Clearly Stated Truths
Biden is right
In a speech given during his visit to Poland, President Biden said:
Over the last 30 years, the forces of autocracy have revived all across the globe. Its hallmarks are familiar ones -- contempt for the rule of law, contempt for democratic freedom, contempt for the truth itself. . . .
[M]ost urgently, we maintain absolute unity, we must, among the world's democracies. It's not enough to speak with rhetorical flourish of ennobling words of democracy, of freedom, of quality, and liberty. All of us, including here in Poland, must do the hard work of democracy each and every day -- my country as well. That's why I came to Europe again this week with a clear and determined message for NATO, for the G7, for the European Union, for all freedom-loving nations -- we must commit now to be in this fight for the long haul. We must remain unified today and tomorrow and the day after. And for the years and decades to come. It will not be easy. There will be costs. But it is a price we have to pay because the darkness that drives autocracy is ultimately no match for the flame of liberty that lights the souls of free people everywhere. . . .
A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never erase a people's love for liberty. Brutality will never grind down their will to be free. Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, for free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness. We will have a different future, a brighter future, rooted in democracy and principle, hope and light. Of decency and dignity and freedom and possibilities.
The speech has been generally praised. Jennifer Rubin called it “eloquent and stirring,” an “ode to democracy and to NATO solidarity.”
(She also wrote that Biden needs to give a similar speech here in America that addresses our own problems with autocracy, a sentiment with which I agree.)
The last line of the speech, however, is what most of the mainstream media latched onto: “For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power.” The blowback against those nine words was swift and accomplished two things: one, it overshadowed the importance of the speech as a whole and two, it ignored the truth of the statement itself.
David Rothkopf, of Deep State Radio, described the hysterical reaction this way:
One of the reasons Putin has been able to commit these latest atrocities against Ukraine is because he hasn’t been sufficiently punished for atrocities he’s committed in the past. He can’t be allowed to remain in power. There is no question about this. It’s a shame the White House walked back Biden’s statement. I hope he stands by it.
N.B. The numbers in parentheses indicate the position on last week’s list.
You can find the updated “Glossary of Fascists” here and the “Glossary of Pseudo-Intellectual Hacks” here.
The algorithms were all over the place this week and entries on the lists included a lot of mainstream publications (like Rolling Stone), broadcast news channels, and general entertainment sights (like Variety).
Here are the relevant 70 daily top ten posts for the week:
Ben Shapiro held 08 (11). Breitbart held 04 (03) followed by Sean Hannity (01) and Fox (03) with 02. Dan Bongino (07), Steven Crowder, Sarah Palin, The Federalist Papers, The Washington Times*, and The Babylon Bee* each had one—for a total of 22 out of 70. Last week it was 29 out of 70.
Occupy Democrats held 11 spots, down from 09. This week, Occupy was the only representative of the left which therefore held a total of 11 out of 70. Last week it was 09 out of 70.
*Indicates first appearance on the list
NYT BESTSELLERS HARDCOVER NON-FICTION
1. One Damn Thing After Another, Bill Barr (1) [Thanks, Merrick Garland]
2. Lessons from the Edge, Marie Yovanovich
3. The 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones (3)
10. Allow Me to Retort, Elie Mystal (2)
15. The Great Reset, Glenn Beck
AMAZON BESTSELLERS HARDCOVER NON-FICTION
Ooh, a bad week on Amazon. Glenn Beck is back to the top 3, Bill Barr is still selling books instead of sitting in prison, and there’s an entry by a NY Post columnist and Fox contributor that wasn’t even on my radar.
3. The Great Reset, Glenn Beck
8. One Damn Thing After Another, Bill Barr
11. 12 Rules for Life, Jordan Peterson (10)
12. Laptop from Hell: Hunter Biden, Big Tech, and the Dirty Secrets the President Tried to Hide, Miranda Devine (If you value your sanity do not read the Amazon reviews.)
Luckily, this made its debut on Amazon as well:
16. Lessons from the Edge, Marie Yovanovitch
How about we buy every single book the execrable Ted Cruz held up during the judiciary hearings? These guys on the right really know how to sell our books.
Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic
Anti-Racist Baby, Ibram X. Kendi [It’s already on backorder but buy a copy anyway—thanks Rafael!]
How to Be an Anti-Racist, Ibram X. Kendi
The End of Policing, Alex S. Vitale's
APPLE PODCASTS—NEWS
THE RIGHT AND THE ENABLERS
3. The Ben Shapiro Show (3)
5. Real Time with Bill Maher (12)
7. The Dan Bongino Show (5)
8. Charlie Kirk (6)
10. The Glenn Beck Program (7)
13. Steve Bannon’s War Room (9)
14. Matt Walsh (13)
15. Megyn Kelly Show
19. Candace, Candace Owens
20. The Michael Knowles Show
THE LEFT
12. Pod Save America (11)
18. The Daily Beans [Congratulations to Allison Gill for her debut on our list!]
SUBSTACK POLITICS NEWSLETTERS
The Substack top-ten is more ideologically diverse across the right-wing spectrum but it still contains a disturbing number of serially wrong anti-democratic writers who have way too many followers than is healthy for our nation. Every single newsletter in the top ten has tens of thousands of subscribers.
This list is very stable and won’t change much from week to week.
2. The Dispatch, Jonah Goldberg, editor-in-chief
3. TK News by Matt Taibbi
5. Glenn Greenwald
6. Unreported Truths by Alex Berenson
7. Common Sense by Bari Weiss, (aka the “Substack grifter,” in the words of Press Run’s Eric Boehlert)
8. Take Control: Dr. Mercola’s Censored Library, Joseph Mercola
9. The Weekly Dish by Andrew Sullivan
Letters from an American by Heather Cox Richardson is still representing at number 1.
Other newsletters to check out:
Here, again, are the Glossary of Fascists and Glossary of Pseudo-Intellectual Hacks. I’m constantly updating this so if you have any suggestions you can leave them in the comments. Please note that these lists focus on figures in the media.
I agree with President Biden. I watched several Sunday shows today. Seems like they didn’t even comment on how great the President’s speech was. They only talked about the one sentence. Good grief media- You are helping the crazy right wing media.
I agree with President Biden that Putin cannot stay in power. I wish the White House stood by his comments instead of retracting them.