AM I A CHUMP FOR TRUMP?

I am  now officially a Trumpian.  No one is more surprised than I.  I am a self described moderate.  While I grew up aspiring to be Nick Charles, the quintessential New Yorker, five years in the Big Apple left me with Neal Simon's prescient political incorrectness, "New York isn't Mecca.  It only smells like it."  No one ever retired to the North.  I hate reality TV.  Sporty cap or hat, yes...comb over, never.

So how did this loud, boorish, ridiculously coiffed snake oil salesman win me over?  Well he didn't.  Newt Ginrich did.  Now, Newt and I are kindred spirits.  Newt, though born in Gettysburg PA , went to high school and college in Georgia and has become an accomplished southern gentleman.  Newt is probably the most scholarly Speaker of the House ever, an academic with decades of real world experience.  Newt was a history professor before becoming in 1994 the first Republican Speaker of the House in 40 years.  Despite of his dislike for President Clinton, he pushed through the Contract with America, a legislative agenda that was a win-win for both sides of the aisle.  Since leaving the Congress, he has published several historical tomes, both fiction and non-fiction.

I Just saw Newt Ginrich on Fox News   He stopped just short of endorsing Trump, but said three interesting things.  One.  Trump had his first Time Magazine cover in 1989.  Only Hillary has been on the world stage longer.  Two.  His larger than life personality is exactly what is needed to off set the Islamic crazies and KGB trained Vladmir Putin.

But most interesting was "He knows what he doesn't know and he knows how to hire the best people."  Newt told the story about how Trump took over the Wollman Skating Rink in Central Park after the City of New York flailed around for six years trying to upgrade the rink.  Trump said, "I don't know anything about ice rinks, but you know who does?  Canadians!"  So he hired the Number One rink firm in Canada and had the Wollman rink up and running in six months.  

DUCK AND COVER

Every Saturday at noon, Memphis tests its early warning system. These days Memphians call the Saturday siren a tornado warning. During my youth, it had a different meaning. I grew up during the Cold War when every aspect of our lives was colored by the specter of nuclear annihilation. The siren would be the last thing I heard before I was vaporized by a Soviet missile. 

That fear was reinforced everywhere I went as a child. At school teachers shamelessly taught us to “Duck & Cover” to survive a nuclear attack. At home the nightly news warned us that missiles in Cuba could reach us in a few minutes. At my neighborhood movie theatre giant ants, lizards, and octopi created by nuclear radiation were the featured films. At the Mid-South Fair, the most popular exhibit was a do-it-yourself fallout shelter for the home. In 1964 three major films dealt with a nuclear apocalypse, Dr Strangelove, Fail Safe, and Seven days in May. 

 However, another event in 1964 managed to distract me and my contemporaries, the Beatles’ tour of the US. By high school I was anti-war and a believer in peace, love, and rock & roll. I once told my boss that I thought there were causes worth dying for, but none worth killing for. He said, “Wait until you’re a father.” Well, I am a father and a grandfather now and I find myself trying to justify the killing of innocents while fighting “The War on Terror”. We are now faced with the very real possibility that mad men who run Iran may soon have a nuclear weapon. It comes down to this, will you kill their women and children to protect our women and children? Yeah, now you know how Harry Truman felt.

THE SUBJECT WAS ROSES

This blog has been on hiatus these past 29 months primarily because of inertia.  There hasn’t been sufficient force generated by governmental intrusion into my life to overcome the inertia of my generally contented life.  However, as we approach November, I feel compelled to dust off the keyboard and once again add my opinion to the millions of others expressing outrage from all over the political spectrum.  

Nancy Pelosi

Strangely, the subject was roses.  (OK, it’s an obscure theatrical reference, but that’s how I write) For the few of you who have been ignoring the news this past week, former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, decided to hold a theatrical performance, disguised as an official Congressional hearing, with just one witness, a Georgetown School of Law student named Sandra Fluke was the sole witness.  Ms Fluke dramatically testified that she was going broke purchasing contraceptives while studying law, estimating that she would spend $3000 while pursuing her jurisprudence degree.  The whole charade was designed to distract the American public from the real issue that our government is trying to force our religious institutions into adopting the governments set of moral principles.  In a rather clumsy attempt to demonstrate the absurdity of the display, the conservative radio pundit, Rush Limbaugh, opined that a person seeking free birth control was a either a “slut” or a :prostitute”.  

Now, I am upset with Rush because of the incredible stupidity 

Rush Limbaugh

he manifested.  Nancy Pelosi’s pathetic puppet show should not have made it onto any reputable news report.  Rush gave the brazen publicity grab a national platform.  He then doubled down on his mistake by giving the left a side show to allow President Obama to delay for another couple of weeks a further examination of his assault on individual liberty and his mismanagement of the national economy.  The liberal left has managed to pick up the scalps of several conservative media types in recent years.  Just ask Don Imus, Lou Dobbs, & Glen Beck.  While many believe Rush is too big an elephant to bring down with these pop gun tactics,  I wouldn’t rule it out all together.  The attempt follows a well worn path.  Throw gasoline on smoldering fire  by calling in the most strident elements of the media and the call for a boycott of the transgressor’s advertisers.   Astonishingly, eight of Rush’s advertisers, all of whom were aware of his status as the man who the left most loves to hate, have now decided to pull their advertising.  The one that offends me is one I was introduced to on Rush’s show, ProFlowers. 

 I used to work for a florist and I like to give flowers.  ProFlowers gives me a convenient way to send flowers on-line.  However, the liberal executives at the giant on-line florist, ProFlowers, have done a disservice to their shareholders and their customers by involving themselves in this boycott.  First, it is likely to hurt their bottom line.  As a retired management consultant I see this as a stupid business decision.  I would think that the demographic that Rush attracts is much more likely to purchase ProFlowers products than the far left liberal activists who fomented this boycott.  If you doubt me, check and see how many Georgetown Law coeds bought flowers for some last year.  Now we have established that ProFlowers supports the government’s right to force religious institutions to provide, either directly or indirectly, free contraceptives to American school girls.  

However, most Proflowers customers do not know yet that the most of the flowers they sell come from countries in Central and South America and Africa where worker rights aren't always respected.  In Colombia and Ecuador, which are the main countries that supply the U.S. flower market, over half of female workers have been sexually harassed or assaulted on the job, and the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that 20 percent of the 60,000 Ecuadorian flower workers are children.   This bit of dirty laundry might have gone unnoticed had Proflowers not decided to decided to don shining armor, mount their white horse and gallop off to play the role of the defender of women’s rights.   I always used to tell companies focus on what your business is.  So I ask, Proflowers is your business subverting political discourse?   In the meantime I will buy my wife flowers for our anniversary next month from a florist that sells fresh flowers, not stale political rhetoric.

OBAMA WIN'S NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela,
Mother Teresa, Barack Obama…
One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong…

WE'RE BACK

We have purposefully avoided posting these past two months. Like many Americans we have been hopeful that our new President would be successful. Our daughter, flush with the idealism of youth, had chastised us for not giving President Obama the opportunity to prove his ability to lead our nation out of the mess we are in. We have sat on our hands, counted to ten after each evening news report, and occupied ourselves with other pursuits.

After the events of the past two weeks, we are now ready to starting posting here again. President Obama just completed his first visit abroad as President of the United States of America, a position synonymous, with the title, “Most Powerful Person In The World”. We have lots to say about this, but will break it up in several posts for those of you with limited attention spans, time, or tolerance for our point of view.

Michelle Obama & French First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy

The trip started well enough, with a visit to London to for a meeting of the “G-20”, Group of Twenty, the leaders of the 20 wealthiest nations in the world. These countries create 90 percent of the planet’s gross domestic product and are quite literally, the only countries in the world that should have a say. But we will address that in another post.

Tthe main stream media would have you believe that this meeting was a rousing success for Obama. Indeed the crowds in London seemed to love the President and First Lady. Crowds in France were equally charmed by the Obamas. But the discussions of Mrs Obama’s mastery of wardrobe (we don’t see it, but we will leave that discussion to fans of People Magazine) and mismanagement of protocol (For those of you think that Mrs. Obama is Jackie Kennedy reincarnated, Jackie O’ would have never bungled the gift giving the way Michelle has) have been smokescreen for a failed mission. The fact is the United States did not not accomplish it’s main objective, an agreement that other wealthy nations would infuse some of their capital into the global economy. Then there was the embarrassing deference shown to other leaders, most notably bowing to Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud (Don’t event pretend it was something other than a bow. We have watched four different videos and viewed five different photos. It was a bow.) What was done was the US agreed to give up its fiscal sovereignty by agreeing to allow the newly formed Financial Ability Stability Board to regulate and oversee all financial institutions, instruments and markets, including tough new rules on pay and bonuses at a global level. Simply put the Chinese, a communist nation, will have a say in how much American workers should earn. Whatever else was accomplished, we are still not over this one.

Now every treaty proposed by the President must be ratified by two thirds of the US Senate, 67 members. We have faith that this one will never pass that flawed body. Next overtures to the Muslim World.

WHERE ARE THE ECONOMIC EXPERTS

We always thought we had a pretty good education. We are well grounded in the sciences, have read all the classics, know our history, ancient and modern, well versed in world geography and other cultures, able to read three languages, and better acquainted than most in the arts. However, we admit to having only a superficial knowledge of economics. We were smart enough to hire a good accountant, but even he is knowledgeable in the nuts and bolts of our tax system.

So we are not surprised that no one in our Congress has a clue on how to turn this economy around. While we recognize that good people feel obligated to act in a crisis, we are frightened that so many people who are so ignorant of economic theory are so determined to throw so much money at the problem. We have heard of Keynesian economic theory, the belief that massive government spending and low interest rates will keep an economy reving like a well tuned engine. However, your attention is directed to our masthead. We are moderate. We are uncomfortable with actions that stray too far from the middle of the road.

Everything about our elected officials reaction to this financial crisis is too extreme. Too much money is being spent too fast by people with too little expertise and too few safeguards. We fear that the pendulum has swung too far in other direction. President Obama may have been swept into office by a public seeking a change, but we are pretty certain that the American electorate did not think that change would be greater government spending, fewer financial safeguards, and more corruption.

We return to that point on education. We would like to hear from a couple of experts on the subject, perhaps a Nobel Laureate or a well published University professor or anyone else that is not remotely connected to a politician. We spent a career advising companies on long range planning. We frequently were told by CEOs that they couldn’t afford to take the time to do all that planning and we always told those CEOs that they couldn’t afford not to do the planning. Those that didn’t heed our advice are no longer CEOs. Now we tell our Congressmen and Senators take the time to listen to the experts before you act.

OBAMA DOES GOOD

We like to cultivate the image that we are moderate and middle of the road. So it was inevitable that President Obama would do something that we admire. Twice this week President Obama has show a political pragmatism that heartens us. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, had incensed middle and conservative America by earmarking tens of millions of dollars in the proposed stimulus plan for family planning. Fiscal conservatives failed to see the connection between birth control and financial stimulation and social conservatives saw it as a late Christmas bonus for abortion clinics. However, anxious to provide an olive branch to recalcitrant Republicans, President Obama made it clear that he would have the offending dollars removed from the stimulus package in exchange for bipartisan support.

In a second, brilliant, PR maneuver, President Obama gave his first exclusive television interview to Al Arabia, a network focused on the Arab world. The moderate network, based in Dubai and owned by a member of the Saudi royal family, reaches 23 million Muslims in the Persian Gulf. Telling Muslims, ”…Americans are not your enemy.”, Obama promised to do a better job at listening to the concerns of Arabs than had his predecessors. He reminded Al Arabiya viewers of his Muslim connections, “I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in a Muslim country.”, associations he sought to minimize prior to his election. While most Americans may find the ingratiating tone of the interview somewhat embarrassing, it served to put critics of the US on notice that there is a new sheriff in town. Whether the interview will be taken as a gesture of good faith or a sign of weakness remains to be seen, but it caught everyone off guard, including us.

In the meantime, we may be from the Volunteer State, but we will adopt the attitude of our neighbors from the “Show Me” state.