Fantastic Beasts

 Say what you will about 2016 but Thanksgiving this year was wonderful for us. The weather was gray and rainy in northern Michigan but the family times were bright and warm. It was great to see my Aunt Barbara with two of my cousins, having a cozy dinner and being with her after the passing of my Uncle Chuck at the end of September. We were also able to spend some quality time up at Douglas Lake with my sister and brother-in-law. We watched a just-inches-short but epic for the ages Michigan-Ohio State football game. Both teams were 10-1, ranked 2 & 3 nationally, and put on an edge-of-seat, slam-bang game with 2 exciting OTs before the cursed Buckeyes managed to score the winning touchdown -  after a questionable call!

We also enjoyed one of the treats of the season, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. This film is an extension of the Harry Potter universe but with a new cast and different, more adult orientation. It is set in 1920s New York city, the bustling, young metropolis of fresh-off-the-boat immigrants, Jazz-age hipsters and art deco styles. The young traveler Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) arrives by ship unaware that in the United States, magic has been pushed under ground and magical beasts outlawed. A fast-moving plot involving comic confusions, sinister big-shots, creepy religious fundamentalists and a wonderful cast make this a truly welcome 2-hour vacation from the strange times we are living in. Joe Bob says check it out!

Speaking of Fantastic Beasts, have you seen the real-life creep show that is taking shape in King Mida's under-construction administration? A weird, unearthly menagerie of fringe congress critters, Fox News graduates, Right-Wing think tank escapees and various other frauds, true-believers and crank billionaires are flocking to the new Versailles on the Hudson.All the TV cameras are excitedly pointed to the Gold-encrusted lobby of Trump Tower! Who will he pick! Who gets fired! It's so exciting, you could almost miss the $25M fraud settlement against Trump U, the private talks with overseas investors, the preparations to gut Medicare & Social Security....

Lots to talk about in the near future - for now I would like to share this link to George Lakoff's essay "A Minority President: Why the Polls Failed, And What the Majority Can Do". He is a professor of linguistics at UC Berkeley and studies the intersection of Politics with neural & cognitive science. He discusses how our actions are influenced by sub-conscious processes, language and frames of reference. I'm digesting the article now and think it offers much to think about and discuss. 

What do you think?

Corruption, Ctd.

 

I have a feeling this is going to be a topic with a lot of entries. Now there is a Trump deal in Argentina that strings are getting pulled for. From Talking Points Memo (TPM):

 
According to a report out of Argentina, when Argentine President Mauricio Macri called President-Elect Trump to congratulate him on his election, Trump asked Macri to deal with the permitting issues that are currently holding up the project.
This comes from one of Argentina's most prominent journalists, Jorge Lanata, in a recent TV appearance. Lanata is quoted here in La Nacion, one of Argentina's most prestigious dailies. Said Lanata: “Macri called him. This still hasn’t emerged but Trump asked for them to authorize a building he’s constructing in Buenos Aires, it wasn’t just a geopolitical chat."

Let the healing dealing begin!

"I Make the Best Deals..."

The question, of course, is for whom. If you guessed "the American people" or "those who voted for Mr. T", thanks for playing but you loose, and there is no consolation prize. 

This week the new Trump hotel just down the street from the White House...

just held an event last week pitching foreign diplomatic delegations on moving their business to Trump's hotel. From a write up in The Washington Post ...To many of the guests at the reception Tuesday, accepting an invitation to tour the $212 million hotel and check out the $20,000-a-night, 6,300-square-foot “town house” suite seemed like a good idea. They spoke admiringly about the renovation and left with a goody bag of chocolates and a brochure. It listed the choices of accommodations and meeting rooms and expounded on the location’s “striking prominence” at historical moments such as the Inauguration Day parade...“Why wouldn’t I stay at his hotel blocks from the White House, so I can tell the new president, ‘I love your new hotel!’ Isn’t it rude to come to his city and say, ‘I am staying at your competitor?’ ” said one Asian diplomat.

This is the establishment that offers a $100 signature cocktail, "a concoction of rye, potato, and winter-wheat vodka, shaken and served with raw oysters and caviar."

He's not in office yet but already angling to use the office of the presidency to enrich himself directly. Just about all major players in national politics earn good money from their connections and associations but this takes it to a whole other no-holds-barred level. It's not going to just be the Trumps but also their loyal cronies, of course. One area where Democrats have been making noise about "working with the president elect" is on infrastructure. That sounds reasonable - the roads, bridges & water plants in this country are in generally bad shape. We need to rebuild these things, people need jobs, the economy needs more consumer spending - sounds good, no? Well, maybe not! 

Trump’s plan is not really an infrastructure plan. It’s a tax-cut plan for utility-industry and construction-sector investors, and a massive corporate welfare plan for contractors. The Trump plan doesn’t directly fund new roads, bridges, water systems or airports, as did Hillary Clinton’s 2016 infrastructure proposal. Instead, Trump’s plan provides tax breaks to private-sector investors who back profitable construction projects. These projects (such as electrical grid modernization or energy pipeline expansion) might already be planned or even underway. There’s no requirement that the tax breaks be used for incremental or otherwise expanded construction efforts; they could all go just to fatten the pockets of investors in previously planned projects.

So what is supposed to be a policy for the good of the country is instead a policy for the good of the companies. I think the rule now is if you shake the hand of the new ruling party, you better count your fingers after!

 

 

Some Light-Hearted Diversion

 

Thanks to Talia Bara for the link.

#NotMyPresident ?

One  of my first reactions election night was the above sentiment: Mr. T is Not My President! That is certainly how it feels - I didn't vote for him, his positions on a host of topics seem profoundly wrong and I abhor his entire bullying, braggadocios shtick. But...is it hypocritical to take this attitude? Many progressives criticized the Orange man for not pledging to accept the election results (unless he won, of course). Am I now guilty of the same thing?

Here is my argument for why I think it is not a hypocritical position to take: his campaign is so far outside the normal course of American political tradition that he did not earn my support in any way. Again and again he broke the informal rules under which we run our elections - no release of tax returns, personal and vicious attacks against individuals, insulting our allies, playing footsie with the authoritarian Putin, and on and on. This is not a typical election and its results are a fundamental threat to the democratic traditions we have followed for over 200 years. 

OTOH, many respected Democrats have stuck with the view that "he won the election, he will be our president, we have to support him now". That is always how we have done it in the past. Like a sporting contest, when the game is over, acknowledge the winner, congratulate them and move on. 

As I said, this seems like a horse of a different color and the old rules don't apply.

What do you think?

Beginnings

Let's start with some definitions, always a good place to start:

rationalism ‎(countable and uncountable, plural rationalisms)

1. (philosophy) The theory that the basis of knowledge is reason, rather than experience or divine revelation.

crony capitalism ‎(plural crony capitalisms)

1. (politics, idiomatic) an economic and political system dominated by privately owned, capitalist or financial undertakings that are dependent on the revolving door between themselves and publically held offices to secure the regulatory, taxwise, and prosecutorial leeway, such as financial subsidies, bailouts, settlements and special rubber stamped legislation, from those office holders to let the undertakings profitably weather their own misdeeds, mistakes, and outright crimes, as well as unlucky or unfriendly free-market conditions

           tragedy of the commons ‎(plural tragedies of the commons)
           (economics, politics, social criticism) A situation in which unmanaged use of a shared          resource (such as the atmosphere or an ocean) by a number of participants results in the unintended     ruin or total consumption of that resource.

useful idiot ‎(plural useful idiots)

1. (historical, pejorative, political jargon) Soviet sympathizer in Western countries, from the perspective of the political right.
2. (pejorative, political jargon) One who is seen to unwittingly support a malignant cause through their 'naive' attempts to be a force for good.

kakocracy ‎(usually uncountable, plural kakocracies)
 
        1.  (dated) Rule or government by the worst of the people. 

The above words and phrases highlight some of the issues on my mind this first week of our bizarre,  worrisome future under our new overlords. The electorate has spoken! Or rather, the roughly 25% of eligible voters who saddled us with a vulgar talking yam (to borrow Charlie Pierce's phrase) who doesn't seem to know much about the job he has just landed. He was reportedly surprised by all the responsibilities the president has when Obama gave him a brief run down. His staff did not seem to realize they have to hire an entirely new set of people to staff the administration. Who knew presidentin' was so much work!

I have more questions than answers at this point. First task is to regain emotional, spiritual and physical equilibrium after the shocking conclusion to the vile, endless campaign. A week on and body & soul are doing much better. Next to questions of the mind! How should we mentally frame the rise of Mr. T? How do we respond to racism, prejudice, hate? What do we do going forward?....

I'll finish with this for now, not as a whine or whimper but as a description of the last week, not an ending but a starting point for what is to come:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

"Second Coming" W. B. Yeats, 1865 - 1939