Weekend Quotables
Building a "left-wing media ecosystem."
Good things are going on ⁄
There in Mississippi — J.J. Grey and Mofro
In Mississippi, Scott Colom, if elected, would be his state’s first Black senator since Reconstruction — the 12-year period after the U.S. Civil War when the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments were adopted. He’d also be Mississippi’s first new Democratic senator since the 1940s. (Those lawmakers were Jim Crow segregationists who were first elected before white Southerners shifted to the Republican Party.)
AP’s sum-up is right on the money.
Democrats must pick up at least four new seats to win the majority — and more than that if they lose any they currently hold. That includes Michigan, where Republicans are feeling more confident since progressive Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic nomination this week.
“We can’t spare a single seat,” Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks said in an interview while she was in Mississippi on Colom’s behalf. —AP
Nesrine Malik
Centrist Democrats dismiss Abdul El-Sayed as a freak radical. Do they want to win in 2028 or not? — Guardian
Bernie Sanders on GOP attacks on El-Sayed
“These guys have nothing to say about the major crises facing our country. All they can do is appeal to racism; we’re ‘communist,’ all kinds of nonsense like that.” — Face The Nation
Joanna Klonsky, Chicago political strategist
Joanna Klonsky [yes, we’re related] a veteran Chicago campaign strategist who helped steer former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s campaigns, said the 2027 mayoral race will be the first in the city where content creators play a key role. To voters, she said, a favorite influencer seems more authentic.
“These influencers can give the vibe of being someone you know, someone on your block, someone you might meet at the bar, who cares about the teams that you care about,” she said. “It’s very different from a mainstream media reporter.”
Such ads will become a necessary way to reach voters, especially young ones, she said.
“That’s just the reality of how campaign advertising works … of course that’s where campaigns are going to have to go,” Klonsky said. “In a way it’s a democratizing force, it just also raises a lot of complicated questions.” — Chicago Tribune
Clay Crane, host of the Clay Crane Show
“It really helps to build what we desperately need, which is a left-wing media ecosystem. We don’t really have that right now,” Mr. Crane said. “Mayor Mamdani is doing that.” — New York Times
AOC on Hasan Piker
“Much hay was made about the fact that we lost young men in the last election. Many of the same consultants that are wringing their hands today were the same ones talking about how we have to go on Joe Rogan and not be so willing to engage in cancel culture.” — This Week on ABC
Stephen Semler
ICE is sitting on $100 billion. — Polygraph
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CNN has reported on dwindling US munitions - something angrily denied by President Trump - and suggestions that his top general is looking for an “off-ramp” in the conflict. It is highly significant that Trump’s most senior general is privately arguing there is no easy military solution to end a war the president chose to enter.