Author: A.T.

Yesterday I offered the case for prosecuting everybody who aided and abetted Trump — but not Trump himself.

Today, the counterpoint (thanks, Steve P.), posted after Tuesday’s hearing:

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Was this finally enough for Merrick Garland?

. . . In his public testimony before the House Jan. 6 committee, retired judge Michael Luttig, who served as Vice President Pence’s legal adviser, warned that “a stake was driven through the heart of American democracy on Jan. 6, 2021, and our democracy today is on a knife’s edge.” . . .

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. . . In all likelihood there will be blood, violence and mayhem if Trump and his confederates are (at last) prosecuted for their high crimes. But the alternative is simply unacceptable. Not to prosecute Trump and his co-conspirators would mean that right-wing political terrorism (which, in practice, means fascism) and those who wield it are holding American democracy hostage.

In that scenario, every future election — national, state or local — could potentially be subject to the threat of violence from Republicans and the larger neofascist movement. In such a country, the events of Jan. 6 and the surrounding coup attempt, including the threat of martial law, could no longer be understood as extraordinary or aberrant. They would become the norm.

American democracy is on the verge of collapse because of repeated attacks by the Republican-fascists and the larger right-wing movement. Not to prosecute and punish Trump and his confederates for their acts of terrorism would mark one more big win in their war on democracy, the rule of law and the Constitution. If Merrick Garland is afraid to prosecute Donald Trump for fear of violence or some other reason, he should be asked to resign by Joe Biden and then replaced by someone who is willing to do what is necessary and required to protect American democracy and the rule of law.

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It is a must-read piece.

And so scary that I’m not sure it doesn’t itself — even if unintentionally — argue for yesterday’s view: That everyone else should be prosecuted, but not the Putin-Mussolini-wannabe.  (Who kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside.)

Shamed, yes; but not martyred.

Whatever your view (which I welcome) I think we can all agree on this much:

It is not a trivial decision.

Have you joined your local chapter of the League of Women Voters?  Joined Field Team 6? Joined Vote Forward? Done all you can to fund the early organizing effort that is our best chance of saving democracy and moving the nation forward toward better times?

Watching the most recent hearing — with testimony exclusively from Trump appointees and supporters — one has to wonder yet again how so many people in positions of power could have been party to all this.

How most Republicans who had hours before been hiding under desks and grabbing gas masks could have voted to decertify the election.

Tim Miller goes a long way to explaining it, as summarized in this review of Why We Did It: A Travelogue From the Republican Road to Hell.

A related question: How could so many tens of millions of good Americans have been so badly misled?  Not the ones in power who knew better; the ones just listening to their colorful president and to their favorite “news” network . . . like Mr. Ayres who testified yesterday.

How can so many still be so misled?

Simple: The same way it has happened to the good people of so many other countries before — like the ones we fought in the Second World War.  Or the Russians today who think Putin is denazifying Ukraine.

But should Trump be indicted?

Everyone else should be — for sure.  Disgraced “General” Flynn and Roger Stone and hundreds more (those two just lead my list).

But I thought this case for not indicting Trump himself was interesting and worth sharing.

If time is tight, skip straight to the section headed, GARLAND SHOULD DISPENSE WITH TRUMP.

It may not change your mind — it may not change my mind — but it’s worth thinking through.

Polling on Biden and Harris is dreadful.

And yet, watch as a conservative Republican congressman-turned-talk-show host puts those numbers in perspective.

Biden beats Trump.

Harris beats Desantis.

Not that I think Joe plans to run again (though what do I know?).

Or that Kamala would necessarily emerge as our nominee if he doesn’t.

But I found the clip instructive — and encouraging.

If we all lean in, we can hold the House, widen our margin in the Senate, hold the White House in 2024, and save democracy.

Have you joined your local chapter of the League of Women Voters?  Joined Field Team 6? Joined Vote Forward? Done all you can to fund the organizing effort that is our best chance of winning?

Hearings today and Thursday.  What really happened.

But first:

Did you see President Biden Friday on the economy and Roe?

He’s right and he’s strong, and if we all do our bit, we’ll hold the House and expand our Senate “lead” so we can get things that cry out to be done — and that most Americans favor — done.

Don’t believe for a minute that we can’t.  We absolutely can.  Just as, improbably, we won the two Georgia Senate races in 2022.  We had to win them — and we did.

And now:

INFLATION

Today’s inflation sits atop the tremendous rise in energy prices — a component imbedded in everything we buy.

It’s not our fiscal or monetary policies that caused the huge spike in world energy prices — it’s Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Likewise, not our fiscal or monetary policies that caused the spike in world grain prices — it’s Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Nor our fiscal or monetary policies that caused supply-chain disruptions — it’s mainly Covid shutdowns in Asia.

We have to push back on the notion that what Biden and Democrats did to keep the economy from collapsing– it’s easy to forget what Biden inherited! — caused the rise in prices around the world.

Before Putin invaded Ukraine, inflation was not a big problem.  And then suddenly it was.

We have to push back on the notion that if only Biden and Democrats were more gung-ho about increasing coal and oil and gas production (climate be damned), enough additional supply would have quickly materialized (these things take years) to meaningfully affect world energy prices.

It can certainly be argued that the Fed was too easy for too long . . . that the Fed needs to take strong measures to keep inflationary psychology from feeding on itself . . . that there are structural things we need to do for the long-term to increase productivity . . . that they should be paid for in no small part by taxing billionaires at the same rates as dentists.

For sure, there’s lots of stuff we, as a nation, badly need to do.

But we won’t make much progress if our chosen path forward is . . . gridlock.  Which is exactly what we’ll get if McConnell once again wields the Senate gavel and the G-NO-P once again controls the House.

PHONE LINT

Terry F: “Absolutely, positively DO NOT use a paper clip to clean out the lint in your phone’s ports. USE A WOODEN TOOTH PICK.”

Ed S.: “Yes, men who keep phones in their pockets have lint problems.  Paper clips will often work, but sometimes the thickness will keep one from getting into the corners of the charging receptacles.  A short piece of .020” solid brass wire is ideal.  Air compressors can also be used to blow out the offending lint.  What you do not want to use is anything that might break.  TOOTHPICKS ARE A CLEAR NO-NO.  Splintered wood will not facilitate charging.”

→ It reminds me of the advice two nurses gave me as I was leaving Mass General 50 years ago after a minor operation.  “Try not to cough,” one said.  “It could split your stitches.”  “Be sure to cough very few minutes,” the other said.  “You don’t want to let your lungs clog up.”  I survived, and so, I think, will my iPhone.

Hearings resume tomorrow!  Oh BOY, oh boy.  The truth is coming out!  What a concept.

My doctor prescribed 7 tabs of a generic drug that Walgreen’s was set to fill for $161.92, considerably less than the $460 list price, Walgreen’s website let me know, because I have insurance.

But then I signed up for Mark Cuban’s CostPlusDrugs, and instead of those 7 tabs, which I canceled, I got ninety of them for $22, delivered.  Which works out to 25 cents each versus $23.  Without having to go wait in line to pick them up.

Check it out.

Here he explains how it works.

I was already a Cuban fan (see fifth paragraph), but am now even more indebted.

PRKR

Texas Court Grants ParkerVision Motion to Add Willfulness to Intel Complaint.

If the jury in the Waco, Texas, trial that is slated to begin December 5th finds in PRKR’s favor, and the judge believes Intel’s infringement was willful, the law would allow him to as much as treble the damages.  Not that I’m expecting this, but it’s fun to dream.

Unlike the Florida judge in the Qualcomm case — who wrote that he doesn’t believe patent cases should be tried before juries and threw out PRKR’s case on grounds many think will be overturned on appeal — Judge Albright has shown himself over the years to believe patents need to be enforceable.

Fingers tightly crossed.

False Alarm

Several people have sent me news that a million Democrats have switched their registrations to Republican.  It turns out, Republicans are turning blue in roughly equal numbers, so it’s basically a wash.

“The Associated Press,” tweets Norm Ornstein, “needs to issue an apology and a retraction. Odds that will happen are very small.”

Yes, we’re in the fight of our lives to save democracy — please help NOW, while the organizing snowball has time to grow huge — but the odds are not as long as some think.  The Republican promise of gridlock, and allegiance to Trump, may not in the end carry the day.

Coming soon: Inflation and Phone Lint.

Have a great weekend.

A friend produced these three short spots:

Abortion

Guns

Democracy At Risk

She’d love your feedback, which I will pass on.

Some thoughts on inflation — and your phone-lint experience — coming soon.

Yesterday I argued that we MUST hold the House and pick up Senate seats so we can depoliticize the Court.

I linked to Heather Cox Richardson’s must-read explanation of just how far off the rails it has gone.

Today, I offer the all-too-plausible Nightmare Scenario SCOTUS is Plotting For the 2024 Election Takeover.

One likes to think that ignoring stuff like this will keep it from happening.

But if Trump has taught us anything, it is that we ignore the unimaginable — like his becoming president — at our own peril.

The peril is real.

And we absolutely can avert it by holding the House, expanding our “lead” in the Senate, and winning state legislative seats, governorships and secretary-of-state races four months from now. 

Not easy — just as, one is reminded this July 4th weekend, beating the British in 1776 was not easy.  (Listen!)

Or so much else that our forefathers and mothers risked their lives to do.

If you’re in a position to help, now is the time to do it — not in the fall when the “organizing snowball” has little time left to roll downhill and grow huge.  And not by funding individual candidates’ TV ads that persuade very few people to switch tribes.  The way to win is the way we won Georgia in 2020: organizing a massive registration and turn-out effort.

Switching from snowballs to icebergs: The time to help turn the rudder is . . . now.

Happy Fourth!

THE COURT

We MUST hold the House and pick up seats in the Senate so we can depoliticize — religitimize — UNpack — the court.

Even the one seeming victory the Court gave Biden last month — Supreme Court says Biden can end Trump-era ‘Remain in Mexico’ immigration policy — was anything but.

Steve P.:  “Now you might be asking yourselves why the Court granted Biden this power. Simple.  They know he’ll now have to do it and it will make him very unpopular in border states. Immigration will surge and it will be blamed on Biden.  This proves beyond doubt that this court is now fully a political arm of the Republican party.”

If you’re not clear on just how far off the rails the Court has gone, and how existentially dangerous it is to, among other things, the habitability of our planet, here is Heather Cox Richardson to bring you up to speed.

If you’re in a position to help, now is the time to do it — not in the fall when the “organizing snowball” has little time left to roll downhill and grow huge.

Have a great weekend!

This is about as historic as it gets, argues presidential historian Michael Beschloss.

The first minute, for sure.  And you may want to watch all six.

Nixon and his inner circle were saints compared with the former president and his.

Yesterday’s hearing, major clips of which you’ve all by now obviously seen, told us — finally, vividly, definitively — that the man who kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside, used Stalin’s “enemy of the people” phrase to characterize the free press, admired and trusted Putin, fell in love with Kim Jong-un, placed loyalty to himself over loyalty to our country . . .

. . . that this man incited, aided and abetted an armed mob to storm the Capitol of the United States to overturn a free and fair election.

And thought the Vice President deserved to be hung.

This won’t change every mind . . . certainly not the minds of white supremacists and fascists, nor the minds of Lindsey Graham or Kevin McCarthy, depending on which way the wind is blowing, nor Ginni and Clarence Thomas’s minds . . . but it may persuade some patriotic right-wingers that Liz Cheney is a hero to their ideals, not a traitor; and may persuade Merrick Garland (if he had not already made this determination) that it’s time for prosecutions of all involved in planning the coup, most obviously its leader, the disgraced former president, to go into high gear.

AND Turkey yesterday cleared the way for Finland and Sweden to join NATO.

Hats off to Joe Biden and his team for quietly, methodically, restoring our democratic alliances and leading NATO to unite against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

It was, in short, a great day for democracy.

With a lot more work ahead.

Help, if you can.