Heartwarming / Thought-Provoking / Silver Lining — And Despair

We begin with two heartwarming stories, each of which will take you barely a minute to read:

2. George Clooney, from years ago. (Snopes verifies it’s true!)

In case you have time to take a few Harvard courses on government, politics, and democracy — free, on-line — click here.

David Brooks, a mentee of the late William F. Buckley, Jr. (who once took me out for an overnight sail on his little boat — he snored loudly — and who, more importantly to most, was the father of American conservatism), clearly believes the world would be better off if Trump, Vance, Stephen Miller, et al, took those Harvard courses rather than try to destroy Harvard and — as he writes — the moral fiber of our country.

Robert Reich, at the opposite end of the political spectrum from Brooks, agrees.

His column, The End of Trump II, Part 1, is a breezy summary of the last four months.

And if you have time, this recent interview — Reich on the gerontocracy — covers a lot of interesting ground. He discusses his forthcoming book, Coming Up Short, a nod to his height but really a reflection on how our generation (Reich, Trump, Bill Clinton, and yours truly are all the same age) has failed the country.

If we somehow get through Trump 2.0, he says, the silver lining may be that . . .

. . . we will have gained a deeper appreciation of all sorts of things we took for granted. I mean, how often did you have a conversation with anybody before Trump about the rule of law? About habeas corpus? About due process? About the Constitution? I think the Trump regime is bringing us back to first principles. And thinking freshly about why these things are so important, including, obviously, democracy itself. It is, over the long term, going to be very important for all of us.”

DEPT. OF DESPAIR

ParkerVision got a terrible ruling yesterday in its long-running case against Qualcomm that sent the stock down to 30 cents.

On the theory that it’s sometimes darkest before the dawn, I bought more.

Well, not just that theory alone. Two other things:

> A patent-savvy attorney believes the ruling was SO bad — effectively overturning the opinion of the appellate court, which in his whole career he has never seen — that, he thinks, the case may finally get reassigned to a new judge. That would add months or years to the case . . . but if the jury ever does get to hear it, well, that’s one of the two reasons I bought more.

> Also, while Qualcomm’s patent infringement may be the most willful and egregious, PRKR has claims against several other deep pockets in front of an entirely different judge.

Only with money you can truly afford to lose!