Two More Takes On Israel June 15, 2021June 15, 2021 Bret Stephens on Israel: Israel’s new government must be a puzzle for anyone who thinks of the Jewish state as a racist, fascistic, apartheid enterprise. Issawi Frej is Arab and Muslim and used to work for the Peace Now movement. Now he’s Israel’s minister for regional cooperation. Pnina Tamano-Shata is Black: The Mossad rescued her, along with thousands of other Ethiopian Jews, from hunger and persecution when she was a small child. She’s the minister for immigration and absorption. Nitzan Horowitz is the first openly gay man to lead an Israeli political party. He’s the health minister. At least one deputy minister, as yet unnamed, is expected to be a member of the Raam party, which is an outgrowth of the major Islamist political group in Israel. . . . Former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper on Israel: As clear and relevant today, two years later, as when he first made the case. Given the awful plight of the Palestinians and — finally — a fresh regime in Israel, maybe further progress can be made toward lifting up the Palestinian people. Read Stephens? Watch Harper? [Hey, Taxpayers! Second Quarterly Estimated Taxes Due Today]
Kudos To The Boss June 12, 2021 You could spend $3,000 for two seats in Row S to see Springsteen on Broadway starting soon at the St. James Theater . . . and I know you’re tempted . . . but I suggest you watch it right now, or at your convenience, free, on Netflix. It’s his life story, it’s poetry, and it’s wonderful. You’re welcome. Global approval of the United States has soared — with 75% of respondents to a Pew Research Center survey in 12 advanced economies expressing confidence in Biden’s global leadership, up from 17% for Trump’s. For those of us who want to be thought well of around the world, it’s heartening. In the eyes of the world — and not just the “s-t hole countries” Trumpers disdain — we’ve begun to make America great again. George Ehlers: “Whenever I see videos like the one you posted Thursday (WE ARE DOOMED) — they were a staple when Jay Leno hosted The Tonight Show — a question arises: Would anyone who answered these questions correctly be shown on the video? Perhaps we are not quite as doomed as all that.” → For sure. That “goes without saying” – but perhaps I should have said it anyway. Thanks, George! Have a great weekend.
Taxes, Israel, And A Bonus June 10, 2021June 9, 2021 TAXES You likely saw that most uber-billionaires pay little or no income tax. I have nothing against these folks for acting rationally and legally. I would, too. My beef is with those who resist taxing them in ways they CAN’T legally avoid. Not because we don’t like and admire most of them, but because – with a country to rebuild — we need them to chip in. This seems a good time to re-plug Tax The Rich: How Lies, Loopholes, and Lobbyists Make the Rich Even Richer (chock full of New Yorker cartoons!), by the Patriotic Millionaires. If you happen to have income above $1 million and/or net worth of $5 million or more, and are patriotic, don’t be shy — join their number. ISRAEL Another viewpoint — from two former Israeli ambassadors. . . . Baruch and Liel say that they “learned firsthand about the reality of apartheid and the horrors it inflicted.” And they relate South Africa to current conditions in the West Bank, where Palestinians are forced on to smaller and smaller tracts of land. . . . BONUS: WE ARE DOOMED https://andrewtobias.com/wp-content/uploads/We-Are-Doomed.mp4
What Would You Have Done? June 9, 2021June 8, 2021 I’m glad Netanyahu is going and deeply hope Israel and the world can find a way to help the Palestinian people not want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Their plight is awful — and their Arab brothers and sisters have done little to help. That said, consider sharing this speech with friends you know who’ve begun to side with Hamas. I assumed it was delivered last week, but sent it to a friend for context. “This is a 7-year old speech by Yair Lapid,” he replied, “the center-left leader who is forming the coalition government to replace Netanyahu. (His coalition partner Naftali Bennett, a right-wing nationalist, is going to be Prime Minister first, for two years, followed by Lapid.) The translation of the title text is Finance Minister Yair Lapid at a ceremony in Germany — the full speech. It’s a good speech, and I admire Lapid. But…how on earth did you come across this? Feels quite random.” Not exactly random. It came yesterday from the same Jewish Trump supporter who sent me Hitler’s photo on my birthday (“You share the same birthday and ideas!”) and whose almost daily emails are — with rare exception — illogical, ill-informed, and/or insulting. This was that rare exception, and I’m grateful for it. We all have so much common ground. And such an urgent need to find it. I’m hoping that the “national conversation” linked to yesterday takes hold. [Lapid’s speech, which asks . . . “what would you have done?” . . . runs 14 minutes, but just 11 if you click YouTube’s “gear” icon and set the speed to 1.25.]
Preserving Democracy; Thwarting Alzheimer’s June 8, 2021June 8, 2021 Professor Snyder’s nightmare (thanks, Tom) concludes: We have to act now. This is what no one wants to hear. We want to believe in American democracy. We want to take pride in new laws, a growing economy, the end of covid. I get all of that. I want to feel that way too. I have not yet figured out how to tell this story. In waking life I feel as I did in the dream, facing those senior citizens. I couldn’t convince a single one of them. And so I just stood in the doorway and kept talking. And woke up in the middle of the night and wrote this. Must read. One way to “act now” — join me here. Another — that costs nothing: sign up for America Talks. Promoted by USA TODAY, America Talks will bring thousands of Americans together across differences to engage in one-on-one, face-to-face (video) conversations designed to increase warmth and decrease fear. We won’t heal America in one weekend, but it’s a great start and will be immediately followed by the fourth annual National Week of Conversation showcasing many additional opportunities for conversations despite differences in bold and energizing ways. Seeded by the #ListenFirst Coalition, we hope many more organizations and individuals will host and participate in conversations during NWOC ’21 (June 14-20). Here’s how America Talks can help save our nation from toxic polarization (thanks, Ed): . . . to those who reject the idea of engaging across differences, I earnestly ask, what’s your endgame? I’ve heard four answers, which I shorthand as delusion, doom, duck and dash. Many of us behave as if one day, we’ll vanquish the other side into oblivion and not have to contend with them or their values any more (delusion). Others have given up hope and think we’re irrevocably destined for another violent civil war (doom). Some have forsaken civic engagement of any kind and secluded themselves with only family and closest friends (duck). Finally, I keep running into people who tell me they have an exit plan from the United States (dash). Instead, how about we lean in together on the only universally plausible, palatable and prosperous path forward? . . . I signed up. ALZHEIMERS You could have aducanumab, the unproven-but-yesterday-approved early-stage Alzheimer’s drug, administered intravenously at enormous cost . . . . . . or . . . you could possibly avoid dementia altogether by exercising a few minutes a week for free (or for $96 a year) with extensively-peer-reviewed BrainHQ. We know what happened to the 700 subjects who exercised 10 hours the first year: ten years from the start of the study, they had a 33% lower incidence of dementia than the 700 who did crossword puzzles. The 700 who did those first-year 10 hours but also a fourth-year 4-hour booster had a 48% lower incidence. What we don’t know: what would the reduction in incidence of dementia be for those who got into the habit of doing, say, 15 minutes every Saturday morning (13 hours a year) every year? Maybe 80%? 90%? Tom Brady swears by it . . . auto insurers have found it reduces accident frequency and severity (sharper reflexes, quicker reaction times) . . . it may help with tinnitus . . . with depression . . . the research just keeps coming in. BONUS For the third year in a row, PBS is airing The Lavender Scare. It’s becoming to Pride Month what It’s a Wonderful Life is to Christmas. Click here for air times.
Seth and Heather: How Times Have Changed June 7, 2021June 6, 2021 Marketing guru Seth Godin: Production values A generation ago, delivering the news was a civic duty. Now it’s a profit center. The quick edits, the crawling text, the noise–it all exists to remind us of a thrilling movie, not of real life. And the clickbaiting reality of online news multiplies that. But real life isn’t like that. An actual house-fire or street demonstration is boring compared to what we’re shown in the media. Does the increase in drama, tension and fear that these production values create produce anything of value? Would it be possible to be an informed citizen without it? Even more so: Is it possible to be an informed citizen WITH it? History professor Heather Cox Richardson: June 5, 2021 Today, Katie Benner of the New York Times broke the story that former president Trump tried to use the Department of Justice to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Five emails provided to Congress show Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, asking the acting attorney general, Jeffrey A. Rosen, in December, to investigate rumors of voter fraud. One of the fantastical stories Meadows wanted investigated was the story that “people in Italy had used military technology and satellites to remotely tamper with voting machines in the United States and switch votes for Mr. Trump to votes for Joseph R. Biden Jr.” The Department of Justice is not the president’s to command. It is supposed to enforce the laws of the United States and administer justice. The office of the president has its own lawyer—the White House counsel—and the president can also have their own personal representation. That Trump tried to use our own Department of Justice to overturn the will of the American voters is eye-popping. But that was not the only news of the day. We also learned that the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, told Trump advisor Steven Bannon on a public show that had he not been able to block a great deal of mail-in voting in 2020, Biden would have won Texas. We also learned that Oregon Representative Mike Nearman, who was already in trouble for opening the doors of the Oregon Capitol to anti–coronavirus restriction rioters on December 21, held a meeting beforehand, on December 16, to plot the event. An attendee filmed the talk, which set up “Operation Hall Pass.” That operation ultimately opened the Oregon capitol building to far-right rioters, who endangered the entire legislature. The video, which shows Nearman winking and nodding at setting up the invasion, has raised questions about whether other Republicans worked with insurrectionists in other settings. It is an odd day for these stories to come to light. Seventy-seven years ago today, on June 5, 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower was preparing to send Allied troops, who fought for democracy, across the English Channel to France. There, he hoped, they would push the German troops, who fought for an authoritarian fascist state, back across Europe, securing a victory for democracy over authoritarianism. More than 5,000 ships waited to transport more than 150,000 soldiers to France before daybreak the following morning. The fighting to take Normandy would not be easy. The beaches the men would assault were tangled in barbed wire, booby trapped, and defended by German soldiers in concrete bunkers. On the afternoon of June 5, as the Allied soldiers, their faces darkened with soot and cocoa, milled around waiting to board the ships, Eisenhower went to see the men he was almost certainly sending to their deaths. He joked with the troops, as apparently upbeat as his orders to them had been when he told them Operation Overlord had launched. “The tide has turned!” his letter read. “The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!” But after cheering his men on, he went back to his headquarters and wrote another letter. Designed to blame himself alone if Operation Overlord failed, it read: “Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.” The letter was, of course, never delivered. Operation Overlord was a success, launching the final assault in which western democracy, defended by ordinary men and women, would destroy European fascism. Until very recently, journalist-murdering, opponent-poisoning autocrats, kleptocrats, and fascists were — for almost all Americans, regardless of party — the enemy. Likewise, anyone assaulting the Capitol or interfering with our elections. The image of an American president publicly siding with such enemies would have been unthinkable. There is an all too real chance America’s experiment with democracy is ending. Here — in eight minutes — is how quickly it happens. In case you’re in a position to help, join me. “Like index funds,” as I suggested last month, “it’s not a very sexy choice. But also like index funds, it’s smarter than what most people do.”
Reinstatement June 5, 2021June 5, 2021 These folks paid $1.3 million for a parking space. Do you ever get the feeling inequality has gotten out of hand? Trump, who expects to be “reinstated” soon, would work to make that inequality worse, enabled by the party of tax cuts for the rich. In case you missed it, here’s everything to need to know about presidential reinstatement. (Thanks, Glenn.)
African Oil And Crypto; Ben Rhodes’ Book June 4, 2021 RECAF: The second well confirms the results of the first. The stock opened at $9.24 before settling back to close at $7.78. Still a triple for us. If you’re now playing with house money, hang on for $30? Or $100? Pete, re yesterday’s post (Bitcoin and Ethereum Are Dead): “What about the fact Bitcoin has been the best performing asset class every year since I think 2013? It’s helping pay for the new house I’m building. Yes I sold almost all of it, almost hit the most recent top too. But I still have some Cardano. Which is helping address fiat currency dysfunction and corruption in inflation ravaged Africa. So there is actual utility.” → I’m not saying you shouldn’t have bought crypto in 2013 . . . just that whoever you sold “almost all” yours to wasn’t as smart to buy it as you were it sell it. (And hurray for Cardano if it is helping Africans.) Repeating from yesterday . . . Take a minute to hear how Hungary went from being a democracy to an autocracy in a single decade. Chillingly relevant. (Read Ben Rhodes’ book?)
Bitcoin And Ethereum Are Dead June 3, 2021June 2, 2021 Or so argues Jared Brock . . . . . . a few decades from now, Bitcoin and Ethereum will be collector items, not the currency of the global economy. Here are eight reasons why: . . . . . . which he follows with . . . People Aren’t Actually “Investing” in Cryptocurrency, They’re Just Gambling “plus they’ve completely lost their ability to discuss it sensibly.” He offers amusing examples. It won’t take long to read both. Crypto, as I’ve suggested, isn’t a hedge against inflation; it’s a bet that the established order will collapse, with government-issued currency worthless when you shop for milk and eggs or a Tesla. Because it’s hard for me to imagine such a world as anything but chaotic and dystopian, I’d rather not bet on it. And what if Tesla suddenly stopped accepting Bitcoin, or China banned it and other governments followed? (And what of the fact that every time you spend cryptocurrency — if it’s gone up — you have a taxable gain to report?) Read Brock and see whether you agree with some of what he has to say. More important, take one minute to hear how Hungary went from being a democracy to an autocracy in a single decade. It is chillingly relevant. Putin and the other journalist-murdering kleptocrats are winning. Trump and his enablers plan to. If you have eight minutes, watch the whole thing.