It's been a busy few weeks for Popular Information. Here are a few highlights from our reporting:
Popular Information broke the news that Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R) secretly purchased a $600,000 home in Nashville. Our reporting forced Sexton to admit his family lives in Nashville and raised serious questions about whether Sexton can legally represent a district two hours away. The news generated a flurry of national and localmediacoverage, including a lengthy piece in the Tennessean, the state's largest paper. On Tuesday, a non-profit watchdog group called for state and federal criminal investigations into Sexton's conduct.
Popular Information exposed how Walgreens, which is refusing to dispense abortion pills in several states where abortion remains legal, supports the anti-abortion movement. Our Twitter thread on Walgreens quickly went viral, and Walgreens became the #2 trending topic on Twitter. A few hours later, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that his state would stop doing business with Walgreens.
Popular Information authoritatively debunked a widely-circulated claim that Silicon Valley Bank had donated over $73 million to Black Lives Matter and related organizations. (The actual amount donated was zero.) The story was picked up by major news organizations, including MarketWatch and Vanity Fair. Breitbart, a far-right website, was compelled to issue majorcorrections on two articles, crediting "Left-wing writer Judd Legum" for "appropriately flagg[ing] these issues."
Today, however, I want to hear from you. What's on your mind? What topics should be on Popular Information's radar? You can leave your thoughts in the discussion thread linked below, starting now. I’ll be dropping by later today to respond to as many people as I can.
Popular Information is a 100% reader-supported publication. If you haven't done so already, please consider supporting this work by upgrading to a paid subscription.
There needs to be more reporting on the horrific situations women are experiencing because of the restrictions on obtaining reproductive health care. The story I read on Twitter about a woman who needed a D&C for a molar pregnancy that was cancerous and was forced to sit in a parking lot until she was very sick before she could get treatment is just unbelievable. People need to hear these stories everyday to understand what is happening to women in America. Please report on these incidents. We know there are many.
Linda -- I agree. Media in the broadest sense is preoccupied more with the Trump stories and the 2024 presidential race to devote the same sustained effort on the nationwide debacle unfolding in healthcare and particularly in reproductive care. LIttle that is written adequately connects your concern to the origins of MAGA determination: fundamentally Christian nationalist conquest of US governance and power to control the structures of American society.
The blessing of Popular Information is that what stories are covered do connect dots to the bigger picture of the historic and seismic shifts underway right now... in our lifetime!! If you want the best amalgamation of daily news from around the country look no further than Jessica Valenti’s daily Substack called “Abortion, Every Day” https://jessica.substack.com She is doing what you want and need. You will know where and how to vent your rage and direct your power after your daily sip at her trough and you will be challenged to spread the word within your spheres of influence.
I'm concerned that Democrats take this campaign period seriously as a time to educate many on the many and varied demands and dangers of pregnancy and childbirth. Too many from the Right Wing really do not know what a life and death situation many women face. This Right Wing includes those on the Supreme Court, many elected officials, even some doctors who haven't had to deal with these specific problems. I'm not sure if Public Information is the right venue for this issue. [I wish that Kamala Harris could learn how to address this issue in a powerful but non-devisive way.]
many do know and they don't care. The true believers don't care because self sacrifice, suffering and death are inherent to womanhood as they see it through some warped biblical reading so a woman bleeding to death or becoming sterile or even just traumatized is NBD, and the cynics dont care because all they care about is the road to power no matter how many women, children, and trans bodies they have to step over along the way.
That's what I see happening as well....they don't care. Cruelty is the whole point b/c it causes people to feel helpless and easier to manipulate. I was a R for a very long time til 2015 and it sickens me still to see what they have become
I agree, but there are also so many stories out there in the aftermath of the Trumpian presidency, and the ongoing horror of Black men being shot or beaten to death; or another mass shooting, or.....
I am of the age when I went to college and started work when abortion was still illegal, and I remember the horrors of that period. Seattle has three in-city lakes, and in 1968 a young woman was found floating in Greenlake. A backroom abortionist had mistakenly injected her with something that had a bubble of air in it, and that bubble went to her heart and killed her. I had a friend who went to the 'back room' and then came back and had the abortion on her own, and bled for 30 days afterward. All of us spread gossip about places where you could quietly get an abortion.
Luckily, Wash. State passed its pro-choice law in 1970, even before Roe.
Anti-abortion laws are laws intended to bring women under the thumb of men once more. They are deeply misogynistic....people point to the Susan B. Anthony group of women who or are anti-abortion, but really it's the dinosaurs (mostly white males) who want to take our power away and go back to 1955. And the right-wing Catholics and Mormons.
Completely agree. The story you mentioned was actually reported by NPR and picked up elsewhere, but there needs to be a daily drumbeat of stories showing the real impact on women of the right’s cynical, retrograde and deadly abortion policies.
She spoke powerfully, directly. I admire her. Pretty hard to ignore, unless you’re as hardcore as that woman who continued to insist that the 10yo rape victim should have stayed pregnant “because women’s bodies are designed to carry life.”
I'm at a loss for words. I cannot understand what motivates anyone, let alone a woman, and probably a mother to think and talk that way. Would she force her own 10 year old to carry to term, even if the result of rape or incest?
I know, Alan. It’s horrifying. Unfortunately, I experienced cultic devotion up close and it is astonishing what people will do, how far they will go, in their devotion to a particular ideology. She probably belongs to ideologically intense groups that enforce those beliefs and norms, either her church but most certainly the anti-abortion political activists she associated with in an echo chamber. The A2 people in this country are similar. No amount of carnage moves them from the ideology they’ve adopted.
you control reproductive rights- you control women-- returning to the ear when women were pregnant, barefoot & in the kitchen serving men. they don't care about females.
GOP NO CARE-- suspect they are trying to curl the herd-- especially with their public covid policies, cutting Medicare & etc-- Judd, maybe spotlight it when you can.
- More on the far-right Christian entities behind the terrifying onslaught of anti-trans + anti-woman bills + actions in state legislatures across the country: forced de-transition even for adults, suits against doctors for providing medically approved care to trans people, even bills requiring "gender-appropriate" clothing.
- Growing efforts by Republican legislators to censure + evict Democratic legislators on the flimsiest of pretexts, without holding their own to account for other transgressions (some of which you've reported on).
My Medicare agent advised me against Advantage. I'm on regular Medicare + supplemental. She gets paid no matter what. She also advised me against private dental insurance, which I had already discovered the hard way paid for virtually nothing. But regular Medicare needs to start paying for preventative care and dental and vision, in my opinion.
Instead of privatizing the coverage people use the most, it should be included in Medicare. Because of the "giveback" I pay for supplemental insurance that costs me $70 a month - before I got Medicare, my health insurance was only $18 a month. This is just bullshit and I just cannot understand why we can't shake off these greedy insurance companies that plague us even in our older years.
In NC Rep Tricia Cotham, was she a GOP plant. Her defection from the Democratic party that makes a GOP supermajority in the legislature will cause issues for years. It has to be about money.
I'd love to see some investigation into this. She completely lied to her constituents about where she stood on almost everything. it's very suspicious.
And likely criminal. Election campaigns cannot be allowed to descend any further into bare-knuckled free-for-alls. You already have the issue of campaign ads not being required to be factual.
What she did was follow that loophole and viola! Voters disenfranchised by an unfamiliar yet novel and crooked means of securing their votes under the falsest of pretenses.
We have a fraud George Santos sitting in Congress that told every lie possible to his constituents about who he was. The GOP makes it work on every level and gets away with it. Look at Trump. The rest of us would be in jail.
This is one of those stories that doesn't make sense without an additional piece of information that we haven't seen yet. Cotham was married to the Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, she was the daughter of a Democratic National Committee member, and she ran on a platform that was incompatible with the Republican party. Her explanations about being bullied by Democrats seem fabricated.
Maybe it is a personal issue related to her divorce or a toxic relationship with another Democrat. Or maybe it is something the public really needs to know about.
Perhaps something in her past she needs to keep hidden. Nobody crosses the aisle unless the ideology lures them, and in this case, it doesn't seem she had any credible reason.
I heard that she didn’t grow up that way and she’s been a staunch democrat from a democrat family. Then she got Covid and they said it’s like she changed. She’s been diagnosed with long Covid too. Did her brain suffer a major oxygen loss?
Here in NC, the story is being covered locally. She has and wants to keep a political career. She’ll have more power as a Republican; she’s now the swing vote on major issues like voting rights, guns, abortion, education funding, book bans, trans healthcare, etc. Maybe she liked what she saw Sinema and Manchin doing.
I want to know if there’s truth to the rumors that she and NC Speaker of the House Tim Moore are dating. Reportedly she hasn’t changed her pro Democratic positions so then why change parties? Very suspect.
Credible people like Simon Rosenberg and Norm Ornstein believe the Republicans want to crash our economy via the debt ceiling and blame it on Biden. The bill the House just passed is terrible for the country. This topic needs alot of light shown on it ASAP. Potential consequences are very scary.
Trump/GOP Embrace Default, Early Vote Starts in Jax,
Trump/RNC Embrace and Promote A Financial Crisis/Default - I am going to have much more say about this next week but look at this statement from Trump this week. His central attack on Biden is something which hasn’t happened yet, and will only happen if Kevin McCarthy causes the US to default (it is important to read his actual words from time to time):
TRUMP
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
- 2024
- April 24, 2023 -
Statement from President Donald J. Trump on Joe Biden's
Announcement You could take the five worst presidents in American history, and put them together, and they
would not have done the damage Joe Biden has done to our Nation in just a few short years.
Not even close. Thanks to Joe Biden's socialist spending calamity, American families are being decimated by the worst inflation in half a century. Banks are failing. Our currency is crashing and the dollar will soon no longer be the world standard, which will be our greatest defeat in over 200 years. Real wages have been falling 24 months in a row-in other words, under Biden, workers have gotten a PAY CUT each and every month for two straight years. We have surrendered our energy independence, just like we surrendered in Afghanistan, which we had just a short time
ago-and the price of gasoline just hit a 5-month high, and it's going much higher than that. Under my leadership, we had the most secure border in U.S. history, by far. Never had a border like this. Under Biden, the Southern Border has been abolished -and millions of illegal aliens have been released into our communities. What's happening now is beyond belief. They're coming in from mental institutions and prisons. They are all being emptied. They are being dumped into the United States of America. Many of these people are very dangerous, they are being dumped. We are like a dumping ground. Our cities have been overrun with homelessness, drug addicts, and violent criminals, who are being released from jail in mass with no retribution whatsoever, while law enforcement is weaponized against law-abiding conservatives or Republicans, or people they just don't like. Our children are being indoctrinated and mutilated by left-wing freaks and zealots.
In their new anti-Biden video the RNC also talks about an American financial crisis. The things they are discussing here - an American financial crisis, crashing currency, loss of dollar dominance - will only happen if Republicans choose to default on our financial obligations. That they are already attacking Biden for these things, before they have even happened, suggests the decision to default has already been made by Republican leaders.”
Americans from across the political spectrum should be loudly condemning the Republicans for their unprecedented threats to the integrity of the American and global financial system. How did this party get so crazy on so many matters? We need more Bob Igers out there condemning this extremism that has become so dangerous to American and America itself. It’s just not okay.
If link doesn’t work it’s Deep State Radio “Words Matter” from Thursday- yesterday. Also Reed Galen, Rick Wilson do think this is their plan - maybe talk to them.
I am concerned about news I hear that Republicans are trying to limit the voting of young people, while at the same time I hear the young people are very politically aware. They could have a powerful effect on the 2024 election. Is this true and if so what are these restraints that are being put in place by the GOP to prevent young people from voting ?
These are true -- look to various state legislature’s actions in the last couple of months and you can plainly see their intent. Bills have passed that seek to disallow voting on campuses, pre-registration of graduating high-school students, cutting back on time for mail ballot delivery, and on and on. You should follow Marc Elias and his work at Democracy Docket for the latest on all this and more. Other issue advocacy groups would be the ACLU (sign up for their voting alerts either nationally or in the state where you reside), Common Cause or the Brennan Center for Justice and Law. I can’t recommend highly enough the newest group of young voters mobilizing under the leadership of the fabulous millennial, Santiago Mayer, called Voters of Tomorrow. Support their mobilization of young people with a financial donation if you can!!!
I agree, Leslie. Some of these groups are very exciting and getting traction. I am very happy to see Anderson Clayton as the new Chair for the Dems here in NC. She’s only 26 and from a rural area--both very important demographics.
They are shutting down the polling stations on college campuses. Did you see that Cleta Mitchell was asked to speak to a group of deep pocket GOP donors? That was her advice, saying that now they can just roll out of bed and vote and if we make it harder they won’t show up.
I am amazed at the results of your work in my beautiful state. Would you consider digging into corruption and gerrymandering that produced Andy Ogles? After the egregious gerrymandering of districts by Charlatan Sextoy and the good ol' boys of the TN R supermajority, Ogles represents a huge swath of Metro Nashville including where I live (maybe 2 miles from the Covenant School) yet he lives >40 miles away in very MAGA Maury county. He is also known to have falsified his resume. This white-supremacist right wing culture warrior is the one whose family Christmas card is a photo of them holding assault rifles. Anyway, thank you for your work!
Thanks, neighbor - great points! As an example of the ridiculousness afoot here, it would appear Jon and I live within a couple of miles of each other and have different Congressmen. Ours is the odious Mark Green (the anti-mask, anti-vax _doctor_). The gerrymander was approved by an appointed Republican TN Supreme Court - this is a group that deserves the PI treatment. Thanks for your hard work on our behalf, Judd - our local media is not up to the task, and the TN Holler can only do so much…
Odious is just the word for Mark Green. The lengths these practitioners of white-supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy are going to in order to hurt Nashville and Nashvillians purely out of spite is pathetic, but also dangerous. They didn't get their grifters convention and they're prepared to burn everything to the ground to "own the libs".
I am an octogenarian and I’m sick and tired of people criticizing Joe Biden because he’s 80 years old. I am sharper, strategic and more mentally capable than a lot of people half my age. I would love to see you do at least one article showcasing octogenarian’s that are making significant contributions to our world. Thanks for all you do.
I think we all need to know more about this Christian Nationalist effort, "Project Blitz", to target all of our state houses with pro Christian legislation (meaning anti-everybody and everything else.) I have read about the Council for National Policy (CNP), an ALEC equivalent, drafting bills and training folks. While this avalanche of unsupported state legislation feels chaotic, is it more likely a result of a targeted strategy by CNP or a successor? If so, it would be great for all of America to learn more about it. It came to mind again yesterday because a reporter noted that it seems state legislators don't even know what is in their own bills--maybe because they are not writing them. I am concerned this is not getting sufficient attention because "Christian" "religion" etc., but if it is an extremist organization influencing policy I believe it deserves daylight. Here is a 2018 link to Project Blitz: https://religiondispatches.org/project-blitz-seeks-to-do-for-christian-nationalism-what-alec-does-for-big-business/ and here is a link to an oversight web page: https://www.blitzwatch.org/ And finally, this article on understanding white Christian Nationalism because I think most people believe the term means patriotic Christians: https://isps.yale.edu/news/blog/2022/10/understanding-white-christian-nationalism#:~:text=Adherents%20believe%20in%20the%20idea,non%2DChristians%2C%20and%20immigrants. Thank you for considering the topic.
An interesting place to start for that Rabbit Hole is Beliefnet (ahem acquired by FOX) that has now become Radiant. It claims to bring information on world religions together including Patheos Pagan, but I’ve got info showing the money funneled through various board members including the infamous Jay Sekulow and donations (thank you archives) to Supreme Coup, other organizations include Affinity4, Crossbridge, and lots of LDS out of Utah (nothing wrong with that - they’re trying to do some good things to get names on Libraries that they’re going to subsequently also try to close through being associated with nationalism) such as Larry H & Gail Miller Family Foundation and the Ron & Janet Jipson Family Foundation. I mean…it’s on radiant.org website. It’s both eye opening and TERRIFYING.
I have seen no follow-up coverage of the deleted Secret Service texts or the IRS' failure to conduct the audit of Trump as required by federal law. It seems like these are huge scandals, yet to my knowledge the Senate has held no oversight hearings and no disciplinary action has been taken. If there is not going to be accountability by federal agencies to follow the law, it will only further embolden those pushing for autocracy.
Salon recently ran a piece about a (extraordinarily large) anticipated wave of deferred post Covid sequelae looking a lot like Parkinson's, afflicting unwitting survivors of the virus. Meanwhile, patients in Stanford's long covid clinic report doctors nurse and clinicians no longer masking even when performing tests that require their patients (now immunocompromised from COVID) to unmask. Science seems on the side of continued caution around this disease, but Republicans politicized it to the point that even the Democratic leaders now declaring the pandemic over and treatment and prevention becomes every-man-for-himself. Governor Kathy Hochul even ended mask mandates in health care facilities. How did we get here? Is it truly a collective lack of care about a sometimes still deadly and frequently life-altering illness, or were there undue pressures and influence brought to bear on these politicians?
The science of long COVID is probably a topic that others are better equipped to address. But I do think that it's remarkable that we aren't doing more to ensure the safety of workers -- including basic benefits like paid sick leave -- in light of what has happened over the past few years.
I’m not a scientist. But I do find the coalescence around something definitely NOT settled science (that COVID is over and therefore there are to be no mitigations, whether free tests or masks or basic data collection) unnerving and I wonder at the politics behind it. (Sorry- didn’t post as reply initially)…
Again, though, politics is the issue here. Why on earth if the pandemic is officially over in a few days, is the White House and/or the press demanding testing at the White House Correspondents' Dinner? It just seems like there's a lot of politics and not a lot of science here. If the White House knows it's dangerous enough and still-present enough to demand these mitigations then why are they dropping them? Who is influencing this decision and what leverage do they have?
I would refuse to cooperate if the technician preparing to perform a test upon me (like a pulmonary function test) was not masked and expected me to un-mask.
Hello No! I am immunocompromised due to a successful (obviously) double lung transplant. I'll politely but firmly refuse.
What you share about medical professionals at Stanford refusing to mask when performing a test on an immunocompromised patient is terrible. I feel a bit skeptical; my dad and stepmom worked at Stanford, and Stanford paid tuition for my undergrad degree, so maybe I’m biased. It’s hard for me to imagine a clinician doing that, but if those patients reported it, I believe them, and I think they should insist as Alan says.
At Duke facilities in Durham, NC, masks are still mandatory in exam rooms, but clinicians can now, just recently, unmask in the back. They are relieved to be able to do so. Because I have PTSD from being suffocated, they allow me to unmask in the exam room, although they stay masked. This was after I contacted the disability office and asked for an accommodation. It was very hard and stigmatizing to want to unmask, I can tell you that. But after two years, I felt my blood pressure should not be escalating to 170 every time I had to see a doctor; nor did I want to continue delaying necessary care. Out in Mebane, the Duke affiliated clinic does not require masks any longer. People are happy about that, from what I experienced. Some people were still masked and everyone seemed fine with that. It must be hard on those that are immune compromised to still have to do it, but for them, the risk is too high not to do so.
Judd -- what is mainly on my mind is gratitude. Your resoluteness -- staying focused on sometimes seemingly disparate bell-weather news stories -- has kept me focused on engagement with those that represent me at a state and local level where similar lazy/mean/self-serving/illegal behavior also is playing out.
I met the political scientist and author, Eitan Hersh, (see: “Politics is for Power” pub. 2020) about five years ago at Kris Kobach’s federal voter suppression trial. In Hersh’s book, he reviewed the then nascent resurgence movement of civic engagement and social action groups, describing many newly fomented suburban, white, anti-extremist Americans as interested social media commentators but not necessarily social and political disruptors. He was interested in what power people understood they held. Also in what further power they sought and why. Perhaps all Hersh’s theories about that “resurgence” don’t hold water, three years on; the scope and form of the eternal anti-democracy faction we label now as MAGA was not as well formed or understood as today. Neither was the sheer volume of motivated and newly mobilizing counter-activists really understood until after the 2018-repeat elections in 2020 and 2022.
What I do know is that his question reframed how I thought about my civic engagement and readiness to jump into issues affecting the overall health and well-being of my community and state, not just the country’s. It propelled me to try my hand at ever confounding Twitter. That led me to you and your work. You led me to others. Collectively, their and your dedication has outlasted our national media’s downward slide from its vaunted pedestal as the fourth leg of America’s democratic estate. And the cascade of this work is not just your list of stories you reviewed in today’s post, but the stories of people like me. Not content to simply read and absorb the news, we are signing up to volunteer as callers, postcard senders, as writers of LOE and engagers in community forums (online here in various Substacks and IRL). We have among us new first time candidates for public office, and defiant teachers, and resolute librarians, and mad-as-Hell 2023 Janes who refuse to cede their humanity to misogynistic politicians or courts or even to Walgreens.
So thanks. You make it possible to be smarter in my activism, effective in my engagement, and give me the some of the resources I need to be more than Hersh’s “political hobbyist.”
Thank you for sharing this. Writing the newsletter involves a lot of time sitting alone in front of a computer, and it's heartening to know that people are on the other side who really value to reporting and are putting it to work in their communities.
If you loved that and it motivated you, you absolutely need to be listening to Simon Rosenberg and the Hopium Chronicles. While Judd and team do a great job shining a light on the hyprocrisy, malfeasance, cravenness etc of Rs and their enablers, Simon is showing how all of us warriors for democracy are making a difference. https://simonwdc.substack.com/
Oh Anne!! I couldn’t agree more. I was part of Simon’s beta test group for the new Substack and worked on some messaging for the ‘22 midterms!! Hopium suits the mission to a tee
I wholeheartedly agree with what Leslie and AnneDC have expressed. My activism has evolved, thru folks like Judd and Simon and others. And I'm so grateful for the developing alternatives to "main stream media" -- so much a part of our problems. I very much hope for the day Twitter doesn't exist. Everyone should be transitioning OFF of that platform and what it now embodies -- the corruption by Musk, a truly despicable person who should have no control of our discourse.
I just subscribed and read the article about president Biden's re-election effort. Excellent stuff. Well thought out and articulated. Thank you for sharing that tip with this forum and I hope that others take note and join up.
1) The impact on women's health care in those states where abortion has been basically eliminated and adds a criminal/civil penalty to women's health care practitioners and doctors: what is the impact on maternity care and other health care for women? I have read about Idaho having to close maternity wings in hospitals because they losing doctors and other health care practitioners?
2) What is the impact on teacher retention and recruitment in Florida at this point, as well as other states that are enacting draconian legislation to censor books, speech and various topics?
I dare say there is not a teacher shortage. There are thousands of teachers who would return to the profession if they were paid what they are worth and valued. Please see my comment above. This is part of a much bigger problem.
If there is a massive teacher shortage already, how are Floridians responding to this problem? Why doesn't this show up in reporting on DeSantis and the legislature? And how can this problem be better exposed?
Recently, I have been hearing a lot about hedge funds and the outsized role they are playing in diverse aspects of our lives. This topic may be too big to address right now with everything else that's going on, but it's on my mind. I love your work! Thank you!
Yes, this is a big important topic. My preference is to zoom in on specific stories to illustrate larger trends, but I will certainly look for more opportunities to do that.
I think we need more reliable press on economic issues, too. Venture capitalists buying up hospice care facilities? Apartment buildings out of state, then renovating, raising the rent, forcing people out? I’ve seen some coverage of these activities and was glad to be informed.
Yes, absolutely! I think there is very little awareness of how these venture capitalist/private equity firms are spreading their tentacles into so many aspects of our lives. In most cases it seems they serve to exacerbate the wealth gap in this country.
Yes, that’s what I looks like to me, too. I wish that I had more intrinsic motivation and interest in economics. I read Matt Stoller, and others, but am still woefully ignorant about what’s happening, why, and what sh/could change. I have been glad to hear about what Lina Khan has been doing at the FTC. Makes me feel hopeful that we’re getting some movement.
Thank you for your outstanding reporting. I hope that at some point you will reveal to the public who the Young America's Foundation really is. They own the Reagan Ranch in California and Reagan's boyhood home here is Dixon, IL. They will sponsor a debate with Mike Pence at the Republican National Convention. Locally (in Dixon), they just held an event for MIDDLE SCHOOL students to learn about "conservative values". Their website yaf.org reveals the conflicts they encourage on college campuses across the US. They are running political candidates in local elections. They are strongly anti-LGBTQ, racist, book burners and forced birth They forced the docents at the Reagan home to follow their fabricated script of Reagan's life. However, they present as clean cut all Americans. They do an outstanding job of duping the public.
There needs to be more reporting on the horrific situations women are experiencing because of the restrictions on obtaining reproductive health care. The story I read on Twitter about a woman who needed a D&C for a molar pregnancy that was cancerous and was forced to sit in a parking lot until she was very sick before she could get treatment is just unbelievable. People need to hear these stories everyday to understand what is happening to women in America. Please report on these incidents. We know there are many.
Linda -- I agree. Media in the broadest sense is preoccupied more with the Trump stories and the 2024 presidential race to devote the same sustained effort on the nationwide debacle unfolding in healthcare and particularly in reproductive care. LIttle that is written adequately connects your concern to the origins of MAGA determination: fundamentally Christian nationalist conquest of US governance and power to control the structures of American society.
The blessing of Popular Information is that what stories are covered do connect dots to the bigger picture of the historic and seismic shifts underway right now... in our lifetime!! If you want the best amalgamation of daily news from around the country look no further than Jessica Valenti’s daily Substack called “Abortion, Every Day” https://jessica.substack.com She is doing what you want and need. You will know where and how to vent your rage and direct your power after your daily sip at her trough and you will be challenged to spread the word within your spheres of influence.
I'm concerned that Democrats take this campaign period seriously as a time to educate many on the many and varied demands and dangers of pregnancy and childbirth. Too many from the Right Wing really do not know what a life and death situation many women face. This Right Wing includes those on the Supreme Court, many elected officials, even some doctors who haven't had to deal with these specific problems. I'm not sure if Public Information is the right venue for this issue. [I wish that Kamala Harris could learn how to address this issue in a powerful but non-devisive way.]
many do know and they don't care. The true believers don't care because self sacrifice, suffering and death are inherent to womanhood as they see it through some warped biblical reading so a woman bleeding to death or becoming sterile or even just traumatized is NBD, and the cynics dont care because all they care about is the road to power no matter how many women, children, and trans bodies they have to step over along the way.
That's what I see happening as well....they don't care. Cruelty is the whole point b/c it causes people to feel helpless and easier to manipulate. I was a R for a very long time til 2015 and it sickens me still to see what they have become
I agree, but there are also so many stories out there in the aftermath of the Trumpian presidency, and the ongoing horror of Black men being shot or beaten to death; or another mass shooting, or.....
I am of the age when I went to college and started work when abortion was still illegal, and I remember the horrors of that period. Seattle has three in-city lakes, and in 1968 a young woman was found floating in Greenlake. A backroom abortionist had mistakenly injected her with something that had a bubble of air in it, and that bubble went to her heart and killed her. I had a friend who went to the 'back room' and then came back and had the abortion on her own, and bled for 30 days afterward. All of us spread gossip about places where you could quietly get an abortion.
Luckily, Wash. State passed its pro-choice law in 1970, even before Roe.
Anti-abortion laws are laws intended to bring women under the thumb of men once more. They are deeply misogynistic....people point to the Susan B. Anthony group of women who or are anti-abortion, but really it's the dinosaurs (mostly white males) who want to take our power away and go back to 1955. And the right-wing Catholics and Mormons.
Completely agree. The story you mentioned was actually reported by NPR and picked up elsewhere, but there needs to be a daily drumbeat of stories showing the real impact on women of the right’s cynical, retrograde and deadly abortion policies.
She appeared before congress ways and means hearing yesterday and recounted her story. Truly horrifying.
She spoke powerfully, directly. I admire her. Pretty hard to ignore, unless you’re as hardcore as that woman who continued to insist that the 10yo rape victim should have stayed pregnant “because women’s bodies are designed to carry life.”
I'm at a loss for words. I cannot understand what motivates anyone, let alone a woman, and probably a mother to think and talk that way. Would she force her own 10 year old to carry to term, even if the result of rape or incest?
I know, Alan. It’s horrifying. Unfortunately, I experienced cultic devotion up close and it is astonishing what people will do, how far they will go, in their devotion to a particular ideology. She probably belongs to ideologically intense groups that enforce those beliefs and norms, either her church but most certainly the anti-abortion political activists she associated with in an echo chamber. The A2 people in this country are similar. No amount of carnage moves them from the ideology they’ve adopted.
Trans activists actually have this challenge, too. Among a small number of influencers, the ideology is such that they are not open to reason.
you control reproductive rights- you control women-- returning to the ear when women were pregnant, barefoot & in the kitchen serving men. they don't care about females.
GOP NO CARE-- suspect they are trying to curl the herd-- especially with their public covid policies, cutting Medicare & etc-- Judd, maybe spotlight it when you can.
- More on the far-right Christian entities behind the terrifying onslaught of anti-trans + anti-woman bills + actions in state legislatures across the country: forced de-transition even for adults, suits against doctors for providing medically approved care to trans people, even bills requiring "gender-appropriate" clothing.
- Growing efforts by Republican legislators to censure + evict Democratic legislators on the flimsiest of pretexts, without holding their own to account for other transgressions (some of which you've reported on).
-
The gender-appropriate clothing bill is particularly ridiculous and unenforceable.
The scam of Medicare "Advantage "...which will, ultimately and soon, privatize Medicare.
My Medicare agent advised me against Advantage. I'm on regular Medicare + supplemental. She gets paid no matter what. She also advised me against private dental insurance, which I had already discovered the hard way paid for virtually nothing. But regular Medicare needs to start paying for preventative care and dental and vision, in my opinion.
Instead of privatizing the coverage people use the most, it should be included in Medicare. Because of the "giveback" I pay for supplemental insurance that costs me $70 a month - before I got Medicare, my health insurance was only $18 a month. This is just bullshit and I just cannot understand why we can't shake off these greedy insurance companies that plague us even in our older years.
I read somewhere that there is talk of disallowing the Advantage plans to use "Medicare" in their titles/references.
This is, I think you are right Peter, a looming and tsunami-like, threat to America’s health.
YES! Here's a perfect topic for Judd, Tesnim and Rebecca to delve into and unearth the duplicity.
In NC Rep Tricia Cotham, was she a GOP plant. Her defection from the Democratic party that makes a GOP supermajority in the legislature will cause issues for years. It has to be about money.
I'd love to see some investigation into this. She completely lied to her constituents about where she stood on almost everything. it's very suspicious.
And likely criminal. Election campaigns cannot be allowed to descend any further into bare-knuckled free-for-alls. You already have the issue of campaign ads not being required to be factual.
What she did was follow that loophole and viola! Voters disenfranchised by an unfamiliar yet novel and crooked means of securing their votes under the falsest of pretenses.
We have a fraud George Santos sitting in Congress that told every lie possible to his constituents about who he was. The GOP makes it work on every level and gets away with it. Look at Trump. The rest of us would be in jail.
How is George Santos allowed to continue on when there’s a good deal of proof that he is a fraud — wud b great to focus on him.
This is one of those stories that doesn't make sense without an additional piece of information that we haven't seen yet. Cotham was married to the Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, she was the daughter of a Democratic National Committee member, and she ran on a platform that was incompatible with the Republican party. Her explanations about being bullied by Democrats seem fabricated.
Maybe it is a personal issue related to her divorce or a toxic relationship with another Democrat. Or maybe it is something the public really needs to know about.
Perhaps something in her past she needs to keep hidden. Nobody crosses the aisle unless the ideology lures them, and in this case, it doesn't seem she had any credible reason.
My wild guess is that it's a Sinema situation: greed, resentment, and ambition in a poisonous brew. As with Sinema, I'd bet on a quid pro quo.
I think Rs are very good at blackmailing people?
Thanks for flagging this. I don't know much about it, but will look into it.
I heard that she didn’t grow up that way and she’s been a staunch democrat from a democrat family. Then she got Covid and they said it’s like she changed. She’s been diagnosed with long Covid too. Did her brain suffer a major oxygen loss?
Here in NC, the story is being covered locally. She has and wants to keep a political career. She’ll have more power as a Republican; she’s now the swing vote on major issues like voting rights, guns, abortion, education funding, book bans, trans healthcare, etc. Maybe she liked what she saw Sinema and Manchin doing.
I want to know if there’s truth to the rumors that she and NC Speaker of the House Tim Moore are dating. Reportedly she hasn’t changed her pro Democratic positions so then why change parties? Very suspect.
She was a life long Dem, or so said her mother, who is appalled by her daughter's defection (but like a wise mother says she will not disown her).
💸💸💸💸
Wow, totally agree.
Credible people like Simon Rosenberg and Norm Ornstein believe the Republicans want to crash our economy via the debt ceiling and blame it on Biden. The bill the House just passed is terrible for the country. This topic needs alot of light shown on it ASAP. Potential consequences are very scary.
I think this is possible, although I haven't seen any specific evidence that this is the plan. It is definitely a scary scenario.
Simon just published this on his Substack
Trump/GOP Embrace Default, Early Vote Starts in Jax,
Trump/RNC Embrace and Promote A Financial Crisis/Default - I am going to have much more say about this next week but look at this statement from Trump this week. His central attack on Biden is something which hasn’t happened yet, and will only happen if Kevin McCarthy causes the US to default (it is important to read his actual words from time to time):
TRUMP
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
- 2024
- April 24, 2023 -
Statement from President Donald J. Trump on Joe Biden's
Announcement You could take the five worst presidents in American history, and put them together, and they
would not have done the damage Joe Biden has done to our Nation in just a few short years.
Not even close. Thanks to Joe Biden's socialist spending calamity, American families are being decimated by the worst inflation in half a century. Banks are failing. Our currency is crashing and the dollar will soon no longer be the world standard, which will be our greatest defeat in over 200 years. Real wages have been falling 24 months in a row-in other words, under Biden, workers have gotten a PAY CUT each and every month for two straight years. We have surrendered our energy independence, just like we surrendered in Afghanistan, which we had just a short time
ago-and the price of gasoline just hit a 5-month high, and it's going much higher than that. Under my leadership, we had the most secure border in U.S. history, by far. Never had a border like this. Under Biden, the Southern Border has been abolished -and millions of illegal aliens have been released into our communities. What's happening now is beyond belief. They're coming in from mental institutions and prisons. They are all being emptied. They are being dumped into the United States of America. Many of these people are very dangerous, they are being dumped. We are like a dumping ground. Our cities have been overrun with homelessness, drug addicts, and violent criminals, who are being released from jail in mass with no retribution whatsoever, while law enforcement is weaponized against law-abiding conservatives or Republicans, or people they just don't like. Our children are being indoctrinated and mutilated by left-wing freaks and zealots.
In their new anti-Biden video the RNC also talks about an American financial crisis. The things they are discussing here - an American financial crisis, crashing currency, loss of dollar dominance - will only happen if Republicans choose to default on our financial obligations. That they are already attacking Biden for these things, before they have even happened, suggests the decision to default has already been made by Republican leaders.”
Americans from across the political spectrum should be loudly condemning the Republicans for their unprecedented threats to the integrity of the American and global financial system. How did this party get so crazy on so many matters? We need more Bob Igers out there condemning this extremism that has become so dangerous to American and America itself. It’s just not okay.
Here’s Norm discussing
http://deepstate.supportingcast.fm/content/eyJ0IjoicCIsImMiOiIxODU3IiwidSI6IjkyOTc5MyIsImQiOiIxNjUzNDg0OTI1IiwiayI6MzE5fXw4OTNjZGVlOGIwY2Y1OGViODVhOWM3MzE5OWViNmMxZjllNWMyM2NlOWEwZWQ1ZWUyMTdiYzlkYzk4YzM3YzA5.rss
If link doesn’t work it’s Deep State Radio “Words Matter” from Thursday- yesterday. Also Reed Galen, Rick Wilson do think this is their plan - maybe talk to them.
That bill is dead as a doornail. It won't pass the Senate and Biden would never sign it. We need to stop being afraid of the Republicans.
they will definitely blame the DEMS!
I am concerned about news I hear that Republicans are trying to limit the voting of young people, while at the same time I hear the young people are very politically aware. They could have a powerful effect on the 2024 election. Is this true and if so what are these restraints that are being put in place by the GOP to prevent young people from voting ?
These are true -- look to various state legislature’s actions in the last couple of months and you can plainly see their intent. Bills have passed that seek to disallow voting on campuses, pre-registration of graduating high-school students, cutting back on time for mail ballot delivery, and on and on. You should follow Marc Elias and his work at Democracy Docket for the latest on all this and more. Other issue advocacy groups would be the ACLU (sign up for their voting alerts either nationally or in the state where you reside), Common Cause or the Brennan Center for Justice and Law. I can’t recommend highly enough the newest group of young voters mobilizing under the leadership of the fabulous millennial, Santiago Mayer, called Voters of Tomorrow. Support their mobilization of young people with a financial donation if you can!!!
I agree, Leslie. Some of these groups are very exciting and getting traction. I am very happy to see Anderson Clayton as the new Chair for the Dems here in NC. She’s only 26 and from a rural area--both very important demographics.
Thank you. Happy to support. VOT.
There are certainly efforts to limit voting locations on campuses, etc.
They are shutting down the polling stations on college campuses. Did you see that Cleta Mitchell was asked to speak to a group of deep pocket GOP donors? That was her advice, saying that now they can just roll out of bed and vote and if we make it harder they won’t show up.
I am amazed at the results of your work in my beautiful state. Would you consider digging into corruption and gerrymandering that produced Andy Ogles? After the egregious gerrymandering of districts by Charlatan Sextoy and the good ol' boys of the TN R supermajority, Ogles represents a huge swath of Metro Nashville including where I live (maybe 2 miles from the Covenant School) yet he lives >40 miles away in very MAGA Maury county. He is also known to have falsified his resume. This white-supremacist right wing culture warrior is the one whose family Christmas card is a photo of them holding assault rifles. Anyway, thank you for your work!
Appreciate the kind words. And thanks for the tip!
Andy Ogles deserves to be a target of Judd's scrutiny!
Agreed. Weird things are going on with Ogles. Follow the money.
Thanks, neighbor - great points! As an example of the ridiculousness afoot here, it would appear Jon and I live within a couple of miles of each other and have different Congressmen. Ours is the odious Mark Green (the anti-mask, anti-vax _doctor_). The gerrymander was approved by an appointed Republican TN Supreme Court - this is a group that deserves the PI treatment. Thanks for your hard work on our behalf, Judd - our local media is not up to the task, and the TN Holler can only do so much…
Hello, neighbor. Solidarity. 👊
Odious is just the word for Mark Green. The lengths these practitioners of white-supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy are going to in order to hurt Nashville and Nashvillians purely out of spite is pathetic, but also dangerous. They didn't get their grifters convention and they're prepared to burn everything to the ground to "own the libs".
https://substack.com/profile/33307909-jon-tates-daily-practice/note/c-15292473
I am an octogenarian and I’m sick and tired of people criticizing Joe Biden because he’s 80 years old. I am sharper, strategic and more mentally capable than a lot of people half my age. I would love to see you do at least one article showcasing octogenarian’s that are making significant contributions to our world. Thanks for all you do.
Age discrimination is pernicious. There are plenty of reasons to criticize or praise Biden but he shouldn't be dismissed because of his age.
I know many! And, we all knew Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who wrote brilliant opinions up until she departed.
You’re not alone, many people want to paint a certain age as being synonymous with senility, it isn’t.
Joe Biden’s intellectual level is fine!
I think we all need to know more about this Christian Nationalist effort, "Project Blitz", to target all of our state houses with pro Christian legislation (meaning anti-everybody and everything else.) I have read about the Council for National Policy (CNP), an ALEC equivalent, drafting bills and training folks. While this avalanche of unsupported state legislation feels chaotic, is it more likely a result of a targeted strategy by CNP or a successor? If so, it would be great for all of America to learn more about it. It came to mind again yesterday because a reporter noted that it seems state legislators don't even know what is in their own bills--maybe because they are not writing them. I am concerned this is not getting sufficient attention because "Christian" "religion" etc., but if it is an extremist organization influencing policy I believe it deserves daylight. Here is a 2018 link to Project Blitz: https://religiondispatches.org/project-blitz-seeks-to-do-for-christian-nationalism-what-alec-does-for-big-business/ and here is a link to an oversight web page: https://www.blitzwatch.org/ And finally, this article on understanding white Christian Nationalism because I think most people believe the term means patriotic Christians: https://isps.yale.edu/news/blog/2022/10/understanding-white-christian-nationalism#:~:text=Adherents%20believe%20in%20the%20idea,non%2DChristians%2C%20and%20immigrants. Thank you for considering the topic.
An interesting place to start for that Rabbit Hole is Beliefnet (ahem acquired by FOX) that has now become Radiant. It claims to bring information on world religions together including Patheos Pagan, but I’ve got info showing the money funneled through various board members including the infamous Jay Sekulow and donations (thank you archives) to Supreme Coup, other organizations include Affinity4, Crossbridge, and lots of LDS out of Utah (nothing wrong with that - they’re trying to do some good things to get names on Libraries that they’re going to subsequently also try to close through being associated with nationalism) such as Larry H & Gail Miller Family Foundation and the Ron & Janet Jipson Family Foundation. I mean…it’s on radiant.org website. It’s both eye opening and TERRIFYING.
I have seen no follow-up coverage of the deleted Secret Service texts or the IRS' failure to conduct the audit of Trump as required by federal law. It seems like these are huge scandals, yet to my knowledge the Senate has held no oversight hearings and no disciplinary action has been taken. If there is not going to be accountability by federal agencies to follow the law, it will only further embolden those pushing for autocracy.
Salon recently ran a piece about a (extraordinarily large) anticipated wave of deferred post Covid sequelae looking a lot like Parkinson's, afflicting unwitting survivors of the virus. Meanwhile, patients in Stanford's long covid clinic report doctors nurse and clinicians no longer masking even when performing tests that require their patients (now immunocompromised from COVID) to unmask. Science seems on the side of continued caution around this disease, but Republicans politicized it to the point that even the Democratic leaders now declaring the pandemic over and treatment and prevention becomes every-man-for-himself. Governor Kathy Hochul even ended mask mandates in health care facilities. How did we get here? Is it truly a collective lack of care about a sometimes still deadly and frequently life-altering illness, or were there undue pressures and influence brought to bear on these politicians?
The science of long COVID is probably a topic that others are better equipped to address. But I do think that it's remarkable that we aren't doing more to ensure the safety of workers -- including basic benefits like paid sick leave -- in light of what has happened over the past few years.
Elenna Stauffer Dunham
just now
I’m not a scientist. But I do find the coalescence around something definitely NOT settled science (that COVID is over and therefore there are to be no mitigations, whether free tests or masks or basic data collection) unnerving and I wonder at the politics behind it. (Sorry- didn’t post as reply initially)…
Again, though, politics is the issue here. Why on earth if the pandemic is officially over in a few days, is the White House and/or the press demanding testing at the White House Correspondents' Dinner? It just seems like there's a lot of politics and not a lot of science here. If the White House knows it's dangerous enough and still-present enough to demand these mitigations then why are they dropping them? Who is influencing this decision and what leverage do they have?
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/white-house-correspondents-dinner-covid-test
I would refuse to cooperate if the technician preparing to perform a test upon me (like a pulmonary function test) was not masked and expected me to un-mask.
Hello No! I am immunocompromised due to a successful (obviously) double lung transplant. I'll politely but firmly refuse.
What you share about medical professionals at Stanford refusing to mask when performing a test on an immunocompromised patient is terrible. I feel a bit skeptical; my dad and stepmom worked at Stanford, and Stanford paid tuition for my undergrad degree, so maybe I’m biased. It’s hard for me to imagine a clinician doing that, but if those patients reported it, I believe them, and I think they should insist as Alan says.
At Duke facilities in Durham, NC, masks are still mandatory in exam rooms, but clinicians can now, just recently, unmask in the back. They are relieved to be able to do so. Because I have PTSD from being suffocated, they allow me to unmask in the exam room, although they stay masked. This was after I contacted the disability office and asked for an accommodation. It was very hard and stigmatizing to want to unmask, I can tell you that. But after two years, I felt my blood pressure should not be escalating to 170 every time I had to see a doctor; nor did I want to continue delaying necessary care. Out in Mebane, the Duke affiliated clinic does not require masks any longer. People are happy about that, from what I experienced. Some people were still masked and everyone seemed fine with that. It must be hard on those that are immune compromised to still have to do it, but for them, the risk is too high not to do so.
Judd -- what is mainly on my mind is gratitude. Your resoluteness -- staying focused on sometimes seemingly disparate bell-weather news stories -- has kept me focused on engagement with those that represent me at a state and local level where similar lazy/mean/self-serving/illegal behavior also is playing out.
I met the political scientist and author, Eitan Hersh, (see: “Politics is for Power” pub. 2020) about five years ago at Kris Kobach’s federal voter suppression trial. In Hersh’s book, he reviewed the then nascent resurgence movement of civic engagement and social action groups, describing many newly fomented suburban, white, anti-extremist Americans as interested social media commentators but not necessarily social and political disruptors. He was interested in what power people understood they held. Also in what further power they sought and why. Perhaps all Hersh’s theories about that “resurgence” don’t hold water, three years on; the scope and form of the eternal anti-democracy faction we label now as MAGA was not as well formed or understood as today. Neither was the sheer volume of motivated and newly mobilizing counter-activists really understood until after the 2018-repeat elections in 2020 and 2022.
What I do know is that his question reframed how I thought about my civic engagement and readiness to jump into issues affecting the overall health and well-being of my community and state, not just the country’s. It propelled me to try my hand at ever confounding Twitter. That led me to you and your work. You led me to others. Collectively, their and your dedication has outlasted our national media’s downward slide from its vaunted pedestal as the fourth leg of America’s democratic estate. And the cascade of this work is not just your list of stories you reviewed in today’s post, but the stories of people like me. Not content to simply read and absorb the news, we are signing up to volunteer as callers, postcard senders, as writers of LOE and engagers in community forums (online here in various Substacks and IRL). We have among us new first time candidates for public office, and defiant teachers, and resolute librarians, and mad-as-Hell 2023 Janes who refuse to cede their humanity to misogynistic politicians or courts or even to Walgreens.
So thanks. You make it possible to be smarter in my activism, effective in my engagement, and give me the some of the resources I need to be more than Hersh’s “political hobbyist.”
Thank you for sharing this. Writing the newsletter involves a lot of time sitting alone in front of a computer, and it's heartening to know that people are on the other side who really value to reporting and are putting it to work in their communities.
Yes, yes and yes Judd! Your work is most appreciated sir.
If you loved that and it motivated you, you absolutely need to be listening to Simon Rosenberg and the Hopium Chronicles. While Judd and team do a great job shining a light on the hyprocrisy, malfeasance, cravenness etc of Rs and their enablers, Simon is showing how all of us warriors for democracy are making a difference. https://simonwdc.substack.com/
Oh Anne!! I couldn’t agree more. I was part of Simon’s beta test group for the new Substack and worked on some messaging for the ‘22 midterms!! Hopium suits the mission to a tee
I wholeheartedly agree with what Leslie and AnneDC have expressed. My activism has evolved, thru folks like Judd and Simon and others. And I'm so grateful for the developing alternatives to "main stream media" -- so much a part of our problems. I very much hope for the day Twitter doesn't exist. Everyone should be transitioning OFF of that platform and what it now embodies -- the corruption by Musk, a truly despicable person who should have no control of our discourse.
I just subscribed and read the article about president Biden's re-election effort. Excellent stuff. Well thought out and articulated. Thank you for sharing that tip with this forum and I hope that others take note and join up.
I would like to see reporting on two matters:
1) The impact on women's health care in those states where abortion has been basically eliminated and adds a criminal/civil penalty to women's health care practitioners and doctors: what is the impact on maternity care and other health care for women? I have read about Idaho having to close maternity wings in hospitals because they losing doctors and other health care practitioners?
2) What is the impact on teacher retention and recruitment in Florida at this point, as well as other states that are enacting draconian legislation to censor books, speech and various topics?
Both important topics. On #2 there is already a massive teacher shortage in Florida.
I dare say there is not a teacher shortage. There are thousands of teachers who would return to the profession if they were paid what they are worth and valued. Please see my comment above. This is part of a much bigger problem.
If there is a massive teacher shortage already, how are Floridians responding to this problem? Why doesn't this show up in reporting on DeSantis and the legislature? And how can this problem be better exposed?
The hard right turn of the MT legislature and the silencing of Zooey Zephyr.
I have been following this closely and have been meaning to write about it but other topics keep interfering. I finally published something on Substack Notes yesterday: https://substack.com/profile/364398-judd-legum/note/c-15313282
I'll be sharing more about Substack's new Notes feature and how it can empower this community in the coming weeks.
Thx, Judd. Here in NC, there is obviously reason to be worried. And reason to #resist
Exhibit A: a gerrymandered America
Recently, I have been hearing a lot about hedge funds and the outsized role they are playing in diverse aspects of our lives. This topic may be too big to address right now with everything else that's going on, but it's on my mind. I love your work! Thank you!
Yes, this is a big important topic. My preference is to zoom in on specific stories to illustrate larger trends, but I will certainly look for more opportunities to do that.
Thank you! I am so impressed with how impactful your investigative journalism has been. I'm always excited to see what you come up with next! Kudos!
I think we need more reliable press on economic issues, too. Venture capitalists buying up hospice care facilities? Apartment buildings out of state, then renovating, raising the rent, forcing people out? I’ve seen some coverage of these activities and was glad to be informed.
A critical topic.
Yes, absolutely! I think there is very little awareness of how these venture capitalist/private equity firms are spreading their tentacles into so many aspects of our lives. In most cases it seems they serve to exacerbate the wealth gap in this country.
Yes, that’s what I looks like to me, too. I wish that I had more intrinsic motivation and interest in economics. I read Matt Stoller, and others, but am still woefully ignorant about what’s happening, why, and what sh/could change. I have been glad to hear about what Lina Khan has been doing at the FTC. Makes me feel hopeful that we’re getting some movement.
I’d love to see Popular Info partner with BIG by Matt Stoller on such a series
BIG is one of the best newsletters! Right up there with Popular Info.
Thank you for your outstanding reporting. I hope that at some point you will reveal to the public who the Young America's Foundation really is. They own the Reagan Ranch in California and Reagan's boyhood home here is Dixon, IL. They will sponsor a debate with Mike Pence at the Republican National Convention. Locally (in Dixon), they just held an event for MIDDLE SCHOOL students to learn about "conservative values". Their website yaf.org reveals the conflicts they encourage on college campuses across the US. They are running political candidates in local elections. They are strongly anti-LGBTQ, racist, book burners and forced birth They forced the docents at the Reagan home to follow their fabricated script of Reagan's life. However, they present as clean cut all Americans. They do an outstanding job of duping the public.