Author: A.T.

I didn’t either, but my AI Copilot defined it as . . .

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. . . a situation where one side of a debate or political context has more “political hacks” than the other. In this context, a “political hack” is a pejorative term describing a person who is more loyal to a particular political party than to their own sense of ethics.

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. . . and Kevin Drum laments:

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The latest kerfuffle over Joe Biden’s age reminds me of the power of the hack gap. Cast your thoughts back over a few recent high-profile incidents:

In 2016, liberals supported Hillary Clinton during her email difficulties, but hardly wholeheartedly. They constantly wrung their hands over her “admittedly poor judgment,” “adversarial communication style,” and “habit of pushing the envelope.”

In 2021, liberals didn’t even waffle: they just threw themselves in with gusto over the outrage about Joe Biden’s “chaotic” withdrawal from Afghanistan. They might as well have been a wing of the Republican Party.

In 2022 Biden passed the biggest climate legislation in American history. Liberals applauded, but tepidly. It didn’t have everything they wanted, you see. And anyway, Joe Manchin certainly wasn’t about to get an ovation from them.

Today, liberals are all over the media lamenting Joe Biden’s elderliness. They don’t call him “President Poopy Pants,” as they do on Fox, but language aside they might as well.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump says the 2020 election was stolen and conservatives are all in. House Republicans ludicrously claim that Alejandro Mayorkas has committed impeachable offenses, and conservatives are thoroughly on board. They’re equally on board with the Hunter Biden jihad. And the “persecution” of Trump. And the claim that CRT is ruining our schools. And looking the other way at Trump’s obvious cognitive decline.

Now, in the long run maybe it’s good that liberals are publicly willing to say things even if they’re politically harmful. But it’s hard not to be reminded of Robert Frost’s aphorism that a liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel. After all, it turned out that Hillary Clinton did nothing wrong except get caught in the middle of a classification snit between State and CIA. The Afghanistan withdrawal was remarkably smooth under the circumstances. And Biden seems to be fully capable and competent even if he does look old.

Conservatives these days are willing to defend even the most lunatic theories with total devotion. Liberals, by contrast, are barely willing to wholeheartedly defend even the things where they legitimately have the better of the argument. I’m not sure where this all ends.

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And speaking of hacks, I got an email last week headlined:

Kellyanne Conway has been trying to reach you.

Really?

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President Trump’s former campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, has been trying to reach you with an urgent message.

Out of the 100 Republican voters she’s reached out to in your area, you are the ONLY ONE who has yet to review her message.

Follow this secure link to read Kellyanne’s urgent message before it is DELETED in 10 minutes.

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There was even a 10-minute countdown clock.

Long after my chance to see the message had expired, the “secure link” worked anyway:

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Friend, this is so important.

Senate Republican leaders just texted me a file of our top grassroots supporters throughout the country, and you’re one of them.

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Needless to say, if I am indeed one of their top grassroots supporters, they are in deep trouble . . .

. . . although, if I am also the “ONLY ONE of 100 in my area” not to have reviewed Kellyanne’s message, they must be doing awfully well.

An email blast with a 99% open rate?

Needless to say, also, the message went on to ask for money and, needless to say, I demurred.

I have one more needless thing to say:

Sure, our side does ridiculous solicitations, too, and I hate them (though they apparently work, which is why both sides keep doing them); but (a) I believe ours tend to be less egregious; and (b) when it comes to substance, our side rarely makes claims that aren’t true.  The stock market really is at record highs; our economy really is the envy of the world; our alliances really have been restored; our administration really is scandal-and-chaos free; the ranks of the uninsured really have never been lower; we really have, finally, set about revitalizing our national infrastructure; Trump really is a widely acknowledged liar and bully who prefers opponent-murdering dictators to democratic leaders and faces 91 felony charges in four different criminal cases — who sat back doing nothing for more than three hours as he watched excitedly as his supporters stormed the United States Capitol in an attempt to overturn a free and fair election (and possibly hang the Vice President).

Okay?

So, as usual, listen to Lindsey Graham (60 seconds).  And if you can help, click here.  And/or volunteer.

Thanks!

BOREF . . .

. . . seems to be currently un-tradeable.  I called the company, who say this limbo should lift once they file their audited financial statements in the coming weeks.  So at least they’re aware of it, and now you are, too.

The Houston Chronicle has endorsed . . .

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Joe Biden for President of the United States

. . . Under the leadership of the oldest and arguably the most experienced president in American history, the team in the White House for the past three years has performed remarkably well, despite the rancor and divisiveness that have afflicted this nation for nearly a decade.

The accomplishments of an administration dedicated to governing, one that believes in the power of government to make life better for the American people, is a key reason we heartily endorse the reelection of President Joe Biden.

The other reason, equally important, is to fend off the chaos, corruption and danger to the nation that would accompany the return of Donald Trump to the White House.  . . .

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Worth reading in full.

I endorse their hearty endorsement — heartily — but it’s worth noting that, if, come August, the President believes our odds of winning would be better with a younger candidate, as Ezra Klein and Ross Douthat argue, he can throw open the Democratic Convention as they suggest and let the delegates choose the nominee “the old-fashioned way,” as they used to.

No other candidate would have Joe’s experience, his relationships with world leaders, or his team of 4,000 seasoned appointees (with no transition, learning curve, or Senate confirmations required).  But he has half a year to decide.

Either way, the world is counting on us to win, and that requires organizing now.  So, either way, please help if you can!

Did you solve yesterday’s brain teaser?

Share it with Republican friends?

How did they respond?

BONUS

Fareed Zakaria’s take on Tucker Carlson.  Tucker really loves Moscow.

Reading about how many patriotic Americans hated Roosevelt and loved Hitler in 1940 — a LOT of them! — I was reminded to make a side-by-side list.

I’ve been meaning to do it for years.  Trump’s statement about Navalny finally overcame my procrastination.

So:

Which item or items do you think have been misplaced?  Which is to say: on the wrong side. (Hint: There’s at least one.)

Find any?

Perhaps share this with friends with whom you disagree politically and compare notes once they’ve given it a try.

To a Harvard College classmate who voted for Trump twice but is undecided this time:

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Dear friend of nearly 60 years:

Have you read A Fever in the Heartland, by Timothy Egan? 

Prequel, by Rachel Maddow?

Both, true page-turners.

The first tells how American democracy was almost lost to violent white Christian nationalists in the 1920s; the second, in the 1930s.

I was shocked by how much of this history I didn’t know.  And how high up it all went — with numerous U.S. Senators and Representatives on board.

Each time, thankfully, the fever broke.

But now, with a leader who kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside and who sides with Russia against Ukraine, will it be a case of, so to speak, “third time’s a charm”?

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(He had not heard of these books but promised to check them out.)

To those who think this is hysterics — that Trump doesn’t really want to be a “strong man” like the opposition-murdering North Korean dictator with whom he proudly exchanged “love letters” or the opposition-murdering Russian dictator whom he trusts and admires — I’d counter:

> That’s what many thought about Germany’s elected leader once upon a time.

> Trump sat by approvingly as his lawyer argued he could murder his political opponents with impunity.  (Unless impeached and convicted — but how likely would Senate conviction be if disloyal Republican senators happened to die in advance of the vote?)

Right now, of course, even for Trump, this seems wildly fanciful.

But two or three years into his next presidency?

After having replaced the top ranks of the Justice Department, and of the military, with “his people?”

Astonishingly, so much of this comes back to Putin and Ukraine.

Mitt Romney was right: Russia really was our biggest foreign threat.

Heather Cox Richardson reminds us of the timeline, concluding:

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. . . In exchange for weakening NATO, undermining the U.S. stance in favor of Ukraine in its attempt to throw off the Russians who had invaded in 2014, and removing U.S. sanctions from Russian entities, Russian operatives were willing to help Trump win the White House.

The Republican-dominated Senate Intelligence Committee in 2020 established that Manafort’s Ukrainian business partner Kilimnik, whom it described as a “Russian intelligence officer,” acted as a liaison between Manafort and Deripaska while Manafort ran Trump’s campaign. 

Now, ten years later, Putin has invaded Ukraine in an effort that when it began looked much like the one his operatives suggested to Manafort in 2016 . . .

The day after the violence of February 18, 2014, in Ukraine, then-Vice President Joe Biden called Yanukovych to “express grave concern regarding the crisis on the streets” and to urge him “to pull back government forces and to exercise maximum restraint.”

Ten years later, Russia has been at open war with Ukraine for nearly two years and has just regained control of the key town of Avdiivka because Ukrainian troops lack ammunition. President Joe Biden is warning MAGA Republicans that “[t]he failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will never be forgotten.”

“History is watching,” he said.

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Is it just coincidence that the only thing in the 2016 Republican platform that Trump had changed — the only thing! — was not about real estate or taxes or golf, but about weakening our support for Ukraine?

Is it not appalling that — presumably on Trump’s instruction — Speaker Johnson just sent the House off on a two-week vacation while Ukrainians are desperate for the aid the Senate passed 70-29 but that Putin doesn’t want them to get?

In case you can help break the fever, please click here.  And/or volunteer.

But first . . .

In case you missed yesterday’s post, here’s what was in the bi-partisan immigration bill Trump killed to keep the crisis alive for another year so he’d have it to campaign on.

The bill was endorsed by the Border Patrol Union, the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Shame on Congressional Republicans for bowing to his will.

And now . . .

THE LITTLE PICTURE

30 Things Joe Biden Has Done You Might Have Missed

I almost didn’t post this because most of them are small or haven’t come to fruition — which is why you might have missed them.

I was afraid they could distract from the HUGE things he’s done . . .

. . . like launching the decades-overdue revitalization of our national infrastructure (complete with rural broadband!) that most Republicans voted against but now eagerly take credit for when a project is announced in their district (“vote no, take the dough”);

. . . like making the largest investment ever in confronting climate change;

. . . and like reassuming America’s role as leader of the free world, embracing democratic allies while calling out murderous dictators for who they are rather than embracing them.

That’s the BIG picture.

But it’s still fun to read through the 30.

THE REALLY BIG PICTURE . . .

. . . is outlined here by Robert Reich.

You may not agree with it all; and the video of the good professor on his ladder, Magic Marking, is a little frantic.

But in broad strokes, 1946-1979 was about building an incredibly strong, prosperous middle class; 1980-2008 did see the shift toward the wealthy away from everyone else; 2008-2010 was the collapse he describes; 2010-2016 was the resulting anger; and 2016-2050 — well (and this is his point): you decide.

VALENTINE’S DAY BONUS

It was yesterday, as you read this.  But it’s today as I write it, and love should be in the air all year long, so please indulge me.

In the first grade, I had a bunch of precocious classmates.  One went on to co-found Bain & Company.  Maybe I’ll write about him another day.  Another, now professor emerita at Mt. Holyoke, has published 37 books, most recently The Road Towards Home.  The paperback is so cheap I read it with my eyes, for a change.  It’s a wonderful love story.  Not steamy (they’re 72! met in school and 60 years later find themselves in the same retirement community) but “beautifully observed.”  I also love Cape Cod.  And fell in love with Melville.  (The dog.)

Cory has been my Valentine for 70 years (albeit not THAT way, for obvious reasons), so I hope you enjoy it!  It’s about parents and children and relationships and love.

TRUMP INSISTS WE KEEP THE BORDER OPEN TO IMPROVE HIS CHANCES OF WINNING

Because if he wins, he can be like Putin and Kim Jong Un and kill anyone he wants (according to his lawyer) and pardon anyone he wants (according to the Constitution).

And, writes Fareed Zakaria, Republicans are falling right into line.

Rather than solve the border crisis they pretend to care about — tightening the law and supplying urgently needed resources the Administration has been requesting for three years — they’ve chosen to leave the law as is, deny the resources, and impeach the Secretary of Homeland Security.

That should do the trick.

Today’s Republican Party at work.

NO PLANTS HAD TO DIE TO MAKE THIS FAKE MEAT

Or this fake butter!

Not on the market yet, but Bill Gates thinks it’s close.

BELATED SUPER BOWL BONUS

Apple’s iconic ad that got it all going 40 Super Bowls ago.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

By Kevin Drum:

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. . . It’s true that Biden looks old and has trouble enunciating certain sounds. But look below the surface. Every personal report about Biden is the same: he’s engaged, knowledgeable, lucid, and in charge.

By contrast, we’ve heard an endless stream of personal reports about Donald Trump’s behavior when he was in office, and they were also all the same: he watches a lot of TV, can’t be bothered to do any reading, flies off the handle routinely, and lacks understanding of even simple issues. This comes from Republican loyalists who worked directly with him.

Adjectives include: unhinged, idiot, off the rails (John Kelly), has the understanding of a fifth grader (Jim Mattis); racist, misogynist and bigot (Omarosa Manigault Newman); dumb as shit (Gary Cohn); dope, intelligence of a kindergartner (H.R. McMaster); wholly unfit to be in office, the most divisive president in history (Cassidy Hutchinson); idiot (Steve Mnuchin and Reince Priebus); like an 11-year-old-child (Steve Bannon); moron (Rex Tillerson); detached from reality, shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office (Bill Barr); fucking liar (John Dowd); threatens our democracy (Mark Esper); laughing fool (John Bolton); failed at being the president (Mick Mulvaney); utter disgrace (Tom Bossert); racist, conman, cheat (Michael Cohen); wholly unfit to hold office ever again (Sarah Matthews); has never cared about America, its citizens, its future or anything but himself (Ty Cobb); shown time and time again that he’s willing to put his political ambitions ahead of what’s best for the country (Alyssa Farah Griffin); doing great and irreparable harm to my country (Gen. Mark Milley); undermine[d] a peaceful transition in accordance with our Constitution (Gen. Joseph Dunford); threat to democracy (Miles Taylor); very little understanding of what it means to be in the military (Richard Spencer); off the rails, crazy, nihilistic (Anthony Scaramucci); cares about no one but himself (Stephanie Grisham); absolutely failed (Elizabeth Neumann); flat-out disregard for human life (Olivia Troye); has no principles. None. None. (Maryanne Trump Barry); fucking maniac (Mary Trump).

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To which we might add Putin’s unspoken: “useful idiot.”

And speaking of which — useful idiots — did you see that right-wing billionaire Trump-supporter Tim Mellon gave $15 million to support RFK, Jr.?

Does anyone think he did that to help RFK, Jr.?

BONUS

How to think about age and forgetting.

Trump now admits January 6 was an “insurrection” — caused by Pelosi!

So, yes, Biden is elderly (I’ll get to that) . . . but effective, steady, caring, experienced, and decent.

Trump, by contrast, is a criminal who has lied, cheated, and scammed all his life; who prefers autocrats to democrats; aspires to be an autocrat himself; and for years kept a book of speeches about “vermin” and “impure blood” by his bedside.

In his four years, Trump completely failed to fulfill his infrastructure promises.

> Biden succeeded:  A massive infrastructure revitalization is finally underway.

In his four years, Trump completely failed to boost U.S. manufacturing.

> Biden succeeded.  The only better performance coming out of a recession was in 1948.

In his four years, Trump completely failed to provide his oft-promised “terrific health care at a fraction of the cost” — never even revealing his plan, because he never had one.

> Biden made progress: lowering the ranks of the uninsured to the fewest ever; capping insulin for seniors at $35/month and out-of-pocket costs for all a senior’s prescription drugs at $2,000 beginning next year; giving Medicare authority, finally, to negotiate drug prices.

GRAPHIC INTERLUDE

Click here for a less shrill, more nuanced — but still compelling — comparison and pass it on to those who think the economy . . . let alone the stock market . . . does better with Republicans at the helm.

For a century, it’s been just the opposite.

That strikes me as important for people to know.

One more point before we get to Joe Biden’s age.

Voters are finally beginning to notice the improving economy.

It’s early — but encouraging.

OK, so here’s what I think:

Based on the facts, the President and his team have done, are doing, and will very likely continue to do a really good job for the American people.

As I’ve argued before, “It’s Not Calisthenics” — any more than it was for Stephen Hawking and physics or Warren Buffett and capital allocation.

Click here to be reminded of how much cash you would have left on the table had you sold your Berkshire Hathaway stock when Buffett turned 82.

We’ve all seen the same TV clips; but everyone I know who sees the President regularly tells a different story.

Did you see Senator Chris Coons speaking yesterday on ABC’s This Week?

It’s really worth your time — and worth sharing.

That said, I get (and I’m sure Joe and Jill get) that “perception is everything.”

Which is why Ross Douthat’s suggestion — that Joe should step down in August and throw the nomination open at the Convention — does not strike me as crazy.  It gives everyone more time to reflect and to see how the polling looks then, how Trump looks then, how people perceive the economy then, how the border situation* is looking then. 

In the meantime, I would argue, our course is clear:

To help in every way we can to lay the groundwork for a huge Democratic turn-out in November — to hold the White House, hold the Senate, win back the House, and flip state legislatures blue.

In case you can — and so many of you have! — please click here.  And/or volunteer.

Have a great week.  Go, Chiefs!

*Which of course is why Trump is trying so hard to keep America from solving its border crisis.  He doesn’t care about human suffering or fentanyl trafficking; he cares about preserving the crisis so he can ride it into the White House and shut down the criminal proceedings he faces.  Does anyone really doubt that?

Tom Friedman in the indispensable New York Times:

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Every so often there is a piece of legislation on Capitol Hill that defines America and its values — that shows what kind of country we want to be. I would argue that when it comes to the $118.3 billion bipartisan compromise bill in the Senate to repair our broken immigration system and supply vital aid to Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel, its passage or failure won’t define just America but also the world that we’re going to inhabit.

There are hinges in history, and this is one of them. What Washington does — or does not do — this year to support its allies and secure our border will say so much about our approach to security and stability in this new post-post-Cold War era. Will America carry the red, white and blue flag into the future or just a white flag? Given the pessimistic talk coming out of the Capitol, it is looking more and more like the white flag, autographed by Donald Trump.

Barring some last-minute surprise that saves the compromise bill, a terrible thing is about to happen, thanks largely to a Republican Party that has lost its way as it falls in lock step behind a man whose philosophy is not “America First” but “Donald Trump First.” “Trump First” means that a bill that would strengthen America and its allies must be set aside so that America can continue to boil in polarization, Vladimir Putin can triumph in Ukraine and our southern border can remain an open sore — until and unless Trump becomes president once more. Our allies be damned. Our enemies be emboldened. Our children’s future security be mortgaged.

Today’s G.O.P. bumper sticker: Trump First. Putin Second. America Third.

. . .

Who will tell the people that America is the tent pole that holds up the world? If we let that pole disintegrate, your kids won’t grow up in just a different America; they’ll grow up in a different world, and a much worse one.

After Ukraine inflicted a terrible defeat on the Russian Army — thanks to U.S. and NATO funding and weapons — without costing a single American soldier’s life, Putin now has to be licking his chops at the thought that we will walk away from Ukraine, leaving him surely counting the days until Kyiv’s missile stocks run out and he will own the skies. Then it’s bombs away.

. . .

Yes, America still has considerable power, but that power led to influence because allies and enemies knew we were ready to use it to defend ourselves and help our friends defend themselves and our shared values. All of that will now be in doubt if this bill goes down for good.

Remember this week, folks — because historians surely will.

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Marjorie: “I am the person who bought 100 shares of BOREF at $22 quite a few years ago. Yesterday I saw it has dropped to $2. What’s happened?”

→ After they demonstrated that WheelTug really works, I thought we’d be off to the races.  But as each year passes without their getting the funding to complete the FAA certification required to begin serving the two dozen airlines queued up to lease systems, more and more shareholders give up and take their tax loss.  I can’t say I blame them.  Yet with Borealis now valued at less than $15 million — and WheelTug’s potential to save airlines and airports billions of dollars each year, and travelers hundreds of millions of hours sitting on the ground — I cling stubbornly to hope.  (Borealis indirectly owns a little more than half of WheelTug.)  I guess you could say my hopes are as high as ever, but my expectations nearly as low as when I first wrote about it.

In case you missed it last month:

The views of 17 of Trump’s hand-picked Cabinet secretaries.

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Not only are they people whom Mr. Trump chose — he claimed he would hire the “best people” — they are people who thought Mr. Trump was worth working for. But many of them quickly became alarmed.

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Even Ann Coulter, his one-time champion, has turned on him.  

Help save democracy. Become a poll worker.  Everything you need to know to get started.

BONUS

Mr. Texas, by Lawrence Wright — a novel about the modern Texas legislature, lobbyists and all.

Fun!

It sure would be nice if a lot of Texans read it.

The Audible edition includes some great original music at the end.