Good Enough for Me and Anonymous D

Just to reveal the kinds of things Anonymous D and I talk about in private, I thought I would share the discussion we had after last Sunday's very disturbing Presidential Debate. I edited very lightly. If the original tapes surface of this or any of our private conversations, from any time, anywhere, they won't be anything near as shocking as the Donald's:


SUN 10:09PM

Oh, Grant, I just don't know anymore. Based on my Facebook feed I'd say a good portion of the country are just like Trump. We scarcely deserve our democracy.

Yes. Fascism is at our door but it won't win.

I was just telling a friend yesterday that things are really pretty good too and you know I believe that.

I just don't understand. It's like they're saying, "Bill was an adulterer and I want my own adulterer in there.". Where does Hillary come in?

Presidential Power & the People

Found it! I wanted to post a book report on this during the Happy Holy Days break but I couldn't find the darn book. I looked all over the house and tried to think whether I had left it at work, or on the bus, or even in Vegas on my last work trip. Then I found it, of course, in my library. But I'm not really the one to blame for the disorganization. My college boy moved in their during the break and a queen-size air mattress pretty much filled the room and covered the bottom shelf where the book was.

The author is Richard Striner, the guy I heard on that NPR program about Lincoln and Slavery with the racist caller. We exchanged friendly e-mails and I looked on History Book Club to see if any of his books were offered as I had a lot of points saved up. The one I found was Lincoln's Way: How Six Great Presidents Created American Power (Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland 2010). The reference to "power" was a little disconcerting as Lincoln was a war president and the others listed, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy, were either war presidents or presidents who had fought in wars.

Finding Bull Puckey in Conservative Economic Arguments

From Anonymous D:

Ok, so I just read an article by Thomas Sowell, notorious right winger.  His article, which was a three-parter, probably because it was more than three pages long, discusses the current fiscal cliff. Amusing stuff really.  In said article he states that revenue actually went up after the Bush tax cuts, gives you the source to the budget report used by the White House, and is kind enough to give you the page. He actually got the source wrong but I found it anyway.  Herein lies the danger, I actually took the time to look up the source material. Turns out, if not complete B.S. it’s at least close enough to smell terrible. 

Year	Tax Receipts in billions	Deficit
2000	2025.2	+236.2
2001	1991.1	+128.2
2002	1853.1	-157.8
2003	1782.3	-377.6
2004	1880.1	-412.7
2005	2153.6	-318.3
2006	2406.9	-248.2
2007	2568.0	-160.7
2008	2524.0	-458.6
2009	2105.0	-1412.7
2010	2162.7	-1293.5
2011	2303.5	-1299.6

The President's Near Perfect Pitch on Race

The Problem We All Live With by Norman Rockwell (1963)

The President had this painting placed in the White House just outside the Oval Office. The picture is based on a 1960 incident in Louisiana from the Civil Rights Era. Guess who was President in 1960 and authorized federal enforcement of Civil Rights recognized by Brown v. Board of Education? Yep. That would be President Eisenhower again, the slightly right of center guy a lot like our slightly left of center current President.