Pesto Day, '24

Today was our annual rite of summer passage: pesto day -- an afternoon of cleaning garlic and basil, preparing walnuts, measuring extra-virgin olive oil, Pecorino Romano and Parmagiano Reggiano -- and drinking wine and listening to music and gossiping about friends and noshing on fresh pesto on piccolo como.  Result: such a satisfied and mellow mood plus 28 tubs of pesto to freeze, to use up and give away by next August. A highlight of our summer.

What Are You Prepared to Say?

Today, in a group of friends on Zoom, one told us about her seatmate on a recent flight who commented that she was undecided, that she did not know for whom to vote. My friend said she found herself a bit tongue-tied and posed the question to the rest of us: what would you have said? A good question: one all of us should be prepared to answer over the next two months.

What’s your answer?

Some among us talked about safeguarding Democracy; others, about comparing Trump’s and Harris’ characters and values. For me, I sought to find common ground between Red and Blue, and then to argue for Blue priorities and approaches that address today’s household realities. My comments might go like this:

Trump is right when he says many Americans feel our nation is not well, that we have been going in the wrong direction. Take living costs: in April, the price of the standard USDA statistical basket of groceries was over $86, up more than 25% in the last five years. Yes, it’s fine that the rate of inflation is dropping, but prices have gotten painfully high.

Household incomes of the first three quintiles of the population, i.e., the poor, the lower-middle class, and the middle-class, have not kept pace. That inflation is down and incomes have begun to rise still leaves many families squeezed for kitchen-table costs. Car insurance, auto repairs, costs of eating out --  all are up. Until prices drop and/or pay increases sharply, many Americans will rightly feel less well-off than before.

COVID is still with us. We don’t seem to be able to enforce peace on the world anymore. Illegal immigrants keep coming, even though that too has slowed. And isn’t it wonderful that people all over the world want to come here? We must be doing something right.

 Trump exaggerates when he proclaims coming depressions, but he’s right that many Americans feel insecure. But – But.

But all of Trumps proposed fixes only make matters worse! And some of his ideas are total nonsense, such as rounding up 10 million immigrants and transporting them out of the country. Who’s going to find and hold them, and how? Who’s going to fly away 10 million passengers, and to where? What countries are going to take these 10 million folks? And anyway, if it could be done, who would install his gold-colored escalators and mow his golf courses?

Seriously, take cost of living and tariffs. Tariffs will increase the prices of kid’s back to school clothes and shoes, your pants and shirts, your underwear – making the squeeze on all but rich families even greater.

Take his tax cut proposals: they favor the upper two quintiles of the population, giving the upper-middle class and upper class even more advantage over the rest of us. And not taxing Social Security and tip income? That will drive the deficit up, make the dollar weaker, increase our national debt, increase interest rates and make it harder for small business to find the money to invest and grow –- and most of our job creation comes from small businesses. Not taxing tips only adds to the deficit and leave the Social Security trust fund short. Harris and Trump are both wrong on tip taxation.

No, while Trump’s concerns about America’s problems may be right, his answers are dead-wrong and help only billionaires like himself.

Harris and Walz are on the right track and have the right priorities: improve education, competition, child-care. Give women freedom to choose to work by providing universal child-care. Extend child tax credits to strengthen families’ ability to raise healthy and confident children. Underwrite signing bonuses to attract new, top-of-class teachers and promote improved public schools. Welcome legal immigrants, make it easier to come here properly, and provide a path to earned citizenship. Rein in banks using your savings to speculate – what used to be called Glass-Steagall –  and restrict selling off your home mortgage and car loans to investors at inflated, phony prices. And raise the National minimum wage. Use anti-trust and consumer protection powers granted by Congress to stop huge mergers and rein in big enterprises. Foster competition which drives prices down. Increase inheritance taxes on the ultra-wealthy to slow down passing on wealth to offspring who haven’t earned it.

And, overseas, stop molly-coddling dictators and stand up for democracies, justice, and fairness.

Harris and Walz, in my opinion, are the trustworthy choice and have the right priorities, values, and programs that address our problems and opportunities.

 

Yes, too much; too long-winded, but you get the drift. Your seatmate may not care about or understand risk to our democracy; he or she may find Trump’s kick-ass personality and crudeness entertaining, a vicarious venting of their frustration. But everyone cares about their family’s or household’s daily sense of well-being. That’s what I would focus on.

You may well have a very different answer; indeed, you may favor Red over Blue proposals. But that’s not the point. The point is to have an answer ready and to encourage the undecided to make up their mind and vote. America needs concerned and thoughtful voters this fall as never before. 

So, what are you prepared to say to the undecided you encounter?

 

 

Where Have I Been. Why Have I Not Posted Since May?

Why have I not posted since late May?  It’s been an up and down summer – and on this chill and rainy Seattle day it feels as summer is coming to an end. I hope September delivers its usual glorious Indian Summer on the Salish Sea – especially since family will be gathering around the finish line as I end this 90^th lap around the sun.

My last post, the Boeing letter below, was from Bayonne, France, laying at the feet of the board the broken body of Boeing’s reputation for reliability. Bayonne is not far from Toulouse, Airbus-land; they, too, are not unblemished. At least the new Boeing CEO, Kelly Ortberg, intends to office much of the time here in Seattle, where the bulk of Boeing’s employees live and work.

Cathedral Sainte-Marie
de Bayonne

Ann and I were in Bayonne on what was to be a three-week tour of Basque Country, through French Aquitaine, Spanish Gipuzkoa, Navarre, and Biscay, and winding up in northern Portugal. But an ill-wind blew: in turn, we each contracted pneumonia. I spent four days hospitalized in Pamplona – no running any bulls for me, but receiving extraordinary care. (When's the last time American doctors made house calls -- 1946, 1948? We had two to our hotel room, neither of which cost us a cent!) 

We ended our tour early and flew for home. But what little we had seen – Carcassonne, Auche, Bayonne, Biarritz, San Sebastian, Bilbao – was wonderful, i.e., truly, filled with wonder.

Bilbao -- and a cleaned river

Carcassonne

Ann has fully recovered; I still easily get short of breath and am more tippy than before. It didn’t stop me from enjoying the first three weeks of July’s Seattle Chamber Music Festival – three concerts each week plus board events plus hosting in our home cellist Paul Watkins for a week. And then, last week in July, we decamped for summer school at Cambridge University.

Selwyn Hall -- and that's half of it

That was a magical experience: to be bearing a student ID once again; to attend two, small (<30) lively classes a day, plus plenary lectures each morning, afternoon and evening; to live in Selwyn College and take breakfast and dinner in its faux-medieval dining hall with hundreds of other students – young and old, from 32 countries around the globe – all interested and interesting people; to be surrounded by a university town offering pubs and restaurants, drama and concerts, poetry readings and museum events and history around every corner. 

A Plenary on Cooling the Arctic 

Ann took two two-week courses: World Under Stress taught by Sir Tony Brenton, former UK Ambassador to the Russian Federation, a man who has negotiated with Putin, and, with me, Rome and China – a Comparison of Empires. In addition, I took two one-week courses: Henry IV, Part One and The Hundred Years War. I fell into bed each night exhausted but so mentally stimulated that I had trouble falling asleep.

Plus a side trip to Canterbury and five days in London. God and good health willing, we will go again next year.

At Selwyn College, Cambridge

So, thus the long silence from Northwest Ruminations – not that anyone would notice. In England, still tippy, I resorted to a walking stick. Yesterday, I gave a speech to my luncheon club: My Magic Stick, my New BFF. 

I recounted the magical effect my walking stick projects onto people around me – at Heathrow, early boarding of aircraft; in the London tube, women in their late 50’s getting up and eagerly offering me their seat; a briefcase wielding business man jay walking through traffic to get to my side and ask if I was all right as I leaned on a post-box to catch my breath; the next day, his opposite, a tattooed, studded, skin-head, stepping aside to let me pass with a deferential nod of his shaved head; being plucked out of line and escorted to the door of the British National Museum – a magical stick, indeed.

Now summer appears to be winding down, alas. But, you’ll hear from me more frequently.   

From Cheapside