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Judd Legum

8 Nov, 11 tweets, 7 min read

1. Right-wing operatives have deployed a MASSIVE network of fake local news sites to weaponize Critical Race Theory in political campaigns

Follow along if interested

popular.info/p/right-wing-o…

@lansing

2. The Rosetta Stone of this effort is this tweet by @lansing, the president of @WinRed, the main GOP online fundraising vehicle

Lansing credits an article in "West Nova News" as "starting it all" and helping deliver a win for Glenn Youngkin

popular.info/p/right-wing-o…

3. West Nova News is part of a massive network of 1300 "news" sites linked to conservative businessman Brian Timpone

Timpone has a long history of leveraging "low-cost automated story generation"

He's been accused of faking bylines & quotes & plagiarism

popular.info/p/right-wing-o…

@CJR

4. The 1300 sites contain no advertising and don't charge subscription fees.

@CJR reported the network gets money from “the dark-money ATM of the conservative movement" and "a Catholic political advocacy group" that ran millions of ads against Biden.

popular.info/p/right-wing-o…

@CJR

@CJR 5. A popular.info investigation found that, in 2021, this network published THOUSANDS of articles about CRT in Virginia and TENS OF THOUSANDS of articles about CRT across the country

popular.info/p/right-wing-o…

@CJR

@CJR 6. Many of these articles are automated.

Thousands of articles refer to a petition from the Zinn Education Project in which teachers allegedly pledge to teach CRT.

(The petition objects to state bills that ban a variety of topics in the classroom)

popular.info/p/right-wing-o…

@CJR

@CJR 7. But not all the articles are automated. Which brings us back to @lansing's tweet.

Why is he crediting @iandprior with the article in West Nova News?

Prior is not the author of the piece and is not quoted.

popular.info/p/right-wing-o…

8. Prior does, however, have a history with the Metric Media network.

An investigation in the NYT last year found that Metric Media sites operate on a "pay-to-play" system.

Among the people purchasing articles on behalf of clients? Ian Prior.

popular.info/p/right-wing-o…

9. Prior is now heads Fight for Schools, a PAC dedicated to recalling school board members it claims supports CRT

He's also a co-chair of the "American Schools Coalition" which operates CRT Central, which aggregates CRT articles from Metric Media network

popular.info/p/right-wing-o…

10. The top article on CRT Central right now is an article from Old Dominion News, another fake news site in the network, that basically reads as a press release for Prior and his org

popular.info/p/right-wing-o…

11. This story is just beginning

CRT is likely to play a central role in key races around the country in 2022

The Metric Media network will continue to be deployed to weaponize the issue

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More from @JuddLegum

Judd Legum

@JuddLegum

10 Nov

1. Everyone is talking about rising prices and there are a lot of factors that contribute to inflation but one important factor is almost never discussed: concentrated corporate power

Follow along if interested

popular.info/p/how-concentr…

2. In a competitive economy, profit margins should approach zero (as long as there are reasonable substitutes)

In the US, corporate profits as a share of the American economy have risen dramatically over the last two decades, from 5% of GDP to nearly 12%

popular.info/p/how-concentr…

3. In other words, corporations are not being *forced* to raise prices to stay afloat.

They are choosing to raise prices to maintain large profit margins because they have enough market power to do so without losing customers

popular.info/p/how-concentr…

Read 9 tweets

Judd Legum

@JuddLegum

9 Nov

UPDATE: Republican lobbyists are "frustrated," pushing corporate PACs to resume contributions

This reflects the reality that dozens of major corporations have stuck by their pledges and have not resumed contributing to GOP objectors

popular.info/p/update-repub…

2. Politico wrote a story with the headline: "GOP lobbyists say corporate America is coming back into the tent"

But when you READ the story you'll find that this is GOP lobbyists PREDICTING that corporations will end their donation freeze soon

popular.info/p/update-repub…

@Cigna

3. Lobbyists have been making similar predictions since February.

And while some major companies like @Cigna and @ATT have violated their pledges, dozens of other major corporations have kept their word.

popular.info/p/update-repub…

Read 6 tweets

Judd Legum

@JuddLegum

4 Nov

I do not know what will happen in 2022 or 2024.

But one thing I do know is that you can safely ignore all the hand-wringing and prognostications based on 2021.

This happens after every election and its usually wrong.

popular.info/p/one-thought-…

After the 2004 election, we were told Democrats faced "a long-term disadvantage in future races for the White House and battles for Congress" because of their inability to compete in the South

4 years later Obama won the presidency, winning FL, NC, & VA

popular.info/p/one-thought-…

After Obama won again in 2012, we were told that "demography" meant that Republicans would never win another presidential election by firing up its base of older white men

4 years later, Trump won by employing the strategy pundits said would never work

popular.info/p/one-thought-…

Read 4 tweets

Judd Legum

@JuddLegum

3 Nov

1. Much of the corporate opposition to Build Back Better was based on the increase in the corporate tax rate

That's been dropped, so we decided to check in w/some corporations.

The responses we received were EXTRAORDINARY

Follow along if interested

popular.info/p/gm-says-it-s…

2. The primary tension is many corporations have declared the need for URGENT action on climate.

And BBB still contains historic investments to combat climate change

At the same time, these corporations are members of lobbying groups trying to kill BBB

popular.info/p/gm-says-it-s…

@GM

3. In response for request for comment, @GM said that it:

A. Supports the Build Back Better framework and the climate provisions

B. Supports @BizRoundtable's lobbying campaign to kill Build Back Better.

Seriously.

popular.info/p/gm-says-it-s…

Read 7 tweets

Judd Legum

@JuddLegum

2 Nov

1. Regardless of the outcome in VA today, everyone should familiarize themselves about hyper-politicization of school boards and the dark money groups behind it

This playbook will be repeated in hundreds of races across the country in 2022

Follow along if interested.

2. There are parents genuinely upset about schools.

But they are being organized/incited/misinformed by a constellation of dark money advocacy groups

Many of the groups were founded this year and there is no information about their funding

popular.info/p/the-right-wi…

3. Although we don't know the precise funding of these dark money groups (that's by design) we do know their leaders

And many of them have longstanding ties to organizations funded by the Koch network

It mirrors the Koch effort to finance the Tea Party

popular.info/p/the-right-wi…

Read 10 tweets

Judd Legum

@JuddLegum

2 Nov

1. Glenn Youngkin could win today but just in case his campaign is claiming that, if he does lose, it's because of election fraud.

Trump is reinforcing these messages.

popular.info/p/youngkin-cam…

2. State Senator Amanda Chase (R) has emerged as a key surrogate for Youngkin. She's campaigned alongside him and held other events solo.

"I know how Democrats are cheating," Chase said in a 10/27 interview.

She repeated those claims on Facebook.

popular.info/p/youngkin-cam…

3. Youngkin and his campaign linked arms with Chase knowing exactly what she was about.

After the 2020 election, Chase encouraged Trump to declare martial law.

She was censured by the Virginia Senate for calling the Jan 6 riots "patriots"

popular.info/p/youngkin-cam…

Read 9 tweets

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