It's been a busy month for Popular Information. Here are a few highlights from our reporting over the last 30 days:
Popular Information authoritatively debunked a widely-circulated claim that Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) had donated over $73 million to Black Lives Matter (BLM) and related organizations. The actual amount donated by SVB to BLM and related organizations 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, telling readers that the claim "that Silicon Valley Bank donated to the Black Lives Matter movement has been removed." Breitbart credited "Left-wing writer Judd Legum" for "appropriately flagg[ing] these issues."
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. Walgreens’ Twitter account became so inundated with customer complaints that Walgreens blocked the ability of people to reply to its tweets. A few hours later, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that his state would stop doing business with Walgreens.
Popular Information dismantled Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' contention that reports of book bans in Florida are a "hoax." Our reporting was credited in several major Florida media outlets, including the Sun Sentinel, the Tampa Bay Times, and Florida Politics.
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.
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.
Thanks for responding. I think you're selling yourself short!! What I think you can add (in a big way) is where you've been so successful in the past -- reaching out to companies to question their irresponsible business practices.
In the same way that you succeeded in getting many companies to commit to not giving campaign donations to candidates who voted to overturn the election results, you could challenge MSOs about why they are forcing ALL their customers to pay carriage fees to have Fox News included on basic cable, especially given what has been revealed about the channel in the Dominion lawsuit.
I'm not sure if my numbers are right, but if they have 2 million daily viewers and there are 90 million cable subscribers, that's 97% of subscribers who are paying for the channel without watching it. I imagine many of them would be horrified to know that they are the main source of revenue for the channel, which, among other issues, is effectively an extension of the Republican party, and which was a major contributor to the insurrection spouting information that they apparently knew to be false.
It does, but only when the customers avoid the big packages like HULU + Live TV, Fubo, Direct TV Stream, Youtube etc. Those packages work much like cable packages and will include networks those on one side of the spectrum consider propaganda while the other side would consider those networks news.
Agree. It is the streaming services that offer “live TV” that are quickly evolving into cable TV over the internet with multitudes of channels, most of which are garbage.
That’s so interesting (and sad). I remember reading a story a few years ago (news article or something -- memory is vague on source) from a man who’d fallen out with his dad whose news-consumption arc was exactly that. It’s happened a great deal, I think. Very sadly.
This is largely what https://checkmyads.org/ is trying to do, isn't it? (But, obviously, more from a grassroots activism angle than a journalism angle)
Aren't they focused on advertisers? The bigger issue (and bigger revenue source for Fox News) is the 90M US cable subscribers who are forced to pay for Fox News as part of basic cable.
I would love to see Judd shine his big spotlight on the execs and board members at Spectrum, Comcast, AT&T, etc. who are forcing Americans to pay for Fox News.
Yeah. You're right. Good point. The kicker, as I recall, is that Fox News is still far and away the most dominant channel in cable packages when it comes to viewership, though. Cable is dying a slow death...but Fox News is (sadly) at the heart of what's keeping them alive.
True. But if the numbers I’m seeing are right, their viewership is ~2M daily viewers, while there are 90M cable subscribers. That’s a ton of people (>97%) that pay for, but don’t watch, Fox News.
This is true at the moment. But it seems like there is an opportunity for one of these services to offer a "Fox-free" package. I think what Fox does is use its other networks and programming (especially sports) to avoid this.
It could be great if you were to contact the MSOs and ask if they would offer a "Fox-free" package of basic cable, for all those who don't want to support the channel.
YouTube TV and Fubo TV are direct competition with cable and both carry Fox News. I can make them disappear from my sight, but I am still paying for them.
Google -> “You can watch FOX without cable on Hulu with Live TV, Fubo TV, DirecTV Stream, Fubo TV Elite, YouTube TV, Vidgo, or Tubi. Below, we count down the best ways to watch FOX that cord-cutters use.”
interesting. Though I just went through Prime Video and couldn't find Fox News at all, free with prime or paid. A few drama shows from Fox. Or else they keep it very well hidden.
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.
I support this and the replies -- FL bill HS 1421 is heinous. Overall, I appreciate your increased scrutiny of Florida, Judd, and urge more as this state has surpassed Texas as the leading laboratory for intolerance legislation.
“Chris Geidner at Law Dork” today on substack addresses the terrible horrible Florida bill H.S. 1421 which persecutes the trans community & anyone who tries to help them.
If you haven’t already read Law Dork, please go to his posting & read it. It’s free, but of course subscriptions are welcome.
Thanks! I live in Florida & grew up here. DeSantis is the worst of the worst. I feel I am living in a police state & am appalled at the ignorance? Indifference? stupidity? of the voters who have put Republicans in charge of policing Florida residents, but who are ignoring our welfare when it comes to healthcare, voting rights, gun laws, & the environment, among many other matters.
I would like to see some reporting on how valuable the trans members are to their communities. Shine a light on their good natures and accomplishments.
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?
For up to date info on what is happening with abortion laws throughout the country, consider subscribing to Abortion Everyday, written by Jessica Valenti (on substack ).
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.
💯 agree citizens United is the worst application of free speech rights SCOTUS inflicted upon us and has primarily handed elections and legislation to the biggest spenders. My understanding is that congress would need to legislate to overturn it. I can’t imagine many would go against their own interests. It’s a catch-22.
Move to amend has been working on an amendment that would end citizens united, and make sure nothing like it happens again. The main point of the amendment is that money is not speech and a corporation is not a person. This would end all the special privileges that allow excessive campaign contributions/bribes.
Thanks for the reminder. I had forgotten about that organization, think I might have signed their petition years ago. Established over a decade ago, must not have gotten much traction. I’ll look at them again. Hopefully PI readers see your remark and check it out.
Absolutely. It is mind boggling that about 100 people (executives of the NRA and their fully-owned politicians) are blocking most reforms despite most of the 330 million Americans, including large majorities of gun owners, support reasonable restrictions. Judd, what I would like you to look into here is the blatant hypocrisy of the "originalists." They claim that we must respect EVERY LETTER exactly as written in the Constitution and EVERY WORD from the mouths of our lionized Founding Fathers but they ignore the inconvenient fact that the second amendment was designed for MILITIAS to put down slave revolts, not to protect an individual's right to bear arms, as evidenced by the literal words in the Constitution and all the contemporaneous writings surrounding the second amendment!
Thanks for pointing out the purpose of militias and the 2nd amendment. I’ve never understood how that was interpreted to mean everyone can have as many guns as they want.
I agree. This could be many months of exposing the corruption and lies for the whole industry that puts profits over people's lives. The surgeon general recently pointed out the appalling numbers of children who die relative to other countries: "4,357 gun deaths involving children in the U.S. in 2020, far more than other countries such as the United Kingdom (15), Germany (13), France (8), and Canada (5)" It can't be beyond the wit of Americans to solve the crisis. https://www.chiefhealthcareexecutive.com/view/surgeon-general-urges-health-leaders-to-tackle-gun-violence-we-need-to-step-up-
Kath, It is astonishingly cruel that our country would rather provide bullet proof vests to children in school rather than ban guns in this country. The international community is appalled at the heartlessness we show by lack of action after every mass shooting!
Guns should be issued on an exception basis. The 2nd Amendment needs to be repealed IF sane people get back in to our Congress. But amazingly, it will be a tough fight.
It doesn't even have to be that extreme! In the UK, anyone can get a gun license - they have to do paperwork including references from a doctor (lawyer or MP) that they're not a danger to themselves or others - and the local police interview the family, and check there's a gun safe bolted to a structural wall to stop theft... As a result, domestic violence is a lot less deadly in the UK and fewer guns are stolen.
Then there's the American attitude that we're the only ones who love guns. As if the British built an Empire with cups of tea? When I first heard about lock down drills in American schools in 2015, I wondered about the UK. I finally found one school doing lock down drills - the American School in London - presumably so the little American children don't get rusty while they're living somewhere sane!
I grew up with guns. My mom, dad, little brother and I all had shotguns. We hunted ducks, geese, partridge, grouse and pheasant. My dad knew nearly all of the farmers and always asked permission to go on a farmer's property before we hunted on his land.
Then I moved to Texas. Hunters in Texas show no respect for the land nor the animals they shoot. And worse, a hunt in Texas often involved a LOT of beer.
Judd, I would really like to see an article contrasting the Swiss model of firearms regulation with an HONEST appraisal of how the operatives of both our two cartel parties use the "guns" issue to divide the rank and file of both parties, keep them fearful and fighting as a means to disempower citizens. The Swiss model WORKS. Citizens are not stripped of capacity to defend themselves, as they are in so many South American banana republics now governed by gangs, and the state doesn't allow armed police thugs with "qualified immunity" to kill about 2000-2500 of its citizens each year (data from Lancet) in their homes and their streets. Likewise, the Swiss don't allow corporate CEOs and crooked plutocrats to send the army out of the country on ventures to support the interests of corporations and ruling class family rivalries. An armed nation is not synonymous with a violent nation.
Hi Ed, I'm curious if you have lived in Switzerland? The gun laws are incredibly strict, and I say this as a Brit now American citizen!
While doing mandatory military service, the civilian "militia" is no longer allowed to store ammunition in their homes - it's all locked up at a central armory. The photos shared by Americans might as well be of the Swiss open-carrying sticks!!!
Storing ammunition centrally has made Swiss domestic violence less deadly. I'm all for the Swiss model of mandatory military service so people learn how to use firearms safely -- with ammunition stored centrally.
The biggest problem for the Swiss is their suicide rate. While no one beats the Americans at 7.32 deaths per 100,000 (we are #1 in the world, of course we are), the relatively high rate of gun ownership (% of homes, surveys/ estimates vary) means that Switzerland has a gun suicide rate of 2.32 deaths per 100,000 (much higher than almost all peer countries, and much higher than the Swiss gun homicide rate of 0.09 deaths per 100,000).
In America, a gun in the home makes it 300% more likely that someone living there will die by suicide. Suicide may be impulsive and guns don't give people a second chance because they are so deadly (Harvard, 85% of attempts by gun are fatal).
Swiss people have a keener sense of how guns are a RISK in the home - and not a means to safety - and they regulate accordingly.
Thank you to the Swiss link - the British police also require a reference that the person is not a danger to themselves or others before issuing a gun license.
One thing that's interesting about America and suicide is that, a few years ago, I analyzed 20 countries (including US, Japan, UK, Germany, France, Australia, Spain, Belgium, and others). While America has the highest gun suicide rate in the world by a long stretch, the NON-GUN suicide rate was the lowest!
Similarly, Americans are not naturally more murderous. In 2020, 79% of all homicides in America or 19,383 deaths were by firearm, a gun homicide rate of 6.2 per 100,000 population, many times higher than a peer country such as the UK (0.05 per 100,000). However, our non-gun homicide rate was similar, USA=1.6 per 100,000, UK=1.05. Source: UNODC, CDC.
Which was my hypothesis - America is a relatively happy country where people can't be bothered if a gun isn't lying around - for either suicide or homicide.
"simply making a change in people's access to instruments of suicide dramatically lowered the suicide rate. In England, death by asphyxiation from breathing oven fumes had accounted for roughly half of all suicides up until the 1970s, when Britain began converting ovens from coal gas, which contains lots of carbon monoxide, to natural gas, which has almost none. During that time, suicides plummeted roughly 30 percent — and the numbers haven't changed since."
The Brits are still a gloomy people drinking cups of tea and telling people to stick their head in the oven.
Over here, I'm certain that our nation of people pursuing happiness can do a LOT better when it comes to guns!!!
Americans are not that happy, or safe, and we have the highest incidence of police killing of citizens in their homes and in our streets of any developed nation. We are not remotely in the league of Switzerland or any Nordic country (where citizens do own firearms but they are well-regulated) by any stretch of the imagination.
The reasoning that we should prevent suicide by removing the means of suicide is a reasoning utilized in mental institutions and prisons that leads to confining human beings in padded cells on special diets to "keep them safe." That's a plutocrat's solution to keep them out of sight, out of mind, and out of any threat to an abusive plutocratic ruling class.
A better way includes: 1. Providing universal health care like every other industrialized nation. That prevents 500,000 bankruptcies from bills each year to finance a murderous for-profit sickness industry and provides mental health support to those depressed and hopeless enough to contemplate suicide. 2. Reform police by removing all police with domestic abuse backgrounds from the police profession and owning firearms. 3. End homelessness by nationalizing the home loan industry to returning affordability to housing. 4. Take a clue from Denmark by children's schooling in empathy. American "education" is now training, not educating. There's design for growth in knowledge and expertise, not in growth as a person or emotional intelligence.
That's so interesting to hear an American say we're "not that happy, or safe", by and large, I completely agree! When I'm trying to be optimistic about having become an American citizen, I think of the "American dream" even though it's mostly a pipe dream because of the lack of interest in a social safety net. Please add stopping the death penalty to your list - it's barbaric, abolished in EVERY peer country, and yet still exists here, all part of the American obsession with retribution and revenge.
I don't understand what you mean by plutocrat's solution. I didn't suggest padded cells or special diets or mental institutions. If people store their guns safely, research shows 78% fewer intentional injuries/ deaths, and 85% fewer children involved in gun-related "accidents". Since gun deaths for children and teens in America have eclipsed vehicle deaths (and all pediatric illnesses combined), safe gun storage seems a place where gun owners and non-gun owners can find common ground. And it is proven to save lives of children and adults alike.
Lastly, to your point, if you consider the American police as a country, all by themselves they have a gun homicide rate per population that is quite similar to actual murdering CRIMINALS in Canada, and miles ahead of countries like Switzerland and the UK. As a Brit now American, I simply don't understand this at all. One Black man in the UK was shot and killed by the police, Mark Duggan, and large parts of London and other cities burned in riots. I'm not suggesting that Americans similarly burn cities - but we do seem awfully content to let police brutality and murder continue without doing anything about it... How about deescalation training for the police too?
“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!!!!!
My Grand-Daughter cut herself and was Baker Acted because she is so terrified of being beaten to death by the "DeSantis Patrol" controlling our schools. It is just devastating. If you thought 1938 Germany was bad, you ain't seen nothing yet.
And, we can't leave because my Husband would lose his Medicaid (State run) benefits and is dying of Stage 5 Kidney Failure. Just went on full Medicaid and are now being billed for his dialysis because we are one of a handful of States that won't accept increased Medicaid funds. He would be dead before he could qualify anywhere else.
What a miserable state.
And, if you dissent, don't comply, or have an IQ over 3, and aren't a Racist (Republican) living in The Villages - you risk being shot on sight because you were threatening the very existence of these cretinous sociopaths.
Julia, It makes my blood boil to hear stories like yours. To be stuck under this Fascist monster because of a medical issue really puts this over the top. I’m sorry you have to deal with all of this. I don’t know how old your granddaughter is but terrifying young people is not only inhumane, it can impact her for a lifetime. I hope someone out there can reach out to you with any way to help. Just remember there are millions of us out here on your side and we’ll gladly listen when you need us. And we’ll keep voting in more people in to put an end to this insanity. We have a frightening number of incompetents in Congress who are equally deranged and dangerous and armed!
It seems we’re further back than ever. Were women getting (only option-illegal abortions) threatened with death back then?! It is truly a shock to witness the ease at which these authoritarian fascists bulldozed this through. But previous admins are responsible for letting it all slide until it came to this! The Dems motto should be Never forget J6 & We’ll NEVER let it happen again.
Oh, this abortion issue goes back to America's history of Slavery. It's sickening. Don't preach to me about abortion being immoral and and you're pro-life. You're pro-racist, pro-slavery, and hate democracy.
Ms. Truth condemned this disgraceful enterprise, which thrived off not only uncompensated labor, but also physical and psychological terror. Most will remember Ms. Truth’s oration for its vivid descriptions regarding physical labor; Black women were forced to plough, plant, herd, and build — just as men. Yet far too little attention centers on her condemnation of that system, which made sexual chattel of Black women, and then cruelly sold off Black children. This was human trafficking in the American form, and it lasted for centuries. Ms. Truth pleaded:
“I have borne 13 children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?”
Given that it's the Wasserman-Schultz wing that controls the Democratic Party of Florida, it's not hard to see how a contemporary thug like DeSantis could rise to power. If Lil' Debbie Cakes were my installed representative, I wouldn't be a Democrat there either. You residents of Florida deserve much better than you are getting from either of our cartel parties.
Well, and given the fact that a homeless grifter from Colorado; that not even Ted Yoho would endorse after she worked for him for 3 years to take his place - who also was given a free ride to attend a military strategy class at the Naval Academy, is running the show here in North Florida.
Oh, and she creates PAC's like a drunken sailor. (Where's the money? I say that ALOT lately.)
Yes, the cow castrating queen of the Rockies, toting a shot gun in her billboards running for Congress - Kat Cammack, is in charge of MY welfare. F*ck.
Well, not to seem too snarky, we probably couldn't get lucky enough that they would turn on other. It's like a Twilight Zone version of a bad 60's Hitchcock movie based on The Island of Doctor Moreau. I usually don't quote Wikipedia - but this kind of sums it up:
The novel is the earliest depiction of the science fiction motif "uplift" in which a more advanced race intervenes in the evolution of an animal species to bring the latter to a higher level of intelligence.
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.
Iowa City used to be liberal. U of Iowa has always been highly regarded. But watching the state fall into the hands of fascist republicans is truly disheartening!
It’s hard not to feel super defeated by the avalanche of GOP racist fascist attacks on everyone. My husband has a mantra for me which is “Fill your cup” meaning I’ll spin out into sadness and rage. But can’t drain my battery 🪫
Thanks Mark. I think you'll find a balance in Popular Information. I am not in the "ignore Trump" camp. But there are a lot of other things going on as well.
Yes, although Mark, it’s a delicate balance between not fanning his narcissistic flame with so much oxygen as to become wildfire again AND still give us enough light by which to measure his calculations and ‘progress’ with his enthralled. MSM is inept at this duty, therefore virtually complicit with degrading democracy. Judd -- your talent is to draw the through-line across stories to see the interconnectedness of these various battles. I don’t want to be (nor could I become) an expert in constitutional law, DNA sequencing or finance regulation. My talent, to the extent I can channel it, is to bring others to their perfectly suited task in the long fight to reinforce and rebuild an American democracy undergirding ALL of us. Judd makes be smarter/more adept in that work.
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!
Yes, when people say the country is hopelessly divided they are ignoring our defense budget. Pretty much everyone, on both sides of the aisle, is for increasing it dramatically each year. Few even discuss what else we might do with some of this money.
Yes. Every time the defense budget is mentioned I think about how we need to spend that money, and those abilities on defense against our war with Mother Nature. We are woefully unprepared to deal with the people who lose their homes, vehicles, and sometimes loved ones to fire, flood, earthquakes, tornadoes...
Eisenhower warned of the Congressional Military Industrial Complex in 1961 and here we are 60+ years later and it continues to accelerate with no end in sight!
I agree with this - my university requires internships in its cyber/tech fields, and at least half of the recruiters were defense contractors. It feels like entire industries, especially in the wake of private companies leaving workers stranded, have the potential to be subsumed into military work
This has been going on for generations. When but a lad, I can recall massive protests at UofMich against recruiters looking to drive Reagan's starwars initiative (ultimately resulting in the Patriot Missile system and other goodies half a century later).
Eisenhower: "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
Charlie, I respect your opinion and you personally. I work at a nonprofit organization that supports the DoD in logistics and transportation. I can tell you that our military is definitely underfunded for the challenges we face. After the long wars in the ME and Afghanistan, our military readiness is compromised from a huge backlog of maintenance issues. Our biggest challenge is an expansionist China. We have huge logistical and other challenges should we get into a hot war with them, say over Taiwan. From my vantage point, the proposed military budget is definitely inadequate.
Thanks for your reply. We do spend a whole lot more than Russia and China combined, but, it's possible -- because of higher dollar costs here in the U.S. -- that we are underfunded for the "challenges" you mention. I don't accept those challenges. I don't think China is as expansionist as the U.S. is. It doesn't have 800 foreign military bases. It hasn't intervened militarily in dozens of nations. I am precisely proposing that the U.S. change its vantage point -- that it convert the military resources to the true threats to the human species, which are (accidental) nuclear war and climate chaos.
First I commend you for mentioning all the US military bases scattered throughout the world. Can you imagine any country having a military base in the US? Our hegemony is boundless. Secondly, much of that money is unaccounted for. The Pentagon fails every audit. Crates full of cash arrived in Baghdad for Paul Bremer to distribute to who knows. The F35 fighter jet boondoggle, over budget, 5 years late on contract, that will come to a final cost of $1.197-1.7 trillion (not the acquisition cost but lifetime cost) but is still (always) behind on replacement parts and system upgrades.
Hi Eden, throughout the world the US is seen as a massive military aggressor, which is completely understandable with hundreds of military bases in foreign territories, recent unprovoked wars (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, among others), and constant saber rattling by our politicians. Countries like Iran and North Korea and others are afraid of massive military powers like the US. So, instead of increasing our military budget, the US should divert some of the existing military funding to humanitarian projects, and promote peace and love. Perhaps when the rest of the world sees the largest militarized nation pursuing peace, other nations will follow.
Tim, our enemies see us that way but our allies do not. They see us as an irreplaceable protector of freedom and thrive under our protection. We aren't perfect, far from it. Iraq was a horrible mistake, as an example. I don't think you would like a world without us on that wall.
Eden, I hear your argument and that of Tim and Charlie. Is there much room to argue that it’s not so much the amount of money but the mis-allocation? Instead of another fighter jet that’s 30 years ahead of the Chinese in Tech we could use those billions for maintenance and training?
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.
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.
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
Thank you for raising this. AR-15s are the weapon of choice for mass shooters. If hunters need high capacity magazines, they should do target practice before they massacre their prey.
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.
Ah, the nursing shortage, great idea to look into that. We were well down that path before the pandemic. We nurses were facing doing more and more with less and less, while corporate CEOs and insurance company CEOs made millions and millions. This is why many nurses who could (like myself) retired, and others changed careers. The pandemic with all the unnecessary deaths and the abuse by patients and families was just the last straw.
Man, I can tell you horror tales. Nothing beats the assisted living home SENDING your Mom to the hospital, then REFUSING to take her back, necessitating an absolute scramble to find a suitable place and the to PAY THE FEES!!!
If GOP regain power they want to gut SS, Medicare & all safety net programs - return to the the robber barons of the 1890s - pls keep focus on the Rs greed, kleptocracy & criminality to use those monies for more tax cuts etc for the wealthy& etc
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.
That is why we need the movement to begin now. The Koch brothers Federalist Society worked for decades to do their damage. Democrats need to work towards that goal. Extensive or not.
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.
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!
The school privatization movement is strong in TX. A PAC funded by Patriot Mobile is behind a lot of school board races in the Grapevine-Colleyville-Southlake areas of north TX. What other big-money is behind this push and why?
The privatization of K-12 education is strong in TX, but also MI (DeVos) and heavily funded throughout country by Koch network (KS/FL based). The less explored angle to this is explanation of EARLIER successful work done to chip away at college and university... more nascent efforts of those same forces pushed university defunding (decreasing state budgets, reframing tuition as family/student obligation, building borrowing schemes, etc.)
Thanks for your comments! The defunding of colleges, basically through the demonization of anything associated with higher education, has contributed to the student loan crisis we now face.
Exactly. And more succinctly said than I! Which is why I suggested Judd investigate the extent to which the privatization and growth of monopolies (even the same players across industries?) have become the oligarchic web that is strangling us.
We need the oil? We need less oil. But then there’s the Oak Flat mining project on Apache religious site. Resolution Copper, a UK-Australian company, wants mining rights. It’s in support of green energy technology but...?
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.
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.
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.
Willow is something I'd like to cover. We produce four newsletters per week and try to make them as informative as possible by focusing on one topic each. But the problem is some topics end up getting left out.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
So important, and in danger of becoming last week's or month's news. The health effects will evolve over years; one of the effects of Gov. DeWine's refusal of federal help was that Biden got blamed for doing nothing!
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!)
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.
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?
This happened in November 2022 at the Monticello nuclear power plant. Most recent report says that no radioactivity has been detected off the plant site. It is the second such leak from that plant.
Well, finally they get around to telling us when it happens, rather than months later! I live about 50 miles away and not on the Mississippi River, but I feel for those close by who learned months afterward that a leak happened.
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.
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)
How about someone enlightening the Rapper community that this is a scam and dangerous to those who follow them as well as themselves? I guess this lawsuit may accomplish that cause...'hope so.
I love how they use words that they are actually doing. "Forced and Pushed". They want to force women to carry any pregnancy and push women out of life choices.
I posted a reply to Ian Mark Sirota suggesting everyone should read today’s posting here on substack by Chris Geidner at Law Dork. He addresses that bill in detail.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The best sources locally are the NPR news station wfpl.com They have a couple short articles. The Courier Journal has a paywall unfortunately and they haven't covered much except in opinion pieces.
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.
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.
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
This is an important point. I'm not sure I have much to add beyond what I wrote here: https://popular.info/p/tucker-lachlan-and-subsidized-speech
But I think the increased ability to replace cable with various streaming options likely gives consumers significantly more leverage.
Thanks for responding. I think you're selling yourself short!! What I think you can add (in a big way) is where you've been so successful in the past -- reaching out to companies to question their irresponsible business practices.
In the same way that you succeeded in getting many companies to commit to not giving campaign donations to candidates who voted to overturn the election results, you could challenge MSOs about why they are forcing ALL their customers to pay carriage fees to have Fox News included on basic cable, especially given what has been revealed about the channel in the Dominion lawsuit.
I'm not sure if my numbers are right, but if they have 2 million daily viewers and there are 90 million cable subscribers, that's 97% of subscribers who are paying for the channel without watching it. I imagine many of them would be horrified to know that they are the main source of revenue for the channel, which, among other issues, is effectively an extension of the Republican party, and which was a major contributor to the insurrection spouting information that they apparently knew to be false.
It does, but only when the customers avoid the big packages like HULU + Live TV, Fubo, Direct TV Stream, Youtube etc. Those packages work much like cable packages and will include networks those on one side of the spectrum consider propaganda while the other side would consider those networks news.
Agree. It is the streaming services that offer “live TV” that are quickly evolving into cable TV over the internet with multitudes of channels, most of which are garbage.
That’s so interesting (and sad). I remember reading a story a few years ago (news article or something -- memory is vague on source) from a man who’d fallen out with his dad whose news-consumption arc was exactly that. It’s happened a great deal, I think. Very sadly.
Speaking about Dominion:
The 2020 rigged and stolen elections (it’s the machines!):
https://scientificprogress.substack.com/p/the-2020-american-coup
Are we crazy to accept demo-crazy?
https://scientificprogress.substack.com/p/democracy-democrazy
It sucks! We need to improve democracy… how about REAL democracy?
https://scientificprogress.substack.com/p/reinventing-democracy
This is largely what https://checkmyads.org/ is trying to do, isn't it? (But, obviously, more from a grassroots activism angle than a journalism angle)
Aren't they focused on advertisers? The bigger issue (and bigger revenue source for Fox News) is the 90M US cable subscribers who are forced to pay for Fox News as part of basic cable.
I would love to see Judd shine his big spotlight on the execs and board members at Spectrum, Comcast, AT&T, etc. who are forcing Americans to pay for Fox News.
Yeah. You're right. Good point. The kicker, as I recall, is that Fox News is still far and away the most dominant channel in cable packages when it comes to viewership, though. Cable is dying a slow death...but Fox News is (sadly) at the heart of what's keeping them alive.
True. But if the numbers I’m seeing are right, their viewership is ~2M daily viewers, while there are 90M cable subscribers. That’s a ton of people (>97%) that pay for, but don’t watch, Fox News.
And the problem goes beyond cable. All the streaming services force Fox News and other propaganda networks down our throats too.
This is true at the moment. But it seems like there is an opportunity for one of these services to offer a "Fox-free" package. I think what Fox does is use its other networks and programming (especially sports) to avoid this.
It could be great if you were to contact the MSOs and ask if they would offer a "Fox-free" package of basic cable, for all those who don't want to support the channel.
NONE of my streaming services carry FOX. ALL of my cable services did however.
YouTube TV and Fubo TV are direct competition with cable and both carry Fox News. I can make them disappear from my sight, but I am still paying for them.
Google -> “You can watch FOX without cable on Hulu with Live TV, Fubo TV, DirecTV Stream, Fubo TV Elite, YouTube TV, Vidgo, or Tubi. Below, we count down the best ways to watch FOX that cord-cutters use.”
interesting. Though I just went through Prime Video and couldn't find Fox News at all, free with prime or paid. A few drama shows from Fox. Or else they keep it very well hidden.
True. I guess the issue is more with the cable cutter streaming services that offer live TV.
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.
I support this and the replies -- FL bill HS 1421 is heinous. Overall, I appreciate your increased scrutiny of Florida, Judd, and urge more as this state has surpassed Texas as the leading laboratory for intolerance legislation.
“Chris Geidner at Law Dork” today on substack addresses the terrible horrible Florida bill H.S. 1421 which persecutes the trans community & anyone who tries to help them.
If you haven’t already read Law Dork, please go to his posting & read it. It’s free, but of course subscriptions are welcome.
I already subscribe (paid) to him! :-)
But, I want this story to get even more attention. The hateful nature of these despicable laws needs even more (and bigger) megaphones, IMHO.
Thanks! I live in Florida & grew up here. DeSantis is the worst of the worst. I feel I am living in a police state & am appalled at the ignorance? Indifference? stupidity? of the voters who have put Republicans in charge of policing Florida residents, but who are ignoring our welfare when it comes to healthcare, voting rights, gun laws, & the environment, among many other matters.
I would like to see some reporting on how valuable the trans members are to their communities. Shine a light on their good natures and accomplishments.
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?
For up to date info on what is happening with abortion laws throughout the country, consider subscribing to Abortion Everyday, written by Jessica Valenti (on substack ).
A case was brought recently by an ex-husband suing several friends of his former wife for aiding and abetting in her abortion.
He wants to earn a trifectca bounty. This law is completely out of character with Jurisprudence at large.
Agree. Guess who the ex-husband’s attorney is? The Texas legislator who wrote the anti-abortion bounty bill!
I bet his ambition is to lose so he can appeal it all the way up the chain.
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.
Yes, Citizens United is a devastating blot on our politics! Can it be undone (and how) before it undermines our system?
💯 agree citizens United is the worst application of free speech rights SCOTUS inflicted upon us and has primarily handed elections and legislation to the biggest spenders. My understanding is that congress would need to legislate to overturn it. I can’t imagine many would go against their own interests. It’s a catch-22.
Move to amend has been working on an amendment that would end citizens united, and make sure nothing like it happens again. The main point of the amendment is that money is not speech and a corporation is not a person. This would end all the special privileges that allow excessive campaign contributions/bribes.
https://www.movetoamend.org/
Thanks for the reminder. I had forgotten about that organization, think I might have signed their petition years ago. Established over a decade ago, must not have gotten much traction. I’ll look at them again. Hopefully PI readers see your remark and check it out.
Speaking of which:
The 2020 and 2022 rigged and stolen elections (it’s the machines!):
https://scientificprogress.substack.com/p/the-2020-american-coup
https://scientificprogress.substack.com/p/david-rockefeller-illuminati
J6: what THEY don't want YOU to know
The “riot” was mason-planned, incited and guided by FBI agents, who broke into the Capitol !!!
https://scientificprogress.substack.com/p/j6-what-you-need-to-know
Are we crazy to accept demo-crazy?
https://scientificprogress.substack.com/p/democracy-democrazy
It sucks! We need to improve democracy… how about REAL democracy?
https://scientificprogress.substack.com/p/reinventing-democracy
What about guns?
Biggest issue. Never addressed.
Absolutely. It is mind boggling that about 100 people (executives of the NRA and their fully-owned politicians) are blocking most reforms despite most of the 330 million Americans, including large majorities of gun owners, support reasonable restrictions. Judd, what I would like you to look into here is the blatant hypocrisy of the "originalists." They claim that we must respect EVERY LETTER exactly as written in the Constitution and EVERY WORD from the mouths of our lionized Founding Fathers but they ignore the inconvenient fact that the second amendment was designed for MILITIAS to put down slave revolts, not to protect an individual's right to bear arms, as evidenced by the literal words in the Constitution and all the contemporaneous writings surrounding the second amendment!
Jon Stewart conversation with Oklahoma state senator https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCuIxIJBfCY
Thanks for pointing out the purpose of militias and the 2nd amendment. I’ve never understood how that was interpreted to mean everyone can have as many guns as they want.
I agree. This could be many months of exposing the corruption and lies for the whole industry that puts profits over people's lives. The surgeon general recently pointed out the appalling numbers of children who die relative to other countries: "4,357 gun deaths involving children in the U.S. in 2020, far more than other countries such as the United Kingdom (15), Germany (13), France (8), and Canada (5)" It can't be beyond the wit of Americans to solve the crisis. https://www.chiefhealthcareexecutive.com/view/surgeon-general-urges-health-leaders-to-tackle-gun-violence-we-need-to-step-up-
Kath, It is astonishingly cruel that our country would rather provide bullet proof vests to children in school rather than ban guns in this country. The international community is appalled at the heartlessness we show by lack of action after every mass shooting!
Guns should be issued on an exception basis. The 2nd Amendment needs to be repealed IF sane people get back in to our Congress. But amazingly, it will be a tough fight.
It doesn't even have to be that extreme! In the UK, anyone can get a gun license - they have to do paperwork including references from a doctor (lawyer or MP) that they're not a danger to themselves or others - and the local police interview the family, and check there's a gun safe bolted to a structural wall to stop theft... As a result, domestic violence is a lot less deadly in the UK and fewer guns are stolen.
Then there's the American attitude that we're the only ones who love guns. As if the British built an Empire with cups of tea? When I first heard about lock down drills in American schools in 2015, I wondered about the UK. I finally found one school doing lock down drills - the American School in London - presumably so the little American children don't get rusty while they're living somewhere sane!
I grew up with guns. My mom, dad, little brother and I all had shotguns. We hunted ducks, geese, partridge, grouse and pheasant. My dad knew nearly all of the farmers and always asked permission to go on a farmer's property before we hunted on his land.
Then I moved to Texas. Hunters in Texas show no respect for the land nor the animals they shoot. And worse, a hunt in Texas often involved a LOT of beer.
I am no longer a hunter.
Judd, I would really like to see an article contrasting the Swiss model of firearms regulation with an HONEST appraisal of how the operatives of both our two cartel parties use the "guns" issue to divide the rank and file of both parties, keep them fearful and fighting as a means to disempower citizens. The Swiss model WORKS. Citizens are not stripped of capacity to defend themselves, as they are in so many South American banana republics now governed by gangs, and the state doesn't allow armed police thugs with "qualified immunity" to kill about 2000-2500 of its citizens each year (data from Lancet) in their homes and their streets. Likewise, the Swiss don't allow corporate CEOs and crooked plutocrats to send the army out of the country on ventures to support the interests of corporations and ruling class family rivalries. An armed nation is not synonymous with a violent nation.
Hi Ed, I'm curious if you have lived in Switzerland? The gun laws are incredibly strict, and I say this as a Brit now American citizen!
While doing mandatory military service, the civilian "militia" is no longer allowed to store ammunition in their homes - it's all locked up at a central armory. The photos shared by Americans might as well be of the Swiss open-carrying sticks!!!
Storing ammunition centrally has made Swiss domestic violence less deadly. I'm all for the Swiss model of mandatory military service so people learn how to use firearms safely -- with ammunition stored centrally.
The biggest problem for the Swiss is their suicide rate. While no one beats the Americans at 7.32 deaths per 100,000 (we are #1 in the world, of course we are), the relatively high rate of gun ownership (% of homes, surveys/ estimates vary) means that Switzerland has a gun suicide rate of 2.32 deaths per 100,000 (much higher than almost all peer countries, and much higher than the Swiss gun homicide rate of 0.09 deaths per 100,000).
In America, a gun in the home makes it 300% more likely that someone living there will die by suicide. Suicide may be impulsive and guns don't give people a second chance because they are so deadly (Harvard, 85% of attempts by gun are fatal).
Swiss people have a keener sense of how guns are a RISK in the home - and not a means to safety - and they regulate accordingly.
Readers: read.
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/society/many-guns--few-shootings_how-do-the-swiss-deal-with-firearms--your-questions--answered/43947500
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate
I don't stooge for plutocrats.
Thank you to the Swiss link - the British police also require a reference that the person is not a danger to themselves or others before issuing a gun license.
Since you provided a wikipedia link, here is the one for gun homicide and gun suicide. If you sort the data for suicide, you can see that the Swiss are not too far behind the Americans in having a gun suicide problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate
One thing that's interesting about America and suicide is that, a few years ago, I analyzed 20 countries (including US, Japan, UK, Germany, France, Australia, Spain, Belgium, and others). While America has the highest gun suicide rate in the world by a long stretch, the NON-GUN suicide rate was the lowest!
Similarly, Americans are not naturally more murderous. In 2020, 79% of all homicides in America or 19,383 deaths were by firearm, a gun homicide rate of 6.2 per 100,000 population, many times higher than a peer country such as the UK (0.05 per 100,000). However, our non-gun homicide rate was similar, USA=1.6 per 100,000, UK=1.05. Source: UNODC, CDC.
Which was my hypothesis - America is a relatively happy country where people can't be bothered if a gun isn't lying around - for either suicide or homicide.
Back to Switzerland, this article is interesting about how the ammunition reforms led to a drop in the suicide rate among men. https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/easy-access-to-army-guns-said-to-increase-swiss-suicide-rate/48208594
You might similarly find this article of interest "It's the method, not the madness" https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92319314
"simply making a change in people's access to instruments of suicide dramatically lowered the suicide rate. In England, death by asphyxiation from breathing oven fumes had accounted for roughly half of all suicides up until the 1970s, when Britain began converting ovens from coal gas, which contains lots of carbon monoxide, to natural gas, which has almost none. During that time, suicides plummeted roughly 30 percent — and the numbers haven't changed since."
The Brits are still a gloomy people drinking cups of tea and telling people to stick their head in the oven.
Over here, I'm certain that our nation of people pursuing happiness can do a LOT better when it comes to guns!!!
Americans are not that happy, or safe, and we have the highest incidence of police killing of citizens in their homes and in our streets of any developed nation. We are not remotely in the league of Switzerland or any Nordic country (where citizens do own firearms but they are well-regulated) by any stretch of the imagination.
The reasoning that we should prevent suicide by removing the means of suicide is a reasoning utilized in mental institutions and prisons that leads to confining human beings in padded cells on special diets to "keep them safe." That's a plutocrat's solution to keep them out of sight, out of mind, and out of any threat to an abusive plutocratic ruling class.
A better way includes: 1. Providing universal health care like every other industrialized nation. That prevents 500,000 bankruptcies from bills each year to finance a murderous for-profit sickness industry and provides mental health support to those depressed and hopeless enough to contemplate suicide. 2. Reform police by removing all police with domestic abuse backgrounds from the police profession and owning firearms. 3. End homelessness by nationalizing the home loan industry to returning affordability to housing. 4. Take a clue from Denmark by children's schooling in empathy. American "education" is now training, not educating. There's design for growth in knowledge and expertise, not in growth as a person or emotional intelligence.
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/worlds-happiest-countries-2022-wellness/index.html
That's so interesting to hear an American say we're "not that happy, or safe", by and large, I completely agree! When I'm trying to be optimistic about having become an American citizen, I think of the "American dream" even though it's mostly a pipe dream because of the lack of interest in a social safety net. Please add stopping the death penalty to your list - it's barbaric, abolished in EVERY peer country, and yet still exists here, all part of the American obsession with retribution and revenge.
I don't understand what you mean by plutocrat's solution. I didn't suggest padded cells or special diets or mental institutions. If people store their guns safely, research shows 78% fewer intentional injuries/ deaths, and 85% fewer children involved in gun-related "accidents". Since gun deaths for children and teens in America have eclipsed vehicle deaths (and all pediatric illnesses combined), safe gun storage seems a place where gun owners and non-gun owners can find common ground. And it is proven to save lives of children and adults alike.
Lastly, to your point, if you consider the American police as a country, all by themselves they have a gun homicide rate per population that is quite similar to actual murdering CRIMINALS in Canada, and miles ahead of countries like Switzerland and the UK. As a Brit now American, I simply don't understand this at all. One Black man in the UK was shot and killed by the police, Mark Duggan, and large parts of London and other cities burned in riots. I'm not suggesting that Americans similarly burn cities - but we do seem awfully content to let police brutality and murder continue without doing anything about it... How about deescalation training for the police too?
“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!!!!!
My Grand-Daughter cut herself and was Baker Acted because she is so terrified of being beaten to death by the "DeSantis Patrol" controlling our schools. It is just devastating. If you thought 1938 Germany was bad, you ain't seen nothing yet.
And, we can't leave because my Husband would lose his Medicaid (State run) benefits and is dying of Stage 5 Kidney Failure. Just went on full Medicaid and are now being billed for his dialysis because we are one of a handful of States that won't accept increased Medicaid funds. He would be dead before he could qualify anywhere else.
What a miserable state.
And, if you dissent, don't comply, or have an IQ over 3, and aren't a Racist (Republican) living in The Villages - you risk being shot on sight because you were threatening the very existence of these cretinous sociopaths.
Augh!
Julia, It makes my blood boil to hear stories like yours. To be stuck under this Fascist monster because of a medical issue really puts this over the top. I’m sorry you have to deal with all of this. I don’t know how old your granddaughter is but terrifying young people is not only inhumane, it can impact her for a lifetime. I hope someone out there can reach out to you with any way to help. Just remember there are millions of us out here on your side and we’ll gladly listen when you need us. And we’ll keep voting in more people in to put an end to this insanity. We have a frightening number of incompetents in Congress who are equally deranged and dangerous and armed!
Thank you for your kindness.
And I thought the 60's were bad.
Little did I know - we were just getting started.
It seems we’re further back than ever. Were women getting (only option-illegal abortions) threatened with death back then?! It is truly a shock to witness the ease at which these authoritarian fascists bulldozed this through. But previous admins are responsible for letting it all slide until it came to this! The Dems motto should be Never forget J6 & We’ll NEVER let it happen again.
Oh, this abortion issue goes back to America's history of Slavery. It's sickening. Don't preach to me about abortion being immoral and and you're pro-life. You're pro-racist, pro-slavery, and hate democracy.
As Ms. Truth cried, "Ain't I a woman?"
https://www.aclu.org/news/racial-justice/the-racist-history-of-abortion-and-midwifery-bans
Ms. Truth condemned this disgraceful enterprise, which thrived off not only uncompensated labor, but also physical and psychological terror. Most will remember Ms. Truth’s oration for its vivid descriptions regarding physical labor; Black women were forced to plough, plant, herd, and build — just as men. Yet far too little attention centers on her condemnation of that system, which made sexual chattel of Black women, and then cruelly sold off Black children. This was human trafficking in the American form, and it lasted for centuries. Ms. Truth pleaded:
“I have borne 13 children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?”
Given that it's the Wasserman-Schultz wing that controls the Democratic Party of Florida, it's not hard to see how a contemporary thug like DeSantis could rise to power. If Lil' Debbie Cakes were my installed representative, I wouldn't be a Democrat there either. You residents of Florida deserve much better than you are getting from either of our cartel parties.
Well, and given the fact that a homeless grifter from Colorado; that not even Ted Yoho would endorse after she worked for him for 3 years to take his place - who also was given a free ride to attend a military strategy class at the Naval Academy, is running the show here in North Florida.
Oh, and she creates PAC's like a drunken sailor. (Where's the money? I say that ALOT lately.)
Yes, the cow castrating queen of the Rockies, toting a shot gun in her billboards running for Congress - Kat Cammack, is in charge of MY welfare. F*ck.
WE'RE DOOMED
So it would seem from the shapes seen on the blueprint. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hb1421-gender-affirming-insurance-ban/. Too bad you can't move all of them into Mar-A-Largo, let Trump build his wall around it and call it a Poisonous Reptile Preserve.
Well, not to seem too snarky, we probably couldn't get lucky enough that they would turn on other. It's like a Twilight Zone version of a bad 60's Hitchcock movie based on The Island of Doctor Moreau. I usually don't quote Wikipedia - but this kind of sums it up:
The novel is the earliest depiction of the science fiction motif "uplift" in which a more advanced race intervenes in the evolution of an animal species to bring the latter to a higher level of intelligence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_of_Doctor_Moreau
I just don't think there is any scenario here where Trump and his collective narcissist lap-dogs can be saved.
Poisonous Reptile Preserve it is.
Well said PW! I had that Asimov quote on my refrigerator for years! It’s truer than ever!
Just copied to send to myself so that I can make my own sign.
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.
Iowa City used to be liberal. U of Iowa has always been highly regarded. But watching the state fall into the hands of fascist republicans is truly disheartening!
It’s hard not to feel super defeated by the avalanche of GOP racist fascist attacks on everyone. My husband has a mantra for me which is “Fill your cup” meaning I’ll spin out into sadness and rage. But can’t drain my battery 🪫
Thank you for not obsessing about Trump every day. It’s like the media learned nothing from 2015 to 2020.
Thanks Mark. I think you'll find a balance in Popular Information. I am not in the "ignore Trump" camp. But there are a lot of other things going on as well.
Yes, although Mark, it’s a delicate balance between not fanning his narcissistic flame with so much oxygen as to become wildfire again AND still give us enough light by which to measure his calculations and ‘progress’ with his enthralled. MSM is inept at this duty, therefore virtually complicit with degrading democracy. Judd -- your talent is to draw the through-line across stories to see the interconnectedness of these various battles. I don’t want to be (nor could I become) an expert in constitutional law, DNA sequencing or finance regulation. My talent, to the extent I can channel it, is to bring others to their perfectly suited task in the long fight to reinforce and rebuild an American democracy undergirding ALL of us. Judd makes be smarter/more adept in that work.
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!
Yes, when people say the country is hopelessly divided they are ignoring our defense budget. Pretty much everyone, on both sides of the aisle, is for increasing it dramatically each year. Few even discuss what else we might do with some of this money.
Yes. Every time the defense budget is mentioned I think about how we need to spend that money, and those abilities on defense against our war with Mother Nature. We are woefully unprepared to deal with the people who lose their homes, vehicles, and sometimes loved ones to fire, flood, earthquakes, tornadoes...
Eisenhower warned of the Congressional Military Industrial Complex in 1961 and here we are 60+ years later and it continues to accelerate with no end in sight!
I agree with this - my university requires internships in its cyber/tech fields, and at least half of the recruiters were defense contractors. It feels like entire industries, especially in the wake of private companies leaving workers stranded, have the potential to be subsumed into military work
This has been going on for generations. When but a lad, I can recall massive protests at UofMich against recruiters looking to drive Reagan's starwars initiative (ultimately resulting in the Patriot Missile system and other goodies half a century later).
Eisenhower: "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
Charlie, I respect your opinion and you personally. I work at a nonprofit organization that supports the DoD in logistics and transportation. I can tell you that our military is definitely underfunded for the challenges we face. After the long wars in the ME and Afghanistan, our military readiness is compromised from a huge backlog of maintenance issues. Our biggest challenge is an expansionist China. We have huge logistical and other challenges should we get into a hot war with them, say over Taiwan. From my vantage point, the proposed military budget is definitely inadequate.
Thanks for your reply. We do spend a whole lot more than Russia and China combined, but, it's possible -- because of higher dollar costs here in the U.S. -- that we are underfunded for the "challenges" you mention. I don't accept those challenges. I don't think China is as expansionist as the U.S. is. It doesn't have 800 foreign military bases. It hasn't intervened militarily in dozens of nations. I am precisely proposing that the U.S. change its vantage point -- that it convert the military resources to the true threats to the human species, which are (accidental) nuclear war and climate chaos.
First I commend you for mentioning all the US military bases scattered throughout the world. Can you imagine any country having a military base in the US? Our hegemony is boundless. Secondly, much of that money is unaccounted for. The Pentagon fails every audit. Crates full of cash arrived in Baghdad for Paul Bremer to distribute to who knows. The F35 fighter jet boondoggle, over budget, 5 years late on contract, that will come to a final cost of $1.197-1.7 trillion (not the acquisition cost but lifetime cost) but is still (always) behind on replacement parts and system upgrades.
Hi Eden, throughout the world the US is seen as a massive military aggressor, which is completely understandable with hundreds of military bases in foreign territories, recent unprovoked wars (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, among others), and constant saber rattling by our politicians. Countries like Iran and North Korea and others are afraid of massive military powers like the US. So, instead of increasing our military budget, the US should divert some of the existing military funding to humanitarian projects, and promote peace and love. Perhaps when the rest of the world sees the largest militarized nation pursuing peace, other nations will follow.
Tim, our enemies see us that way but our allies do not. They see us as an irreplaceable protector of freedom and thrive under our protection. We aren't perfect, far from it. Iraq was a horrible mistake, as an example. I don't think you would like a world without us on that wall.
Eden, I hear your argument and that of Tim and Charlie. Is there much room to argue that it’s not so much the amount of money but the mis-allocation? Instead of another fighter jet that’s 30 years ahead of the Chinese in Tech we could use those billions for maintenance and training?
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.
Yes Nordstream! I can’t seem to find any more to the story.
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.
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
Thank you for raising this. AR-15s are the weapon of choice for mass shooters. If hunters need high capacity magazines, they should do target practice before they massacre their prey.
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.
Ah, the nursing shortage, great idea to look into that. We were well down that path before the pandemic. We nurses were facing doing more and more with less and less, while corporate CEOs and insurance company CEOs made millions and millions. This is why many nurses who could (like myself) retired, and others changed careers. The pandemic with all the unnecessary deaths and the abuse by patients and families was just the last straw.
Yes, this graft of the corporate group needs an intense examination and exposure. So sad!
Man, I can tell you horror tales. Nothing beats the assisted living home SENDING your Mom to the hospital, then REFUSING to take her back, necessitating an absolute scramble to find a suitable place and the to PAY THE FEES!!!
Theses situations need more publicity. People don’t know enough about them & these shady practices.
If GOP regain power they want to gut SS, Medicare & all safety net programs - return to the the robber barons of the 1890s - pls keep focus on the Rs greed, kleptocracy & criminality to use those monies for more tax cuts etc for the wealthy& etc
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.
Please write about how the 'Don't say gay' sponsor, Joe Harding, was just convicted of wire fraud, money laundering, and spreading misinformation.
Was just reading about this...
Yes, the law-and-order party appears to be composed of nothing but criminals eh?
Oh? Interesting.
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.
This would be an extensive process. Would need a dramatic shift in the Supreme Court or in Congress to make it happen.
That is why we need the movement to begin now. The Koch brothers Federalist Society worked for decades to do their damage. Democrats need to work towards that goal. Extensive or not.
Absolutely correct. They have been playing a long game indeed!
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.
Thanks Linda!
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!
Thanks for all these suggestions Randall.
The school privatization movement is strong in TX. A PAC funded by Patriot Mobile is behind a lot of school board races in the Grapevine-Colleyville-Southlake areas of north TX. What other big-money is behind this push and why?
The privatization of K-12 education is strong in TX, but also MI (DeVos) and heavily funded throughout country by Koch network (KS/FL based). The less explored angle to this is explanation of EARLIER successful work done to chip away at college and university... more nascent efforts of those same forces pushed university defunding (decreasing state budgets, reframing tuition as family/student obligation, building borrowing schemes, etc.)
THAT would be something to explain/explore!
Thanks for your comments! The defunding of colleges, basically through the demonization of anything associated with higher education, has contributed to the student loan crisis we now face.
Exactly. And more succinctly said than I! Which is why I suggested Judd investigate the extent to which the privatization and growth of monopolies (even the same players across industries?) have become the oligarchic web that is strangling us.
I totally agree. Problems don't get fixed as long as someone is making a profit! It would be a good read for sure!
We need the oil? We need less oil. But then there’s the Oak Flat mining project on Apache religious site. Resolution Copper, a UK-Australian company, wants mining rights. It’s in support of green energy technology but...?
From Trump to DeSantis to Gov. Abbot and others, they seem to be effectively replacing children by acting like them. Child Replacement Theory!
But children are open and curious...lovely qualities for becoming wise. Those "two" are not.
Clever!
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.
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.
This is an interesting suggestion. Thanks.
Yes, I've heard it should be more accurately named "Medicare Disadvantage."
YES! I feel sad for friends who got stuck in this scam.
Gotta love how the GQP is so concerned about our nation's children that they even have found rationale for child labor.
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.
Willow is something I'd like to cover. We produce four newsletters per week and try to make them as informative as possible by focusing on one topic each. But the problem is some topics end up getting left out.
OK. Thanks Judd. Please continue to do what you can -
Re Willow - plausible ways to reverse Biden's decision would
be most helpful for me hopefully also for your audience in general.
I've called & emailed my senators and others. .... things beyond that?
Best,
John
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.
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.
When visiting the Vatican, Michael Moore spoke with the Pope. Michael asked him if he thought Capitalism was evil. The Pope replied, "Si."
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.
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.
Glad I have a paid subscription. It allows me to see "what's behind the headlines" of the main stream media.
Thanks Harris!
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.
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.
I appreciate you sharing all of this. Thank you.
It's very good of you to collect ideas! I appreciate all the work you do with your team.
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?
So important, and in danger of becoming last week's or month's news. The health effects will evolve over years; one of the effects of Gov. DeWine's refusal of federal help was that Biden got blamed for doing nothing!
Excellent coverage has been from John Russell (a native of that county). Find him at https://www.theholler.co
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!)
I've seen little mention of recent climate reports, seems like that should be really important to amplify.
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.
Agree we need Mr Leo to be front & center constantly
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?
I have not heard about this. Will look into it.
This happened in November 2022 at the Monticello nuclear power plant. Most recent report says that no radioactivity has been detected off the plant site. It is the second such leak from that plant.
Another leak at the Monticello site has just been announced, 24mar23
Well, finally they get around to telling us when it happens, rather than months later! I live about 50 miles away and not on the Mississippi River, but I feel for those close by who learned months afterward that a leak happened.
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.
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
Does anyone remember Dame Edna? She lo-o-oved Blue!
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)
How about someone enlightening the Rapper community that this is a scam and dangerous to those who follow them as well as themselves? I guess this lawsuit may accomplish that cause...'hope so.
The military budget and diversion of tax money to destructive instead of constructive areas bugs me.
This ad is currently all over tv in central Ohio courtesy of Protect Women Ohio: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn9Jrl76-Fo
I love how they use words that they are actually doing. "Forced and Pushed". They want to force women to carry any pregnancy and push women out of life choices.
HB 1421 in Fl. It is just so awful that folks need to hear more about it.
I posted a reply to Ian Mark Sirota suggesting everyone should read today’s posting here on substack by Chris Geidner at Law Dork. He addresses that bill in detail.
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.
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.
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.
Thank you Carmen for the suggestion.
What's the state of food inspection? I feel we are always waiting for the next bacterial scandal in fruit, meat, poultry.
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.
What should we do to find out more? YouTube?
The best sources locally are the NPR news station wfpl.com They have a couple short articles. The Courier Journal has a paywall unfortunately and they haven't covered much except in opinion pieces.
I pay. So should everyone. Great public service. Irreplaceable.
Thank you Tony!
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.
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.
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.
Thank you for this suggestion. Seems very worthy of investigation.
Read this report by the independent review board first. Shocking. https://www.army.mil/e2/downloads/rv7/forthoodreview/2020-12-03_FHIRC_report_redacted.pdf
And this gives a decent overview of the recent death. https://www.kwtx.com/2023/03/16/parents-death-fort-hood-soldier-being-investigated-suicide/
Last one. Sounds like LULAC has called for an FBI investigation so a third party looks into the charges. The American GI Forum, a Latino group that advocates for military personnel and veterans, has joined the call for an independent investigation. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/soldiers-death-fort-hood-raises-questions-sexual-harassment-rcna75812
And, why is this NOT being investigated?