My Two Cents, Now On Sale

Anyone who would give me a “penny for my thoughts” is about to be overcharged

On November 9^th of 2016, half of our nation awoke shocked and saddened and the other half rolled out of bed to surprise and happiness.  Hillary Clinton had been defeated and Donald Trump was now the president elect.  Facebook, Twitter, CNN, FOX, ABC, CBS, and NBC were alive with the postmortem of our election process for 2016.  You still can’t approach any information source without hearing something about the election aftermath, analysis of why everyone was wrong, predictions of doom and gloom, and reactions to every move taken by the new power structure.

It surprised many that Mr. Trump could successfully tap into an oft-ignored demographic, many of whom live in the so-called “fly-over” states, and pull off a stunning upset of the presumed heir to the throne.  While I won’t pretend to have had the vision to ignore the press with their predictions of a Hillary win, but I will say I was not very surprised at the eventual outcome.  It was always a possibility. With the lethargy of our Congress for the last couple of decades, public outrage was inevitable.  People were angry and the “establishment” was to blame for all their ills.

For the purposes of this writing, the “establishment” consists of our elected officials on both sides of the aisle.  If the Trump presidency turns into a debacle, there will be plenty of blame to go around for Republicans and Democrats alike.  This election process should be a wake-up call for all concerned.  Priorities for both parties need to be thoroughly analyzed and shuffled.

For those taking to the streets with “Not My President” signs I would suggest a reality check.  You certainly have a right to protest but the facts are that President-elect Trump is just that, our future president.  As a pragmatist, I have resigned myself to that fact.  I respect the will of the majority (don’t bring up the electoral college vs. the popular vote here, we all played by the same rules).

This is a wonderful resilient country.  We need to understand that, while many of us enjoyed the benefits of a rising stock market and a drop in the unemployment rate, people living in towns with shuttered factories and without stock portfolios, probably didn’t find much solace in those positive statistics.  These are not bad people because they want a better life.

I have traveled to all 50 states in my lifetime.  I won’t quote Will Rogers here and say, “I never met a man I didn’t like,” but I have to say the overwhelming majority are decent honest folks.  The nation was presented with a rich outside-the-beltway guy and a woman who was a qualified politician.  I think the nation was certainly ready for a woman president, just not the one they were offered.  Donald Trump was that “any port in a storm” solution and his foibles were ignored.  He certainly carried enough people in enough key states to handily win the office.  The outrage was palpable.

Democrats need to start construction of a new platform.  It should be one that is all-inclusive.  It needs to address rural and small town America and not just the nation's large metropolitan constituency.  You can’t put all of your efforts into the disadvantaged and minority populations of the country without losing the ability to provide any help at all.  Look where you are now.  The old Democratic platform needs to be completely overhauled.  It needs a brand new solid foundation.  If you hit the reset button now, you might have a chance to make a difference in 2020.  You could use some 20/20 vision right now.

Republicans need to take the results of this election with the proverbial “grain of salt.”  This wasn’t a ringing endorsement of your agenda.  The man elected was an outsider who held out a straw of hope and the nation grabbed it.  What you do now, with full control, is not mess up.  You need to build and repair the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.  Roads, bridges, dams, dikes, reservoirs, and electrical grids are all in disrepair.  Public works projects such as these create jobs, stimulate the economy, and add to our nation’s security.  You’ve given these things a lot of lip service in the past, now is the time for action.  You too need to address the needs of ALL Americans.  Immigration reform needs to be thoughtful.  Building a wall is not a panacea.  Our military is already strong, how about diverting some of that cash to pay for the wars already fought.  The treatment of our veterans is deplorable, to use a campaign word.  You have a lot on your plate and you were left, by the previous administration, in a position to bring about positive change. 

In summary, I wish president-elect Trump success.  If he succeeds, we succeed as a nation.  I don’t want him to fail.  The world and our nation are watching.

Music and How We Listen

Music and How We Listen

By Jack Dallas

While music, with its seemingly endless styles and genres has certainly evolved over the centuries, the actual way we listen to that music has also changed.  During a recent evening cocktail hour, that lasted beyond its scheduled period, I came to realize not only how much I appreciated the music of my time but also how I am able to listen to my favorites.  In my seven decades of enjoying music, no time has been quite as enjoyable as the present.  The reason for that analysis can be understood by a brief look back.

My formative years offered some limited access to music via the tabletop radio in the living room and a small child’s record player that spun seven-inch platters at 78 revolutions per minute.  The quality was marginal but it was all we knew.  Eventually cars had radios so the family’s four-hour trips to Key West from Miami were filled with music and radio shows.  For my younger audience, radio shows were like television but without the pictures.

Push-button AM Car Radio

By the time I entered high school the transistor had been invented and placed inside a plastic box about the size of a deck of cards.  This revolutionary device was the portable AM radio whose main function seemed to be to deliver scratchy music through a single earpiece or a small front speaker and gobble 9-volt lead acid batteries like they were Jujubes.  While the sound quality sucked, we loved these little guys.  A day at the beach was not the same when your battery died.

We could listen to both WQAM 560 and WFUN 790 where “our kind of music” was played.  If you were really lucky and the radio gods were kind, you could even get WABC 770 out of New York.  This was only late at night when the ionosphere bounced the signal back to earth just so we could listen to Cousin Brucie (Bruce Morrow).  We also had Bob Smith, “The Wolfman” aka “Wolfman Jack” (no relation), who broadcast from XERF 1570.  This was a 250,000 watt “border-blaster” station located in Acuña, Mexico that could be heard nationwide, if you were lucky.

Bob Smith, aka Wolfman Jack

During this same period, long playing (LP) records came out along with the big-holed 45’s.  These were played on record players or, drum roll here, the hi-fi.  This latter term stood for high fidelity to indicate that before its invention we were listening to crap.  Who knew?  This so-called hi-fi was generally a large piece of furniture with a combination AM-FM radio tuner and a turntable to play your 78’s, 33 1/3’s and 45’s.  Yes, FM radio eased in here to finally provide better quality music.  The hi-fi had stereo speakers and an amplifier to finally fill a room with music.

Console Hi-Fi Stereo

The automobile also evolved with various music delivery systems.  In addition to the AM radio in the dash, we also had a series of tape-based systems, which we bolted under the dash and wired to new speakers we put in the front doors and rear window decks.  I have personally installed 4-track players, 8-track players, and cassette players in my vehicles over the years.

You haven't lived until you've "fixed" one of these.

Bolt under your dash, wire your speakers, enjoy

This also meant that the music industry made money by selling me the same song I originally purchased on a 45-RPM record on each iteration of delivery platforms.  I bought it on the 45, on the compilation LP, 4-track cassette, 8-track cassette, compact cassette, and eventually on a CD.  I could have literally paid for that song six times.  Seven times if you consider my reel-to-reel tape player.  However, truth be told, I never purchased music on reel-to-reel tapes.  I only recorded music on my reel tapes, or stole it to use the RIAA term.

This is not a Compact Disc

Yes, if you noticed carefully in the above paragraph, I slipped in the CD or compact disc.  The CD finally provided music without the usual hiss and pops we had grown to know and love.  Some audiophiles currently still seem to think that tube amplifiers and vinyl discs provide better sound than the more sterile output of a compact disc.  I must be missing something here; perhaps it’s the hiss and pops.

Lots of CDs

The CD has enjoyed a long run now and this presents me with my current dilemma; what to do with the boxes and boxes of CD’s.  I no longer listen to CD’s, not directly anyway.  I have long since ripped them to MP3 files where I can move them anywhere I want.  I can play them while listening on my computer.  I can stream them to my family room entertainment center.  I can put them on a thumb drive that I can play on either of the two amplifiers I have that play in the two seating areas of my backyard.  I can play the thumbdrive in my car.  I can load them on my smartphone to stream wirelessly to my Bluetooth headphones and speakers.  I can upload them to the Amazon Cloud to play virtually anywhere with Internet access.  The music delivery options seem endless.  I now rent my music as part of my Amazon Prime membership, Spotify membership, and DirecTv subscription.

This brings us to my recent cocktail “hour” with my wife, Sue.  We sat in our kitchen/family room at our bar/island where we literally asked our “friend” Alexa to play any artist or song we could think of.  Alexa played “every song that driver knew.”  You see Alexa lives in a small tower on a shelf between our kitchen and family room.  She awaits our every command.  Just speak, “Alexa, play Barry White.”  Within seconds you are hearing “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe”, streaming from Alexa’s speakers.  Her music library exceeds 30 million songs.  She links to my Spotify library, which also has over 30 million songs.  I’ll assume there are a few duplicates in those two sources.  If songs average 3 minutes it would take me over 170 years to listen to them all, or 130 years if we eliminate Rap, Punk, Hip hop, Techno and Electronica.  Even at 130 years, that’s a very long cocktail hour.  I might need to make another run to Total Wine and Spirits to restock. 

Amazon Echo, the home of Alexa

 

Yes, we love our Amazon Echo and the young lady, Alexa who resides therein.  She understands us.  It still amazes me how far we’ve come in the way we now listen to music.  I still remember a time when it wasn’t so easy.

Reasonable Gun Restrictions

In light of the most recent carnage wrought upon our country, the usual outcry for gun regulation seems like a simple solution.  In my experience, simple solutions to complex problems are extremely rare.  Somewhere between a total ban on gun ownership and rhetoric that accomplishes nothing, there are some things that can be done to improve the current situation.  Compromise is a term that has been dropped almost entirely from our national and legislative lexicons.  I think most would agree that we shouldn’t continue to ignore the daily gun violence in our cities and the occasional “nut-job” making a statement that so shocks our nation for brief periods immediately after that “statement.”  There are some things that are possible that will not solve the problem but would bring about some, albeit limited, improvement.

As a gun owner and concealed weapons permit holder I believe in the 2^nd amendment.  I believe that responsible citizens should have the right to self-preservation.  Those same responsible citizens should be able to own weapons that will permit them to protect their persons, families, and homes.  I believe that, those individuals who would like to hunt animals for food should be allowed to do so.

With all of that said, none of these scenarios would require a semi-automatic long gun.  Hunters should be able to develop their skills so that a bolt action, lever action, or pump action long gun would be all that is required to kill an animal for food.  I do not believe in trophy hunting.  For self-defense purposes where your life or home are threatened a handgun would, in most scenarios, be sufficient.  In rare instances, a long gun might be advisable but with the same restrictions as placed on hunters.

I also think our current 24-hour news media contribute to our problem.  After every mass shooting, the media post the name(s) and pictures of the individual or individuals responsible.  They interview the friends and families of the perpetrator(s) ad nauseam.  In essence, the media gives these individuals the notoriety they seem to crave.  While our first amendment would preclude any restrictions on such media coverage, they, the media, should be strongly encouraged to limit their coverage to the event and not the infamy of the perpetrator(s).  All pictures of perpetrators should have a derogatory stamp across their face(s)  that indicates who or what they are.  Coward, Murderer, and Sociopath come to mind.  I wouldn’t use the term Terrorist, as that seems to be a badge of honor with many of these deviants.

I have a few suggestions for national change:

•         Ban the manufacture and sale for personal use, of all semi-automatic long guns*.
•         Current owners of semi-automatic long guns may keep them in their homes for personal protection but may not use them outside their homes except at licensed gun ranges.
•         Establish a government sponsored buy-back of semi-automatic long guns.
•         Current owners of semi-automatic long guns may not transport such weapons except to and from their homes and licensed gun ranges or for the purpose of a legitimate government buy- back.
•         Current owners of semi-automatic long guns may not sell or transfer ownership to anyone outside their immediate family or through a government buy-back.
•         Ban the ownership of fully automatic weapons by anyone outside the established military.  This ban would include current federal licensees and local law enforcement.
•         Establish very severe sentencing guidelines for the mere possession of any semi-automatic* or fully automatic* long gun in the commission of any felony.  [These would be sentencing guidelines where a judge would have discretion, but it would be possible to impose a very severe penalty for mere possession of such weapons during the commission of a felony.]
•         Background checks should be required for all gun sales.  (Go to my article on “Gun Control” for more information on the process)
•         Establish a secure National Identification Card as part of the background check process.  This multi-purpose ID card, while normally voluntary, would be a requirement for a gun purchase.  The link above provides more detail on the process.
•         Ban the manufacture and sale of any ammo clip or magazine that protrudes from the natural shape and design of the original weapon.

While these gun restrictions and changes will not stop gun violence, they should not be so intrusive as make an individual less safe at home or in his/her person.  As a FORMER member of the NRA, I found their inflexibility in regard to any gun regulation to be incomprehensible.  Compromise needs to return to our vocabulary.

* Definitions-Information

* A long gun is typically any weapon designed to be fired braced against the shoulder.  The barrel length varies in legal definitions.  For this discussion, any barrel length exceeding 10" would qualify as a long gun regardless its inclusion or lack of a shoulder brace.
* A semi-automatic weapon is one that requires a separate finger pull of the trigger to fire each round where the spent cartridge is ejected from the weapon.
* A fully automatic weapon requires a single trigger pull to fully discharge as many bullets as are available as long as the trigger is held depressed.
* The barrel length of any weapon influences the potential muzzle velocity of any bullet fired from that weapon.  The longer the barrel, the greater the potential damage to the target.

Donald Trump and the Country Music-Hitler Connection

I have watched with a passing interest, the Republican spectacle that is Donald Trump.   He seems to have broad support across the US but more auspiciously in many of the “fly over” states.  Much of this area encompasses the “Bible-Belt” located in the southeastern portion of the US.   If you look at maps of the “Bible-Belt” and US maps of people living below the poverty level, you will see a strong correlation.  You will also find a common overlap with maps of people aged 25 and over who have failed to complete high school.   These latter comparison maps now also include broad portions of the southwestern US.

Bible Belt

Tan = fewer than 80% of HS graduates aged 25+

Dark Blue = 30% or more of the population below the poverty level

While Trump’s appeal crosses many ethnic and social boundaries, his largest and most vociferous supporters are blue-collar workers and those who consider themselves “country.”   I recently watched an hour long special featuring Hank Williams, Jr.  He is a talented country singer with an even more famous father.  The concert was given in an open building at his home/cabin.  Mr. Williams wore camouflage pants, a western shirt, and a cowboy hat.   He seemed to embody the very essence of what we call, “country.”  He strummed various guitars and sang several songs.  He gave a tour of his home where he proudly described, in detail, his collection of civil war cannons.   He talked about hunting big horn sheep.

Country music has many common themes.  One of the songs performed during the H.W. Jr. concert was his recent hit titled, God and Guns.   Lines from the song: 

“God and guns keep us strong, / “We might as well give up and run / If we let ’em take our God and guns / That ain’t gonna happen.”

It seems to express a common country theme outlining a perceived fear that the government is coming to take away their God and their guns.   This religious fervor runs through much of country music but it also runs next to songs of hard drinking and extramarital sex.  No one in this population seems to see the conflict.

Hank Williams Jr.

Country music is also emblazoned with patriotic fervor.  While patriotism is good, blind allegiance to a patriotic theme is bad.  Our founding fathers, through our US Constitution, amendments thereto, and our Bill of Rights, provided a structure of tolerance.  This would include racial equality, freedom to practice any religion, and freedom to NOT practice any religion.  Our country was not founded as a theocratic state.  People need to revisit these valuable documents and thoroughly read them.  All individuals have a right to express themselves, not just those people who support your opinions.  There are many ways to express your beliefs that don’t involve anarchy and violence.  There are means provided within our laws to implement change.

I like country people.  I enjoy their thoughtful manners and hospitality.   These values are lacking in many places in our society.  I enjoy much of their music, when I’m in the mood.  I will however confess that I don’t fully understand their political bent.  Their efforts seem to be contradictory to their own self interests.  Not all country people are racist but at least a portion of that population will fall into that category.  I believe that many of the problems touched on here will be improved with a better investment in our educational system and a sincere effort to raise more people out of poverty.  These two items are intrinsically linked.

I believe that many Americans think that their problems, both actual and perceived, can be solved by an all powerful president.  They look for an authoritarian leader who promises them what they want even though the president lacks the power to fulfill those promises.  Donald Trump makes these big promises and people want to believe him so much, that they support his campaign.   In 1925 Hitler coined the term, the Big Lie.  At its heart was the belief that if you told a really colossal lie, no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously."

The US Office of Strategic Services had a psychological profile prepared on Hitler during the war.   In it was the following:

His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.

I believe that the above profile fits the personality of Mr. Trump.  He has shown as much to the American public both in the many recent debates and as recorded in public records during his lifetime.   Students of history (not just the American Civil War), will recognize the similarities in Mr. Trump's personality and the one quoted above for Mr. Hitler.   Individuals with lesser levels of education will be more apt to fall for Mr. Trump's empty rhetoric.  His statement, "I love the poorly educated" has validity and meaning.  He would be lost without them.

Any individual, from either party, who would run on a platform that vows to improve our educational system, break the cycle of poverty, and invest in our infrastructure while still managing the national debt, would go a long way in achieving my vote.   They would however need to not just say the words.  I would need them to outline a comprehensive and detailed plan for achieving these goals.  That plan would also have to be viable.  Standing in front of a crowd and gearing your comments to that specific group without actions and plans to implement your stated goals, is meaningless rhetoric.