The New York Times has a new piece out this afternoon focused exclusively on Christina Bobb, the OAN anchor-turned-Trump lawyer who has found herself particularly wrapped up in the Mar-a-Lago records-stashing scandal (and, now, potentially in the DOJ’s crosshairs).
It adds to a similar report yesterday from NBC, and there are a few details from the Times’ new version that are worth noting. Like NBC’s, the Times’ is based on anonymous sources, so take the story — and the perspective from which it is told — with whatever dose of salt you wish.
Read More
As you can see in LiveWire, Elon Musk — really, unsurprisingly — had just talked to Vladimir Putin before going on to Twitter and proposing a peace plan which mostly amounted to Russia’s original war aims. Typical? Gross? Par for the course? Perhaps all of these. But it reminded me of something more general. Many of our would-be oligarchs in the United States seem quite attracted to the Russian strongman/oligarch model. It’s not just the authoritarianism but the way oligarchs operate within it. It’s part of the broader anti-democratic, authoritarian turn within a large swathe of the tech industry.
Not the same point. But this essay by John Ganz gets at some similar points.
Late Update: Musk now denies on Twitter that the conversation took place. He says he’s only spoken to Putin once and that it was 18 months ago. We’ll wait to hear what Ian Bremmer, who reported the conversation, has to say about it.
Bernie Sanders has an article in The Guardian saying it’s a mistake for Democrats to make abortion central to their closing argument for the 2022 election. He’s wrong. Let me explain why.
First, Sanders prefaces his argument with all sorts of caveats. He’s 100% pro-choice; he hates the Dobbs decision; abortion should definitely be part of their message. But the closing argument should be on the economy and economic justice. That’s his argument.
This argument will be grist for those in the Democratic Party who think that Sanders and the Sanders wing of the party see economics and mixed economy social justice as the essence of real progressivism while things like abortion are important but secondary — both substantively and politically. That’s a critique and intramural argument among Democrats I’m not going to resolve here. But my disagreement with Sanders is more focused.
Read More
