"History doesn't always repeat itself, but it often rhymes"--Mark Twain(?) To see how the original Gilded Age prefigured today's Gilded Age, read my new book "Iron Empires," just out from @HMHbooks and available via booksellers everywhere michaelhiltzik.com:
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Michael Hiltzik
@hiltzikm
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, author, mhiltzik@latimes. Read my book Iron Empires and my blog at latimes.com/hiltzik. Find me at @hiltzikm@mstdn.social
Michael Hiltzik’s Tweets
Only 37% of Tennessee’s population are white men. The other 63% are women and/or minorities. Even in a red state it’s never wise to goad those two groups into feeling like they need to turn out and vote in outsized numbers against you. Not to mention they’ve pissed off the youth.
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This stunt ensures that every liberal and moderate in Tennessee will make a point of voting out as many of these Republican state legislators as possible.
It ensures that nationwide money will pour into the Tennessee state legislature elections for the Democrats.
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The Tennessee republican state legislature was getting away with whatever it wanted, with no one paying attention. Their decision to expel three Democrats on false grounds is one of the dumbest, most self defeating political moves of all time. Now EVERYONE is paying attention.
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When people wonder what attracted me to the GOP over 40 years ago, I keep saying: Its confidence and optimism in the American future at a dark time. Today, the Republicans are cowardly opportunists elected by terrified fanatics, all of whom have turned against the American idea.
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Hard to think of an example of cancel culture more blatant than kicking out elected representatives for exercising First Amendment rights. Tennessee republicans aren’t snowflakes, they’re an avalanche
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Serious question: When is the last time a political party did something as insanely self-destructive as what the Tennessee GOP did today?
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Imagine the import of this: A Supreme Court justice thumbing his nose at the law. While John Roberts, the Chief Justice, does and says nothing. This Court, this Roberts Court, will go down in history as the worst since the Taney Court. Maybe the most shameful ever.
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“Without the strong threat of enforcement, a putative public servant like Thomas will thumb his nose at the law,” @Dahlialithwick
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🎯
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Congratulations, @GOP, you just made Justin Jones and Justin Pearson national heroes who the entire nation will rally around in support of democracy and against your flagrant authoritarian abuse of power.
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All these fringe and wanna-be thought leaders that thrive in their conspiratorial bubbles really crave public recognition with the mainstream media... but anytime they get put on by actual journalists and other professionals, they just wet the bed.
A pattern, not an exception 🔽
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Me: "It's just error after error, Matt?"
@mtaibbi: "Well, that is an error."
Watch me confront Matt Taibbi with multiple, unacknowledged, and glaring mistakes in his Twitter Files reporting.
Full @MehdiHasanShow interview later tonight. Preview:
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Column: How America's decline in life expectancy speaks volumes about our problems
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Before anyone criticizes Clarence Thomas, consider the fact that a few Stanford Law students were rude to a Trump judge about a month ago. So both parties are the same.
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Column: America's decline in life expectancy speaks volumes about our problems
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Replying to
ChatGPT is basically a high-school english student bullshitting his way through a 5-page term paper on a book he didn't read the night before it's due.
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You misspelled “crackpot”
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Connor Roy has entered the chat
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is running for president. The 69-year-old anti-vaccine activist and scion of one of the country’s most famous political families is challenging incumbent President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination. apnews.com/article/robert
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Has anyone in the Republican Party considered trying to win elections by adopting popular ideas and running likable candidates for public office?
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This tells us two things: 1. People like Musk don't have any idea of what they're talking about. They operate on vague feelings (derp, NYT woke, derpin-der). And 2. News organizations are NEVER going to win such people.
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Why not now?
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Trump's remarks attacking Judge Merchan & his family are just the latest example of his risky rhetoric
If he continues pushing the envelope, he’s going to face a gag order sooner or later
I explained @CNNnewsroom @CNN w @EricaRHill
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Wasn't it He who gave us the vaccine, you idiot?
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Find me a worse anti-vaccine argument than: Gods don’t need medical science, therefore neither do you.
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I kinda admire Bari Weiss. She said, "Screw you, mainstream media. I'm going to make my own publication and run MY kind of stories: unremarkable, uninformed, unethical, fundamentally fraudulent, or some combination of those," and by God she did it.
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Column: America's decline in life expectancy speaks volumes about our problems
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Question for the lawyers: Why shouldn’t the judge hold Trump in contempt tomorrow for his comments about him today?
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As I've stated since I first started tweeting about the topic of SARS-CoV-2 origins, my interest in it stems solely from noticing the hallmarks of conspiracism and pseudoscience in lab leaker rhetoric clear parallels between how this topic has been treated & climate contrarianism
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Statement from @EcoHealthNYC re. scientists being harrassed by yet another conspiracy theory that is clearly baseless & intended as disinformation. ecohealthalliance.org/2023/04/ecohea
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Column: Social Security is perfectly healthy, but there's one easy way to improve it
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Subject to debate: Will Lesley Stahl's infamous polishing job of Marjorie Taylor Greene kill 60 Minutes' reputation for good journalism forever?
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Shame on Lesley Stahl; truly, shame on her. She either does something to acknowledge her failures, or will take a long-lasting credibility hit. -
‘We Fact-Checked': Marjorie Taylor Greene Caught Lying in '60 Minutes' Interview
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Edward R Murrow risked his career to call out the danger of Joe McCarthys antisemitism. He stood before the nation and said “not on my watch, senator”.
Leslie Stahl used her platform to promote and normalize MTGs antisemitism
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Have watched "60 Minutes" from inception, in my mid-teens. Found it inspiring.
To see its MTG piece tonight was like walking into old fav restaurant, knowing the menu and its staff, and being served a box lunch at a dirty table.
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Just disgraceful. A once proud network soiling itself and damaging democracy along the way.
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Stahl interviewed Greene as if she were just another someone unusual member of Congress with some out-there ideas. Showed MTG some of her worst stuff, and MTG just waved it away, and Stahl let it all slide.
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A reminder: 60 Minutes stoped doing its homework years ago. My earlier takes: latimes.com/business/hiltz and latimes.com/business/hiltz
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The only possible explanation for tonight’s thing on Marjorie Taylor Greene: time to put 60 Minutes out of its (and our) misery. This was unspeakably disgraceful.
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I'm old enough to remember when "60 Minutes" interviewers were tough and never lobbed softballs at their political guests.
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