The Holiday Spirit

The Holiday Spirit

I am not sure that A Christmas Carol, the Dickensian story of the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge makes my top five favorite holiday movie list (It’s A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, White Christmas, Love Actually and a tie between Four Christmases and The Holiday…and maybe Elf), but it is a very memorable tale that I suspect any one of us could recite with ease. It all revolves around the spirit of Christmas, or should I say the spirits of Christmases. Nonetheless, it has as much downer as upper to it, so I tend to prefer the feel-good of these other movies. We watched Miracle on 34th Street last night and it was every bit as inspirational as it always has been to me. Watching a 1940’s New York City and even Manhasset (where the final scene takes place) feels somehow nostalgic even though I had never been in New York until 1970. I’ve been in enough State of New York Supreme Court courtrooms to say that they do indeed look like the one where Kris Kringle goes on trial. That part was more realistic than the CPW-view apartment lived in by Fred Galley as a law firm associate. Those places today go for $30 million. Right now I am watching It’s A Wonderful Life and noticed something I hadn’t realized despite how well I know the movie. The set-up to the forging of George’s character took place in Mr. Gower’s Pharmacy where George stops Mr. Gower from sending out poisoned pills crafted in his despair over learning that his his son in the army has died (it was during WWI) and the telegram said that he had died of influenza. I have perhaps seen that movie fifty times, at least annually for the past fifty years, and it had never caught my attention that the cause of death was influenza. That was probably because no one really died of the flu except for very old or very ill people, right? I guess we know better now.

2020 has taught us all a lot of things that we never bothered knowing before. We’ve learned about how unimportant travel is in the grand scheme of things we need to feel happy. We’ve learned to appreciate one another and especially so for family. I almost hate to say this, but we’ve learned that simple pleasures really are the best things. We’ve learned that we can do most of our work in less time if we use technology to do remote work rather than spend hours each day commuting just so we can waste time with co-workers. Actually, we’ve learned that we can waste time with co-workers more efficiently via Zoom. We’ve also learned that when it comes to a copycat service like Zoom (think Skype), it is definitely better to be lucky and get the timing right than to have a better service idea. What is a Skype? We don’t have to ask about what Zoom means, the name says it all.

As I wrap up this beginning weekend of the 2020 holiday season I am glad to report that I have already watched three of my top five holiday movies (we watched Kim’s favorite by far, Elf, which I have to admit is the funniest thing Will Ferrell ever produced). I have also been drawn to a number of editorials like a bee to honey. The gist of what I have read has to do with the ongoing contrast between how Trump and Biden are functioning in contrast to one another. It really is quite striking. Let’s forget for a moment about the small-desk syndrome, which seemed a perfect accompaniment to the small-mind syndrome that permeates everything that comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth. Let’s focus for a moment on one very salient reality, the newest concern being voiced that some of the Biden nominees for key cabinet and administrative posts seen to be connected to advisory/lobbying firms and/or investment firms with potentially conflicted interests in that they serve or invest in companies that seek or have funding from the U.S. Government. This is being touted as the first of what will undoubtedly be ethical tests for the Biden administration that claims it intends to run the most ethical and transparent administration in American history.

I start out by not liking the sense that anyone who claims to have or intend to have “the best ever” of anything can be truthfully expected to do so. Trump was to hire the best people and what he hired was the most indicted people (that, I believe, is factual and not interpretational). Why would anyone ever say they are or will be the best when the obvious retort is that none of this is or has been measured in a scientific manner so shut the fuck up about best. Now let us turn to to the underlying issue of transparency and ethics, and lets keep this real.

Does it not strike you as interesting that it is the “fake news” that is part of the liberal elite that is calling in the fire on the Biden team? These are the same reporters and editorial boards that have been decried by Republicans and conservatives as having a predisposed bias against Trump and the Right, and yet here they are calling a potential early foot-fault on the Biden team. Instead of applauding the all-important role of a free press tasked with, among other things, the mission to provide a check and balance to power, as it has done since our founding, the Right is already just saying, “you see!” Well I see, but do you see? This is a good thing and it has always been a good thing. It was a good thing over the last five years even though you hated it when it revealed the dark underbelly of Trumpism and love it when it exposes the deep state. I love it because it is exactly what is supposed to happen.

I must admit that I had never heard of Antony Blinken, one of the nominees under the hot lights over these recently exposed potential connections. He is a career Washington insider so in that sense he qualifies as a member of “the deep state”, but I have yet to be convinced that the experience and judgement that comes with “deep state” membership doesn’t outweigh the “insiderness” of it all. These people have to earn a living in between “deep state” gigs and lobbying and road-mapping Washington strategies hardly qualifies as necessarily pernicious or harmful. I don’t even begrudge Mitch McConnell his $22 million net worth saved on a Senator’s $193,400 salary (bonus for majority leadership) over his thirty-five years in Washington.

The other Bidenite under the hot lights is Michele Flournoy, under consideration as Secretary of Defense. In this case, I personally know Michele since we served on the CARE Board together. We traveled to Guatemala together. I have nothing but good things to say about her and suggest that she is far too ethical and competent to have ever been a part of the Trump administration, so she has been a much-sought-after board member of many prestigious organizations and earned a decent living accordingly. Being good and being well paid is not a crime. Allowing your judgement to be overwhelmed by your prior or even future connections and sources of income is, if not a crime, at least unethical. I do not believe Michele is of that character. I am less convinced about Mitch’s character.

Not everyone is naive like Buddy The Elf. Not everyone doesn’t have to worry about earning a living because they inherited $400 million from Daddy or married Elaine Chao, the daughter of a shady Chinese shipping tycoon (Mitch’s squeeze). Bottom line, Democrats can be as corrupt as Republicans, but we have seen the Trump slate and I can see the Biden slate and if I were a Trumpian I would just plead no lo contendere and be done with it. The Holiday Spirit of unmasking corruption in ANY administration or official should continue and we should all try and reduce the surplus population of unethical folk in DC, regardless of their party. What a shame we can’t do that with Supreme Court appointees as well…Merry Christmas one and all.