Behind the Gun Problem

My oldest brother, who fought in 3 wars, was a gun enthusiast. He owned quite a collection and took care of them lovingly, just as he did his MG convertible, his Dunhill pipes and other possesions. He liked good scotch, sported a slightly dented Zippo lighter and wouldn't have accepted an AK 47 as a gift. He wasn't a member of the NRA, the National Rifle Association, to my knowledge. Got the picture?

Many gun enthusiasts have very different views. They own guns because they're proclaiming their fear and loathing of the federal government, for whatever reasons, and their paranoid determination to protect their gun rights under the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution. When President Obama became president in 2008, they actually believed he would try to take their guns away and they bought as many guns as they could afford, just as they are now, following the Aurora, CO theater massacre. It's astounding. These gun owners are regularly enflamed by Wayne La Pierre and the National Rifle Association, which is the most powerful and aggressive lobbying organization in the country. Members of Congress are terrified of the NRA and will not dispute even it's most outrageous claims against the president or anyone in their way. They have won so much to guarantee people the unlimited ability to own as many guns as they want, the only goal left for them is to have the government give each baby born in America a nice new 45 cal. automatic.

We know that the leadership of the NRA wants to continue to lead their organizatiion as long as poissible, but what about the gun owners they represent? Aside from white militia settlements in the hills of some states, and the people who have moved on from paint balling, I think we are looking at some very angry and bewildered men seeking to deal somehow with the immense social changes they have experienced in recent decades.

 The role of men has changed and so has the very definition of what it means to be a man and they don't like any of it. Often passed over because of their educational limitations, income inadequacy  inevitably moves into their bedrooms. Their very manhood is threatened and so they carry weapons to improve their self image and seek to return to the good ole, less complicated  days of  yore.


 

$32,000,000,000,000 and Counting

A recent report by a former chief economist at McKinsey & Co indicates that super rich Americans have stashed away some $32 TRILLION in secret foreign bank accounts to avoid paying taxes on their good fortune. It doesn't surprise me much because everyone knows there are two parts to becoming super rich. One is to make the big, big bucks and the second is to avoid paying taxes on them. Each requires special skills.

Last week Mitt Romney was insisting that he would reveal no more than two years' tax returns in his bid for the presidency. His wife, Ann, said "We've given you people (the press) more than enough." Clearly, they don't want anyone combing through their records because former Gov. Romney knows all the tricks of making big money and taking advantage of every option to keep it. Maybe that explains why the Republican reaction was so strong when President Obama (and Elizabeth Warren) commented that all American entrepreneurs benefit from outside, read that government, help in putting their fortunes together.

 If someone gets super rich, in his mind, it's because he is a genius, able to struggle successfully against labor unions, hostile environmental regulations, foreign competition and a host of other hurdles put in his way by an out of touch government who won't even let him bribe anyone. He is a super hero entitled to 100% of his winnings and indebted to no one, least of all the government at any level. Corporate welfare is a figment of some lousy Democratic leach who doesn't know what it is to meet a payroll. Highways, railroads, international trade organizations, patent protections, special deals that abound, the Commerce Dept. etc. mean nothing. "I did it my way," like Frank Sinatra, and now it's mine and if you're nice, maybe I'll give some of it away to my college or church. Some of these moguls may not truly understand what the government has done to help them, but most do and chose to take a rather haughty stance on the issue. If anyone doesn't like it, too bad. Billionaires don't need anyone. In fact, what the big dogs fear most is being a sucker or being fooled like some common worker who commutes, no matter how nice his office.

Does this sound about right? Believe me, it is. Many really big shots are very generous. They build hospital wings, college dormitories and endow professorships, the arts and and more. They expect thanks and recognition, but they don't want oversight or inquiries about where they put their hard earned money. Like Mr. Romney, they will pay whatever the law demands, but they will work very hard to keep that amount down (it stifles their creativity, you see) and to hide as much as possible. That's just good business isn't it? The answer is no, if you are anything more than an egomaniac who won't or can't see beyond your own interests. "Think not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," said Jack Kennedy and it was good advice. As for those secret account people and their $32 trillion, let's draft them or force them to do community service, but not until they have been outed and penalized for their lack of loyalty to the country that helped them do so well.

Libor, Zoloft and the Good News

 Libor is the London Interbank Offered Rate which determines the cost of trillions of dollars of  loans banks make to each other every day. It may concern you and me in ways we do not understand.

Zoloft is a drug which many anxious people use as they contemplate the ravages of time upon their minds and bodies and the results, or lack of them, they have achieved during the time period under consideration.

The good news is that neither really matters.

To be more explicit, recent revelations about rigging of the Libor rate reveal business corruption almost everywhere on an unprecedented scale. If you are a crook, Libor is the Triple Crown, the Academy Award, and the Mega Lotto prize combined. Be prepared to hear a great deal about the Libor scandal unless, of course, it all gets swept under the rug as too big to prosecute. In either case, keep your Zoloft handy because it is immensely depressing.

Think for a moment about opportunities almost everyone in business has observed to go bad, about deals proposed that were shady or choices made for fast but improper profit, or accommodation. (Just look the other way, Joe.) They abound in many, even most business and professional careers of every type. Individual people failing to do what they know is right and instead doing something they know is wrong; that's what's sick in America and the entire world today.That's what is eating away at the pillars of our society in America. Do we not realize that when someone proffers such opportunities to us it is actually a personal insult, not a useful collaboration possibility? Men quickly recognize a bar solicitation, but they sometimes miss the full implications of other more subtle choices that wouldn't withstand examination in broad daylight. But wait, here's the good news

Our travails today are just a wrinkle in the fabric of time, a down tick, if you will, in a chart that shows a powerful, even inexorable, upward trend. We have recognized in Democracy a form of government that gives people control of their destinies and what a fight it has been to vanquish kings and empires, etc. to arrive where we now are. Our present government in the United States has been called dysfunctional, but everyone knows how to fix it and it will be done!

Similarly, capitalism has soundly defeated communism and today offers its benefits to millions more yearning to be free and prosperous. Is it perfect? No way, but once again, everyone knows what has to be done to clean it up and make it better and that too will be done!

Lastly, the really Good News! We have in Christianity the religion built on love and redemption that makes people literally new and gives us hope for the life everlasting. Our God will raise up for us new leaders, more skilled and more dedicated than in the past and they will shun Wall Street and persevere in the trenches where the big decisions about right and wrong are made 24/7. Let it be so!

Events, Deah Boy!

Back in the fifties when Harold MacMillan was prime minister of Great Britain, someone asked him what would determine the success of his tenure. "Events, deah boy,"  he replied, in his richest Oxford accent, which in this country is known as Long Island Lockjaw.

And of course he was right. At this moment we have in America several major events pending, the return of some troops from Afghanistan, the Republican and Democratic conventions, the continuation of the Bush tax cuts, raising the debt ceiling, and so on. Will there be an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear bomb making facilities, or some move against Syria? The timing is really bad for such matters, but that's the way the cookies crumble.

Our national discourse these days is only a step away from brawling. Congressmen call the president a liar and raise money as a result of their rudeness, or they state with impunity that dozens of Democrats are actually Communists. Others say the President is not even an American citizen and should be impeached!Still others call for the resignation of the Attorney General and claim that liberty will die in America if the president is re-elected. Against this background, a ship sunk or an attempted assassination of any person with name recognition might have powerful and unimaginable consequences.Literally anything is possible today and that's why I don't think anyone knows what might throw the election one way or another. We have created a toxic environment almost anyone can use for mischief and mischief at the wrong time can sway voters. Sliming your opponent pays, lying and misrepresenting facts is as normal as apple pie and it those tactics fail, go after spouses, children, anyone with ties to your enemy.

If things get any worse, let's just sit down for a moment and have a spot of tea.

The Chief Justice and the Pope

Chief Justice John Roberts sided with liberal members of the Supreme Court last week in an historic vote largely upholding Obamacare. He did so for many cogent reasons that Pope Benedict XVI might do well to ponder.

First, Chief Justice Roberts took a positive, expansionist view of his leadership role. He was looking for a way to preserve Obamacare rather than demolish it. He was thinking about what was best for Americans and the Supreme Court that he leads. He did not wish to give the Republicans still another enormous 5-4 victory and further diminish the court's reputation for objectivity and fairness.

Chief Justice Roberts is almost as isolated from public pressure as the Pope and both men, of course, have life tenure. Surprisingly, it would appear that the Chief Justice is capable of seeing the big picture better than the Pope. The court that will forever bear his name is in serious trouble, deeply divided and increasingly bitter with each other and the public. (Justice Scalia went out of his way recently to dis President Obama and the president recorded his displeasure with the third branch of government and the Citizens v. United case in a recent State of the Union message. Moreover, I thought Justice Scalia's derisive reference to reading the 2,000 page Affordable Health Care law was truly tasteless and offensive. I do expect supreme court justices to read legislation. That's what we're paying them to do.)

As for the Pope, the Roman Catholic Church is in abysmal shape, stricken as it is with doctrinal division, pedophile priests and incredible myopia. With the greatest respect, the Pope needs to search his heart and move to change errant policies and ease the agony of his flock. People of good will everywhere suffer for their catholic friends and pray for their well being.

It's pure fantasy, I imagine, but what an opportunity there is now for healing! What if Pope Benedict XVI were to come to Yankee Stadium in the sack cloth of a penitent, barefoot, no golden garb, no regal trappings, and humbly express his most abject contrition for his sins and those of his bishops in the performance of their sacred duties. What if he apologised for persecuting American nuns, and abandoned some of the dumb orthodoxies of his church, like permitting only men to be priests. Oh, what rivers of grace would flow down, what glory would shine upon Yankee Stadium as the Holy Spirit rushed through the crowd as it did on Pentecost. The whole world would know that the Pope was thinking about the needs of his people and the sacred image of the Roman Catholic Church. That's what the Pope is supposed to do, kind of like the Chief Justice of the world's most powerful nation - a veritable city on a hill that, with God's help, has led the world in the past and now needs a little refurbishing.

Supreme Isolation

Back in the sixties, I was a junior partner in one of the country's largest stock brokerage firms and I   represented the firm at a meeting of business leaders (I was a spear carrier in this parade) in Newark, NJ to discuss the city's problems. I met all the brass, including the city's very controversial police chief. He gave a fine speach emphasizing what his department was doing to ensure law and order and especially to protect property values, which were zero at the time because of the infamous Newark riots. Everything was low key and business like. And then there were some questions and one touched upon the US Supreme Court. The Chief went ballistic! The smooth veneer slipped off and he literally raved about those unspeakable morons on the Supreme Court of the United States of America. His audience cringed with horror.

I wonder what can and should be said about the men and women of today's Roberts Court? How about that a majority of them are blind to reality, blatantly political or simply out of touch with the world we live in? One could say none of the above, or only that five of them are capable of really monstrous error and it would be a serious indictment. What else can one call Citizens v. United wherein corporations are people and allowed to give unlimited amounts of money in political elections as a matter of free speach? Has it really brought about what they wanted? Would the founding fathers have approved?

Does anyone, except maybe David Koch, really believe that we need more money in American elections? Over and over we have seen what happens when big sums of money become involved in these campaigns which seem never to end - more mudslinging, nonstop attack ads, more dirty tricks. Money from wherever it can be found, pollutes the our political process to the point where facts don't matter and logic gives way to theater. Bucks trump (no pun intended) everything because they can buy the best spinsters, the most imaginative attack ad promoters and contrived public " moments", even if they are shortlived. Nothing matters except election day and, of course, the type of post election spin game that got George W. Bush elected by the Supreme Court we're discussing.

Things are going to change in American elections, but how soon, no one knows and how much more damage can our system take? Americans are deeply disturbed and disillusioned by the present horror of our political system, to which a misguided Supreme Court has contibuted mightily. It's ironic like a Greek tragedy, and look where the people who invented democracy are today. They are protesting in the streets of Athens. Will Americans follow in Washington? Without big changes very soon, you can be sure of it.

Let's look at Sheldon Adelson, the casino mogul. Why would he put tens of millions that we know about into Republican coffers? He is alleged to be singularly interested in the State of Israel and we assume that he wants the lowest possible corporate tax rates, but is it possible hes has invested secretly more millions in Mitt Romney because of some deal he's made to protect Israel against Iran? Romney has been outspoken about his determination to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear weapon. If Mr. Adelson hasn't made a deal for his millions, what if the Koch brothers want to emulate him?

If you think such pay to play deals are nonsense, consider what former British prime minister John Major testified to a week ago in the parliamentary inquiry into whether Rupert Murdoch is fit to wield huge business power in England. Mr Major essentially said that it was a rare event for a visitor to sit before a British prime minister in his office and demand a major change of national policy in return for the support of Mr. Murdoch's newspapers. Mr. Major refused to comply with Mr. Murdoch's demands and lost his support and the next national election, at least partly as a result

Mr. Adelson's money couldn't save Newt Gingrich and maybe corporate billions won't put Mr. Romney into the White House, but what about huge money in state races. We saw recently where Gov. Walker won his recall election in Wisconsin by outspending his rival 7 - 1. That may be enough to turn any election, but it's clearly possible now. Maybe Citizens v. United will be reversed or modified one day, but for now we are self inflicting great wounds on our wonderful country with this kind of foul play which serves further to drive out decent people like Olympia Snowe and Richard Lugar. These are trying days for the Supremes and I wonder if they know they aren't living up to what's expected of them..

Barry's Baby Reprise

Back in June, my blog "Barry's Baby" outlined briefly the disgust to which Americans can expect to be treated as the dirtiest political campaign in American history gets under way. It's happening as we blog.

My prediction noted, in part, that the Republicans would use the tactics taught them by the late, but unlamented Lee Atwater: they would attack the president's strengths, not his weaknesses. Indeed, those tactics worked beautifully on John Kerry who was and is a war hero, but was successfully branded as a phony by Karl Rove, George Bush's great "architect" of victory.

Mr. Rove is at it again, as he attempts through a superpac (Crossroads GPS) to paint Elizabeth Warren, the consumer advocate who is going to unseat Scott Brown and become junior senator from Massachusetts, as the person who helped pay big Wall Street businessmen fat bonuses using TARP money! Nothing of course could be further from the truth. Prof Warren is anathema to such business leaders who are staunchly defended by Republicans in Congress.

In addition, this week President Obama, who has been widely praised for his handling of foreign affairs, came under attack from Mitt Romney and other Republicans for favoring terrorists rather than the people of Israel! I'm doubling down on my bet that this is going to be the most revolting political campaign of modern times. Donald Trump is still casting doubt on the president's citizenship and it is only a matter of time before he and Atwater's other heirs claim Barry has an illegitimate child somewhere, or offer some similar calumny.

Nah, that's not it.

David Brooks is a brainy guy who writes very well as a conservative columnist (and author) for the New York Times. His recent article entitled "What Republicans think" is, however, considerably off the mark.

Brooks says that Republicans see the current economic crisis here and abroad as the beginning of the end for the welfare state, which President Eisenhower fostered and successive presidents of both parties encouraged and funded. Now everyone has gone too far with the benefits and the house of cards is crashing. It's possible he's prematurely right, but where's the evidence? Who says so? Most of our congressmen/women don't show any sign of having world views or the ability to express them if they did. "Nah, that's not it" was my thought almost immediately, as I read his column.

What Republicans are doing is just another version of "starve the beast", ie the federal government. Did Scott Walker talk about a world view as he attacked labor unions and went after Planned Parenthood in Wisconsin? Does Paul Ryan really think the world can be fixed by socking it to the poor? There's been nothing from John Boehner about the big picture and who would listen if he did see beyond DC? Eric Cantor has spoken breezily about telling people the US can't afford retirements or benefits anymore, but he's really focused only on easing John Boehner into early retirement. Beside this, we haven't been nearly as negligent as the Greeks or those other countries where people take naps in the middle of the day and retire at 50 with full pay.

Our American  crisis would be far along on the way to recovery, in fact, if our government were functioning at even a modest level. Instead, at a time of intense crisis wherein millions of Americans are suffering severely, our politicians are working energetically against each other, focused on old partisan issues like abortion, birth control and RACE, whether it's stated or not. It is positively dumbfounding and disgusting to the point of being traitorous.

We're at a profoundly sad time in American and world history when American leadership is so greatly needed and there is nothing in Washington except gridlock, acrimony and one party's determination to bring down our first black president and return to the good ole unregulated Golden Age of the great tycoons. I don't think Republicans are really thinking at all.

Ah, Springtime II

Spring always brings graduation days and related commencement speeches. In anticipation of numerous invitations to speak that have not materialized, due no doubt to economies imposed upon the US Postal Service, I have prepared remarks I will share with you, minus all the drivel about hard working graduates and long suffering parents.

You are graduating at one hell of a tough time and your century is going to be just as difficult as mine, or more so. Think about that for a minute. There are so many problems you need to solve immediately I am only going to touch on one because of my concern for your physical well being. That problem is simple fairness and justice, the stuff  that you supposedly learned about in grade school.

When people do bad things they must be identified and punished. If there is to be law and order in this land that we love there has to be accountability. Without that guarantee things go down hill fast. Fair and equal justice is a core value. If the core rots everyone is in terrible danger and in many cases justice delayed is justice denied. That's what is happening as I speak.

So tell me, esteemed graduates, should people who betray the trust of our nation by leading us into 2 wars (!) improperly and under false pretenses be punished at least minimally? Too tough a matter for this fine day? OK, let's consider something less complicated: should people and institutions who brought our banking system almost to its knees and caused a mortgage crisis of unprecedented severity (great pain to millions) be punished or rewarded?  How about the rating agencies, Moody's, Fitch and Standard & Poors? Want to throw in the SEC and the robo signers speeding foreclosures along the way?

Getting down to the bone, what kind of justice should be handed to the top CEOs at the too big to fail banks, Citi, Goldman, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase? Shouldn't we include for punishment also some of the directors of those companies who have been grossly neglient and careless? Why that's anti-business thinking, at best, and contrary to our free enterprise system in addition, you might say. I must be a commie for even thinking of such an assault on the democratic system. No way! I want it to continue better and stronger than ever and that can be achieved only by putting some accountability back into the mix. It has been missing for too long in this age wherein no one ever resigns and few are convicted. Remember Sherman in Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities?He wondered if he'd be socially ostracized for his infidelity and other sins that had become public information only to discover that all was well and his friends merely shared his discomfort while he endured his 15 minutes in the spotlight.

Consider also now what to do with leaders who deliberately publish campaign information they know to be false, or totally twisted? The headline is front page news, the retraction, if there even is one, is on page 37, next to cat-up- a- tree stories. America's election commisssions and ethics committees are jokes and are simply augmenting the decay of our society.

Lastly, is it just or fair that a tiny portion of our nation's population ends up fighting our misbeguided wars? I know you're draft bait, but this question may be the clincher for whether or not you got what you came here for and whether or not you'll be able to do good stuff with it. Thanks for inviting me and accept my appologies for not delaying my departure to answer questions. Did I mention that  I was on the varsity track team?

The Green Berets of Grief

Over the Memorial Day weekend, I saw on TV a young woman and mother of one make as fine a tribute to her killed-in-combat husband as I have ever witnessed. She was a Green Beret of Grief.

Green Berets are renowned as highly intelligent fighters who have been trained to jump out of airplanes, climb vertical cliffs, ford raging rivers and eat snakes, if they need to." They show their pride in their training and in what they do by wearing green "covers" on their heads. They are proud soldiers.

The young woman I watched exercised tight discipline on her emotions; she was dignified, smart and brave. She had felt the pain of all humanity and she was stronger because of it. Her personal strengths had been augmented and refined into something of which her husband would have been immensely proud. She could  become a national leader, if she so choses. 

For those in great grief with or without an attachment to the military, deep comfort can be found in the teachings of a Jewish carpenter who was meek and mild but had power to command the wind and walk on the waves. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted," he said. They have been marked by their encounter with the pain of the world that extends even to the animals and their comfort contains an enablement to march on and do even more. Our loving God has "consecrated to them their deepest distress" and it shows, for those with the discernment to recognize the subtle signs. There is no glistening medal or unusual hat, but they have been healed and sent back into the fray as Green Berets of Grief.

Lions and Hyenas

When I was in Wall Street, it was a very good place to be. It was respectable work and I felt like I could earn good money and help other people to do the same thing. My beliefs have changed greatly in the intervening years and I haven't been able to recommend a career on "the Street" to anyone in decades. A Wall Streeter still looks great in a $5,000 suit with all the hand made accoutrements, but even that may be coming to an end.

Romney has made much of his experience with Bain Capital, where he made millions (and still does) and helped to bring into our lives some success stories like Staples and The Sports Authority. He calls himself a private equity expert, but now people are beginning to understand that he might also be called a corporate raider, even maybe a bottom feeder and I don't think he's going to be able to keep up the masquerade as a Lion of Wall Street when he may more closely resemble a hyena or a vulture. At Bain, Romney who was the Founder and CEO, was focused exclusively one making a profit for himself and his partners and not all of his efforts were successful. None of his moves were altruistic, unless one imagines that removing roadkill is useful work. He chose his field, declining to be an investment banker or hedge fund manager, so it isn't unfair to ask why the much less attractive field appealed more to him

When Bain, or a similar enterprise, takes over a failing company there is much dirty work to be done that most people would find extraordinarily ugly. Often the buyers avoid getting their hands bloody by bringing in CEOs with colorful names to do the wet work. Al Dunlap, who was known for his brutal efficiency as "Chainsaw Harry" comes to mind. These new bosses fire everyone in sight, strip out benefits for those remaining, sell off anything removable and then see if the parts can be sold for a tax advantage or somehow be made profitable enough to recover their highly leverage investment. Sometimes the resultrs are re-leveraged so management can get every possible advantage. Inevitably, it is hell to work for a company that has been tajken over. Employees are scared stiff and productivity is pushed to the max. There will be no bowling teams working and no little leaguers sponsored. I believe Mr. Romney saw a chance to run a financial firm and make big money and that was enough.

When people think of American big business, they tend to envision Ford assembly lines, oil rigs in the Gulf or huge drug companies, but there's a seamy side, too, that few like to contemplate, except Mr. Romney and others with similar business interests. This is seldom high minded stuff, it's Wall Street at its worst and Americans need to know it's there, out back behind the handsome facade. The law of the jungle prevails in business, but I don't believe this kind of business experience is what I'd prefer for the leader of the free world. Mr. Romney might do better to talk more about his experiences as governor of Massachusetts, but he can't do that, can he?

When One Speaks for Many

As a music lover, I enjoy singing, but it takes a chorus of at least 500 to c0ver my mistakes and self consciousnes. So it was the other night (actually some weeks ago) as I listened with interest to people speaking out at the Tea Party Debate for republican candidates for president in 2012. There was no reticence or timidity here. Members if the audience were comfortable with each other. One might even say they deserved each other.

One man shouted out "Let him die," when the moderator asked about what to do with an old person who had outlived his resources. Did I hear that clearly? It sounded lie I had suddenly been transported back to the Roman Arena. Yep, sadly I did and that person must have felt entirely comfortable yelling his comment. It was probably another Rep. Joe Wison type who couldn't contain himself seated cozily with other Republicans in the House of Representatives during the State of the Union Address last January. Imagine it! vLet the bum die, who cares? Do you supposed that man goes to church? It's an attitude that has zero virftue, something better left unsaid.

I was shocked,frankly, but I shouldn't have been because arlier in the evening Gov. Perry had been boasting about his excellent sleeping habits, unconcerned about the incredible number of people executed i9n Texas dduring his reign. He was certain none had been put to death innocent. Couldn't happen in the Great State of Texas. How could any official be quite so callous, or pretend to be, about one of the most serious of his responsibilities as an elected representative of the people? Why couldn't he have said something responsible like "authorizing the execution of another human being in the administration of justice is a part of my duties as governor that I take with the utmost seriousness and I would be horrified if my state ever took the life of a man or woman who did not commit the crime for which he/she was convicted. Accordingly..." Nope, Gov. Perry chose to posture. People do heinous things in my state they get fried. We don't need a president like that.

To me, the Perry types and those who yell comments like "Let him die" remind me all to clearly of those that screamed "crucify him" 2011 years ago.

(In the interim between when this piece was written and today when it is belatedly being posted, and at still another Republican Debate, a soldier who was praising the demise of Don't Ask Don't Tell was booed by the crowd without drawing the slightest rebuke from any of the potential commanders in chief present. How sad.)

To me the Perry types and those who yell "Let him died

Could It Happen Here?

You bet your life it could! The same rage, rioting and violence, death and destruction as in London, Madrid, Athens? Absolutely! And here's why.

First, came the dissolution of the compact between major employers and their employees that existed for much of my life. You really had to screw up to loose your job with AT&T, and hundreds of similar companies, unless you were drinking or stealing. A work life with one employer was a common thing. After 25 years you got your watch and retired with honor and many friends. If, for some reason, you were fired, it was serious stuff. No more. That's all as old fashioned as a Model T Ford.

As anyone in business today can tell you, the first step an executive in a new position takes is to prepare his/her resume, because there is such huge turnover in the work place. A top notch young executive can easily expect to have 10 or more jobs before retirement, partially because employees are just numbers today, so great is the emphasis on profit. Further, you can be fired Christmas Eve and no one thinks twice about it, because it's not personal, it's just the way the game is played. As a matter of fact, it's so impersonal that when the hammer falls, even a CEO is brusquely escorted out of the building by Security, just like anyone else. Imagine it, if you've never had the experience.

Then came huge disillusionment and disappointment with the Church. People have been brutalized by weeping evangelists, mega church TV preachers and pedophile priests. As the Roman Catholic priest and writer, Andrew Greeley has said, "We've done everything possible to drive them away and still they come." To many it seemed the fall of the Church was the last straw, but that's the straw that is being destroyed now, namely our compact with the government, our government which we have served in uniform and trusted in faithfully.

Young Eric Cantor, the Republican Majority Whip who so wants to be Speaker of the House,and 3rd in line to be president, tells anyone who will listen that we (the Republicans) have to tell the people (that's us) that the government (our government) promised things to us that we (the USA) can't afford it. According to Eric, that's things like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid at anything like current levels, but, of course, we CAN afford tax cuts for the rich and every conceivable form of corporate welfare. This is no longer a mere threat, IT"S HAPPENING NOW!

Recently elected Republican governors are leading their states to weaken unions, to destroy collective bargaining and to return to the old ways of the Robber Barons a century ago. I read recently of county employees in a small town in Rhode Island who had simply been told that their retirement was henceforth going to be $1,000 a month and they should consider themselves lucky. People will fight that kind of high handed outrage with everything they've got, as they always have. If the US had gone into default as a result of the Republicans' refusal to raise the debt ceiling and elderly people had been denied their monthly checks, there WOULD have been riots right here in America. That's more betrayal and disillusionment than any people can take, even those as orderly as we are.

But there's more. Americans who for years were entreated to "own your share of America" through investing in the stock market, have had the rudest possible awakening. As they learned that there are rapacious wolves on Wall Street, in addition to the bulls and bears, they were also discovering that another part of the American dream was also elusive, namely, owning one's own home, complete with white picket fence. Fuggedaboutit! It will be years before small investors venture back into the market for either stocks or houses. They aren't just terrified, they're furious. A local Florida legislator said recently, "The people don't hate us. They despise us." And she's right. The public now knows for sure that elected officials and people running for office cannot be trusted to be consistent. They run right or left whole seeking office and then as election day nears, they become centrists. Once in office, they forget let's say, their committment to just 2 terms, or some other pledge they never meant to honor. They lie whenever they wish, assuming people won't remember or that they can somehow excuse their action. And they lie about the most important functions of their offices. George W. Bush, and I regret deeply having to say it, should go down in infamy for lying about the reasons for which he led America into the Iraq war. He, VP Dick Cheney and Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld whould be held accountable for the debasing the very fabric of our democracy by condoning torture and renditions. They took away our innocense.

In addition, as I've said and written before, people feel they've also been ripped off by inflated oil and other prices which go up for any reason (and drive many other staples) but seldom come down. When they finally come to understand just how this has been allowed to happen there is going to be major trouble. And that's what's next, in the coming years - a very close look at the changes that need to be made in capitalism itself.

Did I mention that all this is on top of the enormous changes that we need to make in the way our government operates? The Republicans have made this startlingly clear in their historic opposition to President Obama. As Americans come to realize that Republicans are willing to sacrifice the interests of the nation to the interests of the Republican party, because they cannot abide the idea of a competent black man in the White House, all hell is going to break loose. Frankly, I think the GOP would welcome violence between now and Nov. 12, 2012, if they could recapture the presidency. That's how far we've descended from where we've been in just a few scant years of organized greed. This is only the beginning, too. Yes, really bad stuff can happen here in this "sweet land of liberty... Let rocks their silence break."

Barry's Baby

The National Elections of 2012 began with a titanic clash over the 2011 budget, which has been followed by a still in progress Olympic contest over raising the debt ceiling (normally done almost automatically with groans.) This death defying high wire act will lead to a gargantuan battle over the 2012 budget, assuming the country hasn't been downgraded to Dogpatch status. Then Barry's Baby will soon be upon us.

This term may not be familiar to you yet, but just wait. The existence of a baby sired by Barry Obama will surface on the internet just as soon as the Swift Boat crews can recall the details, courtesy of some Texas zillionaire just doing his civic duty to inform the public. I could be wrong about this, Michelle way be their target, involved possibly with former Rep. Anthony Weiner or former Sen. John Ensign. Regardless it's coming.

The billion dollar 2012 presidential election campaign will be the dirtiest ever, as well as the most expensive. The idea is to take your target's strongest point and then attack it, no matter how bizaar the claim. Remember John Kerry whose medals and courage were successfully sullied in the 2008 national election? So if President Obama seems decent, youthful, energetic, calm and cerebral, it is necessary to drag him down, get him to blow up and appear that he's been faking it all for the cameras.

Here's why. First, the Republican party will not be able to find an experienced candidate for president able to excite an old lady's sewing circle. On tap of that will be a string of revealing debates demonstrating that the GOP is so far to the right that it has fallen off the edge of the known world. Ron Paul will explain how we really aren't constitutionally supposed to do anything for the people except deliver the mail and defend our shores, while Michelle Bachmann will prove that the President is the Antichrist and has no reflection standing in front of a mirror. Rick Perry will probably be in the race by then, replacing Newt and Callista who will have returned to Greece. He will announce that if he loses, Texas will secede from the union. Mitt will defer appearances until the Tea Party people get off his lawn and so on. All this will prove to be so stupefyingly boring that the nation will be chanting for scandal when Lee Atwater finally reveals that he isn't dead and has actually been doing undercover work investigating Barry's Baby.

Described above is the bright side. There could be a total collapse of the world economy long before Labor Day thanks to John Boehner and the ever vigilant rating agencies. Only a few months ago, the GOP looked like it could take over the entire government in 2012, so they shot themselves in the foot by dropping "jobs, jobs, jobs" and going after unions, Planned Parenthood and grey wolves instead. The Ryan Budget, which all but 4 House Republicans voted for, went over like poison ivy at a nudist picnic as did dismantling Medicare rather than tax cuts for the rich. Then "Obama got Osama" and suddenly Boehner and those people dressed up as Revolutionary War Militia began to look ridiculous, refusing even to consider taxes on the rich or removing billions of taxpayer subsidies for big oil companies awash in profits. The idea of recouping the profligacies of the past off the backs of the vanishing middle class just won't work. Scandal maybe their only hope, so look out for Barry's Baby and remember you heard it here first.

"Troussage de Domestique"

For Americans, entitlements are spelled out in the Bill of Rights part of the Constitution. To Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, have been added some others, namely the right to a decent retirement, as in Social Security and the right to medical attention after retirement, as in Medicare, both programs that Republicans have always wanted to eliminate as too costly from a viewpoint that puts business interests above all others. It's too soon to kn0w if the Affordable Health Care Act of 2010 will survive Republican hypocrisy and develop fully into another entitlement, thereby bringing the United States finally in line with all the other industrial countries of the Western world in bringing quality health services to their peoples. These rights are precious and always in danger, especially in times of recession.

No where is there any Droite de Seigneur, the outrageous 16th century feudal fancy that the local lord had a right to bed the daughters of his vassals at the time of their marriages. A custom dead everywhere except among the fading aristocrats and moguls of Europe lingers on and it is called "troussage de domestique" an employer's right to lift the skirt of a female servant. It's based on domestic servants being so desperate for work that they will tolerate any indignity to continue getting a regular paycheck.

There is no right to sex on demand, no matter how handsome, powerful or wealthy one may be, but you can't tell that to "Ahnold" who build his fortune and career on his spectacularly muscular bod. He had the brains, education and charisma to be many things, serving as the Republican governor of California was just one of them. Whatever else might have been possible is rather iffy because of his all to obvious sense of sexual entitlement and what it implies. Almost as egregious as his uncontrolled sexuality is his cowardice in concealing the affair with the family housekeeper for 10 years!

Men are designed to be more aware of their sexuality than women; God intended them to be more aggressive than women so that the human race would survive and multiply and he surely built all kinds of redundancy into his plan. One result is that some men believe they are entitled to to a certain frequency and quality of sex. They are not! God provided strict rules of engagement, so to speak, and they are well understood in Western society. If Arnold knows about his responsibilities as a man, he has decided to ignore them because he has been dazzled by his so called good fortune. His downfall is, and will be terrible, not only because of his antiquated and juvenile sexual proclivities, but also because he made a complete fool of his wife, a remarkable woman in her own right who needs neither his money or name.

Schwarzenegger is joined in his narcissism by millions of men who don't know the meaning of the word. To them, sexual abuse is culturally endemic, a symbol of their sacred masculinity and, in some cases, may provide the only pleasure available in very harsh and difficult lives.

I know many people who have been raised with a sense of general entitlement. Indeed, I am one of them, but things have changed immensely in just my lifetime. It is no longer enough to be comfortable in the halls of privilege. One has to prove himself everyday or he/she will be eaten alive by legions of competitors springing up seemingly from nowhere who have zero respect for legacies or unearned freebies. They are largely a thing of the past except for a dwindling base of the super rich. Moreover, the race today is much longer and more complicated than previously. Just consider among them the totally different aspirations of women, to say nothing of the changing role of men. In the current affairs of men and women, anyone thinking about entitlements is delusional. Poor Arnold, he is doomed now to being just a late night comedian's joke, if that. Worse, he is a disgrace to his sex.

Now comes before us, the newly married Representative Anthony Weiner, age 46, and his explicit internet sexting with half a dozen young women. Leestake is that the congressman's "crie de coeur" indicates he needs psychiatric help of the inpatient variety. He may be merely a victim of his physical endowment, though I haven't seen pictures because the NY Times doesn't print that, I think the word now is, junk, but if I'm right he may have done men everywhere a favor. So called locker room heroes are doomed to the same kind of fate that often befalls high school and college sports stars who marry the Homecoming Queen and then spend the rest of their lives with no place to go except down with their dreams of the pros. If a guy regards his penis as his primary asset, he is in as much trouble as the beautiful gal people snicker at for wasting her life fighting to stay looking like 25. Mr. Weiner may be a talented legislator, but to many people he's always going to seem like a creep with a serious mental health problem who disgraced himself and the US House of Representatives. Regrettably, Anthony and Arnold have plenty of company.

TIAGAIG

Many years ago, sitting in a luxurious private dining room at 21, and participating enthusiastically in a black tie dinner for my roommate who was the scion of a famous Wall St. family, I puffed on my cigar (I don't smoke.) warmed my cognac and thought, if I was thinking at all, TIAGAIG, this is as good as it gets. Today, I think TIAGAIG when my family gets together for hamburgers in the park. The intervening years have taught me a great deal about "as good as it gets." And so when I read that almost 50% of this year's brightest and best of Ivy League colleges are going straight to Wall St. to "securitize things that don't exist" I get a sickish feeling in the pit of my stomach. Maybe it's still that cigar. Forget the fact that my roommate is long divorced, his famous firm absorbed by another giant Wall St company which has, in turn, been swallowed up in a fire sale and that the Street now resembles a casino for the rich rather than an opportunity to own your share of America, There are now so many threats to feeling good that an hour in the park breaking bread with people whom you love and who love you, seems almost like the religious experience it once was. TIAGAIG squared is when the park visit comes at a time when no one in the family is desperately sick, struggling or in harm's way. They are rare and marvelous events.





As one moves through the checkout line, it becomes increasingly clear that recognition, applause and grandiosity are less satisfying than really simple stuff. Old goats like me are less responsive to maitre'ds who know my name than to someone who passes on the street with a smile that says "I bet you were fun 100 years ago." We're not looking for gavels, framed resolutions and the like, but rather the feeling that maybe we were useful somehow and didn't hurt anyone much in the process. There's a certain disdain now for all the boardroom games and pretenses and even a little contempt for the performers. The final arbiter awaits after all.





At this point, most of us have discovered how to handle life's slings and arrows. Nothing can be done about the pains of ill health, but an immunity has accumulated for most of the other stuff, especially if you're blessed with a strong hook up to your higher power. Did the Great Recession mess up you're plans? Too bad. Moses didn't make it into the promised land, six presidents struggled in vain a national health plan and Gauguin never sold a painting. Such disappointments don't matter as much as hamburgers in the park.

What Republicans Really Want

Leave it to Jay Leno to make a double edged joke out of the sasuage making in Washington. In talking about a possible government shut down, he said we'd be sad with a govenment stopped from NOT protecting our borders, NOT keeping air controllers awake at airports, NOT inspecting food products coming into the US, etc. It made me laugh, but it also made a good point: we want our government to do all kinds of things very well, but we don't want to pay for them.

Does anyone really not want a center for disease control, intense investigations of aircraft safety and accidents, some support of the arts, fine national parks, NASA, Pell grants and, of course, Planned Parenthood, etc? The list goes on and on. Such services benefit everyone and they are part of a mature government in the modern world, let alone what makes America great. Wring out waste but don't pretend there is any advantage to lopping off whole governmental departments and expect people to take you seriously.

Could it be that we are deep in a time in our national history when factual debate isn't really important, confronted by 24 hour news cycles and the need to capture the headlines with some statement even more inaccurate and outrageous than the last one. Just look at Michelle Bachman and Donald Trump. The stuff they're spouting is pure blow hard nonsense, but it sure gets attention and improves TV ratings, in "The Donald's" pathetic case.

Could it also be that we're in a great period of reaction to the days of yore when the robber barons prowled the nation, when workers felt lucky to have any job and had no union protection, as Pinkertons broke up strikes and backroom deals were the norm in state capitals and Washington, DC. It would certainly seem that way, looking at Wall Street today with Hedge Fund moguls literally making billions annually! Now throw in the race card and one can see clearly what the Republicans are trying to do and why. There are, beyond doubt people making huge fortunes who are well intentioned and generous, but for each one there are 100 who think they are entitled to whatever they can make and the hell with the "losers" who aren 't as smart and the vast poor who deserve nothing more than a big tip for an excellent shoeshine. The Republican budget is evidence of this, as obvious as pigeon droppings on a top hat. The only people who would trade Medicare for a voucher system are those unaware of the costs todayof the simplest surgical procedures or briefest hospital confinement, or the seriously well healed with multiple millions. We already have the largest divide beteen the rich and the poor since the Gilded Age and the Republicans want to enlarge it. That's always the problem with greed.

The Country Club View of Planned Parenthood

When I speak of country clubs, I speak with authority. After all, I'm a WASP and I've spent a good chunk of my life dallying at these institutions of pure right wing conservative Republicanism. (Is there any other kind of Republicanism now that the extremists have run the moderates out of sight?) I haven't been undercover trying to change them quietly either because that is impossible. I've simply enjoyed the tennis, golf, food without a line, etc. for which I appologize. I have kept my ears open, however, and there is considerable confusion at "The Club" over Planned Parenthood. Most members think Planned Parenthood is organized late term, baby killing abortion. Just ask Senator John Kyle. They don't know about PP's pregnancy prevention program or women's health services and, surprisingly, they don't care. You see, Republicans today, by and large, don't give a hoot about the poor and they aren't very sensitive when it comes to women either. The poor don't pay their own way and they shouldn't have sex in the first place. That's the way they breed, after all, and the offspring of poor people become thugs or welfare queens who have babies to make money which makes it very expensive. We can't afford welfare programs that are almost as costly as defense expenditures ( in their view) especially during a budget crisis that's got Jamie Dimon at JP Morgan Chase taking down less than $21 million last year. Normally, Republicans would be for anyone's pregnancy prevention programs, but conditions now are really serious and they want, if you'll excuse the pun, to throw the baby out with the bath water, the office furniture, NPR, Poison Control and everything else. That's the only way to deal with a nagging problem like this that's upsetting and confusing people at The Club.

Shocked, Shocked

It was reported that Alan Greenspan, the former Fed Chairman, was amazed that major American banks failed to police their business practices and so helped to speed the sub prime mortgage recession, a weak misnomer I doubt will last the test of time. No doubt the honorable Mr. Greenspan was also surprised that it took decades, even generations, before leading US corporations began to clean up their acts regarding pollution of the environment. They did so only because public opinion would no longer permit them to deny the facts on the damage they had done, hidden, belittled and finally admitted. Even so they fought like tigers with stockholder money to reduce their alleged deadly responsibility. Does it come as much of a surprise to learn that Americans are not alone in this overall failure of governance and regulation? 'Fraid not. We're learning in Japan that when all the radioactive dust settles it will be discovered that costly reactor repairs were sacrificed to profit or expediency. The abundant dollars for the promotion of new construction, presented by the ubiquitous lobbyists, of course, trumped the cautionary calls for prudence and extra safety measures. The latter cut into profits, don't they? No one can even guess today at the cost of Japan's nuclear reactor problems. Indeed, it may take years to find out. I wonder if we Americans will ever discover how much the Republican Party's perpetual and ongoing efforts to relieve Big Business of any responsibility except to maximize shareholder profits has cost the nation. Tea Partyers don't care and the Republican leadership is doing everything possible to undue the small start made by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, to say nothing of Elizabeth Warren's efforts to give consumers some relief from the predatory practices of the credit card companies. They have placed the responsibility for the whole mess on Big Government that has undermined business confidence. This line of attack is familiar to people who have watched Republican strategists go after John Kerry's medals and Max Cleland's patriotism. It's called turn the truth upside down by telling the biggest lies you can think up. In the question today, if there was insufficient regulation to prevent a financial meltdown in the US and a real nuclear one in Japan, spread the word that regulation is the real enemy and get some Texas zillionaire to produce some witnesses (what's Joe The Plumber doing theses days?) to support the claim. Democracy is a wild ride, that's for sure. I'll be the one shocked, however, if the truth doesn't win out in the end.

Bring in the Witches? Opportunists? Bullies? Clowns?

A president of one of America's finest universities, where I am one of the most humble graduates, once said that a major purpose of a liberal arts education was to provide a "catholic" understanding of men. I knew he wasn't expecting me to genuflect, but catholic is a tricky word. As an adjective, it means universal. What I didn't learn about men at that wonderful monastery where I enjoyed (too much) four years, I picked up in 2 years in the US Army and 10 years on Wall Street. Nothing in my experience, now running to 77 years, explains, however, what I am seeing in American public life today. I am able to make a nice literate reference that Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Eric Cantor, of Virginia have, like Cassius, lean and hungry looks, but I can't really understand their patently rapacious and opportunistic attitudes. Have their genes been altered or their brains been tinkered with, a la the Manchurian Candidate?



Here, in the deep South, bumper stickers like "Stop Socialism" are seen frequently. President Obama himself admitted to some overreach when he rushed to prevent an economic meltdown in the early months of his presidency, but he has not taken over the nation's banks any more than he has taken over the auto industry or the American health care industry. Those are deliberate and despicable Republican canards, like the birther issue, aimed at deceiving the public and undermining his presidency with an eye to the 2012 national elections.



If anyone wishes to see crystal clear overreaching, look at what is happening in Wisconsin, Ohio and Illinois and the House of Representatives in Washington, DC. Claiming just to be doing the will of the people, as expressed in the midterm elections last November, Republicans have abandoned "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs" to balance the budget on the backs of the middle class by attempting to eliminate collective bargaining and emasculate unions. In the process, they'd like to strike out at some old ideological enemies like the Pro Choice movement and the teachers union, despite the fact that one poll after another has revealed strong public support of collective bargaining. The voters are still focused on jobs, but key Republicans are at it again trying to wreck what they missed the last time they achieved power. It's amazing. Why? They know only miniscule savings can be achieved without cutting defense, social security, or medicaire and raising (heaven forbid) taxes on the rich. In reality, they really want simply to posture and play games, anything but govern or work copperatively in a time of budget crisis for which they are largely responsible.

My take on this is that just a few people, wrongly inspired, can make a big difference, the old Army of One theme. In this case the culprits are Mr. Walker, the governor of Wisconsin and Eric Cantor, the number 2 man in the House, who are both so eager to assume even higher office that they might as well be carrying signs. It isn't Karl Rove or the Koch brothers implementing a grand strategy, it's just pure greed and opportunism. The hell with jobs, who cares about stalling the recovery, let's just act in our own personal best interests. If gilding your creds as a conservative Republican means a putsch against unions, so be it. If dumping still another Speaker of the House means Eric can shine brighter still, who cares about the institution or the nation? It's selfishness and stupidity beyond belief and it gives Democrats an unexpected way to rebound from their humiliation last November. Don't worry, Republican friends, if President Obama is re-elected and the U. S. Senate stays in the Democratic column in 2012, you can count on their lack of discipline and cohesion to bring about a backlash to a backlash until we start electing people who aren't witches, mama grizzlies, and unfit opportunists. Until then the clowns look good to me.