Imelda is 97!

2 July—Imelda Marcos turned 97 today. Remember her? She was glamorous First Lady of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986, while her husband Ferdinand was president. He died in 1989, and now her only son, Bongbong, is president.

Ferdinand Marcos was initially elected democratically albeit corruptly (of course), and he stayed in power undemocratically and corruptly (of course). In other words, he was a dictator. In what he called “constitutional authoritarianism,” Marcos consolidated and fortified his power by bypassing—and even in one instance shutting down—the legislature and ruling by decree. True to form, he censored the media and had political rivals and uncooperative journalists jailed.

Donald Trump has expressed admiration—and likely envy—for Ferdinand Marcos as “a strong leader.” Of course.

Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos stole billions of dollars from the Filipino people, amassing a personal fortune estimated by some to have been as much as ten billion U.S. dollars by the time they were deposed in 1986. Trump, on the other hand . . .

Donald Trump has known Imelda Marcos since her appearance on the New York jet-set scene during her trial (and surprise acquittal) on federal racketeering charges. He must revere her for what’s known as her “edifice complex,” wherein as Philippine First Lady she ordered construction of many ostentatious (if not necessarily superfluous) architectural projects in short order and—of course—at public expense.

When Ferdinand Marcos was overthrown by the nonviolent People Power Revolution that brought Corazon Aquino to office in 1986, he, Imelda, and Bongbong and his sisters (great title for a movie) were flown by U.S. military transport at President Ronald Reagan’s behest to their abjectly luxurious exile in Hawaii. Imelda and the kids were allowed to return to the Philippines when Ferdinand died in 1991.

What, you must be wondering, about Imelda’s shoes? Well, Imelda Marcos is of course remembered mostly for her massive shoe collection, said, depending on the source, to have comprised between a paltry 1,000 and an impressive 3,000 pairs of the likes of high-heeled and overpriced (and typically undersized) Guccis, Chanels, Ferragamos, and Diors. In 1987, Imelda herself modestly claimed only 1,060 pairs. No surprise, by the way, that she also had some 400 Dr. Scholl’s inserts and foot powder. And even simple sneakers and flats. Really.

Through the decades, hundreds of Imelda’s shoes have been destroyed while in storage by flooding, mold, and bugs. There are only about 800 surviving pairs, many of them in a shoe museum in the Philippines.

And Imelda is said to be keeping her shoe collection current . . .

Democratic suicide

1 July—(Parenthetically, to start, today is Canada Day, commemorating the creation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867 by the British North America Act. So when is the Dominion of Canada going to become Donald Trump’s promised or threatened 51^st State of Canada?)

On to the daily disquisition, then, a big oops. Nostra culpa. Wicked Justice Samuel Alito isn’t retiring. Just now, anyway. And probably for the better. Contrary to what the Monitor reported yesterday, the momzer didn’t announce his retirement or—as far as we can determine—anything else at yesterday’s Supreme Court season finale.

Didn’t any Monitor readers notice the erratum?

Explanation: After yesterday’s disquisition was posted, Nina Totenberg, NPR’s SCOTUS and legal affairs correspondent, who had covered the court’s last session before the summer break (as she’s been doing for almost six decades), apologized profusely for what the grifter-in-chief would call the fake news. It seems Nina misheard an announcement by Chief Justice John Roberts about SCOTUS retirements and assumed she’d finally be able to use her prepared Alito retirement story. (Everybody has retirement stories and obits ready to go.)

And I naturally assumed Alito had made the announcement himself. My bad. So much for putting the ass before u and me.

But it appears in all events that Donald Trump and Federalist Society boss Leonard Leo will have to wait a little longer to replace Alito with an even more disgraceful sociopath. Truth be told, Alito, to his credit, isn’t a Trump flunky, though as we’ve seen that hardly matters. And we can hope that Alito and Clarence Thomas are able—and motivated—to hold out until a worthy president retakes the White House and a less unworthy majority reclaims the Senate, at which time they’d hopefully both be unable, for whatever reasons, to continue as Supremes. Hope springs.

So the Democrats have a good chance of reclaiming a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and even a chance in the Senate. Except, just as Connecticut Republicans have for far too long demonstrated a penchant for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, recent Democrat primary elections indicate that the Dems are not only shooting themselves in their collective foot but committing bloody suicide.

Blame it not so much on Trump’s reign of terror as on the Democratic Socialists of America and other so-called progressives within the party who have cleverly, effectively, insidiously demagogued mostly younger, impressionable, obviously naïve voters into supporting their impracticable, unworkable, ludicrous, frankly vile agenda at the primary polls. It’s one thing in safe Democrat strongholds, quite another where seats can be flipped in the general election.

Given the choice, would you vote for a candidate who wants to, among other travesties, tax non-fungible assets and unrealized capital gains, defund police, and free even more incarcerated criminals than Donald Trump? Those insults are on the absurd agenda of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Sad to say, the way things look now, come November, Trumpublicans may keep their majorities in both houses and further the evil regime of their corrupt lord and master. And they’ll have the Democrats to thank for it . . .

SCOTUS: no surprises

30 June—So this morning the United States Supreme Court, quite as expected, affirmed the legality and constitutionality of birthright citizenship, in an opinion on Trump v. Barbara delivered by Chief Justice John Roberts, concurring opinion by Justice Ketanji Jackson, concurring and dissenting opinion by Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Also as expected, however, malevolent justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented, Thomas in 91 pages and Alito in 39 pages, unsurprisingly joined by insidiously wicked but succinct (this time) Neil Gorsuch in three pages.

Alito, who never should have been nominated by Bush 43 to replace Sandra Day O’Connor on the big bench but was confirmed by a largely party-line 58 to 42 vote in 2005 (with four Democrats voting to confirm and one Republican and one Independent voting not to), announced his (reluctant) intention to retire, likely as a favor as well as his sick way of apologizing to maleficent and corrupt Donald Trump for the few SCOTUS decisions that went against the scumbag-in-chief.

Trump is likely to announce his new flunky justice nominee without delay, as there doubtless have been a few unqualified but unquestionably loyal shysters, all vetted and recommended by virtual monarchist Leonard Leo of the arrogant Federalist Society that probably has Alexander Hamilton spinning in his grave, waiting in the wings for some time. Consider even the mere possibility of Associate Justice Todd Blanche and try not to throw up.

Trump will nominate a Federalist friendly replacement likely even more despicable than Alito without delay so that he (male gender of the new flunky being a virtual certainty) can get confirmed by the Senate while it’s still controlled by a gutless and still compliant Trumpublican majority and start screwing with the Constitution this summer. And the Supreme Court—and the nation—will be stuck with yet another disgraceful justice at least through the middle of the century.

It doesn’t bode well for the future of the republic . . .

Demolish Bantam School

29 June—Update on municipal taxes first. If the USPS Informed Delivery daily email can be believed, paper Litchfield borough tax bills have been and are being delivered today. At least they’ve made it to Springfield, where they go from Litchfield—and where most mail destined for Litchfield takes a detour to be digitally coded and photographed—only to come back here (if we’re lucky and it’s not miscoded and sent off to the hinterland).

And the Litchfield town tax collector’s office says the paper tax bills will be in the mail on 1 July. We didn’t go into why the tell they haven’t been sent out earlier. But it appears the contractor who’s responsible for getting the bills printed, posted, and mailed should not have posted the motor vehicle tax bills on the town website. Why not?

While we’re in Litchfield, town officials appear finally to be approaching—but haven’t yet reached—the realization that the Bantam School, now functioning as the Town Hall Annex and home to the Bantam post office, is like the immense boulder Sisyphus was condemned to push up the hill in Tartarus (the destination of the damned, super-hell) only to have it roll back every time it neared the summit. In other words, preserving, upgrading, renovating, repurposing Breuer’s Bantam abomination would be a futile and never-ending burden to taxpayers. Like maintaining it is.

Thanks to an intransigently arrogant and just plain stupid Bantam planning and zoning commission tyrannized by a chairman who did the borough and town a favor when he moved away, the town wasn’t able to sell the decrepit Breuer Bantam burden and its land to an enthusiastic developer a couple of decades ago for really big bucks.

Bantam School was closed in the 70s, reopened and augmented with modular units (what we called trailers back then) for a short-lived pupil bump a few years thereafter, and repurposed as town offices and leased space for a state court and U.S. post office when the bump in enrollment passed.

The three poorly conceived and built Breuer-architected schools in Litchfield have been money pits for most of their 70-odd-year existence. Taxpayers were fortunate that the Montessori people who had been leasing Breuer’s little Northfield school bought it almost four decades ago even for the pittance they paid and even though nonprofit Montessori pays no taxes. But we’re still stuck with the former Litchfield High School and of course the Bantam Annex.

Marcel Breuer adulators come up with all manner of desperations to preserve his Bauhaus cheesebox legacy in Litchfield. But there are four unattractive and unlivable private homes in town for that.

Weren’t the Breuerites talking a few years ago about spending something like $10 million to bring the Bantam Annex up to spec and repurpose it? Well, that’s metastasized to over $30 million.

The highest and best thing to do with the Bantam Annex, then, as selectman Dan Morosani has mooted, is to demolish it. Demolishing the high school, as it happens, had been the best option many years ago, to replace it with a proper school building—so it was naturally discounted by the screw-up school building committee at the time. That’s how it’s always been in Litchfield.

Demolishing the Bantam white elephant would cost under a million. If the Bantam planning and zoning and historic district commissions have problems with it, the town will beat them in court—unless the selectmen roll over and play dead, as has been their wont of late.

And maybe the demolition people would give the town a break if they could also raze the high school while the wrecking balls are in town . . .

From Utopia to Nowhere

28 June—The great news is that today is Mel Brooks’s 100th birthday. Mazel tov and best wishes to the renaissance man of comedy, who, as he’s admitted, was born to make people laugh. And may he have many, many happy returns.

(Two weeks ago, on Donald Trump’s 80th birthday, you may recall the Monitor’s very special birthday greeting for the unstable deranged sociopath who was born to make people miserable: “No happy returns, you miserable unprincipled, irredeemable scumbag. In fact, do the nation and the world a favor, and no returns at all.”

Moving on, then, it must be half a century ago during lunch with a local media mogul and a former Torrington mayor (and Connecticut lieutenant governor) at Torrington’s late Yankee Pedlar (which in those days was where the elite met to eat—and imbibe) that the mogul playfully (?) suggested making Torrington into a theme park to be called Six Flags Over Nowhere.

Nice old former mayor Bill Carroll’s gasp morphed into a hearty laugh. And he went a step further, suggesting Thomaston too, calling Torrington Six Flags Over Nowhere North and Thomaston Six Flags Over Nowhere South. I suggested Six Flag Over Utopia North and South, but that went nowhere. (There was a pun in “Utopia” from the time Thomas More created it when he was on good terms with Henry VIII all the way to this disquisition. But I’ll leave it there.)

So now, half a century later, from 12 July through 23 August, there’s going to be a train called the Litchfield County Clipper making three leisurely diesel-pulled round trips only on Sundays the 12 miles along the scenic (?) Naugatuck River between Six Flags Over Nowhere North and Six Flags Over Nowhere South. A day pass will cost 25 dollars.

The Litchfield County Clipper is a joint venture of the Thomaston-based nonprofit Railroad Museum of New England and its subsidiary Naugatuck Railroad, a short line that runs all the way down to Six Flags Over Nowhere on Steroids, a.k.a. Waterbury, and when it’s not running tourist excursions actually carries freight between the north and south termini a couple of times a week. Rail freight between Waterbury and Torrington? Really?

In all events, the Litchfield County Clipper really is a cute idea, but it’s unlikely to have much of the desired effect on commerce in or between either utopia. But it would be worth taking the trip if the Naugatuck Railroad ever got one of its steam locomotives working. Remember the good old days of whoosh-whoosh and soot-soot?

Where are Litchfield tax bills?

27 June—Among the cornucopia of stupid legislation on the books of Connecticut (and presumably similarly taxpayer-unfriendly states) is a law that the owner of taxable real and/or personal property (including motor vehicles in Connecticut) is required to pay the tax due to whatever municipality even if the property owner hasn’t received a physical tax bill, with unpaid taxes accruing interest from the due date.

The stupid law, which predates the internet, presumes that failure to receive a physical tax bill is not a valid defense for nonpayment because property owners must know that tax is owed. But, you wonder, how is a property owner to know how much tax is owed? On the other hand, the taxpayer can always get all the information directly from the town tax collector. And thanks to the internet all the information is readily available on municipal websites anyway.

Except it’s not. In Litchfield, anyway, the town and borough. And Bantam. State statute makes municipal taxes or installments therefor due and payable on 1 July and charitably gives taxpayers a month’s grace before usurious 18 percent annual interest accrues. Even though statute implies that paper tax bills aren’t required, it used to be customary and expected for tax collectors to send out bills well before the due date so that even with the U.S. Post Office’s legendary unreliability property owners could make appropriate arrangements with their brokers, bankers, or shylocks.

To get to the point, then (because I have to change the blades on the zero-turn, no mean feat), with just two business days to go till the due date, I haven’t received a tax bill from either the town or the borough. The borough tax collector, who also does Bantam, used to be right on top of it, so the bill used to arrive in plenty of time. But this year? The borough warden says the bills were given to whoever is supposed to mail them a few weeks ago (shortly after the borough budget passed, presumably). And of course the borough website provides no information at all on the current tax due, let alone downloadable PDFs of the tax bills.

The Bantam website is equally uninformative about current taxes, more so about past taxes.

As for the town tax bill, which of late has been arriving later and later, the tax collector’s web page provides information and downloadable PDFs of current motor vehicle tax bills but not current real property tax bills. Why the hell would that be? Calls to the tax collector’s office during business hours yesterday were answered by a recording.

Knowing last year’s taxes and the increase or, in the case of the borough the decrease, in the mill rate, this year’s taxes can always be extrapolated. But should that be necessary? If the tax collectors are doing their jobs? And damn the stupid state law . . .

Love that honeysuckle!

26 June—The beautiful Tatarian honeysuckle, considered a highly invasive species around here, have blossomed, releasing their magnificent heady fragrance. Shame on undocumented alien Lonicera tatarica for delighting people’s noses and other animals’ eyes and palates. Both birds and mammals eat the bush’s orange-red sugary berries and propagate the species adventitiously by excreting the seeds wherever the spirit moves their bowels.

Of course, propagation is also accomplished less intestinally by hummingbirds and insects that are attracted by the Tatarian honeysuckle’s fragrant nectar and cooperatively broadcast the sexy pollen that sticks to their bodies.

Tatarian honeysuckle berries are mildly toxic to people because of the concentration of saponins they contain in relatively small quantities. The word “saponin” comes from the Latin word “sapon” meaning soap. Remember how unpalatable and foamy the soap your mother washed your mouth with was when you uttered naughty words? That’s why we don’t have Tatarian honeysuckle ice cream. Fels-Naptha was especially unpalatable and Ivory was exceptionally foamy.

In defense of saponins, the less concentrated ones we get in fairly minute quantities from foods like beans and oats offer health benefits like lowering cholesterol and supporting immunity. From disease, not the crimes the Supreme Court has saponized presidents from.

While not toxic to creatures of the wild, Tatarian honeysuckle is nevertheless considered by presumed experts to be junk food for them because the berries provide virtually no essential proteins, fats, or nutrients. But the creatures savor the berries because of the sugar content. What else is new? You can’t beat Mother Nature’s marketing strategy, even for invasive species. Evidently, though, native plant species provide better nutrition for the animals. In all events, we’ll avoid comparisons with or comment on the SCOTUS-saponized glutton-in-chief who gorges on junk food yet is still alive.

The State of Connecticut considers Tatarian honeysuckle—among scores of plants specified in the statute, including ones you wouldn’t believe, like white poplar and other honeysuckle species—so invasive that state law—CGS § 22a-381d—strictly prohibits importing, moving, selling, purchasing, transplanting, cultivating, or distributing any reproductive portions of the plant, including seeds. “Any person who violates the provisions of this section shall be fined not more than one hundred dollars per plant,” the statute concludes . . .

Ducking and covering

25 June—Shades of the Hamas invasion of Israel that caught the Mossad, the little country’s legendary intelligence agency, with its pants down on 7 October 2023, some old farts will remember that 76 years ago today the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency was totally surprised (to put it mildly) when some 75,000 troops of the North Korean People’s Army—the bad guys—crossed the 38^th parallel to invade South Korea—the good guys. The Korean Peninsula, occupied as a colony by Japan since 1910, had been divided in August 1945, the split being formalized in 1948.

Early in 1950, the three-year-old CIA (an outgrowth and continuation of—as well as successor to—the legendary World War II OSS, which President Harry Truman had disbanded in September 1945, right after Japan’s unconditional surrender) had issued a memo to the effect that a “full-scale” invasion of Western non-communist ally South Korea—the Republic of Korea—by communist Soviet and Red Chinese ally North Korea (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) was “not probable.”

The CIA at the time was of the impression that newly minted Red China was preoccupied with its own internal teething problems and didn’t have the resources to help North Korea fight the good guys and that evil Joe Stalin’s USSR had better things to do than devote men and matériel to insignificant North Korea.

Neither President Syngman Rhee’s South Korea nor dictator Kim Il Sung’s North Korea was in the five-year-old United Nations at the time. (Both Koreas were admitted in 1991. As a package.) Nor was dictator Mao Tse-Tung’s People’s Republic of China—mainland Red China. The China in the UN in 1950 was President Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist China—the Republic of China, a.k.a. Taiwan, having been a founding member. Expediently—but none the less disgracefully—that was reversed in 1971.

The USSR, a “Big Five” founding UN member with veto power along with China, France, the UK, and the USA, was boycotting the Security Council in 1950 to protest the UN’s refusal to recognize its newborn pal Red China. And that’s how the United Nations got involved in the Korean War. Russia wasn’t present at Security Council meetings to veto UN participation with and for the good guys.

Although everybody calls it the Korean War and it certainly was a war, the Korean War was never officially declared a war by any participant—any belligerent. It was, rather, defined by the UN and the US as a United Nations police action. In the United States, President Harry Truman bypassed a formal congressional declaration of war because, among other things, he feared triggering World War III. And the good guys had the participation—cooperation—of many UN member states, 16 of whom sent ground, air, and/or naval forces and five of whom sent non-combat medical and field hospital support.

We won’t compare Truman’s Korea with Trump’s Iran and scores of illegal extrajudicial murders-by-military. Nor will we compare Truman’s entirely justified and necessary firing of screw-up General Douglas MacArthur for insubordination (for wanting to invade China) with Trump-Hegseth’s unjustified and indefensible firing of so many brilliant and worthy generals and admirals . . .

Ginsburg v. Roe

24 June—Four years ago today the United States Supreme Court decided in its ultimate, indisputable, and infinite arrogance that women do not have a constitutional right to abortion. The entirely expected decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization enthusiastically trashed SCOTUS’s ultimately, indisputably, and infinitely arrogant 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade that women do in fact have a constitutional right to abortion, thereby superseding and striking down any and all state laws to the contrary, which was fortified by the Supremes’ Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision in 1992.

The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who wasn’t appointed to SCOTUS until 1993 and was a staunch albeit judicially restrained pro-choice advocate and supporter of abortion rights among other good causes, nevertheless quite rightly criticized the Roe v. Wade decision as judicial overreach. While she didn’t insist that the right to abortion should have been enacted by explicit legislation, she did reckon that the Roe ruling should have been founded on different constitutional principles

Put simply, judicial overreach occurs when judges effectively make laws rather than simply interpreting them, thus interfering with, disrupting, or even negating the roles of the executive and legislative branches of government, exceeding courts’ constitutional judicial authority and compromising—unbalancing—the Constitution’s implicit balance of power. (Like the president usurping the functions and powers of the legislative and judicial branches. But we won’t go there.)

However they may rationalize it, then, many judges at all levels overreach whenever they think they can get away with it. A little power does a lot to inflate an ego and magnify one’s hubris. It’s human nature. To be sure, the appeals process is supposed to put a brake on judicial overreach, inter alia. But in practice and reality the overreach of appellate courts and judges is directly proportional to their juridical position.

And the appellate court and judges in the highest juridical position, the ultimate court of last resort, the superior authority whose decisions—for better or worse—are final and binding on all other courts, is of course the United States Supreme Court. Well, as we’ve seen, SCOTUS decisions are final and binding only until they aren’t.

Stare decisis—let the decision stand—is the doctrine of precedent, of making final decisions, the practice of not reversing, vacating, or overruling prior decisions—for better or worse. For the record, SCOTUS has reversed, vacated, or overruled its own decisions—for better or worse—well over 200 times.

Also for the record, since SCOTUS overruled and reversed Roe v. Wade in 2022, legal abortions in the United States have increased by almost 25 percent. And if more people practiced continence and chastity—or at least contraception—fewer abortions would be necessary . . .

A pardon for Kosta

23 June—The maleficent mullahs in Tehran are doing a particularly spirited virtual victory lap around the Strait of Hormuz—make that the world—as they gloat over the ceasefire agreement they foisted on Donald Trump’s totally inexperienced, incompetent, demonstrably unqualified team of faithful flunky negotiators. The agreement, of course, is nothing more than a toothless memorandum of understanding, known as a MOU.

As an initialism the letters of MOU are pronounced individually, “m-o-u.” As it happens, though, MOU should in this instance more appropriately be construed as an acronym, in this case a French word, pronounced “moo,” meaning “soft,” as in weak and spineless. And don’t forget the TACO acronym, Trump Always Chickens Out.

Of course, Trump and his flunkies continue to lie about what they insist is the United States victory over Iran and the magnificent MOU. But they lie about everything, so what else is new?

On the other hand, over 92 percent of 3,644 Israelis randomly surveyed by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Agam Institute see the writing on the wall, that Iran won the war, and 83 percent realize that the military campaign and diplomatic fiasco that totally ignored and dissed Israel has weakened Israel’s long-term security.

Leave it to Trump.

Meanwhile, back in Connecticut, remember Kosta Diamantis, the former Democratic state representative and politically appointed deputy budget director and head of school construction who last October was found guilty by a jury in the Bridgeport Federal District Court on all 21 counts he’d been charged with? Well, Kosta is still awaiting sentencing in September for that verdict as well as a whole new and unrelated second federal trial in December on other extortion, bribery, and tax fraud charges.

So it’s not surprising that Kosta has applied to his presumed hero and exemplar—and hoped-for savior—Donald Trump for a pardon. Kosta applied some time this year—records don’t indicate exactly when but it’s obviously ahead of sentencing—for a pardon after completion of sentence. Trump’s decision on that is pending, but given his execrable history of giving pardons to former elected officials, like once-convicted Rod Blagojevich and twice-convicted John Rowland, don’t bet against it.

Evidently Kosta, who is currently out on half-million-dollar bail, doesn’t expect and isn’t asking to avoid jail time—doubtless in a minimum-security country club slammer. But he reckons that a pardon of any sort would allow him to keep his $75,000 state pension. (Only after Rowland’s conviction did the Connecticut General Assembly pass legislation to deprive convicted felons of state pensions, so his pension, currently about $53,000, is intact.)

Who said crime doesn’t pay?

RIP, Alan Greenspan

22 June—Alan Greenspan, who died today at 100, could have made a career in music (he studied clarinet at Juilliard) but chose instead to follow his father into economic consulting. He was appointed to five terms as Chair of the Federal Reserve by four presidents, first by Ronald Reagan in August 1987, then by George Bush 41, Willy Clinton, and George Bush 43. And of course he was known as Maestro.

Having led the Fed through two recessions and the 11 September aftermath, Greenspan retired from the Fed in January 2006 on the best of terms and with a stellar reputation, so he didn’t get to be reappointed by Bush or Barack Obama. That may have been to his—and the world’s—advantage, since his Ayn Rand-influenced laissez-faire policy of deregulation is considered by many to have been largely responsible for the 2008 financial meltdown, the most severe banking and general economic disaster since the Great Depression. But let’s not dwell on negatives. And he admitted his error. But you wonder how one non-autocrat could have so much power.

Alan Greenspan’s working relationship (and notable bipartisan rapport) with Clinton and his administration—and after Greenspan’s retirement from the Fed as a private consultant and commentator with Barack Obama and his administration—was not only pragmatic, prioritizing compromise and what observers call institutional stability over ideological purity, but appears to have been genuinely amicable, despite obvious ideological differences. The good good old days.

On the other hand, although Greenspan and Donald Trump were on common ground about things like tax cuts, with Greenspan regularly praising Trump’s huge corporate cuts, and general deregulation, they clearly differed on little things like populism, isolationism, free trade, immigration, and—of course—the independence of the Federal Reserve. Greenspan called Trump’s populism “a shout of pain” rather than a workable economic strategy, for instance. And he said that Trump’s tariff-based protectionist trade wars, particularly against China, would lower the standard of living of average Americans. Was he right or was he right?

While Greenspan generally avoided criticizing Trump in public, he observed on more than one occasion that he’d rather turn off his hearing aid than listen to the ignoramus-in-chief discuss the strength of the U.S. dollar. Ahead of the 2016 election, while not naming Trump directly, he described the political environment as the worst he’d ever known and kvetched that the country was being undermined by crazies. Was he right or was he right?

After the 2016 election Greenspan headlined, “I couldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was not my candidate.” Was he right or was he right? But with 20/20 hindsight . . .