The Oppenhemer Report 6/27/16

The latest Chicken Little news story is of course Brexit, and financial markets tanked last Friday on news that the British voters had opted to cede from the European Union. The Dow lost 3.4% of its value in one trading day, and other financial markets were far more severely impacted. The Canadian dollar looked like a roller coaster during the last trading day of the week, and in one day dropped over a penny against the U.S. dollar. Regardless of every indication that this would cause financial chaos in world markets, British voters narrowly chose to go it alone, opting out of the EU, and clearly the country was split right down the middle. Prime Minister Cameron resigned, probably because his “remain” position was not accepted, and his ability to lead was then in question. I, like so many other people across the globe, am baffled. On CTV news last Friday night the comparison was made between the “Leave” voters in Great Britain and the American voters who so adamantly support Donald Trump. As I see it, the message is that the disenfranchised in both countries are voting against the status quo. The rich get richer and it’s time for the “masses” to throw the bums out. I heard that there was talk of re-tallying the vote, because it was so close, but regardless of the final outcome, the die is cast, and change is coming. Whether or not British voters are making an informed decision, it would be wise for the powers that be to pay attention to this not-so-quiet revolution. I wonder what part the media has in affecting these outcomes.

Trump has banned many media outlets, including The Washington Post and the New York Times, from covering his campaign. I’m not really sure how that works in a free country, but at this point I guess he can withhold information as he chooses. While I think the media is often biased, Trump clearly uses the press to his advantage, and he can’t have it both ways. Ross Perot, another rich guy who ran for president and was chewed up and spit out by the media, got very angry about the unfair press he received. Ultimately that finished him off politically. Former CBS anchor Dan Rather was on CNN the other day, talking about how reporters aren’t asking the tough questions anymore. He thinks the media is helping Trump win. In his opinion, Trump is receiving too much press, because coverage of his outrageousness boosts ratings. Rather suggests that this is not responsible reporting. I don’t know which is worse, an evasive candidate, who makes no substantive representations, or the one who outright lies. Rather makes the point that the media was complicit in Trump’s meteoric rise to the top by letting him get away with his ridiculous generalizations. It’s hard to know which is worse, disinformation or no information. I wonder what Edward R. Murrow or Walter Cronkite would make of all this. I wish there was some way to sort out the lies and the spin from the truth, but it’s getting harder and harder to figure it out. A while back I watched a brief video which explained the mess which fuels the Syrian conflict, and it was edifying. It actually made sense to me, for a minute anyway. I wish there was a video that we, the attention-challenged public, could consult which would wrap up the presidential choices in a nutshell. What will they really do, who is the bigger threat to our ever-eroding democracy? There is not; there is only innuendo, and character assassination, and fear-mongering, and half-truths. As I have said all along, the American voting public, myself included, are complicit in this lack of leadership we see today. We are spoiled children. If somebody offers us candy and we gladly accept it, but if somebody suggests discipline, or medicine, we turn our backs. We get what we give, and if the disgruntled masses are angry, perhaps they have a right to be. Nobody wants the truth.This is shaping up to be the next big class conflict. There will be a reset, there always is. Will we learn from history? We haven’t yet, but I’m always hopeful.  

 

One of the reasons I am so active as a volunteer at Hunters Bay Radio, is that the station represents the sense of community which seems to be so lacking in the world today. Last Saturday night, I played an original song at the HBR “Listen to the Radio” fundraiser concert held at Huntsville’s Algonquin Theatre, along with 20 other musicians. I was concerned that, with over twenty acts, the show would be too long, and we would lose our audience. Miraculously, I thought it was very entertaining, the music was for the most part really good, and everyone seemed to have a great time. This afternoon at 5 P.M., some of us will gather at the Hunters Bay Radio station to dedicate a bench in memory of our fallen comrade James Carroll. We will also scatter some of his ashes around a newly planted maple outside his office window. If anyone embodied the spirit of community, it was James, and we can all learn a lot from a guy like that. He was very proud of this little community radio station, as am I, and he embodied the love, generosity, and selflessness that I wish for us all. James was not a perfect man, but his love is what lingers, now that the body is gone. I suspect that he will be present for this afternoon’s dedication, in some form or another. See you there James!

 

     -Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Oppenheimer Report 6/20/16

I haven’t done this in a while, herein is another of my self-righteous rants. I apologize in advance. As I was beginning to write this week’s Opp Report, I noticed that, in my archives, there was an Opp Report dated 6/20/11. It’s not often that a past report falls on the same day as my current report, and so I was interested to re-read it. Five years ago today, the subject with which I opened was the Anthony Weiner scandal. You may recall that Mr. Weiner, a N.Y. Congressmen, was caught “sexting” on his cell phone, and it became a big news event.  It certainly scuttled his promising political career. Had his name been anything but Weiner, the press and the late night hosts probably would have dropped the story after a few days, moving on to the next political road kill, but who can resist a good weener joke? I wonder how much hard news was tabled to bring “Weinergate” to the public eye. Look how far we have fallen in five years! A Congressman who photographed his penis on a cell phone seems rather mild in comparison to some of the nonsense we’re seeing today.

The other night, I was watching Real Time With Bill Maher, and on the show he featured a segment about political scandal. The gist of the story was that Donald Trump has established a new low for political incorrectness, and that past indiscretions pale by comparison. What is particularly troublesome is that the rules of political engagement do not seem to apply to Trump. In 1992, Ross Perot referred to African Americans as “you people” in a speech he made to the NAACP, and that was it for him. I think the majority of American voters thought Perot was a political crackpot, but to some he was a plain-dealing businessman, who told “the truth.” In one political minute he was deemed a racist. Howard Dean made the famous “I have a scream” speech in Iowa, and soon afterward it was all over for him. Mike Dukakis was photographed riding on a tank dressed in full combat gear, and the public guffawed at the ridiculousness. One photo op can scuttle a campaign, but somehow Trump is immune to bad press. He ridicules the handicapped, says horrible things about women, paints all Muslims as terrorists, and the list goes on, and the American public have chosen him to be the presumptive Republican presidential candidate. How did that happen? Frankly, I don’t know why any worthy candidate would run for public office in the United States. If you ARE the right man or woman, who would ever know? There is so much big money spinning the information that we the common voters don’t know what to believe. Most of the candidates I think might be promising are spit out within the first two months of a campaign. I know I’m in trouble when I form my political opinions by listening to guys like Bill Maher and Jon Stewart, but sometimes the satirists and humorists are the ones who make the most sense out of this cesspool of spin and righteous indignation. Invariably, we are left with the lesser of two evils. I think Donald Trump has become the new benchmark for below-the-belt behavior of a political candidate, but apparently he is seen by many as our savior from a broken political system. I have despised this man’s arrogance and pomposity for over three decades, and I am, like so many other “silent majority” Americans, dismayed by the humiliating lack of class and diplomacy that man embodies. That said, I see Trump as the canary in the coal mine. We can bristle at the man’s apparent stupidity, but he is playing the American people like a fiddle. All he needs to do is point to the broken status quo and he’s in, no matter what nonsense comes out of his mouth. Never before has the “throw-the-bums-out” sentiment been stronger than in 2016. Wall Street is again chugging along at full steam, still relatively unregulated, and the taxpayers picked up the tab. It doesn’t seem like anyone was held accountable, and nothing has really changed in our political system. The only difference is the speed at which disinformation is disseminated. There is a lot of anger out there, and Trump feeds on this. All he has to do is say “I’m not a politician” and people love him. Heaven help us if we choose this lunatic for our president, but maybe it is time for the puppeteers to wise up and recognize that we the people are fed up.  The Founding Fathers, who drafted The Constitution, and put in place a system of checks and balances, probably did not see this day coming, any more than they anticipated the AR-15 assault rifle when they drafted the 2^nd Amendment. If anything good can come from a guy like Donald Trump, it is that he has shone a light on our dysfunction. Blame ourselves if our leaders fail us. Just maybe, this extremely unlikely candidate was just the guy to spark the political debate that will change America for the better. One way or another, American politics will never be the same.

Yesterday was Father’s day, and in my eulogy for my dad at his funeral in 2009, I referred to a black and white photo taken of him in Palm Springs around 1959. He was on a horse, up in the mountains overlooking the desert and the then small town of Palm Springs. There is something about that photo that expresses who my dad was, to me, and a lot of other people. He looked like a cowboy hero, but he was real, and generous, and strong, and intelligent, and funny. He made me feel safe, and he was always there for me. I loved him and was fortunate to be loved by him. Someone posted yesterday that any man can be a father, but not everybody is a dad. I was blessed to have a great dad, so for all you good dads out there, I hope you had a wonderful Father’s Day, and I hope that your kids appreciate you.

   -Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Oppenheimer Report 6/14/16

Saturday I drove down to Ft. Erie to spend some time with my friend Bob and his wife Laura, and to pick up some special dog food for Jasper. While it was too windy and cold to enjoy a high speed boat ride in his vintage 27’ Magnum, it did not rain, as the weatherman had threatened, and I had an opportunity to kill some time with my best friend and my partner in crime for much of my ill-spent youth. A walk on the beach of Thunder Bay brought back many happy childhood memories, but what was most astonishing was how much has changed. Old cottages have been knocked down and much larger homes have replaced them. In the relentless march of time, only our memories remain the same.

A recent photograph on my Facebook page shows Bob and I sitting in the infamous Raging African Queen, back in the early 90s. I’d owned that little dinghy since I was about 5 years old, and I spent many a summer day putting around in it. We did some crazy things in that little boat over the years. It became legendary on our bay, particularly after Peter Stephens, a very talented artist friend of mine from Buffalo, painted “The Raging African Queen” on the transom in bright yellow Rust-O-Leum. Someone commented on the Facebook picture that he’d seen the boat down the beach recently, and that one of the local residents was still using it. I did not think this was possible, because that boat had been stolen off the beach in front of our house a long time ago, but I had to know. While I was down visiting last weekend, Bob and I paid a visit to the person who was allegedly in possession of the infamous dinghy. I know the guy, and he wasn’t the kind of person who would steal a boat. As I suspected, this was a blind alley, and the whereabouts of the Raging African Queen remains an unsolved mystery. If any one of my twelve loyal readers should find it buried away in someone’s garage, or hear of its whereabouts, I would very much like to know about it.

I drove home yesterday afternoon from Ft. Erie, after picking up Shauna’s mom, E.T. in Toronto to bring her up north for a visit. Hunters Bay Radio sponsors Monday night radio bingo in this community, and of course we had to get back up to Huntsville in time to play. You laugh, but there’s big money at stake here! Any profits made by the radio station will go to upgrading some of the sorely needed equipment we use to broadcast. What I had not anticipated was the chaos which would ensue when I played Bingo with both my wife and my mother-in-law. Concentration is the issue here; I have it, they do not. There are five games each week, and for each game, a player has six different cards to play. Players really need to pay attention when the numbers are called. Last night, as the three of us played, Mom Taylor was having trouble hearing the numbers, and there was a great deal of confusion. “Wait … what was that number?!” Then, Shauna called in what she thought was a Bingo, when she in fact did not have a winning card. She was very embarrassed. I take my Bingo very seriously, and these distractions are very upsetting.

It was strange to be away from the news for only half a day and then to learn of something as shocking as the mass shooting in an Orlando night club. Forty-nine souls were extinguished, and many more are in the hospital in serious condition, all because of one lunatic with two guns and a lot of ammo. There was much discussion on the news about whether or not this was more of an attack on homosexuals or simply a terrorist attack by one radicalized Muslim, bent on killing any western heathens. While it was clearly an attack targeting homosexuals, everyone is a heathen to these fundamentalist nut balls. Along with the news about the beheading in the Philippines of a second kidnapped Canadian by the terrorist organization Abu Sayyaf, it was a good day for bad news. Pretty soon everybody in America will be packing, which, sadly might be more effective than well-meaning but ill-fated gun control. Is this how the next world war will be fought, in the streets? Hatred begets hatred, and all this Islamophobia is playing right into the hands of fear-mongering opportunists like Trump. I am of course saddened that there is so much hatred and ignorance in the world, but I will never give up hope that reason and love will prevail.

 

                   -Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Oppenheimer Report - 6/13/16

Hello Opp Report readers - The Oppenheimer Report will be a day late. I have just returned home and have not had a chance to write it yet. Thanks for reading!

The Oppenheimer Report - 6/6/16

"The Queen" powered by the ' 53 Scott Atwater

When I buy a vehicle or a toy, if it proves to be a satisfactory purchase, I tend to hold on to it for as long as it works. Most of my cars I’ve owned for ten years or more, and I purchased my last boat in 1990. I traded in the original outboard motor in for a new one several years ago. “Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke” is my motto. I don’t usually buy used vehicles, although the two motorcycles I have owned I bought used. I generally prefer to start from scratch. The issue is reliability, and whereas buying new does not necessarily ensure reliability, a warranty covers most problems. Without knowing the maintenance record for a used vehicle, it’s hard to tell if that vehicle was been abused. I did have a mechanic vet the two motorcycles I bought, simply to ensure that they were safe to ride, but generally, I prefer to rely on the warranty of a new vehicle.

The other day, I took my little outboard out of storage, the one I use to power my little folding boat. It’s a 1993 Yamaha 3hp that I bought new in Buffalo. While it has served me well for 23 years, of late, it has become a little unreliable. I placed it on my little folding boat for my spring shakedown cruise, I put some fresh gas in it, fired it up, and it seemed to be running well. Then, I decided to take a putt down the nearby Magnetewan River, and after several miles of driving, I stopped to top off the gas tank for the ride home. As I unscrewed the cap on the fuel tank, which is attached to the motor, it broke off in my hand. Upon closer examination, I discovered that the plastic internal gas tank was decomposing, and now I had no way to tighten a gas cap to the motor. I figured I’d putt home on the gas left in the tank and then see if I could order a new tank to fix the problem. I pulled the starter cord and the motor sputtered and conked out. I pulled again and again, tried the choke, but nothing worked. Although there was still enough gas in the tank, the motor was now dead, and there I was slowly drifting down the Magnetewan River. I began to row the three miles home when a neighbor passed and offered me a tow. When I returned home, I ordered a new tank, for which shipping and customs cost almost as much as the tank (free trade my ass), but then I started thinking about the long hours I had put on that little motor. Short of replacing every wearing part on the motor, I could never be assured that some other part was not going to give out. I decided it was time to take the rubber band off and buy a new, more reliable motor. I now own a new Suzuki 2.5 HP outboard, which I purchased from our local marina. I downsized the power because I’m getting older. Summers are too short to be screwing around with unreliable outboard motors, and after 23 years of faithful service, it was time to say farewell to the old Yamaha. My plumber and bluegrass mentor is a whiz with small engines, so I offered him the old motor (with the replacement tank) in return for future services. Good karma.

I have had pretty good luck with most of my vehicles and motors over the years, but I’ve made my share of bad purchases. I’ve only had one REALLY bad car, and one terrible outboard motor. The car was a 1985 Volkswagen Jetta, and it was the exact opposite of my beloved 1971 VW Beetle. Within a week of the expiration of its two year warranty, that Jetta began to self-destruct. Expensive parts failed, one after the other, and I got used to my German mechanic saying “Misser Oppenheimer, Ve gotta big prublem”. During my antique boat phase in the 80s, I purchased a 1953 5 HP Scott Atwater “Bail-O-Matic” outboard motor. I kid you not, that’s what it was called! I was never sure why ... were you supposed to use the motor to bail out your leaky boat? That motor was a piece of crap. It was the heaviest 5hp outboard motor I have ever lifted, required at least twenty pulls to start, and on the rare occasions when it did run, it spat oil, and made enough noise to wake the dead. It was interesting to look at – very 50s – but that is not a good reason to buy an outboard motor. My friends used to sit on the shore and laugh at me as I tried to start that confounded motor. They’d count the pulls out loud. “Thirty-three, thirty-four, thirty-five …!” It was humiliating. I eventually made it into a floor lamp, for which it seemed infinitely better suited.

The big story this week was that prize fighter Muhammad Ali passed away. Last night on 60 Minutes, they played a clip of an old Ali interview with Ben Bradley, and I remember seeing the entire interview when it aired. It made me sad to think that they are both gone now.. Ali was such a remarkable human being, and a symbol for what was good about Americans. A friend posted on Facebook the other day, and I agree with his sentiments. He felt that, while the 60’s were turbulent times, there was a sense of idealism, and the feeling that activism could and would change things for the better. These days I’m not as hopeful, and I don't think I'm alone. While I don’t see Donald Trump as the real problem Americans face, his popularity is a shot across the bow of the ship of state. I think that ship has sprung a leak.

Might be time to resurrect the Bail-O-Matic.

  

                   -Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED