Brain-warping stupidity

Two truly insane things to contemplate today.

The support for Cliven Bundy’s anarchy in Nevada. This one’s a real stunner. Here’s a guy who says he doesn’t acknowledge the existence of the US government, who grazes his cattle on federal land (i.e., our land, yours and mine, which our tax dollars support and maintain) without paying for the privilege, who has ignored court orders for decades and currently owes a million dollars in fines and fees. When the feds come to arrest him — as they would anyone with this history — a group of crazies armed to the teeth show up to “defend freedom.” And the right wing, from Rand Paul to Sean Hannity, leaps in to fan the flames. In Hannity’s broadcasts he looks like he’s just hoping that a shooting war breaks out so he can launch another moronic attack on a “government out of control.”

So, here we have a group on the Republican right that is famous for loudly proclaiming that we are a nation of laws countenancing a law-breaking crackpot. There are, at last count, some 18,000 honorable farmers and ranchers across the country who use public land and pay the reasonable fees to do so. After all, when Bundy uses federal land to fatten his cattle on he’s basically cheating all the other ranchers who pay the fees or who pay for their own land on which their cattle graze. There are good reasons why the Nevada Cattleman’s Association has condemned Bundy over his antics.

The so-called “standoff” that erupted was the result of an influx of what Harry Reid properly called “domestic terrorists.” Some of these armed militias were local but most were right-wing fanatics from around the country, the ones who have paranoid dreams about the UN and see “black helicopters” in the evening skies. Things were tense for some time when the BLM officers finally decided that it wasn’t worth the carnage that would likely ensue if they moved on Bundy’s ranch. They released the cattle they had corralled and left. They should be praised for their discretion. The person seemingly most disheartened by this was Hannity who had stated that he expected the federal agents to make a midnight raid and kill Bundy and his family.

This nonsense provokes a thought: Whose side would these bozos be on if the stand-off was between a Black man who had been refusing to pay his rent for twenty years, had several courts rule against him, who owed his landlord a million dollars and whose actions were being supported by a bunch of gun-toting members of the Black Panthers? Just asking….

The support for state’s refusal to enroll in Medicaid. As of this writing there are still 21 states that have opted out of the expansion of Medicaid under the ACA (aka Obamacare) — three others are still considering various options. And, yes, every one of these is a “red” state where either a Republican governor or a Republican controlled legislature has blocked adoption. What is beyond insanity is that 100% of the cost of Medicaid is paid for by the feds for three years and 90% of it thereafter. It doesn’t cost these states anything to sign on. In fact, it will cost them dearly not to because all the poverty-stricken folks with serious medical conditions and no insurance will be using the public hospital emergency rooms and the tab for these procedures will fall to the states. The latest estimate from the Lewin Group is that these states will cost themselves a tad over $100 billion over the next five years.

This nonsense provokes a thought: Would these reactionary idiots be acting this way if the ACA had been passed by a Republican president? After all, it was Romney whose Massachusetts bill was the model for it and, in case you didn’t know, that bill was crafted by the conservative think-tank the American Enterprise Institute. It was their effort to recognize the need for health care reforms and to try to preempt the possibility of a single-payer system. Their reasons were simple: it benefitted the insurance companies which would suffer economically under a British type single-payer program. Just wondering ….

Gender pay-gap and GOP idiocy

There was an article in the New York Times the other day on the latest failed effort to pass legislation that would help close the pay-gap between men and women. The bill, which would allow unencumbered access to salary information, was proposed by Democrats and supported by a clear majority of the Senate only to be derailed by a Republican filibuster. In describing this non-event the Times reported that Republican lawmakers:

“… have said that given existing anti-discrimination laws, the legislation is redundant and is a transparent attempt by Democrats to distract from President Obama’s much-criticized health care law.”

If the pain of reading this sentence wasn’t so great it might have provided a good laugh, the kind we all need to start a day off. Two points that the GOP seems to think are worth making are prominent:

a. that a bill that would help lessen the glaring gender discrimination in pay isn’t needed because such legislation is already in place.

b. that it is merely a distraction from discussions of Obamacare.

Well the first is obviously a stupid thing to say. If the existing legislation were working then the pay-gap would be shrinking and women’s incomes would be going up relative to men’s. They are not. Hence existing legislation isn’t working and there is a compelling need for new regulations and oversight.

The second is even stupider (if that’s possible). The Affordable Care Act is here. It isn’t going away. It is working and will continue to improve virtually every aspect of health care in the country. The GOP assumed, as recently as two weeks ago, that they would be able to run their election campaign on “Obamacare” this year. It is now apparent that they cannot and will not. If anything, the Democrats will run on it as a signature success.

As readers of this blog know, I am a great fan of the ironic moment. Here we have another beauty, courtesy of GOP idiocy.

Irony, Fox Style

There’s been a fuss in the last week or so over Gabriel Sherman’s book, “The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News — and Divided a Country.” The book has been widely reviewed and praised for its “fair and balanced” but ultimately devastating overview of Ailes and Fox News, not to mention being flagged for its annoyingly long title. Has anyone published a political book in the past five years that doesn’t have a colon followed by “How ….” in the title?.

Ailes build a news organization up from basically nothing to where it is today, the dominant cable news organization with the largest audience (far outstripping its competition, CNN and MSNBC), the highest revenue stream and the highest profit margins. It accomplished all this using a simple, Ailesean strategy: identify your target audience and give ‘em what they want.

The target audience from the beginning was conservative Americans who identify with the GOP, vote reliably for any Republican on the ballot, hated the Clintons and have similarly unfriendly feelings for Obama. This group is, demographically speaking, small, specialized and shrinking. It consists of older, white, mostly Southern males. In fact, the median age of Fox viewers is over 65 years (latest figures show it’s now just about 68).

Importantly, however, among the critical cohort, those between 25 and 55, Fox’s numbers have been plummeting — over 40% in the just the past five years — at the same time that the number of viewers in this age bracket has gone up by 10%. Old, white geezers don’t buy much. Boomers, Millennials, Gen X’ers do. Is this a problem for Fox? In one way nope; in another yup, very much so.

Fox News orients its reporting toward the sentiments held by their target group. They use a stable of cheery blonds to read cherry-picked news, outline the day’s events and resolutely focus on those they know their audience wants to hear about. They have been shouting “Benghazi, Benghazi” for over a year now, repeatedly focusing on features about the IRS and how it targeted conservative organizations (never mentioning that it also scrutinized liberal groups) and miss no chance to report on even the most minor glitch in Obamacare — or what the rest of the news world calls the Affordable Care Act. For a week or so they had a good old thigh-slapping time fawning over Putin, praising him for being a tough and resolute leader who made Obama look like a wimp — a line of “reporting” that ground to halt with the invasion of Crimea.

Their top guns are conservative icons like Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly — though the once-wildly popular Glenn Beck got too crazy, even for Ailes who “allowed” him to go off and start his own network. A year or so ago there was a bit of a dust-up over a study that showed that those who get their news exclusively from Fox are less-informed and more ignorant of current events than those who don’t watch any news shows, leading some to argue that watching Fox News makes you stupid. Could be, but it’s just as likely that only stupid people watch Fox. It’s also true, to be fair, that those who only watched other cable news shows also scored low — though not as low as Foxites.

But, no matter. The really interesting story here is that Ailes has created what every media corporation would seemingly love: a news network with big numbers, a loyal following and a bottom line that is well in the black. Ironically, its doom is written in these rosy demographic and financial figures.

America is changing. It is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse and with diversity comes tolerance, acceptance and openness. If a news network is going to have a future it is going to have to adjust, welcome the change and ride with the new, more liberal social values that are sweeping the country.

But Fox can’t — even if they wanted to, even if Ailes realized the morass his policies will eventually pull the network into, even if the Murdochs demanded changes. They bound themselves with steel wires to their demographic. And, as always, it’s about money. Fox’s advertising revenues aren’t particularly high. They barely cover the cost of running the network. Their billion dollar annual profits (yup, they average just about that) come from subscription fees paid by local stations to carry Fox programming. These stations derive their income from local advertising and, because so many of them are in districts with high numbers of old white conservatives — you know, Fox viewers — they do fine. If Fox were to try to shift its editorial content or begin really presenting news in a “fair and balanced” manner, they would howl bloody murder and threaten to cancel — and that would be the end of Fox’s revenue stream.

FWIW, this kind of financial scaffolding is also the case with other right-wing talk shows. Advertising on Rush Limbaugh’s show is similarly in a tailspin, owing to almost all the top companies pulling out in protest over the stances he’s taken on things like climate change and abortion and the attacks he’s launched on everyone from Obama to Sandra Fluke. He’s holding on mainly by taking “corporate welfare” — right wing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and Freedomworks are bailing him out. So much for “free market” principles.

Ailes, who has always been active in the GOP, made his network the propaganda arm of the Republican Party, attracted a loyal group of viewers from a small and dwindling sliver of the country, made pots of money and, given his girth and age, will likely not live to see it die on its own sword. Fox News’ audience isn’t going to change their attitudes or beliefs. Fox can’t change its orientation. Limbaugh is mired in the qucksand of ignorance he shares with his listeners. It’s all very Shakespearean, the traits that make for greatness hold within them a calamitous end.

Lamb and mushroom rigatoni

Time for a food post. One of the fun things that foodies do is to try to duplicate (or improve on) a dish they were served in a restaurant. I first had this at a bistro on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Among the various mushrooms were a few thin slices of Botelus edulus. This earthy mushroom has many names. The French call it cèpe de Bordeaux or cep; in Italy it is porcini; the Brits call it king bolete or penny bun. In Germany it’s known as Steinpilz, in Austria Herrenpilz, in the Netherlands eekhoorntjesbrood, in Mexico as panza. In North America it is most often called by its Italian name, porcini.

B. edulus is the middle-class cook’s truffle. It has a musky quality that is close to a truffle but at a cost that a normal (i.e. middle-class) soul can afford. You can buy them fresh if you’re lucky — or willing to go into the fields at the right time, in the right place with the right knowledge, but mainly they come dried. I buy mine from local mushroom dealers or on online — in bulk (they have a very long shelf-life). Just rehydrate in warm water and they’re (almost) as good as the fresh picked. Buying this way also gives you a bonus, the mushroom dust at the bottom of the bag. Use it to enhance soups, stews, risottos.

Ingredients (serves 4 with leftovers —- maybe)

1 lb lamb cut into cubes or thick slivers

1 t chopped fresh rosemary

1 large onion, sliced in thin half-rounds

1 lb various mushrooms, sliced — porcinis are the key but feel free to toss in whatever you can find …criminis, oysters, shitakes, white button. If dried, rehydrate in warm water. Strain and save the soaking liquid

2 T flour

1 c lamb broth — here you’re likely to run into a problem. Very few stores carry this. I buy mine from a local Market that specializes in English products. You can alway make your own or just fall back on chicken stock (Knorr’s gel-packs are surprisingly good)

1 lb of chopped greens — any greens. I’ve ended up favoring chard or kale but collard or mustard greens work too though mustard greens tend to be a bit strong

1 lb pasta — rigatoni is good. A large, open pasta seems to be best but penne is fine

s & p to taste

Directions

brown lamb in a mix of butter and olive oil — use high heat otherwise too much liquid exudes from the lamb. Toss in the rosemary about half way through — remove and set aside

sauté onions and mushrooms in same pan (add butter if needed)

dust with flour — stir to blend

add lamb broth and soaking liquid — cook for 3,4 minutes

return lamb — cook for 4,5 minutes more

add greens — cook till done, another 7 minutes or so

mix with cooked pasta

The dish is remarkably simple yet captures a wonderful array of flavors. I think I’ve actually ended up with something that’s better than the bistro’s but I am not an unbiased observer.

Poker Mission Impossible

In January I got an email from Linda Köb, a producer of the show Galileo. No, I’d never heard of it either. Turns out it’s a German education, travel, science, news, reality TV show that has been one of Europe’s most popular programs for over fifteen years. They’re planning a series of episodes where one of their reporters, one Harro Füllgrabe, tries to learn a complex skill in a mere 48 hours. The skill du jour: poker.

I tried to explain to Linda that you cannot possibly teach someone to play poker in just two days. “Oh, that doesn’t matter,” she said. “We want to film the process. We’ll see how well he learns when he plays in a real cash game.” So off to Las Vegas I went — all expenses paid.

Harro turned out to be a fascinating character. He was a soccer enthusiast, sports reporter and most recently the star of “Harros verrückte Reise um die Welt” which translates roughly as “Harro’s insane travels around the world.” These have taken him to the Amazon rain forest where, following tribal tradition, he got hammered drinking a potent alcoholic “cocktail” while marching, dancing and singing with the Shaman of a Amazonian tribe, a temple in Calcutta where he handled a cobra, and a remote village in Papua New Guinea where he was groped by the village elder to find out how well hung he was. Here he is with the snake — you do not want to see the others.

Now here he was in the most insane place of all, Las Vegas, downtown on Fremont Street leaning on the Whisky Licker bar at Binions[1] with me, two of my poker playing friends, Linda Johnson and Bob Fisher who agreed to help with the project and the crew from Maximus Film, the production company.

Linda Johnson is one of the best poker players in the world. Known widely as The First Lady of Poker, she is one of a handful of women to have won a WSOP bracelet in an open event. She played poker professionally for some thirty years. She also published Card Player magazine and now runs Card Player Cruises and the charity Poker Gives. She still plays at the nosebleed levels. Her job was to teach Harro the basics: hand strength, position, when to fold, bet or raise.

Bob is a well-known local player who runs the tournaments for the WPDG (Wednesday Poker Discussion Group) and chairs the weekly meetings. Bob also has advanced degrees in Applied Mathematics and his job was to teach Harro about odds, how to count “outs” (cards that can win a hand), how to determine what the mathematically optimum play is and a little bit of game theory.

My role was, of course, psychological. I was to teach Harro about emotions and emotional control, how to read others, understand body language, how to look for tells and, most importantly, how to deal with the bad things that can (and will) happen at the table. Here we are in the desert getting ready to film a meditation session.

The next two days were a riot, one hilarious event followed by another one and all on tape. We talked poker in bars, at mock-up tables and at a staged play-money tournament. Bob took Harro to the roof top of Binions at night and drew equations on the protective glass walls around the deck of the swimming pool with the lights of Vegas twinkling in the background. Linda dealt hand after hand after hand explaining how to play position, how to understand what a good starting hand was, what a bad one was and, critically, what starting hands are justifiably called “trouble” hands — because that’s what you often end up in if you play them at the wrong time or in the wrong position.

In the desert we sat on ancient, red stone outcroppings, stared at desiccated cactus branches and talked about how to remain calm, how to refocus when your attention has wandered, how to control your emotions. We talked about when to be serious, when have fun, when to talk, when to listen. My main message: try to make the right decisions and do not worry what happens. If you made the right decision but still lost the hand, congratulate yourself. If you make the right decisions more often than the others you will be fine.

On the third day we held a real cash game: No limit hold ‘em with, $1 - $2 blinds. Binions hosted it, raked the pot like any other game and supplied a dealer. But the game was anything but ordinary. We brought in nine players from the WPDG. These folks are good. Two of them play poker professionally. One is a poker instructor and the others were all seasoned, experienced players. I, quite honestly, would not fare well against this line up. In fact, if it were the only game going, I’d go find another card room. We threw Harro into the lion’s den — until now he had never played a hand of poker in a real card room.

Linda, Bob and I expected a fast crash and burn session. We got anything but. Harro played remarkably well. We coached him between hands if he made a mistake and talked about each decision. The game was a hoot, Harro told jokes, laughed it up, the whole table got into the action. People went broke and re-bought. Harro was up, down, even, down again. He learned one thing well — how not to lose too much with so-so hands, an important skill. Here he tries staring down one of the WPDG players while Bob, Linda and I watch. It worked, Tim folded.

On the last hand of the two-hour session he was down about $80 and did something really weird. When Randi (orange shirt) raised, he went all-in without looking at his cards! She called with A♠,K♠ and Harro turned over a truly pathetic hand, Q♥,3♦.

And when the five cards hit the board … well, you’ll have to tune in to the show to know how it ended. But it was pure drama and Harro knew it. If he hits the miracle we have a magic moment. If he doesn’t he goes broke and we have a tragic moment — either one is good theater.

Now that the show has aired (May, 2014) I can reveal that Harro hit the miracle card! The flop and turn were no help but the river was a Q, one of only six cards that would take down the hand. The whole room went nuts with high fives, hugs, fist bumps and looks of incredulity. Good theater!

So, we did it, I guess — turned a novice into a decent player in two days. He held his own with some of the best mid-level players in Vegas. We all celebrated in Binions’ steak house —  on Maximus’s dime.

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[1] Thanks to Michele Richardson of Binions for allowing us in, treating us like royalty and giving us the use of the grand old “Gambling Hall” and to Frank Schlattner, photographer.