Biden goes on offense.
March 8, 2023
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Correction: In yesterday’s newsletter, I referenced an interview between Rachel Maddow and Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin. I linked to the wrong interview. Here is the correct link: Activists set sights on House Republicans in Biden-won districts. As I wrote yesterday, the interview will inspire confidence and optimism about Democratic prospects in 2024. Check it out!
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Although the latest release of documents in the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit is dominating the news and deserves comment, a more important story is an op-ed by President Biden in the NYTimes. See President Joe Biden, NYTimes, Joe Biden: My Plan to Extend Medicare for Another Generation.
In his op-ed, Biden proposes ensuring self-funding Medicare through 2050 by increasing savings through direct negotiation of drug prices and increasing the Medicare tax rate on earned and unearned income above $400,000 to 5 percent (from 3.8 percent).
Biden concludes:
Add all that up, and my budget will extend the Medicare trust fund for more than another generation, an additional 25 years or more of solvency — beyond 2050. These are common-sense changes that I’m confident an overwhelming majority of Americans support.
MAGA Republicans have a different view. . . . If the MAGA Republicans get their way, seniors will pay higher out-of-pocket costs on prescription drugs and insulin, the deficit will be bigger, and Medicare will be weaker. The only winner under their plan will be Big Pharma. That’s not how we extend Medicare’s life for another generation or grow the economy.
Biden has wisely suggested a concrete solution to the Medicare funding issue and called-out Republicans for their secret plan to reduce Medicare benefits. Republicans are on their heels because Senator Rick Scott admitted that Republicans want to reduce or eliminate Medicare by subjecting it to a five-year sunsetting provision. Republicans have also threatened to use the debt ceiling and a potential US credit default to force cuts in Social Security and Medicare.
The proposals by Republicans to cut Social Security and Medicare are ludicrous and irresponsible. Joe Biden’s sensible solution to extend funding for Medicare is a continuation of his masterful maneuvers during the State of the Union address.
Biden’s op-ed received scant notice after the latest release of documents in the Dominion Voting Systems case. Biden’s move will put him in a strong position when Republicans must finally make a proposal for Medicare in the 2023 budget. It is easy to make vague claims about needing to reform Medicare, but it is hard to make specific proposals that will strengthen the program and pass muster with the American people. Joe Biden has gone on offense with specific proposals. He has placed a marker on the field and dared Republicans to move it.
The latest Dominion document-dump.
The latest document-dump in the Dominion Voting Systems case is shocking on many levels and will reverberate through the 2024 election. There is so much to discuss that I will adopt the “less is more” approach. The top-line takeaways are these:
Fox effectively based its “stolen election” narrative on a single email from an “election expert” who claimed the ability to “see things differently” because she “travels through time.” See Business Insider, Sidney Powell Sent Fox Claims Said to Be From Headless Time-Traveler.
Tucker Carlson confessed his true feelings about Trump to his colleagues, saying, “I hate him passionately. . . .”
Rupert Murdoch thought that Trump was becoming “increasingly mad” as the weeks passed after the election, saying Trump was “bouncing off the walls and not sleeping”—but did nothing as Fox continued to promote Trump's Big Lie.
Rupert Murdoch acknowledged that the 2020 election was “free, fair and not stolen” and that several of Fox’s news anchors endorsed false claims about a “stolen election.”
Rupert Murdoch promised to send advanced copies of Joe Biden’s campaign ads to be aired on Fox because he wanted to “help” Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law. See Bloomberg, Fox’s Murdoch Gave Kushner Sneak Peek at Biden Campaign Ad.
The Fox “infotainers” of Hannity, Carlson, and Ingraham were furious with the Fox “news” division for calling Arizona for Biden in 2020 and discussed ways to blunt the effect of the accurate reporting by the news division.
There is much more. This story isn’t going away anytime soon, but Fox viewers aren’t hearing about it from Fox. Fox holds its viewers in contempt because it refuses to tell them the truth. So, help promote the story by posting to social media platforms, sending letters to the editor, and telling friends, neighbors, and complete strangers whenever possible. Be sure to mention that Tucker Carlson hates Trump “passionately.” We won’t change the minds of every die-hard Fox viewer; we don’t have to. We need only reach enough of them to make a difference in a handful of elections. We can do that!
Tucker Carlson’s shameful effort to rewrite the history of January 6th.
As Fox is being sued for billions for lying about the 2020 election, Tucker Carlson is lying about January 6th. Some people can’t take a hint! As expected, Carlson selectively edited footage from the January 6th surveillance video in the Capitol to create the misimpression that the insurrectionists were “tourists” who “revered” the Capitol.
Carlson’s effort was so risible that several Senate Republicans called “Bullsh*t”—literally. See National Review, Senate Republicans Slam Tucker Carlson for Downplaying January 6: ‘It’s Bullsh**’. Other GOP Senators who criticized Carlson included Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, and Kevin Kramer. The Chief of the Capitol Police issued a blistering statement condemning Carlson, especially for his attack on Officer Brian Sicknick, who died the day after spending hours battling January 6th insurrectionists. See CNN, US Capitol Police chief rips into Tucker Carlson over ‘offensive’ use of January 6 footage.
By focusing on isolated moments of calm during a violent assault on the Capitol, Carlson hoped he could fool Fox viewers into believing that those isolated moments fairly represented what happened on January 6th. In other words, Carlson believes that Fox viewers are idiots. But, to give him credit where credit is due, Carlson’s buffoonish tactic did convince one Fox viewer—Elon Musk. See Talking Points Memo, Tucker Carlson Convinces At Least One Guy With His Jan. 6 Nonsense: Elon Musk.
Josh Marshall’s commentary in his editor’s blog in Talking Points Memo sums up the Kafkaesque nature of Carlson’s revisionism. Marshall writes,
I understand that people are outraged by the Tucker Carlson/Kevin McCarthy video stunt. It’s natural and understandable to react negatively and angrily to liars and traitors. But this is not at all the best or most effective response. The first response is simply mockery. That’s the most logical response and also the most effective.
Watch these videos. They’re moments when the insurrectionists weren’t breaking down doors or hitting Capitol Police over the head with flag poles.
This is like showing a Zapruder film containing just the part where JFK is happily waving to the crowd in Dealey Plaza. He’s having a great time. Why does Oswald get such a bad rap?
This is more Saturday Night Live skit than outrage.
In fairness, it is appropriate and reasonable to be outraged by Tucker Carlson’s effort to rewrite the history of one of the darkest chapters in American history. But Josh Marshall has a point: Carlson’s efforts are so amateurish that we should not forget to mock Carlson frequently, mercilessly, and righteously. Carlson’s efforts to revise the history of January 6th are so clownishly transparent that he should be fired for embarrassing a network that has been immune to embarrassment up to this point.
As they say in the movie biz, Carlson has “Jumped the shark.” He is a walking joke—and a bad one at that. He is also a dangerous, evil, callous man who will be remembered in history with Senator Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Benedict Arnold, and Donald Trump.
Opportunities for reader engagement in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election
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Concluding Thoughts.
The tidal wave of outrage triggered by events at Fox is a lot to process. We should recognize, however, that we are learning in a matter of weeks the truth about Fox’s years-long pattern of deception and service as the propaganda arm of the GOP. Moreover, we have already lived through and survived the bad-faith deception practiced by Fox.
We suspected—no, we knew—that Fox was lying to its viewers and conspiring with Trump. Seeing proof of our suspicions resurrects the feelings we experienced in the first and second impeachment trials, during the Access Hollywood scandal, during Trump's endorsement of Putin over our intelligence community in Helsinki, during the Mueller investigation, and much more.
My point is this: Learning the truth is good, even if it is painful and rage-inducing. It allows us to recalibrate our sense of reality and may lead to accountability for Fox. We should not allow the disclosures to distract us or disturb our equilibrium. We should expect the Fox entertainers and owners will issue indignant denials and misleading rationalizations for their deceptive behavior.
They have no choice. They make a living—good ones—by lying. To acknowledge that their business model is based on deceit would cause their house of cards to collapse. But we know the truth. We must act on it. We must share it. And we must use it to fortify our resolve as we head into another hard-fought election cycle.
Talk to you tomorrow!
This evening I finally had an "aha!" moment: if these Fox revelations from the Dominion lawsuit gets on the cover of People Magazine, perhaps it will break through to the MAGA crowd...Lord knows they would believe People over the NYT or WaPo.
Yesterday a lawsuit was filed against the state of Texas by five women whose lives were put in jeopardy by life-saving healthcare being withheld because of the Texas heartless, no exceptions anti-abortion law. Women being told they weren't sick enough to receive an abortion of a fetus that doctors knew wouldn't survive but still had a heartbeat. Women whose doctors and hospitals had to consult their lawyers before receiving needed healthcare because the law was written to intimidate anyone to stop all abortions. Women whose lives were of less value than any fetus no matter what its chances of survival were. Doctors know how to triage and save the life of the patient more likely to survive. And then there is the no exceptions for rape and incest with little or no consequence to the male perpetrator. For rape and incest I'd like to propose the Seahorse Law. The male seahorse is the one who carries the seahorse fetuses to term, not the female. So the seahorse law gives the human male rapist the choice of carrying the fetus himself or having a penectomy. Yes, that would mean either inserting a uterus in the male albeit not yet a simple or timely procedure or removing the male's sword. Why does the woman have to pay even with her life in some cases while the man has no consequences? Even the Constitution in the 14th Amendment prohibits forced labor! For now my choice is to vow not to vote for any Republican thereby holding the entire GOP accountable for these unfair and draconian anti-abortion laws.