My readers asked me to provide talking points and framing for the current news. Here is what to say about: Trump’s slush fund, ICE killing (again), bombing Iran (again), the Paramount/Warner Bros merger, unsafe food, Trump screws farmers, plus the housing bill and record housing costs, the Epstein files and Todd Blanche, Lindsay Graham, Mitch McConnell, and EV drivers saving big dough.
Still working on getting the format and timing right! Your feedback is very helpful! Everything below is free to use without attribution, as is, or translated into your own voice. The goal is to get the ideas out there!
NOTES:
Do not assume prior knowledge. The people we need to reach may not be news consumers and may not know the background of a story.
Try to use words that would be natural to say to a neighbor over the fence.
Never use acronyms.
Don’t use words together that we don’t want to associate with each other.
What’s Happening: Trump, in a huge conflict of interest, sued the IRS and then settled the case in exchange for a $1.8 billion dollar slush fund (to pay off friends found guilty of crimes by past administrations) and immunity from prosecution for all past and future violations of tax laws. (Trump was facing potential liability for hundreds of millions in fines over previous tax evasion and fraud.) A judge not only threw out the case, but also referred Trump’s lawyers for professional ethics review. One of those lawyers is Todd Blanche, who Trump is trying to get confirmed as Attorney General. He is also the guy who got convicted Epstein partner and child trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell transferred to a cushy country club prison. Senate confirmation hearings start Wednesday.
What to Say: “This is a huge loss for Trump and a rebuke to his relentless abuse of power. Thank god we still have judges like Kathleen Williams willing to uphold the rule of law in this country.” ”With Trump pushing his lawyers to do wildly unethical things that benefit him financially and legally, it is good that this judge not only threw out this slush fund and revoked Trump’s free pass for tax fraud, she also made it clear that lawyers and prosecutors who try to abuse the power of the justice system will face consequences. This is embarrassing for Trump, who is trying to get his personal attorney Todd Blanche confirmed as attorney general. This guy should have gotten his license revoked when he got Epstein’s partner transferred to a country club prison. And Trump wants to make him Attorney General? (This guy is a total sleazeball.)”
What’s Happening: ICE agents shot and killed Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a Colombian man in Maine going through the legal asylum process, just days after killing Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas. In both cases, the ICE officers did not have their body cameras on, and they made the same claim that they make every time: that the people were supposedly trying to run over the officers with their cars. I believe that, in both cases, the man shot was not the man ICE was seeking to arrest.
What to Say: “ICE is out of control. This is on management. They put inexperienced and poorly trained young men in high pressure situations. Stephen Miller gave them quotas. Justice Kavanaugh told them they can chase people down because they appear to be Hispanic. When they panic and shoot people, ICE circles the wagons and covers it up. They should always have their body cameras on, but everyone should be held accountable, all the way up to Trump.”
“As if this were not bad enough, we are not hearing enough about the many people who are hidden away in concentration camps, without access to lawyers, without proper food and health care, in horrible conditions. People are dying in custody at an alarming rate. We’re not supposed to have extrajudicial killings and concentration camps in a supposedly free country. We need to expose this every chance we get and demand accountability.”What to Do: AMPLIFY. Keep these out-of-control killings front and center, and use this opportunity to remind people about the people we’re not hearing about, the ones hidden away in private prison camps.
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What’s Happening: Once again, Trump’s made-up deal with Iran collapses. We bomb Iran. They bomb our bases in the region. Trump claims that he doesn’t need to work with Congress on this, despite laws that require Congress’ approval, and says that he will charge a 20% fee on all goods going through the Strait of Hormuz.
What to Say: “Trump’s choice to attack Iran might be the worst foreign policy decision in American history. Everybody knew Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz, block oil tankers and seriously damage our economy, but he went and did it anyway. He keeps claiming that everything is fine, that we’re going to charge a 20% fee on all traffic going through the Strait. That’s nuts. Now gas prices are spiking all over again. Iran is still in control of the Strait and we’re running out of oil reserves (and defensive weapons.) He’s ruining the economy, and for what? We don’t even know. He did this all by himself, without even talking to Congress. so it’s all on him. He broke it. He owns it.” “I have to wonder why he keeps telling us different things. The negotiators in Iran think that he’s senile. Some people say he’s manipulating the stock market, delivering bad news and good news and riding the stock market up and down. It’s a sad day for America when we can’t believe what our President says about a foreign war until we get it confirmed by the people we’re at war with.” ”I want a president I can trust to use American strength to bring our allies together to keep the peace and keep us out of wars.”
What’s Happening: The Trump administration allowed Paramount, owned by Trump backer David Ellison, to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, over the objections of professional staffers at the anti-trust division. They believed that the merger would give the company too much monopoly power over the entertainment business, especially the news, as it would give Ellison control of CBS News and CNN, Paramount Plus, HBO Max and more. Now, a coalition of 12 state Democratic administrations have filed a lawsuit to block the merger, and they may succeed.
What to Say: “Our government is supposed to block monopoly mergers that give these massive corporate conglomerates too much power over our lives, not over-ride the rules to do favors for wealthy friends.” “I was really happy about the work the anti-trust people like Lina Khan were doing under the Biden administration, cracking down on wage theft and breaking up monopolies, but it seems like that is over now. The staffers are independent civil servants. They know that this deal is wrong, but Trump over-rode their recommendations and approved the merger anyway. Thank god these Democratic states are stepping up to fight it. At least someone is looking out for us. I hope they win.”
What’s Happening: Thousands are being sickened by a food parasite due to Trump cuts to food safety programs. There has been a serious outbreak of Cyclospora, a parasite found in fruits and vegetables that causes some nasty, but usually not lethal, intestinal distress. The CDC would normally track outbreaks like this to find the source, and they are trying to, but this program has been severely cut by this administration and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.
What to Say: “I don't want to have to worry if my food is safe! That's what government is FOR. Is it too much to ask to just have a government that's competent? That’s not corrupt?” “I know food producers don’t always like having to abide by food safety rules and laws, but I feel like our elected officials used to say to them, “C’mon Bob. I don’t want my constituents to get sick. You can stand a few safety checks.” Now Trump and that roadkill-eating whack-a-doodle Kennedy have cut so much staff at the Center for Disease Control that they can’t do the basic minimum checks we need to keep our food safe. Why? I bet good old “Bob, the agribusiness tycoon” is slipping Trump a few million here and there or a freakin’ gold statue. Apparently, there IS such a thing as too little government. What we need is enough government to get the job done.”
The Epstein Files: AMPLIFY and demand answers. The Trump administration and his nominee for Attorney General Todd Blanche are still in violation of the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act which requires the full release of the Epstein files. What is Trump so desperate to hide? The Act’s authors, Rho Khanna and Thomas Massie, are pushing Blanche for more info before his confirmation hearing Wed. Journalist Katie Phang recently won a lawsuit requiring the administration to cough up redacted files. Also, journalist Allison Gill sued the FBI and forced them to reveal that they have videos that may have been used to train workers to redact mentions of Trump from the files. This story is still unfolding, so we want to keep it front and center, keep pushing and demanding answers.
The Housing Bill: AMPLIFY. A bipartisan housing bill passed even though Trump refused to sign it. It’s amazing how little Trump cares about what’s happening in people’s lives, especially since housing costs are at an all-time high. From 1965 to 1999, a house cost around 4 times a typical family yearly income, and now it costs more than 7 times. That’s worse than at the height of the housing market bubble.
Massive Favors for “Big Chicken” Donors: AMPLIFY. A Biden rule that would have required big chicken processors to stop manipulating the prices they pay to small farmers is being overturned by the Trump administration, after “Big Chicken” donates record $5 million to Trump inaugural fund.
Lindsay Graham Dies: COMMENT but don’t quibble. Say something civil or dance on his grave, whatever works for you. But nothing is served by criticizing which path others choose to take, and doing so makes us look like we are incapable of getting along.
Mitch McConnell Missing: UTILIZE. Speculation and conspiracies are pointless. We’ll know more soon enough. But we can use this to remind people that he stole two Supreme Court nominations from Democratic administrations and handed them to Trump, leading to the complete collapse in the integrity of the Supreme Court. Use this to continue to normalize the idea of major Supreme Court reform, which we need if it to ever again credibly stand for the U.S. Constitution.
EV Drivers Save Big Dough: AMPLIFY. This fun interactive shows how much money people would be saving if they drove electric and hybrid vehicles, compared with current gas prices.
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In solidarity, always,
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Contact me at antonia@antoniascatton.com or (202) 922-6647
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