Month: May 2023

Frustration

For weeks I’ve been frustrated.  The “Debt Ceiling” debate, waged on the Nightly News and twenty-four/seven on cable, has been all Kevin McCarthy.  McCarthy set the tone, making the President the “bad guy” who refused to negotiate.  McCarthy talked about how there couldn’t be a deal without more compromise.  The Speaker used his “bully pulpit” to be the “good guy”, trying to “save money” for the American people.  He painted Democrats as “loose spending, liberals with a ‘woke’ agenda.”

In short, Speaker McCarthy and the Freedom Caucus Republicans were winning the “messaging” war.  The White House seemed to be sitting on its hands, with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre constantly on defense.  It was frustrating, particularly on an issue where Congress created the whole debt obligation in the first place.  If they decided not to spend the money, then there wouldn’t be a debt.  But since they DID pass the laws spending the money, Congress itself created the obligation to pay it. 

Hostage 

And now, they were (are?) holding the Nation hostage to their agenda:  give us what we want, or we will throw the entire economy into disaster.  It should be an easy message for the White House to “sell”: it’s Congress’s mess to clean up. But the Administration did little to fight the battle in the media.  It was frustrating for me, to say the least.

That is, until former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki explained what the President was doing.

As the former “voice” of the White House, Psaki shared her frustration with the messaging war.  But she made a very important point:  that the “war” wasn’t really about messaging.  The “war” was to avoid a US Government debt default and the catastrophic national and world consequences that would occur.  It wasn’t that the White House didn’t care about the messaging, but was focused instead on the result.  If a deal could be reached, then in the end, President Biden could take the credit for saving the economy.  If the negotiations failed, then Biden would share in the blame.

Public v Private

The problem with all of the public posturing is that positions get “frozen”.  If you promise something publicly, then failure to achieve that promise is just that, a public failure.  It makes private negotiations difficult, because the public promises become “deal breakers”.   Those “deal breakers” break both ways too.  What McCarthy promises in public his Freedom Caucus backers demand he achieve in private.  And Biden also has a constituency to worry about: the “Progressive Caucus” in the House and Senate who already feel like they been left “holding the bag” on earlier legislative efforts.  

Progressives aren’t going to like any deal with McCarthy.  Members like Congressman Jamie Raskins of Maryland demand that instead of negotiating, President Biden invoke an obscure and untested clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. They want Biden to ignore the Republicans and order the Treasury Department to continue to borrow money.  That’s the kind of Constitutional confrontation Biden avoids, like proposals to re-balance the Supreme Court by increasing the number of Justices on the bench, or ending the Senate filibuster.

Binary Choice

So the President hasn’t said what his team demanded, or, more importantly, what they were willing to give away.  That’s all going to come out, now that there’s a deal on the table.  The extremes of both parties will have to decide whether to be responsible for accepting the deal, or tanking the economy. That “binary choice” should be enough to get compromise through (though the key word there is “should”), with more moderate Democrats joining with “less Freedom Caucus-ie” Republicans. And that’s what President Biden wants.

Speaker McCarthy has his own problems.  While he may have won the short-term messaging battle, now he’s going to have to convince some of his core Republican backers to accept much less than he publicly demanded.  For a man who fought for weeks to become Speaker, only squeaking by on the fifteenth ballot by a few votes; any opposition could cost him the Speakership.  Those same Freedom Caucus members were able to push John Boehner out of the Speaker’s job in 2015, and are a thousand-fold more powerful now. 

Friday the news broke that there was “a deal”.  Congress went home for the Memorial Day weekend, and the President stayed at nearby Camp David for the holiday.  Come Tuesday, the details of the agreement will break, and both sides will begin the hard task of convincing their “friends” that the deal is worth their sacrificing cherished changes.  What happens now in the hallways and offices of the Congress will be intense.  

Both sides will declare “victory” in the end; but if a default is avoided, then Joe Biden is the real winner, of the messaging, and the war. He’s smarter than you think.

There’s been several Memorial Day essays – but this is one of my favorites.

Calling Home

It’s Memorial Day, and for the first time in a very long time, I actually felt like calling Mom and Dad.  I do think about them a lot, but it’s not often that I just feel like picking up the phone and talking to them.  Mom passed away in 2011, Dad in 2016, so it’s really not possible to make the call.  But we talked a lot throughout their lives, often by phone, and always on Sundays and holidays.  So there’s that “motor memory” of connecting.  

You didn’t call before nine.  By nine they were both up, at the table, drinking coffee.  Before nine they’d answer the phone, but they weren’t really ready for a conversation.  We could talk about almost anything; Mom and Dad were always involved in the world.  This morning’s conversation might have been about school shootings and politics.  Mom would be happy that I retired; she always worried that something would happen at my school and I might get hurt.

Memories

And we would have talked about Memorial Day.  It was always a day of remembrance for them.   Mom and Dad both served in World War II:  it was the seminal event in their lives.  Not only did the offer up their lives for their country, but they met, fell in love, and married all in the crucible of world conflict.  Memorial Day is not Veterans Day; it’s a time to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice in their service.  But Mom and Dad lost lots of friends in their War, “the War” as they would say.  Memorial Day took them back to those times.  For them, like Dickens, it was “…The best of times, it was the worst of times”.  There was nothing worse than the losses, but there was nothing more involving, energizing, and intense than their war experiences.

“Their War” ended a whole lifetime ago, seventy-eight years.  Since then there have been American wars in Korea and Vietnam, Panama, the Balkans, Kuwait, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq.  We have asked our military to defend our national interest, and they have.  And there has been political turmoil about many of those wars, turmoil that has sometimes spilled over onto those just doing their duty.  It isn’t that every war the US has fought was “righteous”, but that’s not the fault of those soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice on all those foreign fields.

So on Memorial Day, we should remember those who sacrificed in all of those wars, whether we were in favor of them or not.  

There are two memories, “stories” I would share on this Memorial Day.  

Small Town Boy

The first is about my early teaching years living in the small town of Pataskala.  As a teacher I’d hear the kids talking about the “scary old guy” who would walk the streets of the town, talking to himself.  The kids didn’t know what to do, and made up all sorts of tales about him.  

I found out the real story.  He had been a kid, just like them, in 1943 in the middle of World War II.  He graduated from high school and went into the Navy to serve his country.  And he was on board a ship when it got torpedoed in the Pacific.  We don’t know exactly what happened on that ship, but we can imagine the terror of flames and explosions.  Eventually the order was given to abandon ship, and that young man, hardly a year out of high school, went into the sea.

Hours later he was pulled from the waves, physically undamaged.  But sometime in the crisis, from the chaos on deck and into the water, he lost his mind.  It turned inside itself, and he was never the same.  High school kids sign up for the military, and they know the risks.  They might die in combat, or come home injured or even disfigured.  But they don’t think about losing themselves out there in the battle.  But that’s what happened to him.

He lived with family here in town, and every morning he’d walk the streets, talking to himself.  The local restaurants knew his story, and he had a free coffee or breakfast whenever he stopped.  He was our little town’s “memorial” to the ultimate sacrifices of war.

A New Monument

And the second is about Mom and Dad.  It was around 2007, and they had not visited the new World War II monument in Washington.  So we loaded up in my Suburban, and did the trip “overland” along US 50 to the Capital.  It would be their last time to go, and we couldn’t walk the miles we used to in DC.  But we could go to the Mall, and Mom and Dad could see the new memorial to “Their War”:  to them.

Mom was in a wheelchair to save her strength, and the three of us explored the beautiful columns and water features of the monument to the “Greatest Generation”.  But what really struck them were the engravings on the wall, depicting iconic images of the War.  You could not only see them, but feel them, touching the figures in the bronze pictures.  Mom cried, Dad was solemn, and folks came up and thanked them for their service. There were others from “the War” there as well, and Mom and Dad shared “the honor” with all those other World War II vets; and all that did not live to see the monument. 

I’m glad I could take them to see it.  I’m honored that I was able to share that experience with them.  And I wish I could talk  to them about it on the phone today.

This is a part of the “Sunday Story” series.  No politics today – just a “race for life” into the sunset of the Eastern Ohio hills.

Sunset Drive

Part of officiating high school track and field involves long drives into the sunset.  We finished a great pole vault competition at Muskingum University in Eastern Ohio about six-thirty Thursday evening, and by the time all of the paperwork and talking was done, it was past seven before I headed west for home on I-70.  

The early evening traffic on the fifty mile stretch to home was light, and speed was fast.  My old (2004) Jeep was pressed to hang with the eighty mile-an-hour crowd, and in sympathy, I spent some time in the “slow lane” for a break.  As I crested one of the rolling green hills, the setting sun hit me “full” in the windshield.   Jeep windshields are flat, ninety degrees parallel to the road.  Because of that, no bug ever “glances” off it.  Jeeps are killers of mosquitoes, destroyers of grasshoppers, demolishers of lightning bugs.  Because of that, there’s always a sheen of bug “goop” on the windshield, spreading the direct sun’s glare across most of the field of vision.

And that reminds me why not to put the windshield down. (Yes, you can lay the windshield flat on the hood of the Jeep, they even give you a nylon strap and appropriate hood-loop to hold it steady there.  It’s reminiscent of all those black and white  World War II shows we watched as kids like the “Rat Patrol“). The problem with that, is where are all the bugs to go?  Right in your teeth, or eye, or up the nose is my guess.  Better to keep the windshield, “shielding”!

Life in the Slow Lane

So I crested the hill in the right lane.  Not only did I have sunglasses, but a baseball cap pulled low to try to block the sun. But I still hit the glare, and struggled to realize that the two-door Chevy ahead of me was driving super-slow.  I looked to the mirror (it was clean!) to see a black SUV coming up on the left, so switching lanes wasn’t an immediate option.  So I slowed down, below sixty, behind the Chevy.  Then I noticed that the SUV was slowing down too.  So I switched lanes, accelerated back to seventy, and went by the Chevy, sliding back into the “slow” lane after the pass.

I glanced back into the mirror to see what was up with the SUV.  And in that glance, I got this entire story.

Both the SUV and the Chevy continued to slow.  And while I was struggling with the glare to the front, the scene in the mirror was quite clear, in fact, hyper-clear in the reflected sunlight.  In front of the black SUV, sprinting for its life, eyes as wide open as they could get, was a young, spindly deer.  And, to the SUV driver’s credit, he managed to slow enough that the deer maintained a steady lead, frantically trying NOT to become road-kill on westbound I-70 between the Norwich and State Route 93 exit.

Buck Tales 

The road ahead was clear, so I too slowed to watch the drama.  The young deer continued his sprint, and the Chevy slowed even more, giving him an opening to dodge right, back into the safety of the forest.  And that’s what he did, diving across the road and down the high berm into the wood line.  I’m sure there were tall stories told around the grass at the deer herd that night, about the crazy speeding vehicles and how really, really fast that deer could go.

Then I thought, wait a minute.  What did I miss?  Or more directly, how did I miss the young buck?  He must have been in front of the Chevy (that’s why they were slowing) when I went past on the left, then he must have then switched into the left lane to get in front of the SUV.  Essentially, I drove by the deer on my right, but didn’t see it as I focused through the haze on my windshield.  Then when I checked my right mirror to make sure I was clear of the Chevy, the deer must already have been in the left lane. We crisscrossed. He must have changed lanes right behind me.  

I guess he wasn’t the only lucky one on that stretch of rural highway on Thursday night.

The Sunday Story Series

• Riding the Dog  – 1/24/21
• Hiking with Jack – 1/31/21
• A Track Story – 2/7/21
• Ritual – 2/14/21
• Voyageur – 2/19/21
• A Dog Story – 2/25/21
• A Watkins Legend – 3/7/21
• Ghosts at Gettysburg – 3/14/21
• Lessons from the State Meet – 3/28/21
• More Lessons from the State – 4/4/21
• Stories from the Road – 4/11/21
• A Bear Wants You – 5/1/21
• My Teachers – 5/9/21
• Old Friends  – 5/23/21
• The Gift – 6/6/21
• Echoes of Mom – 6/20/21
• Stories of the Fourth – 7/3/21
• Running Memories – 7/25/21
• Lost Dog of Eldora – 8/1/21
• Dogs and Medals – 8/8/21
• The New Guy – 9/5/21
• Stories of 9-11 – 9/12/21
• The Interview – 9/26/21
• Night Moves – 10/3/21
• Funeral for a Friend – 10/11/21
• National Security – 10/24/21
• Boots on the Trail – 10/31/21
• Taking Care of Mom and Dad – 11/14./21
• Dogs Found and Lost – 11/21/21
• Watching Brian 12/12/21
• Stories from Shiloh – 12/19/21
• Team Trips – 12/26/21
• Uphill, Both Ways  – 1/9/22
• Old Trophies – 1/30/22
• The Last Time – 2/7/22
• Olympic Miracles – 2/13/22
• Mind Numbing – 2/20/22
• Track Weather – 4/3/22
• What’s Missing – 4/11/22
• A Scouting Story – 4/17/22
• Waterproof Paper – 5/8/22
• Origin Stories – 5/22/22
• Origin Stories – Part Two 5/29/22
• Back at State – 6/5/22
• Out in the Country – 6/19/22
• Pataskala Downs – 7/4/22
• Car Stories I – 7/24/22
• Car Stories II  – 7/31/22
• Old Man Experience – 8/7/22
• Cross Country Camp – 8/14/22
• New to the Pack – 8/21/22
• Car Stories III – The Bus – 8/28/22
• A Day in the Life – 9/4/22
• Stupid Human Tricks – 9/18/22
• Fair of Foul – 2/26/23
• Immigrant Story – 3/12/23
• Busy Season – 5/15/23
• Of Jeeps and Bucks – 5/28/23

Soft Landing

It starts like a barroom joke.  “What do Elon Musk and Ron DeSantis have in common?” The answer, “When either one laughs, no one believes them”.  But their “affect” similarities aside, the Governor of the “Free State” of Florida introduced himself as a candidate for President in 2024 last night, and he did it in an “odd” way.  There was no rally in Tallahassee,  no confrontational gathering across the lake from Mar-a-Lago and his chief competitor for the nomination.  There wasn’t even a reminiscent introduction from the DeSantis “homestead” in Dunedin, Florida.

Instead, Governor DeSantis officially began his quest to “slay” Donald Trump in a podcast, actually a “twitter-cast”, with the controversial billionaire owner of Twitter, Elon Musk.   They were excited – mostly because the Twitter feed broke down, the technical “room” on Twitter couldn’t deal with the volume of subscribers.  It turned into a good old fashioned “radio” interview, something that Herbert Hoover or Wendell Wilke would be proud of.  The “next level” of American politics ended up going back to the old days of “Fireside Chats”, though the fire seemed to flicker from time to time.

Woke is the Word

DeSantis got to give his “speech”, again doubling down on his wedge issues: crime,  virtue signaling and pandemic controls.  He pledged to take on important issues, but seems to spend a lot more time on “wokeness” then results.  In fact, “woke, woke, woke” – whatever that really means – was the central theme of his statement.  DeSantis wants Florida to be the place “…where woke comes to die”. And he would like to make the nation the same.  

From a purely political standpoint, DeSantis has a tough task.  The Republican Party membership (as opposed to the leadership) is “locked down” by the twice impeached, once indicted, defeated former President of the United States who lives on the east coast of Florida.  The Governor is trying to get to the “right” of Trump without attacking that most popular Republican.  And he wants to contrast himself as a “winner”, indirectly portraying the man of Mar-a-Lago as the ultimate loser – all without using his name.

It’s an interesting dance, trying to avoid getting swatted by Trump, while running against him.  So far, he’s avoided many Trump attacks, but hasn’t made much political headway against the MAGA leader.  Trump’s best line so far, Ron DeSanctimonious;  isn’t working.

Non-Elite Elites

It’s also interesting to hear both DeSantis and Musk rail against “elites” and big tech.  If elite is determined by education, both Musk and DeSantis are Ivy Leaguers, the very definition of American elitism.  And, of course, you can’t be more elite than being one of the top-ten wealthiest men in the world, or bigger tech than the creator of Tesla.   But that’s all straight from the MAGA playbook; “I’m not a common man, but I know what you need”.  

The Musk Twitter-cast descended into a long discussion of Covid policy, with Musk, the moderator, and DeSantis’s own “expert” all bemoaning the Federal Covid response.  It’s reminiscent of Steve Bannon’s desire to “deconstruct” the so-called “administrative state”.  The podcast went on to talk about how they could remove bureaucratic power from the Federal agencies. That’s probably not the most important point for most “regular” voters.

Then it was onto Disney. DeSantis made the corporation of Mickey Mouse the “lawless bad guy”, backed by the corrupt media.  The reality, again:  this can’t be resonating with “Joe MAGA” – it’s a political-business feud.

Twittering

Ok, after an hour of listening to Twitter, I guess I’m showing my age.  I’m not a podcast guy, other than it serves as a good way to fall asleep.  Looking back at recent “opening arguments”:  Obama on the steps of the Illinois Capital in Springfield, Biden coming “out of retirement to save the Nation”, and even Trump coming down the Golden Escalator; this Twitter-cast seems pretty lame, more like C-Span Radio.  You have to be deeply invested in the subject to even pay attention.

An hour of Musk, DeSantis and “guests” was hardly groundbreaking conversation, and seems an unlikely “launch pad” for the DeSantis campaign.  He’s officially in, hoping to be the Trump-like alternative to the man himself for the MAGA world.  But my take:  he’s ready for softball questions on “Twitter time”, but not ready for “prime time”.  I look forward to seeing him on a debate stage with Trump.  

His only hope there:  that the Network crashes as fast as Twitter did.

Voting in August

Let’s call this out:  Republican legislators in the state of Ohio didn’t like August elections.  They were expensive to hold, at $20 million statewide.  They were unrepresentative; less than ten percent of the voters showed up on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in August.  It was vacation time, and back to school time, and the “dog days of summer” time.  No one wanted to go to the polls, much less stand in an outside line in the ninety-degree heat. 

But most importantly, August elections were just too easy to manipulate.  Instead of having to reach the more than four million Ohioans who vote in the Presidential elections, or a similar number turned out for the mid-term elections (when Ohio chooses the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and several other major state offices), the August target is the narrow 638,708 voters  (August 2022) out of nearly eight million registered voters.  Only the most “activated” voters show up in August, and if an extremely expensive targeted campaign can “reach” them, a small minority can decide important issues in the state.  

Believe it or not, I agreed with the Republican legislature when they ended August ballot issues.  In the end, they were simply undemocratic (small ‘d’).  That was, until being targeted, expensive, and undemocratic (small ‘d’) became the goal of the Republican Party of Ohio.

MAGA Ohio

As I’ve mentioned in previous essays, Ohio’s “MAGA” agenda manages to fly under the radar.  While Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature made big headlines banning abortions after six weeks, that’s been on the Ohio “books” for years.  The so-called “Heartbeat Bill” (there is no physical heart at six weeks, just pulsating nerve impulses that mimic a heart-like sound on an ultra-sound) has been Ohio law for years.  It just came into effect with the Dodd Decision by the US Supreme Court.

While Florida made big headlines with their “Don’t Say Gay” law restricting teacher actions, Ohio is in the process of following up with anti-diversity, equity and inclusion legislation passing the legislature.  And while lame-duck Governor Mike DeWine began with reasonable efforts to handle the Covid pandemic, he ultimately was undercut by his party’s legislature, so badly that he abandoned his choice for Ohio’s Director of Public Health, Amy Acton, and let her “take the fall” to the MAGA anti-mask, anti-shutdown, anti-life-saving Republican majority.

So what’s the “MAGA” legislature up to now?  They are “reading the tea leaves”, foretelling the future of Ohio’s voters. And they don’t like what they see.

Ruby Red, Baby Blue

It started in Kansas, ironically in a similar August election.  The Kansas State Constitution contained an “inconvenient” clause guaranteeing a woman’s right to control their own healthcare, including abortion rights.  The ruby red Kansas legislature wanted to ban abortion, but first, they had to amend the state Constitution to remove that right.  So they put the change on a statewide ballot in August, as the hot winds blasted across the prairie. To everyone’s surprise, the statewide ballot to change LOST, 58% voting against, in a huge voter turnout (near Presidential level).  The people of Kansas resoundingly spoke out, defending a woman’s right to control their healthcare, including abortion.

Then last fall in the November election, the bluer Michigan voters passed an abortion protection addition to their Constitution by almost 56%.  So pro-choice organizations in Ohio organized to put a similar initiative on the next “available” statewide election ballot, November of 2023.  Ohio’s MAGA majority in the State Legislature (and their pro-life financial backers) were worried.  If Michigan, and even Kansas voters chose pro-choice, what would Ohio voters do?  While the west-side of Cincinnati is the “home” of the pro-life movement, the northern suburbs of Columbus is the current home to the powerful national pro-choice movement, “Red, Wine and Blue”.  They mobilize mostly Republican suburban women, and had a tremendous impact in both Kansas and Michigan outcomes.  

Move the Goal Post

The MAGA Republicans in the legislature didn’t want to risk a “straight-up” vote.  So they used their legislative super-majorities to change the rules.  While the abortion issue had to wait for the November election, they reinstituted the discarded August election date they previously outlawed.  And they did it for one purpose:  to require that statewide Constitutional changes need a SIXTY percent vote to pass.  (Even the successes in Kansas and Michigan would be voided by a sixty percent threshold).  And, of course, their change only has to pass by – wait for it – FIFTY percent.

And since August elections are so small and targeted, the MAGA Republicans hope they can win the “little one”, and eviscerate even a majority win in bigger November by the pro-choice groups.  The undemocratic (small ‘d’) legislature changed the rules, at the behest of their own ideological and financial backers.  And they are doubling down on the MAGA ideology, to make sure that only they can determine what “the will of the people” should be.

Coat and Tie Corruption

Ohio is a state of dirty politics, covered by a veneer of Republican coat and tie respectability.  We are the state of First Energy and the $60 million bribe; of a Governor removing most of the State Board of Education’s powers (because there were a majority of Democrats – big ‘D’), and now “moving the goal posts” to try to make a pro-choice amendment unattainable.  There’s only one answer to all of this dishonesty.

OHIOANS:  Wear light clothes, put on sunscreen, take water, and line-up to vote on August 8^th.  

Democracy (little ‘d’) is at stake.

In Your Pocket

This is what everyone, and I mean everyone, needs.  We need a “magic coin”, they could be of any value.  By simply having this coin in your pocket all your debts would be paid.  You could have anything you wanted, anything that money could buy, because, you have a “magic coin”.  It wouldn’t require a “sack” of coins, or even a coin purse.  A single “magic coin” in your pocket would more than solve financial problems – it would make you rich almost beyond measure – for life.

You can hear the “infomercial” now, can’t you?  I mean, this would put the “Pocket Hose” and “Prevagen” (the over-the-counter memory drug – like jellyfish!!) to shame.  Get your own “magic coin” and your life will be – different. 

You may be thinking, this whole topic is just a “setup” for some long-winded economic argument, the beginning of a lecture, like talking about “widgets” or “the two boys with stones”.  And economically speaking  some of my more practical friends might suggest the negative economic impact of people having “magic coins”.  Inflation would skyrocket, ultimately rising so much that the “magic coins” would be devalued to “regular coins”.  So here’s the trick:  everyone can’t have a “magic coin”.  Just me — or just you.  Nah, just me.

31 U.S. Code § 5112

The US Code is the complied laws of the United States of America.  While the Constitution outlines the structure of government and the rights of citizens, the US Code fills in the details of how it all works.   31 US Code § 5112 is pretty dull stuff.  It describes the size and content of coinage:  how big is a one-dollar coin (1.043 inches in diameter) what it’s made of, and where it can be minted, for example.  But buried deep in the code, way down in item “k” is the following paragraph:

(k)  The Secretary may mint and issue platinum bullion coins and proof platinum coins in accordance with such specifications, designs, varieties, quantities, denominations, and inscriptions as the Secretary, in the Secretary’s discretion, may prescribe from time to time.

It’s written right there, in the law – “The Secretary may mint and issue platinum bullion coins…with such denominations…as the Secretary, in the Secretary’s discretion, may prescribe…”.

Way down in the middle of a law about what percentage of what metal goes into a quarter and such, is the formula for – wait for it – the magic coin!!

Spending Money

The United States Congress does “funny” things.  First of all, when they pass a law to do something, they also have to pass another law to pay for that something.  And both sides of the Congress, the House and the Senate, have to agree to both of those laws (and the President) for that action to happen.

Congress, like most organizations, often (not always) passes a budget.  That budget states how much they are going to spend in the next fiscal year, and it’s thousands of pages long.  So when they pass the budget, they allow for all of the “normal” activities of the government to be paid for the next year.  And some other things, (think billion dollar aircraft carriers and the like), are passed separately as well.  When it’s all said and done, Congress spends a great deal of its time determining how much money the United States is going to spend.

Paying Bills

But once the laws and the budget are passed, Congress is committed to pay for what they did.  At least, they should be.  The United States operates in a deficit, living on borrowed money to the tune of $32 Trillion.  But Congress put another impediment to spending – they limit how much the United States can go in debt.  We are now at nearing the “moment” when the debt is reaching its statutory limit.  Remember – Congress spent (and borrowed) all of this money in the first place.  Now that the “bill is due”, they are considering NOT paying it.

Defaulting on the debt would have immediate and dramatic economic impact.  After all, if you can’t trust the US Government, the US Dollar, US Savings Bonds; then what can you trust?  So if Speaker McCarthy and President Biden can’t come to some agreement, we are going to literally go off a cliff.

Desperate Measures

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  President Biden does have some “wild ideas” that might dodge a debt default without agreeing to a deal with McCarthy.  I wrote about one of those, invoking the Fourteenth Amendment (the debt of the United States cannot be questioned) a couple of weeks ago.  While the Amendment is “black letter law”, it’s possible that the Supreme Court might still overturn a Presidential action.  After all, it’s the Court of Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Barrett and Kavanaugh; anything can happen.

So there’s another move that the President, through the Secretary of the Treasury, can make.  He can order the minting of a “magic coin”.  Under 31 U.S. Code § 5112, item k, we know that the Secretary can mint a platinum coin and determine its value.  The US Mint can mint a $1 Trillion coin.  There’s already a design!!

A couple of $1 Trillion coins means that the US isn’t going over the debt limit.  They just become “money in the Treasury”, and so the Department can continue to pay the bills.  Now, we all know, that it effectively DOES raise the debt limit – but it’s within the law, good ol’ part ‘k’.  Is this inflationary – surely.  But it would do less damage to the economy than the US defaulting on the debt.  

And it’s fun to think what you could do with one in your own pocket!!

This essay is in direct violation of “Godwin’s Law”, comparing present political actions to Nazism. On the other hand, I would counter with an older proverb: “If the shoe fits – wear it”.

Niemoller

Reinhold Niemoller was a German Lutheran minister in the 20^th century.  During World War I he defended Germany, serving as an officer in the German Navy.  When Hitler and Nazism first came to power, he, like many Germans, thought it was “good” for the economy.  It took years, but Niemoller ultimately stood against the Nazis prior to the beginning of World War II.  

He was arrested and sent to the concentration camps, first at Sachsenhausen and then Dachau.  He managed to survive the war, and continued to minister, becoming the head of the World Council of Churches in the 1960’s.  After the war, he wrote the following “confessional” for his inaction at the beginning of Hitler’s rise to power.

The Confession

First they came for the Communists  
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.

Who Speaks

We live in a time when “they” are coming.  We see it in our nation, the United States of America, today.  “They” are coming, right now, for the trans-gendered.  They are denying medical care for trans children, determining that “they” know better what’s good for them; better than the parents, the doctors, the kids themselves.  It’s happening now. “They” are determined that those children must suffer.  And many of “us” are not speaking out, because we are not trans-gendered.

“They” are coming, coming for those that are gay, or even simply cross-dressing.  “They” are banning drag shows that children might see, even though drag shows are as old as theatre.  Even the ancient Greeks dressed in drag in amphitheaters; women were not allowed to perform.  But now “they” are calling drag shows some kind of “grooming”, tapping into America’s fear of the “molester with candy” in the shadows.  “They” are banning even the mention of gay in elementary and middle schools. Even a gay Disney movie character caused a teacher to be suspended. And many of “us” are not speaking out, because we are not gay or cross dressers.

“They” are coming, coming for the rights of women.  It starts with forcing women to bear children, but it will move onto restrictions on birth control and ultimately what women (alone) must do to raise a child.  But, many of “us” are not speaking out, because we are not women.

Happening Now

“They” are coming, coming for educators who dare to teach that America is “imperfect”.  “They” don’t want children to hear about a diverse nation with a history of discrimination.  Instead, “they” want a literally whitewashed version of our story.  In fact, “they” are denying our own Constitution, which establishes our nation as becoming “more perfect”.  “They” demand that we are already “perfect”, that all of those who continue to face discrimination are simply “weak” or “whiners”.  But many of “us” are not speaking out, because we aren’t teaching, or minorities, or disadvantaged.

It’s Happening  — right now in Florida and Texas, Montana and Iowa, and even quietly here in Ohio as well.  “They” are taking away rights, taking away votes, taking away the truth in classrooms.  But don’t worry.  “They” will make sure there’s plenty of weapons of war in the streets.

And if we don’t speak out, “they” will ultimately come for “us”.

This is a “Sunday Story”, even though it’s Monday.  No politics here, just stories about one of my favorite topics – Pole Vault.

Track Official

If you’re a high school track and field official, this is the busy season.  It’s “championship season” as I told my teams for forty years:  the moments when all the work, the training, the sacrifice and the competitions come to a peak.  It’s the conference championship, then onto the two meets that lead the elite few to the State Championship.  As a coach it could be (as Dicken’s said) the best of times and the worst of times.  In championship season the successes are the sweetest, and the failure are the hardest.  Either way, it’s all over in a few short weeks.

As a track coach, I taught every event.  I worked with sprints, hurdles and relays; distance, long and high jump; shot and discus, and, of course, pole vault.  It was in that last event that I made a “professional” reputation, working to make the event safer.  I still teach coaches how to coach pole vault safely, something I’ve done for thirty years here in Ohio (Ohio Pole Vault Safety).  And while I was a “licensed” official for most of my career, I didn’t start “full time” officiating until 2019, two years after I retired from coaching.  In the last five years, I’ve scheduled more track meets (forty-three this year).  Championship season is my “busy season” too:  five meets last week, five meets this week, four meets the week after.

Not surprisingly, I officiate the pole vault in most of those meets. 

X Games

Back in the 1990’s, one of my vaulters said to me: “Pole vault should be separate from the rest of track and field.  They just put it in there, because there aren’t high school ‘X Games’!”  There is a whole different feel around the pole vault from the much of the rest of track competitions.  It’s a small enough “ecosphere” that most vaulters from different teams still know each other.  Coaches often share the expensive poles (more than $500 per) with other schools. Many of the better vaulters train together outside of the regular track season.  The competition in pole vaulting is more often “with the bar” than with each other, and it’s not unusual to see fierce competitors cheering each other on.

I was an “old school” pole vault coach, really two generations from the current crop of “modern” coaches (in technical terms – more Tarasov than Mondo).  But my decades of coaching help me to better officiate competition.  It’s not just knowing the rules, the nuances of “makes and misses”.   It’s also managing the “flow”, keeping the competition rolling along, giving each athlete a fair shot at the bar, and creating the best atmosphere for the final vaulters as they attempt to soar higher than ever before.

Altius

Saturday was a good example.  The small, six-man conference championship competition was radically divided.   The lower three vaulters were young, first or second year competitors.  We started the bar at 8’, and when one cleared 10’, his teammates ran over and cheered his personal best.  He was “pumped”, and while he failed at 10’6”,  he was still proud of his progress.

Then we “skipped” to three of the best vaulters in the state, all seniors and from the same school. They entered the competition at 13’.  At 14’ they all soared over the bar, including the “third man”.  In most competitions, only two are allowed from each school, including the state qualifying meets. This particular conference decided to test a track team’s depth by allowing three in every event.  And this “third man” is one of the top vaulters in the state, but won’t get to prove his prowess on the biggest stage.  He can’t beat his own teammates, and while he might be in the top dozen in Ohio, since he is only third at his own school, this was his last high school meet. 

He ultimately cleared 14’6”.  When he failed at his third attempt at 15’, there were tears in his coach’s eyes, and warm hugs from teammates and friends.  He’ll go onto vault in college.  But these were the bittersweet last attempts of his high school career; at home, with friends, family and teammates watching.  He was third in the Conference.

Battle at the Heights

Then the two best vaulters in the state continued, battling each other in a good hearted competition for the Conference Championship.  They tied for first at 15-6, then “jumped off” in a tie-breaking procedure.  When neither cleared 16’, we moved the bar down to the conference record 15’9”.  One cleared, one didn’t; and the champion was determined.  The winner was pleased.  The runner-up  concentrated on video of his vaults. What could he improve for the next competition, as he works to hone-in his skills for his final high school meets?  Three weeks and two competitions left until the state finals.

This season, I’ve had the privilege of officiating these young men in vault at six competitions.  They are always polite and welcoming; their enthusiasm and dedication “spills out” onto the runway.  As an official I am a “neutral observer”, but as a former coach, it’s still fun to have just a little part in what they and their coach are accomplishing. 

I won’t officiate these guys again. I’m at different state qualifying meets from their school in the next weeks. And I’m privileged to be on the women’s pole vault crew at the State meet, just as competitive and intense as the men.  But be assured, I’ll have a “pit-side” seat for their efforts come that first Saturday in June.  

The Sunday Story Series

• Riding the Dog  – 1/24/21
• Hiking with Jack – 1/31/21
• A Track Story – 2/7/21
• Ritual – 2/14/21
• Voyageur – 2/19/21
• A Dog Story – 2/25/21
• A Watkins Legend – 3/7/21
• Ghosts at Gettysburg – 3/14/21
• Lessons from the State Meet – 3/28/21
• More Lessons from the State – 4/4/21
• Stories from the Road – 4/11/21
• A Bear Wants You – 5/1/21
• My Teachers – 5/9/21
• Old Friends  – 5/23/21
• The Gift – 6/6/21
• Echoes of Mom – 6/20/21
• Stories of the Fourth – 7/3/21
• Running Memories – 7/25/21
• Lost Dog of Eldora – 8/1/21
• Dogs and Medals – 8/8/21
• The New Guy – 9/5/21
• Stories of 9-11 – 9/12/21
• The Interview – 9/26/21
• Night Moves – 10/3/21
• Funeral for a Friend – 10/11/21
• National Security – 10/24/21
• Boots on the Trail – 10/31/21
• Taking Care of Mom and Dad – 11/14./21
• Dogs Found and Lost – 11/21/21
• Watching Brian 12/12/21
• Stories from Shiloh – 12/19/21
• Team Trips – 12/26/21
• Uphill, Both Ways  – 1/9/22
• Old Trophies – 1/30/22
• The Last Time – 2/7/22
• Olympic Miracles – 2/13/22
• Mind Numbing – 2/20/22
• Track Weather – 4/3/22
• What’s Missing – 4/11/22
• A Scouting Story – 4/17/22
• Waterproof Paper – 5/8/22
• Origin Stories – 5/22/22
• Origin Stories – Part Two 5/29/22
• Back at State – 6/5/22
• Out in the Country – 6/19/22
• Pataskala Downs – 7/4/22
• Car Stories I – 7/24/22
• Car Stories II  – 7/31/22
• Old Man Experience – 8/7/22
• Cross Country Camp – 8/14/22
• New to the Pack – 8/21/22
• Car Stories III – The Bus – 8/28/22
• A Day in the Life – 9/4/22
• Stupid Human Tricks – 9/18/22
• Fair of Foul – 2/26/23
• Immigrant Story – 3/12/23
• Busy Season – 5/15/23

Doorkeeper

The cold hard fact is this.  The “Lamp beside the Golden Door” of the United States was always limited.  Not every person who crosses the border legally can stay.  We, the American people, pick and choose.  Regardless of the political propaganda, there is no “open border”.  There never has been.

In history, immigrants came by boat.  They were “evaluated” when they disembarked, many in New York or San Francisco.  The “Great Migration” of the late 19^th century is what most of us remember from eighth grade history class, as ships sailed into New York harbor past the Statue of Liberty herself.  The passengers disembarked at Ellis Island, what we now would call a “holding facility”.  They were examined, physically, mentally, and legally.  Most were then allowed to go “ashore” into the teeming metropolis of New York City.  My great-grandparents then moved onto Cincinnati.  Some though, were sent back on the boat they came in on.

There were always some who slipped through.  The derogatory name for migrants of Italian descent, “Wops”, came from the acronym for “without papers”.  But the post-Civil War American economic engine needed all the workers it could get.  The steel mills of Pennsylvania, the grain fields of Minnesota, the railroads stretching across the prairies and over the mountains, the meat packing factories of Chicago and Cincinnati, the coal mines of West Virginia – all needed  cheap human labor.  And many of those workers came “through the golden door”.  

Migration Forces

We are not a “hermetically sealed” nation.  In the last “normal” year, 2019, over 1 million immigrants gained legal entry into the United States.  And there is a “standing” population of around 12 million “illegals” here.  So what are the factors driving folks to come to America?

People come to America for the same reasons our ancestors did:  for a better life.  It’s not just about jobs and money, it’s also about safety and survival.  Many countries in Central and South America are dangerous places to live.  Gangs in El Salvador and Guatemala, political and economic upheaval in Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba; all make life dangerous.  It’s so dangerous that migrants are willing to risk the dangers of travel to the US Border, including the fifty mile jungle trail in the deadly Darian Pass in southern Panama. And organized crime controls the passage, extorting the traveler every step of the way.  

Climate change created a real impact on Central America.  The area is hotter and drier, and for many who depend on agriculture for subsistence, that cropland is gone.  In the Dust Bowl era of the 1930’s, the agricultural land of the US Southern plains literally dried up and blew away. People moved to survive.  They travelled from Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas to find jobs in California’s Central Valley.  Now many residents of the Northern Triangle of Central America are faced with the same dilemma. And the combined medical and economic disaster of the world Covid pandemic made life even worse.

The Law

Title Eight of the US Code is the set of laws regulating immigration.  To legally immigrate into the United States, a migrant must have legal permission to enter.  After gaining that permission, they then can make a case that they should be granted “asylum”; permission to stay.  Asylum is granted for political reasons, a return to the home country may well result in injury or death, or because the migrant has a skill needed by the United States.  Coming to the US for “a better life” is no longer enough to get permanent entry.

Title Eight also deals with those who cross the border without permission.  If a migrant crosses illegally, they have a much higher standard to prove to gain legal asylum.  Otherwise, they are returned to their “country of origin”.  So getting into the US legally is a two step process.  First, get legal permission to cross the border (a visa), then make a case for asylum.    Cross the border illegally, and face penalty (a bar from entering the US again for a number of years) and a higher standard for asylum.

The Flood

Our system is set up to grant visas from the “home country”, not at the border crossing.  We don’t intend to use The “Ellis Island holding facility” model anymore. However, with so many migrants at the border, we are establishing “Ellis Islands” in the Southwest, trying to process both the illegal and legal migrants asking entry.

And what about the now-expired Title 42 everyone is talking about?  Under the emergency of the Covid crisis, illegal migrants were just rounded up, quickly processed, and immediately sent back across the border.  No claims of asylum were allowed, and no “bars” on future immigration were placed.  It was a temporary short cut to deal with Covid and the migration issue.  But it also created a continual flood of migrants, surging back and forth across the border.

The Fix

So the problem is easy to describe:  there’s a firehose of migrants coming to the border, and a system set up for a trickle.  The bottleneck on both sides of the Southern Border creates a human crisis, with people sleeping in the streets, lacking food and medication, and prey to criminals of all kinds.  To solve the problem requires an overhaul of US immigration law by Congress, but also intervention into the causes that are sending migrants on the long, hazardous journey in the first place.

And the US does have the economic need for more labor.  The migrants represent the workers we need to “feed” our current economic engine, just like we needed them in the late 19^th century.  So we have more than just altruistic reasons to fix the problem.  It’s not just in the migrants’ interest. A fix is in our National interest as well.

Verdict In

Yesterday,  a civil jury of nine citizens (six men, three women) unanimously found that Donald Trump, the defeated and twice impeached former President of the United States, sexually attacked E Jean Carroll. That jury awarded almost $5 million in damages to Ms. Carroll for a 1996 assault in a department store dressing room in New York City. 

Don’t worry though – the leading Republican candidate for the 2024 nomination already has an answer.  He doesn’t even know who Carroll was or is. And, of course, it’s all just a part of the “Witch Hunt”.  Besides, as the trial reminded us, Trump thinks; “if you’re a star you can do anything…you can grab them by…(you know the rest)”. 

Really – no one is surprised that Trump is a sexual predator.  Even his supporters swallowed that fact whole, way back in 2016.  In our era of polarization, saying the “truth out loud” doesn’t change much.  Either you see the “Emperor” naked – or you don’t.   And the MAGA world will dress him in victim’s robes.  According to them, the New York verdict is just another in the long line of unfair attacks, another spear in the side of their martyr. 

Only Stronger

There’s more to come.  He’s criminally indicted for corrupt business practices in the same Manhattan Court House. And then there’s the Atlanta election interference cases, and the looming flurry of Federal cases. Two different groups are already convicted of conspiracy to commit insurrection on January 6^th. It’s not a “bridge too far” to see Trump as the top of that conspiracy.

But in the end, the MAGA world will continue to support Donald Trump.  The charges, the trials, and the ultimate convictions will, to abuse a Star Wars quote, “Only make Him stronger” in the eyes of his followers.  If this sounds more like a cult than a political movement, well there we are.  Our Nation is so divided, that even the Courts no longer have validity.  And that’s not just on the MAGA side of the ledger.  Ask “my friends” how they feel about the Supreme Court, and particularly the Thomas-Gorsuch-Kavanaugh triumvirate of potential corruption.  It’s both sides now.

2024

What does all of this say about the 2024 election?  It’s very possible that the Republican Party will ride the “Trump Train” to its ultimate doom.  Almost no one currently in power in the Party, will stand against him.  Sure Mitt Romney, John Kasich, Liz Cheney, Larry Hogan and a few others are standing “for good”, waiting for their Party to come to its senses.  But that’s not likely to happen, and so far, they remain in painful isolation.

Standing against this existential threat to our Democracy, is eighty-one year old Joe Biden.  He’s achieved a lot as President, but failed at the most important goal. That goal is the one he established as the measurement of his Presidency.  He has been unable to return our Nation to “normalcy”.  While the “old men” of the current administration, Biden and Merrick Garland, try to make things like “they should be”, like they were two decades ago; it isn’t working.  And many fear that their commitment to “normalcy” is dooming us to more MAGA cult craziness.  

And for those of us on the Democratic side who see less MAGA-ism; fewer Trump flags on the porches or Trump craziness on the internet:  MAGA isn’t gone.  It’s simply moved out of your “information space”.  Just because it no longer is in your face, isn’t proof that it’s “over”. 

Two Friends

That’s been made very clear to me in the past couple of weeks.  Here’s a story of two friends.  One friend was at the height of his career, a coach in a powerful track program.  Inexplicably, he quit and went to work at a much lower level.  I ran into him and he told me the story.  There were several reasons, but the real answer was, he couldn’t stand the “politics” of his fellow coaches.  He’d rather leave than be exposed to their rhetoric.  It doesn’t even matter which “side” he was on, he symbolizes what’s happening in America.  The political rhetoric is so toxic, that it poisons the atmosphere of things that have nothing to do with Trump or Biden, like coaching track in high school.

Another friend works in a world where Trump is rationalized.  His coworkers accept the “imperfect vessel” theory of Trumpism.  Biden is the “existential threat” to them; not because of his age, but because of the policies he advocates.  They view Biden’s plans as so dangerous, they are willing to accept a known liar, cheater, sexual predator, and incompetent as President.  It’s not that they are “fooled” by Trump, they just consider him a “reasonable alternative”.   And my friend is concerned that those “rationalists” will win the day in 2024, electing a man who cares little for Democracy, or the Constitution, or American traditions. 

Bottom Line

What’s at stake in 2024 seems clear:  the very survival of the American experiment.  We “stressed tested” it from 2016 to 2020, and ultimately, millions of Americans paid the price with their lives for Donald Trump’s incompetence.  That Covid became a political litmus test instead of a national health crisis marks the true definition of America’s political insanity.  And that’s not even “over”.  More than 1000 Americans are still dying a week (CDC).  But our politics are so much more important, we don’t even talk about that now.  The testing kits are stored on the bathroom shelves, the masks dusty on the top of the grandfather clock.  

Our Supreme Court Justices are corrupt, Congressmen are on trial, kids are being shot in schools and at the Mall, and a failed President still supports those who attacked the Capitol and the Constitution.  

The words “existential threat” are extreme,  and reality.  What happens in the next year, in the battle between two “imperfect vessels” of Biden and Trump, will determine the course of America.  We thought it was over in 2020, when all the cars pulled into the Drive-In and Biden gave his victory speech to flashing lights and beeping horns.  But MAGA-ism is still “strong among us”.  We have to do it all over again.   To quote Ben Bradlee from the movie “All the President’s Men”:

“Rest up, fifteen minutes, then get you asses back in gear.  Nothing’s riding on this except the First Amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press and perhaps the future of the country”. 

It’s the future of the country that should worry us all.

Old News

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the number of mass shootings in the past few days.  The “Butcher’s Bill” for this weekend:  twenty dead.   No part of the Nation was safe:  three “incidents” in Mississippi, two in Missouri and California, one in Maryland, New Jersey, and one right here in Columbus, Ohio.  And Saturday, eight killed in an Allen, Texas shopping Mall, just outside Dallas. 

There are so many that we have to carefully define “mass shooting”.  According to the Gun Violence Archive, mass shootings, “…have a minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed, not including any shooter who may also have been killed or injured in the incident” (GVA).

Almost 15,000 are dead this year due to gun violence.  Over half of those are gun suicides, the rest are homicides or unintentional/accidental deaths.  For comparison, estimates put the number of car accident deaths at around 12,000 so far this year.  Of course, there are “only” 278 million vehicles in the US.  There are over 400 million guns.

Hearts and Prayers

One politician is embroiled in the argument, “is sending ‘Hearts, Thoughts and Prayers’ enough?”  For those who say it’s not, Texas State Representative Keith Self says,  “Well, those are people that don’t believe in an almighty God who, who has, who is absolutely in control of our lives. I’m a Christian. I believe that he is (Newsweek)”.

What else can he say?  Texas is offering no solutions to mass shooting, except to make sure guns are even more available.  Texas politicians, from Representative Self to Governor Abbot, are doing everything they can to talk about prayers, or mental health, or California’s strict gun laws.  The home to mass shootings in El Paso, Santa Fe, Midland, Uvalde, Cleveland, Sutherland Springs, and now Allen; is sending it thoughts and prayers; and greater access to semi-automatic weapons.

Symbol of Our Time

There is no solution for America.  We cannot, will not, take the appropriate action and gain control of the weapons and/or ammunition that makes us fear schools, churches, malls, theaters, or just driving down the road.  We are even past blaming the NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION, the bankrupted, Russian financed backers of unlimited gun rights.  It’s not about their political clout anymore.  It’s just another “sign of our times”. Possession of a “AR-style” rifle is part of many Americans’ political identity.  They have been sold the “idea” that guns represent the “keys” to a “lost American culture”.  

Who’s winning the “gun” issue? It’s the gun manufacturers.  Sig Sauer is marketing a “civilian” version of their new military weapon, the XM7.  It’s called the MCX SPEAR (cool name, right?) and here’s what they say:

X SPEAR – the civilian version of the Army’s XM7 rifle – is now available for purchase. The first runs will include 7.62×51 and 6.5CM with the .277 SIG FURY (6.8) version due shortly thereafter. Following a multi-year test and evaluation process, SIG Sauer took home the winning contract for the Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) program that includes a the MCX-SPEAR, the SIG Light Machine Gun, suppressors, and SIG’s hybrid case 6.8 ammo (Firearm Blog).

Follow the Money

In All the President’s Men, the book and movie (Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman) about breaking the Watergate scandal story, the shadowy source in the government “Deep Throat” told the reporters to “…follow the money”.  The money is right here, in the new MCX-Spear, $3000 to own one.  Gun manufacturers are having record sales, and profits; an estimate $9 Billion a year (Everytown).  That money finds its way into political campaigns, developing close “ties” with the government that somehow cannot control guns.

It’s an American tradition, in the tainted steps of the tobacco industry and the manufacturer of Oxycontin.  The “gun party-line” is simple.  We need better mental health.  We need God to hear our prayers.  And we need a new MCX-Spear SIG Light Machine Gun, to protect us from those who want to take away our guns.

Don’t hold your breath.  Just make sure you, and your kids, know what to do when (not if?) there’s an “active shooter”.  Say a prayer.

Guns

Guns

• Guns and Sadness                   10/3/17
• A Teacher with a Gun              2/23/18
• Don’t Change the Subject       3/25/18
• Again                                       4/15/18
• Staying Small                           5/3/19
• Saving Lives Is Not Politics      8/4/19
• The Pain Becomes too Great  8/5/19
• Who’s Your Daddy                  8/21/19
• A Good Guy With a Gun         9/1/19
• Rights and Guns                      5/17/20
• Pittsburgh                               6/17/20
• Our Choice                              12/1/21
• Toxic Mix                                 5/16/22
• Apple Pie                                 5/25/22
• Prairie Dogs                             6/9/22
• The Will to Do It                      7/6/22
• Hanging Together                   8/12/22
• Swatted                                   9/23/22
• They Aren’t Pro-Life                9/23/22
• Motive, Means, Opportunity  1/25/23
• Accepted Losses                     2/14/23
• German Rights                         3/28/23
• Fear Itself                                3/30/23
• The Gravel Pit                         4/16/23
• Butcher’s Bill                           5/8/23

Late Start

I got up late yesterday.  The dogs were “on time”, about 5:30 am, but I was too willing to go back to bed.  So we didn’t get up until 7:00, and a few minutes later I remembered:  the Coronation.  King Charles the III of the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth of Nations was officially “crowned” yesterday, and I missed the first two hours.  But I got some of the pomp and circumstance at Westminster Abbey, and the glory of parading in the rain with 7000 troops and a golden coach made in the mid-1700’s back to Buckingham Palace.  

I can tell you one thing –  my Mom would have loved it.  As much as a “Democrat” as my mother was in America, when it came to her homeland, she was an absolute “Monarchist”.  The King, the Crowns, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Grenadiers in their bearskin hats; I suspect she would have been in tears.  

Tow, Row, Row

Some of my earliest memories are from when I was three, and Mom took us to England to see the family.  I remember walking down a London street, gaining my “independence” when my “Bampa” let go of my hand as we went opposite sides around the lamp posts.  And I remember the trooping of the colors, the daily march of the Palace Guard in their red coats to protect the Queen.  My grandfather was once a soldier of Great Britain, fighting in the Boer War in the 1890’s.  No bearskin hat though, but he taught me a marching song, “…(W)ith a tow, row, row, row, row, row of the British Grenadiers”.  It was 1960, and Mom introduced me to the ancestral ceremonies of her nation.

It’s hard to imagine that a family from Hanover (Germany) somehow ended up on the British throne in 1714. It’s even harder to imagine that an entire Nation and the world celebrates the eldest son of that family ascending to that throne today, three hundred and nine years later.  The coronation ceremony itself is a Christian Mass of the Anglican Church, like a wedding or funeral.  It underlines the ancient myth, that God Himself has placed this man on the throne to rule.

Out of the Shadow

And I think a lot about King Charles the III, the man who was born to the monarchy, but waited seventy-four years to ascend to the throne.  How difficult it must have been to be “second” to his mother for so many decades.  When folks spoke of skipping Charles, and his entire “Boomer” generation to raise up Prince William, I get why that wasn’t ever going to happen.  

Charles reminds me a lot of Joe Biden.  While Charles was meant for the throne literally from birth, Biden first tried to “ascend” to the American Presidency in 1988.  That campaign floundered badly, just as Charles “screwed up” in the public mind with his divorce from Diana and her untimely death.  And Biden too was a “second”; Vice President to Barack Obama for eight years.  It was an important role, but still second, in the very large shadow of the Obama Presidency.  No wonder Biden ran once again for the highest office, and now, despite his age, is unwilling to relinquish it.

Old White Men

As I watched the Mass at Westminster, there are some changes in this world.  What once was the exclusive “club” of old White men, now includes older women and men of color.  The change is subtle, the robes and miters blend everyone into a mass of hues and swish, but their world is still changing.  And even the famous boy’s choirs are now boy’s and girl’s choirs, with a mix of races as well of genders. 

The United Kingdom is changing, even if the Windsor family continues to maintain the throne.  The Prime Minister is Rishi Sunak, a man born of Indian ancestry in Southampton, and raised in the Hindu faith.  The Mayor of London is Sadiq Khan, born in London of Pakistani descent and raised in the Muslim faith.   So while the Christian Mass of Coronation may have been led mostly by old White men, the Nation is not.

Steady Hand

Mom would have been OK with that too.  She saw the monarchy as the historic glue that held her homeland together.  Her King, George the VI, grandfather of Charles; helped lead her Nation through the darkness of World War II.  And her generation was led by the young Queen Elizabeth, who went from a War duty of fixing engines, to the shock of an early ascent to the throne.   But perhaps most of all, Mom admired “her” Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, a man elected by the people to lead the Nation, and her “boss” of the Special Operations Executive in World War II.

So as the United Kingdom changes, the monarchy is the single steadying institution.  Even though there is little political power that resides in the throne today, there is the historic momentum, the symbolism of what “England” always was.  That’s what this ceremony represents for our twenty-first century.  

“Hip, Hip Hooray!!!! God Save the King!!”

Civil War

The United States actually broke apart during the Civil War.  President Lincoln pretended to maintain control of the Union for legal purposes, but it wasn’t true. His legal “nicety” of the Emancipation Proclamation, freed slaves in territories the US government didn’t control.  The Confederacy was real.  For four years, Americans battled each other for control of the destiny of the Nation.  Both sides claimed that the “Founding Fathers” were on “their” side.  It was a war of rebellion, an Insurrection against the existing government. And despite what the Confederate apologists say today, the South rebelled over the question of enslavement.  

When the Confederacy was defeated and their government on the run, the United States tried to determine what our new path would be.  Lincoln’s Second Inaugural is often quoted: 

“With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Reconstruction and Retrenchment

But Lincoln was dead.  The Thirteenth Amendment was passed, ending enslavement in the United States.  Almost immediately, the defeated Confederate states began the process of re-instituting slavery. The Black Codes were created to form of a new version of that “peculiar institution”.  And while the President, Andrew Johnson, stood against the Confederacy, he was sympathetic to the “Southern” way of life.

Congress was faced with the specter of winning the war but losing the peace.   In response, John Bingham, a Congressman from Northeast Ohio, authored the 14^th Amendment. It was the single most important change in the history of the US Constitution. 

The 14^th Amendment expanded protection of rights from just the Federal government, to the state governments as well. Here’s how it works.  The First Amendment states:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

The Fourteenth

That is written specifically for the Federal Government, the Congress.  But the 14^th Amendment says:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Now the “privileges and immunities” secured for the citizens of the United States were guaranteed by the separate states as well.  So, Constitutionally, all states were bound to the same standard guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.  And, since the 14^th also defines citizenship as “…All persons born or naturalized in the United States…”, it held that the Black Codes, which treated some citizens as “less than” (the freedmen), were also unconstitutional. 

Government Under the Constitution

The 14^th was intended to apply the Constitution to all governmental authorities, federal, state, and local. It was the “dam” to stop the flood of Southern legislative attacks on the freedmen. But the Supreme Court was slow to accept the original intent of Bingham and the Congress. It took “damn near” a century to be fully enacted, in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the New Voting Rights Act of 1965. It was only then that the stage was set for ultimate civil rights.

The 14^th was written to secure the victories of the Civil War. And it was about preventing the re-birth of the Southern aristocracy that dominated American politics from the writing of the Constitution to the attack on Fort Sumter. It was put in place to stop retrenchment, and prevent future insurrection.

The Congress wanted to make sure that those who led the Rebellion were kept from regaining power in the government.  The third article of the Amendment states:

“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”

War Debt

But in case they did manage to return to power and wanted compensation for the loss of “enslaved property” or other war damages – the fourth article added:

“The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.”

The public debt of the United States, the Union, would “…not be questioned”.  That included the “war debt”  But the war debt of the Confederacy, the Secessionist States, or personal debt incurred supporting the rebellion; would not be honored.

Insurrection

Here we are in 2023, a full one-hundred fifty-five years after the passage of the 14^th Amendment.  Like the United States in the 1860’s, we are still in the throes of Insurrectionist behaviors that hopes overthrow our government.  Two years ago, the Confederate battle flag was paraded through the US Capitol for the FIRST time.   So perhaps the lessons and the power of the 14^th Amendment will have some answers for today’s concerns.

The 14^th made it clear, the insurrectionists were NOT welcome back in the government, “…with malice towards none…” be damned.  And while they ultimately managed to wend their way back to power in the 1800’s, Americans need not make that same mistake twice.  The 14^th is still in effect:  “No person shall hold any office…who shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion”.  

Faux Crisis

 In our hyper-partisan political environment of today, it isn’t far-fetched to think that some in the Congress would use the “debt ceiling” to wreck the economy and win further political office in 2024. Isn’t that just a “sanitized” form of Insurrection?

Perhaps the 14^th can be of service there as well.  “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law… shall not be questioned.”  Congress can always reduce the debt, simply by spending less money.  But to go ahead and authorize spending that creates a debt, and then refuse to pay it (by the legal construct of a “debt ceiling law”) is unconstitutional.   Representative Bingham and his colleagues saw that risk in 1867, just as we are facing it now.

They solved the problem, making paying the debt “black letter law” in the Constitution. We should honor that today, and stop this ridiculous “faux” controversy about the debt ceiling. Congress already raised that roof when they authorized the money.

No Labels

A new “political movement”, stocked with millions of dollars from anonymous donors is contemplating a run for President in 2024.  It’s the “No Labels” party, hoping to find a “middle lane” in the American political spectrum.  Notable leaders of “No Labels”:  Joe Lieberman former Democratic (and Independent) US Senator from Connecticut, and former Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan.  

The ”No Labelers” offer three things to American voters.  First, they avoid the extremes of Democratic Progressivism or Republican MAGA-ism.  They are “centrists”.  In the old days we called them moderate-right, where the two political parties used to “intersect”: Rockefeller Republicans and Manchin “Blue Dog” Democrats.  Second, they claim “common sense” solutions, and even take credit for creating the bipartisan “Problem Solver’s Caucus” in the House of Representatives.  And third, they hope to offer an alternative for voters who held their noses to vote in the “Biden v. Trump” dilemma of 2020.  

In short, they hope to claim the “middle ground” of American politics.  And they have enough money to get on the ballot in most of the fifty states. 

The Middle Ground

It’s a seductive idea. America is polarized to the extremes, and has been for over a decade. A “No Labels” party running centrist candidates like John Kasich, Larry Hogan, Liz Cheney, Joe Manchin, or John Hickenlooper might appeal to Americans “in the middle”. Leave Trump his 33% of MAGA crazies, and give Biden his 40%, and that means that – the math doesn’t work. It adds up to 27% of the vote left – not a winning number.

And that’s the assumption we need to think about.  Is there really a “middle-ground” of American thought, or is today’s polarization so extreme that, simply, no one is left in the middle?  Does a “No Labels” ticket offer a way out of our crisis, or would it just assure a minority candidate victory either in the Electoral College or in a House of Representatives tie-breaking vote?

1860

Here’s an imperfect historic example.  The last time the United States was so heavily divided was prior to the Civil War in 1860.  In that election there were actually four national candidates running for President.  One “extreme” was the new Republican Party led by Abraham Lincoln of Illinois.  Lincoln was considered “anti-enslavment”, though he was really against the expansion of enslavement into the new US territories.  The alternative extreme was the break-away Southern Democratic Party led by John Breckenridge of Kentucky.  Breckenridge wanted legal enslavement for the entire United States, North, South and terriories.

In the middle was Stephen Douglas of Illinois, the nominee of the “rest” of the Democratic Party, who favored “popular sovereignty”; allowing individual states and territories to determine the enslavement question by vote.  And finally, there was Constitution Union Party nominee John Bell of Tennessee. Bell took no stand on enslavement, only stating that he would follow the existing Constitution and the laws.

Minority President

The number of candidates shaped the outcome of the election.  No one candidate received a majority of the popular vote.  Lincoln got 39% while Douglas received just over 30%.  And while Douglas was a strong second in several Northern states, Lincoln was able to win every one, and gain enough electoral votes to win the Presidency.  Breckenridge had 18% of the popular vote, but with a strong showing in the South, ended up second in the Electoral College.  And John Bell won three states and came in third in the Electoral Vote with only 12% of the popular vote.  Douglas ended up fourth in the Electoral College.

Add Douglas and Bell together, the “middle ground” votes, and while together they might have a plurality of the popular vote,  they still wouldn’t do much better in the Electoral College.  America in 1860 was locked into two camps, enslavement and anti-enslavement; there was little left in the middle.    Had the Democrats somehow avoided splitting into two camps, they likely would have won.  But the point was, that even a “popular sovereignty” guy from Illinois was too “extreme” for the enslavement South.

2024

So where are we today?  If the nominees of 2024 are a repeat of 2020, we know that the election will be a knife-edge choice.  While Biden won the electoral vote by seventy-four in 2020, the popular vote in the swing states was incredibly narrow.  Less than 100,000 votes out of the 152 million determined the election winner, just like in 2016, where Clinton won by three million, but lost the crucial electoral states by a total of 74,744 votes.

How did Joe Biden succeed in Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin in 2020?  He picked up the “Never Trump” voters, those Republicans who couldn’t stomach MAGA-ism.  And they are the voters most likely to go to a “No Labels” candidate, along with those few independents and  moderate Democrats convinced that Biden is under the thrall of the “radical” left.  

Those voters cross age groups and genders.  We know that the MAGA “Red Wall” won’t crumble to what they view as a “RINO” movement.  But we do know that those few voters still “in the middle” can’t win an election, but do control the outcome. 

Our Republic

Our politics today aren’t like a multi-lane interstate highway.  We are driving on a two- lane “Red and Blue” country road, and the “No Label” movement is trying to take it’s half out of the middle.  There’s only one result from that; a head-on collision with one Party or the other.

The Republicans of 2016 didn’t split into two parties like the Democrats of 1860.  Instead, they signed onto the MAGA “pledge”.  Even the so-called “establishment Party” of the time, Paul Ryan, Reince Prebis, Mitch McConnell, Dan Quayle and Dick Cheney; jumped on board the MAGA train.   By staying together,  they orchestrated the Trump win in 2016.  And while all of those leaders have disavowed Trump now, they created a new MAGA Republican Party that they can’t control.

Many Americans are uncomfortable with that, just as many were uncomfortable with the choices of 1860.  But, at least for now, there isn’t a “moderate” movement that can create a majority to win the Presidency. Which leaves us with that same “binary choice”, the one we made in 2016 and 2020.   What the “No Labelers” can do, intentionally or not, is guarantee an extremist victory, of the side with the most loyal followers.  In short, the well-meaning “moderates” of No Labels, will end up giving America another four years of Donald Trump.  They’re driving down the middle of the road, and they’ll take-out the Democratic Party in the Blue lane.

I’m not sure the Republic can survive that.

FDIC

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation just seized First Republic Bank, the 14^th largest bank in the United States.  First Republic had $104 Billion in deposits.  Some of those were insured by the FDIC (up to $250,000) but the vast majority were not.  If First Republic went bankrupt, billions of dollars would be at risk. More importantly, it might shake the faith of Americans in the banking system, and shatter the foundation of our financial structure, trust in banks.  Like the first domino in a long line, one bank failure could lead to the next.

What was wrong with First Republic?  Like their Northern California fellow failed Silicon Valley Bank, they invested too many of their deposits in “unavailable” assets, like market or government bonds.  Banking hasn’t changed that much over the centuries.  Just like the Bailey Savings and Loan in Jimmy Stewart’s movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”, people expect to go to the bank and get their money when they want it.  If word gets out that the bank doesn’t have their money “on hand”, then more and more depositors demand their savings.  It’s called a run on the bank, and if the bank can’t access funds to cover that “run”, they close.

Henry Potter

So it’s not that the money wasn’t “there”, but it wasn’t available.  The First Republic money managers chased profits, and forgot the first rule of banking:  cover the deposits.

But if you’re worried about a widespread “bank failure”, relax.  First Republic was seized by the FDIC. It was then sold off to the largest bank in the United States, JP Morgan Chase.  Remember the scene in “It’s a Wonderful Life” when the mean old Henry Potter offers to “save” the Bailey Savings and Loan, by buying it?  It’s kind of like that:  First Republic was done, and the “insurance company”, FDIC, sold it off to big old mean Jamie Diamond and Chase Bank.

Of course that’s another problem with American banking.  

Too Big To Fail

First Republic had $212 Billion in assets when it folded like a “house of cards”.  For JP Morgan Chase, absorbing it was hardly a  gulp.  Chase is over fifteen times bigger, valued at over $3.2 Trillion.  The other “big four” are Bank of America at $2.41 Trillion, Citigroup with $1.77 Trillion, and Wells Fargo with $1.72 Trillion.  Number five, US Bancorp, is far behind at $585.14 Billion.  For perspective, my bank, Park National Bank headquartered in Newark, Ohio, has $9.6 Billion in assets.  And here in Pataskala, the Pataskala Bank has $40 Million (the 4,457^th biggest bank in the US).

Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo have a “vested” interest in keeping the American banking system working.  Only a systemic failure of the whole structure would dramatically impact them.  So they not only work to “make money”, but they also are willing to absorb the “minor” losses of smaller banks to keep the system rolling along.  It’s in their best interest, besides the interest of the American economy.

And the FDIC did exactly what they are supposed to do.  They protected the assets of the First Republic depositors without having to pay out from FDIC insurance funds.  Now, instead of First Republic controlling those assets, Jamie Diamond does.  First Republic customers seamlessly become Chase Bank customers.  The FDIC transferred the responsibility rather than “eating” the loss themselves.

How Big is Too Big?

But how powerful does that make Jamie Diamond, President of Chase, and the other “Big Four” bankers? Sure, absorbing First Republic was in the best long-term interest of Chase, but how much “public faith” is now invested in a few “private” individuals?  Jamie Diamond (Chase), Brian Moynihan (Bank of America), Jane Fraser (Citibank) and Charles Scharf (Wells Fargo) have tremendous sway over the American economy.   We (Americans) depend on them to do the “best thing” for our Nation – at least, as long as it’s in the best interest of their banks.

In “It’s a Wonderful Life”, the entire community came together to save the Bailey Savings and Loan.  It’s beautiful, and very socialistic (really – I used that word in an essay!!).  In the economic crisis of 2008, some of the biggest banks were forced to swallow banks almost their own size (Lehman Brothers).  After that, the US determined that we shouldn’t have single banks that could “tank” our entire economy.

And I guess we don’t – we now have four.  That’s not what was in mind twelve years ago, but it’s exactly where we are now.  And that’s the very definition of power and vulnerability.