Author: A.T.

25 ACTUAL MONEY BOOKS

This is 4% shameless self-promotion.  (The other 24 were written by others.)

1 NEW TRUMP BOOK

At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House is billed in this review as “Gen. McMaster’s blistering account of the Trump White House.”

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In his blistering, insightful account of his time in the Trump White House, McMaster describes meetings in the Oval Office as “exercises in competitive sycophancy” . . . [He] provides unique detail on Trump’s approach to foreign policy and — similarly to his successor in the national security adviser role, former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton, who wrote scathingly about the former president in a book published in 2020 — his account is likely to do little to reassure US allies about the prospects of a second Trump term.

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Right on the money.

As are these:

3 BOOKS I’LL KEEP RECOMMENDING UNTIL DEMOCRACY IS SAVED

> A Fever in the Heartland — how white Christian nationalists almost took over the country in the 1920’s.

> Prequel — how they almost did again ten years later.

> Blowback — third time’s a charm?

This last, by Trump’s own Homeland Security Chief of Staff, is subtitled: “A Warning to Save Democracy from Trump’s Revenge.”

One of my house guests this past weekend was a brilliant, well-read, wealthy friend of long standing — a gay Ivy League grad in his early sixties — who is not crazy about Trump but was less even crazy about Hillary and Joe.

This year, he said — perhaps just to keep his host’s head from exploding — he’s undecided.  He’s “listening.”

Which is all we have a right to ask.  If people do listen, I feel sure most will agree with Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and Trump’s own former chiefs of staff, press secretaries, and Vice President — along with millions of less prominent Republicans — and vote blue.

Or, at the very least, stay home — though that’s the equivalent of half a vote for Trump, so makes zero logical sense.

My friend had never heard of A Fever, Prequel, or Blowback, and — more surprising to me — had not known of the widespread Nazi support (including in the House and Senate) prior to our entry into World War II — not least this famous rally in Madison Square Garden.

He promised to take 3 minutes to watch on the ride home.

(As a reader of this page, you know Trump’s dad was detained at a KKK rally in the 20s; and that, for years, Trump — not a big reader — kept this book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside.  His admiration for dictators and strongmen runs deep.)

I’m hoping that come November 5, my friend will grit his teeth and vote blue.

BUFFETT

There are so many good books about him, but 29 recommendations is enough for one post, so I offer instead — and of perhaps more immediate interest anyway — this chart:

Clearly, with the market at an all-time high*, at least one legendary investor thinks it’s a good time to have cash on the sidelines.

*Trump predicts a crash if Kamala is elected.  But he always predicts a crash if he’s not elected.  And carnage and misery — just look at the banana republic Biden has turned this once-great country into.  Vermin are poisoning our blood stream!  Here’s the clip from four years ago (2 seconds): “If he’s elected, the stock market will crash.”  Note that the Dow opened at 27, 138 on Election Day 2020 and as I type, at 41,254, is more than 50% higher.  And Mexico, oddly, did not pay for the wall.  And he bankrupted half a dozen businesses.  Indeed, Republican strategist Rick Wilson says Everything Trump Touches Dies.  Tucker Carlson calls him “the world champion of destroying things.”  Sorry.  I’ve had too much coffee.

BONUSES

Greg Palast: I was with RFK Jr. when he lost his mind.

Newsweek: RFK Jr Beheading Whale Story Resurfaces After He Endorses Trump.  (“Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the rankest thing on the planet,” said Kick Kennedy.)

Andy Borowitz: Entire Kennedy Family Changes Last Name.

SQNS

Reviewed last week, SQNS tripled Friday, hitting $1.71, before falling back to $1.15 (up from $0.54).  A friend who follows the company closely says this $200 million should leave them with more than $1 a share in cash net of debt and good prospects for future earnings.  He thinks the stock could be $2 by year’s end and perhaps back to its $7 2021 high in a few years.

DNC

It was joyful.

(These photos from the two conventions, ours on the left, theirs on the right, make an interesting contrast.)

Kamala hit it out of the ballpark, as did the Clintons and Obamas — and Oprah! — and Jamie Raskin and Pete Buttigieg and so many others.  Reverend Warnock!  Doug Emhoff!  (And, yes, A.O.C.)

The must-watch 16 minutes, however, belonged to Minnesota Governor and high school football coach Tim Walz.

Talk about heartland values!  Friday Night Lights.

The best of America, common sense, and common decency.

A friend from Paris, Texas (pop. 24,500) told me that he had expected his parents, appalled by Trump, to not vote this year . . . but that — now that they’ve
“met” Coach Walz — he expects they just may vote blue.

Multiplied ten million times across rural counties, that’s huge.

RFK

From The New Yorker:  What Does Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Actually Want?  So much about this guy I had not known.

From The Atlantic: RFK Jr. Was My Drug Dealer.

From Gizmodo:

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. . . The kindest thing you can say about Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump is that it is a betrayal of everything he worked for during his career as an environmental lawyer. Even if many of Kennedy’s complaints about the Democratic Party are true, one thing that is inarguable is that the Democrats are light-years ahead of the GOP when it comes to protecting the environment. As such, endorsing Trump is unforgivable from the perspective of someone who authentically cares about the natural world. Trump notably rolled back more than 100 environmental rules and regulations and nominated a guy with dense ties to the Koch brothers and the oil lobby to head the EPA. Project 2025, the policy blueprint authored by the Heritage Foundation and a small army of former Trump officials, has plans to gut the EPA, defund multiple weather agencies, ban official use of the term “climate change,” and do a whole assortment of other terrible things . . .

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FOX

A dozen White House Republican lawyers endorse Harris, according to FOX News.

Even as so many former Trump appointees, like his former chiefs of staff and press secretaries, warn people not to vote for him.

Do you know of any former Clinton, Obama, or Biden appointees — let alone former chiefs of staff or press secretaries — endorsing Trump?

They read 900 pages so you don’t have to.  

If we let Trump win, here’s what they will try to accomplish.

With the Supreme Court already bought and paid for, don’t put it past them to succeed.

No kidding around.

Democracy really IS on the ballot.

If we lose ours, and Putin wins, where does that leave the rest of the world?

The money and support keep pouring in!

BONUS

One thing you can say for Trump: he “absolutely” believes in fidelity in marriage.

Last night was so great.  Hillary was so great!  Reverend Warnock was so great!  Jamie Raskin was so great!  AOC was so great!  The enthusiasm and excitement and joy were so great!  JOE BIDEN WAS SO GREAT!

The money and support keep pouring in!

BONUS

70,000 Republicans for Harris on a single Zoom!

The weather here in Chicago is beautiful.  The forecast for our country’s future, so menacing until recently, is beginning to look once again bright.

Imagine this: two ordinary people from humble backgrounds who know what it’s like to struggle to make ends meet and who know what it’s like to laugh.

Tim and Kamala get to know each other — an enjoyable 10 minutes.

Joe Biden has been one of our best presidents ever.  Kamala, I think, will be another.

Vice President Harris Lays Out Agenda to Lower Costs for American Families.  These strike me a serious proposals that could make life genuinely better for ordinary Americans struggling to get by.  Let me know what you think — and spread the word.

The money and support keep pouring in!

Meanwhile, there is a “severe high temperature warning” for Tel Aviv.

But that is the least of Israel’s problems.

If Israelis don’t rise up now, they’ll have nothing left to fight for — a must read.

Netanyahu has been Israel’s worst leader ever.  It is to cry.

For those with the time to see Gaza from the perspective of its leader, read David Remnick’s chilling profile of Yahya Sinwar.

But first I’ll start with the BONUS: 

Never mind the Court’s immunity ruling — Trump can be prosecuted for Jan. 6.  And for hiding documents from the FBI.  It will be long after the election, of course; and never, if he wins; but it’s just possible justice will be done.  Isn’t that supposed to be one of the great things about our country? That every man is presumed innocent until proven guilty — but that no man is above the law?

And now — what is this? Christmas? — a SECOND BONUS:

Steve Ratner’s charts blowing Trump out of the water on the economy — and crime.  Facts to be shared widely.

Now BERNIE.

We’re all flooded with appeals.  This one, from Senator Sanders yesterday, actually got me to click:

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Dear Friend,

As I’m sure you are aware, this is not a normal election.

It is not a normal election when we are running against someone who is a pathological liar.

It is not a normal election when we are running against someone who has been convicted of 34 felonies.

It is not a normal election when our opponent is a convicted sexual abuser and, as a private businessman, was involved in 4,000 lawsuits — indicating a total lack of trustworthiness.

But it’s even worse than that.

When Donald Trump claims that “nobody” showed up at a 10,000 person Harris-Walz rally in Michigan that was live-streamed and widely covered by the media, that it was all AI, and that Democrats cheat all of the time, there is a method to his madness.

Clearly, and dangerously, what Trump is doing is undermining American democracy and laying the groundwork for rejecting the election results if he loses.

If you can convince your supporters that thousands of people who attended a televised rally do not exist, it will not be hard to convince them that the election returns in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and elsewhere are “fake” and “fraudulent.”

It should be a secret to no one. Trump’s goal is to destroy faith in American institutions and the rule of law and move us toward an authoritarian society.

But it’s not just Trump’s dishonesty and authoritarianism that must be defeated.

We cannot elect someone who believes that, in the year 2024, women do not have the right to control their own bodies. For the sake of our kids and future generations we cannot elect someone who believes that climate change is a “hoax.”

This is why we must do everything we can to see that Trump is defeated and Kamala Harris is our next president.

But we must do more.

Not only do we have to defeat Trump, but we must build a strong grassroots movement that can confront the extraordinary greed of the big money interests who have so much power over the economic and political life of our country. Our goal: a government that works for all, not just the few.

Yes. We need to overturn the disastrous Supreme Court decision on Citizens United and move toward public funding of elections. Billionaires should not be able to buy elections.

Yes. We need to join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to all as a human right, not a privilege.

Yes. We need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage and make it easier for workers to join unions.

Yes. We need to address the unprecedented level of income and wealth inequality and demand that the wealthy and large corporations start paying their fair share of taxes.

Yes. We need to build millions of units of low income and affordable housing and cap rent increases.

Yes. We must end the absurdity of having the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country, make a strong child tax credit permanent and invest heavily in childcare.

Yes. We must strengthen public education in America, pay teachers the salaries they deserve and make sure that every person, regardless of income, receives the higher education they need to pursue their dreams.

Bottom line. We are living in a pivotal moment in American history. In the next three months let us roll up our sleeves, come together and do the hard work that has to be done in order to defeat Trump and elect Kamala Harris as president.

And let us also understand that there will be no progress on these issues or any others that the working people of this country care about if Republicans control the House or the Senate.

So not only must we win the presidential race, but it is critical we fight and win races up and down the ballot.

But no one person can do that alone — not Kamala Harris, not Tim Walz, not any candidate running for office anywhere in the country. It will take all of us chipping in to help.

So I am once again asking for your financial support:

Can I count on you to make a $27 contribution (or whatever you can afford) to the Democratic National Committee today? They are hoping for a huge number of donations before the convention begins.

Our task is clear. In the next 81 days let us do all that we can to help the Harris-Walz ticket win a major victory. And, on the day following that win, let us continue our struggle to transform our country and create the kind of nation we know we can become.

In Solidarity,

Bernie

CONTRIBUTE NOW

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There are a couple of policy positions there I don’t agree with — capping rents kills the incentive to build new housing, which ultimately makes housing more expensive — but on the whole, as usual, Bernie nails it.

One of you sent me a long list of stocks, asking whether he should still hold them (and do I?).

They’ve nearly all gone down, for which there are two reasons:

> First, I’ve made a lot of rotten — or, at the least, horribly timed — suggestions.

> Second (as he explains it), “the ones that went up went into my DAF, so there is a high % of down stocks here.”  [DAF = Donor Advised Fund.  The two biggest are at Fidelty and Schwab.]

“I really appreciate your portfolio,” he writes.  “I’ve made lots of money because of you.”

Reading his list, it’s hard to imagine how.

ANIX — $3.19.  One of my smart guys thinks its drug trials will fail — the stock goes to zero.  Another thinks they will succeed — the stock goes to the moon.  How can I resist?

FANH — $1.40.  Suggested ages ago around $6, we sold around $20 and $35 . . . not because I had any idea it would then fall and fall and fall, but simply because the upside had been realized and it was time to find better values.  Like, for example . . .

CNF — $1.  . . . a separate Chinese consumer finance company that was somehow related to FANH, which that same friend thought (when it was $4) could be a repeat of FANH, quintupling.   Instead, it’s been a disaster.  If the numbers are to be believed (with a Chinese company, an even bigger if than usual), the stock is selling at three times earnings!  My friend owns a ton and thinks someday we’ll reap our reward.  I know nothing — but it sure doesn’t feel as though we’re going to reap a reward.  And yet I’m way too stubborn to sell.

GLDD — $9.  Many of us bought it at much lower prices.  I still have a little.  It should be a good infrastructure play, but I wouldn’t rush to buy it here.  Maybe at some point it will be acquired for $15?

OPRT — $3.13.  One of my favorite moon shots for those who have money they can truly afford to lose.

SQNS — $0.55.  They were supposed to be acquired at $3.03, and many of us took at least some of our modest profit around $2.80 — the cash to acquire it was in escrow!  I was counting my chickens with great confidence! — and then it all fell apart based on some French tax regulations or something I didn’t understand.  It may now go all the way to zero.  But at 55 cents, I bought more.

YTRA — $1.34.  There are a whole lot of Indians, and they travel.  If the stock ever got back to $4 or $5, I’d probably sell.

BKUTK — $367.50.  Oh, look!  An actual grown-up stock (albeit a tiny, highly illiquid one) that pays . . . wait for it . . . a dividend!  It’s a very conservatively run community bank, probably worth double what it’s selling for if management cared about the stock price, but they really don’t.  So I collect my 5% dividend and am kind of stuck.

BOREF — $1.75.  My original folly.  WheelTug may still happen.  If it does, the drinks are on me.

HYMC — $2.24.  Haven’t changed my opinion.  Still holding.  (Note the 1-for-10 reverse split since I paid 22 cents; at today’s price, it’s not up tenfold, it’s basically unchanged.)

KLTR — $1.23.  Still holding.  As with all these others, you can use the search box to read whatever I may have written about these klunkers in the past.

PRKR — $0.16.  Could the judicial system ever give this company a break?  If so, even with a bazillion shares now outstanding, the stock could double or triple.  Or else just gradually disappear, one more nail in the U.S. Patent System’s coffin.

RECAF — $0.77.  I hope renewable energy grows so fast we never need the fossil fuels this company probably sits on.  But I’m way too stubborn to sell.

RNGE — $0.30.  High hopes — as with all the above, only with money we can afford to lose.

VNRX — $0.57.  Don’t people care about their pets???  This company is supposed to be making a fortune by now!  The friend who suggested it at more than twice today’s price says he doesn’t understand why they’re not doing better.  I haven’t sold a share, but I’m not particularly optimistic.

Have a great weekend.

Joy and hope are back.

The money and support keep pouring in!

Trump had years to think about his V.P. pick yet chose someone terrible.

Kamala had just a few days and, Trey Beck concurs, hit it out of the ballpark:

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A lot’s already been said about Tim Walz as the VP pick. I’ll try to limit myself to points of disagreement with at least some commenters.

The Walz pick was a feat of political alchemy by the Harris campaign.

The left is exulting that Harris went with the “liberal” option: a white, 60-year-old farm-raised National Guardsman from the Great Plains who (God bless him) tore down the goalposts when his Huskers beat the Sooners, who had an A rating from the NRA for his entire tenure in the U.S. House, who wins Congressional marksmanship competitions, and who had one of the most conservative voting records in the Democratic House caucus.

Is he liberal because . . . he’s not Josh Shapiro or Mark Kelly?

Make no mistake, Tim Walz is a moderate Democrat, and the best kind: a modest and modest-living public servant who wants to make things better for his constituents. Many of the bills Gov. Walz has signed into law are “partisan” only because Republicans who used to be unfussed by stuff like automatic voter registration or free school meals now balk at them. He is a Democrat who can be respected by independents and centrist Republicans while lighting a fire under the progressive base. It’s been noted by others, AOC included, that if both AOC and Manchin are effusive about your selection, you’ve threaded a tiny needle indeed.

How has Walz (and by implication Harris) achieved this?

Walz is a more talented politician than he’s given credit for.

More than one analyst has argued that Walz basically performs at replacement level for a Dem in Minnesota, a blue state.

I disagree.

First, Minnesota is not a blue state. Republicans project real strength there, having held one or both chambers of the state legislature for much of the past two decades (and with fair maps, unlike in neighboring Wisconsin). Al Franken won his 2008 Senate race by 312 votes. Minnesota voters also have a rich tradition of colorful independents, most visibly in their shocking 1998 selection of pro-wrestler-turned-governor Jesse Ventura as governor. (In a reversal, Republican governors like DeSantis, Noem, and Abbott have turned into pro wrestlers.)

Walz is 7-0 in this purple Big Ten state. He won his House seat—and kept it four more times—in a district that had been Republican for all but four years since 1892. Only one of these races, against establishment challenger Jim Hagedorn, was close.

I believe some of the unmistakable disappointment that greeted the initial Walz news was that his political record was compared against that of pre-announcement favorite Josh Shapiro. I get it. Shapiro is an effective and popular governor in the pivotal state of Pennsylvania. I have written about the incredible work he did as Pennsylvania’s attorney general, going after decades of hidden sexual abuse in the Catholic Church at considerable political risk. Shapiro is awesome.

Shapiro won his 2022 governor’s race by almost 15%, versus Walz’s 9% in the same year.

But this is sort of an unfair comparison. Shapiro’s opponent was Doug Mastriano, arguably* the worst gubernatorial candidate for an otherwise winnable governor seat in modern American history. (*Maine’s Gov. LePage may have a claim.) Mastriano  made my 2022 list of “people who should not hold office” because he’s a lunatic. (So did LePage, for the very same reason.) He demanded Republicans disregard the 2020 election results “in Jesus’ name” and helped organize and participate in Jan. 6. He proposed we arm teachers after the Uvalde shooting. He has been photographed in a Confederate military uniform, and he called the separation of church and state a “myth.” Mastriano didn’t really campaign (preferring to fast and pray), was massively outspent by Shapiro, and declined any media engagements other than with fringe right outlets. This was never going to be a competitive race, even in our polarized times.

On the other hand, Walz ran against a serious candidate, Scott Jensen, a Republican state legislator who drew fire from his party’s right flank by voting in favor of a state ban on “conversion therapy.” (Jensen’s own daughter, who is gay, was influential in his politically courageous denunciation of Republican hate towards vulnerable LGBTQ young people.) Walz raised and spent more than Jensen, but by a factor of two, not 16. It seems safe to assume that had Walz and Shapiro just swapped opponents, Shapiro would have won by less and Walz by more.

So, despite running for re-election in a politically competitive state against a respectably funded moderate Republican with a record of bipartisan accommodation, Walz won by about 8%. Pretty good.

It seems as if voters see in Walz whatever features they find most attractive. Is he a card-carrying union guy and defender of the minimum wage? Obama-style technocrat closing loopholes exploited by construction firms? Big government liberal expanding early childhood education and paid family leave? Salt of the earth former teacher who married another teacher named, adorably, Gwen Whipple? Bighearted football coach who both won a state championship and was the faculty adviser for a newly formed gay/straight student alliance? Avid hunter who defends the Second Amendment while keeping guns away from dangerous people? The dad with the flair for hokey theatrics all the kids jockey to carpool with?

Yes.

Plenty of people could have the same resume but fail to connect with voters. This takes skill, and gobs of charisma.

Although I have supported Walz’s past gubernatorial campaigns, I have enjoyed learning his remarkable personal story along with the rest of the country.

In the unlikely event you haven’t seen Walz’s first appearance with Harris, please watch it. It wasn’t just some speechwriter’s pablum when he began by saying he felt joy in campaigning with Harris. The enthusiasm is obvious and infectious.

Labeling the selection of Walz “antisemitic” is as absurd as it was predictable. 

Trump called the Walz pick “insulting to Jewish people” since the talented Shapiro was available. Allies followed suit. But while the Trump campaign says multiple risible or offensive things a day, shame on financier and self-described former “Bill Clinton Democrat” Bill Ackman, who has become the most visible billionaire to go all in on Trump on the issue of Israel/Gaza. Ackman is no stranger to the application of different standards in areas as diffuse as academic plagiarism and antisemitism, but he still surprised me by going so far as to say the Democratic party needs to be razed and rebuilt from the ground up in part because of the Walz-over-Shapiro pick. Ackman, a Jewish American, is backing a ticket led by a guy who (picking from literally dozens of examples) lunched with the very Nick Fuentes who has said “I seek total Aryan victory” and “I am just like Hitler.” Imagine Ackman’s public response if Harvard’s new president said the things or kept the company that Trump does.

There is also the glaring double standard at work. Trump does not tell us what to think of his own 100%-Gentile ticket. (Jared Kushner was right there for the nepo-plucking! Or what about Ackman?!) There was no conservative uproar that all of the six people reported to be Harris’ VP finalists were white men, despite the “diversity” political calculus being plain as day to everyone. Will Saletan has noted that the conservatives’ ugly attacks on Harris as a “DEI hire” are always unidirectional. “The ‘DEI’ rap on Harris,” Saletan writes, “isn’t about objecting to the selection of running mates based on race and sex. It’s about objecting when that selection process favors women and minorities.” Facts.

And I would expect the racist and misogynistic shit-throwing to get even more intense every time Harris looks to stretch a lead. Which she definitely has the skills to do.

Harris has seriously upped her game. 

As one of the millions of Americans who found Harris mostly invisible since her inauguration, I’ve been very surprised by how much better her campaigning chops are since her last run. Harris is positioning herself as “not Trump,” preferring (so far) to focus on her biography and values and allow voters to see her as a vessel of their own policy preferences, beyond ditching her 2020 call to ban fracking, which is both unpopular and unachievable. Her messaging choices have been smart (more on that in a second), and she no longer seems canned like she did four years ago. I don’t think the Harris of 2020 would have handled protesters this deftly. Harris has had an extraordinary start, and Walz is exactly the kind of partner she needs to reach gettable voters leery of coastal elites.

The Harris/Walz “they’re weird” frame is smart.

I’ve seen one academic team guest blog on Matt Yglesias’ Substack that Walz’s now viral description of J.D. Vance (and by extension the guy who picked him) as “weird” does not move the Democratic ticket towards the goal line. The reasoning is grounded in research suggesting that voters are influenced the most by new information. Since they already understand Trump’s foibles, the logic goes, attack ads are mostly useless. The way to get voters into the Harris fold is by focusing on things they don’t yet know, like what the Biden team has done on prescription drug prices and the like. These researchers found that half of swing state voters were unaware that Harris is opposed to cutting Social Security, for instance. Why not tell them this, rather than dwelling on GOP creepiness?

And, sure, I absolutely buy the imperative of selling the Biden/Harris kitchen table record, running around for photo ops in front of new bridges, reminding people of $35 insulin caps, and, absolutely, reaffirming a Harris/Walz commitment to protecting Social Security. I am sure these academics are right that if you ran a bunch of ads focusing solely on “weird Trump,” you’d not be running a very good campaign.

But the “weird” line of attack is valuable because it actually is new information for many voters unaware of the extent of the authoritarian threat of Trumpism. It gives a convenient handle to a set of policies, statements, legal rulings, cuts, and programs that are, in fact, super weird, even frightening, attacks on individual liberty and American social norms. They are things most Americans disagree with, but may not yet know about. Many American voters are unfamiliar with Project 2025, but those that do really don’t like it, which means a ton of room to damage Trump and his ballotmates for their ties to this dangerous plan. You obviously don’t campaign solely in opposition to “weird,” but the more Democrats are able to let voters know that Republicans are squeamish about contraception (while also making those kitchen table arguments), the more likely Harris is our next president.

Also missed here is that J.D. Vance was a nationally known political commodity at his announcement. Everyone knows Trump is venal and dishonest, but they didn’t know J.D. Vance has strong opinions about childless cat ladies and has seriously argued that people with kids should get more votes. When it became more likely Biden would step aside as nominee, Democratic operatives knew that they would have to work furiously to define Harris, even though she has been the Vice President for almost four years, before her opponents did it. These past three weeks have been monumentally important in establishing the base identity of three of the four members of these two tickets. Instead of describing Harris on GOP terms, the Republican ticket has spent days whining directly and through surrogates that people are calling them weird, which of course begets even more coverage of the weird meme. At this point, some critical portion of the electorate is operating from a base assumption that Vance is, above any other feature, “just plain weird.” That’s not great for Vance, or the guy who chose him as wingman. (For the record, Trump himself is creepy AF.)

Also, the other audience for the weird critique is Donald Trump himself. Being called a creepster, and at raucous and well attended Harris rallies no less, obviously drives Trump nuts. Any day Trump’s own messaging theme is “we’re not weird,” he is losing. Any day he sends unhinged posts about Biden coming back or alleges Harris has AI-generated crowds, his campaign not only loses the chance to blast Harris for lawlessness at the border, but looks, well, weird. It’s a virtuous cycle.

The only mild messaging concern I have is that one organizer told me some working-class voters bristle a bit at the “we’re not going back” stump line, because some of them actually kind of do want to go back, at least to cheaper milk if not all the way to Jim Crow. But “we’re not going back” does work well with the base and on the stump, and different messages can be used with different audiences. This is also a crowd where Walz can be a trusted messenger.

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BONUS

Donald explains why he shouldn’t be elected.  (Thanks, Andrew R.)

The money and support keep pouring in.

Yesterday I said:

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Superman was, of course, American.

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Dana Dlott: “Superman was an illegal immigrant.”  George Mokray: “An undocumented alien, really, truly alien.”

I stand corrected.

The Harris Honeymoon Is Far From Over.

Yes!  The money and support keep pouring in!

Rothkopf’s criticism of the press strikes me as overbroad — but there’s still a lot to it.

This interview with Republican-appointed conservative judge Michael Luttig is “must view.”  But because you likely don’t have an hour, I’d suggest increasing the playback speed (click the “settings” button) . . . and then only to watch as follows:

> Start at the 7-minute mark.  Luttig recalls being called before dawn January 6th, with not the slightest notion he would set in motion the events that prevented Trump from seizing power (or even how to tweet).  It is a very human story.

> Then watch (21:25-23:59) as he expounds on putting country ahead of party.

> And (38:58-45:00) as he explains how the Constitution prevents Trump from ever again holding office — and the shame the Supreme Court should feel for finding otherwise.

My guess is that if you listen to those three snippets, you may wind up watching to the end, as I did.

MAUREEN DOWD: TRUMP BY THE NUMBERS.

She recalls first interviewing him 25 years ago.

This is really becoming fun!  The money and support keep pouring in!

Are you old enough to remember Superman’s motto?  “Truth, Justice and the American Way“?  (Superman was, of course, American.)   Well, he’s turning out to be a woman named Kamala Harris, and — not to jinx it or to minimize the challenge — it’s looking as though this episode, like them all, just might have a happy ending.

MORE NUMBERS

162 lies and distortions in 90 minutes — nearly two a minute.

BOOKS

Looking for a great one?  I again suggest What This Comedian Said Will Shock You.  In my view, Bill Maher is right about practically everything.

I also just listened to 2034: A Novel of the Next World War.  Not bad.  (Dr. Strangelove, by contrast, is genius — and only 95 minutes.)  But the 30-minute Audible bonus after the epilog — an interview with co-author Admiral James Stavridis — has me hoping President Harris will name him Secretary of Defense.

Lawrence O’Donnell excoriates the press.  Watch.  He’s so right!

(On a related note, Robert Reich asks: Why isn’t the media reporting on Trump’s increasing dementia?)

What it’s like after a strongman loses an election by a landslide but claims to have won:  Venezuela in the grip of a strongman.  Could something like this ever happen here?  Trump says there will be a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses the election.  And if he wins?  “Vengeance” and “retribution.”

Or we could have a president and V.P. who embody hope and joy, motivated by a determination to make life better for ordinary Americans — very much including our friends who vote the other way.

Toward that end, the money and support keep pouring in.

BONUS

Why he’s not the Brits’ cup of tea (as it were).  Not entirely fair — but fun.