Saturday, September 5, 2020

Elections/Lobbying (Ongoing Archive)

 "10 Things They Won't Tell You About Money in Politics." Open Secrets (2014)


"2020AdWatch.com: A Searchable Database Tracking Xenophobic and Racist Political Ads." America's Voice (August 14, 2019)

"As Election Season Heats Up, Extremist Groups at Record Levels." Southern Poverty Law Center (March 8, 2012)

Barkan, Ross. "The Gray Zone Lady." The Baffler #50 (Match 2020)  [The New York Times, "particularly in its approach to national political stories, has clung to a horse race model of coverage that should have been discredited decades ago. The model, long derided but shockingly durable, operates from a rather simple premise: How do we figure out who’s going to win? It is rarely curious about anything else, and it can be applied to political campaigns and governing policy alike. Horse race coverage treats politics as a glorified sporting event, each side reduced to a combatant of equal moral stature, and tries desperately to divine the future, with all the arrogance of science and none of its corresponding rigor. It regards political reportage as theater criticism, diminishing pivotal and thorny questions about policy. The other question horse race coverage may ask: How does this play? Instead of asking whether a certain candidate will support more drone strikes in the Middle East or will pursue a health care policy that makes coverage cheaper and more humane, the horse race paradigm is most concerned about tactics. Will an embrace of x lead to victory or defeat? What is the underlying strategy? Political coverage becomes inseparable from gossip. Such an approach relishes artificial events constructed specifically to make news, like the press conference, the diner visit, or the rally with surrogates, campaign operatives tasked with massaging the truth, repeatedly, for the benefit of the press, who must decide whether to be “spun” or not."]

Barker, Kim. ""Nonprofits" Tied to Karl Rove, Koch Brothers Spend Millions on Elections and Call it Public Welfare." Democracy Now (August 20, 2012)

Bass, Gary J. "The Blood Telegram." Lapham's Quarterly Podcast #52 (December 4, 2013) ["How did Pakistan's free elections in 1970 lead to a genocidal military crackdown against East Pakistan in 1971? And how did that result in the creation of an independent Bangladesh? And why was the United States involved? Professor Gary J. Bass explains the terrible events, which he chronicled in his book The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide."]

Bazelon, Emily and Jena Griswold. "'Can Democracy Survive the Pandemic': : Election Hangs in the Balance as Trump Attacks Mail-In Voting." Democracy Now (May 15, 2020) ["The coronavirus pandemic poses unprecedented challenges to the November presidential election, as President Trump and the GOP capitalize on the moment to attack voting rights. We speak with Emily Bazelon, staff writer at The New York Times Magazine, whose new cover story examines the bureaucratic and political challenges of mobilizing widespread vote-by-mail by November. We also speak with Jena Griswold, secretary of state of Colorado, which already has universal vote-by-mail and the second-highest voter turnout in the country."]

Benkler, Yochai, Robert Faris and Hal Roberts. Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics. Oxford University Press, 2018. ["This book examines the shape, composition, and practices of the United States political media landscape. It explores the roots of the current epistemic crisis in political communication with a focus on the remarkable 2016 U.S. president election culminating in the victory of Donald Trump and the first year of his presidency. The authors present a detailed map of the American political media landscape based on the analysis of millions of stories and social media posts, revealing a highly polarized and asymmetric media ecosystem. Detailed case studies track the emergence and propagation of disinformation in the American public sphere that took advantage of structural weaknesses in the media institutions across the political spectrum. This book describes how the conservative faction led by Steve Bannon and funded by Robert Mercer was able to inject opposition research into the mainstream media agenda that left an unsubstantiated but indelible stain of corruption on the Clinton campaign. The authors also document how Fox News deflects negative coverage of President Trump and has promoted a series of exaggerated and fabricated counter narratives to defend the president against the damaging news coming out of the Mueller investigation. Based on an analysis of the actors that sought to influence political public discourse, this book argues that the current problems of media and democracy are not the result of Russian interference, behavioral microtargeting and algorithms on social media, political clickbait, hackers, sockpuppets, or trolls, but of asymmetric media structures decades in the making. The crisis is political, not technological."]

"Capitol Crimes." Bill Moyers Journal (May 7, 2010)

Carlin, Dan. "Gunning for Violence." Common Sense #244 (December 28, 2012) ["In the wake of another mass shooting, Dan looks at ways to alter a society that glorifies gun violence. He ties together culture, mental health and powerful lobbying groups in a fashion sure to upset everyone." - this does cost 99 cents, but I have used it with many students writing on this issue and all of them, no matter their perspective, have found it to be one of the best resources for getting a grip on the constitutional aspects and the negative influence of lobbying groups.]

"Citizen's United vs Federal Election Commission." SCOTUS (Decision January 21, 2010: Ongoing Archive)

Clarke, Kristen. "Dark Money & Barrett Nomination: The Link Between Big Polluters & the War on ACA, Roe & LGBT Rights." Democracy Now (October 16, 2020) ["During confirmation hearings this week for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island opted not to ask the judge any questions. Instead, he gave a 30-minute presentation on how right-wing groups, including the Federalist Society and Judicial Crisis Network, use dark money to shape the nation’s judiciary. We air excerpts from his presentation and get reaction from Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law."]

Dovere, Edward-Isaac. "The Real Power of Bloomberg's Money." The Atlantic (January 7, 2020) ["It’s not what he spends to get into office that’s so transformative—it’s what he spends once he gets there."]

Edgar, Bob and Benjamin Jealous. "Wave of Restrictive Voting Laws Prompts Federal Probes, Grassroots Activism Ahead of 2012 Elections." Democracy Now (December 15, 2011)

Fang, Lee. "Koch Data Mining Company Helped Inundate Voters with Anti-Immigrant Messages." The Intercept (September 9, 2019)

Gallagher, Diane, et al. "Ignoring warnings from election officials, Trump again suggests supporters should try to vote twice." CNN (September 5, 2020)

Giridharadas, Anand. "'The Billionaire Election': How 2020 Is a Referendum on Wealth Inequality." Democracy Now (February 26, 2020) ["The 10th Democratic presidential debate took place Tuesday in Charleston, South Carolina, and two billionaires were at either end of the stage: Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer. Front-runner Bernie Sanders, who has made attacking the power of the “billionaire class” a central theme of his campaign, stood in the middle. It was a visual representation of the split within the Democratic Party, in which a growing number of people are “rising up against plutocracy,” says Anand Giridharadas, editor-at-large at Time magazine and author of “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World.” His recent piece for The New York Times is titled “The Billionaire Election: Does the world belong to them or to us?"]

Glasser, Susan B. "The Coronavirus Election." The New Yorker Radio Hour (March 27, 2020) ["It’s been just over a month since Donald Trump tweeted for the first time about the coronavirus—saying, in essence, that the virus did not pose a substantial threat to the United States. Why did he so dramatically underplay the risks of COVID-19? “With Trump, sometimes the answer is pretty transparent,” The New Yorker’s Washington correspondent, Susan B. Glasser, told David Remnick, “and, in this case, I think the answer is pretty transparent. He didn’t want anything to interrupt his reëlection campaign plan, which entirely hinged on the strength of the U.S. economy.” Even as the virus spreads, Trump has criticized widespread self-isolation orders and made overtures toward reopening businesses to revitalize the economy. Meanwhile, Joe Biden, Trump’s likely Democratic Presidential opponent, has refrained from openly antagonizing the President. Glasser weighs this tactic: “Do you attack Trump right now, or do you just sort of stand out of the way and let him shoot himself in the foot?”"]

Glenza, Jessica. "The One-Woman Lobby Machine Behind the 'Heartbeat' Bills." On the Media (May 17, 2019) ["For decades, the anti-abortion movement has tried to chip away at Roe v. Wade by putting up obstacles to abortion access through restrictions on clinics. Now the tactics seem to be shifting, as evidenced by this week's new abortion ban in Alabama and a series of so-called "heartbeat" bills passed in several states in recent months. For nearly a decade, Janet Porter has been a one-woman lobbying machine with her group Faith2Action. She's railed against gay marriage, advocated for "conversion therapy," and championed the racist birther conspiracy theory. She has also been pushing for a so-called "heartbeat" bill which would ban abortions after six weeks, a move that used to divide abortion groups. Jessica Glenza is a health reporter from The Guardian who recently profiled Porter. This week, she spoke to Bob about why the term "heartbeat" bill is misleading and what Porter's tactics and politics tell us about how anti-abortion groups are operating."]

Gordon, Paul. "Billionaires Score Big Win With McCutcheon Decision." Truthout (April 10, 2014)

Graves, Lisa. "A CMD Special Report: Scott Walker Runs on Koch Money." PR Watch (February 18, 2011)

Harris, Frederick C. "The Price of a Black President." The New York Times (October 28, 2012)

Jaffe, Sarah and Joshua Holland. "Which Bank Is the Worst for America? 5 Behemoths That Hold Our Political System Hostage." AlterNet (October 20, 2011)

Johnson, Hannibal B. "'Disruptor on Road to Reconciliation': Trump Doubles Down on Rally in Tulsa, Site of 1921 Massacre." Democracy Now (June 17, 2020) ["President Donald Trump says he will push ahead with a massive campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday, even as COVID cases are surging there as the state reopens. Trump delayed the rally by one day after it was originally scheduled for June 19, Juneteenth, a celebration marking the emancipation of enslaved people. Tulsa is also the site of one of the deadliest massacres in U.S. history, when a white mob in 1921 killed as many as 300 people in a thriving African American business district. “The rally is troubling to a lot of people because of both the venue, Tulsa, and because of the timing,” says Hannibal B. Johnson, attorney and author of “Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District.”"]

Johnson, Jake. "Anand Giridharadas on Sanders' Victory in Nevada: 'A Wake Up Moment for the American Power Establishment.'" Common Dreams (February 23, 2020)

Johnston, David Cay. "The corporations that occupy Congress." Reuters (December 20, 2011)

Kaiser, Brittany. "Meet Brittany Kaiser, Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower Releasing Troves of New Files from Data Firm." Democracy Now (January 7, 2020) ["New details are emerging about how the shadowy data firm Cambridge Analytica worked to manipulate voters across the globe, from the 2016 election in the United States to the Brexit campaign in Britain and elections in over 60 other countries, including Malaysia, Kenya and Brazil. A new trove of internal Cambridge Analytica documents and emails are being posted on Twitter detailing the company’s operations, including its work with President Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton. The documents come from Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Brittany Kaiser, who worked at the firm for three-and-a-half years before leaving in 2018. We speak with Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer, co-directors of the Oscar shortlisted documentary “The Great Hack”; Brittany Kaiser, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower featured in “The Great Hack” and author of “Targeted: The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower’s Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again”; and Emma Briant, a visiting research associate in human rights at Bard College whose upcoming book is titled “Propaganda Machine: Inside Cambridge Analytica and the Digital Influence Industry.”" Part Two: "The Great Hack: Big Data Firms Helped Sway the 2016 Election. Could It Happen Again in 2020?"  Part Three: "Propaganda Machine: The Military Roots of Cambridge Analytica’s Psychological Manipulation of Voters."]

Karma, Roge. "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Myth of American Innovation." The Prospect (March 6, 2019) ["The intrepid New Yorker pulls back the curtain on how private companies profit from taxpayer-funded research."]

Kroll, Andy. "'The Next Citizens United': McCutcheon Opens Floodgates for 1 Percent to Spend Millions on Campaigns." Democracy Now (April 3, 2014)

Lakoff, George. "How to Use the Language of “Systemic Causation” To Talk About Climate Change." Uprising Radio (November 1, 2012)

Leonard, Annie. "The Story of Citizens United v. FEC." The Story of Stuff (2011)

Linkins, Jason. "How Pizza Became A Vegetable Through The Magic Of Influence-Peddling." Huffington Post (November 16, 2011)

Liptak, Adam. "Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit." The New York Times (January 22, 2010)

Maguire, Robert. "Despite Disclosure, Dark Money Stays Dark in Nevada." Open Secrets (March 31, 2014)

Marcetic, Branko. "How Washington Hacked Mongolia's Democracy." Jacobin (November 29, 2017)

McChesney, Robert W. and John Nichols. "The Bull Market: Political Advertising." Monthly Review (April 1, 2012)

Mitchell, Jerry and Dawn Porter. "Spies of Mississippi: New Film on the State-Sponsored Campaign to Defeat the Civil Rights Movement." and "PART 2: Interview with "Spies of Mississippi" Director and Reporter Jerry Mitchell." Democracy Now (February 25, 2014)

Mosher, Holly and Jonah Minkoff-Zern. "What is At Stake in Supreme Court’s McCutcheon Ruling?" Uprising Radio (March 24, 2014)

Nichols, John. "Walker Survives Wisconsin Recall After GOP, Corporate Backers Rally and Dems Stay on Sidelines." Democracy Now (June 6, 2012)

"Not My Zion: American Jews Divided on Israel and Palestine." Making Contact (August 16, 2011)

Omar, Ilhan. "Ilhan Omar in Her Own Words: I Know What Hate Feels Like." Democracy Now (March 8, 2019) ["The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a resolution Thursday condemning anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim discrimination, white supremacy and other forms of hate. The vote was 407 to 23, with nearly two dozen Republicans voting against it. The vote capped a week of intense debate among congressional Democrats that began after some lawmakers accused Democratic Congress member Ilhan Omar of invoking anti-Semitic tropes while questioning U.S. foreign policy on Israel at an event last week. Omar said, “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.” While the media has largely focused on this single sentence in her remarks, few have heard her broader comments. We hear from Ilhan Omar in her own words, speaking last week at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C." Part 2: "It’s Time to Tell the Truth: Israeli Journalist Gideon Levy Supports Ilhan Omar’s Critique of Israel." and Part 3: "Debate over Ilhan Omar Highlights New Willingness in U.S. to Question Power of Pro-Israeli Lobby."]

Plouffe, David. "Campaign Strategist David Plouffe on Making a Difference in the 2020 Election." The Literary Life (March 13, 2020) ["David Plouffe, Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign mastermind, joins Mitchell to discuss his new book, A Citizen’s Guide to Beating Donald Trump and Ripples of Hope, a middle-grade nonfiction project about the United States’ election process, and shares his advice on how to defend against misinformation online, creating and spreading content, and motivating all citizens to get out and vote on November 3, 2020."]

Pollan, Michael. "Vote for the Dinner Party." New York Times Magazine (October 10, 2012)

Rao, Ankita. "Trump doesn’t seem to understand how voting works. Here’s what you need to know." The Guardian (September 4, 2020)

"Ron Paul: In His Own Words." Daily Kos (May 15, 2007)

Roy, Arundhati. "Is India on a Totalitarian Path? Arundhati Roy on Corporatism, Nationalism and World’s Largest Vote." Democracy Now (April 9, 2014)

Sanders, Bernie. "Supreme Court Undermines Democracy by Allowing Billionaires to "Buy Elections." Democracy Now (April 3, 2014)

Shiva, Vandana. "Prop 37, GMOs, Food Sovereignty, and More." Uprising Radio (October 31, 2012)

"Southern Sudan Referendum 2011" Global Voices [Online archive of citizen media reports]

Tabb, William K. "The Crisis: A View From Occupied America." The Monthly Review 64.4 (September 2012)

Taibbi, Matt. "Russia Isn't Dividing Us - Our Leaders Are." Rolling Stone (February 24, 2020)

"The United States of ALEC: Bill Moyers on the Secretive Corporate-Legislative Body Writing Our Laws." Democracy Now (September 27, 2012)

Wade, Lisa. "History Repeating Itself: Discriminatory Voting Laws." Sociological Images (July 1, 2013)

Walker, Alice. "'Democratic Womanism': Women Rising, Obama and the 2012 Election." Democracy Now (September 28, 2012)

Wilder, Forrest. "Rick Perry's Army of God." Texas Observer (August 3, 2011)

Wilder, Forrest and Anthea Butler. "Rick Perry and Conservative Christian Politics." Radio West (August 19, 2011)

Wu, Timothy. "America's First Lesson in the Power and Peril of Concentrated Control Over the Flow of Information." Excerpt from The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires. Alfred A. Knopf, 2010: 22-24.

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