Hardballing

Hardballing

The latest poll (indeed, a Fox News poll) about the general election in 2020 is out today and it stacks up Trump against all the leading Democratic contenders. The issue of who wins is not in contention with these polls. Ever since they began taking them in May, Biden, as the leading Democratic candidate, has gravitated between a spread of +2 to +13. Biden is currently at +12 (with three other candidates trouncing Trump by at least +6), but of note is that Trump has fallen to a base of 38-39 against any of these leading Democratic opponents. As the economy shows increasing cracks, it’s expected that he will lose more and more ground|, and it seems that despite all the false bravado (SOP for DJT), the man-child is running scared. The economy is hardballing Mr. Trump, who is used to puffballs in that arena.

Meanwhile back at the ranch in Albany, Letitia James, the Attorney General of New York and one of the most powerful and righteously important people in the Trump dismantlement process we are starting to see taking shape, received a process service on a civil lawsuit filed against her by the NRA. They are insisting to be allowed to attend a legal proceeding of not insignificant importance to them (the judge has since overruled them). That is a clear sign of Wayne LaPierre’s (NRA CEO) agitation about Letitia’s upcoming deposition/testimony of Ollie North, the recently cast-out NRA President, who is quickly distancing himself from LaPierre and the claims of his profligate spending of NRA non-profit funds. It seems the NRA is chartered in New York for its non-profit status, which means Letitia, who is no fan of the NRA or Mr. Trump, and their abusive tactics and lavish misuse of charitable funds, is hardballing both of them. The only person less likely to know how to hit a hardball than The Donald is The Wayne. These guys have lived a charmed and nefarious life for way too long and if they ever knew how to handle a hardball, they have long since forgotten.

There is a part of me that likes Wayne spending money on Italian suits that might otherwise have been used by some Second Amendment Freak to buy another AR-15, but any single penny that finds its way into Moscow Mitch’s pocket to bolster his re-election bid or to prevent another assault rifle ban is one penny too much. I would rather see Letitia wreck havoc on the NRA and put it out of business by terminating it’s potentially bogus tax status. If they managed to find cause to jail Wayne LaPierre and his gun-toting minions along the way, all the better. Let’s see how these tough-talking guys do with the serious hardballing of an orange jumpsuit. I’m reminded of that Andrew Garfield (Eduardo Saverin) feint in Social Network when he makes Justin Timberlake (Sean Parker) blink and says, “that’s why I like standing by you Sean, you make me look so tough.” Well, Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen have been tough enough to survive incarceration in ways that Jeffrey Epstein couldn’t. The more evil the bully, the more delicate their psyche seems to be. I can’t even imagine how Donald or Wayne would make it through one night at the Manhattan holding tank with all that hardballing going on.

We are at a point in this nonsense (that is the nonsense of an irresponsible person like Trump in the White House and an evil organization like the NRA being able to influence American lives) where things seem on the verge or finally changing. We’ve thought to have been here before only to see the Teflon magicians squirm out of their predicaments (sometimes shrewdly and sometimes by sheer luck). But sooner or later the bill comes due and the gig is up and I hope this is that time.

One of my great anti-heroes of all time, Peter Fonda, the hardballer of all hardballers in 1969, died yesterday. He and Dennis Hooper (who died in 2010) wrote, produced and directed that movie statement of a generation, Easy Rider. I cannot overstate the impact that movie has had on my life. Even though it was about drugs (which I do nor have ever cared about) and motorcycles (which I would claim define my life), it was really about Freedom with a capital F. In 1970 I went to see the movie on my Triumph TR6 650 Tiger. Nothing will ever top the feeling of coming out of that movie and hopping on my ride for a rush through the dimly lighted streets of Rome. I had the unusual pleasure in 2003 (when he was 63 and I was 49) to meet Peter Fonda and ride next to him on our Indian Chiefs during the Centennial Indian Motorcycle Cross-Country Tour, from Las Vegas to L.A. The combination of riding under the southwestern sun and big sky next to my adolescent hero, with him wearing his Captain America helmet and squinting into the sunset, was one of my greatest moments. I have his, Dennis Hopper’s and Jack Nicholson’s signed Easy Rider picture on my wall here in California and it is one of my favorite pieces of memorabilia.

I know what Peter Fonda would say about Donald Trump and Wayne LaPierre. He has left older sister Jane hehind to say it for him better than most could. I imagine he might quote his dad and John Steinbeck from Grapes of Wrath, by saying, “I’ll be all around in the dark. I’ll be everywhere. Wherever you can look—wherever there’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad. I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry and they know supper’s ready, and when the people are eatin’ the stuff they raise and livin’ in the houses they build, I’ll be there, too.” That, my friends, is total hardball.

Today I will get on my BMW K1600GLS and ride up to Palomar Mountain. I will dedicate my ride and the sense of total hardballing Freedom I get from riding to our old hardballer, Peter Fonda, with a chaser of Dennis Hopper and a twist of Jack Nicholson. I can think of no way more appropriate to honor the man who helped set the tone for my life. Here’s to you, Captain America, forever hardballing.