Category Archives: Random Thoughts

Random Thoughts on June 6, 2019

There are two “high holidays” in American history, the Fourth of July and D-Day.  One marks the emergence of the United States as a sovereign nation  The other as leader of the free world.  And sadly, the observance of these occasions fades over the years with one exception.  Just as there are milestones of age, e.g. 21st birthdays, or wedding vows, silver and gold anniversaries, we gather on the 25th, 50th or 100th anniversary of these national  wayposts in the annuls of the American narrative to give them the attention they deserve.

These moments are also times for reflection.  Consideration of those famous and those largely unknown who contributed and sacrificed in the pursuit of an ideal or preservation of a way of life.  As I watched the ceremonies yesterday from Portsmouth, England where the invasion to liberate Europe was launched and this morning’s events at the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer overlooking Omaha Beach, as always, I was looking for the angle no one was covering.  What was that one counter-intuitive thing that was right under our nose but slipped our attention?

Today, I tip my hat to presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin who suggested it is easy to celebrate D-Day with the hindsight of the eventual outcome.  And while we have vivid images of the invasion itself from newsreels and movies such as “Saving Private Ryan,” there is no visual documentation of June 5, 1944, which may have been more fateful than the invasion itself.  That night, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower and the rest of the military planners awaited the impact of their actions unsure whether they would succeed or fail.  As Goodwin recalled on MSNBC yesterday morning.

What strikes me is that we are on the eve, the day before that fascinates me.  We know now from history that D-Day worked.  But all those people, on this day, 75 years ago were living in a sense of dread.  Eleanor Roosevelt said she felt she had a sword hanging over her head.  Winston Churchill, when he was going to sleep on this night, said to his wife, tomorrow morning 20,000 of our men may be dead.  Franklin Roosevelt was so tense that he couldn’t go to sleep…History knows the end but that’s not the moment that really fascinates me.

There it was, the angle I was looking for, not just in 1944, but throughout history.  Did Franklin, Adams and Jefferson toss and turn in their beds the night of July 3, 1776.  If he had lived, would John F. Kennedy have slept the night before Apollo 11 took off from Cape Canaveral on a mission he had set in motion seven years earlier.  Should we be better students, not of history, but of the eve of history?

Which brings me back to the topic du jour, what is the most appropriate way to address Donald Trump’s alleged crimes, abuse of power and violation of his oath of office?  Is Nancy Pelosi currently presiding over the eve of history?  Does the decision to authorize impeachment proceedings keep her up at night, not knowing whether such actions will result in Trump’s removal from office or his re-election in 2020?  Are there lessons from D-Day which could make her decision easier?

Consider the following.  Just as many are anxious to rev up the engine of impeachment sooner rather than later, I am sure there were those who felt any delay in the Normandy invasion was to Hitler’s advantage.  But the political and military leader wanted to make sure they had the army they NEEDED, not as Dick Cheney suggested in the run-up to the second Iraq War, you go with the army you HAVE.  And they picked a day and hour when they believed the weather conditions, though chilly and rain, were best suited for the mission.  Perhaps Pelosi is doing the same, waiting until she has the conditions and the army she needs before launching the inquiry.  If and when she gives a green light to Judiciary Chairman Gerald Nadler and her caucus, should we, like Doris Kearns Goodwin, be more fascinated by what happened on the eve of Nadler’s gaveling the committee to order to begin impeachment hearings or the hearings themselves?

Two more thoughts related to June 6, 1944.  Imagine if cinema depictions of D-Day had ended like the “Sopranos.”  Just as Henry Grace, who played Eisenhower in the 1962 epic “The Longest Day,” announces the forces have reached the French shoreline, the screen fades to black.  The audience let’s out a collective, “NOOOOOO!”  They feel cheated.  I too felt cheated, as this week I began reading the Mueller Report.  Here are just a few examples.

The Trump Campaign showed interest in WikiLeaks’ releases of hacked materials through the summer and fall of 2016.  (four redacted paragraphs including one under the heading “b. Contacts with the Campaign about WikiLeaks”)

Michael Cohen, former executive vice president of the Trump Organization and special counsel to Donald J. Trump, told the (Special Counsel’s) Office that he recalled an incident in which he was in candidate Trump’s office in Trump Tower (redacted).  Cohen further told the Office that, after WikiLeaks’ subsequent release of stolen DNC emails in July 2016, candidate Trump said to Cohen something to the effect of, (redacted).

(In reference to the Trump Tower meeting) The Office spoke to every participant except Veselnitskaya and Trump, Jr., the later of whom declined to be voluntarily interviewed by the Office (redacted).

NOOOOOO!  Don’t leave us hanging.  How did the Campaign show interest in WikiLeaks?  What did Trump say to Cohen? What do you mean Junior declined to be interviewed? Was he subpoenaed?  Did Rod Rosenstein, Matt Whittaker or William Barr at the Department of Justice prohibit Mueller from issuing a subpoena?  Did he issue one and Junior took the Fifth (even though his father proclaimed during the 2016 campaign, “Only guilty people take the Fifth”?

And finally, a word about Trump’s attendance at the commemorative events this morning in France.  To his credit, he stayed on script and the speechwriter should be thanked for the tone and content of his remarks.  But there is a certain irony that not just Trump, but any Republican president would have this honor.  While the GOP claims to be the party of national security, it was Democrats Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman who oversaw the successful preparation and conduct of U.S. participation in World War II.  And to some extent, I had a similar response watching Richard Nixon welcome back the Apollo 11 astronauts instead of Kennedy or Lyndon Johnson.

Perhaps, on such occasions, history would be better served to have the principals or their decedents participate in the ceremonies.  That is why the image of Queen Elizabeth, who volunteered as a mechanic in World War II, was the most compelling figure over the last two days.  She did not need a history book or a speechwriter.  She was there.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

Random Thoughts 12/23/2018

I Hope They Are Not Getting Paid for This

MESSAGE TO RUSSIAN TROLLS AND BOTS: If you’re going to try and hack Americans or influence voters, I strongly suggest you make an effort to translate your correspondence.  Below is one of several comments we received in response to the  December 13 post, “The Putin Principle.” Loosely translated, it is a promotion for casual apparel.

Интернет магазин уникальных футболок. Мы предлагаем Вам только качественные и уникальные товары. На Ваш выбор толстовки, футболки, головные уборы, чехлы, посуда, аксессуары и вещи для интерьера.
Вы с легкостью сможете подобрать рисунок, который Вам нравится или же сделать свой уникальный с помощью конструктора.
Приобретя товр Вы можете воспользоваться услугами доставки на очень выгодных условиях.

Заходи и заказывай:

So if you’re in the market for Russian made t-shirts and don’t mind giving them your contact and credit card information, these are the guys.

Border Security

If ADT can protect my home without surrounding my property with a 30 foot concrete wall and DogWatch, the electronic fence company, can deter my pet from leaving my property without “artistically designed steel slats,” one would think either of these companies would be more than willing to install a 2,000 mile invisible detection system at a fraction of the price of Donald Trump’s vanity wall.

Furthermore, do Trump, Steve Miller, Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh really believe an asylum seeker who has traveled 1,505 miles by foot from Guatemala to the Texas border would not walk another 217 from Nuevo Laredo to Matamoros where they could board a boat for a 30 minute ride to Port Isabel, Texas?  When refugees learn this is an option, they will also realize it is only 1,227 miles from Guatemala to Matamoros.  Will the Trump 2020 meme become, “We’ll have the best, most beautiful underwater mines along the Texas coast”?

Why Conservatives Should Join the Resistance

When is the media going to stop referring to the 35 percent of Americans who are giving Trump a pass on everything as “Trump’s conservative base?”  It is giving true conservatives a bad name.  Folks like Bill Kristol, Peggy Noonan and George Will should demand print journalists, talk show hosts and panelists stop using the term.  The only descriptor needed is, “Trump’s base.”

The McConnell Rule

Remember when Mitch McConnell blocked Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court.  His justification?  With an upcoming election, the majority leader justified this violation of Article II of the Constitution by declaring, “We should let the people decide.”  Mitch, doesn’t this apply to Trump’s wall.  Trump stumped (or is it Stump trumped?) all over the country saying the 2018 mid-terms was all about border security.  And the voters decided.  By a margin of nine million votes, Americans rejected the Trump agenda.  Mitch, how could you in good conscience ask a lame duck Congress to support a policy that the electorate rejected by one of the largest margins ever in a mid-term election?

Huh?

On Friday morning, Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) said:

There are a lot of us who want to avoid a shutdown.  I’ve been through about five of them in my career. None of them have worked in terms of their intent.

That same afternoon, Roberts voted “Yea” on a procedural measure to consider the House version of a continuing resolution which included $5 billion for Trump’s wall.  The final vote was 47-47 with Mike Pence breaking the tie.  That vote guaranteed a government shutdown.  This Congressional update comes from the “It doesn’t work, but let’s do it anyway” department.

Huh? Part II

On Saturday’s edition of Politics Nation with Al Sharpton, Republican strategist and columnist for the Washington Examiner Jennifer Kerns claimed Americans did not care  federal employees might not get paid over the holidays.

I may sound like the Grinch saying it, but look, the bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., did not suffer as the rest of America did in the last 10 years with the Obama recession.

So much for conservative intellectual integrity. Of course, the easiest target is “the Obama recession.”  Unemployment does not fall from over 10 percent to 4.3 percent during a recession.  Equally important, between 2009 and 2012, public employment declined by over 580,000 jobs.  At the same time, private sector employment, helped by the federal bailouts, increased by nearly 2 million jobs.  I don’t remember Ms. Kerns complaining about that.

And this is only one example of the wrongly labeled, “Trump conservative base.”

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

 

No Shortcuts

Sometimes the process of writing can be as interesting as the product which emerges.

~Dr. ESP

As was the case on Thanksgiving Day, the inspiration for a particular blog entry often comes from Deprogramming101 subscribers.  Not when they share a news article or commentary and say, “You know, you should write about this.”  But in the course of every day conversation, when they ask a question or relate a personal experience.  Doug Hall, founder of Eureka Ranch, a corporate retreat outside Cincinnati, Ohio has based an entire career on helping others become more creative using this concept of “stimulus/response.”  However, the creative power of this technique grows exponentially when you meld it was other innovative tools such as the theory of synchronicity, the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear to have no connection.

On two occasions this week, individuals asked me questions which, on the surface, seemed unrelated.  My wife once again inquired, “Why is Mueller taking so long?”  And during a phone call with our daughter, she wanted to know if I had made any progress on the political novel I have been drafting for the past year.  For any event to shift from simple observation to stimulus, one must continually ask two questions.

  • What is this trying to tell me?
  • How is it relevant to something I am trying to do?

The first thing I needed to explore was the commonality between these two interactions with members of my family.  I did not tell her this, but my daughter’s question made me feel quite guilty.  The novel is a fictional telling of the Kennedy assassination.  And Thursday marked the 55th anniversary of the president’s fatal trip to Dallas.  For me, it represented one more year in which I missed a deadline, as I keep promising myself I will finish the text in time to release it “next November 22.”

Likewise, Robert Mueller has no set deadline.  His timetable may be influenced by external events, e.g. the dismissal of attorney general Jeff Sessions and the appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting AG.  Or waiting for the transmittal of Donald Trump’s written responses to a series of questions about Russian collusion.  But, for all intents and purposes, Mueller (like me) controls when his work will be finished.

And that connection made me realize how Mueller’s task and that of any writer of fiction or non-fiction are linked.  While my first attempt at a novel pales in comparison to the importance of the special counsel’s investigation, we face the same challenge.  Will our individual results be viewed as credible?

For lack of a better word, Mueller is engaged in a search for truth which may eventually result in regicide, the act of disposing of a monarch.  And the king still has many loyal followers.  No easy task, complicated by the royal minions who will pick apart his work to find any discrepancy which tests the veracity of the narrative.  Though less consequential, my challenge is the same.  I believe the key to making an implausible story line real is in the detail.  I’ll give you one example.

Related imageI needed to find a place where members of President Kennedy’s secret service detail could meet privately without raising suspicions, a location where they might be seen in the course of regular business.  A Google search pointed to the James J. Rowley Center in Laurel, Maryland, a secret service facility where agents can practice defense skills and explore better techniques and strategies for carrying out their mission.  Just one problem.  Kennedy’s detail could not have been there as the center was not funded until 1969 and did not open until 1972.  Chances are the reader would not have known the difference or cared.  But I knew it would have been a flaw in the narrative and that was unacceptable.

Five years ago, a tale about a sitting president of the United States who colluded with a foreign adversary to win the election and then conspired to cover it up would be as implausible as my version of the Kennedy assassination.  Mueller will be under enormous pressure to defend his findings, regardless of the outcome.  If Trump is exonerated, his critics will be as skeptical as Turmp’s loyalists who will challenge every piece of evidence of conspiracy and obstruction of justice.  And you can bet the farm, any flaw in the accuracy of the smallest detail will be used to undermine the report’s veracity.  To get it exactly right takes time and requires every fact be checked and rechecked.

My book will be done when it’s ready.  As will Mueller’s report.  Writers, even novices like me, understand that.  The public should also.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

 

Random Thoughts 11/7/18

 

It was neither the best of times nor was it the worst of times.

The ongoing debate over the future of America was not resolved yesterday.  But there were a few simple truths.

Racism in America

Yesterday, a significant portion of voters chose not to reject the Republicans’ closing message.  Black candidates are unqualified to run state governments.  Latinos seeking a better life for their children are criminals and a threat to America. A candidate with a foreign sounding name is scarier than a candidate indicted for using a quarter million dollars in campaign funds for personal use.

Racism in America is alive and well.  Yes, it needs to be called out.  But the best antidote may be how the African-Americans, Latinos and Muslims who won election to state and federal office yesterday represent their constituents.  What better way to say, “See, I am one of you.  The same things that are important to you are also important to me.”

Oversee the Constitution, Not Trump

Within minutes of NBC’s projection the Democrats would retake the House of Representatives, the likely chair of the House Ways and Means Committee Richard Neal said he hopes to obtain Donald Trump’s tax returns either voluntarily from Trump or, if necessary, from the IRS.  There were also reports Democrats have a list of 60 plus subpoenas ready for administration officials next January.

Image result for elijah cummingsThe new House leadership would be wise to listen to incoming chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Elijah Cummings.

Right now, we have a president who is accountable to no one. I don’t want people to think we are going to rush in and beat up on Trump.  But, we need to look at all the things the President has done that go against the mandates of our founding fathers in the Constitution.

The worst thing Democrats could do is duplicate the efforts of special counsel Robert Mueller.  Their primary responsibility is to ensure Mueller is allowed to complete his investigation unfettered and the American people have access to his findings.  In other words, “Let Mueller be Mueller.”

And for heaven’s sake, heed the lessons of Watergate.  Impeachment is not the way to remove a president.  Remember, when it became clear Richard Nixon had violated his oath of office, there was a bi-partisan consensus he needed to resign or (as we just learned from the release of archived documents) face criminal indictment.  Unless there is iron-clad evidence of crimes, there is no way 67 Senators will vote for conviction.  And if there is such evidence, the Republicans will be quite eager to get rid of that albatross around their neck and demand Trump’s resignation.

The committees do need to take their oversight responsibilities seriously.  There are many items on Trump’s agenda which need to be stopped dead in their tracks.  But do not use Trump’s personal flaws and possible malfeasance to make that happen.  Reject the agenda because the agenda is bad for America.  And use the oversight function to make that case to the public.

Solve Problems

Which brings me to what Democrats should be doing on day one of the new Congress.  If the term had not already been used, I would suggest they issue a “contract with America.”  Trump and the GOP have focused on repealing the Affordable Care Act and on corporate welfare and tax cuts for the wealthiest in lieu of  issues and injustices which could be quickly addressed.  So, on day one, the Democrats should introduce legislation to do the following:

  • Give permanent status to the Dreamers who qualify under DACA guidelines.
  • Decriminalize marijuana, reduce felonies for possession to misdemeanors and commute the sentences of those who have been incarcerated based solely on possession.
  • Reinstate the Voting Rights Act and make it apply to all 50 states.
  • Reverse the Federal Communications Commission repeal of net neutrality.
  • Allow the Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate Medicare and Medicaid prescription drug prices with pharmaceutical companies.
  • Require federal background checks on all gun purchases.
  • Fund major infrastructure investments to be paid for with a dollar for dollar reduction in the 2017 tax cuts.
  • Congressionally mandate participation in the Paris Climate Accords.
  • Congressionally mandate participation in the Iran nuclear arms agreement.
  • Make election day a federal holiday and encourage state and local governments and private employers to honor America by also declaring it a holiday.

Based on polling, there is strong public support for all of these proposals.  Be the House of Representatives.  Represent the people.

A National Disgrace

In the most technologically advanced country in the world, there is no reason why any American should have to wait in line for four hours to vote or have to worry whether their vote is correctly registered.  Instead of issuing subpoenas, on day one of the next Congress, the House Judiciary Committee should introduce legislation which would mandate all electronic voting systems have a paper backup in case the count needs to be audited and prohibit the obvious conflict of interest when individuals, such as a Secretary of State, oversee an election process in which they are a candidate for statewide office.

The House Judiciary Committee should also request the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to study the distribution of polling resources within each state.  Of particular interest are discrepancies between rural and urban areas or why a university campus with over 50,000 students has a single polling place.

Conclusion

On Tuesday morning, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders described the election as a contest between problem solvers and obstructionists.  Of course, she implied that Democrats were the ones creating all the road blocks.  (Projection has been honed to a fine art by Trump and his surrogates.) Nancy Pelosi has the opportunity to prove her wrong.  The exit polls confirm voters were more worried about things that affect their lives–health care, immigration, the economy–than the tone of the national discourse.

Trump will be emboldened by yesterday’s results.  And his advisors will continue to believe their interests are best served when they “Let Trump be Trump.”  Pelosi and the Democratic party can either fuel that fire by giving Trump and the GOP an excuse to say, “I told you so.”  Or they can do what the voters elected them to do.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

 

Blogger, Heal Thyself

 

Two and a half years ago, I started this blog with hopes of occasionally having something of value to say by looking at the world through counter-intuitive eyes.  Occasionally was originally intended to be once or twice a month.  Today’s post is #288.  An average of one every three days.  Some were meant solely to be entertaining.  Some were intended to find a hidden kernel of truth in an event or issue others had missed.  And some were designed to raise the hairs on the backs of the necks of friends and foes alike.

What seems like a decade ago (actually December 9, 2016), I published an article titled, “On Becoming an UNREAL American.”  The point being that my new-found status as an outsider in Trump World resulted in a clearer understanding of the values I would continue to embrace.  Nothing Trump could do would separate me from my moral compass.  I was wrong.

Saturday night, I looked into a mirror and saw what I had become.  That mirror was Michelle Wolf’s  speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner (WHCD).  If, as some suggest, the point was to give Trump a taste of his own medicine, let me respond.  It is just as ugly coming from a comedian as from the supposed leader of the free world.  Or from any of us.

Like many, I was infuriated when RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel tweeted, “Democrats hate our President more than they love our country.”  NOOOOOO!  I abhor Trump and all of the hypocrites who defend him BECAUSE I love my country.  And I find it hard to believe this is really happening in America.  But venomous hatred is not going to solve anything.

I often refer to Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards) warning Woodward (Robert Redford) and Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) any mistake in their reporting translated into public sympathy for Richard Nixon.  I had that same feeling as I watched Wolf eviscerate members of the Trump administration, especially press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.  Was this really possible?  Had someone actually made me feel sorry for Sanders?

More importantly, was it necessary?  The anger and language was what you would expect more from Lewis Black.  Was the comparison valid.  Fortunately, we have empirical data to test the hypothesis.  Black had the same honor at the 2005 WHCD.  And nobody despised the Bush administration more than Black.  In a later performance he described being on the dais with vice-president Dick Cheney, who stood in for George W. Bush who was in Rome at Pope John Paul II’s funeral.  Black reminisced, “I’ve never felt so close to pure evil.”

In contrast to Wolf’s diatribe, here is what Black told this ensemble of the rich and powerful in his closing remarks.

I learned something from 9/11.  Patriotism is important and religion is important in this country.  And patriotism and religious without humor is where we run into trouble.  It’s why our enemy is as psychotic as they are.  They are religious and patriotic.  And they are the most humorless pricks on the planet.  These are people who wander in the desert year after year and never run into a knock knock joke, which is the price I think you pay for living in tents.  But one would have thought at least there would have been a flap flap joke.

For these people to be told that if they kill someone in the name of Allah that they will immediately go to heaven where they will be met by 72 virgins.  The fact that these people did not understand that this has to be a punchline to a joke.  I’ve been on the earth many years and never once have I met a single virgin.

The comic who was once denied an opportunity to perform at the Kennedy Center because of his language, took this opportunity to explain to his audience why humor, even when politically incorrect, is sometimes the only thing that keeps us sane.

Sunday, I decided to burst the bubble. I skipped the morning talk shows.  I did not read a single newspaper article or blog about the Trump White House. For a life-long political junkie, that was no easy task.  And then I went out and shot the best round of golf I had in years.  Maybe Yogi Berra was right.  “Ninety percent of the game is half mental.”  Sunday night, I slept better than I had in weeks.  Today was the first day without Morning Joe or Stephanie Miller in months.

Related imageHow many times have we read a book or watched a movie where the moral is, “If you really love something, the best thing you can do is let it go.”  The ending of Cast Away immediately comes to mind.  In the penultimate scene,  Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) confides in his friend Stan (Nick Searcy) it is time to move on.  The film ends on Noland’s encounter with Bettina Peterson (Lari White), the recipient of a long overdue package, and contains the following dialog.

Peterson:  You look lost.
Noland: I do?
Peterson: Where’re you headed?
Noland:  Well, I was just about to figure that out.

Letting go of something that has been a part of you for so long is never easy.  But figuring out where you’re headed is no walk in the park either.  But a good spring cleaning of the mind is an excellent place to start.

I will continue to blog when the spirit moves me.  But not to reinforce my obsession with where the country is going, but to return to my original purpose.  To challenge conventional wisdom in sports, religion, culture as well as policy.  What does this shift look like?  Let me share an example.  Instead of chastising evangelicals for giving Trump a “mulligan” on Stormy Daniels, maybe it is better to remind them others deserve a “mulligan.”  In Florida this November, there is a constitutional initiative (Proposition 4) to restore the right to vote to felons who have paid their debt to society (prison and/or fines).  Isn’t it time for these people to “tee it up again” as full-fledged citizens?  If the evangelical doctrine includes the belief “sin is redeemable,” we ask every evangelical to join us in demonstrating their compassion by voting for Prop 4.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP