It didn’t take Trump very long to say that he was just kidding about a lot of the campaign promises he made. He is not going to deport millions of undocumented workers. It turns out that it is logistically impossible and possible illegal so he is going to focus on criminals. He is going to kick Tik Tok down the road for 90 days while he “studies” the issue. Tik Tok may get into a collision with tariffs, which have also been kicked down the road until February because it turns out that tariffs are inflationary. He is not sure how he is actually going to bring food and gas prices down, or reduce the level of inflation and unemployment. His solution to solving the California wildfires was to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord while repeating his childish mantra, “Drill, Baby, Drill.” At least he made good on one promise by pardoning 1,500, convicted J6’ers. That is something Trump voters can be proud of. They will also be bursting with patriotic pride when he sells Ukraine down the river to the Communists because there is nothing Trump won’t sell to make a buck. Ironically, he has accused Democrats of being Communists, and wanting a classless society. However, what can be more classless that selling commemorative meme cryptocurrency tokens at your own inauguration?
I could go on, but I find it to be soul sapping. Nobel Prize winner for Economics, Paul Krugman, recently retired from the New York Times editorial board. He left a vacuum, which I am going to try and fill in a nerdy discussion about Elon Musk and DOGE. DOGE stands for something, but not much. Musk and Trump have promised to reduce the size of the Federal government, and reduce the size of the federal budget by $2T. But, the numbers don’t add up. Apparently, Vivek Ramaswamy figured that out, and headed for the hills of Ohio. Here are the facts and the numbers.
The easy fixes have already been made. The big bucks go to national defense, social insurance, and debt service. The federal payroll has already shrunk dramatically in relation to the scale of government. Creating better procedures for federal contracting and eliminating no- show employees is always a good thing, but the real upside is very limited. Greater efficiency alone would make only a small difference. Federal spending is $7T while revenues are at $5T, thanks in part to the Trump tax cuts for the rich and famous, which will most likely be extended or made permanent. Total compensation for federal employees is only $250B, and most of that is at the departments of defense, veterans affairs and homeland security. These departments are virtually off limits. Federal employment has been flat for decades. On the other hand, tax “cheats” cost the government $500B per year, but Elon wants to cut the IRS. Substantial deficit reduction requires the unpopular steps of cutting back government benefits and services and increasing taxes.
Elon and other right wing ideologues complain that federal employees need to come to the office five days a week. However, only 10% of federal employees are fully remote, which is less than the private sector. The idea that the federal workforce is working from home is false. The issue is not rampant inefficiency and a bloated bureaucracy. Rather, it is a lack of investment in the building blocks of effective governance: people, processes and policies. We have long underinvested in our government. We have twice as many workers over sixty as under 30. Younger people have less interest in working in government. We need to invest in these people, not vilify them. Expecting more from government is reasonable and essential, but cutting funding from already strained systems only deepens frustrations. Nominating department heads with no experience and only a political agenda will not solve real issues.
At the end of the day, DOGE is just political grandstanding and theater. No one really wants to get their hands dirty, or make the hard decisions. Like many of his other promises, Trump will kick this one down the road. At the rate he is going, his agenda is going to look like the Los Angeles freeway at rush hour.
When I was 11 or 12 years old, I was always looking for something to do during the summer. I was too young to work, and too old to have baby sitters. Caddying was still a few years away. Unlike many of our neighbors, my parents did not have a summer place on Cape Cod or Lake Sunapee where killing time took care of itself. I played baseball every day, but the Little League season only lasted fifteen games, and was over in June. I typically left the house after breakfast, and made sure I was home for supper. We devised a lot of ways to waste time in those days. We were free range kids. We would explore the woods, play indoor baseball with dice and baseball cards, read Superman and Batman comic books endlessly along with Mad Magazine. However, if I wasn’t home by 6:00PM, I would miss dinner, which never happened.
My mother had an old set of Louise Suggs Specials made by MacGregor. I had no idea who Louise Suggs was, or that she was one of the greatest female golfers of all time. In case you are interested, Louise Suggs, after a successful amateur career, turned professional in 1948, and went on to win 58 professional tournaments, including 11 majors. The set consisted of a two wood and a four wood made out of real wood and screws (thus hitting the ball on the screws), odd-numbered irons, and a putter. The wooden club heads were secured to the shaft with nylon string, which was always unraveling. Repairing the loose string became another great use for electrical tape, which was the duct tape of its day. The primary use for electrical tape in those days was for wrapping old, beat up baseballs that were literally coming apart at the seams. Golf gloves were unheard of. The clubs had never been regripped. No one had golf shoes. A baseball cap did double duty as a golf hat. Whole tees were a precious commodity. No one ever left behind a whole tee on a municipal golf course. Being able to play with a new golf ball was years away. Eventually, we we would take a dip in the pond fronting the 18th hole, wade around in the disgusting mud, and come out with dozens of water-logged golf balls. My friend, Jackie, had a similar set so we decided we needed to go golfing.
The only municipal golf course within walking distance was Mt. Hood, which was about a mile away. The private club, Bellevue, was within a good driver and a wedge from where we lived, but we were not members. We put the bags on our shoulders, cut through the parking lot of the Incarnation Church, and snuck onto the second tee. The cost of a junior membership in those days was $25 per year. Andy Brickley of the Boston Bruins grew up about five minutes from me. I remember him discussing with the Bruins head coach on one of his golf shows how he would do the exact same thing.
Mount Hood is an 18 hole golf course located in Melrose, Massachusetts. It was built in the 1930s on donated land as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s Works Progress Administration. It is a golf course that would make the famous Ponkapoag aka “Ponky” in Canton, MA look like Augusta National. The tee boxes were made of horse hair mats. There was no irrigation so balls went forever. In summer, mosquitos were like locusts. Goats would have a hard time navigating the hilly terrain. On a clear day, you could see Boston.
The head pro was Roland “Rollie” Hancock. To us, he was just a nice, old man running a tired pro shop at a beat up golf course. His personal story, however, represents everything that is cruel about golf. Roland Hancock, age 21, would have won the 1928 US Open championship at Olympia Fields outside of Chicago by two strokes had he parred the final two holes. But he double-bogeyed the 17th hole, and bogeyed the 18th to miss the playoff by one shot. Bobby Jones went on to win the playoff. We all know who Bobby Jones is. Rollie Hancock went on to live a quiet life in obscurity. “If only” are words that haunt every golfer at some level, but this had to be the epitome.
Jackie and I had a wonderful time for our first ever round of golf. It was sheer joy just swinging, and walking, and laughing. He shot about 140, and I probably beat him by at least 20 strokes, but the scores really did not matter. It was pitch black by the time we were done. As we headed home, I noticed that there were no cars left in the parking lot except for one with its lights on and the motor running. The car looked familiar. It was my father. In our excitement to go golfing for the first time, we forgot to tell anyone where we were going, and when we would be back. Houston, we have a problem. I got the “get in the car and don’t say a thing” speech. I knew what was coming when we got home.
My father was a psychiatric social worker. He had worked in a variety of tough places including Bridgewater State Prison. He didn’t believe in corporal punishment. All he had to do was threaten to get the belt, and that was enough to get my attention. With three sons, he was threatening a lot. The only time he ever hit me was years earlier when I made a game of touching the backs of cars as they passed us in the street in front of our house. He had warned me. However, I made the fatal mistake of doing it one day in front my grandfather. Papa, for whom I am named, said to my father, “You did good.” I never did it again.
The second time and last time I got hit was when we got home from my first round of golf. He yelled and wailed at me on the porch while I played defense as best I could. I tried to play rope-a-dope before Muhammad Ali made it a thing. I guess he was mad that no one knew where we were. Go figure. I took it like a man. A lesser person would have forsaken golf forever. I went back to the course the very next day, after announcing where I was going, and I have been playing golf ever since. And I still come back sometimes after dark.
Some of the reasons claimed in opposition to these projects may include: harm to locally-owned businesses; loss of residential property values; environmental pollution; light and noise pollution; visual blight; strain on local resources and schools; loss of small town feel; disproportionate benefit to non-locals; increased traffic; increased crime and so on.
The most famous NIMBY in the world may be the current President-elect, Donald Trump. Trump has railed against windmills (wind turbines), saying they kill birds. Fact check: “Trump’s weird obsession with wind turbines is not rooted in reality or Bird Law.” He has vowed to halt all U.S. wind projects. He wants to “drill, baby, drill” as he promotes petroleum-based products over reusable energy like wind. However, it probably wouldn’t surprise anyone that he has a financial interest in killing wind energy where it suits him, making him a classic NIMBY. Trump got embroiled in a controversy involving his Scottish golf course and a major, North Sea wind power project, which erected eleven wind turbines in view of his golf course. Trump argued that the wind turbines would spoil the view from the golf course. Judges ruled against Trump, and ordered Trump International Golf Club Scotland Ltd. to pay the legal bills incurred, which he has refused to do.
Trump and I had one thing in common, golf, and now we have two. We are both NIMBY’s. I live in East Longmeadow, not to far from where developers, who are not from here, have proposed to demolish the vacated, 440,000 sq. ft., Package Machinery plant at 330 Chestnut St. across from American Saw, and replace it with a 560,000 sq. ft. warehouse and shipping facility, designed to accommodate 100 semi-tractor trailers at a time. Residents of abutting and/or impacted properties, mostly led by residents from The Fields at Chestnut, which is where I live, and their attorney made their case to the East Longmeadow Planning Commission. The Fields at Chestnut is an active, adult community for people fifty-five years of age and older. They cited the negative impact on property values, and the commensurate reduction in property taxes. It was estimated that, after all was said and done, the Town would actually lose tax revenue. The increased truck traffic would aggravate air pollution, and harm anyone, especially seniors, with respiratory issues. The Town of East Longmeadow has a history of terrible accidents involving trucks in this corridor so the adding of an enormous number of tractor trailers to this already crowded area could be very dangerous. Roland Bolduc, a multi-time Grand National Champion of the Super Bowl of Safety for sleeper-berth long haul truck drivers md a local resident, explained in great detail the problem with the street design in East Longmeadow. The design does not provide sufficient space necessary for safe turns to be made by these larger trucks. In addition, the trucks would be entering and exiting adjacent to the very busy Redstone Bike-Rail Trail. Former Mayor and Fields resident, Mary Hurley, called it “absolutely catastrophic.”
The plan was rejected by the Planning Commission for the second time on February 20, 2024. There are still legal issues pending, and the developers are suing the Town of East Longmeadow. The project appears to be losing steam, but it is not dead yet. Hopefully, the developers will find a more suitable location, and move on. In the meantime, I remain a proud NIMBY.
As I sit here in the depths of a New England winter, dreaming about the upcoming golf season, and watching the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on television, I am inspired to put into writing a story I have told a thousand times before. This is the remarkable story of how I got to play Cypress Point.
In the year 2000, for my fiftieth birthday, I decided to treat myself, my wife, and daughter to a bucket list trip to Pebble Beach. Pebble Beach is a perennial Golf Digest top ten golf course. In the spirit of full disclosure, I am currently a Golf Digest panelist. Pebble Beach is the Holy Grail for almost every serious golfer because it a great golf course and open to the public…for a price. The big decision when planning a trip is always which other courses will you play while you are visiting the Holy Land. I had decided to play Poppy Hills, Spyglass, and the Links at Spanish Bay, which is not a bad rotation. Spyglass is onGolf Digest’s Top 100 list.
Before departing, I did what every self-respecting golfer does. I tried to exert what little influence I had to see if I could get us on Cypress Point, which is number 3 on the list. I contacted colleagues on the west coast. I brow beat my club professional, but to no avail. As I suspected, nobody gets on Cypress Point, no way, no how. There are very few Cypress Point members scattered all over the country, and they like it like that. Who could blame them? Cypress Point would have to wait another day.
We checked into the The Inn at Spanish Bay. Our room overlooked the ocean and the evening bagpiper. Our first round was scheduled the next day for Poppy Hills. I honestly can’t remember too much about the course other than it was not hateful.
Next up on the rota was Pebble Beach. I was really nervous that the course would not meet my expectations. The last time I had that feeling was my visit to the Grand Canyon. I was blown away by the Grand Canyon, and I was blown away by Pebble Beach. It is hard to describe the beauty of the golf course juxtaposed to the Pacific Ocean. It is one of the few times you would not be upset to take six hours to play a round of golf, and pay an obscene amount of money for the privilege.
The three of us were paired with the Travel Editor from Senior Golf magazine. Who knew there was such a thing! We had a delightful round until it came time to play our third shots into the iconic, par 5, 18th hole. As we were preparing to hit, a very large group of Japanese tourists decided to walk from the lodge to beach by way of the 18th green. Three of them actually stopped on the green. Two of them reclined and posed on the green while the third took photos. You can’t make this stuff up. Visitors were howling with laughter from the porch of the Pebble Beach Lodge. We made a group decision, and hit our approach shots anyway. In my case, the odds of hitting the green were slim to none anyway. No one got hurt, and we all had a good story to tell. As an aside, several months later, I spotted a copy of Senior Golf magazine at a newsstand, and, sure enough, our experience was immortalized.
On day three, we were scheduled to play Spyglass. Despite the overcast skies and threatening rain, we got to the range early to warm up. I was striping the ball pretty good for me, but my daughter was killing it. She had qualified for the 1999 US Girls Junior. She was on a state championship team in Florida, and would go on to Captain the Harvard Women’s golf team, win numerous club championships, and qualify for five US Women’s Mid-Am Championships. The reason I point this out, in addition to being a proud parent, is that I was well aware this was not about me.
Anyway, as I was grinding away, two elderly gentlemen came along, and one started hitting balls next to me. The one not hitting started asking me questions. “Who holds the PGA Tour 72 hole scoring record,” he asked. I thought about it, but I really did not have a good guess. “Well,” he said, “it’s Mike Souchak, and that is him hitting balls next to you.” For the record, in his first win at the 1955 Texas Open, Mike Souchak shot a 257, a record that stood until 2001. I was certainly old enough to know who Mike Souchak was, probably having seen him on Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf. My wife and daughter had no idea who he was. After the introductions and my effusiveness, the first gentleman asked me where we were playing the next day, and I said the Links at Spanish Bay. He responded with “Why?” He and Mike agreed they did not like the course. Then he asked, and I kid you not, “Have you ever heard of Cypress Point?” Thinking quickly, I stammered “Yes.” “How would you like to be my guests at Cypress Point tomorrow,” he responded. “I will leave a message at your hotel room regarding the details.” We played our round at Spyglass, a magnificent golf course, with visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads. What just happened? Did it happen? We got back to our room at Spanish Bay, and, sure enough, there was a message regarding starting time, caddies, dress code, etc. Wow!
We got to Cypress Point nice and early, but he was already there, practicing his putting with two caddies milling around. As it turned out, both caddies were accomplished amateur golfers, maybe not on the order of Ken Venturi and Harvey Ward, but plenty good enough for us. All of a sudden, we were on the first hole getting ready to tee off. The morning fog had not quite burned off so the effect was stunning. There is a small hedge just off the first tee that looks like the Green Monster in Fenway Park as you get ready for your first swing of the day.
Our host was a gentleman by the name of Gary Laughlin. He came from the Texas oil-drilling business. He was a former Navy pilot. Because there were so few members in the local area to play with, he was happy to have us as our guests. David Feherty described him as “a gnarly Hogan crony and longtime Cypress member.”
After a few shots, the caddies had our games sized up pretty well, and realized that there was one player in the group. As a result, I never saw my caddie again as the two caddies and my daughter would triangulate over every shot. The only help I got from my caddie was “hit this.” As we moved along, the anticipation was building the closer we got to sixteen, the famous par three over the Pacific. What nobody told me, and I should have known, was how beautiful the par three, fifteenth was. Regardless, I washed my ball in the Pacific on sixteen. “Is anyone here a marine biologist?
We finished, and it was time to go, or so I thought. “Why don’t you come to my house for lunch,” Gary asked. “Follow me.” So we followed him around 17 Mile Drive until a set of wrought iron gates opened magically to our left. We went in, and were immediately greeted by his housekeeper, who brought us out a wonderful plate of good food to eat. In the mean time, I was looking at some of the framed letters he had on the wall addressed to his wife, Sandy. One said something like “Congratulations on winning the Club Championship again, Jack.” Another letter with a similar message was signed “George.” That was Jack Nicklaus and George Bush respectively. Eventually, his wife joined us. She was former tennis player from Rollins College in Winter Park, FL where we were coincidentally living at the time. It was all just too perfect. When we got home, as a thank you, we sent them a framed picture of the Rollins College chapel.
So now you have read my Cypress Point story. It is no longer on my bucket list, having been replaced by Pine Valley. My daughter had an opportunity to revisit the course with her college golf team, and Gary came out to watch. I still have his e-mail address, and occasionally send him a brief message. I believe he is about 94 years of age, almost the exact same age as my mother, who recently passed away. My latest message to him has not received a reply.
And happy birthday to my wife, who buried her tee shot into the hedge on the first hole, but never complained as usual.
Addendum: While watching a broadcast of the AT&T Pro-Am on CBS many years later, we heard of Gary’s passing from Jim Nantz in one of those moments when they cut to a picture of the heavens. This writing was posted to the Golf Digest online website. Soon thereafter, I heard from Gary’s daughter, who was thankful for the kind words and memories about her father.
Well, here we are again if you are lucky enough. We are about to close the books on 2024, and start a new ledger for 2025. Every publication, news show, and podcast will have their best-worst moments of the year in sports, politics, and movies, and we will have numerous retrospectives on lives well-lived. It is also the time of year when we start thinking about New Year’s resolutions. If you didn’t complete your resolutions in 2024, the good news is you get to roll them over. If you did, you have the unenviable task of coming up with new ones. This is my attempt at an unsolicited advice column. Here are some thoughts and strategies I have culled from many years of teaching goal setting to young hires, developing business plans for seasoned veterans, and being an exercise instructor.
When making resolutions for the New Year…
Be Specific: For example, saying you are going to exercise more is not a goal; it’s an aspiration. Rather than saying “I am going to go to the gym,” commit to how many times you are going to go.
Be Focused: You don’t need to have multiple resolutions. Research shows that very few people actually achieve their goals. Make just one resolution, and focus on it. If you are killing it, make it more difficult, or start working on another one. Remember that habits do not die quickly, especially bad habits.
Be Realistic: You don’t have to set climbing Mt. Everest as a goal. Pick something that is attainable. If it’s too easy, ramp it up. Setting unreasonable expectations is a resolution killer.
Be Creative: Mix it up, keep it fresh. It’s easy to get bored doing the same routine every day. For example, if you are a walker, try walking in different locales like the local track, the park, a bike-rail trail, or a different neighborhood.
Be Disciplined: Write down your goal. Put it into your daily planner, or your iPhone. If it isn’t written down somewhere, it doesn’t exist. Treat it like any other appointment. If you cancel, you must reschedule. Remove any obstacles to getting it done. Sometimes, the hardest part of any workout is just getting there.
Be Accountable: Go public. Tell a friend, a family member, a colleague et. al. Put yourself on notice. Peer pressure can be a wonderful thing.
Be Competitive: Challenge yourself, or challenge someone else. Try to push the envelope just a little every day. Make it a game. It doesn’t have to be a drudge.
Be Good to Yourself: Milestones don’t have to be millstones. Reward yourself along the way.
If you are not sure about what to focus on, here are some generally accepted goals for wellness and happiness.
Don’t Smoke: Smoking is the number one cause of cancer and a lot of other bad stuff.
Watch Your Drinking: Even small amounts of consumption can have negative consequences.
Maintain a Healthy Body Weight: Your BMI (Body Mass Index) should be 25 or below. Avoid fad and yo-yo diets, and intense restrictions. Sanjay Gupta says “Stay SHARP”
S – Slash the sugar
H – Hydrate
A – Add healthy foods
R – Reduce portion sizes
P – Plan meals ahead
Prioritize Movement: Incorporate movement into your daily activities. For example, take the stairs, don’t park too close to the store, and don’t use a golf cart. Motion is lotion.
Practice Coping Mechanisms: Develop healthy ways for dealing with stress.
Keep Learning: Read, take a class, learn how to play bridge, develop a hobby, try dancing. Join a book group. Do something outside of your comfort zone.
Cultivate Healthy Relationships: The longer, the better.
If you are not sure what to focus on, ancient Hindu teaches us about the stages of life. The first is youth, which is dedicated to learning. The second is when a person builds a career, accumulates wealth, and creates a family. In this stage, people become attached to money, power, sex, and prestige, and try to make this stage last a lifetime. The antidote to this is the third stage, usually coming around age 50, in which we purposefully focus less on professional ambition, and become more and more devoted to spirituality, service, and wisdom. Your life goals should adjust accordingly. This sets the stage for the last stage.
The last stage of life should be totally dedicated to the fruits of enlightenment. As we age, we should resist the conventional lures of success in order to concentrate on more transcendentally important things. Make these part of your 2025.
Blues/rock singer-songwriter, Bonnie Raitt, was recognized recently as one of the Kennedy Center honorees. The taped show will be broadcast December 22nd on CBS. It is always one of the best shows of the year. Other honorees this year are Francis Ford Coppola, The Apollo theater, Arturo Sandoval, and the Grateful Dead. Raitt is a 13-time Grammy winner, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, and one of Rolling Stones greatest singers and guitar players of all time. One of my favorite performances of hers is when she backs up Roy Orbison on his DVD performance of “Black and White.”
Given this prestigious honor, I thought it might be good time to memorialize what has become my “Bonnie Raitt” story, which I have told a million times much to my wife’s chagrin. Bonnie was admitted to the Radcliffe class of 1971. (She actually graduated in 1972.) Late one night, early in our freshman year, there was a tremendous commotion outside of our dorm room, which was on the first floor of Lionel Hall, A entry, in the Yahd. My room was literally in the middle of Harvard Square, or so it seemed. The guys on the third floor were trying to move an upright piano up the stairs, but they got stuck on the first landing. The piano belonged to Jerry Harrison, who went on to become one of the original members of the rock group,Talking Heads. The freshman yearbook said he wanted to be a marine biologist. Gerry is the one with the curly hair playing piano on “Stop Making Sense.” (BTW…he still has his hair, and it is still curly, but somehow it hasn’t turned gray. Better living through chemistry.) Anyway, as I in my pajamas and my roommate, Jon, in his tightie whities were lending a hand, the entry door burst open, and in came this girl-woman with flaming red hair. She saw the piano, muttered something, sat down, and immediately started playing boogie-woogie. It was a sight to behold at 2:00AM. Accompanying Bonnie was Willie with the wild hair. Willie was also know as William Randolph Hearst III. He would go on to become the cousin of Patty Hearst, aka Tania, and the Chairman of Hearst Communications like his grandfather. Willie Three Sticks lost his wild hair somewhere along the way similar to Citizen Kane losing Rosebud.
Fast forward a couple of decades, and I am managing a brokerage office in Springfield, MA. One of the advisors in the office was a woman, Christina, who specialized in socially-responsible investing. I knew from public accounts that Bonnie was keen on this type of investing, being very much involved in the environmental movement since the 70’s, and especially wanted to support women in business. Bonnie wasn’t exactly in my Rolodex, but I reached out to her people in support of my female advisor and portfolio manager. I not so subtly mentioned my college connection. Unfortunately, Bonnie only did business with companies owned by women, which is something Citigroup could not claim at the time. I felt that Christina had been hoist by her own petard. I gave it the old college try, but I needed something more than “The Bonnie Raitt Story.”
Regardless, congratulations to Bonnie on a fabulous career, and I look forward to the broadcast coming up shortly. Maybe I will get a shoutout.
Last summer, I decided to try and save the world one car at a time by buying my first electric vehicle (EV), a Tesla Y. Despite some misgivings and recriminations, and after visiting several dealerships, which was a totally underwhelming experience, I bought what I thought was the best car for the price. I know what you are saying, “But it’s Elon Musk. How could you?” My rationalization was, to recoin a phrase, “Don’t hate the game. Hate the player.” I listen to a lot of Michael Jackson, and use his songs in spin class. I saw “MJ” on Broadway. It was fabulous. It turned out that Michael was a despicable human being, but a generational talent. I had to take delivery of my car up in Dedham, MA., which was the closest dealership. One of the happiest days in my life was when I read in this newspaper days later that Tesla was opening a facility in East Springfield.
I have read Walter Isaacson’s book, “Elon Musk.” The book leaves the impression that Elon Musk, while not being a Leonardo da Vinci, is an incredibly innovative thinker, who has accomplished some amazing things. I think the history and development of SpaceX goes well beyond Tesla. However, I also came away with the impression that Musk is an emotionally-damaged individual. He has a total lack of empathy, which might account for much of his success. He is incredibly focused and egotistical. People are just pawns in the pursuit of his objectives. When he is through with them, he throws them away, and gets new ones. I think his first two wives might agree.
I believe that Musk’s current political leanings are totally self-interested. There is no higher purpose. I don’t believe for one minute that the DOGE campaign is about making the U.S. federal government more efficient, which wouldn’t be a bad thing. It is more about trying to figure out how to make himself wealthier even though he is reported to be the world’s wealthiest man, passing Vladimir Putin ($200B) a long time ago. He certainly looks like an oligarch to me. His next steps will be to start privatizing government operations, and putting them in the hands of Trump loyalists. The weather service and the post office are already on the chopping block. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid may not be far behind?
I have no idea what Musk’s relationship with Trump means as it relates to energy policy and Federal incentives for EV’s, which still stand at $7,500 in many cases. Trump wants to discontinue the incentives, and “drill, baby, drill.” Maybe Trump will slap higher tariffs on Chinese-made EV’s, making US-made EV’s more competitive? Maybe Musk wants more federal contracts for SpaceX? Maybe Musk is moving on from Tesla?
I have heard people say that they are not opposed to EV’s, but they don’t want the government “shoving EV’s down our throats,” I guess in the same way that RFK, Jr. doesn’t want the government shoving vaccines down our throats. I assume this is in response to these federal and state incentives, and government mandates about favoring EV car production over gas-powered vehicles, carrots and sticks if you will. It turns out some people don’t like either carrots or sticks. The reality is the government provides carrots for all sorts of things. It subsidizes the purchase of your home; it subsidizes your charitable contributions; and it subsidizes your health insurance among a myriad of other programs. On the other hand, the Fed’s have set a goal to make half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2030 zero-emissions vehicles. That sounds like a worthwhile goal to me given the fact that the world is falling woefully short of reaching net zero, which is is the internationally agreed upon goal for mitigating global warming in the second half of the century, and keeping CO2-related temperature increases to 1.5C by 2050.
The other “observation” I have heard is that EV’s really don’t save energy when you net it out. The website for The Yale Climate Connection disagrees, stating “EV’s require much less energy to operate than gasoline-burning vehicles. In fact, with the nation’s current electricity blend, an EV requires only about half the energy needed for a gasoline-powered internal combustion engine,” while at the same time emitting zero emissions.
EV’s may not solve the climate crisis all by themselves, but that is no reason to not take them seriously. They are just one brick in the wall against rising tides and temperatures along with wind power, solar power, thermal power, and pedal power. Where our energy and climate policies are going from here is anyone’s guess.
Italy is reviving a beloved character from the 13th century known as La Befana. La Befana is a witch-like, old woman who travels on broomstick, delivering gifts and candy to children throughout Italy on Epiphany Eve (January 5th) much like Santa Clause. She is typically depicted in threadbare clothes covered in soot, which comes from going down the chimneys of the homes she visits.
Legend has it that three gentlemen from the East stopped in Befana’s town looking for food and water. They were following a star that was going to lead them to the baby Jesus. These three wise men asked Befana if she could help lead them to Bethlehem. She agreed, but, before she could depart, she had to return home to make sure her house was in order, which is a very Italian thing to do. Unfortunately, by the time she returned, the three kings had left. Since then, La Befana has traveled throughout Italy, visiting the homes of all children, and delivering gifts in hopes that she would find the infant Jesus. On Epiphany Eve, children hang their stockings with care in hopes the La Befana would soon be there.
La Befana is celebrated every year on the Epiphany. Epiphany is a Christian feast day, and one of the holiest of the year along with Christmas and Easter. It commemorates the visit of the Magi, and the baptism of Jesus. It is celebrated on January 6th, which is a date that should sound familiar. It has sadly become a date in U.S history that represents the Big Lie. Like La Befana, it is a date that symbolizes a fairy tale that too many people still believe. January 6th may be the second greatest story ever told. 70% of Republicans still falsely believe that Trump was the winner of the 2020 election.
How did political lying in national affairs become so pervasive? It has always been with us, thus the phrase “If a politician’s lips are moving, he is lying.” But, it is clearly more brazen and prevalent than it has ever been. The first big lie I can recall was when Richard Nixon, during the presidential campaign of 1968, said he had a secret plan for getting us out of Viet Nam, similar to Trump’s concepts of a plan for repealing and replacing Obamacare. There was that ugly episode during Obama’s State of the Union speech in 2015 when Rep. Joe Wilson yelled “You lie.” Before then, no one would ever think of accusing a fellow colleague of lying. You might be guilty of misremembering, misspeaking, or having things taken out of context, but not lying. After Wilson, the floodgates were open for people like Marjorie Taylor Greene. Today, Joe Biden is being accused of lying about saying he would not pardon his son. Yes, he told a lie to a question he could never have answered truthfully. However, if you truly believed that Joe Biden would not pardon his only, remaining son, then I have a bunch of Trump watches, bibles, steaks, NFT’s, digital coins, diplomas, and perfume I would like to sell you.
Bill Adair, the founder of PolitiFact, says that “Lying is not a victimless crime. When politicians choose to lie, there are often people who suffer.” Fox News lied, and it cost them $875 million. Rudy Giuliani lied, and it cost him his law license, and virtually all of his assets.
In case you had any doubts, Republicans do lie more. From 2016 to 2021, 55% of statements made by Republicans were false compared to 31% made by Democrats. Republicans will say that they view their work as an epic struggle against evil, and, in that struggle, anything is okay. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, when asked about spreading the lie about dogs being eaten in Springfield, OH, said it was okay to lie as long as you were making a larger point, or it was in the service of a larger cause.
As we enter the Christmas season, it should be noted the La Befana left hard black candy called carbone (charcoal) to children who were naughty as a reminder to do better next year. If politicians want gifts and candies in their stockings next year, they might want to stop lying.
What are the burning issues of our times? If you were exposed to pre-election political advertising or went down the MAGA media black hole, you might think it was transgender athletes playing girls’ sports. I don’t want to get into a heated discussion about this topic, but, for the record, reliable estimates put the number of transgender athletes playing sports at about 100. For those of you good with math, that’s two per state. Some states probably have zero. Personally, I have concerns with transgender athletes playing girls’ sports, especially after following the career of South African track and field athlete, Caster Semanya, who dominated the women’s 800 meters before the eligibility criteria were changed. But, I am not going to get myself worked up over 100 people in a population of over 335 million. Again, for those of you good with math, that comes out to .0000003%. Seth Moulton notwithstanding, this is a less than minor issue that affects an infinitesimally small number of people nationwide. It is not a national emergency, and we don’t need to call out the military to get it under control.
So what is a burning issue? Massachusetts is on fire so I guess that qualifies as a burning issue, but who really cares? Drill, baby, drill. However, there is another burning issue. The burning of fat, aka, obesity. The number of adults, who are overweight or obese, has risen to the level of a national health crisis. In my lifetime, we have gone from a President (Kennedy), who extolled the virtues of being able to walk 50 miles, to a President, who extols the virtues of riding in a golf cart and eating McDonald’s cheeseburgers. A recent headline in the fake New York Times declared that “Three Quarters of U.S. Adults Are Now Overweight or Obese.” For the quants, that’s 75%. There has been a dramatic increase since 1990. Maybe it was reaction to the market crash of 1990, or the dot.com bubble crash of 2000, or the financial crisis of 2008. Given with what is going on with Bitcoin, we are going to get a lot fatter. Without aggressive intervention, researchers forecast that the number of overweight and obese people will rise to 260,000,000 by 2050, which will intersect perfectly with disappearing ice caps and rising sea levels.
Researchers were particularly alarmed by the increase in obesity of children, more than one in three (33%) of whom are now overweight or obese. Cell phones and social media may be detrimental to our children, but obesity is a killer, leading to increases in diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, asthma, sleep apnea, liver disease, kidney disease, stroke, infertility, and cancer. For children, we will also see increases in anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and bullying. Some people might call this an epidemic. Others might be diet deniers. A Joint Economic Committee report that Republicans released this year predicted that obesity will result in up to $9,000,000,000,000 in excess medical expenditures over the next ten years. This is at a time when one of the political parties wants to end the Affordable Care Act as well as enact major cuts in Medicare and Medicaid.
This is a difficult problem to solve. As a certified spinning instructor, I am confident in saying that weight loss follows the 80-20 rule like everything else in life. Weight loss is 20% exercise and 80% diet. Factors working against us are ultra processed foods, sedentary/online activity, genetics, challenges of accessing fresh fruits and vegetables, and overly-scheduled lifestyles. Factors like income, employment and level of education also play a role. Drugs and bariatric surgery will have their places. There have been proposals to tax sugar-sweetened drinks like tobacco with a warning from the surgeon general. There are many fad diets out there, which are just that, fads. The one lifestyle diet that most dietitians can agree on that works is the Mediterranean Diet. You can look it up. I have been on it since birth.
The point of all of this is that there are very real and serious issues we need to deal with. We don’t need to devote an inordinate amount of resources to an issue that is just a political talking point made at the expense of very few, vulnerable kids. I think we need a little more perspective on what really matters.
Note: Many years ago, I was asked to play in a charity, golf event at a local club. The main attraction that year was Bob Hope, yes, that Bob Hope, who drove around all day in his Hope-mobile. I was joined in a foursome with someone I had never met before, Andy Hayes, yes, that Andy Hayes, fellow columnist from the right side of the tracks. Golf makes strange bedfellows.
Now that the 2024 election is in the rear view mirror, and the New Year is fast approaching, it’s time to make some changes. It’s time to clear out some of the old to make room for the new. One of the most satisfying days of my life was when I cleaned out my drawer full of combs, which were collecting dust. I had a better chance of parting the Red Sea than my gray hair. I am not talking about Marie Kondo kind of changes. I am proposing major changes to bring us in line with the rest of the world, and into the 21st century.
The first thing we need to jettison is our system of weights and measures. It is archaic. The only thing we are missing is using the “stone” as a reference point, as in, I weigh 11.61 stones. Are the ounce and pound any more useful? In a recent spin class, I asked the spinners how many ounces were in a pound. I got crickets as a response. Comedian Nate Bargatze recently did a hilarious sketch on SNL about George Washington addressing the troops, and explaining how our current system of weights and measures makes no sense. We have a word for two thousand pounds, but not a thousand pounds. No one knows how to spell Fahrenheit, never mind how to convert it to Centigrade. We use meters for unpopular sports, but we use feet and yards for popular ones. Quick…how many yards in a mile? I thought so. . Changing a measurement system has costs in the near term, which often results in resistance. The substantial benefit of conversion to a more rational and internationally consistent system of measurement has been recognized and promoted by scientists, engineers, businesses and politicians, and has resulted in most of the world adopting a commonly agreed metric system…except us. If we could handle Y2K, we could handle this.
We recently changed our clocks for the 128th time in my life. I didn’t need the extra hour. The reasons we have the current system are convoluted and rife with politics. According to The New York Times, if you can believe them, the twice-yearly ritual has roots in cost-cutting strategies of the late 19th century. Recent efforts to end it have stalled in Congress, which is where most rational proposals go to die. The advent of daylight savings time is attributed to Benjamin Franklin. To farmers, daylight saving time is a disruptive schedule foisted on them by the government. To some parents, it’s a nuisance that can throw bedtime into chaos. To small business owners, it’s great. Personally, I can never remember if I am supposed to spring forward or spring back. It’s time, so to speak, has come. In 2020, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine called for the abolition of daylight saving time. The academy said the shift, by disrupting the body’s natural clock, could cause an increased risk of stroke and cardiovascular events, and could lead to more traffic accidents. That’s good enough for me.
Next, let’s get rid of the electoral college, which is unique to the United States. I am not sure if I have anything to add to the conversation, but I, like many of my fellow citizens from Massachusetts, am tired of my vote not counting in a general election. Massachusetts is as far from being a swing state as is possible. We just sit back and watch the candidates prostrate themselves in front of swing state voters from Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and so on. The merit of the electoral college system has been a matter of ongoing debate in the United States since 1787. More resolutions have been submitted to amend the Electoral College mechanism than any other part of the constitution. An amendment that would have abolished the system was approved by the House in 1969, but failed to move past the Senate. Supporters argue that it requires presidential candidates to have broad appeal across the country to win, while critics argue that it is not representative of the popular will of the nation. Winner-take-all systems, especially with representation not proportional to population, do not align with the principle of “one person, one vote.”
Lastly, let’s get rid of the Republican Party as it is presently constructed. Any party that only recognizes the results of free and fair elections when they win doesn’t deserve consideration. Any party that is considering pardoning convicted insurrectionists is null and void. Any party that would nominate an alleged sex trafficker for Attorney General, and a suspected white nationalist as Secretary of Defense doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously. Any party that is willing to trade Ukraine for a few shekels is a clear and present danger. You are free to call yourself anything you like. Just don’t call yourselves Republicans.
The Spin Doctor 