By Peter Tucker
With the presidential contest in full swing, the Sinclair Broadcast Group appears to be ramping up its right-wing propaganda again.
While millions of Americans are subjected to the TV network’s electioneering, few know it. That’s because, like a chameleon, Sinclair blends into the woodwork.
Turn on your local news and you may well be watching a Sinclair station, even though it appears on your screen under the imprimatur of a major network like CBS, NBC or Fox.
By Robbie Sequiera
Court records on eviction filings vary widely, don’t include the outcome and miss informal actions.
When renters are kicked out of their homes, the consequences can be disastrous. Families might lose their possessions when they are piled on the sidewalk, or can’t afford the fee to get them out of storage. Children might have to switch schools, and studies show that evictions often lead to job loss and depression.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said Monday she will ask a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit parents have brought to stop a new state law that requires the Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom.
Murrill is expected to file a brief arguing the lawsuit is premature, as schools are not yet displaying the religious text. She argues that means the plaintiffs cannot yet show they are harmed.
According to Article III of the U.S. Constitution, to bring a federal lawsuit, a plaintiff does not have to prove that they have been harmed if they can prove that harm is imminent.
The plaintiffs in the case, who are Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist and non-religious, assert the new law will violate their First Amendment rights.
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a similar law in Kentucky in 1980.
Along the way, Republicans have argued they want the scripture in classrooms not for religious reasons but because they believe American law is based on the Ten Commandments, referring to Moses as the “original lawmaker.”
The Ten Commandments are religious directives in the Bible’s Old Testament from the book of Exodus. Scholars disagree about when the commandments were written and by whom. Various versions of the text appear in different translations of the Bible and the Torah.
The rules come from the story of the Hebrew prophet Moses, a key figure in the Abrahamic religions who was said to have been given them by God after he led the Israelites, a religious and ethnic minority, from enslavement under an oppressive Egyptian pharaoh.
When asked about the impacts of the law on members of religious minorities, Landry advised students not to look at the poster.
“I think we’ve forgotten in this country that democracy actually means majority rule,” Landry said.
Murrill revealed posters at Monday’s press conference that she believes comply with the new law and pass constitutional muster.
One such poster displayed the Ten Commandments and an image of actor Charles Heston portraying Moses in the movie “The Ten Commandments” alongside a picture of Broadway actor/writer Lin-Manuel Miranda playing Alexander Hamilton in the hit musical “Hamilton,” over lyrics from a song in the musical, “The Ten Duel Commandments.”
The song, which is sung right before Hamilton is shot and killed by Vice President Aaron Burr in the musical, gives advice for partaking in a flintlock pistol duel. The lyrics seem to violate one of the Biblical Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not kill.”
Others posters feature pictures and quotes from figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson. Others depict memes and other references to the Ten Commandments in law, government and culture.
Murrill noted her office is handling the litigation internally and is not paying an outside law firm to represent the state.
Both Murrill and Landry have expressed that the displays could improve discipline in schools.
Landry made headlines last month when he suggested that if the Ten Commandments were displayed in Thomas Crooks’ classroom, he may not have attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing one attendee and seriously injuring two others. Secret Service agents returned fire, killing Crooks.
Louisiana schools, except for those in a handful of districts where the law is temporarily blocked, have until Jan. 1, 2025, to post the Ten Commandments displays.
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By Jake Johnson
"Tonight's results should be a warning sign to anyone who cares about our democracy," said one advocacy group.
Wesley Bell, the prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County, enjoyed a huge cash advantage over Bush, with nearly two-thirds of his campaign money coming from fundraising efforts by AIPAC's super PAC, the United Democracy Project (UDP).
UDP, which has been bankrolled by ultra-wealthy Republicans, spent around $8.5 million to oust Bush, the second Squad member to lose to an AIPAC-backed primary opponent this election cycle. AIPAC pledged earlier this year to spend $100 million attacking progressive candidates, and the organization has thus far been the largest source of Republican money flowing into competitive Democratic primaries this year.
The Intercept's Akela Lacy reported that in Tuesday's race, AIPAC's money was spent "on voter engagement efforts and phone banking in addition to digital and mail ads."
"One of the mailers, first reported by The Intercept, included images that distorted Bush's features," Lacy added.
Bell, who also raised money directly from Republican billionaires and previously served as campaign manager for a GOP candidate, narrowly defeated Bush, winning 51.2% of the vote compared to the incumbent's 45.6%—a margin of fewer than 7,000 votes.
In a fiery speech to supporters following her defeat, Bush said that by "pulling me away from my position as congresswoman, all you did was take some of the strings off."
Bush, who was elected to the House in 2020, went on to directly address AIPAC's role in what became one of the most expensive congressional primaries in U.S. history.
"AIPAC, I'm coming to tear your kingdom down," said Bush. "And let me put all of these corporations on notice: I'm coming after you too. But I'm not coming by myself. I'm coming with all the people that's in here, that's doing the work."
Justice Democrats, a progressive organization that helped propel Bush to victory in 2020 and backed her reelection bid, said following Tuesday's contest that "no matter what a singular super PAC can spend to try and buy an election, nothing can take away from the transformational effect Cori Bush has directly had on the people of St. Louis."
"That power—of everyday people to transform what we can expect from our political system—is such a threat to right-wing power, corporate interests, and AIPAC's influence, that a coalition of GOP-funded Super PACs had to spend over $12 million to even have a chance at defeating it," the group said in a statement posted to social media. "As AIPAC's influence in Congress wanes and the right-wing network propping it up is exposed, AIPAC has to spend historic amounts to continue advancing their interests at the expense of the Democratic mainstream that overwhelmingly supports a ceasefire and an end to genocide in Gaza."
Bush was one of the original sponsors of a congressional resolution calling for an end to Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip, which has dragged on for 10 months and left nearly 40,000 Palestinians dead, according to official tallies that are likely a vast undercount given the number of people missing under ruins and in mass graves.
"We can't bomb our way to peace, equality, and freedom," Bush said as she introduced the resolution alongside her progressive House colleagues on October 16. "With thousands of lives lost and millions more at stake, we need a cease-fire now."
"Cori Bush had the moral courage to speak out against her constituents' taxpayer dollars funding war crimes in Gaza."
Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of the Sunrise Movement, said Tuesday that "without the deluge of misleading advertisements" attacking Bush, she "would be headed to Congress for another term next year."
"Tonight's results should be a warning sign to anyone who cares about our democracy," said Shiney-Ajay. "If Democratic Party leaders don't stand against AIPAC and right-wing billionaires, they undermine our democracy and risk disillusioning the young voters and voters of color we need to defeat the far-right."
Our Revolution executive director Joseph Geevarghese echoed that message, saying in a statement that "tonight's outcome puts the blatantly undemocratic nature of Democratic Party primaries on full display."
"Cori Bush had the moral courage to speak out against her constituents' taxpayer dollars funding war crimes in Gaza. As a result, AIPAC and its MAGA Republican-funded super PAC spent more than $8.4 million to buy her congressional seat," said Geevarghese.
"Democratic Party elites have spent years decrying Trump as an existential threat to democracy," he added, "yet they are resoundingly silent when wealthy conservative donors unseat a true working-class champion who was among the first federal lawmakers to endorse Kamala Harris in her historic candidacy for president."
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By Jim Naureckas
In a piece fact checking Donald Trump’s claims in his acceptance speech at the 2024 Republican convention, the New York Times‘ Steven Rattner (7/24/24) responded to Trump’s claim that “our crime rate is going up” by pointing out:
Crime has declined since Mr. Biden’s inauguration. The violent crime rate is now at its lowest point in more than four decades, and property crime is also at its lowest level in many decades.
The Times illustrated the point with this chart, which shows violent crime decreasing by 26% since President Joe Biden was inaugurated, and property crime going down 19%:
In a rational world, voters would be aware that crime went down sharply during the Biden/Harris administration, continuing a three-decade decline that has made the United States of 2024 far safer than the country was in 1991. To the extent that voters see national elected officials as responsible for crime rates, Biden and his vice president Kamala Harris would benefit politically from these trends.
One thing polling tells us is that leading news outlets do a poor job of informing voters about the crime situation (New York Times, 7/23/24).
But we don’t live in a rational world—so in the days after Harris became the apparent presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, she got a series of warnings from the New York Times.
“Today, many Americans are worried about crime,” David Leonhardt wrote in the Times‘ popular Morning newsletter (7/23/24). “Many voters are concerned about crime and public safety,” lawyer Nicole Allan wrote in a Times op-ed (7/23/24). “Ms. Harris, especially, will run into problems on immigration and crime,” Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson wrote in another op-ed (7/23/24).
“Ms. Harris was a constant target last week at the Republican National Convention,” Jazmine Ulloa reported in a Times news story (7/21/24). “In panels and onstage, speakers tied her to an administration that they say has led to increases in crime and inflation.”
In none of these mentions did the Times‘ writers attempt to set the record straight on the actual crime situation in the country—that crime rates are low and heading lower. In the case of the news report, such an observation would likely be seen inside the Times as editorializing—a forbidden intervention into the political process.
But most people don’t get their ideas about how much crime there is by personal observation; with roughly 1 person in 300 victimized by violent crime over the course of a year, you’d have to know an awful lot of people before you would get an accurate sense of whether crime was up or down based on asking your acquaintances.
As with immigration, and to a certain extent with the economy, people get the sense that crime is a crisis from the news outlets that they rely on. If they’re being told that “many Americans are worried about crime”—then many Americans are going to worry about crime.
Research assistance: Alefiya Presswala
Please support the news you can use and visit The Brooks Blackboard's website for more news!
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