Liberate us is nothing more than, "I surrender."

We are fighting a new war against the corona virus, the unseen enemy, our self-described war president calls it. We all want to win this war, and win it as quickly as possible, and with as little suffering as possible.

Battles are being fought on two fronts—in our hospitals where doctors and nurses are fighting the disease head-on, and deserve all the honor and respect we can give them, and in our neighborhoods where our businesses have closed and many of us are sheltering in place, attempting to limit the spread of the disease.

How does this war compare with other wars we’ve engaged in?

My father, assigned to the 1^st Infantry Division (The Big Red One), was fighting in Tunisia in 1942-43. This was the first real test for American soldiers and sailors in the war that was going into its fourth year. He kept a log that amounted to little more than a date and where he was or what battle was being fought that day: 8 Nov – Invaded Africa (Oran), 18 Feb – Kassarine Pass, 16 Mar – Gafsa El Guetter, 13 May – campaign ended, 10 Jul – Invaded Sicily (Gela).

Ralph Ingersoll, a journalist/soldier also attached to the 1^st Division, wrote a 200-page book, The Battle is the Payoff, describing one day and one battle—Gafsa El Guetter. He didn’t depict a full-blown shoot-out lasting days on end and culminating with one side finally crying uncle. Instead, he talked about boot camp, the days leading up to the battle, the preparation, relationships, how units are organized, plus the differences and purposes of the various units. His lesson was that a lot more than firepower goes into winning a battle.

Even in the few pages where he described the battle, there were times when some units were not only not fighting, but they were sleeping while bullets flew over their heads. The groups that were fighting tooth and nail would, at times, stand down themselves, and it’d be their turn to catch a few much needed minutes of sleep.

The battle called for everyone to do their part, but everyone’s part was different.

He closed the book, written in real time, by questioning the dedication of both the combatants and the folks back home. The soldiers were prepared to give their all and were giving their all, but even they, Ingersoll noted, didn’t have the same drive that British, Russians and other allied soldiers had. Germany hadn’t bombed American cities or invaded our shores or imprisoned our citizens.

Whether the war would be won and how soon came down to each individual battle and everything that went into winning them. Each battle, in itself, was a payoff that would in time bring victory.

A time for celebration in our current war will come, but clearly, we are still fighting the battles, which call on all of us to endure suffering unlike most of us have ever experienced.

The general population, fighting the battle of mitigation to limit the spread of the virus are fighting valiantly, but are losing momentum. Just as every soldiers at the battle of Gafsa was vital to the final victory, regardless of what they did, so also, the battle in our hospitals will not be won if the battle in our streets and neighborhoods are lost.

Ingersoll questioned the dedication of his generation. He needn’t have. In time, they came to be known as, “The Greatest Generation” because they answered every call to duty.

Our current generation—WWII survivors, their children and grandchildren—are charged with fighting today’s battle to contain the enemy. Some of us are beginning to show our soft side, becoming impatient, worrying that we might win one battle, but question whether we will lose the battle to save the economy.

They don’t appear to have the same drive to win this war because, like Ingersoll said about Americans in WWII, maybe they haven’t directly experienced the brutal impact this invisible enemy is inflicting on us like doctors and nurses have, and like many families have. They want to win. Sure. They're just ready to let others do the heavy lifting.

Sadly, we are not the nation of our parents and grandparents, shouting, “Bring it on.”

The message from protesters in the streets is, “I don’t know. I don’t think I can do this any longer.” Carrying weapons and waving flags do not make protesters more convincing or patriotic, or their  message any less pathetic.

Frankly, we haven’t had the training, the importance of which Ingersoll couldn’t stress enough, that would enable us to fight a battle of, "sticking to a plan." We are impatient now because, for too long, we have been a nation requiring immediate gratification.

“Give me what I want, and I want it now.”

Our current war demands that baby boomers and the me generation hunker down, not throw in the towel.

Nature, doing what nature does—Get even

My original intention was to write something commemorating Earth Day. I seem to have wound up killing several birds with one stone, namely Evangelicals’ role in politics, the fact that we keep putting God in the center of issues in a way that takes us off the hook, and our lack of respect for the environment, which may be coming back to haunt us.

Mother Nature doesn't always need a hammer

Evangelicals, who often appear to be very at home living in a Biblical world, are convinced God spends all His time punishing us for our transgressions—legalized abortion and homosexuality, and possibly being anti-Trumpers.

On the other hand, they believe that being pro-life and taking a stand against homosexuality will incur the favor of a more benevolent God.  Also, supporting Trump can’t hurt.

Ministers like Joel Osteen have a very simple message. “Do right and God will do right by you. In Joel’s message, the reward he’s talking about isn’t heaven so much as monetary success.

This all goes back to Biblical days, when God was flooding the earth, creating famines and releasing swarms of locusts or armies of frogs.

All this reward and punishment talk, I suppose, is a means of preparing us for the apocalyptical war that will be waged between good and evil. Evangelicals tell us—and I must say sometimes they seem a little, what’s the word, anxious, maybe too excited at the prospect—but they say this war is right around the corner, and promises to be, at long last, the war to finally end all wars. Armies for this war are being built and plans are being drawn in churches.

Despite what the Bible says, I find it hard to picture God leading an army. I also can’t picture Him putting up with the devil for more than a few hours, before shouting, “Hit the road, Satan.”

God had to have foreseen man behaving badly when He gave us free will. It’s hard to picture him being caught off-guard. I think the concept of sin is more man’s creation.

I don’t see God paying attention to every minute deed of man, when He pretty much lets the rest of the universe operate on automatic.

Is He really choosing sides in sporting events—not big events like the Super Bowl, which I can see Him being interested in, but rather every single contest, at every single level, on every single playground, every single minute of every single day? Like all those crap games going on in all those back alleys. The people participating in those events certainly think He’s engaged.

Is He really involved in choosing the exact time of death for not just you and me, but every single man, woman and child on Earth? If so, was there something that only God was aware of, for not letting Bing Crosby make it back to the clubhouse? Did God have to take him out on the putting green? Seems very un-Godlike.

I kind of like the idea of free will, where not only are we free to make our own choices, but no one, and in this case, no one means Someone, is looking over our shoulders, jotting down notes and second-guessing us. That said, I believe there is a price to pay for our actions. It’s just not coming from Heaven Headquarters. Maybe we’ll pay that price down the road to Someone, but what happens in this world, I think, gets punished in this world.

So who does the punishing?

No Middle-Ground Trump.

Everything is beautiful, in its own way.

Ray Stevens sang those words back in 1970. It was a beautiful song, but the message was all wrong. In the first place, there are all different degrees of beauty.

Chrysanthemums are beautiful, but spelling chrysanthemums correctly in a spelling bee can be even more beautiful.

Obviously, being beautiful is beautiful, but winning a beauty contest is even more beautiful.

And some things, like victories that we think might be beautiful, aren’t beautiful at all, or don’t necessarily have to be.

Winning a track meet can be a beautiful thing, taking your breath away even more than the running did, but wars are ugly no matter whether you win or lose.

The same goes for winning arguments.

Poverty and starvation and disease are never pretty, much less beautiful.

So while it is noble to look for beauty everywhere, it’s foolish to think you’re seeing it everywhere.

In her 1878 novel, Molly Bawn, Margaret Wolfe Hungerford, a not-so-beautiful Irish author with a very un-pretty name first coined the phrase, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” possibly in self-defense. She may have been right.

On the other hand, she, like Ray Stevens, could have been wrong. Sometimes, beautiful just isn’t there.  

During the Army-McCarthy Hearings, at a point where Senator McCarthy was being particularly ugly, Army lawyer Joseph Welch asked Senator McCarthy the rather poignant question, “Sir, have you left no sense of decency?”  

The same question could be asked of President Trump, who since entering the public arena in 2015, has brought a certain degree of vitriol and hurtfulness to the presidency not normally seen outside a professional wrestling ring.

Nasty, brainless, ugly, unhinged, crazy, crooked, cheatin’, corrupt, sneaky, slippery, shady, slime ball, worst ever, wacky, psycho, reject, human scum, traitor, un-American, and ironically, empty barrel are just a few of the hundreds of insults he has hurled. Not at our enemies, but at Representatives and Senators, allies, department heads, cabinet officers, members of his own party, as well as Democrats, state governors, business leaders, high school students, everyday citizens, virtually every reporter working for the fake news, and even a teenage Noble Prize winner.

Obviously, the president has no sense of decency. For Donald Trump, living on a planet with over six billion people means living on a planet with over six billion stupid people, all of whom are out to get him. I would have liked to see his Christmas card list. I’m guessing, if he had one at all, most of the names had lines drawn through them.

And yet, there is another side to this man who sees nothing but ugliness in practically everyone  he must deal with. Trump has a beautiful relationship with inanimate objects, or things that don’t physically exist, like ideas that pop up in his head.

Opening up the country for business is a beautiful puzzle, and once we put it together, our beautiful economy will be more beautiful than ever.

Easter would be a beautiful time to begin.

All this is possible because of the beautiful tests. “We have beautiful testing.”

Being able to mine beautiful coal again will be a beautiful thing, but we will still need that beautiful pipeline.

And what about those beautiful Confederate statues?

And those beautiful military weapons—beautiful weapons for a beautiful military, and all paid for with beautiful American tax dollars.

When he travels, on his beautiful Air Force One, and lands in beautiful airports, he is treated beautifully by beautiful dictators who he has a beautiful relationship with, especially if they put his beautiful picture up on lights on their beautiful hotels.

The Syrian War was ugly, but we had a beautiful safe zone, where refugees were being taken care of beautifully.

Traitorous Democrats prevented him from signing what would have been a beautiful health bill. Those same un-American Dems are the only thing standing between a beautiful wall at the southern border between the U.S. and Mexico. We signed a beautiful trade agreement with them, but that doesn’t let the Mexican people, who are murderers and rapists off the hook.

On the subject of trade deals, how about that “beautiful, warm, nice call” with Ukrainian president Zelensky. Did I mention it was also perfect?  

Of course, who can forget those beautiful love letters from Kim Jong-un. While we can’t forget those beautiful letters, we must remember Melania, and his beautiful daughter Ivanka. And the other one, too.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention his beautiful temperament, which he never fails to do. Trump’s beautiful temperament is probably what allows him to hover between the ugly real world inhabited by everyone around him and the beautiful world that exists in his mind.

It’d be nice if someone asked Trump’s opinion on something and he said, “I don’t know. I’d have to think about it. I’ll get back to you.” Trump always has an opinion, and it always comes down to two choices—beautiful or despicable.

“Oh yeah, and you’re a jerk for asking.”

There is no middle ground with Trump. 

Another entertainment show, Project Runway, which was unable to launch its host into the presidency because it didn’t have beautiful ratings like The Apprentice, did teach us something. Things, even beautiful things, can change quickly.

One minute you’re up and the next minute you’re down. Just ask anyone who has worked for Trump—one minute you’re beautiful, the next minute, you're (see Nasty, brainless, ugly...paragraph above).

The Greatest Hoax Ever

Every time I hear Trump allude to his economy being the greatest ever, my first thought is “ever” is a long time. My second thought is, his economy was never the greatest, period.

He talked a lot about the stock market when it was going up, not so much now that it’s going down. In the first place, the stock market doesn’t measure the economy so much as it measures wealth. 

Wealth in this country is doing very well, if you happen to be wealthy. The wealthy are buying and selling the way the wealthy have always done business—without leaving their mansions and certainly without wearing masks. When the market goes down and then starts to go up, it means someone sold high and bought back in low. When it’s over, they’ll be even richer than they were before.

The other thing Trump talked a lot about was job creation and unemployment. Job numbers were the highest ever, while unemployment were the lowest ever. The smartest president ever concluded that he must be the greatest president ever.

So, what did the first month of the corona-virus shelter-in-place policy look like? Well, jobs vanished and unemployment went up. No great surprise there. Congress worked quickly to ease the pain by directing money to businesses and affected workers. Of course, it wouldn’t happen overnight, but compared to the way most things go in government, it was moving along damn fast. The problem was, it was not moving fast enough.

Seems that greatest-ever number of workers, working in the greatest-ever number of job weren’t making enough money to hold them over one week.

Investors had seen the stock market go down from highs in the 29,000s to lows in the 17,000s, but after a month, it was already bouncing back into the 23,000s. Of course, it didn’t really matter because those people, the wealthy, are not living day-to-day, week-to-week. When you’re a billionaire, or even a lowly millionaire, you probably don’t even own a calendar. You might own a $10,000 watch—actually $10,000 is the really, really, really low-end for luxury watches—but they are only for show. Just like they don’t care what month or day it is, the wealthy don’t care what time it is. Every time is a good time.

Apparently, the people who work for the super-rich are, by necessity, a lot more time conscious. There’s the day the rent or mortgage is due, the day the car payment is due. Utilities don’t have a specific date when they’re due, but they have to be paid every month, as do credit cards.

All those jobs—the greatest number ever—didn’t give workers—again, the greatest number ever—enough money to get through the week. When 25-million laid-off workers—don’t tell Trump this is the highest number ever—can’t last a week without a paycheck, I think it calls into question whether we had the greatest economy ever, or was someone, I’m not naming names, promoting the greatest con job ever.

It wasn’t a con job on the workers. They have been demanding better pay for decades. Fifteen states are still sticking to the $7.25 number, while others shroud their statistics in secrecy—one can only assume because releasing them would be embarrassing.

This con job was unleashed on voters, especially the ones who, for some reason, didn’t believe the president would lie to them.

If seeing the word “greatest” makes one feel good regardless of the context, there is some good news to report,

While the greatest number of workers, working in the greatest number of jobs, in the greatest economy, under the greatest economy president—now doing double duty as the greatest war-time president—are learning that their emergency funds won’t get them through the week, Forbes Magazine announced earlier this year that there are 671 billionaires in America—the greatest number ever.

In 1970, there were only two billionaires. The minimum wage back then was $1.60, which was the equivalent of $11.00 in 2020. Effectively, many workers today are making almost three dollars less than workers in 1970, which essentially puts most workers in debt.

Here’s a question: Where did those 671 billionaires come from?

Answer: Out of the pockets of the greatest number of workers, working the greatest number of jobs in the greatest economy ever.

Don't Retread Me

"Don't Tread on Me"

I see that motto a lot, usually on pick-up trucks. I see flags bearing the phrase when I’m driving country roads. Today, I saw them on the streets in front of the Michigan State Capital.

The implication is that government is walking all over us, crushing our spirit, controlling our lives.

The motto dates back to the American Revolution era when England was, in fact, walking all over the colonists, crushing their spirit and controlling their lives.

The colonists had real grievances and that flag and motto served the purpose of uniting all Americans to rise up against their common enemy.

The problem with commandeering another cause’s slogan is that even if there are some similarities, no two causes—or their grievances—are alike. Sometimes, slogans may be hijacked for no other reason than a fondness for a good slogan. 

In the first place, our government isn’t really treading on anyone—not the way the Crown was treading on the colonists back then. We may not be happy with everything our governments do, but everything they’re doing is for our welfare, or at least that appears to be their intention. Some governments are better than others.

I honestly don’t think any governors enjoy shutting down their state’s economies the way King George III enjoyed slapping a tax on tea.

Possessing freedom will not prevent bad things from happening. A freely elected government to deal with bad things happening did not exist in colonial days. Today, we have a voice in government.  We can change our leaders if we don’t like them. 

Accusing them of treading all over us simply because we don’t like the things they are doing in behalf of our welfare seems a little extreme.

Protesting has been in the American DNA from before the revolution right up until this day. We have always had a voice and never been afraid to use it. What we need, before we use that voice, is a legitimate cause.

Blacks have had legitimate causes—demanding their freedom from the bonds of slavery, the right to vote, access to a justice system that doesn’t discriminate against them. They have used their voices to demand solutions.

Over the course of our nation’s first century, woman used their voices to demand universal suffrage. The last century has seen them fighting for social and economic equality.

Immigrants have always had to fight to be treated as full-fledged citizens and not just workers keeping the rest of us happy. They rightly believed they deserved happiness, too.

The LGBTQ community in recent years have stood up and demanded their voices be heard.

Most recently, high school students have united and gone public with their demands for safer schools and meaningful gun laws. They have been met by 2^nd Amendment advocates and gun enthusiasts, using among others, the all-too common “Don’t tread on me,” slogan to protect them from being forced to do things that protect others.

All these groups have resorted to slogans, peaceful protest, and sometimes in-your-face protests to actually attain the freedoms they were guaranteed. They may have carried flags or signs saying, “Don’t tread on me,” but generally their demands were more specific.

“Don’t tread on me” is just too damn easy. It’s nothing short of laziness on the part of people who simply don’t like being told what to do by elective representatives, the very right  we fought for and won in the Revolutionary War. Those forefathers waging that fight did so with the nation’s welfare in mind, not their own.

“Don’t tread on me,” morphs into a pitiful, “Don’t pick on me,” when offered up by one group in America that has never been picked upon.

Whenever I see a young white male at the wheel of a pickup with a gun rack in the back and a “Don’t tread on me” sticker on the window, or marching in front of a State House carrying a “Don’t tread on me” flag, my immediate thought, is “Give me a break.”

Don’t plagiarize real patriots from three centuries ago. Tell me what you want. Do you want the right to die from a disease that can only reach you through one of your co-workers? Do you really want the freedom to put your family at risk, because you’re tired of elective officials telling you what to do? Do you think your forefathers risked everything so you could have the right to risk everything?

Carrying “Don’t Tread on Me” flags make as much sense as reviving and carrying around signs bearing the “Lock Her Up” slogan. Sadly, those lame signs could also be found at the Michigan protest. What I didn’t see anywhere was the Michigan state flag, which contains the Latin word “Tuebor.”  Tuebor means, I will protect. I wonder how many protesters are aware of this.

It’s enough to make one long for the good old days of 1776, when protesters not only had legitimate grievances, but were willing to take real risk to find solutions to those grievances; not just make noise. They also had creative and original slogans to support their cause, not 300-year-old retreads.

No one is treading on you. People smarter than you are merely trying to protect you, to save your life.

A strong leader: "Today, I have declared war on Japan." A bad leader : "I'm not responsible."

     

"The only thing you have to fear, is fear itself"

                             

     It’s one thing to be a bad leader. The world has seen many of those and the price we have paid has been wars, famine, poverty, discrimination, and an abundance of unnecessary suffering.

     The good thing about bad leaders is we know what to do with them. It is rarely easy, but once we realize they are bad leaders, we know we must get rid of them.

     The problem is that bad leaders can come in many shapes and sizes—although their egos come in one size—extra-large. Until bad leadership becomes obvious to everyone, or at least those paying attention, bad leadership will continue to lead—badly.

     Tyrants are generally tyrants from day one, and it doesn’t take long to figure them out. Even in a short space of time, though, they are able to secure enough power and control to make getting rid of them difficult.

     Donald Trump is a bad leader, but that’s not all he’s been.

     

     He has been a bad husband and father.

     He’s been a bad businessman, who has done well enough personally, but has seen his businesses go bankrupt, and/or been taken to and defeated in court countless times.

     He’s been a bad friend, who’s shown zero loyalty to the same people he has demanded total allegiance from.

     And he has been a bad voice of reason, who has become known for what he does not know, and showing little inclination to learn.

     All these shortcomings have affected anywhere from a few to often many people. 

     

     Unfortunately, his greatest failure of leadership, his presidency, is taking its toll on our whole nation, and quite possibly the whole world.

     For many people, it didn’t take long to realize he had no leadership skills. For others, even though they understood the truth, they also understood that a dull saw, a lame horse, a bad book, or an old clunker can provide some comfort, some results, so long as you don’t expect much.

     Then, there are those who still don’t get it. Only one word can describe them. They don’t like hearing that word, but they don’t have to hear it. It’s out there, and it’s not going away.

     Trump is a bad leader, not because he shares the same aggressive behavior shown by most bad leaders—although to be sure, he has aggressively set out, and succeeded in destroying all that he touches, not to mention most who work for him.

     He is a bad leader because he is no leader at all. He is a coward. We’ve always known he is a bully. And we’ve always known bullies are cowards, but seeing him consciously shirk his duty has shown a new light on his cowardice.

     Trump is afraid to act because he is insecure, afraid of being wrong.

     Trump is afraid to act because he is ill-informed, not because the information isn’t there, but because he has no use for facts and science. As you read that last sentence, picture him pointing to his great brain.

     Trump is afraid to act because he has created an image of himself—his brand—that does not allow himself to be wrong.

     He has sold that brand to his supporters, who have wholeheartedly bought into it. 

Exposing that brand to be false would be suicidal. It is all he’s got.

     He’s not the genius he claims to be.

     He doesn’t care—about you, me or anyone else. When he says he does, he has to read it.

     Trump is a leader who would rather do nothing than do the wrong thing. Worse still, he determines what is right and what is wrong for all the wrong reasons. He’d rather do nothing than for his supporters to discover he misled them. His lies tell them all they want to know. No sense allowing the truth to take it all down.

     So he continues to do what he has always done. He attacks real leaders, who are forced to fill the void he creates, for doing the job he refuses to do.

     Trump is the worst of all possibilities. He can’t follow because his ego won’t let him, and he can’t lead because his heart isn’t in it.

     So he goes on, talking, talking, talking—all the while saying nothing.

The only thing you have to fear is me; but hey, whataya got to lose?