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.