Utah’s Republican Lt. Governor On Orlando June 16, 2016June 15, 2016 Perfect. SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Lt. Governor Spencer Cox addresed a vigil held Monday night to honor the victims and survivors of the mass shooting in Orlando. Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you for being here tonight on this very solemn and somber occasion. I begin with an admission and an apology. First, I recognize fully that I am a balding, youngish, middle-aged straight, white, male, Republican, politician… with all of the expectations and privileges that come with those labels. I am probably not who you expected to hear from today. I’m here because, yesterday morning, 49 Americans were brutally murdered. And it made me sad. And it made me angry. And it made me confused. I’m here because those 49 people were gay. I’m here because it shouldn’t matter. But I’m here because it does. I am not here to tell you that I know exactly what you are going through. I am not here to tell you that I feel your pain. I don’t pretend to know the depths of what you are feeling right now. But I do know what it feels like to be scared. And I do know what it feels like to be sad. And I do know what it feels like to be rejected. And, more importantly, I know what it feels like to be loved. I grew up in a small town and went to a small rural high school. There were some kids in my class that were different. Sometimes I wasn’t kind to them. I didn’t know it at the time, but I know now that they were gay. I will forever regret not treating them with the kindness, dignity and respect — the love — that they deserved. For that, I sincerely and humbly apologize. Over the intervening years, my heart has changed. It has changed because of you. It has changed because I have gotten to know many of you. You have been patient with me. You helped me learn the right letters of the alphabet in the right order even though you keep adding new ones. You have been kind to me. Jim Dabakis even told me I dressed nice once, even though I know he was lying. You have treated me with the kindness, dignity, and respect — the love — that I very often did NOT deserve. And it has made me love you. But now we are here. We are here because 49 beautiful, amazing people are gone. These are not just statistics. These were individuals. These are human beings. They each have a story. They each had dreams, goals, talents, friends, family. They are you and they are me. And one night they went out to relax, to laugh, to connect, to forget, to remember. And in a few minutes of chaos and terror, they were gone. I believe that we can all agree we have come a long way as a society when it comes to our acceptance and understanding of the LGBTQ community (did I get that right?). However, there has been something about this tragedy that has very much troubled me. I believe that there is a question, two questions actually, that each of us needs to ask ourselves in our heart of hearts. And I am speaking now to the straight community. How did you feel when you heard that 49 people had been gunned down by a self-proclaimed terrorist? That’s the easy question. Here is the hard one: Did that feeling change when you found out the shooting was at a gay bar at 2 a.m. in the morning? If that feeling changed, then we are doing something wrong. So now we find ourselves at a crossroads. A crossroads of hate and terror. How do we respond? How do you respond? Do we lash out with anger, hate and mistrust. Or do we, as Lincoln begged, appeal to the “better angels of our nature?” Usually when tragedy occurs, we see our nation come together. I was saddened, yesterday to see far too many retreating to their over-worn policy corners and demagoguery. Let me be clear, there are no simple policy answers to this tragedy. Beware of anyone who tells you that they have the easy solution. It doesn’t exist. And I can assure you this — that calling people idiots, communists, fascists or bigots on Facebook is not going to change any hearts or minds. Today we need fewer Republicans and fewer Democrats. Today we need more Americans. But just because an easy solution doesn’t exist, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. The greatest generations in the history of the world were never innately great. They became great because of how they responded in the face of evil. Their humanity is measured by their response to hate and terror. I truly believe that this is the defining issue of our generation. Can we be brave? Can we be strong? Can we be kind and, perhaps, even happy, in the face of atrocious acts of hate and terrorism? Do we find a way to unite? Or do these atrocities further corrode and divide our torn nation? Can we, the citizens of the great state of Utah, lead the nation with love in the face of adversity? Can WE become a greatest generation? I promise we can. But I also promise it will never happen if we leave it to the politicians. Ultimately, there is only one way for us to come together. It must happen at a personal level. We must learn to truly love one another. The Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said: “You will not enter paradise until you believe, and you will not believe until you love one another.” Jesus said, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.” Now, you know a little something about hate. And you know a little something about persecution. But you also know something about loving, blessing and doing good. What our country needs more than ever is less politics and more kindness. If nothing else, as we can see here tonight, this tragedy has the potential to bring us closer than ever before. And so may we leave today, with a resolve to be a little kinder. May we try to listen more and talk less. May we forgive someone that has wronged us. And perhaps, most importantly, try to love someone that is different than us. For my straight friends, might I suggest starting with someone who is gay. I leave you with the words of Lyndon B. Johnson. They were spoken at another very sad time in our history, the death of President John F. Kennedy. He said this: “Our enemies have always made the same mistake. In my lifetime — in depression and in war — they have awaited our defeat. Each time, from the secret places of the American heart, came forth the faith they could not see or that they could not even imagine. It brought us victory. And it will again. For this is what America is all about.” On behalf of the 3 million people of the state of Utah, We Are Orlando. We love you. And I love you. — Remarks delivered Monday, June 13, 2016, on the grounds of the Salt Lake City and County Building.
The President’s Speech June 15, 2016 [ESTIMATED TAX DUE TODAY: Don’t forget to mail in your second quarterly 2016 estimated income tax today if you’ve had appreciable income on which tax has not been withheld.] Read this. It explains why the President avoids the term “radical Islam.” If you think Trump and so many Republicans are right in criticizing him for this, it’s really important that you read it. Better still, just watch the last half. No kidding.
So Sad June 13, 2016June 13, 2016 A friend turned 21 this month and flew from New York to Disney World to celebrate. Finally old enough to drink, Pulse was on his short list for Saturday night. He and his friends decided to do something else. One of his college classmates did go to the bar that night and was murdered. So senseless. So sad. So tragic. The murderer was suicidal and, basically, insane — as are any willing followers of ISIS. Either they literally think they’ll be rewarded with 72 virgins (not raisins or Virginians) and eternal paradise — which is nuts* — or they so hate their lives, their failure, their inability to find meaning or happiness, that they explode. Or both. Fortunately, it is a near infinitesimal percentage of people who do. But when each can wreak so much carnage, and the carnage is intentional — unlike the 100 Americans routinely killed on highways each day — it consumes us. As it should. Trump blames the President for not using torture and killing the families of terrorists — and other unspecified means — to defeat ISIS. The President won’t even use the words Trump and others want him to. But if you feel that way about the words, or know others who do, I commend to you these four minutes. Fareed Zakaria makes clear how dangerous that path would be. Watch, and let me know what you think. Ask your friends to, as well. But for now, what else is there to say? So senseless. So sad. So tragic. *Virgins, raisins, Virginians: all equally nuts. The story of Scientology — taken literally? Nuts. The possibility that God literally parted the Red Sea for the Jews, all of a sudden, as in the movie? Nuts. That Jesus literally walked on water or that every Mormon gets his own planet? Nuts. As the brilliant unschooled Ugandan woman says near the end of The Book of Mormon — embracing her new faith yet rolling her eyes that these white missionaries, now disillusioned, could ever have believed the story literally — eeet eeeez a MEH-ta-phor!
It Won’t Be Trump June 10, 2016June 10, 2016 As a party officer, I remain neutral until there’s only one candidate in the race. I didn’t vote in the primary, haven’t given to or attended events for either candidate, and will not commit my super duper delegate vote to either candidate until the Convention (and probably not even then if there are still two candidates). But as it now appears likely Hillary will be the nominee . . . and as Bernie is so right that “on their worst days” either he or Hillary is 100 times better than any of the Republicans . . . especially if it’s Trump, but any of the others as well . . . I do want to say that President Obama and Elizabeth Warren are so right when they say that Hillary will make a terrific, terrific President. I’ve known her for 30 years. She is brilliant. She is honest. She is in it for all the right reasons. She has fought all her adult life to make a better world, especially for those who need a fairer shake. And if she is not perfect . . . if after decades of being unfairly pummeled she can be defensive . . . well, show me the person who is perfect. I started to add, “certainly not Donald Trump,” but that would give understatement a bad name. Which is why I think it won’t be Trump. On some level he clearly doesn’t want to be President, and none of the Republican party leaders wants him to be President, so I think there’s a real chance he either drops out or, in Cleveland, they toss out the first-ballot delegates from states that didn’t entirely follow the Republican Party rules, thus denying him a first-ballot majority . . . at which point, well, who knows who it would be, but not Trump. Or maybe it will be Trump, but in that case it won’t be Trump in the White House, because, with our help, Hillary or Bernie will defeat him. By the way, here‘s where you can pre-order 30 Years of Doonesbury On Trump. I can hardly wait. Have a great weekend.
Pretty Much Everything You Need To Know About “T” June 9, 2016June 8, 2016 It’s the story of a sitting Republican Congresswoman, her former Army-Ranger-top-federal-prosecutor-husband, and their son. Love is love. Read it here. Of special note: the reaction of his 86-year-old abuelo (grandfather). Is this a great country, or what? [YOU ARE NOT SEEING DOUBLE; THIS POST ACCIDENTALLY WENT OUT AT THE SAME TIME AS WEDNESDAY’S. A SHINY OBJECT DISTRACTED ME FROM ENTERING THE CORRECT POSTING DATE.] Responding to my recent post on gun safety, Bill Briggs writes: “Well regulated? I don’t understand how those words of the Second Amendment are so universally overlooked by everyone in regard to the purchase and use of firearms. One of the definitions of ‘regulate’ is . . . ‘reg·u·late … 1. To control or direct according to rule, principle, or law.’ There is nothing ‘well regulated’ about people buying up weapons without any legal restrictions, registration, or permit. And the amendment does not seem to put any limits on the extent of regulation.” ☞ So if more than 90% of us want universal background checks, including 74% of NRA members — and pretty close to that want other common sense safety measures — maybe the NRA should allow Congress to pass them?
Cassandra Butts June 8, 2016June 7, 2016 Five more months? Can the tires on MSNBC even last that long? Are there enough pixels in the universe to sustain the coverage? Couldn’t we just do all this tomorrow? Yet it’s not just a Democrat in the White House that we need, it’s a Democratic Congress — and reform of the rules in both chambers so that it’s possible to do the nation’s business. I’m all for checks and balances, but the Founders could never have imagined this — and all the other crazy ways even a single senator can bring sensible governance to a halt. “Holds” should not be secret and should not be of unlimited duration. The filibuster — nowhere written into the Constitution — should at least be more difficult. Instead of requiring 60 senators to end a filibuster, 41 senators sitting continuously in a room should be required to sustain one. (See #3 in this analysis.) And why are “discharge petitions” so difficult in the House? If the Senate has passed something that the President and the nation — and a majority of House members — want, how can there be no way to get it to the floor for a vote? Have you not seen Legally Blonde II? When all hope for the bunny rabbits seems lost, and Reese Witherspoon is talking tearfully to a marble Abraham Lincoln (cinema at its finest), the whole movie turns on discovery by her staff of the “discharge petition” — clip here — which, this being a movie, is successful and the bunny rabbits are saved. A happy ending. But not, sadly, for Cassandra Butts. Entirely qualified for her post, as all agreed, her appointment was held up for more than 820 days — more than five times as long as between now and November 8 — and then she died. “Read it and weep,” as they say. Sad for her; sadder still for democracy.
Fluff Tuesday June 7, 2016June 4, 2016 I accidentally double-posted Friday . . . “Still Great” and “Trump the Conspiracy Theorist” . . . so to even things out, today I give you nothing: “Always borrow money from a pessimist. He wont expect it back.” — Oscar Wilde “Everyone who believes in telekinesis, raise my hand.” — Emo Philips My goal for 2016 was to lose just 10 pounds. Only 15 to go. Ate salad for dinner! Mostly croutons & tomatoes. Really just one big, round crouton covered with tomato sauce. And cheese. FINE, it was a pizza. I ate a pizza. Kids today don’t know how easy they have it. When I was young, I had to walk 9 feet through shag carpet to change the TV channel.
Trump: So Wrong In So Many Ways June 6, 2016June 4, 2016 I agree totally with Bernie: whichever of them gets the nomination, Trump must be defeated; loved Hillary’s “national security address” (theme: Trump is a huge threat to our national security); love clips of Republicans labeling Trump “a con artist” (Marco Rubio), “a phony” (Mitt Romney), “a complete idiot” (Karl Rove); and commend to you this Lawrence O’Donnell segment defining “pathological liar.” (The term apparently dates from 1891.) In it, Jon Favreau asks, “Right now, Trump’s targeting people with his big mouth and his twitter account; but what happens if he becomes President and he has at his disposal the FBI, the CIA, the IRS, and America’s nuclear arsenal?” What indeed. Meanwhile, you saw Paul Krugman in Friday’s New York Times? . . . The outlook for climate change if current policies continue has never looked worse, but the prospects for turning away from the path of destruction have never looked better. Everything depends on who ends up sitting in the White House for the next few years. . . . [T]errible things are in prospect, but can be avoided with fairly modest, politically feasible steps. You may want a revolution, but we don’t need one to save the planet. Right now all it would take is for America to implement the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan and other actions — which don’t even require new legislation, just a Supreme Court that won’t stand in their way — to let the U.S. continue the role it took in last year’s Paris agreement, guiding the world as a whole toward sharp reductions in emissions. But what happens if the next president is a man who doesn’t believe in climate science, or indeed in inconvenient facts of any kind? . . . . . . No doubt Donald Trump hates environmental protection in part for the usual reasons. But there’s an extra layer of venom to his pro-pollution stances that is both personal and mind-bogglingly petty. For example, he has repeatedly denounced restrictions intended to protect the ozone layer — one of the great success stories of global environmental policy — because, he claims, they’re the reason his hair spray doesn’t work as well as it used to. I am not making this up. He’s also a bitter foe of wind power. He likes to talk about how wind turbines kill birds, which they sometimes do, but no more so than tall buildings; but his real motivation seems to be ire over unsuccessful attempts to block an offshore wind farm near one of his British golf courses. . . . The same people who for decades muddied the waters on tobacco — read Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming or watch the movie — have persuaded the Republican House and Senate science committee chairs that climate change is a hoax. Trump, who once tweeted, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive,” does not seem to be the man to persuade them otherwise. Trump: So Wrong . . . In So Many Ways
But what happens if the next president is a man who doesn’t believe in climate science, or indeed in inconvenient facts of any kind? . . . . . . No doubt Donald Trump hates environmental protection in part for the usual reasons. But there’s an extra layer of venom to his pro-pollution stances that is both personal and mind-bogglingly petty. For example, he has repeatedly denounced restrictions intended to protect the ozone layer — one of the great success stories of global environmental policy — because, he claims, they’re the reason his hair spray doesn’t work as well as it used to. I am not making this up. He’s also a bitter foe of wind power. He likes to talk about how wind turbines kill birds, which they sometimes do, but no more so than tall buildings; but his real motivation seems to be ire over unsuccessful attempts to block an offshore wind farm near one of his British golf courses. . . .
Still Great June 3, 2016June 3, 2016 As you know from Republican standard-bearer Donald Trump, things here are horrible. (Not because his party blocked the Jobs Act that would have put millions to work revitalizing our infrastructure . . . or because his party blocked a higher minimum wage that would have boosted consumer demand . . . or because his party blocked the Senate-passed comprehensive immigration reform that would have boosted the economy further . . . but because of the cunning Mexicans and Chinese and our stupid, stupid leaders. He’ll fix it all — and defeat ISIS.*) Horrible! Yet we’ve now had 65 consecutive weeks of initial unemployment claims below 300,000 — the longest such streak since 1973.** And there are actually a lot of other measures by which we could feel, if not great (given the challenges we face and the roadblocks to prosperity the Republicans have imposed), at least pretty good. Fareed Zakaria is so worth watching and reading. Compared with the rest of the world, explains Fareed Zakaria in the Washington Post, we’re actually doing quite well: America Is Still Great — But It Needs to Stay Strong Donald Trump’s positions on public policy have shifted over the years, months, even days. On Sunday, he managed to express two contradictory thoughts within one sentence: “I don’t want to have guns in classrooms, although in some cases teachers should have guns in classrooms, frankly.” But on one issue he has been utterly consistent: “This country is a hellhole. We are going down fast.” This notion of a country in decline is at the heart of Trump’s campaign and his message — to make America great again. In fact, it is increasingly clear that the United States has in recent years reinforced its position as the world’s leading economic, technological, military and political power. The country dominates virtually all leading industries — from social networks to mobile telephony to nano- and biotechnology — like never before. It has transformed itself into an energy superpower — the world’s biggest producer of oil and gas — while also moving to the cutting edge of the green-technology revolution. And it is demographically vibrant, while all its major economic peers (Japan, Europe and even China) face certain demographic decline. Joshua Cooper Ramo, the author of an intelligent new book, “The Seventh Sense,” argues that in an age of networks, the winner often takes all. He points out that there are nine global tech platforms (Google Chrome, Microsoft Office, Facebook, etc.) that are used by more than 1 billion people. All dominate their respective markets — and all are American. The dollar is more widely used for international financial transactions today than it was 20 years ago. In a pair of essays, scholars Stephen Brooks and William Wohlforth point out that China is the closest the United States has to a rising rival but only on one measure, gross domestic product. A better, broader measure of economic power, Brooks and Wohlforth argue, is “inclusive wealth.” This is the sum of a nation’s “manufactured capital (roads, buildings, machines and equipment), human capital (skills, education, health) and natural capital (sub-soil resources, ecosystems, the atmosphere).” The United States’ inclusive wealth totaled almost $144 trillion in 2010 — 4½ times China’s $32 trillion. China is far behind the United States in its ability to add value to goods and create new products. Brooks and Wohlforth note that half of China’s exports are parts imported to China, assembled there and then exported — mostly for Western multinationals. The authors also suggest that payments for intellectual property are a key measure of technological strength. In 2013, China took in less than $1 billion, while the United States received $128 billion. In 2012, America registered seven times as many “triadic” patents — those granted in the United States, Europe and Japan. In the military and political realm, the dominance is even more lopsided. There are many ways to measure this, but take just one: the most potent form of force projection, aircraft carriers. The United States operates 10. China has one, a secondhand Ukrainian ship that it had to retrofit. In the realm of high-tech warfare — drones, stealth — Washington’s lead is even greater. And perhaps most important, the United States has a web of allies around the world and is actually developing new important ones, such as India and Vietnam. Meanwhile, China has one military ally, North Korea. The complexity of today’s international system is that, despite this American dominance, other countries have, in fact, gained ground. In 1990, China’s share of global GDP was 1.7 percent. Today it is 15 percent. Developing countries as a whole have gone from about 20 percent of the global economy to 40 percent in the same period. And while GDP is not everything, it is a reflection of the reality that no single country — not even the United States — can impose its will on the rest. I tried to describe this emerging landscape in my 2008 book, “The Post-American World,” in which I wrote: “Washington still has no true rival, and will not for a very long time, but it faces a growing number of constraints.” China has large and growing influence in the world, as can be seen in its ability to create the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank this past year over Washington’s objections. Rising regional powers such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey assert their own interests in the Middle East, often disrupting U.S. efforts. Even Pakistan, an ally and aid recipient, quietly defies the United States in Afghanistan by supporting the Taliban. The reality is that America remains the world’s leading power, but it can achieve its objectives only by defining its interests broadly, working with others and creating a network of cooperation. That, alas, does not fit on a campaign cap. (Fareed Zakaria is so worth watching and reading. Follow him on Twitter. Subscribe to his updates on Facebook.) Have a great weekend! *Quickly. He knows how. But he won’t tell the Pentagon unless we make him president. **Particularly remarkable when you consider that we’re 50% more populous than in 1973 — 322 million of us now versus 211 million then — on which basis alone you’d expect routine unemployment claims to have climbed. Trump: So Wrong . . . In So Many Ways
In fact, it is increasingly clear that the United States has in recent years reinforced its position as the world’s leading economic, technological, military and political power. The country dominates virtually all leading industries — from social networks to mobile telephony to nano- and biotechnology — like never before. It has transformed itself into an energy superpower — the world’s biggest producer of oil and gas — while also moving to the cutting edge of the green-technology revolution. And it is demographically vibrant, while all its major economic peers (Japan, Europe and even China) face certain demographic decline.
Joshua Cooper Ramo, the author of an intelligent new book, “The Seventh Sense,” argues that in an age of networks, the winner often takes all. He points out that there are nine global tech platforms (Google Chrome, Microsoft Office, Facebook, etc.) that are used by more than 1 billion people. All dominate their respective markets — and all are American. The dollar is more widely used for international financial transactions today than it was 20 years ago.
China is far behind the United States in its ability to add value to goods and create new products. Brooks and Wohlforth note that half of China’s exports are parts imported to China, assembled there and then exported — mostly for Western multinationals. The authors also suggest that payments for intellectual property are a key measure of technological strength. In 2013, China took in less than $1 billion, while the United States received $128 billion. In 2012, America registered seven times as many “triadic” patents — those granted in the United States, Europe and Japan.
In the military and political realm, the dominance is even more lopsided. There are many ways to measure this, but take just one: the most potent form of force projection, aircraft carriers. The United States operates 10. China has one, a secondhand Ukrainian ship that it had to retrofit. In the realm of high-tech warfare — drones, stealth — Washington’s lead is even greater. And perhaps most important, the United States has a web of allies around the world and is actually developing new important ones, such as India and Vietnam. Meanwhile, China has one military ally, North Korea.
Trump the Conspiracy Theorist June 3, 2016May 31, 2016 There’s the birther stuff, of course, but 57 others as well. E.g. — #48 — that the “concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” Have a nice day. Trump: So Wrong . . . In So Many Ways