Whitehouse Director of Speechwriting has a truly remarkable series of podcasts that really transformed the way I'm thinking about this primary, our message, what kind of strategy we need to win, how we even got here in the first place.





One of the greatest takeaways for me: We need to stop arguing about whether we should be leaning into a more purely economic message and stay away from race/minority issues for fear of alienating white/Trump voters, or should we be making social justice front and center to try to energize and get out our base. The messages that get through, the ones that poll the best, even with Republicans, are those that address both of those elements in a way that brings us together.

Also - as my header would suggest, the media is not here for us. We need to stop sitting here passively, expecting them to be woke, point out all his lies, every time, tell our story for us, and take down Trump for us. That's not their job, that's our job.

The Wilderness podcast is done by Jon Favreau, who is also part of Pod Save America along with Daniel Pfeiffer, Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor.

Anyway - If I might humbly suggest, Chapter 5 (The Midwest) and Chapter 6 (The Path) from season 2 are especially brilliant. All are worth your time, in my opinion.


The WIlderness
https://crooked.com/podcast-series/the-wilderness/

Episode 5
https://crooked.com/podcast/chapter-5-the-midwest/

Episode 6
https://crooked.com/podcast/chapter-6-the-path/

And Finally - VOTE SAVE AMERICA where you can register to vote or check your registration status, sign up for volunteer efforts, learn about your own state's vote and others, and find tons of great ideas to make your time matter in 2020.
https://votesaveamerica.com/


P.S. Jon Lovett also does Lovett or Leave It, which is frequently just hysterically funny, while also being very informative.

endorsed eugenics policies to Breitbart from about 2015-16 (and who knows how much longer, and to who else.)

https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/1194316047383433227

Or, you know, Joe AND Kamala - whichever way you like.

This is a primary folks. This is what they sound like. This is what they look like.

I'm still with Joe. I hope he's our nominee. That said, I would be DAMN PROUD to put my time, energy and treasure forth to see President Harris sworn in.

That's where I am. . . . Go! DEMS!

I defy anyone to tell me with a straight face that Trump's hand-picked AG did not speak with him the entire weekend to map out a spin strategy. It had to be just bad enough to be plausible. That probably required more work than anything. We can be sure Trump wanted the full Ronnie Jackson "medical report" treatment, but Barr and advisors knew full well that wouldn't be believable to anyone, and would backfire.

It took them a weekend to manage the cherry-picking and concoct the proper spin.The reason why they took so little time?

a) The truth was neither important, nor an objective.
b) They needed to get control of the narrative FIRST.

How does that saying go? A lie can run around the globe a dozen times while the truth is still putting on its shoes?

The full report will be seen. It is not going to be good for him. One possible upside to all this is that we will be deeper into election season when the inevitable, actual truth is revealed. In the meantime - our Democratic candidate will present the country with a vision of sanity, restored self-respect and hope.

Take heart y'all; we got this one! And politely tell those who feel they simply must engage in defeatism to keep that shit to themselves. We've got a job to do. Let's get on with it.

History is a fine tutor if we will listen.

Do we believe the Russians will just whistle on by this time, choosing not exploit a cadre of plug-and-play separatists?

This is DEMOCRATIC Underground, and I for one am so very glad we have many excellent and true DEMOCRATS running who have carried the mantle of our party proudly at ALL times, not just use us when it suits them.

Totemic figures of division must not be allowed to repeat their poisonous and selfish dischord, and facilitate once again the existence of the Trump regime.

I'll start.

1.) Most days of the year, someone is splitting wood in their underwear. (Today, it was Mr. MaruKitteh.)

2.) How the hell did I end up with so much sap in my hair today? (This instance may be related to #1 in this series)

Apparently, he's recounted slightly varied versions of a sick, depraved fantasy featuring women "with tape around their mouths so they can't shout or scream, tying up their hands behind their back and even their legs" at least 10 times this month.

Powerless women unable to speak, unable to reject or rebuke him, unable to humiliate him in public the way his wives have, the way Rosie O'Donnell did, the way Nancy did this week.

I believe this bill may have been pushed by Ryan, not because he expected it to become law, but because he knew it would weaken Trump. Hear me out.

I absolutely think Ryan expected that he would be able to get it out of the House, and that it would go on to die a messy death in the Senate. He did himself some some serious damage with this miscalculation by having it die on his own doorstep - BUT - I also think Ryan always knew it would never make it to the Oval Office desk.

This bill was touted, not just by the media, but Trump's own people as a terrific test of his amazing awesome superhuman powers of "The Art of Making the Deal!"TM.

Trump, already weakening fast under the weight of the fallout from his poor impulse control, now looks like an amateur, a patsy, a dope and a complete fraud . . because of course, he is all of those things. But for Trump, the damage goes much deeper than this one bill. The carefully crafted mythology of his prowess as a singular force, a master of negotiation - is now in tatters on floor. He has been exposed as a man who really has no special skills applicable to the complicated demands of governance.

A weak Trump is beneficial to Ryan.

In the short term, Ryan got more fertilizer on himself than he intended, to be sure, but I think the long-term damage to Trump, his weakness now exposed, is far greater.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/10/asia/us-south-korea-impeachment-impact/index.html

Protests erupt in South Korea after impeachment - How South Korea's political turmoil could upend ties with the US

(CNN)The impeachment of President Park Geun-hye will usher in new leadership that could take a vastly different approach to South Korea-US relations.

Will the next leader in Seoul agree with the United States on key issues including North Korea and the placement of a US-built missile defense system on South Korean soil? Or will South Korea favor a shift? Will it seek closer relations with China, its largest trading partner?

State Department spokesman Mark Toner characterized Park's ouster as a "domestic issue on which the United States takes no position." He also stressed the close US ties with South Korea as "a linchpin of regional stability and security."

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is expected to arrive in Seoul next week.

What comes next

With Park's ouster, South Korea will hold a snap election within 60 days in what is guaranteed be a campaign frenzy. Opinion polls so far show the left-leaning Moon Jae-in, who lost to Park in 2012, as the front-runner.

Liberals in South Korea typically favor a more conciliatory approach with Pyongyang, and many oppose the US missile defense system known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, which is designed to intercept incoming missiles, conceivably from North Korea.

<snip>

"If progressives take power, I do think issues like THAAD and North Korea policy could be on the table, which would have huge consequences for the US right now," said David Kang, director of the University of Southern California's Korean Studies Institute.
After nine years of conservative leadership and a scandal-marred Park presidency, South Korea may be signaling it's ready for a change. The conservatives lost their majority in a shock defeat in parliamentary elections last year. New leadership in Seoul could mark a shift on two key issues in US and South Korea relations -- the missile defense system and the position on North Korea.

THAAD and China: It's complicated

The first pieces of the THAAD defense system arrived this week in South Korea. The project has been fiercely opposed by China and Russia as a threat to their security.

More at link above

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So much facepalm in this situation right now. State department remains dark and quiet in the face of this crisis. Tillerson will be traveling into this mess with global implications deliberately leaving the American press behind.

Hmmm. Chaos, Russia, Tillerson and a complete lack of transparency? What could go wrong?