Remembering Michael Brooks, troubles at Fox, and AOC hits ‘em with a 🤷
it’s been a tough week so far, how ya holdin' up?
Good morning everyone. It’s been a tough week for us but we’re still barreling through this whole thing—a feeling I’m sure many of you are in the midst of yourself.
Remembering Michael Brooks: who suddenly and unexpectedly passed away on Monday. The journalist and radio host meant a great deal to many, particularly leftists in America and across the world. We want to honor him and his legacy.
The latest on Fox News: the network has been hit by a lawsuit regarding sexual misconduct. Plus, Tucker Carlson is seemingly inciting violence against The New York Times.
AOC has introduced a new bill in the wake of Portland: and it comes at a time when Trump’s use of federal officers is seemingly ramping up. Some other AOC news, too.
Let’s get to it.
REST IN POWER
Remembering Author and Commentator Michael Brooks
Michael Brooks was a person of amazing influence. On Monday, he passed away suddenly as a result of a blood clot in his throat.
There are a lot of amazing people coming together to remember him right now. If you’re familiar with his work, you may want to watch the Majority Report memorial episode from yesterday. You may also want to read the Jacobin piece. If you’re not familiar with him, I urge you to check out his book, his many appearances on The Majority Report, and his own show, The Michael Brooks Show.
Beyond that, here are some of my thoughts on the late and great Michael Brooks.
A Titan of Leftism
In America, there are seldom few leftists with any sway. People may know Noam Chomsky or have heard of The Young Turks, but if you decided in the past five years or so that you wanted to imagine a better, more just world, there weren’t many figures in the media to look to. Michael Brooks was one of the few.
He wasn’t just filling a void, though. He was genuinely great at what he did. He was able to synthesize some of the most thoughtful commentary on the international leftist struggle with some of the most thoughtful humor around.
Brooks had an infectious laugh as much as he had infectious beliefs. As a young leftist, I wasn’t exposed to many ideas outside of domestic policy—but Brooks made you think about the global south and what solidarity really looks like.
Bottom line: goddamn, is this a monumental loss for the leftist community or what? I’ve been feeling devastated. The fight marches on, but for now, take a pause and watch this clip:
FOX NEWS
Fox News Hit by Sexual Misconduct Lawsuit, Tucker vs. The Times
Fox News. Things aren’t looking so great over there. Two stories regarding the network today: the first being that they’ve been hit with a lawsuit regarding alleged rape by former correspondent Ed Henry as well as sexual assault by Sean Hannity, Howard Kurtz, and Tucker Carlson. Speaking of Carlson, our second story is about his feud with The New York Times.
The Lawsuit
Two women have come forward in a lawsuit that not only accuses several employees of misconduct but that the management as a whole failed to act over at least some of the allegations that they were aware of.
The most serious allegation: former Fox Business Network associate producer Jennifer Eckhart has accused former chief national correspondent Ed Henry of manipulating, grooming, and raping her. Henry was fired earlier this month after details of the complaint surfaced and claim they had received no prior sexual harassment claims against him.
Another former Fox employee, Cathy Areu, has come forward as well. She says that Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Howard Kurtz all made inappropriate comments that constitute sexual harassment. Fox News says the claims are “false, patently frivolous and utterly devoid of any merit.”
The network has a history of alleged inappropriate conduct within the workplace.
The Feud
Monday, Fox News host and fascist boy-man Tucker Carlson made a pretty startling accusation: he was being doxxed and his family was being put in danger by...The New York Times.
Seems pretty strange, right? That’s not a journalistic practice that usually goes down but Tucker states it’s because they “hate [his] politics” and want to “inflict pain on [his] family.”
Here’s where it gets dicey. Carlson then goes on to say that a New York Times writer and activist Murray Carpenter was to be the author of this piece. He shows a photo of Carpenter and also drops the full name of his photographer before eerily asking, “how would [they] feel if we told you where they live, if we put pictures of their homes on the air? We could do that. We know who they are.”
Unsurprisingly, this led to a wave of Carlson’s fans posting the personal info of the reporter. Carlson was clearly inciting violence against these journalists.
The New York Times responded by stating that the paper “does not plan to publish Tucker Carlson’s residence, which Carlson was aware of before his broadcast tonight.”
By the way, he didn’t use his show to address anything about that above sexual harassment lawsuit. Unsurprising.
Bottom line: Fox News is a mess and they’re all awful people. Carlson in particular is a disgusting little man; he’s manufacturing a war against a media outlet (and doxxing journalists in the process) to distract from the fact that he’s a creep who shouldn’t have a platform.
AOC
AOC’s New Bill & Her Ability to Shrug Things Off
AOC is a threat to everything Republicans stand for. That’s not some understatement; she’s the single most effective force that has mobilized against the Republican agenda in a long time. Don’t believe me? That’s fine, time will tell, but let’s take a look at the latest in AOC news.
The Bill
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is introducing a bill, along with D.C. delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, that would require federal law enforcement officials to clearly identify themselves.
The bill would necessitate on-duty agents to display their agency name, last name, and identification number. It would also create a new oversight process within the Justice Department that would result in audits by its inspector general and the audits could then be reviewed by Congress.
This is clearly in response to what’s going on in Portland and what may bleed into other cities: Trump has already deployed federal agents to act as secret police in Portland and has threatened to do so in Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, and elsewhere as well.
The beauty in what AOC is doing is that it’s just so darn simple. It’s hard to think of a reason that anyone who isn’t an open fascist wouldn’t support this. It exposes the fundamental issues with the Trumpian era in one simple, basic piece of legislation, because even if you think what federal agents in Portland are doing is justified, you’d be much harder pressed to justify them doing so under the guise of anonymity.
Similar legislation has been proposed by Oregon’s Sen. Jeff Merkley as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act budget bill, which would also require on-duty federal agents to clearly display identifying information. It would also limit the scope of the jurisdiction of those agents to federal property or any public property that is immediately adjacent to federal property. Lastly, it’d require both a state’s governor and a city’s mayor to make a joint request before agents would be deployed; this would make the requirements for deploying these agents even more difficult than deploying the National Guard, as an example, which seems like a good thing.
The Slur
The Republican fixation on AOC isn’t, like many right-wing positions, merely pathological. These chuds realize that the only reason they’ve been able to gain so much political power over the past handful of decades is because of the ineffectiveness of their political opponents. AOC represents a change in that old guard; a willingness to combat much of the rot that has made its way into the veins of America.
That’s why they get so darn angry at her—including Republican lawmaker and general shithead Ted Yoho of Florida, who reportedly called AOC a “fucking bitch” after a heated argument on Capitol Hill.
AOC’s response: “I never spoke to Rep. Yoho before he decided to accost me on the steps of the nation’s Capitol yesterday. Believe it or not, I usually get along fine w/ my GOP colleagues. We know how to check our legislative sparring at the committee door. But hey, “b*tches” get stuff done. 🤷”
Bottom line: AOC isn’t perfect but she’s clearing doing something right and broadly appeals to both leftists and liberals. Her ability to go on the offense, shrug things off defensively, and unite Democrats—all while touting (some) serious leftist chops—makes her our biggest asset in electoral politics right now.
Call us naive. We truly believe that the kind of coordinated campaign to ruin her public image via lies and misogyny, the same kind that was deployed against Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton for decades, will not work on AOC. Here’s to hoping that she will not bend, she will not break.
END OF THE LINE...
That’s it for today.
That’s what we’ve got. Remember, we’re only able to do this every day because of readers like you. Drop your friends, family, or anyone else whose email you happen to have a referral link and help us grow. We’d truly appreciate it.
Have a good one,
The Bread Line
we’re listening to:
(I woke up in the middle of the night and swapped this song out last minute. I think it describes an image that Michael Brooks may have found favorable; perhaps that’s just me projecting, but I think it’s really something beautiful.)