These are some of the people who should be standing between you and an authoritarian America:
For reasons that historians will have plenty of time to consider, they are not.
Under the circumstances, these are the people, these nine lawyers, who stand between you and an authoritarian America:
What do you think? How do you feel?
This post is from 2018, which you may legitimately believe means it is out of date and irrelevant. I hope the point that Bill James made is timeless. The book mentioned, the The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, is from 2010, which some baseball fans complain makes it dated, since a generation of players and game changes have arrived since then. That is nonsense. What James did, as the tiny excerpt below reflects, is to elevate the place of statistics and data in baseball while never letting go of the humanity of the players and the game. A lesson we can still learn for all of the sports we embrace.
This isn’t about baseball, though the quote is from a baseball writer. Bill James is not just a superb writer; he is a thinker whose analysis of the game has changed baseball more than any other thinker has ever changed any game. You can look it up.
This is about optimism and hope. I was reading The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (a 998-page volume whose title alone should tell you just how thoughtful Bill James is). He describes Robin Yount, who as of the time of publication James considered the Number 4 shortstop in baseball history:
Robin Yount (1974–1993, 2856 G, 251 1406 .285)
Robin Yount was a major league regular when he was 18 years old. We always wondered how good he would be, how much he would improve. In 1978, after Yount had been in the major leagues four years, he held out in the spring, mulling over whether he wanted to be a baseball player, or whether he really wanted to be a professional golfer.
When that happened, I wrote him off as a player who would never become a star. If he can’t even figure out whether he wants to be a baseball player or a golfer, I reasoned, he’s never going to be an outstanding player.
Yount was unhappy about suggestions that the Brewers would move him to the outfield. According to Dan Okrent in Nine Innings, “Yount didn’t merely reject the suggestion; he brooded about it, resented it, and lost himself in self-doubt. Members of the front office… saw Yount’s reaction as immature sulking.”
But as soon as he returned to baseball, Yount became a better player than he had been before; his career got traction from the moment he returned. What I didn’t see at the time was that Yount was in the process of making a commitment to baseball. Before he had his golf holiday, he was there every day, he was playing baseball every day, but on a certain level he wasn’t participating; he was wondering whether this was really the sport that he should be playing. What looked like indecision or sulking was really the process of making a decision.
This is often true. What Watergate was about was not the corruption of government, as most people thought, but rather, the establishment of new and higher standards of ethical conduct. Almost all scandals, I think, result not from the invention of new evils, but from the imposition of new ethical standards. Same thing with Yount; he wasn’t backing away from baseball; he was just putting the bit in his teeth, accepting new responsibilities. In the biographies of men and nations, success often arrives in a mask of failure. (emphasis added)
–The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract
John Heartfield (1891–1968) was a German artist best known as a pioneer of political photomontage. He was born Helmut Herzfeld in Berlin-Schmargendorf. In 1916, as a protest against German nationalism and anti-British sentiment during World War I, he anglicized his name to John Heartfield.
Heartfield became involved with the Berlin Dada movement after the war, working alongside figures such as George Grosz, Raoul Hausmann, and Hannah Höch. He and Grosz are often credited with helping develop photomontage as a serious artistic and political medium.
He is most famous for the biting anti-Nazi and anti-fascist photomontages he produced during the 1920s and 1930s, many of which appeared on the covers of the workers’ illustrated magazine AIZ (Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung). These works satirized Hitler, Göring, and the Nazi regime through sharp visual juxtaposition — one of his best-known images depicts Hitler with an X-ray torso revealing a spine of gold coins, captioned to suggest he was funded by big business.
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Heartfield fled Germany, first to Prague and later to England, continuing his anti-fascist work in exile.
Askew: Crooked, awry, lopsided, cockeyed.
There is a Buddhist practice to welcome the most adverse things as opportunities and the most adverse people as spiritual friends. I ask myself, “How’s that going?” and I admit “A work in progress.”
The good news for me is that for a portion of the day, I breathe. Obviously I spend the entire day breathing, but for a time I breathe consciously, in and out.
No, those askew/crooked/awry/lopsided/cockeyed things keep multiplying like a virus, no matter how many conscious breaths I give and take. Just as with any virus—we’ve had some recent experience with that—it is essential to address the problem. But those breaths can put those things in their place and us in our place.
Yes, “take a breath” is seemingly cliched advice when we are overwhelmed. We certainly are being overwhelmed, in many ways strategically. The reason “take a breath” is constantly advised is…it works.
Take a breath.
It is reported that the Mapquest app—yes, Mapquest—became the number one app in the Apple store, after Mapquest refused to give in to Trump’s attempt to rename Lake Ontario.
Google gave in without a fight.
My first thought was that I would protest by discarding Google from my digital life. Yeah well. Easier said than done.
My AI life is not a problem, since it is already squarely based in Claude, with Gemini in distant second place. And unlike many other users, I don’t do much with other Google apps like Google Docs.
Mail and search are a different story. I could shift both away from Google, and I should, but convenience in that case outweighs conviction. Though if Google continues its kiss-ass ways, that could change.
One place that is vulnerable to my principles is Google Maps. It is admittedly pretty useful, and alternatives are slim. Waze, one of the leading alternatives, is of course owned by Google.
Then my search (yeah, okay, a Google search), turned up Here We Go. Here We Go was developed by Nokia, and evolved into a mapping app supported by multiple car makers.
It is well reviewed as a Google Maps alternative, highlighted for its lack of clutter and especially for its ability to download maps that can be used in offline settings.
I have downloaded Here We Go to my phone but haven’t used it yet. I will. (I also downloaded Mapquest to send a message to Google. I could send an email to Google too, though it would be a Gmail and anyway Google could care less.)
Here We Go!
Dada and Surrealism were significant art movements in the early 20th century. One of the most famous works is Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain* (above), though Duchamp refused to be classified with any of the movements he informed and inspired. These movements also included performances, many of which made no sense then—or now. It was art.
Trying to make sense of the action, speech and thought of the current president defies understanding. Perhaps we have been looking at him through the wrong lens. We think of him as a businessman and currently as the most powerful leader in the world. This has left us shaking our heads. But maybe we are looking at it all wrong.
We may say to ourselves, “This can’t be real!”
Maybe it isn’t real. Maybe it is surreal. Maybe it is the work of an artist so supremely talented that his work and performances go right over our heads.
A beautiful Rose Garden buried in concrete. A giant Reflecting Pool covered with green algae. Every wall in a stately historic mansion decorated in ugly and gaudy gold. Historic texts, a Declaration and a Constitution, burned in front of our eyes. Just a few of the extraordinary works that are still being made.
If all that isn’t cutting edge art, deserving of multiple prizes, I don’t know what is.
* The original Fountain from 1917 is no longer available. Replicas of the original are worth between $2.5 and $5 million. Something for a presidential artist to think about.
In February 2024 I posted a three-book Gaza War reading list .
Did I think the Gaza War would be over by now, that Israel would have come to its senses and humanity, on its own or pushed there by Jewish communities and Jews in America?
Do I look naïve? As much as I repeat Abraham Joshua Heschel’s view on things in general and on the Vietnam War in particular—“I am an optimist in spite of myself”—no, I thought it just as likely that things in Gaza would get worse before they got better, if ever better at all. Now we know.
One of the books was by David Livingstone Smith, whose work centers on the phenomenon of dehumanization. You don’t have to be an expert like him to understand the basics. When you treat others as an inferior kind of human, or as not human at all, you find yourself free to do all sorts of bad things. You may feel it necessary to justify, excuse or lie about what you do, comforting yourself and avoiding condemnation and even punishment.
“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal” was not the invention of America’s founders. It was not the invention of the Enlightenment thinkers who inspired some of our founders. It is at the heart of millennia-old traditions that uphold the value of every human being.
Are there circumstances where that value might be weighed against other considerations? You know there are. Should that human value be the default, the great weight, the primary and starting position against which any contrary initiative should be carefully considered? Should those contrary initiatives be rare and followed by confession, humility and contrition? Of course.
Have you, have those on your behalf, treated others as less than human? What will you do about it?
Don’t come a-knockin’ around my door
Don’t wanna see your shadow no more
Coloured lights can hypnotize
Sparkle someone else’s eyes
Many people like or love Canada. One of the reasons is that without the roster of Canadian artists, modern pop music would be much, much poorer:
Neil Young
Joni Mitchell
The Band
Leonard Cohen
k.d. Lang
Rush
The Weeknd
Celine Dion
Justin Bieber
Drake
Arcade Fire
Shania Twain
Etc.
Nobody likes a bully, except for those who benefit from the bullying. History and the current world are filled with bullies. Russia bullies Ukraine. Israel bullies Palestine.
The U.S., in addition to its finest moments, has also been a bully. Currently, the strangest and most perplexing bullying involves our longtime friend, neighbor and provider of great musicians Canada.
Canadian artists frequently include their love of Canada in their songs. The songs may also include issues with the United States, even (especially?) for those artists who have adopted it as home.
No Canadian song about the U.S. is more fitting than American Woman (1970) by Winnipeg natives The Guess Who. The United States was not a favorite nation in much of the world in 1970, especially among young people rejecting America’s deadly and tragic Vietnam War.
American Woman still sounds just about right.
American woman gonna mess your mind
American woman, she gonna mess your mind
American woman
Stay away from me
American woman
Mama, let me be
Don’t come a-hangin’ around my door
I don’t wanna see your face no more
I got more important things to do
Than spend my time growin’ old with you
American woman
Get away from me
American woman
Mama, let me be
Don’t come a-knockin’ around my door
Don’t wanna see your shadow no more
Coloured lights can hypnotize
Sparkle someone else’s eyes
American woman
Said get away
American woman
Listen what I say
Don’t come a-hangin’ around my door
Don’t wanna see your face no more
I don’t need your war machines
I don’t need your ghetto scenes
Coloured lights can hypnotize
Sparkle someone else’s eyes
You’re no good for me, I’m no good for you
Gonna look you right in the eye, tell you what I’m gonna do
You know I’m gonna leave
You know I’m gonna go, you know I’m gonna leave
You know I’m gonna go, woman
I’m gonna leave, woman
Goodbye, American woman
Chapter 5 – Guarding Awareness
13.
How could there be sufficient leather
To cover the earth entirely?
With just the leather for my soles,
It is as if the whole earth’s covered.
–Shantideva (7th-8th century CE), The Way of the Bodhisattva, translated by Khenpo David Karma Choephel
Making things better. Making other people better. Making the world better.
All for the good.
As Shantideva says in his classic work of Buddhist wisdom, one way to smooth our walking would be to cover the entire earth in leather. Of course that would be impossible.
Instead, we could just choose to wear shoes. Simple.
While we want things, other people and the world to be better, we should start with ourselves. Get those shoes, make those shoes, wear those shoes. Easier than covering the earth.
© 2026 Bob Schwartz
“The poor know all about poverty and only the morbid rich would find the topic glamorous.”
Sullivan’s Travels
Donald Trump Jr. says he admires India’s poor people because of their spirit and smiles
Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, is in India this week to promote his family’s real estate empire and more than $1 billion worth of luxury Trump Tower projects in four cities, but he still had time to praise India’s poor for their smiles.
“I don’t mean to be glib about it, but you can see the poorest of the poor and there is still a smile on a face. It’s a different spirit that you don’t see in other parts of the world … and I think there’s something unique about that. I know some of the most successful people in the world, and some of them are the most miserable people in the world.”
You can draw your own conclusions about what this says about Don Jr. and others in the Trump family and circle. You can guess who the miserable successful people might be.
As for the happy smiling poor he admires, I quote from the movie Sullivan’s Travels by Preston Sturges. A successful Hollywood director of nonsensical comedies, John L. Sullivan, wants to confront the grim reality of the Great Depression, and so plans to travel in disguise as a tramp. His butler Burrows sets him straight:
Burrows: I have never been sympathetic to the caricaturing of the poor and needy, sir.
John L. Sullivan: Who’s caricaturing? I’m going out on the road to find out what it’s like to be poor and needy and then I’m going to make a picture about it.
Burrows: If you’ll permit me to say so, sir, the subject is not an interesting one. The poor know all about poverty and only the morbid rich would find the topic glamorous.
John L. Sullivan: But I’m doing it for the poor. Don’t you understand?
Burrows: I doubt if they would appreciate it, sir.
And:
Burrows: You see, sir, rich people and theorists – who are usually rich people – think of poverty in the negative, as the lack of riches – as disease might be called the lack of health. But it isn’t, sir. Poverty is not the lack of anything, but a positive plague, virulent in itself, contagious as cholera, with filth, criminality, vice and despair as only a few of its symptoms.
Bob Schwartz 