Author: A.T.

Putin Is Winning. We Can’t Give In To Fear.

Franklin Foer: The Russian dictator has bent the world.  He’s gotten us to switch sides.  We are now the bad guys.  Republican legislators need to read that — and this:

Marc Elias: We can’t give in to fear.

. . . It is often said: When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. If that is true, then only weeks into Donald Trump’s four-year term, we are approaching tyranny.

It does not surprise me that people are worried. I expected many to be concerned. But I did not anticipate that so many leaders across industries and professions would allow fear to silence them.

Even worse than their silence in the face of Trump’s actions against our democracy is their silent complicity as they watch their peers be targeted, humiliated and punished.

Trump targeted the legacy media. Its owners paid for the privilege.

Trump targeted Mitch McConnell. His Republican Senate colleagues did nothing.

Trump targeted lawyers and law firms. The biggest, most prestigious firms looked away.

We were all taught about the immorality of silence in the face of evil. We all read Martin Niemöller’s poem:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

We all said never again. We promised we had learned the lesson of history. We would never be silent. We would be righteous.

We all read Martin Luther King Jr.’s words:

The greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. Our generation will have to repent not only for the acts and words of the children of darkness but also for the fears and apathy of the children of light.

We told ourselves we would stand up against injustice wherever we saw it. We would do better than previous generations. We would be stronger. We would be braver.

Hannah Arendt, one of the 20th century’s greatest chroniclers of totalitarianism, described fear as an emotion indispensable for survival. It is precisely because fear is so deeply hardwired within us that we can demonstrate courage. She wrote: The courageous man is not one whose soul lacks this emotion or who can overcome it once and for all, but one who has decided that fear is not what he wants to show.

If I could speak to billionaires quivering in fear, I would ask: Is the risk of losing some money worth sacrificing your dignity?

If I could speak to media executives pandering to Trump, I would ask: Is the risk of losing access worth compromising your principles?

If I could speak to Republican politicians, I would ask: Is the risk of losing an election worth being remembered as a coward?

If I could speak to the heads of big law firms, I would ask: Is the risk of losing some clients worth betraying your oath to the rule of law?

To everyone nodding in agreement but refusing to take a stand, I say this: You are ignoring Martin Niemöller’s message. It is you that Martin Luther King Jr. was condemning.

Go ahead and stay silent. Let fear rule you. Watch injustice happen. Just don’t act like you did not know and accept that you are the latest in a long line of cowards who learned nothing from the past.

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Surrendering Our Role In The World — But Beanie Babies

Fareed Zakaria: Trump is helping Russia and China by upending the world order.

. . . The United States spent eight decades building an international system of rules, norms and values that has produced the longest period of great power peace and global prosperity in human history. Its alliances are the greatest force multiplier for its influence around the world.

The United States has been the greatest beneficiary of this system, even now, decades later, still setting the agenda and dominating the world economically, technologically and militarily.

As that world unravels, America’s privileged position [and the immense advantage we get from the dollar’s being the world’s reserve currency] will also decline, creating a more dangerous and impoverished world — and a more isolated, mistrusted and insecure America. . . .

So sad.

Entirely self-inflicted.

Must reading.

Elon’s Grok Chatbot Calculates Probability That Trump Is a Russian Asset 

Elon Musk’s supposedly “anti-woke” chatbot, Grok, keeps spewing outputs that are hilariously opposed to the billionaire’s views — including that newly-minted President Donald Trump is likely a Russian asset.

Responding to a prompt from Arizona Republic columnist EJ Montini, Musk’s “maximally truth-seeking” AI, which is built into X, said after an analysis that the probability of the president being in the pocket of Vladimir Putin is between 75 and 85 percent.  

. . . Grok said that although there is no “smoking gun [that] proves direct control,” there’s a good chance that Trump is a “useful idiot” for Putin — especially given that “Trump’s ego and debts make him unwittingly pliable.”

CRYPTO STRATEGIC RESERVE

Crypto investors within the Trump administration, like Trump and Musk themselves, are pushing the idea of a “strategic crypto reserve.”

It would be like our well-established, well thought-out “strategic oil reserve” . . .

. . . only completely stupid.

More like setting up a Strategic Beanie Baby Reserve.

 

The Good News About Trump’s Tariff Tax

Yes, it will make almost everything more expensive. But it will help Trump give millionaires and billionaires a tax cut, so it all evens out.

How great is that?

TRUMPCESSION

Seven weeks in, a recession looks more likely.

Consumer confidence is down more than at any time since 2021, “as inflation fears take hold.”  The Trump Tariff Tax will dampen consumer demand. Interest rates are staying high because of the now-expected higher inflation.  Massive government lay-offs and canceled government contracts slow growth . . . uncertainty breeds business caution . . . a drop in foreign tourism . . . a drop in foreign purchases of our goods . . . Maybe it will all be fine.  (Who can say for sure the Smoot-Hawley tariffs caused a global depression?)  But taken together, we just might be in for Trumpcession.  Or Trump Stagflation.

I’m the guy with the happy gene — I still have it — but he bankrupted six of his companies (well, four, but two of them twice) and added trillions more to the National Debt in his first term than Obama in his first term (which began with the massive deficit spending required to keep the world from sinking into depression brought on by the financial collapse) . . . let us hope America’s not the next thing his chaotic management will bankrupt.

BONUS: Starving Children Are Not Our Concern — We’re Christians

The children from whom we’ve suddenly cut off aid live in “shit-hole countries.”  What business is that of ours?  What have they ever done for us?  America First, baby.  Haven’t you read the Trump Bible?

Charity has its limits.*

 

*In the decade leading up to his foundation being shut down for mismanagement, it distributed $19 million.  “[Trump] admitted . . . to directing $100,000 in foundation money be used to settle legal claims over an 80-foot flagpole he had built at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, instead of paying the expense out of his own pocket.  In addition, the foundation paid $158,000 to resolve a lawsuit over a prize for a hole-in-one contest at a Trump-owned golf course . . .” (By contrast, Mike Bloomberg’s foundation gave away $3.7 billion last year alone.  And none of it, as far as I know, to buy a six-foot portrait of himself.)

 

OUR Kind Of Billionaire

In no particular order:

1. J.B. Pritzker.  Take 73 seconds to watch.

2. Mark Cuban.  His CostPlusDrugs saves consumers a fortune.  The “Shark Tank” star and Dallas Mavericks owner has ruled out running, but what a great president he would make.

3-4-5. Oprah Winfrey!  Taylor Swift!  Judith Faulkner!  Self-made but not self-ish.

6. Nick Hanauer, whose must-watch 6-minute TED talk and must-read Pitchforks article I’ve shared here a hundred times.

7. Warren Buffett, whose wisdom, humility, decency, business success, and integrity make him Trump’s polar opposite.  No king of debt or master of bankruptcy, he.

Did you know that Buffett’s dad was a super-conservative Nebraska Congressman?

“So why are you a Democrat?” I once asked.

“Well, if you’ve read John Rawls and considered his ‘veil of ignorance,’ how could you be anything else?” was the gist of his reply.  (Needless to say, I had not read John Rawls.)

John Rawls’ veil of ignorance:  You’re in the womb and somehow have the power to design the world you’re about to be born into.  The only thing is: you don’t know whether you’ll be born male or female; black or white; straight, gay, or trans; mentally gifted or challenged, great-looking or palatoschistic; with a killer immune system or immuno-compromised; to wealthy parents or a single drug-addicted mom . . . how would you order society?

Aristocracy?  Kleptocracy?  Communism?  Dictatorship?  Unregulated, Darwinian, monopolistic capitalism?  Voting rights only for white men of property?

If you would want universal health care and a living minimum wage . . .  the wealthy paying higher marginal tax rates than their secretaries . . . capitalism with lots of opportunity to get rich but regulated to assure consumer protection, investor protection, safe food, water, drugs, and workplaces, clean air and robust competition . . . an adequate social safety net, sensible gun safety regulation, and collective action to prevent “the tragedy of the commons” (as in, for example, climate change) . . . checks and balances that require compromise . . . respect for the rule of law and for long-established norms of civility . . . if you would want these things, then welcome to the Democratic Party.

I think MAGA Republicans want at least most of those things but have been skillfully misled.  That’s what demagogues do: skillful misdirection.  Look at Hugo Chavez. How did his demagoguery turn out for the once relatively prosperous, democratic Venezuelans?  Or, a lifetime earlier, how did demagoguery turn out for the Italians and the Germans?

Why are we suddenly on the side of the Russians and North Koreans?  Did MAGA-ns realize this is what they were voting for?  Chaos instead of competence?  Higher inflation and interest rates?  A Trumpcession and lower 401k balances?  Shutting down medical research in mid-experiment that might one day save their children’s lives?

I know a lot of good people who voted for Trump.

This is not what they voted for.

Many Republican senators feel the same way but are afraid for their personal safety.

Anne Applebaum: We have become the bad guys. “Trump and Vance Shattered Europe’s Illusions About America.”

If Reagan was a white-hatted cowboy, Trump and Vance are Mafia dons. The chorus of Republican political leaders defending them seems both sinister and surprising to Europeans too.

Worth reading in full: The Rise of the Brutal American.

Or this:  U.S. Joins Axis of Evil.

TODAY’S ACTION STEP

Check out Indivisible’s Musk or Us Recess Toolkit.  Share it widely.

CORRECTION

Yesterday I claimed Trump said he was the best president since George Washington.  Actually, he said Washington may have been #2.

Have a great weekend!

 

Stocks And Facts

If you care more about democracy than money, by all means skip ahead.  

Either way, don’t miss Claire’s investment update at the end.

STOCKS

CMRX, first suggested here in 2022 at $1.74, is being acquired at $8.55.  As posted recently, I sold half at $4.83.  Yesterday, at $8.40, I sold the rest.  (Whoever bought it is welcome to the extra 15 cents.)

VERU has a drug in development that it believes everyone taking the new miracle weight-loss drugs will consider taking as well.  Early indications are that with their drug, the weight loss patients experience is 99% fat and only 1% muscle — versus 69%/31%.  Most people would much rather lose fat than muscle.  This one is highly speculative — with no revenues and big expenses, they could, for one thing, run out of cash.  But it comes recommended from the same wonderful reader who suggested CMRX, and who thinks VERU has the potential to be a 10X or 20X winner, so I bought a bunch yesterday at 52 cents a share.  Only with money I could truly afford to lose.

PRKR keeps sliding, down to 65 cents last night from its recent $1.26 high.  But you know what else keeps happening?  Time keeps passing.  Which means we grow ever closer to the hoped for trials in its numerous lawsuits.  In the meantime, there was this press release yesterday.  It seems encouraging.  Ultimately what’s at stake is whether patents mean anything and small inventors still have a shot in America.  I think they do, and that a jury might agree (as one did to the tune of $173 million 12 years ago).  Only with . . .

OPRT has given up some of its gains as well, but my same thinking applies: Time will pass.  If a year from now they really do report earnings in the range of $1.10 to $1.30 a share, as projected, I would expect the company to be awarded a multiple of 12X or more, so a double from here.  To me, the reward outweighs the risk . . . though only with . . .

And since you’re interested in money, here is Warren Buffett’s annual letter from a couple of weeks ago.  The foregoing speculations notwithstanding, he drives home the point that the market as a whole is hardly a bargain here.

FACTS

The President told us Tuesday night Joe Biden handed him a horrible economy and stratospheric inflation.

In point of actual fact, President Biden handed him inflation under 3%, and falling; and an economy that both the Economist and the Wall Street Journal called “the envy of the world.”

Trump said he was the best president since George Washington; Biden, the worst.

We all know that little he says is true.  Even Republican senators privately know that.  But the MAGA base eat it up.  They know Ukraine started the war against Russia (by being invaded?); that the January 6 cop-beaters were heroes, unjustly imprisoned; that contracting measles builds valuable immunity; that John McCain was no hero; that Trump will absolutely release his tax returns as soon as the audit is completed.

Here, with much less snark (I can’t help myself — his breathtaking dishonesty and narcissism scream for snark), is NPR’s Fact Check of the Joint Address.

COMBINING STOCK PICKING AND FACT CHECKING

Claire Margaret Brown — former Air Force doctor and exceptional trans woman whose Aristides Capital has compounded my IRA at 15.83% since 2008 (growing each $1 into $11.30) — has given me permission to share excerpts from her latest monthly investor letter:

. . . [T]he elimination of USAID Global Health funding will, in the very short run, save
$18 per American per year and will result in the deaths of tens of millions of people worldwide. I don’t know if it matters to the financial markets or not. I do know it is, without a doubt, the darkest moment for the American government in my adult life. In the long run, it’s also incredibly stupid. In a global economy, disease does not stop at borders. More HIV, more malaria, more measles, more tuberculosis, more chikungunya…they will come for us. Had Trump been President in 2014, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa would have been several regional Ebola epidemics around the globe. It would have easily cost $100 billion or more in knock-on trade effects.

Instead of saving millions of lives, President Trump this weekend announced a national “Strategic Reserve” of cryptocurrency, to include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Ripple, and  Cardano. I don’t really understand what those last three things even are, but I’m 99.99999% certain that none of them are a strategic asset. I do know that Trump donor and “Crypto Tzar,” David Sacks, happens to own all five. That is probably all you need to know about them, too.

Our President had a nifty episode of narcissistic rage in the oval office on Friday, as he and his toady Vice President lectured Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky for daring to ask what would make Vladimir Putin honor a new ceasefire this time, when he has broken three already (the Budapest Memorandum, First Minsk Agreement, and Second Minsk Agreement). This is the sort of thing markets absolutely do care about because for the last eight decades the Western world has been led–politically, militarily, and economically—by the United States, while in the first six weeks of Trump’s second administration, he has unilaterally done more to damage U.S. hegemony than anything else that has happened in the last eighty years. European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas commented “Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It is up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.”

. . . Today, the U.S. equity market sold off again on a Trump plan for tariffs against Canada and Mexico, which makes no economic sense, unless one were clumsily trying to destroy the entire American auto industry except for Tesla.

The policy of this administration is utterly incoherent other than fairly consistent in its awfulness. It’s a mix of Project 2025, white nationalism, Christian theocracy, Curtis Yarvin, aggrieved Silicon Valley sociopathy, Trump’s unpredictable narcissistic ego wounds, and the most brazen corruption ever seen in the United States. There’s no point even writing an outlook for the year or the month because it’s hard to know what cruel idiocy will happen next. My expectations for the second Trump administration were incredibly low, and Trump has delivered well beneath them. Humans are prone to normalcy bias, but nothing about this administration is normal. The decline of our country that I thought might take years to materialize is being delivered in mere weeks.

As always, I tend to be very mild in the way my political views bleed into the portfolio, and we tend not to run the portfolio net short, ever, and this year has been no exception. Fortunately we’ve been positioned generally okay so far . . . We have close to 25% of the portfolio long foreign securities, whereas nearly all of our short positions tend to be in the United States, so, effectively, we are close to market neutral in the United States (on a beta-adjusted basis), and our modest net long exposure comes mostly from Europe, Japan, and Canada. . . . [T]he share prices of our longs have held up much better than the prices of our shorts . . .

. . . But the last six weeks . . . to see millions of deaths getting queued up globally for no good reason and to see our nation weakened dramatically and its institutions gutted for nothing but some crazy ideology of destruction . . . it’s a good reminder that the world needs me and you. The world needs all of us. We, here at this moment, each of us the only one of us who has ever been or will ever be, the product of 13.7 billion years of the universe striving to see what is possible, we each make so many changes in the lives and the futures of everyone with whom we interact. Our country, the most gifted nation in the history of earth, is in such a stupid, needlessly dark time right now, but hopefully your response to that is to be a light in the lives of those around you. We’re incredibly fortunate to be here.

. . . Thank you, as always, for your partnership. Good luck navigating all of this. The money part is not the hard part right now, and hopefully we’ll help to keep it that way.

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It’s Not A State of the Union It’s A . . .

State of Emergency!

HERE’S WHY

We are abandoning our allies to align with Russia!

Doing everything Putin wants us to do!

Switching sides!

Losing the Cold War!

Relinquishing our role as Leader of the Free World!

Dismantling our government!

We are also starving children and enabling malaria, polio, and AIDS to flourish, even as we surrender our “soft power” to China and Russia.

And launching a Smoot-Hawley-reminiscent trade war that, if continued, will spike inflation and interest rates, tank the world’s economies and stock markets, tank 401k’s, and cause widespread hardship.

Most of you get all that.  (Carl sees the emergency as men playing in women’s sports and immigrant-perpetrated crime.)

WHAT TO DO

In a word?  More than ever.  (Well, three words.)

So if you’ve been avoiding the news or taking a break — welcome back.  We need you.

Here’s my checklist:

1. Watch (or listen to) Rachel Maddow every night.  She’s sometimes shrill or unfair; but most of the time she’s right on target, and often she’s invaluable.  Last night, for example, which you may be able to watch here.  And should definitely be able to listen to here.  Everything Trump is doing is what Putin wants him to do.  Why is that?  What are we getting in return?  Is this what the American people voted for?  The parallels to the late 1930’s and 1940 are chilling.

2. Consider Lawrence O’Donnell, Chris Hayes, and Morning Joe when you have time, too.

3. Join an Indivisible chapter, if you haven’t already, or start one of your own — and get all your friends and relatives to do likewise.  Participate in the actions they suggest.

4. Plant seeds of DIS-disinformation.

5. Live even more frugally than before, if you can, to build savings to fund the struggle.

6. Watch tonight.  Technically, it’s not a State of the Union — but, however awful, it is history in the making.  And don’t be too angry if Democrats don’t do something brilliant, because it’s not entirely clear (at least to me) what would be most effective.  I liked the idea of our all just boycotting — what a statement it would be to show the chamber half empty.  But someone pointed out that it wouldn’t be empty — the Rs would likely just fill those seats with cheering Republican staffers.

7. Know that ultimately we ARE going to turn things around because this is NOT what most Americans want, and at the end of the day, ours is a government of the people, by the people, for the people.  We are NOT going to give in to dictatorship as they did in Russia after their brief fling with democracy.

8. Spread the word.  It’s not easy to move from watching the news to becoming part of it, attending a town hall or demonstrating in front of a senator’s local office holding up a witty home-made sign.  It’s a sacrifice to redirect part of one’s Travel & Entertainment budget to one’s budget to help save the world.  But compared to what our forefathers had to sacrifice for democracy?  Or what our lives will be like if we fail?  It’s thrilling to have a chance to be part of something this important.

9. Lists are better with TEN things, so add one of your own — and share it with me!

READER FEEDBACK: PRONOUNS

[I haven’t cherry-picked these.  If any of my LGBTQ+ readers disagree, they haven’t me-mailed.  But realistically, my readers skew older and less gender-nonconforming than those who’d be most likely to push back.  I’m sure my view is not universally accepted — and I respect theirs . . . unless, that is, they advocate for the possessive — he/him/his.  That I can’t respect — but, as I argued yesterday, on grounds of grammar and logic, not politicals.]

Gloria: “THANK YOU for posting this. I agree 100%.  Speaking of signaling, I think all liberals, progressives, Democrats, etc, who are attending protests and demonstrations should proudly carry the American flag along with their signs. The flag is a symbol that belongs to all of us, not to MAGA, yet they have appropriated it. It is important to signal that we demonstrate precisely because we love this country.”

David T.: “Thank you for saying what nobody else seems willing to say: stop with the ridiculous virtue-signaling pronouns, unless (as you said) you are someone who uses pronouns that are not obvious to the rest of us. I absolutely agree that, despite good intentions, they’ve done us far more harm than good.”

Drew W.: “Far and away the most damaging ad in 2024 was the one that ended, ‘She’s for they/them. He’s for us.'”

→ So I would argue that a more effective way to express support for the gender-nonconforming — rather than specifying your pronouns in solidarity — is to send something to one or two of these 100 groups.”

Rich G.: “It’s not just pronouns. There are 500,000 athletes under the auspices of the NCAA.  Maybe 10 transsexual athletes. My friends say they don’t want their daughters to have to compete against men.  Duh!  We allowed Trump to make this tiny example a big issue.”

→ Yes.  Here was my discourse on that: “The Elephant In The Bathroom.”

 

Enough With The Pronouns

I got an email from a 78-year-old heterosexual partner in a major law firm whose first name is clearly male.

His signature block specified his pronouns: he/him/his.

The grammarian in me wonders why anyone needs to include the possessive.  Is there an imaginable gender identity that would allow for he/him/hers?

The progressive in me believes that most people who specify their pronouns, though wonderfully well-intentioned, should stop.

I can think of only two reasons to specify pronouns.

1. To provide needed guidance, which the world should be grateful for and enthusiastically respect.

This makes total sense.

In most cases, however, guidance is not needed.

Most people identify as — and are readily identifiable as — men or women.

So the only reason for them to specify their pronouns is . . .

2. To signal support.

Which is a beautiful thing but which raises this question:

Does the comfort it provides our gender-nonconforming brethren outweigh the discomfort it may cause good people who are not yet at ease with gender-nonconformity?

I want to win elections — not least to help protect the gender-nonconforming, who do not fare well in MAGA land or autocratic states like Russia and North Korea (our latest allies at the U.N.).

By specifying pronouns when they’re not needed, we signal that we think everyone should — that specifying pronouns is what all enlightened people do.

It kind of says (not literally, of course, but subtly): Democrats do this, Republicans don’t.  (Well?  Do you know Republicans who specify their pronouns?)

If we controlled one or two branches of government, and if the Republican Party had not become the party of the Proud Boys and autocracy, I might feel differently.

But when so much is at stake, I think we should avoid signaling to millions of good people that they really don’t fit in with us.  Because on almost every policy that matters to them — from health care to the economy to climate, from taxing billionaires to sensible gun safety to not pardoning cop-beaters — we are exactly the party they fit in with. 

BONUS

Did you see Heather Cox Richardson’s recent post? 

“Putin is on the inside now.”

It is so worth reading in full.

 

What To DO . . . And Krasnov — Really?

The company that emails these posts to those of you who subscribe (the free trial period is now in its 29th year, but who’s counting?) encountered some kind of issue that kept Saturday night’s 9pm post from going out.  (I retried at midnight, 1am and 10am as well — no luck.)

So:

  1. I don’t know whether or when this one will reach subscribers, either.  (I’m posting it Sunday afternoon.)
  2. If you did miss What To Do About Our Debt And Our Dictator, just click.  I worked pretty hard on it.

And now . . .

The Krasnov file, so to speak.  A thoughtful assessment of its credibility from “a former CIA Russia specialist who served in Moscow right about the time Trump first visited.”

He concludes:

One key misconception about espionage is the idea that ‘kompromat’ is the primary tool of recruitment. While kompromat can play a role, coerced agents are often unreliable and difficult to control. A much more effective intelligence relationship is one in which the collaborator sees mutual benefit. Trump’s rhetoric and actions in recent years—his reluctance to criticize Putin, his efforts to weaken NATO, and his alignment with Russian disinformation campaigns—do not suggest someone acting under duress. Instead, they suggest someone who, for his own reasons, has fully embraced the Russian position.

Whether or not Trump was recruited in 1987 may ultimately be less important than the fact that today, he is aligned with Putin’s interests. Whatever the origins of that alignment, its current reality is undeniable.

Watch 90 seconds of President Zelensky two weeks ago.

Yes, he should be thanking us for your support — and has, over and over.  But we should be thanking him, too.  He and his countrymen have been doing all the fighting, dying, sacrificing, and suffering to protect NATO’s 32 democratic members from aggression.

 

What To Do About Our Debt And Our Dictator

I’ll quickly get to that — what to do — but first a quote . . .

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

— Ronald Reagan

. . . and a few headlines, because I just have to.

I don’t expect you to click on them; you’ve doubtless seen so many already:

‘A spectacle to horrify the world’: what the papers say about Trump and Vance’s meeting with Zelenskyy

S.E.C. halts fraud prosecution of Chinese national who sent Trump millions

The Trump Administration Is Playing With Fire in Germany

Trump’s AG Is Disbanding Anti-Corruption Teams created in 2022 to target Russian oligarchs

Trump Welcomes Russian Oligarchs With $5 Million Golden Card

Trump administration retreats in fight against Russian cyber threats

Maureen Dowd: Rootin’ for Putin

Bernie Sanders — this capitalist Harvard Business School grad’s perhaps surprising choice to head our shadow Cabinet, as argued here — writes (even before Friday’s horrifying Oval Office event):

America must not surrender its democratic values

. . . Rather than side with our longstanding allies to preserve democracy and uphold international law, the president voted with authoritarian countries such as Russia, North Korea, Iran and Belarus to oppose the resolution. Many of the other opponents of that resolution are undemocratic nations propped up by Russian military aid.

Let’s be clear: this was not just another UN vote. This was the president of the United States turning his back on 250 years of our history and openly aligning himself with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. This was the president of the United States undermining the independence of Ukraine.

So, okay — how?

HOW WE +SHOULD+ BE LOWERING THE DEFICIT

I.  RAISE MORE

1. Let the Trump tax cuts expire on schedule but only for income above $400,000 a year.  Bang: that saves $4 trillion over 10 years.

2. Raise the personal rate a little, but on only that portion above $1 million (and a little more on that portion above $10 million and a little more still above $100 million).  Send thank you notes to all who pay these higher rates: we celebrate their success and deeply appreciate their contribution to our society.

3. Raise the corporate rate a little, but on only that portion of income above $100 million (and a little more still above $1 billion).  At the same time, to avoid driving companies to relocate, rejoin the 15% Global Minimum Corporate Tax Rate agreement that the U.S. persuaded 140 nations to signed on to in 2021 (set to take effect this year), and which Trump last month bailed on.  Urge those 140 nations, in fact, to raise the minimum rate from 15% to 18% . . . which should give us room to go a little higher.  (Is a company really going to leave the U.S. over a small difference in the tax rate?)

4. Close estate-tax loopholes and raise the rate on estates above $25 million and even more above $100 million and $1 billion.  Surely, it’s least painful to pay taxes after you’re dead.  No?  This would still leave billionheirs plenty of money — just less.  And it would increase charitable giving (because, after tax, it would be less expensive).

5. Fund the IRS adequately to audit complicated high-dollar personal and corporate tax returns.  Not all of them every year; but enough of them to (a) raise lots of revenue; (b) inspire an even higher rate of voluntary compliance.

These five measures would raise trillions in deficit-reducing revenue with ZERO pain on the part of 98% of us, and minimal pain on those fortunate enough even to notice.  They would not have to reduce their standard of living in any way.

II.  SPEND LESS

1. Root out fraud, not least by rehiring the 18 experienced, effective inspectors general Trump immediately (and illegally) fired without cause . . . whose job it was to root out fraud.  Many if not all of them had the experience and passion to do the job well.

2. Reform Social Security along the lines I’ve been suggesting for more than 20 years.  E.g., here.  No current recipients would lose a dime; future recipients would have a decade or more to prepare for the very modest changes; and by the time those changes were slated to kick in — if we get our house in order — economic growth and productivity gains might have been sufficient to allow Congress to responsibly cancel them even before they ever did kick in.  But enacting these adjustments now would signal to the bond market that we’re getting our long-term finances in order, which would help to lower interest rates.  Lower interest rates would have an enormous impact on the cost of servicing our $36 trillion National Debt, and thus our annual deficit.

3. Stem the growth in health care costs NOT by penalizing Medicare and Medicaid recipients or Veterans, but by negotiating drug prices (why does Uncle Sam have to pay drastically more for drugs than I do here?); and by finding efficiencies in our bloated insurance system (which I admit will be harder, because so many lobbyists are employed to resist reform).

4. REDUCE tariffs, which are simply a tax on American businesses and consumers that raises inflation . . . which in turn raises interest rates, including the rate we pay on our massive National Debt.

5. Stop indiscriminately firing experienced public servants . . . which only weakens our economy and our society.  Instead, do a deliberate, thoughtful review to find places government can be reorganized to run more efficiently.  It won’t make much of a dent in the deficit (the federal workforce is a small part of our annual budget); but efficiency is always worth striving for, and every little bit helps.  And don’t cancel the infrastructure investments we’re finally embarking on (other than any “bridges to nowhere” you might find, though I don’t expect there are any or many).  Putting people to work on infrastructure projects provides jobs, which provides tax revenues (and purpose in people’s lives and more social cohesion) . . . and builds a more competitive, successful economy that itself will produce more tax revenues over the long run.

6. Pass the hard-bargained bi-partisan Immigration Reform bill Trump killed last year to keep the border in crisis as an election issue.  Deport violent criminals — of course! — but don’t drain the country of labor needed to produce the goods and services — and groceries — we consume.  Spending a fortune to rid the country of these workers will (a) add to the deficit; and more importantly, (b) drive up inflation and the interest rate we have to pay on our massive National Debt.

HOW TO DEAL WITH THE DICTATOR

As posted here Wednesday, wannabe capo di tutti capi — godfather of all the kleptocrat autocrats may be more apt than “dictator” — but whatever we call him, he’s in bed with the journalist-and-opposition-leader-murdering leaders of Russia and North Korea.

We’ve switched sides.

If you can find just a few more minutes (don’t hate me!), watch our former Ambassador to Russia make the case:

Trump doesn’t want to be leader of the free world, he wants to be buddies with Putin and the rest.

But as heartbroken as he is, Ambassador McFaul offers hope.

He says that it’s the people’s country, not Trump’s; that the people are overwhelmingly against switching sides; and that he believes we, the people, can prevail.

Watch.

Join your local Indivisible chapter.

Inspire your kids and grandkids to join theirs.

Plant seeds of DIS-disinformation.

Boost everyone you know: tell them that being distraught is entirely warranted — but not helpful.  Helpful is to take action; which we will increasingly be called upon to do.

Save money in all the insanely frugal ways I suggest in my book — here’s an example, $850 on iced tea — because saving democracy will require each of us to contribute what we can.

Obviously, we have to see to it that free and fair mid-term elections are held and that we win them.  But even before that we may need to give Republicans in the House and Senate the spine to impeach Trump and Vance.  I know it sounds impossible — and it may be impossible.  But . . . third time’s a charm?