Did I Mention The CFPB? March 31, 2018 I did, Thursday — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — which, along with the EPA, the Republicans are thrilled to see gutted. What was Nixon thinking when he signed the Environmental Protection Agency into law? Science/schmience — if Detroit wants weaker fuel-efficiency standards, the glaciers will just have to not melt. Jesus has our back on climate change. Same with consumers. If the young woman described in this must-listen Planet Money podcast didn’t read the fine print before she borrowed $900 on-line from Golden Valley Lending, how can she complain that Golden Valley scooped $3,735 out of her bank account in less than a year to settle the debt? To Democrats, capitalism should be regulated. Obama’s CFPB was pursuing Golden Valley on her behalf — and on behalf of everyone else who had been — or might be — similarly brutalized. To Republicans, not so much. The Trump CFPB — run by a former South Carolina congressman who introduced a bill to kill the CFPB altogether and so was Trump’s choice to lead it — dropped the case. Golden Valley did nothing wrong and need not change its ways. If your daughter, desperate to avoid eviction and too embarrassed to ask you to help with $900, needs someplace to turn, maybe she’ll stumble upon Golden Valley. (Trump has also gutted the State Department, with awful long-term consequences for our standing in the world and perhaps world peace itself; and is undermining trust in the FBI and our intelligence agencies; and in the free press that undergirds democracy. But I don’t see most Republicans in the House and Senate actively approving of those initiatives in the way they actively work to cripple the EPA and kill the CFPB.)
Nearly Free Movies March 29, 2018September 30, 2019 But first: The RSPP suggested here earlier this month at $40 just got a buy-out offer at $45. There’s reason to think that’s too low, so for now I’m holding on. What sometimes happens in a situation like this is that the deal gets sweetened. We’ll see. And now: You’re probably not going to see a movie a day, but MoviePass lets you — for $7 a month (“billed annually”). Here’s a Business Insider FAQ that explains the whole deal. And here’s the outfit’s own FAQ, along with different ways to sign up. [2019 UPDATE: It was too good to be true and went bust. Oops.] And now and now: what if Facebook could help you find the right suckers for your lousy product (if you had a lousy product, which you do not; this is by way of cautionary illustration). What if? Here’s what, from Bloomberg (thanks, Brian!): Affiliates once had to guess what kind of person might fall for their unsophisticated cons, targeting ads by age, geography, or interests. Now Facebook does that work for them. The social network tracks who clicks on the ad and who buys the pills, then starts targeting others whom its algorithm thinks are likely to buy. Affiliates describe watching their ad campaigns lose money for a few days as Facebook gathers data through trial and error, then seeing the sales take off exponentially. “They go out and find the morons for me,” I was told by an affiliate who sells deceptively priced skin-care creams with fake endorsements from Chelsea Clinton. Chapter 4 of my book is called “Trust No One,” because a key part of successful personal finance — and now, successful citizenship — is simply filtering out the baloney. Not being the moron. (Which I can say with some authority, having been the moron more than once myself.) Who you gonna believe? The annuity salesman heavily incentivized to sell what’s best for him? Or the advice from a book you can get from the library for free? The Tobacco Institute? Or the Surgeon General? The Washington Post? Or the National Enquirer? Donald Trump? Or the FBI? Donald Trump? Or the two dozen women he claims are lying? Donald Trump? Or — on a different day — Donald Trump? (Watch!) The amazing story? (Trump’s older sister says he was called “Donnie Dimwit” as a kid!) Or Snopes? (No, actually, she did not. The report was a spoof — yet a well-meaning bio-tech CEO passed it on to me thinking it was real.) One of the reasons we need an FTC and an FDA and a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and an SEC — and an EPA and an OSHA — and a Snopes — and respect for science — is that not everyone trying to get your money (or your vote) is on the up and up.
“The Rules Of War Have Changed” March 28, 2018March 27, 2018 Or so wrote Russian General Valery Gerasimov in 2013, the year Trump went to Moscow. Putin is winning. Fareed Zakaria calls him the world’s most powerful man. Watch his 41-minute Putin documentary on CNN once it’s posted, or here in the meantime. Bill Browder calls him the world’s richest man. John McCain calls him “a thug, and a killer, and a murderer.” Charles Grassley calls him a “criminal.” But there’s no one Trump admires more. You need to know about this guy. I wasn’t going to read Russian Roulette, about Trump, Miss Universe, Putin and the rest. Wouldn’t I get all the highlights just watching the news? But I have — and it’s gripping. We’re under attack, so you should consider reading it too.
Make Your Bed March 27, 2018March 30, 2018 Check out these six minutes of inspiration. Spoiler alert: hats off to our men and women in uniform — especially ones like this. And this: Shoot Like A Girl, by Major Mary Jennings Hegar. “One Woman’s Dramatic Fight in Afghanistan and on the Home Front.” I listened to it in just under 6 hours (at 1.5X speed, which was perfect for this book). Wow. It’s Texans like M.J. — not craven, vulgar, lying, incompetent, cowards — who make America great. And — guess what? — she’s running for Congress. You can watch her story in 2 minutes. And, if you then want to help her flip Texas-31 blue, pitch in to her campaign.
Wanted: Just Two Good Republicans March 24, 2018July 20, 2019 But first . . . . . . for those following Support.com, here was the basic case someone else made for buying it at $2.60 earlier this month . . . not unlike the cases I made for it at $2.37 here and at $2.16 here. It closed at $2.79 Friday, a couple of days after issuing its latest financials. Revenue for the quarter was up and expenses trimmed; cash stood at $49.2 million — $2.63 a share — with no debt. So you get the business itself more or less for free (the $2.79 you pay, versus its $2.63 in cash); and if the still relatively new, smart and motivated management is able to keep building the business, it’s not hard to imagine SPRT at $5 in a year or two. (As always: only with money you can truly afford to lose.) Also . . . . . . did you see Fareed Zakaria last Sunday? Even before the truly frightening appointment of John Bolton? If confirmed as Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo will arrive at a department that has been battered by proposed budget cuts, hollowed out by resignations and vacancies, and neutered by President Trump’s impulsive and personal decision-making style. But Pompeo’s most immediate challenge will not be rebuilding the department or restoring morale. It will be dealing with an acute foreign policy crisis that is largely of the president’s own making, regarding the Iran nuclear deal. Pompeo will have to tackle a genuine foreign challenge soon. President Trump has agreed to meet with Kim Jong-un before the end of May. This could be a promising development; yet before Trump even sits down with Kim to discuss a nuclear deal, the administration will have to discuss how to handle the preexisting deal with Tehran. From the outset, Mike Pompeo has cheered Trump in his hard-line posturing toward Iran. Trump has announced that America will no longer abide by the Iran nuclear pact unless European leaders agree to fix the deal’s “disastrous flaws.” They seemed unwilling to endorse more than cosmetic changes and Iran for its part has flatly refused to renegotiate. All this means that by May 12th, the United States is set to pull out of the Iran accord, which could lead Iran to do the same thing and restart its nuclear program. And this would be happening at the very same time as the summit with North Korea when the United States will surely be trying to convince North Korea of the benefits of signing a similar agreement. Recall that Iran did not have nuclear weapons, only a program that could have led to them. Still, the deal required the Iranians to scale back significant aspects of their program, dismantling 13,000 centrifuges, giving up 98 percent of their enriched uranium and effectively shutting down their plutonium reactor at Iraq. The International Atomic Energy Agency has cameras and inspectors in Iran at every stage of the nuclear fuel cycle from mines to labs to enrichment facilities. The IAEA attests that Tehran has in fact abided by its end of the deal. Even Mike Pompeo himself has conceded as much. The Iran deal is not perfect, but it has stabilized a dangerous and spiraling situation in the Middle East. Were the deal to unravel, an already similar region would get much hotter. In an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad bin Salman, recently affirmed that his kingdom would go nuclear if Iran did. The tragedy here is that this is an entirely self-inflicted crisis. There was already enough instability in the world that the administration did not need to create more. Pompeo should recognize that his job as Secretary of State will be to solve problems not produce them, and that he should preserve the Iran agreement and spend his time on North Korea. Pompeo should take a page from his boss’ book. Trump has reversed course on issue after issue, often with little explanation. [Pompeo should, as well.] Putin and the Kremlin are winning, destabilizing democracy here and in Europe. China is winning, as — by exiting the Transpacific Partnership that would have lowered tariffs on our exports — we ceded economic leadership to them. And as — by gutting our State Department and abjuring the Paris Climate Accords — we’ve created a vacuum they aggressively fill. Corrupt, murderous autocrats are winning, as they are the only world leaders Trump admires. Vulgarity and bigotry are winning, as hate groups — peopled by “some very fine people” — grow bolder. So — finally — with that cheery preamble . . . . . . here is conservative former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough in the Washington Post: . . . Six decades of Republican overreach and corrosive causes have . . . led to the rise of Donald Trump and a foreign policy run by John Bolton, an economy guided by Larry Kudlow and a legal team led by conspiracy theorist Joseph DiGenova. . . . Trump’s third national security adviser in 14 months [Bolton] has called for the preemptive bombing of North Korea and Iran, while defending his role in the worst U.S. foreign policy disaster since Vietnam. Of the United States’ military misadventure in Iraq, Bolton pleads innocence on all counts while shamelessly calling Barack Obama’s 2011 decision to bring U.S. troops home “the worst decision” made in that debacle. In the foreword to the seventh edition of “The Conservative Mind,” [Russell] Kirk predicted with precision the rise of political players such as Bolton and Trump and foresaw a time when the United States would “fall into the hands of merciless ideologues or squalid oligarchs.” . . . This was the predictable outcome of my Republican Party aligning its interests with the most cynical political operators of our time. The Atwaters, Manaforts, Gingriches and Roves leveraged a weaponized media culture that reduced politics to a secularized religion and consolidated political power and material wealth in the hands of its richest donors. Yes, the Soviet Union is in the dustbin of history, Osama bin Laden is dead and ISIS is — at least temporarily — on its heels. But the inner chaos Kirk warned of so many years ago runs rampant in a country dominated by the bloated presence of a man who embraces dictators, vilifies the free press, corrupts religious leaders, absolves white supremacists, degrades women and continues a life’s work defined by little more than the amoral pursuit of material wealth. Remarkably, order could be pulled from this culturally calamitous crisis if just two GOP senators had the moral courage to deprive Donald Trump of a ruling majority until he agreed to bring to heel his most destructive instincts. But even after a week of high-profile firings, attacks on Robert S. Mueller III and perplexing plaudits for Vladimir Putin, ideology continues to best idealism while American conservatism becomes even more detached from its philosophical foundations and fails yet again to confront the greatest challenges of our times. Right? Why can’t Ben Sasse and Jeff Flake — or Susan Collins and John McCain — or Lindsey Graham — not put country ahead of party? Will they do so in time? How about tomorrow? Tomorrow would be good. Today would be better.
PutinCon March 22, 2018 Putin is winning. And Trump, aka David Dennison, calls to congratulate him. It is a terrible time for democracy — and decency. World chess — and human rights — champion Garry Kasparov writes: This weekend Vladimir Putin staged yet another phony election, a charade to distract Russia and the world while his brutal dictatorship continues into its nineteenth year. Putin’s repression, corruption, wars, assassinations, and his interference and undermining of democratic governments will continue. For now. But his rule will not last forever. On Friday, it was an honor for the Human Rights Foundation to gather hundreds of supporters of Russian human rights and democracy together in New York City to celebrate the Russian people and expose Putin’s crimes. At PutinCon, we heard a masterclass from experts, biographers, and victims about Putin’s rise to power and his beliefs, psychology, methods, and weaknesses. We also learned how the free world can support civil society and democracy inside Russia while defending itself from Putin’s aggression. All talks are now available at PutinCon.com for the world to see and share. We also filmed a short video to capture highlights from the event—you can watch here. Putin may have orchestrated another fraudulent election, but the supporters of Russian democracy are more determined than ever. I encourage you to share these talks and spread the truth about Putin and his corrupt regime—and, most importantly, how to fight back. Thank you for supporting the Human Rights Foundation and for making events like PutinCon possible. With gratitude, Garry Kasparov Chairman Human Rights Foundation
None Of Us Is Home . . . March 21, 2018March 20, 2018 . . . until all of us are home. Here’s 5 minutes on that idea, and how the good people of Philadelphia are trying to help. Jim Carrey — pet detective and political caricaturist. Have you seen his Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweet? And the reaction? Meanwhile, Fran Lebowitz flew to Australia. She was in her late 20s and now she is 67 — how did this happen? — but if you know who she is, you will enjoy the account.
The Minister of Happiness Will See You Now March 20, 2018March 19, 2018 Really? A Minister of Happiness? A Minister of Loneliness? But of course! Should we not follow the Brits’ lead? The Emiratis’ lead? Here are Kim Samuel (and Bobby Kennedy) on the need for more than just GDP: . . . a modern metric of economic wellbeing must include dimensions like happiness and social connection. . . . [T]he global economy looks healthy. . . . And yet, the world over, people are feeling disconnected, lonely, isolated . . . . . . Despite having the third largest economy in Europe, Britons report feeling far lonelier than other Europeans. The problem has grown to such a degree that Prime Minister Theresa May appointed a Minister of Loneliness earlier this year. . . . our current metrics are ill-equipped to register the effects of social isolation — so much so that both the British Minister of Loneliness and newly appointed Minister of Happiness for the UAE have identified one of largest hurdles in their new positions to be a lack of data. . . . . . . Encouragingly, a handful of countries, including Bhutan, UAE, and Ecuador, have also developed metrics for ‘National Happiness Indexes.’ Yet by and large, governments haven’t significantly revised metrics like GDP, fearing a dent to their perceived prosperity. . . . On March 18, 1968, 50 years ago today, the fight to reform metrics of national health and wealth found an unlikely champion: then-US Presidential contender Bobby Kennedy. In a stirring speech at the University of Kansas, he said that Gross National Product counts “air pollution and cigarette advertising” but “does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.” And here is the 2018 World Happiness Report, ranking 156 countries, from Finland to Burundi (see page 20). The US is #18, behind, among others, Canada, Israel, Australia, Iceland, Costa Rica, and Germany.
Flying To Cuba And Ireland Without A Tug Made In CHAYYY-na March 17, 2018 FLY MUCH? There are now Android and iPhone WheelTug apps. Just search on WheelTug and download from the app store if you want to help the company add to its (already extensive, professionally-sourced) flight data. The more time we can prove airlines waste sitting at the gate, the more they will pay each year to lease the systems that will save them a good chunk of that wasted time. DEPT. OF PROTOCOL: What To Do When the PM Is Gay and the VP Is A Homophobe? Click to see. And happy St. Patrick’s Day! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN: Have you seen this clip of Jimmy Kimmel with the items in the new on-line Trump store? Guess where the Trump family makes them. DEPT. OF PROTOCOL AGAIN: Now that his lawyers have made it official in a federal court filing, I believe we should always refer to him as “Donald Trump, aka David Dennison.” Let him call his opponents demeaning or subtly racist names — “Little,” “Low IQ.” We should call Trump what his own lawyer calls him in an official court filing threatening a porn star. From now on, he’s Donald Trump, aka David Dennison. “AND FINALLY, NEW RULES:” Bill Maher has a lot of fun at Democrats’ expense in these six minutes . . . much of it spot on. And finally, finally (save this for Tuesday if I’ve already taken too much of your weekend and Monday) . . . CUBA Steve Morgan long ago worked at the same Washington law firm as Trump’s lawyer in the Mueller probe. Recently, he traveled to Cuba. Under Trump’s — aka Dennison’s — tightened rules, he is required to keep his U.S. Treasury Reg. 515-565b paperwork for 7 years. He reports: Cuba had been on my “bucket list” for at least 30 years. I spent time traveling to Holguin, Santiago de Cuba, Havana and Varadero. The people were friendly and welcoming. The landscape was beautiful, the food delicious, the music electrifying. Anyone for great coffee or rum? In some ways, it was a trip in a time machine. The baroque architecture of government buildings and massive mansions built in the 1800’s and early 1900’s is breathtaking. Unfortunately, the exodus of over 2 million Cubans since the Revolution and a lack of funding have left many of these buildings in a state of great disrepair. Most are now museums or multi-family residences. Thousands of vintage cars dating from the 1950’s and earlier on the road look like a movie set from that period. The citizens, most of whom work for the State for paltry wages ($50 a month for full time employment in the cigar factories), do without many of the things we Americans take for granted, either because they can’t afford them, or because of the U.S. Embargo. Would I want to live there under the current conditions? No. But after seeing the real Cuba, spending time with ordinary Cuban citizens and learning more about the history of Cuba and U.S.-Cuba relations, I need to question the renewal of chilling restrictions imposed by the current Administration. General Batista, who staged a coup in 1952 after realizing that his candidacy for President was doomed, quickly saw the Truman Administration recognize his government and provide military and economic aid. Organized resistance in Cuba resulted. I visited the Moncado Army Barracks in Santiago de Cuba, where Fidel Castro and other revolutionaries staged an unsuccessful attack in 1953. The damage caused by flying bullets can still be seen. It is now a school for children. Revolutionary activities continued, until January 1, 1959, when Batista fled to the Dominican Republic, Che Guevara took Santa Clara and Castro’s troops seized the Moncado Army Barracks without firing a shot. The U.S. recognized the new Cuban government 6 days later. Were U.S. properties and Cuban properties seized by the State and nationalized in the years following the Revolution? Absolutely. Did millions of Cuban citizens flee their native country (voluntarily or involuntarily) because of the changes imposed by Castro’s government? No question. Did Castro provide military support to regimes I detest? Certainly. The original intent of the U.S. Embargo and travel restrictions was to punish the Cuban regime and isolate the country. The original naïve hope was that the Cuban people would revolt, and somehow return seized property to the Americans. That was 58 years ago. Castro outlived the terms of 10 U.S. Presidents. Several of them (e.g., Carter, Clinton) attempted to loosen restrictions regarding Cuba, only to be over-ruled by succeeding Republican administrations. President Obama boldly re-opened the U.S. Embassy in Havana, only to see Trump [aka David Dennison] take a giant step backwards. Today, tourists from Canada, Britain, Germany and many other U. S. allies travel freely in Cuba. Ordinary Americans are denied the opportunity to travel freely to visit our fellow human beings. Several Cubans — mindful of what’s going on here — told me that in the year before Batista was overthrown, he had a massive turnover among his ministers and high-level officials. Some were fired, others resigned. Sound familiar?
Eerie Echoes of the Civil War March 15, 2018March 13, 2018 We’re not gonna slip back into that craziness. But history buffs and Lincoln fans will find Manisha Sinha’s take in the New York Review of Books resonant: Today’s Eerie Echoes of the Civil War In 1858, Abraham Lincoln launched his campaign for the Senate seat from Illinois with his now famous “A House Divided” speech. While he did not predict disunion or civil war, Lincoln alluded to the country’s deep political divisions over slavery and concluded, “I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.” . . . Much history ensues — you remember the “Whigs” from your high school history class, and your “Know-Nothing” party (anything they didn’t want to know they dismissed as fake news), but here you will get a refresher — a good chunk of it in Lincoln’s own words: . . . There were many other moving parts involved in the political disarray of the 1850s. One was the collapse of the so-called second-party system, in which each of the main political parties comprised of northern and southern wings were bound in a complicated alliance of forces. Another was the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment. While Lincoln’s party, the Whigs, disintegrated under the weight of the sectional argument over slavery, the nativist Know-Nothing party took its place in many states, North and South. Lincoln memorably stated his position in 1855: “I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that “all men are created equal.” We now practically read it “all men are created equal, except negroes.” When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read “all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.” When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty—to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy [sic].” In our time, the surge of anti-immigrant sentiment in the US, exemplified by Republican support for Trump’s plan to build a border wall, has resurrected this ugly, persistent strain in American politics. (It is interesting to note, too, that even in Lincoln’s day, Russia made itself felt as a political presence, a rival model to American democracy.) Today’s efforts to obstruct immigration and citizenship for Dreamers have a precedent in the nativist Know-Nothing party’s initiative to restrict the path to citizenship for the large waves of immigration of the 1850s. Under the Trump administration, the Citizenship and Immigration Service has changed its mission statement from safeguarding “America’s promise as a nation of immigrants” to promising enforcement of the nation’s immigration law. . . . There’s much more — this is the New York Review of Books, after all — and it’s truly worth reading. Meanwhile, Putin is winning — he and Xi. (Get it? “He and Xi.” Xi is pronounced . . . oh, well, if I have to explain it . . .) And we’re totally letting them. Lincoln would have been appalled. Today’s “party of Lincoln”? Not so much.