Blog

In January of 1950, still reeling from the communist victory in China, US Secretary of State Dean Acheson gave a major policy speech at The National Press Club. In it he outlined vital US interests in Asia, a “defense perimeter” that included Japan, the Philippines and the Ryukyus. But it was what he left out of the address that was most significant. By not including South Korea, conventional history has it, Acheson sent the message that the nation was not worth blood and treasure to defend and was not a priority within the emerging containment structure which would define US Cold War policy.

Six months later North Korean troops and artillary were rolling effortlessly across the 38th parallel and Acheson was imploring Harry Truman to make the precise commitment he had greiviously omitted. The rest is history. More than 50,000 dead US troops and 65 years later the US still fully guarantees South Korean security as part of a “tripwire” force along the DMZ at the 38th parallel. There are more than 35,000 US Army personnel in South Korea and it is assumed many would parish in the initial stages of a North Korean assault; that’s the American guarantee.

Since the truce was put in place – the war never officially ended – North Korea, under three generations of Kim totalitarian regimes, has agitated to get the Americans off of the peninsula. This is more than a North Korean goal, it has also been a Chinese priority, and a Russian desire as well. The announcement of talks this week in Pyongyang between China and its client will probably be about just that, China reminding Kim that, despite enthusiasm for his new found moderation, China remains his only ally and will not be marginalized regardless what form negotiations with the US take. But at the end of the day both countries ultimately want the same thing…US forces off of the peninsula.

It doesn’t take a geopolitical genius to figure out they are playing Trump for a fool, probing to determine just how off the rails our diplomacy has gone. Adults like Mattis, and even back benchers like Bolton, understand any talks with the North must take place in line with our pledge that the South’s security concerns are paramount. It would be a sure sign that Kim is not really serious if he leads with a quid pro quo that US forces withdraw for denuclearization to proceed. That’s fundamental, like an opening 5 3 roll in backgammon…. except who’s to say Trump understands that, or cares? Nothing would surprise. Getting Bigly in a lather about a Nobel prize and a huge political win has trouble written all over it.

Trump has already made unhinged, fully uninformed noises wondering why we are still in South Korea. It should shock nobody if Kim, a winner from the outset just getting a US POTUS to the table, takes it right to Trump, threatening to end things before they start if withdrawal isn’t put on the agenda, which would immediately unnerve the South. Can anybody really count on L’Enfant Terrible, his hopes all up, his twitter feed laden with empty promises of success, to stand his ground and tell Kim it’s a non starter?

They call it a tripwire force because of its vulnerability. Should the North attack, Americans die, and the POTUS will have no choice because the electorate will demand we engage. Once there is no US personnel on the ground, our promises don’t mean a cup of coffee, particularly with a liar of poor character at the helm. South Korea knows this. That’s why it is a mystery they would be anything but gravely concerned at the prospect of this summit. Perhaps they still don’t appreciate what we did in November of 2016. They may be about to get an education. BC

Jack Germond was the pure newsman. First with the now defunct Washington Star and then with the Baltimore Sun, Germond teamed with Jules Whitcover to produce a daily column on beltway and national politics for almost 25 years. That he was old school in his diligence and method did not mean he was averse to change.

As news became more of a television medium he joined the McLaughlin Group, where he always seemed a bit out of place among a collection that included everything from reporters who favored punditry (Eleanor Clift and Fred Barnes) to wannabe politicians (Pat Buchanan) to self-promoters (Host John McLaughlin and Larry Kudlow). Later, after getting fed up with McLaughlin, he even moved on-line and produced content for the then newborn Daily Beast. Germond always cared about the story, not those reporting it. When he passed away at his home in 2013 at the age of 85, American journalism mourned one of its last print standard bearers, the consummate political reporter.

Back in the late 80s and early 90s Germond could often be found at Laurel Racetrack’s Sports Palace nursing a drink and studying the Racing Form. Being a regular myself, I chatted with him often about the day’s card or upcoming major races like the Derby or Preakness. He was as indiscript as one could be, and although I often fished for his insights about current events, he was far more generous with his views on the feature race than the White House. Yet and still, occasionally, if my question was particularly well thought out and timely, he would reward me with more than a cursory response. Jack Germond reported news the right way, hunting down leads, fleshing out and confirming sources, collecting as much information as possible and simply arranging it to create the story. In short, he was a great newspaper man, who I admired very much. And I am sure he hated the Washington Correspondent’s Dinner.

To Germond, socializing with those his job was to keep honest was a conflict of interest. What it has become, fully on display last night, would have surely seemed an abomination. A lavish Oscaresque gala, celebrating the media and fully consumed by corporate interests, not to mention polluted by politicians, lobbyists and even Hollywood, would have revolted Germond. Yes, I think it’s safe to say he would have despised everything about it….except Michelle Wolf.

Why am I certain Germond would have approved? Because of her honesty. The idea that a prom for the media, held in one of the world’s most cynical cities, underwritten by a collection of corporate entities as a function of their access to both the fourth estate and the government it is meant to keep in check, should have ground rules of propriety for edgy comics they enlist in an effort to demonstrate the media’s irreverence and aloofness is laughable.

With Trump actually spending nearly two hours on the same night proving why the travesty of his election underwrites the argument that the whole charade normalizes and enshrines graft as a norm of our Republic, whining about whose feelings got hurt during a monologue is particularly rich.

Huckabee and Conway want to have it both ways, tough shit; Wolf gave it to them her way. She did nothing different than anyone else at that tired, conflicted soirée – she attended to her agenda. She gave them what for, and now they want an apology? Say what you want about the Clintons, they had the balls, or is it the full lack of shame – whatever – to sit there and take it as a drunken Don Imus went on and on, getting nastier with each delivery.

Trump is too cowardly to take his medicine again after Seth Myers and Obama carved him up the last time he attended. Wolf was a hell of a lot funnier than Imus, and her knife was plenty sharp. Appropriate is not a word that has any application to her duties last night. She mixed her cocktail neat, and served it straight up. Boo hooing about stepping over lines and being nasty could only come from people who can still somehow look in the mirror and not be repulsed by the wretched hypocrite peering back. The only thing I regret about last night is that I haven’t binge watched A Hand Maiden’s Tale yet. BC

Trump’s rally tonight in Washington Township, Michigan, a town on the outskirts of Detroit that nonetheless is 95% White, should provide a vivid display of the specter that will be our routine until November.

After his manic meltdown with the Fox and Friends crew the other day, it’s a pretty good bet that White House staff – actually, is there anybody left who advises him? Kelly perhaps, if he hasn’t completely thrown in the towel – are imploring L’Enfant Terrible to relax and stay closer to Planet Earth. The odds of him following such entreaties resemble the chances of Promises Fulfilled winning the Derby next Saturday.

Our POTUS has a lot he wants to tell us; unfortunately it’s the same five or six things over and over, and nothing has much to do with anything other than his rabid paranoia and disconnection. The impossible path to 270, the witch hunt, who should go to jail, Mexican rapists, his bestest enemy Rocket Man, and our historic Trumpian economic revival should form the base of the evening’s rant. Throw in a sprinkle of slander against John Tester for his role in getting Jackson pulled as VA Chief, the usual ugliness toward the 4th estate, and some frothing about how ungrateful our allies are, and there you have it…a two-hour fact-free fiasco, that will have even his most ardent denizens wishing they were at church, or watching paint dry somewhere quiet.

We all need some degree of validation about our answers to the questions that confront us. I suppose whether you’re a stable, decent sort depends on how much validation you need and what are the answers you need assurance about. Leaders possess more confidence and require less validation. The less secure need more reinforcement, often seeking to reduce others in the bargain. M. Scott Peck, the psychologist, who authored the seminal work “The Road Less Traveled” notes that the evil among us protect their status any way possible, often lying and projecting their shortcomings on others – scapegoating.

Trump rallies are a mutual coping mechanism for the POTUS and his wretched core. The mob needs someone to keep telling them things are not their fault. Their lives and families are victims of social and economic progress, which never had to happen, but for all the agitators, who saw problems where none existed. Trump, like the Fox/AM personalities they love and trust, is proof positive their parents were right about who to blame. And now he’s brave enough to yell it from the rafters, a true hero, who they empowered to work for them. He’s going to get us back to when life was still good, when the answers weren’t important because the questions didn’t matter.

For his part, Trump gets two hours of adulation that assures him the only thing that counts is being well liked, just like Willie Loman. After all, isn’t that what all of his enemies are attacking him for? They hate me because I’m popular! They’ve always been jealous; that’s why the fake media is against me…look at all these people… with signs!! And lines outside that can’t get in… the fire Marshall says so. They love my straight talk. I’m so brave! Look at all I’ve sacrificed!

Perhaps there is a silver lining we can take out of these grotesque affairs. Even if we don’t need validation to know Trump is not normal and his supporters are whack, we can take an inventory on truths we once took for granted and make certain to defend and promote them. And moving forward we can walk the walk and not tolerate the notion that questions about basic social justice and decency are still open for debate just because Tucker Carlson says so.

Trump rallies are shocking proof that simply ignoring morons can be disasterous to the republic. There’s the guy running around naked squawking like a chicken, and there’s the guy running around, squawking like a chicken in my backyard. The first doesn’t matter, the second you have to deal with. Washington Township IS our backyard! BC

When Ronald Reagan finally passed in June of 2004, a friend of mine, overweight, into his 40s and suffering from significant heart arrhythmia issues, waited six hours in the DC sun to walk past and get a momentary glimpse of the embalmed corpse in the Capitol Rotunda. When he boasted to me of his pilgrimage I incredulously asked why he felt compelled to extend such a thankless gesture, and believe me, thankless gestures were not familiar elements of this guy’s makeup. He declared that, except for Lincoln, and maybe Washington, Reagan stood alone in the pantheon of US Presidents, and it was the least he could do for so great a man.

Since I had known this friend since 89’, just after the Reagan years ended, I quipped that I didn’t remember him being so devout back in the day, when #40, fully debilitated by an Iran-Contra scandal that would claim most of his national security team, and paint him as either feckless and fully disengaged or at the top of a criminal conspiracy, limped away from the White House. He declared something to the effect that history had been very good to Ronald Reagan. I scratched my head and chuckled to myself; that’s one way to put it. He of course was a dedicated Fox viewer.

In 2004 the shit river was not the torrent it has become, but it’s growing influence was on display with the burial of Reagan, who was not so much being celebrated as used to create destructive dogmas employed in his name, with the glorification of his achievements pursued to create credibity instead of the full throated rebuke they deserved. Supply side economics, trickle down, unfettered deficit spending, welfare queens, mindless deregulation, unchecked military budget increases, not to mention culture wars boogie men like affirmative action, planned parenthood and attacks on the 2nd Amendment, all would become party sacred cows as part and parcel of homage to Reagan.

Miscreants like Grover Norquist and Wayne LaPierre would ride Reagan’s cold dead bones to become repulsive litmus testers for party candidates, and destroyers of bipartisanship. And when all was said and done, a nihilist party would emerge, unconcerned with even employing the dogmas created in Reagan’s name to govern so much as using them as the basis for nostalgic days past, lost to “progressives” bent on destroying the “Reagan Revolution”. Forget, of course, the fact that Reagan would be mercilessly dismissed as an addled RINO in today’s GOP, the picking through his remains continues to be an ongoing cottage industry.

So it’s now clear sanctification of Reagan was far more ominous than it appeared and portended a voter base fully detached from fact and self-examination. Victory in the Cold War forced a diminishment across the media spectrum of the ugly corruption and peccadillos of the Reagan years, confronting the Fox/AM mythology with merely a neutral counterpoint. So Reagan, who we now know was suffering from dementia during at least the final months of his presidency, became the apex of Republican executive leadership, even if accepting such a distinction dramatically lowered the bar for fresh GOP talent, ushering in a generation of mediocrities, whose lack of policy gravitas became less and less of a concern. Dan Quayle, W, Sarah Palin, not to mention the full subsuming of the GOP by the Tea Party wave of 2010, all can be traced to Reagan idolatry.

And so here we are, 30 years later, with a GOP POTUS, who really does consummate Reagan as the Best and Brightest by comparison! Trump is the reckoning that comes with, not just refusing to learn from history, but allowing a major party to get away with reimagining it’s failures as triumphs, its bankrupt dogmas as fresh ideas, and a movie actor, who needed help remembering why he was in Reykjavik, as one of our greatest Presidents. It’s hard to imagine where the GOP is going to find the vibrancy and intelligence to survive Trump, but if it thinks going back to the drawing board means discovering “another Reagan”, it is indeed up the shit river without a paddle. BC

Nobody takes any pleasure rooting for a foreign leader to give it to the POTUS and his flunkies. It is indeed a sorry state of affairs when we look to Europe, and Canada, and Mexico to speak truth to the lies we have brought on ourselves. It’s anybody’s guess exactly what motivated Macron to immerse himself in Trump World. Surely, as an insightful man, he has to understand that spending any time at all in that orbit will diminish you. Trump is going to process things through his character disordered psyche, and even the best intentions will get tarnished.

So it was incumbent on Macron, when given the podium in the Capitol, to make sure there could be no doubt where he stands, even if reasonable people may disagree how necessary it was to muddy himself in Trumpist waters. He needed to be clear. And he was.

One thing that now always slaps you in the face when listening to speeches by foreign leaders is how truly awful Trump’s speechmaking process is. Of course if Stephen Miller is the principle writer of Trump speeches, nuff said; it couldn’t be any worse and will not improve. Yet and still, listening to Macron’s oratory makes one wistful for the very recent past, and even more depressed about the future with our anti-statesman.

It was great to hear him repeatedly cite the “unfinished business” of our democracies, which reads to me “this is a bump in the road we will get through.” Citing King and James Baldwin, sort of out of thin air, felt like an unmistakable bow to progress, forced upon the type of troglodytes who for now enjoy power. And because, unlike our leader, Macron is not a nihilist, he actually laid out an agenda, something directly at odds with Trump and the GOP. Anybody not overtly corrupt and dedicated to the national interests of their country understands both the threat and opportunities of climate change. Developing low carbon energy technologies is a big part of responsible economic forecasting. Macron merely stated the obvious today, to the stoney silence of more than half his audience. The enthusiasm he mustered for what the rest of the world understands as a given was a bit muted by the disgust he surely feels at the 2 year olds before him. But even so, the theme was clear, it’s a long distance race not a sprint, and Trump’s already out of gas.

Anger builds nothing, Macron implored, and threaded clearly through all of the love for our common history, and the bonds we share, his message was Europe is moving on with or without the US. If he came here willing to let Trump and company portray him as a supplicant, he left as the one doing the telling. Trump has the power to cause some pain for Europe, but at the end of the day they will realign and move on, and we will lose. Macron knows this, not because he is particularly smart, or visionary, but because he is not stupid. Whether Trump really believes he has a newest bestest buddy he can rely on not to detest him, he was told clearly today in language he never could understand, that he’s temporary, a damaging blip that can be corrected if we embrace our past to save our future. Trump is merely the ugly present. BC

The true danger of Trumpism will be seen from the wave of nihilists running this election cycle.  Obviously, if they were to be elected in large numbers, that itself would represent a crisis.  Yet even if they are thoroughly trounced, as we hope and expect, how they react to defeat will determine the danger we face.  Trumpism is not at all about ideas; there is nothing available in that department. It’s really about boundaries and behavior.  Trump has provided a lurid example how to flaunt virtually every responsible thing about our electoral system.  The degree to which his ugly group of toadies follow his playbook will surely determine how much we should worry as November nears.

Anybody who wants to lose their appetite should go to You Tube and pull up the West Virginia GOP Senate Primary Debate they had the other night. It’s a crowded field ranging from a convicted coal baron, directly responsible for 29 miner deaths, to a couple of off-the-streeters waging long shot bids, but they all share one thing in common: Trump can do no wrong.  At about the hour mark the moderator actually asks them to each expound on their views of the President, and they each shoot for the brownest nose.  One can only imagine what Blue Dog Joe Manchin will be saying to get re-elected. Now, this is West Virginia, fully conservative to be sure, but also not 50 Miles from DC.  Arizona, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah, Florida, all are auditioning Trumpies for national office, and the rhetoric is frightening because everybody is trying to outTrump their opponent.  What that looks like in the general election is supposed to moderate, but Trumpism is at its core a brand of behavior not a political outlook. It is about how you do things not why. If an entire political class unbinds itself to decency and shame, look out.

While these wannabes are running their campaigns, Trump plans to be on the road holding rallies. He understands his office, if not physical freedom, hinges on November’s results. He will be loose and reckless, of that we can be sure. Should the writing on the wall of a tsunami election start getting clearer and clearer, it would be no surprise he reverts back to “the system is rigged” theme he obsessed on when he was certain he would lose in 2016.  And that is when we will see how dangerous things can become. If Fox/AM, as it most surely will, starts parroting the corrupt process tripe, and Trumpie candidates, polishing their own nihilist brand come what may, fall in line with the shit river, things could get very very dicey.

The essence of Trumpism is a rejection of anything he defines as to blame for whatever grievance he decides he has that hour. Surely if it becomes clear that November will bring full and unmitigated disaster for his prospects, he will get out front on who and what he holds responsible.  It’s not any stretch at all to expect that the process itself will fall right in the crosshairs of those beady eyes.  Trump is Trump and, while ugly and wretched, it’s nothing new.  Besides, flipping the Hill is our salvation, no? But where will that put us?  A rabid Trump cornered and snarling, fully goaded and spun by the shit river, and imitated by a small army of candidates who have no other identity past his bona fides? We could end up in completely uncharted territory.

What’s the old adage? Careful what you wish for… you may get it. Trump has a noose around his neck. The tighter it gets the more reckless he will surely become. Does anybody think he will go quietly into that good night? Who he can enlist to circle the drain with him will determine how ugly his departure will be, and how long and how much we will have to pay for the pestilence of his ascent. BC

Unfortunately, to understand Trump’s wretched core supporters requires more than a passing familiarity with the Fox/AM shit river.  So much of what now characterizes, not only the policy sensibilities of his administration, but the inane stupidity of Trump’s daily relationship with the public, can only be accurately processed through the prism of this world view.

Most important to understanding Fox/Amers is to recognize they don’t care what anybody else thinks.  Their entire outlook has been created and maintained by the “personalities” they, not only rely on as exclusive sources of information, but admire and trust the way a student revers a teacher. After all, before Fox/AM they were tabula rasa, devoid of any perspective on current events other than nagging grievances they dared not articulate. It was all a puzzle with way too many pieces, changing way to fast to follow. They weren’t proud of their apathy, in fact they were ashamed of it. How can you be a patriot if you don’t know who to be mad at? Sean or Glenn or Rush or Bill etc. changed all that, providing a simple storyline they could embrace; the primary characters stayed the same, as did the basic plot, and everything, every second, was either right or wrong. The river doesn’t do grey areas.

The relationship between Trump and his wretched core is identical to, say, Hannity and his fan base, or Rush to his zealots.  Read the comments on Trump’s social media sites and their is no difference to the pages of river stalwarts.  It is critical to appreciate how alienated the wretched core felt prior to Fox/AM, and now that they have a home and feel included, there is no desire to expand horizons, or allow in information that their mentors make clear will damage their standing in the group. If you’re saying to yourself right now “gee, this sounds like some kind of cult,” the simple response is …..duh!

Trump is both the product of and leader of shit river nihilism. Viewed from this lens his presidency is simply the leading show of the nightly line up.  His only concern politically is to keep the base happy. The narrative dictates action; he won’t stray from its guardrails.  Of course this is at odds with any concept of leadership, or responsible government. But since his entire campaign was one rally after another composed of nothing but Fox/AM’s laundry list, “keeping his promises” is the go to mantra. Of course it is fair to ask if any other GOP candidate wouldn’t be doing the same thing since there really wasn’t much daylight on the broad strokes between platforms.

The answer to that question is found within Trump’s deficiencies.  While, say, Ted Cruz, is just as beholden to the narrative as Trump, his intellectual foundation and policy IQ is not fully dependent on it.  In other words, Cruz is educated enough to absorb and relate to disparate information. Trump is not. Trump has been so hopelessly over his head from an intellectual and policy standpoint since taking office, the requisites of balancing arguments to make decisions has unmoored him, taking him miles from his comfort zone, which has for the last decade or more been what Sean and Bill have doled out. His “balance” came from Scarborough until the former congressman became a critic and was cast out for his apostasy. Now it seems to be just Sean, with Fox and Friends providing subjects to tweet about every morning.

So to understand Trump’s wretched core is to comprehend Trump. He is as much a product of the shit river as they are, each fully informed by its narrative and dedicated to its nihilism.  Were Trump to suddenly undergo an epiphany and govern responsibly, Fox/AM would turn on him; there is no doubt of that. But that scenario is not possible because Trump is as exclusively informed by the Fox/AM line as his wretched core and has little ability to think outside its strictures. Moreover, he has become so insecure due to the unforgiving waves of differing views aides and handlers have thrown at him in pursuit of some sort of coherant decision making structure, that he requires the piece of mind provided by a trusty echo chamber.  “Letting Trump be Trump” is simply shorthand for he doesn’t want to hear anything but Fox. Mr. President, Sean Hannity on line 1! BC

Of course anybody can see Trump hates almost everything about being POTUS. This nonsense about him breaking free of handlers to be himself is simply him refusing to do the minimum to do his job properly. Ideology and overt corruption aside, it is discouraging how few seem to be truly vexed and focused on his laziness and refusal to put any effort into his Presidency.

We know he will not brief himself on any issue.  But it’s worse than that.  According to all reliable sources, he also refuses to allow himself to be briefed on any issue.  Now, refusing to sit down and study up on a country or regions’s specifics is one thing, lazy and awful yes, but there is at least some precedent. Reagan was certainly no voracious policy wonk.  More recently, W had an allergy to white papers, even as he led us toward folly in Iraq and an economic meltdown. But to refuse to even listen to advisors lay out policy options, preferring instead Fox and Friends, or a phone call from Sean Hannity? That is La La Land. And by all accounts that is where we are.

Trump has played golf 20 percent of his time in office.  He now calls Mar A Lago “the Southern White House.” It has become clear he’d spend not an hour in the real White House if he had his way. According to aides, he wants to do several rallies a week up to Election Day. Three rallies and off to Palm Beach is how he wants his weekly schedule to look until November. What does that actually entail?  Early morning tweets attacking all enemies, i.e. non-sycophants, followed by “executive time” with the Fox gang, especially Ainsley – does anybody really think he got hooked on that crappy show because of Steve Doocy?! – and then off to the rally du jour for a 90 minute fever dream session with his wretched core. Repeat.

Somewhere in there will be disarming North Korea. Of course the notion that such talks require exhaustive preparations, not to mention thorough discussions with allies, most importantly South Korea, doesn’t seem to apply with this President. This is, after all, Trump, who reminds us hourly of the failures of previous administrations, even as he slips out for yet another round at Doral.  Remember, like Lou Dobbs says, he makes his own rules.

History will catalog all of Trump’s disgraces. From his ugly vindictive war on American progress, to his radical redistribution of wealth and needless ballooning of already critical debt levels, to his wreckless counterproductive protectionism and assaults on the environment, to one of the most corrupt administrations in history, filled with cabinet secretaries bent on destroying the missions of the departments they are supposed to promote.  The record will document a foreign policy more punitive to allies than adversaries, and built on a zero-sum proposition fully oblivious toward America’s leadership role. History may even recognize a POTUS fully compromised by a foreign power and actually beholden to its agenda.

But what some of us will remember first and foremost about the imposter we elected in November of 2016 is abject laziness, punctuated by a complete aversion to anything designed to improve his job performance.

From the 16-minute regurgitation of nihilist campaign tropes pawned off as an inauguration speech,  to countless embarrassments on the international stage due to nothing more than a lack of basic preparation, this POTUS insults the office he holds by willfully ignoring its basic obligations. Some say we are fortunate for his sloth; if he really tried our pluralism would be imperiled.  Perhaps that is true.  But it seems cold comfort when your POTUS is hustling to putt out so he can catch the funeral of one of his own party’s First Ladies at the 19th hole.  The American Presidency was not meant for couch potatoes. BC

 

I remember it clearly. It wasn’t quite an epiphany, but it qualified as a significant insight. Back in late September, 2001 I was heartened by the notion that the silver lining to 9/11 was a tangible sense that our inane reality TV culture had been knocked to the canvas, replaced by a real bipartisan sense of unity and higher purpose.

Things were moving fast, and of course the ugly finger prints of Dick Cheney were starting to proliferate, but America seemed to be snapped out of its stupor. The idea that anybody could get their 15 minutes had lost its luster, now family and friends and community seemed paramount… who gave a crap about roommates stabbing each other in the back? Or kids self-destructing within their own nastiness? Yes, for a while it was kind of glorious….and then it was over. And almost 20 years later we’re more vapid than ever. Oh, and we elected the genre’s most grotesque caricature POTUS.   Like a yo-yo dieter, following discipline and self improvement with a binge that doesn’t stop, our culture has more worthless flab than ever. What the hell happened? And what will it take to get us back on the wagon?

If 9/11 represented one of the worst days in US history, it also posed an opportunity and a challenge. It seemed obvious at the time, if not to many in the Bush Administration, that a proper response to the attack would in large part analyze and better understand the whole reason the cabal succeeded beyond their wildest dreams: that we were not prepared for men, not just ready to die for their cause, but employing their death as the lynchpin to execute their plan. It occurred to nobody on those planes until it was too late that their hijackers planned to die. No negotiations, no heading to Cuba, no airport shootouts. Their  deaths were both the means and the end of their horrible scheme.

It struck me at the time, and still does today, that unless we better learn why men would enthusiastically sacrifice themselves to cause us harm, we will never be able to deploy any sort of viable response to confront them. From a policy and societal standpoint 9/11 gave us differing ways to go.  We could allow its devastating carnage to petrify us and retreat as a nation behind a military that would surely unleash the wrath of God on somebody.  This approach would paint swaths of the world with a broad brush, and allow the trauma we suffered to dilute what foreigners could offer in fear of the threat they conjured up.

An offshoot of this thinking would be to turn inward, retrenching from our world leadership role. This, of course, would by any account allow the terrorists a victory, not to mention create a plethora of other problems. Moreover, as a democratic system, and destination for many a world refugee, retreating from our missions abroad could only discourage our interest in other peoples and render us less hospitable to those wishing to come here.

A different  way would be to view 9/11 as a tragic aberration, a freak, a horrible crime carried out by maniacs, whose fanaticism provided the blind spot needed to carry out their insanity. Until 9/11 we could not process planned suicide on our shores. Now was the time to better understand its genesis. Certainly there was no reason not to unite the world against the wretched Taliban in Afghanistan, who had been committing outrage after outrage since taking over in Kabul. But our guiding priority had to be to understand why educated men would methodically plan their own destruction to harm us. It seemed obvious that to better grasp this issue meant engagement not just confrontation, and diplomacy not just the military. Dealing with the threat of fanatical elements within Islam with more nuance than a zero-sum crusade would require courage and tolerance, but good policy usually flows from exactly those attributes.

We all knew watching the Towers come down that things would change. So extreme a horror, shared in real time by the entire nation, was going to have a lasting foot print….everybody understood that. Less clear was how the path we chose going forward in response to terror would effect our culture and the society it defined. Xenophobia is by definition boring because it excludes. The military is boring because it relies on routine to instill discipline and training.  Fear is boring because it views most things new as threats and seeks to avoid them.  To the degree the 9/11 attacks were allowed to dim our enthusiasm for new frontiers and understanding, and to the extent our interaction with other countries and people’s was going to be a military exercise, our cultural vibrancy would suffer.  Why wouldn’t our cultural life be defined by the limitations of our national security policy? To the extent it was bold and engaging, we could be a creative, dynamic society, staging new entertainment based on discovery.  To the degree we met the world with wariness, equating it’s unknowns with danger, we would rest on our laurels and watch reruns. Downtown Abbey or Jersey Shore? Our choice.

Sadly, we know the route we took, and we are living with the consequences. Can we ever get to and give the third option a shot? What trauma will we have to endure to achieve the clarity necessary to consider it? I have no idea, but perhaps we can ponder the question over a 3 Part Reunion Special of The Real Houswives of Atlanta.  What do you say? BC

 

 

I am lame in countless ways, prominently among them is my failure to secure satellite radio for my car. This limits me to an FM/AM buffet ranging from Classic Rock greatest hits played over and over to  Mark Levin (nuff said).  One exception has become my favorite channel – The Bluegrass Foundation, which is fully devoted to the music and history that truly defines Appalachia.

While I am no expert on the subject, I have become a big fan of the genre. It’s hard not to love the detailed string work and sad harmonies of music dating back generations, with vivid tales of woe. Anybody who steeps themselves in Bluegrass for any time at all quickly recognizes some prominent topics which thread through its offerings. Undying devotion is big, of course religion plays a huge role, unfaithfulness and betrayal are well represented, as is the strains of poverty.  And as everpresent as any subject through the years is the hardships and dangers of the coal mines.  It is hard to find a sadder set of songs in the entire discography of American music than Bluegrass’ tales of early death and daily hardships at the hands of Appalachian coal mines, punctuated by an underlying narrative of poverty and exploitation. A coal miner’s life is nothing but sorrow to hear it told in a  sad Kentucky melody.

On April 5, 2010, part of the Upper Big Branch Coal Mine, located in the bowels of Montcoal, West Virginia, exploded violently, killing 29 miners. It was the worst US mine disaster since 1970, and by the time the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) issued their final report in December of 2011, it had labeled the coal dust explosion an “entirely preventable tragedy” brought on by a plethora of “unlawful policies and practices”. The 1000-page report cited the mine’s operator, Massey Energy, as “flagrant” in its negligence of basic safety protocols and criminally responsible for the loss of life. The report noted the mine was literally a tinder box and it was common knowledge working in it amounted to Russian roulette.  When asked during proceedings why they didn’t protest the situation and push for change, one miner on the stand said with resignation that mine owners simply “buy off judges and have political connections.” Indeed, what emerged from the Big Branch disaster was a portrait of corruption and disregard for miner safety and well being so pronounced some degree of reformation was enabled… it could not be ignored, said Joe Manchin, West Virginia’s Governor at the time.

And who is this skel who ran Massey Energy with the greed and avarice fully blamed for the deaths of 29 miners? Surely he must be ruined and reviled, living a life of shame and disgrace. Not exactly. Actually, after pleading a litany of felony counts against him down to a misdemeanor  beef of “conspiring to violate mining standards”, and serving less than a year in country club conditions, Don Blankenship, former Massey Energy CEO, has decided he wants to be a US Senator; and it appears, after loaning his campaign millions of dollars, he is closing with interest past the GOP primary field, setting the stage for another party character test in the general election.

Of course, nobody seems to have bought Trump’s regressive myths about the wonders of a career in coal mining more than his wretched base in West Virginia. And it is that group that Massey and his hapless primary opponents are angling for. Which has transformed Massey from a nefarious mine baron, directly responsible for what amounted to mass murder, to just another Trumpie neophyte, busy convincing the wretched core he can provide the POTUS with a better BJ than his opponents.

And what can we expect from the GOP if Blankenship wins the primary and faces Blue Dog Manchin in November? Pulleease!! Do you really have to ask?! My Lord! What’s a little mining accident? Hell, in Alabama they were all in for a guy local mall security had APBs out for back in the day. What is there you don’t understand about the word “accident”? This is not a slippery slope, it is an ice fall. Can you say “Trump Rally”?! He won’t be able to get there fast or often enough. And despite what increasingly appear to be Mitch McConnell’s futile efforts to sway the primary away from Blankenship, even as amoral Democratic machiavellians undercut his opponents, with Senate control in the balance, the tedious turtle will swallow the sliver of pride he still possesses and at least look the other way come fall.

In a landscape where there is no bottom, underground explosions appear to be easily forgotten. Where is Lester Flatt when you need him.  BC