Robert Mueller: Last of the Wise Men

Pundits were quick to dismiss the Muller testimony last Wednesday. The "bad reviews" pointed to a lack of memorable sound bytes and smoking gun moments. Predictably, Trump declared total victory and downgraded Mueller for giving one of the worst performances in American history. There was chatter about "bad optics." After all, getting Trump for obstruction of justice was a little wimpy in the first place The hope that Mueller would be the new Elliot Ness taking down our modern day Al Capone never quite materialized (or will it).

The contrast between Mueller's Establishment disposition and the shameless Trumpists were on full display.


Mueller's background is from a line of doctors, lawyers, military officers - pillars of the Establishment. Mueller attended the exclusive St. Paul's School in New Hampshire where John Kerry was his classmate - they played Lacrosse together. In the Tobias Wolff novel Old School, set at an elite private school in the early 1960s, the young men idolize Ernest Hemingway. His writing influenced their ideas on everything from romance to courage. There's a strong chance Mueller and Kerry both read Hemingway as students - and those books influenced them.

Twitter voices spoke of Mueller as a man out of his time. They're sort of right about that. He's 74 and never sought headlines or the media spotlight. After earning degrees from Princeton and NYU, Mueller volunteered for the Marine Corps and served in Vietnam, earning a Purple Heart and Bronze Star in the service of his country. Afterwards he graduated from the University of Virginia Law School and embarked on a career in law enforcement, becoming an expert on white collar crime and the criminal underworld. From 2001-13 he led the FBI during a tumultuous era, serving under both the Bush and Obama administrations.


It goes without saying the Establishment which groomed Mueller left a mixed legacy, yet one that looks like the height of statesmanship by today's standards. Many tomes have been written on the Eastern Establishment in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. The Wise Men by Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas is one of the more sympathetic histories, referring to the group of men who transitioned America into a superpower after defeating Fascism. While they were white wealthy men who accrued all the privileges of their class - they also had an ethos of service and loyalty to America that went above partisan politics. The Marshall Plan to rebuild post-war Europe and decision to contain the Soviet Union shaped foreign policy for decades. 

When Mueller was appointed Special Counsel to lead the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, his old establishment values were destined to come into direct confrontation with the Trumpers. They repeatedly slurred his name and dismissed the entire investigation as an elaborate hoax. That was on full display during the hearing as well. 

Those who despise everything Trump stands for (me included) had faint hopes Mueller would pull off a Sherlock Holmes and present overwhelming evidence of the President's high crimes. What happened was for more complicated and dealing with complexity within the 24 news cycle is not the media's strong suit. Perspective comes with time.

In reality something did happen with long term consequences. Mueller made it clear the investigation never exonerated Trump (could be prosecuted after leaving office) and that Russian attacks are a real thing and will only get worse, the new normal in Mueller's words. 

Mueller's curious confrontation with the Trumpers mirrors the contradictions of the current moment. From the get go, Trump and his followers prided themselves on being unprincipled and crude, gleefully tapping into the darkest corners of the America psyche. Their open admiration for Putin's anti-liberal crusade makes them ideal bedfellows. For Mueller and the orphaned GOP "Never Trumpers", such a position would've been unthinkable a generation ago. Mueller's stoic retorts to the GOP grandstanding were tinged with melancholy and quiet defiance.

Obviously the "Mueller will save us" narrative was unrealistic. Does that mean The Mueller Report should be tossed aside? Absolutely not. As time passes, the Report will take on a new resonance. We know the shape of things to come if all this continues. The threats facing democracy are deep rooted and resurgent. Mueller's pursuit of the truth will hopefully not be the last gasp of democracy, but a written record that some still care about the facts. 

Long Day Into Night . .

It's been a long day, and now I'm all alone . . .

Let Us Now Praise Diff'rent Strokes

The 1970s and 1980s were the apogee of the family sitcom: All in the Family, Little House on the Prairie, Good Times, The Cosby Show, and many more. Among them was Diff'rent Strokes (1978-1986), a sitcom with a contrived, but well meaning, premise. Wealthy and affable businessman Phillip Drummond (Conrad Bain) adopts two African American boys to keep a promise he made to their mother who worked as his housekeeper. The two boys, Willis and Arnold are 13 and 9 and elated about going from rags to riches, but also have mixed feelings about the privileges foisted upon them. Mr. Drummond's teenage daughter Kimberly as played by Dana Plato was also a series regular for the show's run.

Early seasons consistently produced good episodes, at least by 70s sitcom standards. They never shied away from controversial issues, the early seasons dealt with busing, racism, class disparity, racial profiling, and identity. Gary Coleman became an instant pop culture sensation and carried the show for eight seasons. Watch Coleman's debut on Good Times and I dare you not to laugh, the kid had real acting chops. Willis was more skeptical and took longer to warm to his new lifestyle so far from Harlem, a recurring theme of the early seasons.

As the seasons pass by there's a sense of the doomed liberalism of the Jimmy Carter era morphing into the lopsided Reagan 80s . The progressive sentiments of the early seasons shifted into a Reagan era status quo. Story lines focused on moral issues instead of social ones. Pop Culture references and celebrity cameos also became a bigger part of the show. Much of the focus shifted to Arnold's adventures at school, while Willis is usually seen getting ready for a date or hunched over a desk studying for exams in the latter seasons. In season 5 Mr. Drummond marries a TV Fitness instructor (very 80s) and takes in her young son Sam, obviously there to replace Arnold (now a teenager) as the young jokester. 

There's something moving in the way a sitcom (as many others of it's time) tried to take on every serious topic imaginable. Bullying. Prejudice. Episodes on sexual predators, drug and alcohol addiction, and every issue on the news were common. Nancy Reagan appeared on the show to tell the kids to "just say no." Muhammad Ali traded insults with Arnold, Kareem-Abdul-Jabaar played a teacher, and Janet Jackson played Willis's girlfriend. The eight seasons are a treasure of pop culture collective memory. 

Whenever Diff'rent Strokes comes up in conversation, the tragedies surrounding the show's cast members are what most people remember. Dana Plato had a troubled history with the show, reduced to occasional appearances after a pregnancy and a follow up career plagued by drug and alcohol abuse. She passed away in 1999 at age 34. Todd Bridges had many public encounters with the law but managed to get his life together. He's the last surviving member of the cast. Gary Coleman found life after the series especially difficult, reduced to cameos in low budget movies and reality television.

To be a TV star in the 1970s was something akin to indentured servitude: movies got all the accolades, but TV stars were the grinders. Long days, financial improprieties, predatory adults, all thankless work for the masses watching the box. Coleman suffered from a kidney condition through the show's entire run, requiring dialysis 3-4 times a day, adds a subtle heroism to how he carried each episode.

For its final season Diff'rent Strokes moved to ABC, a shadow of what it used to be. The series farewell deals with Arnold working for the newspaper and breaking a story on a steroid ring at his school. Arnold's discovered a passion for writing - suggesting a follow up series that never happened, sort of a Lou Grant set at a High School. 

With the third season of Stranger Things now running on Netflix that's set in 1985, there could be no better time to revisit Diff'rent Strokes to satisfy your 80s nostalgia fix. Here's some recommended episodes for beginners:

S1E1 - "Movin In" The first episode with Arnold and Willis adjusting to life on Park Avenue.
S3E1&2 - "The Bank Job" Two part episode that finds Arnold and Willis taken hostage. Think Dog Day Afternoon as a sitcom.
S3E14 - "The Bus" White parents are outraged over forced busing laws to integrate their "safe" schools and of course Arnold and Willis are at the center of it. 
S5E24 - "My Fair Larry" Andrew Dice Clay shakes up the Drummond household. Enough said.
S5E1 - "Arnold Meets Mr. T" Perhaps the most 80s episode ever.

Book Review: American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, and Technology by Diane Walsh Pasulka

Professor of Religious Studies Diane Walsh Pasulka spent six years researching the UFO phenomenon and the culture surrounding it. While the UFO craze no longer holds the place in pop culture it had in the late 20th century, many still devote their lives to the mystery. 

There's a lot to unpack in American Cosmic. The most significant revelation in the book is that the tin foil hat crowd are not alone chasing UFOs. There's a large number of scientists, engineers, writers, and "cultural elites" leading double lives as UFO researchers and seekers. Academics work in anonymity out of their colleagues will disassociate from them. They refer to themselves as the "invisible college."

Pasulka gained some access to this "invisible college" and becomes a character in her own book. She recounts her adventures with "Tyler D", a mystery man who's apparently a NASA scientist, MMA fighter, venture capitalist, and the guru behind cutting edge medical technology. Over the years Tyler came to believe "off world intelligence" guided him towards his discoveries through psychic communication. The opening chapter recounts Tyler taking Diane and a colleague to visit a purported UFO crash site in New Mexico. While there they discover an "artifact" that may or may not have been planted.

At the book's heart is the mystery of existence and consciousness. Pasulka approaches the subject matter as a religious scholar, in the tradition of Carl Jung who made connections between religion and UFOs. Insights are also gleaned from neuroscience, mass media studies, and quantum physics. Advances in these fields are contributing to understanding the paranormal. Comparisons are made between Tyler's experience and those of composers making music - neurology tells us we feel outside of ourselves when moments of intense creativity occur. Anyone can channel this part of their brain, not just the Mozarts among us.

We now live in a reality when most of our information comes from staring into screens. Pasulka's argument here gets a little cloudy, but the concept is that the reality of screen is starting to merge with actual reality. The simulation is more real than the real world - like The Matrix. While characters in a movie are fictional, they nevertheless exist in our minds. How many times have you heard someone compare a movie to a religious experience? An example is a new religion based on Star Wars. While Star Wars exists as fiction, the effect of these films on many is powerful and life changing - the logical next step is a religion based on the stories. All religions stem from narratives that in time become more real than real to its followers. 

The ubiquitous presence of media has also shaped the way we perceive the UFO phenomenon and everything else. Media shapes our memories to the point where they blend with the reality. American Cosmic is not proselytizing any "truth" about UFOs and other phenomena, but attempts to understand it. Media shapes our understanding and may be portals to understanding these mysterious phenomena people experience. Those who believe they've had contact with ET's express narratives that are similar to movies and TV shows, as if the idea of an encounter is already embedded in our brains.

Those who believe in alien contact are not sure of what it means either, but they are sure these beings are curious about us. Yet a voice in my head says these elites (mostly wealthy white men) are simply bored and have nothing better to do, what better fate than to be chosen by the visitors? Pasulka criticizes Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind as a simplistic movie, but I find it interesting that the protagonist of the film is an every man. Not some brilliant rich white guy. I come away from American Cosmic thinking the "invisible college" may be more of a diversion for those with tons of money and time on their hands.

Nevertheless, American Cosmic is a compelling mix of academic rigor and intellectual adventure, I would not be surprised if a movie or TV show will be developed from it. But  the book left me with more questions than answers. Skeptics get short thrift and that annoyed me. Carl Sagan is mentioned many times, and while he was intrigued with the concept of life elsewhere, he remained a skeptic about UFO encounters until the end of his life. We're left with the impression he was a believer in UFOs. Sagan's final book The Demon Haunted Earth lamented the rise of pseudoscience and conspiracy theory culture in America. 

Even more ominous is the idea of media becoming the new reality. We've seen the political ramifications of misinformation becoming fact in the minds of many. Some believe media saturation could ricochet into something else entirely, perhaps a spiritual awakening. If there really are intelligent beings meddling with us, the nature of their being would be so abstract it would make little sense to anyone is another takeaway from the book. Meanwhile life goes on.

Pasulka, D.W. American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, and Technology. New York: OUP, 2019.

Podcast Review: Blockbuster

https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/uufew-8b9a6/Blockbuster-Podcast

Blockbuster is a podcast that dramatizes the friendship between George Lucas and Steven Spielberg during the 1970s. For some the rise of blockbusters heralded the demise of cinema (see Easy Riders, Raging Bulls), for others a paradigm shift on par with the Beatles (I'm in the latter camp).  

The podcast covers the making of their iconic films of the 1970s, showcasing Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Star Wars. Other figures from New Hollywood make appearances including Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, and Francis Ford Coppola. But the all star of the podcast is John Williams, a real mensch who not only believed in Lucas and Spielberg, but composed the brilliant scores for their movies. 

While the years covered in the podcast have all been well documented in books, there's never been a feature film about their friendship. They met in 1967 at a screening of Lucas's student film THX-1138 and stayed in contact, giving each other feedback. While they had much in common, their sensibilities differed in some ways. Lucas, along with Coppola, wanted to create an independent movie studio as an alternative to the Hollywood system. Spielberg worked within the system as a TV director for Universal and eventually broke into features. Yet both believed in technology and telling epic stories on the big screen made to appeal to a mass audience.

Lucas is played as introverted, but determined. Spielberg is more happy go lucky, always optimistic in the face of adversity during the making of Jaws and Close Encounters. The making of Star Wars pushed Lucas to the limit and one day ended up in the hospital with stress related chest pains after a special effects mishap. He swore he would never direct again.

A dramatization of the infamous screening of that rough cut version of Star Wars in for Lucas's peers. It was a disastrous evening, De Palma made sarcastic remarks throughout the screening, "what is this force shit?" Lucas's wife Marcia was certain the film would flop, while 20th Century Fox lost confidence and considered a limited release.

But Spielberg was a believer, predicting Star Wars would be a big hit, telling George "it will make millions." A reenactment of John Williams playing the Star Wars theme for Lucas is especially moving - as if you are hearing it for the first time. The recording of the soundtrack in London was one the few things that went right during the troubled production - those in the control room were moved to tears. 

The series runs six episodes, each one runs about 25 minutes so it's possible to listen to the entire series in a few hours. The voice actors did a great job and the production value is top notch. A nostalgic (and emotional) look into an exciting time in movie history. Highly recommended. 

Book Review: Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Foundation by Isaac Asimov
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Groundbreaking Sci-fi from the 1940s, Foundation imagines a powerful Galactic Empire in decline (a parallel to the Roman Empire as told by Gibbon). Hari Seldon is a psychohistorian who employs mathematics to predict the future and to create a new civilization. To prevent a 15,000 year dark age of barbarism, Seldon sets up a small society (the foundation) on a planet at the fringes of the galaxy.

Different sections deal with geopolitical issues like trade, balance of power, and empire building. While most of the novel consists of characters simply talking, I found the story imaginative and never dull. Complex questions are raised. How does a weak power become a great power? What role does technology and innovation play? What about religion? Seldon reminds me of a "lawgiver" figure out of the bible.

Foundation has had real world influence on the sciences, specifically the idea of applying mathematics to predicting different futures. A central theme in the novel is how a civilization plans for long term issues. Climate change, misuse of technology, and poverty come to mind for our own time. At the same time Foundation is a page turning intellectual adventure full of suspense and plot twists.

View all my reviews

Book Review: Impeachment: A Citizen's Guide by Cass Sunstein

Cass Sunstein's Impeachment: A Citizens Guide explains the concept of impeachment from a constitutional scholar's perspective that's written in plain English. 

A Citizen's Guide explains the origins of impeachment, a concept that goes back to the English legal system, laws designed to set up parameters for a judge or public official to be removed from their position if they engaged in criminal activity. Sunstein walks the reader through the debates at the 1787 constitutional convention on impeachment. In creating three branches of government (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial) the framers realized there had to be a balance of power. Being well schooled in history, they realized the rise of a tyrant posed the greatest threat to a republic.

At one point the convention favored a committee to act as the Chief Executive, but determined such an arrangement would be too unwieldy. A lone President would allow for decisive leadership. What if a President engaged in illegal activity? What if a President openly broke the law? What if a President colluded with an enemy nation specifically to harm his own? What if a President used the position for financial gain? What if a President used their office to silence political enemies? What if a President was negligent to their assigned duties? Impeachment was placed into the constitution as a remedy.

At the same time, the impeachment process was set up like a gauntlet. Otherwise, Congress could easily remove any President for frivolous reasons. The framers used the term "high crimes and misdemeanors," language that was intentionally ambiguous to warrant an impeachment proceeding. If the House of Representatives determines such criminal offenses have been committed by a President they can vote to impeach. Then the President must go on trial before the Senate, where 2/3 of the members must vote guilty to convict him. In such a case the President would be immediately removed. Knowing impeachment would cause political upheaval, it was made into a step by step process, but always an option on the table.

Only two Presidents in American history have faced an impeachment trial and both were acquitted (Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton). As Sunstein points out, both of those attempts were partisan and legally questionable. President Richard Nixon faced imminent impeachment and most certainly would've been convicted in the Senate (he was told so by his own Party) so he resigned from office.

Later in the book Sunstein takes the reader though some hypothetical situations. Some are open and shut cases such as a President openly acting in accordance with another country to harm America or offering bribes in return for political support. Other cases are not so clear cut and fall down to legal interpretations, such as a President misleading the American people during a war or an administration infested with corrupt officials.

No reference is made to the brewing constitutional crisis, there's no need. Instead, Sunstein encourages readers to do a thought experiment in neutrality. What if a President you loved and agreed with engaged in blatantly illegal activity? What if a President you despised on ideological grounds was being impeached on questionable legal grounds? Finally, put a blindfold on. You are simply presented with the facts. Then decide.

A worthwhile book, written in the tradition of Tom Paine, that also cuts through the media spin. Sunstein concedes impeachment is a serious matter, heightened in an era of fake news. Public officials must be held up to high standards - otherwise democracy will collapse.