Be Careful What You Type

When I worked my first post-college job at Ford (later 70s) I worked on a PDP-11 in a remote lab (working on the 1st EEC – computerized carburetor.) To access the “disk” – a huge thing they would insert in the top of a huge device – you had to contact the “operator” at the big computer. Ford had a redundant system where everything typed was echoed across all of Ford’s computers, and data was stored in several places. I can only imagine the data loss that brought this about. One Saturday I was working and had to get to my data. I typed in “Sharon, please mount Dave Johnson’s disk.” But I typed a ‘c’ instead of an ‘s’. When I came in to work Monday every single person in the building was laughing.

Another time, when I was at Gobe, up in Portland, I gave a demo to a key client, using an overhead monitor. In front of everyone I was demonstrating how text could be made larger and smaller with a slider. I didn’t look at the keyboard, typed the word ‘TEXT’ and used the slider to make it huge. Well, the ‘W’ key is just to the left of the ‘E’ key, and the ‘A’ key is just to the left of the ‘S’ key and my fingers were just to the left…

Who Are We To Object To What Putin Is Doing?

There are people who say, “The US has been and is doing bad things all over the world. It interfered with Russia’s elections. It bombs people. It overthrows governments.” Etc.

The United States interferes with elections in other countries. It has overthrown governments in other countries, bombed and even nuked other countries, supported brutal regimes, etc. It has committed genocide against Native Americans, held slaves, enforced an apartheid, made people of color second-class citizens, fought unions and kept wages low, allowed terrible environmental destruction, tortured people … and done a lot of things we are all against.

In general that United States has done everything it can to keep We the People here and everywhere down and under the thumb of a wealthy few.

So who are we to object to what Putin has done and is doing?

Wait, Did WE Do That?

But is that United States that does those things OUR country? Did “we” do those things?

The instances of the US doing these kinds of things here and elsewhere have been when our democracy is undermined, corrupted, manipulated by anti-democracy moneyed interests for their own gain.

That isn’t “US.”

The United State is under the control of a wealthy few anti-democracy plutocrats who OPPOSE what the “We the People’ Constitution stands for. That is the bad version of the United States that progressives fight, now and historically.

Trump is the leader of THAT United States and he is aligned with Putin to make things even worse for We the People.

WE did not go to war in Iraq, we were against it. WE are not helping Israel suppress the Palestinians, we are against that. WE are not helping the Saudis bomb Yemen, we are against that. WE did not support apartheid, we fought it.

We the People of the United States have not decided we should do these things. We the people just want a better life and the freedom to make our decisions over how our government should operate – and every time that actually happens things get better for people, more equal, more just.

What Trump was and is doing — with Putin’s Russia by his side — is to further promote this very undermining of the “We the People” democracy that we fight for.

Sugar Didn’t Ask To Be Born

From Bojack Horseman. Spoken by Mr. Peanutbutter: “Raven on a wire. A gloomy portent, precariously perched. And, as the sun sets, so does it spread its deathly shadow across the just and unjust of the outdoor seating area of the California Pizza Kitchen.

You come to work, clock in, you put sugar in your coffee, and watch it slowly disappear into nothingness. But the sugar doesn’t know why. Sugar didn’t ask to be born.”

Holiday Card From The Johnsons

Happy Holidays from the Johnsons:

That’s our dog Paddington.

The back of the card:
Published by Sudeep Johnson
Doggie Paw Cards, Inc.
www.doggiepawcards.com
Many thanks to Paddington the little white dog, without whom this card would not have been possible.

Here is last year’s: Holiday Card From The Johnsons. (That card has a link to the previous year’s, which has a link to the previous year’s, etc…)

A Small Piece About Having Trouble Writing

I mentioned the other day that I haven’t been writing.

On July 16,2002 I tried out blogging at a place called “Blogspot”, and ended up writing something almost every day since, sometimes several pieces per day.

But at the end of April I left my position as a “Senior Fellow” at Campaign for America’s Future, and haven’t written much since. I’ve started working at the Center for Media and Democracy and will start writing regularly there at same point. But right now I’m having a problem writing.

The problem has a few causes (I think).

  • I’m overwhelmed with incoming crap, mostly about bad things Trump does. But also so much breaking news about investigations, corruption, collusion with Russia, things like that. So things are moving so fast. I feel like by the time I finish writing a piece, it’s irrelevant.

    I can’t even imagine how it is for people who produce a show like Chris Hayes’ or Rachel Maddow’s. They book guests in advance, do a lot of research to prepare, and then 10 minutes before the show Trump does something really bad or really stupid, or some news breaks about some new connection between Trump and Putin… and all that work is down the drain.

  • A feeling that whatever I write it won’t do any good. I spent year writing warnings that we are on a path that could lead to a Trump. Now we’re there, no warnings are needed. I’m not sure how we get out of this.

    Those are the main reasons. I’m still doing lots of radio shows, and those are just fine. It’s not like I don’t have anything to say.

    My friend (known as) Meteor Blades suggested trying to write small pieces. So this is a small piece about having trouble writing.

  • Trump’s Goldman Sachs Vampire Squid Presidency

    The things that come out of President Trump’s mouth seem to depend on who he talks to or what he sees on TV in the minutes immediately preceding his mouth motion.

    Based on his recent switchbacks, Trump has been spending a LOT of time talking to the alums of Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs who now form his inner circle.

    “Changed His Tone”

    Trump has reversed himself on policy after policy, sometimes days or even hours after reaffirming positions he then reversed. The New York Times describes this phenomenon:

    But Mr. Trump has changed his tone and backtracked on pledges and policies he supported days earlier. The shift suggests that the moderate financiers of Wall Street brought to the White House are eclipsing the populists led by Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s chief political strategist.

    The Washington Post’s Daily 202, written for DC-area insiders, describes this new direction as “Trump’s lurch toward corporatism, globalism.”

    ● He reversed his position on NATO, saying, “It was once obsolete; it is no longer obsolete.”
    ● He reversed his position on labeling China as a currency manipulator, after saying last week that China is “the world champion” of currency manipulation.
    ● He reversed his position on Fed Chair Janet Yellen, after having said she and other “global special interests” had ruined life for middle America.
    ● He reversed his position on interest rates, saying “I do like a low-interest-rate policy, I must be honest with you.”
    ● He reversed his position on the Export-Import Bank, saying now, “It turns out that… lots of small companies are really helped!”

    Why all these sudden switches?

    A Goldman Sachs Administration

    Most of these reversals bring Trump’s positions as president nicely in line with the interests of Wall Street, the Chamber of Commerce and the giant investment bank Goldman Sachs.

    Is it just a coincidence that this comes after Trump has lined his administration with former Goldman Sachs executives? Headline after headline explains that Trump has hired “yet another” veteran of the firm.

    One of the latest, with very high influence, is Gary Cohn, Goldman’s former President and CEO, now chairman of the National Economic Council. According to Mother Jones, Cohn left Goldman with “an estimated $285 million severance package.”

    Damian Paletta at The Washington Post writes about Cohn capturing Trump’s ear:

    The growing strength of Cohn and like-minded moderates was on display this week as Trump reversed himself on several high-profile issues – including a less confrontational approach to China, an endorsement of government subsidies for exports and the current leadership of the Federal Reserve. The president’s new positions move him much closer to the views of Cohn and others on Wall Street, not to mention mainstream Republicans and Democrats.

    It was the clearest sign yet that an alliance of moderates in the White House – including Cohn; senior adviser Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law; and another influential Goldman Sachs alumnus, Dina Powell – is racking up successes in a battle over ideology and control with hardcore conservatives led by chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who held sway at the start of the administration.

    Goldman Sachs? You might remember (or tried to forget but haven’t yet) how Trump reviled their influence in his now-notorious “closing” TV ad. It featured images of Wall Street, stock tickers, Lloyd Blankfein, the Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, and financier-philanthropist George Soros.

    In the ad, Trump says ominously:

    It’s a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities.

    That was then. It worked; he got the votes.

    This is now. Yes, Goldman Sachs.

    Vampire Squid

    Why does this matter? Matt Taibbi’s great 2010 article for Rolling Stone described how Goldman Sachs manipulates our economy for the benefit of its executives and investors. The Great American Bubble Machine begins,

    The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it’s everywhere. The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.

    Taibbi includes the warning,

    …a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.

    And so here we are.

    ——-

    This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their OurFuture site. I am a Fellow with CAF, a project of People’s Action. Sign up here for the OurFuture daily summary and/or for People’s Action’s Progressive Breakfast.

    The Latest Lie: “We Are Going To Raise Taxes On The Middle Class”

    Another presidential campaign means it’s time to bring back the “Latest Lie” series.

    And here’s the latest lie. Campaigning in Nebraska Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton said, “Well, we’re not going there, my friends. I’m telling you right now we’re going to write fairer rules for the middle class. And we aren’t going to raise taxes on the middle class.”

    Now Donald Trump is running an ad with a doctored transcript that says Clinton said, “And we are going to raise taxes on the middle class.”

    Caitlan MacNeal explains at TPM, in “Trump Campaign Video Misrepresents Clinton’s Position On Taxes“:

    The Clinton campaign told PolitiFact that Clinton said “aren’t,” not “are.” And a transcript of Clinton’s prepared remarks uses the line, “We aren’t going to raise taxes on the middle class.”

    CBS News reported that when the video is slowed down, it becomes more clear that Clinton said “aren’t.” And several reporters agreed with that.

    Here is the Trump ad, you can clearly hear her say “aren’t” – but even so everyone knows what she meant:

    Nice. Changing a word in a speech to make it sound like Clinton said the opposite of what she actually said. Will people fall for that?

    Remember when President Obama said that businesspeople didn’t get there on their own, they had help, that they didn’t build the roads, bridges and other public facilities that they used for their success? Then Republicans took the quote out of context, claimed he said businesspeople “didn’t build that,” meaning they didn’t build their businesses. They actually built an entire campaign around that lie. Well, here they go again.

    How many more days until this is over?

    ——-

    This post originally appeared at Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF. Sign up here for the CAF daily summary and/or for the Progressive Breakfast.