12.31 On the final episode of Escape at Dannemorra, Michael Imperioli plays the Gov. He is undersized and underused, but he conveyed the Gov’s confidence.
12.30 Mike Allen in Axios: One of the most important trends likely to drive the 2020 presidential race: A growing disillusion with capitalism as practiced, and a coming struggle over how to recast this pillar of the Western order, Axios future editor Steve LeVine writes. You could hardly challenge a more basic part of who we are as Americans and Westerners. Polling shows a rising number of young Americans prefer socialism to communism.
Gallup found this summer: “Americans aged 18 to 29 are as positive about socialism (51%) as they are about capitalism (45%).” That’s “a 12-point decline in young adults’ positive views of capitalism in just the past two years and a marked shift since 2010, when 68% viewed it positively.” Why it matters: The main messengers of this coming steamroller are nowhere near the fringe. They’re mainstream thinkers with ideas like, “We must rethink the purpose of the corporation” and “The crisis of democratic capitalism” (both from Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf). The thinking is captured in a clutch of must-read new books by Paul Collier, Jonathan Tepper and Oren Cass; and a growing body of academic papers in the U.S. and Europe. What they are mostly doing is connecting the dots of what we all realize by now: Flaws in the system — including forgetting about so much of society — are largely to blame for widespread disaffection with establishment institutions, leaders and answers. The evidence of something profoundly amiss is visible in: Almost four decades of largely flat wages for the vast majority of workers. Four decades of meager productivity gains.An anemic number of new startups, and relatively few IPOs.If you remember one thing: All that bigness that you see around you — outsized cities, companies and individuals gobbling up most of the economic pie — is not normal. For the economic system to become more inclusive, competitive, and deliver for more people, some or a lot of that bigness may have to be broken up. Axios’ Felix Salmon notes: The past four decades have seen massive global increases in wealth and income and productivity, thanks almost entirely to capitalism. (Look where South Korea was 40 years ago!) So flattened wages in the U.S. reflects the way the benefits of capitalism wound up getting spread across the globe, rather than being concentrated in the West. This does, of course, explain the disaffection in the West. What’s next: In the U.S., look for this trend to be a primary battleground among Democratic presidential candidates in 2020. Each of the political parties is likely to promise that it can best reformulate the system to deliver for the vast number of Americans. Axios’ Dan Primack points out that this could be the dividing line in the Democratic primary: A pretty hardcore group that believes that even Sen. Elizabeth Warren is too capitalist (because she wants to reform, not replace). Be smart: Innovative Republican candidates will also reach for many of the same issues and solutions, rather than the GOP orthodoxy of old.
12.27 The Astoria Borealis. In an industrial accident at a Con Edison substation in Astoria, a 138,000 volt coupling capacitor potential device failed, resulting in an arc flash which in turn burned aluminum, lighting up the sky with a blue-green spectacle visible for miles around.
12.27 Mitch Daniels in the Washington Post: In “Enlightenment Now,” Harvard’s Steven Pinker catalogues the irrefutable evidence that “life has gotten longer, healthier, richer, safer, happier, freer, smarter, deeper, and more interesting,” through the application of reason, science and humanism. It is only the abandonment of those Enlightenment ideals, he says, that can threaten humankind’s continued upward trajectory. One by one, the author exposes alleged crises as overhyped, misrepresented or, in many cases, just plain wrong. Deaths from war and genocide have plummeted; genuine poverty and hunger are in steep decline, and famine has virtually disappeared; economic inequality is vastly overstated in the United States and is shrinking dramatically worldwide. Life expectancy in the poorest country is now nine years greater than it was in the richest country two centuries ago.
12.27 Amber Petrovich in the Washington Post: According to a 2016 study, “94 percent of the net employment growth in the U.S. economy from 2005 to 2015 appears to have occurred in alternative work.” In July, the human-capital consultants G. Palmer Associates forecast a 3.4 percent increase in demand for temporary workers for the 2018 third quarter: “The momentum in the temp help employment market continues to be positive due to GDP growth and the expected effects around lower corporate tax rates and less government regulation.”
12.27 EJ Dionne Jr in the Washington Post: Progressives must find a politics that links worker rights with civil rights, racial and gender justice with social justice more broadly. In the 2018 elections, Democrats found that an emphasis on health care, access to education and higher wages worked across many constituencies. A war on corruption targeting the power of monied elites holds similar promise. It was a start.
12.27 Jake Sullivan in The Atlantic: An energized, inspiring, and ultimately successful foreign policy must cut through Trump’s false, dog-whistling choice between globalism and nationalism. It must combine the best kind of patriotism (a shared civic spirit and a clear sense of the national interest) and the best kind of internationalism (a recognition that when your neighbor’s house is on fire, you need to grab a bucket). And it should reject the worst kind of nationalism (damn-the-consequences aggression and identity-based hate-mongering) and the worst kind of internationalism (the self-congratulatory insulation of the Davos elite). This calls for rescuing the idea of American exceptionalism from both its chest-thumping proponents and its cynical critics, and renewing it for the present time. The idea is not that the US is intrinsically better than other countries, but that Despite its flaws, America possesses distinctive attributes that can be put to work to advance both the national interest and the larger common interest.
12.24 “Hello, is this Collman? Merry Christmas. How are you? How old are you? Are you still a believer in Santa? ’Cause at 7, it’s marginal, right?”
12.24 Trump tweet at 12:32 p.m: “I am all alone (poor me) in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come back and make a deal on desperately needed Border Security.”
12.22 Philip Rucker in the Post: Trump will enter his third year as president unbound — at war with his perceived enemies, determined to follow through on the hard-line promises of his insurgent campaign and fearful of any cleavage in his political coalition. So far, the result has been disarray. The federal government is shut down. Stock markets are in free fall. Foreign allies are voicing alarm. Hostile powers such as Russia are cheering. And Republican lawmakers once afraid of crossing this president are now openly critical.
12.22 The Winter Solstice Concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, featuring the Paul Winter Consort
12.21 Jonah Goldberg in National Review: There was always a yin-yang thing to conservatism. Its hard-headedness and philosophical realism about human nature and the limits it imposes on utopian schemes appealed to some and repulsed others. For those who see politics as a romantic enterprise, a means of pursuing collective salvation, conservatism seems mean-spirited. As Emerson put it: “There is always a certain meanness in the argument of conservatism, joined with a certain superiority in its fact.” That’s what Ben Shapiro is getting at when he says “Facts don’t care about your feelings.” The hitch is that the reverse is also true: Feelings don’t care about your facts. Tell a young progressive activist we can’t afford socialism and the response will be overtly or subliminally emotional: “Why don’t you care about poor people!” or “Why do you love billionaires!?” The problem conservatism faces these days is that many of the loudest voices have decided to embrace the meanness while throwing away the facts. This has been a trend for a long time now. But Donald Trump has accelerated the problem to critical mass, yielding an explosion of stupid and a radioactive cloud of meanness.”
12.21 Jake Sullivan in The Atlantic: “A distinctive part of America’s postwar history has been the ability to adjust after failures and follies, which are an inevitable part of global leadership. The Marshall Plan and NATO came into being only after a period in which Harry Truman’s administration reduced the American footprint in Western Europe and imposed self-defeating conditions on economic assistance. The Bush-era HIV/aids program that saved millions of lives arrived many years after the woeful response to the epidemic by Ronald Reagan’s administration. In Latin America, from the end of the Cold War through the Barack Obama years, heavy-handed intervention and support for dictators gave way to mutual respect, engagement as equals, and the normalization of relations with Cuba. This capacity for self-appraisal, self-correction, and self-renewal separates the United States from past superpowers. It is what President Obama—elected in part because of popular opposition to the Iraq War—meant when he said, on the 50th anniversary of the march to Montgomery, Alabama: “Each successive generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake this nation to more closely align with our highest ideals.” After Trump, the United States will face its next great readjustment. Part of the challenge will be to repair the damage he has done—to alliances, to treaties, to the perception of American motives, to trust in America’s word, and, most of all, to the very idea of America. But the United States must also update its purpose in a changing world.”
12.21 Greg Sargent in the Post: Mattis’s explanation for his resignation should force a much-needed public debate on something that still doesn’t get the forthright treatment it deserves: Trump is not operating out of any meaningful conception of what’s in the national interest.
12.21 Charlie Sykes on MSNBC: “That’s what makes this moment feel so different… the guardrails are gone. The chaos has been unleashed… I know we’ve felt this way in the past…but you do feel there’s this great unraveling going on here”
12.20 Michael Gerson in the Washington Post: When all this evidence is stitched together in a narrative — as Mueller’s report will certainly do — the sum will be greater than the sleaze of its parts. Russian intelligence officials invested in an innovative strategy to support the election of a corrupt U.S. businessman with suspicious ties to Russian oligarchs. The candidate and his campaign welcomed that intervention in public and private. And the whole scheme seems to have paid off for both sides. For the rest of us, the deal hasn’t worked out so well. A deeply compromised American administration has been unable to effectively counter a direct attack on our democratic institutions by a hostile foreign government — responding to a digital Pearl Harbor with a wink and a nod. “This is an existential constitutional crisis,” says historian Jon Meacham, “because it’s quite possible that the president of the United States right now is a witting or at least partially witting agent of a foreign power.” Some of us are still too shocked to process this. The United States seems to have gone from zero to banana republic in no seconds flat. But whether this transformation has been illegal, it must be impeachable — or else impeachment has no meaning.
12.20 Bloomberg columnist Eli Lake: “Donald Trump may not know it yet, but his presidency is collapsing. As long as [Mattis] served the president, reluctant Republicans could point to the Pentagon and say: If Mattis supports Trump, then so do I. They can no longer do that.”
12.20 Defense Secretary Mattis resigns, rebuking Trump.
12.20 Trump shocker: US leaving Syria
12.18 Meeting on Inaugural with Gov
12.18 U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to Michael Flynn: “I’m not hiding my disgust, my disdain for this criminal offense.”
12.18 HuffPo: 45 percent of adults in the U.S. have an immediate family member who has spent at least one night in jail or prison.
12.17 Chris Matthews: “But what if the prosecutor were to offer the president an alternative. What if he were to say he would let the children walk if the old man does the same? That would mean giving up the presidency in exchange for acquittals all around ― not just for himself, but for all his kids.”
12.7 Rex Tillerson on CBS: “What was challenging for me coming from the disciplined, highly process-oriented ExxonMobil corporation, was to go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesn’t like to read, doesn’t read briefing reports, doesn’t like to get into the details of a lot of things, but rather just kind of says, ‘This is what I believe.’. . . So often, the president would say, ‘Here’s what I want to do, and here’s how I want to do it, and I would have to say to him, ‘Mr. President, I understand what you want to do, but you can’t do it that way. It violates the law.’ ”
12.17 David Freedlander in New York Magazine: “Cuomo, even in private, has shown no appetite for mounting a 2020 presidential campaign, people close to him say. Although there isn’t a straight path for the governor to the nomination — not with so many young and liberal and diverse candidates already in the mix — a race with dozens of contenders can break in all sorts of odd ways. (Just look at say, the 2016 Republican race.) As Democrats size up the field, Monday’s speech is a reminder to keep an eye on what the various candidates have already done. Cuomo will enter the 2020 campaign season with a record of accomplishment likely beyond anybody else’s. Whether he will be there in the field, making the case for himself as a declared candidate, is another matter.”
12.17 New York Andrew Governor Cuomo, in a preview of his 2019 agenda Monday, laid out an ambitious plan to counteract actions by President Trump and his policies, including strengthening abortion rights, expanding voter access and legalizing marijuana. Cuomo, in a speech at the New York City Bar Association, outlined what he admits is an ambitious agenda for the first 100 days of his third term, which starts January 1. Cuomo’s plans for the New Year include codifying the abortion rights in the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade into state law. He also wants to protect the provisions of the federal Affordable Care Act in state statute, including protections for people with pre existing conditions. And he says he’ll seek passage of anti-discrimination legislation for transgender New Yorkers, strengthen gun control laws and expand voting access, including making Election Day a state holiday. And the governor says it’s time to permit victims of childhood sexual abuse to sue their abusers, and for New York to join 10 other states that have already legalized recreational marijuana. “Now is the time to make these changes, there are no more excuses, my friends,” Cuomo said, to applause. “Now is the time to stand up and lead.”
12.17 James Comey: “At some point, someone has to stand up and face the fear of Fox News, fear of their base, fear of mean tweets, stand up for the values of this country and not slink away into retirement but stand up and speak the truth.”
12.17 CBS says Les Moonves was fired for cause, is not entitled to his $120 million severance package.
12.17 John Podhoretz to Rep. Steve King: “You are a foul, disgusting liar and a stain on American public life. The stench of your deceit and your views pollutes your district, your state, your party, and the United States.”
12.14 The Weekly Standard closes
12.14 In the Atlantic off Nazare, Portugal, British surfer Tom Butler rode a wave that is being touted as 100 feet tall
12.14 Democratic consultant Erik Smith to Axios: “Speaker Pelosi’s sole job in 2019 will be to serve Trump to the 2020 nominee on a platter … She won’t be bullied or outmaneuvered.”
12.14 Elizabeth Breunig in the Post: “I don’t think that putting forth progressive priorities is incompatible with beating Trump; in fact, I think that having a clear and persuasive vision of what a better America can look like is likely to be more attractive to voters than promising them something vaguely like the past. One of the political lessons of recent years is that history is never over. The future is waiting, if we want to build it.”