Do The Math October 25, 2018October 26, 2018 The barbarians are at the gate and Trump is terrified on our behalf. Republicans may have some hidden empathy for the 7,200 tired, poor Hondurans yearning for a better life — they are actual human beings, after all, just like us — but think about the consequences of allowing them to apply for asylum. Do the math. It’s 7,200 people but — assuming you don’t separate parents from their children — perhaps 2,400 family units. Say we had two such enormous caravans each year– 2 times 2,400 = 4,800 — and that they somehow disbursed evenly, one family settling in each of America’s 19,000 cities. Within four years, each city in America would find itself having had to accommodate a Honduran family! A city like New York or LA — even Cleveland or Phoenix — could handle one new immigrant Honduran family every four years. Easy. But at the other extreme, what about a “city” like Paris, Texas, with a population of just 25,000 (2,000 of them Hispanic) and just six churches. Could a “city” so small really handle a new Honduran family every four years? How many more police would they need to hire? How many more schools would they need to build? Think about it: each of the six churches (if they shared the burden equally) would face the challenge of helping to welcome and integrate a new Honduran family into the life of the community every 24 years!* But it’s worse than that. Trump has people from Montana to Maine genuinely fearful of the crime, rape, drugs, and economic hardship he’s persuaded them that non-white asylum-seekers, giving themselves up legally at the border, bring. Indeed, he has pledged to send our military — not just the National Guard, the military (which is illegal) — to repel them rather than grant them asylum to clean our toilets, pick our tomatoes, and trim our hedges. (How, by the way? Shoot them? Tase them? Force-march them 2,500 miles home?) Yet realistically, these Hondurans are not likely to walk to Montana or Maine. Let alone disburse evenly among America’s 19,000 cities. No, they’re all gonna settle in Texas, which has just 27,000 churches, and maybe a few in Arizona and New Mexico, which have 3,000 and 2,000 churches. I mention the churches, because Republicans are the religious party. Many of them believe America is specifically a Christian country. So is this something churches could do? Help the poor and needy? The least among us? Something most religious voters — even in Texas — could embrace? Just asking. Vote! Volunteer! Give! *Correction: I was wrong to say there are six churches in Paris, Texas. According to a friend from Paris, “There are WAY more than six. That link is incredibly wrong (it doesn’t even include my family’s church!). I’d say there are probably 30 or 40 at least, no joke. If you go to Google Maps of Paris, and type in Church, at least 20 pop up.” So each church would have to help one desperate Honduran family more like once every hundred years.
Hawking Monday’s Post October 24, 2018October 24, 2018 While Trump cages children separated from their parents, calls women “horse face,” promises to send Congress a tax cut this week (Congress is not in session) despite the already-irresponsible tax cuts that have the ice-veined Senate majority leader targeting Social Security and Medicare . . . here are some of the challenges the late Stephen Hawking says mankind faces. His posthumous piece is so worth reading. We are, after all, privileged to be alive in the make-or-break century for our species. (In the previous 2,000 or so centuries, nothing humans did could much affect the species at all, let alone wipe it out.) And: we may have only a very short few years to avoid passing the point of no return — if we haven’t passed it already. Do we really think today’s Republican leadership has the vision and wisdom to meet those challenges? Was the Obama Administration not more thoughtful, as it brought the world together for the Paris Climate Accords and six nations together to denuclearize Iran and seeded so much tech progress with ARPA-E? Facebook occasionally tries to get me to boost my posts. It’s how they make money, I guess. So when they offered me a promotional $5 to boost a post, I added a further $55 of my own (or tried to) to boost Monday’s post — Trump Is Right — to young Republican women in six swing states. This campaign — at $10 per state — was modest, I’ll admit. But even so, it was “disapproved” without explanation. I’m guessing the algorithms we hope will block Russian bots and FSB agents posing as Americans . . . and perhaps totally unsubstantiated conspiracy theories of the Alex Jones variety . . . will be blocking more than that as well. Yes, the post was harsh. But is Trump not all those things I listed? Did Republicans not say about him all those things I quoted? Is the definition of sociopath I linked to out of the mainstream of psychiatric discourse? Know anyone at Facebook we could ask? Vote! Volunteer! Give!
The More You Know October 23, 2018October 22, 2018 Things to know: You don’t bring a bone saw to a fist fight. Our president is the only person in the world, other than some Saudis, who pretends to believe otherwise. It’s ludicrous. And evil. Murder is proscribed in the Bible. Freedom of the press is enshrined in the Constitution. Murdering journalists — whom the founders saw as agents, not enemies, of the people — is a mortal sin that erodes democracy. Trump pals Putin and Duterte and Erdogan and Mohammed Bin Salman murder journalists. Denying native Americans their right to vote is so Republican. As you’ve probably heard, Republicans have devised a way to block long-time voters from voting this time, by adding a new requirement: their ID must include a street address. But Indian reservations don’t have streets. Republicans couldn’t come up with a proposal for the “replace” part of repealing Obamacare, but boy can they make things happen when it comes to suppressing the vote. I mean, in fairness, what right do Native Americans have to vote? Why are they here, anyway? They don’t look like us. As the old saying goes, “go back to . . .” Oh, wait. It’s the economy, stupid: President Obama took the Bush Collapse and got the unemployment rate down by five percentage points — despite unprecedented obstruction from the Republican Congress — even as he got the National Debt back to shrinking relative to the economy as a whole (as Clinton had also done). Trump has managed to keep the Obama Recovery going, trimming the unemployment rate by yet another percentage point — even as he has exploded the deficit, growing the National Debt faster than the economy ((as Bush and Reagan did). See the difference? You don’t think this is going to come back and bite us? You don’t think the Republican tax cut for corporations and their wealthiest shareholders won’t cut into the programs so many normal Americans rely on? Mitch McConnell says it out loud! Republicans are gunning for Social Security, Medicare and Obamacare! Vote! Volunteer! Give!
Trump Is Right October 22, 2018October 22, 2018 He goes from state to state saying, “A vote for Sally is a vote for me.” “A vote for Ted is a vote for me.” And he’s right: a Republican vote this year is a vote for him. So here’s what you’re voting for if you vote Republican: Vulgarity. Misogyny. Dishonesty. Bigotry. Ignorance. Corruption. Division. Climate Denial. Tax Fraud. Fascism. A pathological liar (to quote Ted Cruz). A dangerous con man (to quote Marco Rubio). A national disgrace (to quote Colin Powell). A bully (“the world’s number one bully,” to quote Republican ex-governor Christine Todd Whitman). A Putin admirer. A sociopath who kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside. Our very own Mussolini. Who, as it turns out, did not make the trains run on time. That’s who you’re voting for if you vote Republican this year.
The Proud Boys October 19, 2018October 18, 2018 Watch this five-minute video on our slide into fascism. You don’t think it could happen here? Or in Hungary? Or in Turkey? Or in Italy? Or in Germany? Each time, built around a strongman with a fanatical following? Meanwhile: Donald Trump To Speak At Hate Group’s Annual Event, A First For A President. Oh! And how about The Proud Boys? Whose leader — banned from Twitter — was last week “invited to speak at a popular Republican institution not despite his extremism but because of it. His invitation to the Metropolitan Republican Club [in New York], scholars of fascism said, shows Republicans’ increasing ease with what is essentially the militant, fascist wing of their party — an especially unnerving development, given Proud Boys’ penchant for violence. . . .” (Violence did in fact ensue.) “. . . The next day Proud Boys in Portland, Oregon, joined with another violent far-right gang, Patriot Prayer, to assault leftist protesters there. On Oct. 6, Proud Boys in Providence, Rhode Island, attacked counterprotesters at a Resist Marxism demonstration . . .” Vote! Volunteer! Give! And really: watch that video. [For these with PRKR, the company lost a lawsuit in Germany and the stock tanked. But a bigger German lawsuit remains, and an even bigger one here in America. No question: the stock could be zero. But I’m not taking any tax losses yet. One of those lawsuits could still work out.]
And Speaking Of Dementia October 18, 2018October 17, 2018 I keep coming back to BrainHq because it dramatically reduces the risk of dementia. TIME highlighted it. Tom Brady swears by it. “The Today Show” featured it. Old folks have fewer car crashes when they use it. It’s free to try. (Tell your parents? Your increasingly loopy boss?) All of which I’ve written before. The new news: BrainHQ Brain Exercises Spread Across 2019 Medicare Advantage Plans — making it available to more than a million seniors in 24 states. The other news? At least for me? I was rarely finding the occasional “hour” to exercise. But my friends at the company tell me 10 minute chunks may be even more effective. Who can’t find 10 minutes once or twice a week? You don’t even need to shower. And speaking of dementia, everybody knows you’re supposed to trim budget deficits when the economy is doing well so you have room to have room to expand them when times are tough. You’d be crazy to run big deficits otherwise, unless it were, say, to win World War II (what other choice did we have?) or to massively revitalize our infrastructure. (An investment that would pay dividends for decades and thus not “spending” at all.) Yet the Republicans, in complete control of the government, have opted for massive deficits — $779 billion in the fiscal year just ended, expected to hit $1 trillion this year — and why? To cut taxes for the Sheldon Adelsons and Donald Trumps and Exxons of the world. It’s demented. Vote. Volunteer. Give.
Hurry Up, Robert Mueller October 17, 2018October 16, 2018 I’ve pre-ordered Proof of Collusion: How Trump Betrayed America. If the author is right, “it’s even worse than we thought,” as they say. Here’s a 25-paragraph preview, with four postscripts –the last of which summarizes: At the end of every decision Donald Trump has ever made is a profit motive—same with Kushner. If you think suddenly their motives changed with respect to the endlessly rich Saudi Crown Prince, you are—excuse my saying it—yet another in a lifetime of Trump chumps. Did we really withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal to further Trump/Kushner financial interests? It appears so. Are we really abandoning our democratic allies in favor of journalist-murderers to make Trump more money? Hurry up, Robert Mueller! In the meantime: Vote! Volunteer! Give!
Read This Book Or I’ll Shoot This Dog* October 16, 2018October 14, 2018 Do you know Hillbilly Elegy or Nomadland? Heartrending personal stories of the nittiest, grittiest, most granular kind. The hopelessness of people falling out of the middle class into despair. The War On Normal People is all that — but from 30,000 feet, with SOLUTIONS. You’ll want to kill yourself as you read the first two thirds (how’s that for a blurb?) . . . but then take enormous heart as you read the solutions. Which is why this could well be the most important book you read, or listen to, all year. Free, if you haven’t listened to an Audible book before. (I “read” it at 1.5X speed in under 5 hours.) Basically, as I’ve written before, this is mankind’s challenge. We have the technology and resources for everyone on the planet to be decently fed, sheltered, clothed, entertained, and cared for. But can we learn to live with each other in ways that allow everyone to share in that good fortune? So much is possible if we get it right. The future is bleak beyond words if we don’t. Read this book. *Or else. BONUS: “If the US has someone whom historians will look back on as the gravedigger of American democracy, it is Mitch McConnell.” (Thanks, Paul!) Vote. Volunteer. Give. You don’t even need to know who the candidates are — just vote!
Watch This New Disney Clip October 14, 2018October 14, 2018 So much to do! Indeed, I’m posting this a day early to give you extra time to do it: Give these amazing women 78 seconds of your time. Democrats have so many amazing young candidates! We’re gonna win! Watch this 4-minute Disney short. Not what you’d expect, but spot on. Share it! Throw a postcard party — or throw one all by yourself, just you, as you listen to Hamilton. Either way, don’t throw away your shot! 1. Start by texting HELLO to Abby the Address Bot at 484-275-2229. You’ll need to get verified to show you’re real and know how to write a postcard legibly. 2. Once approved, organize a bunch of friends to spend a few hours writing postcards. You get clear instructions along with what you should include on the postcards. 3. In addition to food/drinks, buy pens, stamps, and postcards — which are relatively cheap. My friend Chris Maggiano recommends this vendor (100 for $11.49) “because they’re made in the US by ‘a feminist and ReSister.'” 4. Once you’re done, follow the instructions on sending them out. Watch this amazing Rachel Maddow clip when your postcard-writing energy flags. It’s about the egregious ways Georgia’s secretary of state has managed to keep people of color from voting — and will rev you right back up. It reminds us yet again that, while most Republicans aren’t racists — obviously — all racists are Republicans. Then, when your energy flags again, watch this one, out of Texas. Black college kids indicted for voting; a white guy arrested once “the authorities” found out he was a Democrat. And then, if you have any blank postcards left, read how Jared Kushner “likely paid no taxes” as his net worth nearly quintuped to $324 million. FEEDBACK: In response to my Minority Rules post, mentioning that 5 of the 9 Justices are Catholic, several of you noted — rightly — that a third of the Supreme Court Justices are Jewish, even further out of proportion to their percentage of the population. I’d point out that one-third does not a majority make. And that the Catholic Church seems to want impose government restrictions on non-Catholics’ behavior. I’m not sure there are equivalent efforts from the chief rabbi (whoever she is — do we have one?). But I totally don’t want to make too much of this, let alone suggest religious quotas or tests on the Court. Hurrah for Jews, Jesuits, and everybody else! Thanks for your feedback.
Astounding October 12, 2018October 11, 2018 From this interview with Craig Unger, author of House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia: . . . It is astounding. When John Brennan lost his security clearance the contrast was so stark — there is no way in the world Donald Trump would have received a security clearance and he is president of the United States. Donald Trump has had contacts with the Russian mafia for 35 years. His properties have laundered money for them. The Russian mafia are connected to Russian intelligence. They’re living and have been working in Trump’s building. Trump has even partnered with them. There are so many ways in which he’s compromised. . . . [And] as I explain in my new book, the Russians didn’t just go after Donald Trump: They went after the entire Republican Party. There is Russian money going into the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, the NRA, and then to Republican officials and candidates directly. . . . Trump ignores climate change — an existential threat to mankind. He ignores the Russian attack that installed him as our president. (If one guy can make a nonexistent restaurant the #1 top-rated restaurant in all of London, are you seriously going to tell me that thousands of Russian intelligence operatives can’t manipulate a minuscule percentage of opinions in America? Really? You believe that?) And so, while we wait — and wait — and wait — for Robert Mueller, the path forward could not be more clear: Vote. Volunteer. Give. You don’t even need to know who the candidates are — just vote. And ask your kids and grandkids — if they care about climate change or the cost of college or gun safety or equal rights or health care or so much else — to spread that word to all their friends.