Editors’ Blog

Some of you are probably asking, does Josh really like doing all of these posts about the TPM Journalism Fund? Well, not particularly. But I’m happy to do it because these contributions directly impact the quality and depth of the journalism we will be able to bring you for the rest of this year and into the next. And that’s important enough to me that I’m happy to harp on this maybe more than I otherwise would.

One recurring feature of our organization and readers’ perception of it is that people think we are a much larger organization than we are. So a single additional hire or a relatively small amount of additional budget can have a big impact. It can also allow us to make investments that won’t show fruit until many months later. Remember, we’re not a subsidiary of some bigger company let alone a mega-corporation. So our business practices have to be very small-c conservative. There’s no net or larger entity in the background bankrolling us or injecting additional money if things don’t go according to plan.

That can make running this operation a bit anxiety provoking. But the plus side of that is that there’s no big diversified corporation making the big decisions for reasons unconnected with journalism. There’s no boss uninvolved in our daily work telling us what to do. Every decision that affects TPM gets made by someone whose byline you see every day or someone on the publishing team you can see right down there on the masthead.

Here’s the link.

From TPM Reader SH …

Those who can’t seem to get around to contributing should know that once they finally do, the next time it will take longer to sneeze than to donate. You guys have a very efficient system.

Keep up the great work! You guys have been keeping me sane for 15+ years.

It’s really that easy. Just click right here.

Late Update: I just checked the numbers. We might actually get to $350,000 today. We’re currently at $334,196.

A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate discuss Samuel Alito’s pricey fishing trip, the looming specter of a third-party candidate in 2024 and the newest antics of rogue House Republicans.

You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.

As you’ve seen, House Republicans are now falling out amongst themselves not over whether to impeach President Biden but over which of the two reality-show-style contestant reps (see Boebert-Greene cage match) gets credit and pride of place to be the first to impeach him, or rather the first to introduce the motion to do so. And really, who copied who?

This comes after months of threats that House Republicans will impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and perhaps various other secretaries, deputy secretaries or other appointees. It appears that the first vote to impeach President Biden may come not for his various other imagined crimes but because the Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney in Delaware (left in place for more than two years) did not come up with more charges against the President’s son, Hunter.

We all of course know that impeachment is not removal from office. Indeed, the symbolic sanction has been significantly devalued in recent decades. Still many of us still feel that it crosses a psychic line, an unmerited but woeful hammer a rogue majority can bring down on a President who has not only not acted in a way that merits impeachment but not even in a way that merits criticism.

In a word, it hurts.

The first week of these drives is always the biggest. We’re now coming to the end of week two. To keep on track we really, really, really want to get to $350,000 by the end of two weeks. Right now we’re at $320,665. I’ve emailed with a number of you who’ve told me you haven’t had a convenient moment yet but plan to contribute. If that’s you, can you take literally less than two minutes right now and make a contribution of any amount? It truly just takes a moment. If you’re a member you don’t even have to take out your credit card. It’s that simple. Just take a moment literally right now. You can just click here.

The midterm red wave that wasn’t was one thing. Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race was another. 2024 Republicans’ ongoing, awkward, obvious flailing on abortion has confirmed the severity of the dilemma for the party. And the primary elections in Virginia this week bring us the latest datapoint on how potent and energizing the unpopularity of the Dobbs ruling and the passage of increasingly restrictives bans on abortion has been and will be for 2024 voters.

Okay, we’re creeping up on 2/3rds of the way toward our very ambitious and very necessary goal in this year’s TPM Journalism Fund drive. We’re currently at $318,669. That’s very solid. But we need to keep moving it forward. If you’ve been considering contributing, please take a moment to do so today. It’s quick and easy, especially if you’re a current member. Literally takes about one minute. Just click right here. And thank you in advance.

You’ve likely seen that TPM Alum Justin Elliott and the team at ProPublica is back with another big exclusive about the Supreme Court. This time, for once, Clarence Thomas is in the clear. Now we’re talking about the intemperate and peevish Sam Alito who took an all expenses paid fishing trip to Alaska back in 2008, courtesy of hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer. In a characteristic move, Alito refused to respond to the reporters’ questions and then published his answers as an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal in a kind of prebuttal and attack. Because yes, he’s that guy.

The bulk of the story is a detailed run-down of what Alito did, what a justice needs to disclose and what kind of high-powered gifts should dictate a recusal in cases where Singer had some direct stake — there’ve been a number. But the gem in Alito’s prebuttle op-ed is the explanation of the private jet flight.

Even being a Trump appointee won’t shield you from the wrath of a House Republican majority foaming at the mouth to prove just how weaponized!!! the justice system is (but only when it serves their talking-point purposes).

United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Henry C. Leventis today announced charges against Joshua Hensley, aka Josh Echo, 25, of Hoisington, Kansas for Facebook comments threatening a violent attack on a Nashville Pride event scheduled to take place on June 24 and June 25. In one post he threatened to “make shrapnel pressure cooker bombs for this event” and in another to “commit a mass shooting.” The threats were made on April 26, 2023.

TPM Reader EK notes that a “Joshua Hensley” was booked in Hoisington Municipal Court for domestic battery on March 18 of this year. Of course maybe the town is just lousy with a surfeit of Joshua Hensleys. Or maybe these guys follow a pattern.