State of the Dis-Union

A few fast observations:

The old Democratic strategy of “when they go low, we go high” is a loser.

While I appreciate its intent, peaceful demonstrations, petitions, and letter writing campaigns are passé and ineffective. The age of civil persuasion is dead.

A new political party (Democratic or other) needs a Machiavellian leader, a bit evil but unlike the Republican version, smart. (Maybe Mark Cuban?)

Now the Republicans are concerned about decorum?! Why didn’t this concern apply during Joe Biden’s State of the Union when Lauren Bobert and Marjorie Taylor Greene acted up like spoiled high school sophomores screeching for attention at a school dance.

Congressman Al Green was the only one Democrat with a backbone? When he was removed, all other Democrats should have walked out too.

Likewise, when the Associated Press was barred from White House press room, other legitimate press and news outlets should have left too.

The biggest slaughter this winter was not the Eagles beating the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, but the political thumping Republicans have handed the Democrats since Inauguration Day.

Joe Biden (or his enablers) and Merrick Garland are hugely responsible for the current political mess. They engaged in pillow throwing while Trump and the GOP went MMA.

The “reporter” who asked Zelensky why he was not wearing a suit to the White House must have received his journalism degree from Trump University.

Death knells have been announced periodically for both parties over the decades. However I hear a rattle anytime a Democrat politician speaks.

Communications from Democratic congressmen and women to constituents about how bad Trump is are useless. We get it. Things are bad and about to get worse. Create a plan or strategy and tell us what you are going to do as a party. How about someone stepping up as an effective opposition leader?

I would not count on midterms or any other future elections to change the political direction. First, not sure that they will take place. And second, very uncertain if they take place, whether the results will be “accurate.”

Remote Rants

Daryl Morey was supposed to be the General Manager genius who would push the 76ers to a NBA world championship. Instead, the team is locked into an inescapable contract salary straitjacket that not even Houdini can breakthrough. Suggest Sixers walk across Pattison Ave and talk to the GM who knows how to build championship teams.

Joel Embiid and Paul George are toast. Current biggest concern: Tyrese Maxey does not burn out from carrying team on his back.

Fire Nick Nurse? Nah! Red Auerbach could not improve win-loss record given lack of talent.

If Nick Nurse is fired or quits, I’d try to hire the current Detroit Pistons coach JB Bickerstaff.

Only Cooper Flagg from Duke looks like a player worth going into the tank for in the draft.

Last 10 #1 NBA Drafts and My Performance Grades on their Careers

Karl-Anthony Towns (A)

Ben Simmons (D-)

Markelle Fultz (D)

Deandre Ayton (C)

Zion Williamson (C+)

Anthony Edwards (A+)

Cade Cunningham (B-)

Paolo Banchero (A)

Victor Wembanyama (A)

Zaccharie Risacher N/A)

Note: the two lowest draft grades belong to 76ers first round picks…

Not overwhelmed yet with either Dylan Harper or Ace Bailey from Rutgers, who are projected as #2 and 3 NBA draft picks. Overrated? Maybe. They certainly show potential but I’d rather see them play another year of college ball to sharpen their games even if it was not at Rutgers.

At the start of the college basketball season, I was hoping that Rutgers would mimic the success of the 1976 team that made it to the Final Four. Very disappointed that they are struggling just to make the play in playoff game in the Big Ten tournament.

Fran Dunphy is retiring after stints at Penn, Temple and LaSalle. In the “Big Five Mount Rushmore” of coaches, he would be along Jay Wright of Villanova, Jack Ramsey of Saint Joseph and John Cheney of Temple. Jay Wright is easily the GOAT of Big Five coaches.

I watch many pro and college basketball games with the volume muted as the analysts are so poor and boring.

Best play by play and announce team for college basketball ever:
Dick Enberg and Al McGuire (1970-80s)

Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success by Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig (Book Review)

This book offers an in-depth look at Donald Trump—the businessman, real estate investor, entrepreneur, and brand. Much of the narrative focuses on his struggles to finance buildings, casinos, golf courses, and other projects. Despite his relentless self-promotion, Trump has repeatedly proven to be a poor businessman, often relying on his father, Fred Trump, to bail him out of financial trouble.

As you read, one question becomes unavoidable: Why would anyone choose to partner with Donald Trump? His track record as a business leader is riddled with failure, and those who have worked with him—contractors, lenders, and employees—frequently find themselves shortchanged. Why lend money to someone who appears to lack financial discipline in both his personal and professional life?

A Trump supporter might dismiss this book as misinformation, but the authors had access to extensive financial records, including Trump’s tax returns. Their research is bolstered by interviews with numerous individuals who have firsthand experience dealing with him.

The fact free bubble Fox News created around Donald Trump as president may have felt familiar. He had spent his entire life in a similar bubble, financed by his father. In this comfortable place, he could hide his failures, pay for them with his father’s money, and later a celebrity’s fortune. There would be no metrics measuring his success, just the impression of self created wealth that he willed into existence.From the moment he left his father’s careful planning practices behind, he protected his bubble by waging war on the fact based world that might pop it.

Trump’s failures in the casino industry in Atlantic City are well-documented. His attempt to buy an NFL franchise led instead to the downfall of the USFL. When journalists and analysts challenged his exaggerated business claims, he responded with lawsuits and intimidation tactics.

Perhaps his greatest success—if it can be called that—was The Apprentice, a reality show that portrayed him as a shrewd businessman with exceptional judgment. This carefully crafted image helped convince much of the public that he was a financial genius, a perception that played a crucial role in his 2016 presidential campaign.

The book is 456 pages long and thoroughly researched, with extensive footnotes to support its claims. In fact, published articles by the authors on Trump’s finances earned them a Pulitzer Prize.

I wish I could say this book might change the minds of his staunchest supporters, but realistically, many of them are unlikely to engage with a work of this length and depth.

A Vote for Epistocracy

Epistocracy is a system in which the votes of people who can prove their political knowledge count more than the votes of people who can’t. In other words, it’s a system that privileges the most politically informed citizens.

Given the notable failures of US democracy in the past, few decades, I seek a new political system alternative. Epistocracy appeals to me as it rewards a demonstration of competence in judgment when voting. For example, a voter should have more than a passing knowledge of American history, its political system and the ability to discern facts and truth from disinformation.

I recognize that it would be very hard to implement this type of political system. Two big issues: First, determining what the criteria is for voter competence. Lord knows that the bar would be very low if the Republican Party had any input into this criteria. Second, getting the buy in from the American people that this system is better and would result in better candidates and better results from our elected representatives.

This idea may be a disillusioned man’s dream. But given the sad circumstance of our national Administration, its incompetence and the mediocrity of our elected national representatives, I am a poor man’s “Elon Musk” looking to improve government.

Here is my contribution for a simple introductory test to see if a voter merits competence consideration…

Amateur Hour in America

I’m waiting patiently to see this generation’s Edward R. Murrow in media and the press.

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I have already seen this Administration’s Joe McCarthys.

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However there are a few “profiles in courage”…For example, Hagan Scotten told Justice Department officials that he would not be party to a political prosecution (below)….

But any assistant U.S. attorney would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way. If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me.

Hagan Scotten, Assistant United States Attorney, Southern District of New York

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When Trump offered the severance package to federal employees, I did not realize that just about all of Congress decided to cash in and abandon their responsibilities too.

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When Associated Press was denied access to the White House press room I was disappointed other media members did not walk out to show their support.

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Just a thought, but a long moratorium on reporting news about this Administration and members would be mentally healthy for this country.

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Appropriate Aphorisms for Our Times

“A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves.”

— Bertrand de Jouvenel

“Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian.”

— Robert Orben

“A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.”

— George Bernard Shaw

U.S. is Not “Woke”; It’s in a Wake

…” too many assume soft despotism can’t happen here. That we are better than that. Well, American exceptionalists, it turns out, we’re just like everybody else: susceptible to conmen and tyrants and kleptocrats. It is happening here, right before your eyes, even if yours are shut tight.

“And yet, even with all this tumult, comes the news that Trump, while still the most unpopular president ever, or at least since 1953 when such measures started being taken, has attained his highest favorability rating. Leaving me with some existential questions like: Who am I? Who are half these people I call countrymen? What alternative universe do they reside in, and is there any chance we could make them stay there, then build a wall and make the aliens pay for it? They often remind me of those stories we’d read during the worst of COVID, when patients who had been propagandized to within an inch of their lives after being told by their conspiracy-slingers of choice that it was all some giant hoax, would be in the ICU on respirators, their lungs failing, arguing with their doctors on their deathbeds that surely they don’t have COVID, since it doesn’t even exist.”

When Your Country Hits the Skids Matt Labash

One of the things that I have experienced and come to grips with in my late stage of life is death. I have buried parents, a sister, relatives and friends so why should democracy be any different?

My expectation is that democracy would have at least survived me. Democracy did not die suddenly. I watched helplessy as a cancer of greed, corruption and stupidity weakened the patient. Many urged remediative care to ensure the patient survived and prospered. Instead the patient succumbed to a prescription based on misinformation, racism, sexism and superstition.

I am not indifferent to those who mourn or are suffering from democracy’s demise. Many are in shock; many are in denial. Power is now seized or bought. Caucuses, conventions and elections are not the bromides to resurrect or replace what we have experienced for so long. The guardrails of a Constitution, free press, independent judiciary and vigilant Congress no longer exist. I seriously question how accurate election results will be in the future. So much data and information is so easily manipulated, so can numbers.

The divide in this country is deeper than the hatred between North and South for so many years. I had hopes that a younger generation would change the tenor of our politics and culture as Baby Boomers need to step aside and allow our children and grandchildren to determine their future. Instead I sadly question whether they will be able to enjoy the opportunities and freedoms that once existed. Our school systems cannot educate students to read and write, how can we expect people to make right decisions and judgements?

I watch all of this numb and in sorrow. One expects to lose his family and friends. No one expects to lose his country.

Muses on Aging and Decline

Riches in youth measured by wealth; riches in maturity measured by health.

“Alarm clock: once for work, now for timely pickleball registration.”

Deterioration, diminishment, death and disability, Damocles’ swords for the older generation.

Lament of an older athlete: Often what the mind can conceive, the body can’t achieve.

Lost in cyberspace: the Sunday papers, complete with sports pages, TV section, crosswords and comic strips.”

77 million voters created 346 million “Anne Franks.”

Like humans, democracies can deteriorate—toward dementia or, politically, tyranny.

Start of the Rout?

If America is a stock, is it time to dump it and sell?

Like the ouroboros, I believe Big Tech is eating itself alive with its component companies throwing more and more cash at investments in one another that are most likely to generate less and less of a return. Monday’s correction shows that our financial markets — and possibly your retirement portfolio — may be starting to reflect an understanding of this dynamic. New York Times 1/28/25 I Study Financial Markets. The Nvidia Rout Is Only the Start. Mihir A. Desai is a professor at Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School.

If Trump’s all-in-on-fossil-fuels, “drill, baby, drill” rallying cry — at the dawn of this era of artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, batteries and autonomous cars — really becomes our strategy, it will not make America great again. But it will definitely help make China great again. New York Times 1/28/25 Trump Is Going Woke Thomas Friedman

The bond market is telling us something about the dawn of the second Trump presidency, and it’s not pretty….Most of the policies proposed by President Trump, from tariffs to additional fiscal stimulus to deportations that tighten the labor market, are expected to add to inflation. And to the degree they are enacted, they will combine with an inflation rate that has declined rapidly, but which remains above the Federal Reserve’s target and is still higher than it was during most of the decade leading up to the pandemic. Rising long-term rates are bad for businesses and households that need to borrow, since the cost of loans such as mortgages and auto loans are directly linked to 10-year Treasury yields. New York Times 1/29/25 Trump’s Plans Are Already Making Your Life More Expensive Rebecca Patterson (is an economist and market strategist)

Send in the Clowns…

I am less agitated by the pardons of two men within the past few weeks than the pardons granted by 77.3 million voters last November.

I have no sympathy for Buyer’s remorse. I note the surprise and consternation as the curtain opened and the opening acts started. The fine print was clear: no returns, no exchanges, and no refunds on this runaway circus of calamity. You bought the ticket, and now you’re strapped in for the whole ghastly ride, derailments and all.

Upset that his hand wasn’t on the Bible during the oath of office? Why bother with a prop for principles he neither understands nor respects!

“We criticized the German people for allowing a Hitler to rise, but in the early 1930s, Germany was reeling from a global economic depression, compounded by severe unemployment and the crushing reparations imposed after World War I. Restricted in rebuilding its military and manufacturing, Germany was a demoralized and defeated nation. In contrast, the United States in 2024 elected Trump amidst economic prosperity, low unemployment, and a position of military and political strength, fully in control of its destiny.”

What would Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman, Douglas McArthur, Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite opine if they were at the Inauguration ceremonies last Monday?

Winter Journal by Paul Auster (Recommendation and Review)

I first read this book in 2012 when I was 60 years old. It had a profound effect on me then. My fears of getting older were starting. Reading this book at 72, I have a new appreciation for Auster’s messaging on aging, death and memories. The tale is sobering, not depressing. Auster had an interesting story to tell about his life’s experiences.

“Winter Journal” is a deeply personal memoir published in 2012, written when Auster was 64 years old. Auster begins by documenting his bodily sensations and physical experiences, starting with a detailed account of his mother’s death and moving through various moments of his life. He explores personal traumas, near-death experiences, and significant physical memories that have shaped his understanding of himself.

The memoir covers several key themes: mortality, aging, memory, and personal history.

List of my favorite excerpts below:

Your bare feet on the cold floor as you climb out of bed and walk to the window. You are 64 years old. Outside, the air is gray, almost white, with no sun visible. You ask yourself: How many mornings are left?

Nevertheless, there are things that you miss from the old days, even if you have no desire to see those days return. The ring of the old telephones, the clacking of typewriters, milk and bottles, baseball without designated hitters, vinyl records, galoshes, stockings, and garter belts, black and white movies, heavyweight champions,… basketball before the three-point shot, contempt for authority.

Your birthday has come and gone. 64 years old now, inching ever closer to senior citizenship, to the days of Medicare and Social Security benefits, to a time when more and more of your friends will have left you. So many of them are gone already – –but just wait for the deluge that is coming.

That is why you will never forget these words, which were the last words spoken to one of your friends by his dying father: “Just remember, Charlie, “he said “never pass up an opportunity to piss.” And so the wisdom of the ages is handed down from one generation to the next.

Joubert: The end of life is bitter. Less than a year after writing those words, at the age of 61, which must’ve seemed considerably older in 1815 then it does today, he jotted down a different and far more challenging formulation about the end of life: One must die, lovable (if one can.)