Was Bob Seger the original Boss?

We went to see Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band last night at the Moda Center here in Portland. We had seen the band on their last tour here a few years back and loved the show. He scheduled what was to be his last tour in 2017, but completed only 13 dates out of 32 scheduled, due to a ruptured disc that required major surgery. Most thought that he would retire at that point, but he announced last year that he would make up the dates he canceled and add more. He also said it would definitely be his last tour.

It was a great show, if a little less tight and balanced than when we last saw him. He said he would play some obscure songs, and that he did, which was fun but inevitably led to the omission of some of his many crowd favorites. The high points of the two-hour show were very high indeed and intensely emotional, and the band was professional and high-energy throughout.

About halfway through the concert, it occurred to me how similar Seger is to Springsteen, and in so many ways that I had never considered. Sure there are lots of differences, and Springsteen is a musical generation removed from Seger, who had his first national hit and album in 1968. But consider the almost eerie similarities; after following them both for decades, I never have.

First, from day one of their careers, the band has belonged to them, and not just by carrying their name. They wrote all of their respective songs, were in charge of not only the musical but also all of the business decisions. 

And there’s so much more. From a musical standpoint, they both put together bands heavily reliant on keyboards in an era when guitar was king. Both prominently featured both piano and organ on their albums and in their live performances. Strikingly, unlike almost every other band back then, both had a feature saxophonist nearly all the way back to the genesis of their careers. More subtly, neither has been hesitant to add additional players and instruments, and to feature acoustic instruments in the live environment. I have seen both bands numerous times, both in their earlier incarnations as well as in their current iterations, and last night I was struck by how visually similar they are today on stage. Both feature back up singers and horn sections on risers to the sides. Both have two full-time keyboard players and dynamic and varied rock and roll percussion that goes beyond an energetic drummer, and both have the eponymous front man who is as much a musical director on stage as he is a mere lead singer. 

Lastly, both write songs that are uniquely American and incredibly heartfelt and truly meaningful. Think of “My Hometown” and “Turn the Page,” two songs that couldn’t be more different in musical structure or subject matter, and yet mine the deep emotion and longing of quintessential American personal experience.

The last great similarity is the love the audiences show these two artists when they play live with their bands. There is plenty of fan-love to be seen at concerts, but the love I feel at a Stones or a U2 concert is a kind of hero-worship or “aspirational love” if you will. With Seger and Springsteen it is intense and personal, and make no mistake, it is love.

Maybe Bob was really the original Boss …

Portland, Oregon
February 3, 2019

A Tale of Two Summits ... or, "Every Picture Tells a Story, Don't It?"

The responses to the two summit meetings involving our erstwhile President have been legion, both on the news channels and feeds and on social media. I made a Facebook post entitled “Every Picture Tells a Story, Don’t It?” a nod to a famous Rod Stewart line, without further comment. Although this steps a bit close to my self-proclaimed FB boundary of commenting on neither politics nor religion, I thought the title to be essentially non-partisan.

Well, was I in for an awakening!

Of all the Orwellian events and quotes of the last week, nothing struck me harder or made me sadder that the radically different interpretations on both the photo that I posted and the press coverage of the North Korea summit by both the supporters and opponents of our fearless leader. Actually, “Orwellian” likely does a disservice to old George. We know that 1984 has come and gone when we read the post-Orwellian quotes and tweets from Mr. Trump. Who could have possibly imagined in their most intense fever dream that the president of the Untied States would call the leader of our closest ally, with whom he had previously gotten along bromantically, “very dishonest and weak,” and then two days later praise Mr. Kim, an international criminal and cold-blooded murderer that Trump has previously directly threatened with nuclear annihilation, by calling him “very smart,” “a very talented man,” and “a very good negotiator?” And the one that would be hilarious if it wasn’t so frightening: “I trust him. I really do.” At one point he even said M. Kim could be “very funny.” You can’t make this stuff up. A quick look at Mr. Kim’s record of brutality towards his own people will not conjure the word “funny” for many people.

But this frankly unbelievable behavior has been dissected and analyzed by far more talented pundits than I. The absolutely shocking treatment of our G7 partners and the even more unbelievable praise for Mr. Kim has been and will be denounced by all but the Fox news nutjobs. What makes me crazy and dispirited at the same time is how people on both sides of American “politics” have interpreted the events of both summits. The picture of German chancellor Angela Merkel leaning on a table and staring down at a seated and arms-crossed Trump was seen by almost everyone I know as one strong leader (Merkel) making a point directly aimed at another leader who looked petulant and even childish. There were literally thousands of comments on social media, initially almost all in that vein, but a backlash started almost immediately by the right wing trolls. A comment from my Facebook post is pretty typical:

She looks like she is begging for his understanding which he is refusing. Thats what leaders of the free world do, stand up a crowd mentality.

Will you continue to accept all of this? If so, you are essentially complicit with the spineless sheep known as the republican congress. And to those who blindly support Mr. Trump: Exactly how far does our leader have to go before you realize that he is an unhinged would-be dictator who cares not a whit about our beloved constitutional democracy? Canceled elections? Maybe nuclear war?

My friend Roger Campana put it very eloquently in response to the above comment, talking about leadership:

Your definition of leadership leaves a lot to be desired. Leaders get results, not call people names, make personnel attacks, and stomp off before the job is done. They put their feelings aside and concentrate on the mission. History shows that isolationism and trade tariffs/wars don't work. Leaders do their homework and create a call to action; because the "only thing you get in a pissing contest is wet."

(Quote used by permission.)

Portland, OR

June 13, 2018

Don't Pop the Corks Just Yet ...

There is not a trace of doubt that last night’s shocking defeat of the Senate Republicans’ so-called “Skinny Repeal” of Obamacare represents a major defeat for the fractured Republican Party and the rapidly unraveling Trump administration. However, it would be ignoring recent history to assume that some kind of bipartisan cooperation is nigh.

It bears remembering that this toxic piece of legislation failed only at the last second, and under some very unlikely circumstances.  Even with the consistent and principled stand of Republican senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins against the bill, the senate vote seemed headed for a post-midnight 50-50 tie, with Vice President Pence lurking about the senate floor ready to play the role of tiebreaker.  It is almost unthinkable that 49 senators, most of them knowing full well that the legislation was unconscionably cruel, voted “aye” anyway, particularly after several of their own leaders publicly referred to it as a “joke” and a “fraud.” It took a last minute “no” vote from a career Republican politician and former Presidential candidate to foil Mitch McConnell’s underhanded plan.

Enter John McCain, a paradox of a politician and lawmaker if there ever was one. One of the strongest critics of Obamacare, he will nonetheless be remembered as a self-described “Maverick” who was not afraid to disagree with his party on principles he considered non-negotiable. He is also known as a cantankerous old curmudgeon with a mean streak and a long memory. Don’t forget, this is the man who gave you Sarah Palin, whose candidacy served as the perfect opening act for Donald Trump. The same man who dressed down one of his own supporters at a town hall meeting during the 2008 campaign. When a woman took the wireless mic and proclaimed, "I can't trust Obama. I have read about him and he's not, he's not uh — he's an Arab. He's not — ", McCain angrily took the mic back and replied,  "No, ma'am. He's a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign's all about. He's not [an Arab]." But McCain is also an unrepentant warmonger who once famously sang “Bomb, bomb, bomb…bomb, bomb Iran” on mic to the tune of the Beach Boys' Barbara Ann.

He is undeniably a military hero, having endured years of degradation and torture in North Vietnam. On the other hand, he was a demonstrably awful pilot who personally crashed either three or four multi-million dollar aircraft, depending on who you talk to. He also has a long history of mutual antagonism with Donald Trump, with both men making little effort to hide their personal dislike for each other. After the crucial “no” vote, McCain was asked his reasoning behind the vote, to which he simply replied, “It was the right vote.” But why was it right? Was it the final moral stand of a terminally ill but ultimately principled man, or the final, decisive “fuck you” to Mr. Trump?

Don’t start pulling corks just yet. Trump remains totally obsessed with all things Obama, and has made no secret of his preference to “Let Obamacare fail.” Except it is doing no such thing, and as Paul Krugman eloquently explains in the New York Times, “Or to put it a bit differently, when Trump threatens to “let Obamacare fail,” what he’s really threatening is to make it fail.” I wrote of the moral bankruptcy of the Republican “healthcare” initiative in my previous post entitled Heartless Bastards. I think the last few sentences bear repeating after the stunning events of the past few weeks:

I ask you, the citizen, the potential voter: Will you rise above your partisan politics and call this travesty of a health care plan what it is? Will you admit that our congressmen care only about their own monetary greed and political power, and not a whit about what is right for you and our country? Will you tolerate living in an amoral society where we allow the neediest of our fellow citizens, many of them innocent children, to die? Because that is exactly what we are talking about here, the death of our weakest. Will you look at these men and call them what they are?

They are heartless bastards.

Portland, Oregon

July 28, 2017

Heartless Bastards

The American Health Care Act, a truly awful piece of legislation by virtually any measure, passed in the House of Representatives yesterday. Following this “victory,” the House Republicans were bused over to the White House for – wait for it – a beer bash and victory celebration. Forget the fact that celebrating after a sure-to-be-rewritten bill has passed only the House is like declaring victory in an NBA playoff game when you hold a one-point lead at the end of the first quarter. What really gets to me is the naked, crass lack of empathy for the weakest members of our increasingly broken democracy: our sick, handicapped, and poor. Tack on the party’s pathological focus on rolling back all of our meager progress on women’s health issues, and we have a party in control of both houses of congress, not to mention the white house, careening down a very dark road, with the accelerator on the floor.

Unfortunately, the gear is reverse.

A week ago, getting this bill passed looked like an impossible task. It was too radical for the moderate Republicans and too moderate for the radical wing known as the House Freedom Caucus. The compromise bill was only successful after strong-arm lobbying of individual congressmen by Speaker Paul Ryan and Vice President Mike Pence, and two amendments, one to please the moderates and another to appease the radicals. It is the shockingly cynical MacArthur amendment that deserves the most scrutiny as well as the most scorn. It is essentially a loophole big enough to drive the buses that took these guys to the White House through. It is both deceptive and utterly cynical. It allows the individual states to opt out of many of the key guarantees of Obamacare like coverage of pre-existing conditions and lifetime caps on insurance payouts.

As a veteran of advanced bladder cancer, both the pre-existing conditions and lifetime caps changes have a very real chance of affecting me personally. But don’t weep for me; I’m an old man who has had a great life. Weep for the child who is born with a serious disease, a child who may never be able to have heath insurance in her entire life due to this calculatedly cruel bill. Take ten minutes and watch Jimmy Kimmel’s tearful monologue about the heart disease and surgery that his newborn son endured. He closes with the question: Whether you are a Democrat, a Republican, or something else, can we not all agree that we must not let our children die because we disagree on how health care should be provided? Personally, I think Jimmy gives the Republican party too much credit. They are not disagreeing on how health care should be provided so much as whether it should be, for certain citizens at least.

My biggest fear is that the purveyors of this Faustian bargain will not be taken to task for their inhumanity, and that our apathetic and disconnected electorate will simply not care enough to get off their collective asses and send these devils packing in 2018. I feel physically ill when I view the images of their callous and tone-deaf victory beer party. Our beloved leader talks of improved care and lower costs knowing full well that his words are blatant lies. I gag at the sight of rich old white men chuckling about their supposed win, and seeing Paul Ryan’s twisted leer of a knowing smile is to look into the face of evil itself.

I ask you, the citizen, the potential voter: Will you rise above your partisan politics and call this travesty of a health care plan what it is? Will you admit that most of our Republican congressmen care only about their own monetary gain and political power, and not a whit about what is right for you and our country? Will you tolerate living in an amoral society where we allow the neediest of our fellow citizens, many of them innocent children, to die? Because that is exactly what we are talking about here, the death of our weakest. Will you look at these men and call them what they are?

They are heartless bastards.

Portland, OR
May 5th, 2017

A Timely Post From Shaun Mullen

From the award -winning journalist, author, and master blogger comes this brilliantly insightful essay on the changing role of the press and other news media in the new Trumpian era.


Portland, OR
January 25, 2017

Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain ...

Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to "leak" into the public. One last shot at me.Are we living in Nazi Germany?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017

Thousands of words have been written about this tweet, most focusing on the aggressive and inappropriate referencing of Nazi Germany. It has been deeply offensive to many. There is little doubt that his final sentence is inflammatory, not to mention egregiously incorrect, but I think it's shock value has caused most to overlook what is likely the scariest single sentence he has uttered, or Tweeted. Yes, I'm taking about the penultimate sentence: "One last shot at me."

If you read my previous post entitled The Last Gasp, you can see where I'm going with this. This sentence is more than a hint that after the inauguration this kind of "shot" at Mr. Trump will not be allowed. He is tipping us off that he is preparing to decimate or even eliminate first amendment rights when it comes to criticizing or calling to task the POTUS. And this is not even nearly the first time he has intimated as much, repeatedly calling for the weakening of freedom of the press and simultaneous strengthening of our libel laws. That this is a terrible direction in which to take our country is to me self-evident, but Mr. Trump does not care, his supporters care even less, and the docile and spineless congress may care but has not the will to act.

Our cherished democratic constitutional republic has never been more at risk.



Portland, January 13, 2017

The Last Gasp

One thing that the unexpected victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election has undoubtedly done is to remove the collective beer goggles from the American public. What was a blurry-edged image of where we are as a nation is now in perfect focus. But what does it show us?

We are looking at the irresistible force of our country’s changing population meeting the immovable object of our historical white privileged class.

The demographic march continues to erode the old norms. As the huge baby-boomer cohort of our population proceeds past the retirement home and approaches the graveyard, our country is becoming younger, browner, blacker and yellower. The historic majority of white America is on the verge of becoming a minority. To say that the older, white, conservative folks are unhappy about this would be the understatement of a lifetime.

The clear product of this situation is the commitment of the American right to do anything – anything – to perpetuate the status quo for one more election cycle. From flat-out illegal voting eligibility laws to direct appeals to foreign governments, we have seen an unprecedented effort to subvert the will of the majority of Americans. In winning the popular vote by almost three million votes, the young and our citizens of color voted overwhelmingly for Ms. Clinton, or at least definitively against Mr. Trump. The total number of voters who decided the key rust belt states’ outcomes would fit in a football stadium. The most astonishing statistic coming out of the results of the election is that 53% of white women voted for Mr. Trump. I think this is less an indication that a majority of white women want to be grabbed by the pussy as a deep-seated and mostly unearned hatred of Ms. Clinton. Who would have thought that we could overcome our nation’s legacy of racism and elect (twice) a black man as president but be helplessly unable to overcome our sexism and elect a woman, no matter how experienced and qualified?

I will not recite the litany of reasons why Mr. Trump is unqualified for the office of dogcatcher, much less president, nor will I list the absolutely unprecedented number of blatant lies and petty attacks he has spewed. That’s been done by a thousand outraged writers already, and likely in finer fashion than I could. So why Trump, and why now?

The aging white power brokers in this country are not stupid. They see the demographic tidal wave that is preparing to break on our shores over the next decade. They view this period as their last chance to change the rules of the game.  Make no mistake, the forces of demagoguery and, yes, fascism, are taking over our government in just a few short weeks. The only way they stay in power after this insane  - and likely unfair – election is to suspend the constitutional rights of citizens, crush opposition under the banner of “law and order,” limit the freedom of the press, and expand the already ubiquitous surveillance state. This is terrifying.

So we are about to hear a “last gasp.” The only question is, will it be the sound of the old guard submitting to the new realities of the new majority and all that entails: expanded individual civil rights, continued progress toward universal health care, movement towards renewable energy, and a less belligerent stance on law enforcement and foreign affairs? Or will the last gasp be the final death throe of our beloved democratic constitutional republic? We’ll find out soon enough, and I believe it will be one or the other.

In this sad case, there is literally no middle.

Portland, OR 

December 15, 2016