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If you have corrections, suggestions, or items to add, please email me:

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If you have corrections, suggestions, or items to add, please email me:

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m l b e c k e r [at] p o b o x . c o m

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Ad Fontes Media’s Interactive Media Bias Chart web app.

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Michael Moore's Recommendations for where to get some "real" news

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Michael Moore's Recommendations for where to get some "real" news

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Get some real news. Go outside the mainstream media. There’s all kinds of journalism these days — dangerous muckrakers, investigative humorists, fearless instigators, unbought and unrepentant writers — find them. Embrace it. Read it. Watch it. Listen to it: ProPublica. The Guardian. Ha’aretz. CBC nightly news “The National.” Labor Notes. John Oliver. Current Affairs. BBC NewsNight. The Chris Hedges Report on Substack. Ayman on MSNBC. Drop Site News. A Closer Lookon Seth Meyers. The Lever. Hammer & Hope. More Perfect Union. The Katie Halper Show. Night School with Marc Lamont Hill. “Citations Needed”. Jewish Currents. Al-Jazeera English.

(From his Nov. 13, 2024 substack article).

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From ProPublica: provides information on lawmakers, the bills they consider and the votes they take (and miss).

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This site provides information on lawmakers, the bills they consider and the votes they take (and miss). You can browse the latest votes and bills, see how often lawmakers vote against their parties and compare voting records.

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Heather Cox Richardson's Letters From an American

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Heather Cox Richardson's Letters From an American

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An historian who provides intelligent and thoroughly researched context about today's events.

(I have no idea where the photo came from and I don't know how to change it! If you do, PLEASE let me know.)

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There is little news from the day that cannot wait, so tonight's is a good post to skip if you need a break from politics.

For the rest of you, there is a little news.

Late last night, Massachusetts joined the eastern consortium of states pledging to work together to end the coronavirus physical distancing orders. That's a big deal because, as near as I can tell, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker is the first Republican to break ranks and join the coalition of states with Democratic governors. Baker is a highly popular Republican governor of a Democratic state who enjoys a favorability rating in the 70s. For him to join with the Democrats made sense-he is the popular governor of a state that dislikes the president-but it shows that Trump's power over all Republicans is cracking.

This morning, Trump continued the fight between him and state governors who have decided to go their own way. "Tell the Democrat Governors that "Mutiny On The Bounty" was one of my all time favorite movies," he tweeted. "A good old fashioned mutiny every now and then is an exciting and invigorating thing to watch, especially when the mutineers need so much from the Captain. Too easy!"

This was likely designed to gin up trouble. In the film Trump referenced, of course, Captain Bligh is a mentally unstable autocrat who rules by cruelty and whose men finally overthrow him, although they are hanged for their challenge to authority. Trump's reference to it was likely just an attempt to stir up his opponents. Indeed, Trump's talk yesterday about having absolute authority to do as he saw fit on the coronavirus shutdowns was probably the same: bluster to encourage his base to blame Democratic governors for shutting down the economy, rather than him for mismanaging the response to the coronavirus, when the economy continues to sputter over the summer.

Trump has no power to override the governors' decisions about the health regulations of their states; the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution reserves to the states or the people all powers not enumerated in the Constitution, and there is nothing in the Constitution conferring the power Trump claims on the president. Even if he declares an emergency, it is unlikely the Supreme Court would back his commandeering of state governments.

His bluff called by the governors, today at his briefing Trump walked back his statements about "total authority" and instead said he was working with the governors, who would be reopening their states very early, he said, maybe earlier than he had originally wanted.

Stymied by the governors, Trump pivoted to attack another target over which he does have control. He blamed the World Health Organization for the coronavirus pandemic and is withholding US funds from it even as it is in the midst of fighting Covid-19. He has accused the WHO of doing precisely what opponents accuse him of: failing to identify the crisis early, wasting time, and shielding China from blame in the spread of coronavirus, although of course the WHO both identified and warned about the disease, and provided test kits the US refused, pushing our response to the coronavirus weeks behind that of other nations. Trump says he is withholding funds "while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Association's role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus."

We also learned today that stimulus checks from the coronavirus relief package are being delayed so Trump's name can be printed on them. This is unprecedented: normally, Treasury checks are signed by civil servants so they remain non-partisan. When the Treasury delivered economic rebate checks under the George W Bush administration in 2001, for example, the White House asked the IRS to mention to taxpayers that the administration was "giving you your money back" and the IRS commissioner refused, saying such a move was too political.

Perhaps the biggest news today is that former President Barack Obama endorsed his former Vice President, Joe Biden, for president. The endorsement itself is a no-brainer, but Obama did not stop there. He praised Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for moving the national political conversation to address economic inequality, and went on to call for Democrats to move the country toward a more progressive society. Republicans are "not interested in progress," he said, "they're interested in power." "Our country's future depends on this election," he said. "This crisis has reminded us that... good government matters." He called "Americans of all political stripes" to reclaim American principles.

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Notes:

attacks on WHO:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-announces-cutoff-of-new-funding-for-the-world-health-organization-over-pandemic-response/2020/04/14/f1df101e-7e9f-11ea-a3ee-13e1ae0a3571_story.html
Trump's name on checks: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/coming-to-your-1200-relief-check-donald-j-trumps-name/2020/04/14/071016c2-7e82-11ea-8013-1b6da0e4a2b7_story.html

Obama:

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There is little news from the day that cannot wait, so tonight's is a good post to skip if you need a break from politics. For the rest of you, there is a little news. Late last night, Massachusetts joined the eastern consortium of states pledging to work together to end the coronavirus physical distancing orders.

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Bill Moyers: 10 Investigative Reporting Outlets to Follow

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Bill Moyers: 10 Investigative Reporting Outlets to Follow

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10 Investigative Reporting Outlets to Follow

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Here are some new organizations, as well as a few established ones, that are working to uncover the truth.

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(You can change to view voter information for any state.)

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Enter your address to find your polling place, build your ballot with our online voters' guide and much more! With our voters' guide you can see the races on your ballot, compare candidates' positions side-by-side, and print out a "ballot" indicating your preferences as a reminder and take it with you to the polls on Election Day.