It was clear more than 4 years ago that Trump had lost interest in our Democratic process as designed and would seek to steal every election he could. It was clear more than 4 years ago that he was an insurrectionist willing to use violence to stay in power and looking to accumulate a paramilitary.
Where exactly was Ezra Klein when in January 2021—which is now four and a half years ago—independent journalists were saying that our legal system and Congress had to move as quickly as possible to neutralize Trump as a threat to American democracy because the alternative was a rolling insurrection?
I will tell you where he was: the same place the Democratic Party was. It was so fat and happy about having won the 2020 presidential election that it was heedless of all warnings from indie media that we were in the midst of an *ongoing insurrection* that in *no way* had capitulated to rule of law.
Biden dropped the ball with Garland and not prosecuting Trump right away. The stolen classified documents alone should have lead to Trump's arrest. Then just forgetting Covid. And not going after the leaders of the insurrection.
Agree with smack
Biden didn't know that Garland was going to go slow and let the clock run out or that he was secretly working for trump and the GOP.
Biden knew after a year Garland was failing miserably. Garland should have been replaced by someone willing to save this country.
Merrick Garland was building a case that was solid and winnable, but an election stopped it from proceeding. It was either a stolen election or one in which people decided not to prosecute Trump—still not clear which one.
It's not winnable if you time it to never complete.
What are you accusing Jack Smith of, exactly?
Having decades of experience working high profile cases with a lot riding on them, and knowing more about them and how they proceed than almost any other living person. What did you think I was implying?
You think Jack Smith planned NOT to take Trump to court?
Nope. I think Merrick Garland planned not to take Trump to court, based on everything that I said plus his very deliberate hiring decisions.
where were most folks since the early 90s... all of this was clear then to those who studied history and media. Anyone who didnt see that what happened in the USSR wasnt gonna happen here.. blind.
There was no sense from DC Democrats in the 2024 election that America was in mortal danger. More importantly there was no such sense from major media—including Klein—which did its job so poorly that Americans went to the polls in 2024 more poorly informed than any US electorate in the last century.
Kamala said it would happen.
And you wonder—why? Why are all these people in mainstream media who are paid handsomely to know what's going on literally years behind understanding the dangers we're facing? And the answer is simple: in the halls of respectability politics, you can't get ahead without being acceptably milquetoast.
If people think you're hyperbolic or over your skis or don't have the favor of big institutions or aren't being lauded by top critics and famous pols, you must be someone to ignore. Even if what you say is sourced and predictive. Corporate media has turned political writing into mere gamesmanship.
Bothsiderism ruined us. After 2006 no one should have taken Republicans seriously again. Especially after 2008. The media should have laughed them off every Sunday show for not being serious. After 2020 these clowns should have been mocked anytime they opened their mouths.
I've been in political journalism for 30 years now, and I can tell you that each year it becomes less and less about urgently informing the public and more and more about individual personalities with no particular journalistic ethos or sense of scope, courage or patriotism trying to make their bag.
This country is going to collapse, from sea to sea, and it'll collapse because Ezra Klein was the best our major media could do. Warm skim milk and a stale sugar cookie. And however angry you are about that, it's not angry enough. We let a monster devour our country like it was nothing. *Nothing*.
All these mod-Dem analysts writing soggy little op-eds from their velvet fainting couches are dreaming of Pulitzer Prizes and trade-press advances. Good for them. Maybe in 2027 those committees and presses can airlift these jerkoffs to a safe country to receive their precious awards and accolades.
Fuck them, fuck their books.
If you're not a radical by now, nothing could ever make you one. (And to be clear, I mean here "radical" by the standards of mainstream corporate media—whose blithe, cowardly, and capitulating normopathy is stifling, crippling, unyielding, and at this point extremely dangerous to the United States.)
Fucking right, Seth.
I've been calling the Republican party a domestic terrorist organization for a decade now. I'm constantly infuriated by the lack urgency or worse calls for bipartisanship. You don't work with Nazi's you defeat them utterly.
It's not the media's job to be the oppo party. That responsibility belongs to Dem leadership. If they were hair on fire screaming about fascism & major media was ignoring them,that'd be 1 thing. But that's not happening. You have to do something newsworthy to get ink. They seem unaware of that fact.
So what's left? Nothing? Cheer on the blod clots knowing Hedge Fund Vance is waiting in the wings? Is there no out at all?
What did people think "mass deportation now" meant? Stephen Miller detailed his plan for deportation flights taking off every 20 minutes and massive detainment facilities. Why the media accept "Donald Trump has absolutely no idea who the title sponsor of his convention is".
As my lifelong republican mother said, at 87, when she flipped to become a Warren democrat: “WE’RE ALL ANTIFA NOW!”
"More strongly worded letters on their way!" - Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer How do the two of these guys even go to work knowing, KNOWING that their "colleagues" are literally trying to eliminate the Democratic party entirely?
1/ an excellent analysis with one glaring flaw.... in assigning blame for the complacency toward Trump since Jan 6, you keep saying "the Democrats". But during that period, "the Democrats" were taking their marching orders from one person -- Joe Biden. And it was Biden who utterly and completely
Well, I'm totally defeated after reading that, I thought there may be some hope if we took the house and senate in 2026, anyone have any advice on how to prepare for the near and distant future other than move to a new country?
HEY.. DEMOCRATS, HAVE PURRTY MAKEUP. Go on TV
It's not too late... ...probably...
Basically the same vibes of insanity here, just active, not passive: bsky.app/profile/fell... #1/2
#2/2 bsky.app/profile/wilh...
Maybe they’ll get nasty once the margins for fxxckery are used up.
So what do we do about it?
Klein sends me into a blind rage too, so I feel ya on this
I can name 30 journalists writing from a politically antifascist perspective that worked under corporate media orgs before the layoffs and mass firings occurred. Why can’t you? Just choose not to? Or get rewarded not to?
What are you saying? He should work at a corporation so he can get laid off by fascists?
The underlying problem with Seth’s thread and personal journalistic philosophy is that when he says the words “corporate media” he actually means the New York Times specifically and not the corporate media system itself. His personal vendetta is with one single paper.
It jarring how easy it was for the collective entities to just take America without any real resistance.
And as the cherry on top: it.was.all.so.fucking.foreseeable!!!!!
I think this is a misread of the podcast and while it seems you're willing to be the yelly hair on fire guy, I find it helpful to occasionally calmly think through with someone. It takes a village to raise a resistance. I'll get my megaphone for many targets, but disagree on this one.
Ask Ezra what he was doing at the comically over-priced over-hyped Wildflower Farms in Gardiner schmoozing with Schumer and the other mothballs.
I can’t believe that everything you wrote about on twitter six years or so ago was completely true and yet still this :( fucking shit
Seth is 💯💯🎯🎯🔥🔥🔥. The Dems never believed he could become prez again. I never did either. And I would not be at all surprised that he cheated. The complete failure to arrest and immediately prosecute is on Garland. We are headed for a complete breakdown of American society as we have known it.
Dems didn't think Trump could get back to the White House because they assumed he'd be in jail. But when it became obvious that the Biden/Garland DoJ was doing everything it could to NOT prosecute Trump's crimes, a lot of us saw the danger.
💯🎯 I am 😡🤮😔 every day.
Anyone who blames the media is a cop-out. Trump stated what he was going to do, and Americans voted for him. It's not the media; it's the American voter.
It is both
Not for people who voted for Harris. They took their responsibility seriously, & weren't lazy & did their due diligence using critical thinking skills to find the facts. 34 felony convictions history of housing discrimination grabbing women by the pussy told us what he would do dictator on day 1
Many in the left think tank vanguard, including Klein, were focused on removing Biden from the race. Say what you will about Biden, but his cognitive impairment was nowhere near Trump’s and he had a competent VP to take over. I don’t think these genius pundits really understood what we were in for.
Can’t even express how much I appreciate this Seth, thank you !!!
When I was a senior in high school, back in 1983, I interned at the NPR station in Detroit, in the historic Fisher Building. I learned so much from the team there - from the news folks to the sports crew. There was support & laughter amidst constant hard work & a dedication to bringing
Informative and interesting news to their listeners. I ultimately chose not to pursue journalism, but the experience was impactful. I try to follow and uplift the work of credible journalists, & encourage others to please do the same.
Sycophancy and stupidity is pandemic in America
Yep, not sure that people want to be informed as much as they want to be entertained.
Late night comedians do a better job of getting the news out. They know this and it’s why Steven Colbert was silenced. Lawrence O’Donnell is an excellent mouthpiece, but he’s on a perpetual vacation. I’d be working every single day of the week until that SOB dies.
We are so F***ed
White Americans due asswhippin. Makes Tougher grandchildren
it also doesn't help that, if you push against the system in any meaningful way, you're at serious risk of having your funding support disappear (because capitalism doesn't actually want a free and independent press).
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ If all the US dem does is hang on Obama's lips, you're lost
The mainstream journalists have editors that answer to corporate bosses. These journalists would need to quit to do journalism.
@threadreaderapp.bsky.social please unroll
try watching MSNBC they actually said that every day and twice on Monday for six months
Stop this. The media was not unaware. The media was complicit.
They never allow negative stories or anything resembling reality to come across their culty members news feeds. Ever - Not one word of truth or real world gets invited in.
Had they only looked at Florida they would have got a glimpse of things to come. Last year Rose Aguilar did a great job of analysing Project 2025 on @kalwradio.bsky.social www.kalw.org/podcast/what...
Yes Congressional Democrats did not disclose. But, why? BC their silence was, by act, complicit.
America is under a dictatorship. It’s what Americans do about it. It’s only going to get worse.
Man. So much of that- that’s truly spot on.
Did u listen to the pod he mentioned with Balko? I didn’t read the Klein piece but had listened to the pod yesterday. Must’ve hit different. 🫤
There’s no way Dems in Congress, Obama and everyone close to the source hasn’t known where that trajectory has been leading. My question is why have they let it happen. Patton was right…
> It was clear more than 4 years ago that he was an insurrectionist I stopped cycling my banner image and settled on this one for the time being. tRUmp is an illegitimate president who should be simply removed from office by the US Marshals that he commands.
The abandonment of the rule of law by Republicans and SCOTUS is the act that supports the fall of the United States.