Author: A.T.

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.

I again commend Dana Milbank’s column:  Blame for the border crisis now rests squarely on the shoulders of the Republican Congress and the strongman from whom they take their orders.

(“We have a catastrophe at our southern border,” Mike Johnson said after ascending to the speakership in October. “Inaction is unacceptable, and we must come together and address the broken border.” . . . But then Trump intervened. . . . Suddenly, Johnson forgot everything he had previously said about border legislation.”)

Share widely!

If you prefer video, these three minutes start with a riff on oil, after which House members making it clear:  Republicans are now squarely to blame for failing to address the border crisis — just as they were a decade ago, when they blocked the bi-partisan reform that had passed the Senate 68-32 and would have become law if only the Speaker had allowed it to come up for a vote.

People need to know it’s Republicans who kill bi-partisan solutions to the border crisis.

If they believe the crisis is real — as it is — they need to be furious with Republicans.

As always, I cede the balance of my time to Lindsey Graham (60 seconds).

BONUS

Like movies? theater? TV?   My friend Julian Schlossberg, a producer of all three, has just dropped the first episode of his new podcast, Movie Talk: an interview with F. Murray Abraham.

I thought that because I had listened to Rachel Maddow’s ultra-amazing, ultra-compelling, ultra-relevant podcast — recommended here several times — I could skip Prequel.

Well, I was wrong.

Whether you read it or listen (at 1.4x), you may agree with the New York Times that it is a “ripping read [whose] parallels to the present day are strong, even startling.”

(Have I ever mentioned that today’s Republican frontrunner kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside?)

It’s not unlike another book I urged on you last month, A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them. Did you find time to read it?  That fever was not some tiny fringe thing.  Forty percent of the white men in Indiana were Klan members. Nearly a hundred United States Senators and Representatives were Klansmen.

The two books tell totally different stories — but raise the same question.  Will the fever break this time?  Or will the pro-Hitler (see Prequel), pro-Klan (see Fever), kinda-pro-Putin (CNN for yourself), pro-strongman, “America Firsters” win this time?

I love white Christian men as much as the next guy — I shared my life with two of them.  (Catholics, but I checked: Catholics are Christian, and the Klan no longer hates them.)

And I love America.

But I also love democracy and civility and honesty and compassion and problem-solving and multiculturalism and the rule of law.

And I would point out that blame for the border crisis now rests squarely on the shoulders of the Republican Congress and the strongman from whom they take their orders.

In case you can help, click here.

Or volunteer.

David Klepper asks: ‘What happens when no one believes anything anymore?’

This is the world we seem headed toward, and sooner than almost anyone thought.

One thing no MAGAn will believe: Biden’s Economic Record is Much Better than Trump’s.

But it’s true.

Writes Robert J. Shapiro, who oversaw the Bureau of Economic Analysis in the late 1990s:

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From growth and jobs to investment and business creation, the economy has performed substantially better under Biden than it did under Trump. Biden’s superior record holds even if we set aside the pandemic’s impact in 2020. The exception, of course, is inflation. But just as the COVID-19 pandemic led to the collapse in GDP and employment during Trump’s last year in office, it was also the main reason prices rose so much . . .

. . . President Biden’s record not only eclipses Donald Trump’s, but when policy made a difference—on growth, employment, investment, and inflation—Biden stepped up and improved our economic conditions. Those are the facts.

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→ The details are worth reading in full.

And hey!

Take this quick four-question quiz.  It will make you feel smart.  And rightly so.

BONUS FOR BOOMERS

As I noodled over what to title this post, the egregiously ungrammatical “Who Do You Trust” popped into my head.  Johnny Carson before he was Johnny Carson.  Enjoy.

And have a great weekend.

I listened to Miles Taylor on a zoom yesterday, conducted from the safe house his family has had to move into, and bought Blowback, his new book.

“Things aren’t as bad as you’ve been led to believe,” one insider told him before he signed on as Trump’s Homeland Security chief of staff.  “They’re worse.”

And would be much, much worse, he is certain, if Trump returned to power.

More and more, we’re seeing Trump voters saying they’d prefer a dictatorship to democracy if the dictator were Trump.  (Watch just two minutes.)

At the same time, lawmakers fear for their safety — not just their jobs, their lives — if they oppose the great leader.  Just as in Russia or North Korea.

Poll workers, too.

The threat is huge. 

Taylor believes it’s 50/50 that American democracy ends November 5.

We’re going to win — we have to — but right now, it’s a tossup.  

If you’re in a position to help, click here.

Or volunteer.