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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
February 7, 2026
"it also seems to have been an attempt to use racism to break the growing coalition against him"
February 6, 2026
Heather Cox Richardson
Feb 07, 2026
Late last night, President Donald J. Trump’s social media account posted a video full of debunked claims about the 2020 presidential election that included an image of former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama with their heads attached to the bodies of apes.
Predictably, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt derided the “fake outrage” over the image, but as Tim Grieve of NOTUS explained, when Republican senators Tim Scott of South Carolina, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, and Roger Wicker of Mississippi called out the racism behind the post, the president deleted the video and a White House official said that a “staffer erroneously made the post,” as if somehow a staffer could post random racist videos from the president’s account in the middle of the night. As soon as they could blame the post on a staffer, Republicans rushed to condemn the post’s racism.
Later tonight on Air Force One, Trump said that he had posted it himself. When a reporter asked if he would apologize, he said, “No, I didn’t make a mistake.”
While the post exhibited both the president’s vile racism and his failing impulse control, it also seems to have been an attempt to use racism to break the growing coalition against him. As when they arrested Black journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort as well as Black protesters at a church while leaving white protesters free, Trump and his allies are hammering on racial fault lines. As with the ape trope, the White House went so far as to digitally alter a photograph of church protester and civil rights activist Nekima Levy Armstrong, who appeared to be quite composed during her arrest, to make her look blacker and as if she is sobbing in terror. ........................(more)
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-6-2026
February 7, 2026
TikToker Gray Davis (@gray.davis) recently made waves with a series of videos highlighting the way it's "raining iguanas" in Florida thanks to the cold weather.
"Since iguanas are cold-blooded and sleep up in the trees, when they get too cold, they no longer can hang on and they end up falling to the ground," he explained, showing various lifeless-looking reptiles.
Despite their appearance, he says that they usually do just fine once they're warmed up. However, green iguanas are considered invasive to Florida, and because of the weather, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) temporarily allowed residents to remove and dispose of cold-stunned iguanas without a permit.
Making iguana tacos
Davis, who is known for his TikToks exploring how to legally and safely turn Florida wildlife and plants into sustenance, decided to take a fairly unique approach to this problem.
"Whenever we have these cold fronts and they start falling down, a lot of people will go out and collect them to help control the number in the population," he said. "But they do have the nickname 'chicken of the trees' because they're absolutely delicious. So rather than let this one go to waste, we're going to make tacos." .................(more)
https://dailydot.com/florida-man-makes-iguana-tacos
"21 souls in one meal is crazy": Florida man makes iguana tacos as cold-stunned reptiles fall from trees
TikToker Gray Davis (@gray.davis) recently made waves with a series of videos highlighting the way it's "raining iguanas" in Florida thanks to the cold weather.
"Since iguanas are cold-blooded and sleep up in the trees, when they get too cold, they no longer can hang on and they end up falling to the ground," he explained, showing various lifeless-looking reptiles.
Despite their appearance, he says that they usually do just fine once they're warmed up. However, green iguanas are considered invasive to Florida, and because of the weather, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) temporarily allowed residents to remove and dispose of cold-stunned iguanas without a permit.
Making iguana tacos
Davis, who is known for his TikToks exploring how to legally and safely turn Florida wildlife and plants into sustenance, decided to take a fairly unique approach to this problem.
"Whenever we have these cold fronts and they start falling down, a lot of people will go out and collect them to help control the number in the population," he said. "But they do have the nickname 'chicken of the trees' because they're absolutely delicious. So rather than let this one go to waste, we're going to make tacos." .................(more)
https://dailydot.com/florida-man-makes-iguana-tacos
February 7, 2026
The Epstein files reveal that a vast global conspiracy actually exists – sort of
J Oliver Conroy
(Guardian UK) The millions of Jeffrey Epstein files dumped last Friday by the US Department of Justice will provide journalists, conspiracy theorists and interested members of the public with months of reading. And what they will read is enraging.
What makes these files so infuriating, however, is not just Epstein’s horrific predatory behavior, which is well-known, but the more mundane examples of elite conduct that the documents continue to expose. They vividly illustrate a world whose existence many everyday people, whether fevered with visions of the Illuminati or just jaundiced by banal anti-establishment cynicism, already suspected exists: an informal global club of powerful, ultra-rich people who all seemingly know each other, help one another out, and protect each other from the consequences of their depravity.
....(snip)....
Yet the files, especially Epstein’s typo-filled email and text-message correspondences, are fascinating – and ultimately grim – in what they show of how elites act in private, among themselves. At the least, many of Epstein’s powerful acquaintances remained friendly with him years after the notoriously lenient sweetheart bargain, in 2008, in which he pleaded guilty to soliciting an underage girl for prostitution, and as survivors continued to accuse Epstein of further crimes.
Donald Trump’s own decades-long friendship with Epstein is already well known, and seems to have ended in a falling-out sometime around 2004; the new files do not appear so far to implicate him in wrongdoing. But they do highlight Epstein’s social ties with other members of the US president’s coterie, including the current US secretary of commerce, Howard Lutnick. According to the files, Lutnick may have visited Epstein’s private island in 2012. (Lutnick disputes this, and recently told the New York Times: “I spent zero time with him.”) ..................(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/07/epstein-files-global-conspiracy
The Epstein files reveal that a vast global conspiracy actually exists - sort of
The Epstein files reveal that a vast global conspiracy actually exists – sort of
J Oliver Conroy
(Guardian UK) The millions of Jeffrey Epstein files dumped last Friday by the US Department of Justice will provide journalists, conspiracy theorists and interested members of the public with months of reading. And what they will read is enraging.
What makes these files so infuriating, however, is not just Epstein’s horrific predatory behavior, which is well-known, but the more mundane examples of elite conduct that the documents continue to expose. They vividly illustrate a world whose existence many everyday people, whether fevered with visions of the Illuminati or just jaundiced by banal anti-establishment cynicism, already suspected exists: an informal global club of powerful, ultra-rich people who all seemingly know each other, help one another out, and protect each other from the consequences of their depravity.
....(snip)....
Yet the files, especially Epstein’s typo-filled email and text-message correspondences, are fascinating – and ultimately grim – in what they show of how elites act in private, among themselves. At the least, many of Epstein’s powerful acquaintances remained friendly with him years after the notoriously lenient sweetheart bargain, in 2008, in which he pleaded guilty to soliciting an underage girl for prostitution, and as survivors continued to accuse Epstein of further crimes.
Donald Trump’s own decades-long friendship with Epstein is already well known, and seems to have ended in a falling-out sometime around 2004; the new files do not appear so far to implicate him in wrongdoing. But they do highlight Epstein’s social ties with other members of the US president’s coterie, including the current US secretary of commerce, Howard Lutnick. According to the files, Lutnick may have visited Epstein’s private island in 2012. (Lutnick disputes this, and recently told the New York Times: “I spent zero time with him.”) ..................(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/07/epstein-files-global-conspiracy
February 7, 2026
(Guardian) Donald Trump set off alarm bells earlier this week with comments that his administration should “take over the voting” in some states in the run-up to the 2026 midterms, which followed an unprecedented FBI raid on an election office in Georgia. Although election experts say it’s clear the president doesn’t have authority over elections, they warn the president’s corrosive rhetoric leaves little doubt about his intent.
For months, the Trump administration has stoked doubts about the integrity of American elections largely through lawsuits designed to create the impression states aren’t doing enough to keep ineligible voters off the rolls. That effort escalated significantly last week when the FBI raided the election office in Fulton county, Georgia and seized ballots, along with other materials, related to the 2020 election. Shortly after the raid, Trump escalated his attack even further, saying the federal government should take over elections.
“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,’” he said during a recent interview with Dan Bongino, the former deputy FBI director who has returned to hosting a podcast. “We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many – 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
Democracy experts believe there is no longer any doubt about Trump’s desire to interfere with this fall’s elections.
“We should not be waiting for the next shoe to drop,” said Wendy Weiser, vice-president for democracy at the Brennan Center for Justice. “There is a full-blown effort to seize control of some of the mechanisms of our elections and to lay the foundation for interfering in upcoming elections.” ...................(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/07/trump-interference-voting-midterms
Alarm bells sound over Trump's 'take over the voting' call
(Guardian) Donald Trump set off alarm bells earlier this week with comments that his administration should “take over the voting” in some states in the run-up to the 2026 midterms, which followed an unprecedented FBI raid on an election office in Georgia. Although election experts say it’s clear the president doesn’t have authority over elections, they warn the president’s corrosive rhetoric leaves little doubt about his intent.
For months, the Trump administration has stoked doubts about the integrity of American elections largely through lawsuits designed to create the impression states aren’t doing enough to keep ineligible voters off the rolls. That effort escalated significantly last week when the FBI raided the election office in Fulton county, Georgia and seized ballots, along with other materials, related to the 2020 election. Shortly after the raid, Trump escalated his attack even further, saying the federal government should take over elections.
“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,’” he said during a recent interview with Dan Bongino, the former deputy FBI director who has returned to hosting a podcast. “We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many – 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
Democracy experts believe there is no longer any doubt about Trump’s desire to interfere with this fall’s elections.
“We should not be waiting for the next shoe to drop,” said Wendy Weiser, vice-president for democracy at the Brennan Center for Justice. “There is a full-blown effort to seize control of some of the mechanisms of our elections and to lay the foundation for interfering in upcoming elections.” ...................(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/07/trump-interference-voting-midterms
February 7, 2026
Federal and state authorities are taking a 2-pronged approach to make it harder to get an abortion
Published: February 6, 2026 8:41am EST
Naomi Cahn
Professor of Law, University of Virginia
Sonia Suter
Professor of Law, George Washington University
(Salon) Anti-abortion conservatives have long sought to force Planned Parenthood’s clinics to close their doors and to make it harder, if not impossible, to get abortion pills as part of a two-pronged approach to limit access to abortion.
First, undermine Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers by questioning their credibility and block their funding. Second, try to ban mifepristone – a drug used in more than half of all abortions – in part by saying it’s unsafe.
....(snip)....
Attacking Planned Parenthood
Opponents of abortion rights are attacking Planned Parenthood because its clinics perform hundreds of thousands of abortions, in addition to more than 9 million other procedures, every year.
....(snip)....
Conservative-led states are taking aim at the nonprofit with both litigation and legislation.
For example, the attorneys general of Missouri and Florida allege in 2025 lawsuits that Planned Parenthood’s website “lies” about the safety of mifepristone. ...............(more)
https://theconversation.com/federal-and-state-authorities-are-taking-a-2-pronged-approach-to-make-it-harder-to-get-an-abortion-271378
Federal and state authorities are taking a 2-pronged approach to make it harder to get an abortion
Federal and state authorities are taking a 2-pronged approach to make it harder to get an abortion
Published: February 6, 2026 8:41am EST
Naomi Cahn
Professor of Law, University of Virginia
Sonia Suter
Professor of Law, George Washington University
(Salon) Anti-abortion conservatives have long sought to force Planned Parenthood’s clinics to close their doors and to make it harder, if not impossible, to get abortion pills as part of a two-pronged approach to limit access to abortion.
First, undermine Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers by questioning their credibility and block their funding. Second, try to ban mifepristone – a drug used in more than half of all abortions – in part by saying it’s unsafe.
....(snip)....
Attacking Planned Parenthood
Opponents of abortion rights are attacking Planned Parenthood because its clinics perform hundreds of thousands of abortions, in addition to more than 9 million other procedures, every year.
....(snip)....
Conservative-led states are taking aim at the nonprofit with both litigation and legislation.
For example, the attorneys general of Missouri and Florida allege in 2025 lawsuits that Planned Parenthood’s website “lies” about the safety of mifepristone. ...............(more)
https://theconversation.com/federal-and-state-authorities-are-taking-a-2-pronged-approach-to-make-it-harder-to-get-an-abortion-271378
February 7, 2026
Donald Trump is still weird
Democrats have moved away from the useful insult, but that doesn’t make it less true
By Alex Galbraith
Nights and Weekends Editor
Published February 7, 2026 6:30AM (EST)
(Salon) The grievance machine humming under the hood of conservative politics is always racing, but it’s extremely fuel-efficient. Republicans are still running on decades-old tropes about a welfare state that, to a large degree, no longer exists. They’re still fuming about Covid lockdowns, even though the total length of those could be counted in days. And if you get a real GOP dinosaur talking, you might even hear a rant about “Obama phones” or the Affordable Care Act’s supposed “death panels.”
None of this should come as a surprise. Their figurehead, Donald Trump, is a paragon of eternal grudge-holding. He rode his resentment at being iced out of Manhattan parties all the way to the White House, and his beefs have steered American politics through a long red-a*sed decade. In his second term, Trump has put the full power of the state behind repeatedly debunked conspiracies about criminal immigrants and how the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him by Joe Biden and Democrats, with the help of everyone from Venezuela to China. It was this latter grievance that got him in hot water on Friday morning, after he shared a video on Truth Social that resurrected his false claims of widespread voter fraud and international conspiracy and also included a racist clip of former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as apes. (After Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially defended the post amid bipartisan criticism, it was deleted and the White House blamed an unidentified staffer. On Friday evening, the president refused to apologize.)
....(snip)....
All this makes it even more infuriating that the messaging gurus of Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign abandoned the “weird” tag so quickly. The insult, which was first launched at Trump and Vice President JD Vance by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, clearly rattled a party that conceives of itself as the voice of the average American. (The epithet was also largely responsible for elevating Walz to become Harris’ running mate.) In response, the GOP attempted to flip the script in classic rubber-glue playground fashion. Democrats were “the weird ones,” Trump said. “I’m a lot of things, but weird I’m not.”
....(snip)....
But Walz was right. These guys really are weird. The average American doesn’t know who former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter is, let alone why they should hate him on Trump’s behalf. They’re not privy to the power politics of Manhattan after parties. And Vance’s shift from liberal-Appalachian whisperer to a pseudo-Groyper veep betrays a craven desire for power that most of the country would find off-putting. ...................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2026/02/07/donald-trump-is-still-weird/
Donald Trump is still weird
Donald Trump is still weird
Democrats have moved away from the useful insult, but that doesn’t make it less true
By Alex Galbraith
Nights and Weekends Editor
Published February 7, 2026 6:30AM (EST)
(Salon) The grievance machine humming under the hood of conservative politics is always racing, but it’s extremely fuel-efficient. Republicans are still running on decades-old tropes about a welfare state that, to a large degree, no longer exists. They’re still fuming about Covid lockdowns, even though the total length of those could be counted in days. And if you get a real GOP dinosaur talking, you might even hear a rant about “Obama phones” or the Affordable Care Act’s supposed “death panels.”
None of this should come as a surprise. Their figurehead, Donald Trump, is a paragon of eternal grudge-holding. He rode his resentment at being iced out of Manhattan parties all the way to the White House, and his beefs have steered American politics through a long red-a*sed decade. In his second term, Trump has put the full power of the state behind repeatedly debunked conspiracies about criminal immigrants and how the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him by Joe Biden and Democrats, with the help of everyone from Venezuela to China. It was this latter grievance that got him in hot water on Friday morning, after he shared a video on Truth Social that resurrected his false claims of widespread voter fraud and international conspiracy and also included a racist clip of former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as apes. (After Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially defended the post amid bipartisan criticism, it was deleted and the White House blamed an unidentified staffer. On Friday evening, the president refused to apologize.)
....(snip)....
All this makes it even more infuriating that the messaging gurus of Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign abandoned the “weird” tag so quickly. The insult, which was first launched at Trump and Vice President JD Vance by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, clearly rattled a party that conceives of itself as the voice of the average American. (The epithet was also largely responsible for elevating Walz to become Harris’ running mate.) In response, the GOP attempted to flip the script in classic rubber-glue playground fashion. Democrats were “the weird ones,” Trump said. “I’m a lot of things, but weird I’m not.”
....(snip)....
But Walz was right. These guys really are weird. The average American doesn’t know who former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter is, let alone why they should hate him on Trump’s behalf. They’re not privy to the power politics of Manhattan after parties. And Vance’s shift from liberal-Appalachian whisperer to a pseudo-Groyper veep betrays a craven desire for power that most of the country would find off-putting. ...................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2026/02/07/donald-trump-is-still-weird/
February 6, 2026
(Detroit Free Press) Leysi Palacio-Mora, 39, opens the back door of her Ypsilanti child care center.
She’s walking through what would happen if agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement came to the site: kids go to the back with staff while Palacio-Mora goes out the front to try to confirm the ICE agent’s identity and ask for a warrant. In case of an emergency, kids evacuate out the back to a nearby business.
“Imagine wrangling 20 babies out the back to get safe,” she said.
Palacio-Mora is one of several child care providers in Ypsilanti, a city with a significant foreign-born population, who say they’re trying to figure out how to best protect kids and families and address parent fears as reports of ICE enforcement increase locally.
While a local spokesman for ICE said they do not target schools or bus stops for enforcement actions aimed at arresting unauthorized immigrants, there are reports of parents being detained shortly after student drop off or pick-ups in Michigan. Despite reassurances from federal officials, many are worried and are preparing. .................(more)
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2026/02/06/ice-enforcement-child-cares-providers-prepare/88475027007/
ICE rumors, fears push Ypsilanti child care centers to prepare for the worst
(Detroit Free Press) Leysi Palacio-Mora, 39, opens the back door of her Ypsilanti child care center.
She’s walking through what would happen if agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement came to the site: kids go to the back with staff while Palacio-Mora goes out the front to try to confirm the ICE agent’s identity and ask for a warrant. In case of an emergency, kids evacuate out the back to a nearby business.
“Imagine wrangling 20 babies out the back to get safe,” she said.
Palacio-Mora is one of several child care providers in Ypsilanti, a city with a significant foreign-born population, who say they’re trying to figure out how to best protect kids and families and address parent fears as reports of ICE enforcement increase locally.
While a local spokesman for ICE said they do not target schools or bus stops for enforcement actions aimed at arresting unauthorized immigrants, there are reports of parents being detained shortly after student drop off or pick-ups in Michigan. Despite reassurances from federal officials, many are worried and are preparing. .................(more)
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2026/02/06/ice-enforcement-child-cares-providers-prepare/88475027007/
February 6, 2026
Pam Bondi has a Fox News problem
From cable news hits to viral X posts, top DOJ figures are igniting backlash — and exposing deeper dysfunction
By Sophia Tesfaye
Senior Writer
Published February 6, 2026 6:30AM (EST)
(Salon) From the Epstein files to gun rights to immigration enforcement, senior Justice Department officials keep running to Fox News to freelance policy and signal loyalty to Donald Trump. But in the process, they are also riling up the MAGA coalition. Each media appearance creates a new mess that career lawyers then have to clean up. At this point, the most responsible thing Attorney General Pam Bondi could do is confiscate the department’s television remotes and log everyone out of their social media accounts. But restraint has never been the MAGA brand.
Consider Jeanine Pirro, the former co-host of “The Five” on Fox News before she was confirmed as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Pirro recently returned to her old network and vowed to arrest gun owners who bring firearms into the District, even if they are licensed elsewhere. “You bring a gun into the District, you mark my words, you’re going to jail,” she told Fox’s Martha MacCallum on Monday. “I don’t care if you have a license in another district and I don’t care if you’re a law-abiding gun owner somewhere else.”
The reaction was swift and furious on the right.
....(snip)....
The Fox News habit shows up again in the handling of the Epstein files, where senior officials seem desperate to minimize embarrassment to the powerful. Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general and Trump’s former personal defense lawyer, went on the network this week to reassure viewers that partying with Jeffrey Epstein “is not a crime.” He offered this absolution in the context of revelations that CBS News’ new hire Peter Attia, a health and wellness influencer, appears more than 1,700 times in newly released Epstein documents.
....(snip)....
While prosecutors are drowning in habeas corpus petitions and judges are losing patience, Bondi herself is finding time to go on Fox News and threaten journalists. Discussing the recent arrest of Don Lemon, who was charged with federal civil rights violations for entering an evangelical church in St. Paul to report on an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest, Bondi did not hedge or walk anything back. “We’re going to prosecute you, and you will be held accountable,” she said on “Hannity” this week. “Doesn’t matter if you’re a failed journalist with a camera in your hand, you can’t do it.” ..........(more)
https://www.salon.com/2026/02/06/pam-bondi-has-a-fox-news-problem/
Pam Bondi has a Fox News problem
Pam Bondi has a Fox News problem
From cable news hits to viral X posts, top DOJ figures are igniting backlash — and exposing deeper dysfunction
By Sophia Tesfaye
Senior Writer
Published February 6, 2026 6:30AM (EST)
(Salon) From the Epstein files to gun rights to immigration enforcement, senior Justice Department officials keep running to Fox News to freelance policy and signal loyalty to Donald Trump. But in the process, they are also riling up the MAGA coalition. Each media appearance creates a new mess that career lawyers then have to clean up. At this point, the most responsible thing Attorney General Pam Bondi could do is confiscate the department’s television remotes and log everyone out of their social media accounts. But restraint has never been the MAGA brand.
Consider Jeanine Pirro, the former co-host of “The Five” on Fox News before she was confirmed as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Pirro recently returned to her old network and vowed to arrest gun owners who bring firearms into the District, even if they are licensed elsewhere. “You bring a gun into the District, you mark my words, you’re going to jail,” she told Fox’s Martha MacCallum on Monday. “I don’t care if you have a license in another district and I don’t care if you’re a law-abiding gun owner somewhere else.”
The reaction was swift and furious on the right.
....(snip)....
The Fox News habit shows up again in the handling of the Epstein files, where senior officials seem desperate to minimize embarrassment to the powerful. Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general and Trump’s former personal defense lawyer, went on the network this week to reassure viewers that partying with Jeffrey Epstein “is not a crime.” He offered this absolution in the context of revelations that CBS News’ new hire Peter Attia, a health and wellness influencer, appears more than 1,700 times in newly released Epstein documents.
....(snip)....
While prosecutors are drowning in habeas corpus petitions and judges are losing patience, Bondi herself is finding time to go on Fox News and threaten journalists. Discussing the recent arrest of Don Lemon, who was charged with federal civil rights violations for entering an evangelical church in St. Paul to report on an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest, Bondi did not hedge or walk anything back. “We’re going to prosecute you, and you will be held accountable,” she said on “Hannity” this week. “Doesn’t matter if you’re a failed journalist with a camera in your hand, you can’t do it.” ..........(more)
https://www.salon.com/2026/02/06/pam-bondi-has-a-fox-news-problem/
February 6, 2026
What happens when democracy loses its watchdogs
Layoffs at the Washington Post under Jeff Bezos are a dire warning for journalism and government accountability
By Brian Karem
White House columnist
Published February 6, 2026 9:00AM (EST)
(Salon) We need to start paying attention to the cumulative effect of the thousand tiny cuts slowly killing us. In the last decade, our country has changed so much as to be unrecognizable to those of us who came of age in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Yes, I am dating myself.
....(snip)....
And I make this claim and offer the warning because today you can no longer even get sports news in the Washington Post. This week Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Post — the publication that broke the Watergate scandal — decided to kill the newspaper. Forgive me if I think the two news stories are linked and represent the culmination of everything the far-right has tried to do to the press since Richard Nixon irrevocably stained national politics.
....(snip)....
The decisions made by Bezos and his team weren’t made to stop the bleeding, but rather to bring about the quick execution of the venerable newspaper. Closing your sports section is self-defeating. Washington, D.C., is a robust sports town, and it deserves more, not less, coverage. Many readers will pick up the newspaper explicitly for the daily local and professional sports coverage and read the rest of the paper later — if at all. That activity is duplicated on many news websites; large numbers of people subscribe solely for local, regional and national sports.
....(snip)....
The fall of journalism is the fall of a country. That is what is at stake. That is why we need to pay attention. For a democracy to exist, as those who founded this nation taught us, we need a well-informed electorate. Today? We are misinformed and disinformed — and all we do is curse each other. Name the conspiracy and there are millions who believe it. You can find articles validating whatever you think in the online repository of human information on the internet that is readily available to anyone with a smart phone. ......................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2026/02/06/what-happens-when-democracy-loses-its-watchdogs/
Democracy Dies in Daylight
What happens when democracy loses its watchdogs
Layoffs at the Washington Post under Jeff Bezos are a dire warning for journalism and government accountability
By Brian Karem
White House columnist
Published February 6, 2026 9:00AM (EST)
(Salon) We need to start paying attention to the cumulative effect of the thousand tiny cuts slowly killing us. In the last decade, our country has changed so much as to be unrecognizable to those of us who came of age in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Yes, I am dating myself.
....(snip)....
And I make this claim and offer the warning because today you can no longer even get sports news in the Washington Post. This week Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Post — the publication that broke the Watergate scandal — decided to kill the newspaper. Forgive me if I think the two news stories are linked and represent the culmination of everything the far-right has tried to do to the press since Richard Nixon irrevocably stained national politics.
....(snip)....
The decisions made by Bezos and his team weren’t made to stop the bleeding, but rather to bring about the quick execution of the venerable newspaper. Closing your sports section is self-defeating. Washington, D.C., is a robust sports town, and it deserves more, not less, coverage. Many readers will pick up the newspaper explicitly for the daily local and professional sports coverage and read the rest of the paper later — if at all. That activity is duplicated on many news websites; large numbers of people subscribe solely for local, regional and national sports.
....(snip)....
The fall of journalism is the fall of a country. That is what is at stake. That is why we need to pay attention. For a democracy to exist, as those who founded this nation taught us, we need a well-informed electorate. Today? We are misinformed and disinformed — and all we do is curse each other. Name the conspiracy and there are millions who believe it. You can find articles validating whatever you think in the online repository of human information on the internet that is readily available to anyone with a smart phone. ......................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2026/02/06/what-happens-when-democracy-loses-its-watchdogs/
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