My favorite political story this year happened this summer in NYC. The Mamdani Administration offered 300 families a Parents’ Night Out. Parents who signed up received a few hours of childcare, and kids got a fun night at their neighborhood rec center. The press release includes this quote, which is gold: “I want to go back up and do more!” — said Wyatt, age 6, who arrived crying and initially did not want to stay.

I love this idea for a few reasons. It taps into existing infrastructure that NYC already has, giving exhausted parents a few hours of relief. A few hours of childcare is such a gift, especially with young kids. It can also boost the local economy, since most parents probably went out to dinner or had a drink. A citywide parents’ night out is something governments can and should do for the people they serve.

This year I’ve been thinking a lot about governing and the political slogan Bread and Roses. The idea that feeding people isn’t enough. We deserve beauty, comfort, and dignity, and government can and should help provide them. Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s inauguration speech from earlier this year echoed that theme and resonated deeply with me.

Wilson:

I want to live in a city that honors the things you do when you’re not making money. (I’m not talking about watching Netflix.) I mean the time that you spend with your kid at the playground, caring for a sick friend or an elderly relative. I want to live in a city that celebrates the labor that people perform voluntarily, like a transit fairy who spends all day cleaning up bus stops even though no one is paying her to do it. A city that values the pursuits that create beauty and community, whether or not they ever turn into careers. A city that thinks you should have time to read a book and lay on the grass staring up at the clouds.

Because we need bread, but we need roses too. We deserve roses.

A parents’ night out is a good example of roses. Another is the Mamdani Administration’s ongoing efforts to give New Yorkers access to free or discounted tickets to cultural and sports events in their own backyard. NYC isn’t the only city doing things like this. Mayor Wilson has made similar efforts with access to events like World Cup matches. Several cities and states offer discounted or free museum and park tickets. And that’s in addition to public facility third spaces most cities and localities offer, like pools, rec centers, and libraries.

These days, my life involves a lot of bread and roses at the micro level. As I’ve gone through treatment, our family and friends have made sure we’re fed via a meal train and helped with things like logistics and paperwork. They’ve also sent flowers, books, coffee mugs, toys for my kids, and other items solely for comfort and joy. We even had a family friend drop my boys off at a local parents’ night out so that my husband and I could have some time together. Organizations that help breast cancer patients offer a similar mix of meeting needs and providing nice things. The necessities are of course a must, but survival for survival’s sake isn’t enough. The comforts are just as important.

We’re nine days out from election day. Assuming Democrats do well, the next Congress will have a lot on its plate. Starting with holding the criminals currently running our government and the billionaires attempting to buy up every aspect of our lives accountable. All while creating friction anywhere and everywhere to stop the Trump Regime wherever it can. State and local leaders will have similar levels of cleanup from all the damage the Regime has done to our communities.

Holding the Trump Regime accountable and checking its power isn’t enough. Americans can and should demand more from our leaders. We deserve essential services, but we also deserve nice things. We deserve both bread and roses.

Roses are red

Violets are blue

We deserve nice things, and CARD runs on you.

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ICYMI

• How Flock’s Cameras Spread Through Government Deals That Bypassed Public Scrutiny (NBC News)

• Accident Or Not, The No Kings Takedown Is Why You Shouldn’t Rent Your Megaphone From Zuck (TechDirt)

• Report: Enemies of the State. NSPM-7 and the Trump Plan to Crush Dissent (Free Press)

• Trump Appointees Asked a Federal Cybersecurity Agency to Secretly Acquire a Voting Machine — and Hack It (ProPublica)

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This week’s joy has some NSFW language, but Cardi B’s NPR Tiny Desk concert is incredible. I enjoyed it and recommend it if you need a quick shot of joy yourself.

That’s all for me this week. We’ll talk again next Sunday!

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I can’t decide who the worst person in this story is. Is it Amy Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, for recording this horrific ad about her own daughter, or Vivek Ramaswamy, whose campaign produced the ad and is now hitting the gas to run it on TV in Ohio? Three days later, I still don’t know the answer. But I do have a theory about why the Ramaswamy campaign is spending $4 million to run it on TV while also purposely making it difficult to find online. Let’s unpack it together.

The ad first surfaced as a leak on Social media on Monday. In the spot, Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton’s mother calls Amy a liar, claiming that Acton is lying about her opponent but also about her childhood. It’s a horrific commercial even before you know the details. What parent would record a political attack ad like that against their own child? What group would think it was a good idea to produce, much less run an ad like that? Since the initial leak had no political disclaimer, its origin was unclear.

Acton’s campaign responded with a statement from her brother, saying:

“It’s not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point. After he was arrested and Amy and I were removed from their custody, our birth mother stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died. This desperate, disgusting attack reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core — a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants.”

At first, I assumed a rogue Super PAC created the ad and that Ramaswamy would denounce it. But initially, the Ramaswamy campaign refused to confirm or deny its involvement before taking credit, and it announced the 7-figure spend by giving Axios an exclusive. Some Republicans, such as current Republican Governor Mike DeWine, had enough sense to denounce the ad and call for it to be taken off the airwaves. The National Review, a right-wing publication, also defended Acton against her mother’s claims with an article about what court records from the time showed.

But a lot of folks in Greater MAGA made a different choice, starting with Vice President and former Ohio Senator JD Vance praised the campaign for having the “audacity” to run the ad. Media Matters has compiled a list of Right-wing media figures who endorsed or praised the ad, including the Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles, who called the ad “brilliant,” Roger Stone, and Megyn Kelly, among others.

You might be wondering why on earth the Ramaswamy campaign made the ad, and how so many MAGA personalities chose to platform and amplify it. At first it makes no sense. Even if they believed Acton’s estranged mother, most of them surely realized how most Americans would be disgusted by it.

Here’s my theory: the ad is designed to appeal to MAGA die-hards rather than persuadable or even low-information voters. Because Ramaswamy is worried they won’t vote without Trump on the ballot. Given the polling and Cook Political Report's toss-up ranking, the strategy makes sense. It’s the same reason Trump has made frequent trips to Ohio this cycle.

I’d love to know how this ad performed in a focus group or message test because I suspect it performed extremely well with MAGA diehards. Estrangement is a recurring theme in MAGA online spaces. Many, if not most, of Trump’s biggest fans have been cut off by family and friends. Ostensibly over political differences, but it’s always deeper than that. QAnon, vaccinations, hateful views- things that cut deeper than which party holds majorities in Congress. Because MAGA are perpetual victims, estrangement is always everyone else’s fault. Everyone but them and their actions are to blame.

Estrangement has also become what journalist Michael Hobbes has termed a “quietly metastasizing moral panic.” There have been multiple articles in the past few years freaking out over the number of young adults going no-contact with their parents. Often told primarily by estranged relatives, including only their version of what went wrong. It’s a cultural moment that pairs well with MAGA voters’ own experiences. Rather than examining your own actions and words or holding yourself accountable in any way, you can just blame woke and socialism for why your kids won’t talk to you anymore.

It’s worth noting that while the Ramaswamy campaign clearly wants older voters in Ohio to see the ad, they also don’t want it going viral on social media outside of MAGA safe spaces. The spot isn’t on their public YouTube page. An unlisted version of the video posted by the campaign exists, but you can’t search for it.

The strategy feels desperate. Especially since the campaign had to know it would galvanize Democrats and likely turn off any persuadable voters who might still be undecided. But losing campaigns make desperate moves, and even though I understand the strategy behind it, I don’t think it’s a decision a campaign that has a clear path to victory makes.

In the meantime, if you have any information on whether the ad was focus-grouped or message-tested, or about Ramaswamy’s internal polling, I’d love to know, and my DMs are open.

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Watching MAGA and the Broligarchs collectively panic over the upcoming midterm elections is a treat. Especially Elon Musk’s spending spree, $366 million this cycle. The vast majority of that spend, $276 million, has come since this July. (You can track Musk’s last-minute independent expenditure donations, close to real time at Musk Money Watch.)

The Broligarchs are all in for MAGA, spending ungodly sums of money this cycle to dominate American politics and attempt to ensure that elected officials’ agenda is their own. A July report from Public Citizen covers the rise of what they’ve coined Corporate Supremacist Super PACs, and the numbers are staggering.

Corporations have already spent $517 million on the 2026 midterms, which breaks the 2024 record with weeks still to go. Most of it comes from crypto, AI, Big Tech, and online betting companies. Crypto alone accounts for $189 million, and Big Tech and AI firms account for another $60 million.

The closer we get to election day, the more it feels like wasted money. I’m famously shit at predicting elections, but the current mood is that Democrats will take back the House, and the Senate is very much in play. The Cook Political Report’s list of toss-up Senate races is wild! Texas, Kansas, and Alaska are all on the list. Meanwhile, Georgia and North Carolina are considered likely Democratic wins. I expect Democrats will make gains in state and local elections too, where fights over data centers are currently raging. It’s no wonder the Broligarchs are feeling desperate.

At this point, you don’t need me to remind you that politics and elections are just one lever of power where the Broligarchs are trying to control every aspect of our lives. As Mark Jacobs points out in Stop the Presses, the Broligarchs are attempting total ‘media capture.’ We saw this twice this weekend, when the No Kings Instagram account was suspended for a couple of hours during the nationwide protest event. Meta, of course, blamed an automation error. Meanwhile, TikTok, where Larry Ellison partly owns U.S. operations, permanently banned a promotional account for Musk and a scathing documentary about Elon. YouTube and Meta initially pulled ads for the film as well but reversed that decision. You’ll be shocked to learn that Meta also blamed an “error.”

The Broligarchs also continually push culture and workforce changes on us through AI platforms. They want control over everything from how we’re governed, to what information we consume, to how we use technology in our work and personal lives. We’re continually told all of this is inevitable, and we’ll just have to adapt to their whims. (But apparently in the post-AI-apocalypse world we get socialism and a 3-day workweek, things we arguably could have had all along.)

The Broligarchs believe that they should rule the world. This is well-documented and has been in the Silicon Valley ether for more than a decade. In just over two weeks, American voters have the opportunity to remind them that we have no interest in living in their fascist hellscape. I won’t pretend an election victory means we’ve won the war, because at this point we’re all battle-tested enough to know it isn’t. But I do think we can win big enough majorities, and hold our newly elected officials’ feet to the fire enough to make an actual dent in the Broligarchy agenda.

Next week, I plan to write about our vision for the future and highlight some folks leading that conversation. I’d love to hear your thoughts and who or what ideas are inspiring you right now. You can reply directly to this email, or leave a comment. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and aspirations.

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Elon Musk has spent $276 million on this election since July. I’m not asking you to match him. I’m asking for $10 a month.

The Broligarchs are playing a long game, and they’ll still be at it after election day. So will CARD. Recurring support lets me keep following their money, name who they’re trying to buy, and keep that work free for anyone who needs it.

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ICYMI

• Inside The Tragedy That Sent Natalie Harp And Her Brother Reeling Into Opposite Extremes (Liars’ Ledger)

• How A Conspiracy Theory About James Talarico Raced Through The Right-Wing Internet (NBC News)

• How to Destroy a Reputation in Hollywood, as Told in 5 Women’s Lawsuits (New York Times)

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You can now follow CARD on Instagram. I’m not entirely sure how I’ll use the account yet, but I’m having fun playing around with it.

That’s all for this week. It feels good to be back, and I’m excited to do this again next Sunday.

I’m back on Sunday, but I know folks are curious about my health and well-being, so before I write an actual newsletter, I wanted to update you on how I’m doing and where my head is at.

The health news is quite good. My surgery went well; the surgeon did a fantastic job medically and cosmetically, and best of all, a lymph node biopsy showed that my cancer hadn’t spread. Recovery has gone well, and I’m resuming daily activities like working out (yay!) and laundry (boo!) I’ve also appreciated the time off. Normally I travel a lot for work in the fall, but this year I’ve really enjoyed being home with my spouse and kids. The time has been as good for my mental health as it’s been for my physical recovery.

Still, my cancer journey isn’t over. The cancer might be removed from my body, but I’m still in treatment, and treatment is about lowering my risk for recurrence. I’m waiting on test results to determine what comes next and how intense that will be. The journey isn’t a straight line, and the milestones aren’t always clear. Before I dive back into business as usual, I want to share a few reflections.

My job is cancer

Last week I had three Zoom calls right in a row. That’s not an unusual day for me, but what was unusual is that none of the calls were about work or politics. They were all related to cancer and healthcare. Most of my appointments and meetings are now about my health. Most of the paperwork too. Cancer and taking care of myself have become my full-time job. It’s treatment and recovery, but also logistics and appointments. I’ve never appreciated being an organized person more. I’m not comfortable saying that I’m kicking cancer’s ass (more on that below), but I am kicking cancer logistics in the ass.

I am learning to live with ambiguity

One of those appointments was with a social worker who went over support group options with me. There was a support group for living with cancer and another for survivors. I wondered which one I was since my body is currently free of cancer, but I’m still in treatment. She told me there were no rules, and I could decide where I fit right now. It felt like one of those choose-your-own-adventure books I used to love as a kid.

I hate ambiguity, but right now my life is chock full of it. There’s no clear path forward, and I don’t know what the future holds. I’m not even sure how to define where I am in this process. But I’m also learning to embrace that. To be OK with not having all the answers and not knowing what comes next. It’s forced me to focus on the present and helped me enjoy my life.

I am not kicking cancer’s ass, or trying to, and that’s OK

For whatever reason, people in my life love to think of me as tough, a badass, and someone who has her shit together. It’s a version of myself that I like and up to now has helped fuel my self-confidence. I like being an achiever who gets stuff done and accomplishes great things.

My family and friends initially talked about my cancer treatment in those same terms. I was going to kick cancer’s ass. Cancer didn’t stand a chance against Melissa Ryan. I was going to do battle with cancer and come out the victor.

Only I don’t feel that way at all. I’m not in a fight, and I couldn’t kick cancer’s ass if I wanted to. Right now I have to do the opposite. Trust my medical team and the science, and accept help from my loved ones. I have to receive, and I have to heal. And I’m good with that. I don’t need to fight against my body or even my disease. I need to go with the flow and protect my peace.

My priorities are shifting

Of all the things about cancer, this one has surprised me the most, even though it probably shouldn’t. At this point, I have countless examples of family members having a medical crisis and making big changes to their lives as a result. So I’m not sure what my own shift took me by such surprise. My diagnosis was a shock to the system, and the desire to stop doing some things and do more of others was immediate. Right now, I’m more tuned out of politics and current events than ever. I still enjoy writing, but I’m just not following the constant news cycle like my work usually demands. What does that mean moving forward? I’m not entirely sure just yet. But I’m curious to find out. Stay tuned.

I’m thriving on gratitude and joy

One of those shifted priorities is that I’m newly obsessed with creating and experiencing joy. Especially for our family. My kids have been through a lot this year, and their Mom having cancer is just the tip of the iceberg. I’ve found myself worrying less about routines and everything we need to do, and focusing on quality time spent together doing fun things. Enjoying ourselves and making memories. It means saying yes a whole lot more and letting go of what we think we should be doing and how we should spend our time.

I’m also just continually grateful. For the way family, friends, professionals, and complete strangers have shown up for me and my family. In ways large and small. This has been one of the worst times of my life, but I’ve seen who the people I surround myself with truly are. And I’m humbled by how many have shown up for me and my family. I’m grateful for science and good medical care, for how many resources are available to breast cancer patients and survivors that I’ve been able to access. I’m grateful to see so many examples of kindness and compassion in a world that often seems devoid of them.

Can we get back to politics? Please?

I’m officially back on the beat this Sunday, and while I enjoyed my time off and the incredible guest writers who stepped up, I’m also happy to be back. The midterm elections are less than three weeks away, and we have a lot to talk about. Thanks so much for reading CARD and for all that you do to make this world better. I’m excited to talk to you again on Sunday!

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With the recent deaths of a duo of disgrace — former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and televangelist Jim Bakker — we can connect their history of moral degeneracy to current right-wing leaders who shield their acts from accountability…of course, until it all collapses. The political and religious right wing have long sheltered their most debased creatures from consequences, right up until a catastrophic failure forces their depraved secrets into the light.

Unless you hop into the DeLorean, it is easy to forget how these dynamics played out decades ago. Yet everything old is new again, as the GOP Hypocrite machine continues to protect its own while aggressively attacking others, wrapping itself in piety while attempting to mask rampant rot.

“I was only helping him with a groin injury.” - The legacy of Dennis Hastert

Dennis Hastert, from Illinois, served as Speaker from 1999 to 2007, eventually becoming the longest-serving Republican Speaker in history. It’s hard to describe the impact at that time of his epic fall from grace. This man was revealed as a child predator - Hastert got away with sexually abusing young boys in his charge as a wrestling coach for decades.

In May 2015, his professional world collapsed when prosecutors alleged in a federal court indictment that he had hidden a secret for decades. It alleged he had agreed to pay $3.5 million to a former student he had sexually abused.

Hastert was never charged with a sex crime because the statute of limitations had expired but admitted at his April 2016 court sentencing that he “mistreated” and “took advantage” of some of the teenage wrestlers he coached at Yorkville High School, where he worked from 1965 to 1981. Federal prosecutors alleged at the time he had molested at least four boys.

As part of a plea deal, Hastert acknowledged that he had illegally avoided reporting requirements associated with bank withdrawals he made for hush-money payments. Judge Thomas Durkin called Hastert a “serial child molester” at the sentencing.

He served 13 months in prison and later denied assaulting another boy in the 1970s at a wrestling event in a deposition in 2018. Hastert claimed he was only helping him with a groin injury.

RIGHT. That was settled in 2021 out of court before it went to trial.

It is no surprise, as part of the GOP Moral Hypocrite Club, that Hastert “overlooked”/helped to cover up what became a media firestorm - the Mark Foley scandal during his Speakership in 2006. Hastert actually came under fire from the House Ethics Committee:

Republican lawmakers and aides failed for a decade to protect male pages from sexual come-ons by former Rep. Mark Foley — once described as a “ticking time bomb” — but they broke no rules and should not be punished, the House ethics committee concluded Friday.

The committee harshly criticized Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., saying the evidence showed he was told of the problem months before he acknowledged learning of Foley’s questionable e-mails to a former Louisiana page. It rejected Hastert’s contention that he couldn’t recall separate warnings from two House Republican leaders.

Hastert couldn’t recall warnings about Foley. You have to wonder what sympathy Hastert might have had for his predatory colleague, or what he himself was doing as part of the Beltway Class that protects one another.

All while the Republican Party, then as now, claimed piety, and some ruthlessly attacked the rights of vulnerable populations, such as the LGBTQ+ community.

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“I Saw Nothing” - the case of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH4).

Jordan, as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University, had a locker next to Dr. Richard Strauss, team physician during the future congressman’s 1986-1994 tenure.

While there’s zero evidence that the shirt-sleeved, loudmouthed, non-attorney Republican who chairs the Judiciary Committee ever engaged in predatory sexual behavior, there’s ample evidence (and testimony) that he knew that Richard Strauss was repeatedly sexually assaulting vulnerable young male student-athletes. These crimes occurred often, during extensive, invasive, and disturbing “genital checks” (no gloves used) when most reported to see Strauss to attend to injuries that had nothing to do with that area of their bodies. A report later issued said Strauss raped or molested at least 177 student athletes from 1979 to 1996.

When brave former wrestlers came forward years later to ask for Jordan’s support in exposing the depraved behavior of Strauss, Jordan literally called, crying, begging them not to go public lest it harm his rising political career.

“Jim Jordan called me crying, crying, groveling, on the Fourth of July, begging me to go against my brother, begging me, crying for half an hour,” Adam DiSabato said, according to video of his testimony. “That’s the kind of coverups going on here.”

He has consistently denied knowing anything about the Strauss abuse of the very wrestlers he coached. Jordan, a founder of the right-wing populist House Freedom Caucus, operates in a 2026 political environment that is perhaps even more hypocritical than in Hastert’s day. But the crimes of Richard Strauss were so egregious—so many knew the crimes he committed and covered them up for decades, even with student reports in files. Strauss rose in the ranks as students suffered in silence. The entire sordid mess was chronicled in an excellent George Clooney-produced documentary, “Surviving Ohio State.” TRAILER:

Jim Jordan’s cowardice and commitment to protecting a predator were exposed, yet the congressman seems to have been strangely politically unaffected by the facts laid out in the case, even when Jordan had to sit for a deposition. The coverage was brutal:

• 5 former wrestlers say Jordan knew of Ohio State abuse (Fox News)

• In new documentary, former Ohio State wrestlers say U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan knew about Strauss abuse (Ohio State Journal)

• Republican Jim Jordan deposed in federal suit tied to sex abuse by late Ohio State team doctor (AP)

Needless to say, adjudicated sexual assaulter President Donald Trump gave Jordan his full-throated support (Politico):

“I don’t believe them at all. I believe him. Jim Jordan is one of the most outstanding people I’ve met since I’ve been in Washington. I believe him 100 percent. No question in my mind. I believe Jim Jordan 100 percent. He’s an outstanding man.”

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The Pious Perverted Prosperity Gospel Pastor - Jim Bakker

By the time Jim Bakker died, his meteoric rise and sensational collapse seemed like ancient history from a pre-internet epoch. During his heyday, Bakker commanded the Praise the Lord (PTL) empire, broadcasting his brand of religious hustle to over 13 million viewers. Beside his makeup-heavy spouse Tammy Faye, he presided over Heritage USA — a sprawling South Carolina Christian amusement park financed by peddling $1,000-a-pop “lifetime partnerships.” Unsurprisingly, the donations from his flock funded an eye-popping lifestyle, proving Bakker to be an unabashed prosperity gospel grifter.

“God wants his people to go first class...We preach abundant life. Christ wished above all things that we prosper.”

Behind all the televangelist flash, Bakker’s empire concealed vile secrets. Church secretary, 21-year-old Jessica Hahn, accused Bakker and fellow minister John Wesley Fletcher of drugging and sexually assaulting her in 1980 before quietly settling the matter. Plus, several male staff members testified under oath regarding sexual encounters with the preacher. There’s that old closet door swinging open again…

Yet financial grift ultimately sank the guy: a 1988 conviction on two dozen counts of mail and wire fraud, alongside conspiracy to defraud his own followers. He ultimately served five years of a 45-year prison bid, represented on appeal by none other than “Epstein-adjacent” legal maven Alan Dershowitz.

The entire sordid saga, including his fierce feuds with rival hucksters Jimmy Swaggart and Jerry Falwell, is chronicled in a documentary, The Eyes Of Tammy Faye (2000).

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Fast Forward to Today

There are plenty of contemporary right-wing pastors that qualify to sit on the modern-day Jim Bakker throne, such as:

• Kenneth Copeland — standard bearer for blatant pulpit-driven partisan activism. Fully embedded in right-wing MAGA politics, this notorious prosperity-faith huckster preaches that “God has chosen Christians to have authority over seven spheres of public life: government, media, arts, business, education, religion and family.” Copeland and spouse Gloria even landed spots on Trump’s advisory board during the 2016 campaign cycle.

• Robert Morris (Gateway Church) — a total predator disguised as a spiritual shepherd. Trump selected Morris for his evangelical advisory squad in 2016, and four years later he hosted a massive political rally for him near Dallas. But his pious facade shattered when a courageous survivor exposed how he repeatedly abused her over four years, starting when she was a mere 12-year-old child. Morris surrendered his pulpit in 2024 before pleading guilty the following year.
  
  Naturally, as the sickening news erupted, Trump operative and current administration mouthpiece (and human thumb) Steven Cheung scrambled to distance his boss, claiming Morris had no official campaign post.
  

• Joel Osteen (Lakewood Church) — the ultra-wealthy megachurch leader and Trump confidant drawn into major scandal when he initially refused to unlock his 16,800-seat arena to house desperate victims of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Though he avoids direct pulpit endorsements, Osteen featured Trump as his premier guest to kick off his SiriusXM channel, praising the politician as an exceptional communicator and loyal ally to his organization.
  

• Doug Wilson (Christ Church) — a leading Christian Nationalist minister operating out of Moscow, Idaho, who serves as Pete Hegseth’s personal spiritual advisor and helped establish the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC).

It’s clear Wilson champions a brand of bigotry far more extreme than Bakker’s era (remember, even Tammy Faye showed empathy toward LGBTQ people). Wilson openly advocates stripping away the 19th Amendment.

In his opinion, granting women the right to vote stemmed from Americans embracing “the lie of individualism” that hurts the institution of families. He argues forcefully that when women were granted the right to vote, the nation took away the franchise from families.

Hegseth—a self-described “reformed” party boy and former Fox “News” TV personality (who relies on his spouse’s presence at the Pentagon to stay sober) —is second to none among public officials seeking to force his religious agenda onto OUR armed forces. All while obsessing over boosting testosterone levels among military personnel.

You have to watch CNN’s wild interview with Doug Wilson on Instagram. The segment sparked such massive backlash that Hegseth was forced to publicly address Pamela Brown’s reporting:

A week after our report on Christian Nationalism dropped, the Pentagon is now clarifying that “of course” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth supports women’s right to vote, after Hegseth reposted our story with the caption “All of Christ for All of Life.” In our piece, pastors from the church network Hegseth belongs to said they’d support repealing the 19th amendment in favor of voting as “households”, which they say would typically mean the husband casts the vote as the head of the household.

Saving the best/worst for last: Hegseth’s preferred spiritual guide harbors a deep disdain for Pride symbols while claiming absolute dominion over women’s bodies. It turns out only a select few women would even qualify to vote in his ideal society. Journalist Steve Inskeep breaks down the disturbing reality:

[Wilson] would require all officeholders to swear to uphold a Christian Constitution, meaning in effect that they would only be Christian. He would prevent non-Christians from voting unless an individual state favored it. He would outlaw abortion, eliminate same-sex marriage and end protections for LGBTQ people. He would bar many, or even most, women from voting—preferring one vote for each household, typically the husband. He says his church is run this way. A few women vote if they are the head of the household.

For those with a strong stomach, watch the full report on Wilson’s growing reach via NPR’s YouTube coverage:

It’s truly alarming to consider what happens if this unqualified, reckless defense chief ever seeks higher office, forcing the public to endure this unhinged rhetoric. Here’s hoping accountability catches up with him first. I eagerly await a full public moral collapse. That and prison.

Pam Spaulding was the editor and publisher of the award-winning OG-era blog Pam’s House Blend (2004-2013). You can catch her on Bluesky.

Health Update from Melissa

Melissa here, and I got some good news this week. The cancer hadn’t spread beyond the tumors they removed at surgery. From here on out, my treatment centers on lowering my risk of recurrence. We still don’t know exactly what that looks like, but it’s a big relief to have that part of my journey behind me.

Next week, I plan to resume writing. Both because I’m ready and because I want to. But it’s also been a lot of fun having these guest pieces, so when my treatment resumes, I’m excited to bring you more content from fantastic writers like Pam, Greg, and Jason. Talk to you next Sunday!

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Your contributions help me keep the newsletter free for anyone who wants to read and access my information and analysis. They’re also helping me support my family while I undergo breast cancer treatment and can’t take on as much client work. Thank you for all you do and for the financial and non-financial support you’ve offered. I have the best readers on the Internet.

I’m still on medical leave, but happy to bring you some of my favorite writers in my absence. Today my friend from The Cause has written an article about one of my favorite topics, divorced billionaires, just for CARD readers! Enjoy. -MJR

Amid the right’s rapid consolidation of media outlets, a long-overdue reckoning has broken through: Musk, a critically beloved documentary now in select theaters.

Alex Gibney has stepped up to do what has not been done at scale since the #TeslaTakedown. The Oscar-winning director exposes the compulsions driving the man who has become the largest single sponsor in Republican Party history—someone who, when he isn’t tweeting or boosting racist tripe, spends millions each day to supercharge a GOP plunging ever deeper into Trump’s depravity.

Running over four hours—longer than Musk has spent with most of his children—crowds say the film flies by, drawing dark laughter at Musk’s staggering social and personal maladroitness. It offers a necessary antidote to Walter Isaacson’s fawning biography, which traded the story of our era for a tired myth of the tortured visionary, missing the spectacle we all saw with our own eyes of an addled freak descending into madness and celebrating installing Trump with two Sieg Hiels. Rather than getting lost in tech-bro hagiography, Gibney focuses on the perspective guaranteed to infuriate Musk most: the women who survived him.

As WIRED’s Miles Klee notes, while the film tracks Musk’s rise as an untouchable oligarch, his former partners deliver the payload—stitching together a devastating portrait of a man petty enough to “let go” of a significant other by unfollowing her on social media.

This narrative focus thrills the man who has waited the longest for America to learn exactly who Elon Musk is. Edward Niedermeyer published Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors in 2019, long before anyone dreamed of purchasing a “I bought this before Elon went crazy” sticker, though the Musk he uncovered then was already drenched in fraud and disdain.

“If you’ve followed the Musk story for a while, the movie will likely be missing major storylines/episodes you remember,” Niedermeyer posted on Bluesky this week. “There’s just no way to get it all in! Gibney’s genius was recognizing that the women’s stories bring so much of the material together, and present the most stark counter-narrative.”

The women who drive this counter-narrative are Justine Wilson, Musk’s first wife, and Ashley St. Clair, a MAGA influencer for a decade (she knows). St. Clair, still in her twenties, quickly fell into a relationship with Musk and had a child with him. She’s since had one of the decade’s great epiphanies and regularly takes to short-form video to expose her ex in a series of clips that have elevated the influencer trope of GRWM (get ready with me) videos to high art.

I’ll defer to Klee and Niedermeyer on how those perspectives land inside Musk, which I haven’t seen yet. But we can all see the value of elevating Wilson and St. Clair as key witnesses in a public prosecution of Elon Musk, simply by scrolling our feeds.

I was struck by Wilson’s recent comments to Kara Swisher (I know), where the mother of Elon’s first kids explained how women are treated in the house where Elon was raised:

@onwithkaraswisherKara sat down with writer Justine Musk and filmmaker Alex Gibney ahead of the release of "MUSK," the explosive documentary making headlines for both its subject and the distribution obstacles it’s facing. In this exclusive interview, Justine talks about her life with Musk as her then-husband began his march toward becoming the world's first trillionaire. Mark your calendars. This interview will be out wherever you get your podcasts on Thursday, Oct. 8. And don’t miss "MUSK," in theaters Friday, Oct. 9.

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“In the Musk family, women are in the same category as dogs and children,” she says, relaying a joke Musk’s sister Tosca made to her.

This morsel of dark humor cannot be laughed off given what we now know about Elon Musk, the least intentionally funny man ever to live: when he burns billions to put Republicans into power, it isn’t just to pay fewer or no taxes or help himself and his companies get away with crimes; it is to force his personal biases, prejudices, and hatreds upon all of us, ideally forever.

His resentment of non-white people has now led to more than 14 million of the world’s poorest people being effectively sentenced to death, while carving out a welcome mat almost exclusively for white South Africans as refugees. His hatred of his own trans daughter—for choosing, in his mind, to embrace the femininity he despises—has resulted in millions of trans Americans and their families questioning where, if anywhere, they are safe in this country. And his view of women as mere breeding vessels will soon manifest in a Department of Justice assault on the safest, most common form of abortion in all 50 states.

What these women are explaining is how even a very intelligent woman might make the mistake of thinking you can live with Elon Musk and even partner with him, but that willingness is entirely one-sided. To Musk, all but a select few of the people around him are incidental, even the women who bear his children and even the children themselves if they do not conform to his rigid expectations.

The tech-bro joke about the “Nerd Reich” viewing the rest of us as NPCs—non-player characters serving as mere extras to Elon’s main character—hits upon one of the darkest truths Hannah Arendt uncovered: the architecture of radical evil, where human beings are rendered entirely “superfluous.”

“When the impossible was made possible it became unpunishable, unforgivable absolute [radical] evil which could no longer be understood and explained by the evil motives of self-interest, greed, covetousness, resentment, lust for power, and cowardice; and which therefore anger could not avenge, love could not endure, friendship could not forgive,” Arendt wrote.

We are now in the era where the impossible is possible, and almost seems inevitable.

We know millions are dying due to the thoughtless and purposely cruel actions of our government, greenlit by Musk. The US concentration camp system is rapidly expanding and will quickly exceed the numbers of Japanese-American Internment. And one man effectively bought another the presidency that made this all possible.

The ethos of the American experiment has largely been replaced by the pathos of a Gilded Age Apartheid as embodied by Musk and the rest of the PayPal mafia. And explaining that is very difficult! Even if you find the right words, Musk may sue you, buy your company to ruin you, finance your opponent beyond all sense, or just sic his X mob on you and make your life hell.

Yet many elected Democrats still seem to dwell on the fantasy that he’s somehow sensible and can be brought back into the fold. They seem to accept that our country can go on relying on his rockets for essential defense and other life-or-death services.

That’s why they avoided the Tesla Takedown like it was Mar-a-Lago. That’s why they refuse to narrate why America is being bombarded with a tsunami of Nazi-level hate against trans people as Musk tries to both elect Republicans by smearing Democrats and scare any politician from ever championing trans rights. They refuse even though Wisconsin Democrats did exactly that last spring and buried Musk’s candidates by double digits.

Wilson and St. Clair have also refused. They’ve refused to continue making the mistake of staying quiet and letting Elon be Elon. They cannot extricate themselves completely from the father of their kids, but their bravery must inspire us to do what they can’t.

Musk must be a clarifying call to America, or at least Democrats, that freedom and Elon Musk are absolutely incompatible. Our only option is to expel him and his ilk (Peter Thiel and Thiel’s bloodboy JD Vance) from anything to do with our government and make it illegal to buy elections the way they now can.

That may seem more impossible than letting the horrors Musk has delivered us go on indefinitely. But Wilson and St. Clair must remind us that the truth can set us free, and nothing makes Elon Musk more miserable than the truth.

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Content warning: sexual assault, online harassment

“Cornell Won’t, We Will.” With a recent editorial under that headline, a campus newspaper sent allegations of a 2024 group sexual assault at a fraternity rocketing to national attention. Charging Cornell with failing to keep students safe, editors named the defendants sued along with the university by an anonymous accuser — and condemned a lack of transparency about the outcome of a Title IX investigation opened into the alleged assault in early 2025. (The New York Times reports that campus police even omitted the accuser’s unequivocal declaration that she was raped from their account of the incident to local prosecutors.)

Coming nine years after the #MeToo moment of accountability for high-profile perpetrators of sexual assault, the Cornell allegations brought trauma back for many survivors of campus rape. They also sparked fury about a system that still seems stacked against survivors — a point driven home by efforts to dox the Cornell case’s Jane Doe plaintiff.

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Why is accountability for campus rape still an uphill climb? One problem is the White House — which fits, given President Trump’s return to power after being found liable for sexual abuse by a civil court. Trump’s attempts to raze the federal Department of Education gutted its Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which oversees investigations of rape and sexual abuse at colleges and universities. In a March 2025 mass firing, OCR lost 299 people from its staff of 575 and shuttered seven of its 12 offices. The number of sexual violence cases resolved by OCR that year fell to zero.

The administration also declined to appeal after a federal judge tossed out Title IX enforcement rules written under former President Biden — opting instead to revert to enforcement regulations set during Trump’s first term. After the rollback, universities needed to act only on accusations of sexual misconduct within school programs directly reported to administrators — and official responses only needed to clear the bar of not being “clearly unreasonable.”

The return to pre-Biden regulations also brought back standards that required court-like proceedings in which survivors could face cross-examination by representatives of their alleged assaulters. The standards correspond with calls by men’s rights activists — a group of whom met with then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos early in Trump’s first term — to level the playing field for students who faced accusations. (The official who then ran OCR said “90 percent” of allegations “fall into the category of ‘we were both drunk,’ ‘we broke up, and six months later I found myself under a Title IX investigation’” — but apologized after the quote made headlines.)

Less oversight, narrowed regulatory coverage, heavier procedural burdens on survivors who report sexual assaults: the reduction of options under Title IX, combined with a Roberts Court decision in 2022 that lower courts have interpreted to limit Title IX plaintiffs’ access to damages for emotional distress, has made getting accountability in campus sexual assault cases harder and more costly — both monetarily and emotionally — for survivors. As the suit filed by Cornell’s Jane Doe shows, survivors can still seek redress through the courts. That comes with a catch, however: the risk of exposure and targeting for public humiliation.

Enter the click-chasing gadfly Michael Tracey, who apparently seeks to regain whatever feeling he got from hectoring survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse at a press conference by trying to out the plaintiff in the Cornell group sexual-assault case.

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Tracey, like many X users, spent the past week rummaging for digital clues to Jane Doe’s identity. He also capitalized on the ensuing attention: posting clips to YouTube, shipping updates out through his newsletter, and making appearances on podcasts like that of white-nationalist-curious writer Richard Hanania, who called what happened at Cornell a matter of women who had “casual sex with men they don’t know well.” He added: “maybe she was assaulted, maybe not, either way it was a terrible decision to make.”

He means a terrible decision for the survivor to make, to be clear.

Here’s why Tracey’s survivor-outing stunt should trouble folks. One, granting anonymity to sexual assault victims is a well-established practice in professional journalism. A consensus that the identity of a survivor is “newsworthy information” just plain doesn’t exist.

Two, online platforms themselves have tilted against survivors since the #MeToo moment. Elon Musk, an on-again Trump ally whose views are at least manosphere-adjacent, now controls what was once Twitter. That site, which served as a hub of #MeToo activity, now has amateur sleuths darting through stray facts like schools of minnows — swarming over details about the possible hometown, school, or even name of the Cornell accuser with little apparent method or accuracy. (One swarm that sided with the accuser converged on a Marine mistakenly served with a copy of the complaint because he shared one alleged defendant’s name.)

Mobs can run roughshod over people’s privacy on X, as what remains of Twitter is now known, in part because Musk took a chainsaw to the platform’s trust-and-safety efforts. After buying the company, Musk dissolved its 100-member trust-and-safety council, made unsubstantiated insinuations about former trust-and-safety chief Yoel Roth that spawned threats and drove him from his home, and cut the number of engineers working on safety issues from 279 to 55. In the wake of Musk’s flamboyant disinvestment from trust and safety, other social media firms — including Meta, Snap, and TikTok — followed suit in making heavy cuts.

Three, incentives on Musk’s revamped X reward bids for engagement. Paid blue-check users who draw enough traffic to their posts — by, say, attempting to unmask a possible victim of sexual assault — can earn dollars for their content. X’s rules block users who post hate speech from its monetization program. How much the company enforces this bar, however, is open to doubt. Users presenting themselves as just asking questions about a campus rape seem to have little stopping them, for now, from sharing speculation at young people’s expense.

That explains why X was overtaken this week by users playing private investigator on a ghoulish pretext. The site’s incentives are working just as designed.

New York state officials swung into action as controversy around Cornell’s handling of the case built; state governor Kathy Hochul announced on Thursday that New York attorney general Letitia James — long treated as a nemesis by President Trump — would lead a criminal investigation. As if to put words to the shrugging response that campus rape survivors still face, President Trump reacted to James’s appointment by condemning her: “I feel badly for whoever she’s looking at, because they won’t get a fair shake.”

If they do get a fair shake, that’ll be more than Cornell’s Jane Doe got this week.

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ICYMI

• The Bizarre AI Ad Trying to Make an Extremist Candidate Look Like Jesus (Talking Points Memo)

• Key Election Denial Activists in the Right-Wing Media Ecosystem (Media Matters)

• A Safer Internet Should Not Come with Democratic Shortcuts (Tech Policy

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Happy to fill in for my good friend this week — Melissa’s doing well after her surgery, even laughing at my word count (which has come in slightly longer than her usual). Next week another old friend, Pam Spaulding, has the pen; I can’t wait to see what she has in store.

As for my thoughts on the folks I devoted this issue to, I think OG riot grrl Kathleen Hanna, of Bikini Kill — the band shown performing here at this summer’s Daisy Chain Fields Festival in Irvine, Calif. — sums those up.

Thanks for reading, y’all, and keep sending Melissa your thoughts and good vibes.

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I didn’t know the networks had it in them: solidarity. And we’ll see how long it lasts, but they actually did it. They responded to Trump’s ban on multiple outlets by collectively suspending White House pool coverage and depriving Donald Trump of the attention he continually demands from us, and giving America the briefest reprieve from his constant nonsensical word salad.

The move surprised me, especially since even Fox News held the line. Donald Trump and TV news make one another’s continued existence far easier. Trump gives broadcast networks an endless supply of rants and remarks to fill their airtime. In turn, TV news broadcasts the footage and fuels an entire video ecosystem online made of Trump clips. Trump doesn’t even have to talk to go viral. How many times have videos of him appearing to be asleep in a public setting made the rounds on social media? Or videos that purportedly show Trump’s mental and physical decline? Trump is an ideal president for the attention economy and its constant demands for fresh content.

But is America finally ready to move on from the Trump show? Amanda Marcotte made the point that this break has been good for her own mental health and might be good for the media industry as well, writing, “this little break might be a chance for the media to recalibrate and ask hard questions about how to cut way back on unnecessary Trump’s.”

I don’t have much faith that hard questions will be asked, especially given the current state of media ownership, which is about to become even more concentrated with CNN becoming a Paramount property when the merger with Warner Brothers is completed. But it would be interesting to see how much these companies pay attention to the data and metrics. Does less footage of Trump lead to better or worse ratings? And once you know the answer, how will they balance this reality against the desire to curry favor with the Trump Regime?

The break from White House pool coverage was short-lived. On Thursday, a judge’s order restored access, and the banned outlets regained entry to the White House. I expect Trump to continue fighting this out in court, but I can’t imagine he’ll prevail in the end. Nor would he actually want to if it meant fewer cameras fixated on him at all times. And it should now be clear to him that he’ll lose that attention should he attempt to ban certain outlets again.

I can’t help but blame corporate media and Big Tech for recreating this situation for themselves in the first place. Because these outlets and platforms chose to amplify and platform Trump after MAGA’s coup attempt. One of the networks that Trump banned, CNN, is arguably responsible for Trump’s being welcomed back into the mainstream political fold. CNN hosted a town hall with Trump, giving him free primetime minutes on national television. At the time, Trump faced one criminal proceeding in New York and multiple civil suits, including those related to his involvement in January 6. Corporate media obviously didn’t reelect Trump, but the coverage certainly helped reestablish him as a frontrunner.

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This is my last newsletter before taking some time off to undergo treatment for breast cancer. Since I’m limited in how much work I can do while in treatment, my family and I are relying on income from CARD more than ever before. Your contributions always enable me to write and produce the newsletter each week, but right now they also help me take the time and space I need to heal.

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ICYMI

• Whites Only: The Disaster the Justices Have Unleashed Has Its Roots in One of the Darkest Periods of Our History. (Mother Jones)

• You’ll Do Anything for Your Baby. The Algorithm Knows How to Exploit That. (The 19th)

• As CNN, MS NOW, Politico Booted, White Nationalist Outlet Snags White House Press Slot (Confront the Hate)

• Depressing Roundup of ICE Roundups, This Post Will Be Led Away At Gunpoint, Probably (Wonkette)

Coda

I’m off for the next couple of weeks to recover from surgery, but don’t worry, you’ll be in good hands. Next Sunday, longtime guest contributor and friend of the newsletter, Greg Greene takes the reins. I’m excited to read his article.

I plan to take two weeks off, but don’t worry, I will take more off if I need it. Y’all keep writing to me, concerned about my workaholic tendencies, which I appreciate so much. It’s wonderful to know that so many people are thinking about me and want me to take care of myself. We’ll talk again soon, and I promise it won’t be until I’m physically and mentally ready to write again. Until then, goodbye!

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What do the Ed Sheeran and AI doom news cycles have in common? They’re both about power, the people who currently have power and how much control they want over the rest of us and our lives.

Let’s start with AI. In my mind, the issue isn’t whether AI will kill us all. It’s how thirsty the tech oligarchs are to build a technology that could. I have no idea how dangerous the technology is, and I think that’s true for the vast majority of Americans. We can only guess. But it’s crystal clear how dangerous the people and companies funding it are. The fact that AI will kill us all is how it’s being marketed to investors tells you everything you need to know.

When it comes to AI as a technology, I’m fairly neutral. There are ways that it’s incredibly useful and places where I’m excited about its potential. But there’s also clearly been a lot of bluster where publicly available AI hasn’t lived up to the hype. Not to mention some sleight-of-hand trickery on its capabilities. All of which makes it hard for me and others to evaluate.

But when it comes to the people behind Big Tech, I’m anything but neutral. As I’ve covered here from the start and as journalists like Carole Cadwalladr and Gil Duran have reported extensively on, Silicon Valley is amassing power, and there’s a growing movement in tech that believes tech oligarchs should be running their own nation-states, AKA networked states. The same people who were content to allow social media to tear communities apart and weaken democracy have now turned their sights on AI.

Do I think AI will kill us all? Maybe. But more importantly, I think the broligarchs want a technology that could. Because they want to control it. Which says a lot about just how much power they want over the rest of us.

And the thing is, I think people get it. Local fights over data centers have always felt like a proxy fight over power and control. Communities are banding together to fight back against the notion that an AI takeover is inevitable. The nonpartisan nature of these fights is especially interesting. The Trump Regime might be all in on Silicon Valley ruling the world. But MAGA voters aren’t falling in line. At least when it comes to their own backyards.

What does this have to do with Ed Sheeran dropping Macklemore from his tour? It’s also about power and control. Billionaire Robert Kraft wants it too, along with his fellow stadium owners. Only their version controls the message. They seek to control what artists who rent their venues can and can’t say on the stages they own.

The backlash to Ed Sheeran’s spinelessness has been something to behold. Starting with the supporting musicians who quit in solidarity, leaving Sheeran without opening acts or a band for his set. At least one radio station in Ireland has stopped playing his music. The resale value of his tickets has plummeted. The memes have been about what I would expect, but I cackled when an ill-timed actual contest from Guitar Center promising a chance to open for Ed Sheeran was flooded with “Free Palestine videos and fart memes.”

Americans have a lot of feelings about billionaires right now, and none of them good. A recent Data for Progress survey found that “most voters see billionaires as representing a dysfunctional anti-working class economy.” It also found that “Around half of voters say billionaires got their wealth through luck and family inheritance rather than through hard work and innovation.” Meanwhile, a CBS/YouGov poll released just this week found that “69 percent of respondents under 30 favor candidates who support raising taxes on wealthy Americans,” and that “59 percent of respondents aged 30 to 44 and 55 percent of Americans aged 45 and older said the same.”

Ed Sheeran is learning a hard lesson about capitulating to billionaires. He had more agency than anyone else on that tour and chose power over principle. Robert Kraft and his fellow stadium owners won’t suffer real consequences for their choices — but Sheeran will, and the economic damage is already visible.

That’s the lever. Billionaires can always outfund us and they own the platforms we use to organize. But they can’t insulate themselves from the costs of public contempt, canceled tours, and communities that stand in solidarity. The data center fights and the Guitar Center fart memes are the same fight: ordinary people making it expensive (and annoying) to ignore them.

The broligarchs want a technology that could control us all, and they want to own it. We’re not going to out-resource them. But we can make their ambitions costly. In our backyards, at the ballot box, and apparently, in the comments section of a guitar contest.

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ICYMI

• We Have to Talk About the Jon Ossoff Thirst Edits (The 19th)

• Hundreds of Election Deniers Will Be on the Ballot This November (Wired)

• Bo French Sent a Tweet So Racist, His Own Party Finally Took Notice. It’s Just the Tip of the Iceberg. (Mother Jones)

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Coda

Next Sunday will be my last newsletter before taking at least two weeks off for cancer treatment. (Before you send emails, yes, I will take more time off if I need it. I promise.) I have some guest authors lined up so hopefully you’ll still receive CARD uninterrupted.

Fall is here, which means it’s time for me to share my favorite YouTube video. Stella’s Best Leaf Jumps of All Time. Enjoy!

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We’ve reached the bribing voters stage of the midterm election cycle. This week, at a midterm GOP convention built around his increasingly fragile ego, Trump promised that if Republicans remained in power, he’d send dividends of $5,000 to every American, along with a veiled threat that this was something only he could do.

I guess we’re just supposed to ignore the fact that Trump is always promising to send Americans money. DOGE “savings”, Tariff rebate checks, Obamacare refunds, etc. Strangely, none of those checks have shown up in our bank accounts. Shocking that a man who so casually lies about being pulled from the rubble by firefighters on 9/11 would lie continually about checks supposedly en route. But with a legacy press that largely doesn’t hold him accountable for his lies and instead amplifies them, Trump has every incentive to lie about another rebate that taxpayers will never see.

Objectively, the midterms aren’t looking great for Trump’s Republican Party. Democrats are on track to win the House, and despite a tough map, a Democratic Senate majority seems more likely by the day. Down-ballot races at the state and local levels should help Democrats make gains there, too. Even with his regime using every tactic they can think of to subvert the election and suppress the vote, Democratic majorities are the likely outcome. Hence Trump’s 5K freakout.

It’s hard to get me amped up about elections these days, but Trump has managed to do it. Trump’s bribe harkens back to Elon Musk’s voter-payola scheme in Wisconsin last year. Musk’s gambit failed spectacularly, and I love seeing Trump go down the same path to failure. Trump is banking on the notion that all Americans are as corrupt and morally bankrupt as he is and that everyone can be bribed. I’m motivated to help show Trump how wrong he is come November.

Still, even with the outlook as good as it is, we can’t assume victory. If Americans want a functioning democracy and fair elections, we have to demand it. Here’s what we need to do:

• We need to vote. As the Brennan Center for Justice points out, if Americans turn out to vote, election interference won’t succeed. The Brennan Center also has a handy guide for how to vote safely in the US, even if the Trump Regime attempts to use ICE or the military to intimidate voters at the polls.

• We need to protect elections in our own backyards. One advantage we have is that US elections are run by states and municipalities rather than the Federal government. You can find ways to engage and organize in your own community. This moment requires us to think about election protection as a form of community defense, and our friends at States at the Core have an upcoming virtual training on September 16 that you should attend if you’re able. Common Cause has also put together some resources to help you get started.

• We need to be vigilant about election-related conspiracies, propaganda, rumors, and disinformation. To help inoculate ourselves and our communities. The Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington is once again ramping up its work on this, and I recommend subscribing to their newsletter to stay on top of all things disinformation and be an informed validator in your social circles.

Trump is desperate. Let’s make the last two years of his term miserable by protecting this election and winning it.

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ICYMI

• The AI Researcher Who Just Quit Anthropic Says It’s ‘Crunch Time for Humanity’ (Wired)

• You Have to Call Bigots What They Are (How Things Work)

• Justice for ICE’s Victims Requires Truth and Reconciliation (Public Notice)

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Coda

This might be the most delightful press clip I’ve ever had. Soap Opera Digest (yes, really!) wrote an article about how a plotline on Beyond the Gates helped me decide to go ahead and get my mammogram. The writer took real care with the piece, quoting me generously and linking to the newsletter twice. I’m not sure how much overlap there is between soap opera fans and political junkies, but BTG has two characters who are elected officials, so perhaps it’s more than I realize.

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That’s all for me right now. Catch you again next week!

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Charlie Kirk was murdered on a college campus one year ago today. A fixture of the MAGA Right, one of its most prominent and well-funded operatives and influencers, Kirk’s death was a shocking act of political violence that rattled all Americans to some degree. But Trump World’s grief was raw and vengeful.

I wrote this right after Kirk’s death last year and, forgive me for the self-quote, but I still think it describes MAGA’s response well:

Before we knew anything about Charlie Kirk’s shooter, before Kirk’s body was cold, the Trump Regime went to work canonizing him and turning him into a martyr. As NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny reports, Kirk devoted his own life to creating and amplifying false conspiracies and alternate narratives. She writes, “It is fitting, maybe, that so many conspiracy theories have engulfed Kirk upon his death.”

I obviously didn’t know Kirk personally, but it does seem that this is precisely what he would have wanted. To become a martyr via viral content. For the people Kirk devoted his life to put into power, using every privilege available to them to exploit his tragic death as a way to crush dissent and punish MAGA’s perceived enemies. An army of online trolls avenging Kirk’s death by doxing and harassing anyone who has negative things to say about him. To cause further harm to already vulnerable communities and individuals. More incitement leading to more violence. All in service of MAGA.

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Of course they were helped along by legacy media and other influentials who either didn’t know what Charlie Kirk’s work actually was or saw themselves in Kirk once he became a casualty of political violence. I won’t relitigate it all here; if you remember the headline “Charlie Kirk was Practicing Politics the Right Way,” you’ve got the gist.

A ridiculous number of people, more than 600 that we know of, lost their jobs or faced retribution for saying negative things about Kirk or simply for pointing out what his beliefs actually were and the harm he’d caused. And of course there was the repeated online harassment and threats of violence that followed. Some of those folks sued their former employers and won, most notably former Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah. But not everyone will be vindicated, and even those who are will still have residual trauma from the experience.

And yet, now, when I look at the result of MAGA’s attempts to canonize Charlie Kirk, it’s hard not to view their efforts as a failure. Kirk was supposed to become a martyr but quickly became a meme. Less than a month after his killing, “Kirkified” memes of his face were swapped onto any and every image. Thanks to AI, meme makers flooded the internet with face-swapped images. Kirk also rapidly became Gen Z slang, as Jada King notes in an opinion column, explaining to us older Americans that “People adding “Kirk” to a sentence is increasingly common among Gen Z, and it’s being used as an intensifier— the same way “ass” can be used to increase the severity of the original sentence.”

Mainstream culture turned on Kirk’s legacy pretty much immediately. The outcry over Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension and Disney’s rapid reversal of it was an early sign that MAGA was failing and flailing. Many of us knew exactly who Charlie Kirk was and weren’t going to let his life and the harm caused be whitewashed. Even the MAGA Right seems to have moved on. Turning Point USA, the organization Kirk founded and now led by his widow, is floundering. Erika Kirk’s Trad Wife CEO routine is falling flat, and Charlie Kirk’s former colleagues are plagued by infighting.

A year later, Kirification is still going strong. And I’d imagine many of those who keep sharing them online have no idea who Charlie Kirk was or how the memes came about. It’s taken on a life of its own. Even this week, as I put together notes for this article, I randomly encountered a few of the memes in the wild.

You could argue that in our culture today, anything and everything can become a meme, but I’m not sure that’s the case. The speed and intensity with which Kirkified memes took over online spaces was unusual. The only thing I can think of that it compares to is Harambe the Gorilla memes, which spread like wildfire after staff at the Cincinnati Zoo killed Harambe when a child got in his enclosure. Kirkified memes are what happens when grief, outrage, and a society in crisis all meet online. It’s a toxic legacy, but in this case it feels earned.

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America’s white supremacist split screen continues. The Trump Regime is deporting Haitian refugees who came here legally, including children, against their will. This week, the Regime turned its racist cruelty into content, with the Department of Homeland Security releasing a horrific video of a deportation flight, with men in chains boarding a plane in the rain. Meanwhile, white South Africans remain the only people who can enter the US as refugees and receive taxpayer-funded aid when they arrive, which the Trump Regime plans to increase.

The video is shot after shot of Black men in chains. The kinds of atrocity that even totalitarian regimes generally don’t want visuals of. But America is a nation run by white supremacists who want us all to know who is in charge, and just how cruel they are. And they want us to fear them.

Covering propaganda from the Trump Regime is always tricky. The content is meant to inflame, and inflaming those of us who don’t support these atrocities is a big part of why they do it. I don’t want to elevate that, and I don’t want to do their dirty work by amplifying it. Still, they’re doing all this in our name. We need to call it out and draw a moral line wherever we can.

ICE continues to operate as Trump’s personal police force, enforcing his whims against Immigrints and those who would stand with their neighbors to oppose the Regime. This week Texas Governor Greg Abbott delayed signing an extradition warrant that would send an agent to Minnesota, where charges have been filed against ICE agent Christian Castro, accused of shooting an innocent man, and a judge refused to intervene. Minnesota is unable to take Castro into custody, despite the concern that Castro is a flight risk.

It sets up an obvious constitutional crisis, one that we’ve been dancing around for a while and will at some point have to come to a head. Pro-Trump states and government agents don’t feel beholden to the law of the land. Only to Donald Trump. Eventually, Democratic governors and the people they represent will get fed up. Because if ICE or the military can come tear apart our communities and harm people at will, and there’s no accountability for abuses of power, what exactly are we paying taxes for or pledging allegiance to?

We’re only as safe as our most vulnerable neighbors. As I’ve covered previously, ICE’s internal watchdog has been repurposed to investigate critics of the agency instead of checking it. ICE is also responsible for fatally shooting at least 10 people during the Trump Administration. ICE has also arrested a record number of people without criminal records this summer. It’s a danger to all of us, and that’s by design.

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Case in point: today ICE detained Milo Yiannopoulos. The British far-right activist, formerly one of MAGA’s most prominent cheerleaders, is now on the outs with the Trump Regime. Apparently Milo’s arrest was at the behest of fellow MAGAlebrity, Laura Loomer, another MAGA-lebrity who is known to have Donald Trump’s ear. ICE doesn’t care that Milo spent years helping build the movement that gave ICE its current mandate. If they’ll detain Milo Yiannopoulos, they’ll detain anyone. Or as Onion CEO Ben Collins put it:

That’s why, as heinous as I find the video, and so much of the social media content that the Trump Regime creates and shares, it’s important not to look away. And to stand up against cruelty any way we can. To understand that while, yes, this is happening to immigrant communities, none of us is safe as long as ICE is allowed to exist and a President is allowed to turn any government agency into his personal Stasi.

You can help protect your community by joining existing community defense and mutual aid efforts, or starting one yourself if it doesn’t already exist. Taking a virtual training with States at the Core or connecting with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network is a great place to start.

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The leopards ate Milo’s face, and had he read CARD he would have known it was coming. Because I’ve been watching those leopards for a decade, and I know who they truly are.

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ICYMI

• Meta Will Pay Up to $16.7 Billion to Settle Its Social Media Harms Case—and That’s Not All (Wired)

• Pete Hegseth Is Building a Pentagon Troll Army (The Bulwark)

• Data Center Discontent Drives State Legislation Surge (Tech Policy Press)

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Coda

I’m off next week for Labor Day weekend. Then I’m not entirely sure of my schedule. My plan is to write two pieces a week between Labor Day and Election Day, but at some point I’ll have surgery and will obviously need some time off. More than likely, the next newsletter will go out on Sunday, September 13.

I’ll see you then!

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Dolly Parton’s music and persona have always been intertwined in my life, and I have countless memories of her music. I could write an entire essay about what Dolly meant to me personally, but as I watched the entire Internet grieve her yesterday, I realized there’s not much original or unique I can say about what she meant to me. So many of us are feeling it, and I loved all the stories and anecdotes I read online.

One of my favorite aspects was all the stories about Parton that circulated and how even her fans learned new things about her. Maybe you learned about a song of hers you didn’t know about or a TV clip you hadn’t seen. But most of what was shared was about who Dolly was as a person, her Imagination Library, and stories about how she showed up for vulnerable people and communities.

Everyone loved Dolly Parton. I was struck by this skeet on Bluesky from Huck Mason, pointing out that both Donald Trump and Democratic Socialists of America had both posted glowing tributes. The first and only time they would ever agree on anything.

Writer Garrett M. Graff’s skeet about Dolly also resonated with me, probably because I’ve been putting together notes for a future piece about Charlie Kirk’s assassination and the Internet’s reaction to it.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to compare Dolly Parton to Charlie Kirk, but I do want to talk about Dolly Parton and politics. Because I’ve always admired how she chose to express her political views and the moments she chose to speak up. Some believe Parton was apolitical, which is something she cultivated. She loved all of her fans, and wanted them to feel loved rather than judged by her. That includes her right-wing fans. But she also stood by people and stood up for vulnerable people repeatedly when it counted. Here’s what you need to know:

Dolly lived her values

“And of course Black lives matter. Do we think our little white asses are the only ones that matter? No!”

Dolly Parton never endorsed a candidate or a political position. She’d never say a bad word about anyone. But she also didn’t stay silent, and she made clear her positions were based on her faith and her values. Parton unequivically stood with Black Lives Matter when asked in an interview and not just in the moment; The Root chronicles her record of supporting the Black community, including in her home state of Tennessee.

And I probably don’t need to tell you about her continued support for the LGBTQ+ community, and unabashed love for her LGBTQ fans. Dolly loved drag performers, and more than once said that were she a man she would surely be a drag queen herself.

My personal favorite Parton song is Travelin’ Thru, which Parton wrote for the movie Trans America. The song is universal in its lyrics and has gotten me through many a tough time in my life (including in recent weeks), but it’s also a metaphor for transitioning as a resurrection. Dolly sings:

God made me for a reason and nothin’ is in vain

Redemption comes in many shapes with many kinds of pain

Oh, sweet Jesus, if you’re listenin’, keep me ever close to you

As I’m stumblin’, tumblin’, wanderin’, as I’m travelin’ through

Dolly spoke out for Trans folks too, as recently as 2023 against anti-Trans legislation in her home state of Tennessee, but Travelin’ Thru was from a movie released in 2006. Her values are rooted in her Christian faith, something the song makes clear. Love everyone, and let them know they belong. Judge no one because that’s God’s job. Political fights come and go, but faith is eternal. And it’s always time to do the right thing.

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Dolly showed us who she was in her deeds and words

Parton was a lyrical genius, and she told us who she was and what she believed countless times in her songs. But she also understood the concept of deeds over words. She’s probably most known for her Imagination Library, which sent a free book a month to kids all over the country, including my own, from birth to age 5.

We have many of those books in our home, and those books are meant to take a beating from children who read them over and over again. Anyone who has small children can tell you that loved books are battered books, but Imagination Library books are sturdy, made of tougher stuff, clearly designed to withstand toddlers for a long period of time. I’ve always assumed that choice was intentional. Dolly could have sent cheaply made books and everyone still would have loved her for it. Those books are made with respect for the children who would read them.

We also have Dolly Parton to thank in part for the Covid vaccine. Thanks to a $1million donation she made proactively at the start of the pandemic. She called up a doctor who was a friend of hers and asked how she could help before anyone had a chance to ask. Then she helped promote the vaccine by changing the lyrics to Jolene and getting her shot on a video for social media.

And Dolly never forgot where she came from. Many of her philanthropic efforts benefited Sevier County, where she came from, and her home state of Tennessee, and her Dollywood Theme Park created jobs and economic opportunity in the region. A Dollywood foundation focused on local aid, and Dollywood paid 100% of college tuition for its employees.

Dolly understood politics was downstream of culture

A lot is being written today about Dolly Parton being apolitical. She worked hard to cultivate that image. But I have a different interpretation of her advocacy. Dolly knew that her power came from the culture, the Appalachian culture that she came from, and the culture that embraced her music and persona wholeheartedly. She intentionally curated her stances and chose her words (and lyrics!) carefully.

​​Tressie McMillan Cottom wrote the definitive essay on Dolly and American culture in 2021, and it’s worth a read in full, but this passage in particular really illustrates the point:

“All of my reading also revealed this: Dolly Parton is one of very few living texts that could survive projections of America’s soul without buckling beneath its contradictions. It is treasonous to do so but if one strips away all the adulation, they are left with an odd totem for our socio-political times. Dolly is a white Southern multi-millionaire boomer who produces self-consciously white music while wearing a stylized drag of a fallen Southern belle. Only a society that willfully believes itself “post-racist” could produce such a queen. Post-racist does not mean there is no more racism. It means that we believe there is an us after we rid ourselves of our errant racist bones, which we are certain will come to pass. We craft Dolly into an unproblematic fave because the most problematic part of The Dolly Parton Moment is us.”

None of this is by accident. Dolly Parton knew who she was, and what she wanted to project out to the world. She knew what her power was and where she could make the most impact. It isn’t politics the way most people think about politics in our hyper-partisan era, but Dolly’s use of music and culture was absolutely a political act.

Dolly never forgot where she came from. And she could still evolve

“As soon as you realize that [something] is a problem, you should fix it. Don’t be a dumbass’.”

I feel a personal kinship with Dolly because we both come from the same overarching Appalachian/Southern culture. She was a country music singer, and I am an unabashed country music fan. Of course, loving country music is complicated, especially right now when the American Right continually attempts to claim ownership. Country music’s history also includes appropriation and wholesale theft. Country music doesn’t exist without Black music, but much of the industry seems determined to exclude Black voices and artists from the genre.

Because of this, loving country music, and really loving anything about Southern culture, is complex and often uneasy. It’s something I feel as a music fan and as a Kentuckian. I’m proud of my working-class roots and how they’ve shaped my politics and values. I’m also well aware of the harm my culture and my ancestors have inflicted. Both things can be true.

After Charlottesville in 2017, Dolly Parton found herself dealing with these issues directly. She was criticized, fairly, for the name of her themed restaurant, Dolly’s Dixie Stampede, and for what both the name and her Civil War-themed dinner theater show evoked. The Slate article from a writer who saw the show twice describes how tone deaf and racist the experience was, and reading it again, it’s hard to reconcile the Dolly Parton who owned that restaurant with the Dolly persona we’re all mourning right now.

But here’s the thing: Dolly Parton evolved. Instead of getting defensive about the essay, she removed Dixie from the name and overhauled the show. She didn’t blame antifa, or claim both sides, or any of the rhetoric that was common at the time. When asked about the change, Dolly said, “When they said ‘Dixie’ was an offensive word, I thought, ‘Well, I don’t want to offend anybody. This is a business. We’ll just call it The Stampede. As soon as you realize that [something] is a problem, you should fix it. Don’t be a dumbass.”

Dolly Parton wasn’t perfect. She made mistakes just like the rest of us, and she probably came up short more often than she wanted to. She didn’t practice politics in the way that I do or the way most of my readers choose to engage. But I admire the way she did. And it’s one of the things I’ll miss most about her.

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When Democratic candidate Angie Nixon won her primary in an upset in Florida this week, I immediately thought about Ms. Rachel. The children’s entertainer and YouTube sensation recently made her first slate of political endorsements, and included Nixon in the list of candidates. In an Instagram post, Ms. Rachel explained her political philosophy and identified her preferred candidates simply as “some folks I believe care about all kids.”

Nixon’s win was quite the upset. She was outspent 13-1 by her opponent, himself a well-known target of Trump, and according to the New York Times, spent only $60,000 on advertising over the course of her campaign. She had some lefty endorsements but not the heaviest hitters: Senator Bernie Sanders or Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez. Realistically, I don’t think we can say that Ms. Rachel’s endorsement won Nixon the election, but when you consider how much earned media had to matter here, I feel comfortable saying that the impact of it was potentially a major factor in Nixon’s favor. I’ll be really interested to see the age breakdown for Nixon’s voters, and how many of those voters are likely to be millennial parents.

Generally, I don’t think political endorsements matter as much as campaigns would like to think they do. But Ms. Rachel is a powerful validator. Parents of small children trust her instinctively, and many of us feel like we know her. I joke that she’s raising the world’s children through her YouTube videos. She’s about as wholesome as they come: a former preschool teacher who decided to create the content she wished existed for her own son. My kids have aged out of Ms. Rachel, but her videos got our family through the toddler years. With educational content, empathy, and music I actually enjoy listening to.

I’ve written previously about the MAGA Right’s continued efforts to cancel Ms. Rachel and why I knew those efforts would fail. Despite the many attempts to paint Ms. Rachel as some sort of radical propagandist for all things woke, her stated political beliefs are actually pretty mainstream:

• There’s too much money in politics, and no one needs a billion dollars.

• Support for kindness and empathy.

• Families should have access to affordable childcare if they want it or have a parent stay home if that’s what they want.

• Everyone should be able to feed and educate their kids without stress.

Nixon was one of several candidates Ms. Rachel has given her stamp of approval to. The list includes some familiar names, including Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota, and Troy Jackson in her home state of Maine. Most of these endorsements came before the candidates’ primaries. I’m genuinely curious to see what, if anything, Ms. Rachel can do to bolster her slate of candidates in the general election. As much as the MAGA Right might hate her, based on the massive numbers she does on Netflix and YouTube, it’s pretty clear their kids are watching Ms. Rachel too.

It’s sad that it takes a beloved figure in children’s entertainment to point this out. But Ms. Rachel feels compelled to do so. And she’s made it clear on multiple occasions that she won’t stop speaking out. She’s a beacon of moral clarity.

It might seem strange for a popular entertainer to wade into politics, but when you consider Ms. Rachel’s overall advocacy, it makes sense. She’s an ambassador for Save the Children and has spoken up repeatedly about children in Gaza and Sudan. She’s called attention to the detention of innocent children detained in ICE prisons. at Ms. Rachel has also stood with the Black community, calling on her followers to listen to Black voices. She advocates for the family of Nolan Wells, saying “Black boys deserve to grow up”, and has encouraged her followers to shop at Black-owned businesses.

Caring about children and families isn’t an especially radical idea, or at least it shouldn’t be. But America is currently being run by a fascist, eugenicist death cult -- which is objectively bad for children. Donald Trump, his cabinet, and the elected officials he controls couldn’t give a shit about children and families, outside of exploiting us and our issues for their own political gain. They don’t care how many babies and children die from diseases that vaccines would have prevented or school shootings, how many women suffer needlessly because they don’t have access to reproductive care, or how many vulnerable communities they harm. That’s before you even get into children outside of America, those who suffered because USAID of Doge’d or because of the genocide in Gaza.

My guess is that the last thing Ms. Rachel wants to do is make political endorsements. Her personal political views aside, it’s clear her passion is children, and any interest in policy stems from that. However, I’m thrilled to see her using this platform in this way. Ms. Rachel is speaking truth to power, and modeling how to do that for children and their parents across the globe. She’s one of the most powerful validators of showing solidarity and living your values out there right now. I don’t care if it’s a cliché to say, America doesn’t deserve Ms. Rachel, but our children certainly do.

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ICYMI

• Natalie Harp Should Concern Everyone—I Should Know, I Once Had Her Job (The New Republic)

• The Architecture of Resistance: America’s Year of Taking On ICE (Mother Jones)

• Liquid Death and Garage Beer Take on AI Data Centers — With Pee (MarketingDive)

• How Much Do You Really Know About Black August? The Legendary Prison Protests That Launched a Legacy of Resistance (The Root)

Coda

To close us out, please enjoy my personal favorite Ms. Rachel song. My kids have aged out of her videos, but they still enjoy some of the songs (So does their Mom!). So this one remains in our family rotation.

Until next week…

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This week, on the anniversary of the Unite the Right Hate Riot in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump’s Department of Justice announced the arrest of Heidi Beirich — former head of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project. She tracked hate groups and founded the Global Project Against Hate & Extremism. Beirich is accused of defrauding SPLC’s donors to fund white supremacist groups, part of DOJ’s broader effort to destroy and discredit SPLC

If you don’t know Heidi Beirich’s name, you’re certainly familiar with her work and expertise. Beirich’s entire career has been spent investigating and exposing hate groups. Anyone who covers far-right extremism and related topics or works in anti-hate spaces owes Beirich a debt of gratitude. Much of what we know about hate in the US, and the way it’s covered and investigated, comes from Beirich’s work. Here’s what you need to know:

This indictment is designed to isolate and alienate Beirich. There’s a lot to unpack here, but this is the most important thing. The indictment contains some salacious details, which reporter Phil Williams covers in his newsletter if you want to know more. We obviously don’t know the entire story, but I don’t trust the indictment for a minute, and neither should you. The DOJ couldn’t even be bothered to get Beirich’s job title correct, falsely naming her as SPLC’s former CFO. Whether because the DOJ is being strategic, incompetent, or its usual combination of both, there’s no reason to assume that the indictment is correct or even close to the whole story until proven otherwise.

The isolation is the point. A tried and true strategy of the MAGA Right is to make their targets toxic so that allies back off and don’t stand in solidarity with MAGA’s enemy of the moment. Cutting targets off from key emotional, institutional, and financial support and making allies terrified to stand in solidarity, lest they be next. I often refer to this as the ACORN strategy. The MAGA Right keeps doing this because it works -- with help from the institutional left and reactionary centrists.

Too many groups in Civil Society, even so-called allies, are more than happy to play along. Just this week, the centrist think tank Third Way put out a job notice for a Director of Anti-Extremism. Lest you think Third Way is actually doing something useful and researching hate groups, the job is for leading opposition research against members of the Democratic Socialists of America and the candidates they’re running, which apparently Third Way considers a bigger threat than the Trump Regime. Good to know, I guess, but also a perfect illustration of just how much water some are willing to carry for the fascists and why isolation often works.

The attacks against experts in far-right extremism and disinformation is so vast it’s difficult to quantify. I’m living this, and I cover it regularly, but it’s still difficult to describe the scale of what’s happened since 2021 in the anti-hate/anti-disinformation spaces. From Jim Jordan’s witch hunt investigations, to Big Tech rolling back anti-hate and disinformation policies while laying off trust and safety teams, to the #TwitterFiles bullshit from Elon Musk, and the targeting and harassment of researchers like Nina Jankowicz, the list is endless.

As someone who does this work, I can tell you it’s taken a real toll on us all. I don’t know one researcher, journalist, or advocate whose mental health and finances haven’t taken a hit over the past few years. But that doesn’t even begin to cover the impact on American politics and discourse as the MAGA Right has discredited our work and effectively isolated us from institutions and funders. So much of the research, advocacy, and brainpower has been lost—to America’s detriment.

Meanwhile, the Trump Regime’s weaponization efforts have expanded well beyond our space. This week we learned that DHS spent months spying on civil society in Minnesota, including churches, libraries, and union halls, by sending undercover agents to infiltrate local groups. You know, the kind of activity they’re mad at SPLC (which shared intel with law enforcement regularly) over. Eventually they will come for everyone who they consider an enemy.

The Trump Regime is a white supremacist group, and they’re out for revenge. Let’s be real for a minute. Making this arrest on the anniversary of Unite the Right is a choice, intended to send a message. Heidi Beirich and her team at SPLC were instrumental in covering the hate groups that organized the terror in Charlottesville and exposing them. The MAGA Right has never forgiven SPLC for its role in exposing and bringing the organizations and people responsible to justice. This is about revenge and retribution, plain and simple. Which is true of most of what the DOJ seems to do these days: abuse its power to punish political opponents.

Or as neoreactionary blogger Curtis Yarvin put it a few months ago:

“What’s cool is that I don’t really see a strong legal case that the SPLC shouldn’t be able to run these kinds of wacky black ops. That means DOJ is prosecuting the SPLC just because it (kind of) can. If so, this would be an unusual sign of “finally getting it.””

Solidarity is the only way forward. I stand with Heidi Beirich, and I encourage everyone to do the same. She has denied any wrongdoing through her lawyers, and I see no reason to believe the DOJ’s version is true or even grounded in reality. Even if you didn’t know Beirich or her work, you owe her a debt of gratitude. As her friend and colleague Eric K. Ward put it:

“Heidi was taking on organized bigotry long before “multiracial democracy,” “white nationalism,” “political violence” and “authoritarianism” became language people tossed into grant proposals. Long before most of progressive America, the racial justice field and liberal civil society were even willing to admit just how organized the threat had become…

…Her work exposed dangerous organizations, warned communities and protected people.”

The MAGA Right’s power comes from brute force. Ours can and should come from collective force. We can only win when we stand together. When we stop saying Please don’t let me be next and say Alright, try and make us. Heidi Beirich isn’t the Trump Regime’s first target, and she won’t be the last. If you’re as sick of this as I am, the best way to put a stop to it is to fight the urge to hide and instead stand strong and speak out.

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ICYMI

• Does AI Fight or Fuel Election Disinformation? (Brennan Center for Justice)

• One Woman’s Message From the Hell of ICE Detention (The Nation)

• Separating AI’s Technological Problems From its Capitalism Problems (Tech Policy Press)

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Coda

I want to thank everyone, again, for your support and contributions, your love and solidarity, over the last week. Telling the internet you have cancer will trigger the world’s biggest vulnerability hangover, but I’m glad that I did. Y’all are the best people. Truly. My family and I appreciate you so much.

Talk to you again next week!

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Transcript

Hi, it’s Melissa. I’m not really a video person. I’m much more comfortable writing on the internet, but I wanted to say thank you to everyone. I was so overwhelmed to the response to telling the world that I have breast cancer from readers and friends and colleagues just over the course of my life.

It was really overwhelming and humbling. First, just thank you to everyone who donated or contributed. My goal for the newsletter had been to raise $15,000 by year’s end, and we are at $12,000 already, which is just incredible. For me and my family, it’s such relief.

It means that over the next few months when I’m undergoing treatment and surgery and all the emotions that come with that, I’m not going to have to worry about money. And that right now is just, it means so much. You have no idea what a burden it has taken off. It’s really hard for me to be vulnerable.

And I don’t, those of you who know me know, I don’t like asking for help. But I’m so glad I did because this was, I really appreciated it. But I would just say generally, I want to thank you all for three things. First is everyone who shared their stories with me.

I heard from so many of you who have either survived breast cancer or you’re going through breast cancer or you have a dear friend or relative who’s going through it. And all of your stories just, you know, it makes you feel less alone to know that others are going through it. And it just, it makes you hopeful.

So I really appreciate that and I will try to get back to everyone who wrote me. It’s going to take a while. I’ve learned so much about all of your health histories and I’m so honored that you felt comfortable sharing that with me. Thank you. Second is, especially to those of you who donated,

you told me not to feel obligated to keep working. And I really appreciate that. I thought that was so nice that so many of you were worried and like, oh, I love your work. I love what you do. But please don’t take this donation as that you need to push through,

like take care of yourself and come back when you’re ready. And I plan to keep writing because we have this huge election coming up. And also because frankly, writing is what keeps me sane and helps me make sense of a batshit world. But I really appreciated that so many of you We’re like,

please don’t take this as permission to take care of yourself, not as a burden to create more content. And that care and warmth really came through. And then finally, y’all told me how much that my writing and my work has meant to you over the years. So many people, whether you contributed or not,

you just told me that what I do has value and meaning. I’m so fortunate that I get to do everything that I’ve done for a living, whether it’s political activism, whether it’s consulting, whether it’s building a company, whether it’s writing. I don’t take that for granted for a second.

And I know it’s because of the support of so many of you over the years in various ways. And it’s just... It’s so incredible what writing this newsletter in particular has brought to my life from opportunities that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. I mean, we’re featured in a museum now. That is insane. That still blows my mind.

To the Obama Foundation Fellowship, to all the amazing people that I’ve gotten to meet and conferences that I’ve gotten to speak at. I am so grateful every day that I have the privilege of doing this work. The world is terrible in so many ways. But I think one of the things I learned this week is that

the world is also beautiful and wonderful and chaotic. And look, my goal remains. I want to fight mega Nazis with everything that I’ve got. And I know that y’all want to do that too. And I appreciate that you want to continue to support me in that and also that you want to make sure that I’m healthy.

Enough to do that. So again, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I’m not a video person. I’m not a vulnerability person. So this whole thing has been a trip. But I just want to send all the love that has come to me back out into the universe. Thanks.

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I have cancer. Specifically, I have breast cancer. I learned the news last week, and even though I went through multiple rounds of tests, the diagnosis came as a shock.

Get your screenings, folks. I was overdue for a colonoscopy, but since I have no family history of breast or ovarian cancer, I could have waited a few more years to schedule a mammogram. I went ahead and did it because I wanted to get both out of the way, and if I’m being honest, because there was a breast cancer plot on Beyond the Gates that emphasized the importance of screenings. Still, I was a lot more worried about something showing up on the colonoscopy.

Here’s the good news. I have what my nurse navigator described as “fairly boring cancer.” And it seems like we caught it early. The tumors are grade one, and everyone I’ve talked to on my care team and those who’ve been through this tell me that what we know so far is good. But at this point there’s a lot more we don’t know, and the rest of my month is going to be spent in appointments and tests to help my care team determine a treatment.

I’m fortunate in that I have health insurance and a rock-solid network of support. Starting with Micheál and my kids but extending out to an amazing village of family and friends here in Seattle and across the country. When I’m undergoing treatment, I won’t be alone, and I’ll have all the support I need. Something I’m extremely grateful for. The support people have shown me already is incredible, and I love knowing that a village has my back.

But the reality is things aren’t great right now. Without going into details, my family has been through a lot over the past few years with some serious financial and emotional setbacks. Realistically, I don’t know how much I’m going to be able to work as I undergo treatment. And that’s before even thinking about how much insurance will or won’t pay for my treatment.

Writing this newsletter is the work that most fills my cup, and it brings in some income, but it doesn’t pay most of the bills. And since losing my publisher, it provides even less income than it has in the past. Ideally I’d like to bring in more from writing, which is more flexible than consulting, and I think flexibility is going to become supremely important for me and my family in the coming months.

So I’m asking you to consider supporting the newsletter financially. Normally I’d be talking up my plans: migrating off of Substack, adding more video content, and producing two newsletters a week from Labor Day through Election Day. I think my work has value and I much prefer asking people to support that value. But the truth is right now I could really use the help. If you’re in a position to donate, now is a good time to do it.

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Thank you for all your support over the years. I’m an open book, and if you’ve been reading me for a while, you already know a lot about my medical history. That won’t change. I’ll keep you updated on my progress.

In the meantime, we’ll continue to fight the MAGA Right together, week after week. Because I refuse to let these assholes win. Solidarity.

Two details from this week’s news cycle that broke me. Both from Ohio:

• ICE forcing Haitian immigrants to wear ankle monitors.

• Rep. Max Miller refusing to return his child’s bunny, a comfort stuffy.

These two news stories perfectly illustrate the cruelty of MAGA in both the micro and macro sense. Cruelty to an entire community, many of whom came to the US as refugees, and cruelty to your toddler daughter as a way of punishing your ex-wife. I can’t help but think of the same picture meme from The Office. The heinous acts might be different, but the villain is the same.

Let’s start with the ankle monitors, or “a new humiliation” as immigration advocates are calling it. ICE is demanding this of Haitians who came to America legally, under a TPS status that the Trump Regime has now taken away from them. Thanks to JD Vance amplifying disinformation about his then-constituents, you’re probably most familiar with the Haitian community in Springfield, OH. Springfield and surrounding communities are currently preparing for an escalation in ICE abductions and raids.

We’re only as safe as our most vulnerable, and as we’ve seen in Minnesota, LA, Chicago, DC, and smaller communities that haven’t had the national news when ICE targets and terrorizes immigrant communities, it impacts the entire community. No one is safe from ICE violence, and even when ICE kills innocent people, there’s no recourse or accountability. Even if you think you’re safe and protected, you’re potentially impacted when ICE is active in your community.

Still, I suspect many of my readers can more closely relate to Rep. Miller’s ex-wife and toddler, and the alleged violence they endured. The details are horrific, and I won’t present them as trauma porn by listing them here. But anyone who has ever been adjacent to domestic violence will recognize Miller’s behavior. It’s by-the-book abuser shit. Miller’s behavior will also be familiar to any woman who’s divorced or broken up with an abusive partner. Or any child of divorce where the father was an abuser.

But let’s hone in on the bunny. As a parent, a constant source of anxiety is that you’ll somehow lose your kid’s comfort stuffy. It’s why one of my sons has 5 identical stuffies of his beloved fox, Red. Toddlers especially can rely heavily on their comfort stuffy to reduce anxiety and feel safe. Miller refused to give his daughter’s stuffy back as a way of punishing his ex-wife. There’s a well-documented history of him doing it repeatedly. Further traumatizing an already traumatized child because he can. The micro version of The Cruelty is the Point.

Miller’s ex-wife is the daughter of Ohio MAGA Senator Bernie Moreno, who has called on his ex-son-in-law to resign. MAGA has, for the most part, stood by Miller, though that could change if polls show his reelection effort might be in danger. If Moreno was hoping that the Trump Regime and MAGA would rally behind him and his family, he was sorely mistaken. He belongs to a movement that believes they have the right to terrorize anyone for any reason without consequence, including his daughter and granddaughter.

Senator Moreno is as pro-ICE as they come, even as the Trump Regime deploys ICE repeatedly to terrorize his constituents and the communities he was elected to represent. He’s continually empowered and enabled an America that allows and celebrates acts of violence and terror on a massive scale and in his daughter’s own home. Moreno helped put abusers in power and celebrated their rise. Somehow I doubt he has enough self-awareness to realize this, but I’d love to be wrong.

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Thank you to everyone who has stepped up to subscribe, donate, or join my Patreon. I’m especially proud of this week’s piece, and whenever I write something that feels especially important, I’m always grateful to the readers who support my work financially because you help me keep CARD free for everyone to read.

I’ve been working behind the scenes to make some big changes. Including a move off of Substack and a plan to do more video livestreams. I plan to be up and running by Labor Day so that we can cover the sprint to the midterm elections with the analysis and attention to detail you rely on.

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ICYMI

• Inside a Mass Shooter’s Harrowing History With ChatGPT (Mother Jones)

• New Poll Finds Black Women Have Lost Faith in Washington But Not in Their Vote (TheRoot)

• How Ariana Grande’s Body Became Political (Salon)

Coda

That’s all for this week, folks. I’ll be back next Sunday before taking the last couple of weeks of August off. Leaving you with Josh Johnson’s set on Andrew Tate in jail that had me rolling this week. Enjoy.

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Anthony Fauci took the 5th because America is dysfunctional and broken.

Fauci is a career-long public servant who has testified before Congress hundreds of times over his decades of service. But American politics and culture are now driven by rage-bait, and Fauci’s continued existence always enrages the MAGA Right base. Senator Rand Paul has found viral (and, I assume, online fundraising) success by harassing Anthony Fauci. Rand Paul has continually said he wants to see Fauci imprisoned, and since the Trump Regime’s DOJ has been weaponized to target political opponents, of course, Fauci would take the 5th. Who wouldn’t?

It’s the same reason outgoing president Joe Biden gave Fauci, along with members of his family and January 6 investigators, preemptive pardons before leaving office. In a functioning America, this would be unthinkable. But there we were, and here we are.

If you want a sense of how normalized this has become, and how desensitized we are, this passage from the AP story about the hearing says it all:

“In response to angry, sometimes mocking questions from Republican senators, Fauci declined to answer more than 100 times, injecting new drama into partisan divides that have festered for years about the origins and handling of the pandemic. Fauci himself has become a polarizing figure, even receiving death threats that prompted him to seek security.”

I’m not sure which phrase annoys me more: “partisan divide” or “polarizing figure.” Or maybe it’s the casual mention of the death threats that Fauci has received. The AP shouldn’t be covering the continued harassment of an octogenarian public servant this way. This isn’t a partisan fight, but unhinged conspiracy-mongers attacking the truth and inciting violence for virality and engagement.

So I was pleasantly surprised when a couple of readers sent me this video of TMZ founder Harvey Levin expressing his disgust over the hearing.

Levin’s outrage is interesting for a couple of reasons. For one thing, he was a Trump ally for some time, even recently calling out so-called elitists who didn’t think the White House should stage a UFC event on its lawn. I don’t think he’d describe himself as a Trump supporter currently, but Levin is certainly more open to MAGA than most of us.

Levin also understands the power of virality more than most. TMZ was a pioneer in taking tabloid journalism online and using video footage to drive engagement and create viral moments. Levin makes it clear that while he thinks it’s fair to be critical of Fauci’s actions during the pandemic, it’s completely out of line to set Fauci up in a public setting, calling him to testify to charge him with perjury.

Earlier this year, TMZ launched a DC bureau, which struck me as a smart move. I hate that politics and celebrity culture have collided, but there’s no denying that it’s happened. We live in a country where People Magazine covers politics and how it impacts readers better than most political news coverage. TMZ DC could play a similar role, especially in covering what drives power, and how elites in government and media interact in our nation’s Capitol.

Public servants like Anthony Fauci are being driven out of government, replaced by Trump cronies and conspiracy-mongering MAHA enthusiasts. HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr’s priority seems to be aiming for his own virality. This week, as Americans are still worried about whether you can eat lettuce without suffering explosive diarrhea, RFK Jr. launched an online cooking show. Admittedly, this is maybe the least offensive thing the man has done since taking office, but it’s still a clear example of his priorities.

Republicans are expected to lose the House, and the Senate is in play this November. The good news is that a Democratic majority can mostly stop this insanity and turn the spotlight back on the people destroying America in order to enrich themselves. Personally, I can’t think of a better reason to vote this year than stripping Rand Paul and his colleagues of their subpoena power.

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ICYMI

• A 23-Year-Old ‘ICE Chaser’ Is Notorious Among Federal Agents. He Has No Plans To Stop. (HuffPost)

• Pro-Data Center Industry Group Behind Ad Campaign in Oregon, Six Other States (News from the States)

• DHS Official Resigns, Citing ‘War on Immigrants’ (WIRED)

• Bluesky Says Kremlin Is Hacking Its Platform to Spread Propaganda (New York Times, gift link)

We need $15K to keep CARD going through the end of the year. We’re at $3,570. Can I count on you to make a contribution right now?

Coda

I really enjoyed talking to Ben Wikler about his new book, This is the Plan, on a livestream earlier this week. Be sure to catch our conversation if you haven’t watched yet.

That’s all for now. Talk to you again next Sunday!

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I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Ben Wikler. Learn more about Ben and his new book This is the Plan here. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to fight the Trump Regime, starting in their own backyard. And to everyone already doing that who just needs some hope and inspiration.

I’m determined to keep every aspect of this newsletter, from interviews like this to every article I write, free for anyone who needs the information and analysis. To do that, I need to raise an additional $11,430 between now and the end of the year. You can help me keep CARD free for everyone by making a contribution today.

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