The dollar has been weakening over the last year. I tend to like a strong dollar, so I don’t like to see the President or the Treasury Secretary talking the dollar down, as the expression goes. I understand the impetus – it makes exports easier, which should help employment. But of course, you’re also being paid in depreciated dollars. 
Tonight marks the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the Old City and reunification of Jerusalem by Israeli forces in the Six Day War. That event marked the first time that Jerusalem and its holy places had been under Jewish sovereignty in 1900 years.
There’s a scene in the new musical La La Land where jazz pianist Sebastian, played by Ryan Gosling, is confronted by his old friend and band-leader, Keith (Jon Legend) about the nature of jazz. It’s after Sebastian’s first practice session with Keith’s new band. Sebastian is convinced jazz is dying because people won’t take it on its own terms. Keith replies that Sebastian talks about saving jazz, but that to do that, you have to bring it up to date with synthesizers and backup singers, not be a slave to its history. But Sebastian isn’t trying to put jazz in amber, he just wants it to be confident in its own authenticity.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has tweeted out that she won’t support a law allowing Gen. Mattis to serve as Secretary of Defense with 7 years of his military separation, because she believes in civilian control of the military. 
Fair enough. But respect, as the saying goes, is a two-way street, and Americans have a long and ignoble tradition of denigrating expertise. Today, nearly 40 percent of adults think there isn’t evidence for global warming. Skeptical parents won’t vaccinate their children, endangering their communities with breakouts of preventable diseases like measles. So maybe we can make a deal. If we want experts to listen to our opinions, we might also do them the courtesy of sometimes listening to their opinions, too.
The imbalance of power is exactly what drives the contempt on one side and resentment on the other. Again, nobody is calling for government by referendum. But we don’t have to “do the courtesy” of listening to the subject-matter experts. They have, by virtue of the administrative state, the power to compel us not only to listen, but also to obey. They have the power to make life more complicated, more expensive, more energy-draining, more trap-ridden. And they do it with our own money.
