Thanks for Coming, Thaddeus!

Thaddeus is sitting patiently in the refrigerator in the garage waiting for eager hands to deliver him to the oven this afternoon.  He came to us from Amish country.  I guess that makes him Amish, but it doesn't really matter.  After dinner tonight he will be remembered as a tasty symbol of all we have to be thankful for. 

Many of my friends berate me for anthropomorphizing our holiday main courses...I on the other hand like the personalization.  It makes the eating of them somehow closer to the heart.  I always like to name the hogs that my brother-in-law Jeremy or my nephew Richard cooked for family gatherings.  So much effort and care goes into the proper preparation.  When you put morsels of them in your mouth, it helps to think of it as a personal gift from a sentient idealized soul.  We had been blessed with Ted last Thanksgiving.  At family reunions we have been fed with the presence of Horace (the hog) and Beulah (the beast).  My kids used to think it was corny, but they got a chuckle out of it.  It also gives us a mirthful moment when we say the blessing before we eat to especially thank "whomever" for gracing us with his/her presence (albeit posthumously).


Anyway, the family has gathered and it is still quiet in the house while they sleep in their beds that lie in wait for them so infrequently now that they are grown.  My daughters are home, the older one with her fiance and dog; my younger one just brought her dog.  Our empty nest has been descended upon by the boundless energy of young people and their frantic animals, trying to figure out the pecking order between them for the next couple of days.  Before the fray becomes overwhelming, I am just taking a few minutes to savor the anticipation of the experience of today with my family and some close friends.

For me, Thanksgiving is all about family and enjoying the presence of people that I love....and taking a moment to give thanks for all that I have that I don't think about except on days like this.   When we sit around the table tonight with our smiling faces beaming at each other, and our friends sharing our home and our love for each other I am always amazed at my good fortune.

My children are both healthy.  They are basically happy individuals, each with their own 'mishugaas' to be sure, but they are making their way in the world.  They have found love and independence.  What else could make us more grateful as parents than that.  I think about all the people I know who are going through divorce, separation, medical crises, emotional crises, and I look at the people gathered around me and am thankful that these faces have not been ground down by those experiences. To be sure we have had our share of difficult times, but at this moment they are memories and not present in our lives.

I look at my wife of 30 years and think about all we have shared --in good health and love.  We have raised these children.  We have a commonality of vision for their happiness and our own.  We have shared love and family through all these years.  We have had 30 Thanksgivings together and each one has been a good time--a time to take stock and really be thankful.  We are blessed.

So I think about Thaddeus and how he will add to our pleasure today, and about all those who will gather at bountiful tables tonight.  We are all angry about our politics and all the things that are wrong with our society and our lives, but this night, we need to take a deep breath and be thankful for all that we do have that is so rare in this world.  We have relative peace in a place that is not a locus of war and death like so many other places on this planet.  We don't know what tomorrow will bring, but we can live at this moment and savor the sweet time of family and smiles that this day and souls like Thaddeus bring us once a year.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Can I Uncover My Eyes Now?

So the deed is done and the Republicans have made huge gains as a result of this election.  The adage that the people will receive the government they deserve holds true.  We will see what they will do now that they have the keys to the car.  My guess is that our governmental machinery will grind to a halt.  In the past two years what indications do we have that Republicans have better ideas about how to handle this country's gargantuan problems?  All we have seen is the near uniform lockstep effort to thwart any program or initiative that the Democratic majority has attempted.  For whatever reasons, the opposition party was intent on stopping Obama cold on all fronts from day one.  Mitch McConnell says that the new Republican agenda is to make Obama a one term president.  Why can't these people use the energy to express such petty vitriol in the service of new ideas to solve our problems?

So now we will see if they actually have any innovative ideas.

My guess is that they will continue to do all they can to unravel any progress we have made over the last two years in service of a return to the conditions that led us to an economic precipice.....only this time they won't be happy until we go over it.  In the meantime, I fully expect all progress toward solution of some of the more pressing issues like almost 10% unemployment, crumbling infrastructure, rising health care costs, corporate shenanigans, mortgage foreclosures, the increasing pain of the unemployed to grind to a halt as the Republicans deflect our attention to repealing the new health care legislation and making the Bush tax cuts permanent for all the wealthy people, etc. etc.

All the anger we have seen from the electorate is really so ridiculous.  Most of the angry people don't really know what they are angry about.  Here's an example:  Republicans and Tea Party people have been haranguing us about how the Democrats have raised taxes to unreasonable levels.  Excuse me, our taxes have actually gone down since Obama came to town.  How is it that millions of people just believe this lie?  Obama's appointed budget panel just came out with concrete ideas that show real intelligence albeit at the expense of significant sacrifice.  The metaphor is like weighing 300 pounds and suddenly realizing you need to lose 150 within a year.  Not going to be easy.  What is the response from both sides of the aisle:  Oh no, can't do it, too tough, (preserve our current bureacracy).

I just woke up this morning and realized that with all the sturm and drang of the past two years, my life has not really been impacted by anything that all these blowhards have been saying or doing.  I still struggle to pay all the bills and have to work my ass off to make ends meet.  Thanks to all the vested interests and powerful lobbies (fronted by all the politicians) my economy is in a shambles and no one is trying to work together to solve the problems.

Democrats are wussies and Republicans are insane.  What a combination!  Alfred E Neumann for President!

I promise to write about other things that mean something.

What Happened to Truth and Civility?

I don't know about all of you in other states, but here in Florida, watching television has become really entertaining!  The tube is being flooded with political ads at an increasing rate.  Usually I have enough time to only watch programs that I TIVO, but lately I have been watching TV in real time when I watch the local news programs.  What I am seeing is breathtaking.

About 50% of each break for commercials is now composed of political ads that are all negative.  It's hard to tell in most cases who is financing them because at the end of the spot it simply says, "this ad paid for by (insert some patriotic sounding foundation)".  We don't know who they are, but it couldn't be clearer who they support.  In the rest of the ads, the support message in 90% of the examples is the opponent to the person or issue they are advertising about.

I remember when I was in grammar school and junior high school, and had the opportunity to run for some class office, I would put posters on the wall or give a speech to the voters, and I would say what I planned to do.  I would talk about my qualifications and experience and why I would be the better choice.  Is there one ad on TV or radio that you have seen or heard over the last week that does that?

What has happened to civility?

These ads don't give me time to think.  In a 30 second ad, I see unflattering pictures of a candidate, covered by flying word graphics that zoom out at me calling them liars, liberals, right wingers, thieves, and worse.  They spout 'facts' in rapid fashion that are not supported by any evidence.  In almost all cases it is obvious that most statements and suppositions presented are taken out of context.  After I am assaulted (which is the only apt description of the effect of these things) with the message, I have to chuckle at the brazen effort to misinform....and yet... I wonder if most of the people who see these things are as critical of their impact as I am.  Judging from the poll results, I think not.

What has happened to veracity?

The truth simply holds no value any more.  People running for office, and more precisely their handlers and 'advisors' seem to be advocates of whatever means justify the end of getting them elected.  What does that say about us as a people and a civilized society?  I wonder if campaigns by the founders of our country back in the late 1700s and early 1800s had the same attitudes about truth?

My favorite ads are the ones that make conceptual leaps that are classic examples of bait and switch.  For example, we have several constitutional amendments on the ballot here in Florida this election cycle.  One of them mandates a citizen's right to review and vote on changes to a comprehensive development plan when changes are proposed.  Currently, changes to a comprehensive development plan are made by local politicians who are, in many cases, in the pockets of special interests and developers.  Proposition 4 amends the Florida constitution to mandate a referendum vote by the citizens if there are changes proposed to a comprehensive plan.  The idea is to provide a check and balance against developers who try to 'buy' changes that will benefit them, usually at the expense of local citizens.  There are good arguments pro and con, and there should be a reasoned and thorough debate before a change is made to a state constitution.

However, what opponents to this proposition claim in their ad--in 30 seconds--is that supporters of Proposition 4  are 'the same people who supported Obamacare, raised taxes, plunged the country into debt and voted in lockstep with Obama, Reid and Pelosi'.  The ad doesn't mention anything about the pros and cons of the issue!  What kind of political advertising is this?  Does it attempt to educate the voter?  The ad has unflattering pictures of Obama, Pelosi, Harry Reid, graphics that have downward pointing arrows for the economy and upward accelerating arrows representing skyrocketing taxes. 

The problem is that Joe Citizen, sitting in front of his TV sipping a beer before dinner, is left only with the impression that Amendment 4 is another tax raising, debt increasing measure being forced through by those liberal, socialist Democrats.  That is just patently wrong, but no matter!  The average citizen will not take the time to study this issue and on election day will step into the voting booth and vote 'No' on this issue without understanding the pros and cons.

The question we have to ask as a democracy is what is our obligation to control the spread of rumor, misleading statement, character assassination, half truths and outright lies.  Maybe we should insist that they go back to grammar school and remember and re-learn how to run for office again!
  

The Perfect Storm of Incompetence

I am spending alot of time lately thinking about the state of the union and where we are headed.  There is something afoot in this land of ours that is darkly disturbing and I have been preoccupied with trying to  draw lines around it for months, so I can articulate what it is that is bothering me so.

It seems to me there are two reasons why we are in great danger of foundering as a country.  First, the mass of citizens is undereducated, not very intuitive or bright, and simply can't understand why they can't have what they want immediately.  Basically they are acting like 5 year olds.  Additionally, when it comes time to vote, they usually have no idea what anyone really stands for and have virtually no understanding of the issues that qualifies them to make any decisions concerning those issues.   Second, the people charged with running the county--legislators and industry leaders are preoccupied with making money at all costs, in spite of intelligent arguments to be forward looking and plan for the future.  The people writing and enacting legislation are consumed with making money from special interest groups, getting re-elected, and raising money for re-election.  Despite what they say, they are greedy, self serving, and many of them are just plain stupid.

I used to think that the body politic was intuitively smart and could discern bullshit from truth, but I think that is no longer the case.  What I see all around me are  people who actually believe that all of our ills are caused by the direction we have taken over the last 20 months.  I think that is ridiculous! 

We all know that changing the American economy is like trying to turn a battleship 180 degrees.  You can't do it fast.  Nothing can be done fast.  Somehow, Americans think that once Obama took the oath of office we should have had instant fixing and instant change.  People simply don't understand the nature of legislation... the time it takes to a) get it passed,  b) see it actually start to function, and finally c) see the effects of the legislation. 

Look at Obama's health plan as an example.  It was just passed 6 months ago, we just saw the first pieces become activated, and if you look at the rollout of the rest of the benefits, most of them don't have effect until 2014!  And  yet, all the Republicans and other empty headed braying mules that follow them scream long and hard about, is how it has ruined the economy and caused giant deficits.  In fact, every independent economic board looking at the effects of the plan predict that it will lower costs over the long run.    And yet, there are Republicans telling us that it's going to bankrupt the country and they are going to repeal it.  Excuse me, it passed!!  Give it a chance!  But no, all we hear is how the majority of Americans hate it.  What they hate is what they believe from all the half truths and lies that have been told about it for the last year, and somehow the Democrats are unable to defend it.  The people would rather believe the lies.  What happened to American's ability to perceive truth and reason?   Has our education system been such a consummate failure that the average citizen cannot think for himself and discern facts from lies?  Is it just too complicated for any of us to understand?

The stimulus is another red herring that Republicans keep smacking all of us in the face with.  It kept us from having a depression!  No one seems to want to acknowledge that fact.  Rather, those who claim it has been a failure, only want to return us to the conditions prior to the crisis so we can go through it again.  They refuse to acknowlege that we were headed for desperate straits during the Bush years because of his lies and mismanagement.  It is not part of their consciousness.  All we are told ad nauseum is that Obama is responsible for ruining the country.....and the masses all believe it, along with other drivel like, 'he's a Muslim', he's a socialist, he wasn't born here, blah, blah, blah. 

What is wrong with the average citizen in this country?  The Republicans are howling about all the terrible things that Obama is doing, and no one wants to get in their faces and howl back at them that they were the ones who got us here in the first place.  Change takes time and we must give the battleship a chance to turn into the wind so we can see the course we are finally on.  No one is willing to do that.  Everyone wants instant gratification.  That is the nature of our materialistic society. It is the reason we are in such desperate trouble.  What is clear to me is that we have been heading into this quagmire for over a decade and we can't simply fix all the ills in 15 minutes.  No one wants to acknowledge that fact.  People are not smart enough to see that for themselves.  They want to believe someone who says they can fix it by tomorrow.

Then there are the politicians who will say just about anything to anyone to get elected.  All they do, and I mean ALL they do is predicated on raising the most money for re-election.  They take money from powerful lobbying groups, they make decisions based on who has given them the most financial support, they lie unabashedly.  They are matched by those who run powerful companies and will do anything to keep the stock price up and the bottom line rosy.  I remember having lunch many years ago with a Wall street icon when our company was a public company.  He had been involved with the Milken scandals of Drexel Burnham Lambert, and when I asked him whether he had ever lied about something to his shareholders, his answer was " only when there was no other choice"!  I think that is the modus operandi for most congressmen and business decision makers.  It will ultimately be the downfall of our country.

So the biggest problem as I see it is that everyone has their own set of facts and those facts have nothing to do with what the actual facts are.  The public is left to try to choose which facts are the ones to believe and for the most part they are incapable of analytical thinking of any kind and simply agree with whomever is screaming the loudest.

Then there is Mr Obama and his minions who simply don't understand all of the above and are seemingly powerless to raise this issue with the people, and find a way to make a cogent argument that has enough gravity to be believed.  They don't have the words to make the masses understand what needs to be done and to get them to buy into enough time to see the changes through.   Strange that someone who rallied the country with his promises can't make them understand that he is keeping them.

It's all a perfect storm of incompetence.

L'Shanah Tovah

I watched a remarkable documentary series this past weekend.  It was called the Jewish Americans (of which, of course, I am one).  It was a look back at the history of Jews in America, starting with their arrival in the 1600s up through the present day.  It was a high quality story, for sure, but I didn't really appreciate the impact of it until the last 15 minutes of the final part of its three parts.

As you might expect from PBS, it was a well produced and in some ways a frightening story that spent much of it's time examining the nature of anti-semitism in this country--it's ebb and flow over the last 350 years.  There were no real surprises, except that for the first time in my life I was able to put the entire timeline in some kind of perspective.  I was able to place myself in the continuum for the time I have been alive and it was illuminating to  finally have a sense of place in the flow of Jewish life in America.

Over the years I have been what I now realize is a secular Jew.  Sure, I know the basic service at the synagogue and remember the songs and melodies that have been a part of me since childhood, but my family were not 'temple goers'.  My Mom and Dad were part of that massive migration of Jews to the suburbs in the 1950s and I grew up in a small town in New Jersey where most of my friends were Jewish and we all went to Hebrew School together.  The Temple was more of a social instrument than a religious one.   I was Bar Mitzvah-ed and then.... sort of cut loose from the bonds of higher learning at the Temple.  All my friends were Jewish. (although I was smitten with a shiksa goddess named Linda Scarlett in 1st Grade!)  But all through my post Bar MItzvah life, my attachment to the Temple was virtually non-existent.  I went to Temple on the High Holy Days, but never felt the draw of being a religious Jew who prayed every Saturday.  I never felt like I was missing anything specific, but I always had this nagging kind of anxiety that I was somehow not really being what I needed to be as a Jew.

I remember when I was studying for my Bar Mitzvah, my Uncle George, who was an imposing figure and very learned, kept reminding me that on my Bar Mitzvah day he was going to ask me why I was proud to be a Jew.  I lived in fear of that moment because I never could formulate an answer that I knew would satisfy him, or myself for that matter.  He passed away before my Bar Mitzvah, so I never had to answer the question, but the question still haunts me today.

As I watched the program, I was especially moved by that final part of the episode that described what has happened to Judaism and our Jewish life experience here in America over the last 30 years.  As a student, the details of the holocaust and the role of American Jews in the creation of the State of Israel; in the Civil Rights struggle; in the effort to save Soviet Jews were all well learned during my school years, but the collection of film, photographs and narrative and the way they were presented gave me a deeper understanding of the role we Jews played in the unfolding American Story of the last half of the 20th Century and the beginning of the 21st.   I  was able to fine tune my place in the story.  The last segment of the program took the position that Judaism has changed and is always changing. 

The wonderful thing about Judaism is that it celebrates life.  It encourages questions and study.  It is not about sin, but rather about living a life according to the laws of Torah and seeking a connection with God by being joyful and celebrating life.  I was surprised to find out that the Orthodox movement has seen the largest resurgence of membership in literally hundreds of years.  Yet even the young Orthodox Jews had contemporized  Judaism by relating it constantly to our life experience now--what is happening to us as a culture now.

There was a segment about a young boy who had the same kind of upbringing I had.  He had the same questions I did about who he was and what his place was.  He was a musician, and had a rock band as a teenager (just like me), but his passion was reggae music.  His idol was Bob Marley.  He listened closely to the lyrics of Marley and heard stories and references to the Old Testament throughout all his music.  It was a touchpoint for him, and he started writing his own lyrics using the Old Testament as his inspiration.  Today, he is Matisyahu, an American Hasidic Jewish reggae musician.  He has transformed himself into an Orthodox Jew and his passion is to relate the teachings of Torah through the most unlikely of mediums--reggae music.  But he is incredibly popular, not only with non Jews, but with Jews as well!  To listen to him perform and describe his journey to the place he is now is to understand the meaning of Judaism for our time.  It gives me comfort to know that my own sense of my own Jewishness is valid.  I have become a Jew for my time.  And I am proud to be a Jew, Uncle George, because I finally have a sense of the value and intrinsic beauty of being a human being that is comfortable in his own skin.  I can be Jewish in my time.  There are all kinds of new ways we can express what it means to be Jewish.  We can all take a deep breath and feel free to create whatever comes out of the interaction between our inherited tradition and the culture we are living in.The words of one of the prayers that I remember so well says it all:

"Blessed are thou O Lord our God who has given me life, has sustained me in life and has brought me to this moment. "

I think the key is to realize that there is a preciousness to this moment.   Being a good Jew, and a proud Jew,  is to realize the preciousness of each moment that we have.  Judaism is not one size fits all.  However, the constant throughout our history is our celebration of life and all its blessings.

L'Shanah Tovah, everyone!

Trying to Make Sense of It All!

So now we rush headlong into the election season.  I am amazed at the mood of the country, and aghast at the ignorance of the population as a whole.  It is inconceivable to me (and I marvel at it every day) that a majority of Americans believe that by handing the government back to the Republicans we will be better off.  Notwithstanding the inability of the Democrats and the President to articulate a comprehensive plan for recovery to the people, the fact that the attention span of the majority of the populace is so short as to allow Republicans running for office to blame the condition of the economy and the high unemployment on the current administration is ludicrous.

How is it possible for intelligent people to be swept up in a kind of mass hysteria that nothing is happening fast enough; the stimulus package failed; Obama is a Muslim, Socialist, Communist, evil person; tax cuts without spending limits will solve everything; and on and on?

Listen to John Boehner, and Lindsay Graham and John McCain.  Do they really have a plan?  What about Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh?  Do they really have a plan?  Do all these fast talking smear experts of the Tea Party have a plan?  How about all the Republican congressman who, in lock step, have opposed every initiative of the administration from Day 1, and now blame all the  woes of the country on the folks who have at least tried to do what they believed is the right thing.  Do they have a plan?  None of them does.  All they know how to do is point fingers and blame.

I just don't see how electing these kinds of people is going to help us deal with our overwhelming structural and economic problems.  Has anyone actually studied the statistics?  I hate to be the bearer of unwanted news, but the country is actually in much better shape than it was on January 19, 2009.  At least we haven't fallen off a cliff, which is where we were back then.  In spite of united Republican opposition, more people have health care, there is new regulation in the banking industry, and the automotive industry was stopped from cratering.  And all we hear from all the media veragos is that we have lost all our freedoms!  I haven't lost any freedom!  I can still go where I want, work where I want, speak to whom I want, express my opinions where and when I want to.  What are they talking about?  Have you seen any 'death panels' lately?  Are they flying any Marxist flags over the White House?  Has anyone been thrown into jail for no reason?

Now you can ask whether the current administration and President has done everything perfectly and I think we would all agree that it hasn't been ideal by a long shot and there have been missteps.  Is Obama disappointing as an inspirational leader and a perfect communicator---yes, but is that a reason to throw all the progress away and put the people back in power who drove the car into the ditch in the first place?  Good Lord it has not yet been two years!  Give me one example where two years after a major recession, depression or panic, that things were back to normal.  Sorry to tell all you people with the attention span of gnats, but coming out of a recession this deep and pervasive that was 10 years in the making is going to take longer than 20 months.  It always has!

There is a part of me that really dislikes only commenting on the political health of the country all the time, but I really fear for this nation's intelligence.  I don't really think we are very smart as a people.  We have let a bunch of idiots run things for too many years and they have brainwashed us all.  Selfishness, greed and the seeking of power has triumphed over compassion, intelligence, and doing the right thing.

Am I thrilled with all that the Obama people have done?  No, but I will tell you this--I have listened to the man speak.  I have never heard him utter one phrase or word that is in contradiction of our Constitution or laws.  I have only heard him speak of the wisdom of the people and the need to be compassionate and supportive of one another.  I have seen him reach out to all segments of humanity and be accused of being a Muslim, a communist, and the personification of the AntiChrist.  (Have you seen the daily movie on Glenn Beck's website and the portrayal of Beck as the Savior of our country by driving the Devil out of the White House?)  How is that constructive?  I have only seen him try to do positive things for the future of our country and be harangued at every turn for motives he clearly does not possess. 

What I am having trouble understanding is why ordinarily smart people believe all the crap that is fed to them by the hatemongers and naysayers.  My own sense of all this is that these people just don't like a black man in the White House, and will do and say anything to try to preserve an ethics and morality that is twisted and outdated.

Wake up America and plug your brains back in before it is too late.....

A Slow Death

This oil catastrophe is a slow death.  It is also a particularly jarring wake-up call to us all.  For those of us who blithely go through our day with the expectation that someone will solve this problem, we can't fathom why a country that put a man on the moon can't throttle a 22 inch leak in a pipe at the bottom of the ocean!

This moment is an epiphany in other ways however.  What we are also seeing on display is something much more unnerving.  We are seeing the impotence of big government.  With all the conservative flailing about the growth of government and institutions taking over American life, now they scream loudly that the government isn't doing enough.  Sorry fellas, can't have it both ways!  Add to that the intrinsic inefficiency of bureaucracy and you have too little too late.

Also on display in the most pornographic way is the hijacking of our society by large corporations that have no interests other than their shareholders and the politicians that they are giving money to.  BP is slow to act in the cleanup, stingy in its doling out of monies to finance cleanup crews and is more concerned with reassuring its shareholders that it still intends to distribute over $10B in dividends!

Then there is the destruction of natural resources and the assassination of a way of life for literally millions of people.  Imagine living in New Orleans now, or coastal Mississippi and Alabama.  The smell of oil taints the very air you breathe.  Do you move?  Where do you go?  Is this whole area simply going to degenerate into poverty because no one can make a living?

Been watching TV lately?  The resignation of the pelicans is the most disturbing.  They are just sitting in the gooey mess waiting to die.  Our food chain is in mortal danger from this.  Think of what a hurricane would do by aerosoling this mess inland over a few hundred miles.  Health problems will spiral out of control, and people will die.  It's starting already.

Can it be any clearer why we need to break our dependence on oil?  The experts say that of the thousands of wells in the Gulf of Mexico, there are most probably at least 10% of them that have structural problems and are potential risks as bad or worse as the Deep Water Horizon. 

A new consciousness needs to arise.  Maybe this event will be the trigger.

Drill Baby Drill???

A Memorial Day Surprise!

One of the biggest fears we all have as parents is that our kids grow up somehow deficient and with no moral compass.  I am blessed in that both my girls have turned into grownups with empathy and a strong sense of right and wrong.

I wish I could say the same for my sons!

This morning, as is my wont, I arose at 7:30pm on another beautiful day here in South Florida, and sleepily put on my shorts and T-shirt.  My wife was silently dozing as I closed the bedroom door and was being led by my "son" Cody (100lb Labrador Retriever), toward the back door and outside for his morning constitutional.

He has always been a pretty regular guy, albeit with some rather strange bowel preferences for a dog.  He really doesn't like the grass very much, so as we amble down the brick paver driveway, when the urge hits him, he gingerly puts his front paws only as far onto the grass as necessary to delude himself into thinking that he is completely off the driveway.  Then he assumes the position, and lo and behold,  50% of the time, his morning deliverance winds up on the bricks.  This was one of those mornings.

I had passed him by on my way to the end of the driveway to retrieve the morning paper.  I bent down to pick it up and when I turned around, I noticed that he was still giving it all he had, and finally after some extra effort to expell what looked like something foreign trapped in the deposit, which is not by any means unusual, he completed the task.  I realized that I had come all the way down the driveway without my trusty pooper rake, and needed to go back to the garage to get it.  Starting back up the drive, as I glanced over at the 'challenge' waiting for me on the side of the drive I noticed something unusual sticking up out of the 'bowels' of the pile, so to speak.  Upon closer examination I was shocked to realize that I was seeing the number 10 sticking up on a green piece of paper!  As I gaped in horror, I saw that there was yet another piece of paper with a 5 on it at another spot in the pile, and also what looked like a picture of the father of our county peeping at me from beneath a rather brown smudge.

I stared at it for a moment or two not able to believe what was before my eyes!  It suddenly dawned on me that my concern, only yesterday, for the sudden disappearance of several bills that were laid out on the kitchen counter to dry after they got soaked when I jumped into the water with my wallet was now justified and explained!

What a cruel epiphany to discover that your dog has eaten your money!  I tried to imagine how he would have been able to a) know the money was there, and b) get at it by snatching it off the five foot counter.  Even for a Labrador, the amount of effort to get it was beyond his physical capability.  That's when I was horrified to realize that he must have had a co-conspirator in this fiendish plot.  Meese the cat!

Now it all made sense!  I knew that Meese had been pissed off at me for the last three weeks  since I forbade him to go outside because of his allergy to fleas.  His constant mewling was driving us crazy!  Understanding how his resentment had finally devolved into the pursuit of revenge and escape, it was clear that he had jumped onto the counter top and pushed the bills to the floor.  Maybe his devilish plan was to use the money to get a bus ticket to Immokalee or points north, and he had undoubtedly talked Cody into going with him, but whatever the plan, the fact that the two of them had turned against me was greatly discouraging.

I can only surmise that when the bills hit the floor, Cody, who is actually a goat in disguise, and has no short term memory, lost all pretense of cooperation with Meese and just couldn't resist the salty taste of a $16 treat that had just come out of the ocean (who knew he liked seafood!).  He gobbled them down--

Ergo, what I was seeing in front of me was the unfortunate but inevitable result of his greedy penchant to eat anything.  As he trotted beside me back to the house, he didn't seem the least bit concerned that he had just been revealed as 'just another son who steals from his Dad's wallet'.

After donning bright yellow rubber gloves, I faced the task of extracting the money from the organic clutches of Cody's indescretion.  Imagine my dismay when my first attempt to parse the pile resulted in only shreds of paper, not the whole bill!  Apparently the acid bitterness of the Cody's gastric channel had left the bills in tatters!

So, after I thought I had seen the last days of money disappearing mysteriously from my billfold during the years when the kids were younger, I guess I can still claim the dubious honor of being the world's smelliest human wallet! 

When I got back into the house I thought I could hear the Meese saying under his breath, "Foiled again!!"

Our Horizon Looks Darker and Darker---

I have emerged from my self imposed blackout to offer my thoughts about the unfolding ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. All my life, I have seemingly been on the periphery of major catastrophes, never experiencing first hand the traumas that all of us watch on the daily news broadcasts. They always seem to happen to others.

Now suddenly, my little slice of paradise is in the path of this sinister oil spill that won't stop growing. We have not seen any real physical impact yet, although two days after the explosion of the BP 'Deep Water Horizon' oil drilling platform in the Gulf, there was a whiff of petroleum odor over the city for a day or two....just a hint of anxiety in the air. As this disaster continues to grow, it is occupying more space in everyone's consciousness, and the cries of "Drill, baby, drill" seem like a laughable remnant of some bad nightmare.

As I start to think about the impact of this spill on our daily life here in SW Florida, I am fearful. I can visualize a slow death for the West Florida coastal communities as their beaches..the real draw for the billion dollar tourist industry here...are fouled with a sheen of oil that covers everything with an insidious creeping shroud that won't go away. The local paper here reports that hotel reservation desks are starting to get cancellations, just when the tourist business was beginning to revive after the long dark night of the recession gave tourism revenue a black eye last year. If the oil begins to wash up on our beaches a few weeks from now, I wonder if I will smell it all day in my back yard just a mile and a half from the beach. I wonder what will happen to all waterfront related businesses like shrimpers, crabbers, tour guides, fisherman, boat rentals, all marina services, wildlife refuges and sanctuaries, seafood restaurants, et al. What will happen to all the people who make their lives and a living here, not to mention the animals? It is almost too dramatic and horrific to consider how this life style will change. The local price of gasoline has already increased by 7% in the last week and is predicted to increase steadily. The impact of this promises to be so large that we haven't really gotten our heads wrapped around it yet....and the pollution continues to pour forth into the Gulf unabated.

The headline in the local paper this morning is "Does This Kill the Drive to Drill Baby Drill?" A Republican state representative actually proposed last year that we open drilling fields three miles from the Florida coastline. Now he is agreeing with Sen. Bill Nelson that we institute a moratorium on future drilling plans.

In the letters to the editor in the Naples Daily News, there was a terse piece from a man who equated this current spill with water-sprinkler damage in a high rise apartment: "After you replace the drywall, everything will be fine! Is a leaky water pipe a reason to move everyone out of the building? Leaks will happen-get used to it!" Another brilliant writer blamed the whole mess on President Obama:" After working 40 years in the industrial-maintenance field, I find it amazing that this oil platform failure was not backed up with shut-off valves. Isn’t it incredible that under President Barack Obama’s watch we have this huge environmental disaster.  Let’s see if his administration accepts full responsibility for this failure!"

What an idiot! I wonder if people like this know that the shutoff valves for this platform, and (tens of other by the way) were manufactured and installed, along with the cement support pilings by Halliburton--Dick Cheney's company--and that the cement pilings are failing because the standards pushed for and approved by Bush and Cheney were too lax to insure secure shut off valves on these platforms. In fact the inspection on the destroyed platform just prior to the explosion showed that the safety valves and pilings were insufficient in the event of an accident.

We are all waiting here with increasing anxiety as this catastrophe unfolds. I think Floridians are realizing that our lifestyle here is endangered and about to change. There is almost nothing we can do at this point to avoid the approaching storm clouds. All actions now are defensive against this encroaching horror.

This incident is a huge wake up call. The oil nuts need to be silenced. If ever there was a time to wean ourselves off petroleum, this is it. If we don't, you can expect more spills, more environmental catastrophe and more economic disaster. There is no fail-safe technology in oil drilling. All it takes is one mistake, or one greedy politician to eviscerate standards, and the lives of millions are affected.

Right now I am trying to breathe in as much fresh air as possible, before it all goes away!

Do It Now!

As I watch this Health Care reform drama unfold on our TV screens and listen to all the commentators and editorialists describe positions both pro and con, I am struck by the simple fact that if we do nothing, there will be an additional 10 million people who will not be insured over the next five years.  In addition, the abuses perpetrated on all of us by the insurance companies will continue unabated and we will all be paying more and getting less.

Dennis Kucinich, the representative from Ohio got it right when he said that even though this bill may have big problems, it is at least a beginning, and he couldn’t in good conscience vote against it.  It is a way to insure 30+million more Americans, as well as end some of the egregious practices of the insurance companies. 

Nicolas Kristoff writes in the New York Times today about the life expectancy of Americans and the periods in our history when life expectancy increased most.  It turns out that the period of the largest increase was during the War years in the 1940s when many more Americans had to have physicals when they entered the armed forces or were screened to do a variety of jobs for the war effort.  Diseases and problems were diagnosed early and treated, and lo and behold, we as a nation became healthier!

It is so patently obvious that preventive care will save us money and increase our productivity as a nation, that those who stand in the way of initiating this reform could easily be considered principled morons or in the most extreme, traitorous!  Where is our moral obligation to our fellow countrymen?  Why is it that when we are dealing with others in a one-on-one relationship our compassion and generosity comes forth with ease.  Yet when we are faced with relationships that are group-to-group, we become covetous, stingy, competitive and morally questionable.

I have always felt that the provision of health care and reform is our moral responsibility as human beings.  Our country’s success now depends on our finding a way to support our less fortunate countrymen so that we as a nation can rise to a new level of caring and productivity. 

My experience just since I have started writing this blog has shown me example after example of serious problems with the current system, both personally and anecdotally from friends and acquaintances.  This morning at the dermatologist’s office, for example, the receptionist asked me if I wanted to pay the whole bill for my last visit.  I said, “Didn’t my insurance cover most of it?”  She said they had covered $84 of a bill for $350 for exam and freezing removal of a variety of little lesions.  I am paying $23,000 a year for insurance, and the best they can do for this kind of procedure is $84?  Better yet, I went for lab work and a physical 6 weeks ago, and the bill was $169.  My insurance paid $.83 (yes, that’s 83 cents!). 

Something is wrong with this picture!

So I ask you again, can we not find it in our hearts, person to person, to reach out with some compassion and support for those who need the help.  Health care reform needs to be passed now, not later.  If we fail to do this now, it will be at least a decade before we will have another chance, and by then my friends, I fear it will be too late for all of us.

Make your voice be heard.  Can’t you take a minute to write an email to your congressman?

Feeling Good!

I am on a new mission.

About 3 months ago we started a new business called Paradise Coast TV. It’s an in-room hotel channel that provides visitors with options for shopping, restaurants and attractions in SW Florida. It’s part of a national service called the Visitors TV Network.

As anyone who has ever started a business knows, there is so much to do that it is impossible to do it all. What is so amazing about this process is that both my partner and I feel incredibly energized…..again! I am trying to analyze what has made the difference.

I have been in the workforce since I was 20, and that was 40 odd years ago. When we moved to Florida, I sort of expected to ‘retire’ after 30 years in the TV business and live a life of leisure. I was wrong. There is no retirement. In fact, I have discovered that the only way for me to feel productive and active is to be using my brain and creating something. For the past 7 years I have been involved in several enterprises that have been way stations along my path of life. They were interesting, modestly revenue producing, and exciting for very short periods of time. However I felt like I was trodding through life with no real direction for my talent. I kept having this internal dialog, “What am I supposed to be doing with myself?”

Don’t get me wrong, life is good! I am living in paradise, and there is something very soothing about being massaged with balmy winds in December and January while the rest of the country is shoveling snow. But the excitement was hiding. We were marking time.

For the last two years we have struggled with a business that was completely unrewarding. We tried everything we knew how to do to make it work, but it was just not happening. It was horribly depressing and enervating.

The good news is that just when things are the bleakest, a ray of light will appear and a path away from the darkness is suddenly visible.

That is what has happened to me and my partner with this new venture. For the past 40 years, that has been my pattern. As horrible as things may get, there is always a path. Circumstances change and if you are on the lookout, there is always a path. Some might say I am just lucky, but I think it is not about luck. It is about recognizing that change is a part of life in the most integral way. When you understand that, you are able to be alert for the opportunities that appear on your path. Then it is a matter of using your judgment and intuition to choose the right opportunity.

When we were on our vacation in Hilton Head last fall, I spent the day with a friend who had been very successful in the electrical contracting business. We were discussing why people succeed and fail at certain enterprises or ventures, and he told me about something he had done years earlier that had been a disaster. He made a very simple but obvious statement that I will never forget. He said, “I was doing something I knew very little about and that was the problem.”

If you think about it, we all have something (or many things!) that we know a lot about. When you get involved in those kinds of activities, you feel empowered, knowledgeable, and competent. Isn’t that the essence of success?   So, clearly, the secret of it all is to pursue those opportunities that you know something about. It all sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Well, we all know it isn’t, but nonetheless, choosing to pursue something that is familiar and well within your skill set does make it easier to succeed.

Anyway, that is what we are doing now, and I can tell you that I am excited, energized and productive. And I am learning new things at a rate that is dizzying. My industry has changed over the last 10 years so completely, that we have had to learn how to use a completely new set of tools. But the thing I know something about—the telling of stories in video and film---hasn’t really changed at all. There is my competency, and I am now exercising that muscle again.

It feels good!

Do We See It?

When is that moment when you actually see the 'light at the end of the tunnel"?  We continue to peer into the future, hoping to experience that moment when we confirm that we actually see it, for that is the moment when hope is born anew.

I had that moment yesterday morning as I read the New York Times.

There was a front-page article about the latest NYT/CBS poll that found that President Obama has a slight edge over the Republicans with the general public across a whole range of issues.  Maybe the general populace as a single unit does have the intelligence to see through the obfuscation and deceit.

The poll's results point to the dawn of realization that while the President may have been stumbling along the path of trying to accomplish the major goals of his agenda, the public as a whole appreciates his concept of equality and fairness and sees his attempts to protect the country from the scourge of special interests.  That gives me hope.  It frames the approaching midterm elections with an atmosphere of awareness.   Unless we can rid ourselves of the obstructionist forces attempting to return us to the programs and philosophy of the Bush years, we will head further into decline as a society.  People really do understand at the most basic level that the pettiness of the partisanship exhibited by the lockstep Republican mentality of opposition to anything Obama or Democratic cannot continue.

Then I read an editorial by Paul Krugman exposing the Republican hypocrisy embodied in Newt Gingrich's warning:

"Don't cut Medicare. The reform bills passed by the House and Senate cut Medicare by approximately $500 billion. This is wrong."

It made me gag. 

Republicans have been trying to kill Medicare for 50 years, and now all of a sudden they are Medicare's protectors?  Krugman exposes the argument for what it is-fear mongering and subterfuge.  The proposed Republican alternative is offered up under "Roadmap for America's Future," the budget plan recently released by Representative Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican member of the House Budget Committee.  His plan will cut more out of Medicare than the proposed savings under Obama's plan, while gutting retiree benefits over the next ten years -and yet they are pounding their chests with self-righteous indignation, blocking any Democratic effort to effect cost savings.

The coup-de-gras was in the local paper this morning on page 22.  There was a small article that documented the GOP's cloaking of a mailed survey and appeal for money in the mantle of the US Census!  The RNC successfully raised money using this tactic, and now the House Republicans are doing the same thing.  They are asking people to participate in the "2010 Census of Republican leadership".  They claim the recipients were specially chosen to receive this "census document".  This is a clear attempt to capitalize on the name of the Census Bureau.  And there is House Minority Leader John Boehner's signature at the bottom of the letter! 

The Republicans are deliberately trying to confuse people.  Census bureau staffers are concerned that citizens who fill out this form will not fill out the real Census and that will lead to an inaccurate count.  Remember that House seats (and the distribution of over $400 Billion) are apportioned according to results of this Census.  What are the Republicans doing?  The answer is anything they can to pursue their own interests and maintain the status quo.

I am hopeful that Americans are awaking to the need to recapture our ability to govern ourselves in the interest of the average citizen.  Let's hope this most recent CBS/NYT poll is an accurate barometer of the pulse of the people.

I think......yes maybe.......I HOPE I am seeing that speck of light at the end of the tunnel........

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock!

I had a dream last night.  It was a metaphor for what is happening to all of us.

I dreamed I was sitting at my computer and trying to open the ICE (in case of emergency) file to find the combination to my safe so that I could put a wad of $1000 dollar bills in there that I had somehow extracted from the bank.  For some reason I could not call up the file with the combination.  My computer was not cooperating (seems to happen a lot these days!). 

In the other room a fellow named David was sitting and chatting with my wife while I was desperately trying to find the numbers that would let me open the safe and put the money in there for safekeeping.  That is really odd, because I know the combination by heart, but I couldn’t retrieve it for some reason. (dreams afflict us with that sense of trying to run but our legs being caught in molasses….)

Sitting behind me was David’s brother ‘Michael’.  Michael had been recently released from prison and was a chronic thief.  He was sitting behind me, silently eyeing my pile of cash while I was pounding on the computer keyboard.  I KNEW he was eyeing the cash and that made my quest for the combination all the more urgent.  As I worked on the computer with growing frustration, I could sense that Michael was becoming more tense.  I could feel him behind me and glanced at him out of the corner of my eye as I feverishly searched for the file.  Finally he gave up all pretense of being quietly sitting there, and started to pace behind me, growing more and more impatient while glancing nervously and repeatedly at my money on the desktop.  I tried to hide the pile of cash under my arms—in my desk drawer; behind the papers on the desk---but I knew that everywhere I put it, he was following my motions like a cat watching his prey.  Finally he stood on his chair and lost all sense of propriety, shaking with agitation and babbling about how “all he needed was one of the bills and he would be satisfied”.  I was terrified!

I turned in my chair and called out to David to come here right away…..in an annoyed voice he asked me what I wanted…..I then screamed his name as loud as I could ……..!

My wife said the sound that came out of me and woke her up was a word that had an “A” in it, but that is all she could make out.  She said the neighbors probably heard me bellowing.

I had a lot of trouble going back to sleep.

Don’t we all have ‘Michael’ sitting behind us trying to get our nest egg?  Don’t we all feel like someone or something is siphoning off our savings and leaving us anxious; fearing the constant presence of economic disaster lurking just around the corner? 

Where is that coming from? 

I used to be really confident that whatever ups and downs we had as a family; as a business venture; as a country we could rebound.  Bounce back.  Try again.  Today, that sense of optimism is smothered by the wet blanket of special interest, greed, and political partisanship.  Our entire civic enterprise is mired in the inability and unwillingness of our representatives in Congress to act.  Unless we figure out what to do about that as a people and a nation, ‘Michael’ will always be just over our shoulder watching our treasure; waiting for his moment to steal it all and leave us with nothing.

The time has come for people of good will and intelligence to take hold of our destiny and get rid of the obstructionists.  I read an editorial by Bob Herbert in the New York Times that hints at the beginnings of an awakening by just those kinds of people. 

We must act now before we run out of time.

Obama At His Best

Did anyone watch the entire Q&A session that the President had with the GOP Caucus the other day? If you haven't seen it, it is compelling public affairs programming worth spending the time to see.

I am sure that the Republicans rue the decision to let cameras broadcast live the 1 hour and 20 minute give and take session in Baltimore! It was a rare moment of truth as the Republican Caucus squared off with a man who was unafraid to call them out repeatedly for their use of half truths and misinformation regarding many of the issues that the GOP has demonized the Democrats with over the last year. President Obama had a command of the facts and issues that shot holes in most of the arguments used to accuse the Democrats of, among other things, bloating the federal deficit, foisting socialist health care reform on the country, and granting ‘boutique’ tax cuts to selected groups in America.

On its surface, it was actually a civil exchange. However, each Republican who asked a question of the President began the question with an accusation or a false assumption that Obama promptly poked holes through before he responded with a cogent and intelligent response, enumerating the false premises in the question and then answering with clarity and precision.

It was clear that the people in the room could not make headway with political positioning statements. The President indicated repeatedly that those kinds of false assumptions boxed them into positions with their constituents that left them no room for negotiating solutions. Over and over Obama pointed out to them that the way they were asking their questions promoted an atmosphere of rancor designed to further their campaign positioning in the upcoming elections, rather than seeking an atmosphere of negotiation and problem solving arrived at by true compromise. The Republicans were flummoxed!

It was a rare moment indeed and gave me hope that Obama would actually make some progress in finding common ground with the Republicans. What he showed in that session was his determination to engage in real, useful discussion that could possibly lead to real solutions. It was frankly more leadership than I had come to expect from him lately. One only hopes that he will somehow find a way to drag the Republicans into the public eye repeatedly in this way so he can effect some real progress toward change by exposing the GOP’s intractability and penchant for non-productive confrontation.

The news media should re-broadcast the session in its entirety instead of spinning it only as a confrontational moment. Maybe then some of the conservative lemmings in this country would start using their brains and realize that the only way out of our problems is to work toward compromise.

Freedom of Speech and Democracy

I remember when I was in grammar school walking into the auditorium for assemblies and always seeing those classic Norman Rockwell “Four Freedoms” paintings which were blown up into large posters and hung on the walls.  I can see them as clearly as if it were yesterday!  The one which made the most lasting impression was the one illustrating freedom of speech.  It was a picture of a youngish working man (with an youthful ‘Abe Lincoln’ look) standing up in an audience of about 20 people and speaking his mind in a town hall type setting.  He had a look on his face that radiated earnestness while at the same time a little trepidation, as if he was flexing a muscle that was unused most of the time.  I always return to that image whenever there is a controversy about free speech, and internally I test the issue against my gut feeling while visualizing that image.

There is a huge outcry on the liberal side of the political spectrum concerning the Supreme Court’s decision to throw out the strictures placed by the McCain-Feingold legislation on political advertising by ‘associations’, and I sympathize with the arguments presented.  But I am not as fearful, as many are, that the conservative court has sold out democracy to the corporate interests and we are all doomed to be enslaved by some secret cabal of greedy business people so they can maintain their elitist status at the expense of the poor working man.

Clearly, we are going to see all manner of political messaging that will be fed by an apparent unending stream of corporate cash in support of all the lobbying efforts we have grown to hate over the last several decades.  Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking this is something new.  Remember the ‘Swiftboaters and TeaPartiers’?  It’s already there.  And there is no argument that the power of advertising and media  muscle will be brought to bear in support of corporate interests in an effort to intimidate the public and prospective candidates for public office in November and beyond. 

However the definition of ‘associations’ includes all those interests that oppose the efforts of heavily financed corporate lobbying efforts as well.  In theory, at least, that is the countervailing force.  Unfortunately the supply of cash is not equal.  The fundamental question being asked is whether an ‘association’ has the same status as a ‘person’ when considering the guarantees provided by the Constitution regarding ‘Freedom of Speech’.  Many say no, but just as many say yes.  It is going to be a question that we all will be considering over the next year as the election process unfolds. 

Freedom of Speech is guaranteed to our citizens in the Constitution because each of us presumably has the right to seek fairness and justice in pursuit of happiness.  Corporations are not in pursuit of happiness, they are in pursuit of money, even at the expense of happiness!  Does that pursuit in its purist form equate individuals and corporations?  I think the fulcrum of democracy will ultimately seek to answer that question.

The real moral question for me is this:  In advertising or messaging of any kind, are we being told the truth or only half truths or no truths at all?  Democracy depends on the ability to decipher truth from lies.  We want to believe that most humans, even if they are basically ignorant or uneducated (which much to my horror is a condition way too common in this country) have some ability to discern truth from falsehood.   Therein lies the ultimate resolution of whether we will be enslaved by corporate interests.  We all have come to realize that today’s media environment can twist things around so that even blatant lies seem like truth.  It is harder and harder to find the essence of truth in today’s society.

I believe that we are headed for a very interesting and emotional election season as we see all this messaging come our way.  I am hopeful that somehow we will all be able to cut through the bullshit and elect people who are honestly seeking to help all of us as ‘people’, not corporations or ‘associations’. 

Our future success as a democracy depends on it.

The Message from Massachusetts

We are all trying to make sense of the win in Massachusetts by Scott Brown.  The only thing that comes through loud and clear is the continuing dissatisfaction of the populace.  There is no clear mandate for Republican resurgence.  Brown represents the yearning of the average citizen to see positive change in his life, which has not materialized as a result of his vote a year ago.

The political positions of Brown are in some ways congruent with current Obama policies—stay the course in Afghanistan for instance….Coakley wanted us to get out.   Brown also said ‘no’ to taxing the Banks to pay for the bailout---what are the people thinking?  If they are all so pissed at Wall Street, why wouldn’t they be supporting Coakley’s tax position on that issue? 

It is clear to me that the people don’t really know what they want or completely understand any of the important reasons why the country is in the mess it’s in now.  The only thing they are certain of is their own anger at their government. 

And why not??? 

What has the government done for them over the last year?  We have seen lots of relief for the banking industry and no regulation; we have seen a bailout for companies too big to fail; we have seen a bailout for the auto companies; we have seen a rather tepid and insufficient stimulus program with no real mortgage relief or jobs program, etc. etc.  There has been lots of relief for institutional players, but virtually no relief for the common citizen.  Let’s not forget their frustration with a complicated health care reform bill that no one really understands and that has been misrepresented and lied about by those whose only agenda is to foil any real reform and change because of their vested interests and greedy self-absorbtion.

The average American is angry.  They are only just now coming to the realization of how their lives have been altered.  Unfortunately they don’t really understand the reasons behind the change.  So the only thing to do is to be angry and vote for ‘change’.  How ironic.

I think what is really apparent is the educational gap that exists between informed citizens who can analyze problems and make decisions about courses of action to make things better, and those who attend Sarah Palin book signing events!  (Go to Youtube.com and search for interviews with those people—it will take your breath away!).  Our schools are doing a poor job of preparing the populace for self government!  If ever there was a mandate for improved Civics and Economics curricula we see it here and now! 

So how do we channel this anger and ‘nouveau populism’ into postive action?  I think that is the over-arching challenge for the Democratic Party over the next ten months before the elections in November.   If they don’t figure it out, they are going to lose the opportunity to engineer real social change in our society. They will inadvertently contribute to our country’s further restiveness by returning people to positions of power who are the same ones that have delivered us into our present predicament. 

What the people currently see is a new administration that promised change, but is unable to effect it.  Instead the Democrats are seen as shackled by the same strictures that they promised to break.

What results is renewed anger, misguided election results and a worsening public mood.  Maybe the only true answer is to vote all new people into office and start over!  Get rid of all incumbents down to the statehouse level. 

Don’t laugh—it could happen.  The alternative to that kind of  ‘peaceful revolution’ is something I can’t even contemplate.