1552 The Burning Bush

1552 The Burning Bush

We give an old man some breathing space as he approaches the age of death.  If we like him, we start thinking of him as better than he is. If we dislike him, nostalgia crowds it either down or out.

So when George Herbert Walker Bush, 91 and ailing, spends long hours over long years with a biographer and says things that surprise, the nostalgia is joined by warmth.

Jon Meacham’s biography of the 41st President is out and it’s making waves.  Meacham is a big time editor (Newsweek, Random House;) commentator (PBS) and a patient and thorough researcher.

He spent years listening to Bush and was given access to years of presidential diaries.  From this, he wrote almost 900 pages as one of the era’s most famous figures gives it one last try at shaping history in his favor.  Trial and -- to an extent -- success.

Unlike President Bush 43, HW served with honor in WWII, admitted his mistakes and tried to lead rather than exclude large swaths of the public.

If he had one flaw that was more “fatal” than others it was loyalty.  In seeking a second term, he chose to stick with vice presidential running mate Dan Quayle, who probably was the second worst veep of the late 20th century, the worst being Spiro Agnew.

Up until recently, the vice presidency was a job of low demand.  And even at that Quayle didn’t measure up.  Goofy is okay if one also is likeable. Dan had the former attribute but not the latter.  His picture is in the dictionary next to “dolt.”

Male members of the Bush clan have trouble expressing themselves understandably and in complete sentences.  They speak in bumper stickers. That hurt “W” more than HW and brother JEB! of the wilting exclamation point -- thank you Gail Collins for that -- is right up there with his brother.

Ah, his brother.  HW tears into a couple of W’s top guns.  Cheney and Rumsfeld. He says (translated from the bumper sticker) they are dogmatic, rigid and doctrinaire. While “Poppy” as he’s called in the family started the gruesome Iraq nonsense, W turned it into high art and HW didn’t much like that, either.

Bush 43 defended his choices of advisers, most of whom had worked for Poppy earlier.  And the advisers themselves are wearing the senior Bush’s  pejoratives as badges of honor.

In the diaries, HW admits to something few politicians would, self doubt.  He paints himself as far more human than the present generation.

So, we give the old fella a break because he kept silent when to speak up would have undercut his son (there’s that loyalty thing again.) We forgive him at least some of his many trespasses.

And we give him a break because he is a throwback to the days before the republican party had been completely co-opted by the crazies.

George Herbert Walker Bush, senior skydiver, lifelong public servant admitter of having to change course after “read my lips, no new taxes” will not save us from the abyss his older son opened and newer members of his party are pushing us to leap into.  But by today’s standards, he’s sane and reasonable.

And you can’t ask much more of a politician.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2015

1551 Declassified: The Trans Pacific Partnership

1551 Declassified: The Trans Pacific Partnership

We must love to be screwed over.  Every time we sign a trade agreement, that’s what we get.  This latest one shows -- again -- we don’t learn from our mistakes.

NAFTA, CAFTA, Shaft-A.  

Yes, in the recently released formerly secret Pacific trade pact, some safeguards have been installed.  Sort of like the traffic cones that warn you of slippery conditions.  Occasionally, even in English.

(“Piso mojado” means “wet floor” in Spanish.  But it sounds like a holiday greeting.  ‘I wish you a Piso Mojado.’”)

The official name of this monstrosity is the Trans Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement.  And make no mistake, we are the junior partner.

“Eighteen thousand taxes on American exports have been removed,” raves the 30- chapter agreement. That makes our stuff cheaper and therefore more attractive.  Like, we export a whole lot of stuff to our dandy new partners, Chile and Vietnam.

Ah, but there are much needed safeguards for fair labor practices, right?  Sure.  Malaysians will see their work day reduced to 12 hours, sometime before 2024.

Many labor items in this contract.  But did anyone ask the AFL-CIO of input?  Of course not.  We can’t have special interest groups meddling in international affairs, now can we?

Plus what could those thugs tell the scholarly experts who worked out the terms behind closed doors and signed off on it before it was made public.

Supposedly, this thing can’t be implemented until congress signs off on it.  Well, the jingo caucus might be able to justify its pathetic, Koch-fueled existence by opposing this latest demeaning of America. But many co conspirators won’t.

TPP doesn’t extend benefits to tobacco or drug companies than they expected.  Well… it was written primarily by the Obama administration.  So you can expect the republican autonomic response we’ve been hearing since the details were published just now.

Opposition from the pharma- tobacco-cancer complex should mean the rest of us should support it. But if you look closely, you’ll see they’re whining not about being excluded but by not being kissed deeply enough.

Here’s another splendid benefit we can expect from TPP.  China will have to introduce the safeguards other countries are to observe.  Yeah, of course!  China! Why they’re famous for bowing to international example and/or pressure.

The president gloats TPP lets “...us set the rules” for international trade.  This space generally supports the Kenyan Muslim Socialist’s viewpoint if not the specifics of his actions.   But this lie is right up there with “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.”

Shrapnel:

--Fellow car nuts, here’s important news. Bob Lutz has started writing columns for Road and Track Magazine. So far, he’s explained the roots of VW’s diesel problems and why he thinks Tesla is on the wrong track.  Lutz is always worth reading.

--Struggling BlackBerry is drawing rave reviews for its new Android smartphone, one of the few that still has a slide-out keyboard for those of us with trouble typing on screen.  That’s the good news. The bad news is it costs $700.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2015

1550 Little White Lies

1550 Little White Lies

The US Supreme Court is considering a proposed change in law that would let you sue companies that publish little white lies.

The case pits an ordinary guy against the internet search-for-fee site Spokeo.  Spokeo is loaded with the kind of personal information that we have always craved.

Is he or she married or single?  Educated or a dropout? Solvent?   What if the information is wrong and someone loses a job or points on a credit score because of misinformation in an internet search?

Spokeo says in court papers that people should be allowed to sue only if there’s actual damage.  The proposed change would allow a relatively low payout in a suit even if no one but you looked at your report.

Conservative justices who have spoken publicly don’t want the law.  Liberals are divided.

How did the misinformation get to the website? Did the subject of the search lie?  Did the site mistype the data?  Is there name confusion?  After all, there may only be one or two Lyro Panacallis.  But there are an awful lot of John Smiths or Mary Joneses (check any motel register if you doubt this.)

Jrs. are often confused with Srs. Twins have recently defeated facial recognition software at a state motor vehicle bureau.  Most of these errors are innocent.  Some are just careless. Few are malicious.

So, the question is “what is right?”  Laws are essentially cookie cutters.  They are mass production Thou Shalt Nots.  Most are couched in complicated legalese designed to confuse and mystify.  And most are open to interpretation.

There are simple laws that require none of this. “No Right Turn.”  “Stop.”  But once it gets beyond traffic control, it’s anyone’s game. Look at any murder trial if you disagree.

So, what to do about the little white lies.  Given the makeup of the activist court, chances are this will be defeated.  But it’s still hard to tell what’s right.

And that’s no lie

Shrapnel:

--Speaking of the Supreme Court, it has slammed the gates on St. Preet. In effect it legalized insider trading and forced federal prosecutor Bharara of New York to drop seven of the cases on which much of his reputation rests.  The court so narrowed the criteria for the crime that only an imbecile could fail to avoid prosecution.

--China admits it is burning more coal than previously reported. Much more.  So which came first, the Chinese Little White lie or Volkswagen’s.

--It is November and that means someone better get down to the third subbasement and awaken WestraDamus the Non-prophet.  He has his work cut out for him this year because so much happened.  Feel free to send in suggestions you find important for him to screw up.

Grapeshot:

-Which school bathrooms are transgender kids and teachers supposed to use?

-Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp recently bought a big stake in National Geographic Magazine and to the surprise of no one, the layoffs are starting.

I’m Wes Richards.  My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2015

1549 Knee Deep in the Big Sandy

1549 Knee Deep in the Big Sandy

As a nation, we learned nothing from Vietnam -- the “Big Muddy” -- except that no one came home whole.

And so, we replicated our failure there in the Middle East.  And we’re about to go deeper as the US sends “advisers” to Syria.

If you think things were bad in Iraq and Kuwait, if you think things are bad in Afghanistan and Libya, hold tight to the railing because they’re about to get worse.  Probably much worse.  This time, we’re not only fighting an enemy on its own turf, we’re not only  fighting what amounts to a popular front, we are also fighting Russia which has a much bigger stake in this conflict than we do and has something to gain, which we don’t.

The old lion Charles de Gaulle warned the old lion Dwight Eisenhower not to get involved in Indochina.  He didn’t listen and neither did the three presidents who followed.

The old lion Gorbachev warned the old lion Reagan against getting involved in Afghanistan. He didn’t listen and neither did the four presidents who followed.

Now comes Syria, home of ISIS, the current black keffiyeh in the region.  We don’t want them. The dictator Assad doesn’t want them and the Russians don’t want them.

So what’s the problem?  We all get together and crush them.  Ah, but it’s the Middle East where nothing is simple even if it’s easy.

The problem seems to be twofold. 1. We like to kill or otherwise topple unwanted regional dictators. 2. The Russians want Assad to stay.

And we want Assad to go with such fervor that we made his removal a condition of our helping in the war against ISIS.  Until now.

Make no mistake about it, we are going to get sucked into this mess and fighting a hot war against Russia in an area where influence is important to them is not in our best interest.  It has the potential to grow into something much bigger.

But, you say, Russia has become a third world country. What harm can they do us?  A third world country?  With enormous natural resources, a strong will, a relatively strong and clever military and a preternatural ability to tolerate civilian poverty and suffering?  Some third world country!

But, you say, we’re only sending advisers. Right. That’s now.  The secretary of defense says “we’re in combat.”  The White House disagrees. The secretary is prescient and the White House delusional.

Vietnam started for us with advisers.  So have other wars. All that means is that the buildup of American involvement will be relatively slow and probably half-baked.

So the question we American peasants on the ground have to ask -- and answer -- what do we need that for?

Lives and money at a distance of seven thousand miles?  It’s bad enough they can’t seem to resolve their own problems, what makes anyone think we can… or even if we can, we should.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2015

1548 America Invades Itself Without Trying

1548 America Invades itself Without Trying

Jimmy May/Bloomsburg Press- Enterprise via AP

(BLOOMSBURG, PA) -- An unarmed North American Aerospace  Defense Command spy blimp meant to guard the east coast against foreign enemies and trailing 67-hundred feet of heavy cable slipped its mooring in Aberdeen, Maryland and wandered about 160 miles north into this small town in central Pennsylvania where it landed.
No one was injured.  But the leash wiped out electric power to many of the 14-thousand or so people who live or work here.

The cable is about the thickness of those on suspension bridges and can cut power lines like a Louisville Slugger destroys a spider web.

Nothing so exciting has happened here since iron mining died in the 19th century.

Airborne, spy blimps are about as safe as drones, which is little-to-not-at-all.  Five years ago, two of them went down in the Carolinas when they collided in mid air.

That’s the bad news. The good news is although they’re huge, they’re filled with lighter than air gas -- helium, mostly -- and once on the ground, with the gas gone, they are about as damaging as a dishrag of similar dimensions.

NORAD may have been trying to conquer the area, but had failed to onload any weapons. Dishrags, especially slow-landing dishrags aren’t enough.  Some blimps are armed.  Not this one, fortunately.

Not to be outdone by the National Transportation  Safety Board, the Pentagon sent a crew of 40 workers to “investigate” and to pack the thing up and take it back to the warehouse.

The trip from the Aberdeen Proving Grounds took about four hours, the same time the internet maps say it would take you to drive at the speed limit.  For part of the journey, it was trailed by a pair of F-15 jet fighters.

What were they expecting the planes to do?  Shoot the thing down in an unpopulated area?  The landing zone is about as unpopulated as it gets.  Unless you count each individual asparagus plant.  

All we need is a jet fighter strafing of someone’s pet cow or prize winning bull.  Oh, the bovine-anity.

Shrapnel (Republican debate edition):

--Who won the debate?  “None of the above.” Too bad he’s not running.

--Who lost the debate?  CNBC, with the most inept moderators ever gathered in one spot.  And all of the candidates who talked over one another, which was all of them. Time to return control of the “network” to NBC News which lost it in Con-Cast’s attempt to right the ship in which it had punched all those holes.

--Are we seeing the last gasp of the Bush campaign or is that just wishful thinking?  In a typical Bush family move, JEB set himself up for a takedown in a small set-to with Rubio over nothing. A takedown is not a pin and a three-count… but close.

Grapeshot:

-Daylight saving time ends Sunday morning.

-Semi annual reminder there is one “s” in “daylight saving time,” not two.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WRJ 2015

1547 Bacon Baloney

1547 Bacon Baloney

The World Health Organization says bacon and other processed red meats cause cancer.  This is not new. But after WHO studied lots of other studies it concludes that it’s worse than thought.

We all know by that the mere act of being in the room with an unlit cigarette exposes us to fatal fumes.  If someone dares to light up, you’re dead meat.

Which brings us to dead meat.  They haven’t gotten to the point where they think walking past the beef and pork in the supermarket exposes you to those same death rays.

But what about all the smoke at barbecues?  Think of the Little Children!  The Suffering Elderly. The Innocents Next Door.  The poor yard squirrels and birds in the line of fire.

Be careful when you fire up the grill.  You never know where that cancer laden smoke is going to go.  But if you can smell it, (mmmm!) you’ve inhaled it.

Soon, someone will propose legislation barring unlicensed outdoor barbecues.  Many modern grills have covers.  So maybe you have nothing to worry about.  Except sometimes the smoke gets through the cracks where the lid meets the lip.

The police radio crackles “we have a 10-367 at 134 North Elm St.”  Oh my.  A 10-367. The police radio code for well done illegal cheeseburger.  Someone’s going to jail.

“It’s only vegetables and a chicken breast, officer. Please don’t arrest me!”

“A likely story, lady. I smell burgers. Not only am I going to arrest you, but then I’m going to take three weeks disability leave to make sure I haven’t contracted eye cancer.  Smoke gets in your eyes, you know.”

Technically, the various studies curated by WHO talk only about “processed meat.”  So maybe -- just maybe -- your freshly ground chuck or uncured bacon won’t kill you.

But you can bet your buns someone will come out with “facts” that “prove” you can die from just thinking about any of this.

The grill and frying pan makers will start selling face masks and safety goggles as accessories.  Already, Martha Stewart, Chanel, Joseph Abboud and Duluth Trading are working up new designs.

Now where is that WWII Ground Observer Corps gas mask that used to be in the basement?  Must have left it at the Cigar Lounge.

Shrapnel:

--First they find evidence of dampness on Mars. Now they discover a geyser on one of Saturn’s moons.  All of a sudden, the solar system has all kinds of water.  So not only do we have to get ready for an invasion of Martians, but now we have all those Saturnian immigrants practically at our borders.

--Desk duty for the white cop who flipped his lid and then flipped and dragged a black high school girl out of a classroom for being “disruptive.” The guy can cool his heels while the other cops of Columbia SC figure out how to twist this into something resembling a reasonable explanation.  But probably there isn’t one.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2015

1546 A Tale of Two Canes

1546 A Tale of Two Canes

Was it Andy Benedict or George H.W. Bush who said getting old was not for wimps?  In any case, the quotation is correct.  (Actually, H.W. doesn’t speak in complete sentences, and Andy never spoke in short sentences, so maybe it was someone else.)

Now, to one of the vagaries of the human body at "this" age.  Arthritis.  Yeah, yeah, we all get it.   And yeah, yeah it's sometimes painful, even disruptively painful.  And there isn't a whole lot to be done for it.  And sometimes it goes away, sometimes it goes away and comes back for a later visit.  And sometimes it just doesn't want to leave.  Hospitality is a beautiful thing.

Oh.  Backstory.  This household follows an Asian tradition:  no outside shoes inside.  A nice idea and a good way to keep floors clean.  Sometimes it can take twelve different changes of footwear to, say, take the garbage out and then head to the basement to do laundry.  You get used to it.  There's a sense of history and tradition to it.  And you get to buy and keep footwear in sizes that guests are likely to have in addition to your own stuff.

Now the hard part:  two canes.  One for outside, one for inside.  One for use outside the house and in the garage, and another for use inside the house.  Well, most of the house.  What eludes, so far, is what to use in the basement, where separate pairs of shoes are the norm.  If you use the inside cane downstairs, is it still the "inside" cane?  The basement floor is unfinished concrete.  Technically, it's inside.  But emotionally, it isn't.  

To use the outside cane downstairs, the outside cane would have to come inside, long enough to be transported downstairs.  There aren't enough hands to do that and still carry the laundry.  So the short term solution is not using a cane, or maybe using a broom handle downstairs.

But a cane is not JUST a cane.  It is a fashion statement.  And you never know who you're going to meet in your basement, and wouldn't want to be there with a broom handle -- so peasant-like.

But owning three canes, somehow, has an air of permanence about it, that one or two don't.

Although if truth be told, not much at “this age” is permanent.

Shrapnel:

--Here’s a lesson for America’s shopping mall owners, and it comes from China where more and more shopaholics live but big centers are failing.  If you run a crummy, dilapidated property, eventually, people will stop stopping by. Pretty much anything you want is a click away.

--And was it Chris just being Chris when the governor of New Jersey was asked to leave the “Quiet Car” where phone calls are forbidden and he was mouthing off at what witnesses say was top volume?  The almost-news-service Gawker says “yes.” The guys who walk behind him with a shovel say he was in the car by mistake and left of his own free will.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2015