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Judd Legum Profile picture
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2 Jun, 7 tweets, 7 min read
1. REALITY CHECK

American elections faces an existential threat from GOP legislation that makes it easier to ignore voters

Most major corporations are funding a lobbying effort to defeat federal legislation to save American democracy

Let's review

popular.info/p/the-myth-of-…
2. Republicans are demanding corporations "stay out of politics"

But are they demanding corporations withdraw from the @USChamber?

Because corporations backing a massive lobbying campaign by the Chamber to defeat the For The People act

popular.info/p/the-myth-of-…
@USChamber 3. Corporate contributions to the @USChamber are largely SECRET but a few companies voluntarily disclose payments.

@ATT, for example, gave the Chamber $226,700 in the last six months just to support its lobbying efforts

popular.info/p/the-myth-of-…
4. @ATT is pretending to be "neutral" on specific voting rights legislation, claiming that "election laws are complicated, not our company's expertise, and ultimately the responsibility of elected officials."

But it's not neutral.

popular.info/p/the-myth-of-…
5. Other companies that we know are funding a lobbying effort against federal legislation to protect voting rights via the @USChamber include:

@salesforce
@AmericanAir
@BankofAmerica
@Microsoft
@Disney
@PepsiCo
@JNJNews
@ford
@Target
@Facebook

popular.info/p/the-myth-of-…
6. There are many, many other companies involved with this effort who keep their relationship with the @USChamber secret.

For updates on the fight to save American democracy and more accountability journalism, sign up for the newsletter

popular.info/subscribe
@USChamber 7. As @marceelias notes, it wasn't always this way. In 2006, for example, corporations played a key role in convincing President Bush to sign an extension of the Voting Rights Act.

A lot has changed in 15 years.

popular.info/p/the-myth-of-…

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More from @JuddLegum

Judd Legum Profile picture
3 Jun
1. People are using the untimely death of Trump's blogs as an opportunity to dunk on Trump.

And I get it.

But there is also an important lesson about how algorithmic amplification on social media distorts reality.

Follow along if interested.

popular.info/p/rip-trumps-b…
2. A tweet and Facebook post from Trump was typically shared and amplified by hundreds of thousands -- even millions of people.

So Trump figured he could post his rants on his blog and his adoring fans would flock to him.

That didn't happen.

popular.info/p/rip-trumps-b…
3. Trump's popularity was artificially boosted by Facebook & Twitter's algorithms, which reward hatred, misinformation, and other divisive content

Outside of this artificial reality created by social networks, Trump's diatribes have little organic appeal

popular.info/p/rip-trumps-b…
Read 4 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
31 May
Abbott says he’ll veto funds for the Texas legislature until it restricts voting based on Trump’s lies
Defunding the legislative branch until they ban voting before 1PM on Sundays is quite something
Members of the Texas legislature make $7200 per year, plus a per diem when the legislature is in session
Read 4 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
31 May
1. The defeat of the Texas' voter suppression bill, which continued to get worse throughout the legislative process, did not happen on its own. It's due to the relentless work of activists. A few:

@ACLUTx
@BlackVotersMtr
@MOVE_texas
@TXCivilRights
@CCauseTexas
@ACLUTx @BlackVotersMtr @MOVE_texas @TXCivilRights @CCauseTexas 2. Corporations, however, grew conspicuously quiet as SB7 barrelled toward passage

@AmericanAir and @Dell had issued strong statements weeks ago

A couple of dozen other corps signed onto a broad letter

But they were all quiet as this bill's fate was being decided
3. This bill will be back, however, sooner or later.

And it gives corporations another chance

Will they continue to issue easily ignored statements?

Or will they commit to taking action?
Read 4 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
31 May
UPDATE

It's 7:40 PM local time in Austin, Texas

The legislature has LESS THAN 5 HOURS to pass its voter suppression bill

House Dems have some procedural moves that give them a shot to kill the bill by blocking a vote until midnight

I'll keep this thread updated the best I can
House Republicans in Texas are apparently trying to convince Democrats to allow them to pass the bill tonight because the gov could call a special session later and make the bill worse

But the bill is already very bad and Dems say they aren't buying it

3. Republicans appointed an all-white conference committee to negotiate the differences between the House and Senate bills and the committee added a provision, not considered in either chamber, to ban voting on Sundays until 1PM

A surgical strike against "Souls to the Polls"
Read 10 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
30 May
The top donor to UNC's journalism argued against tenure for @nhannahjones because her writing "denigrates the courageous efforts of many white Americans"

The donor, Walter Hussman Jr., got his way

theassemblync.com/long-form/niko…
@nhannahjones "Long before Nikole Hannah Jones won her Pulitzer Prize, courageous white southerners risking their lives standing up for the rights of blacks were winning Pulitzer prizes, too,” Hussman Jr wrote to school officials

theassemblync.com/long-form/niko…
These statements were made by Hussman Jr. in private emails but he refuses to discuss them publicly because he "considers himself a working journalist" and "I don’t believe I ought to speak out as a journalist on a matter of public controversy,"
Read 4 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
29 May
1. Texas Republicans just released the text of its voter suppression bill, SB7

Votes will be held before midnight Sunday

The bill includes a NEW PROVISION that allows judges to OVERTURN AN ELECTION "WITHOUT DETERMINING HOW INDIVIDUAL VOTERS VOTED"

Follow along if interested Image
2. This section appears to validate Trump's claims that he won various states because a certain number of people voted "illegally" without any other details

Now people like Guiliani can take these absurd allegations to court and, with a sympathetic judge, OVERTURN AN ELECTION
3. Texas is poised to adopt this unprecedented and radical legal provision without ANY DEBATE IN EITHER CHAMBER

It was negotiated in a secret conference committee and released on a Saturday of a holiday weekend

And there is plenty of other bad stuff in this bill
Read 13 tweets

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