Lawsuits Take the Lead in Fight Against Disinformation
In just a few weeks, lawsuits and legal threats from a pair of obscure election technology companies have achieved what years of advertising boycotts, public pressure campaigns and liberal outrage could not: curbing the flow of misinformation in right-wing media.
Fox Business canceled its highest rated show, “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” on Friday after its host was sued as part of a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit. On Tuesday, the pro-Trump cable channel Newsmax cut off a guest’s rant about rigged voting machines. Fox News, which seldom bows to critics, has run fact-checking segments to debunk its own anchors’ false claims about electoral fraud.
This is not the typical playbook for right-wing media, which prides itself on pugilism and delights in ignoring the liberals who have long complained about its content. But conservative outlets have rarely faced this level of direct assault on their economic lifeblood
This is especially sweet during impeachment week. But we are not done with accountability.
Here’s the reference in the picture caption.
Parler 'offered Donald Trump a 40 per cent stake in the company while he was president if he agreed to post content on the app four hours before uploading the same messages to Twitter and Facebook'
Biden says Trump should not receive intelligence briefings
Biden stopped short of announcing that he had officially decided to prevent his predecessor from receiving the briefings, which are traditionally given before former presidents travel abroad, particularly in an official capacity. But Biden has the unilateral authority to deny intelligence access to anyone he chooses, and his remarks amounted to a statement that Trump — who for four years controlled the entire U.S. security apparatus — was himself a security risk.
Denying the briefings to a former president would be an unprecedented action, and Biden’s remarks, made during an appearance on “CBS Evening News” with Norah O’Donnell, emphasized the president’s concern, and that of other officials, that Trump poses a risk to national security because of what he might disclose.
Zach Carter/HuffPost:
Biden Beats Back The Austerians At The Gates
The Age of Larry Summers is over.Back in 2009, many if not most mainstream economists believed that excessive government budget deficits were a bigger threat to society than weak growth or prolonged unemployment. Going too big wouldn’t just risk “overheating” ― it raised the prospect of a second financial crisis that could bring down the dollar and even American political hegemony.
Today, by contrast, economists increasingly accept the idea that deficits are not inherently destabilizing, but a normal part of economic management. The price of going too big isn’t a crash, but a little unwanted inflation ― something that can be reined in through Federal Reserve policymaking or some tax increases from Congress. These may be unpleasant when they come, but it will be much worse for people to lose jobs, incomes and homes in the meantime. When the costs of going too small are shattered families and broken faith in a shared national project, the choice is not difficult.
As conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks put it on Friday, “When your great nation is facing decline because of rising inequality, insecurity, distrust and alienation, you don’t just sit there. You try something big.”
A reporter shares her minute-by-minute recollection of being trapped in the Senate on Jan. 6
CBS News’ Grace Segers was in the Senate press gallery when rioters overran the building and was shuffled around with senators as the chaos unfolded.
After about half an hour, the senators were suddenly evacuated. They streamed to the open doors on one side of the room like fish caught in a current. Sen. Cory Booker, who was on the tail end of this exodus, looked up at the reporters in the Senate gallery and asked how we were doing. He said it casually, with a smile on his face.
“We’re doing OK,” I said, my voice likely tinged with hysteria.
It seemed at first like the senators would be evacuated but the reporters would remain trapped in the chamber.
“What about us?” a Senate gallery staffer shouted down to the police officers, notifying them that the reporters and staffers needed to evacuate, too. Without that staffer’s quick thinking, we probably would have been trapped in the chamber when the rioters entered it just moments later.
Trigger warning on this one...
Teen survivor of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, speaking publicly for the first time, directs her outrage at deniers
The fact that eight years have passed without meaningful gun violence legislation, Ashley added, “is so unacceptable.”
“[President Biden] understands what losing a child is like, and he understands the amount of trauma and pain that comes behind losing a child,” Ashley said. “I think for him to be able to connect to that is so powerful because he can make a difference. And I think a big thing I would tell him is not give up on us, you know, not give up on the idea of, like, you can’t change because like, if he pushes hard enough and if we continue to fight long enough and hard enough, things will change.”
The QAnon Rep Isn’t Owning the Libs. She’s Leading the GOP’s Space-Laser Suicide March.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is Sarah Palin, but not occasionally charismatic. Steve Bannon, but not occasionally smart. Donald Trump, but not occasionally funny.
The vote was mostly along party lines, with just 11 of 208 Republicans joining every Democrat to relieve freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments. One hundred and ninety seven Republicans went on the record supporting one of the most repulsive people to serve in congress in my lifetime (and that includes prolific child molester Dennis Hastert and prolific sexual abuse ignorer Jim Jordan).
It’s a shame, too, because while Greene’s theatrics may be raising her own profile by putting her sassy masks on the news a lot, they’re doing so at the expense of her own constituents. What do they get when their representative has no power? Nothing. Not even liberal tears. The libs have not been owned. The libs are in charge. Greene isn’t living rent-free in Democrats’ heads. Greene’s theatrics are paying their rent. And yet, Republicans stood behind Greene. This is the hill they’re going to be space-lasered to death on. This is their platform: We stand with the crazy assholes.
AOC is an asset for Democrats, Greene is an albatross for the GOP
On the other side of the aisle, Ocasio-Cortez’s positive contributions stand in stark contrast to Greene’s negative comments. The progressive Democrat has been working within the system to make major policy changes.
Ocasio-Cortez’s advocacy for stronger environmental protection and comprehensive health care has made enemies among Democratic congressional leaders, but AOC has made the Congress better and the Democratic Party stronger.
Every caucus needs a conscience and AOC along with other progressive Democrats fill that role admirably for the House Democratic majority.
President Biden has acted quickly and decisively with executive orders to protect the environment. It is hard to imagine that the candidate who ran as a moderate would have been so aggressive as president without the fervid and unrelenting advocacy of AOC and other progressives.
Was it impeachment? Jonathan Chait/New York:
Would Trump Have Won if Not for Impeachment? A Pro-Trump Journalist Thinks So.
Was it the pandemic? The Trump campaign knows so. WaPo:
Poor handling of virus cost Trump his reelection, campaign autopsy finds
Source: Daily Kos
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