November 3, 2021

I recently got stuck behind a car that had a “Biden is not my President” sticker proudly stuck on its rear windshield. In another instance, I was at a table with a few others when a woman put her cell phone down on the table with a “Trump is my President” sticker clearly visible to all. People seem to be comfortable giving Joe Biden the finger. Now, we have an instance when a Southwest Airlines pilot was heard saying “Let’ s Go, Brandon” over the loud speaker system. That phrase, which should not be translated because it’s meaning is disgusting, has become a terribly derogatory phrase aimed at Joe Biden. It started with NASCAR, and has spread from there.

Really, people? Not only is this behavior crude and boorish, it is patently un-American. It is not on the same scale as attacking the Capitol and denying the results of the last election, but it is born of the same parents. It may not be aggressive, but it is certainly passive-aggressive, and it may give others the wrong idea about what is expected and acceptable. As much as some people like myself detested Donald Trump and hated every day he was in office, we were not saying he was not our President. We were saying that we were embarrassed that he was our President, and that we were fearful about what he might do to our democracy. We didn’t want to overturn his election. We wanted to overturn him.

I am sure someone will find examples that will correct my assertions. That’s fine. It still doesn’t make it right.

October 28, 2021

Even though I am pretty sure that I don’t know any billionaires, I am not in favor of a billionaire’s tax on unrealized capital gains. It seems very clumsy to me, and I am sure any enterprising tax attorney or accountant could figure out a way to get around it. They always do. I would not be concerned with Mitt Romney’s objection that it would distort economic activity. Tax policy always distorts economic activity. It’s not a matter of if; it’s just a matter of how, how much, and who benefits. This is just another example of a sloppy, political compromise similar to the Affordable Care Act. It’s not ideal, but it looks like it is all the Democrats could get in order to pay for trivial things like infrastructure, climate change, and healthcare. I am already on record for endorsing an asset-based tax on investment assets similar to the way we assess real estate taxes on property. This would have been in lieu of a capital gains tax, but that’s not going to happen. So, the best option would have been to roll back some of the individual and corporate tax cuts instituted during the last administration. This seems to be a simple and straightforward solution to me. No new laws. No new reporting requirements. No new work for tax accountants. Democrats couldn’t get it done so we will have billionaire’s tax. I now have lost all my enthusiasm for becoming a billionaire.

October 27, 2021

I know it is off brand, but I just completed my 365th consecutive New York Times crossword puzzle without a net. I’d like to thank all of the Latin teachers who made this possible.

October 25, 2021

To be fair and balanced, there are radicals in both political parties. These are politicians supported by their followers who believe in a certain vision of America, and are willing to fight to make their vision a reality. I think it is worth discussing what these radicals are all about.

On the progressive left, the radicals believe that the environment is worth fighting for through aggressive legislation designed to mitigate climate change. They believe, as does a majority of the country, that climate change is the existential crisis of our time. They want to offer billions of dollars in incentives to companies who comply with their demands, and want to assess harsh penalties against companies who fail to comply.

On the regressive right, radicals want to fight for safe and secure elections even though there is absolutely no evidence that they weren’t already safe and secure. They want to continue the fight to get the 2020 Presidential election overturned. They are willing to attack the Capitol and hunt down its inhabitants to get what they want. They want to gerrymander Democrats out of existence. They want to make it possible for Republicans to overturn future elections.

On the progressive left, radicals want to rollback recent tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations in order to pay for infrastructure, healthcare, education, and child care. In all four areas, the United States lags well behind most other industrialized countries. The radicals believe that being at least average in these categories is not a radical expectation.

Regressive radicals believe that we should take away a women’s right to choose. They are willing to do whatever it takes to make this a reality. They are willing to steal Supreme Court seats, and fill them with Justices opposed to Roe vs. Wade. They are willing to prevent young women who are raped and impregnated to have an abortion, and threaten to punish anyone who comes to their aid.

In a recent op-ed, E. J. Dionne wrote, “Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican, described resistance to reform as representing ‘not true conservatism, but an incitement to the wildest radicalism.’”

I recently returned from New York City where I had the opportunity to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and view the Medici exhibit. As an aside, the Met had a vaccine mandate, masks were required, and everyone felt safe and comfortable. One of the recurring symbols utilized by the Renaissance painters in their depictions of famous people was the book. Invariably, whether it be a Medici, Dante, or someone else, the subject was holding a book. Books are a universal representation in Renaissance art of knowledge and learning often referring to power and educated status. Books were rather rare, but what they contained was precious. Collections and libraries were expensive, and only the wealthy could afford them. Knowledge was prized.

Today, we take books for granted. Our reading time has been supplanted by scrolling time. We spend hours scrolling through a never ending succession of posts, feeds, and ads. The technical term is doom scrolling. The content is a mile wide, and an inch deep. We have come to learn that social media is full of misinformation and disinformation. It has the power to distort reality. It has the ability to make people, especially young girls, feel bad about themselves. Good literature educates and elevates. Social media makes people dumb and dumber. The next time you take a picture of yourself for Instagram, maybe you should be holding a book.

From the New York Times:

Prime Minister Mario Draghi has received a steady stream of Italian champions and award winners in recent months. The national soccer team beat England in July to win the European soccer championship. An Italian reached the men’s final at Wimbledon. A Roman band won the Eurovision song contest. Italy’s men’s and women’s volleyball teams won the European championships. In the days before Mr. Jacobs hit the track, Italy took home the World Pastry Cup. This week, an Italian won a Nobel Prize in Physics.

October 10, 2021

In 2013, Senator Rob Portman reversed his opposition to gay marriage when his son told him and his wife that he was gay. I wonder how many people living in the wilds of California or on the shores of New Jersey were converted from being climate change deniers when their communities were racked by fires and floods? Now we hear and read stories of multiple conservative talk show hosts who opposed vaccinations, contracted COVID, had death bed conversions, and died. Why is that so many people are not willing to change their opinions until something affects them personally. Child psychologists would call this a lack of “object permanence.” Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or otherwise sensed. It is a marker of child development.

I wonder how a Texas Republican legislator would feel about abortion if his or her daughter were raped and impregnated. I think the majority of them would have a “death bed” conversion, and drive their loved one to Mexico. I wonder how they would feel if their school age children were mowed down by a terrorist wielding an AK-47? I think there were would be far fewer AK-47’s in the hands of Texans. Why is it we have to wait for politicians to personally experience something before they have death bed conversions and get around to making things better? Apparently, when things are out of sight, politicians are free to be out of their minds.

October 3, 2021

I am still reliving the Ryder Cup through the miracle of DVR. I was traveling during the actual event, but I should be caught up soon. One of the best parts for me is to watch the outpouring of emotion from professionals, who spend most of their time in the somber and somewhat joyless pursuit of perfection. The regular PGA Tour can appear dreary to the non-believers.

The joy, exhilaration and craziness that the Ryder Cup produces is the result of individual contractors, who, once every two years, have the opportunity to play for a team and their country. They wear uniforms emblazoned with the letters USA in red, white and blue. They subsume their individual egos to the greater glory of team USA. It is wonderful to watch this transformation. Men become kids again.

So why is it that we, as American citizens, are unable to put aside our individualism for the greater good of all Americans and get vaccinated? Why can’t we be like team USA? All for one, and one for all. Imagine the excitement when we could say that America beat COVID. We could pop champagne and act stupid like the Ryder Cuppers. We are acting stupid, but there is no champagne.

September 28, 2021

It has recently been reported that deaths from COVID are substantially higher in districts that voted heavily for Trump. Sometimes we read these things, shrug our shoulders, and say whatever. However, I recently had my own face-to-face experience with the ignorance and idiocy that passes for medical information, which apparently gets passed around more easily than the delta variant in red states. In a totally unsolicited, unprovoked, and friendly conversation, one person claimed that deaths from COVID were no worse than the flu. The claim was that total deaths in the United States in 2020 were no different than 2019, and that doctors were recharacterizing normal deaths from flu as COVID deaths. The conversation took place in South Carolina, the individual was from Florida, and she had “Trump is My President” proudly displayed on her cell phone. That is the denier trifecta.

Fortunately, spurious claims like these are easily fact checked. More than 350,000 people died of COVID-19 in 2020. According to preliminary data from the CDC, 3,427,321 people died from all causes in 2020. In comparison, 2,854,838 people died in 2019, meaning at least 572,000 more people died in 2020 than 2019. The death rate in 2020 was the highest death rate since 1943. I can’t remember what happened in 1943.

This was not a poor, ignorant person. This was a person of privilege. And therein lies the magnitude of the problem we are facing. Ignorance is not bliss, and willful ignorance is dangerous.

September 24, 2021

When I was a branch manager for national brokerage firm in Florida, our idea of business development was to unlock the front door and wait for the money to come rolling in from clients looking to transfer their accounts from places like Massachusetts to avoid estate taxes. People would spend their entire lives working in Massachusetts, and then have their pension checks forwarded to Florida. Florida boomed. Little did I know that the federal government, which is you and me, was underwriting these moves with well below market levels of flood insurance.

Well, the chickens are getting ready to come home to roost. Climate change has reeked havoc on many Florida communities. Condominiums are collapsing, and Miami is leaking. Insurance companies and the federal government are about to say “no mas” to Florida. When the Feds lift the subsidies, rates could skyrocket 10 times or more. The thinking is we shouldn’t be encouraging people to build and live in dangerous areas. Maybe relatively stable places like western Massachusetts aren’t so bad after all. We don’t have a crazy climate, we don’t have a crazy Governor, and, with global warming, we can play golf all year long. Come on up!