Elon Musk's incitement of pogroms in Belfast reveals he'll use his immense wealth and influence to foment untold fascist violence in the future. Only a global movement can break his power.
New piece from @PolPhilPod and me. Threading highlights below. 1/ newrepublic.com/article/211936…
Musk helping incite fascist violence abroad even as he became a trillionaire illustrates the future he really wants. He seems to envision something like a multi-continental, Armageddon-like Total War in defense of white peoples against "invaders." 2/
NEWS --> Dem can redraw anywhere from 10-22 additional House seats for the party in time for the 2028 elections if they aggressively redistrict in 7 key states, a new Fair Fight Action report finds.
This would offset GOP post-SCOTUS advantage.
New piece: newrepublic.com/article/209830…
Dems can redraw 10 additional House seats for 2028 just in New York, Colorado, Oregon and Maryland, the new Fair Fight Action analysis finds. That's if Dems don't flip *any* state legislatures this cycle.
News --> Paramount, Meta, and X won't say what happened to their huge donations to Trump's presidential library after Sen Elizabeth Warren raised questions about its fund getting dissolved. Dems say tens of millions remain unaccounted for.
Details here: newrepublic.com/article/209254…
First, let's note that the Trump library saga combines the worse of his imperial presidency all in one: his use of lawsuits to extort private entities for tribute; his garishly awful decorative and architectural taste; and his Nero-scale megalomania.
Pete Hegseth just held a prayer service in which he appealed for God's help in killing our "enemies" with maximal violence and brutality. Hegseth's bloodlust and sadism are drawing sustenance from his brand of far-right Christianity. 1/
(new piece) newrepublic.com/article/208322…
In his prayer, Hegseth asked for divine assistance in unleashing "overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy."
By now it's become unmistakable that Hegseth is practically oozing with bloodlust. There are many examples of this. 2/
Remarkable: Trump's planned migrant prison camps are hitting deep resistance in red areas. In Virginia's partly rural Hanover (+26 Trump) opposition is intense. GOP leaders in other states are opposed.
Voters are rejecting mass deportations. 1/
(link) newrepublic.com/article/206094…
These vast prison camps would allow for the detention of 80,000 more migrants, doubling Trump/Miller's capacity for deportations. Yet resistance is breaking out in red Virginia, reddish parts of New Jersey, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Utah, and more. 2/
Stephen Miller is employing state terror in service of the open goal of shifting the ethnic mix of the country. In numerous ways he's doing this at the expense of public safety.
We spent weeks reporting on Miller's real aims. The result is this piece: newrepublic.com/article/204191…
Highlights from our Miller piece:
First, his grandmother has written an unpublished history of some of his ancestors' immigration to the US. We are publishing it online for the first time. They were attacked in terms similar to those he uses today.
Remarkable how brutal the ruling against Trump on Abrego Garcia truly is: It details malicious abuses of power all throughout. Trump and Stephen Miller were testing their ability to spread lawless state terror. But the court held the line. 1/
(new piece) newrepublic.com/article/204355…
For Trump/Miller, the Abrego Garcia case is a crucial gauge of how far they can get in disappearing undesirables/placing them beyond the law entirely.
Judge Xinis' ruling is important in that context. It calls out Trump's lawless conduct throughout. 2/
News --> The commander who oversaw Pete Hegseth's alleged killing of two boat bombing survivors is now likely to come in and face questions from House Armed Services Committee, ranking Dem Adam Smith tells me.
In this piece, I try to make sense of it all: newrepublic.com/article/203789…
Pete Hegseth denies he gave the order to kill them all. But even some Republicans now appear to be demanding answers, so Frank Bradley, who oversaw bombings, is in talks with House Armed Services about coming in.
NEWS --> BBC confirms to me that they did edit a line out of historian @rcbregman's speech. It called Trump "the most openly corrupt president in US history."
BBC also confirms this was done on the advice of lawyers. So Trump's threats worked.
New piece: newrepublic.com/article/203648…
Today @rcbregman posted a transcript of his Reith Lecture showing that the version that BBC aired removed the line about Trump's world-historical corruption.
BBC emailed me: "we made the decision to remove one sentence from the lecture on legal advice.”
Remarkable: Rep Chrissy Houlahan, one of the Dems Trump called for executing, tells me her office literally filled out a Capitol Police threat report listing "the president" as the person making the threat.
Trump's boat bombings in the Caribbean just got worse. An internal DOJ memo says the victims are waging war on the US, but per NYT, it extensively cites the WH's *own claims* to this effect as evidence!
It gets even darker than that. 1/
(new piece) newrepublic.com/article/203219…
The memo purportedly justifying these murders also contains a lengthy section that lays out arguments defending the actions of those carrying out the strikes. In short, it *preemptively* defends them from potential prosecution later.
This has gotten lost: Abigail Spanberger won big after vowing to RESCIND Glenn Youngkin's executive order directing local cooperation with ICE and voting AGAINST the anti-immigrant Laken Riley Act. Yet she gained bigly with working class.
My new piece:
newrepublic.com/article/203092…
Remember when Ruben Gallego preened around over his support for the Laken Riley Act, and pundits treated him as having the magic key to Dems' working class woes?
Well, Spanberger voted against it and erased GOP gains with working class and among Latinos:
Remarkable: In Virginia and New Jersey, Spanberger and Sherrill erased the GOP edge among working class. Per exit polls, each got 50% of noncollege voters, big gains over previous contests.
Anti-Trump politics appeals to working class, too!
New piece: newrepublic.com/article/202732…
An absurd media trope in runup to the election said Dems must choose between being "anti-Trump" and running on substance.
Lesson from this elex is that anti-Trump politics *is* affordability politics, and affordability politics *is* anti-Trump politics:
Trump screws his voters again: He just denied disaster aid to Maryland (while giving it to red states). But I took a look. Turns out the ailing Maryland counties are in Appalachia and backed him by 40 and 54 points.
On the pod, @stevebenen and I discuss: newrepublic.com/article/202263…
When Trump denied disaster aid to Maryland, he apparently thought he was punishing a blue state. But afflicted areas are Garrett and Allegany counties. Western MD is Appalachia. Those counties are deep in Trump country.
Trump's agents shot Marimar Martinez, a US citizen, multiple times for allegedly menacing them with her car in Chicago. Only hours later, Kristi Noem and DHS started spreading disinfo about the shooting.
Now the official line is crumbling. 1/
(link) newrepublic.com/article/201957…
DHS said agents were "boxed in by 10 cars," and suggested she brandished a gun, which "forced" an agent to open fire. She "drove herself to hospital."
But charging doc only discusses two cars, doesn't mention gun, and ambulance took her to hospital. 2/
News on Trump boat bombings --> Now that SouthCom Commander Alvin Holsey resigned, likely over bombings, ranking Armed Services Dem Adam Smith tells me committee Ds will demand Holsey's sworn testimony and press Rs to join them.
Smith spoke to us on pod: newrepublic.com/article/201905…
This fiasco has gotten worse. Some highlights from my pod talk w/ ranking Armed Services Dem Adam Smith: First, he says SouthCom Commander Alvin Holsey was likely pushed out over the boat bombings and that he's heard stuff to this effect from inside:
This week, MAGA figures claimed Kristi Noem "stared down" violent antifa protesters in Portland. Turns out they were talking mostly about a guy in a chicken suit.
This opens a window into MAGA propaganda and MSM's failure to cope with it. 1/
(new piece) newrepublic.com/article/201669…
Trump and Stephen Miller have relied on an army of MAGA "influencers" disseminating a fraudulent picture of Portland in chaos, to bolster the case for deploying military.
NYT has a good piece on this. But it made several missteps worth highlighting. 2/
Appalling: JB Pritzker tells me he hasn't been able to get a single convo with Kristi Noem or any other top Trump officials to even discuss their Chicago operations. Pritzker just wants heads up for logistical reasons. Nada.
Pritzker opens up on the pod: newrepublic.com/article/201604…
JB Pritzker has also been emphatically placing Trump's mental decline front and center. On our pod, he adds a new element: People around Trump are using his decline to manipulate him, so they're less likely to intervene. More Dems should say this.
JB Pritzker and Gavin Newsom are doing something new and important: They understand Stephen Miller's theory of fascist power politics and have developed a theory on how to combat it. More Dems must reckon w/Miller's understanding of the moment.
New piece: newrepublic.com/article/201453…
Stephen Miller believes that if he supercharges the debate over Trump's abuses of power with enough propaganda, he can polarize it and nudge low-info voters into accepting authoritarianism. Pritzker/Newsom get that this requires an info-war in response.
Trump's tweet that Portland is "war ravaged" just backfired. A Trump-picked judge cited it in blocking National Guard deployment to Portland, declaring him "untethered from facts."
On the pod, Oregon AG Dan Rayfield explains the ruling and what's next: newrepublic.com/article/201408…
Highlights from this pod w/Oregon AG Dan Rayfield: He tells me Dem AGs are preparing for likelihood that Trump will expand efforts to federalize National Guards and deploy them in more cities.
Trump is trying to normalize troops in US cities, he says.
Remember when Ruben Gallego preened around over his support for the Laken Riley Act, and pundits treated him as having the magic key to Dems' working class woes?
