Author: A.T.

The Cups Don’t Lie

This coach voted Republican for 24 years but says the cups don’t lie.

Changing your mind as he did isn’t losing, he says — it’s learning.

The Carls in your life are dug in way too deep ever to change.

But for those having doubts that Trump’s lowered their electric bills — he promised he’d cut them in half by this past June (they’re up 18%) — or that abandoning Ukraine was the right thing to do (we used to oppose Russian aggression, not call it “savvy genius”) . . .

. . . or having doubts that he won 2020 by “a landslide” or is now presiding over “the greatest economy we’ve ever had by far” . . .

. . . or that Kash Patel and Pete Hegseth have the experience and judgement to run the FBI and Defense Department . . .

. . . or that it was smart to start a war with Iran or tariff wars with everybody else . . .

. . . or to cut taxes for billionaires while closing rural hospitals, keeping the Federal minimum wage at $7.25 an hour, and watching the National Debt soar) . . .

. . . or that he really does have “a concept of a plan” to deliver the terrific, affordable health care he promised

. . . or that it was wise to alienate our strongest allies around the world . . . or that we need a ballroom . . .

. . . or that he’s honest . . .

. . . well: they’re not alone.

This two-and-a-half-minute clip could be what pushes them over the edge.

There’s a welcoming, non-judgmental community waiting for them over at LeavingMAGA.org.

KANSAS!

A second Republican former Kansas governor has now endorsed Adam Hamilton.  Plus, of course, the current, twice-elected governor.

The reason is simple: Reverend Hamilton is a genuinely good and decent man.

Nine thousand of the 24,000 congregants who look to him for spiritual guidance are Republicans.

When the faithful in Kansas — and Alaska, Texas, Mississippi, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Idaho, Montana, Florida, North and South Carolina, Minnesota New Hampshire, Georgia, Nebraska, and South Dakota — cast their ballots over the next few weeks, they should ask themselves, quite simply: what would Jesus do?

Vote to enable Trump — or restrain him?

CHERRY-PICK!

If you like shopping vintage, and/or a bargain, check out the beta of Cherry-Pick.com.  You could join the wait list, like everybody else . . . or you could jump the line and join the beta, because you know a guy.  (An investor.)

 

“A Movement Isn’t A Movement Until It Moves Without You.”

It started with a book by Rich Logis — One Betrayal Too Many: Why I Left MAGA . . .

and a website — LeavingMAGA.org . . .

and then a billboard like this one in Southaven, Mississippi:

But then people started funding more billboards (in 29 states so far).

And others began making their own.

It’s become a movement.

Seen in Maine:

Seen in Washington State:

Seen in Arkansas:

Seen in Pennsylviania:

Seen elsewhere in Maine (Susan Collins is, no doubt, “concerned”):

Rich gets photos like these daily.

Someone paid to run this for 4 weeks in 2 New Jersey weeklies:

A huge blue wave is coming, and it will include lifelong Republican patriots like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger who don’t recognize their party anymore — or their country.

And Texans, I would bet, like George W. Bush, who will quietly vote for James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa.

And former mega-MAGAns like Rich Logis who at some point began to have doubts, then realized full on that they’d been conned, and started putting up billboards.

 

Trump Loves Dictators — But Wait: There’s More

Monday’s Rachel Maddow is a must-listen.

In the midst of elevated threats from Iran, Kash Patel demoted two top counterterrorism officials for not being adequately attentive to Stephen Miller’s wife.

And it just gets more awful from there.

The final segment — on Russia’s current election interference — is straight out of bizarro world.

It would be amusing if it weren’t all real.

But the answer isn’t to agonize, it’s to organize.

Have you got your plan for October 17?  Are you recruiting a dozen others to join you?

“You can’t wring your hands when you’re rolling up your sleeves,” as another apt saying goes.

Have you read or (even better) listened to Ben Wikler’s This Is The Plan: How to End America’s Meltdown and Save Democracy.

Have you given all you can to the races Oath currently assesses can most effectively use your help?

Have you decided to listen to Monday’s Maddow right now, or on your way to work or as you climb the StepMaster, to see what’s got me so cranked up?

I’m sorry to be so annoying (I assume you’re inured to it by now), but we just can’t let Trump and Putin — and Stephen Miller and the Proud Boys, et al — win.

We need a massive, Hungary-like, too-big-to-rig repudiation of Trump’s cruel, corrupt, chaotic, erratic, shameful, spectacularly dishonest, shoot-from-the-hip, unsuccessful, profoundly unChristian, profoundly unAmerican “leadership.”

And I think it’s coming.

 

They’re Leaving MAGA

From Politico’s Playbook:

Donald Trump’s Joes are starting to feel like they overpaid for the front row.

The Front Row Joes — the roving band of the president’s most ardent supporters, many of whom have dedicated portions of their lives to traveling to as many Trump rallies as possible — once represented unbreakable, unconditional, unprecedented devotion.

So when Trisha Hope tells Playbook that Trump is “a fraud and liar,” and Rick Frazier says “he can’t be trusted,” Republicans should hear alarm bells.

Hope joined the Front Row Joes in 2018 after publishing a book of Trump’s posts on then-Twitter called Just the Tweets. It helped pay for travel to rallies across the country in an RV she bought after giving up her apartment in Texas.

During Trump’s first impeachment, she spent two weeks in Washington roaming Capitol Hill to defend the president: “I went to every single senator’s office as well as Republican congressmen,” Hope said. “I did everything I could for him.”

But now, the one scenario that would bring her back to Washington for Trump’s sake? “If we do lose the midterms and he is impeached again, I will be walking the halls of Congress in support of that impeachment,” Hope told Playbook.

Hope saw her faith shaken during a July 8, 2025 Cabinet meeting when a reporter asked then-AG Pam Bondi about the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Before she could answer, Trump interrupted: “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years.”

“It was like a dagger in my heart,” Hope said. “It was like a light switch went on and a veil lifted, and I saw him for who he was, and I have not been able to unsee it since.”

The war with Iran vindicated those feelings. “He’s said the war is over 600 different times. He tells us they don’t have a military, they don’t have a navy. They’re still blowing up things. It’s just all lies.”

Frazier, a founding Joe, shares her frustrations.

“Epstein crimes and feeding the industrial military complex … those are big nos for me,” Frazier told Playbook. “He promoted himself as a no-war president. That didn’t work out.”

Frazier has been to over 100 Trump rallies and creates content for the group. Now he’s feeling done with politics. “I’m to the point of not going to the polls in November,” he said.

In case you want to want to put up a billboard — we’re in 29 states and counting (here’s one from Tallahassee) — just me-mail.  It’s surprisingly cheap.

TREEDOM

Israeli bulldozers smashed Palestinian olive trees last week.

An estimated 49,000 so far this year, up from “just” 27,000 in all of 2025.

As you know, olive trees symbolize peace.

As you may also know, they can live for 500 years, producing harvest after harvest.

Fortunately, none of the Treedom For Palestine farms some of you’ve helped fund has suffered damage.

Of the over 100 Freedom Farms planted [Treedom founder Cyrus Copeland reports], all remain safe and in the hands of the farmers.  This seems astonishing given what we are hearing, but The Palestinian Farmers Union is exceedingly good at risk management.  (It’s also a reminder that you only hear about what goes terribly wrong vs. what quietly works—which has the unfortunate effect of scaring away the kind of investment farmers need.)

Have you made your plan for October 17?  Which event are you going to?  Where are you and your friends meeting for beers after?

 

Rhodes Scholar With A Scary Name

Barack HUSSEIN Obama had a scary name, as Trump liked to emphasize (Trump had evidence “you wouldn’t believe” to prove Obama was born in AFRICA) . . .

. . . but Obama rescued an economy in free fall, oversaw low inflation, low interest rates, and low unemployment . . . negotiated Iran’s disposal of 98% of its enriched Uranium and a regime of stringent international inspection . . . supported the kind of global health presence that contained the spread of Ebola . . . led a scandal-free Administration . . . modeled the kind of civil but cool behavior young people could aspire to . . . respected the Constitution . . . remained faithful to his wife . . . and handed power to his thuggish successor with dignity and grace, along with a national debt that was shrinking relative to the economy as a whole.

Though it’s true, his middle name was HUSSEIN.

Now comes Abdul El-Sayed (wait till you hear his full name), not running to lead the free world, but to be 1% of one-half of one-third of the federal government as the junior senator from Michigan.

And this has some people worried.

I thus offer today two things:

1. Something very short (this email blast Democratic donors just got) —

You’ve probably seen by now that MAGA Republicans like to use my full name in their attacks: Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed.

Donald Trump uses it as if it’s a punchline.

Andrew, I’ve spent the majority of my career being someone who’s relatively young, relatively brown, and relatively Muslim. Something I’ve learned along the way is that when someone reaches for your name instead of your record, it’s because your record is the thing they can’t touch:

  • I’ve helped make government agencies actually work for Michiganders — first by rebuilding Detroit’s Health Department after bankruptcy, and then restructuring Wayne County’s Department of Health, Human & Veterans Services.
  • As a public servant, I’ve removed lead from elementary schools, taken on Michigan’s biggest polluters, and made life-saving Narcan universally accessible.

There’s nothing for MAGA Republicans to attack there — so that’s why they’re resorting to a politics rooted in hatred instead.

Meanwhile, their guy, Mike Rogers, has a record he’d rather Michiganders never look at too closely:

  • Mike Rogers voted to raise his own pay in Congress.
  • He championed a bill that helped create the opioid crisis.
  • Then, after spending 15 years in Washington, he left and got $14 million richer working for the corporations he used to regulate and moved to Florida.

That’s why Rogers needs $70+ million worth of help to have a chance at beating us in November.

2. Something not short at all, but worth your consideration — his interview with Ezra Klein.

Two very smart guys.

I will admit to being partial to really smart folks.  I think the challenges mankind faces these days cries out for them.

You don’t have to be a Rhodes Scholar.  But — and here I think of Bill Clinton, Pete Buttigieg, Rachel Maddow, and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed — it doesn’t hurt.

NO KINGS!

Have you made you plans for October 17?  Found friends to go with?  If not, it’s a great way to make some new ones.

 

Putin’s Winning Streak Begins to End November 3

“I KNOW THE SECRET OF WHY TRUMP TRULY FEARS PUTIN”

Well, there’s a bit of click-bait in that Daily Beast podcast title, but it’s definitely worth listening to the author of Betrayal: Trump, Putin and The New Age of Conquest.  He details the decades-long relationship between Trump and Putin.

Harding reveals what he experienced firsthand while reporting in Moscow, including the surveillance and intimidation campaign that ultimately led to his expulsion, before turning to the startling possibility that Russian state television has used Melania Trump as a warning to her husband.

Russia’s intelligence services, he says, couldn’t believe their success in 2016 — let alone in 2024.

OCTOBER 17!

Here’s the No King’s Vote Early event I’ve signed up for— 2pm-4pm in New York.

Click here to find one near you.  There will be thousands around the country.

Then, just a few days later, we go out and vote to end this nightmare . . . voting early, wherever possible . . . in unprecedented numbers.

The momentous first step on what will be the long — long — road back to a country the free world can once again embrace and admire.

Treating Putin as the corrupt, murderous war criminal he is, rather than a “savvy genius” who is the one man Trump has never insulted.

BONUS

I was deeply impressed by the extensive “election protection” resources and contingency planning the DNC has put in place, as outlined in a presentation I was privy to yesterday.  I coughed up yet another $10,000 — which is not nothing to me, a poor writer on Social Security — because this is our moment.

We don’t have to fight for democracy against a mad king at Valley Forge or against fascism on the beaches of Normandy or against Putin in Ukraine — none of which I would have been brave enough to do.  But we do have to support the opposition.

 

The Good News

AMERICA BEFORE TRUMP

Five minutes that hit home.  Share with good people who have not yet left MAGA . . . but are having doubts.  There are a lot of them.

PLAINLY PUT . . . 

“He f****d up” (60 seconds).

THE GOOD NEWS

Even though 32% of Americans still tell pollsters they approve of the job Trump — enabled by his Republicans Congress — is doing, 68% don’t.

We’re going to see a huge blue wave.

With massive “early voting” to avoid long lines and make sure our votes are counted.  (Which increases the efficiency of our turn-out operations, because once we know someone has voted, we can refocus our resources on those who haven’t.)

It will be the crucial first step in rescuing democracy, restoring competence, and, eventually, earning back some of the world’s respect and good will.

I can’t wait.

 

Four Books For Your Consideration

1. This Is the Plan: How to End America’s Meltdown and Save Democracy, by Ben Wikler — a great read or, better still, listen.

Perfect for the millions — young and old — who hate what’s going on but don’t think they can make a difference.

They can!

And if they’re a little bored or lonely or feeling unfulfilled, it could solve those problems, too.

2. How Russia Won, by David Korn: “The little-understood story of Putin’s secret campaign to subvert America.”

Carl knows this is a hoax, like climate change and Covid and the “affordability” crisis — Trump has the concept of a plan for great health care, and that’s good enough for him.  The Mueller Report was a witch hunt and a hoax and all those women who accused Trump of sexual harassment (and worse) were lying . . . so when Trump tells us that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was genius or that he’s not Putin’s puppet — that Hillary was Putin’s puppet — well, that’s good enough for MAGA and good enough, it seems, for Carl.  If you can’t trust Donald Trump to tell the truth, whom can you trust?

A compelling narrative with the verve and twists of a spy novel—yet it’s all true—How Russia Won chronicles a deeply disturbing reality: Putin has succeeded in his twilight war against the United States by helping to land in the White House an agent of chaos, disruption, and authoritarianism who has exacerbated divisions within the United States, undermined American democracy, created conflict within the Western alliance and throughout the world, and diminished Washington’s standing across the globe. It’s a chilling account of Trump’s strange relationship with Putin and how both have gotten away with this assault on the United States.

Just last week . . .

3. The BreakUp by Kurt Andersen.  I’m halfway through listening and, well, it’s great . . . imagining the country after it splits into two countries (80% of Utah, by territory, joins the Free American Republic but 80% of the people — city dwellers — choose to remain in the United States of America . . . and there’s a 180-year-old turtle whose memories we’ve been able to translate into English . . . ans so much more.

4. Good Morning Moon, wherein my friend of more than four decades, “the bestselling poet, novelist, and biographer” Brad Gooch, offers a “luminous memoir about the decision to start a family later in life” with his husband — no slouch in his own right — and the birth and raising of their two children.  Quite a change of pace from the three above.  A great listen.