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Please Stop What You’re Doing

by Josh Marshall

12:00 p.m.12:00 p.m.

by Josh Marshall

Sorry for the brusque headline. But we really need your help here. We’re at the hardest part of our Annual TPM Journalism Fund Drive. I’ve spoken to a lot of you who tell me you’re going to contribute but haven’t found the right moment. Please make right now or whenever you see this post the moment. We need to keep building the total to get to our goal in the time we have. Simple as that. Believe me, I’d much rather be writing news and commentary posts. But this Drive is what makes it all possible. It would be HUGE if we can get to $350,000 today.

Especially if you’re a member, we’ve made contributing super, super easy. Just take a moment right now from your routine. Click here and just get this out of the way today. We appreciate it so much, and it’s so needed. If you make a contribution now it helps us get back to full time posting more quickly. Thank you from all of us.

Update: $8,157 to go! Making progress!

Update II: A very larger contribution has put $360,000 in range for today. This is very exciting. A huge thank you to this large contributor and thank you to everyone. Math is math. The big contributions are a big part of the equation. But the much larger number of smaller ones are even more important. So thank you to everyone. Every contribution is a critical part of what makes this possible. We’re now $2,974 from hitting $360,000 today. We can do this!

Update III: Wow! Now over $360,000. THANK YOU! Let’s keep this going. Can we get to $370,000 tonight?

The West Bank Electoral Strategy

by Josh Marshall

11:51 a.m.11:51 a.m.

by Josh Marshall

This short passage in an article (paywalled) in Haaretz focuses on a point that hasn’t been sufficiently visible in the US press. There’s been a decent amount of U.S. coverage of the increasingly violent and predatory escalation in the West Bank, in which the government has both encouraged and allowed the most violent members of the settler community to accelerate their campaign of harassment, violence and expulsions of Palestinian families and communities. But this isn’t just a broader expression of Greater Israel maximalism, though it’s also very much that. There’s a nearer term goal. It’s also an electoral strategy, one aimed at hyper-mobilizing the settler parties in Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition and also creating a security crisis he hopes he will benefit from.

The Paramount Merger and the Power of the States

by Josh Marshall

11:15 a.m.11:15 a.m.

by Josh Marshall

Yesterday I was reading this piece from Status about the agreement between Paramount and the states suing the company on anti-trust grounds to halt the Time Warner merger for up to a year. (The piece is paywalled. But I think you can read it without a subscription by giving them your email.) Reporter Natalie Korach spoke to a handful of antitrust experts to evaluate what this agreed upon delay means, who it’s good or bad for and what it means for the future of the merger deal itself.

Thoughts On Immigration Rhetoric and the Gnashing of Teeth

by Josh Marshall

10:24 a.m.10:24 a.m.

by Josh Marshall

Perhaps I’m flattering myself or my country. But the language and mindset of great replacement and of race armies overrunning a primarily white, Christian country seems much more widespread, entrenched and pervasive across a wider swath of the political spectrum in the United Kingdom than it is here in the United States. I don’t really have an argument here or a even a question here. And this may seem like quite a lot to say given that the federal government here in the U.S. fairly openly propagandizes with white nationalist imagery and is more than a year into a campaign of mass deportation. But it is still my perception based on reading the language of statements from people across the political spectrum in the UK, the reaction to pogrom-like incidents in the UK and so forth.

Important Drive Update!

by Josh Marshall

07.24.2607.24.26

by Josh Marshall

We need to get to $325,000 today to stay on track for our goal in this year’s Annual TPM Journalism Fund Drive. Can you help us get there? We don’t need that many contributors this afternoon to get us to this benchmark. Can you help us? A contribution in any amount is a big, big help. Just click here and be part of the drive, part of TPM’s resilience, growth and vitality. Click right here. And then if you have an extra moment, drop me a line and let me know why you did. I’ll keep our club updated.

Update: Now just $1,868 to go to get to today’s benchmark!

Update II: Boom! We made it to and past $325,000. Thank you! Can we get to $330,000 tonight? Now just $3,461 to go. I think we can do this. Let’s do this !!!!!

Update III: Triple boom, people! Just $794 to go to get to $330,000! This is great weekend progress and sets us up well for next week. We can totally hit this number by this evening. LFG!!!!!

Update IV: Boom! $330,001. Not kidding about that total. Awesome! Thanks, everyone!

New WSJ Article Paints Trump in ‘Downfall Video’ Type Scenes in the Oval

by Josh Marshall

07.24.2607.24.26

New WSJ Article Paints Trump in ‘Downfall Video’ Type Scenes in the Oval

by Josh Marshall · The Backchannel

The Journal has an article today about the increasing unreality of the strategy, if one can call it that, the U.S. is using to approach Trump’s war with Iran. The headline tells the story: Trump is Losing Patience Over an Iran War with No Clear End in Sight. The article appears to be based on accounts from various advisors who’ve been present at planning meetings with Trump. It’s filled with quotes about how he’s out of patience, mad, fed up, has lost confidence in diplomacy, etc. One advisors says he’s moved into “revenge mode.” He’s telling advisors he thinks he can “break the Iranians’ will through an aggressive bombing campaign.”

A constant through-line in the article (and based on this account of Trump’s private White House rants) is that the Iranians can’t be trusted and that Trump keeps making deals with them that they simply break. I certainly don’t see the Iranian government as very trustworthy either. But this whole set of claims is a fantasy. Trump has never had any agreements or deals with the Iranians. What he’s had is a series of notional ceasefires in which nothing of substance or consequence is actually agreed to — you might sum them up with the famous Bill & Ted’s maxim to “be excellent to each other.” The point of these deals has been to calm international oil markets and give Trump space to moonwalk away from his totally self-inflicted debacle. But since these ceasefires are only “deals” to begin negotiations the actual war aims and demands of each side eventually seep through. Then they go back to fighting. Each deal really amounts to a temporary or contingent U.S. surrender. Trump needs them to calm oil markets and lower the U.S. price of gas. Iran wants it to consolidate its gains and get a break for aerial bombardment.

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