Snapping Turtle
The personal blog of David W. Guth
Copyright � 2021

 
Testudo's Tales

Vol. 15 No. 51 -- Why Are We So Mean?
December 28, 2021
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There is an idealized version of America: The land of the free, the home of the brave, a place where all men (and women) are created equal and, simply put, the greatest nation on earth. I want to believe all that, but I don't. After all, I am not blind. I see a country of contradictions. Yes, I think we, in many ways, aspire to be all of those things.  But I also know that saying we are good people and actually behaving like good people are two different things. Truth be told, we are, at times, the meanest people on earth.  We talk of freedom for all, yet treat it as if it were a zero sum game. That's why many of us are actively working to make it harder for others to vote in elections, to choose where we want to live, who we want to love, and to teach an unvarnished history of who we are. We believe in equality, but just as long as some people are more equal than others. While we say that everyone should pay his or her fair share, what we really mean is that those with the least means should carry the nation's tax burden while the richest among us - many of whom who did little to earn such an exalted position - are somehow exempt from providing financial support for a system that has so greatly benefited them. And while we give lip-service to our Constitution and The Bill of Rights, too many of us just don't believe they apply to everyone in the same manner. The Constitution says we have freedom of expression, not just protections for those ideas and opinions we like. It says we have the right to bear arms, but it isn't a hunting license. It guarantees a fair trial for all - not just for those who are white, male and can afford to good lawyer. Freedom of religion? Only if that religion encompasses our own personal vision of God (or whatever we choose to call the Supreme Being or Great Spirit). Frankly, many of those who feign to ask "What Would Jesus Do?" in the same breath dismiss his teachings as radical and unrealistic. Why do so many want to protect the lives of the unborn while pretending there is no social contract to provide for those same babies once they breathe their first breath? Take a moment to read the Declaration of Independence, the document in which we, as a people, bravely cast off the yoke of tyranny. And then think about the ways we willfully place that same yoke upon our own shoulders. I do not lay the blame for this mean-spirited America solely on Republicans, Democrats, Independents or those who just don't give a damn. We all own this. Like it or not, we are all signatories to a social contract where we are responsible for each other's well-being and respect each other's rights. We believe in the administration of justice and mercy in equal measures. As this nation ends yet another contentious year, the United States of America is careening down a dangerous path of self-righteous hypocrisy that could lead it to self-destruction. Perhaps our best hope is that for all of our faults, many of us still believe in the promise of America and that when push comes to shove, we will behave in a manner in which our thoughts and deeds finally match our brave and bold words. Only then, will we truly live in a land of the free and the home of the brave.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 50 -- Dear Santa
December 20, 2021
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I know how busy you are this time of year. And I appreciate that you may be experiencing supply-chain problems like everyone else this year. However, if it isn't too late, I'd like to make some late additions to my Christmas wish list.  Of course, my first wishes are for the health and well-being of my family and friends. And I could stand a little help in that area, as well. An end to the pandemic would be very much appreciated -- by everyone. For Senator Joe Manchin, please give him a backbone and a moral conscience. For Donald Trump, an orange jump suit, matching handcuffs and ankle restraints, and a long stay at a federal correctional facility.  I'd like the same thing for his sons and sons-in-law - and vasectomies, too. For Justice Stephen Breyer, a quick retirement followed by a long and happy life.  (A quick retirement by some other SCOTUS squatters would also be appreciated.) For Attorney General Merrick Garland, enough energy supplements and protein bars to get his butt moving on the prosecution of Trump and his January 6th insurrectionists. For Joe Biden, please give him a year of political success and increasing numbers of Democrats in the House and the Senate. You should give Republicans coal - that's all they seem to believe in, anyway. For John Harbaugh, head coach of the Baltimore Ravens, how about a few successful two-point conversion plays? Speaking of sports, how about some pitching for the Baltimore Orioles? And hitting. And fielding. Those poor guys have wandered in the dessert longer than Moses, if you know what I mean.  Please show them the way out of the American League East cellar. To Steve, Jimmy, the other Jimmy, Seth, Noah and the rest of the late-night comics, how about another year of thought-provoking comedy that helps place this crazy world into context? Personally, I'd like to get my book published, achieve more proficiency on my guitar and mandolin, and to finally get to take that twice-delayed retirement trip to Ireland. For my dog Randi, more walks and fewer farts. And for my wife Maureen, another year of Grammie Glory. (A winning Powerball ticket wouldn't hurt, either! But I don't want to sound greedy.) In a year where I believe I have been nicer than naughty, is this too much to ask? Of course, you will be the one to judge. And, before I forget, one more wish: A merry Christmas to all and the happiest of new years!
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 49 -- Endless Bummer
December 17, 2021
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Remember how shocked, concerned and, for some. even scared we were in March 2020? Those were the worse days of the COVID-19 pandemic. We weren't certain what we should do and how much danger we faced. Conflicting and, quite frankly, ludicrous advice from President Manchild certainly didn't help. For awhile, it has seemed the worse has passed. Well, guess what?  These are the good old days. The coronavirus keeps mutating into even more dangerous and sinister forms - much like the Republican Party. I can't speak for others, but I know that I've had my shot, followed by a second shot, and again followed by a booster. I think I'm OK. Nevertheless, I still wear a mask in public places. That's because I feel a moral responsibility to protect others from any threat I may pose to them and a deep desire to protect myself from the unwashed and unvaccinated. I have to admit, however, there are times I either forget or deliberately do not wear a mask, especially when I am around people I trust. But going into Walmart without a mask - forget it! While I have grown weary of this lingering pandemic - or as I call it, endless bummer - I also know that it is not going to go away by wishing it so. Unfortunately, the "Party of Lincoln" has devolved into the "Party of Stinkin' Thinkin'." The snowflakes of the right believe that masks and vaccine mandates are an unholy infringement on their rights.  They don't give a damn about the rights of others. (My guess is that Jesus would wear a mask - just sayin'.) My message to the Doug and Wendy Winers of the right is to "man-up" or "woman-up" - or in the case of Marjorie Taylor Greene and her fellow nut-jobs, "shut-up." Just get the damn shots and wear a damn mask! What ever happened to American courage? Could you imagine the U.S. winning the Second World War if our grandparents were as spineless and thin-skinned as some of our contemporaries? They'd have started taking German and Japanese language lessons after Pearl Harbor. Like everyone else, I want this pandemic to end.  I'd like to return to the days when going in public didn't feel as if I was risking my life. But until those days return, I am going to do what any patriotic and intelligent American should do - follow the Golden Rule by taking care of myself and respecting the rights of others. It's the very least we can do.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 48 -- Bob Dole (1923-2021)
December 6, 2021
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There is irony in knowledge that Robert J. Dole, former U.S. Senator from Kansas and the 1996 Republican presidential nominee, died just a matter of hours before the 80th anniversary of America's entry into the Second World War. Dole's participation in that war, specifically the crippling combat injuries he received in Italy, defined his personality. It alternated between being one who was combative, aggressive and acerbic to one who was a thoughtful, compassionate leader.  I have often thought that if Dole had shown more of the latter qualities and less of the former, he might actually have become president. The thought of Bob Dole as president is, in the light of recent experience, a comforting thought.  He was a politician unlike most we see in Washington today.  Dole famously worked across the aisle on matters dealing from farm policy and Social Security to national defense and Americans with Disabilities Act. One of his best friends in the Senate - and in life - was the late Senator George McGovern, a South Dakota Democrat. Dole was a conservative Republican and McGovern was a liberal Democrat. However, it was their common experience of serving their country during World War II and their deep Midwestern roots that brought the two together.  Former Senator McGovern was among dozens of dignitaries who participated in the opening of the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas in 2003.  The mission of the Dole Institute is to encourage enlightened, bi-partisan and civil discussion of today's pressing issues - a tenor sorely missing from today's political diatribes. Dole was not as much an ideologue as he was a pragmatist. While he opposed many of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs, Dole also voted in favor of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and helped engineer an expansion of the nation's food stamp program. Dole often contradicted himself. For example, he supported the reelection of Donald Trump. However, I doubt he approved of the former President's personal conduct while in office. Most of all, Bob Dole was a son of a Kansas prairie farmer. He grew up with the harsh reality of life on Southern High Plains. Dole experienced the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression before going into the hell fires of war. Robert J. Dole exemplified the Kansas State Motto: Ad Astra per Aspera - "To the Stars Through Difficulties." He echoed that philosophy during dedication remarks at the Dole Institute on July 22, 2003: "In America we take pride in the past, but we live for the future. To the young people who come here for inspiration as well as information, may you never stop reaching for the stars - whatever the difficulties."
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 47 -- Madman with a Gun
November 22, 2021
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It may have been 58 years ago today, but the memory of November 22, 1963, continues to weigh heavily in memory. I was in the sixth grade at St. Michaels Elementary School on the Eastern Shore of Maryland when I heard the news that a madman with a gun had murdered the President of the United States. Five years later, I woke up to news on the radio that John F. Kennedy's brother Bobby, who was trying to reclaim his brother's mantle, had been gunned down after claiming victory in the California Presidential Primary. That came down only two months after another madman with a gun murdered civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. It wasn't madmen, but madwomen who twice tried to kill President Gerald Ford in September 1975. President Ronald Reagan came within an inch of his life after being shot by a madman with a gun outside a Washington, D.C., hotel in 1981. In recent years, elected officials from both parties have been shot by madmen with guns. My point is that too often the course of American history is changed not as the result of rational thought, but by the irrational acts of madmen (and madwomen) with guns. No one - especially I - am threatening anyone's Second Amendment rights to bear arms.  But just as there are limits to other constitutional protections - for example, the First Amendment doesn't allow you to yell "fire" in  crowded theater - there should be reasonable limits when it comes to bearing weapons of mass destruction.  I seriously doubt that the Founders could have envisioned a day when an unstable teenage boy carrying an assault rifle into the middle of a civil disturbance could get away with murdering two people and wounding a third. You shouldn't be able to claim self defense when you created the conflict. However, thanks to Wisconsin's insane gun laws, that is exactly what has happened. Even worse, many Republicans have rallied behind the shooter. One particularly despicable lawmaker has offered the killer a congressional internship. It makes you wonder whether the Republican Party would rejoice if JFK was president today and was murdered in Dallas. Considering the current Texas leadership's reckless disregard for human life - with the exception, of course, for that which is unborn - I wouldn't be surprised if the governor of that state declared a holiday and used the president's murder as an excuse for eliminating all gun possession restrictions. America is a violent nation bathed in hypocrisy. We claim to be champions of human rights but are unwilling to take steps to even protect school children from being gunned down in their classrooms. According to the Giffords Law Center, 100 Americans die every day from gun violence. To put that into perspective, that is more American deaths in one year than during the entire Second World War. In what world does that make any sense? Kyle Rittenhouse is not a hero. He is just another madman with a gun. If history is any judge, there will be more to follow.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 46 -- The New McCarthyism
November 19, 2021
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There's a new McCarthyism rearing its ugly head in America. The original McCarthyism occurred during the 1950s, inspired by Senator Joe McCarthy (R-Wisconsin). He created a climate of fear and recrimination by accusing people, absent of any proof, that they were communists. As it turned out, Tail-gunner Joe's motivation had nothing to do with the nation's security. By recklessly ruining other people's lives, he strengthened his own weak position among voters at home. Fast forward to yesterday, when former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows-Muffin criticized current House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's (R-California) leadership and suggested - God forbid - that Donald Freaking Trump should be made the new Speaker of the House should the GOP take control after the midterms. For purely personal reasons, the Latter-Day McCarthy took to the house floor at 8:38 p.m. EST to speak against President Biden's $1.75 Build Back Better social infrastructure bill. McCarthy knew that he was going to lose the vote. However, in an effort to out-Trump his critics, the deranged lawmaker spoke until 5:11 in the morning - a record 8 hours and 33 minutes. And what did McCarthy say during his overnight harangue? In short, he didn't say a damn thing. It was a disjointed, factually challenged tour-de-farce through American history. He evoked Washington's crossing of the Delaware, D-Day and the Civil War - among other things - in a foolish and inept effort to delay the vote. He even evoked today's 158th anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address - which had more substance and was eight and one-half hours shorter than McCarthy's verbal diarrhea. In eclipsing Nancy Pelosi's previous record for longest house speech by 31 minutes, Kevin McCarthy obtained a new level of Jackassitude. The greatest irony is that McCarthy spoke for hours against a bill containing elements that most of his own constituents favor, such as child care credits and lower drug prices. And his speech came literally hours after he said virtually nothing about one of his Republican colleagues who had been correctly censured for a social media post promoting violence against a fellow House member and the President of the United States. What Kevin McCarthy has not learned from Joe McCarthy is that this is not going to end well for him. Joe McCarthy was disgraced, shunned by his colleagues and died an early death. Kevin McCarthy is stumbling down a path like a drunken sailor that will eventually lead to his political demise.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 45 -- "How Terribly Strange"
November 17, 2021
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I had the pleasure of enjoying a Simon and Garfunkle revival at the University of Kansas's Lied Center a couple of weeks ago. Paul and Art were an integral part of the soundtrack of my youth. That's why I was suddenly stunned when I heard the the S&G imposters sing "Old Friends," one of the outstanding songs on the 1968 "Bookends" album.  I was particularly struck by the phrase: "Can you imagine us years from today, sitting on a park bench quietly? How terribly strange to be 70." Imagine? I just recently celebrated my 69th birthday, which means I am, in fact, in my 70th year! There's nothing left to imagine. Don't let anyone tell you that age is nothing more than a state of mind. As our 78-year-old president might say, that's a bunch of malarkey. There are plenty of aches and pains these days to remind me that I am no longer 16, the age I was when "Bookends" was released. Medicare is no longer an abstract concept - it is a Godsend. (Thank you, LBJ!) While my mental acuity appears to be a sharp as ever, there are times that I find myself pausing in mid-speech, searching for the right word. For a guy who has made a career off of words, that can be a bit unsettling.  I am at the age where I can't even trust my own heartbeat. I've been forced to learn new terms such as a-fib, angioplasty and ablation. They were right when they said "getting old ain't for sissies." This November during the November of my life, I find myself looking back on the body of work known as My Life. I've learned long ago not to second guess my choices. At the risk of going Star Trek on you, any change in the space-time continuum would have altered my present. I am comfortable with who I am and where I am. Still, it is natural to wonder how things would have been different if I hadn't been forced to switch schools after the eight grade, if I had gone to a different university, or if I had accepted that television producer's job in North Carolina. However, I seem to spend more time these days reflecting on the people I have known, the experiences I have had and the places I have been. (How many people do you know who have actually stood on the top of the suspension tower of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge?) Quoting Rhymin' Paul Simon, "Time it was and what I time it was. A time of innocence. A time of confidences. Long ago it must be... I have a photograph. Preserve your memories. They're all that's left you."
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 44 -- One Hellava Year
November 7, 2021
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It was one year ago today that America and most of the world began to see a light at the end of what had been a long, dark tunnel. It was around midday that we learned that Joe Biden had won enough electoral votes to claim victory in the battle for the presidency. The news spread like wildfire, prompting spontaneous celebrations throughout the country. The man-child he defeated learned the news that he would soon be unemployed while cheating at golf on a course he owns. But any hope for a quick return to normalcy were quickly dashed by the frantic and insane attempts of Donald Trump and his minions to overturn a fair and remarkably well-run election. Instead of providing the President-elect with the traditional smooth transition to power, President Pinocchio continued to spread the Big Lie that there had been massive fraud in the balloting and that he was the duly elected president. And yet, no credible evidence of any electoral shenanigans has emerged. In fact, the Wendy Winer of American politics was repeatedly laughed out of courtrooms across this great land of ours. But the laughing stopped on January 6, when thousands of his deranged followers invaded the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to halt the official counting of Electoral Votes. Fortunately, they failed. Finally, two weeks later, Joe Biden was inaugurated and He-Who-Would-Be-King went into exile at Mar-a-Lago. This past week has shown us signs of a return to normal. Another election was held. And while while Democrats did not fare well, the results were not unexpected. Despite what some political pundits may tell you, they do not necessary foreshadow a Red Tide in next year's mid-terms. One reason for my optimism is what happened late Friday night, when Congress passed the most sweeping infrastructure legislation since FDR's New Deal. This bill will have lasting positive and lasting effects throughout the nation -- even in Red States -- and will boost an already rebounding American economy. It may have taken Joe Biden 10 months to get the infrastructure bill passed, but that is a heck of a lot better than the seeming ending stream of empty "infrastructure weeks" offered by his impotent and inept predecessor. Since that chilly November day one year ago, the Biden administration has managed to vaccinate nearly 60 percent of the population against COVID-19. President "Let's-Inject-Bleach" had done virtually no planning for distributing vaccines. Thanks to Joe and his team, I was able to attend the theater, a basketball game and a football game this week without fear of being infected. And while there are still disputes over mask mandates and mandatory inoculations, the fact remains that America today is closer to whatever the new normal will be than ever before - regardless of what Republicans, the former president and the wack-job quarterback of the Green Bay Packers may tell you. It is my hope that the next year will see Attorney General Merrick Garland finally pound the hammer of justice upon the traitorous and corrupt sexual offender who used to infest the White House, as well as certain members of his crime family and his camp followers. Justice delayed is justice denied. In the meantime, do not despair. One year after the conclusion of the darkest and dirtiest election campaign in our nation's history, it is beginning to look like morning in America.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 43 -- Joe Manchin, National Security Threat
October 22, 2021
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Joe Manchin, who has the gall to describe himself as a moderate and fiscally conservative Democrat, has become a threat to national security. In the guise of opposing what he sees as reckless government spending, the senator from West Virginia has become the major roadblock to President Biden's economic agenda, a proposal that includes more than $2 billion for the development of a clean energy infrastructure that would result in a drastic reduction in the emission of greenhouse gasses and a lessened dependence upon fossil fuels. Manchin is exploiting the Democrats' razor-thin majority in the Senate to protect his own pocketbook.  Recent reports say he has forced the President to gut much of his climate change package. And just who is Joe Manchin? It's a fair question, considering he has placed the fate of the Biden presidency - and the planet - in his greased palms. According to the watchdog group OpenSecrets, Manchin made between $59,950 and $1.5 million last year from Energysystems, a coal brokerage company he owns. Thanks to his entrenched interests in climate destroying energy sources, OpenSecrets estimates that Manchin's net worth has been boosted to as much as $12.8 million. Not bad, for government work. We could all shrug and say that this is nothing more than your typical good-old-boy politics. However, Joe Manchin's efforts to protect his income stream is coming at the expense of your future, as well as that of your children and their children.  Just yesterday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a chilling report that says "Climate change will increasingly exacerbate a number of risks to U.S. national security." It listed three broad areas of risk: tension over the failure of certain nations to do their fair share in preventing climate change, cross-border conflicts as nations seek to protect their interests, and the undermining of political stability in several particularly vulnerable countries. This and other national security warnings we have received in recent years should give pause to those who think concerns about climate change amount to little more than tree-hugging. If you are among those concerned about immigration along our southern border, just think what will happen when certain Central and South American economies collapse because of climate change. No, global warming is not an environmentalist's pipe dream. It is a clear and present danger to our future. And yet, Coal Baron Joe Manchin fiddles while the earth burns. Someone needs to remind "Mr. Moderate and Fiscally Conservative" that a recent poll shows that even Manchin's own constituency favors the Biden approach. In the final analysis, the actions of the senator from West Virginia threaten our national security - something for which he must be held accountable.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 42 -- Number 709
October 19, 2021
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A milestone in writing this blog snuck past me this summer.  It wasn't until I decided to update Snapping Turtle's Chronological Index (above) that I realized that I uploaded my 700th post, "Just Wear the Damn Mask" (Vol. 15 No. 33), on July 28. That makes this particular post - as the title suggests - number 709. Perhaps I am alone in this, but I think that's one heck of an accomplishment. (It's almost as if Hank Aaron passed Babe Ruth and didn't know it!) Writing this blog has been a labor of love, with a special emphasis on the word labor. Regardless of how strident, flippant or spontaneous my words may seem at any given time, I can assure you that they are carefully chosen. Yes, I have been, at times, sharp tongued. Just ask Earth Tone Al (Al Gore), Hilary Rottweiler Clinton (whom I also called "Richard Nixon in a Pants Suit"), Kris K. Kobach, Rush the Righteous (Limbaugh), the Meandering Moron of Immorality (Mark Sanford), Faux Fabio (Putin) and Miss Piggy (Claire McCaskill). I can't begin to tell you all the names that I have called that jackass who disgraced the presidency from 2017-2021. Nor can I tell you some of the more colorful monikers for that nimrod that I decided against using out of respect for the sensibilities of my readers. I have also used this blog to introduce revolutionary (maybe, perhaps, sort of) political doctrines, such as Brett Favre Syndrome (not knowing when to quit), Immanuel Can't Syndrome (accepting a wimpy compromise because doing the right thing is hard), (Alfred E.) Newman's Third Law of Emotion (every action has the potential for evoking a disproportionate reaction), and The Wantin' School of Economics (if you be wantin' it, you must be willing to pay for it). The shortest blog post was the very first one, "Dedicated to the One I Love," September 29, 2007 (Vol. 1 No. 1), which came only seven months after the passing of my wife Jan. The longest post came on January 7 of this year, "If Destruction Be Our Lot..." (Vol. 15 No. 3), a morning-after reaction to the Capitol Insurrection. Some of these posts have been an attempt to inject humor, such as "Boomer and the Skunk" (Vol. 4 No. 33), August 27, 2010, when my dog had an unfortunate encounter with a critter, and "Or So I've Been Told" (Vol. 6 No. 46), August 15, 2012, when my lovely wife Maureen was flummoxed by the actions of a local garden center. While it is hard to say which of the 709 posts is my favorite - they are all my children - I would have to say that it is the "The Gold Dress" (Vol. 4 No.20), May 20, 2010, the tale of an unexpected gift left by my late wife. Writing this blog may be a simple act of self-indulgence. I have no idea how many people - if any - actually read this. However, I can tell you that this public rendering of my soul has been therapeutic.  It's good to get one's frustrations, hopes and dreams off one's chest.  And while I have been occasionally snarky, I'd like to think that, over time, that the voice of this blog has evolved into one of reason, common sense and ethical consciousness. If I'm lucky to live so long and maintain my ability and passion to write, I should post the 1000th Snapping Turtle entry sometime during calendar year 2027. I can't wait to write it - and read it.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 41 -- Freedom Rings When Free Voices Sing
October 8, 2021
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We awoke this morning to learn that journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to protect freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia - two places where speaking your mind can get you killed.  The Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to recognize journalists places a much-needed spotlight on the importance of free speech in safeguarding democratic and human rights.  In fact, freedom of expression is guaranteed under Articles 18, 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights enacted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948. Unfortunately, many of the nations that are signatories to the Declaration are among the worst offenders. We are not just talking about banana republics. Here, in the United States of America, freedom of speech is under constant threat and has been for some time.  Fortunately, we have enjoyed a system of checks and balances that have thwarted those who would silence voices of dissent. However, America's ability to protect free expression has been under relentless assault from the moment a certain seditious narcissist rode down an escalator in New York City in 2015 and announced that he was running for president. In a moment of national insanity, that man-who-would-be-king was elected and engaged in an unforgiving assault on our nation's principals and institutions, especially the news media. He has created an environment where there are places in the United States where it is as dangerous to be a journalist as it is in Russia or the Philippines. This is also a time when our nation is struggling with the roles and responsibilities of social media. No one denies that Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook platform shouldn't be a forum for free speech. But shouldn't there be some limits and accountability? If you can be held accountable for yelling "fire" in a crowded theater, why can't you and the media platform you use be held accountable when it is toxic to young girls -- as evidence suggests it already is? Free speech is and will always be a difficult balancing act - and I know this from personal experience. But what I also know is something I stated just three blog posts earlier (Vol. 15, No. 38 - September 10, 2021): America is at its best when it sticks to it values. Its our ability to dissent, debate and eventually reach a compromise that has made us a great nation. America did not achieve its position in the world by being led by self-absorbed demagogues who claim that they and only they can make America great again. Nor did it achieve greatness by allowing a once great political party to be totally stifled by an amoral oligarch who threatens all who speak against him. (In fairness, there are forces on the left who are behaving no better within their own ranks.) While, as I have stated in the past, the idea of American Exceptionalism may be a false premise, that does not mean we've lost our greatness. If anything, it just means that we have lost our drive to be even greater. We can be greater, of course. But part of that greatest requires a free flow of information - including voices of dissent - in the marketplace of ideas.  Today's Nobel Peace Prize announcement is a timely reminder that freedom rings when free voices sing.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 40 -- Disasters Near and Far
September 25, 2021
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To say the very least, this has been a most unusual week. I have been, literally, dealing with disasters near and far. On Monday, I was virtually deployed to Hurricane Ida as a public affairs volunteer for the American Red Cross. While it has been almost a month since the storm made landfall in Louisiana, the needs there remain very great.  The need for Red Cross shelters and feeding will continue for some time. I would liked to have been physically deployed to Baton Rouge, but choose not to because of a unresolved medical condition. (Maybe next time!) In any event, I have been updating and monitoring social media from my home office in Lawrence, Kansas. I typically start my Red Cross day around 6:00 a.m. and end it around 6:15 p.m. I enjoy the work, I work with great people, and I believe in the humanitarian mission of the Red Cross. It feels good to be doing something constructive for others during my retirement. However, this week has also featured disasters right here at home. Several of my electronic devices - including the computer that I am using to write this blog post - were hit with a power surge, possibly from a thunderstorm. Truth is, I'm not sure what happened. In any event, my computer crashed right in the middle of editing a video for the Red Cross. I was able to restore things to normal after four intense hours. A bigger issue is our refrigerator/freezer, which died an unnatural and inconvenient death just one day after I spent buckets of bucks to replace an aging I-phone. (I had been using the Fred Flintstone model.) Despite severe issues in the nation's supply chain, my wife and I were able to purchase a new refrigerator/freezer that will arrive on Monday.  Thanks to the kindness of our very good neighbors, a bunch of beer coolers and an old dorm refrigerator, we will be able to survive five days without that most critical appliance. If that's not enough, the security light in the back of the house and the garage door are also on the fritz.  Perhaps acting against my own nature, I took this series of events pretty much in stride. Certainly, I wasn't happy about the time and money I was forced to spend dealing with these issues. However, there was little choice but to embrace the chaos. Besides, having spent the week on virtual Red Cross deployment, I am well aware that there are a lot of people in Louisiana who would gladly trade their troubles for mine.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 39 -- Moron Night at the Ballpark
September 15, 2021
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Last night was a lovely night to watch a baseball game - which is exactly what my lovely bride and I did. We watched the Kansas City Royals come from a 6-0 deficit to defeat the Oakland Athletics 10-7. It would have been a perfect night except for a loud-mouthed individual who dropped in on a group of his friends sitting three rows behind us. It wasn't his loud, booming voice that bothered us.  It was the venom spewing forth from his pie-hole. It's not that we were eavesdropping. He was using his "outside voice" with great gusto. Within the space of one-half inning, we learned that this self-proclaimed "life coach" hates Catholics, Joe Biden, Anthony Fauci, gun control and vaccines. In fact, he loudly pronounced that he would never get the COVID-19 vaccine. "My body, my choice," he proclaimed.  At that point, I felt like getting up, turning to him and asking, "So, I guess that means you are in favor of abortion?" However, I didn't. There was absolutely no reason to engage with someone wallowing in his own stupidity and ignorance. My wife and I went to the Royals' Guest Services office and asked to be re-seated in another location. They graciously complied. Don't get me wrong, Mr. Life Coach has a First Amendment right to speak his mind, no matter how tiny and bigoted it is.  (It would have been nice if he knew how to be respectful to those around him.) But we don't have to sit there while he spits hatred and COVID-19 germs on all of those around him.  The funny thing is that I suspect that this guy thinks he is a "good Christian." And I could not help but imagine this scene in the not-to-distant future: Mr. Life Coach dies of COVID-19. When he goes to heaven, he demands to see God. When he does, Mr. Life Coach says, "I've been a good servant of yours.  How could you let this happen to me?" To that, the Almighty responded,"But I sent you a vaccine. Why didn't you take it?"
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 38 -- The True Meaning of 9/11
September 10, 2021
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"Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day?"  Those are the opening words of Alan Jackson's musical tribute to 9/11, written just days after the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil. I was at my home in Lawrence, Kansas. Ironically, I was putting the finishing touches on revisions to the crisis communications chapter of a public relations textbook I coauthored with my colleague Chuck Marsh. (As it turned out, I had to revise the revision.) Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of that tragic day. This particular anniversary is made more poignant by the recent events in Afghanistan. What had always been a messy war had an equally messy end. When you think about it, the past two decades have been among the most turbulent in American history. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, several public officials and the U.S. Postal Service were assaulted by anonymously mailed envelopes of anthrax. Then there was Enron, the war in Iraq, the Great Recession, the Tea Party, Donald Trump's callous incompetence, and a global pandemic. These past 20 years have badly frayed the fabric of American society.  Who would have thought that the wearing of health-protecting masks or the taking of a life-saving vaccine would become political issues? In light of recent events, any debate over what has been referred to as American Exceptionalism seems ludicrous. (For the record, I still think the United States of America is the greatest nation on earth. It's just that we are not as great as we think we are nor as great as we should be.) On this 20th anniversary of 9/11, it is natural to ponder the lessons of the past two decades.  When one looks at our nation's successes and failures since the world stopped turning that September day, the most important lesson - at least to me - is as plain as the nose on the Statute of Liberty's face: America is at its best when it sticks to its values. It's when we forget those values and callously step on the constitutional and human rights of others that we, as a nation, are diminished. At the risk of sounding like a finger-wagging old codger romanticizing about the past, the direction this country has taken causes me deep distress. One of our two leading political parties - one that I used to belong to and staunchly defended - has devolved into a cult of personality. (Unfortunately, the personality that cult is following is one that is morally corrupt, personally inept and willing to destroy anything and anyone - including his own followers - to feed his narcissism.) Our most basic institutions have underperformed and/or are under attack.  American idealism has been replaced by crass nativism. We have lost our compassion. E Pluribus Unum has been replaced with "What's In It For Me?" The good news is that the U.S. now has an adult in charge. Joe Biden is someone willing to make the tough decisions to get America moving forward again. But the Democrats on his left, such as Alexandria Osasio-Cortez, and the Republicans on his right, such as Mitch McConnell, need to stop playing their version of Game of Thrones. Until they focus on building a consensus for the things that really matter to the American people - political, social and economic justice - the true meaning of 9/11 will be lost to us - and the world - forever. And then, the terrorists will have won.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 37 -- Hot Diggity Dog, I'm Doomed
August 29, 2021
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According to the University of Michigan School of Public Health, I am a dead man walking. Its crack scientists conducted a study that says that a person loses 36 minutes of life for every ballpark hot dog one consumers. NOW you tell me! Based on my history of consuming what I have euphemistically called "tube steaks," I am amazed that I am still alive to write this. That same study says chicken wings take another three minutes off your life. (The article I read didn't make it clear whether you shorten your life by eating a single chicken wing or an undetermined serving size of those poultry delights.) Hokey Schmokes, Bullwinkle! I guess I'd better run right over and book a room in the hospice. But wait!!! There's good news! Those Wolverine Wonders also say that eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich adds 33 minutes to your life! Heck, I'm gonna live forever!!!  So every time my lovely wife Maureen scolds me for having a life-threatening hot dog with ketchup, mustard and onions, I will remind her that I had also eat life-giving PB&Js.  It's the Circle of Life!  I couldn't help but notice that there was no mention of kale in the article. I'd be surprised if our Ann Arbor Antagonists didn't include it within their absolutely, positively earth-shattering study of our dietary indiscretions. However, it didn't make it into the article because, face it, most people don't like the stuff. And kale can't help you or hurt you if your don't eat it.  Besides, the promotion behind kale is mostly fraudulent. So, what's next?  I guess I have to hire an accounting firm to figure out how much time I have left - whether I have eaten enough good ol' healthy PB&Js to counteract the murderous effects of hot dogs. Until I do, I won't know whether to book a vacation spot or a funeral home. Thanks, Michigan. Didn't you folks ever hear of baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet? This study is practically un-American! You've given me just one more reason to root against your over-rated sports teams. And I will gloriously devour a delectable hot dog with all of the fixin's while doing so.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 36 -- What Did You Expect?
August 25, 2021
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As for former journalist - and a damn fine one, if I may say - I am a champion of a free and unfettered press. But with freedom comes responsibility. It also means that when I see my former colleagues making errors, I feel I have a responsibility to call them out. Thus is the case with the reporting on the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. I hear reporters such as CNN's Jake Tapper referring to chaos at the Kabul airport has a "failure" of the Biden administration. They are saying things should have been more orderly and better planned.   To those naysayers, I have three points to make.  First, the situation in that miserable excuse for a country got a lot worse when its own leadership decided to cut and run. Who wants to fight for those not willing to fight for themselves? Second, results speak louder than optics. Despite the chaotic scenes and the anecdotal gut-wrenching stories, the fact remains that in the last 10 days, the United States has evacuated nearly 80,000 people. That's more than 10 times the number of people we helped leave Saigon during the fall of Vietnam in April 1975. And there's still a week to go in the evacuation. Third, and perhaps most important, what did you expect would happen: Fond farewells, bouquets of flowers and a band playing Auld Lang Syne? Remember the fall of Saigon? It looked just the same as the pictures we are seeing today. There is no way this tragedy was going to end any differently. President George W. Bush should have declared victory after routing Al Qaeda in 2002 and sent our troops home. Instead, he turned his attention to Iraq. President Obama had eight years to disengage from Afghanistan, yet he didn't. And we know what Donald Trump did - he pulled the rug out from everyone and started this chaos by making grand pronouncements about ending "endless wars" and having absolutely no plan for doing so. And this is Biden's fault? That's like blaming the batter who makes the final out in a 10-0 game for the loss.  For the most part, this is a Republican failure. But the Democrats, including Joe Biden, own some of the blame. After all, this has been a disaster 20 years in the making. But give credit where credit is due. Biden made the tough choices and did what his three most-recent predecessors couldn't: Got America out of the Afghanistan quagmire once and for all.  That's not chaos. That's leadership.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 35 -- Republicans: You Own This
August 12, 2021
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The classic definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Well, welcome to today's republican party! President Bonespur may be gone from the White House, but those poor ol' neo-cons are continuing to follow his playbook. When it comes to the pandemic, GOP governors from Florida to Texas to South Dakota to Mississippi have doubled down against science, logic and common sense.  "We don't need no stinkin' masks!" they cry. Even when told that the Delta variant of COVID-19 is more infectious, dangerous and harmful to children than the original virus, they threaten local school boards that have chosen to listen to the science and  mandated that students wear masks. Mandate vaccines? Some of these republican clowns have called this reasonable public policy in the face of a pandemic a form of communism. Communism?  We've been requiring vaccines against measles and fluoridating water for decades. They refuse to be vaccinated despite the fact that 99.999 percent of new COVID-19 infections - let's repeat that: 99.999 percent of new COVID-19 infections - are people who have not been vaccinated. Of course, these rebels-without-a-clue will say, "But what about the other .001 percent?" Yeah, snowflake. You really think you are one in a million? In truth, these people are the new RINOs - Republicans in name only. Former President Inject-Clorox-Into-Your-Veins has totally co-opted the party of Lincoln. As noted in my May 13 blog post (below), the real republican party is dead and buried. What's left is a gaggle of self-absorbed, truth-denying cognitive dissonants whose rhetoric generates more heat than light.  They continue to follow the election strategy of the Cowardly Liar by ignoring the reality of the pandemic and playing to their base's insecurities and prejudices. How well did that work in 2020? Their guy got 75 million votes and LOST! Bigly! I am tempted to say, "Go ahead, republicans. Do it again!" But I can't. Too many lives are at stake - especially the lives of innocent children being used as pawns by callous adults in pursuit of political power. This country is now undergoing a fourth wave of this pandemic. And just like the first three: Republicans, you own this.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 34 -- DeSantis Demagoguery
August 5, 2021
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As a freedom-loving American, I can understand when people bristle at the thought of the government making something mandatory. However, the nation's courts have sided with the government when it comes to imposing measures designed to protect public safety, such as requiring seat belts, banning certain pesticides and restricting the use of explosives. The same is true for requiring people to wear masks and have COVID immunization shots. It is not only for the public good, but the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the government's right to impose such orders in 1905 - 116 years ago. And yet, millions of Americans refuse to take very simple steps to protect themselves and their loved ones. The majority of these folks are Neo-Cons (formerly known as the Republicans). They insist that their right to be stupid trumps all other rights. (And as comedian Ron White famously says, "There's just no fixin' stupid.") Nowhere is this idiocy more evident than in Florida. Yesterday, the Sunshine State recorded nearly a quarter of the nation's new coronavirus infections. And yet Governor Ron DeSantis - Trump-light, but not as bright - defiantly refuses to mandate masks in public places. He even threatens to withdraw state funding from school districts and cities that require these simple and effective public health measures. But, if that wasn't bad enough, DeSantis yesterday blamed the surge in COVID infections in his state on illegal immigration and urged Biden to finish Donald Trump's wall. First, there is absolutely no evidence that immigration has anything to do with the surge of COVID infections in Florida. It is more likely comes from Florida's shockingly lax attitude toward the pandemic. Second, how would a wall along the Mexican border affect immigration in Florida?  Perhaps Governor DeSantisizer wants to wall off Florida's beaches. (I'm sure that would be popular.) The truth is that Ragtop Ronnie is running for president following Donald Trump's old playbook: Tell a lie long enough and people will believe it. But here's the thing: That was also Joseph Goebbels' playbook in Nazi Germany. And we all know how that played out.  Make no mistake about it: Ron DeSantis is a liar and a demagogue who is putting his political ambitions ahead of the health and safety of the people he is supposed to serve. The funny thing is that the people he is most placing in danger are his own pandemic-denying followers. Good luck with that.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 33 -- Just Wear the Damn Mask
July 28, 2021
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The Centers for Disease Control yesterday issued an advisory that said everyone - including those who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 - should wear a mask indoors. This advice is especially true for school children. It didn't take long for the nation's lunatic fringe, including some of its media, to blast the Biden Administration for sending mixed messages. They believe this is kind of like the Pat Morita teaching Ralph Macchio in The Karate Kid: "Mask On. Mask Off. Mask On. Mask Off." These naysayers are missing the point. What the CDC is saying is "America, you failed - again." Once again, a large number of people in this country have put personal convenience and a muddled political philosophy ahead of scientific reality and common sense. The deaths of more than a half-million Americans could have been avoided if the man-child serving as President in 2020 had done his job to protect the American people and taken the coronavirus pandemic more seriously. Instead, President Pinocchio put the economy ahead of public health. In doing so, he wrecked both and destroyed his chances for reelection. Now, we have vaccines. Sure, some have had side effects. But we are talking about less than one in a million people being affected. Those are better odds than driving to the grocery store. There are those who say mask mandates infringe on their freedom and the freedom of their children. You may think you have a right to kill yourself. But you absolutely do not have the right to kill someone else. Before you stand up and wave the American flag in protest, how about learning what that symbol really stands for? This nation's founding principals are individual freedoms exercised in a socially responsible way. American history is filled with stories of people making extreme sacrifices for the common good. Hundreds of thousands of our citizens have died defending this nation. There are countless stories of people giving up time, blood and money for helping people they don't even know. (Example: The American Red Cross.) No one is asking you to give up your individual rights. All they are asking is that you respect the rights of others. If you are not willing to do that, then any claim for legal or moral standing collapses. If you refuse to follow the CDC recommendation that you wear a mask or have your children wear a mask inside public places, you are just being selfish -  and un-American. So, for the love of God and country, just wear the damn mask!
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 32 -- Billionaires in Space
July 20, 2021
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Jeff Bezos this morning joined Richard Branson as the latest narcissistic billionaire to pretend to be an astronaut after launching himself into a three-minute hop into space.  Branson's flight earlier this month came on board a powered glider dropped from a larger plane. On the other hand, Bezos' flight today came aboard a penis-shaped rocket.  (Insert your own joke here.) It is easy to scoff at these deep-pocketed adventurers.  Even Bezos acknowledges that some of the criticism leveled at him and Branson is legitimate. There is something to be said for diverting the millions of dollars necessary to create this so-called space tourism industry into other ventures that benefit more than just a handful of the rich and egotistical Neil Armstrong wannabees. (Note: Today is the 52nd anniversary of Armstrong's first steps on the moon.)  However, I think it is wrong to completely dismiss these launches as frivolous. Social and technological advances rarely come overnight.  Most progress is incremental. Look at the airplane. After the Wright Brothers' first 12-second, 120-foot flight in 1904, there was a period of further experimentation. The government - specifically the military - was behind the first serious application of air power during the First World War. Later, it would be private adventurers such as Charles Lindbergh and and Amelia Earhart who would romanticize and popularize air travel. As ostentatious as the antics of Branson and Bezos may seem, they are actually part of a natural evolution that will eventually make space travel commonplace and affordable. You may ask why should be go to space? Fair question. There is a simple answer - and it is not that we should go "because it is there." The airplane - and, for that matter, most technological advances - occur when they become economically viable. What do you think would happen if we were to discover a wealth of rare-earth elements critical to digital electronics on the moon? It wouldn't be long before moon became as crowded as Times Square. So while the diablo-bearded Branson and the chrome-domed Bezos may provide a source of amusement for many, they may also be vanguards for the future of space travel. Therefore, in the spirit of America's pioneering astronauts: Godspeed, billionaires! And unlike America's first astronaut Alan Shepard, you won't be sitting on top a highly explosive transport built on the government's low bid.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 31 -- As American As Apple Pie
July 4, 2021
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Independence Day marks one of the most significant events in human history, the day in 1776 that a people decided that they would be self-governed and not ruled by some arbitrary hereditary heir to a throne. It was a radical departure from the existing world order that led to the creation of the most significant nation in world history. By the way, notice that I didn't describe the "good ol' USA" as "the greatest nation on earth."  I happen to think it is. But I also know that such judgments are left to individual interpretations. In other words, there is no such thing as "one history" for all. History is not something etched in stone that remains unchanged over time. As our knowledge, beliefs and moral judgments evolve, so does the interpretation of history. For example, historians considered Dwight Eisenhower a lower-echelon president when he left office in 1961. Again this week, some 60 years later, historians listed Ike as one of America's top five presidents. This week's Time cover story is about how different groups wish to interpret history in their own light - and often seek to punish people who see things differently. The touchstone for the current national debate is The New York Times "1619 Project," which marked the 400th anniversary of the arrival of African slaves in Virginia. As the magazine noted, the project "aimed to reframe America's origin story around the legacy of slavery." It goes on to say "the project has helped push scholarly conversations about the impact of racism on U.S. history into the mainstream."  On the surface, this appears to be a healthy discussion - especially since the United States of America will become a "majority-minority" nation within the next generation  But don't tell that to the followers of our most recent former president, an amoral narcissist who literally began his campaign for the presidency in 2015 by riding down as escalator spewing racist venom toward Mexico. Last year, the then-president condemned the "1619 Project" and proposed the creation of a "1776 Commission" to promote what he termed "patriotic education." I have no problem with that - as long as we understand that the most patriotic thing we, as Americans, can do is to question authority. Otherwise, why do we celebrate July 4th? The Declaration of Independence was, itself, a rewriting of history from the perspective of the colonists. Or does Tucker Carlson have a problem with that, too? As Thomas Jefferson wrote, being patriotic also means that we have certain freedoms granted under natural law - including the freedom to challenge traditional interpretations of our past. If we don't do that, how can a nation possibly evolve and advance? Reassessing history doesn't necessary mean we have to start tearing down statutes of confederate generals or those of slave-owning presidents such as, say, George Washington.  Like all history, these things should be displayed in context - and not necessarily located in places of honor where they are seen as being offensive by a large (and growing) percentage of the population. (For the record: Historical context suggests that George Washington did much more good than harm and deserves a place of honor. Robert E. Lee - not so much.) Debating the meanings of history is as American as baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet.  Debate is healthy. Stifling debate is not. After all, isn't that the very reason we kicked King George III's booty off this continent in the first place?
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Vol. 15 No. 30 -- Found Family
June 29, 2021
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I returned from a five-day family reunion on the New Jersey shore yesterday - a gathering of my surviving siblings. Once, there were seven of us. Tragically, there are now only four. It was after we lost my brother Tom that we've made a concerted effort to gather each year. However, COVID-19 cheated us out of that opportunity last year. This year's gathering was extra-special, thanks to the genealogical research of my sister Melinda and her husband Bob. This aspect of their research was launched as a result of an inquiry by my daughter, Susan Elizabeth, about the origins of her name. (As it turns out, practically everyone in my family carries the name of at least one ancestor.) Through Mel and Bob's efforts, we met first cousins whom we did didn't even know existed until recently. To put it another way, they were the grandchildren and great grandchildren of my Aunt Susan, who died six years before I was born. That my siblings could live nearly 70 years without of the existence of this branch of the family tree (and vice versa) is mind blowing. But speaking of mind blowing, imagine what it is like to see a first cousin, twice  removed, who looks exactly like my mother did at her age. I told her that I didn't know whether I should hug her or run off and quickly clean my room! And the best part is that these are very nice and very accomplished people in the fields of education and journalism - just like my siblings. The irony is that this "found family" didn't live all that far from where Mel and Bob have been living. It is even possible that I may have crossed paths with one of my new-found relatives at the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, where he was a photographer working for Mario Cuomo and I was a reporter for the North Carolina News Network. I suppose it is natural for people to look backward more often as they enter the fourth quarter of their lives. But, on this occasion, my siblings experienced a backward glance into a world that we had not known existed. What we saw was a fascinating mosaic born of a common bloodline. It was a beautiful thing.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 29 -- Questions of Church and State
June 19, 2021
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A conference of U.S. Catholic bishops this week voted to deny holy communion to President Joe Biden and any other elected official who supports a woman's right to abortion. In doing so, they brought into sharp focus of one of the greatest dilemmas of the American Experiment - the separation of church and state.  While I am not technically a Catholic (I was confirmed as an Episcopalian), I have almost exclusively attended Catholic services since the days when I left for college in 1970. (To be fully transparent, I'm what one priest I know described as a "reindeer," because I only show up at Christmas.) With that context in mind, I not only believe the bishops' proposed is wrong, I believe it is morally wrong and an affront to God.  Holy communion is not a reward, it is a promise. Does anyone believe that Jesus Christ would deny someone communion because of his or her political beliefs? He would have welcomed them and taken the opportunity to lead them toward salvation. Looking toward the larger point: This is not a Christian nation.  Our Constitution does not permit the state sanctioning of religious doctrine. Sure, our religious beliefs go a long way in determining what we, as a people, say are the laws that govern us. However, those laws cannot be dictated by the edicts of one church or another. In the United States of America, we have freedom of religion.  But we also have freedom from religion. What the American bishops have proposed suggests that elected officials should ignore the Constitution that these officials have sworn to defend and protects the bishops' right to practice their religion as they so choose. And let me remind you that Joe Biden placed his hand on a Bible and swore an oath to God. Does this mean that the bishops think the president and other elected officials should break their promises to The Almighty?  What is the United States without freedom of - and freedom from - religion? It is Iran or Israel, two countries that have perverted the religions they allegedly believe to wage campaigns of human rights abuses against "non-believers." And we are seeing that danger in our own country where evangelicals attacked police officers, defecated in the U.S. Capitol and threatened to hang the Vice President of the United States -- all the time calling themselves Christians and patriots.  Fortunately, there are strong signals coming out of the Vatican that Pope Francis will not approve this ludicrous proposal. By the way, nearly two-thirds of American Catholics support a woman's right to choose. This is not a question about the morality of abortion.  It is about our country being one nation under God - not one nation under the thumb of God.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 28 -- Joe Brings His "A" Game
June 16, 2021
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Nearly three years ago, I sat in front of my television in shock. The President of the United States was conducting a joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In the presence of America's greatest adversary, an inexperienced, immoral and outright submissive American president was cowering before the Russians. For example, the American Man-Child said that on the question of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, he accepted Putin's denials over the evidence provided by his own intelligence sources. If you look at the body language of that meeting, you could see that Putin was the alpha-male in the room. (I half expected President Bonespur to roll over the on the floor to allow Putin to rub his belly.) Fast-forward to this morning: The pictures out of Geneva summit clearly showed that President Joe Biden was the one in command. As expected, the two leaders spun the outcome of their meeting in their post-summit news conferences. Putin engaged in his usual "what-aboutisms." For example, he tried to equate the arrests of January 6  Capitol insurrectionist with his crackdown on his political opposition. (What a crock - especially since Putin's minions helped fuel the seditious riot.) However, if you read between the lines, Putin gave every impression that he was relieved to be dealing with an adult in the White House. He referred to Biden as "balanced, professional and experienced." Putin even called the meeting "efficient." That's a thinly veiled slap at Biden's predecessor, a man who was clearly unprepared and out of his element when the two leaders met in Helsinki in 2018. For his part, Biden projected an image of quiet confidence. To paraphrase what was said in his news conference, Biden said that he patiently explained to Putin that the United States has substantial resources and capabilities to deal with any mischief from his side.  No threats. Just a statement of facts. Instead of the blustering spineless whimp Putin met with three years ago, the Russian dictator was confronted with an American President who was not intimidated and knew exactly what he was doing. "Let me get something straight," Biden said at the end of his news conference. "We are not friends. This is just business." Too many presidents, especially Richard Nixon, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, placed great currency on their personal relationships with Russian leaders. But not Joe. Biden has clear understanding of the world and is the right man to steer the American ship of state along a steady course. As Joe Biden flies home from his first overseas trip as president, the world - including Russia (but maybe not China) - is breathing easier. Welcome home, Mr. President.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 27 -- Maureen in the Morning
June 3, 2021
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During my morning walk through the neighborhood, I thought about my upcoming wedding anniversary (June 19) and my wife Maureen's milestone birthday (December 27). While my intent was to consider how we might celebrate both auspices occasions, my mind drifted (as it is so often inclined to do) to thoughts about her. I thought about the courage - and that is the right word - it takes to marry a second time and to marry a widower. Wives of Widowers (I've seen them referred to online as WOWs) confront the baggage and memories that both partners bring into their marriage. Of course, the very act of marrying someone is an act of optimism. To paraphrase Mary Chapin Carpenter, getting married is like "saying forever with a smile upon your face." And yet, 11 years into this latest adventure, I have no doubts that "forever" - at least in the mortal realm - is doable.  My wife is a loving and generous person. Her smile lights up a room. Her heart beats to an Irish jig, with a touch of Motown soul and the back beat of Elvis Presley. There are times I can't imagine what she is thinking or why she does things in her own way.  But I have learned there always is a reason that, at least most of the time, makes sense. Unlike my 1975 marriage to my late wife-Jan, with whom I "grew up," Maureen and I had pretty much matured into who were are by the time we met in 2009. We faced the challenge -- perhaps it is best to say "opportunity" -- to forge a new life together. In the time since I met Maureen, both of our children have had children of their own. Standing back, we take tremendous pride to the outstanding job of parenting they and their partners have done. Yes, this is some heavy thinking taking place on a late spring morning. But when the environment around one is beautiful, it is only natural to think of other things of beauty. One this sunny and warm morning, I thought of my wife. While I entertained the thought of holding off of writing this blog post a couple of weeks until our anniversary, I reminded myself that life is short and you should never miss the opportunity to tell those dearest to you that you love them. So, without hesitation and deepest conviction, I love you, Maureen.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 26 -- Thirteen Mass Shootings
May 24, 2021
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There were 13 mass shootings in eight states in the United States of America last weekend. Thirteen people were killed and more than 70 were injured.  Let that sink in: Thirteen mass shootings in one weekend. That's probably more last weekend than in the rest of the developed nations of the world combined. There are a lot of ways to look at statistics.  You can manipulate them to say that the U.S. is, in fact, only 66th in the world when it comes to mass shooting deaths on a per capita basis. However, if you read the fine print, it is also true that we have the largest number of mass shootings in the world. And it is also true that the U.S. has the highest percentage of gun-related homicides committed in the world. And the most firearms per capita in the world. The Gallup Poll has consistently through the years recorded that most Americans are dissatisfied with the nation's gun laws. Even after The atrocities in Las Vegas and Newtown, little to nothing has been done. Why? Simple answer: We are too hung up trying to score points in our tribal warfare politics to have a serious discussion on gun reform. No one - and I mean no one - is talking about abolishing the Second Amendment. But reasonable people can have a discussion on its limits. To suggest that the amendment required that there be no restrictions placed on gun manufacture, sale and ownership is a woeful misreading of American history and constitutional law. And yet people choose to be either woefully ignorant or willfully blind to the national bloodbath all around us.  Screw the statistics.  Are you satisfied with 13 mass shootings, 17 deaths and 70+ injuries in one weekend? Just what kind of country do you want? What are the values you want to uphold? It's bad enough that we have elected leaders, sworn to uphold the Constitution, who are undermining it with big lies about the election, immigration and race. They want to win the next election at all cost. And, by the way, I am not just talking about Republicans.  There are some Democrats out there willing to continue with their-own slash-and-burn tactics.For both parties to continue to follow this path is akin to making an alliance with the devil: It's a one-way path to hell. And the irony is that many of these anti-truthers call themselves good Christians, good Jews or good Muslims. Show me where intolerance and denial are traits desired by God. And lest we forget, our Constitution not only protect freedom of religion, it also provides us freedom from religion. The only state-sanctioned religion in this country is democracy, and it is under attack. If you believe the United States is the greatest country in the world, then why not embrace the institutions and democratic processes that served it so well for nearly two and one-half centuries? A willingness to talk about tough issues and to make compromises - even on gun control - is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of strength and faith in promise of America.
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Vol. 15 No. 25 -- Right, But Not In The Way They Think
May 19, 2021
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In the last few days, the country has witnessed the physical and moral disintegration of the Republican Party. The party of Lincoln has devolved into the Trump mob. Never has this been so apparent in the GOP's opposition to the creation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 Capitol Insurrection. They say it is unnecessary.  And you know what? They are right. We already know whose was responsible: They were. So, of course, they don't want a congressional investigation into their seditious acts. So, let's not do that.  Instead, let's start indicting some of these so-called public servants for inciting sedition. Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama told the mob at the Stop the Steal rally on January 6 that "today is the day American Patriots start kicking ass." Trump campaign adviser Katrina Pierson told the same rally that Congress should throw out the legitimate 2020 election results "or we will go after them." Then there's the devil's spawn, Eric Trump," who told the January 6 rabble "We are going to fight until the bitter end. We are going to take back our country." Another child of hell, Donald Trump, Jr., told the heavily armed and armored crowd, "You have an opportunity today - you can be a hero or a zero." There's Trump legal mouthpiece and hair dye specialist Rudy Giuliani, who famously proclaimed at that rally "Let's have trial by combat." And let us not forget Donald Trump, himself, who told the mob to march down to the Capitol even though they lacked the permit to do so. Trump even said he'd march with them - which, of course, the spineless wimp didn't do. The inflamed rabble before him came dressed and armed for hand-to-hand combat.  What did Trump and his criminal cronies think was going to happen?And there's more: Several republican members of Congress, including Pete Sessions of Texas and gun-toting and mouthy Lauren Boebert of Colorado, gave tours of the Capitol to insurrectionists on January 5 in violation of House rules. Reconnaissance missions, perhaps? Even more damning, rally organizer Ali Alexander claimed he met with Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, the aforementioned Rep. Mo Brooks and Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona on plans to disrupt the Electoral College count. Yes, the Republicans are correct. We don't need a bipartisan commission to study what happened.  We already have the evidence. Indict these seditious bastards and put them on trial. There are those who may say that I am denying these "sunshine patriots" their First Amendment rights.  If you have read this blog through the years, you would know that I am a staunch defender of free speech and expression.  But I also know that there are limits. In Brandenburg v. Ohio in 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court said that speech directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to produce said action is not protected. These actions, as described, meet the constitutional requirement for prosecution. So what the hell are we waiting for?
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Vol. 15 No. 24 -- GOP (1854-2021)
May 13, 2021
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The Republican Party was created on March 20, 1854, out of a commitment to the vision articulated in the Declaration of Independence of self-evident rights of equality, liberty and a freedom to pursue happiness. That same Republican Party died on March 12, 2021, when its elected representatives, by their actions, placed their desire to gain power and an allegiance to a deranged oligarch over truth and the U.S. Constitution. When the Republican House Caucus voted to oust Liz Cheney from her leadership position because she refused to perpetuate Donald Trump's big lie about the 2020 presidential election, they were effectively rejecting the very principals on which the party was founded and had held true to for 167 years.The party abandoned fiscal conservatism and international outlook in favor of what I call "Ugly American Nationalism." I wouldn't go so far as to say the party has devolved into a latter-day national socialist organism, but the two "philosophies" (if that's what you can call them) are based on the same central tenet: "I've got mine. I want more. Screw you." Trump's notion that the United States should make itself great again was based on two false assumptions, that we had lost our greatness and that greatness is defined by material wealth. True, America has always been the world's wealthiest nation. (The quality of life in Colonial America was better than that in Great Britain.) And from an oligarch's point-of-view - as well as all of those oligarchical wannabes who blindly follow - greatness is defined by the size of our bank accounts.  However, from its origins, the recently deceased-Republican Party had always defined greatness in its fidelity to the democratic notions of equal opportunity and equal justice for all. As late as the presidency of George W. Bush, the party also had envisioned America as a welcoming bastion of freedom for immigrants. The so-called Republican Party of Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Josh Hawley is really nothing more than a reactionary conglomeration of fearful nationalists fighting against inevitable demographic changes that will turn the United States into a majority-minority country by mid-century. Instead of inspiring people with the vision of a diverse, just and free America, these neo-Nationalists trade in fear and loathing for those who don't look and think like them. No less than President Joe Biden has said that we need the Republican Party. Historically, it  worked with Democrats to achieve an American consensus born out of compromise. But since the days of Newt Gingrich, that concept has been shunned in favor of confrontation. And yes, Democrats bear some of the responsibility for the acidic tone of our politics. But the oligarch Trump and his power-lusting neo-Nationalists took it to a new and dangerous level. They have driven the nation to the brink of an armed rebellion. (If you think that's a bit rash, just remember January 6.) I was once a proud Republican. I didn't leave the party. It left me. And now it has abandoned the stage entirely and left in its place a nation in turmoil and fighting to regain its soul.
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Vol. 15 No. 23 -- The Book of Motherhood
May 8, 2021
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What constitutes the ideal approach to motherhood? The answer lies within each person's realm of experience. In this age of mass communications media, the concept of motherhood has been modeled along a large spectrum of examples ranging from June Cleaver to Edith Bunker to Marion Cunningham to Roseanne Connor to Marge Simpson. And yet I doubt that any of those fictional TV moms are anything like your own. Truth be told, moms are not easy to define. More than three decades after her passing, I have yet to come to grips with who my own mother was. She loved her children without question. But she was also distant, with a self-defense mechanism that came out of tumultuous, sometimes abusive and alcohol consumed first marriage. Her second marriage was much kinder, but it think it is a fair assessment to say that her world often centered more on her husband and their Alcoholics Anonymous community than on her children. It is not suggested here that she neglected her children. But there were times she distanced herself from them. My experience with the next generation of motherhood, my late wife Jan, was different. Unlike my mother, who had seven children, Jan and I had only one, a daughter. Jan's life centered on her family, with special attention to growth and development of my daughter. I had never met a more dedicated mother than Jan. I always fondly remember her staying up all night Christmas Eve sewing clothes for Susan's American Girl doll. Jan's influence is ever-present in the next generation of motherhood, my daughter, who is now has two daughters of her own. I am amazed at the love, care, determination and discipline she has shown - especially during this past year of pandemic quarantine. Certainly, she is blessed to have a fabulous partner in Craig who helps her navigate the shoals and reefs of everyday living. My daughter Susan is not just a mother, but she is a wife and working professional. Watching her balance all of these roles under these sometimes trying circumstances has been gratifying. And I know her late mother would heartily approve and be immensely proud. My pleasure and respect in watching my daughter in her role as mother also extends to my daughter-in-law Stacy Deeds, mother of my other two grandchildren. She is a creative and loving mother who, just as important, knows when to play the role of sheriff.  Parenting is about loving and teaching, a role Stacy has mastered. It is obvious that her parents were excellent role models.  Speaking of excellent mothering role models, one need only focus on my wife Maureen. She became a single-mother challenged with raising two rambunctious boys. Both grew up to be fine young men, although her son Tyler's life was tragically cut short in an accident. Maureen carries a pain that no mother should endure - and yet she does with courage and dignity. She remains a strong and loving mother to Zack and Stacy, step-mother and mother-in-law to Susan and Craig --- and a fabulous Grammie to four incredible grandchildren!  I guess the lesson of all of this is there are many chapters to the Book of Motherhood. I have been fortunate to know and love several of those who have written the best chapters. To all mothers everywhere, best wishes for a happy and glorious Mother's Day.
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Vol. 15 No. 22 -- Everyday Joe
April 29, 2021
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President Biden last night marked 100 days in office with his first address to a joint session of Congress. Actually, COVID-19 restrictions limited it to an address to 20 percent of a joint session of Congress. However, the number of people in the room wasn't biggest difference between Biden's talk and those of the last occupant of the White House. In terms of content, tone and vision, President Biden's address to the nation eclipsed the narrow-minded rantings of the self-indulgent miscreant of Mar-a-Lago. For one thing, Biden had real accomplishments to discuss, such as a successful roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines (something Clorox Boy forgot to do), slapping sanctions on the Russians (something Putin's puppy was afraid to do) and passing a massive pandemic relief package (something his Dimwittedness didn't care to do). Donald Trump used national occasions like last night's speech to dish out red meat to the 33 percent of the country that actually liked him.  In contrast, Joe Biden laid out a vision for American leadership in the 21st century. To be certain, Joey from Scranton may not be able to deliver the cool Chicago vibe of his old boss Barack Obama. Nor does he have the swagger of George W. Bush or Bill Clinton. However, the one thing that Joe Biden has that his immediate predecessors didn't have is a perfect blend of purpose and possibilities. The proposals he laid forth last night are as bold at FDR's New Deal and LBJ's Great Society. At least until the mid-term elections, Biden has a real chance of actually getting some things done - even if it means ramming them down the Republican Party's throat. Of course, there's risk in taking that approach - especially since he has been pleading for bipartisanship. But Biden made it clear last night that his patience is not unlimited. It is also true that  the Republican Party faces serious risks if it takes on an obstructionist role against what may prove to be a very popular Biden agenda. And don't underestimate Donald Trump's mounting legal threats. Don't be surprised if by this time next year, Republicans will be trying to distance themselves from the Sultan of Sedition. (Think "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain" from The Wizard of Oz.) Was last night's Biden address the greatest presidential oratory in a generation? It was not even close. But he did speak in terms that an everyday Joe could understand. And that may be exactly what this nation needs after nearly three decades of bitter infighting and turmoil.
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Vol. 15 No. 21 -- I've Got Nutin'
April 25, 2021
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When I committed myself to writing this blog in 2007, I did so under the presumption that I'd always have something to say. After all, I'm a pretty opinionated guy and there's a lot going on. It's been fairly easy to crank out a new post on the average of one per week. (This one is number 688 in the series.) However, I have to admit that it has lately been a bit more difficult to come up with a subject for these missives. Once we inaugurated a new president on January 20, a lot of the world's anxiety disappeared. No longer would we wake up in the morning wondering what President Pinocchio had tweeted from his toilet overnight. The shock of the January 6 Capitol Insurrection is more than 100 days behind us. While there are still threats out there in the form of new disease variants, the nation appears to have finally turned the corner on the COVID-19 pandemic. While my wife and I have received our vaccinations, we continue to take reasonable precautions to protect both ourselves and others. I suppose I could comment on former police officer Derek Chauvin's conviction last week in the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. While I have tremendous sympathy and respect for the tough job that confronts law enforcement officers, the video of Floyd's death in police custody pretty much speaks for itself. I have nothing useful to add to the debate, other than a prayer we can deescalate the tensions arising out of this and similar incidents. There's a lot of wrangling going on in Congress. But isn't that the normal state of affairs? Yes, there are plenty of big issues out there - important issues of morality and social justice. However, I have to admit that after four years of unrelenting incompetence, racism, misogyny, corruption and self-indulgent immorality in the White House, I need to take a break from my personal righteous indignation. So, please excuse me if, for at least this one post, I step back and take a big breath. Spring is here. They are playing baseball. I am actually getting a tax refund. And, best of all, I get to see my kids and grand kids and can begin to start planning vacations. Sure, there's plenty of stuff to complain about. That seems to be always the case. But right now, I've got nutin'. And I like it that way.
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Vol. 15 No. 20 -- It's Good News Week
April 13, 2021
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People of a certain age - old folks like me - may remember a jaunty satirical tune from the mid-1960's, It's Good News Week by the not-in-the-Rock-and-Roll-Hall-of-Fame group Hedgehoppers Anonymous.  While it wasn't as mournful sounding as Barry McGuire's Eve of Destruction, its intent was the same: A reminder of the perilous times in which we lived. To give you a sense of the nature of the song, here are the opening lines from It's Good News Week: "It's good news week/Someone's dropped a bomb somewhere/contaminating atmosphere/and blackening the sky." The song is satire with a heavy dose of sarcasm. I was reminded of the song last night while watching the evening news. Here's a brief summary of just some of this week's "good news:" A white police office shot and killed a black man by mistaking her gun for a taser only 10 miles from where another white police officer is on trial for killing a black suspect under highly questionable circumstances. In Washington, Mitch McConnell and his collection of seditionists, child traffickers, pedophile protectors and outright nut-jobs are threatening to block President Biden's critically needed infrastructure bill. Every time you look around, there's yet another mass shooting. The Russians and Chinese are threatening world peace while - thanks to Donald Trump - the United States is in the weakest position it has been since before World War II. Despite a pandemic that is still raging out of control, there's a large group of people who will buy guns and body armor to protect themselves but are not willing to be vaccinated or wear a damn mask. In sports, football players are killing people before killing themselves and blaming football-related head injuries. And the cash-registers at college athletic departments and the NFL continue to go "cha-ching." Turning now to the weather, it's tornado season, except in those places where it is either earthquake season or volcano season. And, on the lighter side, Taylor Swift has a "new" album of old stuff she re-recorded because her father is a schmuck. That's tonight's news: Is everyone feeling good? I used to think there was no more raucous a time then the 1960s. But the 2020s appear to have that time beat - and we are less than two years into the decade. To borrow a line from another song of my youth, "These are the Good Old Days."
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Vol. 15 No. 19 -- Mitch Said What?
April 3, 2021
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It's a quiet Saturday morning. I'm looking forward to the day, watching the morning news and sipping a hot chocolate (I don't like coffee).  Things were going great until Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Fried Chicken, came on the news and spoke in opposition to President Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure plan. Let me first say that good people can disagree on the size of the plan and on how it will be financed. That's not my concern with what Mitch said.  It was how he said it. McConnell said Biden's plan "taxes all of the productive parts of the economy." Do you see the coded language in there? When he refers to  the "productive parts of the economy," he's talking about the rich oligarchy, the ones who would see the greatest tax increases under Biden's plan. I immediately put down my hot chocolate, stared at the screen and said to myself "And just who in the hell do you think does all of the work that makes these social leaches rich?" It's the people whom McConnell infers are the "unproductive" parts of the economy. McConnell's pals are the folks who claim they can't afford to pay their workers a living wage while perusing real estate listings so they can purchase their third or fourth home. It has been no secret that executive salaries have gone through the roof since the Reagan years - growing significantly (some might say obscenely) faster than the salaries of the poor and middle class working stiffs who actually create that wealth. For Mitch McConnell to suggest that lower and middle class workers are part of the "unproductive" parts of the economy is an obscenity.  And this bloviated pronouncement comes from a man whose own personal wealth has ballooned exponentially by taking unfair advantage of his leadership role in Congress. That's not to mention how his wife has exploited her positions in several presidential cabinets to rake in questionable foreign investments. The McConnells are riding high while their constituency in Kentucky lives in one of the nation's poorest states. I am not a socialist. Nor am I a liberal. My politics tend to be moderate with conservative leanings. For God's sake, I grew up a Nixon Republican. However, I also believe in social justice - which is not inconsistent with being a moderate or a conservative.  Last I checked, social justice was a central tenant of Christianity, Judaism and the other major religions. So, when I hear Moscow Mitch spewing his coded racist and elitist language, my blood boils. The people in the Commonwealth of Kentucky blew their chance to lance the biggest boil on the American backside last November. The only thing left to do is for Senate democrats to pull Joe Machin's head out of his kiester, eliminate the archaic and destructive filibuster, and pass a legislative agenda that the self-righteous and morally corrupt Mitch McConnell has been blocking for more than a decade. When the voters reap the benefits of the president's infrastructure plan, they will realize that Biden is right and McConnell is dead wrong. Then, we will be able to cut some of the cancerous Sedition Caucus out of Congress in the November 2022 midterm elections.
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Vol. 15 No. 18 -- A Journalist's First Test
April 1, 2021
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On the morning of April 3, 1974, one only need look at the skies in Western Kentucky and Southern Indiana to know that there was rough weather ahead.  However, we had no idea just how horrific a day it would be. It was the day of what would be known as the 1974 Super Outbreak of tornadoes - at that time the largest in history (surpassed in 2011). On April 3-4, there were 148 tornadoes in 13 states and one Canadian province. It was also history's most violent tornado outbreak, with 30 F4 or F5 tornadoes in a 24-hour period. Worse, there were 319 deaths, 5,484 injuries and more than $4.58 billion in damage (2019 USD). At the time, I was only a few months out of college working at a small 500-watt daytime radio station in Hawesville, Kentucky. I was an announcer/advertising salesman (although I was trained as a journalist). We started getting Associated Press wire reports of tornadic activity in the early afternoon. I was in what passed as the station's newsroom when I heard a report on a police radio scanner that a tornado had struck a school bus just across the Ohio River north of Tell City, Indiana. One's first instinct was to get that news on the air.  However, I had been trained to verify information first.  No one in his or her right mind broadcasts things they hear on a scanner without first verifying the information.  A more chilling thought occurred: Was the bus on its way to school to pick up children or had it already done so? That was just one more reason to take a breath, call the police and find out what really happened. The last thing I wanted to do was to cause a panic. As it turned out, only one person, the driver, was killed as the bus was on its way to pick up children when it was hit. However, there was worse news in our immediate area.  Just north of Hawesville, the town of Brandenburg, Kentucky, was leveled by an F5 tornado, killing 31 people. In the Madison, Indiana, area, a place I would be working within an year, 11 people were killed by an F4 twisted that severely damaged Hanover College. Louisville, Kentucky, (three dead) and Xenia, Ohio, (32 dead) were also among the the places struck by tornadoes that awful day. I was supposed to be playing country music from 4:00 p.m. to our designated sign-off time of 7:30 p.m. (WKCM was on the same frequency as a clear channel station in Richmond, Virginia. The FCC required us to sign off at sundown.) Instead of playing songs by Tanya Tucker and Ronny Milsap, it was pretty much an all-news, all-the-time air shift. It was the first time I felt like I was doing something for which I had been trained. Ironically, while we were trying to catch our breath in the early evening, the area was hit by a relatively small earthquake - it rattled nerves more than cups and dishes.  By the time I played the sign-off tape and shut down the transmitter, I was exhausted. I felt like going out for a drink. However, Hawesville is in Hancock County, Kentucky - at that time a dry county where no beer or liquor were sold. So much for that. However, as I left for my apartment at the end of a memorable day, I had the satisfaction of knowing that I had faced my first test as an honest-to-God journalist, and passed.
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Vol. 15 No. 17 -- Presidential News Conferences
March 25, 2021
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President Joe Biden will hold his first formal news conference this afternoon. It's the latest a president has waited to conduct such a session in memory. It may surprise you to know that as a former journalist, I am not particularly upset with the delay. It's not like he hasn't answered reporters questions in both informal and formal settings since taking office January 20. In fact, reporters have had access to the president almost every business day since the inauguration. Still, a presidential press conference is a form of political theater.  We get to see how well the president thinks on his feet.  We also get to see the news process at work - something akin to seeing sausage made. (You like the end product, but the process is messy.) Up until Theodore Roosevelt, arguably the first modern president, reporters were not even allowed inside the White House. Teddy took pity on them one cold day, brought them indoors, and then told them exactly what to say. It was cousin Franklin Roosevelt that took the news conferences to a new level. He would hold court with reporters in his office in "off the record" sessions where nothing said could be directly attributed to FDR.  If there was something quote-worthy, the rule was that it had to be attributed to "a high White House source." Dwight Eisenhower was the first president to allow direct attribution to the president - after the news conference transcript had been scrubbed of anything that might have unintended diplomatic implications. (For the most part, Ike's words were uncensored.) Eisenhower also was the first president to permit television coverage of the news conference - although the film also would be released after a proper diplomatic vetting. It was John F. Kennedy who first permitted live coverage television coverage of presidential news conferences. As a handsome, intelligent and witty man, he was a natural on that stage. Richard Nixon was masterful in that setting until Watergate turned those sessions into open combat. Reagan was another master of the lectern, although even he had some problematic moments during the Iran-Contra scandal - some of which made us wonder later if it was an early sign of the onset of Alzheimer's Disease. The American people are still in shell-shock from the dumpster fire that was Donald Trump's news conferences. (For a guy who claimed reporters wrote "fake news," he sure loved talking to them on camera.) And now it is Joe's turn.  Because of his age, people will be looking at how well Biden does in terms of his mental acuity and stamina. (Hint: Fox News will report that he is senile and failed miserably. That story was written yesterday.) While presidential news conferences aren't - and shouldn't - be the only way a president communicates with the American people, it is a useful outreach to the citizenry that is worth watching.
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Vol. 15 No. 16 -- The Truth About Immigration
March 22, 2021
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I am the product of a mixed marriage. Some of my ancestors were in America before the American Revolution while others immigrated to the United States during the late 19th century. My story is fairly common as the overwhelming majority of Americans have family origins from outside the United States. That is why I find the Republican Party's stance on immigration hypocritical and morally offensive. Congressional Republicans - most of whom are members of the Sedition Caucus that tried to overthrow a legally elected president on January 6 - are now crying crocodile tears over the surge of unaccompanied children on our southern border. They are claiming that these immigrants seeking political asylum pose a threat to our national security, our economy and our sovereignty. As per usual, these Trump sycophants are not letting the facts get in the way of a good lie.  Here are the facts. According to Sen. Chris Murray (D-Conn.), the Biden Administration is following the very same policy the Trump administration followed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The only difference is that the Biden administration is following a more humanitarian approach to unaccompanied children than the incompetent and immoral approach of the Trumpets. And 50 percent of those seeking political asylum in the United States are returned to their native countries after undergoing due process.  According to the Cato Institute, there is no evidence that immigration takes jobs from Americans, lowers wages or imposes a significant burden on the nation's welfare system. One writer in the Bush Center publication Catalyst has written that "when immigrants enter the labor force, they increase the productive capacity of the economy and raise the GNP (gross national product)." Most telling is the fact that the number of terrorist incidents in the United States caused through illegal immigration this century has been zero. As the CATO Institute noted, "Some immigrants do commit violent and property crimes but, overall, they are less likely to do so." There are two reasons the Republicans continue to lie about immigration. The first reason involves the concept of misdirection. They want us to ignore how badly the Trump administration damaged the nation's economy, security, moral standing and international reputation.  Trump hurt our relationship with our friends and gave aid and comfort to our enemies. He used racist and neo-Nazi rhetoric to placate the minority of Americans willing to follow him. In doing so, he has fueled racist attacks on persons of color, including the Atlanta spa murders last week. So, with illegal border crossings mounting, Republicans want to people to focus on a so-called southern border crisis that is actually one of the least of the problems this country faces post-Trump.  And why is there a so-called border crisis in the first place?  That's because the people of Mexico and Central America realize that there's a now administration in Washington that embraces the very American impulse to welcome strangers to our shores. Is there an problem that needs to be addressed? Sure, but Republicans won't do it. Even Republican President George W. Bush's effort to introduce a sane national immigration policy was rebuffed by his own party. That takes us to the second reason, unjustified nationalist fears that white America's hold on power is shrinking. (I suggest you read my January 29 and February 1 blog posts below.) This ugly form of 21st century nativism is no different than other nationalistic movements in our past. This version of an "America First" movement is likely to be swept under the rug of history in the same manner is its predecessors. I ask those who embrace this racist-tinged philosophy a few simple questions: Where is your humanity?  Many of you claim to follow Judeo-Christian values. So where's your compassion and sense of charity? Do you really believe in the word of God, or are you giving it lip-service in much the same manner you believe the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution? We ask immigrants to accept the American concept of justice and social responsibility when they come to these shores. Why can't we expect the same from so-call native-born Americans, whose families, likely, came here from elsewhere?
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Vol. 15 No. 15 -- Rededicated To The One I Love
March 17, 2021
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There is no date on the calendar toward which I have greater ambivalence than today, March 17. It is, of course, St. Patrick's Day. My wife, third-generation Irish, calls it "a high holy day."  Today is also my granddaughter Marlee's third birthday. I can't begin to tell you how much joy she - and later her sister Hayden - has brought into my life. (And let's not forget my other two grandchildren, Nolan and Mary.) And yet, there is a dark cloud that will always cast shade upon this date. It was 14 years ago today that my wife Jan was stricken with a fatal cerebral hemorrhage. That day, the worse day of my life, is seared into my memory. Anyone who has lost someone so close and dear to them will understand what I am about to say: No one just "moves on" from such a traumatic event. After a year of consuming sadness, I began to start a new life. You stop thinking about that terrible, last day day and begin remembering the incredibly happy 32 years that preceded it. Eventually, I began dating again - a really weird feeling after more that three decades of a blissful marriage. I met my Irish lass in 2009 and we married a year later.  I have her to thank for whatever happiness and sanity I enjoy today. Nevertheless, the approach of the March 17 continues to stir sad memories of the day that ripped out my heart and crushed my spirit. In late September 2007, I created this blog as part of my healing process. It was - and remains - a way for me to express myself without regard to who or how many people may read it.  (It's kind of like screaming in the wilderness: It doesn't change anything, but it sure feels good.) The title of my first blog post on September 28, 2007, was "Dedicated To The One I Love."  It is probably the shortest of the 682 Snapping Turtle posts to date:  "Jan Marie Guth, my wife of nearly 32 years, died March 18, 2007, following a catastrophic cerebral hemorrhage.  She was only 50 and in the best shape of her life. Her death has left a hole in my heart that will never heal.  In the six months since Jan's passing, I have tried to deal with my grief, as well as that of my daughter and the countless others who loved her. There's no handbook for this sort of thing -- although many claimed to have written one. Grief is a personal thing that exhibits itself in a myriad of ways.  However, that may be a topic for another day. For now, as I launch this new enterprise, it is appropriate that I dedicate this blog to the love of my life and in the hope that the Internet reaches heaven." So, as I observe is this solemn anniversary, I choose to fondly remember the beautiful smiling waitress I met in Hawesville, Kentucky, 47 years ago and rededicate this blog to the one whom I will always love.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 14 -- Courage and Forbearance
March 8, 2021
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Just a few days after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, country singer-songwriter Alan Jackson penned one of the most poignant songs about the tragedy, Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning? The song captured both the shock and the spirit of the American people in the wake of the most foul of evil deeds. Jackson's question comes to mind this week, the first anniversary of when the world came to a screeching halt because of the COVID-19 pandemic. For many, the first realization of the scope and danger of the coronavirus came with the abrupt cancellation of professional and college basketball games. Soon thereafter, all major sports, entertainment venues, restaurants, schools and nonessential businesses were shut down for what was described as "an abundance of caution." Essentially, we were living a 21st century version of the The Day the Earth Stood Still - except it wasn't for a single day. It was for months. Most businesses have still not fully opened one year later and many, sadly, will never open again. But the greatest tragedy is the lives lost to the pandemic - more than a half-million people in the United States alone.  That's greater than the total of American combat deaths in World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War combined. And then there's the real concern for the long-lasting impact the pandemic will have on a entire generation of school children who have been forced into learning in isolation. Personally, it has been a very difficult year, one punctuated by the things I didn't do, the people I did not see and the places I did not go.  However, my family and I have been blessed with good health. (My wife and I even celebrated the birth of a new granddaughter.) Others have had it far worse. And when I think about the sadness and the sacrifices that have been forced upon us, I also think about what it must have been like in December 1942. The United States had been at war against the Axis Powers for a year and, unlike today with vaccinations swinging into full gear, there was absolutely no end in sight. Even as late as August 1945, before the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, the prospects were that the war might last two, three, four or more years. No one knew. And the tragedy of World War II would not end until more that 85 million people globally had been killed. Therefore, as we complain about having to wear masks or that our favorite coffee shop is not open, I humbly suggest that a little perspective is in order. So much has happened in the past year. A lot of it has not been very good. But, admit it: Some good things have come out of this generation's trial by fire. We've all learned to live our lives in new and interesting ways.  And it is highly unlikely that life after COVID-19 will revert entirely to its prepandemic patterns.  How we choose to live our lives moving forward is up to us - and not left to the whims of an invisible virus. The past year has exposed American and world societies to both heroic successes and inglorious failings. And while the pandemic continues to rage and we are not yet out of the woods, we now have the necessary tools - vaccines, masks, social distancing and The Golden Rule - to emerge from the dark days of quarantine into the brilliance of a just and rewarding future. The question is whether we have the courage and forbearance to see these challenging days through to the end. Twentieth Century Americans did. Do we?
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 13 -- The Ballad of Lenn Sakata
February 24, 2021
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Back on August 24, 1983, Lenn Sakata was a light-hitting utility infielder from Hawaii playing for the Baltimore Orioles. The Birds were in a tight pennant chase with three other American League East rivals. On this particular night, they trailed the Toronto Blue Jays 3-1 with two outs and nobody on base in the bottom of the ninth inning. And then, the weirdness began. The Orioles got five straight two-out hits to tie the score and send the game into extra innings.  However, Manager Joe Altobelli, trying to pull a rabbit out of his hat, cleared his bench with pinch hitters to pull off the improbable comeback. That forced him to make some unusual defensive alignments for the 10th inning: an outfielder was moved to second base, another outfielder was moved to third base (a position he had only played a handful of times) and Sakata - who hadn't been a catcher since Little League - was put behind the plate.  Things started badly in the 10th, as Toronto's lead-off batter hit a home run. The next hitter reached base on an infield single. Knowing there was inexperience behind the plate, the runner couldn't wait to test Sakata's throwing arm. However, he never got the chance. Orioles relief pitcher Tippy Martinez picked the runner off after he took too long a lead at first base. One out. The next batter reached base and the same thing happened. Two outs.  Guess what? The same thing happened again. Three outs. (You can see it as it happened here.) A crowd of the 36,000 Oriole fans went nuts. It is believed that is the only time in MLB history that a pitcher picked off three runners in the same inning. Ironically, Lenny - the catcher everyone wanted to run on - caught only six pitches in the entire inning. So, we go to the bottom of the 10th with the Orioles trailing 4-3. With two runners on and two outs, guess who comes to bat? None other Lenn Sakata, the light hitting Hawaiian. Of course, you know what happens next, a three-run home run to win the game. The Orioles went on to win 23 of their next 27 games en route to winning the 1983 World Series. That story - what I call the Ballad of Lenn Sakata - is just one of a gazillion reasons I love baseball.  You just can't write stories like the one that played out on that hot August night 38 years ago in Memorial Stadium.  If you did, no one would believe it. And yet, that kind of once-in-a-lifetime crazy stuff happens all of the time. The appeal of sports, especially baseball, is that it is unscripted drama. Sometimes it takes on deep cultural significance, such as the the 2001 World Series in New York did just weeks after the 9/11 attacks. And if you happened to live in the Kansas City area when the Royals won the 2015 World Series after years of futility, you know what it can mean to the spirits of a community. We are in the midst of a pandemic, accompanied by an economic downtown and sociopolitical strife. We just experienced one of the worst winter blasts in decades. And yet, baseball spring training camps are open in Florida and Arizona - a sure sign that Spring, a season of renewal, is on its way.  Its like a ray of sunshine piercing through the darkness. Now, more than ever, we need the joyous distraction that baseball brings. After a year of surreal lunacy, I, for one, welcome the call to "play ball."
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Vol. 15 No. 12 -- Messing With Texas
February 20, 2021
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I hope my family and friends in Texas don't take this too personally, but Mother Nature has messed with Texas. The Lone Star State experienced historically bad winter weather this week. But those conditions were no worse than that almost every other state in the United States has faced from time to time. To be fair, Texans don't have as much experience with low temperatures and deep snow as, say, Iowa or even their northern neighbor Oklahoma.  However, Texans' peculiar penchant for claiming their superiority and independence this week bit them along their southern border, if you know what I mean. Energy Independent Texas was reduced to Energy Impotent Texas - all because the state refuses to engage in the energy load-sharing arrangements that every other state in lower 48 states enjoy. Texas officials have often opposed sending disaster aid to other states because, they claim Texans don't want to see Texas tax dollars going to New England.  They also fear federal regulation - the same regulation that would have mitigated this week's disaster.  However, this week they petitioned for federal disaster aid - which they deserve to receive as citizens of a nation of 50 states. (Only a few weeks after suggesting that Texas should secede from the Union.) Texans have also chided Californians for power outages, saying it was the result of mismanagement. In at least one famous case, it was mismanagement: Price manipulations by Enron, a Texas company. It also amazes me that some Texas officials are strongly anti-immigration in a state that, literally, would not exist had it not been for American immigration into what was then Mexico. And after realizing that they couldn't make it as an independent republic, Texas ran as fast as it could toward union with the United States. Even forgetting that history, the fact remains that no state in the union has benefited as much from immigration as Texas. This immigration has defined Texan culture. But please, don't think we don't love you.  We really do. People all over the country are sending you money, food, water, emergency response personnel and prayers to help you get through this self-inflected misery. All we ask is that you start acting like an equal partner in a union of states that have come together to create the greatest nation on earth. And please stop acting like a petulant teenager upset because mommy and daddy won't lend you the keys to car.  The Texas Star is just one star on a flag of 50 stars.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 11 -- Diminished Democracy
February 13, 2021
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Watching a majority of Senate Republicans squirming in their seats trying to acquit Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial is sickening. Despite a mountain of indisputable evidence that Trump's conviction is both and constitutional  justified by the facts, the Sedition Caucus is placing its members' political prospects ahead of the national interest.  This sham trial is reminiscent of another legal atrocity I witnessed 45 years ago. I was news director at WXLX-FM in Milledgeville, Georgia, in the mid 1970s. I covered a murder trial in the nearby town of Eatonton, where a police officer was charged with unlawfully shooting and killing an unarmed black curfew violator. The officer had initially claimed that he shot the black man in self defense.  However, investigators uncovered evidence that the officer had placed a knife in the hand of the man after he had shot him. Confronted with the evidence, the officer admitted that he tampered with the crime scene. When the case went to the jury, the outcome appeared to be a slam-dunk conviction.  However, after lengthy deliberations, a jury of 11 white men and one black woman found the officer not guilty. We learned after the fact that the woman was the one juror who held out for conviction and had been coerced into a not guilty verdict. (I suspect that she gave in after being forcefully reminded that she lived in a racially unforgiving Southern town where Confederate generals were still considered "the good guys.") The verdict was stunning and I remain convinced 45 years later that it was a gross miscarriage of justice.  The "good old boy" jurors were morally corrupt and had decided on a innocent verdict before they had heard any testimony. After witnessing today's events in Washington, it was almost as if that same jury had been transported from the Putnam County Courthouse in 1976 to the U.S. Senate chambers in 2021.  The fix was in. And Trump's sycophants are undoubtedly patting themselves on their backs in anticipation of their "victory." They have managed to stay in the good graces of Trump, a man they fear more than admire.  Some of them, such as Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, hope to pick up Trump's mantle in the 2024 presidential election. But here's the rub: The Trump brand is corroding before our eyes. The Senate may have acquitted Trump, but the legal drama will soon shift to state and federal prosecutors. Over the coming weeks and months, the Trump Crime Organization will be unraveled.  There will be revelations of political corruption, sexual assault. sedition, tax evasion and possibly treason. And judging by the quality of Trump's legal representation, the man-child who would be king faces a very real prospect of jail time.  The fact that he is no longer in the White House is a source of great relief. It's good to have adults in charge once again. However, that is of little consequence.  I have the same sick feeling in the pit of my stomach today that I experienced leaving that dark and dingy Georgia courtroom on a late Friday evening in 1976. Our democracy is diminished when prejudice and political expediency trumps justice. We, as a nation, should be ashamed.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 10 -- The Rule of Law
February 4, 2021
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We can blame Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Mitch McConnell and/or Nancy Pelosi. We can say its all the fault of republicans, democrats, conservatives, liberals, the "Squad" and/or the "Freedom Caucus." Go ahead, pick your favorite boogeyman to blame for the sorry state of American politics. You'd be partially correct. But according to a University of Kansas political scientist, you may want to look first in the mirror before pointing fingers. "Democracy works best when we have a shared belief in norms, rules and facts," said Associate Professor Patrick Miller. "All of that is breaking down in the U.S. in many ways." His comments came today during a virtual panel discussion on the chaotic transition following the 2020 presidential election. Miller said that since the 2000 election, people on both sides of the red state/blue state divide have questioned the fairness of any election in which their candidate did not win. In the online discussion sponsored by KU's law and journalism schools, Professor Richard Levy, a nationally recognized constitutional law expert, said the recent national turmoil - especially the January 6 Capitol Insurrection - has shown us the fragility of the nation's democratic institutions. "The orderly transfer of power depends on the rule of law," Levy said. "The events of January 6 represent a rule of law crisis." Also on the panel was KU Law Professor Lua Yuille, who said that for many Americans, the rule of law is a Utopian mythology and a unmet promise.  As one might expect, much of the discussion turned to next week's second impeachment trial of Donald Trump. Elections law attorney Mark Johnson, who is also an adjunct journalism professor, debunked two of Trump's defense strategies. The first is that the former president can't be convicted after leaving office. Johnson said Trump's impeachment is akin to indicting someone before reaching the statute of limitations: If indicted before the deadline, they can be tried anytime after. As for Trump's claim that he was exercising his First Amendment rights, it may surprise you to know that government officials don't have them when serving in their official capacities. The amendment provides protection against government intrusion on private citizens, not the other way around. And even if Trump did enjoy those rights, Johnson said that inciting people to violence is not protected speech. However, Johnson does not believe that there are enough republican votes in the Senate to convict. At the end of the one-hour session, the four panelists discussed their concerns for the future.  But they also expressed guarded optimism. Johnson noted that judges and state elections officials, operating under great pressure, "did the right thing at the right time." However, Miller ended the session on a cautionary note, saying that democratic governments rarely fail because of a sudden event, metaphorically such as the thrust of a knife into the nation's heart. "Democracy dies from cut, cut, cut and eventually bleeds out," he said. "Surviving this election gives us more time."
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 9 -- Nationalism IS NOT Patriotism
February 1, 2021
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When the Republican Party was founded in 1854, its focus was on human rights and equality.  Today, the party of Abraham Lincoln is almost a polar opposite of the party he embraced. It has become a party of oligarchs hell-bent on protecting fortunes that many didn't earn and white supremacists who are fighting to maintain so-called "white privilege" in a nation where persons of color will become the majority by 2060.  It has come down to this, the Republican party stands against any one who isn't white and is not willing to accept what they consider the status quo.  But here's the rub: The status quo isn't what they think it is. That ship sailed long ago. The blind acceptance of white supremacy and white privilege no longer exists. People of conscience are trying to tear down these artificial barriers that run contrary to the founding principles of this nation. The people resisting change call themselves nationalists and patriots.  They are following in a sad American tradition of blaming Catholics, Jews, Muslims, the Irish, the Chinese, immigrants in general, gays, feminists and especially blacks for all of the ills of society. They want to "put America first" and "make America great again."  In doing so, they have chosen to follow a false prophet in Donald Trump who doesn't believe a damn word he says.  For years, Trump has spouted the things that these so-called nationalists want to hear:  Blame immigrants for all your frustrations. Call groups and individuals you don't like by insulting names meant to demean and dehumanize them. Ignore society's moral obligation to all of its citizens by cutting safety nets for the weakest so that the richest in society can become even richer. Claim to be Christian knowing that if Jesus Christ appeared on this earth under another name, you'd call him a radical liberal socialist and a snowflake. These self-proclaimed nationalists are not even nationalists.  By definition, nationalism is "a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations and supranational groups." (Webster)  The basic flaw confronting these self-proclaimed nationalists is that they have absolutely no concept of the "culture and interests" of the nation they claim to love. They refuse to recognize that from its very beginnings, the United States has been a society that welcomes people of many nations and cultures under the unifying principles of majority rule, minority rights and respect for human dignity. Nor are they patriots, people who vigorously support their country and are prepared to defend it against its enemies. A patriot reveres the Constitution and defends its principles -- and is not a person who dresses up in animal skins, plants pipe bombs, kills policemen and trashes the U.S. Capitol Building in the name of a false God.  Those people are traitors. Just as bad are those who give passive support to their cause in the name of maintaining political power. The congressional Republican leadership and the members of their seditious caucus have demonstrated a level of moral bankruptcy unprecedented in American history. In doing so, they have put the lie to the dubious claim of American exceptionalism. Is this a great country? Perhaps. But try telling that to the rest of the world after four years of Donald Trump and the sacking of the U.S. Capitol on January 6. These so called "nationalists" are not nationalists. And they certainly are not patriots.  They are delusional traitors who wrap themselves in the American flag. The good news is that there are reports of the Republican party at war with itself. Thousands of Republicans, fed up with what the party of Lincoln has become, are leaving it. Hopefully, the factions within the Democratic  party will learn from this example and will accommodate its many philosophies without destroying itself from within. We've got some hard times ahead of us. Placing the nation under new leadership will not automatically fix it. But we can fix it if we remember who we are, the principles upon which this nation was founded and if we can lower the thermostat of political rhetoric. In other words, we can move forward if we act like true patriots.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 8 -- This Is U.S.
January 29, 2021
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When you hear the phrase "this is us," you may be tempted to think about the NBC-TV series about the many generations of the Pearson family. (My wife likes the show. I don't watch it and don't plan to.) However, as a social scientist, historian and retired college professor, I think of the American Community Survey compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau. It is truly a picture of U.S. - a continuing snapshot of the United States that generates data used to help in the distribution of $675 billion in state and federal funds.  The survey also fills in the gaps between the more exhaustive data dump that comes with the decennial census. (The 2020 Census is complete, but the results have not yet been announced.) What the latest American Community Survey (released last month) shows us is that the U.S. population is 328.2 million, with an annual mean household income of $65,712. Our median age is 38.5 years, approximately one-third of us have college degrees, the average home is valued at $240,500 and the average monthly rent is $1,097. In terms of our racial composition, 72 percent of those surveyed identified themselves as "white alone," followed by 12.8 percent "black alone," 5.7 percent as "Asian alone," and just under 1 percent as "Native American alone." In terms of ethnicity - not to be confused with race - 18.4 percent of us are Hispanic/Latino.  For those of us who live in the Sunflower State on this, its 160th birthday, the demographic picture is slightly different.  The state's population is 2.9 million. While the state's median household income is slightly below the national average ($62,087), the average home value ($163,000) and monthly rent ($812) is significantly lower than the nation average. We are a little bit older (37.2 years) and less diverse (82 percent white) than the national average. However the state's poverty rate and the percentage of children under the age of 18 living in poverty are lower than the national average. The education level of Kansans is slightly higher than the national average. So, what does this all mean?  One of the many jokes about statisticians is that there are three kinds of statistics: lies, damned lies and statistics. Different individuals will interpret these results in their own ways. My quick take is that Kansas is an economical place in which to live and raise a family. However, its lesser degree of diversity helps to explain why it is a politically conservative state. Of course, the diversity of both Kansas and the nation are steadily increasing. In the lifetime of many Americans, this will become a majority-minority country. That helps explain the rise of nationalism and nut-job groups like QAnon and the House Republican Caucus. (That will be the subject of a future blog post.)  There are big changes taking place in the United States of America. And one need not tell you that these are intensely stressful times.  I just think that before we make pronouncements about what it is or is not to be an American, we should be armed with the facts as to who we really are. In the final analysis, this is us.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 7 -- You Could Be A Paranoid
January 25, 2021
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If you think that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election in a landslide despite insurmountable evidence he didn't, you could be a paranoid.  If you think that there is a "Deep State" pedophile conspiracy to traffic in children run out of the basement in a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor, you could be a paranoid. If you think the wearing of a mask designed to protect you and others from a deadly virus that has already claimed 400,000 American lives is an infringement on your personal freedom, you could be a paranoid. If you think that Joe Biden is a radical liberal hell-bent on converting the United States into a socialist enclave, you could be a paranoid.  If you think that having the government give you a $2,000 pandemic stimulus check will do you more harm that the $2 trillion Trump tax cuts that have largely benefited people more like him than like you, you could be a paranoid. If you still think that former President Barack Obama is not a native-born U.S. citizen, that he is a Muslim and that he wants to take away your guns and your freedom, you could be a paranoid. If you are a member of Congress who took an oath to defend the Constitution and then just hours later voted to overturn a fair and legal presidential election, you could be a paranoid.  If you watch Fox News, OAN and any of those other ultra-conservative news channels because all of the news on the more traditional and long-established news sources sources is "fake," you could be a paranoid. If you think the rabble that ransacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, giving the United States a black eye in the eyes of the world and giving aid and comfort to our enemies are "good people," you could be a paranoid. If you think that the COVID-19 pandemic is a hoax, that George H.W. Bush or Ted Cruz's father killed John F. Kennedy and that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a staged event, you could be a paranoid. And if you believe that Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Mitt Romney, George W. Bush and the late John McCain are less patriotic than you, you not only could be a paranoid, you are a delusional and troubled soul in need of strong medication and a padded cell.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 6 -- Morning in America
January 20, 2021
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History has shown us that the best leaders are those who have overcome adversity. Abraham Lincoln rose from obscurity through raucous and challenging times to be, perhaps, our greatest president.  Franklin Delano Roosevelt overcame polio-induced paralysis to lead this nation through its two worse crises of the 20th century. Dwight Eisenhower rose from his humble Kansas beginnings to become the leader of the free world in both war and peace. Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson and Gerald Ford assumed the presidency under tragic circumstances and, by any fair observation, did honor to the office.  Today is Joseph R. Biden's day.  His is a story of triumph and tragedy. Unlike most recent presidents, Biden does not have an Ivy League pedigree. Frankly, it is exciting to have someone who graduated from different colleges (Delaware and Syracuse) and brings with him a different worldview. I am personally excited to have a president who is a native of my beloved Delmarva. (For the initiated, Delmarva stands for the peninsula that comprises Delaware and the eastern Chesapeake Bay shores of Maryland and Virginia.) He brings with him substantial government experience, humility and a sense of fairness - things deeply missed during the past four years.  Joe Biden has been known to make verbal gaffes. So what?  Who doesn't? The important thing that when he speaks, it is done with genuine passion - not the stage-managed phony emotions of his predecessor. Thanks to the absence of leadership of the last four years, Joe Biden assumes the nation's highest office in perilous times reminiscent of the challenges facing Lincoln and Roosevelt when they assumed office. Joining Biden is the first woman, black and south Asian Vice President and the most diverse Cabinet in American history. It has been a rough and contentious four years.  And the immediate future is fraught with peril: a tragic pandemic, a wrecked economy, an internal insurgency and external threats. But it is also filled with hope and optimism. There's a sense that we are moving into an new era - to borrow the phrase coined by the first President Bush - of a kinder and gentler nation. We pray for our nation's new leadership and wish all of us - red staters and blue staters - success and good health. To borrow yet another phrase associated with another president, it is Morning in America.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 5 -- Alone Again, Naturally
January 14, 2021
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It is a scene reminiscent of August 1974. Back then, Richard Nixon's presidency was crumbling around him.  By his own acts of hubris, Nixon was being forced out of the presidency he had so long coveted. His lies about the Watergate cover-up had been exposed and the tapes he authorized were the smoking gun. In light of yesterday's second impeachment of Donald Trump, it is easy to draw parallels between Nixon and Trump. But don't. These are two very different men and Richard Nixon, for all his faults and paranoia, was far more honorable. Nixon served in the South Pacific during the Second World War. Trump dodged the draft. Nixon was a highly intelligent man who earned his place in the Duke Law School. Trump got into Ivy League schools because of his daddy's connections.  Nixon had a world vision that, for a time at least, seemed to back America away from the brink of a world war. Some of his accomplishments, such as the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the peaceful court-ordered desegregation of public schools, still benefit us today. Trump's world vision does not extend beyond where he locates his golf courses and hotels. Name one Trump policy initiative that we will in the future look back upon with pride. And, perhaps most important, Richard Nixon was remorseful after he was forced to resign. Sure, he spent the rest of his life trying to repair his image. But anyone who heard Nixon's final remarks to the White House staff on the day he resigned will remember that he had a moment of honest self-realization. And despite his overwhelming desire to ride out the Watergate scandal and finish his term of office, Nixon came to the realization that it was in the best interests of the nation that he voluntarily leave. He did not attempt to mount a coup d'etat to preserve his grip on the reigns of the power.  He did not create an existential threat to the U.S. Capitol or the lawmakers who govern there.  I am not suggesting that its time to put Nixon's face on Mount Rushmore - something to which Trump aspires. But for all of his faults, Richard Milhous Nixon was a much smarter and decent man than Donald John Trump could ever hope to be. Following Trump's humiliating second impeachment - one that secures his place in history as America's worst president - we have seen reports of an angry, despondent and bitter president-unelect rattling, raving and raging around the West Wing. Practically all of the sycophants who nurtured his narcissism during the past four years are either gone or are taking cover from the storm that awaits them.  Even Mike Pence's fly has flown the coop.  While Trump may have won 74 million votes in the presidential election, it is unlikely that he will find many friends among them.  After all, many of the followers he attracted - you know, the costumed morons who overran the Capitol last week - are people he would never dream of inviting to Mar-a-Lago. Nor does anyone believe that he is going to be warmly embraced in the loving arms of his wife. (Of course, there are his adult children - at least until they wind up in prison.) Whatever "Make America Great Again" was intended to be, Donald Trump's harsh reality is that it will only be achieved by his departure from the presidency. And just as it was in his childhood, when his racist father treated him more as an asset than as a son, Donald Trump - to borrow a phrase from Gilbert O' Sullivan - finds himself alone again, naturally.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 4 -- The Joe Hardy Clause
January 11, 2021
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In the 1955 Broadway musical Damn Yankees, middle-aged real estate agent Joe Boyd makes a deal with the devil to help his beloved Washington Senators finally beat out the hated New York Yankees for the American League pennant. In exchange for his soul, Boyd was transformed into power-hitter Joe Hardy.  However, Boyd was a sharp businessman.  He worked out an escape clause: He could back out of the deal on the last day of the season. Of course, the devil (depicted as the manipulative "Mr. Applegate" in the play) engineered a dilemma where Hardy's decision to void the deal at the last minute would cost the Senators the pennant. Hardy/Boyd did void the deal and, miraculously, the Senators still won the pennant.  I mention this Broadway classic because I see similarities between the play and the post-Capitol riot Republican party. Four years ago, the GOP sold its soul to the devil, one Donald J. Trump. In doing so, they sowed four years of chaos in the United States and severely damaged this nation's standing in the world. However, Republicans were happy to stand by and watch - even after Trump's incompetent and immoral response to the COVID-19 pandemic led to more than a quarter-of-a-million unnecessary deaths. Many were willing to stand by and watch Trump gin up unsupported claims that he had actually won the presidential election that Joe Biden and Democrats are trying to steal. There is no evidence that these soulless lemmings exhibited even an iota of concern when Trump summoned his minions to the Capitol to protest the lawful certification of the Electoral College results. We all know what happened next.  And suddenly, the very Republicans who had made their deal with the devil sought to exercise their "Joe Hardy clause." Some made the bold gesture of resigning their administration posts just two weeks before they would have already been out of work. They cried crocodile tears on the floor of the House and the Senate and sincerely told us that Donald Trump is a bad man. Amazingly, some suggest that Trump "has learned his lesson." By engaging in this exercise of moral gymnastics, these sniveling sycophants hope that they have acted soon enough to save their souls. Unfortunately for them, this is not a Broadway play. For them, the dye is cast.  In the real world, when you sell your soul to the devil, you wind up going to hell.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 3 -- "If destruction be our lot..."
January 7, 2021
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In the wee hours of this morning, Joe Biden was officially elected as the 46th President of the United States - and not a minute too soon.  The tabulation of votes cast by the Electoral College is traditionally a ceremonial function of a joint session of the Congress.  But not yesterday. The final acknowledgement of Biden's decisive victory came just hours after a Donald Trump-inspired mob attacked and briefly occupied the Capitol, forcing American's elected leadership to shelter in place for several hours. Just as the constitutionally mandated process was beginning in the House chambers, Trump and his court of fools were nearby at a "Stop the Steal" rally on the National Mall. Trump, as well as one of his idiot sons and equally idiotic lawyers, urged the raging rabble to march on the Capitol to stop the the counting of lawfully obtained votes.  Trump actually suggested that he would be marching with them - although the Cowardly Liar was nowhere to be found when all hell broke loose. When Trump's mob breached Capitol defenses - insufficient as they were - they swarmed through the building, vandalizing offices and briefly taking control of the vacated Senate chambers. There's actually a picture of one smug son-of-a-bitch sitting with his jackbooted feet on Speaker Nancy Pelosi's desk. (Quick note to wannabe revolutionaries: Allowing your picture to be taken while committing a federal felony is not particularly bright - a point that will be brought home to you when you are sitting in a federal prison.) Despite the urging of his own allies, Trump remained silent about the violence for several hours. When he finally did speak - on Twitter, of course - his statement was so disingenuous and filled with lies that Twitter pulled it down and suspended him from the online platform for 12 hours. It wasn't until earlier in the evening that the counting of electoral votes could resume. Even then, the completion of the task was delayed by pointless objections of the Congressional Clown Caucus, which included Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and every republican member of the Kansas house delegation. (Sen. Jerry Moran was the only republican member of the Kansas congressional delegation willing to respect of the judgment of American voters.) For all of Trump's and the Clown Caucus's talk about rigged elections, they have never presented a single piece of evidence of voting fraud. Trump, in his infamous mob-boss call to the Georgia Secretary of State just a few days earlier, based his claim of victory on the size of his super-spreader campaign rallies. (Funny, for a man with tiny hands who has spent most of his life trying to convince women that size doesn't matter.) It wasn't until nearly 4:00 a.m. (EST) that the work of the people was complete and that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were formally elected to their high offices.
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There's a lot to chew on about yesterday's events. First of all, where the hell were the police and the National Guard?  Why wasn't the gathering of the Capitol better protected? I agree with the assessment of one commentator would wondered how things would be been different if the mob, dressed in their red MAGA hats, had been wearing Black Lives Matter apparel instead.  Why weren't there more arrests? Peaceful protesters were tear-gassed outside of the White House last summer just so Trump could walk across the street to desecrate a church by holding a Bible upside down in his grubby little paws. Yesterday, police were taking selfies with the terrorists. Another question is who are we going to hold responsible for this atrocity?  Aside from Trump, himself, all fingers should point to the Clown Caucus and their right-wing media outlets, who have been spoon-feeding the Trumpeters a heavy dose of false reality for years. And let's not forget the overlords of social media, who have, literally, made billions of dollars by allowing their platforms to become havens for conspirators, racists, hate-mongers and those who wish ill-will upon America and its democracy.  I am as strong a defender of the First Amendment as anyone. But I also know that with rights come responsibility. If the tycoons of social media are not going to reign in the hatemongers who threaten civil society, then we should do it for them. Finally, there the question of Donald Trump.  Yes, there are only 13 days left in his term.  However, that's 13 days too long. He has proven just how desperate and dangerous he is as his grip on power slips away. After the events of yesterday, some of Trump's most loyal rats are leaving his sinking ship. The risk of Donald Trump remaining in office until January 20 is just too great. Impeach him or evoke the 25th Amendment. If necessary, place him under arrest for inciting a seditious riot. I don't care if Trump leaves the White House voluntarily, involuntarily, horizontally or vertically, he must leave now. After watching the tragic events unfold yesterday - events that will leave a permanent stain on American democracy - I am reminded of a quote by Abraham Lincoln during his Lyceum Address, delivered in Springfield, Illinois, on January 27, 1838. The speech was about the evils of slavery and how mobs of people who ignore the laws and the courts could destroy the country. Lincoln famously said, "If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide."
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 2 -- Keep Buggering On!
January 4, 2021
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Like many of you reading this, I am suffering from some form of pandemic depression. I am not a doctor - nor do I play one on TV.  So, I can't say in a truly clinical sense that I am "depressed." Perhaps it would be better to characterize what I am feeling as the "COVID-19 Blues." There are a number of factors in play that create this condition. Foremost is the pandemic itself and the life-changing disruptions it has caused. Forget the inconveniences - and they are substantial. There are people I know and love who either have or had the virus. That, alone, is deeply worrisome. With the start of the new year, we are now coming out of what was for me the most "blah" holiday season of my life - with the possible exception of the year in which my first wife passed away.  Without limited contact with my children and grandchildren in Kansas and Missouri, the end of the year would have been one great big "nothingburger." (When I am asked how my New Year's Eve was, I replied that it was "like - Thursday.") To make matters worse, the virus is spreading and killing at rates unimaginable during the Spring's first wave. It is appearing unlikely that we will approach anything remotely resembling "normal" until the fall at the earliest. On top of this is the stress created by Donald Trump's never-ending FUBAR-fest.  It's bad enough that he is willing to undermine the nation's nearly 250 years of democratic traditions to maintain his feeble grip on power. But what makes it even worse is that nearly half of the Republicans in Congress are encouraging his seditious behavior. At least there is a light at the end of that tunnel. Trump's clock will strike zero at 12:00 noon Eastern time on January 20 when he will cease being president and will become a person of interest in a slew of federal and state criminal investigations. (He can forget a self-pardon - the Constitution does not permit that. The power to "grant" pardons does not imply that he can give one to himself.)  However, with all that being said, I must remember that there are hundreds of thousands - perhaps millions - who are a lot worse off than I.  I live a comfortable life with a wonderful wife, children and grandchildren - all of whom are healthy. And less we forget, those we have referred as "The Greatest Generation" lived during a period of seemingly endless world war in which millions died with no end of the conflict in sight. Who am I to complain? I may have a private pity-party of one, but I am going to leave it at that.  I am going to follow the advice of great World War II statesman Winston Churchill, who whenever confronted with seemingly insurmountable obstacles would urge his followers to "keep buggering on!" So bugger on, my friends. Bugger on.
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That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
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Vol. 15 No. 1 -- With the Flip of a Page
January 1, 2021
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With the flip of a calendar page, 2020 has passed into history. And most people will tell you that the end of the Year of the Pandemic did not come soon enough.  While the flip of a page has certain psychological effects, the action, in and of itself, is largely irrelevant. Just because we have moved from December to January does not mean that COVID-19 will magically disappear.  In fact, most reputable health care experts are saying the pandemic is going to get much worse before it gets better. Those who ignored experts and decided to ring in the new year last night at large and intimate gatherings helped insure that.  (There's nothing that says "we are going to beat COVID-19" more than participating in super-spreader events.)  On top of that, it appears as if congressional Republicans are more interested in overturning a fair and honest presidential election than they are in providing desperately needed financial aid to the millions of hurting Americans. That may be the real story of 2020 - the callousness and incompetence of the Republican party in the face of a disaster. No, they didn't create COVID-19. They just made it infinitely worse. There is something inherently evil about people who raid the treasury of billions of dollars to provide tax relief for those who do not need it while saying that a $2,000 stimulus check for people who have been severely harmed by the pandemic is an extravagance. No, when it comes to the misery and suffering of the pandemic, the flip of the calendar page changes little.  However, that same page flip does have the aforementioned psychological effects.  For those who choose to take an optimistic view of things, the start of a new year rings in with it new hope and the promise of a brighter future. The fact that there is a growing number of coronavirus vaccines now available is genuinely good news. The performance of scientists and medical researchers - even in the face of of scorn from Luddites and deniers - has been inspirational.  The sooner we heed their advice, put on our masks and show some social responsibility, the sooner we will be able to travel, go to ball games and eat in restaurants. If nothing else, the start of a new year represents another chance for each of us "to get it right." Think of just how much better we would all be if we shared the same new year's resolution to follow the Golden Rule. So, my New Year's message is that we have to be realistic about the flip of a calendar page. But that's doesn't mean we can't be aspirational, as well. After all, we know that a lot of things are going to get a lot better when the calendar page flips to January 20.
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That's it for now. Happy New Year and Fear the Turtle.
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