This is a compendium of the reporting and commentary that best explains the America's political, economic, and social conditions – and, most important, how we can find a way back from the dark days ahead. You will rarely find anything here from the New York Times or Washington Post or any of the other Big Journalism companies that failed us so completely during the 2024 elections and are now sucking up – even more than usual – to Donald Trump, his cult, and corporate oligarchs. My focus will be on smaller, more honorable outlets (and individuals). I hope you'll support them with your attention and your money.
“The road to fascism is paved with a million little votes that slowly erode our democracy and make it easier to go after anyone who disagrees with the government,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., on the House floor Tuesday. “Donald Trump says you’re a terrorist, so you’re a terrorist. My friends on the other side of the aisle know it’s nuts, even if they don’t want to admit it.” The GOP majority in the House made an initial attempt to pass the bill last week under a suspension of the rules, a parliamentary procedure that requires a two-thirds supermajority to pass. That effort foundered on November 12, when 144 Democrats and one Republican came out against the bill, just barely meeting the threshold to block it.
The vile nature of this legislation, as reported in the Intercept (which has stayed on this story when other journalism organizations couldn't be bothered to notice) is hard to overstate. What makes is worse is that some feckless Democrats voted in favor. And what makes it worst of all is contained in the phrase "not just" from quote above – the notion that it could be used to silence any nonprofit Trump dislikes, "not just Palestinians and their supporters," as if it was reasonable to ever stomp on the rights of people who exercise political freedom of expression. The overbroad language in the bill would encourage the Trump regime to declare any nonprofit (e.g. university, civil-rights org, news startup, hospital and more) a terrorism supporter, with no evidence required, and kill its nonprofit status. This is a financial death penalty. So, your college allows allows an entirely peaceful protest against the Netanyahu government's war crime? Boom. ProPublica annoys the Trump by doing real journalism? Boom. Planned Parenthood? Chopping block for them, and many, many more. Even if this doesn't become law immediately, you can be sure it'll be on the Republican agenda soon enough. That even one Democrat would support it is unfortunate. That Democrats widely supported it until they realized Trump might be using it – that is sickening. Please call your senator and demand that he/she block this awful legislation.
Around four million additional people would qualify for overtime protections under this change. These are people who make more than $35,000 but less than $58,000 per year, but don’t currently qualify for overtime; to oversimplify, bosses have reclassified many of these workers as managers, exempting them from federal overtime protections. The Biden rule would make them eligible: According to Labor Department spokesman Jesse Lawder, this group includes hundreds of thousands of people who do many types of manufacturing work as well as those holding low-to-medium-level positions in everything from retail and fast-food franchises to construction. Many are overworked and underpaid due to the same elite rigging of our economy perpetrated by the “Rich Men North of Richmond.” Guess who managed to block this rule that would have provided those people with relief? MAGA Republicans allied with business interests, that’s who.
This New Republic commentary focuses not just on an example of Trump "justice" – one of his appointed judges repealed, on obviously specious grounds, a Biden administration regulation that would have made a big difference to middle-income workers. Republicans have been telling everyone who'll listen that they are the working people's party. This concern-trolling goes quiet when it comes to actions aimed at protecting working people's wages or protecting them from employer abuses. The hypocrisy is business as usual. So, sad to say, is Big Journalism's short attention span. You can understand this better when you realize that our news media appear to consider Republicans – Trump in particular – their assignment editors. Right wing complaints are top news. Right wing hypocrisy? Not so much.
In March 2016, CREW discovered that the Trump Foundation had broken the law by giving an illegal $25,000 contribution to a political group supporting Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. Charitable foundations like the Trump Foundation are not allowed to engage in politics. Even more problematic was the fact that the contribution was given as Bondi’s office was deciding whether to take legal action related to Trump University.
Only some of the stories running today about Trump's naming of former Florida AG Bondi as his nominee for U.S. attorney general are bothering to mention the sleazy dealings they conducted more than a decade ago. The nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington did some serious legwork and, as Trump was running for president in 2016, CREW brought to public notice what sure looks like a bribe (Trump to Bondi political campaign) to make an investigation of our crook-in-chief go away. CREW posted a timeline that lays out the slimy operations. Bondi fits perfectly into Trump world. Corruption is not a disqualifier for Donald Trump when he ponders who to make his senior apparatchiks. Corruption, in his orbit, is a qualification.
Imagine if the 350,000 people who gave $24 million to the ACLU in one weekend had instead (or also) formed 1,000 new local groups with an average startup budget of $24,000 and had set about raising enough additional funds and recruiting enough additional members to put 1,000 paid organizers at the service of half a million active volunteers in 1,000 American neighborhoods and towns. Our situation would be totally different today.
My friend Micah Sifry, author of the excellent Connector newsletter, pointed to this fine piece by a Tufts University professor of citizenship and public affairs. It's great, valuable stuff. The author's advice resonates with me in part, as regular readers will guess, because it calls for much more local organizing, not solely to resist the forces of fascism, but at least as much to build what some activists call "capacity" – what the writer calls "durable, self-sufficient, democratic organizations that work together effectively. They need financial autonomy, accountable leaders, paid staff, and federated structures." Please read it all. You'll probably learn from it, as I did. Then, pass it along (and, of course, do the same with other items I highlight here).
Noah Hurowitz
Greg Sargent
November 4, 2016 Updated April 14, 2021
