Time to use executive power

       After the holiday airline debacle featuring Southwest Airlines cancelling thousands of flights due to insufficient numbers of crews to staff the planes there is pent up anger among consumers.  Meanwhile, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg is conspicuous by his absence from the debate.  While he has no direct power to order the airlines to compensate consumers for egregious actions, he has plenty of coercive power to make the airlines uncomfortable.  He can at least hold them accountable for the scheduling which resulted in many flight cancellations.

      As Republicans in the House prepare to go all Hunter Biden all the time, the Biden administration will have to use its executive authority to the max in order to get anything done during he next 2 years.  The various cabinet secretaries have the power.  Will they use it?

What's Goin' On

       I believe I have quoted the iconic Marvin Gaye's immortal refrain before.  In a world gone mad, it is the most perceptive question one can ask.  Gaye was referring to the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement and societal breakdown as centuries' long taboos were challenged. 

      We face more existential threats today.   Climate destruction, nuclear proliferation and tRumpism occupy most of the time not devoted to making a living in a rapidly changing world.  What's goin' on, indeed.

The new Gilded Age

       The Brits have the royal family to obsess over.   Here in the US we consciously advocate for a meritocracy, however, we are agog at the antics of the billionaire class.

      Having enough of the "superrich" to constitute a class is a relatively recent phenomenon.  I can remember when Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and a few others were the only billionaires in the world.  With the recent run up of stock prices, there are literally hundreds of billionaires around the world.  You can argue they are a class above the merely wealthy.   These are people who travel in private jets.  They have legions of yes men who will take care of their every whim.

     The public for the most part believes these wealthy people can do no wrong, unless caught in the act like the recent fall of crypto king Sam Bankman Fried.   We unconsciously attribute super human powers to the billionaires as if the act of making money has put them beyond the ken of us mere mortals.  

     We did the same thing in the era which gave us John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and many others.   We woke from the Gilded Age when Teddy Roosevelt started treating them like they were our fellow citizens.   What will it take to shake off the current idolization of wealth in America?

Farcial tragedy or tragic farce

      The Divine Mrs. M and I watched the 2nd installment of the "Knives Out" series by director Rian Johnson and "ripped from the headlines" doesn't do it justice.   The Glass Onion was made before Elon Musk and Sam Bankman-Fried imploded as the nation witnessed, but its premise could have been extracted from the id of either of them.  I won't do any spoilers, but would only suggest you see the movie, currently on Netflix.

Feeling the love

      It's hard to feel the Christmas spirit with a cold rain falling from a grey sky with more on the way.  All the carols in the world won't make sky lighten up and frankly, in many parts of the world, Santa will have to watch for anti-aircraft fire on Christmas Eve.   So, what's to celebrate?

      It's going to be family traditions which will redeem Christmas this year.   We'll gather on Christmas morning and celebrate another year with a festive brunch and thanks to the Divine Mrs. M a tree loaded with presents for one and all.  Later, we'll gather for dinner and count our blessings.  It doesn't sound too exciting, but that's what the holiday means to me.

      I hope all the readers of this blog celebrate the season in whatever way gives you the most joy.  Merry Christmas to all!!

Zelensky and freedom

       I watched Zelensky's speech to the joint session of Congress last night.   No one will ever mistake him for Winston Churchill.   There are no deathless quotes such as Churchill's " We will fight them on the beaches," speech in 1940.  He did, however project confidence and calm while making the case for continued support from the West as Ukraine continues to fight Russia to a standstill.  He is now a world historical leader.

       It remains to be seen if the many standing ovations he received last night translate into monetary support in the next Congress.  It will be difficult for Republicans to back away from Zelensky after the outpouring of support on the House floor.   Not since the Nazi occupation of Sudatenland in the runup to WW2 has there been such a clear cut case of naked aggression.   Let's hope the world reacts better than it did in 1938.

What George Santos' lies say about America

      It seems another tRump supporter has been shown as a pathological liar.   According to a recent NYT story, the recently elected congressman did not graduate from Baruch College, did not work for Goldman-Sachs and probably is in legal trouble in his home country of Brazil.   The New York State Democratic party is still trying to formulate some excuses for its laughable oppo research of Santos and the state's Republican party is bound to be criticized for not vetting him more extensively.

      I doubt it would have made much difference if everyone had done their diligence.   Much of Santos' district is in suburban Long Island which seems to be in the throes of Democrat derangement syndrome.  If tRump wins the 2024 GOP nomination for president, I'm sure he will carry Nassau and Suffolk counties by double digits.   Much like the Dixie Chicks and Texas, I am ashamed to say I grew up on L.I.

     What Santos' campaign says about America is we seem to live down to P.T. Barnum's oft quoted maxim concerning suckers, "  There's one born every minute".

Winter

       We received 14 inches of heavy, wet snow on Friday and  Saturday.  This resulted in severe damage to many shrubs on our property.   Some are merely bent over under the snowload, while others are showing numerous broken branches.   There will be a ton of clean up required at some point.  Normally in this area, the snowfall that just happened would be with us until March or April.  However, the forecast for Friday includes temperatures in the 50s and a 1/2 inch of rain.   So, a White Christmas is in the cards, but there will be hints of green for those of us who prefer that state of affairs.

Same as the old boss

       As tRump devolves into his old huckster persona, pushing $99 trading cards with his ''likeness" (if you consider a muscle rippling hulk with laser eyes to be his default setting) to his credulous fans, it looks like GOP voters in the middle are looking for alternatives for their presidential nominee in 2024.  Florida governor Ron DeSantis is the most mentioned name, but as Paul Krugman points out in today's NYT, DeSantis has descended into nearly as many rabbit holes as tRump.  

      DeSantis is trying to become the nation's chief anti-vaxxer even as his state is one of the leaders in daily covid death rates.   He is bringing the full force of his bullying persona to bear on the issue.  To some observers this whole episode reminds us of former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker who sought to become the face of the anti union movement in 2014.   We all know how that turned out.

     DeSantis may beat tRump in a one on one contest, but as the latter weakens in the public debate, more candidates will jump into the contest.  There, Cheeto Jesus' followers will allow him to win some primaries with less than a majority vote.   This will build momentum in later contests and the 2016 scenario could then be plausible.  I'm not sure what to hope for.  

AI is coming for you

       The release of a new AI program called ChatGPT is getting critics knickers in a twist.   Echoing the complaints of previous generations at the inception of any new technology, critics say the program, which can reason at the level of a reasonably bright high school student will lead inexorably to more cheating and less learning. 

      Personally, the image ChatGPT generates in my mind is the proverbial camel's nose getting underneath the tent.  Aside from some niggling criticism about how it will lead to less thinking at the high school and college level, most people aren't engaged with the next step in AI, when it becomes more intelligent than the average human.

      We aren't in Skynet territory yet, but sometime in the not to distant future we may be dealing with robot overlords.   The time to think about the ramifications of ChatGPT and similar programs is now.

Is it greed?

        Carlos Correa, arguably the best remaining free agent shortstop has signed with the San Fransisco Giants for 13 years.  He will collect $350 million in guaranteed money.   Is this greed, or fair market value to a multi-billion dollar franchise.

      Compare Correa, Aaron Judge and other multimillionaire free agents with Samuel Bankman-Fried.  SBF as he is now known was arrested the other day for scamming crypto investors out of nearly 3 billion dollars.   The ballplayers are workmen, plying their trade.  SBF basically stole the money he accumulated and gambled much of it away in an attempt to cover the evidence of embezzlement.  

     It may be self evident to most of us, but Aaron Judge and SBF operate in entirely different universes;  one is the honest exchange of skill for money, the other a scam, motivated by greed.

Baby it's cold out there!

      It was 9 degrees outside at 6 a.m. this morning.  The last of the kale was huddled in one corner of the garden, probably done for the season.  There are a couple of inches of snow on the ground and a winter storm is possible this weekend.  I guess winter is here in earnest.

     Much of the British Isles are in an emergency due to cold weather.   It has been snowing for several days and with record high energy prices many people are faced with the choice; heat or eat.   The climate in England is dependent on the Gulf Stream bringing warm weather from the tropics to keep the climate mild.   with climate change, the warm water conveyor may be interrupted.  The country is at the same lattitude as Labrador and Iceland, so you can imagine the chaos this would cause.   

      Climate change is not a one way ticket to warm winters for everyone.  While countries near the equator may experience life threatening hot weather, other areas, including Europe and the northeastern US will experience colder weather at least in the short term.   

Elon and crypto

     I don't know if Elon Musk endorses or invests in crypto currency, but I'm guessing he is in on both counts.  Oh, wait, he has been caught endorsing "dogecoin", whatever that is.   As his latest twitter rants show, he has the perfect conspiratorial mindset to be a big crypto booster.

     Musk has by now disabused anyone who bought into the "financially conservative, socially liberal" meme so many news organizations have fluffed him with.   It turns out he is as around the bend as that crazy uncle you will have to welcome into your home this holiday season.  It is no longer a liberal thing to prove your ideological bona fides by buying a Tesla.  It never was for many conservatives.  Who will buy what is essentially an overpriced vehicle that is increasingly matched or exceeded in quality by legacy auto manufacturers?

     Perhaps his next gig will be as a commenter on the Fox News financial desk.  The reputation of crypto needs another high profile billionaire booster.  

pawns in the great game

       During the height of the British Empire in the mid 19th century, the Brits and Russia engaged in what was euphemistically called "The Great Game" on the borders of what is now India and Pakistan and the Russian Empire.    It was mostly in the context of spying on one another and trying to destabilize each other's territory.

      The US and Russia are playing a variation of that same game with the exchange of Britney Griner for a Russian arms dealer.   Victor Bout had already served 10 years of a 25 year sentence for arms trafficking, while Griner was beginning a 9 year sentence for alledgely having a few grams of cannabis oil in her luggage.  The Russians had the advantage over their US counterparts due to Griner's sympathetic story.  They won this particular episode of the great game.

Pride of the Yankees redux

      If there ever was a worthy successor to the Iron Horse, Aaron Judge surely is the one.  Lou Gehrig, rather than Babe Ruth was the iconic Yankee.  Quietly putting up HOF numbers every year without Ruth's bombast, he was the anchor of perhaps the greatest team ever assembled.  Judge has been doing it for 5 years, when healthy and is finally being recognized for his accomplishments.

     I know it seems like a symbol of our dysfunctional society to pay a man hundreds of millions of dollars to hit and throw a baseball.   The fact the Yankee club is worth more than 6 billion gives the lie to that argument.  Hal Steinbrenner needs Judge more than Judge needs the Yankees.  It was within his power to extract even more money had he wanted to push, but like Gehrig, number 99 chose a legacy.  Now, it is up to him to put up the numbers for at least the next 5 or 6 years to justify his place in Cooperstown.

     The larger issue here is an indictment of the entire player compensation system.  For the first several years of a player's career they are basically indentured servants, performing for peanuts in the hope of a free agent payday.   Many are injured and never get to cash in.  The average career length for a MLB ballplayer is only a few years, and Judge's trajectory is the exception, not the rule.  It will take union militancy for ballplayers to adjust the system to eliminate abuses.  In the meantime, elite players like Judge will reap outsize rewards.  More power to them.

phew

     A durable coalition of blacks, latinos, asians and college educated liberal whites prevailed last night in Georgia.   Their candidate, Rev. Rhaphael Warnock beat the MAGA party's nominee, Herschel Walker by 2 percetn in the runoff election.  It shouldn't have been that close.

    Walker was a deeply flawed candidate with little to recommend him if you subtract his football stardom from his resume.   His intellectual and moral failings were on full display in the general election and the runoff, yet he was able to come within a whisper of winning.  Warnock, a gifted politician in the Barack Obama mode, left it all on the field as he and his organization spent tens of millions to reach a few Republican voters who couldn't hold their noses long enough to vote for Walker.  In the end, along with his GOTV efforts it proved enough.

    Our politics have gotten so partisan that as one pundit put it, Republicans could nominate a soggy pile of mashed potatoes for office and as long as there was an R next to it, 90% of Republican voters would pull the lever for potatoes.  (Sorry Mr. Shulman for insulting potatoes).  

      It shouldn't be this way.  However, until the GOP summons up the will to repudiate the 20-25% of their voters who would destroy democracy in the name of Cheeto Jesus, we will see more candidates like Walker.  

A moment of truth

       Despite the media's best efforts to make the Georgia Senate runoff into a close horserace, Raphael Warnock will win by at least 4 percentage points as voters reject the joke candidacy of Herschel Walker.  I may regret the previous sentence later today, but I believe the stakes are high enough that a majority of voters have educated themselves enough to make an intelligent choice.

Believe

         When the failed former president says we should wad up the Constitution like so much used toilet paper and flush it down, we should believe that is exactly what he would do if he were in a position of trust today.

        tRump can feel the walls closing in with more than a 1/2 dozen investigations gearing up to either indict him on felony charges or sue him in civil courts.  He has delayed most of them with an army of lawyers filing frivolous objections and appealing every lower court ruling against him.  Sooner than most of us think he will run out of excuses and the reckoning will begin.  The final bullet in his arsenal is the claim the election of 2020 was stolen somehow.  

      As anyone with a rudimentary grasp of politics knows, this is a hollow claim and a virtual impossibility.  But tRump and a significant number of his followers would throw the Constitution under the bus to facilitate the return of his lawless administration.   Believe him when he says that and act accordingly.

Cryptomania

       I preface this post by admitting I know next to nothing about crypto currency and blockchains.   I never even thought about investing in bitcoin because I simply can't imagine what it might be good for other than illegal transactions.  When somebody can show me the utility of using cryptocurrency to buy a cup of coffee at my local Stewarts Shops, I'll think about it. 

      Which brings me to the latest but surely not the last crypto scandal in which a "whiz kid" promised outsize returns investing in alternate currency.   Alas, it looks like he simply stole his customers' investments and spent much of it living the lifestyle of the rich and famous.  Billions were lost by credulous investors.

      As Paul Krugman points out in today's NYT, most, if not all the companies who attempted to use blockchains in their businesses have given up since the technology is not superior to what they had been using.  Threats of government regulation will probably be the final nail in the coffin of the crypto bubble.  So much for the get rich quick scheme; until the next one.  It's human nature at its least attractive moment.

The man for no seasons

       That someone would waste their time voting for Herschel Walker for any position of trust is perhaps the easiest question about the 2022 elections to answer.   It's all about the tribe.  In this case the tribe of Republicans at any cost.  Competence, dignity, decorum; Walker fails all three, yet he still has a shot to be elected to the US Senate.

      If, in some parallel universe, Walker was running on the Democratic line, I find it hard to believe he would have garnered enough support to force a runoff election.  Certainly the Lindsay Graham's of the world would be pointing out the hypocrisy of running a totally unqualified candidate mainly because of the color of his skin.  Of course, that hasn't stopped the GOP from running any number of idiots for the Senate for that very reason.   

     Hopefully the overwhelming number of scandals Walker is dragging around with him will finally convince voters of his unfitness to serve, but I have a feeling this election will be closer than it should due to our ultra partisan politics.

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