Author: A.T.

Not even your annuity salesman!

I  know it comes as a shock (well, maybe not so much if you’ve read my book) — I mean, he’s so nice! and you went to college with his sister! — but now comes a report quarterbacked by Senator Elizabeth Warren . . . “Villas, Castles, and Vacations: How Perks and Giveaways Create Conflicts of Interest in the Annuity Industry” . . . that

. . . it is perfectly legal for some advisers to steer customers into complex financial products that will earn the highest rewards, perks and prizes for the advisers – even if they are bad options for their customers. Research suggests that this loophole costs Americans an estimated $17 billion every year.  That’s $17 billion taken out of the pockets of retirees by unscrupulous advisers who are more interested in collecting fees and prizes for themselves than helping families build real security.

Thirteen of the 15 major annuity providers investigated acknowledged providing these incentives.

Which would be okay if the sales person were straigtforward.

“I recommend you go with this one.  It may not offer the best value; but in addition to my commission — which on annuities is big, and why I’m reocmmending them in the first place — if you buy this particular annuity I also stand a really good chance of getting an all-expenses Carribbean vacation.  So what do you say?”

But this is not how annuities are generally pitched.

Don’t forget to watch the Republican debate tonight.

Today is Monday already?  How did THAT happen!  OK . . . so this is for what’s left of it but also for Tuesday because (a) there’s enough here for both and (b) I’m a rebel.

BARNEY

Showtime (free trial!) premiered “Compared To What: The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank” Friday.

The Boston Globe titled its review: “Getting Beyond Neatness: A Look At Barney Frank, In All His Rumpled Glory.”

. . . The story has a neat heroic arc, as Frank, after decades of feeling lonely and fighting tirelessly for the public good, finally finds a happy private life. Some of the best material in “Compared to What,’’ which is directed by Sheila Canavan and Michael Chandler, looks at Frank in his latter days in the House and after his retirement. We see him in a comfortable, low-key relationship with Jim Ready, and we see footage from their 2012 wedding, the first gay nuptials by a sitting member of Congress. The service, which appears to have been as lacking in fussiness as the couple, was officiated by then-Governor Deval Patrick, who had Frank and Ready pledge to love each other “on MSNBC or on Fox’’ and “in Congress or in retirement.’’ It’s a sweet denouement. . . .

The filmmakers emphasize Frank’s adult life, but there are a few notes about his childhood in New Jersey and the way the murder of Emmett Till in 1955 Mississippi mobilized him politically. There are also a few illuminating interviews with Frank’s roommates from his Harvard years, with one admitting he had a crush on Frank. Those interviews attest to the consistency of Frank’s irascible, practical, suffer-no-fools personality.

It is Frank, though, who summarizes himself best of all in the film: “Patience, in my judgment, is not a virtue.’’

Last week, as part of the launch for the film, Gawker hosted Barney and some friends for a Q & A — join the 80 members of the audience and watch it all here — in which it was revealed, among other thngs, that Barney can’t smoke weed so he eats it.

Personally, I think edibles are a terrible idea.  Anyone who can’t inhale should either “vape” — or wait until it’s sold in capsule form with clearly metrics and warnings.  Not in delicious cookies and candies that pose all sorts of potential risks if anyone accidentally leaves them out.

And while I’m on my soapbox, I think pot should be legal for adults everywhere, but that we should drastically restrict any advertising/marketing/promotion.  Sure, adults should be allowed to smoke cigarettes – but was it a good idea to let Philip Morris et al addict billions of people around the world to the leading cause of preventable death?  Sure, adults should be free to consume alcohol, but that doesn’t come without a lot of costs, tragedies, and downsides.

Weed is almost surely the least harmful of the three — tobacco, alcohol, or marijuana — yet it pretty well markets itself. It really doesn’t need advertising, promotion, sampling, product-placement in movies, etc.  We want adults to be free to pursue their own happiness — but do we want smart marketers with giant budgets working to have as many people as possible stoned as much as possible?  I don’t think so.

(And wouldn’t it work to the advantage and credibility of those of us who advocate enlightened drug policy to be kind of prudish when it comes to edibles and to marketing/promotion?  A sort of sensible middle ground more people and politicians can accept?)

HILLARY

Doug Schneller: “Further to your column Thursday, and in case you haven’t seen it, this is an excellent Newsweek summary/primer delving into the actual facts about Benghazi and debunks the various theories alleging a vast conspiracy.  For those who don’t like or trust HRC — or who see the Kenyan socialist as illegitimately holding the presidency — I suspect a careful analysis of the facts may be unpersuasive. Nevertheless, for those who are willing to plow through the article, I think it becomes hard to believe that HRC is culpable.  It’s almost as if Gowdy’s committee is trying to score political points!  Seriously: enough already (I know I’m preaching to the choir). If Gowdy et al. are going to persist in this Kabuki theater, the GOP should at least pick up the tab and pay for the obvious political advertising.”

(And this from Daily Kos regarding Sidney Blumenthal, Svengali and evil genius.)

I spent most of the day watching the hearings.

I wish everyone could have . . . although the country is so polarized, I imagine not a lot of minds would have been changed.  And the people who haven’t already formed a strong opinion, and thus remain persuadable, are probably the least likely to have watched.

In case you missed yesterday’s post, or gave up before clicking the link to the Clinton Foundation / Rwanda story, here it is again.  I know I went way over my allotted time.

Oh!  And, as mentioned, you might want to watch COMPARED TO WHAT: The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank, free at 9 tonight as part of a 30-day trial, even if you don’t normally get Showtime.

Have a great weekend.

In this crazy alternative-universe world the opposition party has created . . . I’d like to say the “loyal opposition” party but am not sure that applies . . .

. . . a world in which Senate leader Mitch McConnell makes the President’s failure his #1 priority and then, years later, asserts in prepared remarks that “by any standard Barack obama has been a disaster for our country” (only in an alternative universe can averting global depression be considered a disaster, not to mention so many other standards*) . . .

. . . a world in which John Kerry, who served bravely in Viet Nam, is mocked for his military service while George W. Bush, who avoided service, is given a pass for that by the G.O.P. (see the Truth about this, starring Robert Redford as Dan Rather) . . .

. . . a world in which Al Gore is mocked for saying he invented the Internet, even though (a) he never said it and (b) “no other elected official,” in the words of the two guys who kind of did invent the Internet, “has made a greater contribution over a longer period of time” . . . serious, important work on this he did as early as the Seventies, long before it was sexy, during which period Bush describes himself as having been “young and irresponsible”** . . .

. . . a world in which we are told that tax cuts for the rich will mainly benefit the poor . . .

. . . and that climate science is a hoax . . .

. . . in this crazy alternative-universe world, we have the eighth Benghazi investigation.

Four Americans died!

We should have eight hundred investigations!  (Or at least 56, like the 56 votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act.)

And believe me, they won’t be motivated by politics!

You can watch Secretary Clinton’s testimony live all day today.

Or you can read here, free, the chapter in Hard Choices that lays it all out.

But what I really hope you may find time to read — because the Republican tactic is to attack our candidates on their strengths to try to turn them into weaknesses — is this not-entirely-laudatory description of the Clinton Foundation’s work, with a special focus on Rwanda.  Because what it says to me is that, in a fiendishly complicated world filled with misery, poverty, disease, and corruption, where not every effort does succeed and not every choice is without trade-offs, the Clintons (and for that matter the Carters and Al Gore) have dedicated their lives since leaving the White House to truly large, important things for humanity.

Yes, you can nit pick and find flaws . . . but I just don’t see the same passion and accomplishment in the post-White House lives of Nixon, Ford, Reagan, the Bushes, Spiro Agnew, Dan Quayle, or Dick Cheney.

For my money, we get more bang for the buck having Democrats in the White House — and yet more bang still after they leave.  I expect we will see the same from Barack Obama and Joe Biden as well.

I remain enthusiastically neutral among all our fine Democratic candidates — Lincoln Chafee would be a far better President, in my view, than any of the Republican candidates — and will do my best to defend any of them when I think they are being unfairly attacked, as Hillary has been over Benghazi.

And whichever one becomes the nominee, you know whom he or she should tap to run with?  This amazing guy.

*This site is also interesting; it lists 309 accomplishments.

**The one time I met former President Bush — who is undeniably charming and well-meaning — I asked whether he remembered a friend of mine who I had been led to believe was a close friend of his at Yale.  In an instant it was clear he did not, but did not want to hurt anyone’s feelings, and without missing a beat he said, “Well, was he drunk for four years?  I might have!”

In this crazy alternative-universe world the opposition party has created . . . I’d like to say the “loyal opposition” party but am not sure that applies . . .

. . . a world in which Senate leader Mitch McConnell makes the President’s failure his #1 priority and then, years later, asserts in prepared remarks that “by any standard Barack obama has been a disaster for our country” (only in an alternative universe can averting global depression be considered a disaster, not to mention so many other standards*) . . .

. . . a world in which John Kerry, who served bravely in Viet Nam, is mocked for his military service while George W. Bush, who avoided service, is given a pass for that by the G.O.P. (see the Truth about this, starring Robert Redford as Dan Rather) . . .

. . . a world in which Al Gore is mocked for saying he invented the Internet, even though (a) he never said it and (b) “no other elected official,” in the words of the two guys who kind of did invent the Internet, “has made a greater contribution over a longer period of time” . . . serious, important work on this he did as early as the Seventies, long before it was sexy, during which period Bush describes himself as having been “young and irresponsible”** . . .

. . . a world in which we are told that tax cuts for the rich will mainly benefit the poor . . .

. . . and that climate science is a hoax . . .

. . . in this crazy alternative-universe world, we have the eighth Benghazi investigation.

Four Americans died!

We should have eight hundred investigations!  (Or at least 56, like the 56 votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act.)

And believe me, they won’t be motivated by politics!

You can watch Secretary Clinton’s testimony live all day today.

Or you can read here, free, the chapter in Hard Choices that lays it all out.

But what I really hope you may find time to read — because the Republican tactic is to attack our candidates on their strengths to try to turn them into weaknesses — is this not-entirely-laudatory description of the Clinton Foundation’s work, with a special focus on Rwanda.  Because what it says to me is that, in a fiendishly complicated world filled with misery, poverty, disease, and corruption, where not every effort does succeed and not every choice is without trade-offs, the Clintons (and for that matter the Carters and Al Gore) have dedicated their lives since leaving the White House to truly large, important things for humanity.

Yes, you can nit pick and find flaws . . . but I just don’t see the same passion and accomplishment in the post-White House lives of Nixon, Ford, Reagan, the Bushes, Spiro Agnew, Dan Quayle, or Dick Cheney.

For my money, we get more bang for the buck having Democrats in the White House — and yet more bang still after they leave.  I expect we will see the same from Barack Obama and Joe Biden as well.

I remain enthusiastically neutral among all our fine Democratic candidates — Lincoln Chafee would be a far better President, in my view, than any of the Republican candidates — and will do my best to defend any of them when I think they are being unfairly attacked, as Hillary has been over Benghazi.

And whichever one becomes the nominee, you know whom he or she should tap to run with?  This amazing guy.

*This site is also interesting; it lists 309 accomplishments.

**The one time I met former President Bush — who is undeniably charming and well-meaning — I asked whether he remembered a friend of mine who I had been led to believe was a close friend of his at Yale.  In an instant it was clear he did not, but did not want to hurt anyone’s feelings, and without missing a beat he said, “Well, was he drunk for four years?  I might have!”

There’s the Barney Frank documentary premiering at 9pm this Friday on Showtime — COMPARED TO WHAT: The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank.  How far we’ve come.  If you don’t get Showtime, stream it for free as part of a free trial?  (Full disclosure: I helped a little to get this made.  And that photo of Barney and the fawn?  Taken in my back yard.  The deer clearly has no idea who Barney is.)

There’s A SINNER IN MECCA that you can now buy or rent on iTunes.  It’s not a load of laughs, but 11 of the 13 Rotten Tomato critics give it a thumbs up.  (Full disclosure: I helped a little to get this made.)

There’s the BENGHAZI HEARING Thursday (the eighth Republican investigation of this tragic event, designed, in the words of almost-House-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, to erode Hillary’s poll numbers) that you can watch live on C-SPAN.  (Full disclosure: though enthusiastically neutral among all our fine Democratic candidates, I agree with Bernie.)

And there’s STEVE JOBS, which you can see today at a theater near you, and which I absolutely loved.  The acting is great; the dialog is unmistakably Aaron Sorkin; and the story — well, depending on our ages, we’ve lived through part, much, or all of it.

Again: how far we’ve come.

I am 10 years old.  I am clueless, but have been taken with four classmates to some after-school workshop where we are told we will that day make our own computers.  We are each given a little piece of peg board, some wire, switches, flashlight bulbs, a battery, and a shared soldering gun.  It was explained that if we did it right, we could make a computer that would add 2 + 2.  And I think I succeeded with mine, sort of — without in any way grasping the larger point.

Now, no longer 10 but still largely clueless, I am at Monday’s 10:30 am showing of STEVE JOBS as my iWatch discreetly vibrates.  A glance at my wrist reveals a message from Apple!  (I am not making this up.)  My iPhone 6S Plus has been delivered.

Can you imagine my grandmother living through the transition from horse-drawn carriages to automobiles and airplanes?  To radio, to car radios, to television?  To antibiotics and . . . air conditioning?

Well, eight years ago there were no smart phones, and thus no apps, and thus no modern (post-modern?) life as we know it.

Eight years.  And it’s only speeding up.

I remember getting a “review copy” of the $2,500 Mac because there was a chance I would write about it or help adapt my DOS-based “Managing Your Money” software to run on it.  (Friday, I got an email that began: “I’ve been using MYM on the Mac since 1989 and continue to do so, even though the last OS it would run under was 10.4.11, about 10 years ago.  I have to continue to buy used computers to run it on and for spares.”)

I remember meeting Steve Jobs late one night in the lobby of the building whose elevator we would share once he moved in.  (He never did, but spent three years renovating it and actually footed the bill for to upgrade that elevator so it would run more quietly.)  We chatted briefly about the building, Apple, and my software.

That minute or two was the sum total of our entire lifelong contact — but what an impact he has had on the way I live. All for the good.  Loved the movie.  What a time to be alive.

Does anyone have a poll of what we Americans think of “Europe?”

I’d love to see it — especially if there are cross tabs breaking it down by party.  My guess is that Republicans, and especially Tea Party Republicans, are more likely to feel disdain for Europe.

Better still if it’s broken down between people who’ve been there versus people who have not.  My guess is that those most disdainful of the way Europeans live have, perhaps, never been there?

Europe turns out to be rather nice.

Anyway, I’m back.

Nice here, as well.

Here’s another free way to enjoy music: pick any year from 1960 to 2013 and have at it.

Who put a nickel into this new season of Saturday Night Live?  You obviously saw a clip of the opening “Democratic debate,” with Larry David playing Bernie — is there anyone in America who hasn’t? — but the whole show was notches above average.

I remember watching the very first SNL four decades ago and, for years, most of the ones that followed.  But it was often hit-or-miss; and eventually I stopped watching much.  This season, so far, it seems smarter and more consistently funny than ever.

John Boehner on gun-safety:  Here.

Asked about whether or not it’s time for Congress to reconsider the research ban on gun violence it instituted on the Centers for Disease Control, House Speaker John Boehner deflected, admitted that Republicans will do nothing to stop gun violence, and said if Democrats want to complain about it, they should have done something when they were in the majority. . . . 

As a reminder, Senate Democrats did try, with the bipartisan Manchin-Toomey bill, to do something, by extending background checks to gun shows and Internet sales. Republicans killed it with a filibuster.

Then there are the bills Democrats introduced in the House that were shuffled off to committee, never to be heard from again. . . .

Remember: John Boehner is the Speaker being ousted, more or less, for being too moderate.

As for the entirely immoderate, Jim Burt writes:  “We really, really need to push back against rhetoric such as Ted Cruz has been spouting about people keeping guns for the purpose of defending against tyranny, which he defines, it seems, as legislation enacted by majority votes, approved by courts, and supported in the polls by large majorities of people.  Such rhetoric needs to be painted as the unpatriotic ravings of radical extremist malcontents – which it is.”

“I don’t think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space.” — Stephen Hawking, 2001.

Terraforming, kids!  You heard it here first.  (Or maybe not; but it was new to me.)

So maybe you’ve wondered why stop lights are red and green — the two colors color-blind people can’t tell apart.  That and other mysteries explained here.  Three unimportant but amusing minutes.  Hey: I’m on vacation.

In Berlin, no less!  Changed a lot since last here, summer of 1963.  Today we’re gonna try to find CheckPoint Charlie.  I assume they’ve memorialized it in some way, along with remnants of the wall; it was very real indeed when my 16- and 17-year-old fellow travelers traversed it.

The train from Amsterdam to Berlin had everything modern, sleek, courteous, quiet, and terrific — but no wifi?  Hey, what’s up with that, DB Bahn?

In Amsterdam, we went to Rembrandt’s house.  He paid 13,000 guilders for it — what we he thinking? — and after 20 or so years there went bankrupt under the burden of the mortgage and upkeep.  Neither Suze Orman or I ever would have allowed it, had he sought our counsel, but Suze was not alive then.  All his stuff was sold off and he moved into a rental apartment.

But while he was there?  Amazing to see the box-bed in which he actually slept.  Apparently, the Dutch thought that if they slept lying flat, blood could rush to their brains in the middle of the night and kill them, so they all slept half sitting up, meaning that the box beds had to be only about four feet long — and were.  Seriously.

We saw the spot Rembrandt actually ate his stew; the spot he actually painted; the top-floor studio where his apprentices painted; the entry-room where he displayed and sold his own work and that of other masters.  (In addition to painting, the man ran an art gallery.)

We saw the room where his assistants made the day’s paint  . . . the master would declare the two or three colors of the day — if they were going to paint trees, they’d make a lot of green . . . blending dirt (for brown) or ground lapis lazuli (for blue) into linseed oil on a large flat stone in a process that a cheerful Dutch woman demonstrated and let us try.  (She showed us some linseeds, as well.)

You can see much of it here.  And Amsterdam, here.  But I warn you: when you do, you will want to visit.

And you should!  The Dutch — like the Scots — could not be more wonderful.

Have a great weekend.

Well, certainly one of them.  Thanks, Mel!

On the train to Berlin . . .

But first Workers Comp.  It seems that the same folks who oppose the minimum wage, legal services for the poor, Medicaid expansion, federal-student-loan refinancing, and unions — but favor cutting the inheritance tax on billionheirs to zero — are now hard at work dismantling Workers Comp.  Texas and Oklahoma have gone first, successfully cutting back compensation to injured workers.  Because, really, why wouldn’t you want to?

Read it here.

The Republican debates are more fun than ours — “you’re ugly!” “no you’re ugly!” — but the stock market and economy do better under Democrats.

• During the 12 Bush years, net private-sector job creation totaled just 747,000 — versus 19.6 million during the Clinton years and 8.6 million so far under Obama — or 12.9 million if you don’t count the first few horrific months he inherited.  So that’s: 747,000 jobs under the 12 most recent years of Republican leadership, as deficits ballooned; 30 million under the 14.5 most recent years of Democratic leadership, as deficits were brought back under control.

• Invested in the S&P 500 only during Republican administrations since 1929, and excluding dividends, $10,000 would have grown to only about $12,000 — versus about $600,000 if invested only during Democratic administrations.

And Democrats want to strengthen — or at least preserve — the Social Safety net.

If you have a heart — or a brain (climate science, anyone?) — or just want more money — you should seriously rethink your allegiance to the billionaire party.

SALMON

Dr. James Merryweather of Auchtertyre:  “Obliquely/whimsically: yesterday here in the Highlands I followed a flower delivery van from Port Glasgow before dropping in on my friend Ross Calderwood (a local bagpipe maker, whose instruments I play) who originally came from Port Glasgow.  [So] I read your column with interest and rapidly homed in on the modest hyperlink in the words ‘– or not.’  So even Andy Tobias has become aware that Scottish Salmon is not all it’s cracked up to be? If he knew what we knew – I think he does – he, like us, would refuse to eat it. Salmon farming (in nets) is the subject that has occupied a small group of us here on Skye for the past three years … and until we get something done about it, probably a lot longer. Some people seem to think we are some sort of ditsy action group, but in reality we’re just a bunch of locals, two of us biologists, who were appalled by threats to our local lochs of aggressive industrial development by companies (mostly Norwegian) who stop at nothing to get their way (we know because we’ve checked), and our government allows it.

“The aspects of salmon farming that concern us most are not really addressed by [your other link].  The consequences of marine pollution and parasitic sea lice concentrated on farmed fish and then transferred in huge numbers onto wild salmon and sea trout, exterminating population of them all along the west Highland coast. There is virtually no salmon or sea trout angling on west coast rivers now because there’s nothing to fish for and all scientific research indicates that that sea lice from fish farms are the cause. There is a solution that eliminates all problems associated with net-cage salmon farming: closed containment in tank systems, which we are energetically recommending. The Canadians are onto it (and the Danish) while small-scale aquaculture-hydroponic systems (‘aquaponics’) have been set up all over the world and only require up-scaling to suit the Norwegian salmon farmers.

“I’d better not write too much, but I can send you to our website: the Scottish Salmon Think-Tank, deliberately named to sound a lot grander than we five retired people really are … yet? If a Norwegian big business can set itself up as the Scottish Salmon Company, then we can mimic them. I think you’d approve of our method: provide the public with facts only and work non-publicly to inform and persuade the authorities (wildlife organisations, local councils, planners, government) rather than waving placards and chanting inane slogans.  We’re trying to inform Britain, and if the message would spread to the USA, all the better.”
☞ Hear, hear.