I Probably Wouldn't Be Here

In April 1922 my grandmother traveled from Bremerhaven, Germany to New York City. She was sponsored by a great aunt or cousin, I’m not quite sure, and likely arrived by visa. She was single and also about five months pregnant. In August of that year my mother was born in New Haven, Connecticut.

By the end of that year my grandfather immigrated to the United States, possibly illegally, and caught up with my grandmother. They married without much ceremony and continued to live in Connecticut for the next six years. During that time my Uncle Walter was born. Then about 1928 the entire family moved back to Bremerhaven. Their reason for returning to Germany is unclear, but my grandfather’s immigration status may have been a factor.

Germany in the 1930s was a boiling political stew. Although a world-wide depression was in progress, the German experience was notably different. Where much of the world, especially the United States, had lived in a fabricated prosperity during the 1920s, the German people had spent most of the 20s in economic desolation, for a variety of reasons. As Hitler rose to power through lies, Nationalism, violence, and theatrics, Germans rallied to the perceived stability he symbolized. Exclusivity of the Aryan race, with the associated use of antisemitism, racism, and eugenics became foundational.

In 1935 the new Nazi controlled German Government quietly instituted what was called Lebensborn, roughly translated as “fount of life”. Although presented to the German people as a socially philosophical position by the Government, it soon became evident to Germans that there was an active policy at work. Young women of Aryan decent were essentially being rounded up to live in permanent camps where German men, usually army officers, would visit. The purpose was to create children of pure Aryan decent who could be raised as national leaders. This continued through the decade and into the next.

My mother was then about 14 and my grandmother was not emotionally blinded to the policy. When my mother turned 17 my grandparents found the resources to ship her off to the United States, even though in 1939 restrictions for such were quite difficult. They could so for one reason alone, my mother was a US citizen.

Today Donald Trump, in an effort to woo his Conservative supporters, has decided to attack the US Constitutional right of citizenship to anyone born in this country. Make no mistake about it, the assault on this right has more to do with the sense of exclusivity that we can associate with the dark periods of human social development than it does with any abuse of economic benefits.

Created in 1868 and ratified by the 14^th Amendment to our Constitution, it assured that all Americans, especially those born into slavery, would be guaranteed the same rights as any other American citizen. It elevated to the level of constitutional law an equality that had been left out of the original constitution as an appeasement to the Southern Colonies. It reduced ambiguity as to who was a citizen and who was not, which was likely the primary driver for the ratification. However, there were other unforeseen benefits that evolved over time.

The United States has been a magnet for individuals who viewed living in a land that symbolizes freedom and the pursuit of prosperity as more important than the fear of uprooting their lives. The knowledge that their children would not have to face that fear had to be liberating. As a country the benefits brought by those inspired individuals have been incalculable. How every politician or other successful American you listen to loves to display their immigrant roots is de facto proof of that very benefit.

Now, if my mother had not been allowed to return to the United States, staying in Germany and surviving the war, and didn’t meet my father in New York City in 1944, it is only a philosophical (or perhaps theological) question whether I, my children, or grandchildren would be in existence today or not. Regardless, we certainly wouldn’t be Americans.

I don’t portend that my contribution to this society has been a critical addition. However, I feel myself part of a larger iceberg of citizenry that supports a peak that rises above the surface of troubled waters that cover the earth. I also have every reason to think my children and grandchildren will be the same if not actually lead others in sustaining the values that have made this Nation unique. My mother’s journey was consequential.

The Trumpian-Conservative-Republican desire to eliminate birth right citizenship is another attempt to contract the nation into hate and nationalistic exclusivity. Lebensborn was logically consistent with a German effort to do exactly the same thing. Sure there will be women who will view the ability to confer American citizenship for their children in a way that labels them as “birth tourists”.  However, I believe this Nation can survive the few children that, as a result, will have an opportunity to travel to this Country as citizens and who will view that journey as one of opportunity.

There is no reason to scuttle, by use of fear for political purpose, a Constitutional law that gives back far, far more than it gives away.

A Rolling Holocaust

This week I visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for the first time. That’s a humbling admission considering it was completed nearly 26 years ago. Although my visits to DC are rare, I remember in the early years I was thwarted by its popularity, which didn’t allow for walk-in visits. I’m glad I went, belated though it was, and for reasons I wasn’t expecting.

It is a daunting exhibit with much more to see (and especially read) than can be accomplished during the length of a normal museum visit. For someone with limited historical perspective I would think it would be shocking to absorb the enormity of the inhumanity that occurred during the 1940s. However, I consider myself reasonably versed in the history of that period and there was not much I encountered that I would consider new.

That is not to say that deeper emotions, regardless of intellect, wouldn’t surface. For example, the display of victim’s actual shoes given to the museum, thousands of shoes, was certainly a moment that took me to a place of profound discomfort and reflection.

Considering that most all of what I read and observed was already part of my knowledge base including the social cruelty and political brutality which ran as an undercurrent beneath the military events of the period, I was personally curious what my takeaway would be. Would I have an insight I didn’t have before I entered the museum?  I believe I did.

What I hadn’t appreciated before was the enormous complexity of it all. Most abbreviated histories that a majority of Americans are exposed to center around the rise of Hitler and a relatively small cadre of men that surrounded him and how they manipulated individuals, both learned and simple, to support them in their quest for power and military conquest.

They are the ones credited with spearheading the mostly crude but sometimes mechanical ethnic cleansing of millions of innocent, mostly Jews, as a means to an end (power), not as part of some depraved philosophical ethic.

Leaving the museum I gained an intuitive understanding that it wasn’t that simple.

Hitler and his close followers were like an autoimmune disease. They were created in an environment which made it possible for them to make ordinary people turn on accepted social values like a body’s immune system turning on itself. That environment was of fiscal deprivation, fear associated with uncertainty, and a clinging to exclusivity for moral support, all of which were prevalent in the 1930s.

Hitler may have set a tone and initiated policy, but the 1940s Holocaust was just as equally caused by millions of small decisions and actions made all over Europe, including the intentional failure of actions not taken around the world.

The real shocker for me was the obvious realization that the ingredients which made the Holocaust possible are just as real today and never more prevalent as they have been over the past 3 years.

Politics and social behavior in this America is no longer about policy. It’s not even about money, since the concept of national debt has become irrelevant. It has become tribal and socially segregating.

If you’ve watched a Trump “rally” (and you should) you can see that it is an endless attack on the personal characteristics of his perceive opponents, peppered with aggrandizing his mythical successes. He is unlocking inhibited behavior and satisfying his supporters need for inclusion and safety, no different than eugenics gave solace to wanton discrimination.

What is a nation that says “America first” and proceeds to define that America as a place that “valiantly stops invasions” of ethnic diversity. What is a nation that says “America first” then calls out any source of information that doesn’t actively support the President as “fake”. What is a nation that says “America first” and creates an entire party of leaders that defend corruption and bizarre conspiracies to maintain power.  To use endless fear as the engine for making “America first” is the same secret sauce that made the Holocaust possible.

In a way I wish colloquial use of the term “Holocaust” had not become a noun. Although it communicates inhumanity to a scale that in the modern world has no equal, I would have preferred that it was a verb. The abhorrent behavior of leaders made acceptable and adoptable over time is a rolling form of holocaust, so complex in nature that, undeterred, may rival history for its depravity and number of victims.

All things being equal, we may be only one financial catastrophe away from something even worse.   

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

Up before 6am on a Saturday morning, I turned on the kitchen TV during the waning period of infomercials that fill after midnight broadcast programming.

On the screen was a familiar face.  It was Mike Murdock (he refers to himself as “Dr” Mike Murdock although he dropped out in his second year at Southwestern Assemblies of God University – daunting academia for sure). He has been a long time televangelist and general purveyor in the God business.

He spent the majority of his air time that morning, as usual, preaching (but sounded more like demanding)  that his faithful listeners send him a measly $1000 “seed” donation, which will be returned to them a hundred fold (or more) in some financial or quasi-financial form. Not a bad deal…for Mike.

He shamelessly warns that if they keep the $1000 which they may have saved up for a vacation, medical care, or debt repayment...that’s all they’ll ever have. He points out that he doesn’t keep a debt balance on his credit card, but other people have told him they have paid their $1000 “seed” with credit card debt to ample reward. “I didn’t say that,” he discloses, “they did”.  

His tax supported flimflam is part of the substantial (and wretchedly ugly) tip of a colossal iceberg that is (to use an old but currently in vogue Latin phrase) a quid pro quo. Believe in me, have faith in me (send me your “seed”) and you will receive eternal life (no fear of death), and maybe even riches in this life.

The fact that the majority of funds sent to Murdock and an army of similar vendors goes to support their lavish lifestyles, unconstrained behavior, and fund their ego laden projects has never dissuaded the faithful. That is because the faithful simply don’t think of it as a quid pro quo, they only feel it.  

Now in our politically divided Nation this same dynamic is being played out, not just for the accumulation of wealth but also for the securing of power. Watching the progression of efforts to impeach and remove Donald Trump from office has become a contest of reality vs. belief, of reason vs. emotion.

The real trial is not being played out in Congress. The real hearing can be found with Fox News and Talk Radio on one side and the rest of the news media (CNN, MSNBC, BBC, PBS, ABC, CBS, NBC etc) on the other.

If you consider reason and reality in this drama you can become painfully bewildered as to why anyone would condone the behavior of Donald Trump. This episode with Ukraine is the only the one in which he got caught red handed. There are obviously numerous others, some even out in the open. Like the way he maneuvers public assets and influence to benefit himself financially or with his un-American (if not treasonous) relationship with Putin (a pariah in the global community). They will all come to light…someday.

Jonathan Turley (expert witness for the Republicans during the Judicial Committee hearing) only argued that the Democrats had not “proven” their case. He was never asked “if a Congressman believes what Trump is accused of beyond a reasonable doubt should he not vote for impeachment”? He would have had no choice but to answer “yes”. He would have undoubtedly followed with the question of what is reasonable doubt.

Republican Congressmen, the producers at Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and the rest know the truth, but to them it is meaningless in the infomercial of the politics they sell. It is all about the quid pro quo they're transacting with 30% of the American population. It’s “listen to me, vote for me, believe in me and I will keep you safe from those others who want to take away everything you hold dear…don’t think about it, just feel it”.

They know they can sell a “reasonable doubt” as any doubt at all, no matter how ridiculous. Broadly applied no one could be convicted of any crime in this country. However this "reasonable doubt" is narrowly targeted.

Rush Limbaugh was a college drop-out and a failed disc jockey without a buck to spare. Since then he has only been a hard right-wing radio talk show personality. Yet now his current net worth is estimated at about $600 million and his current annual income at $84 million. Mike Murdock…eat your heart out! You're in the minor leagues. 

Where Have You Gone, Walter Cronkite?

In 1987 President Reagan ordered his FCC chairman to cancel the Fairness Doctrine, a 38 year old doctrine that required news related mass media to broadcast both sides of any issue of controversy in order to be licensed. This was created in 1949 (and later validated by the Supreme Court) from a post-WWII understanding how truth and knowledge became manipulated and twisted in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. A Democratic Congress passed a law to make the Fairness Doctrine permanent, but Reagan vetoed it.

            Less than a year later in 1988, Rush Limbaugh, a college drop-out and failed radio deejay (now one of the richest men in the world), began his Conservative political radio program, as did others. They had free reign to say or present whatever they wanted, fact or fiction-no matter. It was all about getting listeners and selling advertising.

            Since then there has been a relentless 30 year attack and demonizing of Liberalism and Liberals (Mark Levin prefers to call them “statists”) and then turning around and placing anyone or any organization that questions post-Reagan Conservative policy as being entrenched in that demonic category. It has become the mythical "Deep State" that hangs like a dark cloud in minds of their listeners.

            “Liberals hate America, Liberals hate Christianity, Liberals hate their neighbors, Liberals want to take away all your money and give it to people who refuse to work, Liberals have no morals, and they have no values. Liberals will take away your guns (and cut off your index fingers), and Liberals kill babies. Liberals love Government, as close to Communism as it can get. Everything a Liberal says is a lie”.

            Picked up by Rupert Murdoch (the Emperor of Sensationalism) and Fox News, there is now possibly a 35% segment of our Nation that watches and listens to nothing but fear mongering tirades, then listens to Republican politicians (who secretly love Government) echo back the same rhetoric to keep their support. Now they have a President who personifies the opposite of knowledge and decency and they can see nothing wrong in it.

            What happened to the strong counter-balance the Republican Party and Conservatism brought to this Nation? Where is the call for fiscal responsibility? They mock dollars for social planning while running trillion dollar deficits. Where is the call for strength in foreign affairs? They yawn while foreign adversaries attack our institutions and we tragically abandon our allies. Where is the call for family values and decency? They cheer their leaders who traffic in foul language and personal denigration.

            Now it’s all about who you’re not. Rush Limbaugh makes nearly a hundred million dollars a year selling hate and fear and President Trump wants every one of his listeners to ignore the “fake” news that says otherwise. That fake news which just happens to be all the news there was before 1987. Where have you gone, Walter Cronkite? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

Hiding Underneath the Sheets

Fox News and Conservative Talk Radio have spent some focus on a recent filmed podcast which included an interview with Susan Rice. The segment they broadcast (Fox & Friends repeated it five times in secession) showed Susan Rice calling Lindsey Graham “A piece of S**T” (they beeped out the word). She was actually repeating back what the interviewer said, but clearly she embraced the analogy.

As a matter of literary merit, I like to avoid writing profanity (or what used to be considered profanity) in my blog. So let’s just call Lindsey Graham a “piece of sheet”.

Following Lindsey Graham over the past 3 years has become as convoluted as following Trump, and following Trump is like watching a Roomba vacuum cleaner at work. Only in Trump’s case the Roomba deposits grime on the floor instead of picking it up.

Lindsey Graham is a piece of sheet and as such has become the darling of Conservative media (which is pretty much just the Fox Network and Conservative Talk Radio). His media outlets are in contrast with all other media which both Graham and Trump categorically label as “fake”. The question is: has he always been a sheet and, if not, why has he become one now?

Given his stand on social issues, typically and stalwartly Conservative, he is an odd duck. His apparent and virtual lack of family and social life has long fueled speculation that he is a closeted gay, which either conflicts with or explains his outspoken “defense of marriage” position. At the very least he is a monk by Washington standards. However, his career path has complimented his Conservative credentials with a long record in the military JAG corps (SC National Guard), three terms in the House, and on this third term in the Senate.

He is comfortable being outspoken in Congress, enjoys (and seeks) media coverage of himself, and looks for occasions to be bombastic. Contrast his input in the last Kavanaugh hearing to everyone else, Democrat or Republican. Still, he was noted for following the lead of someone he claimed to befriend, John McCain. In doing so he held to his favorite positions on hawkish foreign affairs while still working compromises with those more liberal. He had enjoyed a reasonable reputation of integrity, even with those who adamantly disagreed with him.

Then came Donald.

When Trump entered the Republican camp as a truly possible contender to lead the Party there was no mistake in how Graham viewed that possibility. With Trump leading the Presidential race and Graham essentially out of the running, Graham stated on camera that Trump was “…a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot, he doesn’t represent my (Republican) party. I don’t think he has a clue about anything…he is empowering radical Islam. You know how to make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell. I’d rather lose (the Presidency) without Donald Trump than try to win with him.”

No ambiguity there.

Since Trump was inaugurated, however, Lindsey easily managed to climb Pennsylvania Avenue and prostrate himself at the feet of the Buddha. His defense of Trump has become shocking in it veracity, even as most of his Republican colleagues grit their teeth and numb their tongues with the daily Trump SNAFUs . Forest Gump’s famous line “stupid is as stupid does” appears to have no meaning for Graham who seems more than willing to back Trump up with bellicose enthusiasm regardless of underlying idiocy.

Please don’t get me wrong. Lindsey Graham is not alone. There is a cadre of Republican sheets on Capitol Hill who are more than willing to vocally support Trump with the clear goal of protecting their Party over the Nation’s interests. The proof is in their ever increasing suspension of reality. They are like the parents of a wayward criminal (adult) child, who they feel with each crime or assault just needs more love and support. The virtual absence of any critical assessment of this ignorant, out of control, narcissistic President is prima facie evidence.

But Lindsey is special. Given his 180 degree about face from reality to reality TV, he is neither a full size nor queen size. Rather he has become the king size sheet in trying to cover the corrupt and corroded body we know as the Trump Administration. Why? Frankly, I don’t know. Party? Ego? To echo Trump’s oft used rejoinder: “Who knows?” Maybe the better question is whether next year the people of South Carolina will care or not.

I think there is one thing we can feel comfortable in knowing. Lindsey Graham would rather be a sheet than emulate the likes of John McCain, who would not have served Party, himself, and Country…in that order.

Corruption In Plain Sight?

The equity markets, better known as the stock markets, have been touted by Trump and his minions as evidence of his impact on the American Economy. Just looking at what has happened tells a very different story.

If you follow the time after the G.W. Bush Administration, using the S&P 500 as the index, you’ll see that during the Obama years the equity markets increased just under 300%. During the first year of the Trump Administration, before Trump had attempted any influence on…well…just about anything (but especially the economy) the equity markets advanced another 26%. Then the big Republican brainstorm, the tax cut for large corporations and the wealthy, kicked in. What’s happened since then?

(Note: The following calculations are all my own; I did not pick them up from any site - left, right, or center. They’re in plain view for anyone with a grasp of arithmetic to see.)

If you had $100,000 invested in an indexed stock fund on January 26, 2018 and held it, it would be worth $99,233 today. That would be the result of Trump and his Republican Congress performing 20 months of their “economic magic”. It would likely be the case for an ordinary worker with a 401K who contributes to his account to accomplish long term goals, like retirement.

The fact is that whatever they had left in equity investments in 2009 was (after the devastation that took place during the Bush Administration) salvaged and recovered by an economy overseen by the Obama Administration (which really includes the first year of Trump’s Presidency). Since that time, beginning with 2018, the American equity markets (as shown above) have been essentially flat - no growth for the long term investor. However, the equity markets themselves over that period look like a patient going in and out of cardiac arrest.

Maybe somebody can, but I can’t find a year and a half period with the same degree of volatility. It’s hard to see how anyone benefits from this instability…or is it?

The dramatic swings in the equity markets have all been either directly or indirectly the result of pronouncements or actions made by Donald Trump. It would be ridiculous to suggest that Trump and his confidants are not aware of this. Given his ego, he surely revels in the impact a couple of his tweets can have on the American economy or even the world economy. His psychological abnormality is a clear and present danger to us all.

Yet, is Trump’s overfed ego the only winner in these displays of erratic behavior…quite possibly not.

Wealthy individuals with the cash, the investment tools, and (most importantly) some sense or knowledge about Trump’s queer pronouncements might see their investments during this last 20 month period look considerably different than the average American who hasn’t earned a penny (or even lost money) over the same period.

If an investor had $1,000,000 on that same January 26, 2018 in a indexed S&P 500 exchange traded fund, sold out and bought short positions at the top of the market (meaning they’re betting the fund would drop in value), then “sold” short at the bottom and bought back into the same fund, and did that over and over each time Trump snorted or passed wind, their investment would be worth $4,503,500 today.

That estimate is just on an indexed fund. Targeted investments in the even more volatile Dow or NASDAQ stocks could increase that return exponentially.

Normally investors don’t know the top and bottom of stock markets, and timing purchases and sales to correspond to the market’s highs and lows has been considered a gambler’s folly. However, when these investments react predictably to the uttering of an empowered fool, then it becomes reasonable to consider that knowing what this fool is going to utter next has real value.

 The reality is that the only thing predictable about Donald Trump is his unpredictability. He has literally said that and takes pride in that fact.  To think that savvy people (including Trump himself) see that the most advantageous route between two points is a crooked road is not hard to consider.  When it comes to money and sex, what is right out in plain sight is usually correct.

Let's Spell It Out...Again

I believe this is the fourth or fifth time I have written on this topic since 2016, at least so often I don’t even care to go back to find out.

Let’s just start out with a definition. This one is from Psychology Today, but if you research multiple sources you will find little variation:

Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD):  Hallmark characteristics are grandiosity, a lack of empathy for other people, and a need for admiration. People with this condition are frequently described as arrogant, self-centered, manipulative, and demanding. They may also have grandiose fantasies and may be convinced that they deserve special treatment. People with NPD often try to associate with other people they believe are unique or gifted in some way, which can enhance their own self-esteem. They tend to seek excessive admiration and attention and have difficulty tolerating criticism or defeat.

I find constant frustration that the medical community in the United States and the news media are so reluctant to publicly address that the President of the United States suffers from this malady. I am frustrated because this disorder of an individual in his position literally puts the entire World at risk.

To say that Donald Trump puts the World at risk would be ignored by many and discounted as hyperbole by many others. But what if it’s not hyperbole? Then it becomes a guessing game as to what level of risk we face, and that uncertainty deserves acknowledgement.

Narcissism is a human trait, everyone falls on the spectrum. Subjectivity is not an option in the human condition. However, NPD is something else, and it is not particularly common. It is a label for those who fall so high on that spectrum that it involuntarily governs their behavior, i.e. it becomes a disorder. In observing Donald Trump it explains just about everything.

His bazaar pronouncements (which his opponents categorize as lies, already in the tens of thousands), his delusions (think crowd or brain size), his total lack of empathy (especially notable when criticizing an individual’s personal or physical characteristics), his virtual inability to admit error, and his endless self-aggrandizing make diagnosing Trump as a sufferer of this disorder a no brainer.

Yet, this discussion cannot seem to rise above whispers.

I say sufferer, because the anxieties caused by this disorder are real and profound. The primary anxiety is fear, which can often manifest itself as anger and/or paranoia. I know this because my mother had a NPD, and in the later stages she found herself blaming both specific and mythical individuals for actions she could not accept as her own. Her pain was palpable. Not only is this disorder disabling, it is nearly impossible to treat since the sufferer will refuse to submit to treatment because to do so would be antithetical to their understanding of themselves.

A psychologist friend of mine pointed out that the only people they got to treat were those affected by a person who had the disorder. I would love to know how many of Trump’s family are currently under the care of a psychiatric physician. You can be assured that Donald Trump is not.

Moscow Mitch and the Republican Party generally are at least intuitively aware of Trump’s disorder and have manipulated him to their ends enough to justify ignoring his behavior. However, that does not explain why Democrats choose to embrace an explanation of Trump’s NPD as simply bad conduct. They too, I assume, are just politicizing away the risk in calculating their own self-interest.

This disorder of the President is not just a byline, to provide chuckles as he drives his golf cart over the greens. He is setting precedent by making his behavior appear as an aggressive choice, a choice other Americans can choose to emulate, as it’s obvious many do.

His systematic gutting of the Executive Branch of government by replacing disenchanted competency with incompetency, or just not filling jobs at all, has a ripple affect over the entire Nation. His obsession with Obama, as a foil for his own greatness, has made him arbitrarily dismantle good and popular public policy. He is fouling international relationships, both political and economic, so profoundly that it may take decades to repair, and his Constitutional ability to engage this Country in cataclysmic international confrontation should rob sleep across the planet.

His apparent need to enhance his self-esteem by gravitating toward authoritarian leaders may be a catalyst for negatively impacting international freedom.

Donald Trump is a clear and present danger, but that can only be seen if we understand and expose that he has no choice over his behavior. In my mother it made for times that were uncomfortable and often sad. In the President of the United States it impacts and can unravel the very fabric of this Nation.

It can’t be dealt with if everyone considers that tomorrow he may be different or that he will suddenly see the light.

Understanding that Trump has this disorder goes beyond discussions of his removal from office, which would be difficult. However, not removing him as President is no reason not to publicly identify the problem. I feel it is critically important for the people of the Nation to know (in Trump’s own words) “what the hell is going on”. Perhaps healing could start before January of 2021.

What I Want to Hear on Gun Violence

I don’t believe any of the Democratic candidates for President get it. Trump, who views virtually everything from a position of self-interest, couldn’t understand the issues related to gun violence in American under any circumstance. As far as I’m concerned even the progressive pundits can’t articulate an understanding, and the sooo “compassionate” Christian Conservatives don’t really give a damn.

If what happened at Sandy Hook wasn’t enough to bring this large, highly diverse nation together it should be no surprise that over two thousand mass shootings have occurred since that horrendous event. (https://www.vox.com/a/mass-shootings-america-sandy-hook-gun-violence)

Personally, I am tired of Trump Republicans and Conservatives as a whole sympathetically embracing the NRA’s view that gun violence has everything to do with the shooter and nothing to do with the weapon. However, I’m equally frustrated with Progressive Liberals who react to each mass killing with the call for political changes so “this will never happen again”.

Given that this issue will certainly come up in the next Democrat Debate, here is the two minute response I want to hear from at least one of the candidates:

America, the rhetoric being fed to you does not address the reality of gun violence in America nor does it provide even the semblance of a solution.

Our Country is unique in the world regarding guns. We have created a normalcy that certain individuals look to gun violence as a means to solve their anxieties, fears, and delusions. They may represent only the tip of an anti-social iceberg, built by the kind of hatred articulated by someone like Donald Trump, but in a nation of 330 million that puts hundreds or perhaps thousands on unstable paths to arbitrarily murder and maim.

Here’s the reality America: these mass shooting are going to happen again, and again, and again, and again, and again…and again. They are going to keep happening until the people of this Nation collectively begin to communicate to their children and grandchildren that solving their individual problems with a gun (which includes suicide) is unthinkable.

This is not done by endlessly displaying the misery caused by each killing. It is by the Nation rising up and embracing legislation which says to these children that we as a nation do not accept behavior that uses guns as a means to an end.  It is done by creating a moral imperative.

 In a democracy laws are nothing more than socially acceptable ethics. It’s what laws do…it’s what they’ve always done. We do it with automobiles, we should be able to do it with guns.

What can be done? Identity checks, size of magazines, elimination of assault weapons, strong regulation of handguns,  gun buybacks, increased regulation of non-military weapon manufacturers, defense of gun-free zones, gun registration and large financial penalties for violations, and large financial penalties for unregulated sales, to name a few…none of which would keep any ordinary citizen from owning a gun. 

With 300 million guns already loose in America, it isn’t the elimination of these weapons that will create change, it’s how our children view them.

If we started today then maybe in one or two generations we might start to see a turnaround in the rate of mass shootings and overall gun related deaths and injuries. The later we start then the greater the despair we inflict on those children and grandchildren we claim to love so much.

The Obama Syndrome

There is no need today for an untainted small boy to point out that the Emperor has no clothes.

For a majority of Americans, Donald Trump has strutted about bare-ass naked since before he was elected.  In fact, his irrational, crude, and narcissistic nakedness has become so pervasive that each additional time he flashes himself before important policies and people, foreign or domestic; there is no shock value left to be had.

We have become numb to this Administration’s deficiencies. Should Trump bungle us into a military conflict, apathy may very well be the first reaction…at least until body bags start being flown home or we see pictures of innocents stacked like cord wood.

Despite the Donald’s obvious display of exposed incompetence and degenerate behavior, the more perplexing question is not why his gross nudity doesn’t undermine his Presidency? Yes, the real conundrum is why so many people, the loyal 30 percent, still see him fully clothed, no matter how many small boys shout that he isn’t.

It has been a question I have been grappling with for two and a half years.

After a number of conversations with Trump supporters and Christian Conservative Republicans generally (albeit short conversations, as those individuals tend to abruptly turn and walk away), and after intensely pondering why they so adamantly support Trump in the face of his eviscerating truth (e.g. Jerry Falwell, Jr., who essentially lays prostate at Trump’s feet) I have finally arrived at a conclusion:

Other than the Jerry Falwells of the nation, most of these people in the famed “30% base” don’t like Trump…they just simply hate Obama. They suffer from a self-inflicted Obama Syndrome. The famed “lock her up” chant was always meant for Barack.

Trump knows this intuitively if not intellectually.  Never in my lifetime have I heard any US President before Trump (that would be 11) make anything other than rare and casual references to their predecessor. Trump evokes Obama’s name like it was a Buddhist mantra, blaming him for every screw up that Trump’s campaign and administration has initiated or overseen.  

Trump’s overwhelmingly transparent Presidential policy goal is to trash or dismantle anything that was accomplished during the Obama Administration.  He has no other coordinated agenda (c’mon folks, this is way too obvious).  It is why he can so easily hate and defame a deceased American champion, John McCain, who kept him from completely destroying “Obamacare” (the one law that colloquially bears Obama’s name).

Over that past 10 years I have heard on multiple occasions the same statement (more or less) from Conservative individuals who I believe to be generally very good people: “Obama is/was the worst President this Country has ever had.” The worst??  What do the not-so-good Conservatives think?

Obama took office with an Economy in crisis; the equity (stock) markets were in virtual free fall and massive unemployment prevailed. Under Obama the Economy stabilized, equity markets increased by about 260%, the unemployment rate dropped by nearly 7%. The worst President??

During Trump’s tenure the equity markets have increased by 35% (all of it in Trump’s first year before he enacted a single measure. Since his “panacea” tax cut took affect the equity markets have been volatile and flat – i.e. that 35% is more attributable to Obama than Trump).  Under Trump the unemployment rate has dropped a whopping 1% (which is about as far as it could drop, and would have no matter who was President).

I’m not going to go to efforts the Obama’s administration made to improve healthcare, eliminated Osama Bin Laden, reversed torture policy, saved the US auto industry, eliminate LGBT discrimination in the Military, advance foreign respect, and so many more.

I’m not even going into the fact of Obama’s intelligence, his family values, or his decency. He met individually with every parent who lost a child at Sandy Hook (20 sets of parents) without press. No one even knew it happened until much later.

The worst President? Martin Van Buren? Herbert Hoover? Warren Harding? Richard Nixon? George W. Bush? The worst President?? That is irrational.

Donald Trump’s beloved 30% see him fully clothed because they have been fed with fear and hatred of “liberals”, “socialists”, “welfare recipients”, “pacifists”,  “feminists”, and “sexual degenerates” (to name a few) since the second term of the Reagan Administration, with roots dating back 150 years.

They have been given this steady diet by Fox News, Talk Radio, their churches, and the Republican Party.  Obama, a black Liberal Democrat, represented everything wrong in their lives and everything they were told was wrong in their lives. To them Obama was the worst President ever the day he took office. Donald Trump and his hate of Obama was and is their drug of choice for that fear, even as they force themselves to ignore Trump's behavior.  

The Obama Syndrome was a critical component of why Hillary Clinton did not win the 2016 election in a landslide.  However, The Obama Syndrome is all the reason why an ignorant, con man continues to stand stark naked before packed coliseums…wearing only a grin.

Marriage on Four Legs

One of my favorite movies is the film Spanglish. It has always befuddled me why it was received lukewarm by the critics and bombed at the box office. I have a sense that people just didn’t like the way it ended. Here Adam Sandler (in his best performance ever) essentially chooses his crazy wife (Tia Lioni) over the gorgeous and wholesomely exotic Latino governess (Paz Vega)…what?

There is such a tendency for art to accent either the miserable or the sublime. When it fails to do that we often walk away with our expectations unfulfilled. Yet that isn’t how real life works. When it comes to marriage the real life question isn’t what makes it wonderful or miserable, the real question is what makes it last?

The reality is that all marriages (with I’m sure rare exceptions) are fundamentally a mixed bag.  We are all individuals by definition and admittedly complex. We struggle just to understand ourselves. To join two such creatures together magnifies that complexity exponentially.  It is an honest observation to wonder how the legal and emotional bonding of a relationship lasts in the modern era, where marriage no longer equates with survival.

Over the last century or so continuing a marriage has evolved into a choice. Perhaps we shouldn’t be asking why there are so many divorces (currently 1 out of 2 in the US), rather we should ask why aren’t there more? I believe there are perfectly good reasons why so many marriages navigate the whitewater rapids they are continuously subjected to, and it has little to do with bliss.

I see the relationship of marriage as a stool with four sturdy legs. On top of that stool a married couple gently places warm, tender, and enriching experiences, and also dumps endless piles of garbage…such as poor communication, defensiveness, selfishness...and a whole lot of stupid. Needless to say, the pile gets taller and heavier with every year that passes, making it increasingly difficult to support let alone sort through the good stuff and the trash. Yet for half the couples it holds together, stays upright…doesn’t tip over. How so?

I think the four legs holding it stable are: 1) shared family, 2) shared history, 3) shared physical intimacy, and 4) shared future expectations.  Lose one leg and the stool dangerously teeters. Lose two and it’s Humpty Dumpty time.

Family comprises the relationships that surround each individual. Children and grandchildren are the most obvious, but it can include parents, siblings, or others in an extended family. It could also included adopted “family” like special friends. The key is that each individual shares the other individual’s family as their own. They don’t have to like them, just consider themselves as part of the entire tribe.

Shared history is the unique memories created together as a couple. It also includes those experiences in which our memories fail us but we still know exist. Building a family can be a big part of marriage history even if we struggle to remember the specifics. That leg can sometimes be the strongest early in a marriage, but it is also a continuous process. To the extent our life experiences stop being shared, running indefinitely parallel, it’s like introducing termites to gnaw until that leg fails.

It is reasonably arguable that human beings are not naturally monogamous. It is a choice we make that the need we all have for physical intimacy be inextricably linked with a single union. It is also often a choice not kept. Every ordinary person needs the physical contact of other human beings. To the extent it is missing their lives are challenged. Even if sex is no longer possible, shared physical contact is essential and restricting that within a marriage keeps that leg strong. It is the nucleus of love.

Shared future expectations are tricky. It is more than simply planning out the next cruise or beach vacation. It is more than going over budgets and job choices. It is sharing hope, personal philosophies, and aspirations. Try to imagine living with someone who knows nothing and wants to know nothing about how you see your life in the future. Maybe you don’t have to imagine.

These four legs hold up a marriage that at any given time doesn’t even have to be a happy marriage. In fact, there is no such thing as a happy marriage.  However, there is such a thing as a lasting marriage in which (to name a few) joy, pain, love, sorrow, passion, fear, and hope each take their turn on top of the pile, and almost magically none seem to be the last straw to overturn the stool.

Maybe Adam Sandler’s choice to stay with his neurotic wife, his loopy mother-in-law, and his often despondent daughter isn’t the one audiences wanted to see. However, perhaps it was the choice that better reflects the real world…a reality even better than the world presented on reality TV.