Dana Blankenhorn

Kamala and the Cloud Czars

(Note: This was written October 25, for publication October 30. If November 3 doesn’t turn out as this column anticipates, learn Chinese.)

As I wrote back in February 2019, Kamala Harris is to tech as George H.W. Bush was to oil. I thought she’d be the nominee but, like Bush, she faltered and will become Vice President.

Bush used the Vice Presidency to cement oil’s place in power for a generation. Reagan was the front man, but Bush did the work, bringing in his friend James A. Baker as Treasury Secretary, then using him as chief of staff and Secretary of State. The Baker-Bush tandem secured our alliance with the Sauds, fighting their war to control it against Saddam Hussein in Kuwait. Their power was secure enough to get through the Clinton years, and make American knees jerk twice for Bush’s son, who finished off Iraq.

Kamala Harris’ job is to do the same thing with tech that Bush did with oil, cement a generational alliance that can dominate American politics and return America’s prominence in business.

As I wrote then:

She won’t break up Google, although she may regulate it, which is not that bad. The costs of regulation would cement the Cloud Czars’ positions on top of the business world, for a generation, until some other industry comes to take over.

Solving the Barrett Problem

The problem of Amy Barrett is solvable.

You don’t have to increase the size of the Supreme Court. Congress can simply create an “emeritus” class of Supreme Court justices.

Any justice age 70 or over becomes “emeritus.” They no longer sit in the chamber during arguments. They no longer must live in Washington. They can advise during arguments, they can file briefs on cases, and they can act as District Court judges when needed. Richard Posner did this in the case of Apple vs. Motorola, telling both sides they had lost. Emeritus judges can also work on their legacies, something they can’t do now. They can take gigs at law schools, or at law firms.

Right now, 3 justices are 70 and over – Stephen Breyer, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito. Under this Judiciary Act of 2021 they would automatically go to emeritus status, with all the perks and opportunities that provides. Younger justices may also choose to retire early. I suspect a “former Supreme Court justice” can make a pile of coin.

Then you appoint replacements. Get two young progressives in for Thomas and Alito to balance the court. Maybe toss Republicans a bone and name Merrick Garland to the third seat.

This assures a steady flow of judicial appointments to every President. It means the court can be renewed continuously, as it should be. The idea of sitting for decades to scratch an ideological itch is ridiculous. A judge is not supposed to care who wins.

The authority of the President and the Congress in this matter is unquestioned. The first Supreme Court, under John Jay, had just 6 justices. Those jurists also had to “ride circuit,” hearing appeals. That’s why our regional appeals courts are called “circuit” courts. The current count of 9 came about in 1869, after Republicans had cut the number to 7, to keep Andrew Johnson from appointing any.  (That law also established the circuit courts.) 

This isn’t “court packing.” If anything, it’s court unpacking. If we get a solid Senate majority, I’m guessing some Republicans will support it. Then we go about increasing the number of District and Circuit court judgeships, to reduce the present backlog of cases. That’s how you balance those courts ideologically.

This is a quick, even fair way of making a one-time reform to the courts and reducing the ideological temperature. You’re appointed for life but go on emeritus status at 70, or whenever you feel ready. You remain useful in that position for life, able to discuss and dispose on legal issues as they come up.

Biden’s Solar Problem

Assuming Joe Biden wins Tuesday, he has a problem.

If he doesn’t win, America and the world have a bigger problem, one I don’t think we can overcome. So, let’s assume the world goes on for a moment.

Joe’s solar problem is something the computer industry faced around the time when I was becoming a reporter, in the late 1970s. Until then, computers were capital goods. They were either leased or purchased over time with loans. Even my first PC purchase, in 1982, was with a loan.

Loans and leases built a business model that was smashed by the PC era. Both loans and leases carry huge external costs and margins. My Massapequa neighbors had nice houses and cars. Their fat sales or engineering salaries were paid for by IBM customers, who compared the cost of having IBM handle their problems to the cost of doing things manually and signed their names to lines that were dotted.

In 1981 IBM didn’t just start selling a PC. It became a computer products company. It licensed the likeness of Charlie Chaplin, who had died in 1976, from his estate. It used the rose he offered his amour in City Lights, painting it a bright red. Then it distributed the PC through computer stores, who placed it on shelves alongside the printers and other peripherals. By the 1990s you wouldn’t think of hiring a “computer specialist” to sell you stuff, unless we were talking about a networking expert who got his own hands dirty.

The Common Good

Without an overwhelming victory for democracy on November 3, I’ll be glad to die.

Trump is the ultimate expression of a basic misperception, that private goods matter more than the public goods, that national well-being matters more than global well-being, that fences and borders can isolate and separate us.

This is especially true when it comes to the environment.

My children face a bleak future unless current climate trends are reversed. But the U.S. can’t change it alone. Every country must do its part.

The ice caps’ disappearance means many cities around the world are doomed. New Orleans is doomed. Miami is doomed. New York City is doomed. So are Calcutta, Mumbai, Shanghai, and Kuala Lumpur. Sea level rise means these places will soon be underwater.

Meanwhile, the methane of the Siberian tundra is bubbling to the surface. Fires in the Amazon and West mean the Earth can no longer breathe. The “habitable” part of the U.S. will be cut by two-thirds within 50 years. The oceans are warming so that, along with overfishing, all that’s left will be jellyfish.

In past bouts of global warming, when the ice caps disappeared, nature adjusted. Cooling trends returned and nature came back. With man-made global warming, there’s no natural reversal. It takes 80 grams of energy to melt a gram of ice. Once the ice is melted, 80 grams of energy take its temperature to 112.

The Phony Profession

Back when I was at Rice University in the mid-1970s I was told that journalism was a noble profession.

It may be noble, but it’s no profession.

Even at Northwestern’s Medill School, where I received a year of training before being tossed into the world in 1978, I knew different. It’s a trade, the teachers told me there. They insisted I not call them “professor.” Journalism is a job. It’s writing for someone who buys ink by the barrel.

The problem with the journalism business is that it’s still locked in that mindset. Even after the print business is long dead, journalism is still measured by advertising linked to dead trees. There’s a reason for this. The business refused to adapt.

When people began seeking information online, a quarter century ago, journalism did not come along for the ride. I feel the blame. I knew then, after a decade covering the Internet, just how we should move forward, and I wrote about it. I asked publishers, “How hungry are you,” suggesting they seek commission income from business partners rather than selling billboards.

No one listened.

The Great Panic of 2020

The 2020 campaign isn’t marked by much movement in the polls.

Joe Biden has been ahead all year by anywhere from 5-10 points. The margin has been increasing, as Trump has acted like every suburban housewife’s abusive ex-.

Yet to read Lefty Twitter, you would be certain Trump is going to be President this time next year.

Uh, no. My guess is he won’t even be alive. When he realizes he’s going to be held to account, I suspect, he’ll take the coward’s way out.

Trump wants to steal the election, and is threatening a coup, because he knows he has lost.