Author: A.T.

Adam Schiff: six minutes.  Free.  A speech for the ages.

Wow.

Marie Brenner’s latest.  The rise of anti-Semitism in America that reads like a movie.

Eight bucks for a year of Vanity Fair plus a tote bag.

You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s — right? — or to be concerned by the rise of fascism in America.

Click here in case you can help.

Sorry — I’ve been off fundraising.

Not for the Amazon Conservation Team, though it’s one of my favorites, but — surprise, surprise — to help fund the huge blue wave we need to save democracy.

Have you seen Leopoldstadt?

I think we’re someplace between Act III and Act IV — but with the opportunity to give it a HAPPY ending.

Certainly, their candidate won’t win the POPULAR vote.

They’ve only done that ONCE in the last eight elections (yet control two-thirds of the Court).

We’ll win because WOMEN will turn out; MEN who love women will turn out; MEN who have daughters will turn out; MEN who don’t want to wear condoms will turn out; YOUNG PEOPLE who care about climate and gun safety will turn out; LGBT people will turn out; WORKERS who’d like a higher-than-$7.25 minimum wage will turn out; DIABETICS under 65 who’d like $35 insulin will turn out; JEWISH voters and VOTERS OF COLOR who don’t share the G.O.P.’s increasingly white Christian nationalist vision for America – who don’t think there WERE “some very fine people on both sides” in Charlottesville – will turn out; Ukrainian Americans will turn out; and THOSE WHO THINK DEMOCRACY AND THE PEACEFUL TRANSFER OF POWER ARE WORTH PRESERVING will turn out.

Yet facilitating all that, and – insofar as possible – fending off the voter suppression tactics and dirty tricks we always face, takes our help.

(Click here, in case you can.)

Ultimately, the solution to our country’s toxic polarization is a combination of open primaries, ranked-choice voting, and easy voting-by-mail.  Candidates will no longer be able to win their party’s nomination by appealing to the most ardent on the right or left.  Instead, they’ll have to appeal, also, to the broad, often-more-sensible center. Over time, compromise and comity could once again become the norm.

Getting there  . . . and depoliticizing the Court and so much else . . . can only happen if we fund that huge blue wave.

To those who wish Joe were younger, I’m with you.  I wish — and I assume he wishes — he were younger.  But in re-electing him, we retain not only his decency and depth of experience, but also his 1,200 young appointees who, under his guidance, have been doing a terrific job.

Yes, he tripped over a badly-placed sandbag after giving a great speech at the Air Force Academy.  Giant national news.  But he also got the bi-partisan CHIPS Act passed; got the bi-partisan infrastructure bill, with its huge climate component, passed; restored dignity to the office of the presidency; reinvigorated our global alliances; averted a depression – stuff like that

Oh, and guess what!  SUMMER begins today!!!

Here’s wishing you, whatever your political leanings, a great one.

Really.  The Republican-controlled Iowa legislature voted overwhelmingly to protect it.  (To their credit, six Republicans did defect.)

Behold.

(And keep your eye on Rob Sand.  The kind of young Democrat who likely has “a future.”)

Even though he died way too young, at 62, in 1996, astronomer and humanist Carl Sagan saw Trump coming:

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One of the saddest lessons of history is this:

If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken.

Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.

– The Demon-Haunted World

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As quoted in Matt Ball’s Losing My Religions.

DINNER!

Are you LGBT or a straight ally?  Want to help put our annual dinner over the top?  Perhaps even come?

We’ve made so much progress since we began doing these dinners 24 years ago.  At the first, some of our donors only agreed to come if there were no name tags.  Today, the big issue isn’t “gays in the military” or “marriage” — 71% of the country favors marriage equality — it’s whether our democracy will survive.

“It is impossible to exaggerate what a dangerous moment this is for our country.“

Worth sharing widely.

[Second Quarterly Estimated Tax Due Today]

I’m twelve at heart but have been writing these posts for 27 years so — do the math — I must be at least 45 and am thus as interested in “longevity” as anyone else my age who just returned from his 55th college reunion.

Not that I’m as nuts, or as rich, as this guy (he sold out to eBay in 2013 for $800 million):

A proven way to reverse your mental aging is BrainHQ.  Long-time readers know I own a tiny slice; that just a few hours of the exercises have been shown to reduce the onset of dementia; that the basic exercises are free; and that a premium membership makes the perfect Father’s Day gift.

Speaking of that 55th reunion, one of my distinguished classmates, Marshall Goldberg, took the liberty of adapting Leonard Cohen’s iconic song for the occasion.

Each of the six stanzas was very funny, and a little poignant, but the one I liked best, and got his permission to post:

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You’re chairman of your country club

Your picture’s hanging in the pub

Someone who wants to join once tried to screw ya

The day his application’s heard

They come to you for the final word

You smile, and whisper Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

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Have a great day.

[UPDATE: The bridge collapse on I-95, referenced yesterday, was an accident.  Even so, Thom Hartmann’s perspective remains a must-read.]

UPDATE: That bridge collapse on I-95 was almost surely an accident.

EVEN SO, Thom Hartmann offers a sobering perspective.

BONUS #1

A neuroscientist explains why certain Americans will never quit Trump no matter what the ex-president does. 

It’s like he could walk down Fifth Avenue shooting people and they wouldn’t care.

(Read Thom Hartmann, above.)

BONUS #2

How to Force Judge Aileen Cannon Off the Trump Case.

The Supreme Court has no code of ethics (clearly), but lower courts do.

Maureen Dowd is just so good about the indictment and the boxes.

Truly, Peter Baker argues, Trump’s Case Puts the Justice System on Trial.

(Actually, it’s Trump’s cases, not “case.” He faces at least 536 years in prison.)

Lawrence Tribe hopes that even Trump’s favorite Florida judge will do the right thing when she reads the indictment.

As for the “what-about-ism” that Trump and so many elected Republicans instantly invoked, someone named Emery writes:

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Before any right wingers start up with their “but other people had documents” nonsense, allow me to point out the distinctions:

Pence: “I have classified documents. My bad! The FBI can come and get them.”

Biden: “I have classified documents. My bad! The FBI can come and get them.”

Trump: “I don’t have any documents at all, and I never did, except for the ones that I do, which I don’t. And what I have is my property, so the DOJ committed a crime by taking them back, even though I didn’t have them. I’m the victim here, because now they’re telling everyone what I had, even though I didn’t. And keeping classified and top secret documents isn’t illegal, even if it’s against the law. I didn’t do all of the things I did.”

So, the situations aren’t identical.

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If the once-Grand Old Party holds debates, it will be interesting to see how Trump fares against Chris Christie.

Bill Press:

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Chris Christie: The born-again anti-Trumper

First, he was 100 percent anti-Trump. Then, he was 100 percent pro-Trump. Now, he’s 100 percent anti-Trump again.

I’ll be honest. I don’t know what to think about Chris Christie. There’s so much about him not to like. Where to begin?

His record as governor of New Jersey was one disaster after another. He attacked teachers and state government employees for wasting taxpayer dollars, but was then spotted using a state helicopter to fly to his son’s baseball game. He closed all state beaches as part of a government shutdown, but was then caught basking on the beach with friends and family.

And then in 2013 there was “Bridgegate,” where – without his knowledge, Christie insisted – his administration caused transportation chaos by shutting two out of three lanes during rush hour on the George Washington Bridge because the Mayor of Ft. Lee refused to endorse Christie for re-election. He left office with a 15 percent approval rating, the lowest for any New Jersey governor in history.

But, by that time, Christie had enough national notoriety that he joined 16 other candidates jumping into the 2016 GOP presidential primary – where he became Trump’s loudest critic, denouncing him as a “carnival barker” whose nomination would automatically hand the presidency to Hillary Clinton – before dropping out of the race himself the day after the New Hampshire primary.

On Super Tuesday, Christie flipped. He became the first former primary opponent to endorse Trump, raising eyebrows by standing alongside Trump at Mar-a-Lago and asserting “There is no one who is better prepared to provide America with the strong leadership that it needs, both at home and around the world, than Donald Trump.”

As top adviser to the Trump campaign, Christie crisscrossed the country for Trump, coached him for his debates with Hillary Clinton, and stood behind him on election night like a little puppy dog, only to be dealt with a string of indignities. Trump named him head of his transition team, but then fired him. Christie sought the job of attorney general, Trump gave it to Jeff Sessions, instead.

Still, Christie stuck with Trump. He agreed to lead Trump’s task force on opioids. He was one of the first to endorse Trump for re-election. He again led that year’s presidential debates prep. He even remained loyal after being hospitalized with a serious case of Covid he caught at the White House and Trump called Christie, not to wish him well, but to ask: “Are you going to say you got it from me?” Christie never did.

But, almost overnight, that loyal suck-up is now Trump’s number one Republican critic. And with a vengeance. Announcing his second run for president this week, Christie pulled no punches. He wasn’t running to win, he said. “I’m going to be very clear – I’m going out there to take out Donald Trump.”

Why? Because, Christie said, “A lonely, self-consumer, self-serving mirror hog is not a leader.” And how would Trump, whom Christie calls a “Puppet of Putin,” deliver on his pledge to end the war in Ukraine on Day One? “Let me tell you how he would,” Christie told a crowd of supporters in New Hampshire. “He’d give Ukraine to Russia. He’d call Zelensky and say, ‘Hey, guess what? Time to raise the Russian flag up on the pole. We’re out of here.'”

Nobody says it better. Certainly, none of the other declared candidates, most of whom are even afraid to utter Trump’s name. The only question is: Can we trust a man who’s flipped, flopped, and flipped again? And the answer is: No!

But, even if we don’t trust him, we must admit that Chris Christie is telling the truth. Chris Christie’s right when he says that Donald Trump’s unfit to be president and the very fact that he’s being seriously considered for a second term is a national embarrassment. And he’s right when he argues you can never beat Donald Trump without taking him on directly – a role he’s willing to take on, even if nobody else has the guts to do so.

Granted, Christie has no chance of winning the GOP nomination. Like the rest of the GOP field, he’s counting on Donald Trump to go to jail or have a heart attack. But it’s good having him in the race, if for no other reason than he’s willing to go where no other Republican candidate is willing to go.

Yes, he’s a flawed candidate – aren’t they all? – but if I were a GOP primary voter, I’d vote for Chris Christie.

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Credit: Tribune Content Agency

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Send Bill’s column to a friend?  Tweet it? Share it on Facebook?

I know this much: you’re not supposed to be able to sail to the North Pole.

And yet:

Too late now to save Arctic summer ice, climate scientists find.

And it seems to be happening faster than expected.

And weakening the jet stream.

And likely to set off a vicious cycle, as the Arctic will increasingly absorb heat the ice currently reflects.

I know some people don’t “believe in” in science, but I wonder how they think their iPhones work — magic?

Shunning plastic straws to fight climate change is kind of silly, but keeping your home at 78 in the summer and at 68 in the winter instead of the reverse, as many do, is not silly.  (And will save you money.)  Reducing the animal products in your diet is not silly.  (And may save you money and improve your health.)  Driving less and walking/biking more is not silly and will definitely save you money and improve your health.  Next-generation nuclear energy is not silly.  And though China burns huge quantities of coal to produce solar panels, that is not to say solar panels could not be produced with energy derived not from coal but from, say, solar panels.  Solar and wind are spectacularly not silly.

Hats off to Joe Biden for crafting a huge bipartisan investment in efforts to keep the planet habitable (though he did recently stumble over a black sandbag, which some people find equally significant).

BONUS

This IBM Selectric YouTube is a nice follow-up to the recent QYX Intelligent Typewriter mention that some of you seemed to enjoy.  I’m still dazzled at how the Selectric worked with that crazy ball.

This — which I have abridged — was written in 2019 by Nate White:

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Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem.

For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever.

I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever.*  And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.

But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully.

There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W. look smart.

In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

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*This is not true.  Asked in a presidential debate what Secret Service code name he’d like as president, he chose — as you may recall — “humble.”  That was funny, and he knew it.

Lately, though — and by this I mean the last several years — any sense of fun has been replaced by a sense of grievence.

Greg Olear:

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If December 7, 1941, is a day that lives in infamy, then June 6, 1944 is the glorious opposite: D-Day, the date of the Allied invasion of Normandy.

. . .

Great leaders have great character. Eisenhower accepted that D-Day might be a bust, he planned for its failure, and, most importantly, he took full responsibility for the decision. It is mine alone. There is no passive voice. There are no weasel words. He does not blame Crooked Hillary, the Deep State, George Soros, China, or any other convenient boogeyman. In a word, he demonstrated honor.

However you may feel about Joe Biden’s record, this is a quality that our current president possesses. He is a man of honor. It is why the MAGA attempts to demonize him always poop out. And it is a quality foreign to Trump, or Ron DeSantis (despite all those hype videos), or Mike Pence, or any of the other GOP presidential hopefuls. Grifters have no honor. Sycophants have no honor. Fascists have no honor. And this is why, like the Nazis eight decades ago, they will be defeated. This is why we shall prevail.

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Worth reading in full.

Heather Cox Richardson:

From the evil Russian Orthodox Patriarch to Putin and Orbán, through Poland and China, Israel and Sudan, ultimately landing on the contrast between Ron DeSantis, fighting Disney, and Winston Churchill, fighting Hitler.

Like Olear, well worth the read.

PRIDE MONTH BONUS