Author: A.T.

When He’s Reich, He’s Reich.

Here is Trump loving the great men and women of the FBI . . . and making the case that someone facing felony charges shouldn’t be allowed to run.  (Watch the first 2 minutes.)

When he’s right, he’s right.

(If you were born in Canada and moved here two weeks later, you can’t be president; but if you’re a twice-impeached convicted felon and adjudicated rapist facing at least three more major criminal trials, that’s fine.)

This new book asks: what does Trump really have in common with Hitler?

The buffoonery, chaos and word salad speeches may be more calculated than they appear. “I would like people to become more aware of how incredibly consciously Trump is going about doing what he’s doing, how incredibly cunning and devious he’s been. People should absolutely not underestimate this guy.”

You’ve doubtless tired of my reminding you, but for years Trump kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside.  The parallels in their rhetoric are striking.

So how does a Jewish man like our friend Carl fall into line with the white Christian Nationalists (and others, of course) in supporting Trump?

In response to yesterday’s “fact check” post, he emailed me:

Another quick fact check: Trump had the border almost closed to migrants then along came Biden and his supporters who reversed everything and let in 10 million unvetted scum.

The three things I note about his email are:

  1. He made no reference to the “facts” checked in that post.  If Trump’s egregious untruths bother him — if honesty or integrity or accuracy matter to Carl in any way — you would not know it from his response.
  2. Of the 10 million immigrants he references*, almost none are “scum.”  Or vermin, for that matter.  Some German Jews were doubtless the Madoffs and Leopolds and Loebs of their time** — but to tar millions this way, as Carl does about those crossing the southern border and Hitler did about Jews and others?
  3. After much work, bi-partisan legislation that would have solved the border crisis was crafted and ready to be signed into law, but Trump torpedoed it.  He is now the cause of the crisis.  He keeps it roiling to fuel his campaign.  He allows the crisis to continue.  Carl doesn’t care.  He blames Biden.

In case you can help, click here.  If you want to help by attending the DNC’s 25th annual LGBT Leadership Council “gala” (straight allies, welcome!), click here.

* Adding to our population by less than 1% a year.

** Just as some Mafiosi and Irish gangsters were mixed in among millions of wonderful Italian and Irish immigrants.

Will Truth — Or “Alternative Facts” — Win The Day?

Start with a minute of fortune-telling fun with Jimmy Kimmel.

And then this quick fact check: Trump’s post-conviction monologue filled with false claims.

Trump repeated his familiar claim that, while Manhattan prosecutors have been focusing on him, New York City has been experiencing record-high violent crime. He said this time that “you have violent crime all over this city at levels that nobody’s ever seen before.”

Facts First: Trump’s claim is not even close to true. Violent crime in New York City has plummeted since the early 1990s*.  New York City recorded 391 murders in 2023, down about 83% from the 2,262 in 1990; 1,455 rapes in 2023, down about 53% from the 3,126 in 1990; and 16,910 robberies in 2023, down about 83% from the 100,280 in 1990.

It goes on from there.

Not all negative Trump coverage springs from the left, either.  The hush-money story was a project of the Wall Street Journal.

It’s nice when the truth comes out and/or justice is done!  Last week’s verdict, of course; but smaller stuff, too.  E.g.: Publisher of ‘2000 Mules’ apologizes to Georgia man falsely accused of ballot fraud.

BONUS

WheelTug at Aviation Net Zero (3 minutes).

Still kicking.

 

*When Trump was bankrupting the Plaza Hotel and demanding death for the (innocent) Central Park Five.

 

Finally.

Wait til you hear Carl’s reaction to the verdict.  But I’ll save that.

We still have to win — and hold the Senate and take back the House — so consider joining the President and First Lady, and some amazing too-soon-to-announce performers, at this event in New York June 28.  It’s being produced by Bruce Cohen, who’s produced the Oscars (and won one himself), so it should be a good night.

Straight allies hugely welcome.

 

Another Reason to Buy DJT

But first . . .

> Inflation expectations are self-fulfilling . . . so Republicans — wanting to believe the worst — may have caused more of it.  An interesting perspective from the Wall Street Journal.

> The Ken Burns Commencement Speech everyone is talking about.  Eloquent, erudite, and stripped here to its very barest nub:

Listen, I am in the business of history. It is not always a happy subject on college campuses these days, particularly when forces seem determined to eliminate or water down difficult parts of our past . . .

For nearly 50 years now, I have diligently practiced and rigorously tried to maintain a conscious neutrality in my work, avoiding advocacy if I could, trying to speak to all of my fellow citizens. . . .

[Yet] there is no real choice this November. There is only the perpetuation, however flawed and feeble you might perceive it, of our fragile 249-year-old experiment or the entropy that will engulf and destroy us if we take the other route. . . .

The presumptive Republican nominee is the opioid of all opioids . . . the author and finisher of our national existence, our national suicide . . .

Do not be seduced by easy equalization. There is nothing equal about this equation. We are at an existential crossroads in our political and civic lives. This is a choice that could not be clearer.

Remember what Louis Brandeis said, “The most important political office is that of the private citizen.”  Vote.  Please, vote. You indelibly underscore your citizenship, and most important, our kinship with each other, when you do. Good luck and godspeed.

> Marco Rubio on Trump — 36 seconds (turn sound on, bottom right corner).

Last week I argued that only one person — Putin — could conceivably have a rational reason to buy Trump’s stock.

I was wrong.

One of you came up came up with another.

By way of background [writes Peter B.], I made good money shorting AMC in 2022.  But in 2023, I actually lost money shorting it, even though it kept going down.

The reason, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, is the stock-borrow fee I had to pay my broker. Since I’m not the only bright lad who came up with this trade, the fee was huge, much of which went to the person lending me the stock I shorted. This got me to thinking — why can’t I be the person receiving such payments? Which leads me to DJT.  The fee you receive for lending it is something like 20% per month (not a misprint).  So if I bought it to lend it out, and the stock fell by 40% in 2 months, I’d break even. I feel reasonably confident that it will hold up until Trump’s September release-from-lock-up starts getting priced into the market. So if I could morally stomach it (which I can’t), I would buy DJT, loan it out, and hold it through the end of July.

→ That 20% a month may be what a short-seller pays to borrow the stock but not necessarily what the lender receives.  The broker does not arrange the stock-loan for free.  Ask lots of questions before trying this with anything more than a little play money . . . which may be more trouble than it’s worth.  Even so: move over, Vladimir Putin.  There may be one other not completely stupid reason to buy Trump stock.

 

Memorial Day Poem. Wow.

It’s a holiday but I posted anyway — Caught Between Two Friends.

Now I see I should have saved that until tomorrow, because one of you just sent me this new poem by Garrison Keillor.

I’m a Neanderthal when it comes to poetry.

Very-long-time readers know that my one attempt was rejected by the New Yorker.

But every so often there’s a poem I can grab onto because it amuses (I think those are called limericks) . . . or tells a story I can understand (Casey at the Bat, anyone?) . . . or, in this case, really hits home.

They were so young.

Heartbreaking.

 

Caught Between Two Friends

Steve Schwarzman is the most influential Trumper I know.  We’ve been friends for more than half a century.  There’s much about him to like, and much about what he’s built to admire.  Forbes estimates his net worth at $38 billion.  He recounts his successes and good works here (e.g., $350 million to MIT to support artificial intelligence research; $100 million to the New York Public Library; nearly $200 million to Oxford; $150 million to yale; a Rhodes-scholar-like program in Beijing).  I enjoyed reading it.

I’m not unaware he has his detractors, or that he backed Trump in 2016.

Then again, I doubt either of us — or any of us, really — appreciated just how awful Trump would turn out to be.

It’s different now that we know.

I was relieved when Steve quit Trump’s business advisory group after Charlottesville — though it turns out it was less out of protest than . . . well, he explains here.

I’d love to see the Biden team ask Steve to reconstitute that advisory group.  Presumably, fewer of their recommendations for lower taxes and less regulation would be adopted.  Still, there’s certainly room for smarter taxes and regulation.  And the group would have other ideas to contribute, as well.

But then he hosted a giant fundraiser for Trump 2020.

Really, Steve?

But again I was relieved when it appeared he would not be backing Trump this time around.  He is surely more of a Mitt Romney than a MAGA Republican.

Yet now this:

Blackstone’s Chief, a G.O.P. Megadonor, Says He Will Again Back Trump

Stephen A. Schwarzman, the billionaire co-founder and chief executive of the investment group, had previously called for a “new generation of leaders.”

He names immigration as one of the key reasons he supports Trump — yet Trump is now the cause of the crisis, because Trump torpedoed the bi-partisan bill both the Senate and House were ready to pass and Biden, to sign, that would have provided the resources and policy changes needed to solve the crisis.

Could Steve really believe the Big Lie that Trump won in 2020?  Could he consider corporate taxation a more important issue than climate or reproductive rights or competence or honesty or Trump’s authoritarianism and eagerness to curry Putin’s favor?

The article was brought to my attention by a college friend of even longer standing.

He writes:

There is absolutely no surprise here.  I’ve known Schwarzman since he was fifteen years old. Trump and Schwarzman are the quintessential, unapologetic transactionalists.  Whatever pads the bottom line.  Whatever most expediently preserves power and wealth.  However best to grease the respective palm. For both men, no moral compass or ethical convictions impact the calculus, despite lip service to both.  The difference is that Schwarzman knows better. He knows who Trump is. He knows exactly what is going on. He is fully aware of the danger Trump poses to the republic, but this awareness is subordinate to his undeviating pursuit of his own interests and the rapacious accumulation of personal wealth. The fact that Schwarzman’s intelligence compared to Trump’s is like the sun to a candle flame starkly demonstrates the boundlessness and ruthlessness of his cynicism.  He will die a very, very rich man, far richer than Trump could ever imagine on even the best of his self-deluded days.  But the country’s best interests and the preservation of its democratic institutions will be damaged in Schwarzman’s wake.  No matter; he will die with the ever-present self-satisfied smirk on his face.

I hesitated to share that, but too much is at stake not to offer his point of view.

 

You Have To Be A Very Special Person Rationally To Buy This Stock

The emperor has no clothes — or, in this case, followers.

It seems Trump’s Truth Social has fewer than 80,000 daily users — down each of the last two months.  DJT reported a loss last quarter of more than $328 million on revenues of $771,000.

This, after more than 2 years’ operation!

Yet at Friday’s close, DJT sported an $8 billion market cap, or roughly $100,000 for each of its current active daily users.

What makes those users so valuable?

They pay nothing!

Advertisers do know that, as Trump fans, they’ll buy anything.  And that’s something.

(Well, right?  Trump Bibles?  Bobbleheads?  Bonds?  Big lies?)

But even then, $771,000 in revenue works out to just $10 each per quarter, $40 a year.

So if the company were so well managed by CEO Devon Nunez that it had zero expenses going forward — which, having lost $328 million in a single quarter seems unlikely — is there any way each $40-a-year user can be worth $100,000?

To someone like Putin, who desperately wants to see Trump win in order to conquer Ukraine and its neighbors, it may be worth pumping a few billion into the stock.

(I’m not saying he has, though he could certainly afford to.)

But that’s the only even remotely rational reason to buy it.

 

Every Day Is A Gift (Plus, You May Be Able To Get Points On Rent)

For Putin, Trump’s VP choice couldn’t be any clearer —  J.D. Vance!  A Yale-trained hillbilly who, like Trump, would abandon Ukraine . . . and whatever countries Putin moved to conquer next.

No need to read in full — that’s the nub of it.

A remarkable personal story of near-death experience.

Worth reading in full if you have the time this weekend.

This weekend we honor those who died fighting to preserve democracy — a form of government that Putin, Orban, Trump, Kim Jong Un and others in the Strongman Club don’t seem to revere.  To help preserve democracy well short of dying, click here.

THAT BILT MASTERCARD

One of you is peeved; another, pleased.

Len: I signed up for the no-fee Bilt Mastercard at your suggestion.

It’s complicated to understand how to accrue points:

  • 1 point per dollar, doubled on rent day (first of the month).
  • Double that for Lyft? And something else?
  • And triple on restaurants, even on other registered credit cards (but not 6x?) for local restaurants.
  • And the rent day rewards show up in multiple dribs and drabs.
  • And rent rewards aren’t doubled.
  • And you don’t get any rewards unless you have five transactions in the statement period.

Fine. But then try to understand cashing them in!

  • You can get a statement credit or rent payment credit. But it’s only $0.55/100 points!
  • You can get a credit towards Amazon.com, but only $0.70/100 points.
  • You can get 1 mile/dollar for some airlines, but how?
  • You can use them to buy travel in the portal, which is hard to use.

You can set up autopay to avoid an accidental interest payment, but:

  • You can’t use the Bilt app or website to do this. You need to set up a wellsfargo.com account.
  • Their customer service is exceptionally poor. Almost as bad as a health insurance company’s.
  • You need to use your cellphone to confirm your identity to login to the app, but they can’t authorize your (my?) phone by calling, you need to go to the ATM.
  • Then you still can’t do it, because it’s a BiLT card not a Wells Fargo card.
  • So you make an appointment with a banker and go in (again) and sit there while they (instead of you) are on hold, transferred back and forth (and back and forth and back and forth). To be fair, that part was oddly satisfying.
  • Then they tell you they’ll call you to confirm (they won’t) and it will work in X business days (it won’t).
  • Eventually it works (yay!) but it still won’t let you connect Credit Karma, so back to their customer support, suggestions to go to the ATM (still doesn’t work), suggestions to go make an appointment with a banker (still doesn’t work, lots of transfers, etc.).
  • Eventually eventually you get a promise it’ll be fixed in one business day (it won’t) and they’ll call to confirm (they won’t).

To be fair, it’s thrilling to see whether or not the autopay will work and how much hassle it’ll be if it doesn’t.

Here’s my plan going forward, which is probably way too OCD for most:

  1. Keep random, small Amazon purchases in your cart.
  2. On rent day (or not, not a really big deal) purchase everything, one or two items at a time for a total of four orders, using Prime day delivery to get a $1.50 digital credit per order.
  3. Those, plus rent, meet the five-transaction minimum.

In no way has this been worth my time. I’m more upset about this recommendation than all the companies you recommended that are now out of business.

To which another of you responds:

-Earning points doesn’t need to be as complicated as Len’s making it out to be. Everything he mentions is a bonus. If he doesn’t want to take advantage of those extras, just ignore them and focus on the one-point-per-dollar on rent, which is the biggest benefit of all.

-Spending the points – best is either to redeem for travel on the Bilt travel portal (at a rate of 1.25 cents per point) or else to transfer to airline and hotel partners (which can be worth a lot more, especially if used on international business, etc.).  See what The Points Guy has to say about this (scroll to the “Redeeming Bilt Rewards points” sections).  Both are very easy to use on the Bilt app – I’ve done it. Cashing in other ways is lower value (but still worth it, since these are points that otherwise wouldn’t have been earned at all).

-Yes, autopay needs to be set up through Wells Fargo – but I’ve been able to manage my account online without difficulty, let alone needing to go to a branch. Sounds like Len has an issue with his existing WF login that caused him problems managing this new card.

-It’s easy to make 5 small charges a month.  Five cups of coffee?  That’s a small price you pay for earning 60,000 extra points on rent or condo charges.

I’ve looked at cards from both sides now/ From win or lose, but still somehow / It’s cards illusions I recall.

I really don’t know cards . . . at all.

Have a great weekend.