Our new president recently made a statement that, unlike most of his utterances and tweets, actually made some sense. Of course the statement was made in isolation and not in association with any broad policy statement so it was likely a mistake, but he actually announced that it would be good to raise the gasoline tax to help pay for infrastructure needs. He evidently did not realize that his Republican Congress will absolutely not allow the fuel tax to be raised, regardless of the good sense it makes. But do we need it? Can we afford it? Absolutely.

As a regular “road tripper” between Arizona and Vermont I have seen and experienced firsthand the deterioration of our highways and bridges. I have hit an unexpected hole at 70 miles per hour on I-70 near Indianapolis and afterward wondered about the condition of my right front tire and front end alignment and have rattled over the cracked and potholed surface of I-40 through Oklahoma City and afterward wondered about the state of my shock absorbers. I have dodged dozens of dreadful potholes on I-86 between I-90 and Jamestown, NY and then, foolishly taking my eyes off the road for a couple of seconds, felt my whole car shudder as my left front tire hit one. I have glanced in horror at the chunks of concrete falling off the side and center barriers of the I-270 bridge over the Mississippi River north of St. Louis and wondered if I was about to suffer the same fate as the motorists on Minneapolis I-35W in 2007.

The deplorable condition of our highway infrastructure is well known but a reminder might be useful. Today, more than 60,000 bridges in the United States are considered structurally deficient and 32 percent of U.S. major roads are in poor or mediocre condition. It is estimated that it would take at least $780 billion to bring our highways and bridges up to adequate standards (incidentally that’s about what we have spent in Afghanistan over the last 16 years). The latest assessment of the American Society of Civil Engineers, which released its 2017 “infrastructure report card” last March, showed the grades for US roads and bridges to still be “D” and “C+”, unchanged since their last report four years ago. Well, what seems to be the problem? Why don’t we have the will and have mustered the means to address this huge problem? Let’s take a look.

Construction and maintenance of our highways is financed mainly from the Highway Trust Fund which is maintained with a gasoline tax of 18.4 cents per gallon and a diesel fuel tax of 24.4 cents per gallon which together provide about $34 billion per year, both unchanged since they were last raised in 1993. And over the last couple of decades these taxes have become seriously inadequate because of the increasing fuel economy of automobiles and the increasing costs of highway construction and maintenance. A dollar in 1993 is worth only 60 cents today. If the gas tax had kept up with inflation, it would be 30 cents a gallon today and pull in nearly twice the amount of revenue, or $68 billion rather than $34 billion. In other words, Congress is leaving billions and billions on the table by opting for the politically expedient move of leaving the gas tax untouched. with Federal highway spending at about $50 billion per year, the yearly shortfall has had to come from other sources. But even then, that figure obviously falls far short of what we really need.

In addition Congress has failed to come up with a long term highway bill for years and has chosen instead to plug the hole with a variety of other sources: Stupid, gimmicky other sources, stopgap measures since 2005, the most ridiculous in 2014 when the Highway Trust Fund shortfall of $10.8 billion was filled by something called “pension smoothing” – additional business tax yields provided when businesses choose to reduce their contributions to employee pension funds – talk about “smoke and mirrors”! President Obama reluctantly signed that bill saying that Congress “shouldn’t pat itself on the back for merely averting disaster, kicking the can down the road for a few months and careening from crisis to crisis when it comes to something as basic as our infrastructure”. It’s shocking that since 1992 our Congress has chosen to come up with patch jobs for the Highway Trust Fund 33 times. One time in July of 2015, the patch was a three month program. And even more incredible, on October 15, 2015 Congress passed a three week extension. Try to do some long range planning to repair our roadways with this kind of financing.

These funding games are ludicrous and totally unnecessary. As noted earlier, if the gas tax had simply been indexed to inflation it would be bringing in almost twice what it yields today. But the childish and petulant aversion to taxes exhibited by our Republican-dominated Congress (I am sure that most of them have signed the “no new taxes pledge” promulgated by tax abolition guru Grover Norquist) holds sway over common sense. It’s not that hard to justify this tax. The fuel tax does not even have to be called a tax. When it was increased twice by anti-tax President Reagan in the 1980’s, and then by Clinton in 1992, the act was easily rationalized and rendered palatable by calling the tax increases “user fees”, simply charges for the privilege of using and wearing down our highways, roads and bridges. Yet our Republican congress could not even do what their hero Reagan did – increase “user fees” for our transportation system. And unfortunately, neither Reagan nor Clinton had the wisdom to tie the the fuel tax to inflation.

And Congress didn’t have the courage either to simply increase fuel taxes. Gasoline prices now are at the lowest they have been in decades. So even doubling both taxes would have resulted in fuel prices nowhere near where they have been over the last several years, would have created no hardship at all for commuters, pleasure drivers, the trucking industry or the airline industry and would have provided a much needed shot in the arm for the Highway Trust Fund. In fact, studies of gasoline price changes over the years, when indexed to inflation, show that gasoline is as cheap today as it was in the “good old days” of the 1950’s when gas prices ranged from 20 to 30 cents per gallon. On my most recent cross country car trip, I availed myself of fill-ups for as low as $1.78 per gallon, with the average expenditures ranging around $2.00 per gallon, the same or less than 1950’s prices when inflation is factored in.

But instead, look what we got. Last year with great fanfare, Congress finally passed a new five year Transportation Bill. In the boastful words of House Speaker Paul Ryan, Congress was doing “the people’s business”, finally achieving the necessary bipartisan consensus to pass a major piece of legislation. But although somewhat better than the last several highway bills which were patches at best, the new bill falls far short of what the country needs. Yes, we do finally have a multi-year bill instead of the annual patch job, which will finally enable planners and contractors to extend work over several years. But again, smoke and mirrors financing is problematic. To make up the shortfall between the expected yield of Federal fuel taxes and the 305 billion dollar total of the new highway bill presented so proudly by Ryan, the new bill relies on a number of ridiculous short-term financing provisions that have absolutely nothing to do with the problem, among them requiring the Federal government to use private collection agencies to recoup certain outstanding taxes, allowing the government to deny new passports to individuals owing more than $50,000 in back taxes, the sale of 66 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and cutting the Federal Reserve’s annual dividend payments to large commercial banks, redirecting that money to highway construction. Can you believe this….or understand it? Again – smoke and mirrors! And Congress again refused to increase the gasoline and diesel fuel taxes or even tie them to inflation.

So what should we have done and what should we do in the future to make sure that there is enough money to maintain and repair our highways and bridges? According to ITEP (Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy) we need to do the following. First, the fuel tax should simply be increased by 10 to 15 cents per gallon to compensate for the loss in purchasing power that has accumulated over the years. Second, the tax should be indexed to inflation to meet the expected increases in construction costs. Third, the tax should automatically rise in relation to the increasing fuel efficiency of automobiles. And finally, the fuel tax should include mechanisms to prevent sudden large changes from year to year, for example, the large increase mentioned above should be phased in gradually over several years.

But a crucial question remains. Will our Republican-dominated Congress ever have the courage to increase this necessary and easily rationalized tax? The disgraceful sleight of hand shenanigans performed to fill the huge gaps in the latest multi year Highway Bill indicate that they do not. So even though we are the richest nation on earth, we will continue to have some of the lowest fuel taxes on the planet and will consequently continue our ridiculous struggle with potholed highways and collapsing bridges. Taxes are necessary costs of living in a civilized society and “user fees” to maintain our transportation system are among most easily applied and willingly borne. We need a government that has the brains and backbone to do what is necessary for the well-being of the nation.

 

 

 

 

 

“Wake Up, Liberals: There Will be No 2018 ‘Blue Wave’, No Democratic Majority and No Impeachment”,
“There’s no quick fix for Trump or our damaged democracy—and the Democrats still look hopeless”
“Beyond Opposing Trump, Democrats keep searching for a message”
“Democrats in the Dead Zone”
“Can Democrats Fix the Party?”

Not a day goes by that I don’t read yet another article about the problems in the Democratic Party – no presidency, neither house of Congress and only a third of governors’ offices and state legislatures – and also not a day goes by that I don’t encounter another exhortation or reason or strategy to “resist” Trump and his agenda. It appears that all the Party can do is lick its wounds, point fingers at who or what they think was responsible for its devastating losses and oppose Trump, all totally insufficient to generate the enthusiasm and the votes needed to take back the House or the Senate in 2018, much less the presidency in 2020. “Not Trump” or “Resist” might be rallying cries for the Democratic Party but they are not strategies for winning.

And despite Trump’s record unpopularity and obvious incompetence and millions of dollars poured into them, the Democratic Party is 0 for 4 in recent special congressional elections. How can this be? While it’s obvious that Democratic victory in these four traditionally solid Republican districts would be difficult, another reason for the losses is simply that the Democrats no longer have a clear message other than opposition to the president and the Republican Congress. The latest disappointment, the contest in Georgia’s Sixth District, the lame Jon Ossoff and his DCCC supporters erred seriously with a campaign right out of the vanilla Hillary Clinton playbook – fight government waste, trim regulations, support Israel, promote “civility in politics”, “personal responsibility”, etc – nothing for the guy who’s working two jobs, can’t pay the electric bill, has a chronically sick kid and a pregnant wife and just had his used car repossessed.

Clearly the party needs to stand for something and truly, when I ask myself what the Democratic Party stands for today I am at a loss. This point was perfectly illustrated in the 2016 presidential campaign when what the standard-bearers of the respective parties stood for were in sharp contrast to each other. The authors of “Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign” painfully describe the difficulty the campaign had in even coming up with the reason Mrs. Clinton was running for president. The best the campaign could manage was – “I would have had a reason for running or I wouldn’t have run.” In addition the authors describe a board in the campaign’s Brooklyn office totally covered with sticky notes listing “what Hillary is for” – actually so many that the net result was nothing. So it should be no surprise that the Democratic candidate lost the election. It would seem that at the very least it should be clear what a candidate stands for and why s/he is running for office. And during the the campaign there was never any doubt as to where Hillary’s Republican opponent stood and why he was running. He was going to bring manufacturing and mining jobs back, keep Muslims out of the country, build that wall and “Make America Great Again”.

These thoughts have prompted me to reflect on my own political convictions. Since my early twenties, when I finally shook off the last vestiges of the parental cocoon of Republicanism in which I had been wrapped since childhood, I realized that the Democratic Party best represented what “I am for”:

• concern for the health and welfare of my fellow man;
• concern for the working man and the union that represents him;
• a living wage for a full day’s work;
• limiting the power of corporations and big business and ensuring that they paid their fair share of taxes;
• progressive taxation for individuals with the wealthy paying their fair share of taxes;
• a dignified and comfortable retirement for everyone;
• affordable and adequate healthcare for everyone;
• good public schools and and an education for everyone who wanted it;
• a reasonable “floor” under our society beneath which no one could fall, meaning unemployment insurance, welfare for the poor and Social Security for the elderly;
• a safe and healthy environment through regulation and conservation;
• accepting that we are a nation of immigrants that requires laws that foster a steady flow of new blood and energy from foreign lands;
• a belief that the government can be a force for good in people’s lives;
• promoting the importance of voting, that this right should be guaranteed to all citizens.

It seems that these personal convictions have always been staples of the Democratic Party but if so, why is it so difficult today to shout them loud and clear? Obviously the Democratic Party is ill. Its symptoms are obvious: no clear message, ossified leadership, forsaking its working class roots, selling out to Wall Street, economic issues eclipsed by social issues, writing off the working man and relying instead on the minority vote, representation by corporate Democrats like the Clintons, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Shumer and Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the “Republicans in Democrat clothing”, cross dressers like Senators Joe Manchin and Heidi Heitcamp. What prescription can we offer to address these symptoms? What can we administer to the Democratic Party to get it well? It doesn’t need some expensive drug to treat or mask symptoms or that produces negative side effects, like identity politics,  cultural issues, opposing Trump or defending Obamacare. What the Democratic Party needs is a robust return to the basics of good health – fresh air, good food and lots of exercise. And what are those for the Democratic Party? A return to the principles articulated and espoused by the greatest Democrat of all  –  Franklin D. Roosevelt.

On January 6, 1941, President Roosevelt gave his “Four Freedoms” speech to Congress, “a vision of the world that would be worthy of our civilization”. He announced simply and eloquently that the United States should dedicate itself to advancing these four freedoms everywhere in the world:

• Freedom of speech and expression, the best defense against the corruption of democracy;
• Freedom of worship, our shield against the forces of bigotry, intolerance, and fanaticism;
• Freedom from want, a commitment to erasing hunger, poverty, and pestilence from the earth;
• Freedom from fear, a freedom dependent on collective security, a concept carried forward with our leadership in the United Nations.

Certainly, the Democratic Party, in reviving and resuscitating itself could start here – embrace of these “four freedoms” certainly compels a robust Democratic response to Trump’s attacks on the press and the environment, his recklessness and ignorance in foreign policy and his racism and bigotry.

Another place for the Democratic party to start should be reviewing and dedicating itself to Roosevelt’s “Second Bill of Rights”, those principles having been included in of all places, the Charter of the European Union. It might be useful to go back to the speech in which they were outlined. In Roosevelt’s words spoken to the nation on January 11, 1944:

“This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.
As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:

—The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
—The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
—The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
—The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
—The right of every family to a decent home;
—The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
—The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
—The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens. For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.”

Incredibly meaningful meaningful principles, aren’t they? Surely here in the wealthiest nation on earth, we ought to be able to guarantee everyone a home, an education, a decent paying job, medical care and a dignified and worry-free retirement. These are principles that the Democratic Party has forgotten and that if they were embraced anew,  the Democratic Party would regain its rightful place as the party that really cares about people, the party that for decades stood up for the common man.

Everything in FDR’s “Four Freedoms” and “Second Bill of Rights” can be readily extended and translated to what should be the major tenets of the Democratic Party today – including strengthening Social Security, strengthening unions, increasing the minimum wage, and endorsing single payer healthcare. And all of what the Democrats should stand for is supported by the American people. Poll after poll have indicated that most Americans support the principles enumerated above and oppose the cruel Republican agenda of Trump, Ryan and McConnell. The following statistics tell the story:

• 64% are significantly worried about global warning;
• 71% want the US to honor the Paris Agreement on climate change;
• By a ten point margin (49% to 39%) voters polled oppose removing regulations on businesses and corporations;
• Oppose removing regulations specifically intended to combat climate change by a margin of 61% to 29%;
• 58% want federally funded health insurance for all; 85% of black voters and 84% of Latino voters favor placing the government in charge of managing the health care system in the United States;
• a sizable majority — about three in five Americans — say the government has a responsibility to ensure everyone has health care;
• 64% would pay higher taxes to guarantee healthcare for everyone;
• 60% of Americans would favor replacing Obamacare with a federally funded national health plan;
• 74% are opposed to cuts in Medicaid;
• 61% of Republicans and 95% of Democrats would maintain or increase funding for health care in general;
• a majority of Americans support “expanding Medicare to provide health insurance to every American”;
• a plurality of voters support “a single payer health care system, where all Americans would get their health insurance from one government plan”;
• 61% percent of Republicans and 93% of Democrats would maintain or increase spending for ‘economic assistance to needy people in the U.S;
• two thirds of the American people say that the government should care for those who cannot care for themselves;
• 70% want nuclear disarmament;
• 72% want the US out of Iraq and Afghanistan;
• 73% want the government to maintain or increase government support for green energy;
• almost 70% favored Obama’s Clean Power Plan;
• 80% approve of Planned Parenthood receiving federal funds for non-abortion health assistance for women;
• 70% of Americans support a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy;
• 60% of Americans support doubling the national minimum wage to $15 per hour;
• 60% are favorable toward unions;
• 63% of Americans say money and wealth distribution is unfair;
• Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to tax policies that benefit corporations and the rich;
• 90% agree that there are already too many tax loopholes for the wealthiest Americans and corporations;
• 80% agree that it would help grow the economy if the country made sure the wealthiest Americans paid their fair share of taxes;
• voters broadly agree that Republicans in Congress put the interests of corporations and the wealthiest Americans ahead of average Americans;
• 61% say that the wealthy pay too little in taxes;
• 80% feel strongly that Trump should release his tax returns;
• about 80% of voters from both parties want to reverse Citizens United and get money out of politics;
• 70% say that the government should regulate financial services and products “to make sure they are fair for consumers”;
• 79% say Wall Street financial companies should be held accountable with tougher rules and enforcement for the practices that caused the financial crisis;
• a broad majority (77%) says that there is too much power in the hands of a few rich people and large corporations;
• by a 10-point margin (49% to 39%), voters oppose removing regulations on businesses and corporations;
• 66% of Americans believe there are “very strong” or “strong” conflicts between the rich and the poor, an increase of 19 percentage points since 2009;
• three-quarters of all American adults favored Mr. Obama’s decision to re-establish ties with Cuba;
• a plurality – 39% of Sanders supporters backed Palestinians while just a third backed Israel; support for Palestinians has tripled among US youth;
• 92% favor universal background checks for gun purchases;
• 80% favor letting undocumented immigrants stay here legally;
• 60% favor legalization of recreational marijuana;

So, with the American people solidly behind a progressive agenda, my fellow Democrats, let’s get well. Let’s flush the dangerous and corrupting drugs of Wall Street big money and Clintonian centrism down the toilet and get out into the clean fresh air. Let’s stop supporting already doomed Obamacare, get profit out of healthcare and support Medicare for All; let’s support unions and collective bargaining; regulate big corporations and eagerly “welcome their hatred” as Roosevelt did; let’s support public schools and get corporations out of education; let’s fight to get money out of elections; let’s fight for fair taxation for corporations and individuals; let’s reject the cruelty of the Republican budget and support the Progressive Caucus’ “People’s Budget” ; let’s promote peace, negotiate with our enemies and put the military-industrial complex out of business; let’s support women and their right to control their bodies; let’s reject the influence of the pollsters, idea people, analysts and fundraisers like Neera Tanden, Robbie Mook and John Podesta who helped blow the last election; let’s stop beating around the bush with “identity” messages, “stronger together” banners and advocacy of social issues and get down to the reality of supporting our base with an economic message that will bring our voters together – the original Democratic base of American workers, plus our more contemporary base of minority voters. Let’s support all the traditional Democratic issues mentioned above but let’s wrap them all tightly in an economic message that everyone can support and everyone can understand – President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms and Second Bill of Rights. If the Democratic Party is brave enough to do this, to eschew the money and resultant influence of corporations and billionaires and rely on common people as Bernie Sanders so successfully did, we can look forward to a Democratic House in 2018, the House and Senate and the presidency in 2020.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you pulled that lever, connected that line or drew that X for Donald Trump as President of the United States, when you delivered that sucker punch to the “latte liberals” you can’t stand, when you stuck your finger in the eye of those hateful Hillary minions, did you realize what you voted for? Oh yes, you voted for the misogynist, the serial liar, the narcissist, the only candidate in the last 40 years not to reveal his tax returns, but that was ok because he was going to “drain the swamp”, provide “better and cheaper” health insurance for everyone, bring back the coal mines, revive manufacturing, and “build a wall”. Oh sure, right.

Well, how do you feel now, after six months of this gasbag buffoon president and his billionaires’ club “cabinet from hell” who are destroying that which they were sworn to preserve and protect? Some of you who have watched closely, done your reading,  kept track of what’s happening in Congress and know what’s in the latest healthcare “reforms”, who realize what’s happening as rules are cancelled or “delayed” and regulations are shredded, may be having second thoughts and may have joined the swelling “disapprove” ranks counted by the pollsters.

But others of you, some of whom I know, have actually doubled down on your reckless choice. You’ve clenched your fists, stiffened your back, closed your eyes and ears to anything else but Fox News and talk radio, continued to lamely chant, “lock her up, lock her up” or “I hate Nancy Pelosi”, and excused this clown president’s disgraceful behavior with feeble excuses like, “Oh well, he’s just being bombastic”.

Well Trump voters, in addition to governing by tantrum and tweet, and a general coarsening and cheapening of public discourse, here’s some more of what you have so far and your leader has only just begun. Ask yourself – is this truly what I want for myself, my loved ones, my country and my planet?

• United States withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords, which is embraced by virtually the rest of the world,
• Decimation of Obamacare which, however imperfect and based on the shaky foundation of corporate profit, did extend coverage to millions, now to be taken away,
• Attacks on reporters and an undermining of a free press, absolutely essential to a democracy,
• Planning for an infrastructure program based on corporate investment and profit and that aims to privatize what should be public,
• A planned tax program that will reduce taxes on the wealthy and on corporations,
• A childish and cynical reversal of our fifty years overdue improvement in relations with Cuba,
• Implicit approval of racism and prejudice against Muslims and Muslim countries,
• Retarding efforts to resolve the immigration question and establish policies that provide a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants,
• A spawning of the most significant graft and corruption at the presidential level in history,
• Presenting an ignorant, undignified and selfish national face to other nations and the world,
• National parks and national monuments attacked in the hope that they will be opened to corporate exploitation,
• An accelerated pace toward privatization of public functions, the latest example being air traffic control,
• Privatizing and corporatizing public schools, making them profit centers instead of learning centers,
• Disdain for and erosion of the rule of law – attacks on Federal judges, the Justice Department and the FBI,
• Gutting Dodd-Frank, hastening the day for the big banks and corporations to cause another economic meltdown,
• Emasculating the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau,
• Increasing limitations on voting rights, making voting more difficult, not easier,
• Bringing back the futile “war on drugs” along with discredited mandatory minimum sentences,
• A crippled federal government riddled with vacancies because candidates are reluctant to work for a reckless chief executive who could harm their careers,
• Rolling back of civil rights enforcement in the Justice Department and Education Department.

And from the New York Times a couple of days ago – “Are you really ready to abandon protections of your drinking water? What about that school hamburger? Is it O.K. to eat? Can you depend on Medicare or Medicaid? Are toys safe? Can workers fight overtime violations or discrimination? Will government agencies be there to police mortgage, student-loan and retirement-savings abuses? Will the education of special-needs students be protected?”

God help us all….and thanks again, Trump voters.

 

 

Well, how do you all feel now? Are you happy you gave your country and your children’s future the finger? Are you happy that you sucker punched your country and stuck your thumb in its eye? Are you happy now that your president, your country and its electorate are the laughingstock of the world….until fear, uncertainty and danger set in?

I still can’t bring myself to put those two words together “President” and “Trump”. Yes, you elected him fair and square, with the Electoral College being what it is. But his opponent won the popular vote by the largest margin of any candidate who won that vote but lost the election and 54 percent of votes cast were against Trump. But all that being what it is, just take a look at your leader: Ignorant, vacuous, amoral, dishonest, narcissistic, egotistical, reckless and arrogant.

And if that wasn’t enough, take a look at his Cabinet, described in a recent Washington Post headline as “the worst Cabinet in American history”. Yes, every president has been guilty of nominating a cabinet member or two with very shaky qualifications: Eisenhower’s choice of GM CEO (“What’s good for General Motors is good for the country”) Charles Wilson as Secretary of Defense, President Kennedy’s own brother as Attorney General, Nixon’s choice of John Mitchell as Attorney General, Reagan’s Secretary of Interior James Watt, George W. Bush’s Michael “Heckuva Job” Brown and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez all come readily to mind.

But the Senate hasn’t formally rejected a Cabinet pick since it voted down President George H.W. Bush’s nomination of John Tower for defense secretary in 1989. And no new president has gotten all of his nominees confirmed in the last 30 years – those that have been very controversial or had something questionable in their backgrounds revealed usually have withdrawn before a vote. However, never in our history have we been asked to accept a crew as universally controversial or as incompetent or as idealogical or as downright destructive as Trump’s menagerie of nominees. Cabinet members nominated by other presidents have usually had some experience and expertise in the functions of the office for which they are being considered. These have apparently been nominated simply because of early support or loyalty to Trump.

Barely acceptable because in comparison to others they seem somewhat sane and sensible are Trump’s Secretary of Defense, General James (Mad Dog) Mattis, perhaps chosen by Trump because of his nickname, and Nikki Hayley, former Governor of South Carolina, as Ambassador to the United Nations, Elaine Chao, Secretary of Transportation (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s wife), retired General John Kelly as Secretary of Homeland Security, Kansas Republican Congressman Mike Pompeo as CIA Director, and Sonny Perdue as Secretary of Agriculture. Whoa, here “sane and sensible” may not hold up – as governor of Georgia in 2007, Mr. Perdue made national headlines for holding a public vigil to pray for rain in the middle of a crippling drought. But these are the best of a bad lot. The rest are described below.

Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State. This former CEO of Exxon Mobile perceives the world through the myopic vision of an exploiter of the environment. What little experience he has in dealing with foreign governments has been limited to striking deals to extract petroleum. This man’s education has been that of a petroleum engineer, not a diplomat. His suspect ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin obviously did not slow his Senate approval. Good luck to us and the world – an oil executive is now our Secretary of State. And if this choice was not worrisome enough, Tillerson and Trump have just chosen Elliot Abrams for the powerful position of Deputy Secretary of State. Abrams has been labeled a “war criminal” by more than one columnist and in fact was convicted of willfully withholding information from Congress. For those who thought the the neocons would be exiled from the Trump administration are simply wrong. This unilateral interventionist and Israel cheerleader who wants to spread “American values” around the world is back. God help us. Oh wait a minute, Trump just turned down Abrams, evidently for negative comments about him during the campaign. But the recklessness of this consideration is still cause for grave concern.

Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury. The “foreclosure king” never served in government and has never set economic policy of any kind, but he is from Goldman Sachs and has great experience in throwing people out of their homes. Because he ran against Wall Street and the “rigged system” Trump’s choice of this man is the ultimate betrayal. Trump criticized Hillary Clinton for her Goldman Sachs speeches – how can he choose this Wall Street insider who got rich there? But of course Trump hailed Mnuchin for his business savvy in making a boatload off IndyMac at the depth of the Great Recession, so that’s all that really matters.

Senator Jeff Sessions, Attorney General. In his 1986 hearing before the Senate, witnesses testified that Sessions referred to a black attorney as “boy,” described the Voting Rights Act as ‘intrusive,’ attacked the NAACP and ACLU as “un-American” for “forcing civil rights down the throats of people”, joked that he thought the Ku Klux Klan was ok until he found out they smoked marijuana, and referred to a white attorney who took on voting-rights cases as a  “traitor to his race.” This “southern gentleman” is a shocking choice for Attorney General, an office expected to enforce the laws of the country. Perhaps the best way to describe Sessions is to quote from the Coretta Scott King letter read by several Senators at the debate of his Senate approval, ”Mr. Sessions’ conduct as U.S. Attorney, from his politically-motivated voting fraud prosecutions to his indifference toward criminal violations of civil rights laws, indicates that he lacks the temperament, fairness and judgment to be a federal judge…” And that’s when he was candidate for a mere Federal judgeship not Attorney General, the chief law enforcement officer of the United States.

Tom Price, Secretary of Health and Human Services. One of several of Trump’s picks that perfectly illustrates the “fox guarding the henhouse” – an avowed enemy of Medicare and Medicaid, not to mention Obamacare. He supports Paul Ryan’s longstanding desire to convert Medicare into a voucher program and replacing Medicaid with state block grants. He also has become very adept at sponsoring and supporting healthcare legislation, especially that which deals with companies in which he has invested. As of this writing, this dreadful nominee has indeed been approved by the Senate.

Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education. Arguably the worst pick of all, billionaire DeVos has spent much of he life trying to destroy public education in America and decimating the public school system of her home state of Michigan. The approval of DeVos will likely spell the end of public schools in America, which have been on life support during 16 years of neglect and assault by our last two presidents. And during her hearings, despite her self-declared interest in education, she demonstrated shocking ignorance of basic issues in educational policy. If DeVos is approved and has her way, all American schools will end up as private corporate, for-profit schools.

Andrew Puzder, Secretary of Labor. Another example of the fox-henhouse, this shameful nominee has gone on record opposing the minimum wage and increased overtime pay. If Trump had searched everywhere for the most anti-labor Secretary of Labor, he could not have found anyone more apposed to the rights and fair treatment of workers than Mr. Puzder. If you have any doubts about my assertions, read this article from CNN. As of this writing, Puzder, facing lagging support among Republicans, has withdrawn his candidacy, but his original selection again demonstrates the serious lack of judgement of Trump and his close associates.

Scott Pruitt, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Oklahoma Attorney General Pruitt has a track record of putting the business interests of the energy sector before the environmental and health interests of the public. He has spent his career fighting the rules and regulations of the agency he is now being nominated to lead and his expected confirmation threatens to make America great for polluters again. Mr. Pruitt could be the worst nomination of all in this disgraceful array of destructive incompetents.

Ben Carson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Another incredibly stupid pick – Carson’s only claim to expertise for this position is that he lives in a house that’s maybe in an urban area. His own spokesman explained after the election that, “Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience, he’s never run a federal agency. The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency”. Well, he has and his performance will certainly help.

Rick Perry, Secretary of Energy. Despite once saying that, if president, he would scrap this department, Rick was elated to learn of his nomination to this office because he thought he would just continue to bounce around the world extolling the virtues of oil and gas. But he was brought up short to find that a major function of the Secretary of Energy is to manage our atomic arsenal and its vast security apparatus. We should also be brought up short to have this simple and shallow good old boy Texas politician placed in such a demanding position. Remember, he was preceded by Obama appointees nuclear physicist, Nobel laureate and MIT professor Ernest Moniz and by Stanford physicist and Nobel Laureate Steven Chu. Good luck filling their shoes, Rick!

Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of the Management and Budget. Yes, this guy just admitted to have employed a nanny without paying over $15,000 in payroll taxes for her. But this is minor compared to his other shortcomings. A founding member of the ultra conservative Freedom Caucus in the House, a deficit hawk and a supporter of a balanced budget amendment, Mr. Mulvaney almost singlehandedly brought down the Hurricane Sandy relief effort and has opposed federal spending on infrastructure. In addition Mulvaney still calls Social Security a “Ponzi scheme”, wants to “end Medicare as we know it”, called the 2013 government shutdown “good politics and good policy.” and questioned the need for federally funded disease research. And this guy might be our new Budget Director?

Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce. One of the several billionaires among Trump’s cabinet picks, Mr. Ross also broke the law, hiring an undocumented worker as one of his dozens of household staff. More importantly, Ross’s nickname, the “king of bankruptcy” was a nod to his legendary knack for buying troubled companies on the cheap and selling them for billions of dollars in profit, just like a certain presidential candidate from four years ago. He also matches up nicely with future colleague Steven Mnuchin as a fellow profiteer of the 2008 meltdown, profiting from the real estate and foreclosure crisis.

Ryan Zinke, Secretary of the Interior. While his conservation bona fides are still largely a mystery, Mr. Zinke’s honesty is not. While still a Navy Seal, he was caught repeatedly billing the government for trips home which he falsely claimed were for the purpose of scouting new training sites.

Michael Flyn, National Security Advisor. This excitable and unstable Islamaphobe and purveyor of “Flyn facts” like “Iran killed more Americans than Al Qaeda”, “Islam is not a religion but a political ideology”, and “fear of Muslims is rational” was fired from the Defense Intelligence Agency by James Clapper “because Obama disagreed with my views on terrorism and wanted to hide the growth of Isis”. His assignment to an important and sensitive position like this is downright moronic. His new boss had earlier enlisted him in the fight against both the Republican and Democratic establishments and it was actually Flyn leading the Republican Convention in chants of “Lock her up! Lock her up!” Flyn also has promoted and posted lunatic conspiracy theories and fake news like “Islam wants 80 percent of humanity enslaved or exterminated” and “NYPD Blows Whistle on New Hillary Emails: Money Laundering, Sex Crimes w/Children, etc. . . MUST READ!” Seeing this guy with that wild look in his eyes recently informing us that Iran was “on notice” was a truly horrifying experience. At this writing, Flynn has resigned but his original selection underscores Trump’s serious lack of judgement. I wonder who he will come up with for the position now?

Even considering all the above, perhaps the most frightening aspect of the Trump presidency is the sinister presence and behind the scenes influence of Vice President Mike Pence. There he is again and again, ominously lurking behind Trump at the signing of every “executive order” (which seems to have become the standard governing procedure for this president), and then yet again, swearing in each of these reprehensible cabinet members approved by Congress. He even had the temerity to break with long standing vice presidential norms and tradition to appear personally at a recent “Right to Life” rally to push the retrograde agenda that he promoted as governor of Indiana, an incredibly blatant act. Let me tell you, for those Democrats who secretly hope that Trump’s dangerous and incompetent behavior will eventually get him impeached, please think again – that would make Mike Pence our president. And after him in the line of succession is, my God, Orrin Hatch and then, my God again, Paul Ryan!

Pence’s political career in Indiana was in a downward spiral because of his regressive stances on abortion and LGBT rights and passage of sponsored legislation which got him into hot water with Indiana’s education and sports power brokers who did not wish to see Indiana become another North Carolina. Mr. Pence’s reelection chances were virtually nonexistent when Trump picked him off the “political trash heap” to be his vice presidential and resuscitated his career. For more clarity on Mr. Pence, read this great article from Rolling Stone.

And let’s not forget his motley crew of close advisors. First, the frightening, sinister and malevolent presence of Assistant to the President and Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon, with a seat on the National Security Council, called sometimes “President Bannon” because of his closeness and great influence on Trump. Recently the head of flame-throwing right wing website Breitbart News and with connections to alt-right, white nationalist elements, Bannon is now one of the most powerful people in Washington, serving as Trump’s intellectual guru and chief source of advice and information.

Bannon’s closest ally in Trump’s frightening inner circle is Senior Policy Advisor Stephen Miller. Mr. Miller got his start in Washington working for Representative Michele Bachman, one of the craziest conservatives ever to serve in the House. From there he worked for former Arizona congressman John Shadegg, another radical conservative. His latest DC position, before joining the Trump campaign in January of 2016 was serving as communications director for Senator Jeff Sessions, now our US Attorney General. In the Trump campaign he served as Trump’s speechwriter and as his “warmup act” during campaign rallies. Mr. Miller has been at the epicenter of some of the administration’s most provocative moves, from pushing hard for the construction of a wall along the border with Mexico to threatening decades-long trade deals at the heart of Republican economic orthodoxy, to rolling out Mr. Trump’s travel ban on seven largely Muslim nations, whose bungled introduction he oversaw. Miller’s appearances on several nationally televised political talk shows on the weekend of February 11 went viral because of vituperative attacks and totally incorrect claims about the power of the president.

And of course his son in law Senior Advisor Jared Kushner, he of the extensive background in politics, governance, statecraft, foreign affairs and economics, resplendent in his new suits and ties, meekly stumbling along after the comparatively unkempt Bannon and gaffy, Presidential Counselor Kellyanne Conway, she of the “alternative facts” who recently put her foot in her mouth (again) and violated ethics rules by illegally extolling the virtues of the Ivanka Trump line of merchandise. All of them are giddy with influence and drunk with power and must pinch themselves daily to realize the reality that they of such shallow resume and abnormal substance have achieved such lofty heights.

So, Trump voters, what do you think? Read more details about these individuals yourself. Google their names and read, read, read. You will find little to counter what I have written above. How could Trump have picked people like this when most represent a gross betrayal of what he promised during the campaign. Well a clue might be found in a short description of his first week in office from a recent New York Times editorial, “As his first week in office amply demonstrated, Mr. Trump has no grounding in national security decision making, no sophistication in governance and little apparent grasp of what it takes to lead a great diverse nation.”

One of my favorite writers, now-retired novelist Philip Roth, was quoted in a recent New Yorker by Judith Thurman. Roth, with his usual impeccable choice of words, offered this about Donald Trump: “It isn’t Trump as a character, a human type—the real-estate type, the callow and callous killer capitalist—that outstrips the imagination. It is Trump as President of the United States…..I found much that was alarming about being a citizen during the tenures of Richard Nixon and George W. Bush. But, whatever I may have seen as their limitations of character or intellect, neither was anything like as humanly impoverished as Trump is: ignorant of government, of history, of science, of philosophy, of art, incapable of expressing or recognizing subtlety or nuance, destitute of all decency, and wielding a vocabulary of seventy-seven words that is better called Jerkish than English.”

And, Trump voters, another thanks for the smooth, dignified, rational and sensible first several weeks of our President’s tenure, during which he:

• Hung up on the Australian Prime Minister,
• Declared war on the free press, calling it an “opposition party”,
• Ordered restart on the construction of the Keystone SL and Dakota Access pipelines,
• Announced plans to reinstate “black sites” and torture abroad,
• Issued an executive order targeting immigrants from seven Muslim countries, conveniently leaving out the worst – Saudi Arabia,
• Ordered plans for a wall along our southern border,
• Issued an executive order to systematically begin the dismembering of the Affordable Care Act,
• Scrubbed climate change efforts from he White House and federal agencies websites,
• Demanded investigation into non-existent voter fraud for an election he already won,
• Threatened Iran through a belligerent and frightening rant by National Security Advisor Michael Flyn,
• Approved a ham-handed, disastrous and senseless raid in Yemen resulting in nothing more than the death of one of the perpetrators and the deaths of seven civilians including an eight year old girl,
• Announced threats of violence and military action at the annual National Prayer Breakfast,
• Announced a freeze on Federal regulations and federal hiring (and what’s this – some kind of new game – for every one new regulation, two must be cancelled?),
• Established a global “gag rule” on abortion,
• Signed an executive order withdrawing the US from the TPP,
• Violated our recent “net neutrality” decision by appointing Agit Pai, an opponent, as new chairman of the FCC,
• Declared a communications blackout for federal agencies,
• Reappointed James Comey (happily I am sure) to head the FBI,
• Continued his incessant flood of “tweets”, very unseemly for a president, continued to “short out” normal policy of thoroughly considered and carefully thought-out announcements,
• Unsuccessfully challenged the Court ruling on his immigration executive order,
• Insulted the judiciary when it dared challenge him,
• In most regards, behaved incredibly unpresidentially, leaving eyes rolling and mouths agape,
• Defamed out intelligence agents and used the CIA headquarters as political prop,
• With Kellyann Conway’s help, invented a fake terrorist attack (“the Bowling Green Massacre) to frighten Americans into supporting anti-Muslim efforts,
• Began an all-out assault on financial and corporate regulations, a systematic dismantling of Dodd-Frank,
• Complained about leaks revealing that he secretly contacted Russian authorities during the campaign while publicly praising Putin’s leadership,
• Engaged in potentially illegal post-election communications with Russia, causing the resignation of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn,
• and lots more.

Well, again, thank you Trump voters for bringing us so much excitement and anxiety. Trump’s presidency is not going well and it’s only the very beginning. And unfortunately corporate news just loves what’s happening. MSNBC, CNN and Fox are undoubtedly still swimming in high ratings because of the erratic and disgraceful performance of this new presidential administration.

But as I mentioned in my second Trump article, I am deathly afraid for the survival of our democracy. The stage is set, the dominoes are arranged and poised. All we need is another 9/11 or a Reichstag fire to spark a deathly succession of emergency power grabs by Trump and his lieutenants to extinguish American democracy. We are not the same as we used to be. A rash of important norms have been violated. Key institutions have been fatally weakened or perverted. Our elected representatives are spineless unless campaign money is at stake. The people have their noses buried in their iPhones, iPads and TV’s. We are at this time more vulnerable to autocracy than at any time in our history. I just read a very frightening article in the latest issue of The Atlantic by David Frum that validates my opinion. His introductory paragraphs sketch a portrait of an autocratic America in 2021 that is not at all unrealistic. We all need to be concerned, vigilant, do our reading, be active and hold our elected officials accountable.

Well it’s almost the end of another professional football season. I always complain about not having enough time to read, write and pursue other hobbies, yet I continue to waste many hours watching professional football. I was able to somewhat reduce my football time this past season because of a rash of terrible match-ups which I had little desire to watch. Another factor that reduced my viewing is simply that the NFL’s cachet has been significantly dimmed and tarnished. Bad publicity from errant players, a general overload of games – Sunday, Monday and now Thursday, hundreds of commercials on telecasts and way too many video replays, have caused ratings to plummet. And in addition, I offer the following additional negatives that have reduced my viewing.

• The NFL has become a cash cow for too many already filthy rich team owners. The league and its owners enjoy sticking it to the taxpayers  by financing palatial stadiums through local taxes instead of from their own deep pockets.
• And NFL telecasters Fox, NBC, CBS and ESPN, enough shots of these obscenely wealthy owners and their families, snug in their luxury boxes, rejoicing or commiserating about a score. Enough already – I and millions of other viewers don’t care!
• It’s incompetently run by Roger Goodell, an overpaid, awkward and strikingly unintelligent man who got his start in the NFL not through any particular talent or training but reportedly getting the inside track on the job as longtime commissioner Pete Rozelle’s driver. His uneven application of disciplinary measures in the league are disgraceful, the latest being the “deflategate” affair.

• The NFL refuses to properly acknowledge permanent physical damage to players: a “use and discard” mentality dominates. Its recent settlement with the Players Union is too little too late. And their recent commercials on football safety and concussion research ring empty, dishonest and self serving.
• I detest the distasteful, militarized and Nazi-like ultrapatriotic pre-game nonsense which characterizes the modern day NFL. And can you believe – the US military and taxpayers were paying the NFL for all this hoopla. The same goes for the hollow “salute to service” and “support our troops” month with the camouflage caps, towels and military style jackets and other paraphernalia. This rang especially false during the NFL’s tax-exempt years, only recently ended.
• And, NFL, give me a break and cut out all the pink stuff in the your gaudy and goofy effort to support the fight against breast cancer. Spare us football fans all the pink towels, shoes, gloves, socks, caps and the rest and quietly, unobtrusively and honorably do the right thing and give all the money it costs directly to the fight against breast cancer.
• I detest the female sideline reporters who do little more than interview coaches to obtain profundities like “well, we have to tackle better” or ”we need to put more pressure on the quarterback” and report on injuries, the former totally useless and the latter much more easily and appropriately accomplished by feeding the same information to the play-by-play and color announcers. Their presence is perhaps an attempt to get more women to watch the games, but for every woman that loves Sunday Night Football’s Michele Tafoya, I’ll guarantee that there are a dozen men who can’t stand her and skip over her pointless reports.
• And. NFL, please cease the Roman numeral designation of Super Bowls. It’s terribly confusing, it’s not at all distinctive or majestic and it makes recalling specific games almost impossible. It would make much more sense to aid memory by simply naming the event by the year it was played in common old Hindu-Arabic numerals. But I just saw a reference today to the upcoming 2017 Super Bowl game as “Super Bowl LI”. Give me a break.

But nevertheless and unfortunately, I do still enjoy watching NFL games very much and that pleasure is animated as much by my dislike and disdain for certain teams as my loyal and enthusiastic support of others. Here’s my hierarchy of preferences:

• I am a New England Patriots fan through and through. No matter which team they play, I’m for the Pats.
• Except when they play my other favorite team, the Arizona Cardinals. If they play the Cardinals, I can be totally neutral and sit back and enjoy the game. And I have enjoyed watching the Atlanta Falcons so much this year that I might be somewhat neutral in this year’s upcoming Super Bowl.
• I loath and abhor the Dallas Cowboys. No matter whom they play, I am for the other team.
• I despise the Denver Broncos – whomever they play, I’m for the other team – unless they are playing Dallas. Then I’m a Bronco fan – give me something orange to wave or wear – Go Broncos!
• I also detest the Green Bay Packers. No matter whom they play, I’m for the other team – unless they are playing Dallas or Denver, in which case, I’m for Green Bay. Needless to say, I was thoroughly pleased at the Packers’ playoff win over the Cowboys.
• I also can’t stand the Pittsburgh Steelers. No matter whom they play, I’m for the other team, unless they play Denver, Green Bay or Dallas, in which case, I become a rabid Steelers fan.
• I also dislike the Seattle Seahawks. I always root for them to lose unless they are playing Dallas, Denver, Green Bay or Pittsburgh. I really enjoyed their 2014 Super Bowl demolition of Denver.
• That’s it. I have a strictly neutral opinion of all other teams – unless they are playing New England or Arizona (I’d always favor the Pats or the Cardinals) or if they are playing Dallas, Denver, Green Bay, Pittsburgh or Seattle (in which case I’d always favor the other team).

Why have I developed this complex hierarchy of preferences? I can’t really figure it out. I do have a natural sympathy for the underdog but conveniently discard it where New England is concerned. However, before Bill Belichick became the New England coach, New England was often at the bottom of the heap, plus I lived in the Boston area for 11 years so I must have developed my affection for the team then.

I also used to enjoy watching and cheering for the teams of the upstart American Football League and their exciting wide open offenses and outrageously high scoring games and have usually supported them when they competed against the old NFL teams. I really enjoyed New England (actually the Boston Patriots back then) back in the days of Babe Parilli and Gino Capeletti, the Jets in the days of John Huarte, Joe Namath, and Sherman Plunkett, the Oakland Raiders of Kenny Stabler and Fred Beletnikoff fame, and the San Diego Chargers with their exciting John Hadł and Lance Alworth passing-receiving tandem. I also will never forget the spectacular achievements and amazing longevity of NFL reject George Blanda – quarterback, field goal kicker and general all-round handyman mainly for the Houston Oilers, his scoring records and his phenomenal 26 season career in the NFL and AFLAnd with regard to my avid support of the Arizona Cardinals – this team paid its dues while being on the bottom for a long time, suffering from the parsimony of its owner Bill Bidwill. And I still fondly remember the Cardinals in their St. Louis days, with their nonpareil passing quarterback Jim Hart throwing the ball to Mel Gray and Jackie Smith. Also, I’m a bit of a Redskins fan as well (unless they are playing the Patriots or Cardinals) because of fond memories of some of their notables, like paunchy Sonny Jurgensen, who could sling passes downfield with the best, and more recently the indomitable and durable John Riggins plowing his way downfield shedding defensive linemen.

But why the extreme dislike of Dallas, Denver, Green Bay, Pittsburg and Seattle? With my natural affinity for the underdog, I detested each of these teams during their periods of great success. I hated the Cowboys’ dominance back in the days of coach Tom Landry and quarterback Robert Staubach and “world’s fastest human” pass receiver Bob Hayes. And I disliked them even more for inexplicably being labeled “America’s Team”. Also presently they are owned by the most detestable owner in professional football, Jerry Jones. In the same way, my intense dislike of the Pittsburgh Steelers began back in the “Steel Curtain” days of coach Chuck Noll and the team’s steady and tiresome success. My disdain for the Packers also began growing back in the days of coach Vince Lombardi and his “winning is everything” mentality. I was sorely disappointed by Green Bay’s victories over Oakland and Kansas City in the first AFL vs NFL Super Bowls and was elated at the New York Jets’ triumph over the Baltimore Colts in the third and last of these inter-league Super Bowls. And in the case of Denver, I have a real problem with their hordes of orange-clad, rabid, arrogant and unruly fans. But….I was really happy when the John Elway-led Broncos thrashed the Green Bay Packers for their first Super Bowl win. And of course, the Seattle Seahawks, with their excitable, fidgety, gum-chewing coach and cocky quarterback always standing in the way of my Cardinals, explains their inclusion on my blacklist.

I also was a New York Giants fan way back when I was a teenager, enjoying Y. A. Tittle’s passes to Del Shofner, Frank Gifford’s running and the exploits of the “Roosevelts” Grier and Brown on the defensive and offensive lines. But this lingering affection was eroded by their Super Bowl victory over the much more deserving Buffalo Bills with their great quarterback Jim Kelly and coach Marv Levy, and then totally obliterated by their fluke Super Bowl win over my beloved Arizona Cardinals.

So considering this year’s playoffs, I spent a miserable “wild card” weekend when Green Bay beat the Giants, Seattle won against the Lions, Pittsburgh prevailed over Miami and Houston beat Oakland. But I had a much better playoff weekend the following week when Seattle lost to the Falcons, the Patriots beat Houston, Pittsburgh sadly eliminated Kansas City and (thank God) Green Bay prevailed over the Cowboys.

And of course my championship weekend was ideal with my Patriots rolling over a hapless Steelers team to again become AFC champions and the Atlanta Falcons blowing away the overmatched Green Bay Packers to win the NFC championship. Now all we need is an exciting, competitive and high-scoring 2017 (please not LI!) Super Bowl where the Patriots narrowly win over the Falcons and a shaky, bumbling, and embarrassed Roger Goodell has to present the trophy to his “deflategate” victims Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. But if the Falcons win, they will undoubtedly have deserved it and I’ll be fine with that.

Wait a second…Tom Brady and Donald Trump are friends and call each other? Pats owner Robert Kraft attended Trump’s pre-inauguration dinner….and they call each other too? A Falcons win looks better and better. I think I’ll just sit back, grab another slice of pizza and another cold one, and enjoy the game.

I’m sleeping somewhat better now but the condition is testimony not to US politics getting any better but instead simply to the resilience of the human spirit and my aging body. But I still get very angry and disgusted with my country every time I see Donald Trump’s astonishing flaming florid face and yellow helmet of hair, hear his repetitive streams of “Trumpurlatives” (huge! great! amazing! tremendous! terrific! unbelievable! fantastic! the best!…) about himself, a family member or a new selection for his cabinet of horrors. I am sick of his perpetual “thumbs up” sign (stick it in your ear, Trump, or in your mouth) or seeing him lumber and strut across a stage (don’t have the world for it – maybe should coin “strumber”) applauding for himself.

Well the aftermath of Trump’s election is both the roiling, boiling frenzy of the “transition” and the spreading insidious reeking ooze of racism and ignorance. Both cause me tremendous anxiety and fear, not to mention a great deal of anger. But I have been unable to properly articulate my recent feelings about this terrible election…until I read a marvelous column in Haaretz by Chemi Shalev entitled, “The Unbearable Stupidity of Donald Trump’s Election” and subtitled, “Who in his right mind hands over the keys to the world to an impulsive, narcissistic know-nothing show-off, just to teach everyone else a lesson?”

Maybe the Democrats deserved to lose. In a truly prescient article in The Nation last March, “Donald Trump is Dangerous”, John Nichols noted that “Without a forceful response from Democrats, his populism could win over blue-collar workers”. Well, the Democrats had no response and Trump won them over. I guess Hillary’s bland and anemic “Stronger Together”, “I’m with Her” and “Love Trumps Hate” slogans were no match for “Make America Great Again”. The Party has forgotten its working man and social welfare roots and, led by the Clintons, has become “Republican Lite”, cozying up to the Wall Street plutocrats and selling its soul to an army of funders, pundits and pollsters. President Obama, in spite of his intelligence and dignity, has operated in a bubble and conveniently forgot about labor unions, income inequality and economic justice, not to mention neglecting to prosecute the white collar criminals responsible for the crash of 2008, and those who lied us into the Iraq War and tortured prisoners. He also bailed out the banks while allowing thousands of people to lose their homes. I shouldn’t be surprised that the Democrats lost. And valiant Bernie Sanders, who was the lone real Democrat, could have won but was outflanked by an establishment that nominated the “more electable” Hillary Clinton instead. Joe Biden, another Democrat who never forgets his roots, could have won as well, had he chosen to run.

Personally, I never thought this could happen in our country. I used to read the amazing stories about the Italian billionaire politician Silvio Berlusconi, shake my head at his antics, marvel at his incompetence and wonder how the Italian people could have elected him. And now, unbelievably, Americans have done exactly the same thing. We have elected a wealthy ignorant buffoon to lead the most powerful nation on earth, a nation that fancies itself setting an example for the rest of the world. But now, rather than fighting him, sending battalions of lawyers to the swing states on November 9 to examine how this happened, as Republicans would have done if their candidate had won the popular vote by a margin of almost 3 million votes and lost in the electoral college, Democrats, along with an ever-willing media, are busy acquiescing and “normalizing” this anomaly.

For the American people to cut off their noses to spite their faces, to fall for the fake populism of a billionaire con man and crook by electing Donald Trump, staggers the imagination and boggles the mind. And as I noted in my earlier article about this election, there have to be thousands of people now meekly murmuring, “What have I done…?”, as they watch his cabinet being formed and consider the consequences: Nicky Haley, no foreign policy experience, as ambassador to the UN; Jeff Sessions, who has opposed voting rights and civil rights, in charge of enforcing them as Attorney General; Betsy DeVos, a billionaire opponent of public education and avowed supporter of privatization as Secretary of Education; Representative Tom Price, an acknowledged enemy of the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid as Secretary of Health and Human Services; “foreclosure king” Steven Mnuchin, former Goldman Sachs executive, as Secretary of the Treasury; Wilbur Ross, billionaire investor and “king of bankruptcy”, as Secretary of Commerce; General James “Mad Dog” Mattis as Secretary of Defense (actually, despite his nickname, this might be the most sensible pick of all); goofball Dr. Ben Carson as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; multimillionaire and Wells Fargo board member Elaine Chao, Mitch McConnell’s wife, as Secretary of Transportation; Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, climate change denier, fossil fuel advocate, outspoken critic of the EPA and no friend of clean water and clean air, as head of the EPA; Andrew Puzder, fast food CEO and opponent of increasing the minimum wage and overtime pay eligibility, as Secretary of Labor; fossil fool Rick Perry as head of the Department of Energy, one of the departments he would have eliminated, if elected president.

Most frightening is his pick for National Security Advisor, Islamaphobe and tweeter of false news, the excitable and unstable General Michael Flynn. And yes, of course, yet another general, retired US Marine General John Kelly, has been chosen as Secretary of Homeland Security. And recently, fossil fuel magnate and Exxon Mobile CEO Rex Tillerson was chosen as Secretary of State. I wonder when was the last time Rex read a history book or a book on foreign affairs. President-elect Trump has not “drained the swamp” as he promised. Instead he has created a reeking cesspool of extreme wealth, exceptional ignorance and reckless militarism. For sure, President-Elect Trump’s new administration is going to be both the richest and most militarized ever. Oh and his latest additions at this writing are Representative Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina, a radical fiscal hawk, a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus nominated to be, of all things, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Montana Representative Ryan Zinke for Secretary of the Interior, who, in addition to his rather shaky conservation credentials, committed travel fraud when he was a member of the elite Navy SEAL Team 6.

I know I have relatives, yes, even siblings, that have voted for Trump. And I know I have friends, now perhaps more honestly described as “acquaintances”, who voted for Trump. But I have to shake my head in disbelief at this phenomenon. Perhaps they don’t care about themselves, but what about their children and grandchildren? What will their children say when after a lifetime of labor they find that their Social Security has been privatized and after years on end of paying crippling deductibles and co-pays for their already expensive health insurance, they find that instead of Medicare in old age, they have only paltry vouchers to help them in the private insurance market.

And now, the Republicans, with control of the presidency, both houses of Congress, and two thirds of governorships and state legislatures, along with their sponsors and funders like the Koch brothers and the American Legislative Exchange Council, and buoyed by a sympathetic Supreme Court, are poised to make an assault on our country unlike anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes. These now-unified Republicans will attack civil rights, civil liberties, environmental protections, steps to deal with global climate change, renewable energy, consumer protections, reproductive rights, gay rights, workers’ rights, prisoners’ rights, reasonable and humane immigration policies, aid to the poor, gun control, antimilitarism, and support for public education. They will increase the military budget, lower taxes on corporations and the wealthy, increase the national debt exponentially, abolish the estate tax so that the Walmart and hundreds of other billionaire fortunes will go on and on, and sell off Federal lands in the west to corporate interests. And maybe if they have their way, a cable car to access an amusement park in the bottom the Grand Canyon. Good luck to my Trumpist “friends”, siblings and their children and grandchildren.

The most surprising aspect of this election to me is that Donald Trump is no mystery. He has been right out there in all his transparent, vain, ignorant and selfish glory for all of us to observe and learn about for a long time. The most revelatory story about Trump, which should have been national required reading for all Americans (who can and do read), was written for The New Yorker by their notable investigative journalist, Jane Mayer, about Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter who penned virtually all of Donald Trump’s “The Art of the Deal”.

Mr. Schwartz spent 18 months with Trump and got to know him almost as well as members of his own family. He observed him in his offices, traveled with him, stayed at his residences, attended meetings and even listened in on phone conversations. And what he saw frightened him, scared him enough to feel that he should speak up when Trump decided to run for president. Tony spoke up loud and clear but evidently too few were listening….or reading.

After all that time studying Trump, Tony “felt that he had an unusually deep understanding of what he regarded as Trump’s beguiling strengths and disqualifying weaknesses.” He felt that he had “put lipstick on a pig” and felt deeply regretful that he had written a book that had brought Trump wider attention and acceptance. Mr. Schwartz started out trying to interview Trump but soon gave up because of what he regarded as one of Trumps most essential characteristics: “He has no attention span”. He considered Trump’s personality “pathalogically impulsive and self-centered” and noted that he genuinely believed that “if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization”. He also took note of Trump’s “completely compulsive” need for attention. After decades as a “tabloid titan” the only thing left for him was to run for president. And author Jane Mayer quotes Mr. Schwartz as saying that people are dispensable and disposable in Trump’s world. ”If Trump is elected President,” he warned, “the millions of people who voted for him and believe that he represents their interests will learn what anyone who deals closely with him already knows—that he couldn’t care less about them.”

Mr. Schwartz found that it was impossible to keep Trump focused on any topic “other than his own self-aggrandizement”. He regarded Trump’s inability to concentrate as alarming in a Presidential candidate. “If he had to be briefed on a crisis in the Situation Room, it’s impossible to imagine him paying attention over a long period of time”, he said. Mr Schwartz noted that Trump was “obsessed with publicity…Trump takes only two positions. Either you’re a scummy loser, liar, whatever, or you’re the greatest”. Schwartz asserts that Trump’s short attention span has left him “with a stunning level of superficial knowledge and plain ignorance…that’s why he so prefers TV as his first news source – information comes in easily digestible sound bites….I seriously doubt that Trump has ever read a book straight through in his adult life”. Jane Mayer writes that Schwartz “during the eighteen months that he observed Trump, he never saw a book on Trump’s desk, or elsewhere in his office, or in his apartment.”

Also revelatory is the last paragraph of psychologist Dan McAdams’ article for last June’s The Atlantic, entitled “The Mind of Donald Trump”. “Who, really, is Donald Trump? What’s behind the actor’s mask? I can discern little more than narcissistic motivations and a complementary personal narrative about winning at any cost. It is as if Trump has invested so much of himself in developing and refining his socially dominant role that he has nothing left over to create a meaningful story for his life, or for the nation. It is always Donald Trump playing Donald Trump, fighting to win, but never knowing why.”

We should know Donald Trump extremely well. For decades he has been making headlines for misogeny, narcissism, ignorance, duplicity, egotism, racism, and….bankruptcy. Why then is he our president-elect? Back to the Democratic Party for a moment – what a tragedy. I could review a whole pile of “if only’s” that could have changed the outcome of this election. We still read about them every day. American voters preferred Hillary Clinton by a huge margin, now just short of 3 million votes. Yet our archaic Electoral College system for the fourth time in our history, gave the decision to the minority candidate. If Clinton had campaigned more in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania…if people had not voted for third party candidates Gary Johnson or Jill Stein….if FBI Director Comey had not encroached on the election…..if the media had not given so much free time to Trump….if the media had not inflated Clinton’s email problems and treated them for what they were – mistakes, not crimes….and on and on.

But, going back to my third paragraph, I should extend and develop the notion of the Democratic Party’s essential blindness to the real concerns of voters. Most revelatory and prescient was a little known and little read 1998 book by Richard Yorty, that was discussed in great detail by New York Times writer Jennifer Senior. Professor Yorty predicted the 2016 election perfectly. Right after the election, Ms. Senior notes, an “astute law professor” tweeted three slightly condensed paragraphs from the book. They were retweeted thousands of times and I offer them to you here, from Senior’s article:

[M]embers of labor unions, and unorganized unskilled workers, will sooner or later realize that their government is not even trying to prevent wages from sinking or to prevent jobs from being exported. Around the same time, they will realize that suburban white-collar workers — themselves desperately afraid of being downsized — are not going to let themselves be taxed to provide social benefits for anyone else.
At that point, something will crack. The non-suburban electorate will decide that the system has failed and start looking around for a strongman to vote for — someone willing to assure them that, once he is elected, the smug bureaucrats, tricky lawyers, overpaid bond salesmen, and postmodernist professors will no longer be calling the shots. …
One thing that is very likely to happen is that the gains made in the past 40 years by black and brown Americans, and by homosexuals, will be wiped out. Jocular contempt for women will come back into fashion. … All the resentment which badly educated Americans feel about having their manners dictated to them by college graduates will
find an outlet.

The Times writer then goes on to offer additional quotes from Yorty’s book, “Achieving Our Country”, that are equally prophetic about this disastrous election, such as, “This world economy will soon be owned by a cosmopolitan upper class which has no more sense of community with any workers anywhere than the great American capitalists of the year 1900” and, about intellectuals’ overweening attention to identity politics, “Nobody is setting up a program in unemployed studies, homeless studies or trail-park studies…” Perhaps Hillary Clinton or her patrician campaign people like John Podesta or Robbie Mook should have read Professor Yorty’s book.

Yes, the Democrats have messed up. Trump and his advisors were smart. It’s really quite interesting to look at his very limited but effective vocabulary, words chosen and used to inflame and create distrust. “I know words, I have the best words,” he trumpets. According to “My Dictionary”, the twenty most used words by Donald Trump have been: “win/winning, stupid, weak, loser, we, they, politically correct, moron, smart, tough, dangerous, bad, lightweight, amazing, huge, tremendous, terrific, zero, out of control, classy.

There are some real dangers related to this election. Our national government, with Donald Trump as president and surrounded by nervous and paranoid sycophants and generals, is a coup waiting to happen. Oh, you say, but our institutions are so strong, that couldn’t happen here. Think again. Those institutions have been seriously altered or weakened over the last decade or so. Civilian control over the military has been reduced. The power of the president has been increased exponentially. The press has been reticent and has relinquished its traditional watchdog role. Police forces have been militarized. There has been complete dereliction of duty by our Congress. The government spies on us. All we need is another 9/11, then watch out.

Before I close this article it might be wise to remind ourselves of how much the world looks to the United States as an example of leadership and good government. What we say and do on the world stage matters. And with “President Trump”, we have massively let the world down. We now have our own Silvio Berlusconi and a cabinet of secretaries and directors dedicated to destroying that which they have been charged to guide and protect.

One of those world citizens that is astonished at what we’ve done to ourselves is Marwan Bishara, senior political analyst at Al Jazeera, who wrote shortly after the election:

Donald Trump is on a new campaign.
It’s to make himself appear sane.

He’s saying he’s a sober person
with a very good demeanor
and the best temperament.
He’s saying it in a very sedate and mild-mannered way,
he’s sitting still and trying to look humble.
Sort of.

Since he’s spent the last year
running the nastiest campaign in living memory
using racist appeals,
making promises
that he can’t keep,
lying to our faces
and claiming he didn’t say things
that we heard him say 10 minutes ago,
this is a very good idea.
For him.

Not for us.

We should remember
that he’s got a track record
of conning people,
defrauding people,
bullying people,
groping women,
going bankrupt and sticking other people with the bill,
without ever showing shame, regret, or remorse.

So his new campaign to appear sane
is a good idea for him.
Not for us.
Especially since his opponent actually got more votes than he did
and he’s going into the presidency with a disapproval rating of 61 percent.
Meaning that more than a few people who voted for him
know he’s a bad person.

The media is largely,
bizarrely,
co-operating in this venture.
They see him as, and I am quoting,
“subdued,” as the “enormity and gravity” is sinking in.
They tell us he’s changing from campaign mode to governing mode
“dealing with realities”,
that “the office is transforming the man”,
and “we should root for him to succeed.”
Because “if he succeeds, the country succeeds.”

They’re normalizing him.
Is it because he’s becoming normal?
No. It’s because now he’s in power
and when you have a media
that is completely entwined with the elite,
whatever power says and does
well, it must be normal.

Let’s keep our eyes, ears
and our minds
clear,
this guy wants to deport
two to three million people.
Right away.
He wants big, huge, tax cuts
in order to be “the greatest jobs president God ever created”.
George W Bush did exactly that a mere 15 years ago
and got a “jobless” recovery,
the biggest crash since 1929
and the Great Recession.

The American military now bases its plans
on the certainty that rising temperatures are making the seas rise.
That’s the Pentagon,
Not the Environmental Protection Agency. Not Greenpeace.
But Trump insists that’s a hoax,
that it’s Chinese disinformation intended to undermine the American economy,
so he intends to withdraw, immediately,
from the Paris agreement on climate change.

So he’s going to have a new, mild-mannered demeanor?
Maybe get a tweet watcher,
to hold down his thumbs
at three o’clock in the morning.
It’s not his tweets you need to fear.
It’s his policies
because they are mostly dangerous, bad, and frankly, mad.

If he succeeds, it will be the ultra-nationalists, racists, fascists that will succeed
And, of course, as always, the super-rich, the world over…

Well the impossible has happened. Donald Trump, an ignorant man with no public service experience, no knowledge of history or foreign affairs, a narcissist, a misogynist, a racist, a liar…..has become president of the most important country on the globe and steward of the largest economy on the planet. I can only stagger backward and collapse in disbelief, then get up, dust myself off, pull myself together, stand up straight, step forward and hope for the best. I feel like many Germans must have felt in 1933 – “What have we done to ourselves…how could this have happened…now what?”

I know President Obama was imperfect and I think he made some serious mistakes – for one, staking so much of his political capital on the Affordable Care Act, which, based on for profit corporations would never work in the long run, was a terrible mistake. His lack of action in Syria has had serious consequences and has made the already muddled Middle East much worse. His lack of regard for college debt, for strengthening labor unions and for rising inequality exemplified the distance between him and concerns of the common working man. But I never doubted for a moment his intelligence, his class, his sophistication and his basic goodness. I have always been immensely proud of President Obama on the world stage, representing America with incredible grace and dignity. Domestically he did the best anyone could against the unprecedented total opposition and obstruction of the Republican Party, extending over both terms, never willing to compromise on anything. But I never lost any sleep over him or his decisions. And our economy is healthier now than it’s been for a decade.

Now, I have not been able to sleep for more than a couple hours at a time since Tuesday night. I am an exhausted, confused and stumbling wreck. I have read dozens and dozens of opinions and articles on this election, looking for some solace and comfort, some silver lining, but can find little to assuage my grief, anger and anxiety. At night I try to relax by reading a couple of chapters in the novel on my nightstand, get properly drowsy, close the book, turn off the light, and then I see Donald Trump with his uncouth manner, orange face and hideous helmeted comb-over of yellow hair in the Oval Office, formerly occupied by the likes of Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and the others, and I am jolted awake again. Equally disturbing are visions of Donald Trump representing the United States at world conferences, giving state of the union addresses and conferring with other heads of state. This man is an aberration. What have we done to ourselves?

I hope that President Trump (God, that was tough to type) doesn’t really believe all the stuff he has croaked and brayed during the primaries and the general election. I hope that he is less reckless and more considered and calm than he appears. I hope that he can control his impulses and deal reasonably with other nations and heads of state and keep his finger off the nuclear button. I hope that he can solicit advice from people more intelligent, better educated and more perceptive than he is. I hope he can develop some dignity and sophistication and be a better example for young people. I hope that he can resist the worst impulses of his fellow Republicans who control Congress and move ahead honestly with policies and programs that help the working man, the poor and the entire nation. I hope that he might finally realize how important immigrants are to our nation and economy and instead of building a wall, will try diligently to provide a path to citizenship for our many loyal, hard working immigrant families. I hope that the populist themes in his campaign were genuine and can be actualized in the form of jobs from a huge infrastructure program and a health insurance program that will be truly universal. Finally, I hope that Trump’s trumpeting of hateful irresponsible threats are not genuine and are simply “part of the act”. Surprisingly, Donald has proven himself to not be a “loosah”, but a “winnah” beyond his wildest dreams. If he sheds the worst instincts and the retrograde platform of the Republican Party and works successfully to improve the lives of immigrants, of people of color and ordinary Americans, who knows, he might even be “fantastic” or “unbelievable”.

Along with the hopes that this dreadful reality has forced me to envision and articulate, I have some real fears. I fear that our reckless foreign policy will become even more out of control. I fear the legitimization of racism, hatred, white supremacy, militias, disrespect for rule of law and established institutions and I fear more and more guns underscoring that legitimization. I fear that important treaties and agreements, like the Paris Agreement on climate change and the treaty with Iran will be abrogated. I fear that with President Trump little will be done to halt or reverse climate change and that everything that has been accomplished in the past will be undone – the environment will again be ravaged, polluters will resume polluting, fracking will increase and the welcome rapid proliferation of renewable energy will cease. I also fear the damage that another generation of a conservative Supreme Court will do to the environment, individual rights and women’s rights. Corporate farming, factory food and big pharma will be unleashed and allowed to do even more damage to the health of Americans.

I also fear the terrible damage that a cabinet composed of toadies and sycophants will do to the country. Jamie Dimon for Secretary of the Treasury, Rudy Guilani as Attorney General, Ben Carson as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Newt Gingrich as Defense Secretary, Chris Christie as Secretary of State – my God, it’s a horror to contemplate. Oh and I forgot – perhaps Sarah Palin for Secretary of Education. Oh, and   Myron Ebell, a leading climate change denier for the EPA. Ann Coulter will be a great fit somewhere in this administration I am sure. And the walking dead, pallid, sinister, cadaverous, sanctimonious and oh, so Christian Mike Pence serving as President Trump’s (again, so difficult to type) closest advisor and casting the deciding vote in the unlikely event of a tie in the Senate, is equally horrifying.

However, there are some positives to this election and some lessons to be learned. First, I will be really happy to see the Clintons fade into the past. They have personified the worst of the Democratic Party and little of the best in their rejection of the poor and the working class and embrace of Wall Street and the plutocrats. Another plus, with a Republican president and Republican control of both houses of Congress, we will finally get to see what the Republican Party can do for America and its people. I don’t have high hopes for anything more than additional tax cuts for the rich, expansion of corporate power, the decimation of Medicare and Social Security, and the abolition of Obamacare and Dodd-Frank, but still, they will have the opportunity to show what they can do.

Another positive aspect of this election has been the exposure of the craven efforts of the Democratic Party structure to delegitimize Bernie Sanders and his movement, quite ironic in the face of Tuesday’s loss, when it was clear that Bernie could have easily won against Trump. The exposure of how far the Democratic Party has moved from its working class, common man roots will help us all as we reassess, restructure and move ahead. This election also has exposed once again our ridiculous system for electing a president, where a George W. Bush or now a Donald Trump can be elected while their opponent earned a greater popular vote. Hillary Clinton will be first candidate since Al Gore in 2000, and only the fifth in history, to win the popular vote but lose the election. But alas, our sainted, venerated “Founding Fathers” who came up with this ridiculous system, which no other democracy on earth practices, are infallible, so keep it we must.

Finally, emerging from his meetings with President Obama yesterday, President-Elect Trump reiterated his priorities – immigration, healthcare and jobs. It will certainly be interesting to observe what he and his Republican Congress do in each of these areas. I have allowed myself to hope for some real progress, but I fear those hopes will be dashed on the rocks of Republican reality. Immigrants will be criminalized, persecuted and deported, especially those of the Muslim faith. Obamacare will be repealed with nothing to replace it so 20 million people including those with preexisting conditions and expensive chronic conditions will lose their healthcare. Shredding existing trade agreements, erecting trade barriers, and cutting taxes for the rich will depress economic activity and the unemployment rate will increase. Dare we hope for something better? I surely hope so.

Whatever happened to the American corporation of the ’50’s. ’60’s and ’70’s? I remember corporations as being good stewards of their communities. I remember CEO’s being paid reasonably and occasionally visiting the factory break room to chat with employees and even taking a stint on the production line to see what it felt like. During those decades American corporations seemed to exhibit a balanced interest in their respective stake-holders: customers, workers and stockholders.

Today that balance is lost: workers’ wages are stagnant and unions are dying and there certainly seems to be much less care about customers. Only the bottom line – profits and share price, in otherwords the stockholders, are truly valued. And one of the foremost corporations in the US, indeed in the world, now the most valuable corporation on the planet, Apple, appears to perfectly mirror this dramatic change. This corporation is now the quintessential embodiment of corporate greed – from obscene profit margins to outsourcing jobs overseas to stashing billions in low-tax havens.

I have always loved Apple products. I experienced them in my various schools as an elementary principal supervising early “computer literacy” programs employing first the venerable Apple IIe, then various versions of the Macintosh including the iMac with its brightly colored translucent plastic case.

 

The first computer I ever owned was the Apple Iic, replete with the Apple Flat Panel Display, the first portable (somewhat!) computer from Apple. Even though the primitive flat screen was dim and difficult to see without a bright light, I used this computer’s word processing capability to type the entire first draft of my doctoral dissertation in 1985. Then after a multi-decade succession of Windows computers that I used as a professional because of compatibility with the technology used by the various school districts for which I worked, I moved back to Apple computers recently with the purchase of a MacBook Pro laptop on which I am typing this article.

In 2000-2003 when I was a superintendent on the Navajo Reservation I owned a Palm Pilot PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and was so impressed that I could keep addresses, phone numbers, calendars, notes and lists in this handy little pocket sized instrument. And I could sync it with my office computer as well, to share information between the two. At that time I also used a cell phone for professional business and I remember many times holding my Palm Pilot in one hand to reference a phone number and holding my cell phone in the other awkwardly trying to dial one handed and saying to myself – why the heck doesn’t someone combine these two marvelous devices? Well in 2007 Apple did exactly that and more when they produced the iPhone, the first everything-in-one “smartphone”. I now am on my third iPhone and have loved every one.

But looking back over my technological life, the Apple product that meant the most to me was the iPod. As an avid collector of and listener to all kinds of music, I had spent most of my life wrestling with finding the right LP, then finding the right track or racing through a reel to reel or cassette tape trying to locate the right song or symphony. So you can imagine my dizzy pleasure at being able to place virtually all of my favorite music onto my iTunes music library on my computer and then on that little hard drive miracle, the Apple iPod, where I could easily locate and play whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. Also, having purchased many LP’s and CD’s for only a few tracks and rejecting the rest, Apple’s iTunes store provided the opportunity to buy individual songs rather than albums. I simply cannot describe how much the iPod meant to me.

 

So you can imagine my shock when I attempted last year to buy another 160 GB iPod Classic from the Apple website and found it gone, simply gone, with no warning, no explanation and no announcement. Apple had simply made an arbitrary decision, presumably based on waning sales, that the famous iPod Classic with its huge capacity, distinctive click wheel control – the dream of music lovers like me, had to go. Why? Not enough profit yielded with sales diminishing. Simply a corporate decision based on profit, without the faintest sign of concern for faithful customers. And this after years of ads featuring a smiling (or was it cynical grimace) Steve Jobs extolling the virtues of this marvelous little machine.

Long ago I suspected that Apple might be discontinuing the iPod Classic at some future point but had always fancied that they would replace it with something else with similar or greater capacity. But all that’s left to carry on is the “iPod Touch”, with touch screen, limited capacity, a pile of useless apps and, of all things, a camera – simply an iPhone that you can’t use as a phone. I’m still numb with the realization that the iPod I have is all I ever will have unless I want to pay the grossly inflated prices being charged for the few leftovers still available on E-Bay.

My feeling of injustice at Apple’s discontinuation of the iPod is exacerbated by the iPod’s incredible sales record at Apple over the years. After the return of Steve Jobs the iPod was mainly responsible for the resurgence of Apple after its near-collapse in the late 1990’s, its huge sales carrying Apple until the introduction of the first iPhone. In January 2007, Apple reported record quarterly revenue of $7.1 billion, of which 48% was made from iPod sales. On April 9, 2007, it was announced that Apple had sold its one-hundred millionth iPod, making it the biggest selling digital music player of all time. And as of September 2012, Apple reported that total number of iPods (including the “Touch”) sold worldwide was 350 million.

After the introduction of the iPhone, iPod sales diminished yearly as a percentage of total revenue, not a surprising trend for Apple, as Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer explained in June 2009: “We expect our traditional MP3 players to decline over time as we cannibalize ourselves with the iPod Touch and the iPhone.” Yet one would think that Apple could exhibit a corporate loyalty to the iPod classic somewhat similar to its customers’ loyalty to a music player so important to its financial success. But alas, at Apple there is only one corporate consideration – profits and share price for its stockholders.

Another example of Apple’s heartless, corporate, profit-at-all-costs, consumer-be-damned behavior is with its latest iteration of successive iPhone models. Traditionally, new iPhone models replacing the older ones contained doubled storage capacity for apps, pictures and information. For example the iPhone 4 came with 4, 16 or 32 gigs of storage and my iPhone 5 was available with 16, 32 or 64 gigs of storage. So when I shopped for my iPhone 6s I was amazed to find that the storage in the middle and top models was indeed doubled – to 64 and 128 gigs respectively, but the least expensive model, which I had planned to purchase, was still a measly 16 gigs, in spite of expanded storage requirements for its new camera and video capabilities. Apple had cleverly decided not to double the storage for the entry level model, assuming correctly that customers would need to buy the 64 gig model for $100 more. If the storage had been doubled for the entry level model to 32 gigs as I had expected, it would have been perfectly adequate for me and a host of other customers. Incidentally it costs Apple less than $20 to increase the storage from 16 gigs to 64, so they made an extra $80 profit on the thousands of these phones sold.

In addition, Apple has a nasty habit of changing other features so the customer has to buy extras. I was very disappointed to see that the connector on my iPhone 5 had changed from the 30 pin connector used on the iPod classic and the iPhone 4 to the new “Lightning” 8 pin connector, requiring the purchase of expensive converters, from Apple, of course, for my older chargers. And Apple connectors seem to always be proprietary, used only on their products and no others. Again, I suspect, despite being cloaked in terms like improvement, efficiency and convenience, changing these connectors was simply another way to increase profits.

And the latest tech gossip indicates that Apple is about to get rid of the headphone jack on its iPhones and replace them with some new kind of proprietary connection. Yes, just like Apple, yet another way to force customers to buy more and consequently increase profits. This change, if it occurs, is especially egregious, because the headphone jack is truly one of the few tech intercompatability standards left – I can plug virtually any headphones or earbuds into my Apple devices, other brands of tech devices, my stereo equipment. and the exercise machines at my gym. But if Apple has its way….and it likely will…. this will no longer be the case.

Apple has demonstrated its corporate greed in many other ways. It has continued to stick it to the American worker by assembling most of its products in China. But this has not made its products any cheaper – Apple continues to sell the most expensive computers and smartphones on the market, offers no discounts on its website or in its stores and has carefully limited discounts offered by retailers licensed to sell Apple products. Apple could easily afford to discount its products from time to time. Again, to hell with the consumer, but hail to the investor.

The young, well-informed, animated, energetic and enthusiastic people that work at Apple Stores all over the country are paid surprisingly low wages for the work they do for the wealthiest corporation in the world. They are not only salespeople – they are helpers, advisors and unabashed fans of Apple products. All should be paid appropriately – no less than $50,000 a year, instead of the measly $30,000 or so they earn now. Apple could easily afford to pay its store employees what they’re worth, not what the market will bear.

And Apple continues to operate with the largest profit margin of any tech company, averaging about 40 percent across all its products with iPhone profit at an ungodly margin as high as 69 percent. For example, costs range from $200 to $247 for iPhone 6 models that sell in the US for $649 and $849 without a contract.

With profits like this, Apple could well afford to be the model US corporation. It could demonstrate care for the US economy by manufacturing in the US instead of China and providing these US employees adequate compensation. And it could have emulated the fabled loyalty of its customers by continuing to manufacture the iPod classic with the sacrifice of a mere tiny sliver of its massive profits. Really, Apple could become the perfect “retro” US corporation, raising its concern for workers, customers and its corporate community to the level of its concern for share price and investors, with little cost to its bottom line.

But what does Apple do instead? The most valuable corporation in the US and in the world provides the most glaring example of corporate greed and national disloyalty by continuing to sacrifice the US worker and economy by manufacturing overseas and betraying its parent country by stashing its billions of obscene profits overseas, avoiding taxes, creating shell corporations and playing the tax avoidance game better than anyone else. Indeed the “most valuable corporation in the world” has disgracefully led the way in minimizing its taxes “better than anyone else in the world”.

Maybe Apple should heed the advice that the visionary leader of Intel, the late Andy Grove, offered in an oft-quoted essay he wrote in 2010 for Bloomberg. Grove warned that tech companies’ refusal to “scale up” their latest gadgets for manufacture in the US and rely instead upon the financial advantages of manufacturing in Asia was a serious mistake. It not only strikes a blow to the workers and the economy of the US but also allows the Asian country to develop the engineering skills and know-how that would have nourished the company’s potential for successful future innovation. In Mr. Grove’s words, ”Without scaling, we don’t just lose jobs – we lose our hold on new technologies. Losing the ability to scale will ultimately damage our capacity to innovate.” Keeping the brains, design and finance in the US and the manufacturing in Asia will ultimately backfire on us. It might be worth noting that in 2010 when Grove’s article was written, Chinese tech manufacturer Foxconn (where Apple products are assembled) employed more people – 800,000 in total – than Sony, Intel, Apple, Dell, Microsoft and HP combined. This company now employs over 1.3 million workers, all engaged in tech manufacturing that could and should easily be done here in the United States. Unfortunately, an important part of every tech start-up’s business plan is a “China strategy”. And Apple leads the way.

A final issue – maybe I’m wrong, but the revered, iconic and godlike Steve Jobs has always seemed as pecuniary as the company he named. In contrast to other billionaires, who are busy curing disease and empowering women and the poor all over the world (Bill Gates) or have pledged to give all their billions away (Warren Buffet), what did Steve Jobs or his heirs do with his estate of roughly $19 billion? Where is the “Steve Jobs Foundation”? Any diseases cured? Any wells dug? Any hungry people fed? How have his billions benefitted mankind? Just asking.

Perhaps Apple should critically examine its short-sighted profit-at-all-cost and consumers-be-damned corporate philosophy before it’s too late. Recent headlines from the New York Times: IPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs; from the UK’s Daily Mail: Apple Watch is a FLOP: Sales of the gadget have fallen by 90% since April, report claims and from a recent issue of Fortune: Apple Watch Sales Have Plummeted, Analyst Says, may be prescient.