Dan Balz/WaPo:
This was the week when Trump revealed all
He really did want to overturn the 2020 election, and he never meant it when he said those who broke the law on Jan. 6 should have to pay
Trump’s words no longer have quite the shock value they once had. His rallies don’t command live coverage on major cable networks. Having been banned from Twitter, his never-ending statements lack the power they once might have had. It can be easy to dismiss his rantings. But it would be foolhardy to ignore what he is saying or thinking.
If Trump were a spent force in politics, what he says now would matter less. But he wants to run for president again and has a $122 million political bank account at his disposal to carry him forward. He may have lost some support among some who think of themselves as Republicans, but he still holds a grip on the Republican Party. If the 2024 primaries were held today, it is difficult to imagine him not rolling over any and all challengers.
Ottawa Citizen:
Truck convoy: 'Our city is under siege'
The ‘Freedom Convoy’ that converged in Ottawa a week ago started in response to the federal government’s move to require that all Canadian truck drivers crossing the U.S. border be fully vaccinated. The Canadian Trucking Alliance, the main advocacy body for truckers, has disavowed the protest, saying the vast majority of its members are fully vaccinated and are continuing to work. The core organizers of the protest insist that they are not anti-vaccine but instead oppose mandates that require vaccination for people to work.
The above is a collection of short live takes at the ongoing protest.
WaPo:
‘This is a siege,’ says Ottawa police chief as blockades and protests against covid measures enter second weekend
Protests against coronavirus public health measures and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau entered their second weekend here with much of the downtown core of the country’s capital blockaded by trucks in what officials are calling an “occupation.”
Demonstrations in solidarity with the self-described “Freedom Convoy” also popped up in several other cities across Canada, including Toronto and Quebec City.
While the crowds are expected to thin during the coming week, Toronto was taking no chances. Police in Canada’s largest city announced Sunday they would continue road closures in the downtown core into the week “to keep access routes clear, protect our healthcare workers, patients, and their families, and maintain public safety.”
Sandy Carrosino/National Observer:
Startling Trump interference points to GoFundMe convoy campaign manipulation
The convoy campaign, organized by a previously obscure Canadian group, now ranks as the eighth-largest in GoFundMe’s 12-year history. It joins the pantheon of fundraisers supporting the family of George Floyd, victims of the Parkland (Marjory Stoneman Douglas) and Pulse shootings, Time’s Up (related to #MeToo) and major American COVID-19 relief projects.
At the time of its suspension, the convoy campaign had racked up approximately $10.1 million in just over two weeks.
Any Canadian fundraiser will tell you this number is impossible to achieve organically within Canada. This group is not a registered charity, non-profit or even a trucking organization. Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly is on record saying there is significant influence and money pouring in from the United States.
GoFundMe did not independently verify donor identities and accepted foreign funds for a campaign that had as one objective the dissolution of Parliament — just months after a free and fair election, in which 60 per cent of the electorate voted for parties supporting vaccine mandates.
As the CBC has reported on January 28, at least a third of the donor identities were anonymous or faked. Donations were made in the names of Justin Trudeau and Theresa Tam.
Indeed, one fake donation was made in the name of this publication’s columnist, Max Fawcett. There are certain to be many more. These are just the identities that can be verified as fake.
Michelangelo Signorile/Substack:
Biden Boom, GOP Bust
On a day of fantastic economic news, the RNC is rebuking Liz Cheney for exposing the truth on a domestic terrorist attack. Democrats have their message -- and must run on it.
The media this morning was caught flat-footed as the jobs numbers showed an economic boom that is so explosive it burst through DC reporters’ set-in-stone narrative of an economy bedraggled by Omicron and inflation.
“U.S. added 467,000 jobs in January despite omicron variant surge,” blared the Washington Post headline. The New York Times went with “Strong Jobs Report Shows Resilience of Economic Recovery,” and admitted that the old narrative is dead:
Here’s the prevailing narrative of the job market last year: Hiring accelerated in the spring and summer as the vaccine rollout allowed the economy to reopen, then slumped later in the year as coronavirus variants — first Delta, then Omicron — led workers and businesses to pull back.
New data calls that narrative into question.
TV news anchors, trying to backtrack from their previous stories, were talking about the "blockbuster, unexpected report,” and the “surprising, phenomenal economic news.” Business network CNBC went into party mode, with one anchor yelling, “I’ve never seen anything like this!” CNN’s John King said the results were “shocking numbers,” while the network’s financial reporter Christine Romans said wage increases were “offsetting” inflation brought on because of the supply chain problems.
Margaret Sullivan/WaPo:
Jeff Zucker’s legacy is defined by his promotion of Donald Trump
Zucker, as much as any other person in the world, created and burnished the Trump persona — first as a reality-TV star who morphed into a worldwide celebrity, then as a candidate for president who was given large amounts of free publicity.
The through line? Nothing nobler than TV ratings, which always were Zucker’s guiding light, his be-all and end-all and, ultimately, his fatal flaw.
A July 2021 observation:
Chrissy Stroop/Religion Dispatches:
SECULARISM IN THE US IS LARGER, MORE DIVERSE AND MORE DYNAMIC THAN EVER, BUT YOU WOULDN’T KNOW IT FROM THE MEDIA
“Im done waiting for mainstream media to cover nonreligious people and secular issues fairly and accurately,” says Sarah Levin, a woman who wears a number of hats in the institutional secular world. “I’m done waiting for them to stop reinforcing the Christian Right’s framing on issues and failing to challenge religious privilege. And I am absolutely done waiting for them to start seeing nonreligious people as their whole selves, beyond our orientation around religion,” Levin goes on, speaking with RD in her role as director of advocacy for OnlySky Media, a new outlet focused on “exploring the post-religious perspective.” In addition to publishing content aimed at secular readers broadly, OnlySky will be conducting its own research on secular Americans, so it will no longer be necessary to “rely solely on research produced by institutions that do not, either by way of their mission or their funding sources, have an explicit interest in serving the nonreligious,” Levin explains.
On the issue of media representation of secularism and secular Americans, Levin, the founder and head of Secular Strategies and co-chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Interfaith Council, has a point. Nonreligious Americans are generally a pro-social bunch, and overwhelmingly in favor of the very rights the anti-social, anti-democratic Christian Right is actively working to take away, like voting rights, reproductive rights, and LGBTQ rights. Yet, according to the legacy media’s punditocracy, America’s rapid secularization is something we should all be terrified of.
David Frum/Atlantic:
The Humiliating Ohio Senate Race
Bernie Moreno used to be the perfect Republican candidate. Then Donald Trump took over.
Bernie Moreno should have been a contender. Instead, he has dropped out of the race for Ohio’s Senate seat after spending millions of his own money and never reaching even fifth place in polls of the Republican primary. It’s a story with a lesson, a very sad lesson.
Moreno, age 54, declared last year for the seat now held by Ohio Republican Rob Portman. Portman’s seat had previously been held by former Cleveland Mayor George Voinovich, another Republican; before Voinovich, by the former astronaut John Glenn, a Democrat; before John Glenn, by the real-estate developer Howard Metzenbaum, also a Democrat.
Moreno was a candidate in the mold of those predecessors. Like them, he was hugely accomplished in private life. In his case, he built one of the nation’s largest networks of auto dealerships, then in 2018 founded an Ohio-based technology incubator, Ownum. Before joining the Republican primary, Moreno, like those previous Ohio senators, espoused fundamentally moderate politics. He backed John Kasich for governor in 2010 and 2014, then Marco Rubio for president in 2016. Only at the last minute did Moreno realize he needed to jump aboard the train of Trump radicalism and nihilism. His catchup leap was spectacular, and spectacularly unsuccessful.