Author: A.T.

Conservative columnist David Brooks on democracy in peril:

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. . . What happens when you don’t tend the seedbeds of democracy? Chaos? War? No, you return to normal. The 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th centuries were normal. Big countries like China, Russia and Turkey are ruled by fierce leaders with massive power. That’s normal. Small aristocracies in many nations hog gigantic shares of their nations’ wealth. That’s normal. Many people come to despise cultural outsiders, like immigrants. Normal. Global affairs resembles the law of the jungle, with big countries threatening small ones. This is the way it’s been for most of human history.

In normal times, people crave order and leaders like Vladimir Putin arise to give it to them. Putin and Xi Jinping have arisen to be the 21st century’s paradigmatic men.

Putin has established political order in Russia by reviving the Russian strong state tradition and by concentrating power in the hands of one man. He has established economic order through a grand bargain with oligarch-led firms, with him as the ultimate C.E.O. As Fiona Hill and Clifford G. Gaddy write in their book, “Mr. Putin,” corruption is the glue that holds the system together. Everybody’s wealth is deliberately tainted, so Putin has the power to accuse anyone of corruption and remove anyone at any time.

He offers cultural order. He embraces the Russian Orthodox Church and rails against the postmodern godlessness of the West. He scorns homosexuality and transgenderism.

Putin has redefined global conservatism and made himself its global leader. Many conservatives around the world see Putin’s strong, manly authority, his defense of traditional values and his enthusiastic embrace of orthodox faith, and they see their aspirations in human form. Right-wing leaders from Donald Trump in the United States to Marine Le Pen in France to Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines speak of Putin admiringly.

The 21st century has become a dark century because the seedbeds of democracy have been neglected and normal historical authoritarianism is on the march. Putin and Xi seem confident that the winds of history are at their back. Writing in The Times a few weeks ago, Hill said that Putin believes the United States is in the same predicament Russia was in in the 1990s — “weakened at home and in retreat abroad.” . . .

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Judging from the audience ratings and reviews, there are people who don’t love “Inventing Anna.”  I find this baffling — although I know young people who don’t love “Casablanca” and old people (see below) who didn’t like the Beatles, so if you’re not hooked on Anna after 20 minutes, no worries.  I binged through the long weekend.

(Once you do binge, here‘s what’s true and what’s made up.)

Much less fun, but just three minutes of your time, are Ron DeSantis’s anti-gay bill and his bill that would allow white folks to sue if made to feel discomfort because of a sensitivity training.  Watch two 30-second ads decrying these bills.

(In Texas, meanwhile, Republicans are trying to make it illegal to encourage mail-in voting.)

BONUS

From the Atlanta Constitution:

And yet they caught on.

Bonus bonus: James Corden and Paul McCartney touring Penny Lane.

Have a great weekend.  Let’s hope Putin finds an off-ramp.

Imagine a deadly war in which no American had to fight.  All we had to do was get vaccinated.

We actually won that war on small pox, polio, measles and a bunch more.

Shame on Bobby Kennedy, Jr. (are there any other Democrats on the wrong side of this?) and on anyone else who’s misled gullible people into not getting jabbed . . . no insignificant number of whom have needlessly died.

On a related note:  God’s Tech Support (90 seconds).

On a related related note — guess who had the foresight to put up the first $150 million to invent mRNA vaccines?

No — not the DFR.  Before him.

Here’s the story.

It relates as well to Ezra Klein’s piece highlighted yesterday: how we shouldn’t focus on Solyndra, we should focus on Tesla.  And on the Internet.  And now, it seems (thank you, Obama), on mRNA vaccines.

BONUS

Popular Mechanics on climate change.

You get billions of people dumping waste into the atmosphere every minute of every day for a century, and — as imagined by Popular Mechanics in 1912 — it might just have an effect.

No, not Larry Kramer.  He was scary in a good way — and has gone on to his reward.

Peter Thiel.

Hoping to tear down institutions and — with Ted Cruz, Steve Bannon, the DFP, et al — remake what would be a very different America.

The Ezra Klein piece everyone’s talking about.

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. . . Most liberals can list the programs they want the government to create or expand. Fewer can name the five technologies they want the government to finance or the five scientific challenges they want to see it mobilize to solve. But technology is central to how we make the future look different from the past. To leave that to the market, or to think it apolitical, is abdication.

. . . Venture capitalists can brag about their failures, but bureaucrats are flayed for them. That the Obama administration funded Solyndra is canon. That the same program threw a lifeline to a struggling electric car manufacturer named Tesla is trivia. Democrats have run scared from accusations of big government for decades . . .

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And yet DARPA — with support from Al Gore — really did invent the Internet.

It’s a long piece worth reading.

Jennifer Sey:  Yesterday I Was Levi’s Brand President. I Quit So I Could Be Free.  I turned down $1 million severance in exchange for my voice.

Wow.

This continues Saturday’s theme, Too Woke To Win?

(Did you read that professor’s story???)

Speaking of which:

Are you one of the 17 million who’ve seen this clip of Jordan Peterson on Bill Maher from a few years ago?

The top line for me is that we all need to calm down and start from the assumption that we’re almost all pretty nice people when we don’t get our backs up — and when people like Putin are not purposely trying to make us dislike or distrust each other.

On a completely different topic — but before I forget to post it: Danna Nelson’s story.

As some of you know, I plan to live forever.  But you know what they say about the best laid plans.  So, three cheers for Compassion & Choices.  May we never need their help.

But first . . .

Eugene Robinson recalls:

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Remember when Donald Trump ranted about how “people are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times,” and nobody knew what on earth he was talking about? Maybe he was referring to personal difficulties in trying to flush away official White House documents. . . .

. . . Clinton was indeed careless [in her handling of emails, which resulted in years of Congressional investigations]. But Trump appears to have been both deliberate and persistent in his unlawful destruction of documents. [So might that not warrant Congressional investigation, too?]

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Thomas Edison remarks:

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“We are like tenant farmers, chopping down the fence around our house for fuel, when we should be using nature’s inexhaustible sources of energy—sun, wind, and tide. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait till oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”

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Judge Albright reschedules:

At the request of both parties, PRKR’s patent suits against Intel have been pushed to October 24 and May 29 . . . to make room, I believe, for the much bigger Qualcomm trial, which could be scheduled for the summer.

And so . . . bromides to mix with your morning tea:

“Good things come to those who wait.”

“The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine.”

“Patience, Jackass, patience.”

A bromide that gives me special hope — because it is patently (ahem) false — “A watched pot never boils.”

We’ve been watching this pot for a long time.  Just because it’s not yet boiled doesn’t mean it won’t.

(For those seeking more than bromides, I’ve stumbled on this little discussion group.)

And now . . .

We all agree people should be treated fairly, with kindness and respect.

We all know it doesn’t always happen — indeed, we ourselves sometimes fall short.

So sensitizing people to others’ feelings and advancing the cause of equal rights are important things to do.

And yet it’s becoming ever more clear that in pursuit of perfection the pendulum can swing too far.

Read this story, out of the University of Illinois, and tell me there can’t be such a thing as too woke.

Or recall Al Franken’s sophomoric behavior before he was elected to the Senate.  Are we sure an apology shouldn’t have sufficed?

Or . . . well, by now, the examples are endless.

I’m not saying I agree with everything in Douglas Murray’s The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity — not least because I’m barely past the Introduction.

But I do think we’ll make more progress toward equality if we don’t scare — or look down on — the sensible center.

Otherwise, we’ll needlessly hand the G.O.P. seats as we did in 2020 with “defund the police.”  The goal was right — better policing, accountability, mental health resources, criminal justice reform — but the framing was suicidal.

And this time, it could mean a Republican controlled Senate and a vengeful, unhinged former president sitting as Speaker of the House.

The case for renaming the R.N.C.

When even Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney are criticizing the Republican National Committee . . .

. . . it has become the Republican National Cult.

And this is precisely the moniker we all should use for the indefinite future.

Just as we should refer to him, only and always, as “the disgraced former president.”

Everyone will know who you mean.

Watch that clip.  It’s so clear and powerful.  Hats off to Hakeem Jeffries and Lawrence O’Donnell.

BONUS

The case for depoliticizing the Court just grows and grows.  Look what they’ve done now!  Even John Roberts dissented.

If so, please print this out for him:  Yes or no on Mueller report criminal charges? Don’t let Trump just run out the clock.

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More than a thousand former federal prosecutors signed a letter saying the evidence would justify an indictment.

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So indict him.

Doug: “Any update on our PLSE and PLXP puts?  Sell some to enjoy the ride?”

The two were trading around $23 and $18 respectively when panned here this past September.  Now, at $7 and $6, we have nearly a triple on one and 50% or so on the other — and in just five months.  Thank you, Guru!

Both stocks may well head lower still; but no one ever went broke taking profits.  I can see your locking in some or all of your gain.

Not that any of this is easy.  This past July, when I first mentioned PLSE, I also mentioned EVLO:

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At $13.49 last night, Guru believes it will be $4 before the August puts expire next month.  With money I can truly afford to lose, I bought $10 puts for 85 cents and $7.50 puts for 45 cents.  If the stock is $10 or higher on August 20, the puts will expire worthless.  If it’s $4, I’ll make $6 on each $10 put, $3.50 on each $7.50 put — about seven times my money (shielded from taxes in my IRA).

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And guess what!  Guru was dead right about the stock dropping to $4, where it sits now.  But it didn’t happen quite fast enough, so the puts did indeed expire worthless.  Fortunately, no one ever went broke, either, betting money he or she could truly afford to lose.

BONUS

Barney Frank’s excellent idea for Liz Cheney and the Wyoming Democratic Party.

Did you have the chance to watch that Rick Wilson interview I highlighted Saturday?

I would argue that if you’re not alarmed, you’re not following the news.

E.g., the disgraced former president teeing up mass rallies threatening potential violence against anyone who dares investigate him.

The death threats on rank-and-file election workers.

The little Nazi rallies popping up in Orlando and elsewhere.

If the RNC can officially vote to label the violent breach of the Capitol for the first time since 1812 “legitimate political discourse” . . .

. . . and deem investigating that breach and the associated first-ever attempt to overturn a presidential election — an election the loser’s own people called “the most secure in American history” — worthy of censure . . .

. . . not just “a waste of time,” mind you, like the eight (eight!) Republican-led Benghazi investigations, but actually warranting censure . . .

. . . how can anyone not be alarmed?

The Republican Party has thrown over the principles of Lincoln and Reagan for those of the people who marched with torches in Charleston.  Many of them “very fine people,” the chief Republican assures us.

Is civil war coming to America? ask two new books.

It’s already here, argues Stephen Marche, We Just Refuse To See It.

Trump’s friend Putin is winning.*

What better serves Putin than division and polarization here in America?

I am struck by my friend Edward’s email tag line:

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If you wonder what you might have done during the Holocaust or the Civil Rights era, look around and see what you are doing today.

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If you decide its not enough, consider joining your local chapter of the League of Women Voters . . . joining Field Team 6 . . . joining Vote Forward . . . and, if you can — now, when your support is so much more leveraged than when most people will be giving next summer and fall — funding Team Blue.

*There was no Republican platform in 2020, and the only thing Trump changed in the 2016 platform he inherited when he won the nomination — the only thing! — was the part about defending Ukraine.  What a crazy coincidence.

By Heather Cox Richardson.

Click here.

Worth reading even for those of us who did take American history in high school.