Let Hope And History Rhyme November 13, 2020November 12, 2020 Oh the times, they are a-changing . . . She was fired by the sheriff for being a lesbian. So she ran for his job and beat him. And in the Cincinnati area, not San Francisco. (Thanks, UpWorthy.) That’s just a tiny piece of it. On a grand scale, take 90 seconds for this. It’s just possible Joe Biden will turn out to be a great president. We could use one right about now. Melania asks: “Do I still have to do the f—ing Christmas stuff?” Have a great weekend.
And . . . They’re off! November 12, 2020 Mel W.: “I just listened to Biden’s farewell speech that you posted and I’m crying. It was amazing. What can we do to get it replayed again and again? After hearing it, I feel like I know our new President in a whole new way!” Speaking of “reaching across the aisle,” have you seen this viral TV spot made jointly by a Democrat and a Republican running against each other? Hats off to them both. (Thanks, Tom!) Peter K.: “This is funny, which we really need right now.” → The horse-race, reimagined. So much more to say, but I got carried away writing a song about expired chicken (watch this space), so let’s both take the rest of the day off.
How We Suffered November 11, 2020November 10, 2020 But first . . . PRKR: Two new suits filed. To me, this remains a coin toss. Heads we win five or ten times our money, tails we eventually lose it all. Anticipation is half the fun! (But only with money you can truly afford to lose.) And no, ParkerVision’s claims are not frivolous patent trolling, as best I can ascertain. BOREF: Four minutes for WheelTug fans from Simply Flying — with more than 80,000 views so far. And 17 minutes more from AirBoyd. One comment I liked: David Wolf: “I’m a new subscriber to your channel. Wow… being a former ramp agent for a major airline, this is a technology I’m seeing for the first time. Quite impressive when I think of the time saved by not having to use the aircraft tug. I would imagine that the ramp logistics would have to play a big part in whether or not this WheelTug technology would be a practical alternative. In any event, I’m just amazed!” And now . . . Not long after Trump took office, Kentucky columnist Teri Carter offered this: Trump supporters say, “We suffered 8 years under Barack Obama.” Fair enough. Let’s take a look. The day Obama took office, the Dow closed at 7,949 points. Eight years later, the Dow had almost tripled. General Motors and Chrysler were on the brink of bankruptcy, with Ford not far behind, and their failure, along with their supply chains, would have meant the loss of millions of jobs. Obama pushed through a controversial, $80 billion bailout to save the car industry. The U.S. car industry survived, started making money again, and the entire $80 billion was paid back, with interest. While we remain vulnerable to lone-wolf attacks, no foreign terrorist organization has successfully executed a mass attack here since 9/11. Obama ordered the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. He drew down the number of troops from 180,000 in Iraq and Afghanistan to just 15,000, and increased funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs. He launched a program called Opening Doors which, since 2010, has led to a 47 percent decline in the number of homeless veterans. He set a record 73 straight months of private-sector job growth. Due to Obama’s regulatory policies, greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 12%, production of renewable energy more than doubled, and our dependence on foreign oil was cut in half. He signed The Lilly Ledbetter Act, making it easier for women to sue employers for unequal pay. His Omnibus Public Lands Management Act designated more than 2 million acres as wilderness, creating thousands of miles of trails and protecting over 1,000 miles of rivers. He reduced the federal deficit from 9.8 percent of GDP in 2009 to 3.2 percent in 2016. For all the inadequacies of the Affordable Care Act, we seem to have forgotten that, before the ACA, you could be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition and kids could not stay on their parents’ policies up to age 26. Obama approved a $14.5 billion system to rebuild the levees in New Orleans. All this, even as our own Mitch McConnell famously asserted that his singular mission would be to block anything President Obama tried to do. While Obama failed on his campaign pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, that prison’s population decreased from 242 to around 50. He expanded funding for embryonic stem cell research, supporting ground breaking advancement in areas like spinal injury treatment and cancer. Credit card companies can no longer charge hidden fees or raise interest rates without advance notice. Most years, Obama threw a 4th of July party for military families. He held babies, played games with children, served barbecue, and led the singing of “Happy Birthday” to his daughter Malia, who was born on July 4. Welfare spending is down: for every 100 poor families, just 24 receive cash assistance, compared with 64 in 1996. Obama comforted families and communities following more than a dozen mass shootings. After Sandy Hook, he said, “The majority of those who died today were children, beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old.” Yet, he never took away anyone’s guns. He sang Amazing Grace, spontaneously, at the altar. He was the first president since Eisenhower to serve two terms without personal or political scandal. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. President Obama was not perfect, as no man and no president is, and you can certainly disagree with his political ideologies. But to say we suffered? If that’s the argument, if this is how we suffered for 8 years under Barack Obama, I have one wish: may we be so fortunate as to suffer 8 more.” Carter might have added that Obama and his team prevented Ebola from becoming a deadly global plague; deployed CDC teams in 49 countries to prevent the spread of future pandemics (sadly pulled back in 2018); and left his successor a detailed manual for dealing with a pandemic if one ever should reach our shores (sadly ignored). Oh! And she might have mentioned the glorious sea change that moves millions of LGBTQ+ Americans, their families, and friends nearly to tears. (It ain’t that way in Chechnya.) But even without those two additions, Carter’s essay reminds us what Obama/Biden and their team of competent, dedicated public servants did . . . . . . and gives me hope for what Biden/Harris and their team may do. Thank you, Veterans, for your service — today and every day.
Reaching Across The Aisle November 10, 2020November 9, 2020 You know Lindsey Graham thinks Joe is “as good a man as God ever created.” And you saw Joe’s speech Saturday pledging to be President for all Americans. But have you ever found time to watch his 2009 Senate farewell? It’s not short — he was saying good-bye after 36 years to assume the Vice Presidency! — but it’s just beautiful, and what politics should be. Don’t assume we can’t heal the worst of our wounds, hard as some may try to keep them open. (Why would Putin stop now?) With Joe, we have a shot.
Winning Words — And Georgia November 8, 2020November 11, 2020 A lot of it comes down to how we phrase things. We have so much common ground. Instead of “defund the police,” how about “improve the police”? Is there anyone who doesn’t think, after seeing all we’ve seen, improvement is needed? I’d be first to agree that “improve the police” is a pathetic battle cry when marching in the streets; but our leaders, when asked about it, need to say — as most have — that they’re NOT for defunding the police. That they’re saddened and outraged — as all Americans are — at what they’ve seen. That they demand taxpayer funds be used more effectively — with better training, zero tolerance for racism, a national registry of fired cops (so they don’t merely move on to some other jurisdiction) . . . perhaps even more funding if it’s required for universal body cams, or to hire mental-health professionals to ride along on certain kinds of calls. There absolutely ways to do better and we must. But handing Limbaugh, Trump, Fox News and Q-Anon “defund the police” will only set us back. Instead of “pro-abortion,” how about “pro-choice”? Oh, wait — we did that one. And see? Much of the country is willing to find common ground within that framework. No one likes abortion or hopes to need one. The Clinton mantra should be repeated at every opportunity: abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.” Even if Roe were overturned, abortion would remain legal for anyone who can afford to travel. In a less polarized world, 90% of even strong pro-lifers might embrace Plan B to help make abortion rare . . . and might take into account more than this sole issue when casting their vote. Instead of “reparati0ns,” how about “affirmative opportunity”? You’ll likely come up with something better, I’m no Frank Luntz.* But to my Trump friends who focus on their never having enslaved anyone, “reparations” just presses all the wrong buttons. It conjures big tax bills to give free money to anyone who can prove some connection to slavery eight generations back. Their ancestors arrived penniless from Ireland, or wherever, and did just fine. But should we not make an extra effort — as to a large but insufficient extent we already have — to give everyone a decent shot? We already have educational assistance of all kinds and publicly funded after-school programs, and opportunity zones, and . . . the only thing is, if you look at the statistics or read Caste, we’ve clearly not done enough. Whatever more we do do should apply broadly — to white kids in Appalachia and Latinx kids in Texas, e.g. — much as Social Security gained broad support by providing benefits to everyone. Granted, struggling white and Latinx kids’ ancestors weren’t forced to lay our economic foundation (and build the White House) without pay; or whipped or lynched or denied the right to vote (or effectively denied it again thanks to Chief Justice Roberts). But if in seeking progress for our African-American fellow citizens we also boost others who are struggling, where’s the harm? Let’s promote opportunity for everyone. Instead of “pack the Court,” how about “depoliticize the Court”? Few Americans think the Court should be political. In an ideal world, it would be a diverse group of fair-minded, incorruptible, brilliant legal minds striving to make sense of what the Constitution calls upon them to do — they will disagree on what that is — and then doing their best to do it. Right now, 6 of the 9 are Catholic and 6 of the 9 were appointed by Republican presidents even though only 1 time in the last 8 — 2004 — did the Republican get as many votes as the Democrat. Not in 1992 or 1996 or 2000 or 2008 or 2012 or 2016 or 2020. That can’t strike anyone as anything but weird. Let’s take Pete Buttigieg’s suggestion and depoliticize the court. Ask President Biden to appoint three justices, so it’s 6 and 6, and have those 12 select either one or three more . . . who would of necessity be moderates . . . to be the tie-breaker/s. A lot of the country is moderate. Skewing the Court toward more moderation would not be a bad thing. Yes, eventually it could go further and further out of whack. But for a decade or two at least, this would go a long way toward de-polarizing the country, and uniting us — within reason — once again. Instead of “democratic socialism,” how about “capitalism plus”? Same thing, better words. Public schools and streets and roads and bridges are socialist, government-run and paid for with tax dollars. Yet few Republicans, Independents, or Democrats would privatize them. Why not just call this, “capitalism plus”? Few Republicans, Independents, or Democrats would abolish Social Security. Or unemployment insurance. Or federal disaster assistance. All paid for with tax dollars and administered by the government. Capitalism plus! Few would vote to privatize police and fire services, marketing them to families one by one such that only those who paid directly got protection. Or vote to sell the VA hospitals to a private hospital chain that provided care only to veterans with money. All this is socialistic, very much like the rest of the First World, but I see no harm in calling it “capitalism plus” if that helps us recognize our common ground. On health care, most agree Medicare is a good thing — “keep the government’s hands off my Medicare!” — and it, too, is run by the government, paid for with taxpayer dollars. Every one of us — Democrats included — favors “great health care for everybody at a tiny fraction of the price.” Trump just never told us how it would magically appear once he and his party repealed Obamacare. Republican politicians are adamant about not accepting Medicaid expansion funds or regulating insurance company pay-outs (the Affordable Care Act requires no more than 15%-20% of premiums be retained for administrative costs and profit) . But how does that make us healthier or more secure? I do think Republicans are right on this much: As a practical matter, America can’t just flip a switch and adopt some version of the quality universal health care enjoyed by every other other First World country on the planet. So at least for now, a lot of Democrats think we should improve on the Affordable Care Act by adding a “public option” to our list of competing health insurance choices. And maybe gradually lowering the Medicare eligibility age. Maybe gradually expanding the populations VA hospitals can serve. (Spouses?) And certainly allowing for negotiated prescription drug prices. There’s room for lots of disagreement over how best to do all this — but also lots of room for compromise, without demonizing anyone engaged in the discussions. So even though I totally favor Bernie’s goal of free universal health care, and applaud all those, like AOC and others, fighting for it — and recognize that “democratic socialism” is a fair synonym — why not call it “capitalism plus'” instead? The goal is to help people who genuinely fear “socialism” to accept policies that would improve their lives. It’s not entirely the way Obamacare polled terribly among Republicans, but “the Affordable Care Act” polled pretty well. Same thing. Different words. Capitalism plus. (Not a phrase original with me, by the way. I thought it was Howard Dean but he says no. If you can let me know, I’d like to give credit where it’s due.) So Georgia. In addition to all the tremendous efforts we will make to turn out “our” voters, I would love to see some kind of national appeal . . . from everyone from Jimmy Carter and former Senator Sam Nunn to any of these rock stars and anyone else who might resonate with a broader Georgia audience . . . saying, basically: This is Georgia’s moment. Georgia has within its power to break the terrible gridlock that’s held us back for so, so long now, as our infrastructure steadily crumbles and our people become more divided and we can’t even pass legislation that 70% and 80% and sometimes even 90% of Americans agree we want. We know there’s the fear that if Mitch McConnell can’t block everything, something awful will happen. But in the first place, Joe Biden and Jon Ossoff and Jamie Harrison are no different from you — they want only good things to happen. And while we obviously don’t always agree on just how best to make good things happen, they are people who believe in compromise. Mitch McConnell has proven he does not. If you make the effort vote for Ossoff and Warnock, you’ll be taking the risk that — freed up from gridlock by the narrowest of hair-thin margins — compromise and progress will once again be possible in America. You will be voting for a brighter future not just for Georgia, but for all of America, red, blue, and purple. And look: if you decide you DON’T like the result, know this: Republicans can declare it a failed experiment and reestablish gridlock just a very short time from now, in 2022. Save America, Georgia. History will love you for it. Something like that? *Many years ago I had dinner with Frank Luntz, the genius behind calling the “estate tax” the “death tax” and so much other effective Republican wordsmithing. It quickly became apparent to me that he was a fine fellow who shared most of my own values and views, so I finally blurted out, “Frank! You’re not a Republican! You’re a Democrat! Why are you doing this for them instead of us?!” To which he laughed and replied, “You pay me $5 million a year and I will.” In hindsight, it might have been money well spent.
As Good A Man As God Ever Created — And He Won! November 4, 2020November 4, 2020 The first thing to say is: Joe won. Click here for the full details. Joe Biden will be the 46th President of the United States. The second thing to say is an enormous thank you to all who helped make this happen, as so many of you did. The third thing to say is that Joe really means it: he doesn’t plan to rub it in the face of Trump supporters. He wants to bring us together, restore civility, and help heal the soul of the nation. The fourth thing to say is that Lindsey Graham is right: Joe Biden is “as good a man as God ever created.” Or right up there, anyway. And the final thing to say, of course, is how profoundly sad and troubling it is that — though more Americans voted blue than red for the seventh time out of the last eight presidential elections — the “blue wave” so many of us had hoped for did not materialize. Much more to say about that, as we seek to better understand, and better respect and persuade, those on the other side (see #3, above). But for now . . . well, the work continues. Hats off to Joe. Have a great day.
Whatever Happens, Reconciling With Carl And Tom November 3, 2020 But first, while we await the early returns . . . And here’s one — the Tonight Show’s scheduled pianist had a last-minute accident, so this kid in flip flops trots down from the audience, and . . . pretty great. Okay, so now let’s talk. How do we come together again as a nation . . . with vigorous disagreements over how best to achieve our goals, but ever mindful that we have common goals? And that where our goals do differ, at least finding common ground on which to build compromise. Indeed, take the hardest issue of all: abortion. I would argue that everyone is pro-life; no one, pro-abortion in the sense of hoping to need one. I think we can agree that re-criminalizing abortions doesn’t mean they would disappear, just that they would be unsafe, sometimes deadly, for poor women; perfectly safe and accessible for women who can afford to travel to states or countries like Canada or Mexico or predominantly Catholic Ireland and Italy where they’re legal. The Democratic line promulgated by the Clintons was that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.” For those who are pro-life, the “legal” part is unacceptable, but the “safe” and “rare” parts could be areas of common ground. And what of Plan B, the morning after pill? Shouldn’t that largely serve both sides’ interests? It works to prevent pregnancy in the first place! My point is not to suggest there’s a perfect solution that will make everyone happy. Just that — even on this most contentious of all issues — there’s common ground that could probably unite at least 90% of the citizenry. Even if he’s not your candidate, take a minute to watch this: Joe Biden’s UNITED States of America. Aren’t we ready for an uplifting message of unity, respect, and hope? Here are some things we can all agree on: 1. Truth and facts matter. It is better to be honest than to lie or cheat. To be accurate than inaccurate. 2. Kindness and respect matter. The Golden Rule is a good one: “Do Unto Others As You Would Have Others Do Unto You.” 3. Wherever possible, we should strive to reduce suffering, increase happiness. 4. We need to revitalize our infrastructure and do a better job providing health care. 5. We have a responsibility to steward this little spaceship for the generations to come. Right? But also . . . and suddenly it gets tribal . . . 6. Whatever else you may think of him, Barack Obama really was born in America. 7. The Central Park Five really were innocent, despite ads calling for their execution, and a lack of regret for those ads even today. I could add dozens more like those last two — to my mind, the last four years have been appalling — but not today. Tom emailed to tell me the Bidens (and Obamas!) are “moral sleaze.” This couldn’t be Russian disinformation (even though the U.S. Intelligence agencies have warned us that it is). Tom just knows it. Putin has thousands of psy-ops agents working to get us to hate each other. But we have a strong interest in assuming the best of each other and finding common ground. On some things, full agreement may never be possible. On others, what is now hugely contentious may one day yield to general agreement, just as happened with the shape of the earth (now almost universally agreed to be round), the biblically-justified institution of slavery (now almost universally agreed to be an abomination), or the right of women to vote (now almost universally agreed to be obvious). Tom emailed later to say thanks — he enjoyed our exchange. I took that as an encouraging sign. There’s so much that needs doing and fixing and healing in this country. Let’s hope the light of a new direction begins to shine through around 8pm tonight.
World’s Shortest Press Release November 1, 2020 But first: Why the media decided not to cover the Hunter Biden laptop emails. . . . Trump and his allies say there is evidence of corruption in emails and documents allegedly found on a laptop belonging to Democrat Joe Biden’s son. . . . But the Wall Street Journal and Fox News — among the only news organizations that have been given access to key documents — found that the emails and other records don’t make that case. Leaving aside the many questions about their provenance, the materials offered no evidence that Joe Biden played any role in his son’s dealings in China, let alone profited from them, both news organizations concluded. . . . U.S. intelligence agencies say Giuliani is being used by the Russians to spread this disinformation. Trump and his followers trust Putin’s word over that of the U.S. intelligence community. Maybe Putin is on our side and the FBI hates America . . . but color me skeptical. Just as I was skeptical Trump’s investigators had “found stuff you wouldn’t believe” about Obama’s birthplace, or that Trump had a plan to give everybody great health care at “a tiny fraction” of the cost — or that COVID was a “Democratic hoax,” or that climate change is a hoax, or that Russian attacks on our elections are a hoax, or that the crowd at his inauguration was the largest in history. Forty percent of the country is quite sure I’m wrong — Carl and Tom, among them. And a meaningful fraction of that 40% (not Carl and Tom) believe Democrats are Satan-worshipping cannibalistic pedophiles. Please vote. Why yet another prominent Republican is ashamed of his party. . . . These are painful words for me to write. I spent four decades in the Republican trenches, representing GOP presidential and congressional campaigns, working on Election Day operations, recounts, redistricting and other issues, including trying to lift the consent decree. [But] my party is destroying itself on the altar of Trump. . . . This is as un-American as it gets. It returns the Republican Party to the bad old days of “voter suppression” that landed it under a court order to stop such tactics — an order lifted [by Chief Justice Roberts] before this election. . . . . . . Proof of systematic fraud has become the Loch Ness Monster of the Republican Party. People have spent a lot of time looking for it, but it doesn’t exist. Trump has devoted his campaign and the Republican Party to this myth of voter fraud. . . . [D]isenfranchising voters has become key to his reelection strategy. . . . Well worth reading — and sharing — the whole piece. Trump’s critics focus on how horribly he has failed us since the virus hit our shores. To me, the more telling and tragic criticism is that Trump has weakened everything from our State Department to our Intelligence Community to our CDC . . . in this specific case, dismantling the forward-deployed China team that might well have kept the virus from ever leaving China in the first place, and ignoring the detailed pandemic response plan the previous administration had left behind for dealing with it if it ever did. So what happens Tuesday, as the whole world watches? From 538: . . . [W]e should have a pretty good idea of where things are headed on election night, even if no candidate is able to clinch 270 electoral votes (which is the threshold required to win) until later in the week. We should get near-complete results in Florida in a matter of hours; Arizona and North Carolina will release the vast majority of their ballots very quickly, although if the race is too close to call they may not provide a final answer for days. Georgia and Texas should tally most ballots on Nov. 3, but counting may stretch into Wednesday or Thursday. We should know the winner in Wisconsin by Wednesday morning; Michigan and Pennsylvania, by contrast, will probably take until the end of the week. Of course, there are a lot more races on the ballot than just the presidential contest, so read on to get a more detailed picture of every state. One last caveat before you dive in: These are just our best guesses based on what we know right now. Things can always go sideways thanks to human error or technological failures. And, of course, even the fastest-counting state may leave a race uncalled for days if the margin is close enough. . . . And now, finally: WheelTug Friday issued the shortest press release I’ve ever seen. The company says it has “received a significant additional investment for the completion of its 737NG program.” If that pans out and WheelTug does in fact receive FAA approval and begins flying — neither yet a sure thing — I have to think that Borealis, which owns about 58% of WheelTug, has a shot at being valued at many times more than its current $40 million market cap (5 million shares at $8 each). Inch by inch . . .