Which Of These Republicans Do YOU Believe? September 17, 2016September 17, 2016 I believe all of them: Colin Powell: Trump is “a national disgrace and an international pariah.” Barbara Bush: “I don’t know how women can vote for [him]. . . . It’s incomprehensible to me.” Marco Rubio: “A dangerous con man.” Carly Fiorina: “A man who seems to only feel big when he’s trying to make other people feel small.” Bobby Jindal: “An unserious and unstable narcissist.” Mitt Romney: “A phony . . . playing the American public for suckers.” Ted Cruz: “A pathological liar [and a] narcissist.” Karl Rove: “A complete idiot . . . graceless and divisive.” 51 Former GOP National Security Officials: “Not qualified . . . dangerous.” Lindsey Graham: “A race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot . . . empowering radical Islam . . . undercutting everything we stand for.” Also Jeb Bush, when he presented Hillary with the 2013 Liberty Medal: “Former Secretary Clinton has dedicated her life to serving and engaging people across the world in democracy.” And Henry Kissinger: “[Hillary Clinton] ran the State Department in the most effective way that I’ve ever seen.” And John McCain: “Secretary Clinton is admired and respected around the world . . . a very effective Secretary of State.” And Condoleezza Rice: “She’s a patriot. […] I think she’s doing a fine job. I really do.” Lindsey Graham: “She is one of the most effective secretaries of state, greatest ambassadors for the American people that I have known in my lifetime.” And Paul Ryan: “[If she had become president in 2009], we’d have fixed the fiscal mess by now.” Click here to vote. Click here to volunteer. Click here to contribute.
Joyful In Philadelphia September 15, 2016September 16, 2016 [Third Estimated Tax Payment Due Today (for taxable income not subject to withholding). Click here for instructions and the form.] And speaking of taxes, how outrageous that Trump will not release his, which in 2014 he said he “absolutely” w0uld if he ran for President. We know he tells more than one lie per minute and has gotten involved in a new legal action every three days, on average, for the last 30 years. But still. Click here to force his hand. My guess: he pays less in tax than you do, gives less to charity than the Clintons, has far less income than he’d like people to believe, and is in bed with the Russians. And as we now know used his foundation money to buy a $20,000 portrait of himself and illegally contribute $25,000 to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi four days before she declined to join other attorneys general in investigating his fraudulent Trump University. Want something to make you feel good for a change? (Average household income rose $2,800 last year, 3.5 million Americans were lifted out of poverty.) Watch the President in Philadelphia Tuesday. It is a thing of joy.
Your Card Will Only Be Charged If Trump Releases His Tax Returns September 14, 2016September 13, 2016 For those living abroad or who know someone living abroad, there’s this, to make voting easy. For Jill Stein voters — enough to swing the election as Ralph Nader did in 2000 — there’s this, from Current Affairs: Why Leftists Should Have No Problem Voting for Hillary.”* And speaking of 2000 — there’s this must-read Paul Krugman column in the New York Times: Hillary Clinton Gets Gored. Americans of a certain age who follow politics and policy closely still have vivid memories of the 2000 election — bad memories, and not just because the man who lost the popular vote somehow ended up in office. For the campaign leading up to that end game was nightmarish too. You see, one candidate, George W. Bush, was dishonest in a way that was unprecedented in U.S. politics. Most notably, he proposed big tax cuts for the rich while insisting, in raw denial of arithmetic, that they were targeted for the middle class. These campaign lies presaged what would happen during his administration — an administration that, let us not forget, took America to war on false pretenses. Yet throughout the campaign most media coverage gave the impression that Mr. Bush was a bluff, straightforward guy, while portraying Al Gore — whose policy proposals added up, and whose critiques of the Bush plan were completely accurate — as slippery and dishonest. Mr. Gore’s mendacity was supposedly demonstrated by trivial anecdotes, none significant, some of them simply false. No, he never claimed to have invented the internet. But the image stuck. And right now I and many others have the sick, sinking feeling that it’s happening again. True, there aren’t many efforts to pretend that Donald Trump is a paragon of honesty. But it’s hard to escape the impression that he’s being graded on a curve. If he manages to read from a TelePrompter without going off script, he’s being presidential. If he seems to suggest that he wouldn’t round up all 11 million undocumented immigrants right away, he’s moving into the mainstream. And many of his multiple scandals, like what appear to be clear payoffs to state attorneys general to back off investigating Trump University, get remarkably little attention. Meanwhile, we have the presumption that anything Hillary Clinton does must be corrupt, most spectacularly illustrated by the increasingly bizarre coverage of the Clinton Foundation. Step back for a moment, and think about what that foundation is about. When Bill Clinton left office, he was a popular, globally respected figure. What should he have done with that reputation? Raising large sums for a charity that saves the lives of poor children sounds like a pretty reasonable, virtuous course of action. And the Clinton Foundation is, by all accounts, a big force for good in the world. For example, Charity Watch, an independent watchdog, gives it an “A” rating — better than the American Red Cross. Now, any operation that raises and spends billions of dollars creates the potential for conflicts of interest. You could imagine the Clintons using the foundation as a slush fund to reward their friends, or, alternatively, Mrs. Clinton using her positions in public office to reward donors. So it was right and appropriate to investigate the foundation’s operations to see if there were any improper quid pro quos. As reporters like to say, the sheer size of the foundation “raises questions.” But nobody seems willing to accept the answers to those questions, which are, very clearly, “no.” Consider the big Associated Press report suggesting that Mrs. Clinton’s meetings with foundation donors while secretary of state indicate “her possible ethics challenges if elected president.” Given the tone of the report, you might have expected to read about meetings with, say, brutal foreign dictators or corporate fat cats facing indictment, followed by questionable actions on their behalf. But the prime example The A.P. actually offered was of Mrs. Clinton meeting with Muhammad Yunus, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize who also happens to be a longtime personal friend. If that was the best the investigation could come up with, there was nothing there. So I would urge journalists to ask whether they are reporting facts or simply engaging in innuendo, and urge the public to read with a critical eye. If reports about a candidate talk about how something “raises questions,” creates “shadows,” or anything similar, be aware that these are all too often weasel words used to create the impression of wrongdoing out of thin air. And here’s a pro tip: the best ways to judge a candidate’s character are to look at what he or she has actually done, and what policies he or she is proposing. Mr. Trump’s record of bilking students, stiffing contractors and more is a good indicator of how he’d act as president; Mrs. Clinton’s speaking style and body language aren’t. George W. Bush’s policy lies gave me a much better handle on who he was than all the up-close-and-personal reporting of 2000, and the contrast between Mr. Trump’s policy incoherence and Mrs. Clinton’s carefulness speaks volumes today. In other words, focus on the facts. America and the world can’t afford another election tipped by innuendo. Read my blog, The Conscience of a Liberal, and follow me on Twitter, @PaulKrugman. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter. Do you think my card will ever be charged the $10,000 — or that Reid Hoffman’s the $5 million — we pledged to veterans’ groups if Trump releases his taxes? Something he promised in 2014 he “absolutely” would do if he ran for President. Click here to join the fun. Because really, what’s Trump trying to hide? That he’s not remotely as rich as he claims? That he and Melania pay less tax than you do? That he and Melania give less to charity than Bill and Hillary? That he’s in bed with the Russians? The market doesn’t seem cheap these days, but I bought some more GEC at $4.64 yesterday — albeit only with money I can truly afford to lose. *Even in “safe” states it matters: we need the widest possible majority to show the world — and conspiracy theorists — she won by a mile.
Mama Sue For Trump (At Least For Now) September 13, 2016September 12, 2016 Kevin R.: “It was a mistake for Hillary to make that ‘deplorables’ comment Friday, but click here for more on what many Trump supporters believe (blacks are lazier and less intelligent) and for the parody Donald Jr. chose to post (featuring Trump flanked by noted racists).” Paul Abrams: “Not all Trump supporters are racist, but all racists are supporting him.” No? Parvez Sharma: “Does the malevolent Breitbart even know that the greatest of American Presidents, FDR — elected four times — was always battling grave illness, pain and polio and in a wheelchair to boot? And he lifted an entire generation out of poverty? And what about Camelot? JFK had not a single pain-free day as President. I think we all need to knock on doors in swing states and get every New Yorker to write long letters to their grandparents in South Florida.” Click here to volunteer! And, just before I introduce you to a likely Trump voter, may I point out that — horrible as Trump would have us believe things are, and disastrous a job as he would have us believe the President has done — the standard-of-living index, as rated by average Americans, has doubled on Obama’s watch? We’d be still further along if the Republicans hadn’t blocked putting folks back to work revitalizing our infrastructure; hadn’t blocked refinancing of federal student loans at today’s low rates; hadn’t blocked hiking the minimum wage; hadn’t blocked the comprehensive immigration reform that passed the Senate 68-32. But from the edge of depression we’ve come a long, long way. And now Roger Huffstetler’s post in case you missed Saturday’s Richmond Times-Dispatch: “Mama Sue, who you gonna vote for?” I asked my 86-year-old grandmother. “Trump,” she said, without missing a beat. “I’ve never voted for a Democrat for president, and I’m too old to start now.” Mama Sue represents generations of Huffstetlers who have worked with their hands for a living. When my grandfather filled out his draft card, he listed “Self Farming’’ as his occupation. A friend who taught me to make a half-Windsor knot jokingly called me “first in your family to tie a tie.” That’s about right. I can empathize with people who wonder why someone like Mama Sue supports Donald Trump. He divides people into winners and losers. And “You have to be wealthy in order to be great,” he said at a campaign rally in May. According to his definition of greatness, Mama Sue is a nobody. The rewards from decades of her hard work in mills accrued to others. One of nine children, she lived in rural North Carolina, where cotton mills outnumbered libraries. So when she decided in the ninth grade to leave school forever, no one was surprised. She had six kids over seven years; helped farm 120 acres; and sewed, spooled, or weaved for more than 40 years. For Mama Sue, her grandchildren are her trophy case. Just as she once worked her hands over garments that found their way to others, she kneaded into all of us a sense of optimism, determination and curiosity. But what I’m struggling with is simply dismissing Mama Sue because of who she votes for, instead of honoring and learning from her. A person is not who they vote for. That narrow world view is exactly the country Trump is trying to create: one where what separates us is more important than what connects us. Contrary to Trump’s myopic focus on winning, American greatness is not found only in our victories. American greatness is the enduring pursuit of a more perfect union — together. So many of us know no one who is supporting a different candidate. Instead of dismissing these people for how they vote, let’s aspire to defeat Trump every day through conversations with each other. By all means, discuss, cajole, twist arms. But most importantly, listen to the values behind people’s choices. You’ll see there’s so much of the struggle we share. Let’s not become a country where we close our ears and hearts to each other. Let’s get back to the real work of reveling in the struggle together. Over the years of calling Mama Sue, politics has come up from time to time, but not nearly as often as precipitation. And I always learn something from her. Her most important lesson is also the hardest learned. Over an eight-year period, Mama Sue had to bury three of her six adult children, including my dad. Every night before she goes to bed, using their pictures as a poor substitute, she kisses them goodnight. When she talks about it she’s sad but not bitter or defeated: “Life’s not always easy, Roger Dean, sometimes you just have to keep going even when you don’t want to.” And I admire her fierce dedication to this nation. “I pray every day for America; I love this country,” says Mama Sue, grandmother to 12 and great-grandmother to a dozen more. “I know you do,’’ I reply. “I know you do.” Roger Dean Huffstetler is a Marine veteran and entrepreneur living in Charlottesville. You may contact him at rdhuffstetler@gmail.com.
Steady As She Goes September 12, 2016September 12, 2016 Hillary is one tough cookie. Can you imagine all the traveling she’s done and speeches she’s given — with pneumonia? I spoke for four minutes at the same event she keynoted Friday night — having done nothing much the two or three days before — and was pretty well shot for the rest of the weekend. By contrast, she participated in the Commander-in-Chief forum (and was solid as a rock, despite her pneumonia), held a press conference the next morning, flew to Charlotte and spoke brilliantly and substantively for half an hour — watch! — then flew to Missouri for another joyful half hour — watch! — sat for photos and posted two deeply personal, affecting stories on Humans for New York — read them! — and who knows what else she did (oh, yeah; she coughed — well, she had pneumonia) — and then showed up at our dinner the next night and greeted 100 guests (that alone would knock me out for the day, but she does it several times a day) — and gave a strong speech, during which she deplored racists and homophobes. Doesn’t Trump? She said “half” his voters seemed to fall into that basket — which was a political faux pas she quickly walked back. But consider: more than half Trump’s supporters think our President is a foreign-born Muslim (this poll put it over 60%). And more than a few tweet horrible racist or homophobic or Islamophobic things. In 2016, shouldn’t this be deplored? David Duke doesn’t think so, of course. But is he on the right side of history? And is it not deplorable that Trump has amplified the message of fringe white supremacists to millions of his followers? There’s nothing wrong with being a Muslim or having been born in Kenya, of course, any more than there would be anything wrong with Trump’s having been born Heidi Drumpf in Essen before undergoing surgery and coming to America. It’s just that neither is true. Trump and Obama were born in America and neither is Muslim or transgender. But I digress. My point is that, yes, Hillary can fall ill. Who can’t? (If she ever fell truly ill, we’d still have, in Tim Kaine, a President vastly preferable to Trump.) But boy is she rugged. I was at a “panel” 20 or so winters ago whose two participants were: Mr. Justice Harry Blackmun and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. Some of us were aware that Hillary had the flu. Justice Blackmun spoke for about 15 minutes — I forget the topic — and then it was Hillary’s turn. She came up to the standing mike — there was no podium, so you could see her from head to toe — put her hands calmly by her sides and, where I would have begun with excuses, “I hope you’ll forgive me, I’ve been hacking all day and am flying on Sudafed” — she began exactly where Justice Blackmun left off . . . seamlessly segued to her own remarks . . . and then, after 15 minutes — without notes or a script or a single grammatical error, lost thread, or infelicitous phrase — came back to Justice Blackmun’s final thought long after I, at least, had forgotten that’s where she started. It was a tour de force. With the flu. And do you know what? She recovered from the flu, just as she will recover from pneumonia. She went on to become a fine Senator and Secretary of State, just as she will go on, I think, to be the most qualified President ever elected. Trump’s lab results are “astonishingly excellent.” Bizarrely, he would be the “healthiest.” But he would also be the least qualified.
71 LPH: Trump’s Amazing Plan To Defeat ISIS September 7, 2016 We all know Trump has a secret plan to wipe out ISIS shortly after he takes office. He loves his country, but not enough to have shared the plan when first conceived, to wipe them out a year earlier. Patriotism has its limits. And we assumed he wouldn’t share the plan with Hillary if SHE wins because — well, again, patriotism has its limits. But we’ve been assured it’s an incredible secret plan because, for one thing, Trump “knows more about ISIS than the generals, if you want to know the truth.” Yet now, as you’ve doubtless seen, he has REVEALED his plan! (I’m posting this early, before tonight’s 8pm Eastern time NBC commander-in-chief forum, in case he should change the plan in the meantime or make it secret again.) Here it is: Immediately upon assuming office, he will summon his generals and give them 30 days to come up with a pan to defeat ISIS! Trump’s secret plan is to ask the generals what to do. Even though he knows more about ISIS than they do, “if you want to know the truth.” So let’s talk a moment about the truth. Trump lied about having a secret plan to defeat ISIS (or maybe had one but secretly decided, upon reflection, it was a dumb plan), but it helped him win the primary, and he’s all about winning. Lying and going bankrupt and suing people and buying politicians is the way he rolls! It’s The Art of the Deal! Never mind that he lied about writing that book and that Tony Schwartz, who wrote it for him, calls him a sociopath. Politico checked one Trump’s hour-long speeches and found 71 lies. He was rattling along at 71 lies per hour. That may not sound so bad, because we’ve all hit 80 or 90 on an open stretch of highway; but this isn’t miles per hour, it’s lies per hour. More than a lie a minute! “Lying is second nature to him,” Schwartz told The New Yorker. “More than anyone else I have ever met, Trump has the ability to convince himself that whatever he is saying at any given moment is true, or sort of true, or at least ought to be true.” And — while we’re doing metrics — what about the 3,500 lawsuits he’s been involved with? Over 30 years, that comes out to one every three days. And that doesn’t even count the legal actions he managed to prevent, like the ones in Florida and now, we learn, Texas, charging Trump University with fraud. A lawsuit every three days! Can you imagine all the depositions he’s endured over the years? Fortunately, he has “one of the best memories in the world” — a claim, he stated in the course of one such deposition, he can’t remember having made. More than one lie a minute. A lawsuit every three days. A candidate so unfit for the Presidency that the Dallas Morning News just endorsed a Democrat for the first time in more than 75 years: There is only one serious candidate on the presidential ballot in November. We recommend Hillary Clinton. We don’t come to this decision easily. This newspaper has not recommended a Democrat for the nation’s highest office since before World War II — if you’re counting, that’s more than 75 years and nearly 20 elections. The party’s over-reliance on government and regulation to remedy the country’s ills is at odds with our belief in private-sector ingenuity and innovation. Our values are more about individual liberty, free markets and a strong national defense. We’ve been critical of Clinton’s handling of certain issues in the past. But unlike Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton has experience in actual governance, a record of service and a willingness to delve into real policy. Resume vs. resume, judgment vs. judgment, this election is no contest. In Clinton’s eight years in the U.S. Senate, she displayed reach and influence in foreign affairs. Though conservatives like to paint her as nakedly partisan, on Capitol Hill she gained respect from Republicans for working across the aisle: Two-thirds of her bills had GOP co-sponsors and included common ground with some of Congress’ most conservative lawmakers. As President Barack Obama’s first secretary of state, she helped make tough calls on the Middle East and the complex struggle against radical Islamic terrorism. It’s no accident that hundreds of Republican foreign policy hands back Clinton. She also has the support of dozens of top advisers from previous Republican administrations, including Henry Paulson, John Negroponte, Richard Armitage and Brent Scowcroft. Also on this list is Jim Glassman, the founding executive director of the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas. Clinton has remained dogged by questions about her honesty, her willingness to shade the truth. Her use of a private email server while secretary of state is a clear example of poor judgment. She should take additional steps to divorce allegations of influence peddling from the Clinton Foundation. And she must be more forthright with the public by holding news conferences, as opposed to relying on a shield of carefully scripted appearances and speeches. Those are real shortcomings. But they pale in comparison to the litany of evils some opponents accuse her of. Treason? Murder? Her being cleared of crimes by investigation after investigation has no effect on these political hyenas; they refuse to see anything but conspiracies and cover-ups. We reject the politics of personal destruction. Clinton has made mistakes and displayed bad judgment, but her errors are plainly in a different universe than her opponent’s. Trump’s values are hostile to conservatism. He plays on fear — exploiting base instincts of xenophobia, racism and misogyny — to bring out the worst in all of us, rather than the best. His serial shifts on fundamental issues reveal an astounding absence of preparedness. And his improvisational insults and midnight tweets exhibit a dangerous lack of judgment and impulse control. After nearly four decades in the public spotlight, 25 of them on the national stage, Clinton is a known quantity. For all her warts, she is the candidate more likely to keep our nation safe, to protect American ideals and to work across the aisle to uphold the vital domestic institutions that rely on a competent, experienced president. Hillary Clinton has spent years in the trenches doing the hard work needed to prepare herself to lead our nation. In this race, at this time, she deserves your vote. Amen, brother.
Yet Another Non-Scandal September 7, 2016 The last Clinton to hold office gave us eight years of peace and prosperity. Then a poorly prepared businessman who wanted to cut taxes for the rich led us into a disastrous war and wrecked the national balance sheet. Most of the — valid! — frustrations of the Trump people and the Bernie people are the result not of competent Democrats like Clinton/Gore, Obama/Biden, Clinton/Kaine, but of the near-treasonous obstruction of Republicans determined to see Obama fail, whatever the cost to the American people. They wouldn’t pass the American Jobs Act, to put millions to work revitalizing our crumbling infrastructure; they wouldn’t hike the minimum wage; they wouldn’t enact the comprehensive immigration reform the Senate had passed 68-32; they wouldn’t pass universal background checks; they wouldn’t even hold hearings on Antonin Scalia’s replacement. It’s true that in the 16 years since Bill Clinton left office, he and Hillary have made a small fortune “capitalizing on their celebrity” (though smaller, between the two of them, than Kim Kardashian has made all by herself). But as sins go in America, why is their success such a big one? Or a sin at all? Has anyone found a shred of evidence that they compromised America’s interests? (Or failed to pay their taxes?) And does it matter that while Trump was building and bankrupting casinos — gambling arguably wrecks more lives than it enriches — the Clintons were working to solve global health, poverty, environmental and human rights problems? With that in mind, I offer Kevin Drum’s, “Sigh. Yet Another Non-Scandal at the Clinton Foundation.” In part: . . . Go ahead and read the whole thing. There’s really nothing even remotely blurry or scandalous or shady or anything else. It’s just the standard way anyone operates who has multiple interests, multiple funding sources, and staffers who do work for multiple organizations. There’s no hint that any of the charges were incorrect, or that any of the purchases were misallocated. As near as I can tell, it was all entirely above board, and the GSA was actively involved in scrutinizing everything. Basically, the reason for headlines like this is because Bill Clinton decided after his presidency to set up a large and active foundation that raised a ton of money for exceptionally worthy causes around the world. If he had decided to just lounge around instead, none of this would ever have come up. It’s a little hard to believe that he’s getting so much grief for this. . . . Hillary is not perfect; only you and I are. But she’s spent her entire life trying to help others . . . will be the best-prepared candidate ever to assume the presidency . . . and will be surrounded by really smart people, not thugs, able to continue the progress of the Clinton years, which George W. Bush set back; and of the Obama years, which the Republican Congress did all it could to impede. Click here.
Thugs September 6, 2016 Vladimir Putin, whom Donald Trump admires, is a bit of a thug — no? Trump’s mentor Roy Cohn, once thuggish Joe McCarthy’s chief counsel, was himself a bit of a thug, as well. Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s campaign manager, was called a thug by an editor of right-wing Breitbart. (Per the National Review: “‘Corey Lewandowski is a thug, and Donald Trump is a thug for backing him,’ Shapiro said Thursday night during an appearance on Fox News’s The Kelly File.”) Paul Manafort, Lewandowski’s replacement, has been called a “world-class thug” with a long history of supporting war lords, dictators, and oligarchs. Steve Bannon, Manafort’s replacement, has been called a thug. And now comes his deputy campaign manager, David Bossie. Rachel Maddow aired this must-see segment on Bossie Friday night, noting elsewhere in the show that, yes, okay, campaigns may indeed hire gutter-dwellers — it’s not pretty but it happens — but what’s different is that normally they try to keep them hidden. Trump puts Bossie proudly front and center. “A friend of mine for many years,” Trump told the Washington Post. “Solid. Smart. Loves politics, knows how to win.” Yet in the first Clinton campaign President George H. W. Bush condemned Bossie’s “filthy campaign tactics” and George W. wrote 85,000 of his dad’s contributors asking them not to support Bossie. President George H.W. Bush was a gentleman; prior to winning the Presidency in 1988, he had been, among other things, a war hero, a Congressman, our ambassador to the UN, director of the CIA, and Vice President of the united States. Donald Trump is a vulgar, bullying egomaniac, spectacularly unqualified to occupy the office. And speaking of bullies? He has named Chris Christie to head his transition team (see: “The Thug Politics of Chris Christie”). The two are close. Trump’s casinos failed to pay taxes owed to the state of New Jersey. Once Christie was elected, the $30 million bill was settled for just $5 million — a $25 million gift from Chris to Donald. It’s quite a story. (And speaking of taxes — has Trump ever paid any personally? Or given to charity even a tiny fraction of what he’d like us to imagine he has?) Yet he’s currently given a 30% chance of winning, which could lead to a trade war which could lead to a global depression which could lead (as the last one did) to a world war, which we would win in 25 minutes — but could lead to the end of most life on the planet (see: nuclear winter). So we need to spread the word this isn’t a TV show, this is reality, with potentially cataclysmic consequences. Look at the damage done by the last unqualified man to take office (a nice guy you’d enjoy having a beer with). And at least he had a sense of decorum; wasn’t mentally unbalanced; and didn’t surround himself with thugs. (Well, Dick Cheney. But still.)
Astounding Progress September 2, 2016 For all the problems and challenges — our military’s a disaster, crime’s never been worse, unemployment’s 40%, illegal alien rapists and terrorists make us all afraid to leave our homes in the morning (plus real problems and challenges, like climate change and cybersecurity, decaying infrastructure, income inequality . . . and the Zika virus that the Republican Congress adjourned without addressing) — for all that, the progress over the last century has been astonishing. Consider, first, this poem (via Garrison Keillor) (thanks, Paul!) . . . and then a letter to the quarterback who refused to stand for the National Anthem. Portrait of Viola by William Reichard They lived without electricity. Their water came from a hand pump at the base of the windmill. A Nebraska farm, 1935. She said, you can’t miss what you never had. Drugstore goldfish in the water tank turned into giant orange and white carp, Koi prized in another country, another class. Her father threw them out into the prairie claiming they’d poison the cattle. Rattlesnakes, a way of life, careful checking before eggs were gathered from the darkness of nesting boxes. Everywhere, heat. Gone with the Wind in 1939. She was fourteen. During the war, she looked like one of the Andrews Sisters. First child at twenty, last at thirty-nine. All survived save one, gone at thirty. The death of her daughter turned her hair white. Eighty-four and she’s lived alone for longer than she was married, her husband a man with a wild imagination but a weak mind. He was born the year the Titanic sank. That should have told me something. Now, central air for the worst of the heat. In her lifetime: organ transplants, space flight, television, artificial hearts. On still nights she sleeps with just a sheet, the window open wide, summer’s heat hard and dry. “Portrait of Viola” by William Reichard from Two Men Rowing Madly Toward Infinity. © Broadstone Books, 2016 The technological progress dazzles. But there’s been social progress as well. Integrated drinking fountains? A black President? A transgender CEO? Bob M.: “I thought you might be interested in my brother Mike’s letter to Colin Kaepernick.” Dear Mr. Kaepernick, I happened to be watching the 49ers on the first day you became quarterback. I was amazed that you performed so well on your first appearance. When you weren’t throwing the ball and connecting with your receiver, you were running it and outdistancing the competition. Therefore this recent brouhaha about you not standing for the national anthem was a great disappointment. You see I am a gay person and spent eight years in the Navy. I was always concerned that someday I would be outed. I even had a gay sailor in my division whom I tried to protect. Unfortunately he was as we say “a screaming queen.” It was a difficult job keeping him from being dishonorably discharged (and I include in that the general discharge that was in vogue when I was on active duty). Unfortunately he attempted suicide and then there was no protecting him. One day he was aboard the ship and the next day he was gone. I also spent a year in country in Vietnam while in the Navy. I met three other gays while serving there. Again all of us were in fear of being outed. We all felt kindred with Sgt. Leonard Matlovich, an Air Force Sergeant whose epitaph reads “When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.” After Vietnam I worked for the Navy as a civilian and again had to keep my sexual orientation a secret. I was always hopeful whenever something came along that appeared to allow me more freedom, such as “Don’t ask don’t tell” but was always suspicious that someone was lying. That’s the way things were. Now I am retired and I cannot believe the changes that have been made. After more than 200 years (Yes, you could be put in stocks in early America for being gay) we are now free to even marry. All the members of my generation wanted, was not to be kicked out of the service, military or civilian. We wanted to serve our country. The point of all this is, is that in all that time I never once refused to stand for the national anthem. This was my country warts and all. But we do try and sometimes we even win! I do wish you had picked another way of expressing your understandable anger at the way things have been going recently. It is of course your right. But things do change. I am now 80 years old and can attest to that. Please don’t lose faith in our country; like I said, we do try. We do. When my mom was born, women didn’t have the right to vote. Think about that this election season. Have a great Labor Day weekend.
Something Else Upbeat: U.S. Digital Highlights September 1, 2016August 31, 2016 One of the many things nearly eight years of a Democratic Administration has given us — besides an end to the housing depression, 77 consecutive months of private sector job growth, a tripled stock market and a zeroing out of the weekly U.S. military body count — is the U.S. Digital Service, of which I ‘ve written before. Here are two dozen highlights of what it’s accomplished in just two years. Hillary Clinton, needless to say, would continue and encourage its good work. Your tax dollars well spent. Enjoy.