September 11, 2019

"Don't fear the reaper. Beat him."

https://twitter.com/AJentleson/status/1171503030270738433



https://twitter.com/AJentleson/status/1171587481348780033



Good GQ piece.

Adam Jentleson is a former top Dem Senate side.

Win 51 Senate seats. Make DC a state. Nuke the filibuster — and use it to lock in progressive change.

Beat McConnell!

August 22, 2019

"His name is Lachlan Murdoch." -Judd Apatow (The Big Sick, Anchorman, Forgetting Sarah Marshall)

https://twitter.com/JuddApatow/status/1164325807772356608

November 18, 2018

The Hill is owned by a Trumpite billionaire-- don't quote them please!

The Hill is a paper owned by Jimmy Finkelstein, a Republican billionaire who was an early backer of Trump.

The Hill hired John Solomon, known rightwing shill, who came from Circa (Sinclair website). Solomon singlehandedly created one of the worst Hillary smears of all: the deflection about uranium. Flynn was trying to do a nuclear deal with the Iranians and Russians, to enrich himself (and likely Kushner and Trump; Mueller will tell us more.) Solomon, at The Hill, with his owners’ implicit support, ran a series of propaganda articles deflecting a uranium scandal onto Hillary— and that “Uranium One” story turned out to be totally false. The worst part is that it is now harder to persuade people Flynn and Kushner were the ones involved in the real uranium scandal.

Josh Marshall at TPM has a lot of explanation about Solomon’s past:
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/10/23/trump-supporters-are-being-set-up-to-dismiss-his-ties-to-russia/

And the Hill’s newsroom revolted against Solomon and the owner Finkelstein:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2018/01/17/staffers-at-the-hill-press-management-about-the-work-of-john-solomon/



More recently the Hill has been running Trump’s lies repeatedly, unfiltered, in headlines. The Hill is helping Trump spread his lies.

No one on DU should quote The Hill. Stand up against Republican-owned publications distorting American public debate and screwing over the country. Ignore The Hill.


Jay Rosen is a very perceptive media observer. He says “The Hill is not journalism.” Wow. Ignore The Hill, please.

https://twitter.com/jayrosen_nyu/status/1064002767952449536

May 29, 2018

The real reason Republicans in Congress are helping with the Trump coverup

The Republicans in Congress are helping with the Trump coverup. They are blocking effective oversight.

The Founding Fathers anticipated a corrupt President. They did not anticipate a complicit Congress.

But why are Republicans helping cover up for the president? In some cases, as with Nunes and Rohrabacher, it’s because they may well have committed crimes themselves.

I believe the full explanation for the rest of the Republicans is simple. Simply, it is about political power, of course.

But more specifically the coverup is because Republicans know that when Russia helped Trump they also helped Congressional elections. Specifically, they helped in Senate elections. The top of the ticket affects down ballot races, and turnout affects down ballot races. We know the goal of Russia and the Trump and NRA Facebook ads was to suppress Dem turnout. At least three Republican Senators won by a tiny margin, of 3% or less. Pat Toomey won by 1.5% - 86,000 votes - well within the range of votes Russia and secret dark money ads could have suppressed. Flipping two seats- say PA and WI or MO - to the Dems would mean NO GOP majority in the Senate right now.

That means that the Republican Senate majority is ILLEGITIMATE. Their judicial appointments are illegitimate. Their tax cut is illegitimate. Their cabinet appointments are illegitimate. Everything the GOP has done in the last year is a farce and due to massive voter suppression, dark social media ads, billionaires running Muslim hate ads, and worst - a foreign power intervening in our democracy and the guy at the top of the ticket inciting hate to turn out racists.

If it wasn’t for wikileaks, there is a very very good chance we have a Dem Senate.

Let me say it again. Gorsuch is illegitimate. Russia and their intervention put him in that seat.

That’s why the GOP doesn’t want an investigation. They don’t want the rest of America waking up and realizing Pat Toomey and Roy Blunt and Ron Johnson are illegitimate senators.

June 20, 2017

"We have legalized political corruption" - Ezra Klein show

A great discussion on the history of campaign finance, how elections are awash in money, and how our problems today are due to the ability of the wealthy to buy politicians.

Podcast from Ezra Klein at Vox talking to Zephyr Teachout. (Use link below or subscribe to the Ezra Klein show, it's the most recent episode.)

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3wpVPp7xa9jIolVxipWbkh

This episode is a must-listen, in my view.

Anyone know where to find a transcript of this?
Interested to hear people's opinions of this discussion.

May 27, 2017

The president is doing Putin's bidding (TPM/Marshall)

This is a good article. Josh Marshall has been cautious about making direct accusations. But this article is strong and direct.


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trumps-ominous-adventure


Whether Vladimir Putin has something on Donald Trump or somehow has him in his pay hardly matters. If he doesn’t, he apparently doesn’t need to do since Trump insists on doing more or less exactly what Putin would want of him entirely on his own. Does this sound hyperbolic. Yes, it absolutely does. I’m even surprised I’m writing it. But look at the evidence before us. A simple statement on a decades old security commitment is the simplest, most pro-forma thing to do. And yet he refuses. Again and again.

Something is very wrong here. But we don’t know yet its origins or where it’s taking us.

May 20, 2017

How Fox News handled a week of major Trump scandals (Video will make you angry. Or sad for America)

https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/5/19/15664178/strikethrough-fox-news-5-steps-trump-scandal-comey-russia-leaks

March 27, 2017

America's for-profit media corporations catastrophically failed us

https://twitter.com/ericgarland/status/846150607673180160

America's for-profit media corporations failed in their duty to society in 2016 to a catastrophic degree.
There will be a reckoning.
-Eric Garland

He's talking about the Washington Post article by Palmieri, where she said the Clinton campaign tried to get the attention of the media about Russia and no one in the mainstream media was interested. And he's talking about the ratings-seeking behavior of CNN and CBS and NBC, not just Fox NC. (CBS CEO: "Trump is bad for America but great for CBS- the money is rolling in!!&quot .

Ken Tremendous (creator of Parks and Rec, an amazing piece of progressive entertainment) is on the same page:
https://twitter.com/KenTremendous/status/796409411853897728

March 25, 2017

NYTimes/Haberman amplify Trump's lies

Why does the media just replay Trump's comments without proper context?
There is now ample evidence that when he speaks to the media, his goal is to mislead, not to give facts.

Maggie Haberman at the NYT got called by Trump after the AHCA failed. What did she do? Repeat Trump's words.
Maggie, read this:
Media instructions: Talk about the truth, note diversion, go back to real issues] [link:Lakoff link

Here's the Haberman tweet below. It should have said:
"TRUMP tries to blame Democrats for AHCA failure and he will try to blame further failure on them".

Instead she says:
https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/845362688557486081

March 25, 2017

Excellent by Schiff: The Rise of the Autocrats. Our challenges, both short- and long-term

Excellent long article by Schiff, including historical and foreign perspectives on the challenges America faces.

Worth a read.

This is the kind of stuff that could launch Schiff into the Presidential race.

https://lawfareblog.com/rise-autocrats