The New York Times has made it clear in recent public comments that it doesn't think the defense of democracy is part of its job. This failure to meet the moment is a shameful surrender. 🧵 1/10 In a new interview, NYT Executive Editor Joe Kahn downplayed the preservation of democracy as an issue this year.  He thinks immigration is No. 1, based on unnamed polls. But that’s not even true. Many polls say the economy. 2/10

The New York Times keeps putting vague headlines on stories about MAGA fascism. It happens so often that I don’t think it’s accidental. A proper, direct headline for this story would be:
“Trump’s Rhetoric Gets More Radical and Divisive.”
That’s what the story says. Here’s a gift link for the NYT story by @chashomans. It’s generally an accurate and alarming story about the Trump threat to end democracy. nytimes.com/2024/04/27/mag…

🧵
Ginni Thomas is still getting away with her J6 coup plotting.
Clarence Thomas is still ruling on cases involving his insurrectionist wife.
Steve Bannon is still out of jail and doing a podcast. 🧵
Gen. Michael Flynn, who was pardoned for his treachery, is still promoting his anti-government message, is still collecting his military pension, and is promoting a new movie.
Fox News is still lying after paying a $787M settlement for its past lies.

Today’s Trump trial testimony reminds us of how mainstream media – including the New York Times, Washington Post and Politico – were badly played by Trump in 2016. An example: The National Enquirer’s Trump-inspired hoax linking Ted Cruz’s dad to the JFK assassination.🧵1/7 The Enquirer’s David Pecker testified that the tabloid faked a photo of Ted Cruz’s dad with Lee Harvey Oswald to help Trump’s campaign in 2016. He said the tabloid “mashed” 2 photos together. “That’s how that story was prepared — created, I would say.” 2/7
nbcnews.com/politics/donal…

A few days before Biden’s inauguration in 2021, Rep. Ralph Norman secretly urged the White House to declare martial law to keep Trump in office.
In the last 15 months, the New York Times has mentioned Norman in 44 stories without recalling that fact.
That’s coup amnesia.🧵1/6 The latest New York Times mention of the traitorous Ralph Norman was published today — with nothing about his text suggesting that Trump enlist the military in a coup in 2021. To the Times, Norman is just a GOP congressman doing GOP congressman things. 2/6
nytimes.com/2024/04/18/us/…

Republican politicians keep spewing violent rhetoric. Not all voters are aware of this, so we must keep warning them. And we mustn’t normalize it. The GOP’s gun-waving craziness endangers our country. This thread includes some shocking examples. 1/13 This week, Sen. Tom Cotton called for people to “take matters into their own hands” if protesters block roads. Cotton wants protesters thrown off bridges. He said if protesters glue their hands to cars, they should have “their skin ripped off.” 2/13

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1779939134045299168

Many Americans still underestimate Donald Trump. They think he’s a cartoon character in a show called politics. They don’t think a Trump victory this year would harm their lives. They’re wrong. In this thread I look at off-base predictions about Trump over the years. 1/15 Trump was such a joke in 2011 that Comedy Central broadcast a roast of him. Seth MacFarlane said it was “fucking delusional” that Trump talked about running for president. 2/15

I saw another right-wing cheap-shot artist describe Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker as a child of privilege. That would be true if money was the only thing that mattered. But Pritzker lost both of his parents by the age of 17. A thread. 1/7 J.B. Pritzker’s father died of a heart attack at age 39, when J.B. was 7. His mother was an alcoholic, and J.B. would check on her at night because she drank and smoked in bed and he was afraid she’d set the sheets on fire. 2/7
chicago.suntimes.com/2022/5/13/2306…

Why did it take independent journalist Jonathan M. Katz rather than a news org with the resources of WaPo, NYT or Politico to break the story about Sen. Katie Britt’s dishonest State of the Union rebuttal? rawstory.com/katie-britt-ou… And when will those big news outlets pick up the story? Will they ignore it because they’re embarrassed? Will they sneak it into the 14th paragraph of a story 3 days from now?

This “beleaguered” headline is bullshit. It’s an example of how the New York Times routinely undercuts the hard work of public policy in favor of MAGA fascist showmanship. The New York Times is intent on entertaining us to death. 1/2 The “beleaguered” New York Times headline is just the kind of thing I wrote about this week when I asked: Does the New York Times care if democracy survives? Read my newsletter and consider subscribing (for free). 2/2 stopthepresses.news/p/is-the-new-y…

In this time of obliviousness and denial about the rise of fascism in America, I looked in newspaper archives for how early Nazi Germany was viewed in the U.S. The Bergen (NJ) Record reported in 1933 on a respected educator assuring folks that there was no cause for worry. 🧵 1/5 Carl Marsden, former New Jersey principal, said “the Nazi movement is a conscientious endeavor on the part of the German people to put its house in order. … Hitler and his followers may mellow, as Mussolini and the Fascists have.” 2/5

A more accurate headline would be “Republicans Hold Ukraine Aid Hostage to Exploit Border Issue Against Biden.”
But instead the New York Times spins it just the way the Republicans want. The only reason Ukraine aid is even tied to the immigration issue is Republicans. There's no rational link— it's just a Republican political tactic. But in the 33 words of NYT's headline and supporting text, Republicans aren't even mentioned.

"We've never been a racist country," says Nikki Haley.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1747275515789287839

Nikki Haley is trying to pull off a trick: Make right-wing white people comfortable in their racism and denial of history so they won't see her as one of the brown people whom they hate. It's not working.

Tonight is Americans' first chance to vote for Trump since he tried to overthrow our democracy and stated publicly that he wants to be a dictator. And it certainly appears that Iowans will vote for fascism tonight. 🧵 1/4 How could this happen? How could a state that is the sixth-whitest in the union but voted for a Black man for president just a dozen years ago throw in with a candidate who represents our nation’s worst racial and religious bigotry? 2/4

Reasons to vote against Trump. A thread.
1. He incited a deadly assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
2. He pushed the fake-electors scheme.
3. He called for “termination” of the Constitution.
4. He bragged about grabbing the private parts of women he’d just met. (Trump, cont.)
5. He said immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.”
6. He appointed extremist justices who took way abortion rights.
7 He invited the Taliban to Camp David.
8. He stole top secrets.
9. He left those secrets in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom.

A Trump dictatorship is not inevitable. But it is increasingly possible. In this thread I suggest

10 WAYS YOU CAN STOP REPUBLICAN FASCISM.

Please share this 🧵 if you agree and want to help us stop MAGA from destroying democracy. 1. Ignore polls and other tools of discouragement.
There’s a lot of bullshit in political reporting, so filter what you consume and take breaks. Polls are not facts. News channels make $$ by stoking anger. Be alarmed about right-wing extremism, but resist feeling futile about it.

German Christians in 1933: "Christ has come to us through Adolf Hitler. ... Through Hitler's energy, his honesty, his faith and his idealism the Savior found his way to us."
Are today's white evangelicals who support Trump any different from this? I'll stop comparing Trump to Hitler when Trump stops acting like Hitler.

The mega rich have always been the political bosses, and it’s always been bad for democracy. It’s ridiculous that WaPo thinks it’s an open question. This is the most embarrassingly naive sentence I’ve read in an American newspaper this year.

I tweeted recently that immigrants are good for America, and I included a photo of Ellis Island. That set off right-wingers, who claimed that today’s immigrants are different from those of the past and refuse to assimilate. This thread is about that. 1/7 What does it mean for immigrants to “assimilate”? Does it mean they become just like the people who are already here? And if so, which people who are already here? White farmers in Iowa? Black gospel fans on Chicago’s South Side? Cuban Americans in Miami? 2/7

“15 ways Tom Cotton is awful”
My latest newsletter for @CourierNewsroom is a takedown of the senator sometimes called “Evil Forrest Gump.” Please read it and consider subscribing (for free). This 🧵 gives a few examples, and the newsletter has more. 1/6 stopthepresses.news/p/15-ways-tom-… In one of Tom Cotton’s pettiest actions, he blocked confirmation of Cassandra Butts as ambassador to the Bahamas because she was a friend of Barack Obama. Butts died of leukemia in 2016, still waiting for confirmation. 2/6 nytimes.com/2016/06/07/opi…

After Donald Trump’s Nazi-toned social media post about ridding America of leftist “vermin,” the New York Times wrote this vague, milquetoast headline. In this thread, I imagine other historical headlines putting a similarly soft light on shocking events. 1/8 “John Wilkes Booth Takes Visit to the Theater in a Very Different Direction”
2/8