Year: 2019

Friday’s post on “fairness” — What Do Democrats Stand For? — prompted Mike Martin to respond from Phoenix with a different F word.

“The Democratic Party,” he writes, “is the party of the future. The Republican party is the party of the past.

“The Democratic party favors addressing climate change because it threatens the future. We favor policies that increase free public education and free public childcare because young people are the future. We tax the rich because they represent past successes that should now help pay for the future. We favor environmental protections and anti-pollution regulations because they protect the future. We believe in creativity and innovation as the way to build the future.

“In almost every case, when there are differences between Democrats and Republicans the difference is whether to embrace the future or protect the past. Democrats support science because that is the gateway to the future. Democrats support diversity because the future requires that people with different perspectives work together for the common good.

“Democracy is fundamentally the idea of giving everyone the opportunity to forge a bright future.

“When I was in the Marines, the cliche was to ‘seize the high ground.’  Democrats should seize the future as their high ground, as what they value and what they seek to protect. C.P. Snow writing in The Two Cultures described one of the cultures as ‘they have the future in their bones.’  Democrats must become known as the party that, regardless of the issue or policy, has the future in its bones.  We need to explain every issue, every policy, every position, in terms of the future.”

→ Yes!  Click here.

We know what Republicans stand for:

Tax cuts (even if they’re mainly for the rich) . . . smaller government (though it’s Reagan, Bush, Bush, and Trump who exploded the deficit; Clinton and Obama who shrank it) . . . assault weapons without universal background checks . . . climate denial — all that.

(Have you seen what Trump’s Ag Secretary is trying to do to his department’s scientists? Horrifying.)

Republicans stand for corporations.  They now have a coal lobbyist running the EPA, a pharma lobbyist running HHS, an oil lobbyist running Interior, and a defense lobbyist running Defense.  (Yet Trump supporters believe he is draining the swamp of lobbyists. Watch.  )

But what do Democrats stand for?

I would argue it can be boiled down to: FAIRNESS.

It’s not FAIR almost all the gains of the past 40 years have gone to people at the very top of the economic pyramid — even as their tax rates have been slashed.

Or that CEO pay has grown 90 times faster than worker pay.

Or that the minimum wage hasn’t been raised with inflation.

It’s not FAIR health care and prescription drugs are wildly more expensive here than in any other industrialized nation.

It’s not FAIR federal student loans can’t be refinanced the way home mortgages can be.

It’s not FAIR an NRA membership card is valid voter ID in states where a state-university-issued student ID is not.

Or that Republicans purposely try to make voting difficult for people of color.

It’s not FAIR only poor citizens have to stew for months in jail awaiting trial because they can’t make $500 bail.

Or that, though they use drugs at similar rates, the imprisonment rate of African Americans for drug charges is almost 6 times that of whites.

It’s not FAIR Republicans will allow only Republicans to appoint Supreme Court justices.

It’s not FAIR we’ll have to breathe dirtier air because the EPA is run by a coal lobbyist.

It’s not FAIR Democrats won the popular vote in Pennsylvania in 2012 — but just 5 of the 18 Congressional seats (to take just one example I can’t get out of my head).

It’s not FAIR gays can get legally married on Sunday but legally fired Monday.  Or that toddlers are separated from their parents at our Southern border.  Or that Republicans block the universal background checks 90% of Americans favor.  Or that the people of Washington D.C. suffer taxation without representation.

Or that Republicans killed the comprehensive immigration reform that passed the Senate 68-32 . . . and killed the infrastructure bill that would have put so many to work at good jobs revitalizing our infrastructure. Or that DACA kids — who’ve never known life in another country — live in fear of deportation.  Or that women seeking an abortion in Missouri are subjected to state-mandated assault — an unnecessary vaginal probe that both doctors and patients oppose.

You can add “empathy,” “opportunity,” “community,” “progress,” “diversity,” “science,” “diplomacy” — “freedom from want and fear” — lots of things.

But “fairness” may encompass them all.

To help fund the early organizing and registration needed to set things right, click here.

Jim Burt: “You may recall that during his 2016 campaign, Trump at one point attempted to establish his Christian bona fides by referring hilariously to ‘Two Corinthians.’  Despite his open and obvious immorality, he seems to have established himself as the darling of white evangelicals in the U.S.  Franklin Graham and Falwell Junior are among his acolytes.  One of the biblical passages one never hears them quote is from what Trump would call ‘One Corinthians’ — specifically I Corinthians 13, attributed to Paul.  It’s beautiful, profound, and anathema to people of the Graham/Falwell/Trump persuasion, though I suspect Graham’s father Billy thought more highly of it.”

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If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,^[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;^{[b] 6} it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹² For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

¹³ So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

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“The original was in Greek, but it passed through Latin on its way to us, and the Latin word used for love in the passage was not ‘amor’ but ‘caritas,’ the root of our word ‘charity.’  It means ‘caring love,’ or perhaps ‘loving care.'”

“Sort of says it all, doesn’t it?”

→ Amen.

Here is Franklin Graham this month leading “Pray for Trump” day.  (Not as in: pray for his long-lost soul; but, incredibly, pray that he prevails.)

And here is the story, if you missed it, of how Jerry Falwell, Jr. came to endorse Trump.  It had nothing to do with love or Jesus (though possibly with lust).

In 1998, a precocious 23-year-old, Thor Halvorssen — a relative of Simon Bolivar on his mother’s side — came to a book-signing I did and took me to dinner.  (Who is this kid?  And why would he know the maitre d’ of Philadelphia’s fanciest French restaurant?  But okay.)  We’ve been friends ever since, skeptical though I was at first; and  he’s gone on to do amazing things . . . not least: launch the Human Rights Foundation and its annual Oslo Freedom Forum.

Thor writes:

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Right now, the Chinese government has jailed more than 1.5 million Muslim-minority Uighurs in prison camps in the northwestern province of Xinjiang. Yet, the world says very little. Beijing claims to just be “re-educating” troubled individuals. Most companies and governments have continued their relations with Beijing, business as usual. “Never again” is happening again.

Two weeks ago, we chose to put the Uighur crisis on the world agenda. In front of an audience packed with policymakers, journalists, business leaders, and philanthropists, Nury Turkel, a Uighur activist, gave our keynote talk. You can watch it here. It was gripping and vital and, now, none of us who were there in that theater — and none of the thousands who were tuning in online — can say that we don’t know what is happening to the Uighurs.

Since Nury’s talk, his story has been featured in media around the world; design firms have donated their time to help him with his campaigns; technologists are working with him to design tools that Uighurs can use to stay safe; short films are in production about cultural genocide and technological surveillance; and donors have made pledges to help the Uighur community spread awareness about what is happening to their families in Xinjiang. This is how the Oslo Freedom Forum gradually changes the world.

This year at the Oslo Freedom Forum we were joined by extraordinary speakers including:

·  The highest ranking diplomat to ever escape North Korea

·  A journalist boldly exposing the system of slavery behind Qatar’s 2022 World Cup

·  A technologist using satellites to uncover prison camps inside dictatorships

·  One of East Asia’s most famous singers, now turned democracy protest leader

·  An Academy Award-winning filmmaker who exposed the Russian doping scandal

·  A young student from Malawi who now rescues girls from child marriage

While the stage content certainly stands out among top global conferences, the key catalyst of the Oslo Freedom Forum is the variety of the participants. More than 100 dissidents from more than 50 countries attended the Oslo Freedom Forum. They met with 75 top international journalists, 50 creatives and technologists, and more than 100 philanthropists or delegates from companies and foundations looking to make a difference. Practically, what this means is that in any given conversation at the event, an activist from — say, Russia or Cameroon or Venezuela — is speaking to someone who can help them tell their story; someone who can finance and scale their work; and someone who can help make their impact more effective on the ground.

The ripple effects are significant. I already mentioned what Nury’s talk has begun to spark. A few other examples from recent years include Yeonmi Park, who went on to launch a best-selling book about North Korea; Manal al-Sharif, who kickstarted a global campaign to win women the right to drive in Saudi Arabia; Denis Mukwege and Leymah Gbowee, who went on to be awarded Nobel Peace Prizes for their vital work in Liberia and the Congo; and Srdja Popovic, who has met dozens of activists in our network and helped them build effective peaceful campaigns to change policy in more than a dozen countries. We look forward to inspiring more of these ripples and sharing them with you over the coming months and years. Even just days after this most recent Oslo Freedom Forum, we’ve seen some great content come online from attendees, including:

·  A podcast featuring Financial Times Beijing tech correspondent Yuan Yang and Buzzfeed News tech editor Megha Rajagopalan on how China is using artificial intelligence to control its population.

·  A stage talk from Denise Ho, the cantopop mega-star from Hong Kong, about the rise and future of the Umbrella Movement. Through connections made in Oslo, Denise was already able to write an op-ed in The Washington Post and go on air on CNN.

·  A series of journals and profiles by Jay Nordlinger at the National Review that give you an insider perspective on the Oslo Freedom Forum and some of its more amazing characters. Read Jay’s lively journal here and his profiles on speakers from Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Zimbabwe.

·  A Forbes feature and a fascinating podcast featuring entrepreneurs and researchers from Iran, the Philippines, China, India, and Nigeria discussing how individuals are using cryptocurrency to evade government controls.

On the policy side, in Oslo we had top-level decision-makers in attendance ranging from the Foreign Minister of Norway to the U.S. government’s point person on developing “smart sanctions” to the European Parliament member fighting fiercest for privacy rights. On the tech side, we had leaders from companies including Facebook, Planet Labs, Twitter (you can read about their proud support for our work here), and YouTube, who all came to Oslo to voice their support for dissidents and learn how their platforms can better help the cause of freedom. On the philanthropy side, the grant-giving attendees in Oslo collectively give away hundreds of millions of dollars to charity. Over the past decade, the Oslo Freedom Forum has grown into a powerful program that impacts policy, law, and charitable giving on a global scale.

I wanted to share a few more highlights from the event so far:

·  A fireside chat between HRF chairman Garry Kasparov and information warfare expert Molly McKew on the dark side of technology and the damage that dictators are doing to our democracies through technology.

·  Defending the Defenders, a ceremony hosted by Norway’s Ministry of the Environment and the City of Oslo and presented by CNN in Oslo’s City Hall, where environmentalists from Russia, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Uganda shared their experiences trying to protect the planet under dictatorships. Most people fail to realize the level of criminality experienced by environmentalists inside dictatorships. The truth is that tyrannies tend to be the world’s worst polluters and producers of environmental catastrophes.

·  Articles in Bloomberg and The Guardian featuring interviews with Ambassador Thae Yong Ho, who gives us unparalleled insight into the mind of Kim Jong Un.

·  Global coverage in Norwegian, Thai, French, Portuguese, Chinese, and Spanish-language media.

·  A press freedom lunch where more than 50 journalists from around the world paid tribute to fallen OFF community members, with remarks from Karen Attiah, Khashoggi’s editor at The Washington Post.

·  Podcasts with world-renowned historian and On Tyranny author Timothy Snyder on the global erosion of democracy, and with former UN high commissioner of human rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on the global fight for freedom.

·  A diverse range of breakouts and workshops covering everything from how to cope with PTSD to why we need to celebrate privacy to how the drug war deteriorates freedom to an insider’s view of the Saudi phone hacking scandal.

·  A BBC Hard Talk episode with Oslo Freedom Forum speaker Iyad el-Baghdadi.

·  The debut of the Activist Tech Bar — sponsored by the cyber-security company Avast — a place for attendees to bring their phones and computers to digital security experts to assess our digital safety.

·  A series of interviews by China Uncensored with special features on Hong Kong, North Korea, and the 30th anniversary of Tiananmen Square.

·  Unite moments on stage between activists and our sponsors, like this one between Twitter’s global head of philanthropy and Zimbabwean democracy advocate Evan Mawarire.

·  The launch of HRF’s Freedom Fellowship, a 12-month program for 10 civil society leaders from authoritarian countries, where they will get world-class training in the areas of movement building, leadership, digital security, fundraising, and public relations.

I look forward to sharing more highlights with you later this summer, once a range of profiles, articles, short films, and new collaborations surface.

Slowly but certainly the Oslo Freedom Forum is becoming one of the world’s can’t-miss events. We are grateful for your support as we continue to advance the program around the world and help it take root in Oslo, New York, Taipei, Mexico City, and beyond.

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“Never underestimate the power of one committed 23-year-old to change the world,” Margaret Mead might have said.  “He or she will grow up, and, over time, just might.”

I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you about Rebellion Stonewall that aired Sunday night.  But through the magic of technology, you can watch it anyway — and without the commercials, so just 45 minutes — by clicking that link and signing in via your cable service or Hulu or whatever.  It’s really good.

And then tonight, at 9pm on PBS, you can watch The Lavender Scare.  See how FBI agents used to spend their time — which was not a little ironic, given that their boss, J. Edgar Hoover, was himself homosexual.  (This Wikipedia entry is not so definitive; but . . . seriously?)

Curtailing my normal verbosity to give you time to watch.

[Hey! Don’t forget: second quarterly estimated tax due today.]

But first:

Why Andrew Yang Matters — you read about him here first!

Justice Kavanaugh Wants Us To Know He’s Won (thanks, Glenn — you’ve ruined my day).

And now:

Five myths about Congressional perks.

Short form:

> Members DO pay into Social Security, just like everybody else.

> Members and their staff ARE subject to ObamaCare.  Their only way out: coverage through a spouse or parent, or buying coverage on their own, without federal subsidy . . . like anyone else.

> Members do NOT receive a big pension after one term.  (E.g.: After 16 years, former Congressman Steve Israel gets $40,000/year.  Not nothing — but hardly the $174,000-after-just-one-term frequently alleged.)

> And no — #4 and #5 — they DON’T get free DC housing (unless sleeping on their office couch) and have NOT given themselves raises in the last ten years.

That said, I sure would like your help sweeping out of office those representatives — and senators — who see their role as attempting to block any progress under a Democrat, as with Obama; and defending the indefensible, as with Trump.

Click here.

We should daily demand that Senate Republicans at least take up — and ideally pass — the 10 bills Democrats in the House have passed this year to make normal Americans’ lives better.

Once the guys leave Sunday night to “go to work” (a concept with which I’ve grown increasingly unfamiliar), I spend Monday through Friday eating whatever they’ve left behind.  And (hoping they don’t read this post) I have to tell you I live for the peace and quiet of the weekdays — and the amazing leftovers.

Come Sunday morning I start to think . . . will they actually leave that whole half watermelon?  All that pasta salad?  (I try not to eat pasta; but if it’s free? and would otherwise go to waste? how can I resist?)  Sometimes they’ll chow down things I’ve been quietly coveting as they’re packing and on the way out.  But, like as not — three half-eaten açaí bowls in the freezer! — I have enough to last me all week.

And now the confession.  This past Sunday, even by mid-day, I saw there were still two (entirely separate) half sandwiches from the deli on prominent top-shelf refrigerator display.  I never buy sandwiches; I try not to eat bread.

But free?  And seasoned for a couple of days, to let whatever’s inside the paper wrappers get even better, soggy in the best way?

So I began to take what some might call an unnatural interest in those two leftovers, glancing nervously each time someone approached the refrigerator . . . each time relieved to see they had extracted only beer. Beer they can have.

By mid-afternoon, my true nature came to the fore. (Are we not all a blend of good and evil? Generosity and greed?)

I pushed the two half sandwiches back a little and moved a large container of pineapple cranberry juice (seriously? cran-pineapple? who bought that?) in front of the sandwiches, blocking them from view.

It worked.  The first couple of guys left.  Sandwiches still there.

The next couple left.  Still there.

And the next.  (My house on weekends is a little like a Volkswagen filled with clowns except they work at Google.)

Success!  The two-day-old half-sandwiches were still there.

And, yes, it occurred to me in the midst of all this, I was essentially Ronald Reagan in that famous story where he was meeting with heads of state but all he could think about were the donuts at the other end of the table.  He was dying for another, but couldn’t interrupt the President of China.  (They might have been jelly beans, and I have no idea whom he was really meeting with.  A quick Google failed to come up with the actual anecdote.  But this is the gist of it.  It was in his memoir or someone else’s.)  Presidents are human. Well, so am I.  I should have been focused entirely on raising funds for a massive blue turnout next year to save democracy and perhaps humanity itself — but what was inside those beckoning crumpled sandwich wrappers?

After that huge build-up I’m happy to tell you they were tuna salad and bacon — both of them — with mayonnaise and a little lettuce and tomato.  And that even if my fundraising distraction wound up costing us a hair-thin election someplace (because our massive turnout next year, the organizing for which is already under way and needs to be funded now, fell just a few votes short — i.e., we won the White House and took back the Senate but fell just 7 votes short of winning the race for Ohio Secretary of State, say) . . . even then, I have to tell you those sandwiches were worth it.

Later in the week I finished the açaí bowls, the salad, the watermelon, and a whole lot else . . . including a green zucchini I fished out of the garbage thinking it should have gone into the compost bag, but then realizing it was perfectly fine. (Yes, this is true, but not nearly as gross as you think.)  It was firm and fine and I can’t imagine why anyone tossed it; maybe by accident?  So after washing it and contemplating it for a couple of days, I microwaved it for three minutes, applied salt, pepper, and Smart Balance, and . . . mm, mm, good.  Waste not, want not.

John Seiffer: “Thanks for yesterday, on food waste.  I just read this about food labels — How To Tell If Food Is Bad, According To The FDA. You’re on the cutting edge.”

The boys return tomorrow, to restock.

John Seiffer: “Regarding Gloria’s comment on food waste. 412 Food Rescue  is a great organization in Pittsburgh — and is expanding nationwide. They take perishable food that can’t be sold but is still good and deliver it directly to people who need it. It goes to subsidized housing, senior housing and the like. Since 2015 they’ve rescued over 5.5 Million pounds of food. And after they started, the housing authority here has had zero food emergencies due to their work. Here’s the cool part. They rely on volunteers — food rescue heroes — to pick up food that needs immediate rescuing via an app that they’ve built which tells you where to pick it up and where to deliver it. This can take as little as half an hour. People can do one-off or can sign up for a regular route. One of the grocery stores that is a food donor said they would be throwing out $300 a day of good food (produce, bread etc) that is just past the prime and can’t be sold. Now they donate it to folks who need it, saving them trash fees, and keeping it out of the landfill.  Disclaimer — my wife has a regular weekly rescue and we’re big supporters.”

→ Hats off to John and his wife! This is such a win-win-win.  Click here to find a similar organization near you.

Oh!  And I don’t usually make calls, but because I assume most Republican senators lean against scientific integrity . . . as they lean against consumers and workers and affordable health care and voting rights . . . and against Roe v Wade and DACA kids and confronting climate change and so much more (tell me again why you vote Republican?) . . . I took 60 seconds to call one of my Republican senators at 833-513-5863, to ask him to support the Scientific Integrity Act.  Click here to learn more.  It’s really easy and low stress.  Maybe this is a bill that can pass.

CORRECTION

Rob Novick re yesterday’s post on homophobia:  “To keep things accurate — Morgan Freeman never said that.  Though it’s stated in a way that sounds like him.”

→ Thank, you Rob (and Snopes.com).

June is Pride Month.

Seems a little strong, because I think many homophobic men are scared.

They’re afraid they’re gay, and use their homophobia to hide it.

As a teenager, I was — and did.

But so much has changed since then . . . there’s so much less to be afraid of . . . so maybe Morgan Freeman is right.

UPDATE/CORRECTION

I like to think he’s fine with it anyway, so I’m leaving it up; but according to Snopes.com, Morgan Freeman never said that.

Suggested here nine years ago at $1.25, I sold most of my EMIS at $9.75 yesterday.  Sometimes, patience pays off.  Buy when everyone else thinks it’s hopeless — like SPRT last week? (I bought more at $1.65) — but only with money you can truly afford to lose, because all too often everyone else is right.  (SPRT faces some significant challenges sown by the previous management; but I like the CEO and am betting that in the long run this may work out.)

Gloria: “I cringed a little when I read ‘expired food’ in Thursday’s post. In this country we are incredibly wasteful. It is estimated that about 40% of all the food produced in the US ends up in the garbage. This is shameful. A ‘best by’ date is a qualitative guideline put forth by the manufacturer, and as such it could be quite skewed. Even vinegar has a ‘best by’ date, which as a winemaker I have always found funny, because once you’re vinegar life can’t get that much worse… If you’re looking for an eye-opening book to add to your reading list, check out Jonathan Bloom’s American Wasteland. It’s also on audio!”

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Grocery prices and the forsaken foods at the back of your fridge seem to increase weekly. After reading American Wasteland, you will never look at your shopping list, refrigerator, plate, or wallet the same way again. Jonathan Bloom wades into the garbage heap to unearth what our squandered food says about us, why it matters, and how you can make a difference starting in your own kitchen—reducing waste and saving money. Interviews with experts such as chef Alice Waters and food psychologist Brian Wansink, among others, uncover not only how and why we waste, but, most importantly, what we can do about it.

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“Paul:” “Your guys won last week bigtime. Pelosi (or someone) set Trump up masterfully and he fell for it hook, line and sinker (which it might well do to him). The Ingraham interview from start to finish was a disgrace, and will lose a lot of his base.”

→ My dumbfounded question to this gay Ivy League grad of impressive credentials and good will, who’s been a close friend for more than 40 years — why is it “your guys” and not “our guys”?  How can he possibly have voted for Trump and — worse — been defending him up until now?  And is he still?  Has Trump lost him?  I wrote to ask; have not yet heard back.  My fingers are tightly crossed.