Podcast — July 10, 2018 at 6:54 am

“Do EVERYTHING You Can” – with special guest Sarah Kendzior

by

Sarah Kendzior must be getting tired of waiting for us to catch up to her.

No commentator has more reliably predicted the future, which increasingly resembles the worst of our past, but with much better television.

More than two years ago, Sarah told us Donald Trump could win. Then she connected Trump’s allegiance to Russia from 1987 to the present. The she warned us that he would seek a path to authoritarianism in the manner of the crime families that run former Soviet block countries by gutting institutions, normalizing propaganda, and consolidating control of an already corrupt Republican Party.

Sarah Kendzior is the author of The View from Flyover Country: Dispatches from the Forgotten America. We wanted to talk to her about the state of our democracy, what she sees coming next and how to place the crisis we face in the context of history.

Sarah Kendzior on Twitter: @SarahKendzior

Sarah Kendzior’s new podcast, Gaslit Nation:

The Good:
Democrats are raising money. A LOT of money.

Griffin Connolly at Roll Call: Hurd, Democratic Challenger on Pace to Shatter Fundraising Record

The Bad:
Gerrymandering on steroids in Michigan.

LOLGOP at Eclectablog: In ‘Voters v. Politicians,’ Michigan Republicans side with the politicians

Michigan’s Supreme Court announced on Friday it will review an unanimous Court of Appeals decision that ruled the independent gerrymandering reform proposal backed by Voters Not Politicians should appear on November’s ballot. Plaintiffs argue the changes sought to the state’s constitution require a constitutional convention.

The grassroots ballot measure backed by the signatures of around 400,000 residents has faced opposition from the Michigan GOP, the frontrunner to be the GOP’s nominee for governor and the Michigan Chamber, which — as Bridge reports — shares an address with the group backing the complaint against the proposal.

Reminder from June:

Pema Levy at Mother Jones: Supreme Court Upholds Gerrymandered Texas Maps, Dealing a Blow to Voting Rights

The Supreme Court dealt a big blow Monday to efforts to combat racial gerrymandering, approving Texas’ GOP-drawn political maps that had previously been found to discriminate intentionally against minority voters.

In a 5-4 ruling, the court upheld the state’s congressional and legislative maps, with the exception of the map of one state legislative district, which the court struck down for reducing the voting power of minority groups.

The Shrugly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯:
Trade Wars, What are They Good For? The trade war has begun and this seems to be another Trump policies that is targeted to punish Trump voters for believing in Trump.

Vox’s Matt Ygleisias questions whether this matters much at all:

The boring truth, however, is that Trump’s trade agenda just isn’t that big of a deal. Yes, he is imposing some new tariffs. And, yes, foreign countries are inevitably retaliating. And some people are going to lose out (though others will also win).

But the scale of the actions we are seeing is actually pretty small in the scheme of things…

The current skirmishes could escalate into something much larger and consequential, but what’s happening right now is fairly modest and shouldn’t have a particularly large impact on most people’s lives.

Koch-backed thinktank AEI disagrees:

In a post called “Backfire economics – Trump’s tariffs are hurting US farmers and workers and putting the entire economy at risk” Mark J. Perry of U of M, Flint lists five stories about the damage of Trump’s policies topped by the requisite “Trump gave my barn to the Chinese to get Ivanka a trademark on her ear lobes but I still love him anyway” story:

To me, this seems like a fight that may be worth having – if it raises wages and labor standards – but right now it just feels like a setup for Trump to declare victory, back off and watch the Dow rise in October.

The show notes for Episode 3 of The GOTMFV Show are at http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/07/do-all-you-can-with-special-guest-sarah-kendzior.html

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Music clips
Intro and transition music: You Dress Like an Asshole by Not The 1s
Flint Water Crisis Update intro: Unclaimed by Mike Wagner/Total Strangers
Outro music: Complain (from the movie Bob Roberts) by David Robbins & Tim Robbins

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Avatar photo Author: Chris Savage is the owner and publisher of Eclectablog and the co-host of The GOTMFV Show podcast.
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