...I will support and defend the Constitution...

I am watching the Trump Impeachment hearings with interest. I watched the events unveil on January 6, and concluded that day, because I had been paying attention for the last four years, that President Trump was obviously responsible for inciting the insurrection. He has spent his entire personal life courting conflict, and devoted his one-year campaign and four-year presidency to provoking, condoning and relishing in violence. Trump is not a difficult man to understand.

At the same time, the big question surrounding his impeachment seems to revolve around what Republicans will do. Actually, this isn’t the big question. The big question is why won’t Republicans do the right thing—and again, the answer appears obvious.

No attempt has been made to hide this fact that Republicans are expected to vote for acquittal because they fear political retaliation from Trump supporters, should they do the right thing and stand up to Trump by condemning the January 6 insurrection. This apparently outweighs the fear the rest of us have of the damage their dereliction to duty will do to our democracy should they give Trump a pass.

I think House managers are doing an excellent job—an effort, we are told, which is being missed by many Republican senators who are behaving childishly, as Trump has often been accused himself, by refusing to pay attention.

Overall, I think most senators are paying attention. As with Trump’s election in 2016, setting a low bar is oftentimes what we do best in this country.

One thing does bother me about the hearings, and I don’t know if changes will be made down the road. I hope so, but fearful they won’t.

Despite the fact that most Republicans appear to have made up their minds to acquit, House managers are proceeding as if they are dealing with impartial jurors, who will ultimately do the right thing.

The nation can count on fifty Democratic senators voting to convict, not because they are biased, un-American traitors as the ex-president suggests, but because they were at the Capitol on January 6, witnessed the violence, and don’t need to be told what an insurrection looks like, or who provoked it.

This impeachment is all about convincing 50 Republicans that what they saw really happened, and that they must do the right thing so that it never happens again. Republicans would have us believe that now is the time to come together and respect President Biden’s call for unity, and question whether Congress can work as a unified branch if Democrats insist on going forward with, not one, but now the second impeachment of Donald Trump.

Democrats, despite their desire to work with Republicans, know they are taking this unprecedented action because Donald Trump has not once, but twice, committed impeachable offences. Democrats are not the villains. Donald Trump is the villain.

Neither are Democrats the jurors everyone is questioning whether they will do their duty.  

House managers should stop addressing the Senate as a whole and start aiming their case directly at the Republicans. This cannot be another, “there were good people on both sides,” or “no harm, no foul.” When the argument is between right and wrong, justice can only be on one side.

There was real harm done on January 6, physical harm and psychological harm, and our democracy was threatened, and continues to be threatened.

Whether this crime is punished rests not with the Senate, but with Republican senators, and House managers need to stop ignoring the elephant—pun intended— in the room, and forcefully and unequivocally address their case to the only people in the room that matter.

It is not a question of, can we allow the president’s actions to go unpunished, but can you, Republican senators, allow the president’s actions to go unpunished.

It is not a question of, can we honor the oath we took and stand up for democracy, but rather, can you, Republican senators, stand up and protect democracy.

It is not a question of, can we muster the courage to stand up to Donald Trump and say no, no more, enough, but rather can you, Republican senators, stand up, finally, and say no, no more, enough.

No effort has been spared to point out that impeachment is not a trial. That is not to say a trial isn’t taking place. Make no mistake; the Republican Party is being put on trial—the trial of public opinion, which I would remind them is where election are won and lost.

There can be no doubt how history will look upon this impeachment effort, and at the behavior of Senate Republicans. History is full of accounts of heroic individuals standing up for what they believed to be right, as well as cowards who for political expediency did what they knew to be wrong.

The senators should be aware of this, but for those that aren’t, House managers should make the case, so that there can be no doubt, that this impeachment will not be decided by the Senate. The decision to convict will be determined by Republican senators, and history will hold them accountable, and the accountability in question might very well be, who was responsible for the fall of democracy in America.

  

The Life, Times & Adventures of Hoag Franklin: Indian Scout, Buffalo Hunter, Lawman & Vaudeville Entertainer

Like many of the people who settled  the old west, Hoag lived a full and adventurous life, which would have gone unnoticed had an unpublished manuscript telling his story not been discovered in an antique store.

Hoag crossed paths with many of the people, whose names we recognize—Calamity Jane, Annie Oakley, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull and a host of lesser known individuals, each of whom played vital roles in settling the west and creating the nation we know today.

He fought alongside the legends of his time—Buffalo Bill, Kit Carson and Bat Masterson.

Yet, no one has ever heard of Hoag Franklin—until now.

His story begins when, as a young man still in his teens, he rides off on his first buffalo hunt before joining a wagon train as a scout, and eventually heading off to California in search of gold. For the next fifty years, he did almost everything a man could do as the nation expanded from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. He even did things few men ever do.

These are his adventures, in his own words, written in the seaside town of San Pedro, California at the turn of the last century, a town he visited regularly during his Salt Lake City to Los Angeles stage coach run.

My latest novel, The Life, Times & Adventures of Hoag Franklin: Indian Scout, Buffalo Hunter, Lawman & Vaudeville Entertainer, with illustrations by Danielle Grandi.  

ThemVersUs

Historically, the roles of the Republican and Democratic parties seem to hinge on blaming the other party for everything that goes wrong and taking credit for everything that goes right—and staying as far away as possible from working together to find real solutions to real problems.

This is harsh, but justified criticism for two groups that somehow manage to bilk American citizens out of millions, billions, and soon to be trillions of dollars every election cycle. For what? Balloons, yard signs and annoying and harmful 30-second divisive, fear-mongering ads.

The one thing both parties can ever seem to agree on is American Exceptionalism, not because they have done exceptional things, but rather because they believe the American people have done exceptional things, and the parties aren’t above taking credit for what the people have done.

In reality, the only exceptional thing we have done was when 56 men assembled in Philadelphia in 1787 to create a government, which had probably been imagined but never before seen. Everything after that—the Civil War, the land grabs, racism, labor struggles, self-interest infighting and deceit has been more or less standard fare.

As human beings, Americans haven’t behaved much differently than the ancient Persians or Egyptians, the feudal societies of the Middle Ages, the Conquistadors of imperial Spain, or the European opportunists who divided Africa up in the late 19^th century. A basic flaw in humanity has defined our behavior from the earliest days of the Stone Age right through to the Space Age we now live in. Again, instances of exceptionalism such as what occurred in Philadelphia in 1887 have been rare.

This flaw in the human condition, which keeps both individuals and, by extension nations, not only in constant conflict, but prevents them from being truly exceptional, is the Us/Them factor, which after watching a lot of TV and being subjected to too many pharmaceutical ads,  I’ve reduced to one word, ThemVersUs because it is so basic to understanding humanity.

We (us) have always been suspicious, fearful, or threatened by them—anyone who isn’t us. This isn’t an American problem. Just as we are not exceptional, neither are we the only culprits in the world. Neither is ThemVersUs a political problem, which government can fix—no matter how many balloons and yard signs political parties buy, to convince us they are the solution.

The ThemVersUs problem, as basic as it is, manifests itself in many different ways, both between nations and within nations. Obvious in this country is racism, but it also surfaces in class struggle, labor relations, economics, health care, housing, education, and anything else where there are two positions creating us versus them situations—even mask wearing during a pandemic. Rural communities and large cities distrust each other, as do sparsely populated states and heavily populated states, and people owning guns thinking people without guns are going to take their guns away—by, I dunno, twisting their arms.

Taken to the extreme, Middle America fears the inhabitants of the two coasts are conspiring against them and vice-versa. Our forefathers couldn’t have foreseen this because Middle America back then were the coastal states of Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas.

There’s an old Woody Guthrie where he takes on one job after another in order to convince his girlfriend what a hard worker he is, to the point where he just about wears himself out. If we truly want to lay claim to being exceptional, we don’t have to do a whole lot of things, but each individual acting in concert with other individuals will actually have to do something exceptional—something that historically has rarely been done. Namely, deal with the ThemVersUs by learning to get along with them, which ironically, will actually entail less effort than attacking them, and be easier on everyone in the long run.

As I’ve said, this is not a political issue so much as a humanity issue, but the divisions created do prevent the exceptional government designed by our forefathers from working, and even threatens to bring about its collapse as in 1861, and again more recently on January 6 when us/them went after them/us.

If Americans truly want to lay claim to the title of exceptionalism, we will have to do something truly extraordinary, learn to live with and not fear them who surround us, or we will suffer the same fate that has plagued every other society and cursed humanity from its earliest days—a never ending struggle that has no winners.

It won’t be easy. Being exceptional has never been easy, certainly not as easy as being predictable, which requires no special talent or effort. It wasn’t easy for those 56 men in Philadelphia, but despite their differences, they understood that ordinary people can do exceptional things, once they stop doing the senseless things they think they’re expected to do.

The conflict between us and them cannot be won in the courtrooms, or in Congress, or on the battlefield where the war has been waging continuously ever since Cain first determined Abel represented a threat and needed to be killed. It can only be won when we stop fearing them, and learn to live with them—or even better, when we learn that there is no us and them, but only us. 

How to Win a Propaganda War

We are in the midst of a propaganda war in this country where misinformation abounds and credibility is being put to the test. We are all combatants in this war and our brains are both the weapons we fight with and the targets we must defend from attack.

Common sense, back when it existed in meaningful quantities, gave us the simple axiom, “Garbage in, garbage out.” This suggests that good things in, will result in good outcomes.

Superior education, research and technique result in superior products. Putting a man on the moon began with an inspiring goal that was followed by gathering accurate data, understanding it, analyzing it and building on it. Many would call this the American way.

Conspiracy theories are called conspiracy theories because they are based on—well they are not based on anything. They are baseless. In the past, conspiracy theories existed only in the world of cranks. Intelligent people looked down on both the theories and the cranks, but fortunately, there were no enough of either to threaten the rest of us.

Today, we are living at a time where more and more people, especially people in powerful positions—men and women in the Senate and Congress, governors, state and local leaders are looking at nonsense and concluding that if it works for them, it’s okay. The biggest piece of nonsense being floated is that the recent election was corrupted by election officials, fixed to favor Democrats, and must be overturned. Mind you, they don’t necessarily believe the nonsense. In many cases, they don’t. They are simply evaluating nonsense in terms of how it works for them. They are even willing to look like cranks themselves, if there is something to be gained for them personally.

These leaders are playing into the hands of people who would like to see our government fall because if government falls, democracy falls. Thus far, too many Republicans have refused to stand up to these conspiracist.

Our country has always been able to deal with a small minority of cranks who were out of touch with reality. It cannot deal with a sizable number of leaders unwilling to stand up to them.

Republicans don’t have to do much. They have to simply admit, publicly and en masse that the last election was fair, that Trump lost, and that trying to overturn a free election is the most un-American thing any individual, especially a president can do.

They have to use their brains to fight, not surrender their brains to fear—especially the fear that Trump will somehow punish them for doing the right thing.

Again, our brains are the only weapon we have against ridiculous propaganda, and they are the only things we must protect when they are being attacked. Propaganda is the enemy of democracy. Accepting and promoting propaganda is no different than working with the enemy in a hot or cold war. It is treasonous.

Herd Immunity, Herd Mentality, Whatever

 

Leader of the Herd

 Trump has been all over the herd immunity   issue, for it, against it, understanding it, not   understanding it. He has behaved almost like   a herd of buffalo on the open range—all over   the place.

 Herd immunity in the face of a pandemic is a   good thing in the same sense that winning a   war is a good thing. It is not so much a time of joy as it is a moment of relief. A long nightmare—and that is what all wars are, even ones we win—is over. It is the point a nation arrives at only after a period of suffering, destruction and unnecessary loss of life.

There have been leaders in the past who were victorious because they were willing to sacrifice wave after wave of their own citizens against the enemy. Good leaders seek victories that come with minimal casualties. Winning at all costs is not a goal, only a last resort. Reaching herd immunity is gaining victory through attrition because all else has failed.

Yes, herd immunity in a pandemic is a good thing when a nation arrives at that point, but it comes at a high price. It’s a victory not attained through smarter, less destructive means, but rather by senseless inaction.  

Trump has been promising since day one that the coronavirus will go away—first in a few days, then by Easter, and most recently when we reach a state of herd immunity.

Actually, what he said was, "And you'll develop, you'll develop herd—like a herd mentality. It's going to be—it's going to be herd developed—and that's going to happen. That will all happen," Trump said.

I can’t imagine what Trump would say if Biden explained herd immunity this way.

Maybe it will happen, but there are things we can do, more pro-active measures that make more sense than waiting around for herd immunity.

Wearing a mask and social distancing might push the moment of herd immunity further into the future, but it would save lives until a possible vaccine provided a victimless herd immunity.

In my book, Trump Dismantles Washington, there is a chapter where I describe Trump as the laziest man in America. His need for slogans, nicknames, easy solutions to complicated problems point to Trump, at his core, being a very simple man too lazy to rise to any occasion. For him, an insult is always preferable to an idea.  

Waiting around for herd immunity, while at the same time ridiculing mask wearing and social distancing is probably the laziest thing a leader can do. It takes no courage, no strategy, and no particular skill. Someone who, when talking about the pandemic says, “It is what it is,” will also conclude herd immunity is our only way out. He’ll wave his hands around, as if he were holding a wand and say, “It will go away like magic.”

What do we say to a man so lazy, so ignorant, so out of touch?

We could say, “You’re fired.”

We tried that a month before coronavirus landed on our shores. In fact, we were told at the time that if we didn’t get rid of him, things would only get worse. That was way back in the good old days of January.

We couldn’t fire him then because the Republican Party was suffering from herd mentality and Trump was leading the herd.

Wear a mask, social distance, be safe. Don’t wait for 250-million Americans to become infected to take a victory lap.

 

Democracy is about building

No one believes for a minute that Trump understands how Constitutional Democracy works. This is evident in his questioning of elections and his obvious suggestions that he might not vacate the office should he lose the election, or worse that he might not allow the election to take place.

The constant hope is that if push comes to shove, Republicans will push back. Unfortunately, Republicans have been silent in the wake of so many Trump atrocities that one has to question their own understanding of Constitutional Democracy, including the role of Congress.

I’ve been reading John Bolton’s book, The Room Where It Happened. My takeaway so far has been there was enough ego in that room to embarrass and de-feather the most self-respecting peacock.

Just as the peaceful succession of the presidency is key to our democracy, so too is the idea that one administration builds on the work of the previous one, and in the process, the country will move forward—always toward a more perfect union.

Making things better is what good governments do.

A perfect example of this, coming in a crisis no less, was the efforts of Bush, Obama and McCain, along with Republicans and Democrats in the closing days of the 2008 election when the country was falling into a recession. That may have been the last time our nation worked as one.

On the night that Obama won that election, Republicans in Congress essentially declared, “We’re out of here. Anything you do, you’ll have to do without us. Furthermore, we’re going to make doing anything as difficult as possible.

So Obama moved ahead on his own—not because he was a dictator as Republicans claimed, but because they had relinquished their responsibility to do anything except obstruct. They claimed he was an illegitimate president, not quietly in back rooms but as loudly as they could, not because the election was rigged, but because they didn’t think he was a naturalized citizen.

First was the Affordable Health Care Act, which made health care available to millions of Americans.

Then came the Paris Accords, which enabled the world to speak with one voice against a global problem of climate change that will spare no one.

This was followed by the nuclear pact with Iran, signed by every industrial country in the world, but never approved by the Republican Congress.

DACA was an attempt to ease the pain of millions of young immigrants, who everyone agreed, at least publicly, deserved a break because they had done no wrong. Again Republicans passed.

President Obama was continually forced to go it alone, and then roundly condemned for going it alone.

The thing is, none of these actions resulted in perfect fixes. They were initial steps toward solving big problems. As our forefathers noted, we only strive for perfection, nothing more, and nothing less.

Republicans however, who tend to treat the founding fathers as if they founded the Republican Party, see things differently. More and more, they seem to strive for something less.

Trump, with the support of Republicans has killed one Obama initiative after another rather than try to build on them. Treaties, regulations, programs, even his strategy for dealing with a pandemic have been abandoned.

The only time they even pretended to make something better was their “repeal and replace” approach to Obamacare, which failed miserably because Republicans at their core, and Trump despite his boorish bragging, are not builders.

Democracy is dependent on builders if it is to succeed.

Anarchy—something Trump seems obsessed with—centers on destruction.

If there is one thing we can expect from anarchists, it’s that they will deny they are anarchist.

Four years of Trump and the last ten years of Republican control have demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of what America stands for.

To think Republicans will protect us from a destructive Trump is foolish thinking. We have repeatedly seen that they are not up to the task. Why would they be? He is only walking along the path of destruction they have laid out.

Ghost Generals—Still traitors, still losing

The young man didn’t appear to be the least bit shy speaking to the journalist.

“Yes, you can call me a white-supremacist. I don’t owe no man an apology for what I believe. These statues not only honor the leaders. They remind us of the cause they fought for. They represent the very soul of what we as a nation sought out to become, and what we were prepared to do to see that dream realized. Those men are who I am, we are, who we were, and who we will again be someday. That’s my heritage people want to tear down.”

***

“What do you think, Stoney?”

“I think that’s the biggest load of rubbish I’ve ever heard, A.P.”

“Were we as bullheaded as this young fellow?”

“Course we were, but we were soldiers doing what soldiers do. This man don’t speak for me. Nor you, I ’spect.”

“I guess, if I were pressed, I’d have to admit that those of us that did the fighting were the soul of the south like that fella said, but that south don’t exist anymore. That war was fought, fought hard, but it was lost. You...me...we all moved on, but I don’t know what this fellow is trying to accomplish. Seems to me, he might not know himself what it is.”

“These statues were a bad idea when they went up and they’re an even worse idea now...and you know how much I believed in what we were fighting for, but sometimes, a soldier has to lay down his gun and move on. We did our part, and when the time came, we laid down our guns, but these statues won’t let us move on.”

“I believe you might have a point, Stoney.”

“I know I have a point. Look around you. We don't have nothing to do with this new south.The new south has moved on, but we're stuck back in the old south like rotten meat that should have been thrown away, not years ago, but decades ago. Yet, we haven't aged a day...riding the same dang horses, brandishing the same dang swords. I don't know about you, but oxidized green is not my color."

“I reckon, if we were to get right down to the crux of the matter, statue or no statue, we’re no more a part of the today’s south than the iron in those statues are part of the iron ranges they came from. The ranges are dead. We’re dead. The south that that fellow is braggin’ up is dead.”

“I, for one, am tired being tied to this hunk of transformed iron ore.”

“So what do you think we can do about it?”

“I’ll tell you what I’d like to do about it. I’d like to get away from here. I’m tired of people spitten’ on me and those horseless carriages spewing those God-awful fumes around that would suck the life right out of me if I wasn’t already lifeless. I never even knew you could paint something without a paint brush and I sure don’t like what they’re painting on me.”

“So where do you think we should go? Who’d have us?”

“Well, I don’t care where they stick these statues. As for where we go, I’ll tell you where I think we should go. I want to be back with my men.”

“In the cemeteries?”

“Hell, yes, in the cemeteries. The ghosts of our men have been languishing around for decades looking down on barely readable gravestones in remote, long-forgotten battlefields while we sit here in the middle of Monument Avenue in all our grandeur. They’re where they are because of us, and we’re where we are because of them.

“We sent them to their deaths fighting for a lost cause, and we’ve gotten all the glory. I think it’s high time we get back to our men.”

“Well, I reckon there’s enough cemeteries to choose from. Any idea where you’d like to go?”

“I think I’d like to visit the boys over in Spotsylvania. They gave me everything a general could ask for. Maybe it’s time I drop in on them. How about you?”

“I might head down to University Cemetery in Charlottesville. You know, I was born just up the road in Culpeper...mighty pretty country. I should have gone back there years ago.”

“Better late than never. See yeah, A.P.”   

“Take care, Stoney. It was an honor serving with you.”