A Long Hiatus

It has been a while… Seems like, for many of us, 2020 and 2021 faded away into a stream of half-remembered events held together by our screens. Fatigue from doing less physically, exhaustion from a political world that seems to have become unhinged - these have become the new norm. For me it has been four years of working toward civility in our Legislative process in Alaska - as State Senate Minority Leader and as a concerned citizen. Music took a back seat with so much in front of us. Canada closed its border for the better part of two years, leaving what little touring I was doing put on hold. I look back at that rich last entry and realize just how much time has passed by. Like a dream in so many ways.

But life continues, and we adjust. We hope for better futures, though never far from a feeling of being untethered in this new world. Who knew then that we would have a war in Ukraine and a breakdown of democracy here in the US? Certainly, we did not. I suspect I will write more on those and other issues over the next few months, at least I hope I will, but I have faded before, and may yet again.

Sarah and I, though, are back playing music as my Senate career winds to a close. This tour began with a preliminary date in Boise in July set up by my good friend Sharon Harrigfeld at the home of Philip Gordon. I was able to get the car to Denver where the next set of gigs began after a few months at home. First was a show at the home of State Senator Chris Hansen and his brilliant wife Ulcca on October 9th. We followed this with a slow drive from Colorado to Oklahoma City, where we joined Mike and Carol Wofford at their home on the 14th with another fabulous fundraiser for the Neighborhood Alliance (what a treat seeing so many old friends!). Austin was next and Kerrville Konnection, Jimmy Joe Natoli joined us for a show on the 19th there set up by Ann Conrad. It was a small, but lovely group that included my old guitar teacher Bob Reid (he denies he taught me, but I know better…). Next, after stops to visit friends in the New Orleans area, it was back on WMNF 88.5 in Tampa on the Acoustic Peace Club, and, later this week on the 29th, a house concert at the home of Jeannie Holton-Carufel and her wonderful husband Mark Carufel (who will play an opening set of his original music!) From there it is home.

Driving through America, trying to stick to the Blue Highways, we see a lot of what our country and all of us are going through. There is fear, and there is hope; there is a promise of something more, but the ever-present pressure of a world that seems out of control. Where will it all go? Elections are looming. What we care about matters, not the fears we are driven into. Turn off the ads, and think about what you want most, what matters to you and those you love. Vote because, at least today, you can. Don’t throw away your future on a promise of power without purpose, because purpose matters. Deny the rhetoric of hate, the misuse of morality, the claims that somehow evil resides in the other guy, whomever that might be. And most of all, deny those who deny the truth. That is all we have.

On The Road

November 7, 2019 - Tucson, Arizona Just finished a wonderful week of music and visiting old friends in the Lower 48 with Sarah. We began in Philadelphia with our annual stop at Andrea Clearfield’s Salon where we sang “Take a Stand (I Believe)”, a new song about the times we live in. Cliff Arms captured the version I linked to, feel free to share. We will be developing a studio version of this soon! From there we were off to Carbondale and Murphysboro, Illinois. There we did a two hour radio show on WDBX with Randy Auxier in Carbondale followed by a lovely House Concert as part of both Cousin Andy’s Coffeehouse and the American Institute of Philosophical and Cultural Thought in Murphysboro at Randy and Gaye’s house. It was a lovely evening followed by a song circle where we joined by Kerrville friend’s Candy and John, and Sabrina, and an old friend from Alaska, Dennis Porshard (now owner of the Arthur Agency) and his wife Ashley. I was also able to for the first time read my new poem “Constitution”. This last is a work of some length that has taken me years to write. This work reflects my thoughts and fears of where we have come to - our broken hopes for peace sacrificed on the altar of power - and how we might overcome it. I’m hoping to release this soon but would love to hear your feedback…

From there we slipped into Iowa where hints of the upcoming election lapped at the highway. We spent Halloween, my birthday, in Ottumwa Iowa, at the slightly dated but charming Hotel Ottumwa. I hoisted a beer in the Tom Tom Tap surrounded by Pirates and Cesars, Harly Quinn and Deadpool, all of them doing shots and busting out for the night. We played at the new Danish Table::Hygge Kitchen created by my great friend Mari Harries, who also owns our next night’s venue River City Eatery. Local resident Bill joined us with his fiddle at the Danish Table and the talks afterwords with Kyla (sp) and Mari were lovely. Both that and River City (joined by Andy, Mari’s husband, and at both sites by the insightful Henrik, their son) reminded me of how much I love playing music for folks. Being in the element. Feeling the songs course through me, through us, and out into the audience. It is always too long before I get back, but they make the trip worthwhile. If you find yourself in Elk Horn, Iowa or Windom, Minnesota stop in and say “hi” to Mari and her family. You won’t regret it.

The road journey continues. Interspersed with work for Reclaiming Futures (in Tucson now with them), my own consulting, visits with family and the ever-present State Senate responsibilities. In and out of Alaska, I’ll get this car home yet.

A Hot Summer

August 31 - Anchorage, Alaska. I write at the end of a hot Summer - hottest on record here. We wonder about whether our climate is changing, but why? The evidence is clear. And yet we debate it. People talk about a dying planet, but it is not the planet that will die, it will just create new environments for life. We are the ones that won't survive if we don't figure out how to adapt to the change we are, in great part, responsible for.  Instead, though, we debate the ridiculous antics of our President (funny if he didn't actually control the power over life and death, which he does). So we avoid addressing long-term pressing issues as we struggle to find a way to make sense of the short-term gaslighting that has become our political norm nationally.  Not so much our norm up here where we have learned to collaborate together well - at least in the Legislature. Republicans and Democrats resisting the actions of a Governor grown quite unpopular as he follows Trump’s lead.

It has been a slow Summer for music as well. But I finally finished, to a degree that I like it, "Got to Wake up and Take a Stand". Perhaps when Sarah and I return from our upcoming travel I will find the time to record that one. Then post it and see where it goes. For now, this entry is brief. Just a reminder that I am still around... 

The New Gilded Age

December 23, 2017 - Anchorage, Alaska. "They will be remorseless for the pain they cause" - Gary Greenberg, Harper's Magazine, p. 97.

I found the Greenberg quote while trying to catch up on all the unread magazines that have piled up around my bed. He wrote it in January of this past year, an article about the increasing numbers of books about people trying to get back to their animal nature. Like most of the articles in that issue of Harper's, there were hidden and overt references to the recent election. In some instances, like this quote, they were prescient without intending to be. We are, perhaps, in the maw of the wolf.

The passage of the recent tax "reform" bill (in quotes because, if it was anything, it was not reform) has been greeted by a number of different headlines. Most economists find the legislation deeply regressive, deeply one-sided (with generous provisions for the rich), and fundamentally likely to cost most average-income Americans more in the long run than they save (and those articles don't always quantify the impact of the weakening of Health Care by eliminating the individual mandate that was imbedded in this bill). Senator McConnell and others have said that they will change the feelings Americans have about the legislation by spending millions telling their story. It is interesting that they feel compelled to do this because Americans have read the articles, heard the debate, listened to the leaders of both branches of Congress and the Presidency and concluded something very, very different.  They know what this bill is and whom it favors. But get prepared as the propaganda engines motivate. After all, those with the most wealth will fuel those ads: it's a small price to pay when you reap ten times the outlay. For me, though, the whole things\ has reinforced a narrative that was often laughed at - that the Republican Party only favored the rich.  It's more than that. The leadership of the Republican Party must think the average American is a rube. "We will tell you that it is ok - spending our millions to do so - while we laugh our way to the bank (or the Caribbean, or St. Tropez, or....)!"

Now, with unfettered power, we are seeing exactly the vision they have always aspired to, regardless of all the crap they shoveled America's way over the past forty years. Back in the day "trickle-down economics" was, using a phrase our former half-Governor once said though more appropriately applied here, "putting lipstick on a pig". - a clever way to create a visual image to justify the shifting of American wealth to the wealthy from the middle-class. Back then the shift was mitigated by split government and Senate rules that have long since been scattered. This tax plan doesn't even hide behind that fiction. There have been no denials that the bulk of the tax "cut" will go to the richest Americans - those in the top 3%. Everything benefits the wealthy disproportionately – from the estate tax reductions (which they even almost eliminated), to the planned expiration of individual tax cuts in 2025 while corporate taxes stay low permanently. Folks who champion a populist message in their Republican screeds ought to be ashamed. The only place this populist message will resonate is a country club golf green. You have lied to America. 

 But I digress. 

I think I'd rather share a story from the mid-80s, when I served on the Alaska Democratic Central Committee. We were meeting in Juneau in the late winter and the debate was whether or not we should accept a $1,750 contribution from the oil industry.  The Party hadn't received a lot of support from those folks in the past, but we held the State House and the Governor's office, so it made sense that the industry would try to keep us happy by sending a little cash our way.  Funny thing was, they had provided the Republicans over $87,500 in that same cycle. I made the argument that, if we took the money, we would underscore just how "easy" a date we were, that it ought to violate our principles: that we should stand for something. A powerful Democratic Senator with links to the industry showed up (they usually stayed away from those meetings) and said we couldn't make the industry mad and we should take the money.  In the end we took the money on a very close vote.  I left the Central Committee soon after. It was only a matter of a few years before the Republican party and its operatives gained control of the Reapportionment process. By 1993 Democrats neither held the House or the Governor's seat (Alaskan Independent and former Republican Walter Hickel did). We did not regain the House again until 2017. 

What is the point of the story? Well, here we are again.  We might get a little relief from the tax bill - - $20 or $30 a month which we won't even notice on our paychecks, but we will be transferring literally trillions to the wealthy. Not for working, not because they have gone broke or bankrupt, not because they will reinvest it (most have said they won't), but because that was the intent of the Republican Party - to protect and provide for the wealthy. Now this party, which claims they oppose deficits and the growing debt, will face am additional $1.4 trillion dollars in debt because of this legislation. They'll blame Democrats who have no power. And, if we are lucky enough to gain power in 2018, they will point to the flaws in their legislation and again blame Democrats. That's what they do. It is a shameful erosion of our political system, and it has already begun. 

Recently Speaker Ryan declared "We're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and deficit". To be clearer than his syntax, that will be the debt and the deficit that they will have doubled. It is a message that was initially reinforced by Mitch McConnell, Mario Rubio, Lindsey Graham and others, though they now are trying to shift that dialogue. But the message has always been clear to those watching: When you peal away false social issue narratives designed to pit Midwest middle-class Americans against coastal and urban middle-class Americans; when you look behind the racist undertones and fear-mongering designed to keep working class white folks from seeing common cause with middle-income and poor minorities; when you call out the false argument of rich citizens that economic growth by giving money to them will benefit all "if only we had more wealth our economy would be booming..."; you get to the uncomfortable truth: Republicans aren't concerned with your retirement, your health, your livelihood, or your safety. Their concerned about protecting their wealth, and ensuring access to yours. 

The arrogance demonstrated in these past few weeks has not been missed. Just as we have observed now even earlier affronts to the nation - with the denial of even a hearing for a legitimate Supreme Court nominee in 2016; of an eradication of the rules that ensured a Senate that safeguards our highest ideals over cheap political argument; and of public demonization of the very institutions that provide for our General Welfare. I think the numbers bear it out: Are we really going to accept a few hundred bucks each, when the rich are getting millions? In the end they are sure you will sit back, satisfied with your nickel while they take thousands-times more than that because they are sure you are as greedy as they are, and that you won't notice. I think they are wrong. 

There is always so much to write, so I can't possibly get to everything... but I thought I’d leave you with this: The new Presidential coin is out. The Presidential Seal has been removed, replaced by an Eagle with Trumps signature (which appears three times on the coin). The Eagle has been turned to face the opposite direction as it has historically been depicted, the motto of the country has been removed - e pluribus unum (out of many there is one) replaced with "Make America Great Again", and the coin is made of gold.  Arrogance? Welcome to the New Gilded Age.

Be forewarned: not a music post.

December 1, 2017 - Anchorage, Alaska. Be forewarned: not a music post.

Once again I let nearly a year pass by without taking the time to reflect.  In a way it is indicative of these times. Time to reflect, at least for me, has become difficult. Every day a new affront. Every day another shock to the system politic. So let's call it what it is: a breakdown of those very systems we have all been proud of, valued, promoted, collectively - Republican, Democrat, Independent. But before I describe that breakdown. Before I outline the things I see happening to this country, let me take a moment to respond to the arguments that have been prepared before I even make my views known. Those arguments have already been formulated without me having uttered a word of opposition - for that is part of the new state we live in.

What will they say then? Perhaps: "You lost the election and now you know how we have felt for the last fifty years..." No, that would be sensible. How about: "Listen snowflake [whatever that is truly supposed to mean to them], you and your Antifa friends just can't take it that we are winning and you lost....Get over it!" [They use the term "Antifa" as some kind of oppositional attack, but do they know what it really means? Or, if they do, and just find that it is easier then saying "Anti-fascist", do they realize that doing this must set them up as being the fascists to who we are 'anti'? Do they realize this?] Yep. That sounds a bit more like the meaningless phrase they will use, ending with "Get over it". "Get over it..." like it is a game that was lost instead of the nation's ongoing struggle to forge identity and purpose.

"Get over it" as though watching everything that has been built for generations be dismantled because one side won an election, and the other side didn't..., rather than the patient struggle of time, the give and take of policy, that has had such a profound and positive impact on the development of our institutions...

"Get over it" because, in truth, they are unable to otherwise identify anything (outside of the election victory) that any other actions that the President is proposing will actually do to improve the country, wages, working conditions, lives (outside of the wealthy). Instead they fall back on a dollar store slogan "Make America Great Again" which they shorten to MAGA because, perhaps, even that phrase is to complex.

"Yep," I might answer back, "you won. Now its time for you to 'get over it' and take a look at the consequences of that victory..."

And people really should look at those consequences. It is amazing what the President has managed to accomplish in a short ten months - more than any other President has ever done in ten months, he said this week. And that is actually true. Here is a list of some of those accomplishments:

1) Today his Republicans (only Bob Corker stood against it in the Senate) passed a tax reform bill, that was actually hand-written in part (that hasn't been done for over 200 years...) as they continued to cut last minute deals on a 500 page bill that was never,  I repeat: NEVER, shared with the rest of the members until the last minute. But what do we know about this bill? We know it represents two things that I thought the Republicans adamantly opposed: 1) a massive state organized transfer of wealth; and 2) an explosion of the debt by a conservative estimate of at least $1 trillion. Tax breaks for actual people in the bill will expire in 2025, while those for corporations will continue. The debt will have to be covered by cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The rich get richer. (Though let's be clear, they will blame the deficits on Democrats regardless.  It's an ingrained behavior, and it is a trope people seem to always believe- while not true for at least twenty years).

But the tax bill is actually something that passed through the levers of Congressional Power - so, really, that is an accomplishment by Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan - let us give proper credit for these things. The President didn't seem to fully understand the tax. In fact, he clamed that he would lose money on the tax, even though in one provision alone - elimination of the estate tax for billionaires - he and his heirs would benefit by more than a $1 billion (of course that is based on his estimate of his wealth).

So lets narrow this to his known major accomplishments of this past ten months:

1) For over 70 years first the Soviets, and then the Russians, have tried to drive a wedge in the NATO alliance and the "Special Relationship" that exists between the United States and our primary ally the United Kingdom. The President managed to do that in less than ten months. And he doubled down on it yesterday (because he cannot help that) when he retweeted unverified and false videos promoted by a neo-fascist party in the UK that has led to condemnation from every major party in the UK. In response he attacked the Prime Minister.

2) For the past fifty years China has invested much of their economic effort into becoming the leading global economic power. They are not there yet, but our withdrawal from support of other nations has opened that door faster than Nixon "opening" China's door in the 70's. Our retreat from both alternative energy and our pacific trading partners has provided China the lead in both areas without a struggle. That all done in less than ten months.

3) For nearly thirty years we have witnessed a steady de-escalation of nuclear proliferation - but we now are on the brink of a real nuclear confrontation with the second most irrational leader in the world. That was actually accomplished in under five months. So extra points for that.

4) For the first time in modern American History a President has overtly decided that people carrying Nazi flags, shouting racist slogans, and spouting hate speech are the equivalent of those who oppose such actions. Under seven months for that one definitively, though there were earlier examples. This, by the way, appears to be the norm now (see "retweeted" under point 1)

5) He has had at least two campaign and one administration official indicted as of today. That has to be some kind of a record...

And finally, 6) He has done all this with virtually no opposition from his own party. Oh, there are occasional expressions of outrage at his tweets and comments. But there has been no action. I have a rule I apply to the many groups I work with: If you are silent, we take that as assent. And that is a very dangerous road to walk down. Is holding your office (for these folks fear the wrath of the "Trump" voter) so important that you would put the safety and security of the nation at risk? Are we really that parochial? Are we really that shortsighted? Sadly, in the case of national Republican leadership, we are.

So where do we find ourselves now? For those who voted for this President, perhaps the question should be "are you better off then you were ten months ago?" If so, how? What's better? Are you making more money from all the stocks you have (if you believe the exit polls, the President's voter profile does not invest in the market, so probably not... but I expect a few of his Mar-a-Lago members are...)? Were better jobs available? Higher wages? Will you be able to afford Health insurance now, or will you just forgo it? We will see what the next few years hold, but I suspect the answers may not be pleasant. You were scammed. You were conned. And now he's taking your money and giving it to his rich buddies - and himself. You should be outraged. He did not drain the swamp. He is the swamp.

And for those 3 million more Americans who did not vote for him? Find one more who didn't vote at all.  Find one more who stands to lose their opportunity to succeed. Find one more who still cherishes a hope for the future. Find a way to engage them. Find a way to educate them. Find a way to support them so they have the time and the opportunity to vote. And change the nation. It's not too late. Not yet.

The lost days of 2016...

January 29, 2017 - Juneau, Alaska. It's been over a year since I have written here. The lost days of 2016... I travelled, I wrote music, I wrote poems, I performed, I worked in justice, I helped on campaigns, I ran for State Senate in Alaska and I won... a busy year. It is a new age, right? So focusing on my activities would seem to fit... But it doesn't. I want to enjoy these moments, but I can't. With a sickening horror over the last twelve months I've watched the worst of 'Merica come out. 'Merica - I saw it stenciled in the back window of a pickup with a "Trump that Bitch" bumper sticker stuck right by it. I guess it's easier to contract, create new words, fake it. It's the new norm. It would be funny, if it wasn't.

I reread that entry from 2015 tonight - written after a long night of driving, as I headed west to pick up my Mother in Carson City and drive her to Alaska where Sarah and I had a wedding party. We'd invited our friends, played music, drank wine, enjoyed time and I left behind that entry. I intended to write here, I intended to act, but I did neither. Like so many of us, I watched a slow train wreck cruise through the American political landscape, wobbling, de railing, appearing to right itself only to derail again, and again. The full impact dawned on me when I drove from Lakeland, Florida to Austin, Texas in late October. My Father-in-law would take his Clinton sign in at night for fear of it being stolen or damaged. I didn't see another sign of Clinton until just outside of Austin. But I saw a lot of Trump - including hundreds of signs and a two mile line for a rally in Tallahassee. I was heading to a reunion of friends in Washington State and, by the time I got there it looked like it might all be over. Compounded error, an angry and misled public, confusion - it all added up to 50,000 people in three states making a choice they'd not made before. We'd done our part: Not fighting back hard enough against a group of Senate charlatans who were more interested in screwing the country for their hollow ideology than they were in serving their country. Denying a Supreme Court appointment for 11 months? Thwarting every effort at stimulus because they claimed to oppose a deficit? The shear level of disingenuous dialogue will be swept away by short memories and new levels of outrage spit at us at ever-increasing rates of speed. Designed to wear us down and wear us out. Us. Those who still care for a constitution and a country. What really does make a patriot?

Yes, I reread that entry tonight, from last year, and now that warning from the past, a warning I ignored myself, has come to pass.

We are on the brink of a crisis, much greater than any we might have foreseen. Federal Courts have said this new Presidential Order that would single out Muslims, hold them against their will - even when they are carrying Green Cards, or Visas, or even holding citizenship - must be stayed. But Homeland Security and the Border Patrol ignore the courts. What are the historic outcomes of this behavior? Trail of Tears. Civil War. Internment camps. Alien and Sedition acts. The muzzling of the Press. We have survived these things in the past, and we have rebounded, but sometimes at enormous cost. Will we this time?

I had promised Matt in Austin that I would begin to write my thoughts when they had crystallized. They are beginning to do so. There really will be more to come because this is not over yet. Far from it.

Pearl Harbor Day

December 7, 2015 - Elko, Nevada. Pearl Harbor Day, but its overshadowed by a different frame... Looming terrorism, threats that seek to undermine the Constitution, climate change, unrelenting argument, disagreement, discouragement.... It is what all of these things have in common. How is it possible that a leading Presidential contender in America could say Muslims should be banned and claim to love a country that respects religious freedom? Donald Trump is a sick man. Interviews on the street from NPR have those they talked to agreeing that this was the only way to be safe... So will Trump call for the banning of bearded white rural males the next time one shoots up an abortion clinic?  Will he demand that young white males be outlawed "until we are able to determine and understand this problem..." when one takes it into his head to destroy another grade school classroom? I thought not.

So, the shooters in San Bernardino had legally purchased assault weapons and they apparently used them regularly at a shooting range or ranges in the L.A. area. When a bunch of Saudi's flew into the World Trade Center, we found out that the pilots had been trained at a Florida flight school (and I think one in Arizona). After that we began monitoring those who went to flight school to keep abreast of the potential threat. Do you think we will track those who use shooting ranges? Right. Or Republicans in Congress scream about protecting the homeland, but when it is suggested that those on the "No Fly List" be denied firearms, the call it a "distraction". The distraction here is that it appears that these people actually don't give a damn about the "threat" or the solution to it. That would be too much work. Instead they call the President a "pussy", rattle sabers and claim that they would kick some Moslem ass. But it is really just about the bullshit of power, and creating whatever mileage they can out of fear to retain and secure power.

It's sickening. But instead of calling it what it is, we argue with them about the nuances of these points - as though this was a legitimate set of arguments that could be reasoned.  Reasoning between two people takes, well, two people willing to reason. Otherwise? It is just a waste of time. The ending to this story is not going to be pretty, I suspect. 

Here is a better idea: do what Highland Park did. Determine how you want to be governed at the local level. At least seven Supreme Court Justices agree that local governments have that authority. 

I really should listen to the radio less on these cross country trips....