Heeding Dickens’ Third Ghost July 11, 2018July 10, 2018 First thing we do: take back the House. Paul Sagan: “I thought you’d enjoy something my 89-year-old dad just started in his frustration, with help from his grandchildren: CleanTheHouse.org. Feel free to share.” If you have time for more . . . In response to yesterday’s note on Giuliani, John Kasley added: “Giuliani was also in the employ of the Sacklers,” philanthropists who made their fortune off addiction to opioids (and Valium before that). Read it here, in the New Yorker — a fascinating, detailed piece. And, briefly, in the Guardian: “Rudy Giuliani won deal for OxyContin maker to continue sales of drug behind [300,000] opioid deaths.” What a guy! Perfect to represent Trump. Democracy is losing ground around the world . . . and here at home . . . as George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum outlined in The Atlantic at the start of the Trump regime more than a year ago (“How to Build an Autocracy“). . . . What is spreading today is repressive kleptocracy, led by rulers motivated by greed rather than by the deranged idealism of Hitler or Stalin or Mao. Such rulers rely less on terror and more on rule-twisting, the manipulation of information, and the co-optation of elites. . . . It is a compelling, enlightening piece,worth finding the time to read. Especially because, as Frum writes: . . . The story told here, like that told by Charles Dickens’s Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, is a story not of things that will be, but of things that may be. Other paths remain open. It is up to Americans to decide which one the country will follow. . . . Here’s how to help fund organizers who are recruiting Neighborhood Team Leaders who are recruiting volunteers to help turn out the vote.