We’re going to do a Breaking News Inside Briefing at 3 PM this afternoon to answer your questions about the Roger Stone indictments, the inclusion of Steve Bannon and possibly the President in the Wikileaks line of discussions. We’ll have me, TPM reporters and possibly some outside reporters on this case to dig into what it all means and answer your questions.
If you’re an Inside Subscriber, you’ll be receiving an email invite shortly. If you’re interested in joining us we now have monthly Inside memberships in addition to annual ones. Talk soon.
Trump administration tries to bypass appeals court and go straight to Supreme Court to get greenlight for adding citizenship question to the 2020 census.
Today we’re starting what they call a soft rollout of Prime AF (Prime Ad Free). If you’re an existing Prime member I really hope you’ll upgrade your account. If you’re not a Prime member, maybe this will finally pull you over the edge. Ad Free is TPM, with every article with absolutely no ads ever. Anywhere. I’ll just say it. It’s really important and also awesome. Please upgrade.
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I found Julian Sanchez’s argument here rather persuasive. It’s not Stone Mueller was most interested in. It was his electronic devices.
In late December I recommended one of my favorite recent books off my reading list – recent in this case meaning when I read them, not necessarily when they were published. That was Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World by Nicholas Oster. (You can see my review and recommendation here.) I’ve been casting about since and in the last week I’ve finally found a book on a related topic that has captured my interest: The Writing Revolution: Cuneiform to the Internet by Amalia E. Gnanadesikan. But what really prompted me to write this post was this poster I saw on Jason Kottke’s site.
So some encouraging signs from our roll out of Prime AF (the new Ad Free version of Prime). In the first few days 2,090 readers have either joined or (in most cases) upgraded their existing Prime memberships to Prime AF. To all of you, thank you for being part of this. Subscriptions are the way an independent media organization can remain vital and alive and as little subject as possible to industry storms that have no inherent connection to its journalism or the dedication of its readers. We all see the scythes cutting through the staffs of other digital media organizations. This strategy has protected us from that fate. So if you have a moment, please join or upgrade your existing Prime account.
President Trump is the best marketing director for anti-Trump books. A short while ago, former staffer Cliff Sims was on CNN pushing his tell-all book when Trump tweet attacked him in real time. He even got a chance to respond in real time: “Nice. There it is.”
I cannot say I’ve hung on every word of ex-Starbucks CEO (and de facto founder) Howard Schultz’s 48+ hour pre-campaign. But I’ve seen most of the public statements. What’s most notable is that the main theme of his campaign so far is hostility to Democrats. And as he gets criticized by Trump critics that pattern appears to be intensifying. Read More
Howard Schultz is no longer CEO of Starbucks. But as de facto founder (he took it over as a small coffee roaster and developed it into what we know as Starbucks) I imagine he is still a major shareholder. Really he and Starbucks are inseparable. But I don’t think he’s really considered how vulnerable the company is to a boycott or simply enduring brand damage tied to this effort. Read More