Please join me tomorrow from 1-3pm for a virtual event on the role courts play in democratic backsliding, both in the U.S. and around the world. Hosted by Center for American Progress and Court Accountability.
https://rsvp2.americanprogress.org/theunitedstatesjudiciaryanddemMy new deep dive on how Trump “won” the popular vote.
I put “won” in quotes because it wasn’t his win, but Harris’s loss. The results were not a “swing right” embracing Trump/MAGA, but a vote of no confidence in Democrats (and in our system as a whole).
https://www.weekendreading.net/p/how-trump-won
How Trump “Won”
The Anesthetized Anti-MAGA Majority
John Roberts Declares Himself Immune
Shrouding himself in gauzy invocations of the Founding Fathers, Chief Justice John Roberts used his 2024 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary to lash out at the American people.
This is my year-end appeal: Take seriously what Abraham Lincoln said at his first inauguration:
https://www.weekendreading.net/p/this-is-not-a-year-end-appeal
This Is NOT a Year-End Appeal
I’ll be honest with you, [FIRSTNAME]—these are some of the best charts from Weekend Reading this year.
As I told Annie Lowrey at The Atlantic: "Beginning with Jimmy Carter, there was an increasing effort to see unions and labor as a special interest, rather than a foundational part of the party. There hasn’t been a political party in this country with working people at the table for decades."
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/republicans-democrats-workers-unions-appeal/681103/
How Democrats Lost the Working Class
Democrats need some kitchen-table policies. Quick.
"It is a sad day when a judge’s criticism of self-evident judicial corruption is subject to greater accountability than the judicial corruption itself."
https://courtaccountability.substack.com/p/judicial-ethics-rebuke-of-judges
Judicial Ethics Rebuke of Judge’s Criticism of Alito Only Reveals Cracks in the Foundation
We learned this week that on December 10th, Chief Judge Albert Diaz of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued an order concluding a judicial ethics complaint against Senior U.S.
We cannot forget the power we have. It’s not the power of Democrats, the media, intellectuals, elite NGOs and too-comfortable liberals who almost never fail to fail us. Rather, it’s the power of collective action and unions, the only source of durable human progress and shared prosperity.
Over the next four years, the Biden Administration, Democratic officeholders and seekers, the media, civic and religious leaders, commentators from center-right to left, and self-styled pro-democracy NGOs all but ignored the need for repair.
For those bewildered by Trump 2.0, I reprise my December 2020 post about the “Great Forgetting” of Trump’s dangers that spread after Biden’s win: “The tides didn’t breach the levees this time, but without repair, it won’t be long before they do.”
https://www.weekendreading.net/p/the-great-forgetting
The Great Forgetting
The Lost Years
Pete Hegseth’s Secret History
Jane Mayer on a whistle-blower report and other documents that suggest Pete Hegseth was forced out of previous leadership positions for financial mismanagement, sexist behavior, and being repeatedly intoxicated on the job.
