Category: Uncategorized

This is another in the Sunday Story Series.  No politics here, just a story from someone beginning life with a Medicare card in his wallet.

 Red-White and Blue Club

I turned sixty-five last September.  This morning I realized that in five weeks, I’ll be sixty-six – so much older it seems, than just “Medicare age”.  And I’ve spent the last couple of months doing “Medicare” kind of things, using my Red-White and Blue Medicare ID card.  

When you first reach “this age”, you get a free medical appointment.  In fact, you are required to participate in the “free” appointment as a condition of getting Medicare.  Since I had my last physical just a couple weeks before my last birthday, I put off getting my “free” one until the summer (or until my physician started warning me about the “dire” consequences of skipping the “introductory” exam).  

Look, I’ve had enough health conditions that I’m a pretty steady, once a year physical kind of guy.   Getting an annual was long on my calendar before I reached Medicare age.  So I scheduled for early in the morning, as usual.  That way when they wanted to do blood tests, fasting wasn’t an issue. I usually don’t eat much in the AM anyway.  As long as they don’t worry about super-high-insanely-tenacious black coffee, I’m a pretty happy guy.  Without the coffee, I’m a danger on the road, and asleep in the waiting room.

State of Head

But what I wasn’t prepared for was “the quiz”.  You see, when you enter Medicare, the physician is required to evaluate your mental state.   They’re searching for signs of dementia, or Alzheimer’s (even if it takes the spell checker to get that right).  So you have to take the test.  First, there are three words – random words like:  banana, sunrise, chair.  The lady testing  just says them, then moves onto other questions.

“Am I dizzy often, do I fall a lot, do I feel safe at home, do I forget where I’m going?”.  Next, it’s the draw the clock test – where do the hands go if it’s 11:10.  Of course, I try to side-track the test (just like every student I ever taught); “what happens when the generation arrives that doesn’t do analog time?”  The tester stumbles for a second, then comes back with, “Well anyone your age should be able to, so draw the clock”.  I carefully suppress the urge to write 11:10, and  put the short hand where 11 goes, and the long hand at 2.  I hope she can tell the difference.

The Big Question

So it’s been a few minutes, and the focus has been on being dizzy (not often), falling (I don’t), getting lost (not that either), safe. (Well there are five dogs, but other than that. Oh, and I do trip over a dog from time to time, especially if I stand up too fast).  And then the entire clock conversation.  But the “BIG” question comes back up  – what were those three words again.  

I hadn’t thought about them, didn’t create a mnemonic to remember them, like the phases of cell replication that my freshman Biology teacher Mr. Sproul taught us – Pre Med at Texas (prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase – with interphase in the middle).  And maybe that’s a clue to “Medicare” age: I can remember Pre Med at Texas, and the five members of the Rolling Stones (Jagger, Richards, Woods, Watts, and Wyman), but for a brief moment there’s this blank in my head, a pause.  I stall – “do they need to be in order?”   (Here’s your test – don’t look back – what were the words??)   Then it’s there:  xxxxx, xxxxx, and my least favorite food of all, xxxxx.  The tester nods, I am cleared from dementia for my first Medicare year: whew!!

Going Slow

Next, it’s onto the ECG, checking out my frequently confused cardiac system.  Remember, it’s only 8 am, and I didn’t work out before I came here.  And I’ve been sitting around for a while.  I lay back on the table, watch the sticky tabs placed on my chest (why, oh why, do they keep those damn things in the refrigerator?) and relax as she hooks up the wires.  She runs the test, no paper rolls anymore, it’s now all onto a laptop.  Then she frowns, and says let’s do that again.  So I get a little drowsier.

It seems my heart rate is at fifty-one, and it’s confusing the computer program.  Now, given the situation, reclined, early morning, not enough of the super-high-insanely-tenacious black coffee in my system, I’m just glad my heart’s breaking fifty.  I run low, from fifty-five years of workouts and low thyroid, and it kicks up just fine when I need it.  To get back to that dizzy question, the better shape I get in, the more often I’ll get dizzy from a “head rush”, standing up too fast.  That’s because I jump up in between beats and it takes a second for the blood to catch up.  Being in shape means fewer heart beats.

We don’t go into any great explanation, but now there’s a new “term” in my chart – “bradycardia”.  Click on the link – what used to be a goal when I was younger now sounds terrible.  It’s really not; just being me, and the Doc isn’t concerned.  It’s not a thing.  But there’s that word.

What Did You Say?

So my Doc, (he’s about thirty-five, I picked one that I hope will outlive me), does the usual exam, listening to my heart and checking the numbers.  He says I’m fine, and wonders if I have any concerns.  I tell him that I sometimes struggle to hear certain sounds, conversations in crowds, and the nine-year-old kid next door.  So he sets me up for a hearing test.  And that becomes the next Medicare “challenge”.  

The last time I was in an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist’s office, I was fifteen and a wrestler.  Bob Rosenthal kneed me in the face during a wrestle-off , and my nose was definitely closer to the right side of my face than the left.  It took surgery, and a couple of weeks off of the mat, but old Doc Sidney Peerless got my nose back headed in the right general location.

So this week I went to an ENT here in Columbus (Peerless was in Cincinnati, and passed away at eighty-four in 2006) to get my hearing checked.  The first thing I noticed:  all of the staff speak loudly and annunciate carefully, not just to me, but to everyone in the room.  I guess if there’s a place to speak up, the “ear doctor” would be it.

Buzzing my Ear

My first stop was for the “dreaded” hearing test.  You go into a sound proof booth and they seal a pair of tight fitting headphones on.  Then the tester goes outside, and you soon hear her disembodied voice through the headphones, giving instructions.  The first series are words, and your job is repeat them back to the tester.  They come in left, right, or both, at a speaking tone or a whisper.  Sometimes there’s static in one ear and a word in the other.  And then there’s the point where the whisper is so quiet, you’re really not sure if you hear it, or just feel it, or it’s imaginary.   Think how foolish you look, repeating words that aren’t even there.  I try to make sure.

Then we switch to tones.  Some are high, some low, loud to soft, and sometimes, it becomes just an ethereal tinkling that might be a sound, or might be just your head messing with you.  When you hear it – say “yes”.  So it’s hours (or maybe ten minutes) of yes-yes-yes-pause-maybe-yes as the tones go back and forth, like a Jimi Hendrix solo in stereo.  

When I practice meditation (not so often recently, I just fall asleep), I focus on one “spot” in the center of my brain, and quiet every other thought.  So here I was, focused on the center of my brain where the tone was just at the faint edge of my hearing.  Enlightenment and Nirvana (the place, not the musical group) couldn’t have been far away, when a firm voice said – “THAT’S IT”.  

I’m Not Listening

My right ear is just fine.  My left ear is fine in the low to medium range.  Medium to high (the exact range of a nine year-old boy) it falls off, but not enough to require a hearing aid.  Why the left and not the right?  I’m left handed, and when I officiate track meets, I have the starting pistol with a .32 caliber black powder shell about three feet from my left ear.  I usually wear electronic hearing “muffs” that surpress the sound, but sometimes there’s no time to get them on.  A couple of years of fifty shots a night, a couple of times a week, and my left ear is getting it.  Not quite “shot” yet – but in definite need of protection.

He says I’ll have trouble hearing when the water’s running, or in a bar.  Well, I’ve been in trouble in bars before.

The doc says make sure the headgear’s on.  I will.

The Sunday Story Series

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

False Narratives

Many Americans buy into the story.  Bumbling, old, Joe Biden; stumbling around the White House, somehow just not able to get anything done.  If you’re politics are “right-er”, you might believe he’s being manipulated by the “Progressive/left”, maybe even the Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez wing of the Democratic Party.  If you’re politics are “left-er”, you know for sure that’s not true.  You see Biden as the proverbial fence sitter, with a leg on each side, incredibly uncomfortable in the middle.

We like to think in generalizations, like the “untouchable” Donald Trump, who is never accountable for anything he did wrong. Or the constantly scheming Hillary Clinton, willing to do anything  to win.  Of course, neither is true.  Trump was the only President of the United States called to task by impeachment not just once, but twice.  He spent four years in office under extreme scrutiny, and now that he’s out, the “heat” is even greater.  

And if Hillary was such a great “schemer”, maybe she should have done exactly what her opponent did.  It wouldn’t take much persuasion to convince her voters that the 2016 election was “rigged”, just as Trump did in 2020.  I’m sure there were people around her that wanted to. And they had to be smarter than the clown-car of lawyers around Trump.  But she didn’t.

Legislation Done

There is an old saying (no – not another one of those essays!) – the proof is in the pudding.  So, with a little less than two years “in the saddle”, what’s the win/loss record for the Biden Administration?

The easiest place to start is in the Congress.  The President signs “bills” into “laws”, but he has a much greater role in passing legislation.  Biden brings one talent to the table that no other President since Lyndon Johnson can claim.  Biden knows how to get things passed through the Senate.

Let’s start with the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, a spending bill that didn’t add to our current inflationary issues.  Remember the “joke of the month” of the Trump Administration – “it’s infrastructure week”?  They said it again and again, but infrastructure never even got onto the floor for debate.   Biden took less than eight months to push it through.  And it wasn’t just roads and bridges. Included were upgrades to our power grids and the essential basics for transitioning to electric-powered cars, and vast improvements in our port capacities.

More Jobs, More Security

And that was after the $1.9 trillion Covid relief package.  We Americans can gripe about inflation costing us our pay raises in an economy with unemployment down to 3%.  It’s easy to forget the 15% unemployment and huge shortages of the Covid pandemic just a few months before.  But the American economy came out of Covid almost as quickly as we went into it. Biden was a big part of that.  Sure gas prices were half of what they are now.  But there was nowhere to go, so gas supplies were high and demand low. Honestly, inflation was inevitable, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, but it was also a tradeoff to avoid a pandemic depression.

And now Congress has passed the Chips Act to increase production of computer chips here in the United States.  That’s not just “another jobs” bill.  It protects the US national security, by  lowering our dependence on Chinese chip production.  And just this week,  the PACT Act, will not only increases veteran health benefits, but recognize their unique sacrifices in exposure to chemical hazards.

Legislation Coming

Coming up:  perhaps a diminished Build-Back-Better, but still the biggest climate change law proposed in American history.   And the bill more than pays for itself, making every corporation worth more than a billion dollars pay a minimum of 15% on its income.   And finally, Congress is doing the obvious.  Every private insurance company in the United States negotiates “deals” for purchasing drugs.  As a user of daily prescription drugs, the difference between my “out of pocket” (about $50) and the monthly retail cost (over $600) is amazing.  

Private insurance companies spend 42% of prescription drug costs.  The second biggest spender is Medicare, at 33%.  Add Medicaid, and the US Government spends 44% of total drug costs (KFF).  But, by law, Medicare and Medicaid are prevented from negotiated the same kind of drug “deals” that the private companies get.  They have to take what the drug companies give them.

This “baby” Build-Back-Better includes allowing the US Government to make its own deal for drug prices, at a huge savings to the American people.   The current plan “on the table”, pays for all of this, and adds hundreds of billions to pay down on the US National Debt. 

Legislation Missing

What’s missing from the Biden scorecard?  Incredibly important voting rights legislation, reaffirming the 1965 Voting Rights Act and beyond.  While the current majorities in both the House and the Senate are in favor of that, two Democratic Senators are unwilling to “break” the Filibuster in the Senate to get it passed.  What is possible on the voting front?  A bipartisan “repair” bill to fix some of the worse faults revealed after the 2020 election.  That’s the new electoral vote certification act, that already has enough Senate votes to end a filibuster.

And the affirmation legislation, necessitated by the now radically right Supreme Court majority.  What we thought was settled law about abortion and contraception; gay marriage and LGBTQ rights, now all seems “up in the air”.  Congress could pass laws making those rights nationally guaranteed, in fact, that is exactly what the Supreme Court is demanding.  The House has put forward women’s health rights legislation, including legalizing abortions, but the sixty votes in the Senate aren’t there.  There might be some hope for Senate passage of gay marriage legislation, but that’s nowhere near a “done deal”.  

In The World

Biden has led the revitalization of NATO, much in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.   And in Ukraine, the United States is the biggest supporter of the Ukrainian forces, holding the line against Russian aggression. 

As ugly as it was, President Biden also ended America’s longest war and got our remaining troops out of the impossible situation in Afghanistan.   Last week, he demonstrated that America’s withdrawal didn’t end America’s involvement in the region.  An “over the horizon,” incredibly precise strike against Al Qaeda killed their leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, on the balcony of a luxury apartment in Kabul.  There were no other casualties, no “collateral damage”.  

And Biden skillfully this week let China know that while we still respect the “One China” principle, the United States supports Taiwan’s autonomy.  His friend, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, demonstrated that resolve in her visit to Taiwan in spite of Chinese protests.

Early Summary

It’s been eighteen months since Joseph R Biden was inaugurated as the 46^th President of the United States.  His ceremony was surrounded by 20,000 National Guard troops. It was a show of force to protect against further Insurrection.  And much of America’s attention is focused on the ongoing efforts to undermine our national tradition of free elections.  Congress, and the Department of Justice, are deepening their investigations into what happened before, and what is happening now.

But that’s not been Biden’s problem.  Despite the political upheaval and the riveting testimony in the January 6^th Committee hearings – Biden’s gotten a lot done.  But there is plenty more to do,  And he’s not even halfway through his first four years.  

Election Day

In several states, yesterday was election day.  Here in Ohio, at least as a Democrat in Pataskala, there wasn’t much to vote on.  There were candidates for the Ohio Democratic Central Committee.  All the Democratic State Representatives and Senators here weren’t on the ballot, there was only  one candidate  running for each seat.  So there’s wasn’t much to “drive” me to the polls.

But in Michigan and Missouri, Kansas and Arizona there were massively important elections.  

Referendum on Abortion

Let’s start with Kansas.  With the end of Roe v Wade, The Republican legislature of Kansas wanted to ban abortions in the state.  But the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the State Constitution guaranteed the right of women to choose their health care, including abortion.  So the legislature decided to put a Constitutional amendment on the statewide ballot, allowing them to ban abortions.  

They did it in the August primary election, the least “attended” election in almost every state.  Like the failed strategy of “passing school levies” when nobody votes, the idea was that the Amendment would slide on through with only 10% of the voters showing up.

But Kansans showed up in droves, rivaling a Presidential election.  And the people of “red” Kansas, conservative Kansas, the Kansas of Bob Dole, did what they often do.  They surprised us.

Kansas has a Democratic Governor.  That’s great, but it has more to do with the fact that she ran against Kris Kobach, a candidate even the Republicans couldn’t stomach.  But to say Kansas is all Republican, all the time, just isn’t true.  And the people of Kansas made a statement yesterday.  While many of them might not support abortion, they voted to keep “choice” in the Kansas Constitution.  And they did  58.8% to 41.2%, with a turnout rivaling the 2012 Presidential election.

History Lesson

History tells us that the Party who wins the Presidency, loses seats in the Congress in the next election.  All of us history teachers know the “drill”; with the Senate tied and Democrats having a five vote margin in the House, Republicans should take over the Congress.  But the results of “red-red” Kansas should be both a warning and a lesson.  For Republicans, a warning:  the Roe v Wade overrule is going to drive folks to the polls, and they are going to vote against the Republicans who fought for it.  For Democrats, a lesson:  be smart, campaign against the “extreme” Supreme Court.  Hang it on the Republicans. 

But in Michigan, Missouri and Arizona; there was another lesson to be learned.  The Republican Party remains in the thrall of Donald Trump, the “Stop the Steal” lie, and willing to curtail democracy to maintain power.  In state after state, “dedicated Trumpers” were nominated to run for office, even against more moderate Republicans. 

Extremists

In Arizona, Mark Finchem, an avowed election conspiracy theorist who was on the steps of the Capitol participating in the Insurrection of January 6^th, is the Republican candidate for Secretary of State.  In states, the Secretary of State is the chief election official.  So now, in Arizona, one of the two candidates to be in charge of elections, believes that Arizona’s 2020 election, so often recounted and even “Cyber-Ninja’ed” and found to be correct, was stolen.

And in many other elections in Arizona and others, the Republicans nominated the most extreme candidates possible.  So voters in November will have a clear choice in those elections.  They can choose a 2020 Trumper, a Stop the Steal conspirator, a pro-Insurrectionist; or they can vote for the Democratic candidate.  And that’s exactly what the Democratic Party wanted.

Democrats want to run against the Supreme Court and for the Roe ruling.  Democrats want to run on what many would call “libertarian” values, letting people choose how they live their personal lives.  And the Supreme Court is giving them the issue, allowing state governments to determine who can make those choices, and who can’t.  

Foolish

But most of all Democrats would like to do what they did in 2018.  They want to run against Donald Trump.  In 2018 you might remember the “slow-motion blue Tsunami” that brought Democrats to power in the House and Nancy Pelosi back to the Speakership.  That was all a reaction to the 2016 election of Trump, and fell in line with the historic trends mentioned earlier.  And now with the nomination of so many Trump supporters to run as the Republican candidates, Democrats are getting exactly what they hoped for.

In fact, in some cases Democrats did more than hope. In Michigan (and other states) the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee played “hardball”, and actually ran commercials designed to support the most extreme Republican candidates.  Their reasoning was simple:  any Republican elected to Congress was going to vote for Kevin McCarthy for Speaker, and generally back the Republican Party.  So Democrats might as well help Republicans choose the candidate easiest for a Democrat to defeat in the general election.  

So they’ve got it:  folks like Finchem and Lake in Arizona, Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania, Hershel Walker in Georgia, and even JD Vance in Ohio.  Democrats can contrast their moderate to Progressive views, to Trumpian extremes.

“The die is cast” as Julius Caesar would say.  2022 will be another election of extremes in the what historically will be called the “Trump Era”.  Democrats will likely quote Lincoln:

“You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

Democrats can hope that it’s past time for all the people to be fooled.  Or to quote another great statesman, Peter Townsend of the Who, “We won’t get fooled again”. 

Nichelle

Nichelle Nichols passed away a few days ago.  She was eighty-nine years old, and died of natural causes.  Her death is sad, but it’s not a tragedy.  She lived a full life.  And while her name may be unfamiliar to many, she was a ground-breaking actor. She helped to shape our world.

Today’s story starts when I was nine years old, about to turn ten, in 1966.  There was a new series debuting on television.  Back in those days we lived in Dayton, Ohio, and television consisted of two stations – WLW-D (channel 2) and WHIO (channel 7).  WLW-D was “Dad’s Station”, he was the manager, and it was an NBC affiliate.  Thursday, September 8^th, was the beginning of a program that would literally change the world.  It did so much, that in one variation of another, it’s still running today, fifty-five years later.  It was called Star Trek.

While the characters in the show “…boldly go where no man has gone before”, the show itself was breaking ground in our own society.  From the very beginning, one of the lines crossed by Star Trek, was that of racial, ethnic and gender stereotypes.  Sure the Captain, James T. Kirk, was a traditional white male.  But his first officer, Spock, was an alien with a slightly green skin tone. And his communications officer was a Black woman. 

Uhura 

Her name was Uhura (it means freedom) and while she actually had a first name, Nyota, though we never heard it. The rest of the command crew:  Sulu (Oriental), Chekov (Russian, at the height of the Cold War), McCoy (a Southern white man) and Scotty (no surprise, Scotsman) were widely diverse for 1960’s programming.  

Nichelle Nichols played Uhura, a highly proficient communications officer, capable of communicating with the far corners of the galaxy through her technical prowess.  And she was the “model” of a Star Fleet Officer.  She was calm in a crisis, professional in her actions, and loyal to her fellow officers.  She had that unique characteristic of grace under pressure.

How important was her character?  She was one of the first Black women with a consistent role in a national series that wasn’t traditional or subservient.  Uhura didn’t “cook, wash or cleanup” on the Starship Enterprise.  She was an equal co-member of the crew, the first Black woman to have a critical position, week after week, journeying through the stars.

It wasn’t where Nichols saw her career going.  She was planning to leave the show and move onto Broadway.  But then a Star Trek fan (known even then as a Trekkie), had a private conversation with her.

Do you understand what God has given you? You have the first important non-traditional, non-stereotypical role.  You cannot abdicate your position.  You are changing the minds of people across the world, because for the first time, through you, we see ourselves and see what we can be”.  

That “Trekkie” was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Nichols stayed with the show, and the following movies, until the first generation of  Star Trek actors ended with Star Trek VI, The Undiscovered Country in 1991.  Their mission turned out to be twenty-seven years long.

The Franchise

The Star Trek franchise introduced us to alien captains, female security officers, Black, Oriental, Gay and even multi-gendered characters.  But the push for inclusiveness started with Nichelle Nichols. And it wan’t just because of her renowned interracial kiss with Captain Kirk on national television (they were forced to do it by evil aliens).  It was, and is, the common theme of the franchise. Race gender, and all of the other stereotypes really don’t matter.  That any person can take any role, and competently lead us into the galaxy, on a five (or fifty-five) year mission.

There have been thirteen full length motion pictures, eight television series, three cartoon series, and well over fifty games, from video to a Star Trek Monopoly.  The show is so integrated into our society, that the race to create a Covid vaccine was actually called “Operation Warp Speed”. And the newly created sixth branch of the US Armed Forces, the SPACE FORCE, has a Star Trek symbol as their emblem.  I’m not kidding, really, take a look.

I hope they don’t play the theme music as you drive on base – but they might!!

Learning from the Bridge

When the original television show ended and before the first series of movies began, Ms. Nichols sang with Duke Ellington and other big bands.  She always served as a recruiter for NASA, the real Space Program, helping to make the Agency more diverse.  

Sure, I’m a Trekkie, an original from September 8^th, 1966, just six days before my tenth birthday. I stayed true through the original series (and reruns) and The Next Generation all the way into the mid-1990’s.   While I got lost for a bit, somewhere between Deep Space Nine and Voyager, I did come back for all of the new movies, and the newer series:   Enterprise, some of Discovery, and all of Picard (available on Paramount right now).

And I still remember learning from Uhura on the bridge of the Enterprise, back in the sixties, as she had a conversation with Abraham Lincoln (that’s a whole other story).

LINCOLN:  What a charming negress. Oh, forgive me, my dear.  I know in my time some used that term as a description of property.

UHURA:  But why should I object to that term, sir?  You see, in our century we’ve learned not to fear words.

KIRK:  May I present our communications officer, Lieutenant Uhura.

LINCOLN: The foolishness of my century had me apologizing where no offense was given.

KIRK:  We’ve learned to be delighted with what we are.  The Vulcans learned that centuries before we did.

Nichelle Nichols died this weekend.  She was a force for change, in the twenty-fourth century she portrayed.  But more importantly, her efforts changed our own twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  She will be missed.

This is a continuation of a “Sunday Story” – about car stories.  No politics here, but lots of “stops” along the highway!!

The VW Life

The Squareback (Volkswagen Station Wagon – not a “Hippie Van”, that will come later) was the car of my college days.  For a ten-year old car it held up well, only completely breaking down a couple of times.  I did drive it around Washington, DC without a battery for a couple of months. But I found parking lots with slopes – and as long as I could park at the top, I could push the car into position, get it going downhill, then jump in the driver’s seat and “pop the clutch”.  Once the engine was going – who needed a battery anyway?

Besides, traffic was crazy and parking expensive in DC.  So I generally took the bus or the brand new Metro (subway) to work on Capitol Hill at the Longworth House Office Building.  Driving the rest of the time wasn’t a problem – as long as I didn’t want to stop.

In the winter of my junior year of college the engine blew again.  I was giving a ride to a friend from Cincinnati back to school at Denison on a sub-zero Sunday afternoon.  All of a sudden, the entire car was filled with smoke, and I quickly pulled over to the side of I-71, just past Fort Ancient where the Ku Klux Klan had their “training farm”.  I walked to the back, opened the door, and lifted up the engine hatch (remember, the engine was in the back).  Flames leaped out at me, and I quickly slammed the hatch shut.

A Cold Day

Sure the engine was on fire.  But the immediate issue was the freezing cold.  Ten below was serious, and while the fire warmed us for a minute, it wouldn’t last long.  We stood huddled on the side of the road, trying to decide whether to jump the fence and deal with the KKK guys, or walk the five miles to the nearest exit.  Luckily, a passing trucker noticed our plight, and pulled over to offer us a ride.  He took us in his eighteen-wheeler to the next truck stop.  My passenger called for another ride, and I arranged to have the Squareback towed back to Mom and Dad’s house.

It was right in the middle of the Winter Olympics.  I remember this, because Carlos (from next door) was a former professional skier.  So while we worked on the engine in the garage, we also kept track of the skiing competition on TV.  In fact, there were various engine parts that migrated into the family room as we worked.  It was warmer in there anyway.  

Cooking Engine Parts

Mom wasn’t too concerned about that.  But then, there were these two parts that were a very “close” fit.  In fact, it was so close that the “hole” had to be heated to make it bigger, and the “peg” iced to shrink it, so it would slide in the hole.  So when Mom found the pistons in the oven, and the wrist pins in the freezer, we finally reached the end of her patience.  We were banned to the garage fulltime. But we got the engine going once again.

It wasn’t mechanics that finally doomed the Squareback – it was rust.  After I graduated from Denison and began working at Watkins Memorial High School in Pataskala, there were these open holes in the floor.  That might have worked for Fred Flintstone, but winter in Ohio was too cold for that kind of ventilation.   I  even got frostbite on my accelerator foot on one long trip. So I started looking for my next “luxury” car.

Riding in Style

And I found it; a nine-year old Volvo.  It was the height of luxury; cloth seats, a big four door sedan, a trunk as big as my apartment; but still with a “stick shift” that could make it drive like a sports car.  And I now had another reason to want a bigger car – I was coaching, and needed to haul kids to meets from time to time.  No longer would I put nine in the car, but the Volvo could comfortably (and legally) hold six.

And the Volvo served me well for four years. Sure there was that one time when I was sitting in my apartment, watching the black and white TV, when someone urgently knocked on my door.  When I answered, they asked if the black Volvo was mine.  I said yes, then they calmly said it was smoking in the parking lot.  I ran down to find the entire wiring harness was burning out, a $700 fix for a $1000 car.  That was how I learned the lesson of “bad money after good”.  When you own used cars, you need to know when it’s time to “let it go”.  But I stuck with the Volvo for another two years.

The Last Trip

It was on a track trip that the Volvo finally convinced me it was done.  We were going to a meet in Dayton, a couple of high school kids and an eighth grader running in the Junior Olympics at Trotwood.  As we were passing through downtown Columbus, we hit a bump, and hard a big bang.  All of a sudden, the Volvo was much louder – part of the exhaust system was in the middle of I-70.  There wasn’t much to do, so we kept heading to Dayton.

When we reached the track, I noticed a huge “bubble” on the side of the tire.  The exhaust was now blowing directly on it, and partially melted the tire down.  But we had a meet to run, so I decided to deal with that later.  After the meet, I changed the tire, and bent the exhaust away from the wheel.  Then it was back in the Volvo for the trip home.  But something else was wrong.  The Volvo engine had two carburetors, but one of them decided not to work.  That meant that instead of four cylinders generating power, we were driving on two, about the size of a motorcycle engine.

We took the back way home, averaging forty.  When we finally got back to school, I knew it was time to go car shopping once again.  This time, it was different.  This time, I was looking for a “new” car.  

The Sunday Story Series

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

To Spite Your Face

So here’s an old tale from the British Isles. Viking raiders landed in Scotland in 867 A.D., and were headed south. Saint Ebba was the Mother Superior of the convent at Coldingham, and was desperately worried that the Vikings would “defile” her nuns when they arrived. So, she urged them to cut their noses and upper lips, so that the Vikings wouldn’t find them attractive, and wouldn’t take their virginity. It worked; the Vikings found the disfigured nuns disgusting. So instead of any defiling, they trapped them all in the convent, and burnt the building, and them, to the ground. (I’m hoping getting her nuns immolated wasn’t how Ebba earned her sainthood, but I bet it was).

So that horrible tale is how we got the expression that my English mother often used:  “Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face”.   Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell must not have had an English mother.  Last week, he found the perfect way to “cut off his nose”, and, like the tragic nuns of Coldingham, he managed to burn his whole Party.

Holding the Bag

The sequence of events went like this. Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer made a deal with the House Progressives back in October. The Progressives agreed to vote for the Biden infrastructure plan. In return Schumer and the Senate Democrats agreed to pass the Progressive supported Build-Back-Better plan by “budget reconciliation”. That allows the fifty Democrats in the Senate and the Vice President to bypass the inevitable Republican filibuster.

The House Progressives voted, and the infrastructure bill became law.  But when Build-Back-Better reached the Senate, Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia balked and refused to vote for it.  Since the Democrats have exactly fifty votes and depend on every Democrat to pass legislation, Manchin’s refusal meant that Build-Back-Better was dead.  The House Progressives, got left holding “the bag”. (So that’s another expression from England – when a bunch of thieves stole things and got caught – there was always one in possession of the stolen stuff – left “holding the bag”. That was the one the went to jail or the gallows.)

Progressives were, to use a more modern expression, “salty”, but still continued to support the rest of the Democratic agenda.  Their noses “remained intact”.  (“Salty” is a US expression, supposedly from the 1920’s referring to sailors with hot tempers who become “unexpectedly enraged”. They worked in the sea, therefore they were “salty”). 

Wrench in the Works

Meanwhile, Schumer, Manchin and Biden continued to negotiate to find some way to pass parts of Build-Back-Better, even if Manchin couldn’t agree to the whole package.  Several times in the past few months they’ve been close to a deal, but Manchin always “torpedoed” it in the end.  Democrats all over the country began to look at Manchin as the biggest block to the Democratic agenda, though there were fifty Republicans who also served that purpose.  But somehow Manchin always was the one “throwing a wrench in the works”.  (I figure torpedoes and wrenches are pretty self-explanatory). 

That all came to a head a few weeks ago.  Biden publicly rebuked Manchin, but Schumer remained quiet, still trying to get something done.  Then Schumer and Manchin had a public rupture, each angrily telling the press their side of the story.  It seemed, this time for sure, all the pieces of Build-Back-Better were done for, at least until after the November elections.  That put a black cloud over the entire Democratic Congressional body. Historically, the Party that wins the White House loses ground in the Congress two years later.  With the Senate tied, and the House narrowly Democratic by five votes, any losses would mean Republicans take control.   No Build-Back-Better, No possibility of a Democratic majority, at least in the House.

No Brainer

Democrats desperately needed some legislative “wins” to campaign on.  But Manchin seemed entrenched in his opposition to any Build-Back-Better proposals.

In order to solidify Manchin’s intransigence,  McConnell made it clear that Senate Republicans wouldn’t support anything, even bills they themselves wanted to pass, if Schumer tried to pass any Build-Back-Better proposals by budget reconciliation.  So Manchin and Schumer went silent.  The Senate passed the Pact Act, a bill for US veterans who were victims of the military “burn pits” in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it went to the House for approval.  

Schumer then proposed the “Chips Act”, giving companies incentives to build computer chips in the United States.  It was a “no-brainer” bill for both parties.  Democrats got jobs in the United States, Republicans got money to corporations.  Everyone was happy.  They could go out and tell their constituents they “helped”. (No Brainer – a problem or situation that does not require any thought or use of brain matter to come to the correct conclusion).

Who’s Salty Now

Then Manchin and Schumer pulled an “upset”.  The day the Chips Act passed the Senate, they reached an agreement for a $700 billion “baby” Build-Back-Better.  It was written as a finance bill, making it eligible for the fifty vote budget reconciliation process, and was exactly what McConnell wanted to prevent.  But Chips was already going to the House for confirmation.  This time McConnell was left “holding the bag”.  

So it was McConnell’s turn to be “salty”.  Now McConnell is known as a brilliant tactician, and no one; not Schumer, not Biden, not Manchin expected McConnell to “cut off his nose”.  But that’s what he did.

The House made minor changes in the Pact Act, requiring the Senate to reconfirm its passage. McConnell had forty-one Republicans vote against it, filibustering its approval. He got Republicans to vote against American veterans who were disabled because they were in contact with poisonous fumes during war. To be clear: the Leader of the Republican Party led his Senators to vote against American warfighters, as those veterans, dying of cancer, stood on the Capitol steps. McConnell didn’t just slit a nostril, he removed the entire orifice.

Burn It Down

The veterans were more than “salty”; they were besides themselves (a Biblical reference, Acts 26:24 meaning really, really, angry).  And they were represented by comedian Jon Stewart, who was quick to profanely point out how two-faced the Republicans were (a reference to the Roman God Janus, who had two faces and could say two different things at the same time). 

So for the past four days, McConnell and the Republicans have had their “feet held to the fire” (you get that one).  Stewart and members of the Veterans’ groups put enormous pressure on the Republican Senators to change their vote on the Pact Act.  And not surprisingly, Schumer will give them the chance to do so, on Tuesday.  

If Republicans switch and vote for the bill, they caved into pressure. If they stand firm, they estrange themselves from veterans throughout the country, and give Democrats another talking point.  McConnell has already “cut off his nose to spite his face”.  Now he has to decide whether to let veterans burn his whole party down too.

Promises

Joe Biden won the Presidency by campaigning for a list of issues.  One of the biggest complaints about Biden’s Administration is that, so far, he hasn’t “come through” on his promises.  There’s lots of reasons: narrow margins in Congress, ongoing Covid pandemic, Covid and international economic dislocations, the machinations of a rabidly conservative Supreme Court.  But Biden fell prey to a politician’s greatest weakness. He made promises he couldn’t keep.

Of course, that’s not completely fair.  Biden kept his promises about Covid recovery.  In one of his first acts, he managed to squeak a final Covid relief bill through. It cost $1.9 trillion and every single Republican voting against it.  And he also came through on every legislator’s favorite – infrastructure.  Even some Republicans jumped onboard the infrastructure bill, worth $1 trillion for improvements throughout the United States.

The List

Check off Covid relief and infrastructure.  So what other issues are on the list?

Voting rights are perhaps the most important, and the biggest Biden Administration failure (so far).  Two companion voting rights acts passed the House of Representatives. Those bills would undo much of the Republican retrogressive restrictions passed in the states.   A full fifty Democrat (plus the Vice President) majority in the Senate were in favor of passage of part of those bills. But there were two Democrats who refused to “break the filibuster” to get them done.

In the end voting rights were a “big fail”.  Not only will many Americans not be able to vote because of that failure. But on a practical political level, many of the Americans left out would vote Democrat.  

The other issue on the list that so far has been missing in action is student debt relief.  Forty-three million Americans own $1.6 trillion in student debt.  The weight of that debt holds back the economy, with thirty-somethings making loan payments instead of mortgage payments.  And while there’s plenty of argument; “they had their eyes open when they signed for those loans in the first place”, it is generally agreed that student loans were made at near predatory rates, without regard for any future ability to repay.   There has been some forgiveness for the most egregious “for profit” universities. And the promise of loan forgiveness for community service is finally being fulfilled.  But for the vast majority of debt holders, there’s still the monthly payments to Sofi, Mohela, Great Lakes, or the other servicers.

Build-Back-Better

And until yesterday there seemed little hope for lowering drug prices, raising taxes on corporations, improving the environment, reducing the national debt, or reducing other costs in health care.  All of those ideas were popular, and part of Biden’s big plan, “Build-Back-Better”.  But they also fell to the filibuster and two Democrats unwilling to change that “tradition”.  

There have been ongoing negotiations between one of the two Democratic roadblocks, Senator Manchin of West Virginia, and the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.  But a couple of weeks ago, it seemed that Manchin walked away, dooming any further advancement of the Biden agenda in 2022.

Meanwhile, there was a bipartisan bill called the “Chips Act”, that would increase incentives for corporations to build computer chips (and other electronics) in the United States.  This came about after Covid, when China shutdown production of computer chips, and the US found there were no alternative sources.  It wasn’t only economically inconvenient, but was a national security issue.  The United States needs to have domestic sources for computer chips.

Surprise Deal

Minority Leader McConnell threatened to filibuster the Chips Act if Schumer put forward any part of “Build-Back-Better” as a “budget reconciliation” bill that could not be filibustered.  But with the failure of the Manchin negotiations, that point was moot.  So yesterday the Senate passed the Chips Act. Seventeen Republicans joining almost all of the Democrats (Bernie Sanders was opposed).  

Then the big surprise – Manchin and Schumer reached an agreement on a “baby Build-Back-Better”. 

Instead of the $2 trillion cost of original Build-Back-Better, it actually raises revenue by over $300 billion.  It does that through a 15% corporate minimum tax, closing interest loopholes, increasing IRS enforcement, and most importantly, allowing the Government to negotiate Medicare drug prices (like every insurance company does).  It reduces the government deficit by $300 billion, even after it pays for the other provisions.  

And what gets done?  It extends the Affordable Care Act subsidies through 2024.  And it budgets $370 billion towards energy infrastructure and climate, with a $4000 tax credit for low and middle income individuals to buy electric cars.  And there’s tax credits for energy saving home improvements, and $60 billion for clean energy incentives to corporations.

Chips and More

Is it everything Biden wanted in Build-Back-Better?  Of course it’s not.  But it does start to check the boxes.  It lowers health care costs, addresses environmental concerns, and gets corporations (like Amazon that paid $0 income tax) to pay their fair share of taxes.  And it will pass through budget reconciliation. There’s no opportunity for a Republican filibuster.

And since the Chips Act is already passed in the Senate, McConnell can’t hold it hostage.

It was just lucky happenstance that Manchin and Schumer reached their agreement, hours after the Chips Act was passed.  I’m sure everyone was acting (performing?) in good faith when Manchin walked away from negotiations.  

Nothing is final.  Senator Sinema of Arizona still will have her say.  And Republican Senators are now calling of Republican House Members to vote against the Chips Act.  Of course, Democrats have a clear majority there, and there is no filibustering in the House.  So, if everything holds together, “…the good Lord willing and the river don’t rise”, Biden will get to sign the Chips Act, and the “Inflation Reduction Act”, baby Build-Back-Better.  

Computer chips, health care costs, corporate taxation, climate change, even government deficit:  Biden will get to check a whole lot of boxes.

It couldn’t happen at a better time.

Democratic Choice

There’s lots of reason that the election of 2020 was critical, and that weren’t all about Donald Trump.  Say what they might, but Democrats had a wide choice of candidates.  They had the old “radical”, Bernie Sanders, who surprisingly appealed to the younger members of the Party.  There was the “shining star” candidate, Pete Buttigieg, the brilliant young mayor, veteran and gay man who represented “the future”.  There were the tech-millionaires, Andrew Yang and Tom Styer.  And there were all the Senators; Klobuchar, Bennet, Booker, Harris, Warren and the others who “legitimized” the field with their traditional experience. Of course, since we’re Democrats, we had our “far-out” candidates, Tulsi Gabbard and Marianne Williamson.

And then there was the most traditional candidate, the thirty-six year Senator, eight-year Vice President Joe Biden.  Tradition is the world – he represented the “next in line” in old order politics, the “President in waiting”.  He had three problems:  he was old, he always stumbled, and he was “old order” in a “new world”.  

But that’s who we nominated, the “old (and old)  order” candidate.  Regardless of all the lies and the nonsense of “Stop the Steal” by the Trump campaign, that’s who won the election by seven million votes.  The best argument that we can make – Americans wanted to go back to “normal”, choosing a Warren G Harding type candidate (elected in 1920 after all of the upheaval of Woodrow Wilson, the first World War, and the League of Nations debate).  America wanted to “return to normalcy”. 

Old Order

That’s not necessarily what Biden wanted to do.  He entered office with a transformational Franklin Roosevelt type New Deal program.  But that wasn’t “normal”, and the narrow Democratic margin in the Senate allowed the prototypical “old order” Democrat, Joe Manchin, the power to stop anything (and everything).  That’s the definition of “normal” in American politics.

But there are “new order” Democrats who are tired of operating under the “old order” rules.  One of them is Sean Patrick Maloney, the Congressman from New York, and Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.  His job is to maintain the Democratic majority in the House, a daunting task.  Tradition, the “old order” way, says that the Party that wins the Presidency loses seats in the House in the next election.  And since Democrats only have a five vote majority, it wouldn’t take much to lose control of the House.

Maloney is a prime mover in the plan to not only choose good Democratic candidates for Congress, but to also help Republicans choose “bad” candidates to run against them.  The idea is this:  if Republicans run “normal” candidates, then the “normal” history will happen, and the Republicans will end up in the majority and Kevin McCarthy will be Speaker of the House.  

Electoral Equations

Something out of the normal has to happen. In mathematical terms, you have to change the equation to get a different answer.  And here’s how some Democrats are doing it.

The 2021 Governor’s election in Virginia was the primer.  The Republican, Glenn Youngkin, ran on a traditional Republican platform.  He distanced himself from Donald Trump, even as he still campaigned on many of the issues that were “Trumpian”.  He came across as a “old order” Republican.  And he was running against an “old order” Democrat, former Virginia Governor and Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe.  So the “old order” equation held firm:  the winning party of the Presidency traditionally loses the Virginia race in the next year.  And Democrats lost.

How to change the equation?  Don’t let the Republicans run “old order” candidates.  And how could Democrats possibly impact who Republicans are going to nominate for office?  Help out the ones they want to run against.

The Republican Party is smaller than it once was.  Some “old order” Republicans have eschewed the Party of Donald Trump, and are now “Republican leaning” Independents.  So they don’t vote in Republican primaries anymore.  The majority of the current Republican voters still support Donald Trump and all of the ideas that come with him.  

But the majority of all the voters weren’t willing to vote for Trump in 2020.  The theory goes:  if Republican run avowed Trump acolytes, they’ll win in the primary, but they lose in the general election, if faced by a “normal” Democrat.  So to change “the equation”, Democrats are helping the most extreme Republican “Trumpers” get nominated.  

Choose The Opponent

The House election for the Western District of Michigan is a good example.  Republican Congressman Peter Meijer voted to impeach Donald Trump after the Insurrection.  Meijer is an “old order” Republican, conservative but definitely not a Trumper.  He is running in the primary against John Gibbs, an acknowledged Trumper.  Democrats are “on the air”, paying for ads saying that Gibbs is “too conservative” and “too close to Trump” to represent Western Michigan.  Of course, in the general election against a Democrat, that’s a completely legitimate ad.  But it’s running now, in the primary, and is likely to motivate Trump-supporting Republicans to come out and vote for Gibbs against Meijer.  

Democrats don’t want to run against Meijer.  They want to change the equation, and run against the extremist, Gibbs.  Democrats are putting their “money where their mouth is” and paying for ads to run in Western Michigan, now.  And that same kind of effort is happening in many districts all over the country.

And it’s not just the House elections.  John Fetterman of Pennsylvania (a “new order” Democrat) is running for Senate against “Dr Oz”, supported by Donald Trump.  Tim Ryan of Ohio (another “new order” Democrat) is running for Senate against financial manager and author JD Vance, supported by Donald Trump.  They got what they wanted, a fierce contest with a “Trump Republican”, not an “old order” Republican.

(Need an example of an “old order” election – look at Ohio’s gubernatorial election, with “new order” Democrat former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, against “old order” Republican Governor Mike DeWine. DeWine is heavily favored).

That’s not the “old order” way, nor the “normal” way to win elections.  There are many who would say it’s not even “fair”. But it’s not “normal” times, no matter how badly we wanted to “return to normalcy”.  It’s a high stakes gamble:  run against the most extreme to maximize the chance of winning.  

For the sake of the nation, just hope they don’t lose.

World Market

The United States has the largest economy in the world.  And our economy is completely integrated into the world market.  The keyboard I’m banging was made in China, the t-shirt I’m wearing in Honduras, the LL Bean “wicked good” moccasins that I live in are from Australia.  And the Starbucks coffee that is permanently attached to my right hand (or by intravenous connection to my right arm) is grown in Costa Rica.

It’s easy for Americans to focus on our internal issues.  From gas prices to the fate of our Democracy, we worry about ourselves first; the rest of the world second.  But  the fact is that everything happening in the world impacts us as well.  So while we think a lot more about Roe v Wade or the rise in gun violence in our cities, we can’t just ignore what’s happening outside of our borders.

Wheat and Maize

Let’s talk about wheat.  Wheat is a basic food source. Whether “they” eat bread or cake, “they” need wheat to do it.  The world top exporters of wheat are:  Russia (20% of the export market), Canada (14%), the US (14%), France (9%) and Ukraine (9%).  The world’s top importers of wheat:  Egypt (10% of the world market), China (7%), Turkey (5%), Nigeria (4%) and Indonesia (4%) (OEC).

The war Russia is waging in Ukraine impacts everyone.  Many nations are boycotting Russian goods, and Russia is doing its best to keep Ukrainian wheat from going onto the market.  That impacts 29% of the world wheat market.  And since wheat is a basic world commodity, it impacts the cost of the piece of toast I just ate for breakfast, or the bun on that McDonald’s cheese burger you had for lunch.  Less wheat on the market, means the cost of wheat for everyone goes up.

Corn (some call it maize) is even more critical.  The United States leads world exports with 37%.  But Ukraine is third with 11.4% of exports (Russia is less than 2%) (World Top Exports).  And corn doesn’t just go on the table for human consumption.  As you drive across Ohio, most of the corn (now elbow high by the end of July) is feed corn, meant for livestock not your dining room table.  Take 11.4% of the corn off the world market – and prices go up for that, and all of the other food commodities that eat it to get to your refrigerator.

Covid Continues

China is still battling Covid.  Just this month, the Chinese government shutdown the city of Xian (population – thirteen million) because of the new Covid Omicron BA 5.2 variant (CNN).  Xian is a major exporter of computer software, lighting equipment and auto parts.  And there largest trading partner is, the United States.  So Covid is still driving economic dislocation.  Maybe it’s why your car is still in the shop waiting on parts, or your paying premium prices for the new light fixtures for the remodeling you started during the Covid crisis here.

The Russian War

The war in Ukraine is grinding on.  The Russian strategy seems to be to wait for the rest of the world to “grow weary” of the cost of supporting Ukraine.  That cost isn’t just the price for artillery or rockets, it’s the cost to the citizens of the United States (and the rest of the world) for their basic goods.  We are all sharing in the battle to stop the Russian invasion of a sovereign nation.

The Russian economy is wrecked from the sanctions, but Russian propaganda is doing its best to keep the world, and its own citizens, from talking about that.  Instead, they make “a deal” to let Ukraine get their wheat on the world market, then launch a missile attack on the docks where that grain is stored.  Or they hold an American athlete hostage.  Anything to distract from the real price the Russian people are paying for Putin’s “adventure” in Ukraine, 15,000 troops killed, perhaps three times that many wounded (WAPO).

Who’s to Blame

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov is touring Africa, blaming the United States for rising wheat and corn prices.  If the United States would just lift economic sanctions on Russia, he says, then the cost of the wheat and corn would come back down.  And that’s true, but for the “cause and effect” of those sanctions.  If Russia hadn’t invaded Ukraine, there would be no need for sanctions.  Lavrov hopes that the African nations will overlook that little factor.

It’s likely to get uglier before it gets better.  Just now, Russia is announcing that it will reduce the natural gas flow to Europe in half, to 20% of full capacity (Reuters).  The people of Europe are participating in the war against Russia, through their own financial sacrifices.  How long they, and we, are willing to hang on, may determine the fate of the Ukrainian people, just as much as Ukrainian victories on the battlefield.

Ukraine Crisis

• A Full Plate – 7/26/22
• Ukrainian Independence – 6/30/22
• No Victory Day – 5/10/22
• Desperate Moves – 4/27/22
• This is the Time – 4/20/22
• The Winning Message – 4/18/22
• Victory Day – 4/12/22
• Chapter Two – 4/11/22
• Zelenskyy’s Choice – 3/31/22
• The Gaffe – 3/28/22
• Putin’s Choice – 3/27/22
• Far Away From the Front – 3/20/22
• The Next Step – 3/17/22
• Thinking the Unthinkable – 3/14/22
• Russian Oil – 3/11/22
• Kyiv’s Choice – 3/8/22
• The Logic of Madness – 3/7/22
• Lights Out – 3/6/22
• Ante Up – 3/3/22
• State of the Union  3/2/22
• The Guns of March 3/1/22
• Sanctions 2/26/22
• What Happens Next 2/24/22
• The Games Begin  2/22/22
• Talking with a Friend 2/18/22
• Trip Wire 2/2/22
• On the Brink 1/23/22
• The Ukrainian Dilemma 12/5/19

Sit Rep

Monday, July 25^th:  it’s “Christmas in July” day – if that’s a thing for you.   Here’s the daily gas report.  For all those worried about inflation:  the cheapest gas within ten miles is $3.70, down over a dollar from two months ago (Sam’s Club).  And if you want to know a more “average” price, look here in Pataskala, the home of all those little Amazon vans driving the fuel demand up. It’s $4.29 just down the street, almost sixty cents more than Sam’s, but still down from the $5.00 mark –  Merry Christmas. 

Forty percent of the current inflationary pressure is from fuel costs.  So fuel going down is a good thing, even if you don’t drive.  It’s likely to mean that other prices will start to come down a bit as well.  But prices are “sticky”, they go up easier than they come down.  Everyone along the chain is happy to take a little bit more profit for a bit.  So don’t expect the price on sliced cheese or bread to drop right away, but it’ll happen eventually.

On the News

The cable news feels like all-Trump, all-the-time again.  The powerful information coming from the January 6^thCommittee is driving a lot of that, but in the back of my head I still hear the warnings of 2015.  Donald Trump said it; “(I)t’s better to be bad news than no news”.  His goal was to keep his name “up front”, that was his definition of “winning”.  On that basis, he’s definitely winning right now.  I had the forlorn hope that after the Biden inauguration somehow Trump would be like that “old soldier” and fade away.  But that won’t happen.  Instead, the United States must have a “truth and reconciliation” moment with the reality of not only Trump, but all of the ugliness he dredged up in American life.  

It’s not that he created anything, but he altered the “environment” to allow so much of that ugliness to the surface.  What was unacceptable behavior just a decade ago, now seems to be just fine.  Drive down Main Street in my Pataskala – and see the “F**K BIDEN” flags hanging on the porches.  People may have thought that about Bush or Obama, but they didn’t put it on the front porch for every eight-year-old to see.  

It’s Personal

I heard a bit of Pete Buttigieg’s interview from the Sunday news shows.  When asked how he felt about the Republican Congressmen who voted against putting gay marriage into actual law (instead of depending on the Supreme Court), he had an interesting answer.  Pete is gay,  married to Chasten, and they have two young children.  The Secretary of Transportation described how on Sunday morning he gave Chasten a break, and took care of the children’s breakfast.  It was a typical young parent scene:  the high chair tray wasn’t sitting just right, and Pete was trying to keep the cereal in the tray, as he sliced bananas and got milk ready.

He testified to Congress on Friday about highway funds and other transportation issues.  It was a bipartisan discussion:  Republicans and Democrats alike want the roads in their districts fixed.  Everyone was working together.  Then the Republicans he was working with, left that meeting and went to the floor of the House to vote against Pete’s marriage, against his family and against his life choices.  For him, and for many, it’s not just politics; it’s personal.

Courage under Fire

I also got to see snippets of Liz Cheney’s Sunday interview on Fox News.  There are few substantive political issues where I could say we agree, but she is absolutely a woman of courage.  The Fox commentator claimed that the Committee was unfair, without “real” Republican representation.  Point by point, Cheney laid out why “those” Republicans chose not to be a part of that process, and how the committee today was a result of that abrogation of duty.  And she made a telling point:  did anyone really think that former Attorney General Bill Barr or the other witnesses would somehow “wilt” under a Jim Jordan or Matt Gaetz “cross examination”?  That didn’t seem likely.

Sunday on the Track

So Sunday was not necessarily and “uplifting” day for me.  That is, until Sunday night.  It was the final night of the World Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon.  Hayward Field has been the center of American track since the 1970’s, and Oregon alumni Phil Knight, Chairman of Nike, has made sure that the new facilities there are the best in the world. 

I was a head track coach, and like a father of a family, I had to love every event “equally”.  No kid on my team could feel that I didn’t care about their efforts and struggles.  But I have to admit, there were two events that always had my focus:  the pole vault, and the 4×400 relays.  And last night, for the final night of competition, was the finals in both of those events.

The United States Track team has been disappointing for a number of years.  Part of that is the world “catching up” with American track and field.  Eight athletes from eight different countries may line up for a race, but they all went to college here in the USA; UCLA, or Florida, or Arkansas (and of course, two of this year’s World medalists went to “little” Ashland University, just an hour up the road).  So American coaches and advantages are shared worldwide.

But the Tokyo Olympics were truly disappointing for the US team.  Only seven gold medal winners, and 26 total medals in the games just felt like a huge letdown, matching the silence of the pandemic Tokyo stadium.

Tracktown, USA

Hayward Field was the exact opposite these last two weeks.  The stands were packed, with seating strategically placed to support individual events venues within the stadium.  And the crowd was “stoked” and knowledgeable.  They (including some of my good friends – just a little jealous) knew when it was time to listen, and when it was time to cheer as hard as they could.

And the US team came through, thirteen golds and a record thirty-three total world medals.  Last night, was a perfect ending.  The American men literally ran away with the 4×400, the team coaches perfectly putting the right athlete in the right position.  A collegian ran the anchor leg, far out ahead of the rest of the field, to bring the baton home.  The best runner, 400 world champion Michael Norman, ran second, hammering out a lead that the rest of the field could never overcome.

And on the women’s side, they US made a last minute change as they came to the starting line.  Former 400 hurdle world record holder Dalilah Muhammad was injured during warmup.  Dublin, Ohio native Abby Steiner stepped in at the last minute to run the second leg of the race.  The US had the lead from the start, and Abby ran one of her best splits to hold up her end.  And on the final leg was perhaps the fastest woman in the world, current 400 hurdle record holder Sydney McLaughlin. She literally ran seconds faster than any other woman in the field to bring the baton home for gold.

The Final High

And what about the pole vault?  The American, Chris Nielsen, cleared 19’5” to earn the silver medal.  But it was twenty-two year old Mondo Duplantis, the pole vaulting prodigy raised in Louisiana and vaulting for Sweden, who took the gold.  He ended the night, and the championships, by clearing a height higher than any man had cleared before, 20’4 ½”.  That vault broke his own world record, and while it’s hard to see him wrapped in a Swedish flag instead of the Stars and Stripes, the Hayward Field crowd cheered just as loudly.   

For just a moment, politics weren’t front and center.  Sometimes we need some moments of joy, to interrupt our world.  The track championships had all that and more, a Christmas in July for me.

Here’s another in the “Sunday Story” series. A break from politics – just stories, this time about mechanics, cars, and driving adventures.

Oil Change

Yesterday I changed the oil on my 2004 Jeep Wrangler (or in “Jeep-speak” a TJ).  That’s not a big thing, I’ve been working on cars since I got a driver’s license.  I can still “turn a wrench”, at least for the simple maintenance stuff.  Most car mechanics left me behind when it required a computer to “diagnose” an engine, but changing oil hasn’t evolved much.  It was good to get my hands dirty.

I’ve never been a “new car” guy.  I owned thirteen cars in the almost fifty years I’ve been driving, and only two were new.  The rest were somebody else’s troubles.  Adventures with my cars (and vans, trucks, and SUV’s) often revolve around a piece falling off, or a critical part breaking, or, the worst, the engine catching on fire (twice).  

The Fury

It started with my first car, when I was sixteen years old.  In 1973, I paid my cousin $250 for his 1969 Plymouth Fury III. It seemed like an “old car”, and my cousin drove it hard, with over 200,000 miles on it. That was the result of his selling artificial flowers across a territory that stretched from Kansas to Indiana, Wisconsin to Missouri.  And it didn’t work, at least not well.  Starting the car created a cloud of dark smoke.  Even then, it felt like we were changing the environment for the worse each time I turned the key.

But our Cincinnati neighbors were more than happy to teach me the “fine art” of engine repair.  On one side was Carlos Phillips.  Carlos was a sales manager for Monsanto, but on the side was constantly repairing and refining his two, classic ‘356’ Porsches (1955 and 1956).  On the other side was Tom Morgan, a more practical Proctor and Gamble engineer.  Tom fixed cars all of his life, and was more than willing to pass on the knowledge to an eager young driver/mechanic.

So we rebuilt the Plymouth engine in Tom’s garage, with Carlos lending a hand, and my Dad falling asleep against a tire leaning on the wall.  I learned all about blown gaskets and warped heads, torque wrenches and “cheater” bars.  And, when things weren’t going just right, Tom had a P&G Engineering tool – a ballpeen hammer.  Sometimes a bolt just needed a little more persuasion – just a “rap” or two would do it.

Side note – it’s Dad’s birthday today. He would be 104. He’s been gone for six years now and I miss him still. He wasn’t a car guy – but he wanted to support what I was doing. Happy Birthday – Dad!!

Riding in Style

We put the Plymouth into driving shape, and it was my “ride” in high school, and the first year of college.  It drove like a “boat”, with two huge bench seats.  After my freshman year at Denison University, my summer job was a “day camp” for 11 and 12 year old boys.  I had as many as eight, but that was no problem for the “Fury”.  Five in the back, and four in the front, plus me, and we could go anywhere.  Seatbelts – well there were a couple in the front seat – none in the back. Cars only had to be equipped with them at all in 1968.  We cooked out at the local parks, and went on “road trips” to museums.  The “Fury” was our dependable ride.

During my college sophomore year the Fury’s engine blew again.  It was time to send it to “the car farm”; you can’t sell a broken car.  So I gave it to Dad, who donated it to the Goodwill and took a tax break.  The last ride of the Fury was from the house to the Goodwill, smoking enough to create global warming, and finally quitting just as I pulled into the parking lot.  I glided to a spot and handed over the keys.

The Squareback

Carlos let me “kibbitz in” on some of his Porsche work, and I fell in love with the four cylinder engines in the back that you could almost pick up by yourself. The four-speed stick shift on the floor made driving fun.  I could never afford a Porsche, and the next best thing was a Volkswagen.  But there were two problems with that.  First, I needed more room than the Beetle offered.  I had to move back and forth to school, and would spend my junior year of college doing a lot of travelling.  I worked for the Carter/Mondale Presidential campaign in the fall, then studied at American University in Washington, DC in the spring.

But Volkswagen made a “station wagon” that they called the Type III, a Squareback.  It was the perfect car for me, with enough room to put all of my dorm stuff inside (the couch was strapped to the roof).  And it still had that little air-cooled four cylinder engine in the back, almost just like Carlo’s Porsches, and “four on the floor”.  I found a white, 1967, all ready for me.

The second problem was Mom.  Mom was British, and was a “spy” in World War II for the Special Operations Executive.  She still bore a grudge against the Germans, serious enough that I wasn’t sure I could bring a German-built car into the driveway and survive the experience.  We had to have some serious discussions about the War (after all, it was thirty years ago) and how some things changed.   She wasn’t happy, and seldom took a ride in the Squareback, but she grudgingly agreed it could have space in the driveway.

Blown Engines

The first time I “blew” the Volkswagen engine was on State Route 37 south of Granville.  I was passing a truck, going down the big hill.  A car was coming, faster than I thought, and I forgot to shift from third to fourth.  I got around the truck, then realized that I was “red-lined”.  The little engine was screaming, and I quickly popped it into fourth gear.  But it was too late.  The Squareback got me onto I-70 and ten miles west towards Columbus, but started smoking just at the Reynoldsburg exit.  I managed to pull of the Brice Road exit, and coast into the Shell station.  

Mr. Spangler, the owner, was about to head home for the night, but was willing to tow me back to Granville.  We stopped and got a twelve pack of beer on the way, and shared a couple as he told me about his home nearby in Pataskala. I didn’t know much about it at the time. He dropped the car in my dorm parking lot.  I called Cincinnati and told them I wasn’t going to make it home for dinner.

Advanced Study

Dad came up and got me the next day, and I borrowed his “back up” car, a red 1969 Cutlass, for a couple weeks.  That’s how I drove the Volkswagen engine parts to the store, as I rebuilt the four cylinder engine in my dorm room.  It probably wasn’t “acceptable” by the student code, but I wasn’t the first to do it.  A guy a few doors down rebuilt his engine, but while he was working on it, his car got “loose” and went down the hill into the woods behind our dorm.  So he was stuck with an engine as room furniture and no car to put it in.

It took three weeks, a week to tear things apart, a week to get the parts machined, and then a week to put it all back together.  And there was probably some studying going on too.  But the Squareback would “ride again”;  to Washington DC and back, through a blizzard in the Pennsylvania mountains, and even around the hookers in Times Square in New York City.  

The Sunday Story Series

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

The Hallway

It is more than painful to watch.  Police officers, standing in the hallway, checking phones and equipment, conversing in whispers; as the shooter stands amid the dying and dead children behind the classroom door.  It took seventy-seven minutes to go through that door.  There were near four-hundred police officers at the school, but it took seventy-seven minutes to be “the good guys with guns against the bad guy with a gun”.  The Columbine lesson from more than two decades ago was known by every officer there:  don’t wait.  But wait they did, and kids and teachers died, that may well have lived if the “protocols” were followed and they went straight through the door.

Some claim it was a failure of courage, that every man in the hallway was a coward.  But, it’s never that simple.  One officer had his gun taken away and was escorted from the building.  His wife was dying in that classroom, and they were concerned he would “go in” without permission.  Of course, that’s exactly what they all were supposed to do.

Leadership

It wasn’t a failure of courage, of all three hundred and seventy-six officers.  It was a failure of leadership, at the highest levels.  Sure, the Chief of the Uvalde Independent School District Police, a force of six, should have taken charge.  He even wrote the policy that said it was his job.  But he failed to do so.  So it’s on him.  But it’s also on the dozens of Texas State Police who were on the scene in minutes.  Their chief, Steve McCraw, the grizzled old man so quick to place blame on a teacher for an open door that wasn’t, didn’t order his men in, not even the vaunted Texas Rangers.

And there were dozens or more of Federal Border Control agents.  They were used to being around the school.  Uvalde is at a major crossroads within 100 miles of the border.  Border Control was constantly in the area, looking for what they called “bailouts”, fleeing migrants.  In fact, there is now evidence that the Uvalde school was “locked down” so many times because of “bailouts”, that a “lock down” order lost its urgency. Where was their commander, ordering them through the one classroom door to take out one man?  

Teachers and children died because of a failure in leadership. All it took was one person, one “leader”, to say go, and those officers in the hallway would have done what they ultimately did anyway. They would have gone through the door, and “taken out” the shooter. There was no lack of courage, there was lack of leadership.

It’s called dereliction of duty, failing to do what you are by your “job”, supposed to do.  And we’ve seen it before.

The Insurrection

On January 6^th, Donald Trump, 45^th President of the United States, encouraged an armed mob to march on the Capitol Building.  His speech started at noon, and was over an hour long.  But before he was even done, the “mob” around the Capitol was breaking through the outdoor barriers.  Just after his speech ended, at 1:30, the final outdoor protections to the building were breeched.  Meanwhile, the Congress, in joint session, was meeting to confirm the electoral votes.

Just after 2:00 pm, the windows were broken, and the mob entered the Capitol.  Soon the Vice President and the Speaker were escorted from the Chambers, and the building went into “lockdown”.  But there was no locking down a building that was already breeched.  At 2:24 Donald Trump sent a tweet saying:  “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.” It was gasoline on a fire.

At 3:36 the White House press secretary tweeted that, at the President’s direction the National Guard was on the way. But it wasn’t until 4:17 pm that the President “tweeted” a video, telling the mob:

“I know your pain. I know your hurt. We love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens. You’ve seen the way others are treated. … I know how you feel, but go home, and go home in peace.”

And, it wasn’t until 5:40 pm that the first National Guard troops arrive at the Capitol Building (NPR).

Preserve, Protect and Defend

It was three hours and seventeen minutes from the beginning of the attack until the President of the United States responded.  We watched all three hours and seventeen minutes “live” on television.  So did he.  But, like the leadership at Uvalde, he did nothing.  

There is plenty of evidence that the President of the United States, Donald Trump, intentionally caused the Insurrection at the Capitol.  And there’s even more proof that he tried to subvert the election, and the “peaceful transfer of power”.  But there is one, single, incontrovertible, damning fact.  The President takes an oath of office to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”.  And for over three hours, he did not.

Like the Uvalde Chief and the Texas Director:  Donald Trump was derelict in his duty.  

 The Principal

The Secret Service has a long history of success.  They’ve been protecting the President of the United States, the “principal”, since 1901.  That President is the biggest “target” in the world, forced by his job to go out in the public, walk to crowds, stand in front of assemblies.  There is always a threat.  In the 120 plus years, they’ve failed once, spectacularly, in Dealey Plaza in Dallas. 

 But there have been several other “close calls”.  An assassin attacked FDR in an open car in Miami. Puerto Rican separatists tried to storm the Blair House where Truman was staying.  A Charles Manson follower shot at Ford in San Francisco.  And a crazed man shot Reagan as he left a Washington hotel.  

The Secret Service aren’t just “bodyguards”.   When the President of the United States comes into town, there is a weeks long process, mobilizing Federal agents from every agency.  A list of those who have threatened the President comes out, and every “potential” is “checked” to make sure they aren’t a threat at the moment.   Federal agents scout every possible Presidential route, determining the safest passage for the motorcade.  Every “sniper’s nest” is checked, every ambush site evaluated.  Each person who will be in contact with the President is vetted.

After all of that, they still know one thing.  If someone is willing to die, they can probably take the President with them.  They don’t need history to know that:  look at former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, assassinated in Japan a couple weeks ago, one of the safest countries in the world.  No matter how secure they try to make things, there’s always the potential for disaster.

Jimmy Carter

In 1976 I was a twenty-year old lowly Field Coordinator in the Carter/Mondale Campaign.  One of my many tasks was to help prepare when one of the Carter’s came into town.  Each time, I interacted with the Secret Service, both the local office and the direct protection details.  They were “pros”, cooperative but definitive about what they would and wouldn’t do.  And they also had a sense of humor.

Jimmy Carter himself came in to Cincinnati just one time that fall, on a day when the Reds were playing at home in the World Series.  The campaign had a long discussion about whether the Governor should go to the game.  There was concern that he would be booed and it would look bad on television.  I argued that if he put a Reds hat on, he’d be fine.  

I lost the argument, and Carter was brought into Lunken Airport, a smaller “business” airport near downtown.  There were several thousand people gathered to hear his speech from the tarmac, and our staff got the opportunity to have a few minutes to meet and talk to him in the small terminal building.  When I greeted the “Governor”, he made clear that it was “Jimmy”, not “Governor”.  It was exciting to meet the man whose name was on all the signs, buttons and bumper stickers.  Like most of those interactions, he looked smaller than I thought, almost my own five-seven.  All of the campaigning made him seem seven feet tall.

In the Crowd

Carter left our staff, and met with some local dignitaries in a private room.  Then he went out into the crowd to get back on his plane.  I went out ahead to help clear a path for him.  As I backed into the crowd, I bumped into a rough looking, middle-aged man.  He was around six-foot tall or so, and my elbow accidently bumped into his ribs.  I could feel the outline of something hard under his dirty army jacket.  It felt like a gun.

What should I do?  Carter was coming out of the terminal, there wasn’t time to get help.  I slowly turned and looked up at the man.  He smiled – then reached for the collar of his worn jacket.  He turned the collar over – and there was the security pin of the day.  Whew; he was Secret Service, put in the crowd to make sure nothing happened.  I’m sure he could see the concern, then relief in my face.  He nodded, then continued to scan the crowd.

Rosalynn

Rosalynn Carter (pronounced Rose-a-lin, not Ros-a-lin) came to open our downtown, street-front office in the old Sheraton-Gibson Hotel building on Fountain Square.  It was a crowd, in the small office, and in the street, as the always gracious Mrs. Carter (please call me Rosalynn) encouraged the staff and supporters to work even harder in the last few weeks before the vote.  We were headed back out onto Fifth Street across from the square, when a woman about my age stepped in front of me, struggling to get something out of her purse.

I nodded to the Secret Service agent behind me (and ahead of Mrs. Carter) and in a flash, the young lady was gone – out of the crowd and “safe” against a wall.  Her purse was quickly examined – and the pen she was searching for discovered.  Rosalynn came over and gave her and autograph, and an apology.  But the Secret Service was clear; don’t reach for something at the moment that the “principal” was coming.

The President

I should have learned that lesson myself.  In the last week of the campaign, President Ford was coming into town to give a speech from Fountain Square.  The Secret Service was really buzzing – the President himself is “the” big deal.  The Carter staff let the Service know that we were going to hang a Carter/Mondale banner from the top of the building where our street-front office was located.  They weren’t happy about it, but gave grudging approval.

The building was old and abandoned (torn down a year later), and the elevators didn’t work.  But we could go upstairs to the rooftop, and unfurl our sign from the side of the building moments before President Ford arrived.  So three of us, all “junior” staff, were up there, watching the final preparations on the Square.

As we leaned over, tying the sign to the side, we saw the Cincinnati Police officers pointing to the top of “our” building.  It looked like those scenes from Dallas in 1963, with folks pointing to the windows.  At that moment we saw several officers charge into the storefront office, and realized that the Secret Service didn’t want a sign up here.  They didn’t say “no” to us, but they didn’t tell the local cops about it.  

We started heading down the stairs, and met the officers about halfway up.  After we were “controlled”, frisked and cuffed, they started listening to our explanation.  It didn’t do much good, and they were marching us out of the door when a Secret Service agent finally gave them the word to let us go.  There was no Carter/Mondale sign when the President gave his speech.

Today

I have enormous respect for the Secret Service protection details.  They are all-business, until the “principal” leaves, and always prepared to take action.  They are trained not to hesitate, not to question, but to act.  I’m sure, even now, forty-six years later, they are the same.  

I wrote an essay the other day (Praetorian Guard) about the Secret Service deleting text messages from January 6^th.  The agents that day were in a “no-win” situation.  They had a single duty, to protect their principal.  And yet, on that day, the “principal” was acting in opposition to the Constitution, the basic foundation of our nation.  Each agent swore to “support and defend” the Constitution, not the “principal”. 

But in my experience, the Secret Service agents on the Protective Details are single-minded.  It wouldn’t be a surprise that they “crossed some lines” on January 6^th.  Now it seems, they crossed more lines in deleting the text messages from that day.  And their bosses, the leadership of the Secret Service, allowed them to do it.  

That single-minded “beyond” the law attitude, cannot be allowed to stand.

Rodney Dangerfield

Despicable, Disgusting, Shameful:  you’d think people were describing a child molester, or a serial killer.  But in the last forty-eight hours, these words were used to describe Joe Biden, the President of the United States.  And it wasn’t Republicans talking about the President. These were “fellow” Democrats describing the President of their own party.

Rodney Dangerfield was an American comedian who made an entire career out of getting “no respect”.  And Joe Biden has been the “Rodney Dangerfield” of the Democratic Party, ever since the hair plug transplants of the 1980’s and aborted runs for President two decades apart.  But he also was the overwhelming winner of the Democratic primaries in 2020, and seemed to be the only candidate that could defeat Donald Trump.  And he did.

(Democrats tend to forget that.  We remember the early primaries in New Hampshire, Iowa, and Nevada, when Mayor Pete and Bernie shined forward.  Then came South Carolina – the powerful Jim Clyburn and Biden juggernaut.  The next week, Biden won eight of ten major primaries – and the Covid pandemic began – burying every other news item of consequence, and more than a million Americans..  The rest of Biden’s primary wins seem lost in the lockdown).

Biden is, an always has been, a man in the middle of the Democratic Party.  And in reflection of our current polarization, the “middle” is scorned by both sides.  So it’s often the “progressives” who are using the most virulent terms against him.  From the “despicable” fist bump with MBS, to the “disgusting” failure to get more gun control legislation through, Biden can’t win with his own party.

Hyperbole

Meanwhile, of course, Republicans have their own unique vocabulary about Biden:  stumbling, gaffe prone, and sleepy.  And the ultimate GOP insults:  “Uncle Joe” (like an “Uncle Tom,” only white?) and, of course, “Brandon”. 

Hyperbole is a part of politics, as “baked-in”, as red-white and blue bunting, handshakes, and kissing babies (though in the era of Covid, the last two are frowned upon – Biden still does them).  But I do think that when our language becomes so immoderate, we lose the context.  Those powerful terms lose their strength – and become emasculated (hey – there’s a powerful word).

Despicable:  the Holocaust was despicable.  Hitler was despicable.  What Vladimir Putin is doing in Ukraine is despicable.  Surely Joe Biden fist bumping Mohammed bin Salman, the young power of Saudi Arabia, is not in the same “class”.  

Disgusting:  the slaughter of twenty-one children and teachers in their classroom is disgusting.  And we might argue that the Republican automatic denial that guns are part of that outrage, might be disgusting too.  But is it disgusting that President Biden is unable to fulfill the campaign promise of passing stronger gun control legislation?  I would argue that it’s sad; sad that Americans don’t recognize the danger of allowing weapons of war into our society, almost without restraint.  But it isn’t Joe Biden’s fault – he’s spent a career trying to restrict access to those exact kinds of guns.

Voting Wrongs

Shameful isn’t Biden failing to pass the voting rights act.  Shameful isn’t really even Joe Manchin, who is being exactly who Joe Manchin always has been – a “Blue Dog”, one of the last of the breeds of conservative Democrats.  What is shameful – that a political party in the United States used a knowing lie, the “Stop the Steal” nonsense, to justify disenfranchising voters of their opposition party.  The American tradition of “one person, one vote” isn’t even used as a “cover” anymore.  Republicans are creating a voting process where the rural and the rich have the power.  That better fits the definition of shameful.

Horrifying describes what the United States Supreme Court is doing to the rights of Americans.  It’s horrifying that women lost control of their own bodies.  And it’s just as horrifying that public schools can now legally be the center of religious indoctrination.  What comes next, from a legal sense, has all the tension of those horror movies that I can’t stand to watch.  Don’t go in the abandoned building, don’t go in the basement, don’t open that door.  Don’t let the Court rule on voting rights – they’ll make them voting wrongs.

Self Defeating

I’m certainly not saying that all Democrats need to “get in line” with Biden.  That’s never been the nature of the Democratic Party.  Unlike the current Republican Party, purging the Kinzinger’s and the Cheney’s; the Democrats have always suffered internal opposition gladly.  One only has to look at Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, in the same party with Joe Manchin and Henry Cuellar.  

Internal opposition is one thing. And using hyperbole against the leader of your own party isn’t “traitorous” – that’s hyperbolic.  But it is self-defeating.  And we aren’t in a time when we can afford to defeat ourselves.  There’s too much at stake — and that’s no hyperbole.

Ancient Rome

The Praetorian Guards were the private protectors of the Roman Emperors.  And they were more than just guardians of the Imperial lives.  They were the Emperors’ private intelligence service, keeping track of his enemies for over three centuries.  The Praetorian Guard also became a power unto themselves. They grew from protecting Emperors to determining who would actually wear the throne.  Finally, the Emperor Constantine disbanded the Praetorians, sending the remaining members to the far corners of the Roman Empire.  The inner wall of  their headquarters, the Castle Praetoria, was destroyed.

The term “Praetorian Guard” became synonymous with any force surrounding a leader to maintain his (or her) power.  It’s more than just physical protection, the term “Praetorian” symbolizes the political power to determine who that leader would be.

Secret Service

The United States Secret Service was founded at the end of the Civil War to protect the US Government’s most important asset:  American currency.  At that time, almost one-third of the paper money was counterfeit. The Treasury Department needed its own “policing force” to gain control of the money supply.  

The late 1800’s saw a series of American Presidents assassinated: Lincoln in 1865, Garfield in 1881, and McKinley in 1901.  While the Army and local police had informal protection duties, ultimately no one was directly responsible for protecting the President’s life.  After McKinley’s death, the Secret Service, still part of Treasury, was given the job.  (The Department of Justice didn’t have a “policing” agency until 1908, and the FBI wasn’t created until the 1920’s.)

No Fail

Since that time, the Service has had two missions:  to protect the US currency, and to protect America’s President and other leaders.  The balance of importance between those two missions tilted over the years, with the Protective Detail gaining importance.  Recently, the agency was moved from the Treasury Department to the Department of Homeland Security.  

The Presidential Protection detail is a “no fail” operation.  There are thousands of threats on the President every year, from cranks to organized conspiracies.  Success is determined by stopping every single one of those threats.  Failure is when just one gets through.  The Secret Service not only physically protects. It also acts as a law enforcement agency, investigating potential threats and gathering evidence to turn over to US Attorneys for prosecution. 

There have been a continuing series of assassination attempts on the President:   Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Ford, and Reagan were all directly attacked.  Kennedy and Reagan were both hit by gunfire, with Kennedy killed.  In our current polarized environment, the threat to the President must be as intense as ever.  

The Secret Service does not “enforce the law” on its “protectees”.  Steve Ford (President Ford’s son) smoked marijuana in the White House. And we all know what Bill Clinton was doing in the hallways of the West Wing.  The Service needs to have the trust of their charges, so they step back from their law enforcement role to protect. 

And finally, the Secret Service agents on the Presidential protective detail would literally “take a bullet” for their protectee.  Agent Rufus Youngblood used his own body to shield Vice President Lyndon Johnson in the open limousine directly behind Kennedy’s as the shots rang out in Dallas.

Missing Evidence

As a law enforcement agency, the Secret Service is well aware of the importance of evidence.  So it’s incredulous to think that the agency would allow the destruction of their agents’ text messages sent during the greatest threat to the US Government since the Civil War.  But that’s exactly what they are saying:  that in a pre-scheduled technology “upgrade”, they erased many of the Presidential Protective detail messages from January 5^th and 6^th, 2021.

Everyone in the Secret Service is a law enforcement agent, a cop.  Everyone knew the gravity of what happened on January 6^th.  We know that the agents protecting Vice President Pence were just seconds ahead of the mob chanting “Hang Mike Pence”.  We also know that when they planned to whisk him away from the danger in the Capitol, Pence refused to go.  He told the head of the protective detail, “I know you, but I don’t know the driver of the limo”.  Was Pence just doing his duty to the Constitution, or did he suspect something more sinister?

Protect and Serve

Perhaps the Agency’s Director determined that revealing those texts would put their protective mission at risk.  If Presidential Detail agents are used as “evidence” against a “protectee”, then the Service won’t be trusted the next time.  Bill Clinton’s detail were ordered to testify about Monica Lewinsky (WAPO), a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court.  By deleting the texts, there one less piece of evidence to talk about.

And we also know that Donald Trump, President of the United States, wanted to be with “his people” as they marched on the Capitol.  The testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson revealed conversations about an altercation in the Presidential SUV, as the Commander-in-Chief was told that the Protective Detail would not take him to the march.  A Metro Police officer assigned to the motorcade substantiated the story.

But what were these Service agents saying to each other, on the “privacy” of government issued phones? That won’t be known.  And like Mike Pence, it leads the nation to ask:  were they protecting their charge, or enabling a threat to the Nation?

The Secret Service protects the President.  It is not, and cannot be, a Praetorian Guard.

Pole Vault Camp and Jeeps

A good friend of mine contacted my yesterday.  He’s one of the “pole vault guys” that I’ve known for decades, and he’s running a camp.  One of his coaches might not be available, and he wondered if I was interested.  

I’m always interested in coaching pole vault camps.  I’ve already done two this summer: the coaching is fun, and the conversation with other coaches makes me better every time.  My default answer (after talking to my wife, of course) is yes.  But there is one issue:  it’s four hundred miles away.

My 2004 Jeep Wrangler is awesome:  manual shift, four-wheel drive (when needed), soft top that can be completely removed, and a sound system that works, even at seventy miles an hour with the top off.  There’s one hang-up.  On a good day, in two-wheel drive on the highway, the Jeep gets about sixteen miles a gallon.  

Round trip is 800 miles. Divided by sixteen miles a gallon – that’s fifty gallons of gas.  At somewhere around $4.70 a gallon, that’s $230 in gas to get there and get home.  Now I don’t coach camp for free. And a “pit coach”, my position, is well paid in the Pole Vault Camp world.  Suffice to say though:  it’s a four day camp, and the first two days might pay for the gas.

Record Inflation

Yesterday the news world was all doom and gloom.  The inflation rate was over 9%, higher than it’s been in forty years.  The newscasters went through each item:  eggs, milk, airline tickets, bread, new houses, and, of course, gas prices.  I didn’t really need to watch the news to figure that out:  Wednesday I paid $12 for a pound of sliced deli ham and almost the same for a pound of sliced deli cheese; almost twice what I paid three months ago.

Like many Americans, I got a “pay raise” to my retirement this year, a 3% Cost of Living Allowance (COLA).  That sounded great:  but it looks like, at the moment, I’m down 6%, not up three.  

But when I looked at the “list” of everything that costs more, it seems to me that they all have one thing in common – airline tickets and eggs, new houses and deli ham.  All those things require, one way or another, gas.  The eggs, ham, and cheese are transported from the “farm” to the wholesaler to the store.  The biggest continuing cost for airlines is jet fuel.  And the materials for the new house came from the forest, to the processor, to the lumber yard, to the worksite.

In short, inflation isn’t about the cost of eggs, or the rest.  It’s all about the cost of the oil : oil made into the gas for the Jeep, or the diesel for the egg trucks, or the jet fuel for the Boeing 737’s.  The prime driver of our price increases is the increase in the cost of getting whatever it is to wherever it has to go.

Economics 101

And why it the price of oil so high?  Well, there’s still a war going on in Ukraine.  The Western world is boycotting Russian oil. The US had to replace 7% of our oil, and Europe is replacing 25% of theirs.  If Russian oil isn’t used, then the actual “supply” of oil on the world market gets smaller.  In Economics 101 our first lesson was the “mantra”:  when supply goes down, and demand remains the same, price goes up.  So the cost of oil increased. We know: by the incredible new prices on our local gas pump, and at our grocery store, and all the other items that are moved by oil.

That’s why President Biden is headed to Saudi Arabia today.  Sure, we are still mad about the butchering of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, and the human catastrophe in Yemen.  But the Saudi’s have… 
“what the world (still) needs now: it’s oil, sweet oil.  It’s the only thing, that’s there just not enough of…” (sorry, Burt Bacharach, and all my global climate change friends). 

Biden needs the Saudis to boost their oil production. And in Riyadh – there’s always a way to make a deal.

Not Just Oil

There’s no doubt that there are multiple causes of our inflation.  The world virtually shut down during the Covid pandemic.  Nations did their best to help their citizens through the crisis, pumping lots of money into their economies.  And since those economies were slow, a lot of that money wasn’t spent while we isolated from Covid.  Once the economies opened back up, all of that “extra” money flooded back in.  Lesson two of Economics 101:  when the demand for goods goes up, and the supply of goods remains the same (or is low because production was slowed by Covid), prices will go up.

So we faced inflation anyway, no matter who was elected the President of the United States in 2020.  But what’s the difference between four or five percent and “record breaking” nine percent?  The cost of oil, that made the cost of gas at the pump sky-rocket. And it only feels worse by the contrast to the record setting lows of two years ago during the height of the pandemic shutdown. 

Gas prices are gradually coming back down.  Part of that is due to reallocating American oil production, part is pressure on the oil companies not to take exorbitant profits, and part is regular folks reacting to the high prices (reducing demand).  And with gas prices going down, we should see the other costs lower for: eggs, ham, cheeses, construction costs and airline tickets.  But, Lesson three of Econ 101:  prices go up fast, they come down slow.

But if we can keep pressure on Russia, cutting their oil profits, maybe we can slow their attack on Ukraine. That’s worth the cost.

I bet there’s no COLA for “Pit Coaches” this year.  I’ll probably go anyway.

Not a Trial

In yesterday’s essay, I presented the January 6^th Committee hearings as a cross between a criminal trial and a “mini-series”.  Information is being presented – but unlike a true court proceeding, much of that is a part of a narrative presented by the Congressmen, backed up by edited clips and snippets of  “evidence”.  And while we are familiar with that form of presentation, often used to further the plot in TV and movie trials; in a real courtroom that would not be allowed during witness questioning.  In a court, the whole information must come from the witness, not the attorney, “leading the witness”.  The attorneys can only elicit facts from the witnesses, not present those facts (“facts not in evidence”) themselves. 

And of course, in a courtroom there would be a defense, cross-examining the witnesses and presenting alternative theories of the “crime”.

The January 6^th Committee isn’t a “trial”.  It is an investigation, now presenting to the Congress, and the Nation, what they discovered about the events leading up to January 6^th.  The members of the Committee aren’t going to “convict”, at least not in the legal sense.  They are, in the most limited sense, telling the story of the Insurrection to the Congress, for the purpose of creating legislation to avoid one in the future. 

But the audience is much larger than that.  In the first night of Committee hearings, over twenty million Americans watched on television or cable.  Many more streamed the hearings online.  Over six million are watching the daytime hearings live, with millions more catching up in the evening recaps.

Grand Jury

The January 6^th Committee hearings aren’t a criminal trial.  They are more like a Grand Jury investigation.

A Grand Jury is one way our justice system investigates crime.  Much like the January 6^th Committee, a grand jury hears the “prosecutors” side of the case, without opportunity for defense.  They hear witnesses, presented by the prosecution.  And an investigative grand jury can, like the Committee, subpoena further witnesses and require them to testify under oath.  Grand juries do not determine guilt, their role is to decide whether there is “probable cause” to believe a crime has been committed.  If they find “probable cause”, they bring charges against the perpetrators, sending them to criminal trial.

So the January 6^th Committee is presenting their evidence to the Congress, and also to the American people.  In fact, they are serving the purpose of the prosecution for a grand jury of the American people, presenting the evidence of “probable cause” that crimes were committed, crimes even at the highest level, by the President of the United States.  And it’s up to the American people to determine whether to “indict” or not.

No Precedence

There is no legal precedence for indicting a former President.  The Department of  Justice is running a parallel investigation of the Insurrection right now.  Anecdotal evidence indicates that that the Department had not reached the White House, they seemed as surprised as everyone else at the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson.  So the Committee is forcing Justice to move ahead, and look at the ultimate possibility:  bringing charges against a former United States President.

Americans have a saying:  all men are equal in the eyes of the law.  But, of course, that’s not really true.  We know throughout our history that the law is often enforced unequally.  Bill Cosby was treated differently than “Joe average”.  While we believe that our laws apply equally, we also not that “rank hath it’s privilege”. 

And there are good reasons why former Presidents of the United States require a higher standard for criminal indictment.  We watch the parade of other former world leaders who go from the pinnacle to the jail cell, and wonder how much of that is their conduct, or just their political opponents getting revenge.  The United States pardoned Richard Nixon, forgave Bill Clinton, and held no one responsible for the torture of the Bush Administration.

And there is the practical consideration of how a convicted former President would be punished.  Does he go to jail?  Does his Secret Service detail go with him?  What about all of the secrets he knows? How compromised would our national security be, even in a “country club” minimum security  “white-collar camp”?

Acceptable Behavior

But most importantly, what about the tens of millions of Americans who still believe in the former President.  It isn’t just creating a martyr, but literally putting their “hero” in jail.  As the Republicans in Congress have made it clear; they intend retribution.  If the Republicans retake the House, we expect a “reverse” January 6^thCommittee, searching for the “crimes” of Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, and, of course, Liz Cheney.  If Donald Trump is convicted of crimes, should Joe Biden be wary?

Former prosecutors make it clear – they follow the evidence wherever it leads them.  The “grand jury” presentation of the January 6^th Committee is leading us, Americans, to indict the former President of the United States.  The Department of Justice will reach its own decision to bring charges or not.  For the sake of the future of our Nation, I hope they decide to indict Donald J Trump.  But if the Department of Justice doesn’t, it will be up to the American people to use the only “trial” they have available.  They must turn their back on him, and his supporters, at the ballot box.  There can be no middle-ground: a vote for a person who still supports Donald Trump, is a vote to allow all of the lawbreaking and anti-American actions of Trump to go unpunished.  

What kind of America do you want?

Trial

It’s the rhythm of a criminal trial.  The Prosecution begins the case with it’s “opening”.  They describe the “who, what, when, where and why”, and they tell the jury what the evidence will show.  Then the evidence itself is presented; building, piece by piece, the structure of the criminal acts.  And finally, after the Defense has had their chance, the Prosecution sums up what all the evidence “adds up to”.  If they did their job, it adds up to a finding of guilt.

The January 6^th Committee is not holding a criminal trial.  They are presenting the “intelligence”, the information, about the actions of former President Donald Trump and his cohorts leading to the Insurrection for which the committee is named.   Some of that “intelligence” rises to the level of evidence, some does not.  

But that’s not the January 6^th Committee’s problem.  All they can do is show what they’ve found.  They can “write the story” of the Insurrection, and they will ultimately propose legislation to try to “fix what’s broke”.  Oh, and they can lay out a case to the Department of Justice for indicting the former President of the United States.

Think of the January 6^th Committee as presenting a cross between a criminal trial and a mini-series.  They’ve been masterful in carefully building a story.  The Congressmen narrate, backed by video clips of witness statements, footage of the what the protagonists did or said, and those awful battle scenes on the steps of the Capitol.  And then they carefully present “live” witnesses to buttress each point of the day, the “episode”.  Tuesday’s presentation was no exception.

Hearsay

Remember, in our “last episode” we heard from Cassidy Hutchinson, the aide to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.  Her position, both administratively and literally, was in the center of the action.  Meadows was the gateway to Trump, Hutchinson was the gateway to Meadows.  And she took us “inside” in the final days leading up to the Insurrection.  Her testimony was so damning of Trump and Meadows, that all that the unheard “defendants” could say was that much of her testimony was “hearsay”.  She was telling what someone said someone said.

So this week, the Committee brought in the “someone” who said much of it, former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.  He “had no problem” with her testimony, verifying most of it.  Her hearsay was verified by his direct testimony, admissible in any Court.  

Nexus of the Crime

And in this episode, the Committee also took us to the “nexus” of the crime, the moment when the Insurrection was put in motion.  It was after an hours long meeting with the President on December 18^th, 2020, four days after the electoral votes were confirmed by the States.  

It was in this meeting, filled with shouting and near physical violence, that President Trump was presented with two choices.  His White House staff, represented by Cipollone and Meadows, offered him reality.  They said the election was over, and that Trump should concede and rest on his successes in office.  But the outside “counsel”, Giuliani, Powell and Flynn; offered him an alternative, one that was tantamount to overthrowing the government.  

We knew about this meeting within hours of it happening.  I wrote an essay about it two days later (Seven Days in December).  But at the end of the hours of  screaming and shouting, Cipollone and Meadows walked out thinking that they had avoided the worst.  

But what we didn’t realize then, was that Trump’s next move was to call out the mob, the famous come to Washington for a “wild time” tweet.  That moment, that tweet, set in motion a chain of events from all of those groups that were following Trump’s earlier instructions of “stand back and stand by”.  They immediately began to organize. The President chose to launch an Insurrection.

Preserve, Protect and Defend

The committee still has not clearly tied Trump (or Meadows) directly to those groups.  What they have done is shown that the President knew there was an armed mob in front of him on January 6^th, the mob he summoned; and despite that knowledge, sent them to march on the Capitol to “fight” for him.  And as they headed down the Mall, Trump himself wanted to be “with them”.  We know that the Secret Service had to disobey the order of the President of the United States in the black SUV after the speech, and take him back to the White House.

What did Donald Trump do as the Capitol was breeched for the first time since 1814?  Why didn’t he call out the National Guard, or at least call the mob off?  Direct testimony from one man who actually broke into the building said that as soon as the President told him to, he left the building.

Our final episode:  what did Donald Trump do in the three hours that the Capitol was under siege?  How did Trump react to direct threats on the Vice President and the leadership of Congress?  What is the duty of the President to protect Congress and the Constitution, and what is the reality of Donald Trump’s inaction?

Tune in again, next week, to find out.

The January 6^th Essays

• The Summation
• The John Dean Moment
• Sinning and America
• Flashes of Hope
• Don’t Look Back
• For You, Republicans
• On the Tightrope
• A Television Moment

Georgetown Lawyer

Jeffrey Clark is an accomplished scholar and lawyer.  He earned his Bachelor’s Degree at Harvard (class of ’89), then a Masters in Urban Affairs at the University of Delaware.   Clark then went to law school at Georgetown, the class of ’95.  After graduating, he clerked for a Federal District Judge in Cincinnati.

Clark went to work at the firm of  Kirkland and Ellis in Washington, DC.  If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Kirkland and Ellis is the “supplier” of lawyers for Republican governments.  Here’s just some of their alumni in government service:  Alex Acosta*, Alex Azar*, William Barr*, John Bolton*, Robert Bork , Pat Cipollone* Jeffrey Clark*, John Eastman*, Brett Kavanaugh*, Pat Philbin*, Jeff Rosen*, Ken Starr (* served in the Trump Administration). And there are a few Democrats too: Richard Cordray, Sean Patrick Maloney, and Mikie Sherrill. (The last two both current Democratic US Congressmen).

At Kirkland he developed an expertise in environmental law.  He then moved into the Bush Department of Justice, and served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Environment and Natural Resources.  After 2005, the “revolving door” turned again, and he returned to Kirkland to continue his environmental law practice.  No surprise: he wasn’t a “green” guy.  He represented the US Chamber of Commerce challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate carbon emissions and British Petroleum in the Horizon oil spill case.

With Trump’s win in 2016, Clark moved back to Justice. This time he was the Assistant Attorney General for the same division.  Once in charge, he aggressively worked to protect businesses from environmental law enforcement. He was “Mr. Oil Spill”.

Off the Rails

Political appointees at Justice often try to impose their views of the law on their departments.  This is what happens, even in the law, when political control changes from one President to another.  While the Obama Justice Department strictly enforced environmental laws against polluters, the Trump Administration took a different view.  To make sure that view was reflected, guys like Clark were brought in.

I didn’t support the Trump pollution policies, but I understood that it was just one result of his election victory.  The line, “elections have consequences” fits; these are the kind of unseen outcomes of a change in Party.  The appointment of sympathetic Supreme Court Justices is a much more visible result of the same thing. 

Donald Trump had difficulty getting his appointees through Senate confirmation, even though Republicans had a majority.  So many of his appointments to office were “acting”; without Senate approval, who had a limited amount of time they could serve.  I wrote an essay about this back in 2019, The Acting Presidency.  In the last few months of the Trump Administration, Clark was appointed as Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.  In that job, Clark successfully got the government to support Trump in a personal lawsuit. (It was filed by a woman who claimed Trump, well before he was President, sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of Bergdorf-Goodman, an exclusive clothing store in New York City).

Acting-Acting

Clark was replacing another acting appointee whose time had expired.  After the election of 2020, Clark became steeped in the “Stop the Steal” conspiracy, thoroughly convinced that Trump had actually won the election, regardless of the lack of actual evidence of any kind of voter fraud.  He approached a friend, Republican Congressman William Perry, who put him in touch with the outgoing President.

Trump and his campaign legal team, led by Rudy Giuliani, were searching for support anywhere they could find it.  That an Assistant Attorney General not only was “on board”, but willing to do anything to help, was a great plus.  The current Attorney General, William Barr, made it clear that the Department found no evidence of voter fraud.  And, once Barr resigned, his replacement as Acting Attorney General, Jeffrey Rosen, and the Acting Deputy, Richard Donaghue, continued to follow those facts.

So in late December as the January 6^th Congressional Electoral Vote certification loomed near, President Trump contemplated firing Rosen and Donaghue, and replacing them with Clark. In fact, Trump decided to actually do that, and for a few hours, Clark was “noted” as the Acting Attorney General in White House communications.  But in a pivotal meeting with Justice Department leaders and White House legal counsel, Trump was told that the majority of the senior leadership of the Department would resign if Clark was placed in charge.  As Rosen put it, “Clark would be leading a graveyard”.  Trump rescinded the order.

The Other Side of Justice

What other actions and involvement did Jeffrey Clark have with the “Stop the Steal” movement?  Did he have knowledge of plans for the Insurrection on January 6^th?  Those and more are questions the January 6^th Committee wanted to ask Clark.  He at first refused and was charged with contempt. Clark then ultimately appeared before the Committee. In that testimony, he exercised his 5^th Amendment right against self-incrimination over one hundred times.

The actions of several Trump attorneys not only gained the interest of the January 6^th Committee, but also the current Department of Justice investigation of the Insurrection. One Trump campaign attorney, John Eastman, was pulled over in his car, and served a search warrant for his cell phone.  When the FBI agents asked Eastman to raise his hands, the legal “scholar” didn’t quite seem to understand the question.  The helpful agent gently took Eastman’s arms and put them on top of his head. Then they did a cursory search to get the phone, and check for any weapons.

Subject of Interest

And, in the early morning hours, the FBI came calling on Jeffrey Clark as well.  He answered the door in his shirt and boxer shorts, to find agents on his front step. They had warrants to search for electronic devices; computers, phones and the like.  The FBI doesn’t search a house with the occupant inside, they make sure to control the situation by placing them in temporary custody outside by the FBI vehicles.  

And of course, once you answer the door, they aren’t going to let you go back inside.  You might destroy evidence.  So Jeffrey Clark, former Acting Assistant Attorney General, former Assistant Attorney General, former member of the vaunted Kirkland and Ellis law firm; was escorted to the street in his shirt and boxers.  

I used to watch a television show called “Cops”. The show had camera crews that travelled with active police officers, showing what happened during their patrol. There was a “rule of thumb” while watching cops: if a suspect didn’t have a shirt on, they were going to jail.

The moral of this story might be to believe the evidence that the Justice Department, Clark’s own Department, found.  It might be: don’t fall for the internet of lies and videos that made up Stop the Steal.  Or it might be to not get involved in a plot to overthrow the Constitution.

But it definitely is this:  if the FBI is knocking on your door – put your pants on.

Upset

The battle of Yorktown is marked as the victory that ended the American Revolution, and began the American experiment in democracy. (Yes, I know that it was two more years before a treaty actually ending the war – but Yorktown was the reason the treaty was signed). It was an overwhelming “upset”, to use a sports analogy.  It was like my alma mater, Denison University beating Ohio State on the football field, or the Toledo Mud Hens defeating the New York Yankees in baseball.  The British Army was perhaps the strongest in the world, and the British Navy was definitely the best.  

But that didn’t matter; General Cornwallis got his British forces backed into a corner.  And the British Navy wasn’t at the battle, the French Navy was.  They blocked Cornwallis from any extraction by sea.  After days of siege warfare, the unthinkable finally happened.  A white flag flew from the parapet, and Cornwallis marched his troops out to surrender.  But he couldn’t accept the loss himself, he sent his second in command to offer his sword to General Washington.  

Washington, the consummate military man, was always aware of protocol.  He instructed his second-in-command, General Benjamin Lincoln (no relation to Abraham), to accept the symbolic gesture.  As the British stacked their weapons and marched into captivity, their pipers played the old English ballad, “The World Turned Upside Down”.  

Today

The world feels pretty upside down today.

The former Prime Minister of Japan was assassinated, shot in the back with a homemade gun.  If that happened here in the US, it would be just “another brick in the wall” in this summer of mass shootings.  But in Japan, you can count the number of deaths from gun violence for a year on one hand.   Nothing more powerful, or cowardly, than an assassin with a plastic sawed-off shotgun.

Thirty years after the end of the Cold War, the United States is again leading a coalition of forces to oppose Russia.  A smaller democratic state, Ukraine, is under mass attack. Instead of letting the Russian autocrat Putin exercise his will un-challenged, the US is doing everything short of direct warfare to stop him.  It’s one of the few things that most Americans actually agree on.

That’s because the democracy that Washington helped create is also now under siege.  The essential tenet of our government, that the most votes wins, is under attack.  Perhaps as many as thirty percent of Americans believe that an election was stolen.  They think that Joe Biden usurped his position illegally, and that their only vindication is to “change the rules” so that they can decide the winner regardless of the vote count.

Trust No One

Our nation with all its blemishes and flaws, for more than half a century stood, “as the shining city on the hill” for the world.  It seems to be a bit dimmer right now.  We didn’t create the “post-truth” world, but our nation fully practices “post-truth”.  And its American companies:  Facebook and Twitter, Apple, Microsoft and Google, that intentionally or not, are the mechanisms of spreading the lies.

How crazy is this:  on the next update for my brand new IPhone (13 mini), Apple will offer a switch that will guarantee my phone cannot be hacked.  I guess that’s a good thing – but that also means the courts, the police, the FBI can’t get in my phone either.  I have nothing to hide on my phone, or computer, or anywhere else.  If the FBI needs to get into my phone, it’s probably because something bad happened to me.  But if I flick that switch – it erases itself rather than “give up” data.  And yet I’m still tempted to “protect” myself.

And what’s even more confusing, is that both sides, “MAGA” or “Blue”, would agree to that. There is fear of an unformed “them” that requires protection.

Moral Arc

Dr. King often used the phrase, “The arc of the moral universe may be long, but it bends toward justice”.  For most of my lifetime, it’s felt like we could actually see “the bend”, as it arced towards more freedom for Americans. But in recent years it seems like the arc just goes off into an unseen universe, far from a final just landing. Much of the work that so many Americans have done to bend it, seems to be lost.  Whether it’s about race, or gender, or identity; the America of today is less just than at any time that my sixty-five years can remember.

The world feels upside down. 

Struggle 

The American Revolution was a protracted struggle.  It took six long years from the town squares of Lexington and Concord to the white flag of Yorktown.  And for most of those years, the Continental Army lost.  They lost at Lexington and Concord, they lost at Brooklyn and Harlem, they lost Philadelphia, they lost 10,000 troops under Benjamin Lincoln who surrendered Charleston, just a year before Yorktown.  They suffered through the harsh winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge, and three other winters in the nearby Watchung Mountains of Western New Jersey.  

Washington knew that the ultimate goal was for his army to survive.  Survive long enough that the British ran out of patience, and money, to maintain occupations forces.  Survive by avoiding a cataclysmic final battle, a “Gettysburg” that risked his entire force.  Washington kept his Army alive and fighting, for six long years, until he finally could capitalize on a British mistake.  The arc of his mission finally bent towards victory.

It feels like we are in a time of decision, of determining whether our world will remain upside down, or whether we will find a way to right ourselves, and our nation.  It’s not time for the white flags, or to give up our swords.  Like Washington and his second-in-command Lincoln, it’s time to redouble our efforts, so that we can drown out the British pipers with our own ditty, “Yankee Doodle Dandy”.