A year ago, we were getting ready to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing.
In a thrilling and ridiculous effort, I wrote 50 pieces in 50 days, for @FastCompany leading up to that anniversary, July 20, 1969 — all about what it was like to fly to the Moon.
2/ Going to the Moon was itself a thrilling and ridiculous effort.
When Kennedy said 'to the Moon!' in May 1961, it was an impossible task.
98 months later, Armstrong & Aldrin were bouncing around on the Moon.
3/ The race to the Moon required the best of Americans. And not just the best of American leaders.
It required the best of ordinary Americans.
Because it was ordinary Americans who did the work to get Armstrong & Aldrin to the Moon — inspired by the mission & the work.
4/ The race to the Moon is, in that way, the perfect story alongside the times we're living in now.
In the 1960s, we changed the world. Not just the world of space travel.
Civil rights. Education. Poverty. Feminism. Space travel. Rock and roll.
1969 and 1959 were an era apart.
5/ Over the next 50 days, I'm going to re-fire each of those '50 Days to the Moon' pieces (which are permanently collected on their own pages @FastCompany).
The people who took us to the Moon were bold & imaginative & determined — and also just like us.
If you’re curious when fascism arrives in the US, it has. A US President attacking individual companies & institutions by name—and threatening ‘punishment’ if they don’t comply with his whims.
6 days ago: Walmart
Yesterday: Harvard
Today: Apple — *must* make iPhones in US
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2/ That’s not the way American democracy & capitalism work. Trump doesn’t get to decide what Walmart charges for back-to-school supplies.
Trump doesn’t get to decide who enrolls at Harvard.
Trump doesn’t tell Apple where to make products.
This is the test.
Right. Now.
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3/ Trump didn’t pick small, less powerful, less well-known organizations.
Walmart.
Harvard.
Apple.
Everyone in the whole world knows those names. Knows those brands. Knows they are the pinnacle of American achievement.
Those are the places Trump is maliciously attacking.
In the trade 'deal' with China, the US got nothing.
We're mostly back to where we were before the global trade war started—before Donald Trump started the global trade war.
The Chinese conceded nothing.
Indeed, from the outside, China won this round.
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2/ An economist from Hong Kong explains:
'From China’s perspective, the outcome of this meeting is a success, as China took a tough stance on the US threat of high tariffs & eventually managed to get the tariffs down significantly without making concessions.'
The chaos…
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3/ …The chaos for American business these last 5 weeks has been incredibly costly—financially, psychologically, in terms of planning, morale, a sense of predictability about the future.
You know how sometimes, you follow the weather & you know the blizzard is coming tomorrow morning, but today it's 39º & crystalline sunshine, & you can't quite believe the blizzard's coming?
But you can look at the radar and, yup, it's coming.
That's where we are now.
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2/ We know that in the next month, almost nothing is coming by ship to US from China & Chinese factories.
Ships full of merchandise, not coming.
The Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach has said cargo for the next couple weeks is down 36%.
Fascinating element of Harvard's refusal to buckle to the Trump Administration today.
Who are Harvard's lawyers in this matter?
#1 is Robert K. Hur.
Sound familiar? Trump named him US Attorney for Maryland.
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2/ Then Robert Hur was the special counsel who investigated Pres. Biden's mishandling of classified documents. Hur as the one who said Biden was 'an elderly man with a poor memory.' And declined to charge Biden.
That's Harvard lawyer #1.
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3/ Harvard lawyer #2 is William A. Burck.
Currently a member of the Board of Directors of Fox Corp., the owner of FoxNews.
Burck served as special counsel to the Republican House task force that investigated the attempted assassination of Pres. Trump.
Could Trump's tariffs spark a US factory & manufacturing renaissance?
Let's say they do.
Here's the problem, even if we double the number of factories the US has now. Even if we—somehow—start making microwave ovens and pleated-front chinos and pillow cases in the US again.
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2/ There won't be many jobs.
Factory automation for routine, repetitive manufacturing is very far along.
It's so widespread that there's a phrase in the manufacturing world:
'Lights-out factories.'
…Factories with so few people, they keep the lights off.
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3/ Machines don't need lights. So many big companies—including consumer products companies like Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Foxconn—run factories with just a scattering of staff who monitor the machines.
Like in a quiet office, the lights only come on when a person walks in.