It was a Friday, the 21st day of February, just like today. The U.S.A. was in the doldrums as the hostage crisis dragged on (fortunately, the U.S. and Iran no longer engage in hostile sword-waving). And this was a time when America was so much more in love with the Olympics than we are currently.

Speedskater Eric Heiden was the unquestioned Greatest American Hero, in the midst of winning a then unprecedented five gold medals at one Games. Team U.S.A. was about to face the juggernaut of juggernauts, the Russians, in hockey later that day. The same two teams had faced off a month or so earlier in New York City and the C.C.C.P. had won by a score of, I believe, 12-1. We viewers were anxious but not at all hopeful.

Here are the two things that anyone who was alive that day and remembers will tell you about it: 1) America was watching this hockey game on tape delay (it had taken place at 5 p.m. local time) in prime time and most of us had no idea who’d won as we watched (and didn’t want to know). And remember, this was taking place in Lake Placid, N.Y., not overseas and 2) It is the most exciting sports event we’ve ever watched. I know this still holds true for me.

My mom had been listening to the radio (most likely KTAR 620 in Phoenix) and she knew who’d won. But she wouldn’t tell us. And we didn’t really care to know. There was no Twitter. No Facebook. No computers in anybody’s home. Almost no cable television to speak of and most of us did not yet have it. You could’ve turned on the radio, but why spoil the drama?

I remember my entire family sitting in the den on 2115 W. Del Oro Circle, Mesa, enraptured by what we were watching. We didn’t understand hockey all that well but knew enough to recognize that USA goalie Jim Craig was playing out of his mind and that this dude Eruzione was the heart of the team, if hardly the most skilled player.

At the time, the Soviet Union seemed the greatest threat to world stability and democracy (again, funny how times have changed). Fans were aware that the Russian team had enough talent to beat quite a few NHL teams. The American team was made up entirely of college kids or recent grads. No NHL players. None.

Russia was in hockey what the USA was in basketball. And the loss in 1972 in Munich in hoops was still relatively fresh in people’s minds. This night might be payback.

The U.S. trailed 3-2 entering the third period and I imagine most of us thought, Oh, well, we gave it a good try. But then two goals in the first 10 minutes of the 3rd put the U.S.A. up 4-3. What do I remember? I remember the arena in Lake Placid chanting “U.S.A.” non-stop. I remember how agonizing it was to sit through those final 10 minutes as Craig repelled shot after shot after shot. I remember Al Michaels’ and Ken Dryden’s excellent call. I remember seeing the camera close-ups of Herb Brooks, who looked intense but confident. I remember thinking, Will these 10 minutes ever end?

“Do you believe in miracles?” Michaels shouted as Eruzione, I believe, tossed his stick into the air. “YES!”

Euphoria. Ecstasy. Like a drug.

Thinking of the most thrilling sports events I’ve ever watched, on TV or in person. Catholics versus Convicts. The Eli Manning-to-David Tyree Super Bowl. Duke-Kentucky Elite Eight. Valvano versus Houston. I’m sure there are others; these came to mind first.

Nothing tops the Miracle on Ice. Nothing. Maybe it was the fact that I was a 13 year-old boy. Maybe it was where this country was and how desperately we needed a pick-me-up (again, how times change). But that Friday night in Lake Placid, which became a magical Friday night in homes all over the United States, may never be topped.

The world will never be that remote again. Everything today is so close and also so immediate. A bear roams through a neighborhood in Monrovia, Calif., and it’s up on my computer in a matter of minutes. Forty years ago Lake Placid, N.Y., may as well have been on Mars for all we knew. And it was cool.

The icing on the cake, after the obligatory win over Sweden Finland on Sunday (an anti-climactic gold medal game and yet, again, another game in which the Americans were playing way over their heads; I challenge you to name another single weekend in which one team won two games against such superior opposition fueled primarily by adrenalin), was the Sports Illustrated cover. It was perfection. No words. No headline. Just that magical, miraculous shot by Heinz Kluetmeier.

An aside: Heinz is ailing pretty badly these days. A stroke and Parkinson’s. A week or so ago a bunch of SI photo department alums went by his place here in Manhattan to visit him. Some visit him often. Keep him in your prayers.

Anyway, SI closed on Mondays so that magazine did not appear in most of our mail boxes until Thursday or Friday. I didn’t care. I knew that issue was as gold as the medals themselves. Like most young boys of the time, I still have it.

*****

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Here’s President Trump in Colorado, again only speaking to mindless zombie adoring faithful, never daring to venture out into a non-partisan crowd, mocking the film Parasite. Notice how he never even mentions the film’s name. Notice how he caters to the rampant xenophobia of his audience.

Speaking of parasites, Trump has spent 247 days of his three-year presidency golfing. About one quarter of it. And not only not doing his job, but charging the Secret Service full rate to stay at his golf “resorts.” To guard him. And these idiots cheer him on because what they hate worse than graft and corruption are non-white people.

Anyway, Trump thought he was funny. No one with a working brain would. At one point he lamented why there couldn’t be a movie such as Gone With The Wind or Sunset Boulevard. And we get it. Both films are 70 years old or more and feature delusional divas.

A man is not always solely defined by his hair do, but with Donald Trump, if the coif fits… This is a man who is deftly afraid of admitting (to himself) that he is a 73 year-old man and one way he appeases himself is via his ridiculous combover (and, of course, dye job… and spray tan, but I digress). And so it got me to thinking that everything Trump does politically is exactly what he does with his scalps: he combs it over.

Impeachable phone call with the Ukrainian president? Comb it over. Greatest ally and mastermind behind your political ethos, Roger Stone, sentenced to prison? Comb it over (pardon coming). Reports that Russia is already trying to help you win the 2020 election? Comb it over.

Which brings us to this astounding interview earlier this week between CNN’s Poppy Harlow and Trump’s Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, Peter Navarro. Let’s not forget, before we dive in, that Navarro is someone who bases much of his economic policy off a book he read from one Ron Vara, which of course he later had to admit was himself using a pen name (“your anagrams are showing, Dr. Lecter”). That alone should disqualify him from any serious discussion on a cable news channel, but of course we live in ridiculous times.

Anyway, I’m going to deconstruct this interview for you below, so you are invited to follow along with the text. Or watch it all the way through. It’s a textbook example of how the Trump presidency is attempting to comb over the accomplishments while in office of Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, while also evading substantive questions in the present:

:00 to :24: CNN’s Poppy Harlow points out to Navarro that President Trump promised to eliminate the federal budget deficit when he was running in 2016 and that the latest budget released by the White House shows the debt only increasing. Asks, “What happened to that promise?”

:24 to 1:00: First Navarro says they still have five more years. That’s when Harlow points out that the budget projects that the deficit will not even narrow before 2036. Then Navarro blames it on the House being run by Democrats before swerving over to the deficit doesn’t matter as much as growth. So, if you’re paying attention, he first blames it on the Democrats and then in the very next sentence says it doesn’t matter anyway. Neither answer satisfying the fundamental question: How come the president failed to deliver on his promise?

1:07 Navarro: “The difference between the 2% growth rate and the 3% growth rate is all the difference in the world. So that’s what we’re focused on.” A ha! So it’s not the deficit that matters; it’s the growth rate of the economy. Let’s bookmark that for future elections and future Democratic presidents. Meanwhile, I wonder if CNN had any idea that Navarro would swerve away from admitting the deficit promise was, at best, a pipe dream and at worst a lie, and instead focus on growth rate? Oh, I think so. Watch.

2:13: After Navarro rattles off the typical laundry list of economic positives (“lowest unemployment rate in history for blacks, hispanics” yada yada yada), Harlow says, “I hear you on all of that, Peter, but we’re talking about the president’s promise on the deficit and Republicans who used to care about that, Peter…” Navarro emits a rueful chuckle. Why? Because he knows she has him. He has no answer for that incongruity. So he goes back to enumerating other positives. Navarro thinks it will get him out of the woods. It won’t. You’ll see.

2:50 After arguing that as soon as the GOP wins back the House, all will be right (it won’t, at least not in terms of the deficit), Navarro says, “What we need to do is spend money on defense.” Do we? Do we? The U.S. already spends more than the next SEVEN nations combined on defense and those countries don’t have the advantage of the Atlantic Ocean in their frontyard and the Pacific Ocean in their back. Defense spending, or the need for it, is the greatest fallacy that our government foists upon its people. Do we need to defend this country? Sure. Could we easily cut that budget in half? Absolutely.

3:00 Harlow notes that the night before Trump slammed Obama for taking credit for boosting the economy while in office. She then throws up a chart showing that on four separate occasions when Obama was in the White House, the economy had a 4% growth rate quarter (and two of those four times over 5%). She notes that Trump has yet to achieve such a quarter. Wonders how come Trump slams a president on the issue of economic growth when that predecessor quantifiably and without question achieved growth rates that Trump’s presidency has yet to achieve. Harlow asks a fair question: “Don’t both presidents deserve credit?”

3:30 Navarro launches into a monologue about Keynesian policies and swelling the balance sheet before saying, “During the Obama-Biden years [notice how he slipped “Biden” in there], we had this new normal of growth under 2%—” Harlow, to her credit, stops him right there. Other White House folks may get away with blatantly lying on other cable news shows, but she’s having none of it right here…

4:34 PH: “Peter, Peter, I’m sorry, I can’t let you—” PN: “You can look at the numbers” PH “I’m just gonna pull back the numbers” PN: “Put your numbers up” PH: “They’re not my numbers. These are numbers from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.”

5:06 Poppy: “It’s a good economy now. All I’m asking you is, Wasn’t it a good economy then as well?” Navarro: “No, it was not. It was a horrible economy during the Obama years.” Harlow literally throws her hands up at that remark.

So what can we glean from those five-plus minutes. Two things: 1) This White House is only too proud to puff out its chest at an accomplishment (lower unemployment, etc), but has to point blame somewhere else at its failures (i.e. not coming through on its promise to erase the deficit) and 2) at no time, in no way, no matter how blatantly clear the facts are, will this administration give Barack Obama credit for anything. It understands that a sizable portion of its base is racist and it must unwaveringly appeal to them.

By the way, if you check out this article you will see that all three market indices (Dow Jones, S &P, Nasdaq) did better under Obama during his first three years in office than it has under Trump. Both presidents have grown the market, but Obama actually did a better job.

But here’s the thing about Trump: his policies to grow the stock market, such as deregulation and lower taxes for the mega-rich while drastically increasing the deficit? They’re all cortisone shots. Cortisone shots don’t heal your injury; they simply mask it. Eventually the shot wears off.

Deregulation will only lead to more and more environmental disasters (look at what happened with the sewage in Florida this week) that someone will eventually have to pay for. Lowering taxes on the mega rich increases investment in the stock market, but all that means is that the mega rich get mega richer (or MAGA richer) and that the majority of Americans remain left out in the cold; and deficit increases only leave us more fiscally vulnerable to a nation such as China, which owns our debt.

Eventually, it’ll come home to roost. And yet another Democrat is going to have to clean up the mess as all of a sudden GOP leaders will return to wailing about deficit spending and family values, etc.

Data points for Tesla shares (TSLA) the past month:

January 21: $530

February 4: $968

February 5: $734

February 19: $944

February 20: $859

Today’s open: $910

To me, Tesla share prices and fluctuations this past month are reminiscent of Amazon share prices back in the spring of 2017. Go look it up. What we are noticing are tremendous upward surges followed by sharp pullbacks but resting at a higher level than pre-surge. Eventually the tug-of-war ends with Tesla edging over the $1,000-per-share level, though that’ll be a struggle for awhile. Conservative estimate? Tesla breaches $1,000 before the end of March Madness.

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Starting Five

1. From Russia With Love* Per CNN: “The intelligence community’s top election security official delivered a briefing to lawmakers last week warning them that the intelligence community believes Russia is already taking steps to interfere in the 2020 election with the goal of helping President Donald Trump win…” So President Trump responds by replacing the Director of National Intelligence. We’re full-on banana republic now. *The judges will also accept “Creme de la Kremlin”
2. Stone To Serve 3 Years, 4 Months: Wait for it. A pardon’s gonna come.
3. Coronavirus Is The New Dow Jones: Reading the way they report the numbers, I’m not sure if we’re talking fatalities or Amazon stock. Dig, from Al-Jazeera: “Beijing… reported 1,109 new confirmed cases of the disease during the same period, sharply up from 349 cases the previous day, reversing three days of decline.” Deaths total is now higher than the price of a share o Amazon: 2,236.
4. Trae Goes For 50: In what is becoming an extraordinary career, Atlanta’s Trae Young drops 50 in a win against the Miami Heat. But Atlanta remains one of the worst teams in the NBA at 16-41. The only two teams with worse records than Atlanta’s, by the way. met in the NBA Finals four consecutive years from 2015-2018.
5. Pret-tee, Pret-tee Good: