Skip to content
Andrew Tobias
Andrew Tobias

Money and Other Subjects

  • Home
  • Books
  • Videos
  • Bio
  • Archives
  • Links
  • Me-Mail
Andrew Tobias
Andrew Tobias

Money and Other Subjects

Year: 2019

Health Insurance

August 8, 2019August 9, 2019

But first, updating Tuesday’s post, two powerful minutes on why Gloria should perhaps NOT boycott organic food. She could eliminate synthetic chemical pesticides from her system.  (Not known, she would argue: the effect of natural chemical pesticides used to replace them.)  [UPDATE: Turns out, Gloria’s right: It’s not so simple.  The maker of that video is being sued for allegedly misleading the public — the levels of pesticides detected in the video are judged to pose no risk.  And here’s a list of pesticides used in organic farming.]

 


And now . . .

One of my rightwing readers: “Contemplate why we are the only first-world country on earth with 4 of the 10 best hospitals in the world. Maybe it’s because we don’t have universal health care.  Did anyone in the debate mention that?”

→ Nope.  Nobody.

But two of the other countries with hospitals on the list, Singapore and Israel, have a combined population of 15 million people.  With health care spending less than 3% of ours, they have 2 of the world’s top 10.  Could it be because they do have universal health care?  (No, actually; but one inane question deserves another.)

America has fantastic health care for those who can afford it.  But it’s not because we have a huge health insurance bureaucracy.  That’s not what makes the best of our care so good.

Nor is it because Republicans fought so hard against Medicare, and against Obamacare, and even now reject federal Medicaid expansion funds.  That’s not what has made the best of our health care so good, either.

Denying universal coverage — as Republicans have long been committed to doing, making us the only developed country in the world without it — is not the secret of the Mayo Clinic’s excellence.


Joel M: “I have a few questions for you and all the Democrats running for President:  1-Do you know there are trustees of the Social Security and Medicare systems?  2-Do you know they produce annual reports?  3-Have you ever read any of these reports?  I’ll save you the trouble.  Here are the two most recent:  Social Security.  Medicare.  The good news is that Social Security goes bankrupt in 2035. Why is that the good news? Medicare Part A goes bankrupt in 2026.”

→ Thanks. Yes, aware.  Social Security is an easy fix.  Medicare, not — which is why we need to pull huge costs out of the system. Maybe we should cut back on nurses and operating rooms; but I’d rather cut back on health insurance employees and insurance company office buildings.  And negotiate prescription drug prices.  And promote the many other incentives and best practices the Affordable Care Act launched.  And make medical school free, so we’d have terrific young people choosing this field not expecting to make half a million dollars a year to someday pay off their debt and get rich . . . but a really nice living doing something wonderful, like the mostly-happy doctors in most of the rest of the first world.  Did you see Michael Moore’s Where To Invade Next?  I can’t find the clip, but I still remember his interviewing French doctors who seemed really happy.  (Speaking of France, might there even be a thing or two for us to envy?  To emulate?)  And here, in Sicko, he interviews a young British doc who is more than content.


Jim Burt: “Republicans like things the way they are, or even better from their perspective, the way they were in 2009, with 25 million fewer people covered.  They talk about their ‘plan’ to cover everyone more fully at lower cost, but FDR told us how to evaluate claims like that.

“The various plans discussed by the many candidates for the Democratic nomination are just so many targets for the Republicans, and none of them is likely to get through Congress.  The way the Democratic candidates can best talk about their plans is along these lines:  ‘Americans are spending about $3.8 trillion a year on medical care and prescriptions of all kinds.  Under the current system, hundreds of billions of that are wasted on insurance company profits and efforts to deny medical care rather than provide it.  Any plan being offered by me or my fellow candidates will reduce that waste and cover more people, but it will only happen if you elect Democrats to the Presidency and the Senate.”


In the meantime, while we struggle to improve our health care system: eat right, eat less, sleep, walk, and help.

 

The Day Toni Morrison Dropped By

August 7, 2019August 7, 2019

Seven years ago, Toni Morrison — who died Monday night — sat on my couch.

Being incorrigible, I turned it into a fundraising email.

It’s interesting to see what’s changed since 2012 — and what hasn’t.

(The only thing I’ve changed are the links to our fund-raising page, in case you are of a mind to save the world.)


From: Andrew Tobias
Date: Wed, Oct 10, 2012 at 2:13 PM
Subject: regaining the momentum

The first thing to say is that — with your help — we’re going to win.  (I’ll get to that.)

And the second thing to say is that we HAVE TO win.

But since you already know that, I want to tell you a story.

It’s not every day that a Nobel Prize winner, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient walk into a bar – or in this case an apartment – but she did, into mine, Monday night: Toni Morrison. 

It was a fundraiser for seven-term Congressman Rush Holt.  He is arguably the only scientist in Congress, depending on how you define scientist (I’ll get to that, too).  He helped run Princeton’s Plasma Physics Laboratory before winning his seat in 1998.  His constituents sport “My Congressman IS a Rocket Scientist” bumper stickers.

Having been asked by the organizers to open the program with a few remarks on the “national political scene,” I welcomed everyone (especially the astonishing Ms. Morrison from whom we were about to hear), thanked them for supporting Rush, and then suggested the following:

That in terms of the “national political scene,” the choice we face November 6 is really all ABOUT Rush.

Rush HOLT, the modest, thoughtful, logical, rocket scientist Congressman, and HIS party . . .

. . . versus Rush LIMBAUGH, the blowhard leader, in many ways, of the Republican Party.

Rush Limbaugh whose face gets red with passion as he enumerates what he calls the “four pillars of deceit.”

Do you know what those four pillars of deceit are, I asked the assembled?

(It was a rhetorical question, but I actually got a couple folks shouting back – “tell us!”  It was thrilling.)

They are:  “GOVERNMENT” (I pointed to the Congressman) . . . “THE MEDIA” (not including Fox or Rush Limbaugh himself, one presumes) . . . “ACADEMIA” (I pointed to the former President of Harvard who had come with his wife to support Rush) . . . “and SCIENCE” (I pointed to the Congressman again.)

Science . . . a pillar of deceit.

When it was the candidate’s turn to speak, all he would say of my claim that he is the only scientist in Congress is that if we are lucky, we are about to get another – the rather astonishing Bill Foster (a Democrat, of course, and a member of the team that discovered the top quark) – and that, well, “it depends on how you define scientist.”

Which was the gentlest of jabs, I assume, at Representative Paul Broun (a Republican, of course, who styles himself a scientist and whom you can watch here saying that evolution and the big bang are “lies straight from the pit of hell”).

November 6 is a choice between the party that “believes in” science and the party whose chair of the House committee charged with dealing with climate change is himself a climate change denier, who quotes from the Bible in debunking the scientific consensus.

Okay?  So Rush Holt is going to win reelection for his eighth term (and if we’re lucky, the number of scientists in Congress will double to two, with the election of Bill Foster) – but will Rush have a gavel?

And will he have a President who wants to increase investment in research and education and alternative energy?

Or a President who has vowed to cut all that to make room to lower taxes on the wealthy (who may not pay a lesser SHARE of taxes, but will pay billions less in tax DOLLARS) and to add $2 trillion in unrequested military spending (which would seem to me to be the ultimate wasteful government spending – not just $600 on a hammer, but $2 trillion on hammers the Pentagon hasn’t even asked for).

Rush spoke modestly, and sensibly, but mainly about what an honor it was to have Toni Morrison there to support him.

And then Ms. Morrison said . . .

<< I am extremely pleased to accept Congressman Rush Holt’s invitation because it gives me an opportunity to describe what I believe is classic, although endangered, democratic representation.

When I was young we used to be called citizens—American citizens.  Some of us were called ‘second class’ citizens, yet the term, the category, the aspiration was citizenship.

Some time after the end of World War II another definition of Americans arose—’consumers.’  Every narrative, advertisement, political promise was to, for and about the powerful, courted and always obeyed American Consumer.   So we did—consume.  Happily, extravagantly, mindlessly—until the credit card, the mortgaged home or homes, the college tuition loans came due. 

Now the category has changed again.  We are now simply taxpayers or not-taxpayers.

Think of the difference, the cognitive and emotional difference between thinking of oneself as a citizen and regarding oneself as merely a taxpayer.

If I am simply an American taxpayer, I am alarmed about where my money goes; I may even resent the recipient, wonder whether he or she or it (the institution) is worthy of my money.

On the other hand, if I am principally an American citizen, I have to wonder about what’s best for my country, my state, my neighbors, the young, the elderly and the unfortunate.

That shift in national identity informs so much of the discourse and the political choices of our representatives.  Obviously, I prefer the label ‘citizen,’ which is precisely why I admire Rush Holt.  To me his works, his advocacy, his personal and political philosophy stem from the concept of citizenship and what it demands of us.  From education to healthcare, to women’s rights, civil rights, support for artists — his concerns and labor are those of a citizen for citizens.  And that commitment is rare these days.

If you help him, support him, with your resources and your own enthusiastic commitment, you will be a champion for that ancient and blessed definition: Citizen.

Thank you. >>

Needless to say, Ms. Morrison is not only for Rush Holt, she is for Barack Obama.

OUR candidate has an amazing record of accomplishments, all the more amazing given the hugely difficult circumstances under which they were accomplished.

THEIR candidate left Massachusetts with a 34% approval rating (in good economic times) – about the same as George W. Bush’s approval rating when HE left office (with the economy in free fall).

You know all that . . .

. . . which is why you share my frustration that their side can simply lie – in 2000, candidate Bush SCOFFED at charges he planned huge tax cuts for the rich, with the same language  Mitt Romney now uses to tell the same multi-trillion-dollar lie – and you share my frustration that, thanks to Citizens United, their side can amplify those lies with virtually unlimited funds.

. . . and which is why, yes, if you can dig deep one last time, we need you to do it, here, now.

There is zero risk that we’ll overshoot on the fundraising and win by “too much,” for three reasons: first, funding a huge turnout will help us win by enough for it to “stick,” no matter what they try; second, it will help us hold the Senate and win back the House; third, it will send a message America (and the world) need to hear.

Thank you for all you’ve done . . . thanks to you, we have 120 field offices open in Ohio alone, to their 30 . . . and for whatever more you might be able to do today.

Andy


A lot has changed for the better since many of you helped reelect Barack Obama — and for the catastrophically worse since we fell 78,000 votes short of defeating Trump and Putin.  But “the world only spins forward,” to quote Angels in America, and now we are called on to step up once again.

I’m betting that we will.

 

Why Gloria Boycotts Organic Food

August 6, 2019August 6, 2019

But first she expounds on food waste (as previously touched on here and here).

She’s against it:


Not to beat the issue to death, but here’s a Food Network program where they explored the issue of food waste — five 2- and 3-minute videos, all worth watching.  [Don’t miss the first one: the “freegan” dumpster diver! — A.T.]

The one about salvaging produce is near and dear to my heart, because once upon a time I was a Plant Science major. I quickly learned that there is a whole bunch of pests and diseases that get treated not because they have a yield impact on the crop, not because they change the nutritional or flavor aspects of it, but because of AESTHETICS.

When we walk into the grocery store to buy apples, peaches, potatoes, we inspect every single one before we put it in the bag. They have to be picture perfect, but nature doesn’t work that way. Anyone who has ever had a fruit tree in the backyard or has grown a vegetable garden should know that. Nature is a constant battleground. Bugs, molds and anything alive have the biological mandate to reproduce, and in order to do that they need to feed. They are going to be on the lookout for tender leaves, sweet fruits and yummy roots. Growers cannot afford not being able to sell their crops due to looks. We consumers place an incredible burden on them, who in many cases will be forced to treat crops solely to preserve their appearance. Meanwhile, because we’re contradictory beings, we demand pesticide-free foods (by the way, many people believe organic means pesticide-free, which is a mistake).


Come again?  Organic doesn’t mean pesticide-free?


Yes, indeed!  There are such things as organic pesticides. Sulfur, copper, pyrethroids, are all organic pesticides because they are not manufactured, but obtained directly from nature. As such, they are authorized for use in organic farming. But they can still poison you if not used correctly, just as a synthetic pesticide would.

The confusion and misunderstanding around organic food is HUGE, and many many companies take advantage of this confusion. We hear that organic food is better for you, but we’re not told exactly why. It’s like the fine print fell off.

I found this article that can clarify things a bit for you. As a matter of general principle, I refuse to buy anything organic. Until I see definite scientific proof that organic is better than conventional, I am saving my pennies. We’re constantly bombarded with sound bytes regarding food that are absolutely meaningless, and this is why you see apples labeled “Gluten-free” or sugar labeled “A fat-free product” (I’m not making any of this up).


UPDATE:  For a powerful two minutes on why, selfishly, we SHOULD eat organic, click here.  (Thanks, Michael Chelnov!)


I was all set to toss four really sketchy bananas when I realized — yes!  Smoothies!  So good.

Waste not, want not.



Get your Moscow Mitch t-shirt here!

 

The Last Word

August 5, 2019August 2, 2019

Take six minutes to watch Friday’s “last word,” on the subject of presidential debates.

And perhaps consider setting up your DVR to record Lawrence O’Donnell every night (right after Rachel Maddow on MSNBC) or add The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell to your list of podcasts.  (I often listen to him and/or Rachel via podcast because they come pre-stripped of commercial breaks.)

Two things Joe Scarborough and Lawrence O’Donnell have in common — one a life-long conservative, one a life-long liberal:

> first, they both have important real-world experience, Scarborough as a three-term Republican Congressman, O’Donnell as a top Senate staffer;

> second, they both despise Trump and what the Republican Party has become.


The leaders of the National Cathedral are appalled, as well.

 

A Question, A Chart, And A Medal That Pretty Much Tell It All

August 2, 2019August 2, 2019

Days ago, the Republicans blocked bills requiring paper ballots (and FBI notification when a campaign is approached by a foreign entity) . . . despite proof the Russians hacked all 50 of our state election systems in 2016.

The 64,000 Ruble Question: Whom do YOU more trust to have your family’s well-being at heart:

a) the FBI and CIA?

b) Vladimir Putin?

Is there really any more to next year’s election than that?



Right?



A May 6 letter to the editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer (thanks, Paul!):


Dave Urban’s column (“Trump’s tax cuts are helping Pennsylvania,” April 29) contains deceptive assertions.

Deception No. 1: Middle-class tax payers averaged a $1,169 tax cut. The $1,169 average tax cut cited by Urban is for all taxpayers, not just the middle class. The wealthiest taxpayers received millions, which inflates the “average.”  . . . Many middle-class taxpayers who could not itemize their deductions paid more taxes, not less.

Deception No. 2: President Trump deserves all the credit for rejuvenating the economy. It was President Barack Obama’s economic policies that rescued the economy . . . Urban fails to credit any of the recovery to Obama and the Democrats.

Deception No. 3: Trump’s tax cut will result in 10 years of economic growth. Urban forgets that there is no free lunch. . . . Trump’s tax cut will likely double total federal debt . . . [and the interest we and our kids will have to pay on that debt, which could crush us if rates one day rise to more normal levels — A.T.] The great economist John Maynard Keynes advocated deficit spending only during economic downturns to stimulate the economy . . .

Steven C. Greene, Philadelphia


And speaking of great economists . . .

Steve Baker:  “On June 19 Trump gave Art Laffer a presidential medal for his totally discredited work in economics.  Since the Reagan Administration, Laffer has been arguing that tax cuts pay for themselves.  It didn’t work under the Reagan or Bush administrations, which ran up huge deficits [and it kinda wrecked Kansas], and under Trump we have proof positive. This time they actually reduced the size of the gov’t payroll and are getting all this revenue from the Tariffs, as well as tax revenue from overseas holding of US Corporations (this was included in tax bill) . . . yet with all this, and a strong economy, the deficit is huge.”

→ I’ve condensed Steve’s email but not the main thought:

A medal?  Now?  A pardon might have been more appropriate.


Have a great week-end!

 

Fox News Finally Nails The President

August 1, 2019July 31, 2019

A devastating three minutes.

Enjoy.



Meanwhile, as you contemplate the health care debate, don’t miss the big picture: Fighting against universal health care is in the Republican DNA. Reagan led the charge; Republican governors — refusing to accept federal Medicaid expansion funds — carry it on to this day.  We are the only first-world country on earth without universal health care.  Maybe it’s not so radical to chart a path to get there.  “Medicare for all who want it” — the public option — would be one such path, as more and more would likely come to choose it.

We should make medical school tuition free so graduating doctors don’t have to earn a fortune just to pay off their debt.  (To pay for that, my personal favorite plan would be: double law school tuition!  Just kidding.  Mostly.)

And we should redirect much of the spending that now goes into bureaucracy and billing and collection and insurance overhead and profit into . . . yes . . . higher pay for the doctors and hospitals that accept Medicare.  (There are about 1 million doctors in the U.S.; and half a million health insurance employees.*)

 


*Plus hospital billing departments . . . plus the staff whom individual medical practices devote to billing and collection.

 

 

Andrew Yang, Michael Bennet . . .

July 31, 2019July 31, 2019

Stop the Knee-Jerk Liberalism, argues Nick Kristoff.  He could not be more right.

Likewise, Thomas Friedman’s widely circulated column (well worth reading in full):


. . . Dear Democrats: This is not complicated! Just nominate a decent, sane person, one committed to reunifying the country and creating more good jobs, a person who can gain the support of the independents, moderate Republicans and suburban women who abandoned Donald Trump in the midterms and thus swung the House of Representatives to the Democrats and could do the same for the presidency. And that candidate can win!

But please, spare me the revolution! It can wait. Win the presidency, hold the House and narrow the spread in the Senate, and a lot of good things still can be accomplished. “No,” you say, “the left wants a revolution now!” O.K., I’ll give the left a revolution now: four more years of Donald Trump. . . .


George Will makes the case that Senator Mike Bennet is such a candidate.

My own feeling is that whoever we nominate will win if we turn out our voters.

All our candidates are decent.  And I don’t think we’ll nominate anyone who promises to force people off their employer-provided health insurance.  Or who doesn’t support enforcing our borders.  (Obama, “the most ignorant president in our history,” according to Trump, actually did a better job on this front. And would have been able to do better still if the then-Republican House had not blocked the bipartisan comprehensive immigration bill that passed the Senate 68-32.)

Clearly, we should choose the candidate most likely to win, because this time winning is everything.  And the only thing.  Our democracy and quite possibly our species survival depend on it.  (You don’t think a nuclear war could wipe us out? That climate change could not pass the point of no return and render the planet uninhabitable?)


One candidate who presumably won’t win the nomination (fine president though he would be) is Andrew Yang.

I did not sit down with Andrew recently, but — being a fan of his book — I imagine this is how the interview might have gone if I had:


A.T.: So what’s the deal with this signature plan of yours? 

YANG: I call it The Freedom Dividend — $1,000 a month for every adult citizen from 18-64 — based on an idea endorsed by everyone from conservative economist Milton Friedman to Martin Luther King, Jr.

I pay for it five ways:

First, by eliminating most of the 126 welfare programs — and their bureaucracy and fraud — that we wouldn’t need anymore.

Second, by taxing that $1,000 – so higher income people would be giving a good chunk of it back.

Third, by what I call The Climate Solution — the carbon tax most people agree is key to moving toward a sustainable planet. But for people without yachts or private planes, they’d still come out way ahead with the $1,000.

Fourth, by the growth in our economy that would come from greater consumer demand.

And finally, by a modest value added tax of the kind almost every country in Europe already has. But smaller.

Add all this up and most Americans would come out well ahead of where they are now.

A.T.: Would you give it to undocumented immigrants?

YANG:  No. Only to citizens. This wonderful country is enough of a magnet as it is.

But think of the challenges we face — it’s a wonderful problem, really, that our forefathers and mothers worked so hard to give us: we now have the technology and resources so that most things that really NEED doing — like growing food and getting it to our table — can be done by just a few of us. Leaving more and more of us free to do non-essential things. That’s the Freedom Dividend.

You don’t have to be a truck driver or an Uber driver — cars will drive themselves. You can be an artist or a Pokémon coach or teach rock climbing or spend more time with the kids as parents used to, before it became necessary for both parents to work, let alone two jobs.

A.T.: Why do you choose not to wear a tie?

YANG: Because we have to think differently. No one in the tech world I come from wears ties. Steve Jobs didn’t wear a tie when he changed the world. I’m no Steve Jobs, but I do want the freedom to concentrate on what’s important. Until I get my $1,000 a month, it’s my own little freedom dividend.

A.T.: Do you worry that $1,000 a month would make people lazy or be blown on booze and drugs?

YANG: No. Study after study, experiment after experiment, has shown this not to be true. No one can live well on $1,000 a month, so there will still be plenty of incentive to work and make more money. But think of the freedom and flexibility this dividend would give working families, how it would help them raise their kids. Before you dismiss this idea, imagine what it would mean to YOU and YOUR FAMILY.   The truth is, some form of this is coming. The futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts every country in Europe will have a universal basic income just a dozen or so years from now and we in America within 20. But why wait?

A.T.: What would you do about Iran?

YANG: I would have the smartest, most competent cabinet and advisors — vastly better than Trump’s — and I would LISTEN to them on everything from Iran to border security to all the other tough questions. I’d take the advice of our intelligence community over the word of Vladimir Putin. Tech people know how to solve problems. Just put your hand in your pocket: that little phone of yours can connect a video call to a friend canoeing in Montana — and give you directions so you never get lost — and play all the music in the world — and screen movies — and handle your email — and still be a flashlight.  Don’t you think we need young problem solvers — people who “believe in” science, not people who believe in the future of coal, to solve the challenges we face?  Do we really want to entrust our kids’ future to a multiply bankrupt, morally bankrupt, egomaniac?

A.T.: How would you tackle the opioid epidemic?

YANG: There would be so much less despair in this country, so much less stress, with the Freedom Dividend. Everyone would know they have a basic floor of resources — the product of their ancestors’ amazing hard work and ingenuity that brought us from elbow grease and mule power to technology that harvests limitless energy from the sun. Hey! We should be allowed to ENJOY the fruits of all that. And not feel the despair that drives us to opioids. I have much more to say about this, so if anyone is interested, read my book!


Andrew did not say any of that to me, but that’s how I imagine him answering.

 

The Hideous Senior Senator From Kentucky

July 30, 2019July 27, 2019

Dana Millbank writes:


When It Comes To Russia, McConnell Is No Patriot

By Dana Millback

Mitch McConnell is a Russian asset.

This doesn’t mean he’s a spy, but neither is it a flip accusation. Russia attacked our country in 2016. It is attacking us today. Its attacks will intensify in 2020. Yet each time we try to raise our defenses to repel the attack, McConnell, the Senate majority leader, blocks us from defending ourselves.

Let’s call this what it is: unpatriotic. The Kentucky Republican is, arguably more than any other American, doing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bidding.

Robert Mueller sat before Congress this last week warning that the Russia threat “deserves the attention of every American.” He said “the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in our election is among the most serious” challenges to American democracy he has ever seen. “They are doing it as we sit here, and they expect to do it during the next campaign,” he warned, adding that “much more needs to be done in order to protect against these intrusions, not just by the Russians but others as well.” . . .


Yet McConnell blocks it all.  Read on for the specifics.

Better still, watch this discussion.

The Republicans are blocking paper ballots!  And all the other measures that would enhance the security and reliability of our elections!

Think about it!  In addition to hacking and disinformation to adantage Trump, the Russians will very likely cause the losing side next year to doubt the validity of the outcome.  Trump will almost surely say it was rigged, if he loses.  Democrats will be skeptical if there is no paper trail and he wins.  Either way, Putin wins: we will be at each other’s throats.  He will have destroyed the foundation of our democracy: faith in free and fair elections.

This is so much worse than hanging chads or routine — albeit despicable — Republican voter suppression.

Seriously: Watch.

We so need a march on Washington — specifically, on the Senate — with the chant: DO YOUR JOB!

 

Something Concrete You Can Do

July 29, 2019July 27, 2019

Paul Abrams: “The British just made Boris Johnson Prime Minister. They have BoJo, we have Bozo, and Putin has them both.”


The American Century ended January 20, 2017, when judo-master Vladimir Putin installed an ignorant fascist sociopath to lead the free world.  We’re fast losing our democracy.  The habitability of the planet is coming into question. (Paris hit 108.7 degrees a few days ago. Anchorage, 90.  The U.S. is heating up.)


Want to save the world?

Even if you don’t have big bucks, could you find a dozen people to sign up for $50-a-month to help fund the early organizing needed to win?

With 15 months to go, that’s $9,000!  Look at you!  You may have just saved mankind!

Let me know if you want to try your hand at this.  I’ll get you set up with a web page so you can see who’s given and can jump through their computer screens to say thanks.  Why do I have to do all the jumping?  It’s exhausting.

 

Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and lessons from the 1930s

July 26, 2019July 26, 2019

A column from the Financial Times not to be missed, about this 1939 memoir of concerning relevance today.


. . . Then, as now, political moderates were constantly having to ask the question, how serious is this? Is it just distasteful or is it truly dangerous? . . .

. . . One strong temptation was simply to stop paying attention to the news and “shut one’s windows tightly and withdraw into the four walls of one’s private life.” Another was to take comfort in the things that had not changed — the parts of the state and of public life that still seemed solid and familiar. . . .

. . . The US president has just told black, Hispanic and Muslim congresswomen to “go back” to the “places from which they came”. Britain’s likely incoming prime minister has said that Muslim women wearing the niqab look like letter boxes. But it still seems unimaginable that storm troopers might one day drive minority groups out of public places.

But when do you sound the alarm? From exile in London, Haffner reflected: “It took me quite a while to realise that my youthful excitability was right and my father’s wealth of experience was wrong; that there are things that cannot be dealt with by calm scepticism.”

My instinctive reaction to the rise of Mr Johnson and the rhetoric of Mr Trump is still “calm scepticism”. But then again, I’m at roughly the same stage of life as Haffner’s father was in 1933.


Though it makes no mention of the fact Trump kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside, or that he scores 100% on the criteria for “sociopath” and “fascist,” this column raises important questions.  I urge you to read it.  (It may cost you $1 for a month’s trial subscription to the FT, but $1 well spent.)



CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY DEPT.

Conservative Max Boot makes this bleak assessment of the Mueller hearings, concluding:


Mueller has marshaled copious evidence to support impeachment, but the American public doesn’t seem to care. Who can bother to read a 448-page report when the Trump show is on? Being entertaining is more important these days than being virtuous or competent. Mueller may be an infinitely better person than Trump, but he is an infinitely worse television performer, and that is all that seems to matter in our debased age.


Earlier in the piece he says impeachment is now off the table.  I disagree.  As I’ve argued before, it’s time to start the impeachment inquiry — but with one big caveat:  At the same time, we must constantly call on the Senate to pass the numerous bills the House has already passed, and a few more it should soon pass, that would make regular Americans better off.

All our talking heads should demand it; all our presidential candidates should demand it; there should be massive marches on Washington — specifically the Senate — to demand it.  (The chant: DO YOUR JOB!!!)

No one asked about impeachment should fail to lead with something like this:

“Well, the FIRST thing the Senate needs to do is pass the dozens of bills the House has already passed this year to make regular people’s lives better. Lower prescription drug prices, universal background checks, a higher minimum wage and so much else — the Senate needs to DO ITS JOB and vote on those bills.”

Then, when the moderator interrupts and says, “but I asked you about impeachment,” they would continue:

“Look: our nation is under attack and the President constantly denies it and praises our attacker.  So, yes: it’s part of our job to investigate that.  WHY were there hundreds of contacts between Trump’s people and the Russians?  WHY did so many of them lie about it if it was all innocent?  If you actually READ the Mueller report, as Republican Congressman Justin Amash bravely did, you will conclude as he did that impeachment is warranted.  But let me stress: the FIRST priority should be for the Senate to take up the dozens of bills the House has passed this year to make regular Americans’ lives better.  It’s an outrage the Republican Senate is blocking all this.”

Even blocking bills, I might add, designed to protect our next election from more Russian interference.


Have a great weekend.

 

  • Previous
  • 1
  • …
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • …
  • 25
  • Next

Quote of the Day

"The point to remember is that what the government gives, it must first take away."

John S. Coleman, address to the Detroit Chamber of Commerce

Subscribe

 Advice

The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need

"So full of tips and angles that only a booby or a billionaire could not benefit." -- The New York Times

Help

MYM Emergency?

Too Much Junk?

Tax Questions?

Ask Less

Recent Posts

  • "PAPERS PLEASE" -- Trump's Very Own Gigantic Police Force

    July 9, 2025
  • 5 Links And A Joke Walk Into A Bar

    July 8, 2025
  • There WAS No Cherry Tree

    July 7, 2025
  • "The Most Popular Bill Ever Signed In The History Of Our Country"

    July 6, 2025
  • Unbelievably Bad -- Literally

    July 4, 2025
  • Repeal The Steal

    July 2, 2025
  • Our Record-High Stock Market

    June 30, 2025
  • Stuffing The Goose

    June 30, 2025
  • Yes! (Plus A Bonus)

    June 29, 2025
  • How Does THAT Make You Feel . . .

    June 27, 2025
Andrew Tobias Books
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
©2025 Andrew Tobias - All Rights Reserved | Website: Whirled Pixels | Author Photo: Tony Adams