Month: September 2023

Battle for Ukraine

World War II

The battle in Ukraine goes on. But it’s not the trench warfare we’ve heard about that’s so reminiscent of World War I.  It’s more like World War II, with battle lines separated by fields of anti-personnel mines (Foreign Policy).  For the Ukrainian forces to advance against the Russians, they need to first to clear the terrain of millions of mines.  Ukrainian forces are doing so carefully, preserving the lives of their sappers.  They even have “underwater” sappers, clearing the streams where their forces may need to cross and fight.  

All of the mobility created by NATO tanks and armored personnel carriers can’t begin until those mines are cleared.  Even though a M-1 Abrams tank is unharmed by anti-personnel mines, the infantry following behind would still be at risk.  Even an anti-tank mine usually doesn’t destroy that vehicle, though it often disables it for a time as the tracks are broken.  But the scope and scale of mining operations is amazing:  over 67,000 square miles of Ukraine is the battlefield (Washington Post) and mined, with at least thirteen types of anti-personnel mines and at least thirteen more types of anti-vehicle mines (Human Rights Watch).

Butcher’s Bill

So for those decrying the “failure” of the Ukrainian summer offensive, a couple of things to consider.  It’s not over.  The Ukrainian Army has carefully removing the mines, before they sent their precious soldiers across to face the Russian forces.  That sounds like a prudent strategy, especially for a Nation with limited personnel resources, and already high casualties. Russian casualties are near 300,000; including 120,000 killed and 180,000 wounded.  Ukraine has far fewer, with 70,000 killed and 120,000 wounded.  But Ukraine has far fewer people to fill their battalions (New York Times). 

In the past three months, Ukrainian forces have made small gains, particularly along the southeastern front. It’s taken that long to create a “salient”, a bulge into the Russian line around the village of Robotyne (now destroyed), that Ukrainian forces hope to exploit.  Their goal is to “breakout” of the salient, and drive to the coast of the Sea of Azov.  That would cut the Russian forces in two, with those in the Crimea and Kherson regions split off from direct supply from Russia in the north and east (NYT).  

Winter Comes Early

It hasn’t happened yet.  It’s taking time and the clock is ticking.  Winter comes early and hard in Ukraine, where the “southern coast” is the same latitude as Bismarck, North Dakota.   And it doesn’t help that there are delays in the mobile armor Ukraine needs from Poland, and the United States.  Of the 190 US Bradley Fighting Vehicles promised, more than half are already on the battlefield  (Washington Post).  But it takes supply to “feed” a breakout.

Historically, the best analogy might be the months after the Normandy Invasion, D-Day, in World War II.  After successfully getting off the beaches on June 6th, 1944, Allied forces took nearly three months to breakout of  “hedge row” country, and complete the conquest of Normandy.  They then raced to the German border, arriving in November.

Stalemate not Settlement

The goal is similar for the Ukrainian offensive today:  breakout and race to the coast.  It hasn’t happened yet – but it’s still possible.

For those in America who say it’s time for a “settlement”, to end the battle – they are premature.  And for those who decry “it’s time to save lives”; it’s not their lives to save.  Ukraine has an opportunity for victory.  Victory means an end to a struggle against Russia that’s lasted nine years – since Russia stole the eastern and southern provinces in 2014.  “Settlement” means stalemate, with Russia troops still in parts of Ukraine, and a battle and war simmering for more years and even decades.

It’s not just about Ukrainian military success.  It’s about ending the conflict with a resolution, rather than a compromise.  Should the current Ukrainian offensive succeed, then Russian forces will be in an untenable position.  They will be forced to withdraw.  And should the offensive stop, then Russia will be always poised to reignite the conflict, whenever the whim strikes Putin to re-establish the Soviet Union.

Who He Is

Maya Angelou said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time”.  Vladimir Putin has shown us who he is:  a ruthless killer, willing to kidnap a whole generation of Ukrainian children to turn them into Russian soldiers; willing to face the economic wrath of the world so he can rebuild the Soviet Empire.  

Or to misquote George W Bush:  we can look into Putin’s eyes and see his soul.  And his soul is the soul of Stalin.  If Ukraine is captured, why would he stop?  Poland is next, along with the Baltic Nations; all NATO members, all requiring direct US military intervention.

Ukraine is paying the price for the whole Western World right now, the price of resistance to Putin’s aggression.  The least we can do is help foot the bill, even when it gets tough, and even when it gets expensive.  Our treasure in exchange for their blood.  It’s better than the alternative.

Ukraine Crisis

History Calls

Reality

Here’s my reality:  President Joe Biden is old.  He’ll be even older when he takes office on January 20th, 2025, eighty-two.  And from my perch here at sixty-seven, that’s definitely old.  Is the Presidency a “younger man’s job”?  Sure it is.  We saw the energy and vitality President Obama brought to the office.  Historically we look at Teddy Roosevelt and John Kennedy as men whose youth changed their times, energized the Nation, and set us on a new course.  

In 2020, I was a Pete Buttigieg fan, before I voted for Biden.  In 2028 (I’ll be seventy-two), I look forward to deciding among Pete, Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer, Kamala Harris and perhaps others not yet on the scene.  The future of the Democratic Party is bright.   But it’s not time to “call the future”; it’s not time to move on from Joseph R Biden.

Rise to the Challenge

Before the 45th President, I was a “true believer” in the ability of the Presidency to “make the person”.  My example was George W Bush, a “light-weight” candidate, who entered the Presidency under the thumb of his Vice President, Dick Cheney.  But Bush rose to the moment of 9-11, and ultimately reclaimed his Presidency from Cheney and Rumsfeld.  There were plenty of mistakes, and plenty of decisions I disagreed with, but Bush became “Presidential”.  The office made the man, he rose to the challenge.

It was my hope that somehow Donald Trump would find that grace in office as well.  But he proved to be the exception.  At each interval of crisis, Trump chose the wrong path.  After Charlottesville, it was “…good people on both sides”. On the border, he sanctioned ripping children out of the arms of parents. And worst of all, during the pandemic,  he chose political expediency over leadership. It was clear that this deeply flawed man was not changed by the responsibilities of our highest office.  

Call the Future

And if the twice impeached, four-time indicted, charged with 93 separate crimes, ex-President was not running for office again, then I too might call “the future” now.  But just as American history has called on men to “rise to office”, it has also called Joe Biden to stand for the common man.  Biden is the literal polar opposite of Trump.  He is modest where Trump is brash, he is calm where Trump is bombastic, he is seasoned where Trump has failed the tests.  Sure Biden is old, and so is Trump.  But, as Biden himself would say, don’t compare him to the “Almighty”, compare him to his opponent.  

History called Biden out of retirement, like an old warhorse pulled out of the pasture.  It was, and is, his job to counter-balance Trump in a way no other politician can.  “Average Joe” versus “Golden Escalator Trump” is the story of our era.  And since Trump refuses to go away, Biden is the last, best chance to defeat him, again.

Republican Choice

Need proof?  Even Republicans are figuring it out.  DeSantis, the “golden boy” can’t touch Trump.  He can’t “out-Trump” him, and he can’t “out-youth” him, and he can’t “out-fundraise” him.  And don’t even start on Vivek Ramaswamy, as Chris Christie says, a candidate that sounds like “Chat GPT”.  He made some press, but barely scores double digits in Republican polling. 

Republicans are deciding to make the 2024 election another existential threat to American democracy.  They are choosing their “charismatic” (hard to imagine) autocrat, who threatens our Constitutional freedoms on multiple levels, as their candidate.  And America has determined the counter to Trump:  Biden.  So it’s two old men in 2024.  For John Wayne fans, it’s “Rooster Cogburn or The Cowboys or The Shootist”.  It’s Biden’s final act of a political career that started sixty years ago.  

Existential Threat

To me, 2024 isn’t about conservative or progressive.  It’s not about the economic issues; whether rich people should get a tax break to “trickle down” their wealth to us masses, or the US should ignore climate change. This election is about a man who believes the Presidency should be unchecked by the rest of the government. It is about the essential definition of democracy:  should “the people” decide what the laws are, or should a select few make the decisions for all.  2024, like 2020, may determine not just which political party controls the White House, but the literal fate of the Constitutional experiment of American democracy.  

To be truthful, Biden is too moderate for me.  There are other Democrats (not Bernie) who more closely represent my political views.  But time has chosen Biden, old as he is, to stand for American values at a time when they are most threatened, more than at any other time in our history.   And that’s really all that matters. 

I stand with Biden, again.

Sunday Football

This is NOT a Sunday Story – even if it starts like one. There’s plenty of politics here!!!

Bengals Fan

I was born and spent most of my childhood in Cincinnati.  Like it or not, I became a Bengals (football) fan in 1968, the first year they played in the AFL.  They shared Nippert Stadium with the University of Cincinnati for that first year, with Greg Cook, a UC alum, as the quarterback.

Being a Bengals fan I’ve learned when to care, and when to let go.  There have been some great years:  a couple in the ‘80’s, one in the late 90’s, and then this past couple of years.  And there have been some awful years, when the Bengals “freed” me from concern, usually by the third game or so.  I got my Sundays “off” in those several, many, seasons.

Many of my relatives are Cleveland Browns fans, and we have a good natured rivalry.  Oddly, good year or bad, the Browns often beat the Bengals, giving my nephews bragging rights.  However, the rest of the Browns’ seasons have been pretty sad. I give the nephews the sympathy they deserve most of the time.  

Selling Souls

Both Cleveland and Cincinnati have “sold their souls” for quarterbacks in the past year.  Cleveland picked Deshawn Watson off the list of suspended NFL players (sexual impropriety to therapists), paying $350 million over ten years for his presence in the backfield (and hopefully not on the massage table).  Cincinnati paid even more, close to three-quarters of a Billion dollars, for Joe Burrow, an Athens, Ohio boy who made very, very, good.  

So why are we talking about football on this NFL Sunday morning?  Because how the Browns and the Bengals handle their two quarterbacks should be instructive to Kevin McCarthy, the beleaguered Speaker of the House of Representatives.

DeShawn, the $350 million man, is known for his “jailbreak” (hah!) form of play.  He starts in the pocket, then runs wide and far, improvising plays with his receivers.  He’s also a running threat himself, the “eleventh man” the defense can’t cover.  It’s that “loose” form of play that makes DeShawn great.

Burrow also can run, but is best known for his precision passes from the pocket.  Give Joe an inch, and he can thread the football to whichever receiver gets single coverage.  He can see the “whole field” in a split-second, so quickly that defenses can’t react to his throws.  And if he can’t find an open receiver, Burrow himself can scramble to make up the difference.  Unlike Watson though, Burrow is a technician in the backfield, rather than a loose cannon.  

Square Peg

The Bengals coaching staff does everything they can to capitalize on Burrow’s abilities.  They have rebuilt the offensive line, twice, to get him the time needed to read defenses.  And, when Burrow has a deficit, like he does now with a damaged calf muscle, they try not to put him in a position to have to run.

The Browns coaches, much to the dismay of many fanatical Browns fans (including a nephew or two), are trying to make DeShawn into a “pocket passer”, like Burrow.   DeShawn was an improvisor in college at Auburn, and with the Houston Texans.  Presumably he was in high school as well.  So while the Browns literally “bought” a scrambler, a runner, a “draw the play in the sand” quarterback; it’s clear that the coaches want him in the pocket, carefully dissecting defenses, and throwing precision passes.  They want Watson to be like Burrow.  But he’s not.  And the Browns are struggling because of it. (By the way, the Bengals are struggling too.  Burrow is playing hurt, and the calf injury is impacting his ability to throw long precision passes – his biggest asset).

Sold Out

Which brings us to Kevin McCarthy.  Like the Browns and Bengals, McCarthy paid a huge price to gain the Speakership.  The Republican majority is so narrow, literally five Republicans can defeat any motion on the floor.  Extremists in the Republican caucus demanded concessions from McCarthy, so many that it took fifteen ballots for him to even secure the position.  Like the Browns (and the Bengals), McCarthy has “sold out”.   He owes and keeps his Speakership at the “will” of any five Republicans.  And five that are united together hold his fate in their collective hands.

McCarthy wanted to be Speaker.  It was a lifelong quest.  He wanted the title so much, that he gave away most of the power of the Speakership in order to get the title (an earlier essay on that situation:  Better to Reign).  The laundry list of “promises” (Matt Gaetz’s secret list) was long.  The extremists demanded:

  • Control negotiations on the government debt
  • Control negotiations on the government budget
  • Impeachment hearings (inquiries) of President Biden
  • Hunter Biden hearings
  • Force the entire Congress to vote on the critical policies of the MAGA Agenda like the border policy, the “woke” Defense Department, and defunding the FBI and the “weaponized” Justice Department.

McCarthy is the “quarterback” of the House of Representatives.  But unlike DeShawn Watson; McCarthy isn’t “forced” to play “out of position”.  He did it to himself.  McCarthy can’t blame someone else for his predicament, and he is now faced with shutting down the Government at the end of the month.  

He can’t even call his own plays.

His deal to become Speaker made it impossible for him to actually act as Speaker.  He can’t throw, he can’t handoff, and he can’t even scramble.  All he can do is watch his Republican caucus tear itself apart.  The extremists on one side are mirrored by the few Republicans who won their seat in a “Biden” district, where the President won in 2020.  Those few can’t afford to adhere to the MAGA agenda – they’ll lose their seats in 2024.

Close the Doors

What’s going to happen?  Well, we’ve got seven days until a government shutdown.  That seems inevitable.  It will take thirty days for a “rump” coalition of the few moderate Republicans and the minority Democrats to get a motion to the floor without the Speaker’s help.  So that could be the end of October.

Or McCarthy could realize that he will have to act like the Speaker, even if it costs him the Speaker’s job.  He could reach across to the Democrats, and, like John Boehner in 2015, patch together a one-time coalition to keep or re-open the government.  Of course, if he does that, the extreme Republicans will do what the Brown’s coaches could never do – they’ll bench McCarthy, just like they benched former Speaker from Cincinnati, John Boehner. 

So who is the backup, willing to give even more away than McCarthy did? Elise Stefanik of the Great State of New York.  She’d be happy to step over McCarthy’s prone body to become the second woman Speaker.  But the price will be high.  Not just for the Speakership, but for the Nation.

Oh, and I do have a finish for the football analogy.  If Kevin McCarthy is DeShawn Watson, perhaps the right quarterback, but with the wrong plays coming in from the sidelines; then who was the precision passer Burrow? You probably already figured that out:  Nancy Pelosi!!!  She managed to control a House majority exactly the same size as the one McCarthy has now. There was still some drama, but ultimately her Democrats followed her playbook, and governed.

Undue Influence

 “…here is a man who was guilty, directly or indirectly, of eight murders without reason…(but)…as far as the coverage was concerned [Manson] appeared to be rather a glamorous figure.” – Richard Nixon

Helter Skelter

It was August, 1970.  Richard Nixon was the President of the United States, a year and a half into his first term in office.  But that August, the focus of the Nation wasn’t on the President, nor the Vietnam War that was grinding on with 334,000 US troops on the ground.  America was watching the trial of Charles Manson. He was accused of leading a “cult” to murder actress Sharon Tate and seven others.  

We were fascinated, and not just with the gruesome and bloody spectacle of the attacks.  Manson was connected to some of the best known celebrities of the era, including Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boy’s.  How Manson went from rubbing elbows and dropping acid with some of the leading singers of Southern California rock, the “Laurel Canyon” crew; to a knife wielding murderer, caught America’s attention.  Even now, fifty-four years later, it still does.

Manson and four of his followers were tried in Los Angeles court through the summer of 1970 and into the fall.  With the high profile of the victims and all of the lurid publicity surrounding the murders, outside influence on the jury was a particularly sensitive subject. So when in August, the President gave his opinion of the Manson evidence in an off-hand comment to reporters, it struck a legal “nerve”.  Like most Americans, Nixon was fascinated with the case, and he had an opinion on it.

Nixon Precedent

But the problem was, that Richard Nixon wasn’t most Americans:  he was the President of the United States.  Manson defense attorneys jumped on the statement, demanding that the presiding Judge, Charles Order, declare a mis-trial.  As evidence they presented the front page of the Los Angeles Times, headlined by “MANSON GUILTY, NIXON DECLARES”.  While Order didn’t go so far as a mistrial, he did hold a hearing, questioning the jurors whether they were influenced by the President’s statement.  Meanwhile, Nixon “walked back” his opinion, praising the patience of a jury that listens to the facts in the case, to make their decision.

The Jurors answered no, that the President didn’t “influence them”, and Orders continued the trial.  Manson was sentenced to death, but later changes in California law commuted that to a life sentence.  He died, still in prison, in 2017 at 83 years old.

Nixon’s actions had a powerful influence in American jurisprudence,  at least, until the past few years.  (Now you probably anticipate a diatribe against the former, twice impeached, four time indicted, President. Hah!!  It’s not “his turn in the barrel”).  Yesterday I was stuck in the house, waiting for the “lawn guys”.  So I spent much of the day watching Merrick Garland, the Attorney General of the United States testify to the House Judiciary Committee.

Judiciary

There are two Judiciary Committees in the Congress.  The one in the Senate tends to be serious and studied. Senators determine whether Presidential appointees for Federal judges will be approved and in particular, appointments to the Supreme Court.  The “heavy hitters” of the Senate (often the ones with Presidential ambitions) find their way to that Committee.  President Biden, Vice President Harris, and candidates Ted Cruz and Cory Booker, are all Committee alumni or members.

The House Judiciary Committee doesn’t get to pick judges. It is one of the most partisan Committees in the House – especially in this era.  The Judiciary Committee is where the House begins impeachment inquiries.  Currently Republicans are in the majority, and the Chairman is Jim Jordan (of couldn’t pass the Ohio bar exam fame).  Jerry Nadler of New York is the senior Democrat, along with Adam Schiff of California. But Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Chip Roy, Thomas Massie, and Mike Johnson (Louisiana) are all combative members of the Republican “Freedom Caucus”.  They make Darrell Issa of Benghazi Committee fame, on this committee too, look passive.

They tried to tear the Attorney General limb from limb.  Their “Caucus Line” is that Donald Trump is being persecuted by the “Democrat-Biden Justice Department”, while Hunter Biden is getting a break.  While there is no evidence against Joe Biden, the President, there is a lot of questions about what Hunter was doing, particularly in his cocaine-fevered era from 2015 to 2018.  The old adage about the “sins of the father, sins of the son” is reversed in this case, or at least the Committee Republicans want it to be.

Under Investigation

A Department of Justice Special Prosecutor is still investigating Hunter.  But House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio doesn’t seem to be worried about “tainting” a future jury.  He’s not interested in the “Nixon Precedent”, because, of course, he’s really not interested in Hunter Biden at all.  In fact, given the evidence, he’s not going to “get” Joe Biden either.  But what he can do is follow the first rule of propaganda.  If you say something, over and over and over again, it really doesn’t matter if it’s true.  If you say “Biden Crime Family” often enough, someone will believe it.

Ultimately, Hunter’s expensive but “worth every penny” lawyer Abbe Lowell will use the Committee hearings as a defense in court.  “How can Hunter Biden find an impartial jury after all of that?”  Any of a dozen New York Post headlines will do.  And we will have to wait until November of 2024 to see if Jordan is successful in fatally wounding President Biden with the sins of his son.

And who is very aware of the “Nixon Precedent”:  President of the United States Joe Biden.  He’s not talking about the Trump indictments.  He wants to make sure that his opinions don’t become a part of the Trump defense.  And of course, he doesn’t want anything to keep Trump from going on trial before the 2024 Presidential election.

Long Beautiful Hair

Wrestling

Back in the early 1970’s, I was a high school wrestler.  Wrestling then, and now, places a huge demand on athletes.  It’s not just the hours of practice, honing skills on the mat.  It’s the immense conditioning required to successfully compete for six minutes with 100% effort from every muscle group: calves to biceps, quads to neck, fingers to toes.  And in a tournament, you do it again and again, up to six times in a day (under current rules).  

Add to that weight control, something completely foreign to teen athletes used to burning all that they can consume, and more.  But wrestling is precise:  at the moment of weigh-in, your body must be less than or equal to the required weight.  There is no leeway; an ounce over, and you’re out of competition.  Often the hardest part of wrestling isn’t in the practice room.  It’s in the middle of the night, when hunger tries to overwhelm commitment.  There’s an old wrestling joke about dreaming of eating a giant marshmallow, and waking the next morning to find the pillow gone.  But the real nightmare is dreaming you’re eating a box of pop tarts, and waking to find the wrappers all around.  The hunger is real.

So after all of that, the rules about fingernails, beards and hair length seemed petty, not worth arguing about: “I’m starving, so get me on and off the scale so I can eat.  I’ll chew my nails, and my buddy will trim my hair. As a fifteen year old, please tell me to shave, that would be an honor!”

Old School Rules

Our athletic department decided that the “hair rule” of 1970’s wrestling was good for the entire athletic program.  Because wrestler’s hair had to be above the eyes, ears, and neckline; so did every boy’s hair in our athletic program.   Our Athletic Director was serious, standing at the team bus door as we boarded for wrestling, swimming, and even track.  He checked every boy to make sure we didn’t go “hippie”.   He even checked Kenny, our All-Ohio 185 pounder, who was Black.  The AD carefully unkinked Kenny’s hair, pulling it out to see if reached the top of his ear.  When it did (barely), he pulled out the Trainer’s tape shears, and chewed into Kenny’s hair.  

Some of our best athletes in high school chose not to compete.  It was only a couple of years past the sixties, and hair length was a part of many of their political statements.  It wasn’t until I was in college track, that hair length became a personal statement, not a team rule.  There was nothing like a high hurdler with a full “fro”.  The sides of his hair flapped in rhythm with his arc over the barriers.  

Texas

All of that seems like ancient history, a half century ago.  Even wrestling gave up on hair rules decades ago, going for “hair control” instead.  But in Texas today, there is a student now twice suspended for having hair that “could” go longer than his ears, eyes, or neck.  But this Black teenager has his hair carefully styled, crafted into a tight curl on his head.  Sure, if it was unbraided it would hang down his back.  But it isn’t.

This isn’t an athletic department rule, it’s a mandate for every boy in the school. And his “potential” violates the “dress and grooming code” of Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvie, Texas.  The rules state:

Male students’ hair must not extend below the top of a t-shirt collar or be gathered or worn in a style that would allow the hair to extend below the top of a t-shirt collar, below the eyebrows, or below the ear lobes when let down.”

I guess his “failure” is in the gathering.

Law School

Over the past decades there’s been a lot of discussion of school uniforms.  Some public schools, including nearby Reynoldsburg, chose to require their kids to wear khaki pants (or shorts) and sports shirts in school colors.  But there’s a huge cultural gap between khakis and sports shirts, and determining what’s acceptable hair style. 

When I was in law school one of the standard process of questioning was “whatabouts”.  As we split legal hairs in class, we pushed our arguments to extremes.  So, for example, if a student was Buddhist and shaved his head, can a school enforce a “hair policy” designed to prevent shaved heads (skinheads)?  What about an Orthodox Jewish student with side curls, or a Jamaican Rastafarian?  Can school rules legally infringe on religious freedom?

But if a “religious exemption” is placed in the “hair code”, what about a cultural one?  Should a Native American student be required to follow the “Barber Hills” rule?  And if not him, then shouldn’t an African American student be able to claim the same exception?  Should a transgendered girl be required to have a haircut – and what rule applies?  

This issue just isn’t worth all the energy, effort that could better be applied to improving student achievement or even keeping kids safe from violence. It’s not matter of discipline, it’s a process of cultural “bullying”: fit in, or face the consequences.

What Matters

I was an educator, and for several years was directly responsible for discipline in a public high school.  I was around when boys started to wear – oh my goodness – earrings!  My big discovery was that individualism didn’t seem to influence discipline.  We had big problems:  drug use, kids acting out on their emotions with violence, kids quietly failing school. Those were so much more important than how long hair was (or whether it was pink, green or brown).  Rather the guy with a Mohawk who felt positive about it, than the unknown kid falling into despair.  

For those who think hair will “disrupt the educational environment”, the critical phrase from Tinker v Des Moines, the Supreme Court case about student First Amendment rights; here’s my experience.  The only folks really disrupted, are the parents picking up kids after school, the “old school” administrators in the office, and a few teachers.  And all of them are “adults”, who ought to know better, and get over it.  Who isn’t disrupted?  It’s the other kids in the classroom.  They don’t care about hair, or “holey” jeans, or even the “furry” kid with a tail.  

They are the only ones that matter.  

Twitter and Geometry

Hillsdale

Hillsdale College is a private, liberal arts school. There are 3204 students; set on 400 rural acres in Southern Michigan just north of the Indiana border.  “Free Baptists” founded the school 178 years ago and Hillsdale still considers itself a Christian college.  Its modern claim to fame is as the leading independent college “free” from federal and even state regulation.  Students at Hillsdale cannot get federal or state financial aid.  Instead, Hillsdale matches what they would get from private funds.  This allows Hillsdale to avoid complying with any Federal and State regulations regarding education, including Title IX protections.  In 1984 they pledged to follow their own non-discrimination policy. But “…with the help of God, resist, by all legal means, any encroachments on its independence” (Hillsdale Website).

Instead Hillsdale increased their endowment by establishing the Center for Constructive Alternatives, a national center for conservative thought.  Since then, Hillsdale, along with other privately financed academic institutions like the Heritage Foundation and the Claremont Institute, make up the intellectual backbone of the conservative movement.  They also have strong Cross Country teams, competing in GMAC conference and NCAA Division II.

I originally knew about Hillsdale as a coach.  Cross country successes put them on the list of small colleges my good runners might be interested in.  Like Cedarville near Dayton and Malone in Canton, a runner looking at Hillsdale had to consider more than academics and athletics.  They had to decide whether they were willing to accept the strict religious and behavior codes that those institutions demanded.   A runner had to not only be “good enough” for their team, they had to “fit in” on their campus.  None of my kids went to Hillsdale.

1619 Project

I didn’t end up on the political end of Hillsdale until the New York Times published The 1619 Project (NYT).   That massive study looked at American History from a very different “lens”; the impact of enslavement on the economic, cultural and moral development of the United States.  “1619” made important points that “regular” American History, particularly the history taught in public schools, ignored.  As a teacher who learned “our” history in the 1960’s and 70’s, “1619” opened a whole different perspective.

Many Americans were challenged by “1619”.  They discovered that the “story” they knew so well wasn’t real, and their entire framework of history was changed.  Many reacted with anger and denial to “1619”, and looked to “defeat” the idea.  Hillsdale College was a big part of the “1776 Project”, a counter to “1619”. It defended the traditional, 1950’s version of the American story.  As an educator, I wanted to know what both sides were saying.  So I signed up to get “1776”.  That put me on the Hillsdale list, and I’ve been there ever since.

Postulates and Theorems

The College publishes a newsletter called “Imprimus”, an up to date primer for the conservative movement.  Last week I read an article about “The Twitter Files” and the “existential threat” the US government now poses to American democracy itself.   Without going to “into the weeds” about the Twitter Files themselves, the article outlines a set of assumptions that conservative academia has about our recent history.  And it is those assumptions that make it extraordinarily difficult for us to communicate across our ideologic boundaries.

When I was a sophomore in High School, I took geometry.  I was never a “math kid”, and worse, I was uninspired by our geometry teacher.  In spite of that,  I did learn about postulates and theorems.  Postulates were “givens” that required no proof.  They were simply accepted as fact.  Theorems, on the other hand, needed proof.  The best parts of geometry was watching the teacher lick chalk from his fingers, and getting out of the class at the end of the year.  But the concept of postulates and theorems stuck.

Reading “The Twitter Files” I realized how different the postulates were between conservative  academia and my own sources.  Which leads me to the following discovery.

Liberal and Conservative cannot communicate with each other, because we fail to share a common set of postulates to base discussions.  If we don’t agree on fundamental facts, postulates, how could we possibly solve greater problems, theorems.

The Laptop and Russia

So what postulates did I glean from “The Twitter Files”?

The Hunter Biden laptop absolutely revealed a direct financial connection between Hunter’s corrupt actions and Joe Biden.  The Biden laptop information is “postulate”, fact without question, regardless of the “chain of custody” issues, or the lack of President Biden’s replies

The FBI used undue influence to keep the laptop story from “breaking” on social media, particularly Twitter (now X).  The FBI was working on the “postulate” that Russia exercised a massive mis-information campaign during the 2016, impacting the results.  The author of the article rejects that premise completely, minimizing the impact of the Internet Research Service efforts, and claims instead that the FBI was working to elect liberals – because (postulate) that’s what the FBI  (and other government agencies) do, even during the Trump Administration and under Republican leadership.

Russian involvement in the 2016 election was a “hoax”, as was “the official Covid narrative”.

Insurrection and the Deep State

Donald Trump did nothing to incite an Insurrection (and, in fact, the Insurrection itself was just a protest, like Black Lives Matter marches of the summer before). “…That same day (January 6, 2021), key Twitter staffers correctly determined that Trump’s tweets did not constitute incitement of violence or violate any other Twitter policies.”  Therefore Twitter had no “right” to ban Trump, and only did so under pressure from the above mentioned government agencies.

“Twitter was taking marching orders from a deep state security apparatus that was created to fight terrorists, not to censor or manipulate public discourse.” In fact, “The FBI in particular has directly meddled in the last two presidential elections to a degree that should call into question its continued existence.”  

“…The administrative state has metastasized into a destructive deep state that threatens to bring about the collapse of America’s constitutional system within our lifetimes.”  Once you accept this as a postulate, then any actions the FBI, Homeland Security, or other agencies take to protect voting or social media from manipulation is, in fact, attempting to collapse the Constitutional system.

Squares and Parallelograms

How can we possibly get back to the “old days”, when conservatives and liberals could discuss across their ideologies and reach compromise?  If we don’t even share the same history (1619 versus 1776, Russia involvement in 2016) or view of the role of government (continued existence of the FBI), or believe in the dangers of un-regulated social media; then where is the point of mutual agreement?  

If we can’t even agree that a square has four equal sides, where do we even begin to talk?

Insurrectionist’s Dilemma

Proud Boy

Enrique Tarrio, former leader of the Proud Boys and convicted seditionist, has a problem.   He was just sentenced to twenty-two years in federal prison for his role in the Insurrection of January 6th, the longest sentence yet.  Before it went to trial, he was offered a “deal”:  plead guilty and serve nine to eleven years in jail.  But Tarrio decided to gamble on a jury.  

Before the deal was offered, Federal prosecutors asked Tarrio about links to ex-President Donald Trump. Tarrio held fast to his story – there were no links to Trump, and that Tarrio himself didn’t have a “role” in the Insurrection.  So now he has at least eighteen years to think about it.

And that’s his dilemma.  Whatever Tarrio might know or say, he’s going to serve a long time in jail.   IF he has more knowledge of a Trump connection, he might still be able to shave years by cutting a deal.  But, if Trump wins the Presidency in 2024, Tarrio could be released as early as January, 2025.  If Tarrio implicates Trump now, and Trump still gets elected, he certainly wouldn’t pardon him.   So for the former Proud Boy, it’s probably better to wait.

Meadows’ Quandary

Federal Special Prosecutor Jack Smith faces the same problem from the other side.  Mr. Trump is the only defendant in the Washington DC Federal case, but there are six other unindicted co-conspirators, and more unnamed participants.  A critical potential witness is former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.  According to his assistant, Cassidy Hutchinson, Meadows was the nexus of communications to and from Trump on the days before and during January 6th, including connections to the “War-Room” at the Willard Hotel.  

The ultimate burning question of January 6th is:   did the President simply stoke the crowd and set them onto the Congress, or were his actions part of a defined plan to incite violence, and disrupt and delay the Electoral vote count?   There are only a handful of people who know the definitive answer to that question; the men in the Willard “War Room”, Mark Meadows, and the former President himself.

The Federal indictment named Meadows, but only as a “witness”.  Has he “flipped” and gotten an immunity deal with Federal prosecutors?  Meadows was also indicted in the Georgia state RICO case, for many of the same events.  If he is required to testify in the Federal case, the Georgia charges require him to “Take the Fifth”.  

So – will Meadows hold fast and take his chances in Georgia?  Or, will there be additional indictments from Jack Smith?  Will the Federal prosecutors arrange for immunity in Georgia for Meadows, so that he can testify in both matters?  Or, will Meadows, like Tarreo, wait (and pray) for a Trump win in 2024, and a Presidential Pardon?

Hard Time

Federal prison time is “hard” time.  Most Federal sentences are 85% served, unlike state sentences which are closer to 50%.  A twenty year Federal sentence is at least seventeen years actual time behind bars. But the charges in Georgia are no less serious.  The felony RICO conviction can carry a five-to-twenty year sentence, and very likely will result in a decade of incarceration.  It might be in a place like the Washington State Prison in Davisboro, a minimum security facility far out in the Georgia countryside.  Serve time in a “country-club” or a “real” prison, either way for men like Meadows, Clark, Eastman, et al., not only will their careers be over, but they will be old men when they emerge from imprisonment.

Their dilemma:  admit guilt, “rat out” their co-conspirators, and cut their future time in prison in half or more.  Or “hang tough”, loyal to the ex-President, and end their lives as an asterisk in the Wikipedia article like Howard Hunt (3 years), Attorney General John Mitchell (a year and a half), or Gordon Liddy (four and a half years) of Watergate infamy. 

Of course maybe Trump will win in 2024.  That thought bring shudders of disbelief.  I guess if that happens, the least thing we’ll have to worry about, is a few “country-club” prisoners getting back on the streets.  

The Nation will be in a whole lot more trouble than that.

Out of Compliance

Matt Gaetz

Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida made the point.  He said that the Speaker of the House, his fellow Republican was; “Out of compliance”.  Gaetz then went farther and said that if Speaker McCarthy didn’t get “into compliance”, he would cease to be the Speaker. 

And what is this “non-compliance” that the youngish Congressman from Pensacola proclaimed? 

There are actually two answers to that question.  But before we get to those answers, we need to understand how a junior member of the GOP would feel empowered to threaten the Speaker, and get away with it. Kevin McCarthy went through an excruciating exercise to achieve his life dream of becoming Speaker of the House of Representatives.  Republicans have a narrow majority in the House, five votes more than the Democrats under the new leadership of Hakeem Jefferies.  But a “rump caucus” of extreme Republicans refused to vote for McCarthy, dragging the process of electing the Speaker on for five days and a full fifteen roll call votes.

Wacked-Out  

The few, the proud, the wacked-out extremists of the Republican caucus exacted every concession they could gain from McCarthy.  Tempers flared as the last needed vote, Matt Gaetz,  scaled up his demands.  One of McCarthy’s allies had to be restrained from doing what a vast bipartisan majority of Congressmen  wanted to do – smack Gaetz in the mouth.  And it was all on live TV, in front of the whole Nation.

McCarthy ultimately gave it all up, doling his powers away, in order to gain the title of Speaker.  Clearly the title was more important to him than the ability to act as Speaker.   And he also gave away his ultimate “fail safe” protection.  Instead of requiring five or even ten members to agree to call for a new Speaker election, McCarthy allowed that any, single member of the majority Party could trigger a new Speaker vote.  Kevin’s life-dream hung on razor’s edge every day, depending only on the whim of Gaetz or Boebert, or one of the other “rumpsters”.  

He’s survived  for nine months.  But now Gaetz is calling his IOU, and demanding that the Speaker, the leader of his Party in the House, third in line for the Presidency, get “in compliance”.  And Gaetz isn’t bluffing; McCarthy already gave him the power to declare the Speakership up for grabs again.

Empty Impeachment

So what’s “the deal”?  The extremists demand the impeachment of President Joe Biden, before any incriminating facts are confirmed or even gathered, or charges levied.  The want Biden tried, not because he might have done anything wrong, but as retribution for the impeachments of Donald Trump.  Over the past several months, the Congressional Republicans have assiduously searched for evidence of “the Biden Crime Family”.  They failed miserably, with their lead witness turning out to be a Chinese spy and “on the lam”.   

But it doesn’t matter.  A deal is a deal, as Matt Gaetz so rudely stated: “Get in compliance or get gone”.   And so the Speaker announced yesterday that there would be an “Impeachment Inquiry” – not quite an impeachment, not even a hearing by the Judiciary Committee to determine impeachment, not even a vote by the House to begin the inquiry.  It’s to be more Hunter bashing and ash stirring, looking for some ember to coax to a Biden consuming flame.

Modern Benghazi Hearings

McCarthy itself said it best, in an accidental moment of honesty back in September of 2015.  The House put together a Benghazi committee, that spent millions of dollars in seven different investigations.  McCarthy told Sean Hannity on Fox:

 “…everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi Special Committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping.”

The goal of the impeachment “inquiry” is not to remove Joe Biden.  The goal is to so tarnish Biden that he seems equal to the twice impeached, four-time indicted former President who is likely to lead the Republican ticket in 2024.   If you can’t raise Trump up, you can drag Biden down, just like they did to Hillary. 

Shut It Down

And all of this is on top of a second “Gaetz and Company” demand:  that the Congressional budget be radically slashed.  The clock is ticking:  the budget resolution expires on September 30th.  Without some joint House/Senate action, the government will shut down.  The Senate is well on the way to assuring continuity, with twelve budget resolutions out of Committee and on the way to a full vote.  But the House has passed only two. 

So not only does McCarthy have to begin impeachment inquiries, he also has to find a way to mollify his “crazies” and keep the Government going.  It’s not likely to happen, at least without some tacit support of House Democrats.  But if the Speaker goes to Democrats for support, he absolutely, positively would be “out of compliance”.    

And “out of compliance” might well mean a return to Kevin “just” being the member from Bakersfield. A shut down of the United States Government looms ahead, and there’s no reasonable solution in sight.

Which, of course, begs the question:  if Gaetz, Boebert et al. pull  McCarthy down, who becomes the next Speaker?  Who is willing to give away the “farm” for the title? And who will reopen the government, if there’s no one in charge?

Postscript

Matt Gaetz tonight – appearing on MSNBC’s The Beat the Ari Melber, said that McCarthy was “lying like a dead dog”. I guess Gaetz’s isn’t planning on backing off anytime soon. Meanwhile, McCarthy today was “waffling” on calling the Biden “investigation” an “impeachment inquiry”. Maybe it’s just an old fashioned inquiry – not an impeachment one??

The Day After

Division

I was talking to a veteran this weekend.  We know each other well: I was his high school cross country coach.  Surprisingly for these days, we were actually talking politics, but more in general than in specific.  We talked about the great divide in America, the polarization to the point where “talking politics” outside of your own bubble is a recipe for anger and insult.  And he reminded me of something.

He knows I’m a Democrat, but he said:  “I don’t know what you think of George W Bush as President, but we’ve never been more united than on September 12, twenty-two years ago.”  And I told him the truth, I didn’t like much about George Bush before that week.  In fact, I struggled to accept him as President, seeing him as elected more by the five Republicans on the Supreme Court than by the Nation.  But that week, after September 11th  2001, I was united with the rest of the Nation behind his leadership. 

We Heard 

Bush’s own actions did it.  The military and the Secret Service shuffled him around like a pea in a shell game on September 11th:  He fled a second grade classroom in Florida for Barksdale Air Base in Louisiana, and then Offutt Air Base in Nebraska.  It was at that moment, hidden in a bunker, Bush “became” President.  He ordered Air Force One back into the air, the only plane in the American skies, and he flew back to Washington.  He spoke to the Nation and the World.  And then, three days later, he went down into the still smoking wreckage of the World Trade Center.  He held up a bullhorn, surrounded by hard-hat workers and firefighters.  He started to speak and the workers farther away yelled out, “We can’t hear you”.  And Bush responded with a spontaneous phrase that galvanized a Nation:

“I can hear you! I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.” 

America – we knew it was time to go to war.  And we were more than ready, even the Democrats who voted for Al Gore ten months earlier, even those of us who protested Vietnam.  We were ready to make those that attacked feel America’s wrath.  It wouldn’t last; the “justified” war in Afghanistan morphed into a less clear attack on Iraq.  The atrocities at CIA “Dark Sites” and Abu Gharib created fractures in American resolve.  But for those first weeks, months and even maybe that first year; we were the America of December 8th, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor.  We were the “Great Democracy”, willing to use the “righteous might” of our forefathers to avenge our losses.

Defenders

For me, those days have the crystal clear memories of the moments before a car crash, the second-by-second hyper-focus that never goes away.  I’ve written about that before, in an essay titled Eighteen Years Ago.  And I’ve told the “stories” around 9-11, from the stirring monuments to the courageous survivors in other essays, including Twenty-One Years Ago and Shanksville.

Many of the young men and women I taught around that time felt compelled to defend our Nation.  They went to war in far-away places, in situations where there were few “rules of engagement”, at least for the enemy.  Some sacrificed their lives, and many more sacrificed their youth and their health to make sure that those  “… people who knocked these buildings down would hear from all of us”.    They went for the same reasons my father’s generation went to Europe and the Pacific in World War II.  

Teachers

My friend and I are both teachers, though I am retired.  He teaches medics how to deal with crises, hopefully not like 9-11.  What used to be a common memory, like a current event in his classroom, is now a page in the history book.  Most of his students are too young to remember anything but the images of collapsing buildings – maybe a memory of the day, more likely impressed from thousands of repetitions on television.  And while they may know the “facts” of 9-11, they cannot “remember” the unity of the 12th.

We are America.  Do not let the division of today, determine our necessary unity tomorrow.  History shows the error of foreign leaders  “taking advantage” of American divisions. It didn’t work; not in World Wars I and II, not on 9-11, not even in Ukraine.  American politics is like a family – the brothers can fight each other like mortal enemies, but don’t let an outsider attack one.  The brothers will be shoulder to shoulder fighting back.  

It’s hard to imagine such unity right now, Red Hats and Rainbow Shirts.  But it doesn’t require a National disaster to achieve it.  Unity is still here.  We see communities come together, regardless of politics, in disasters and crises.  We can still work together for the betterment of our towns, regardless of who we choose for President.  

I am a “blue” living in a sea of “red”.  But we are all American.  And today is not only a day to remember the fallen on 9-11, but a day to remember the unity of the day after.

The McGowan

This is another in the Sunday Story series – no politics here, just the story of a tradition, started half a century ago.

Small Town

It was fifty years ago, in 1974.  A young graduate of Western North Carolina State University in Cullowhee came back home to Pataskala, Ohio.  He became the gym teacher at Etna Elementary, the track coach at his alma mater, Watkins Memorial High School, and he revived the cross country running program there.  John McGowan brought a “kid-centered” attitude to coaching.  His teams became families, tied both to John and each other, some for life.  And as part of their cross country experience, he started a small invitational, just a few teams competing the then-two mile distance. Only boys ran,  girls “couldn’t” run that far, it was thought. They went around the Future Farmers of America (FFA) cornfield behind the new middle school, and into the school woods to run a “short” loop and finish beside the “old” high school.

John was one of the early advocates for women in both cross country and track.  Within three years, there was a girls race at the “Watkins Invitational”, and by 1978 girls cross country was an “official” sport, sponsored by the Ohio High School Athletic Association.  Watkins had a girls team from the beginning. 

 Developments

The length of the race increased, first to two and a half miles, then to the present three miles, 176 yards (3.1 miles or, more exactly, 5000 meters).   The path in the woods was extended too.  If you “know” the woods at Watkins, the two mile path is the “middle school loop”, the two and a half mile path is the “long loop”, and the 5000 meter path is the “super loop”, the same course run today.  John literally built the “super loop” in the early 1980’s, with the help of a local bulldozer operator doing other work around the school.

A lot has changed in fifty years.  The FFA cornfield is now the “rugby pitch”, there’s a baseball field beside it, and the middle school became the high school and now is back to a middle school again.  There’s a new football and track stadium, a soccer stadium and an athletic building with lots of locker rooms and restrooms. It’s a good thing.  The cornfield next to the starting line that used to “relieve” that problem, is now a housing development.

And just this year, they are building a new elementary school on the same site, where the races used to start.  Off the “back” of the super loop woods, there’s a whole new campus, with a new high school and intermediate school (grades four and five).  But the Watkins Invitational still remains on the second Saturday of September.  

The McGowan

But it’s not called the Watkins Invitational anymore.  Twenty-one years ago it was renamed in honor of John McGowan, the “McGowan Invitational at Watkins”, or in Ohio cross country shorthand, “The McGowan”.  And it’s not just a few teams and a single race or two.  Yesterday there were sixteen races, boys, girls, high school, middle school; varsity and reserve.  2,600 kids participated in the meet this year, down from a decade ago, but still one of the biggest meets in the state.  

And on the finish line, “welcoming” kids at the end of the race, was John McGowan.  Welcoming is probably not quite the right word for what happens.  The runners finish;  some “high five” in celebration, some fall over from exertion, some throw up.  As one middle school Dad asked his kid after the race; “Do you still have that beef jerky I gave you to eat?” “No, Dad, I already ate it before the race.”  For most kids, they don’t know the “old guys” at the finish line – they’re just glad to be done, to have tested themselves against the distance, the heat, the roots in the woods and the other competitors in their race. 

They ran “the McGowan”, a unique race in today’s modern cross country world.  Most races today are around athletic fields, closely monitored by carts at the front and back.  But at Watkins, two-thirds of the race is still on that “super loop”, running through the paths among the trees.  Sure, the old creek-crossing now has a full bridge, and there’s a beautiful walkway over the path through the “wetland” (we used to call it the swamp).  There are a lot of folks who contributed time and effort to improve the place.  But the “essence” of the “McGowan” is what John himself planned.

Family

I’ve been a part of the Watkins cross country family for all but the first four years.  While I’m now one of those “old guys” on the finish line, I also help “put out fires” so that the current coaches can coach their kids.  So at one point yesterday, among the thousands of kids and thousands of spectators, I got to go back in the woods to “switch” paths for the shorter middle school races.  With all of the surging, cheering crowds out in front, there still was quiet in the woods.  I ran into other “old coaches”, almost “ghosts of cross country past”, and a couple that I think I had a conversation with last year in the very same place.  One of my runners from two decades ago was sitting on a log, waiting for her kid to run by.

But most of all, there was the calm of the woods, followed by the sound of three hundred feet skipping across the hard dirt path, then the labored breathing of competition.  Finally the leaders came into view, focusing on the path, the competitors, and their own efforts.  

The fiftieth “McGowan” is in the books.  There’s a whole new cross country family with “new” coaches (John Jarvis has been coaching since the 1990’s).  But we all still cherish what John McGowan started fifty years ago.  Sure there’s the races, and the woods; but most importantly, there’s the family.  That’s John’s biggest accomplishment, a half-century later.  

The Sunday Story Series

Easy Way Out

Congress Failed

There were lots of opportunities to stop Donald Trump.  He is the only President to be impeached twice by the US House of Representatives.  Had the Senate convicted either time, they could have banned him from serving in public office.  Even while he was still serving as the President, the Senate could have convicted him of corruption in office.  They had him dead to rights, the “perfect” phone call to Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy, where he asked Zelenskyy to investigate Joe Biden in return for US military aid.  The House impeached Trump, and the Senate held a trial. But they failed to convict him, on a near straight party-line vote.

And in the second trial, after the insurrection and with Trump no longer in office, the Senate could have convicted him again.  Even though he was out, they could have taken that step to bar him from future office, ending his MAGA “revolution”.  But instead, they “passed the buck” to the judicial system. As Mitch McConnell so eloquently put it, Trump could be brought before the Courts and held civilly or criminally responsible for his actions.  Fifty-seven Senators voted to convict, ten short of the needed two-thirds.  So while Trump was out of office, he was, and is, a threat to return.

And there was even conversation in the Democrat controlled House and Senate of passing a resolution, declaring that Donald Trump committed insurrection.  They could have put the “sense of the Congress” imprint on the man.  But, they didn’t.

Justice Failed

The Biden Administration came into office committed to a return to “politics as usual”.  Biden, reasonably, did not want to be the President who prosecuted his predecessor.  That would be a “Banana Republic” thing to do, not the “shining city on the hill” example of American democracy.  Merrick Garland was taken from the Federal Appellate Court bench to lead the Justice Department, as a sign of fairness and neutrality.  The entire momentum was to put the Insurrection “behind” us, and get back to the “old days” of political congeniality.

It was a laudable goal, but one impossible to achieve in our divisively partisan environment.  It took the prodding of the Democratic controlled House of Representatives with the January 6th Committee hearings, to get Garland to appoint a Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith.  And in less than a year, Smith brought criminal charges against the former President.  But instead of happening at the end of 2021, it’s now the middle of 2023.  We are four months from the Iowa Caucuses, and fourteen months from the 2024 general election.   Trump is running again.

Add to that, Jack Smith did not use “magic words” in any of his Federal charges against Trump (at least, so far).  Nowhere in the indictments are the words “sedition”, or “treason”, or “insurrection”.  Those charges carry a lifetime ban from public office.  So even if Trump is convicted of ALL of the Federal charges now levied against him, they don’t legally bar him from holding office.  Here’s a vision:  the “President” behind bars, waiting to be sworn into office (in the prison lounge?) and then “pardoning himself” – if that’s possible.  

14th Amendment

So there were four possible chances of barring Donald J. Trump from a future Presidency.  We didn’t do it, either through the Congress or the Department of Justice.

So now here come the academics, college law professors and some members of Congress (including the bête noire of the MAGA movement, Adam Schiff) saying the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution can be used to “rid us of this turbulent Presidential Candidate”.  Conservative and Liberals all (including conservative retired Judge Luttig and most liberal Harvard Professor Tribe) are signing onto the proposition.  

They are all using the “language” of the six Federalist Society members of the US Supreme Court.  They claim that the “plain meaning” of the 14th Amendment can be used to ban Insurrectionists and those who gave “aid and comfort” to them.  And further, that the plain actions and words of Donald Trump makes him, if not an Insurrectionist himself, then someone who gave them aid and comfort.  They want to disqualify him from appearing on 2024 ballots.

And since the individual states, not the Federal government, run the election process of the United States; the “14th Amendment-ers” are going from state to state to bar Trump from the ballot.  But the State courts, where this will start, are likely to move the case into the Federal Court system. It clearly is a Federal case.  And the Supreme Court would be required to rule on the issue in some way.

We the People

My best guess:  despite the wishes and desires of conservatives and liberals alike, I cannot imagine the US Supreme Court, six conservatives or even the three liberals, agreeing to the premise that Trump is a “defined insurrectionist”.  On whose definition?  No court has adjudicated him an insurrectionist.  The Department of Justice dodged even using the term.  The Congress had the opportunity to weigh-in on the issue at least three times and failed to do so.  Why in the world would the Justices of the Supreme Court take it upon themselves to make the factual determination that Trump is an insurrectionist, and then apply the 14th Amendment to him?

They won’t.  

I think Donald Trump led an Insurrection.  I think he led a plan to throw out the legitimate election results of 2020 and keep power.  Larry Tribe of Harvard,  Congressman Adam Schiff and even Judge Luttig think so too.  But what we think, what we believe, even what we know; really doesn’t mean much.  This is the United States, and embedded in our foundation is the concept of innocent until PROVEN guilty.  We must prove that Trump was an insurrectionist, and there is only one place to PROVE it – in the Courts.  

Alas, there is no case, either Federal or in Georgia (or Arizona, Pennsylvania or Michigan) that will present the proof.  Trump hasn’t been charged with that “high” crime.  And since that isn’t going to happen – neither is this 14th Amendment gambit, the “easy way out” of our national crisis created by Donald Trump. 

It’s too bad. But the only way is through the crucible of another election.  Like it or not, We the People will determine the outcome with our votes.  That will be the true test of whether our  “American Experiment” will survive.  

No Joke

22 = 19

Enrique Tarrio, leader of the “Proud Boys”, was sentenced to twenty-two years in Federal Prison Tuesday. He’s convicted for his actions around the January 6th Insurrection.  Tarrio himself wasn’t on Capitol Hill that day.  He was in Baltimore, already banned from Washington DC for tearing a Black Lives Matter banner down from a neighborhood church and burning it on December 12th.  But it was his organizational skills that brought the Proud Boys to the Capitol on January 6th. They served as the “point of the spear” in disrupting Congress.  Tarrio is as high up “the pyramid” as the investigation of the actual Insurrection has gone – so far.

The judge agreed with prosecutors that his sentence could be “enhanced” and defined his actions as domestic terrorism.  And while the judge did not give Tarrio the full thirty-three year sentence recommended, he now has the longest sentence of any Insurrection participant.

Twenty-two years:  with “good time” Enrique will get out of prison no sooner than 2042.  The thirty-eight year old will be fifty-seven.  And he’ll have three more years of probation after his jail time is completed. He’ll be sixty when he finishes“his time”, twenty-two years from now.  

By then, many of us now so shaken by the Insurrection will be gone (maybe not me, I’ll be eighty-nine).  History will have moved on, leaving Enrique as a footnote, like Sirhan Sirhan and  Leslie Van Houten are now. (Sirhan assassin of Bobby Kennedy, is still in custody. Van Houten was part of the Manson Family and just released after fifty-four years).

Proud Boys

But Enrique’s “work” lives on.  The Proud Boys are still in the streets. Just last month they protested the Tennessee Legislature considering gun control laws in emergency session.  And  many of them are “infiltrating” mainstream politics.  Five held seats on the Miami, Florida, Republican Party Committee.   And several other Proud Boys ran for local school boards in California and Florida.  

Some media commentators are making a big “point” that the Justice Department didn’t get everything they wanted; the full thirty-three years.  One respected former FBI official suggested that the judge was suffering from the same kind of “blindness” that afflicted the FBI itself prior to January 6th.  The FBI couldn’t envision that Trump protests could degenerate into a riot aimed at occupying the Capitol and capturing key leaders.  They were shocked when it happened.  The commentator said that the sentencing judge didn’t “get” the full import of Insurrection: that it challenged American traditions and the Constitution.

Look, twenty-two years in Federal prison is no joke.  Unlike a state twenty-two year sentence, which might add up to ten actual years behind bars, a twenty-two year Federal sentence will last 18.7 years at the minimum.  Tarrio received the longest sentence of any convicted Insurrectionist so far.

The Pyramid

Tarrio and Oath Keeper leader Stewart Rhodes (eighteen years) might be the leaders of the most militant Insurrectionists. But they aren’t the “top of the pyramid”.  Both were in contact with Trump political advisor Roger Stone, and met with Stone in a garage the night before the Insurrection.  Talk about chutzpah; they held the meeting in front of documentary cameras, recorded “for the ages”. 

Stone, Trump advisor Steve Bannon, former National Security Advisor General Michael Flynn, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and other Trump advisors organized the January 6th protests from a “War Room” in the posh Willard Hotel.  According to testimony to the January 6th Committee, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows frequently called in.  According to Washington Post reports, Trump himself was calling as well.

The current Federal indictments are focused on the “legal” shenanigans around disrupting the Congressional counting of electoral votes.  But the Courts haven’t gotten beyond to the direct violence on the Capitol steps and the actual Insurrection.  What, logically, was a coordinated effort between the “War Room” and the battle in the halls of Congress, has not been “legally” approached. 

Eyes Closed

Why not?  First of all the folks in the “War Room” were well aware of their “trespasses”.  Bannon, Stone, and Flynn all were veterans of the Court system, and all three had Trump “get out of jail” pardons in their pockets for previous offenses.  Despite the documentary evidence, there is an “air gap” between the violence on the steps, and the network connected directly to the White House.  

And second, Tarrio and Rhodes are proving to be “good soldiers”.  There isn’t (so far) a “deal” to turn state’s evidence.  They, like Stone, must look back at the Watergate Era and G. Gordon Liddy, who served five years rather than betray the Watergate conspiracy.  In their minds, they must be the fallen “heroes” of the battle to save the Nation – for Trump.

And finally, there may be that same “blindness” that struck the FBI.  To connect the line from the Capitol steps to the Willard Hotel, is to connect the violence and threats of bodily harm to Pence, Pelosi, Schumer and the rest directly to the White House.  Maybe that’s a mental “bridge too far” for prosecutors:  a President leading a revolution, here in the United States. 

I hope we don’t have to wait for Enrique’s book to find out.  I’m not sure how well I’ll be reading at eighty-nine.

Get Mad

“Leo, we need to be investigated by someone who wants to kill us just to watch us die. We need someone perceived by the American people to be irresponsible, untrustworthy, partisan, ambitious, and thirsty for the limelight. Am I crazy, or is this not a job for the U. S. House of Representatives?” – White House Press Secretary CJ Cregg – The West Wing (TV Show) – 2001

World Turned Upside Down

All of the old “rules” of politics are out the window.  What was “up” is now “sideways”.  As the British Army surrendered to General Washington at Yorktown, the band played – “The World Turned Upside Down”.  And they thought things were crazy then.  

Here’s today’s logic:  every time the former President and current candidate is criminally indicted, his polling numbers get stronger.  His campaign raised $10 million by marketing his “Mug Shot”.  Remember when we used to look through the  “BUSTED” newspaper, looking for acquaintances, or just the goofiest face going to jail?  Now it’s financing a Presidential campaign.  

All Smoke

The most recent  Facebook “meme” states the United States is spending more money for Ukraine’s defense then to support American cities, and claims that money goes into Joe Biden’s pocket.  That’s false on its face:  US support for Ukraine in the past year was $76.8 billion (CFR).  The US government spent $482 billion on student loan programs alone, much less infra-structure improvement, and all of the other domestic spending (CBO).  What’s the leading Republican, James Comer’s, answer about finding evidence against President Biden?  “I sure hope so. And I do believe that there’s a lot of smoke. And where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” (Medialite).

We don’t convict on smoke.  We often don’t even convict on fire, as the Mueller Report demonstrated.  But, in our “world turned upside down” the Republican House of Representatives might try.  Speaker Kevin McCarthy is moving to begin an “impeachment inquiry” of President Joe Biden.  He wants to show the “smoke” to the Nation at large – on the biggest stage possible, a Presidential impeachment hearing and trial.

Impeach

If the Republicans in the House of Representatives vote to begin an impeachment inquiry of Biden, they will be irrevocably committed to impeaching him.  The Democratic House would have done the same on the much stronger Mueller evidence, had Speaker Pelosi let it come to the floor.  But she didn’t.  Don’t be surprised if we spend the December and January watching Biden hearings, followed by a brief Senate trial.  In the end not even all forty-nine Senate Republicans will vote to remove him from office, much less the sixty-seven total necessary to convict.  

It’s not about “smoke” or “fire”.  It’s about elections.  McCarthy’s Republicans believe they can drag Biden’s polling down so far, that even Donald Trump could beat him for President in 2024.  But that’s the confusing part for me.  If all of this “fire” on Trump is building him up, filling his campaign war-chest, and solidifying his support – why won’t that work for Biden?

You Came Here

I know, we Democrats are the “good guys” (at least in our own minds).  We don’t want flawed candidates for office.  Ask Al Franken.  But maybe Democrats need to face up to the reality of today’s politics.  As the Cheshire cat said in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland; “Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.” “How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice. “You must be,” said the Cat, or you wouldn’t have come here.”

We are in a mad “Wonderland” of politics.  Maybe Democrats need to take a page from the Trump “playbook”.  Trump says that any publicity is better than none, even indictments and “mug shots”.   Maybe the Biden White House should realize that, in spite of their desire to return to “normal” politics, that isn’t our world today.  They need to “get mad”, because if they aren’t mad, they shouldn’t have come here.

And as CJ Cregg said in that West Wing episode over twenty years ago, maybe it’s the “job for the US House of Representatives”.   Speaker McCarthy is going to deliver that up on a silver platter.  Instead of finding a way “out” of impeachment, the Bidens should say – “game on”: and get mad. 

Missing Margaritaville

This is a Sunday Story.  Not much politics here – just the impact of music on my life, and the loss of Jimmy Buffett this weekend.

Country

When I was growing up, Country music was “not cool”.  It was the sixties, and Country-Western was unavoidable.  It was on “regular”  TV twice a week!  The national Grand Ole Opry Show was on, and locally, WLW-T  had the Midwestern Hayride.   There were twangy fiddles and whiny singers, guitars and banjos.  It was early Saturday evening; us kids waited for it to finish so we could see “Saturday Night at the Movies”.  It was definitely not our kind of music.

Mom and Dad had an extensive record collection, though they really didn’t listen to that much music at home.  When they did, it was the singers from the Big Band Era; Sinatra, Williams, Como, and Tony Bennett.  Or it was the jazz pianists like Peter Nero, or Broadway show tunes.  What I didn’t know was that in their younger days, Mom and Dad loved going to the Big Band shows downtown and dancing; shows like the Dorsey Brothers, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and even our cousin, Tommy Lee (Levine).

Rock and Roll

But upstairs, my sisters were playing rock and roll.  I still have the “mono” version of “Meet the Beatles”, permanently borrowed from their collection. My own first record, a “45”, was James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain” on one side, and “Anywhere Like Heaven” on the other.  Next came Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” album, then Blood Sweat and Tears.  They’re all still stacked on the shelf underneath a new turntable today (the band drive wore out on the old one). 

So I grew up in the folk rock of the late sixties, with some Beatles on the side, and a little jazz-rock mixed in.  Then I “discovered” Crosby-Stills-Nash and Young, wearing out two copies of their live album, Four Way Street.  They were acoustic and hard rock, a combination that opened me up to a lot more music.  What I didn’t realize was there was “country” in CSNY’s work as well.  One of their most popular songs, “Teach Your Children”, opened with a “country” pedal-guitar segment.  I later learned that Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead sat-in to record it.  

And then there was the other California “rock” singers; the Eagles, Jackson Browne, and Linda Rondstat. There was always a “country” element to their work.  And once you liked the Eagles, how could you not like “Alabama”, a real country group.  So “country” was working its way into my consciousness.

Southern Rock

But I still avoided “country”.  So when I first heard the Allman Brothers “Eat a Peach” album with their rock and country mix, the slide guitars from Opry fame and long instrumental sets like Blood Sweat and Tears, I had to overcome my “country fear”.  But those long sets fit right into driving through the night on empty highways, something I did a lot of in my twenties.  And my introduction into “Southern Rock” was furthered when I was working on the Carter Presidential campaign in 1976.  Carter  himself was an Allman Brothers and Charlie Daniels friend and fan, so of course, their songs became “themes” of the campaign offices.

So, like it or not, Southern Rock slipped into my playlists.  There was the Marshall Tucker Band (“Can’t You See”), and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s, “Sweet Home Alabama” (though the Neil Young reference always annoyed me).  And who in the world didn’t like “Free Bird”?  Crossing the Pennsylvania Turnpike in the dark, nothing got my 1967 Volkswagen Squareback moving like Skynyrd at full volume.

And somewhere in all of that, a country song from an “unknown” named Jimmy Buffett slipped in.  I doubt it was on the “Pirate Rock” stations I usually listened to on the radio, like WEBN in Cincinnati or WLVQ in Columbus.  But I heard “Come Monday”, and related to wearing Hush Puppies shoes.  And I got the theme:  get through this, and there will be a better day.  It will be all right.

Changes in Attitude

As an adult I went through phases.  There was the eighties, were I reverted to psychedelic rock:  the Doors and Jefferson Airplane, in response to the “Hair Metal” I heard from the kids I coached.  And, even though I grew up in a “Beatles” house, I also “discovered” a group called the Rolling Stones.  Then my brother-in-law introduced me to another side of “Country”, Bluegrass music.  All of a sudden, I was listening to the descendants of those “twangy” fiddles and “whiny” vocals I dodged as a kid.   Now I’ve heard folks like the Steep Canyon Rangers, Bela Fleck, and Sam Bush, live on stage.

But it wasn’t until I retired that I started listening to more from Jimmy Buffett. He was a “country” singer, who crossed out of country to create a whole new genre of music.  He first called his style “Drunken Caribbean” but later settled “Gulf-Western”.  It combined the typical country ballad, with the rhythms and instruments of the islands. 

 Jenn and I spent a “snowbird” winter in Florida, hanging out on beaches and in  “Tiki Bars”.  Buffett music poured over us like the afternoon sun on Wabasso Beach and the Atlantic waves lapping on the shore. Instead of the anguished protests of CSNY, or the frenzied “trips” down the rabbit hole with the Jefferson Airplane, Buffett was about laying back, “chillin’, with the next Corona (or Landshark) cold in your hand and sand under your feet.

His music symbolized a lifestyle “inverse” for me.  The eighty and ninety hour work weeks of decades turned into songs of the sea, and the beach, and the nearest bar with live music.  Just as the protest music in the early seventies fit my life, so did Buffett’s call to relax and enjoy fit in the twenty-teens.  

Jimmy Buffett passed away this weekend.  I can’t say I was a “Parrot Head”, and I never got to add him to my “bucket list” of live concerts.  But his music still themes this segment of my life.  We “raised a glass” to Jimmy last night.  It was a Margarita.

The Sunday Story Series

Not Funny

Breaking the Ice

Today I “broke the ice”.  I substituted for a teacher-friend at the local high school.  It’s not control of a classroom that’s the issue for me, it’s getting up and “at work” by seven in the morning.  I know that sounds whiny; even to me.  I spent an entire career at my desk by 6:30 am, often with a workout already done.  But that was another era, almost a decade ago.  


It’s not that I don’t get up.  The dogs usually won’t let me sleep past seven anyway.  But it’s just “jamming” my brain into gear that early in the morning.   Whew – I can hardly consume enough coffee to make my head “go”.  (And thank goodness they have a teacher’s restroom, every floor of every wing, when I do!)

So today was the first day of subbing for the 2023-24 school year.  It’s good to see old friends, even good to see kids who don’t have a clue who I am.  And good to know that I can still get through to them, even though I’m definitely the “old guy” in room 220.

Jeeping to School

On the drive in this morning, I did something “old fashioned”.  Usually when I’m driving the Jeep (no top – it’s a beautiful morning), I’m “blue toothed” into my phone, listening to old rock and roll or MSNBC.  But today for the short excursion to the new high school, I just listened to the “classic rock” radio station in town, Q-FM 96.  And, as often is the case on morning drive, there wasn’t much classic rock at all.  Instead, the hosts of the program were doing a kind-of comedy routine.  

Now that routine is often off-color and usually amusing.  But today I discovered how far politics has seeped into even this facet of life.  The “morning crew” was taking segments from TV news and trying to develop humor from them.  But when it came to the CNN coverage of Hurricane Idalia, it quickly dropped into something less than funny.  CNN brought in an expert, who pointed out that the hurricane jumped from a Category One to a Category Three as it passed over the unusually warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.  The average temperature now is a record 88 degrees, two degrees above normal (WAPO), the same temperature of my “hot” tub turned “cool” tub for the summer.

Not Our Problem

The expert attributed the excessive temperature fueling the hurricane to climate change, and particularly global warming.  He noted that until we reduce carbon emissions by using less fossil fuels, things will get worse.

 The folks on the radio wanted none-of that, making fun of “climate change”.  “We’ve always had hurricanes, and driving our cars doesn’t make a difference”.  They noted that in the 1970’s environmentalists warned us about “acid rain”, and in the 1990’s about global ice melting, implying nothing bad happened.  Since the “morning crew” didn’t see anything consequences, then this whole concern about global warming was something to laugh off.

Happening Now

So let’s go back to acid rain.  This was a huge concern in the 1970’s, as US coal-fired power plants in the Midwest sent sulfur particles into the sky.  Those mixed with rainwater to create a mild sulfuric acid, falling on eastern and northern soils and changing the crop and water conditions.  It was a big deal that was ultimately resolved; first by using “low sulfur coal”, then “scrubbing” emissions for the sulfur particles, and later by removing most coal fired power plants and switching to other fuels.  The problem didn’t “go away” and we didn’t learn to live with it – we fixed it.

And the warning from the 1990’s about ice melting hasn’t changed.  The North Pole ice cap is now fragmented, with clear passage around Canada available year-round.  The Greenland ice cap is thinning, as are the main glaciers in the European Alps and the Rocky Mountains.  And even in Antarctica, many of the glaciers are quickly dissolving.  It’s all because of global warming.  

And what’s the problem there?  The oceans are rising, with coastal cities becoming more vulnerable to flooding.   Check out Miami, Florida today. Even on a normal rain shower the streets flood.  Or the US military, spending billions to defend coastal bases, not from a looming enemy, but from rising water levels.  Water temperature worldwide is also rising, fueling the unusual intensity of weather events.  It’s a “slow motion” crisis, easy to put off, just as we’ve been doing since the 1990’s and even earlier.  But, as the old saying goes, we are starting to “pay the piper” now.

Outside the Studio

The “morning crew” made fun of environmentalists.  “How dare they suggest we need to move away from fossil fuel, from burning gasoline in our cars and natural gas at our power stations.  Look, they been warning us for years, and nothing bad has happened yet: Ha, Ha, that crazy Al Gore!”

Don’t tell that to the folks who live on the “nature coast” of Florida, hit by their first hurricane in the past hundred years.  Or the farmers in the drought and flood cycle of the American West, raising the price of produce for the entire nation; or those in “tornado alley”, now facing extra months of risk and damage.  Or the rangers at Glacier National Park – the glacier itself is disappearing.

Climate change is real, it’s happening, and it’s impacting our lives right now.  And that’s just not very funny.  Wish they’d just play the Stones: “Painted Black” comes to mind.