It's a wonderful movie

The other day Kim came up to me and said, "Let's go see 'It's a Wonderful Life.' It's going to play Thursday night at the Lexington theater. It's an old movie and it was meant to be seen on the big screen. I think it'll be a lot of fun and it'll be free.

"Besides, I've never seen the whole movie. I've only seen bits and pieces of it here and there. C'mon, let's go. Pleeeeez."

Say whut?

I tried to process this request on several different levels. I mean, gee whiz, I've seen this move about a thousand times. I can quote dialogue from it before Jimmy Stewart does. The denouement, where the grateful population of Bedford Falls comes out to lift George Baily, is one of the best cinema endings in moviedom. I start to tear up about an hour before Clarence gets his wings, even though I know what's coming. I actually look forward to my tears.

So there's that.

Plus, the theater is old, drafty and could use some serious upgrades. I still wasn't sure, but then, what the heck. It was free. Anyway, even in spite of the theater's shortcomings, this was a thoughtful holiday treat by the staff. They were showing a different classic Christmas movie each night ("Polar Express", "Miracle on 34th Street", "Home Alone", "A Christmas Story", for example). So we went.

And guess what? Kim was right. This movie (like all movies) was meant to be seen on the big screen. I found myself chuckling at little bits of humor and nuance that I miss when I watch it on television. There were about 20 other people in the theater (a bigger audience than I expected), so when somebody laughed or giggled, we all did. Psychologically, I guess it's like some kind of mass contagious dissociative behavior. Or maybe it was just funny, I don't know. But it added to our big screen experience.

I also looked for the little stuff that is now movie trivia. The phone kiss between Stewart and Donna Reed was Stewart's first movie kiss since returning from World War II, where he flew 20 harrowing missions as a B-24 pilot. The passionate one-take kiss he gives Reed barely passed the censors of the time. Understandable, I guess. Reed was a 25-year-old beauty and Stewart was suffering from PTSD for the hell he'd just been through.

I also look for Carl Switzer, who played Alfalfa in the Our Gang comedies. Switzer is the wiseguy who opens the swimming pool floor during the dance scene. Stuff like that.

So we stayed to the very end. When Clarence got his wings, the audience clapped, like they sometimes do in movie houses. And I brushed away a tear.

Merry Christmas.

•  •  •

There's one other Christmas moment I want to mention.

Kim and I have been to several Christmas parties this year, and the one treat I'm yearning for – and have been for years – is toll house cookies.

Nobody, it seems, makes toll house cookies anymore. I think I know why. It's a pretty labor intensive project to make these things. 

"If you want them so badly, you can make 'em yourself," said Kim. "You're home all day."

Well, the last time I made them, about 30 years ago, it nearly killed me. And I was a young man then. The recipe I used made three dozen cookies, I think. Mmmm. Gooey oatmeal dough drenched in butter and brown sugar. Chocolate Nestle morsels. Walnuts. Mmmm. Try mixing those together by hand. It's like mixing quick-dry concrete. Like I said, labor intensive.

Anyway, Kim's already tied up making Moravian sugar cakes, so I'm not asking her to make cookies, too, if I want to stay married. It's either one or the other. If given an ultimatum, it'll always be the sugar cakes. Soooo good.

I am contemplating making some toll house cookies next Christmas, though. We'll see. 

But if I do make some, don't expect me to bring them to your party. They're that good. They might get gone before I get there.

I guess that's why I don't see any at the parties I do go to.

Mmmm. Toll house cookies.

Merry Christmas.

Thank you, Joe

Gas prices are dropping. Inflation, while still high, is hovering around 7.1% in this country while most other nations are experiencing double-digit inflation. Democrats avoided a red tsunami in the midterm elections and by doing so quite possibly saved democracy for a few more years.

And President Joe Biden's favorability numbers are rising. It's now 42.9 percent, the same as Ronald Reagan in the second year of his presidency.

With the year coming to a close, I thought I'd look at some of the more important legislative progress we made under the Biden administration despite some irrational blowback from many Republicans who, ironically, also stand to benefit from Biden's accomplishments:

• Passed the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package to improve highways, bridges, airports, etc.

• The American Rescue plan that helped put 500 million life-saving Covid vaccinations in the arms of Americans. It also cut child poverty in half and reduced healthcare premiums by $800 a year under the Affordable Care Act.

• Signed the bipartisan Safer Communities Act  to help mitigate gun violence as well as provide funding for youth mental health.

• The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 which provides for a $369 billion investment in climate change. It also caps prescription drug prices at $2000 per year for seniors on Medicare. Medicare, in fact, can now negotiate prescription drug prices, period. I can live with that one. It also imposed a 15% minimum corporate tax on some the the country's largest corporations, forcing them to pay their fair share.

• Pulled out of Afghanistan to end the longest war in American history.

•  Passed the Covid-19 relief deal that provided $1,400 checks for most Americans. Raise your hand if you returned your check because you don't like Biden. Yeah, that's what I thought.

• Created 6.6 million jobs in one year, more than any other president in history.

• Signed the PACT Act to deal with military service members exposure to burn pits.

• Signed the CHIPS and Science Act that strengthens American innovation and manufacturing.

• Signed the bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act.

There have been other significant accomplishments, like the return of American Brittany Griner from wrongful Russian imprisonment, college debt relief, rejoining the Paris Accords to fight climate change and the authorization of the assassination of Al Qaeda terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri.

All of these achievements have been remarkable given that Biden is dealing with a 50-50 Congress. And yet, here we are. 

There's still a ton of work to do. The Electoral Count Reform Act is still on the floor and the John Lewis voting rights act to guarantee free and fair elections needs resuscitation. Immigration issues at the border have plagued presidents for decades and needed to be addressed. But with a Republican-controlled House of Representatives coming in in January, expect the Party of Retribution to conduct useless, money-burning investigations intended solely to obstruct Democratic efforts to move the nation forward.

Still, it's been a year of significant accomplishments.

Oh, what a week

As a former newsman, I guess I shouldn't be surprised when a single eventful week can be so chocked full of news.

Like what happened this past week.

On Tuesday, Georgia rejoined the World of Common Sense by re-electing incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock to a full six-year term in the US Senate, knocking out Republican opponent Herschel Walker, a former collegiate and professional football star who was, no doubt, one of the most unqualified candidates for United States high political office in perhaps forever. It was astounding to hear him give serious speeches about werewolves and vampires and all that good American air going to China. Sheesh.

Warnock's victory also gave the Democrats a 51-49 edge in the Senate. That's critical. It means President Joe Biden can get a number of things accomplished without GOP obstruction, like appointing ambassadors, cabinet heads and federal judges. It also gives Democrats full – and not shared – control of Senate committees and sub-committees. 

It also means that when the Republican controlled House of Representatives begins its threatened investigations of the Biden administration amidst calls for Biden's impeachment (as well as some cabinet heads), it's likely to be an exercise in futility because the Senate simply will vote against impeachment. There will be no sense of real governance in the GOP House, only retribution.

More of Senate control in a moment.

On Thursday night, we learned that WNBA basketball star Brittany Griner was finally released from a Russian prison after 10 months of wrongful imprisonment for what most of the world considers a minor offense: medicinal cannabis oil for her vape pen.

What should have been cause for celebration that an American citizen was released from Russian detention quickly turned into a political football (or basketball, if you will). Griner was released under the terms of a prisoner swap with the Russians welcoming back notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is sometimes known as "The Merchant of Death."

The extreme right went nuts. How dare Biden give up an arms dealer for a basketball player? What kind of unequal deal was that?

Bout was scheduled for release in 2029, while Griner would serve her sentence until 2031. So if Bout was going to be released anyway, why not take advantage of his current capital to release a wrongly imprisoned American? It's not like Bout isn't the only Merchant of Death walking around the globe.

Meanwhile, another American, Paul Whelan, has been in a Russian prison for four years, accused of being a spy. And he's a former Marine, dammit. When did we leave Marines behind?

First off, even after months of negotiations for both Americans, the Russians made the offer either Griner, or neither of them. Not much of a choice, really.

But some people were appalled. In comparing Griner to Whelan (why are people comparing the two? They're both Americans), Griner appeared to be the ungrateful un-American pariah. She was critical of the United States. She often would kneel for the National Anthem at her games. Meanwhile, Whelan was a Marine, dammit. Impeach Biden.

What Griner is is Black, female and gay. Her stance on the National Anthem is similar to Colin Kaepernick's, a Black man who also suffered from the wrath of the extremists for his stance, which was in reality intended to spotlight the racial social injustices that still linger under the surface in this country, despite the 13th and 14th amendments and other civil rights legislation.

Meanwhile – and this hasn't been played up much – Whelan was court martialed and received a "bad conduct discharge" from the Marines in 2008 for bouncing checks and the attempted theft of $10,000 while serving in Iraq. He was also demoted from sergeant to corporal. All of this while wearing the uniform of a Marine. Sounds pretty disgraceful to me. (See here).

But, you know. He's not gay. He's not female. And he's white. And he probably stands for the National Anthem.

And I hope like hell he's released from Russia as soon as possible, as we would hope for any wrongfully imprisoned American.

Anyway, on Friday, the Democratic 51-49 edge in the Senate appeared to be in danger when Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema announced she was leaving the Democratic Party to register as an Independent.

But it's likely Sinema will caucus with the Democrats just like Independents Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine, which will maintain the Democrats' control over the Senate and keep American government moving forward. Sinema will caucus with the Democrats because she doesn't want to jeopardize losing her committee seats, so nothing really changes.

Unless she's lying.

So, man, what a week it was.

Now all we have to look forward to is criminal referrals, subpoenas, pointless investigations, hypocrisy and obstruction.

What a country.

It never ends

Just when I think we're finally free and clear of disgraced and twice-impeached former President Donald Trump, we're not.

Silly me.

On Saturday, in yet another un-American moment, Trump called for the termination of the United States Constitution. (See here)

You know, the document that gives us the Fourth of July. The document that begins with "We the People..." The document that gives us free elections, free speech, freedom of religion. That document.

You all in for that?

He wants to shred the Constitution because, despite the lack of any evidence whatsoever, he claims the 2020 elections that put Joe Biden in office were false and fraudulent. But if we terminate the Constitution, he says, we have the choice to either install him as the rightful president, or hold new elections.

Trump wrote, "A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great Founders did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!"

This, of course, is American blasphemy. And he's an American absurdity.

I keep replaying an old black-and-white newsreel footage in the back of my mind where I see soldiers landing on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. One or two of them fall to the ground. It's almost shocking to see. Those honored fallen took an oath and gave their lives for the document Trump wants to trash. Those honored fallen have done so for nearly 250 years.

How dare he. It makes me ill to think about it. And yet, there are many who still stand in silent approval of Trump. Most are Republicans. I don't understand. Isn't there a bad taste in their mouths, too?

All of this comes just days after he hosted a Mar-a-Lago dinner with anti-Semite Kanye West (who has now abbreviated his name to Ye. Well, hey, just call me Bru. Or Ce.) and ultra-disgusting white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

And this coming just weeks after Trump announced his candidacy for a second term as president. I guess he's running on the un-American platform. I guess we know the target of his appeal.

All this follows a lengthy pattern of un-Americanism, including applauding the insurrectionists of Jan. 6 and separating infant children from their parents as his administration's declared immigration policy, along with plans for a friggin' wall at the border.

I love how some Trumpists claim that Biden has done nothing but lead us through a poop show that last two years, but the truth is, nothing Biden has done comes anywhere near the national embarrassment of Trump's Republican Party.

I'm hoping the recent midterm elections were a barometer of the nation's state of sensibility. The projected red tsunami turned out to be a red trickle, giving us a split Congress instead of a red sweep.

I'm hoping Tuesday's Senatorial runoff in Georgia between unqualified Republican Herschel Walker and incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock is a resounding Warnock victory.

I'm hoping the Constitution is stronger than any tinpot despot, in just the way the Founders intended.

Here we go again

And by the headline of this blog, I don't mean the holidays.

Slowly and surely, we are being warned about a triumvirate of viruses about to assault us this winter: RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), influenza and Covid.

We're already pretty familiar with the flu and Covid. The flu has been with us for centuries, it seems. Covid (often confused with the flu by those who want to ignore the science) has been with us since late 2019, even though it seems like centuries.

And RSV appears to be the newcomer in this group of three even though it's been around for ages. It's actually a relatively common virus that causes infections in the respiratory tract, and while it can affect adults, it seems to be targeting high-risk infants in its current form, which is probably why it's in the news these days. That and the fact that hospitals are becoming overloaded with patients again.

 RSV can be treated with oxygen therapy.

As far as the flu is concerned, it's my understanding that those medical professionals responsible for preparing the correct flu vaccine with the correct corresponding strain of the flu virus have hit the target this year. There is optimism that the flu shot should be very effective this go around.

And the predicted/anticipated rise in Covid this winter already has us talking about masking, mandates, social distancing and vaccinations, and we barely finished with our turkey.

It'll be interesting to see who's listening. A couple weeks ago, a report came out that Covid was killing twice as many Republicans (who mostly abstained from the science of vaccinations because of their political persuasion to defy logic) as Democrats (who mostly begged for vaccinations). There's some empirical evidence for you. See here.

Kim and I are up to date on all of our vaccinations. In fact, we've also been vaccinated for shingles. Plus, I've gotten the pneumonia shot and recently had an update on my tetanus shot. Just call me Pincushion Bruce. I don't care. I'll take any shot they tell me to if it gets me to my 72nd birthday.

There's one epidemic for which there seems to be no cure. Mass shootings seem to be on the rise again, occurring at a godawful rate of nearly two per day – more than 608 mass shooting this year alone. According to the Gun Violence Archive, which keeps track of these things, there have been 40,133 deaths to gun violence this year, including 614 to mass shootings.

That's a lot of empty seats at the Christmas table.

Why do we insist on killing ourselves this way? What other country eats its own like this?

If only there was a vaccination for gun violence.

Democracy lives

For a while there, I was wondering what was wrong with the American electorate during Tuesday's mid-term elections.

After all, nearly two million people in Georgia cast their ballots for a grossly unqualified former football player who could barely articulate an intelligent sentence to represent their interests in the United States Senate. 

And it wasn't just Georgia. Election deniers and erstwhile extreme right-wing snake oil salesmen were running for offices all across the country: Californian J.D. Vance ran for the Senate seat in Ohio; television doctor Mehmet Oz from New Jersey was running as another carpetbagger for the Senate seat in Pennsylvania; and election denier Ron Johnson was seeking a third term in Wisconsin.

Every election I hear how smart the American people are when they go to the polls, and yet I was holding my breath this time as incompetent candidates were seeking powerful offices and coming unbelievably close to winning their races.

All of this reminded me of something I read years ago about the creation of the Constitution, where some of the Founding Fathers wondered if they could indeed trust the voting public. One delegate, Gouverneur Morris of New York, feared poor people without property (property was being considered as a qualification to vote) would sell their votes to the rich.

Morris was afraid the the country would "abound with mechanics and manufacturers who will receive their bread from their employers" and suggested that "the ignorant and dependent can be as little trusted with the public interest" as small children.

Imagine if there had been fear-mongering FOX News back then. Holy cow.

Anyway, Tuesday's elections came and went. Despite predictions of a red tsunami that would flood the House and Senate with election denying, Social Security stripping Republicans, nearly the opposite happened. John Fetterman, the current lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania who has a Master's degree in business from Harvard University as well as a hoodie from Carrhart, knocked off Oz to win the seat and essentially give the Democrats control of the Senate.

That is fortuitous for the country that has had to wade through currents of lies and misinformation from both sides of the aisle. But President Joe Biden can continue to offer judges and cabinet heads for Senate approval. Those who are still denying that Biden won the election in 2020 – without evidence, mind you – can just shut the hell up.

Indeed, as of today, the House of Representatives is still up for grabs, with the votes of about 20 seats still to be totaled. The Republicans have a paper-thin edge for control at this moment, but it could change. Wouldn't that be something in what was supposed to be a red tsunami year?

All of this gives me a moment to consider that the American electorate might be just smart enough. Yep, too many whackos got too close to gaining office (Vance and Johnson come to mind).

We're not out of the woods yet. We might never be. Democracy – and the will of the people – managed to survive this time. Nevertheless, in order for it to continue to survive, diligence must also be sharpened. We have to decide if democracy is worth fighting for. That means expanding voting rights, not constricting them. That means ending gerrymandering and redlining.

It means not voting for former football players who think part of their family comes from Mars (See here).

It means democracy lives.

 

What a run

There's a symmetry in baseball that is so subtle that not everybody sees it. Or senses it. Or grasps it.

But it's there.

It's not just the 90 feet between bases, where an inch or two longer would see nearly everybody getting thrown out on ground balls at first base, or an inch or two shorter where nearly everybody would beat out infield grounders for base hits.

It's not just the 60 feet, six inches which gives the pitcher just enough time and space to throw a curveball. Or a slider. Or a knuckleball. Or a fast ball.

Or a letters-to-knees strike zone that allows this to happen.

It's not even that the game is played on a perfect diamond. All of these are merely the physical symmetries of the game.

But the game is played on an intangible level, too.

How about the New York Yankees Aaron Judge, who wears uniform number 99? The night he hit his 62nd home run, the Yankees had a record of – wait for it – 99-62. Why would you think the Yankees are not Judge's team?

The intangible symmetry of a No. 6 seed – the Philadelphia Phillies – going against a No. 1 seed – the Houston Astros – for the world championship.

The Astros, not only one of the best teams in the game, but also one of the best organizations, defeated the Phillies 4-1 last night in Game 6 of the best-of-seven series to win their second world championship since 2017, and thereby giving the venerable Dusty Baker his first World Series ring as a manager, something he's been trying for 25 years. He's on a fast train to the Hall of Fame as we speak.

To me, a diehard Phillies fan, the most obvious moment of symmetry came in Game 3, when the Phillies defeated the Astros 7-0 on the strength of five home runs. The very next game, four Houston pitchers combined to throw a no-hitter against the Phils – only the second no-hit game in 119 years of World Series history. Symmetry.

This is baseball. This is what it does. Over the course of a long season, baseball is the symmetry of conflicting emotions, of beautiful diving catches in the outfield and agonizing bobbled double play balls at second base. It's the symmetry of a mediocre team (the Phillies were just six games over .500 – 87-75 – at the end of the regular season) taking on the best there is.

It's the symmetry of a cheesesteak against a nacho plate.

The Phillies got hot at just the right time, winning playoff series against St. Louis, Atlanta and San Diego. They did so with timely hits, incredible late-inning rallies, and a suspect bullpen that somehow seemed to find itself in October.

They were fun to watch.

It was the symmetry of a long season that ended up giving not only a city, but an entire region something to cheer for. The team has youth. It has experience. It has a couple of needs, particulaly in pitching depth, if it wants to reach the next level.

And it all leads to this: as my wife pointed out (she is a non-sports fan, by the way, illustrating yet another example of curious Yin-Yang symmetry in our house), there's also the glorious symmetry of there's always next year.

God help me, I love baseball.

 

Scary times

Halloween is just around the corner, complete with all of its ghosts, goblins, monsters and mayhem.

Sounds suspiciously like the pending midterm elections, doesn't it? Hmm. Maybe there's more relevance here between the two events than meets the eye.

We've been dealing with the mayhem for quite a while now. The benchmark date, of course, is the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2020 as President Trump watched approvingly of the chaos on television. I will suggest the mayhem actually began on Trump's Inauguration day, launched by his "American carnage" speech when, in fact, there was nothing close to carnage in the country. Turns out, his speech was a portend of things to come throughout his administration:

• The mishandling of Covid, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
• The denial of the results of a free and fair election.
• Tax breaks for the rich.
• Separation of families of immigrants at the border.
• Dismantling of environmental controls.
• Disparaging NATO, which consequently opened the door for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has ultimately led – directly and indirectly – to global inflation.
• Limiting voter rights.
• Taking away a woman's right for autonomy over her own body.
• Carnage.
  

The mayhem continues right up to Friday's attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Some Republicans have taken light of the attack (see Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, who heartlessly politicised the attack), which seems to be a standard reflection of Republicans' stance on political violence – unless it happens to them. It's repulsive to find humor in the physical attack of an 82-year-old man, resulting in a fractured skull, during a home invasion. Republican rhetoric on violence is incredibly transactional.

So now we're on the verge of the midterm elections. Republicans, eager to sow doubt of our democracy, are already claiming voter fraud in several states before ballots have even been counted. Here we go again.

Polling suggests races are neck-and-neck across the country, mostly due to what is perceived to be a poor economy, even though more jobs – 6.5 million – have been created than ever before. 

Under the current Democratic administration, legislative success in an evenly split Congress has been amazing: the Inflation Reduction Act alone puts a cap on prescription drugs at $2,000 a year; Medicare will pay $35 a month for insulin; and a minimum corporate tax rate to pay for it all (which is why the government needs 87,000 IRS workers to serve as accountants, not gun-bearing agents. Sheesh).

This administration has also improved health care for veterans; signed the CHIPS and Science Act to bring jobs back to the US; and action to address gun violence in this country.

So why would you vote against that? Wouldn't you be voting against your own best interests? Of course you would.

If the economy is your primary concern, keep in mind economies almost always eventually recover. Also keep in mind that the only useful tool in the box is to raise interest rates to control spending. There are no buttons a president can push to magically end inflation. The Great Depression of the 1930s eventually ended. So did the recession of the 1980s. 

But losing your democracy may be forever.

And that's pretty scary.

 

Picking Astros; pulling for Phillies

 I know. That headline above this blog makes absolutely no sense. Until it does.

It's like I'm trying to have it both ways on the eve of the World Series.

But let me explain.

As noted in an earlier blog, I've been a Phillies fan since at least 1964. I lived (and died) through the team's legendary late-season collapse that year, but I also celebrated World Series championships in 1980 and 2008. I bleed Phillies red (I guess we all do when you think about it. What a fan base).

The fact that the Phillies made it to the World Series, which begins Friday night in Houston, is nothing short of amazing. They are the sixth and final seed from Major League Baseball's new and expanded playoff system, and it's the only reason they're in the playoffs to begin with. They finished the regular season in third place in the NL East Division with a mediocre 87-75 record, qualified for the playoffs on the second to the last day of the year, and then got hot at exactly the right time by knocking off the Cardinals, Braves and Padres in the playoffs.

The Phillies are 9-2 in the postseason, which I suppose you could say improves their record to 96-77.

Meanwhile, the Astros are undefeated in the playoffs and won 106 games in the regular season to become the top seed from the American league.

The Astros have been hot all year long. They're built for the long haul and quite possibly for the postseason. They've been a very good team for at least five years, when they won their first World Series title in 2017 and added three more American League pennants since then. They are currently in the middle of a dynasty.

They have a manager, Dusty Baker, who is beloved and has won more than 2,000 games in a long and glorious career. But he's never managed a World Series winner. This makes him a sentimental favorite for many baseball insiders and fans.

On paper, Houston wins the statistical matchup, especially from their bullpen. Their starter on Friday, Justin Verlander, is favored to win the Cy Young Award. He'll go against Philly's Aaron Nola, who can be great on any given night – or not so great.

In the face of what could be a colossal mismatch – hey, the Astros just swept the Yankees, for crying out loud – the Phillies are just fun to watch. They can get massive home runs from bombers like Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins or Kyle Schwarber in one moment, or they can kick the ball around like an American Legion baseball team the next. Which is why they have to hit homers.

Houston is also seeking redemption, of sorts, for its sign-stealing scandal in 2017 when it beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. It's a charge they can't quite shake, kind of like Tom Brady and the New England Patriots Deflate-gate and Spygate episodes, which will seemingly follow them for generations. 

Harper's two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning in the fifth game of the NLCS might be the most clutch homer I've ever seen from a Phillie, and that includes decades of watching Mike Schmidt hitting dingers. So there.

I think it's imperative that the Phillies get a split in one of their first two games in Houston, then bring the Series back to Philadelphia where they can feed off the fans for three games. If they can't get a split, it could be quick work by the Astros.

So my brain says the Astros win this thing in five. Maybe even four.

But my heart says the Phillies in seven, which means they have to win at least one game in Houston, and more likely, two. They have to stay hot. They have to be lucky. And they have to have heart.

Go Phillies.

 

My friends get married

Not everyone gets to come full circle in their winding journey through life.

My friend Donnie Roberts did, though.

 

Kay and Donnie perform their vows.

Yesterday. Righteously. At the Barbecue Festival. In front of hundreds of people.

Donnie married his longtime friend, Kay Gibson, on the Grand Stand Stage immediately following the opening ceremonies for the 38th Annual Barbecue Festival.

Full circle?

Donnie was the photographer for The Dispatch for nearly 30 years before his job was unceremoniously displaced in a bottom-line maneuver by the corporate ownership of Gannett/Gatehouse. But during those years, he documented every barbecue festival this town has had from his arrival in 1990 up until his job was eliminated in 2020.

That meant climbing up on the Main Stage for some iconic photographs of the festival's top performers, including acts like Montgomery Gentry and Darius Rucker, to name a few.

Sharing of the Sandwich.

But yesterday, the stage was his. He and Kay owned it for 20 minutes or so as Dr. Rev. Lee Jessup officiated. It was all theirs. It was wonderful. 

There were two really neat moments. The first came when Rev. Jessup asked Donnie if he would take Kay as his lawfully wedded wife. Donnie promptly cupped his hand around his mouth and emphatically proclaimed to the crowd, "I do!" No microphone was needed.

The second moment came when, after the "I do's" were done, Rev. Jessup presented them with a barbecue sandwich. Of course he did. Donnie and Kay each shared a bite at the same time, essentially sealing the deal. I'm not quite sure if eating a barbecue sandwich is a sacrament of the church, but it did seem like a version of holy communion in a festival where barbecue is considered sacrosanct. Good job.

Just an added note here. Kay has been my wife's hairdresser for nearly 40 years, so Kim has actually known Kay longer than I've known Donnie. It could be that Kim and I have known Donnie and Kay – collectively, at least – longer than anybody.

And so, our friends were married.

There was a nifty back story to all of this, too.

Years ago, Donnie served as the Maid, er, Man, er, Maid of Honor at the wedding of his good friend Whitney Brooks. Yesterday, Whitney reciprocated when she served as Donnie's Best Man, er, Woman, er, Man.

"When he asked me to be his best man," said Brooks, "I didn't think twice about it. Of course I would."

And so, the circle was made full.

 

Why they play the games

Okay. Those who know me know that I'm still floating a couple of feet off the ground after the sixth-seeded Philadelphia Phillies somehow eliminated the second-seeded Atlanta Braves in their best-of-5 National League Division Series Saturday with an 8-3 victory.

I manage the Phillies into the NLCS.

 That puts the Phillies in the National League Championship Series against the San Diego Padres, who are seemingly playing in a parallel baseball universe with the Phils. The fifth-seeded Padres knocked out the top-seeded Dodgers 5-3 last night with a five-run seventh inning eruption.

I've been a Phillies fan since 1963. That was the year we moved from East Hartford, CT. (where I was a 12-year-old Yankees fan) to Bethlehem, PA., (an hour outside of Philly), because Dad was entering into Moravian Theological Seminary to become a minister.

It wasn't hard for me to become a Phillies fan back then because in 1964, it looked like the team was on its way to winning a pennant – until it wasn't. The Phillies led the league for most of the season until their epic collapse in the final weeks, featuring a 10-game losing streak in their last 12 games. That's when I learned what it meant to be a Phillies fan.

In fact, about a decade or so ago, the Phillies became the first franchise of any sport to lose 10,000 total games in its history, dating back back to 1883 (which, in its defense, also makes it the longest existing single-city sports franchise in the country).

Anyway, the "Phold," as it's been called, has become a distant memory to us Phanatics, thanks to World Series championships in 1980 and 2008. But believe me, the "Phold" is still hiding there in the dark recesses of our thought processes, knowing disaster can strike at any moment. It's in our Phillies DNA.

(Notes: I was born in Allentown, PA., so, yes, I was born with the Philadelphia DNA in my system. It stays with me no matter where I live. Go Eagles. Go Flyers. Go Sixers).

This year has been a little different, though.

Major League Baseball expanded its playoff system this season with another level of competition, adding a third wild-card team. If it wasn't for that, the Phillies wouldn't even have qualified for the playoffs this year. They would have been just another third-place team with a mediocre 87-75 record in a 162-game season.

Think about that for a moment. Eighty-seven victories is only six games over .500. Meanwhile, teams like the Dodgers (111 victories), the Mets (101) and the Braves (101) were dominating the regular season. Atlanta, in fact, was on a path to defending the World Series championship that it won last year.

Then the playoffs arrived and we entered the realm of the mystical.

When baseball expanded and divided itself into divisional play, a new format was required to determine a league champion. So the playoffs were born in 1995. The playoffs provided a different kind of excitement and tension. A long season for those who qualified became a short season. And the playoffs extended the season from early October to mid-October.

There is an inherent weakness to the playoff system, however. The best team doesn't always win. Sometimes it's the team that's the hottest in that particular moment. Witness the Phillies (87 victories). Witness the Padres (89).

But you know what? I don't care. It's why we play the games. So now I'm rooting desperately for a team that fired its manager, Joe Giardi, two months into the season when they were 22-29. I'm rooting for a team that had the fourth-worst bullpen in the league. I'm rooting for a team that sometimes plays defense like it's playing with live hand grenades. I'm rooting for a team with one of the strangest names in sports.

I may smoke one of these if we win the World Series.

(OK, time for a break. I used to think "Phillies" was a bad cigar. I used to think, as a child, that the cigars were actually affiliated with the team, because the name "Phillies" was printed in block letters like many baseball teams use.

 Then, upon further investigation, I learned that cricket was very popular in the northeast states back in the 1860s, and Philadelphia had a team called "The Philadelphians." Try putting that on a uniform. Or in a headline. Somewhere along the way, between 1866 and 1883, the Philadelphians became the Phillies, which referred to a person who was a resident of Philadelphia. If that's true, then it's suddenly one of the most logical, appropriate and politically correct team name in sports.)

So here I am, still in a moment of shock because of my low expectations. I'm donning my Phillies cap again and alternating with wearing a couple of lucky Phillies related t-shirts. I'm still anxious because of 1964 but I'm still hopeful because of 1980 and 2008. I'm exchanging texts with several of my friends who live in Pennsylvania.

I'm ready to go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Th

Hershel Walker's GOP

After hearing the news that Georgia U.S. Senate candidate Hershel Walker – who's been running on a platform of being a staunch anti-abortionist – paid for his then girlfriend's abortion 11 years ago, I immediately thought, "Well, this is it for Herschel."

Then, seconds later, my cynicism kicked in.

According to recent polling, the race between Walker and incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock is neck-and-neck. How can that be, I wondered?

Then I knew why. Almost immediately (everything is immediate these days), Republicans across the board rushed to Walker's defense: Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ron Johnson, Newt Gingrich among others, all telling us how wonderful a Christian man Walker is and what a fine senator he'd make (even though he's had four children out of wedlock and has not helped in raising any of them; even though he's held a gun to his wife's head and threatened to blow her brains out; even though good American air is going to China to replace their polluted air; Walker thinks he's redeemed while he believes his opponent, an ordained Baptist minister, doesn't believe in redemption. Good senator material there, huh? Sheesh).

While we can question the motives and actions of members of either political major party, the Republican Party clearly has taken hypocrisy – as well as Big Lying, cheating, misdirection and grift – to new, unseen heights. And we see it happen in front of our eyes virtually every day.

And yet, the GOP fundraising increases. I don't get it. I understand the concept that we have retreated to our own political camps, I understand how new technology, like the Internet and various unchecked social media have warped the truth and elevated conspiracy theories. I don't understand why the Republican base accepts most of the nonsense we're hearing these days as political truth.

So when a barely functional illiterate (who, as Gingrich himself said, might have taken too many blows to the head back in the day as a football star for both Georgia and the NFL) takes the mic and tells you he has no idea why this woman is talking about an abortion he apparently paid for even though she has the receipt and get-well card that he signed, Republicans rush to his aid.

Apparently, they're going to vote Republican because daddy was a Republican, and Pawpaw was a Republican, and great Pawpaw was a Republican. That chain or lineage seems to be the only measure for casting a vote these days, and not the facts, nor the agenda, nor the ideas that might surface.

As one Yahoo! news story commenter noted about Walker: "Can anyone seriously see this man reading and understanding a tax bill, the provisions of an EPA regulation, the relative merits of buying one jet fighter vs. another, the options for combating drought in the Western watershed, proposed changes to social security or Medicare legislation? Please, can we get real here?"

Good questions, and questions that can be posed to any Republican – Hershel Walker's Republicans since they are supporting him party-wide – who won't give a straight answer. 

I think this country's democracy is at a crossroads as we head into the midterms. Many Republican candidates are election-result deniers – including several who are running for their crucial secretary of state position – who two years later still don't think Joe Biden is the legitimately-elected president; many still think the Jan. 6 insurgency at the Capitol were tourists on a lark; many believe in the Big Lie that Donald Trump is still the legitimate president without a shred of evidence of perceived voter fraud.

I'm not sure how to get past this absurdity. Well, yes I do. I've never advocated this before, but the only way to make sure that democracy as we have known it for the past 246 years is to vote a straight Democratic ticket, flaws and all. We have to purge the insane asylum. This is our chance. 

Maybe our last chance.

 

Four souls

Sometimes life just quietly steps up behind you and taps you on the shoulder when you least expect it. You know, when you're busy doing other things. We don't know why. We don't know when.

That's what life does.

Rodney Walser

 So, for the Wehrles, within a two-week period, we lost four friends, each on separate days.

About 10 days ago, Kim learned that her cousin's wife, Mary Wood Willard, passed away. She was 78.

I knew Mary mostly as an acquaintance who I'd see once a year during family reunions. Our conversations were usually brief, and always friendly. But for Kim, Mary was a vessel of memories as well as a connection as they climbed and explored the branches in their family tree together. Family was important to her.

"She was a very kind person, very sweet," Kim told me through moist eyes. "I always enjoyed her company."

Ken Coleman

One of the things Kim remembered about Mary "is what a great Southern cook she was." That may not seem like much at first glance, but we all have our talents. Some of them are hidden, some of them are taken for granted, and some of them define us. We all looked forward to seeing Mary.

We went to Mary's visitation last Saturday, which was also the day a neighbor on our block, Ken Coleman, suffered a heart attack. Ken, 83, passed the following day.

Ken was a soft-spoken fellow who almost always seemed to seek me out when we were at neighborhood functions. I think we actually met decades ago, back in the days when I was a sportswriter for The Dispatch and covered his daughter, Anna, who was a stellar tennis player for the Lexington Yellow Jackets and a force to reckon with statewide.

Steve Hinkle

 I knew at one time that Ken and his wife, Mary, operated a restaurant in town (I can still taste the chicken pie. Mmmm mmm), but I didn't know that before that, he ran the Ice Cream Well. That was before I arrived in Lexington and Kim said his place had the best French fries ever. She still misses them.

Whenever Ken found me, he'd take me aside and we'd talk about nearly anything that came to his mind – although it was likely sports – and ask my opinion on it. And I knew it wasn't just for conversation's sake because Ken was as sincere as they came. I could tell because of his smile. And his eyes.

I came to find out that he was a faithful reader of my blog and I took that as a big compliment. It let me know that some of my blogs ranged across generations.

Mary Wood Willard

A day or two later, Kim was perusing the laptop when, out of the blue, she asked me, "Did you know Steve Hinkle? Did he have anything to do with sports?"

Uh-oh. I had an idea where this was going. I went to where Kim was sitting and stood over her shoulder. And there, on the laptop, was Steve's picture, along with his obituary.

Steve was a longtime coach at North Davidson, especially football and golf, and since I was a sports writer for The Dispatch, we primarily dealt with each other on professional terms. I remember Steve as a straight shooter who never failed to answer my questions, whether his team won or lost. That's something a sports writer can appreciate.

Steve, 75, was also a high school basketball official and I'd occasionally see him at basketball games that I was covering. He always had a wave, a smile and a brief chat with me. That was nice.

But how come it takes an obituary to find out something new about somebody? I never knew he and I had the same birthday – February 12. That knowledge seemed to tighten the connection we had. I just couldn't share it with him when I found out.

The week already seemed to be relentlessly difficult, but a day later I got a text from a former colleague at NewBridge Bank (where I worked part-time after retiring from The Dispatch) informing me that Rodney Walser had passed. This was too much. Too much for one week. Too much to process.

Rodney was my supervisor at NewBridge, and you couldn't have asked to meet a nicer, calmer, collected person. The interesting thing about Rodney was that he came to what was then Lexington State Bank in 1990 straight after graduating from North Davidson. No college degree. No associate's degree. Just the smarts he carried in his brain.

And the best part was that his talent and abilities were recognized by the higher ups almost from the start. He worked for LSB/NewBridge for 27 years, becoming an assistant vice president and the supervisor of the Items Processing Department. I think he made life as easy as he could for the people in his department. At least, that's how I saw it. He was a natural leader.

When NewBridge began downsizing and reorganizing to become First National Bank, Rodney quickly found a job at Breeden Insurance, where he soon became the floor manager.

Rodney was a big man with a big heart, and everybody he met seemed to be drawn – almost inexorably – into his circle of friendship. It was shocking to me when he died, even more shocking to learn that he was only 50.

The question has been asked by songwriters and philosophers, from poets to pastors, "Does anyone know where the love of God goes?" 

It's been a tough week. I think the love of God goes silently from soul to soul, in our actions, in our interdependency on others, in our own love for what is dear to us. 

I think I know four souls who found that love.

 

Out of step with the GOP

I never thought I'd live to see the day when one of our country's two political parties – and one that I once believed in – would become a dangerous, anti-constitutional anarchist movement whose only viable platform is cruelty that is disguised and labeled as Christian Nationalism.

I never thought the Republican Party would come to this. Or stoop to this.

The latest indignity – it feels like these indignities are happening every day –  occurred last week when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – kidnapped Venezuelan asylum seekers in Texas, brought them to Florida and then flew them  – all on the taxpayer's dollar – unannounced to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts to make a political statement about a perceived failed government immigration policy (never mind that southern border immigration has been an issue for both political parties over the past several decades).

Martha's Vineyard, a small island, is a wealthy liberal enclave and sanctuary location. DeSantis, who styles himself as a potential presidential candidate, saw this as an opportunity to slap "woke" liberals. It is nothing more than a cruel and immoral – if not illegal – political stunt designed to play to the Republican base.

DeSantis apparently lured the asylum seekers with promises of jobs, education and housing, which might make him liable to kidnapping and human trafficking. We'll see. The immigrants have filed a class-action suit against DeSantis for discrimination and violating their due process rights, and a sheriff in Texas where the flight originated is conducting an investigation. 

(It's interesting to note here that local churches and clergy in Martha's Vineyard have provided food and shelter to the immigrants, demonstrating the true spirit of Christianity, while this circus plays itself out).

The whole episode is very hypocritical when you consider that the Republican remedy for the immigration crisis under former president Donald Trump was to separate children from their parents – some of them infants nursing at their mother's breast – in an effort to discourage people from coming to this country in the first place.

What a brilliant policy that was, huh?

DeSantis' move seems to be gaining favor among other Republican governors, who are bussing immigrants North. Republican senate leader Mitch McConnell thinks this is a great idea, another indication where the GOP, a party that is now aligning itself with QAnon, is leaning. I guess they support this because they have no solutions of their own and thus subcontract the building of their platform planks to conspiracy theorists.

There is one path to a solution, and it doesn't entail making political pawns out of human beings. Put the onus of immigration reform on Congress. That's where the real power to do anything lies anyway. And it also holds members of Congress responsible for their actions.

But I feel like all I can do is hope against hope that this country will come to its senses and return to the reason that made it the greatest democracy on the planet – and the reason people from other countries seek the promises enshrined in our Constitution.

 The greatest promise, of which, is dignity. And not just for the immigrants, but for the rest of us, too.

Her Majesty

Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl

But she doesn't have a lot to say 

Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl

But she changes from day to day

I wanna tell her that I love her a lot

But I gotta get a belly full of wine

Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl

Someday I'm gonna make her mine

Oh yeah, someday I'm gonna make her mine.

                          -- Paul McCartney, Abbey Road

 

Let me say right off the bat that I'm not a monarchist. Consequently, with the passing of Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, and Sovereign of the Most Noble Order of the Garter (her proper title at the time of her funeral. Imagine writing that down in a résumé), I simply shrugged my shoulders and watched the pageantry and spectacle with a mostly cynical eye.

All the pomp. All the circumstance. These are probably some of the reasons why we fought the Revolution in the first place. Americans just had to get away from castles and knights and dukedoms and fiefdoms and fairy tales and bagpipes, not to mention taxation without representation.

And, oh my, those crown jewels whose value probably could sustain a small economy. And all that privilege. White privilege. And class structure – lords and commons. And tea with jam butties. C'mon.

And yet...

Over the course of the past 10 days of mourning, I've been learning a lot more than I ever knew or understood about constitutional monarchy. 

I learned that "Hip, hip, hooray" is an actual royal honorific and not just a pub cheer.

Sure, the Royal Family is without political power. But that doesn't mean they have no sway. The modern monarchy, it seems, finds its power in the dignity of civil and charitable service even in spite of scandal, death and divorce.

It is why, I think, throngs of commoners without bejeweled crowns or scepters have come to pay their respects to the Queen. And, lest I forget, her "reign" lasted 70 years with Elizabeth cracking, if not outright shattering, glass ceilings in a mostly male dominated world.

Dignity. I forgot what that was.

And so, these last few days, I've watched ceremony after ceremony, ritual after ritual, based on centuries of tradition unfolding before us. Occasionally, I would choke up in spite of myself. After all, I am not a monarchist. Maybe it was all the church services.

In his book, "The Lyrics", former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney – and a loyal subject of the Crown – wrote about Queen Elizabeth in explaining his little ditty "Her Majesty."

McCartney wrote more than a year or two ago, "I think she's great. I have a lot of admiration for her. I think she's sensible, intelligent.

"I think she's the glue that often holds this nation together," wrote McCartney. "The Commonwealth is not the empire anymore, but it's a gathering of people, and they all like her. I was very happy when she became the longest-reigning British monarch. She's an excellent role model, holding down the job, being sensible. Loads of challenges, but she seems to manage.

"I did once perform this song for the queen. I don't know how to break this to you, but she didn't have a lot to say."

Sounds about right.

Faux Beatles, Part 2

I don't want to say that Kim and I are on the Faux Bands Tour, but last night we saw our second different Beatles tribute band within two months.

Back in late July, we saw "Yesterday – The Las Vegas Beatles Show" in High Point. We thought they were OK, although they somehow didn't look quite like the individual Beatles, and in one or two instances, didn't quite sound like them, either. Their strength was that they covered songs from the complete Beatles catalogue, from early Beatles to breakup.

But last night we took in "1964 The Tribute" at the beautiful and historic Carolina Theatre in Greensboro, and we were pretty much blown away, as we liked to say in 1964.

1964 The Tribute brings it all back.

 We'd seen this band before. About 15 or 20 years ago, they performed on the Barbecue Festival main stage. They actually performed here in two consecutive years, which made me think that they'd be a regular annual feature to the festival lineup.

But, alas, that didn't happen. I was disappointed when they didn't show up for a third straight year.

So when we heard they were coming to Greensboro, we jumped at the opportunity.

 This particular tribute band came together in 1984 and, as you would expect over the passage of time, life often happens. One founding member of the group, Gary Grimes (who played Paul McCartney) died of brain cancer in 2010. The current McCartney, Mac Ruffing, actually performed in other Beatles tribute bands, including Broadway's RAIN. What I found fascinating is that he is a natural right-hander but took a year to teach himself to play the Hofner violin bass guitar left-handed in the way the real McCartney does.

The George Harrison and Ringo Starr characters each have gone through several personnel changes over the years, with recently added John Auker now performing as George and Bobby Potter as Ringo.

But the one bulwark of the group remains co-founder Mark Benson, who's been playing John Lennon with the band since the very beginning. As a teenager, Benson went into guitar repair and construction. Over the years, he made guitars for Jackson Browne and Eddie Van Halen, and sold vintage guitars to such groups as The Rolling Stones, Eagles, the Doobie Brothers and the Allman Brothers, to name a few. I guess he knows his way around a fret or two.

I figure Benson must be in his own 60s by now, but in his bio, he clarifies his band (and his own) Beatles relevance, saying, "1964 shows the audience what it was like to attend a Beatles concert in the early sixties and generates the same feeling of happiness that is still generated by the music of The Beatles. We get so much of this positive energy back from our audiences, it reassures us that for now, we are where we are supposed to be."

The group has pretty good stage charisma, bantering back and forth between tunes in a passable Scouse accent and telling interesting (I assume) off the cuff stories about touring as a tribute band. They do about 80-90 shows a year and they seem to make a real connection with their mostly silver-haired audience.

But the best part of the night was the sound. I could close my eyes and think I was listening to one of my Beatles LPs from long ago. Maybe Meet The Beatles. Maybe Help. Maybe Rubber Soul.

It was all there. The music. The memories. The magic. And with it, a slice of our youth, too.

 

Trump

He's been out of office for nearly two years now, but former President (that title still sounds impossible to me) Donald Trump will not go away.

Yes, I understand that he is prepping for the candidacy of President once again. His visibility, which never seems to wane, will only increase if and when he announces that he is running for office again.

What I don't get is his singularly loyal popularity with his Republican base. One of the refrains that you keep hearing from his decidedly white grievance supporters (think Proud Boys, Three Percenters, Oath Keepers and those who believe in and follow their anti-government agenda) is that "he is our voice," and as such, many in his base regard him as the best president this country has ever had.

Better than Washington. Better than Lincoln. Better than FDR. Better than Eisenhower or Kennedy. Let that sink in for a moment, especially when you consider Trump, a multi-millionaire real estate mogul, has lived a lifestyle so completely foreign to his mostly lower-to-middle class base that it defies logic. Mansions. Country Clubs. New York Towers. All with tasteless gold-plated fixtures and trim, complete with narcissistic pictures of himself hanging on the walls.

His four years in office barely produced anything to help the common Joe. Granted, he was the point man behind Operation Warp Speed, which helped fund Covid-19 vaccine research and production, but then he minimized the distribution of the vaccine as hundreds of thousands died.

He pushed through his only significant legislation, which provided a tax cut for the ultra rich. But he did get three conservative judges appointed to the Supreme Court, which promptly took away a long-standing Constitutional right by reversing Roe v. Wade and safe abortions.

Turned out he actually owned American carnage, the catch-phrase he used in his inaugural speech.

I've never understood this fascination for Trump. I thought I'd seen the worst when he declared that, with women, "when you're a star, grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything" (that's Trump's debasing word for female genitalia, not mine. I use it to illustrate his outlandish crudeness. If you voted for him, this is what you voted for).

Then I thought I saw the worst at Charlottesville, which featured torchlight rallies reminiscent of Nazi parades in the 1930s, with supporters chanting Nazi slogans "Blood and soil," and "Jews will not replace us." A woman, Heather Heyer, was killed during the clashes, and Trump excused it by offering the false equivalency that "there were good people on both sides." Sorry, no. There are no good Nazis.

But then I thought I saw the worst when it became administration policy, ramrodded by then Attorney General Jeff Sessions and approved by Trump, to separate thousands of young children from their families to discourage border crossings. This policy, I suspect, is the policy that Trump believers feel make him the best president ever. 

To this day, hundreds of children, if not more, remain separated from their families.

I thought I'd seen the worst, but I was wrong. Because then came Jan. 6, when an actual American insurrection unveiled itself in front of our eyes. Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to try and stop the Constitution-mandated certification of Joe Biden as president. Meanwhile, Trump himself was silent for three hours, watching the insurrection unfold on TV, wondering if his vice president, Mike Pence, didn't deserve to be hanged for not certifying the vote.

I really thought this was rock bottom, but I was wrong. A couple of weeks ago, the FBI conducted a search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, where files and files and files of top secret documents were recovered after being illegally taken from the custody of the National Archives. What Trump was doing with the nation's secrets remains speculation, as does the damage he may have brought to the country.

Insurrection. Obstruction of justice. Child abuse. Sexual assault.

And he could be running for president again.

 

Ain't this America?

Here we are on the downside of 2022, essentially at the speartip of all human knowledge and progress to this very moment in time and space, and yet, I can't believe in this country:

• That we are still talking about banning books. According to PEN America, 1,145 titles – an historic high – have been banned by school districts across the nation between July 1, 2021, and March 31, 2022. I'm guessing you can add several more books to the list since March.

But in a country that likes to pride itself in the First Amendment and the expression of free thought, the very idea of banning any book for any reason should be anathema. It reeks of Nazism and fascism. It brings to mind those old newsreel clips of Hitler's Nuremberg torchlight parades of the 1930s that culminated in fevered book burnings.

When you start banning books, it becomes easier to ban anything.

• That vaccinations are a point of contention. History should be all the proof you need that vaccinations are essential to the general welfare of the public. George Washington, fighting for this country's very independence and personal freedoms, demanded that his troops be vaccinated against smallpox. This wasn't a needle – it required offering a live culture to an open wound. So who's afraid of needles now?

Even current history offers us an example. Vaccinations for Covid-19 clearly offered protection from the disease as those people requiring ventilators declined. But Covid became a pandemic of the unvaccinated as many people who refused to get a shot became sick. Many died, often while trying to stubbornly take a deadly political stance.

Don't tread on me, indeed.

• That guns permeate our society like never before. Just what in the hell are we afraid of? Do we distrust our neighbors so much that we have to arm ourselves to the teeth with military style weapons? This is when I like to pull out that quaint evangelical nugget, "What Would Jesus Do?" I'm pretty sure he wouldn't shoot you.

• That we can lose a Constitutional right after 50 years of settled law.

• That white grievance seems to be the subtext for just about anything in this country. The current outrage for many Republicans is the forgiveness of student debt from oppressive federal loans (even though I bet many Republicans have taken out student loans). Granted, the issue is complicated and complex, but then the fairness issue crops up. Fair to whom? Minorities, who statistically have the greatest debt, might benefit the most from this forgiveness.

One argument is that those not going to college will be paying the debt by shifting tax responsibility. That may be true, but then, what's fair? Kim and I don't have children, yet we've been paying school taxes for as long as I can remember. What's fair about that? Not much, I guess, but we understand the investment we make in our country's future by paying school taxes.

• That we are still talking about voting rights. Why is the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act so difficult to pass? Who doesn't want to expand voting rights? We pride ourselves in our democracy, yet we can't find it within ourselves to make sure everybody has equal access to the polls. And don't get me started on gerrymandering districts.

But, hey, ain't this America?

Eleanor's got it covered

Whenever Eleanor Underhill sets her mind on a project – whether it be musical, literary or even graphically artsy – it's probably best to let her follow her muse and simply tag along for the adventure. That's because she reveals remarkable talents in all of these right-brained (or is it left-brained?) hemispheres.

A case in point is the recent release of her latest CD, Got It Covered, in which she offers us her interpretation of 16 – that's right, folks, count 'em, 16 – favorite songs written by other artists.

Eleanor Underhill and friend.

 Those who know Eleanor (I've known Eleanor for nearly 10 years now, so I feel somewhat free to call her by her first name whenever I write about her) probably know her best as the banjo-playing half of the Americana duo Underhill Rose. She and singing partner Molly Rose Reed often appeared at High Rock Outfitters in Lexington and wowed us with their harmonies and comfortable stage presence.

But then the pandemic came and changed a lot of things. Furthermore, Molly and her husband, Tyler, have twice become parents over the past five years. Consequently, Underhill Rose found its touring schedule limited and confined mostly to the Asheville area, where they live.

But Eleanor couldn't stand still. I figure there's a sentient motion sensor embedded somewhere in one of her cranial hemispheres. In 2018, she released her first solo CD, Navigate the Madness, which gave her an opportunity to explore more eclectic musical paths other than folk and Americana, complete with songs that she herself composed. Doors opened and the well-received Land of the Living was released in 2020.

Now, prodded (her word) by her fans to do some cover work, she's come out with Got It Covered. 

Before I get into the song list, let me note that as talented as Eleanor is with the banjo, she is equally adept in the studio. In this instance, the album was produced in her home studio performing not only with her signature open-back banjo, but also piano, synthesizers, percussion, trumpet and trombone. Whew. Makes me wonder if she had time to feed her cat between producing and engineering this CD.

She also gets accompaniment from Zack Page on bass, Silas Durocher on acoustic and electric guitar, Jacob Rodriguez on sax, Will Younts on drums and Jane Underhill (her mom) on autoharp.

As for the songs, well, Eleanor runs the gamut, from a haunting "Eleanor Rigby" (The Beatles) to "Midnght Train to Georgia" (Gladys Knight), from "Boys of Summer" (Don Henley) to "Stand By Me" (Ben E. King). The song choices are so diverse that it really makes sense for this collection.

I had several favorites. Radiohead's "Creep" features piano and synth strings to Eleanor's emotive interpretation; The Rolling Stones "Beast of Burden" becomes a totally different song behind a female voice that inquires and promises at the same time; Tina Turner's "What's Love Got To Do With It?" highlights an unexpected banjo plea. And Madonna's "Like A Prayer" marries Eleanor's voice with the sounds of her banjo. It's almost as if they are having a conversation with each other.

But I think my favorite tune is "Waste" by Phish. This song is adroitly arranged with Eleanor turning soulful, maybe even lyrically philosophical, again with strings laying the groundwork. At least, that's what I felt. I wonder if it's her favorite, too?

I'm not a music critic by trade, but I think I know what I like when I hear it. These covers will likely take you to different places in the hemispheres of your own brain, to places where Eleanor herself has visited. I bet you enjoy the adventure.

 

 

 

Presidential despair

Never in my life did I ever expect to hear of the groundwork being set for an investigation of a President of the United States of America for violation of the Espionage Act.

And yet, this is where we are.

Earlier this past week it was revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the auspices of the Deportment of Justice, conducted a court-approved search for classified documents on the Mar-a-Lago premises of former President Donald Trump.

Yep. That's right. Secret documents. Top secret documents. Documents that could compromise the national security of this nation if delivered to the wrong hands.

Trump apparently had these documents illegally removed from the White House during the fading hours of his presidency in 2020. That would be just weeks after the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, in case you're keeping a timeline.

The seizure of the documents – some marked as secret, others as top secret, and at least one box of files labeled as TS/SCI (Secure Compartmentalized Information), the highest level of classification there is – raises three critical questions:

1. Why did Trump take the archives in the first place? It's illegal.

2. Why did he not return all of them when he was asked to? At least 15 boxes were returned in February, but apparently 11 boxes remained in the basement at Mar-a-Lago. After lengthy negotiations (huh? Why do you need negotiations?) to return the files, Trump then ignored a subpoena to return the documents, thus necessitating the seizure.

3. And, most importantly, what was he planning to do with the documents? Sell them to the highest bidder? Display them on his office walls? Show them to friends over dinner?

Trump's actions and refusal to initially return the documents has put him in legal crosshairs. He could be in violation of the Presidential Records Act (1978) that mandates the preservation of all records.  

He also could be in violation of the Espionage Act (1917) which states: "Whoever, lawfully having possession of…any document…relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation…willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it on demand to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it is guilty."

There is speculation that some of those documents contain nuclear secrets. If that is so, then he could be in violation of the Atomic Energy Act (1954).

Good grief.

Almost as a reflexive action, Trump initially denied any wrongdoing after revealing his property was searched by the FBI. Then he claimed President Obama retained sensitive files (false). Then he said the documents were declassified (even if they were, it's still a crime to remove them from the National Archives, no matter what their classification). I guess he's trying to find which excuse sticks best to those food-stained walls where he childishly threw his dinners in fits of pique.

The fact that he kept 11 boxes of files (He implied to the Archives that he has turned in all the boxes, and his lawyers signed off on it. Oh, boy. I hope his lawyers have good lawyers.) now subjects him to obstruction of justice charges. Does that one sound familiar? Echos of obstruction ring all through the Trump administration hallways.

The DOJ apparently learned  of these unreturned files through a mole squeaking at Mar-a-Lago. Now the guessing game is wondering just who the informant is. My top two choices are former chief of staff Mark Meadows or top administration advisor Jared Kushner, both of whom have plenty to lose if they themselves are involved in this mess in any way. Stay tuned.

On the surface, the theft of these documents (what else would you call it?) appears to be extremely stupid. Or else it's extremely sinister, which seems more likely.

If there's one thing more disturbing than a president of the United States neglecting his oath of office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, it's a Republican Party that mostly has shielded Trump at every turn. It's how he survived two impeachments. It's how this country came up with an immigration policy to separate 5,000 children from their parents at the Mexican border. It's how we watched a bizarre collection of Republicans celebrating the cutting of taxes from the country's richest Americans. It's why there's denial that Jan. 6 even happened.

It's this is why we're even here.

 

More email scrubbings?

Since we last talked two weeks ago, we were astounded that the once sacrosanct Secret Service had deleted agency emails during a scheduled cellphone migration. That was bad enough and perhaps in violation of the Federal Records Act to remove or mutilate government records, but then we found out that the purged messages covered the period of the disgusting January 6 insurrection attempt at The Capitol.

Shortly after that revelation, we learn that the Department of Homeland Security, charged with investigating the scrubbing of Secret Service texts, sat on this information for five months and actually attempted to thwart its own agents from recovering the missing Jan. 6 data.

Whaa???

Now this week we learn that several officials in the Pentagon – including former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, and former Pentagon chief of staff Kash Patel – had their government cell phones scrubbed as they left office despite being advised not to because of pending investigations.

You've got to be kidding. The Pentagon? Don't you think there's some good info floating around inside that peculiar five-sided building as to why the National Guard was delayed in responding to the Jan. 6 siege of The Capitol?

And Friday we learned that the FBI received more than 4,500 tips regarding allegations of sexual misconduct and assault toward Christine Blasey Ford by then conservative Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. According to FBI Director Christopher Wray, the pathetically short week-long investigation of Kavanaugh was actually directed by former President Donald Trump, which suggests the entire investigation was a sham that was rigged by the most thoroughly corrupt president in American history. Surprise, surprise. "I like beer" Kavanaugh was subsequently voted to the bench by a partisan Senate and now we're dealing with the earth-rattling reversal of Row v. Wade after 50 years of Constitutional protection for abortion rights. 

Sweet Jesus, where is this country headed? 

But back to emails and texts. The first thing that came to mind was Hillary Clinton and her 30,000 deleted emails. After the latest news of scrubbing dripped out of the Pentagon, I had to laugh. I mean, the poison of corruption and lies seeping from the former Trump administration into one government agency after another is apparently wide-ranging as it is infuriating. There's a new scrubbing revelation every week, it seems.

I found this tweet the other day that says it all:

'"I can't vote for that lady (Clinton) because she once used a private email server" to literally everyone in this (Trump) administration has illegally deleted their official texts in four short years.'

Interestingly enough, we may soon get the incriminating evidence we need from Infowars mogul and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, a detestable human being who has claimed that the massacre of school children at Sandy Hook was a hoax perpetrated by crisis actors. It was revealed in Jones's trial this past week that his lawyers "accidentally" sent texts and emails to the attorneys representing the Sandy Hook plaintiffs who were suing Jones. This is significant because Jones was a key figure in the Jan. 6 insurrection riots at the Capitol.

Those texts will be sent to the Jan. 6 Committee investigating the riots.

This "leak" would be comical if it wasn't so serious.

So this is where we are. Stay tuned.

 

 

Faux Beatles

Sometimes, you just have to break out of the box.

Because of the past two years or so of the lingering Covid pandemic, Kim and I have pretty much stayed around the house. We've gone to the beach just once in that span, and we made a trip to Blowing Rock last fall. We even cancelled going to a Beach Boys concert at the Alabama Theater in Myrtle Beach last year because of Covid. We didn't much like the idea of sitting next to someone who wasn't wearing a mask while bellowing out "Good Vibrations" along with the Mike Love

So for a couple of people who feel like they're sometimes walking on the edge just going to the grocery store, getting out is a big deal.

But we made an exception on Friday. We went to see a Beatles tribute band – "Yesterday - The Las Vegas Beatles Show" – in High Point.

Make believe Beatles. A good time was had by all.

I have my issues with tribute bands. On the one hand, they are paying tribute, after all, and you have to respect that. They know they have an impossible task. And generally speaking, the musicianship is decent and the vocals are recognizable. But on the other hand, there's no way they're going to "be" the artists they're mimicking. A guitar lick might be different, a lyric might be changed, stage presence might be a little off.

Having said that, we went to see these faux Beatles on the recommendation of some friends, as well as the recommendation of one Sir Paul McCartney, who's given his only tribute band endorsement to this particular group. That's what it says in the brochure, anyway.

Plus, they're a Las Vegas act. They have to be good. So I had my expectations.

And, again, I might have expected too much.

But I say that in a kind way. The guys playing the Las Vegas Beatles did not have much of a physical resemblance to the originals. There were times when they had trouble hitting the high notes, possibly because these guys looked like they were in their 50s, at least. The guy playing Paul McCartney did a good job singing "Yesterday" without ever sounding like Paul McCartney.

The guy playing John Lennon, though, was very credible, especially on "Help." And the group did a good job on several Beatles harmonies.

The High Point Theater probably seats about 1,000 people, but I estimated there might have been between 200 and 300 people in the audience. If performers play to the crowd – if they draw their energy from a full house – I wondered if these guys were disappointed in the turnout.

Also, a Beatles audience these days is going to feature a lot of gray hair, if (ironically) any hair at all. Kim said she felt like she was in a nursing home.

But I don't want to be too critical. The idea is to have fun, and we did. The group played video montages on a large screen behind them of the real Beatles, especially in the early years, and that helped with the time-travel experience. The folks in the audience seemed to have a good time, especially the 60-year-oldish guy sitting directly in front of us, who played some emphatic air drums while mirroring Ringo's downbeats. That was entertaining.

Some in the crowd might have gotten a little carried away. When the show was over, and the band members walked past us in the aisle for their meet and greet in the lobby, some yelled "Why did you break up?" and "Get rid of Yoko!" as if these were the real Beatles. Yikes.

The two-hour show incorporated early, mid to late Beatles tunes, giving you a nice sample of the real group's progression and maturation as artists.

In a couple months, "1964 - The Tribute", will be playing in Greensboro, and we're thinking about going. We saw this group before when they played the Barbecue Festival in Lexington about 20 years ago. Those guys were good, right down to the Scouse accents in their stage banter and in their physical resemblance and sound. They do exclusively early Beatles, from 1964 up to, but not including, the Sgt. Pepper era and after. The band's stated mission is to recreate the Beatlemania phenomenon as much as possible.

And then, in October, we're going to the beach to see the faux Eagles. I'm hoping for a peaceful, easy feeling there.

The very Secret Service

 "Worthy of Trust and Confidence"

                                    – Secret Service motto

A couple of weeks ago, when White House aide and insider Cassidy Hutchinson gave her explosive testimony to the bipartisan Congressional Jan. 6 Commission, one of the things she revealed was that President Trump may have physically assaulted the driver of the presidential vehicle when the driver refused to take him to the Capitol.

While Hutchinson was reporting secondhand information that she heard from Secret Service agents who were on the scene, the revelation was shocking.

According to findings of the commission, based almost solely upon the testimony of Republican witnesses, Trump wanted to personally lead a contingent of his followers (some of whom were armed, we learned) to the Capitol to disrupt the Constitutionally mandated certification of votes in the Electoral College.

Within hours, it seemed, two Secret Service agents – Tony Ornato and Bobby Engel – refuted her story. Suddenly, the GOP was jumping for joy, positive Hutchinson perjured herself with her story, and by doing so, cast doubt on the truth of her entire testimony.

Then came some unexpected blowback. It seems the Secret Service deleted all emails, messages and transactions covering the dates of Jan. 5-6 because of a scheduled cellphone information migration.

Imagine that. A government agency supposedly above the squalor of politics deleted potential evidence at a curiously critical moment in the now-apparent coup attempt. Nothing, apparently, was backed up. So it's gone, lost in cyberspace.

This could have been information that either confirmed or denied Hutchinson's testimony. Given that the messages were deleted, it's fair to assume Hutchinson's story is valid. Capitol police, who heard the radio traffic that day, are confirming her story.

But more importantly, the missing info could shed light on what was going on at the Capitol during the insurrection. The Secret Service wanted to whisk Vice President Mike Pence to a secure location. The trouble with that is Pence, as president of the Senate, needed to be on hand to certify the votes. The count couldn't continue without him. Pence demanded that he stay on site, and to his democracy-saving credit, he did.

Does that suggest the Secret Service was implicit in Trump's now apparent plan to delay the vote count and insert alternate electors? The missing information could clear that up. But, no, the information is missing. It all sounds incredibly specious, if not suspicious. Secret Service agents are now lawyering up, another indication that all is not what it should be.

It also seems that the agency has been politicized to the point of its credulity being damaged. This is a hallmark of the Trump administration, which values loyalty over constitutionality.

In a perfect world, we long for transparency from our government agencies. They are, in fact, employees of the people. Weak excuses and weak apologies make us weak as a nation. How vulnerable can we be when a president is derelict in his duties and spends three hours cheering on "his people" in an attempted coup?

It's repulsive. This is not government. It's fascism. It's anarchy. It's certainly not transparency.

And I doubt it's worthy of our trust and confidence.