The Healthiest President In The History Of The World September 1, 2025September 2, 2025 FOX NEWS / SPONGE BOB 15 Seconds. JOIN ICE! Unmissable career advice (80 seconds). THE HEALTHIEST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD Or possibly not. BUT I’D BET SHE DOESN’T MUCH MIND Liz Cheney falsely linked to letter urging Democrats to fight Trump’s ‘authoritarian machine’ THE APPLE DOESNT FALL FAR FROM THE TREE Errol Musk on his son Elon Join Indivisible. Check out Braver Angels. Support the opposition. (No, it’s not everything we want and certainly not sufficient. But a well-funded opposition party is an absolutely necessary condition to our saving democracy — don’t you think?) Have a great week.
The Year Is 2051 . . . September 1, 2025 Dark, but interesting (3 minutes). We all have to work to find common ground. A house divided cannot stand. Time . . . and . . . again, when ordinary citizens come together to talk things through, they leave not agreeing on everything but with good feeling toward each other. So, yes: Join Indivisible, but perhaps join Braver Angels, too. Either way, we owe it to our Founding Fathers and all those who’ve fought and died for the Constitution to step into the breach and do something. Senator Cory Booker expressed it this way yesterday: In 2012, while Hurricane Sandy was decimating New Jersey, I spent an evening driving around looking for people who needed help. In the dark of night, I saw a light swinging back and forth on top of a hill. As I got closer, I saw an elderly man holding it in front of fallen trees. I yelled, “Why are you out here?” He looked at me like I was the stupidest man in America. He pointed at the shattered wood and twisted wires, and said, “It’s dangerous – I’m standing out here to make sure no one comes along and gets hurt.” At that moment, I had just spoken to President Obama about Newark’s devastation. I had been on the phone with the Governor. But I’ve never forgotten that the most profound response I saw in the worst storm to hit my city in a century was not from someone with a title – but from a man holding up a light in a savage storm so others wouldn’t get hurt. We are in a moral moment. What we need now are people willing to stand in this storm. Will you stand up and demand justice? Will you say “not on my watch” while this administration tears down Medicaid or hurts our children? Cory Yes, it was a fundraising pitch. And yes, there’s way too much money in politics (thanks largely to the Republican Supreme Court’s Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions). But we are at a moral moment. Putin shouldn’t be murdering Ukrainians and the U.S. shouldn’t have rolled out the red carpet for him. We shouldn’t be slashing aid to the needy while extending tax cuts to billionaires and adding trillions to our Debt. Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country. We have a republic — “if we can keep it.” Have I mentioned Indivisible? Capitalism is terrific — but relies almost entirely on employees to do the actual work. Have a beautiful Labor Day.
Why Aren’t Markets Freaking Out? August 28, 2025 Paul Krugman explains. (None too reassuring — but worth reading.) WE’RE SUCH A CHRISTIAN NATION Trump administration moves to bar aid groups from helping undocumented immigrants after disasters. What could be more Christ-like? The headline says it all. INDIVISIBLE Did you miss yesterday’s weekly call? Watch the recording. Better still, join the movement! FREE TAX FILING From the Patriotic Millionaires: Last year, the IRS launched Direct File, a popular government tool that would let Americans file their taxes for free. IRS data from the 2025 filing season found that “94% of taxpayers rated their experience with the tool as ‘excellent’ or ‘above average.’ ” NOW, Trump’s IRS has announced that it’s ending this efficient and popular program. Tell Congress: Save Taxpayers Billions. Codify Direct File. From Americans for Tax Fairness: The IRS is soliciting anonymous feedback on tax preparation and filing options through Labor Day weekend. This survey was mandated by Congress, but the IRS is only giving us a few days to respond. Let’s counteract an astroturf campaign by the tax prep industry and flood the IRS with real feedback from real people. Click here to take an official survey and encourage the IRS and Congress to bring back free tax filing! I did. Quick and easy. YOUR LOVED ONES’ HEALTH The Resignation Letter Of Dr. Demetre C. Daskalakis [abridged]: Dear Dr. Houry, I am writing to formally resign from my position as Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This decision has not come easily, as I deeply value the work that the CDC does in safeguarding public health and am proud of my contributions to that critical mission. However, enough is enough. I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality. The recent term of reference for the COVID vaccine work group created by this ACIP puts people of dubious intent and more dubious scientific rigor in charge of recommending vaccine policy to a director hamstrung and sidelined by an authoritarian leader. Their desire to please a political base will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and adults. I am not sure who the Secretary is listening to, but it is quite certainly not to us. Unvetted and conflicted outside organizations seem to be his sources. I believe in nutrition and exercise. I believe in making our food supply healthier, and I also believe in using vaccines to prevent death and disability. The nation’s health security is at risk and is in the hands of people focusing on ideological self-interest. If they continue the current path, they risk our personal well-being and the security of the United States. Sincerely, Demetre C. Daskalakis MD MPH LABOR Republicans have held the federal minimum wage to $7.25 for 16 years now. At that rate, someone working 12 hours a day six days a week with no holidays, sick days, or vacation will earn $27,144 before deductions. Happy Labor Day Weekend.
Thomas Jefferson Meets Donald Trump In The Oval Office August 28, 2025August 27, 2025 But first . . . A WATERGATE EVERY DAY Garrett Graff’s latest begins: Almost every day there’s a scandal that just skates by that in any other moment of presidential history would launch endless follow-up stories, congressional investigations, and sink an administration. I want to zero in on just two from this week — and it’s only Wednesday morning! And concludes: The deeper we get into this [ever-widening] morass of corruption and criminality, the more people are going to confront their own future legal liability and worry about what happens if and when Trump leaves office. . . . What happens when the music stops playing? We all saw how Trump basically had to win the presidency last year in order to avoid jail time — and the damage that has come from that decision. A recipe where desperate people — sometime very powerful people! — need to stay in office if only to forestall their own possible prosecution and prison time is a terrible and dangerous recipe for America’s future — and one that we should be thinking a lot about. And now . . . THOMAS JEFFERSON: Mr. Trump. I’ve read your speeches. Watched your conduct. Heard your calls for loyalty—not to the Constitution, but to yourself. Tell me plainly—do you believe in a government of laws or of men? TRUMP (smirking): Look, Tom—can I call you Tom? Here’s the deal. The people love me. Nobody’s ever had support like I’ve got. We’re restoring order. Power was too spread out—too many weak people in the way. I’m just doing what works. JEFFERSON: What works in the short term often destroys the long term. Power unchecked becomes tyranny. We saw it in kings. You are not crowned, Mr. Trump—you are elected. And you serve only by the consent of the governed. TRUMP: Consent? I got 74 million votes. That’s consent. And when the system’s rigged, when the media lies, when judges don’t play fair—you better believe I’ll take control. The people want strength. JEFFERSON: The people also wanted Caesar. And they lost their Republic. When fear and faction replace truth and principle, democracy becomes a performance—just a stage for the loudest voice. That is not strength. That is spectacle. TRUMP (leaning forward): What’s wrong with spectacle? You think anyone remembers quiet leaders? No—they remember winners. We’re making America great again. Strong borders. Strong economy. Strong leadership. JEFFERSON: Greatness without virtue is just empire. We declared independence to escape strongmen who mistook authority for righteousness. I wrote those words so no future ruler—elected or not—could forget the limits of power. TRUMP: That was 250 years ago. Things are different now. We’ve got enemies everywhere—inside and out. You’ve got to fight fire with fire. The press is the enemy. Judges don’t listen. Congress? Useless. You think your little parchment still applies? JEFFERSON (coldly): Yes. And if it no longer applies, then the Republic is already lost. You speak of enemies, but you divide your own countrymen. You praise autocrats. You mock reason. You stir up mobs and silence dissent. You do not preserve the Union—you fracture it. TRUMP: I know loyalty. I know winning. You’re too idealistic. This isn’t the Age of Reason anymore—it’s the age of survival. JEFFERSON: And in trading liberty for survival, you will have neither. I did not risk treason against a king to see my country fall under the rule of another—in a red tie instead of a crown. Power must always serve the people—not bend them to its will. TRUMP (standing up): You had your time, Tom. You wrote your fancy words. I’m doing what has to be done. JEFFERSON (softly, yet fiercely): And I wrote those words for moments exactly like this. When the flame of liberty flickers low… When truth is drowned out by volume… When one man seeks to become more than the people who gave him power… That’s when patriots must rise—not with muskets—but with memory. With courage. With principle. Because tyranny never knocks—it slips in through applause. ⸻ [The room falls silent. A storm brews outside. One man believes he is saving the country by dominating it. The other knows it can only be saved by freeing it.] [unknown*] *I hate not crediting authors, so I asked Microsoft’s Copilot, “Who wrote the scene where Thomas Jefferson confronts Donald Trump in the Oval Office?” It replied: “The scene was written by Andrew Tobias, as indicated in the draft post editor of his website. It appears to be part of a satirical or reflective piece—possibly unpublished or in progress—given its status as a draft saved on August 27, 2025.” It then offered to “help summarize or analyze the scene’s themes.” But isn’t this a little scary? It’s scanning our posts even as we type. Imagine this power falling into a tyrant’s hands. Sign up now to join today’s Indivisible call — 3pm Eastern.
Rabbis; The Economy; His Majesty’s Health August 27, 2025August 27, 2025 RABBIS Orthodox Rabbis Emerge as Growing Voice of Criticism of Israel’s Tactics in Gaza. Hamas is no longer a credible threat. Israel should immediately flood Gaza with food and medicine in dozens of locations. This rabbi’s worldview has been shattered both here and abroad. It is to weep. THE ECONOMY Investopedia: Economists See Red Flags Everywhere. Most experts believe the economy faces risks of recession and high inflation. . . . Tariffs, the recently-passed tax and spending bill, the government’s crackdown on immigration, Trump’s interference with the Federal Reserve, and the administration’s management of government economic statistics are all likely to damage the economy, according to a survey of 159 experts carried out by the National Association of For Business Economics between July 31 and Aug. 11 and released Monday. . . . Krugman: Deporting undocumented workers will be worse for the economy than you think. (Speaking of which, see this Shout out to white women in California who put Mexican flags on their bumpers.) Market Watch: Why Trump firing Powell could rock U.S. financial markets. Firing Fed Governor Lisa Cook is having the same effect. As lenders see him usurping the Fed’s independence (and firing career statisticians who report weak employment numbers), they may demand a higher risk premium, and/or look elsewhere to invest their funds. It should also be noted that Ms. Cook is the Fed’s only black governor — the only black female governor in its 112-year history — and, let’s face it, Trump, like his dad before him, has never been crazy about black people. And then there’s the irony that it’s alleged mortgage fraud she’s suspected of. Trump — who led multiple companies into bankruptcy, stiffing hundreds or thousands of creditors — was convicted on 34 felonies related to mortgage fraud. If Lisa Cook needs to step down, doesn’t he? That is, of course, no more likely than Putin’s or Kim Jung Un’s stepping down. HIS MAJESTY’S ‘ASTONISHINGLY EXCELLENT’ HEALTH Even the bone spurs may have disappeared. (I thought of this when I read when I read yesterday’s Borowitz: National Guard Refuses to Go to Chicago, Citing Bone Spurs.) Trump doctor says president dictated letter praising his own ‘astonishingly excellent’ health during 2016 campaign. And he just gets healthier and healthier. Representative Ronny Jackson recently told the Independent: As President Trump’s former personal physician, former Physician to the President, and White House physician for 14 years across three administrations, I can tell you unequivocally: President Donald J. Trump is the healthiest president this nation has ever seen. I continue to consult with his current physician and medical team at the White House and still spend significant time with the President. He is mentally and physically sharper than ever before. Join Indivisible. Fund the opposition. Spread DIS-disinformation. Share Governor Pritzker’s speech.
Share This Speech With Everyone You Know August 25, 2025 WATCH J.B. PRITZKER’S SPEECH! And then, if you have time: America Tips Into Fascism I think many Americans wrongly believed there would be one clear unambiguous moment where we go from “democracy” to “authoritarianism.” Instead, this is exactly how it happens — a blurring here, a norm destroyed there, a presidential diktat unchallenged. Then you wake up one morning and our country is different. Today, August 25, 2025, is that morning. . . . Everything else from here on out is just a matter of degree and wondering how bad it will get and how far it will go? Do we end up “merely” like Hungary or do we go all the way toward an “American Reich”? So far, after years of studying World War II, I fear that America’s trajectory feels more like Berlin circa 1933 than it does Budapest circa 2015. → Clearly worth reading in full. BUT NOT BEFORE YOU WATCH J.B. PRITZKER’S SPEECH — and share it with everyone you know. That’s part of fighting back.
Everything Is Upside Down August 25, 2025August 25, 2025 THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW WATCH RUSSIAN television or listen to Vladimir Putin’s chilling speeches, and Russia is a besieged fortress, struggling to preserve humanity against the decadent West, defending the traditional values of family life, and defying death by its readiness to sacrifice life. Walk down Moscow streets, however, and it looks nothing like a city in the grip of a death cult. But neither did Berlin in the early 1940s, with its cabarets and heady consumption. . . . For many the war is being fought “somewhere over there” by people who freely signed contracts and have been paid to die, says Alexei Venediktov, the editor of the now-banned Ekho Moskvy radio station. . . . Russia is a besieged fortress . . . Ukraine started the war . . . Russia never helped Trump get elected. Up is down, down is up. Trump has purged one of the CIA’s most senior Russia analysts: “The move will have a chilling effect inside American spy agencies.” But autocrat Putin — who shuts down press outlets and murders journalists — is Trump’s friend and role model. He’s been long maligned by the American press just as Trump has. Oh, the press! America’s reverence for an independent press has been expressed many ways . . . Benjamin Franklin: “Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freedom of speech.” Thomas Jefferson: “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” Walter Cronkite: “Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy.” . . . but has never been universally shared: Josef Stalin, Joseph Goebbels, Donald Trump, Kim Jong Un: “The press is the enemy of the people.” After 250 years, we’re suddenly on the side of the autocrats. Up is down, down is up. Slave labor — legal in Virginia for 244 years, illegal for 162 — went a great long way toward making America economically great in the first place (and built the White House) but is suddenly not something to make such a big deal about. Up is down, down is up. Grabbing women by the pussy? Just remember what we were taught as kids: It’s okay if you’re a celebrity — they let you do it! And if they try to fight you off? Just lie and say it never happened! (Though it unquestionably did.) Up is down, down is up. Indeed, lie about anything. Overwhelm them. Alternative facts. Loyalty over competence. Obedience over integrity. Exigency over excellence. Rule by fear. It is 2025 — verging on 1984. When in the course of human events it becomes possible for one narcissistic sociopath to amass limitless wealth and power, ruling by fear and decree over all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, Canada, Greenland, and the District of Columbia . . . a decent respect for the opinions of mankind requires that . . . Everything is upside down! Our job is to get it rightside up. Join Indivisible. Fund the opposition. Spread DIS-disinformation. Robert Reich: We are watching what we never thought possible—the apparent transformation of our democracy into a dictatorship (or, as Donald Trump has promoted, a monarchy with him as king). You may be feeling helpless, powerless . . . but you are not. Tyranny cannot prevail over people who refuse to succumb to it. . . . Ultimately, what happens to our country will come down to our own courage and resolve: To engage in peaceful protest. To organize and mobilize others. To work against hate and bigotry. To fight for justice and democracy. Have a great week.
My Money’s On Jack White August 23, 2025August 23, 2025 But first . . . The real collusion between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. The Economist devotes a special weekend edition to this topic, concluding: “It may be scarier than their critics long suspected.”) Digital editor Adam Roberts introduces it: Did Churchill ever break into applause at the sight of Stalin, or JFK give a little ovation for Khrushchev? I suspect not. So it was striking to see Donald Trump’s thrilled reaction as Vladimir Putin approached him in Alaska last week. Some online cynics joked that it was natural that the American leader clapped: it’s not every day you get to meet your hero. Too strong? Perhaps. But Mr Trump has shown an abiding affection for the Russian autocrat. My hunch about their relationship: Mr Trump is drawn to anyone who exudes an aura of strength. Talk of morality, rules, duty or strategy bores him. He yearns, instead, to strike bold and quick deals with tough guys and to win prizes and adoration as a result. That makes for an unstable world. (Or put another way: Hi, Donald. I was just calling to see how your meeting with Putin went. Same two minutes as yesterday, in case you missed it.) And now . . . I guess he won’t be performing at the Kennedy Center any time soon, but which guy strikes you as the true truth-telling patriot –Donald Trump or Jack White? The White House melts down and attacks music legend Jack White after he insults Donald Trump’s “disgusting” and “vulgar” redecoration of the White House Jack White is a washed-up, has-been loser posting drivel on social media because he clearly has ample time on his hands due to his stalled career,” claimed White House spokesman Steven Cheung. It’s apparent [White]’s been masquerading as a real artist, because he fails to appreciate, and quite frankly disrespects, the splendor and significance of the Oval Office inside of ‘The People’s House.’ Jack’s response… Listen, I’m an artist and not a politician so I’m in no need to give my answer or opinion on anything if I’m not inspired or compelled, but how funny that it wasn’t me calling out trump’s blatant fascist manipulation of government, his gestapo ICE tactics, his racist remarks about Latinos, Native Americans, etc. his ridiculous ‘wall’ construction, his attacks on the disabled, his attempted coup and mob insurrection and destruction of the sacred halls of congress, his disparaging sexist and pedophilic remarks about women, his obvious attempts at distraction about being a close personal friend of Jeffrey Epstein and his inclusion in the Epstein files, his ignorance of the dying children in Sudan, Gaza, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, his lack of empathy for military veterans and those struggling with poverty, his attempts to dismantle healthcare, his obvious wimpy and pathetic kowtowing to the dictators Putin and Kim Jong Un, his nazi like rallies, his attempts to sell merchandise and products like Goya beans through the office of the President, his fake ‘gunshot to the ear’ that he showed no medical records or photographs of, his constant, constant, constant lying to the American people, etc. etc. etc. No, it wasn’t me calling out any of that, it was the f*cking DECOR OF THE OVAL OFFICE remarks I made that got them to respond with insults. How petty and pathetic and thin skinned could this administration get? ‘Masquerading as a real artist’? Thank you for giving me my tombstone engraving! Well here’s my opinion, trump is masquerading as a human being. He’s masquerading as a Christian, as a leader, as a person with actual empathy. He’s been masquerading as a businessman for decades as nothing he’s involved in has prospered except by using other people’s money to find loophole after loophole and grift after grift. His staff of professional liar toadies like Steven Cheung and Karoline Leavitt have been covering up and masking his fascism as patriotism and fomenting hatred and division in this country on a daily basis. And I have ‘ample time on (my) hands’? That orange grifter has spent more tax payer money cheating at golf than helping ANYONE in the country. Improve. Anything. There is no progress with him, only smoke and mirrors and tax breaks for the ultra wealthy. So MAGA folk, enjoy your concrete paving over of the rose garden, your 200 million dollar ballroom in the White House, and your gaudy ass gold spray painted trinkets from Home Depot, cause he ain’t spending any money on helping YOU unless you fit into his white supremacist country club rich idiot agenda. Wow, he hates who you hate….good for you, be proud of yourselves, how Christian of you all. The only way you can support this conman is because you are a victim of the 2 party system and you ‘defend your guy no matter what he does.’ No intelligent person can defend this low life fascist. This bankruptor of casinos. This failed seller of trump steaks, trump vodka, trump water, etc. This man and his goon squad have failed upwards for decades and have fleeced the American people over and over. This professional golf cheat, this grifter who has hundreds of thousands of deaths from his inaction of the pandemic on his hands, this man that the majority of the country somehow were fooled into supporting and voting into office (through the flawed electoral college) and their love of reality television stars. Being insulted by the actual White House that this particular conman leads is a badge of honor to me, because anyone who trump supports and likes is a villain who gives nothing to their fellow man, only takes what can benefit themselves. And no I’m not a Democrat either, I’m a human being raised in Detroit, I’m an artist who’s owned his own businesses like his own upholstery shop and recording label since he was 21 years old who has enough street sense to know when a 3 card monte dealer is a cheap grifter and a thief. I was raised to believe that we defeated fascism in World War II and that we would never allow it again in the world. I don’t always state publicly my political opinions, and like anyone I don’t always know all of the facts, but when it comes to this man and this administration I’m not going to be like one of the silent minority of 1930’s Germany. This man is a danger to not just America but the entire world and that’s not an exaggeration, he’s dismantling democracy and endangering the planet on a daily basis, and we. all. know. it.— JW III Relatedly . . . Vince D., reacting to word from the White House that Trump would sign a decree* cracking down on those who burn an American flag: “Looks like it’s time to repost your June 28, 2006 flag burning post.” Oh, for crying out loud. The whole point of America is that you can burn the flag. Nothing sums up her greatness so succinctly. And it is precisely this – that in America you should be free to do any damn thing you please so long as it does not impinge on the rights of others – that leads most of us to abhor the idea of burning it in the first place. And one thing you should absolutely be free to do in America is criticize your country and express outrage at its behavior – even if you’re wrong. We call that the Bill of Rights. (The White House later announced that the ruler had changed his mind.) In sum . . . Jack White concludes his rant (above) with this quote from Teddy Roosevelt: To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. — Theodore Roosevelt My money’s on Jack White. *They call them executive orders, but the nature of the presidency has clearly changed.
Never A Bad Word About Putin August 22, 2025August 23, 2025 Conservative George Will (worth reading in full): As flaccid as a boned fish, Donald Trump crumpled quicker than even Vladimir Putin probably anticipated. The former KGB agent currently indicted for war crimes felt no need to negotiate with the man-child. The president’s thunderous demands — a 50-day deadline, a 10-day deadline, “severe consequences,” a ceasefire before negotiations — all were just noise. . . . When Dwight Eisenhower asked Gen. Georgy Zhukov, the foremost Soviet hero of World War II, how the Red Army cleared minefields, Zhukov replied that it marched through them. Putin has been marinated in lore about that war, and about “the West” trying “to cancel a whole 1,000 year culture, our people.” He is delusional, but serious. . . . Eighty-five summers ago, the United States was saluted by Britain’s prime minister in the House of Commons. On a dark day (June 4, 1940) he anticipated the day when “the New World, with all its power and might, steps forward to the rescue and the liberation of the old.” Now it is the Old World’s turn to rescue the United States. It needs to be liberated from the chimera that it has no substantial stake in the outcome of high-intensity, state-on-state violence inflicted by a nuclear power obedient to a man who has actual beliefs: crackpot, but real, and menacing. Or put another way: Hi, Donald. I was just calling to see how your meeting with Putin went. (Two minutes.) Have a great weekend.
James Comey + Taylor Swift August 19, 2025 But first . . . Fareed Zakariah: Alienating India is Trump’s greatest foreign policy mistake thus far. President Donald Trump’s sudden, inexplicable hostility toward India reverses policies pursued under five administrations, including his own previous one. . . . Enter Trump 2.0. With little warning, Trump has undone decades of painstaking work by U.S. diplomats. Trump has called India’s economy “dead.” In fact, for several years, India has had the fastest-growing large economy in the world (“in the second quarter of this year, India exported more smartphones to the U.S. market than China did’) . . . Read it and weep. Also . . . President Trump’s top informal advisor (now that Four Seasons Landscaping Giuliani and the My Pillow Guy are gone) . . . conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer . . . Congratulates Herself for ‘Personally’ Saving Americans from Hamas. Which she did not do. The headline for which she can take credit: US suspends Gaza visas after Laura Loomer criticizes admission of children for medical care. Isn’t that great? Denying desperate children medical care? HEAL Palestine, the Ohio-based nonprofit that organized the care, explains: HEAL Palestine . . . deliver[s] urgent aid and medical care to children in Palestine, including sponsoring and bringing severely injured children to the US on temporary visas for essential medical treatment not available at home. After their treatment is complete, the children and any accompanying family members return to the Middle East. This is a medical treatment program not a refugee resettlement program. Our mission gives children a renewed chance at life whether through life-saving surgery or the ability to walk again. US tax dollars do not fund this treatment. Guided by human and American values, HEAL is committed to offering hope and healing to the few young lives we can reach. And Laura Loomer will not stand for it. Not on her watch. And now . . . Carl sent three separate emails yesterday, hoping to set me straight. The last of which will bring us to James Comey and Taylor Swift — which you must not miss — but let’s take one at a time: 1. “Yes Andy,” Carl writes in bold face, “another of your toilet cleaners killed 3 people… If the victims were your friends you still wouldn’t give a Schiff!” Illegal-migrant driver in Florida make rogue U-turn, kills 3 The alleged semi-truck driver who killed three people while making a U-turn at an “Official Use Only” turn on the Florida Turnpike is an ILLEGAL MIGRANT who was granted a commercial driver’s license by the State of California. → But he’s wrong on at least two counts. First, like most progressives (or anyone else), I actually do care when people are hurt or killed and would be beside myself if they were my friends. Second, the conservative Cato Institute found that “in fact, illegal immigrants are less likely than native-born Americans to be arrested or convicted for violent crimes, including vehicular homicide.” And the Center for Growth and Opportunity found that “extending driving privileges to undocumented migrants improves public safety.” It’s quite true that if we managed somehow to get rid of all undocumented immigrants there would be fewer traffic fatalities and less crime of all kinds. But that’s also true of rounding up all native-born Americans as well. Especially teenagers. Indeed, if there were none of us, there’d be no crime at all. I’m sorry Trump killed the long-sought, hard-won bipartisan immigration bill the House and Senate passed in 2023 so he could use the border crisis as a campaign issue. And I’m sorry that, ten years earlier, Republicans killed the comprehensive immigration reform that passed the Senate 68-32 and would have remedied the problem that much sooner. Almost everyone — including me — agreed with Carl that we needed to secure the southern border and address the immigration issue. Relatively few thought we should have masked men grabbing people off the street and denying them their Constitutional rights. That’s where Carl and I disagree. 2. “So Andy,” he wrote in response to my plug for The Pando Plan, “you want to make a better world? Give up your insane Democrat ideas and join America!” Insane Democrat ideas: Open borders. Increased regulation on business. Medicare-for-All. Abolishing the Electoral College, ending the legislative filibuster. Universal basic income. Defund the police. Trump is a fascist and Hitler. Men can be women if they say so. Men in women’s sports, locker rooms and bathrooms. Start with those! → Open borders is not “a Democrat idea,” it is a dumb idea espoused by almost no Democrats. Same with defunding the police. The right says it anyway and Carl believes it. There is nothing insane about regulation in general. Some regulation is insane and should be eliminated or adjusted; but much of Trump’s deregulation will make life worse for everyday Americans (though better for wealthy shareholders). Medicare-for-All is only insane if you consider the rest of the developed world, all of which has it in some form, insane. It’s not immediately practical to be sure, just as it would not be immediately practical for us to switch to the metric system; but hardly insane. Trump is not Hitler, but he is a fascist and an authoritarian. (Also an adjudicated rapist, a convicted felon; twice impeached with a 57-43 majority of the Senate, including Republicans, voting to convict him.) Abolishing the Electoral College would just leave the choice of president to the voters, as we do for governors and mayors and senators and representatives — and few think that’s insane. Ending the filibuster has never been a plank of the Democratic platform. It does, however, respond to the frustration that people — of every political persuasion — feel that the country can’t get things done. Which is (sadly, but relatedly) why so many Americans now favor an authoritarian who simply ignores the powers granted to Congress by the Constitution. A majority of Republicans score high on the Right-Wing Authoritarian Scale, a measure developed in 1950 after the Second World War and our defeat of fascism. Many Democrats do favor modifying the filibuster, as has been done more than 160 times. Universal Basic Income is an idea whose time will come — throughout Europe by 2032, according to futurist Ray Kurzweil, and to the U.S. in 2038. Artificial intelligence and other advances in technology will both allow and require it. Allow it, because our productivity gains will provide enormous wealth; require it, because the things the world actually needs — like food and shelter — will no longer require a giant workforce. But this is nowhere in today’s Democratic platform. And of course men should not be able to compete in women’s sports. The issue of transgender athletes is more nuanced than Carl realizes or wishes to acknowledge — it would be easier for him if there simply were no trans people. But there are, so I’d like to leave that one up to the coaches and the NCAA and the Olympic Committee. Either way, it affects so few people, compared to, say, losing our democracy after 250 years, that I think we should keep it in perspective. 3. “You say: <<Trump’s daddy void….. see what you think.” To which Carl replies: BIZZAR OBSESTIONS! What do YOU think? James Comey raves about Taylor Swift in bizarre video | Fox News Video → So I was genuinely curious to see what Carl was referring to — and am now grateful to him for having shared with me. Whatever you may think of Comey — who arguably threw the 2016 election to Trump — if you can find 5 minutes, watch him “rave” “bizarrely.” It is diametrically opposed in tone to everything Carl seems to embody.