Author: A.T.

Defying Putin’s Puppet

PAUL KRUGMAN

Day 1461 of Putin’s Three-Day War

We’re witnessing a war between freedom and tyranny, between an imperfect but decent government and a monstrous mass murderer — and the U.S. government is de facto backing the tyrannical monster.

How can MAGA tolerate this?

What did their grandparents fight so valiantly for in World War II?

Have they seen Saving Private Ryan?

When they watched Casablanca, whom did they root for: Major Strasser or Victor Laszlo?

Is MAGA really okay with our switching sides?

Krugman concludes:

Shame on America for betraying a valiant ally.

You might almost say that, wittingly or unwittingly — and whether or not stuff like this is true — Trump is Putin’s puppet.

DEFIANCE!

Our friends hosting THE STATE OF THE SWAMP tonight — watch free! — are this morning delivering to every Republican Member of Congress copies of the U.S. Constitution with a message: You swore an oath to this. Not to a man. Remember that tonight. 

They’ve flown in the Portland Frog Brigade to handle the deliveries.  “That’s right,” writes Defiance founder Miles Taylor, “defiant Americans in blow-up frog costumes will be going door-to-door on Capitol Hill to deliver the Constitution. The same people who’ve been protesting Trump’s ICE facilities — and leading marches nationwide.  You won’t want to miss it. Tune in at 930am ET.”

BONUS

Charlie Sykes from To the Contrary:

For days, the FBI had insisted that Kash Patel was on an official trip to Milan for security meetings and adamantly denied that the jet-setting Patel was partying on the taxpayer dime. FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson spent days ripping reports by MSNOW’s Ken Dilanian that Patel would be hanging out at the Olympics.

“Your rag outlet wrote that [Patel] went to hang out at the Olympics on the taxpayer dime – even when provided information that your theory was false. When you’re ready to correct that let me know. Won’t hold my breath,” Williamson wrote.

But then came the video — which rocketed around law enforcement circles —showing “Patel pouring what appeared to be beer down his throat, spraying some of it in the air and screaming in celebration as a player put a gold medal around his neck.”

I love the caption Sykes gave this photo:

                      The Director of the FBI.

That pretty much says it all.

 

Whither Bitcoin?

But first . . .

ICE Is Expanding Across the US at Breakneck Speed. Here’s Where It’s Going Next.

Also . . .

Peter S. asks:

It seems to me that the Supreme Court should find against Trump in several other areas that are just as clearly not the right of the President to do.

Some of the things he has done reverse or eliminate programs that several or even many Congresses have passed or reauthorized.

And the question I have is: absent a vote in Congress, what right does one President, whoever it is, have to destroy assets of the American people that have been created and built upon and matured in capacity and scope over many decades?

For example, what right does one President have to destroy the Department of Education and all the many capabilities and assets it has that have been built by decades of investment?

Similarly, what right does one President have to destroy all the hard won gains of the EPA over the past 54 years achieved as a result of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars? The clean air, clean water, and everything else achieved over the last 54 years by the expenditure of taxpayer dollars, are assets of the American people and cannot be throw away by the edict of one man without action by Congress.

An analogy would be if a President ordered the scrapping of 80% of our planes, ships, tanks, etc.  I am among those who think we should cut our military budget by a lot. But if I were President and tried to do it by fiat, with no Congressional action or input, I am sure the Supremes would rule that it was not in my power to do so.

Then why is it any different when he tries to destroy, without an act of Congress, other assets and capabilities that were created with our money, not his?

All the institutional knowledge built up over decades as well as the actual technology, real estate, machinery, systems, etc., are assets belonging to the American taxpayers, created and maintained based upon an act of Congress. How can it be possible that a President can destroy a multifaceted major asset of the American people by fiat?

I’ll ask Carl.

And now . . .

From Lincoln Square:

Is Bitcoin Going to Zero? What’s Behind the 2026 Crypto Market Meltdown.

When people say Bitcoin has no intrinsic value, they are not making a metaphysical claim. They are pointing out that there is no external source from which its value is derived. Gold retains value because it has physical and industrial uses regardless of price. Equities derive value from businesses. Debt derives value from repayment. Fiat currency derives durability from taxation, legal-tender laws, and institutional enforcement. Bitcoin derives value only from the expectation that someone else will want it later. That expectation can sustain a price for long periods, but it is not a reference. There is nothing for valuation to converge toward.

Bitcoin’s defenders often argue that this misunderstands money itself—that money works because people believe in it. But monetary systems are not sustained by belief alone. They are sustained by obligation and settlement demand. Fiat currencies persist because taxes must be paid in them, debts are settled in them, and courts enforce contracts denominated in them. Gold, while no longer monetary in this sense, retains a floor through scarcity and non-monetary use. Belief may initiate a monetary premium, but without obligation or absorption, that premium has nothing to stabilize it.

. . .

Once an asset has no claim on cash flows, no contractual obligation, no external reference, and no compulsory use, what remains is pure speculation. The only way to exit profitably is to sell to someone else at a higher price. That is not investment. It is position timing.

In the end, investments like this resemble a game of hot potato. The objective is not to hold the asset, but to pass it on before conditions change. As long as belief holds, the object can keep moving. But there is no natural owner, no terminal use, and no reason for anyone to be the last holder. When belief falters, the passing stops. Someone is left holding it—and discovers that once it can no longer be exchanged, it cannot be used for anything at all.

It’s great, though, if you’re a kidnapper or are holding the Mississippi hospital system hostage with ransomware.

Also from Lincoln Square:

The Melania Meme Coin Collapse — and What It Means

A digital token branded around First Lady Melania Trump has collapsed 99 percent from its peak, according to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal, which reviewed price data across several Trump-themed cryptocurrencies. The Journal found the token among the worst performers in a broader group of assets tied to the Trump family name.

. . . Trump-themed meme coins associated with President Trump have dropped sharply as well. The Wall Street Journal reported that one Trump-branded coin had fallen about 86 percent from inauguration levels, and other crypto-market trackers cited by Newsweek, CryptoNews and CoinDesk have documented similar declines among politically themed tokens.

Public-equity investments tied to President Trump have also faced significant losses. Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns the Truth Social platform and trades under the ticker DJT, is down roughly 75 percent from its inauguration-day price, according to the Journal, Investopedia and independent price-series data compiled by FinanceCharts.

A separate Trump-family-backed project, the World Liberty Financial token known as WLFI, has fallen about 40 percent since its launch in September, according to reporting from the Journal and Reuters. Reuters also reported that a partner company’s stock dropped after it concentrated its balance sheet in WLFI, drawing scrutiny from market analysts.

Company statements summarized by Reuters describe World Liberty Financial as a decentralized finance platform offering both a governance token and a stablecoin linked to the U.S. dollar. The project emphasizes U.S. market focus, and materials reviewed by Reuters show backing from members of the Trump family.

Critics quoted by Reuters and other outlets have raised conflict-of-interest concerns, noting that President Trump oversees agencies that influence federal crypto regulation while his family is associated with digital-asset ventures. The White House has said the president’s assets are held in a family trust and that ethics requirements are being followed.

The downturn in Trump-linked digital assets is unfolding against a broad slump in speculative crypto markets. Business Insider reported that a 2025 cryptocurrency crash erased roughly $1 trillion in global market value and significantly reduced the paper wealth of high-profile holders of politically branded tokens.

Research cited by CryptoNews found that more than 60 percent of Trump-themed meme coins have effectively failed, losing most of their value and trading activity. CoinDesk has reported that at least one high-profile Trump coin is down more than 80 percent from its launch price.

Even so, the Trump family has profited mightily.

SNOWY WINTER BONUS

The Battle of the Bulge . . . the difference snow made (4 minutes) . . .

. . . back when fighting for democracy meant more than just having to vote, donate, and protest.  If you ask me, we’re getting off easy.

As for today, hats off to the Ukrainians, fighting on for a fifth truly brutal winter, largely abandoned by Trump.  (Click here in case you’re in a position to help.)

 

Woulda Shoulda — But Still Can, Must, And Will

ARNOLD PALMER

Hard to say, which would be more amazing – that this guy can imitate Trump’s voice so well, or (since he must be lip-syncing) that the President of the United States actually said these things.  He wants to be on Mt. Rushmore, but it’s hard to see him fitting in.  Was it Lincoln or Jefferson who famously said, “I’d like to punch him in the face?”  How do Trump’s thoughts on immigration — “vermin, garbage, scum” — compare with Ronald Reagan’s final speech that I keep posting?  (Not that I think Reagan belongs on Mt. Rushmore, either.)

ALTERNATIVE HISTORIES

Imagine if Mitch McConnell hadn’t caved on impeachment and the Senate had voted to not just by the wide 57-43 majority that it did, but by the full two-thirds needed to convict.  Everything would be different.

Or if Nader had dropped out in 2000 (or the 50,000 Florida “overvotes” — where people punched Gore’s chad but, to be doubly sure, wrote in his name — had not been thrown out).  No war in Iraq, no right-wing Supreme Court, no massive transfer of wealth to the already-super-rich, and no Trump.

Reading Hillary Clinton in Foreign Affairs — Women’s Rights Are Democratic Rights — one can’t help reflecting on how different the world would have been had the 2016 election been decided by the popular vote.

She was Putin’s nemesis (a key reason Putin helped Trump win) and an enemy of autocrats generally.

He was a Putin protege (some would say puppet) and an autocrat-wannabe.

Not that such reflections do any good.  “Spilt milk” and all that.

But can you imagine how different the country would have been?  With Hillary getting to select three Supremes instead of Trump?  (Hats off to two of them, Gorsuch and Barrett, for reading what the Constitution says about tariffs.)

Or if Al Gore, who beat W. in the popular vote, had been allowed to serve?

 

Well, we can’t do anything about those disastrous elections, but we can do everything about the next two.  And I believe will.

> Join millions Tuesday from 7pm to 11pm for The State of the Swamp.  Free!

> Listen to What’s the Plan?, the weekly Indivisible podcast.  Free!

> Find the NO KINGS 3 event closest to you (scroll down to see the map) and invite friends to join you.

> Start following Headquarters.  It had 160 million views its first week.

> Help fund the infrastructure that all 8,000+ Democratic candidates will need this fall — now is the time to fund it! — and then start giving to specific candidates this summer.

We’re going to win.

Those legitimate Mt. Rushmore guys are counting on it.

 

In Further Defiance

Frogs — The Portland Frogs who drove Trump crazy (the costume-clad protesters he called “insurrectionists”) are coming to DC for his State of the Union (60 seconds).  Watch them Tuesday night.  Sign up — free! — for The State of the Swamp with Robert DeNiro.

Republicans — Republican Governor stands up to Trump.

The Court — Two of Trump’s three appointees, Gorsuch and Barrett, seem actually to have read what the Constitution says about tariffs.  The plaudits they’re surely receiving from law school classmates and conservatives they respect may encourage and embolden them for future rulings.

MAGAns — One Betrayal Too Many: Why I Left MAGA by Rich Logis.

This book is a public apology. I am profoundly sorry for the damage I caused during the seven years I was in the MAGA movement. I contributed to the assault on our democracy. I exacerbated the harm caused to others in MAGA. Now I am holding myself accountable by working to make amends.

Former Republican congressman and presidential candidate Joe Walsh calls this brand new book: “A blueprint for those in MAGA who can no longer justify the lies of Donald Trump.”  (He switched parties last year.)

A gift sent with love to any MAGAns you know?

Dashiell Wolf Brandt — Takes on Piers Morgan — and a whole lot more — in 3 oh-so-powerful, sobering minutes Instagram makes it almost impossible to share.  I think this link will work* (if not, to go to his Instagram page and click on the one headlined COMPARE & CONTRAST) . . . but reliably finding Instagram “permalinks” has stumped both me and my A.I., which has “authoritatively” confirmed permalinks that turn out to take you someplace completely different.

(If one of you can unlock the secret of Instagram permalinks for me, I will extend your subscription by a full year, no charge.)

THIS IS HOW DICTATORS DO IT

Giant banners with their faces hung everywhere.  Big brother is watching you — you’d better behave.  Stalin did it.  Trump’s doing it, most recently, as you may have seen in this New York Times photo, on the facade of the Justice Department . . . which itself has become a facade.

He’s also just named the Palm Beach airport after himself, having first secured ownership of the trademark for this and any other airport he gets named after himself.  There is no intention to profit from that trademark, we are assured, but would it surprise anyone if he tried to?

Have a great weekend.

 

Defiance!

NOTE TO MAGA:

Immigrants Pay More in Taxes Than They Receive in Benefits . . . by $15 trillion over the past 30 years!  Had they not been here, working hard, our National Debt would have been $15 trillion higher.

So says David J. Bier, Director of Immigration Studies at the conservative Cato Institute (25 seconds).

They also commit fewer crimes.

Hate immigrants for other reasons, if you must, but thank them for paying their fair share of taxes — unlike the Epstein class.

BOROWITZ:

Trump Says Andrew’s Arrest Sets Dangerous Precedent of Pedophiles Facing Consequences.

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: 

The most powerful crime syndicate in history

It is time to acknowledge what has become tragically obvious: the Trump administration is essentially acting as a massive criminal enterprise. It lies, steals, extorts and murders — all while cloaked in the awesome authority of the state. It is on a crime spree that puts Al Capone to shame.

This is not hyperbole or hyperventilation. It is our reality, as the facts amply demonstrate. . . .

It is difficult to comprehend the level of state-sponsored criminality we are witnessing because our country has never experienced anything like it. It is also difficult to absorb because it is happening so quickly, and on so many different fronts. In the words of the 2022 movie, it sometimes feels like “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” And that can be exhausting, numbing, and overwhelming.

But viewing the Trump administration as a massive crime syndicate allows us to be clear-eyed about what is coming down the road, and to plan accordingly. To take the most urgent example, there ought to be no question as to whether Trump will try to steal the midterm elections. Of course he will try to steal them. Criminals gonna crime.

Trump tried to steal the 2020 elections, and the lack of any consequences for that supremely traitorous act only further emboldened him. It is every patriotic American’s duty to oppose the coming effort to nullify the will of the voters.

That this administration can reasonably be viewed as a criminal enterprise should not be cause for despair. The courts have rejected many of the administration’s power grabs and unconstitutional or illegal acts. The president is less popular than he has ever been. Prominent Republicans are defying him more than ever. The brave citizens of Minneapolis are showing us how effective organized resistance can be.

And Bad Bunny, with his Super Bowl message that “The only thing more powerful than hate is love,” gave us reason to believe that kindness, compassion and decency will prevail.

DEFIANCE!

I was on a zoom this week with Miles Taylor, founder of defiance.org, one of the bravest, most brilliant patriots around.  Check out his bio.

Join him (and Robert DeNiro, et al) Tuesday from 7pm to 11pm  for the REAL State of the Union event:

STATE OF THE SWAMP

It will be streaming free.

INDIVISIBLE!

What’s the Plan?, the weekly discussion with Indivisible founders with Leah and Ezra, is now a podcast.  Check it out!

NO KINGS 3!

Saturday, March 28.  Find the event closest to you (scroll down to see the map) . . . and if there is none, start one!   Here’s the toolkit for hosts.

What a privilege to have a chance to save the democracy our forefathers fought and died to create and preserve — just by making or buying a sign and get some friends to join you for a fun afternoon followed by pizzas and beer — or whatever.  There will be millions upon millions of us.

Make up a list of the folks you want to do this with and get them psyched to join you.

HEADQUARTERS!

People for the American Way has just launched Headquarters, which in its first week got something like 160 million views.  Already has 5.5 million TikTok followers; more than a million each on Instagram and X.  And smaller but growing numbers on Facebook, Threads, and their own home page.  Take your pick — and follow them.

We’re gonna win!

 

We’re Gonna Win. (But Will PRKR?)

THE REPUBLICAN CRACK-UP HAS BEGUN

Even conservatives are fleeing the GOP as more and more Americans turn against Trump’s authoritarian project.

Earlier this week, Gary Kendrick, a GOP council member in the red town of El Cajon, on San Diego’s eastern outskirts, announced that he was crossing the aisle and joining the Democrats. Kendrick was the longest-serving Republican official in the region’s local government. “I’ve been a Republican for 50 years,” he said. “I just can’t stand what the Republican Party has become. I’m formally renouncing the Republican Party.”

An attorney friend of mine in San Diego, who knows local politics inside out, texted me, “When Trump has lost this guy, he’s in real trouble!”

→ Fun reading in full if you have time.

As are the growing number of stories — like this one — at Leaving MAGA.

FLIPPING THE SENATE

Colbert reacts to CBS nixing his Talarico interview — delicious.

But here it is anyway — on YouTube.

Talarico is so good.  He presents his message — “There’s nothing Christian about Christian nationalism” — in a loving, compelling way that’s catching on.

He’s going to flip the Senate seat in Texas!

As will Mary Peltola in Alaska!

And Roy Cooper in North Carolina, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Wahls or Turek in Iowa . . .

. . . and Mills or Platner in Maine. (Here is Susan Collins in 1996 pledging to serve no more than 2 terms, now running for her sixth!) (15 seconds)

And just maybe Mississippi (Scott Colom)!

And just maybe someone in Kentucky.

And don’t count out Florida, where a national hero is running against a sitting senator most Floridians have never heard of.  (And where just weeks ago Miami elected a Democratic mayor for the first time in nearly 30 years, defeating her Trump-backed opponent by 18 points.)

In short:  If we all lean in, we’re going to pull American democracy back from the brink.

This summer and fall, consider letting Oath and/or A House United help you choose the most strategic races to support.

But now — this winter and spring — is the time to support infrastructure that will give all our thousands of candidates a boost.  House and Senate, but also governors, state legislators, attorneys general, secretaries of state, mayors, school board members . . . the works.

JESSE JACKSON

I was on Jesse Jackson’s bus headed for Philadelphia Mississippi on April 20, 1999, when news came across CNN (somehow the bus had a TV) of a terrible shooting in Columbine, Colorado.  I watched as Jesse processed the news, mulling it over out loud, and wondering whether it was more than coincidence that it was Hitler’s birthday.

I remember being really surprised — and impressed — that he knew that.  I knew it, of course — it’s my birthday — but how did he?

I had encountered Reverend Jackson only once before, from afar.  He had come to speak at the Hunman Rights Campaign 1983 black-tie dinner in the ballroom of the Waldorf New York.  It was a big deal — years before Governor Bill Clinton openly welcomed gays and lesbians into the mainstream of national Democratic politics — and I remember that when he finished his remarks one of the organizers on the dais pushed back — to Jackson’s annoyed surprise.  After all, he was doing us favor by being there!  It took some courage for him to do this!  Homosexuality was not universally embraced, let alone in the African American community, back then!  But he had said something in his remarks about “tolerance” (I think) and one of the attendees — a then-31-year-old Harvey Fierstein — lectured him a little bit on our actually wanting to be more than “tolerated.”

Whatever it was, I remember thinking Jackson was a good guy and kind of brave for being there; and that Harvey was a good guy and way braver than I would have been in putting advocacy above courtesy to make his point.  (It might have been better discussed in private, after the applause?)

Either way, years later I was on this campaign bus headed to the Mt. Nebo Missionary Baptist Church, where before they were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan on June 21, 1964, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner had been working to register black voters.  The Klan had burned the church to the ground five days before, and the three young men had gone to commiserate with the parishioners . . . only to be arrested and then, essentially, released into the hands of the Klan.

Now, 35 years later, the Reverend was headed to the church as part of a multi-state Southern bus tour to press the flesh and keep hope alive.  His first job was to introduce the new treasurer of the Democratic National Committee, a very white, very nervous, well-intentioned but wildly out of his depth gay Jewish atheist, to say a few words of thanks and solidarity.

After a good bit of wonderful singing and greetings and things I had enjoyed in movies but never experienced for real, Reverend Jackson took the microphone to wild applause and said something (very vaguely) like, “Brothers and sisters, we have with us today a guest from the Democratic National Committee, flown down here last night from Washington, D.C.” . . . I leaned forward to rise and do my best . . . “a city, brothers and sisters, that has touched us down here in Mississippi in many ways.”

I don’t remember what he actually said, just that he was magnificent, off on a roll, the congregation responding, all thoughts of the visitor from Washington .D.C. long forgotten, when suddenly, after perhaps 15 minutes he remembered I was there and he was supposed to introduce me.  Which he did.  Like Mick Jagger introducing a complete unknown.  Talk about buzz kills.

The congregation was exceptionally polite, and everyone — most of all me — was relieved when I handed the mic back to Reverend Jackson and rushed off to the airport.

Jesse Jackson was not a perfect man.  Even Martin Luther King, Jr. was not a perfect man.  But what an extraordinary privilege to get to share a little time with him in that sacred place.  May he rest in peace.

PRKR

We long-suffering PRKR shareholders have five weeks to wait for jury selection to begin in Parkervision v. MediaTek.  MediaTek is a Taiwanese giant that ships hundreds of millions of chipsets a year, with annual revenue north of $15 billion.  Parker argues those chipsets and revenue have depended on its patented technology.

Will MediaTek settle “on the courthouse steps?”  Fight straight through to a verdict they win?  To a small verdict they lose?  A big verdict they lose?  Will the outcome rattle or reinforce Qualcomm’s intransigence in the suits from PRKR it has been fighting for two decades?

With PRKR stock at 23 cents and a valuation around $30 million, the market seems to think no big PRKR payday is in store.  I have no clue, but hope the market is wrong.

 

Housekeeping . . .

In case you sensibly took the weekend off from email . . .

Saturday’s post.

Sunday’s post.

I worked a lot harder on those than I did on this one.

Also:

> Sometimes Mailchimp seems to drop subscribers for no reason.  If I haven’t posted for a few days, and you care (given how swamped we all are, you might well not), just go to www.andrewtobias.com to see the ones you’ve missed and resubscribe.

> Sometimes a post that looks right on my website has formatting glitches when they arrive by email.  To see it the way it’s meant to be seen, just click on my fat face and it will take you straight to the post.

> My fat face needs updating.  I’m way older by now.  I assess the reason I haven’t gotten around to fixing this to be a blend: 20% vanity, 80% sloth.

> MailChimp’s RSS feed is set up to grab only one new post a day, whatever time of day I post it.  So if I post something with what I come to realize is a glaring error — or if nuclear war breaks out and my post is a (fantastic) Elaine May tribute to Mike Nichols — I can’t send a correction or a “Quick! Duck and cover!” until after midnight.  You’ll just have to think I’m an idiot.

 

Oh, Pam!

“We were told that MAGA was for working-class Americans. But this is a government of, by, and for the ultra-rich. It’s the wealthiest Cabinet ever. This is the Epstein class. They are the elites they pretend to hate.” — Senator Jon Ossoff (90 seconds)

Congressman Jared Moskowitz holding up a bible for Pam Bondi:

“Trump’s name appears more times in the Epstein files than God’s name appears in the book about God.  By the way, this is a Trump Bible, move over King James. Trump’s name also appears more times in the Epstein file than Harry Potter’s name appears in the seven books about Harry Potter!”

Five extraordinary minutes, beginning with sincere praise — they’ve known each other a long time.

Which raises the question elaborated on below: what happened to Pam Bondi???

But first . . .

Did you see Pam Bondi on SNL four months ago?  

Pure enjoyment, except for the fact that she is destroying the Department of Justice, so fundamental to democracy. 

The two most important things in life, I would argue, are love and justice.  (Well, and health, which this administration is doing what it can to screw up as well.)

So what happened to her?

Dear Pam Bondi, writes Jon Pavlovitz:

I’m writing to you as an American citizen, a former pastor, and the father of a daughter. 

I spent today, as much of the nation, watching you speak before the House Judiciary Committee in a state of stunned disbelief, which surprised me, as I thought you’d reached a moral bottom many weeks ago.

. . . I sat incredulous, watching you appear to lie with great ease, even perverse joy, seeming, to my ears, to contradict both irrefutable evidence and your own words in the past. It was a tour de force in distraction, a true masterclass in gaslighting.

And while a thousand thoughts ran through my head, when it was all over, I was left with a single question:

How does someone become Pam Bondi?

I wonder how an apparently intelligent human being finds themselves sitting in that chair in front of the watching world in a moment of such gravity, so completely bereft of empathy, so seemingly unencumbered by other people’s suffering, and so strident in the face of simple accountability.

I try to imagine how you, the person entrusted with stewarding the Law in the highest seat of power here, arrives at a place where that Law has seemingly become irrelevant.

Are the money and the power so intoxicating that they have rendered your conscience inoperable?

Has your journey been filled with a million small moral compromises that burdened you in the beginning, but slowly emotionally anesthetized you to the point that now you feel nothing?

Are you so beholden to the redacted man who enabled your ascension to this lofty space that you are willing to shield him from the litany of heinous sins that you must know well he is guilty of?

. . . I abhor your callous disregard for the daughters who stood courageously before you today, whose eyes you did not have the dignity to look into; women whose black, cavernous hell you know full well, because you’ve pored over it countless times in words, photos, and videos that are still being concealed.

It sickens me to my core to know that thousands of survivors, girls and young women not unlike my daughter, have experienced unspeakable horrors and are finding in you, not a fierce and willing advocate, not a steadfast warrior who will deliver them justice, but an unsuspecting, shame-throwing avatar of the men who brutalized them.

Read in full?

THE FILES

In case you feel like searching around to see who’s in them, incomplete and redacted though they be, here they are.

 

Maureen Dowd: Doom Scrolling Indeed

But first . . .

Susan Collins is concerned (30 seconds).

Great ad.  She’s going down.

We’re going to win the Senate.

What Trump’s Best At, Hands Down.  (Self-enrichment.)  (Also: destroying things.)

The President Of The 0.00001 Percent
“Time to end the new Gilded Age. The way we did the last one.” — Andrew Sullivan

What’s going on now in Washington is on a wholly new scale — an open, shameless exercise by those in power to benefit personally and massively from the leverage that comes with public office. In the words of Ann Coulter: “This is the most corrupt presidency in U.S. history. I mean, it is so blatant it’s right in front of our eyes.”

. . .

I think of that day a year ago that Elon Musk posted the following on X:

<< We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could gone to some great parties. Did that instead.>>

And then I think of the tens of thousands of the poorest children on earth who were about to die in a matter of months as a direct consequence.

. . .

We don’t have to resign ourselves to this level of corruption and inequality. We really don’t. If this new Gilded Age has any silver lining, it may be that it becomes a prompt for the very kind of reforms the old one did.

Worth reading in full.

The richest man in the world is a racist.

[Musk] posted about how the white race was under threat, made allusions to race science or promoted anti-immigrant conspiracy content on 26 out of 31 days in January.

Trump Is a Weak, Failing President—Dems Should Act Like It

As Trump’s losses mount on many fronts, TNR editor Michael Tomasky discusses our special issue, which is chock full of pieces explaining how Democrats can take advantage of this highly fluid moment.

STATE OF THE SWAMP

Sign up here for the FREE rebuttal to Trump’s State of the Union — 7pm Tuesday February 24 — streaming from the National Press Club, featuring everyone from Robert DeNiro and Mark Ruffalo to Stacey Abrams, Abbe Lowell, Marianne Williamson, Eric Swalwell, and a dozens more.

And now (sorry!) . . . 

Maureen Dowd:  Welcome to the Voyage of the Damned