Mr. Rogers, Peggy Noonan, And Thanksgiving November 30, 2019 See Tom Hanks in the Mister Rogers movie. I was never a Fred Rogers fan, but . . . do not miss this movie. That’s all I’m going to tell you. If possible, see it at an AMC theater. My cousin runs them and I love seeing his success. Not least the way he handled a racially charged incident last week. (I haven’t seen that Harriet Tubman movie yet, but it scores 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.) So what did you do for Thanksgiving? I skipped the turkey — per this 6-minute CBS Sunday Morning segment on “nutritional psychiatry,” you can sharpen your brain and fight depression by eating smart — but oh boy was the salmon ever good. Growing up, our family had an amazing Thanksgiving tradition in a colonial house on 23.9 acres with a brook and a pond and a barn (all of which cost $24,000) . . . around an antique lazy Susan table that sat eight. My older brother, aka Goliath, would eat the drumstick; I liked the dark meat and stuffing and gravy and mashed sweet potatoes topped with melted marshmallows . . . and once famously said to my five-year-old cousin and future college classmate, now the senior political reporter for New Jersey Public Television (whose future AMC Theater CEO brother would be born and join the table in a high chair two years later), “Michael! If you want the ham, eat the ham. If you don’t want the ham, don’t eat the ham. But leth not athcuth it all the time!” (I had trouble with S’s. “Discuss” was rendered “athcuth.”) The new tradition into which I’m tremendously thankful for having been welcomed these past nine Thanksgivings gathers a remarkable cast of characters — aged 4 to 91 this year — including Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan. This makes it very easy for me to “Hug a Republican” at Thanksgiving, as my previous post exhorted you to do. Peggy and I disagree on a lot, but respectfully; and agree on a lot more (she is horrified by Trump). Each year, over dessert, our dinner ends with a pageant Peggy scripted years ago. She always plays THE NARRATOR; our distinguished (knighted!) 91-year-old always plays WILLIAM BRADFORD; but all the other parts get distributed, with special emphasis on newcomers to the group. (My first year, I was GEORGE WASHINGTON.) This year, one role was played by a leading Indian critic of Prime Minister Modi. So an Indian in a pageant about native Americans. With Peggy’s gracious permission: “This Settlement of Friends” A Thanksgiving Play for Children By Peggy Noonan NARRATOR: And so we gather once again to tell our special story. In the year of our Lord 1609 a hardy group of dissenting Christian Protestants, who called themselves The Pilgrims, left their native England, a country long torn by religious strife, in hopes of finding religious freedom abroad. They went first to Holland. But in time the Pilgrims came to believe the freedom they desired could not be had there. And so they decided to leave all of Europe, and journey to what was called . . . the New World. On September 6th, 1620, The Pilgrims set sail from Plymouth, England on a ship called the Mayflower. Aboard were 110 passengers. Among them were 44 Pilgrims who came to call themselves The Saints, and 66 others who were called The Strangers. It would be a long journey, two months and four days, and a hard one. Sickness spread, as did hunger. The seas were high and rough. Naturally in these circumstances not everyone got along. Within weeks disagreements among the Saints and the Strangers arose. SAINT: Stranger, you do not worship as I do or dress as I dress. You are odd. This makes me want to ignore you, and forget to give you bread at dinner. STRANGER: Saint, you people wear funny hats, and strange buckles on your shoes. You take your religion very seriously, which is nice, but God wanted us to have a sense of humor, too. Please don’t be so stern and righteous. NARRATOR: Now, at this point, and very luckily for our country because he set a certain tone, came forward the leader of the Pilgrims, William Bradford. BRADFORD: Gentlemen and ladies, there is no need to fight. We are not enemies, but friends. We are fleeing Old Europe — together. We venture to a distant shore — together. We will make our lives on the new continent — together. And so let’s sit and think and create a new arrangement by which to order our lives. NARRATOR: And so they did. Meetings were held in the cramped common room of the Mayflower, and an agreement achieved. It declared and guaranteed full equality between all the Saints and all the Strangers. They agreed that henceforth they would mark their unity by calling themselves by one name: Now they would all be called Pilgrims, for they were united in pilgrimage to a new land. All the Pilgrim gentlemen signed this agreement, which they called the Mayflower Compact. It was the first, great founding document of what would become the United States of America. Now, just before the Compact was signed, land had been sighted. PILGRIM GIRL: Land ahoe! Hard to starboard! Main shaft the jibney! I’m talking gibberish! I have no idea what I’ m saying because I’m so excited! It’s been a long trip! What I mean is: Look, there’s land. It’s the New World! NARRATOR: It was indeed. It was Cape Cod, in Massachusetts. The Pilgrims traveled on until they found a small natural harbor that had been named six years before by Captain John Smith. It was called Plymouth. And now, one by one, the Pilgrims disembarked and stepped upon Plymouth Rock. (A moment of silence.) Almost immediately they began to build a settlement. But that first winter was hard and bitterly cold. Snow and sleet were heavy and held up the building of houses. Almost half the Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower died. But then spring came. And on March 16th, 1621, a wonderful thing happened. A lone Indian brave walked into the Plymouth settlement. The Pilgrims were afraid — they’d never seen an Indian up close. But the Indian brave, who was named Samoset, both sensed and understood their fear. He said to them the one word he knew in English. SAMOSET: Welcome. NARRATOR: And the Pilgrims were happy and said welcome in return, and invited him to stay the night, which he did. Now, Samoset had learned that English word from the captains of the fishing boats that even then regularly sailed the coast. He left the next morning, and a few days later returned with another Indian named Squanto. SQUANTO: Hello. Good to meet you! I have known many English over the years. Believe it or not, I have been to England. The Captain of one of his majesty’s vessels took me there a few years ago. I learned the King’s English. People there were good to me, and now I would like to return the favor. I see you could use some help. I will teach you how to tap maple trees for sap, which you can turn into syrup. I’ll show you which plants can be turned into medicine, and which are poisonous. I’ll teach you how to grow and harvest Indian Corn, and other crops. I’ll show you where to fish. NARRATOR: Well, Squanto saved their lives. The harvest the following October was successful. The Pilgrims found themselves with enough food to put away for the winter — vegetables, fish to be packed in salt and cured over fires. In time the Pilgrims had much to celebrate, and wanted to thank both God — and the Indians. And so the new Pilgrim Governor — William Bradford, of the Mayflower — proclaimed a day of thanksgiving to be shared by all colonists and all neighboring Indian tribes. He wrote the formal declaration in his own hand: BRADFORD : Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of corn, wheat, peas and beans . . . and because He has made the forests to abound with game, and the sea with fish and clams . . . and inasmuch as He has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience — Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with our wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the daytime, on Thursday, November 29th of the year of our Lord One Thousand, Six Hundred and Twenty Three, and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Plymouth Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His Blessings. Signed, William Bradford, ye Governor of ye Colony. NARRATOR: That first Thanksgiving the Pilgrims invited Squanto, and 90 braves, and all their families, including the little ones. There were foot races and games. The braves demonstrated their prowess with the bow and arrow, the Pilgrims with their muskets. One man played a drum. Everyone ate together , at big tables and on blankets. The tradition of the holiday continued, but its name would not emerge for a hundred fifty years. America had just emerged victorious from its own long journey for political freedom from England. The American revolution was won. President George Washington himself proclaimed a day of thanksgiving. WASHINGTON: Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, and to be grateful for His benefits, both Houses of Congress have requested me to recommend to the people of our country a day of public thanksgiving in which to acknowledge the many favors of God, who has allowed us to establish a form of government that will provide to us safety and happiness. NARRATOR: The custom continued after the Revolution, and continued through another time of bitter challenge and great need. It was October, 1863 — the height of the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln declared that even during a conflict of such severity, there was still so much to be thankful for. And so now he formally declared Thanksgiving a national holiday. LINCOLN: Peace has been preserved between America and all other nations. Harmony has prevailed everywhere except the theatre of direct battle. Even with war, peaceful industries have grown, our population has increased, and we expect, in time, a large increase of freedom. No human hand has done this. They are the gifts of the Most High God, who has remembered us with mercy. It has seemed to me fit that this should be gratefully acknowledged with one heart — and one voice — by the whole American people. NARRATOR: And so Thanksgiving Day became, in America, a national day of celebration, a holiday from that day to this. And so we have gathered today and at this table, and pray: SAMOSET: For the broad establishment of peace, PILGRIM GIRL: For the spreading of prosperity, SQUANTO: For increases in human health, and great strides in the areas of human inquiry and invention, WASHINGTON: For the continuance of our Republic, LINCOLN: And the deepening of our democracy, BRADFORD: And with special gratitude for Squanto and his little ones and tribe, who were so very kind to the Pilgrims in those hard days long ago. And then we killed them. Not right away, or entirely; but many of them, and resettled the rest and sold them booze. The pageant ends with one last line from the NARRATOR, thanking our hosts, “as now our play ends — thank YOU for this settlement of friends” — in exactly the spirit of grace and good-heartedness for which Peggy is known. And yet it’s hard not to think how we’ve treated the people who were here first. (One of you wrote to wish me a “Happy Thank the First Nation People’s Generosity to Immigrants Day!”) Not to cringe at the instinct of today’s Republican leaders to tell Congresswomen born here to “go back to where they came from.” Not to cry for the 13,000 Ukrainians Russia has killed while taking their land, even as our President delayed desperately needed, Congressionally appropriated military equipment hoping for personal advantage. It’s really easy to hug Peggy Noonan. Impossible to hug Devon Nunes. Click here if you’re in a position to help restore the spirit of the Mayflower Compact.
Hug A Republican November 27, 2019November 27, 2019 It’s by now something of a cliche, or at least very old news, that Earth is just a speck of dust in an inconceivably vast galaxy — which is itself a speck. But this rendition, at Buzzfeed, is particularly good, if you haven’t already seen it. What a miracle it all is. “And isn’t it interesting” — as Bill Clinton used to conclude many of his speeches near the end of his presidency (I am paraphrasing very loosely, from memory) — “that we have come so far, solving so many impossibly difficult problems — putting a man on the moon, mapping the human genome, all kinds of amazing, incredible things — and yet the one problem we can’t seem to solve . . . the one that seems so simple, yet threatens to do us in . . . is the problem that’s as ancient as time: just learning to get along with each other.” Our most recent Democratic president offers the simplest of prescriptions: “Be kind and be useful.” And now that you’ve got me in this cosmic mode (well, don’t we all tend to get this way around he holidays?), I give you, again, the story of the wolves: An elderly Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, “A fight is going on inside me, it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf is evil — he is fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, competition, superiority, and ego. “The other is good — he is joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. “This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too.” They thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.” Hug a Republican, find common ground, have a Happy Thanksgiving — and feed the right wolf.
Listen To Lindsey November 26, 2019November 25, 2019 Lindsey Graham, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, chokes up as he describes how terrific Joe Biden is. The clip begins,”If you can’t admire Joe Biden as a person, then you’ve got a problem. You need to do some self-evaluation.” And gets more personal, and tender, from there. “The nicest person I think I ever met in my life.” “As good a man as God ever created.” Watch. It’s the softer side of Lindsey — not like what he said about Trump around the same time — “A race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot . . . empowering radical Islam . . . undercutting everything we stand for.” Of course now Lindsey has realized Trump is the good guy, worth defending; Biden, the possibly corrupt politician into whose potential malfeasance with respect to Ukraine — that no credible observer believes exists — he must lead a Senate investigation. Because if there’s one thing today’s Republican senators and representatives stand for — let the chips fall where they may — it’s honesty. Why would you trust the U.S. Intelligence Community when Putin puts out a counter-narrative? An honest observer looks at those two sources, and their motivations, and sides with Putin. Or — at best — says it’s “impossible to know” which side to believe. An honest person — unlike these 1,027 Republican and Democratic former federal prosecutors — reads the Mueller report and finds that Trump did nothing wrong. Or doesn’t read it and just takes Bill Barr’s word for it. Russia, are you listening? You’re winning big-time — with an enormous assist from Trump and the Republican Party.
A Letter From Mike November 25, 2019November 24, 2019 We’re blessed with so many terrific candidates. Here’s one more. On balance (no one’s perfect), he may be the best mayor New York ever had. He writes ((did he write you, too?): Dear Friend, I want you to be among the first to know: I’m running for president to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America. To learn more and join me, visit mikebloomberg.com. We cannot afford four more years of President Trump’s reckless and unethical actions. He represents an existential threat to our country and our values. If he wins another term in office, we may never recover from the damage. The stakes could not be higher. We must win this election. And we must begin rebuilding America. I believe my unique set of experiences in business, government, and philanthropy will enable me to win and lead. As a candidate, I’ll rally a broad and diverse coalition of Americans to win. And as president, I have the skills to fix what is broken in our great nation. And there is a lot broken. > We have an economy that is tilted against most Americans. > We have a health care system that costs too much and doesn’t cover everyone. > We have communities ravaged by gun violence. > We have schools that aren’t preparing our children for success in an increasingly high-tech world. > We have an immigration system that is cruel and dysfunctional. > We have a climate crisis that is growing worse by the day. > And we have special interests that corrupt Washington and block progress on all of these issues. As a child and a Boy Scout, I was taught to believe in the promise and potential of America, and I have never been more worried about its future than I am today. America is at its best when we work together to find meaningful and lasting solutions to the big challenges that we face. We need a president who understands that truth – and who can do it, rather than just make promises. I offer myself as a doer and a problem solver – not a talker. And as someone who is ready to take on the tough fights – and win. I took on Trump on gun violence – and won stronger gun laws in states across the country. I took on Trump the climate denier – and have led an effort that has closed more than half the nation’s dirty coal plants. Trump right now is carrying water for Big Tobacco. I’ve taken on the dangers of e-cigarettes to protect our kids. I know what it takes to beat Trump, because I already have. And I will do it again. I’ve never shied away from a tough fight. Defeating Trump – and rebuilding America – is the most urgent and important fight of our lives. And I’m going all in. My resolve to stand up to his bigotry and hatred and wrong-headed policies is anchored in who I am and my belief in government as a force for good. I’ve spent my career bringing people together to tackle big problems – and fix them. It has worked well in business – and in running the country’s largest, most progressive city. I know it can work in Washington, too – and I have the leadership skills and experience to make it happen. I’ve been very lucky in life. Growing up, my father never earned more than $6,000 in a year. But my mother and father worked very hard to help my sister and me get an education. I managed to work my way through college and get an entry-level job in New York. And then, when I was 39, I got laid off. I didn’t know what I’d do next. But I had an idea to start a company – so I took a chance. Today our company employs 20,000 people and generates large profits, almost all of which go to helping people across the country and around the world. I’ve always believed in investing in our employees and treating them well. We pay employees very well and provide the best health care benefits money can buy. And if someone has a baby, they get six months of paid leave. I’ve run my company according to my values: honesty, integrity, fairness, inclusion – and that’s the same approach I brought to city government. I was elected mayor of America’s most diverse city just weeks after the attacks of 9/11. It was a frightening time for our city and country. But we rebuilt the economy with new jobs and opportunity – for people on all rungs of the economic ladder. We gave our teachers the largest raise in America, and we improved graduation rates by 42 percent. We cut murders in half while reducing incarceration by nearly 40 percent. We cut the city’s carbon footprint by 14 percent and created new programs to combat poverty. And we expanded health care and strengthened immigrant communities. As mayor, my priority was helping the millions of New Yorkers who needed it most. And the issues I am most passionate about focus on righting wrongs that have fallen heaviest on the most vulnerable communities. I know government can improve people’s lives – because when I ran New York City, that’s exactly what we did. Since leaving City Hall, I founded the largest gun safety group in history. I created a campaign to take on the biggest polluters and climate threats. As mayor, I banned smoking in restaurants and bars and cut teen smoking by 50 percent – and today, we continue to win battles against the tobacco industry and their sleazy attempts to hook young kids on e-cigarettes. I know how to take on the powerful special interests that corrupt Washington. And I know how to win – because I’ve done it, time and again. I will be the only candidate in this race who isn’t going to take a penny from anyone and will work for a dollar a year. Over the course of this campaign, I’ll tell you what I will do as president, and how I’ll do it. I’ll outline plans for: creating good-paying jobs; providing quality health care for every American; stopping gun violence; fighting climate change; fixing our broken immigration system; raising taxes on wealthy individuals like me; protecting women’s and LGBTQ rights; supporting our veterans; and reestablishing America’s place in the world as a force for peace and stability. But more than plans, I offer the leadership to turn plans into reality. To roll up my sleeves, to motivate a country to unite and rebuild America – and make it fairer and better. And I’m ready to get working. Mike P.S. I won’t send you fundraising asks and you won’t get more than a couple of emails a week from me, but if you’d prefer not to receive campaign updates, you can unsubscribe here. Mike’s not a patrician New York Governor, like Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He came from humble beginnings and only ran the city, not the state. But like that other very wealthy New Yorker, Bloomberg might make a fine president for the those less fortunate than he. Others who would be infinitely better than Trump include: Bennet, Biden, Booker, Bullock, and Buttigieg — and that’s just the other B’s.
Laugh Or Cry? It Is A False Choice. November 22, 2019November 22, 2019 As in: you will surely do both. And once you’ve regained your composure, please note how this three-minute clip underscores that 2020 will be about turn-out, not persuasion. Organizing, not advertising. Granted, the folks Jimmy Kimmel found are not representative of all Trump loyalists. I know Trumpists who would never have fallen for this — but their minds are equally closed. So the way we win is by turning out our voters, not converting theirs.* Organizing, not advertising. And with organizing, the leverage comes from starting early. It’s like a snowball. Organizers who start now have 10 months to engage and recruit volunteers . . . . . . who have 9 months to engage more volunteers . . . . . . who have 8 months to — you get the idea. All the while, this growing snowball of organizers works to register new voters. And please note: The organizers we hire and train don’t get paid a lot. The volunteers they “hire” get paid nothing. They’re not looking to make money, they’re looking to help save the world. So the leverage is enormous . . . yet diminishes with every passing day. An investment NOW gets the snowball rolling from near the top of the hill. The same cash next fall — while welcome — starts the snowball rolling from the bottom of the hill . . . or pays for TV ads that persuade few people to register or turn out to vote — let alone switch tribes. Hiring and training organizers isn’t the only thing the DNC will do with your investment, it’s just the easiest to describe. Other crucial efforts include maintaining/enhancing the voter files and tech support on which virtually all our candidates and state parties rely. (The DNC has greatly upped its tech game since 2016.) And fighting voter suppression in states where, absent court orders, Republicans arrange to make registration and voting as difficult as possible for Democrats. So if you can afford to do it, now is the time to dazzle MasterCard with your patriotism and help save the world. As always: if you do, I’ll see it right away to say thanks. *We’ll try, of course; not least in the Presidential debates and in every news cycle. But that part’s free.
The Corporate Tax Rates Are Too Damn Low November 20, 2019November 19, 2019 Do you listen to The Daily? It’s usually good, often great. I thought this one — about what effect the Trump tax cut actually had, and on whom and what — was pretty great. (If infuriating.) Or if you’re not a listener, you could read the transcript. (Bottom line: it was largely Fred Smith’s idea — the kid who famously founded FedEx — and it failed in most ways, though not for FedEx, which went from a 33% tax bracket to paying no tax, so it worked out well for Fred.) Have a nice day.
The Prices Are Just Too Damned High — And Here’s Why November 19, 2019November 18, 2019 But first: LOW WAGES Wages as a percentage of GDP have stagnated while profits have doubled — with a huge portion of the extra half going for stock buybacks mainly to enrich the very few. Worth 90 seconds to watch billionaire Nick Hanauer lay it out. (Later in the Q&A he says: “We think of the Fox Channel as rich people persuading middle class people to blame poor people. That’s sort of their business model.”) And now: HIGH PRICES I don’t like the way Elizabeth Warren demonizes rich people and corporations . . . as I wrote last month . . . but she was a Republican for half her life and believes in free markets (sensibly regulated) and vigorous competition. A new book, reviewed by David Leonhardt in the indispensable New York Times, argues that the prices we pay are too high: . . . The irony is that Europe is implementing market-based ideas — like telecommunications deregulation and low-cost airlines — that Americans helped pioneer. “E.U. consumers are better off than American consumers today,” Philippon writes, “because the E.U. has adopted the U.S. playbook, which the U.S. itself has abandoned.” The European Union has created an impressively independent competition agency that’s willing to block mergers, like General Electric-Honeywell and Siemens-Alstom. In the United States, the process is more political, and companies spend vastly more money on campaign donations and lobbying. Lobbyists — and, by extension, regulators — justify mergers with dubious theories about money-saving efficiencies. Somehow, though, the efficiencies usually end up raising profits rather than lowering prices. . . . . . . Philippon estimates that the new era of oligopoly costs the typical American household more than $5,000 a year. The book: The Great Reversal: How America Gave Up on Free Markets. Leonhardt’s review is worth reading in full.
Mugged by a 90-Year-Old? November 18, 2019November 18, 2019 Generational theft. This is several years old, but no less relevant. Hedge Funder Stan Druckenmiller Wants Every Young Person In America To See These Charts About How They’re Getting Screwed It doesn’t take long to read the captions of those charts and see we face enormous structural problems . . . seemingly without solution. But I think there is a solution: namely, the essentially-free energy from the sun, and other coming technological wonders, that could afford everyone a pretty decent life, if only we can find the political skill and good will to “spread the wealth.” “Clean coal” and eliminating “the death tax” won’t solve this. College Behind Bars airs on PBS next Monday and Tuesday November 25 and 26. Ken Burns is the executive producer. I got a little involved when I found myself sitting next to a young guy at a birthday celebration 18 months ago. “What do you do,” I asked. “I just graduated college,” he said. “Good for you!” I enthused, thinking to myself, Well, yeah, but he’s not THAT young. “Where?” I asked, stalling for time. “Bard,” he said, as it dawned on me that he had probably served in Iraq first. “Cool,” I said, always having had a high opinion of Bard . . . and then managed to find a tactful way to ascertain his age: “Thirty-two.” “Oh! Were you in the service?” “No,” he said, “I was in prison.” We’ve become friends, and Monday you can watch him and two of his incarcerated classmates, in their prison garb, beat the Harvard Debate Team back in 2015. The growing momentum toward criminal justice reform is wildly overdue. Mass incarceration — and private prisons, which profit from recidivism — are such terrible ideas. Watch this doc. Meet my friend Dyjuan and his classmates.
Arms For Dirt November 16, 2019November 15, 2019 Rachel nailed it Thursday night. (And Ambassador Yovanovitch nailed it all day Friday.) Urge your friends to listen at least up to the first break. It’s must-hear-TV. Optional: What an eight-year-old thinks about impeachment.