LOCAL. PADRES 2025 SCHEDULE /PLAN AHEAD

TACKY TUESDAY / TWO MONTH ANNIVERSARY OF STORMY’S REVENGE

 

Face of a shameless convict

It’s not every day a political party in America selects a convicted fraudster to be their nominee for the next Presidential election. The bar has been lowered. Sad. 

MEDIA MONDAY / MORE NEW YORKER CARTOONS

 

Zachary Kanin is a contributor to The New Yorker. He is a former Saturday Night Live staff writer and the co-creator, producer and writer of the Detroiters and I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. 

***

Mike Twohy is a children’s book author/artist and cartoon contributor to The New Yorker and lives with his wife, cats and yellow lab dog in Berkeley CA. 

SUNDAY REVIEW / HOW WORKING ON A JIGSAW PUZZLE MAKES YOU SMARTER

GUEST BLOG / By the Staff of one of the leading U.S. puzzle makers Pomegranate.com--Did you know by working on a jigsaw puzzle you’ve done something fabulous for yourself? 

When you work on a puzzle, you can expect amazing satisfaction and improvements to your mind, body, and relationships. It’s true! What do we mean by saying doing a puzzle (or two!) can improve almost every aspect of your life? Well … 

→ It makes you smarter 

Working on a challenging puzzle can increase your IQ level and productivity, help to exercise both sides of your brain, and improve your short-term memory. For example, a puzzle aficionado reports that she found a 1000 piece puzzle in a thrift store (a person who counts every piece before launching the solution process). The jigsaw puzzle was of the entire front page of the October 22, 1949 edition of the New York Times. In solving the puzzle, she discovered so much of what was happening in the world then and the extreme depth of the “Red Scare/Communist infiltration.” Reading every word of the front page of any newspaper has to make you smarter. 

→ It decreases stress 

The meditative act of doing a puzzle and taking time away from our busy schedules, screens, and technology is a natural de-stresser! Puzzles compress time. They make us focus and strategize and above all it zens us into being far more patient than we realize. It champions one day at a time thinking to reach a long range goal. Perfect to exercise and/or exorcize our compulsive natures. 

→ It builds relationships By teaming up with friends and family to complete a puzzle you can expect to get to know each other better, improve your teamwork, and spend quality time with a common focus. 300-piece puzzles have larger pieces and are a mini-challenge to complete with relatives young and old. And it also allows for time to be with yourself. Recall the old line: “time flies when you’re having fun.” 

 → It opens the door to art in your everyday life! Methodically assembling art piece-by-piece encourages you to dig into the details of your favorite art. By doing an art puzzle we can finally know the difference between Monet and Manet. Art=joy! Puzzles=art! 

 Text for this post came from an advertisement by Pomegranate.com with a few comments added [in italics] by PillartoPost.org 

 Happy puzzling! 

COFFEE BEANS & BEINGS / ESPRESSO AU CREUX DES MONTAGNES

Espresso at the stylish inn/spa Au Creux des Montagnes

One hour from Lyon, France there is a self-contained wellness inn and spa named Au Creux des Montagnes [au-creux-des-montagnes.com], which is tucked in the highlands of southeastern France above Grenoble but closer to Geneva, Switzerland. 

 It is step off of D73, a one lane highway that runs north and south. Not much else around the inn, but if you are with the right person to share the atmosphere, first rate amenities, wine and charm then you’ve found your escape. No train station, alas, but the car ride is well worth making ACDM a wonderful stopover between countries. 

Images from the Inn:

FRIDAY FLYBY / AIR TAXI TO AND FROM SD INTERNATIONAL NOW A POSSIBILITY

Archer Aviation’s all-electric aircraft hovercraft is seen in a Reuters file photo at the Salinas Municipal Airport, Salinas CA Photo by Carlos Barria, Reuters. 

Air Taxi from San Diego to LA? Southwest Airlines Deal Could Make Quick Hops a Reality 

GUEST BLOG / By Reuters via Times of San Diego’s David Shepardson and Mark Potter--Southwest Airlines and Archer Aviation said on Friday they have agreed to develop operational plans for electric air taxi networks built by Archer at California airports. 

The Texas-based Southwest's operations at 14 airports in the state include San Diego International, and in greater Los Angeles, Los Angeles International, along with the Orange County, Burbank, Long Beach and Ontario airports. 

Southwest and Archer, headquartered in San Jose, said they have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on a concept that lays the foundation for integrated electric air taxi networks connecting California airports and surrounding communities. Southwest shares rose 2% while Archer was up 10.5%. 

Electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL) have been touted as the future of urban air mobility. Archer is developing its Midnight eVTOL aircraft. 

 Airlines are looking at developing transport services using battery-powered aircraft that can take off and land vertically to ferry travelers to airports or on short trips between cities, allowing them to beat traffic. "Southwest is eager to explore the convenience Archer's air taxis could provide customers flying Southwest at airports in busy urban areas," said Paul Cullen, vice president, real estate at Southwest. 

In May, the U.S. Congress approved legislation aimed at helping speed approval and deployment of eVTOL aircraft. Archer thinks the partnership could help shave significant time off trips in California, replacing 60-to-90-minute automobile commutes with estimated 10-to-20-minute air taxi flights through a "safe, low-noise, cost-competitive transportation option with no direct emissions." Archer Chief Commercial Officer Nikhil Goel said the partnership hopes to offer door-to-door trips anywhere in California in three hours or less, like Santa Monica to Napa using air taxis on both ends. 

Goel said "really meaningful time savings" were possible, with passengers avoiding rush-hour traffic to airports. Archer hopes customers eventually will be able to book an Archer air taxi ticket at the same time they buy a Southwest plane ticket. 

United Airlines is also an investor in Archer Aviation. In 2022, Delta Air Lines said it had invested $60 million in air taxi startup Joby Aviation for a 2% equity stake, aiming to initially offer passengers air taxi transport to and from airports in New York and Los Angeles. The companies plan to integrate a Joby-operated service into Delta's customer-facing channels to provide short-range airport transport. 

THE FOODIST / NORTH PARK DINING STARS VIA TRAVEL + LEISURE

By Patricia Doherty, Travel + Leisure Newsletter writer--A trip to San Diego usually involves beach time, nightlife, museums, and perhaps a baseball game or harbor cruise. There are endless things to see and do, but for some visitors, food is the main attraction. 

Close to the ocean and the southern border, this city boasts a variety of places to enjoy fresh seafood and Mexican flavors. The best restaurants in San Diego also showcase Italian, Asian, and American cuisines — and on top of that are the world-class craft breweries, cideries, and wineries. 

Every neighborhood offers a range of dining spots, whether for hearty breakfasts, casual meals, or fine-dining experiences. Many menus are created by chefs with notable credentials, and restaurants offer attractive dining spaces like outdoor patios and rooftops, thanks to year-round warm temperatures. 

While it's impossible to list all the outstanding eateries in San Diego, we're here to give you some ideas of where to find great food and drink in this exceptional dining destination. Whether you're a visitor or a (lucky) local exploring a new neighborhood, these suggestions could lead you to some awesome eating adventures. 

FOUR AMAZING RESTAURANTS IN NORTH PARK

--The Smoking Goat—Located at 30th and Upas Streets, this place is an intimate French bistro with an enthusiastic following who love the baked brie and duck fat truffle fries served during happy hour. The dinner menu features seafood and steak and an extensive wine list. 

Louisiana Purchase—This University near Texas Street establishment (below) brings diners the best Creole and Cajun classics like jambalaya, chargrilled oysters, crawfish, and alligator, plus cocktails and shareable punches. This place is hot during happy hour, dinner and weekend brunch. 

Shank and Bone—University near 30th Streets (above) serves traditional and modern Vietnamese dishes including a selection of pho. Spring rolls, bowls, rice dishes, and banh mi sandwiches are among their specialties. 

Bivouac Ciderworks—In the heart of North Park on 30th Street between University and Lincoln, this popular spot serves burgers, sandwiches and snacks in a casual atmosphere. It is the place in San Diego to learn about and try new ciders.

AMERICANA / CALVARESE FOR CONGRESS FROM COLORADO

 

Congressional candidate Trisha Calvarese, District 4 Colorado.

GUEST BLOG / By Trisha Calvarese, a labor leader and Democrat candidate in the upcoming November general election to win a seat in the House of Representatives from Colo. District #4. 

My story begins with access to rural health care. My parents lived in Sterling, Colorado, where my dad was the City Attorney, and my mom was a childcare provider. 

My mom needed emergency surgery to remove an ectopic pregnancy. It saved her life and made mine possible the next year. 

We ultimately moved to be closer to care. I grew up in Highlands Ranch, in Douglas County, when there were wild horses. 

My parents were conservatives and taught me the importance of family, community, and serving others. I attended Douglas County public schools and earned a full academic scholarship to Johns Hopkins. 

 I am a wordsmith by trade. At the AFL-CIO, representing working people in every industry, I worked to help pass historic infrastructure and American energy legislation. 

Most recently, at the US National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency, I worked for a Trump nominee on key workforce legislation that is re-shoring American manufacturing and expanding the map of American innovation. 

 Then, last fall, my mom called to tell me that she did not have long to live. She’d been caring for my dad, who had been battling cancer. With both parents facing terminal illnesses, I returned home to Highlands Ranch to provide end-of-life care for both my parents. 

 My dad’s union pension covered his treatment. Medicare provided both of my parents the care they needed and gave us precious time together in the comfort of our home. It was thanks to my own union, AFGE 3403, that I was able to drop everything to take care of my parents. 

 I’m running for the care and dignity of families in my hometown. Before he died, my dad told me to run. That meant a lot, especially from a guy who voted Republican his entire life. 

My opponent Lauren Boebert voted against lowering prescription drug costs, including the ones that extended my dad’s life, and I can’t let that stand. 

 Systems of support and care are missing, and economic hardship on middle-class families are mounting. We need new opportunities to meet people where they are. We need paths into the middle class and ladders up everywhere, and not always requiring a four-year degree. 

 With expertise navigating Washington and intimate knowledge of our district's needs, I promise you will be heard in Congress. As we rise to local challenges, from legislation I helped shape, I will work to bring home investments for union jobs, apprenticeships, workforce training, public education, and start-ups. I will fight with my whole heart to protect and expand access to reproductive and maternal care and protect Social Security and Medicaid. 

 Together, we can sustain our democracy and build a community that works for all of us. 

Go to Trisha's website to donate to her campaign.

The website is https://www.trisha4colorado.com/volunteer

1 PIX = 1K WORDS / NUUK, GREENLAND

Today, let's visit a place most of us never see in person: Nuuk, the capital of Greenland.  This 18,000 population city is one of the smallest capitals on the planet.

Pictured in the distance is Sermitsiaq, the iconic mountain across the sound from Nuuk.  Thinking about visiting Greenland?  It's expensive because there are few roads connecting towns and villages; therefore travel is extensively done by boat or some version of aeronautics.  And, of course, a sled pulled by dogs.

To see Greenland from the comfort of home, office or coffee shop go to the Internet to view images like those of photographer Aningaag Rosing Carsten (above).

MEDIA MONDAY / LEAN TO THE LEFT; HOW A PLETHORA OF LIBERAL ONLINE NEWS VENTURES ARE CATCHING ON

WHAT’S LEFT? PRIMER OF LEFT LEANING MEDIA 

GUEST BLOG / By Maddy Crowell, a freelance journalist based in New York, via Columbia Journalism Review— In 2016, far-right outlets upended the media. Now a new brand of liberal ventures is claiming turf online. Barbara Hawkins—a grandmother from Arizona who is a registered independent—discovered the MeidasTouch Network 18 months ago, when she was between books, scrolling idly on YouTube. 

 Until then, her news diet had been the “old reliable mainstream media,” she told me, but she’d been getting fed up. “It’s rare to see mainstream media doing anything except treating this election cycle as business as usual,” she said. “There’s little discussion regarding the various threats we face as a nation.” 

Then she found MeidasTouch, which describes itself as doing “pro-democracy” journalism, and provides commentary on national politics seemingly calculated to appeal to those for whom Rachel Maddow is too subtle. The name is a play on King Midas, the Greek-mythological figure; the network was founded by a trio of brothers from Long Island (Ben, Brett, and Jordan) with the last name Meiselas. 

They started producing videos in March 2020, while cooped up at home and watching Donald Trump give press conferences about COVID-19. A typical MeidasTouch video features one of the brothers sitting in his living room, usually in a hoodie, the sight of a eucalyptus plant or a stuffed animal in the background; there’s a distinct work-from-home quality, though the guys include some graphics, outrage-inducing Fox clips, and screenshots of tweets. 

Often, the coverage is a Trump play-by-play: his missed shots on the golf course, his wife “hiding” from him on Mother’s Day. The YouTube channel is flooded with videos (“Bye Ivanka”; “Bye Don Jr: Love Me, Daddy!”; “CRY BABY Trump has MAJOR EMOTIONAL ISSUES”) on a near-hourly basis. 

The network also has 16 talk-show-style podcasts on Spotify, discussing Trump’s farts, among other subjects; Michael Cohen is a host. MeidasTouch calls itself “the fastest-growing independent news network in the world,” which may not be wholly inaccurate: it has about 2.4 million subscribers on YouTube, and its videos have been viewed billions of times. 

In May 2020, within a couple of months of getting their video project off the ground, the brothers registered MeidasTouch as a super-PAC. In their first year, they raised close to five million dollars. Around the same time, they were joined by an orchestra of other new left-leaning digital ventures—different from one another in approach, but all claiming to have arisen out of a shared discontent: with the country facing the prospect of a second Trump presidency, something about the traditional mechanisms for delivering information to the American electorate was broken. 

Each began racking up followers and funders. 

Notably, with the exception of MeidasTouch, all were established by Democratic strategists, who were perhaps in a special position to appreciate the failures of the mainstream press. 

--Courier Newsroom, a network providing local coverage in eleven states, much of it on social media platforms. Courier came from Tara McGowan, who ran digital operations for Priorities USA, a Democratic super-PAC, and who has a tattoo on her forearm tracing Barack Obama’s writing of the words Yes, we can. (McGowan has a background in journalism; she worked as an associate producer for 60 Minutes.) 

--More Perfect Union, a progressive outlet focused on the story of labor unions, was started by Faiz Shakir, a senior adviser for Bernie Sanders. 

-Democracy Docket, founded by Marc Elias, the longtime Democratic Party elections lawyer, founded DD as a “leading digital news platform” dedicated to voting rights and election law. 

During the same period, David Sirota, a former Sanders speechwriter and author, established an outlet called The Lever, though he positioned it as an investigative, nonpartisan site with the tagline “Hold Them Accountable.” Something about the traditional mechanisms for delivering information to the American electorate seemed to be broken. 

This emergent class of media entrepreneurs had followed along in the previous election as a proliferation of right-wing outlets—Breitbart, the Daily Caller, the Gateway Pundit—were credited for boosting Trump to the presidency, including by actively spreading fake stories on social media. 

When I spoke to members of the left-leaning—or, in many cases, “pro-democracy”—cohort, they told me that they were not inspired by the “success” of right-wing content producers per se, nor did they want to suggest that they were offering a liberal equivalent. “There’s a distinction between places that genuinely report truthful information with a slant versus those that might be reporting misinformation,” Rick Hasen, a law professor at UCLA, told me. 

As McGowan put it, “We’re not fighting fire with fire, we’re fighting fire with water.” 

Even so, in a new book, The Death of Truth, Steven Brill describes “creative political operatives” of both parties seizing on new media platforms and advancing the notion that “this core instrument of the democratic process, independent journalism, can and must now be cast aside.” 

Across the spectrum, these projects seem to share a canny appreciation of internet aesthetics, tapping into the visual cues of “real” journalism even as they combine reporting with what might be more accurately considered a form of political performance art. 

Where right-wing sites often embrace a deliberately cluttered tabloid style, with bright colors and bold headlines, liberals tend to opt for softer hues (blue, purple, occasionally yellow) and visuals that suggest design-school pedigree (clean lines, a surfeit of white space). 

Of course, there’s variation: MeidasTouch seems keen to challenge MAGA fans decibel for decibel, while More Perfect Union has the luster of an ambitious investigative site. 

The collected experience of followers and casual scrollers is a gusher of takes and emotion. 

WHO'S WATCHING?

As left-leaning digital ventures have gained attention, they have received notice from the White House, which offers cheerful cooperation; Joe Biden has appeared in videos posted by Courier, More Perfect Union, and MeidasTouch. That, in turn, has made these outlets legitimate players in the political-media sphere. Last fall, More Perfect Union facilitated a meetup between Biden and Michigan autoworkers on the picket line—first-rate access. In late November, Biden met up with Ben Meiselas in Pueblo, Colorado, at the world’s largest wind turbine tower factory. In the video, ceremonial trumpets play in the background. “You’re doing a great job,” Biden tells Meiselas. “You know, sometimes, in my view, the best politics is truth. And you’re telling the truth.” 

 “‘Truth is golden’ is our slogan,” Meiselas replied. King Midas, of course, turned anything he touched to gold—a reference that sounds, probably not accidentally, rather Trumpian. 

As it happened, during the 2020 presidential election, MeidasTouch devised an unusual fundraising scheme: Rolling Stone reported that the PAC invited fans to click a donation link, which split proceeds with the Biden campaign ($31,623 went to Biden, $30,000 to MeidasTouch). The blurred line between journalism and advocacy drew criticism; in 2023, MeidasTouch changed the PAC’s name to Democracy Defense Action. 

So far, though, the drama has not stopped a loyal following from tuning in. “With varying sources and opinions, I will keep trying to keep open eyes to the dangers I see ahead,” Hawkins told me. “But when facts matter, I want MeidasTouch.” 

2016 election did not mark the beginning of the hyperpartisan press. On the right, the late Rush Limbaugh’s talk radio show, syndicated nationally in 1988, was once the highest rated in the United States. Fox News has been catering to the Republican base since the late nineties. Nevertheless, many researchers contend that the 2016 campaign marked a watershed in the reach and influence of right-wing media, especially online. 

According to a study from Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, not only did far-right media embolden its own audience, it also “played a key role in setting the agenda of mainstream, center-left media.” 

On the left, there has never been a shortage of publications with open political aims: The Nation and Dissent; Mother Jones and In These Times; the American Prospect and ThinkProgress; Mic and NowThis. 

None of these—nor the recent crop of journalism and journalism-adjacent ventures made for social media—have mirrored the right’s approach of sowing the information ecosystem with falsehoods and hatred. 

On the contrary, Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris, and Hal Roberts argue in their 2018 book Network Propaganda, left-leaning media is an extension of the fact-based mainstream press. Left-leaning outlets serve “as a consistent check on the dissemination and validation of the most extreme stories when they do emerge on the left,” the authors write, “and have no parallels in the levels of visibility or trust that can perform the same function on the right.” 

But to some Democratic partisans, matching the intensity of rhetoric on the right is a worthy aim. Several have tried. Famously, the liberal radio station AirAmerica, which debuted in 2004 as a counterweight to Limbaugh and other conservative hosts, never really took flight. (Though it did help launch Al Franken into the Senate.) 

“There was kind of a generation of liberals who couldn’t understand why they weren’t represented in that format in America,” Brendan Nyhan, a political science professor at Dartmouth, told me. Part of the problem, he said, was that “the highly interested news consumers on the left were still being served with the New York Times and NPR.” 

In other words, while partisan media on the right had little trouble finding consumers who were disaffected with mainstream political coverage, the potential customers for explicitly liberal outlets were happy enough with their mainstream standbys. 

According to the Harvard study, media consumption during the 2016 campaign exacerbated the long-running asymmetry in the way liberals and conservatives get their news. 

“Media coverage on both sides of the spectrum was more partisan on social media than on the open web,” the researchers noted, and “more partisan segments of the media ecosystem appear to have been more vulnerable to disinformation and false reporting.” 

As burgeoning right-wing outlets attracted Trump supporters, they also managed to steer the mainstream press. What some considered to be a disproportionate focus on stories about Hillary Clinton’s email server, for instance, was partly a product of journalists struggling to contend with “reporting” that had first found an audience through MAGA sites. 

To some Democratic partisans, matching the intensity of rhetoric on the right is a worthy aim. Like everything else about the 2016 election, the role played by digital media and disinformation is contested. 

Benkler, who was one of the authors of the Harvard study, warns against overinterpreting the results. “Progressive elites like to think that some technological exogenous shock destabilized American democracy,” he told me recently. “Putting the blame on disinformation allows us to continue to keep our heads in the sand with respect to the class-conflict element of the present crisis, leaving the field for fascists to exploit, as they have for over a century.” 

Benkler cautions, moreover, that Trump’s candidacy was its own independent variable, making it difficult to cleanly chart cause and effect. “It is hard to tell whether the media was driving the change,” he added, “or whether politics, and in particular the personality of Trump, released social and political forces that dragged the media along with them.” 

 What seems undeniable is that the election unsettled the relationship between many liberals and their mainstream news sources—in part because of a sense that the media was being strung along by the right-wing ecosystem. 

As a popular argument went: taking a “balanced” approach to stories pushed by right-wing propagandists did not make you a responsible journalist, it made you a dupe. Many reporters at major outlets eventually embraced that logic, gradually applying more skepticism to stories that emerged from the right-wing click-o-sphere, and using more demonstrative language to describe Trump’s lies. 

But for some progressives among their audience, it was too late. Hawkins, for one, told me that she was dismayed by a lack of “pushback” of the kind she associates with Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. The popular belief that Clinton had lost the election because of legacy media’s commitment to outmoded interpretations of journalistic objectivity—combined with the supercharged environment for partisan political content in the Trump years—created a demand for something new. 

 What that new thing would be, though, was uncertain. At the start, the emerging generation of left-leaning media projects shared an explicit aim of responding to failures of the traditional press, but they had a whole internet’s worth of people to serve, and the possibilities were boundless. 

“What’s most interesting about these sites is what they indicate about how the Democratic Party is changing, and how liberal media is changing,” Nyhan, the Dartmouth professor, told me. “The Democratic Party is becoming more liberal and more dissatisfied with mainstream media, and more open to partisan content focused on how the other side is bad.” 

 Each startup came at the opportunity a different way. Courier, delivering local coverage, called itself “a pro-democracy news network” focused on “reaching audiences where they are online with factual, values-driven news and analysis.” Its mission reflected a private 2019 memo circulated by McGowan and later published by Vice News, in which she argued, “The Democratic Party, long reliant on television and radio, is losing the media war.” 

When I spoke to McGowan, she told me that legacy news had grown too “insular and elite” and was failing to reach voters. “I felt that the Democratic political party was just not evolving as quickly as the media ecosystem was changing, to understand where and how to actually reach different segments of the population,” she told me. 

Courier frequently posts short TikTok and Instagram videos—some explore local policies (what Democrats are getting right, what Republicans are doing wrong) while others offer up lifestyle fare. According to McGowan, Courier’s newsrooms have a total of 1.6 million email subscribers. “The most important part is that this audience is majority not politically active,” she said. “So these are what we call low-turnout voters or new voters. It really is a totally different approach, where most media companies don’t even care about civic behavior, they want whoever wants their news.” 

Courier was originally backed by ACRONYM—a company McGowan started, best known for the broken-app debacle of the 2020 Iowa caucus. After all the bad press, ACRONYM sold Courier to a new McGowan venture, Good Information Inc. (“I wanted to focus on scaling Courier,” McGowan said), but not before facing a complaint from Americans for Public Trust, a right-wing group, alleging that Courier should register as a political committee. (The complaint was dismissed by the Federal Election Commission; ACRONYM has since dissolved.) Good Information Inc., which is now identified as the public benefit corporation that owns Courier, began with a multimillion-dollar seed investment courtesy of George Soros, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, tech-money megadonors Kenneth and Jennifer Duda, and the venture-capital firm Incite. 

Each year, Good Information collects between $15 to $25 million in additional revenue. (McGowan said that doesn’t surpass expenses.) The money comes from advertising, fans donating as little as two dollars, underwriting from large donors in support of issue-specific coverage, and major philanthropists such as Soros. Brill, in his book, calls Courier “the most prominent and sophisticated of the pink-slimers”—the name for partisan operations masquerading as local news—on the side of Democrats. Courier has a section on its website outlining its funding model. Some backers are identified, including the Dudas, Incite, and Vero Media Investments; Soros doesn’t come up. The page states that “editorial independence is a core tenet of our work and we maintain an editorial firewall between our funding sources and newsrooms that ensures the integrity of our journalism.” 

But according to Politico, Courier spent more than $1.4 million on Facebook ads during the 2020 election cycle—promoting content that often appeared more like the posts of a Democratic PAC than a newsroom. 

In 2022, when Brill asked McGowan about Courier’s political motivations, she said, “We are up against a right-wing propaganda disinformation machine”—a response that he summarized as “because the other side does it, we can do it.” McGowan told me, “We don’t endorse candidates. We don’t take any underwriting from political parties, campaigns, or super-PACs, and we never have.” 

Shakir’s More Perfect Union is, by contrast, transparent about being an advocacy organization. In February 2021, shortly after Biden’s inauguration, the staff put out their first video: a visit to Bessemer, Alabama, showing Black women workers trying to organize at an Amazon factory. 

Almost immediately, the video received more than a million views. “We had zero Twitter followers, zero Facebook, nobody knew what More Perfect Union was—we didn’t do anything to promote who was behind the organization, because I was really hell-bent on a rollout where the content speaks for us,” Shakir told me. 

“There’s a lot of politics coverage out there, and it’s all superficial and substanceless too often. Economic-justice issues in America, fundamentally, are under-covered. But it’s one of the things that matters the most to a lot of people.” 

Recently, videos have taken place in small towns across the country, from a factory in Stanton, Tennessee to Pearce, Arizona, where wells are running dry. Other segments—usually under ten minutes—take aim at those seeking to buy political power, such as the bankrollers behind Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign. 

On Instagram, More Perfect Union has a modest 258,000 followers. But Shakir sent me data compiled using Rival IQ, a social media analytics firm, indicating that More Perfect Union receives stunningly high rates of engagement: 11 times more than MSNBC and about 23 times more than the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Politico. (Rival IQ said that it collects its information from APIs on social channels.) 

When More Perfect Union started, its revenue was close to half a million dollars. It is now more than $6 million. (Ninety-four percent of the revenue is put toward overhead, Shakir said.) The model is sustained by 80 percent philanthropy from big progressive donors—the Open Society Foundations, Omidyar Network, the Ford Foundation—and the remainder from small grassroots donors, plus advertising revenue from platforms, especially YouTube. Shakir aims to hire people who have experience working in journalism and in advocacy. “We want a mix of both,” he told me. “The goal is to have a team with creative thinking around impact journalism.” 

Democracy Docket, with its focus on election-related law, does not refer to itself as partisan, preferring the term “pro-democracy”; the contributor list includes journalists and lawyers. “For years people would always ask me about the courts and democracy, but there was never one place for me to point them to specifically for reliable and up-to-date information about what’s happening with voting, elections, and democracy in the courts,” Elias told me. “Of course, 2020 turned out to be a good year to start a pro-democracy news outlet, since the courts were so central, particularly in the post-election period, in preserving our democracy.” 

The venture started as a newsletter with two thousand subscribers, a number that increased tenfold by Election Day. Democracy Docket now claims more than 175,000 newsletter subscribers. Its Defending Democracy Podcast—featuring guests Hillary Clinton and Eric Holder, among others—is predominantly accessed on YouTube, where it’s been viewed 2.3 million times. 

Unlike many other outlets, partisan or otherwise, Democracy Docket does not disclose on its website where it gets backing. A spokesperson said, “We are funded by contributions from our readers as well as from our founder during our early stages.” The spokesperson wouldn’t disclose who those readers are—though recently, one made herself known: America Ferrera, the actress, asked fans on Instagram to donate to Democracy Docket for her birthday. The site does not receive institutional support from any major liberal donors or organizations, the spokesperson said, but “we get a small percentage from ads, merch sales, and other services and partnerships.” (When asked what the services and partnerships are, the spokesperson didn’t say.) The site’s merch—a “Democracy’s Favorite Dog” bandanna, a mug with the phrase “I Fight for Voting Rights”—suggests, in line with peers, activism more than journalism. None of these projects have matched MeidasTouch—which, more than any, exploits the perception (justified or not) that the mainstream media was too sympathetic to Trump in 2016 and 2020. 

The Meiselas brothers, who did not respond to multiple interview requests, refer to MeidasTouch as an “independent news network,” despite their self-professed partisanship. When they began, Brett Meiselas told CNN that their mission was to “take the oxygen out of the news cycle from Trump.” 

His brother Ben added, “These videos are not just anti-Trump ads, they are pro–Joe Biden ads and show why we think he’s the right person for those specific states, utilizing speeches that he’s made.” 

But the guys quickly realized that, from the point of view of engagement, Trump was a gift. 

Every day, MeidasTouch videos get more than a million views. All of these sites, to varying degrees, maintain at least implicit interest in Trump. 

As a contemporary, The Lever stands apart for that reason; its attention is mainly on corporations and the people who run them. (The Lever is funded by subscribers and by the Jacobin Foundation, which syndicates its coverage.) “I don’t believe that the problem of the media is that there isn’t enough volume around how dangerous or problematic Donald Trump is,” Sirota told me. “I think the problem of media is that it’s almost the other way around—it’s that Trump was able to emerge in a media environment that had basically ignored the economic struggles of millions of people for a very long time.” 

Be that as it may, there is an apparent wealth of Democratic incentive to support partisan outlets whose coverage could tip the election in the party’s favor. And in their diversity of approach, all have managed to acquire something that most traditional newsrooms can’t these days: money. They’ve grasped something else, too: an unprecedented stream of access. 

Last November, in a corner of the White House adorned with a large tree and the warm glow of Christmas lights, some four hundred people arrived for a holiday party—the first ever exclusively for liberal influencers and the proprietors of left-leaning news sites. 

In the East Room, surrounded by gilded curtains, First Lady Jill Biden took the stage and greeted the crowd. “Welcome to the White House,” she said. “You’re here because you all represent the changing way people receive news and information.” 

The goal of the event—as Kyle Tharp, who leads Courier’s national content team, reported in an interview with Christian Tom, the White House director of digital strategy—was to “both thank people who’ve been supporters of the president or our administration, who’ve helped to highlight our policies looking back, as well as to cultivate relationships with people whom we want to go and work with in the future.” 

The guest list included the three Meiselas brothers; Courier staffers; and emissaries from Betches Media, a female-run company best known for its liberal memes. 

According to Tharp, the invitees had a cumulative social media audience approaching a hundred million. Around the time of the party, Biden was popping up in random corners of the internet. The videos seemed like sound bites from his campaign—soft promotions of policies he’d enacted and bills he’d signed, each no longer than a minute or two, the average time a news consumer spends reading an article online. 

In Illinois, an interviewer from More Perfect Union asked Biden to convey his message to the thousands of nonunionized people hoping to join the United Auto Workers. “Join, join, organize, picket, protest,” Biden told the camera. On Twitter, the video got more than a million views. Three days later, Biden stood next to Liz Fleming, a Courier reporter, in a video for TikTok. “I heard you’re Joe from Scranton,” Fleming said. “I’m Liz from Iowa.” The video, shot selfie-style, lasted less than a minute. “You’re the one who’s really doing the work and bringing those jobs back,” Liz told Biden. “Is this the American comeback story?” There is an apparent wealth of Democratic incentive to support partisan outlets whose coverage could tip the election in the party’s favor. 

For Biden, the emergence of a friendly new media contingent offers an appealing alternative to traditional journalists, many of whom wish to ask tough questions about his policies, his age, or his son. 

During his presidency, Biden has rarely sat for interviews with legacy news outlets. “For anyone who understands the role of the free press in a democracy, it should be troubling that President Biden has so actively and effectively avoided questions from independent journalists during his term,” a spokesperson for the Times said. 

“Systematically avoiding interviews and questions from major news organizations doesn’t just undermine an important norm, it also establishes a dangerous precedent that future presidents can use to avoid scrutiny and accountability.” (The White House did not respond to requests for comment.) 

Trump—though no ally of the traditional media, nor a reliable source of honest answers—gave more than 300 interviews and almost three times as many press conferences as Biden in his first year. 

Democrats are not fully ready to abandon mainstream news. (The Times continues to grow, having gained around three million subscribers since the end of 2020.) But with a wider array of “pro-democracy” options this time around, many news consumers are embracing a sense of skepticism—a feeling that they are in control of their own informational destiny—no matter that Democratically aligned donors are behind the scenes. 

“What I appreciate about the MeidasTouch Network is their contributors troll sites I refuse to go to, air footage, and allow me to make my own decisions,” Hawkins told me. “I believe Thomas Jefferson placed the media above government. It’s called the fourth estate for a reason. 

Journalism faithfully and truthfully moves the masses. Never take it for granted.” 

 ###

SUNDAY REVIEW / SILLY BLUNDERS MANY CRIME WRITERS MAKE

 

From Dashiell Hammett: Crime Stories & Other Writings 

GUEST BLOG / By Dashiell Hammett via the Library of America Publishers--As a fellow who takes detective stories seriously, I am annoyed by the stupid recurrence of these same blunders in book after book. It would be silly to insist that nobody who has not been a detective should write detective stories, but it is certainly not unreasonable to ask any one who is going to write a book of any sort to make some effort at least to learn something about his subject. Most writers do.

Nearly all writers of Western tales at least get an occasional glimpse of their chosen territory from a car-window while en route to Hollywood; writers of sea stories have been seen on the waterfront; surely detective story writers could afford to speak to policemen now and then. 

Meanwhile, a career in this writing arena has convinced me that the following suggestions might be of value to somebody: 

(1) There was an automatic revolver, the Webley-Fosbery, made in England some years ago. The ordinary automatic pistol, however, is not a revolver. A pistol, to be a revolver, must have something on it that revolves. 

(2) The Colt’s .45 automatic pistol has no chambers. The cartridges are put in a magazine. 

(3) A silencer may be attached to a revolver, but the effect will be altogether negligible. I have never seen a silencer used on an automatic pistol, but am told it would cause the pistol to jam. A silencer may be used on a single-shot target pistol or on a rifle, but both would still make quite a bit of noise. “Silencer” is a rather optimistic name for this device which has generally fallen into disuse. 

Only detective story writers seem to be free from a sense of obligation in this direction, and, curiously, the more established and prolific detective story writers seem to be the worst offenders. 

(4) When a bullet from a Colt’s .45, or any firearm of approximately the same size and power, hits you, even if not in a fatal spot, it usually knocks you over. It is quite upsetting at any reasonable range. 

(5) A shot or stab wound is simply felt as a blow or push at first. It is some little time before any burning or other painful sensation begins. 

(6) When you are knocked unconscious you do not feel the blow that does it. 

(7) A wound made after the death of the wounded is usually recognizable as such. 

(8) Finger-prints of any value to the police are seldom found on anybody’s skin. 

(9) The pupils of many drug-addicts’ eyes are apparently normal. 

(10) It is impossible to see anything by the flash of an ordinary gun, though it is easy to imagine you have seen things. 

(11) Not nearly so much can be seen by moonlight as you imagine. This is especially true of colors. 

(12) All Federal snoopers are not members of the Secret Service. That branch is chiefly occupied with pursuing counterfeiters and guarding Presidents and prominent visitors to our shores. 

(13) A sheriff is a county officer who usually has no official connection with city, town or State police. 

(14) Federal prisoners convicted in Washington, D.C., are usually sent to the Atlanta prison and not to Leavenworth. 

(15) The California State prison at San Quentin is used for convicts serving first terms. Two-time losers are usually sent to Folsom. 

(16) Ventriloquists do not actually “throw” their voices and such doubtful illusions as they manage depend on their gestures. Nothing at all could be done by a ventriloquist standing behind his audience. 

(17) Even detectives who drop their final g’s should not be made to say “anythin’ ”—an oddity that calls for vocal acrobatics. 

(18) “Youse” is the plural of “you.” 

(19) A trained detective shadowing a subject does not ordinarily leap from doorway to doorway and does not hide behind trees and poles. He knows no harm is done if the subject sees him now and then. 

* * * 

Samuel Dashiell [Dash-eel] Hammett (1994-1961) 

A few weeks ago, having no books on hand that I cared to talk much about, I listed the above in my newspaper column 19 suggestions to detective story writers. Those suggestions were received with extreme enthusiasm—to the extent at least of one publisher offering me a nice sum for a slightly more complete list—I, not needing cash at the moment, herewith present a few more suggestions at no extra charge: 

(20) The current practice in most places in the United States is to make the coroner’s inquest an empty formality in which nothing much is brought out except that somebody has died. 

(21) Fingerprints are fragile affairs. Wrapping a pistol or other small object up in a handkerchief is much more likely to obliterate than to preserve any prints it may have. 

(22) When an automatic pistol is fired the empty cartridge-shell flies out the right-hand side. The empty cartridge-case remains in a revolver until ejected by hand. 

(23) A lawyer cannot impeach his own witness. 

(24) The length of time a corpse has been a corpse can be approximated by an experienced physician, but only approximated, and the longer it has been a corpse, the less accurate the approximation is likely to be. 

Originally published in two parts in the New York Evening Post, June 7 and July 5, 1930. 

MORE THOUGHTS ON HAMMETT AS A BOOK REVIEWER 

The late Steven Marcus, volume editor, is George Delacorte Professor of the Humanities, Emeritus, at Columbia University. A distinguished cultural historian and literary critic, he was the author of many books, including The Other Victorians and Engels, Manchester, and the Working Class. He was also the editor of the historic collection of Hammett stories, The Continental Op. 

The Voice in the Closet by Herman Landon, The Thirty-first Bullfinch by Helen Reilly, and The Other Bullet by Nancy Barr Mavity, were all published in 1930. The many errors in these three novels motivated Dashiell Hammett to publish his list of the “blunders” writers of detective novels should avoid. 

Soon after Dashiell Hammett published his third novel, The Maltese Falcon, to critical acclaim and strong sales, he accepted a position as crime fiction reviewer for the New York Evening Post. Between April and October 1930, in 13 “Crime Wave” columns, he read and reviewed a total of 85 books, virtually all of them forgotten in the decades since. 

A former Pinkerton Agency detective, Hammett often despaired of the unrealistic scenes and inexpert characters that populated the genre—much as he had when he was a critic for the Saturday Review of Literature earlier in the decade. 

The week before he began his “Crime Wave” installments, though, he submitted to the Evening Post a longer review of a single book: The Door by Mary Roberts Rinehart. Far and away the most popular American mystery novelist during the first half of the twentieth century, Rinehart wrote some 40 novels that sold more than ten million copies during her lifetime. 

Nonetheless, Hammett didn’t think much of the plot of The Door: “The maintenance and complication of the mystery depend too largely on folks consistently missing each other by unpredictable inches in the dark and unpredictable seconds in the light.” 

Yet he admitted that the book was compulsively readable: Nobody who begins it is at all likely, barring acts of God, to leave it unfinished. He may hoot at its soft spots, he may be irritated by its old-fashioned cast—Mrs. Rinehart is distinctly not a writer of this decade—but he will read it through. Well, readability is the standard by which books of this sort should be judged. 

Where Rinehart's novel really failed, in Hammett’s view, was with the lack of professionalism shown by the lead detective (“a nice enough fellow personally, in spite of his habit of strewing the scene of his operations with broken toothpicks”) and with the implausibility of the book’s pivotal clues (“walking-sticks buried naked in earth that is stamped down over them are not dug up fairly covered with anybody’s fingerprints”). 

The incompetence of the genre’s detectives and the sloppiness of authors’ research continued to earn Hammett’s scorn. 

When he was reviewing books for the Saturday Review, Hammett excoriated The Benson Murder Case, one of S. S. Van Dine’s novels featuring detective Philo Vance: Alvin Benson is found sitting in a wicker chair in his living room, a book still in his hand, his legs crossed, and his body comfortably relaxed in a lifelike position. He is dead. A bullet from an Army model Colt .45 automatic pistol, held some six feet away when the trigger was pulled, has passed completely through his head. That his position should have been so slightly disturbed by the impact of such a bullet at such a range is preposterous, but the phenomenon hasn't anything to do with the plot, so don't, as I did, waste time trying to figure it out. However, the murderer's identity becomes obvious quite early in the story. 

For example, the authorities, no matter how stupid the author chose to make them, would have cleared up the mystery promptly if they had been allowed to follow the most rudimentary police routine. But then what would there have been for the gifted Vance to do? 

Philo Vance, Hammett continued, “is a bore when he discusses art and philosophy, but when he switches to criminal psychology he is delightful. There is a theory that anyone who talks enough on any subject must, if only by chance, finally say something not altogether incorrect. 

Vance disproves this theory: he manages always, and usually ridiculously, to be wrong.” 

Later, when he wrote for the Evening Post, he tried again to get through a Philo Vance novel but found the district attorney and police sergeant “as incomparably inefficient, as amazingly ignorant of even beat-walking police routine, as ever.” 

Perhaps inevitably, after several years of reading (and trashing) so many unremarkable novels, Hammett threw up his hands. His “Crime Wave” column in the June 7, 1930, issue of the Evening Post was supposed to be a review of three newly arrived mystery novels that were “from beginnings to endings, carelessly manufactured improbabilities having more than their share of those blunders which earn detective stories as a whole the sneers of the captious.” 

He declined to review the books he had been assigned and instead published a list of blunders he had encountered in these and other recent books, with the hope that writers might avoid them in the future. The column proved so popular that he supplemented the list a month later with several additional entries, and that is what we have reprinted here.

By the end of  1930, Hammett was off to Hollywood, and his days as a book reviewer were behind him.

Editor Steven Marcus

COFFEE BEANS & BEINGS / CAR SHOWS & COFFEE EVENTS IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY

The following is a list of Car, Bike and Truck Shows happening TOMORROW, July 21, 2024 in San Diego County: 

SAN DIEGO—Cars & Coffee at the San Diego Auto Museum Pan American Plaza in Balboa Park between 7:30 am to 9:30 am. Every third Sunday. Car enthusiasts gather in the parking lot outside the museum for the monthly informal car meet, which typically features more than 100 cars, all years, all makes, models, colors, styles and customizations. Admission is free; coffee and donuts will be provided. Visit: carsandcoffeeevents.com 

SAN DIEGO—Key Club San Diego Cars & Coffee. All makes and all models welcome. Come kick your Sunday off with some of the dopest cars in San Diego. We have music, fresh pancakes, breakfast sandwiches, coffee and donuts. Come help make this a popular event once again. July 21 between 8:30 and 12 pm. 3436 College Ave., San Diego. Behind Rubio’s Coastal Grill at College Ave., and Highway 94. 

LA MESA—Cars and Coffee between Spring & 4th Street on La Mesa Blvd. every third Sunday from 7 am to 9 am. 

 ESCONDIDO—Cars & Coffee at Kit Carson Park, 3333 Bear Valley Parkway between 8 am thru 10 am. Sunday, July 21. 

SAN MARCOS—Diamond Street Cars & Coffee. Come see classics, collectibles and exotics. July 21; 7:30 am to 9:30 am. Where: 1825 Diamond Street, San Marcos, CA 92078. 

CHULA VISTA—Sunday Funday Cars & Coffee. Hey, hey. Donuts, trucks & cars. Show. Sell. Buy. Trade. Note: part sales need to stay in truck or on a trailer. July 21 between &:30 and to 10 Am. Happening at Yum Yum Donuts, 517 Telegraph Canyon Road, Chula Vista CA 91910. 

FELONY FRIDAY / US MURDER RATE FOLLOWS CRIME DIP

Image: Mother Jones magazine

GUEST BLOG / By the Federal Bureau of Investigation via CNN--Violent crime dropped by more than 15% in the United States during the first three months of 2024, according to statistics released earlier this month by the FBI. 

The new numbers show violent crime from January to March dropped 15.2% compared to the same period in 2023, while murders fell 26.4% and rapes decreased by 25.7%. 

Aggravated assaults decreased during that period when compared to last year by 12.5%, according to the data, while robberies fell 17.8%. The recent numbers released were gathered from 13,719 of the more than 19,000 law enforcement agencies from across the country, says the FBI. 

 Meanwhile, property crime went down 15.1% in the first three months of this year. Burglaries dropped 16.7%, while motor vehicle theft decreased by 17.3%. The declines in violent and property crimes were seen in every region of the US. 

 In a statement Monday, Attorney General Merrick Garland stressed the new data “makes clear that last year’s historic decline in violent crime is continuing.” “This continued historic decline in homicides does not represent abstract statistics. It represents people whose lives were saved — people who are still here to see their children grow up, to work toward fulfilling their dreams, and to contribute to their communities,” Garland said. 

 US murder rate plunges 

The new FBI figures validate a trend identified by some national crime experts: The US murder rate continues to drop at a high rate and could be headed for its largest annual decline ever. Compared with the first five months of 2023, murders this year have dropped more than 40% in cities including New Orleans, Seattle, Boston, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, according to the research firm AH Datalytics, which analyzes crime figures reported by law enforcement agencies across the nation. 

Although more than six months still remain in 2024, “it’s plausible that this will be, by far, the largest one-year decline in American history,” said Jeff Asher, criminal justice analyst and co-founder of consulting firm AH Datalytics. The firm’s real-time review of 265 cities currently shows a 19% drop in murders nationwide compared to 2023. 

Data limitations 

The preliminary figures in the FBI’s Quarterly Uniform Crime Report do come with important limitations. For one, the bureau relies upon data voluntarily submitted by policing agencies. Crime analysts also say quarterly data are imprecise, as law enforcement agencies have the remainder of the year to audit and correct any reporting errors before final annual figures are published by the FBI. 

 “We have other data sources that point to the same trends, but the degree of those declines is probably being overstated due to the methodology being employed by the FBI,” said Asher. 

‘Interrupting cycles of violence’ 

The US murder rate has declined since 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic brought with it a surge in homicides across the country. FBI figures showed the number of homicides increased nearly 30% from 2019 to 2020 – the largest single-year increase the agency had recorded since it began tracking these crimes in the 1960s – and violent crime during the same period increased by 5%. 

 Criminal justice experts say crime trends are complex, but generally blame the cause in the 2020 surge on vast societal disruptions, including the closure of schools, businesses, childcare and community programs. Others pointed to more stress and more guns along with less policing, less public trust and disruption of social support services. “These are some of the tools that we would expect to have an effect on reversing or interrupting cycles of violence,” said Asher. “In a normal year these tools would have been available to us in 2020 or 2021, but they weren’t. 

It’s only now, several years later, that we’re starting to see the level of gun violence, the level of murder fall back to where it was pre-pandemic.” 

 CNN’s Eric Levenson and Mark Morales contributed to this report.