Are the walls closing in on Cuomo?
Big Chungus is back
Hello and welcome to the new Free Political Newsletter.
As we are transitioning from a five day a week news digest into a more substantive newsletter, I hope this is something that you find worth sharing with friends. If you like it, forward this along. To that end, allow myself to reintroduce… myself.
My name is Justin Robert Young. In a former life I was a journalist, now I podcast about politics and write this newsletter. The goal of this is to bring you a review of stories big and small I believe are shaping the political world up.
Let’s begin.
Where’s my COVID check?
The House passed the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill this weekend. It now heads to the Senate.
The biggest hurdle there has been cleared as the Senate Parliamentarian ruled a $15 Minimum Wage portion of the bill could not withstand the Byrd Rule which governs reconciliation. This thrilled the Biden administration who believe (rightly IMO) that moderates Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are more of a threat to spike this bill than Bernie Sanders is. The moderates were against the inclusion of the minimum wage hike and so now they’re likely on board.
Unless Bernie wants to rock the boat, this bill will likely give Biden a legislative victory and avoid a lapse in unemployment benefits.
That means direct $1400 checks could be in the mail this month.
Walls closing in on Cuomo?
When you are in a worsening political crisis it’s never the last thing that you worry about, it’s the next thing. The thing that makes the last thing only a prelude to a worse thing.
Enter Andrew Cuomo. Once the model example of how to speak calmly on television about the pandemic. Hell, he wrote the book on it!
Since then his administration was busted cooking the stats to hide a deadly decision to reintroduce COVID positive residents into nursing homes, his culture of bullying has been called out within his own party and at the end of last year he was accused of sexual harassment by a former aide. Oh and he might wear nipple rings.
But it’s always the next thing that gets you right?
This weekend ANOTHER aide came out and made an on-the-record accusation.
Based on the reaction since it dropped, that appears to be the absent Jenga block that topples the tower.
AOC and the White House are joining with local New York pols in calling for an independent investigation into the allegations. Sunday that call was echoed by Cuomo himself!
You know things are bad when you join the mob calling for your own head.
So what’s next? Not a recall. Those are not permitted in the Empire State.
Cuomo would have to become so toxic his national party would call for his resignation. My guess is that isn’t going to happen at this temperature and considering his family lineage it might not happen at any temperature. The “independent” investigation will cool things down if there isn’t another allegation. His best hope is that we get distracted by something else and he can leg out his current term ending in ‘23.
Of course, it’s never the last thing that gets you… it’s always the next thing.
“All Power Is Future Power” merch now available
One of the most repeated axioms on the podcast is now available as a shirt, pillow or laptop case.
How To Read The News: Difference between news and opinion
Because of my background in journalism I am often asked by listeners and readers if I read the news differently than most. The answer is yes. Once you’ve been in the machine it’s hard not to notice the gears turning from the outside.
So this will be a regular segment where I explain how I read the news and some tips that might help you get more out of it.
First up, the difference between a news article and an opinion article. Normally people point at things like editorials or columns in contrast to straight news stories to illustrate this. But I have something more interesting.
Here is a news story that SHOULD be an opinion piece. I’ll explain why.
This is not an opinion piece. It’s a news story with a dateline. In it we explore if conservative use of the term “Democrat” as an adjective is corroding our national discourse. By my sensibilities the premise of this article, a colloquial truncation of a party’s name is harmful to bipartisanship, is not news it’s a premise you are attempting to prove. That is an argument best made as an opinion piece. While many columns and editorials are presented without reporting, that is not a hard and fast rule. In fact, many of the best columns including great reporting.
The key here is the framing of every article, news and opinion both, include a certain point of view. These come from the editor, writer and sources.
News articles are best when that point of view comes in as informatively as possible. If you are leading the reader to a larger point, which I believe this article does, then it would best fit with the opinion label on it.
What is the Biden strategy on Saudi Arabia?
If you binge Veep (which I recently did on the road) you start to notice patterns in the storytelling.
A classic episode will start with Selena looking to own an issue or be strong about something. Her staff will take a small but bold step they hope sets the stage for the big moment. Then something (either beyond their control or because of their own incompetence) will happen either nullifying any hope for the big moment or making the bold first step controversial. Selena then finds herself in a humiliating position where she’s trying to play both sides of a conflicting issue in public.
And so… I give you the Biden administration on Saudi Arabia.
This week they released a report tying the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi to the Saudi Crown Prince. It’s the kind of bold step that you’d think would lead to some kind of radical action. A cancellation of an arms contract? A sanction on the Crown Prince himself?
Instead it came with… nothing.
No serious recalibration of the relationship. No refusal to deal with the Crown Prince.
In very Veep-like fashion, Biden’s Press Secretary Jen Psaki had to dance through both sides of the issue on television.
If you’re not priming the pump for something big, why dredge this back up? You can just blame Trump for bungling it and move on.
Big Chungus Returns
Donald Trump gave his first full speech since both his exit from the White House and second impeachment acquittal. It was at CPAC. It sounded a lot like Trump.
He’s not going to start his own party. He will pursue revenge against his enemies within the GOP.
A hidden question amongst all of the questions of Republican party demographics. If the Trump coalition of blue collar voters and higher percentages of minority voters is to hold going forward, how do the Republican controlled state-houses draw congressional districts? Do you gerrymander for the old Republican party? Or Trump’s version?
Also at CPAC…
What Dr. Fauci Is And Is Not
On Friday’s edition of the Politics Politics Politics podcast I discussed Dr. Anthony Fauci and what he is and is not best at going forward. This will bring you to the correct segment.
Here is the short, short, short version:
IS:
An affable voice that give a relatable medical perspective
An authority from a government perspective
A guy who has seen some s—t
IS NOT:
A font of perfect knowledge
Someone we have to agree with
BEST USE:
Normalizing healthy behavior by way of mass media saturation.
WORST USE:
Man with final authority on when society returns
I got the following email after the segment ran…
I appreciate your effort to put Dr Fauci in context, but you left out a key factor, to me the only factor that matters.
Dr Fauci is a doctor/scientist who is theoretically giving us the straight dope. The news as it is, unvarnished. That’s what I want from a scientist.
But at the very beginning of the pandemic he established that he is *not* an honest broker of data. You said he was wrong about masks, but that is wrong — he has admitted he *lied* about masks in order to ensure that enough masks were available for medical professionals.
Against my instincts and better judgment, trusting Fauci, I passed on his recommendation to people I care about, putting their lives at risk. Fauci consciously chose to tell us something potentially harmful to our heath, and I played a part in passing that along, which makes me sick inside for what I may have done.
Later Fauci admitted to lying about herd immunity, less significant than the mask lie, but an indicator of who Fauci actually is.
He’s not a doctor for public purposes, not a scientist — he’s a social engineer who says whatever he believes will make the public act as he desires, even if that may put the public at risk, because he believes he knows who should be protected and who can be put at risk.
I will never listen to this man again. - RON
Ron’s point is well made. For him, the “noble lie” told by Fauci at certain points during the pandemic are disqualifying. I hope my segment pointed out that a we need to normalize criticism if not outright dismissal of Fauci if that is the prerogative of some. I believe that leadership that encourages the “noble lie” is terrible and Fauci should be raked over the coals for that. However, as a government representative this is something I’ve come to expect.
A lot of people do trust him, however, and that is very valuable to move the needle on certain critical issues like vaccinations and healthy cultural shifts like working from home when sick and wearing a mask in public if you are beginning to feel ill. Things that will benefit us beyond our current hell.
Fauci is not the final word on SCIENCE he is just a guy who does a lot of press with a government point of view.
How sensitive is Hootie to you?
Post Malone released a cover of the Hootie and the Blowfish classic “I Only Want To Be With You”
It’s actually good. But I also like the original because it came out when I was a kid and the two things I loved most in the world were MTV and SportsCenter and this song had a music video on MTV that featured SportsCenter anchors.
However, something struck me when reading the internet’s reaction to the video. The lyric in the “I’m such a baby, yeah, the Dolphins made me cry” is changed in Post Malone’s version to “… the Cowboys made me cry.” This makes sense because Hootie lead singer Darius Rucker is a Miami Dolphins fan and in that time period the Dolphins sucked. Post Malone is a famous Cowboys fan and similarly the Cowboys currently suck.
Some folks didn’t know that this song was referring to NFL teams at all.
Now that I think of it, if you heard this song outside of America, how would you know?
So serious question: up until this very moment did you believe that this 90s bop involved a deep voiced melody rocker admitting to the world that the majesty of the dolphin brought him to tears?
That’s it for this week.
Please respond to this email and I will compile responses in another newsletter that will come out on Wednesday.
Justin-I love the new format. It turns out you are a good righter, who new. I wish my local paper, (and the AP) took the time to edit there work before publishing. AHHHH, the good ole days. (PS - i might need an editer myself)