The South: poor, sick and bigoted

This is the month in 1865 that Grant took Richmond and received Lee's surrender, putting an end to the Confederacy. Or did it? Southern attitudes didn't seem to die. Voting obstacles are still in place. Corrupt gerrymandering keeps the rednecks in Congress and rejection of Medicaid punishes poor citizens. Harper Lee said it best about southerners, “ When you don't want anything, there's plenty.” Peasant traits, to use the words of John Berger, are mostly conservative. The resentment of Southern conservatives has hindered their understanding of the political reality of the modern world. The northern middle class and certainly the upper class, retain a mastery of the world of their making. Marx, always a dirty word in America, said, “It's not enough to understand the world, you have to work to change it.” Have you ever been to Shanghai? It rivals Manhattan. Marxism is certainly working there turning peasants into billionaires. The city has risen swiftly to bustling wealth and skyscrapers of glittering lights and steel. This is the result of a hard-working population unleashed to prosper yet still offer visitors their sincere goodwill. As for the South, if you'll pardon a rude expression, it doesn't have a Chinaman's chance.

Some timely advice for Powerball losers

With odds at 292 million to 1 you never really had much of a chance to become an instant billionaire. But you did have something equally precious: hope. Frame your ticket as a reminder of that fervent hope—the thing that springs eternal in the human breast. “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul”, wrote Emily Dickinson, “and never stops at all.” The winner of the jackpot will meet the modern J. Beresford Tipton awarding the money. In the CBS TV show a million dollars went to somone every week who Tipton never met. It showed people's reaction to instant wealth but most were never changed for the better. In one spoof the recipient tore up the check and said, “I don't need it, I'm Mike Todd” (He also had Elizabeth Taylor). So the winner will be in the same league with George Soros but without the financial acumen; Bill Gates without creating anything. He will be deluged with advice on investing. The IRS will love him as will the well-rewarded QuickEMart that sold the ticket. His life will not be his own anymore. As for you dear loser, heed the words of the Beatles song: “Money can't buy me love”. And when the winner dies they will ask, “How much did he leave?”. The answer will be, “All of it.”

Hillary: a hawkish grandmother in Wall Street's pocket

And probably our next president. I prefer Bernie but I'll vote for Hillary and the straight Democratic ticket. I went to Berkeley and the Republican slate is too full of belligerent ignorance for me. However, they do provide an amusing theater of the absurd loosely based on Shakespeare's “Much ado about nothing”. Top billing goes to a guy who alternates between MacBeth and Iago. There is an Othello and of course a Lady MacBeth, a Florida governor who plays Hamlet and a New Jersey governor who makes a credible Falstaff. The stage is full of unimportant roles and Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are dispatched early. One guy, who was born in Calgary, has stumbled in from a Samuel Beckett play. Really, it's all in good fun. This is what you get in an era of second and third raters. Their limitations are boundless. We've had 44 presidents and only Washington, Lincoln and FDR have been deemed great. It'll be over in November and then we can go back to watching reality television (Bowling for Fish sounds exciting). Speaking of television, there was a cartoon in the New Yorker during the Nixon years showing a middle aged matron in her chair watching the news and saying wistfully: “I wish Gene Kelly would run for something”.

On turning 40--twice!

Yes, I'm 80. “Vierzig zweimal”, and I'm thankful since I now have the longevity record on my side of the family. Who wants to be 80—people 79. I've had a wonderful life with the same wife and children I have always been blessed with. I'm a diabetic with arthritis and Graves disease but I'm in better physical shape than Stephen Hawking even with my much lower IQ. I can remember my first Thanksgiving in 1944 with servicemen around the table asking for “more toikey”. I've finished my bucket list seeing the world from the Pantheon to the Parthenon. There's a long list of things I don't need anymore: new car brochures, centerfolds, commuting (a pain in the asphalt), three martini lunches and neckties. I don't read the sports section anymore because I've seen Gordie Howe, Ted Williams and Willie Mays in their prime so who cares about overpaid nonentities on wannabe teams. The Neptune Society keeps bugging me but I've put them on the back burner. People are going to say nice things about me at my funeral but I'm probably going to miss it by a few days. A song by Zero 7 sums it up: “Just one step closer to the end of the buffet, 'cause we're waiting to die...and yes it's true, death is everyone's fate, but we've made it this far so let's celebrate”. Pass the toikey and don't forget the gravy. PS This picture was taken in Vladivostock 20 years ago so I'm not as young as I look.

Slouching towards Roseburg

I know Roseburg Oregon. I've been there many times. My wife's family farmed there for over 100 years. It's a beautiful, peaceful, friendly place. But a week ago the madness of the gun culture found it and murdered nine innocent people and injured many more. The picture of a woman weeping wearing a Walmart T-shrt that says “Live better” is more than ironic. President Obama was there to commiserate with the families who lost loved ones. That's all he can do and even that brought out the gun nuts who told him he wasn't wanted. That's where we are now in our ungovernable country. Nobody can do anything to stop the violence. You saw the Republican debate of 10 muddled oafs (and one charmless oafess) babble on in their self-importance. Scott Walker, the college dropout whose foreign policy is “beat Ohio State”. Perhaps a singer could set the tone with the Sam Cooke song: “Don't know much about geography, or history, or sociology or economics”. Keynes said that the American contingent that came to Europe after WWI only came to preen and not offer any serious thoughts on keeping the peace and “then returned home to their Texas civilization”. We're too dumb to be governed,” Bill Maher said and we only have to look at ourselves...impatient and out of control..bombing hospitals in Iraq and then lying about it. The clairvoyant novelist Joseph Conrad saw the carnage that was coming. He said “unarmed goodwill is useless against armed malice”. We don't need more guns, we need better people.

Give me Liberty or give me Harrods

I'm paraphrasing Patrick Henry's rousing comment: “Give me Liberty or give me death” that inspired both Jefferson and Washington to revolution and dissolving the bonds with Britain. I got my inspiration from seeing our secretary of state, John Kerry alighting from his plane in London yesterday onto a mat that said: Harrods Aviation. We're good friends with England now so let's go shopping. First to Harrods and Liberty, two of the major stores as well as Selfridges, started by a man from Chicago. Of course Kerry had a serious agenda: on to Germany for discussions about the refugees and some meetings about Russian actions in Syria. In “1984” Orwell had demoted England to “Airstrip One”. I've spent a lot of time on Airstrip One including a day when I had breakfast in London, lunch in Zurich and dinner in Amsterdam (where I promptly got pneumonia. Of note are other revolutionary quotes updated: “These are the times that try men's wallets” Thomas Paine. “ I have not yet begun to shop” Mrs. John Paul Jones. “I've got the horse right here, his name is Paul Revere”..actually that's “Nicely Nicely Johnson, a gambler in Guys and Dolls. End of today's history lesson and let that be a lesson to you!

Do black lives really matter?

Of course they do and far beyond a momentary t-shirt slogan. Orwell stated his “hard truths”, mostly about religious nonsense and political lying. He was famously disinterested in America but his observations about English society seem relevant to ours. He knew that the middle class was politically passive and would rather come home, watch football and have a nice meal with the missus. Carrying banners (and wearing t-shirts) was for “Bolshies” and picketers. I'm sure Orwell would agree that the hard truths about America are unending racial injustice and gun violence. In in his fable Animal Farm, Orwell wrote, “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”. Something that could be said about our Constitution. Meanwhile, the media pollutes the thought environment with every atrocity and carnage they can find with the banner screaming “Breaking News” which really should read “Heartbreaking News”. We see several bumptious young ladies wearing “Black Lives Matter” t-shirts forcing their way onto the stage and pushing Bernie Sanders aside, probably the one and only candidate who could do something for them (Better not try that with The Donald or you'll be out on your ear in no time). “Our patience will achieve more than our force”, said Edmund Burke (Google him) It's a truth universally acknowledged that American youth is not superbly educated but rather superbly agitated. If the young are going to act up they should adopt some realpolitik of practical realism and politics based on power so they could get some results. Here's an example: Ferguson is burning and the local kids are looting. Suppose instead, a group of young people went to protect the store from looters wearing t-shirts that said “Protect Ferguson”. It would go viral, and give the media something good to air. Who knows, displaying positive behaviour like that, even The Donald might say, “You're good kids, you're hired!”