Good Night Bob Knight

         It was Christmas night 1980 and the Indiana University Hoosiers were in the early season, preparing for the beginning of the Big 10 Season. I was working on a profile of Knight for PM magazine a syndicated television program and we knew Dan Rather of CBS was working on a piece for 60 minutes. Our competitive juices flowed and we wanted to get on the air first. I'd asked Knight to let us video tape a practice session and I wanted him to wear a wireless microphone. He was reluctant to do so, but said if we'd come down to Bloomington's Assembly Hall on Christmas night, it was a deal. I'm sure he didn't think a TV crew would agree.

    We showed up on the cold night, and being the holiday our photographer Randy  brought his steady, our producer brought her son and Lana and I brought Kristin, aged 6. We planned to have a staff gathering after the practice.

   Knight was true to his word, welcomed us, wore the wireless and continued the session. At one point, one of his stars did something wrong on a play and Knight began charging down the floor all the while shouting and cursing with such volume his purple language echoed to the roof of the cavernous Assembly Hall. I was court side with Randy and turned to look at Lana, but she didn't need a cue as she was already moving our daughter toward the tunnel and away from shouting.

    Later when we were in the car I told Kristin I was sorry she heard some bad language and said those were not words your mom or dad would ever use, nor should she. I explained he was a coach and the team were young men and they were all working hard to get better and that some coaches yelled. She looked at me and said "Daddy, would he hurt anyone?"

    Bob's temper was his toughest opponent and it got plenty of attention. So did his brilliance as a basketball strategist and the 3 national championships, including that 1980 season. 

    I covered Knight and frequently interviewed him on non sports related topics including education, discipline, military history and literacy. At IU he was a proponent and activist for the Library. We had both read Sun Tzu and would discuss the book The Art of War. He had opinions about foreign policy and politics, most of which I did not agree with.

    Bob became the nation's youngest major coach when he began at Army when he was 25. Duke's vaunted Coach K, played for Knight and spent time as his assistant. 

     He helped a lot of people in many ways, charitably. I learned of a family that he had come to the assistance of in a major and costly way and asked him about it. He asked me why I wanted to know. I told him I thought there might be a story in what he had done. He shot a steely gaze and said "If you ever publish or broadcast anything about that you'll never get in assembly hall again."

    There were many things Knight did that I thought was excessive, hot headed, ill tempered, rude and wrong. I thought he was frequently a bully. He was however a master of basketball. He had a court sense, a knowledge of where the ball and play should be that was among the all time greats. 

    He loved a good story. When I was running my production company I pitched an idea to Knight that he liked, but for reasons including 9/11 we never got it green lighted. It was to be a "dinner of champions" that featured sports heroes and major stars at a black tie and formal dinner where as the evening progressed the diners would converse, tell stories, talk about sports and regulatory bodies, team owners, great moments, jokes and old history. I suggested that he and his friend Johnny Bench could serve as the hosts and keep the conversation flowing, all the while cameras captured the evening. Later it would be edited and presented over a couple of viewings as these legends enjoyed each others company and told stories.  During the course of our development work and as my company pitched it I got a note from Knight saying about the wearing of tuxedos, "I'm not particularly knocked in the ass about that."

    He was a complex man. There was more to him than the angry, chair tossing championship coach. I count it one of the highlights of my professional life to have crossed paths with him. There were many years I loved to watch his IU team play. It was some of the most exciting and best basketball ever. 

    As I learned of his declining health, I was glad to see him return to Bloomington and to again embrace that special fandom and culture. Those who know him well said he was happiest in Bloomington, the town where he became a legend. 

    See you down the trail. 

Israel As Warning...

 

    In the tragedy that is Israel and Gaza are implications the US should be chilled by.

    Israel's intelligence and security failures are rooted in the Netanyahu right wing coalition. His own worst intentions are abetted by extremists in his government. It's a bad mix and they've been on an authoritarian track, trying to weaken the Supreme Court, with too much fixation on West Bank settlers and those issues, as well as staving off what has been a national uprising. Serious distractions and they now recoil from slaughter. They must square it with their personal and national soul that they too are responsible for the brutality and blood bath. They lost focus.

    American Intelligence executives tried to send warnings about activity in Gaza. The Netanyahu coalition's most deadly sin is being so out of alignment with the will of the Israeli majority, caused by the unholy coalition's goal of holding onto power just to have power. Sound familiar?

    Netanyahu's corruption charges were trouble enough, but the extremists he has bedded stained and poisoned a government that more than any has fought to maintain it's existence, legitimacy and it's own worst demons. They were weakened by their own hand and failed at being resolute and alert.

    That almost sounds like a US story.

    A twice impeached, 4 time indicted insurrectionist sociopath liar, who threatens to be a "president of revenge" who will change how America government works could be in a position to be elected. That frightening possibility speaks to the inherent danger in our own nation including the crippled intellect of US citizens with the right to vote and who could find a way to work the electoral college to put a deranged and dangerous man back in office. 

    The MAGA party has poisoned the republican party and has made the US House of Representatives inoperative at a time when our own financial existence and   security demand action. They are breaking the government, with intention. They are weakening us.

     Our national security leaders talk about the instability and ignorance of Trump when he was commander in chief. 

    Scalise and Jordan are men with such repugnant personal flaws that their authoritarian and anti democracy politics have to take second place in why they are too whakadoodle to be House speaker.

    The same anti American forces are trying to undercut aid to Ukraine. I have written previously of an intelligence brief in which I participated shortly after Russia invaded. Intelligence officers from the US, UK, Canada and France said Putin's strategy would be to outlast US and western resolve. He counts on on the US giving up. His agents in the republican party, the insurrectionists and anti democracy caucus are working to stop our assistance of Ukraine. That could be deadly.

    History teaches what happens when an invading force like Russia, or a Hamas, or a Hitler led Germany are not stopped. Posts here 5 and 6 years ago, drawing parallels of the rise of German and Italian fascism to the take over of the Republican party and the rise of the MAGA cult drew criticism from some. I think more people have come around to understanding the warning.

    When we look at Israel, now at war, and at war with itself too, we should see other warning signs. 

    See you down the trail.

No Sunshine for Kevin

        When we came to California almost 18 years ago I started watching Kevin McCarthy, said to be a rising star. We had dear friends who moved from Bakersfield, accomplished people with government and academic service. They knew Kevin at close quarters and it was solid information to help me calibrate the "man" behind the political facade.

      Well, as just about every analyst has said, McCarthy engineered his own fall by his ego, his "craving" to be Speaker at any cost, his concessions to the most radical wing of his caucus all of which made him weak and as John Heilemann noted, "Matt Gaetz knew they could roll him."

         So now no one knows what comes next for the House divided Republicans, some of whom are only nihilists. Maybe the Republicans can heal their divide and settle on a woman or man who can A) get enough votes and B) actually be able to lead. That does not seem likely now, so we could be left with a bozo food fight among Republicans while government crashes.

        Here's an interesting bit of speculation akin to doggerel. Find 10 traditional or stable Republicans who value democracy and who believe in governance. One of them nominates Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker and suddenly the House becomes a chamber where business can be done and no longer a clown show at war with itself.

        Long shot? Sure! But we are at another "never been here before" moment and the fight to save American democracy will take bold strokes. 

        There is a carnival lot of well fed, under educated, classless, clueless, locked and loaded people who are under the MAGA spell and tent. That is where truth goes to die, maybe history too. 

        As they used to say, it's "hard ball time!"

        Sam Rayburn was elected Speaker of House 3 times and worked with Senate Leader Lyndon Johnson in the in the late 50's and early 60's to get early Civil Rights legislation passed, though it meant he had to court Republicans to compensate for and/or try to persuade Dixiecrats in all three of his terms as Speaker.

        Carl Albert was elected Speaker in 71 and presided over the investigation and resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew and then the Watergate investigation that resulted in the impeachment and resignation of Richard Nixon. Even in those historic and partisan times, Albert sought the needed support of the minority caucus. 

        Both of those events were before Newt Gingrich seeded the political soil with toxins and cancer, but this Biden administration has been able to produce an historic volume of bi-partisan legislation, so there are still Republicans who are reachable, who have not drunk the MAGA kool aid.   

        It would be nice to think that of the 435 members of the House there are enough Republicans who understand a working government is better than a broken government. It would be nice to think there are enough "public servants" who recognize that a crisis exists and that deliberation and compromise are better options. 

        See you down the trail.

 

...and who is the enemy?

              A favorite saying from the 1970's struck me as I commiserated this era of dysfunction, threat and exasperating stupidity.

        "We have met the enemy and he is us."

        Walt Kelly inked that line for his character Pogo and it was meant as a defeated recognition that "us" was the enemy behind pollution and environmental destruction. The cartoonist had parodied a battle report from American Naval Commander Oliver Perry to Major General William Henry Harrison after the US defeated the British Navy in the Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812. Perry had written "We have met the enemy and they are ours." 

        Pogo's phrase is again a fit vituperation for what has become of "us" in this time. We are our own enemy.

        To be sure, there are many variants in the epidemic of stupidity. I beg a moment of your attention to address one that I know a lot about.

        Media is off focus, out of proportion, increasingly ephemeral and wrong headed. In defense of the profession where I spent a half century laboring, there are places of excellence and too there are many reasons for the demise we witness.

        So much of broadcast news, print journalism and on-line is a waste of time and even silly. This is what happens when newspapers are killed by financial vultures, when reporting and editing staffs are thinned to ludicrous levels so profits are boosted, when broadcast and print are forced into the blender of social media, a world of platforms that do not operate by the old journalism codes of conduct, ethics or canons. The public's "right to know" is now an afterthought, if even that, and it has become part of the broil that is ratings, revenue, investment portfolios, news deserts and a who cares attitude. 

        Some things are fixable. 

        Stop obsessing about the latest opinion poll. That is not news, it is a contrivance.

         There are flaws in using polling as news, not the least of which is that most polls today are skewed, flukey, and even if they are scientific they are nothing more than a view shared on that day by a small number of people. There is no guarantee about scientific precision or weighting. 

        Many so called polls and surveys are fronts for political operators.

        Good pollsters tell you political polls this far out mean nothing more than the dental floss you will discard tonight. Yet news groups, including those who should know better, ballyhoo and hype the latest assessment of America's mindset. 

        Ask yourself, with the rampant stupidity at large, with the miserable understanding of history by most Americans who were educated in the last 40 years, with the gullibility of generations pounded by advertising and behavioral manipulation for the transactions of a consumer market of things and stuff, do you really care what this age of polled opinions have to say. Given the givens, what is the value of turning what they think into news?!  Here's the news about that, they don't know any more than you do and likely they know a lot less. So why celebrate ignorance and opinions? The story the media is missing is how poorly informed, how inarticulate and how dumb this nation is becoming.  

        There is an underpinning factor that leads the young precious news staffers of this age to care so much about opinion poll reporting, aside from the fact they have all been raised in an age of click bait, and that is the unholy belief that Presidential politics is the holy grail and be all of US News, followed closely by all electoral politics. There is an electoral/political industry that has emerged and it is huge business, a cash cow for pollsters, analysts, consultants, media specialists, speechwriters, fashion advisors, advertisers and more. This billion dollar industry relies on and manipulates its kindred news business. 

        Time was broadcast news was a loss leader, the cost of having a license to print money. Now it is a profit center and news is just a product. 

        Let's be clear, this election cycle is critical to the survival of representative democracy. One party has abandoned belief in the historical American system of government with winners and losers and transitions of power. When US media cast any reporting outside of that reality, when they engage in a false equivalency or the so called "equal" time philosophy they are being suckered in by strategy and tactics of those who seek to destroy American democracy. It is time for the news industry to reassess how to proceed on a war footing, in a time of information warfare.

       Before we depart this issue of overplaying, hyping, tying almost every story to an old fashioned political peg, if you think I am wrong, then consider the players. Examine the people and the values they display, from school boards to the US House and Senate. 

        Truth, facts, and liberty are are the abused and battered family members of our American democracy at this moment in our history. That is part of a political strategy and goal and media is an accomplice. There is an off ramp.

        Because of who and what this nation is and has been through, you have influence both on media and on the political industry. If you get organized or loud enough you can apply pressure. You can boycott, put pressure on advertisers, disconnect, avoid media, get in the face of elected representatives, call them out, vote them out. 

        

        Do what you can to activate your philosophy. Stick to the facts. Speak the truth. Remember both leading presidential candidates are essentially the same age, there is a 3 year difference. Would you know by media coverage?

        That's the view from the ridge, the opinion of one who thinks democracy is the best choice of any form of government.

        See you down the trail. 

      

Meditation in Grey

 

        77 years ago Mary Helen gave birth to the first born of she and Karl. That was in Indianapolis. Today that boy took a walk in California.

      It was a meditation. Each step was a celebration. Each sound was praise.

    Peace.

    See you down the trail.

Peculiarities

         The double rainbow, as seen from our deck last evening, was the beginning of the rain season on the California central coast. Rain season ends and begins in July, so our August .2 of an inch is an early start and a bit peculiar.

        And so is this. The other evening as I walked back from taking out some trash I spotted and and then was buzzed by the "smallest hummingbird I've seen" as I said to Lana.

        "Really?" she said, going back to what she was reading.

        Well, she saw it the next day, with our granddaughter and she was a bit more excited about it.

        It is not a hummingbird, but it has a wing flap rate as high as the hummers. It is a White-lined Sphinx Moth and grows to 2-3 inches. Speedy little creature.

        These we found on a lupine bush. They were interrupted long enough to be inspected by granddaughter and Nana, and photographed before being returned to their bliss on the lupine.

        

        This was a sunset cocktail companion the other evening at a Camp Ocean Pines fundraising event. 

        I frequently hear some of his cousins as they observe their nightly vespers here on the ridge.

        Time to cue the frog. Actually as I opened the spa cover yesterday a little dude had taken to napping next to the control buttons. Granddaughter and Nana got a chance to spot it, before his spoiled nap led him to leap to the step and then to dash under the spa.

        Sorry Kermit...so I'll vamp and quote your song, that Jim Henson helped you 

pen....

        "What's on the other side?

        Rainbows are visions, but only illusions.

        And rainbows have nothing to hide.

        So we've been told and some choose to believe it

        I know they're wrong, wait and see.

        Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,

        the lovers, the dreamers and me."

        See you down the trail.

        

A Day for America

         There is a moment, a threshold, when something severely injured begins to die or begins to recover. The day Donald Trump was indicted for trying to overthrow America is such a moment. 

       US citizens will watch as the nation's 247 years of history endure the spasm of trying to cure itself of a poison that sought to destroy the historic process of choosing leaders and transferring power.

        Patriots are those who stand against a nation's enemies and detractors. Those of us who live here will learn if fidelity to the cause of the democratic republic will empower our future. The indictments make it clear Donald Trump lied, tried to cheat, conspired and endeavored to destroy the nation's constitutional process, and the honor bound tradition of presidential succession. 

        Last summer the Investigation into January 6 documented the deceptions, trickery, and the role of Trump in inciting the attack on the US Capitol, the nation's transfer of power ritual, and the brutal attack on law enforcement. It was a rebellion that was fed by lies, and acted upon by gullible and malevolent forces and all of it was at the behest of a man who will forever stand as America's most vile political hustler. It was an extraordinary public documentation. 

       The Justice department has prosecuted hundreds of those who violently attacked the Capitol, as a result of the conspiracy.

        Now, the indictments of this day further turn the wheels of justice. This is for the future of our aging republic and to place Trump's name and reputation in chains and a cage for history, forever banished from civility because of his perversity. Of course he is innocent until proven guilty.

        There is no reason to trust the man to do anything but love only himself and to lie, cheat, sell our national secrets and launch armies only for his own glory. He could not accept his loss, and so he became an enemy of America. He is a tin god and we will watch our justice system flush him away.

        There are other indictments, and there will be other cases and they are an accumulative judgement that will render Trump, MAGA republicans, and his time in power as the nadir of the American presidency.

        It has been wrong, judgmental and perhaps even haughty of myself to hold those who support Trump with such contempt. This should be a nation of such freedom to survive faulty judgements and even our failures. 

        I have not been proud of this nation. I have been worried about collective bad judgments. But today is a good day.

        This is a day when, in a sense, we watch ourselves display a fealty to the aspirations and ideals of the American experiment. This is a day when there are signs we have chosen to live, to heal. This is a day of and for history. This is a day for America.

        See you down the trail.