We had a solid first week of this year’s Annual TPM Journalism Fund Drive. But we have a long way to go to get to our goal of raising $500,000 and, if possible, a bit more. If you haven’t taken a moment yet to contribute, please take just 90 seconds or so out of your Monday midday routine and join us now. (If you have, thank you so much).

Just click here. I know from experience that a big bar to contributing is just the few minutes of hassle of dealing with the mechanics of it. But we’ve made it super easy. Members don’t even have to take out their credit cards. Just click, choose a contribution amount, hit send and you’re done. This is a critical part of what keeps TPM alive and vital. We will put every dollar to good use.

We’ve discussed a number of times that the high-profile/high-violence occupations of blue cities in 2025 and early 2026 were never designed to maximize deportations. They were meant to overawe and terrorize the city’s inhabitants and the sovereign state governments of those jurisdictions. The public blowback became too extreme and then, along with canning Kristi Noem, DHS/ICE switched to focusing on deportation numbers without most of the high-visibility operations which weren’t really aimed at deportation numbers in the first place. But there have been an increasing number of reports over the last few weeks suggesting that ICE/DHS is intensifying its efforts and upping the number of arrests and detentions. It seems highly likely, though not certain, that the two recent ICE-involved shooting fatalities in the last week — one in Houston and another just today in Maine — are tied to that intensified push for deportation arrest numbers. ICE agents tend to be poorly trained and operate in a culture of violence and impunity. So events like these could happen at any time. But keep an eye on the relationship between the two things. DHS/ICE has been trying to intensify its efforts while avoiding the headlines which were so damaging last winter. But the rapid resorts to fatal violence and the culture of impunity that sustains it, so embedded within Trump Era ICE’s culture, seems to be breaking through.

There’s not a lot I have to add to the reporting on Lindsey Graham’s sudden and unexpected death. The longtime South Carolina senator died yesterday evening after what his office is calling a “brief and sudden illness.” (Other unconfirmed reports point to a heart attack and cardiac arrest.) Obituaries are referring to him as a consistent foreign policy hawk, a stalwart Trump supporter. Both true. But there’s another feature of his personality and political career that is key to understanding the man. He always needed a daddy. Or let’s say a political leader. A top dog.

If you’re a podcast listener, I want you to check out The TPM Social Club, our second podcast which is hosted by reporter Josh Kovensky and publisher Joe Ragazzo. I particularly hope you check out the latest episode where Josh and Joe interview TPM’s Capitol Hill reporter Emine Yücel. They talk about covering Capitol Hill for TPM, being an international competition-level fencer and also her background as an immigrant from Turkey and reporting on Capitol Hill politics through the prism of a Turkish background and upbringing.

We’re now in the midst of one of these now and again collective Democratic meltdowns, filled with dooming laments, drama, intra-party attacks and insults, rending of clothes, “reckonings” and more. But there’s a fact, little discussed and under-appreciated, that is nestled in these collective freak-outs. This may sound nonsensical or perhaps a semantic point with no real meaning. But it’s foundational to how the Democratic Party functions and why it functions differently and often disappointingly compared to the GOP.

We hear lots of arguments in Democratic politics that the party’s base is its left wing. There’s a certain logic to that. It’s a center-left party so it’s left wing is its base and it’s filled out by more fair-weather voters or less ideological ones. In a sense it’s really their party or they’re the legitimate owners of it as soon as corporate interests and softies and other interlopers can be kicked to the curb. But it’s not. The most obvious reason is that are just too few of them. But they are also very different, sociologically, ideologically, demographically from the rest of the party. This isn’t just a dig on the left. The same applies to white liberals. There are dramatically more of them. But they are still really, really different from much of the rest of the party.

We’re looking good to hit $200,000 by the close of day tomorrow in this year’s Annual TPM Journalism Fund Drive. We can’t thank you enough. Truly. If you’d like to join us and make a contribution just click right here. We run these drives in waves. $200,000 is the first big milestone, then $250,000. When we hit $400,000 the goal is in sight and then the momentum picks up again. We go in waves of going full time in drive mode, ease up, before pushing again. We appreciate both your generosity as well as your patience as we work through this critical part of our enterprise, our business model, how we make all of this work. Thanks.

We’re now more than a third of the way toward our goal of raising $500,000 in this year’s Annual TPM Journalism Fund Drive. It’s sounds repetitive or cliche. But thank you so much. Your commitment to having our back means so much to our operation. We need to get to $200,000 by the end of Friday to stay on track toward this critical goal. If you haven’t taken a moment yet to contribute, I get it. I’m constantly putting stuff like this off. You’ve got to stop what you’re doing, probably in the middle of the work day. Please take that moment right now, just 90 seconds. We’ve set it up to be super easy. You don’t even have to take out your wallet. Take a moment, literally right now, this moment, and join us. Click right here. We’ll put the money to really good use.

From TPM Reader OM …

I’ve been reading TPM since my junior year of college (I graduated in 2003, so pretty early in the TPM journey), and from the beginning, it’s done news the way I respect most: it has a perspective and a point of view, but it follows the reporting and respects the facts. The notion that news can or should be a neutral glass pane is farcical, and TPM is one of the first outlets I found in my formative years that didn’t pretend to do the “just the facts, ma’am” kabuki dance.

When news breaks — about, say, Graham Platner’s Senate campaign imploding over sexual assault allegations or Mitch McConnell’s hospitalization — I always scramble to open TPM’s Slack to see what my colleagues are posting about it. They’re so quick to share the latest updates or jokes that help add some levity to a grim situation.

That’s the spirit of our upcoming event in Brooklyn on Wednesday July 29. Our own Josh Marshall and Marisa Kabas, independent journalist and founder of The Handbasket newsletter, will weigh in on whatever hell is currently breaking loose, in a conversation moderated by TPM publisher Joe Ragazzo. Marisa is a diligent chronicler of our current hellscape, who has broken stories about the takeover of the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Office of Management and Budget’s effort to freeze billions of dollars in federal grants and loans. (She also wrote an essay for our 25th anniversary last year about journalists becoming personal brands). So we’re thrilled to be able to bend her ear about the news of the day and making it work in independent media. 

Nicole LaFond and I will kick off the event with some politics trivia for the audience, and we’ll end the night with a happy hour, where our staff hopes to meet readers of both The Handbasket and TPM. We’d really love to see you there.

Tickets are on sale now for $25 (or free for TPM Inside members). Get yours while they last.  

From TPM Reader BC …

I am a long time reader, since the early aughts.  I have been giving to the fund since I have been able.  In the past year I have noticed some of the changes at TPM with  the podcasts, newsletters,  and Substack conversations and they are helping me navigate my changing relationship to the internet and social media.   When I was thinking about this a couple days ago,  I was actually thinking about Yglesias even before the post today.   His history of punching down, smugness, and deliberate misinterpretation comes up a lot in my feed.  It’s always a little disappointing when he gins these things.  He is not stupid.  I actually have wondered if it is a program when he needs to get some new subscriptions.  Will Stancil and the people obsessed with him need to all take a breather.  There are great voices on bluesky and it has its use but I have been trying to curate a little more and hang out at my library.