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RUEFUL JOKE

Putin arrives in Mongolia and goes through customs.

Inspector: Name?

Putin: Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

Inspector: Occupation?

Putin: No, just here for the day.

CORRECTION CORRECTION

How’s your credit? Signals are mixed these days. – Kevin Drum (jabberwocking.com)

Also: US homeowners who are mortgage-free reach all-time high at 39.8%.

 

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Karl Rove:  A Catastrophic Debate for Trump – WSJ

KAMALA HARRIS Spoke for: 37.1 minutes # of times she spoke: 23

DONALD TRUMP Spoke for: 41.9 minutes # of times he spoke: 39

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I hate the headline and graphics they used for my American friend Cyrus’s effort at tikkun olam.  A better one would have been Planting Trees Of Peace.

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But what about their plans to throw certifications into doubt and get election thrown into the House, where Idaho has the same number if voites (one) as California?

“We got this.”  Or at least I surely hope we do.  Harris Campaign’s Legal Team Takes Shape as Election Battles Heat Up.

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Take used plastic or Tupperware to the deli . . .

The Deciders Movie

 

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“Back in the day, you could walk into a grocery store with $2 and leave with a loaf of bread, cheese, eggs and a gallon of milk. But now there are cameras everywhere.” — Unknown

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“Way deep, deep down inside I am pretty shallow.” — Woody Allen?

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We need to win, but what we really need is a trifecta.  That’s why we need your money and support to keep pouring in.

They already have the one of our three branches of government that’s supposed to be above politics.  Shame on Clarence Thomas, et al.  But we voters have a chance to control the other two branches for a couple of years, break the log-jam, and get things done.  If the people don’t like the results (universal background checks and an assault weapons ban, a higher federal minimum wage, Roe v. Wade reinstated by law), they can vote us out in two years.  That’s the way democracy is supposed to work.

 

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WHAT KAMALA MIGHT SAY SEPTEMBER 18

That’s the day Trump is scheduled to be sentenced.

I have no idea what the sentence will be — it could range from nothing to 4 years in prison for each of the 34 counts — so I just made it up.  But I think this could work whatever it turns out to be:

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Today former President Trump, having been found guilty on 34 counts by a jury of his peers — New Yorkers like him — was sentenced to six months in prison and five years’ probation.

I want to tell you what I will do on January 20th if I am elected president — and why I will do it.

Let’s start with this.  Most Americans didn’t follow the trial closely and have little understanding of what the former president was alleged to have wrong.  Many take his word for it that he did nothing wrong — that this was simply a “witch hunt.”

The jury disagreed.  After weeks of testimony and deliberation, with the defendant free to makes his case as persuasively as he could, the jury found that he committed 34 crimes in furtherance of his successful attempt in 2016 to win the presidency.  He lost the popular vote by 3 million but won the Electoral College.  Had he not committed these felonies, he may never have been president.  We’ll never know.

If I am elected, the first thing I will do January 20 is commute this sentence.  Not because I think the jury or the judge failed to execute their duties competently and in good faith, but because we need to begin coming together.  We have so much common ground.  Our great country is the envy of the world, but we face challenges.  The work we have ahead of us to meet those challenges we must embrace together.  Of course, we will have differences and disagreements.  When have we not?  But we must go forward with far less rancor and division.

And imprisoning my opponent for crimes the gravity of which many people of good will do not understand — well, that’s just not something I want to see happen.

Having said that, my opponent is the defendant in other criminal trials that are far easier to understand.  We saw a lot of it on TV.  I want to stress: he is presumed innocent in each of these trials unless he is found guilty.  That’s a bedrock of our system.  But so is this:  No man or woman is above the law. And like most Americans, I want to see justice served — I’m with the Trump supporters who want to see him found innocent if he is innocent.  And I’m with the Trump detractors who want to see him found guilty if he is innocent.

Should he face further convictions and prison terms — after having been given every opportunity to mount a vigorous defense and exhaust every appeal — I don’t know what I will do.  But I can promise you this: I will not be motivated by vengeance or retribution.  I will be motivated by just two things: first, my reverence for justice the rule of law, that I think we all share; second, the good of the nation, that I know we all love.

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“WHAT REMAINS IS LOVE

Standing on the sidewalk shaking hands | Garrison Keillor

 

(1629) 599. The World’s Most Valuable Unused Resource | Freakonomics Radio – YouTube

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If we’re going to lose a race to the machines, perhaps we should change the racetrack and measurements to something we can win and be happy about.  How do we build an economy that works for people?  By seeing to it that there are ways to create meaning, purpose and value for as many as possible.

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Clearly, heavyweight boxers shouldn’t be allowed to compete against featherweights.  And female boxers shouldn’t be matched against males.  But when it comes to intersex people (born that way through no fault of their own) and trans people . . . well, the International Olympics Committee, writes Helen Lewis in The Atlantic, Could Have Avoided the Ugly Boxing Debate.

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“Carl has been strangely quiet.”

Actually, no.  He . . .

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(It’s like the cynical way Reagan’s team prevailed on Iran to hold our hostages until after the election so he could beat Carter — but vastly more consequential — both because Reagan wasn’t a sociopath authoritarian and because, with regard to the specifics, only 52? hostages were involved, versus . . .

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Carl — sends this from 2017 — Opinion | Trump Isn’t a Threat to Our Democracy. Hysteria Is. – The New York Times and inflation styuff from 2018 . . .

 

(22) Of All the New Lies He Told in Milwaukee, Trump Disturbingly Saved Most of Them for His Account of The Incident in Pennsylvania (substack.com)– stricdent, but some interesting stuff.

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THE SECOND DEBATE

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about our next debate and I’ve decided to go ahead and do it — on one condition.  That the former president agree to tell the truth.  In the last debate, he lied or misled viewers 30 times in 90 minutes — or, depending how you count — 602, times.  You can see for yourselves by going to [xxxxx} amd [xxxx].  As a show of good faith that he will tell the truth, he must tell the American people that, according to his own head of election security, and to the unanimous decisions of 62 judges, many of them appointed by him, he lost the 2020 election by approximately 7 million votes and the Electoral College 238 to my 302.CK  If he will admit that, and apologize to his followers for lying to them about it, it will be . . .

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CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM IN 40 SECONDS — From James Talarico . . .

 

 

In repsonse to “Prolonged Ovation:  Carl: Families of troops killed in Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan demand accountability in emotional testimony | CNN Politics

U.S. inflation at 9.1 percent, a record high | PBS News

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REPUBLICAN PLATFORM

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The GOP Platform Perfectly Reflects the Lunacy of Trump’s Party | The New Republic

“Republicans,” the 2024 platform says, “will use existing Federal Law to keep foreign Christian-hating Communists, Marxists, and Socialists out of America.” If that rings a bell, it’s because this is slight reworking of what Trump said last Veteran’s Day in Claremont, New Hampshire: “We pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” It did not go unnoticed back then that “vermin” echoed Hitler (“Should I not also have the right to eliminate millions of an inferior race that multiplies like vermin?”), so the offending word was scrubbed from the platform version. Even without it, political rhetoric doesn’t get much more toxic. But xenophobia and rhetorical bombast (why “Communists” and “Marxists”?) are not ideas.

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THE COURT

<< Biden should now run against the Supreme Court (and on Dobbs).   People need to understand what SCOTUS now stands for, how they have gone completely rogue, as today’s decision has completely transformed 240 years of precedent and the ideal that no person is above the law.  Indeed, Biden runs to preserve Democracy but not just re: the threat of Trump, but this Court.  Elect Biden, elect Democrats, and “depoliticize” the Court (to quote a friend). >>

Seth Abramson — hey, immunity applies to Biden, too.  Why not use it?

Sarah Lipton-Lubet of takebackthecourt.today 

Sent: Monday, July 1, 2024 4:28 PM
To: Sarah Lipton-Lubet <sarah@takebackthecourt.today>
Subject: TBTC assessment of this SCOTUS term

Dear friends,

I had a note drafted and ready to go that recounted my anger and resolve at the court’s decisions completely upending the law that governs executive agencies, and the resulting harm and chaos that will come to our ability to drink clean water, protect workers, and ensure access to health care.

And then I read this morning’s decision in Trump v. U.S., a case in which any and every expert and scholar thought Trump’s claims didn’t stand a chance. It should be clear now that when we in the court reform movement say that “law” does not matter to the right-wing justices, only Republican power does, that principle has no stopping point.

Today, six Republican justices held that former President Trump should not face trial for the events of January 6th before this next election. But they did so much more than that. By “brute force,” they made the president “a king above the law” (Sotomayor, dissenting). For a group of people who claim to be so enamored with the Founders, it can’t be lost on them that this country was created so that every person should be equal under the law, and no one should have the powers of a monarch. They simply do not care about that as much as they do empowering Trump and Republicans.

It’s horrifying and disastrous. It reflects the truest nature of the current court. And it underscores the need to not only reform the court, but rebalance it to swiftly disempower the anti-American and anti-democracy cabal that is destroying the rule of law. Other reforms are worthy, but expanding and rebalancing the Court is the only reform that meets this crisis head-on and puts a swift end to the judicial tyranny remaking America. Since our founding, Take Back the Court has been clear-eyed about that brutal reality, and we will always remain laser-focused on reforms that are equal to the scale of the crisis.

This term will be understood as a pivotal point in the turn toward authoritarianism — unless we do the hard work of reclaiming our courts and our country.

Below, I’ve offered my initial assessment of what some of the other cases this term mean for our families and communities, and for our work to reform the court.

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Kris M: “The debate changed nothing for the two of us. Actually, it changed nothing — full stop.    Before and after Thursday, we (the electorate) had and have a choice between two old white men.  Both of them have had the position they’re applying for.  One of them is doing an outstanding job at it under difficult circumstances; the other botched it by almost any measure EXCEPT that measure used by billionaires focused on paying as little as possible into the public treasury while extracting everything possible from it.  It’s not surprising that most of them prefer the felon who will, at public expense, lower their taxes even more, to the President who will raise their taxes a few percent in the interest of creating a fairer, and therefore more stable, society.  I like stable societies.  One of the candidates wants to save democracy and nudge the United States a little closer to living up to its highest ideals.  The other is a wannabe strongman who seeks to destroy the institutions of democracy.  We don’t have to get deep into Project 2025 and all the rest of it.  What it boils down to is that one of these two old white men running for President loves this country and will work toward what he sees as its — our — best interests.  The other will sell it —us — out to the highest bidder and pocket the proceeds.  It’s really that simple.”

 

 

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I forgot to include this in last week’s post linking inflation, in part, to the pandemic.

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BONUS

The Lincoln folks say it’s time to save the Republican Party — by voting against it (60 seconds).

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ISRAEL – An Analogy

Watching Congressman Bowman calling what’s happening in Gaza “genocide,” and the heavily-moneyed attempt to replace him in the upcoming Democratic primary, has forced me to think even harder about how to think about this.

We all agree, of course, that what Hamas did October 7 was an atrocity of the highest order.  And we all agree that’s what happened to innocent Gazans is a tragedy on an epic scale — like the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 200,000 innocents, many of them children, or the 2010 Haiti earthquake that killed more than 150,000 or last year’s earthquake in Turkey (60,000) — with the crucial distinction, obviously, that this tragic “earthquake,” no “act of God,” could have been avoided.

Estimates are that 40,000 Palestinians have died, 15,000 Hamas combatants, 25,000 innocent Palestinians (unless you blame some of them — not the children, obviously — for voting them in to power)

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The Singularity Is Nearer — Good news from Ray Kurzweil (7 minutes).

The future of AI.?  This pretty neat and probably fairly accurate.

Humanizing famous faces with artificial intelligence (AI) with a Christmas setting and music.

You can see the historic people we have read about or seen in paintings as they would look like in contemporary times.  All done through AI.

The new reality:  Dangerous and misleading, but freaking awesome!

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Christmas-History.mp4?_=1

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STORY #1
The first comes from Fire Island, where a bunch of revelers&nbsp;had rented the house next to mine this past week.

“Hi,” waved one of them, smiling.

He wanted me to know they were having a big loud birthday party Saturday afternoon — apologies in advance for disturbing our peace and quiet –&nbsp;and our gang should be&nbsp;sure to come over and have a drink.&nbsp; He promised the music would shut off at 5pm.

“No problem!” I told him — our water volleyball game, I said, would probably be even louder than his DJ.

Maybe not really, but it seemed the neighborly thing to say, and — as I calculated what he must have paid to rent the house (I bought mine 40 years ago, when they were giving them away) — I thought to add, “are you a Democrat?”

He gave a sort of noncommittal hand gesture and said that he wasn’t very political.&nbsp;

I said something&nbsp;to the effect of, well, yeah, I get that — but THIS election is so important, and maybe he’d like to come to an event with the President and First Lady . . . and could I come over for a second?

He welcomed me over and&nbsp;seemed pleased I had brought him a couple of books by way of thanks for his willingness to engage.&nbsp; He listened with interest as I told him a little of the history of the house he was renting (I had rented it from 1981-84) and then pitched him on helping to save the world while giving himself a really costly –&nbsp;but really cool — 60th birthday present: a photo of&nbsp;him and his partner with the President and First Lady.

He asked what was involved, I told him tickets ranged from $250 to $500,000 and explained the threshold for a photo.&nbsp;&nbsp;He didn’t seem terribly fazed&nbsp;– in fact, he seemed kind of likely to step&nbsp;up to the plate.&nbsp;

Warm hugs . . .&nbsp;thanks&nbsp;for letting me barge in like this . . .have a great party&nbsp;. . . Saturday . . .

. . . and it DID seem to be a great party.

And the music DID stop promptly at 5pm.

All good.

Monday I texted: “I really enjoyed seeing your crew throwing so much love and happiness your way”&nbsp;and&nbsp;asked whether he might want to give himself that birthday present this coming Friday.

He texted back:

“Andy in all do&nbsp;respect I don’t support what you do.&nbsp; I think the current president is incompetent and anyone that thinks he can run our country efficiently is foolish. I think having to ask for money like you did is insulting and disgusting. Make America great again andy.”

I won’t prolong this email by sharing my reply&nbsp;(feel free to ask, if you’re so inclined);&nbsp;I tell you this story as an illustration of what we’re up against.&nbsp;&nbsp;

We’re going to win — but it’s going to take a lot of work and money, and even some uncomfortable conversations:&nbsp;in real life, on social media, and even,&nbsp;perhaps, with the neighbors next door.

STORY #2
A sink&nbsp;out here at the beach got clogged up, and the best house guest ever took a wrench and a coat hanger and unclogged it.&nbsp; Sheepishly, he brought me 5 soggy unopened rolls of toilet paper and one of paper towels (use rags, not paper towels! but I digress) that had been under the sink&nbsp;and asked whether they were trash or compost.

“Are you kidding me?”

Everyone was leaving that Sunday afternoon, so I put the five rolls in the sun each of the next three days and by Wednesday they were fine,&nbsp;The roll of paper towels, not so much. (They’re so absorbent!)&nbsp; So — remember, I had the house to myself — i opened the wrapper and unrolled the whole thing down the stairs and across the wood floor and back up the stairs and over a table — and the next morning, when I woke up, it was like new.&nbsp; I rolled it back up and tell you THIS story to emphasize my frugality.&nbsp; Waste not, want not.

I don’t part with money easily.&nbsp; Neither should you.

But this election is existential.&nbsp; We simply have to win it, and&nbsp;the Senate,&nbsp;and the House.&nbsp;&nbsp;If we had tried just a little harder in 2000 and gotten Gore instead of Bush — no War in Iraq, no right-wing Supreme Court.&nbsp; If we had tried just a little harder in 2016 and gotten Hillary instead of “the world champion of destroying things” (as Tucker Carlson&nbsp;privately called him) — well, you know all this.&nbsp;

So join us Friday if you can — there are still tickets.&nbsp; Or — if you’re in a position to do so — consider chipping in even more than you already have.&nbsp;

Thanks!

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RIDICULOUS STUFF

SEC Funny Money Game

Toothpaste

Toilet paper . . .

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I’m the last person in the world you’d expect to wish Trump a happy birthday — and it’s true that I’m now a week late — but this actually came from the Biden/Harris campaign:

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 14, 2024

Happy 78th Birthday, Donald

Ah, another year around the sun for Donald Trump. 78 years.

We know how important it is to Donald to be #1. So, to celebrate, we thought we would compile 78 of Trump’s historic… “accomplishments.”

1. Donald fell asleep – a lot
2. Donald went bankrupt
3. Then went bankrupt again
4. Then went bankrupt again
5. Then went bankrupt again
6. Then went bankrupt again
7. Then went bankrupt again
8. Donald failed as a casino owner
9. Donald failed as an airline, university and hotel owner.
10. Donald failed at creating a board game and a magazine.
11. Donald launched his political career on the racist lie Barack Obama wasn’t born in America
12. Donald called for the death penalty – and still won’t apologize after their exoneration – for 5 innocent Black and Latino teenagers
13. Donald was accused of saying the N-word
14. Donald was sued by the Justice Department for racial discrimination
15. Donald became the first Presidential candidate to say there’d be a “bloodbath” if he lost
16. Donald failed to lead our country during COVID and suggested Americans inject themselves with bleach
17. Donald said there were “very fine people” among the crowd of white nationalists and neo-Nazis who chanted “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville
18. Donald dreamed of a “unified Reich” if he was to win in November
19. Donald called veterans who gave their lives for our country “suckers” and “losers”
20. Donald downplayed servicemembers’ concussions as “headaches”
21. Donald floated the idea of executing the Joint Chiefs Chairman
22. Donald was impeached in 2019
23. Donald was impeached again in 2021
24. Donald was found liable for sexual abuse
25. Donald was accused by 26 women of sexual misconduct
26. Donald bragged about his building on 9/11
27. Donald lied over 30,570 times as president to the American people
28. Donald cheated at golf
29. Donald’s “Trump Org.” was convicted for failing to pay its taxes
30. Donald gave a tax handout to the rich and corporations that failed to deliver for Americans
31. Donald suggested windmills caused cancer
32. Donald failed as a steak, water, and vodka salesman.
33. Donald’s media company lost $300 million in just one quarter
34. Donald proposed cutting Social Security and Medicare
35. Donald proposed cutting Social Security and Medicare again
36. Donald proposed cutting Social Security and Medicare again
37. Donald proposed cutting Social Security and Medicare again
38. Donald tried and failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act. But he wants to try again
39. Donald had his former vice president refuse to endorse him
40. Donald bragged on camera about grabbing women
41. Donald celebrated overturning Roe v. Wade
42. (This one is special #42) Donald is 0-42 with jurors in recent cases – more on that later
43. Donald endorsed every state abortion ban in America as “a beautiful thing to watch”
44. Donald said there had to be “some form of punishment” for women who have abortions
45. Donald had the worst jobs record of any president in modern US history
46. Donald lost the House and Senate
47. Donald lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden by more than 7 million votes
48. Donald lost 61 court cases after his election loss
49. Donald “lit that fire” of the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6
50. Donald has promised to pardon the violent rioters who attacked law enforcement on Jan. 6 who he called “hostages” and “warriors”
51. Donald was the first presidential candidate to ask a state’s Secretary of State to “find” him 11,780 votes
52. Donald posted a $175 million bond in his fraud judgment
53. Donald oversaw the largest single-year increase in violent crime ever recorded
54. Donald was sued by U.S. Capitol Police Officers
55. Then he was sued by another group of U.S. Capitol Police Officers
56. Then another
57. Then another
58. Donald had an ally who was sentenced to prison
59. Then another
60. Then another
61. Then another
62. Then another
63. Then another
64. Then another
65. Then another
66. And four more were charged with crimes
67. Donald Trump was the first former U.S. President to be indicted 1 time
68. Donald Trump was the first former U.S. President to be indicted 2 times
69. Donald Trump was the first former U.S. President to be indicted 3 times
70. Donald Trump was the first former U.S. President to be indicted 4 times
71. Donald became the first former U.S. President convicted of a felony
72. Donald became the first former U.S. President convicted of 2 felonies
73. Donald became the first former U.S. President convicted of 3 felonies
74. Donald became the first former U.S. President convicted of 4 felonies
75. Donald became the first former U.S. President convicted of 5 felonies
76. Donald became the first former U.S. President convicted of  6 felonies
77. Donald became the first former U.S. President convicted of 7 felonies
78. Donald said he would “Make America Great” – he did not

Damn, we hit 78, but for those wondering – Donald has 27 more felony convictions and a lot of other stuff. But you know, sometimes you gotta stick to the shtick.

Statement from Biden-Harris 2024 Spokesperson James Singer

“Happy birthday, Donald. You’re a crook, a failure, a fraud, and a threat to our democracy, economy, rights, and future.

“On behalf of America, our early gift for your 79th: Making sure you are never President again.”

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BONUS

The American health care system (4 minutes).

Or we could just do it the way they do it in the rest of the First World, at far lower cost.

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Peter Stamberg – his email on the attention age — and Oprah.

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Gotta love this Pope — and the 105 comedians he blessed.

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BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT DEPT.: What Israel Should Have Done

A massive campaign of airdropped leaflets and social media and cell phone calls — shared with the entire world — along these lines:

TO OUR GAZAN NEIGHBORS AND FRIENDS

You face a terrible choice.  Hamas — the government you elected — has put you in a terrible position.

In 2005, Israel effectively surrendered to your demands.  We left Gaza to you.  We forced all our Israeli settlers to abandon their homes.  We retreated, purposely leaving you our greenhouses and irrigation systems and other infrastructure.

We did this not because your military defeated ours; it did not.  Rather, we left voluntarily with a dream of peaceful coexistence.  We hoped you would build a thriving, prosperous land in the desert, as we have.

Instead, you built an underground military complex unrivaled in human history, with the stated goal of destroying us.

And then on October 7th you murdered and raped and kidnapped more than 1,000 innocent Israeli civilians.

Over thousands of years — as slaves in Egypt, as victims of pogroms in Russia, the Holocaust in Germany — we Jews have been victims.  Millions upon millions of us have been murdered for no reason.  We have never started wars; we have never — except perhaps for the rarest of isolated, regrettable exceptions — defaced a mosque.  We have never called for the destruction of another people.  Indeed, we count nearly two million Palestinian Israeli citizens, several of whom serve in our Knesset.

In 2000, we agreed to a two-state solution that the late Yassir Arafat rejected, some say out of fear of assassination by his own people who did not want peace.

We recognize that most of you DO want peace and prosperity, not murder and war.

But this is what your government has forced upon you.

Just as America had to destroy Japan in order to secure its surrender after its surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, we Israel must do whatever it takes to secure Hamas’s surrender, disarmament, and the destruction of its underground military complex.  Gazans need a government focused on cooperation and prosperity, not conflict and driving the Jewish people into the sea.

Hamas has put you in a terrible position.

You must either defy them, demanding the immediate return of our hostages and their surrender — and they may kill you for that.

Or, if they do not comply, we will destroy them.  Which will be a horrible tragedy, because they have purposely chosen to use YOU as their shields, hiding under your cities, your schools and hospitals — so that the only way to defeat them will, unavoidably, inflict a terrible price on you.

We need you — and every peace-loving government on earth — to demand Hamas surrender.  Because if they don’t, THEY will be responsible for the enormous suffering you will inevitably bear as their human shields.

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What’s most striking about this story — Hungarians rally for former ally leading the charge against Viktor Orbán’s rule — is offered almost as an aside:

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Since coming back to power 14 years ago, Orbán has consolidated power at home. He has cultivated relationships with Russia and China, as well as far-right parties across the globe. And he has described Brussels and Washington as his adversaries . . .

At the same time, some of the prime minister’s closest friends and family members are now among the country’s wealthiest people, amid allegations of widespread cronyism.

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And Orban’s Hungary is what much of Trump’s MAGA party aspires to . . .  Like Trump, Orban admires Putin and wealth.

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(And if you ARE coming to NY for June 28 . . .

When . . . you take the E Train:

I’ve been such an idiot!  How many times over the last million years have I taken a cab or Lyft to or from New York’s (now vastly improved) Laguardia Airport or JFK?

Late at night, when there’s no traffic . . . or if one has little energy left at the end of a long day . . . or if one is traveling with a ridiculous amount of luggage (why?!) . . . spending $50 or $80 instead of $2.90 or $11.40 can make sense.   But now that I’ve finally tried it, I can tell you — as someone with absolutely zero sense of direction — it’s really easy.  And obviously better for the planet.

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One view:

But this guy takes a different view.

 

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Affordable High-Speed Internet is Spurring Economic Growth and Boosting Small Businesses | The White House

 

Edith Everett:  “We are in terrible trouble.”

She offers this prescription:

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WINNING!

There is only one sure way to win the 2024 election: massive voter turnout.

Forget the MAGAs. We need to convince OUR OWN people of the dread of a Trump dictatorship. Realistic fear and knowledge are important persuaders.

+ A woman seeking healthcare might face jail time, medication proven safe by scientists and helpful for decades can be declared unsafe by politicians.  They decide when and if we should have children. Our bedrooms will no longer be private places.

+ If Trump wins, in come his white supremacists, out of prison go the January 6th criminals.

+ Gone will be social security, affordable health care, women’s rights and voting rights. Gone, also, the government agencies that exist for our protection and safety.

+ Dedicated civil service workers will be removed and replaced by friends. Only tax cuts for the wealthy will remain. These plans are all public. There will be a return to racial, religious, and gender discrimination. The past will be the future.

We need to remember that Donald Trump encouraged the January 6th mob to hang the vice president. He declared his intention to punish his adversaries, if elected, jail or possibly execution. Imagine our children growing up in this lawless violent society where no one is safe.

It is truly alarming that too many people still don’t understand what loss of liberty means, or what living in an autocracy would be like.

It’s the job of those of us who do know to be sure everyone is motivated to vote. The goal is for every eligible person to vote. Grassroots organizations need to pound out this message daily.

We need to educate the voters. We need to be explicit about the price we and our children will pay.

THIS IS HOW WE CAN WIN.

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Glenn H: “I think the best way to get through some people that are debating between TRUMP & BIDEN for President is to run a campaign that exposes TRUMP’s strategy to LIE & REPEAT THOSE LIES as often as possible to get people to believe it’s true.  TRUMP is the GLOAT — “GREATEST LIAR OF ALL TIME.”  Below is some  information that I believe is a start toward that campaign.

(See below documentation)

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_or_misleading_statements_by_Donald_Trump  EXCERPT: “During and after his term as President of the United States, Donald Trump made tens of thousands of false or misleading claims. The Washington Post’s fact-checkers documented 30,573 false or misleading claims during his presidential term, an average of about 21 per day.[1][5][6][7] The Toronto Star tallied 5,276 false claims from January 2017 to June 2019, an average of 6.1 per day.[2] Commentators and fact-checkers have described the scale of Trump’s mendacity as “unprecedented” in American politics,[13] and the consistency of falsehoods a distinctive part of his business and political identities.[14] Scholarly analysis of Trump’s tweets found “significant evidence” of an intent to deceive.[15]”

 

TRUMP uses REPETITION-> (Use of repetition) “Trump is conscious of the value of repetition to get his lies believed. He demonstrated this knowledge when he instructed Stephanie Grisham, his White House press secretary, to use his method of lying: “As long as you keep repeating something, it doesn’t matter what you say.”[29]”

 

VIDEO OF STEPHANIE GRISHAM (1 of TRUMP’s White House Press Secretary) below- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glzZ1j2uUFM  (NOTE: Stephanie explains TRUMP’s use of repetition of LIES to get people to believe things.

 

TRUMP’s STRATEGY:    LIE…REPEAT LIE AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE…GET MAGA NEWS TO “REPEAT LIE” …then followers view or hear REPEATED LIE, THEY BEGIN TO BELIEVE REPEATED LIE… then followers post and REPEAT THOSE LIES ONLINE at places like FB…etc.  so ALL FOLLOWERS begin to believe they’re true..

 

I think the video of Stephanie Grisham or if she would agree to do another one… would be great as part of the campaign

 

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Refer to Schwarzman via feedback

A Memorial Day reminder of a nation’s pledge (startribune.com)1946

ALTERNATIVE FACTS

From The Guardian:  Majority of Americans wrongly believe US is in recession – and most blame Biden

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Nearly three in five Americans wrongly believe the US is in an economic recession, and the majority blame the Biden administration, according to a Harris poll conducted exclusively for the Guardian. The survey found persistent pessimism about the economy as election day draws closer.

The poll highlighted many misconceptions people have about the economy, including:

• 55% believe the economy is shrinking, and 56% think the US is experiencing a recession, though the broadest measure of the economy, gross domestic product (GDP), has been growing.

• 49% believe the S&P 500 stock market index is down for the year, though the index went up about 24% in 2023 and is up more than 12% this year.

• 49% believe that unemployment is at a 50-year high, though the unemployment rate has been under 4%, a near 50-year low.

The vast majority of respondents, 72%, indicated they think inflation is increasing. In reality, the rate of inflation has fallen sharply from its post-Covid peak of 9.1% and has been fluctuating between 3% and 4% a year.

In April, the inflation rate went down from 3.5% to 3.4% – far from inflation’s 40-year peak of 9.1% in June 2022 – triggering a stock market rally that pushed the Dow Jones index to a record high.

A recession is generally defined by a decrease in economic activity, typically measured as gross domestic product (GDP), over two successive quarters, although in the US the National Bureau of Economic Research (NEBR) has the final say. US GDP has been rising over the last few years, barring a brief contraction in 2022, which the NEBR did not deem a recession.

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J: “I refrain from too much public discussion on anything political. I think it is rare to change anyone’s leanings. And it is not really good for business.  I will say this: I support both Dems and Republicans who are doing common sense things for our county and our benefit. Biden has been a train wreck – and even you must admit that. I’m not sure who is running the country but I know it isn’t him….he simply can’t. It is a sad thing when we cannot do better than the two top candidates we have right now. Out of over 300 million people? Oy! We are not Trump fans…and I’m not sure I’d play golf with him should the invite ever come my way!”

→ The “train wreck” perspective baffles me.

We are finally revitalizing the nation’s infrastructure – decades overdue.  That is huge.

Everyone who wants a job can get one – even as wages have finally begun rising faster than inflation.

The stock market is at record levels.

NATO has added Finland and Sweden, a huge boost to the security of Europe and “the free world,” even as our allies are praying this train wreck is re-elected . . . and Putin is directing psy-ops in an effort to be sure he’s not.

He did follow thru on Trump’s agreement with the Taliban to leave Afghanistan . . . and 13 service members were tragically killed.  But that was Trump’s agreement (supposed to happen in May, Biden delayed it to October).  I wish it had been handled better – or that we had kept 3,000 troops there, although the Taliban would likely then, after we had reneged on Trump’s deal, stepped up attacks again.

The border crisis is real, and Biden was eager to sign the bi-partisan bill the Senate passed that would have flooded the zone with resources and changed policies in ways that would have resolved it.  Trump, as you know, told Speaker Johnson and others they had to kill it so he could continue to use it as a campaign issue.

Violent crime is more or a local than national issue, but – FWIW – is falling.

The CHIPs Act is huge for our economy and national security.

“And more.”

So maybe all this adds up to “mediocre” – although in my view it adds up to “terrific” – but I can’t see any factual basis to call it a train wreck.  Share your thoughts?

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Add to whatever Mike Starkey sends. Book 8088 DOS system laptop computer CGA/VGA graphics card serial/parallel IBM PC XT compatible machine 8088CPU microcomputer

 

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How did Republicans vote in the Northern Idaho primary Tuesday?  Here’s why it’s interesting and important.

They picked up 30 seats — but not the 37 they needed.

 

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*I watched five: Freud’s Last Session, Remembering Gene Wilder, Radical Wolfe, Being Mary Tyler Moore, and Joan Baez: I Am A Noise.

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Biden and Trump agree to CNN debate in June, ABC faceoff in September (msn.com)   “Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020, and since then he hasn’t shown up for a debate. Now he is acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal. I’ll even do it twice,” Biden said in the video released Wednesday that referenced the weekly break in Trump’s New York criminal trial. “So let’s pick the dates, Donald. I hear you’re free on Wednesdays.”

Should Joe Debate? II – Andrew Tobias

Should Joe Debate?

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Another Jim Talarico (sp?) speech against Christian Narionalism  Bill Madden on X: “With all due respect, you’re not a REAL Christian. Only a holier-than-thou, self-righteous ignoramus who doesn’t actually follow the teachings of Jesus would allow a depraved degenerate who attempted to overthrow democracy get back in the White House. https://t.co/kuhpQFfPQR” / X (twitter.com)

find the original on YouTube?  Contrast his faith with Cliff Sims’ The Darkness Has Not Overcome

BONUS: Paul Raushenbush’s take on Christian Nationalism

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Anderson Cooper:  CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan Reports in “MisinfoNation: The Trump Faithful” — once I find out how to watch

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BONUS

Peter O’ Toole revisits Lawrence of Arabia shoot

THE GENLTEMEN on Netflix

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Frank Bruno is mad!  Chris Christie and Bill Barr Have Some Explaining to Do

So true.

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Waiter to young couple, just arrived: “Would you like free or expensive water?”

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The Nine Books Sam Altman Recommends — and a way to read summaries of them real fast.

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GUESS WHO ELSE HAS THE HAPPY GENE

Garrison Keillor, at 81, couldn’t be happier.

Nice!

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Why A Second Trump Term Could Be Bad for America

Why We Did It – page xx

Why the billionaires are doing it.  “These billionaires abandoned Trump after Jan. 6. Taxes are bringing them back in line.  Nelson Peltz apologized for supporting Trump after Jan. 6. Now he’s fundraising for the former president. The reason he and so many billionaires may have fallen back in line? Taxes.”

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BONUS

Just for fun: Google the word Trumpery.

 

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https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust   Uri Berliner calls out NPR

I’m sorry he led off with the Russian collusion story . . .

 

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Of course policy matters most to me — climate and guns and reproductive rights and civil rights and equal rights and tax policy and Ukraine and democracy — all that.

But you know what else really bothers me?

When someone cuts in line.

“Hey!” I want to shout.

Don’t you?

And that’s the feeling I get when I hear about a guy who paid someone else to take his SATs — and never pays a price for it.

Or who lies about ….

 

 

 

BONUS

Penguin Chicks

https://www.fakespot.com/

Amazon.com 100

Arangrant.com 50.7  (but good on trustpilot AranGrant Reviews | Read Customer Service Reviews of arangrant.com (trustpilot.com)

truthsocial.com 50.6

Squabble.com 75.4

TinEye.com

scam-detector.com 100

nyt.com 78.7

dnc.org 78.4

rnc.org 76.5

snopes.com 77.7

andrewtobias.com 76.5

wsj.com 47

 

 

Can we stop being so mean to Trump?
All he did, was pay someone else to take his college entry exam
And call for the death penalty for five innocent teenagers
And stiff contractors
And lie about sexual harassment and rape
And lead  six Companies into bankruptcy
And attempt to overthrow the most secure election in our history
And incite an attack on the nations capitol
And call the attackers patriots and hostages whom he will pardon upon regaining power
And sit Idly by for more than three hours, watching on TV, enjoying the most violent parts
Carl calls him “flawed” …

Ukraine

Obstruct justice

Lie to FBI

 

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Former basketball star and three-term U.S. Senator Bill Bradley told a reporter 30 years ago: “I’m in the optimism business.”  Today he tells us he is “betting on our common humanity.”  Tony Seton:  “Simply stunning. Watch it to the end.”

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Republicans have fought for decades to keep the federal minimum wage at $7.15.

Fought harder still to slash taxes for corporations and the uber-wealthy.

Inequality has soared, CEO pay has gone stratospheric, the middle class has shrunk and struggles.

Of possible interest:

More for Them, Less for Us: Corporations That Pay Their Executives More Than Uncle Sam

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In 2023-24, Truth Wins Out had unprecedented success investigating and exposing the “ex-gay” industry. We caused palpable disruptions to their ignoble operations – badly damaging the reputations of three key charlatans and putting the entire worldwide operation under fire.

1. In October 2023, Truth Wins Out traveled to Leesburg, Virginia to examine court records on “ex-gay” activist Christopher Doyle’s recent divorce. Doyle runs the Institute for Healthy Families and is one of the nation’s most high-profile conversion therapists, frequently appearing on national television and in newspaper stories. He unsuccessfully sued the state of Maryland over their ban on conversion therapy for minors.

Our successful investigation discovered that he beat his wife, physically abused his children and had two restraining orders against him. We also unearthed salacious text messages strongly suggesting a torrid sexual affair with a younger male therapy client. Additionally, Truth Wins Out persuaded Doyle’s niece to go on record to corroborate our information. Thanks to our report, Doyle’s reputation is permanently stained and he’s currently spending thousands of dollars attempting to scrub our reports about him from the Internet. (We won’t let him)

1. In January 2024, a Truth Wins Out investigation discovered that conversion therapist Jayson Graves was stripped of his license in Colorado for sexually assaulting a client. Graves was a speaker with Focus on the Family and appeared as a host on Pure Passion, an “ex-gay” television show. After he lost his credentials as a psychotherapist, Graves relocated to Mesa, Arizona and reinvented himself as an “ex-gay” life coach. 

Truth Wins Out’s investigation led to Graves being fired from his job at Canyon Vista Recovery Center. Now this quack is unemployed and not, for the moment, harming LGBTQ people.

1. In March 2024, Truth Wins Out exposed “ex-gay” conversion therapist Floyd Godfrey, who once compared homosexuality to cannibalism. He spoke in favor of conversion therapy at the United Nations and is the author of, A Young Man’s Journey: Healing for Young Men with Unwanted Homosexual Feelings.

Our investigation uncovered that this huckster recently had his license revoked by the Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Examiners. They concluded that Godfrey made unwanted “sexual advances” against two of his employees and included “an additional allegation that “Respondent (Godfrey) asked to get naked in front of him.”

Exposing three key conversion therapists in such a short period of time is unprecedented. At Truth Wins Out we think of ourselves as prosecutors, methodically building a powerful, incontrovertible case to undermine the “ex-gay” conversion industry – one scandal at a time.  

Our daily monitoring, research and media outreach has also had results. TWO provided key research that proved Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) once appeared in a video promoting “ex-gay” ministries. Our exclusive reporting led to a CNN story headlined, “Before He Became a Politician, House Speaker Mike Johnson Partnered With An Anti-Gay Conversion Therapy Group.” The CNN piece was followed up with news reports in Vanity Fair, Mediaite, Raw Story, The New Republic and the Daily Mail.

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Lincoln Project’s latest 2 Minutes — you might now want them as your surgeon or pilot or your homebuilder — for those things you need well-yrained, serious professionals.  But solving the cpuntries problems — including its border problem? — fine to leave that to clowns.  It’s just entertainment.  Like professional wrestling.

 

 

Will Political Hatred Spill Into the Streets? – WSJ

Lance Morrow . . . worrying about violence . . . quite dark, but it’s the Pro Wrestler analogy that most hits home (oyu will recall that the opposition-murdering leader on whom he seems to have a man-crush, Putin, is a true judo master, both on the mat and on the world stage; but that Trump is WWE Hall of Famer for his devotion to the sport/show of fake wrestling).

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Likability and loathability, a political version of the good-cop-bad-cop routine, alternate in an approximate way in American history. No presidents, whatever their politics, were as likable, in an iconically American style, as Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. Both turned sunny charisma to considerable—even historic—advantage.

But sometimes politicians suffer from what might be called a deficit of detestability. One glum day in January 1988, I was seated at the counter of a diner in New Hampshire, stirring a cup of tepid coffee. Beside me sat Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, a candidate for president. He was taking a break from the campaign. No one in the diner recognized him or paid the slightest attention to him. . . .

On an impulse, I asked Mr. Gephardt: “Do you ever get assassination threats?”

A faraway, wistful look came into his eyes, and he said: “Jeez, I wish.”

. . .

If there ever was a figure capable of conjuring up the kind of visceral hatred that my sainted mother used to feel, it is Donald Trump. If Messrs. Gephardt and Dukakis appeared in a police lineup next to Mr. Trump, they would look like a pair of accountants standing beside “Gorgeous George,” the professional wrestler of the 1940s and ’50s. George had long, dyed-platinum hair, a sequined robe and a ring valet named “Jeffries” who escorted him into the ring carrying a silver mirror and a vial of Chanel No. 5 with which he disinfected the ambient squalor. Gorgeous George’s motto was “Always cheat.” He did. He became, in wrestling terms, an immensely successful “heel.”

Mr. Trump has expanded and developed the theme: the heel as hero—the political outlaw, the white heartland’s Pancho Villa or Stagger Lee. Louisiana’s Huey Long played that role so successfully during the 1930s that the mighty FDR feared him. Mr. Trump’s fan base sticks with him no matter what. He is their favorite wrestler. Criminal indictments only strengthen his appeal. As a lightning rod of loathing, Mr. Trump is unlike anything previously seen in American politics. If he shot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue, MAGA would praise his marksmanship and his demonstration of the Second Amendment in action. My mother had a vivid vocabulary; I can imagine the tirade she would have emitted at the mention of “President Trump.”

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In case you missed my “tale of two brains” last week:

The President’s age — the good news, explained by a geriatrician.  (A quick read.)

His challenger’s age — Dr. John Gartner on “Trump’s accelerating dementia.

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This is a tale of two brains. Biden’s brain is aging. Trump’s brain is dementing.

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Note, also, that if he had only normal health care available and did not exercise regularly, actuaries would expect Joe to live well past the end of his second term.  But because he has great care and does exercise, he could well live to attend not just his successor’s Inauguration, but the two or three — or even four — after those.

That said (just so you know), the Vice President is under-rated.  She is smart, sensible, moderate, and — should it come to this, which it almost surely would not — she would have Joe’s 4,000 appointees not skipping a step as she served out the remainder of his term.

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Text BARBARA LEE — I TOLD YOU SO . . .

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Three books; three lawyer jokes

On the books:

When I was 11, I went on the overnight 7th grade class trip to Washington, played my first-ever game of pinball (high on peach-flavored iced tea) and saw “Rememver the Past”

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He Wears Diapers??? (60 seconds)  (and people sorta kinda partially corroborates: Former Apprentice Staffer Noel Casler Accuses Donald Trump of Drug Use (people.com)

 

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Yesterday I wrote . . . I wish the growing number of Republicans who admire Putin and would abandon Ukraine would watch this iconic two-minute clip and ask themselves: which side are they on?

BONUS:

Tucker Carlson’s Putin interview wasn’t journalism. It was sycophancy.

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Will China annex Russia’s Asian-po[pulated east, as Russia is attenpting to . . .

Leaked Russian Documents Reveal Deep Concern Over Chinese Aggression (forbes.com)

Leaked Russian Documents Reveal Deep Concern Over Chinese Aggression

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Biden’s airdrops to Gaza bitterly divide pro-Israel lawmakers (axios.com)— they are so UNchristia n re this — and asylum seekers

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Harry Belafonte memorial.  (Starts 45 minutes in.)

BONUS

Looking for a good movie?  American Fiction!

 

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Coleman Hughes on the Politics of Race | Real Time with Bill Maher

Talking about his new book, The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America.

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͏Linda Greenhouse thanks the Alabama Supreme Court

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I never thought I’d be grateful to the Alabama Supreme Court for anything, but now I am. With its decision deeming frozen embryos to be children under state law, that all-Republican court has done the impossible. It has awakened the American public, finally, to the peril of the theocratic future toward which the country has been hurtling. . . .

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ALSO: Can I claim frozen embryos as dependents?  Should a fireman rush into a burning building . . .  Eric Willoughby . . .

 

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BTW, there are several videos from a religious channel claiming Trump is the Antichrist.  I watched a few minutes, I can’t help but wonder what at least a few fundamentalists would think about this.

15 Bible Verses That Identify Donald J. Trump as the Antichrist

Here are 15 bible verses about the character traits of the Antichrist, and which all point to Donald J. Trump as being the Man of Sin. SUMMARY For those of us who are interested in bible prophecy, it can seem a bit challenging to put together all the different verses in an effort to figure out what’s going to happen in these last days …

www.youtube.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1014PFSIq-U

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“In an unusual legal strategy for a man alleging he’d been defamed by assertions he is aligned with antisemites and white supremacists, McClanahan says in his own court filings that he is a “Pro-White man, horseman, politician, political prisoner-activist who is dedicated to traditional Christian values.” He also says that he has had “honorary memberships” in the Knight’s Party Ku Klux Klan and the League of the South.

He also writes he “did attend in 2019 a private religious Christian Identity Cross lighting ceremony falsely described as a cross burning.”

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/news/missouri-gop-candidate-for-governor-is-only-honorary-kkk-member-42007057

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PRAYERS
Tim Alberta on The Voice — Evangelicals — love his new book
Added: Greg Abbott: Murderer or Just Repulsive Hypocrite?
Added: DONKEYHOTEY 02/11/24

Added: Abbott’s “Christian values” mock the meaning Matthew 25:35: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” He sees strangers drowning and pushes them further under.

͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌   ͏ ‌

Friend, it’s Senator Josh Hawley.

President Trump is being targeted by Joe Biden and his weaponized DOJ.

He needs us.

Will you join me in prayer for President Donald J. Trump?

God, we pray for JUSTICE to be rooted firmly in Truth. We pray for the 11 pro-life activists convicted for praying at an abortion clinic, and we pray for President Trump as he weathers harassment and persecution at the hands of his political enemies— let the INJUSTICES done to them be made right!

Bless America with Revival!

AMEN. 

VIEW MY PRAYER FOR TRUMP

Thank you,

Josh Hawley
VIEW MY PRAYER FOR TRUMP

It’s Republican Senator, Josh Hawley, and I’m beyond proud to be a man of God.

Right now, the Pro-Life movement is being harassed and belittled by woke activists, and President Donald J. Trump is facing the wrath of Joe Biden’s political vendettas.

We need to bring FAITH back to America, and I hope you agree.

Woke liberals have already started to attack me & Pres. Trump – your support means the world to us, can we count on you?

Trump Save America JFC is a joint fundraising committee on behalf of Donald J. Trump for President 2024, Inc. and Save America. Joint fundraising proceeds shall be allocated among the committees as follows: 90% to Donald J. Trump for President 2024, Inc. (2024 primary election), 10% to Save America, and any contribution exceeding the legal amount that may be contributed to either of the Committees will be allocated to Donald J. Trump for President 2024, Inc. (2024 general election)

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Old folks romance — The Road Towards Home.

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Tim Alberta on The Voice — Evangelicals — love his new book

Greg Abbott: Murderer or Just Repulsive Hypocrite?
DONKEYHOTEY 02/11/24
Abbott’s “Christian values” mock the meaning Matthew 25:35: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” He sees strangers drowning and pushes them further under.

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

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WEEK-END FUN

You’ll surely recognize the music.  But can you make out the lyrics?

(Give up?  Click here.)

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From the guy who gave us the Tab Hunter biopic . . . here is Rock Hudson.

 

 

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Effective accelerationism – Wikipedia

Bezos –

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Corinne Demas THE ROAD HOME

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SINGLE MEN WHO TRIED TO SAVE THE WORLD

It all went wrong with the best of intentions.  Ralph Nader — whom I don’t know for sure but assume is gay — . . .  for BLB

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Life is complicated.  We need room for thoughtful, respectful discussion and nuanced solutions.

My outrageous idea — send two books . . .

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/opinion/transgender-children-gender-dysphoria.html

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/03/woodrow-wilson-racism-civil-rights/677174/

Jesse’s review of Samantha Power A Problem from Hell — genocide, good people doing nothing . . .

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/01/31/samantha-power-usaid-confronted-gaza/

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Tax Excessive Pay Act

https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-and-colleagues-introduce-legislation-to-combat-corporate-greed-and-end-outrageous-ceo-pay-2/#:~:text=The%20Tax%20Excessive%20CEO%20Pay%20Act%20would%20impose%20tax%20rate,on%20the%20highest%2Dpaid%20employee.

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BONUS

Just in case you’re not one of the 13 million who have already seen Hiring a Millennial (3 minutes).  Amazing that it came out in 2017, pre-Covid, pre-the Great Resignation, and all that.

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Water required to produce a pound of almonds . . . versus peanuts etc

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What ELSE Comes Next

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jesuitical/id1210902931?i=1000595660673

 

https://steveschmidt.substack.com/p/a-chilling-portrait-of-evil?utm_campaign=email-post&r=50xud&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

 

Today, a former Evangelical’s view of the movement that so strongly backs Trump.

 

Scot K. Haller (1954-1990) – Find a Grave Memorial

 

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As we try to better understand Trump voters — and find common ground — I think this note is worth pondering.  It comes from a summa-cum-laude-elite-East-Coast-Ivy-League grad.

He wrote it after watching Heather Cox Richardson’s recent interview with the President (6 minutes) that you may well have seen, too:

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I watched with an open mind.  It’s very appealing!  And yet Joe’s approval rating is lower than any other president at this point in their administration since Carter. Why? I submit it’s because he’s not actually governing in keeping with the sentiments that he’s expressing in this interview, and I think that’s perhaps because he hasn’t thought deeply about the implications of these sentiments.

One of the best comments he makes, which I agree with, is that “ordinary Americans don’t want anyone telling them what they can do.”  He follows that up with something to the effect that “no one should say whether you are a woman or a man.”

He seems oblivious to the fact that half the country, at least, finds his endorsement of left-wing positions on cultural issues to be oppressive.  Americans do not want to be told what orthodoxy they must subscribe to on race, or on gender, or on sexual orientation or identity.  They do not believe in racial quotas or preferences.  They do not believe in equality of outcome at the expense of accomplishment and merit.  They resent the moral, social, economic, and professional pressure — and sometimes the threat or reality of lawsuits — if they deviate from the accepted positions in these areas.

Americans also deeply resent the view that we are somehow racist if we wish to have an enforced border.  Biden and the historian interviewing him are talking about the meaning of Valley Forge.  Valley Forge is such a powerful theme in American history not because it represented something done by a random group of people.  It represented the shaping of a nation.  The contemporary left seems to be incapable of taking seriously the idea that nations have identities, that these identities can be a force for unification, that patriotism is something to be proud not ashamed of, and that nations are fundamentally formed for the mutual benefit of their citizens, not a universal obligation towards everyone in the rest of the world.

I find the President in this video appealing.  I think if he fully understood what he is talking about, and governed that way, that he would be far more popular than he actually is today.

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I think the President would have a strong answer to that message, that would show we have much more common ground than most people think.  Basically, I hope that at some point soon he will give a major address on the meaning of “woke.”  Because the way the right defines it, I agree (and frequently link to Bill Maher, who points out how nuts it’s become): things have gone too far.  Most Democrats would probably agree. And the way the left might define it — respecting everyone’s rights and being sensitive to the concerns of others — might have heads on the right nodding.  There is a tremendous amount of common ground, when people of good will on both sides talk through the issues.

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ON THE BRIGHT SIDE

From the Washington Post:

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Microsoft announced Tuesday that a team of scientists used artificial intelligence and high-performance computing to plow through 32.6 million possible battery materials ― many not found in nature ― in 80 hours, a task the team estimates previously would have taken 20 years. The results kick off an ambitious effort to create a new generation of batteries less dependent on toxic and environmentally damaging lithium.

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GOOD NEWS / BAD NEWS

Good news!  Much cheaper electric vehicles are headed our way.

Bad news:  From China!

From TheEconomist:

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. . . Cheaper cars mean more money to spend on other things, at a time when real wages have been squeezed by inflation. And Chinese cars are not only cheap; they are better-quality, particularly with respect to the smart features in EVs that are made possible by internet connectivity. Nor does the existence of a car-making industry determine a country’s economic growth. Denmark has among the world’s highest living standards without a carmaker to speak of. . . .

[And] consider the benefits to the environment. Politicians around the world are realising just what a tall order it is to ask consumers to go green, as a backlash against costly emissions-reductions policies builds. EVs, too, are currently more expensive than gas-guzzling cars (even if their running costs are lower). Embracing Chinese cars with lower prices could therefore ease the transition to net-zero emissions. The cheapest EV sold in China by BYD costs around $12,000, compared with $39,000 for the cheapest Tesla in America. . . .

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→ Whatever else you may think of this, and however much Elon Musk may have contributed to progress on the roads and in space, should TSLA really be selling at 75 times earnings?

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DISINFORMATION

The old-fashioned disinformation is just lying.  Here’s a 10-term Republican Congressman telling the truth about that.  Needless to say (and how sad that it’s needless to say), he’s not running for reelection.

But that’s old school stuff.  It’s 2024!  Here’s a preview of what to expect in the months to come — and especially November 5.  And what to do about it.

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Thom Hartmann on racism.  Snippet:

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As I was writing the first draft of this article yesterday afternoon, an email came into my in-box from Donald Trump.

It was absolutely dripping with the racism that Trump has proudly exhibited all the way back to the days when he was demanding the death penalty for five innocent young Black men accused of a Central Park rape, a demand he continues to make today, long after they were all exonerated and the man who actually committed the crime was arrested and successfully prosecuted:

“Reports all over the country,” Trump starts out, “show that Obama is hellbent on stopping our 2024 campaign. He’s RETALIATING because I’m the President who ripped his disastrous ‘legacy’ to shreds.”

Right. Go after the Black guy to raise money and get out the vote in the last weeks of your primary campaign. Nothing racist about that, right?

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https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/11/us/politics/iowa-voters.html

David Sine: Subject: This is who you’re talking to…I mean, at.

Jan Altena, supporting Donald Trump

“Without a doubt, I’m with Trump.” There is a certainty in Jan Altena’s voice, something he attributes to his belief that Mr. Trump “owes nobody anything.”

“He might have a hard time getting a caucus together, he can’t get deals with people, but he’s got principles, that’s the key feature there,” said Mr. Altena, a 69-year-old retired entrepreneur, father of four and grandfather of nine.

Mostly, Mr. Altena, who lives in Orange City, a rural part of the state, wants to see a return to what he describes as conservative values of morality, which is unlikely to ever come from Washington, he said. “Improvements that have come to our culture haven’t come from government, but from the free market and ideas. You have to believe in morality, you can’t legislate it.”

The real question, Mr. Altena said, is: “Which comes first, the morality in ourselves or in politics?”

When his wife recently said that their parents had lived through “the Golden Age,” he heartily agreed. “There are not people standing up for ethical views anymore. During the Reagan years there was potential, but I think that was never the dominant worldview. We need to be praying for God’s revival.”

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ABORTION

Per Rolling Stone:

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Inside the MAGA Plan to Attack Birth Control, Surveil Women and Ban the Abortion Pill
Republicans’ Project 2025 blueprint spells out how they’ll leverage virtually every arm, tool and agency of the federal government to attack abortion.

. . . It may not matter how the high court rules if Republicans win the presidency next November. That’s because GOP operatives have already crafted an expansive blueprint, 887 pages long, laying out in painstaking detail how they intend to govern, including plans to leverage virtually every arm, tool and agency of the federal government to attack abortion access. The document explicitly names their intention not just to rescind FDA approval for the abortion pill if they regain control of the White House in 2024, but to revive a 150-year-old law that criminalizes sending or receiving through the mail any “article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine or thing” that could be used to facilitate an abortion. That law, the Comstock Act, is viewed as a de facto federal abortion ban by reproductive rights advocates and anti-abortion activists alike.

. . . Elsewhere in the document, there are proposals to eliminate the morning-after pill from the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate under the rationale that it is a “potential abortifacient”; to revoke a Biden-era rule that allows members of the military and their dependents who are stationed in states with abortion bans to seek medical care in other states; to prohibit Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funds; to punish states that require insurance to cover abortion; and to end the requirement that hospitals provide medically necessary abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act and, separately, use the law to “investigate” hospitals and doctors who provide abortions. . . .

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And more.  If choice is an issue that concerns you, it’s worth reading in full.  That includes men who don’t want to wear condoms but also don’t want to be fathers just yet.  Which, friends tell me, is a lot of men.

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For those interested in LGBT issues, Uncloseted Media launches today.   Volume 1, Issue 1.  What a contrast to 50 years ago

 

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ABC – Trans kids – 45 minutes Our America — Who I’m Meant To Be.

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But on the health care bright side, this is encouraging:

New reform bill could lower US healthcare costs, say advocates
Bipartisan bill would require hospitals, diagnostic laboratories, surgical centers and pharmacy managers to publicly post prices

On the other hand . . .

House bill to make US healthcare costs transparent unlikely to bring down prices
Supporters say bill could bring down costs as ‘consumers’ shop around but experts say comparison shopping is unrealistic

What’s interesting about these two headlines and subheads is that they sit atop the exact same article.

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Who are the good guys.  Most Americans — but by no means all — sided with the U.S. over Hitler.  With the FBI over the KGB.   With the leaders of European democracies over the leader of North Korea.  With the

Love letters with Kim — https://apnews.com/article/north-korea-weapons-program-it-workers-f3df7c120522b0581db5c0b9682ebc9b

 

Carl’s worry about men in women’s locker rooms

Plastics!  But that famous cine-moment aside, there is hope. This, in the Washington Post, is worth a skim.

 

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Technology has made SO many things easy and possible.  But getting asked for your Microsoft password by Meta (is that Facebook?) in order to access the Authenticator app (which one? is there one for each of those? did I get the app from the Apple store?) in order to gain access to your Internet provider . . . well, fellow Boomer: please pass the gravy.

This may amuse you.  One minute.

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Beware FAKE PHOTOS.  This is something it seems we’re going to have to live with unless and until a fool-proof system is devised to authenticate all real photos, and/or to identify all that are AI-generated.

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A Deep Dive into the Unprecedented Wall Street Journal Attack on FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg

None of the allegations thus far involve allegations of sexual assault or rape – allegations that have been made by more than a dozen women against Donald Trump – the leading Republican contender for President of the United States.

We used the internal search function at the Wall Street Journal as well as Google Search to check on the Journal’s coverage of the sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump. We found just six articles in the past four years involving Donald Trump and an allegation of sexual assault. That’s two articles less than have appeared in the past nine days about Gruenberg and the FDIC where no allegations of sexual assault or rape have yet to be made.

So what’s really going on here?

 

Meanwhile,The Crown‘s final season has just dropped.  (And dare I mention Sex Education?  I learned so much!)

 

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Professionalism paying off in Biden diplomacy and global strategy . . .  Heather Cox Richardson on how Russia is losing and China may be coming around a bit.

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The U.S. has emerged from the coronavirus pandemic with a historically strong economy, while China’s economy is reeling from a real estate bubble and deflation at the same time that government crackdowns have made foreign capital flee. This summer, Xi quietly sidelined Qin Gang, the foreign minister associated with wolf warrior diplomacy, and in October, he replaced Defense Minister General Li Shangfu, who is under U.S. sanctions for overseeing weapon purchases from Russia.

Indeed, China has also been quietly pushing back from its close embrace of Russia. Just weeks after their February 2022 declaration, Russia invaded Ukraine in an operation that Russian president Vladimir Putin almost certainly expected would be quick and successful, permitting Russia to seize key Ukrainian ports and land. Such a victory would have strengthened both Russia and China at the same time it weakened Europe, the United States, and their allies and partners.

Instead, Ukraine stood firm, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and allies and partners have stood behind the embattled country. As the war has stretched on, sanctions have cut into the Russian economy and Putin has had to cede power to Xi, accepting the Chinese yuan in exchange for Russian commodities, for example. This week, Alberto Nardelli of Bloomberg reported that the European Union is considering another round of sanctions, including a ban on the export of machine tools and machinery parts that enable Russia to make ammunition.

In a piece at the Center for European Policy Analysis today, Julia Davis, who monitors Russian media, noted that Russia lost an extraordinary 997,000 people between October 2020 and September 2021, even before the war began. Now it is so desperate to increase its population that its leadership claims to have stolen as many as 700,000 Ukrainian children and is urging women to have as many children as possible.

Holly Ellyatt of CNBC noted that to the degree they even mentioned it, Russian media sniped at the Biden-Xi summit, but it was hard to miss that although Russian president Putin was not welcome to attend, Xi came and engaged in several high-level meetings, assuring potential investors that China wants to be friends with the U.S. Also hard to miss was Xi’s pointed comment that the China-U.S. relationship “is the most important bilateral relationship in the world.”

Going into this summit, then, the U.S. had the leverage to get agreements from China to crack down on the precursor chemicals that Chinese producers have been shipping to Latin America to make illegal fentanyl, restore military communications between the two countries now that Li has been replaced, and make promises about addressing climate change. Other large issues of trade and the independence of Taiwan will not be resolved so easily.

Still, it was a high point for President Biden, whose economic policies and careful investment in diplomatic alliances have helped to shift the power dynamic between the U.S. and two countries that were key geopolitical rivals when he took office. Now, both the U.S. and China appear to be making an effort to move forward on better terms. Indeed, Chinese media has shifted its tone about the U.S. and the APEC summit so quickly readers have expressed surprise.

Today, Biden emphasized “the unlimited potential of our partnerships…to realize a future that will benefit people not only in the Asia-Pacific region but the whole world,… [a] future where our prosperity is shared and is inclusive, where workers are empowered and their rights are respected, where our economies are sustainable and resilient.”

Biden and administration officials noted that companies from across the Asia-Pacific world have invested nearly $200 billion in the U.S. since Biden took office, creating tens of thousands of good jobs, while the U.S. has elevated its engagement with the region, holding bilateral talks, creating new initiatives and deepening economic partnerships.

Today, Biden and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo announced that the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, an economic forum established last year as a nonbinding replacement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership former president Trump abruptly pulled out of, had agreed on terms to set up an early warning system for disruptions to supply chains, cooperation on clean energy, and fighting corruption and tax evasion.

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New film gives reel truth in the face of George Floyd lies

https://www.thefallofminneapolis.com/ — free

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Inflation was flat last month, which is great.  But we make a mistake, as I’ve suggested before, if we don’t also acknowledge the pain people feel because they haven’t gone back down.  And they probably won’t unless we have deflation and a depression, so the best way to ease the pain is rising wages.  Which Democrats, being pro-union and a higher minimum wage support, and Republicans oppose, when we support labor unions and

So yes, we’re making real progress on taming it; but the pain people feel is real — and the best way to deal with that, along with slashing the price of insulin and

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“We have a responsibility to make a difference.  And we should keep going.” –Bill Clinton

Watch a 4-minute sampling of last year’s Clinton Global Initiative.

Gore clip

Carter clip

This is the sort of thing our ex-presidents and vice presidents do.  I think Jesus would have been proud.

 

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Wall Street Journal:  https://www.wsj.com/articles/isolationism-makes-a-perilous-moment-more-so-upbeat-pessimism-international-affairs-foreign-policy-national-security-7b9ec823

. . . I want to address one of our current troubles, which is urgent but also solvable. That is the decline of America’s defenses—military and political. This weakness has been exposed in sharp relief in the last two years, and it is worse than most Americans know. We face an array of adversaries more formidable than at any time since World War II, and we aren’t prepared for the moment.

In 2019, in a visit to the White House, I met with a senior foreign-policy official. The conversation included his concern about Iran propping up Venezuela’s dictatorship with oil supplies. “Have you considered interdicting the tankers at sea?” I asked.

“We have,” he said, but the nearest ship we could find was a Dutch frigate in the middle of the Atlantic. “This isn’t Ronald Reagan’s Navy.”

Recently I spoke with a U.S. ambassador in Asia who, noting the balance of military power against China, said, “The way we have let our defenses decline is criminal.”

The war in Ukraine has taught us that our defense production lines are inadequate. Our long-range antiship missile stocks would run out in a week in a war over Taiwan. We trail Russia and China on hypersonic weapons. Or consider one example from the U.S. Navy.

The Navy’s attack submarines are the best deterrent we have against a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The Navy says it needs 66 hulls, yet only 31 were “operationally ready” this past fiscal year. To satisfy the Navy’s needs, and meet our commitments under the Aukus accords, we would have to build an average of at least 2.3 subs a year. We are building 1.2. I could cite many such examples.

The relevant questions are: How did we get here? And what to do about it?

The answer to the first question is that we forgot the lesson of history. One of my military mentors was Andy Marshall, the legendary Pentagon strategist, who liked to say that peace is best understood as an interlude between wars. Robert Gates issued a similar warning as he retired as defense secretary in 2011 when he said that, when wars end, the U.S. always makes the mistake of drawing down defenses and leaving ourselves vulnerable. We ignored him.

So what do we do about it? The obvious initial answer is to spend more on defense, and soon. But that is the easy part; we know the policy solution. The harder issue is finding the political will to do it, while persuading adversaries that we are credible enough to restore American deterrence. As we have learned in Ukraine and now in the Middle East, U.S. deterrence has faded. And the world’s rogues are on the march.

On this score, my worry is less about the political left than some of our friends on the right. . . .

What worries me these days is the lack of unity and resolve on the right. That includes the return of conservative isolationism. The proponents of this view would not identify themselves with that term, but the policies they espouse justify it.

Senators, think-tank leaders, Silicon Valley billionaires with a podcast, even presidential candidates argue in some way or another in favor of a U.S. retreat from the world. They start by denying that defending Ukraine is in our interests. But listen and you can hear where this goes. Next they say we should consider withdrawing from NATO or South Korea. They are willing to support Israel, at least for now, but that won’t last if it means engaging more in the Middle East.

What is most striking is how much this isolationism of the right resembles the traditional isolationism of the left. Isolationists in the Vietnam era argued that America wasn’t good enough for the world. We were baby killers and imperialists. This is the view of today’s pro-Hamas left.

As Charles Krauthammer pointed out 20 years ago, the conservative isolationism that flourished in the 1930s argued the opposite—that America was too good for the world. Our republican values shouldn’t be tarnished by the bloody intrigues of Europe or Asia. But the new isolationists on the right now agree with the left that the U.S. doesn’t deserve to lead the world. They say we are too degraded culturally and too weak fiscally to play the role we did during the Cold War. They say we are too woke and too broke.

. . . Defense spending is at an historic post-World War II low as a share of the economy. We can afford to spend more on defense even at our present level of national debt. . . . Yet the same conservatives who say we can’t spend more on defense because we are broke also say we can’t reform entitlements because it is too difficult. This is political surrender. . . .

We have also been here before with the military. In the 1970s, after Vietnam, morale and recruiting hit a low point. But an officer corps that included Colin Powell and Jack Keane helped to revive the esprit and the reputation of the armed forces. Within a decade the military of dope and defeat was the military of “Top Gun.” Today the Marines are still meeting their recruiting quotas by resisting identity politics and putting sacrifice and discipline first.

I must acknowledge another problem here, and that is the legacy of failed interventions abroad, especially Iraq. Those of us who supported that intervention promised more than the U.S. delivered—more, it turned out, than we were capable of delivering to societies that didn’t want what we were selling.

Based on what we knew at the time, or what we thought we knew, there is still a reasonable defense for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Iraq is no longer a regional or global menace. The Gulf Arabs have had to choose between Iran and a U.S.-backed Israel, and they have been choosing Israel. But the Iraq occupation was botched, the cost was far too high, and the political consequences have been destructive.

I’ll admit my own role here. I spent my 20s in Asia as a reporter covering the democratic revolutions in South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines. Those successes filled me with too much optimism about the potential for democratic change. I knew too little about Arab and Muslim society and so underestimated the challenges in Afghanistan and Iraq. Those troubled interventions have now become a political veto the way Vietnam once was for the left. No more nation-building, as they say.

But we are not nation-building in Israel or Ukraine. Israel is trying to preserve itself as a nation. Ukrainians are fighting to preserve their nascent democracy and join the West. It is more than a little ironic that the same people who criticize the intervention in Iraq for seeking to promote democracy now criticize aid to Ukraine because it isn’t a perfect democracy.

As Arthur Herman has pointed out, in Israel and Ukraine we are also defending Western civilization. Israel is an outpost of the West, a descendant of the heritage of Athens and Jerusalem, among neighbors who would destroy it precisely because of that heritage. Ukraine aspires to be the same. In helping them defend themselves, we are defending our founding principles. And we are helping them with weapons, not with American troops.

Different interventions overseas need to be judged on their own terms. For two decades the left had its Vietnam Syndrome against U.S. intervention abroad. Now the right is developing an Iraq Syndrome that is equally as mistaken.

Which brings me to the politics of isolationism. History shows it is a political loser for whichever party adopts it. In the 1930s the Republicans resisted what they called foreign entanglements. Even as Hitler rose in Germany and the militarists rose in Japan, Sen. Gerald Nye and other Republicans devoted their energy to investigating U.S. weapons makers. They voted for the Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936 and 1937. They even opposed Lend-Lease to Britain.

When the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor, Republicans were discredited politically for a decade. It might have been longer if they hadn’t nominated Dwight Eisenhower in 1952.

Democrats suffered a similar fate after they became the party of “come home, America” during and after Vietnam. They slashed aid to South Vietnam in 1975, and Saigon fell within weeks. Democratic hawks became Republican neoconservatives, and Republicans dominated the White House for a generation until the end of the Cold War.

Republicans are inviting a similar fate now if they abandon Ukraine to Russia. Or if they withdraw from NATO. Or if they signal to China that Taiwan is too distant to defend. The disorder that results from that abdication will be blamed on those who refused to deter it—and America will eventually be drawn into conflicts as a result of that disorder.

I am not arguing for willy-nilly intervention around the world. We must pick our spots. Prudence is a conservative virtue abroad as much as at home. We should also not fight wars that we are not willing to do what it takes to win. But when friends ask for help to defend themselves, we should make sure we have the strength and weapons to help them—and defend ourselves in the bargain.

I’ll end by addressing the popular new line of the new right. Perhaps you’ve heard it: “Do you know what time it is?” It’s intended as an insult, as in: Stop invoking Ronald Reagan, old man, and get with the 21st century. But it’s the wrong question. The right question is: What time do you want it to be?

Do you want it to be the 1930s, when America watched from afar as dictators began to march? We pretended we were safe, only to be attacked with our guard down. It took four years and 400,000 dead Americans to win World War II. This isn’t yet the 1930s, but they will arrive soon enough on our present course.

Or would you prefer this time to be like the 1970s and 1980s, when the American right united behind a mission of rearmament, economic revival and renewed national purpose? When we won the Cold War and ushered in two decades of prosperity.

Don’t believe the pessimists who say we can’t do it again. . . .

Mr. Gigot is the Journal’s editorial page editor. This is adapted from remarks Tuesday at the annual Irving Kristol award dinner hosted by the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

 

You know what’s fun?  Going through stuff you haven’t looked at in a long time.

If you’ve seen my apartment — Grey Gardens meets Hoarders — you know this could take a year of Friday nights.  But here are just three of the things I found on one shelf:

1. An unlabeled 3-ring binder that gave no clue to its contents — and jogged not a single memory cell (where did I get it? why did I have it? I sure as hell didn’t buy it!) — but, when opened, turned out to be the course materials for “The Trump Way To Success In Business,” copyright 2005 by The Trump Institute.

“Congratulations on taking another step toward building your personal wealth,” it begins.  “Now that you’re thinking like a billionaire, expanding your business acumen is critical.  That’s what this seminar is all about.”

It runs from Chapter 1, COMING UP WITH AN IDEA . . . to Chapter 32, DECIDING TO SELL.

Might it be worth anything on eBay?

2.  James Lipton’sAn Exaltation of Larks.  Sure you know about a pride of lions and a gaggle of geese.  And maybe even a parliament of owls.  (Picture it.)  But did you know that a school of fish was originally a shoal  of fish, mis-transcribed somewhere along the way since its likely Fifteenth Century coinage?  There are hundreds of these, some of them nicely illustrated . . . a pontificality of prelates, a foresight of housekeepers . . . and Lipton is besotted with them all.

3. A poem I had forgotten I had written titled “Free Verse Is Worth What You Pay For It,” which turns out not to have been free verse at all — it rhymed — produced for the occasion of Bob Waldron’s retirement party.

You have no idea who Bob was and neither did I when he was first sent by the life insurance industry to sabotage my 1982 Invisible Bankers tour, which was kind of like Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, only without music or audiences or fans, and limited to a dozen American cities.

It is a terrible poem, but the best I could do.

If memory serves, it was handed out along with the salad course at Bob’s retirement dinner which I was unable to attend.

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Free Verse Is Worth What You Pay For It

 

 

 

 

Bill Gates: AI is about to completely change how you use computers . . . And upend the software industry.

You

Write 300 words in the style of Andrew Tobias on why donating to the DNC is a great investment in saving democracy

ChatGPT

ChatGPT

Andrew Tobias, with his astute financial acumen and progressive leanings, might argue that investing in the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is not merely a political contribution but a strategic investment in the health and future of democracy itself.

To begin, he’d likely lay out the stark contrasts in policy and governance between the two major political parties in the United States, emphasizing that the DNC’s platform aims to uphold and expand the democratic principles that ensure freedom, equality, and justice for all citizens. He might assert that, unlike a volatile stock market or a speculative new venture, donating to the DNC is an investment in a proven framework of ideals that have consistently sought to elevate the common good.

Tobias would probably highlight the practical aspects of such an investment. By funding the DNC, donors contribute to the machinery that enables voter registration drives, supports candidates who advocate for voter rights, and fights against gerrymandering and other forms of electoral suppression. In his view, these activities are akin to investing in a company with a solid business plan—they are essential to maintaining and growing the customer base, which in this case is the American electorate.

Furthermore, Tobias might compare the act of donating to the act of paying for insurance. Just as insurance protects against potential future calamities, donations to the DNC serve as a safeguard against the erosion of democratic norms and institutions. He would likely argue that while the return on investment may not be immediate or quantifiable in the short term, the long-term benefits of a robust, fair, and functioning democracy are invaluable.

Lastly, Tobias would remind readers that, like any investment, there is an inherent risk. The risk in this scenario is complacency—the belief that democracy is self-sustaining without active participation and support. Therefore, he would argue that contributions to the DNC are not only strategic but also necessary, acting as a bulwark against the forces that threaten to undermine the democratic process.

In conclusion, through Tobias’s lens, donating to the DNC is a wise investment, paying dividends in the form of a stronger, more resilient democracy. It’s about placing one’s resources in service of a greater cause, with the understanding that the health of a nation’s democracy directly correlates with the well-being of its people and the integrity of its governance.

 

 

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GDP growth

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Billion-dollar prisons: why the US is pouring money into new construction

The US has an incarceration rate of 664 people in every 100,000, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, far higher than other founding Nato countries. (The next highest is the UK, where 129 out of every 100,000 people are behind bars.)

Studies show incarceration does not improve public safety but ‘tough-on-crime’ Republicans are driving investment in prisons

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President Obama’s approval rating in 2011, a year before his reelection, was 41%.

Demon Copperhead

 

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Republicans continue effort to erode US child labor rules despite teen deaths

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Stonewall Jordan marches Republicans into the wilderness

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Bring small tupperware with you to restaurants — waste not want not.  No throwing out the foor.  No paper bag and two separate oversidezed plastic . . . no forgetting it at the restaurant.  Should fit in a pocket or backpack or purse . . .

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WheelTug ground ops press?

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BONUS

Musk’s X Sucks.  “Social media is awash in misinformation about Israel-Gaza war, but Musk’s X is the most egregious.”

 

AND NOW A WORD +IN FAVOR OF+ AUTOCRACY . . . that Libya / Iran piece, etc.     (And the CIA torture guy? John Kiriakou: Torture at Guantanamo ?  https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/25/john-kiriakou-torture-at-guantanamo/)

 

Lots of great POSTERS from Jim Burt

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BANANAS $1.99 for 7 of them  . . . Robert Reich . . .

Paper Towels — NYT, and rags

90-Square Feet in a great location.

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SHOULD WE STOP “ACTIVE SHOOTER DRILLS”

We should keep doing them for the teachers and staff — but how many lives has traumatizing millions of kids saved us?  And how do you measure the cost to those millions of kids?  So far in 2023, if Im reading this right, 13 kids and teachers have been killed in K-12 school shootings; 178 killed or injured in the past five years.  How many lives were saved over the course of those last 5 years by training the kids each year and not just the faculty?

https://www.edweek.org/leadership/school-shooter-drills-is-there-a-right-way-to-do-them/2022/06

Cuomo: COVID if it saves just one life . . .

Leaders need to think logically . . .

 

 

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“Vote no and take the dough”

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NYT Interactive Conspiracy Graphic The Key Players in Trump’s Plot to Upend the Election, Mapped

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Life expectancies by region – Politico.

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https://fabricehoudart.substack.com/p/the-murder-of-laura-ann-carleton?r=17zxk&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

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R.I.P. STEVE NEWBY 1990 Bill Griffiths MONEY TALKS

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Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision | AP News

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Inside the Biden White House as Kabul Fell, adapted from Franklin Foer’s The Last Politician, out next week.  Subtitled: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future.

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BILL MAHER 3,716,531 views Feb 3, 2023  The problem with communism – and with some very recent ideologies here at home – is that they think you can change reality by screaming at it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yysKhJ1U-vM

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The Six Democratic Scandals — Kevin Drum might have been a bit tougher, but . . .

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DO A POST ON CLIMATE ($50 trillion, Barry Basden, Dr. Judy, Anonymous Norcross ) WITH THIS HOOK:

Dr. Judith Curry — if warming is so bad, why are we all migrating South?  And other contrarianisms.

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The Instagram Account That Shattered a California High School It had barely a dozen followers, but the discovery of its racist posts turned a Bay Area community against itself — and changed students’ lives forever.

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Bunch in Philadelphia Inquirer:  https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/us-conservatives-embrace-authoritarianism-anti-democracy-20230813.html Paul Abrams: “The “Jesus” part is particularly interesting because I think it might be a hook into breaking the religious appeal, that enjoys constitutional protection and, bcz of that, is deliberately ignored.  IMO if a political candidate claims he’s a Christian as a key part of his message, I think it’s long past time to say “prove it”. (I have a Twitter follower who is a pastor/preacher/minister who is writing 5 questions from Jesus to ask these phonies.)”

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BAD NEWS WEDNESDAY  (send also to Suze for KT) Hardening Our Houses For Typhoon Trump

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Bill Maher:  Presentism 8 minutes.  (“Humans are not good people.” — Bill Mahar)

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VANILLA, THE 28-YEAR-OLD CHIMP, SEES THE SKY FOR THE FIRST TIME A friend at the sanctuary sent me this clip.

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DELTA GETS YOU THERE – Well, Not Necessarily    Barreirinhas

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TURN EVERY PAGE – HM, LBJ . . .

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CEMENT BATTERIES https://futurism.com/the-byte/mit-scientists-create-supercapacitor-storing-energy Now if we can just get along with each otjher for the next 20-30 years . . .   PATRIOTIC MILLIONAIRES – OLIGARCH TAX

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Scary David Stockman — and the comments!  https://www.zerohedge.com/political/stockman-warns-american-democracy-will-pay-terrible-price-jack-smiths-insouciance

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Apple News+ – 300 papers inlcuding WSJ . . . (my reader’s email)

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The world the word lox unlocks . . . (Thanks, Andrew.)

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Redford – and almost meeting him. NYTimes: My Impossible Mission to Find Tom Cruise – magazine writing at its best

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SETH MNOOKIN ON Bobby Kennedy Jr. The Associated Press on Bobby Kennedy Jr.

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This essay makes me proud to be a member of the Patriotic Millionaires — even though I’m proud of my friendships with some billionaires who are all, in various ways, wonderful, progressive people.  What do you think of the OLIGARCH Act?

The two of us have led very different lives. One is a multimillionaire who grew up flying her famous family’s private plane to her famous family’s private castle in Ireland. The other is a member of Congress who was born in the hallway of a segregated hospital and who raised two sons as a single mom on public assistance. Our disparate experiences have nonetheless led us to the same conclusion: Extreme wealth inequality is a threat to our economy and democracy, and we need a tax specifically aimed at constraining it. . . .

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Intergovernmental call — 988 suicide hot line . . . cancer moonshot . . . competition . . . Heather Cox Richardson: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-19-2023?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

. . . Reagan and his people advanced [Judge Robert] Bork’s position, abandoning the idea that capitalism fundamentally depends on competition. Industries consolidated, and by the time Biden took office his people estimated the lack of competition was costing a median U.S. household as much as $5000 a year. Two years ago, Biden called the turn toward Bork’s ideas “the wrong path,” and vowed to restore competition in an increasingly consolidated marketplace. With his executive order in July 2021, he established a White House Competition Council to direct a whole-of-government approach to promoting competition in the economy.  This shift gained momentum in part because of what appeared to be price gouging as the shutdowns of the pandemic eased. The five largest ocean container shipping companies, for example, made $300 billion in profits in 2022, compared to $64 billion the year before, which itself was a higher number than in the past. Those higher prices helped to drive inflation. The baby formula shortage that began in February 2022 also highlighted the problems of concentration in an industry. Just four companies controlled 90% of the baby formula market in the U.S., and when one of them shut down production at a plant that appeared to be contaminated, supplies fell dramatically across the country. The administration had to start flying millions of bottles of formula in from other countries under Operation Fly Formula, a solution that suggested something was badly out of whack. The administration’s focus on restoring competition had some immediate effects. It worked to get a bipartisan reform to ocean shipping through Congress, permitting greater oversight of the shipping industry by the Federal Maritime Commission. That law was part of the solution that brought ocean-going shipping prices down 80% from their peak. It worked with the Food and Drug Administration to make hearing aids available over the counter, cutting costs for American families. It also has worked to get rid of the non-compete clauses which made it hard for about 30 million workers to change jobs. And it began cracking down on junk fees, add-ons to rental car contracts, ticket sales, banking services, and so on, getting those fees down an estimated $5 billion a year. “Folks are tired of being played for suckers,” Biden said. “[I]t’s about basic fairness.” Today, the administration announced new measures to promote competition in the economy. The Department of Agriculture will work with attorneys general in 31 states and Washington, D.C. to enforce antitrust and consumer protection laws in food and agriculture. They will make sure that large corporations can’t fix food prices or price gouge in stores in areas where they have a monopoly. They will work to expand the nation’s processing capacity for meat and poultry, and are also promoting better access to markets for all agricultural producers and keeping seeds open-source. Having cracked down on junk fees in consumer products, the administration is now turning to junk fees in rental housing, fees like those required just to file a rental application or fees to be able to pay your rent online. The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission today released new merger guidelines to protect the country from mass layoffs, higher prices, and fewer options for consumers and workers. Biden used the example of hospital mergers, which have led to extraordinary price hikes, to explain why new guidelines are necessary. The agencies reached out for public comment to construct 13 guidelines that seek to prevent mergers that threaten competition or tend to create monopolies. They declare that agencies must address the effect of proposed mergers on “all market participants and any dimension of competition, including for workers.” Now that the guidelines are proposed, officials are asking the public to provide comments on them. The comment period will end on September 18. One of the reporters on the press call about the new initiatives noted that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has accused the Biden administration of regulatory overreach, exactly as Bork outlined in a famous 1978 book introducing his revision of U.S. antitrust policy. An answer by a senior administration official highlighted a key element of the struggle over business consolidation that is rarely discussed and has been key to demands to end such consolidation since the 1870s. The official noted that small businesses, especially those in rural areas, are quite happy to see consolidation broken up, because it gives them an opportunity to get into fields that previously had been closed to them. In fact, small businesses have boomed under this administration; there were 10.5 million small business applications in its first two years and those numbers continue strong. This is the same pattern the U.S. saw during the Progressive Era of the early twentieth century and during the New Deal of the 1930s. In both of those eras, established business leaders insisted that government regulation was bad for the economy and that any attempts to limit their power came from workers who were at least flirting with socialism. But in fact entrepreneurs and small businesses were always part of the coalition that wanted such regulation. They needed it to level the playing field enough to let them participate. The effects of this turnaround in the government’s approach to economic consolidation is a big deal. It is already having real effects on our lives, and offers to do more: saving consumers money, protecting workers’ wages and safety, and promoting small businesses, especially in rural areas. It’s another part of this administration’s rejection of the top-down economy that has shaped the country since 1981.

uRI gELLER The End of the Magic World’s 50-Year Grudge

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Kevin Kinsella on PARADISE NOW KarlLagerfeld bio: Lagerfeld who was born September 10, 1933, always claimed he was born in 1938, five years later – so he could distance himself from that annus horribilis in German (and human) history. If he were actually born in 1938, then he would have only been seven years old at the end of the Third Reich in 1945. “The year 1933 in Germany may have been one of the more eventful, and ultimately tragic, in history. In the presidential elections the year before, Adolf Hitler had come in second, winning no more than 35 percent of the national vote. By the end of January 1933, to appease his party, he was named chancellor. In February, the Reichstag, seat of the German parliament, burned to the ground. Hitler issued the Reichstag Fire Decree, suspending most civil liberties throughout Germany, including the freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and habeas corpus. The country’s political and social leadership was fractured, seemingly frozen. There was a sense of anarchy, a fear of communism, and a political void that Hitler was able to exploit. Throughout March, the Nazi Party began to seize control of state governments.15 By the end of the month, in a series of legislative moves, Hitler forced votes that gave him and his party full dictatorial power. “The one-party totalitarian State had been achieved with scarcely a ripple of opposition or defiance,” wrote William Shirer, the American journalist who was a firsthand witness to the events of those years.16 By May, all trade unions were[…] But the parallels with MAGA are disturbing:

1. Trump never won the popular vote.
2. A lot of what is being spoken, by even Pence, regarding the NY DA’s Stormy Daniels case against him is that it’s a “political witch hunt,” a continuation of the “Russia Hoax.” WHAT RUSSIAN HOAX??? None of these horses asses apparently has read the Republican-led Senate Report on Russian Interference in the 2016 election. It’s all there in black and white.
3. So far, we have a strong judiciary bulwark against something parallel to the Reichstag Fire Decree but we have rogue judges – like Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas who will outlaw the two drug, abortion inducing, FDA approved medications. Sixty-five percent of Americans support reproductive freedom. And once more of these outlaw GOP-appointed judges come out in the open, God help us!
4. The Republicans are slowly taking over state governments through gerrymandering, voter intimidation and restrictive voting legislation.
5. What’s even more scary is Ron DeSantis, a dyed-in-the-wool autocrat, who has illegally dismissed a DA whose ruling he didn’t agree with, stoked fear in the hearts of Florida school teachers and librarians about “wokeness” and since he’s smarter than Trump, there is a lot more to be concerned about. The rap on DeSantis is that he isn’t warm and cuddly and given to politician small talk. Neither was Hitler.

So…in the next few months as the multiple legal cases against Trump come to fruition, we need to insure that any protestors are met with overwhelming police force and these characters are charged and prosecuted – so that the Democrats are not the whipping boys for “anarchy.” AND when Trump is convicted of staging a coup, the 14^th Amendment needs to be invoked to get him off the ballot in as many jurisdictions as possible. And not be beguiled by the sophomoric notion that the best way to get rid of Trump is let the voters do it. NFW. The full legal power of the state needs to be wielded against this miscreant and any of his compatriots. The party line now is that, “Isn’t it awful that criminal charges are being brought against a former president – first time in American history. Well, first time in American history that the people elected (through the Electoral College) a damn career criminal at president.

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Despite Republican long-running efforts to cripple the IRS, and more recent efforts to cripple the FBI and our intelligence agencies, and to delegitimize the press and trust in our legal system and our elections . . . What the IRS should be doing.

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WE’VE GOT TO HAVE THESE CONVERSATIONS Write about my call w John from Wisconsin – Planned Parenthood, etc.

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Spend three minutes in Malawi — hats off to Tony Blair. THE INDICTMENT for a rainy weekend HARVEY SILVERGLATE for a rainy weekend – FIRE   Sign if you agree: We need reparations now.

As a Black woman in Congress, I work in a building built by our ancestors who were enslaved. I serve in an institution where past members of Congress enslaved Black people, near the White House where past presidents traded and enslaved Black people.

Throughout my life, I’ve personally experienced how Black people continue to bear the harms of slavery and its vestiges. We see this in present-day health disparities, the growing Black-white wealth gap, escalating police violence against Black communities, and so much more.

That’s why I partnered with grassroots groups to introduce the Reparations Now Resolution, which recognizes the federal government’s responsibility to provide reparations for the enslavement of Africans — and for the harm our government continues to inflict on millions of Black people.

. . .

Discriminatory lending practices are ongoing, contributing to the growing racial wealth gap. And legalized slavery persists in our system of incarceration and policing, which has grown dramatically in the past 40 years.

I’ve introduced policies to address these anti-Black injustices, including by decriminalizing drugs, investing in non-carceral public health alternatives to policing, addressing the trauma of generations of police violence, and investing in the resources Black communities need.

The next and necessary step to achieve racial justice is by enacting reparations.

Congresswoman Cori Bush

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Ban smartphones in schools.  Or maybe offer phones with remote parental controls — so they could be used ONLY for communications to and from the parents . . . .

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FORBES  (not xlear what it’s good for — the next Segway?) — https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnpaczkowski/2023/06/07/this-is-what-its-like-to-use-apples-new-vision-pro-mixed-reality-headset/?sh=1e76fb2139e4&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailydozen&cdlcid=5fd6dadfb52f2e83d7f9e385 << Apple’s newest headset is a technological leap far beyond its competitors—but it’s still not clear what it’s for. >>

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<< But even though I was wildly impressed by my experience using the Vision Pro, it’s not clear where this latest Apple innovation and the “spatial computing” that it pioneers is taking us. >>   versus tom Rielly . ..   —–Original Message—– From: Andrew Tobias <atobias123@gmail.com> Sent: Thursday, June 8, 2023 9:28 AM To: Brian Gatens <briangatens@gmail.com>; Tyler Beresford <tylerjberes@gmail.com> Subject: Apple’s latest https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0VnLDRPsZoX5FVSW4R3cMZJZtXKJAnDftEZUfP7p9KC1azYnYbQ9EuTmA5c6Frt3ul&id=702525001&mibextid=qC1gEa   He/Him — trans athletes . . .

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WOKE – th Thom podcast or article from today, 6/7/23

JUSTICE SYSTENM — RELEGITIMIZE SUPREME COURT — ERIC MALLEY VS TEXAS VOTING WOMAN — PRKR Just got off the phone with a very nice woman at Eric’s prison (who called me from 570-523-1251). I had called to see why his 5-year sentence “without parole” keeps getting shortened – most recently by a full year, for September 30, 2024 release – and she was very knowledgeable and familiar with the case.  She sees Eric every day.  I’m guessing he has thoroughly charmed her. It turns out that we’ll soon be notified they’re taking ANOTHER year off the sentence, and that he will be released to a halfway house (probably in Connecticut) this October, having served 22 months of his “5 years without parole.” And that the halfway house will have the discretion to allow him “home release” with an ankle bracelet. As his former friend, and out of concern for his kids, I’m happy for him (and Grace and Cooper).  But – wow.  It’s sure interesting how the justice system works. (I haven’t checked lately, but in Texas a black woman who was told she could vote was sentenced to 5 years in prison for submitting a provisional ballot – that was never counted – because she in fact was not eligible to vote.  I wonder how much they will shorten HER sentence, if she doesn’t win on appeal.) This extra year off the sentence is his reward for completing a drug treatment program. My GUESS is that he HAD no drug problem (which made the program easy to complete), and that he charmed or scammed someone into believing, or pretending to believe, he did. As to restitution, she said he is required to pay $100,000 every quarter for the rest of his life until all fines and restitution is made.  She’s not sure where he’s getting the money, or what action has been taken or is being taken to find and liquidate his assets . . . that’s not her department . . . although she did say the ($6M?) house was sold.  She also says he has lots of debts, so it could be a long time, if ever, before we see any of this.  That was just her guess. She was very forthcoming and helpful.  I was impressed.

Jamie Kirchick — From Queer to Gay to Queer — in LIBERTIES

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. . . It is increasingly difficult to remember today, but within living memory the homosexual was the most despised figure in the American imagination. Diagnosed as mentally ill by the medical establishment, condemned as heathens from the pulpit of every major religious denomination, their conduct deemed illegal by the state, gay men and women — commonly referred to as “perverts,” “sex deviants,” and even less pleasant epithets — once occupied a place comparable to that of the dissident in a totalitarian regime. Between 1946 and 1961, the year before Illinois became the first state to decriminalize homosexual acts between consenting adults, state and municipal governments imposed some one million criminal penalties upon gay people for offenses ranging from holding hands to dancing to sex, a legal regime approximating what Christopher Isherwood memorably described as a “heterosexual dictatorship.” Indeed, when it came to gay people, the legal system sanctioned illegality, in the form of the “gay panic” defense that enabled assailants to justify their violent, even homicidal assaults on gay men as fits of temporary insanity “provoked” by a homosexual’s “indecent advance.” The Postal Service impounded gay literary magazines and the FBI spied on gay rights organizations. Declared enemies of the state by leaders of both political parties, gay people were prohibited from working for the federal government until 1975, and barred from holding security clearances for another two decades. . . .

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When you work your way through their ostentatiously abstruse vocabulary, the intent of the queer theorists becomes clear: revolution against the “normal,” however it happens to be understood. “Queer is by definition whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant,” David Halperin, one of the leading academic queer theorists, explained in 1995 in Saint Foucault: Towards a Gay Historiography. In this analysis, expanding our conception of the normal — which the gay movement stupendously achieved — is worse than insufficient. It is a sordid collaboration with power. (This is how the extension of hard-won marriage rights to gay people becomes the strengthening of a “fundamentally violent institution.”)

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Most gay people have no interest being conscripted into a furious ideological battering ram against bourgeois values, the sex binary, and the societal mainstream, and if the attempt to associate them with such a dead-end project succeeds, it will not be on their account. It will succeed because the forces of reaction, working in perverse synergy with the forces of queerness, make it so. At a time when reactionary homophobia is enjoying a resurgence, queerness plays directly into its hands. If the values represented by “LGBTQ” come to be seen by a majority of the public as hostile to their own — rather than as a confirmation of those values, which is what the older generation of gay activists, the valiant heroes of our cause, insisted — then gay people will suffer the consequences. It is long past time to recognize queerness for what it has become: a parasite on the gay rights movement, and on gay identity itself. Successive generations of gay men and women did not survive social ostracism, medicalized torture, governmental oppression, and a deadly plague only for the beneficiaries of their sacrifice to go back to being queers.

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The Pope and Uganda . . .

bELAFONTE bUTTIGIEG . . . Tip Toe . . .  (Larry Kramer?)

A win for the good guys — unless you trust Putin over the U.S. intelligence agencies.

US busts Russian cyber operation in dozens of countries

https://open.substack.com/pub/thomhartmann/p/america-is-being-exhausted-by-the?r=5jgrx&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

APE / CHRB

He/She . . . trans sports — 14 years olds not competing against 13 . . . big kids not allowed to play againstr little kids . . . NCAA . . .    PRONOUNS: https://pronouns.org/what-and-why    *Pronouns: he, him, his: Why list Pronouns?

From: Tony Seton <tonyseton@tonyseton.com> A little nervous about posting – it makes all too much sense:

Medicare Part G Say you are an older senior citizen and can no longer take care of yourself and need Long-Term Care, but the government says there is no Nursing Home care available for you. So, what do you do? You opt for Medicare Part G. The plan gives anyone 75 or older a gun (Part G) and one bullet. You are allowed to shoot one worthless politician*. This means you will be sent to prison for the rest of your life where you will receive three meals a day, a roof over your head, central heating and air conditioning, cable TV, a library, and all the health care you need. Need new teeth? No problem. Need glasses? That’s great. Need a hearing aid, new hip,ll knees, kidney, lungs, sex change, or heart? They are all covered! As an added bonus, your kids can come and visit you at least as often as they do now! And, who will be paying for all of this? The same government that just told you they can’t afford for you to go into a nursing home. And you will get rid of a useless politician while you are at it. And now, because you are a prisoner, you don’t have to pay any more income taxes! Is this a great country or what? Now that you have solved your senior Long-Term Care problem, enjoy the rest of your week. *FYI: Some folks are already complaining that you are limited to only one politician

https://open.substack.com/pub/thomhartmann/p/will-no-labels-usher-in-a-trump-or?r=5jgrx&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email Will “No Labels” Usher in a Trump or DeSantis White House in 2024? But the part that really grabbed me, near the end:

Almost half of all the money donated to the two main super PACs supporting the GOP came from just 27 rightwing billionaires. Investing in politicians and ballot initiatives, since the practice was legalized by corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court, turns out to be the very most profitable investment a billionaire can make. For example, in 2020 Democrats in Illinois put up a ballot measure called the “Fair Tax” that cut state income taxes for people earning under $100,000 a year while it raised state income taxes on those making over $1 million from 4.95% to 7.99%. The ballot measure’s main supporter — Governor (and progressive billionaire) JB Pritzker — hoped the measure would raise around $3 billion in tax revenue to help the state close a budget hole. But then-Illinois resident and rightwing billionaire Ken Griffin (one of Ron DeSantis’ largest donors) spent $54 million of his own money to defeat the measure. His campaign to carpet-bomb the state with a message to the effect of “Democrats can’t be trusted; they just want to raise your taxes” worked and the measure was defeated. The proposed billionaire tax would have cost Griffin $51 million just in that one year of 2020 and, as ProPublica noted:

“In especially good years — in 2018, Griffin reported income of almost $2.9 billion — he might have been forced to pay more than $80 million more.”

In other words, it wasn’t an expenditure for Griffin: it was a low-cost investment. Imagine how much more profitable billionaire “contributions” would be with a fully-bought-off GOP in charge of the White House because of a third-party candidacy.

Which explains why No Labels and the Corporate Problem Solvers became inevitable once Republicans on the Court fully decriminalized political bribery. There will never be a shortage of people willing to take bribes if it’s legal and there’s no legal or political downside risk. Far rarer are politicians like Progressive Caucus members, who take no PAC money. America’s last best chance to do something about money in politics blew up when Corporate Problem Solver caucus members Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin joined every bought-off Republican in the Senate to block passage of the For The People Act last year. No Labels and the Corporate Problem Solvers are now playing with political fire, flirting with fielding a “moderate” (i.e. bought-off) candidate for president next year. According to their own polling, as Judd Legum points out at Popular.info, doing so in the midst of a Biden-Trump rematch would throw the election to Trump (who they have previously honored). But that doesn’t sem to trouble them at all, just so long as the dark money keeps rolling in.

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SNL ON EASTER:  https://youtu.be/hj6E2_3nraQ WACO CROWD SIZE:  Not big! THE ARRAIGNMENT: Seth Abramson’s in-depth analysis.

Reprise Monday and add:  The OGOP (once=grand) A “small government” party that champions individual freedom, except when the government needs to big-foot a woman’s relationship with her gynecologist or step in to prevent parents and their children and their doctors from deciding on their own how to deal with gender nonconformity.

Noa Tishby fired:    https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-736180

HOPE  Opinion – This element is critical to human flourishing — yet missing from the news

GLDD?  CMRX?

Armed left-wing militias . . . https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2023/ar-15-armed-extremist-militia-groups/?itid=hp-more-top-stories_p003_f003 . . . give all blacks in florida guns and with stand your ground when they feel threatened they can kill any cop

Field Team 6 https://www.youtube.com/@fieldteam6524/featured FT6 Summit 2023 Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2138450

Family trust laws favor uber-rich BY JEFFREY SCHWEERS ORLANDO SENTINEL Florida has long been a tax haven, but new trust laws enacted over the past three years friendly to the heirs of the Walmart fortune and other families will make the state even more accommodating to the uber-rich looking to hide wealth and avoid taxes for generations to come. . . . Opponents, including the First Amendment Foundation and real estate and trust lawyers, said they created an elite, secret court system where the wealthiest families can air out their affairs without scrutiny, promote dynasty trusts that don’t have to pay taxes for 1,000 years, and protect trustees from adverse consequences. . . . The money at stake is astronomical. The largest transfer of intergenerational wealth is about to occur over the next few decades, with an estimated $30 trillion to $68 trillion to be handed down, said Juan C. Antunez, a real estate and trust lawyer in Miami. With a maximum 40% tax on inherited wealth over $12.9 million, there is a potential loss of as much as $27 trillion in federal tax revenue. . . . There is no Florida residency required for the trustees of family trusts and no tax or economic benefit other than what the bankers and lawyers receive in payments. . . .Signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in June 2020, the law protects trustees from any adverse consequences when paying taxes for the beneficiaries of a trust. It also created tax shelters in the form of nontaxable gifts to the beneficiaries of the trust and withdrawals without incurring gift or estate taxes and it protects trust assets from being subject to claims from creditors. The pattern was repeated in the months leading up to the 2022 legislative session when lawmakers filed two more bills — one closing a public records loophole in court proceedings involving the internal affairs of family trust companies and another that extends the life of trusts to 1,000 years. . . .

BONUS This may be a little shrill; but in a world where — in pursuit of money — Rupert Murdoch, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Laura Ingraham aggressively support a man they loathe and know to be a liar, it may not be unreasonable to ask: Did Jared & Trump Sell Out America for Billions while the Media Looked the Other Way?

Tough Decisions THE TOUGH DECISION FOX VIEWERS HAVE TO MAKE Are you angry at FOX for lying to you these last two years — telling you Trump won the 2020 election and that, basically, you love him, when in fact you privately knew he had lost and, loathing him, were delighted he did? Or are you angry at FOX for not having loved Trump when you should have? THE TOUGH DECISION NETANYAHU HAS TO MAKE Mandela, Caesar risked Brutus . . . Could Bibi risk a year in minimum securoity prison to save Israeli democracy?

Princeton senior: woke is driving moderates to the right. Cancel culture . . .

Bob F:  “Below is a guest column written by ChatGPT on the topic of favorable capital gain tax rates on longer maturity Treasuries with low coupon rates.”

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Another Case for Cowardice Investing in Treasury securities is a safe and reliable way to build wealth and preserve capital. Most investors are aware that Treasury securities are taxed at ordinary income tax rates. However, many may not be aware that Treasury securities with a maturity greater than one year may be eligible for favorable long-term capital gain tax rates. This is an important point to understand, especially when considering longer-maturity Treasuries with a low coupon rate. When combined, these two factors shift almost all of the total return of the bond to long-term capital gains. This is good news for investors because everyone benefits from these capital gain rates. For some investors in lower tax brackets, they may not owe any tax at all on the capital gain portion of their return. This effectively makes the investment a nearly tax-free bond with a very attractive rate for the near-zero risk. For example, consider a Treasury with a coupon rate of 0.25% maturing on March 15, 2024. This currently has a yield-to-maturity of around 5.2%. Assuming that the investor holds the bond until maturity, the total return will be around 5.2%. However, because of the low coupon rate and longer maturity, the vast majority of the return will be taxed at the favorable long-term capital gain rates. This is a significant advantage for investors, particularly those in lower tax brackets. For example, a single filer with a taxable income of $40,000 would owe no tax on long-term capital gains up to $40,400. Therefore, this investor could potentially earn a tax-free return on their investment in the Treasury bond. Of course, every investor’s tax situation is unique, and it is important to consult with a tax professional before making any investment decisions. However, it is clear that Treasury securities with a longer maturity and low coupon rate offer a potentially attractive tax advantage for investors seeking a low-risk investment. In conclusion, Treasury securities are a great investment option for those seeking stability and reliability in their portfolio. When considering longer-maturity Treasuries with a low coupon rate, investors should be aware of the potential tax benefits available through favorable long-term capital gain tax rates. By taking advantage of these benefits, investors can potentially earn a tax-free return on their investment, making Treasury securities an even more attractive investment option.

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A few words from Abraham Lincoln

Season 2 of White Lotus — so good.

Don Lemon, Jim Jordan . . . https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/07/30/jim-jordan-trump-conversation-sot-jan-6-dlt-dons-take-vpx.cnn

Oral Roberts and Andrew Hartzler — what if it were a madrassa? I lead the church that funded New College. This is not our vision of faith. Karine responds to Governor of Tennessee’s Drag Show Initiative — two minutes

Tony Seton: “I don’t vouch for the verity of this email, but it certainly seems plausible given the nonsense that so often disgorges from bureaucrats.”

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REAL ESTATE IN LOUISIANA… Rebuilding New Orleans after Katrina often caused residents to be challenged to prove home titles back hundreds of years. That is because of community history stretching back over two centuries during which houses were passed along through generations of family, sometimes making it quite difficult to establish a paper trail of ownership. ——————————————————————————————— A New Orleans lawyer sought a FHA rebuilding loan for a client. He was told the loan would be granted upon submission of satisfactory proof of ownership of the parcel of property as it was being offered as collateral. It took the lawyer 3 months, but he was able to prove title to the property dating back to 1803. After sending the information to the FHA, he received the following reply. (Actual reply from FHA) “Upon review of your letter adjoining your client’s loan application, we note that the request is supported by an Abstract of Title. While we compliment the able manner in which you have prepared and presented the application, we must point out that you have only cleared title to the proposed collateral property back to 1803. Before final approval can be accorded, it will be necessary to clear the title back to its origin.” And here is the letter the lawyer responded with: (Actual response): “Your letter regarding title in Case No.189156 has been received. I note that you wish to have proof of title extended further than the 206 years already covered in the present application. I was unaware that any educated person in this country, particularly those working with real property, would not know that Louisiana was purchased by the United States from France in 1803, the year of origin of title identified in our application. For the edification of uninformed FHA bureaucrats, the title to the land prior to U.S. ownership was obtained from France, which had acquired it by Right of Conquest from Spain. The land came into the possession of Spain by Right of Discovery made in the year 1492 by a sea captain named Christopher Columbus, who had been granted the privilege of seeking a new route to India by the Spanish monarch, Queen Isabella. The good Queen Isabella, being a pious woman and almost as careful about titles as the FHA, took the precaution of securing the blessing of the Pope before she sold her jewels to finance Columbus’s expedition. Now the Pope, as I’m sure you may know, is the emissary of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and God, it is commonly accepted, created this world. Therefore, I believe it is safe to presume that God also made that part of the world called Louisiana. God, therefore, would be the owner of origin and His origins date back to before the beginning of time, the world as we know it, and the FHA. I hope you find God’s original claim to be satisfactory. Now, may we have our reconstruction loan?” The loan was immediately approved.

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*Monday noon, Tel Aviv time.

https://the.ink/p/the-founder-of-craigslist-on-giving

Life ain’t simple. — AT

Opinions | We need to have a talk about Alexei Navalny

The Russian human rights activist has a history of offensive statements. He should make his position clear.

Opinion by Terrell Jermaine Starr

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/01/we-need-have-talk-about-alexei-navalny/

Drug shortages are an urgent national danger. Here’s how we fix them.

DECLASSIFICATION Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin notes on FOX News that former president had the authority to declassify the documents he stole from the government and refused to return, whereas then Vice President Buden did not.  While likely to be effective with Trump cultists, this argument is wrong on two fronts.  First, no one is allowed to steal government records even if they ARE declassified.  Take, for example, the love letters between Trump and the murderer Kim Jung-Un.  Assume they are declassified and released to the public.  Would the originals not themselves be worth a lot of money at auction?

DEMOCRATS DELIVER For the six month in a row inflation has come down. Wages are higher now than they were 6 months ago, the country is seeing the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years, nearly 11 million jobs have been created, and  there’s been nearly $300 billion in historic manufacturing investments. Annual inflation fell to 6.5%, the lowest level since October 2021. Gas is down more than $1.70 from its peak The President is building an economy from the bottom up and the middle out. Wages are higher now than they were 6 months ago—adjusted for inflation. CSFB – which the R’s triued so hard to keep us from having — Wells Fargo

RECESSION — OR RESETTING? I’ve never bought that we have to have a short recession to tame inflation, even if, as most predict it will be fairly mild and short — and even though, of course, I’m not sure we won’t have one. With inflation seeming to be on the wane and unemployment matching the lowest rate in half a century (at 3.5%, versus the 7.3% the Republicans handed Clinton, which he brought down to 3.9%; the 7.3% they handed Obama, which he brought down to 4.6%; and the 6.6% they handed Biden), it’s certainly not a recession yet. And there are two ways of lowering prices: tamping down demand, which the Fed seeks to do by raising interest rates; but also the much overlooked amping up supply. That can be done by such things as increasing the supply of labor (more people working, more needed immigration); improving productivity (I can now self-checkout when I shop for groceries); increasing energy production. (Three ways, if you count psychology: tamping down expectations of inflation . . . link to Volcker . . . but that’s really just a way to keep people from demanding more things now before they become even more expensive). A fourth: reducing tariffs on imported goods. Woke Is Broke – Part 893 When Whodunits Become Woke – Tablet Magazine – Zac Bissonnette https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/kellerman-milo-sturgis

RESCUE BY CRUISE SHIP There but for the grace of God. Do you think the couple? referenced at the end who went to the pub were Democrats or Republicans? https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/14/us/cruise-ship-migrant-rescues-cec/index.html

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” — Geroge Bernard Shaw

ThreeUkraine v. Russia — two ways of dealing with people like me.  Do we want to go the way of Ukraine — toward democracy — or the way of Russia, China, and white Christian nationalists here who favor autocracy (when elections don’t go their way).

How The GI Lifted People Up (White) Veterans Money’s Not The Only Thing Trump Inherited, as you know.

John Marum: I cannot resist commenting on the 60 Minutes segment on obesity, a topic I’ve been following for decades.  If obesity were mostly inherited, then the reproductive rate of obese people would have to be excessively higher than the non-obese population, in order for the trait to so quickly propagate in only a couple generations. Clearly this cannot be the case. More likely it involves a complex combination of factors, among them epigenetics, diet, activity levels and hormone-mimicking household chemicals. An alternative view is presented in this TED Talk about type 2 diabetes, which only reinforces my doubts about experts in the obesity field. Enjoy.

BONUS Jim Burt:  “I have a hard time finding conservatives anymore. It’s easy to find radical fascist bomb throwers, goons, loons, poltroons, ghouls, fools, and tools, but a conservative? Someone with a principled view that human nature doesn’t change, at least not over mere decades, and we need to take a careful and measured approach to major changes in society and government? Someone who knows history and seeks to preserve what has worked until the new thing that is proposed can be thought out and tested? Someone who genuinely believes in America’s purported founding principles of limited government by popular consent with no established religion? Where are these people?” → With limited exceptions, they’re not in Congress — that’s for sure.

Regular gas now cheaper than a year ago,  https://gasprices.aaa.com/

BONUS:  https://www.thedailybeast.com/qanon-leader-phil-godlewski-has-sordid-past-of-his-ownincluding-a-conviction-for-corrupting-a-minor

NYT:  To counter the House Republican agenda, Begala wrote, Biden needs to say, “They’re obsessed with my family’s past; I’m obsessed with your family’s future.” At every hearing in which the Republicans are tormenting Hunter Biden or Dr. Fauci, I would have Democratic members ask, “How will this hearing lower the price of gas at the pump? How will it reduce crime? How will it secure the border?”

Justice Thomas and Justice Alito . . . Putting it all in perspective.  You seriously think humanity will survive?  And that Herschel Walker’s is the kind of intellect and wisdom we need to have a fighting chance? Unemployment rate by state — as  challenging as Putin’s war has made inflation . . .

James Webb Telescope Oh!  I always thought named after the Senator — which I thought was odd.  Makes more sense now.  EVERYONE was homophobic then.  I don’t think we should cancel them all.

BIG SPENDERS  https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1588282437561638912

COVID:  https://vinayprasadmdmph.substack.com/p/stats-id-experts-are-not-good-thinkers?sd=pf

Climate change — NY Times . . .  Extreme Heat Will Change Us https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/18/world/middleeast/extreme-heat.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

It’s great that democracy got a reprieve . . . great that Murdoch has turned against Trump, presumably dooming his chances to re-occupy the White House (though DeSantis is . . . )   BONUS Republican leaders who oppose teaching science and civics.

Patriotic Millionaires writes:

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Republican candidates all over the country are running ads showing IRS agents raiding homes and firing guns at shooting ranges. They claim that Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, which provides funding to modernize the IRS, provide tax refunds in a timely fashion, and crack down on millionaire and billionaire criminal tax cheats, will instead be used to hire an army of IRS agents who will come after middle-class and working families.

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It’s just so nuts.  We’ll find out in the next few days whether lies like this — or that Georgia’s hard-right Republican governor and secretary of state hid 11,780 votes from Trump (why would they do that?) — title for Monday $120,000 A YEAR WITHOUT A COLLEGE DEGREE DAVID BROOKS: Why Aren’t Democrats Trouncing These Guys?  Powerful and disturbing. A lot of it, Brooks concludes, is the divide between those who are college-educated and those who are not — and Democrats’ failure to connect well with the latter. Which is especially painful considering that the G.O.P. is clearly the party of the rich, and Democrats are clearly the party of the working man and woman.  (But, yes, the trans woman, too, which is where we lose people who do not yet have trans friends or relatives — and can’t imagine they’d ever want to.  And who prefer a beer to Chablis . . . etc., etc.  Read the piece.) The same day the President gave his widely-covered “democracy is on the ballot” speech last week, he made remarks to labor that few fewer people heard.  I wish all the Pennsylvanians with college degrees who think Dr. Oz relates to them better, and will fight for them harder, than John Fetterman will could watch that speech.  Likewise, Ohioans who have a chance to vote for And speaking of labor . . .

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich concludes his recent post:

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. . . The biggest question hanging over the 2022 midterm election is not a policy. It’s not even an issue. It is whether our democracy can endure. The extraordinary, abominable challenge we now face — one that I frankly never imagined we would face — is that the Republican Party and its enablers in the media and among the monied interests appear not to want American democracy to endure. As Joe Biden said last night, “Democracy itself” is at stake in the upcoming election, and he appealed “to all Americans, regardless of party, to meet this moment of national and generational importance.” Indeed. My friends, we owe it to generations before us who fought and died for democracy and the rule of law, and to generations after us who will live with the legacy we leave them — to get out the vote next Tuesday, to vote out the traitors and liars, to renounce the party that has forsaken the precious ideal of self-government, and to vote in people who are dedicated to making our democracy stronger and better.

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I’m not brave enough to do this, but what if we printed up bumper stickers, and wherever we saw a confederate flag on a parked car or truck, we stuck on next to it: FIGHTING FOR SLAVERY.  Or maybe: AMERICA FIRST — with a QR code that takes you to film of the rally in Madison Square Garden.

The World Economy Explained With Just Two Cows

The Rising Tide Of Global Sadness — David Brooks on inequality.

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. . . The top 20 percent of the world is experiencing the highest level of happiness and well-being since Gallup began measuring these things. The bottom 20 percent is experiencing the worst. It’s a fundamentally unjust and unstable situation. The emotional health of the world is shattering.

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Ironically . . .

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Counties in the United States that saw the largest gain in voting Republican for president between the 2012 election and Donald Trump’s election in 2016 were also the counties where people rated their lives the worst.

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I say “ironically,” because Republican are relentless in trying to advantage the rich while fight things like affordable health care and the minimum wage that can relieve some of the misery.

From Unite America:

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It’s not the issues that divide us, but our partisan election system  During The Un-Convention hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center earlier this month in Philadelphia, Unite America’s Executive Director Nick Troiano, used immigration — an issue that is both divisive to most Americans and long unaddressed by Congress — to underscore the deep roots of our political dysfunction. “I see the issue of immigration as a case study about how our political system isn’t representing most Americans because on various dimensions of immigration, you can get large majorities of Americans to agree. Why can’t our Congress?” asked Troiano on the Bipartisan Policy Center’s live Un-Convention podcast taping. His answer? That political dysfunction directly derives from our election system, as 85% of Congressional seats are now safe for one party or the other, and only about 16% of age-eligible voters participated in the election of consequence (the primary) this year. He noted this on the “Facing Forward” Podcast by the Concord Coalition going on to say,  “You have a very small number of voters, usually on the wings of both parties, that are determining the vast majority of our elections. That means the only incentive our leaders have is to pander to those wings. That’s why they won’t compromise with each other.” And of course, it’s not just that folks are too apathetic to turn out and vote; it’s that millions of voters are outright prohibited from participating in these consequential primaries. And that’s what we’re working to change.

My Cousins’ Books https://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/features/an-interview-with-eugene-l-meyer

Jeffrey Sachs on the origin of Covid

What Jefferson wanted to say about slavery in the Declaration of Independence, his conflicting interests notwithstanding.  [mentioned 10/20 post]

New York Subways safe, statistically.

BONUS Sand Batteries You thought the sand was hot when you went barefoot at the beach this summer.  This sand is heated (by wind and solar) to 932 degrees Fahrenheit to provide heat throughout the cold, dark Finnish winter.  One piece of the energy solution? BONUS The Masque of Anarchy.  They are few, we are many.   [Move to later column:  Not Just John Lewis.  You read James Zwerg’s story and wonder . . . how many of those 3,000 in the mob went to their graves thinking they were on the right side of all this?  Like Germans who went to their graves feeling good about their roles Holocaust?  And how many at some point had a change of heart.  I know people can change — my own parents did, having always been revolted by homosexuals — everybody was — until they gradually came around.]

My Troubles With The Tax Man — 35th Anniversary Re-Run   FINANCIALIZATION George M.: “With regard to the book you linked to yesterday, The Man Who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of Corporate America—and How to Undo His Legacy . . . I was talking with a friend about how Jack Welch was a ‘capitalist hero’ with his face on magazine covers and lauded as a great CEO who built value while Ray Anderson of Interface Carpets decided in 1995 to remake his company so that it would have zero negative environmental impact by 2020.  Never saw Anderson’s face on a magazine cover, never saw him referred to as a visionary CEO (outside of the few enviros who knew of his work), never saw him used as a role model.  Anderson died in 2011 but his company continued his vision and achieved his goal in 2019, a year earlier than projected.  Now they are working on being an international company that has POSITIVE impact on the environment and are making carpets that sequester carbon.  Would be good if more people knew about Ray Anderson and Interface, a much better example of responsible business than Jack Welch could ever have conceived of.”     JP Morgan — a culture of fraud?   Paul L.: “All too true. A very pivotal moment in the history of democracy. If they prevail, they will hold power for a very long time (can’t win the majority, so all systems will be rigged, as per Swan’s piece, which continues:

Via Jonathan Swan at Axios, your absolute must-freaking-read of the week: Former President Trump’s top allies are preparing to radically reshape the federal government if he is re-elected, purging potentially thousands of civil servants and filling career posts with loyalists to him and his “America First” ideology, people involved in the discussions tell Axios. The impact could go well beyond typical conservative targets such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Internal Revenue Service. Trump allies are working on plans that would potentially strip layers at the Justice Department — including the FBI, and reaching into national security, intelligence, the State Department and the Pentagon, sources close to the former president say… They intend to stack thousands of mid-level staff jobs. Well-funded groups are already developing lists of candidates selected often for their animus against the system — in line with Trump’s long-running obsession with draining “the swamp.” This includes building extensive databases of people vetted as being committed to Trump and his agenda. The preparations are far more advanced and ambitious than previously reported. What is happening now is an inversion of the slapdash and virtually non-existent infrastructure surrounding Trump ahead of his 2017 presidential transition. These groups are operating on multiple fronts: shaping policies, identifying top lieutenants, curating an alternative labor force of unprecedented scale, and preparing for legal challenges and defenses that might go before Trump-friendly judges, all the way to a 6-3 Supreme Court.

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“Not to mention that in far too many state elections corruption is rampant in the push for MAGA election officials, malleable election staff and, worse, MAGA Attorneys General – all being planned for by experienced local political operatives. We are at the cusp of a disaster – we’ve only seen the first attempts during the Drumpf administration…. SCARY!!”

There are too many people on the planet.  Why do we force women — even young girls — to have children they don’t want?  But only if they’re relatively poor and so (a) can’t afford to travel; and (b) are less likely to be able to give the child the kind of care and education that will render him or her able to contribute to society — maker babies rather than taker babies, as it were.