Donald Trump has, without doubt, wrongfooted the old guard and confounded the punditocracy, but these are still early days. It only seems as if the election should be around the corner because the current cycle started two months after the midterms ended. (Don’t get...
have always appreciated the long view and unhurried pace of the Catholic Church.
The time that the Inquisition condemned Galileo for teaching that the earth went around the sun, for instance, in 1633. Even in 1820, long after the Vatican had established their own Observatory, the Church’s chief censor tried to ban publication of a book because it treated heliocentrism as a physical fact. Not until 1992 did the Church officially pardon (sort of) Galileo, and only after a Commission studied the matter for thirteen years.
The ‘magic asterisk’ was imagined into being in 1981, by then CBO Director David Stockman. In order to account for a $44B deficit in Reagan’s proposed budget, he offset the shortfall with a revenue followed by an asterisk and a footnote: ‘Future savings to be identified.’ It threw the hounds off, for a time. One is forced to conclude that investors and financial journalists did not read small print in those days.
A fascinating experiment in technology-enabled participatory democracy is happening, right now, in Argentina. They are called the Partido de la Red, and the Argentina Independent did a quality, thoughtful interview (in English) with their founders. The basic idea is...
In 2008, I went to Denver to work for the Obama campaign. Below is the second of two reports that I sent to California, describing the experience. Fellow Citizens -- Colorado revels in an unexpected grace. It is an article of faith hereabouts that the first snow falls...
In 2008, I went to Denver to work for the Obama campaign. Below is the first of two reports that I sent to California, describing the experience. Fellow citizens, This communique comes at you from America, which I reached via aeroplane from San Francisco last...