Year: 2017

But first . . .

It was 50 years ago, today!  (Roughly.)  Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play!  And I was sitting in the dark in style . . . in my 1967 Acapulco-blue mustang (bought new for $2,411 including tax with my own student earnings) listening full blast on 8-track cassette . . . so let me introduce to you . . .  as I listen at the start of every summer and you might, too . . . this account of the album’s importance, from Head Butler.

Enjoy.

Headed to Paris?  Visit the Airshow June 19-25 and don’t miss WheelTug’s booth (Hall 5 – E250).  Failing that, there’s a new “pyramid” display on the WT website that shows nicely how time will be saved at the gate.  Time is money.  The FAA approval process — normally about two years — crawls along.

And now back to the reality of our petty, petulant, erratic, constantly lying, boorish, bullying, ignorant CEO (who kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside).   Can this end well?  For Putin, maybe.

“Trump’s Incompetence Won’t Save Our Democracy:” Masha Gessen for the New York Times

. . . A nation that historically prides itself on its sophistication and competence, even mastery, of all things from economy to warfare will naturally have a hard time internalizing the fact that a delusional egomaniac with no demonstrable intellect, talent, or other redeeming quality can bring the entire nation down with his fumbling grasp.  Even George W. Bush, seen by many as a President far out of his depth, had the political experience to surround himself (mostly) with competent, if rigidly ideological people with at least a cognizance of basic governmental protocols. Trump’s modus operandi appears to be to obstinately thumb his nose at all of the country’s institutions, with a heedless disregard to history or the consequences of his acts.

But that utter lack of interest, that stunning embrace of ignorance, is exactly what Trump tapped into in order to get where he is today. By and large his voting base is made of those who shun complexity and deliberately shut their ears to complicated solutions.  These are people for whom ignorance is a warm cocoon against the realities of modern existence. These are the people who want to “build a wall” or “bring back coal.”  They embrace the rejection of reason and science that Trump embodies. This simplistic, anti-intellectual attitude, with a dose of media-generated charisma thrown in, is terribly appealing to many millions of Americans. . . .

Trump “loves the poorly educated” — as we all should.  But he loves them for the wrong reason.

Here’s the link to Gessen’s article that the Daily Kos was summarizing above.

Moments after I trumpeted Spamilton Friday (see it on Broadway or in Chicago), this great New York Times profile hit.

And having plugged, in that same post, Al Franken: Giant of the Senate — by Al Franken — it occurred to me I should share one of its more serious passages.

Al describes how he met his wife Franni nearly 50 years ago during their first week in college. And how Franni’s dad had died when Franni was just 18 months old, leaving her mom, at 29, to raise five kids ranging from 7 — the oldest — to just 3 months. But they did it. And all four daughters went to college.

And they did it [Al writes] because of Social Security, the G.I. Bill, and Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

They tell you in this country that you have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. And we all believe that. But first you’ve got to have the boots. And the federal government gave Franni’s family the boots.

When I think about the values that motivate me to this day — the values that brought me (in a very, very extremely roundabout way) to politics — I think back to my childhood, and to Franni’s. I think about the economic security that was the birthright of middle-class families like mine, and the opportunity that was available for families like Franni’s who wanted to work their way up into the middle class.

That, as I wrote in this year’s Senate Patriotic Essay Contest, is what America means to me.

And that’s how it’s supposed to be for every kid in America. You’re not supposed to have to be rich or lucky to have a chance to do great things. Opportunity is supposed to be for everyone

That’s why I’m a Democrat.

You see, Democrats are still the party of civil rights (and with each passing year, Republicans seem less and less interested in competing for that title). But Democrats aren’t just the part of equality for all — we are the party of opportunity for all. We’re the ones who want to give people the boots. We’re the ones who stand for the middle class and for those aspiring to it — not just because it’s the fair thing to do, but because it’s the smart thing to do. It’s how our country has always worked best.

My friend and political hero Paul Wellstone, who once held the seat that I now hold in the United States Senate, had a great way of putting it. He said, “We all do better when we all do better.”

So simple, so profound. “We all do better when we all do better.” It’s almost like a Haiku, if I knew what a haiku was.

Which I don’t.

Which of course he does.

I’m late posting this because I had planned just to toss out some happy stuff —

Spamilton moves to Broadway!  See it there or in Chicago.  “I laughed my brains out.” — Lin-Manuel Miranda

Al Franken: Giant of the Senate (by Al Franken) has just been released! You’ll laugh nearly as hard.

—  but it’s hard to be happy as, day by horrifying day, you watch your amazing country slip.

Putin is winning.  Bannon is winning.  The forces of intolerance and ignorance are winning.  And millions of fine people — not deplorable, just bamboozled — are still eager to give this petulant, bullying, narcissistic, uncharitable, pathologically dishonest, ignorant president time to come through with “great health care at a tiny fraction of the cost” (“it’s going to be so easy”) — even as he takes $900 billion out of health care and slashes the budget for research that could one day save their child’s life.

By now everyone knows we’ve joined Nicaragua and Syria — alone among the nations of the world — in eschewing the Paris Climate Accord.  What 38% of the electorate don’t seem to know (but the rest of the world and America’s business leaders do) is that virtually everything Trump said about this in the Rose Garden is false.

Click here for a clear, measured, even-handed review.

Even North Korea recognizes the need for the Paris Accord — which is voluntary.  Trump could scale back our goals without renegotiating anything.

Our allies are sad for America, turning elsewhere for leadership. Our planet is at risk of becoming uninhabitable in a few generations (if we don’t nuke or poison it sooner).  After ten thousand generations of suffering and striving that it took to get us to this magical moment, when virtually all things are possible if we don’t hurtle off the rails, Donald Trump is in charge.

Putin and the KGB are winning.

The coal miners of Kentucky will be losing even worse than most of the rest of us.  They need Medicaid.

Finally, because it was in the news, a footnote about how we got into this nightmare.

Hillary — who was spot-on for most of her recent Code Conference interview, if you ask me (and who would have made a terrific, steady, savvy president) — was arguably too tough on the DNC.  Read it here (“Democratic data experts said Thursday there was a zero percent chance that Hillary Clinton lost because the Democratic National Committee gave her bad data”).

Andrew R: “So I did a search on the polling pre- and post Comey letter, and while you can certainly find someone to back up the idea that Hillary didn’t lose because of the Comey letter, most of the polling says it was decisive. This includes Nate Silver, who ran a long, careful piece on polling just before the Inauguration that came down on Comey being the thumb on the scales. More recently, it’s been advanced that Comey fell for a piece of Russian disinformation–or at least, if he did know it was such, worried that he’d be attacked with it anyway if he didn’t issue the letter. We’ll never know if it was the Russians (I keep wanting to type “Soviets”), but most of the data I found suggests the Comey letter elected Trump.”

Have a great weekend.  See Spamilton.  Read Al Franken’s book.

Bob Miller: “It’s been 50+ years since I read The Ugly American, but I’m pretty sure that the ‘ugly American’ referred to is exactly who we DO want to emulate. The book was about an ugly man who did good in a Southeast Asian country, in contrast to the American diplomatic corps. The sense of the expression was later changed in common use to what we understand now.”

☞ Oops.  It’s been 50+ years since I didn’t read it, I guess.  Somehow, the picture of the boorish American tourist leaped out from the title and burrowed out a little place in my brain.

These go back to before the election,  but I never got around to posting:

From @LOLGOP:

I’ve been waiting for 7 years for Obama to take my gun and all I got was a job, health insurance and marriage equality.

and

We’re a nation of people who fled guys like Donald Trump!

Also from Twitter, via the New York Times: The 331 People, Places and Things Donald Trump Has Insulted on Twitter: A Complete List.

Which has only gotten longer.

Jeff Cox: “In Las Vegas, Penn and Teller did, and probably still do, a trick like the lottery ticket.  Before the show, they invited people to walk onstage and sign a sealed envelope which later held a piece of paper on which was written a passage randomly chosen from a book passed about the audience.  My guess is a small ink jet printer is hidden inside, behind the flap in the wallet, behind the board to which the envelope was attached.  Another hypothesis is that magicians have learned how to hop in and out of parallel universes, but I never can understand Stephen Hawking’s books well enough to know if that is even possible.”

Carroll Webber: “My theory is that he has a hole in the edge of his shoe and an elastic string from his belt and under his pants to that hole, a closable hole in the stage floor, and a confederate under the stage with a lottery ticket with numbers whited out.  Once the final number ‘2’ is spoken, the confederate adds that to the other numbers he’s been typing.  After Nate stands over the hole in the floor, the confederate can stick the folded ticket to the end of the string, to be pulled up and palmed, and finally substituted for the ticket in his wallet.”

☞ Well, you’re both right that he cheats — it’s not real magic.  That much we know.  One of you sent me the real answer, which is along the same lines, but made me promise not to share it.  Don’t hate me.

I understand (sort of) why Putin would want to weaken the bonds between America and Europe, weaken NATO, and destabilize Europe.

But why would we?

This was a good week for the KGB.

Angela Merkel (via CNN):

“The times when we could completely rely on others are, to an extent, over,” Merkel said at a campaign event in Munich.

She didn’t mention Trump by name in the speech but alluded to the US President’s first foreign trip, where he lambasted NATO allies for their defense expenditure and also labeled Germany “very bad” on trade.

“I experienced that in the last a few days, and therefore I can only say that we Europeans must really take our fate into our own hands, of course in friendship with the United States and in friendship with Great Britain and as good neighbors wherever it is possible, also with Russia and also with all the other countries,” Merkel said.

“But we need to know that we have to fight for our own future and destiny as Europeans.”

Readers of a certain age will remember 1958 multi-million copy bestseller The Ugly American.  Just who we don’t want to be.  Check out “Donald Trump sparks fury in Montenegro after ‘humiliating’ country’s prime minster by shoving him out of his way at G7 summit.”

Newsweek:

White House Excludes Gay First Spouse of Luxembourg From Photo Caption

The White House Facebook page failed to acknowledge First Gentleman of Luxembourg Gauthier Destenay, married to Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, in a post featuring the spouses of world leaders attending this week’s G7 summit in Sicily. The photo caption included the names of every other spouse, all of them wives, beginning with: “First Lady Melania Trump poses with Belgium’s Queen Mathilde, center, and other spouses of NATO leaders.”

Could we please not make gay people invisible again?

Here’s a cartoon that lays out our four health care options.

The best — that all the other advanced nations of the world have settled on, basically: Medicare For All.

John Kasley:  “Medicare For All won’t happen in 2018 or 2020, but the name or term should be appearing in hashtags and occasional footnotes so the public becomes accustomed to hearing it.  Democrats need to toss it into a paragraph here and there without any accents, as in, ” . . . unlike Medicare For All, or any other plan that was suggested.”  Or, “The ACA is not all things to all people, and it is certainly not Medicare for All.”  Or, “National Health Service, or Medicare for All, is hardly a new concept.”  It doesn’t have to appear everywhere, everyday, but I had suggested quite a few years back that we name the recession The Bush Recession, and the Dems missed that branding opportunity.  It cost us dearly.  Donna Brazile tried to use it, but it needed more widespread implementation, and she was fighting against George Will.  Medicare For All gives us a countercurrent to the GOP plans for sacking the Treasury to benefit the very few and stripping protection from the rest of us.

Here is a Christian Perspective, titled “Trump’s Budget: ‘Compassion for Taxpayers.’”

. . . Referring to Trump’s cuts to the federal food stamp program, Rep. Harold Rogers, a Republicans from Kentucky said, “These cuts that are being proposed are draconian. They’re not mere shavings, they’re deep, deep cuts.”

Mulvaney says he’s received lots of questions about “compassion”. He says, “Compassion needs to be on both sides of that equation. Yes, you have to have compassion for folks who are receiving the federal funds, but also you have to have compassion for the folks who are paying it.” . . .

Right?  Think of it from the billionaires’ point of view.  Yes, it transfers $900 billion over a decade from those in need to the affluent few, but what a burden that lifts from their overtaxed shoulders! How it will uplift their souls!  Isn’t this what Trump was elected to do?

Jim Burt: “The estimable Nancy LeTourneau at the Washington Monthly writes:  ‘The tax cuts for the uber wealthy are breathtaking. The top 1% will get a $250,000 tax cut per year. But the 400 richest Americans who make over $300 million per year will each get a tax cut of at least $15 million annually.’

“Supposedly, this bounty — little more than a rounding error when considering an annual income of $300 million and up — will encourage the plutocratic class to increase investment so much that increased economic growth will generate several times its weight in increased tax revenue . . . enough to pay for the tax cuts and eliminate the deficit.

“This fantasy is based on the so-called ‘Laffer curve,’ brain child of economist Arthur Laffer, who drew a graph on a napkin (without benefit of actual study, research, or mathematics) showing tax revenue from increased economic growth outstripping revenue loss from tax cuts, thus ‘justifying’ the Reagan and Bush tax cuts responsible, along with other short-sighted policies, for about 2/3 of the existing National Debt.

“The sole historical example of this approach ever working is found in the Kennedy Round of tax cuts, which reduced the maximum marginal rate on income from 90% to 70%.  The effective top marginal rate, because of loopholes and various tax avoidance shenanigans, was well short of 90%; but theoretically, at least, cutting the maximum rate from 90% to 70% trebled the net that a very wealthy investor could expect to obtain from investment.  This was enough to lure substantial sums from unproductive tax-dodges into productive investment, especially in plant and equipment for which the Kennedy Round also provided an accelerated-depreciation benefit, and tax revenue did increase in the aftermath of this rate cut.  Reagan’s first cut in the top rate — from 70% to 50% — had negligible effect on productive investment.  Subsequent tax cuts have fiddled at the margins, reducing revenues and ballooning debt with no noticeable effect on economic growth.

“The Trump budget doesn’t even pretend that the ‘take’ of the very wealthy will be enticingly large compared to the riches already flowing their way (what’s an extra $15 million on top of $300 million?), so it stretches credulity to suppose that the Koch brothers are going to be induced to open up previously buried coffee cans full of new investment.  It will, however, give them enough additional money to buy some more legislators and elections.”

How.  Does.  He.  DO this?  If you have a theory, please let me know.  (Thanks, Mel!)

And now . . .

The reason I got the DNC gig in the first place is that in 1996, a relatively small amount of money found it’s way into DNC coffers that, in a perfect world, the DNC would have detected had originated in China (not with the American donors through which it was funneled) — and rejected.

When this eventually came to light, a new set of DNC officers was installed.

It was not acceptable for even a small amount of foreign money to slip into our system — lest it theoretically help one candidate beat the other (though Clinton beat Dole by 379 to 159 in the Electoral College, and with 8 million more popular votes, so this tainted cash was clearly not decisive) . . . or lest it influence the recipient’s foreign policy (which assumes the candidate would be told of the crime, which I highly doubt; and that, if told, he would sell out America’s interests after winning reelection, out of gratitude, which I totally doubt).

Still, mistakes were made and heads rolled.

Here we are 20 years later, in an election that turned not on 8 million votes but on a hair (Clinton needed 77,744 more votes, on top of her 3 million-vote lead, to win the Electoral College) — that was the first difference.

And — the second — the extent of foreign meddling this time was way to deep for “meddle” even to be the right word.  The right word was attack.

It’s wonderfully disciplined and perhaps gentlemanly of almost all the talking heads to say, “not that Russian meddling affected the outcome of the election.”  But of course it almost surely did.  The Russians had thousands of agents working to tear down public opinion of Hillary Clinton.

Inside Russia’s Social Media War on America

. . . In 2016, Russia had used thousands of covert human agents and robot computer programs to spread disinformation referencing the stolen campaign emails of Hillary Clinton, amplifying their effect. . . .

And before you dismiss this as “re-litigating the election,” if you’re one of the 35% or so still pleased with its outcome, consider reading it anyway.

Most of this story is about potential future attacks:

. . . What chaos could Moscow unleash with thousands of Twitter handles that spoke in real time with the authority of the armed forces of the United States? At any given moment, perhaps during a natural disaster or a terrorist attack, Pentagon Twitter accounts might send out false information. As each tweet corroborated another, and covert Russian agents amplified the messages even further afield, the result could be panic and confusion.

For many Americans, Russian hacking remains a story about the 2016 election. But there is another story taking shape. Marrying a hundred years of expertise in influence operations to the new world of social media, Russia may finally have gained the ability it long sought but never fully achieved in the Cold War: to alter the course of events in the U.S. by manipulating public opinion. The vast openness and anonymity of social media has cleared a dangerous new route for antidemocratic forces. “Using these technologies, it is possible to undermine democratic government, and it’s becoming easier every day,” says Rand Waltzman of the Rand Corp., who ran a major Pentagon research program to understand the propaganda threats posed by social media technology.

Current and former officials at the FBI, at the CIA and in Congress now believe the 2016 Russian operation was just the most visible battle in an ongoing information war against global democracy. . . .

In one case last year, senior intelligence officials tell TIME, a Russian soldier based in Ukraine successfully infiltrated a U.S. social media group by pretending to be a 42-year-old American housewife and weighing in on political debates with specially tailored messages. In another case, officials say, Russia created a fake Facebook account to spread stories on political issues like refugee resettlement to targeted reporters they believed were susceptible to influence. . . .

Read the whole piece.

It’s fascinating and frightening, and anyone who loves America, whether on the left or the right — which is to say pretty much all of us — should be aware that right now, Putin’s winning.  Bigly.

Amazing three-minute video!  But it cuts off before the girl pufferfish arrives?  DOES his work get noticed?  And what about the ocean current destroying his creation?  And what does he EAT to fuel all this activity?  And if she does show up and they mate, what’s THAT like?  And where are his compatriots?  Is he too cool for school?

A few of the answers are here, but only a few.

And then there was Roger Ailes.  I’m not a big fan of speaking ill of the dead; but this guy did so much harm to our social fabric — right up there with Lee Atwater and Rush Limbaugh — that Matt Taibbi’s rant of remembrance may be worth sharing.

Doug:  “Thanks for the piece on Revlon and the update on other stocks. I’m wondering if you also still own AKBA, JNP, MRTX, CVV,SIGA, TTNP, and UTHR. Seems like a great time to sell if not.”

You have been reading this page for a long time!  For better or worse, I do still own AKBA, SIGA, and UTHR.

Donald Trump says Kim Jong-un is a “smart cookie”; James Comey is a “nut job.”

Think about it.

Der Spiegel says “Donald Trump has transformed the United States into a laughing stock and he is a danger to the world. He must be removed from the White House before things get even worse.”

I agree — but how dare a foreign power try to meddle with our presidency?  (Oh.  Wait. )

Can you find 12 minutes for this Closer Look?  Seth Meyers is terrific.  Laughter is the best medicine.

Along with climate change and maybe one or two others, the biggest theme we face, it seems to me, is how to organize ourselves to rejoice in — not implode over — the astonishing wealth and well-being technology is rushing to offer.

If there were a way to supply the nation with a reliable food supply with the toil of under 2% of the population instead of the 60% it once took — that would be good, right?  If there were an eco-friendly way to make beds and wash kitchen floors without human effort — that would be good, right?  (We’ll get to Mars long before we invent the self-making bed, but it’s still something to dream about.)

But as we rush toward a world where fewer and fewer human hours are required to supply the basics of a middle-class existence — where energy from the sun is virtually free, dramatically lowering the cost of everything and computers can do almost anything humans can do, but better and faster, without sleep — what will most people do?  How will they find purpose in life?  How will everyone get to share in the amazing world that the struggling and suffering of ten thousand generations of their ancestors have suddenly made possible, without many being made to feel useless and undeserving, while a few live like masters of the universe — and believe their good-fortune is not just self-made and well-deserved but over-taxed?

It is to ponder such questions that I commend “The Meaning of Life in a World Without Work” from the Guardian.

Have a great weekend.  (Don’t work too hard.)