Inheritance of Crises and Dysfunction

By James J. Maiwurm

Inheritance of Crises and Dysfunction is a novel about the daunting challenges waiting at home and abroad for the next US Administration, the search for innovative responses and people asked to implement solutions.  In addition to global and domestic political issues, the book grapples with the stubborn trauma that

• Language: English
• Publisher: Maiwurm Publications, LLC
• Release date: Sep 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9781958518618

James J. Maiwurm

The author, James J. Maiwurm, is Chairman Emeritus of one of the world's largest global law firms. He implemented an aggressive global vision for the law firm, significantly expanding its footprint in the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia and building relationships with firms in Latin America. In 2012 he was named by Law 360 as one of the ten most innovative law firm managing partners. For a time James served as Chairman and CEO of Kaiser Group International, which included elements of the renowned Kaiser Engineers. He has substantial domestic and international transactional experience on behalf of clients. In addition to his executive experience with Kaiser Group and the law firm, James has served on the boards of a leading community bank, an employee-owned government contractor, and a joint venture that accomplished an extremely difficult nuclear clean-up, as well as numerous non-profit organizations. James grew up in small town America, remains very thankfully married to his high school sweetheart, earned a degree in history at the College of Wooster in Ohio, attended the University of Michigan Law School, and has resided in the Cleveland area (where his two children were born) and, for the past 30+ years, in the Washington, DC region. In this book James draws on a lifetime of relevant experience. In his life he draws inspiration from a wonderful family.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For the most wonderful partner and spouse possible, a grand and fun family, the first responders and others who wear uniforms, Ukraine, the minority members of the special US congressional committee on January 6, 2022 and to dear friends Joe and Tex.

Inheritance of Crises and Dysfunction; Principal Characters (none of the names is intended to be real)

Cast Glossary

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Cast Glossary

Foreward

Prologue

Chapter 1Transitions

Chapter 2Sons of Liberty Kick-Off

Chapter 3Getting to Know Margie

Chapter 4Back to Georgie’s

Chapter 5Climbing Out of Life Among the  Moving Boxes

Chapter 6January 6

Chapter 7First Client Call

Chapter 8Know Your Clients (Sons of Liberty) and Their Goals

Chapter 9:Reactions from Afar: January 6 and the Inauguration

Chapter 10Cutting Ties to the Past

Chapter 11Beltway Beckons

Chapter 12Selling Salt at the White House

Chapter 13Enter Louise, Stage Left

Chapter 14What Keeps Local Leaders  Awake at Night

Chapter 15Farming in the New Normal

Chapter 16Feedback from the Fair

Chapter 17Reverend Doctor Sherman

Chapter 18Evening Church Meets DSOL

Chapter 19Canadian Reality Check

Chapter 20Back of the Envelope Principles

Chapter 21Napkin Negotiations

Chapter 22West Wing Input

Chapter 23Small Town, Small Business Ills

Chapter 24State Department Global Briefing 101

Chapter 25Salt and Margie Temporize

Chapter 26Briefing at the Barbershop

Chapter 27London Transit Thoughts

Chapter 28London Day – Openers

Chapter 29London: Further Reflections

Chapter 30London: Evening with the Brits

Chapter 31Off-Ramp: Middle Eastern Diversion

Chapter 32Iranian Backgrounder I; Tracks in the Snow

Chapter 33Walk in the Park, Talk, and More

Chapter 34Berlin Bearings

Chapter 35Initial Team Thinking

Chapter 36German Minister Cameo

Chapter 37Berlin: Next Steps

Chapter 38Berlin: Game Plans Emerge

Chapter 39Berlin: Straight Talk

Chapter 40On to Prague

Chapter 41Facing the Iranian Front

Chapter 42Back Down on the Farm

Chapter 43Dr. Sherman’s Two Cents Worth

Chapter 44Salt and the DSOL

Chapter 45Georgie’s: Progress toward the Middle

Chapter 46Suits Salt

Chapter 47Rough Seas in DC

Chapter 48Confession: Good for the Soul and the Mission

Chapter 49Daughters and Sons of Liberty and Friends

Diagram

Epilogue

FOREWARD

A

stated elsewhere, this is a work of fiction. It is not the product of scholarship. The book does not rely on substantive expert input from others. It is based mainly on one citizen’s personal forward-looking perceptions of the news and developments surrounding the 2016 and 2000 presidential elections, the 2022 mid-term elections, some state elections, and imagination as to how 2024 may play out and affect the well-being of our children and grandchildren. This is like looking at history through the rearview mirror, knowing it will catch up with us.

I am not a futurist, but I do believe that—at least on our good days—we can learn from the past when setting a course for our own futures, even when an examination of the past demonstrates unacceptable inequities and some downright craziness. Perhaps some might use this book as an opportunity to look at the future through their own lens, i.e., a form of personal projected fiction, and using their own assumed conditions. And then when at a safe place (i.e., a place that is not yet evolved from reality), beginning to think about whether more and different outcomes are needed and whether we can muster the concern and huge collective body of work and – yes, compromise necessary to bring about much-needed changes in attitudes and results.

For the avoidance of doubt, this book is about the need for more power to the middle, a renewed sharing of values that, except perhaps for the Civil War and the Reconstruction Era, have enabled us to strive harder to achieve the many goals we share, even though that sharing is not yet fair or fully endorsed by an overwhelming number of our fellow citizens. Our experiment at governance has been ongoing through the efforts of a majority—but admittedly not all—of our citizens for more than 200 years. Others are watching, and we no longer have time to think we are experimenting.

Do you hear and see them?  Politics aside, on matters such as the climate, the red lights are blinking, the ugly-sounding horn is blaring, and a computer-generated voice is saying to us, NOW HEAR THIS, NOW HEAR THIS, this is a real emergency, not a drill. Get in the lifeboats. We are sorry if there are no lifeboats or places to go in them, but our more senior generations hope you have enjoyed your visit to Earth; they certainly have.

The first version of this book started on Inauguration day 2021 and continued into 2022. That period was dominated in many respects by a master puppeteer, President Donald Trump, who essentially was, and in many respects still is, the news in terms of foreign and domestic policy, diplomacy, cross-border relations, litigation and responding to global/political friends, enemies, and threats. By all means, remember Helsinki and President Trump’s refusal to have others in the room when he spoke with Mr. Putin for a lengthy period and later embarrassed our senior intelligence officials by suggesting that Mr. Putin was more credible than our own experts. And, of course, there are January 6, tax breaks for those least in need, climate change, Black Lives Matter, supply chain issues, famine, the development of cult-like followings of some authoritarians (why is Orwell’s 1984 a best seller, and which authoritarian state do you want to live in?), Ukraine, immigration, abortion, North Korea, the Supreme Court, the handling of secret intelligence materials in a resort, a delayed and politicized reaction to COVID-19 and variants, how we left Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia/Yemen, China/Taiwan, concerns about the staying power of US-style democracy, Venezuela, inflation, mass shootings, institutionalized racism, crime, automatic weapons, clean energy and a shortage of strong and charismatic leaders of all colors, shapes, and sizes.

Based on this array of issues, does our government focus more on the country or the parties (or getting re-elected)? How can there be so many unanimous single-party votes on significant issues in which none, or a tiny handful, vote with the other party (i.e., of, by, and for the people)? Maybe the problem is that we act like an aristocracy, asleep like Rip Van Winkle, who is said to have slept through the American Revolution, waiting for some good news about our new republic to wake him up.

Maybe we need to vote for good people who will exercise their own judgment. And not so much that of our Rip Van Winkles.

None of this is breaking news, but this aggregation of things creates an inheritance of crises and dysfunction—at home and abroad, and in red and blue states and regions, that deserves a view with perspective. In its own awkward way, we hope this book will provide some perspective and generate some thoughts about how and why others (within different regions and cultures of the US, both foreign and domestic, some with extreme views) react as they do to our leadership and followers. We need to do more of standing in others’ shoes.

Disarray notwithstanding, all good people in the world want essentially the same things: physical security; financial stability; good health; and that our children do as well or better (broadly defined) than we did. To this end, all of us want to make a difference in this world. President Trump and some other domestic and world leaders surely have. It is now time for the rest of us to put our mark—the mark of moderates with the courage to stand up and the sense to migrate to and hold the middle--on the betterment of this world. And to be comfortable that most of our fellow citizens will join this effort—partly because although we might disagree, we will listen, respect, and compromise.

To borrow some phraseology from Jim Carville, it’s the grandkids, stupid.

Our children and grandchildren deserve better than an inheritance of crises and dysfunction. In that regard, this is an excellent time to modify our political wills.

PROLOGUE

I

n 1765, there evolved a secretive group of provocateurs in the American colonies, heavily weighted toward Massachusetts, who were offended by British taxes (taxation without representation) and other policies. King George III may or may not have been either decent or humorless, but he could not have been pleased with his faraway colonists. He never visited the colonies. And communications were made much more difficult by the lack of a vehicle such as a telegram, much less first-class mail, telephone, fax, or the Internet. Twenty-four-hour news cycles are distracting; 30-day news cycles would be more than an inconvenience. One wonders, if we had town criers today, that would imply a Fox news crier and one for MSNBC and each of several other networks? Our short news cycle is a mixed blessing, to be sure, but at least in the case of the United Kingdom and the American colonists, better communications might have been helpful. (However, picture the newspaper columns that would have been generated by communicators such as Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin. Even the great Rush Limbaugh might have been vexed.)

The membership of this group of colonists, known as the Sons of Liberty, was limited to those who could be trusted and respected for their care, thoughts, discussions, and actions. But today, they would be called bipartisan; they had minds of their own.  The membership included the likes of cousins Samuel and John Adams, Paul Revere, John Hancock, Joseph Warren, Benjamin Rush, Charles Wilson Peale, Alexander Hamilton, Hayn Salomon, Benedict Arnold, and Samuel Chase. They were not cut out of the same cloth or one mind politically, with some being Federalists wanting a strong central government and others preferring a more diffuse power distribution.

From the British perspective, they were the equivalent of our ungrateful domestic white terrorists. To many of the colonists, they were heroes. Others were not so happy with this highly progressive group.

A triggering event took place on December 17, 1763, when a group of the Sons of Liberty dressed as Mohawk Indians moved tea from one of several ships in the Boston Harbor owned by the East India Tea Company (its tea a local and UK favorite) and unceremoniously dumped it in the harbor. An early case of evidence tampering? After the English Stamp Tax was imposed on the colonies in 1765, the group crystallized and became increasingly determined. The colonists were learning how to weaponize the colonial equivalent of defensive tariffs and trade sanctions.

Relations continued to deteriorate, with unrest ultimately giving rise to the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1769, when a group of nine British soldiers fired into a crowd of 300-400 colonists. The parties would have been using one-shot muskets, not assault rifles. A number of the locals were hurt. Ironically, John Adams was importuned to defend (successfully) the British soldiers. Was this an ancestor of police brutality cases?

One of many dates that could be used as signaling the start of the Revolutionary War was April 18, 1775, the morning after Paul Revere rode from Boston to Lexington and Concord—faster than the fastest town crier-- warning, the British are coming. The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776.

After several years of negotiations and confusion, the Articles of Confederation were adopted in 1781. But the Articles were engineered to protect the independence and sovereignty of the states. (Sounds a bit like some of the arguments made today about things like abortion and the power of the states.) Taxation was not among the new government’s powers. Over time the states realized that they needed more governmental infrastructure. The Constitutional Convention met from May 25 until September 17, 1787, when the necessary states consented to the draft. The Constitution was ratified effective March 4, 1789. All elements of the Federal model were not disposed of. When Benjamin Franklin was asked about what form of government we had after the Convention, he is said to have responded, a Republic Madame, if we can keep it.

That question should be ringing in our ears today. Indeed, January 6, with participation by groups such as the Oath Takers, Proud Boys, and perhaps today’s versions of the Sons of Liberty (there are some) who made appearances at the US Capitol on January 6, 2022, is proof positive that among some of our citizens, the questions grappled with in 1787 are still alive Also, see some of the recent decisions of our reconstituted Supreme Court.

The American Revolution and its resulting constitutional governance were indeed revolutionary in the sense that they led to a democratic structure like no other but were also imperfect products of compromises. Democracy assumes voting rights. As originally adopted, white males did OK under the Constitution. Women and slaves, not so much. How about voting power? One man, one vote, for whites. But how would the number of members of the US House of Representatives be determined? Originally that count included in the formula two-thirds of the male slaves in the state—even though the vote was not passed through to the slaves. The number of senators? Two per state, no matter the considerable population differences. And most things needed to be passed by both the Senate and the House, thus giving a disproportionate vote to lesser populated states. This no doubt served a practical political purpose in 1787, but now gives roadblock power to a minority. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863) went a long way in the direction of effecting a change here, but the formal elimination of the two-thirds of slaves provision came with the 14th Amendment in 1868.

The current Electoral College provisions are also far from perfect. Under current law, the states determine how their electors will vote. The states’ power as to the Electoral College was confirmed under the 15th Amendment (1870). The number of electors for each state equals the number of House members plus Senators. Score, smaller populated states. It is fair to conclude that the original Constitution discriminated against non-white males and women and was more than fair to the lesser-populated states. A lot has changed, but some of what we’re going through now have their genesis at where we started with our Constitution and the compromises necessary to achieve adoption. Thus, the smaller states (in terms of the white male population) were protected by the core of the Constitution’s structure.

This is a part of the background (recognized or not) to the white male chants in Charlottesville (you will not replace us). White males have lost voting power, and some no doubt feel the inevitability of a browner and blacker and more Asian America, but that is a fundamental element of a democracy. There was a time when white male Americans lost ground to the Irish, Italians and Jews, and women. Things were not entirely smooth, but there was no civil war. And heaven knows that institutionalized racism has served—and continues to serve--as an ugly brake on the pace and content of logical and necessary change. It is not surprising that many members of our organized domestic terror groups have white skin and hair that is greyer and greyer, or, dare we say, white.

The United States has had to deal with crises and dysfunction involving internal and external forces ever since it was founded. Some of us remember the 1960s, Vietnam, and the horrific assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, and riots on campuses, in major cities, and at the national political party conventions.

We again sail in troubled waters. May we continue to achieve more fair resolutions and, when necessary, have the courage to construct, protect and preserve a prudent and truly fair middle path.

Chapter 1

Transitions

[December 2020]

I

n the middle of December 2020, Staunton Pepper, or Salt as he was known by anyone who knew him at all, had hauled another load of stuff from his townhouse in the District of Columbia (not quite Georgetown, but close) and was unloading it in the house on his family farm in Northern Virginia, near the foot of the Blue Ridge mountains. Unloading was all he was doing. The maximum available effort was figuring out whether he could stack yet another box on a pile that looked like it was already leaning. Reminded him of the days when his young nephew stacked wooden blocks on top of one another until they fell. Salt planned to stay at the farm for one night and then leave the next afternoon to visit some friends and a couple of relatives over the holidays, and he was to meet the moving van at the farmhouse in the afternoon on January 2. They were late (not a huge surprise) but were able to complete unloading by the end of the next day, a Sunday. But the days were all morphing together. Salt had no idea what was headed his way.

The weather? —about what you’d expect at that time of year and near the mountains: gray, damp, and chilly. The only thing not depressing about the morning was that President Anthony Pope was about to leave office. After a close, divisive, and uninspiring but somewhat frightening election, President Evans had emerged the winner. He did win—right? Evans presented as progressive enough to attract a sufficient number of millennials and minority voters but not so progressive as to alienate most moderates and suburbanites.

He accepted and promoted the need for different approaches to challenges such as the morphing COVID-19 pandemic and the related recession-type slowdown that remained scourges, won the popular vote, and managed not to lose in places where the Electoral College could have—once again—overcome the popular voting results. From Evans’ standpoint, things could be changed through the Internet, and he used some of that material in his remarks.

President Evans and his team were not the only group preparing for the inauguration in the middle of December 2020.

Chapter 2

Sons of Liberty Kick-Off

[December 5, 2020]

O

n a cold, dark, and clear starry evening on the 5th of December, in a worn and windowless barn not that far from Salt’s farm—with what was left of one of those familiar Chew Mail Pouch ads painted on one side of the building—another meeting was about to start. Samuel presided and opened with a prayer, and the group joined in a hearty, if not talent-borne, rendition of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Samuel called the meeting of the Sons of Liberty of Northern Virginia to order, asked a couple of the boys to throw some more wood in the stove, and then got things underway. The meeting was well attended, with none of the leaders (all of whom, like Samuel, used a first name adopted from one of the original Sons of Liberty) absent. Everyone knew that this was a big f . . .ing deal. There was only one absentee—some kind of a mystery man – Alexander (Hamilton)—referred to in ways that suggested that he was not a regular but perhaps a funding source. Many wore versions of the colonial tri-corner hat, a few coonskin caps, and red MAGA hats. Lots of flags, including the yellow Don’t Tread on Me.

The group was a mixture of a few Baby Boomers and more Gen X and Gen Y types. Some women, but mostly men. Hair length and greasiness, all over the spectrum (barbers would not make a living on this crew), lots of grey and white hair, no slacks, but lots of jeans and a few bib overalls, some with guns, some with knives, and a few who pretty clearly did not need a weapon. There would be a short attention span as a group, so Samuel was insistent on getting going before the beer kegs rolled out. The Sons were going to have to decide—individually and as a group—whether to shit or get off the pot.

Samuel explained that, consistent with the group’s prior consensus, he had been in contact with Hamilton and with other similar groups around the colonies that were planning to accept President Pope’s invitation (or was it an order?) to participate in the January 6 demonstration at the U.S. Capitol complex following a speech by President Pope. This was sure to get everyone’s blood moving. It sounded like Samuel knew his way around some of the Internet's dark corners and used some of that material in his remarks.

Excitement filled the air, and the meeting took on the flavor of a pep rally, with high fives all around and plenty of cheering. Samuel cautioned that detailed plans were not being distributed because of the danger of leaks, though the Internet was full of chat about the event that was clearly building to a crescendo. He said it would be obvious what they should do when they got to the Capitol.  They should dress for the temperature, come armed with whatever weapons they were comfortable with, the longer, the better, and if they ever needed to, should form a protective cocoon around President Pope. Bring a photo of your ID of some kind in case you get arrested, not anything you could not burn, and wear a hat you could pull way down with a broad brim that would make it hard to get your picture from the top of a building. It seemed as though Samuel had a degree in been there, done that.

Everyone agreed (you bet your ass) that President Pope had actually won the election but had been cheated in more ways than folks could even describe. The judges in cases related to the vote were losers and all on the take, and standard processes could not be followed. Samuel detailed his calls and meetings (carefully arranged so there would be no—and he meant no—electronic evidence) with leaders of similar groups about what they intended to do in response to the call from President Pope for a big crowd that would send the ultra-progressives running for the hills and result in the reversal of the election results (damn right). For once, the lawyers had dreamed up a foolproof way to get things fixed and deal with the Vice President at the same time. All the Sons and others, like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, needed to do was show up, display some honest-to-God grit for a change, and handle any troublemakers.

No more bullshit and enough with the fast-talking, do nothing lawyers, who seemed only to sweat through their makeup, get thrown out of court on their asses, and then holler, wait till we get their asses in the court of appeals. . . . Enough.

After some minimal discussion, someone rolled out a keg of beer and said, I think it’s time to vote to save our country and the President tomorrow and wet our whistles tonight. There was a responsive chorus of mixed profanity that could only mean yes. John said they should