Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

It’s Come to This

Posted on October 4, 2020 by Michael Froomkin

I find this latest video, “Our Fight,” from the Lincoln Project very upsetting. It’s upsetting not because it’s inaccurate, but because it’s actually necessary.

Posted in 2020 Election, Civil Liberties, Politics: Tinfoil | Comments Off on It’s Come to This

Voters’ Guide to the November 2020 Miami-Dade Ballot, Part I — The Easy Part

Posted on October 4, 2020 by Michael Froomkin

People have been emailing and DMing me asking for the downballot recommendations already. I’m glad to see that people who are voting by mail are taking seriously the suggestion that, given all the hiccups with the Postal Service, this is the year to get those ballots in the mail as early as possible – or maybe take them personally to a dropbox at an early voting center when those open up in less than two weeks.

Anyway, I’m flattered by the fact that people want this post badly enough to ask for it (and ask so nicely!) – so here goes the hors d’oeuvre. Main course tomorrow…

Top of the Ballot

You don’t–I hope–need me to tell you who to vote for in the upcoming Presidential election. Indeed I find it almost inconceivable that there are genuinely undecided voters left in America at this point. Their lives, whoever they are, are undoubtedly radically different from mine….

And I’d also guess that you don’t need me to tell you why a Democratic Congress is important, so I’ll spare you the many the reasons to vote for our incumbents, Donna Shalala (line 25) or Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (line 23) as the case may be. I’ll just say that as regards the 26th District, where Carlos Gimenez is the Republican candidate, please do keep in mind what a thoroughly bad Mayor he’s been for Miami-Dade, especially on COVID-related issues. That’s why I’m very much for Mucarsel-Powell despite what I consider a less-than-progressive voting record.

County Mayor

Similarly, I’d bet most people reading this don’t really need me to tell them who to vote for in the County Mayor race between Daniella Levine Cava and Esteban Bovo. But if you do, let me remind you, as I’ve said before , that Cava (line 81) is head and shoulders the best candidate; Bovo is, I’d argue, a strong contender for the worst County Commissioner we’ve had in a couple of decades – at least if you take out the thoroughly incompetent and thoroughly venal from the pool of contenders for the title. Bovo isn’t at all incompetent, which is why he’s dangerous, and he’s not thoroughly venal, but he’s an ideologue of exactly the kind who we don’t need to see us through pandemic recovery.

State Senate Dist 37 & State Rep. Dist 114

I should also say a few nice words about Javier Rodriguez (line 28), incumbent state Senator in district 37. He’s a hard worker, and a rising star in Florida – we’re lucky to have him for now.

And I’m voting for Jean-Pierre Bado (Line 45) for State Rep. I confess to knowing less about the State Rep race than I’d like – blame COVID? – but I voted for him in the primary, and he seems the better choice.

County Commissioner, District 7

This is a run-off between the two top vote-getters in the non-partisan primary. As I said in my discussion of the primary, I like Cindy Lerner for County Commissioner in District 7 (line 76):

Lerner is an accomplished former Mayor of Pinecrest. Regalado is an undistinguished but well-financed and media-savvy radio host and former School Board member from an important Miami political family (her dad was Mayor of Miami). ….

Regalado has a bad history. She made a lot of noise when she was on the School Board, but as far as I could tell, she didn’t accomplish much of anything other than PR. And as I’ve said before, “the real rap on Regalado has two parts: lack of competence (not numerate, not detail-oriented) and likely to sweep in her father’s cronies.”

I haven’t changed my mind on that one.

Downballot Recommendations

But what you probably really came here for is the true downballot: the other races, especially the Judicial retention elections, and the proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution and to the Miami-Dade Charter. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for tomorrow’s post for those — here, however, in the mean time is one easy choice:

Clerk of Court

For clerk of the court, Harvey Rubin (line 56) continues to do a fine job. He actually has an opponent this year, which makes a change, but not one that matters much.

Next up, no later than late tomorrow afternoon: Judicial Retention Elections and State Constitutional Amendments

Update: Continue to Voters’ Guide to the November 2020 Miami-Dade Ballot, Part II: Judicial Retention Elections

Posted in 2020 Election, Miami, Politics: FL-25/FL-27 | 2 Comments

Let’s All Hope Trump Recovers

Posted on October 3, 2020 by Michael Froomkin
Trump and Pence

Both Dangerous

There are two main reasons why we should all hope that Donald J. Trump recovers from COVID-19.

The first is that we should never wish death on people, even people we may dislike intensively for all the evil they have done. (Similarly, we should condemn those who seek to dehumanize their opponents. This is why I condemn the practice, common in certain parts of the Internet, of referring to Trump as ‘the Trumpanzee’.)

The second is that were Trump to die, Vice-President Pence would become the Republican candidate for President in the next election. I am aware that this is not a legal inevitability, but it is, from what I know of the convoluted mechanisms by which the party would have to replace him, a practical certainty.

Trump is losing this election, and I cannot imagine that some great national bounce of sympathy for an irony of Sophoclean proportions will change that. But Pence, for all that he was a failed Governor and remains a religious zealot, is largely a blank slate to most voters. Maybe the upcoming Vice-Presidential candidates’ debate will substantially change that, but probably not. And a blank slate is a chance to reboot. If nothing else, it would be a chance to peel off the voters who were voting against Trump as a person rather than Trumpism as a program.

It might be that many people would say Pence was compromised by his years of silence and sycophancy. Others might view it as loyalty, misguided or not. And the right-wing evangelical vote would flock to the polls.

Ask yourself this: what would Never Trumpers like the Lincoln Project do if Pence were the candidate? Would they shift targets or fold their tents? I don’t want to find out.

Posted in 2020 Election, COVID-19 | 5 Comments

Perhaps the Only Even Slightly Good Thing to Come Out of the “Presidential” Debate

Posted on October 1, 2020 by Michael Froomkin

Weird Al, who is notorious for taking months to fine-tune a new composition, did one in fewer than 48 hours.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Perhaps the Only Even Slightly Good Thing to Come Out of the “Presidential” Debate

Decency

Posted on October 1, 2020 by Michael Froomkin

Latest video from the Lincoln Project really sums it up,

… especially in light of suggestions like this one,


that Trump game plan was to trigger Biden’s stutter.

Time to pull this clip out from the archives?

Posted in 2020 Election | 6 Comments

‘Fusion Power Just Ten Years Away!’

Posted on September 30, 2020 by Michael Froomkin

So suggests the New York Times in Compact Nuclear Fusion Reactor Is ‘Very Likely to Work,’ Studies Suggest,

Scientists developing a compact version of a nuclear fusion reactor have shown in a series of research papers that it should work, renewing hopes that the long-elusive goal of mimicking the way the sun produces energy might be achieved and eventually contribute to the fight against climate change.

Construction of a reactor, called Sparc, which is being developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a spinoff company, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, is expected to begin next spring and take three or four years, the researchers and company officials said.

Although many significant challenges remain, the company said construction would be followed by testing and, if successful, building of a power plant that could use fusion energy to generate electricity, beginning in the next decade.

Before you get too excited, however, consider my previous post on this topic — in 2018, under the headline Fusion Allegedly Just Five Years Away — BBC:

I’ve written before on how fusion power is always coming, never here. About a year and a half ago I posted this:

Fusion Power is Only 15 Years Away, we’re told. I guess that’s progress since in just the last few years people have said its Always 50 Years Away, or maybe Always 30 Years Away, or maybe formely 30 years away, now its more like 50 years away, or maybe just forever 20 years away, or 13 Years Away.

So ten years away is progress, right? Then again three years ago it ten years away so maybe we’re going backwards?

Or maybe we’re looking at the wrong scientific advance here: what we really have is an odd form of time travel?

But comes now the BBC to tell us that according to some startups, maybe fusion power is just five years away, which certainly seems like the frontier is getting closer…or some startups have at least got fusion going on their hype…

I’m sure someday one of these predictions will be right. Someday. Meanwhile, however, the hype frontier has moved back to ten years from five…

Posted in Science/Medicine, Sufficiently Advanced Technology | Comments Off on ‘Fusion Power Just Ten Years Away!’