This week in our Members Only Newsletter you missed:
Max Notes on Vance, Trump’s ear and RFK Jr.’s call
The Tuesday Top Five news articles everyone should be reading
An original essay from News Beat’s Rashed Mian on Sean O’Brien’s appearance at the RNC
And Ryan Stanco’s “Not for Nothing” on Jack Black, the National Anthem and Boomers
So I guess the question is…what are you waiting for? Sign up today to become a member and level up to unlock a slew of additional perks!
Max Notes
“This convention or whatever is so dumb. Like this is so unserious.”
That’s a text from my college bound daughter who cares so little about politics that I could be running for president and she would be as involved as Melania. She’s an empath who does good in the world, gets pretty good grades, excels at athletics and accumulates friends wherever she goes. But when it comes to politics, she abhors the divisiveness and hatred it engenders.
I’ve been thinking about her and her older sister and their generation’s relationship to the political process. To them, Joe Biden might as well be 600 years old. They know Donald Trump is an absolute clown. And neither understands how anyone can decisively support one or the other.
At 18 and 21 years of age, these are the leaders my girls know. Barack Obama is from the past. George Bush is a name they’ve memorized but it’s unlikely they could pick him out of a lineup. With another Trump term looming, their brains will have fully developed and matured with firsthand knowledge of only these two men as the best our nation has to offer. Sure, they know the AOCs of the world and have other models to look to for inspiration such as Ketanji Brown Jackson, but the most exposure comes with the big job; and their experience informs the idea that only old, rambling, chaotic white dudes are in charge of the country in which they reside.
It’s difficult to explain to them how this is just the empire laid bare. The inner-workings of power, exposed. The monsters of the right wing vomited up Trump and the liberal corporate establishment is propping up Biden. It may be “unserious” but then again this race might be the most honest expression of the American system.
If there’s a silver lining in the idea that their political worldview has been shaped by utter nonsense, it’s that this generation has a more finely tuned bullshit filter. They see us for who we are more clearly than the gun-toting cultists on the right and the Sorkin-soaked sycophants of the liberal establishment. Don’t count on them to prop up either side come November, but pray they maintain their grip on reality and put a stop to the bullshit when it’s their time to rule.
What’s so funny ‘bout peace love and understanding?
-Max
99’s Birthday Month Donor Drive
It’s 99’s birthday month and she’s putting on a donor drive! Every dollar donated to UNFTR helps us work towards the mission of making this a full time job (which in turn begets you more UNFTR).
During the month of July, donate:
Any amount ending in .99 and get access to a special 99 bonus FAQ episode.
$9.99+ and get the ability to submit questions to the bonus episode.
$29.99+ and get a limited one-time-run 99 designed/themed sticker.
$99.99 and get a friendship bracelet, handmade by 99 and customized to you!
Contrary to popular belief, fast food consumption is fairly consistent across socioeconomic statuses. But there’s no question that the impact of prices is far more significant among middle and lower income Americans.
Remember facts and charts like these when you hear corporations blame anyone and everyone but their own greed for the persistent inflation we’re experiencing here and throughout the world.
Headlines
Following the Money Is a Pretty Short Trip
News Beat managing editor and UNFTR collaborator Rashed Mian muses about what it takes to get a doddering and sundowning candidate to step aside. Is it polling data? How about medical advice? The good of the nation? Nah. It’s money, honey.
From the article:
“One of the reasons the Democratic Party in recent years has been so successful in quashing serious dissent within its ranks is the donor class. The elites effectively get what they want, with a few exceptions. That’s in large part thanks to Citizens United, the US Supreme Court decision in 2010 that enabled the rise of unlimited political spending and dark money chicanery.”
Weaving political history with modern anecdotes, The Baffler’s Hannah Gais unravels the right-wing obsession with all things Russia and Putin. If you can believe it, Christian fundamentalism has a bit to do with it. Oh, and people are still angry with the Bolsheviks I think? It’s all very confusing, or should I say…baffling. (See what I did there?)
From the article:
“If Fyodor Dostoevsky was prone to falling under the spell of ‘Russian messianic national exclusiveness,’ as Solzhenitsyn once wrote, then the far less talented propagandists of the American right are driven by fever dreams of its unceasing persecution at the hands of its perceived political enemies. From blaming anyone but Trump supporters for instigating the January 6 insurrection to implying that the constellation of felony charges facing the former president could happen to anyone, the modern right thrives off a sense of victimization. And it sees Christians, or at least Christians who adhere to the right’s rigid, conspiratorial worldview, as the primary target.”
When a proper takedown is in order, look no further than friend of the pod Nathan J. Robinson. In the crosshairs this time is soon-to-be Vice President J.D. Vance.
From the article:
“The fraud is so transparent that I feel like I’m insulting the reader’s intelligence by pointing it out. J.D. Vance laid out the playbook himself! Take a social problem like addiction, promise to solve it by building a wall, and use this to portray yourself as someone who cares and will help. We could laugh at what an obvious con this is, but the men selling it are currently on a path to becoming the president and vice president.”
This week I spoke with an old friend and inspiration—comedian, author, commentator and activist Lee Camp. We’re all over the place in a cathartic conversation about independent media, censorship, Supreme Court antics, Julian Assange, the presidential election and more.
Here’s a snippet from the pod:
Camp: “A comedy show, weekly comedy show, where I get to write whatever I want. I get to go after the US empire. I get to go after corporations. I get to go after all those people, those corporations that would advertise on other networks. I just knew it had never existed before. It would never exist again, probably. And so I was like, this is a fucking unicorn that this is even possible. And sure enough, then, you get eight years in, and…they started heavily suppressing everything we did by 2016.”
“Arjun Singh speaks withThe American Prospect’s Executive Editor David Dayen, Jacobin staff writer Branko Marcetic, and Sludge co-founder David Moore to unpack the divide fracturing the Democratic Party and look at how corporate power is woven into the fabric of the party’s convention, to be held in Chicago from August 19 to 22.”
“Whether he is setting his sights on the scandal of $21 trillion worth of unaccounted-for financial adjustments at the Pentagon or the scorching environmental and human tragedy caused by climate chaos, it’s unsurprising that one of our most incisive political commentators is technically a comedian. Camp knifes his way through the jungle of fake news, alternative facts, mainstream media lies, and government blackouts, trailblazing a path between Hunter S. Thompson and Jon Stewart. Perhaps the present-day story of America can only accurately be told by a comedian, otherwise no one would believe it.”
“The notion of the left doing anything at the convention is preposterous because there’s no organizing mechanism. There’s no funding for it. There’s no one group with any kind of power to gather people towards one cause.”
Following a decorated career with HuffPost and The Intercept, Ryan Grim is joining forces with Jeremy Scahill to build an independent media outlet. Among the most transparent journalists covering the Hill and US misadventures, Grim’s perspective is invaluable.
“Southern Coalition for Social Justice partners with communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities in the South to defend and advance their political, social, and economic rights through the combination of legal advocacy, research, organizing, and communications.”
