In Further Defiance February 21, 2026 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! February 20, 2026February 20, 2026 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?) February 18, 2026February 19, 2026 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.
Must Watch / Must Read February 17, 2026February 16, 2026 I am so proud to know this woman: 90 must-watch seconds. So much more I could say about “what might have been,” but just, please, watch. And then, sorry, but you will want to read Andrew Yang’s latest. And perhaps adjust your investment allocations and life plans a bit.
Housekeeping . . . February 16, 2026February 15, 2026 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! February 15, 2026 “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 February 14, 2026 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
Courage Is Contagious February 13, 2026February 12, 2026 Yesterday I wrote: “You’ve seen Ronald Reagan’s final speech (4 minutes).” Well, at least one of you had not and asked what we can do to “spread it widely.” To which I say — spread it widely! It’s so powerful. Courage is contagious. Give Congressman Jason Crow 60 seconds of your time to be inspired. Join Indivisible. Make plans to do something March 28 you may never have done before (I hadn’t either until last year): PROTEST. No Kings 3 is going to be huge. In thousands of places. Peaceful and joyful — and fun! Recruit friends and plan to go out for drinks or an early dinner afterward. Make or buy a clever sign. We’re going to win.
Ideas For Your Consideration February 12, 2026February 12, 2026 1. Amnesty It sounds insane, of course — the last president to do this was Ronald Reagan 40 years ago and we all know how that turned out. (Actually, it turned out fine. Murders and rapes did not spike; pets were not eaten.) Yet think about it. The border is now secure. We should keep it that way. And continue to pursue and imprison or deport criminals as we always have.* But for the millions eager to harvest our crops, process our meat, care for our elderly, build our new homes — and pay taxes — amnesty would (a) strengthen our economy; (b) strengthen Social Security; (c) temper inflation; (d) save tens of billions a year on mass deportation; (e) show us to be the decent people most of us have always been, doing our best to see our fellow humans as humans rather than as vermin, garbage, and scum. There could be all sorts of safeguards to address amnesty’s downsides. But wouldn’t the upsides outweigh them? You’ve seen Ronald Reagan’s final speech (4 minutes). It can never be watched too often. 2. De Minimis Just as we’ve stopped minting pennies — because, well, really? — so should the de minimis doctrine be widely adopted throughout government and business. It would make the economy more efficient, dumb annoyances less frequent. I got an UNCLAIMED PROPERTY NOTICE recently that must have cost a buck or two to print-and-mail. It contained instructions and a form to fill out for claiming cash I was due (!) lest it escheat to the state of State of New York as unclaimed property. The “token ID#” assigned to my case was 6300-0340-2502-1546. I needed only to confirm my identity and submit the form through the “OWNER REDEMTPION PORTAL (recommended)” or else via email or regular mail, after which, if everything proved to be in order, a check would be reissued to replace the one I had not bothered to cash. (For 23 cents.) What if the payor’s computer had been programmed not to issue checks under (say) $3? With a law requiring any entity choosing to apply this de minimis standard to lump all such payments into a single quarterly payment to the state so there’d be no incentive to cheat anyone; just an incentive to save on minutia. Remember the Seinfeld where Jerry got all those 12-cent checks? Have you heard the kind of wonderful story about Trump’s 13-cent check? Back when I employed a half-day-a-week housekeeper, the paperwork required to comply with the New York State unemployment tax — which I would gladly have paid — was the same as if I had 500 full-time employees. At stake was something like $36 a year. Couldn’t there have been an automatic charge you could elect to accept rather spend hours determining whether the proper amount would actually have been $28.73 or $35.19 or $49.02? There was a quarterly $1,000 penalty for not filing that paperwork! Should every state and federal and corporate and legal form have some sort of “de minimis” waiver, appropriate to the situation? 3. Upgrade To Paid The wonderful bloggers I gratefully read all want me to “upgrade to paid” for $7.99 a month. That’s more than the cost of a digital subscription to The Atlantic or The New Yorker with dozens of great writers! But that’s okay; I can afford $7.99 a month. If there’s a wonderful blogger working full time who can attract 3,000 paying subscribers — $24,000 a month — hey, more power to her. But what about the bloggers who have a hundred thousand or a million unpaid subscribers, of whom I’m one, each asking us to upgrade to paid? If we all did — and of course only a tiny percentage do — they’d be raking in $800,000 or $8 million a month. And, yes, some of them have researchers and editors to pay, but still. I feel guilty when I don’t upgrade, if they actually need my money; dumb when I do upgrade, if they don’t. Thus my idea: What if along with each request to upgrade, an asterisk led to a statement like this: << I pledge that after my subscription income from this site net of expenses (which may include assistants) reaches $200,000 a year, 30% of the excess will be contributed to the kinds non-profits that advance our progressive aims . . . above $400,000, 50% of the excess . . . and that as it becomes clear net revenue will exceed $1,000,000, I will begin lowering your subscription price automatically. (If half my unpaid subscribers upgraded, I could charge you $15 a year instead of $$96!) >> Each blogger would set his or her own criteria and formula and phrase it his or her own way — or skip this altogether. I just know that in my case, it would make me much more likely to upgrade, increasing their revenue . . . and feel better about the upgrades I’m already paying for. I doubt I’m alone. 4. Open Primaries and Ranked Choice Voting I couldn’t fail to plug this yet again. Combined with making it easy to vote in primaries — mailing all registered voters a primary ballot — it would de-polarize our politics and break the legislative gridlock. Moderates and centrists could get elected and work with each other to solve the nation’s formidable challenges. Join us today at 3pm Eastern on Indivisible’s weekly call. We really are going to win. PARENTHETICALLY (Pam Bondi dodges questions about the Epstein files by noting that the Dow is over 50,000. So pedophilia is okay when the market is high? Really? MAGA’s okay with that?) ______________________________________ *Obama was known as “the deporter in chief.” Biden fought for bipartisan comprehensive reform that would have solved the problem — humanely — had Trump not killed it, keeping the border open an extra year so he could use it to get re-elected, stay out of jail, and make billions of dollars.
Hey, Yang — Where’s My $1,000? February 10, 2026February 14, 2026 OPRT This strikes me as very good news. Continued steady progress. They’re using the cash they generate to pay down debt — which should leave them more cash quarter after quarter. It’s not hard to make the case that OPRT ($5.50 as I type) could triple over the next year . . . and keep growing from there. If I didn’t already have so much, I’d buy more . . . though only with money I can truly afford to lose. “TRUMP-RX HAS A FUNDAMENTAL FLAW” Whom does TrumpRx actually benefit? (Hint: Big Pharma.) MARK CUBAN’S COST PLUS DRUGS . . . . . . has no fundamental flaw. I am a sensationally happy long-time customer. ANDREW YANG HAS A FEW IDEAS OF HIS OWN Not surprisingly, as I learned listening to his latest book . . . Hey Yang, Where’s My Thousand Bucks? . . . he and Cuban are pals. The ideas Andrew first explored in The War on Normal People: The Truth About America’s Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income Is Our Future — published in 2018 — grow more relevant with each passing year. (You can skim the first two-thirds about how technology will do away with most jobs. It’s the third-third, about how to turn those lemons into lemonade, that spark the imagination.) We’re going to have a slew of great candidates in 2028. Cuban and Yang would both add excitement to the field. UNRELATED BONUS The algorithm served this up out of the blue — Street Kid Playing Dylan’s Song with Broken Guitar—Dylan Stopped Walking and Did THIS — and I found myself watching all 16 minutes.