Houston (and America), We Have a Problem

Larger Houston Landsat From http://landsat.usgs.gov/gallery/detail/370/ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The city of Houston and much of southeast Texas have just been through a watery hell, thanks to Hurricane/Tropical Storm Harvey.  The toll so far:  51 inches of rain (that's over four feet), 28 dead (according to CNN), tens of thousands displaced and possibly billions of dollars in damages from the storm.

Meanwhile President Donald Trump, having just come off another ego-stroking rah-rah event in Phoenix, tried to upstage the hurricane's landfall (as only he can) by making the following announcements:

• Pardoning Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona.  He was about to face jail time for alleged racial profiling and other human rights violations in how he treated his prisoners. before Trump  came to the rescue.

• Reinforcing his ban on transgenders from serving in the military, though that has since been frozen by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis so they could study the ban before implementing it.

After days of tweets giving 'attaboys' to FEMA officials in Houston and plugging somebody's book, the President finally made it to Texas (but not Houston) to meet with local officials on how to deal with the situation.  Otherwise he treated this like a campaign stop (he did win the state in the election, you know), though he couldn't be bothered to mention those who have died or are still suffering because of Harvey.  Trump did rectify that omission the next day--in Springfield, Missouri, where he'd rather talk about reforming taxes.

Houston is the fourth-largest city in America.  It is also an environmental and man-made disaster waiting to happen, having paved over a swamp and put up a parking lot (to paraphrase Joni Mitchell), allowing no place for the water to go.  As a result, Houston from the air resembles either the Lost City of Atlantis or an American Venice every time a hurricane or a major rainstorm hits.

Because oil refineries and offshore rigs have been closed and/or damaged due to Harvey, expect to see prices spike at the pump.  It will not only cost you more to drive, but you will also be paying more for everything else.  So there goes Trump's robust economy.

It's too early to compare Harvey with Katrina, the other infamous storm that hit a major U.S. city.  As this storm moves north (it has already hit Beaumont and Lake Charles hard), the floodwaters will eventually recede and many unpleasant reminders of what the water left behind await.  Is this going to be the future of violent storms and cities underwater many scientists have warned about?  And what do we do about a president who just sentenced us to that kind of future?

Jerry Lewis (1926-2017): Comedian, Auteur, Lightning Rod

English: Comedian Jerry Lewis - Photograph by Patty Mooney, Crystal Pyramid Productions, San Diego, California (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jerry Lewis, who died Sunday at age 91, was a man of many talents.  He was a comedian, a singer, an actor, a film director and a humanitarian.  He also did some things that rubbed people the wrong way.

Lewis first came to our attention as one-half of a successful professional partnership with Dean Martin during the 1940s and 50s.  The act worked like this:  Lewis used a high-pitched voice and ran around like a little kid, while Martin played straight man and sang love songs.  Martin and Lewis mugged their way through nightclubs, radio, TV and several Hollywood movies.  Audiences ate it up.

When the partnership famously ended in 1956, Lewis started acting and directing movies that were essentially comedies with a dramatic edge--something you couldn't replicate in a nightclub act.  The best-known of these films was "The Nutty Professor", which was Lewis' take on "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, playing a dual role as the aforementioned professor and his lounge-singing alter ego with a mean streak.

Lewis' later films were met with mixed results for critics and audiences alike, though he did win rave reviews for his dramatic roles in the movie "The King of Comedy" (with Robert DeNiro) and in the TV series "Wiseguy".  He was much better received in France, however, having been awarded their Legion of Honor.

Lewis was also known for his annual Labor Day telethons, which benefited the Muscular Dystrophy Association.  He raised over two billion dollars in the 44-year history of the telethon for his "kids", though the manner in which he did it--portraying those living with the disease as objects of pity and condescension--bothered disabled rights advocates and other critics. He also got in hot water when it came to his antiquated views on women in comedy and gays.

Jerry Lewis was a man who spent most of his career making us laugh, cry, think and get angry.  He did it his way, just like old showbiz pal Frank Sinatra did.  And he was never boring.  All that mugging really paid off.

The Trump Eclipse

English: Total Solar eclipse 1999 in France. * Additional noise reduction performed by Diliff. Original image by Luc Viatour. Français : L'éclipse totale de soleil en 1999 faite en France. * Réduction du bruit réalisée par Diliff. Image d'origine Luc Viatour. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Monday was the day when the moon merged with the sun over the continental United States, creating a minute or two of midday darkness for the first time since 1979.

Big deal.  President Donald Trump has been blotting out the political and media sunlight with his words, actions and tweets for the past eight months.  He even took off his protective eyewear during the solar eclipse, just to prove he could.  No, the sun, moon and stars doesn't revolve around the President.  It just seems that way.

In the past week alone, Trump used his news conference to make himself the best friend neo-Nazis, the KKK and other hate groups ever had in insisting that "both sides" were responsible for the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia that left one dead and nineteen injured.  He used Twitter to bemoan the removal of statues of Confederate generals (which is what started the disturbance in the first place), as if the War Between The States was a noble cause reflecting the values of all the rednecks who voted for him.

The day after his Trump Tower meltdown, the President disbanded his economic councils after several CEOs who were horrified by his comments quit in disgust.  Later, the arts commission made a similar decision.  In response, Trump decides not to participate in the Kennedy Center Honors.

On Friday, chief strategist Steve Bannon was let go.  A role model for the alt-right, Bannon was believed to be the mastermind behind many of Trump's most controversial actions.  But then the President must have decided he could do racism all by himself, thank you.  So Bannon returned to the Breitbart website from whence he came, where he will presumably rip into his former boss whenever possible.

On the day of the solar eclipse, Trump went on what he likes to call the "fake news" TV channels to talk about Afghanistan--a 17-year old conflict most Americans had forgotten about.  He said something about doubling down on the commitment to America's longest war, but mentioned nothing about increasing troop levels to take on those hated Taliban or when they were coming home.  He also managed to alienate Pakistan by trying to get India involved, even though both U.S. allies could annihilate each other with nuclear weapons within minutes.  (Speaking of nukes, whatever happened to North Korea?)  This reverses years of Trump's complaining about how the Afghan war was a losing proposition that should have ended a long time ago.  Your perspective does change once you step into that Oval Office.

Congressional Republicans seem to be blinded by the light when it comes to figuring out what to do about Trump.  Several GOP luminaries have denounced him by name over Charlottesville, which is something they wouldn't have done before for fear of a Trump tweet-lashing.  But others look at the popularity of Trump among voters in their home states and say nothing.  Despite all the options available to remove a President (impeachment, resignation, censure, implementation of the 25th Amendment, etc.), the most likely course of action for the GOP is a familiar one--which is sitting on their hands and doing nothing, then hope the voters won't notice in 2018.

The next solar eclipse to pass through the United States won't be until 2024.  By then, the Trump Eclipse will either be nearing the end of its second term, or will have fizzled out long before.  Until then, the future's so cloudy that you're gonna need those protective sunglasses.

The Pulpit of a Bully

Donald Trump enters the Oscar De LA Renta Fashion Show, New York. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The term 'bully pulpit' was coined by Theodore Roosevelt, which was originally meant as a way for the former President to promote his agenda when he was in office, whether it's busting trusts or protecting the environment.  TR also liked to say "bully" a lot, in reaction to anything he considered superb or great to him.

Fast forward to this century.  The word "bully" has taken on a more ominous meaning.  Under President Donald Trump the pulpit he uses, whether it be Twitter or the occasional public statement where no questions from the peanut gallery are allowed, has not resulted in getting his agenda across.  Instead, it's been mostly used to bully and intimidate all those who oppose him.  And the list is long:  his own staff, politicians from both parties, the news media, "Saturday Night Live", world leaders, environmentalists, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, anyone involved in the Russian investigation, etc.  Everyone, that is, except Russian president Vladimir Putin.

There are times when Trump's bully pulpit gets him in serious trouble, enough to endanger the lives of millions of people and his own credibility.  Here are two recent examples.

The North Korean Missile Crisis

When North Korea's nuclear program advanced much farther than anyone thought, developing a missile capable of reaching the United States, Trump responded with a war of words with "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-un that frightened the world.   The President threatened to unleash "fire and fury like the world has never seen" on the Korean peninsula if Kim dared to attack this country.  And should the North Koreans bomb the Pacific island of Guam, which has American military bases, Trump assures us that Our Troops are "locked and loaded".  Seeing that the Trump administration is nowhere near ready to commit the country to a nuclear holocaust, nor is Kim willing to sacrifice his impoverished nation to a war he's certain to lose, apocalyptic rhetoric like this is never helpful in the cause of world peace.

For now, Kim has apparently decided to back off on plans to bomb Guam, instead preferring to wait and see what Trump's next move might be.  So are we.

Charlottesville

In Charlottesville, Virginia--the home of a university founded by Thomas Jefferson and located in the heart of the old Confederacy--a march of extreme-right groups degenerated into violent clashes between them and the demonstrators who protested their mere existence.  A car rammed into those demonstrators, killing one woman and injuring 19 others.  The suspect, who is from Ohio, has been arrested and charged.

Trump took time out from his "working vacation" at one of his resorts in New Jersey to address the situation, sort of.  He blamed "all sides" for the violence in Virginia, spoke a few words about tolerance, then exited stage left.  The crescendo of criticism from "all sides"--including members of his own party--forced the President to make another statement from the White House two days later. This time he remembered to mention by name the hate groups--the ones who helped him win the election--who helped make this tragedy possible.  His critics were not impressed.

It should be noted that in neither speech did the President mention nor give his reaction to the bombing of a mosque in Bloomington, Minnesota the previous week, with no deaths reported.  As of August 15, the FBI is still investigating and no suspects have been arrested.

President Trump has turned the bully pulpit into the pulpit of a bully.  The longer he stays in office, the more likely it is he could say or do something that causes irreparable harm to him, his country and the world.  Not that he listens to anyone's advice but his own, but Trump might benefit from another of Teddy Roosevelt's famous sayings:  "Speak softly and carry a big stick".  In the President's case, it might as well be "Tweet Loudly and Carry a Big Mouth".

Random Thoughts '17: North Korea, Olympics, Glen Campbell, etc.

Flag of North Korea (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With North Korea's ability to fire nuclear missiles at the United States getting better and better sooner than most experts thought, so is the warmongering rhetoric between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.  They're both acting like belligerent children instead of mature adults every time they make statements predicting the other's fiery doom.  Secretary of State Rex Tillerson actually told Americans to sleep well while defending his boss' rash words.  Um, no.  People in Seattle, the rest of the West Coast, Hawaii, Alaska, and now Guam are definitely sleepless over being in the line of nuclear fire should the Korean War ever restart after a 64-year absence.

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Ten days after Anthony Scaramucci was named White House communications director, he was told to scram by the new chief of staff, former Homeland Security chief John Kelly.  "The Mooch" came in like a wrecking ball (apologies to Miley Cyrus), getting press secretary Sean Spicer and Kelly's predecessor Reince Priebus to quit.  But then came the expletive-laden interview with The New Yorker magazine, in which Scaramucci ripped into other Trump staffers.  All this was accomplished before he officially got the job.  Nice work.  See ya, Mooch.

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Over the weekend, somebody snuck a pipe bomb into a mosque in Bloomington, Minnesota.  Nobody was hurt in the explosion, but there was substantial damage to the place.  The FBI is currently on the case, and no suspects have been arrested.  Yet the governor of Minnesota, Mark Dayton, called the incident a terrorist attack even though there is no evidence of that.  Peaceful demonstrations consisted of people of all faiths who came to show support.  President Trump, who has made no secret of his desire to deport every Muslim he can, has not made a statement condemning the incident.  But one of his advisers did claim that Democrats might be behind this.  Maybe we should all wait until the facts come in before we jump to conclusions.

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Paris and Los Angeles were the only two cities willing to pay big money for the opportunity to host the Summer Olympic games.  Both have hosted twice:  Paris in 1900 and 1924.  Los Angeles in 1932 and 1984.  Now both will host a third time:  Paris in 2024 and L.A. in 2028.  That is, if one of Kim Jong-un's bombs doesn't destroy the city first.

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Glen Campbell (1936-2017) was a musician who parlayed his master guitar picking and his good looks into a career that included songs that topped the pop and country charts in the 1960s and '70s ("Wichita Lineman", "Galveston", "Rhinestone Cowboy" and so many others), his own TV variety series and several movie roles.  When he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, he taught the world how to say goodbye with a final concert tour and album, which resulted in the documentary "I'll Be Me".  He was 81.

The Fall and Rise of a Minneapolis Bridge

I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapse, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Portions of this post was originally published as "Tumbling Down" on August 9, 2007.  It has been updated and revised.

Imagine, if you will, driving down a major metropolitan bridge  in the heart of the rush hour.  Suddenly, the ground underneath you buckles, cars start disappearing in front of you, and either you fall into the river or come face to face with broken steel girders and crooked slabs of concrete.  Either you survive this or you don't.

No need to imagine.  This actually happened on the evening of August 1, 2007--ten years ago this week--on what used to be known as the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge in Minneapolis, which had been traveled on by an estimated 140,000 cars daily.  The collapse killed 13 people and injured 145.

This was a disaster that could have happened just about anywhere.  Roads, bridges and utilities decades old have gone without improvements.  The I-35W bridge, built in 1967, was deemed "structurally deficient" back when it was last inspected in 2005.  It wasn't supposed to be replaced until 2020.

The National Transportation Safety Board blamed the collapse on a gusset plate that was too thin, plus the added weight from all those cars.  Terrorism was not involved.

One question bothered me throughout this crisis:  What if this happened in New York City?  There are a few bridges crossing the Hudson River that could easily have gone down with ten times more traffic than Minneapolis.  If this were in New York, broadcast and cable news coverage would be wall-to-wall, not to mention the havoc it would have created on social media.  The President and Congress would be taking immediate action, and the country would be in mourning for several days.  If this had happened in New York, Minneapolis would be quickly forgotten the way the Oklahoma City bombing of its federal building was after September 11, 2001.

President Donald Trump made a promise during the campaign to upgrade the country's infrastructure, and he has proposed a budget that would improve roads, bridges, airports, etc.  But Congress, exhausted from having failed once again to repeal and replace Obamacare along with the ongoing shenanigans in the White House, is putting infrastructure on the back burner for now.

Soon after the bridge collapsed, plans were made to build a replacement on the same site.  Construction began in September 2007, and was impressively finished a year later.  The rebuilt structure, now named the St. Anthony Falls Bridge, opened September 18, 2008.  But every August 1st since then, a moment of silence is observed to honor the victims of what happened here on a summer's evening in 2007.  After all, it could have been you or me.