297 Comments

In light of the Dominion lawsuit, your Twitter thread from two years ago about how the primary source of revenue for Fox News is, as you wrote in all caps, "PEOPLE WHO NEVER WATCH FOX NEWS," is especially relevant. It would be great if you picked up this argument again -- I believe that many people who are horrified by Fox News don’t realize they’re the ones paying for it.

It would be great if you reached out to MSOs and their board members to ask how they justify forcing all their subscribers to pay carrier fees to a propaganda network that is undermining our democracy, when a tiny fraction of subscribers (~2 million of ~90 million US cable subscribers?) watch the network.

https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1386656017698676740

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I would love to see more on how Republicans are demonizing and attacking the trans community. These poor people do nothing to harm anyone, and yet they are being tormented nonstop by Republicans, especially by the loathsome Governor DeSantis.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

I’d like to know what’s happening with the law in Texas where anyone can get $10000 for accusing others of aiding and abetting an abortion. Have these cases come to trial? Who is bringing them, family members or busybodies? Who is behind and funding the prosecution? Are they having an effect?

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Mar 23, 2023·edited Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

I think the most impactful fights to be fought are on the lines of Citizens United. Dark money in politics has sidelined the wants and needs of the voting citizenry and doomed the planet.

Somewhere down the list from that would be the ages of our elected leaders. They are SO out of touch with the pace of technological advancement and the implications for our daily lives.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

What about guns?

Biggest issue. Never addressed.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” – Isaac Asimov, 1980.

My grandchildren have now experienced Florida Governor DeSantis’ threats and intimidation. First, our grandson’s beloved middle school teacher was suspended for placing on his Tik-Tok account a student-written and created video about banning of books.

Yesterday, our granddaughter’s high school principal left a voicemail explaining that an after-school club speaker had been cancelled. The principal said the Florida Department of Education had called and threatened to investigate (AKA suspend & prosecute) any administrator or teacher who attended the presentation by the gay speaker. This would have been the 3rd year this speaker made the presentation (“Drags and Donuts”). The Orlando Sentinel has an op-ed piece and story. Judd, I sent an email to you with the voicemail attached.

A fascist dictator “governs” Florida. Though we live in the US, we in Florida have no rights to free speech, freedom to assemble, freedom to learn. The Republican legislature kowtows to his every wish. Everyone is afraid and turning each other in, or just cancelling everything that is not DeSantis-approved. There is a lot written about DeSantis and his presidential aspirations – less written about the indelible marks left on the rest of us. Ask the kids!!!!!

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My husband and I were in the FL Gulf Tampa area earlier this month and there was a Red Tide that started March 3rd. We arrived March 7th in Denedin (Governor Bigoted Ron’s hometown) and the stench of rotting fish corpses was overpowering. We went to Honeymoon Island State Park and the Park ranger recommended wearing a mask because your lungs hurt, you start coughing, your eyes burn, you can’t go in the water or come near any sea 🌊 foam. The beach was littered with endless dead fish. It was apocalyptic, end of days, oceans are dying. Supposedly it’s related to agro farming pesticide runoff. Since this neofascist US Supreme Court did away with the Clean Water Act a year ago, we’re back to Silent Spring. I’m in Iowa City and the Iowa River runs through town and Lake McBride is the nearest body of water for boating and swimming. The GOP leaders in Iowa forbid anyone from testing the water last summer, so Little Village, our local news weekly, reported anyone trying to test the water would be prosecuted. It’s a police state here. Andy Kopsa, Iowa native taking refuge in Brooklyn, she has a Substack called No Heartland and she refers to Iowa as “The Florida of the north.” Our “I castrated hogs when I was six-years-old” racist white lady Governor Kim Reynolds is busy gutting public schools. She turned down a federal grant for public schools of $300 million that Iowa would have had to match $3 million. She’s behind 28 anti LGBT 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈 laws in the Iowa Statehouse this past month that would overturn gay marriage. Alls I can hear is Woodie Guthrie singing about building a Fascist Killing Machine. Wipe these fuckers off the face of the earth.

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Thank you for not obsessing about Trump every day. It’s like the media learned nothing from 2015 to 2020.

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The increase in the so-called Defense budget is very worrying to me - as is the escalation of cold war rhetoric between the great powers. The budget issue undermines the stated agenda of to transition to sustainable energy and economy and to restore the middle class and alleviate poverty. The great power confrontations could lead to accidental nuclear war and the end of civilization. Meanwhile, the "Defense" contractors are getting upwards of $450 billion per year. All the secretaries of "Defense" seem to come right from the Boards of Directors of the big 5 contractors. All the major TV news outlets quote "defense" experts without disclosing their connections to the contractors. Very dangerous!

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I would be interested in your reporting on the elevation and suppression of certain news stories that claim the new cycle for days at a time. Sy Hersh wrote a damning expose of American intelligence involvement in the nordstream bombing and no media whatever even mentioned it, instead elevating a clearly concocted story from the German press that had no examination behind it. The Trump arraigned on Tuesday story got similar traction. We've seen a great perversion of corporate messaging dominating the headlines with very little fact checking, if any. And it is like what happens with the local news parroting the same story and the same script so that everybody in America gets a pravda-like word for word account of feature stories and news stories about the state of our culture. The Trump message of a New York crime wave gets repeated even though there is no such thing and has not been for quite some time. I appreciate the good work that you do with your small team and I wonder if there is anything you can do to set more of the kind of fires that call these people out. Corporate messaging benefits corporations and the people are left holding the bag.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

I'd like to know more about funding sources pushing Christian Nationalism, in particular Project Blitz which has already had too many outcomes against the First Amendment.

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Gun control voters are a large segment of our country. We need to know more about them. the issue of banning assault weapons is important and we must know how to get it done. Please help

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

I think one of the top crises facing our country is the incredible rising cost of long term care and the nursing shortage. It's projected that we will have a shortage of 400K by 2030. With our demographic of aging Baby Boomers, this is a disaster. This should get a lot more attention than it does.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

I’d like to hear more about the Council for National Policy, the secretive, right-wing, white nationalist Christian group, that is behind the majority of anti-BiPOC, anti-lgbtq+, anti-women, anti-civil rights legislation that has been flooding GOP-led states. Members include the Koch Brothers and the De Vos family. It owns Breitbart Media and other similar outlets. Meetings have been attended by Amy Coney Barrett and other influential people of similar mindset.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

Please write about how the 'Don't say gay' sponsor, Joe Harding, was just convicted of wire fraud, money laundering, and spreading misinformation.

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I would like to see a huge movement to get rid of Citizens United. Unlimited foreign money buying politicians and elections has got to stop.

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I agree with the recommendations of Randall Ragsdale above. I would add:

Calling out corporate mainstream media for misinformation, lack of fact checking, and lack of depth in their reporting.

Following up on tragedies such as the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. What is the current state of air and water quality there? Has there been an independent assessment by a credible research university concerning air and water quality and how this is impacting health if the people living there?

Dark money and the $2 billion Kushner received from the Saudi’s.

Thank you for your very valuable research and reporting.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

Judd, I love the work you and your team do everyday and I view my subscription as money well spent! Here are some of the thoughts that run through my head on a daily basis!

Election police, other than Florida, which states have (or will have) them, how much do they cost and what are they doing?

Charter schools and who's behind them, who determines curriculum, are the outcomes better, and how much do parents and taxpayers pay? Are they a threat to traditional K-12 public education?

Desantis and the “Don’t Say Gay” expansion to all grades? How will middle and high school students respond?

The Willow Project, there seems to be a ton of disinformation coming from all sides, some say Biden caved, many say it could be an environmental nightmare, others say we need the oil, so what's really going on? Will there be enough oversight of the project?

Ok, that's enough! Thanks for the opportunity to comment!

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From Trump to DeSantis to Gov. Abbot and others, they seem to be effectively replacing children by acting like them. Child Replacement Theory!

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

The Raiding and Attacks of Social Security

I want to see a full detailed time line of politics s raiding Social Security for their pet projects and leaving it close to empty. I believe it started with Reagan to fund his military build up. It has slowly been drained to where it is now in peril. Then show where it would be now if no one touched it and it sustained itself. Then talk about Republican recent rhetoric on raising the age eligibility, ending the program, etc.

Everyone near 62 and over are impacted and care about SS. We paid into it our whole working lives.

Reagan has been white washed by the GOP. People need to see what really happened under his reign. Some is coming out now about the hostages. Trickle Down theory’s devastating effect on our economy is also on the list. Would also like to know who was behind him and the dark money involved. He was a puppet, not smart enough to mastermind all of it.

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The administration's effort to reign in the fraud in the Medicare Advantage Plans is being lobbied into oblivion by the insurance industry and its congressional allies. This is another example of "sharpies" figuring out how to keep billing Americans an additional $25,000,000,000 annually. De-regulation of major corporations (banks and insurance companies alike) is a major contributor to fraud and malfeasance in capitalism. Unregulated capitalism is always a rigged game.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

Gotta love how the GQP is so concerned about our nation's children that they even have found rationale for child labor.

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More on reversing the willow run project. Yes to the issue of guns ... certainly from the p-o-v of $$$

and what about taking on the idea of changing the nature of the Senate by making it more in line with population distribution. There are several cities with much larger populations than individual states.

That's a problem for democracy. & Thanks for your work, John G.

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I would love to see you uncover the activities of the Young America's Foundation, who own the Reagan Boyhood Home in Dixon, IL and the Reagan Ranch in California. They establish chapters on college and high school campuses and have recently moved to targeting middle school students. They train them to be young Christian Nationalists. Here in Dixon, an employee of YAF is running for the local school board and another employee is running for mayor in Sterling, IL. It is frightening. They present as clean cut, good citizens and have been successful at deceiving a majority of the citizens of the area. They have revised the docent guidebook used by volunteers at the Reagan Home to portray Reagan as called by God, among other things. The chapter members on college campuses make life impossible for members of the LGBT community. St. Louis University has been fighting their demand to have a chapter on campus which has made SLU a target of YAF.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

I'd be interested in an exploration of the myriad ways that BIG MONEY and corporate constitutional personhood have corrupted, over the past century plus, what democracy we have had. IMO it's not just dark money in politics that is the issue; it is concentrated, corporate-originated BIG MONEY in all its iterations that is the problem now and has been for generations. From the first Gilded Age through the corrupt 1920s to the Congressional-Military-Industrial-Cop-Entertainment Complex (C-MICE), the assault on so many Americans by the never tender mercies of Beck, Savage, the late druggie Limbaugh, etc. on, neo-Fascist talk radio abetted by the abandonment of the Fairness Doctrine and the consolidation of corporate media, we now live in a corporatist nation. It's the corporate attack on and absorption of the 1st, 4th, 5th, 14th, etc. Amendments in its continual attack on the rights, the interests and needs of We the People by government of, by and for BIG CORPORATE MONEY.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

Back when our Presbyterian church in Annapolis was struggling with the question of whether being gay was to be OK with us, or not, I got up to the lectern, donned my taxicab jacket from my years in the 1970s as a Denver cab driver, and said, "You may not be comfortable with the idea of gay marriage. But let me tell you as a former cab driver something about the alternative. My passengers in Denver taught me where Denver's gay bath houses were. So if you don't like gay marriage, ask yourself 'Do you really think gay bath houses are the better alternative? Making straight marriages succeed takes work. Why shouldn't gay couples have the same opportunity to do the work of making gay marriages succeed too?" The underlying reality is that Ron deSantis is trying to pick a fight with Mother Nature he can't win. When babies are in the womb, Mother Nature gives some babies blue eyes and some babies brown eyes. Mother Nature makes most babies right handed, but makes some babies left handed. Mother Nature makes most boy babies straight but also makes some boy babies gay. She makes most girl babies straight but also makes some girl babies lesbian. Our job, as parents, is to be grateful to Mother Nature for all the babies she gives us, and to do our part to raise them with as much love and kindness as possible, both all our straight children and all our gay or lesbian children. And, by the way, Mother Nature does this with other species as well. A friend of ours once owned horses. She said some of the male horses preferred to hang out with female horses, while others of her male horses preferred to hang out with other male horses. DeSantis' desire to torture Florida's gay children by doing a re-run of the Salem Witch Trials using the entire Florida school system as his persecution chamber is about as depraved and unkind a piece of political theatre as can be, and every Florida parent who's been willing to enable this stunt should be ashamed of themselves for embracing the idea that being cruel to gay people is an honorable thing to do. DeSantis' stunt is an insult to Mother Nature, to her children, and to Jesus' principle that we are to love ALL of God's children. Ron deSantis is plainly just as unable to get a grip on reality as his rival Donald Trump. He owes the people of Florida, and of the nation, a profound apology.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

First, I want to thank you for the access. It’s much appreciated. Second, I have yet to hear a detailed explanation of TikTok’s dangers over and above any other large social media platform. Specifics like, how would the data collected be used against the U.S. How could the data collected be harmful to the user. He does the data collected differ from that collected by FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. These questions seem to be relevant to the debate, but so far it seems the discussion stalls at they collect lots of data, they’re China, so that’s bad.

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Glad I have a paid subscription. It allows me to see "what's behind the headlines" of the main stream media.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

It might prove interesting to do a correlation on money received from special interests and how congress people vote on bills related to the special interest group. For example, how much Senator Thune receives from the rail industry and how he votes and acts on rail safety. Suspect we will have champions in both parties whose voting patterns make it clear that they are puppets of industry and do not work for the public good.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

Thank you for all the great work you do every day and incredible traction you get for the truth! As a volunteer with Brady, the long-time gun violence prevention group, we’re working on gun procurement because the number one buyer of guns in America is the taxpayer. Our opinion piece in the Chronicle points out that many Law Enforcement Agencies are purchasing from dealers with repeated violations cited by the ATF. San Francisco is investigating their procurement practices – because they are also buying from LC Action and possibly others. Taxpayer funds should not reward gun dealers contributing to the problem of gun violence. Their vendors should have the strongest possible business practices to reduce the likelihood of their guns being used in crimes. https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/california-police-gun-sales-17766846.php

The federal political situation in America for gun dealers actively drives their decisions to put profits over peoples’ lives. In the early 2000s, Brady’s research showed that 5% of gun dealers sell 90% of guns traced to crimes. In 2004, George W Bush signed the Tiahrt Amendment into law preventing law enforcement agencies from sharing crime gun trace data with any organization such as Brady. Ever since, gun dealers have operated in full secrecy, shielded from journalists or other people who would shine a light on their operations.

Given how starved of funds the ATF has been for many years, without even a director for a long time, and the fact that the ATF inspects gun dealers incredibly infrequently (once every 5 to 7 years), there has been no oversight. There are many retailers who are regulated more stringently such as pharmacies. There are more gun dealers in America than Starbucks and McDonalds combined – and there is much work necessary to stop the flood of crime guns into the communities least equipped to deal with them.

Brady’s Gun Store Transparency Project has painstakingly put together a patchwork of ATF reports – the most comprehensive made public. A very few District Attorneys have released crime gun information to the public including Alameda County where the biggest seller of crime guns still in operation is Big 5 Sporting Goods – not the sort of activity expected from a “family friendly” retailer, but also not unexpected – given that they sell a range of products of which guns is a small fraction, and they no doubt have the same high staff turnover and training problems. It should be noted that WalMart is the #1 seller of guns in America and they pulled guns out of every store in California – so did Dick’s Sporting Goods. Brady has a Dealer Code of Conduct with Best Practices for gun dealers so that they do not sell crime guns.

America is an appalling neighbor – recent Harvard research in 2023 shows that between 70% and 90% of guns recovered from crimes in Mexico are sold in America. This is completely counter to the popular right-wing narrative that Mexico is flooding America with problems. It’s the opposite.

There are a massive number of lies put out by the NRA to stoke fear. We must stop gun manufacturers deliberately targeting children with their marketing. I'm reminded of the cigarette industry - both guns and smoking literally kill their own customers. Both industries are flailing and targeting children - whether tiny sized AR-15s or bubblegum flavor electronic cigarettes.

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I’d like to hear more about the East Palestine derailment and toxic chemical spill. Has it been cleaned up yet? What are the health effects? Did the regulators screw up? Gov. De Wine initially refused federal help--what effect did that have? Also, is the crash related to the issues in the railway labor disputes, such as precision scheduling?

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

I haven't seen enough investigation into the George Santos money angle. Why does a con man like him want to get elected to Congress? It strikes me as highly possible that he expects a significant payout, but from whom and for what in return?

(Also want to commend you and your team for what you've accomplished, highlighted above. Thank you!)

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

I've seen little mention of recent climate reports, seems like that should be really important to amplify.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

What else is Leonard Leo and his network doing to reshape our government, especially now that he's got $1.6 billion of dark money, and success in reshaping the Supreme Court and our judiciary for the worse, IMO.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

Thanks for your efforts to reveal reality in the face of the constant atmospheric rivers of misinformation coming from our nation's largest piles of wealth. Here is another storm waiting to happen: Minnesota has recently suffered a leak of radioactive water - at least 400,000 gallons - at a nuke plant located on the Mississippi River. How many readers of this site get their drinking water from the fabled river?

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

I would like to see more reporting maybe on the plans for DEI funds in Florida being withheld from colleges along with the expansion of the "Don't Say Gay" bill to now include ALL grades. These kids and their education are being obliterated in Florida and nobody else seems to care.....imo.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

This mentions DeSantis' attacks on drag shows and Judd's previous excellent piece outlining the issues:

https://www.foxnews.com/media/desantis-shuts-down-florida-schools-drag-donuts-event-featuring-drag-queen-momma-ashley-rose-report

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

We have another crypto scandal in the works: https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-59

What's the common thread on all of these? Who is providing funding for these folks to even start these scams up and who do they benefit (besides the scammers of course)

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The military budget and diversion of tax money to destructive instead of constructive areas bugs me.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

This ad is currently all over tv in central Ohio courtesy of Protect Women Ohio: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn9Jrl76-Fo

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

HB 1421 in Fl. It is just so awful that folks need to hear more about it.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

I would appreciate some research and updating on sources of valid and non-emotional-based news. I personally use PBS NewsHour and NPR for a lot of my news and then a local paper the Seattle Times. The damage that has been done to our ability to trust organizations has been horrific, or is that just my perception. I also think some research on long-term government workers and addressing “deep state issues. We need to build up trust. I’m a retired county employee and any work we did policy wise was always directed by the elected officials, not our non-elected directors. They tended to stay focused on the mission of our department, which was to serve the residents.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

Just want to say J major here, single, currently disabled (LongCovid) mama in immunocompromised family, medical bills all around, BUT I amplify your voice on Mastodon. Stellar work. Thank you.

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Mar 23, 2023·edited Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

Only this morning, I learned that there are "democracy deserts" and that in the US, many states qualify as such. Notable among them is Wisconsin, and I imagine, that over the last couple of years, my state, Iowa, would be counted among these. Our legislature has been systematically restricting rights through dreadful legislation. I would be interested to read more about this.

https://www.electoralintegrityproject.com/

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/13/america-is-full-of-democracy-deserts-wisconsin-rivals-congo-on-some-metrics

And a big THANK YOU for the reporting you do.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

What's the state of food inspection? I feel we are always waiting for the next bacterial scandal in fruit, meat, poultry.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

I'd really like someone to look at what's going on in Louisville now that the DOJ report is out (and confirmed what was obvious). The DOJ report discussed how the LMPD has failed but not what the price of those failures has cost others (the people imprisoned on flimsy or inaccurate evidence, the uninvestigated sexual assaults, the costs of living under surveillance). We elected a mayor who promised transparency but whose idea of assisting reform is to use the federal ARP money to build a wellness center for...cops? Without the approval of Metro Council. Neither will he insist on contract negotiations with the FOP being public. So the outcome of the investigation is likely to be that our police department has in the eyes of the DOJ violated the civil rights of the people it's supposed to protect and the outcome of that will be giving that same department millions of dollars in development and higher salaries? Local news has covered this just barely. You can thank Gannett.

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I pay. So should everyone. Great public service. Irreplaceable.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

I’d be interested to learn about SVB executives stock sales prior to the bank’s failure and also more about who precipitated the run and why.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Judd Legum

With all the focus on the high-profile disgusting things Florida is doing, there's another threat-to-democracy story that seems a bit undertold: state's war on voter initiatives. Right now, a group of volunteers is working hard to get the right to clean water embedded in the state constitution, and are doing so because, as one volunteer told me, Tallahassee keeps undoing local effort to ensure the quality of their drinking water. To get this on the ballot they will need close to a million signatures on individually signed petitions, an almost ludicrously high bar. While it's a state issue, anyone can pitch in with a donation to help them expand their outreach. Here is the website (which seems to meto make them look better resourced than I know they are. The Sun and the Tampa Times have covered this, but it feels like a national story -- if not the petition than the many stories of people who've lost local control over such a vital resource--yet another way in which the politics of that state are frightening.

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Judd I just did a TikTok on the latest death at Ft Hood, of 21-year-old Private Ana Basaldua Ruiz, who was sexually harassed on an almost daily basis and then found dead in a service bay last week. The army quickly ruled it a suicide. In the process of researching the TT I learned that this one base has seen FIFTY suicides in the last 5 years, and 11 murders. I know this is a bit outside of your wheelhouse but you have the ability to actually get eyes on this situation. This base is not safe for women--or anyone--and the army is essentially hoping no one will notice. They had an independent review board do an investigation in 2020 after another notorious murder happened there (of Vanessa Guillen.) The findings are absolutely damning, and yet nothing has changed. Maybe you can look into it.

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