The Damage Done

French édition

How is this even a choice?

Vladimir Putin launched an illegal invasion of a sovereign nation. He is responsible for every single death and every single war crime being committed by Russian troops. Donald Trump supports Putin, has called his decision to invade Ukraine “savvy,” and we know from John Bolton that if Donald had been—or is—allowed a second term, he would likely have—or will—withdraw the United States from NATO. This, essentially, would leave the field wide open for more Russian aggression and endanger the Western alliance and democracy.

In a 2017 interview, Marie Le Pen, a French fascist, defended Putin’s annexation of Crimea and said, “The policies I represent are those of Trump and Putin!”

That same year, Emmanuel Macron faced LePen in a run-off for the French presidency. He pummeled her, winning by 30 percentage points. Macron is seeking re-election and LePen is challenging him again. Today, the results of the first-round of voting are in. Macron finished with 28% of the vote, Le Pen got 23%, and far-left candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, received 20%. Current polls show that in the final round of voting between him and LePen, Macron would win by four to six points—if he wins at all.

Turnout was down 4%.

APRIL 4, 2022-APRIL 10, 2022

You can find the “Glossary of Fascists” here and the “Glossary of Pseudo-Intellectual Hacks” here. No updates this week.

N.B. The numbers in parentheses indicate the position on last week’s list.

FACEBOOK

THE RIGHT AND THE ENABLERS

The majority of Facebook daily top ten spots continue to be held by. An uptick in right-wing posts this week but, again, the dominant names are not quite as dominant as they have been. For the second week in a row, a lot of the entries were mainstream news outlets (like CNN and NPR) and general entertainment sites like Variety and Sports Illustrated.

Here are the relevant 70 daily top ten posts for the week:

Ben Shapiro (03) is back at the top of the list with 09 spots followed by Dan Bongino (01) and Breitbart with 05 and Franklin Graham (05) with 02. Fox (04), The Federalist Papers, Donald Trump for President, The Wall Street Journal, and Steven Crowder each had one—for a total of 26 out of 70. Last week it was 24 out of 70.

THE LEFT

Occupy Democrats held 6 spots, down from 12, and Elizabeth Warren held 01 for a demoralizing total of 07 out of 70. Last week it was 13 out of 70.

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NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLERS LIST HARDCOVER NON-FICTION

4. The 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones (2)

5. One Damn Thing After Another, Bill Barr (1)

8.  Lessons from the Edge, Marie Yovanovich (3)

15. The Great Reset, Glenn Beck (13) †

† Indicates bulk sales.

AMAZON BESTSELLERS HARDCOVER NON-FICTION

All I can say is at least Bill Barr’s book is out of the top twenty. 

12. 12 Rules for Life, Jordan Peterson (13)

18. The Real Anthony Fauci, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. [I swear, it’s like a zombie.]

20. The Great Reset, Glenn Beck (05)

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APPLE PODCASTS—NEWS

THE RIGHT AND THE ENABLERS

2. The Ben Shapiro Show (2)

5. The Dan Bongino Show (6)

6. Steve Bannon’s War Room (8)

7. The Glenn Beck Program (10)

8. Matt Walsh (9)

10. Morning Wire (13)

11. Real Time with Bill Maher (5)

13. Charlie Kirk (14)

14. The Megyn Kelly Show (15)

16. The Michael Knowles Show (17)

18. Andrew Klavin*

* produced by “The Daily Wire,” Ben Shapiro’s media company.

THE LEFT

9. Pod Save America (7)

17. Lovett or Leave It (19)

20. The Rachel Maddow Show (18)

Let’s get The Daily Beans back into the top 20.

Keep listening to:

Here are some other excellent podcasts you should check out:

Give them five-star reviews—it really helps other people find them.

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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 remains at number 1.

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Here, again, are the Glossary of Fascists and the Glossary of Pseudo-Intellectual Hacks. No updates this week. If you have any suggestions you can leave them in the comments. Please note that these lists focus on figures in the media.