospect very dim that Trump will be ousted by his own party, were they interested in more than tax cuts and corporate profits. And asserting as Senator Graham disingenuously has done undermines democracy.

People do fear that the nation is in danger, however. But still, Trump has done nothing as destructive as invading the wrong country (Iraq) or torturing enemy combatants as was done under the Bush administration.

Trump says Jeff Sessions, the attorney general of the United States has an obligation to protect Trump, as if he were his own personal lawyer. But he is not. He is a member of the cabinet, the people’s lawyer. Trump thinks that Sessions should be doing what Michael Cohen did, who now will be disbarred and don an orange jump suit. Sessions, as deplorable as is his policies, did the only thing he could do—recuse himself from the Russia investigation.

Democrats need a plan to unseat him. They need a candidate who can debate Trump and make him look like the foolish knave that he is. Political correctness unseated Al Franken, and that is semi tragic, because he could beat Trump at his own game—by mocking him. And even if women think he is another Harvey Weinstein, he is not. He is a warrior for woman’s rights and the anti Trump. Franken is Trump’s Kryptonite. He is the anti Trump. Other Democratic candidates do not immediately come to mind, but perhaps one will emerge.

And now, we are entering a more pronounced phase of insanity, as the walls close in on an unhinged, cornered man whose paranoia is overwhelming him.

August Thoughts 2018

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:23:06 GMT

“The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults."

- Alexis de Tocqueville

As the summer winds down, America remains in the grip of a silo-bound public, each faction or tribe unable to converse with the other. The cultural polarity now extant forebodes a grim future for political discourse in the land. Democrats on the left fear that Trump will be reelected and Republicans fear that there will be a wave election and an impeachment of the man 77% of them support.

Friends who disagree with one another are suffering a sort of paralysis, a frightening stasis that many think will never disappear. As a child of the 40s and 50s, the worst possible scenario then was the menace from the USSR, the other superpower left standing at the conclusion of World War II, the US providing Marshall plan dollars for the recovery of a decimated Europe and to fight the spread of communism in places like Greece, Italy and even France. For a few years, actually, the United States was the most powerful nation in the world, indisputably the king of the hill from 1945, until the Russians exploded their first H-Bomb around 1954 with information garnered from Atom spies, including Ethel and Julius Rosenberg who were electrocuted at Sing Sing prison after a sensational trial, in which the prosecutor, the judge and defense counsel all were Jewish. The prosecutor, Irving Kaufman, sought and won the death penalty (My father said he wanted to demonstrate Jewish Loyalty). The Rosenbergs were the only spies in the history the Untied States who were executed during peacetime.

Around that time, Joseph McCarthy and others, including the House Unamerican activities committee, probably the most Unamerican activity of all, summoned artists, writers, and political opponents of the government before it, to investigate whether they were infiltrated by Communists. People lived in fear of being denounced to paranoid J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, which would then participate in reporting citizens to the House committee, engaged in a true witch hunt. A blacklist of many good writers and artists soiled the careers of many good Americans, their livelihoods indiscriminately destroyed.

This, of course, was a dark stain on our country. McCarthy ran wild, intimidating other members of congress, and even President Eisenhower remained silent while McCarthy paraded frightened witnesses in front of his Senate committee. Eisenhower said almost nothing until McCarthy was exposed by a courageous Boston lawyer named Joseph Welch, who, at a hearing in which McCarthy had besmirched a young associate of Welch’s at the prominent old line Boston law firm of Hale and Dorr. “Have you no decency, sir? At long last…” cried Welch.

It was all downhill for McCarthy from then on, and journalists such as the iconic Edward R. Murrow exposed McCarthy for what he was—a demagogic fraud. However, this persecution of Americans had gone on for a long while, until the truth emerged.

In those days, there was no social media, no Facebook, no Twitter, only Television, the force of which was moderated by responsible journalists at CBS, the doyenne of broadcast news. CBS had in addition to Murrow, Eric Sevareid, Harry Reasoner, and Walter Cronkite, who later emerged as “the most trusted man in American journalism.” These journalists, many of whom were print journalist veterans, checked their sources and had editors who checked them over again. Generally, with minor mistakes, the truth shone. The public knew that what they read had some veracity. The New York Times was then a more conservative organ, but still retained credibility and integrity. Today, Trumpists state it is a left wing rag. People on the left still believe it is the newspaper of record. The Wall Street Journal remains conservative, but now bears the imprimatur of Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News, which many believe is now a propaganda outlet for the GOP and for Trump.

The point of all this is that each age has its difficulties, and many of them at the time seemed just as bad as our current administration. The noted historian Jon Meacham argues that in 1924, the Klu Klux Klan had 400 delegates seated at the Democratic National Convention.

These days, CNN and Fox News are competing for audience; print journalism is in jeopardy, local papers going out of business throughout America. Large news organizations are carrying the burden of reaching the public with a similitude of fact.

And the McCarthyesque President of the United States tells us that the press is the “enemy of the people.”

Making America great again is a relative term. On the one hand it has shown greatness. On the other, at times, it was not so great. A President who shows evidence of racism, who tweets hateful vituperation is not making America great again. He is returning us to our not so great days. I remember them well.

Losing Friends and Not Influencing People

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:21:01 GMT

"The most important of all revolutions, a revolution in sentiments, manners and moral opinions."

- Edmund Burke

Since the 2016 Presidential race, I have confronted, argued, wheedled, and passionately advocated against Donald Trump. Among my various friends and acquaintances I have managed to shed many people, who, not because of simply my opinion of their misguided political principles, but instead, their inability to argue policy in a reasoned manner.

I maintain that people of different opinions can debate their ideas, but the risk often outweighs the reward. If, as Edmund Burke rightly said that evil triumphs when good men say nothing, then the moral obligation to call out our friends for what one thinks are dangerous ideas that threaten our democracy, is it not a moral duty to do so? Or do we place friendship above honest intellectual intercourse? Do we further isolate ourselves from those with disparate thoughts? After all, the world is not Manichean.

I have one life long friend, with whom I have not spoken for a year. I have written about him in the past, but still am pained by the toxicity of ideas that are said either to enrage me or are simply a manifestation of a personality disorder. Texts are unusually disturbing, so telephone conversations might be better were they not to devolve into an argument not based on facts, and perhaps made up facts.

After all, if one argues that the world is governed by a cabal of pink flamingoes, how does one argue against that?

Another friend (or close acquaintance) told me to get lost and that he did not wish ever to see me again. I disputed his ideas, but perhaps not as delicately as I should have, because he is an intelligent yet an observer of events through a not very good understanding of humanity and if he wants to play economist he has to account for the psychological aspect of the science. I think his motivation, as a wealthy individual is to preserve his estate in perpetuity, and that there are untermenschen and ubermenchen. Moreover, he argues that people of different political persuasions do not understand economics. He believes that those inhabiting the upper 1% belong there, are “job creators,” by virtue of their passive investments in companies that make money. Maybe so, but many economists do not agree with this discredited “trickle down” philosophy. Credible arguments say that the exponential technological revolution will create a need for a universal basic income when robots eventually replace the need for human labor. It is already happening. Looks like there will be no long distance truck drivers in 5 years. Algorithms already are more efficient than radiologists in reading x-rays.

Another former friend, is an unreasonable, bullying, yet ignorant know-it-all. As far as she is concerned there is no reason and no wish even to hear any another point of that does not coincide with her world view. Any attempt to advance an argument is rudely interrupted . Try to finish a sentence?

Not gonna happen. Seems to me that people who do not wish you to speak are so insecure of their own selves that they instinctively suppress conflicting thought.

Another sends me Fox news articles with pithy sentences (indicating a short attention span), I tried a reasoned dialog with him, to no avail and have decided to call it a day. I have known him since elementary school, we were raised in similar circumstances, but he has moved to Palm Beach and perhaps visits Mar-A-Lago too often and listens to Fox propaganda.

He fancies himself a student of history, but his scholarship is questionable at best and ignorant at worst. So another dialog down the drain.

I have found it harder and harder to befriend Republicans. I do not know if that is just me, but a product of our increased tribalism, egged on by a miserable liar

in the White House, who, from my point of view, cares nothing about the country and is probably indebted to Vladimir Putin in both money and Kompromat, judging from his performance in Helsinki. Cannot wait to see the peepee tape.

My wife, always practical, tells me to keep my mouth shut. But I am unable to help myself, good men keeping silent and evil triumphing and all that. But what to do? I still believe that reasonable people, even with different opinions, but not different facts, can discuss politics. If it were not possible to do so, how do we maintain our democracy? Do we slide down the slippery slope as they did in Russia, where the leader controls all the media and enjoys a 90% approval rating? Where people do not have an opinion other than that which pervades state media?

How does one navigate these perilous times? Are the times worse than ever? Is it the new normal? Is our country devolving into authoritarianism? Is the western alliance under threat? How do we believe a leader who lies constantly, sometimes apologizes and then doubles down on the falsehood? Are our institutions strong enough to sustain attacks on our law enforcement agencies, and will Russian meddling, the lack of Democratic leaders who can put forth a plan to appeal to voters, who are increasingly turned off by the whole process, floods of money from special interests and PACs? Politicians who only care about perpetuating their power?

Now we are in a crisis. The President of the United States believes that children should be separated from their parents, and now cannot find the parents. If ICE had any brains, they could have used wrist bands with ID numbers, dates of birth, etc. But no one thought of it or even cared. The toxic atmosphere created by this president is one of cruelty. The President also believes, people from black countries—bad. People from white countries—good. Muslims—bad. Christian fundamentalists—good. Rich people—good. Poor people—bad. Brown people—bad. Immigrants fleeing oppression, starvation and hunger—bad. The FBI, CIA, NSA—bad. NATO—bad. The murderous Vladimir Putin and other dictators—good. Russian meddling in our elections—never happened, because there were more people at his inauguration than ever before in our history and there were “others” who meddled.

Have we reached a tipping point? Will Republicans in congress stand up and ask this loathesome madman to leave as they told Nixon, who by the way, now seems a bit Lincolnesque.

Immigrants All

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:19:01 GMT

In 1923, my father, Bernard Wieder stepped off the boat at Ellis Island, having fled the Rumanian Army where his older brother died in World War I. Dad did not wish to suffer the same fate for a blatantly anti Semitic Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was of military age and he would have none of it. Bidding a sorrowful good bye to his parents and five brothers and sisters, he took a train from Budapest travelling to Hamburg and boarded a ship for America, in below deck steerage class. As a child, reading "Nick Carter" mysteries centered in New York, he had decided that was where his future would lie.

People rode in Automobiles, dressed in fancy clothes, and lived in heated houses with indoor plumbing. And Nick always found the murderer.

The following year the US Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1924, discriminating against Eastern Europeans (Jews) who wished to come to America, frustrating Dad's plans to bring the remainder of his family to America. Every year, he returned to Hungary for the Jewish High Holy Days, and dutifully throughout his time here until 1939 when the war erupted, he sent his diabetic father insulin. Dad married in 1939 and planned to take his bride to meet his parents that September. After the war started, his Dad, my grandfather, died of diabetic shock in 1940, unable to receive the life saving medication from his son. Dad said his father was lucky. All of the rest of his family, his mother, and brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins all perished in Auschwitz, except for two sisters who survived and also came to America as immigrants after the war, in 1945. They lived into old age and had children, my cousins, who married and lived, as did I, the American dream.

Dad used to quote the well known, Emma Lazarus who talked about the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the tempest tossed," words found at the base of the Statue of Liberty. And from his first days bought and read the New York Times to learn English and of America

Dad made a success of his life, working industriously in Miami Beach and in New York City in all manner of jobs and in his own businesses. His first job was at the Nemo hotel on 1st street here in Miami Beach as a busboy. My mothers parents, landed in 1900 also having fled Hungary. So I am really only a first generation American, born in New York City during the darkest days of World War II.

Many of my friends tell a similar story, although I do have some friends who grew up in Georgia and whose ancestors employed slaves, but had a relative who fought in the Civil War, although on the Union side over the darkest stain in American history, involving African Americans who travelled here in suffocating below deck slave ships, their arms and legs in shackles. They too were immigrants.

Some clichés bear repeating. We are and always will be a nation of immigrants. It is just that some of us have conveniently forgotten our heritage, and seek to exclude others who are currently fleeing the same deprivations their ancestors did decades and centuries ago.

The economic forces that have created migrations are people who seek a better life--that is what America represents.

It does not stand for leaders ripping children from their parents. It does not stand for values that are un-American. If we are a nation of immigrants, we should be taking in as many as we can. No matter what price we pay, no matter what the cost. History will look kindly on us if we do. The economic benefits bestowed on this country by immigrants has always been positive. We remained Ronald Reagan's shining city on the hill. We remained Roosevelt's arsenal of democracy.

Edmund Burke said that evil triumphs when good men say nothing and Republicans in congress should remember who their first President was and what he stood for. They should re-read Lincoln's second inaugural address. They should read the Constitution, and the lives of our founding fathers who understood deeply what we should be as a nation. Alexander Hamilton was an immigrant too.

Intolerance Writ Large

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:17:41 GMT

I would dearly like to discuss with Trumpists, their ideas, beliefs, and understanding of policy without rancor, bitterness and the need to be completely right. I personally may be guilty of some of this, too. Listening was never my strong point and I have a tendency to dismiss those who seem to have lost their senses. But then I must surely admit, they probably share the same disposition toward me.

Some people are hysterical Trumpists who believe that mainstream America is not giving Trump the chance to be a good President. "It's only been a year and a half," they say. Discussion suffers a devolution to a to a netherworld of alternative facts, fire-breathing Obama or Clinton deprecation as justification for their diversion, obfuscation and ultimately, a seething intolerance. Attempts at reason seem as elusive as understanding with complete clarity the nature of the universe. They do not listen at all, so intentionally dismiss arguments contrary to their own worldview.

They are true believers, card-carrying members of the Trump base. A frustration settles over me, unable to overcome their confirmation bias. Among their thoughts (from a recent vitriolic email) include the inherent anti-intellectualism of the Supreme Soviet or a book burning in a square in 1936 Munich. Last week, I received the below rant:

"I am always amazed by the amount of advice being given to the President from people no where(sic) near the negotiating table.

I truly believe the left will cheer if North Korea walks away. They, including you, hate Trump so deeply that if he cured Cancer you wouldn't release the formula. Please do not email me trash from intellectuals who pray for a sitting Presidents failure. I believe in giving a duly elected President a chance with the support of the country(sic). You don't. (sic) In the article there was not, and never is, the solution or even an alternate solution to any problem. If this summit doesn't happen, it doesn't. But please save your personal dignity and don't go out and cheer for North Korea but Trump, (sic) as every President before him since 1954 has been unable to accomplish. If Trump didn't try, he would further be condemned. Damned if you do, etc. You, with your loss at the election will not rest (sic) until he is out if(sic) office by ANY means. God bless America, because a group of Americans would cheer for any misstep no matter what. We are in a sad state of affairs and you, my friend, are hoping for this President's failure. I am glad I have never felt the degree of hate that you are living with. It must be a depressing state of affairs to wake up daily hoping for devastation."

Their hatred of Hillary and Obama apparently does not count. And who said I was not sad about the self-destructive tendencies of this erratic, unstable president? And why would I wish him to fail?

The above screed in response to an article I had sent from the Washington Post of the vicissitudes of negotiating with Kim Jong Un who has conducted an on again off again agreement to negotiate, and has a completely different understanding of what denuclearization of the Korean peninsula means. Kim, a demonstrably ruthless murderer, is probably no trustworthier than Trump, who, do not forget, seeks not to develop a condominium project in Atlantic City based upon illusory revenues from a gaming table. A few days later I sent an article from The Wall Street Journal pointing our similar difficulties. That resulted in a threat to have my email blocked. "Good," I said to myself, I no longer have to deal directly with this person, whom I can only regard as detrimental to my blood pressure. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending upon your point of view, I am intolerant of injustice and of people who refuse to respond to rational argument by instead responding with anger.

Apparently, as of this date, our exalted leader is not doing so well with Little Rocket Man.

However, the email above heretofore quoted verbatim:

1. Calculated that I was rooting for the President's failure.

2. Cheering for a Trump misstep.

3. Am consumed by hatred.

4. Hope for "devastation" for the nation or for the world.

5. Explicitly states that anti Trump people live in a depressing dystopia.

6. Thoughtful people are "pseudo-intellectual" and worthy of contempt. Answers are simple and easily analyzed.

7. That Trump is a good negotiator a priori and should not be questioned. (Evidence has proven otherwise.)

8. Wished to receive no further discourse.

I mistakenly thought I was sending inoffensive articles, calculated to point out the difficulties of negotiating with North Korea on what North Korean leadership regards as an existential issue. (Think about Gaddafi) Previously, during a telephone conversation containing a good deal of shouting at me about Hillary's emails and how Obama destroyed America, I desired to impart my point of view against some of other stated beliefs including how poor people (except women starving in the streets) should raise themselves up by their bootstraps and be purged from welfare eligibility. This person's economic position, it seems, allowed them to condemn most others who have not so similarly found themselves in a very secure circumstance, those circumstances not entirely of this person's own doing.

That distasteful conversation cemented my long held understanding that our nation is ideologically imperiled. If Trump were to open a concentration camp for Mexicans and people from "shithole countries, " Trumpists would defend him by saying that Trump has not been given a chance and that the Democrats lost the election, "get over it." We who criticize the president are not loyal Americans. (that dreadful 1st amendment) And the newspapers (except Fox News) are all purveyors of fake news. Fox news has garnered millions of viewers, and is a true competitor to Joseph Goebbels.

So how does the average moderate deal with such blindness? Do they try to convince antagonists? Do they try to converse with them? Is it useless or is it a premature surrender to unjustified obduracy? Or is it that some people are so ideologically ossified that they will not even entertain contrary ideas? I can understand politicians who must pander to their base. But what of friends who can no longer speak politics to one another? Political discourse has always been the essence of the American experiment, leading to compromise and laws to help us all. That seems to be gone with the vanishing middle class. A brilliant article in the Atlantic this month, by Matthew Stewart, "The Birth of a New Aristocracy,” deals with that shrinkage. Well worth reading, it argues that the new aristocracy "has mastered the old trick of consolidating wealth and passing privilege along at the expense of other people's children." and that consists of the 9.9% of the population. Doctors, lawyers, engineers and white collar workers who have grabbed the middle of the income scale. The rest of the people are stagnating in a fetid, Dickensian future, unable to climb the ladder.

The maxim that one should never discuss politics or religion does not carry water for me. Politics for news junkies such as myself is the bread of social interaction. But the problem is that social media has placed us in small groups that only see a Manichean world. People have divided themselves with the sources of information that they use. Now places like Facebook are finally attempting to verify some of the misinformation and perhaps raise the accuracy of some of the misinformation that is virally corrupting.

But wait. I have another Republican friend who does not like Trump, concedes his vulgarity, lack of dignity, but argues that the presidency should be dignified, but that since thugs run the rest of the world, we need a thuggish president who can fight fire with fire. This Palm Beach 1%er knows the answers and spells them out in short, pithy expressions reminiscent of people who consider themselves wise based upon superficial knowledge. Yet there is an air of tolerance in his responses and a begrudging concession that some of the positions that Trump espouses are racist, and vulgarly repugnant. On the other hand, he says, that the entire world is racist, implying that that is an inherent justification for Trump's behavior, ignoring our nation's past foundation of slavery. At least, in my view, he sets the bar very low for American values, by supporting an unfit president. He, however, is not irredeemably fanatical, but still his ideas come close to justifying the ends justifying the means, a clear abrogation of utilitarian morality.

Another two Republican friends do not argue, they simply base all their support on whether their taxes have decreased, whether the economy is doing well, and whether their bank accounts balloon. They care not a fig about social issues, nor the less fortunate, nor a wit of social responsibility for those who have not achieved some criterion of their respectful ideation.

Flummoxed is the wrong expression, I must say, of the difficulty in navigating the rocky shoals of political discourse in this time of inordinate schism. The expressions of frustration linger mightily on the conscience, the always excruciating challenges of attempting to communicate with one's political adversaries. The better angels of our nature do not prominently appear; they lurk in some shadowy hollow under a rock of hatred, misunderstanding and polarity of the polity of our great Republic, which, none the better for this situation of antipathy and misunderstanding, is exacerbated by an unforgiving social media, televised propaganda, irresponsible talking heads and people whose wealth clouds their humanitarian judgment of themselves and of their fellow citizens.

The Iran Deal is not so Clear-Cut

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:16:23 GMT

Numerous editorials have either condemned or saluted the deal. The President is clearly taking a chance that the Iranians will succumb to pressure by the invocation of additional sanctions against them.

Iran has been aspiring to hegemony in the Middle East since the 1979 revolution, its "death to America and to Israel" playing upon the minds of American intelligence officers as well as the Saudis, Israelis, Syrians, and all other antagonists who fear that the Middle East tinderbox will explode into another war. Just last month Russian and American warplanes almost clashed over Syria. The Russians are supporting Hezbollah against Israel; rockets and missiles abound in Syria, pointed against Israel. But mainly the nefarious mischief of the Iranians is producing these untenable conditions.

Barack Obama and John Kerry negotiated a deal that omitted the considerations of Iranian duplicity in its promulgation of weapons to the Syrians, the Houthis in Yemen, and all those who are warring against the Sunni majorities in Saudi Arabia, the Jews in Israel and all those who do not believe in the religious fundamentalism of the Iranian clerics. They expect that they will control Syria through their puppet--the murderous Bashar Al Assad. Deal proponents argue that the Iran arrangement is working because the IAEA, the Europeans, and the UN believe that Iran is complying with its obligations under the deal and that America pulling out is a grave mistake. How are they complying? That is a matter of great question. Religious theocratic fundamentalists do not comply with anyone but their preconceived notions of Allah, heretics and infidels threatening their power.

Susan Rice, former National Security Adviser argues that Iran relinquished 97 % of its enriched uranium stockpile and dismantled 2/3 of centrifuges as well as its plutonium and that inspections have verified the same. She also argues that the US unilateral withdrawal from the agreement demeans trust in the word of the United States, also ascribing Trump's decision to a matter of ego, by jettisoning the Obama agenda at every opportunity, as well as sending a signal to Kim Jong Un that the US "cannot be trusted." What she neglects to say is that Kim will never trust us anyway and we will not trust him, because nations always follow their own interests. Rice's naïveté is evident in her piece in yesterday's New York Times. Also questionable is her premise that in entering the deal, the US never intended to address Iran's other malign expeditions. Perhaps it should have.

Iran's economy is in a ditch, and President Trump believes that they will be pushed over the edge by additional sanctions. The jury is out on that one. We simply do not know how the European actors will handle the American sanctions or even secondary sanctions. What is clear, however is that European business given a choice between the United States market and the Iranian market, are hardly challenged by such a choice.

I am a progressive democrat and an anti-Trumper. I have believed that he has demeaned and been destructive of the office of the Presidency. His animus for Obama is eroding, by a thousand cuts, health care for many Americans. His immoral acolyte Scott Pruitt is decimating years of environmental protections. Trump is a proven liar and narcissist. He has pushed for a ruinous tax cut with possibly dire economic consequences exploding the deficit and fooling his base.

Whatever his motives may be: forestalling Mueller, dancing with porn stars, employing thuggish lawyers, threatening and bullying those below him, inability to think and read, this withdrawal from the Iran deal may be the right move, if perhaps for the wrong reasons. But maybe not.

The funding of Iranian terrorism through the return of billions to enable them to assert further hegemony, promulgate proxy wars, and cooperate with malign forces, stuck in the President's primitive craw. Moreover, as Bret Stephens of the New York Times argues, that under the deal Iran would have been able eventually to enrich as much uranium as they would wish, an insane dénouement.

Young Iranians are fed up with theocracy and intolerant clerics running their country. This bold gambit by the United States may push them over the edge. Already there have been violent episodes in the streets. More may be coming and regime change might happen or at least threaten the existing status quo. But maybe not.

At the same time, the risk of war has grown; Israel is already at war in Syria and the U.S. must brace itself for a time of turmoil including war; and upon turmoil Trump revels.

The Titanic is Going Down

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:14:49 GMT

"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."

- William Shakespeare

The Titanic was "unsinkable." Sporting 52,310 tons, which by today's standards was not the largest of ships. but by 1912 standards, was a leviathan, a iron riveted monster, with 16 water tight bulkheads and carrying lifeboats sufficient for 1,178 of its 2,234 passengers. A North Atlantic Iceberg ripped a gash through five of the sixteen watertight bulkheads, the unsinkable sinking inside of three hours, resulting in 1500 dead.

World War I started with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Serbia, triggering a chain reaction of alliances causing the great war, killing over nine million combatants and seven million civilians. Nations of sleepwalking leadership plunged the world into not only that war, but also the Treaty of Versailles, setting the stage for the rise of fascists and the Second World War, involving over 100 million people from over thirty countries and ultimately involving 50 to 85 million fatalities.

The Korean War, fought from 1950 to 1953, begun as a UN "Police Action" ended in a stalemate, insuring the establishment of what ultimately became a thriving democracy in the south and a totalitarian dictatorship in the north. The war was never ended with a peace treaty, but a semi-stable armistice for the last 60 years or so. Korea had been occupied by imperial Japan since 1910 until the end of World War II. The Korean war cost 178,000 lives including 37,000 American soldiers dead and 103,000 wounded. America feared the spread of Communism and the result was favorable for the South. But the remnants of that war haunt us to this day, with a ruthless dictator threatening to post missiles to San Francisco, among other American cities.

The Viet Nam war started on a waterfall of misinformation, including the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, based upon an erroneous report that American ships were attacked first by North Vietnamese forces. 58,000 Americans died in the misguided conflict, tearing our nation apart. In fact we thought we were stopping the fall of Communist dominoes, but the Vietnamese thought they were fighting a war of national liberation in a country previously dominated by the Japanese, the French and the Americans, all of which supported corrupt regimes.

In World War II to defeat Nazi Germany and Japan, we allied our country with a totalitarian Stalin against a totalitarian Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo, hoping to create a better world, a world free of dictators and despots. Between Hitler and Stalin, 50 million people were killed (by their hands alone.) At the fall of the Soviet Union, in 1993 Francis Fukuyama wrote that History had ended, arguing that the advent of liberal Western Democracy may signal "the endpoint of humanity’s sociocultural evolution and heralding the final form of human government--liberal democracy."

The arc of history is long. The consequences of what is happening in the Middle East are now in the hands of US President who understands neither foreign policy nor history.

Despite the efforts of educated, sophisticated policymakers such as George Kennan, Dean Acheson, FDR, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower, subsequent presidents and leaders were perfectly capable of destroying the building blocks of a world order of pax Americana and the alliances that have essentially made the world a safer place since the end of World War II. The United Nations, has nobly attempted to create a better world, but has failed in many respects, including the inability to foster world peace through its own devices. It must rely on the largesse of the member states, many of which only look after their own interests.

The collapse of the Soviet Union, Fukuyama thought, was the end of history. It was to be the rise of liberal democracies throughout the world. How wrong was Fukuyama? How difficult is it to predict the future? Essentially the best of leaders, with the noblest of intentions are winging it, but now we should all be especially frightened. A President caught in scandal, possible criminality, and obsessed with his own narcissism faces uncertainties, befuddling the best of statesman.

This president knows all the answers. But is not a statesman.

When our founding fathers, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton wrote the Constitution, they designed an elaborate system of federalism dividing the powers, checks and balances among the states and the three branches of government, decided that they did not want a king and determined the term of office for the President as four years. They wrote a second amendment guaranteeing a "well regulated militia" insuring the right to bear arms (flintlock muskets, not AR 15s.) They decided they did not want a parliamentary system nor a prime minister. They provided a provision for impeachment of the President for "high crimes and misdemeanors." But they did not provide for a vote of no confidence nor a special election to put in place a new president for an administration gone haywire. Two presidents have been impeached, but none ever convicted and removed. They provided an electoral college that malapportioned power among the states, and allowed for the election of a minority vote getter.

This is the 21st century, not the 19th. It is time for a new constitutional convention.

The Second Amendment meets Musical Attorneys

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:12:02 GMT

The chairs keep revolving at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, like some horrible, warped Alice in Wonderland fantasy. John Dowd quits, John Bolton the new national security adviser and a new face appears, willing to attempt to tow the line for the boy king, now a caricature of himself. Even Joseph de Genova, mob attorney, doesn't want to work for the sun king.

John Bolton aka Dr. Strangelove, wants to bomb North Korea preemptively and withdraw from the Iran deal is to be the new National Security Advisor. No senate confirmation necessary.

Even the most conservative of Republicans are free traders. The stock market gyrates, shakes and tumbles, resurging and gyrating, affected by the President's economic ignorance and fecklessness, him now busy with trying to bury the Muller investigation by demeaning the FBI, the CIA and the other national intelligence services, the heads of which, normally taciturn, are now speaking out against the scalawag President, the evil Chauncey Gardner inhabiting the office where the leader of the free world usually resides. Stormy tells all on 60 Minutes. Spanked the Donald, and told him not to blab about himself, and he shuts up and tells Stormy, "You are special." Do you think that Evangelicals might care? Probably not. Has our country been in worse trouble? Yes. We had a Civil War, a Cuban Missile crisis, 9/11, the Great Depression, World War II, Viet Nam and even Watergate. John Dean, special counsel to the White House told Nixon that Watergate was a cancer growing on the Presidency. And now, as an analyst for CNN says "that the Russia probe and Trump is Nixon on steroids and stilts."

At least during the Watergate crisis, involving all three branches of government, the Republicans in congress were represented by people like Howard Baker, and Lowell P. Weicker, who had a modicum of integrity and called for their President to resign or that they would have recommended impeachment. Nixon knew the jig was up. but Trump, cannot see beyond his own mirror. "Mirror, mirror on the wall, I am the smartest one of all. Only I can fix, fix for all. Let's have a war with Iran or Rocket man."

Now, the pusillanimous Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, who fear Trump's wrath and the base that supports him, are cognitively dissonant remnants of how America has changed since the 1970s. Cultural diversity has incited a backlash of racism fueled by ignorance and fear, mobilized by Trump and his ilk, spouting hatred and a simplistic notion of how the world will be a better place if only immigrants and brown people were deported, making America white again. Well it will not happen. "Get over it," to quote the late Antonin Scalia from an interview on 60 minutes when Lesley Stahl asked him whether he was bothered by the court throwing the election to George W. Bush, who ultimately invaded the wrong country, destabilized the middle east and ranks just above Trump on the Presidential scale of incompetence. But at least he had some dignity, and is peacefully imitating his idol Winston Churchill by painting as a pastime, as encouraged by the great one's essay. The comparison ends there, of course. This circus has not been relived in my lifetime. Young people, afraid to go to school march in Washington to the deafened ears of congressional acolytes of the NRA, their pockets bulging with cash from donations of gun toting miscreants who really believe that the second amendment allows them to carry assault rifles to go hunting, in this case, with human children and students as their quarry.

The second amendment should be repealed as argued by Bret Stevens, hardly a liberal, who writes that "From a national-security standpoint, the Amendment’s suggestion that a “well-regulated militia” is “necessary to the security of a free State,” is quaint. The Minutemen that will deter Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un are based in missile silos in Minot, N.D., not farmhouses in Lexington, Mass." His essay also argues that regulating guns from a "prospective right" Constitutional guarantee than from a privilege point of view, such as a driver's license, is an easier task. No one wants to stop legitimate hunters, and farmers from shooting rodents and hunting Bambi or protecting themselves in their homes. Turning schools into shooting galleries does not seem a wise solution either.

The young people who march will soon be voters, hoping to chase from office those who insouciantly treat their lives as fodder for gun-toting lunatics.

A House Divided

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:10:24 GMT

"Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every house divided against itself will not stand and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand."

- (Matthew 12:25) and quoted by Abraham Lincoln June 16, 1858 in Springfield, Illinois referring to the divisions among the states of the Union.

American cultural polarity, fueled by social media and a lack of civic education, results in ideological tribalization of both Political parties, threatening our democracy. We will not be the first to fail becoming indifferent to the people's needs, the corrupting influence of wealth and power falling to a smaller percentage of the elites. Of these things, revolutions are born, autocracies arise and freedom vanishes, often overnight.

Throughout history, democracies have failed: Greece, Rome, and now throughout Eastern Europe, Hungary, Turkey and Russia. But not yet here at home, because our institutions are still strong. But that is not a guarantee.

Totalitarian governments rise upon economic and cultural fears, and a leader arises appealing to reptilian human instincts of humans. History abounds with such personages--Hitler, Stalin, Peron, Chavez, Castro, and in America, Huey Long, Father Coughlin, Joseph McCarthy, George Wallace and Donald Trump, demagogues all.

Trump preyed upon tribal fears of displacement, unemployment, and racism (loss of turf). In the 1950s, Joseph McCarthy used paranoiac fear of Communism as his entrée to power, his hubris finally imploding, people realizing how loathsome his scapegoating and character assassination, "Have you no decency, sir? At long last?" cried legal icon Joseph Welch, pounding the final nail in McCarthy's coffin at nationally televised hearings, captivating the nation. His colleagues, and President Eisenhower, previously cowed by McCarthy’s blatant demagoguery during the “Communist under every rock” witch-hunt, finally censured McCarthy.

Trump says, "other" people are enemies who will steal our jobs. We trial lawyers learn in seminars called "The Reptile," to evoke primeval self-preservation instincts in juries in order to achieve stellar verdicts based upon the theory that those serving do not actually care about the victim, but instead about how negligence by defendants endanger "the community" (themselves). Trump masterfully evoked these fears. He understood his audience better than any of the other Republican candidates. He appealed to the emotion of self-preservation, galvanizing his base through apocalyptic imaging.

Republicans and Democrats have ignored their constituents. Neither party had the foresight to plan for exponentially expanding global, political and technological revolution. Both parties shared in the creation of Trumpenstein. The left calls Trump "Hitler," and the right accuse Democrats as abetting immigrants "overrunning the country," stealing jobs from "real Americans." This fantastical notion, exacerbated by Fox news propaganda provokes an intellectually dishonest, Orwellian newspeak, threatening institutions our country has enjoyed for 242 years. Social media played an enormous role in this civic catastrophe. People believe unsourced, false stories on Facebook more than from respected journals whose editors check facts before publishing. The Russians used legal social media platforms to nefariously meddle with our elections.

Trump's anti-immigrant policies stem from his concern that the base of voters supporting him (now about 35%) are repulsed by his abandonment of their tribal interests, (their jobs), no longer viable despite his promises.

Now, our house divided, threatens our institutions more than at any time since the Civil War. This has happened many times. Roosevelt tried a power grab to pack the Supreme Court, and the Senate, for a almost year rejected a qualified Supreme Court justice (Merrick Garland) to manipulate the weight of the institution. Now, President Trump denigrates the Justice Department and the FBI to sever pending investigations of himself and his sycophantic brood. These are vital institutions whose dedicated civil servants labor to protect our democracy.

Democrats and Republicans are more tribal than ever. Discourse and accommodation are as distant as the dark side of the moon, presenting an enormous threat to our democracy. Even if Trump is removed from office, the reasons which got him there still remain. Identity politics instead of ideas prevail, fatally dangerous to any democracy.

During early human history, tribal cohesiveness arose to ensure the success of one tribe over the other, their primary success derived from war. Negotiation to avoid war really arose after the dawn of civilized societies and did not really become prevalent until the 19th century. Until then, war was the primary solution to differences among tribes (represented by nation states).

Humans, anthropologist Lawrence Keeley argues, that our ancestors were universally war-like, studying the bloodthirsty tribes of South America where 60 percent of the males died in combat to ensure dominance. Some psychologists argue that many hunter-gatherer tribes were not consumed with war, and that the war-like turf protectoral tendencies of humans arose with the dawn of agriculture 10,000 years ago. Trump seems a troglodytic avatar of those times, his concept of "winning," not including any bones for the other side. He has conducted his wars on many fields of battle including profligate litigation, carrying it into the White House to the detriment of all Americans and even other countries. He combines most of the bad tendencies of any leader, dominating the news cycle and the body politic with his singularly repugnant intolerance and not very thinly veiled racism.

But resistance to Trump has energized a previously apathetic public and in 2018, there may be a new congress. The issues relating to the disparity of wealth in our new gilded age has not disappeared and will not until government institutes policies that ensure a level playing field. This cannot be accomplished without tolerant dialog between adversaries.

Trump is Not a New Phenomenon

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:08:33 GMT

"He who promises more than he is able to perform, is false to himself; and he who does not perform what he has promised is a traitor to his friend."

- George Shelley

Each day, a new revelation emerges from this wretched, insufferable White House, a mélange of snake infested rooms, a weak Indiana Jones vignette of frightful serpents emerging from every crevice. Reporters, staffers, secretaries, aides, assistants, interns, junior and senior officials, all attempting to navigate the labyrinthine halls of influence, deception and vainglorious sycophancy.

Motivated by a wish not to be indicted, prosecuted, or called as a witness, they muddle about, the specter of the Mueller investigation hanging in the fetid air, wondering what the special counsel will do next. Bobby three sticks, a sphinx, keeps counsel only with the tight lipped, professional white collar prosecutors, whom he has engaged to follow his lead and perhaps chase Caligula from his cave. The man who would be king writhes, stews, and fulminates in a hopeless situation of his own creation, transfixed by large screen TVs. Never wanting really to be President, and ill equipped for the purpose did not realize that his brand building expedition would get him where he is: Under microscopic public scrutiny, a ravenous, blood-thirsty retinue of reporters, each seeking to break the next story and which, to now, have not had much travail in discerning.

The stories, falling into their laps like so much manna from the feckless President, who says he is "really a genius, very smart, who went to the best schools," helps them along their path to potential Pulitzer prizes, much like a reincarnation of Richard Nixon, only with half the brain of the latter. His Joseph Goebbels, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, re-channels all the delusional tweets, into semi-retractions. Her countenance resonates with the evasive, half truth, and "I'll get back to you," (which she never does) when she does not have the answer to a question that clearly does not fall into the easy spin category. After Trump leaves, I do not imagine she will be replacing Lesley Stahl on 60 minutes.

This gruesome episode of an unfit President reminds us of the unfit Andrew Johnson, who succeeded to the Presidency upon the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. In those days, Vice Presidents, not necessarily of the same party as the President, allowed Johnson, a southern Democrat, the antithesis of Lincoln, to assume office. Congressional Radical Republicans wished to guarantee the rights of freed slaves and blacks by passage of the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments to the Constitution to guarantee black suffrage, and Johnson, although loyal to the Union, was an unabashed racist, sympathized with those who wished to keep blacks in involuntary or indentured servitude. Post war, Federal military districts created by Congress, deployed federal troops under the command of Phil Sheridan to ensure that local white supremacists could not endanger the black vote. Congress passed a law called the Tenure of Office act providing that the President could not fire cabinet members without the consent of congress. This law was intended partially to protect Edwin Stanton, Lincoln's gruff, but highly capable Secretary of War, who was fervidly enforcing the reconstruction acts passed by Congress. The acts, lumped together, meant to bring order to a disjointed South, still infested with violent racial hatred. A threat of a new rebellion loomed. Although loyal to the Union, Johnson exemplified a callous indifference for blacks and for those who would protect them. He supported the infamous "Black Codes," enacted by southern states to deprive African-Americans of their suffrage and wished prematurely to reinstate local state governments antithetical to blacks. Johnson lied and misstated his positions repeatedly to different audiences, including on a country wide speaking tour.

At the time all this was happening Ulysses S. Grant, the great hero of the Union, reacting to Johnson's vituperation and vitriol, stated, "I would impeach Johnson because he is such an infernal liar." Johnson had had a falling out with Grant, over reconstruction policies. Grant, a fourteenth amendment advocate, wished that the former Confederacy be under military supervision for some time to ensure that blacks be protected from hateful former confederates, and that there be no renewal of the insurrection. Johnson was his own worst enemy, but at least had consistent beliefs on how to reconstruct the South. Johnson attempted to manipulate those around him, both in the cabinet and especially those who disagreed with his ideas of returning the Southern states to the Union and disagreed with the fourteenth amendment, guaranteeing black suffrage and full citizenship. He employed deceit and vitriol toward this end. He created havoc in his cabinet and uncertainty in the nation over the result of a horrifying war, which had cost 755,000 American dead and delayed reconciliation between the South and the North. This, the radical Republicans in congress, could not bear. (For those readers not familiar with the Republican party of the time should understand that it was the polar opposite of today's Republicans.)

With the benefit of 150 years of historical analysis, the bet is that had Lincoln lived to promote "malice toward none and charity for all,” civil rights may have been an easier battle and emerged into broad sunlight sooner.

Congress impeached Johnson but he was not convicted in the Senate, saved by one vote, after he had disingenuously promised to adhere to the rules set down by the Senate that he would pursue with vigor the reconstruction acts, and the military districts set up in the South. With only nine months left in his term, and his torpidity toward equal rights, opposition to the 14th Amendment, was not nominated by his own party, leaving office in 1869, and died in 1875. Johnson, regarded by historians as one of the worst presidents in American History exhibited many of the characteristics and temperament of Donald Trump, and although he was known to have been perverse in his racism but, at least, had been literate.

Johnson was the first President to be impeached, and if being an "infernal liar" is the criterion for impeachment, the present occupant of Oval Office, certainly qualifies.

The Chickens Are Coming Home to Roost-- Random thoughts on 2017

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:05:45 GMT

The Mueller investigation is closing in on the detritus of the Presidency, the ship of state piloted by a mad Ahab, who, instead of pursuing the great white whale, pursues personal narcissisms at the expense of his countrymen. Having achieved high office through an enormous con of the working people to whom he represented himself as their champion, the duplicity, mendacity and lack of a scintilla of integrity are finally being revealed by a dogged, intelligent, incorruptible and highly competent prosecutor and his team of first rate lawyers, all devoted to exposing the truth.

There are many Russia questions to be answered. And they will be, despite the naysayers the Trump apologists in Congress, and the White House sycophants, including Mike Pence, who thinks the world is 5000 years old, and will not dine with a woman unless his wife. whom he calls "mother" is present.

The truth is not something that the present incumbent has ever worn. In his real estate dealings, his competitors, dupes and stiffed debtors are legion. And the women he has harassed are now speaking up. A trial will soon occur when the President might be subpoenaed to testify, to the delight of political theatergoers.

After the faith in our institutions has been shaken to its core, light appears at the end of the dark tunnel. Trump will go, either through resignation or impeachment. I do not believe he will last until 2020. But then again, I did not think he would be elected. But wait, would he start a war with Little Rocket man to escape impeachment and possible conviction? Or indictment?

Now, we are faced with what will come next. Will the country continue to be riven with cultural divisions? The answer is probably yes. But hopeful signs emerge from the deepest of red Alabama, which has elected of all things, a progressive Democrat instead of a troglodyte "Judge Moore," who believes that the ten commandments belong on the courthouse door, that homosexuals should be in jail, gays should be prosecuted, that abortion is a mortal sin, and last but not least, that slavery was a better time for America. He has still not conceded the election, won by Doug Jones, a moderate Democrat, who most likely will be a decent senator. Mitch McConnell, that paradigm of compassion for the working class, should be thankful that the Republican senators will not be placed in the unwelcome position of attempting to expel Moore on ethics issues.

On a broader front the economy is humming along, but the threat to unskilled labor grows with each passing day. Automation, robotics, and industrial efficiency fueled by those two horsemen continue apace. Each day exponentially increases the body of knowledge and information. Parents agonize over the screen time spent by their children, who are mostly now ignorant of literature, language and rely instead on computers to do the calculations children did in former generations. The idea that a tax cut for corporations will allow them to pay more to workers is delusional. Workers, displaced by automation will not even be hired and the reason corporations are so profitable are because they mostly have reduced their workforces because of automation. Robots do not need wage increases, get sick, or sexually harass anyone (unless in a Arnold Schwarzenegger household).

Sexual harassment allegations are now as common as men and women. What used to be acceptable or to be more artful, was tolerable as was segregation in Birmingham, Alabama or slavery in the antebellum south, has now become outrageously unacceptable. Cultural shifts that came slowly now arrive with lightening speed on social media and on the Internet. Crowds of friends on Facebook roil about how our President is as culpable as any of the prominent men who have patted a butt or advanced their libidos at women's expense. But were not women at one time ambiguously agreeable to such behavior? Did not men interpret a "no" to really mean a "yes?" Some men grouse that "you can't even flirt with a woman any more," or "you can't even shake a woman's hand." Evolutionary biology has been eschewed by the new cultural ethos. But so has polygamy, and the rule of the old white walrus, beating off his rivals for command of the harem.

I liked the Charlie Rose show, but Charlie needed to go. He had informative and stimulating conversations with authors, statesmen, foreign policy analysts, composers, directors, professors, scientists and politicians. His guest list read like a catalog of important people with important things to contribute to the national discussion on almost every important subject. Seems like Christianne Amanpour, not a bad choice, will replace his show. Terry Gross would have been an excellent choice also.

James Levine is a brilliant conductor, Richard Wagner was an anti Semite, Ty Cobb (the baseball genius not the President's mustachioed lawyer) was an incorrigible, mean spirited jerk, Harvey Weinstein brought us brilliant film, Einstein had many mistresses, U.S. Grant was a drunkard, Lincoln was a depressive, Roosevelt and Kennedy dallied with many women; the list could traverse all of history, including the Founding Fathers. Thomas Jefferson had children with an enslaved Sally Hemmings. How about that for a hostile workplace environment? They all contributed to the advancement of society.

I am afraid I cannot include the present occupant of the White House among these notables. He is beyond redemption.

But, as I said, soon he will be gone.

Abba Eban, the Israeli statesman and legatee of Churchillean oratory said, "The American people will eventually get it right, after they have done everything else first."

The Divisiveness of Donald J. Trump

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:02:40 GMT

"A House divided against itself cannot stand."

- Abraham Lincoln, June 16, 1858

How in the world can a US President feud with the widow of a fallen soldier and then send out his chief of staff to defend him? Trump continues to demean and sully the reputations of those who surround him, even a four star Marine General, whose courage and service to his country eclipses the draft evader in chief, showing his grit by trying to keep this lying, evil, narcissistic scoundrel the straight and narrow?

What does it say about the country that elected him? Are we all naifs? Do we have no moral compass? Are we dupes of a demagogic fraud? Are we the perennial P.T. Barnum suckers who are born every minute? We consume the distractions he feeds us like hungry seals waiting for fish at SeaWorld.

The Electoral college has served us up the apotheosis of what James Madison envisioned it protecting us from, a unfit, egomaniacal, incompetent President who slathers us with conflict and infects the entire world stage with derisiveness and vitriol, ripping up global agreements, climate change accords, chaotically promulgating his vision of dystopia.

Our institutions, as strong as they are, have so far survived the onslaught, but other nation states with strong institutions did not. Weimar Germany, for example. We are being tested.

Our boy-king is playing chicken with "Little Rocket Man," a dangerous and insane undertaking, feuding with allies risking millions of lives and flouting all normal conventions of diplomacy.

Tony Benn, the British diplomat said, "War is the failure of diplomacy."

But Trump understands why people are so angry, having seen their jobs disappear, a snake oil salesman who offers an easy bromide to cure the global and cultural changes that test the country and the entire world. These are the greatest changes since the early 20th century and the industrial revolution. But Trump uses these changes to incite divisiveness, the seeds of the destruction of our republic.

Years before Abraham Lincoln gave his famous speech, stating that a "House divided against itself cannot stand," the great orator and senator Daniel Webster arose in the US Senate and looked upon the issues that he knew would tear the Union asunder and said, in his most stirring oratorical feat on a cold January 27, 1830 (and recounted in John Meacham's brilliant biography of Andrew Jackson.)

Read these elegant words carefully:

I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the Union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances of preserving liberty, when the bonds that unite us together shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion, to see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss below; nor could I regard him as a safe counselor in the affairs of this Government, whose thoughts should be mainly bent on considering, not how the Union should be best preserved, but how tolerable might be the condition of the People when it shall be broken up and destroyed. While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that, in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise. God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind. When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in Heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance, rather behold the gorgeous Ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original luster, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured— bearing for its motto, no such miserable interrogatory as, what is all this worth? Nor those other words of delusion and folly, Liberty first, and Union after- every where, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole Heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart— Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!

The greatest statesmen of our past understood that division would tear the Union asunder. And it did, costing 700,000 American lives in a bloody, tumultuous civil war. Now our Union is torn asunder in a great cultural war between the classes and not the states. A war that can only be won by compromise, integrity, and understanding. A war that needs to be fought at home, providing security to those who are undereducated, and deprived of gainful employment by the unalterable economic forces now happening throughout the globe, not only here at home. A war that will not be won by dismantling the increasingly necessary safety net by those who take wing on taxpayer money, and removing the protections that have evolved from the early days of the twentieth century. A war that will not be won by inciting racism and hatred in order to distract the public from the crucial issues of our time.

Learning the lessons of History instruct us that the divisions roiling our nation today need a leader who understands not only history but the healing aspects of providing hope, not "American carnage". Whether it is slavery or economic displacement that have divided our nation, leaders must unite, not divide, and in this case, Donald Trump has failed every test

The Secret Meeting Between El Presidente and Comrade Putin

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:00:59 GMT

Vlady, did you try to hack our elections?

Nyet, Comrade Trumpski, I would never do that.

Are you sure Mr. President? All my intelligence agencies have told me that you have done so. The head of national intelligence, Mr. Clapper said that you did. and so did James Brennen, the head of the CIA.

Are you sure you did not?

Nyet, Comrade President Trump. I would never betray you. Besides if I did show the kompromat, it would not be good for Russia. After all the democratskis in your house and senate want to pass more sanctions over our activities in the Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea. And they would impeach you. You must put a stop to this Mueller investigation. I have some left over radium tea to serve him and James Comey, those traitors to your cause. No one needs to know how I bailed you out on your bankrupt casinos, and the new Trump tower in Gorky Park, planned for your second term. Do not worry about not having enough roubles to complete the construction; I have many friends who will use my $200 billion stashed around the world under secret names to pay for the construction. You as an experienced builder will be able to supervise the progress, and there might even be a little left over for building the solar wall to keep out the Mexican rapists from Texas and New Mexico.

I have looked into your eyes and seen your soul, Comrade Putin. This will be the start of a beautiful friendship. But what about the pee videos? I am afraid that the failing NY Times and the Amazon Washington Post will find out about me and the Russian whores who peed on me.

Do not worry Mr. Presidentski, these troublesome individuals have already been sent to the bottom of the Volga. We have used the antique equipment used to eliminate Rasputin, so no one will ever know.

Comrade President Trump, you need to dissolve your Duma. Imagine the Democrats and the Republicans wanting to increase sanctions on Russia, just when we are about to approach the GDP of California? This is impossible. We need economic help so that we can increase our hegemony in Syria and in Iraq. And your impeachment will not help us.

Do not worry Comrade Putin; I can veto any such silly legislation even that has bipartisan support of both houses of congress, so that I can seem tough on Russia.

But Comrade President, they will override your veto and if that happens, there is no telling what information can be leaked to the world press. As I have been trying to instruct you, freedom of the press is not a good thing for strong leaders such as us. You are taking a step in the right direction in calling it fake news, but it is not enough. You need to throw a few bodies in the Potomac, to discourage such impudence.

And your son-in-law being called before congress? At least the Republican leader Grassley has called for closed-door hearing so that the idiot is not on national television. I am sure you prevailed upon him for this step. Once he opens his mouth, we are possibly in great trouble. But of course you can pardon him with your complete pardon power.

By the way, I particularly enjoyed Mr. Comrade President, you walking around the table at the G-20 to come over to me to suggest we have a private strategy meeting. Just like Don Barzini and Don Corleone. Making me feel more important than your NATO allies is a step in the right direction. But bear in mind that your daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Kushner are dangerous to your image. Neither of them knows anything about world affairs, and you must send them to be ambassadors to Japan and to Israel so that they cannot make more trouble for you. You need to listen to my advice on how to do this. Kushner does not even speak in public thank Lenin. And your daughter sitting in uninvited to a world leader conference? Not smart. Not good optics. Even I do not appoint relatives to the soon to be reconstructed Supreme Soviet.

Mr. Comrade Presidenski, we have a lot of work to do. And you have a lot more money to make.

Polarization, America and the World

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 08:57:32 GMT

Everyone seems so convinced that they are correct. A nation of true believers. Trump supporters, seemingly convinced that he is doing "wonderful" things for the country. Progressives obsessed with the notion that the country is going off the rails, led by a mad engineer guiding the great locomotive of American world leadership into a dark morass of perverted nationalism, who think that the misguided fools in fly-over country are conned into voting against their own interests. And conservatives who believe that Trump has betrayed the principles of true conservatism.

How did we come this far? How did we surrender our sanity to this mad irrationality? Do the disaffected masses actually believe that this will happen? That their jobs in the mines will be restored, that the great factories and steel mills of the Midwest will again employ low skilled labor, when the economics plainly point in the other direction, a direction where robotics and automation have already replaced more and more of these jobs? Even radiologists wonder when they will be replaced with x-ray reading computers.

The problem is that things are now moving so fast, exponentially, not linearly, and people are struggling mightily to keep up. It could be a losing battle. The breakneck speed of innovation is changing societal structure so rapidly; humans may need computers to help them figure out what to do. Ergo, A.I. There is early talk of a guaranteed annual income for all, paid for by taxes on increasingly productive corporations, making more money than ever, but needing less human employees who need sick days, family leave and maternity benefits, not to mention health insurance. Writ large is a possible dystopian future.

The left points out that the top 1% controls 90% of the wealth, drawing parallels to the gilded age, and the right thinks that Health insurance is not a right. That rich people paying more taxes stifle economic growth, causing job creators not to create jobs. Leftist economists think that has not worked, that when the rich have more money, they do not spend it, but the poor do, stimulating economic growth. Both sides have statistics to back up their different points of view. History has its lessons, but a Dickensian view of the world has lasted since Homo sapiens left Africa thousands of years ago. And such philosophies have endured for ages.

Is it that the attention span of the average American is now as short as its President? Do people read economics, or history, or civics? Is it not taught in the schools? Do the late-night comedians who go out in the street asking the average person who their senators are or who the Secretary of State is and getting an "I have no idea” really an interview of a representative group of Americans? Or do they just cherry-pick the ignorant for a cheap laugh? I hope so. It is funny when people do not know when the Declaration of Independence was signed or that George Washington was the first President, but that he gave the Gettysburg address.

What is the matter with America?

Seems like people either do not care or are so uninformed or fed up, that Trumpian lies are becoming the norm. Such a danger to our polity has many philosophical and psychological answers. People deny, then become inured to the things they see on the 24-hour news cycle. They would rather watch entertainment than what is happening in the real world. Or football, where gladiators get their brains scrambled so that after their footballing days are over, they are consigned to a mental health facility, commit suicide or become a burden to their families, their loved ones enraged by the concealment for years of the dangers of the sport, so that billions can be generated for the coffers of the NFL, a business that dismissed and, worse, covered up the allegations of harm caused for years to unwitting participants seeking a way out of their underprivileged lives.

Politics these days seems no different; it has become a blood sport, fed by rival networks both progressive and liberal that cannot accommodate another point of view because it might damage their revenues.

The cable news networks have never had higher ratings, fed by the scandal-ridden Trump administration. But even under the virtually scandal-free Obama administration, the accusations of birtherism and of Hillary Clinton's emails distorted the real issues facing America because these distractive issues generated a larger audience, their salaciousness and tabloid appeal undeniable.

No one really cares about the mundane issues of governance. Its boring to most and Trump knew that all along. But he may have gone too far, as did a number of con men and demagogues--Huey Long, Father Coughlin, Elmer Gantry, PT Barnum to name a few.

Health care as a right, women's reproductive issues, foreign policy, the danger of North Korea and of Russia and last but not least to Planet Earth, the home we cannot in the foreseeable future escape. Is the tax more spend more Democratic model or the Republican tax less spend less the proper course? These are complex economic issues not given to politicians who do not understand the implications of economic policy. Nor do they understand deep divisions on social issues, including abortion, which if one wishes to be fair, has moral support for both positions. That is precisely why it is so controversial.

The real problem is that Americans do not wish to sit down and discuss these issues in a rational, discursive manner. Such didacticism requires articulation and language that has seemed to disappear from our vocabulary. Language is the tool, and many have lost the ability to converse. People shouting at each other never solve anything.

When national discourse becomes strictly ideological, an ossified religion, then a demagogue can step in and fill the space easily with shop worn but unworkable solutions that incites a climate of violence, hatred and national despair. Politics has unfortunately devolved into a semi-religion, a divine knowledge based upon ignorance, a divine pseudo-knowledge of only Manichean opinion.

It has become possible that the barbarians are no longer at the gate, they are inside and the Republic is in grave danger of dying from within, as did the Roman Empire. Historians do understand one thing: that nation states, or empires throughout history do not last in perpetuity. The ones that do are based upon tolerance and understanding.

The Madness of King Donald

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 08:55:50 GMT

Increasing evidence of insanity continue to emanate from the halls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, causing numerous psychiatric sources to opine about the NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) president, who having accomplished nothing but installing a retrograde Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, struts and prances around the living quarters in his bathrobe and pajamas, tweeting crude insults to members of the media, especially women, and ranting at his staff while going from TV to TV. Sallying forth with embarrassing lies and pronouncements, preparing for his 2020 campaign by conducting rallies among his unenlightened followers, instead of governing, having failed to appoint mid level bureaucrats, leaves the government to flounder about, like a grouper just fished out of the water lying on a deck waiting to be disemboweled and served for dinner.

And now the mad king goes to the G 20 summit, unprepared, because he does not read briefing papers, or meet with staff. Be prepared, Donald, to have your lunch eaten.

Enter Vladimir Putin, an evil kleptocratic KGB murderer, who denies all interference in our elections, and prepares to meet Donald Trump. What will they discuss? How to fire Robert Mueller or dump him in the Potomac? Perhaps feed him some polonium-laden tea? How to keep the Russian investments in Trump bankruptcies secret, saving the Donald's financial empire? Oh, of course, for public consumption, they might discuss the US having shot down a Syrian warplane about to drop barrel bombs on children and how the US is to handle the North Koreans, etc. But that story is for "losers," or "neudachniks," if you prefer the Russian transliteration. Nothing will come of it, save some public blather.

Putin really knows how to deal and steal. Rosneft, the Russian oil company/money laundry is a creation of Russian kleptocrats of whom Putin is the capo de tutti capi, ostensibly richer than Bill Gates, Carlos Slim and Warren Buffet combined. The difference, of course, is that Putin's money has been made by stealing from others and murdering his critics, including journalists, financiers, and business adversaries, either sending them to watery graves in the Volga or serving them the aforementioned tea. Oh, I forgot, having some of them riddled with bullets near the Kremlin wall.

Trump will be attending Putin University at any meeting with a man who has an 80% approval rating in his own country, unlike the feckless Donald who is sinking fast, around 38%. Imagine that, Russia with a failing one trick (oil and gas) economy having such a soaring approval rating?

Could it be the control of the state television, the newspapers, the Internet that might be helping with this? Are Russian muziks dumber than Trump voters? Less informed? Hard to believe, since only 20% of American voters follow politics at all. They actually believe that Trump is going to send them back to the coalmines, making America great again. And after all, this notion, this appeal to nostalgia is a powerful seductive slogan for an empty headed, pandering con man. He knows how to run a reality show, after all. Donald is all about America in the 50s and 60s, and judging by his cabinet members, Scott Pruitt, Rick Perry and Betsy De Voss, a segregated, white revanchist America is on their distorted agenda. The 50s were peaceful under Eisenhower, but social progress was limited to the white middle industrial class, now being replaced by a mélange of color and immigrant diversity and robotics rendering America a new frontier of technology. Immigration policies that wish to stifle this aspiration to greatness is doomed, an illusory fantasy cloud crafted by a mad hatter immersed in the wonderland of his own narcissism.

And the loss of healthcare for millions of Americans as a right not an earned benefit, is a non-starter except for retrograde luddites like Mitch McConnell, a politician that makes Machiavelli wiggle with delight in his 15th century grave. Paul Ryan, the other power broker of the GOP sees only lower taxes, caring nothing about the American experience. Whichever way the wind blows is fine with him. Unprincipled cowards, both.

Oh America. It is the fourth of July. The founding fathers are recoiling from the 18th century compromises that founded the country. Thomas Jefferson is wondering how science, one of his main passions, aside from impregnating slaves, is being thwarted by the likes of Rick Perry, and Scott Pruitt, who is forcing forward his climate denialist agenda, rolling back rules diminishing pollution and lead in the water.

Theodore Roosevelt called these hombres malefactors of great wealth. Well folks, they are in control of our government, and it will be years before we can get back to where we need to be.

The Madness of King Donald is on full display, with the help of the GOP and its pusillanimous leadership. At least when America was great there were great leaders in the Congress, who thought beyond blind partisanship.

Of Lawyer, Pharmaceuticals, and the First Amendment

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 08:53:50 GMT

I am a trial lawyer and have been for 45 years. I have tried many cases, some of which I would dearly like to forget, some bearing fond memories, because of the lives I have touched and, in many respects, made a difference in.

When the vigor of my youth was in service and as a young member of what I thought to be a noble profession, state bar associations forbade lawyer advertising. The playing field did not belong to leviathan firms devoting enormous amounts of resources to luring potential injury clients through their oak or glassed doors by marketing devices that have become so sophisticated a net, even clients with some modicum of intelligence could not resist their allure. A list of large verdicts on their websites and circulars imply great success, and how much money will eventually wind up in the client’s pocket. Of course, this is a fiction and the bar does not allow ads that guarantee results, but still, the implication is there, perhaps a bit more nuanced.

This type of advertising is, according to court decisions, permissible in the United States because of the first amendment. But clearly something is amiss.

“Mesothelioma patients have many questions,” endlessly droning on CNN and the other daytime broadcasts, “call us at 800 …...” “If you were injured by a medical device,” call us, “If you took drug X and suffered serious side effects, call us.” “If you suffered poor medical care, call us….” "Top Lawyers" magazines, supported by lawyers who seek esteem and more importantly, increased revenues pay to be listed as a "Top Lawyer" Ambiguous requirements for listing in such publications betray their pecuniary motivations for listing a lawyer. And if one does not have a sophisticated website, one exists only to loved ones, presumably if he makes it home for dinner.

You get the picture. Millions of dollars lavished to corner the market, marginalizing lawyers who do not devote their resources to advertising. Bear in mind that lawyers who prolifically advertise, are not necessarily more competent than lawyers who do not. Very often lawyers who do not advertise are better at what they do, devoting time to their clients, not to market share, and relying on word of mouth of satisfied clients over years of building a reputation. Of course, the consumer should make educated choices on who will represent them. But often they are hoodwinked into believing that the bigger the ad the better the lawyer. This notion misguided.

Many lawyers who run huge marketing operations have never seen the inside of a courtroom, operating their firms as referral mills, obtaining associate fees on cases they do not even work on. Ok, some lawyers do perform a valuable service in a case and deserve a referral fee, but many do not. The bar makes no distinction, the rationale being that the referring lawyer provides value to the hapless client in search of good representation. Or he had done work on the file and needed a team to help with the complexities of the case and an army of defense lawyers against him, if he or she is a sole practitioner.

Much worse, pharmaceutical companies advertise prescription drugs on television, in print media and now in social media. “Ask your doctor about Viagra.” A beautiful woman glides down the porch on her way to the bedroom, a come hither look on her face. A couple sit in adjoining bathtubs, holding hands, “when the time is right, why wait?” Cialis for daily use. And by the way, if you see yellow or go blind or die of low blood pressure because you take some other medication that interacts badly, stop taking it immediately and call your doctor (or 911). I am not making this up. Ask your doctor about almost every newly minted drug. “If you have cancer and have low platelets, ask your doctor, ask your doctor, ask your doctor….” Following a rustic scene about a poor soul staring out a window suffering from heart failure, an ethereal smile on his face, the ad promises a brighter tomorrow accompanied by “The Sun Will Come up Tomorrow,” for someone who is soon to die or get on the transplant list. Then the ad proceeds to list a litany of hastily announced side effects (small print) that would frighten Superman. The old dad or mom, in the nursing home, a happy smile on their face, could have their dementia slowed, but the drug might kill them or cause them to commit suicide? Or not stop the progression of the disease. No help at all. Who would take that medicine after hearing that? Consumers circumventing medical advice because they have been brainwashed because of marketing? Some of us are old enough to remember “More doctors smoke Camels than other brands, because it is better for your “T Zone.” We do not see those ads any more.

Meanwhile the courts allow this commercial speech as though it were a preciously guarded first amendment right. The same as a right to political speech. This type of pharmaceutical advertising is banned in the European Union and in most other countries and for good reason. Consumers are not qualified to evaluate medical prescriptions. If they were we could all stroll down to Walgreen’s or CVS and write our own.

Doctors go to medical school presumably to learn about which drugs to prescribe, not to be bombarded by brainwashed patients asking questions over some obviously hyped up medication, fueled by advertising dollars, often in the billions. Clearly this has a chilling effect on what doctors actually prescribe, because even they are very often not sure and must read studies and do research, following strict protocols. These ads are dangerous and people should be made aware by the FDA or a compulsory fund paid by the drug companies, which could run ads warning people not to believe drug advertisements or take them at face value. But no such counter advertising exists, because the funding is not there.

Very often studies show that the new medication, costing more, is no more effective than an older medication sold over the counter, costing far less. Health care costs rising? Ask your pharmaceutical company. Or ask your congressman who could draft some new laws were they not lunching with drug company lobbyists.

The Road to Tyranny: The Marginalization of the Press and the Rule of Law

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 08:50:46 GMT

"In his State of the Union speech in January 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt declared America's commitment to Four Freedoms in the struggle against Nazi totalitarianism. Among them was the freedom from fear."

- Robert Dallek

Much of the fear generated in our body politic, exacerbated by the vituperative and vindictive emanations from President Trump and his acolyte apologists, attacking the free press read directly from the totalitarian playbook. Anyone who has studied European history understands the origins of German totalitarianism flowed from the democratic election of Adolf Hitler in 1933.

Abrogation of liberty occurred incrementally, and generally, with the population at large ignoring each erosive stage since Germans thought it would not affect them individually, a beach washed away by waves. In Weimar Germany, Hitler’s consolidation of power, a step-by-step process, took years, in which his original supporters and putative enemies were first marginalized, arrested, imprisoned and then murdered. New illicit laws supported Hitler's perfidious allegations that the press were foreign subversive agents of the Bolsheviks and the Jews, enemies of the state. Then journalists were arrested, followed by the Nuremberg laws proscribing racial guidelines and Aryanism to the first degree, the second degree and so on down the totem pole. Jews were at the bottom, on their way to be classified as subhuman, eligible for deportation, arrest and extermination. Neighbors denounced neighbors. All of this unchecked by institutions gradually dissolved and laws perverted by a master of manipulation of baser instincts of the human psyche--fear. Sound familiar?

Hitler announced his intentions in Mein Kampf, but took time to effectuate his plan for Europe and the rest of the world. He believed America set an example of what he should do in Eastern Europe by its treatment of the Native American, Mexicans, and the "lesser races" by its racially inspired concept of Manifest destiny in which the white government expropriated the land of Native Americans and had enslaved African Americans. Andrew Jackson, a Trump hero, was a proponent of this policy of racial exclusion. Hitler's plan of lebensraum was a copycat version related to the "lesser" races of Eastern Europe, the Slavs, the gypsies, the Jews, the Russians, the Poles. He was weak at first, people dismissing him as a crank and a madman. Even Jewish newspapers editorialized that once he assumed office he would moderate his position. He would act more like a statesman.

In Germany, the Fuhrer embarked in a plan of dominance based upon the nationalistic instincts of Germans, his propaganda ministry churning out lies and misinformation to explain and scapegoat the problems of the Reich, by blaming minorities, communists, Jews and political opposition, jailing journalists, clergy and promulgating a world view of racial and nationalistic animus codifying it all into perversions of law facilitated by courts of Nazi martinet judicial imposters.

History instructs us about past events roughly analogous to what is happening today. American institutions and the rule of law are under threat from a President the likes of whom we have never seen before, who cannot distinguish between lies and truth, is ignorant of policy and has no understanding of the world order. His own worldview preys upon the baser instincts of fearful people, who believed our former President was a Muslim not born in the United States and who would "institute Sharia law in the United States of America." Trump played this fear like he played his stiffed workers. This alone should have been disqualifying for a presidential candidate. But his followers do not care. They actually believed the con. Whatever else Trump is not, he is a master showman, a PT Barnum, relying on the gullibility of the ignorant, the uneducated, the true believer. His latest trip is an attempt to manipulate the Justice Department.

In 1945, the United Nations, formed as a methodology of dispute settlement among nations rather than war, has essentially kept the peace for 70 years. Disagreements between nations, including trade were to be arbitrated and the results binding. The world did not want to relive the horror of a war that killed 50 million people. Now Trump, an anathema to this principle wishes to return to the 1930s--every nation for itself. A return to the 20th century, the most devastating in human history. He visits Saudi Arabia and praises a nation that disregards human rights and then castigates our democratic allies. He criticizes South Korea on the eve of an election between a friendly to America candidate and an antipathetic one when he knows the South Koreans are our most important ally in efforts to curb the madman in the north. The antipathetic candidate wins the election. Denzel Washington on his best day could not stop this runaway train.

Worst of all is his attack on our free press, reminiscent of states like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Hungary, and Putin's Russia, who everyone now knows meddled in our election and is attempting to destabilize NATO and democracy in America. His admiration of dictators and authoritarians is no less secret than Madonna's bra. He orates on the banks of the Ohio river talking about the renaissance of coal and the promise of new jobs that will not come back, nakedly averting attention from the potentially explosive investigation, showcasing his tainted character and degradation of his Presidency to the peril of all Americans.

Our institutions need more vigilance from below than ever before. The roots in the tree of Liberty are fragile.

The New Bolshevism

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 08:47:52 GMT

"A lie told often enough becomes the truth."

- Vladimir Iliich Lenin

So the Trump reality show continues. Now that Trump has fired the FBI director, what can we expect next? Will there be a staff shakeup with Spicey being shown the door, because he could not anticipate what the President would say next? Even Mike Pence echoed the first impression he was given that the President followed the recommendation to sack Comey of the acting Attorney General, backed up by his boss, the inimitable, Confederate flag waving Jeff Sessions, who supposedly had been recused by his own hand from anything dealing with the Russian investigation over which the President has clearly been losing sleep. Spicey and Sessions can be fired; Pence cannot. Somehow that paradigm of "I am a Christian first, American second, and Republican, third,” must be going home to his equally devout wife and privately saying, "Golly gee, honey! I may be President sooner than we thought!"

Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell have already revealed their unwillingness to stand up to a President who is clearly unhinged, or as David Brooks notes in his New York Times column today, is a child with the inability to control himself. Witness the revelation of intelligence data that could compromise sources in allied countries, which the Russians can probably clearly figure out. In this case, Israel, the enemy of Russian clients, Assad, Iran, and Hizbollah. And Donald thinks that it was a "productive" meeting, especially the day after he fired Comey, investigating the administration for possible collusion with those same Russians. And today, breaking news, Putin wants to help with release of information concerning the meeting where American journalists and photographers were excluded.

Ryan, by pushing through the House a health care bill that marginalizes the poor, the unfortunate, the sick and the elderly who have not yet reached the Medicare starting line, should be worrying about voter wrath come the next election. Under Trumpcare, bulldozed through the House by a President whose ego needed a "win" more than caring about the angry constituents who put him in the White House to "drain the swamp," will have to look up from their far right websites and blame the elites for not recognizing that Trump is not on their side. The cynicism of it all is unimaginable.

A recent Netflix documentary about Roger Stone, the consummate Machivellian operator who ports a tattoo of Richard Nixon on his back ( I am not making this up,) and described by Trump as a "good guy," is so disquieting, that the entire nature of our political process blossoms into some scary Steven King scenario about evil. The court of the Borgias, if you will. Roy Cohen, the lawyer for Joseph McCarthy, and one of the darker stains on our Communist baiting past, appears as one of Stone's heroes. Cohen was Trump's mentor and taught him how to defraud with impunity all the naifs who came his way; the documentary catalogs all the dirty tricks that make Frank Underwood look like a volunteer for medcins sans frontiers. The man is totally devoid of any moral compass, just as his boss is. From Watergate to Trump, Stone has triumphed in lowering the bar so far, the most accomplished limboist could not emerge from the other side.

But this time it may be too much. Even Republicans are beginning to wake up to the "Art of the Deal, the author of which was not really Trump. In fact the author had to follow Trump around, listening to his phone calls to be able to assemble a skeleton of a manuscript. We are not some Atlantic City stone masons, stiffed by a scoundrel who now happens to occupy the oval office. The great legal scholar Lawrence Tribe, has already called for impeachment for obstruction of justice. Trump's conversation with Comey, possibly taped should be subpoenaed by either the house judiciary committee or by a special prosecutor. And the assistant Attorney General ought to appoint one immediately. If the President is exonerated, then we can lurch to the next manufactured crisis.

On top of the daunting issue of possible collusion with the Russian government to tamper with our election, looms the greater threat to the nation: The subversion of our separation of powers, the disbanding of the administrative state, the denigration of the judiciary and of the press, and the admiration for a Russian kleptocrat and other authoritarian leaders, including African dictators, European and Hungarian autocrats and other scalawags. The idea that all reliable information (or misinformation) comes from the leader. The rest is fake news.

Anyone who has studied European history knows that it part and parcel of a mindset that is totally un-American, denigrate the media, call them fake and then disseminate one's own version of the alternative facts.

It’s all so Bolsheviki.

The Electoral College is Inherently Undemocratic

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 08:45:03 GMT

Factcheck.org:

"The 2016 election was the most recent when the candidate who received the greatest number of electoral votes, and thus won the presidency, didn’t win the popular vote. But this scenario has played out in our nation’s history before.

In 1824, John Quincy Adams was elected president despite not winning either the popular vote or the electoral vote. Andrew Jackson was the winner in both categories. Jackson received 38,000 more popular votes than Adams, and beat him in the electoral vote 99 to 84. Despite his victories, Jackson didn’t reach the majority 131 votes needed in the Electoral College to be declared president. In fact, neither candidate did. The decision went to the House of Representatives, which voted Adams into the White House.

In 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes won the election (by a margin of one electoral vote), but he lost the popular vote by more than 250,000 ballots to Samuel J. Tilden.

In 1888, Benjamin Harrison received 233 electoral votes to Grover Cleveland’s 168, winning the presidency. But Harrison lost the popular vote by more than 90,000 votes.

In 2000, George W. Bush was declared the winner of the general election and became the 43rd president, but he didn’t win the popular vote either. Al Gore holds that distinction, garnering about 540,000 more votes than Bush. However, Bush won the electoral vote, 271 to 266.

In 2016, Donald Trump won the electoral vote by 304 to 227 over Hillary Clinton, but Trump lost the popular vote. Clinton received nearly 2.9 million more votes than Trump, according to an analysis by the Associated Press of the certified results in all 50 states and Washington, D.C."

All of the above are examples of flaws, not qualities of the Electoral College, established originally to ensure the perpetuation of a balance between slave and free states, should be relegation to the dustbin. Many arguments have been advanced for its preservation, including federalism allowing each state the freedom to enact laws without maximizing the incentive of the number of votes cast. This argument is specious and defeats democratic (with a small d) principles. Other arguments include enhancement of small states based upon a geographic argument, encourages stability through a two party system and if a presidential candidate dies, then the College would be better positioned to elect a vice president. Also, proponents argue that the system insures more stability in the event of a recount and that it manages geographic discrepancies in population centers "balancing the vote so that rural communities are fairly treated.

All of these arguments are specious. Why are we obliged to maintain a strictly two-party system? Why not have candidates of various parties face the voters directly? And then have a run-off between the two highest vote recipients? Many Americans believe that neither party serves their interests. We are one country now, more so despite polarization of the populace by propaganda outlets like Fox News and people not willing to entertain or even listen to an opposing point of view. We are connected by Facebook, television, the internet, social media, smart phones, text messages, and no longer rely on a letter delivered by the post, which often took weeks to reach the other side of the nation, often by pony express. The argument that the Electoral College equalizes geographic space is silly. People are free to live where they wish, but should not be accorded three times the representation in Wyoming than in California. So, as it happens, it is not fair to urban voters.

Creative 21st century arguments in favor of the Electoral college belie the fundamental purposes of the it as originally conceived: To maintain the balance of slave and free states joining the Union, the disenfranchisement of slaves yet the tabulation of those unfortunate souls as 3/5ths of a person for the purpose of apportionment. In addition, the founders did not trust the uneducated, the ignorant, and the agrarian. Women were not considered capable of rational thought and therefore were not entitled to the vote.

Direct popular voting for the President of the United States may not have been altered the result in favor of a master of tweeting and of television celebrity. Perhaps. But in the disastrous results of the 2016 election where the votes of 3 million Americans were nullified by a 18th century relic, it is time for some serious revisions in the Constitution. Antonin Scalia and Neil Gorsuch might not agree. The Constitution should stay just as it was in 1787.

The stronger arguments rests with the interpretation of the 14th amendment, which guaranteed suffrage to all voters save women (another subject).

"The second section I consider the most important in the article. It fixes the basis of representation in Congress. If any State shall exclude any of her adult male citizens from the elective franchise, or abridge that right, she shall forfeit her right to representation in the same proportion. The effect of this provision will be either to compel the States to grant universal suffrage or so shear them of their power as to keep them forever in a hopeless minority in the national Government, both legislative and executive.

Thaddeus Stevens, in the United States Senate, May 8, 1866" - The 14th amendment

One could argue that since the passage of the 14th amendment, the Electoral College has abrogated equality of vote. The will of the people has been stifled by an inherently undemocratic system that apportions votes in the Senate giving people in Wyoming, for example three times the representation of people in California and almost the same disparity in Florida?

There have been numerous attempts to reform this thorn in the side of our civic polity. All have failed. Now, more than ever, we each need the same voice in choosing our President. A two-month television campaign, use of social media, public financing, the overturning of Citizen's United, and a truly democratic one-person one-vote be they live in California, New Hampshire or Iowa.

Looking at the result of the most recent election, the majority of Americans, it is again confirmed, have surrendered their franchise to the minority. Some intrepid souls should organize a march on Washington.

The Longest 100 days

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 08:43:24 GMT

"One of the key problems today is that politics is such a disgrace, good people don't go into government."

- Donald Trump

Donald Trump, has been President for about 100 days. These days have been schizophrenic exercises of surrogates and sycophants walking back his tweets, and a series of lies, misinformation and Orwellian newspeak.

Trump has told so many lies, received so many Pinocchio awards his staff has constantly battled to shut down his Twitter feed, when he often wanders the residence of the White House in his bathrobe at 3am generating them. His television presidency starts off with Fox and Friends and ends with Sean Hannity.

But it seems, after a series of disasters, he has appointed some adults to supervise him and that is a good thing. At Defense, State and a new non-conspiracist National Security Adviser, replacing Michael Flynn, currently under congressional investigation for his Russian patrons and their alleged connection with his campaign. All of that will drip out of the faucet little by little as soon as the congressional Republicans learn that their constituents want to know. But perhaps not.

Trump was going to repeal Obamacare the first day he was in office. He was going to build a big “beautiful wall” along the Mexican border and the Mexicans were going to cough up the money to pay for it “one way or another, believe me.” He was going to do a “massive tax cut” for the rich in order that jobs were going to be created. The newly introduced corporate tax reduction from 38% to 15% will swell the deficit if the projected growth of 2% in GDP remains as economists predict at perhaps .08%.. Trickledown economics never worked, despite the recent emergence of Arthur Laffer. Voodoo economics remains in play.

Trump's magical thinking was going to restore coal industry jobs, never mind that there are now more jobs in solar, wind and hydroelectric that there are in an industry that is now being displaced by new 21st century technologies. Coal miners oozing gratitude could descend into the bowels of the earth, get black lung disease and earn a living. In fact, coal companies were already replacing those jobs with digging, blasting and drilling robots Natural gas is cheaper, cleaner and more efficient. The wall costing billions, running along the Texas border is questioned by Texan Republicans who fear the loss of net income from trans-border trade. Much of the wall area is owned by Native Americans, who already robbed of their land by a murderous Andrew Jackson whose portrait adorns the oval office as a populist Trump hero (Jackson is soon to be replaced on the $20 bill by Harriet Tubman). Placing the wall on our side of the Rio Grande would cede the entire river to Mexico! Maybe the President did not think of that during the campaign. And his move to stick the wall on the budget bill has been rethought as a non-starter in congress since the chance that Mexico will pay for the wall is about the same as the sun being replaced by a coal fired plant.

Trump, in these first 100 days, was going to slap a 35% tariff on Chinese goods, having labeled the Chinese as currency manipulators. Now that has changed. “Why would I want to label them manipulators when they are going to help us with North Korea," now becoming an existential threat to cities like Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles? Tariffed goods might become doubly priced at Wal Mart, where most of his gullible base shop. By the way folks, I am not making this up. The Chinese have had to revalue their currency upward to stop its decline. Trump originally asserted that they were keeping it artificially low so that they could sell their goods here more cheaply.

And what about the massive infrastructure spending Trump promised? That has not happened. Instead, the administration spends its time and capital trying again to repeal Obamacare, cut Medicaid, Education, deny climate change as a Chinese hoax, abolish the EPA, repeal the clean power act, and defend itself from congressional and FBI investigations. Ah, for the days of going bankrupt and stiffing workers at his casino.

He needs some wins, and another shot at repealing Obamacare will not pass the Freedom Caucus (formerly the tea party). And if he puts items in the bill that will pass muster, it will not pass the Senate or keep faith with Republican moderates. The Republican Party is in unprecedented disarray. Trump faces more problems with them than the Democrats. It will be interesting to watch over the coming months, unless Kim Jung Un snuffs us. A second Korean War would divert the public's attention for sure.

Trump, they say, is learning how to be President of the United States, and he has hired some adults around him to guide him in issues for which he essentially remains clueless. That is true. He has competent generals running the Defense department and gave the insane conspiracy theorist Michael Flynn the boot in favor of H.R. McMaster, a sophisticated West Pointer, a highly decorated and dedicated patriot and author of a prescient history of the US involvement in Vietnam. Trump did very well in those choices, since he realized he knew less about international affairs than even George W. Bush. Eureka! NATO is no longer obsolete, said Trump recently.

Our President, adroitly tapping into the anger of his base, disaffected, unemployed and undereducated voters, never realized what he was getting into, but still has not been able to say he was wrong on anything, his narcissism overruling his sense of patriotism and concern for the American Public. He has still not released his tax returns and it is doubtful that he will, unless they are subpoenaed as part of a congressional investigation. But it is doubtful that the Republican congress will ask for them and so the Presidency has become a shamefully self-promoting business enterprise rife with conflicts of interest, and perhaps Russian monies. Vlady Putin thought he was getting a good deal by messing with Hillary’s election. Maybe he is not so sure now, with a possibly demented President in the White House, who fires tomahawk cruise missiles, in this instance, impulsively, but correctly. One wonders if he really thought it out. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and again.

I have Republican friends who are still drinking the Kool Aid. One told me that I would be happy with the Trump Presidency, however, I have not yet found a pleasant sensation, a warm and fuzzy feeling that everything will be all right. All I do feel is pain every time I turn on the news. Some argue, “you lost the election, get over it.” Trump now enjoys an over all approval rating of about 38%, the lowest of any President at this point in his term, in US history. Seems to me, that was what Scalia said in an interview after the Supreme Court stopped the recount in Florida, handing the election to George W. Bush. To Bush’s credit, when he left office, he returned to Crawford Texas to paint, perhaps fancying himself another Winston Churchill, who in his essay, “Painting as a Pastime, extolled the virtues of putting oil on canvass. At least W had an acceptable hero. T

The Republicans voted 62 times to repeal Obamacare before the Donald was elected (or got more electoral votes) in a distorted system created in the 18th century to protect slave states from being placed in a majority as new states entered the Union. This ossified system has allowed a person with the minority of the votes to be elected president 5 times in our history. We need direct popular election of the President.

In France, for example, a publicly financed election is over in 6 weeks. Spending is limited, and candidates do not have to raise billions to advertise in swing states until those of us who have the misfortune, or fortune to live in them want to stick pins in our eyeballs not to listen or watch the commercials. The system has been distorted by Citizens United, allowing corporations and billionaires to form super PACs with no spending limits as long as they do not coordinate with the candidates and they are “transparent.” This is almost like insider traders who illegally do not tell their friends to buy before companies beat earnings prognostications.

Trump’s new acolyte Supreme Court justice, only confirmed when the loathsome Mitch McConnell did away with the 60 vote majority needed to confirm him. This insured that a political partisan could be seated, further eroding the independence of the court. Trump counts this as his major accomplishment for the first 100 days. And it is true, he accomplished the goal of life tenure of a 49 year old that can make decisions for the next generation. His first vote was to put someone to death. Gorsuch refused to answer any questions before the senate committee on his positions, and defended his 10th circuit court of appeals decision to vote against a fired truck driver who almost froze to death and had to move his truck, resulting in his being fired. Gorsuch’s logic was that he applied the law. So did dictators, Nazis and other authoritarian leaders such as Erdogan who has now consolidated his power with new anti-democratic legislation. Gorsuch’s decision was reversed unanimously by the Supreme Court. Now he sits there himself, a young relic, threatening to civil liberties, the working class, and modern society, probably even to the right of the late Antonin Scalia and even Clarence Thomas. Trump lists this as his signal achievement of the first 100 days.

Cheer up folks, the horizon does have a bright sunrise. Bill O’Reilly, serial sexual harasser, has joined Roger Ailes in a richly deserved hinter world of opprobrium. Not that Rupert Murdoch has had an epiphany. He just saw 50 of his largest sponsors jump ship. President Trump said O'Reilly was a "good person."

A Trial Lawyer's and Patient's Perspective on Doctors and Health Care

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 08:41:07 GMT

"Molière saw through the doctors, but he had to call them in just the same."

"It is not reasonable, to expect doctors in private practice to be impartial when confronted by a strong pecuniary interest."

- George Bernard Shaw

As one who has had either the fortune or misfortune of being a personal injury litigator, depending on one's altruism or lack thereof for over 43 years, I have reached some inevitable conclusions concerning the individuals who could stand the sight of blood and therefore embarked upon a course of deriving a benefit from the maladies of others.

How this exalted professional status has struck social observers over the years varies with the intensity of their individual experiences. George Bernard Shaw's outlook was somewhat malign toward the medical profession, observing that, in the "Doctor's Dilemma,"

"...when doctors as competitive tradesmen were replaced by a medical profession that had been brought under responsible and effective public control. Until this body of men and women were "trained and paid by the country to keep the country in health it will remain what it is at present: a conspiracy to exploit popular credulity and human suffering".

In other words, Shaw was looking forward to the creation of a National Health Service." These words were written in 1903.

Not that lawyers are not calculating; however, they are constrained by the law and by their profession itself to simply presiding over the transfer of wealth from one party to another, providing the oil for the cogs of either justice or of criminality to function or not. Many are just as greedy as anyone else, but generally, people's lives do not depend upon their behavior. Their fortunes, yes, their freedom, often, but, except in rare criminal cases, not their lives.

Much of the angst that Doctors suffer, depending upon their conscience, individual character, or profit motive, fear of being sued, or other governmental intrusion upon their fiefdoms depends upon how motivated they are by greed. Often the ones who are greedy usually occupy large private medical groups and are judged within that group by how many patients they see, or how much revenue they generate. Usually the ones affiliated with Universities and are academics are somewhat less motivated by such obsessions. Some doctors are so greedy that they refuse to write prescriptions for patients who do not come in for a visit at which time they can be prescribed almost anything they want, as long as the doctor can bill either Medicare or a private insurer for an office visit. If a patient calls and asks for a renewal, the doctor insists that they visit or get no prescription, blaming the government in most cases, of non-existent governmental scrutiny. Some will not even fill out a form without a fee being charged to the patient. Patients resemble a stack of Benjamin Franklins to them. Questions concerning such matters with the doctor often evokes an aggressive, "find another doctor" rebuke. Such an enormous ego or insecurity does nothing for the doctor-patient relationship. One doctor was offended by my asking for test results after waiting 10 days. No concern for the patient's anxiety evident at all. "That's normal for this office, if we are not meeting your needs, find another doctor."

In addition, my individual experiences with doctors who testify in court enjoy more popularity if they are the most convincing witness no matter the mendacity of their testimony. Some doctors who specialize in forensic medicine, charge highly extravagant fees, based upon the rationalization of loss of net patient visits when they are obliged to visit the courthouse or to give deposition testimony. Every fundamental lesson of cross-examination of these doctors requires questions of how much they are paid for their testimony, what percentage of their practice is dedicated to treating patients, and how often they are in court (often more than in the office) and for which side they testify, how many patients they actually treat, etc.

Some have robotic administrative staffs specifically geared to make sure the doctor is or will be paid before he or she even consents to treat a suffering patient. They have insufferable office managers trusting no one, their jobs set by the culture of the office promulgated by the greedy doctor rather than the needs of the patient, affirming the 1903 Shaw philosophy that doctors should be working for a National Health Service. Illness should not be profit driven and insurance companies whose motives to collect premiums and not pay claims remain insidious affronts to a decent society. The same rule should apply to physicians who run their offices as though they were branches of the Bank of America.

Some argue that health care needs physicians profit motivated to make decisions concerning the patient's health and that it attracts people of quality to this profession. Studies in European nations like Sweden debunk this notion. Compounding this error is the health insurance industry, stories about which circumlocutions to a avoid legitimate claims are often featured by investigative reporters and on "60 Minutes."

Doctors who seek fabulous wealth should be in business, not clinicians; they deserve to earn a good living commensurate with their hard work and training. But a profit motive for a clinician simply works to the detriment of the patient. And a profit for a health insurance company is the same evil on steroids.

No possibility of great change in this system is possible unless the public is disabused of the notion that clinical medicine is a business. Clinicians perform great service to society, but usually perform no research and development. If they do, they are entitled to patents for their work.

Then they can reap the rewards of entrepreneurship. Otherwise, let them earn a good salary, live in a nice home and stop acting like they do not belong to a noble profession, dedicated to their patients, and not to large boats and McMansions. Leave that to the titans of industry, or as Theodore Roosevelt aptly put it, to the "Malefactors of Great Wealth."

Health Care, Hubris, and Happenstance

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 08:39:11 GMT

"The trouble with lying and deceiving is that their efficiency depends entirely upon a clear notion of the truth that the liar and deceiver wishes to hide."

- Hannah Arendt

Today came and went and Obamacare stayed, despite draconian efforts by Paul Ryan and his puppet master, the antithesis of a human being, Donald Trump.

After seven years of symbolically voting to repeal the ACA, the Republicans in the house could not agree upon a plan that was going, according to the Donald, "be a terrific alternative to Obamacare." It was going to be repealed on the "first day" after his inauguration. It was going to replace a plan that, although flawed, that through its replacement, the Congressional Budget Office predicted would eventually throw 24 million Americans off health care, and decimate Medicaid in the states by scotching federal subsidies for the poor, and providing a huge tax cut for the wealthy. The audacity of it all, espoused by Paul Ryan, failed miserably because Republicans could not agree on its features and after seven years, could not come up with anything better. Trump, of course, blamed the Democrats,(who had always been against the repeal of their president's signature legislation) failing to mention that his own party could not muster the vote of its own members. It is an enormous defeat for the President. Will Trump learn that he cannot order members of congress to do what he wants as he does members of the Trump organization?

With an already dismal 37% approval rating there still may be room for even more downside.

Trump's pick for the Supreme Court, wrote an opinion about a truck driver who when faced with freezing to death or moving his rig, contrary to his dispatcher's orders, detached it from its trailer and drove to a place to warm up. Fired from his job, was blackballed from ever driving a truck again, brought an action against his employer. Unfazed by this employee's Hobson's choice, Gorsuch voted that he followed the law in voting against the driver. Gorsuch was reversed 8-0 by the Supreme Court. In other cases, he voted against a disabled child receiving a more than a "de minimus" education. Behind his smooth, brilliant exterior he finessed his confirmation hearings by avoiding even a slight hint of his prospective judicial philosophy. "I followed the law" was also an argument posed by war criminals during the Nuremberg trials. All this business of textualist/originalist/strict constructionist loses its meaning when a judge loses his humanity or does not understand the Framer's intent that the Constitution needs to move with the times we live in.

However, when it came to defending his writings, his phlegmatic predisposition toward corporate interests shone through. Under intense questioning by the brilliant senator from Rhode Island, Sheldon Whitehouse, every bit Gorsuch's intellectual equal, Gorsuch failed to opine about the presence of dark money financing his push for a seat on the highest bench in the land or that same money financing opposition to Merrick Garland. The enraged democrats will rightfully filibuster him, regarding that Merrick Garland's seat was stolen. Mitch McConnell, who refused to give Merrick Garland a hearing, or even to meet with him called the democrats "obstructionists," blocking an highly qualified candidate, perhaps even more qualified than Gorsuch. McConnell obsequious hypocrisy is legend even before this fiasco.

Trump, meanwhile, is under investigation by the FBI for potential collusion with "strong leader" Putin who, it seems by coincidence, had another opponent fall out of a hotel window this week "while moving a piano."

So far, we have seen nothing accomplished by this president, except a sea of vindictive tweets, accusations, alienation of allies, and solicitude for our adversaries. Even the Wall Street Journal excoriated him this week, fearing that he is devolving into a fake president, his paranoia debunked by the FBI director and the director of national intelligence.

The fact is that Trump will need members of his own party to vote with him, and through his mendacity is losing more and more of them every day.

Los Angeles and other Places 2017 Part II

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 08:37:28 GMT

Sometimes, further experiences broaden one's perspective. Although Los Angeles is all the things I said in my previous piece, there are many aspects to this metropolis that inspire. The LACMA for example, which is showing an outstanding exhibit of Picasso and Rivera, visiting the periods of their great work and contrasting them at the same time. Not to mention its impressive permanent collection of French impressionism, old masters and renaissance art.

The diversity of the people and the harmonious California tolerance for others does not match the gullible xenophobic environment of Middle America, victimized by the hucksterism of Trumpian averments and mendacity. However, in all fairness, these people are being left behind because of the failure of our educational system. But it is doubtful that Trump budget cuts will do anything for that.

The people here exude tolerance for the diversity. Mexicans, Asians, Muslims and all manner of people congregate here to achieve the Hollywood dream, even though it is illusory.

Although the United States is going through a period of transition, a period of taking stock of what will work in the coming years, California represents the leading edge of the recognition that global engagement is the only way forward. California, the fifth largest economy in the world, only has two senators for its 35 million people. Wyoming with its 500,000 people has the same. Seems like the days of the Missouri compromise should have been over a long time ago. A Constitutional amendment should be the order of the day.

The Boulevards, jammed with traffic, the grove full of shoppers and the cinemas full of moviegoers all of whom wish to commune with the latest offerings of the 21st century art form that has transitioned from the 20th century, not missing a beat. IMAX, enormous screens, that magnify the movie experience populate the multitudinous theatres, the lifeblood of the Hollywood film.

Artists and most people whom I have met here are progressives who care deeply about the crypto-fascist element that inhabits the corridors of power in Washington, and fear the emanations of the new administration and a regression to the 1950s--a time when our country was not so great, because the underlying racism and fear of others was well disguised under a veil of secrecy and a homogenized view of the American polity. Not that Hollywood did not participate in a blacklist for fear that their point of view would be antipathetic to box-office revenues. Bryan Cranston, brilliantly portraying Dalton Trumbo, a blacklisted writer-genius had to conceal his work under nomes de plume in order to support his family. Many other screenwriters and actors had to suffer as well.

McCarthyism, like Bannon/Trumpism used demagogic fear mongering and bullying to intimidate and get its own way, even without the benefit of Twitter.

Now the chickens are coming home to roost; the POTUS circus is being revealed for what it really is: a circumlocution bureau of lies. President Obama was not born in the US. President Obama tapped the Donald's phones in his gold plated tower, a "better" replacement for Obama care that will boot 24 million Americans off their insurance plans, billions for a "beautiful wall, believe me." that will keep Mexican "rapists and criminals" out and Medicaid for the poor, an exploding deficit and don't forget, tax cuts for the richest "job creators." And by the way, Ivanka and Jarred can pick their own fruit. But billions more for aircraft carriers and submarines to fight ISIS in the desert.

And let's not forget the picture of Andrew Jackson, a racist murderer, now ensconced in the Oval office, together with the new gold "dictator chic" curtains.

Presently, Donald's presidency apprenticeship is not doing well either in LA, NY, Miami or even in flyover country where workers are going to lose their health insurance, coal mining jobs among all the other promises purveyed by prevaricating GOP politicians. So far nothing has happened except virulent tweets, a health care plan, which is dead on arrival, and a budget that is nonsensical. Thank you Paul Ryan for your cowardice and obsequious support for party unity at the expense of the middle class.

Oops. I forgot the British intelligence tapping of Donald's phone, the source for such information a former "very talented legal mind" on Fox news (later disavowed by Fox itself). Judge Napolitano, obviously more reliable than the chiefs of all the national intelligence agencies.

Los Angeles 2017

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 08:36:14 GMT

The last time I negotiated flyover country to get here was about 10 years ago. The history of this California leviathan continues to mystify. Disjointed architectural creations, rendering this place of 10 million people less humane than New York, Paris or even Miami, demonstrates how a city without a plan can spread like the proverbial serpent. Eight heads, a freedom of creativity stultified by an overabundance of poorly planed neighborhoods, an urban sprawl that sees no possibility of rectification.

Walking on Sunset, one sees Mel's diner next to a steel and glass concoction of architectural ambiguity that eschews the context of the neighborhood. New apartment houses, with infinity swimming pools and Jacuzzis, placed outside spectacularly outfitted gyms, sit encased in glass with views of the city below from near the Hollywood hills. The mansions of Beverly Hills and the Hollywood hills rising above the plebeian Taco stands and hotdog emporiums as testaments to the less impressive duplicates populating the heartland and even Tijuana.

The young and beautiful congregate here to have their dreams dashed in a whirlwind of pitches, auditions with no call back in sight. Aspirants from Nebraska, Kansas and the heartland vie for fame and fortune with about much opportunity for success as playing for The New York Yankees or in the NBA.

Actors, dancers, singers, writers with inherent talent who do not get the break of being discovered at the lunch counter of Schwab's drug store.

People, who as Emma Stone said at her Oscar acceptance speech, that she was there through the enormous confluence of good luck and a screenplay that was just perfect for her to dance with Ryan Gosling, although neither of them danced even close to Fred and Ginger and could not sing as well either.

How many of these people who follow their dreams are chasing an illusion that will always be unrequited, as though some missing ingredient in their talent had held them back from breaking trough the barriers they were sure that would crash before their young limber feet. Many of them succumb to the realities of life, bringing with them some form of Post traumatic stress disorder, depression as they pass through their 20s, 30s and 40s with diminishing hope each year.

Some of the fortunate, the intelligent manage to transition into some normal employment where a steady pay check does not compensate them for their ruminations of failure--the acceptance of their ordinariness. They were not the next Streep, DiNero, Nicholson or Apetow. And then they, often late, realize that it will not come and that they must find something to do with their lives, searching for life choices increasingly more difficult to come by.

How many writers spent years submitting screenplays, only to have them shelved and never made into a motion picture, the system grinding them up like some poor hamburger meat at the Whole Food Butcher shop. These are children who have led lives of privilege, starred in high school plays, edited their high school newspaper, got accepted in elite schools, were star athletes, successful in every endeavor they ever tried suddenly realizing that the right stuff is not easy to obtain or to have recognized. Who has not seen talented violinists and cello players on the street corner, playing for nickels, dimes and quarters who but fortune, could have made the big time?

How many parents, in a dilemma of how to be supportive to children following their dream, yet agonizing at the delusional lottery tickets to fame and fortune sought by their children, most of whom are doomed to finally accept their not hitting the lucky number?

How a Heavy-handed Demagogue Threatens to Shatter Our Democracy.

Tue, 23 Aug 2022 21:04:00 GMT

What has happened to America? Do we remain racists? Are we, as Charles Blow of the New York Times argues, that people who vote for Republicans are themselves representative of malignant white supremacists? Do they really wish to restore America as it existed in its original form? No votes for women, blacks, the return of Christian institutional religion, votes for landowners only, enslavement of blacks, a Senate representing only 3,000,000 Americans, most of whom could not vote, created only as a malapportioned 2/3 compromise to appease slave states finally resulting in a bloody Civil War, staining the soil with an avalanche of blood? Is that where we are headed?

In the early 20th century, quotas kept out immigrants by nationality, not merit, beginning in 1924. In the Jim Crow the South, no black voting, segregation, lynching. The GOP, the party of Lincoln, now has devolved into the likes of Kevin McCarthy, and Mitch McConnell, who sanctimoniously spoke on the Senate floor and blamed Trump for the Capitol insurrection, after not voting to convict him. Had he lined up the votes for impeachment in his caucus, we would spared Trump’s empowering election deniers and promising to run again.

This is unimaginable. Faulkner said, “this is a tale of sound and fury told by an idiot.”

Two countries of red and blue, despising each other and looking at the same facts, drawing completely different conclusions? Thank you, avaricious Rupert Murdoch and your cast of greedy misanthropes, for spewing years of propaganda and contributing to the skewing of public opinion far beyond our wildest imagination. Thank you, Rupert, for promoting the big lie, and enriching your already swollen bank accounts at the expense of our Nation. There is a special place in hell for you, perhaps the Australian outback. Go back there and take Tucker Carlson with you, the obsequious, preppy demon who could be the world’s worst human being.

In Florida, DeSantis wants no grade school instruction about the enslavement of black people? No books in the schools that allude to racism in America? Massive resignations among schoolteachers who do not wish to comport with Governor DeSantis’s concept of Eurocentric, Christian education? What about the other religions, many of which do not pray, or believe in a Christian god? Breaking the wall of separation of church and state, which allowed many different denominations to thrive in America, unlike European state religions. Stifling intellectual discourse among academics as too “woke?” Or woke people barring different viewpoints to be expressed? (a fault of the left) Banning of books that accurately reflect the history of the United States? Books that tell the story of the dark stain of racism in America? Biased maps drawn showing that in “Colonial” America there was very little importation of slaves, but no mention of “breeding” African slaves like cattle during the 18th century post-colonial South to pick cotton, feeding the growing economy of the Northern mills? Suppressing the truth that 25% of the building of the American economy and railroads was on the backs of slaves? Removing a lawfully elected State Attorney who did not agree with his idea of prosecuting teenagers for their reproductive choices? Telling Disney “Don’t say gay,” and threatening one of the, if not the, largest employer in the state to adhere to his homophobic agenda? I am unaware of a course at Harvard Law School on becoming a facsimile of big brother, a proto-Mussolini, a propaganda minister, an anti-gay activist, or a panderer to the worst social instincts of humankind.

Republicans like our fascist inclined, heavy handed governor DeSantis are busy suppressing the vote, separating women from their reproductive choices, attempting to pervert the constitution, taking advantage of Republican gerrymandered overrepresentation in the House of Representatives and the malapportioned Senate to cravenly pander to the gullible electorate by stoking their underlying fears of “others?”

The DeSantis “Stop Woke” Act, now temporarily blocked by a federal judge, attempts to control how businesses address race, gender and nationality. This is the cheapest, most craven way to run for President of the United States. DeSantis’ ambitions have moved beyond the State of Florida, inserting himself as a smarter avatar of Donald Trump aping Trump’s racism?

Reelecting Ron DeSantis would insidiously reaffirm the worst possible values for Florida and for the Nation. The problem is, do most Floridians agree with DeSantis? If so, the future is both frightening and depressing.

How the Supreme Court is Taking a Wrecking Ball to America

Sun, 26 Jun 2022 23:08:00 GMT

Mitch McConnell, thank you for your inescapable, ignominious contributions to preserving our democracy. Thanks for not mustering GOP votes for impeaching a criminal and then making a hypocritical speech on the senate floor implying Trump should be prosecuted. Thanks for packing the Supreme Court with religious zealots. You have given us, in coordination with your dissembling judges, a Supreme Court that has just overturned a precedent relied on by two generations of American women, the constitutional right to make their own reproductive choices.

The fanatical religious zealot Samuel Alito and the intellectually dishonest, equally zealous, Amy Coney Barrett joined by the lying Clarence Thomas, now threatening other rights, (who replaced a judicial giant, Thurgood Marshall) and Bret Cavanaugh, have laid waste to 50 years of increasing rights for women. Cavanaugh, after disingenuously telling Susan Collins that he had no intention of overturning Roe v. Wade (1972), has joined his extremist brethren in wresting the power of the Chief Justice from him, moving the court even further to the right, using religious dogma to rationalize the draconian political results to come of overturning Roe. Preachy Barrett replaced another judicial giant, RBG, a lifetime warrior for the rights of women, who, on her deathbed, pleaded for the Senate to wait until a new president was inaugurated. But McConnell, after not even allowing a Senate vote on Merrick Garland for a year, rammed Amy through the senate in the last months of Trump’s presidential pardon adventure for felonious cronies.

Thomas Jefferson famously said, “keep the preachers away from government,” and surely his words resonate now more highly than ever. We have preachers on the court making decisions based upon their interpretation of Catholic/evangelical doctrine. Except perhaps other religions may have a different point of view.

For example, interpretive religious writings, in the Talmud says that a fetus does not yet have a soul until it is born. And the doctrine of “pekuach nefesh” says that the life of the mother is superior to the unborn. But apparently not in Texas or Mississippi.

Using religious dogma as the sole basis for judicial decisions is like using a stone age manual for building a computer.

Several things need to be done to control court extremism. Voters need to work hard jettisoning GOP politicians who pander to their minority base to the detriment of the majority. Justices should be added to the court, subject to term limits of 18 years, allowing each president two choices for the court, per four years of presidency.

The United States Senate could be made more democratic through a constitutional amendment, say, allowing two senators per 500,000 of population, or some other figure that does not allow states with only that number to have as many senators as a state with 40 million people. This is inherently undemocratic, allowing entrenched minority rule. Next, there should be a constitutional amendment codifying Roe, and another one abolishing the dark money generated by Citizens United.

Another amendment screaming at us is the abolition of the electoral college, allowing direct popular vote, no more minority presidents.

The Kabuki dance confirmation process should be transformed allowing senators to really know what philosophy these powerful supreme court nominees really hold.

A one term, criminal minority president who lost by 3 million votes to Hillary Clinton, with the help of Mitch McConnell, appointed three justices, captivated by antediluvian dogma. The Senate is not representative of the people. Religion has invaded the public space. And people who are the minority rule the land through a perverted electoral process, originally created to give equality for slave states and a militia carrying muskets.

The framers, who knew well the history or government and religion deeply understood that separation of church and state be inviolate. It is right in the First Amendment, clearer than a bell. “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” This amendment has allowed disparate religious beliefs to thrive in America.

Many cases have interpreted this clause, as well as the right to bear arms, for that matter. Justices place their personal imprimatur on these issues, however. The court needs moderation, not extremism.

The constitution does not go well with originalism, written when people believed differently than they now do. Amy Coney Barrett believes that women should carry unwanted children to term including those who are plagued with incurable maladies that can be determined well before viability, to term, and then drop the child at the police station or at a an underfunded childcare facility so that they can be adopted. This zealot does not belong in a position of power deciding the fate of millions of women who need reproductive choice. She and Samuel Alito are cut from the cloth of those who persecuted others because they did not share their beliefs.

Alito, a modern-day Torquemada, is conducting an inquisition against women. His opinion is a screed of indifference to the dim social implications of overturning Roe, forcing poor women to travel long distances to seek reproductive care, creating insurmountable obstacles to keep their lives controllable. Some states will now ban all abortions, including a result of incest or rape.

As Jefferson said, “Keep the preachers away from government.”

GOP Hypocrisy at its Highest

Sat, 07 May 2022 15:57:00 GMT

So the Supremes, appointed by Republicans, Bush I, Bush II, and three justices appointed by the Donald, who lost the popular vote by 3 million voters and who probably will soon be indicted in Georgia for election fraud, and maybe Federally for a failed coup d’état, have decided that 50 years of precedent be damned, that there is no constitutional right for a woman to make her own reproductive choices. Never mind an entire generation of women who have grown up under Roe. So let’s socially engineer by judicial fiat, what has been law for generations.N

Let’s face the facts. The “justices” make up their own minds, and then build a constitutional rationalization to support their position from an infinite variety of decisions throughout the centuries of common law.

And by the way, Bush II, like Trump, was also a minority president, except in the anti- democratic electoral college, designed originally to allow slave states to remain so. Our Constitution also ensured that woman and black people could not vote. So all you originalists and textualists can go back to where we were before Roe v. Wade, to that wonderful mid 20th century where segregation ruled, or the early 19th century where slavery ruled. Why not overrule Brown v. Board of Education to keep America white and segregated

Justice Alito, that righteous avatar of Catholic abortion dogma rests at one of the pinnacles of governmental power, believes that American women should be the victim of state gerrymandered legislatures, representing a minority of the American polity. When Thomas Jefferson said famously, “keep the preachers away from government,” he surely should have included Alito.

Let’s not forget the notion that the court is or should be not politicized. That train left the station in the early 20th century. When FDR’s National Recovery Act was shut down by the conservative Court, a court packing threat from the Democrats in congress caused the conservative majority to back off from shooting down the progressive programs that were to help the nation out of the great depression.

The problem is now that there are not enough votes in the Senate to do any such thing because of successful Republican moves to suppress the vote; instead packing the court with ideologues, the most notable of whom is the handmaiden herself—Amy Coney Barrett, whom the Donald picked to fill the seat of a progressive giant, RBG. Never mind the hypocrisy of dissing Obama’s selection of Merrick Garland, not even given a hearing thanks to Mitch McConnell and his lieutenants, including Chuck Grassley, who should be in a nursing home feeding on double doses of Prevagen.

Mitch at the helm has seen to our current “Justices”, helped by disinformation emanating from Rupert Murdoch’s FOX news, a money-grubbing Australian oligarch, no better than the Russian ones. Mitch’s net worth has increased ten-fold since he was elected and not on his Senate

salary for sure, his wife benefiting from Chinese largesse to and from her uber wealthy family. Oh, and don’t forget Clarence Thomas, a black man who hates his own people, abetted by his wife, Ginny, encouraging the rioters to storm the capitol, sending emails to insurrectionists and GOP party leaders to stop the certification of the vote by the Senate. Thomas is all bent out of shape because of the dastardly leak, impugning the “integrity” of the court. But he will probably not recuse himself on Trump’s appeal if he is convicted of felonious conspiracy to precipitate an insurrection.

Other dramatis personae include the repulsive Ted Cruz and the vituperative Josh Hawley, who voted against the purely ceremonial certification of a lawful election, necessary to enshrine the vote.

Also, lets not omit a Bronx cheer for Bret Cavanaugh, the beer swilling frat boy, credibly accused of waving his penis in Christine Blasey Ford’s face at his fraternity house, assaulting her. While admittedly a college escapade, it does not speak well to his character. But no matter, he has absolved himself by joining in this sadistic exercise of Republican misogyny. “I like beer, Senator Klobuchar, don’t you?” Cavanaugh hubristically asked the Senator whose father died of alcoholism. No matter, there is no right to privacy in the Constitution, says the red spider veined nosed icon of the religious right.

Now, poor women who live in Texas, Mississippi, or other places of enlightened Republican legislators will have to book an airplane flight or drive to a place where it is legal. But wait! They do not have the money to do so, instead they can carry them to term and drop their newly born at the nearest police station or underfunded Mississippi or Texas childcare facility. Thanks a lot, Amy. Perhaps you want to adopt some more children.

This whole sordid episode of “Making America Great Again,” curdles the blood even of the most casual observer.

Putin the Cat

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 15:43:00 GMT

Putin the Cat.

Vlad, the cat, looked into the Ukrainian cookie jar and said to himself, “yum, yum. This is going to be a cakewalk, a delightful treat. Those NATO countries have been divided by the useful idiot and now I am going to eat all those delicious, buttery galettes. I’m going to eat them all while everyone is out to dinner, no need to take a bite at the edge. Lenin said, “thrust the bayonet, if you find steel, pull back. If you find soft flesh press forward.”

Hitler and Stalin divided Poland in two parts on the 23 of August 1939. This was known as the Molotov-Von Ribbentrop pact, which Hitler later trashed with his invasion of the Soviet Union, including a part of it--the Ukraine, in 1941, much to the surprise of Stalin, who had starved 3.9 million Ukrainians with his misbegotten plan to collectivize Ukrainian grain and agriculture in the 1930s. Children catching frogs and fish during the famine were dragged into a pit and suffocated. People hiding grain took a slow train to Siberia.

Ukraine, having been part of the USSR, was only subject to Stalin’s madness until the Germans arrived, in 1941, hoping to use it as a breadbasket, furnishing slave labor to fuel the German war effort. On the way, Hitler commenced his killing fields of Ukrainians, Poles, Jews and other untermenschen on his path tolebensraum in the east. Ukraine was the equivalent of a conqueror’s European Grand Central Station.

Now Ukraine is at the crossroads again of a power struggle between Putin’s Russian kleptocracy and Ukrainian nationalism, loosely supported by the West. The destruction has caused an economic nightmare for the Ukrainians and probably the west which will be yoked with the expenses of rebuilding it after Russia has destroyed its infrastructure. The idea of Russia paying reparations for their adventure is like having Jeffrey Epstein babysit your 16 year old granddaughter.

The Russian economy is in tatters, food is scarce in the Russian supermarkets, the oligarchs have lost most of their assets, the Russian people are facing a declining Ruble and nowhere to trade their oil and gas. But statistics say that sanctions only work 15-30% of the time to effect regime change, or a rogue state’s policies.

The Russian experiment with democracy started in 1989, with the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. It did not last long. Putin considers the dissolution of the USSR as disastrous as the fall of Rome. Democracy in Russia never really took hold. The first years were like the Wild West. Oligarchs got insanely rich, while the rest of the people were left behind as vassals.

We thought we won the cold war, “the end of history,” scholars wrote. Authoritarianism has lasted in Russia in one form or another for over 1,000 years. It does not seem to be on the wane. The Czars, Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Bulganin, Kosygin, Brezhnev, Gorbachev, Yeltsen, Putin? Who is next in line? Is Russian culture similar in a different shade than Islamic culture, needing generations to change? The contradiction in our minds is that Russian History is rich in cultural accomplishments. Tolstoy, Turgenev, Chekov, Tchaikovsky, giants In literature, art, music. So was Germany.

Americans should ask themselves how such leaders emerge from civilized societies? What are the causes of such aberrant historical turns? Economics? Cultural differences? Tribalism? Inequality?

The Ukraine war is a disaster for Putin; he thinks leveling a country of 40 million people who hate him will inure to his benefit. What is he going to do with Ukraine when he wins this war, if he does? Occupy? It is doomed to failure. Putin has neither the money nor the troops to oppress this population, a group of angry Slav brothers who will fight him to the death. This is their homeland, their families have been dispossessed, and their cities ruined. They hate the Russians. Estimates that it would necessitate 500,000 Russian troops to quell continuing insurgencies. The work Ukrainians have done to make their country a modern democracy in tatters, because of a kleptocratic manic.

This begs the question that this may be the part of the incipient cultural revolution—a war among Slavic brothers and cultures.

NATO is burdened about the question of escalation to World War III. Neville Chamberlain was obsessed with negotiating with Hitler to avoid a repeat of World War I where 42 million died. The fear of war as it resides in the minds of Western leaders may result in an even worse outcome than standing up to the likes of Vladimir Putin. If nuclear weapons have been a deterrent to war, now they seem to be a deterrent to stopping it.

Running from Ennui

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 15:48:00 GMT

Passion seems to be bestowed as a blessing on few people but seeking it is a not inconsiderable chore conferred on the many.

I am not officially retired, but it seems that way. The clients call less and the work I did as a trial lawyer has become less and less appetizing. Business has diminished, not only because I am seventy-nine years of age, but because I have zero desire to market myself like a snake oil salesman. I leave that particularly odious practice to well-funded and battle stationed Morgan and Morgan and others, whose legions of paralegals, investigators, paid experts and well-staffed soldiers battle with insurance companies, and “fight for you,” its overworked lawyers all the while complaining to their colleagues and family that they hate what they do.

Fifty years at the bar, and I do not mean Flanagan’s, is enough, so I leave the task of transferring wealth from one party to another and taking a piece of the action the alleged passion of the many. I do still consult with clients, if I can be of help them.

I wonder if I can achieve a modicum of mastery the piano, considering that when I took violin lessons as a youth, the bandleader working at my dad’s upstate New York hotel, a Catskill fiddler by the name of Billy Rogers (nee Rosenberg) who, admittedly, was not a music teacher, told my father, that I was the “dumbest, most tone-deaf child he had ever met.” But then again, he was no Isaac Stern nor even a music teacher. Music teachers do not scream at their beginning ten-year-old students. The sole reason Dad asked him to teach me was because a guest had left a violin in one of his hotel rooms. Before my dad’s discovered violin aspirations for me, I had expressed neither the interest nor the inclination to play the most difficult, annoying instrument, or torturing everyone within hearing distance. “Press the strings until your fingers bleed and you develop callouses,” said Billy. I do not recall what happened to the violin or Billy, although he was aged in 1952. Dad either sold the violin or most likely, gave it away. Another serial disappointment from his son, I guess.

After becoming a lawyer, I decided I would learn to play tennis. And I loved it. I was addicted. I became reasonably competent, starting at the age of 35, and playing regularly until I hit 70 and had spine surgery laying me up a few years. I was never the best, but I was pretty good, had a good serve and tried to play again a few years ago, losing to a younger fellow who had been playing just a few years. I had beaten him soundly before. Never fast on my feet, my molasses-like movements said, time to hang up the sneakers.

Life is a series of things being taken from you.

At 55 I had taken up golf. I think I have a pretty good swing, but athletically, I needed time to learn, ( a nice way to say I am a slow learner) and time is running out. Although that would not stop me, if I had some agreeable companions with whom to play. Many of the friends whose company I enjoyed have died or fallen away. There is nothing worse than spending 18 holes with someone monumentally annoying. “Nice putt,” they said, as my ball sped past the hole. Plus, most golfers do not share my politics and, inevitably, an afternoon of enjoyment turns into a dumpster fire. Most players who are Republicans, cheat. The shoe wedge or miscounting the score is a frequently insufferable habitude of the right-wing selfish, individualist, “let them eat cake” crowd.

Now, when my days are not consumed by interminably long doctor’s visits or some new ailment appears, I am seeking something to do with my spare time. Going to the hospital or delivering goodies to the ill and infirm is too depressing, since I already am depressed about most people walking past me as though I did not exist. I have become irrelevant and invisible, both not particularly enviable results of my wrinkles and weathered skin and increasingly whitening hair. A grey ghost.

I suppose I should take comfort that a geezer like Joe Biden could be president, gaining inspiration from him. But he seems so delicate, so frail now, that a stiff breeze would blow him over or he might stumble coming down the stairs of Air Force One. It is frightening to behold.

Still, Joe beats the alternative--the orange-colored crook who is still peddling the big lie.

The country is in the worst crisis since the great depression, and Joe is not FDR.

Which brings me back to the piano. I asked a neighbor who is a music teacher at an exclusive private school, “Is learning the piano at 79 doable?” He replied, “definitely, it will be good for your mind. Always keep two hands on the keyboard and learn musical notation.” I replied that I had purchased a book that said I will be able to play a Bach prelude within six weeks if I practiced 45 minutes per day. Encouraging. I guess I will find out if it can be my new passion.

Passion seems to be bestowed as a blessing on few people but seeking it is a not inconsiderable chore conferred on the many.

Life is a series of things being taken from you.

Still, Joe beats the alternative--the orange-colored crook who is still peddling the big lie.

The country is in the worst crisis since the great depression, and Joe is not FDR.

David Wieder Nov. 2021

A Nation at Peril

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 00:36:00 GMT

A Nation at Peril

Several Republican friends have told me that Trump is better for Israel than Biden. I find this trope hard to believe, since Democratic presidents and Republican presidents have supported Israel since its creation, in 1947, and dating back to Franklin Roosevelt who, in 1933, during a period of rampant American Anti-Semitism, expressed a desire for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Harry Truman was the first to recognize the newly born state within a day of its creation, despite objections from the brazenly Anti-Semitic State Department which had done its level best to suppress Jewish immigration to the United States before and during World War II. The specious logic they presented was that it would inflame the Arab world.

Stalin himself did not veto the partition, under the presumption that Israel would be a socialist-Marxist state. It is, of course, not.

The premise that disagreeing with the Netanyahu government a priori means that support for Israel has evaporated under the leadership of Democrats is a red herring non-pariel. Israel is and has been our durable ally. It shares intelligence, coordinates American interests with their own, facts recognized by all Americans on the left and on the right. Of course, policy differences exist here in and in Israel, but those differences are at worst marginal. These differences are over settlements and security and will eventually be solved by an Israel that must worry about its own demographic threats as a Jewish state.

When I was a child, we hid under wooden desks in school because we were facing vaporization by Soviet missiles. It took a while, but the Soviet Union collapsed when none of us ever thought it would. It was to be an eternal enemy. Now Putin struggles to maintain his power in what has become a third world economy. His goal is to destabilize NATO, the EU and the United States. He will fail.

The Middle East now entertains a new geopolitical power alignment: Sunnis and Israelis against Hezbollah and Shiite Iran. This dispute over who is the rightful heir to Mohammad has endured for 1,400 years, countless wars and crusades, bloodletting beyond the scale of human indignity and the baser instincts of tribal effrontery. Now Israeli technology has enticed the scrutiny of the Emirates and Saudi Arabia. El Al flights now soar over Saudi Arabia with MBS permission to land in Abu Dhabi. The Arab world now seeks to share Israeli science, technology, and agricultural innovation; MBS has placed Palestinians a priority lower than beheadings. Palestinians had their chance and blew it, they think in Riyadh, which is also contemplating their end of finite oil supplies and the exponential transformation to renewables. And Putin? He has the same problem a failing Russian economy and an increasing number of potential opponents who must be fed polonium or novochuk.

It does not really matter in the realpolitik sense to Middle Eastern leaders who chop up dissident Journalists as long as their governments can derive economic benefit from the hook up with Israel. It belies the aphorism of the scorpion requesting that the frog transmit him over the Jordan River, and the frog responding, "if I do, you will sting me and I will die." The scorpion replies "do not worry, I do not want to drown." Half way across the river the scorpion stings the frog, who says "why did you break your word, now we both will drown." The scorpion replies, "this is the middle east." Rather, the enemy of my enemy is my friend is the theme of the day. Credit to Trump for recognizing this reality. But no credit to him for the evolving geopolitical situation that now favors Israeli business with the Sunni Arab world .

The United States under its current leadership, torn by a looming election defeat, a pandemic and possible criminal indictment is moving in a parallel universe with Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who currently is under criminal indictment, and Trump, both of whom rail against the tide of history.

American Jews and Evangelists who magically think that Trump is a sincere supporter of Israel are grievously mistaken. Trump wishes only his own aggrandizement; the fate of his country is to suffer the indignities of global ridicule and the loss of its preeminence as a world leader. Pax Americana is on the path of Pax Britannia, though for different reasons. Britain lost its empire because of emerging decolonisation. India, Burma. Austrailia, Hong Kong, Canada left the empire for their own reasons, supported by the United States. Throughout the war, Roosevelt opposed Churchill's imperialism, to the chagrin of the great British leader and defender of the Empire.

America, on the other hand, is losing its influence in the West and in the world because of decay from within, as did the Roman Empire. A complacent public, a melding of social media and propaganda, a technological revolution, a failing system of public education and transport and the loss of a national unity and will, as it had propelled us during World War II. A national effort, war bonds, self-sacrifice, Rosie the riveter, food rationing, no new cars and a host of other sacrificial measures. No one complained. Now the national will is fractured by social media, mediated by Fox News and an unparalleled mercantilism that has shrunk the middle class and dashed the dreams of the young as it did in the gilded age, but eventually reined in by Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican trustbuster. "The malefactors of great wealth," he intoned.

This election will determine as Churchill said in his 1940 speech to parliament, "Whether we will move into the broad sunlit uplands" or descend into the darkness." (of climate change, ecological and geopolitical disaster or an awakening once again of an American sleeping giant that defeated Fascism, Japanese militarism, and rebuilt Europe. )

Firstly, we have to face an election that the President has already questioned as illegitimate in advance and that he says will be rigged if he loses. This is the first time in American History that an incumbent President has predicted such a foundational threat.

Benjamin Franklin famously said, "we give you a republic, if you can keep it."

The Captain of the Ship

Mon, 07 Sep 2020 16:22:00 GMT

The Captain should go down with the ship, The ship should not go down because of the Captain.

I wake up late morning and wonder what the day will be like.

Actually, it is like every other day since March, a feeling of isolation and a never-ending wonder of what the winds of time will bring.

Albert Camus wrote that men were essentially searching for meaning in a world visiting evil upon individuals through no fault of their own, a random plague not differentiating between the virtuous or the sinner.

Men have continually searched for meaning when, perhaps there is none. Melville talked about the white whale as a metaphor for death, and as Ahab pursued his nemesis, found his own. Ishmael talked about finding meaning in every day life, a calming way toward the small pleasures, the sea, the air, the bracing wind. When Ishmael began his tale as narrator, ".... having little or no money in my purse and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world...with a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship..." Melville continues..."and still deeper that meaning of the story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned."

Ishmael, drawn into a vortex that will eventually kill all on board his ship, he being in search of adventure to distract him from a perception of a life of ennui. And by his adventurous soul, his life devolves into a catastrophe not of his own making, barely escaping with his life.

Captain Ahab, a madman, projects onto his crew his obsession; rendering an oath in blood for all his crew to pursue the whale to the ends of the earth. Ahab does not give a fig for his crew's welfare, only the mad pursuit of a white ghost that eventually slays him, together with the entire crew, save Ishmael, who lives to spin his awe-inspiring tale of narcissism, obsession and sociopathy.

I have not left my house since March, gone to a restaurant, seen friends, children, grandchildren, and crave to get on with life. Finding the little pleasurable things as Melville spoke; bits of humanity aside from the political insanity of watching a destructive Narcissus, blaming his incompetence and hubris on everyone else, taking no responsibility for five million cases of Covid 19 in the Untied States with almost 200,000 deaths and climbing. We speak not here of all the other malefactions; we have been listening to them for almost four years.

My personal relationships with Trump supporters have fled down a drain of frustration and futility, attempting to persuade people living in some other universe. Quantum mechanics physicists say that that alternate universes do exist as proven by obtuse mathematical equations, but we have just not seen the physical evidence. But wait! maybe we have. It exists in Laura Ingraham's and Sean Hannity's ability to generate advertising revenue for Rupert Murdoch, who placed an evil genius Roger Ailes, in charge of how Americans get their information. Brian Stelter's new book "Hoax," details the culture of Fox news and its climate of deception. It is a frightening tale of avarice and self-dealing, the mouthpiece for Donald Trump and his minions.

One particular friend says that the Democrats are "Marxists, Communists and constitute a mob that will ravage our cities. I cannot fathom the depths of such hatred. The recent events in Kenosha and other cities do have many complicated reasons. Black frustration with policing, white anger about looting, ginned up fears of being disarmed. Clearly if there is a mob outside, calling 911 is not the answer.

From all the crises faced by America, this is a big one, but we have seen much worse. But we all need to responsibly act to preserve our institutions, our civil discourse and our understanding. Our forbearance.

The president is squirming within an inferno of his own creation--his own voyage on the Pequod. Those who think that the best quality of a president is character are seeing more vindication for their opinions. A president, this Captain Ahab, need not be an intellectual giant. He or she must have the emotional intelligence to understand the problems of his people, not whether his hair will suffer from a trip to a cemetery on a rainy French day to visit the World War I fallen, because he fancies them as "losers and suckers" or "what was in it for them?"

"It was the best of times. it was the worst of times....."

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 22:25:00 GMT

"It was the best of times.

it was the worst of times....."

- Charles Dickens

Discerning what it is that comprises a Trump voter at this stage of the game befuddles me.

Supposedly, we are to let the other side voice their opinions, to let them explain their puzzling positions.

I for one, cannot understand the continued support for Trump from any quarter.

As an American, I am thrown into a tree chipper of conundrums: the racism, the white supremacy, the paranoia against blacks and other minorities, the trashing of our allies and support for our adversaries, the virulently hidden financial black holes, the insults, the divisiveness, the disrespect for the Constitution and the rule of law, the misogynism, the loutishness, the lies, the false claims of conspiracies and birtherism, the destruction of the American image of morality and generosity are among those inexplicable rendering me powerless, incompetent, bewitched, bothered, and bewildered. Pax Americana? It has been in the 75 years since the end of that colossal global tragedy, 50 million people killed. Our alliances with our allies have kept the world together, maintained the peace.

When we and our allies won World War II, we did not seek to expand our colonial empire unlike the English who wished to do so; Churchill, an 19th century imperialist, wished to retain India and the other colonies, and despite his courage and defiance of the Nazi tyranny, despite his holding on whilst German bombers blitzed London, he was forced to recognize the American peace would not include the maintenance of the British Empire. After VE day, the Empire was on its way to dissolution. No Army in the history of the world, except ours, sought just to come home without owning the territory it conquered. Stalin did not agree. He sought to expand its tyranny throughout Eastern Europe. "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic, an Iron curtain has descended across the continent," Churchill said in his famous 1947 speech in Fulton, Missouri at the invitation of Harry Truman.

The United States, instead, instituted the Marshall plan to rebuild a war-ravaged, starving, communist-threatened Europe. If Trump instead of Truman had been in charge, he would handed over Western Europe in exchange for Notre Dame cathedral with a gold "Trump" slapped over the entrance and that the Bois de Boulogne fashioned into a Trump golf course, and announced his deal with great fanfare, that he alone saved democracy.

I have friends who are Trumpist Republicans and whose beliefs diverge from mine. I struggle to talk to them; they evince a selfishness and lack of empathy. Can they really be so self-serving? Can the economic perception of the preservation of their wealth through Trump be real? Are they all racists? Are they afraid of a minority-majority electorate? Do they think that entrenched minority rule will not eventually degrade democracy? Do they really fear poor immigrants fleeing from oppression or worse?

I reminded one plutocratic friend who rails against demonstrators, that social movements generate change in societies. The American Revolution, the Civil War, the Civil rights movement, the protests against the Viet Nam war all were the genesis of structural change. The French Revolution, a violent undertaking, shook the foundations of European society, not to mention the following Napoleonic wars that changed the character of all of Europe. Although bloody and horrific, Revolution resulted from the oppression of the lower castes, about whom royalty cared not a fig, "Let them eat cake" or as the GOP says, "raise your self up by the bootstraps," does not work for a vast number of unemployed who are in dire straits because of establishment indifference to transformational change and a raging, mishandled plague. Many revolutions have begun with street demonstrations, called riots and suppressed by military and political forces...

No, violence is not good, and therein lies the reason why America must change structurally through socially peaceful means, almost like England did in the 18th and 19th centuries. Sending Trump and Ivanka, "let them find something else to do," to the guillotine is not the solution, although it seems appealing in a gallows sort of way. I dreamt of Trump being rolled through the streets of Washington standing on a tumbrel, wearing an18th century white night shirt, his arms tied before him, his balding orange hair having turned white as the horses clop down Pennsylvania Avenue on the way to his fate awaited by Madame la Guillotine posted by the Washington monument, trailing behind is Mitch McConnell, Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan, wrestling coach extraordinaire and defender of the crown, not to mention feigned pedophilia ignorance among his colleagues at whatever high school or college that was.

Ivanka, her plastic face and sagging silicon implants, disheveled by her imprisonment and worry about her husband Jarad, who had been denounced by committee of Public Safety awaiting his turn the next day in the DC Jail (unfortunately no elegant Conciergerie in Washington, even though the town had been designed by a Frenchman).

Coronavirus Blues II

Fri, 03 Jul 2020 00:12:00 GMT

July in Miami Beach, the tropical unrelenting sun, the afternoon violent downpours testing the roof, the humidity climbing each day and the thoughts of August and September daunting, intimidating, and just plain hot. Some mornings, the palms do not sway, other mornings they bend to the tropical breezes plowing through the lush, rain-soaked vegetation. The celosia bushes, their heavy leafs dropping into the yard and swimming pool, turn brown and are easily thrown, like little Frisbees, even against the wind.

Now in the fourth month of isolation, a phlebotomist came by to take blood samples from me and my wife, Catherine, because our doctor, herself isolated, said we were overdue. In addition to the normal markers, we requested Covid 19 serology tests, as we were sick in February and perhaps we bear antibodies. That would be cool, perhaps we could go to a non-existent sporting event. Turns out the lab forgot the test.

Hurricane season is here, always a fright for Floridians, bearing warnings from the National Hurricane Center, my iPhone hurricane tracker "whooshing" when a new storm forms, even if off the distant coast of Africa, posting maps of locations of dragons on the march, fire-breathing T-Rexes arriving to eat our air conditioning, lighting, spoil our food, and potentially evacuate us from our havens of safety into a more dangerous environment; coronavirus exposure, possible close encounters with germ-infested humanity, a reminder of impending mortality, of funeral cortèges taking the route to a soon to be climate change underwater, forgotten Atlantis of soggy corpses and gravestones. Davey Jones cemeteries where descendants cannot even visit. Inland mountaintop graveyards beckon.

Sleeping is difficult, requiring medication, despite a diligent dose of daily exercise. Face time does not do the trick with teenage grandsons, who, through monosyllabic answers, clearly prefer their video screens than chat with fossilized grandparents who are not as entertaining as "Grand theft Auto." Seems fair, though, as I did the same with my grandmother, a miserable woman, who never left her room in the house of my uncle to whom she did not speak for 30 years.

Politics, books, streaming video, zoom calls with friends, providing contact with inherent physical distancing. I stare at the computer screen or the little phone and wonder if the family and friends feel the same, the hunger for a return to real life, this nightmare promising to end when a vaccine appears on the scene. A grim tableaux of time running out stealing a few of our remaining years, a unmerciful heist of our most precious commodity--time.

Yet, in all this, hope shines anew. The opportunity of the United States to pass into a renewal of national unity. Polling promises a defeat for the pestilential president. Perhaps the virus, the commonalty of the experience, the diminution of polarization, the recognition of common values despite the racist disunion posed by some politicians and their sycophants will submerge into a new experiment. Our history, filled with such events, strengthens us. After all, Revolution, enslavement, Civil War, two World Wars, a cold war has not yet done us in.

Perhaps the toleration of systemic racism that has inhabited this nation will recede a bit further. Leadership does matter; compassion does matter; character does matter; honesty does matter, and as Dr. King has reminded us the arc of history bends toward justice.

But nature does not care.

The coronavirus, nature, and our little speck in the boundless universe responds to the care we give it, the dedication of scientists and abilities that are unbound by the whims of politicians, who, pathologically deceiving their countrymen, deny the world around them; nature has no bent, it is unsparing of species which ignore it. Viruses only wish to propagate; they are unthinking, uncompassionate and heartless children of mankind's disrespect, and perhaps the natural selector of who does and does not survive, humans included.

Only about 300,000 years have passed since the first fossilized evidence of our species appeared in Africa, and no more than 2 million years since homo erectus, our distant ancestor, appeared. The earth is about 4.5 billion years old. We are a millisecond, a firefly, a clap of thunder. We mean nothing as a species, a fleeting wave of life, just like the dinosaurs. If the world warms a few degrees, we are vanished.

Scientists predict that the sun is midway through its life cycle, created 4.5 billion years ago and probably remaining stable for another 5 billion years. Then the Earth will be toasted, as the sun becomes a red giant, encasing the Earth.

Our civilization has much to figure out, and we have a long time to do it. But one wonders if we will.

Many species have passed on and we may very likely will be next, whether we be white, black or yellow. Nature does not care.

Coronavirus Blues

Sat, 04 Apr 2020 23:29:00 GMT

Coronavirus blues.

The sky over Biscayne Bay, a deep blue paradigm of Florida in late March is an illusion. Sea gulls and other birds wing by while I swim; nothing seems amiss. The silky waters of the bay create soft waves brushing against the seawalls. Walking around my island, joggers run by me, impelled by their youth, evoking memories of when I ran 5 miles in the morning and played tennis in the afternoons. The ease of their steps evinces a bygone fantasy, a reminder of my growing fragility. Yet being outside is transformative, refreshing, imparting a calm that is only superficial. Still, being inside most hours of these forlorn days ominously imply an impending doom exacerbating despair. We know not when the pandemic will end, if our economy will survive, if our destinies will transform into a new malady or possible dystopic public health landscape, lasting for years.

Wet markets in China could produce some other source of plague. Avian flu, I am told, has a 60% death rate.

Home confinement often does not seem to be a great chore, my wife and I vacuum, cook, clean floors and toilets. We are paying our cleaning woman not to come, and think that she might have been infected a month ago, when she had an incessant cough. After that, Catherine got a sore throat and a cold that lasted about 8 days, bestowing its gifts on me for another 8 days. We had no fever, but I thought that we might have suffered infection. Now recovered, isolated anyway, and following all the rules, Catherine insists that it was only a cold, but if not, I wonder if I could donate some plasma for antibodies to someone else who was stricken worse than me.

But without testing, who knows what we had? Not being prepared for this crisis proves that we need government. People hate lawyers until they need one. People hate going to the dentist until they need a root canal. So fans of limited government, this is your come to Jesus moment.

Each day blends into another and since we are in the most vulnerable group, we do not venture out, get groceries delivered, avoid all people and frantically disinfect letters, paper boxes arriving from Amazon, vegetables, lettuce, fruit, and canned goods. We wash our hands countless times each day and agonize over the tiny virus creeping up our noses possibly killing us, our lungs filling with fluid and gasping for an elusive breath. Someone said that if you think someone may have infected you, use a hair dryer quickly to blow hot air up your nose to kill the virus, which does not survive above 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Better check that one out.

Across America, deliveries are multiplying exponentially. Just like the virus. There is a newly involuntary languid pace to life now and that is not entirely bad. No running to meet friends for dinner, no lateness for appointments, almost a pastoral interlude. Yet it seems unnatural, forced, like house arrest. A perversion of one's freedom. How long will people comply?

We cannot see our children and our friends except on video but have each other to dispel some of the loneliness and anxiety. We drink more. The uncertainty is daunting; each day the stock market careens on a dispiriting roller coaster. But more than that, I think of the people in the undeveloped world dying and suffering in droves, clinging together in their huts in Delhi, in West Africa, in Indonesia, with no escape, no air-conditioned house, no swimming pool, no Netflix or even electricity or running water. A few months ago, I watched a documentary of Bill Gates funding a new type of toilet for the third world that uses fecal matter for energy. In 2015, he presciently spoke of the lack of preparedness for this very type of pandemic. He did charts and computer modeling of the spread and the danger. Our government turned a deaf ear. I wish Bill Gates were president.

The country is floundering like a harpooned whale, a gigantic leviathan of the 19th century unable to meet the challenges of a 21st century monster run wild, staring into the face of a Captain Ahab, abetted by a soulless senate majority leader enabling his president's malfeasance and proven mendacity. The president uses his 5 pm briefings to campaign for re-election, considering his polling above the public health, contradicting his experts, blowing hot air filled with misinformation, boasting about the "great job" he is doing. No one could handle this better, he says, and the fearful reptilian brains of his base are right in his wheelhouse. Really, does anyone believe him? A man who has squandered his credibility on mean-spirited vindictive tweets and name-calling for three years?

Refrigerator trucks are lined up outside overwhelmed hospitals in Manhattan, hauling away corpses. Health care workers are on the front lines. Why is not the army there to help them in this war?

Donald Trump uniting the country or recognizing the truth is like asking a bank robber to give back the money after he has fled to Monte Carlo. “I don’t take any responsibility. We are just a backup for the states. It’s their fault.” A coronavirus of lies surrounds his handling of a crisis not of his making but certainly beyond his ability to tweet away.

Coronavirus déjà vu

Mon, 16 Mar 2020 22:44:00 GMT

Coronavirus déjà vu

In 1946, a year after VE day, my parents lived in Jamaica, N.Y, my father managing a hotel in Long Beach, on the south shore of Long Island, a short drive from Jamaica. Dad liked to stop at "Roadside Rest" a hot dog stand on the road near what was then called Idlewild (now JFK) airport; Dad loved taking us there. It was cheap and delicious; I loved the juicy, plump frankfurters, the best New York had to offer. I was four years old and they had some monkey bars outside to play on.

That summer we spent July and August in Long Beach; Dad ran a hotel called the Adelon, a beige brick building of about 100 rooms with a front porch overlooking the beach. Seagulls flittered about; their white feathers a contrast against the crisply blue sky. Old people congregated the porch, rocking slowly in the metal chairs. I ran around, freely and childishly. One evening, though, a huge lighting storm appeared and a blinding flash followed by the loudest thunderclap sounded just outside my window, the sky then returning inky black. Mom was working; I ran screaming to my nanny. One of my most frightful childhood memories--for years I suffered nightmares and shook myself to sleep, humming a repetitive moan-like sound.

We stayed at aunt Gussie’s nearby house some evenings in those summer days. Aunt Gussie was dark haired woman with streaks of grey and a cigarette dangling perpetually out of her mouth. Gussie and Mom played a continuous game of gin rummy, turning the room hazy with smoke. One evening I spiked a fever of 103 and Mom panicked. She called the doctor who, after examining me, assured her it was not polio and gave me a huge shot of a white liquid--penicillin. In my eyes, the needle looked like a pitchfork. Mom's fear pierced me. Mom, just as was everyone, terrified of polio, the genesis of which was a virus. FDR's courageous journey through paralysis ennobled his persona as a compassionate, great president, and more importantly an empathetic human being, one who understood, despite his patrician roots, the trials of the ordinary American stricken with polio. His institute in Warm Springs, Georgia still provides hope for the afflicted.

Horrifying visions of Iron Lungs, children's heads peering out and with no prospect of emerging from the fearsome prison that kept their paralyzed lungs breathing still haunt me. The fear was palpable, terrifying. I had dreams of being inside one an never getting out, struggling to scratch my nose and not able to run free.

In 1948 we moved to Miami Beach, polio fears still abiding. In second grade, we were stewarded to the school library at North Beach Elementary and given little paper cups of pink vaccine to drink. In 1952, we did not understand the benefits of the vaccine, but soon our parents learned that it was a medical miracle. The poliovirus had been banished.

In 1954 came the Soviet nuclear menace, the prospect of instant vaporization by a Russian hydrogen bomb. Terror gripped us; hiding under a wooden school desk would protect us though, our schoolteachers informed us during numerous air raid drills. It was another virus to fear.

When I got to Junior High around that time, Some of the kids in school joined the Ground Observer corps where, stationed on the 73d street beach, diagrams of Russian bombers had been distributed so we could identify Russian aircraft before they soared over Miami Beach to destroy Flagler Street, which then had only two old office buildings and a segregated Walgreens with a soda fountain.

In those days, they let us to listen to smuggled into school transistor radios for the daytime broadcast World Series. Those early autumn games were a respite from thinking the world was ending in either nuclear holocaust or Communist enslavement.

Later, in the1980s, my generation thought we would all die of AIDS, prematurely forcing us to ponder our mortality. There was no cure, and when heterosexuals became threatened, many ran for tests under assumed names. Some friends died and I saw one of mine die a horrible, painful death, tubes coming out of every orifice of his body, his grey countenance laying comatose in his hospital bed, bags of dark fluid oozing from his body. He had shuffled into my office before that to do his will and put his affairs in order for his wife and two children. I still visualize how he looked, grey and fragile. I became nauseated with fright. It all now seems so remotely past. People say things are never as bad or as good as they seem at the time.

Now, a new crisis, the coronavirus. My wife and I had planned for a cruise to Italy this May and we would rather have root canal then get on a floating Petri dish. Even flying in a plane risks exposure to coughs, sneezes and wheezing passengers. Mortal threats, all. Not to mention the inability be treated by overwhelmed hospitals and physicians, if the spread is too rapid. CNN now chooses to cover more of virus than of Trump. Do not ask me which is the more frightening. So now we are under household arrest, like white collar criminals waiting for trial. The only difference is that we do not have ankle bracelets.

Doctors may be making battlefield triage decisions as to whom to treat, old or young, frail or otherwise healthy. If the choice were between us and someone young, we would not get the ventilator.

America has not seen this since the influenza of 1918 that killed 50-100 million people throughout the world.

The other night dining with close friends, we avoided customary hugs, handshakes and kisses--expressions of humanity and love. My generation, it seems, must overcome another fear since the elderly are the ones most vulnerable. I wondered about the waiters and cooks sneezing in the food, contaminating flatware and dishes.

Even worse, we face times without human contact.

This week I watched a documentary of World War II flyers negotiating a bombing run over Germany, the navigator saying that he thought he was a duck in a shooting gallery as flack burst near his airplane. "You just lower your head and fly through." A large percentage of his friends in the B-17s went down in flames.

A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand

Sun, 09 Feb 2020 15:54:00 GMT

"A house divided against itself, cannot stand..."

- Abraham Lincoln

From California to New York, from Oregon to Florida, a frightening division has descended upon our country. From rural to urban America, people wonder whether the nation and its institutions can survive this polarity.

There have been times in American history that the nation was divided, never more so than in 1860. Throughout that history, there had been bitter partisanship and division. From the heat of the constitutional convention in steamy 1787 Philadelphia, the founders fought bitterly to a compromise that actually welded two nations into one in a constitution which just ninety years later devolved into a insanely bloody civil war, brother against brother, father against son, family against family.

A partisan press with countless newspapers and pamphleteers spewed hatred and vituperative allegations against their countrymen both at the founding and throughout the years leading to the Civil War. Twitter has nothing on them.

A rural south, an industrializing north, both parts of which employed slavery, regarded Negroes as inferior, abetted involuntary servitude and a racist ethos, challenging even the most enlightened of our citizenry. During the time between the founding and the Civil War forged compromises kept the Union together. The Missouri compromise (1820) and the Kansas-Nebraska act (1854) failed as attempts to reconcile admission to the Union of new states as either slave or free. The Constitution itself had slavery baked in to its original ratification (Article 4 sec. 2.3) imposing that,

" No person held to Service or Labor in one State under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any Law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or Labor, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labor may be due,"

Later, the Fugitive Slave act of 1850 imposed the duty on citizens and officials of the individual states themselves to return slaves to their owners or face civil fines, and that persons harboring slaves to criminal penalties. Slave catchers roamed the North, collecting bonuses for bringing slaves in; captured slaves were not permitted a jury trial.

Sound like a rickety Constitution?

Of course, the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments cured some of that, but still, it took the bloodiest war in the history of the Republic, 700,000 dead and wounded to get the amendments passed and only in the last few years was the Confederate battle flag removed from South Carolina government buildings. The Civil Rights act of 1964, race riots in Los Angeles, freedom riders, political assassinations of civil rights leaders, and a frothing George Wallace standing in the schoolhouse door shouting "segregation forever!" interceded in the 1960s, almost 100 years after the end of the war and ten years after the landmark Brown v. the Board of Education outlawed segregation in the public schools.

Well, that same Constitution has given us the Electoral College, a Federalist exercise in balancing the interests of the various states, and which now presents us with

a highly undemocratic underrepresentation of large populations, California for instance, with its 40,000,000 people and North Dakota with its 500,000 each carrying two senators. Do the math on fair representation. Yes, I know the House is supposed to do that, but with present gerrymandering, the Democrats are obliged to win by much bigger majorities than Republicans. With Republicans dedicated to disenfranchising voters in Florida, for example, contrary to the will of the voters, Democrats must win votes in far greater numbers than Republicans to achieve a working majority. We now have entrenched minority government.

With an unleashed president, sociopathically bound to his vindictive agenda, extreme anxiety pervades the Democratic Party, fearing that this president will be re-elected, boasting that "he alone" is claiming responsibility for the booming economy, acquitted from his misdeeds by a kangaroo court, comprised of quaking GOP senators afraid of tribal banishment to an ignominious gulag of GOP opprobrium, losing their congressional health plans, positions, prestige and power andthe ultimate loss of the dignity which they inartfully tried to preserve. Instead, they have lost it anyway by their surrender to political expediency.

We need either a constitutional convention or a huge movement among voters to recognize that the divisions among us are not the result of a political agenda, but instead, tribal cultism. Many of the policy agendas result from identity politics, rural against urban, wealthy against poor, a displaced working class losing out in the battle against inevitable technological displacement, climate change and nuclear proliferation, the greatest threats to the world. A leader who can heal these divisions and create forbearance and a spirit of compromise is what we need more than ever. A president of either party who can understand reality, not phantasmagorical narcissism.

It is said that great crises manufacture an FDR, a Winston Churchill, an Abraham Lincoln. Where may he or she be?

A Loss of Dignity

Tue, 03 Dec 2019 17:17:00 GMT

Recently there has been much written about the polarization of America. Francis Fukuyama, the noted political theorist has written a book on the subject, " Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment." Brilliantly conceived, Fukuyama deals with the reasons the politics of identity has struck so discordant a note in our present national conversation.

Since I have not completed the book, I can only deal with what I have read so far, but at this point, I cannot resist in remarking how prescient a work it is and the subject of why we have seemed to have sunk so deeply into selecting leadership that is so viscerally repugnant.

Donald Trump is a master of mining the depths of the inherent contradictions in the psyches of his followers. By using dog whistles, he plays to both the fears and the desires of those who consider themselves forgotten by the elites--the loss of their perceived respect and dignity. Their invisibility.

The American middle class, despite its station in the world compared to other nations, has suffered, Fukuyama says, from a loss of their self-esteem because they have become invisible to the elites of both the government and those residing on the coasts. This invisibility is worse than being regarded as rubes, yokels and rednecks. Since deindustrialization, they have lost their place in society. They have lost the meaning of their work and thus their claim to respect and dignity.

Fukuyama alludes to philosophers who have dealt with this subject, Aristotle, Kant, Rousseau, who all have different takes on how we regard ourselves and our relation to the world in both a political and psychological sense. But the essence is a human quest for dignity and respect.

Fukuyama analogizes, moreover, that losing something of value is more important than gaining something of value. For example if one makes $1000, the self-satisfaction of doing so is more easily dismissed than losing $1000 through theft or a lost wallet. A sense of loss, therefore, outweighs a sense of gain, because one regards the event with a diminution of self-esteem. For another example, the loss of jobs in the industrial Midwest among auto workers is a devastating blow to people who worked hard and earned $47 an hour but now earn $15 an hour working just as hard. This is fertile ground, for manipulative demagoguery, converting the rust belt into fertile ground for hucksterism, for a pied piper of mendacity and illusory dreams.

That is what, Fukuyama argues, has happened to American workers as well as to workers in other countries suffering from the effects of deindustrialization and technological displacement who have found themselves in the netherworld of lost aspirations.

The result of all this is the place provided for increased demagoguery. This has happened in our history before. During the great depression of the 1930s, people who had lost their jobs suffered more from the loss of dignity than from the loss of employment. Along came Father Coughlin, Huey Long and other charlatans, to fuel the sense of displacement and valuelessness among their followers and to increase the credibility of their own populism.

People who have lost their place on the auto assembly line, the steel mill, the farmer, have flocked to a flim-flam man who promised them that their jobs would be restored when he really knew they would not.

The expression of the dignity of work is not lost on us. People who think that Andrew Yang's offer of a guaranteed annual income is not the sinecure that its advocates might think. Whether people really want something for nothing is open to question. Most people do not want handouts; they want to earn their keep not only for their own pocket books but also for their dignity. Many of the benefits of a welfare state are an anathema to most Americans and even among those of us who believe that government has an obligation to help the less fortunate among us.

In addition, social media has exacerbated this phenomenon by emphasizing the shrinking of the middle class, the income of which has exponentially spiraled down in the obverse exponential growth of corporate profits, and executive compensation with FOX news propaganda mouthing administration lies about how "great" the economy is doing and how coal miners jobs will be restored, if only we could keep America away from intruding immigrants.

Happy Holidays

After Trump, What?

Mon, 28 Oct 2019 22:00:00 GMT

As the political process, and make no mistake about it, impeachment is a political process, seems to be finally grinding exceedingly fine against a man who really did not want to govern in the first place, Americans need to consider what lies ahead.

While the president thinks that the “phony emoluments clause,” is not what Alexander Hamilton and James Madison had in mind for pretenders to despotism, it is exactly what they had in mind. Both Hamilton and Madison feared an “unfit usurper with despotic tendencies” by writing into the constitution Article II impeachment provisions, and In the Federalist papers, expressing deep concern about “unfit magistrates,” drawing upon sanguinary English history for the definitions of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

The argument that Trump is simply a blaggard rings exponentially truer. His thinning congressional apologists fear that his candidacy in 2020 will potentially bring them down in a cascade of voter outrage. Even immoderate Republicans sense the danger, worrying what will come next. Will they all lose their jobs? Will the Democrats get carte blanche to correct the continuous train wreck of impulsive ineptitude? Or, is Trumpian politics the new normal?

I think not. The debates among Democrats so far has been civil; we suppose that a conscious decision has been made to follow Ronald Regan’s directive of not speaking badly of one’s fellow party members, even opponents aggressively vying for a win.

The damage done so far to American foreign policy, betrayal of our allies, ignorance of governance, the skeleton staff at the White House, and uncertainty of world leaders should abate once the president is ignominiously shuttled to jail or to his golden tower, perhaps sporting a GPS ankle bracelet, railing how the system victimized him. His twitter followers and congressional enablers will have to wait until the next opportunity. But Trump will probably fade away, a small man, made smaller by his vindictiveness, vulgarity, and “victimhood,” his ignorance, hubris and mendacity.

One of the key aspects of a democracy is forbearance and respect for other’s perspectives. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt of Harvard argue in “How Democracies Die,” illustrate how democratically elected leaders, become intolerant of their opponents by attacking them and a free press. This tactic will ultimately fail in America. It did not fail in Weimar Germany, but we are not Teutonic militarists, emerging from a great depression.

Profound ideals of freedom are expounded in our constitution by the founding fathers, a brilliant constellation of leaders who emerged at just the right time. Flawed though it was (slavery) our constitution has provided a framework for both the left and for the right, for conservative and progressive, a document for the ages.

It is that document that now threatens the authoritarian demagoguery of Donald J. Trump. The perversion of the presidency will not last, nor should it. We will get through this aberration, this assault on American values.

America, granted, is under challenge from technological displacement, by the rise of illiberalism, by Russian revanchism.

by stagnant wages, by inequality, by climate change.

Americans have a great opportunity now to cleave together, as we did in World War II, as we would have if Abraham Lincoln had not been assassinated, and racist Andrew Johnson allowed the confederacy to win the peace after 700,000 Americans lay dead at Antietam, Gettysburg, Cold Harbor, the Wilderness, Chickamauga, Vicksburg, and Fredericksburg to preserve the Union and free the slaves. After Marian Anderson sang on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with the help of Eleanor Roosevelt who resigned her place in the Daughters of the American Revolution when racism did not allow the great soprano to sing. And After Dr. King marched on Washington awakening our Republic from its sleepwalking through segregation, lynching and racial injustice.

At the same time, the Constitution provides an escape from the road to totalitarianism. From the would-be intolerance and autocrat-admiring Donald Trump. It is the lynchpin of freedom in America, not because it is hermetically sealed in the national archives, but because the people of this county believe in it. It is in that belief, in that faith in the American ideal, that weathers the storm of malign Trumpism. It is the belief in the “better angels of our nature,” that America will regain its bearings, like a sailing ship as expressed in the verse of Longfellow. “Sail on, oh ship of state, sail on, oh Union strong and great; humanity with all its fears, with all its hopes of future years, is hanging breathless on thy fate.”

A Cultural War Rages in America

Tue, 16 Jul 2019 15:17:00 GMT

An increasingly minoritizing white America are struggling with the past of a nation substantially built on the backs of imported slaves, their sweltering sub-decks populated by a degraded humanity, forced to lie in their own urine and feces. The first twenty slaves arrived in British America in 1619, according to Jill Lepore, author of a new history of the United States. The sorry institution exploded in the colonies after the invention, in 1793, of the cotton gin, an impetus for profitable manufacturing of cottons and linens and for the necessity of an exponential increase in chattel slavery in all of the thirteen colonies.

The consequences of this institution led to the American Civil War, being, as most wars, driven by economic forces, further justified by the rationalization of preserving a “way of life, and individual liberty” (of white men). Perpetuation of that puissance expanded the number of slave states as the American Union spread over the continent, through the victimizing doctrine of “manifest destiny,” enabling theft of the lands of native Americans, Mexicans, and others, including Hispanics in the great American West. Frighteningly, Hitler conceived the idea of lebensraumfrom the American model, writing about it in Mein Kampf.

Now, the chickens have come home to roost. The stain on our history, through knowledge of the past has caused a dissolution of MAGA 1950s equilibrium of America. The whiteness of “Leave it to Beaver,” and “Father Knows Best,” is reluctantly surrendering to the political realities of a woke generation. The dispossessed, the robbed, the abused portion of the American polity are demanding reparations for the backbreaking servitude and social discrimination they were obliged to endure through much of the history of the Republic but also creating much of our wealth and infrastructure. Predicated on economic servitude’s malevolent benefits and the building of America through economically indentured generations since the Civil War, there is currency to the argument that America owes a monetary debt to the descendants of slaves, not merely those who lived in the 19thcentury.

Current white nationalist backlash is no different than the traitorous Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Nathan Bedford Forrest’s (KKK founder) defending the Southern aristocracy perpetuating itself on the treasure created by negro slaves, continuing unabated through an aborted reconstruction fulminated by the impeached, but not convicted, racist Andrew Johnson, and the desegregation of the South and the military by the former president of Princeton University and of the United States, who believed that black men were inferior to whites, the heroic Woodrow Wilson, who envisioned a peaceful world order and campaigned unsuccessfully for a league of nations and gained a Nobel Peace Prize for his failed effort.

White racist men such as the current president and his base of white supremacists will not succeed in suppressing demands for economic equality, immigration justice, and more American diversity. Finally, after centuries of struggle, the world of white dominance of our country is being dragged kicking and screaming into a more diversified American 21stcentury ethos. Despite the last gasps of an anachronistic, aberrational president, a disenfranchised minority is beginning to define its own future. Republican gerrymandered voter suppression occurring in the heartland is being challenged not only by a new generation of Americans, but also by many white people who are beginning to understand the economic disparities created by racial prejudice and economic deprivation and an electoral system engineered to perpetuate the status quo of voter suppression and rural overrepresentation. We are a national entity--a people, not geographical state boundaries alone. Although our economic and federal system ensures more freedom, it also provokes more economic disparities and even tribalism, the ultimate enemy of a free republic. The electoral college is the single most undemocratic institution in our federal system, allowing states like North Dakota two senators for 500,000 people and California with its 39,000,000 the same two senators. It must go the way of the proverbial horse and buggy. It was a successful compromise among disparate states not yet a country to ratify a new constitution. Now it must be put to pasture. The middle class is beginning to realize that it is not immigrants causing employment loss, it is unparalleled technological change creating the disorder. 80% of the jobs lost are because of it, not scapegoated immigrants and minorities.

All this unhinging is happening very rapidly, almost like the recent California earthquake. Trump’s America is trembling beneath his feet, despite Twitter rages, petulant ad hominem attacks on adversaries, and the chaos of an indelibly incompetent administration that thinks that climate change is a hoax, and that “a new and better health plan” (that does not exist) will help our country by ejecting 30 million people from their insurance. And yes, that people of color who criticize him or his policies “go back,” an old Strom Thurmond trope.

The technological forces pushing major international corporations and the uber-wealthy to new, gilded age disparities between them and the middle class is becoming increasingly self-evident as a threat to our republic. Equally, the thinly veiled disguise of whites being abused by the descendants of slaves or immigrants no less a hoax than PT Barnum’s appeal in the carnival midway of a horrible freak show.

July 4, 2019

Fri, 05 Jul 2019 20:26:00 GMT

July 4, 2019, the 243rdbirthday of the United States of America

Born of revolution against the mightiest superpower of the 18thcentury;

Borne by steely revolutionary men whose beliefs in liberty,

Produced a victory in a fraught war of independence;

Fought in the hills and battlegrounds and cities of Concord, Lexington, Princeton, Yorktown, New York, Delaware, New Jersey, and Virginia;

A people nurtured by a will to live without unjust taxation and with a paucity of representation; and by great statesmen.

A nation blessed with a statesman-first president who refused to be addressed “Your excellency” and stepped down voluntarily even having been offered a Kingship.

A nation blessed with statesmen who assembled in the heat of a Philadelphia summer to birth a constitution, a compromise among the different states, who, despite their inherent differences and efforts, almost a hundred years later, gave rise to a sanguinary war, a war of brother against brother, father against son, state against state;

Tearing the imperfect Union asunder, saturating the land with corpses and mangled bodies so numerous and throughout the battlegrounds of Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Gettysburg, Manassas, Fredericksburg, Cold Harbor.

A war that, although originally not so intended, eventually eradicated the sin of slavery,

And resulted in the martyrdom of our greatest President,

Who had given a race of people a new birth of freedom;

Only to suffer the indignities of continued and unbridled racism and economic servitude;

A nation that perpetuated second class citizenry to its former slaves, and upon whose backs our nation grew;

A nation that owes much of its existence to the backbreaking servitude of slaves.

A nation that fought two great world wars to kill authoritarianism, while still many of its citizens use racial animus, segregation and hate to assuage their fears;

And a president who thrives upon such fears;

A nation that turned away immigrants who, as a result were condemned to their deaths in the flames of Europe.

A nation that dispossessed and stole the native inhabitants of their land, sending them on a trail of tears.

A nation that separates child from parent, mother from son, father from daughter, and sees, yet cannot control its malevolent leaders and cries in anguish in its own imprisonment.

A nation with the generosity of spirit and independence that still stands as a testament to liberty, with its flaws in full sight and under the scrutiny of a free press;

A nation upon which the world depends for its economic security;

A nation with an independent judiciary, guarding against the misfeasance of politicians.

Yet a nation with entrenched minority rule;

A nation that has suffered and is still suffering through incompetents and demagogues;

A nation that will surely expose such bkaggards after being victimized by them;

A nation still imperfect, of immigrants, both recent and past, of people fleeing from the injustice of their native lands, bringing children, bringing their hearts and souls, seeking to enter the golden door.

A nation increasingly diversified, traversing the challenges of a new technological era, of change of climate, of new frontiers of medicine, energy production and the will to meet the challenge.

A nation still striving to perfect its union and make it more perfect. A more perfect union,

Still seeking liberty and justice for all.

War with Iran?

Fri, 21 Jun 2019 14:11:00 GMT

War with Iran?

During the 1930s Japan was busy invading China, committing racial atrocities in a rampage broadening their economic and political empire. The rape of Nanking in 1937 by the Imperial Japanese army (the then Chinese capital) was a huge horror preceding the unspeakable horrors following Pearl Harbor both in Europe and in the Pacific theatres of war. Estimates of dead in that Nanking massacre range from 50,000 to 300,000.

The United States imposed crushing sanctions on Japan, including an oil embargo and rubber from Dutch and British possessions in the South Pacific. The United States had also demanded that Japan withdraw from China, under which the Japanese were busy renaming Manchuria to Manchukuo, a province of Japan. This embargo was an existential threat to the Japanese, choked their economy, poaching their territorial and imperial ambitions.

The Japanese then initiated war against the United States by surprise attack on December 7, 1941. President Roosevelt’s administration knew what they were doing preceding Pearl Harbor, wanting to snip the Japanese wings, joined by the British ostensibly, to protect their empire, upon which the “sun never set.”

Now why this history?

Well, because Iran is fomenting terror throughout the Middle East. It is supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen. It wishes to achieve hegemony through military and political action. This enrages the Saudis, Egyptians, and Israel. Although the US has withdrawn from the Iran nuclear deal, the Europeans are under pressure from the US to shut down the Iranian economy. Inflation is 50% and unemployment 25%. They are succeeding. Iran is suffering, and pressured. Unable to produce sufficient revenues to keep the country going, the theocrats in charge are becoming desperate, escalating tensions in the straits of Hormuz through which much of the world’s oil traffic must traverses. So the militants have decided to shoot down a US asset and bomb two ships. Trump says the drone was in international waters, but who believes him? Today he called off a retaliatory strike, and that may be a clue to where the drone was actually located—over Iran or International waters.

John Bolton is a known bellicose national security advisor, and Mike Pompeo a known hawk. Next to the word “cunning’” in the dictionary is Bolton’s photo. And Pompeo? He loves war. Bolton and Pompeo want regime change in Iran. Bolton and Pompeo want regime change in Iran. Bolton aggressively supported the Iraq war, and we know how that turned out when George W. Bush decided to avenge his dad’s attempted assassination.

Trump does not even know what he said the day after he said it and may, arguably, have beginning dementia. He is a feckless ignoramus, hardly able to stand up to a foreign policy crisis. He is busy conducting reality show rallies in, of all places, Orlando where most of his Floridian supporters live. His base does not care about anything except their religion—Trump. And all Trump cares about is getting reelected, to continue his pursuit of illicit riches for himself and his family. People, he said he was opposed to all wars, “America First,” but that was only when Democrats were in power. And when President Obama was not born in the United States. Does anyone believe that this narcissist will tell us the truth or manage a gathering storm?

Of this, wars are born, old men sending young men and women to die.

Friendship on the Brink

Fri, 16 Feb 2001 08:34:45 GMT

"Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend's success."

- Oscar Wilde

This past week a civic event caused me to see a friend whom I have known since college. He lives in another city in Florida, smaller and more provincial in the 1950s than even Miami, but has recently grown to an important metropolitan area. We shared many good times, chatting in the dorm, visiting each other's homes, knew each other's parents and were true friends. We even tried some cases together, and laughed and told many war stories to each other. We even represented each other in two different cases. We had many mutual friends, our children, although not close, cared and liked each other. During good times and bad we were close. We shared a certain ability to laugh at ourselves.

What do you do with a friend whose underlying prejudices have morphed him into a second-rate Archie Bunker, minus the humor and pathos? So this is rumination on friendship, and most probably, loss of it.

In college, my friend, whom I will now pseudo-name Joseph, dominated conversations with his force of personality and what I thought at the time was his profound wide-ranging knowledge. He was the professor Irwin Corey of the University of Florida. He had an unparalleled ability to bloviate. Successful with women, he objectified them, viewing his sexual exploits as an athletic contest and calling them by a sideways description of their genitalia. Not unlike the Donald. My experience, on the other hand, with women in college was virtually nil, an inherent shyness, insecurity and introversion I was later to overcome. One time, visiting my home, he exposed my father's business partner as a fraud. It was a gutsy, cheeky move, but that never stopped him. My father, incredulous, dismissed the accusation to his own detriment.

Joseph has profoundly changed, now rails about his advanced age and has become aggressively provocative, but without portfolio. Maundering through a litany of biases, insulting those who prefer semi rational discussion he spews hatred and venom at every turn.

His opinions are mostly about people he virulently disrespects, even detests. "Socialist" Democrats, gays, lesbians, transgender people, African-Americans, Asians, Hollywood elite. He is a racist although he denies it. Never issuing a word of respect for President Obama, spewing hatred from every pore. He is profoundly envious and judgmental of others, but sees not a whit of those repugnant traits in himself. Something is missing. Every attempt at discourse devolves into an epithet of either homo or xenophobia. "Lesbos, Affirmative Action "beneficiaries,” and weak-willed gays who have made the wrong choice in life (because there is no gay gene.") He professes to be an amateur geneticist. He is "Euro centric," a word to veil his racial and ethnic analysis of inferiors. Sometimes he sounds like a chapter from "Mein Kampf." Imagine a Jew who shares Hitlarian racial opinions?

Respect for people he does not personally know is thin. For some reason there exists a great personal animosity toward those who have achieved fame and fortune or have even had careers of personal distinction because he has set some mysterious indecipherable criteria. Obama only became President of the Harvard Law Review because of affirmative action. Hillary lied about bullets over Bosnia. He believes one of his sons was deprived of Medical School admission in the US because of that program. So that might be a partial explanation for his opinion, but maybe not. Other's children are either cheap, not wide-ranging, or undeserving of their success compared to his own. A court-reporter friend who committed suicide was dismissed as "dead." with out an ounce of compassion toward her.

Joseph has successful professional (a lawyer and a doctor) children and is himself a professional, has tried many cases successfully and is aging, but depending upon one's point of view, not well.

Always iconoclastic, he joined two fraternities in college and quit both. Fine. His personality did not allow him to blend in. That is ok. But he has regressed into even more pronounced paranoia and xenophobia, and has recently reconnected with me after a year's time out. One day last year, he had crossed the line by intruding in a personal matter in which I had asked him to desist. He could not and I told him not to call me again. A year went by. No daily calls from him. No baiting to debate long shop worn issues. No listening to half-baked opinions and pejorative nicknames for politicians, such as "Hilldog, Obamster." No more conversations devolving into homophobia, xenophobia, expressions of hostility toward the government helping the less fortunate, no more rants against affirmative action, Jews who were "too observant" and no more stories about his wanting to volunteer for a Mossad assassination squad to kill Nazis in Argentina as justification for his schizophrenic relationship with his Jewish origin and to confer upon himself some aura of authority because of an unfulfilled wish that occurred, if it did, in 1967 or so. This justified his opinions about Israel, even though he has never been there.

His spleen not being vented on me for a year, gave me some repose. Meeting him this week at the event, he greeted me warmly. I think he was genuinely happy to resume our relationship. However, after he went home, he sent me the following post-Oscar trope about people he does not know and films he probably not seen:

I I "

"loved the "Leftie" PC Hollywood assholes fucking up their attempt at affirmative action in choosing Moonlight (HaHa--clearly not the best film although I have read very good and inspiring) by choosing two idiots that obviously could not think on their feet with their scripted brains. It said an actress' name and then LaLa Land. Duh--let's read it anyway!!

Then they choose a female abuser and alcoholic in Casey Afflack as best actor. I just love those Leftie assholes!! Is he really the "best" if their best? I hope he is such is my antipathy for them as a group!! They should soon give the murderer Matthew Broderick a humanitarian award, eh?

I will never forget the moguls hiding behind their screens in not blasting anti-Semitism and the Nazi movement during WWII!!

I still laugh at their putting forth "Rock" Hudson and John Travolta and Tom Cruise as "macho ladies' men", I love their hypocrisy and weak characters and lies!! I love it that so many are alcoholics and drug abuser."

In responding to the above remarks, one should know that the source was clearly angry. The reasons for that anger must be explored.

He plainly wanted to bait me into another debate. I was not biting. Clearly his judgments were unhinged, because the winning film deserved the Oscar, as did another film or two. But he could not stand that an African-American film won the award, which everyone knows is a bit political. Last year's complaints abounded about no blacks in the awards. As for his judgment on Casey Affleck, who has resurrected his career, winning an Oscar for a brilliant performance, Joseph condemned Hollywood for awarding him the Academy Award, because he was a drug abuser. Matthew Broderick caused a terrible accident, but he was not a "murderer." Travolta, Cruise, and Hudson, other objects of Joseph's derision were gay, but so what? Hudson lived in a time when gays were discriminated against and surely suffered as a result. On top of all that, he attacked Warren Beatty and Faye Dunnaway, two iconic artists who have contributed mightily to their art, for a human mistake.

I suggested that he open a Facebook page so that he could cultivate a wider audience for his vituperation. He could include how he felt about growing up in the south with a confederate battle flag at his school and blacks riding at the back of the bus.

After I responded to his text, telling him to direct his vitriol elsewhere, he called me "weak." and that I had no gut for "honest debate." That he was truly sorry for me (I am not making this up.)

Joseph used to call me at all hours of the day and night to rant about affirmative action, democrats being socialists, even communists. He would tell me that Arabs are cockroaches and, including women and children, should be carpet-bombed, transferred out of their homes so that the concept of Greater Israel could be realized. He was an admirer of Meyer Kahane, the assassinated firebrand leader of the Jewish Defense League. Joseph thinks still that all the Arabs in the occupied territories should be transferred out to Jordan, that Gaza should be annexed and that the population there also be removed. All this reminds me of the Ribbentrop plan to move the Jews to Madagascar in 1943.

There is no doubt in my mind that he voted for Trump. But not for economic reasons or well thought out ideals of what America should be. Or that Islamophobia does not help do anything but help recruit more Jihadists and discourage Arab nations, now allied with Israel against the Iranian menace, and the quest for a revanchist Russia for Middle East hegemony.

The question is what do I do about my friend, who may be sinking fast. Do I abide his provocations, spend hours debating him, or just write him off as a lost cause? Kant said that one must act out of duty, and Bentham said for the greatest happiness. What is the right thing to do?

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The Mormons, the Chief Rabbi and the State of Israel as well as other Miracles

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Constitution 2.0

The State of the Union 2013

The Deadwood Culture in America

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American "Exceptionalism" in the 21st Century

Mythology in 2012 as a Political Force

Citizens United

The United States in Afghanistan 2012

Religion and Politics in America 2012

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Is Religion the bête noir of Humanity?

The Mideast in Turmoil II

The Mideast in Turmoil

The Decline of Richesse

Religion in the 21st Century

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Mack The Knife. A Short Story

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Donald Trump's Inaugural Address

The Twenty-Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

The Donald's Concession Speech

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Notions of Surrealism

Running for Mayor of Miami Beach, or How I Stopped Worrying and Love the People

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Flying Misery Class 2014

Election Post Mortem 2014

Isis and Ebola On the Move

The Middle East on the Anniversary of the Great War (to end All Wars)

Book Review: Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin

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Big Pharma and the Fountain of Youth or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Meds (as well as other thoughts.)

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Profiles in Courage or in Cowardice—please choose, America

The True Believers of FOX News

Nancy at the Gates

Unelected and Unhinged

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Immigration: Republican Abandonment of American Ideals

Equal Justice Under Law

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Inside the House of Horrors

August Thoughts 2018

Losing Friends and Not Influencing People

Immigrants All

Intolerance Writ Large

The Iran Deal is not so Clear-Cut

The Titanic is Going Down

The Second Amendment meets Musical Attorneys

A House Divided

The Robots are Coming