On this day in 2015, President Barack Obama renamed America’s tallest peak in Alaska as Denali, its Native American name.
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Obama → rename → Denali
In 2025, Donald Trump ordered the name changed back to Mt. McKinley, after the assassinated 25th president – another lover of tariffs.
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name → order → tariffs
Please note that this week’s Madchester musical link is to the video for “Stinkin Thinkin,” a quality which might be said to apply to many of our subjects today.
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which → note → subjects
First in ‘First Draft,’ we’ll take a look at the wholly absurd situation in which far-right provocateur and close Trump adviser Laura Loomer can abuse five prominent Black Democratic women in viciously racist terms, to absolute crickets from the media and Democratic establishment, leaving the strongest condemnation to no less than Marjorie Taylor Greene.
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Loomer → take → Greene
Of course, our press and pols are busy, what with so many attacks to be mounted on Hasan Piker instead.
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press → mount → Piker
Then we’ll turn to Donald Trump himself, and his hissy fit about Kristen Welker of NBC correctly saying he has had “some mixed results” with endorsements of late.
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he → turn → endorsements
There are also worrying developments to consider in Trump’s forever war with Iran, with missiles flying over the Strait of Hormuz once again.
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missiles → be → Hormuz
We’re also happy to say that this week, ‘First Draft’ will be published without a paywall, so new readers can see what Zeteo brings to your table each weekday morning: reporting and opinion on all the news you need, on the political subjects that matter.
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that → ’re → subjects
Let’s get to it.
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’s → let → it
‘Who You Calling a Bitch?’
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You → call → ?
On Friday, the far-right activist and close Trump ally and adviser Laura Loomer treated the world to some foul racist invective, calling prominent Democrats Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, former Rep. Cori Bush, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Florida Senate candidate Angie Nixon “ghetto Black bitches.”
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activist → treat → Omar
Loomer said she didn’t care about being called racist, but she did seem to care when one target answered back.
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target → say → ?
“Girl,” Nixon posted, before reaching, effectively, for the campaign vernacular of our times.
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Nixon → post → times
“You ate dog food on camera,” Nixon wrote, about something Loomer definitely did.
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Loomer → eat → something
“In the words of Queen Latifah, ‘Who you calling a bitch?’
Loomer responded with more gutter racism: ‘I called you a ghetto bitch, because you are, Angie, and your record proves it.
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record → call → it
But, you speak Ebonics though, so maybe I need to bark at you and tug your leash and then you’ll finally understand.”
On Sunday, Nixon hit back, writing: “When referring to me, it’s [State] Representative Angie Nixon.
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it → speak → me
However after November 3rd, YOU CAN CALL ME SENATOR!”
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YOU → call → ME
Loomer wrote: “Ok[ay] Shaniqua.”
Enter an unlikely defender.
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Loomer → write → defender
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon-spouting former MAGA congresswoman from Georgia with plenty of racism in her own record, took Loomer to task.
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Greene → spout → task
“I’m not a Democrat and I’m not supporting Angie Nixon, but the Republican Party and President Trump owns Laura Loomer and her nonstop vitriol,” Greene wrote.
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Greene → ’m → Loomer
“This hateful, racists [sic], and demeaning rhetoric should not be tolerated.
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rhetoric → tolerate → ?
But they allow it and keep her in the inner circle.”
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they → allow → circle
The Piss Artist Commonly Known as MTG went on to say Loomer’s racism would hurt Senator Ashley Moody, the Republican who will face Nixon in November, just as Loomer’s influence over Donald Trump has damaged the party already.
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influence → know → party
Sticking to her current, politically convenient line of Trump apostasy, Greene said Republicans could win on “actual accomplishments for your voters and policy plans that will help Americans.”
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that → stick → Americans
But then she went back to safer ground, pointing to Loomer’s own failed congressional runs: “Voters proved twice that they reject her completely.
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they → go → her
When will the President and the Republican Party reject her and her hateful racists [sic] behavior?
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President → reject → her
They refuse to[,] which tells you everything you need to know.”
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you → refuse → everything
Loomer went into overdrive, repeating her slur and using others, whining: “Why is anti-white racism ok[ay] but I’m not allowed to call a spade a spade.”
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I → go → spade
You had to say, MTG had a point.
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MTG → have → point
And so, turning to the press, did Mehdi:
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Mehdi → turn → press
“Serious question to every mainstream news network and newspaper in this country: how can you justify crazy obsessive coverage of Hasan Piker and just totally ignore much worse stuff like this from an actual presidential adviser?”
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you → justify → adviser
Loomer may not have an official title, and may have denied working for Trump in her exchange with Greene, but she very definitely is a close Trump adviser, having last year played a central role in his firing of six members of the National Security Council.
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she → have → Council
Responding to the New York Times about that story, Trump denied it but also called Loomer a “great patriot.”
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Trump → respond → Loomer
This June, Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan provided a five-page account of the meeting that led to the firings.
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that → provide → firings
Their bestselling book, Regime Change, also includes another description of Loomer’s White House access, lunching and plotting with then-Attorney General Pam Bondi in the West Wing.
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book → include → Wing
Loomer has more on her CV.
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Loomer → have → CV
She recently went after a transgender CIA officer in the White House intelligence directorate, who was soon removed.
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who → go → directorate
She has taken credit for the swift deportation last week of Milo Yiannopoulos, the British far-right provocateur with whom she fell out and for whose removal she long called.
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she → take → whom
Compared to all that, what is Hasan Piker?
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Piker → compare → that
A leftist streamer who has made controversial statements, for example about 9/11, which he walked back, and who has seen those and other statements, for example about American Jews and Israel, and not much different than remarks by Hannah Arendt, willfully and widely misrepresented.
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who → make → Arendt
…and 84 more, not listed.
