Year: 2018

If all goes according to plane, I’ll be gawking at the Acropolis as you read this.  I was too young to see them build it, and then Athenian democracy died (and then Roman democracy died), but have always wanted to visit.

As I write, Trump has lied, or otherwise mischaracterized the truth, more than 3,000 times since taking the oath of office.

Add in his spokespeople, like Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Rudolph Giuliani, and its thousands more.

Giuliani likened the FBI agents who raided Michael Cohen to Hitler’s stormtroopers, even though he himself was not there to witness the raids.  Michael Cohen characterized them as professional, courteous, and respectful.

It is horrifying how casually the President and his people lie.

How thoughtlessly — or deliberately — he plays into people’s fears. (Crime is dramatically down over the quarter century before he took office.)

How he encourages their worst instincts (e.g., praising the “many fine people” carrying tiki torches in Charleston).

This is How Democracies Die.

Do Republicans care?

“Obama lied too,” they retort.

But the New York Times found Trump told 103 separate untruths in his first 10 months (repeating one 20 times still counted as just one), versus just 18 in eight years for Obama — “an average of about two a year for Obama, 124 a year for Trump.”

Another contrast?  Obama would generally stop saying things once he learned they were untrue.

Trump dismisses all this as fake news.

The elitist New York Times?  The Washington Post?  NBC?  CBS?  “Enemies of the people.”

It’s the National Enquirer and Fox we should look to for the truth.  And Devon Nunez and Rudolph Giuliani and Vladimir Putin.

And to Trump himself, of course.

Trump, who kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside.

The other book to read, along with How Democracies Die — and Jonathan Chait’s compelling analysis of how the Republican Party has changed — is Madeleine Albright’s Fascism: A Warning.

Click here.

Want to empower teenagers to register other teenagers to vote?  Here’s the toolkit!  Spread it far and wide.

In New York May 16?  Come hear Seth Sikes at 54 Below.  His 13th appearance, if I’m counting right — and an all new show.  “The Songs That Got Away.”

It’s certainly safe to come: crime hasn’t been this low in New York since 1951.  The change from the Seventies and Eighties is dramatic.  In fact, most stuff worldwide has gotten better, by and large, even though gradual good news affecting billions rarely rates a headline — where an explosion killing six always does.

You likely know all this — “keep an eye on the trend lines, not just the headlines” goes the advice — but in case you’re not already persuaded . . . or just want to feel good about something this weekend . . . enjoy Steven Pinker’s TED Talk.

Here’s a crazy notion.

America: a land where ALL are equally welcome to serve their country if qualified.

Heel-spur Trump says no to that.

The indispensable New York Times says yes.

Another crazy notion: giving pilots taxiing at the gate 360-vision so they’re less likely to bump into things.  Per this press release, Dresden Aerospace and GKN Fokker Services have partnered with WheelTug to do just that.

So while some holders of WheelTug’s parent seem to have given up . . . understandably, given the interminable slog . . . selling their shares most recently at $4.81 (I’ve long argued $100 might better value its risk/reward) . . . I’m encouraged to see players, arguably closer to the industry and with more skin in the game, signing on to its vision.

Not crazy at all: come May 16 to hear Seth Sikes at 54 Below, if you’re in New York.  His 13th appearance, if I’m counting right — and an all new show.  “The Songs That Got Away.”

Have you read the Iran deal?  Neither has Trump.  The last sentence of the first paragraph: “Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop or acquire any nuclear weapons.”  There follow 158 pages assuring same.  And so far, everyone but Trump agrees Iran is complying.

Exiting the deal wouldn’t hurt the Iranians — we already unfroze their $150 billion.  They’d get to keep what they got from the deal.

Exiting the deal would mean losing what we got: 24/7 inspections to verify their commitment never to seek, develop or acquire any nuclear weapons.

Why would we do that, ask the allies with whom we, jointly, made this deal with Iran.

Normally when I write about cooking, it’s for my book-n-progress, Cooking Like A Guy™.

I still plan to publish one day, but there always seems to be something more pressing; and, in any event, it’s a bit of a moving target.  Some of my recipes stand the taste of time.  Frozen grapes, for example (though even there I’m no longer so sure about the Equal).  Others need editing. (I’m horrified today, aspiring semi-vegetarian, to go back 18 years to my burger recipe).  None will appear on a fine dining menu or involve knowledge of any foreign language.

But today — in honor of the Iran deal and the hope President Macron and others will help Trump find a face-saving (for him) way to preserve it — I offer something very different — the best (and only) story I have ever read in Bon Appetit, by my friend Andy Baraghani.

In part:

. . . Well, I guess I should tell you now: My real name is Andisheh, not Andy. Every year, on the first day of school, I could see my teacher hesitate when pronouncing my name: “Ahhnnn…” I’d quickly cut the teacher off and say, “Andy is fine.” From middle school into college: “Andy’s fine.” I’m surprised no one ever called me “Andysfine.”

I began to throw away my lunches; I didn’t want anyone to ask what was in them. No more kuku, my mother’s Persian herb frittata; no more kalbas sandwiches: all-beef mortadella wrapped in lavash bread. I would ask my parents not to drop me off close to school in fear that my peers would see their brown skin or hear their accents. When it came to the beard that appeared on my 12-year-old face, I shaved every day and stole a bit of my mother’s foundation to cover it up. I started telling people I had some Italian in me. My last name Bar-a-gha-nee became Ber-e-ghee-nee. I invested in a T-shirt that read ITALIAN STALLION; it would later become infamous among my best friends. Even when it came to my first love in New York, I initially told him I was only half Iranian, which was a partial truth that freed me from being entirely associated with my heritage.

Around this time I interned in the test kitchen at Saveur. The editor in chief at the time, James Oseland, and the executive food editor, Todd Coleman, told me they were going to do a story on Iran. My first thought was: That is just an awful idea. This was 2010. Tensions were high between the U.S. and Iran, where Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was president at the time. After all that time spent working my way up in restaurants, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be associated with Iranian food. Ever since I was a gutsy 16-year-old working up the courage to ask the staff at Chez Panisse if I could help out on Friday nights, I’d been dedicated to mastering a particular style of cooking. My most recent stints had been at the fine-dining restaurant Corton and a Scandi pop-up called Frej. Iranian food was what I’d grown up on, but I had worked so hard to get away from it.

James and Todd asked me to help develop the recipes for the Iran story. While I had eaten Iranian food nearly every day growing up, I didn’t actually know the processes and traditions. I was familiar with saffron and barberries, but I couldn’t prepare any of the fragrant stews or elaborate rice dishes that serve as the backbone of the cuisine. So for the next three weeks, I called my mom almost every day and talked to her for hours, translating her “handfuls” and “pinches” to cups and teaspoons, re-creating her recipes in the test kitchen. Eventually, about ten of the final recipes that appeared in the issue were adapted from my mother’s. Saveur published a piece titled “Behind the Iran Story”; it was a letter dedicated to my mother and me, in which Todd thanked us for our contributions and said that the story couldn’t have happened without us. When the issue came out, people both in and out of the food industry embraced it and reached out to me, thanking me for shedding some light on the cuisine. My shame began to recede. . . .

While we’re finding face-saving ways to stay in the Iran deal, it would also be amazingly great if we could rejoin the Paris Accords (now that Nicaragua and Syria have joined, we are the only nation among 197 not to) and join the TransPacific Partnership?

Most of the Republicans I know say they’re socially liberal but fiscally conservative.

So I’d like to point out two things:

1. That makes them Democrats.  That’s obviously true of the “socially liberal” piece.  No one argues Republicans have the  more socially liberal agenda.  But it’s also true of the “fiscally conservative” piece.  It’s Reagan//Bush/Trump who exploded deficit spending with tax cuts for the best off; Clinton and Obama who by the ends of their terms, in part via tax hikes on the rich, got the National Debt once again shrinking relative to the economy as a whole.
2. It’s okay to switch parties once you realize this.  Lots of people have done it, and I’m hoping more will.

All this came to mind when I perused this rundown of Trump’s VP and Cabinet picks. He said he’d be a “real friend” to the LGBT community. But then he also said he’d release his tax returns if he ran for president.

“Absolutely.”

So there are three things every high school senior should get in June: a diploma, my book, and a voter registration card.

To which end, Jason Kander’s Let America Vote — in partnership with Rock The Vote — has launched CAP, GOWN, VOTE!  High schools compete to see who can register the most new voters.

If you know any high school juniors or seniors, send them that link.

Cap, Gown, Vote! is in its very first days; but, with dozens of mayors signing on to promote it, should grow fast.

• In many states, you don’t have to be 18 to register — you can pre-register.
• Even if you’re 15 or 16 and too young to register yourself, you’re not too young to help your high school register others
• Not a bad thing for a junior to be able to add to her college application — “was an active CGV! participant, registered 31 new voters”
• This could be the year, thanks to the Parkland tragedy and social media, it finally becomes cool for young people to vote.

High school seniors will feel the impact of the election results 10 times as long as the treasured 85-year-olds who never fail to vote.

Indeed, maybe we should give folks under 30 three  votes, folks 30-59 two, and just one to everybody else.

But failing that, how about young people at least use their precious right to help shape their world?  Clearly, we old folks have not been doing a perfect job on that score.

Two minutes.  (Thanks, Mel!)

And then He split an infinitive.  Or maybe not, but being God, surely could have.  And now we can, too!  It’s okay, says the Economist.  (Thanks, Brian!)  I’m glad.  It was a concept – like “never end a sentence with a preposition” — to which I could never get used.

Here’s a three-minute quiz designed to promote New Power, the book I plugged Tuesday.  The quiz is interesting on three fronts.  First, as an engaging marketing tool that might give you ideas for a marketing tool of your own.  Second, as a quick way to get a sense of how different “old power” is from new, and what this widely-praised book is driving at.  Third, to give you a sense of where you stand on its grid.  (I’m roughly equidistant from Theresa May, Travis Kalanick, and Pope Francis.)  It requires no email or credit card data to get your results.

Finally, because you’ve likely heard so much about the President on Fox yesterday morning, here’s the full half hour.  They finally had to cut him off.  (Lawrence O’Donnell’s theory is that Rupert Murdoch grew increasingly alarmed for Trump as he watched, finally calling the control room to order him shut down.)  Let’s hope Trump makes a lasting peace for the people of the Korean peninsula, with full denuclearization.  A major achievement, if it happens, like Nixon opening up China or Nixon founding the Environmental Protection Agency or Nixon launching the Earned Income Tax Credit.  Compared to Trump, Nixon was magnificently competent, thoughtful, moral, honest, and dignified.  And I need hardly tell you that Nixon was in a  number of ways unforgivably awful.

Carl G.:  “There is one thing I never see you write about is why Evangelicals support Trump so much.  I think the reason is that their leaders worship the same thing… money.  This is most obviously demonstrated in what is known as the ‘prosperity bible’ which seems to ignore what Jesus said about greed, the rich, and helping the poor.  The LITERAL bible says nothing about abortion — preachers selectively edit it to claim that it does — yet Jesus is very clear what he thinks in Mark 10:17-31 which Evangelicals love to ignore or find excuses for.

“Evangelical leaders have become multi-millionaires by conning the elderly and ignorant to give them money to spread the word that instead gets funneled into multiple mansions, private planes, and exorbitant luxury.  These leaders also become narcissists with the worship of their crowds who believe they have an exclusive hotline to God.  They also know that to appeal to their ‘believers’ they must convince them they’re better than people who look different, have different sexual orientations or different beliefs so as to also ignore Mark 12:31 (Love thy neighbor) and Matthew 7:1-3 (Judge not). In other words, our Evangelical leaders see a soulmate in our President.

“Conservative Cal Thomas has a great article asking whom Evangelicals really serve.”

This may well paint all Evangelical leaders with too broad a brush; but it’s hard for me to imagine that Jesus, were he back with us today, would oppose closing the gun-show loophole, the carried interest-loophole, or expanding Medicaid to all 50 states.

Yesterday, communicating with the internet directly from your brain.

Today, the TED interview I told you about with Gwynne Shotwell, who runs SpaceX for Elon Musk.

Not that I’m in any hurry to climb into one of these rockets — I never even took the Concorde (Charles took it lots).

But what a time to be alive, no?

Enjoy.

New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World–and How to Make It Work for You.  It’s a book by Jeremy Heimans, whom I know a little, and co-author Henry Timms, who runs the 92nd Street Y where I made a paper mâché duck when I was 10 while the cool kid in my class was playing basketball. A situation so embarrassing it left scars — but I digress.

David Brooks calls it “the best window I’ve seen into this new world.”  Check it out.

And if you missed “60 Minutes” Sunday (really? why would you do that?), check out MIT’s Media lab and — among much else — the guy who can search Google with his mind . . . a precursor to our all being able to interface with the web just by thinking.  You won’t have to say “Alexa,” you’ll just think your request.

As a species, we are on the cusp of becoming not just erectus (kangaroos  can do that too), and not just sapiens (a bigger deal: show me a kangaroo with an imagination), but deus — as detailed in the aforeplugged Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari.

But there are so many ways this could go wrong (speaking of gods, and humans not getting along, I love this Charles Barsotti cartoon) — even if all the world’s leaders were truly thoughtful, brilliant, and well motivated, like Obama, the Pope, Angela Merkel, Tim Cook, Malala Yusafzai, Mitt Romney, Al Gore.

Instead, some of the world’s leaders are murderers and liars — or friendly with murderers and liars — whose motivation seems to be their own wealth and power more than a vision to guide mankind successfully into the future.

Which is why, after a long day of doing all you can to register folks and turn them out to vote (fund that effort here), it makes sense to kick back with a beer:

It’s not available all that widely, and better on tap then in bottles, but it’s almost summer, and time for Flower Power!

(No, I don’t own a piece of the company.)