One of the things I have wanted for TPM for a very long time is a greater ability to visualize the story streams we focus on here at the site. This is a particular need for what we do precisely because we’re not a general interest publication. We’re focused on news about politics and political culture. But even within that purview, we tend to go deep and in a sustained way on a relatively few core stories we think are of particular importance and interest. Much of this you will recognize intuitively if you’re a core or longtime reader. I narrate some of these threads in my own commentary and analysis in the Editors’ Blog. But as the site has evolved over time that is not really sufficient. We’ve largely relied on these bigger pictures being clear in regular readers’ heads through repeat reading and immersion. But that’s not sufficient. 

Trump threatens “consequences” for families who cross border illegally, says “many are just using children for their own sinister purposes.”

If you enjoyed reading the article on the history of voter suppression and disenfranchisement in the United States we published yesterday, don’t miss my podcast interview with author Gregory Downs which you can listen to here.

Last week Netflix surprised investors by reporting disappointing quarterly results. Specifically they noted that subscriber “acquisition growth was lower than we projected.”

This has happened before. And Netflix didn’t provide a clear explanation of why their subscriber growth numbers were soft. But I couldn’t help remembering that Netflix is a heavy, heavy user of Facebook advertising and marketing tools to keep growing their subscriber numbers. Remember, Netflix is a classic ‘direct to consumer’ marketer, even though people sometimes don’t think of them that way.

A few days ago, I went back to that Kevin McCarthy quote from back in June 2016, when he told his leadership colleagues that he thought Vladimir Putin paid two people: Trump and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher. As I noted, that came just after McCarthy and Paul Ryan had both met with the new (and current) Ukrainian Prime Minister, who had told them about Russian actions in Europe, funding right/nationalist parties, using propaganda operations to destabilize governments and so forth. But it turns out there’s more to that chain of events than I’d realized, more that makes McCarthy’s statement and Ryan’s secrecy more troubling and suspicious.

Pretty clear they’re saying that, among other things, foxbot Kimberley Guilfoyle got forced out for forcing other Fox staffers to look at Don Jr. dick pics, which is horrifying.

As I explain here, not only did President Trump almost certainly know about the Trump Tower collusion meeting in advance. There’s strong circumstantial evidence he coordinated directly with Vladimir Putin in a secret, no-US-witness conversation to devise the false cover story that he dictated for The New York Times. I explain here.

Good morning. Here’s what we’re watching today.

Let me briefly try to place the significance of tonight’s news in a fuller context. We seem to have the first positive evidence that President Trump knew in advance about the Trump Tower meeting. That’s hardly shocking. But having some proof is quite different from making a logical inference.

Let’s remember these key points.

According to CNN, Michael Cohen says President Trump knew in advance about the Trump Tower meeting from Don Jr., approved the meeting in advance, was looking forward to getting the dirt.

So here's the news. Cohen says Trump knew in advance about Trump Tower meeting, was informed by Don Jr., signed off and looked forward to getting the dirt. pic.twitter.com/XI6gcd02Er

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 27, 2018

Here’s a write-up of the Facebook’s market sell-off. The value of the company dropped by roughly $120 billion today, about 20%. In the write-up, Bloomberg’s Shira Ovide asks what happened and specifically how this all caught investors and apparently Facebook itself so off-guard.

I hope I don’t abuse the privilege of telling you when something is a must read. But this article is an absolute must-read. Just go read it right now. Or let me share my take on it and read it afterwards.