The Stupid Keeps on Coming
And some of it happens in the middle of the night.
Karoli nailed it this week when she proclaimed the coming season as the Summer of Stupid. The antics coming out of the White House on Wednesday proved it, with the president holding one of his embarrassing head of state ambushes on South African President Cyril Ramaphosa... and the US government officially accepting that ridiculous Qatari plane.
There was a lot more stupid to discuss, and Aliza Worthington and Donna Schwartz Mills joined in with Karoli to talk about it.
Alas, the stupidest thing of all occurred in the middle of the night, after the MOMocrats recorded this week's podcast: the House approved its Big Ugly Bill by one vote, which will cut over one billion dollars from Medicaid, SNAP, and Medicare (yes, $500 million from Medicare! Explained in the podcast). Action now moves to the Senate.
What We’re Reading This Week
Since deleting my subscriptions to the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post, I’ve been relying on an array of independent publications to keep me up to date on what’s happening in the world. Robert Hubbell’s nightly newsletters do a great job of distilling the firehose of stupid into succinct messaging - and I borrow from him all the time. Last night’s newsletter really highlighted what’s stupid in the big, ugly bill the House passed in the middle of the night.
Worse Than We Thought: GOP Will Cut Medicare by $500 Billion
Last week, we recommended Jonathan Larsen’s aptly titled daily summary, The Fucking News. As the country becomes increasingly stupid, I like to blow off some steam by reading Jeff Tiedrich’s less comprehensive but no less profane (and hysterical) email, Everyone’s Entitled To My Own Opinion. Today’s edition tackles that meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday.
He’s Such Fucking Embarrassment
Target’s first quarter sales have been dismal - and yesterday, they acknowledged that a lot of that was due to the consumer boycott of their brand after they abandoned DEI. These kinds of actions work (just look at what’s happened to Tesla!) But unfortunately, some businesses are kind of hard to boycott - especially when it seems like all of their competitors are doing the same kind of evil stuff. Judd Legum today has another list of corporations that talk a good game of supporting organizations like Feed America ... but also officially support the Big Ugly Bill that will decimate SNAP benefits to hungry families. Both AT&T and T-mobile are on it - as are Verizon, and Charter.
Michael Polhorzer has written a fascinating analysis of those low-information voters who apparently were the key to Trump’s 2024 victory. Do they have buyers’ remorse? Looks like it.
The Re-Emerging Anti-MAGA Majority
Finally: It’s easy to talk politics with my like-minded family and friends - but when engaging with people who do not follow the news as closely, it helps to map out how your messaging should be framed. Antonia Scatton’s newsletter has been super helpful to me for that. This week: She tells us why the word “populism” gets a bad rap - and also, why we may want to adopt it as our own.
Find more intelligent analysis and reporting from trusted journalists and writers on our curated list of news information and resources.
One Last Thing
