517 Comments

Yesterday Mitch McConnell got on the airwaves to characterize (with indignation) the Democrats’ push to pass voting rights legislation as “a unilateral power grab”, and in doing so he got wide airplay. Whether they’re the underdog or the party in power, the Republicans in Congress will always have someone in front of a microphone announcing what greedy, unpatriotic, power-hungry characters the Democrats are. The Democrats, most of whom seem to be doing all the heavy lifting of democracy, write out statements explaining their procedures, and simply don’t have anyone standing at the megaphones the way the Republicans do. It can certainly be argued that the Republicans spend most of their time at the megaphones, rather than doing the work of governing, but my point is that their loud voices capture attention and spread their talking points, regardless of how fair or accurate those points are. Knife to gunfight partly describes it, but it’s something more, I believe; it’s how disinformation starts and spreads, how lies gain acceptance as truth. Newt Gingrich did it every day in the Clinton administration, and proved how destructive a simple sound bite or two can be. I’d love it if the Democrats had some more vocal representatives to counter the disingenuous lying that has become Republican second nature. (It doesn’t help when all the media — mainstream and not — echoes the lies, and characterizes the Democrats as “struggling”, “crumbling”, etc., rather than reporting on the careful work they are doing to recovery small-d democracy.)

Expand full comment

Tucker, with his permanent, serious, knitted eyebrows, is a traitor.

Expand full comment

Isn't it sad that even here, tabloid "journalists" and their networks get name recognition for spewing out frank lies and outrageous theories under the guise of constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech. Since when was the constitution interpreted to include blatant falsehoods under freedom of speech? Rupert Murdoch condones this behavior and the best way to throttle the garbage that Fox spews out on a daily basis is to go after Murdoch with every tool within the law. Hit him where it hurts most; in the pocket book. Libel, slander, defamation of character, incitement of violence, things within both the civil and criminal realm of the law could tie him up in every jurisdiction in the country until he finally decides to broadcast verified news rather than the shlock that gets Fox such attention by its gullible followers.

Expand full comment

Good news is that Emily’s List, the largest donor to Sinema, has said she will lose their support if she votes against the Voting Rights Bill. Would that Manchin had donors with a moral compass and not just keeping a failing industry alive.

Expand full comment

As if there isn’t enough stomach-turning news, in Florida today:

From AP-“A Florida bill that would prohibit public schools and private businesses from making white people feel “discomfort” when they teach students or train employees about discrimination in the nation’s past received its first approval Tuesday.”🧐🤬

https://apnews.com/article/business-florida-lawsuits-ron-desantis-racial-injustice-3ec10492b7421543315acf4491813c1b?utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=SocialFlow

“Discomfort" is the code word Republicans are using in schools and workplaces in order to suppress decency and conscience. They want to mold a population that looks the other way and stays silent about violence and racism.

Expand full comment

"Last week, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a Constitutional law professor and a member of the January 6 committee, said that the committee hearings, planned for later this year, will 'blow the roof off the House.'"

How I would love to be a fly on the wall behind this committee's closed doors! Even Romney, predicts that Raskin's prediction will prevail. Which brings me to a question which has been needling me: where has Romney been of late and why isn't he speaking up more these days? I was counting on him to be the renegade repug. Darn!

Expand full comment

Will Tucker Carlson and Fox still spew Russian propaganda if Putin orders an invasion of Ukraine? Will they change their tune when the world sees the mass slaughter of civilians and the destruction of a sovereign democratic nation? Count me as skeptical. Also, I'll be watching how the Putin fanboys among GOP Republicans in the Senate react. Perhaps they'll plan another Fourth of July trip to Moscow.

Expand full comment

I was in Turkey, in a NATO billet in 2014, when Russia invaded Crimea (how badly did I want to go 300 miles north and kick a bully's @ss? REALLY badly. It sucked). Shortly after, I posited to my boss (Corps G2) that if Russia wanted to invade Ukraine proper, they would probably just move by rail and road through Belarus--unannounced; similar to what Hitler did in Belgium--only much faster. (I drew this on a map, which was observed and promptly stolen by our higher HQS; released as an intel forecast 3 weeks later. Good times!!) The reason is pretty basic--it positions them much closer, and with high-speed avenues of approach to Kiev. They won't want to get bogged down, take casualties and have this take days/look bad--they'll want to quickly get to Kiev, force the government to flee and take over--overnight, if possible. They don't want this to look like even Eastern Ukraine--they'll want something that eliminates the Ukraine government as quickly as possible, then they'll deal with the rest. Before that, they'll try to do the paratrooper/little green men thing to some degree (that would be a lot harder to do here than it was in Afghanistan and Crimea). If Russia launches a large military exercise in the coming 90 days, GET READY (they typically use such things to "boil the frog" by getting troops moving and then blend into actual operations).

I hated when President Obama openly declared, after the invasion, that the U.S. wouldn't use force (old maxim: never tell an enemy what you WON'T do. Frankly, if Ukraine even slightly trusts NATO still, it's a miracle of faith, TBH); on the surface, it might appear Biden is doing the same here, but I detect a difference. First, I've seen no mention of ruling-out such a thing (or any means of retaliation. I suspect we've at least one OTHER in mind), and second Putin actually did Crimea and...it really hurt economically; we know it. So the threat of sanctions--esp. ones that eject them from SWIFT, et al, do have meaning (although not as much as we tend to think. Russian leaders don't mind inflicting pain on their own people--in fact, they often use it to embolden the populace/further vilify external foes). Hard to know what Putin's long game is here--or if he really has one. But, NATO partners are (so far) FAR better this time around in anticipating and messaging something stronger than, oh, Merkle's infamously spineless/oblivious comments about the Baltic states or other countless examples of ally fecklessness during one Putin's countless gas shut-off threats. Biden's (and NATO have) done seemingly (I'm not plugged-in now--can't say for sure) much better this time around. We shall see...

Expand full comment

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity" ~MLK Jr

Expand full comment

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.’S ‘LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL’

“We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom.” (1963)

Quotes:

-We have waited for (340) now it is 399 years for our constitutional and God-given rights-

-the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all"-

-Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust-

-I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens’ Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection -

-Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be coworkers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation -

-freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed-

-privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily- Link to the Letter below.

'MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.’S ‘LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL’ was written in 1963. It is 2022, take a look at us now.

'Income inequality in the U.S. is the highest of all the G7 nations, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development' (Pew)

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/02/letter-from-a-birmingham-jail/552461/

Expand full comment

Manchin has already come out tonight and said he's not in favor of the talking filibuster f or this, even after being in favor or such a reform before. The man is not dealing in good faith. He's a Republican in all but name, and he won't do that because then he'd just be #51, instead of Da Man. Can't live with him, can't afford for him to be guest of honor at a single-fatality houseboat sinking.

Expand full comment

This is what I cling to, ¨ “This is the most bipartisan committee I’ve ever been on, with a great Democratic chair and a great Republican vice chair and what I see is constitutional patriots working every single day and every single evening to get the truth out to the American people before it’s too late,” Raskin said.¨

Expand full comment

And news dropped this morning that the AG of NY is about to lay some very serious indictments against the Trump Organization for fraud and tax evasion because they have good evidence of both. So that is going to be an interesting event when it happens. Guilfoyle is now engaged to Trumpette, probably in order to prevent her from being compelled to testify against him. But that doesn't protect his daddy.

Expand full comment

Tucker Carlson is just plain vile. That millions of people take their cue from him speaks very poorly of this country.

Expand full comment

"Tucker Carlson is echoing Russian propaganda, suggesting that the U.S. is the aggressor against Russia rather than that Russia is moving against Ukraine without provocation. He appears to be taking a stand against the U.S. president, who is standing with NATO and our traditional democratic allies, and instead standing with Russia much as Trump did."

OK, now, does that not mean that it is Tucker Carlson who is a "Communist"?

Does this not mean that, here in America where being an old syle Stalinist Communist one can get you arrested, that Carlson should be arrested?

Is not openly supporting Russia on a progapaganda platform illegal? Is that not treason?

I am in full support of free speech but, is Tucker Carlson's support for an open, blatant, sworn enemy of the United States not just simple, straightforward, arrest him NOW....

TREASON??

Expand full comment

Sharing my letter sent today to The Daily podcast team at the New York Times:The focus of today's podcast on voting rights was important, but the approach of making it about a failure of the President instead of about a convention (the current approach to the filibuster) that easily enables obstruction was lazy. Why not use the time allotted to the podcast to debunk the myths that will be trotted out during Republican speeches as the bill is brought to a vote? This piece from the Brennan Center could have served as a road map for that discussion: Debunking False Claims About the John Lewis Voting Rights Act | Brennan Center for Justice

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/debunking-false-claims-about-john-lewis-voting-rights-act

In Iowa, Senator Grassley has claimed the bill is unconstitutional, so many Iowans will be predisposed to believe the Republican party saved them from injustice by blocking the bill. The Times (and The Daily) should be shedding light on such false claims instead of making out the upcoming vote as a "win" by Minority Leader McConnell. In accepting the Iowa Author Award in November 2021, Nikole Hannah-Jones remarked that she believes Americans will look back fifty years from now and find the press contributed to the decline of democracy. Your podcast similarly mentioned looking back, but failed to place blame where it belongs. Press concession to the false narrative that Mitch McConnell is some sort of master strategist who has outwitted the President and the democratic party contributes to the demise of democracy.

Expand full comment