A book full of humanity, humor, and tenderness

I finished the book My Friends by Fredrik Backman. On the title page translator Neil Smith is listed, so I had to do some checking. Backman is Swedish, so a translator is necessary. The story is triggered by a painting. Most people looking at it see it as a painting of the sea. But Louisa sees there is also a pier and three boys in their early teens portrayed as laughing. Louisa spent most of your childhood in the foster care system and at one point was given a postcard of the painting. That painting is up for auction and she just has to see the real thing before it is sold for millions. She does see it before being thrown out of the auction. Then she encounters the artist who, with his friend Ted, sold all they had to buy it back. The artist recognizes Louisa as a fellow artist. That night the artist dies, telling Ted to give the painting to her. She doesn’t want something that expensive. But Louisa, just turned 18 and out of the foster care system, convinces Ted to take her with him as he boards the train to return to his home. On the way he tells her about the origins of the painting. The story then switches back and forth between the summer when Ted and his friends are fourteen, about to turn fifteen, when the painting was created and Ted traveling with Louisa twenty-five years later. Beside Ted and the artist (never explicitly named until the end of the book) the friends are Joar and Ali, the one girl in the group. Yep, one of the boys in the painting is a girl. They spend as much time together as possible and most of that time is on the pier or in the sea around it. They’re together so much because their home life is bad. Joar’s father is abusive. Ted’s is dying. Ali’s father tends to not pay bills so she’s in town only a couple years before dad needs to move on to avoid creditors. And the artist’s parents think he’s strange, drawing all the time, and just want him to be normal. Joar recognizes the artist’s talent. He also recognizes the artist can’t stay in this city and develop his craft. The artist isn’t doing much after being thrown out of the class of a nasty art teacher. So Joar announces that a contest is coming up and the artist absolutely must enter it, then makes sure he does, creating this painting. In the later time Ted took care of the artist as he was dying. There is strong implication that they were a gay couple. That is reinforced on the train ride when Louisa notices Ted admiring he conductor. Though this explains some of the artist’s strangeness, that they are probably gay is barely mentioned. Though the kids are dealing with bad home lives they are great friends to each other with days that are idyllic. Being fourteen they also get into mischief, usually with funny consequences. There are moments of blessing with mothers, older brothers, and various adults. It’s a beautiful story, full of humanity, humor, and tenderness. There isn’t much plot, though a great deal of simply living. Backman is an excellent writer and Smith did a masterful job in translating – I thought of the translation process a lot while reading. I very much enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. I may have to find some of his other books. Nick Romeo, in an article for Capital & Main posted on Daily Kos wrote that the most dangerous innovation of Silicon Valley is tech fascism. He discussed this with author and journalist Gil Durán, who wrote the book The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. Romeo described tech fascism...

This anti-democratic ideology is destroying laws and norms while promising a glorious future delivered by technology, and it’s now moving from the fringe belief of a few eccentric billionaires to the cultural mainstream, according to Durán.

Some of the major points Durán talked about: There is a rising cult of Silicon Valley billionaires “who believe that technology is going to make democracy obsolete in the 21st century.” It is fascism because it aligns with the MAGA cult and is funding the nasty guy through gifts and crypto.

Fascism is generally a cult of grievance and self-victimization that promises a return to greatness through the purging and persecution of enemy groups. What tech fascism adds is that instead of only promising a return to some greater period in the past, it also promises this great, glorious future that will be achieved if only we eliminate the obstacles in our way, including regulation, law, democracy and anybody who opposes this acceleration of technology.

AI is being marketed as a terrifying invention that will fundamentally disrupt our lives quickly while not giving us a choice. Yeah, a lot of it is hype, but AI isn’t harmless and is already having an effect. The AI industry is calling it an existential threat to humanity and the biggest job killer ever. Of course, there is a backlash. Another claim is AI will create super abundance. We already have that, but too much of it is sucked up by the tech billionaires. The tech bros are claiming that AI is promising the greatest economic depression (except for billionaires becoming trillionaires). That’s while AI seems less useful than its marketers say.

We are taught to revere wealthy people. If you’re wealthy, it means you’re morally better. It means you’re a superior intellect, and you’re important, and people should be in awe of you. I think that people get this idea in our country that somehow people become billionaires because they’re smart and disciplined and visionary, which is actually not the case at all. And unfortunately billionaires also buy into this myth of their own greatness.

The tech bros demand all the power to destroy everything and no one has the right to stop them. What if farmers said that? Or garbage men? His book is about, “the radicalization of Silicon Valley billionaires into the most dangerous anti-democratic force the country has ever faced.” We have to deal with the billionaire threat. But many of the big champions of the Democratic Party blast at the nasty guy, but not at billionaires. The nasty guy will be around for only a couple more years. Tech bros will be around a lot longer. There are some Democrats speaking out, including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. People don’t trust billionaires. We need politicians that won’t take billionaire money and will increase the distrust. Start with the 5% wealth tax on California’s ballot. It’s great, but not nearly enough. In Wednesday’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted Jill Lawrence of The Bulwark listing the three new demands that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made that prompted Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, to pull out of trade talks. The quotes are quite likely from Carney:

Limits on Canada’s ability to negotiate and sign trade deals. Canada has negotiated twenty economic and security partnerships in the last year, and forthcoming deals in the next six months could double its market access. “We’re the partner of choice in many respects for countries around the world and the Americans wanted to restrict that. ... It’s a power play and becomes a question of sovereignty.” Continual efforts “until the very last minute” to restrict French language protections (like bilingual labels), Canadian culture, “and in effect our sovereignty,” even though “these issues were never on the table” and never will be. Late U.S. demands that would have been unfair to Canadian auto parts and extended favorable tariff treatment to some cars and trucks but not others. The exclusions were “a big change” with no rationale given, Carney said, and would have made Canadian vehicle production “more uneconomic over time.”

Each of the three sounds like a good reason to pull out of the talks. In the comments exlrrp posted a meme of a Dolly Parton quote from the Larry King Now show in 2016:

If you’re gay, you’re gay. If you’re straight, you’re straight. And you should be allowed to be how you are and who you are.

Thanks, Dolly. Another meme posted by exlrrp:

Remember when Trump collected $12 billion dollars, started WWIII, & then we never heard from the Board of Peace again? One of Trump’s biggest scams and nobody ever talks about it.

In the comments of today’s roundup exlrrp posted a meme about the broken trade talks with Canada that prompted the nasty guy to order Lake Ontario be renamed Lake America. The meme has the text:

Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada, announced today that the United States of America will be renamed South Canada, the 14th Province.

Another meme posted by exlrrp show a house labeled Quality of Life and rooms labeled Affordable Housing, Healthcare, Good Jobs, Lower Prices, Safe Communities, and Education all going up in flames. In front of the house the nasty guy is telling a man in a MAGA hat, “Oh look, a trans person!” Anil Dash has a couple tweets on Meta’s settlement over the harm its products might do to children and teens:

So Meta will always choose to pay, rather than to fight, because then it doesn't have to change. The initial investigation by the FTC into Facebook's abuse of its users was *SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO*, and that one also ended in a settlement. After which, they... went back to abuse their users. Meta is a creep who will _never_ take no for an answer, and never stop trying to ignore their lack of consent. Every media & regulatory organization in the world seems determined to ignore this reality; I genuinely don't understand why. Today's settlement is so that Meta can keep violating consent.

David Michigan added that the $17 billion in payments will be spread out over ten years. This becomes barely more than a rounding error to the company. Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos has something to say about Meta’s settlement:

No admission of algorithmic skullduggery. No apologies. No nothing. Just some chump change distributed to a bunch of states that will probably toss it into their general fund to shore up their coffers a bit. But, hey, Zucky Boy promises—cross his heart and all!—that he’ll “make massive transformations that will reduce the risk of harm [to kids] from its platforms—and will do it within months.” And here’s my promise: I’ll let you know when media outlets start publishing stories “within months” about how Facebook and Instagram’s “transformations” are riddled with holes, if they’ve been done at all.

Bill also remembered an event from, 2002, which was 24 years ago. Bush II invited Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan to his Crawford ranch. In on the meeting was Adel Al-Jubeir, a foreign policy adviser to the Saudi kingdom.

“If the objective is to dismantle the weapons of mass destruction program, we could probably do that without going to war,” Al-Jubeir said. “Why not use that option? Why do people want to risk the lives of tens of thousands of American men and women in uniform for an objective that can be achieved through negotiations?”

Bill added:

Oh, let’s see: to get our hands on cheap oil, to feed the military-industrial complex, to scare Americans into re-electing the macho Republicans, to bully the world, to get revenge on Saddam for “tryin’ to kill muh daddy,” and to act out G.I. Joe fantasies aboard an aircraft carrier under a “Mission Accomplished” banner. Other than that, I got nothin’.

He's a cheater of wives, at golf, and Americans out of votes

Alex Samuels of Daily Kos discussed a poll that asked whether gerrymandering should be legal. Of all US adult citizens 9% said yes, 69% said no. Even Republicans don’t like it – 14% yes, 57% no. Some of this is definitely in response to the Texas Republican attempt to create a more severe gerrymander to squeeze out five more seats. And driving the perception that gerrymandering is bad is one of the jobs of the Democrats who broke quorum in Texas. The longer they stay away the more attention they bring to the Republican power grab and the better chance of boosting national outrage against gerrymandering. Samuels also discussed the more seats Republicans try to squeeze out the smaller their margin will be in each one. That means there is the possibility of holding an election that is a referendum on the guy in the Oval Office and a blue wave could swamp what they think are safe seats. But another problem is an erosion of trust in democracy. A YouGov poll found a third of Americans are unsure whether their state districts are fair and a bit more than a third know they are unfair. Walter Einenkel of Kos reported on the comments of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. He is hosting many of the Democrats who broke quorum in Texas. Pritzker said:

It's a big ugly bill. It's hyper unpopular in Texas, among people in Texas and across the country. And he knows he's going to lose the Congress in 2026. That's why he's going to his allies and hoping that they can save him,” Pritzker said. “And we've all got to stand up against this. This is, it's cheating. Donald Trump is a cheater. He cheats on his wives. He cheats on golf, and now he's trying to cheat the American people out of their votes.

Back in 2016 the question was: Is the nasty guy a white supremacist? The answer was: I can’t tell you – but white supremacists sure think he is. Oliver Willis of Kos discussed an update of that question. Is the nasty guy a Nazi? Actual Nazis sure think he is. Alas, that support from the top has come with a rise in white supremacist violence. In 2020, 13% of extreme demonstrations and violent acts involved white nationalists. Just four years later, in 2024 almost 80% of such events involved white nationalists. Emily Singer of Kos wrote that the gaudy ballroom the nasty guy plans to start building next month is illegal. Major changes to the White House (beyond hanging gaudy gold plated stuff all over the place) need to have the approval of the National Capital Planning Commission. Approval can take years because the commission verifies the changes don’t compromise the historic building. Doubling the footprint would definitely do that. Because the nasty guy says construction begins next month we know he didn’t submit the plans for review. Though the nasty guy has committed many vile crimes he has never been held accountable for any of them. He has also stacked many courts, especially the Supreme Court, to make sure he never will be. So why would the illegality of his ballroom plans stop him? In Monday’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted tweets by Justin Wolfers. I’m looking at the second and third of those tweets:

I was just in Japan for two weeks, and learned a lot from talking Japanese policy wonks about the "strategic ambiguity" at the heart of the US-Japan trade deal, and what this reveals is – and isn't – in a number of the President's "deals." I should have been clearer: Both sides (implicitly) agree not to write down any deal. They understand Trump will fill the silence with outlandish claims, delivering him a political win. And our trading partners are obliged to deliver nothing, giving them the economic win.

In the comments is a cartoon that needs a bit of explanation. Recently, the DOGE whiz kid known as “Big Balls” (there’s a real name somewhere) was allegedly the victim of a carjacking. The details don’t matter. It was that incident, or at least the report of that incident, that prompted the nasty guy to claim DC is a crime infested hellhole only he can clean up. He federalized the DC Police and pulled in the National Guard to make DC safe again, even though the DC crime rate has been falling and is the lowest in 30 years (as various news organizations have been reminding us). The cartoon is by Jesse Duquette. The title is “‘Big Balls’ is a false flag.” The caption says:

Step One: Have a dutiful stooge take part in a staged event Step Two: Used staged event as pretext for militarized takeover of a city Step Three: Cory Booker probably gives a long speech while Chuck Schumer writes a strongly worded letter Step Four: Onto the next city Step Five: Repeat

Willis reported on Monday that because of the nasty guy’s infatuation with the safety of DC the FBI has assigned 120 agents for night patrols in DC. They are pulled from other duties that would have more consequence over safety. On Sunday night at lest two dozen agents were on the scene of a minor traffic accident between a car and moped. Actual police handled it just fine. Washington Post writer Drew Harwell posted a video of armed agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration patrolling the National Mall. He called it “tremendously goofy.” DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has been keeping her cool. It is “the president’s call about how to deploy the Guard.” And: “I just think that’s not the most efficient use of our Guard.” And all of this looks like a big diversion from the Epstein files. In Tuesday’s roundup Chtown Kev quoted Mark Jacob of his Stop the Presses Substack and his interview of retired journalism professor Jay Rosen.

JACOB: Can’t the media become much more aggressive than anything you’ve suggested here? Can’t headlines start with the words “Trump lies”? Wouldn’t a confrontational approach be better for the media — and the public — than the current practice of amplifying the lies and correcting them quietly while the independent press dies of 1,000 cuts? ROSEN: Calling things by their right names is a hugely important use of the First Amendment, a case of “use it or lose it.” The press has to be aggressive, yes, and in multiple ways: digging for information, asking blunt questions (when they are good questions) even if that might endanger a reporter’s future access. Aggressive, too, in warning the Republic that its democracy is under attack, and bringing attention to that warning by use of every media platform available. There’s also a kind of aggression in dispensing with refuge-seeking behavior in journalism — in contrast with truth-seeking. [...] I want false claims to be declared false. Clearly and provably. By journalists who are themselves evidence-based. If the best description of what they know is there’s no evidence of that, then say it: “There is no evidence.” If a provably false claim is knowingly used to whip up resentment against a marginal group, there is every reason to call it a lie in tomorrow’s newspaper. What I care most about is that false claims get presented as false. Is that true? Did that really happen?

In the comments are several good memes and cartoons. Rep. Adriano Espaillat quoted some of the nasty guy’s announcement that he was taking over DC.

And we are getting rid of the slums, too. We’re getting rid of them. It’s not politically correct. We’re getting rid of the slums where they live.

I note he doesn’t say how he will be getting rid of the slums and what he will do with the residents. Though the urban renewal projects of the 1950s and 60s come to mind, where black neighborhoods in many large cities (including Detroit) were replaced with freeways that allowed white residents to flee to the suburbs and still work in Detroit. Espaillat responded to the nasty guy:

Using military force against an impoverished civilian population is the act of a dictator, not a president. Donald Trump’s actions to declare a public safety emergency against individuals experiencing homelessness and personally attacking them is vile and inhumane.

A meme posted by exlrrp shows the words of Chef José Andres:

Donald Trump, you didn’t have the power to call the National Guard on January 6... But now you do?

Dobber included a tweet by Will Chamberlain.

I bought my family to DC for the Cherry Blossom festival. The first thing I saw when I exited the L’Enfant Plaza Metro was a gang of youths driving ATVs down the street, one of whom was doing a wheelie. So forgive me if I doubt that crime is down.

keptsimple responded:

Bragging about being a giant pussy is integral to the conservative mindset.

I add: Youths driving ATVs and doing wheelies is not a crime. Only a giant pussy would infer that those actions mean they are also criminal. A tweet by Acyn:

Baltimore Mayor Scott response on Trump: I think it’s very notable that each and every one of the cities called out by the President has a black mayor, and most of those cities are seeing historic lows in violent crime.

A cartoon posted by paulpro and created by Sandeep Adhwaryu shows two extremely thin people sitting in front of the rubble of Gaza. One says: “Do we get a Nobel Peace Prize for starving quietly without troubling their conscience?” In today’s roundup Dworkin included a tweet by Mark Hertling:

For the record, our division commander BANNED things called “presence patrols” in Iraq. “If you don’t have a specific task & purpose, your ‘presence’ doesn’t do anything.” National Guard stating they are now doing presence patrols in DC. A complete waste of soldier’s time & effort.

At the top of the comments LJ Slater posted a cartoon by Slyngstad. At the top it says, “Trump calls in National Guard and takes control of DC Police to deal with crime.” In the center is a drawing of the Capitol attack. Below that are the words, “Oh wait, sorry wrong cartoon...” A tweet by ramseyfay33 shows a woman in a selfie. She’s along the Reflecting Pool with the Lincoln Memorial in the background. There are very few people about. She wrote. “Checking in from the front lines of the downtown DC war zone. There are baby ducks and a lady tap dancing. Send in the Guard!” Fiona Webster posted a cartoon by Carolyn Crampton. It shows two young witches on either side of a crystal ball. In the ball is an image of a man with a glum expression. One witch says, “I see Chief Justice John Roberts weighing his oath of to the Constitution against blackmail threats from the face-eating-leopard party.” Way down in the comments paulpro posted a meme by Lainey Molnar. It shows a woman with an infant and behind her is an outline of a man. The caption says, “I wish we said ‘children of absentee fathers’ instead of ‘single mothers’, because how is the parent who stayed the problem?”

The squeeze is more important than the juice

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is shutting down. An Associated Press article posted to Daily Kos has more details. The reason for the shutdown is it was defunded by Congress. The CPB has announced its schedule for an orderly shutdown. The CPB has been funded for 58 years. Some of the money it gets from the government goes to PBS and NPR, but most of its funding directly supports more than 1,500 local public radio and television stations around the country (later the article says there are 330 PBS and 246 NPR stations, though not all public radio stations are NPR). The stations in small communities may have to close. In many of these places their local public station is their only source of news (or at least unbiased news). The closure is a direct result of the nasty guy targeting public media, which he claims has a liberal bias, views opposite of what he says the US should proclaim. Though funding for CPB had been approved and signed by the nasty guy earlier this year he demanded Congress overturn that earlier allocation. And Congress did. I’ve also mentioned a couple times that the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has modified its exhibit on US presidents to remove mention of the nasty guy’s two impeachments. Lisa Needham of Kos reported the details. And yes, this is a part of the nasty guy rewriting history so that he appears to be a complete success. The museum says it removed mention of the impeachments because the whole section hadn’t been updated since 2008 and they aren’t able to update it all – except it had been updated in 2021 to add the impeachments. A couple stories about more opportunities of corruption and feeding a bloated ego. First, Kos of Kos discussed the trade deals various countries are making to avoid the nasty guy’s tariffs. The deals struck so far seem to have a common theme.

President Donald Trump is addicted to the fanfare of announcing his trade “deals,” but he doesn’t care about the details or what happens afterward. As trade policy expert William Reinsch told the Washington Monthly, “For Trump, the squeeze is more important than the juice.” That’s a powerful character flaw for other nations to exploit. Take, for instance, the European Union. Trump has been touting a new “deal” with the E.U. that’s more framework than substance. But again, he doesn’t care—it’s all about the flashy toplines. Among them: The E.U. will supposedly buy $250 billion worth of U.S. energy imports per year, for the next three years. That’s over three times what the E.U. imported last year from the U.S. However, with this deal, there’s no binding commitment, no timeline, no enforcement mechanism. It’s little more than a press-release number designed to impress. It’s not a real plan, just a fantasy dressed up as a win.

That huge amount of energy the EU has agreed to import is much larger than the EU could actually use and much larger than US producers could supply. So it won’t happen. And there is no legal requirement for it to happen. That the nasty guy got his deal is the only thing that matters. And the only ones that don’t see through the charade are the MAGA cultists. Second, Kos discussed the nasty guy’s fixation on the Nobel Peace Prize. Obama got one, he should too. And foreign leaders are using that to manipulate him. While only certain people can nominate someone for the Peace Prize the list includes government officials of any country, university professors, and members of the League for Peace. And they can nominate anyone. Which means a nomination has very little value. And from the nasty guy’s comments over the last few years he is equating being nominated with winning. So foreign leaders are buttering him up by saying they have or will nominate him for the prize he covets. Kos lists the reasons why the nasty guy won’t get the Peace Prize:

He bombed Iran. He encouraged ethnic cleansing in Gaza. He’s currently threatening nuclear war against Russia. He sanctioned International Criminal Court judges. He trashed the United Nations. He gutted the U.S. Agency for International Development, which will cause millions of avoidable deaths, according to a study by The Lancet. And somehow this is a man promoting “fraternity between nations”? Trump wants the world to see him as a peacemaker. But he’s never created peace—only chaos. And no amount of flattery from influence-seeking foreign leaders will change that.

Emily Singer of Kos reported that Jeffrey Epstein assistant Ghislaine Maxwell had a two-day interview with someone from the Department of Justice, likely saying a lot of things the nasty guy wants her to say (but legally useless). She is now urging the nasty guy to pardon her. Shortly after the interview she was taken from a Florida prison known for its poor conditions and placed in a comfy minimum security prison in Texas. Kos discussed the view of government held by conservative citizens. If a program personally helps them it’s good and should be kept. Otherwise, get rid of it. Kos uses the Postal Service to demonstrate a point. One mail carrier’s route in rural Nebraska is 150 miles for 334 delivery points. That route bleeds money. If the Postal Service is privatized this route would be dropped. It isn’t profitable.

But the government isn’t supposed to be profitable. It’s supposed to serve the common good, even when that good is a tiny outpost in the middle of nowhere.

Kos noted “conservatives get off on the suffering of people who aren’t like them.” Liberals believe in a basic social obligation, “especially when it costs us something.”

The social contract isn’t a vending machine for personal convenience; it’s a mutual agreement that binds a nation of people together, one that says we all pitch in so that no one—no matter where they live—falls through the cracks. It’s a recognition that the government is the tool we use to express collective values, not individual preferences. When conservatives start picking and choosing what parts of society are worth funding based solely on their own needs, they’re not just being selfish. They’re breaking the very foundation that holds this country together.

jasciu of the Kos community wrote:

Something strange is happening in Japan—not with its politics or its technology, but with its spirit. Quietly and without fanfare, the country appears to be opting out of the global race for growth. Its economy is stagnant, its birth rate declining, its appetite for innovation dulled. But more striking than the numbers is the cultural shift behind them. Young Japanese are not merely failing to strive—they are choosing not to. They are working fewer hours, skipping promotions, and living modestly. They are renting instead of buying, saving rather than investing, and increasingly uninterested in romantic or sexual relationships. To Western economists, this is deeply troubling. To politicians, it’s a puzzle. To the people living it—it may not be a problem at all. What if this isn’t economic malaise, but existential clarity?

I pause a moment to say while I am very much intrigued by what the author wrote, the article has no links to sources. Japan was a postwar dynamo. I worked in the auto industry during the 1980s (and into the 2000s) when the auto companies struggled to respond to Japan’s economic power. Then Japan’s asset bubble burst in the 1990s, leading to the “lost decades.”

Those who grew up amid collapse and uncertainty no longer believe in ambition as a path to security. Many simply do not want what their parents wanted. And if they do, they no longer believe it's attainable through hard work alone. The response has not been revolution or despair—but resignation.

And that appears to be a choice. Are we being authentic to ourselves? Are we chasing after things because we want them or because our culture tells us we’re supposed to want them? Answering that question is a moment of honesty. Perhaps we should not measure America by the Gross Domestic Product. Perhaps we should describe our success through a Gross National Happiness index as Bhutan does. Or adopt New Zealand’s Wellbeing Budget that spends towards mental health, child poverty, and sustainability. The American Dream has equated freedom with consumption. Freedom can also mean stop consuming and find dignity in simplicity. While in the auto industry I applied for a management position once and didn’t get it. I saw how my boss was treated and was glad it wasn’t me. I enjoyed my work (though got tired of the office games) and felt I had enough to live as I wanted. A low-desire society has perils. Losing a taste for risk may also mean losing the capacity to adapt. A population that declines too quickly can risk the social safety net with too few workers to support the retirees. And there is a need to distinguish low desire as enlightenment from depression and despair. Japan prompts us to ask whether we truly always want more or can we tell if we have enough? A stop in growth may mean a society is now asking different questions.

Only a blip

I will be taking three trips this summer. The first one starts Wednesday. My performance group is going on a two day tour. We are giving a home concert tomorrow night (more like a dress rehearsal), then a concert in central Pennsylvania on Saturday and another south of Cleveland on Sunday. Between the home concert and the PA concert I’ll be spending time with my brother near Pittsburgh. That means I don’t have to depart Detroit at 6:00 am Saturday morning, though I do have to be on the road that early Sunday morning.

All that to say I won’t be posting the rest of this week.

On to the little things that have been accumulating in my browser tabs.

E. Jean Carroll published an account of the nasty guy raping her back in the mid 1990s. She is the 22nd woman to accuse the US President of sexual assault.

Melissa McEwan of Shakesville and others note how much this rape story is not front page news in every newspaper across the country. It did not get discussed in the Sunday morning talk shows. The careers of Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and many others were ended by such scandals. But the President? Silence.

Which prompted Mikel Jollett to tweet:

A sitting US President is credibly accused of RAPE by a famous writer and there are NO front page headlines in the @NYTimes. A woman manages her emails poorly: [NYT front page showing the headline: “New emails jolt Clinton Campaign in race’s last days.”]

As the nasty guy inflames tensions with Iran and threatening then calling off an attack, Polly Sigh tweeted:

Just a terrifying reminder as Trump does whatever the hell he's doing with Iran, that not only has the Pentagon been without a permanent leader for 6 months, but there has also been a mass exodus of senior Pentagon officials over the past 6 months. A perilous time to have temps running the Pentagon. An acting Secretary of Defense won't have all of the decision-making power they need when the nation is at war in several countries and conducting major military operations in dozens.

The Washington Post reported that federal officials and GOP campaigns have been staying at nasty guy properties, bringing his private businesses $1.6 million in revenue. McEwan says this should be a scandal, but it will only be a blip. This self-enrichment alone should be enough for impeachment.

Yahoo Finance reports that Amazon had a profit of $11.2 billion in 2018. Taxes paid: zero. I’ve written before that one becomes a billionaire by exploiting and oppressing others. By not paying taxes Amazon is oppressing others by underfunding schools and the social safety net (and that’s just a start).



Jim Hightower through his Hightower Lowdown discusses the USMCA, the United States Mexico Canada deal that is to replace NAFTA. Yeah, there are some really nice things in the deal. One is some new great worker protections.

But the deal also had a great deal of input from Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Food and other corporations. Those worker protections are great – but the deal provides no way to enforce them.

So labor leaders are now telling their members about the deal. The good parts are worthwhile. Let’s keep them. And talk to your Congress person about revising the rest.



Jo Yurcaba, writing for Bustle wrote of a watershed moment. Twenty-three candidates for the Democratic nomination for president were at a Planned Parenthood forum on reproductive rights held in South Carolina. A non-binary person asked candidate Julián Castro how he would expand sexual reproductive health care access for trans people. A person who is non-binary is one who thinks of themselves as either both male and female or neither male nor female. Before answering Castro did something wonderful, he asked the person what pronouns they preferred. This is a really big deal for trans and non-binary people. It says I want to honor you for who you are. That a candidate knows to ask the question is also a big deal. This guy gets it. Castro’s answer to the actual question was pretty good too!



An NBC News report says, “An estimated 10,000 LGBTQ youth have been spared from conversion therapy due to state bans, report finds.”

Leah McElrath tweeted:

EXCELLENT NEWS!

But, remember, this torture of #LGBTQ folks (it’s not “therapy” — it’s literal torture) is supported by Mike Pence.

And you can bet there is something in the works at a federal level to try to supersede state bans.

Claire Rudy Foster writes for Catapult about his transition to male (the article is in the first person so I’m not sure which pronouns Claire prefers). He wants a lower voice and maybe a beard, but masculinity is scary.
https://catapult.co/stories/hormone-replacement-therapy-masculinity-sweetness-foster

In my mind, masculinity was linked with lack. Men were greedy because they were deprived of intimacy and pleasure, the rich experiences women share with one another. Grown men didn’t cuddle. They didn’t laugh until they cried, or eat an entire bag of caramels because their feelings were hurt. They didn’t know the balm of hearing their friends say “you are so lovable” when their hearts were aching. A man’s role was to take power, control his emotions, and tell everyone else what to do. To me, trading estrogen for testosterone meant agreeing to live behind a thick, unbreakable pane of glass, separated: both policing the rest of the world and unable to enjoy it for yourself.

His father was like that. So were most of the men and boys he knew. He remembered a man who was different, his grandfather. There was a model to grow toward. Claire saw what male supremacy does to men.

Protections in a trade deal

The nasty guy, along with Prime Minister of Canada Trudeau and President of Mexico Peña Nieto, signed the USMCA (also known as NAFTA 2.0) trade deal. The nasty guy is, of course, crowing that it is the best trade deal in the history of the world, even though it isn’t much different than the original NAFTA.

But a few GOP members of Congress are pissed over the deal. One of the changes is LGBT employment protections. Trudeau insisted that the agreement redefines the word “sex” to include “sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Rep. Doug Lamborn complained that the nasty guy administration has been doing such good work unifying policy around excluding sexual orientation and gender identity and this trade deal is ruining that work. “A trade agreement is no place for the adoption of social policy.”

I think a trade agreement is a fine place to adopt social policy, especially this one, though also including worker rights and environmental protections.

Trade: What the …?

If I remember right the whole thing about US tariffs on steel and aluminum was because because China was overproducing and dumping the rest on the world market. In trade, dumping has a particular meaning of intentionally selling a commodity below cost to drive competitors in other countries out of business.

So the nasty guy announce tariffs and invited companies and countries to apply for exceptions. Canada, Mexico, and the European Union got those exemptions, but only temporarily. I haven’t been able to keep track of what happened to the tariffs on China steel – the country at the center of this mess. Since this has been missing from the news about China I wonder if the whole thing got quietly fixed (a Chinese donation to a nasty guy real estate deal in southeast Asia probably worked wonders).

But the exemptions on tariffs against Canada, Mexico, and the EU expired. And the nasty guy decided to not renew them.

Welcome to an inside out world. China is one that Europe also says is the bad actor. The US, Canada, Mexico, and the EU could team up and really get China to do something about steel dumping. But the tariffs have been applied against allies and not the bad actor.

Canada and America share a 5,000 mile border with no military installations anywhere along the length. Our economies are closely interconnected (something we feel quite a bit here in Detroit). We’ve been great friends and allies for a long time.

Melissa McEwan of Shakesville put together a few tweets on the subject and added some commentary. In a couple tweets Jasmin Mujanovic wrote:

Much of the post-1945 liberal international order, and especially after 1989, was based on two principles: collective security (i.e. NATO) and free trade (i.e. the EU, GATT, NAFTA, the WTO etc). Trump is systematically undermining both. This is a tectonic shift in world history. I fear even people who really should know better are in denial about the damage that is being done. Even if Trump & everyone else steps back from the brink of a global trade war, these are massive body blows to the integrity of what remains of liberal internationalism.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been saying the diplomatic equivalent of What the …? Mujanovic again:

… it is a clear signal of how fundamentally Ottawa feels betrayed. And that's a sentiment largely shared by the EU states. So, beyond the economic impact, it's the political fallout that will burn us all.

As I listened to this on All Things Considered on NPR I wondered: Why? Why is the nasty guy doing this? Who benefits?

McEwan has a good guess who benefits: Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Who has the strength to counter any aggression from Putin? About the only organization that can is NATO. Today’s action drove a wedge into NATO. McEwan suggests another reason: The two countries with the longest coastline in the Arctic are Russia and Canada. As the ice melts Russia is making moves to claim Arctic resources. Canada – without US backing – would have a hard time countering Russia’s moves. McEwan also suggests that Putin may make moves on Canada, not just the Arctic.

Skeptical? Here’s another piece of the puzzle. Zev Shalev summarizes and links to a New York Magazine article:

Trump’s 10% tariff increase on Canadian aluminum (among other metal tariffs on US allies) comes weeks after he saved Russia’s aluminum giant, Rusal, from disaster by granting a sanctions reprieve to its oligarch owner, Oleg Deripaska.

Commenter Fannie Wolfe gets the final word:

Especially as of late (and in light of news like this), I fear that the things this regime are breaking are not going to be able to be unbroken, even as a large portion of the political left might be pinning hopes on impeachment.

Stories untold

We’ve heard a lot from the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. A slight revision: we’ve heard a lot from the white students. I appreciate what these students have been doing to stir the national consciousness with their Never Again campaign. But they’re not the whole story. Out of more than 3,000 students 11% are of color. And they say it is time to hear their stories.

So they’ve started posting Stories Untold and saying why their voices matter.

Many of these students are from neighborhoods that have a lot of violence. They want the movement to be about more than guns in schools. They want to include minority communities.

The number of police on campus has increased. The students of color feel less safe. They recognize the intersection between gun violence, police violence, and immigration enforcement. Mass violence is not the only gun problem.

Voices should not be silenced.



Another way our media is failing us. Melissa McEwan of Shakesville posted a headline from the Washington Post: “Should you worry about trade? Some Americans will feel pain from China more than others.” McEwan and her army of commenters tell us all the ways this headline is wrong.

* We’re all going to feel pain.

* But even if it were only “some” Americans, it is disgusting to imply that if you don’t feel the pain, no need to worry about anyone else.

* We’ve been told that the economic insecurity of rural white America (a garbage narrative) was a big reason why they voted for the nasty guy. This article says I don’t need to care that the trade war might make things worse in rural white America.

* This headline implies the trade spat began in China and not with the nasty guy. The spat doesn’t have to happen.



Oklahoma teachers are on strike. The legislature offered a pay raise. The teachers said not good enough. We need new textbooks and our schools need lots of repairs. They’ve started tweeting pictures of the state of their textbooks. One shows a history book without a cover. The book says the current president is George W. Bush.

Empty statements

Yeah, the nasty guy declared tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. When steel is mentioned lots of people well versed in trade think of China. It cranks out way more steel than it needs and dumps the rest on the world market. Dumping means to sell it below cost to drive out producers in other countries (and when they’re gone it can raise prices as it wishes).

But the nasty guy’s new policy will have little effect on China. First, China supplies only 5% of our steel. Second, there are already tariffs on Chinese steel to counteract the dumping. Which means the nasty guy’s actions hurt our allies. In addition the nasty guy and his diplomats have brushed off opportunities to negotiate with China or even respond to its offers for them to change their steel production.

The Editorial Board of the New York Times concluded:

By now it should surprise no one that Mr. Trump prefers empty statements to doing the work needed to achieve lasting change. The former is easy to deliver in tweets and public pronouncements, while the latter takes patience and persistence. The president would rather impose tariffs and claim he is protecting the country and bringing back lost jobs than take the time to properly address the problem of excess Chinese steel and aluminum capacity. And he does not seem to care that, in doing so, he might penalize and anger an ally like South Korea, with which the United States needs to work closely on potential negotiations with North Korea, an unpredictable adversary.

A bit early for this kind of talk?

It is well known that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg loves opera. She used to attend regularly with colleague Antonin Scalia. And next month she will be in an opera!. For one night she’ll play royalty in “The Daughter of the Regiment” by Donizetti at Washington National Opera. In her role she will speak though not sing.



I’m not surprised, but isn’t this a bit early? The GOP will be extending all their investigations of Hillary Clinton into her presidency. Yeah, all those supposed “scandals” that have come up dry. Trying to wring more drops from these stones isn’t the “early” part. This is: There is already talk of impeachment. If the GOP maintains a constant state of investigation with talk of impeachment the corporate media will cover it, no matter how empty the claims. That will lead people to think maybe there is a fire under all that smoke.



Pardon me while I allow myself a moment of schadenfreud. It looks like a run for the presidency may finish off Donald Trump financially, even though he has used the campaign to put dollars in his pocket. (1) A big part of his income was the Trump brand, which he licensed. But that brand is now associated with horrendous bigotry. (2) He has repeatedly shown he’s in it only for himself, refusing to pay contractors and employees. Who will want to be his partner or lend him money? (3) His social status is gone. High society people now see him as a joke – and a creepy sexual predator. Inviting him to a party would kill the event. (4) He faces legal battles over Trump University and Trump Foundation. Jilted contractors may have more courage to challenge a wounded Trump.

His finances would be doing just fine (as would his assault on women) if he hadn’t run for prez. and exposed his life to scrutiny.



Very few states have laws about having guns in polling places. So Prince William County, Virginia is considering a one-day ban on weapons at polling places on private property. Poll workers in Colorado are being trained in how to respond to a mass shooting. All this while Trump suggests his followers “watch” (read: intimidate) voters in minority precincts.



We’ve been hearing how much Trump hates NAFTA and Clinton thinks the TPP didn’t come out right, so is worth opposing. If the TPP doesn’t pass, what might a progressive vision on trade deals look like? Mike Konczal of The Nation has some ideas.

* Trade deals should not interfere with a country’s ability to regulate international corporations.

* Strengthen the global labor movement to avoid a race to the bottom on how workers are treated.

* Prevent currency manipulation.

* US trade deficits will remain and not a big deal. That debt allows foreigners to invest in America. We can guide that investment into green infrastructure.



And a bit of fun. Stephen Colbert as Randy the Office Manager sits down with Prez. Obama to discuss how he might present himself when interviewing for the next job. I think Obama was a really good sport with a great sense of humor.

Why push so hard?

Last Friday the Democrats in the House defied their president and refused to approve a part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. A large number of GOP members voted for it and about 3/4 of the Democrats did not. Which makes me suspicious of who is getting what from the deal. And why Obama is pushing for it.

The prez. and the GOP say the treaty creates jobs. The Dems say it doesn't. Who to believe? William Finnegan of the New Yorker delves into it. Democrats, spurred on by labor organizations, have come to see NAFTA, signed in 1994, as a bad deal for workers. Will the TPP treat labor better? Or worse? How will the environment be affected under the treaty? Minimum wages? Public health issues? Then there are some strange aspects of trade deals, such as corporations of one country suing governments in another.

A big problem in this debate is that the text of the agreement is under security and lawmakers are not allowed to make any notes as they view it. Mighty suspicious right there. Some pages have been leaked (thanks, WikiLeaks) and the more various progressive groups read of the details, the more they are opposed.

There is an important question in the debate. Why is Obama pushing so hard? The TPP annoys important Dem backers who plan to punish any Dem lawmaker who supports it. Obama doesn't have a next campaign to fund with gifts from corporations that would benefit from the deal. So why is Obama pushing so hard?

Robert Scott, writing in the Washington Spectator, provides a bit of background for Dem reluctance and GOP enthusiasm for the TPP and other trade deals. As these agreements are marketed to Congress and the American people there is lots of trumpeting about how many jobs will be created because of increased exports to the countries in the deal. There is quite thorough silence about how many jobs will be lost because of increased imports. The reason for the silence: the job losses are much greater than the job gains. There is, of course, silence on how the deals benefit corporations.