My New Website

Hello! Hello!

Well, I have finally broken down and created a fer-real website for myself. It is still very much a work in progress, and far from complete, but you can see the beginnings of it here: MichaelJayTucker.com.

Moi

As I say, still in a work in progress, and please forgive me if I can't make something work (like responding to any notes you send me in short order). But, I'm doing my feeble best :-)

And, I promise, someday I will hire a professional to actually make it look good. But, in the meantime, at least it’s up and running.

Give it a glance!

cheers
mjt

Stupidity Prime

I’m a great fan of expertise. I mean, I love to see someone who is just tops in their field at work.

That includes stupidity.

No. Really. If you’re going to do something stupid, well, by Golly, by George, and by Gum, it should be just positively brain-rattlingly stupid. No little silly dimwittedness of the sort that Mother Used To Make. No. It ought to be devastatingly dumb. I mean, in the kiloton class of sheer brain-deadedness.

Warning: Extreme Stupidity Ahead

For example...

In case you missed it, there was a remarkable story out of Baltimore on Monday, June 22, 2020. It seems that a restaurant in that city denied entrance to a mother and her son (he was about nine) on the grounds that the boy was not properly dressed. He had on, you see, shorts, a t-shirt, and athletic shoes. They were also African-American.

The kicker? A white boy of the same age, wearing pretty much the same clothing, had just been served.

The African-American mother used her phone to video her interaction with a member  of the restaurant’s staff...and posted the video to the web. Naturally, it all hit the fan and the owner of the restaurant, Atlas Restaurant Group, had to go into serious damage control mode and has been apologizing like an Evangelical homophobic minister caught in a four-way with two himbos, a hardhat, and a thirty gallon drum of cream cheese. The herby kind.

Now, if you haven’t seen the video, you ought to give it a look (links below), because it is a work of art. In it, the restaurant employee achieves a level of dimness that must be seen to believed. It is a virtuoso performance. One for the ages! The man is unbending, seemingly smug, and utterly unconcerned about the fact that his every word is being recorded for posterity.

You find yourself wanting to take the guy to one side and saying, Dude... dude!...don’t you get it?  That video is going to be on Facebook before the end of the day. It’s going to be all over the world. You’re going to have your fifteen minutes of fame...as Raging Asshole of the Month. And, oh, btw, you just got fired. Maybe not right now. But soon.

To give the poor chap the benefit of a doubt, maybe it wasn’t his idea. Maybe he was just following orders from his manager. But he was still dumb as a box of rocks to do it and he is still going to take the fall for it, whoever was responsible.

So, really, really stupid...

But also, there’s a point here. We are now in an age when you must assume that any interaction is going to be recorded. Which is scary for all of us. But, also, anyone ... particularly anyone dealing with customers who may be members of minorities...is going to have to assume that anything...anything at all!...which remotely looks like racism is going to be seen. And, it will be fatal for your career.

And this is going to be hard for us to learn. (I include myself in that.  Though I’ll do my best.) What worries me, though, is not head waiters...no matter how pompous or foolish...but others, who may be much harder to teach.

Like the military, like the police, like...indeed...

The president.

*

Until next time, onward and upward.



Sources:

“Baltimore restaurant apologizes to Black woman, son after denying them service over clothes,” USA Today, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/23/baltimores-atlas-restaurant-sorry-denying-service-black-boy/3240818001/

“A restaurant denied service to a Black boy for his clothes, but video shows a White boy, dressed similarly, was allowed,” CNN, https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/23/us/ouzo-bay-baltimore-restaurant-denies-service-to-black-boy-trnd/index.html

~~~



About me: I’m a writer and former journalist who has published material on everything from computers to the Jazz Age. (Among my small claims to fame is that I interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Just a quick note from Xcargo

Hi, Everyone,

Just a quick note, today. I am making some changes very soon in my blog, explosive-cargo.

As you know, I’ve been doing Xcargo now as a blog for several years. Lately, I’ve been trying to do one post a day. I haven’t always been successful in that, but I’ve been doing my best.

It's a'coming

However, those of you who have been very long term readers will know that originally, way back when, it was an ezine...that is, a “zine” that went out via email to anyone who wanted it. I also only did one posting a week.

Well, I’m thinking about heading back that way again. First, I’m going to start posting only once a week. There is no sense in my writing unless I’ve actually got something to say, and there’s more of a chance of my having a point if I am active only once a week. (What do you say? A posting every Saturday? Give me your thoughts.)
 
Second, I may actually be moving back again toward the ezine model. I’m still just toying with the idea, but I’m thinking about it. I love the blog format, but, frankly, it doesn’t have the immediacy of an email. So, maybe...we’ll try the ezine scene again. I’ll let you know if I go that direction, and I’ll let you know how you can subscribe.

Third, and finally, Xcargo is always going to be political. But, I’m hoping to move it back a little bit toward what the column was like when I started it -- i.e., a little more lighthearted. Right now, I think we all need a little more lightness of heart.

Anyway, that’s the news. I will be posting here until (and if) I get to doing an ezine again. So, keep in touch.

cheers
mjt

Because We Can't Have Politics All The Time -- My Last Duchess

Like it says, we can't have politics 24/7. Bad for your digestion.

So here's one of my recent attempts at reading aloud.

Trump's Walk Of Shame

You may have already seen this, but if you haven't, check it out. Trump's walk of shame...

This is from  Joey DeVilla's Youtube page:

The Next Nightmare: Sino-Indian War

So, of course...

So far, in 2020, we’ve had Coronavirus, riots in the streets,  killings of police, killings by police, international humiliation, recession, quarantines, idiots with guns protesting quarantines, global warming, murder hornets, brushfires the size of countries, wars in the Middle east, Earthquakes, floods, locusts in East Africa, terrorist attacks, airliners blown up by trigger happy Iranians, Brexit, and, oh, yes, Donald Trump is still in the White House.

So what’s next?

Why, of course, border clashes between India and China, both of whom have nuclear weapons. Naturally. Who could have doubted it? Just what we need.

I’m pretty sure they’ll work it out, eventually. Neither of them exactly wants war.

But, on the other hand...

Just fyi, if any more of the four horsemen show up, I’m moving to Mars.

A Bold Fashion Statement

***

About me: I’m a writer and former journalist who has published material on everything from computers to the Jazz Age. (Among my small claims to fame is that I interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Guns & Blood In ABQ

This happened in Albuquerque on Monday. There was a protest in what’s called “Old Town,” which is the historical center of the city, and is now a major tourist destination. The protest was about a statue of the Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate (1550-1626). This gentleman is controversial to say the least. He was an early governor of New Mexico, and was an explorer of much of what is now the Southwestern United States.

But...he was not particularly gentle. Among other things, he was responsible for the massacre of about 500 native Americans at Acoma Pueblo. He also ordered many of the survivors of the massacre mutilated (all men over 25 lost a foot) and then deported to Mexico City where they were sold into slavery. In fact, he was so brutal that when King Philip of Spain heard about the events at Acoma, he had Oñate recalled from New Mexico, never to return.

Thus, the statue of him in Old Town has always been a bit of a sore point for the Native Americans of New Mexico, and for their allies. So, on 15 June, a group of them gathered at Old Town and called for the statue to be removed, the way that statues of Confederate soldiers are being removed from the South, and those of slave traders are being hauled away in the U.K.

However...

A private militia group calling itself the “New Mexico Civil Guard” also arrived at the site. They were very heavily armed and, according to news reports, began intimidating the protestors with their weapons.

What happened after that is still unclear, but apparently there was some sort of a scuffle between the protestors and one or more of the militia members. It seems that one of the militia men threw a woman, presumably a protestor, to the ground. Then, the crowd moved in on the militia man. He then did exactly what you’d expect. He pulled out his gun and used it.

As of yesterday, the report was that one man ...a protestor...had been shot and was in the hospital in “critical but stable” condition.

The Albuquerque Police...bless them!...swooped in and arrested the militia members.  The shooter has been booked on charges of aggravated battery.

Now, why am I telling you all this? Because, for one thing, Albuquerque is my home town. I don’t live there right now, but I did for several years. And so I’m particularly interested in what goes on in the city.

And, for another...because I’m been saying for years that the presence of heavily armed “militias,” like the ones that invaded state legislatures during anti-quarantine demonstrations, are incompatible with democracy...and that it was only a matter of time before the militia members started trying to kill their opponents. Which means liberals, Democrats, Never Trump Republicans, and anyone else that they just don’t like.

Which means, this incident, if nothing else, is proof positive of my thesis...

When all this is done and said, and Trump is out of the White House, the next thing we must do is think long and hard about the fact that the Right has decided it is okay to use weapons against their fellow Americans in political disputes.

And we must decide what to do about that.

Before it is far too late.

Sources:

"Armed ‘militia’ members arrested, gunman identified after man is shot at Albuquerque protest," Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/16/albuquerque-militia-shooting-protest/

‘Horrified and disgusted beyond words’, Albuquerque Journal, https://www.abqjournal.com/1466626/one-man-shot-during-protest-in-old-town-albuquerque.html

***

About me: I’m a writer and former journalist who has published material on everything from computers to the Jazz Age. (Among my small claims to fame is that I interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

A LGBTQ Victory...and a terror

I read today that The Supreme Court has said that Gay and Transgender people cannot be subject to discrimination in the workplace because of their sexual orientation. This is a tremendous victory for the LGBTQ community and may shape the law regarding sexual minorities for years yet to come.

It was also reassuring, because two conservatives voted with the liberals on the bench. This means that the Supreme Court is not yet a rubber stamp for Trump and/or religious zealots.

But that’s today, and there is a warning here that we should heed. If Trump wins a second term, then he will almost certainly be able to stack the Court with his own servile favorites--men and women who would happily support laws criminalizing homosexual and other “non-standard” behaviors. 

The point? We have absolutely got to make sure that Trump does not occupy the White House for another term. We must make every effort to vote him out, before he gets a chance to shape the Court in his own twisted image for years to come.

So, come November, remember, get to the polls. Vote! And vote against Trump.

Do it for the memory of all those who have been fired, or hurt, or even killed...

Just for the way that their hearts moved them to love.

I love this...Covid Humor

This is funny...

Too true, but funny...

View this post on Instagram

#maga #fluklutzklan #flukluxclan

A post shared by Being Liberal (@beingliberal) on Apr 21, 2020 at 6:00pm PDT

John Bolton: All American Chump

So John Bolton is finally just about ready to publish his kiss-and-tell book about the Trump Administration. According to news media reports, in it, he says that not only should Trump have been impeached for his role in Ukraine, but also he could have been removed for similar offenses in incidents all over the world. Ukraine was just one of many.

But, Bolton elected not to co-operate with the investigation into his boss, and waited to reveal the good stuff in his book, long after the impeachment process was dead and buried in the GOP-controlled Senate.

In a word, WTF?

Now he tells us?

Well, that’s three words, actually, but you get the point. If Bolton is telling the truth, and there’s no reason to doubt him, and if he had spoken up sooner, and helped remove Trump from the White House, then he might well have spared the country untold suffering. Who knows? Maybe he would even have saved lives. If competent authorities had been running things, maybe we wouldn’t have had so terribly, terribly many people die of Covid-19.

But Bolton didn’t act. And the country suffered. And many thousands died.

Which brings up an interesting question. To wit, where does being a witness leave off, and being an accessory to murder begin?

***

About me: I’m a writer and former journalist who has published material on everything from computers to the Jazz Age. (Among my small claims to fame is that I interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

We Won’t Defund The Police

I’m going to be blunt. We aren’t going to defund the police and saying that we will is either naive or irresponsibly incendiary.  And the reason we won’t defund the police or disband them is that we need them.

Every society, no matter how Utopian, has its share of bad apples. So long as humans are humans, with all the limitations there-of, we will have among us criminals, bullies, trouble makers, vandals, domestic abusers, and, yes, murderers. And so we will always have a need for someone to control such people.

Ergo, to say that we will do without them is as silly as saying that we’ll have no more fire-fighters because, in a truly enlightened society, there will be no flames.

What we can do, though, is revamp and reform the police so that they and the community are thoroughly intertwined. If we can do that...if we can make certain that police officers are recruited from every walk of life...if we can make “community policing” the norm...if, each time a demonstrator, or even just a pedestrian, confronts an officer of the law, both people in the equation see the other’s humanity....

Then, at last, we have obtained a form of law and order which is also compassionate and kind.

With justice For All

About me: I’m a writer and former journalist who has published material on everything from computers to the Jazz Age. (Among my small claims to fame is that I interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

George Floyd and Derek Chauvin Knew Each Other!

Whoa! If you haven’t already seen it, check this out. George Floyd and Derek Chauvin actually knew each other and had quarreled in the past. According to news reports, they had both worked security at a local club. A co-worker says that Chauvin had been extremely aggressive with patrons at the club. Floyd had objected and they’d exchanged words.

This, of course, vastly complicates the whole situation. It means that not only was racism involved, but so was a personal grudge.

What this means for the future is, of course, impossible to say. And I’m no lawyer.

But, I wonder...

Is this now a First Degree Murder case? Could it have even been premeditated?

About me: I’m a writer and former journalist who has published material on everything from computers to the Jazz Age. (Among my small claims to fame is that I interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

A powerful prayer...

...from Bill Lyons, Conference Minister at Southwest Conference United Church of Christ...

Mitt Romney Marches With BLM...wow

I was a resident of Massachusetts when Mitt Romney was governor there. I didn't much care for him. But, you know, now I'm kind of proud of him...

Black Lives Matter. pic.twitter.com/JpXUFlxH2J

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) June 7, 2020

Just so nobody forgets, they were using guns back in April

Just so that nobody forgets in all the noise about riots and pandemics...

Keep in mind that way back in April (remember then?) anti-quarantine protesters were threatening elected officials with guns and invading state houses.

Remember...

View this post on Instagram

#Repost @revolutionartshop with @reposter.app . This is terrifying. They’re pissed about a pandemic ruining their plans so they’re going to shoot politicians? What are the guns for other than terrorizing people? This is completely crazy. #michigan #wtf #covid19

A post shared by YouKnowNothing45 (@youknownothing45) on Apr 30, 2020 at 9:05pm PDT

How close did we come to a military dictatorship?

The question is, how close did we come to a military take-over last week? It is something that historians are going to debate for years to come.

What we know for certain is that Trump wanted very badly to use active service military personnel to sweep the streets of “rioters” (and peaceful protestors) when the demonstrations against alleged police brutality got heated in late May and early June.

But there’s the rub.  What else did he want? There is a possibility that he wanted a great many more things to happen...like, the military occupation of American cities and potentially the end of democracy in the country. It is a stretch, of course, but not out of the question. You could see it happening. Trump, Barr, and their enablers ...like Tom Cotton, whose infamous oped more or less openly called for shooting people in the streets...decided that hope of a GOP victory in 2020 was visibly diminishing with every passing hour.

So why not just do away elections entirely?

And everything was primed and ready to go when, alas, the military (using its retired commanders as spokespeople) quietly declined to be part of the project...and thus saved American democracy for a little while longer, anyway.

Is this real? Well, obviously, there’s no way to know. At the moment, this is nothing but fiction. But, given the people involved, you have to think...well...you know...it could have happened like that. And, as I say, I’m guessing historians will be debating it for years to come.

But one thing is certain. If we want to make certain this story stays completely fiction, we need to vote Trump out of office. And keep him out.

Go Blue in 2020. The nation you save will be your own.

About me: I’m a writer and former journalist who has published material on everything from computers to the Jazz Age. (Among my small claims to fame is that I interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

There Is Blood On His Hands (And Ours)

So according to the last numbers I’ve seen, over 100,000 Americans have died of Covid-19. Oh, and almost certainly that vastly underestimates the actual numbers because lots and lots and lots of people are getting sick and/or dying out of sight, because we don’t have the test kits, the trained personnel, and the hospital beds required to determine if they have (or, tragically, had) the disease.

Doubtlessly, that number will be even higher by the time you read this.

And none of it had to happen. If we had prepared...even on the most basic level...we could have saved thousands of lives. If Donald Trump and his Trumplicans (the former GOP) had not eliminated our national capacity to respond to pandemics... if he and they had reacted promptly when it became clear that a deadly disease was spreading from China...and if he and they exercised decisive leadership as soon as Covid-19 showed up on our shores…then many of those people would be alive today, our medical facilities wouldn’t be strained to the breaking point, and our economy would not be on the verge of collapse.

Alas, he, and they, did nothing productive. Now, at best they look like fools, and at worst like a cruise ship crew who abandoned their vessel and its passengers the minute they heard the hull scrape against the reef. And either way, they have blood on their hands.

And here’s the thing. The people who voted for Trump in 2016 do not have blood on their hands. Not at the moment. They didn’t know what they were doing when they put him into office. But they can’t claim ignorance any longer. Now they know perfectly well what sort of man (or un-man) he is, and the kind of monsters they are. 

But if they vote for him again...in 2020...they will have blood on their hands. They will vote knowing what he has done, what the GOP has done, and what he and they are likely to do in future. They will be as guilty as he, and as much at fault as they.

And lest we on the Left become complacent and self-congratulatory, let us recall that many among us declined to vote in 2016. Or, if they did, they threw away their votes on Third Parties or write-ins who had no chance of winning. And, so, they passively supported Trump.

If they do so again, if such people elect not to vote or vote for third parties...because “Republicans and Democrats are just alike,” because Biden “is not really a progressive,” because of whatever reason ranging from insufferable self-righteousness to inexcusable laziness...then they, too, will be guilty. They, too, will have blood on their hands.

So, let us not allow that to happen. For God’s sake, let us vote and vote blue. After all, the life we save could be our own.

***

About me: I’m a writer and former journalist who has published material on everything from computers to the Jazz Age. (Among my small claims to fame is that I interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This is rather beautiful. Police at their best...

I love this. 

View this post on Instagram

Powerful moment as sheriff's deputies stationed outside the county jail in Oklahoma City take a knee in solidarity with protesters. #georgefloyd #oklahoma #protest . repost @abcnews

A post shared by YouKnowNothing45 (@youknownothing45) on Jun 1, 2020 at 7:22am PDT

We Are The Enemy

Heard a fascinating interview with Anne Applebaum on NPR the other day. She was talking about her new article in the Atlantic, “History Will Judge the Complicit,” which deals with the GOP and its craven submission to Trump and his Fascists. But, during the course of the interview, she was asked about Trump’s eagerness to use the military against peaceful protests.

She then made a point I’d never considered.To wit, he wants the Armed Forces for the optics. The military is meant to be used against people and nations who are a threat to America. So, if it is used against protesters, no matter how peaceful or justified they might be, then those men and women must be enemies of the American people. In other words, his purpose is to de-Americanize those who disagree with him.

In a word, whoa.

Let us us pray then, that somehow we do not...as a nation...let him get away with that. Let us keep in mind that we are all of us Americans, and in this cause united...

In spite of all that Trump might say, or do, in his grotesque quest for absolute power.

End Game For Trump?

I want to point out two stories that have appeared on the web recently, "The Trump Regime Is Beginning to Topple” by Franklin Foer in the Atlantic and “We are witnessing the birth of a movement — and the downfall of a president” by Lucian K. Truscott IV in Salon. Both make the argument that we are seeing the beginning of the end for Trump, and that his regime’s demise will resemble those of despots abroad -- Slobodan Milošević, Muammar al-Gaddafi, and so on. Popular discontent will grow and grow, protests will become larger and larger, and finally the dictator will have no choice but to cut and run.

I sincerely hope that Foer and Truscott are right, and that soon we will witness the lovely sight of helicopters air-lifting the Orange One to a comfortable exile in someplace far, far away. Still, I’m pessimist enough to suspect that we have several more months of painful national angst to endure. (I’m just praying that it won’t be four more years.)

Though...let’s all do our best to turn Foer and Truscott into prophets. If there is anything we can do peacefully to make life uncomfortable for the grotesque little man behind his wall and in his White House bunker, let’s do it.

If we are lucky, or skillful, then maybe...just maybe...his nerve will fail, and cutting and running will happen sooner rather than later.

And thus spare us all the pain, the danger, and the peril of that final, fatal bite of the cornered rat…

About me: I’m a writer and former journalist who has published material on everything from computers to the Jazz Age. (Among my small claims to fame is that I interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Economists Are Not To Be Trusted

I was prowling around my hard disk and stumbled across an article I’d saved a long time ago and then completely forgotten about. Specifically, it was “The Tyranny of Economists: How can they be so wrong, so often, and yet still exert so much influence on government policy?” by Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein, which was published in the New Republic way back in September of 2019.

It is partly an essay by Kaiser-Schatzlein and partly a review of a book, The Economists’ Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and The Fracture of Society, by Binyamin Appelbaum. Both Appelbaum and Kaiser-Schatzlein agree that something went terribly wrong sometime starting in the 1980s when free markets and deregulation became dogma and Economists became the unquestioned priests of that dogma. Suddenly, any governmental interference in the economy was seen as an unmitigated evil, while a cadre of economic consultants and professors were given the power to, effectively, determine things like life and death--quite literally, as their “cost benefit analysis” of what an individual life was worth might well determine product liability laws.

But, say both authors, the most amazing thing about the rule of the economists was that the economists themselves were, as a rule, always wrong. Notes Kaiser-Schatzleim, “If you look at the economic theories put forth during the economists’ hour—from Friedman’s monetarism to Arthur Laffer’s supply-side economics... the theories often demonstrably did not do what they were supposed to do. Monetarism didn’t curb inflation, lax antitrust and low regulation didn’t spur innovation, and low taxes didn’t increase corporate investment.”

So why, then, both authors ask, did society and government continue to believe them? Because, of course, the economists were telling the Power Elite exactly what it wanted to hear, regardless of the actual evidence. Again, quoting Kaiser-Schatzleim, “...what economists’ ideas did do, quite effectively, was divert wealth from the bottom to the top. This entrenched their power among the winners they helped create.”

In other words, the economists were prophets of the great god Mammon, and Mammon’s most powerful worshipers responded accordingly.

Where the two authors disagree is in what happens next. Appelbaum thinks that the free market economists have proven themselves so wrong, and so alienated the vast majority of us, that in the end they will be overthrown. Kaiser-Schatzleim isn’t nearly so optimistic.

Which is correct? I have no way of knowing. But I am fascinated that these ideas are being, finally, mooted about. Basically, no one has dared discuss such things (at least in professional settings) since Ronald Regan and Maggie Thatcher converted the world to free market fundamentalism.

So...I wonder... could it be? Just perhaps? In some fashion...

Once again we shall remember that economists ...and particularly free market economists...are neither scientists nor gods...but rather all too human...

And all too prone to confuse their own biases and misunderstandings for rigor, and wisdom, and...

The inevitable.

***


About me: I’m a writer and former journalist who has published material on everything from computers to the Jazz Age. (Among my small claims to fame is that I interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Who is doing the shooting?

We are now several days into the protests following the murder of Mr. George Floyd. I have read that the demonstrations have begun to die down. Fewer and fewer people are showing up in the daytime, and violent rioters in the night are now quite rare. I’m glad of the latter, though worried about the former.

But what really concerns me, even more than the reports of police overreaction to the protests, is that we’re not quite sure who is firing the rubber bullets at protesters, journalists, and innocent bystanders. I’ve seen a couple of articles recently which indicate that William Barr seems to be organizing the Federal response to the demonstrations, and it seems to be using a variety of Federal agencies as the tools to do it. (See, for example, this piece in Huffpost, “William Barr’s Vast, Nameless Army Is Being Brought To Bear On D.C. Protesters,” by Ryan J. Reilly and Tara Golshan.)

The individuals who make up Barr’s Army are, as a rule, badgeless and nameless. This gives them the option, then, of committing acts ...even brutalities...for which they will never be held accountable.

Who Is Doing The Shooting?

Faceless armies are not American, and they are a threat to American democracy.

Which means that if we survive the next few months, and if we vote out Trump and the monsters who enable him, then we must act to make certain that nothing like this happens ever again. We must make certain that there are no more private armies and secret police forces…

If we fail to vote Trump out…

Well, then, there will be no problem. There will be nightmares, and horrors, and murders in the night…

But not a problem.

Just a dystopian police state that will make Fascism look like paradise.

Read, if you can, James Miller’s letter

James Miller, a top policy advisor at the Pentagon, has just resigned. You must read his letter of resignation. If you are yourself a member of the military, take it to heart. If you know someone who is an active or former member of the armed services, send it to them.

It is important…

For the choice of the man and woman in uniform whether to support or defy an order to fire on their own people may determine whether we shall be a Republic or an autocracy in future.

You may see the text of the letter here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/02/secretary-esper-you-violated-your-oath-aiding-trumps-photo-op-thats-why-im-resigning/?arc404=true

George Will, and Won’t

George Will has written a savage take-down of Trump and the Republican Senators who have supported him. You have probably seen it. But, on the slim chance you haven’t, it is here: “Trump must be removed. So must his congressional enablers.” 

In it, the eloquent Mr. Will trains his verbal artillery on Trump and the GOP, and leaves no Republican stronghold unblasted. Trump, he says, is less than garbage. The Congressmen and -women who support him worse. 

It is all marvelous stuff...good and hot...and particularly coming as it does from a man who was and is the dean of conservative intellectuals. It is no wonder that his column has gone viral and all right-thinking liberals, socialists, and never-Trump conservatives have spread it far and wide.

But there’s the rub. Will it do any good?

On one level, I’m pretty sure it won’t. That’s because the people who vote for Trump are not the ones who are going to read this piece and be convinced. I mean, let’s face it, even if...somehow...they saw the column, they wouldn’t understand it or care to. (Mr. Will ends his piece with an extensive quote from T.S. Elliot’s “The Hollow Men.” Brilliant. But think about the people screaming at police and abusing reporters at the recent anti-quarantine protests. Do you think they’ve read T.S. Elliot? Or, if they have, do they care about Hollow Men? Even as they are themselves empty?)

Am I being elitist? Yes, I am. But I also think I’m right. The Deporables really are deplorable. The poorly educated that Trump says he loves, are truly poorly educated. They are voting for him out of the fear and ignorance that comes from never having had civics in high school.

How Often Does He Read Poetry?

Which means that Mr. Will’s column will be read chiefly by those who already despise Trump, and plan to vote against him. Thus, maybe, he is simply preaching to the choir. (Which is not to be superior. I am guilty of the same sin. If you are reading this, you are probably planning on voting blue, no matter who, in 2020.)

Yet, on another level, I am guessing that Mr. Will’s column will be valuable. That’s because, first, it will give liberals, like myself, a bit of boost. We will see that even our more ancient and eloquent enemies are coming around to our side. We may not always be able to count on their friendship, but at least we know they are...in the matter of Trump...with us.

Second, it will remind conservatives that they can and should vote against Trump and, indeed, the whole of the GOP. It will remind them that the Republican party is no longer theirs, and that to cast their ballots against it is no shame.

And, finally…

It will remind the Senate Republicans who now support Trump...albeit out of fear and opportunism...that change is coming. 

And if they wish their careers survive it…

Then they must take a stand, and discover, somewhere, the backbone which seems that, up to now,  they have misplaced…

June 2

Watch this incredibly powerful video from Rev. William Barber. This is the kind of thing we all need to hear in this moment of crisis.

Is This The End Of American Democracy?

Tonight, Donald Trump came very close to calling for martial law in America. He said that if state governors don’t “dominate” protesters, he will call out the military.

Let’s face it, this could be the end of American democracy.

The question is, what are we going to do about it?

Trumpsty's Bunker

Can’t believe how precedent I was. Yesterday I posted that I was stunned by the contrast between our nation’s needs and Trump's behavior. I envisioned him sitting on his golden toilet, rage tweeting in the night, while all around him the nation burns.

Well, today we learn that he spent part of last night literally in a bunker, while the lights of the White House were turned off, and protesters met riot police in the streets outside.

The image is evocative, is it not? And did I not foretell it in my way?

Amazing.

Maybe I’ll hang out a shingle as a professional futurist. Or an astrologer. Six of one. Thirty seven of the other.

Terror In The Night