NOTE: If you haven't yet listened to last week's RussiaGate - Year 3, Part I, please do that first.
For over two years, the U.S. government has been investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election - interference broadly considered to be in favor of candidate Donald Trump. As a result, a bizarre flip has occurred with the Right and Left: Poll...
2018-07-18 15:13:08 +0000 UTC
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For over two years, the U.S. government has been investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election - interference broadly considered to be in favor of candidate Donald Trump. As a result, a bizarre flip has occurred with the Right and Left: Polls show liberals now trust the FBI and CIA, while many right-wingers – though by no means all – suddenly act concerned about the so-called “deep state.” Liberals have been turned into even more extreme hawks, not just on the issue of Russia, ...
2018-07-11 14:58:36 +0000 UTC
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Hi all, here's this week's newsletter. Hope you enjoy!
Adam, Florence, and Nima
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California County Law Enforcement Puts Kids On Probation For Bad Grades - Carimah Townes - The Appeal (7/10/18)
America’s most abundant resource––punitive, moralizing asshole law and order types––strike again. &n...
2018-07-10 23:07:01 +0000 UTC
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Conservatives and rightwing democrats respond to Ocasio-Cortez's surprise win by acting VERY CONCERNED for a left they've spent decades trying to bury and have never cared about.
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Comparing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Trump Is Absurd
Matt Taibbi | June 28, 2018 | Rolling Stone
2018-07-06 19:22:55 +0000 UTC
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With the rise of Trump, Sanders, Corbyn and Brexit, hundreds of pundits, reporters, and talking heads have been warning about the problems of "populism" and its alleged attack on democracy over the past three years.
“Populism and immigration pose major threat to global democracy,” the Gates Foundation insists. “
2018-06-27 19:35:55 +0000 UTC
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Hi all, thanks as always for your amazing support for the show. Here's this week's newsletter. Hope you enjoy!
- Nima, Florence and Adam
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Do We Need a Federal Jobs Guarantee? A Debate. - Rohan Grey & Raúl Carrillo, Rebuttal By Matt Bruenig, In These Times (6/18/18)
Unironically the sexist debate goi...
2018-06-26 19:36:59 +0000 UTC
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"Healthcare marketplaces,” “private insurers competing for your business,” “insurance subsidies,” For years, Democrats bet big on framing the healthcare debate using technocratic, capitalist terms––they weren’t going to radically change the system of healthcare, simply accent the existing private insurance-based model making things “smarter,” “easier,” more “tech-driven.”
As the Affordable Care Act faces continued right-wing attacks and liberal-leaning activists inc...
2018-06-20 15:20:27 +0000 UTC
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In this Patron News Brief, Nima and Adam discuss the tone-deaf, myopic, and ultimately dangerous reaction by some liberals to recent peace efforts in Korea.
Show Notes
In Trump’s Madness, There’s Opportunity in Korea: Bruce Cumings - Jon Wiener, The Nation (6/14/18)
2018-06-15 15:17:50 +0000 UTC
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They’re not lies, they’re “falsehoods”; it’s not racism, it’s “racially charged comments”; it’s not torture, it’s “enhanced interrogation.” For years, U.S. media has prioritized, above all else, norms and civility.
Mean words or questioning motives are signs of declining civility and the subject of much lament from our media class. However, op-eds explicitly advocating war, invasion, sanctions, sabotage, bombing and occupation or cutting vital...
2018-06-13 15:45:30 +0000 UTC
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Hi all,
Here's this week's newsletter. Thanks as always for your support.
- Florence, Nima and Adam
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The NCAA Is Running Out Of Excuses On Brain Injuries - Patrick Hruby, Deadspin (5/24/18)
From last month but worth reading as we run up to yet another college football season. While the NFL gets most of the attention o...
2018-06-12 22:12:57 +0000 UTC
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The United States, far and away, has the largest prison population in the world. It also has one of the greatest disparities in their prison population of ethnic minorities in the world. How does a country that prides itself on being a “beacon of freedom” and whose leaders travel the world scolding other countries on “human rights” find itself to be the largest carceral state of the 21st century?
What are the cultural forces that reinforce racist attitudes, deference to the polic...
2018-06-06 15:24:06 +0000 UTC
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Hi all,
Appreciate the support as always. Here's this week's newsletter. Live Show episode coming out tomorrow so look out for it and thanks again to all those who dropped by!
-- Nima, Adam and Florence
*****
An Immigration Lawyer Explains What’s Really Happening with Family Separation - Sarah Jaffe,
2018-06-05 17:16:03 +0000 UTC
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Hi all, we are off this week but wanted to post this News Brief for our patrons. Thanks again for your support!
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On this News Brief, Adam and Nima discuss the recent announcement that Facebook will be partnering with The Atlantic Council, a DC think tank funded primarily by foreign governments, NATO and the arms industry, to "monitor" the internet "for misinformation and foreign interference."
2018-05-30 19:20:11 +0000 UTC
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Thank you all for your support!
Last week's Live Show in Brooklyn was a big success, so thanks also to all of you who came out to support the great folks at Court Watch NYC.
- Florence, Nima, and Adam
*****
For the Birds: I spent two week...
2018-05-29 21:54:12 +0000 UTC
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“Baby Boomers are bloating the social safety net!” “GenXers are changing the nature of work!” “Millennials are killing the housing market!”
The media endlessly feeds us stories about how one generation or another is engaging in some collective act of moral failing that, either explicitly or by implication, harms another generation. It’s a widely-mocked cliché at t...
2018-05-23 14:58:44 +0000 UTC
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In this patron-only News Brief, we discuss recent media coverage of Israelis killing more than 60 protesters in Gaza, why the Anti-Defamation League is partying with Trump officials in Jerusalem, and the many ways editors obscure who did what to whom.
2018-05-16 16:07:34 +0000 UTC
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A pillar of the community. A straight-A student who dreamed of becoming a doctor. A loving father. Here through no fault of their own. She was hysterical and out of control. He was no angel.
The press, both local and national, humanizes some victims of state or corporate violence, while demonizing others. Despite good intentions and seemingly without noticing, the media all too often create tiered systems of moral worth by trying to find “the perfect victim.”
The media...
2018-05-16 14:36:17 +0000 UTC
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Hi all,
Thanks so much for your support as always. Here's this week's newsletter!
Also: reminder of our live show May 25 in Brooklyn ICYMI.
--- Adam, Florence, and Nima
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These Statistics Show Why Gazans ...
2018-05-15 22:35:05 +0000 UTC
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Attention Citations Needed supporters -
We are happy to announce that Citations Needed is doing a live show at UnionDocs in Brooklyn, New York, on the evening of Friday, May 25, 2018.
BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE!
We're ...
2018-05-14 17:26:14 +0000 UTC
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For decades, Canada has been a go-to point of reference for American progressives as a country the United States can and should strive to be. And while there are many parts about Canadian society that are measurably preferable, leftists in Canada find their country's glossy, socialist paradise image to be overblown and often a barrier to meaningful change.
This episode examines this tension, the reality versus perception, what we can learn from each other, and the common and existential ...
2018-05-09 15:15:01 +0000 UTC
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We're back! Here's this week's newsletter, please enjoy. Fresh episode coming tomorrow. Thanks again for all your support.
–– Florence, Nima, and Adam
p.s. There was obviously some pretty huge news regarding the Iran nuclear deal today and both Adam and Nima have had plenty to say about it on Twit...
2018-05-09 00:52:20 +0000 UTC
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Citations Needed is off this week, but here's a bonus interview for Patreon supporters!
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"Here behind the paywall, we can tell the truth and blow the lid off the U.S. media."
So begins friend-of-the-show Jon Schwarz in a very special bonus interview. Building off our April 11, 2018 episode about the search for the mysterious "Reasonable Republican, we talk with Jo...
2018-04-30 17:33:45 +0000 UTC
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When Americans read about the Korean "conflict" in the Western press, the articles are populated almost entirely with Serious Western Talking Heads, weapons contractor-funded think tank "fellows," and former and current U.S. military brass. Who's never consulted, much less heeded, are peace and left activists from the Korean peninsula.
The notion that perma-hostility from the U.S. and arming the South to the teeth is in Korea's best interest -- and is assumed to be popular -- is simply t...
2018-04-25 15:50:48 +0000 UTC
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Hi all!
Here's this week's newsletter. Thanks as always for your support.
-- Florence, Adam, Nima
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How the Border Patrol Faked Statistics Showing a 73 Percent Rise in Assaults Against Agents - Debbie Nathan, The Intercept (4/23/18)
The copiest of all cops, Border Patrol, are making up attacks on their agents t...
2018-04-24 19:35:58 +0000 UTC
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MSNBC is by far the most influential mainstream media outlet on the American Left. It sets the tone and defines the boundary for what is acceptable discourse among American liberals. But major issues the Left is generally thought to care about - imperial war, worker strikes, Palestine, climate change - are almost entirely absent from coverage, as the network increasingly looks like a 24-hour Trump-Russia infomercial.
What is the point of having a liberal cable news network when it ignores so m...
2018-04-18 16:45:03 +0000 UTC
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In this patron-only News Brief, we discuss the toxic conversation around Syria from liberal supporters of airstrikes to hipper-than-thou anti-anti-imperialists who are mad at, like, three random people online all the time.
And here's some more stuff to read:
Senate Democrats Offer Little-to-No Opposition to Trump’s Expansion of Syria B...
2018-04-17 22:05:42 +0000 UTC
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Hi all!
Here's this week's newsletter. Thanks as always for your support.
--Florence, Adam, and Nima
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The Two State Solution Is Dead. Supporting It Is Supporting Occupation. - Yousef Munayyer, Forward (4/16/18)
Munayyer, who runs the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, writes the ...
2018-04-17 21:33:28 +0000 UTC
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The unlikely rise of Trump in the past three years has created a chasm in the Republican party: those who embrace the President’s wild, unorthodox, nativist style and those who––with much posturing and self congratulation––reject his brand of conservatism. The latter group, generally called “NeverTrump” Republicans occupies a special, protected status in Serious Centrist media––despite representing only 5% of the American population.
Major outlets like The Washingto...
2018-04-11 15:25:10 +0000 UTC
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Hi all,
Thanks as always for your support. Here's this week's newsletter.
-- Adam, Nima, and Florence
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We Must Stop John Bolton From Escalating War in Syria - Phyllis Bennis In These Times (4/9/18)
Trump's new National Security Advisor is war-hungry and newly in charge. What will his tenu...
2018-04-10 22:14:56 +0000 UTC
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In this patron-only News Brief, we discuss Jackson Diehl's grotesque victim-blaming editorial for The Washington Post he didn't even have the courage to put his name on.
Here's better stuff to read than WaPo Editorials:
2018-04-09 18:55:39 +0000 UTC
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