Void of Honor

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     There's a wise old proverb "As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man."  Can we say a man's heart is reflected in his face?

     Two recent bumps conspired as entreaties to toss off the malaise that has kept this old reporter's angry voice quiet; the destruction of the East Wing, and a note from a long time reader and correspondent/friend Mike Mulligan. Mike you woke up the old fire horse response that inhabits after spending most of your life chasing news, responding to warning bells, seeing power up close, reporting from the fractures, failures and crises. 

     Longtime readers may recall my reference to an August 2016 open letter from 50 senior national security and foreign policy experts, or Cabinet members in Republican administrations from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush. The men and women, many names you know, warned that: 

-Trump was unfit to serve, 

-lacked the character to be President  

-would be a danger to the US and the world. 

That was the death rattle of the Republican party.

    Now people who thought he could "grow into the office," casting that warning and caution aside, have come to understand the wisdom of another proverb; "Though you grind a fool in a mortar, grinding him like grain with a pestle, you will not remove his folly from him."

AN OFFENSE TO AMERICA

    His destruction of the East Wing is an offense to history, protocol, the norm and to the citizens. It is symbolic of his presidency. 

    If he can order the arrest and seizure of citizens by masked thugs, if he can kill without warrant, evidence or proof, if he can extort universities, law firms and cultural institutions, if he can claw back funds already appropriated then he can and is treating the White House and it's historic significance like another of his gaudy hotels or resorts. So far he's getting away with it. 

REPUBLICANS THE NEW AMERICAN COWARDS

     It is there, in that fact dear citizens, we reach a confluence of two sinister forces that may break us. There is no counter force, no punch back.

    1) There is, at best, acquiescence, maybe approval, or more likely cowardice of the Senate and the House. Please recall the double acquittals in the Senate. Mitch McConnell will be be remembered as the necromancer of this Trump reign. One of the great screw ups in history, they could have crushed the snake!  

    2) Even with all we know, with all the facts before us, the chaos filling our screens, the inconsistencies, the trashing of the economy, his humiliation and whipping by Putin, his use of the White House to fleece the devoted to build his wealth, and now his threat to sue the government to enrich himself, and private funding for armed forces, but he was elected. That might have been the day the music really died. 

        Bye, Bye Miss American Pie. Now we  "sing dirges in the dark."

      Another truth-this is a self inflicted wound.

      Most of us recognized the implicit danger of authoritarianism, fueled by his divisive and toxic campaign 10 years ago. His racism and fraud were already published and litigated years before. 

     As he disregards propriety and endeavors to destroy 250 years of federal systems he's surrounded by an appalling team of talentless sycophants eager to do his pleasure so they get to play in the gilded delusional kingdom. 

    Author Garrett Graff says Trump is "taking a wrecking ball to America itself."

Other historians and analysts have lamented the failure the system of checks and balances.

A MAN SO VILE

    The system worked until now. Trump came with a factor unseen at this scale; a complete void of honor, not even the pretense. After two and half centuries, the noble experiment of the American Republic is being proof tested by something the founders did not plan for, a man so vile.

   He is without a wisp of honor, a man who will neither respect tradition, nor the way it has worked, the unwritten code. He is like a cur at Westminster, a vulgarian, the kind of man the founders did not expect, nor did the millions who have since worked in and served the government and civil service.  

SELF INFLICTED WOUNDS    

     Self inflicted indeed. We did not pay attention to the diligent teaching of history, the full and honest American story, nor did we teach basic government, nor civics   explaining our role as citizens. That lapsed.

     I would list the power of money, big money in political campaigns as a sin in a democratic republic for which we are now paying. It has turned elections into an industry and government into a bought and paid for system of dispersement.   

    Zero sum politics is a road to chaos. Abandoning compromise and negotiation is deadly to the body politic.

    We are in new terrain. We can't predict where or how this will go.

THE TRUTH OF TRUMP

      At his best he's a real estate hustler and pitchman. As a leader he is an amateur, full of himself, who fires those who criticize or challenge or tell the truth. He has no grasp of history. He rarely speaks the truth. He's fixated on revenge and retribution. His estimation of himself is a narcissistic mental illness. He is a cheat and a fraudster. He is a sexual predator, a vulgarian, an overweight, out of shape old man who has convinced himself he is most powerful man on earth and can do anything he wants to do. And he is doing that.

    The president is wrapped in a delusion of power and lies. All tyrants come to an end. The end will come to Trump in some way. It will then be left to the American citizenry to make choices and to choose a path. The damage MAGA inflicts can be repaired if we recall our aspirational heritage found in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. We have not been perfect, and we have been slow at meeting our promises but we change, and we progress and improve our up potential. But not without struggle.

MASTERS OF FATE?    

     As an old boy with more road behind than ahead I suggest we root ourselves in something of value and nobility. It is better for us if we have a code for living and beliefs that we practice

   In a recent chat with three friends, realists, experienced in government, media and power I said something I repeat now. It's a realization chiseled by a life of observation, at close quarters of struggles, power, intention, loss, desire,  randomness, war, despair, faith, villains and the indefatigable nature of becoming.

Unless and until we reorient the human intellect to the ancient Greek concept of eudaemonia we will do ourselves harm in anyway available to us. Virtue and reason are the only way to survive. 

   In aggregate this nation or any nation, will realize that, or it will not. Civilizations rise and they fall. 

    It seems appropriate now to invoke a journalist, quoting Shakespeare so as to contextualize or frame this moment; "The fault dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves..."

      But for the point of this now, it is the line Cassius utters immediately before that;

"Men at sometime are masters of their fate."

       See you down the trail.

   

     

     

 

Killing at the White House and A Letter to Joe

see the emerging beast

    It dawned on me as grand daughter Addie and I were playing "do you see it?" 
     When she looked closely she could indeed see a giant tan horse or a dragon emerging from the copse of trees. Can  we see the destruction in front of our quarantined eyes?

     We've witnessed a devolution of everything in we regard as normal. A sense of reality is being recoded. We may think we are helpless, but we are not. Let's go a little deeper into the woods.

      The awful norm that is apparent is the number of US citizens who are 1 pay check from disaster. That's wrong and it's a prescription for disaster.

     It is shortsighted of the money class to permit working Americans to reach desperate straights. Who will generate commerce, engage financial institutions, pay bills and taxes, keep companies afloat and enable bonus compensation, empower growing ROI's or fuel their jets, yachts, weekend homes and country clubs? 

     As the global economy has crash closed, the disparity in wealth can no longer be only talked about or ignored. The boot heel on the neck of working people could be a trigger for the looming depression. 
     The immoral financial distance between corporate boards and overlords, bankers and tax evaders and those who do the work, teach the kids, fight fires, protect safety, make things, fill orders, serve meals, and work in hospitals is obvious. It is stripped naked in front of our eyes and revealed for the evil it is. 

     To be strong, this nation cannot permit people who work  to be one pay check from disaster. Fat cat indifference should be criminal. Generations need a sense of hope in a good future, worth working for.

a new virus emerges

incompetence and stupidity

   A national rage is excusable in how the new and massive unemployed have been unable to get phone calls or computer links to process claims. The government is a cluster of bungling, floundering, and useless suits. 
    When will the funds flow, when will the stimulus checks be cut, when will applications and phones be available? Who knows?

    A digression-remember how some howled when the Obama healthcare Web launch had glitches? The screeching and Fox News drum beat made it seem the whole economy had shut down, that cities become ghost towns, people hiding inside, thousands dying.

     Where is the indignation from the quisling accomplices now? Don't you wonder what corporate interest or finance king Moscow Mitch is under the covers with? 

    The Trump mob is inept in such a way as to establish a new low for government failure.

     48% of American jobs are dependent on small businesses. Those small business owners are dying because the Trump regime can't figure how to get the emergency loans to them. Though the President has had no trouble in firing and destroying the careers of two Inspectors General, including the man who was to be the watch dog on how the $billions were to be distributed to Trump friends, corporate barons, Republican funders and the uber wealthy, and more than likely even his own family business.

      Trump has presided over a dismantling of the federal government by means of idiocy. He was unfit, unqualified and lacked the character to be President and he proves that daily.

       I have written that his personal leadership made us unprepared and ill-equipped. Donald J. Trump is responsible for the death of people who need not have died from this virus, how many hundreds or thousands we'll never know.

       I watch the news hoping to see Anthony Fauci and Chuck Schummer yank him out to the rose garden and beat him back and forth like a beach ball.

       If Nancy Pelosi were to shoot him, would you cry?

can you see the beast a little better?

    

    This beast before us is also us. This is touchy matter now. The truth is that our sheltering at home has helped reduce the spread, but at a huge cost. Two important elements about this-

     a) We all complied with somewhat draconian policy and for the most part, willingly. We abandoned personal freedom for a sense of greater good. But we were forced to so because of an incompetent government. That government did not plan or think and when they responded implications of impact and constitutional regard got short shrift.  

     b) You can expect to see a growing debate between capitalism and the Hippocratic oath. The economy has been devastated, but was there a better way to safeguard general health? As we go forward we are likely to see an amplification of this very hard issue. That hard conversation about who gets to live-who gets a ventilator- is a sample of the larger issue

it's been interesting seeing the homes of journalists, analysts, experts and entertainers

   An ancillary matter here is media coverage and what is best described as a kind of hysteria. 

    There has been extraordinary journalism and reporting in very difficult and challenging circumstances. Working from home has never looked so good, but there has been an insufficient analysis of the morbidity tables. I mourn the loss of any and hate to think a person's days were cut short. Still, of those who have died, what is the data with regards to co-morbidity or underlying illness, what is the age, how many were in terminal conditions, is there a way to know what was their life expectancy, how do the numbers, not the estimates but factual numbers compare with other virus outbreaks, what are the genetic factors/similarities of those who have died, what are the matches on generational vulnerability, and etc?

    Learning and rational analysis of this pandemic can equip us for a better response next time.

    We deserve leadership that looks at event horizons, integrating strategic reserve, medical preparedness, and health intelligence as part of the national security calculus. 

    Donald Trump was warned. Scientists and scholars have predicted this outbreak. He ignored it. He fired a pandemic expert from the National Security Council. We should never be in a place like this again.

the road forward

      It's paramount to break free from this Trumpian prison of incompetence, lies and madness.

     We are lucky he's such an idiot. A more clever would be dictator would not have deferred so much leadership to the states and Governors. Smarter fascist strongmen would not have said, "I am not responsible." 

    We are lucky the current Republican brain trust are such, poltroons, inside traders, pedophiles, ideologues, nazi pretenders, and bought and paid for fools. They're too busy patting themselves on the back about not convicting Trump, giving the rich a tax cut and for packing courts with intellectual lightweights and inexperienced "true believers" they missed a chance to have seized the kind of authority they might have. This is a vain crowd, motivated by money and access and are willing to grovel and kiss the fat man's ass to stay in his favor. They are not only quislings, they are without character and they behave like brown shirt lackeys. History will attest they are stupidly compliant. 

a memo to joe

    Joe Biden has been around Washington long enough to forget more than Trump could ever learn. I know traditional conservative Republicans who will vote for Joe. Anymore from this gang and you might well have an American revolution of revulsion. I mean in the streets. 

    Biden is an old hand. He knows both ends of Pennsylvania Ave and both sides of the street. He knows foreign affairs and he's a blue collar guy. He's a great choice for this time.

     

    Mr Vice President, sometime soon I'd like to see you, Amy, Bernie, Elizabeth, Andrew, Pete, Tom, Kamala, Corey, Julio, and Michael, together outlining the path forward, the recovery, the building of the future. Sharing a vision.

    Maybe you can get Presidents Obama, Bush, Clinton and Carter to chair a national recovery commission. Bring in Bill Gates to help you appoint a true team of the "best and the brightest" to build an actual plan, and strategy to rebuild this nation. 

    Perhaps you could call it the New Beginning, like the New Deal, New Frontier, New Society.

     what if sheltering at home violates social distancing?

   Thanks for enduring this. As bonus here's some fresh air.

A recent low tide revealed a mussel bed. No social distance observed here.

   Take care of each other. Stay well.

   See you down the trail. 

     

GLEEKS, A HERO SHOT & OBAMA GET'S DOWN

RYAN MURPHY IS A GENIUS

     It takes extraordinary skill to mix teen suicide, sexual identity, bullying and the lethal potential of texting and driving and make it entertaining and joyful.  
     Murphy's Fox network hit Glee does that and more.  The jury is still out on the texting matter, it was last night's "winter finale" and we'll wait until April to learn "Quinn's"fate. But week after week we are treated to marvelous and even mind blowing entertainment ensembles of song and dance, all the while the through line of the soap like drama series embraces weighty matters with intelligence and a bold honesty that is hard to find anywhere else on network television.  

      Glee is not only one of the best programs, it is one of the most important because of the issues it confronts and it's primary target audience, generations much younger than us boomers. Murphy is a hot property with a string of hits but I feel a special kinship.  He's an Indiana lad.  His mother Andy and late father Jim were Indiana friends.  Andy, an extraordinary woman, and I have collaborated on writer's conferences, book promotion and other matters.
      If you haven't seen Glee, you've missed one of the best
shows in television history. Get with it, become a Gleek.

ANOTHER HERO

     I love this shot of John Glen, taken after his historic flight in February 1962.  This started making its way around the net and I thought it should be posted here in case you missed it.

     I remember listening to the launch and the flight while in a Owen Fisher's biology class.  It was a nerve wracking 15 minutes, but like many of you I sensed a new possibility after the successful flight of the first American in space.  

     Glen remains an advocate for space exploration.  I'm on board with that and continue to admire this true hero.  I think this picture represents "cool!"

ANOTHER KIND OF COOL

Get down Mr. Prez

Here's a great scene from the White House Blues Concert

What a great show it must have been!

DAY BOOK

 JUST A COOL WINTER DAY AT THE BEACH

Moonstone Beach at Shamel Park

Radio legend Mike Griffin and Toshi

A gathering.

See you down the trail.