Holy War, Part II

On July 17, 2016 I posted an essay on this blog entitled “Holy War?” (see:  http://pennyfound.blogspot.com/2016/07/holy-war.html).  It referenced then candidate Donald Trump’s rather ineptly stated desire to eliminate the tax law otherwise known as the Johnson Amendment. This rule within our Tax Code has been accepted law by both Democrats and Republicans alike for 63 years, and for good reason.

The idea of ending this law was presented to Trump by one of his earliest supporters, Jerry Falwell, Jr. a big potential beneficiary of the change.  I question to this day whether Trump understands the law, but he did understand the positive result of gaining the support of the Christian Right, especially with all his unethical baggage. Everyone was eager to participate in this Faustian deal.

Now a Republican Congress has decided to include in their proposed Tax Bill the removal of this provision from the US Tax Code. Did they do this to appease Trump? If so…why would they? There is nothing about this change in the law that does any good. Its primary effect will be to allow the wealthy to extend their influence over Government at the expense of ordinary taxpayers. Oh yeah…maybe that’s it.

I’d be surprised if one out of fifty people have any idea of what this obscure change, (which comprises only a few lines of a 400+ page Tax Bill) will make to their everyday lives or what their tax dollars are being spent on. I am disappointed and mystified why the Media has been unable to explain this to the general population. 

I am also disgusted that Republicans have so arbitrarily decided to embrace it when they should know better. The Republican Party has become a cancer on this Nation’s well being.

The change will allow 501(c)(3) organizations to openly and proactively support political candidates and political issues. Currently if a such an organization (which includes churches) did such they would lose their 501(c)(3) status. That would mean individuals making contributions to that organization would not be able to deduct those contributions from their individual (or corporate) income taxes.

The result of this change will have the potential of turning every such charitable organization or church into a political lobby. Churches, which are not hard to create in the first place, will come into existence specifically to support a political agenda or candidate. Money will pour into televangelist Churches because of their ability to reach large and vulnerable audiences.

“Jesus forgives his sinners and wants you to vote for Roy Moore. Send us your tax deductable prayer gift of $20 and help us get Roy to the promise land…hallelujah!!”

The salt in the wound is that every such deduction is a reduction of Government revenue. Therefore, a portion of your taxes will essentially be rerouted to support a candidate or issue you may despise or disagree with. For example: Donald Trump, Jr. gives $1000 to the Roy Moore Ministry of Blessed Virgins, but it only costs him $600, since his taxes will be reduced by $400. That’s lost revenue that would have been yours, the American Citizen.

Jerry Falwell, Jr. will be having a multi-week, extended orgasm this Christmas as he contemplates the New Year with his new ability to attract (in essence) political donations for both his televangelist ministry and his Liberty University.  As if this Nation wasn’t divided enough, we might as well start painting our churches red or blue so as not to cause confusion during the “offering”.

Republicans need to be held accountable.

FOLLOW UP - Dec 15

It should be happily noted that in the final reconciliation the Senate removed the provision to repeal the "Johnson Amendment" from the 2017 Tax Bill. Are we seeing some admission by Republicans that the Emperor is bare-assed naked?

When No Answer is the Answer

Three days after the Las Vegas shooting, a father was interviewed on NPR because his daughter had been at the targeted concert.  His daughter was wounded, but I suspect his interview was broadcast because his description of what he experienced, through the texts he shared with his daughter during the shooting and his frantic journey after, was sensitive and articulate.  In it he voluntarily added, without a question from the reporter, that he was a believer in the “second amendment”, owned guns himself, and saw nothing in his experience to challenge those beliefs.  He said wasn’t mad at the shooter, he blamed a “godless society”.

There is currently a national law enforcement and news frenzy over why Stephen Paddock did what he did. To date they have no answer. At this point, after thousands of man hours devoted to this search without conclusion it should be obvious that any possible answer that might be uncovered will be weak or inconclusive at best. Yet the search remains under full steam without the least consideration as to what will be gained by the public or the victims.

The twisted mystery of Stephen Paddock’s mind may have been his intention all along, to do something of horrific magnitude just to leave the world with a confusion forever attached to his name.  It’s as good a reason as any and equally as useless to those he wanted to devastate. However if that reason is correct, perhaps the actions of Paddock will have a greater effect than even the more shocking murder of twenty 6 and 7 year olds, which couldn’t make a blip on the Nation’s EKG.

The issue is not and never has been security, and it’s clearly not criminality either. The problem is social. As a nation unique in the world we simply have a tolerance for violence perpetrated through the use of firearms. Despite the increasingly common gross demonstrations of this violence, we take no serious steps to address that social condition, which is manifest every day, not just with random displays of carnage.

 I believe most every leader this Country has produced has mouthed the words “..so this will never happen again” as if gun violence was a spigot you could turn off with the right idea. It is a black hole of leadership.

We are more like an overweight individual who constantly snacks then is suddenly shocked that after some huge binge he has gained so much weight. That’s right my NRA friends, the problem is not the food…it’s the eater, but the answer to his obesity is not to keep nibbling.

The reason for gun control laws and regulations is not make you safe. Current estimates of guns in America are at 300 million.  Passing laws or restrictions will not make the guns go away. What such efforts would accomplish would begin a social recognition that solving individual problems, anxieties, angers, or no good reason at all (especially for the deranged) is not acceptably accomplished through the use of a gun, even if one is available.

Laws are primarily society’s attempt to externalize ethics.  Just because a law is passed doesn’t immediately change attitude.  The great example of that is this Nation’s long journey to eliminate or at least minimize racism, a journey as yet incomplete. 

Gun control laws are in desperate need of enacting, not to stop a Las Vegas shooting, but for society as whole to take the stand that this is not who we are.  Not to affect this generation, but perhaps for the next or the one after that.  That our Nation’s leaders, Conservative Republicans in particular, do not have the courage to face constituents who have been marinated in fear that their guns are going to be taken away and thus left defenseless is the real tragedy that is occurring year after year.

As a result the use of guns continues to be an acceptable outlet for solving personal problems, and for the lunatic fringe that outlet might look like the compiling unnoticed an arsenal of weapons in a large, popular hotel for the purpose of…who knows…what does it matter?

The father, whose daughter was shot as he watched the events on TV and flew to be with her, then felt it important to express to a National audience that he was “still a Second Amendment person” is the issue encapsulated.  That, with his daughter lying with a bullet in her, he needed to express that unsolicited opinion at all is the problem we face.

He blamed it on a “godless society”. How could someone so wrong, be so right? Call it a godless society if you like, but the fear he retains that his life would be so severely compromised if his unfettered access to guns was modified is the godless part.  The society part is the daughter left lying in a Las Vegas hospital bed.

My Solar Experience

“Dear God, if you want America to impeach Trump, please give us a sign…like blot out the sun from one end of the Country to the other”…

…so someone had posted on Facebook. I swear that was not the reason I decided to head off to South Carolina on Sunday (8/20) just to see if God was listening.  It would have been reason enough. However, I went as a pilgrimage, to view a solar eclipse in its totality…and I wasn’t alone.

I am not a devotee of astronomical physics, even as I am in awe of it. How individuals, even thousands of years ago, could figure these things out is beyond my sixty-seven year old, twenty-first century brain. I am, though, deep into the metaphysics of the Universe, which includes both heavenly phenomenon and loads of people traveling to and congregating at unremarkable places in the pursuit of celestial wonders.

I had made my hotel reservations a month before and picked a final destination which looked to me to be remote yet picturesque.  I thought I could end up being by myself, or nearly so, perfect for a contemplative experience. A small state park on Lake Greenwood, a lake manufactured under Roosevelt’s New Deal, located far away from urban centers, seemed just right.

Figuring on some heavier than usual traffic on major highways, I packed up the Prius (including a disassembled bicycle in the back) and headed off early at a leisurely pace.

My first stop was Charlotte, NC, which was a straight shot down Interstate 85. I think I understand now why they gave that particular name to this highway as there are probably 85 reasons not to travel it during periods of congestion. In the event of an alien attack I suggest you forgo I-85 as an escape route and view it more as a cemetery.

Even after a couple of attempts at detouring I eventually succumbed to my participation in the parade until it mercifully released me at my assigned exit. Giving into my “what…it’s only 7:45” exhaustion, I hit the pillow figuring I’d at least get a really early start in morning, which I did.

Unfortunately, the I-85 parade was still in active celebration.  I don’t believe a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Balloon would have had any problem keeping up with the pack.  I opted out almost immediately and decided to go rogue on country roads. Smart choice…I think.

There is no telling whether traveling the back roads of South Carolina was economical on time or not (probably not), but it was cathartic.  The landscape was strikingly beautiful at times yet peppered with the decay of long standing poverty.  It revealed stories that interstate highways don’t allow you to hear.  Thinking about what had been there before made me wonder what kind of eclipse my memory would retain from this trip.

I made it to the State Park later than I had planned.  I thought it okay as it only meant less waiting time for the eclipse. However, the waiting time I first experienced was a line cars stretching all the way down to the entrance, a distance of three quarters of a mile.  My concern wasn’t so much the line as it was the snail’s pace by which it moved. The participants could have gone green and simply pushed their cars without consequence.

Thank goodness for alternatives.  I decided to simply pull over onto the large shoulder, take out my bike and power past the line, feeling smug and elated, yet still wondering (in the words of the Donald) what the hell is going on?.

The small park was filled, in fact before the eclipse began they would shut down the entrance.  I stopped a man, in his thirties, and asked where he was from. “Oh, from Tampa”, I said, “And why did you decided to come here?” He said CNN had broadcast it as a great place with only $2 parking. What?? What happened to fake news? Thousands and thousands of places along the path of Totality and I pick a CNN promo spot?

I got there at 11am while many of the people had staked out their spaces since 6:00 in the morning! At first glance it had the appearance and energy as one might anticipate from an evangelist floating in on a carnation enveloped barge with a promise to walk on water. I didn’t know what to expect.

It turned out to be just perfect.  The well disbursed participants were spirited and joyful.  Virtually everyone there had a common purpose. Even though they were all sure the eclipse was going to happen, they still held out the slight uncertainty that comes from never having had the experience before. I was one of them.

Many were colorful in their anticipation, with all kinds of paraphernalia for solar watching. There were boxes of all sizes, tripods, duck tape, Pringles cans…you name it.  Sun viewing glasses in every description, many modified with cameras and binoculars. It was wonderful. Everyone was happy to talk about their preparations. This was absolutely not Trump’s America.

The eclipse itself did not fail to meet expectations. In fact, for me and probably most others it exceeded those expectations considerably. The blue skies blessed us all.

You have probably already heard all kinds of descriptions similar to how I might describe the eclipse; the changes the fading light made to the surroundings, the hushed almost reverent sounds (or lack thereof) from the throngs, the pop of the corona at sudden full totality and the flashbulb flash when it ended, and the breathtaking  corona itself. 

I will say only this: I went onto Google Images to find a picture for this essay of the eclipse at totality that only a special lens can take. Out of the hundreds provided I couldn’t find one that showed what I saw. I had viewed it at both normal distance and up close with my binoculars.  That I could see something that appears to defy reproduction was and is quite special, indeed. Enough said.

The trip back was made almost entirely without use of interstate highways. Even then I chose certain routes that turned simple stoplights into mile long backups. It didn’t matter much. If that occurred I took even more remote paths to cross the Carolinas and had plenty to see along the way.

The two and a half minute totality of the eclipse and the anticipation that preceded it paid for the journey and more. However, I didn’t expect the dividends of sharing something which all were involuntarily and jointly part of.  I got to see a slice of America in distress and feel a touch of hope at the same time.  Not bad, not bad at all.

I Tried

Once again the focus is on D. Trump. Too bad. His public pronouncement of moral equivalency between neo-Nazis, et al, and those protesting against them says less about his ethics and more about his profound ignorance and Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).  He really thinks, I believe, the real issue regarding Charlottesville was about violence, which was the core of his statement after the incident on Saturday. Perhaps he thinks the only problem with cancer is the weight loss.

His unassisted “press conference” on Tuesday (8/15) was a narcissistic defense of his Saturday statement, where he felt violated by reading his scripted pronouncement on Monday. For someone with NPD his capitulation on Monday, probably at the direction of John Kelly, had to be intolerable.

I truly doubt Trump is a racist or bigot on any kind of cerebral level. That would assume he believes there is a right or wrong. I think it likely his discrimination years ago against non-whites in his real estate holdings was nothing more than projected figures on a ledger. To his mind, they were simply rational choices.  Bigotry and racism to everyone else…but to him: the business of being Trump.

That he is the leader of this country is basically the convergence of Shakespearian comedy and tragedy on a grand world stage.

Even though Trump’s candidacy and Presidency has emboldened extreme Conservatism (lovingly expressed as the Alt-Right) to become more visible and seek avenues of power, the elements that seduce these white, gun-toting, under educated males to congregate can be found floating about like ether among the general conservative/Christian  community.  It is rhetoric of exclusivity.  It can be heard every day on talk radio, alluded to on Fox & Friends (which I watch nearly every weekday), and (between requests for money and injections of fear) on pulpits around the Country.

It is the reason, as Trump proclaimed, that individuals would continue to support the Donald if he pulled out a gun and shot someone on 7^th Avenue (provided he shot the right kind of person).

Now the conversation (or lack thereof) is centered on symbolism, in the existence of monuments, often old enough to rightly deserve the adjective historic.  Trump is making it his tweet-du-jour.

These monuments, mostly to Civil War Confederate military leaders or Confederate military in general, are the focus of the confrontation.  No doubt Richmond will become a major center of the controversy.

They are monuments that predate my life, many predating my father’s.  I have always looked upon them with…well, respect. My first reaction to any monument is that it was placed there by people who felt it had meaning for them, in their time.  For me it is simply education.

The exceptions to the rule are those statues erected in between 1920 and 1970 as a racist reaction to improving civil rights.  Their fate needs no debate and should have been gone years ago.

I also grew up learning of the Civil War as it related to military engagements, like most American Wars. Even now I can quote military facts on the War of 1812, the Spanish-American War, and the Mexican-American War, e.g. but would need to refresh on the causes behind them.  A New Yorker by birth, I remember playing soldiers with a Civil War theme and favoring the Southerners as they were the eternal underdogs. I didn’t absorb the greater conflict until much later in life.

I have felt these post Civil War monuments in the South (there are also countless Civil War monuments in Northern States) were granite and marble testimonials to the dedication and sacrifice of people in the military and their loved ones.  Doubtless there are dedications sprinkled about the Country to those Soldiers who fought and died in the many godless “Indian Wars” that took place over a hundred years. 20 Congressional Medals of Honor were awarded to soldiers who participated in the massacre of Sioux families at Wounded Knee in 1890. As a nation we revere our military without much worry about the reasons for their sacrifice.

I tried.  I tried to grab a hold of this view of military monuments knowing that once war begins it has its own momentum, the origins sometimes lost altogether (think WWI). Soldiers rarely consider the politics of what put them in harm’s way. It would be salt into the wounds they endure.

As the rage over these historic dedications placed amid the public has reached a level of intolerable conflict, I find I can no longer rationalize. The monuments have to go. There are plenty of Civil War battlefields where every one of them can find an appropriate home. There is at least one good reason why I feel this should happen and it is not for the reasons that caused the great American schism and bloody conflagration (which I understand is reason enough for some).

I have lived in the South for three-quarters of my adult life. In all that time I have never lost the wish that native Southerners would stop fighting the Civil War. There are roots of that conflict that are still in Southern ground. For some it might be rooted in racism and bigotry, as we saw congregating in Charlottesville last week, but for many more it has to do with their identification with a fanciful culture that no longer exists. More importantly they view this “culture” as forever in some kind of chivalrous opposition to the rest of the nation.

In most of the South this identification has stunted its moral growth, restricted its education, and undermined its welfare.  It has created an environment in which a cesspool of human constraints finds ground to fester (constraining voting rights, woman’s rights, African-American rights, Education, Environmental protection, religious and secular diversity, medical care, e.g.). It has harmed the Nation as a whole.

Frankly, I’m tired of the fookin’ Civil War and I’d like it to end. If moving all Civil War statues (South and North) out of public spaces would help…then it’s just fine with me, indeed.

Repeal and Replace

It seems every time the veil has been lifted, there is another underneath.

Ever since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act became law in March 2010, essentially every debate and action by lawmakers at both the Federal and State levels relating to that law has had nothing to do with health care in America. Whether it was attacking the law or defending it, it has only been a turf war, a pissing contest, Texas Hold‘em, or mud wrestling…nothing more. The goal quickly transcended from Health Care to political ascendancy.

The Law did, in fact, address the untenable state of health care in America, which was (and is) quite simply comprised of two issues; lack of access to health care (Patient Protection) and extreme cost (Affordable Care).  It successfully addressed only the former (lack of access) and was therefore seriously flawed. There is some irony that in short cutting the title of the act we were left with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), highlighting the part that was a failure. Who thought of that? What if all this time we had been calling it the Patient Protection Act?

Within eleven days of Republicans obtaining a majority in the House in 2011 they began passing legislation to eliminate in whole or in part the ACA. It would repeat itself dozens of times. This started even before the law began its implementation, which was scheduled to take years.  

They (Republicans) also changed the popular name of the bill to Obamacare, a successful renaming that was readily adopted by the Media and eventually by the Democrats as well. This was important and without precedent.  There is no Rooseveltcare (Social Security), Johnsoncare (Medicare), or even Romneycare prior to the 2012 election cycle. This new name for the ACA became its rallying cry for Republicans, Tea Party activists, and Conservatives in general, and it was entirely political. Health care played no role. The vast majority of individuals opposed to "Obamacare" have virtually no idea how it works.

Here it is important to point out (as I have pointed out several times before in Pennyfound) the nature of the health care law which Republican/Conservatives have been so opposed to.

The origin of Obamacare, without regard to its funding sources, was adopted almost word for word from a Republican Conservative proposal outlined in publications of the Heritage Foundation in the mid-1990s. With minor criticism from some Republicans it was generally well received by Conservatives as the proper answer to single payer proposals coming out of the Clinton Administration.  However, neither without the Presidency or the Senate, nor with any willingness on the part of a Gingrich led House to find funding, it withered on the vine.

It wasn’t until 2006 that Conservative governor Mitt Romney, with a bipartisan state legislature enacted the same law for Massachusetts.  It proved successful, at least on the “Patient Protection” side of the ledger. It was that test case that Obama and the Democrats decided to use, adding one important amendment: the inclusion of a Public Option. This would have given patients the ability to buy into a government insurance program if they didn’t find a better private insurance option available. But wait, Conservatives ask, does the Federal Government have such an insurance program? Ahh…yes, they are called Medicare, Medicaid, and Tricare, the biggest health insurance providers in the Nation.

Obama and the Democrats dropped that critical ball allowing the Public Option to be scratched and leaving the Republicans their ideal health care law: a law that (by necessity) forced all citizens to participate but still administered entirely by private (political donating) insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and medical providers. 

So why in heavens name have Republican Conservatives so vehemently opposed this law? It can be summed up in one word: Obamacare.

Republicans have used this law as a political football for 8 years. It was the reason for the name Obamacare. Smarted by the multiple failures of the Bush Administration and virtually despising Obama for his rapid ascendancy as a Liberally chosen black man, their only goal (as actually stated by Mitch McConnell) was to make Obama a one-term President. Making the ACA the boogieman and labeling it Obamacare fit the bill perfectly.  

As a result, Democrats and Obama himself dug themselves into a defensive position unable to admit their errors in the Law’s enactment and address the ACA’s serious flaws. Health care be damned.

If the media would ever lift up all the veils that have covered this issue they would see why the Republicans can find no way to successfully replace this law. It is actually a Republican law and what the Republicans are trying so desperately to do is to simply eliminate the name…they created. They do not want the name Obama lingering into the future and their reasoning is political.

Again I ask; if the name of this law was only the Patient Protection Act, would any of the circus we’re seeing be taking place?  I think not.

If the Republicans want to repeal and replace, they only need to repeal and replace the name. They’d have their law, the Democrats would have their foundation to push toward making it affordable, and no one would be calling it Trumpcare.

Maggie...Another Dog Story

It really began 28 years ago.  One late spring day I drove up to our home to be greeted by our 3 year old shouting with exuberance, “we gotta dog”.  Not what I was expecting.  The subject of a dog had surfaced from time to time. With three children under the age of 8, however, I thought a family dog was still an exercise in planning.

            As I approached the three of them in our front yard they proudly offered up as exhibit A what appeared to be a dead albino squirrel, minus the tail. I looked up only to see vet bills floating down from the sky. I didn’t consider sheer exhaustion, which was the pup’s only malady.

            She had already been named Molly, a pre-maturely weaned, all light-yellow Border collie mix. The runt of a shelter’s litter and last chosen.

            Dogs from the “working” breeds are noted for their intelligence, but not necessarily their demeanor.  Molly was an exception to the latter.  A smart dog, yes, but with a passive character that won over all those whom she chose to acknowledge.  She was the antithesis of aggressive. She could and would skillfully avoid nearly any dog that came near.

            She grew into a 40 pound fir ball and, understandably, became a much loved centerpiece in our family as we experienced the changes that occur as children morph from childhood to adolescence to teens to young adults.  She was a constant through all that, and as perfect as one might wish for in a dog.

            Just after she turned 12 she got sick.  There were several symptoms, but I mostly remember her inability to eat and her lethargy. I took her to the vet for exploratory surgery with the understanding that if they found the suspected cancer she would not be awakened. And so it went.

They gave her a transfusion to prep her for the surgery, which made her act like a young pup.  She was brought to me in an empty examination room for her to, once again, show her enthusiasm for affection.  She then pranced out on a lead. It was the last I saw of her.

            I was distraught, not able to edit from my memory our last encounter in which her soft expression said see you later. That was it for me. No more dogs for a long time…maybe decades. The kids were getting ready to leave the nest or already had. They could get their own dog(s), I determined.

            A mere six months had passed when I received a call at work from my wife, not from home but from the college town where my daughter attended school.  She and my daughter had conspired to replace Molly and were calling to get my buy-in on a rescue puppy they found. I said absolutely no.  Molly was not replaceable.  Maggie arrived four weeks later.

            Maggie was not Molly. Like Molly though, her heritage was also from the Working Breeds. Some Border Collie perhaps or Australian Shepherd, but I think closest to the lesser known English Shepherd. Unlike Molly she was explosive with energy, even at just ten weeks of age.

            She was tri-colored, which with all her puppy fluff gave her the visual appeal of a plush Gund.  Her eyes were a striking blue.  As she grew older she lost much of her white. The brown only remained near her paws. Her eyes slowly changed to a blue-gray. Nevertheless, with her black and spotted, semi-long coat and expressive eyes she was stunning.  For sixteen years she never lost her attractiveness.  Her nose remained jet black till the day she died, her mussel with only a hint of gray.  She received several “what a beautiful dog” comments even as she made her last visit to the Vet’s waiting room.

            As pretty as she was it wasn’t her most remarkable trait.

Initially I was not receptive to seeing what Maggie held in store for us. That attitude only enhanced what I was not used to. She was forceful by nature, in both play and conduct. Right from the beginning, if given the chance and a slightly open gate she would tear loose from the yard like a freed wild stallion.  And she was fast, very fast. She seemed in constant search for the herd she was never given.

            When leashed and confronted with essentially any other dog she showed a quick aggressiveness, a behavior that took me many years to understand. It was her instinct to protect whoever was holding the leash.  She could be underfoot, take her role as watchdog to a fault, and coat the house with endless tumble weeds of black fir. She was, especially in the early years, a handful. In later years she would have phobias which would confound us.

            Where she was remarkable, though, was her intelligence.  It was, to me, extraordinary.  Second to that was a devotion she afforded me which was virtually disarming.

            Her working vocabulary was enormous as was her recognition of my specific actions.  She learned each of the standard “dog tricks” within minutes.  She quickly learned what 3 rooms in the house she was allowed in, which she never violated until we softened on that rule during her last two years. Even as visiting dogs roamed everywhere she would dutifully stand at the thresholds.

One time when she thought she was alone, I caught her sneaking into the living room to look out the window. When she saw me standing looking at her, she slinked out and into the free zone of the family room, laying down facing the wall looking immersed in guilt. I never uttered a word.

            When it was time for her to eat we would tell her to “get your bowl” which she would eagerly do and hold it at the ready. If I was tardy she would get her bowl and drop it at my feet. If she sensed a possibility of getting a piece of whatever was cooking she would do the same, with astonishing accuracy that there was something to be had.

            She was a ravenous eater right up to the day she died (a distressing fact for me that day). Even so, she was completely passive if I, for some reason, moved her half full bowl away from her. If I placed her food in front of her she dived into as many dogs do, but if her food was waiting for her before she was let in, she would stop in front of her bowl, turn around and look at me and wait until I told her it was okay. Then she would start. It was an action I never taught her.

            Her intelligence made her, and thus my life, more predictable.

            She never stopped learning, the extent to which would likely be boring to anyone but me. Her port-o-san was a patch of ivy in the backyard which she never deferred from. At about age 14, with her hearing nearly gone, in just minutes she learned commands to a sports whistle and knew instantly what it meant when she saw it hung around my neck. That same year she had half her lower jaw removed due to a tumor. She soldiered through that handicap with virtually no adjustment period, although I felt her quality of life had been struck a blow…no more bowl, no more flying to catch a Frisbee, no more bone chewing, etc.

            At nearly 16 she dramatically slowed down. She started to retain fluids in her abdomen and an ultrasound showed a large, likely cancerous tumor on her liver.  Her abdomen was drained twice, but it could not be stopped and a toll was being taken. Her loyalty, which had always been fierce, was now reduced to her following me step for step anywhere I went around the house or yard. Yet when I sat she would not stay in the same room with me, as if to spare me her distress.

            We spent a painful, warm summer day waiting for the Vet to call to tell us he was on the way to our house to put Maggie to sleep. When he arrived she was calm and willing. We went out in her backyard under the shade of our large oaks. Finally resting from the sedative he gave her, she peacefully closed her eyes seconds after receiving the second drug.

            Maggie did not just work her way into my heart as Molly had done.  It seems more that she worked her way into the very fabric of my life.  For the most part she was less of a dog and more of an extension of what makes life meaningful.

In an age of horrific human distress around the world, devastating predictions of environmental changes, or pitiful social inequities, the story of a dog seems no more than the preverbal grain of sand…and that’s true. Still, every person’s life is filled with unwanted fears, none are exempt. Sometimes the daily cures we seek, the calming, thought-free predictabilities can be found sitting at our feet. 

Dinner With Vladimir

T – Sit down Mr. President… may I call you Vladimir? Don’t you love the chandeliers in this place…bright…really bright…could use a little more mood, if you know what I mean…let’s see…which one is the translator, oh...ok…did you get that right?

V – Yes, and you may call me Vladimir and I would be honored to call you Donald. Correct?

T – Absolutely, 100 percent, it’s like how I like to…if you frankly, I mean even leaders even in the past may have been unhappy, hostile and like that…we need to begin on the right foot and try to show the world…well…a better, you know, way.  I think you’ll agree.

V – Yes

T – Okay…okay, but let’s get this, you know…out of the way. By this I mean the whole Russia thing being investigated back in the US…I don’t think we need to discuss it…spend time you know.

V – I agree. It is best we announce that we both felt it too ridiculous to waste this important summit on.

T – Absolutely, why would we? Nothing there…without I mean…including the campaign…even with Flynn, General Flynn…right? Right?

V – Flynn? Hmm…Flynn? Oh yes, I forgot. He was the minister you fired? My memory comes and goes on such things. Right now I don’t remember too much. That’s what our wives are for…

T – …oh sure (chuckle).  By the way, you have a lovely wife Voomilia…

V – …that’s Lyudmilia and thank you. I have admired your opinion of women going back to 2013 when you brought the marvelous Miss Universe contest to Moscow. The impression you made on the contestants… well, their admiration was obvious.

T – It was just business…but hey, when you’re making money and putting on a show, no reason not to win at both…if you know what I mean. But let’s get something else off…I mean, we don’t need to spoil the food on the table with…you know, this election thing they said you did.

V – I thought we already decided…

T – …no, that was the witch hunt collusion thing… this other thing…the hacking thing. The whole liberal media and security people…FBI and…whatever…I mean they’re like some hot bitch on a leash.  The sanctions…you know…

V – Yes, I very much want to talk about the sanctions, but I think we can come to the same agreement that we both find such investigation a waste of time and resources. We need to emphasize that we are both focused on improving the economies of our nations and providing stability and peace throughout the world. All else is distraction by those forces that want to undermine that goal. I think your commentators call it “Deep State”.

T – Yes, I thought we’d, that we…this is the kind of cooperation that couldn’t have existed with Obama…

V – …no, not possible…

T – …and I’m glad to hear we can…you know…that this is the time to start making a difference in our lives…you know…all lives, not even our lives or not just our lives.  We have a saying in our Country “All Lives Matter”.  I thought of it, but then someone else printed it…that’s okay…it’s the idea. That’s what matters.

V – Yes Donald. Let me point out that you are much loved in my Country. How you won a massive victory even as critics around the world falsely predicted your failure…amazing.  I am not so proud or so without common sense not to want to take advantage of your story. I obviously cannot take advantage of you, but I can craft my own success by showing my people how I was able to cultivate your friendship.

T – I see.

V – If we could leave this meeting and announce that we were ending eight decades of hostility and forging a new future with new opportunities for those with the wisdom to use their skills and brands to build a new world. We could end the threat of nuclear war by joining our goals. Our generation is almost done, but our children’s names will continue to be beacons for years to come.

T – I see.

V – Yes, I’m sure you can see that hostile rhetoric and things like sanctions work against our common interest.  But if you feel you can’t take the risk…

T – …wait a minute Vladimir. Risk taking is what I do.  There is an old American phrase I have used since I was a small…since I was a young…it’s called “car-pee de-um”.  I mean…it means…win the day! Or take command of the day…you know what I mean. It is…the art of the deal. Believe me, we can both be successes…for everyone.

V – But how can you eliminate sanctions and return to us our estate properties with such a defiant, liberal Congress? It’s like trying to eliminate those nasty allegations about collusion...

T – Eliminate sanctions?  Estate properties?....Oh, yeah…I see. You forget Vladimir.  I’m President of the United States.  Amazing, yes? Massive electoral victory…nobody believed Pennsylvania or Wisconsin could go my way. Crooked Hillary, right? What a loser. I just need to sign my name and the sanctions are…poof...and the keys are in the front doors.  Now let’s open this bottle of the best wine you ever tasted, you won’t believe it…and look…check out the name on the label…

Truxit

Perhaps it is my own limited understanding of the British political system, or perhaps not appreciating the British mentality, but I have yet to comprehend why a non-binding referendum, which resulted in an essentially even split, couldn’t be revisited.  

It is generally accepted that pre-referendum polling gave the Brits a false sense of the outcome and, therefore, affected negatively the non-“Brexit” vote tally (sound familiar?).  Still, Parliament had to provide an official vote to carry out the supposed “will” of the people as reflected in the referendum. Nothing was etched in stone.

They (Parliament) chose to ignore the reality that more than half of their nation did not want to leave the EU. Likely it was significantly more.

They probably should have initially required something like a 60% margin to effect a “Brexit” from the EU instead of a simple majority vote.  Yet they weren’t bound by lack of foresight.  They could have started a second referendum effort. Now here they are, plowing ahead like lemmings trying desperately to get to the sea.

We in the USA are not as fortunate as the British when it comes to making bonehead mistakes on a national scale. The stability that our Constitution affords us by strict guidelines also hobbles the avenues of repairing those mistakes in a fashion that doesn’t require nationwide radical surgery.

As a Nation we need to step back to see what’s happening in America. Not back into the stratosphere to view ourselves like so many confused ant colonies. Just far enough not to be bogged down in the details of Donald Trump’s confounded presidency and the obvious efforts to find some way to get him out.

Donald Trump does have his supporters.  However, the number of them that fit his definition (those that would stand by him as he pulled out his Smith & Wesson and shot that Ohio tourist who was checking out the stores on 5^th Avenue) is not politically significant.  Bizarre…yes, but politically relevant…no.  Republican leaders don’t seem to understand that.

The significant majority of Americans either knows or senses that we, as the body politic of the most powerful nation on earth (both economically and militarily) made a colossal boo-boo. The reasons at this point are only valuable for the next Presidential election cycle. The question is what do we do now?

The complexity of that mistake is exacerbated by the rest of the Federal Government (primarily the Republican majority in power) vying to seek out their own self-interest under the circumstances, even if it conflicts with the obvious.  Communications in this digital age of the who and why is so voluminous and so saturated with bias that unless something extraordinarily clear is uncovered (i.e. indisputable crimes) the political class will likely resolve nothing.

Do not expect impeachment or a functioning Federal Government. Neither those who find advantage in Trump continuing in Office nor those who want him out will do anything more than to make us all float helplessly in muddy waters.

So what can we do?

Stepping back away from the minutiae, we need to begin our own Truxit. Given the restrictions of our Constitution, it will need to be a nearly four year effort done in two major steps. First, the neutralizing of Donald trump, like sour cream on a hot wing. And second, his removal from office, which will likely be his decision not to seek reelection, making him a lame duck President in two years.

This can be done simply by voting in Congressional Democrats, giving them the majority in both the House and Senate following the 2018 elections. Forget about the candidate…vote the Party.

No, my Conservative friends, the world will not come to an end. However, for the remainder of Trump’s Presidency we will have balance. The appetite for stability will win out over the binge consuming of confusion. The war over Conservative vs. Liberal can start all over again in 2020, but at least we will have some reason to believe it will be underwritten with competency.

 Truxit needs to be a clarion call for all but the blood thirsty 5^th Avenue spectators.  Let’s show the British what we can do.

Score Another for Putin

‘Why’ has continually been the unstated question.

The news coverage on the Russian intervention into the 2016 US Presidential election and its possible connections to the Trump campaign has blanketed the Nation for months and the end is nowhere in sight. However, acceptable reasons for the Russian intervention have been absent.

Rather than speculate on a purpose for the political “attack” by Russia, the reason for Russia’s foreign policy has been discounted as business as usual.  1960s logic such as Russia is our enemy, Putin is evil, or why wouldn’t they (?) answer nothing.

Also to suggest that Putin merely wanted to undermine Clinton’s expected Presidency understates the motives of an authoritarian government in power for seventeen years. A handicapped Clinton might have been solace, but no prize. Now Trump…he was a prize!

Putin (et al) did not decide to cyber attack the US election, nor infiltrate Trump and his inner circle to gain “assets” as part of some grand scheme to ultimately befriend the US. The sensibility of such an assumption within the context of 200 years of western history defies logic.

Even a chipmunk brain like Trump’s would eventually be forced to understand that, other than cooperation regarding nuclear weapons, the US has nothing to gain from building a relationship with a country that is top-down corrupt. Russia is tiny relative to the US (see Pennyfound: http://pennyfound.blogspot.com/2017/01/manchurian-candidate.html ).

Conversely, Russia has little to gain from the US. So what is Putin’s long-term objective?

Russia today is the product of unregulated capitalism injected into a totalitarian government. The net result has been the systematic extraction of limited wealth held by the people and government into the hands of a few (popularly known as the Russian Oligarchs). Since Putin’s election in 2000, they have succumbed to Putin’s KGB-style of governance.  By using raw fear (of violence, disenfranchisement, or both), Putin has forced the Russian Oligarchy to give up political power (and a few $billion for himself) in exchange for safety.

When Jared Kushner or the Trump boys interact with Russian billionaires (i.e. Russian Oligarchs without political power) they are effectively dealing with V. Putin. Trump (et.al.), dealing for years in the smoke filled backroom world of real estate finance and thinking he was running with the big Russian wolfhounds, has probably been, as stated by former CIA Director John Brennan, on a path to treason without even knowing it.  

Russia’s interests don’t lie with the US, they lie with Europe. Putin knows that further secure advancement of his Country and his own power (and wealth) is in Russia having control over Eastern Europe. The great anathema for him is an expanded European Union and NATO. His foreign policy to date makes no bones about his desires. Georgia and Ukraine (including the Crimea) are obvious first steps.

The United States has been a critical adhesive in European unity for more than 60 years. Without it the Soviet grip on Eastern Europe might not have been broken when it did.

Putin is smart enough to know (and Trump dumb enough not to know) that by weakening that relationship, he hopes to find that taking aggressive actions in Eastern Europe might be met by only token resistance.  Even just the threat of expansion could equate to economic leverage for Russia over European natural resource markets or in relieving sanctions.

Trump has presented himself as no fan of the Western European nations and now European leaders are openly distancing themselves from Trump’s America.  Putin is scoring points and Trump doesn’t even know he’s out on the court.

Even with a Trump Presidency (and before the conclusion of Russian investigations) these two actions could help turn things around:

• The US Congress should pass a joint resolution supporting the European Union on both economic and territorial grounds.
• The damned stupid Brits (like the damned stupid American electorate?) should have a second Brexit referendum (the first was non-binding) to confirm the first, even if they required a 60% majority to change course.

In the interim, Americans need to flip Congress in 2018. It is so important!

Fox & Fiends

If in trying to nail something down you keep hitting your fingers with the hammer it’s time to give it up.

I have been diligently watching Fox & Friends weekday mornings for three reasons; first, to get a different prospective on the previous day’s political events, second, because our President has publicly declared it to be his news source of choice, and, third, because a significant majority of self-defined “Conservatives” view it as true information.

I have to stop…my fingers are all swollen.

It isn’t simply that I disagree with most of the premises they base their reporting on. I do, but that’s precisely why I’ve been following Fox News. I have watched a variety of other Fox News programs as well.

I’ve been troubled why I am someone who always thought of himself as a centrist finding myself pushed further and further to the Left. So I assumed I was falling prey to confirmation bias and I thought an ample dose of Fox News would even things out…at least a bit.

Instead what I’ve discovered is that Fox News generally, and Fox & Friends specifically, completely distorts the news they cover.  They do this by grossly altering conclusions by careful editing.  Oh sure, you knew that already?  No, you only assumed it.

 I have determined the “gross” part of this undermining intention of Fox News by using my DVR to capture pieces of news (notably interviews and testimonies) compare them to other news sources and then compare those to online transcripts.

Fox News is a travesty and moral crime upon the American Public.  I am disgusted.  

Although competent news persons have been jumping the Fox ship with abandon, it hasn’t resulted in any change of course for the producers and directors of that news network. Nor has the obvious fiddling with either the truth or multiple scandals had any affect.  

The only pressure to bear should be on any remaining actual TV journalists (Wallace, Baier, Smith e.g.), who could more effectively deliver a Conservative view not buried in bullshit if they joined those who have already left. Of course, that would require they place integrity on equal footing with money.

I have to assume that Rupert Murdock and company continue to allow the manipulation of reality because it is so tied up in the ratings (and associated dollars). They appear to have a monopoly on self-interested, ignorant (by choice) white Americans. It is just so sad and appalling that such a large sub-set of this Nation can be so easily exploited as to let this happen.

Other cable news sources (MSNBC, CNN e.g.) are not innocent of bias or intent. But nothing compares even remotely with Fox News. There should be a picket line at their studios on the Ave of the Americas 12 hours a day, 7 days a week…to replicate a funeral dirge for the death of American truth.

Impeach: Not a Low Hanging Fruit

The “friends” down at Fox Cable News have had a point. It does happen.

They have implied or inferred directly that the rest of US news media has been in the midst of a feeding frenzy. Pieces of Donald Trump are being carved off (mostly by Trump himself) and being tossed in the water. The desire for more and bigger chunks of the Donald have become so compelling that judgment is becoming warped.

 This is even true of journalists with laudable reputations for objectivity. Those who see Trump’s clumsy attempts at governing as de facto proof of his scurrilous nature became apoplectic as a result of recent events, beginning with the Comey firing.

Take the constant use of the crime Obstruction of Justice. It has been used to describe Trump’s firing of Comey, an action he took which itself violates no law. It is the intent to stop the Russian investigation, they say, that satisfies the scrutiny of Trump, and his intent was just so blatant…maybe too blatant.  

Trump literally admitted it in a TV interview, had his Deputy Press Secretary proclaim it, requested it of the Director of the FBI (on multiple occasions), and bragged about it to the minister of a hostile foreign nation. Can the red meat get any juicier for the frenzied sharks below?

It is fools flesh for the predators. They might as well be chomping into old tires.

It will not be hard for Trump (and his more grounded advisors) to argue that he fired Comey precisely because he wanted a more thorough investigation of the Russians and the exoneration of the Trump presidential campaign. The truth need not apply. Conjecture is just that.

Without physical proof of intent the Republicans will never move a finger toward impeachment for fear of alienating themselves from the Trump faithful.  It has always been reasonably argued that Nixon would never have had to resign or face impeachment if the tapes had not existed.

It won’t matter if Trump continues to trash good people, let slip National secrets, or any other bone-headed actions. As long as he can move a pen across a piece of paper he will remain GOP strong, or so Republican leaders think. But that’s the real danger.

Donald Trump is the Chevy Vega of politicians.  It didn’t matter that the Vega, introduced in 1970, had a host of bad technical reviews, blew rings like popcorn from its ill-conceived aluminum engine, and virtually rusted on the showroom floor.  It was successfully marketed as the answer to a gas starved nation.  Like Trump, what the Vega buyers got should have been a surprise to none of them. The Vega lasted eight years (1970-1977) before the Nation finally figured it out.

We can’t wait eight years, or even four to address the problem.

It is possible that the complexities of Trump’s business world, with all the illicit transactions common among people of Trump’s breed, will surface and have him undone. However, the transactions by themselves would take years to confirm his participation in illegal activity.  You would need people to turn on him and testify. Possible, but again it is no low hanging fruit.

The best approach is to begin to speak to the obvious. Trump’s mental capacity to govern needs to part of the public debate (see this blog at http://pennyfound.blogspot.com/2017/05/underneath-cracks.html ).  If he continues to decline, evidenced by paranoid behavior, increasingly erratic communications, and further isolation then pressing Mike Pence, his chief of staff, and Congress to take action under Article 25 Section 4 of the Constitution is in order.

The next best result is to install a Democrat majority in both the House and the Senate in 2018 to neutralize the Executive Branch, which is about to snap in the unsuppressed wind that is Donald Trump.

Even the owners of Chevy Vegas got rid of them when they became obviously unsafe to drive. The Constitutionally empowered leaders of this Nation should do no less.

Underneath the Cracks

Donald Trump is ill.  This blog and a few other sites have argued that the diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder from a distance, a practice effectively banned after the 1964 Presidential election, needs to be constructively reconsidered.  What we are seeing evolve before our eyes is the progression of a high profiled individual with a Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) descending into a state of paranoia.

Running for a political office may top a list of ideal pursuits for someone with a NPD, however performing in that office, especially as a President, may be the worst possible position for someone with a NPD to hold.

It is both terrifying and sad simultaneously, but in no case should sympathy for the victim (Trump) be the primary response.  Nor should expressing diagnosis be restricted. This is the President of the United States and protection of the Office (dare I say it) trumps everything else, including the President himself.

There is no point in recounting the events that began Tuesday (May 9th) as jaw dropping news is surfacing so fast that the news media is having difficulty catching its breath. Watching it is like watching a pinball in action, you barely have time to consider a bell or buzz or light before the ball streaks across the table to set off another. Certainly you have no ability to look up and assess the score.

It is worth considering what to expect next in order to be prepared to formulate a reaction and reduce the shock.

As predicted in this blog, the Trump Presidency was destined to be opaque, logically one of the most opaque in history. Of course, that could be true of anyone who fashions himself an authoritarian leader (even in a democracy). However, Trump’s NPD exacerbates his need to continually isolate himself from opinion that contradicts his personal “reality”.

He cannot accept responsibility for anything that doesn’t exact a laudatory response. Further, he cannot express his opinion or observations in any way that doesn’t include superlatives or hyperbole. 

It isn’t just quirky behavior why Trump persistently adds adjectives such as the most, the greatest ever, and unbelievable (among many others) to describe even the most mundane of aspects of life (chocolate cake e.g.). He is expressing his “unique” ability to know more than the receiver of that information.

That same behavior accounts for the knee jerk responses he makes without any consideration of the consequences.  It isn’t that he doesn’t believe there are consequences; it is simply that because his opinion is flawless (to him) then the events that result from his words or actions are also without flaw. Any contradictory responses from any source (internal or external) are, in his world, wrong or even corrupt…big league. Think crowd size, Jersey City Muslims, or wire tapping.

This is not a choice for him, nor is it some contrived scheme on his part. In fact, it could be argued that he’s not lying, which implies intent. The man has a NPD, and it explains everything.  It also provides a clear window to view the oncoming storm.

The high visibility and high content nature of the American Presidency will become debilitating for The Donald. Out of necessity he will need to isolate himself from the Press (i.e. the American people), and his circle of insiders will continue to shrink.  It isn’t loyalty he seeks (needs), it’s receipt of positive affect, which he’ll happily take from anyone, friend and foe alike.

As he cannot mentally incorporate his own fallibility into the whirlwind which is his Administration, he will become more sullen and more erratic in his communications (as if you thought that possible).

It will consume the running of the Federal Government. The Republicans may have had a sigh of relief that the newly appointed Special Counsel is proceeding as a criminal investigation. That will take much (if not all) of evolving events out of the public arena, but no matter. Trump will continue to spiral toward characteristics associated with paranoia and the spectacle will continue.

I am disturbed by the media, the events as they are presented, and their lack of cojones to address Trump’s mental capacity.  It’s as if the news persons of America are watching a tornado passing but only reporting the various objects they see twisting in the air: …we are now seeing a Chevy Camero missing its side view mirror, there’s a cow looking unfed, there’s a loblolly pine losing its bark, there’s a Kenmore fridge with food spilling out, and so forth.  We really never hear about the damned cyclone, and, astonishingly, they’re constantly surprised with each new object they see.

A Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a real and relatively rare mental condition.  It resides at the end of a spectrum of narcissistic behavior in which all individuals are on. Donald Trump may be removed from Office by impeachment and Senate conviction as a result of his confounded incompetence and his financial complexities, but that would take a painfully long time to accomplish.

The proper place to remove Trump from office is Article 25 section 4 of the Constitution to create the least anxiety upon the Nation. However, that cannot happen until the nature of Trump’s mental condition merits open discussion.