Credit: The New York Times
Alright, there’s the good news. Now, to the Democratic leadership: GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND FIX THINGS. Do not slow down, do not pause to debate, do not wander down useless pet project side roads; we don’t need to squabble over trivial points. There are huge problems that need to be solved immediately, and the clock is ticking.
In no particular order (Jen and I talked about this over coffee for an hour this morning):
- Healthcare—rebuild ACA immediately
- Campaign finance reform
- Close down ICE, the camps, and fix immigration
- Equal rights for everybody, and reinstate Affirmative Action
- Nuke the Electoral College
I know I’m forgetting, well, everything, but those are top of mind for me.
Andy Harris, Maryland’s embarrassing right-wing Congressman, did a rare town hall meeting with his Democratic opponent on Tuesday evening. After the debate, he took questions from reporters, and as typical for people who claim First Amendment rights and do who do not like it when they cannot withhold First Amendment rights from other people, his interaction with a young reporter went comically downhill fast:
Harris: “This is a two-party (consent) state; I’m not giving you authority to film me.”
Murphy: “You invited the press.”
Harris: “I’m disinviting you. You are gone. You are gone.”
Murphy: “All of your public appearances have been funding announcements.”
Harris: “Can you escort her out?”
…
Harris: “You do not have my permission to record. If you record, we will refer you to the prosecutor.”
Murphy: “Everyone in here is recording.”
Harris: “You are not allowed to. We are in a two-party state. You are not allowed to.”
Murphy: “Why am I not allowed to? Excuse me, why am I not allowed to?”
Harris: “Because I refuse to give you permission to do so.”
The next day he lied and claimed it was a private meeting where press were invited to attend. Meanwhile, the room was a public event, filled with constituents from the Eastern Shore, his current district.
I saw these ads during the football games last weekend, and wondered how in the world they were approved with the words “Paid for by the US Government” in bold letters at the bottom. And nobody says anything about them. The White House claims they are public service announcements, and they were paid for with DHS funds.
Deflock is a crowd-sourced mapping tool which shows the locations of Flock surveillance cameras, searchable by zip code or address. I’m kind of shocked that there are only a few in my general area. If you care about civil liberties, tell your local lawmakers you don’t want Flock cameras, and if they’re already installed, tell them you want them removed.
Trump administration admits grants for clean energy were canceled based on politics:
The administration has acknowledged in court documents that it canceled $7.6 billion in grants for hundreds of clean energy projects “based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state” — in this case, 16 states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
…Projects that were cut were located in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state.
Americans rewire their grocery shopping routines while digesting the biggest price jump in 50 years:
Buying food to eat at home has gotten 33% more expensive in U.S. cities since the beginning of 2019, according to government figures. In the 7 1/2 years before that, prices rose 6.4%.
Jason Kottke posted a response to an interview I hadn’t been aware of until now: Ezra Klein interviewed Ta-Nahesi Coates for the New York Times, contrasting the way they each see the current situation in America. Andrea Pitzer took a look at what they said, and contextualized the different ways they see things:
It might sound pessimistic to see, as Coates does, the likelihood of many losses looming ahead, even as we fight for wins. But if you consider the long history of the problem at hand, it releases you from bright-kid syndrome, from the illusion that you yourself are going to have every answer or fix the world. You understand that to do so is impossible. You are—at most—going to be one piece of that solution in a chain of many people that begins before you were born and continues after you die.
Her take on things is really smart, I think, and sums up a lot of what I’ve been struggling with for the last ten years: I can’t fix everything, but I have to stick to my core values and continue to do what’s right for my people and my little corner of the world.
A federal district court judge just rejected a Justice Department order for Maryland to turn over its voter rolls, which is another excellent win for democracy.
It’s unclear how the Justice Department planned to use the voting histories and personal data of millions of Marylanders. But the agency’s attorneys have stated in other court proceedings that it planned to share the lists with the Department of Homeland Security to aid immigration enforcement.
“Broadcast is an ice cube that is melting, OK?” Mr. Bilton said, saying the show had to adapt. “Bari loves this institution,” he added. “She loves ’60 Minutes.’”
At that, Mr. Pelley interrupted.
“She is murdering ‘60 Minutes,’” the correspondent said. “She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that.”
Bari Weiss, the controversial new head of CBS News, who was hired with no previous broadcast journalism experience, hired a controversial new producer for 60 Minutes: Nick Bilton, a writer with no previous broadcast journalism experience. In an all-hands meeting with 60 Minutes staff (directly after firing the previous executive producer and two longtime correspondents) he was challenged by Scott Pelley, longtime senior correspondent, who challenged him to explain why these changes were made. Thankfully, he didn’t pull any punches. For 6 years, senior officials facing challenges by MAGA or DOGE have quietly resigned in “protest” without doing or saying anything else, as if just leaving is going to make a difference. Bullies do not like when there is pushback. It’s about time someone actually pushed the fuck back.
Bravo, Mr. Pelley. Thank you for showing us the way.
Update: Predictably, the stooges fired him.
Update to the Update: Dan Rather weighs in:
Going forward, every interview, every story, every shot should come with an asterisk superimposed on the screen right next to the CBS eye: *“This story was approved by Donald Trump.”
In the scathing post, there is also a brief glimmer of hope:
The “60 Minutes” formula is replicable, with the right people, enough money, and a platform willing to air it. We have heard from a former “60 Minutes” insider that such discussions are in the works. Fingers crossed. Until then, we are left with a sanitized “60” that will play well for an audience of one.
Every day I get emails from various Democratic organizations, asking for money. They all say the same thing, in about ten different iterations: Can you believe this, We must stop this, There’s no time to lose, We need help, Our funding is running out, etc. All with the same urgency and desperation. I know why they’re written this way; I’ve been adjacent to and involved with advertising long enough to understand what gets the eyeballs and what gets thrown in the Junk folder.
But that’s not what I’m looking for. The fascists in power had a plan when they went into this administration; it was called Project 2025. it outlined clearly all of their policy goals, their strategy, and the christian white nationalist oligarchy they wanted to reshape our democracy into. It was shared broadly with the general public before the election, and we blindly elected its authors into power. And they’ve been running the playbook ever since then, using Executive orders, DOGE, a corrupt Supreme Court, and ICE/Border Patrol recruits to break down our society.
No, I can’t believe this. Yes, we need to stop them. There surely isn’t any time to lose. Yes, we need help. But I’m not giving the Democrats any money until they come up with a fucking plan. What’s the plan? How do we fight back against the dismantling of our democracy? What are they going to do to regain control, but more importantly, what are they going to do once they’re in control? How are they going to rebuild without dissolving into a bunch of squabbling special interests? Where is our Project 2029?
What’s the fucking plan?