Flooding in Miami Beach, Florida
As many people feared, Donald Trump yesterday withdrew the United States from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement that was signed by 195 nations. Trump has added America to an extremely short list of outliers, including only Syria and Nicaragua. However, all is not doom and gloom as a result of Trump’s bad decision. First, plenty of state officials and companies will continue their commitment to fight climate change, for example, by deploying more clean energy such as solar and wind power. Second, there are many efforts each of us can make to bridge the climate change gap that Donald Trump is creating:
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Trump/Russia Inauguration Day protest
Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee held an open hearing designed to lay out Russia‘s intentions and techniques (“active measures)” to influence the U.S. 2016 elections, and to propose actions and solutions to address them going forward. According to Independent Senator Angus King, from what he heard during the hearing, “we’re engaged in a new form of aggression, if not war,” from Russia. King’s statement echoed former Vice President Dick Cheney, who said a few days earlier that, “in some quarters,” Russia’s interference in the U.S. election “could be considered an act of war.” Witnesses at the hearing agreed that Russia is engaged in cyber “warfare” against the U.S. This is a crucial first step in investigating whether Donald Trump‘s campaign colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 presidential election.
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2016 Elections, cyber warfare, Devin Nunes, Dick Cheney, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, House Intelligence Committee, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Preisdent Barack Obama, Roger Stone, Russia, Senate, Senate Intelligence Committee, social media, Twitter
Maternity and newborn healthcare, on the Republican chopping block.
Republicans yesterday were forced to pull their American Health Care Act (AHCA) for lack of Republican support. House Speaker Paul Ryan and his GOP colleagues made more changes to the bill, were subjected to more arm-twisting, and are reportedly voting on it today. While it’s conceivable that House Republicans can ultimately agree on a bill that has enough giveaways for recalcitrant members, the so-called “healthcare” bill is as good an example as any of the vast difference in values between the Democratic and Republican Parties.
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NBC’s Matt Lauer with former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders
Wednesday night’s NBC News “Commander-in-Chief Forum” has been roundly criticized. In particular, moderator Matt Lauer is taking the heat for his biased, amateurish performance. However, the NBC forum is just one of many examples of the U.S. Beltway media tipping the scales against Hillary Clinton and for Donald Trump in this election, and failing to do their job. One Twitter user even started the hashtag “#LaueringTheBar” to describe this trend. With the first presidential debate just days away, time is quickly running out to cure the problem.
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2016 Democratic primaries, 2016 Elections, 2016 presidential debates, 2016 Republican primaries, Bernie Sanders, Chris Wallace, CNN, Dana Bash, Donald Trump, Fox News, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Howard Stern, Iraq War, LaueringTheBar, Matt Lauer, MSNBC, NBC News, Ted Cruz, Twitter
Republican Party bends to Donald Trump
This week may well be viewed as the week in which the Republican Party died. After Party primary voters chose Donald Trump as their presidential nominee in May, Trump this week chose Steve Bannon, the chairman of right wing website Breitbart News, as his campaign manager, effectively shunting aside Paul Manafort, an experienced GOP strategist and lobbyist. Today, Manafort resigned from the Trump campaign. While Manafort was facing a Russian influence scandal, had become a lightning rod for negative publicity and thus had to go, he was at least a mainstream Republican who deals in reality. Trump’s choice of Bannon as a replacement for Manafort pushes Trump’s presidential campaign, and thus the Republican Party, further into fake conspiracy theory territory.
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2016 Elections, Bill Clinton, Breitbart, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, GOP, Hillary Clinton, Paul Manafort, Republican Party, Russia, Supreme Court, Twitter
Second Life commemorates the Paris attacks the next day
The terrorist attack perpetrated in Paris on Friday night was shocking. Also shocking, however, was the speed in which Republicans and conservatives made ugly public statements to score political points. For example, a number of the Republican presidential candidates, not surprisingly, blamed President Obama. Donald Trump, doubling down on a statement he made last January after the Charlie Hebdo attacks, said the problem was too many gun laws in France. Ann Coulter tweeted that “Donald Trump was elected tonight.” Coulter explained in other tweets that Trump’s anti-immigration policies for America somehow would prevent the type of terrorist attack that occurred in Paris. Newt Gingrich, like Trump, suggested that the Paris attacks could have been thwarted by “10 to 15 citizens with concealed carry permits.” And conservative writer Judith Miller (who is infamous for cheerleading George W. Bush‘s Iraq War in the New York Times) almost incoherently tried to use the Paris attack to argue why black American college students should have no problem with racial discrimination against them.
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Leave a comment! Tags: 9/11, Charlie Hebdo, Donald Trump, France, French, Iraq War, ISIS, Paris, Paris attack, Paris terror attack, Republicans, terrorism, Twitter
Kenyan ambassador Amina Mohamed, July 24, 2015
Fresh off its “dildo flag” fiasco, CNN once again has lost its journalistic marbles. Once again, the subject is terrorism, and once again CNN has made a wild, unfounded claim on air, this time regarding President Barack Obama‘s trip to Kenya. And once again, CNN’s terrorism frenzy involves anchor Suzanne (pronounced SuzONNE) Malveaux.
This time, as President Obama was embarking on his historical trip to Kenya, CNN went with hysterical rather than historical, calling Kenya “a hotbed of terror.” CNN even had former Obama Secret Service agent Jonathan Wackrow on to state:
People have been anticipating this trip since the day that he [Obama] was first elected. So the people that want to hurt the president, you know, have been planning for the last seven years for this trip.
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Leave a comment! Tags: Barack Obama, cable news, CNN, Fox News, guns, Kenya, media, social media, television, terrorism, TV, Twitter
Occupy Wall Street 2011
At Messaging Matters, we have spent more than four years trying to help people engage in and win political arguments and policy battles, for example, by identifying loaded talking points and phony phrases used by conservatives. However, we keep hearing from friends who have seen relationships, friendships and even family ties come to an unpleasant end due to political arguments. Often, these arguments take place in social media like Facebook and Twitter. Sometimes, the argument and subsequent ending of the relationship happens in just a few minutes, after several angry message exchanges. But what if you value your friendships and relationships, and don’t want to lose them over political differences? Here are several tips that you can use to preserve your relationships — and your sanity — in these politically charged, social media-fed times:
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Tim Corrimal posing with a D.C. Democrat
The Tim Corrimal Show is a unique progressive political podcast that airs every Sunday evening at timcorrimal.com, as well as at other outlets listed below. Tim’s show distinguishes itself by (a) using plenty of humor; (b) shifting from topic to topic often at breakneck speed; and (c) inviting a stream of guests from social media. We caught up with Tim to ask him about his show, progressive media, the 2016 elections and more:
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Brian Williams as Willi Vanilli
Chris Cillizza wrote a short Washington Post piece last Friday entitled “Who had the worst week in Washington? NBC’s Brian Williams.” Cillizza’s op-ed described how NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams was taken down by social media. In particular, Williams was placed on six months’ unpaid suspension, and may lose his job permanently, as a direct result of a Facebook comment by helicopter flight engineer Lance Reynolds, who disputed Williams’ oft-repeated story about being on a helicopter that was hit by enemy fire during the Iraq War. The social media takedown of Brian Williams was a keen observation by Cillizza, but social media are responsible for much than just Brian Williams’ job status. The Brian Williams debacle might be remembered as the moment where social media, and the Internet itself, overtook television.
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Leave a comment! Tags: Barack Obama, Brian Williams, Buzzfeed, Facebook, Internet, media, NBC, Net Neutrality, news, social media, television, TV, Twitter, YouTube
