December 15, 2024

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.

December 8, 2024

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.

November 23, 2024

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.

November 14, 2024

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.

November 6, 2024

The Dark Ages is a term for the Early Middle Ages (c. 5th–10th centuries), or occasionally the entire Middle Ages (c. 5th–15th centuries), in Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, which characterizes it as marked by economic, intellectual, and cultural decline. We have unofficially entered the new Dark Ages. I will leave it up to future historians as to whether this marks the “official” beginning of the new Dark Ages, or, more appropriately, Dark Ages 2.0. I realize this seems terribly dark, but this is where I and millions of fellow citizens are today. It’s mourning in America, or for America. We are not despondent because we lost an election. That has happened many times in the past, and probably will happen many times in the future. No, we are discouraged because so many of our fellow citizens think this okay. A Republican friend of mine said that it must be tough losing to a Republican. I responded that losing to a Republican was not the issue. Losing to a Fascist and wannabe dictator was the issue. No one ever got hit by a train they saw coming. The train came barreling down the tracks, we all saw it, but we refused to get out of the way.

This is not about me. Whatever happens is not going to change my lifestyle although it might influence the people I choose to associate with. My modest stock portfolio is surging this morning as it continues its unprecedented rise from the Great Recession of 2008. As the Wall Street Journal said, the 47th President is inheriting a fabulous economy from Joe Biden similar to the one the 45th President inherited from Barack Obama. The markets are discounting another two trillion dollars in debt as tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations become permanent. Ironically, traders are already discounting higher inflation. Many voters are hearing for the first time that tariffs will hit their pocketbooks. Years ago, Jamie Dimon addressed a national conference of branch managers of Shearson Lehman Brothers. The Lehman Brothers research department had just been ranked #1 by Institutional Investor. Dimon, who was very good at getting to the bottom of things before he flinched on the last election, said, “If you gave my mother $40,000,000, she could have built the top research department on Wall Street.” Similarly, if you gave me $2 trillion of additional debt, I could give you a great economy. However, the bills will come due.

This is about future generations, which we have forsaken at the altar of greed and ignorance. It’s all about what can you do for me now, and I don’t mean the National Organization of Women. If something untoward were to happen to me, it would be unfortunate for me and everyone around me, but it wouldn’t be a tragedy. I have rounded third base, and am heading for home. However, future generations will have to live with the consequences of the mess we have made. We have turned over the keys of the car to a driver drunk on power and money, and the car does not have FSD (full self-driving) despite having Elon Musk in the passenger seat. I can only imagine what our children and grandchildren are going to think about The Worst Generation. How are you going to answer the question when your granddaughters ask, “Who did you vote for in the 2024 Presidential election, Gramps?”

I have turned off the television. Unfortunately, I couldn’t cancel subscriptions to the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal because I never had them. My goal is to be as ill-informed as the average Trump voter. The average voter, when asked if Trump was an authoritarian, responded, “What’s an authoritarian?” Trump voters get their news primarily from family and friends, and random websites and podcasts. Democratic voters get their news from traditional news channels. I guess that’s our mistake. Ignorance may be bliss, but, in this case, it is very dangerous.

October 22, 2024

In March 2020 (sound familiar), a college friend of mine started a Zoom book group called “Aging Athletes.” We had all been active individuals our entire lives, and we were looking for ideas and encouragement as to how to keep it going. We would read a book that we had agreed upon about every two to three months. In all, we read about sixteen books. Unfortunately, the book group has temporarily been suspended because we have pretty much exhausted the topic.

The following are some excerpts from Judy Foreman’s book, “Exercise is Medicine,” How Physical Activity Boosts Health and Slows Aging. I am not a medical professional so nothing here should be taken as a recommendation. If you are interested in the science behind her conclusions, you will need to read the book.

To a biologist, aging is one of the most exciting mysteries in the universe. We can’t get rid of it, but we can dramatically minimize it with exercise. Exercising moderately for half an hour a day five days a week increases life span by 3.5 years. Even running slowly for just 5-10 minutes a day helps, and it’s just not running…walking, swimming weightlifting, dancing, gardening, jumping rope and so on also work. Anything that gets you moving is helpful. Motion is lotion. A sedentary lifestyle is a stronger predictor of premature death than obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and smoking.

The following are some of her conclusions from the scientific literature:

1. Exercise at least 150 minutes per week at moderate intensity.

2. Do muscle-strengthening, resistance training twice a week.

3. High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is highly effective, and more time efficient.

4. Fitness strongly predicts mortality regardless of body size. Exercise burns fat all over the body, but does not work as a “spot reduction.”

5. More exercise is better than less for extending longevity…to a point.

6. There is no evidence that doing too much exercise causes harm.

7. By and large, men and women do not need to exercise differently.

8. Exercise alone can help you lose weight, but it takes an awful lot of exercise. Typically, you need to change your diet.

9. Overall, it’s easier to regulate appetite if you are expending a lot of energy.

10. Caffeine can act as a performance enhancer.

11. Antioxidant vitamins don’t enhance the benefits of exercise.

12. Movement sensors like FitBit and Apple Watch are pretty good at counting steps, but are not so good at calculating caloric expenditure and heart rate.

13. Exercise can improve vision.

14. Exercise can benefit the skin.

15. You need to vary you workouts. You need to “surprise” your muscles, or else they get “bored.”

16. Exercise can affect circadian rhythms and remedy jet lag.

17. The best time to exercise is whenever you can fit it in.

18. Regular aerobic exercise during the day can help relieve stress, and help with sleep.

19. Exercise can be habitual, but it is not addictive.

20. Running is more efficient than other exercises like biking or walking in terms of expending calories per unit of time.

21. The ideal program includes both aerobic and anaerobic (weightlifting) activities.

22. Exercise can offset the mortality risks of drinking.

23. You won’t live forever, but you will look great.

Until very late in life, your lifestyle choices, including exercise, control 75% of your health and longevity with only 25-30% depending on your genes. In other words, the older you are, the healthier you have been.

October 20, 2024

We are mercifully coming down to the last few days of the 2024 presidential election. I truly hope that I will never have to think about, speak about, see, listen to, or write about Donald Trump ever again. That remains to be seen. I have been accused by more than one person of having “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” which is a cute but terribly unoriginal phrase. It’s actually not a thing just like Jewish space lasers are not a thing. And it’s not derangement if what you are saying is true just like it is not paranoia if you are actually being followed.

I really don’t think I am deranged, but who’s to say? I haven’t paid hush money to a porn star or a Playboy centerfold; I haven’t lied about the size of my crowds; I haven’t called Mexicans rapists and murderers; I haven’t labeled Muslims terrorists, and tried to ban them from entering the U.S; I haven’t made fun of disabled reporters; I haven’t thrown paper towels at Puerto Rican hurricane victims; I haven’t insulted the military again and again while denigrating their service; I haven’t insulted the memory of POW John McCain; I haven’t tried eliminating health insurance for millions of Americans; I haven’t been impeached for threatening a Ukrainian quid pro quo; I haven’t been impeached for an attempted violent takeover of Congress; I haven’t been convicted of 34 felonies for fraud; I haven’t denied the results of the last election; I haven’t been convicted of sexual assault; I don’t have classified material in my bathroom; I don’t have a foundation that has been found guilty of fraud; I haven’t cheated students out of tuition money; I don’t stiff people who have done work for me; I haven’t declared bankruptcy six times; I didn’t play a fake businessman on TV; I haven’t insulted Gold Star families; I haven’t favored Vladimir Putin over my own intelligence agencies; I am not hawking bibles, gold coins, NFT’s, sneakers, digital coins, or anything else; I have not threatened to use the military against U.S. citizens; I don’t think Haitians are eating cats and dogs; I don’t think I am smarter than the National Weather Service, or that Democrats can control the weather; I don’t think that FEMA is diverting emergency funds to illegal immigrants; I haven’t prevented pregnant women from getting lifesaving medical care; I didn’t lie about COVID; I didn’t recommend that Americans take hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, inject chlorine and introduce UV rays into their bodies; I don’t think there are “good people on both sides;” I haven’t invited Nazis to the White House for dinner; I didn’t get my Vice President almost hanged; I don’t think that some of my fellow citizens come from shit hole countries; I don’t pal around with white nationalists; I don’t deny climate change; I didn’t separate families at the border; I didn’t lie about building a wall at the border, and having Mexico pay for it; I didn’t threaten Georgia’s Secretary of State to get more votes. I could go on, but it’s no coincidence that a panel of 154 Presidential scholars voted Trump the worst President of all time. I may get a fifteen yard penalty for piling on, but more than 400 economists and former White House policy advisors endorsed Kamala Harris.

So this is the guy that almost half of the country wants to vote for. Maybe I am deranged. In 2016, I can almost understand someone voting for Trump. If you weren’t from New York, you might not know his history racism, misogyny, grifting, and failure. You were looking for a fresh, new, orange face, and you just didn’t like Hilary Clinton. I get it. In retrospect , you could claim plausible deniability. In 2020, after four years of sufficient evidence, it was clear that Trump was anti-democratic, dare I say, Fascist to the core. Now you have moved from plausible deniability to willful blindness.

Here is the really bad news if you are considering voting for Trump in 2024. You may say that you don’t like Trump, and how he behaves, but you like his policies. You say that he is good for business. It’s not quite that easy. You don’t get a free pass. If you are in for a penny, you are in for pound. You may like his policies, and you may think he is good for business, but you now own all of the other stuff. As we have heard from Maya Angelou over and over, “When someone tells you who they are, believe them.” Trump has told you who he is. If you are a three-time Trumper, you are telling everyone who you are. There would be no daylight between you and him. You can’t pretend that is not how you think because that is exactly how you think. You approve of it because you have voted for it twice, and are prepared to do it again. You are contracting out your dirty work. However, when his bill comes due, are you going to pay it, or pull a Trump?

October 7, 2024

Divisive politics has driven a wedge through the heart of our country. Family members have been alienated from each other. Holidays with relatives can be painful. I don’t want to point any fingers, but anyone who reads this column knows where I stand. Regardless, when things got uncomfortable, we could always talk about the weather, or at least we could. The other day, I was talking about Hurricane Helene with another person. We were both expressing how bad we felt for the victims when, out of nowhere, I was informed that FEMA was diverting funds to illegal immigrants, and leaving North Carolinians high and not dry. That seemed like some crazy stuff until I received my daily e-mail from political historian Heather Cox Richardson. Her well-researched piece documents how the internet and right wing media are crawling with all sorts of conspiracy theories about the government’s response to Helene. This is not the first time that the weather has become a political football for Republicans.

Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey just days before the 2012 presidential election. President Obama did what presidents are supposed to do. He flew to New Jersey to offer Federal assistance where he was met by Governor Chris Christie. The moment was captured in a famous photo called “the hug.” Many Republicans complained that the Governor gave Obama a bipartisan boost that hurt Mitt Romney. That was pretty much the end of Christie’s political career. What was left of it was snuffed out by Bridgegate and Jared Kushner, who didn’t exactly appreciate Christie putting his father in jail.

In 2019, the internet ruthlessly mocked Donald Trump for posing with a weather map that appeared to have been altered by a Sharpie to wrongly show Hurricane Dorian’s trajectory into Alabama. Trump had spent the past several days doubling down on a tweet that claimed, baselessly, that Alabama was in Dorian’s path, even after being rebuked by the National Weather Service. Rather than acknowledge the mistake, Trump attacked reporters and kept claiming that Alabama was initially forecast to be in Dorian’s path. Trump caused all kinds of chaos in Alabama because people believed a government official who told them they couldn’t believe other government officials.

In May, 2024, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that deleted most of the mentions of climate change from state law. He did this even as South Florida faced record high temperatures. The heat index was well over 100 degrees for days on end. The Florida Climate Center reports that the January-May period has been the hottest on record. Even as I write, Hurricane Milton, a category 5 storm, is heading for central Florida with 180 mile per hour winds. Florida has seen record heat, flooding, rain, and insurance rates. The corals are dying all over the state, yet the climate denial nonsense persists. To underscore his pettiness, DeSantis refused to take a phone call from Vice President Harris for political reasons I can only guess.

Natural disasters are a feeding ground for bottom feeders that peddle bald face lies about deadly storms. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been condemned for her conspiratorial comments about Hurricane Helene. She suggested that she believed that the government can control the weather, implying that Democrats were behind Hurricane Helene. Other crazies are saying that you can’t trust anything the Federal government says about Hurricane Milton. The U.S. government’s top disaster relief official was forced to go on TV to condemn false claims made about Helene and its relief efforts, stating that such conspiracy theories, including those made by Donald Trump, are causing fear in people who need assistance and “demoralizing” the workers who are providing the assistance.

Project 2025, Trump’s conservative blueprint for running the country, calls for the breakup of the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA.) The NOAA houses the National Weather Service. The plan, spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, says that the weather service should “fully commercialize its forecasting operations” and focus on providing data to private companies. These are the people that tell you about the weather and help you prepare for hurricanes, which could come in handy some day. Why would anyone think this is a good idea? According to Project 2025, “the NOAA has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity.” In Florida, the climate change alarm industry sounds like the emergency alarm everyone gets on their cell phone, announcing a mandatory evacuation.

Thanksgiving is coming. We already can’t talk about politics and religion, and now we can no longer talk about the weather. I guess we still have football. Just don’t bring up Colin Kaepernick.

September 19, 2024

After the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, a vast majority of the people polled told pollsters that Harris had won the debate. The margins were about 65-35. People heard crazy stuff from Trump about immigrants eating pets. They heard Trump’s tortured explanation about how Kamala Harris wasn’t black until she decided to be black. Trump ranted about crowd size, which may be his original sin, and once again doubled down on the big lie and all that entails. It was a tour de force that drove many Republicans into hiding, and Independents into thinking.

Subsequently, undecided voters were asked by pollsters about how they felt about the two candidates, and whether or not their feelings had changed. In many of the interviews, the responses were along the lines of “I am moving a little closer to Harris.” “The door is open, but I am not quite there yet.” “I have always voted Republican, and it would be difficult for me to vote for a Democrat.” These undecideds/Independents were obviously having difficulty processing the new information about Trump. What is going on here?

In the second half of the twentieth century, one of the most influential social psychologists of the time was Leon Festinger. Festinger was in a league with Harvard behavioral scientist B.F. Skinner, child development psychologist Jean Piaget, the founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, and social psychologist Albert Bandura. Festinger originated the theory of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is the psychological discomfort experienced when a person holds two or more contradictory beliefs, values, or attitudes simultaneously, or when their behavior conflicts with their beliefs. The theory suggests that people are motivated to reduce this discomfort by either changing their beliefs, justifying their behavior, or minimizing the significance of the inconsistency. For example, if someone values health but smokes, they might experience cognitive dissonance. To reduce the discomfort, they might quit smoking, justify it by downplaying the health risks, or tell themselves they will quit in the future.

Cognitive dissonance is highly relevant in politics, as individuals often encounter conflicting information that challenges their political beliefs or actions.

1. Partisan Loyalty vs. Contradictory Evidence: When people strongly identify with a political party or ideology, they may experience cognitive dissonance if presented with evidence that their party or leader acted against their principles. To reduce dissonance, they may dismiss or downplay the evidence, question its validity, or reinterpret the information to align with their beliefs. This is often seen in the way partisans handle scandals or policy failures involving their preferred party.

2. Voter Rationalization: Cognitive dissonance can explain why voters might continue supporting a politician despite behaviors or policies that contradict their own values. For instance, if someone votes for a candidate who later enacts policies they disagree with, they may rationalize their vote by focusing on the candidate’s other positive qualities or by minimizing the importance of the conflicting policies.

3. Echo Chambers and Media Consumption: To avoid cognitive dissonance, individuals may seek out news sources or social media communities that reinforce their existing beliefs, a phenomenon known as the “echo chamber” effect. By consuming information that confirms their worldview, they avoid the discomfort of confronting contradictory perspectives.

4. Policy Change and Belief Adjustment: Politicians themselves might experience cognitive dissonance when their actions (e.g., compromising on policies) conflict with their stated principles. To resolve this dissonance, they might publicly adjust their stance or justify their behavior in ways that realign with their personal or party’s ideology.

You can hear in the voices of the undecideds how difficult it is for them to do something that they have never done before, and something that generations of their family members before them had never done before. It is painful for them to vote for a Democrat when all of their neighbors and friends are Republicans. Hopefully, by November 5th, they can resolve their angst. As Geoff Duncan, former Republican Lieutenant Governor of Georgia said at the Democratic National Convention, “Voting for Kamala Harris doesn’t make you a Democrat. It makes you a patriot.” John F. Kennedy said that change is the law of life. Hopefully, voters who are in limbo are prepared to follow the law.

September 12, 2024

Recently, I had the great opportunity to get together with some old friends (are there any other kinds these days?) at the venerable Lenox Club in Lenox, MA. For you history buffs, the Lenox Club was founded in 1864 in The Berkshires, and then incorporated as a Reading Club for Gentlemen in 1874. As we sat on the veranda sipping our cocktails and lying to each other about how great we looked and how we hadn’t changed a bit, groups of similarly aged people started arriving, about forty in all. The Music Room, the Ladies’ Parlor, and the Gentlemen’s Library were set up for group discussions. I asked one of the attendees what was going on. He said it was just an ad hoc group of citizens concerned about age and term limits, and how they affected the three branches of the federal government.

As it related to Congress, the general consensus was that too many members lingered way too long in office. Incumbents had an unfair advantage bestowed on them by special interests funding their campaigns, which created obvious conflicts of interest. Many lose touch with younger voters. Term limits would reduce the influence of corporate lobbying, would decrease potential government corruption, and make representatives more responsive to their constituents.

On the other hand, it was acknowledged that term limits would deprive some voters of their choice of representation. Limits might prevent politicians from gaining policy expertise, and create more lame duck members.

The participants coalesced around proposing a maximum of three, six-year terms for Senators, and nine, two-year terms for Representatives. It should be noted that any change in term limits would require an amendment to the Constitution, which is highly unlikely. As background, James Madison, in Federalist Paper No. 62, defended six-year terms for Senators, insisting that they would have a stabilizing influence on the new government. Longer terms would reduce turnover, keep Senators independent, and force Senators to take responsibility for their actions.

Regarding the Supreme Court, it was mentioned that The Brennan Center for Justice endorses term limits for Supreme Court justices, in part because of “a regard for the evolving views and composition of the electorate.” It should be noted that almost every country limits the tenure of judges, imposing either a mandatory retirement age or a term of service.

As far as the participants were concerned, term limits would prevent Justices from shaping the law for multiple generations, as well as keep them more in tune with changing public values. Justices would also presumably be less likely to engage in unethical behavior. Most participants did not support age limits, but did support President Biden’s eighteen-year term limits. This would only require Congressional action.

The 22nd amendment already imposes a two term limit on Presidents so the only issue to be discussed was imposing an upper age limit on the Presidency. In general, the participants felt that with age comes experience and even wisdom. An age limit would again deprive voters of their choice. There is no consensus about the appropriate age would be, and it would require an amendment to the Constitution. The 25th amendment may effectively deal with age-related issues pertaining to competency, but the participants were not convinced that the Vice President and cabinet officers would ever move against the President that put them in office.

In conclusion, participants were divided in deciding whether to impose an age limit. Most were against it. They believed that this year’s election between two elderly men, before Biden dropped, was an aberration. The fact that Biden did, in fact, drop out was evidence of a self-correcting process.

What struck and impressed me about this entire exercise was that our fellow citizens were willing to come together in a congenial environment to cordially discuss some very contentious issues. They may have self-selected themselves as being of similar minds going into the discussions. Regardless, I think it is always useful to hear what your neighbors have to say on difficult topics.