Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

On occasion, a writer produces a column for a newspaper that is worth repeating intact in my blog.

Such is the case today as I carry a column by Thomas Friedman that appeared in the New York Times under the headline I used for this blog.

The first phrase in the column caught my attention:  “President Trump is such an awful human being that just writing about him feels degrading.”

I share Friedman’s perception about the worst president in U.S. history – Donald Trump.  Writing about him feels degrading.

But I persist.  Here is the Friedman column.

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What president would denigrate his predecessor in front of China’s leader the way Trump mocked Joe Biden, now suffering from cancer, by pointing out that a framed picture of an autopen was hanging in the White House instead of Biden’s portrait?

Alas, though, when someone as morally warped as Trump — whose first secretary of state called him a “moron” — assumes this much unchecked power at the dawn of the Age of Artificial Intelligence, he can’t be ignored. Because right now Trump is leaving America exposed to dangerous viruses: digital, biological and diplomatic. Something bad is going to happen to us as a result. We and our children are going to pay for this, and not only at the gas pump.

Let me start with the digital virus now on the loose. Recently, OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta and Google all disclosed incidents in which their artificial intelligence models escaped their controls and gallivanted about hacking other computer systems — including an Australian government website, the Hugging Face platform and websites of the U.S. Commerce Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Remember, these are infant A.I. systems; they’re still in diapers and yet to be supercharged by fully training themselves and leaving their human designers behind.

And remember, too, the stories above are about what the good guys are doing. Talk to any major cyberprotection expert at any major U.S. company, and you’ll be terrified by stories about what the bad guys are doing with smaller A.I. models that they have gotten their hands on, with the controls stripped out.

The CrowdStrike Global Threat Report said attacks by “A.I.-enabled adversaries” increased by 89 percent in 2025 compared with the previous year, Infosecurity Magazine reported in February — and the rate has soared since.

But fear not, because our president, who doesn’t even use email, told the United Nations last week that he knows that our fears about A.I. safety are fraudulent. He referred to “the very same people who said we’ll all be dead in 12 years because of global warming.” He added: “And nobody was dead. These are the same people that are now saying that A.I. is going to kill us all.” (Untold thousands have died in catastrophes worsened by climate change in the last decade, and only in Trump’s fetid imagination did anyone say, “Sir, we’ll all be dead in 12 years.”)

Trump and his party — and the A.I. tech bros who have effectively paid them to keep their hands off their industry — had better pray that the “October surprise” in this coming midterm election is not a major, destructive A.I. event. If it is, they’d better have their spaceships ready to whisk them off to another planet where they can live forever, because this one may make their existences a living hell.

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This A.I. threat is not a hoax (nor is the climate threat a hoax, as Trump would know if he ever looked at his own administration’s NASA website). The only hoax is that Trump, who once suggested injecting bleach might be a good way to rid yourself of Covid-19, thinks he knows anything about A.I. or climate change — or bleach.

“It’s not a hoax at all,” Bill Gates said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. Gates said that the United States should restrain A.I. development until tougher safeguards are in place, and he argued that China would most likely do the same if Washington took the initiative to draft new rules to regulate the use of A.I.

A.I. without proper regulation is “completely irresponsible,” Gates said. “You need law enforcement and the politicians to get into the discussion about what safeguards and monitoring look like.” He concluded: “A.I. is certainly powerful enough to drive events that, you know, cause a billion deaths.”

Precisely because there has never been such a tool, despite its destructive potential, with so much promise to solve so many energy, climate and medical problems for humanity, I want to see A.I. thrive, as does Gates. Which is why we should all want to prevent now an A.I.-driven Sept. 11 that would completely delegitimize artificial intelligence in the public eye. That would be a double tragedy.

I wish that the only threat to us from Trump’s unrestrained ignorance were an A.I. virus. Sadly, last week, my Times colleague Apoorva Mandavilli reported that America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, long the “undisputed global leader in public health,” has been so systematically dismantled by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that it is now “a skeleton of the powerhouse it was.”

Not only has the C.D.C.’s staff been reduced by some 30 percent, but, Mandavilli reported, citing current and former employees, “the changes have hindered the C.D.C.’s ability to respond to outbreaks as measles spreads at home and Ebola abroad, and to issue timely guidance on vaccinations as cooling temperatures kick off the respiratory season. … Entire divisions have been shuttered, including teams that worked on smoking, sexual violence, child abuse and falls among older adults.”

The Guardian newspaper carried a story about the spreading outbreak of measles in Pennsylvania, which has now topped 900 cases. Dr. John Goldman, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said that between 1992 and 2026, he hadn’t seen a single case, The Guardian reported. Now, “We’re seeing at least one every day,” and he added, “Never in my life did I think I was ever going to see measles again.” This is an example of how Trump’s negligence is helping to spread actual, biological viruses.

But don’t forget the anti-diplomatic virus also sapping our strength. What is that? Check out this story in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, by its Middle East affairs expert Zvi Bar’el. It was about how the diplomatic incompetence of the Trump administration and the malevolence of the cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have combined to grind the 20-point Trump peace plan for Gaza to a halt. So Gazan civilians, many living in war-broken buildings, one of which collapsed on Sept. 16, killing at least 21 people, including 11 children, remain in total squalor.

When Trump launched his vaunted Gaza Board of Peace and made himself chairman, participating countries pledged $17 billion for Gaza. But “as far as is known, less than $300 million has been transferred,” Bar’el reported.

Moreover, the peace plan’s international stabilization force has yet to be established. The Palestinian police force to replace Hamas, which is supposed to operate under a Palestinian technocratic government, was supposed to receive training in Egypt, “but Israel is preventing them from leaving Gaza,” according to Bar’el.

Then Bar’el peeled back the real story: “The stalemate in Gaza serves Israel. Hamas no longer poses a security threat, but as long as it holds territory, Israel retains a pretext for resuming the war. And as long as the Strip remains devastated and unlivable, the pressure on the people to leave only grows.” He added that Netanyahu’s defense minister, Israel Katz, after being criticized by a rival politician for not achieving a more decisive victory over Hamas, declared that the Israeli military was ready, if ordered, to eliminate Hamas “so that the emigration plan can be implemented.”

So that the emigration plan can be implemented.

Really? What is that? That is Orwellian speak for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza of Palestinians by the Netanyahu government. And what have Trump and his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said in response? Zilch.

I’ve learned over the years that diplomacy operates like a virus as well, beneficially or detrimentally: The more success you have, the more respect you get; the more respect you get, the more success you have. Conversely, the more failure you have, the less allies trust joining you, so the more failure you have.

Example: Between March and October 1991, Secretary of State James A. Baker III made eight diplomatic trips to the Middle East to put together the Madrid peace conference — the first among Israel, the Palestine Liberation Organization and several Arab states. I made all eight trips with him as The Times’s diplomatic correspondent. He failed on the first seven, but Baker would not quit and he got it done on the eighth.

Show me a single diplomatic initiative the Trump administration has built since the cease-fire in Gaza, which Trump has left to languish. It’s as if all he cared about was the headline from the signing, after which he amazingly declared last October 13: “Together, we’ve achieved what everybody said was impossible. At long last we have peace in the Middle East.”

Now that’s what I call a real hoax.

There is no energetic, focused follow-up because there are no clear lines of authority. You have Thomas Barrack, who is the special envoy for Syria and Iraq and the ambassador to Turkey, making his own policy statements. You have Massad Fares Boulos, the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany, serving as a senior adviser to the president of the United States on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs. You have part-timers, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. You have various assistant secretaries of state and defense. And you have Trump on his social media feed. (Somebody is going to make this into a musical!)

What you don’t have is a secretary of state like Baker, relentlessly focusing and leveraging American power and making trip after trip after trip until he gets the job done.

The only thing Trump relentlessly follows up on is harassing the press. Last Saturday, after being forced by a judge to allow CNN reporters back in the White House after Trump illegally banned them because their coverage was not fawning enough, the president nevertheless blocked CNN from accompanying him on Air Force One to attend a football game in Tennessee.

When it comes to denouncing the press, Trump is laser-focused. But when dealing with the digital, biological and diplomatic viruses weakening our national immune system, not so much — to our great peril.

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A footnote:  I want to offer kudos to columnists like Friedman, Frank Bruni, and Karen Tumulty for their rigorous pursuit of Trump fables.  They represent what journalism ought to be about.

Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

There is no agreed-upon answer to the question in this blog headline, but at least one thing is clear:  Donald Trump is not done with his plan to change America.  Often, I argue, for the worse.

All of us in America will have to tolerate – a better word might be, survive – two more years of Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

All this came to mind last week as I read an article by Jonathan Rauch and Peter Wehner that appeared in the New York Times under this headline: “Trump Has Finally Lost the Plot.”

Rauch, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Wehner, a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum, always produce columns worth reading.  Especially Wehner, one of my favorite writers.

But, this time, I disagree, at least a little, with their contention, which was outlined in the first two paragraphs of their piece:

“The frantic pace of the Trump presidency makes days seem like weeks and weeks like months — if not years.  Finding rhyme or reason amid Trump’s erratic conduct is impossible.  Even so, while 2026 has not brought calm, it has brought more clarity.

“Twenty months into his second term, Trump has re-made the presidency and changed what Americans will tolerate from their government and from one another.  Yet that transformation, sweeping as it is, may prove less important than what Trump and his allies could not do.  They failed at the most ambitious project that they brought to his second term:  Using the state to re-make American society.  That failure is a central fact of the past 20 months, and it is why the country is in a less dangerous place than it was a year ago.”

My view:  While I hope Rauch and Wehner are right, all of us have two more years for Trump and cronies who will try to annihilate our future on their own terms, history and reality be damned.

Quotes from Rauch and Wehner appear below highlighted by bullet marks, followed by comments from me:

• “When Trump took office for the second time, he arrived with several overlapping but distinct agendas.  The one he cared most about would convert the executive branch to a form of government that scholars call patrimonialism, in which the state is run as the leader’s personal property and family concern.

“In a patrimonialist system, expert bureaucracies and neutral rules are replaced by — or subordinated to — the head of state’s will.  Where they can, patrimonialists personalize and weaponize law enforcement, pardons, programs and grants, appointments, promotions and all the other aspects of state power.”

COMMENT:  Trump meets this definition.  He has enriched himself and his family by several billion dollars — and, not to mention, his effort to extract almost $1.8 billion from taxpayers by means of a sham legal settlement.  

• He uses his Justice Department to wage personal vendettas and his pardons to indemnify his cronies.  He has staffed the department’s senior ranks with his own criminal defense attorneys, and the F.B.I. with a fierce political loyalist whose chief qualification was a career spent attacking the investigators who had scrutinized Trump. And he has purged the government’s internal checks on corruption, including by firing inspectors general, career prosecutors and F.B.I. agents whose offense was to follow the rules.

COMMENT:  Trump pushes Congress aside, believing he is all powerful, Congress be damned.  And Congress accents.

• The re-norming of political standards is another area in which Trump has made a lasting imprint.  By “re-norming,” we mean the deliberate degradation of what is considered acceptable in American public life.

Examples are far too many to list, but recall just a few:  Trump described his political opponents as “vermin” and said immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.” When Robert Mueller died in March, Trump posted that he was “glad he’s dead.” When Rob Reiner and his wife were murdered in their home, he blamed the killings on Reiner’s criticism of him.   He courted and excused political violence — winking at threats against officials who crossed him, joking about the near-fatal attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, and praising and then pardoning January 6 rioters.  He revels in bullying, cruelty and hate as no president ever has.

COMMENT:  If you were to list crimes for which Trump has been found to be guilty or would be found to be guilty, the list would be long.  By any normal standard, he should be in prison.

• “Many Americans are sick of wading through the sludge and understandably want to look away.  That is what Trump is counting on.  He wins not by persuading us that the conduct is acceptable, but by wearing us out until we no longer object.  Each violation makes the next easier; each unpunished transgression resets the baseline.

COMMENT:  Agreed.

• Every administration tries to shape the culture.  What sets this one apart is not the ambition, but the means and the scale — not persuasion but coercion, and not on one front but everywhere all at once, in ways that were unprecedented and found by courts to be unlawful.  Trump and his administration sought to bully and commandeer private institutions, to redirect the culture, and to remake society from above by force and fear.

History may one day judge that the tide turned in Minneapolis.  In January of this year, Operation Metro Surge made mass arrests, invaded homes, fired pepper balls and shot dead two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, without plausible cause — and then, after their deaths, defamed them.

The architect of the operation, Stephen Miller, one of the most powerful presidential aides in modern history, was explicit about the method. He ran Operation Metro Surge through daily calls with the leadership of the Department of Homeland Security, wielding the authority of the president — reportedly directing agents to “force confrontations” with protesters to win the “P.R. battle” and saying that if Minnesotans came to believe “their protesting is successful,” the administration’s interior operations would fail nationwide. Protesters, he reportedly said, “need to be vanquished by any force necessary.”

COMMENT:  Rauch and Wehner report that the people of Minneapolis answered with disciplined, peaceful resistance: tens of thousands marching in Arctic cold, luminaria spelling “ICE Out 4 Good,” a statewide “economic blackout,” a state lawsuit in federal court, citizen networks that tracked ICE and documented its activities, and a population that refused every provocation.

They contend that opposition in Minneapolis was the start of Trump’s downfall.  They contend very well for their perspective.

“Trump, with just under two-and-a-half years left in his second term, might emotionally and psychologically blow apart.  But things are different than they were.  The 80-year-old president is losing his grip on power and even his own base.  The MAGA movement is fracturing.  And the president no longer inspires the fear he once did.  We know something today that wasn’t altogether clear a year ago:  America’s civil society is harder to intimidate and rewire than MAGA’s cultural revolutionaries hoped.”

FINAL COMMENT:  Here’s hoping that Rauch and Wehner are right.  But I have my doubts, if only because Trump and sycophants always fight back because they want to win at any cost, even human costs.

Literally, our survival is at stake as we wonder what the next two years of Trump evil will hold.

THE DEPARTMENT OF PET PEEVES IS OPEN AGAIN

Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Two things bugged me so much over last weekend that I felt compelled to write about them on the theory that such writing allows me to limit anger.

CASE #1:  I was glued to the television to watch the Presidents’ Cup golf event.

And it was great to see the Americans rally on the last day – the single play day – to defeat the International Team.  It will stand as one of the great rallies in the history of the event.

Then, U.S. captain Brandt Snedecar committed what I count as a cardinal sin.  Here is what he said:

“Donald Trump told me he was going to bring some energy for the Americans.  You guys need it.  And I told him if we did this, he gets all the credit.  So, thank you, President Trump.”

So, Snedecar credits Trump for the win.  Not the players.  Not the fans.  Not anyone else.

Just Trump!  Incredible.  I used to like Snedecar as a once excellent young golfer and now a journeyman.  Now he is off my list.

CASE #2:  In the football game where the University of Oregon eventually beat the University of Southern California, a scary scene occurred early in the second quarter of the game. 

U of O quarterback Dante Moore, one of the best in the country, was knocked silly by a cornerback USC, one Desman Stephens.

Moore, who had tried to slide to avoid a collision, lay on the ground for minutes, apparently knocked out if not worse.  It turned out that he was taken to a hospital by ambulance where doctors indicated he had suffered a concussion and, fortunately, not more.

Now for my pet peeve.

After the play, Stephens was shown high-fiving everyone on the USC bench, smiling from ear-to-ear.  He was gloating.

Two pieces of good news are, first, USC penalized Stephens by ruling that he would be out for the next game, and, second, Stephens issued what sounded to me like a genuine apology.

Here it is:

“I want to sincerely apologize for my actions during yesterday’s game. Seeing a player injured like that is incredibly serious, and my reaction in the moments afterward was completely inappropriate and inexcusable.  Regardless of what was going through my mind at the time, there is no justification for smiling or celebrating while another player receives medical attention.  I take full responsibility for my actions.  That is not the person or teammate I want to be, and I will learn from this.  I am deeply sorry to Dante, his family and everyone who saw my reaction. It is not representative of USC or our program.  I hope he makes a full and speedy recovery.”

So, I repeal at least part of my last pet peeve, given the university’s actions and Stephens’ apology.

That’s enough.

HOW ABOUT THIS?  MY RECORD AS A TECHNOLOGY LEADER!

Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

This blog headline is wrong.

I am not a technology leader.  At best, I am a follower.

I usually have to contact my grandchildren when I have a technology question or problem.

But I was part of technology leadership on two occasions in the past.

WANG WORD PROCESSING SYSTEM:  Back when I worked in Congress for a representative from Oregon, our office was the first to use this system.

It was created by Wang Laboratories and it changed how all of us wrote and edited documents in the 1970s and 1980s.

It did that for me in Congress.  To this day, I remember how easy it was to change a mistake in a letter.  Just hit a couple correction keys.  No longer did we have to use “white out” to remove a faulty letter.

Hardly anyone remembers Wang these days.  I do.  It was revolutionary.

BLACKBERRY OPERATING SYSTEM:  Many years later, a lobbying firm of which I was a partner in Oregon bought a Blackberry system.  We were the first lobbying firm to acquire the technology.  It, too, was revolutionary.

BlackBerry is a software company that transitioned from manufacturing physical-keyboard mobile phones into a leading provider of automotive operating systems and enterprise cybersecurity.  It was founded in 1984 as Research in Motion, shortly before my firm bought the system.

For us, it enabled individual users like me to obtain e-mail transmissions no matter where I was in the State of Oregon’s Capitol in Salem, Oregon.  Or, of course, outside the Capitol, too.

That mattered to me because I could now be on a golf course with a state legislator and I could check e-mails as I played 18-holes. And, not just on the golf course.  Anywhere.

As we know now, Blackberrys were a preview of what was to come in the form of mobile phones.

See, this shows that I am a leader in technology.  Just don’t ask me any questions about it!

A STARK CONTRAST:  SUPPORT FOR AND HATING REFUGEES/IMMIGRANTS

Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

I have written in the past about immigrants, if only because all of us either are immigrants or have immigrants in our lineage.

Mine:  On the maternal side, by grandparents emigrated to the United States from Norway.  Paternal?  Probably the same, though not as clear.

On this subject – immigrants – a stark contrast struck me this week.

• On Tuesday, my wife and I ventured to a park in downtown Salem to drop in on a Salem for Refugees picnic.  It was great to be there and to show our support for this local organization in the town where we live, Salem Oregon.  We saw families who came for the event under sunny skies, often dressed in their native garb.

• On Thursday, I read a column by David French in the New York Times as he characterized actions by those who hate persons other than themselves – in other words, they hate immigrants.  Look no farther than Donald Trump to see someone who hates others.  And, remember, like the rest of us, Trump himself comes from immigrant stock.
  
  

Here is more detail on the contrast I saw.

Salem for Refugees (SFR) is a local organization that exists to help those in Salem who meet the definition of “rufugee,” but who also could be called “immigrants:”  The organization started in concert with a refugee support group in our church in Salem, Salem Alliance, then branched out on its own.

 What does it mean to be a refugee or an immigrant?

“According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the official definition of a refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence.

“A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.  Most likely, they cannot return home or are afraid to do so.  War and ethnic, tribal and religious violence are leading causes of refugees fleeing their countries.”

SFR’s record of service is impressive:  2,000 refugees served; 250 volunteers; 12 Languages represented on staff; 10,000 volunteer hours donated.

Some may be surprised that there are refugee communities in Salem, Oregon.

Exact total counts of the refugee population currently living in Salem, Oregon, are not tracked, but local organizations like Salem for Refugees have helped settle hundreds of individuals from diverse global crises.

Refugees resettling in the Salem area come from regions impacted by war, violence, and persecution — from countries including Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Congo Eritrea, Venezuela and El Salvador

On to the contrast.  It emerged in a column in the New York Times written by David French.

Here is how his column started:

“I woke up (from a day of watching football on TV) to find that the internet was on fire over a tweet posted by Bo French (no relation that I know of, thank God), the Republican nominee to be Texas railroad commissioner.  In Texas, the railroad commissioner exercises extraordinary power over oil and gas industry.”

Bo French posted on the internet that he did not believe what he saw when he attended a University of Texas graduation.

He attached a picture to the tweet that showed a group of young Texas fans in the crowd who appeared to be South Asian. They were wearing Texas gear, some sported cowboy hats, and some were throwing up the “hook ’em horns” sign.

Bo French’s “problem:”  What he saw were not White Americans.

Then, this from David French:

“Before I go any further, you need to know that this is nothing unusual from Bo French.  He’s one of a seemingly endless number of vicious bigots lurking within the modern right, but he stands out from the rest, even so.

“As Robert Downen wrote in Texas Monthly, French has ‘called for the rounding up of all Muslims.’  He also posted, ‘OK boys, it’s time to go round up all the Chinese and send them packing.’  And he has called for America to be like Rhodesia, an African nation every bit as gross, violent and racially repressive as apartheid South Africa.”

Put simply, Bo French is a bigot.

David French says he had two responses to French’s tweet.  “First, the picture itself helps refute one of the most common arguments from the populist right — that immigrants from Asia and the global south can’t assimilate into American culture, that there’s just something about them that’s different from, say, the Irish or, in the president’s famous formulation, Norwegians, that prevents them from becoming truly American.

“I’m sorry, but when you’re wearing a cowboy hat, losing your mind at a college-football game and throwing up the hook ‘em horns sign, you’re doing a lot of things and one of them is assimilating.

“In fact, anyone who spends five minutes with immigrants knows and sees the power of American culture.  It’s a prime reason people come here in the first place.  They don’t want to replace Americans; they want to be Americans.”

Whites want to be White and for everyone else to be that color, too.

Count Trump among this number.

Technically, he is not an immigrant, but like the rest of us, he comes from immigrant stock.  His grandparents emigrated from Germany and his mother from Scotland.

So, to Bo French and Donald Trump, I say this:  Value all people as people worthy of respect and honor.

Hear the words of Ronald Reagan in his last speech as president.

 “I think it’s fitting to leave one final thought, an observation about a country which I love.  It was stated best in a letter I received not long ago. A man wrote me and said:  ‘You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman.  You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk, or a Japanese.  But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American.”

Plus, the Bible speaks frequently about immigrants and refugees, often using terms like “stranger,” “sojourner,” or “foreigner” to describe displaced people, travelers, and outsiders.  Across both the Old and New Testaments, scripture consistently commands believers to show them fairness, hospitality, and active compassion.

May we, as individuals, do the same.

Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

This is one of five departments I run with a free hand to manage as I see fit.

So, I open the department heralded in this headline.

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES: 

“Examples are far too many to enumerate, but recall just a few (errors by Donald Trump):  Trump described his political opponents as ‘vermin’ and said immigrants were ‘poisoning the blood of our country.’

“When Robert Mueller died in March, Trump posted that he was ‘glad he’s dead.’  When Rob Reiner and his wife were murdered in their home, he blamed the killings on Reiner’s criticism of him.

“He courted and excused political violence — winking at threats against officials who crossed him, joking about the near-fatal attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, and praising and then pardoning January 6 rioters.

“He revels in bullying, cruelty and hate as no president ever has.  Beneath it all is the normalization of lying on an industrial scale:  Tens of thousands of documented false claims as president, including false accusations against Americans and false representations to courts.”

COMMENT:  There, another good summary of Trump’s actions, which for anyone else, would put them in jail.

FROM THE WASHINGTON POST:

“In interviews and speeches, President Donald Trump has maintained that mid-term politics don’t affect his decisions on Iran, that the war has been worth the cost, and that he would do it all over again despite Republicans bracing for defeat in November.

“But in some private conversation with advisers, Trump has signaled that he understands his decisions on the war have contributed to the especially poor political environment his party faces — making the president more intent on helping Republicans mitigate the expected losses.

“Trump in recent weeks has become sober about the gravity of the political situation, listening intently as he is presented with often discouraging polling, according to four people with knowledge of his recent comments, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.  That shift has prompted him to take more action on the midterms — pledging to stump for candidates and opening his war chest in competitive races, for example — although it remains to be seen how effectively Republicans can gain ground over the next six weeks.

COMMENT:  Good reporting by the NY Times, but this assumes that Trump thinks before he acts, or that he acknowledges that his actions have caused political problems.  For me, the assumptions have been proven false time after time with Trump.  He doesn’t think before he acts, nor does he assess his potential failures.

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES: 

“TV networks are denying Trump what he craves – attention.”

COMMENT:  The sentence illustrates a lot.  Notice that it doesn’t say that Trump craves success for the U.S.  He craves attention for himself.

Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Ever wondered how big the Milky Way is – the galaxy in which we live?

It may not be an everyday topic, but I have thought about it.  And I also have heard the statistics, which prompted me to do two things:  Express amazement at what I heard, and then, looked at Mr. Google to verify what I heard.  Here is what I found:

The Milky Way is approximately 100,000 light-years across and about 1,000 light-years thick at its main disk.

• Diameter:  About 100,000 to 120,000 light-years (nearly 600 quadrillion miles).

• Thickness:  Roughly 1,000 light-years for the main stellar disk, swelling to about 10,000 to 30,000 light-years thick at the central galactic bulge.

• Our Location:  The sun sits about 26,000 to 27,000 light-years away from the center of the galaxy, out on a smaller branch called the Orion Arm.

• Star Count:  It holds an estimated 100 to 400 billion stars.

Hard to fathom? Yes!

Mere humans cannot grasp such size.

I also asked Google how scientists measure the size of stuff so far away.  The answer:  “Astronomers measure the physical size of galaxies by first finding how far away they are and then using geometry to calculate their actual width from the angle they take up in the sky.”

Don’t ask me if I understand this – because I don’t.

Then I add more facts:

• It would take 100,000 to 200,000 years to cross the Milky Way if you could travel at the speed of light.

• The Milky Way is roughly 100,000 to 200,000 light-years across, meaning how long the journey takes depends entirely on your speed.

• At the speed of light (186,282 miles per second):  It would take 100,000 to 200,000 years.

• At the speed of the fastest human-made spacecraft (like NASA’s Parker Solar Probe or Voyager):  It would take roughly 1.7 billion to 300 million years, depending on the exact peak velocity and path chosen.

• Walking (at a standard human pace of 5 km/h):  It would take about 21 billion years, which, scientists say, is longer than the current age of the universe.

So, go beyond our galaxy and consider our neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy.  It spans approximately 220,000 to 260,000 light-years in diameter, making it roughly twice the size of the Milky Way.

• Diameter:  About 152,000 to 220,000 light-years (depending on how diffuse outer stellar halos and edges are measured).
• Total Mass:  Estimated around 800 billion to 1.2 trillion times the mass of the sun, comparable to the Milky Way.
• Star Count:  Contains an estimated 1 trillion stars.

And this blog headline leads me to a simple, yet profound, conclusion:

Only God could create this.

Not happenstance.

But, in this context, you have a choice.  Either believe it or don’t.  That is your call.

Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

This blog headline enables me to mix several developments under one title.

Plus, it also allows me to inject my own bias of what constitutes “good” and “bad.”

FIRST, GOOD NEWS:  LIV GOLF IS GOING BANKRUPT: 

Golf writer Eamon Lynch has it right when he writes in GolfWeek under this headline:  “Finally, after four years and $5.5 billion, LIV Golf isn’t only morally bankrupt.”

For me, this ranks as good news because LIV lured pro golfers to a program that was tainted by money from the Saudi Defense Fund.  A few golfers followed the money and now – here’s the good news – they are paying a price for defecting from the PGA Tour, which produced their livelihood.

More from Lynch:

“There’s likely to be more poetry than justice in the poetic justice of LIV Golf facing financial insolvency that complements its moral bankruptcy, since it won’t only be the deserving players and agents who’ll be stiffed on invoices but also vendors and employees who can ill afford the hit.

“For poetry, we can enjoy how the Chapter 11 filing blows away the smokescreen of obfuscation and guff that has governed LIV’s dealings since launch, forcing the league to cite real-world figures and facts. Like admitting that the Saudi Public Investment Fund lost $5 billion and would fund the 2026 season only with a $495 million loan, which was still insufficient to cover the schedule without canceling two tournaments.”

Lynch points out that:

• Only $15 million cash remains on hand from that near $5.5 billion.
• LIV’s media rights deal was worth a paltry $5 million, equivalent to revenue earned selling team merchandise.
• LIV execs averaged $250,000 in annual credit card bills.
• LIV shorted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees $1.7 million, money promised in support of its mission to aid displaced peoples, presumably including those impacted by the Saudi involvement in Sudan.”

NEXT, BAD NEWS:  FOR TRUMP, PARDONS ARE A POLITICAL GAME WHERE HE TRIES, AGAIN, TO MAKE MONEY: 

According to the TV news program 60 Minutes, political pardons are now a political game.  One pardon came for the owner of a nursing home chain, who had been convicted of massive tax fraud. He paid pardon brokers nearly a million dollars for their promise to reach the president.  For the same service, other brokers charge as much as $3 million.

Who knows how much of that money goes into Trump’s pocket.

FINALLY, MORE BAD NEWS, BUT IT DOESN’T MATTER MUCH:  THE WINNER OF THE U.S. OPEN TENNIS TOURNAMENT BOUNCES THE BALL TOO MUCH:

Even I, not much of a tennis fan, know this.  Alexander Zverev bounces the ball too much before, finally, he lofts a serve.

I counted 15 bounces once.  Yes, 15!

If you are on the receiving ends of his serves, you might fall asleep before the shot reaches your end of the court.

Zverev came under criticism as he won the U.S. Open.  On occasion, exceeded the allotted time to serve, governed as the process is governed by a shot clock.  No penalty was called.  And, to put a point on it, Zverev said he didn’t care.  He won.

In this way, what happens reminds me of my favorite sport, golf, where players are almost never penalized when they take forever to play a shot – and forever means too long under existing golf rules, which are not enforced.

Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

When I wrote the headline on this blog, I knew at least one thing:  What I know about data centers could be written on the head of a pin.

Plus, these days, data centers have become political footballs to be thrown every which way.  Which means we cannot rely on the authority of such footballs.

Here in Oregon, for example, the two candidates for governor – Democrat Tina Kotek who is running for re-election, and Republican Christine Drazan who is trying to unseat Kotek after failing last time around – are playing the game.

Both now say they favor a moratorium in data centers in Oregon, though each has been on a different page in the past. 

A Drazan ad contended that Kotek has given data centers cushy tax breaks while increasing taxes on “regular” Oregonians.  An ad for Kotek takes Drazan on for her actions to support data centers.  Both ads have overstated things, but that’s what political ads do – they overstate.

The fact is that many of the tax breaks for data centers in Oregon have been approved by local governments under what’s the called “enterprise zone program.”  Not by Kotek or by Drazan, though both may have favored them in the past as ways to bring new jobs to the state.

So, wondering about the truth of data centers, not the political tug-of-war, I went to Google. 

As I did, an additional comment about why I decided to write a blog about this.  It is not to share “new” information or to come up with my own bottom-line view.  No, it was just to learn more and plant the information in my head by writing about it.

On Google, infused by AI, I learned a lot from a piece written by Cal Tech professor Adam Wierman.

Why Wierman?  No reason.  I just found what he wrote to be interesting.  He is a professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences and director of Information Science and Technology at Caltech. 

He says it is crucial fully to understand and manage the impact of data centers, especially in small communities.  Over the last several years, Wierman and a colleague from UC Riverside have focused on the public health costs associated with data center–generated air pollution and the water demands of hyperscale data centers.

In the interest of accuracy and context, I post here excerpts from what Wierman wrote, with, of course, due credit to him for his work.

Here is the intro to the article:

“ere iHeerWith the recent growth of AI, particularly with widespread adoption of large language models such as ChatGPT, there has been a dramatic increase in the need for data centers — facilities that house the computers and data storage systems that make the technology possible.

“And while much has been said about the large-scale and even global environmental impact of these computing centers in terms of energy and water usage, the local impact on small communities, where large data centers are increasingly being built, is emerging as a point of particular concern.”

**********

First, how do we define data centers?

Data centers are the physical infrastructure needed to run the computing that happens below the surface when you give ChatGPT or another LLM a task.  They can be what we call “hyperscale,” these massive campuses consisting of multiple buildings, each of which can be the size of multiple football fields.  They house a huge number of servers that demand power and the water to cool them on a scale that sometimes rivals entire cities.  At the same time, there are data centers that meet more local, so-called “edge computing” needs.  These are far less conspicuous and might take up multiple floors of a skyscraper or an abandoned warehouse.

How have data centers grown over the years?

There has been a ton of growth in data centers over the years.  The electricity needs were a big concern, and research focused intensely on questions like:  How do we manage this growth of data centers?  How do we make sure that the grid can handle them?  How do we make sure that the environmental impact is constrained?

The recent surge of AI has led to a massive growth rate.  In the early 2010s, data centers accounted for about 1 to 1.5 per cent of U.S. electricity usage.  There were fears that it was going to get up to 3 to 5 per cent.  We are again in an exponential phase of growth, and people are projecting data centers will hit 15 to 20 per cent of U.S. electricity usage in a few years.  The question is:  Can research constrain that?  Or can we at least limit the impact of that on the communities, plan for it, and grow sustainably?

Why is it important to focus heavily now on the communities where these data centers are being built?

In the 2010s, we were focusing on power, carbon, and kind of the global large-scale impact of data centers.  Now, the local impacts are becoming much more binding because this isn’t just a large load coming in.  This is a massive community-shifting load coming into areas and stressing infrastructure in ways that are hard to imagine.

What are some of the ways in which these local communities are impacted?

First, there’s the noise, especially when multiple data centers come in.  These data centers rely on back-up mobile generators, and they are super loud.  They also are about the dirtiest source in terms of pollution for the local community.

Back-up generators run a lot more frequently just because they have to be turned on and off for testing and maintenance.  Also, if there is any sort of power imbalance, they are put to use.  And they run on diesel or, these days, gas.  So, they have a pollution impact that is significant and that people don’t often associate with data centers.

Then there are the power impacts on the community in terms of potential rate increases if the generation and needs of the data center aren’t compensated appropriately with the utilities — something that is very difficult for a utility to get right when figuring out these contracts.

There are power-quality issues.  The data centers are often very risk averse.  If there’s some sort of issue in the grid that they’re connected to, they’ll disconnect, taking a massive load off the grid.  That then makes it even more difficult for the grid to stabilize.  So, we’ve seen communities where there are more frequent brownouts or power outages as a result of the data center moving in.

And then there’s water.  There are examples where data centers come into a community and use more water daily than the entire community used before.  And this can use up the local watershed.  This is unheard of, historically, in terms of an industry moving into a community.

When water first got onto people’s radar related to data centers, the focus was on the aggregate total use.  That is not huge in terms of percentage of the national level of use.  But if you look more locally, there are projects where a data center is moving into a drought-sensitive area and using a massive amount of the community watershed.  That makes a huge impact on water availability for the long haul and water infrastructure locally.  Also, peak water usage can be six-to-10-plus times the typical rate.

Are there things that can be done to mitigate the impact of data centers on these local communities?

Yes.  Data centers are sometimes viewed primarily as the problem, but there are things we can do to minimize the community impact.  It’s also important to note that they are a symptom of a larger problem, which is that we have not modernized infrastructure in the US.

One thing that is often overlooked is that unlike other large electric loads that are coming online now (such as the electrification of transportation with electric vehicles and industry), data centers are actually well suited to help.  They have flexibility in terms of when and where they use energy and when and where they use water.  They have lots of opportunities for flexibility if the infrastructure can partner with them.  They’re also hugely instrumented, which means they’re highly controlled and smart in the way they do resource allocation.  And they have lots of capital to invest in infrastructure improvements to enable them to move into a community if the infrastructure is able and willing to take that investment and build on it.

That all means that you can work with a data center and really make a difference on the grid. So, yes, they’re a big part of the problem, but they are also potentially a big part of the solution.

Are there places where the right things are being done?

Everybody is struggling.  But there are some great success stories.  Finland has a data center that uses waste heat from the computer to heat the surrounding community.

There are also differences in how communities are regulating.  Canada is much better at regulating noise than the U.S.

What is most concerning about the rising demand for data centers?

The push right now to emphasize the speed in which data centers can deploy is potentially magnifying some of these issues.  Now, there’s a strong push that, to compete with China and to compete in AI, we need to build more and larger data centers as fast as possible.  As a result, people are looking for ways to allow data centers to move more quickly to construction with less regulation.

In this kind of move-quick-and-break-things approach, the thing that breaks is the local communities.  So, finding the balance where we can build data centers quickly while we’re creating incentives and we’re creating the technology and we’re really ensuring that the community impact is managed and understood as we build is crucial.

**********

There.  More than we may want to know about data centers, but, still, good information beyond political footballs.

I wrote earlier that, for me, I was not trying to come up with a bottom-line position.  But the data center issue represents another example where, if government officials used their heads and common sense, they could find a solution somewhere in the middle.

Not “no.”  Not “yes.”  But the middle.

If that were to occur, it would surprise, given the blight of government these days.

Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

I have written many times in the past about my negative views of the person in the Oval Office, Donald Trump, who acts like he is a president of the United States of America.

I use the word “acting” intentionally because that’s what Trump does – he acts.

But, for today, I post three new views of Trump because they illustrate, at least as well as I do, if not better, what a stupid scofflaw Trump is.

FROM ACTOR HARRISON FORD:  He said Trump “doesn’t have any policies, he has whims.”  Then, he went further.  “It’s unbelievable,” Ford said.  “I don’t know of a greater criminal in history.”

Comment:  Good point, Mr. Ford.  I also wonder WHY Trump does stuff, with no thought for the consequences of his actions or inactions.  Well, like Mr. Ford says, Trump has whims – which I define that if something happens to cross his mind, then emerges out his mouth.

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES:  “When Donald Trump looks at a map, he doesn’t see nations.  He sees property.  All those pretty colors do not represent actual places filled with human beings who have distinct cultures, languages, and histories.  The planet, to Trump, is a big board game, like Risk or Monopoly.

“Greenland isn’t a real location — it’s a valuable chunk of territory nestled between Boardwalk and Park Place.  The Strait of Hormuz isn’t an international waterway — it’s a thing to control somewhere between Kamchatka and East Africa.

“This inability to grasp the existence of independent nations drives the president to fury when countries and their governments refuse to play along with his delusions.  Trump cannot understand why Iran won’t bend to his will, why NATO won’t instantly obey his orders, why South Korea and Japan won’t just write checks or provide troops on demand.

“The only people Trump seems to respect are the autocrats in Beijing and Moscow and Pyongyang who, like him, view the world as a brutal competition for power and territory.

“Now, Trump has declared economic war on Canada, a nation that has vexed him for years. Even by the standards of Trump’s many fixations, his obsession with Canada has become not only weird but truly destructive. He has opened a giant political and economic rift with one of America’s biggest trading partners, a sister nation, and an ally in the common defense of North America and Europe.

Comment:  Excellent analysis, NY Times editors.  The best line is near the top:  “When Donald Trump looks at a map, he doesn’t see nations.  He sees property.”   

FROM THE WASHINGTON POST:  “No one is falling for Trump’s budget-busting ‘dividend’ check gimmick

“The president’s message at the Republican mid-term convention underscores why so many Americans who care about fiscal sanity feel politically homeless.

“Trump’s proposal to pay every adult citizen $5,000 if the GOP holds the House and Senate this fall is a desperate gimmick that betrays a profound lack of seriousness about the looming fiscal crisis.  

“This would cost an estimated $1.2 trillion next year, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.  The money would need to be borrowed on top of the $40 trillion national debt — and paid back with interest.”

Comment:  Yeah, Trump doesn’t worry about who is paying the bill for his largesse.  It’s just not him.

So, in conclusion, these comments about Trump indicate all anyone needs to know about this make-believe president.  My only addition is to ask whether we will be able to survive two more years of this surfeit.