Two Harvard Grads Still For Trump January 18, 2021January 18, 2021 I’ve been watching Fran Lebowitz on NETFLIX, listening to Colin Jost on Audible, and reading The Order of the Day. The first two, big fun. The third, in the words of the BBC: “Extraordinary, disturbingly relevant.” (“. . . Goering had had it up to here with those stupid Austrians. Why couldn’t they just leave him the hell alone, already! But Hitler saw things differently. Miklas had better accept that resignation, he screeched, a telephone receiver in each hand. That’s an order! It’s strange how the most dyed-in-the-wool tyrants still vaguely respect due process, as if they want to make it appear as though they aren’t abusing procedure, even while riding roughshod over every convention.”) The other thing I’ve been doing: trying to figure out how to get Still Trumpers to reconsider. It won’t be easy — witness A QAnon ‘Digital Soldier’ Marches On, Undeterred by Theory’s Unraveling. (This particular soldier, a woman in her 50s with a Harvard degree.) These four minutes make you think: which America are we? We are both. But look: Objectively, either Trump did win by a landslide or he didn’t. (He didn’t.) Objectively, either millions of good people were tricked into believing he did or they weren’t. (They were.) Someone has to be correct here. The truth cannot lie “someplace in the middle.” The earth is flat, as almost everyone once believed, or it is round, as almost everyone believes now. The answer isn’t based on an opinion poll — it’s based on what’s true. The people caught up in Trump’s cult truly believe they’re on the right side of all this. I don’t blame them for getting scammed, I blame Trump for scamming them. And all those, like Rupert Murdoch and Ted Cruz and Fox News — and Zuckerberg — who knowingly enabled him. It’s so hard. A college classmate emails that he’s gotten the following from several of his friends over the past few days, and that it sums up how he feels, too: Win, lose or fraud…President Trump. I just want to say thank you for the last four years. Thank you for making it cool to be an American again. [Many of us thought it was cool when, say, we saved ourselves and the world from a deadly Ebola pandemic. Or when we saved ourselves and the world from the global depression on the edge of which it teetered at the end of 2008. Or when we led the world in adopting the Paris Climate Accord.] Thank you for showing us that we don’t need to be under China’s thumb anymore economically, or any other way. [By scuttling Obama’s TPP, we handed China a huge win. Then imposed tariffs on average Americans buying Chinese goods. And drove American farmers to suicide.] Thank you for one of the strongest economies we’ve ever experienced in my lifetime. [Trump is the only president other than Herbert Hoover to have lost jobs on his watch. Fewer jobs were added in his first three years than in Obama’s last three — and Obama did that while bringing the deficit under control, while Trump exploded it even before Covid.] Thank you for all you have done for the minority communities. [If true, why didn’t they vote to re-elect him?] Thank you for making it feel good to love our country and to be a proud patriot again. [Many of us were prouder before Trump began siding with journalist-murdering dictators and making ours the only country on earth to exit the Paris Climate Accord.] Thirteen more thank you’s follow — those are just the first five — for each of which one could offer a different point of view. But my goal is not to get Trump fans to feel about Trump as I do. For me, it would be enough to have my classmate say . . . << Well, he did a lot of good things — and MAYBE some not so good things — but either way, Biden won. In Georgia, the closest of the contested states, the paper ballots were counted and recounted (and recounted again) by Republicans who themselves had hoped Trump would win. >> So, just as the crowd on the Mall at Trump’s Inauguration was NOT “the largest in history” — an objective fact — so, too, sadly, did not enough Trump supporters turn out to reelect him. We shouldn’t be gleeful watching rioters storm the Capitol for the first time since the War of 1812. We shouldn’t cheer as the Confederate Flag is waved inside the Capitol. That’s not the kind of patriotism that will make us stronger or more prosperous. We shouldn’t try to kill Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence . . . or tell people Hillary was running a pedophile ring out of the basement of a pizza parlor that had no basement . . . or tell them that FBI directors can’t be trusted but Putin can . . . or that the Wall Street Journal can’t be trusted but that Q can. Let’s start looking instead for common ground, of which there is just so, so much.
Of Insurrection, Inequality, And Your Stocks January 15, 2021January 15, 2021 FOURTH QUARTERLY ESTIMATED TAX DUE TODAY (unless you’ll be filing your return, with any balance due, by February 1) INSURRECTION This piece argues that what Republicans did shortly after the insurrection was worse: . . . The 139 representatives and eight senators who voted to reject the results of a democratic election, were certainly well mannered—speakers wore formal clothes such as ties and suits rather than the outlandish outfits of the mob. The legislators adhered to time limits rather than putting their feet on desks while hamming it up for photos. But this veneer of respectability makes what happened on the floor more dangerous, by making it harder to recognize as a violation of democracy. The legislators were there to count the votes certified by the states—after months of review by election officials, and after endless court challenges were rebuffed—and, instead, they voted to throw them out. They did this after months of lying to the public, saying that the election had been stolen. They crossed every line a democracy should hold dear. To my knowledge, not one of them has yet apologized or recanted for their participation in what even some Republican senators are openly calling the “big lie.” Some, like Senator Ted Cruz, have tried to cover up their attempt to overturn the election by saying that their constituents (and indeed tens of millions of Americans) believe that the election was stolen, and that they were merely honoring their beliefs. However, it was they, along with the president, who convinced those millions of people that the election was stolen in the first place, and that Joe Biden was not the legitimate president-elect. Convincing people of outright lies does not excuse attempts to pander to those lies later; if anything, it makes the whole act more damning for those who carry it out. . . . Worth reading the whole thing, as our democracy hangs in the balance. As is watching Steve Schmidt’s powerful 4 minutes on Morning Joe. “This undemocratic moment must be met head on.” Joe is a conservative former Republican Congressman; Steve worked to beat Obama in 2008. I don’t buy their politics; but I do buy their patriotism. INEQUALITY If the gains of the last four decades had not skewed so heavily toward the wealthy, would any of this be happening? Economic hardship and inequality are fertilizer for fascism and revolt. It’s time once again to highlight Nick Hanauer’s The Pitchforks Are Coming For Us Plutocrats. The fun part is how he made his fortune, but then it gets serious: . . . Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution. And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last. If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality. In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn’t eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It’s not if, it’s when. . . . What everyone wants to believe is that when things reach a tipping point and go from being merely crappy for the masses to dangerous and socially destabilizing, that we’re somehow going to know about that shift ahead of time. Any student of history knows that’s not the way it happens. Revolutions, like bankruptcies, come gradually, and then suddenly. One day, somebody sets himself on fire, then thousands of people are in the streets, and before you know it, the country is burning. . . . The most ironic thing about rising inequality is how completely unnecessary and self-defeating it is. If we do something about it, if we adjust our policies in the way that, say, Franklin D. Roosevelt did during the Great Depression—so that we help the 99 percent and preempt the revolutionaries and crazies, the ones with the pitchforks—that will be the best thing possible for us rich folks, too. It’s not just that we’ll escape with our lives; it’s that we’ll most certainly get even richer. The model for us rich guys here should be Henry Ford, who realized that all his autoworkers in Michigan weren’t only cheap labor to be exploited; they were consumers, too. Ford figured that if he raised their wages, to a then-exorbitant $5 a day, they’d be able to afford his Model Ts. What a great idea. . . . the fundamental law of capitalism must be: If workers have more money, businesses have more customers. Which makes middle-class consumers, not rich businesspeople like us, the true job creators. Which means a thriving middle class is the source of American prosperity, not a consequence of it. The middle class creates us rich people, not the other way around. On June 19, 2013, Bloomberg published an article I wrote called “The Capitalist’s Case for a $15 Minimum Wage.” Forbes labeled it “Nick Hanauer’s near insane” proposal. And yet, just weeks after it was published, my friend David Rolf, a Service Employees International Union organizer, roused fast-food workers to go on strike around the country for a $15 living wage. Nearly a year later, the city of Seattle passed a $15 minimum wage. And just 350 days after my article was published, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray signed that ordinance into law. How could this happen, you ask? It happened because we reminded the masses that they are the source of growth and prosperity, not us rich guys. We reminded them that when workers have more money, businesses have more customers—and need more employees. We reminded them that if businesses paid workers a living wage rather than poverty wages, taxpayers wouldn’t have to make up the difference. And when we got done, 74 percent of likely Seattle voters in a recent poll agreed that a $15 minimum wage was a swell idea. . . . That was seven years ago. Joe Biden is calling for a national $15 minimum wage. Nick is looking as prescient as he does now for having seen the possibilities, years ago, for a start-up on-line bookseller he funded called Amazon. But the point is . . . ironically, those who stormed the Capitol worship someone — Trump — who’s made the inequality worse, backed by a party that sees tax-cuts-for-the-rich as the solution to almost any problem. Somehow, he’s managed to get them to believe that, despite all evidence, “he alone can fix it.” He paid someone to take his SATs He lied to avoid the military He stiffed creditors with multiple bankruptcies He stiffed contractors and exploited workers He took a full-page ad calling for the death of 5 black teenagers, expressing no regret when it was proven they were innocent He was fined $25 million for the conduct of his “University” He was fined $2 million for the conduct of his “charity” He cheated on his taxes He bragged about “grabbing pussy” He watched gleefully from the White House as the Capitol was being sacked by a mob out to murder senators and representatives and keep him in office But so mesmerizing can a demagogue be — so powerful and enduring can a Big Lie become (his landslide victory was stolen!) — that, well, here we are. Oh! And the Dow is near its all-time high! Which brings me to . . . YOUR STOCKS I’ve recently become a fan of Jim Scurlock’s blog (examples here, subscribe here) and found this one from a couple of days ago sobering: Since it’s been mentioned here—more than once!—that every signal of a market top is upon us, an accounting seems in order: · Stock indexes are all at record highs—not just nominally but also as a multiple of both earnings and quantitative value. · Last year was the busiest year for IPOs since 2000, and this week at least eight new companies are poised to hit the market. BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) fintech Affirm, the most well-known of the group, lost over $112 million in 2020 and has just been priced at $12 billion. Which, naturally, is above expectations. · There is a pronounced deterioration of quality in new issues, i.e. they’re younger and less profitable than ever. · Financial engineering, aka manipulation, has become too blatant to hide. Many companies have over-leveraged in pursuit of juicing short-term earnings per share while the popular SPAC—aka blank-check company—scheme is a classic symptom of a market gone crazy. Ten SPACs are scheduled to go public this week alone, which kind of suggests that their backers realize time is of the essence. If you know what I mean! · Stock options volume was up 70% last year, and actually accelerated into December. At the same time, there is evidence that stock options trades are far less profitable than they have been historically. · Interest rates are already maxed out at zero, so all the Federal Reserve can do to boost stock prices is inject money directly into the markets. However, there is no longer anything the Fed can do to boost profits. · Name games, not prevalent since before the dot-com collapsed, have resurfaced. Nikola is a prime example, chosen for its association with Tesla. Also there’s a SPAC whose symbol is LMFAO. · Performance funds, i.e. funds that buy growth stocks regardless of price, are in vogue. · A record number of foreign companies, many Chinese domiciled in the Caymans, are going public on U.S. exchanges. · Momentum, i.e. the belief that the higher stocks go the safer they become, is once again the market’s reigning dogma. · A lot of smart money is staying out. See: Warren Buffett, private equity, etc.. · Scarcity trades, most notably in crypto-currencies and real estate, have surged as investors chase yield in the riskiest of places. · Day-trading in new and unproven technologies is rampant. AI, biopharma, EVs and solar/alternative energy are all areas where unsophisticated investors are placing bets. Even if the technology itself is proven—and in many cases it is not—the profitability of all of these technologies remains in question. · Facts are being constructed in order to fit conclusions, none more striking than a fictional relationship between (temporary) interest rates and stock prices. · GM shares hit an all-time high yesterday because its CEO announced a flying Cadillac. Full stop. Have a great weekend!
Meanwhile . . . January 14, 2021January 14, 2021 . . . as history scarily unfolds, the future could be so bright. Two recent examples: mRNA Vaccines Could Vanquish Covid Today, Cancer Tomorrow. And other diseases as well. Battery storage is going mainstream, big-time. Which makes solar and wind all the more practical. This is big stuff! Yes, the journalist-murderers have been winning. Putin has brought us to the verge of civil war and potentially controls many of our most important computer networks. Kim can now nuke U.S. cities. MBS dismembered a Washington Post journalist without presidential recrimination. So much damage has been done these past four years. So many Americans are struggling and suffering. (Except the rich, of course.) Yet it’s just possible better days lie ahead. It’s so obvious what we need to do! Vaccinate everyone willing to be protected from Covid. Restore competence and integrity to our federal government. Put millions to work revitalizing our nation’s infrastructure (including highspeed rural broadband). Enact the immigration reform passed 68-32 in 2013 to welcome the talent, energy, and drive of people in search of better lives. Rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. Rejoin our democratic allies. Renew our advocacy of human rights, our opposition to autocracy and corruption. Restore dignity and decency to the Oval Office. Raise the minimum wage (adjusting for geographical cost of living). And more, ranging from depoliticizing the Court . . . to enacting “H.R.1” (its long list of election and ethical reforms well worth your review) . . . to making it easier for moderates to compete successfully in primary elections . . . to allowing the refinancing of student debt . . . to adding 1% to the corporate tax rate if a company’s highest-paid employee gets more than 50 times the pay of its median employee (on up to an extra 5% if the pay differential exceeds 500 times). Let’s find common ground and get to work. Onward and upward. Sure beats hating each other and trying to overthrow the government.
Ronald Reagan Speaks January 13, 2021January 12, 2021 But first . . . Whoever sent this hurtling around social media made, I think, a helpful point: Huge numbers of our population believe in a complete alternate reality. Alternate facts as it were. But just as intensely as I believe they are deluded, they think I am the one who is deluded. Maybe I am. So how can I be confident in my perception? It can be quite difficult. But I have found that in times of political confusion, particularly when emotions are running high and creating tunnel vision, the presence of Nazis can be an extremely helpful indicator. If I am attending a local demonstration or event and I see Nazis . . . neo-Nazis, casual Nazis, master race Nazis, or the latest-whatever-uber-mythology-Nazis, I figure out which side they are on. And if they are on my side of the demonstration? I am on the wrong side. It is tough to argue moral equivalence when I am standing next to a Nazi. Look to my right. Is there a guy wearing a 6MWE (6 million weren’t enough) t-shirt? I am on the wrong side. Look to my left. If that guy is wearing a Camp Auschwitz t-shirt? Wrong side. Wrong side. Team-spirit face paint and hat with animal horns? This is actually an unclear indicator that could mean anything, but safest to keep my distance from that guy anyway, even at a football game. However, I can always, always, always rely on the presence of Nazis as a guiding light through a fog of disinformation. Some things are relative, and politics can absolutely have its opposing sides and grey areas. But evil and good are absolute. So, just look for the Nazis, and make your own decisions. Trump supporters are not all neo-Nazis by any stretch — obviously — any more than all animals are rattlesnakes. But all neo-Nazis are Trump supporters. And proud of it. Another proud Trump supporter: Mr. Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife, as outlined here. And now . . . Not that Ronald Reagan, his son. Speaking to Conan O’Brien the day after the insurrection. If you have time for a podcast, it’s a good one.
What Do Adelson and Netanyahu Think? January 12, 2021 “The storming of the Capitol in Washington is a wake-up call for states around the world, writes the mayor of London.” . . . Many around the world have long warned that it could end this way, or worse. Trump followed the playbook of the fascist dictators and strongmen that came to power in the 1930s and 40s. Trump pitted his own citizens against each other. He preyed on genuine economic suffering. He lied to stoke fear of those who are different. He denied basic scientific facts about Covid-19 and refused to act to save lives and jobs. He separated children from their parents. He used people’s religion as a reason to ban them from coming to the US. He gave equivalence to far-right racists and anti-racist protesters. He denigrated women and denied many the right to choose what they do with their body. And he also undermined and delegitimised the fundamental pillars of democracy – equality under the law, the freedom of the press, an independent judicial system and, ultimately, even elections themselves. Tragically, the warnings were deliberately ignored by too many supposedly mainstream politicians, commentators and observers around the world, including here in the UK. Some greedily eyed an opportunity for their own advancement, which they valued more than the long-term health of democracy. Others were simply too scared of the consequences of doing the right thing and challenging the ugly new populist and nativist political movements that Trump spawned. . . . Worth reading in full. As you know, Trump’s dad was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan rally. Trump himself — not a big reader — kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside. And called torch-carriers chanting “Jews will not replace us” “very fine people.” Among the visuals at Trump’s rally last week were Confederate flags and 6MWE sweatshirts. “Go home, we love you, you’re very special,” he later chastised those attempting to overthrow the election and possibly kill the Vice President and Speaker of the House. In case you didn’t know, 6MWE is short for “6 Million Weren’t Enough.” I’m wondering what Trump backers Sheldon Adelson and Benjamin Netanyahu think about that. If you missed Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday, watch. He is a Republican who knows fascism when he sees it — and he is angry Here’s Stephen Colbert’s take from that night, in case you’re not one of the 10 million who have already seen it. He’s angry, too. You know who else is angry? Joy Reid. If you have friends or relatives annoyed with the Black Lives Matter movement — “because all lives matter” — share her two minutes. Just as the 1964 murders of Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney and the 1965 brutality televised from the Edmund Pettus Bridge opened the eyes of millions of decent white people to realities it had been more comfortable not to notice, so may the events of January 6 open the eyes of millions of Trump supporters. You don’t have to share Democratic views to hate fascism, dishonesty, indecency, cruelty and treason. Attacking the United States Capitol and threatening the lives of its occupants is treason.
Post Trump, Post Truth January 10, 2021 But first . . . You simply must watch this. It will uplift, make clear, and reassure. Three cheers for Arnold Schwarzenegger. Also . . . The “West Wing Reunion” on HBO Max reminds us what America should be. It’s interrupted not by commercials for auto insurance but by exhortations to vote.* Given the level of talent involved — Michelle Obama, Rob Lowe, Lin Manuel Miranda, Allison Janney, Aaron Sorkin, Bradley Whitford, and more — the exhortations are both entertaining and compelling. It was staged as a benefit for When We All Vote. (If you don’t have time to watch, or HBO Max, this story will give you the gist.) If there’s a young child or grandchild in your life, buy her or him one of these Future Voter t-shirts! And now . . . Timothy Snyder in the indispensable New York Times on “The American Abyss“: . . . Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump has been our post-truth president. . . . Like historical fascist leaders, Trump has presented himself as the single source of truth. His use of the term “fake news” echoed the Nazi smear Lügenpresse (“lying press”); like the Nazis, he referred to reporters as “enemies of the people.” Like Adolf Hitler, he came to power at a moment when the conventional press had taken a beating; the financial crisis of 2008 did to American newspapers what the Great Depression did to German ones. The Nazis thought that they could use radio to replace the old pluralism of the newspaper; Trump tried to do the same with Twitter. Thanks to technological capacity and personal talent, Donald Trump lied at a pace perhaps unmatched by any other leader in history. For the most part these were small lies, and their main effect was cumulative. To believe in all of them was to accept the authority of a single man, because to believe in all of them was to disbelieve everything else. Once such personal authority was established, the president could treat everyone else as the liars; he even had the power to turn someone from a trusted adviser into a dishonest scoundrel with a single tweet. Yet so long as he was unable to enforce some truly big lie, some fantasy that created an alternative reality where people could live and die, his pre-fascism fell short of the thing itself. Some of his lies were, admittedly, medium-size: that he was a successful businessman; that Russia did not support him in 2016; that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. Such medium-size lies were the standard fare of aspiring authoritarians in the 21st century. In Poland the right-wing party built a martyrdom cult around assigning blame to political rivals for an airplane crash that killed the nation’s president. Hungary’s Viktor Orban blames a vanishingly small number of Muslim refugees for his country’s problems. But such claims were not quite big lies; they stretched but did not rend what Hannah Arendt called “the fabric of factuality.” One historical big lie discussed by Arendt is Joseph Stalin’s explanation of starvation in Soviet Ukraine in 1932-33. The state had collectivized agriculture, then applied a series of punitive measures to Ukraine that ensured millions would die. Yet the official line was that the starving were provocateurs, agents of Western powers who hated socialism so much they were killing themselves. A still grander fiction, in Arendt’s account, is Hitlerian anti-Semitism: the claims that Jews ran the world, Jews were responsible for ideas that poisoned German minds, Jews stabbed Germany in the back during the First World War. Intriguingly, Arendt thought big lies work only in lonely minds; their coherence substitutes for experience and companionship. In November 2020, reaching millions of lonely minds through social media, Trump told a lie that was dangerously ambitious: that he had won an election that in fact he had lost. This lie was big in every pertinent respect: not as big as “Jews run the world,” but big enough. The significance of the matter at hand was great: the right to rule the most powerful country in the world and the efficacy and trustworthiness of its succession procedures. The level of mendacity was profound. The claim was not only wrong, but it was also made in bad faith, amid unreliable sources. It challenged not just evidence but logic: Just how could (and why would) an election have been rigged against a Republican president but not against Republican senators and representatives? Trump had to speak, absurdly, of a “Rigged (for President) Election.” . . . The full essay — with photographs — is worth your time. Friday’s reference to abortion troubled some of you. I updated it with a footnote that I hope shows respect for those concerns. *”You ask a kid why they didn’t vote and they’ll tell you: they don’t care about politics. All politicians are the same, and they’re above it. So let’s run down a quick list. Do you hope to have a job one day? You care about politics. Do you have a student loan or credit card debt? You care about politics…”
Mark Twain Weighs In January 8, 2021January 10, 2021 “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them they’ve been fooled.” — Mark Twain Ain’t it the truth. The people who stormed the Capitol thought they were doing a good thing. It’s not they who bear most of the blame; it’s those who fooled them. If following the wishes of your country’s elected leader isn’t the right and patriotic thing to do (many Germans must have felt) — what is? Likewise . . . if inciting insurrection against your own country isn’t an impeachable offense — what is? I’ve been noting for five years that Trump — not a big reader — kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside. There’s nothing illegal about that; or, for that matter, about admiring Hitler, as some Americans do. There is nothing illegal about Trump’s affinity for autocrats. Or about his holding rallies denouncing the free press as “enemies of the people” and wishing he could “punch [people] in the face.” But I do think it’s illegal to incite insurrection. The second of these four Lincoln Project ads released yesterday is particularly good: Terrorist Biden Speech Abe sees you @HawleyMO Jim Crow Caucus We have to get past demonizing each other. Can’t we come together to demonize . . . or at least criticize . . . Trump instead? Even the New York Post and Wall Street Journal have begun to do that. One can be for favoring the rich and forcing women to carry their rapists’ babies* — yet still oppose dishonesty, incompetence, corruption, sociopathy, and malignant narcissism. No? On most issues, isn’t there a sensible center in which to meet? > Honor Thomas Jefferson with a statue for declaring the self-evident truth “that all men are created equal,” even though he himself owned slaves — while removing statues that honor those who fought against the United States to preserve slavery? > Work to make abortion rare — while keeping it safe and legal? > Respect the Second Amendment — while enacting gun safety laws that even a wide majority of NRA members support? Focus on the many places we agree? (Infrastructure!) GLDD: I sold most of mine at $14.72 yesterday. For the patient — check out this post from 14 years ago — it has worked out well. With infrastructure likely at last to receive major appropriations, the nation’s leading dredging company seems finally to have caught investors’ fancy. Sometimes that’s a good time to exit — though I wouldn’t be amazed to see the stock continue to rise. Have a great weekend. *[UPDATE] Some of you felt this language was over the top. But quite a few of our fellow citizens — including some in Congress — earnestly believe that human life begins at conception and that to take that life — no matter who fathered it or how — is murder. So I don’t think it’s a strawman. Either way, my point is simply that we can have passionate deep disagreement on some things . . . yet agree unanimously that honesty, kindness, competence and sanity beat their alternatives. And that we can find common ground and compromise on at least some things. And that we should try.
Imagine . . . January 7, 2021January 7, 2021 . . . what a second term might have been like. . . . how massive and brutal yesterday’s response would have been if the insurrectionists had been black. . . . that Congress impeaches, convicts, and removes Trump this morning before he can invoke the Insurrection Act or God knows what else. Can they possibly believe he is honoring his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution? . . . a president and administration marked by dignity, decency, competence, experience, integrity, and a profound desire to make the world better for those less fortunate than they. That’s what we will shortly have, especially now that Democrats will chair the confirmation hearings. It is epic good news for the country and the world. Thanks to so many of you who helped make it happen. We just have to get through the next 13 days.
Will On Pence January 6, 2021January 6, 2021 George Will does not write at an eight-grade level (my favorite level — Tom Sawyer! Robinson Crusoe! To Kill A Mockingbird!) but his columns are always worth the effort. Halfway through this one, he offers a 20-second video of the Vice President’s “canine devotion” to Trump that, Will archly notes, “is a sufficient Pence biography.” It is 20 seconds long only because it repeats the 10-seconds. Tomorrow, Will concludes, “the members of the Hawley-Cruz cohort will violate the oath of office in which they swore to defend the Constitution from enemies ‘foreign and domestic.’ They are its most dangerous domestic enemies.” Mike Watts: “Jimmy Carter: Rock And Roll President re-airs on CNN at 10 PM (EST) this Saturday — FREE!” “Set your VCR,” as we used to say. If you like Dylan and the Allman Brothers, John Wayne, Aretha Franklin, Dolly, Willie Nelson, Jimmy Buffett and a story of good old-fashioned church-going Georgia values, you’ll enjoy it. Thanks, CNN. Has Georgia broken Washington’s gridlock so we have a chance of coming together to do things most Republicans and Democrats want? Like putting millions of Americans to work at good jobs revitalizing our infrastructure? Allowing millions to refinance their federal student loans at today’s low interest rates? Enacting sensible gun safety measures? (Even NRA members strongly favor those!) As we wait to see, read George Will — and set your VCR.
I Owe You $5 January 5, 2021January 5, 2021 If you failed to click yesterday’s “widely despised” Ted Cruz link and feel you deserve a little good old-fashioned Tuesday morning fun, click it now. I owe you $5 because I failed to alert you to Jimmy Carter: Rock And Roll President that aired free on CNN Sunday night. And now I want you to rent it for $4.99. As all eyes are on Georgia today, it was particularly apt: a peanut farmer from Plains who grew up without indoor plumbing or electricity and went on to become a moral beacon to the world. Whose pals and admirers included Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Gregg Allman, Dolly Parton, Dizzy Gillespie, Aretha Franklin — even John Wayne makes an appearance. The film reminds us — as listening to Barack Obama’s A Promised Land does or as listening to Bill Clinton’s or Al Gore’s or Hillary’s and now Joe’s speeches do — just how extraordinary those who’ve won the popular vote to be our president can be. All of them sharing a deep concern for mankind. Can we say the same of Mitch McConnell? Sorry about the $5.