In just the last few weeks, Popular Information has:
1. Uncovered a damning brochure, full of false promises, handed to the migrants DeSantis sent to Martha's Vineyard. Days after the Popular Information report, the brochure was cited in a class action lawsuit filed against DeSantis and his accomplices.
2. Exposed the GOP operatives behind a phony environmental group. The group was running millions in ads trying to kill Biden's latest climate legislation. After Popular Information's published its report, the ad campaign immediately stopped.
3. Revealed that a top corporate lobbyist (and GOP operative) is demanding that corporations that stopped writing him checks be blacklisted from Congress. The lobbyist did not dispute the report's substance, responding only with a juvenile insult.
Today, however, I want to hear from you. What's on your mind? What topics would you like Popular Information to take on during the rest of 2022?
You can leave your thoughts in the discussion thread linked below, starting now. I’ll be dropping by later today to answer as many of your questions as I can.
Election deniers are makingthe Big Lie the dominant theme of the Republican Party. This involves running election deniers for key positions like governor, secretary of state, and AG in swing states. But they are ALSO recruiting thousands of election workers and poll watchers who will challenge voters on election day in democratic-leaning polling places. (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/opinion/republicans-democracy-elections-bannon.html) Any work you can do to uncover how they are funding these efforts could be very impactful.
To follow up here, it would be interesting to see you eviscerate George Conway's role in the Federalist Society. I'm sick and tired of my lefty news outlets slobbering over his never-Trumpism without any consideration of his contribution to the demise of our democracy.
I"m SO grateful though, right now, for The LIncoln Project. Let's solve the stuff gonig on in the moment, and then sort out who holds what overall interests. They are helping right now, I truly believe it. The nut cases on the far right don't listen to anyone but Republicans anyway so if a few speak the truth, what harm can it do?
Recent mentions of the PPP reminded me of the abuses--companies that used the money to buy back stocks or another company or god knows what. You all are great at digging into the details--like who defrauded the program and the failures of oversight for this as well as other handouts initiated as an economic pandemic response.
Also, as a Floridian, I’m always interested in the stupidities, lies. and misadventures of Rick Scott, Marco Rubio, and Ron DeSantis. They offer so much to work with.
Lastly, Judd, please name the journalists who do this work w you. I can recall the mention of one person, though not the name, and I believe there’s another? Your readers tend to acknowledge and applaud your work. I want to thank others who deserve some recognition as well.
I’m grateful to you for the dedication you show in speaking truth to power. It cannot be easy to stand up to the ultra-rich, corporations, and political extremists, so the courage and backbone you demonstrate are greatly appreciated by this blue dot in an extremely red state. I won’t let the bastards get me down, you hold the line, and hopefully our country becomes stronger and better through this struggle.
Sep 29, 2022·edited Sep 29, 2022Liked by Judd Legum
I'm curious about the state of the Secret Service at this time. Has there been a purge? I know they play their activities close to the chest but is there anything out there on how they are faring after the corruption we've briefly heard about?
I am new to popular info… but as an elected official for 20 years, I’d like to celebrate all of the election/poll workers who hold strong after being persecuted, pressured and almost battered by the Maga Monsters.
We need bipartisan voices to say that these folks, R’s and D’s and U’s and I’s to be praised for their honesty and their work…
Hello Judd. I really appreciate the work you are doing. I would like to see more about Starbucks and their union busting activity. This is a really important test of our labor laws, the current appeal of unionization in the service industry, and a test of consumer sentiment about unions. Starbucks for many of us is practically on every corner. Their flagrant anti-union activities are against the law. How many fired workers are being re-instated by courts? How many workers are being quiet-discouraged by very strange changes in their working hours, store closures etc.? It's not a good look for a company that is so driven by its very own brand equity. Thanks!
Unions. This is the bedrock of the middle class, we need a narrative that explains why unions are important. Also, the importance of these communities in developing a robust democracy.
Unionization is a really important topic we should cover more. In the meantime, I'd recommend our friends at More Perfect Union, which covers labor issues extensively: https://perfectunion.us/
Agree! Strong Unions are important to building a healthy middle class. I was union my whole career. It stood me well. Retired now with a decent pension.
That is also a good subject to dig into. Companies like mine, a manufacturing company based in the US, are doing away with pensions. My employer replaced them with “enhanced” 401k’s. This was negotiated in the Union contract and only applied to new hires. I was grandfathered in. I had both pension and 401k. I feel this move benefited the company more than union employees.
My pensions in SAG and AFTRA, the two entertainment unions now merged into one, have been a blessing, but for decades the companies have been pushing to transition from Defined Benefit to Defined Contribution, or some other plan like 401k. Not everyone could provide for themselves if they were in charge of their own investments, etc.
If the money that is spent influencing Congress & the money that is spent on campaigns were spent to better the lives of Americans, we could have affordable healthcare for everyone, free public education through college, affordable housing, and many other benefits that would raise the standard of living for all Americans, & take on the challenges of climate change. I believe that what improves the lives of my friends & neighbors also improves my life. To start, we need to get dark money out of politics, reform the way campaigns are run, & expose & punish those who use their money & power to further enrich themselves.
And anything more you can do to show DeSantis as someone who is running for office in order to accumulate more money & power for his own benefit is welcome. I believe he is worse than TFG.
& Judd, would you/ can you track all the hurricane IAN monies-- DESANTIS asked for billions-- pls keep the spotlight on him & what he's doing with the federal monies. TY
He didn't use Covid money properly and he didn't allow Covid deaths to be publicized. And so, ppl think hr did a great job during the pandemic when he was actually deceitful.
We need to expose all funding by major contributors whether they are Corporations or Individual donors and their affiliations. Supreme Court allowed these donations and by doing so, put Democracy for sale without realizing that greed will take over and that even “ foreign” contributors will find a way to influence electiins
We do a good bit of this but part of the issue is a lot of these donations, including money that goes to trade associations and non-profits, is not isclosed.
I think there needs to be more calling out of politicians that take credit for benefits that they voted against. I don't think the Republican base realizes just how bad their elected officials are doing their job (e.g., not voting, voting against something only because it's the Biden administration, etc.).
With the intended effect of destroying public schools along the way-highly recommend the “have you heard” podcast about public schools-they cover this in one episode extensively… it’s all connected to book bans, school board take overs…. Funded by a lot of the same dark money groups that want a poor dumb powerless class of worker bees
So much scandal and corruption involving Lee and the TN General Assembly, but it often flies under national radar, overlooked due to headlines of similar behavior in places like Florida.
I get their newsletters if you want to call them that, just to have a look at what the RW's are thinking and planning. Jeez, it's hard to make it thru their crackpot, racist, revisionism.
They claim to be raising money for local school board elections. How legal is that? Where are they targeting? Do school board candidates have to disclose PAC donations like this?
I'm interested in the extent of the grift in regards to Trump, Qanon, etc. How much are they raking in. How many people are losing all their savings to this stuff. Even the crazy flags and merch. Some people must spend thousands of dollars on this stuff.
"Climate Change" was intentionally substituted for "Global Warming" as a Republican effort to confuse the public. The result is that people just don't understand the simplest thing about Weather: It is the mechanism for cooling the planet by turning Heat Energy into Kinetic Energy. The more Heat, i.e. Global Warming, the more Wind, Rain, and their combination, Storms. I am frustrated that Journalists ask, what is the contribution of Climate Change to Hurricane Ian, and every storm that comes along. Every storm is a creation of the Heat Engine of the planet turning it into Kinetic Energy and thereby Cooling the atmosphere. More Global Warming means more Weather. Period.
You've reported on corporations stating that they will cover employees who need to travel to get an abortion. That's all well and good but myself, I wouldn't trust them with such personal health information. If they're donating to Republicans who support abortion bans, can they be trusted not to "out" the women who have to use them to cover their abortion care?
Also GOP efforts to dismantle, undermine and destroy public schools-charter schools, public money for private schools, low pay for teachers, onerous reporting standards, harassment of teachers, guns in schools…all part of the same effort
For one, send your kids to public school even if it’s predominantly minority and poor, as I do….school and teachers are excellent and my daughters life has been so enriched by being friends with people who’s parents aren’t white doctors and lawyers. The kids struggling are struggling because they don’t have stable housing or food and their parents have to work two jobs-it’s not the schools it’s the dismantling of the social safety net. I’m really sick of neo libs believing gop lines about failing schools. They fail when parents with means send their kids to private/charters and further segregate black from white and poor from rich-I understand there are exceptions if your kid has special needs, or is being bullied….
I’d like an expose of congressional ethics legislation and the effort to continue to allow sitting members of congress to trade stocks, a huge conflict of interest. Thanks for all your great work, you and staff, Judd.
1) How many companies who publicly commit to equality for gender, race, etc then use NDAs to hide settlements and then intimidate former employees / executives from being able to testify on behalf of new claimants while keeping ongoing harassment and discrimination hidden e.g. McD?
2) How many partisan politicians have and continue to fight all environmental and climate change policy / legislation and even promote activities that contribute harm yet their States receive enormous taxpayer monies for crisis e.g. FL, LA, TX (pattern), etc Where's the accountability? Newsome is right!!
3) Why have media allowed partisan politicians and their speakers to use national media platforms eg CNBC to equate ESG= oil/gas regulation in manner that's building incorrect and negative perceptions by linking to high prices when ESG is so much more!?
4) Why have allies allowed extremist to equate WOKE with something negative when by definition it merely means equality? Why haven't media linked those like the lobbyist targeting companies that support 'WOKE' policies to being against rights in Declaration of Independence and the Consitution? What's the basis for not supporting equal rights?
Thank you for your excellent reporting. I'm wondering if you've investigated J. D. Vance. The ads against Tim Ryan are packed with lies. (I see them every night during the local news.)
I’m in Ohio. Peter Thiel has been the apparent engine behind Vance. Was big contributor to Kasich throughout. What’s John doing? How is it that Thiel supported Trump, now Vance?
Your thoughts, Judd, on the recently passed Electoral College Reform Act. Your piece from Feb 1, 2022 “How a new proposal to stop trump from stealing the 2024 election could backfire” has never left my mind.
I wrote to my Congressman and Senator Klobuchar, as head of the rules committee, to alert them to this. I heard back from neither.
Should we still be concerned about negative unintended consequences (or, perhaps, intended on the part of some).
There is no final legislation yet but the House bill is somewhat improved. Specifically, it "would require governors to transmit the slate of electors chosen by the state's popular vote." That would preclude the worst abuses that I wrote about in February.
I’d like to know what happened to all those children at the border that were ripped away from their parents, some of which may have been adopted by christian couples.
Good nyt article on it, google “we have to take the children away” nyt….words spoken by Jeff sessions in a meeting. Many if the kids were reunited with family but still I think over 100 the fed can’t locate families
Alex Jones, gladly, had to pay parents and survivors from school shootings because of his false statements, fake conspiracies., defamations. Why has this not happened to Fox Fake News. and especially Tucker Fake News Carlson spreading baseless lies and fake conspiracies about basically everything? Not to mention all the violence and hate propaganda mongering. Where did accountability go in our country? In the past there was way more accountability. Not to mention all the lies and conspiracy theories Margaret fake news Taylor and other ex-President Drumpf (T...p) acolytes. Why is it that nothing is done about this? While the right is holding Democrats accountable. Another not to mention, all the right wing rallies with their lies. This must all fall under the Freedom of Speech. If it does than the Freedom of Speech has to be rewritten in which it states that politicians, ex politicians, and news, including Fox Entertainment NOT news, are NOT allowed to spew lies, hatred, racism and violence. Just like the country I come from, The Netherlands. The real country of the Free.
So much room for abuse there in simple things. Lobbyists supporting more draconian laws. Telecom companies charging inmates something like 300% of the normal rate. The utilization of police forces to to address political concerns, in addition to targeted enforcement are all connected to one another.
I’d like continuing coverage of how much money NY and CA and other “dirty immigrant harboring, crime infested, woke, groomer…..” blue states will be contributing to rebuild the net tax taker FL? As Dan rather said” most Americans know this is how it should be” we all help each other but desantis and Abbott don’t seem to understand this. Also would like to know how much FL will be relying on the labor of brown immigrants they abhor to rebuild their state?
Not certain if this is something you would/could take on, but would love to see a comprehensive compilation of all the ongoing attempts to disenfranchise voters. Given the already tilted playing field of the current electoral system, further efforts to eliminate votes and overturn elections could be catastrophic!
I would trust you to objectively evaluate what is happening, or is not happening, at CNN. Has, in effect, a directive been issued to "move to the right," in terms of coverage, guests, etc., (John Malone?), or has there been an overreaction/oversensitivity (i.e., on Twitter) to personnel moves and random comments.
Inflation largely being caused by corp greed at this point (understand other causes covid, Russia, supply chain….) and gop blocking any meaningful action on monopolies and price gouging
Complicit in its egregious plan is the Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR).
Emporia State University (ESU), a small, state-supported university, was targeted to eliminate tenure under the COVID emergency guidelines set to expire 12/31/22. The day after KBOR approved the plan proposed by ESU’s president, installed by KBOR without the usual job search & a former Koch executive with no advanced degree, faculty firings began. Between Sept 15 - 16, 33 faculty were terminated, including the sole journalism professor.
ESU is a test case for the state and nation. Our Democratic governor is up for re-election. Seats on the KBOR are governor appointments. Governor Kelly’s opponent is KS AG Derek Schmidt, who joined the Texas lawsuit to reject the 2020 election results.
I think almost everyone everywhere is totally underestimating the massive amount of money that has been fueling right wing propaganda for the last 50+ years. You have been doing an excellent job of holding various players' feet to the fire, but I would be interested to see if some rough overall view could be illustrated to show the relative size of this overpowering flow of billions of dollars that feeds this whole info ecosystem of lies. It's so much larger than everyone assumes. (I'm thinking graphs/charts).
It seems to me that having publicly financed elections would go a long way towards getting the money out of politics. Doses anyone ever talk about this?
Good morning, I am forwarding to the popular information email address a copy of today’s the WaPo Jennifer Rubin “Opinion” email in which she reports “The Beginning of the End of the 1/6 Committee”. She covers at least three loose ends critical to the process. I have failed to note ANY Judd reporting on this event and thus urge you all to contribute your investigative prowess accordingly. If I’m wrong I apologize and if I’m right maybe there’s an explanation forthcoming on your site. Thanks and cheers!
This is just a thank you for you and your staff’s amazing work.
I do purchasing for a mid/large construction company and didn’t know about the Uline’s owner’s funding of the right wing movement. I will no longer use them as a vendor because of your reporting! Thank you.
Many deadly or violent incidents have taken place by people listening to verifiable lies on Rt wing media. Why can’t these be shut down? Must they go to trial for proof positive for each incident? If we don’t take action against this, free press seems meaningless, unless it’s free to lie resulting in violence/harm.
The unfortunate price of "freedom" I fear. It's why the fraudulent Frank Lee gets to stalk these very pages spewing his noxious effluvium. Because we (inclusive of even him) all guaranteed rights and either we all do, or no one does.
No. There is a difference between spewing lies and having those lies result in harm or death. It is actually illegal on radio. But we don’t ever seem to bother with applying it to the right.
Oh Victoria, you raise an excellent point. Because what I've heard from DeSantis the past couple of days sounded almost sane and appropriate. Even Tucker couldn't coax him onto the warpath!
I wondered if he was up to something and now you raise this excellent thread to follow. Yes, make sure those tax-payer dollars are accounted for. Every damn one!
I feel much more confident in the competence of this administration than the previous one, and I think we're going to either see them (the RW's) try something and get caught (and deny, deny, deny, deny), or know better than to try something like that right now and ahem, abstain. A this particular moment, the heats' too high.
Almost half of the Senate is Catholic. How many are Opus DEI? Barr, and Leonard Leo are too. The issue is separation of church and state. Are they loyal to the Pope more than the USA?
I also miss Eric boehlert calling out the press for their neo lib/conservative framing and constant focus on both sidesism/horse race/negative coverage. Please use your platform to focal this out more of elevate someone else doing this important work-legacy media is falling down on the job and letting fascism grow
If Dems lose Senate or House, are they committed to passing legislation before Jan 2023 transfer of power to ensure voting rights and protection of elector system in 2024 as they will not be in power to stop another attempt to steal the election? What legislative actions to protect our democracy in 2024?
Desantis corruption, politicization of public service jobs, costs to tax payers via stupid stunts like migrant flights and Disney revocation of charter….
I'd love to see a deeper story on the power of car dealerships and the outsized political power they wield both locally and nationally. Antiquated state laws have created an inflation-inducing and consumer-hostile car retail model that seems to mysteriously endure. I've read stories hear and there on this topic, but a deeper dive on how this part of the supply chain truly works would be in the public interest.
Hi Judd, APPRECIATE all your hardwork. Nothing brings me more joy than the fact GOP is petrified of you-bc truth is not in their blood. I'd love more info on WHY are they so decisive? What's the end goal? A poor, divided, uneducated, dog eat dog post apocalyptic world?
I would guess for GOP mostly shortsighted monetary and power gain and destruction of democracy is a side effect-the christonationalists though like mastriano , the goal is dismantling democracy or Peter Theil-read about his philosophy and all his acolytes like Blake masters, elon muske….-scary stuff-, they also fully want to destroy democracy and think it would be more efficiently run by tech oligarchs-they also hate women so taking away our power and rights is a plus!
Much food for thought you have given one. I have always had a dislike for Musk. Look into where he is from. Peter Thiel is frightening and I hate that I have to use PayPal, but I do.
Their tentacles stretch everywhere and yes, those guys are so far aloft on their money that mere human concerns no longer affect or even occur to them.
Of course we don't want Social Security to go away. Of course we still need the ACA, Medicare and all of that. Of course we don't want to go back to the bad old days of a 7 day work week, no worker protections and no social safety net.
I've never had occasion to use the safety net but I'm glad that it is there for those who do and, but for the grace of God...
few people remember Robert Mercer who with his sister started the whole ball rolling with funding Britbart - Cambridge Analitica - then who dumped Cruz and gave Trump $500 million and Steve Bannon in 2015 when his campaign was suffering. If it wasn't for him Trump would have never made it along with the remodeling of the Republican Party. How can one person make such a difference in defeating democracy.
From the intercept 2015 ------
SCL has a growing U.S. spin-off, called Cambridge Analytica, which was paid millions of dollars by Donald Trump’s campaign. Much of the money came from committees funded by the hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, who reportedly has a large stake in Cambridge Analytica. For a time, one of Cambridge Analytica’s officers was Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s senior adviser. Months after Bannon claimed to have severed ties with the company, checks from the Trump campaign for Cambridge Analytica’s services continued to show up at one of Bannon’s addresses in Los Angeles.
So many really good suggestions submitted so far, and I have 'liked' many of them. I hope you have the energy to tackle them all!
My personal bugaboo lately is that Republican Senators and Representatives are allowed to get away with blaming individual migrants and family units for fentanyl trafficking. That is NOT AT ALL how fentanyl smuggling happens! But their constant rhetoric conflating "Biden's open borders" with fentanyl and drugs is poisoning the public well.
I would really like to see someone with a bigger voice than mine tackle this issue. I've done some research on the issue, and in this (self-published on Medium) article I do so through the lens of Sen. Marsha Blackburn's daily rhetoric and false claims. Her state is at the top of the list for opioid/fentanyl addiction and deaths because she does NOTHING to stem medical over-prescription, and her state has a shockingly low mental health providers-to-patients ratio.
When you call out people for disabusing the public trust, they sit up and pay attention. So I really hope this is an issue you can find the time to address.
Also, there is some recent reporting about the Cherokee nation seeking representation in congress. I live in DC where we still have taxation without representation. And I’m thinking about Puerto Rico’s continued hurricane damage and lack of support. Would love more reporting about us citizens without senators, why that needs to change, and how it actually can. DC has a great 51st state initiative but most folks outside of DC don’t fully understand how important, reasonable, and feasible it really is. And the disproportionate negative impact on nonwhite communities and families until that changes. If DC had someone in the senate, Manchin and Sinema would have been irrelevant.
You might want to investigate how big companies are signing up there employees, without their consent to 401k investments (Fidelity, etc), and if they don't check their paystubs carefully, they won't know. They are also signing them up for Group Life Insurance, without their consent. The employee is being taxed weekly for a "benefit" they will never actually get themselves. Their beneficiary(the employee thinks it is standard AD&D, free coverage,but the Group Ins is piggybacked off it)will have to jump through hoops to claim, but the company will get a financial windfall, twice. A yearly tax break, then collect when the employee dies. The employee gets no reimbursement if they leave the company, but is taxed weekly (3 times the employees salary taxation!) on the Insurance they didn't ask for.
I thought the 401k thing was done without malicious intent. The idea, based on behavioral economics, is to get employees to save money in their 401k by allowing them opt out of the plan instead of opt into it. That way more people will participate.
Election deniers are makingthe Big Lie the dominant theme of the Republican Party. This involves running election deniers for key positions like governor, secretary of state, and AG in swing states. But they are ALSO recruiting thousands of election workers and poll watchers who will challenge voters on election day in democratic-leaning polling places. (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/opinion/republicans-democracy-elections-bannon.html) Any work you can do to uncover how they are funding these efforts could be very impactful.
How the Federalist Society conspired to capture the Supreme Court and Don McGahn's role.
Check out Servants of the Damned: https://popular.info/p/servants-of-the-damned
It goes into this in quite a bit of detail.
To follow up here, it would be interesting to see you eviscerate George Conway's role in the Federalist Society. I'm sick and tired of my lefty news outlets slobbering over his never-Trumpism without any consideration of his contribution to the demise of our democracy.
Precisely BB. In the same way that The Lincoln Project is a TEMPORARY ally. They are NOT our friends and our overall interests are NOT aligned.
You raise an excellent point and I hope Judd can get some traction on it!
I"m SO grateful though, right now, for The LIncoln Project. Let's solve the stuff gonig on in the moment, and then sort out who holds what overall interests. They are helping right now, I truly believe it. The nut cases on the far right don't listen to anyone but Republicans anyway so if a few speak the truth, what harm can it do?
Oh most definitely Sally. Make no mistake, I can temporarily embrace the concept of "their enemy is my enemy, therefore they're my (temporary) friend!
We need to get rid of the worst elements, those most dangerous ones in this moment, otherwise the rest won't matter anyway!
Recent mentions of the PPP reminded me of the abuses--companies that used the money to buy back stocks or another company or god knows what. You all are great at digging into the details--like who defrauded the program and the failures of oversight for this as well as other handouts initiated as an economic pandemic response.
Also, as a Floridian, I’m always interested in the stupidities, lies. and misadventures of Rick Scott, Marco Rubio, and Ron DeSantis. They offer so much to work with.
Lastly, Judd, please name the journalists who do this work w you. I can recall the mention of one person, though not the name, and I believe there’s another? Your readers tend to acknowledge and applaud your work. I want to thank others who deserve some recognition as well.
&&& Expose on Kellyanne Conway too -- how they both are members of FEDERaLIST Society & I think the Opus DEI too & want authoritarian theocracy.
TY
Yes, yes, yes Flora. Damn, this is some good stuff! Lead on McDuff. Lol.
Also, "Dark Money" by Jane Mayer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Money_(book)
I’m grateful to you for the dedication you show in speaking truth to power. It cannot be easy to stand up to the ultra-rich, corporations, and political extremists, so the courage and backbone you demonstrate are greatly appreciated by this blue dot in an extremely red state. I won’t let the bastards get me down, you hold the line, and hopefully our country becomes stronger and better through this struggle.
Thanks Kel!
Another blue dot in ashamed to say Texas.
‘The Blue Dots’ —- OMG that’s such a good name for a grassroots movement!!!
I'm curious about the state of the Secret Service at this time. Has there been a purge? I know they play their activities close to the chest but is there anything out there on how they are faring after the corruption we've briefly heard about?
Interesting topic but, as you suggest, difficult to get any information about their activities.
Yes! And can we find out the status of the other trump supporters salted throughout the government at the end of his term?
Indeed Julie. Great addition. Thank you.
I am new to popular info… but as an elected official for 20 years, I’d like to celebrate all of the election/poll workers who hold strong after being persecuted, pressured and almost battered by the Maga Monsters.
We need bipartisan voices to say that these folks, R’s and D’s and U’s and I’s to be praised for their honesty and their work…
Hello Judd. I really appreciate the work you are doing. I would like to see more about Starbucks and their union busting activity. This is a really important test of our labor laws, the current appeal of unionization in the service industry, and a test of consumer sentiment about unions. Starbucks for many of us is practically on every corner. Their flagrant anti-union activities are against the law. How many fired workers are being re-instated by courts? How many workers are being quiet-discouraged by very strange changes in their working hours, store closures etc.? It's not a good look for a company that is so driven by its very own brand equity. Thanks!
Unions. This is the bedrock of the middle class, we need a narrative that explains why unions are important. Also, the importance of these communities in developing a robust democracy.
Unionization is a really important topic we should cover more. In the meantime, I'd recommend our friends at More Perfect Union, which covers labor issues extensively: https://perfectunion.us/
Agree! Strong Unions are important to building a healthy middle class. I was union my whole career. It stood me well. Retired now with a decent pension.
That is also a good subject to dig into. Companies like mine, a manufacturing company based in the US, are doing away with pensions. My employer replaced them with “enhanced” 401k’s. This was negotiated in the Union contract and only applied to new hires. I was grandfathered in. I had both pension and 401k. I feel this move benefited the company more than union employees.
My pensions in SAG and AFTRA, the two entertainment unions now merged into one, have been a blessing, but for decades the companies have been pushing to transition from Defined Benefit to Defined Contribution, or some other plan like 401k. Not everyone could provide for themselves if they were in charge of their own investments, etc.
It did. You can count on that.
My father and brother were Union iron workers. I will always be pro union.
I agree! It’s about time unions got their due…and I don’t mean the monetary ones.
Yes, who wants to go back to the bad old days of 6-7 days a week working sunup to sundown? No one with sense!
You are doing an excellent job. Thank you!
If the money that is spent influencing Congress & the money that is spent on campaigns were spent to better the lives of Americans, we could have affordable healthcare for everyone, free public education through college, affordable housing, and many other benefits that would raise the standard of living for all Americans, & take on the challenges of climate change. I believe that what improves the lives of my friends & neighbors also improves my life. To start, we need to get dark money out of politics, reform the way campaigns are run, & expose & punish those who use their money & power to further enrich themselves.
And anything more you can do to show DeSantis as someone who is running for office in order to accumulate more money & power for his own benefit is welcome. I believe he is worse than TFG.
& Judd, would you/ can you track all the hurricane IAN monies-- DESANTIS asked for billions-- pls keep the spotlight on him & what he's doing with the federal monies. TY
I second that request to monitor Desantis and the Ian money very closely. Floridians know he didn’t use the covid money properly.
He didn't use Covid money properly and he didn't allow Covid deaths to be publicized. And so, ppl think hr did a great job during the pandemic when he was actually deceitful.
AMEN!!!!!
We need to expose all funding by major contributors whether they are Corporations or Individual donors and their affiliations. Supreme Court allowed these donations and by doing so, put Democracy for sale without realizing that greed will take over and that even “ foreign” contributors will find a way to influence electiins
We do a good bit of this but part of the issue is a lot of these donations, including money that goes to trade associations and non-profits, is not isclosed.
Why is it that non-profits are exempt from disclosures of any and all funds?
Please have a look at Elise Stefanik.
There is so much more than national press reports. Lot's of #NY21 folks doing research:
– many ties to Oath Keepers, North Country Deplorables and other similar groups
https://m.facebook.com/ComradeTh0tsky/posts/pcb.317818845939958/
https://www.mediasanctuary.org/stories/2019/on-the-link-between-rep-elise-stefanik-and-far-right-activist-mike-kibling/
– Endorsed folks fond of Hitler (Mary Miller, Carl Paladino)
– 'Team Elise' included 'pure bloods' (Sophie Delquie)
– Her Husband works for National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) How much $$$?
Very little in public about what her office (DeGrasse) did around J6...
I think there needs to be more calling out of politicians that take credit for benefits that they voted against. I don't think the Republican base realizes just how bad their elected officials are doing their job (e.g., not voting, voting against something only because it's the Biden administration, etc.).
Hillsdale College’s influence on Gov Lee in Tennessee and it’s abuse of utilizing tax payer funds to build out magnet schools in the state
With the intended effect of destroying public schools along the way-highly recommend the “have you heard” podcast about public schools-they cover this in one episode extensively… it’s all connected to book bans, school board take overs…. Funded by a lot of the same dark money groups that want a poor dumb powerless class of worker bees
And profit. Lots and lots of profit.
Agreed. That goes hand in hand with the destruction of the middle class.
Say it again louder for the resident trolls. Perhaps they will grow ears with which to hear!
So much scandal and corruption involving Lee and the TN General Assembly, but it often flies under national radar, overlooked due to headlines of similar behavior in places like Florida.
I get their newsletters if you want to call them that, just to have a look at what the RW's are thinking and planning. Jeez, it's hard to make it thru their crackpot, racist, revisionism.
Have you written anything about the "1776 Project PAC" (https://secure.winred.com/1776-project-pac/rrr-pa/)?
They claim to be raising money for local school board elections. How legal is that? Where are they targeting? Do school board candidates have to disclose PAC donations like this?
We discuss them briefly here: https://popular.info/p/the-right-wing-operatives-orchestrating
An important org to track
I'm interested in the extent of the grift in regards to Trump, Qanon, etc. How much are they raking in. How many people are losing all their savings to this stuff. Even the crazy flags and merch. Some people must spend thousands of dollars on this stuff.
"Climate Change" was intentionally substituted for "Global Warming" as a Republican effort to confuse the public. The result is that people just don't understand the simplest thing about Weather: It is the mechanism for cooling the planet by turning Heat Energy into Kinetic Energy. The more Heat, i.e. Global Warming, the more Wind, Rain, and their combination, Storms. I am frustrated that Journalists ask, what is the contribution of Climate Change to Hurricane Ian, and every storm that comes along. Every storm is a creation of the Heat Engine of the planet turning it into Kinetic Energy and thereby Cooling the atmosphere. More Global Warming means more Weather. Period.
Thank you for such a cogent and easily understood explanation David. We are in your debt.
You've reported on corporations stating that they will cover employees who need to travel to get an abortion. That's all well and good but myself, I wouldn't trust them with such personal health information. If they're donating to Republicans who support abortion bans, can they be trusted not to "out" the women who have to use them to cover their abortion care?
We have covered this but, of course, deserves follow up. See here, for example: https://popular.info/p/these-corporations-are-backing-the
I think Judd covered these corporations in his reporting
Also GOP efforts to dismantle, undermine and destroy public schools-charter schools, public money for private schools, low pay for teachers, onerous reporting standards, harassment of teachers, guns in schools…all part of the same effort
It's been a long term plan. They've been undermining public education from k-12 and beyond. Not sure how we can overcome it.
For one, send your kids to public school even if it’s predominantly minority and poor, as I do….school and teachers are excellent and my daughters life has been so enriched by being friends with people who’s parents aren’t white doctors and lawyers. The kids struggling are struggling because they don’t have stable housing or food and their parents have to work two jobs-it’s not the schools it’s the dismantling of the social safety net. I’m really sick of neo libs believing gop lines about failing schools. They fail when parents with means send their kids to private/charters and further segregate black from white and poor from rich-I understand there are exceptions if your kid has special needs, or is being bullied….
I went to public schools all the way through my MA. Totally agree.
This book gives much detail on the topic:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Money_(book)
I’d like an expose of congressional ethics legislation and the effort to continue to allow sitting members of congress to trade stocks, a huge conflict of interest. Thanks for all your great work, you and staff, Judd.
Oh man, isn't that just shameful? That IS something that "both sides do" and is utterly reprehensible!
1) How many companies who publicly commit to equality for gender, race, etc then use NDAs to hide settlements and then intimidate former employees / executives from being able to testify on behalf of new claimants while keeping ongoing harassment and discrimination hidden e.g. McD?
2) How many partisan politicians have and continue to fight all environmental and climate change policy / legislation and even promote activities that contribute harm yet their States receive enormous taxpayer monies for crisis e.g. FL, LA, TX (pattern), etc Where's the accountability? Newsome is right!!
3) Why have media allowed partisan politicians and their speakers to use national media platforms eg CNBC to equate ESG= oil/gas regulation in manner that's building incorrect and negative perceptions by linking to high prices when ESG is so much more!?
4) Why have allies allowed extremist to equate WOKE with something negative when by definition it merely means equality? Why haven't media linked those like the lobbyist targeting companies that support 'WOKE' policies to being against rights in Declaration of Independence and the Consitution? What's the basis for not supporting equal rights?
Wow Ann. Each of your questions could be the basis of a very good book. Kudos to you.
MAGA's infiltration of local police departments.
Thank you for your excellent reporting. I'm wondering if you've investigated J. D. Vance. The ads against Tim Ryan are packed with lies. (I see them every night during the local news.)
They get away with it because the SCOTUS said political ads need not be truthful! Isn't that a crock?
It's absolutely disgusting.
Indeed. Expand the court so we can add good governance to the mix eh? Instead of this RW idiocy.
I’m in Ohio. Peter Thiel has been the apparent engine behind Vance. Was big contributor to Kasich throughout. What’s John doing? How is it that Thiel supported Trump, now Vance?
Your thoughts, Judd, on the recently passed Electoral College Reform Act. Your piece from Feb 1, 2022 “How a new proposal to stop trump from stealing the 2024 election could backfire” has never left my mind.
I wrote to my Congressman and Senator Klobuchar, as head of the rules committee, to alert them to this. I heard back from neither.
Should we still be concerned about negative unintended consequences (or, perhaps, intended on the part of some).
There is no final legislation yet but the House bill is somewhat improved. Specifically, it "would require governors to transmit the slate of electors chosen by the state's popular vote." That would preclude the worst abuses that I wrote about in February.
I’d like to know what happened to all those children at the border that were ripped away from their parents, some of which may have been adopted by christian couples.
Good nyt article on it, google “we have to take the children away” nyt….words spoken by Jeff sessions in a meeting. Many if the kids were reunited with family but still I think over 100 the fed can’t locate families
Alex Jones, gladly, had to pay parents and survivors from school shootings because of his false statements, fake conspiracies., defamations. Why has this not happened to Fox Fake News. and especially Tucker Fake News Carlson spreading baseless lies and fake conspiracies about basically everything? Not to mention all the violence and hate propaganda mongering. Where did accountability go in our country? In the past there was way more accountability. Not to mention all the lies and conspiracy theories Margaret fake news Taylor and other ex-President Drumpf (T...p) acolytes. Why is it that nothing is done about this? While the right is holding Democrats accountable. Another not to mention, all the right wing rallies with their lies. This must all fall under the Freedom of Speech. If it does than the Freedom of Speech has to be rewritten in which it states that politicians, ex politicians, and news, including Fox Entertainment NOT news, are NOT allowed to spew lies, hatred, racism and violence. Just like the country I come from, The Netherlands. The real country of the Free.
For profit prisons and prison labor
So much room for abuse there in simple things. Lobbyists supporting more draconian laws. Telecom companies charging inmates something like 300% of the normal rate. The utilization of police forces to to address political concerns, in addition to targeted enforcement are all connected to one another.
I’d like continuing coverage of how much money NY and CA and other “dirty immigrant harboring, crime infested, woke, groomer…..” blue states will be contributing to rebuild the net tax taker FL? As Dan rather said” most Americans know this is how it should be” we all help each other but desantis and Abbott don’t seem to understand this. Also would like to know how much FL will be relying on the labor of brown immigrants they abhor to rebuild their state?
GREAT suggestion! Shut that snake DeSantis up for a while eh? He and his RW cohort.
A thorough review of where the lawsuits are with Dominion and Smartmatic against Lindell, Powell, and all of the right wing news outlets.
Not certain if this is something you would/could take on, but would love to see a comprehensive compilation of all the ongoing attempts to disenfranchise voters. Given the already tilted playing field of the current electoral system, further efforts to eliminate votes and overturn elections could be catastrophic!
Thanks for all your great work!
Judd - thank you for all you are doing! I think the focus going forward for the rest of 2022 has to be on efforts to suppress the vote. Like a laser.
Cheryl
I would trust you to objectively evaluate what is happening, or is not happening, at CNN. Has, in effect, a directive been issued to "move to the right," in terms of coverage, guests, etc., (John Malone?), or has there been an overreaction/oversensitivity (i.e., on Twitter) to personnel moves and random comments.
Here's one recent article covering the changes at CNN: https://popular.info/p/what-corporate-media-executives-mean
We'll continue to monitor.
What is happening with Toyota and their horrendous donations? So discouraged by all the corporate cowardice.
Inflation largely being caused by corp greed at this point (understand other causes covid, Russia, supply chain….) and gop blocking any meaningful action on monopolies and price gouging
Then they break out the Biden punching bag and the blame game begins anew.
The advancement of the Koch agenda for higher ed. https://www.ncnewsonline.com/opinion/columns/column-by-john-m-crisp-why-does-the-right-hate-tenure-so-much/article_690d4e3c-3dc8-11ed-97de-f36c46424947.html
Complicit in its egregious plan is the Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR).
Emporia State University (ESU), a small, state-supported university, was targeted to eliminate tenure under the COVID emergency guidelines set to expire 12/31/22. The day after KBOR approved the plan proposed by ESU’s president, installed by KBOR without the usual job search & a former Koch executive with no advanced degree, faculty firings began. Between Sept 15 - 16, 33 faculty were terminated, including the sole journalism professor.
ESU is a test case for the state and nation. Our Democratic governor is up for re-election. Seats on the KBOR are governor appointments. Governor Kelly’s opponent is KS AG Derek Schmidt, who joined the Texas lawsuit to reject the 2020 election results.
I think almost everyone everywhere is totally underestimating the massive amount of money that has been fueling right wing propaganda for the last 50+ years. You have been doing an excellent job of holding various players' feet to the fire, but I would be interested to see if some rough overall view could be illustrated to show the relative size of this overpowering flow of billions of dollars that feeds this whole info ecosystem of lies. It's so much larger than everyone assumes. (I'm thinking graphs/charts).
It seems to me that having publicly financed elections would go a long way towards getting the money out of politics. Doses anyone ever talk about this?
Good morning, I am forwarding to the popular information email address a copy of today’s the WaPo Jennifer Rubin “Opinion” email in which she reports “The Beginning of the End of the 1/6 Committee”. She covers at least three loose ends critical to the process. I have failed to note ANY Judd reporting on this event and thus urge you all to contribute your investigative prowess accordingly. If I’m wrong I apologize and if I’m right maybe there’s an explanation forthcoming on your site. Thanks and cheers!
This is just a thank you for you and your staff’s amazing work.
I do purchasing for a mid/large construction company and didn’t know about the Uline’s owner’s funding of the right wing movement. I will no longer use them as a vendor because of your reporting! Thank you.
Many deadly or violent incidents have taken place by people listening to verifiable lies on Rt wing media. Why can’t these be shut down? Must they go to trial for proof positive for each incident? If we don’t take action against this, free press seems meaningless, unless it’s free to lie resulting in violence/harm.
The unfortunate price of "freedom" I fear. It's why the fraudulent Frank Lee gets to stalk these very pages spewing his noxious effluvium. Because we (inclusive of even him) all guaranteed rights and either we all do, or no one does.
No. There is a difference between spewing lies and having those lies result in harm or death. It is actually illegal on radio. But we don’t ever seem to bother with applying it to the right.
I see your point SR and concur. Thank you.
I'm interested in the DeSantis flood
insurance coverage in Florida and let's
add Marco Rubio and Rick Scott into
that mix of a no go for Florida home
owners. When DeSantis was in congress
in 2013 he voted against the Federal
Flood Ins plans that would have helped
the people after the Sandy disaster and
those since. Including none in Florida,
but gee whiz, after ripping Joe Biden
and the Federal government apart, who
was the FIRST he turned to, when Ian
turned toward Florida!?
He didn't even HAVE to turn to Biden. President Biden went to him preemptively!
Biden was smart in cutting off that
snakes head before it could bite, but
then DeSantis sends him a letter
that basically boiled down to Fed
and FEMA demands. All I can say
about that is, they better follow that
money very closely and there better
not be any loopholes DeSantis and
his mob can squeeze through.
Oh Victoria, you raise an excellent point. Because what I've heard from DeSantis the past couple of days sounded almost sane and appropriate. Even Tucker couldn't coax him onto the warpath!
I wondered if he was up to something and now you raise this excellent thread to follow. Yes, make sure those tax-payer dollars are accounted for. Every damn one!
I feel much more confident in the competence of this administration than the previous one, and I think we're going to either see them (the RW's) try something and get caught (and deny, deny, deny, deny), or know better than to try something like that right now and ahem, abstain. A this particular moment, the heats' too high.
Adam that heat needs to stay high! DeSantis is not a novice at hiding or using legitimate money for illegitimate projects.
Agreed Nancy. Indeed!
Almost half of the Senate is Catholic. How many are Opus DEI? Barr, and Leonard Leo are too. The issue is separation of church and state. Are they loyal to the Pope more than the USA?
I also miss Eric boehlert calling out the press for their neo lib/conservative framing and constant focus on both sidesism/horse race/negative coverage. Please use your platform to focal this out more of elevate someone else doing this important work-legacy media is falling down on the job and letting fascism grow
If Dems lose Senate or House, are they committed to passing legislation before Jan 2023 transfer of power to ensure voting rights and protection of elector system in 2024 as they will not be in power to stop another attempt to steal the election? What legislative actions to protect our democracy in 2024?
Desantis corruption, politicization of public service jobs, costs to tax payers via stupid stunts like migrant flights and Disney revocation of charter….
I concur wholeheartedly that exposing Desantis must be a top priority.
I'd love to see a deeper story on the power of car dealerships and the outsized political power they wield both locally and nationally. Antiquated state laws have created an inflation-inducing and consumer-hostile car retail model that seems to mysteriously endure. I've read stories hear and there on this topic, but a deeper dive on how this part of the supply chain truly works would be in the public interest.
Hi Judd, APPRECIATE all your hardwork. Nothing brings me more joy than the fact GOP is petrified of you-bc truth is not in their blood. I'd love more info on WHY are they so decisive? What's the end goal? A poor, divided, uneducated, dog eat dog post apocalyptic world?
Thanks Sheri. And this is a good question but it's always a challenge to understand people's real motivations.
I would guess for GOP mostly shortsighted monetary and power gain and destruction of democracy is a side effect-the christonationalists though like mastriano , the goal is dismantling democracy or Peter Theil-read about his philosophy and all his acolytes like Blake masters, elon muske….-scary stuff-, they also fully want to destroy democracy and think it would be more efficiently run by tech oligarchs-they also hate women so taking away our power and rights is a plus!
Much food for thought you have given one. I have always had a dislike for Musk. Look into where he is from. Peter Thiel is frightening and I hate that I have to use PayPal, but I do.
Their tentacles stretch everywhere and yes, those guys are so far aloft on their money that mere human concerns no longer affect or even occur to them.
Of course we don't want Social Security to go away. Of course we still need the ACA, Medicare and all of that. Of course we don't want to go back to the bad old days of a 7 day work week, no worker protections and no social safety net.
I've never had occasion to use the safety net but I'm glad that it is there for those who do and, but for the grace of God...
pretty much
Decisive or divisive? I'm betting on the latter and agree most wholeheartedly Sheri.
Sorry early morning response. It's divisive🤦🏻♀️
Is OK Memsahib. I understand completely. Have a wonderful day and don't forget to kick a troll.
few people remember Robert Mercer who with his sister started the whole ball rolling with funding Britbart - Cambridge Analitica - then who dumped Cruz and gave Trump $500 million and Steve Bannon in 2015 when his campaign was suffering. If it wasn't for him Trump would have never made it along with the remodeling of the Republican Party. How can one person make such a difference in defeating democracy.
From the intercept 2015 ------
SCL has a growing U.S. spin-off, called Cambridge Analytica, which was paid millions of dollars by Donald Trump’s campaign. Much of the money came from committees funded by the hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, who reportedly has a large stake in Cambridge Analytica. For a time, one of Cambridge Analytica’s officers was Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s senior adviser. Months after Bannon claimed to have severed ties with the company, checks from the Trump campaign for Cambridge Analytica’s services continued to show up at one of Bannon’s addresses in Los Angeles.
Another excellent suggestion. Judd is going to need more staff eh?
So many really good suggestions submitted so far, and I have 'liked' many of them. I hope you have the energy to tackle them all!
My personal bugaboo lately is that Republican Senators and Representatives are allowed to get away with blaming individual migrants and family units for fentanyl trafficking. That is NOT AT ALL how fentanyl smuggling happens! But their constant rhetoric conflating "Biden's open borders" with fentanyl and drugs is poisoning the public well.
I would really like to see someone with a bigger voice than mine tackle this issue. I've done some research on the issue, and in this (self-published on Medium) article I do so through the lens of Sen. Marsha Blackburn's daily rhetoric and false claims. Her state is at the top of the list for opioid/fentanyl addiction and deaths because she does NOTHING to stem medical over-prescription, and her state has a shockingly low mental health providers-to-patients ratio.
https://medium.com/alarmed-independents/senator-marsha-blackburn-has-a-problem-with-fentanyl-48c53b178514
When you call out people for disabusing the public trust, they sit up and pay attention. So I really hope this is an issue you can find the time to address.
Warm regards,
Mary Cooke-Baker
Chehalis, Washington
Great article Mary. I signed up after perusing your list of articles. All sound quite interesting and I look forward to reading them!
Also, there is some recent reporting about the Cherokee nation seeking representation in congress. I live in DC where we still have taxation without representation. And I’m thinking about Puerto Rico’s continued hurricane damage and lack of support. Would love more reporting about us citizens without senators, why that needs to change, and how it actually can. DC has a great 51st state initiative but most folks outside of DC don’t fully understand how important, reasonable, and feasible it really is. And the disproportionate negative impact on nonwhite communities and families until that changes. If DC had someone in the senate, Manchin and Sinema would have been irrelevant.
I'm curious about how the scary anti-trans universe connects legislators, group like Libs of TikTok, and donors.
You might want to investigate how big companies are signing up there employees, without their consent to 401k investments (Fidelity, etc), and if they don't check their paystubs carefully, they won't know. They are also signing them up for Group Life Insurance, without their consent. The employee is being taxed weekly for a "benefit" they will never actually get themselves. Their beneficiary(the employee thinks it is standard AD&D, free coverage,but the Group Ins is piggybacked off it)will have to jump through hoops to claim, but the company will get a financial windfall, twice. A yearly tax break, then collect when the employee dies. The employee gets no reimbursement if they leave the company, but is taxed weekly (3 times the employees salary taxation!) on the Insurance they didn't ask for.
I thought the 401k thing was done without malicious intent. The idea, based on behavioral economics, is to get employees to save money in their 401k by allowing them opt out of the plan instead of opt into it. That way more people will participate.
Don't know about the group life coverage.