Echos Of 1859 May 25, 2025May 26, 2025 Historian Heather Cox Richardson is always good, but Thursday’s post, I thought, was particularly worth your attention (listen here, if you prefer): Just before 7:00 this morning, the House of Representatives passed the Republicans’ megabill by a vote of 215 to 214. All Democrats voted no. Two Republicans, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio, joined the Democrats in voting no. Chair of the far-right House Freedom Caucus Andy Harris of Maryland voted “present.” The measure now advances to the Senate. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says the bill cuts at least $715 billion in healthcare spending, mostly from Medicaid, and $300 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, causing more than 2.7 million American households to lose benefits. Because the massive debt increase in the measure triggers a 2010 law requiring offsets, it will cut Medicare, as well, by an estimated $500 billion. Economist Robert Reich points out that Americans making between about $17,000 and $51,000 will lose about $700 a year. On average, Americans with incomes of less than $17,000 will lose more than $1,000 a year. But if you are among the top 0.1% of earners, you’re in luck: you’ll gain nearly $390,000 a year. The measure . . . increases ICE’s detention budget from $3.4 billion a year to $45 billion through September 2029 [and] increases ICE’s budget for transportation and removal operations . . . from the current $721 million to $14.4 billion. . . . This bill highlights a truism: In the United States, racism has always gone hand in hand with the concentration of wealth among the very richest people. By driving white fear of a darker-skinned other, elite southern enslavers convinced the poor white farmers who lost their land in the cotton boom of the 1850s to vote for politicians who insisted that the primary responsibility of the federal government was to protect human enslavement. In an extraordinary meeting with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa at the Oval Office yesterday, President Donald J. Trump echoed the language of enslavers in 1859 almost explicitly when he insisted—falsely—that white South Africans are facing white genocide. As Tim Cocks and Nellie Peyton of Reuters explain, the conspiracy theory of white genocide in South Africa has circulated among fringe groups of white South Africans since the end of apartheid in 1994. It claims white deaths in a country with a high murder rate are deliberate ethnic cleansing, although data collected by white farmers themselves shows that since 1990, murders of white people make up only 1% of the total number of murders. But Trump sidekick Elon Musk has embraced the theory, and Trump is pushing it, offering a fast track for asylum to white South African “refugees.” Yesterday, with Musk in the Oval Office, Trump showed to the cameras a picture of people moving body bags, and said “[t]hese are all white farmers that are being buried.” In fact, it was a picture from Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo, showing humanitarian workers burying bodies in a war zone. The administration’s immigration policies exacerbate racism, using it to undermine the rule of law on which the Constitution rests. Notably, the administration has ignored the concept of due process guaranteed by the Constitution, with rendition of migrants to prison in El Salvador based not on a review of their cases but simply on the claim—without evidence—that individuals are gang members. Stories of immigrants arrested by ICE without any criminal history continue to surface, even as administration officials insist those individuals are dangerous criminals. . . . Taking down the rule of law would permit MAGA officials to persecute their political opponents, indicting congressional representatives, for example, as it has recently done to Representative LaMonica McIver (D-NJ). It would also permit the concentration of wealth and power without fear of breaking the law. There is the open corruption, as when the Trump administration officially accepted a 747 as a gift from the Qatari government yesterday, despite the constitutional prohibition against taking gifts from foreign governments. . . . And then there is the more hidden corruption. Last week, David Yaffe-Bellany and Eric Lipton of the New York Times called attention to the announcement by a struggling technology company with ties to China that it had secured funding to buy $300 million of Trump’s cryptocurrency $TRUMP. It appears the company is hoping to curry favor with the president. Zach Everson of Forbes noted that the Trump family controls about 60% of World Liberty Financial, a decentralized financial platform that produces the USD1 stablecoin, a kind of cryptocurrency that fluctuates less than most cryptocurrencies because it’s pegged to the dollar. World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin began trading yesterday on KuCoin, an exchange headquartered in the Seychelles and banned in the United States after it admitted to violating laws against money laundering and agreed to pay a $300 million fine. A spokesperson for KuCoin told Everson that it had reached out about carrying USD1 after the coin “demonstrated strong demand in certain regions.” The racism and the corruption are coming together tonight as the top 220 holders of the $TRUMP coin join the president at a private dinner. A Bloomberg analysis of the top 25 wallets shows that 19 are owned by individuals from outside the United States, and many of the winners are companies looking for access to the president. Many of them dumped their $TRUMP coins as soon as they made the cut for the dinner. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington reported today that 50 of the people attending Trump’s dinner tonight hold crypto assets with names from the alt-right, including Pepe the Frog and swastikas, or that have names that are racist or antisemitic, including the n-word and “F*CK THE JEWS.” Their language echoes that of the elite enslavers of the 1850s—and for that matter, the Ku Klux Klan members of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the American Nazis of the 1920s and 1930s, and the segregationists of the years after World War II. And just like the elite enslavers in the 1850s, MAGA leaders want to get rid of laws that make it harder for them to monopolize the nation’s wealth and power and are using racism to get voters to support them. Also like their predecessors, MAGA leaders are getting a significant boost from the United States Supreme Court. In a decision made today on the so-called “shadow docket”—the emergency docket in which the court makes decisions without arguments or briefs and which previously wasn’t used for major rulings—the court made it clear it is willing to abandon the idea of independent agencies. Since 1935, the court has upheld Congress’s right to appoint the heads of independent agencies and has said that the president cannot fire them without cause. Today, in an unsigned two-page order, the court [reversed that]. This is an extraordinary step toward the idea of the “unitary executive,” a theory Republicans began to embrace in the 1980s that because the president is the head of one of the three unique branches of government, any oversight of that office by Congress or the courts is unconstitutional, although in fact presidents since George Washington have accepted congressional oversight. . . . The dissent, written by Justice Elena Kagan and joined by Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor, notes that “the majority’s order…is nothing short of extraordinary” and “favors the President over our precedent.” The court has abandoned 90 years of precedent under the emergency docket, and misrepresents the case as one about the interests of two employees in keeping their job. In fact, the liberal justices say, “the interest at stake is in maintaining Congress’s idea of independent agencies: bodies of specialists balanced along partisan lines, which will make sound judgments precisely because not fully controlled by the White House.” Ms. Richardson has more than 2.5 million readers. If you’re not already one of them, you might want to subscribe.
Here’s The Thing: It Doesn’t Have To GO That Way May 25, 2025 Marilyn Kunce: I’ve Seen This Playbook Before—And It Doesn’t End Well I grew up believing that American democracy, for all its flaws, was unshakable. I grew up in Mexico, where we watched American democracy like the north star: a place where institutions held firm, where presidents were figures to look up to, and where the rule of law meant something. Messy, yes, but solid. In Latin America, checks and balances and peaceful transitions of power were not realities we lived, but ideals we hoped to one day reach. I believed it when I worked in spaces where people still fight for the right to be heard. And I still believed in American Democracy during the chaos of the 2020 election, when institutions strained under pressure but—just barely—held. But I’ve also worked closely with partners in Latin America, and let me tell you something we didn’t want to admit, but are slowly realizing: what’s happening here in the U.S. isn’t new. It’s not even surprising. To Latin Americans, it’s familiar. Latin America has lived through the very crises we now flirt with in the United States. And it is a clear warning to us that our future risks looking like their past. . . . . . . the echoes are chilling . . . Here is the thing: it doesn’t have to go that way. History doesn’t just warn us, it gives us a way out. Democracy can be defended; it can even emerge stronger. But it won’t happen if people keep clinging to the idea that this country is too exceptional to fail. It’s not. If anything, the comfort of that idea—the sense that America is somehow beyond the reach of history—makes it more vulnerable. Join . . . Indivisible. Defend the rule of law.
Joe Biden In Perspective May 22, 2025May 22, 2025 Handing the microphone to Jennifer Rubin. Her report from Spain is good context for our mass deportations, but her reflections on Joe Biden are what I want to highlight. People need to get a grip . . . . . . On his worst day as president, he was more insightful, knowledgeable, productive, and effective than not only Donald Trump (as would be any sentient being) but many other presidents. . . . none of this excuses those around him and, yes, Biden himself, for failing to recognize sooner that he lacked the verbal acuity and forceful presentation skills needed to run a successful campaign. He should not have decided to run. . . . Recriminations about the past and idle speculation about 2028 distract us. Only if we focus on ripping out the MAGA menace root and branch will we spare ourselves of the horrors that Europeans have experienced over millennia. Perhaps that is why EU countries have consistently chosen center-left leaders in the Trump era. They know exactly what is at stake. Worth reading in full. Join Indivisible! Join Field Team 6! Support the opposition!
Great News! May 21, 2025 1. Kids can now buy machine guns! 2. Ten who got $365 billion richer last year may now get a huge tax cut! 3. Ten new VA health care facilities open! Amy McGrath is a Marine Corps fighter pilot flew 89 missions against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Doug Collins served as an Air Force reserves chaplain. Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State called him “a liar” and a “charlatan.” His misappropriation of credit from Biden to Trump reminds one of this possibly even more egregious example. BONUS 4. We got the plane! Finally — an Air Force One fit for a king.
Whom We Lost May 20, 2025 Only for the political junkies in the crowd: A Comprehensive New Data Analysis Into Why Harris Lost in 2024 | Cook Political Report Otherwise, I’m taking a day or two off.
Two Books Out Tuesday — And More May 18, 2025 What links them for me, other than their coincident pub date, is that both subjects have lo0omed large in my life. ORIGINAL SIN Subtitled: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. I’ve only read the Guardian review, but here it is in short: What the public saw of his functioning was concerning. What was going on in private was worse. . . . One anonymous aide is quoted as saying: “We attempted to shield him from his own staff so many people didn’t realize the extent of the decline beginning in 2023.” . . . “The White House was lying not only to the press, not only to the public, but they were lying to members of their own cabinet. They were lying to White House staffers. They were lying to Democratic members of Congress, to donors, about how bad things had gotten.” I was as deceived as anyone. Minutes into his disastrous June 27 debate I started texting my friends: “Open primary!” It was evident to all but Biden himself — and, I guess, the few others I’ll read about when the book arrives Tuesday — he had to drop out — and should have done so much earlier. Ten days later, I told you my Joe Biden Grilled Cheese story. I stick by what I wrote. Then I told the New York Times I thought our odds of winning — which was all that mattered — would be better if Biden stepped aside . . . but that if he didn’t, “he and his team of 4,000 highly competent appointees” were “a thousand times — a million times — better than Trump and the team he would assemble.” Which was true! Had he run and won — unlikely, for sure, given the way most people decide whom to vote for — the country and the world would be in a vastly better place than now . . . and he could always then have stepped aside at some point . . . or even been “Section 4-ed.” “Tragedy” is the only word for it. (Well: “nightmare” might be another.) Had Joe stuck to his plan of being a one-term president, I could have worn my Vote Biden cap and Biden/Harris sweatshirt for the rest of time. WHO KNEW Tuesday’s other debut is Barry Diller’s autobiography. I’ve had the great good fortune to know Barry for more than 50 years. The book, like the man, is amazing. “That” stuff, of course, I knew. But there’s so much in it I didn’t know. Because the audio book is “read by the author,” you might want to let him tell you his story himself. What a life so far. AND MORE! Why not just re-name planet Earth planet Trump and save time? If the US president were a Manchurian candidate, are there things he would hesitate to do? GOP = GENITALS OBSESSED PARTY “Democrats just flipped the Omaha mayor’s office with ads like this. The right-wing obsession with genitals is starting to backfire.” — Bluesky Bob F. made this with ChatGPT: If you liked Friday’s Springsteen link . . . here is the reprise: Rise Up. Join Indivisible. Support the opposition. Have a great week.
1.0 Actually Wasn’t That Bad, Other Than . . . May 15, 2025 I don’t know who wrote this, but someone sure put a lot of work into it four years ago: I’ve been critical of the Trump presidency these last four years and am still exhausted from the experience. But to be fair, President Trump wasn’t that bad, other than when he incited an insurrection against the government, Mismanaged a pandemic that killed over a million Americans, Called neo-Nazis “very fine people,” Separated children from their families, Lost those children in the bureaucracy, Tear-gassed peaceful protesters on Lafayette Square so he could hold a photo op holding a Bible in front of a church, Tried to block all Muslims from entering the country, Got impeached, Got impeached again, Had the worst jobs record of any president in modern history, Pressured Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden, Fired the FBI director for investigating his ties to Russia, Bragged about firing the FBI director, Took Putin’s word over the US intelligence community, Diverted military funding to build his wall, Caused the longest government shutdown in US history, Called Black Lives Matter a “symbol of hate,” Lied over 30,000 times, Banned transgender people from serving in the military, Ejected reporters from the White House briefing room who asked tough questions, Vetoed the defense funding bill because it renamed military bases named for Confederate soldiers, Refused to release his tax returns, Increased the national debt by nearly $8 trillion, Had three of the highest annual trade deficits in U.S. history, Called veterans and soldiers who died in combat losers and suckers, Coddled the leader of Saudi Arabia after he ordered the execution and dismembering of a US-based journalist, Refused to concede the 2020 election, Hired his unqualified daughter and son-in-law to work in the White House, Walked out of an interview with Lesley Stahl, Suggested that people should inject bleach into their bodies to fight COVID, Abandoned our allies the Kurds, Pushed through massive tax cuts for the wealthiest but balked at helping working Americans, Withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords, Withdrew the US from the Iranian nuclear deal, Withdrew the US from the Trans Pacific Partnership which was designed to block China’s advances, Insulted his own Cabinet members on Twitter, Pushed the leader of Montenegro out of the way during a photo op, Failed to reiterate US commitment to defending NATO allies, Called Haiti and African nations “shithole” countries, Called the city of Baltimore the “worst in the nation,” Claimed that he single handedly brought back the phrase “Merry Christmas” even though it hadn’t gone anywhere, Forced his Cabinet members to praise him publicly like some cult leader, Believed he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Berated and belittled his hand-picked Attorney General when he recused himself from the Russia probe, Colluded with Mitch McConnell to push through federal judges and two Supreme Court justices, after supporting efforts to prevent his predecessor from appointing judges, Repeatedly called the media “enemies of the people,” Claimed that if we tested fewer people for COVID we’d have fewer cases, Violated the emoluments clause, Thought Nambia was a country, Told Bob Woodward in private that the coronavirus was a big deal but then downplayed it in public, Called his exceedingly faithful vice president a “p—y” for following the Constitution, Nearly got us into a war with Iran after threatening them by tweet, Nominated a corrupt head of the EPA, Nominated a corrupt head of HHS, Nominated a corrupt head of the Interior Department, Nominated a corrupt head of the USDA, Praised dictators and authoritarians around the world while criticizing allies, Refused to allow the presidential transition to begin, Insulted war hero John McCain – even after his death, Spent an obscene amount of time playing golf after criticizing Barack Obama for playing (far less) golf while president, Falsely claimed that he won the 2016 popular vote, Called the Muslim mayor of London a “stone cold loser,” Falsely claimed that he turned down being Time’s Man of the Year, Locked Congress out of its constitutional duty to confirm Cabinet officials by hiring acting ones, Hired and associated with numerous shady figures that were eventually convicted of federal offenses including his campaign manager and national security adviser, Pardoned several of his shady associates, Gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to two congressmen who amplified his bat shit crazy conspiracy theories, Got into a telephone fight with the leader of Australia(!), Had a Secretary of State who called him a moron, Forced his press secretary to claim without merit that his was the largest inauguration crowd in history, Tweeted so much dangerous propaganda that Twitter eventually banned him, Charged the Secret Service jacked-up rates at his properties, Constantly interrupted Joe Biden in their first presidential debate, Claimed that COVID would “magically” disappear, Called a U.S. Senator “Pocahontas,” Used his Twitter account to blast Nordstrom when it stopped selling Ivanka’s merchandise, Opened up millions of acres of pristine federal land to development and drilling, Got into a losing tariff war with China that forced US taxpayers to bail out farmers, Claimed that his losing tariff war was a win for the US, Ignored or didn’t even take part in daily intelligence briefings, Blew off honoring American war dead in France because it was raining, Redesigned Air Force One to look like the Trump Shuttle, Got played by Kim Jung Un and his “love letters,” Threatened to go after social media companies in clear violation of the Constitution, Botched the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, Threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans when he finally visited them, Pressured the governor and secretary of state of Georgia to “find” him votes, Thought that the Virgin Islands had a President, Drew on a map with a Sharpie to justify his inaccurate tweet that Alabama was threatened by a hurricane, Allowed White House staff to use personal email accounts for official businesses after blasting Hillary Clinton for doing the same thing, Rolled back regulations that protected the public from mercury and asbestos, Rolled back regulations that stopped coal companies from dumping waste into rivers, Held blatant campaign rallies at the White House, Tried to take away millions of Americans’ health insurance because the law was named for Obama, Refused to attend his successors’ inauguration, Nominated the worst Education Secretary in history, Threatened judges who didn’t do what he wanted, Promised that Mexico would pay for the wall (it didn’t), Allowed political hacks to overrule government scientists on major reports on climate change and other issues, Called an African-American Congresswoman “low IQ,” Threatened to withhold federal aid from states and cities with Democratic leaders, Claimed that legitimate investigations of his wrongdoing were “witch hunts,” Seemed to demonstrate a belief that there were airports during the American Revolution, Demanded “total loyalty” from the FBI director, Praised a conspiracy theory that Democrats are Satanic pedophiles, Completely gutted the Voice of America, Placed a political hack in charge of the Postal Service, Claimed without evidence that the Obama administration bugged Trump Tower, Suggested that COVID wasn’t that bad because he recovered with the help of top government doctors and treatments not available to the public, Overturned energy conservation standards that even industry supported, Reduced the number of refugees the US accepts, Insulted various members of Congress and the media with infantile nicknames, Gave Rush Limbaugh a Presidential medal of Freedom at the State of the Union address, Named as head of federal personnel a 29-year old who’d previously been fired from the White House for allegations of financial improprieties, Eliminated the White House office of pandemic response, Used soldiers as campaign props, Fired any advisor who made the mistake of disagreeing with him, Demanded the Pentagon throw him a Soviet-style military parade, Hired a shit ton of white nationalists, Politicized the civil service, Did absolutely nothing after Russia hacked the U.S. government, Falsely said the Boy Scouts called him to say his bizarre Jamboree speech was the best speech ever given to the Scouts, Claimed that Black people would overrun the suburbs if Biden won, Insulted reporters of color, Insulted women reporters, insulted women reporters of color, Suggested he was fine with China’s oppression of the Uighurs, Attacked the Supreme Court when it ruled against him, Summoned Pennsylvania state legislative leaders to the White House to pressure them to overturn the election, Spent countless hours every day watching Fox News, Refused to allow his administration to comply with Congressional subpoenas, Hired Rudy Giuliani as his lawyer, Tried to punish Amazon because the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post wrote negative stories about him, Acted as if the Attorney General of the United States was his personal attorney, Attempted to get the federal government to defend him in a libel lawsuit from a women who accused him of sexual assault, Held private meetings with Vladimir Putin without staff present, Didn’t disclose his private meetings with Vladimir Putin so that the US had to find out via Russian media, Stopped holding press briefings for months at a time, “Ordered” US companies to leave China even though he has no such power, Led a political party that couldn’t even be bothered to draft a policy platform, Claimed preposterously that Article II of the Constitution gave him absolute powers, Tried to pressure the U.K. to hold the British Open at his golf course, Suggested that the government nuke hurricanes, Suggested that wind turbines cause cancer, Said that he had a special aptitude for science, Fired the head of election cyber security after he said that the 2020 election was secure, Blurted out classified information to Russian officials, Tried to force the G7 to hold their meeting at his failing golf resort in Florida, Fired the acting attorney general when she refused to go along with his unconstitutional Muslim travel ban, Hired Stephen Miller, Openly discussed national security issues in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago, Interfered with plans to relocate the FBI because a new development there might compete with his hotel, Abandoned Iraqi refugees who’d helped the U.S. during the war, Tried to get Russia back into the G7, Held a COVID super spreader event in the Rose Garden, Seemed to believe that Frederick Douglass is still alive, Lost 60 election fraud cases in court including before judges he had nominated, Falsely claimed that factories were reopening when they weren’t, Shamelessly exploited terror attacks in Europe to justify his anti-immigrant policies, Still hasn’t come up with a healthcare plan, Still hasn’t come up with an infrastructure plan despite repeated “Infrastructure Weeks,” Forced Secret Service agents to drive him around Walter Reed while contagious with COVID, Told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by,” Screwed up the Census wording, Withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic, Did so few of his duties that his press staff were forced to state on his daily schedule: “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings,” Allowed his staff to repeatedly violate the Hatch Act, Seemed not to know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, Stood before sacred CIA wall of heroes and bragged about his election win, Constantly claimed he was treated worse than any president, (which presumably includes four that were assassinated, and his predecessor whose legitimacy and birthplace were challenged by a racist reality TV show star named Donald Trump), Claimed Andrew Jackson could’ve stopped the Civil War even though he died 16 years before it happened, Said that any opinion poll showing him behind was fake, Claimed that other countries laughed at us before he became president when several world leaders were literally laughing at him, Claimed that the military was out of ammunition before he became President, Created a commission to whitewash American history, Retweeted anti-Islam videos from one of the most racist people in Britain, Claimed the Pulse nightclub shooting wouldn’t have happened if someone there had a gun even though there was an armed security guard there, Hired a senior staffer who cited the non-existent “Bowling Green Massacre” as a reason to ban Muslims, Had a press secretary who claimed that Nazi Germany never used chemical weapons even though every sane human being knows they used gas to kill millions of Jews and others, Bilked the Secret Service for higher than market rates when they had to stay at Trump properties, Apparently sold pardons on his way out of the White House, Stripped protective status from 59,000 Haitians, Falsely claimed Biden wanted to de-fund the police, Said that the head of the CDC didn’t know what he was talking about, Tried to rescind protection from DREAMers, Gave himself an A for his handling of the pandemic, Tried to start a boycott of Goodyear tires due to an Internet hoax, Said U.S. rates of COVID would be lower if you didn’t count blue states, Deported U.S. veterans who served their country but were undocumented, Claimed he did more for African Americans than any president since Lincoln, Touted a “super-duper” secret “hydrosonic” missile, which may or may not be a new “hypersonic” missile or may not exist at all, Retweeted a gif calling Biden a pedophile, Forced through security clearances for his family, Suggested that police officers should rough up suspects, Suggested that Biden was on performance-enhancing drugs, Tried to stop transgender students from being able to use school bathrooms in line with their gender identification, Suggested the US not accept COVID patients from a cruise ship because it would make US numbers look higher, Nominated a climate change skeptic to chair the committee advising the White House on environmental policy, Retweeted a video doctored to look like Biden had played a song called “Fuck tha Police” at a campaign event, Hugged a disturbingly large number of U.S. flags, Accused Democrats of “treason” for not applauding his State of the Union address, Claimed that the FBI failed to capture the Parkland school shooter because they were “spending too much time” on Russia, Mocked the testimony of Dr Christine Blasey Ford when she accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, Obsessed over low-flow toilets, Ordered the re-release of more COVID vaccines when there weren’t any to release, Hijacked Washington’s July 4th celebrations to give a partisan speech, Took advice from the MyPillow guy, Claimed that migrants seeking a better life in the US were dangerous caravans of drug dealers and rapists, Said nothing when Vladimir Putin poisoned a leading opposition figure, Never seemed to heed the advice of his wife’s “Be Best” campaign, Falsely claimed that mail-in voting is fraudulent though he himself votes by mail, Announced a precipitous withdrawal of troops from Syria which not only handed Russia and ISIS a win but also prompted his defense secretary to resign in protest, Insulted the leader of Canada, Insulted the leader of France, Insulted the leader of Britain, Insulted the leader of Germany, Insulted the leader of Sweden (Sweden!!), Falsely claimed credit for getting NATO members to increase their share of dues, Blew off two Asia summits even though they were held virtually, Continued lying about spending lots of time at Ground Zero with 9/11 responders, Said that the Japanese would sit back and watch their “Sony televisions” if the US were ever attacked, Left a NATO summit early in a huff, Stared directly into an eclipse even though everyone over the age of 5 knows not to do that, Called himself a very stable genius despite significant evidence to the contrary, Refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, and a whole bunch of other things I can’t remember at the moment. (Author unknown) The damage he’s now done to our standing in the world and our prospects for the future — in just four months — is arguably greater than all he did in those first four years. May some of his good ideas pan out — e.g., his $5 million golden passport; his possible support for raising taxes on the rich and ending the carried-interest tax loophole — and may dozens of his and Musk’s horrible ideas get reversed . . . by the courts, by Congress, and by flattery-cloaked pressure from the billionaires who surround him.
Of Profits, Protests, and Posters May 13, 2025 But first . . . JD Vance nails it in 34 seconds. And now . . . PROFITS OPRT has been suggested here often, and a lot of us now have a double or even a triple. But because it may have the potential to earn $2 or $3 a share in a year or two, I’m hoping for another double or triple before I sell. PRKR has given us anywhere from a 50% loss (whence I first suggested it) to a quadruple (from back when it was 11 cents). Its future depends on the outcome of a dozen pending lawsuits, most particularly the one against Qualcomm. That suit is gaining wider attention because CEO Jeff Parker makes the case that it has national implications — most recently, in this video. If you believe that enforceable patent protection is important — as the Founders did, when they wrote the Constitution, and as patent-holder Abe Lincoln did — then you have to hope the juries in ParkerVision’s lawsuits do, too — and make a statement to that effect. PRKR is a pure speculation, to be made only with money you can truly afford to lose; but it may not be crazy to imagine a world in which they ultimately net $1 billion from all their suits . . . which would be more than 15 times the current market valuation. Watch the video and see what you think. PROTESTS Bob P.: “My friends and I have been frustrated by the failure to get out the word ahead of time about demonstrations against all that the Trump administration is doing. Here’s one I’ve actually heard about ahead of time on the perfect day to show that love of the flag is not love of King Trump. It would be good to spread the word.” –> For sure. Also: Kick Out the Clowns | Women’s March Volunteer Opportunities, Events, and Petitions Near Me · Mobilize Indivisibe.org Moveon.org Once you find an event near you, make it a party. Invite all your friends — and make signs. POSTERS I asked ChatGPT: Please make me a protest sign with the theme “Presidents take an oath — not a throne” and tell me how to get Kinkos to print it on cardboard Seconds later: Your protest sign is on its way! To get FedEx Office (formerly Kinko’s) to print it on cardboard, follow these steps: Download the image: Once your sign is ready, save the file to your device. Visit FedEx Office: Go to your nearest location or upload your file online. Choose “Poster” or “Mounted Print”: Ask for heavy cardstock or a foam board backing for durability. Select print size: Common protest sign sizes are 18″x24″ or 24″x36″. Pick it up: You can order online and pick it up in-store or print it in person. Would you like help refining the wording or adding design elements? Hope your protest sign makes an impact! Yikes! She even hopes my protest sign makes an impact! (Is it sexist I think of her as a she? She’s just so damn competent.) Wonderful. Now can you remove the wood stick and the background — so FedEx doesn’t print me a poster of a poster — and add a small American flag in each corner? And make the aspect ratio 3×4? Ah, brave new world . . . Have a great day.
The President’s Plane . . . Oh, Brother May 12, 2025 It is Corruption and a Security Catastrophe in Plane Sight. Although, from Trump’s point of view, we should be embarrassed even to be thinking there could be something wrong here. Sam Snead never turned down a gimme, Trump notes, and he was one of the greatest golfers of all time. Meanwhile, Tina Brown has a question: I predict that white smoke will soon be billowing from Trump’s ears as the global media power of the first American pope becomes increasingly evident. The ascension of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost to the Holy See feels like a brilliant celestial move by his predecessor Pope Francis to create not just a rival moral center from the U.S. to counteract Trump, but one who can draw even bigger crowds and command instant mega-headlines. That will put Trump in an immediate quandary when, for instance, Pope Leo XIV uses his voice in defense of destitute migrants. Francis too was a champion of migrants, but somehow his fundamental foreignness could not agitate Trump in the same way as Rob from Chicago surely will. Trump risks the wrath of 53 million American Catholics if he follows what will undoubtedly be his instincts and starts trashing and trolling the new pope. Will the supreme pontiff be unexpected spiritual rescue from the secular shit show of this venal, grifting presidency? But wait. Read on. It turns out the Pope’s younger brother is an all-too-worldly MAGA bro.