Look closely, it's complicated...

         After scrutinizing 15 Presidential elections I’m impressed with the rapid mood shift the recent change in the field has stirred.

            I think we can surmise voters were ready for a change of attitude. Harris and Walz have prompted enthusiasm, to be sure, but they’ve flooded the arena with hope, a sense of optimism, even mirth.

They struck a golden truth when they labled the maga team as “weird.” By comparison and by tone Trump and Vance come off as Slug and Sluggard. 

            There seems to be a bit of fun to the election cycle now and I’m sure the psychologists can spin a lot of theories. From my view of having been on campaign trails, it doesn’t seem as desperate, teetering on the brink of a bunker mentality anymore. 

    

            This seems to be the year America has decided there is an age limit on Presidents. But we should memorialize that one hour before Joe Biden did one of the most courageous and personally hard to accept actions, “passing the baton,” he was full on engaged closing the deal in getting American hostages, home.

            There is no doubt Joe is old, and not as swift or glib as he was, but he was and is still executing the duties of the oval office with as much skill, and historic achievement as we have seen in decades. This “old man” has accomplished legislative miracles, stabilized the nation, infused economic development that will change the American workplace and our infrastructure over the next decades, and asserted American and democratic leadership for the world. He has been steady and calm. But we live in a time when almost everything is performative, and when phones and algorithms have warped our sense of reality. Unfair though it is, in the long run his selfless act is probably best for everyone. He will be remembered well.

            Now would be a good time for voters to look at the extraordinary PBS Frontline examination of “The Biden Decision.” It is searing, tough, told in a no holds barred honesty. It is an American tragedy story, a kind of Irish tale of a political warrior who wanted only to serve. 

dangling

            There is another PBS serving that you can also find at the LBJ Library web domain. Live from the LBJ Library, Woodward and Bernstein. It plays in two 30 minute segments. The conversation led by author/historian Mark Updegrove looks at the Watergate era 50 years on. The inevitable conclusion is the modern Republican party do not possess the courage and decency of the 1970 Republicans who included the godfather of conservative Presidential ambition, Barry Goldwater.  

            50 years this week, those men and women went to their President and told him he was going to be impeached and convicted because they could no longer support him. Nixon resigned. 

            History always gets the last word. Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward remind us of a time when honesty counted. Those reflections are illuminating to us about who, what and where we are today.

           See you down the trail.

You deserve better...

 

You deserve much better. 

 

These days since the first “debate” have been a kind of Rorschach test for America. What did we see in that pale drama? What does our reaction tell us about ourself. It needs to be decoded.

 

First, the US deserves and needs better candidates for the “highest office in the land,” or what used to be called “the most powerful job in the world.”

 

Response was immediately seismic and the aftershocks continue. It may become nothing more than a forgotten moment 90 days on, or it could generate a true “gut, head and heart check” by US citizens, the people who ought to care for the democratic republic they’ve inherited. 

 

Those two old men on the stage were not the best of our political system. It’s been said “democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.” Surely there are better ways if not better monkeys.

 

The first response of commentators, analysts, and political operatives was “my phone was blowing up!” That is the first take away?! As a sidebar, our phones have changed the way we think and act. Such “neural switching” also short circuits reason, calm and thoughtfulness. Witness the dither and tizzy. All emotion, shoving deliberate thought aside. That is the way of things now.

 

There was much over which to be concerned, but holy cow, we appear to have now created a sub political speculation game, Biden withdrawal? What about what to do with Trump dishonesty soaring to new levels of outrage. Should a network stage a debate if it cannot challenge the lies? 

 

It was painful to see Biden struggle for words. He is 82, had a cold, had been over prepped and not handled well by his debate team. He faltered and hearts sank. There is no excuse, but there are explanations. 

 

His opponent was in normal hyperbolic form, mugging for the camera, lying, fantasizing and evading most questions put to him. He clearly pulled Biden out of his plan.

 

The end of the night, Biden scored on substance, Trump scored on performance so the world was left with an old man who stumbled and an old man who lied and evaded questions. Their presidential records are vastly different. So are their life stories and their character. The debate was one night against a life of record.

 

Replacing a presidential candidate, late stage, is not the same thing as changing pitchers-one guys leaves the mound, another comes in from the bull pen but everything else in the stadium remains the same. Candidate organizations and campaign staffs and offices are not a corporate headquarters. Trying to tool a change of that magnitude is risky at best. It has never worked before. But some Democrats are worried enough to hope for a magic ticket. 

 

If Biden were to exit, it would open a battle that would inevitably damage the party,  and angering elements. There is a history of those who did not get their way, pouting and not voting or voting for a third-party candidate. Many Democrats believe Kamala Harris would deserve the opportunity, but there are many who do not. Her popularity is curiously low. Navigating a change of ticket to find someone who could defeat trump is uncertain. Only Joe Biden has beaten him. There are several other candidates rising in the party, potentially Trump thumpers, but the game is stacked against them at this moment.

 

Here is a difference in this cycle. Democrats are fretting out loud. The New York Times and others editorialize Biden needs to go. The Republicans are afraid to speak of their fuhrer’s wild deceits and excesses like claiming his opponent believes in ripping babies from the womb and putting them aside to die.(Can you believe that was said?) None of the republican gruppenfuhrers and oberfuhrers dare challenge the maga cult leader. The message here is loud and clear.

 

The character of political media, and the election industry deserve a close up. This self-selected sub phylum has been in a frenzy about a Biden exit. Some puff up arguing it is “good for the nation.” It takes audacity to suppose you know what is good for America, arguing for a quick fix, where there is no such option, and while the cry you raise is in tremulous hysteria. As a friend said, everybody should take a deep breath. Biden blew a debate, but he is still being Presidential, and has had by most measures, major success. Trump still whines about the election he lost, is a convicted rapist, felon and faces further legal jeopardy.

There is history to guide us here, as we speculate.

In the last years of Reagan’s second term there were serious questions about his mental acuity, evidence of the dementia that later claimed his life. He was slower, but he governed. Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke in 1919 and in the next 2 years his wife Edith ran the executive branch of Government.(That was before the Presidential Succession Amendment) Franklin Roosevelt was gravely ill in his final years, presiding over US efforts in WWII, negotiating with Churchill and Stalin. If Biden were unable to finish a second term, or chose to retire, Kamala Harris is a better option for American democracy than Trump under any circumstances.

 

So, maybe back away from the ledge and lower the blood pressure and ignore the media hype. It was a tv show, a media creation, not a summit meeting. It was not as though he drooled through the 90 minutes and scored no hits. Look at the video of his appearance later that night or the next morning. America is safer with an old Joe than an old Trump. As I noted, this election is about forces larger than either man. These men are surrogates for values. It is about a system. It is about truth. It is about democracy or an authoritarian cult.

 

Still, voters deserve better options, but you have only one good choice.

See you down the trail. 

 

A couple of things that must be said....

 

        A few shots of local color and a couple of quick thoughts

        The US media needs to chill. They've been on a frenzy, doing their best to make hysteria about the budget default conversation. Most years it is almost always a political show, not so much showdown, but kabuki theatre.

        As they would of had us think we were about to fall into the default abyss, cooler heads and those who have seen it all before, tried to remind us it is always loud, noisy and accusatory, but it gets worked out.

        True the Republican Red hats are renegades bent only on breaking democracy, so the stakes were raised this time.

        

        But, and this is the second point, Joe Biden has been around and knew exactly how to play it. Once again he played the negotiate card.

        Biden's reliance on the old game of bipartisanship has scored one more win for Democracy in America and US citizens.

        His legislative record in the first two years surpasses most US Presidents. All of those years in the Senate instructed him that things happen when people meet, talk and and are willing to compromise.

        Biden allowed Kevin McCarthy to beat him up in the press, realizing Kevin's puppet strings have many masters including some genuine anti American kooks. Kevin could get his mean talk press clips but Joe kept them talking and making progress.

        Here's the thing, unless we all look like the critter above, the "got to have it my way or no way" boneheads in the Republican caucus and in the Democrat progressive caucus" must learn you rarely, if ever, get it your way. Everyone wins when everyone leaves something on the table. That is how it works, when it works and it is working better now than in generations. Score one for experience.

    

        An imported shot reminds us of what happens when autocrats, tyrants, authoritarians and anti democracy crowds take the controls

        Putins's "victory" in Bakhmut means what? 

        This is insanity captured in a photo. Putin is repeating in Ukraine what he and Assad did to Syria. 

        Democracy may be loud and messy and rancorous--maybe no one gets everything they want, but that is life. 

        This week Democracy, guided by a Democrat won. 

        Cheers!

        See you down the trail.

The Demise

         There's a chop out there. Tough days in the newsroom, especially at CNN. Testing time on the diplomatic front. And I'm going to violate one of my mother's rules of conduct.

        Mom would often say, "if you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything at all." But I can't ignore Jeff Zucker or Vladimir Putin. 

        From my view, they've been exposed, seen through and both have been up to no good. 

        They're dark agents and we deal with their legacy.

        I don't know Zucker though our paths crossed many times as we treaded the news and journalism events over the years.

        Zucker got respect for his early work at NBC bringing the Today Show to a new era. I worked 15 years at an NBC affiliate, was in and out of New York at NBC events or with the NBC crews in the field and we shared moments of history. 

        I followed his career track but when he got to CNN my opinion of his professional decisions tanked. Zucker turned CNN from a 24/7 News Network into a news and personality heavy yack format.

        Viewer interest in broadcast news rises and falls based on any number of variables, but substituting personality for reporting or investigative work and documentaries changed the nature of the network. Zucker was more about ratings and the bottom line than the public's need to know.

        

        The darker cloud over his now tarnished reputation was his fawning and irresponsible devotion to Trump. 

        Under Zucker's command CNN  gave then long shot and unlikely candidate Trump millions of dollars of free airtime during the Republican Primary. CNN's deplorable judgement  put on a countdown clock ticking away until the next Trump appearance. Never had a candidate been singled out for the spot light and free air time. No candidate ever was so propped up. No candidate was ever as undeserving.

        Zucker tossed out balance in news policy and philosophy to pander and let an infantile and crude hustler trash the sober Republican party, and infect the American political system with a rotting disease from which we still suffer. Zucker alone among all credible news group executives aided and abetted.

        I care less about Zucker's personal life. There are questions about his professional judgment and CNN is in a crisis. His damaging influence on news broadcasting is a greater offense. It is, however, another example of how self indulgent some in the information business are and how out of touch they are from the working and struggling audience and citizens.

       

        One has to wonder if Putin's campaign of interference, undermining and collusion would have happened without the  media shine on the narcissist stooge.

        In a December 9, 2013 post I referred to Putin as being a taker. The world watches as his motive and intent have been revealed and counter played by the US and allies. Thus far President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, Security Advisor Sullivan, NATO, and European leaders Macron and Scholz have been more than a match for the little Russian. But Putin is old school KGB, steely and immune to public opinion. 

        The table of options of response to an invasion are wide.

Putin is counting on a moronic partisan strife in Washington. We once enjoyed the adage that politics stops at the water's edge. That was before Jeff Zucker and Donald Trump.

        Stay safe and stay tuned. 

        See you down the trail.

        

          

ON THE BRINK..............IF

        Approaching two years of pandemic living, humankind is the poorer for it. 

    "When your negativity bucket is full, it's full!" said the Rat as he threw neighbor Bob off the cliff in the cartoon strip Pearls Before Swine.

     We are devolving.

    Extraordinary souls have devoted themselves to others, to healing and to the common good, but almost everybody else is  worried or angry or both. 

     We've begun to understand we are a planet of grief, grievances and that pieces do not fit as they did. Life as we knew it is also a victim. 

        Those things, organizations, structure, mores, routines and all that held us together as a last tendril of civility are gone or are changed, drastically. We find ourselves on the brink emotionally, politically, and as a planet.

        Petulance has become our happy face.

       Our manner of living pays it no honor, nor even nods acknowledgement, but this growling spectacle of how we live with each other, is being measured. Standards change of course and so, in that way, we are scored by comparison. 

        History has the last word. Presently we are at war over values of culture. The battle-line is the nexus of I and we. 

        How do we live into and what do we expect from society? How do we get along?

        Media is the clarion. 

        Radio, television and social media have morphed story telling and journalism. It's changed reporting and our expectations. 

         Curated and aggregated information, like all things, was subject to human foibles. That is how racism, male supremacy,  cultural bias and the like got baked into normative assumptions. Though overdue and limited, old media was and is, self-correcting.               

        Now, however, we watch algorithms, products of human reasoning, maturing through data and machine learning, amass power and influence, though unrestrained by idealism, values, faith, principles and standards of decency and civility. It shows.

        No one elected the tech titans, yet their profit making platforms are addictive and they bend culture. Old media plays along. The manic pandemic lifestyle wedded us more intensely to our screens. Everything has changed as we live in a feedback loop of discordance. So much of life is like fingernails on a blackboard.

        Snark, "gotcha," and the takedown is the code of behavior and modus operandi. There is not enough probing for understanding and there is way too much lunging for the throat.

      Correspondents feed their social media streams, and maintain a "following" in addition to the work of being experts on their beat. Time was when only information and fact gathering was the job. Developing sources and contacts takes time, now devoted to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds.     

        This era of media practices "false equivalency." It is lazy, stupid and deplorable. 

      Here's how it works. A correspondent, news anchor or writer will give value to lies and deceptions, that are obvious political stunts or posturing, by how they pose a question. It is prompted by the seeking of an artificial "balance" or pretense of objectivity. 

     It's kept the Trump big lie and all of it's perverted manifestations alive. Even talking about it breaths more life into it. Raising it gives it an undeserved sort of credibility. Think  Cyber Ninja vote "recount" in Arizona, as one example.

     Republicans have no agenda. They will condemn neither the insurrection nor the Trump lies. When one of them trots out a fallacy, or an absurd claim, it is used as a kind of block and check to what Democrats or the administration say, do or propose. I am waiting for the flat earth society to get street credibility when a major news organization cites them in a story. 

    Lies are lies, crazy is crazy and bull shit is bull shit. A responsible media would call it out and not be trapped into shilling the ludicrous. 

       "News by flavor" has sharpened the edges between us. In fact it is only about business, building ratings and selling ads, but the poor fools who consume hours of the stuff end up duped and manipulated.

        Chronic news "content slant and skew," propagandizing and active disinformation is destroying us by division and diminishing the value of information. Too few seek multiple sources and verifiable credibility.

        There is no reason Mitch McConnell should be believed. He leads a party that is out to destroy a democratic republic and its time honored rules. McConnell is seen and quoted but rarely if ever challenged about dirty tricks and deception. 

        Presently he is delaying the calendar, trying to avoid a voting rights bill that could put a stop to the fraudulent voter suppression blitzkrieg of Trump's fascists. He's trying to stop passage of legislation, notably the infrastructure funding, that 70% of Americans support. He's playing brinksmanship even on government funding which is to pay for the $8 Trillion he and Trump added to the debt. He is incapable of bipartisanship, even to the benefit of his own voters.

       McConnell is playing a death match for the sake of power. What he says is given credibility by media, but he is never challenged on motive. It is spineless reporting.

        The evacuation of Afghanistan moved more humans than any time in history. More allies and friends were moved from harm than in any war. The media and republican inspired take was "a botched job."  History will cite the full story of stopping this nation's longest war, fraudulent and mismanaged from the start.    

        

     There is seething pressure building among many. They want to see Democrats unite, and not squander opportunity at a time of peril. Since Reagan, Republicans have tried to undo the Democrat social pact with America. 

     Republicans have given tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations, cut social spending and shrunk government service at every opportunity. The nation is now crumbling, our standing in the world is slipping in categories like health, income and education. 

    The more serious challenge is more sinister than policy differences.

      Republicans are so without belief, they gave their party to Trump and he is the front man for a dumbed down populism, white supremacy, looney nationalism and dark money. Republicans aid and abet foreign enemies and enable a wealthy cabal to use Trumpism to turn our democracy into an autocracy. 

        Even in the face of such a dire and toxic scene, the Democrats again are at war with themselves unable to see the bigger picture. 

        Politics and government is damaged and a global crisis only makes it worse.

   

       There has been exceptional reporting and stunning revelations but that valuable information has to compete for bandwidth. Media suffers as we all do, from fatigue and pandemic depression. Fear and anger are dominant emotions.

         Deep analysis, visionary strategies, pragmatic determination still exist but they have trouble cutting through the noise and fog of a pandemic infected planet following four years of turmoil of the most incompetent and simply the most evil and divisive presidency in US history. We are exhausted. Sick and tired. It's a helluva position to be in when we face existential challenge, to our nation and to the planet. 

        If our systems are broken, if common sense no longer exists, if people don't believe science, if one of our great parties has become a cult, there is only one place to go as we stand on the brink. As beat up as we may be, we must go within, summon strength, honor our aspirations, stand on the shoulders of all who have faced adversity, embrace whatever is sacred in our life and be a light bearer whenever, wherever, and however we can.

        

          Stay strong! This too will pass.

          See you down the trail. 

           IF

            by Rudyard Kipling

  If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Perspective

Photo by US Central Command

        US Army Major Chris Donahue, Commander of the 82nd Airborne, stepping onto a plane becomes the image of the last man leaving Afghanistan, ending a 20 year war.

        By the time this photo was taken the US had evacuated more than 122 thousand, only 5,500 of them being American citizens. 

        116 thousand were flown out in just two weeks, the largest air lift evacuation and a stunning piece of history.

        Politicians and media have been in handwringing overdrive, criticizing President Biden but have ignored the extraordinary humanitarian achievement. 

        Consider perspective.

        The media view came from crews who were for the most part inside the area of Karzai airport where the frantic were funneled into choke points, desperate to leave. It was scene after scene of a scrum, thousands trying to flee their own nation. 

        American personnel extended courtesy, process and did the best under bad conditions. What reporters did not have access to was the mostly smooth operation of other US troops getting thousands on planes and on the way to safety. It skewed coverage, and fed the criticism that lacked perspective.

      During the fall of Saigon April 29-30, 1975 Operation Frequent Wind evacuated 7 thousand, leaving 450 Vietnamese at the US Embassy. 

      The DAO, Defense Attachment Office had been evacuating US personnel when some refused to leave without their Vietnamese friends, common law wives, children and dependents. Push came to shove and the DAO gave in and flew illegally documented Vietnamese to Clark AFB.  

      Operation Babylift evacuated some 2000 orphaned children. In all some 110 thousand people were evacuated at the time of the US retreat from this ill conceived and poorly prosecuted war, also fraught with fraud and corruption.

        President Ford's exit plan was produced as a middle ground between the Pentagon's desire for a full and rapid pullout while the US Department of State wanted an orderly evacuation. 

        In the end it came down to chaos. If they could, Vietnamese bought their way out buying passports, exit visas and inflated passage on boats. The price of boats tripled as the US left. Later came the wave of the "boat people" thousands more fleeing for new lives.

        

        The politicians criticizing Biden for political points seem to miss the successful evacuation of more than 120 thousand people.

        The media coverage, like the protests or demonstrations or riots following George Floyd's death put more emphasis on the video and emotion. The video was not seen in a larger context or explained with an overview and ditto for the emphasis on inflammatory and hysterical. It was a deficiency of perspective. 

        That is also true for the tragic loss of 13 young US soldiers and Marines and those who have sought to make political gain on the back of the deaths.

         23 US service personnel were killed and 325 wounded in Operation Just Cause, the December 1989-January 1990 invasion of Panama to capture former Panamanian leader Noriega.

        Noriega had been a CIA asset and used his military and political leadership to become a drug trafficker and racketeer. 

        In the tense weeks of negotiations and failing relationship, Panamanian Defense Forces (PDF) stopped a group of partying Americans. Marine First Lt. Robert Paz was shot and killed, other Americans were wounded and American witnesses were assaulted. President George HW Bush ordered the invasion the next day. 

        27 thousand US troops and 300 aircraft were sent to contend with 16 Thousand PDF. Civilians and US personnel were hit by "friendly fire," two died and 19 were wounded by the US shooting of their own. At the time politicians and media treated it as a tragedy and not fodder for political gain.

       In October 1983, 242 US Marines, Soldiers and Sailors were killed in the car bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon.

       The very presence of those troops was the source of a rift in the Reagan administration. 

        The US never launched a major retaliatory strike primarily because of the feud between Reagan, Secretary of State George Schultz and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger. Schultz and Weinberger were at odds and even admitted  so publicly.

        This was covered by the media and it was commented on by Republicans and Democrats but not with the shrill, opportunistic and venomous lack of perspective that has greeted Biden who oversaw the largest evacuation from a war zone and a retaliatory strike within hours.  Perspective.

        Our political culture is at a low ebb. There appears to have been no division in the Biden Whitehouse about the exit. That could not be said of Ford in Vietnam, or Reagan in Lebanon. 

         In a previous post I faulted Biden for not working to build an international exit plan, sill he has moved more than 115 thousand Afghanis. 

        A missing perspective in most of the political and media potshots and carping is why did the Afghani military collapse, why after 20 years, American lives and Trillions of dollars did most Afghani people reject the US, and the type of life and government we hoped they would adopt? Do those critics earnestly believe the US has an obligation to every Afghani who wants to leave? And ask that question of some of Biden's loudest critics who also are some of the loudest anti immigration loud mouths. They are trying to have it both ways? Where is the perspective?

        Resolutely, as he promised, Biden brought to an end a bad and fraudulent war. History will recall and reward that. All of the other carping is akin to a statement my mother used..."Your cutting of your nose to spite your face." Look around there are plenty of noseless media and politicians. 

        Another old proverb comes to mind,  "There are none so blind as those who will not see."

        Perspective.

        See you down the trail