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…

I wonder how they got a prototype? (It came out as Quick Step not Kwibble.)

I have a cartridge at home with a special version I made for the sales staff where the kangaroo comes up behind the squirrel and … uh …

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.”

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…)

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).

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.

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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.

“This was not written for chiefs”

It also wasn’t written for billionaires or generals. Or Putin.

Also: Trump’s Attacks on Gold Star Families