Hello #Risers! Welcome to our newsletter. If you haven’t already, tell your friends to sign up by sharing the link to this post!
As promised every week we’ll tell you what our favorite segments of the week are, give you a written and expanded version of #RisingQs, and give you our weekly takeaways. If there’s anything you love, like, dislike, or hate don’t hesitate to reply to this email with your thoughts!
Book Q&A:
Many of you have asked us questions about our forthcoming book ‘The Populist’s Guide To 2020,’ SO here is everything you need to know:
1) It will be available on February 8th, 2020. Make sure you are subscribed to this newsletter for exclusive previews, to get notified first on how to pre-order, and more. An Amazon link will be available VERY soon
2) We’re launching the book in Los Angeles on February 8th with special guest Jimmy Dore! VIP Tickets are already sold out but general admission seats are still available. Come meet us!
3) We’re coming to NYC on March 6th with special guests Michael Brooks and Kyle Kulinski for a special live book show. VIP Tickets have sold out for this one as well and general admission seats are selling out fast!
TICKETS: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/risings-krystal-ball-and-saagar-enjeti-live-tickets-88550184987
Favorite Segments Of The Week
1) Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot:
Why: We were first to speak to Mayor Lightfoot after news broke that a case of coronavirus has been confirmed in the city of Chicago. The mayor outlined the steps the city will take to contain the disease and also talked extensively about who she might endorse in the 2020 Democratic primary. She had nice things to say about Micheal Bloomberg and also faced a probing question on how she views the legacy of Chicago native-son Barack Obama.
2) Micheal Brooks:
Why: Michael is a great friend of the show and just returned from Brazil where he interviewed former president Lula Da Silva. Michael previewed his interview with Lula but also did an excellent job dismantling the absolutely bogus charges the Brazilian government is bringing against Glenn Greenwald. We’ve highlighted as much as we can the hypocrisy of those who scream about press freedom when Trump attacks CNN but refuses to stand with a real journalist who is under attack.
3) Matt Stoller:
Why: If there ever was a perfect foil for Matt Stoller, it is JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon. Matt dismantled Jamie Dimon’s defense of so-called free market capitalism and pointed out the CEO’s advocacy for corporate welfare and socialism for his industry. Somehow it wasn’t called “socialism” when his bank got a massive bailout.
Weekly Takeaways:
Krystal’s Takeaway:
We are now 9 days out from Iowa and one thing is complete clear, the media has once again completely blown their election coverage. They are left with gaping jaws as Bernie Sanders, a candidate they completely dismiss and malign, surges to the finish consolidating progressive voters at just the right moment.
At the same time, they have also underestimated the resilience of Joe Biden’s older working class support, constantly predicting his campaign would crumble. It never did. And so while they could have been digging into a fascinating generational and ideological struggle, instead they spent their time puffing up flavor of the moment candidates like Beto, Pete, Kamala, and Warren and even candidates who never broke through like Booker and Klobuchar.
The perfect culmination of this absurdity came with the New York Times duel endorsement of Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, two pale images of the ideological poles in the party, with disproportionately affluent and white supporters, neither of whom is going to be the nominee.
By doing so, the New York Times has put their complete powerlessness on full display. They don’t exert any influence over who voters will pick and they’re not really even trying.
And so as we rapidly approach Iowa and New Hampshire and Super Tuesday, we are left with some truly great moments in pundit history. Like when Cilizza and Harry Enten declared: “It’s Beto’s world and every other Democrat is living in it.” Or when Mimi Rocah offered the brilliant insightful analysis that as a woman Bernie makes her skin crawl although she doesn’t really know why.
My guess is Mimi is just feeling that affluent class solidarity. Or when Dr. Jason Johnson confidently proclaimed of Sanders back in January of 2019 that “He’s done,” and would be out of the race by the summer. They didn’t learn anything in 2016 and they won’t learn anything this time either.
Saagar’s Takeaway:
Bernie Sanders appears to be surging in the Democratic primary. Yet, I believe he has a fundamental weakness which could stop him from actually beating Joe Biden. I highlighted a similar theme last week, but it bears repeating.
Sanders was attacked by Biden, Warren, and Hillary Clinton all within the span of two weeks. In almost every single case he did not really push back. He apologized to Joe Biden for his campaign surrogate correctly saying that he had a corruption problem, only for Joe to hit him with a negative ad within 24 hours.
He didn’t engage with Hillary Clinton when she said “nobody likes him” and essentially refused to commit to campaign for him. In almost every case he defaults to trying to find an agreeable solution.
This seems pretty ridiculous. This is a politician who claims his theory of change is to fly into districts of Democrats who won’t support Medicare for All in order to change their vote and call them out for being corrupt industry shills to their face. Color me skeptical that will happen if he can’t even call out Hunter Biden’s board seat on a Ukrainian Energy Company.