Author: A.T.

But first:

A fellow investor wired $50,000 to help fund a private venture and — being appropriately cautious — first wired just $10 to be sure the wire instructions were correct.

“Did you get the $10?” he emailed the company.

“We did, thanks,” they emailed back.

So he sent the other $49,990.

When I reviewed the email chain some weeks later I noticed that the English in the email that accompanied the wire instructions was just a tiny bit off — only a stickler like me might have noticed — and the receiving bank was in . . . Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which bore no relation to the business of the venture.  But my fellow investor was new to this company, and having had his $10 wire confirmed, what was there left to worry about?

Everything, as you’ve doubtless guessed.

Somehow, a Russian or Nigerian — or Louisianian — had hacked into the recipient’s email to the extent that he or she was able not merely to send the bogus wire instructions, to intercept the email asking whether the $10 had been received.

For years, banks have warned people to “verify the wire instructions verbally” to avoid being scammed.  I have generally ignored that advice.

Not anymore!

If you’re wiring to someone new, take the trouble to call and verify the numbers over the phone.  (And be sure you’re calling the actual intended recipient, not a phone number in Baton Rouge set up for the purpose of scamming you.)

And while we’re on the subject of scams, be careful when you buy fine art.

I never have . . . I buy toilet paper by the case when it’s on sale . . . but I was at a fundraiser Sunday night hosted in a home filled with astonishing art . . . including what appeared to be, to even my untrained eye, an Old Master.

“It that . . . a Rembrandt?”  I asked.

“It was a Rembrandt,” the host concurred.

“It was a Rembrandt?  You mean it turned out to be a fake?”

“Yes.  The buyer before me paid $2o million.”

“And then it was discredited?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, wow.”

“And I got it for $17,500.”

Coulda fooled me.

And now, having perhaps saved you $50,000 or even $20 million (how many websites can boast that without charging a subscription fee or serving up footwear ads?) something important:

Jared Kushner, Arab and Israeli officials outline day-after solutions for the first time since the Oct. 7 attacks at Yale’s Middle East Peace Dialogue

Worth reading in full.

And at no cost to us, no less.

Fareed Zakaria lays it out this way:

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Is there anything that can be done to address . . . stalemate on the frontlines and waning support in Western capitals?

Actually, there is a policy that could help on both fronts:

Set up an international and legal process by which Russia’s $300 billion-plus of frozen reserves could be used to aid Ukraine’s reconstruction, which the World Bank estimates would cost more than $400 billion over the next ten years.

In one swoop, that would signal to Putin that Ukraine will not face a funding crisis and that even were Trump to be elected, these funds, administered through some international body, say in Switzerland or Belgium, would continue to flow to Kyiv.

There are challenges to this policy. Russia’s reserves lie in various countries, but European allies hold most of them, and their governments worry that they don’t have the legal authority to divert them. Laurence Tribe, the distinguished legal scholar, and some of his colleagues have written up a definitive case as to why it would be legal and appropriate to go down the path of using Russian reserves for Ukraine’s reconstruction. Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, former World Bank head Robert Zoellick, and former 9/11 Commission executive director Philip Zelikow have argued persuasively that it is good policy.

Tribe’s basic argument is that Russia has engaged in a massive and systemic violation of international law and norms and that it is appropriate, indeed necessary, for there to be some price to pay for this. To reject this logic in favor of one that protects Russia’s “property rights” is perverse since Russia has engaged in brutal, sustained violations of Ukraine’s property rights and has taken the lives of thousands of its civilians as well.

Russia’s attack on Ukraine is a core violation of any conception of a rules-based international order. It strikes me as right and wise to force it to pay a heavy price. But how that policy is pursued matters. In the past, the United States has tried to enforce its own conception of international rules unilaterally, often generating huge opposition to it. The approach we should take this time is the opposite.

This policy should be rooted in international consensus, law and norms. Legal opinions like Tribe’s should be presented. An international legal organization and process of adjudicating claims should be established and the funds handled through it. Russia’s assets and Ukraine’s reconstruction should serve as a building block for international law and norms that help shore up the rules-based order. As Summers, Zoellick, and Zelikow note, if this case sets the precedent that a country that engages in naked aggression might find that its dollar reserves are in jeopardy, that is not a bad precedent for a world in disarray.

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Indeed, it “would strengthen, not undermine, international law.”

An idea worth spreading far and wide — and implementing ASAP.

That one day in the summer of 1963 — just 8 weeks hence — 100,000 people would march on Washington demanding civil rights for African Americans.

As it turned out — in the face of tremendous opposition from powerful men both white and black — a quarter million turned out.

The man who had that dream was not Martin Luther King, Jr., whose speech that day will rightly and forever be remembered, but Bayard Rustin, whose story this movie so compellingly tells.

“His was a rich, fascinatingly complex history, filled with big personalities and tremendous stakes . . . From the second that Rustin sweeps into the movie, throwing open his arms to King — and, by extension, welcoming the future they will help make — the actor seizes hold of you.  — The New York Times

“Riveting.” — The Wall Street Journal

Do you have Netflix?  If not, Rustin alone is worth signing up for $6.99/month.

Or watch it at a theater near you.

Two on how to tell the good guys from the bad guys.  

“You are never going to find a right way to do the wrong thing.”

And two more . . .

“The only question,” as House Speaker Mike Johnson sees it.

. . . followed by three of commentary.

(The last few seconds, on why church attendance is down: “Young people don’t want to go to a church where preachers worship Donald Trump instead of Jesus Christ!”)

PRKR has more than doubled since November 7 but the upside still strikes me as greater than the downside.  I’m holding mine . . . with money I can truly afford to lose, because, obviously, I may.

But first:

> How the next Republican president could stop most abortions without Congress.

> Mick Mulvaney Changes His Mind.  Trump’s ex-C.O.S. is a supporter no more.

> Journalism professor’s six-word mantra is a blueprint for how news outlets should cover the 2024 race:  “NOT THE ODDS, BUT THE STAKES.”

It’s quick read that segues nicely into this, by the retired managing editor of Stars and Stripes, no less:

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The Death of the New York Times

Ever since Trump and his Republicans attack on our country and subsequent coup attempt in 2021, I have been calling for The Times and ALL major media companies to establish Democracy Desks in their newsrooms.

. . . If the Republicans are successful in taking down our Democracy and installing an authoritarian regime in Washington, one of the very first things to go will be our freedom of the press, and THEN where will The Times be?

It is ludicrous that their readers aren’t being educated everyday about what the Republicans have in mind and how devastating it would be to the citizens of this country if they ever got back into the White House.

For one thing, it’s fair to posit there would never be another election again — at least not one that would be remotely fair.

Ever since the disaster in November, 2016, just enough Americans have risen up and gotten active stamping out the flames of fascism Republicans have so frantically been fanning.

But we could use a little help.

. . . That would start with knocking it the hell off with these stupid polls that predict nothing, and start dealing with our terrifying realties.

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Which terrifying realities segue (at last) into my question:

Given the Republican front-runner’s admiration for dictators . . . and his increasing use of language like “vermin” and “communists” to describe anyone who opposes him . . . language that comes straight from the book he for years kept by his bed . . .

. . . which side would he have been rooting for in the early days of World War II, before Pearl Harbor?  The Germans?  Or the French, Poles, Czechs, Russians, and British?

It may sound like a stupid question now (except, perhaps, to some of the “very fine people” who marched with torches in Charlottesville); but back then, an awful lot of Americans were rooting for the German dictator. 

Are we sure, had he been alive in 1939, Trump’s sympathies would not have aligned with these patriotic Americans gathered in Madison Square Garden? 

And do we think that today, in 2023, he hopes Putin is defeated in Ukraine? 

That autocracies around the world give way to democracies? 

I have come to doubt it.

→ Hundreds of thousands of innocent Ukrainians and conscripted Russians have died and millions more had their lives wrecked — for what?  The dreams of a Russian dictator who has such a close bond to Trump that when they meet, Trump sometimes doesn’t allow Americans in the room.

→ The tragedy in Israel and Gaza is top of every mind, heartbreaking in every respect — though not to the religious leadership of Iran and their increasingly close ally the Russian dictator, who are presumably pleased to watch it unfold.

→ Trump’s own push toward dictatorship — now calling those who oppose him “vermin,” straight out of the (only?) book he kept by his bedside while married to Ivana — is at once unbelievable, horrifying, and real.

So can we take a quick break from all that?

Here:

Bill Gates offers reasons to be hopeful on climate.

Western ingenuity may just save the day, or at least mitigate the damage.  It’s exciting to read about.

First off, just what the doctor ordered:

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A way for [Democratic] donors to “maximize their impact” by funneling their money to races that truly matter [rather than] “rage-donate into the abyss.”

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Here‘s the story.  And here’s the app.

Second, two minutes of pointed questions whose strident tone, given her frustration with those who see Israel as the bad actor in this tragedy, is perhaps understandable.

Finally, Hillary on Gaza — well worth watching for a reasoned perspective rooted in decades’ experience.

One of you sent me this open letter from pro-Palestinian Jewish students at Brown.

It “comes from a good place,” for sure but is dead wrong, I think, in calling what Israel is doing “genocide.”

To me, genocide is when you’re trying to kill people — indeed, an entire people — simply because of their ethnicity or religion.

Israel has never wanted to do that and doesn’t want to do it now . . . any more than we wanted to do it when we killed God knows how many German and Japanese civilians in World War II.

There’s so much to criticize about the current Israeli regime; and about the expansion of settlements in years past.

But genocide?  It’s not remotely that, I think.

I loathe Netanyahu.  Even so, I think his appearance on yesterday’s Meet The Press is very much worth watching.

I wish every college student in America would read Noa Tishby’s book — which is deeply sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians, as we all should be — Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth.

And speaking of genocide, this is worth your time as well:  The Truth of Hamas Is in Its Charter.

Biden is spot on in wanting Israel to provide more humanitarian aid (maybe like this?) and do more to minimize civilian casualties.

But I think Hamas has to be defeated, as ISIS largely has been.

The Speaker of the House is no fan of — in his words — “the so-called separation of church and state.”

Indeed, reports Rolling Stone, he “has ties to the far-right New Apostolic Reformation — which is hell-bent on turning America into a religious state.”

Is he the right man to be second in line to the presidency?

The Key to Mike Johnson’s Christian Extremism Hangs Outside His Office will help you decide.

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On December 29, 2020 — eight days before the insurrection — Sheets and his team of prophets were in Washington, D.C., staying at the Willard Hotel, the site of the various war rooms overseen by Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon. On that day, Sheets, along with 14 other apostles and prophets, had a multi-hour meeting inside the White House with Trump administration officials. Who exactly among White House Staff attended this meeting is unclear (and the Trump administration has made the White House Visitor Logs secret and invulnerable to FOIA requests until 2026). But members of Sheets’ team posted photos of themselves (with White House visitor passes) both outside and inside the building.

The Appeal to Heaven flag was the banner of this mobilization, which brings us back to Mike Johnson and the flag outside his office. What does it signal that the speaker of the House of Representatives is purposely flying this symbol of Christian warfare?

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And then there’s his wife and podcast partner Kelly, whose Onward Christian Counseling Services, the Huffington Post reports  . . .

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. . . is grounded in the belief that sex is offensive to God if it is not between a man and a woman married to each other. It puts being gay, bisexual or transgender in the same category as someone who has sex with animals.

“We believe and the Bible teaches that any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography or any attempt to change one’s sex, or disagreement with one’s biological sex, is sinful and offensive to God,” says the eight-page business document. . . .

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TAX-SELLING BARGAINS?

Sometimes this works.  You look for stocks so beaten down as the end of the year approaches that folks may be selling to lock in their loss “no matter the price.”  That can lead to irrationally low prices — an opportunity for us.

Or not.  Sometimes, those stocks just keep falling until all that’s left is a bad memory.  Over the years, I’ve enjoyed, and suffered, both.  (I had one that eventually jumped 40 fold, which made up for a lot of losers.)

Two I bought more of Friday are HYMC, at 18 cents, down from its $16 July, 2020 high; and OPRT, at $2.50, down from $27.  The first has cash and gold that might (might!) prove to be worth a lot more than its debt; the second has been the victim of bad management that might (might!) get replaced with good management.

Only, needless to say, with money you can truly afford to lose.

Psychology meets kitchen table economics.

A sobering read.

We on team Biden need to show better that we feel voters’ pain.  We put a lot of emphasis on our great jobs record — lowest unemployment in 50 years — but only 3.9% of the country feels the pain of unemployment.  Nearly 100% feel the pain of higher prices.  We stress that inflation is coming down, which it is and that’s great — but prices aren’t coming down, and voters need to feel we get how rough that is.

So yes, we’re right on climate and guns and women’s rights and democracy and Ukraine and the price of insulin (remember: Republicans blocked lowering it for diabetics under 65) — and on the need to fund the IRS and raise taxes on billionheirs and raise the $7.25 minimum wage.  And yes, we’re beginning to revitalize our crumbling infrastructure and get highspeed broadband to millions of rural voters.  All that and more.

(And yes, their party accepts a twice-impeached, four-times-indicted, $25-million-fined, adjudicated rapist who bankrupted multiple companies as their standard bearer.  A “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot,” in the words of Lindsey Graham.  A dangerous sociopath, in the words of both his ghost writer and his clinical psychologist niece.)

Yet — clearly — we all need to do  more than just watch events unfold if we’re going to save democracy.

Volunteer opportunities to consider:

Field Team Six

Vote Forward

Swing Left

Indivisible

Rock The Vote

The League of Women Voters

And a link to click if you can afford to chip in.

(I know: I’m incorrigible.  Unlike Joe Biden, who in the words of Lindsey Graham again, is “as good a man as God ever created.”)

Have a great weekend.