Monthly Archives: January 2017

“The Data That Turned the World Upside Down”

31 Tuesday Jan 2017

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I’ve stumbled across an article that has given me a new insight into the reason for Donald Trump’s electoral victory. This one is different from everything else I’ve read, and while it is certainly not the sole reason for his victory, it is one that has not been much in the press. I urge you to read it as it has implications beyond understanding how DT was able to win and perhaps why no one (outside of the Trump campaign) saw it coming.

Quick background. I spent five days in 2012 in Columbus, Ohio on a get out the vote (GOTV) campaign for Pres. Obama and was astounded at the planning and sophistication of that GOTV effort. In November of 2016 went back to Ohio, Cleveland this time, for a week for a Hillary Clinton GOTV. While I felt that campaign was not quite as astounding as the one in 2012, I did feel it was useful. And everyone, myself included, thought Clinton and the Dems had a much superior ‘ground game’ than did Trump and the Repubs.

What I didn’t know, and what very few others knew, was that the Trump and a small group of his campaign staff had leapfrogged the Dems and had a much more sophisticated GOTV.

Check out this article: The Data That Turned the World Upside Down

Not only will it explain why DT was able to do what no one expected, it will also tell you much about the new world of Big Data. It’s not a short article, but it certainly was an eye opener for me.

See what you think.

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Inspired by Your Favorite Books…

25 Wednesday Jan 2017

Posted by in Escapes and Pleasures

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“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never read”- A. Lincoln

Each year I identify at least 12 books to add to my ‘to read’ list from the annual Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime Readers. I generally split them between fiction and nonfiction. Some I choose because several of you have suggested them, some because of the description a reader has written, and some because of the topic (often something I might never have chosen on my own).

The twelve for 2017 (plus two audible books for the treadmill)

Fiction:

The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

2nd Person Singular by Sayed Kashua (suggested by the oldest contributor to the list – 95 years old).

Between Riverside & Crazy (a play) by Stephen Adly Giurgis

Nonfiction:

I Will Bear Witness by Victor Kemperer

Strangers in Their Own Land by Allie Russell Hochschild

The Half Has Never Been Told by Edward E. Baptist

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

White Mountain: Real & Imagined Journeys in the Himalayas by Robert Twigger

I Survived Series by Lauren Tarshis (suggested by the youngest contributor, now eight years old).

Audible Books:

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

PS:

To date I have kept my New Year’s resolution to put books I have read on Goodreads as soon as I’ve completed them. Also, as a backup, I am keeping a list of books read in “Notes” on my computer, along with a few sentences on each as I’m continuing to suffer from CRS.

So far in January, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and can highly recommend The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough, The North Water by Ian McGuire, War & Turpentine by Stefan Heretmans, Do Not Say That We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thiel, The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar, and Moonglow by Michael Chabon.

Finally, I’d love to know how various readers have used the annual favorites’ list. Have you chosen books from it, and if so, what makes you chose those particular ones? You can leave a note in the Comments’ section of this post or let me know in an email: Samesty84@gmail.com.

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Obama’s 40 Promises: Kept, Broken, or Compromised

24 Tuesday Jan 2017

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The Washington Post in an article written by Kim Soffen has just posted an article about 40 Obama’s promises, which ones were kept, which ones were broken, and which ones were compromised.

A quick summary says:

Promises Broken – 17

Promises Kept – 11

Promises Compromised – 12

There is a good deal of information in the article, and it can be accessed by the three categories above and/or by subject category (economy, health care, energy, immigration, national security, government process, etc.).

No matter your view and feelings about Pres. Obama and also about the Washington Post, I think this article is a fair attempt at evaluating his promises and what happened with them by the end of his eight years in the White House. My wife Ellen, who followed Pres. Obama carefully on the issues of governmental process and often called him out on his failures to follow through on those specific promises, thinks the article is accurate in the areas she knows much about.

See: After Eight Years, Here Are the Promises Obama Kept – and the Ones He Didn’t.

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President Trump’s 27 Promises

23 Monday Jan 2017

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I listened to President Trump’s Inaugural Address, in part to be able to have one marker by which it would be possible to judge his presidency: what he wanted to do with his time in office.

Below are 27 plans and promises he made in his speech just after he was sworn into office at noon, Jan. 20, 2017.

While some of these statements are quite general, it is good that Pres. Trump has also given the country some pretty specific commitments.

I will keep them in front of me and focus on those and not on tweets, fake news, or alternative truths.

 Trump’s Plans/Promises

  1. Great national effort to rebuild our country and to restore its promise for all of our people.
  2. We will determine the course of America and the world for years to come.
  3. We will get the job done.
  4. We are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American People.
  5. What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people.
  6. The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.
  7. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now. (Great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families, and good jobs).
  8. The oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all Americans: it’s going to be America First.
  9. Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American families.
  10. We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies, and destroying our jobs.
  11. We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth. And we will bring back our dreams.
  12. We will build new roads, and highways, and bridges, and airports, and tunnels, and railways all across our wonderful nation.
  13. We will get our people off of welfare and back to work – rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor.
  14. We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and Hire American.
  15. We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world – but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first.
  16. We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones – and unite the civilized world against Radical Islamic Terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the Earth.
  17. At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other.
  18. We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity.
  19. We will be protected by the great men and women of our military and law enforcement.
  20. Our country will thrive and prosper again.
  21. To All Americans: You will never be ignored again.
  22. Your voice, your hopes, and your dreams will define our American destiny. And your courage and goodness and love will forever guide us along the way.
  23. Together, We will make America strong again.
  24. We will make America wealthy again.
  25. We will make America proud again.
  26. We will make America safe again.
  27. Together, we will make America great again.
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Thru Ellen’s Lens: Costa Rica & Panama

21 Saturday Jan 2017

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We recently spent 10 days in Costa Rica and along the coasts of Costa Rica and Panama, ending with a nine-hour crossing through the Panama Canal and one night in Panama city.

Although for the bulk of the time we were on a relatively small cruise ship for 200 people (they insisted on calling it a yacht), the most interesting parts of the 10 days involved trips into the interior of Costa Rica and small boat excursions along the coasts of both Costa Rica and Panama, where we saw native flora and fauna as you will see in Ellen’s 11 photos below. (Fortunately, Ellen carried her long lens with her enabling some close up shots.)

For me, the most memorable part of the trip (besides traveling with two affable and enjoyable other couples) was standing on one of the forward decks of our ship for the full nine hours it took us to cross from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea through the Panama Canal. Having recently been captivated by David McCullough’s wonderful descriptions of the process of its building in his The Path Between the Seas, I could have stayed another nine hours soaking in the wonder of what had been built over a hundred years ago.

If you are interested in more of Ellen’s photo’s of the two countries, click on this slide show to see all 41 photos.

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bird

 

dolphin

 

Owl.

Click on this slide show for more photos. For the best viewing, click on the little arrow at the top right of the first page of the link to start the slide show and see all the photos in the largest size possible (use a laptop or desktop computer if you have access to either).

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Judging Barack Obama & Donald Trump

19 Thursday Jan 2017

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I had a professor in college who continually taught that “It is not what you say but what you do that counts.” That standard, he believed, could be applied to judging how you treat your mother, how a leader leads his country, or to how a nation acts in the international world.

President Obama’s two terms as President ends tomorrow, and while it will take time to fairly judge how well or poorly he lead the nation, in his Farewell Address he has given his version of what he believes he has done and what he has learned in the process.

I had not listened to nor seen Pres. Obama’s Farewell Address until yesterday. If you have not seen nor heard it, it is worth the 51:25 minutes it takes to listen to and watch it:

President Obama’s Farewell Address

Now we have both his words and his deeds by which to begin to judge what kind of President he has been.

Tomorrow, President-elect Trump’s will be sworn into office. He has already surprised everyone with his victories over the other 16 Republican presidential candidates and with his electoral victory over Hillary Clinton. What he will do as President, not what he says, is now what will be most important.

In some ways he has already begun his Presidency with his choices of those who will help him run the country – his Vice President, his Cabinet officers, and his White House staff. Now his Inaugural Address will give us a further idea of what kind of President he plans to be, what he says he will do, and perhaps how he will do it.

Let’s listen to his Inaugural Address and then focus on what he does and not on what he says.

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Obama: The Importance of Books

18 Wednesday Jan 2017

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President Obama in the Oval Office on Friday during an interview with Michiko Kakutani, the chief book critic for The New York Times. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

President Obama in the Oval Office on Friday during an interview with Michiko Kakutani, the chief book critic for The New York Times. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

While we await the ending of one Presidency and the beginning of the next, let me draw your attention to an article in the New York Times that describes the importance of books in President Obama’s life and in his presidency.

The article provides a unique (and I think) wonderful insight into the character, intelligence, intellectual curiosity, and thoughtfulness of Barack Obama. It’s an interview more revealing than that of any other president that I can recall in my lifetime. Whether or not you like him or his politics, this interview provides us a glimpse into a centered individual who has found a way to bring a balance to his life, to his family, and to one of the hardest jobs in the world.

First read the article:

Obama’s Secret to Surviving the White House Years: Books

And if you want to know even more, you can also read the ‘lightly edited’ transcript of the interview:

Transcript: President Obama on What Books Mean to Him

For those MillersTime readers who spend a portion of their lives with books, you’ll find much of interest in this article and no doubt a few books to add to your reading list for the coming year.

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A New Year’s Resolution I Might Actually Keep

02 Monday Jan 2017

Posted by in Escapes and Pleasures

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I long ago gave up on the (foolishness of) making any New Year’s resolutions.

But I think I’ve got one that I can actually do and that will make my life a tad easier by the end of 2017.

As many of you know, I have just posted the list of Books Most Enjoyed in 2016 by MillersTime Readers. When I was working on the post, I noticed many of you indicated you couldn’t remember everything you read over the past year. I too had the same problem.

The answer to that problem, of course, came from Ellen Miller who (repeatedly) ‘suggested’ I keep track of the books I read on the website www.goodreads.com. I used to do that but somehow stopped.

So I just reactivated my account and have resolved to use the Goodreads site to keep track of everything I read in 2017.

Once a member, it’s very easy (at least once you get use to the site) to keep track of everything you read. Plus, you can rate each book you read, and you can even write a short review so you can recall the book at a later date. And there are lots of other features to the site. Probably more than you’ll ever need. It’s “the world’s largest community of readers,” and you can participate in as much or as little as you want. It’s a wonderful resource, but it can also just be a way to record what you’ve read quickly and retrievably.

And it’s free.

You can sign up easily:

www.goodreads,com/user/sign_up

The one ‘catch’ is that once you’ve signed up, in order to keep track of what you’ve read, you actually have to enter the title of the book in your My Books account.

That’s where the New Year’s resolution comes in.

(PS – If you missed the email about the posting of the 2016 Favorite Reads list, check it out. It’s a terrific resource, in my humble opinion.)

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The Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime Readers in 2016

01 Sunday Jan 2017

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books1-539x303“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never read”- A. Lincoln

The MillersTime year-end “best books roundup” is my most visited post of the year. It’s a labor of love and is only possible because so many of you took the time to send in your favorite reads of the year. A sincere thanks to all of you

The funny thing is I didn’t read as much this year as in previous years, which was something a number of you said also. My major excuse was that I got ‘lost’ in baseball as my heroes the Red Sox were in the ‘hunt’ the entire 162 game season (not counting the disastrous playoffs). But I digress. Not sure about why others read less (though not my wife); some of you grumbled that you simply didn’t find as many memorable books or were having trouble remembering the titles you did read.

Nevertheless, 80 of you sent your lists and descriptions for a total of 380 books. Fiction lead the nonfiction 56% to 44%. Only a few books had much consensus (When Breathe Becomes Air, The Warmth of Other Suns, Hillbilly Elegy, Alexander Hamilton, The Nightingale, The Neapolitan Novels, The Sympathizer), and many of those were published prior to 2016.

Our youngest participant is almost 8 years old; the oldest is 95. (Maybe now that our children and grandchildren are reading we can have a special children’s subcategory next year?) The rest of you are mostly between the ages of 35- 75. Fifty-eight percent of you are women, 42% were men.

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