Google Chairman Eric Schmidt (1) writing to Cheryl Mills (2) on April 15, 2014.

A citizen holding a Vote sign on Election Day. He moved with the traffic.

1. DuckDuckGo on Eric Schmidt. More.

2. DuckduckGo on Cheryl Mills.

Benjamin Franklin:

QUOTATION:
“Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”

“A Republic, if you can keep it.”

A few worthwhile election notes:

Chris Arnade. A must read, particularly for his work within “fly over” country.

‘We Don’t Know Who the Hero Is Until the Ship Sinks’ – Kinky Friedman:

Not only did Jesus ride in on a jackass, but Gandhi was a yuppie lawyer living in London, with no interest in helping people.

If you look at the great ones, Mother Teresa, Winston Churchill, FDR, they were all aristocratic freaks with very little interest in others. They’re very much like Trump. I mean, particularly Churchill. He was a polo player in India and an adult butterfly collector. They liked to hang out at the country club, Rachel. They were very privileged people.

When they got into office, Churchill and FDR, they did something that Obama was never able to do: change. The agent of change, Obama, could not change himself. He remained a fixed point in a changing world. It’s just too bad; it’s who he is. He’s not the smartest guy in the room. He may be the glibbest. He may be the most facile. I believe, if he’s concerned about a legacy, I believe he can pretty well forget that.

All I’m saying is, we don’t know who the hero is until the ship sinks. Or when the plane is crashing. You don’t know who’s going to run back and save somebody, or who’s going to dress up like a woman so he can hide in a lifeboat.

2007

“Bread and Circuses”, via wikipedia & Mencken Quotes.

The Most Important WikiLeaks Revelation Isn’t About Hillary Clinton.

Bailouts.

Killing the populist soul.

The Populist Revolt.

Donna Brazile is totally not sorry for leaking CNN debate questions to Hillary Clinton.

Democrats, Trump, and the Ongoing, Dangerous Refusal to Learn the Lesson of Brexit.

Assange on the US Election

Cathy Kraemer: The Politics of Resentment.

Finally, the Books of Daniel (more) and Romans (more) are always worth reading when contemplating history, not to mention recent events.

The Economist recently tweeted a link to “US Election Briefs 2016”.

A long time Economist reader, I thought it worth a look. Unfortunately, the link revealed an 11 “page” PDF (Portable Document Format, circa 1993) document.

It appears that the document was simply a rollup of previously published articles, created via desktop publishing software and combined into one file for the 2016 US Presidential election.

Surely the Economist, with its global view and deep history could do so much more than a PDF – tweeted I at Denise Law.

She asked what I would like as an alternative?

I have a few ideas:

Display metadata on the candidate names across Economist assets: search, views, requests, bots.

Publish visual representations of these relationships across your assets ala MIT’s ClintonCircle.

Display the information in a variety of ways, including time series and “river of news”. Sort using your metadata. The results are grist for your traditional and emerging channels.

Building for the future, map their travel (1), accomplices including candidates, donors, hangers on, reporters, lobbyists and “enthusiastic, smart and low paid permanent employees” (2). Begin to map legislation, rule making and executive orders (3) to these locations and people.

Add US voter data layers to the map in preparation for future elections.

Automate. Render short videos using the maps, relationships, money and data.

Season this work with EIU data.

Perhaps our simple amuz app might offer a bit of inspiration. amuz is designed as a quick, modern introduction to my home: Madison. It is a beginning.

I would be happy to chat in further detail, when convenient.

——

1. The Economist:

Since taking office, Mrs Clinton has visited 95 countries (see map) and logged some 730,000 miles, sometimes cramming more than a dozen meetings into a single day.

2. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt writing to Clinton Campaign Chair Tony Podesta.

3. A Bill (Kenan Thompson) tries to explain government to a little kid (Kyle Mooney), then President Obama (Jay Pharaoh) and his bullying friend Executive Order (Bobby Moynihan) explain how things really work. [SNL Season 40, 2014]

—–

P.S. The fruits of data and related analysis:

Propublica: President Obama promised to fight corporate concentration. Eight years later, the airline industry is dominated by just four companies. And you’re paying for it.

“They used their pull in the administration, including at the White House, and with a high-level friend at the Justice Department, going over the heads of staff prosecutors. And just days after the suit was announced, the airlines turned to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s first White House chief of staff, to help push back against the Justice Department.

Some lawyers and officials who worked on the American-US Airways case now say they were “appalled” by the decision to settle, as one put it.

“It was a gross miscarriage of justice that that case was dropped and an outrage and an example of how our system should not work,” said Tom Horne, the former state attorney general of Arizona, one of seven states that were co-plaintiffs with the federal government.”

Rather fascinating to see the Mayor of Chicago mingling with a federal matter.

Creation.

Thankful for a gorgeous November day.

Drive by notification….

UPDATE: My wife thinks that the bug entered the bag from an office shelf. That is possible, but I do try to keep the bag “sealed”!

Thorsten Benner offered his thoughts on Chancellor Merkel and the refugee crisis during a recent Madison visit.

I found his remarks thought provoking. A few raw notes follow:

Each year, the Germans choose a word of the year. Last year it was, “Merkel”, as a verb: “to merkel, to sit it out, muddle along.

After each election event (debates, appearances) a few years ago, Angela Merkel closed with: “you know me”.

Benner mentioned that she always uses the term “without alternative” after finally making a decision, as if there is nothing else to be considered. However, that term has been flipped by the upstart party “Alternative for Germany”.

With respect to why she welcomed the immigrants, now at least 1% of their 80m population (US would be 3m) with controversy, Benner offered a number of possibilities:

a. Immigration: absolution for the past. Good country now. Why take a risky political decision for morals? Unlikely.

b. Canada style immigration. Let those in who you need.

c. Takes C in Christianity seriously. Love your neighbor as yourself. Merkel is the daughter of a Lutheran pastor.

d. Orchestrated. 3 months before decision, the Chancellor attended a PR organized event with many different people / races. 13 year old Palestinian refugee asked about staying. Merkel responded that Germany cannot solve all of the world’s problems. So, this is unlikely.

e. Refugees brought risk to passport free travel. Could be very bad for economics/business.

f. Does she feel they need repentance for the banks and Greece? Medicine is correct for Greece. Austerity.

g. Germany takes them in, then Europe figures out the solution. “Buy time”. Absorb costs and deal with it over time. Very political.

In addition, and importantly, Chancellor Merkel grew up imprisoned in the east for 30 years. Part of her moral calling. She hates fences, walls and borders. Motivated by this. Did not like Hungary building up the fence with the 25th anniversary of The Wall coming down.

This could be the reason for Chancellor Merkel’s choice.