So far this month, Popular Information has exposed a massive network of fake news sites weaponizing Critical Race Theory, revealed the hypocrisy of GM and the US Chamber of Commerce, and documented how concentrated corporate power is fueling inflation.
Today, however, I want to hear from you. What's on your mind? What stories have you been following? What topics would you like to see Popular Information take on?
You can leave your thoughts in the discussion thread linked below, starting now. I’ll be dropping by to participate in the discussion and answer your questions at 1 PM Eastern, for about an hour.
UPDATE (2PM): This has been an amazing discussion but I have to hop off now or there won’t be a newsletter tomorrow. I’ll check back later and promise to read everything.
Like others I'm appalled by the mainstream media (MSM) and turn to newsletters like this one for insight and understanding. I'm well aware most of the MSM is owned by 5 corporations. I would like more exploration of how corporate ownership influences/controls what's on the top of the news/front page. It's time for that monopoly to be broken up. A spotlight on that issue?
This right here. When we see endless articles and stories about what voters support, but then breathless coverage about CRT and the price of milk, it feels like the needle is being tampered with to ensure a more exciting news cycle. It’s infuriating.
Operation Mockingbird never went away. William Casey, former CIA Director under Reagan stated to a press group in February 1981 according to Barbara Honneger: “We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” Operation Mockingbird is still operating, and with only five or six major news 'sources', it is much easier to streamline the 'message' and create the official narrative that is driven home over and over until it is accepted as fact, though it may be far from fact, and most likely a very twisted version of the facts. This was part of a response on Discus to Galen Carpenter's 'The Press as the War Machine's Ally' on Anti-War another poster put this gem up: "One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us ... Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back."--Carl Sagan. Sagan, a very wise man indeed, a prophet some would say, described the last twenty years to a tee, though he died almost 25 years ago. It has been especially obvious since the fateful days following the attacks of 9-11 that the press and the powerful joined in a unison chorus, and nothing has been the same since. The bamboozled are so bamboozled that anything resembling non-bamboozle is disregarded and rejected outright.
Man, local news. From Sinclair and their BS "must runs" to the way local papers are skeleton crews operated by large publishers (who can't be bothered to actually run a proper customer service team to support paying subscribers), it's exactly as you say. Not great.
Michael Moore addressed the American media compared to Canadian in doc BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE Fearmongering and greed in USA media. Not so in Canada or BBC or DW- german news. Or NHK- Japan.All English language versions Or USA’s-PBS Newshour. Not for profit news is the most civil and unbiased. Global respected experts on interviews. Proven with evidence. You can view every day for free- even live streamingon YouTube
And not just topic but tone as well - for example, it seems to me as if popular opinion polls (for instance those showing Biden losing favor) often closely follow en mass rather than precede a wave of articles informing us that his popularity is dropping, or that one specific poll has said so.
Hey Judd, love the newsletter. Keep up the great work. There are two angles that have been weighing on me, that I think are very important. The first one is just how much damage the Supreme Court has done and continues to do to our democracy, and the dire need for reform on the nation’s highest court. Second, and vitally more important- is just how close the Republican-led states are getting to garnering enough votes to call a constitutional convention and rewrite the Constitution. With this new tsunami of voter suppression and disenfranchisement legislation passed or in the pipeline, I think our democracy is blinking red. This issue is incredibly important, and the only person I hear talking about it is Thom Hartmann. Can you imagine Trump Republicans rewriting the Constitution? That keeps me up at night.
I don't see a constitutional convention as the most immediate threat to democracy. More likely I think is the use of the SCOTUS, gerrymandering, and voting restrictions to seize power.
These actions you mention have been supported in one way or another by Oligarchs like the Kochs for more than 30 years. They have a powerful network of foundations, think tanks, and politically active organizations that try to influence elections and policy. They were behind the Citizens United case. Some of the organizations they founded nd support: The Cato Institute, The Federalist Society, Americans for Prosperity, the Heritage Foundation, ALEC.
Why is Louis Dejoy still in place to wreck the post office?? I was in Texas a few weeks ago and as a test I mailed a letter to my home in NC. It took 2 weeks to arrive. That is crazy
The board is complete thanks to Trump appointments. Sadly no one was appointed under Obama because Bernie blocked them, (yes) so when Trump was elected the vacancies were there for the taking.
Penny, you always overlook the fact that the rural people whining about this made their choices against their own good. Racism plays a big part!
They would be sitting in the fields if Democrats hadn’t pushed for electricity, phone, rail, better roadways etc. The republicans opposed this! And don’t get me started on the farm subsidies welfare program that overly enriched many farmers.
I have no sympathy for whiners who refuse to help those who have helped them.
Those rural whiners have also been indoctrinated for the past 20-30 years, depending on when Rush Limbaugh showed up on one of their local stations. Yes, they were already predisposed to look down on 'city folk' as much as city folk looked down on them, but Rush gave them reasons to despise the city folk. Then came Clear Channel/iHeart and each of the devil's trio--Limbaugh, Hannity, & O'Reilly--broadcasting three hours a day, five days a week in almost every media market in the United States.
This is not secret. Judd covered it, but we know that a board of 5 runs the P.O. One place is now vacant, and we're hoping for a 3 out of 5 to vote him out.
I wondered if we could mail shame the businesses flooding mail boxes with huge wastes of paper. My recycle bin accumulates a pile at least 5” tall a week just of junk! Not having to deliver so much junk could improve everything!
I saved my junk mail for a week or two, then spread it out in my driveway (covered it) and was about take a picture of it to post on FAcebook or somewhere...when our postperson arrived -- she said "I know how annoying that is to you, but to US, that's a job...that's what keeps the postal service going." I never thought about it in that way. Let's do whatever we CAN to keep the postal service operating, get rid of Dejoy, and be grateful we have an affordable way for people all over the country to receive mail, even if it comes late. Soc. SEc. checks, meds, ballots... let's not let Fedex take over the world!!
I'd like to see you write more about the right's antidemocratic election rigging legislation at the state level. Congress desperately needs to get its act together to save our democracy and I don't think they understand that. You can't out-organize the type of legislation they're passing. Even with several-point national margins of victory, the Democratic party barely got a majority in the House and Senate. With these restrictive measures, or democracy is truly toast if the federal government doesn't take swift action to ensure representative elections in the midterms!
I've covered a lot of that this year with the various voter suppression laws. I do think the scrutiny (which came from many directions) helped pare back some of the worst excesses. But it's still bad. The interesting thing is that voting methods being targeted, like mail-in voting, often benefit Republicans! Look at what happened in Virginia where there were a lot of recent changes that made it easier to vote.
Although definitely under-reported generally is the systemic underfunding of the election mechanisms — from county and municipal clerks (who pivot to run elections along side their quotidian duties) to tools to ensure safe voting (like secure drop boxes outside of government/library/school buildings in after-hours) to extended early voting… etc. The civic volunteers have been driven away by threats and intimidation. It is a toxic stew we’ve let brew and yet few seem fully aware of just how much life will change absent this basic element of democracy.
Nate, you stole my thunder. I wish that the Democrats would focus their efforts on voting rights legislation because if they don't, 2022 (and 2024 and beyond) will be an absolute bloodbath on election night as the Republicans legislate/gerrymander the Democrats right out of existence in many states. And, to harp on a point I have made time and again, if you think that there won't be a federal "election/voter integrity" law as soon as the Republicans retake the House and Senate, you're delusional. Rest assured, Moscow Mitch wall have absolutely NO hesitation to kill Senators Manchin and Sinema's beloved filibuster in order to get it passed.
Biden has shown little appetite for using either his political capital or bully pulpit to back voting rights legislation, which is demoralizing the very voters that made Biden's win possible. Biden believes that his infrastructure legislation is the path to save democracy. As I've noted elsewhere, if Trump is reelected and unified GOP government installed via gerrymandering, voter suppression legislation, and a demoralized base, who would stop Trump from reallocating infrastructure funds to another 'wall' or his personal militia, or really anything else. The idea that disenfranchising the core Democratic base in a mostly vain effort to win back working class voters will backfire. The country needs infrastructure but we first need to harden democracy. I see no efforts to do so by the Biden administration and it is a fatal mistake.
You are completely correct. I don't know why this isn't a bigger issue. I wonder how Senators Manchin and Sinema will feel when they are made part of a permanent (and shrinking) voting minority in the Senate..............or would they just "switch teams"?
It is almost preferable to be the minority, since you get to stand on principle without having to actually accomplish anything or answer for what you’ve done, you just get to say things knowing nothing will come of it.
Manchin's voters love him...they don't seem to be bothered by remaining one of the poorest states in the country, with low literacy, abysmal health care, and few decent prospects outside coal jobs. Manchin is the only Democrat who will ever win in WV. Sinema's poll numbers are terrible, but she has the backing of big pharma, and corporate donors, she can point to the infrastructure bill she helped negotiate, and she may well get the support of moderate Republicans voters who view her as a check on 'socialism'. She knows exactly what she's doing. I don't think Manchin or Sinema care about being in the minority, but both should care that their electoral 'wins' could be overturned by WV/AZ voter nullification laws. And again, as long as Biden refuses to endorse a carve-out for democracy hardening legislation, he provides ample cover for Manchin, Sinema, Hasan, and other moderates who refuse to budge on the filibuster.
Thank you for the information. Even so, she has a large war chest and name recognition. I know that there is a PAC (with no candidate) devoted to primarying Sinema, but this strategy failed with Susan Collins. It's not enough to be against her, AZ Democrats have to find a dynamic candidate.
And if a carve out for voting rights protection isn't as important as the other carve outs, then survival is not as important as eating or sleeping or any other portion of the business of survival.
I think they already switched teams and the only reason for the little D pin on their lapels is so they can garner attention as the one vote that Might be swung if courted and ki$$ed.
@Rather not — Ms. Sinema perhaps, though I don’t think anyone has a pulse on her motivations for power. Mr. Manchin’s pre-political dirty business gains are in excess of his ability to squander in his lifetime. Neither seems able to engage broadly or to sit humbly in this moment — a symptom of excessive devotion to self-importance.
Biden knows more than he's being given credit for. If Republicans don't want to give any aid to those in the lowest economic 50%, to approve the human infrastructure bill, what makes us think there's hope for Voting Rights? What to do about the DEEPLY racist undercurrent in our country? Keep telling the truth? Expose the machinations of Koch, Mercer et.al.
Koch et.al. have been exposed and many are delighted to receive their beneficence and reap the rewards of association… KS is a third world state in so many sectors due to Koch reach. They’ve used the state as an ALEC Petri dish for decades and exported the ideas and legislation to other statehouses across the country.
why do you blame Biden? He strongly supports the John Lewis voting rights act.. go after the GOP who ALL oppose it.The Infrastructure bill is only part of his agenda. We just passed a huge bill and YOU are working very hard to demoralize people. Stop trolling and get busy. You are NOT helping by suppressing the vote here. You can be part of the solution or help the GOP ...choose.
Your response is absurd. I have zero ability to suppress the vote of 330M people, but Biden has the ability to undo (to a large extent) voter suppression, voter nullification, and gerrymandering legislation enacted across the country. He campaigned on a promise to protect democracy. Instead, his focus has been on passing infrastructure legislation. If you don't want to honestly face the dire prospects for democracy in the absence of national voting rights legislation, that's your choice to remain uninformed.
Biden KNOWS about all of those things....and passing legislation that helps people is a very good thing that helps us at the polls. Are you are political neophyte because you seem really clueless and arrogant.
Well, I guess that means that every authoritarian scholar, every historian, every Democratic election attorney, every non-partisan election law professor are all issuing blinking red light warnings--not to inform and warn the public--but to suppress the vote. Interesting worldview you possess.
The duopoly is destroying the country and our democracy. Pinning our hopes on Biden - a party hack if there ever was one - was a mistake. He keeps selling out the progressive wing of the party and will always bow to corporate interests - on climate, on voting rights, on almost everything! The answer? Open up the process - open primaries, rank choice voting, nonpartisan elections, a National Nonpartisan Presidential primary, open the debates, get money out of politics, on an on and on. But the DP of course is mostly interested in maintaining their own existence even at the expense of the American people. They could easily lose because they have no guts to truly go up against the Right because the so-called "Left" (I am a progressive Independent) insists on trying to work inside the DP. How's that going, Bernie et al? Not so good.
ou would prefer Maga fascism to Biden? You are grossly misinformed about many things here. He is not selling out the to progressive wing, progressive caucus supported Infrastructure bill in a big way only 4 LOUD hold outs.
Oh yeah. All of this exactly except for the "beloved filibuster" part - I don't think Manchin and Sinema are dedicated to the filibuster so much as they find it useful right now to slow down Democrat designed legislation and I absolutely believe they are deliberately just delaying so the voting suppression laws can survive, Democrats lose the majority, and the delayed legislation be shot and buried. I don't for a minute think either one of them treasures the filibuster, is honestly attempting to fine tune legislation or find bipartisan support.
I wonder what stops any R politician from declaring themselves a D and running as a "conservative Democrat". I can think of a few examples of those who switched when it served them to do so. What is to stop a state from having no real Democrat party, no real Democrat candidate, and just running two Republicans for, say, senate? I'm just saying that those two have made me wonder...
What I'd really like to see Judd is an extended look at the media bias towards chaos and against governing - which overwhelmingly translates to an anti-Democratic/anti-Biden bias.
Not only should we all keep looking at who, individually, favors fabulism over facts, but also which news orgs have a habit of prioritizing false equivalence - and who is bankrolling those individuals & organizations.
If some highly-placed media talent lose their job over their bias - it could be an educational exercise, a bloody scalp to wave at others in our media industry as clear message: Choose bias over facts? Prepare to lose your head.
Optimally, I'd love to see our media improve, so that such isn't needed.
For now, I'd be happy with a pointed look at how biased our national media has been against Democratic governing under Biden & Democrats vs how they acted under Trump.
This bias is "if it bleeds it leads" has been a problem since the beginning of television - which is not designed for the thoughtful complexity of running a democracy. Somone must have written about how democracy as a form of government becomes possible with the printing press and literacy. The founding fathers knew this - that's why we have media mail rates. There's a huge difference between reading and watching!
The right accuses the left of socialism, even communism. All the while the right is creating a theocracy and no one talks about it.
Way back when, Barry Goldwater spoke of the preachers taking over the Republican Party and that you couldn’t reason with them because their on a mission for God.
Well, they took it completely over and it drives them into the abyss of power at any cost because instead of God making them in God’s image, they make God in their image.
At its core it’s not about God or baby Jesus, it’s about power. It’s still a man’s world where men run governments, religions and most households in the world. The Trumpian patriarchy love the Bible because the Bible validates the patriarchy and puts them in charge of the home which extends to being in charge of all else. Women are to submit and become the enablers. Just look at the Texas abortion law. Exactly like the men who screwed the prostitute threatened with stoning in the Bible, the men who impregnate and screw the women are never mentioned.
It’s the elephant in the room no one talks about and yet is the center of all that this powerful newsletter talks about and that’s power power power.
Too many of these men “feel” they have been displaced by women and minorities and that’s how it all ties together.
I’m actually intersex and transgender and so get condemned by ignorant “soldiers”/agents taking their marching orders from corrupt pied pipers in it for the power.
I am
I’m a hermaphrodite ( an old term ) with both genitalia. Which restroom should I use?
All of it is to scare people and the problem is that it’s very effective because the same “blind faith” put forth on the pulpit is apparent in politics.
I have a great deal of sensitivity to the transgender community. I see how hardened people are towards this community in particular. I can see how the intersex community would feel threatened in the same way and commiserate.
Like many I subscribed to Popular Information because I want to be informed not led by mainstream media reports. I don't have cable so I listened to national news on ABC, but started to turn them off because of their negative reporting on the only party that's governing right now. They keep giving the republicans a pass never holding them accountable for anything. It would be great to understand what's driving this type of reporting and how it's driving people like me to seek independent news outlets.
As I read through all of these suggestions, I agree, and I think the best use of the “deep dive investigative journalism” Judd and friends do is into the big media and what’s behind them not holding republicans accountable. I, too, read newsletters like this, stopped watching the Today Show within the last year, think of most national and local news as a waste of my time. Judd, your journalism is making a real difference. Stay as independent as you possibly can. We need that more than ever. I’m visiting my most progressive/true socialist son and daughter-in-law and realized, finally fully accepted the horrible reality, that Gore really did have the election stolen from him in 2000 and he conceded rather than keep fighting Florida and the Supreme Court. To me at that time, it was just inconceivable. So I didn’t believe it. We can’t afford another 20 years of slow reactions. I quit thinking I was a Republican when Reagan was elected. I didn’t know how deeply the system was getting rigged.
what's on MY mind right now is this: just as we're never making real progress legislatively or even democratically without a bulletproof majority in congress in '22 and thereafter, we're not achieving that (in my view) without decisively trouncing the flood of dark money fueling our growing fascist movement, AND/OR the Murdoch propaganda network that drives it, AND convincing our media whores that their duty as citizens of a democracy outweighs their duty to excite mouse clicks with invented narrative. I guess we readers could each pick ONE (or something entirely separate, of course), and put our energies in that direction, but I think taking on Beltway media in an organized fashion might be most fruitful (others may disagree, of course). My question is, HOW? We have astute press critics (Jay Rosen, Dan Froomkin et al.) but no clearing house that would help focus our efforts. Anything you can contribute along those lines,Judd, I would be very grateful for.
People can close their social media accounts, cancel their subscription to the NYT and WSJ (the worst offenders, cancel cable (from which Fox drives its obscene revenues), subscribe to local papers, refuse to by opportunistic books by journalists who keep vital information hidden until it's too late to inform the public...but no one will take any of these steps. I've yet to convince one person to close even their FB accounts, knowing that it's an unbridled tool indifference to the destruction of democracies, the fomenting of conspiracy theories, the deaths of tens of thousands via vaccine disinformation posts. People don't need Judd to tell them what to do...they have the answers, they just won't take the actions. If saving democracy and saving lives isn't suffient motivation, what would be?
This conversation did get me to cancel my NYT subscription (only had it for a couple months), and I resubscribed to this newsletter, so there’s that. I haven’t been on FB in nearly a decade, but but my account is still active (I assume). I can’t remember my login information and so I can’t delete my account 🙄
those are all useful steps, but I'd like to see them amplified by aggregation, meaning: fed all together in concentrated fashion by a structure that points them where they need to go. There's a group called "daily workout" that offers daily initiatives individuals can take to push for change, including who to contact and where to send emails etc. I'd like to see some similar sort of nonprofit with multiple firehoses we could all add our voices to, depending on our own favorite issues. Mine would be media, someone else's might be antitrust, or dark money, or pushing back against racism. If one took all the steps you mention, but didn't believe one voice meant very much, that's the road to cynicism, and an aggregator like I describe could (IMO) be VERY productive. Anybody know of one?
I cut the cable a decade ago. It’s so much better to watch what you choose, rather than what they push at you. FB is becoming less in my life as my gr-sons are grown and they do not use it.
I cut off FB in 2014, cut the cable in 2015 and finally gave up on the WSJ last year. There are quality sources of news out there but one must look for them, which requires effort and vet them carefully which requires discernment.
I don't know where this fits into the big picture, but the advertising to convert to Medicare Advantage programs - particularly TV and robocalling - has been overwhelming. And, of course, no response from the gov't, because Medicare can't fight back. While not a particularly good deal, it also puts for-profit insurance companies at the center of health care decisions and ensures them a seat at the table, even in the unlikely event of "Medicare for All". NYC is in the midst of a fight to try to move a quarter million retirees from traditional Medicare (with supplemental plans) to a Medicare Advantage program. Insurance companies are self-vaccinating against public interest health care.
I’ll add to this, any deep dive into Medicare/Medicaid would be helpful. After 50 years of work (not all of it paid, but still, real work), I pay $150/month for part B, $30/month for part D, $20 or so for dental, and plenty of copays - get zero mental health, vision care (come on, whose eyesight gets BETTER with age?), and can’t even tell you what I’m paying for osteoporosis treatment. Oh, plus medigap - another $50/month. I am lucky that I have the means to pay for these “addons,” but I’ll bet younger readers have no idea they’ll be juggling all these concerns after 65. Single payer would be far more humane IMHO, but I think we could all use a “primer” and some understanding of how to get there (other than moving to Mexico haha).
Medicare Advantage is the right-wing substitute for Medicare. Here's a wriote up
Abstract
Context: Twenty-five years ago, private insurance plans were introduced into the Medicare program with the stated dual aims of (1) giving beneficiaries a choice of health insurance plans beyond the fee-for-service Medicare program and (2) transferring to the Medicare program the efficiencies and cost savings achieved by managed care in the private sector.
Methods: In this article we review the economic history of Medicare Part C, known today as Medicare Advantage, focusing on the impact of major changes in the program's structure and of plan payment methods on trends in the availability of private plans, plan enrollment, and Medicare spending. Additionally, we compare the experience of Medicare Advantage and of employer-sponsored health insurance with managed care over the same time period.
Findings: Beneficiaries' access to private plans has been inconsistent over the program's history, with higher plan payments resulting in greater choice and enrollment and vice versa. But Medicare Advantage generally has cost more than the traditional Medicare program, an overpayment that has increased in recent years.
Conclusions: Major changes in Medicare Advantage's payment rules are needed in order to simultaneously encourage the participation of private plans, the provision of high-quality care, and to save Medicare money.
I will! thanks Bill A. If Judd's still listening - health insurance companies are, obviously, large corporations & I'd be surprised if there isn't room for delving into their political contribution$
The Trump Administration launched a plan last year that was designed to privatize Medicare.
And it’s still in place today — if we don’t speak out, the future of Medicare as we know it could be in jeopardy.
Please, speak out against the Trump-era plan to privatize Medicare while there’s still time to stop it in its tracks.
The Trump Administration created a program called Direct Contracting in 2020.
Under this program, many people on Medicare would be assigned to private plans managed by Direct Contracting Entities — groups run by commercial insurers, venture capitalists, and for-profit hospitals — even if they signed up for a traditional, public Medicare plan.
These private plans could reduce the quality of care people receive and waste taxpayer money, since Direct Contracting Entities will be focused on maximizing revenues. This means seniors are likely to face administrative barriers to care, restricted choice of doctors, and inappropriate delays and denials of care.
Here’s the bottom line: Direct Contracting takes us a step closer to privatizing Medicare.
So please, sign our petition to tell the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to immediately stop the Direct Contracting program and keep Medicare public for future generations.
I’d like to see more coverage of the unceasing efforts to stop Enbridge in MN, WI & MI in its unrelenting construction & operation of pipelines that are hazardous waste sites before they are in the ground, specifically, for example, in 28 frac-outs in MN. Relatedly how does Enbridge continue to illegally operate Line 5 in MI after its permit was withdrawn by MI governor? Cover how our federal and state governments, & “mainstream” media have been CAPTURED by Enbridge & other corporations that drive our fossil-fuel addiction.
In line with some of the other comments, I'd like to see more exposure of the actors in our national media who contribute to the growing perception that no journalism is based in fact, or reliable, or anything else we need it to be. When I see/hear even public news outlets just following along the commentary of (pick a 'hot' topic) rather than redirecting attention to the real news or even the truth about that 'fake' news, it perpetuates all the storylines, further separating us from reality. We don't need fewer sources of cold, hard facts, we need more. As much of a rock star as you are Judd, you can't do it alone!
I am appalled at the MSM demonizing our VP. Our 1st female VP, a woman of color. What is it about strong, educated, women they hate? Even women ‘news readers’ are doing it. I don’t believe that many have actually worked as a reporter. They are young, attractive and do not know 2 cents about history. Since when do you go to work in outfits you’d wear to a night club? When i went to college, I chose an all women’s college. Because of that, i am very comfortable with women in power. I see our VP as professional, smart, personable and truly a credit to our country. She gets trashed for saying “thee”; seriously. I can no longer watch network TV, or listen to MSM.
Negative stories, readers don't understand what she's done wrong (which implies she Has done something wrong) and where there's smoke there's fire, right? Readers begin to feel a little guarded, a bit more negative... they don't want to be the only one not "in the know"... her poll numbers go down. Someone in media power, somewhere, is gratified.
And, I should say that by this I don't mean to target Judd because I've caught myself doing the same thing. It is a cause and effect fallacy. We see something bad happen to someone and we assume they "did something" to cause it rather then realizing it is often just who they are and who their attackers are.
oh but there's this: “There’s an old definition of abuse of power: rules for thee but not for me,” Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader, said, repeating the phrase over and over.
so much for adoration based on use of Quaker words.
…but speaking of her - I’m very unimpressed by the rush I see, in not for profits, to embrace all things “intersectional” — it seems to me to lead to siloing. And it might be good to understand better how a biracial (Black/south Asian) woman is supposed to cope with that pressure on her identity. I don’t mean to diss Kimberle Crenshaw, but maybe this is another intellectual construct that (like CRT) can wreak havoc where over-applied/half-understood.
I don't watch that trash anymore either. While not a man of violence, I would love to beat Chuck Todd with a stick and whip Tucker Carlson to a frothy pulp!
Never drop the issue of January 6th. Judd’s work on its corporate enablers is what I signed up for in the 1st place. Even Liz Cheney knows: that’s your rotten core, and it has to be dried up if the house is to stand.
Judd, you do such a great job at holding organizations and politicians accountable for their hypocrisy. It would be great to tally the number of Republicans taking credit for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework (BIF) in which they voted against it and vilified those Republicans that voted for it, at least in the House. Note as follows from Crooked Media's "What A Day":
Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill is now Joe Biden’s infrastructure law, and you know what that means: Time for Republicans to claim all the credit.
• Directing credit where it’s due will require continuous effort. Part of the challenge stems from the fact that the projects the law funds will be completed over many years. Another is that most voters don't make voting decisions based on specific policy changes. Yet a third is that Republicans will vie for credit for the programs, too. In this case, a few of them will at least have some claim to it—Democrats went out of their way to make sure the bill was bipartisan. But multiple Republicans have already tried to claim the bill wouldn’t have passed without...Donald Trump. And now Republicans who voted against the bill have begun bragging about the benefits it will bring to their states and districts.
There's a big movement in the US to pass the Freedom to Vote Act, the John Lewis voting rights act, and DC statehood. The press is covering this solely as a voting rights issue, perhaps because they think racial conflict sells better than other aspects. The mainstream media have refused to cover DC statehood, the anti-gerrymanfering provisions, the required disclosure provisions, and the provisions mandating neutral election administration. It would be great if you could find some way to break this log jam or to investigate whether there's any kind of tacit agreement among mainstream media to embargo the most popular provisions of the Freedom to Vote Act.
I think the issue is mostly structural right now. The Freedom to Vote Act is very popular but requires either 60 votes to pass or 50 votes to change the filibuster rules. Neither appears very likely with the current construction of Congress. That doesn't mean people should stop agitating, but that's the primary reason the bills aren't going anywhere.
I think if Biden finds carrots and/or sticks that move Sen. Sinema, the Freedom to Vote bill will pass. I'm hearing this from higher level people who have access to senators' staff.
I too am so grateful to you. I'm losing the willingness to connect AT ALL with other news sources, because even with places like CNN and MSNBC with few exceptions, I feel manipulated and as with social media, like the product. I become a "viewer" that they can count. All the bullshit talk about inflation, about the tragic and sad circumstances around us - target Biden, discount Biden. This country, this world, has been through one of the most tragic and frightening periods of time in MY Lifetime, and I will be 82 any minute. There was a time whenm we pulled together, stepped up, helped each other. Now everyone just wants someome to point a finger at, and WTF - the jerk who deservedd the MOST Fingerpointing is still apparently in cotntrol of a ton of politicians who have adopted his way of thinking. Can't we once in a while give some credit to a White House occupant who is trying to correct the imbalances in our world, who is trying to do the right things after a disasterous four years of nonsense? I don't undertand the subtle attacks going on daily when, to me, it seems so many efforts are made to put our country back on track and to help other parts of the world that SO need some help. Thanks for letting me rant!! XO
Biden is in a tough media cycle right now and his approval is sagging. But things can change pretty quickly. If Biden's efforts to get COVID under control start paying dividends and there is further economic improvement, that would do it. If that doesn't happen, his standing could get worse.
I think one of the most under-the-radar issues of corporate capture is state preemption. I would love to see more investigations about how corporations are using money to influence state legislatures to limit the power of local governments. https://grassrootschange.net/preemption-watch/
I am hoping you can cover the Kevin Strickland case in Missouri, and the governor and GOP who refuse to pardon and release him in spite of the prosecutors who tried him saying he's innocent and witnesses recanting testimony. Really just anything about the incredibly corrupt GOP governor and legislature in Missouri. It includes bribes, threats against a journalist for exposing a government website that had private teacher information, and a representative who doesn't even live in the district he represents (not to mention a certain US Senator from the state who also doesn't live in the state).
Yeah Missouri is a big disappointment. My older sister farms there and is getting so fed up with state politics. Ironic that missou has a fabulous j school but outside of STL Post dispatch I don’t think there’s much good print journalism to be had in the state.
There is the Missouri Independent which just started that is trying to counter the GOP messaging and the STLPD's conservative slant, but it's got some big steps to take. Yeah the farmers in this state are being destroyed by corporate farming like Monsanto and also foreign companies buying farms out. The state legislature doesn't seem to care, and just makes farmers mad about CRT and mask mandates to distract the farmers while they pick their pockets. Our AG has sued more over mask mandates and the border than the real things happening in the state.
small-scale “family farmers”like my sister have banded together in the MO Rural Crisis center, and (speaking as a former conventional IL farm owner myself), I will not be surprised if they have the “last laugh.” (As you can perhaps tell, I’m hugely proud of both my sisters!)
I would like to see more coverage of the assalut on school boards nationwide. In Doylestown Pa, a hedge fund titan gave lots of money to fund far right candidates. Obviously long term goal, no public schiools.
It's a * brilliant* strategy by the GOP, supporting people to run for local elections ensures that they have a strong farm league while the Dems can't field a bench
I want more coverage about what the Biden Administration has accomplished the stability of our economy and why the media is only focused on inflation and job approval. There is a media blitz going on. Call out the media.
There are definitely a lot of positive aspects of the economy now including job growth, a much lower unemployment rate, and rising wages. You are right that the focus is almost exclusively on more negative stuff.
Because the corporate owners and sponsors of our current media system are seeing record profits due to the Trump tax cuts and they will take down anyone to keep them in place.
I would like to learn more about efforts to restore the US Postal service to full functioning. How can citizens advocate for a fair, independent members of the US Postal Service Board of Governors?
Wow! Your comments are good! (I rarely read comments because they are usually mostly grandstanding) They are a phenomenal advertisement for you and the good work you all do! How can we reduce the broadcasting of misinformation is my issue. The Columbia Journalism just announced an effort, and a preliminary report. It is a hard issue, and much (all?) of the problem is due to the blind acceptance of slavish followers of talk radio. But let's look for better solutions.
I’d like to see a deep dive into the price gouging being carried out by the shipping and container industries with names and faces. It appears to be a big inflation factor, but it get only a passing mention. Another issue: why is gasoline production so low? How is the industry manipulating the market? What are the details and who are the actors. Again, names and faces. Thanks.
You’re SO good at following the money. I invite you to investigate the incredible corruption in state politics here in Ohio such as the HB6 First Energy scandal and Gerrymandering scandal. There are plenty of money trails to follow and the corrupt players (individuals and the corporations propping them up) need to be exposed.
Why do the networks keep showing Scott Gottlieb's comments on the virus when he's a board member of Pfizer. Don't they consider this a conflict of interest?
Firstly, thank you for your dynamite work. I sincerely would like to understand the following: Democracy must be dead, must it not? The rule of law submits to fascist oligarchy. How else to explain an entire party and its leadership - having committed untold crimes against humanity and mass-murder of its own citizens while supporting fascist ideology and a violent coup attempt - go unpunished and are held in false equivalency to "incompetent democrats". Why isn't this news?
In my state, Pennsylvania, the GOP led legislature is working around our Democratic governor’s veto pen by using the constitutional amendment process. Already passed as an amendment bill is a slate of voter suppression laws, including voter ID and signature matching. Amendments must pass twice in the legislature and are then put on the ballot. Last year they were able to limit the governor’s emergency powers through two constitutional amendments which they packaged up with an equal rights amendment to garner Democratic votes. According to my Democratic state rep, the Republicans have dozens of these amendment bills in the pipeline, including ones to limit the regulatory powers of the governor, to make it impossible to address methane and CO2 emissions in the state, and to gerrymander our statewide courts - our last line of defense against the Big Lie. I am not sure from what angle Popular Information could investigate this, but surely there is money behind these efforts to undermine democracy in the state of Pennsylvania. Even raising awareness in the electorate would be helpful. Thanks.
How about the funneling of money to our arms manufacturers by giving money to oppressive regimes which then use the money to buy arns from us - Al Sisi in Egypt, MBS in Saudi Arabia, Israel, etc.
Feels like one the most important stories to track is the status of the sedition caucus (House and Senate). And who is providing them support. Is there a Wiki like site that shows who they are in detail is: district, committees, term ect... and link to a list of their donors. I would also add personal net worth estimate day of the announcement to run and current. Funny how on US Reps salary so many become millionaires.
What about discussing how the book by Timothy Snyder, “On Tyranny, 20 Lessons from the 20th Century” (especially the new version with illustrations by Nora Krug) could serve as a blueprint for resisting tyranny. Instead of us spending our time ranting about how bad the Republican Party has become, why not work on ways to encourage people to think about what we could do better to encourage Democracy.
Firstly, thank you for everything you do! It's not easy and I so appreciate you. Secondly, I have shifted my focus to local news and the batshittery that is happening in my city. Proud boy cops and a Qanon infested city council being the top issues.
Thanks for the fresh air this newsletter provides....pray that the facts you put forth reach the right eyes and result in positive action. I was incensed by a news item on NPR this morning discussing the inability of recently separated military medics and corpsmen to find employment in emergency medicine without basically re-taking all the training they have been using in the field for the term of their enlistment, often employing skill-sets far beyond anything they might encounter in a civilian setting. It seems that each state in the union has their own set of licensing rules that are inconsistent, redundant and downright foolish in the face of the huge shortage of health-care professionals. This story needs to blow up!
What you do for us is fantastic and should serve as a model for responsible journalism.. However, the mainstream news media - both right and left - is loaded with gotcha journalism geared towards generating fear (and profit) instead of the unbiased journalism we so desperately need. I'd love to see more stories about media hypocrisy, fear mongering, reporting geared towards "bang for the buck" stories valued for their salacious content rather than factuality, and the nonsensical use of valuable time to cover celebrity instead of stories that affect real people.
I subscribe to many publications, but I have limited funds, so I must be somewhat judicious about who I subscribe to. Keep up the excellent work, and you can count on a contribution in the future. Thanks for what you do.
Please talk about the roots of the madness we are drowning in- the ocean of misinformation and disinformation that manipulates people like the Virginians who voted for Youngkin. It goes way back to Limbaugh and his ilk and has grown exponentially over many years.
Also please talk about how important voting rights are and what will happen to the country when that gets fully out of control
Reagan's trickle down and Gingrich's nasty politics on a new level of hypocrisy and attacks coupled with Fox News growth....the greed for both $$ and power has gone unchecked. Can we get the ship righted??? I remain optimistic for now.
How public universities have been corrupted by budget cuts and private investments. e.g., Koch brothers funding positions in econ departments so they can generate academic work that "supports" a libertarian, free-market worldview.
I'm thinking specifically about Art Pope & the University of North Carolina System because that's where I have the most experience, but rich people do this all over the place.
I would like to know what AT&T is up to with CNN and other far right media. When did they start their right wing swing and who are they accountable to?
They’re accountable to right wing billionaire owners and right wing corporations. I think this total right wing media rule is the biggest barrier to moving forward.
1. I would like to see a look at the corporate contributions to top level Democrats, especially Schumer.
2. I would like to see a look at WinRed donations versus the outrage cycle. Additionally whether the small dollar donations are offsetting the corporate donations.
PS I also have always wondered whether groups are using WinRed to funnel funds to candidates since that system seems to have very little to avoid throttling.
Personally I don’t see the same level of armed force marching on state capitols, and for this reason I don’t worry about a US Capitol do-over. But of course there’s more to “this coup thing” than just 1/6/21 dc action.
Politics and the end of our democracy - wildly important topic. Important to look for less reported issues as well. I find comments and discussions favoring the resumption of construction of nuclear power plants most alarming and least reported topic, probably because big money controls discussions and big money controls energy. Spent fuel rods contain gamma-radiation emitting isotopes. These emissions remain toxic for roughly 60,000 US presidential election cycles, should this democratic republic continue to hold elections. Most spent fuel rods are stored on major rivers. If, during any moment of those 60,000 elections cycles, a leak develops in the storage device and gamma radiation contaminates the river, all life downstream will become radically different or cease to exist. How many Popular Information readers are aware of the proximity of the nearest spent fuel rod storage facility and whether or not they and their loved ones are located downstream?
I recommend that everyone see this documentary on the positive possibilities of nuclear energy, all depending on eliminating the waste. Saw this at our annual PEFF (from our local Princeton public library, not the University!) This was 2013--has anything been developed since?
Pandora's Promise Official Trailer 1 (2013) - Nuclear Power ...
I have two thoughts: 1) Is it time to start naming names in the climate crisis? Who are the individual lobbyists, executives, board members, politicians, media figures, "think-tankers" etc. who are most responsible for inaction and impending mass death? It might be several thousand names, and I understand that one should be "kind to individuals and vicious to institutions" in theory, BUT.. in our current era of institutionalized oligarchy, where a relatively tiny number of individuals controls the major economic and political machinery of society, and the list of international, public casualties is about to massively pile up, into the millions no doubt, I think it's time to start naming names. I'll leave it at that. 2) There seems to be broad consensus that we should "tax the rich," but it troubles me when this is proclaimed without the corollary demand that the US needs to defund its military, as in drastically reduce its funding and scope. What is the purpose of raising tax revenue when a disproportionate amount of it will only end up in the hands of death-making war profiteers and fossil fuel interests (see #1)? Why is there an assumption that higher tax revenue would be accompanied by more progressive policies? (That seems willfully naive given the current evidence, particularly in our supposedly Democrat-led moment (Glenn Greenwald seems to have gone nuts for some reason, but his "rotating villain" theory continues to check out)). Anyway that's what's on my mind.. thank you for everything you do!
Love your great work, keep it up. I have read recently that the global spending on fossil fuel subsidies amounts to 6% of global GDP, per the IMF. Could you check that stat please. I bugs me when fossil fuel propagandists say we can't pick winners when looking to subsidize renewables.
The inflation issue is a hot button with a lot of people, especially gas prices. I suspect this is frontal attack on the move to green energy. Koch Industries knows the Dems are going to move to renewables and wants the Dems out of office. We saw their work in the Carter administration. I want them exposed for the pirates they are. Not a small task. They are funding and working hard to own the Supreme Court and are buying politicians. The price of gas looks like another point of attack. If you can, expose it!
How CNN calls out Fox regularly but ignores OANN, perhaps because their parent company helped $$ OANN start. Call out Stelter and all of the others who attack Fox, but ignore their own employers' hypocrisy. At least Fox and MSNBC don't pretend to be anything other than their respective political camps.
I’d love to have an understanding of how cryptocurrency will affect fiat currency and whether those of us who have already saved for our retirement need to worry about the security of our investments. Do those who are still saving, or have yet to start, need to be aware of crypto? China has made it pretty clear they want no part of crypto. How does that affect the rest of the world?
And speaking of China….how bad is the threat from their authoritarianism to us, combined with that from Russia, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia? It seems they are almost working in concert to destroy democracy world wide. Scary stuff.
Sorry if this isn’t particularly articulate. As I said, I’d love to understand more which, of course, would make it easier to ask the question. Thanks!
I think this specific question on crypto is unlikely to be answered in Popular Information soon. Not because it isn't important but just because I don't think I'm the best person to answer it.
Late to this party, Judd. Two overlapping ideas for future coverage, one swift with elliptical orbits, the second with more frequent revolutions.
#1) Take a look at how much $$ has been appropriated for defense spending over the past 10 years and contrast this with the combined total of what would have been the complete Build Back Better bill. This is relatively straightforward using a site like <b> https://people.defensenews.com/top-100/ </b> You could even contrast merely a single company, like Northrop Grumman, which has received over $224.7 billion in the past ten years, or go for broke and feature Lockheed Martin, which received $62.5 billion just last year alone. How much did taxpayers cough up for 20 years in Afghanistan and what did we receive in exchange? We need an informed frame from which we can pick apart anyone objecting to investing $3.2 trillion over 10 years.
#2) Expose the US Chamber of Commerce, which has become a tool for mega business rather than the smaller, often family owned businesses that provide over 75% of US jobs. We need small business (NOT Corporate America) to support climate change mitigation. Good for jobs, good for the environment, and good for our children. We cannot retain our democracy when Corporate America's concentrated power eludes account.
I would welcome more coverage about the political power and control that factory farming of meat cows, dairy cows, chickens and pigs has over politicians. The ag industry exerts so much downstream power and control with catastrophic consequences for the climate, the environment, workers health and safety and the millions of animals that suffer daily in these hellholes. There is no other industry so closely adhered to our political system that negatively impacts so many other news worthy topics. Do you think this is worthy of additional investigating?
Social media with its many lies has taken over because access to local news, especially in the form of local newspapers, is dying. If you don’t know what is going on in your local area, then you turn to platforms like Facebook or Twitter which is full of garbage.
There’s also the problem with TV news which is programmed for sensationalism and spectacle, not truth. It’s harder to fool people locally.
It’s no wonder we have a growing divide in this Country!
Also! Listing of Republicans who didn’t voted for any of the Infrastructure spending who are now taking credit for same and how much they are claiming to be responsible for and how they square the circle on nonpartisanship and responsibility for creating and passing the spending bills which they now claim credit for.
You/Popular Information are extraordinary! Please take on how hate accounts on Twitter earn a lot of money on YouTube. To expand: Their Twitter profiles are a form of advertising for their YouTube accounts; so they are rewarded for their hate. The most egregious: Twitter and YouTube know this is happening, yet they do nothing about it. I hope your attention forces Twitter and YouTube to truly act against hate accounts (suspend and/or demonetize them)
Like others I'm appalled by the mainstream media (MSM) and turn to newsletters like this one for insight and understanding. I'm well aware most of the MSM is owned by 5 corporations. I would like more exploration of how corporate ownership influences/controls what's on the top of the news/front page. It's time for that monopoly to be broken up. A spotlight on that issue?
Thank you. I have some ideas along these lines in the works. Stay tuned!
And the information deserts - where they are, why they are, and their effects on the voters' access to full information and opinions.
This right here. When we see endless articles and stories about what voters support, but then breathless coverage about CRT and the price of milk, it feels like the needle is being tampered with to ensure a more exciting news cycle. It’s infuriating.
Spoiler alert: “the needle” *IS* being tampered with.
Operation Mockingbird never went away. William Casey, former CIA Director under Reagan stated to a press group in February 1981 according to Barbara Honneger: “We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” Operation Mockingbird is still operating, and with only five or six major news 'sources', it is much easier to streamline the 'message' and create the official narrative that is driven home over and over until it is accepted as fact, though it may be far from fact, and most likely a very twisted version of the facts. This was part of a response on Discus to Galen Carpenter's 'The Press as the War Machine's Ally' on Anti-War another poster put this gem up: "One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us ... Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back."--Carl Sagan. Sagan, a very wise man indeed, a prophet some would say, described the last twenty years to a tee, though he died almost 25 years ago. It has been especially obvious since the fateful days following the attacks of 9-11 that the press and the powerful joined in a unison chorus, and nothing has been the same since. The bamboozled are so bamboozled that anything resembling non-bamboozle is disregarded and rejected outright.
The Demon-Haunted World had this country pegged and it’s a hard read today knowing how old and accurate it was.
thanks for the reference
Also media ownership/conflicts of interest at the local and swing state level.
Nationally there is increasing awareness of media ownership/access journalism/etc. and how that shapes the discourse.
Less so locally where calls to "Save local news" can lead to blindspots in media transparency and accountability.
I live in Georgia where Cox Enterprises is both a major corporate player and legacy media owner.
Man, local news. From Sinclair and their BS "must runs" to the way local papers are skeleton crews operated by large publishers (who can't be bothered to actually run a proper customer service team to support paying subscribers), it's exactly as you say. Not great.
Michael Moore addressed the American media compared to Canadian in doc BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE Fearmongering and greed in USA media. Not so in Canada or BBC or DW- german news. Or NHK- Japan.All English language versions Or USA’s-PBS Newshour. Not for profit news is the most civil and unbiased. Global respected experts on interviews. Proven with evidence. You can view every day for free- even live streamingon YouTube
And not just topic but tone as well - for example, it seems to me as if popular opinion polls (for instance those showing Biden losing favor) often closely follow en mass rather than precede a wave of articles informing us that his popularity is dropping, or that one specific poll has said so.
Hey Judd, love the newsletter. Keep up the great work. There are two angles that have been weighing on me, that I think are very important. The first one is just how much damage the Supreme Court has done and continues to do to our democracy, and the dire need for reform on the nation’s highest court. Second, and vitally more important- is just how close the Republican-led states are getting to garnering enough votes to call a constitutional convention and rewrite the Constitution. With this new tsunami of voter suppression and disenfranchisement legislation passed or in the pipeline, I think our democracy is blinking red. This issue is incredibly important, and the only person I hear talking about it is Thom Hartmann. Can you imagine Trump Republicans rewriting the Constitution? That keeps me up at night.
I don't see a constitutional convention as the most immediate threat to democracy. More likely I think is the use of the SCOTUS, gerrymandering, and voting restrictions to seize power.
These actions you mention have been supported in one way or another by Oligarchs like the Kochs for more than 30 years. They have a powerful network of foundations, think tanks, and politically active organizations that try to influence elections and policy. They were behind the Citizens United case. Some of the organizations they founded nd support: The Cato Institute, The Federalist Society, Americans for Prosperity, the Heritage Foundation, ALEC.
More like 50 years. It got legs with the election of RR.
how did we as Democrats create this problem? All of these things were put into place to stop us.
And I would add the mass of federal rt wing judges put in place and defiling of public school and government separation of state/ church.
Why is Louis Dejoy still in place to wreck the post office?? I was in Texas a few weeks ago and as a test I mailed a letter to my home in NC. It took 2 weeks to arrive. That is crazy
Yes, I covered this once fairly recently but will return to it. The Postmaster General isn't directly appointed by the President, which complicates things. https://popular.info/p/whats-really-happening-with-the-mail
But doesn’t it require a vote by its board—that still isn’t complete? So then, why isn’t the board in a position to do so?
The board is complete thanks to Trump appointments. Sadly no one was appointed under Obama because Bernie blocked them, (yes) so when Trump was elected the vacancies were there for the taking.
Thanks. Really appreciate your hard work.
Penny, you always overlook the fact that the rural people whining about this made their choices against their own good. Racism plays a big part!
They would be sitting in the fields if Democrats hadn’t pushed for electricity, phone, rail, better roadways etc. The republicans opposed this! And don’t get me started on the farm subsidies welfare program that overly enriched many farmers.
I have no sympathy for whiners who refuse to help those who have helped them.
Those rural whiners have also been indoctrinated for the past 20-30 years, depending on when Rush Limbaugh showed up on one of their local stations. Yes, they were already predisposed to look down on 'city folk' as much as city folk looked down on them, but Rush gave them reasons to despise the city folk. Then came Clear Channel/iHeart and each of the devil's trio--Limbaugh, Hannity, & O'Reilly--broadcasting three hours a day, five days a week in almost every media market in the United States.
poor rural voters respond to GOP class war and racist rhetoric.
This is not secret. Judd covered it, but we know that a board of 5 runs the P.O. One place is now vacant, and we're hoping for a 3 out of 5 to vote him out.
I wondered if we could mail shame the businesses flooding mail boxes with huge wastes of paper. My recycle bin accumulates a pile at least 5” tall a week just of junk! Not having to deliver so much junk could improve everything!
I saved my junk mail for a week or two, then spread it out in my driveway (covered it) and was about take a picture of it to post on FAcebook or somewhere...when our postperson arrived -- she said "I know how annoying that is to you, but to US, that's a job...that's what keeps the postal service going." I never thought about it in that way. Let's do whatever we CAN to keep the postal service operating, get rid of Dejoy, and be grateful we have an affordable way for people all over the country to receive mail, even if it comes late. Soc. SEc. checks, meds, ballots... let's not let Fedex take over the world!!
They can send smaller pieces of mail for the same price for much of what is mailed. Waste is rife.
Yes. I knew that. And, thus don't get upset about it. Without advertising.....
I'd like to see you write more about the right's antidemocratic election rigging legislation at the state level. Congress desperately needs to get its act together to save our democracy and I don't think they understand that. You can't out-organize the type of legislation they're passing. Even with several-point national margins of victory, the Democratic party barely got a majority in the House and Senate. With these restrictive measures, or democracy is truly toast if the federal government doesn't take swift action to ensure representative elections in the midterms!
I've covered a lot of that this year with the various voter suppression laws. I do think the scrutiny (which came from many directions) helped pare back some of the worst excesses. But it's still bad. The interesting thing is that voting methods being targeted, like mail-in voting, often benefit Republicans! Look at what happened in Virginia where there were a lot of recent changes that made it easier to vote.
Although definitely under-reported generally is the systemic underfunding of the election mechanisms — from county and municipal clerks (who pivot to run elections along side their quotidian duties) to tools to ensure safe voting (like secure drop boxes outside of government/library/school buildings in after-hours) to extended early voting… etc. The civic volunteers have been driven away by threats and intimidation. It is a toxic stew we’ve let brew and yet few seem fully aware of just how much life will change absent this basic element of democracy.
Nate, you stole my thunder. I wish that the Democrats would focus their efforts on voting rights legislation because if they don't, 2022 (and 2024 and beyond) will be an absolute bloodbath on election night as the Republicans legislate/gerrymander the Democrats right out of existence in many states. And, to harp on a point I have made time and again, if you think that there won't be a federal "election/voter integrity" law as soon as the Republicans retake the House and Senate, you're delusional. Rest assured, Moscow Mitch wall have absolutely NO hesitation to kill Senators Manchin and Sinema's beloved filibuster in order to get it passed.
Biden has shown little appetite for using either his political capital or bully pulpit to back voting rights legislation, which is demoralizing the very voters that made Biden's win possible. Biden believes that his infrastructure legislation is the path to save democracy. As I've noted elsewhere, if Trump is reelected and unified GOP government installed via gerrymandering, voter suppression legislation, and a demoralized base, who would stop Trump from reallocating infrastructure funds to another 'wall' or his personal militia, or really anything else. The idea that disenfranchising the core Democratic base in a mostly vain effort to win back working class voters will backfire. The country needs infrastructure but we first need to harden democracy. I see no efforts to do so by the Biden administration and it is a fatal mistake.
Re the infrastructure+, already seeing republicans that did not support it, taking credit to their constituents.
thats what they do.
You are completely correct. I don't know why this isn't a bigger issue. I wonder how Senators Manchin and Sinema will feel when they are made part of a permanent (and shrinking) voting minority in the Senate..............or would they just "switch teams"?
It is almost preferable to be the minority, since you get to stand on principle without having to actually accomplish anything or answer for what you’ve done, you just get to say things knowing nothing will come of it.
Manchin's voters love him...they don't seem to be bothered by remaining one of the poorest states in the country, with low literacy, abysmal health care, and few decent prospects outside coal jobs. Manchin is the only Democrat who will ever win in WV. Sinema's poll numbers are terrible, but she has the backing of big pharma, and corporate donors, she can point to the infrastructure bill she helped negotiate, and she may well get the support of moderate Republicans voters who view her as a check on 'socialism'. She knows exactly what she's doing. I don't think Manchin or Sinema care about being in the minority, but both should care that their electoral 'wins' could be overturned by WV/AZ voter nullification laws. And again, as long as Biden refuses to endorse a carve-out for democracy hardening legislation, he provides ample cover for Manchin, Sinema, Hasan, and other moderates who refuse to budge on the filibuster.
As a Dem in AZ, i can assure you, Sinema will be primaried. We are very unhappy with her. AZ has closed primaries.
Thank you for the information. Even so, she has a large war chest and name recognition. I know that there is a PAC (with no candidate) devoted to primarying Sinema, but this strategy failed with Susan Collins. It's not enough to be against her, AZ Democrats have to find a dynamic candidate.
Thanks for the post! I'm hopeful.
And if a carve out for voting rights protection isn't as important as the other carve outs, then survival is not as important as eating or sleeping or any other portion of the business of survival.
I think they already switched teams and the only reason for the little D pin on their lapels is so they can garner attention as the one vote that Might be swung if courted and ki$$ed.
They’ll have enriched themselves enough by then? It’s all about the benjamins. It is abhorrent that these turncoats are drunk on their power.
@Rather not — Ms. Sinema perhaps, though I don’t think anyone has a pulse on her motivations for power. Mr. Manchin’s pre-political dirty business gains are in excess of his ability to squander in his lifetime. Neither seems able to engage broadly or to sit humbly in this moment — a symptom of excessive devotion to self-importance.
Biden knows more than he's being given credit for. If Republicans don't want to give any aid to those in the lowest economic 50%, to approve the human infrastructure bill, what makes us think there's hope for Voting Rights? What to do about the DEEPLY racist undercurrent in our country? Keep telling the truth? Expose the machinations of Koch, Mercer et.al.
Koch et.al. have been exposed and many are delighted to receive their beneficence and reap the rewards of association… KS is a third world state in so many sectors due to Koch reach. They’ve used the state as an ALEC Petri dish for decades and exported the ideas and legislation to other statehouses across the country.
why do you blame Biden? He strongly supports the John Lewis voting rights act.. go after the GOP who ALL oppose it.The Infrastructure bill is only part of his agenda. We just passed a huge bill and YOU are working very hard to demoralize people. Stop trolling and get busy. You are NOT helping by suppressing the vote here. You can be part of the solution or help the GOP ...choose.
Your response is absurd. I have zero ability to suppress the vote of 330M people, but Biden has the ability to undo (to a large extent) voter suppression, voter nullification, and gerrymandering legislation enacted across the country. He campaigned on a promise to protect democracy. Instead, his focus has been on passing infrastructure legislation. If you don't want to honestly face the dire prospects for democracy in the absence of national voting rights legislation, that's your choice to remain uninformed.
Biden KNOWS about all of those things....and passing legislation that helps people is a very good thing that helps us at the polls. Are you are political neophyte because you seem really clueless and arrogant.
When you go on line and and promote despair and negativity you are most definitely suppressing the vote.
Well, I guess that means that every authoritarian scholar, every historian, every Democratic election attorney, every non-partisan election law professor are all issuing blinking red light warnings--not to inform and warn the public--but to suppress the vote. Interesting worldview you possess.
The duopoly is destroying the country and our democracy. Pinning our hopes on Biden - a party hack if there ever was one - was a mistake. He keeps selling out the progressive wing of the party and will always bow to corporate interests - on climate, on voting rights, on almost everything! The answer? Open up the process - open primaries, rank choice voting, nonpartisan elections, a National Nonpartisan Presidential primary, open the debates, get money out of politics, on an on and on. But the DP of course is mostly interested in maintaining their own existence even at the expense of the American people. They could easily lose because they have no guts to truly go up against the Right because the so-called "Left" (I am a progressive Independent) insists on trying to work inside the DP. How's that going, Bernie et al? Not so good.
Glenn Greenwald is not progressive. He is a RW hack that spends his time on tucker Carlson.
ou would prefer Maga fascism to Biden? You are grossly misinformed about many things here. He is not selling out the to progressive wing, progressive caucus supported Infrastructure bill in a big way only 4 LOUD hold outs.
Oh yeah. All of this exactly except for the "beloved filibuster" part - I don't think Manchin and Sinema are dedicated to the filibuster so much as they find it useful right now to slow down Democrat designed legislation and I absolutely believe they are deliberately just delaying so the voting suppression laws can survive, Democrats lose the majority, and the delayed legislation be shot and buried. I don't for a minute think either one of them treasures the filibuster, is honestly attempting to fine tune legislation or find bipartisan support.
I wonder what stops any R politician from declaring themselves a D and running as a "conservative Democrat". I can think of a few examples of those who switched when it served them to do so. What is to stop a state from having no real Democrat party, no real Democrat candidate, and just running two Republicans for, say, senate? I'm just saying that those two have made me wonder...
And it hardly makes the news while Wolf Blitzer shares gas prices at the most expensive station in the mid Atlantic.
*our democracy is truly toast...
What I'd really like to see Judd is an extended look at the media bias towards chaos and against governing - which overwhelmingly translates to an anti-Democratic/anti-Biden bias.
Not only should we all keep looking at who, individually, favors fabulism over facts, but also which news orgs have a habit of prioritizing false equivalence - and who is bankrolling those individuals & organizations.
If some highly-placed media talent lose their job over their bias - it could be an educational exercise, a bloody scalp to wave at others in our media industry as clear message: Choose bias over facts? Prepare to lose your head.
Optimally, I'd love to see our media improve, so that such isn't needed.
For now, I'd be happy with a pointed look at how biased our national media has been against Democratic governing under Biden & Democrats vs how they acted under Trump.
There was a journalism prof on the Ezra Klein show podcast the other day who talked a lot about this. Worth listening or reading the transcript!
Thanks for flagging that. That was Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at NYU. It's readily available with a Google click.
do u know what flagging is? lol
HA--you're right, had to Urban Dictionary it. well, in olden times, it meant 'point out,' which is what I meant.
As others have mentioned, that's Jay Rosen, who I know well.
This bias is "if it bleeds it leads" has been a problem since the beginning of television - which is not designed for the thoughtful complexity of running a democracy. Somone must have written about how democracy as a form of government becomes possible with the printing press and literacy. The founding fathers knew this - that's why we have media mail rates. There's a huge difference between reading and watching!
This👆🏻
Yes!
The right accuses the left of socialism, even communism. All the while the right is creating a theocracy and no one talks about it.
Way back when, Barry Goldwater spoke of the preachers taking over the Republican Party and that you couldn’t reason with them because their on a mission for God.
Well, they took it completely over and it drives them into the abyss of power at any cost because instead of God making them in God’s image, they make God in their image.
At its core it’s not about God or baby Jesus, it’s about power. It’s still a man’s world where men run governments, religions and most households in the world. The Trumpian patriarchy love the Bible because the Bible validates the patriarchy and puts them in charge of the home which extends to being in charge of all else. Women are to submit and become the enablers. Just look at the Texas abortion law. Exactly like the men who screwed the prostitute threatened with stoning in the Bible, the men who impregnate and screw the women are never mentioned.
It’s the elephant in the room no one talks about and yet is the center of all that this powerful newsletter talks about and that’s power power power.
Too many of these men “feel” they have been displaced by women and minorities and that’s how it all ties together.
Thank you for all you do.
why not a law that makes men who cause invalid pregnancies wear a Scarlett letter. good point. nope. shame and attack the victim. disgusting.
You are most correct in your analysis.
Let’s face it! There is no group called the “Proud Girls”…
And no such thing as a female priest. Only priests trying to deny women abortions and Biden communion.
Right! And trying to enlist citizens as their agents in perfidy. And of course, ginning up the gay and trans communities as convenient boogy men.
I’m actually intersex and transgender and so get condemned by ignorant “soldiers”/agents taking their marching orders from corrupt pied pipers in it for the power.
I am
I’m a hermaphrodite ( an old term ) with both genitalia. Which restroom should I use?
All of it is to scare people and the problem is that it’s very effective because the same “blind faith” put forth on the pulpit is apparent in politics.
People don’t question!
Thank you for your comment.
I have a great deal of sensitivity to the transgender community. I see how hardened people are towards this community in particular. I can see how the intersex community would feel threatened in the same way and commiserate.
Like many I subscribed to Popular Information because I want to be informed not led by mainstream media reports. I don't have cable so I listened to national news on ABC, but started to turn them off because of their negative reporting on the only party that's governing right now. They keep giving the republicans a pass never holding them accountable for anything. It would be great to understand what's driving this type of reporting and how it's driving people like me to seek independent news outlets.
As I read through all of these suggestions, I agree, and I think the best use of the “deep dive investigative journalism” Judd and friends do is into the big media and what’s behind them not holding republicans accountable. I, too, read newsletters like this, stopped watching the Today Show within the last year, think of most national and local news as a waste of my time. Judd, your journalism is making a real difference. Stay as independent as you possibly can. We need that more than ever. I’m visiting my most progressive/true socialist son and daughter-in-law and realized, finally fully accepted the horrible reality, that Gore really did have the election stolen from him in 2000 and he conceded rather than keep fighting Florida and the Supreme Court. To me at that time, it was just inconceivable. So I didn’t believe it. We can’t afford another 20 years of slow reactions. I quit thinking I was a Republican when Reagan was elected. I didn’t know how deeply the system was getting rigged.
what's on MY mind right now is this: just as we're never making real progress legislatively or even democratically without a bulletproof majority in congress in '22 and thereafter, we're not achieving that (in my view) without decisively trouncing the flood of dark money fueling our growing fascist movement, AND/OR the Murdoch propaganda network that drives it, AND convincing our media whores that their duty as citizens of a democracy outweighs their duty to excite mouse clicks with invented narrative. I guess we readers could each pick ONE (or something entirely separate, of course), and put our energies in that direction, but I think taking on Beltway media in an organized fashion might be most fruitful (others may disagree, of course). My question is, HOW? We have astute press critics (Jay Rosen, Dan Froomkin et al.) but no clearing house that would help focus our efforts. Anything you can contribute along those lines,Judd, I would be very grateful for.
People can close their social media accounts, cancel their subscription to the NYT and WSJ (the worst offenders, cancel cable (from which Fox drives its obscene revenues), subscribe to local papers, refuse to by opportunistic books by journalists who keep vital information hidden until it's too late to inform the public...but no one will take any of these steps. I've yet to convince one person to close even their FB accounts, knowing that it's an unbridled tool indifference to the destruction of democracies, the fomenting of conspiracy theories, the deaths of tens of thousands via vaccine disinformation posts. People don't need Judd to tell them what to do...they have the answers, they just won't take the actions. If saving democracy and saving lives isn't suffient motivation, what would be?
This conversation did get me to cancel my NYT subscription (only had it for a couple months), and I resubscribed to this newsletter, so there’s that. I haven’t been on FB in nearly a decade, but but my account is still active (I assume). I can’t remember my login information and so I can’t delete my account 🙄
those are all useful steps, but I'd like to see them amplified by aggregation, meaning: fed all together in concentrated fashion by a structure that points them where they need to go. There's a group called "daily workout" that offers daily initiatives individuals can take to push for change, including who to contact and where to send emails etc. I'd like to see some similar sort of nonprofit with multiple firehoses we could all add our voices to, depending on our own favorite issues. Mine would be media, someone else's might be antitrust, or dark money, or pushing back against racism. If one took all the steps you mention, but didn't believe one voice meant very much, that's the road to cynicism, and an aggregator like I describe could (IMO) be VERY productive. Anybody know of one?
Sleeping Giants, if media is your focus.
thanks, I'll check it out.
I cut the cable a decade ago. It’s so much better to watch what you choose, rather than what they push at you. FB is becoming less in my life as my gr-sons are grown and they do not use it.
I cut off FB in 2014, cut the cable in 2015 and finally gave up on the WSJ last year. There are quality sources of news out there but one must look for them, which requires effort and vet them carefully which requires discernment.
Good suggestions
I don't know where this fits into the big picture, but the advertising to convert to Medicare Advantage programs - particularly TV and robocalling - has been overwhelming. And, of course, no response from the gov't, because Medicare can't fight back. While not a particularly good deal, it also puts for-profit insurance companies at the center of health care decisions and ensures them a seat at the table, even in the unlikely event of "Medicare for All". NYC is in the midst of a fight to try to move a quarter million retirees from traditional Medicare (with supplemental plans) to a Medicare Advantage program. Insurance companies are self-vaccinating against public interest health care.
I’ll add to this, any deep dive into Medicare/Medicaid would be helpful. After 50 years of work (not all of it paid, but still, real work), I pay $150/month for part B, $30/month for part D, $20 or so for dental, and plenty of copays - get zero mental health, vision care (come on, whose eyesight gets BETTER with age?), and can’t even tell you what I’m paying for osteoporosis treatment. Oh, plus medigap - another $50/month. I am lucky that I have the means to pay for these “addons,” but I’ll bet younger readers have no idea they’ll be juggling all these concerns after 65. Single payer would be far more humane IMHO, but I think we could all use a “primer” and some understanding of how to get there (other than moving to Mexico haha).
Medicare Advantage is the right-wing substitute for Medicare. Here's a wriote up
Abstract
Context: Twenty-five years ago, private insurance plans were introduced into the Medicare program with the stated dual aims of (1) giving beneficiaries a choice of health insurance plans beyond the fee-for-service Medicare program and (2) transferring to the Medicare program the efficiencies and cost savings achieved by managed care in the private sector.
Methods: In this article we review the economic history of Medicare Part C, known today as Medicare Advantage, focusing on the impact of major changes in the program's structure and of plan payment methods on trends in the availability of private plans, plan enrollment, and Medicare spending. Additionally, we compare the experience of Medicare Advantage and of employer-sponsored health insurance with managed care over the same time period.
Findings: Beneficiaries' access to private plans has been inconsistent over the program's history, with higher plan payments resulting in greater choice and enrollment and vice versa. But Medicare Advantage generally has cost more than the traditional Medicare program, an overpayment that has increased in recent years.
Conclusions: Major changes in Medicare Advantage's payment rules are needed in order to simultaneously encourage the participation of private plans, the provision of high-quality care, and to save Medicare money.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3117270/
https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/class-action-lawsuit-claims-unitedhealthcare-diverts-plan-funds-settle-unrelated-disputes
Here's a link to the proxy statement. Scroll down and read about the Board of Directors and their other associations.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000731766/000104746921001031/a2243195zdef14a.htm#da46201_proposal_1__election_of_directors
I will! thanks Bill A. If Judd's still listening - health insurance companies are, obviously, large corporations & I'd be surprised if there isn't room for delving into their political contribution$
Public Citizen
The Trump Administration launched a plan last year that was designed to privatize Medicare.
And it’s still in place today — if we don’t speak out, the future of Medicare as we know it could be in jeopardy.
Please, speak out against the Trump-era plan to privatize Medicare while there’s still time to stop it in its tracks.
The Trump Administration created a program called Direct Contracting in 2020.
Under this program, many people on Medicare would be assigned to private plans managed by Direct Contracting Entities — groups run by commercial insurers, venture capitalists, and for-profit hospitals — even if they signed up for a traditional, public Medicare plan.
These private plans could reduce the quality of care people receive and waste taxpayer money, since Direct Contracting Entities will be focused on maximizing revenues. This means seniors are likely to face administrative barriers to care, restricted choice of doctors, and inappropriate delays and denials of care.
Here’s the bottom line: Direct Contracting takes us a step closer to privatizing Medicare.
So please, sign our petition to tell the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to immediately stop the Direct Contracting program and keep Medicare public for future generations.
Thanks for speaking out for Medicare,
Melinda
Public Citizen
I’d like to see more coverage of the unceasing efforts to stop Enbridge in MN, WI & MI in its unrelenting construction & operation of pipelines that are hazardous waste sites before they are in the ground, specifically, for example, in 28 frac-outs in MN. Relatedly how does Enbridge continue to illegally operate Line 5 in MI after its permit was withdrawn by MI governor? Cover how our federal and state governments, & “mainstream” media have been CAPTURED by Enbridge & other corporations that drive our fossil-fuel addiction.
In line with some of the other comments, I'd like to see more exposure of the actors in our national media who contribute to the growing perception that no journalism is based in fact, or reliable, or anything else we need it to be. When I see/hear even public news outlets just following along the commentary of (pick a 'hot' topic) rather than redirecting attention to the real news or even the truth about that 'fake' news, it perpetuates all the storylines, further separating us from reality. We don't need fewer sources of cold, hard facts, we need more. As much of a rock star as you are Judd, you can't do it alone!
<...I realize you aren't doing this alone - you have an AMAZING team - but you know what I mean!>
I am appalled at the MSM demonizing our VP. Our 1st female VP, a woman of color. What is it about strong, educated, women they hate? Even women ‘news readers’ are doing it. I don’t believe that many have actually worked as a reporter. They are young, attractive and do not know 2 cents about history. Since when do you go to work in outfits you’d wear to a night club? When i went to college, I chose an all women’s college. Because of that, i am very comfortable with women in power. I see our VP as professional, smart, personable and truly a credit to our country. She gets trashed for saying “thee”; seriously. I can no longer watch network TV, or listen to MSM.
I don't really understand the recent spate of negative stories about her. Unclear what she has really done wrong.
Well, #1 she’s a woman, #2 woman of color, #3 educated and successful.
Negative stories, readers don't understand what she's done wrong (which implies she Has done something wrong) and where there's smoke there's fire, right? Readers begin to feel a little guarded, a bit more negative... they don't want to be the only one not "in the know"... her poll numbers go down. Someone in media power, somewhere, is gratified.
And, I should say that by this I don't mean to target Judd because I've caught myself doing the same thing. It is a cause and effect fallacy. We see something bad happen to someone and we assume they "did something" to cause it rather then realizing it is often just who they are and who their attackers are.
She's a threat to the Republican party, and they're masters of trashing (remember Trump?).
Hard to believe it’s 2021.
She says “thee”?? Wow. Another reason to adore her (I do)!
oh but there's this: “There’s an old definition of abuse of power: rules for thee but not for me,” Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader, said, repeating the phrase over and over.
so much for adoration based on use of Quaker words.
…but speaking of her - I’m very unimpressed by the rush I see, in not for profits, to embrace all things “intersectional” — it seems to me to lead to siloing. And it might be good to understand better how a biracial (Black/south Asian) woman is supposed to cope with that pressure on her identity. I don’t mean to diss Kimberle Crenshaw, but maybe this is another intellectual construct that (like CRT) can wreak havoc where over-applied/half-understood.
CRT is not overly applied.
Perhaps not but I think it’s often not well understood.
I don't watch that trash anymore either. While not a man of violence, I would love to beat Chuck Todd with a stick and whip Tucker Carlson to a frothy pulp!
Never drop the issue of January 6th. Judd’s work on its corporate enablers is what I signed up for in the 1st place. Even Liz Cheney knows: that’s your rotten core, and it has to be dried up if the house is to stand.
Yep. We are staying on it. This is updated monthly, and we dedicate newsletters to it when there are major developments: https://popular.info/p/the-january-6-corporate-accountability
Judd, you do such a great job at holding organizations and politicians accountable for their hypocrisy. It would be great to tally the number of Republicans taking credit for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework (BIF) in which they voted against it and vilified those Republicans that voted for it, at least in the House. Note as follows from Crooked Media's "What A Day":
Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill is now Joe Biden’s infrastructure law, and you know what that means: Time for Republicans to claim all the credit.
• Directing credit where it’s due will require continuous effort. Part of the challenge stems from the fact that the projects the law funds will be completed over many years. Another is that most voters don't make voting decisions based on specific policy changes. Yet a third is that Republicans will vie for credit for the programs, too. In this case, a few of them will at least have some claim to it—Democrats went out of their way to make sure the bill was bipartisan. But multiple Republicans have already tried to claim the bill wouldn’t have passed without...Donald Trump. And now Republicans who voted against the bill have begun bragging about the benefits it will bring to their states and districts.
I was reading a bit about this as well. Certainly very interesting!
I’d love to see playback of all the times DJT dodged “infrastructure week”
There's a big movement in the US to pass the Freedom to Vote Act, the John Lewis voting rights act, and DC statehood. The press is covering this solely as a voting rights issue, perhaps because they think racial conflict sells better than other aspects. The mainstream media have refused to cover DC statehood, the anti-gerrymanfering provisions, the required disclosure provisions, and the provisions mandating neutral election administration. It would be great if you could find some way to break this log jam or to investigate whether there's any kind of tacit agreement among mainstream media to embargo the most popular provisions of the Freedom to Vote Act.
I think the issue is mostly structural right now. The Freedom to Vote Act is very popular but requires either 60 votes to pass or 50 votes to change the filibuster rules. Neither appears very likely with the current construction of Congress. That doesn't mean people should stop agitating, but that's the primary reason the bills aren't going anywhere.
I think if Biden finds carrots and/or sticks that move Sen. Sinema, the Freedom to Vote bill will pass. I'm hearing this from higher level people who have access to senators' staff.
I too am so grateful to you. I'm losing the willingness to connect AT ALL with other news sources, because even with places like CNN and MSNBC with few exceptions, I feel manipulated and as with social media, like the product. I become a "viewer" that they can count. All the bullshit talk about inflation, about the tragic and sad circumstances around us - target Biden, discount Biden. This country, this world, has been through one of the most tragic and frightening periods of time in MY Lifetime, and I will be 82 any minute. There was a time whenm we pulled together, stepped up, helped each other. Now everyone just wants someome to point a finger at, and WTF - the jerk who deservedd the MOST Fingerpointing is still apparently in cotntrol of a ton of politicians who have adopted his way of thinking. Can't we once in a while give some credit to a White House occupant who is trying to correct the imbalances in our world, who is trying to do the right things after a disasterous four years of nonsense? I don't undertand the subtle attacks going on daily when, to me, it seems so many efforts are made to put our country back on track and to help other parts of the world that SO need some help. Thanks for letting me rant!! XO
Biden is in a tough media cycle right now and his approval is sagging. But things can change pretty quickly. If Biden's efforts to get COVID under control start paying dividends and there is further economic improvement, that would do it. If that doesn't happen, his standing could get worse.
Thanks for ranting. I am so in there with all that.
I think one of the most under-the-radar issues of corporate capture is state preemption. I would love to see more investigations about how corporations are using money to influence state legislatures to limit the power of local governments. https://grassrootschange.net/preemption-watch/
👆🏻This
I am hoping you can cover the Kevin Strickland case in Missouri, and the governor and GOP who refuse to pardon and release him in spite of the prosecutors who tried him saying he's innocent and witnesses recanting testimony. Really just anything about the incredibly corrupt GOP governor and legislature in Missouri. It includes bribes, threats against a journalist for exposing a government website that had private teacher information, and a representative who doesn't even live in the district he represents (not to mention a certain US Senator from the state who also doesn't live in the state).
Thanks for this suggestion Nick!
A series on select states?
Yeah Missouri is a big disappointment. My older sister farms there and is getting so fed up with state politics. Ironic that missou has a fabulous j school but outside of STL Post dispatch I don’t think there’s much good print journalism to be had in the state.
There is the Missouri Independent which just started that is trying to counter the GOP messaging and the STLPD's conservative slant, but it's got some big steps to take. Yeah the farmers in this state are being destroyed by corporate farming like Monsanto and also foreign companies buying farms out. The state legislature doesn't seem to care, and just makes farmers mad about CRT and mask mandates to distract the farmers while they pick their pockets. Our AG has sued more over mask mandates and the border than the real things happening in the state.
small-scale “family farmers”like my sister have banded together in the MO Rural Crisis center, and (speaking as a former conventional IL farm owner myself), I will not be surprised if they have the “last laugh.” (As you can perhaps tell, I’m hugely proud of both my sisters!)
I hope they do! Now I'm going to look up the MO Rural Crisis Center and learn more. Thanks for that, and best of luck to your sisters!
Margot (the farmer) has a radio program on KOPN (Columbia MO) called farm & fiddle - check that out too. And thanks for the tip on MO Independent❤️
I would like to see more coverage of the assalut on school boards nationwide. In Doylestown Pa, a hedge fund titan gave lots of money to fund far right candidates. Obviously long term goal, no public schiools.
We've definitely covered school boards some, particularly in VA, but it's high up on our list for the next year.
The movement is national...like the tea party, its Astroturf not grassroots
It's a * brilliant* strategy by the GOP, supporting people to run for local elections ensures that they have a strong farm league while the Dems can't field a bench
the daily did a deep dive on this this week, if you are referring to Bucks county....https://open.spotify.com/episode/4fAY2eiIQRn282vzvslQEP the second episode nails the play book
Thank you.
And not to overwhelm you, cuz i hard core geek out on this stuff, but GREAT WAPO article about the hype and how corporate media is LITERALLY helping the bad actors spread their message.... https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/14/gosh-fights-about-schools-might-be-overhyped/?fbclid=IwAR2EtFEZ9npUl9zcAR_cxLD7Jx0aI-RWqwXij8giogtpE-V5rpn_Gkkc7QQ
Thx. My local paper doing a great job as well for the bad actors.
I want more coverage about what the Biden Administration has accomplished the stability of our economy and why the media is only focused on inflation and job approval. There is a media blitz going on. Call out the media.
There are definitely a lot of positive aspects of the economy now including job growth, a much lower unemployment rate, and rising wages. You are right that the focus is almost exclusively on more negative stuff.
Because the corporate owners and sponsors of our current media system are seeing record profits due to the Trump tax cuts and they will take down anyone to keep them in place.
There seeing record profits because the have monetized everything Trump and it a gold mine. Where would Fox be without Trump
Because Trump gave them ratings and giant tax cuts. Why wouldn't he be a focus?
I would like to learn more about efforts to restore the US Postal service to full functioning. How can citizens advocate for a fair, independent members of the US Postal Service Board of Governors?
Wow! Your comments are good! (I rarely read comments because they are usually mostly grandstanding) They are a phenomenal advertisement for you and the good work you all do! How can we reduce the broadcasting of misinformation is my issue. The Columbia Journalism just announced an effort, and a preliminary report. It is a hard issue, and much (all?) of the problem is due to the blind acceptance of slavish followers of talk radio. But let's look for better solutions.
Thank you Bruce! I agree the comments are excellent. Misinformation is a tough issue. I wish I knew the answer.
I’d like to see a deep dive into the price gouging being carried out by the shipping and container industries with names and faces. It appears to be a big inflation factor, but it get only a passing mention. Another issue: why is gasoline production so low? How is the industry manipulating the market? What are the details and who are the actors. Again, names and faces. Thanks.
You’re SO good at following the money. I invite you to investigate the incredible corruption in state politics here in Ohio such as the HB6 First Energy scandal and Gerrymandering scandal. There are plenty of money trails to follow and the corrupt players (individuals and the corporations propping them up) need to be exposed.
Thanks for this suggestion!
Why do the networks keep showing Scott Gottlieb's comments on the virus when he's a board member of Pfizer. Don't they consider this a conflict of interest?
Firstly, thank you for your dynamite work. I sincerely would like to understand the following: Democracy must be dead, must it not? The rule of law submits to fascist oligarchy. How else to explain an entire party and its leadership - having committed untold crimes against humanity and mass-murder of its own citizens while supporting fascist ideology and a violent coup attempt - go unpunished and are held in false equivalency to "incompetent democrats". Why isn't this news?
I'm slightly less pessimistic. I don't think democracy is dead but I certainly think it is at risk.
Don't lecture Judd...goodness. He knows
In my state, Pennsylvania, the GOP led legislature is working around our Democratic governor’s veto pen by using the constitutional amendment process. Already passed as an amendment bill is a slate of voter suppression laws, including voter ID and signature matching. Amendments must pass twice in the legislature and are then put on the ballot. Last year they were able to limit the governor’s emergency powers through two constitutional amendments which they packaged up with an equal rights amendment to garner Democratic votes. According to my Democratic state rep, the Republicans have dozens of these amendment bills in the pipeline, including ones to limit the regulatory powers of the governor, to make it impossible to address methane and CO2 emissions in the state, and to gerrymander our statewide courts - our last line of defense against the Big Lie. I am not sure from what angle Popular Information could investigate this, but surely there is money behind these efforts to undermine democracy in the state of Pennsylvania. Even raising awareness in the electorate would be helpful. Thanks.
Oh this is horrifying even to an Illinoisian! I’d love to see some good reporting on PA!
Some excellent points. I live in NYC but have a weekend home in Bucks Cty. Just harrowing what is going on.
How about the funneling of money to our arms manufacturers by giving money to oppressive regimes which then use the money to buy arns from us - Al Sisi in Egypt, MBS in Saudi Arabia, Israel, etc.
Feels like one the most important stories to track is the status of the sedition caucus (House and Senate). And who is providing them support. Is there a Wiki like site that shows who they are in detail is: district, committees, term ect... and link to a list of their donors. I would also add personal net worth estimate day of the announcement to run and current. Funny how on US Reps salary so many become millionaires.
We keep this updated on a monthly basis (as new data is reported): https://popular.info/p/the-january-6-corporate-accountability
100%
What about discussing how the book by Timothy Snyder, “On Tyranny, 20 Lessons from the 20th Century” (especially the new version with illustrations by Nora Krug) could serve as a blueprint for resisting tyranny. Instead of us spending our time ranting about how bad the Republican Party has become, why not work on ways to encourage people to think about what we could do better to encourage Democracy.
I don't generally do book reviews but I love books. We could add a book component to Popular Information if there was enough interest.
Yes, please do. Thx
I'd like that.
Firstly, thank you for everything you do! It's not easy and I so appreciate you. Secondly, I have shifted my focus to local news and the batshittery that is happening in my city. Proud boy cops and a Qanon infested city council being the top issues.
Thanks for the fresh air this newsletter provides....pray that the facts you put forth reach the right eyes and result in positive action. I was incensed by a news item on NPR this morning discussing the inability of recently separated military medics and corpsmen to find employment in emergency medicine without basically re-taking all the training they have been using in the field for the term of their enlistment, often employing skill-sets far beyond anything they might encounter in a civilian setting. It seems that each state in the union has their own set of licensing rules that are inconsistent, redundant and downright foolish in the face of the huge shortage of health-care professionals. This story needs to blow up!
What you do for us is fantastic and should serve as a model for responsible journalism.. However, the mainstream news media - both right and left - is loaded with gotcha journalism geared towards generating fear (and profit) instead of the unbiased journalism we so desperately need. I'd love to see more stories about media hypocrisy, fear mongering, reporting geared towards "bang for the buck" stories valued for their salacious content rather than factuality, and the nonsensical use of valuable time to cover celebrity instead of stories that affect real people.
Yes. This.
I subscribe to many publications, but I have limited funds, so I must be somewhat judicious about who I subscribe to. Keep up the excellent work, and you can count on a contribution in the future. Thanks for what you do.
Thanks Matt!
Please talk about the roots of the madness we are drowning in- the ocean of misinformation and disinformation that manipulates people like the Virginians who voted for Youngkin. It goes way back to Limbaugh and his ilk and has grown exponentially over many years.
Also please talk about how important voting rights are and what will happen to the country when that gets fully out of control
Reagan's trickle down and Gingrich's nasty politics on a new level of hypocrisy and attacks coupled with Fox News growth....the greed for both $$ and power has gone unchecked. Can we get the ship righted??? I remain optimistic for now.
Me too Harriet!
How public universities have been corrupted by budget cuts and private investments. e.g., Koch brothers funding positions in econ departments so they can generate academic work that "supports" a libertarian, free-market worldview.
I'm thinking specifically about Art Pope & the University of North Carolina System because that's where I have the most experience, but rich people do this all over the place.
I would like to know what AT&T is up to with CNN and other far right media. When did they start their right wing swing and who are they accountable to?
They’re accountable to right wing billionaire owners and right wing corporations. I think this total right wing media rule is the biggest barrier to moving forward.
Assault on freedom of press ( Project Veritas), prosecutorial misconduct in Kyle's case, voting abuses in nursing homes. Thank you!
1. I would like to see a look at the corporate contributions to top level Democrats, especially Schumer.
2. I would like to see a look at WinRed donations versus the outrage cycle. Additionally whether the small dollar donations are offsetting the corporate donations.
PS I also have always wondered whether groups are using WinRed to funnel funds to candidates since that system seems to have very little to avoid throttling.
I would like to see cogent, thorough journalism (aka Judd) on:
1) Trump-era plans to sell American nuclear technology to Saudis.
2) High control groups that enjoy tax exemption (like Scientology, Inc.).
3) Is this coup thing really over? It doesn’t seem like it.
Personally I don’t see the same level of armed force marching on state capitols, and for this reason I don’t worry about a US Capitol do-over. But of course there’s more to “this coup thing” than just 1/6/21 dc action.
Politics and the end of our democracy - wildly important topic. Important to look for less reported issues as well. I find comments and discussions favoring the resumption of construction of nuclear power plants most alarming and least reported topic, probably because big money controls discussions and big money controls energy. Spent fuel rods contain gamma-radiation emitting isotopes. These emissions remain toxic for roughly 60,000 US presidential election cycles, should this democratic republic continue to hold elections. Most spent fuel rods are stored on major rivers. If, during any moment of those 60,000 elections cycles, a leak develops in the storage device and gamma radiation contaminates the river, all life downstream will become radically different or cease to exist. How many Popular Information readers are aware of the proximity of the nearest spent fuel rod storage facility and whether or not they and their loved ones are located downstream?
I recommend that everyone see this documentary on the positive possibilities of nuclear energy, all depending on eliminating the waste. Saw this at our annual PEFF (from our local Princeton public library, not the University!) This was 2013--has anything been developed since?
Pandora's Promise Official Trailer 1 (2013) - Nuclear Power ...
YouTube · Movieclips Indie
May 6, 2013
I have two thoughts: 1) Is it time to start naming names in the climate crisis? Who are the individual lobbyists, executives, board members, politicians, media figures, "think-tankers" etc. who are most responsible for inaction and impending mass death? It might be several thousand names, and I understand that one should be "kind to individuals and vicious to institutions" in theory, BUT.. in our current era of institutionalized oligarchy, where a relatively tiny number of individuals controls the major economic and political machinery of society, and the list of international, public casualties is about to massively pile up, into the millions no doubt, I think it's time to start naming names. I'll leave it at that. 2) There seems to be broad consensus that we should "tax the rich," but it troubles me when this is proclaimed without the corollary demand that the US needs to defund its military, as in drastically reduce its funding and scope. What is the purpose of raising tax revenue when a disproportionate amount of it will only end up in the hands of death-making war profiteers and fossil fuel interests (see #1)? Why is there an assumption that higher tax revenue would be accompanied by more progressive policies? (That seems willfully naive given the current evidence, particularly in our supposedly Democrat-led moment (Glenn Greenwald seems to have gone nuts for some reason, but his "rotating villain" theory continues to check out)). Anyway that's what's on my mind.. thank you for everything you do!
Both of these suggestions are interesting and I have some ideas in the works on #1. Stay tuned!
Love your great work, keep it up. I have read recently that the global spending on fossil fuel subsidies amounts to 6% of global GDP, per the IMF. Could you check that stat please. I bugs me when fossil fuel propagandists say we can't pick winners when looking to subsidize renewables.
Vic Davis
The inflation issue is a hot button with a lot of people, especially gas prices. I suspect this is frontal attack on the move to green energy. Koch Industries knows the Dems are going to move to renewables and wants the Dems out of office. We saw their work in the Carter administration. I want them exposed for the pirates they are. Not a small task. They are funding and working hard to own the Supreme Court and are buying politicians. The price of gas looks like another point of attack. If you can, expose it!
How CNN calls out Fox regularly but ignores OANN, perhaps because their parent company helped $$ OANN start. Call out Stelter and all of the others who attack Fox, but ignore their own employers' hypocrisy. At least Fox and MSNBC don't pretend to be anything other than their respective political camps.
I’d love to have an understanding of how cryptocurrency will affect fiat currency and whether those of us who have already saved for our retirement need to worry about the security of our investments. Do those who are still saving, or have yet to start, need to be aware of crypto? China has made it pretty clear they want no part of crypto. How does that affect the rest of the world?
And speaking of China….how bad is the threat from their authoritarianism to us, combined with that from Russia, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia? It seems they are almost working in concert to destroy democracy world wide. Scary stuff.
Sorry if this isn’t particularly articulate. As I said, I’d love to understand more which, of course, would make it easier to ask the question. Thanks!
I think this specific question on crypto is unlikely to be answered in Popular Information soon. Not because it isn't important but just because I don't think I'm the best person to answer it.
Thanks Judd. Worth asking just in case. You know stuff about stuff I never even heard of! Carry on! It’s working for us!!
Late to this party, Judd. Two overlapping ideas for future coverage, one swift with elliptical orbits, the second with more frequent revolutions.
#1) Take a look at how much $$ has been appropriated for defense spending over the past 10 years and contrast this with the combined total of what would have been the complete Build Back Better bill. This is relatively straightforward using a site like <b> https://people.defensenews.com/top-100/ </b> You could even contrast merely a single company, like Northrop Grumman, which has received over $224.7 billion in the past ten years, or go for broke and feature Lockheed Martin, which received $62.5 billion just last year alone. How much did taxpayers cough up for 20 years in Afghanistan and what did we receive in exchange? We need an informed frame from which we can pick apart anyone objecting to investing $3.2 trillion over 10 years.
#2) Expose the US Chamber of Commerce, which has become a tool for mega business rather than the smaller, often family owned businesses that provide over 75% of US jobs. We need small business (NOT Corporate America) to support climate change mitigation. Good for jobs, good for the environment, and good for our children. We cannot retain our democracy when Corporate America's concentrated power eludes account.
I would welcome more coverage about the political power and control that factory farming of meat cows, dairy cows, chickens and pigs has over politicians. The ag industry exerts so much downstream power and control with catastrophic consequences for the climate, the environment, workers health and safety and the millions of animals that suffer daily in these hellholes. There is no other industry so closely adhered to our political system that negatively impacts so many other news worthy topics. Do you think this is worthy of additional investigating?
Social media with its many lies has taken over because access to local news, especially in the form of local newspapers, is dying. If you don’t know what is going on in your local area, then you turn to platforms like Facebook or Twitter which is full of garbage.
There’s also the problem with TV news which is programmed for sensationalism and spectacle, not truth. It’s harder to fool people locally.
It’s no wonder we have a growing divide in this Country!
Also! Listing of Republicans who didn’t voted for any of the Infrastructure spending who are now taking credit for same and how much they are claiming to be responsible for and how they square the circle on nonpartisanship and responsibility for creating and passing the spending bills which they now claim credit for.
You/Popular Information are extraordinary! Please take on how hate accounts on Twitter earn a lot of money on YouTube. To expand: Their Twitter profiles are a form of advertising for their YouTube accounts; so they are rewarded for their hate. The most egregious: Twitter and YouTube know this is happening, yet they do nothing about it. I hope your attention forces Twitter and YouTube to truly act against hate accounts (suspend and/or demonetize them)