Author: A.T.

Did you miss that course in college?

Here it is in 12 minutes.

It begins in Greece, 2500 years ago.

Theater and democracy — and respecting our friends in the red states.

Fareed Zakaria is must-watch TV every Sunday morning.  Here (beginning at 1:20) is his 4-minute take on North Korea and the Pacific region.

We are ceding the field (and much of the rest of the world) to China.

It’s hard to guess who is more thrilled with Trump: Putin, China, North Korea’s dictator or (though I digress) America’s white supremacists.

To help break the Republican stranglehold, click here.

To glam up the mid-terms, click here.

George Packer in the New Yorker:

Donald Trump Goes Rogue
. . . In four days, between Quebec and Singapore, Trump showed that the liberal order is hateful to him, and that he wants out. Its rules are too confining, its web of connections—from trade treaties to security alliances—unfair. And he seems to find his democratic counterparts distasteful, even pathetic. They speak in high-minded rhetoric rather than in Twitter insults, they’re emasculated by parliaments and by the press, and maybe they’re not very funny. Trump prefers the company of dictators who can flatter and be flattered. Part of his unhappiness in Quebec was due to the absence of President Vladimir Putin; before leaving for the summit, Trump had demanded that Russia be unconditionally restored to the G-7, from which it was suspended over the dismemberment of Ukraine. He finds nothing special about democratic values, and nothing objectionable about murderous rulers. “What, you think our country is so innocent?” he once asked.

. . . Trump imagines that America unbound, shaking hands or giving the finger, depending upon short-term interests and Presidential whims, will flourish among the other rogues. After his meeting with Kim, he flew home aglow with wonder at his own dealmaking prowess, assuring Americans that they could now sleep in peace. In fact, Trump had secured nothing except the same vague commitment to dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program which the regime has offered and routinely betrayed in the past. Meanwhile, he gave up something real—joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises, which he called “provocative,” the language of totalitarian and aggressive North Korea. Without allies and treaties, without universal values, American foreign policy largely depends on what goes on inside Trump’s head. Kim, like Putin, already seems to have got there.

Power politics is not a system that plays to American strengths. For all our lapses, we thrived for seventy years by standing for something. . . . When the next global economic crisis or major war or terrorist attack happens, America will be alone.

And Timothy Snyder reviewing THE DEATH OF DEMOCRACY: Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic  in the New York Times:

How Did the Nazis Gain Power in Germany?

. . . We take for granted that the Germans of the 1930s were quite different from ourselves, and that our consideration of their errors will only confirm our superiority. The opposite is the case. . . .

. . . The Nazis, in Hett’s account, were above all “a nationalist protest movement against globalization.”  . . . In their 1920 program, the Nazis proclaimed that “members of foreign nations (noncitizens) are to be expelled from Germany.” Next would come autarky: Germans would conquer the territory they needed to be self-sufficient, and then create their own economy in isolation from that of the rest of the world. As Goebbels put it, “We want to build a wall, a protective wall.” . . .

Please vote.  And if you can, help.

This story made me cry.  In a good way.

Under five minutes.

Treat yourself to the bygone empathy.

The abundant decency.

And don’t forget: your second quarterly estimated tax is due today.  (More tears.)

Following up on yesterday’s Dana Milbank column — Finally, A President With The Guts To Stand Up To Canada — you’ve got to watch these four minutes in which Steve Rattner explains that the trade deficit with Canada . . .

. . . is actually a surplus.

That the dairy deficit Trump has focused on . . .

. . . is actually a surplus.

That the tariffs Canada imposes on our goods . . .

. . . are actually lower than those we impose on theirs.

That the tariffs Trump placed on softwood . . .

. . . have raised our cost of lumber by 27% and the price of homes we buy by thousands of dollars. 

And that in addition to making life more expensive for Americans, Trump’s tariffs . . .

. . . will cost thousands of American jobs.

Putin can’t believe it.

America is diminishing itself faster than he could have ever dreamed possible.

The cult of personality Trump has built — in some ways like those of the strongmen he praises and admires — allows him to tell his followers anything and they will delight in his irreverence and bravado and in driving the rest of us crazy.

Among the cultists (and Republican members of Congress), old-fashioned notions of honesty and civility have given way to the ready acceptance of lying, bullying, and corruption.

And to acceptance of an administration that rips children from their mothers by the thousands.  Watch these four minutes: the story of mothers being told their kids were being taken to be bathed — and then not returned.  In America.

Share this post with friends or colleagues who genuinely believe Trump is an honest man (with a flair for story telling) who ran for president not for personal gain or aggrandizement but to drain the swamp and bring them great health care at a fraction of the cost.

To help fund the organizing needed to produce the massive turn-out needed to check Trump’s control of all three branches of government, click here.

Did you see Dana Milbank in the Washington Post?

Finally, A President With The Guts To Stand Up To Canada.

Treat yourself.

And if you’re interested in the metrics on youth voting, check out — and retweet? — this two-minute video.

Cap Gown Vote!

The only book we know for sure President Trump has read — indeed, kept by his bedside, if you believe his ex-wife — is My New Order, a 1941 compendium of Hitler’s speeches.

By contrast, President Obama — who actually thought of Canada as an ally and Russia as the national security threat — read 100 books in just the years he was president.

And then there was President Clinton’s extraordinary reading list.

Now — from reading books to writing them — comes The President Is Missing, by President Clinton and James Patterson.  I just finished 8.5 heart-clenching hours listening at 1.5X speed.

Oh.

My.

It’s just fiction, of course.  But you do get the distinct sense we have more to worry about than Canada.

On weekdays, he never eats anything with a face.

Have you seen this under-four-minute TED talk?  It could change your life.

And while we’re talking food . . . of total inconsequence, but because some of expressed an interest in my expired-food hobby (Hiccups and Hangovers, Parts I and II) . . . I suppose I should raise the issue of “pairing.”  You know?  As our Santorini wine-tasting tour guide tried to teach us?

In this case, however, it was not wine and fish, it was Hellman’s Lite Mayonnaise and fish cubes.

Sunday, I grabbed a half-pound of frozen fish cubes “best used by 11/4/16” . . . microwaved for a minute and then simmered in a frying until golden brown . . . and then paired them with until-recently-unrefrigerated mayonnaise “best used by January 31, 2017.”  Not even three months apart.  Really good.

Watch the afore-linked TED talk!

Two sealed quarts of yogurt sat in a fridge, one dated October 11, 2015, the other July 17, 2017.  Which to choose?  I was looking for something to blend cocoa powder into — I only Cook Like A Guy™, but even a guy can dump cocoa powder into yogurt — and decided to be sensible and use the older one first.  The minute I tasted it I knew I had made a mistake — it needed sweetener.  Plain yogurt and plain cocoa powder?  C’mon!  So I added Erithrytol, (available here, if you want to try it).  I won’t lie to you and say it was the best thing I ever ate, but how many things are?  Next time, maybe a little lighter on the cocoa powder, a little heavier on the Erithrytol.  Cooking is an art, not a science.  (Baking, I’m told, is a science but I use my oven for storage.)

I’m telling you this because I had a nice response to Friday’s Hiccups and Hangovers post.

▹ Erich Almasy: “When you don’t have lime and salt or eggs, sit up and raise your arms straight in the air above your head. Stretches the diaphragm which stops the source of hiccups.  Preventing hangovers: half a glass of milk and two aspirin before sleep. Has never failed.”

▹ Mike Rutkaus: “Congrats on the Egg Beaters.  I should have documented this, but I had good never-frozen unopened always-refrigerated paper carton buttermilk at least three, maybe four years old.”

▹ Tom Bolger: “Good advice on the Advil after drinking and before bed. I would contend that most hangover symptoms are caused by dehydration. As such, one should drink at least 8 oz of water with that Advil, preferably 16+ oz. And another 16+ oz on the nightstand. Yes, this will likely cause a trip to the bathroom way before you’re ready to get up but it will also allow you to drink additional water in the middle of the night to rehydrate so you might not have to take more Advil in the morning.”

Just when I was about to despair that no women care about hangovers or fine cuisine, Tom Foley, though not a woman himself, directed me to this that I assumed, as I started reading, had been written by a man.  But no!

“A bit, well, raw,” Tom warned — I’ll say! (so I’m warning you, too) — “but thought you might enjoy.”

Indeed: “How I Became the Dumpster Dog (or, How I Saved $30,000 in 8 Months).”

I learned a new term: “freegan.”  And signed up for her raunchy, funny, money-saving blog.

And then, on a roll of sorts, Tom also recommended this compelling review of Jessica Bruder’s wonderful NOMADLAND: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, the book I’m listening to now, that you might enjoy this weekend.  An apt companion to Hillbilly Elegy.

Have a great weekend, whatever you read. Wear sunscreen!  Commit to vote!  And, in the blanket admonition of my late great mother (I just feel the need to throw this in), “Don’t do anything strange.”

As to how Republicans control Congress even though more people vote Democrat . . .

. . . many people now know this was the brainchild of former insurance industry lobbyist Chris Jankowski.

I’ve previously linked to Ratf*cked, the book that tells the tale.  (In 2012, Democrats got 84,000 more votes than Republicans in Pennsylvania’s Congressional races — yet only 5 of the 18 seats.  Republicans, with fewer voters wanting them in office, got 13.)

But now comes this must-listen Planet Money podcast that tells the tale even more vividly, and with Jankowski’s own, unapologetic voice.

(Sure, they torpedoed a Maine legislator’s race by saying he voted to ban July 4th fireworks when in fact he was the only one who didn’t.   But is lying even an issue for Republicans any more?)

Jankowski’s website offers to “stack the deck in your favor” and notes that he helped thwart President Obama’s nomination to fill the Scalia vacancy on the Supreme Court.  (The rationale?  It wasn’t enough to see whom the people favored in 2008 and 2012; it was only fair to wait to see who they favored in 2016.  Which was the Democrat by millions of votes, despite Putin’s best efforts.  But that still wasn’t enough to get Merrick Garland his seat on the Court.)

As to our minority-elected President . . .

. . . forget Democrats; listen to Republicans:

Colin Powell:  Trump is “a national disgrace and an international pariah.”

Marco Rubio: “A dangerous con man.”

Carly Fiorina: “A man who seems to only feel big when he’s trying to make other people feel small.”

Bobby Jindal: “An unserious and unstable narcissist.”

Mitt Romney: “A phony . . . playing the American public for suckers.”

Ted Cruz: “A pathological liar [and a] narcissist.”

Karl Rove: “A complete idiot . . . graceless and divisive.”

Lindsey Graham: “A race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot . . . undercutting everything we stand for.”

51 Former GOP National Security Officials: “Not qualified . . . dangerous.”

And this was before they — and we, and our allies around the world — found out how much worse he would be than they imagined.

House and Senate Republicans have put their paychecks, perks, and power above their country.  Trump has cowed them into submission.

There is a solution to these nightmares.  Vote.

And if you can afford it, fuel the turnout.