Plutocracy in America, A Quick Quote for a Long Subject

“We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of the few, but we cannot have both,” wrote Louis D. Brandeis, a Supreme Court Justice appointed by Woodrow Wilson. He goes to heart of the matter today, 77 years after his death: if America is a plutocracy (ruled by the rich) then it cannot be a democracy (ruled by the people). Given that we the people only get to vote for the candidates that the rich supply us, I think it is obvious what the United States has become. Donald Trump is not causal, he is merely the most blatant example of a truth we are reluctant to admit. He has torn the bandage off the wound festering on the abdomen of Liberty. It is up to us to decide whether he has done us a favor, and treat the wound, or let him and the Party of the Rich dig at the wound until Liberty dies.

Smells Like 1933

It used to be that Hitler comparisons were easy and cheap. If you wanted to slam someone in authority or power you just pointed out how similarly they were behaving like the Fuehrer and the Nazis. It is a quick way to get a rise out of anyone, supporter or detracter. This is no longer true: with President Donald Trump the comparisons may be easy to draw, but there is nothing cheap about this man's concerted and obvious attempts to make the Executive Branch of the United States government the only branch. He hates sharing power, yet he seems to have no real goals except gaining more and more of that corrosive stuff, power. Congress is an obstacle—even his own party members can't seem to agree on anything except tax breaks for the rich and the Mueller investigation has gone on too long. The Supreme Court is becoming a 5-4 Yes Man. Our symbols are more important than the rights, ideals and responsibilities for which they stand. Above it all, despite swimming in a sea of suspicion and controversy, stands Donald Trump on his rock, doing and saying one outrageous thing after another, wondering how far he can go, kissing up to dictators and tyrants while spurning democracies—playing with the big boys he admires. They know how to rule, he says. America is changing the spelling of her name to Amerika, and those who protest what we see happening from border to border, from sea to shining sea, will be drowned out in the end by ignorance and apathy. But when the camps are opened up again and American citizens are placed in them, remember you were warned. Yes, I admit, I am sounding hyperbolic, but it smells like 1933 all over again and I do not want to see history repeat itself. This country is supposed to live by the rule of law but the very rule of law is under attack.

Night Owls

CharleeRose is a night owl. Her dad works from 5:30 in the afternoon until closing time at two a.m., and sometimes as late as three. CharleeRose doesn't want to go to bed until her Daddy gets home and all is right with the world. She won't nap, either—too afraid to miss anything. Try as we might to get her sleepy, she angrily tells us, “I'M NOT TIRED!” and bounces herself around the room, off the furniture, the dog, her brother, her parents and her grandparents. In calmer moments filled with rational discussions, adult to child, she says with a certain level of pride, “I'm incapable of sleep.” We got a trampoline in the hopes that she would bounce the energy clean out of herself. She loves it—wants to bounce and run around and kick balls pretending to play soccer. It gives her great exercise outdoors, is a draw for other kids in the neighborhood, but as for exhausting her naturally, it hasn't helped. But, then, if I am honest with myself, if I didn't have to go to work at three a.m. myself, just about the time her daddy gets home, my own day clock would return to night owl status, too. It's more my natural rhythm: in bed by three, up by noon. So maybe there is a genetic component operating here. As it is I go against nature—my nature—and the grandkids both think it's hysterical that Opa has to go to bed before they do even on a school night. As for CharleeRose, she remains incapable of sleep. We keep trying. Victory is getting her to fall asleep before Daddy gets home. For her Opa, victory is getting her to fall asleep before I do. That has happened, I believe, once, just last week. She passed out on Oma's lap before eleven p.m. and I did a victory lap around the house with Dublin, the dog, who happily bounded along with me after I woke her up.

A Nation of Immigrants Like Me

I am presenting two blogs today, one political and both personal. I want to stick with personal stories. I want to entertain you, to be a proper storyteller and not a pundit, but sometimes you just cannot ignore the world around you. This is, profoundly, one of those times. I think about this a lot lately. I am an immigrant. My parents came from a “good country,” as “proper Northern European stock.” They were not refugees fleeing from an existing terror, rather, they were fleeing a place still recovering from massive terror and where the fear that such terror could recur was still palatable. They had a sponsor; they went through the proper channels; they waited the requisite amount of time between application and invitation. Assimilation was easy, virtually automatic. Hell, my countrymen helped forge this nation and gave America the principles of liberty and tolerance etched into the fabric of our founding document, the “Declaration of Independence.” I was two years old. I had no choice in the decision, no say. My parents came seeking a better future for my brother and for me. Had I been able to rationally understand what was happening I would have agreed, but I was too little. That decision was made for me. Looking back now, I see that there are so many things that would not have happened had I not been born and had I not been brought to America. I do wonder what we all would have felt if, at Ellis Island for however long it took to check our papers and establish the authenticity of my parents' claim to enter the United States, the officials in charge ripped me away from my parents until the dicision was official. It was a different time, a different place. Yet, had we been asylum seekers—a legal request so many today are trying to make legally, declaring their wishes at the border and awaiting review—only to be separated and our family unit torn apart by the US government, well, we would have thought Adolph Hitler had survived the war and was living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Trying to Hide From a Bug

You can't hide anything from little children. They have marvelous hearing and acute eyesight and an insatiable need to know exactly what you are doing and, hopefully, why. I snuck home a purchase of my favorite flavor potato chips, salt and vinegar, and was putting them away in the cupboard for later snacking. CharleeRose, my soon to be four-year-old granddaughter, yelled, “Pringles! Opa, can I have some?” I pulled out the barbeque flavor chips that had her name on them but she said, “I want those.” Her mamma said, “Salt and vinegar? That's my favorite.” “Mine too,” I said. Then I told Charlee, “You might not like them, Bug.” Bug, short for my little Ladybug. “They're sharp. Try one. It's okay if you don't.” She grabbed the offered chip. She took an aggressive bite. Paused. Crunched it up in her mouth. Considered. Swallowed. Took another bite. Grabbed the tube of chips and ran off down the hall. I never saw those chips again.

Success In Singapore?

I don't begrudge our President his success in Singapore. On the one hand, it is a good thing to open communications with North Korea. On the other, however, Trump has elevated Kim Jong-un to a position of prominence on the world stage not befitting a country with the size and the economy of North Korea. Inviting that nation to join the rest of the world is one thing. Being played by a third rate dictator is another—and Kim played Trump like a fiddle with his own trump card, his nuclear arsenal. Kim got what he wanted, legitimacy. We got promises. Neville Chamberlain got promises from Adolph Hitler in Munich, 1938, and we all know how that went—and Kim is no Adolph Hitler, although he might think he is. North Korea is no Germany. Their nukes do pose a threat, but all the bluster from Kim has been in an attempt to hold onto his power and bring him right here, recognized as important by the allegedly most powerful and important man on the planet. Kim can easily see himself as Trump's equal right now. Trump praises Kim with term and tone similar to his praises for Vladimir Putin and other totalitarian regimes. In fact, Trump admires dictators who have an ironclad hold on their countries. He turns his back to those democracies who support us in what Ronald Reagan declared was our mission, to promoite democracy around the world. He also squashes a deal with another rogue nation, Iran, that was working under its limited purview and might have helped that nation rejoin the world. Once again, Trump has presented the American people with actions that are hard to reconcile with what America is supposed to stand for, and I think it shows where his affections and ambitions lie—with dictators. On this one, Fox News's faux pas before the meeting took place was not far off the mark.