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#mccarthy

1 post1 participant0 posts today
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MikeDunnAuthor

Today in Labor History May 3, 1919: Pete Seeger was born, Patterson, New York. He started his folk singing career in the 1940s, with the Almanac singers. This group included Woodie Guthrie, Cisco Houston and Bess Lomax Hawes. They sang about industrial unionism and racial inclusiveness. In the 1950s, they reconstituted as the Weavers. However, they were blacklisted by the McCarthyites. As a result, radio stations stopped playing their records and their bookings were cancelled. Seeger was a member of the Communist Party USA, but left it in 1949. He was also an early backer of Bob Dylan until he went electric and Seeger threatened to unplug him at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. youtu.be/0fhL1E2cvvI

youtu.be- YouTubeEnjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
#workingclass#LaborHisotry#peteseeger
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DoomsdaysCW

#Trump demands unprecedented control at #ColumbiaUniversity, alarming scholars and speech groups

By COLLIN BINKLEY and JAKE OFFENHARTZ
Updated 7:52 PM EDT, March 14, 2025

NEW YORK (AP) — "The Trump administration brushed aside decades of precedent when it ordered Columbia University to oust the leadership of an academic department, a demand seen as a direct attack on academic freedom and a warning of what’s to come for other colleges facing federal scrutiny.

"Federal officials told the university it must immediately place its #MiddleEasternStudies, #SouthAsianStudies, and #AfricanStudies Department under 'academic receivership for a minimum of five years.' The demand was among several described as conditions for receiving federal funding, including $400 million already pulled over allegations of #antisemitism.

"Across #academia, it was seen as a stunning intrusion.

"'It’s an escalation of a kind that is unheard of,' said Joan Scott, a historian and member of the academic freedom committee of the American Association of University Professors [#AAUP]. 'Even during the #McCarthy period in the United States, this was not done.'"

apnews.com/article/columbia-un
#CharacteristicsOfFascism #USPol #Censorship #DumbingUsDown #Authoritarianism #SilencingDissent #AcademicFreedom #Fascism

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aproitz

@georgetakei

The #McCarthy - #Era will be a "Walk in the Park" against these #brainwashed #Trump-#Zombies, cleaning the #Authorities from #Adversaries. This weakens by the Way the Security in every thinkable Form and strengthens the Will for #Whistleblowers
and #Sabotage from within. You can't find so many Trump loyal People, to control such big #Entities like #FBI, #NSA and #CIA. They rip them apart, but this will cause a lot of #Trouble. Does anyone respect #PamBondi ? It's a #Joke.

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Impish4249

@madeindex @sensiblequiet

If only it were so simple.

In any country, especially those with #authoritarian leaders, having your personal thoughts & beliefs, perhaps sympathy #Palestinian children caught up in a war they were simply born into, might damage ones ability to even work or move around freely. I don't believe that is the case in the #USA today but it was in the 1950's during the #McCarthy era. McCarthy mentored #RoyCohn, Cohn mentored #Trump. People should be concerned everywhere.

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Impish4249

@GottaLaff @dougiec3

Agreed but we still cannot go quietly into the night.

#McCarthy was almost never successfully opposed until the "...have you no decency?!?!" retort. The records of all of the hearing now serve as educational cautionary tales for those who take the time to study and the documented #resistance is part of that #history .

Why bring up McCarthy? He mentored #RoyCohn who mentored #Trump.

Nothing new under the sun.
- Solomon

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MikeDunnAuthor

Today in Labor History November 15, 1919: The main headquarters of the New York City Wobblies (IWW) was ransacked and destroyed by agents acting under the US Attorney General Palmer. The Palmer raids were part of the first U.S. communist witch hunt, starting well before the more well-known McCarthy purges. It was also where J. Edgar Hoover cut his baby teeth. Between 1917 and 1919, the IWW membership had plummeted from 300,000 in the U.S. to around 30,000, due in large part to the mass arrests, murders and deportations of IWW members, anarchists, and other radicals during the Palmer raids.

We could soon see a resurgence of this by the state, or by MAGA vigilantes, with a Trump presidency. However, their targets could be mainstream organizations like Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, LGBTQ organizations, immigrants’ rights organizations, and even Democratic Party offices, all of whom have been vilified by the right as “communists.” Not to mention concentration camps to house immigrants pending deportation, and raids of workplaces and schools to round up immigrant workers and children. What are you doing to prepare?

Men arrested in raids awaiting deportation hearings on Ellis Island, January 13, 1920. By Unknown author - Corbis Images for Education database, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3281826
#workingclass#LaborHistory#IWW
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Chuck Darwin

Former speaker McCarthy has spent much of his time, energy and money since leaving Congress in a bid to defeat the Republicans who cost him his gavel — and his political career

During the awkward interludeafter he was ousted from the speakership but before he resigned from Congress, #Kevin #McCarthy found himself standing on the House floor one afternoon next to Representative #Bob #Good of Virginia, ◻️one of the eight Republicans who had voted to remove him from power.◻️

🔶“I just traveled to your district,” Mr. McCarthy, still raw over his political downfall, said in what was interpreted as a vaguely threatening tone. “It’s a really nice district.”

🔷“Why don’t you come down and spend money there?” Mr. Good, the chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, taunted Mr. McCarthy in response.

🔶“Oh, I’m going to,” Mr. McCarthy shot back. “I might spend $5 million there, too.”
In this instance, Mr. McCarthy was as good as his word.

🔴In the months that followed, he helped direct more than $6 million into the race to defeat Mr. Good,
who is now fighting to hang on to his seat after coming up 375 votes short in his recent primary against a Trump-backed challenger, John J. #McGuire.
(Mr. Good’s campaign is paying for a recount, and he is claiming there was “inappropriate activity” at ballot drop boxes in Lynchburg, the district’s biggest city.)

Mr. McCarthy’s campaign to bring down Mr. Good was just one part of an ⭐️elaborate and expensive campaign of revenge ⭐️he has mounted since leaving Congress, one designed to ruin the Republicans he holds responsible for his demise.

“Bob Good was defeated, but the loser just can’t accept it yet,” said Brian O. #Walsh, a top McCarthy ally who is coordinating the former speaker’s efforts to unseat the so-called “Crazy Eight” Republicans who crossed him.

Mr. McCarthy spent more than $4 million in an unsuccessful bid to defeat Representative Nancy #Mace of South Carolina in her primary last month, and his allies are now promoting ethics allegations against her in hopes of making her unelectable in the future.

He and his allies are backing a challenger to Representative Eli #Crane of Arizona, the sole first-term Republican who voted to remove Mr. McCarthy, who faces a primary in August.

And Mr. McCarthy is going after Representative Matt #Gaetz of Florida, his chief tormentor and the ringleader of the push to depose him, pushing accusations that Mr. Gaetz had sex with an underage girl.

Representative Matt #Rosendale of Montana, another of the Republicans who voted to oust the former speaker, abruptly dropped his re-election bid in March after rampant rumors circulated that he had an affair with a staff member.

Mr. Walsh declined to comment on whether Mr. McCarthy and those in his orbit had anything to do with that decision. But Mr. Rosendale’s decision saved them millions of dollars.

nytimes.com/2024/07/07/us/poli

The New York Times · McCarthy’s Revenge Tour Rolls On, With Mixed ResultsBy Annie Karni
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Chuck Darwin

In addition to running Sinclair,
David Smith has used his vast wealth to support a variety of far-right causes.

The Baltimore Banner reports that
👉 since 2015, Smith, through his family foundation,
has donated large sums to "Young Americans for Liberty" ($581,000),
"Project Veritas" ($536,000),
"Turning Point USA"
($150,000), and "Moms for Liberty" ($121,000).

Meanwhile, News Corp’s cable news properties, Fox News and Fox Business, also helped launder the Wall Street Journal’s attacks on Biden into the news cycle.

According to transcript searches, the WSJ piece’s core claim
that Biden is “slipping”
was brought up at least 64 times on air on Fox News and Fox Business from when the article was published until yesterday afternoon.

Online, the WSJ piece has been the focus of at least 15 articles on Fox News’ website,
with many of them treating its dubious claims about Biden’s decline as a demonstrated fact.

#Boris#Epshteyn#Sinclair
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Chuck Darwin

A 2018 study published in the American Political Science Review
found that
👉stations purchased by Sinclair
increase "coverage of national politics at the expense of local politics"
👉 and undergo "a significant rightward shift in the ideological slant of coverage."

🌟Delivering right-wing attacks on Biden's mental fitness under the guise of "local news" is an extremely powerful tactic. 🌟

While many Americans are distrustful of the national media,
71% believe that local news is accurate,
including 78% of Democrats and 66% of Republicans.

This is not the first time Sinclair has exploited Americans' trust in local news to boost Republicans politically.

In 2016, the Trump campaign provided Sinclair stations with extensive access to Trump in exchange for friendly coverage that did not include fact-checking.

🔥"We are here to deliver your message," Smith told Trump 🔥in a 2016 meeting.

In 2017, Sinclair hired #Boris #Epshteyn, who previously served as a Trump advisor and surrogate, as its Chief Political Analyst.

👉Sinclair stations were 💥required 💥to run Epshteyn's political commentary.

"The American people demand change, and they demand action, and that’s exactly what they’ll get from this administration going forward," Epshteyn declared in one piece.

In 2018, 🔥anchors at Sinclair affiliates were forced to read a script warning viewers about "fake stories" being published by other media outlets "to push their own personal bias and agenda." 🔥

The argument mirrored then-president Donald Trump's criticism of the media.

#Sinclair#David#Smith
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Chuck Darwin

The Wall Street Journal piece was panned by independent media critics.

CNN's Oliver Darcy said the Wall Street Journal piece had "glaring problems."

In Poynter, Tom Jones wrote that it was not a "fairly reported story" because it relied exclusively on "quotes and opinions from those who don’t want to see Biden elected to a second term."

Nevertheless, ⭐️the Wall Street Journal piece was repackaged by Sinclair Broadcast Group and beamed into the homes of millions of Americans. ⭐️

#Sinclair, which is controlled by right-wing media mogul #David #Smith, owns or operates 185 local television stations across 86 markets.

Sinclair repackaged the Wall Street Journal story through its centralized news team, known as The National Desk.

The segment was then pushed to dozens of local news stations owned by Sinclair.

Local anchors introduced the piece by reading from a nearly identical script.

Again and again, the anchors say that the Wall Street Journal is "out with new reporting calling into question the mental fitness of President Joe Biden," adding that the issue "could be an election decider."

#Rupert#Murdoch#Lachlan
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Chuck Darwin

Two outlets controlled by right-wing media tycoons are working in tandem
to aggressively push specious claims about President Joe Biden's fitness for office. 

On June 4, the Wall Street Journal published a 3,000-word article questioning Biden's mental acuity.

The Wall Street Journal is owned by News Corp, the media conglomerate founded by right-wing billionaire #Rupert #Murdoch.
. (News Corp is now chaired by Rupert Murdoch's son, #Lachlan.)

The Wall Street Journal article,
headlined “Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Sipping,” boasts that it is based on "interviews with more than 45 people over several months."

👉But only one person is quoted on the record supporting the thesis of the piece: Former House Speaker #Kevin #McCarthy (R-CA).
“I used to meet with him when he was vice president. I’d go to his house,” McCarthy told the Wall Street Journal. “He’s not the same person.” 

🔥Relying on McCarthy as the lynchpin of the article is problematic. First, McCarthy is not a neutral observer. He is a partisan Republican interested in inflicting political damage on Biden.

Further, what McCarthy told the Wall Street Journal about Biden is directly contradicted by comments that McCarthy said previously
— both publicly and privately.

In the article, McCarthy criticizes Biden's performance in debt ceiling negotiations in 2023. But in March 2023, while these negotiations were underway, the New York Times reported that
"McCarthy has told allies that he has found Mr. Biden to be mentally sharp in meetings."

McCarthy made similar comments about Biden in public, praising Biden as "[v]ery professional, very smart" and "[v]ery tough at the same time."

In October, when McCarthy was ousted as House Speaker, Politico reported that McCarthy "mocked Biden’s age and mental acuity in public, while privately telling allies that he found the president sharp and substantive in their conversations."

publicnotice.co/p/sinclair-bid

Public Notice · Sinclair injects deceptive attacks on Biden's age into dozens of local broadcastsBy Aaron Rupar
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