Category: Uncategorized

November 22, 1963

I was six years old when John F Kennedy was shot in Dallas.  My memories of the time are clear:  released from school, something awful happened in Dallas.  The teachers wouldn’t tell us, so second graders were talking about monsters attacking the state. The staff wanted our parents to handle it.  I fought on the way home, some boy said they shot the President, and I didn’t believe him. Words turned to fists, a second grader versus a third grader.  I think I won.

When I got home, Mom met me at the door, tears in her eyes.  I wish I hadn’t punched that kid; for the next few days it was grainy black and white television, first from Dallas, and then the funeral from Washington. The caisson carrying the flag covered casket, the rider less horse behind with the boots strapped backwards in the stirrups; the President’s family stoic and brave. 

So I guess if you were six on September 11^th, 2001, you would have some pretty clear images of what happened, even if, you didn’t have much understanding.  To put that in perspective, you’d be twenty-four today.

It is amazing how quickly “events” become history.  What feels like just a couple of years ago, is now in an eighth grade textbook.  

Tuesday Morning

Tuesday morning, September 11^th, 2001, I was in “recovery” mode.  We had just completed our big home cross country invitational the previous weekend, I was looking forward to getting my team ready for the next competition, and to concentrating on my classroom.  I taught senior American government class, and we were reaching the end of the first unit, trudging through the US Constitution and the Amendments.

At Watkins Memorial High School we started the day early, the first bell rang at 7:19.  The school was under construction; all of the in-class TV’s were off line.  So it was on a restroom run between second and third period that a fellow staff member told me of a plane, crashing into the World Trade Center in New York.  

A tragedy, a horrible accident; I talked briefly to my class about it as we started.  When another staff member came to the door, and told us of the second plane, we all knew it was something more than an accident.

The Planes

I wanted to know what was going on, and I wanted my classes to know too.  We moved outside and sat in the band bleachers of the football field, facing north, and turned up the radio from my jeep.  The class sat and listened as the third plane crashed into the Pentagon, and heard the rumors of other planes “out of contact” with air traffic control. We heard reports of a fourth plane down in Pennsylvania.

And as we sat in the bleachers, we watched the final approach leg into the Columbus Airport, (then Port Columbus, now John Glenn International.)  We listened as the World Trade Centers collapsed, and watched as plane after plane, maybe forty of them, lined up to land right in front of us.

Later that day the football coach and I rigged up a television with an outdoor antenna in our school’s wrestling room.  Hundreds of kids came in, watching, wondering, and looking for answers:  who did this, why, and how could it have happened? I spent any breaks on the phone, trying to reach my sister and her husband in New York.  All the lines were down, crashed by the volume of calls. When I finally did talk to them that evening, my sister was at home when it happened, my brother-in-law had to walk home from the City.  He had passed under the World Trade Center only a few minutes before the first plane hit.

My Mission

We released the kids from school, finally.  I went home that night with a mission, to find out everything available, so I could teach my kids what this was all about.  The Amendments to the Constitution would have to wait (it would end up being two weeks,) American Government at Watkins Memorial was going to be about what happened to our country, and our lives, on September 11^th.  

Out in the front yard that evening, the sky was almost completely empty of planes.  Only one crossed, Air Force One, taking President Bush back from Nebraska to the White House.  It looked odd and lonely; the escort fighters must have been high above.

The next weeks were filled with questions and information.  We learned about Al Qaeda and Wahhabism, the puritanical version of Islam they practiced.  The Class studied the difference between that and the Islam worshipped by the Taliban, the group that controlled Afghanistan and allowed Al Qaeda to set up bases there. We learned history:  of Afghanistan, of the Middle East, and that Islam didn’t attack the United States, Al Qaeda did.  

The class asked questions about how we should respond.  These were seventeen and eighteen year olds (now thirty-six) and the question of war had tremendous immediacy to them.  Several of the students in that class would end up in the armed forces, fighting in the mountains and villages of Afghanistan.  They all came back, but many suffered injuries, both physical and mental, that they are still struggling to overcome today.

Eighteen Years

It doesn’t seem that long ago.  On Friday of that week, I was in a car crash.  My Suburban was totaled, my fault, but fortunately no one was hurt. On Saturday my cross country team went to the Galion Invitational, and since I had to find a ride to school I got there early.  That gave me the opportunity to have a long talk with our bus driver, the sweetest older man ever, Lester Kahrig (here’s a link to his story.)  We talked about war, about what would happen to these kids on the bus.  He talked about “his 9-11” when he was seventeen, Pearl Harbor, and about the war he fought in the Pacific. 

Those weeks were the best teaching I’ve ever done.  They were also the best learning my classes ever did.  There were no tests, no matching “Osama bin Laden” to “leader of Al Qaeda;” there was no need.  The kids wanted to know, needed to know.  I don’t remember any principal saying that I could take my class this direction, but they knew it was the right thing to do.  

Eighteen years since 9-11, it’s time to let Afghanistan go.  One of the things were learned in those weeks is that controlling Afghanistan is like holding desert sand in your hands, you might think you’ve got it, but slowly, inexorably, it slips between your fingers.  The harder you clench, the more slips away.  Every conqueror from Alexander the Great, to the British, to the Soviets figured it out.  America needs to learn the lesson too.  

Kids who weren’t born on 9-11, shouldn’t be fighting there.

Article XIV 

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

(Amendment 14 – Rights Guaranteed: Privileges and Immunities of Citizenship, Due Process, and Equal Protection)

Email from RAN

I received another email from my conservative “friends” at the RESPONSE ACTION NETWORK (RAN.)  As usual they needed my help, and money, to help the “educate” the American public. This time it was about one of their favorite “bogeymen,” what they call “birthright citizenship.”

So here’s their problem.  Any person, born in the territory of the United States of America, is considered a “natural born” citizen of the United States.  They have US citizenship from birth.  This includes illegal migrants in Texas, and Russian bimbos that rent Trump apartments in Florida to have their children. And while my RAN friends don’t seem to care much about the Trump bimbos, they really, really hate the migrants in Texas. 

So they want to change how citizenship is granted. Here’s the current “rules.”

• Be Born in the United States of America
• Have one or both US Citizen Parents
• Born in a US Commonwealth or Territory
• Born “under the US Flag” on a US flagged ship, plane, embassy or military base. 

Black Codes

These “rules” are based on the 14^thAmendment to the US Constitution, written after the Civil War.  The original purpose of the Fourteenth was to require the Southern States to treat their former slaves as citizens.  Many of the states in the former Confederacy quickly wrote a series of laws called the Black Codes after the War ended.  Those Codes created a second level of status for the former slaves, with restrictions on employment, movement, contractual rights and voting rights.  

In short, the Black Codes prevented the freedmen from being full citizens.  The Republicans (just thought I’d point that out) in Congress wanted Freedmen to have full citizenship rights, and to make sure, they put it in the Constitution. It’s called Black Letter Law:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

All Persons – regardless of their immigration status, their skin color, their profession or their education, are included in the Fourteenth.  In the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof – within the boundaries of the United States of America, or in areas under its jurisdiction are all included.  Are citizens – have all the rights of citizenship in the United States and the state where they live.  

Seems pretty cut and dried; if you are born here, you are a citizen here.

Black Letter Law

Now, my “friends” at the DIRECT ACTION NETWORK aren’t stupid.  They can read, and they know what the Black Letter Law says.  And like any good second year law students, they can make an argument, even against the clearest of statutory language.  Here’s their assertion.

Illegal migrants have come to the United States in violation of US law,  That makes them not “under the jurisdiction” of the United States, and they haven’t “earned” the right to be a citizen.  

On the surface, it sounds like a legitimate argument.  Illegal is illegal, right?  But the problem is, that while they may have entered the US in violation of the immigration law, that doesn’t change the “all persons” part of the Fourteenth.  The Amendment itself recognizes that their was an “excepted” class. In the second clause it mentions that “Indians not taxed” would not be counted in the enumeration, census, for the purpose of apportioning legislative seats.  But even, here, those Indians were specifically not excluded from the citizenship clause.

And ask ICE, those illegal migrants are certainly under the jurisdiction of the United States when they are rounded up at the chicken processing plant, or as they drop their children off at school in the morning.  So it is more than disingenuous to say they are NOT under US jurisdiction for the purpose of citizenship, but ARE under the jurisdiction for all other legal purposes.

Birthers

The Stephen Miller/Trump Administration is already trying to alter the citizenship code, changing how children born to Americans overseas are treated as citizens.  Many famous Americans, including Senator John McCain, were born outside of the boundaries of the nation.  McCain was born in the US Canal Zone (Panama), “under the flag” and of two American parents.  He was considered a “natural born” citizen, allowing him the opportunity to run for President of the United States (the natural born citizenship status is required.) The Administration is proposing changing how that works.

That was also the whole basis of the “Birther” movement to disqualify Barack Obama.  He was in fact born in Hawaii of a Kenyan father and American (Kansas) mother, but the “Birthers” tried to claim that his Hawaiian birth records were forgeries, and that he was actually born in Kenya.

Even if he was (he wasn’t) he still could claim US citizenship through his mother, but that wasn’t the Birther point. Trump supporters now claim that the “Resistance” is trying to delegitimize the Trump Presidency based on a “stolen” election; the “Resistance” learned the tactic from the Birther Movement’s false claims. (By the way, I’m not convinced that the “Resistance” isn’t right about the election – history will tell us in a few years.)

 

White Citizens

But, the RAN people demand, what about “Anchor Babies?”  These are children, born in the United States, of foreign parents.  Since they were born in the territory of the United States of America, they are, in fact, natural born US citizens.  Whether their parents stay in the US or not, when those children reach adulthood, they have the right to claim that citizenship.

And that makes the RAN people crazy:  that even more people, particularly “brown” people, are US citizens.  It is strange though, that the same argument isn’t being made against Europeans, particularly the Russian women who come to Florida, rent a Trump controlled apartment, and give birth.

The RESPONSE ACTION NETWORK  is responding, to the racist citizenship politics of the Trump Administration.  They want to “educate” Americans on how the Fourteenth Amendment doesn’t really say what it says, just as they are fascinated with ignoring the “…well regulated militia…” section of the Second Amendment.  

I guess they won’t get my help.          

If you own a dog, you can imagine the horror.   A friend looks after her for a few minutes, and she breaks away.  You know she was looking for you, and you know that your puppy panicked when she couldn’t find you.

Runaway 

It happened here in Pataskala Friday, at the local Laundromat.  The dog, a seven month old puppy, slipped out of her collar and ran out the door to find her “Mom.”  This puppy was more than just a cute, happy friend, she had an innate way of knowing how to ease the severe anxieties “Mom” had from the recent tragedies in her life. The puppy’s name was Valen, short for Valentine, and she could ease the shaking of PTSD, and wake “Mom” from her night terrors.

But she was gone, running across a four lane highway at rush hour, and off into a local woods.  

There are a lot of bad things you can say about Facebook.  From coldly profiting from personal information, to underhandedly influencing our election, Facebook has taken an enormous and often negative role in American life.  But at its best, it sometimes fulfills the “dream” that Mark Zuckerberg said he thought his invention could be. Sometimes, it can unite a community. 

So how to find a lost, scared and lonely dog running in a strange woods?  Here in Pataskala, those woods are surrounded by housing developments. If somehow you could let folks living around them know what’s going on, then they could maybe help find Valen.

And this is where Facebook shines.  Within hours, the “Pataskala Page,” best known for complaints about local taxes and student drivers, had Valen’s picture and possible location posted.  Along with posters on local utility poles, Facebook reached thousands surrounding the area.

We’re on a Search

It reached Jennifer, my wife.  Jenn has always had a soft spot for lost dogs, the two that are sleeping under my feet right now are rescues from the local shelter.  One was days away from euthanization, the other rejected by two other homes.  They both found a home and safety here, with us.

So Jenn got in the car, and started trolling the suburban streets around the woods.  Like any small community, people notice strange cars going back and forth in their neighborhoods, and come out to see what’s going on.  Jenn had lots of conversations with folks on a sunny Saturday afternoon, letting them know about Valen, and giving them contact numbers if she was spotted.

The “pros” were involved too.  “Pet FBI” listed Valen on their website, a group that helps spread the word about lost pets in Ohio and the Midwest.  And there are actually groups that take on “lost dogs,” they make posters, put out traps, and have amazing success in finding dogs lost for weeks.  “Lost Pet Recovery” got involved here in Pataskala too.

But Saturday ended in frustration.  There was one report of a dog running along the edge of the wood, and a second of two dogs going into the woods along a deer path.  But Valen was still out in the woods, and “Mom” was close to panic herself.  She sat in a parking lot of a store bordering the woods, looking desperately into them, calling Valen’s name, and talking to anyone who stopped by.  As evening arrived, she went home to another sleepless night without Valen.

Dog and Deer in the Woods

It was on “our” to-do list Sunday:  go look for Valen.  We tromped through the woods, and trespassed on all of the backyards along the way, calling Valen and holding out gas station hot dogs.  Other than collecting every burr and thorn bush in Pataskala, we didn’t do much good.  But we kept talking to people, showing them pictures of the dog, and asking them to keep an eye out.  

The cool thing about Pataskala, and probably most smallish towns, is that people felt the pain and fear of losing their pet.  They all were willing to help, to look, and to overlook those strange people going through their yards.  We walked, then we drove, but we didn’t do much good.  We stopped by “Mom”, back in a chair waiting in the parking lot, then we headed out to check off a few other items on our list.

And that’s when Jenn got the call.  It was a lady in the neighborhood; Jenn talked to her husband on Saturday, and he had let the neighbors know about Valen. One of them saw a dog matching her description walking in a clump of trees in their backyard.  Valen seemed to be hanging out there, along with a doe and her three fawns. Jenn contacted “Mom” and “Lost Pet Recovery” at the parking lot, and gave her the location.

“Mom” and “Dad” too, drove to the address, and went back into the woods.  Valen was too panicked to come to her name, but with patience, sitting, waiting, and treats, Valen finally got close enough to “Dad” to recognize his smell and come to him. She went home, exhausted.  “Mom” got her emotional support back, and a community got a success story.  

Community Means Together

All those folks, on Facebook, in the woods, in the neighborhoods; the “pros” and the volunteers like Jenn, reunited a dog family.  In a world so divided, no one asked what political party anyone supported, just a lot of people feeling one person’s pain, and doing what they could to make it better.  

Jenn’s been on these searches before, and it doesn’t always end well.  But this one did; it took the community to get this happy ending.  Valen’s home, and Pataskala’s got something to smile about this morning.

Unbeknownst to almost everyone, the major Taliban leaders and, separately, the President of Afghanistan, were going to secretly meet with me at Camp David on Sunday. They were coming to the United States tonight. Unfortunately, in order to build false leverage, they admitted to an attack in Kabul that killed one of our great great soldiers, and 11 other people. I immediately cancelled the meeting and called off peace negotiations. What kind of people would kill so many in order to seemingly strengthen their bargaining position? They didn’t, they only made it worse! If they cannot agree to a ceasefire during these very important peace talks, and would even kill 12 innocent people, then they probably don’t have the power to negotiate a meaningful agreement anyway. How many more decades are they willing to fight? – Donald J. Trump Tweet – 9/7/19

Yesterday, President Trump tweeted that he was cancelling a secret meeting at Camp David.  The meeting was kept secret because it was supposed to include the President of the United States, the President of Afghanistan, and leadership from their opponent in the Afghan War for eighteen years, the Taliban.

The Eighteen-Year War

The American envoy to negotiations with the Taliban recently announced the framework for an agreement, allowing US troops to withdraw from the longest war in American history over the next eighteen months (to read the Trump World essay about the negotiations and an outline of the framework, link here: “Deal with the Taliban”.)  The core of the deal was that the US would leave, and, the Taliban would negotiate with the Afghan government.

The current Afghan government sees the Taliban as an existential threat to modern Afghanistan. The Taliban ruled there from 1994 until the US invasion in 2001.  They enforced a strict form of historic Islamic control, Sharia law that in many ways put the country into the eighth century.  Women had no rights; freedom of speech, or even thought was banned or controlled.

The Taliban are making it clear that they are negotiating from strength.  They have launched a series of suicide bombings in Afghanistan. This week, a US soldier was among the victims in an attack.  

Negotiating from Strength

President Trump claims that as his excuse for cancelling the Camp David meetings.  It seems that the President was hoping for a breakthrough there, perhaps emulating the famous “Camp David Accord” negotiated by President Jimmy Carter between archenemies Begin of Israel and Sadat of Egypt.

But then the last attack occurred, another American was killed and the President said, it was enough. 

At least, that’s what he said in his tweet.  His Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, is doubling down on the President’s reasoning on the Sunday morning news shows.  But there is a real question about what happened with the Camp David meeting.

Did the President cancel the meetings, or did one of the participants refuse to attend?  Did the US recognize that the Taliban weren’t negotiated in good faith, or did the US realize that the strength of the Taliban was so much greater than the US, that they had no reason to negotiate.

The facts are:  the United States is going to withdraw from Afghanistan.  After eighteen years of war, the US Government, military, and the American people, don’t have the will to maintain the long-term stalemate we have achieved. We know it, the Afghan government knows it, and most importantly, the Taliban know it.

And besides, the President announced that’s what he wanted to do.  That was from the candidate who ran for office claiming that you never give away your goal in negotiations, never tell “the other side” what you really want or will take.

Winning the War

The Taliban have proven they are willing to accept a seemingly unlimited amount of pain and suffering to end the US presence.  Like the Communists in Vietnam in the late 1960’s, they are willing to continue to fight, and wait for the US to come to their terms.

And Trump faces difficult pressures.  He desperately needs a foreign policy “victory.”  His diplomacy has failed:  in China, North Korea, Europe, and the Middle East.  The President promised his voters he would get the US out of Afghanistan. With the election of 2020 looming, he needs to accomplish something, anything, and soon.

But he also faces pressure from the more traditional conservative Republicans, who are unwilling to leave the American mission in Afghanistan.  American casualties reinforce their view that we should not negotiate with the Taliban.  They are still looking for a military miracle to end the Afghanistan War in victory.

So Trump lost his chance for a “Trumpian Camp David Accord;” no three-way handshake.  The surprise is that the President felt the need to tweet out a “secret” meeting.  It’s more likely, he was getting the “first word” in before one of the other participants backed out.

And in the final analysis, President Trump should know the answer to his question: How many more decades are they willing to fight?  It’s simple, they are willing to fight longer than the United States.

“All politicians are liars.”

It was an almost offhand comment in a long series of Facebook statements.  No one even contested the idea, that everyone, EVERYONE who runs for office has no standard of morality, no inherent honesty.  “Politicians and used car salesmen” were described as professions where integrity had no place.

Field Coordinator

I was on track to becoming a politician.  I worked on my first campaign at fourteen years old, by my late teens I was taking organizational positions for local candidates.  At twenty, I was a “field coordinator” for the 1976 Carter/Mondale Campaign.  My job was to organize countywide operations in several areas outside of Cincinnati, and to help with all of the tasks in the “big city” itself.

It was an all-consuming experience.  From September to Election Day I was working eighty hours or more a week.  I remember working more hours than the dollars I was paid, but it was amazing.  The folks I worked with were dedicated, excited, and a “band of brothers and sisters” dedicated to changing the country.  

And we found, in the inevitable contacts we had with the Ford Campaign, that they too were just as dedicated and excited.  Sure, they were “wrong,” but other than that, we had a lot more in common than our differences in political philosophy.

Paybacks

We “pranked” them. When President Ford was coming into town to have a rally on Fountain Square, we floated a rumor that the public address system wouldn’t work.  I remember I slept on the floor of our offices, there to answer the 2 am call from the Ford guys, “…are you really going to mess with the President’s speakers?”  My quiet “we’ll see” generated profanity, I went back to sleep.  He was the President, we just wanted to make sure his local staff stayed awake.

And they pranked us. As we were on the rooftop of our building on Fountain Square on the morning of the Ford Rally, our counterparts on the Ford Campaign pointed us out to the Cincinnati Police.  I remember it looked like those pictures from Dealey Plaza in Dallas, the bystanders pointing up at the windows.  While the Secret Service knew what we were doing (putting up a banner) the local police didn’t.  When I saw a dozen officers head into the door at street level, I knew we were in trouble.

They met us on the stairs, and put us up against the wall.  After vigorous frisking, we were frog marched back to the square, and the Secret Service finally stepped in.  They, and the Ford staff, were having a good laugh.  We were angry at the time, they got us better than we got them.

But of course, we got the last laugh in the end.  The first count in Ohio was that Carter won by 5000 votes, I think I shook each one of their hands during the campaign.  While recounts made the gap a bit greater, at twenty I felt like I made a difference.

Make a Difference

That’s what politics is about, isn’t it?  Making a difference, trying to change things for the better, trying to help people. That’s why people run for office, and work to get people elected.  

Does corruption exist? Absolutely; the last political campaign I managed in 1980 we should have won, and, probably did.  But my candidate didn’t take office, somehow, the votes turned out differently.  Rumor was we needed to “hire” someone in the Board of Elections; if we had, perhaps the vote count would have turned out in our favor.

I left politics then, and went back to teaching.  That was my first real taste of corruption, and I didn’t want any part of it.  The classroom was where I chose to  make a difference.  I was twenty-four and the world was still pretty “black and white” then.

Shades of Gray

There are no regrets from that decision; I loved my career as a teacher, administrator, and coach. But in my “advanced age,” I’ve discovered another shade, just like the color of my hair: “gray.”  Our nation, its government, and its politics have pockets of corruption, of leaders not willing or able to tell the truth.   There are also leaders trying to make a difference, trying to “do good.”  I don’t agree with all of them, Bernie Sanders for example.   I believe that he, and many of the other Democrats who have risked their reputations to run for President, are doing so not for money, power, or notoriety. They are doing it to make the world they know better.

So I don’t believe all politicians are liars, or cheats, or out for themselves. They are far easier ways to “advance” yourself, then to strip your entire life and being bare to be examined in front of the world. Most politicians are trying to do that most honorable thing: make the world better.

They don’t deserve ridicule. They are earning respect.

I was just beginning to write essays for Trump World in February of 2017. In those early days, I was trying to explain Trump to my Progressive friends, still reeling from the 2016 election results.  One of those early essays, called Liar Liar Liar, tried to analyze the Trump organization’s relationship to the truth.

Alternative Facts

Here we are, two and a half years later, and that relationship hasn’t changed.  The President built his political foundation on the phrase “fake news.”  If no one can tell what the truth is, then people will only believe what the leader “they” support tells them. The President has flat out stated: “Just remember: What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”  Combined with the confirmation of a major “news” organization, Fox “News,” and a whole other universe of “alternative facts” gets created. (Thanks Kelly-Ann, for that contribution to the American political phraseology.)

The Shooter was a Democrat

This week is a great example.  It started with the shootings in Odessa, Texas, when seven people were killed and dozens wounded by a random shooter.  Within hours of the deaths, Twitter was alive with “facts.”  

• The shooter had a “Beto for Senate” bumper sticker on his truck. 
• He was a registered Democrat and a Democratic Socialist.
• He was a member of Antifa.

This was all fabricated.  The Trump Administration didn’t create these falsehoods. But, Anthony Shaffer, a former DIA officer and a member of the Trump 2020 Campaign Advisory Board, lent them credence by re-tweeting.

I was caught up in those same lies from one of my Facebook “friends” posts.  When a “Snopes” fact check didn’t reveal an immediate response (it was too soon,) I worried that somehow they were true, and would be used to turn back efforts for gun controls.  I didn’t respond on Facebook, the reality that there are crazed folks with all kinds of political views, including ones similar to mine, was too real to mention.  It shouldn’t be.

So the lies did exactly what they were supposed to do.  They helped smother the debate. Here was a man, acknowledged by his neighbors to be “scary and angry.” He could not legally pass a weapons background check, and sat on his rooftop at night and shot at animals. Yet, he was allowed to have a weapon of war.

China Invades Ohio

The second example isn’t even related to Trump, but it is a great example of how absolute falsehood has become our modern political tool.  Here in Ohio, the Republican legislature and Governor have just passed “energy” legislation, rolling back conservation incentives, and pouring money into the failing company running Ohio’s nuclear power plants.  

Opponents of the legislation, a strange amalgam of environmentalists and the natural gas industry, are trying to gain enough signatures to put the legislation up for vote on a statewide ballot.  The nuclear power folks, who won in the state legislature, are paying for an advertising blitz on statewide television. 

 The commercials claim that those passing the petitions are working for China, they show videos of marching Chinese soldiers, President Xi, and Red Flags; and claim that China will interfere in Ohio’s politics and energy production.  “Don’t sign the petition” they demand, as if the Chinese secret police will be pounding on your door with paper and pen.

What does China really have to do with any of this?  Some of the natural gas industry plants in the state have financing that includes Chinese banks.  So, by the way, is some of the financing for Direct Energy, the nuclear power company. And, of course, so are trillions of dollars of the US debt, sold to China by the  US Treasury.

It’s the “Red Scare” tactic, creating a complete fictional story about “Chinese hands” on Ohio’s power switches.  

Magic Marker Hurricanes

Some may say this is just “politics as usual.”  But even the most outlandish campaigns usually have some casual relationship to the truth, some tenuous connection to reality.  But, in this “grand example” of the President’s “fake news,” the nuclear industry is following the classic propaganda technique:  if you’re going to lie, tell a big one.

Our third example is directly from the President’s hand.  As Hurricane Dorian was grinding away the northern Bahamas, stalled precariously off of the US coast, the President warned folks, including in the state of Alabama, about the dangers.  The problem was, there was no danger to Alabama; projected tracks for the storm did not include them.

It was a mistake, while extremely early tracks from a week before included a possible move across Florida, all of the more recent projections showed Dorian headed up the Atlantic coast.  It was a mistake the President could have explained, corrected, and moved past.

But this is the era of Trump.  In yesterday’s “news opportunity” with the President, he presented an older map, complete with a Magic Marker addition to Dorian’s projected course. It couldn’t have been more obvious, the President added his “projection” so that he could claim to be right. Asked about this, Trump followed his own “rules.”  He doubled down on his mistake, claiming that the Weather Service would put out a more detailed map showing him right.  The Weather Service chose not to answer questions about the mistake.

Believe Your Lying Eyes

It’s a lie, an obvious one, and a foolish one.  But, to a substantial portion of the American electorate, it is believed.  They are conditioned:  listen to the President, ignore the “fake news” that calls him to task.  It’s tough to argue with his success.  

Abraham Lincoln said: “…you can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people, all of the time.”

Let’s hope Lincoln’s right.

September 11

It was September 11, 2001.  The United States was assaulted, a sneak attack, using our own commercial aircraft.  The death toll was worse than Pearl Harbor, but the biggest casualty was America’s way of life.  It has never been the same. We check exits, we line up for security to enter Broadway plays, and we glance twice at airplanes streaking through the sky.

A terrorist group, Al Qaeda, was behind it.  They were led by a scion of one of Saudi Arabia’s richest families, Osama bin Laden, who believed in an aberrant version of Islam. Unable to organize in his native land, he moved first to Sudan, then onto Afghanistan.  There he found shelter with kindred spirits in charge of the government, the Taliban.

The Taliban believe in a similar ancient form of Islam. They viewed Sharia Law, the 1300 year-old rules of the desert, as the foundation of Islamic life.  The Taliban emerged to govern from chaos as the Soviet Union was driven from Afghanistan in 1994.  They ruled with an iron hand, destroyed historic relics of Buddhism, denied women education or the ability to participate in public life, executed men for not growing beards.  

Soon after September 11, the United States determined that Al Qaeda was responsible.  The US government issued an ultimatum to the Taliban in charge of Afghanistan:  deny the terrorists sanctuary, or face invasion. The Taliban refused. And on October 7, less than a month after the assault and while dust still rose from the rubble at Ground Zero, the United States attacked.

The Second Generation

That was nearly eighteen years ago.  The original goal, to destroy Al Qaeda, was largely achieved in the first few months, though it took several years for US Special Forces to find and kill bin Laden himself.  The US drove the Taliban from power, pushing them back into the mountainous territory that borders Pakistan.  They set up a new government, one that had modern values.

And the war took on a new goal, to reshape Afghanistan itself into an Islamic democracy.  The US picked sides in the constantly shifting amalgam of tribes that tried to rule the country, and found their allies could only survive with US backing.  The Taliban waited, knowing that it is one thing to “conquer” Afghanistan, but another to “govern” it.  No one, from Alexander the Great to the Red Army of the Soviet Union, could maintain control for long.

Today, American soldiers are walking the same mountain trails their father’s did, and are fighting for the same territories and villages. There is no “winning” in Afghanistan, only a turgid stalemate that is dragging a second generation of Americans, and Afghans, into the horrors of war. 

The US must make a decision:  maintain the stalemate, or change the equation.  They have tried a “surge” that was supposedly successful in Iraq, sent in the best in counter-insurgency, bombed with B-52 bombers and used  “Special Operators.”  It remains a stalemate; much like the Communists in Vietnam, the Taliban are willing to accept more pain and deaths than the Americans are willing to receive or give.

Today the US is negotiating with the Taliban, trying to reach some agreement to allow Americans to withdraw.  Taliban leaders who spent years in the US prison at Guantanamo are sitting across from the American soldiers that put them there.  American Generals, who began as young Lieutenants in the beginning of the war, are now negotiating with the enemy.  

Negotiation or Stalemate

There are a lot of similarities with Vietnam.  While America clearly has overwhelming military strength, somehow they are negotiating from weakness.  Just like in Vietnam, the US has been unable to bring that might to bear on an enemy able to slip into the mountains, and willing to suffer unacceptable casualties to achieve their goal.  

This week, on the very day the US envoy announced a tentative agreement, the Taliban emphasized their strength and resolve, and sent a suicide bomber to attack the “Green Village,” the “safe” enclave for foreigners in Kabul, the capital.  Sixteen were killed and 119 wounded, almost all local Afghans.

A spokesman for the Taliban stated: 

“…we understand that peace talks are going on … but they (the US) must also understand that we are not weak and if we enter into talks … we enter from a strong position.”

Claiming Victory

The Taliban want the United States military out in weeks.  The United States is looking for leverage to force the Taliban to become a part of the current Afghan government, instead of taking the entire country back to the dark ages of Sharia Law.  They will leave, but over eighteen months.  Much like the negotiations that ended the Vietnam War, the Taliban are likely to agree to whatever deal removes US troops, and then will do what they want.  They believe that the US won’t come back.

And they are right.

In early 1973, President Richard Nixon announced the “end” of the Vietnam War.  He claimed “victory” and brought US troops home; his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize.  Two years later it was President, Gerald Ford, who sent in the helicopters to evacuate the last US officials as Saigon fell to the Communists. 

I expect President Trump will claim “victory” in our negotiations with the Taliban.  The troops will come home, with cameras broadcasting their arrival and bands playing. It will fall to the next President to send in the helicopters and evacuate our last embassy personnel, as Kabul falls to the Taliban.  

There’s not much else to do.

(Hamilton the Musical)

Hurricane Dorian:  the entire population of the Southeast Coast of the United States is holding its breath.  Savannah and Charleston are being evacuated.  Florida towns have abandoned the protective barrier islands. 

The President was shocked (again) that there was a Category 5 in the Saffir-Simpson Scale.  Dorian is the second strongest storm recorded in the Atlantic.  

Coverage 24/7

The Weather Channel and cable news networks, all went to wall-to-wall with coverage, with lots of shots of waves striking beaches, empty restaurants, and boarded up windows with catchy slogans.  

But Dorian hasn’t gotten to the United States yet.  It is sitting on the Bahamas, grinding them down, hour after hour, and now day after day. Dorian is spending its energy, dropping from Category 5 to 4 and this morning 3, on the small island nation. The highest point on the northern islands of the Bahamas is about thirty feet above sea level.  Dorian’s storm surge is twenty-four feet.

We don’t know about the Bahamas yet, it’s still happening.  The Abaco Islands in the country, a beautiful, tranquil Caribbean paradise; are still in the hurricane, though the eye has moved west to the island of Grand Bahama and the town of Freeport.  We already know that five are dead, but we don’t know more.

Days in the Grinder

It’s likely to be awful. But one small note to be proud of. The US Coast Guard is already there. In a time when “America First” is the standard phrase, American helicopters are making rescues in hurricane winds, American ships are braving hurricane seas, and American Coast Guardsmen are risking their lives for others.  

“America First” today means more than just a xenophobic “America Only,” it means American’s first in to help with disaster.

I’m sure there wasn’t a lot of discussion about this in the upper echelons of government.  The Coast Guard probably just went, knowing their job, and the need.  People needed help, it didn’t matter the color of their skin, or their nationality as Bahamians.  They spent days in one of the worst hurricanes in history, days in the equivalent of an F-3 tornado (for those of us in Ohio where we know the Fujita scale with much more intimacy.)

This is what America really is: the orange helicopters hovering above, pulling folks to safety. There are already private citizens in Florida, arranging for more helicopters to take supplies into the devastation. They know airplanes won’t work; the airport is literally six feet under water.     

The News Cycle

Our news cycle moves so quickly.  Dorian better move soon, or we will all forget about it.  The folks moving one-way out of Charleston will start sneaking home on the back roads, and the surfers at Sebastian Inlet will jump back into the waves.  For the sake of the Bahamians, Dorian needs to go, anywhere, away.

But as we wait for that moment, for the time when we can see the damage and devastation, we can only hope that the US reaction will be one of horror, sorrow and an outpouring of support. Hopefully it will be greater than what we did for our own countrymen in Puerto Rico, after another Category 5 hurricane, Maria, spent several hours on that island.

Helping others after disaster is America at its best.    It is as American as “John Wayne coming over the hill” or comic book heroes rescuing the world.  Americans already are saving lives, when Dorian finally moves, there will be many more to save, and a nation to help salvage.  Let’s not let the news cycle blow them away.

The National Rifle Association stand is crystal clear:  the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.  Their answer to the growing mass shooting attacks in America is to arm all Americans.  It’s the “wild, wild west” with semi automatic weapons of war; a dystopian “Mad Max” vision of America.

Texas Gun Laws

The NRA is incredibly persuasive.  They have convinced the Republican Party to pursue a policy of denying gun controls, and even removing existing regulations.  And NRA persuasion isn’t just based on the votes of their members; their most significant influence is the money they can spend.  The NRA not only donates directly to candidates, it also buys advertising for and against candidates on their own.  It is one of the most formidable forces in American politics.

Texas is at the height of NRA influence.  The state legislature, in response to the shootings at Sutherland Springs Church with 26 killed and 20 more injured, and at a Santa Fe High School with 10 killed and 13 wounded, RELAXED existing gun laws.  Starting today (September 1, 2019) Texas law allows:

• Weapons in places of worship unless the specifically banned by posted signs, 
• Weapons in rental properties, 
• Prevents home owner associations from banning weapons,
• Allows for more armed personnel in schools,
• Eases restrictions on carrying weapons in vehicles, 
• Allows foster homes to store guns, 
• Allows handguns to be carried without license during a declared disaster.

Since the laws were passed there have been two more mass shootings in Texas, the El Paso shooting with 22 dead and 24 wounded, and yesterday, the random killings along I-20 between Odessa and Midland, with 5 dead and 21 injured.  

A Good Guy 

Where are the “good guys” with guns?

The NRA points to the Sutherland Springs shooting as evidence of the failure of gun restrictions and the success of “good guys” with guns.  The shooter who walked into a Church, wearing body armor and a facemask and armed with a semi-automatic weapon of war, shouldn’t have been able to buy the gun (a Ruger AR-556 Semi-Automatic.)  He was court martialed from the Air Force for domestic violence, a disqualifying offense in gun sales.  The system failed to register his conviction, allowing him to purchase the weapon.

After leaving the carnage in the church, the shooter was attacked and wounded by a bystander with a similar weapon from across the street.  The shooter drove away in his vehicle, and the bystander followed in a high-speed chase.  Ultimately the shooter crashed vehicle due to blood loss, and committed suicide.

Twenty-six killed, twenty more injured:  the “good guy” with a gun may have prevented further deaths, but he didn’t stop what happened in the church sanctuary.  

But Chicago

Gun advocates point to the city of Chicago as the “example” of how gun restrictions fail.  And a decade ago, Chicago did have some of the strictest gun regulations in the country.  However, more recent Court decisions have stripped many of those away.  Prior to 2010, Chicago:

• Banned private owned handguns from residences,
• Required permits and registration of firearms, and
• Banned concealed carry of firearms.

All of those restrictions are removed, and the homicide rate has grown (Tribune.)

But the greater issue for Chicago, and for any attempts to control weapons, is the limitation of state action.  Even when Chicago had those restrictions, Indiana was less than an hour away, and had few restrictions on buying or carrying guns.  And while Chicago’s homicide rate has been higher than Los Angeles and New York for a while, it has increased even more since 2010.

A National Choice

Gun violence, and particularly mass shootings, is a national crisis.  No one state has a “corner” on the issue, attacks have occurred from schools in Connecticut, Florida and Colorado, to the nightclub district of Dayton, to Wal-Mart’s in Texas, to conference centers in California.  The one thing these most horrific attacks have in common is a semi-automatic weapon of war, with large quantities of ammunition.

A national crisis requires a national solution.  The answer is obvious; to stop a bad guy with a gun, take his gun away.  

There is no Second Amendment right to a weapon of war.  There is no legitimate hunting purpose for weapons of war.  Weapons of war have a single purpose, to kill and maim human beings, as quickly and efficiently as possible.  And to those Americans who “need” those weapons to “protect from the government” I need to point out that the “government” could overwhelm your puny “AR’s” in a New York minute.  

Our current national impotence is not an answer.  Letting these killings continue must stop.  It’s time for the vast majority of Americans to stop “humoring” the “black helicopter” folks.  We don’t need to ban all guns, and we don’t need to repeal the Second Amendment.  We do need to decide that weapons of war are not acceptable.  It’s time to follow the rest of the modern world, and protect ourselves from the broken among us.

Last night I woke up in the chair, in the middle of watching All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC.  Somewhere between the “Trump International Doral” and the “Monmouth Poll” I drifted away.  It reminded me of my father.  

I wrote so much about him that I broke it into parts, yesterday and today – so here’s the second installment of “Turning into Dad.” Click on this link to read the first part – Turning into Dad – Part 1

Part One began with my childhood and Dad’s amazing ability to fall asleep. It then goes on to highlight the early part of his career as a broadcaster. Dad helped start and sell the Phil Donahue Show. They changed the world of broadcasting from Dayton, Ohio.

Part Two

Back Home in Cincinnati

The Phil Donahue Show took off, and Dad found himself managing WLW-D and back on the road selling the show to individual stations.  At its highest point, the Donahue Show was in 224 television markets in the United States and internationally.  

We moved out of Dayton and back to Cincinnati, where Dad was made President of Syndication for the new company, Multimedia.  He had a whole staff of salesmen, including both Lee and Grant, and his favorites, Joe Cifereilli and  Bruce Johansen.  The prime property was the Donahue Show, but Dad also produced and sold Sally Jesse Raphael, After School Specials, and the beginnings of The Jerry Springer Show.  

On the Road with Dad 

The travelling wasn’t just national, Dad went to Europe to sell shows.  Mom and I went along for the Scandinavian trip; Denmark, Norway and Sweden. We stayed in nice hotels,  and I didn’t realize that putting laundry in the bag was a big deal.   Dad wasn’t too happy about a 4000 kroner bill for four pairs of underwear and blue jeans.  

But he didn’t stay mad for long, he had a luncheon meeting with Swedish television.  In Sweden, business meetings began with a vodka toast, then continued with toasts through each course of the meal.  I don’t know if Donahue ever made it on Swedish television, but I do know that Dad was smashed when he got back from lunch.  Of course, he needed a nap.

They were making big sales. Dad closed one in Philadelphia, a million dollar contract signed on the placemat of a restaurant.  He had the mat framed and hanging in his office.  But perhaps his best story was with one of his salesmen, making a big “pitch” to a client.  They took a break, and his salesman came back from the restroom with a problem, he couldn’t get his zipper back up.  He pulled and twisted, but it was still down, and the clients would be back shortly. Finally Dad offered to help out, and there he was, pulling on another man’s zipper, when the clients came back in.

By now it was the mid 1970’s, and I was in college.  I’d come home some weekends, arriving on Friday evening to tell all my tales to Mom and Dad on the couch.  I had to talk fast, because it wouldn’t take long for Dad to start snoring.  Nothing changes.

One Last Story

Dad was retired when the Donahue show ended, but Phil was always grateful to him.  Dad took the risk of starting the show, backed it up with hard work and sales, and changed television.  When it finally came to an end, twenty-nine years later, Phil took everyone involved with the show on a cruise.  

He rented the entire Seabourne Legend (the ship in the movie Speed 2)and cruised out of New York to Bermuda.  He wanted to make it special for Mom and Dad, so he arranged for my sisters and I to be a part of the cruise.  We were flown to New York, and “hung out” at Phil and Marlo Thomas’s apartment until it was time to board.  Then we were snuck onto the ship, and locked in a stateroom (with caviar and champagne) until we put to sea.

We watched the Statue of Liberty fade behind us from the crew deck, then waited until the opening cocktail party.  Phil presented Mom and Dad to the crowd (they were like parents to many), then gave them his “special present” — us.

The Dining Room 

Mom and Dad had a party one night, and a man there was describing his office downtown.  The guest said it was strange, he could see into an office in the building across the street. He didn’t know whose office it was, but the TV was on ALL THE TIME.  He figured that the guy didn’t work, just watched TV.   After a little bit of geographic geometry, we realized he was looking into Dad’s office.  Dad always had a TV on, no sound, but the picture on from the time he walked in until he left for the day. Oddly enough, it didn’t put him to sleep, I guess it was work.  He wanted to know what “his” station was showing, even if he didn’t hear it, and even if he wasn’t managing one anymore.

Mom and Dad were always, always up for a party.  They were energized by conversation.  Politics, government, history, business,  and travel:  all were argued around the dining room table in my parent’s house.  There were “formal” dinners several times a month, with different friends and guests. Mom always wanted interesting people at the table.

The “dinner” itself took less than an hour, but no one left the table.  The conversations went on long into the night.  Dad was wide-awake for all of that. (That table, and the furniture that went with it, now are in my niece’s dining room.  The food there is great, and the conversations are as just as intense.)

Dinner at the Dahlman’s

I remember sitting at that table one night, talking about US spending on defense.  The Chardonnay had done its part, and the conversation was growing.  One of my parents’ friends was an aircraft engineer at General Electric, a big industry in Cincinnati, and started describing a plane he was working on.  It couldn’t be seen on radar, and could fly undetected against the enemy.  We didn’t know if he was kidding or not, but I definitely expected the FBI to bust down the front door and take us all away.

This was before we knew about Stealth technology, or the Skunk Works in California where it was developed.  And it was long before the stealth fighter or bomber was public.  But they were public that night, at least around the dining room table. 

Those dinner parties became a tradition.  When I was there, I took the “liberal” side, backed by Mom and some of their friends. Dad was a “business Republican,” but some other friends were true dedicated conservatives.  We debated every issue, except for religion and the Queen of England (Mom’s rules.)  We all learned a lot, respected each other views, and drank a lot of wine.

 Both my parents had long lives; at ninety-two they were still throwing those parties.  It might be a couple of days of naps on the couch (and the chair, and wherever else) to recover, but they were still up for it.  It was their lifeblood.

A Seat at the Table

I’m glad that table is still set, now in Cleveland, ready for the next dinner and debate.  I miss those evenings with Art and Louise, Dick and Lois, Peter and Luce, and the other friends who joined in.  I miss Mom sitting at the end, managing dinner and conversation, and Dad running his end of the table, and looking for more chocolate cake.

And I am a Dahlman. I’m writing in the same chair as last night, in front of the TV on our favorite station. You probably didn’t notice the long pause in the typing – well – 

 I took a nap!

Last night I woke up in the chair, in the middle of watching All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC.  Somewhere between the “Trump International Doral” and the “Monmouth Poll” I drifted away.  It reminded me of my father.  I wrote so much that I broke it into parts – so here’s the first installment of two, of “Turning into Dad.”

Part One

Jilly and Jampot

When my sisters and I were small, he used to tell us bedtime stories.  Dad was creative, he told us about  Jilly the kangaroo and Jampot the turtle.  (Hey siblings:  did Jilly wear a red bellhop cap and Jampot kind of a floppy black hat, or did I conflate that from somewhere else?)  Jilly and Jampot had great adventures, but their stories always seemed to have one problem:  they never ended, or at least, never concluded.  Sometime during the story, as Jilly and Jampot were invariably travelling down a road, the story would dissolve into snores.  It worked; Dad fell asleep, laying beside us.  

I usedto make fun of Dad, he had the “Dahlman gene.”  He could fall asleep anywhere, anytime, anyplace; but he particularly could fall asleep in front of the TV.

Live on Television

Funny how a man who made his reputation and livelihood in television would snooze so easily in front of it.  Dad started in television at the beginning in the early 1950’s, when much of television was “live” because there weren’t good ways to store shows.  Videotape wasn’t around yet, and film required time for processing.  Mom and Dad would often be part of the “audience” in those early days in Cincinnati, the whole station staff of WLW-T, including an announcer named Rod Serling (he was already writing scripts that would lead to The Twilight Zone) would come to fill the studio.  

Dad sold television advertising then, better known as commercials.  After several years at WLW-T, he switched to selling actual television shows to individual stations throughout the country for  Ziv Productions.  You have to be older than me to remember most of them, but a few, like The Cisco Kid, Sea Hunt,and Highway Patrol (that show popularized the “10-4” signoff) became national hits.

Traveling Man

Sea Hunt was a story about a scuba diver, played by actor Lloyd Bridges.  It was the number one rated show in 1958.  Dad travelled all over the country selling it, and we had the little “scuba guys” to play with that he used as trinkets to remind the local station managers about the show.  He told a story about signing one big station; they decided to celebrate their agreement by signing the contact underwater. Dad didn’t know a thing about scuba gear, but gamely went down to make sure the contract was signed.  He said he damn near drowned, but he closed the deal.

Dad was a travelling salesman.  Through my early life in the late 1950’s and early 60’s, he was on the road Monday through Friday.  Sometimes he would fly, but quite often Dad was driving the car with the license plate “DD 19.”  DD was Don Dahlman, and was his plate for at least fifty years (it’s on my Jeep now.)  He’d call from Des Moines or Chicago, and we’d see him on the weekends.  He had lots of stories from his travels.  

One was about a quick flight.  New York was the center for television broadcasting, and Dad was late.  He rushed to the airport, jumped out of his car, and barely made it onboard.  It was two days later, on his way home, that he couldn’t quite remember where he parked the car.  He arrived at Cincinnati Airport, then realized he left it right in front of the terminal.  Luckily they hadn’t towed it too far.

The travelling became so embedded, that thirty years later, the night after heart surgery, the nurses found Dad wandering the halls, dragging wires and tubes behind him.  He had a meeting in Indianapolis, he thought. 

Dayton, Ohio

By 1962, Dad tired of being on the road.  Ziv sold the company to United Artists, and Dad went back to work for Avco, the company that owned WLW-T.  He became the sales manager of WLW-D in Dayton, Ohio, and soon rose to station manager. 

Dayton was a booming town in the late 1960’s.  Wright Patterson Air Force Base was the major employer (still is) with several Air Force Commands headquartered there.  National Cash Register (NCR) was a founding industry in Dayton, as well as Delco (the electric car starter was invented by a Dayton native, Charles Kettering.) Frigidaire had an assembly plant in town, and the University of Dayton was there, so there were plenty of jobs around. Sadly, all but the University and the Air Force Base have now left the town.

Dad had “grown up” with live television, and the “WLW” stations (it really didn’t mean world’s lowest wages, did it?) all produced their own variety shows.  WLW-D had the Johnny Gilbert Show, featuring the host’s singing talents.  Johnny went to find his fortune in Hollywood (you know him today, “…Johnny, tell them what they won,” on The Price is Right) and Dad put Phil Donahue in the time slot for a 60-minute news/talk show.

Is the Caller There?

Donahue changed television. The mid-1960’s was still the time when most women were “homemakers.”  They had TV’s on during the day, and the Donahue show aired from 10 to 11 am.  Instead of presenting songs, dances, and how to best get the dishes clean, Phil talked about the real issues of the time.  It was the sixties:  civil rights, Vietnam, women’s rights, the draft, hippies; there was a lot to talk about. The “hook” of the show was a phone. Viewers could call in and ask questions of the guest, or Phil.

Phil did a show about “Little Baby Brother,” a male doll that had all of the appropriate anatomical parts.  The idea was that it would educate girls about the differences in anatomy. People wanted to talk about that, so much so that the phone lines jammed.  Dayton Bell, the local phone company, couldn’t handle the load and phone service for the south part of Dayton crashed.  

Phil also interviewed Jerry Rubin, one of the Chicago Seven charged with causing riots during the 1968 Democratic Convention.  Rubin was known for his “colorful” language, he dropped the “F-Bomb” a lot.  It was the 1960’s, a TV station that aired such language could lose their broadcast license.

The station had to have some way of “bleeping” language, but there wasn’t the technology for what we now call tape delay.  So the engineers set up two videotape machines, one to record, and the other, literally across the room, to playback the show onto the air.  There was a stretch of videotape going across between the two machines, and Dad was on the “bleep” button on the broadcast side:  he made sure he kept WLW-D’s license.

Tomorrow – The Second Installment of Turning into Dad

The Law

There is a phrase in the legal profession:  “black letter law.”  Most laws are a matter of interpretation, of looking at past judicial decisions to determine what a law means or how it should be enforced.  But sometimes the law, as written, has a clear meaning, and a clear understanding.  That is called “black letter law,” law that is clearly written and clearly understood.

Several months ago the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee asked for the President’s tax returns.  This was not a “subpoena” or a request, it was a demand made under “black letter law,” 26 US Code § 6103 (f) (1) to be exact. The wording clearly allows the Chairman to demand any individual tax return.  The IRS Commissioner, and the Secretary of the Treasury both refused to turn the President’s return over.  The case is now in court, but it’s difficult to see how any judge, even a Trump appointee, could ignore the letter of the law.

Article I, Section 9

And now we have returned again. The President himself is violating the “black letter law,” this time the words of the United States Constitution itself. Article I, Section 9 states:

No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines an emolument as: “A salary, fee, or profit from employment or office.”  The critical word is “profit,” especially critical for a President who remains enmeshed in his personal businesses.  

Trump Doral International

On Monday, the President of the United States appeared beside the host President of France at the end of the G7 Summit.  After answering multiple questions, President Trump announced that the G7 in 2020 will be held at his own resort property in Doral, Florida.  Trump then proceeded to give a five-minute “infomercial” for Trump International, Doral (transcript below.)

The President extolled the beauty of Doral, the multiple “bungalows” with beautiful views, the ballrooms and meeting rooms that the nations could book.  He even mentioned the proximity to the Miami Airport, and parking, all of the parking available on the hundreds and hundreds of acres.  

Prices aren’t outrageous at the Trump International Doral. A hotel room, king deluxe, is only $111/night.  If you want something more luxurious, try the “Spa Grand Two Bedroom Suite” at $847/night, or even the “Presidential Suite” at $5011.30/night.  The views do look nice, and it is easily accessible to Miami and the airport.  

To hold a world conference like the G7 at the hotel would fill every room, from the king deluxe to the Presidential Suites.  It would fill every restaurant, and every conference and ballroom.  The golf courses would be packed with dignitaries, each paying the $250/ player cost. It would financially “make” the year for the struggling Trump International.  Even the host/owner US President would pay the fees, carefully billed to the US Government, for his stay and activities.

Emolument

So when the seven world leaders come to Doral next summer, completely filling the Trump International Hotel and Doral Golf Club, who will profit from all of those foreign visitors?  The company owned by the President of the United States, the Trump Organization.  It’s the definition of accepting an “emolument.”

It’s a violation of the Black Letter Law of the US Constitution. But like most of the Constitution, there are no “penalties” attached for violation.  Penalties are written into US Code, the laws passed by Congress.  Since no President has attempted to take foreign money before, there is no precedent for Trump’s action, no penalty available. Presidents of the past have abided the Constitution, at least this particular clause.  

Impeachment

So what?  There is nothing new that Donald Trump is breaking precedent, and law, to get what he wants.  We know that the Justice Department will do nothing; the Attorney General has conveniently written them out of Presidential criminality by hiding behind a single obscure internal opinion written in 1973.  The only body left to check the President:  the US House of Representatives.

Violating the Constitution is by definition an impeachable offense.  The House can argue about the Mueller Report, the can discuss whether the Trump Campaign colluded, conspired or cooperated with the Russians in 2016, they can debate obstruction of justice.  But this is a straight-up, Black Letter Law offense:  the President is profiting from foreign states.  He spent five minutes on Monday telling the world how he was going to do it.  It doesn’t get any clearer than that.

Transcript

Transcript of the Trump Press Conference at G7, 8/26.19

Speaker 8 – … And on next year’s G7, you alluded today, dropped several heads (hints) about Miami, about Doral, and hosting next year’s G7 at your property. What reassurances, if any, can you give the American people that you are not looking to profit off the presidency?

Donald Trump: Well, I’ll tell you what. I’ve spent, and I think I will in a combination of loss and opportunity, probably it’ll cost me anywhere from $ 3 to $5 billion to be President. And- Three to $5 billion to be president. And the only thing I care about is this country. Couldn’t care less, otherwise I wouldn’t have done it. People have asked me, “What do you think it costs?” And between opportunity, not doing thing … I used to get a lot of money to make speeches. Now I give speeches all the time. You know what I get? Zippo, and that’s good. And I did a lot of great jobs and great deals that I don’t do anymore. I don’t want to do them because the deals I’m making are great deals for the country. And that’s, to me, much more important.

Donald Trump: Doral happens to be within Miami. It’s a city, it’s a wonderful place. It’s a very, very successful area of Florida. It’s very importantly, only five minutes from the airport. The airport’s right next to it. It’s a big international airport, one of the biggest in the world. Everybody that’s coming, all of these people with all of their big entourages come. It’s set up so … And by the way, my people looked at 12 sites, all good. But some were two hours from an airport, some were four hours, I mean, they were so far away. Some didn’t allow this, or they didn’t allow that. With Doral, we have a series of magnificent buildings, we call them bungalows. They each hold from 50 to 70 very luxurious rooms with magnificent views. We have incredible conference rooms, incredible restaurants, it’s such a natural. We wouldn’t even have to do the work that they did here. And they’ve done a beautiful job. They’ve really done a beautiful job.

Donald Trump: And what we have also is Miami. And we have many hundreds of acres, so that in terms of parking, in terms of all of the things that you need. The ballrooms are among the biggest in Florida and the best. It’s brand new and my people wanted it. From my standpoint, I’m not going to make any money. In my opinion, I’m not going to make any money. I don’t want to make money. I don’t care about making money. If I want to make money, I wouldn’t worry about 3 billion to 5 billion, because that’s what … I mean, at some point I’m going to detail that and we’ll show, but I think it’s just a great place to be. I think having it in Miami is fantastic, really fantastic. Having it at that particular place because of the way it’s set up, each country can have their own villa or their own bungalow, and the bungalows, when I say they have a lot of units in them, so I think it just works out well.

Donald Trump:  And when my people came back, they took tours. They went to different places. I won’t mention places, but you’ll have a list because they’re going to give a presentation on it fairly soon. They went to places all over the country and they came back and they said, “This is where we’d like to be.” Now, we had military people doing it. We had Secret Service people doing it. We had people that really understand what it’s about. It’s not about me, it’s about getting the right location. I think it’s very important.

Donald Trump: Jonathan.

Speaker 9: You’re not concerned about the ethics, like you’re trying to boost your own brand.

Donald Trump:  No, not at all. Go ahead, Jonathan.

Land of Emails

I get lots of emails, hundreds a day.  I’m responsible for most of it, when you give money to one Democratic candidate; somehow you get mail from them all (full disclosure – that only gets worse when you give to several candidates, as I have.)  I delete most, read a few, and actually respond to a couple a week.  But somehow I’ve also mistakenly ended up on a few conservative email lists too.

I get emails from Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina (but I donated to Jamie Harrison his Democratic opponent) and Rob Portman of Ohio.  I also get letters from the “Response Action Network,” and from “Conservative HQ.”  Conservative HQ is:

 “…The online news source for conservatives and tea partiers committed to bringing limited government constitutional conservatives to power.”

Tea Partiers Live

Richard Viguerie, the famous conservative direct mail “king” who changed campaigning back in the 1980’s, is chairman of the site.  It represents the small remainder of the conservative movement “BT” (before Trump.) They were willing to accept this current President to get some of their agenda, even though he wasn’t “one of them.”  Former House Speaker Paul Ryan is the best-known swallower in this group.

In the latest edition there’s an article by George Rasley, the editor of HQ, making a philosophical case for their brand of conservatism. He harkens back to Atlas Shrugged, the seminal conservative novel by Ayn Rand published in 1957.  In Atlas Shrugged (as well as her previous novel, The Fountainhead) Rand makes the case for unbridled capitalism with little or no government involvement or regulation.  

Business Republicans

Mr. Rasley laments that the prescient Rand was right, and that current America is losing its way in a decline to socialism.  His latest example is a statement made by the Business Roundtable, a grouping of 200 of the top corporate chief executives in the United States, led by Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan/Chase.

The Business Roundtable:

“…(Is) committing to delivering value to customers, investing in employees in ways that go beyond financial compensation to include training and education to ensure their skills are kept up to date, and embracing diversity and inclusion, dignity and respect…”

Sounds pretty reasonable, and in fact, pretty “business Republican,” right?  Value to customers, training and updating employees, diversity and inclusion, dignity and respect; how can these be bad?

Here’s Mr. Rasley’s answer:

“The fiduciary obligation to maximize shareholder value has been a fundamental tenet of American corporate and securities law for going on 85 years. It is also a fundamental premise undergirding the system of trust that enables the world financial markets that power modern wealth creation.”

In plain language, companies are supposed to make money for their owners; full stop.  That’s their job, and when they start “caring” about other things, including employees, diversity, or the environment; they are undermining the conservative view of AMERICA.

When they start doing something else, like “corporate responsibility” or “pursuing diversity” they are ignoring their “fiduciary responsibility.”  Put simply, it gets in the way of making money.

Ayn Rand’s World

This is the world they want, a world where competition is unlimited, and regulation is unacceptable.  Government should do the minimum to police, put out fires, and wage wars.  Maybe they can print money too, but public education, and the Post Office, and heaven forbid, government sponsored health care, are all areas where someone should be making a profit.  Unbridled Capitalism can do it better, in every situation.

In fact, the idea of corporate leaders in the Business Roundtable having some sort of social conscience is anathema to their extreme conservative view.  Mr. Rasley calls on their shareholders to “…go on strike,” sell out of corporations who have more than a profitmaking goal, and invest only in wealth creation.

When is Capitalism Right

I found myself in a similar discussion with a friend the other day. He was trying to apply capitalism to health care, using Internet streaming services as an example of how capitalism would take care health care pricing.  And he was right, at least, that the competition among Hulu, You Tube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Sling and the rest probably is keeping the prices down. 

But if you have slow or erratic Internet, they don’t work. And in the same way, if you are really sick, unable to afford health care, or (at least until the ACA) had pre-existing conditions, the health insurance industry only wanted your business at an outlandish price.  In Ayn Rand’s world, I guess that’s too bad, charity might help, but there is no obligation of our capitalist society to take care of you.  Just like there’s no obligation to provide streaming to those who don’t get the Internet.

I can miss the next series on Netflix; I can even miss the college football games on Sling.  But that’s certainly not the model we should be using for the health of Americans.  In capitalism there are winners and losers, and that’s all good when we’re watching TV, but not when it’s about America’s health care.

But that’s what Mr. Viguerie and his editor, Mr. Rasley, would have us do. They would say strike until we get it. And Tea Partier former Congressman Joe Walsh just declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination. It’s all a good reminder for the rest of us: it’s not just about Donald Trump.

“We see the chaos because we see the tweet”  – Zerlina Maxwell, MSNBC Commentator

“…He said I was stupid, I’m not stupid…”Alexander Hamilton in Hamilton the Musical

Chaos Theory – A branch of mathematical and physical theory that deals with the nature and consequences of chaos and chaotic systems  – Webster’s Dictionary

Not Stupid

The President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, is not stupid, as badly as many Democrats want to believe it’s true.  President Trump is a manipulator, a man solely focused on his own benefit.  He knows what he wants, what he needs, and how he thinks he can get it.  That’s not a stupid man, that’s a self-centered, brilliant strategist.

The Brand

President Trump has lived his life by the motto:  “any publicity is better than no publicity.”  The “Trump Brand” is his greatest asset, and he better than anyone knows how to build that “brand.”  When Twitter was invented and popularized, it was the perfect tool for Donald Trump’s needs. It gave him an outlet for any and every random thought; and as President, those thoughts monopolize the national conversation.  

It maximizes the Trump Brand.  It dominates American “news,” so much so that the President’s Twitter feed is the real “fake news.”  “Fake news” because much of his musings, and ranting’s aren’t about real things.  Trump issues “fake” orders, last week ordering US businesses to withdraw from China.  He constantly attacks the media, declaring that stories like Trump’s desire to drop atomic weapons on hurricanes are false despite multiple confirmations.  The President rails at his critics, he attacks his own appointees, and he defends his allies.  

He keeps the spotlight directly on Trump.  

Chaos in the Oval Office

Twitter gives America an inside view of what’s going on in the Oval Office.  It’s a scary view, a picture of a leader constantly distracted by differing interests.  America sees inside “…how the sausage is made” in this White House, and it’s not a pretty sight.

But it continues to serve Trump’s purpose, keeping the focus directly on him.  And it absorbs America’s attention, leaving other “powers,” from the Democratic Presidential candidates to Congress, starving for “oxygen.” It’s not a mistake, nor is it the “rambling” of an out of control leader.  The Twitter feed is intentional, and it absolutely serves the President’s purposes.

The Intellectual Presidency

In a larger sense though, Twitter gives America an insight into the Trump Presidency.  We had a “normal” vision of a Presidency:  wise advisors respectfully putting their views to the President, discussing and perhaps even arguing about the best path for America to follow.  A President taking in their wisdom, studying the relevant facts and information, deliberating and determining what course the nation should take.

It’s been an American tradition, from George Washington with the competing intellects of Hamilton and Jefferson, to Lincoln’s “team of rivals,” to Roosevelt’s “New Dealers” and Kennedy’s “Best and Brightest.”  Barack Obama, magna cum laude from Harvard Law, epitomized this “intellectualization” of the Presidency.

 Hillary Clinton offered a continuation of that “intellectual Presidency,” bringing her own academic credentials from Wellesley and Yale Law. She too offered her version of advisors as the “best and brightest.” Trump offered a radical alternative, a candidate who despite his own Ivy League credentials saw intellectualism as a flaw, and “facts” as flexible. Many Americans were looking for dramatic change in 2016.  Those voters got what they wanted.

Trump’s Oval Office

We are now presented with a Presidency where the President isn’t told information he doesn’t want to hear, and where it seems like the “last word” in the President’s ear is the deciding opinion.  Where young men of concerning backgrounds, Stephen Miller and Jared Kushner, far outweigh the influence of more seasoned and veteran officials.  And where sycophancy is more highly valued than respect or effectiveness.

It all looks crazy, and scary.  It looks like a nation careening out of control, a President randomly smashing the stock market, arbitrarily changing border law, and whimsically starting trade wars.  But the capriciousness is intentional; it keeps the opposition, and the nation, off balance and constantly focused on the President. It gives Donald Trump control over the attention of the nation.  

 And we know all about it:  we read it on Twitter.

Trade War

President Trump is waging war, a trade war against the second largest economy in the world, China. It’s an “old fashioned” tariff war, just like the 19^thCentury battles over sugar and coal.  We are raising taxes on their goods, and they are raising taxes on our goods.  Everyone pays more, and everyone loses.

China isn’t blameless. They stole US technology, violated US patents and copyrights, and shamelessly profited from the thefts.  They are building a world-class economy, based on state-sponsored industry, low waged workers and purloined processes.  

US Companies Profit

But the US isn’t blameless either.  US companies have moved to China to take advantage of the cheap labor and sales in the fourth largest consumer market in the world. And it’s not just making computer chips. Here’s the top-ten American corporations in China:

Corporation	China Market Share	Product(s)
Kentucky Fried Chicken	40% Share	fast food
General Motors	12.7% Share	cars
Microsoft	99.3% Share	Computer Operating Systems
Boeing	52% Share	Commercial Aircraft
Nike	unknown – $2 Billion Profit	sportswear
Coca Cola	26.9% Share	Soda
Proctor & Gamble	55% Share	Hair care products
Intel	14.9% Share	Semi-conductors
Starbucks	70% Share	Retail Coffee
Apple	51% Share	tablets

Emergency Powers

China has a lot to lose in a trade war with the United States.  Today, President Trump “tweeted” that he could invoke the powers of the “Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977” to force US companies out of China.  While the 1977 law was written to replace the “Trading with the Enemy Act,” a wartime provision, the language of the law allows a President to determine the “emergency” and enact the powers.  That’s true, even if the President himself is the one who created the crisis.

And while Congress has the ultimate authority to control the President’s use of that emergency power, we’ve seen how well that worked when Mr. Trump declared an “emergency” on the Southern Border.  As long as Leader McConnell stops the Senate from action and allows the President to continue, Congress is impotent.

But when you look at those companies operating in China (and that’s only the top ten) and consider the losses those companies would take if forced to leave, the US has a lot to lose in the trade war too.  If the President is concerned about China, he also should be concerned about America’s future economy.   With warning signs of impending recession already visible, and the negative impact of trade warfare hitting farmers, the auto industry, high tech products and others; Trump seems to be trading his “war” for the US economic future.

Allies Help

There needs to be a US adjustment with China, no doubt.  In the past this kind of trade move would have included many of the United State’s allies, and would have had a greater impact on the Chinese economy.  A quick example:  the Chinese raised tariffs on US soybeans, cutting the amount sold to China, the world’s largest soybean consumer.  The Chinese then moved to Brazil to maintain their soybean supply. In the past, the US would have allied with Brazil first, to keep pressure on the Chinese market.

President Obama negotiated the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, for the purpose of arraying the economic powers of the Pacific against China.  Japan, Mexico, Canada and others were members.  Their coordinated actions to control trade with China would have had a greater impact than any one of those nations, including the United States, acting alone.  But President Trump withdrew the US from the TPP.

In addition, Mr. Trump has engaged in tariffs “tiffs” with many of those TPP members, including Canada and Japan.  That reduces the likelihood of their cooperation in any US trade battles.

All Alone

So here we are, the United States, without friends.  Like any war, economic or military, it’s good to have allies to share the burdens and sacrifices. But the current administration has intentionally placed us in an isolated position:  America First has come to mean America Alone.

While we are still the biggest economic power in the world, in our trade war with China we will be forced to make all of the sacrifices.  Other nations, already “put-off’ by Mr. Trump, will do what’s in their own best interest, and sell China the products we don’t.  They’ll make their money, China will suffer less, and the US will struggle more.  

We’re the “Lone Ranger” – and, “Ke-Mo-Sabe,” we could use some help.  It’s too bad we won’t get any.

Don’t call me “Pocahontas” 

 I did the DNA test, I know exactly where my ancestry came from.  From Mom’s side, 24% of my genes come from Ireland and Scotland, and 16% comes from England.  That’s 40% total.  The other 60% is from Dad’s side, European Jew.  The more recent Jewish relatives came from Alsace in the mid-1800’s, the province strategically placed between France and Germany.  I have cousins who have walked the cemeteries of small Alsatian towns, finding distance Dahlman graves.

Mom was Roman Catholic, barred from the Church for marrying my father.  Dad was a non-practicing Jew, he went to synagogue for funerals, but that’s about it.  We were raised in the Episcopal Church, as close as Mom could get to the Catholic Church here in America, but I don’t espouse any specific religious belief now.

Ethnic Jew

So, as far as Judaism is concerned, I’m not.  The religion “runs through the mother,” so since Mom wasn’t Jewish, I’m not considered a part of the “chosen people.”  But as far as society is concerned, as a person of Jewish heritage, I am often considered Jewish.  I’m an “ethnic” Jew (at least 60%) not a “religious” Jew.

As a person of Jewish ancestry, I have studied the history, and particularly the recent history, of Jews. It started with the Diaspora, when Jews were driven from the Jerusalem by the Roman Empire in 152 AD. Since that time, Jews have prayed to return to the Holy Land, saying (in Hebrew) “L’Shana Haba’ah B’Yerushalayim,” next year in Jerusalem.  

Jews were persecuted in Europe far before Hitler and World War II.  In the mid 19^th Century, about the time my great-grandfather Isaac came to America, the Zionist movement gained influence in Jewish Europe, encouraging them to return to the Holy Land, Palestine, to re-establish the nation of Israel.  At the time, Palestine was a province of the Ottoman Empire, and Jews from Europe began to settle there.  

Twice Promised Land

 During World War I, the British were fighting against the Ottoman Turkey as well as Germany and Austria.  Desperate to drive the Turks away from the Suez Canal, the British military promised local Arabs power over the area after they won.  But the British were also desperate for Jewish support during the war, financial support in particular, and promised that Jews could settle there after the War in the Balfour Declaration.  It was the “twice promised” land.

After World War I, Palestine became a part of the British Empire.  Both Arabs and Jews expected the British to live up to their promises.  More Jews came to Palestine, and the Palestinian Arabs did not get the control they expected.  The British maintained sovereignty.  The Jews saw the British as the enemy, and Arabs saw Jews and British as invaders.  Then World War II began.

The Enemy of My Enemy 

During World War II, Hitler made it clear his intentions for Jews, and Jews in Palestine saw no alternative.  They fought with the British.  Arabs, on the other hand, saw German actions as an opportunity to end British control and remove Jews, and took a more neutral stand.  When the war ended, the world saw the Holocaust, the genocide Nazis inflicted on the Jewish people, and international support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine grew. While the British struggled against it, the United Nations ultimately authorized the creation of Israel in 1948.

The Arab nations surrounding Israel immediately attacked.   Arab leaders ordered the Palestinian Arabs to evacuate, to return after the Jews were conquered and removed, “driven into the sea.”  This was the beginning of the diaspora of Palestinian Arabs from their homeland, unable to return while Israel existed.   And this was the beginning of the modern Middle East today; after four wars against Israel, the nation still stands, and the Palestinians still wait.

A Democratic Jew

I am an ethnic “Jew,” aware of the conflicted history of the founding of modern Israel.  I support Israel, not just because of my ethnicity, but because it is “the light of Democracy” in a region dominated by authoritarian regimes.  But just because I have Jewish ancestry and support the concept of the nation of Israel, doesn’t mean that I blindly back everything the current regime in Israel does.

Today’s Prime Minister, Netanyahu, administers a plan of military domination of Palestinians.  He constantly provokes them, and they respond, giving him greater excuse for suppression.  He denies a “two-state solution,” the bedrock of American policy towards the area for the past half-century.   Not only are his actions creating violence, but also a potential new era of terrorism as another generation of Palestinians grows up without hope.

Yesterday, the President of the United States stated:

“In my opinion, you vote for a Democrat, you’re being very disloyal to Jewish people, and you’re being very disloyal to Israel,” Trump told reporters outside the White House Wednesday, “and only weak people would say anything other than that.”

A Message to the President

First of all, Mr. President, who the Hell are you to determine what loyalty to Jewish people is?  Who believes you have that power, other than that obscure American commentator who called you the “…the King of Israel. They (Israeli Jews) love him like he is the second coming of God.” Do you think that all Jews are diehard Netanyahu fans, or even diehard Israel fans?  Isn’t that the definition of bigotry:  determining that “all people” who are Jews believe the same thing?

Weak people, Mr. President, are folks who cannot stand opposing viewpoints.  Weak people, Mr. President, can’t defend their own views without resorting to personal insults.  I’ve taught sixteen year olds how to do this, but clearly you aren’t able to intellectually defend your views.  

You are using religious bigotry to further your personal political gains.  Even your friend Sheldon Adelson can’t be happy about that, though you surely will get more millions from him when the time comes.  

As a 60% Ethnic Jew, Mr. President, I can support Israel without supporting the policies of Benjamin Netanyahu. And as a 100% American, I can support our nation without supporting you.

Note:  for the purpose of this essay, I am not going to get into the AR-15, AK-47 semi-automatic weapon technicalities.  We can all agree on one thing – that these weapons were originally designed for fighting wars, to rapidly inflict grievous injuries and death on the enemy. So call them what they are:  weapons of war.

Weapons of War

It was Saturday, August 3^rd, 2019, less than three weeks ago.  That morning a shooter walked into a Wal-Mart in El Paso armed with a “weapon of war” and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.  He killed 22 people, and wounded 24 more.   In the evening, another, unconnected shooter went into the “Oregon District” of Dayton, Ohio, the local party area.  He too was armed with a “weapon of war” with a 100 round capacity magazine attached.  Police shot him dead 32 seconds after he fired the first shot, but he managed to kill nine people, including his own sister, and wound 27 others.  

On Sunday morning the nation was in shock:  dozens dead, and even more wounded, and everyone looking over their shoulder.  If Wal-Mart and public streets, well patrolled by the police weren’t safe, then what places were?  America needed to address the problem, a problem that is unique to us in the “developed” world:  mass shootings.

A Moment for Change

On that Sunday, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, seemed to be looking for ways to solve the problem.  The obvious answer, used by “developed” countries throughout the world, is to ban “weapons of war” from public ownership.  But the President’s Party, Base, and finances are tied to support of “guns:” even discussing control of those weapons wasn’t politically feasible.

But the House of Representatives had already passed a bill that would require universal background checks on anyone purchasing a gun.  While checks are “around” today, there are multiple ways to avoid the requirements. The House bill would close many of those loopholes.

The National Rifle Association is the premier gun “rights” organization in the United States.  Before 1991, the NRA was a gun safety organization. As a Boy Scout back in the 1960’s, I learned to shoot rifles in the NRA safety program.  I imagine I had an NRA card at the time.

But the NRA ain’t what it used to be.  Today, it is the premier lobbying group in the United States, using their money, and more importantly the influence they have among the millions of members, to control politicians.  It is now associated with more than just gun rights, supporting a host of other right-wing causes. And they support the current President, Donald Trump.

Talking Points

The NRA has lots of slogans supporting their views.    

• 1. “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
• 2. “Any gun legislation is a slippery slope to repeal of the 2^ndAmendment.”
• 3. “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”
• 4. “Mass shootings aren’t a gun problem, they are a mental health problem.”
• 5. “You can have my gun when you take it from my cold, dead hands.”
• 6. “Violent films, television programs and video games create mass killers.”
• 7. “Taking any right is wrong.”

On that Sunday morning we heard most of those points from Republican leadership.  In particular the “violent films” and “mental health” slogans were trotted out (The good guys with guns slogan didn’t seem to work well in Dayton.)  But, there seemed to be a national consensus for mandatory background checks.  Word came out that the “weapons of war” used by the shooters were purchased online (NYT,NPR) where no checks are required.  Changing the law was not only appropriate, but also reasonable.

The President seemed to be onboard.  He talked with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and came back saying that there would be an agreement on background checks.  He also called for passage of “Red Flag” laws, laws that would allow for rapid legal removal of guns from individuals who were thought to be at risk of violence.  For a brief few days, it seemed like the United States might actually take some steps towards ending the violence.

The NRA Plan

Then the President went on vacation.  He spent two weeks at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf resort.  In the past, Mr. Trump has made some radical moves while at Bedminster, including the decision to fire FBI Director James Comey, the pivotal event that led to the Mueller Investigation.  

This time he spent a lot of time with the NRA, including lunch with NRA Executive Director Wayne LaPierre.  After meeting with him, the President began speaking in NRA slogans, including numbers 1,2,4, and 6 above.  Yesterday in a press “scrum” in the Oval Office, he said that the current background checks were “very strong,” and that universal checks were “off the table.”

The NRA has a well-worn strategy for mass shootings.  The first step is to keep quiet, letting the emotions and horror go by without comment. Then they allow politicians to parrot the talking points, but let the hue and cry for change run its course. The news cycle in America is fast; murders on Saturday are old news by Thursday.  Then the NRA applies the pressure:  to Trump, to McConnell, and to the membership.  

Daddy’s Calling

Wayne LaPierre has Donald Trump convinced that the 2020 election depends on gun rights.  Some voters choose candidates based on gun rights, and they are a key block in the Trump “base.”  La Pierre obviously made the “call” to pull Trump back in.  The fact that there is nowhere else for those voters to go (there is certainly no Democrat who fits their position) doesn’t seem to matter. 

“Mr. Trump, Wayne LaPierre is on the phone.”

“Daddy’s calling.”

Wow, Report Just Out! Google manipulated from 2.6 million to 16 million votes for Hillary Clinton in 2016 Election! This was put out by a Clinton supporter, not a Trump Supporter! Google should be sued. My victory was even bigger than thought! — Tweet from President Donald Trump – 8/19/19

Psychologist lists 14 reasons why voters support Trump, from “practicality for Trump’s morality” to “racism and bigotry.” Psychology Today– 12/27/18

We Are Divided

The United States is dramatically divided over President Donald Trump.  As we approach the 2020 Presidential election, we still argue about what happened in 2016.  Psychologists are weighing in on both sides of the discussion. 

It’s not helping.

A recent Facebook post highlighted the “psychological explanation” of how voters support Trump. It sets out fourteen points explaining the “psychology” of Trump supporters, all of them derogatory.  In summary, the report claims that Trump supporters are:

• Immoral
• Distracted by Trump’s showmanship
• Obsessed with celebrity
• Wanting to watch “the world burn”
• Overly sensitive to threats
• Afraid of dying
• Pretending to have more political expertise than they really have
• Possessed with a misguided sense of entitlement
• In a bubble of their own making
• Mentally vulnerable
• Narcissists
• Wanting to dominate others
• Authoritarian personalities, and
• Many are racist bigots.

“Pop” Insults

Now, there are a whole lot of people who support Donald Trump.  I’m as baffled as the next Democrat about how he attracts them.  But I’m not willing to call all of them names, nor say they are all somehow “mentally deficient”.  Perhaps that’s why this “study” appeared in a popular magazine, Psychology Today, rather than in some scientific journal under more rigorous scrutiny.  

It’s “pop” psychology, and while it might be personally satisfying for anti-Trump folks to read how “deficient” Trump voters are, it is neither true nor useful in the battle against Trumpism.   First of all, it boils down to just name-calling. That’s not going to win votes, and it’s not going to convince those who voted for Trump in 2016 to change their minds in 2020.  Insults are more likely to harden their position. It doesn’t add to constructive change in the American electorate, it simply makes the divide worse.

Second, it doesn’t recognize the real issues that Donald Trump finds in American politics.  The first step in defeating Trump is that Americans need to realize that his version of populism did connect.  It can’t just be about the mental “defects” of his supporters; we can’t just write-off 46% of the American electorate.  It should be about what he does that resonates with Americans.  Then Democrats need to convince some of them that either it’s not true, or a Democrat can do it better.

Bias and Google

Calling someone immoral, distracted, obsessed, vulnerable, and of course narcissistic and racist is not likely to change their mind, or vote.  But using psychologists to prop up your view works both ways.  Yesterday the President quoted a psychologist’s study claiming that Google searches persuaded 16 million voters to choose Clinton over him.  

Again this was a “pop psychology” study (CNN), published in a way to avoid the rigors of actual scientific research.  The study examined “Google Searches” on issues to see if Clinton would come out on top of Trump in the search listings.  The researcher claims that Google was “slanted” for Clinton, by having 95 people, including 21 self-described independents, rate the relative positiveness of Trump or Clinton searches.

The Australian Extrapolation

The defects in the study were numerous.  First, Google DOES favor “real” news sources, such as CNN, or the Wall Street Journal, or the New York Times over such sources as Breitbart or the Blaze.  Since Trump certainly got more “play” in the latter, it’s not too surprising that he didn’t “win” this part of the study.

Taking those “biased” results, the study’s author extrapolated that between 2.5 million and 10 million American voters were swayed by Google’s pro-Clinton leanings.   That was based on research he did in an Australian election.

The extrapolation, based on a different population in a different part of the world, seems far-fetched. Add that it uses twenty-one independents to predict millions of votes, and it seems beyond belief. But even that wasn’t as far a reach as the President tweeted, turning the number into 16 million voters. 

Hillary Clinton noted in her responding tweet:

The debunked study you’re referring to was based on 21 undecided voters. For context that’s about half the number of people associated with your campaign who have been indicted.

Enough Troubles

There’s enough bad news, fake headlines, and misleading tweets in the world, without adding pop psychological studies that have little basis in fact.  What happened in 2016 is explainable without psycho mumbo-jumbo.  Division played into the hands of Trump’s forces then, and continues to do so today. 

 The election of 2020 is critical to putting America back together again. Looking for ways to further divide is the Trump strategy.  Democrats need to focus on the opposite.

I just heard the school bus go by again.  It’s the first day of school.  That was an important day in my life for a very long time.

Schools and Colleges 

 For the first thirteen years, it meant new teachers and classrooms, and seeing old friends.  Whether it was Clifton School in Cincinnati, Van Buren Junior High in Kettering, or Wyoming High School back in Cincinnati, the first day was always an important one.  For me, it was usually a good day, one that I looked forward to:  even that first day in a brand new high school in Wyoming. It’s a scary things to do, walking into a high school in a small town as the “new kid” sophomore.

Then for the next four years, the first day of school was at Denison University.  That first day of college was scary too, especially when I was walking back to my dorm room with a couple hundred pages of reading to do.  But, after some struggles, I got the hang of college, learned a lot, and had a great time.  Denison let me “try on” my life, from running political campaigns to teaching in public school.

It’s My Job

Then the first day of school became my job.  With one year’s exception, from 1978 until 2014 the first day of school was always a new beginning.  No matter how bad or good the last year was, whether I succeeded in getting those students to buy into my class and learn or not, the first day was always starting over. It was one of the best parts of being a public schoolteacher; every Day One was a new beginning, and a new test. 

“This is as good as it gets.”

That was written on that antique communications device I used in my 28 years in the classroom.  It was called a black board, using a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock to leave tracks on a dark smooth surface.  The first class discussion:  what does that mean?  It was the first day of senior year, is that what’s so good?  We were going to talk about government and life and what happened in our town and the world, is that it?

Or was it the reality that my handwriting on the board was really, really bad.  It wasn’t going to get any better – “this is as good as it gets.”

Today they don’t use black boards, someone might be allergic to the dust. You can’t find them anyway, every class has a “dry erase” board, and most have a computer driven “smart board.”  Try being left handed with a dry erase marker – it takes “writing gymnastics” not to erase everything you write.

Winning their Minds

Those twenty-five or thirty kids in first period didn’t care whether I got any sleep the night before, or how last year went.  They were, for what might be a brief moment, open to learning. In forty minutes, could I get them to want to be up at 7:22 in the morning, sitting in a freezing cold room with no windows?  Could I convince them that American Government was something worth knowing, something they would want to participate in?  

If I was good, if I found the “key” to their interest, I could get them walking out of class with a little surprise:  they wanted to come back.   I could fill the “senior lunch room” with the issues we discussed in class that morning.  And when first period filed out, those seats were quickly filled with second period. I began again.

For parts of four decades the first day of school welcomed students into my domain, my classroom.  

Being the Dean

Then I made a big change; I became the Dean of Students at the high school.  There was no longer “my classroom.”  Instead it was “our school,” a team of three administrators trying to make it a good place to learn.  It was no longer 150 kids a day, it was 1200, most of them never interacting with me more than a nod and a wave.  

But then there were “my kids,” our “frequent flyers.”  They were “sent to the office” all the time.  I got to know them, their parents, their hopes and their problems.  I counseled, punished, and some got suspended.  A few required the sheriffs department, handcuffed privately in my office and slipped out the side door.  

I don’t like goodbyes, and high school graduation ceremonies are one really long, usually hot, goodbye.  But one of the good parts of the “Dean” job was getting to congratulate kids as they stepped up to the stage to get their diploma. We took particular pride in the “frequent flyers” that made it to graduation, celebrating our shared success in their making it “across the stage.”

If you’re the “discipline” guy in a high school, eight years is a long, long time.  It’s not so much the job itself; you can find a lot of joy in helping kids grow.  But your always making some kid mad.  And the teacher that sent them wants them killed, so you’re probably making them mad as well.  And if not that, there are always the parents who think their kid “couldn’t have done that.” After a few years, all of that adds up, and it’s time to go.

So my last “first day” was in August of 2013.  

Back Again?

I retired from teaching and “Deaning” in June of 2014.  So here I am, five years later, thinking about going back into a classroom – who’d believe it – a substitute teacher?

You’d think after forty years I’d have it down.  But there’s another “first day” out there again.  I’m nervous, a little excited, and dismayed at getting up at five in the morning.  But the kids in the class won’t care.  

This is as good as it gets.

Cutting the Pie

Winning Presidential elections in America in the past twenty years was pretty simple.  The Republican candidate could depend on about 40% of the vote.  The Democratic candidate could depend on about 40% of their vote.  Whoever manages to persuade a majority of the remaining 20%, wins. Sometimes they haven’t even needed a majority.  George Bush in 2000, and Donald Trump in 2016 were able to “thread the needle” in the Electoral College to win the Presidency while losing the popular vote.

The battle became persuading the 20%, and getting a bigger slice of that voter pie then the opponent.

What this also means is that there is a voting group who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, and Donald Trump in 2016.  That’s hard to imagine, but it seems to be the case especially in the critical electoral states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.  It’s also true in Ohio; a state that gave 51.5% and 50.7% to Obama, then 51.7% to Trump.  

Winning the Middle

So if you accept the historical divisions in America, then the election will be won by winning 11% of the middle voters.  This requires that the successful candidate appeal to the Obama/Trump voters, by finding the odd commonality in those two men.  There are two places where Obama and Trump touched a similar theme.  

The first is the plight of the “working man.”  It isn’t just about employment, but also about the fact that a “working wage” in America doesn’t provide enough for the “American Dream.”   In households with kids, 63% had both parents employed (BLS). The America those parents grew up in usually had one parent working, making a wage that could provide for the needs of the family.  Now that same family requires two wage earners, and is still struggling to live “the Dream.”  

Change Gonna Come

The second is the desire for change.  Obama in 2008 and Trump in 2016 both represented “change” candidates, running against the current government and bureaucracies.  Both times, voters wanted someone different, new, and not committed to current policy.  And both times they got their wish.  But once in office, Obama found himself stymied by his own Party in Congress, unwilling to move forward on his program of “change we can believe in.”  He spent most of his political capital passing the Affordable Care Act, a moderate Republican measure, and it’s passage cost Democrats control.

For the next six years, the goal of the Senate Majority Leader (McConnell) was to stop Obama from getting anything done.  And, like it or not, McConnell was damn good at his job.

Trump ran on the “Make America Great Again” slogan, the idea that we could change “back” to an America where “things were better,” at least for the Midwest, white, working man.  He promised steel and coal jobs that could provide for a family on one income.  It was the kind of change a frustrated Pennsylvania (or Ohio) worker wanted to hear.

Traditional Pieing

So this was the “traditional “ model of campaigning.  Hillary Clinton followed this strategy, and so did Trump.  And, without getting into the impact Russian intervention, social media or the FBI had on the election returns; Trump seemed to narrowly get the best of it.  

Candidates in 2020 running on the same theory would have to do the following.  President Trump would need to convince folks that he has come through, and that the “change” he promised is here, or at least just around the corner. He needs good economic numbers to tell those Midwest, white, workers that they will see financial gains soon, and will have the opportunity to live the “American Dream” they hoped to find.

The Democratic candidate must not only convince those voters that President Trump didn’t come through for them, but must offer alternate plans that would help fulfill their goals. The Sherrod Brown “dignity of work” philosophy is particularly geared to that theme added to by his famous phrase “…whether they shower before work or after.”  Democrats recognize the power of the worker. But they also know at the same time they need workers, they must get both a high percentage of minority votes, but also a huge turnout of minority voters.  So while they speak to the 11%, they can’t forget about getting their 40% to the polls.

Pie Expansion

But there is an alternative theory to the 2020 election.  Folks like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren hope to turn out a whole new faction of voters who generally haven’t voted before.  The 20 to 35 year old voters have traditionally had a low turnout percentage.  The most progressive wing of the Democratic Party hopes to reach those voters and get them to the polls. They are offering changes that will specifically impact those voters: reducing student debt, and protecting the environment.

The Trump campaign also has an alternate theory of 2020.  They believe that there is a faction of Americans who normally don’t vote, but are being encouraged to do so now by the President’s rhetoric.  This is the “Stephen Miller” strategy, named for the Presidential Advisor.  He believes that you can bring this new faction to bear, by the high rhetoric and actions of the President towards immigrants on the Southern Border.  This “fear of invasion” tactic attempts to create a black and white contrast. 

 The Trump Campaign claims that Democrats want open borders and unregulated migration.  They say that those folks will come and commit crimes, spend your government money, and, most importantly, take you jobs. The President is trying to stop those things from happening to you.  Building a wall, separating children from parents, and rounding up illegals is all part of the plan to “protect you” from their incursions.   As President Trump himself said, you really don’t have a choice; you have to vote for him.

Place Your Bet

So the election of 2020 will determine which  “philosophy of pie” is correct.  For the Democrats, if the traditional pie holds true, then a more traditional candidate will likely be successful.  There is no one more traditional than Joe Biden, and no candidate more poised to reach those workers in the Midwest.  And Biden, in part through his association with President Obama, is able to energize the minority voters as well.

But if this is an expanding pie election, Biden may not be the right guy.  The younger, more progressive candidates are more likely to appeal to the 20-35 voting block.  Harris, Warren, Buttigieg, Booker all fit that model.  And while Bernie Sanders is much older, he still has the “outsider” and “maverick” appeal that reaches those swing voters.

Will the pie be sliced the same old way, or will it become a bigger pie?  That is the critical question in the 2020 election.  And it’s not just “any old” Presidential election in 2020, it certainly seems like an “inflection point” in American history.  The result of  2020 may well determine the future of the America’s experiment in Democracy.