Month: December 2024

Form Responses

On November 21^st, I sent an email to the White House.  That was kind of a big deal for me.  Years ago, I worked as a “correspondence” guy for a US Congressman.  We got letters, snail-mail back then, all the time. There were dozens on a normal day, and hundreds when some particular issue was “hot”.  My job was to read each one, and make sure we (acting as the Congressman) responded.  

We even had a special programmable typewriter (the mid-1970’s, an IBM SElectric). It could type out a letter on a given issue, pausing so you could type in the “personalization” of name, address, and sentences that made it unique.  So I would read all the letters, divide them into subject groups, and start replying to them.  If it was an issue where there was no “form” already written, I’d write a full response. But those new responses were “vetted” by the Congressman himself before they went out.

Some letters were personal requests. Those I forwarded to the “constituent service” folks to see what they could do. Later, I would be part of that service. The problem-solving was the most fun, and fulfilling, task in the office.

Indirect Influence

Then I summarized what came in that day, and make sure my boss, the Administrative Aide, knew what was important.   I’d finish sorting and answering the mail, and get onto whatever else was on my plate (a lot of scheduling, some legislative stuff). It was important was not to miss a day.  Like email today, miss a day and it just piles up, absorbing more time than possible to clear my desktop.

So I emailed the White House, knowing full well that it wasn’t going to the “ear” of the President. But it was important for me to let the President know, even indirectly, that this issue was important to me.

Hunter

My email was simple:  I asked Joe Biden, the 46^th President of the United States, to pardon his son Hunter. I then gave my reasons.  And Sunday, Joe Biden did exactly that.

Of course, it was my “permission” that allowed Biden to issue the pardon – NOT!!  I’m sure there was a computer file full of emails asking for Hunter’s pardon, and just as big a file full of those against.  But, just like in Congress, a summary made it to the Presidential ear.  

So what did I tell President Biden?  I told him the truth.   If Hunter Biden was Hunter Brown, he would never have been indicted , much less face imprisonment.  Hunter Biden didn’t pay his taxes, got caught, then paid them all with interest and penalties.  That happens in the US all the time, and seldom are criminal charges filed.  

Not Al Capone 

Sure, there’s definitely the “Al Capone” exception.  The Untouchables couldn’t get Capone for gangster activities like murder and bootlegging, but were able to put him away for tax evasion.  Capone couldn’t explain the income. If he did then he’d have to explain where it came from, and face an even greater prison sentence.  Hunter was able to demonstrate how he earned the money, and while some of it “smelled” of influence peddling, it was all legal.  

And “what-about” the gun charge? Hunter signed a document saying he was legally allowed to have a gun when he wasn’t.  That’s seldom charged in Federal criminal court, and is likely to be declared unconstitutional by the MAGA-Supreme Court majority shortly. All of the Biden charges reeked of “selective prosecution”.

Hunter Biden ain’t no Al Capone.  He’s simply the son of the number one “high value target” of the MAGA-Republican Party, Joe Biden.  The entire investigation doesn’t happen except Hunter is the son of Joe.  So, in the end, Hunter Biden would be serving Federal time, not because of his actions, but because it was the way to get at Joe Biden.  (Obama Attorney General Eric Holder, and many former US Attorneys make the same point).

No Supervision

It started under the Trump Administration with a Special Prosecutor, David Weiss, the former Republican US Attorney for the Biden’s home state of Delaware.  When Biden came to office, he chose not to interfere with the investigation of his son, allowing it to continue.  Hunter and Weiss came to a plea-bargain which would have avoided jail time.  But the MAGA-Republicans in Congress were able to raise such a ruckus, that the judge threw the bargain out.  Hunter was then re-indicted on more counts, and pled guilty to avoid risk of many years in jail.

Attorney General Merrick Garland bent over backwards to give Weiss all of the “runway” he needed to investigate Hunter.  Even five years and another President into the process, there was no “interference” or even “supervision” by the head of the Justice Department.  So while Democrats might have been in charge, it was the Trump appointed prosecutor that still had Hunter Biden by the scruff of the neck.

The Backlash

There was always going to be a backlash for Biden pardoning his son.  The MAGA-Republicans are angry:  they had Hunter, and the President stepped in and pulled him from their clenched jaws.  It’s rich, even laughable; listening to  the whining of MAGA supporters of a convicted felon for President, who made it clear he would use the pardon power to “clean the slate” for his followers.  And it certainly doesn’t show that the Justice Department is “weaponized”.  

What it does show that President Biden (and Attorney General Garland) allowed the system, tainted by Trump’s version of “weaponization” from the beginning, to go forward.  But there was nowhere else for it to go now, except for Hunter to do time in Federal prison.  And, of course, that time would be under the questionable oversight of a Trump Administration willing to use whatever tools necessary to get what it wants.  The current President didn’t want his son in jail, and he absolutely didn’t want a really weaponized Trump Justice Department to have literal control of Hunter’s very life.

Way to go Joe; you did exactly what needed to be done.  I’m proud of your service, in awe of your Presidency, and glad you can use the power of the pardon to right the wrong that was committed against you and your son.

Merry Christmas, Mr. President!!!

Thank you Joe Biden, for doing the right thing and pardoning your son, Hunter.  There’s a lot to say about that  – and I hope to have it ready for tomorrow.  

Fever Dreams

Watch out!!! History is being re-written, “whitewashed”, before your very eyes!!  On NBC’s Meet the Press this past Sunday, MAGA-Republican Senator Bill Hagerty from Tennessee made these “matters of fact” points.

• The 2016 investigation of Russian involvement with the Trump Campaign was not only “fake”, but a collusion of the FBI leadership with the Democratic Party.
• In 2020, the FBI “colluded” with Social Media companies to hide the “true evidence” on the Hunter Biden laptop.
• That “collusion” was the reason that Joe Biden was elected President.

That a MAGA-Republican representative would say that on national television isn’t really shocking.  What is shocking is that the Meet the Press moderator, Kristin Welker, allowed all of those “facts” to be posited without objection.  

These Steve Bannon “fever-dreams”, will be used to justify appointing a wholly unqualified Kash Patel as the new director of the FBI. (That is, after current Trump Appointee Chris Wray is forced to resign or is fired).  Patel, like Bobby Kennedy at Health and Human Services, Pete Hegseth at Defense, and Tulsi Gabbard as National Intelligence Director; all are part of Trump’s cabinet picks, chosen for their loyalty to the United States, the Constitution, and most importantly – Donald Trump.   

Revisions

Here are some “real” facts:

• The Mueller Report found 140 contacts between the 2016 Trump Campaign and Russia and Wikileaks (the group that leaked the DNC and Hillary Clinton’s emails).
• This guy – a near-blind computer technician wearing a “tam-o-shanter”, is the “direct evidence” behind the Hunter laptop.  Tough to believe then, or now.

• There is no evidence, other than MAGA frustration, that the Hunter Biden laptop (or Hunter’s nude lap for that matter, displayed to the world by MAGA-Republican Congressman Greene)  would have changed the 2020 election results – anymore than the Access Hollywood video altered the 2016 results.

But we are going to hear a lot more “revisionist” history in the next four years; so get ready.  Here’s a list of events that will be whitewashed, and how the new MAGA-Republican Administration will insist they be seen.

Insurrection

There was no Insurrection.  There was a peaceful protest at the Capitol Building on January 6^th, 2021, where a few folks got out of control.  If the Capitol Police had simply let them all in, the “peaceful protestors” would have voiced their opinions, and left the Capitol undamaged.   Therefore, all of those imprisoned for offenses on January 6^th should be released (and pardoned), and those “Democrat” prosecutors who brought charges against them now should be the prosecuted.  And besides, it was Nancy Pelosi’s fault.

Pandemic

Sure, there was a pandemic in 2020-2021.  But if we had just let the country go, it would have “burned through” the Nation, and we survivors would all now have “herd immunity” (the view of Trump’s appointee for Director of the National Institute of Health, Jay Bhattacharya).  While Trump was instrumental in the quick development of vaccines, wearing masks was a “waste of time”.

  Those that advocated masks and closing schools and businesses ought to be held accountable for the “damage” they did.  The fact that 1.2 million died (and are still dying) from Covid, and that number would be multiple millions more if we tried to gain “herd immunity”, is “wrong-speak”, not accepted or allowed by the New Administration.

Child Separation

If we only made migrants really, really regret coming to the United States, they would stop coming.  So the first term Trump child-separation policy was not abhorrent at all, but brilliant.  The only flaw in the policy was that the media got access to what was going on.  We need to let the “dirty work” to “protect our borders” go on without interference.  (It’s the old Kiefer Sutherland in Twenty-Four attitude, secretly “doing American’s wet work”).   

The fact that conditions in some Central and South American countries are so bad, that anything, any risk, is better than staying there doesn’t mean anything at all.  The Border Guards should grab up their kids, whisk them all over the country on buses, and send the parents to camps and ultimately back to Nicaragua.  Ask Tom Homan, Trump’s new “Border Czar”. 

Tariffs

Tariffs will protect American industry from foreign competition.  If we just make those “furr-in” products more expensive, then we’ll “get back” to buying “good ol’ American stuff”.  (So back in the mid-1970’s, I worked for Sears in their TV and Stereo department.  My job was to “sell American”. Back then a company called Fisher, was the  only “American” stereo manufacturer.  Don’t think about Pioneer or Sony, buy American.   Sure, it cost more, and the quality wasn’t quite as good, but it’s American – right?)

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it best.  Tariffs cost American consumers money for imported goods, and the response to American tariffs will cost Canadians more money as well.  No one wins.

Resist

Part of the insidiousness of MAGAism is the impact on what we think of as facts.  In our current environment, those with the loudest megaphone often get to “declare the truth”, regardless of whether it’s true or not .  Add that to the Red State takeover of public education curriculum, and there is a real chance that the Whitewash will work.  Most Americans now believe that the Mueller Investigation was false, and that somehow it exonerated Donald Trump.  Neither of those are true.

Resistance (Part Two) includes standing for the truth, not some revisionist story.  That’s going to take courage, both by private individuals (and “essayists”) but also from journalists who will face intimidation and possible legal challenges for daring to telling it the way it really is.  And maybe the high school student who doesn’t allow a MAGA-based history course to pass without objection.

Dan Rather might have said it best when he chose one word to end his nightly newscast on CBS – Courage. It’s what will be required in the new Trump Era.

Performance

I was not a football coach – and I’m sure that my football coach friends will say that I don’t know what I’m talking about.  But, after forty years of coaching, from cross country to track to wrestling; I do know performance.  And I have a thought about the Ohio State versus Michigan football game that concluded in another Michigan win yesterday.  

I know both teams “wanted” it.  No one quit; every player, on both sides, tried to play to their maximum level.  So there’s something to consider:  is it possible to play beyond your maximum, beyond yourself?   What happens when each player all of a sudden feels the need to be a “super-hero”?  I can’t tell you what the pressure is like at the Division I collegiate level, particularly now that millions of dollars ride on each player.  I’ve never had to coach on that level.  

Try Harder

But I can tell you this:  players have to be able to respond automatically to what’s going on in front of them.  Anything that makes them think, or “try” too hard, is going to disrupt the flow of their game.  It’s so easy to tell an athlete to “try harder”, when it is that act of trying that often disrupts their performance.  And clearly, that was happening on the Ohio State offense. (Give the Defense kudos, they held Michigan to only 13.  No one expected the Buckeyes to just score 10).

Michigan’s coaches have found the secret.  They can be primed, ready, pumped, without losing their “autonomic responses” that make football players great.  The Wolverines weren’t screaming mad, fighting a “war” (as Ryan Day was quoted saying).  They were playing their “championship game”.  It’s their biggest game this season, a decent team that’s had a bad year.  They had nothing to lose, and everything to gain.  And they were playing to win.

And sometimes if you try to be Superman, you end up much less. 

Hyped 

Football is a game of muscle, of enforcing your will on someone else.  But it’s also a game of mental “flow”.  We saw a flash of that at the end of the second quarter, when the Ohio State offense just played.  But the rest of the game, from the coaches to the players, Ohio State’s offense was playing hard not to lose. My coaching analogy is that they were trying to hold “Jell-O”.  The harder you hold it, the more leaks out of your hand, until, ultimately it’s all gone.  So you have to hold it gently; with control of emotion, strength, and focus.  

Maybe screaming and yelling, maybe coaches breaking chairs in locker rooms work for some athletes (I’ve tried that).  But what I really think is that there’s  too much hype, too much craziness, too much of, “we can’t lose”.  Maybe we should walk it back a step, and make it another game; not Woody’s Ten Year War, not Urban’s magic, not Ryan Day’s curse.  At least, maybe that what Coach Day (if he’s still the coach come next Thanksgiving – the game is that important to Buckeye fans) needs to do.

House Divided

My best pre-game talk was simple:  “Do what you do.  Don’t be superman.  You got us here, you’ve won before.  I don’t need ‘Super You’ – I just need you”.

Ohio State’s offense tried to be Super-Bucks.  They only needed to be the team that won ten games before.  Michigan had nothing to lose, nothing on the line but pride.  It will be interested to see what lessons are learned – as Ohio State plays through the playoffs, and as both teams take the field in “The Big House” next year.

I live in a “House Divided”.  My family are Michigan fans, I am a moderate Buckeye fan.  I truly hope that Coach Day figures this out, that Ohio State plays through the playoffs, and gets to a National Championship Game.   He’s proven he can win almost everything – that is – except this one game.

As far as the fight after the game – I blame both coaches.  Coach Moore of Michigan was so exultant, he didn’t focus on his own kids.  Coach Day was clearly in shock, already replaying in slow motion a game that went by way too fast for him.  Neither looked to their primary duty, a job that doesn’t end when time runs out.  That duty is the behavior of their team, and the very foreseeable actions of both squads at the end of the game.  You can’t say it’s a war, and then pretend it’s not when time runs out.

There’s a movie called “Any Given Sunday”, about how every team has a chance at every game.  Michigan gets it, Ohio State doesn’t.  But there’s always more football – and I hope my Bengals, having a “Michigan like” season, find their “given Sunday” this afternoon against Pittsburgh.