Author: A.T.

But first . . .

It seems more than a little odd to be linking to Glenn Beck, but those of you who’ve become intrigued by the PRKR story will find another episode of sorts here.   (Links to the official episodes are here and here.)

Also . . .

They knew then and they know now — including Glenn Beck (2 minutes).

And now . . .

THE PERFECT SHADOW CABINET

In the U.K., Canada, and Australia among others, the out-of-power opposition party leader routinely forms a shadow Cabinet.

A lot of people have floated the idea of doing that here.

But how?

And who would lead it?

Ken Martin, the DNC’s excellent new chair?

To capture national attention (or else why bother?), it probably needs to be someone more famous.

Kamala?  Hillary?  Bill?  Barack?  Michelle?  Al Gore?  PoliticsGirl?  They are all awesome — but I don’t see any of that happening.

Nor can we seen to be anointing someone as our 2028 nominee.  There’s a primary process for that.

You know whom I’d like to see?

Bernie!  He’s tough, he’s not running in 2028, he tells it like it is — and he could choose a Cabinet of much younger people to do TV appearances of their own.  Tony Blinken or Jake Sullivan for State; Elizabeth Warren or Robert Reich for Treasury; Lloyd Austin or General Mattis or General Kelly for Defense; Preet Bharara or Dan Goldman or Adam Schiff — or Liz Cheney! — for Attorney General; Atul Gawande for Health & Human Services; Van Jones for Labor; Pete Buttigieg for Transportation; Jennifer Granholm for Energy . . . you get the idea.

Bernie is further to the left than the country is, but that’s okay.  He’s “authentic” and fun to watch and, on the kitchen-table issues most people really care about, may actually be dead center.

If our 2028 nominee* were a bit to the right of Bernie, that would be fine.  Maybe even a plus to be seen as more moderate.  But in the meantime, Bernie and his shadow Cabinet would be giving the other side hell, whenever and wherever warranted.  Which seems, at least for now, to be 24/7.

Happy 216th Birthday, Honest Abe.  Trump is so not the kind of Republican you had in mind.

*Assuming our democracy survives that long.

Have you joined Indivisible?

Field Team 6?

Loaded 5calls.org onto your phone?

The ParkerVision saga — now 26 years in the making — seems, conceivably, to be coming to a head.  The latest video in its “Against the Giants” series dropped yesterday on Instagram and X.  The previous video suggested that PRKR’s $173 million unanimous jury verdict was overturned by pressure from the Obama White House.  The series is billed as “a David vs. Goliath tale of innovation, theft, and the fight for technology’s future.”  It already has nearly 10,000 followers on Instagram; more than 3,000 on X.  Or you can watch on YouTube here and here.

Qualcomm can’t be enjoying this.  They are looking really bad.  Their own internal emails are so damning!  They filed a 28-page motion asking the court to quash the videos, but the judge threw it out as ludicrous.

As I type, PRKR is about a buck a share.  When you think back to the $173 million PRKR was awarded in 2011 (plus interest?) . . . plus what might have been 14 years of ongoing royalties . . . plus what could legally be treble damages for “willfulness” . . . plus whatever PRKR might collect in its suit against MediaTek and/or its suit against Realtek . . . one could imagine $1 billion flowing to PRKR net of legal fees — $10 a share.  Maybe even more!  Or maybe, of course, nothing at all.

I own a ridiculously large number of shares that I am whittling down as the stock rises (because, gambler though I am, recklessness has its limits) — some of them bought on the open market for as little as a dime and some direct from the company for more than a dime to help keep it alive.  So take my enthusiasm with several grains of salt.

INDIVISIBLE’s TO-DOs FOR THE WEEK

1. Tell your Members of Congress to take a stand against the Trump-Musk coup. Musk and Trump are usurping the legislative branch’s power by freezing funds allocated by Congress and attempting to shutter agencies that can only be terminated by legislation. All congresspeople — regardless of party — should be up and arms and fighting back. Our resource page has call scripts and email tools you can use to demand action from your elected officials.

2. Tell your Republican senators to reject the nominations of RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and Kash Patel. If you’ve already completed our first to-do, you know that we are telling Dems to vote no on ALL Trump nominees until this constitutional crisis is over. But Democrats are in the Senate minority, so to stop Trump’s most heinous nominees, we need a few Republicans to vote NO too. Visit our Nix the Noms page for email tools and call scripts.

3. Join our weekly discussion Zoom with Indivisible co-founders Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg (Thursday, 3pm ET/12pm PT). On the day of the inauguration, we sent an email with a paraphrased quote from one of our favorite shows on rebellion, Andor: “The pace of oppression outstrips our ability to understand it and that is the real trick of the imperial thought machine.” Applicable, right? When horrendous news comes at us as fast as it has the last few weeks, the only way to process it and stay grounded is to come together, in community, and discuss what’s happening. And, more importantly, to discuss how we fight back.

Friday, I posted brief words from two geniuses, Garry Kasparov and Fareed Zakaria, and some extremely troubling background on a third, Elon Musk — 4 minutes in all if, like me, you’re a slow reader.

To which Freda S. reacted:

---

Yes!  We must take action!  5 Calls makes it incredibly easy.  Once you type in your location, it tells you your reps, their DC numbers, their district office numbers (click on the 3 dots next to the DC number) . . . and lists issues of concern that you can click on for information, complete with suggested ‘scripts’.  Please give it a try!

---

Comedian John Mulaney suggests there’s a horse loose in the hospital . . . but thinks (or pretends to think for the sake of his audience) it’s going to turn out okay.

Masha Gessen is much less sanguine:

---

[W]hen Vladimir Putin came to power in Russia . . . my world suddenly felt like a chessboard from which an invisible hand was picking off pieces faster than I had thought was possible.

Now, in Donald Trump’s America, I am living through something similar, and it is moving at a faster rate still.

---

Timothy Ryback recalls “The Oligarchs Who Came to Regret Supporting Hitler.”

---

They helped him in pursuit of profit. Many ended up in concentration camps.

---

Are there parallels between Alfred Hugenberg, 90 years ago, and Elon Musk today?

Speaking of whom, neuroscientist Philip Low shared this scathing personal perspective . . . and reports on the subsequent blowback.

Join Indivisible?

Give 5 Calls a try?

Garry Kasparov’s Take

---

This will be dismissed as “hysteria” like many of my warnings about Trump and Musk that are coming true. But this doesn’t end with fights over top-secret documents, budget cuts, and unaccountable agents taking over. It ends with who has the guns when they won’t listen to the judges.

There are many steps between here and there, of course. But eventually they remove enough judges, refuse any access or challenges, and simply ignore the law and court orders the way they’re ignoring Congress now. What then?

---

→ Putin refugee Kasparov (KAH-spar-off) — for 255 months the World Chess Champion — knows something about thinking a few moves ahead.

Fareed Zakaria’s Take

---

From Gaza to tariffs to gutting USAID, Trump’s team is struggling to explain away bad policies

. . . With the abrupt dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Trump’s supporters scrambled to adjust. Secretary of State Marco Rubio quickly blasted the agency, saying it was out of control and unresponsive. This was the same agency he had repeatedly posted in favor of over the years, written about in his book with pride and admiration, and recommended for funding increases to President Joe Biden.

. . . Trump’s White House is now a court, and his courtiers scurry around, aware that the mercurial monarch might change his mind at any time. “TikTok is terrible!” can suddenly become “TikTok is great!” — and they need to pivot quickly. It reminds one of the court of Henry VIII, who went from being the greatest defender of the Catholic Church to a vicious opponent because he wanted an annulment that the pope would not sanction. (One man who refused to play the game, Sir Thomas More, had his head chopped off.) The reason Trump forces aides and supporters to say things they know are false is to enforce a regime in which loyalty is paramount, overriding facts, overriding long-held convictions.

. . . This might seem like an amusing spectacle, but there is a real cost. In the case of USAID, it will translate into death and despair for millions of the poorest people on the planet.

---

→ Zakaria (whose name I trust you can pronounce from having seen him every Sunday on TV) was — among so much else in his astonishing resume — named managing editor of Foreign Affairs at the age of 28.

Elon Musk’s Take

I freely admit he, too, is a genius.

Only — it’s becoming all too clear — a genius whose values do not align with most of ours.

And by “ours” I’m including most Republicans, who are not white supremacists; along with most Democrats and Independents.

I have always found it troubling that the President of the United States kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside.

But now this:

The shadow president of the United States is a neo-Nazi.

For real.

Watch at least the first 90 seconds . . . and then I think you may want to go back and watch from the beginning.

It’s even worse than we thought.

Join Indivisible!  Take action!

Join Field Team 6!

. . . writes Timothy Snyder.

---

And if we do not recognize it for what it is, it could succeed.

---

He makes a compelling case worth reading in full.

Get everyone you know to join Indivisible!

“But wait,” I hear you say, in the midst of a busy day.  “You mean now?”

Yes, now, writes Garrett Graff:

---

Today, right now, right here, is the easiest moment to draw the line against Donald Trump. Every day from here, it will get harder — the politics more inevitable, the destruction more irreversible, the sheer waste more costly, the downstream impacts on American life and the world beyond more catastrophic.

---

Also worth reading in full if you need something to move you from anxiety to action.

The richest man on the planet, with Trump’s blessing, has withheld USAID food to starving children in your name and mine.  In addition to being spectacularly cruel and immoral, they are playing right into the hands of Russia and China — and terrorists around the world who feed on people’s desperation.

Separately, we are insulting Canada.

Lawrence O’Donnell — we are no longer a nation of laws.  So powerful.  Watch!

Another impeachment?  “Third time’s a charm,” argues our own Professor deLespinasse, who acknowledges that, for it to succeed, it should be led by Republicans.

We’re obviously not there yet . . . and may never be.  But at the rate Trump’s going . . . and to the extent he may simply ignore the powers of the other two branches of government . . . those two humiliated, emasculated branches might — conceivably — decide to honor their oath to the Constitution.  Especially if impeachment were endorsed by Mitch McConnell.

You will recall that the last time Trump was impeached, the Senate voted 57 to 43 to convict.  But the then majority leader rallied enough Republican votes to save Trump from the required two-thirds majority.  His rationale: “we have a criminal justice system . . .”

He didn’t foresee the cravenness of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, or the fecklessness of Merrick Garland, or the degree to which our justice system can fail us.

Had Trump been impeached, the Constitution would have prevented his running for reelection.

Maybe McConnell is feeling regret?  Maybe he’d like to save democracy?

Unlikely — but not entirely inconceivable.

If you own OPRT — only, needless to say, with money you can truly afford to lose — you may have noticed that it’s more than doubled in the last three or four months.  If the scheduled February 12 earnings report disappoints, the stock may tank; but either way I’m not selling mine.  I think it could double from here in the next year or two . . . and perhaps double again after that.

Writes Parker Molloy:

---

In the past two weeks, Elon Musk — a man no one elected to any office — has gained unprecedented access to Social Security payment systems, fired federal workers, shuttered entire agencies, and installed his loyalists throughout the government. If this were happening in any other country, we’d call it what it is: a coup. . . .

---

Worth reading in full if you’re not already horrified and ready to act.

Once you are ready . . .

. . . sign up with Indivisible.

Their latest to-dos:

---

Show up at your senators’ offices. This week, we’re asking Invisibles all over the country to plan visits to your closest US Senate offices to push your senators to take a stand against Trump’s lawless overreach. The ask will be slightly different if your senator is a Democrat or Republican. We’ve put together a full toolkit here explaining the strategy, messaging, and logistics. Dozens of visits have already been scheduled. See if there’s a visit happening near you. And if there’s nothing close by, grab some friends, organize a visit, and register it here.

Call your Republican senators and demand they vote NO on Russell Vought’s confirmation.* Trump’s funding freeze wasn’t his idea. It wasn’t even Elon Musk’s idea. It was the brainchild of Russell Vought, who wrote an entire chapter of Project 2025 on how the OMB can bypass Congress (and ignore the Constitution) in order to implement MAGA’s extreme agenda. If confirmed to lead the OMB, Vought would control federal spending and abuse his power to choke off government programs and agencies that don’t align with MAGA ideology. The Senate will vote on his confirmation this week, so make sure they hear from you right away (calls are better than emails, but if you find your senators’ voicemail is full, you can also send them an email using this tool).

Rally at the Department of the Treasury on Tuesday, February 4, at 5pm.This one is for folks who are in DC or who can get to DC — on Tuesday afternoon, a broad coalition of groups will be peacefully protesting the handing over of massive amounts of sensitive data and the payment systems for our entire federal government to an unaccountable, unelected far-right billionaire. Musk has been given seemingly unchecked power to remove career civil servants, sabotage agencies like USAID (risking millions of lives), and treat the US government like one of his corporate acquisitions. Pissed off? Show up.

P.S. — With social media companies bending the knee to Trump, Project 2025 purging the government of dissenters, and corporate media companies caving in the face of speech-chilling lawsuits, it’s never been more important to invest in organizations you believe in that are willing to speak out and defy autocracy. Please consider chipping in with a monthly or one-time donation to help us keep up the fight.

* Throughout the day, the Senate phone system has been crashing. Hopefully the issue is resolved by the time you read this, but if our call tools fail to connect, go to your senators’ websites, visit their contact sections, and you’ll find numbers for their in-state offices. You’ll be able to reach them via those numbers. 

---

If you want a pep talk to get you moving, watch this recording of the Zoom that 50,000 of us joined Sunday night.  (Start here, with 28-year-old Congressman Maxwell Frost, and click and set the playback speed to 1.5X if you want to pick up the pace.)

It’s all hands on deck.  And how wonderful to be given a chance to help save democracy with cell phones and credit cards rather than muskets or bayonets.  I count my lucky stars.

Timothy Snyder makes the case:

---

The people who now dominate the executive branch of the government are acting, quite deliberately, to destroy the nation.

. . .

Knowing what they themselves will do and when, they will have bet against the stock market in advance of Trump’s deliberately destructive tariffs, and will be ready to tell everyone to buy the crypto they already own.

. . .

The best people in American federal law enforcement, national security, and national intelligence are being fired.

. . .

The attempt by the oligarchs to destroy our government is illegal, unconstitutional, and more than a little mad. The people in charge, though, are very intelligent politically, and have a plan.

I describe it not because it must succeed but because it must be described so that we can make it fail. This will require clarity, and speed, and coalitions. Here are a few ideas. . . .

---

If like me you are horrified by his pardoning those who bludgeoned cops (not just commuting their sentences, in all but 14 cases, but pardoning them) . . . while purging the world’s premier law enforcement agency, installing a morally compromised drunk to head the Defense Department, and handing the national checkbook to Elon Musk . . . I urge you to read those ideas.

Also, to read Heather Cox Richardson:

---

Throughout now-president Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, it was clear that his support was coming from three very different factions whose only shared ideology was a determination to destroy the federal government.

Now we are watching them do it. . . .

---

Steve Bannon explained years ago how they were going to “flood the zone” and overwhelm the established order.  And now it’s happening.

This is no time to disengage.

Impeachment can’t come soon enough. 

Sign on, in case you agree.

Kris M: “This from Thom Hartmann is must reading.  We need to understand what it means to be the opposition party and start actually opposing!”

---

If Obama Had Sent a Mob to Kill a Cop, Republicans Would Never Let You Forget It

The GOP would be screaming “Cop Killer” every single day — so why aren’t Democrats holding Trump to the same standard?

. . . Next week the DNC will have a new chair, who will hopefully provide solid and aggressive leadership. Because the key to Democratic success over the next two (and four) years is pretty simple: Messaging.

First, Democrats must frame the fight in simple, moral terms. From the Civil Rights era to the War in Vietnam, there was a time when my party knew how to do this; lately, it seems they’ve all fallen asleep (with a few rare exceptions).

Instead of saying, “We need to expand social safety net programs,” they should say, as Lyndon Johnson often did, “No child in America should go to bed hungry.” Their next sentence should add, “But childhood hunger is just fine with Republicans trying to protect tax cuts for their Mar-a-Lago billionaires.”

Second, Democrats should stop playing defense and instead seize the populist high ground. FDR knew how to do this and delighted in it. In one speech, referring to the morbidly rich of his day, he said, “They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.”

In today’s social media politics if you’re not fighting as if it’s war, you’re losing. Instead of arguing for “fair” taxation, say, “Trump wants to kill your healthcare and torch your kid’s school to pay for his billionaire tax cuts!”  . . .

---

He makes eight points — those are just the first two.

Our team should read them all.

Meanwhile . . .

Trump, Without Citing Evidence, Blames D.E.I. and Democrats for Plane Crash

“Despicable.”

PS

One of you who read yesterday’s ParkerVision post suggested that if it came to light that someone from the Obama administration did pressure the judge to throw out the unanimous $173 million jury verdict, then the case could be reopened.  (The current cases are for separate patent claims.)  So that could be another pile of money — plus 11 or 12 years’ interest.  Not that I’m for a moment expecting this . . . but it’s fun to dream.

Or is, anyway, to those of us who own shares of ParkerVision.

The plot, it seems, thickens.

You may recall that a jury unanimously awarded PRKR $173 million in damages against Qualcomm in 2013.

After all, they were shown internal emails from Qualcomm senior executives like this one, in 1999, that said: “The truth is ParkerVision have stumbled on something revolutionary.”  And this one to Qualcomm’s CEO at the time: “This is critical technology we must land.”

You can see it all laid out in this video I have linked to before.

Rather than license PRKR’s technology — that ultimately came to reside in literally billions of cell phones — Qualcomm, in the jury’s unanimous view, stole it.

It had taken a decade to get the case in front of a jury.  Giants like Qualcomm can afford legal talent who are really good at delay.

But there it was: $173 million for past use of the intellectual property, plus a royalty to be negotiated on all future use.  The judge seemed fine with that.

And then six months later, out of the blue, he threw out the verdict.

What?

What happened?

Today, PRKR released what it says is the first of a four-episode “Against the Giants” video series.

The larger significance — and why it might gain some traction, at least among inventors and patent attorneys — is that Qualcomm is not the only tech giant that squashes small inventors who cannot possibly afford decades of litigation to enforce their patents.  Which, apart from being truly unAmerican and unfair, may affect our global competitiveness.

According to “Episode 1” of “Against the Giants,” which I’ve just watched, Qualcomm was a frequent visitor to ParkerVision’s website.  No great surprise there.  But a couple of days after Qualcomm’s CEO hosted an Obama fundraiser, there was a visit from a computer in the White House.  And a few days after that, the Obama-appointed judge threw out the verdict.

I’d be amazed if the President had any direct involvement.  He remains my hero.  But was one of the aides with him that night persuaded by Qualcomm’s CEO that PRKR’s lawsuit threatened national security?

We may not have heard the end of this.

I asked ChatGPT just now: “what is the status of ParkerVision patents lawsuits?”