Here's to pugnacity...Beto's new move...The Shelby Mafia
I’m used to being on the delivering end of the news, not the receiving end, so reading a book-length article in Politico Magazine today about The Intercept’s political coverage was a bit disorienting. It’s worth checking out just for the fun photo of our staff, which looks like it should have a Hollywood-style explosion behind it. The headline is a bit click-baity, but I thought the story was fair, even if it included some bonkers anonymous quotes, including this one from a “Democratic operative” who declined to give his/her name: “Grim apparently doesn’t ever want to win an election again and is dead set against anyone who does.” I can say, for the record, that I am pro-winning. And the story’s description of me as “pugnacious” isn’t entirely unfair.
The profile goes in depth into our coverage of intra-party dynamics, and as it happens, I had just published a story on staff changes made by Beto O’Rourke that tell a lot about where his campaign is heading. The book I’ll be publishing soon take a close look at the mechanics of the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign; several major players from that team went on to work on Beto’s Senate race, and then stayed for the presidential. Over the weekend, the two top field organizers, Becky Bond and Zack Malitz, both left. It may sound like a boring story of personnel drama, but there’s a lot more to it, and I do think it’s worth the read (I don’t always).
Speaking of the book, it’ll be officially published on May 28th, and the paperback is now available for pre-order.
Strong Arm Press also just published a book by a writer who lives on the border, a profile of the courageous women working to mitigate the child separation crisis. “Angry Tías: Cruelty and Compassion on the U.S.-Mexico Border,” by Daniel Blue Tyx, is really, really good, and will give you a much broader understanding of what’s going on there, and what you can do to help.
And Ady Barkan, the progressive activist dying of ALS, is out with a book in September, “Eyes to the Wind: A Memoir of Love and Death, Hope and Resistance,” which includes a forward by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I recommend pre-ordering it because I’m certain it’ll be fantastic, but also because Ady’s home care, given his deteriorating condition, must be wildly expensive given the shoddy state of our health care system. He helped save the Affordable Care Act for us; making this a best-seller for him is the least we can do.
We may be in the midst of a two-year presidential campaign, but governing is still happening -- or not happening, as the case may be -- and Dave Dayen has a fascinating story today on how the “Shelby Mafia” has ensconced itself everywhere in government and industry that it needs to be, and the result is likely to be the rubber-stamping of a dangerous bank merger.