driftglass

Saturday, March 14, 2026

Never Trust a Never Trumper, Part 377.

Your friends at MSNBC polished him up like a shiny new penny and presented him to their Liberal audience dozens (hundreds?) of times as a penitent ally. A humbled sinner, truly sorry for his role in the rise of Donald Trump.

And then... From WFMD "Free Talk" AM 930 in Frederick, Maryland, January 19, 2026:

MS NOW stays silent on Michael Cohen’s admission he felt ‘coerced’ to give anti-Trump testimony

He was MSNBC’s golden goose — until his story no longer fit the network’s preferred narrative.

President Donald Trump‘s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, was a frequent MSNBC guest for years while he was a key member of the #Resistance. But the liberal network — now called MS NOW — has not covered his striking admission he felt “pressured and coerced” to deliver testimony that would help secure convictions against the president.

Cohen, who was a key prosecution witness in two New York cases against Trump, accused New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Friday of pursuing evidence squarely aimed at getting Trump. He alleged in a Substack post that prosecutors in both offices were uninterested in testimony that didn’t fit their narrative...

Cohen had long been a fixture on MSNBC, which changed its name late last year, appearing over the past five years on programs such as “The Beat with Ari Melber,” “The Rachel Maddow Show,” “Inside with Jen Psaki,” “The Weekend,” “Deadline: White House” and “PoliticsNation,” often to deliver anti-Trump commentary. He was also frequently discussed on the network even when he wasn’t appearing as a guest...

The progressive channel covered Trump’s criminal case in New York extensively in 2024. According to a Grabien transcript search, “Michael Cohen” was mentioned 10,906 times from the start of the trial on April 15, 2024, through May 31, 2024 — the day after the verdict was announced.

But MS NOW has, as of Monday afternoon, ignored Cohen’s revelation that he felt “coerced” to deliver anti-Trump testimony...

And thanks to the MSNBC Republican Reputation Rehab project, as long as he drew clicks, your bestest buds over at the Meidas thing also had much love for Trump's repentant fixer:

And then...

Programming note: MeidasTouch Network will no longer be producing or carrying the shows Political Beatdown or Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen.
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) January 17, 2026

Your recently-former Republican Never Trump pals at The Bulwark and The Lincoln Project (who also enjoyed the lavish benefits of MSNBC's Reputation Rehab spa treatment) also managed to find time in their busy schedules to squeeze a Cohen appearance or two into their lineups:

And then...

Michael Cohen announces to Lara Trump that he is teaming up with Laura Loomer to do a podcast together.

[image or embed]
— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) March 12, 2026 at 7:56 PM

Perhaps consider this the next time the "liberal" media offers up yet another Republican with their new Resistance spray job still wet from the paint shop as our new Hero of Democracy.

I Am The Liberal Media

Politico Discovers Political Primaries

How horny is the political media for any "Democrats in Disarray" story? On the venerable Blue-Balls scale of 1-to-10 they're now clocking in at around a 12. Which is how the usual rough-and-tumble of Illinois politics is magically transformed into a Big Story about splitting, division and splintering, so mama, break the fainting couch out of storage and fetch the spirit of hartshorn!

The New York Times also knows a free lunch when they see it:

Will Another Black Woman Join the Senate? This Messy Primary Is Set to Decide.

Two Black female candidates may split Democratic primary voters in Illinois, and anger is growing at well-funded efforts to widen the divide.

Messy. Split. Divide. Better make that two doses of hartshorn!

Election day is Tuesday, March 17, so this will all be over in three days.

And, if you dig down a few paragraphs you find...

Unlike other major Democratic primaries for Senate this year, the contest is not so much a test of the party’s ideological or messaging direction — the three candidates are broadly similar on policy and style — as it is a fight over identity and who deserves a Senate seat.

But that's not much of a lede, is it? So much better to frame it as a bar fight that'll be settled on St. Patrick's day in Chicago.

But now riddle me this: if Politico and the Times really wanted a story of rancor and disarray in Illinois primary politics, why not focus on the Republican party? After all, instead of running three, well-known political professionals, the Illinois GOP senate primary is a freak show with Six!Count 'Em!Six! weirdos and nobodies all competing to see who will get hog-slaughtered in the general election in November. Which is why bigger name Illinois Republicans like Mike Bost and Darin "Disgrace to his Family Name" LaHood took a big ol' pass at running for that office this year.

Or how about the Illinois gubernatorial primary, where Four!Count 'Em!Four! goofballs are competing feverishly to see who gets to lose to JB Pritzker in the Fall?

See what I did there? Answering my own question? Because in Illinois it is a foregone conclusion that, barring a tectonic event involving pods from space and zombies, whoever wins the Illinois Democratic senate primary will, along with Pritzker, win at a walk in the general election.

Which, from a policy and governance, perspective, is obviously great news. But which, from a "fun news stories" perspective, has deprived Politico readers of the opportunity to learn about characters like perennial Illinois office-seeker, Jimmy Lee Tillman II, who is the son of longtime (now retired) Illinois alderwoman, Dorothy Tillman, and who runs under the name "Dr. Jimmy Lee Tillman II" although no one can tell you what exactly he is a doctor of.

According to his campaign website, Dr. Jimmy Lee Tillman II would like you to know that "Our state stands at a crossroads", that "Illinois is the battlefield and Chicago is the frontline."

I am Dr. Jimmy Lee Tillman II from Chicago—leading the MAGA Cavalry as the only GOP candidate who can win Chicago and has the strong name recognition statewide that Republicans need to win in Illinois. I'm also the only GOP candidate that the Democrat machine is afraid to face. While other candidates have ideas, I have a proven record of accomplishments.

As a bestselling author, historian, Heritage Foundation Academy Fellow, and President of the Martin Luther King Republicans,

And so forth.

Then there is Jeannie Evans, a partially self-funded attorney, would like you to know that she is "Unstoppable. Innovative. Illinois." and appears to think that it's 1994. As a " a mother, wife, and winning attorney" and "Not a Politician", once she's in the U.S. Senate, she promises to:

...bring that same unstoppable energy to build Illinois’ future: reducing taxes and costs, supporting innovation and education, securing safe communities, and creating opportunities for every family and business. The future doesn’t wait. Let’s build it.

Not a word about MAGA, America First or Donald Trump is to be found anywhere in her campaign website.

And let's not forget, Pamela Denise Long -- occupational therapist and political newcomer -- who has also heard the Siren's Song of the Senate.

We are in a fight for the soul of our nation. Cancel culture is off the rails. Gender ideology has gone too far. Mass immigration has flooded our neighborhoods and job sites.

And

I never wanted to be a politician. I was convinced to run for office after Illinoisans tapped me to help stop the flood of illegal immigrants into Chicago. Unlike the powers that be, I've spent the last four years and hundreds of hours listening to a diverse array of Americans express their needs and concerns. I see the Black American voting bloc has finally begun to divorce the Democratic Party. At the same time, Americans of all stripes are sick of the divisive rhetoric that gets politicians elected but keeps neighbors apart.

Her campaign website features several embedded YouTube videos of her talking about things like the horrors of DEI and ending birthright citizenship, with a giant picture of Donald Trump rampant on an American flag as her background.

Casey Chlebek is also running for U.S. Senate on a platform of cutting practically every form of taxation you can think of. That's his "MAGNA" plan: Making America the Greatest Nation Again.

Casey is the former President of the Polish American Congress (Illinois Division) and his site features all the usual MAGA yadda yadda about open borders, CRT, and Trump being awesome. And, damn it, he is not a politician. But I think the real story here is found in the second line of his campaign resume.

Former Commodore of the Chicago Yachting Association and the Joseph Conrad Yacht Club.

Come on! If you write about politics and you can't take yachts, "Commodore Casey" and tax cuts and run all the way down field with it, then get outta the business kid.

I Am The Liberal Media

Friday, March 13, 2026

We’ve Already Established What You Are.

Now we're just haggling over the price.

From MSNOW:

Dark money group offers influencers $1,500 for posts attacking Chicago Democratic primary candidate

Progressive House candidate Kat Abughazaleh told MS NOW the secretive campaign is “filled with false and defamatory claims.”

A week out from a crowded and contentious Democratic primary in Illinois’s 9th Congressional District, Amanda Informed, an online influencer in Florida received an email with an offer: one negative post about candidate Kat Abughazaleh on Instagram and TikTok, for $1,500.

The request, which came from a secretive political organization called Democracy Unmuted, was forwarded to her by Matt Anthes, founder of Advocators, a digital marketing agency focused on politics and advocacy through micro-influencers.

They're scared of her.

Good. They should be.

Honestly, any influencer (god, how I loathe that word) who gets this offer should take the money and then just post a copy of Kat's own "negative" ad:

No Half Measures

The Boy Who Cried Wolfowitz

No Half Measures

Trump Creates Exciting New "Trump Ice" Middle East Market

From The New York Times:

War Brings New Water Crises to an Already-Parched Iran

Iran has accused the United States of bombing a desalination plant on Qeshm Island. The country was already facing a severe water shortage...
The incident — and Iran’s subsequent bombing of a desalination plant in Bahrain — has sparked fears that the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran could lead to broader assaults on critical water infrastructure in the Gulf, threatening supplies for millions.

No Half Measures