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Shanghaied
On February 04, 2022 Russian President Vladimir Putin, on an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping, attended the China Winter Olympic Games in Beijing. Twenty days later Russia invaded Ukraine. Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, in response to an invitation, visited Taiwan over China’s objections on August 2, 2022 and China immediately responded with massive military maneuvers around Taiwan.
Russia has now been at war with Ukraine for over six months. Ukraine has been supplied with many billions of dollars’ worth of military hardware by America before and during the war. Taiwan has recently received a pledge of over one billion dollars’ worth of military aid from the U.S. The U.S. has long supported Taiwan’s independence from China which claims Taiwan as part of China.
Russia and China share some common borders on the eastern and western edges of both countries and share one main nemesis, America. On September 15 and 16, 2022 Xi and Putin will meet face to face at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in the city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The United States is not invited.
It is possible Russia and China just want to confer on the relative merits of their national ballet companies and the ten billion cubic meters of national gas Putin promised to Xi in their February meeting. Or perhaps Putin and Xi want to compare notes on how each can continue in power beyond the traditional terms of prior Chinese and Russian presidents.
On the other hand, I suggest the two leaders may be getting together to discuss their largest common problem, us. Not much information was released from their conference in Beijing in February and almost no advanced agenda has been published for their Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit. My suspicion is the name “Shanghai” was not chosen idly. It may be that China is reminding the United States of the practice of tricking or forcing sailors to serve on merchant ships sailing to Shanghai in the 1800’s as was often done by American, British and French merchants. Perhaps it is meant as an otherwise inscrutable warning to America to butt out of Ukraine and Taiwan.
As for me, I think Pelosi or anyone else ought to have the right to visit Taiwan and, I think, Ukraine’s territorial integrity should be respected. Of course, I find it difficult to analyze the motivations of China, Russia or even my own country when it comes to engagement in foreign wars unless one is attacked. It seems to me our Constitution’s provision for military defense, not offense, makes sense. But then I am not in charge of our foreign policy. If I had been, Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan might have unfolded differently and maybe Ukraine and Taiwan too. Those are matters our elected leaders are much more informed upon, I hope.
The Source
When former President Donald Trump moved out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. he took fifteen boxes of stuff with him that he stored at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. Someone tipped off the FBI that the boxes were stashed in some closets. Who might that have been is one of the matters the FBI and the Department of Justice wish to keep confidential. That information is most likely part of what was redacted from the Affidavit that was filed with the application for the Search Warrant. We in the general public, therefore, do not know who the source was; I certainly do not. However, I do have a theory for your consideration, Gentle Reader.
It is reported that the 15 boxes contain governmental documents with news articles and magazines interspersed. Who would be concerned with such stuff being left sitting around the house? If The Donald is like most husbands, he probably does not get exorcised over a few extra items thrown into an attic, a basement or a closet. However, if Melania is anything like Peg, she takes a dim view of stacks of stuff cluttering up her house.
I remember when Peg and I last moved she took it as an opportunity to jettison a great deal of what I held dear, such as stories about my youth and old files from legal cases long forgotten. Anytime I was not vigilant Peg would trash my treasures to make room for her new acquisitions in our new residence. Clutter is to Peg as the contents of the Augean Stables were to Hercules and it seems most of what I hold dear as personal history Peg decrees to be stable staples. We are in a perpetual yang and yin of store or shovel when it comes to my inclination to preserve what Peg sees as dross. My guess is Donnie and Melania live a similar dynamic.
Now I do not know what was in the boxes. I do know the stuff sat around Florida from when the Trumps left Washington on January 28, 2021 and the country seemed to chug along okay until August 08, 2022 when the Search Warrant was executed. The stuff in the boxes did not seem to affect America’s decision to send billions of dollars of military equipment to help Ukraine defend the war against Russia’s invasion. It is probably what the psychologists would call my retrogressive inhibitions from the 1960’s, but for some reason visions of Viet Nam and Afghanistan keep muddling around in my brain. The contents of the boxes may be of no more significance than the contents of the file cabinets I struggled to schlepp down three flights of steps from my attic in our old home and haul to a barn at our new one.
That is not to say Donald should not turn them over to the National Archives. Maybe they are important, or not, but they still belong to all of us. And I wonder if Melania may not have been that unhappy to see the closet doors open for the FBI to haul the offending boxes away so that they have now become the National Archives’ problem instead of hers
Let There Be Light
On August 08, 2022 the FBI executed a search warrant at former President Donald Trump’s residence, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida. That is about the extent of what we in the general public know about the situation. There is a great deal of speculation about the process but very little of that speculation is likely to be unbiased. The search of any former president’s home would of necessity be embroiled in competing political interests. Many important issues are in play and countless questions arise.
We in the general public may be greatly affected by the search and the motivations for it or there may be no great significance to our democracy. We do not yet know the basis for the search or the reasoning of those who sought, granted or executed it. And that is unacceptable as almost always, our interests as a nation are better served by more factually correct information than less. A lack of transparency engenders suspicion and confusion. In a country so at odds over Donald Trump, more light is best. Careful release of information may be called for but it is more likely that the greatest harm to our country will result from suspicions raised by in camera legal proceedings.
There are good reasons our Founders saw Great Britain’s use of General Warrants and Writs of Assistance as cause for Revolution. The Fourth Amendment to our Constitution was adopted to protect our right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. It requires “an Affidavit of Probable Cause supported by Oath or Affirmation and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
I do not ascribe to the fear our country is near another revolution. However, I do think we should seek to benefit from the wisdom of those who fomented the first one. Was the search of Donald Trump’s home called for by the facts? Were those who made the call properly motivated? Was the Fourth Amendment followed?
Perhaps it was in America’s best interests to search Mar-a-Lago. Maybe evidence of “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” was secreted in the premises. If so, then a search was not only justified, it was required. However, until the secrecy is removed and the light of justice is brought to bear, the citizenry is in the dark. And that dark might lead to more harm than the revelation of some uncomfortable documents.
Mom Knows Best
Tom Nichols is a staff writer for The Atlantic magazine. In his opinion piece of August 15, 2022, Nichols asserted the United States is living in a “new era of political violence.” Nichols compared our current political climate to America’s Civil War and declared:
“Compared with the bizarre ideas and half-baked wackiness that now infest American political life, the arguments between the North and the South look like a deep treatise on government.”
Of course, Nichols, as all of us do, meant those ideas he disagreed with. He wrote his article as a warning against “the random threats and unpredictable dangers from people among us who spend too much time watching television and plunging down internet rabbit holes.”
While I believe Nichols falls victim to the kind of incitement to political violence he warns the rest of us to avoid, I agree with him that much of our poisonous political atmosphere is both created and exacerbated by “instigators who will inflame them from the safety of a television or radio studio.”
When I try to glean news from Facebook, MSNBC, CNN, FOX News and even sometimes NPR and the regular commercial news outlets, I spend a lot of my time hearing the echo of my Mother’s sage advice, “If you can’t say something nice about somebody, don’t say anything at all.”
In our current political discourse it seems almost every discussion has to first set forth the commentator’s pro or anti Trump diatribe then morph into the “real news.” I keep trying, with little success, to block out the opening statements as I wait for any significant new facts.
This atmosphere of dueling slings and arrows, some of which are more than mere rhetoric, is the “political violence” Nichols refers to. People committing random acts of physical violence against complete strangers for no reason other than to attempt to give some meaning to their uninteresting lives. And as many of us have suffered through the discomfort, or worse, of political conversations with our friends and family these last few years, it is not just random strangers who have accosted one another with Nichols’ “New Era of Political Violence”. Long-time friendships and relationships have often suffered due to competing political views.
A large contributor to the current “Era of Bad Feeling” is the tendency to classify those who do not share our political views as holding “half-baked” or “wacky” ideas because, in Nichols’ view, they suffer from “a generalized paranoia that dark forces are manipulating their lives.” The sense I get from our current political in-fighting reminds me of the McCarthy Era from the 1950’s when Senator Joe McCarthy held hearings that ruined countless lives with accusations of Communistic leanings among American citizens. Sure, eventually we, as a democracy, saw through the “Red Scare” but it was too late to save many good citizens.
It feels to me now as those Red Baiting times felt. We seem to go immediately to anger when the “other side” speaks its views. Perhaps we could learn from our history instead of repeating it. As Mom would have said, “Just because someone sees things from their viewpoint doesn’t make them wrong. And just because someone else voices an opinion opposed to ours doesn’t mean they are bad.” It kind of goes back to that old advice, “If it ain’t good, don’t say it.”
That does not apply to real news, only personal character assassination. We need our democracy to have unfettered access to information about many subjects. That is, we need facts to make good decisions. What we do not need is vituperative personal attacks masquerading as evidence.
A Friend In Low Places
The telephone call began ominously, “Mr. Redwine (?)” It is never a good sign if a professional office treats you as an equal. Usually such a call would start, “James, state your full name, your date of birth, social security number, and most importantly, scan in your financial responsibility history for the past ten years.” Now, that is more the attitude I would have expected.
I responded, “Ugh, may I ask your name and why you are calling?”
“No, but feel free to contact your Congressional representative if you please, and good luck there too.”
The caller continued, “You were randomly selected for a couple of medical tests. Be at our office in Bartlesville Monday at 8:00 a.m.”
When I asked, “Can I ask …” all I heard was a click. I showed up Monday and followed orders. Tuesday, I received another call.
“Is this the party to whom I spoke last week?”
“Yes, may I ask …”
“No. We found a large kidney stone in your CT scan. It’s got to get crushed up and sucked out right now. Be here next Monday at 8:00 a.m. and no food or liquids after midnight the Sunday evening before.”
“May I ask …(click).”
I showed up Monday at 7:30 a.m. and the gate was opened at 7:55. A woman with a stack of legalese-clad releases asked me a series of COVID-19 related questions as she shoved the releases and a ball-point pen at me. I followed her unspoken directives and shook my head left and right as to COVID. Then, from behind her back she produced a LONG tube and told me to get undressed. I did and stood on the cold, tiled floor as she began to insert what felt like a fire hose into an area Mother Nature never intended to accept even a fine thread. By the way, a fine thread with a knot in it was attached to the tubing. From this point until about four hours later I have to hope someone knew what they were doing to me because I certainly did not. However, when I once again became aware of my situation there was an entire apparatus with tubing affixed to the apparatus Adam was made aware of when Eve coaxed him into taking a bite of forbidden fruit. Once the anesthesia wore off I really gave both Adam and Eve and that meddling serpent what for. Gentle Reader, I do not recommend kidney stone attacks for Monday morning pastime activity. OUCH!
Fortunately, my best friend from my old Air Force and Indiana University days had just sent me a great book of medical information for my birthday. Dr. Walter Jordan, O.D., has been my free medical advisor as well as an excellent source of information about all things IU since we first met in 1963. He has also long provided me with excellent reading material each year on my birthday. This year, by coincidence, he sent me Dr. Tony Robbins’ new book, Life Force, ISBN 978-1-9821-2170-9. Walt did not get the book to me in time to study up on the pain and misery of kidney stones. Nor did Dr. J have the opportunity to fulfill our long-ago made honor pact to use a 38-caliber solution to save me from a fate worse than watching IU lose the Big Ten Championship to Purdue. However, it is a wonderful source of information and I plan to recommend it to the office that attacked my lower quadrant.
Things have finally reached what we in the legal biz describe as a permanent and quiescent state and it appears I will survive although my friend Dr. Walt has been of more medical value to me than those “providers” who get paid for it. Anyway, as those who live in a “house” with kidney stones should not throw them I will forever hold my peace.
I do look forward to those days when we will, perhaps, all benefit from Dr. Robbins’ insights on how we might stop or even reverse the aging process. Of course, Walt and I have been around for so long Robbins’ book may not add much to our lifespan. But, Gentle Reader, I strongly suggest a trip to a book store or a library to read all of Robbins’ Chapter 4: pp. 96-120, “Turning Back Time: Will Aging Soon Be Curable?”
GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS
“Mr. Redwine, this is the medical laboratory at the Palace of Pain. We have the results of your recent CT Scan. Would you like the good news or the bad news first?”
“Oh, let’s go with the bad news; lay it on me.”
“Okay Jim, the bad news is there isn’t much good news. However, you show no signs of any fatal health condition. On the other hand, you probably should stay away from any sharp instruments or loaded pistols until after we can remove the large kidney stone that showed up on your CT Scan.”
“What about just ignoring the stone; will it simply dissolve or pass on its own?”
“I’m afraid not. What is most likely is the large calcified mass will dislodge on its own and seek to escape out of your kidneys. Of course, as a member of the male part of the species, you know the route the large stone must take to get free. Yes, that’s right, that is how it must escape if we just leave things up to Mother Nature. Or we can go in there and break it up and wait as the pieces work their way along the aqueduct system until they achieve the end of the waterway. What’s your pleasure (if you don’t mind the expression?)”
“Ugh, can’t you just shoot me? After all I’m almost 80 years old and it’s already been a pretty good run?”
“Actually, we’d be willing to shoot you but they won’t let us. We’ll have to dig out the kidney stone. It’s an easier procedure than Peg’s second hip replacement that’s scheduled in two weeks. She isn’t whining; it looks like she’s the one with the manly equipment. When do you want to get this rodeo started? It could break free at any time and, if it does, you know where it will get stopped up. You do not want that! We’ll give you a silver bullet to bite on. How about next week?”
“Can you give me a few more details?”
“Sure, we’ll go in with a tube and break the stone up, leave a stent in to keep the passageway open then spend about the next week watching the pieces work their way out.”
“Work their way out of where?”
“Out of your kidneys, of course.”
“How do they get out of my urine?”
“You already know where the urine comes out.”
“Yeh, I know that but how do you get up there to get the pieces?”
“We have to insert a long rubber tube up there, you know, there.”
“How do you do that?”
“We insert it in the end of the device Mother Nature gave you and let things progress, more or less, naturally.”
“Okay, back to Plan B; let’s use that silver bullet for its truly intended purpose.”
“Nope, I lied we won’t shoot you. Not for your sake, but because we are all younger, we don’t have kidney stones and we’re not going to jail just because you’re a wimp. Buck up! Plenty of men, and a lot of women too, have survived kidney stones. As for me, I am ready to do this now. I’m not afraid.”
“I’m impressed with your courage.”
Well, here we are. Two female nurses, Peg, one Marquis de Sade trying to pass for a Galen and me naked and exposed. “Isn’t that tube rather large and awfully long? What about a general anesthetic. And you better keep that sharp scalpel out of my reach.”
Well. Gentle Reader, it’s now two days after Peg’s surgery, one week after my two surgeries (yes, I had to have two), and I got the last laugh! Just as Peg got finished typing this article a mouse ran over her feet and she is now the biggest wimp at JPeg Osage Ranch! At least for one brief shining moment.
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