A fast 25
Do look now: We’ve just completed the first quarter of the 21st Century.
By my reckoning, the past 25 years have zipped past. Yet when I consider all we’ve witnessed in that time span, it seems all the more remarkable.
If you were born in the previous century (sorry if that sounds pensively anachronistic), you likely recall New Year’s Eve of 1999 when we all held our breath. Hundreds of millions of dollars had been spent updating computer systems so the year 2000 wouldn’t become 1900 in the digital world, emptying bank accounts, crashing planes, upending nuclear power plants and spreading world-wide Y2K chaos.
Was it an over-reaction? I haven’t a clue. But I know U.S. military leadership was concerned enough that 18 Russian military advisers were invited to a principal missile command center in Colorado to ensure direct communication was possible and miscalculation avoided should technology collapse.
So what’s happened since then? There was 9/11, the Iraq War, Facebook, the iPhone, human genomes, Katrina, Covid, a financial crisis, global warming, Taylor Swift and lots of presidential politics.
Tuning out, feeling better
I saw a University of Chicago study that said 47 percent of Republicans, 52 percent of independents and 72 percent of Democrats are feeling a need to limit their consumption of news about politics and government.
Count me—a political science major and lifelong news junkie—among them. Feel free to skip to the next item if you must. But as part of my online therapy, I believe I’ll feel better if I unburden myself of this short collection of observations as we turn the calendar page to inauguration month.
The president-elect’s approach to international relations—appearing erratic, bluffing hard and throwing caution to the wind—might work. Until it doesn’t. Predictability is a stabilizing force in global affairs.
I can’t imagine his bromance with Elon Musk will last. The president-elect is all about being the center of attention and he doesn’t long tolerate people who steal the spotlight.
I worry the president-elect’s principal grasp of how American democracy is supposed to work came from watching the Netflix hit “House of Cards” where blind political ambition, deceit and power plays ruled the day.
Can you be a member of MAGA and believe the 2016 election was not stolen?
There will be some interesting personal dynamics on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol 20 days from now during a peaceful transition of power: an incoming president basking in the moment, a departing vice-president and losing candidate trying to appear gracious, and a frail departing president, surely reflecting on whether history will remember him as kindly as it does Jimmy Carter.
If principled conservatives want to reclaim the Republican Party, former congressman Adam Kinzinger is standing by. In an interview with my friend and columnist Bill Flick, Kinzinger made it clear he’d be open, under the right circumstances, to a run for the presidency.
Al Gore had it right 45 years ago when he started pushing for urgent action against climate change. While we were in Illinois this year, Phoenix had 113 consecutive days when temperatures topped 100 degrees. CNN recently observed: “2024 may have been the coolest year for the rest of our lives.”
I never thought I’d miss Mike Pence.
Special operations
Want an inside look at the fascinating and impressive planning and implementation that went into the U.S. military’s take-downs of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein? Read Sea Stories by William McRaven. He commanded all U.S. Special Operations Forces when he retired a decade ago.
I served in the military alongside Green Berets, the U.S. Army’s elite warriors, so I have high regard for the intense training and broad skills that qualify them for unconventional warfare. But Sea Stories greatly elevated my appreciation for what it takes to become a SEAL, a member of the Navy’s storied special operations force.
A fresh college graduate, McRaven was one of 155 Naval “tadpoles” who began Seal training in 1977. By the ninth week, all but 55 had dropped out, and in the first six hours of “Hell Week,” another 11 quit. After eight months of training, 33 graduated.
In this memoir, McRaven admits every Seal “longs for a worthy fight,” that they’re “rough men who had to do violence to make the world right.” There’s very little introspection about the free hand they’re often granted to make decisions about who lives and dies. And there’s but a passing reference to “groupthink” that wrongly determined Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.
But the description of the training and planning that makes possible the rescue of hostages and apprehension of terrorists makes this a worthy read for reasons even beyond the action-packed chapters involving bin Laden and Hussein. It causes us to think hard about a military commander who writes, “To each man God has given special talents. Mine seemed better suited to exacting justice than to offering mercy.”
Hard to believe
Get ready to say “happy birthday” to Bill Poole of Bolivar, Mo.
Among fewer and fewer World War Two veterans still alive, he’ll turn 100 years old Jan. 13.
He was captured and briefly held by the Nazis in the Battle of the Bulge 80 years ago. But here’s the really amazing fact: He’s the son of a Civil War veteran.
His father Charles was born in 1844, lost a leg as a Union soldier and died in 1933. He was 80 when Bill was born. Bill’s mother drew a widow’s pension until she died in 1990 at age 102.
Imagine being able to truthfully say, “My father fought in the Civil War.”
Altogether now
I had an especially satisfying day earlier this month.
It began with an uneventful visit to the doctor’s office (always a good thing at my age). A few hours later I was watching a junior high soccer team, expertly coached by our son-in-law, win its league championship in a thrilling game that went into overtime. And then we adjourned to a nearby high school for our granddaughter’s holiday music concert.
Her suburban Phoenix school has a robust strings program. About 125 players (including two harpists!) obviously enjoyed performing exquisite music of the season.
At the very end, the musicians stood in the aisles, literally surrounding the audience that mostly filled the auditorium. And (here’s the kicker) school alumni and string-playing relatives of current students were invited to join the orchestra for one final number.
Yes, my daughter and I had both brought our violins so we could stand with my granddaughter and the rest of the Campo Verde High School Strings playing a holiday classic. About halfway into this three-minute video. About halfway into this three-minute video, you’ll first see my granddaughter (white blouse, cute Santa hat), then the old guy in a blue sweater with his talented daughter in red. A beautiful sound. An even more beautiful memory.
Some dark paths
“Everyone deserves representation” is a phrase frequently heard from the legal community when an especially evil person is hauled into court with a lawyer at his side.
According to one of Phil Elwood’s early bosses, the same sentiment justifies public relations work done for undesirables. In the end, Elwood is embarrassed by the PR successes he has accomplished in behalf of All the Worst Humans, the title of his new telltale book.
He describes the PR industry as a parasite whose basic purpose is to get journalists to tell stories about their clients or their clients’ enemies.
“I hold many journalists in such high esteem because I envy their uncomplicated relationship to the truth,” he writes while noting there are more than seven PR pros for every journalist in America.
Elwood’s stories illustrate how a big part of what we see and read in the media is fueled by PR.
“Operators like me oil the machines that prop up authoritarian power all over the world,” he writes. “I help those machines function by laundering the sins of dictators through the press. I attack their enemies. Provide backdoor access to Washington.”
Elwood’s book is mostly story-telling, including an amazing account of how Qatar paid him to undermine the United States bid for the 2022 World Cup, likely influencing the decision that gave Qatar the winning bid despite its serious human rights issues and a construction schedule that cost human lives.
Elwood’s work has taken him down some dark paths that involve names like Assad and Gaddafi. Along the way he criticizes Washington think tanks that accept donations from entities that expect research findings that will benefit their cause. And he criticizes the Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision that 14 years ago opened doors to political spending by corporations and unions, “giving all the worst humans all the worst tools.”
This book is startling in its revelations (possibly even to PR pros) and—if we can trust the truth any more—worrisome.
In the jury box
If you’re a fan of legal thrillers with complicated moral dilemmas, the new Clint Eastwood-directed movie “Juror #2” is for you.
No spoilers here. Just know that an expectant father’s life gets very complicated when he’s a juror in a murder case. Much of the drama occurs in the jury room.
This movie got very little attention when it hit theaters two months ago. It’s already streaming on Max and benefits from the 94-year-old Eastwood’s talents. Its most recognizable talent is J.K. Simmons (pictured here) as a retired Chicago police detective. Others are Kiefer Sutherland, Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette.
Unbugged and bugged
And a final couple thoughts as we close out 2024:
One thing I didn’t miss this year? Those cicadas. Entomologists said two overlapping broods would emerge by the billions last summer near where we live in Illinois.
They never showed up.
I’ve gone from wondering why to wondering what might it mean. Do they know something we don’t and decided it’s better to stay underground? Nah. I think they’re just procrasti-cada-ing.
And our son-in-law adds depth of understanding to what being part of the “sandwich generation” entails—particularly after the holidays.
He observes it now goes beyond needing to simultaneously tend to the basic needs of both your children and elderly parents. It now requires spending hours first setting up and then providing instruction on how to use new technology both kids and parents got for Christmas. The in-laws are more likely to require remedial digital instruction.
Here’s hoping all your sandwiches are delicious. A happy, healthy new year to you.