R.I.P., Edward Ryan June 20, 2024June 20, 2024 One of you sent me this obituary from the Albany Times Union with no other explanation than to read it to the end. At first it made no sense — is this someone he thought I had known? — but then it did. It speaks volumes about the way life used to be and how much progress has been made. With our Republican friends fighting it every step of the way. Rest in peace, Edward Ryan.
WHY They Want Him To Win June 19, 2024June 18, 2024 But first . . . Glenn Price: “Clarence Thomas’s majority opinion elevates dogma and the dictionary over a commonsense interpretation of the Second Amendment. Originalism? Originally, bump stocks didn’t exist. Watch this video showing how a bump stock works and tell me it is not a machine gun.” Thomas and Alito are embarrassments to the Court and the nation. If Trump wins, they would be induced to step down, replaced by equally partisan right-wingers 30 years younger . . . extending their minority views beyond 2050. (Surely it is a minority view that abortion should be illegal and bump stocks, legal.) And now . . . PUTIN wants Trump to win so he can subjugate Ukraine and then move on to conquer adjacent states. THE KLAN wants Trump to win because they believe America should be a white Christian nation. CARL wants him to win because he believes trans women are “ruining women’s sports.” And because he is rightly distraught over the border crisis – though not so distraught as to favor the bi-partisan bill Trump killed that would have ENDED the crisis. TRUMP, a convicted felon surrounded by other convicted felons, wants to win so he can be the world’s strongest strongman — like Putin, Orban, and Kim Jong Un, only stronger — and because it’s his only way to beat the raps for attempting to overturn the election and for lying to the FBI about documents he claimed not to have and then took pains to conceal. TENS OF MILLIONS OF OTHERS want him to win because they have been misled into believing the country is going to hell when, in fact, unemployment is low; the stock market, at record highs; infrastructure, at long last being revitalized; manufacturing jobs, coming home; violent crime, down (murder, “plunging”); and the border in crisis — this bears repeating — only because Trump killed the deal to fix it. And inflation? His followers have been misled into believing that the sharp two-year spike in the cost of living was Biden’s fault, when it was largely the result of COVID’s supply-chain disruptions. Prices and interest rates are painfully high; but no longer rising as fast as wages. And even as Biden continues to make progress on inflation, Trump has vowed to impose huge tariffs, making imported goods more expensive; and to deport millions of workers, tightening an already tight labor market, driving up wages and prices. “In our nation’s 247-year history, there has never been an individual who is greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.” — Dick Cheney, Sep. 7, 2023
Three Alerts June 18, 2024June 17, 2024 TERROR ALERT “The Terrorism Warning Lights Are Blinking Red Again.” Everything policy makers need to know. All I think we need to know is that, should a terrorist succeed between now and the election, we shouldn’t jettison democracy in favor of authoritarianism. That would be a tragic over-reaction — much like our over-reaction to 9/11 . . . strengthening Iran by attacking Iraq; attempting to remake Afghanistan at a cost of trillions; all while creating millions more potential terrorists. IRONY ALERT The 13-million-member Southern Baptist Convention has officially come out against IVF, a fertility method that now accounts for about 2% of American births. The next Republican frontier is to forbid women (and men) from having babies they desperately want, even as they force poor women (and men) to have children they desperately don’t. Both links tell powerful stories. TALENT ALERT Did you watch the Tony’s? They were hosted by Ariana DeBose, the Oscar winning actress named by TIME Magazine one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She’s one of the stars who’ll be joining the President and First Lady in New York a week from Friday. Come join us! Help save the democracy so many fought and died to create and preserve. Straight allies hugely welcome.
If He Wins June 16, 2024 Yesterday, I shared Norm Ornstein’s must-read essay. Today, Tom Hartmann’s take: If Trump wins, this will be referred to as “the age of Trump,” Laura Ingraham told her Fox viewers, dreaming of a repeat of the kind of consequential presidency that stamps political eras. “He dominates the policy debate in ways that no one has done since Reagan. And if he picks a strong VP… this coalition could be in power for 50 years.” Ingraham — who I also once debated, at a Heritage Foundation event — could be right. If Trump becomes president this fall, he and his Project 2025 allies will transform America in ways that go far beyond FDR’s New Deal or Reagan’s war on working people. The Christian Taliban that has surrounded him will take over public school instruction and birth control policy, racist militias and skinheads will be running elections and immigration policy, the media will be finally and fully seized by rightwing oligarchs like in Russia and Hungary, unions and equality movements will be functionally outlawed, and Trump’s “enemies” (including reporters and commentators like yours truly) will end up in prison. Each of those things is already promised explicitly by Trump himself or part of the Project 2025 program for the next Republican presidency. Unthinkable? So was the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Likewise, the idea that two-thirds of the Court would have been appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote. Or that a twice-impeached convicted felon — an adjudicated rapist found liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in civil penalties, now awaiting trial in three much more serious criminal cases — who cheated to get into college and cheated to get out of the draft, cheated on his wives, cheats at golf, cheated on his taxes, cheated contractors, cheated with his charity and stiffed creditors of the four companies he put into bankruptcy — “the undisputed world champion of destroying things,” as Tucker Carlson put it, whom dozens of his own former top staffers consider dangerously unfit for the job — could actually be the next president. If you’re not scared, you’re not paying attention — which is just what Trump and Putin want. If you can help, click here (cash) or here (effort). We’re going to win because, unlike the Germans or Italians 90 years ago, we have the benefit of hindsight. And if you think all this is alarmist — that even if he wins “the system will hold” — read Norm’s essay again and tell me where you think he’s wrong. THANK YOU!
We’ve Seen This Movie Before June 14, 2024June 13, 2024 The Economist predicts Trump has a two-out-of-three chance of winning. Norm Ornstein and Dahlia Lithwick predict what will happen if he does. “The system,” they say, will not hold. Let me know where, if anywhere, you think they’re wrong. If enough people understand this — and I think enough will — Trump will lose. Just as candidates in Germany and Italy would have lost 90 or so years ago if German and Italian voters had had the benefit of hindsight. Unlike them, we do. We’ve seen this movie before. Have a great weekend. Don’t forget to file your second estimated tax payment by Monday, if you need to. And please: read that piece and share it every way you can. If you can help, click here (cash) or here (effort). We’re going to win.
Religious Conflict — And Magic June 13, 2024June 12, 2024 A moving account: The Day My Old Church Canceled Me Was a Very Sad Day. A really thoughtful conversation on Gaza: this Ezra Klein podcast. . . . I wanted to know what it’s like to watch these protests from Israel. What are Israelis seeing? What do they make of them? Ari Shavit is an Israeli journalist and the author of “My Promised Land,” the best book I’ve read about Israeli identity and history. “Israelis are seeing a different war than the one that Americans see,” he tells me. This is a conversation about trying to push divergent perspectives into relationship with each other: On the protests, on Israel, on Gaza, on Benjamin Netanyahu, on what it means to take societal trauma and fear seriously, on Jewish values, and more. A BONUS: Exchanging Contact Info If you and a new acquaintance want to share contact info — and your iPhones are both up to date (even if they’re old), just touch the two together and tap the Share button that will appear. It’s magic!
BTC, DJT, And A Money-Back Guarantee June 12, 2024June 11, 2024 CRAPTO Crypto Just Got Exponentially More Dangerous: Meet Fairshake. Quoth the craven: “Evermore.” MORE CRAPTO The People Who Bought Stock in Trump’s Truth Social Are Very Angry. But not at Trump. BONUS My friend Marc Fest’s one-hour communications training costs $450 and comes with a money-back guarantee. Want to up your game? Or that of a non-profit you support? Or a start-up you’ve invested in? Want to give your recently-graduated child or grandkid a leg up as he or she enters the real world? Check it out.
Is This A Great Country Or What? June 11, 2024June 10, 2024 GREAT BOOK Bill Maher’s new book is terrific. What This Comedian Said Will Shock You. (That’s the title.) Everyone on the left and the right will find much in it to like. Those of us who feel we’re in the sensible center will feel affirmed. CAUTION The stock market is awfully high. Price/earnings ratios are at record levels. If you’re invested on margin, you shouldn’t be. if you’ll be needing to cash out some of your holdings in the next year or two, it may be wiser to sell now and put that cash into Treasuries. “Timing the market” — getting out when you think it’s going to fall and back in when you think it’s going to rise — is not a long-term formula for success. But neither is taking more risk than you can afford. NEWS FLASH The twice-impeached convicted felon Republicans are running for President — an adjudicated rapist who has been found liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in civil penalties and now awaits trial in three much more serious criminal cases — who cheated to get into college and cheated to get out of the draft, cheated on his wives, cheats at golf, cheated on his taxes, cheated contractors, cheated with his charity and stiffed creditors of the four companies he put into bankruptcy — “the undisputed world champion of destroying things,” as Tucker Carlson put it, whom dozens of his own former top staffers consider dangerously unfit for the job — met with his probation officer yesterday. Is this a great country or what?
A Must-Read Speech That Would Have Been Given Even In The Rain June 10, 2024June 9, 2024 GOP 2.0: A Republican minute worth sharing widely. Why they do what they do. Two minutes with Pete Buttigieg. Finally, if you haven’t already, take 5 minutes to read President Biden’s D-Day commemoration. It will make you proud. Had Trump’s conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election succeeded, would he even have shown up at this event? Maybe — if the weather was good. But he surely could never have given this speech. WHEELTUG BONUS Still kicking.
They’re SERIOUS June 9, 2024June 17, 2024 Everyone knows about Project 2025 — or should. It’s the 920-page plan for reshaping America as a white Christian nationalist authoritarian state, or something close to it. But how many of us, until this weekend’s reporting in the Washington Post, knew about Russ Vought’s “post-Constitutional” plan for Trump’s second term? Vought is, among other things, policy director for the 2024 Republican platform. (In 2020, the Republicans didn’t bother to have a platform. In 2016, all Trump touched was the part about defending Ukraine. The only thing in the entire platform that mattered to him was weakening Ukraine. What a coincidence that it was also the only thing in the platform that mattered to Putin.) The Post reports: A battle-tested D.C. bureaucrat and self-described Christian nationalist is drawing up detailed plans for a sweeping expansion of presidential power in a second Trump administration. Russ Vought, who served as the former president’s budget chief, calls his political strategy for razing long-standing guardrails “radical constitutionalism.” He has helped craft proposals for Donald Trump to deploy the military to quash civil unrest, seize more control over the Justice Department and assert the power to withhold congressional appropriations — and that’s just on Trump’s first day back in office. Vought, 48, is poised to steer this agenda from an influential perch in the White House, potentially as Trump’s chief of staff, according to some people involved in discussions about a second term. . . . Vought aims to harness what he calls the “woke and weaponized” bureaucracy that stymied the former president by stocking federal agencies with hardcore disciples who would wage culture wars on abortion and immigration. . . . Some of Vought’s recommendations, such as bucking the Justice Department’s tradition of political independence, have long percolated in the conservative movement. But he is taking a harder line — and seeking to empower a presidential nominee who has openly vowed “retribution,” alarming some fellow conservatives who recall fighting against big government alongside Vought long before Trump’s election. . . . Vought’s long career as a staffer in Congress and at federal agencies has made him an asset to Project 2025, an initiative led by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, to lay the groundwork for a second Trump term. Vought wrote the chapter on the executive office of the president in Project 2025’s 920-page blueprint, and he is developing its playbook for the first 180 days, according to the people involved in the effort. . . . Vought supports prosecuting officials who investigated [Trump] and his allies. “It can’t just be hearings,” he told right-wing activist Charlie Kirk on his podcast. “It has to be investigations, an army of investigators that lead to firm convictions.” . . . “No institution set up within its first two years [has] had the impact of [Vought’s] organization,” [currently imprisoned Stephen K.] Bannon said. “We’re going to rip and shred the federal government apart, and if you don’t like it, you can lump it.” Worth reading in full. They really mean it. To help, click here. To help and attend what promises to be an amazing show in New York June 28 — here. (Straight allies welcome!) Note: After taxes, Thomas netted considerably less from his employer (we, the people) than from his extremely wealthy friends.