Author: A.T.

Republican truth tellers must speak up.

Jennifer Rubin argues that those who know him best have “a duty to warn.”

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Trump no doubt will continue to rage against his former advisers, despite his boast that he hired only the “best people.” But a unified and consistent effort from a substantial number of former high-ranking officials . . . could act as a powerful counterweight to the false equivalence that afflicts too much campaign coverage.

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Surely, people who love their country will take note.

Please: send to every patriotic Trump supporter you know.

This long piece may be of interest for two very separate reasons:

First: its political message. The country has become so polarized, Hal Malchow argues, that most political money should go to promote the Democratic brand, not individual candidates.

Second: what it says about our country’s barbaric end-of-life laws.

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Hal Malchow Is Going to Die on Thursday. He Has One Last Message for Democrats.

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Today is Wednesday.

But first . . .

These must-watch 3 minutes, wherein Bill Maher acknowledges Trump’s official takeover of the Republican party — he installed his daughter-in-law in as chair of the RNC (that part is real) — and then . . . well, watch.

Also fun, if you have time . . .

JB Pritzker: How to Spot an Idiot (3 minutes).

And:

Joe Biden hears from 7 presidents in preparation for the State of the Union (4 minutes).  Somehow I missed this at the time.

And now . . .

Jennifer Rubin lists Biden’s advantages over Trump.  (And then offers the transcript of an exchange between George Stephanopoulos and one of Trump’s supporters.)

There’s tons to be worried about.

Including third party candidates who, like Ralph Nader, are being incredibly reckless.  (Nader, disastrously, gave us Bush 43, and thus the war in Iraq, gigantic deficits, a near financial collapse, and the right-leaning Court that gave us Trump; who, in turn, gave us, among much else, the hard-right leaning Court that killed Roe.  Nader, alone, could have prevented all that just by urging his swing-state supporters to vote for Al Gore.)

But if we all keep at it, and keep our eyes on the ball, and give and volunteer, we’ll win.

Ukraine in context (30 seconds).  Trump dims the beacon of hope.

Even as he purposely prolongs the border crisis.

The bill to end that crisis had overwhelming support in Congress, but Trump ordered the Speaker not to allow a vote.

(And failed to solve it while in office.  Listen to Republican Freedom Caucus Policy Chair Chip Roy: “In 2018, we had the House, we had the Senate, we had the White House, and we had a bigger majority than we have today.  And we utterly failed to secure the border.  Totally dropped the ball.  Didn’t do it.“)

In case you can help preserve democracy and the rule of law . . . the decency and dignity of the presidency . . . the competence of the federal work force . . . our democratic alliances . . . the rights of women and minorities — and America’s indispensable role as a beacon of hope to the world — click here.

Have a great week!

Not quite three minutes.

Q-Anon meets Arthur Laffer.

And Kara Swisher’s just-published Burn Book: A Tech Love Story.

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“Nobody straddles the world of tech and media quite like Kara Swisher… This book isn’t just a juicy read, it’s also a valuable historical document, giving readers an inside look at the architects of some of the biggest tech moments of the last thirty years.” — TIME

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Publisher’s tag line:  A witty, scathing, but fair accounting of the tech industry and its founders who wanted to change the world but broke it instead. 

A quick read or 6-hour listen at 1.2X speed.

(Oh, and by the way?  “Al Gore did invent the Internet.  Kind of.  His exact words were: ‘During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.’  Absolutely true,” writes Swisher, who goes on to explain.)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! 

Marjorie Taylor Green has it right — amazingly (60 seconds).

Congressman Chip Roy on the House floor yesterday (30 seconds).

Lindsey Graham, of course (60 seconds).  I know I’ve shared that a million times, but I never tire of watching it.

And that old standby, Mitch McConnell (the first 15 seconds are enough if you don’t have two minutes).

There’s also this long (though incomplete) list — of anti-Trump Republicans, from his former lapdog Vice President and Attorney General to sitting and former governors, senators, representatives, and more.

Trump — famous for “neurotic projection” — calls Biden “the worst president in history.”

Yet the stock market hit a new high this week, anyone who wants a job can find one, wages are outpacing inflation, crime is falling, and the only thing now holding up border control is Trump.

Namely, his order that House Speaker Mike Johnson prevent a vote on the Senate’s bipartisan bill.

It would pass overwhelming . . . just as a 68-32 bipartisan Senate immigration bill would have passed in 2013 had the then Republican House speaker allowed a floor vote . . . but Trump wants the border to remain in crisis.  It’s his best chance to win reelection, shut down all the prosecutions he faces, pardon himself as needed, and — what perhaps most motivates him — rain down vengeance and retribution.

Have a great day.

In case you haven’t seen these two minutes.

In case you can help.

MERYL

No movie / no Oscar — but she did offer these stunning 3 minutes at the 2017 Golden Globes.  Just as relevant today.

SIMÓN

Equally relevant, though it will cost you $7.95 and take longer to watch (turn on the English subtitles), is this feature film.

It’s the story of a Venezuelan asylum seeker who makes it to Miami.  And, by extension, the story of how a once-thriving democracy looks once it’s slidden into “illiberal democracy,” like Hungary or, worse, Germany.

Living in fear, as the Venezuelan opposition has for decades now had to do . . . as the opposition in any autocracy must . . . as high school kids who are bullied must . . . or shop-owners targeted by the mob or victims of abusive relationships or residents of high-crime neighborhoods . . . as Republican legislators who fear their leader or, increasingly, American poll workers and judges must . . . living in fear is a nightmare.

And once the rule of law is lost . . . once the gangs take over . . . once the leader can walk down Fifth Avenue shooting people or murder his opposition with impunity, as Putin and Kim do and Trump’s legal team argued he can do (he was sitting right there as they argued this) — he, who alone can fix it — once the coarsened level of discourse has been normalized . . . how can decency, civility, and democracy be restored?

Simón asks that devastating question.

BOREF

As noted last month, the stock is currently un-tradeable.  I called the company, who say this limbo should lift if and when they file current financial statements.  If the stock were tradeable, I wouldn’t sell at the 70-cent or 10-cent price brokers are now showing — or even at the $2.50 it fetched before the freeze.  Having waited nearly 25 years for this “stock that’s surely going to zero” to pay off — or else go to zero — I’m not bailing now.

Three books I’ll keep recommending until democracy is saved:

A Fever in the Heartland — how white Christian nationalists almost took over the country in the 1920’s.

Prequel — how they almost did again ten years later.

Blowback — third time’s a charm?

Many Americans favor a “strongman” of the type Trump admires, like Putin and Orban.

Millions more don’t.

Yet given the Electoral College and a stacked Supreme Court, “majority rule” is no sure thing.

Want to join Presidents Clinton, Obama, and Biden for an historic-yet-potentially-affordable evening in New York later this month, and help save democracy?

Click here.

Two Best Picture nominees I loved that didn’t win last night:

THE HOLDOVERS and AMERICAN FICTION.

Perfect for streaming.

I’ve never been a fan of buying gold.

An exception I made with money I can truly afford to lose (a seemingly a bottomless pit): HYMC, a Nevada gold mining stock, as described back in October before it reverse-split 1 for 10.

(So in today’s terms, I paid $2.20, compared to the $11.90 that AMC believed was an attractive price when it bought its big slice, down from a high of $135.)

The stock is basically unchanged from October. One thing that has changed, modestly, is the price of gold — at $2,177 an ounce Friday, up from $1,984 when I bought my HYMC and $1,918 when AMC bought its. 

If you’re like me, you get a lot of spam foretelling $3,000-an-ounce gold.  (Which could well mean this is the top!)  But if some smart people thought HYMC was a good buy at $11.90 when gold was $1,918, it could be an even better speculation at $2.30 with gold at $2,177. 

Or not.

The President’s age — the good news, explained by a geriatrician.  (A quick read.)

His challenger’s age — Dr. John Gartner on “Trump’s accelerating dementia.

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This is a tale of two brains. Biden’s brain is aging. Trump’s brain is dementing.

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Note, also, that if he had only normal health care available and did not exercise regularly, actuaries would expect Joe to live well past the end of his second term.  But because he has great care and does exercise, he could well live to attend not just his successor’s Inauguration, but the two or three — or even four — after those.

That said (just so you know), the Vice President is under-rated.  She is smart, sensible, moderate, and — should it come to this, which it almost surely would not — she would have Joe’s 4,000 appointees not skipping a step as she served out the remainder of his term.

TRUMP’S MAN IN NORTH CAROLINA

Trump calls the Republican candidate for governor of North Carolina, “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

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“I think you’re better than Martin Luther King,” he told Mark Robinson at a rally in Greensboro, N.C., last weekend. “I think you are Martin Luther King times two.”

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The INK offers a compendium of Robinson’s views: on the Holocaust (“hogwash”), women (not suited for leadership), abortion (eliminate it entirely), gays (“filth”), Parkland school-shooting survivors (“prosti-tots”).

Frank Bruni lays out The Grotesque Rise of Mark Robinson.

Trump’s choice.  The Republican Party’s choice.  Scary times.

THE VIEW FROM ABROAD

A friend addressed 80 major European CEO’s and CFO’s last month and asked two questions.

By a show of hands . . .

> If you could vote in the American election and wanted the best outcome for your company, which candidate would you choose?

Two-thirds said Trump.

> And if you wanted the best outcome for your children?

All but one said Biden.

BONUS CLIPS

Liz Cheney (50 seconds): elected Republicans know Trump is lying but fear for their jobs and safety.  It’s how dictatorships take hold.  Ask Putin.

Stayin’ Alive (25 seconds): interracial dance duo.

Stayin’ Friends (60 seconds): interracial interparty ex-Presidents.

Student Schools School Board Member (60 seconds): yes!

Equal Rights Not Fair (20 seconds): the MAGA view.

Robbie Kaplan drives him crazy (60 seconds): lunch at Mar-a-Lago.

Volodymyr Zelensky (40 seconds): to help Russia is to be against America.

Stop Him While You Still Can (60 seconds): the latest Lincoln Project.

To help, click here.

If you have no TV, stream the State of the Union.