A 1935 Novel About You Know Who March 24, 2017March 23, 2017 Ron: “Not to distract from Trump coverage (and have you mentioned the April 15 Tax March requesting release of Trump’s tax returns or the April 22 Earth Day March for Science?) . . . . . . but here’s a financial comment/question: It’s been a few years since your guru commented on NKTR, which jumped this week to about double from where you suggested it in 2013. Its non-addictive opioid alternative passed phase 3 trials well. Now what?” ☞ Guru suggests hanging on. “They will likely sign a big partnership. The product is a version of oxycodone that has been altered so it can’t get into the brain quickly. You can take a huge dose iv or snort it, but it won’t get into the brain any faster than if you take the recommended dose. In the human abuse liability test, this drug registered close to the level of a placebo and dramatically below oxycodone. Thus, it could become a new gold standard for lower back pain. $10 billion is spent each year in the US on these drugs. The sales potential is quite large.” Sinclair Lewis wrote It Can’t Happen Here in 1935, a dozen years before Trump was even born — but it’s about him and the millions who, yearning to believe, voted for him. “The [candidate] was vulgar, almost illiterate, a public liar easily detected, and in his ‘ideas’ almost idiotic. . . . [He would] jab his crowds with figures and facts — figures and facts that were inescapable even when, as often happened, they were entirely incorrect.” He won, and it did not go well. Four score and two years later, we have a president who has us winning so much we’ve already begun to tire of winning; who’s protecting us from the kind of terror Swedes faced last month; who’s giving us all better health care at lower cost even as he transfers hundreds of billions back to the uber-rich Obama forced to help pay for it; whose victory by the widest margin of anyone since Ronald Reagan was witnessed in person on the Mall by the largest crowd in history. Tom Friedman here calls upon a few good men — Secretary of Defense James Mattis, National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster, Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, C.I.A. Director Mike Pompeo, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — to stand up to him. Have a great weekend.