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We HIGHLY recommend these ladies. Not only are they well-informed, but they end each show with a "Good News" section, to uplift and inspire.
“Working to save democracy through a no-nonsense, everywoman approach to understanding politics.”
"American Democracy is not promised, and with all the forces working against it, saving it will take a level of work most people aren't ready for. The Politics Girl Podcast is here to give people a reason to care and a reason to fight."
"Marc Elias and Paige Moskowitz cover the latest in voting rights, redistricting and democracy. With help from special guests, Defending Democracy brings you the info you need to know."
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"Historians are fond of saying that the past doesn’t repeat itself; it rhymes.
To understand the present, we have to understand how we got here.
That’s where this podcast comes in.
Heather Cox Richardson is a professor of American history. This is a chronicle of today’s political landscape, but because you can’t get a grip on today’s politics without an outline of America’s Constitution, and laws, and the economy, and social customs, this newsletter explores what it means, and what it has meant, to be an American.."
“Noel Casler is known for offering sharp political commentary, especially regarding the intersection of entertainment, media, and politics. As a former comedian and behind-the-scenes figure in the entertainment industry (having worked on "The Apprentice" with Donald Trump), he often offers unique perspectives on political events, especially those surrounding Trump's presidency, the Republican Party, and U.S. politics in general. His insights often focus on the behavior of politicians, how media influences politics, and the cultural dynamics that shape political discourse.”
"Listen to the PBS News Hour program in its entirety, including updates, in-depth reports, interviews and analysis, all featuring our senior correspondents."
Why PBS?
"Since the mid-2000s, Roper Opinion Research polls commissioned by PBS have consistently placed the service as the most-trusted national institution in the United States."
"“Each week, Stacey will break down the biggest issues we face into digestible, actionable items, introduce us to the warriors for good already working towards solutions, strategize, and share tangible ways to get involved. Because we can't fix everything, everywhere, all at once; but we can each do something, somewhere, soon."
“Glenn brings analysis and insight to current legal issues, drawing from his 30 years as a federal prosecutor, homicide prosecutor, and Army JAG.”
"TALKING FEDS is a roundtable discussion that brings together prominent former government officials, journalists, and special guests for a dynamic and in-depth analysis of the most pressing questions in law and politics."
After the 2016 election, a movement that would become known as “the resistance” quickly emerged to protest and confront Donald Trump and his incoming administration. The hope was that if Trump could simply be held back — resisted — for four years, politics would go back to normal. A Democrat would retake the White House and Trump would be viewed as an unfortunate aberration.
Since Election Day, it has become fashionable in some circles to view that effort as a failure. The cynics dismiss the grassroots energy and the hard work of so many as naïve and without impact.
As usual, they are wrong. The resistance movement helped protect the Affordable Care Act from repeal and led to bold policies at the state and local levels. It built new pro-democracy institutions that challenged Trump in the courts and in the streets. It inspired thousands of new candidates to run for office and contributed to a successful mid-term election. Most importantly, in 2020, it helped defeat Donald Trump.
Republicans used that time fruitfully. They built new ideological organizations, new campaign structures, new media outlets and new leaders. Even as they suffered losses in the midterms, they were undeterred from their mission of fleshing out what a second Trump term would look like. For all of Trump’s disavowals of Project 2025 during the campaign, that effort and other, equally extreme measures were being planned.
MAGA was not focused specifically on resisting Biden. It had a bolder agenda. It wanted to build an opposing ideological and political movement to win elections and govern over the long term. It prioritized hate over hope, cronyism over competence and retribution over reconciliation.
As we head towards January, it is our turn to use this period productively. Hoping that Trump fails is not a plan. We must develop and foster new movements, structures, tactics, platforms and leaders to oppose Trump and articulate a positive vision.
In most democratic political systems, this is referred to as the opposition. Rather than a resistance, the concept of an opposition is more comprehensive and durable. It recognizes that there are no time limits to the effort.
In some systems the opposition entails an entire shadow government, in others it focuses on specific platforms. I don’t pretend to know what the version should be for our country at this time, but I know it is needed.
Here are five principles I believe we must start with to build an effective opposition…
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Inside this week’s tip sheet:
I do not pretend to have all the answers or even to know all the right questions. These five ideas are just a starting point. What I do know is this: the success of our democracy rests on an effective opposition movement. I plan to do my part and I can promise you that so will Democracy Docket.
A bill, HR 9495, which would allow a presidentially appointed treasury secretary to unilaterally strip a nonprofit of its status if deemed a “terrorism-supporting” organization, has passed in the US House of Representatives.
The bill passed 219-184, mostly along partisan lines, with Republicans in support and Democrats opposing; 15 Democrats broke with their caucus to vote in favor of the bill. The measure, formally named the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, has raised alarm across the nonprofit sector and US civil society, and a multitude of organizations—from civil rights groups to nonprofit media to advocacy and direct service groups—have mobilized against the bill.
An earlier version of the bill was introduced with bipartisan support amid widespread campus protests over the war in Gaza, with at least the implication that some groups supporting or organizing those protests were also (or therefore) supporting “terrorism.”
That assumption alone would be enough to spark fears of political retribution by any president, via the secretary of the treasury, against disfavored nonprofit groups.
But the stakes of the bill were raised when Donald J. Trump won reelection this month.
Those mobilizing against the measure fear that Trump…will use the bill to target and silence any organization he disagrees with.
This September, the ACLU and some 150 organizations cosigned a letter opposing the legislation, expressing “deep concerns about the bill’s potential to grant the executive branch extraordinary power to investigate, harass, and effectively dismantle any nonprofit organization—including news outlets, universities, and civil
liberties organizations like ours—by stripping them of their tax-exempt status based on a unilateral accusation of wrongdoing.”
Last week, the Council on Foundations, Independent Sector, National Council of Nonprofits, and United Philanthropy Forum penned another letter, stating:
This legislation would allow the Secretary of the Treasury to designate section 501(c) nonprofits as “terrorist supporting organizations” at the Secretary’s discretion, without requiring the Secretary to share their full evidence or reasoning with accused nonprofits. Furthermore, the legislation runs counter to constitutional due process protections by placing the burden of proof on the accused organization and providing only 90 days for organizations to demonstrate their innocence before revoking their tax-exempt status.
The bill failed an earlier House vote last week, when supporters failed to rally a two-thirds vote required for procedural reasons, with 52 Democrats breaking with their caucus to vote in favor. The House vote today, however, required only a simple majority to pass.
Speaking on the House floor Thursday, Democrat opponents of the bill warned that it could be weaponized by Trump and his administration to target political enemies and perceived opposition to the incoming president’s agenda. Describing the bill as a “death penalty for nonprofits,” Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) said that rather than protecting Americans, the measure would allow President-elect Donald Trump to “use it as a sword against those he views as his political enemies.…If this bill were to become law we would hand him a bludgeon for a crusade against those he deems the greatest danger to America, what he calls ‘the enemy within’.”
“It is not just Trump imposing a death sentence that should concern us but it is his power to intimidate,” said Doggett. “Clearly the bill would have a chilling effect on any group that has the audacity to challenge his chilling vision.” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who chairs the Democratic Progressive Caucus, called the bill “an authoritarian play by Republicans to expand the sweeping powers of the executive branch to go after political enemies and stifle political dissent.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) called the measure “a dangerous and unconstitutional bill that would allow unchecked power to target nonprofit organizations as political enemies and shut them down without due process.”
The bill now advances from the Republican-controlled House to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain.
Republican members dismissed such objections. Noting previous bipartisan support for the bill, House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-MO) blasted his colleagues across the aisle for voting against the measure.
“Despite that consistent bipartisan support,” Smith said, “the majority of our Democrat colleagues voted last week to block passage of this bill. Why?…Because President Trump won the election.” “They now believe the authorities in this bill might be abused,” said Smith. “But every concern raised by Democrats has been addressed in this bill to ensure due process and to protect legitimate nonprofits.”
The bill now advances from the Republican-controlled House to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain—but where it very well may be defeated by Democratic senators, who still hold a slim majority.
Regardless, groups following the legislation warn that the bill is likely to return, at least in some form, in 2025—under a Republican-controlled Congress and President Donald Trump.
The stupidity that took hold of much of the United States on November 5th was decades in the making. The dumbing down of our electorate, including much of suburban and rural red state America, was a long and carefully crafted process.
It was spearheaded by Rupert Murdoch on behalf of billionaires and bad actors across the globe. Weakening our democracy for their own tactical and financial gains. A litany of Bond villain-types obviously enabled and assisted him along the way; everyone from Jeffrey Epstein to Elon Musk played a hand in what occurred in our recent election. They used the fear that many of our citizens are fed daily through chyrons and crypto bros against them; like a Judo master would use an opponent’s own weight to pin them to the mat.
Murdoch didn’t just pump poison into the minds of MAGA America through the ‘alternative facts’ of Fox News - which is and will continue to be ubiquitous on U.S. military bases and red state airports, doctor’s offices and hotel bars. Rupert knew exactly the demographic he was after but understood one must first infiltrate and influence the culture to achieve the ultimate goal. He set out to do this over decades, not just in news media but in his acquisition of television and movie studios to pump content into the hearts and minds of Americans.
Much of that programming involved crime shows often involving white women as the victim du jour at the top of the show. Usually found scantily clad poolside or in a hotel room, the victims of sexualized violence appear as an objectification of the specifically tailored type of fear for sale in America. The pithy comments that usually flow from the mouth of the detective on duty as he stands over a beautiful young woman, while his snarky sidekick chimes in with some retort about the ‘monster that did this,’ reminds us that law and order are the antidote to fear or the aggressions of ‘the other.’
Trump would often reference sexualized violence and graphically describe it being perpetrated onto a ‘beautiful young woman or girl’ at his MAGA rallies. It seemed to be one of his obsessions but it had its purpose. It was programing in line with Murdoch’s carefully cultivated objective, the content deemed most effective to achieve their goals and those whose interests they serve.
We consume an awful lot of fictionalized crime-based violence in our entertainment universe - and 20th Century Fox and Fox Entertainment Group produce a sizable portion of it. One cannot help but wonder if it all calcifies in the minds of voters and influences their political choices. Especially when the layers of fear have been built up to respond to very specific and targeted stimulation. It makes people more willing to believe a man like Trump will protect them with his fake tough guy act and his flags and followers. My hunch is that it does indeed make a difference, a big one.
Murdoch has known this for a long time and the garden he has dutifully seeded has borne fruit.
There’s an old Arabic quote that I heard from Anthony De Mello, it states: ‘The nature of the rain is the same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the garden’. Much of our current media brings this adage to mind. A cult built around the illusion of the patriarchal white man as savior (in this case a rather orange man of course and wearing shoe-lifts, a girdle, a dead ferret on his head and a half a gallon of deck sealant slathered on his face but I digress).
It is perhaps no accident that Trump’s message of migrant criminals descending upon America’s cities and suburbs resonated with even more suburban white women than it did in 2016. Much of what they consumed and ALL of his rhetoric was designed to address and inflate their irrational fears. Even the absurd and outlandish claims of Haitian migrants ‘eating cats and dogs’ found a home in many of the minds Trump targeted.
There are obviously legions of smart, educated Democratic white women voters who stood up to Donald Trump and voted for Harris/Walz but the fact that any of my fellow Americans still voted for him will never not be staggering to me. Especially when you consider the GOP’s attacks on women’s healthcare and SCOTUS’ Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision which essentially overturned Roe v. Wade and sent a good portion of this country back into the dark ages concerning reproductive health care. As shameful and as abhorrent as I have seen in my lifetime.
It will also sadly be the most impactful on the lives of both women and men and should have been at the core of anyone’s decision in this election. I would often hear young men being interviewed as ‘undecided voters’ in the lead-up to election day, and when they cited the economy as their ‘main issue,’ my heart would sink a bit. Their main issue should have been standing up for women’s health care and protecting the equality of their mother’s, sisters, girlfriends and partners.
Have they been desensitized to the suffering of women by a lifetime of watching them suffer or serve as crime props and objects of desire on T.V., for most of their years, not to mention social media and the influence of the far-right manosphere in shaping their adolescent mindsets. Toxic masculinity seemed to reach its zenith during this campaign and the brofluencers did more than their share to deliver Trump his victory. Young men should have viewed the threat against the women in their lives as a bigger threat than any vague notion that ‘Trump was better on the economy,’ which is one of the most successful lies ever told a people. It was also one based in fear, as the Dems have been portrayed consistently by the GOP as somehow ‘weak on the economy’ for decades now, even though the data shows the opposite to be true with Republicans repeatedly taking credit for Democratic legislation and economic policies.
Trump is an absolute fool when it comes to economics and as failed and corrupt a businessman as this country has produced but he has been protected and coddled by a billionaire class bent on leveraging his venality for their own gains.They have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams and when they’re all congratulating themselves this winter at Bohemian Grove, they should save a special toast for their old pal Rupert Murdoch. He did more than most to make this nightmare come about and he will be rewarded handsomely for it. The country and world beyond will suffer but that is in many ways the point.
Sometimes the bad guys win, and this is definitely one of those times. We can fight back by examining all angles of what we are up against and beginning to address it. Arts and culture matter - and much of American lacks a lot of it.
Together we can help to change that: we can shape our future and realize it belongs as much to us as it does to a man like Rupert Murdoch or Donald Trump. Or most especially an Elon Musk.
At least in theory. Its up to us to make it a reality, or at least see the one we are living in with clear eyes and awareness. In these pages I will continue to do that as best as I can - and I truly appreciate your readership and support.
I believe we will get through this together, not just as a country but as a planet.
Donald Trump is not Hitler. He is not Stalin. His vision of America is neither pre-war Germany nor the post-war Soviet Union. The United States is not at risk of falling into totalitarianism.
The United States has its own history and culture. It has a unique way of manifesting its politics. That does not mean, however, that we cannot learn from other places and other times. As Mark Twain, the most American of American writers, wrote: “History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”
So, let’s start with what we know. Trump is a deeply unserious man. In a different era, he would have been a carnival barker. If not born to privilege and wealth he would be running a low level scheme or selling supplements on a sketchy website. Instead, he is the president-elect who, in addition to hawking schlocky items on the internet, will soon command the highest, most powerful office on earth.
We know that he admires modern day dictators and strongmen. He seeks their favor and rejoices in their flattery.
He rejects liberalism — things like the rule of law, impartial government and fundamental rights. He has contempt for democratic norms and institutions. Elections are only fair when he wins and rigged when he loses.
For Trump, the presidency exists to exact the spoils of electoral victory rather than a public trust.
Like many of you, I have spent the last few days trying to make sense of things — asking how this happened and what comes next. As for the second question, I have been doing a lot of reading.
It is something that preoccupied the Founders, who were afraid of the reemergence of a king. Decades after the founding, John Adams was still concerned. In 1814 he wrote to a colleague that “democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
As part of my processing, I went back and reread several of Hannah Arendt’s works. She is best known for her account of the trial of Adolf Eichmann in which she coined the phrase “banality of evil.” In her telling, the Nazi SS leader was a mediocre joiner. In her words a “clown.”
But, in my opinion, her most important book was The Origins of Totalitarianism, in which she attempts to explain the mechanics of how totalitarian movements come to power. One observation of hers strikes me as most relevant today.
“Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.”
It is hard to make sense of Trump’s recent cabinet nominations without coming back to this central truth: He is nominating “crackpots and fools” because that is what Trumpism requires. It is required both by Trump himself but also by his followers.
As a narcissist, Trump surrounds himself with people who, like him, reject science, expertise and the idea of objective facts. As a leader, he must continue to promote ever more extremist conspiracy theories to explain why his last conspiracy theory failed to come true.
Quick quiz: what do these three statements have in common?
1) Donald Trump won in a landslide.
2) Kamala Harris lost because she ran a terrible campaign.
3) The Democratic brand is toxic.
Answer? They’ve all been spread by the mainstream media. And they’re all false.
Let’s take a moment to factcheck these classics of the gaslighting genre.
1) Donald Trump won in a landslide. FALSE. As of this writing, Trump’s popular vote margin over Harris is only two percent. As votes from western states continue to trickle in, his margin may be even tinier (insert Stormy Daniels joke here). This election will likely wind up being the closest since the 2000 contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore.
As for the Electoral College, Trump’s margin there was far from a landslide by historical standards, as I showed here. What’s more, only 780,000 votes separated the two candidates in all swing states combined. That’s how close Kamala Harris came to being president.
Why does this matter? The fact that this election was so close means that the 2026 midterms are eminently winnable for Democrats. If, on the other hand, the media convince you that Trump won by a huge mandate, you might feel hopeless. And hopelessness is not a plan.
2) Kamala Harris lost because she ran a terrible campaign. FALSE. No campaign is flawless, but Harris’s came pretty close. She had to mount hers in a mere hundred days and did so brilliantly, with a masterful convention and a dominant debate performance.
So why did she lose? For starters, Harris was linked to Joe Biden, who was deeply unpopular. His approval rating was a lowly 40, which she wildly outperformed. She also had the misfortune to run in a year when incumbent parties were swept out of power around the world.
And last—but certainly not least—she made the fatal error of being a woman. That’s no small data point in a nation that has yet to choose a female head of state—something that 88 other countries have somehow managed to do. Even macho Mexico just elected a woman, and—eek!—a Jewish one at that.
3) The Democratic brand is toxic. FALSE. As Democratic “strategists” (euphemism for “unemployed gasbags”) bloviate on cable news about why their party lost, I’m reminded of a famous quote from the great political humorist Will Rogers: “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.”
The mainstream media have been amplifying the lazy critiques of this circular firing squad to attract clicks and viewers. But there’s no evidence that the Democrats—who have a stellar bench of popular elected officials including Andy Beshear, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Shapiro, and Wes Moore, to name just four—are in such dire straits.
And there was good news for Democrats this cycle. In North Carolina, for example, Democrat Josh Stein defeated MAGA Republican Mark Robinson by a thumping 15 points. If that proves anything, it’s that the Black Nazi brand is toxic.
If you’re like me, you’re sick of being gaslighted and have decided to turn off the gaslight.
Since the election, cable news channels have seen their ratings crater. And hundreds of thousands of Washington Post readers have cancelled their subscriptions to protest the craven behavior of the paper’s owner, Lex Luthor wannabe Jeff Bezos.
So you might be wondering: now that I’m over mainstream media, where do I get my news?
Answer: mainly from BBC Sounds, the app from the BBC, which delivers high quality radio reporting from all over the world, for free. It’s not perfect, but it’s a huge upgrade over what the for-profit American media companies have been dishing out.
For example, you could watch MSNBC’s entire primetime lineup and never know that there’s a continent called Africa. Tune in to the BBC and you’ll learn all about the civil war in Sudan, which is affecting a huge swath of your fellow humans. Such coverage will make all those cable roundtables about whether Tim Walz was the right choice seem pretty silly.
But I wouldn’t recommend consuming the news—even from an excellent source like the BBC—around the clock. I’m not a neuroscientist like George Santos, but in my experience, turning off the news is good for your mental health. And you’ll have more time for things you actually enjoy. Read a novel. See a friend. Walk your dog. Which is what I’m going to do right now.ed.
PASS THE PRESS ACT
Sen. Ron Wyden has introduced the PRESS Act, which would shield journalists at the federal level from the retaliation that Trump has promised against all his enemies, and give them protection against disclosing their sources. While this act’s chances of passing on its own are unlikely, we can still push for adding this as an amendment to a funding bill in the upcoming lame-duck Congress. Even if the GOP blocks the legislation, it is still worth letting our legislators know that we support a free press that’s unbound by government interference, and we will be watching any efforts to restrict independent journalism very closely. Let’s contact our legislators about this bill (S. 2074/HR 4250) today.
PROTECT NON-PROFITS AND THE RIGHT TO DISSENT
Last week, the House narrowly defeated the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act (H.R. 9495). Part of the bill would give the Treasury Secretary, who is appointed by the President, the power to label any non-profit organization a "terrorist-supporting organization" and remove its tax-exempt status. While on its face, the intent may seem harmless, the language of the bill does not define "terrorist-supporting organization," does not include oversight or due process, and puts the designation of "terrorist supporting organization" at the Treasury Secretary's discretion. Material support for foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) is already prohibited, further making this bill unnecessary and more likely a tool to be used by the Executive Branch to punish non-profits and activists it disagrees with. When the bill was voted on last Tuesday, over 52 Democrats voted in favor, and it lost on a two-thirds vote. On Thursday, the bill was reintroduced, and it is expected to be brought to the House floor today, Monday, November 18th, and only needs a simple majority to pass. If passed, groups wouldn’t be able to collect donations, pay staff, or get banking services, and the administration wouldn’t even have to provide an explanation. This is part of the revenge work the administration has promised. Let's contact our representative and tell them that we want them to protect the right to dissent and prevent the abuse of power in the Executive Branch by voting "no" on H.R. 9495. We can contact them directly via phone or email or use the form emails available at Indivisible, the ACLU, or the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund.
UNCALLED HOUSE RACES - MORE BALLOT-CURING OPPORTUNITIES
While the Republicans won the House, the balance is still in play. There are still several undecided House seats and ballot curing is still happening. Let’s use these links from Team Pelosi to sign up to help with ballot curing for some of the remaining uncalled Congressional House races. We can also use activist Amy Siskind’s master list of ballot-curing opportunities.
ASK MAJORITY LEADER CHUCK SCHUMER AND SENATORS TO CONFIRM BIDEN NOMINEES TO THE JUDICIARY
Judges appointed by Trump in his first session have wreaked havoc in dismantling reproductive rights, shutting down humane immigration policies–like providing green cards for spouses of Americans, and even dismissing Trump’s own criminal case. Before Trump gets a chance to appoint more judges, the Senate, in its lame duck session has an opportunity to confirm more Biden nominees. Let’s write to Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer and ask him to prioritize this in the Senate’s final session before Republicans take over. And let’s contact our own Democrat Senators to ask them to use their influence to make sure this happens.
OPPOSE THE APPOINTMENT OF FRACKING COMPANY EXECUTIVE, CHRIS WRIGHT, AS ENERGY SECRETARY
Trump has chosen Chris Wright to be his Energy Secretary. Chris Wright is the CEO of the Denver-based fracking company, Liberty Energy. Not only does Wright stand to profit personally from the reinstatement of fracking, but he is also an outspoken critic of efforts to shift towards clean energy and slow climate change. Putting him in charge of energy would lead to the abandonment of all efforts to mitigate damage to the climate. Let’s contact our senators and ask them to oppose this appointment.
TELL SENATORS TO CONFIRM NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD CHAIR NOW
There’s only a limited amount of time left to confirm Lauren McFarren as Chair of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Under her guidance, the board has strengthened protections for workers, reversing Trump-era policies, punishing anti-organizing actions and supporting collective bargaining. Her reconfirmation would give Democratic members control of the board majority until 2026. As of now, McFerran’s current term expires Dec. 16. A second Trump administration could starve the NLRB of resources and dismantle workers’ rights, so let’s strengthen workers’ protection as much as we can now by calling our Senators and demanding they confirm Lauren Mc Farren as National Labor Relations Chair now.
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