Leading The World Watch September 30, 2011March 25, 2017 RECESSION: IT’S A CHOICE Economists conclude we’ll slip back into recession if we fail to pass the American Jobs Act – or avoid that if we do. Bloomberg reports the story here: . . . A reduction in government spending, the end of the payroll-tax holiday and an expiration of extended unemployment benefits would cut GDP by 1.7 percent in 2012, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief U.S. economist Michael Feroli in New York. Instead, the Obama proposal makes up for that potential loss and may add a net 0.1 percent to the economy, he estimates. . . . . . . In the Bloomberg survey, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimated the plan would add 1.5 percent to the economy, while Macroeconomic Advisers LLC said 1.3 percent and UniCredit Research, up to 2 percent. . . . ☞ Hard to imagine why we’d prefer another recession – or why we wouldn’t want to fix bridges and modernize dilapidated schools. It seems to me that, whatever our political affiliation, we should be furious with any senator or member of Congress, of whatever party, who stands in the way. THE PRESIDENT AT THE UN Want to feel really good about America and her leadership? Find some quiet time right now, or this weekend, to watch the President’s speech to the UN. It is us at our best.
“Doh!” September 29, 2011March 25, 2017 RECYCLING YOUR ENERGY You consume calories to power your 100-odd-pound self around the mall. And all that energy is currently lost. What if each footfall pumped a tile that recycled some of that lost energy? There’s a company making such tiles right now. Here’s the story. Obviously, only a small piece of our energy puzzle, if it can be brought to scale at all – but I love it. THE TOP BRACKET OVER TIME Peter S: “Take a look at this table. What it shows is that Republicans dropped the top tax rate from 73% down to 25% and the Great Depression followed. And it shows that the top rate was above 80% through the Golden Age of America that Conservatives always want to go back to, the 1940s and 1950s. Kennedy lowered it to around 70% (took effect in 1964) where it stayed until Reagan lowered it to 50% from 1982-86. At the end of his administration, Reagan lowered it to 28% and George Bush Sr. had to raise it to 31% to combat deficits as far as the eye could see. Bill Clinton raised the top rate to 39.6% which was still far lower than in 7 of the 8 years of the Reagan administration – and we had the greatest economy in world history with 22 million jobs created. George W. Bush lowered it to 35% – and the rate on dividends and capital gains to 15% – and created zero net new jobs and added $4 trillion in debt. President Obama wants to raise it back to Clinton’s 39.6% and Chris Christie says that’s dividing the country and just election year politics. According to my reading of this table, it’s just intelligent economics. Doh!” CANARD A L’ORANGE Toby: “Why use a word like ‘canard,’ as you did yesterday, when there is a simpler, better understood one available: LIE. They are liars and they should be called as such! And the people they are lying to will have an easier time understanding what you have to say, and thus be more likely to listen. Ten to one you’ll never hear the word ‘canard’ on Fox!” Happy birthday, Scooter, Jane, Darrique, Jaap . . .
White Male Property-Owners September 28, 2011March 25, 2017 The discussion about whether Roy Herron’s 94-year-old mother should be allowed to vote as she always has, described Monday, prompts this question: IN AMERICA, SHOULD POOR PEOPLE EVEN BE ALLOWED TO VOTE? Not a question you might expect in 2011, but a question some on the right have been asking. Click here for a remarkable overview . . . and for further links to articles like the one entitled, “Registering the Poor to Vote is Un-American.” Hence the successful Republican drive to shut down ACORN* . . . to raise new barriers to voter registration . . . and, as with Mrs. Herron, to raise new barriers to voting itself. After all, if too many poor people vote, you can wind up with people like Bill Clinton, who raised taxes on the job creators. True, under his stewardship, 23 million new jobs were created, the rich got richer, NAFTA was signed, welfare-to-work was launched, and the budget got balanced. But Clinton may just have been a fluke. He may not be the kind of candidate hordes of poor people would normally elect. They might elect someone like Barack Obama, who would want to put construction workers back to work rebuilding our infrastructure and teachers back to work educating our kids, break the log jam in the patent office and push through 16 tax cuts for small businesses. Radical stuff. Our Republican friends who are working so hard to make it harder for poor people to vote may not long for the days when only “white males with property” were allowed to vote. But they certainly remember Ronald Reagan fondly. (He raised payroll taxes on the middle class even as he slashed taxes on the rich.) And they believe the rich are “job creators” who must not be over-taxed – even though, after Bush slashed the tax rate on dividends and long-term capital gains to 15% (it was 28% under Reagan), jobs were not created. It is a complete canard to claim people won’t start businesses if tax rates are what they were under Eisenhower or Nixon or Ford or Reagan – they started loads of them. And it is a complete canard to say that a small business (or a large one) will not hire workers it needs to make more profit if they know that profit will be taxed at one rate versus another. Or that they will hire workers they don’t need if taxes on their profits are lower. So I say: Let even poor people vote. And if they should wind up electing another Clinton or Obama again, and if the wealthy do have to pay tax at no lower rates than their secretaries – as was the case under Ronald Reagan – never fear: it will be good for the country. Even, ultimately, for the rich. *Too late, ACORN was completely vindicated.
Muffins Matter September 27, 2011March 25, 2017 THE $16 MUFFIN MYTH They say climate change is a myth – that 7 billion people spewing pollutants into the atmosphere couldn’t possibly have an effect on the atmosphere. We say the $16 muffin is a myth. There are two differences here. First, what they deny is really important. Second, they’re wrong. The $16 muffin is a myth. The Department of Justice held a conference and spent $14.74 per day per attendee on food and beverages. Whoopdedoo. And Gore never said he invented the Internet, did not exaggerate his and Tipper’s inclusion in Love Story, did nothing wrong at the Buddhist temple – and yet, from these muffin-like allegations, sprang the Bush presidency, the Iraq War, and our wrecked economy. Muffins matter. JUSTICE KAGAN I loved this profile of Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. It even made me feel (a little) better about Justice Roberts. Those of us who supported President Obama tend to take all the good things for granted – and there are tons of them – but it’s worth noting that this is one of them. BULLYING 94-YEAR OLD WOMEN James Hickel: “It seems that the state of Tennessee actually makes it very easy and convenient for elderly voters like State Senator Herron’s mother to vote. They can vote absentee, from the comfort of their own homes, without bothering to get a government-issued photo ID. So what exactly is Herron complaining about? The new law requiring a government-issued photo ID to vote applies only to those voting at polling places. It does not apply to those casting absentee ballots under state law, including those age 65 or older who wish to vote absentee or those voting at licensed nursing homes.” Roy Herron: “Yes: If you act soon enough, if you jump correctly through absentee hoops, and if you are 65, then voting absentee is an option. If, however, you’re not 65, but one of the hundreds of thousands without photo ID, or don’t get weeks ahead of the curve, or don’t do the paperwork right, you are outta luck. As I said in the essay, we’ll take care of Mom. But thousands and thousands of others will not be permitted to vote.” SIX DEGREES OF JOHN TYLER Robert Merrill: “My great uncle was Lion Gardiner Mason so the similarity of the name Lyon Gardiner Tyler (linked from your column yesterday) prompted some research on my part. Turns out Lyon and Harrison would be third cousins with my great uncle. (I think I have that right: my Lion’s great-grandfather Nathaniel Gardiner was brother to Lyon and Harrison’s great-grandfather Daniel who fathered their grandmother Julia Gardiner Tyler, wife of John Tyler). So I guess I’m third cousin twice removed to those guys. I would say small world but given John Tyler’s progeny [15 children], half your readership may be distant cousins to him.” SOLYNDRA As reported here, the FBI is on the case. If there was fraud, it should be prosecuted. Still, the overall notion remains unchanged: We’re wise to seed investment in cutting-edge technologies – as China has done to the tune of $30 billion in solar. It’s in the national interest. Not all our efforts will succeed. We’d be fools not to try. The New York Times nails it: The United States, which three years ago led the world in investments in clean energy, has now fallen behind China and Germany, which provide far more generous subsidies. The failure of a single company — and anyone who knows anything about transformative technologies knows there will be failures — is no reason to stop our efforts to catch up. . . . It is also important to note where some of the loudest criticism is coming from: House Republicans who want to undermine the president, belittle global warming and discredit clean fuels. Their agenda was on full display Thursday at a hearing led by Darrell Issa called “How Obama’s Green Energy Agenda Is Killing Jobs.” The truth of the matter is that when judged by its diverse portfolio, the loan program appears, at least so far, to have performed well. The Solyndra investment represents less than 2 percent of nearly $40 billion in loan guarantees for about three dozen innovative projects. Some of them — advanced automobile battery projects, for instance — have provided thousands of much-needed jobs in Michigan and other recession-battered states. . . . Mr. Issa to the contrary, jobs in the solar industry have doubled to roughly 100,000 since 2003. Recent studies suggest that, globally, renewable energy will grow faster than any other energy source in the coming decades. The surest way to guarantee that America gets its fair share of that business and those jobs would be to enact a comprehensive energy strategy that raises the price of older, dirtier fuels. Failing that, continued government support is absolutely essential.
Bullying 94-Year-Old Women That's Really What This Is September 26, 2011March 25, 2017 AN EXPERIMENT How young is America? If you’re 12, you think it’s been here forever. But if you were born in 1790 as President John Tyler was – just a year after our Constitution was ratified – your grandsons could be alive today. Two of his, Lyon and Harrison, in fact are. (Thanks for this, Andrea.) We’re still just an experiment. AND LOOK HOW WE’RE MUCKING IT UP We’re letting our infrastructure crumble, we’re inflicting unnecessary wounds (that debt ceiling thing? that invasion of Iraq? those tax breaks for the rich who were doing fine as it was and created no jobs in return?) – and we’re now trying to go backwards on suffrage. Where for a couple of centuries the push was to expand the vote from the original “white males with property,” now the push is to make it harder for young people and poor people – which is to say, Democrats – to vote. Here’s my friend Tennessee State Senator Roy Herron writing in the Memphis Commercial Appeal: When my 94-year-old mother was born, women were not allowed to vote. But then Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment, and for seven decades Mother has voted faithfully. This year, my Republican colleagues in the legislature took away that right when they made it harder for her — and as many as 675,000 other Tennesseans — to continue to vote. Ironically, legislators from the party that supposedly favors less government and more privacy passed a law requiring my mother to obtain a “big-government” photo identity card in order to vote. When the law goes into effect with the March 2012 presidential primary elections, poll workers will no longer accept her voter registration card as sufficient proof of identity. Mother has not driven in at least two decades, so she has no driver’s license. But when she is pushed in her wheelchair to the polls, not one election worker will mistake her for another 94-year-old trying to cast a felonious, fraudulent vote. My mother is one of 675,337 Tennesseans age 18 and older who, according to the Department of Safety, either have no driver’s license or have a license that does not carry their photo. These citizens may be registered to vote, but unless they obtain a photo ID from a driver’s license station or can produce another type of government-issued photo ID that the new law accepts (such as a military ID or a passport), they will not be allowed to vote. This new requirement creates several problems. First, one cannot get a government ID card from the state Department of Safety without producing a “primary proof of identity,” most commonly a birth certificate. Not surprisingly, my mother’s 1916 birth certificate has been misplaced. So she and thousands of other registered voters like her will have to get new birth certificates, which is where the next problem arises. To apply for a birth certificate, my mother must either travel to the state Department of Health’s Office of Vital Records in Nashville, submit her request online or telephone the office. Traveling nearly halfway across the state is not feasible for many elderly, disabled, mobility-challenged, poor or employed Tennesseans. My mother and thousands of other Tennesseans are not computer literate, so they cannot order a birth certificate online. I recently asked Nashville attorney Annie Prescott to navigate the third option — a phone call to the Office of Vital Records. She spent the better part of an hour on the phone trying to speak to a live person. Over 15 menu options offered by a series of recorded messages led to three busy signals and four hang-ups. Finally, Prescott got a real person on the phone, who instructed her to call another number. That number was for a company that charges an additional $15 to process the $15 request. And unless you pay another $5 to expedite service, you must then wait weeks to receive the birth certificate. So the total cost of what is supposed to be a free state-issued photo ID card so far is $35, not counting the long-distance charges for the phone call, the cost of one’s time or the frustration of the process. And applicants still have to take the birth certificate to a driver’s license testing station, where they may have to wait in line for hours. Only 43 of Tennessee’s 95 counties have driver’s license centers. Half the counties in West Tennessee, and two-thirds of the counties in my state Senate district, don’t have them. Some of the rural Tennesseans I represent will have to drive from their county through a second county and into a third to reach the closest driver’s license center — a trip of 40 to 60 miles each way. Taking a day off work and with gas averaging $3.58 a gallon, even at minimum wage the expense of travel and lost wages will cost people perhaps an additional $80 to $100 to exercise their constitutional right to vote. This cost of this process — in many cases totaling $110 to $135, if not more — is such a burden that for many voters it will amount to disenfranchisement. My Republican colleagues claim this legislation is necessary to prevent voter fraud, citing a state Senate election in Memphis in 2005 in which votes were recorded from two deceased people. But the fact is that the culprits in that case were dishonest election workers, not voters. Photo ID cards would not solve that problem. My mother has children who live in West Tennessee, and we’ll do what has to be done to ensure she can continue to vote. But what about the other mothers and fathers, the blind, the hearing-impaired, the disabled, the elderly, the poor and the working people who already struggle to pay their bills, much less these new “poll taxes” of $100 or more to meet the requirements of the photo ID law? This law is simply the latest in a long chain of outrageous actions designed to keep those who don’t look or think like the controlling politicians from voting. People have died trying to register to vote. Now even those who are registered may still be denied the right to vote. State Sen. Roy Herron of Dresden represents Benton, Decatur, Henry, Henderson, Lake, Obion, Perry, Stewart, and Weakley counties. ☞ And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the patriotic face of today’s Republican Party, as financed by billionaires determined not to pay taxes at the rate they were paying under Ronald Reagan, certain that they are the victims in all this, and that the rest of us are getting a free ride. ELIZABETH WARREN You must take two minutes to watch this clip. If you’re a moderate or progressive, I’m almost certain you will want to send it on to any Republican you know. And it’s why – personable as he is – the good people of Massachusetts are going to dump Scott Brown next year for Elizabeth Warren.
Just Do It September 23, 2011March 25, 2017 I inherited the happy gene but I’d be happier still if we would just stop – and by “we,” I mean the Republicans – inflicting needless harm on ourselves. We didn’t have to squander the huge looming surplus President Clinton left President Bush and his Republican Congress. We didn’t have to invade Iraq. We didn’t have to manufacture this summer’s debt ceiling crisis. And we don’t have to sit paralyzed as our bridges and schools crumble while so many people eager to fix them are out of work. Even though much of this week’s stock market action is related to Europe’s dire straits, I think the market would respond with enthusiasm if we passed the American Jobs Act – now, right away – and got to work. What ARE we waiting for? And if we did start moving, and grabbed control of our future, it would give markets around the world more confidence as well. ROMNEY ON THE JOBS ACT He’s against it, of course – except, as you’ll see in this quick video, the main things in it. When he was advocating those things, he could say with authority that they made sense. Now that the President has proposed them, they apparently don’t. Economists say passage of the Act will add 1.3% to 2% to what the GDP otherwise would have been. We need to pass this bill right away. We need to put people back to work right away. And all that stands in the way of doing so is the Republican Party. SOLYNDRA Meanwhile, Media Matters notes that the Wall Street Journal ranked Solyndra the Top Clean-Tech company in the country. Going on to say . . . A year and a half later, Solyndra has gone bankrupt due to changing market conditions and stiff competition, and the GOP is using that fact to attack clean energy investments. Now the Journal is suggesting that the Department of Energy, by betting on a company that the Journal itself called the #1 clean tech company in the U.S., gave Solyndra a loan guarantee because it did “not understand” the solar industry and engaged in “political favoritism.” ☞ There is so much wrong with the right’s attacks on the Solyndra loan, as there is with the right’s attacks on the American Jobs Act. Click here if you missed the “5 lies” about Solyndra. And here if you lacked the time yesterday to “attend” a fascinating Clinton Global Initiative session featuring the CEO of Solazyme – someday, the gas in your tank or the oil on your arugula may come from their algae – and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Both were emphatic with regard to Solyndra that we must have a tolerance for risk-taking – which means lots of failures – if we want to succeed. As any venture capitalist will tell you, not every risk pays off. That’s no reason to stop taking them. (The session moderator, Van Jones, notes cheerfully that we are, after all, Americans, not American’ts.) PERRY From the Borowitz Report: Canada to Build Twenty-foot Fence if Perry Elected Could Be Electrified, Border Officials Warn THE BRIDGE TO SOMEWHERE The President spoke yesterday at a heavily trafficked bridge – declared “functionally obsolete” – that connects House Speaker Boehner’s home state of Ohio with Senate Minority Leader McConnell’s home state of Kentucky. He wants to put people to work fixing the bridge. The Republican response was to dismiss the speech as a stunt. Yet no one disputes that the bridge is obsolete, or that there are tens of thousands of others around the country like it, or that there are thousands of unemployed construction workers in Ohio and Kentucky. What ARE we waiting for? EUROPE’S DIRE STRAITS Since Germany seems to be the only one that can save the day, my guess is that she will. But there’s real risk she won’t, with significant consequences worldwide. The financial system is interconnected. There’s good cause to be nervous. SIGA The company got a bad legal ruling yesterday and the stock plunged, as explained here. Having seemingly unlimited amounts of money I can truly afford to lose (I don’t eat much), I doubled up. Thirty-one days from now, once the wash-sale period is up, I may sell the original shares for a tax loss; although if tax-selling drives it down further I might buy more first. The risk reward here seems to be good. In a year or two, even if the ruling is not reversed on appeal, the stock could be significantly higher. But as always: only with money you can truly afford to lose. FCSC Chris Hanacek: “Does guru have any sense on the time horizon for the uptake of their Fibrocell process?” “It’s difficult to gauge,” writes Guru. “This product was launched in the UK about 10 years ago and the then management team pushed very aggressively on sales, so much so that the product ended up being misapplied, patients sued the company, and the product was eventually pulled from the market. The product when correctly applied produces excellent results – it is your own skin! However, the current management is taking time to train doctors on the correct application process. The training is simple – one day. Still, it takes some time to go around the country and train the doctors. Then uptake depends on patient interest. Even when a patient decides to purchase the product, it takes a couple of months to grow enough skin to inject back into the patient. “The market for products to address facial scars and wrinkles is large. Allergan’s Juvederm did $88 million in the most recent quarter, annualizing at more than $350 million. Medicis’ competing product, Restylane, is on track according to Deutsche Bank to do more than $123 million this year. Thus, there is plenty of opportunity in the market for FCSC (valued at about $50 million recently for the whole company). Management, however, has not been willing to provide specific guidance at the moment and is remaining appropriately conservative until they can gauge the commercial interest themselves. Juvederm and Restylane fade after a few months, so if you use those, you must go back to the doctor to get regular re-injections. FCSC provides your own skin, which regrows and remains in place. Long term a much better outcome. “The acne indication is not on the label yet, but there, the product competes with lasers, which of course, do not regrow skin, but merely try to flatten the areas surrounding the acne. The company has completed one successful acne trial that has been published and is discussing with the FDA what would be required to get acne officially on the label. However, since the product is approved for wrinkles, a doctor is free to prescribe it for acne if the doctor chooses and I would expect that patients that can afford laser treatment would look very seriously at this therapy instead. I certainly would.”
Wakawaka September 22, 2011March 25, 2017 SPEAKING TO THE UNITED NATIONS The President’s annual address, in very small part . . . . . . [S]o this has been a remarkable year. The Qaddafi regime is over. Gbagbo, Ben Ali, Mubarak are no longer in power. Osama bin Laden is gone, and the idea that change could only come through violence has been buried with him. Something is happening in our world. The way things have been is not the way that they will be. The humiliating grip of corruption and tyranny is being pried open. Dictators are on notice. Technology is putting power into the hands of the people. The youth are delivering a powerful rebuke to dictatorship, and rejecting the lie that some races, some peoples, some religions, some ethnicities do not desire democracy. The promise written down on paper – “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” – is closer at hand. . . .” ☞ Watch. ALGAE TO OLIVE OIL / AND SOLYNDRA The Clinton Global Initiative is in session this week. Consider “attending” this session. It begins with three “commitments” CGI members have made – check out the wakawaka light – but is then a discussion that fills this layman with hope: new technology for a better world, and a Navy and Marine Corps acting smartly to nurture innovation. Of particular note are the panelists’ take on Solyndra. Essentially: “Failure is the mother of innovation.” If we have no tolerance for failure, we’ll never succeed. (Not mentioned by the panel, but, for the record, Solyndra was conceived and moved through the approval process mostly under the Bush Administration.) ITMN Guru: “Today after the close the New England Journal published a phase 2 study of a new agent for the same disease as ITMN. The data appear superior and more compelling. ITMN has a drug that appears to be a weaker version of what was published today. The competitor will still need to do a phase 3, so it couldn’t be on the market for 3 to 4 years. ITMN will be the only game in town in Europe and will generate significant sales. After that it depends on the data. However today’s product looks impressive. And other companies will try similar drugs. Sure wish I could have anticipated the announcement.” ☞ Not what we had hoped. I plan to exit.
What To Tell Friends Who May Still Be Demoralized (Though, With the President Back in Fighting Mode, a Lot of That is Evaporating) September 21, 2011March 25, 2017 Monday and Tuesday, I offered links that should satisfy anyone who doubts the President’s commitment to Israel. (Carolyn: “Thanks for that. I went to a talk with some of the members of the Palestinian delegation to the UN. When they were asked what they thought of the President’s veto, they said they want him to do whatever he has to do to remain in power.” Isn’t that great? To have a firm friend of Israel who also has the respect of the Palestinians? Maybe peace can be achieved one of these days after all.) With the full and final repeal of Don’t Ask / Don’t Tell yesterday, and a long list of other items, even my most skeptical friends are now beginning to accept that the President has delivered impressive progress on equality, with more to come if he gets a second term. Similar lists of accomplishments can be compiled for – among others – women, environmentalists, students, and anyone who’s a member of the middle class. Even so, some of our friends are disappointed. What should we tell them? Tell them: 1. Mitt Romney’s co-chair for Supreme Court picks is Robert Bork. And to get the nomination, Romney would have to make the same deal with religious right Bush did. (Perry, obviously, would be even worse.) So if we lose next year, we’d likely lose one-third of the government for a generation. Wait . . . that may just discourage them more. But it’s really important for everyone to know, because THIS third of our government decides things like Citizens United and Bush v Gore that determine who gets to run the world. And things like women’s reproductive rights and separation of church and state. Had a single vote flipped in the 5-4 Florida recount decision, there would have been no war in Iraq, no trillion-dollar deficits, no near-Depression – and no Roberts or Alito to tilt the Court further right. As discouraging as an 18-month delay in the imposition of tougher ozone regulations is – and it is! – as discouraging as the failure of a showcased solar power start-up is – and it is! (though see below) – they’re not worth losing the Court over because we got too demoralized to fight. 2. If we DON’T become too demoralized to fight, WE’RE GOING TO WIN! For one thing, most voters agree with us. They LIKE Social Security. They DON’T want to pay an extra $6,000 a year under Paul Ryan’s privatized Medicare plan. They AGREE millionaires should lose their Bush tax cuts. They WANT to see investment in infrastructure and cops kept on the streets. For another, the Tea Party is not popular. It may have captured the Republican Party, but it ranks 24th – out of 24 – dead last – behind Jews (#6), gays (#17), atheists (#22), and Sarah Palin (#23). For a third, we know how to do this. The same team that quarterbacked Obama’s improbable nomination in 2008 is back at the helm – and very much aware of the changed realities. While the Republicans are hard at work tearing each other down, we are hard at work laying the groundwork for an enormous effort. I just got back from Chicago where two things were really heartening: I saw some of the plans, which take 2008 to a whole new level; and I sensed the determination – which is fierce. 3. NOW is the time to help. An organizer we hire now – and we’ve already hired hundreds – has time to recruit, train, and inspire TEAM LEADERS who have time to recruit, train, and inspire TEAM MEMBERS, who have time to recruit, train, and inspire VOLUNTEERS (actually, they’re all volunteers, except for that first $35,000 organizer) who have time to knock on tens of thousands of doors, register new voters, assist existing voters overcome newly erected Republican obstacles (like obtaining photo IDs) and, collectively, turn out millions of incremental votes. And remember: those are votes for President but also, once they’re in the booth, for Senate, House, and everything else. These are votes our team would otherwise not get. These are votes we can’t get if we wait until next fall. This work is absolutely the most leveraged way to tip the odds in our favor. We need to fund it. Are we going to be like the Republicans? They just close their eyes to the perils of climate change rather than act to avert it. In our case, the immediate peril is a bad result in 2012. Will our discouraged friends – out of admirable idealism – not act to avert it? And that’s the fourth of the three things we need to tell our discouraged friends: 4. There are two kinds of idealists. As argued here a few days ago, the TRUE idealist is the one who does what he or she has to to advance his or her ideals (perhaps call him or her the “practical idealist”) whereas the TRAGIC idealist is tremendously well motivated but – by refusing to make the hard choices and accept the distasteful compromises – sets his cause back horribly. That’s what Nader did. By ignoring all his friends and advisors – who begged him to tell swing-state voters to vote for Gore – he dealt the world an unintentional but disastrous blow. If that’s idealism, I want no part of it. Those who, out of idealism, fail this year – this month – to throw their full energy and resources into our effort are Karl Rove’s dream idealists. It’s HARD to be enthusiastic when times are so tough. And it’s hard to accept compromise. But it’s somewhat easier if your friends allow themselves to consider the GOOD stuff. This Administration averted a depression, restored America’s standing in the world, launched an educational “race to the top,” doubled fuel-efficiency standards, extended health insurance to 30 million people, preserved the social safety net, seeded potentially game-changing alternative energy start-ups, killed Bin Laden, appointed two progressive Justices, reformed student loans, created a consumer financial protection bureau, regulated tobacco, advanced LGBT equality . . . and on and on. It’s a very long list. It’s also somewhat easier to be enthusiastic if your friends dig down for “the other side of the story.” In the case of the Solyndra solar bankruptcy, for example, there’s a lot the media hasn’t reported. Often what we hear is overly negative — whether it comes from the Tea Party or even, sometimes, from our own team. All that said, it IS hard to be enthusiastic. We should all respect that. But, as I also recently argued here, it’s not as hard as spending a winter, shoeless, at Valley Forge.
The First Jewish President And A Stronger Military September 20, 2011March 25, 2017 [HOUSEKEEPING NOTE] Some of you get this page emailed to you at 6am every morning. There’s a button at the very bottom of this page that allows you to sign up for that. (It’s a little clunky, but generally seems to work.) Once in a while – like yesterday – I will resend the column as I realize I’ve botched something, or could improve or update something. So if you find two, let alone three, such emails in your inbox, please just read the most recent one. ISRAEL – II Jewish Americans have many reasons to vote Democratic, the most important being tikkun olam – a commitment to ‘heal the world.’ But add to that Obama’s terrific support for Israel, bullet-pointed yesterday. Now comes the cover of New York Magazine showing the President wearing a yarmulke with the cover line: ‘The First Jewish President.’ Here is the very favorable story. In small part: . . . Again and again, when Israel has been embroiled in international dustups-over its attack last year on a flotilla filled with activists headed from Turkey to Gaza, to cite but one example-the White House has had Israel’s back. The security relationship between the countries, on everything from intelligence sharing to missile-defense development to access to top-shelf weapons, has never been more robust. And when the Cairo embassy was seized and Netanyahu called to ask for Obama’s help with rescuing the last six Israelis trapped inside the building, the president not only picked up the phone but leaned hard on the Egyptians to free those within. “It was a decisive moment,” Netanyahu recalled after the six had been freed. “Fateful, I would even say.” All of which raises an interesting, perplexing, and suddenly quite pressing question: How, exactly, did Obama come to be portrayed, and perceived by many American Jews, as the most ardently anti-Israel president since Jimmy Carter? . . . OPEN SERVICE It’s official: Today marks the end of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” The law is repealed. From this day forward, gay and lesbian Soldiers may serve in our Army with the dignity and respect they deserve. Our rules, regulations and politics reflect the repeal guidance issued by the Department of Defense and will apply uniformly without regard to sexual orientation, which is a personal and private matter. For over 236 years, the U.S. Army has been an extraordinary force for good in the world. Our Soldiers are the most agile, adaptable and capable warriors in history — and we are ready for this change … ☞ The Washington Post reports: “. . . [E]ven when repeal seemed within reach, success was anything but assured. It only came after a nearly pitch-perfect effort by Obama and the military leadership to create the political conditions necessary to bring about repeal, as well as well as some very shrewd public and private gamesmanship by Senate leaders that left GOP moderates with little choice but to do the right thing. It will be endlessly debated whether Obama and Dems did this in response to outside pressure, but the fact is, they did it.”
Warren Buffett Is A Smarter Businessman Than Mitch McConnell And Has Created More Jobs September 19, 2011March 25, 2017 EVERYTHING IN THE AMERICAN JOBS ACT IS PAID FOR We should pass this bill right away. As President Clinton noted on “Meet the Press” yesterday, economists say it will add 1.3% to 2% to what our GDP otherwise would have been, reduce unemployment by 1% or more from where it otherwise would have been, and put more than a million people back to work. Mitch McConnell, on the same program, naturally dismissed all this out of hand. And John Boehner was shown saying we should work in a bipartisan way – none of this “my way or the highway” stuff – and that tax hikes of any kind were off the table. (It would be his way or the highway on that.) They are just certain that the tax rates on the rich that we’ve had for the last several years – which have been accompanied by massive job losses – are the way to go. They are certain that the Clinton tax hikes – which were accompanied by 23 million net jobs created – proved themselves a mistake. It’s concerning that so many people fail to see that this is nuts. Concerning that Bush could have told the American people that “by far the vast majority” of the benefits from his tax cuts would go “to people at the bottom of the economic ladder” – without widespread outrage at the grotesque dishonesty. What no one said on “Meet the Press” – and what I’ve not heard said anywhere – is that the “Warren Buffett millionaire’s tax” being proposed is NOT “more taxes,” it’s shifting tax CUTS from those who least need them to those who most do. From those least likely to spend the cuts (and stimulate the economy) to those most likely to. It’s funding payroll tax CUTS for the middle class by hiking taxes on millionaires so that they pay closer to the 28% they paid under Ronald Reagan instead of the 15% that Bush told us would create jobs – but didn’t. And by the way? If we do get an overall tax increase (with more coming in from millionaires and billionaires than going out in cuts to the middle class) . . . and if we use that additional revenue to fund a more aggressive private-sector job-creating infrastructure program in the short-run and deficit reduction in the long-run . . . that would be good. Reagan raised taxes on the middle class (specifically, the payroll tax) and slashed taxes on millionaires; Obama proposes to shift that back a bit. (And not to impose the hike on millionaires until 2013.) GOLD Daniel: “I’m cheaper than you. I hold my gold via iShares IAU (.25% expense ratio) vs GLD (.40% expense ratio) which is annually about $2.65/oz less expensive.” SOLYNDRA Guess what? Turns out that the half-billion-dollar bankruptcy of Obama Administration solar showcase Solyndra was not quite as portrayed in the press. This piece exposes what it calls the “Five Biggest Right-Wing Lies About Solyndra.” First, that the biggest Solyndra investor was an Obama contributor who stood to profit – he was not and did not. Click to read the other four. To which I would just add: look, in any new industry – be it the Internet or, once upon a time, the auto industry – lots of new ventures fail. That doesn’t mean, with so much at stake as we compete with China and others for a share of the world market in alternative energy, we shouldn’t take some risks. And when you take risks, some fail. Even so, the author of “the five biggest lies” argues this money was not wasted. Click the link. ISRAEL – AGAIN Joe P.: “Obama is going to lose my vote on the issue of ISRAEL. He’s been terrible.” ☞ No, he has been terrific. Virtually the only people questioning Obama’s Pro-Israel record are the Republicans. The top Israeli military leaders, and the left and the right of the Israeli government, have praised Obama. Even AIPAC and a Hasidic newspaper have issued statements in support of the President. Israeli President Shimon Peres: “I want to take advantage of this opportunity to express my appreciation to President Obama and say in a clear voice – President Obama is a friend of the Jewish people and the state of Israel and there is no doubt in this matter. Michael Oren – Israeli Ambassador to the US: “I think we are closer today in our two positions than we have been probably any time before… We agree on the principles of moving forward. The Obama administration is committed to a two state solution based on direct negotiations and dealing with all the core issue. That is precisely the Israeli position—we see totally eye to eye on that.” – Michael Oren, September 16 on CNN’s The Situation Room New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg: Bloomberg was asked at a press conference Thursday whether he has any reservations about the President’s Middle East policies. The mayor described himself as strongly connected to Israel, and added: “I think there’s nothing the President’s done or said that gives me pause to think he doesn’t understand and feel the same way.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “I would like to express my gratitude to the President of the United States, Barack Obama [with respect to the Egyptian attack on the Israeli embassy]. I asked for his help. This was a decisive and fateful moment. He said, “I will do everything I can.” And so he did. He used every considerable means and influence of the United States to help us. We owe him a special measure of gratitude. This attests to the strong alliance between Israel and the United States. This alliance between Israel and the United States is especially important in these times of political storms and upheavals in the Middle East.” Former Director of the Mossad Efraim Halevy: “I believe the leadership that the President of the United States showed on that night [of the Cairo embassy rescue] was a leadership of historic dimensions. It was he who took the ultimate decision that night which prevented what could have been a sad outcome – instead of six men coming home, the arrival in Israel of six body bags. And I want to say to you very openly and very clearly that had there been six body bags, there would have been a much different Israel today than we have been used to seeing over recent years. This would not have been one more incident, one more operation, one event. And the man who brought this about was one man and that was President Barrack Hussein Obama. And I believe it is our duty as Israelis, as citizens of the free world, to say, not simply thank you President Obama, but also we respect you for the way and the manner in which you took this decision.” – September 13 Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon (formerly Ariel Sharon’s top foreign policy advisor): “I can tell you in a very categoric way, and I believe also an authoritative way, that we have not had a better friend than President Obama.” – September 9 Defense Minister Ehud Barak Corrects Fox News Host on Obama’s Support for Israel: “No. Our countries are good friends. And I’m the minister of defense, I can tell you that I can hardly remember – I was in uniform for decades – I can hardly remember a better period of support, American support and backing and cooperation and similar strategic understanding of events around us than what we have right now.” ☞ Okay? Can we stop bashing the Administration for being bad on Israel? Can we stop bashing it for investing in solar energy? Can we stop bashing it for being unable to get Mitch McConnell and John Boehner to do almost any of the things that cry out to be done to spur the growth in jobs and rejuvenate our infrastructure?