Year: 2017

Three things for your weekend:

1. The VICE coverage of Charlottesville everyone is talking about — 22 minutes.
2. Senator Chris Murphy on how Trump is explicitly working to destroy health care — 2 minutes.
3. And if you haven’t already seen it, Jimmy Kimmel nails it — and has a solution: make America Great Britain again:

I want to speak to those of you who voted for Donald Trump. And first of all, I want to say I get it. I actually do. You’re unhappy with the way things were going. You wanted someone to come in and shake things up. You didn’t want business as usual. Nothing ever seems to get done. It’s always the same. These candidates make a lot of promises that go nowhere. It happens over and over again. And you’re sick of it.

And so this guy shows up riding down a golden escalator. He’s not part of the political establishment. In fact, he’s the opposite of that. He’s a billionaire — maybe. He’s written books. He’s not politically correct. He’s not even correct, usually. He talks tough. He wants to drain the swamp. Sometimes he can be funny. He rips into his opponents in a way politicians never do, have never done before.

And you thought, you know what? This guy’s different and that’s what I want. Different. Let’s roll the dice, let’s get him in there, have him run the country like a business. Cut the dead weight, toughen everyone up. Let’s shake this Etch-a-sketch hard and start over.

So you vote for him. You pick him over Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz and John Kasich and a dozen other Republicans whose names we forgot. And ultimately he beats them. He strolls in, he beats all of these guys. These guys who have been in politics forever. And then he beats the ultimate political insider, Hillary Clinton, a woman who’s been running for office — a woman who ran for president of her mother’s uterus in the womb. He beats her.

Everyone said he wouldn’t. But he did. And it’s exciting because this is your guy. You picked a horse like 35-1 and somehow it paid off.

So now he’s the president. And it starts off okay. Meets with President Obama and they seem to have a nice conversation. Then he moves into the White House.

Right off the bat he’s angry at the media for reporting the crowd at his inauguration was smaller than he thought it was — which was weird, but not important, really. And he claimed it stopped raining when he was speaking at his inaugural address, which everyone could see it was raining. But okay. It was his first week. You give him a break.

So he gets in there, hires his daughter. He hires his son-in-law. Demands an investigation of voter fraud even though he won the election. He calls the prime minister of Australia and hangs up on him. He won’t shake Angela Merkel’s hand. He doesn’t know Frederick Douglass isn’t alive. He claims he can’t release his tax returns because they’re under audit, then says he’s not going to release them at all. He signs a ban on Muslims that he claims isn’t a ban on Muslims. He compliments the president of the Philippines for murdering drug addicts.

Hours after a terror attack in London he starts a fight with their mayor. After criticizing Obama for playing golf he plays golf every weekend. He accidentally shares classified intelligence with the Russians. He tweets a typo at midnight, then wakes up and claims it was a secret message. He praises Jim Comey in October, calls him a coward in June. He fires him. He lashes out at his own attorney general for recusing himself from an investigation.

He hires the Mooch, he fires the Mooch. He bans the transgender in the military without telling anyone in the military he’s doing it. He plays chicken with Kim Jong Un. And that’s just some of the list. If I went through all of it would be longer than the menu at the Cheesecake Factory. It would be huge.

So here he is by every reasonable account, and I’m using his own words here, he is a total disaster. He screws up royally every day. Sometimes two or three times a day. We can’t keep up with it. Things come out of nowhere. Every day there’s something nuts. But you’ve been trying to ignore it because you don’t want to admit to these smug, annoying liberals that they were right. That’s the last thing you want to do.

But the truth is deep down inside you know you made a mistake. You know you picked the wrong guy. And it isn’t getting better. It’s getting worse. So you can do one of two things. You can dig in like Chris Christie at a hometown buffet. Or, you can treat the situation like you would if you’d put “Star Wars” wallpaper up in the kitchen: “All right, I got caught up. I was excited. I made a mistake. And now it needs to go.”

Well, now he does need to go. So it’s time for especially you who voted for him to tell him to go. Please. Think about it. He doesn’t even want to be president. He’s miserable. But he won’t resign because his ego is too big. He can’t do it.

So either we impeach him, which could happen, but it might not, or we do what he would do in this situation. We negotiate. We make a deal. And I know this is going to sound nuts, but I have an idea. So hear me out on this. I think this could solve all our problems. We’re all going to have to be on board with this.

Instead of president we make Donald Trump king. Okay? We make him the first king of America. Think about it. England has a queen. She lives in a palace. Everyone makes a big deal when she shows up. She has no power at all. In the morning they put a crown on her head, she stands there and waves, she goes back to bed. That’s it. If the queen were to walk out on her balcony and open her shirt, nothing over there would change. The queen could be completely bonkers, it would make no difference at all. She’d still be queen, it would still be fine.

That’s what we need to do with Donald Trump. We need to set him up in a castle, maybe in Florida. Lead him to the top. And then lock the door to that castle forever. Everyone can call him your highness. Maybe we give him a scepter that he can hold. He can sit there watching ‘Fox & Friends,’ maybe chip golf balls out of the window of his tower.

There’s no way he turns that deal down, if we tell him he’s going to be the king. We’ve got to get creative here. Because enough is enough. Desperate times call for desperate measures. And I’m asking you, the people who supported Donald Trump, to step in and help for the good of this country.

Mike Pence is ready. He’s boring. He’s relatively sane. He looks like a neighbor you might borrow a lawnmower from. Let’s get him in there before it’s too late. Let’s “Make America Great Britain Again.”

I didn’t include the nearly six-minute lead-in to that piece, but well worth watching as well.  And sharing with folks like my friend Peter, who is a really smart, wonderful guy — whose mindset Jimmy Kimmel seems truly to have nailed.

But first . . .

Warren Kaplan died Saturday.  A reader I met through this website and who grew to become a wonderful friend, he was everything our president is not: gracious, thoughtful, modest, eloquent, deeply committed to justice and a better world — even lean and fit and a healthy eater.  He and Carolyn were enjoying two weeks in Italy as recently as two months ago, but after 15 years’ riding a wave of ever-improving medical treatment, the latest effort failed.  We need more Warren Kaplans in this world.  If my math is right, tomorrow he would have turned 83.

And a bit more on WheelTug . . .

“We were on a Delta flight to San Diego last night,” one of you writes, “when the pilot apologized for the 15 min delay.  The tug was having difficulties disengaging from the plane.”

There’s fifteen minutes that could have been saved with WheelTug.  But look at this: an entire article about saving five seconds per flight.  Granted, that would be time saved between take-offs, adding to the capacity of take-off constrained airports; the five to twenty minutes WheelTug should save each flight is mainly at the gate.  But the point is clear: airplanes do no good for anybody when they’re sitting on the ground.

Indeed, there’s a long article in the June/July issue of Aircraft Commerce (not yet up on the web) devoted to “Solutions For Improving Ground Operations Efficiency.”

“Ground operations can be a major contributor to flight delays, which can lead to dissatisfied customers and additional costs for airlines.  A number of technological solutions have been developed . . .” some of which — including WheelTug — are laid out for consideration.

Yesterday — before the President doubled-down on the “many fine people” marching with torches in Charlottesville — I wrote:

Now that Nazis are marching in the streets and our President is slow to call them out by name — listen, there are many, many sides to this — it may be worth mentioning yet one more time that Trump for years kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside.

Clearly, the President was reluctant to come down too hard on the Nazis — and here is David Duke chastising him for eventually having done so.

It’s like Putin.  Sure, he murders journalists and political rivals, but — what? — “you think our country’s so innocent?”

How long will it be before the Republican Congress comes out squarely against a guy who will instantly and instinctively and viciously attack everyone except Nazis and autocrats?

While we wait — and in case I was not the last man on earth to discover this great TV series — you could entertain yourself binging on The Americans.  I’m only four episodes into Season One [now seven!], but I don’t think you can watch the pilot and not click to the next episode.  And the next and the next. All free, if you have Amazon Prime.

Of course, back then, the Russians were communists hoping to destroy our democracy.  It was all but treasonous for Americans to be “sympathizers.”

Now that they are merely klepto-autocratic billionaires out to destroy our democracy — and succeeding rather well thus far — we invite them and their photographers into the Oval Office with smiles broader and more genuine than reserved for anyone else.

When does that rise to the level of treason?  Or “misdemeanor.”

I forgot to mention that Trump’s father, Fred Trump, was one of seven men arrested in May of 1927 for his role in a 1000-person Ku Klux Klan march in Queens that turned into a riot.  Rachel tells all.

Now that Nazis are marching in the streets and our President is slow to call them out by name — listen, there are many, many sides to this — it may be worth mentioning yet one more time that Trump for years kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside.

Clearly, the President was reluctant to come down too hard on the Nazis — and here is David Duke chastising him for eventually having done so.

It’s like Putin.  Sure, he murders journalists and political rivals, but — what? — “you think our country’s so innocent?”

How long will it be before the Republican Congress comes out squarely against a guy who will instantly and instinctively and viciously attack everyone except Nazis and autocrats?

While we wait — and in case I was not the last man on earth to discover this great TV series — you could entertain yourself binging on The Americans.  I’m only four episodes into Season One, but I don’t think you can watch the pilot and not click to the next episode.  And the next and the next. All free, if you have Amazon Prime.

Of course, back then, the Russians were communists hoping to destroy our democracy.  It was all but treasonous for Americans to be “sympathizers.”

Now that they are merely klepto-autocratic billionaires out to destroy our democracy — and succeeding rather well thus far — we invite them and their photographers into the Oval Office with smiles broader and more genuine than reserved for anyone else.

When does that rise to the level of treason?  Or “misdemeanor.”

Have you?

But when you read/watch a CNN report like this, I think whatever problems you’re facing today may seem a bit smaller.  And our country’s current position on refugees, a bit meaner.

Have you seen the Bob Hope compendium circling the Internet?  (Thanks, Mel.)

On his death bed they asked him where he wanted to be buried. His answer was, “Surprise me.”

ON TURNING 70
“I still chase women, but only downhill.”

ON TURNING 80

“That’s the time of your life when even your birthday suit needs pressing.”

ON TURNING 90

“You know you’re getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.”

ON TURNING 100
“I don’t feel old. In fact, I don’t feel anything until noon. Then it’s time for my nap.”

ON GIVING UP HIS EARLY CAREER, BOXING
“I ruined my hands in the ring. The referee kept stepping on them.”

ON NEVER WINNING AN OSCAR
“Welcome to the Academy Awards, or, as it’s called at my home, ‘Passover.'”

ON GOLF
‘Golf is my profession. Show business is just to pay the green fees.”

ON PRESIDENTS
“I have performed for 12 presidents but entertained only six.”

ON WHY HE CHOSE SHOWBIZ FOR HIS CAREER
“When I was born, the doctor said to my mother, ‘Congratulations, you have an eight pound ham.'”

ON RECEIVING THE CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL
“I feel very humble, but I think I have the strength of character to fight it.”

ON HIS FAMILY’S EARLY POVERTY
“Four of us slept in the one bed. When it got cold, mother threw on another brother.”

ON HIS SIX BROTHERS
“That’s how I learned to dance. Waiting for the bathroom.”

ON HIS EARLY FAILURES
“I would not have had anything to eat if it wasn’t for the stuff the audience threw at me.”

ON GOING TO HEAVEN
“I’ve done benefits for ALL religions.  I’d hate to blow the hereafter on a technicality.”

The direct link between Joe McCarthy and Donald Trump — in case you missed it in the Washington Post.  Worth reading.

Matt: “Your current opinion on BOREF and SPRT, please?”

These two could hardly be more different — and, for different reasons, I remain heavily invested in both.

At latest report, Support.com (SPRT) had $51.7 million in cash, up slightly since I first suggested it here and then again here.  That’s significant for two reasons:

First, with 18.6 million shares outstanding, that works out to $2.78 each — trading Friday at $2.38.  Buying $2.78 of cash for $2.38 is the sort of thing I like to do — especially when you get, also,  your share of a business that might someday be worth something (and that will not have any tax due on its first $120 million in profits, because it lost so much money in the years before new management took it over).  The company has no debt, so trades at about 85% of its cash in the bank.

Second, the fact that cash is up slightly suggests new management has stopped the bleeding.  Which suggests that the underlying business may have a chance to earn profits.  Which suggests that the highly incentivized CEO, a summa cum laude Wharton grad, might be able to make all this work, as hoped.

There’s more to say, but it’s not hard to imagine this stock doubling in the next year or two; and — at least in a rational market — hard to see it trading for much less than its cash on hand if its not losing money.

So as speculations go, this one strikes me as quite conservative.  Hardly a sure thing, but — to me — a lot more interesting than keeping that same $2.38 in the bank, if you can afford the risk.

BOREF is a completely different kind of speculation . . . one that long-time readers know would test any investor’s patience.  Unlike SPRT, Borealis has no cash cushion.  What it has are some patents in a variety of fields, and — mainly — a controlling interest in a privately-held company called WheelTug, whose system, if it flies, should delight passengers and save airlines (and airports) tens of billions of dollars. (Watch!)

The stock currently trades around $5.50, so about $40 million for the whole company. Three years ago I suggested it could be worth anywhere from $2.79 to $338.  Twelve years ago, I made the case for its trading at $100.

Long-time readers will remember one rationale I’ve used over the years to try to retain my patience: Television was invented in 1926.  No one made a dime from it until 1950 or so.  But ultimately, it did catch on.  Another analogy: not a single TV set was ever sold with a remote control — until remote controls were invented.  Within a few years, not a single TV set was ever sold without a remote control.

Why would anyone buy a TV without remote control?  Why would anyone want a commercial jet that can’t back out from the gate on its own?  That can’t twist around to park parallel to the gate to allow boarding and deplaning from both front AND rear doors?

The FAA approval process is underway.  Normally, it takes about two years.

Will our Borealis lottery ticket ever hit, as hoped?  I clearly don’t know.  But if it does, it should be worth many, many times what it sells for today.

Oh, gosh.  Just what you wanted for an August weekend.  Why not just a hurricane or something?

But man up: here is the trailer for a world in disarray.

Scarier still, the trailer for cyber warfare that could wreak havoc with your life — no electricity! no water! — without a single missile launched, or single terrorist within five thousand miles.

Both are 30-minute episodes of HBO’s Vice.  (Free trial if not already a subscriber.)

And here is an analysis of Trump’s North Korea missteps.  What a nightmare.

My take-away from all this?

Vote for competence and cooperation.

(And for modernized, secure infrastructure — which will require paying taxes, not cutting them.)

In the meantime, savor every minute.

We have electricity . . . as only six of the previous ten thousand generations have had.

We have hot water!

Have a great weekend.

It just might happen.  Already, more than half a million people have watched this two-minute video.  Could this steel worker beat the Speaker of the House next year?

In rural Iowa, Democrat Phil Miller won a state legislative seat by 10 points Tuesday in a district Trump carried by 20 points.

And if you have a minute, here’s a summary of the national climate report, mandated by Congress, the Trump Administration has not released.

(PS — Have you seen An Inconvenient Sequel yet?  Opens wide Friday.)

Richard Engel On Assignment takes us to China  (“China Leaving US Behind On Green Energy Jobs”) and then to Pittsburgh (“US cities pursue green future while Trump looks backward to coal”) . . . back to China (“Top US diplomat quits over Trump climate policy“), to climate-change from Reagan to Trump (“Missed climate goals a legacy of US politics“), to unelectrified villages skipping straight to solar, and finally to the blue skies ahead for China.

It’s very much worth clicking each link to watch the whole thing.  But if you’re short of time, here’s the executive summary: we’re idiots.  And by “we’re,” I think you know who I mean.

Five minutes — here.

(Don’t say I never gave you anything.)

And wait!  There’s more!  (Thanks, Glenn.)  Conservatives ask: Why Is Donald Trump Still So Horribly Witless About the World?.

In case you missed it, the White House dubbed last week “American Dream Week.”

That (not a quartet of rebukes) was its intended theme.

I herewith hand the microphone over to the Democratic National Committee, of which I am no longer treasurer, but in whose success I remain deeply invested, as should we all.

(And by whose recent hiring of Raffi Krikorian to be Chief Technology Officer — obviously, a key role in today’s election world — I am encouraged.  He was one of the geniuses at Twitter and Uber.  When I saw the press release, I pinged Megan Smith, formerly Chief Technology Officer of the United States.  “Hey, do you know him?  How are you with this choice?” Megan, who’s been privately and constructively critical of the DNC in the past, replied: “He is beyond extraordinary.  We are so lucky.” This buoys my spirits, and I hope yours.  Technology underpins everything.)

Anyhow, here’s how the DNC communications shop that you pay for summed up the week:

During ‘American Dream’ Week, Trump Threatens The American Dream

 Trump has spent “American Dream” week taking steps that would threaten the American dream for families across the country. Trump threatened the healthcare of millions, he pushed for tax cuts that would benefit millionaires, billionaires and corporations, at the expense of working families, he endorsed a bill to cut legal immigration that could hurt the economy, and he turned back the clock on civil rights. And to top it off, yesterday Trump’s top policy advisor attacked the Statue of Liberty, the very symbol of the American dream.

Trump endorsed legislation that would make dramatic cuts to legal immigration and reduce avenues for family members to unite with U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents – even raising fears that it would hurt the U.S. economy.

Washington Post: “President Trump endorsed a steep cut in legal immigration on Wednesday. Economists say that’s a ‘grave mistake.’  A Washington Post survey of 18 economists in July found that 89 percent believe it’s a terrible idea for Trump to curb immigration to the United States. Experts overwhelmingly predict it would slow growth — the exact opposite of what Trump wants to do with ‘MAGAnomics.’”

Politico: “The Cotton-Perdue legislation would also mark a broader shift away from the current immigration system, which favors those with family currently in the U.S., toward a merit-based approach. It would, for example, increase the number of green cards — which allow for permanent residency in the U.S. — that are granted on the basis of merit to foreigners in a series of categories including outstanding professors and researchers, those holding advanced degrees, and those with extraordinary ability in a particular field.”

Kevin Appleby, Senior Director For The Center For Migration Studies: “‘This is just a fundamental restructuring of our immigration system which has huge implications for the future,’ said Kevin Appleby, the senior director of international migration policy for the Center for Migration Studies. ‘This is part of a broader strategy by this administration to rid the country of low-skilled immigrants they don’t favor in favor of immigrants in their image.’”

Trump threatened to stop making cost sharing reduction payments, which could hurt millions of Americans.

CNN Money: “If Trump makes good on his threat to stop paying the subsidies, he would likely precipitate Obamacare’s implosion. Insurers would probably flee the exchanges in 2018, if not before. That could leave millions of Americans without any options for subsidized coverage in the individual market.”

CNN Money: “Insurers, meanwhile, are taking steps to protect themselves. They would have to raise premiums by about 19% on average to compensate for the loss of the payments, the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates. Many are asking for hefty hikes for 2018.”

Trump began his public push for a tax plan that would overwhelmingly benefit corporations and the top one percent at the expense of working families.

Associated Press: “The Trump administration started its public push Monday to overhaul taxes but, just as with health care, the White House lacks a detailed plan to promote to voters.  What it has, instead, is an aggressive deadline.”

Vox: “Every iteration of Trump’s tax plan, from his first campaign outline to the lightly detailed blueprint his White House team released this spring, has been scored by independent analysts as a huge tax cut for the very rich.”  

CNN Money: “About 20% of taxpayers could pay higher taxes under the Trump administration’s tax reform plans, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the Tax Policy Center… Specifically, a large number of middle class and upper-middle class tax payers would see a tax hike due to the loss of deductions and the elimination of both personal and dependent exemptions.”

CNN Money: “The group also estimates that the overwhelming majority of the tax savings would flow through to the richest tax payers. Nearly 80% of the savings would go to those earning $150,000 or more, with half the overall savings going to just those taxpayers in the top 1% of income, those earning more than $732,000 a year.”  

The Trump administration prepared to target university admissions programs that provided opportunities to disadvantage minorities.

New York Times: “The Trump administration is preparing to redirect resources of the Justice Department’s civil rights division toward investigating and suing universities over affirmative action admissions policies deemed to discriminate against white applicants, according to a document obtained by The New York Times.”

New York Times: “Supporters and critics of the project said it was clearly targeting admissions programs that can give members of generally disadvantaged groups, like black and Latino students, an edge over other applicants with comparable or higher test scores.”

Have a great week.

Did you know that today is the literal mid-point of summer?  Feels later than that, I know.