It’s Only Money

I don’t gamble.  No, I don’t think it’s immoral ( or illegal or it makes you fat).  I worked for a living, and I just don’t think it’s a part of the casino’s business plan that you should win.  There are lots of ways to throw away money.  I just don’t believe I need to do it. 

In general, people who spend money expect something in return.  Which brings me to the subject of this blog.  Specifically, one of the most unnecessary large expenditures in our society – campaign finances.  According to at least one source, $2.74 billion was spent by the major parties on the election of 2020.  That’s a lot of favors in return – ya think? (Incidentally, the Harris-Walz folks recently raised $540 million.  In about 2 weeks.  About a half billion!).

This obscene amount has, in all probability, been enhanced in recent election cycles by our [Ex]treme Court  as a result of their bizarre ruling that corporations are people, too (pardon me for oversimplifying).  All I know is 2.74 billion is not available to feed starving kids as a result.  

Do these “attack ads” convince anyone but the converted? Living in Virginia, we are spared much of this vitriol, since the state is not considered a “battleground”.  However, Flo and I get an average of 100-150 emails daily from Democrats asking for money (strangely, we don’t get  any from Republicans, can’t imagine why not).  No, we have never sent any money to any of them.

Let me propose a thought experiment (that’s something where you know it can never happen, but you can dream).  Let’s imagine we reprogram, say, a half billion to feed starving children.  Do we need that much? I am reminded by a retort given by Harry Hopkins early in the Franklin Roosevelt presidency during a hearing on depression relief, “but Congressman, people eat every day”.  So do kids.  Feeding them adequately is, actually, an investment.  It’s hard for kids to learn if they’re starving.  

What little I can afford, I generally send to outfits which feed the hungry.  Charities such as Food for the Poor, Covenant House, So Others Might Eat, Feed the Children.  Please do not regard this as a request to support any of them.   Yes, there are lots and lots of scams out there.  Although it’s not all inclusive or foolproof, we have found Charity Navigator to be a useful means of evaluating outfits asking for money.

As I write this, I see on the news that Sudan is facing famine, due to a rivalry of rich people wanting their way, or some such hocum.  The latest example of using food as a weapon on God’s children who happen to be poor.  How do these perps sleep at night? Meanwhile, in prosperous nations, we are throwing money around to attack others.  There has to be a better way.

Lyrics

I am, as you readers know, something of a musician.  I can no longer play anything but the radio (tee hee).  Although I listen mostly to classical stuff these days, I have long been a fan of American popular music.  In my dotage these days I kind of dig the lyrics.

Oscar Hammerstein had a long collaboration with Richard Rogers in the last century.  Of all of his magnificent output, one song sticks for me: “You have to Be Carefully Taught (To Hate)”, from South Pacific.  If there ever was a song this pertinent for this age, it escapes me.

Frank Sinatra had the services of several lyricists in his long career.  For my money (such as it is), my fave (no. it’s not New York New York): “It Was A Very Good Year”, written in 1961 by Ervin Drake.  While “researching” for this piece, I found out that the song was originally recorded by Bob Shane and the Kingston Trio, another favorite of my youth.  Never did hear their version. Wish I had.

Woody Guthrie wrote a lot of lyrics.  My favorite: “This Land is My Land”.  Wouldn’t this make a fine national anthem? Just sayin’.

George Gershwin had a younger brother, Ira.  I’m hard pressed to single out any of his numerous lyrics.  Ira outlived George by decades, and worked with other songwriters throughout his long life.  As a lyricist,he could, at times, invent words.  There is a phrase in “It’s Not For Me” where Ira coins a word,”lackaday” to force a rhyme.  To my uncertain knowledge, it has never cracked its way into the dictionary – and probably never will.

I’ll close with a favorite.  Huddie Ledbetter wrote a song lamenting. maybe, life in general.  It was recorded by, among others, the Weavers in the early nineteen fifties:

Irene, good night, good night

Irene, Good Night

Good Night, Irene, Good Night, Irene

I’ll See You in my Dreams (Chorus)

Last Saturday night I got married

Me and my wife settled down

Now me and my wife are parted

I think I’ll take a stroll downtown (Chorus)

Sometime I live in the city

Sometime I live in the town

Sometime I take a great notion

To jump into the river and drown (Chorus)

Stop ramblin’, stop yer gamblin’

Stop stayin’ out late at night

Remain with yer wife and family

And stay by your fireside bright (Chorus)

   I had an aunt named Irene.  She was married to my Uncle Al.  She was a wonderful person I wish I’d spent more time with.  Unfortunately, the family moved to California (it’s a big country), and I lost contact.  Good Night, Irene, wherever you may be. 

An Eye for An Eye

One of the 10 Commandments I learned as a child was phrased, “Thou shall not kill”.  Most of us understand it to mean that homicide which is not justified by self defense or other mitigating factors is a grave sin, a mortal sin in most religions.  Does the government have the moral right to execute people? I have pondered this for many years.  While we still have a democracy, maybe we need to question this.

This nation has 51 principal subdivisions (50 states plus the nation’s capitol), along with the federal government.  The death penalty is on the books of 27 of these, although only a handful actively use it.  How do we kill people? Let me count the ways: hanging, firing squad, electrocution, lethal injection and the “gas chamber”.  The goal is to end a miscreant’s life as rapidly, and painlessly, as possible.  

Why do  we have a death penalty? Well, there’s deterrence.  Do you think twice about committing murder in Texas, but do it, say, in Massachusetts without fear since the latter does not have a death penalty? I’m not aware of evidence that there is any correlation.  By the way, on average, 22 years elapse from death sentencing to death, itself.

Although nobody, to my knowledge, has ever lived to reveal the degree of pain felt by those executed via the guillotine, the Washington Post recently noted the passing of the French Minister of Justice, who, in the 1980’s, conducted a campaign to eliminate this method in that country.  Most of the tinkering of procedures for accomplishment of this grisly task in the U.S. have centered on “humane” procedures such as lethal injection and the gas chamber.  It is, perhaps, telling that many substances needed to do the job are not readily available domestically, and importing them is often not possible if the provider is aware of their intended use.

Recently, Alabama has explored the use of nitrogen gas.  Nitrogen constitutes close to 80% of earth’s atmosphere.  It does not support combustion, or, for that matter, life.  Therefore, if one is reduced to breathing nitrogen, death due to suffocation should result in several minutes.  Technical term: Nitrogen hypoxia.  Simple? Well, maybe not. The inmate took about 22 minutes to die, and appeared to be in extreme distress.  

Nitrogen’s principal advantage lies in its ease of acquisition.  Many of the components of a lethal injection “cocktail” are hard to get, for the reason cited above.  A short list:

Pentobarbital – A hypnotic to relax victim

Midazolam – Part of a family of benzodiazepines (Valium, Librium, Xanax), also used to “relax”

Etomidate –  A short acting intravenous agent, if all else fails(?)

Fentanyl – An extremely powerful narcotic which kills a lot of people who abuse drugs.  Needs no introduction.

The state-hired ghouls whose function is to end these prisoner’s lives have tried numerous combinations of these substances over time.  None of them have proven to be effective in all instances – to end life rapidly and with no prolonged suffering by the inmate.  No drama.

In that no demonstrable deterrent effect seems to result from the death penalty, should we be doing this? Arguably, life imprisonment is no day at the beach.  

We humans are quite accomplished at taking life that God created.  We have learned to create weaponry to kill with impunity.  I know, I know we need to defend ourselves.  Yes, there are bad people who deliberately, or negligently, starve little kids to death.  But there is something chilling, to me, anyway, about state mandated premeditated taking of life.  Numerous religious leaders have denounced the practice.  Pope Francis issued a renewed call to “all people of good will to mobilize for the abolition of the  death penalty throughout the world” in September 2022, citing the inequality of legal defense available to poor people as opposed to wealthy perps (see: Donald J. Trump).  We really need to reexamine this practice.

Go, Joe Go…..or should Joe Go?

A short resume:

Born in 1942.  Served as U.S.Senator representing  Delaware, from 1972 until becoming Vice President to Barack Obama.  He sat out POTUS 45’s single term, then ran for, and was elected President in 2020.

Joe Biden has not had it easy.  Shortly before being sworn in as senator, his wife and infant daughter were killed in a car crash, and his two sons were injured. He commuted home on Amtrak to be with his sons, eschewing much of the D.C. social scene.  His elder son, Beau, died of brain cancer, probably contracted from burn pits while serving in Iraq.  

He ran for president in 2020, and faltered badly in early primaries.  He made some promises to Representative James Clyburn to name a minority female as his running mate.  As a result, he won the South Carolina primary, and went on to win the nomination.  As a likely quid pro quo, he selected Senator Kamala Harris to be his Veep.

As President, Biden, drawing on his encyclopedic knowledge of the federal government, assembled a talented group of cabinet heads and staffers.  Despite having a razor thin majority in both houses, he was able to ram through legislation establishing major infrastructure projects (no 

” infrastructure weeks” like his predecessor, just  sayin’), among other accomplishments – like reviving NATO to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression.  If any president in my lifetime deserves a second term it is he.

Were it not for something no one can control – his age.  Biden is a few years younger than yours truly.  At 85 YOA, I can tell you I ain’t what I used to be, even a mere five years ago.  Yes, Joe is near enough to the top of his game now, but one wonders how he might be in a few years.  Is it valid to generalize from my experience  in life? Of course not.  For what it’s worth, however, millions of my fellow citizens feel he is over the hill.  Our republic cannot risk POTUS 45 redux.  Hell, he’s only a few years younger, anyway.  Joe, it’s time to take a bow and accept the thanks of a grateful nation.

Simplest solution for  the Democratic Party? Award the presidential nomination to Kamala Harris.  It’s high time we had a female president.  No, she doesn’t seem all that impressive at the moment – neither did Harry S Truman.  Turned out to be one of our best ever.  IMHO, she wouldn’t be any worse than the convicted felon retread the other party (cult?) is running.   It was Tip O’Neill who famously observed, “money is the mother’s milk of politics”.  My understanding is that a Harris-led campaign  could avail itself of the sizable war chest compiled for the Biden-Harris campaign.

Yes, in my view, it’s time to take a leap into the future.  Harris doesn’t seem that presidential at the moment, but people tend to grow into it.  It’s too bad we seem to need to jettison a good, decent man who has been, IMHO, one of the best, ever.  We simply can’t take the risk of the restoration of POTUS45.

A Sting

Early in the last decade of the last century, I was working at the DEA’s Mid-Atlantic Lab, in The Nation’s Capitol.  We provided analysis of FBI’s drug exhibits. One evening just before quitting time, a couple of agents came by.  They needed some “crack” cocaine to use in a “sting” operation.  I identified an exhibit which was no longer needed for prosecution (the bad guys were serving time).  I was careful to document the sampling to preserve its utility as potential evidence.  The agents told me that they couldn’t tell me who it was to be used  on, but it would knock my sox off when I found out who, yadda yadda.  At the time, we had two kids in college and several jobs between us to pay the bills.  I went off to work at the lumber yard, and got home in time to watch the nightly news.

They were right ! The stingee turned out to be the Mayor of the District of Columbia, one Marion S. Barry.  He was offered the stuff at a downtown hotel in the city, where he was staying with a woman not his wife.  Imagine that! Mayor Barry was  educated as a chemist at Fisk University.  After a stint on the City Council, he was elected mayor.  He had served about a decade as the city’s mayor when all of this went down.  After being found guilty, and serving a prison sentence, Barry was reelected for another term as mayor in 1995.  Sound familiar?

These events took place during the crack cocaine epidemic in cities throughout the country, a time period which seems, in retrospect, almost quaint when compared to the fentanyl/opioid scourge we are currently suffering through.  Fentanyl, it turns out, is easily made from relatively simple chemicals.  Much like the “French Connection” heroin, one does not need a rocket science (metaphorically speaking) expertise to be trained to make fentanyl.  
Years later, after the voters had finally retired Mr. Barry, Flo and I attended a luncheon for some educator she had worked with.  In walked the mayor-for-life.  Flo, as she does so well, chatted him up for a pleasant discussion.  He had no idea that I was part of the means for getting him out of office and into the slam.  Ain’t it a small world, indeed!

Miscellany

Random thoughts and trivial concerns:

Ever listen to a commercial (I’m sure you have) where the advertised stuff is claimed to perform better than the leading brand? Ever wonder why is it still the “leading brand”? Then, there is a product which has been “clinically proven”. What does that mean? When I was a kid, a clinic was a place where poor people could see a doctor.  What is it now?  Where is the study data? How was it measured? Does it even exist?? Would some advertiser lie about something like this? Ya think?

Back in the day (I mean, waaaay back when I was in high school), I took lessons on the piano accordion.  Both my mother and my Uncle Alfred were talented musicians (indeed Uncle Al was trained on the piano, and taught himself to play the accordion).  I even got to play a few gigs for ethnic French dances after the war.  My uncle taught me some valuable insights: There are musicians, and there are technicians.  A technician can be taught to play competently, but largely devoid of emotion.  A musician, on the other hand, tries his/her best to get into the songwriter’s head, and to play the piece with feeling.  Another tip: I complained to him once that cigarette smoke gave me headaches during gigs.  His solution? Light up at the beginning of the night and chain smoke at least a couple.  Inhale, the whole bit.  It worked like a charm! 

I still have a few copies of sheet music of these old hits.  I’m talking stuff from the 1930’s.  Does anybody still use sheet music? I learned how to read music (for the accordion, which is not quite the same as piano), but, for the most part, I played by ear, so to speak.  Among God’s many gifts to me, I have my mother’s and uncle’s ear for music.  In my salad days, my favorite phrase was “hum a few bars and I’ll fake it”.  For what it’s worth, for my money, the 1930’s were the golden days of popular music. 

I knew a few musicians who got prosecuted (persecuted?) for compilation of “fake books”.  These were collections of sheet music assembled without approval (and payment of fees, more to the point).  Your FBI in Peace and War,  Don’t the feebs have more pressing things to do? 

Oh, by the way, many of these pharma ads promise that the product is “guaranteed” to do whatever the ad says, promises, etc. etc.  What does this mean, anyhow? Do you get your money back? Who returns it? This is not limited to drug ads, BTW.  Just saying.

Just a few items I have wanted to get off my chest, so to speak, while I still can.

Jose Can You See

Taken from a cheesy joke I heard back in the day: A spanish

speaking immigrant is taken to a ballgame.  Asked how he felt about the experience, he replied that he was touched by the concern expressed by fans for his well being: they all sang, “ Jose,  Can You See”? Told you it was cheesy……

About a century after Francis Scott Key’s The Star Spangled Banner became our national anthem, I gotta ask: Can’t we do better than this for the greatest nation on earth? While Key’s lyrics are somewhat warlike, my objection is more with the music, itself.  (One of my favorites, La Marseillaise, is even more belligerent).  Key’s music is taken from an English drinking song, “To Anacreon in Heaven”.

Just about any singer would probably tell you that the melody is, to say the least, challenging, particularly with the high note near the end: “O’er the land of the free…”. 

A Russian immigrant named Israel Beilin (later changed to Irving Berlin) penned a song titled, “God Bless America”, which is often performed at sporting, and other, events.  Unfortunately, God is mentioned prominently (as well He should be), but in this pluralistic society, is this a no-no?  This criterion rules out  other candidates (America the Beautiful, Battle Hymn of the Republic, to name just a couple).    

Key had, at best, a mixed outlook on slavery, perhaps less so in the context of his time (much could be said about President Harry S Truman, a great president from a border state who integrated the armed forces). The song could be made considerably more tolerable if the third stanza is omitted, as has been proposed several times.  We are usually spared stanzas beyond the first, anyway, at most events.  

Much is made of separation of church and state, which is, at best, honored in the breach.  Is not our currency validated by the phrase, “In God We Trust”? Our Pledge of Allegiance to the flag (hopefully right side up) had “under God” added in the 1950’s. Why not include Him (or Her) in a national anthem?

This is a time for making some changes to our national setup, which I’ve suggested in the past (to no avail).  To wit: Abolish the Electoral College and the U.S.Senate.  Why not jettison our National Anthem, based as it is on an English drinking song which is all but impossible to vocalize competently.  Don’t worry, traditionalists, it ain’t gonna happen.

War is Hell

Title is taken from remarks by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman during the siege of Atlanta during the American Civil War.

Here at THE HOME, we have a Wall of Honor, with photos of men and women veterans.  Most of us are, at least, in our seventies. We come from times when we needed large numbers of combatants.  So much so that we needed a draft to fill ranks.  Although the Army was the only service which utilized this recruitment method, the other services were filled with volunteers seeking to avoid the draft (present company included).  The draft largely ended in the 1970’s.  As a result, a much smaller share of the populace currently serves. Will we need a Wall of Honor 20 years from now?

No, I don’t see us turning arms into plowshares any time soon.  What seems more likely is us humans blowing up this beautiful haven. Or rendering it uninhabitable through our insatiable greed. 

I worry for the little kids in the war zones, starving, maimed, hearing and witnessing stuff nobody, at any age, should.  How many PTSD cases are out there? 

Speaking of PTSD, one thing I have noticed: The guys who have experienced the worst, that is those who were shot at, are least likely to talk about it.  I was just a kid after WWII ended.  My Uncle Alfred, one of the most significant people in my early life, went through OCS and got a commission.  He served in the infantry after D-Day.  He never talked of his experiences, and developed a problem with alcohol.  He may well have been a PTSD victim.  I think it was called “shell shock” at the time.  I’ll never know.

I haven’t seen Oppenheimer.  Just as well.  I might be reminded that we developed, in the last century, the means to end our species once and for all.  Along with most of God’s creatures.  Again, during the Memorial Day Concert, I noticed a new service added to the Armed Forces Medley – the Space Force.  A new capability for our elimination?

No, Mr. Putin.  War doesn’t solve anything.

Trial of the Centuries

Trial of the Centuries

Orenthal James Simpson recently passed.  His trial, for the murder of his former wife and a friend of hers, consumed much of the years 1994-1995.  He was aquitted of the killings after hiring (assembling?) a “dream team” of some of the most  famous defense attorneys of that time. Fortunately (in my humble opinion) OJ ended up doing time for other offenses later in life.  Who of us living at that time can forget the lengthy chase up the freeway? “If it fits, you must acquit ”.   

In this century, we are experiencing several trials of a former president, which has never happened before.  The defendant has teams of attorneys handling trials in Miami. FL, Washington DC, and state cases in Atlanta, GA and New York, NY.  At this writing, they have managed to kick the can down the road on all but the New York case.  Expensive stuff, these !legal fees.  Wonder who’s paying them.  Although he is probably not a billionaire, he seems to be able to afford whatever representation he needs.

Then, there is one Joe Morelli.  Joe has mental issues and lives in Endicott, NY.  Joe’s crime? Verbally harassing Marjorie Taylor Greene, via text.  For this crime, Joe served an 82 day sentence in a federal prison. Joe was defended by a public defender, for which Joe was one client among, probably, several hundred. 

So, we have one from the last century who probably did two murders, one from this century who (to take the most serious crime) fomented a coup on the U.S. capitol, and some poor soul who vented on a congressional gadfly. The only one who did jail time. EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER THE LAW. Indeed.

How many Joe Morelli’s are out there? Thousands.  How many are incarcerated simply out of inability to pay court costs, raise bail money or get a “speedy” trial? The Home of the Free (because) of the Brave has the highest per capita imprisonment in the free world.  Meanwhile, we have a so-far unconvicted felon walking around.  His crimes? Fomenting a bloody insurrection. Stealing of numerous classified documents – for what use? These are only the federal raps.  

Yes, it’s complicated.  What logistics must be accomplished to imprison  someone with Secret Service protection, among other issues. Don’t know, but it’s not rocket science.

The Fair Sex

Is this the beginning of the end for my persona –  the White man? I don’t think there  is any doubt.  Some other foods for thought: as a former colleague at Bishop O’Connell High School (a Cuban immigrant) observed a few decades ago, the USA will be a majority Spanish-speaking nation by mid century, if current trends continue.  The nation is becoming increasingly “mongrelized”, as younger  generations increasingly mate and marry across racial lines (in my view, this contributes to strengthening the human race).  I have blogged in the past about the growing marginalization of males in general.  Are we entering the Golden Age of Women? Sure seems that way.

I remember vividly, in the early 1990’s, my recently graduated daughter coming back to live with mom and dad.  No, it wasn’t supposed to happen that way, but the economy had soured, and jobs for recent grads were not forthcoming.  To say that Jen felt badly about this is putting it very kindly.  We were pleased when, in the space of several months, she had gotten into a graduate program and landed her first professional job…and then moved out. I don’t have any stats on this, but it sure seems like a lot of guys have moved back with M & D and are going nowhere – in a time when the unemployment rate is, effectively, zilch.

As an old goat living in what used to be called a nursing home, women greatly outnumber men in the resident population.  Sure, some of this can be attributed to the tendency of men in my generation to marry younger women, but the morbidity/mortality stats tell us that women live longer.  I’ve pointed out that the majority of graduates from colleges, law  and medical schools are female, and the gap seems to be widening.  In the upper levels of corporate management, the so-called glass ceiling is cracking more and more.  Even Congress is beginning to close the gap between the genders, albeit too slowly.  We are among the last holdouts in advanced western democracies who still have not elected a female head of state (or, have we? In 2016, the female candidate outpolled the male by somewhere north of six million votes),  but we are getting closer.

I can’t help wondering whether this recent push to restrict abortion rights isn’t the old guard’s final, last gasp attempt to put women in their places. The last gasp of (white) male supremacy.  After all, science hasn’t figured out  how to get men to give birth yet- thank God!  My views on abortion: it’s homicide, it’s sinful, but in the final analysis (yes, I was a chemist once), it’s really none of government’s business.

When I first joined DEA in the late 1960’s, there were no female agents (nor, for that matter, forensic chemists).  At this writing, at least two of the most recent DEA administrators have been women.  In November 2023, Admiral Lisa Franchetti became Chief of Naval Operations.  Even March Madness seems to have been usurped by women.  Need I say more?

So, what to do about the other gender? I think that guys need to bond more, at the very least.  Even in my generation.  At the “home”, we have a breakfast of sorts.  I go downstairs a couple days a week to feed.  When I come off the elevator, I am greeted by a table of women in lively conversation.  In an adjoining room, however, a table of men sit around a table in relative silence.  Younger guys interact even less.  Many people trace this to the advent of smartphones.  Why talk, after all, when you can play games?