The Speech Every Democratic Candidate Needs To Watch January 26, 2026January 26, 2026 But first, take 30 seconds: A young man asks: when is enough, enough? And now (7 minutes): The Speech Every 2026 Candidate Needs to Watch . . . . . . by former moderate Republican congressman David Jolly, the next Democratic Governor of the great state of Florida!
Lies And Lawlessness January 26, 2026 Sorry for the strong language, but these 90 seconds make pretty much nail it. Q: Why not let the people of Minneapolis deal with threats to their safety, unless they ask the federal government for help? A: Because the idea is to replace our democracy with Putin-style one-man rule. Timothy Snyder explains how: The Camps, the Executions, and the Future . . . The country stops at the border. And so the law stops at the border. And so for the tyrant an obvious move is to extend the border so that is everywhere, to turn the whole country as a border area, where no rules apply. Stalin did this with border zones and deportations in the 1930s that preceded the Great Terror. Hitler did it with immigration raids in 1938 that targeted undocumented Jews and forced them across the border. And just what is Trump doing now? By his own admission, as well as by the admission of cabinet members, he is using ICE, nominally a border authority, to enforce his own whims on an American state of his choosing. It is not legal to attack a city because its policies work. It is not legal to threaten a state to gain information about its voters. The border becomes the pretext to undo the law everywhere, at all times, and against anyone. It is the crack that can be opened. The wedge is the lie. The lies begin as clichés, memes that are pounded into our heads by the government and by those in the media who repeat them, mindlessly or with malice. One of these cliches is “law enforcement,” which is uttered over and over like an incantation. “Law enforcement” is not a noun. It is not a thing in the world. It is an action. And action is something that we have a right to see and judge for ourselves. People enforcing the law do not wear masks. And people wearing masks who trespass, assault, batter, and kill are not enforcing the law. They are violating it. It is indeed the job of some local, state, and federal authorities to enforce the law. It is a disservice to them when federal employees carry out public executions. It is a greater disservice to them when such actions are defined as “law enforcement.” The lies continue as provocative inversions, as what in On Tyranny I called “dangerous words”: these are, precisely, “terrorist” and “extremist.” These two words are known to us from history as those used by tyrants. And these are the words used by the Trump people to defame those killed by their polices. This is their “messaging,” their banality of evil, as Hannah Arendt called it. Or the evil of banality, as Václav Havel said. Words turned into reality with the complicity of those who hear them. Those who actively lie are directly complicit in the deaths that just happen and in any deaths to come. But those in media who choose to treat propaganda as the story, to begin from lies rather than from events, are also complicit. The border is the crack, the lie is the wedge, and the wedge is made up of people — of us. Words matter, uttered first or repeated. They create an atmosphere, they normalize — or they do not. We can choose to see, to call things by their proper names, to call out people who lie. We have to. The moral horror of those killings is enough. But there is a political logic as well. And the two are connected. Those who resist the lawlessness and the lies are doing right. And they are giving a second chance to the endangered American republic. . . . “The president should be impeached and convicted,” argues Snyder, “as should everyone responsible for these outrages.” Worth sharing in full. A Stark Warning About the 2026 election — it’s not too late to listen to this New Yorker interview with neoconservative policy analyst Robert Kagan. You can skip the first couple of minutes until they introduce him — and perhaps listen at 1.2X or whatever suits you — but listen. And share widely if it strikes you as it has me. Join Indivisible! Support the opposition!
Telling It Like It Is — On ICE And Taxes January 25, 2026 ICE Seth Moulton — marine to marine (60 seconds). The terrorists are the ones wearing masks, terrorizing an entire city. TAXES Taking it to the billionaires at Davos (90 seconds). Let me stress that “some of my best friends are” billionaires — wonderful people doing wonderful things. Not a grifter or murderer among them. Many have asked to be more heavily taxed: The Guardian: Nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires call for higher taxes on super-rich. Fast Company: A majority of millionaires say extreme wealth is a threat to democracy. Forbes: Majority Of Surveyed Millionaires Think Trump Is Damaging Global Economic Stability. Fortune: Nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires across 24 countries are demanding Davos leaders tax them more: ‘Tax us. Tax the super rich.’ Politico: The tax revolt against global elites. Some have joined The Patriotic Millionaires. If, like almost everybody, you’re not yet quite at that level, join Indivisible instead. Demand (among so much else) the kinds of tax reforms I’ve been suggesting. Trevor Noah explains why you can’t tax billionaires (90 seconds), tongue firmly in cheek. But I have argued that you can — How To Tax Wealth — and continue to think it’s a good, workable idea. (Don’t worry about your wealth, except to the extent it exceeds $100 million.) Most uber-rich people are patriotic and honest — but competitive. They may not need that second half billion, or that fifteenth billion, but it’s fun to win . . . and if the rules let you avoid taxes, you’re not going to pay more than you have to. Why should you, when the guy on the yacht next to you isn’t? But if everyone has to . . . if the loopholes are closed and top rates hiked for everyone in the top 0.1% and 0.01% . . . if you get a really nice letter congratulating you on your success and thanking you for your good citizenship — maybe even a beautiful commemorative bronze medallion in any year you pay more than $1 million, silver each year you pay more than $5 million, gold $25 million . . . you get the idea . . . I think they would. Why not?
1929 / 1789 / 1984 / 2028 January 24, 2026 TRUMP’S AMERICA Returning Iranian asylum seekers to Iran to be killed. LAWS, SHMAWS Trump is breaking the law he himself signed requiring release of the Epstein files. This is the new America, and Robert Kagan has a stark warning about the 2026 election. It’s the same link I shared yesterday — and will continue to share. You can skip the first couple of minutes until they introduce him — and perhaps listen at 1.2X or whatever suits you — but listen. 2028 He’s strong and terrific in many ways, but (argue Novicoff and Chait in The Atlantic) Gavin Newsom’s Record Is a Problem. Join Indivisible! Support the opposition!
Never In The History Of Ever January 22, 2026January 23, 2026 Carl’s America: Horror as ICE uses 5-year-old as ‘bait’ for family: ‘What has become of our country?’ . . . Immigration attorney Marc Prokosch said he still does not know exactly where Liam or his father were taken but he believes they are likely in a family holding cell in Texas. “Every step of their immigration process they’ve been doing what they’ve been asked to do, and so this is just … cruelty,” Prokosch said. Q: If there were so many murderers and rapists roaming the streets of Minneapolis, why didn’t any Minnesotans ask the Federal government to send in thousands of heavily armed, lightly trained masked men? And why aren’t the citizens and governors and mayors of other cities not clamoring for the same “help”? Q: Where are the Epstein files? A law passed by Congress and signed by the president requires their release (by last December 19). Where are they? A Stark Warning About the 2026 election That’s the largest font I’ve ever used on this page, but I think justifiably so. The link is to a New Yorker podcast with neoconservative policy analyst Robert Kagan (who left the Republican Party in 2016). You can skip the first couple of minutes until they introduce him — and perhaps listen at 1.2X or whatever suits you — but listen. And share widely if it strikes you as it has me. Join Indivisible! Support the opposition! HYMC The wild ride continues. HYMC touched $49 a share in after-hours trading, up from $3 in June. Earlier in the day, I bought back January 2028 calls I had written with a $37 strike price, paying $29 a share ($290 for each 100-share call). I then sold new ones — this time with a strike price of 60 — pocketing $24 a share ($240 for each 100-share call). So I paid $5 ($29 minus $24) in order to raise my potential upside by $23 (from 37 to 60). If the stock crashes one day, this will prove to have been foolish. If it stays where it is or goes higher, I’ll be fat and happy. Above $60, I would get that $60 and keep the $24 I got for selling the calls — $84 in all on each $3 share (less the $5 I spent raising my strike price, so a $76 profit on a $3 investment). At which point I would likely be hit by a bus, so let’s not get carried away. (I tell you all this not to gloat, but to suggest ways to lock in some of your profit, and perhaps enhance it, that you might want to explore.)
The Scale And Velocity Of Trump’s Accomplishments January 22, 2026January 22, 2026 14 Ways The Trump Administration is Trying to Kill Us It’s quite a list. American democracy on the brink a year after Trump’s inauguration The scale and velocity of what he has been able to accomplish in just a year have stunned even longtime observers of authoritarian regimes. Join today’s Indivisible call — 3pm EST. Support the opposition party. OPRT After the close yesterday, Oportun Announced A CEO Succession Plan, meaning that the CEO whom activist shareholders have been trying to oust is finally on his way out. If OPRT could really be earning $3 a share in two or three years as the activists imagine, then, at yesterday’s $4.84 close, it’s incredibly cheap. The fear, I guess, is that Trump will deport a significant proportion of their low-income Latino customer base. So: only with money you can truly afford to lose.
Alone In The World January 21, 2026 In one year, for all our considerable flaws and missteps, we’ve gone from being the world’s good guy . . . its beacon of hope and reliable ally . . . to being its blundering, boorish bully. No one likes a bully. All root for bullies to fall. Who are our allies, asked Rachel Maddow Monday night — Russia? North Korea? Putin is winning. It is to cry. ANNE APPLEBAUM CRIES OUT TO REPUBLICANS Trump’s Letter to Norway Should Be the Last Straw. Will Republicans in Congress ever step in? . . . The people around Trump could find ways to stop him, as some did in his first term, but they seem too corrupt or too power-hungry to try. That leaves Republicans in Congress as the last barrier. They owe it to the American people, and to the world, to stop Trump from acting out his fantasy in Greenland and doing permanent damage to American interests. He is at risk of alienating friends in not only Europe but also India, whose leader he also snubbed for failing to nominate him for a Nobel Prize, as well as South Korea, Japan, Australia. Years of careful diplomacy, billions of dollars in trade, are now at risk because senators and representatives who know better have refused to use the powers they have to block him. Now is the time. Join Indivisible! Support the opposition party! HYMC Shares we bought for $2.30 a couple of years ago and $3.20 in June changed hands at $45 in after-hours trading last night. Don’t hate me for suggesting you sell some and write calls against some more on the way up. I may take a loss on some of those calls and replace them with further out-of-the-money calls. PIRATE SHIP FedEx charged me $83.93 for second-day delivery of a 3-pound envelope. PirateShip.com would have charged $16.43. They route a zillion packages via UPS and USPS (yours among them) and pass most of their huge-customer-discount on to you. The reviews are 75% outstanding, though definitely not all. BREE FRAM FOR CONGRESS Ousted under Trump’s trans military ban, retired Space Force Col. Bree Fram launches bid for Congress. I’m proud to know her. And I love that Four-star General Stanley McChrystal (“perhaps the finest warrior and leader of men in combat I ever met” — former Defense Secretary Robert Gates) recently honored Bree and four others of the thousands Trump fired on New Year’s Eve.
Let’s Hear It For Independents! January 20, 2026January 20, 2026 But first . . . TWO ITEMS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED: > Trump Wins Wimbled0n Women’s Singles Championship > NATO Sprays Antipsychotic Medication in Airspace Over White House A GREENLANDER SPEAKS OUT An eloquent perspective even if you watch only the first couple of minutes. HOME INVASION There are so many clips like this one (90 seconds). Is this really the America most of us want? Does she strike you as the “worst of the worst”? When will the Republicans in Congress find the courage to stop the madness? ARCTIC INVASION Well, not the literal Arctic — Minneapolis. Joyce Vance Sunday: Tonight, about 1,500 active-duty soldiers, two infantry battalions of the Army’s 11th Airborne Division, are under prepare-to-deploy orders for possible action in Minnesota. . . . . It bears repeating that the American military isn’t meant to be used for domestic law enforcement against American citizens, barring extraordinary circumstances that simply aren’t present here. The 11th Airborne, nicknamed the “Arctic Angels,” specializes in operating in arctic conditions. That’s convenient for Minnesota, or perhaps for Maine, where there are persistent rumors Trump plans to surge ICE this week, with an eye to the state’s Somali immigrant community. . . . Trump seems to be on course to become the first President to direct the use of U.S. military forces against American citizens during peacetime. And he’s doing it in a situation where the “unrest” is mostly peaceful protests resulting from Trump’s efforts to inflame the city. . . . . . . According to their website, the 11th Airborne Division . . . are ready to “deploy, fight and win decisively against any adversary.” Presumably, that includes the protestor in a giraffe costume ICE agents forced to the ground last week or the one dressed like a pickle. If the stakes weren’t so high, the whole thing would be ridiculous. And now . . . I take this as good news. It suggests there’s a huge and growing middle, neither far left nor far right, skeptical of — if not downright disgusted with — both parties . . . dismayed by the polarization and disfunction . . . looking to elect common sense moderates who can work together to do sensible things. But it’s hard for moderates to win because in most state primaries it’s mainly the hardest-core lefties and righties who take the time and trouble to vote. The solution is well known! > We need ranked-choice voting, especially for primaries. And open primaries. With these changes, candidates would have to appeal to the 80% who are not hard right or hard left. And we have to make mail-in voting super easy so it’s not just the fringes that vote. While we work to make that happen, I have to note that the extremism and nuttiness is not evenly distributed. Yes, there are a handful of Democrats who believe “men can get pregnant” or that we should “defund the police.” But I don’t think a single Democratic officeholder — and surely not a party leader — has ever espoused those views. Anywhere. Ever. By contrast, the leadership of the Republican Party, with the near unanimous acquiescence or approval of every elected Republican, calls for opponents to be jailed and executed; brands Renee Good a domestic terrorist without apology for shooting her in the face; publicly threatens to conquer a friendly neighbor; ignores the Constitution; protects pedophiles; labels opponents “vermin,” “garbage,” and “scum”; destroys without Congressional approval the global goodwill (“soft power”) both parties spent 80 years building; pardons the most violent January 6 felons; pardons the Honduran cocaine king; and — among so much else! — commits and condones unprecedented corruption. In Ken Martin’s 14 years as state party chair, Democrats flipped the Minnesota governorship from red to blue and never lost a single statewide race. In 14 years! Now, as DNC chair, he aims to repeat a good measure of that success nationwide. Click here to help.
Straight Out Of Two Corinthians January 18, 2026January 18, 2026 FAREED ZAKARIA The World Is Adjusting To An Unreliable United States. Putin is winning. FASCISM? Consider these parallels (75 seconds). The Proud Boys are winning. BAD NEWS FOR THE ELDERLY . . . After decades of advocacy, the Biden administration in 2023 tackled the problem of perennial understaffing of long-term care facilities. . . . In July, as part of the Trump administration’s budget reconciliation bill, Congress prohibited Medicare from implementing the new staffing standards[and other] long-sought rules to improve care for the aged. Old folks are losing. It’s all part of making America great again: Round up construction workers needed to build badly needed new housing; round up health care workers needed to care for an aging population; round up immigrants needed to harvest our crops; keep taxes low on billionaires — it’s straight out of Two Corinthians. STOP PROTECTING PEDOPHILES! When will Trump release the Epstein files? BILL MAHER It’s from years ago, but never gets old (7 minutes).
Why Greenland Prefers Denmark January 17, 2026 Denmark has more billionaires per capita; Denmark ranks way ahead in ease of starting a business; and . . . wow. Two minutes worth watching (“unmute” top right corner). Former Republican Rick Wilson: I’ll stop calling ICE the Gestapo when ICE stops running the Nazi playbook against American citizens. Just like Indivisible, he calls on Senate Democrats to use their “shut-down” leverage to rein in ICE now. Call your senators and urge them to draw that line in the sand. Maureen Dowd: There’s a great scene in “Lawrence of Arabia” when Peter O’Toole’s Lawrence comes back from battle and meets with Gen. Edmund Allenby, his British superior in Cairo. The bookish Lawrence tells Allenby he executed an Arab ally with his pistol and, “There was something about it I didn’t like.” Allenby reassures him that his distaste is to be expected. “No, something else,” Lawrence explains. “I enjoyed it.” Trump and his Proud Boys are having fun! It’s exciting! Imperialism is ever so much easier than affordability. Niceties be damned: As the daughter of a cop, I am sympathetic to the split-second life-and-death decisions the police have to make. But Jonathan Ross, the ICE officer who shot and shot and shot Renee Good as she was trying to drive away, tragically overreacted — then called her a “fucking bitch.” He could have stepped aside and caught up with her later, since he had her license plate. Worth reading in full. WEEK-END FUN Five very enjoyable, informative minutes. EPSTEIN! Q: Where are the files?! Why is Trump protecting pedophiles?! A: ?