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Former Rep. Mondaire Jones announced Wednesday he will run for Congress in New York’s 17th Congressional District, setting up a highly anticipated comeback bid and a possibly brutal Democratic primary in a key swing seat.
“Most people in Washington didn’t grow up like me,” Jones said in a campaign video that touched on abortion rights and his record increasing police funding. “They have no idea what it’s like to struggle. We got to get Washington back on the side of working people. I know we can do better. For me, this is personal.”
Jones will face a Democratic primary against Liz Whitmer Gereghty, an education advocate and the sister of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Gereghty, who serves on a school board in the district, has been courting support from members of the Michigan congressional delegation and is expected to carve out a more moderate lane in the race. Democrats are anxious to flip the seat currently held by Republican Rep. Mike Lawler.
Jones became one of the first two openly gay Black men elected to Congress when he first won his seat in 2020. As a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Jones supported “Medicare for All” and the “Green New Deal,” while also voting for increased police funding and the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure deal. Jones also voted to approve funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system in 2022, a nod to his district’s sizable Hasidic Jewish population.
After redistricting placed him in the same district as former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, then the chair of House Democrats’ campaign arm, Jones opted not to run in the 17th District, even though it contained most of his old district in the lower Hudson Valley. He instead ran in the Manhattan-based 10th District, losing to Dan Goldman in the primary. Maloney then went on to lose to Lawler by less than a percentage point, one of many upsets Democrats experienced in New York House races. President Joe Biden carried the 17th district by 10 points in 2020.
Jones said in a Wednesday interview on News 12 Westchester that he regretted his decision to forgo a primary challenge against Maloney in 2020.
“I never imagined that I would wake up one day and would have to decide against primarying a member of the Democratic party at a time when we were seeing an assault on our democracy,” Jones said. “To that extent, yeah, I do regret not being the Democratic nominee last cycle.”
Pittsburgh is renowned as a city of bridges, industry and championship sports teams — and now, in a much newer development, as a powerhouse of progressive politics.
Progressive candidates are in the middle of an eye-opening winning streak over more moderate Allegheny County Democrats who for decades had a firm grasp on power around Pittsburgh.
In May, progressive state Rep. Sara Innamorato — who started her rise by defeating a Democratic state legislator from the left in a 2018 primary — won a hotly contested Democratic race for county executive, the top county-wide office. The same day, Matt Dugan, a public defender running on a criminal justice reform platform, defeated longtime District Attorney Stephen Zappala, who had been in power for nearly a quarter-century.
Those were the latest in a growing line of victories — which include a U.S. House win last year by Summer Lee, who, like Innamorato, previously won a state House seat by defeating a Democratic incumbent, and Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey’s defeat of then-Mayor Bill Peduto in a 2021 primary, among others. Plus, Sen. John Fetterman, elected last fall as an unabashed progressive, first rose to prominence as mayor of Braddock, a former steel town about 8 miles from downtown Pittsburgh.
The reasons for the progressive takeover up and down the ballot are numerous: A changing economy that has shifted from steel production and heavy industry to education, health care and tech; a plurality of younger voters that has become a force at the ballot box; a local political establishment that wasn’t organized enough to fend off an uprising in both city wards and suburban enclaves; and the election of former President Donald Trump, which accelerated the advance of the movement.
And though some believe unique region-specific factors have aided to the left’s rise in a way that would be difficult to replicate elsewhere, Allegheny County progressives say their path to power offers a roadmap for how left-wing activists can expand their coalition outside of the nation’s biggest cities.
“People are so shocked that that can come from Pittsburgh,” said Lee, the first Black woman elected to Congress from the Keystone State and to the state House from western Pennsylvania, “because they’re still thinking about the Pittsburgh of old, a particular type of manufacturing, of steel, of Blue Dog Dems, of white men of a moderate politics.”
“I think that the story around Pittsburgh is intentionally downplayed,” Lee added. “Because people want you to think that the only place that you can win on the progressive message is in an AOC-district.”
What’s more, progressives here say their efforts to drive turnout among younger voters and voters of color could play a critical role in delivering battleground Pennsylvania to President Joe Biden and Democratic Sen. Bob Casey next year, pointing to advances they’ve made in recent years — but particularly in 2022 — as evidence.
Last fall, turnout in Allegheny County increased by more than 30,000 votes compared with the 2018 midterms — a cycle that saw staggering turnout across the country midway through Trump’s term in office. Meanwhile, turnout declined in Philadelphia County — the state’s most populous — by more than 50,000 votes. Though Philadelphia has more than 200,000 people of voting age than does its cross-state neighbors, Allegheny County voters cast roughly 75,000 additional votes. That boost helped Democrats trounce their GOP rivals in statewide races for Senate and governor as well as win a battleground local congressional race.
Allegheny County is less populous than Philadelphia County, but it has steadily closed the turnout gap in recent cycles. In 2022, Allegheny County outvoted Philadelphia County by about 75,000 votes.
“If you look at Biden in 2020 versus Clinton in 2016, or even if you look at [Gov. Josh] Shapiro and Fetterman in 2022 versus Biden in 2020, it keeps getting better and better and better,” Ethan Smith, a Democratic pollster from Pittsburgh, said. “And a big reason for that is you have these progressive candidates who are activating these voters and turning them out at huge levels.”
How the shift happened
National politicians have sought to use the area as a backdrop for messaging to working class and blue-collar voters, evoking its history as a leader in the steel industry and mining. But, as Lee and others noted, this messaging has mostly glossed over how the region has changed.
The progressive takeover has coincided with Allegheny County’s population shifting younger as the city’s tech-based economy has grown. The portion of residents in the county ages 20-39 increased by nearly 3% from the 2010 to 2020 censuses. Over that same time, the portion of residents ages 40-59 declined by more than 5%. The thinned ranks of Generation Xers traces to the collapse of the steel industry in the early 1980s, which decimated the local economy and contributed to a large exodus of people from the county.
Rich Fitzgerald, who has served as Allegheny County executive since 2012 and is leaving office after this year’s election, has witnessed the political changes firsthand. Fitzgerald said when he was elected to county council more than 20 years ago, “almost every Democrat on county council and in the state legislature would have been pro-life, a little bit pro-gun and certainly pro-union.”
“And obviously, that has changed,” he said. “You could see it in the county council, the city council, the state House, the people who have gotten elected. That change really was accelerated when Trump won in 2016. But it was building. It was coming anyway.”
That change hasn’t been limited to the city. In the leafy suburb of Fox Chapel, where Zappala, the sitting district attorney, resides, Dugan beat him by more than 10 points in the May primary. Four years prior, Zappala defeated his primary opponent there by 30 points. Innamarato, who emerged atop a six-person primary field that included multiple longtime local officials, won most of the districts in Mount Lebanon and Upper St. Clair, two upper-middle class neighborhoods south of Pittsburgh.
In campaigning, Dugan said he noticed “an energy and a willingness to listen about change in these suburbs, and folks really, really latched on to it.”
“Really, county-wide, I think the establishment Dems are more afraid of us than they are Republican voters,” Dugan said. “Because they see that we’ve been able to sort of wrestle power from what has been a decades, decades, decades long regime.”
Should Innamorato and Dugan prevail this fall, progressive strategists say voters could see an expanded fracking ban, changes in the budgeting process, criminal justice reforms and an increased minimum wage for county employees. As one strategist based in the city said: “The door is pretty open to almost anything.”
But Lee said for the new progressive leaders, the overarching priority is giving new and underrepresented voices a seat at the table.
“For so long, the people who were winning were people who were beholden to the folks who were funding them, and they had vested interests in certain areas,” she said. “And the Mon Valley and Homewood and communities like the Hill district can never compete, but it doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve to be represented.”
U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, raised nearly $6.2 million in roughly the first two months of his campaign against U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. He also transferred an additional $2.4 million from his House campaign account.
The numbers, first shared with The Texas Tribune, mean Allred will report about $8.6 million in total receipts between when he launched his Senate campaign on May 3 and the end of the second quarter, which was June 30. His campaign previously announced raising over $2 million in its first 36 hours.
Allred’s second-quarter fundraising cements his formidability as a fundraiser. Cruz’s last Democratic opponent, Beto O’Rourke, was a fundraising juggernaut at the height of the race, but it took him his first three fundraising quarters — nine months — to raise the $6.2 million that Allred collected in 59 days.
“Since day one this campaign has been about bringing people together to beat Ted Cruz and give this state the leadership it deserves,” Allred’s campaign manager, Paige Hutchinson, said in a statement. “We are amazed at the outpouring of support, and more confident than ever that we will have the resources to win next November and send Ted Cruz packing.”
Cruz has not released his second-quarter fundraising numbers yet. The figures are not due to the Federal Election Commission until July 15.
Allred’s campaign said the over $2.4 million that he I from his House account included direct funds and in-kind contributions, or non-monetary contributions such as goods and services. The transfer underscores the considerable money Allred already had saved up when he entered the Senate race — his House account had $2.2 million cash on hand at the close of the first quarter.
Allred’s campaign did not release how much cash on hand his Senate account had after the second quarter. Cruz’s reelection committee had a balance of $3.3 million after the first quarter.
Allred will likely face a contested Democratic primary to challenge Cruz. State Sen. Roland Gutierrez of San Antonio is also expected to run, and state Rep. Carl Sherman of DeSoto is newly considering a bid.
I hope one of these guys will finally topple Cruz, but it’s just not fundraising. Like him or not (as most do not), Cruz is decent on the debate stage. On the other hand, Cruz may not want to debate to control his narrative. The ERCOT fiasco in 2021 is always on the minds of tv commentators.
Do not forget the all-important 50-State-Strategy. Whichever Demos are running must visit every county in that state. They all contain voters: reach out to them!
“Today’s decision has closed one path. Now we’re going to pursue another.” With that, President Biden committed his administration to a second option for canceling student debt, just hours after the first one was struck down by the Supreme Court.
Cynics are already grumbling that the goal is less to cancel student debt than to appear to be fighting for it. Chief Justice John Roberts and his colleagues were determined enough to nullify the first student debt relief program based on a non-injury by an unwilling plaintiff. Why would a second bite at the apple go any better? In any case, the timeline of the president’s path would likely put an ultimate reckoning out past the 2024 election.
Still, supporters of this Plan B can point to what tripped up the first effort at debt relief, and how a new process could fix those missteps in a way that would make it harder for the Court to work its will.
The first thing to be said is that this is not Plan B as much as it is Plan A. Four years ago, when the Prospect first suggested that presidents have the authority to cancel student debt without further congressional approval, that was based on the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA), and the statutory language enabling the secretary of education to “compromise, waive, or release any title, claim, lien, or demand” on student debtors. It also specifically authorizes the department to waive equity claims, compromise “a debt in any amount,” and modify “any provision of a loan note.”
The White House instead used the HEROES Act of 2003, a law that gave the secretary the ability to “waive or modify” statutory or regulatory provisions to keep borrowers financially harmless from a national emergency like the pandemic. Because Donald Trump used this very statute to pause collection of student loan payments, the White House thought it might entice conservative justices.
In other words, it was about political tactics as much as the law, but it didn’t work. In terms of legal language, the HEA argument is clearly stronger.
(There’s a minor detail that, under the rules, the Education Department must consult with the Justice Department about any forgiveness totaling more than $1 million, but that’s easily done.)
What it would take to invoke the Higher Education Act to forgive student debt is a source of controversy. On one side, advocates say it could be done immediately, using the broad discretionary authority of the statute, and framing it as an “order” rather than a “rule,” which has a lower standard for administrative procedure. However, the Biden administration has long desired to confine debt relief to needier borrowers, which requires some form of means testing, and an application to boot.
A letter sent by advocates to the White House in May suggests that, because the government has already collected this information for the initial student debt cancellation program—which 16 million borrowers filled out—the secretary could immediately act for those borrowers. But the administration is not taking this approach. It has instead decided to engage in the “negotiated rulemaking” process to hammer out regulations governing debt relief under the HEA.
This was actually a live controversy from back when talk of debt relief first came up. It was discussed extensively in a January 2020 letter from the Legal Services Center at Harvard Law School to then-presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, when she announced her debt cancellation plan. It’s monstrously complicated, but I will try to explain.
To be clear, the administration could have initiated this rulemaking on January 20, 2021, and it would almost certainly have been done by now.
Though the HEA contains compromise and settlement authority, the Federal Claims Collection Act also purports to lay out when the government can collect, and settle, a federal debt. The FCCA does not supplant the secretary of education’s separate authority to cancel debts; however, regulations put forward by the department have occasionally referenced the FCCA and its implementing rules (known as the Federal Claims Collection Standards, or FCCS). For example, a 2016 Education Department rule said that the secretary can compromise, suspend, or terminate debts “under the provisions of the FCCS.” Those provisions are somewhat circumscribed and would not necessarily permit blanket forgiveness.
Both the Legal Services Center at Harvard and the advocates who wrote the White House in May do not believe that this limited the secretary’s authority. But of course, six unelected hacks in robes will give the final answer on that. One way out for the department is to rewrite the 2016 rule, to clarify its compromise and settlement authority.
This is what the department appears to be going with. Last Friday, it put out a hearing announcement for July 18, kicking off the negotiated rulemaking process. As is standard for Education Department regulations, negotiated rulemaking brings together “organizations or groups with interests that are significantly affected by the subject matter of the proposed regulations.” They have one or several sessions discussing the proposed rules, and then the department makes a determination, taking these viewpoints into account.
Negotiated rulemaking takes quite a while. The hearing is just to establish a committee and take input; after that, you have to write the proposed rule, again go through notice and comment, and publish a final rule. The negotiating committee can meet through every step of this process. While President Biden committed to moving as fast as possible, Politico has suggested this will stretch into next year, and that’s likely accurate, though the advocate letter cites many ways it could be accelerated. National Economic Council deputy director Bharat Ramamurti said in a press conference last week, “It’s going to be months … we are aiming to do it as quickly as possible.”
Because the Supreme Court only decides cases and controversies, and a rule would have to be issued for any litigation to commence (at least in theory), it would be until mid-2024 before the inevitable lawsuit could be filed. Given the usual Supreme Court schedule, that would put out disposition of the case until this time in 2025, well beyond Biden’s re-election campaign. A cynical reading would suggest that this is the point, to keep students believing that Biden is working on their behalf against a recalcitrant Court through Election Day.
To be clear, the administration could have initiated this rulemaking on January 20, 2021, and it would almost certainly have been done by now. Then we would not be in this position of delay.
Those facts are the reasons why some advocates are angered that this is a shadow play. They believe Biden should just ignore the FCCS issue and cancel debts now, based on the information received from 16 million borrowers. Implicitly, the feeling is that actually sending a cancellation notice puts the Supreme Court in the difficult spot of having to take away relief already granted. But I wouldn’t really put that past this Court, and certainly they can use the FCCS issue and the lack of new regulations to rerun the current case. I wouldn’t be surprised if that went right to the shadow docket with a swift reversal.
Whether you think the administration is being craven or just making the best of a bad call and a combative Court depends on whether you think negotiated rulemaking can actually overcome the hurdles placed in front of them to complete debt cancellation. Here’s one reading of what they might be thinking.
It’s shocking that it hasn’t received much attention, but the initial debt relief program did in fact deal with the fact that student loan servicers (private companies that handle day-to-day operations on federal loans) would be injured with lost revenue. The Supreme Court’s ruling hinged on this very fact, claiming that the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA) would be harmed. Putting aside that they didn’t bring the case and weren’t interested in doing so, they also weren’t harmed, because MOHELA was poised to receive $61 million in additional funds to process cancellations. That was more than the $44 million plaintiffs in the case claimed would be the injury to MOHELA.
In a negotiated rulemaking, servicers would be at the table. And there would be a public record on how much servicers would receive. If the administration is sharp, they would make this extremely clear; they would be compensating servicers for buying out their servicing rights, effectively. You might say that a one-time fee doesn’t make up for the ongoing harms to servicers from losing loans, but the government signs short-term contracts with servicers, so the lost revenue is simply as big as presumed.
I am sure the Court will try to get creative; Chief Justice Roberts, in his opinion last Friday, already tried to foreclose on this by claiming, wrongly, that the HEA “authorizes the Secretary to cancel or reduce loans, but only in certain limited circumstances and to a particular extent.”
But a public process under stronger authorities that buys out the servicers who might have claims to an injury in fact could cut off standing avenues. Remember, there were two challenges to the initial debt relief plan, and the Court unanimously rejected the first one, from debtors who felt like they didn’t get enough relief. If debtors are unavailable, and servicers are unavailable because they weren’t harmed, it becomes really hard to find anyone else who is available to have standing.
Again, it’s reasonable to see that as a long shot, and to look at this as a case of how to lose well: forcing the Court to rip debt relief away after people are notified of the forgiveness, or waiting years without clarity for an inevitable second rejection.
There’s a third option, however. Because 16 million borrowers have been contacted and applied for debt relief under the older program, they could immediately be processed under a new program with the same terms but new administrative authority. So when the rule is finalized next year, 16 million borrowers could get immediate debt relief. That would create the same dynamic as advocates want, forcing the Court to take money out of the hands of borrowers, while doing what defenders of negotiated rulemaking want, putting the action on stronger legal footing. It’s unclear whether the administration will do that. Stay tuned.
Student loans when I was in school are very different from the costs of education these days. It also used to be possible to work your way through school, I did, in part. The only way a high school graduate can work their way through school these days is if they’re a professional athlete, or an entertainer. The astronomical costs of education these days is one more way the the oligarchy grows their slave class. Uneducated means far more controllable.
One of my old HS teachers did that did roofing for cash, worked his ass off but paid for the majority of his education. Now a days to make tuition these days is to sell drugs without getting killed or prostitue your self and that has its own set of dangers. Work a full time job for the summer in this day and age forgettabout it-not happening. Sure you can get a 2yr in voc-tech for a lot of good paying jobs.But the STEM jobs require 4yrs and will pile up the debt. Its sad that lust for greed will prevent some very bright kids from getting the education we need to help solve the numerous problems the world has.
The globe set a record for the warmest June since at least 1940, new and emerging climate data shows, obliterating the previous milestone from 2019. Separately, the globe set new single day records for the hottest day yet measured, on July 3 and 4.
Why it matters: The records are an indication of the influence that an El Niño event is having in the tropical Pacific Ocean, since it is amplifying the pace of human-caused climate change.
The monthly record’s magnitude signals that more temperature reports to come from U.S. and other governments are likely to rank June the same way.
The big picture: The monthly temperature data comes from European computer model data known as ERA-5, as well as a separate analysis from the Japan Meteorological Agency.
It comprises another warning sign that climate change may be picking up its pace, at least in the short-term, with record warm ocean temperatures globally for June, especially in the North Atlantic.
The sea ice that usually wraps around the icebound Antarctic continent is at its lowest level on record. Meanwhile there are unprecedented wildfires burning in Canada and multiple extreme heat events worldwide.
Zoom in: According to Zeke Hausfather, climate research lead at payments company Stripe, global average surface temperatures were about 1.46°C (2.63°F) degrees above the preindustrial (1850 to 1899) average.
The next-warmest June was in 2019, but it was 0.16°C (0.3°F) cooler than last month. Other climate information, including from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction, also show a June record.
Between the lines: In addition, the NOAA single-day numbers come from a computer modeling system that takes into account surface, satellite and other measurements, rather than purely ground-based instruments.
They show that July 3 and 4 were the hottest days on record globally since at least 1979, in terms of the globally averaged absolute air temperature.
These were the first days in that data set to have a global average surface temperature exceed 17°C (62.6°F).
Since July tends to be the planet’s hottest month, it is possible these records will be exceeded in the next few weeks.
Yes, but: A daily global record may sound alarming, but it is more symbolic than scientifically meaningful.
Researchers monitor human-caused climate change over the course of months to decades in order to decipher signals from the noise of natural climate variability.
The long-term trend is clear, showing a increasing global average temperatures in tandem with growing amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
What’s next: NOAA, NASA and agencies in the UK, the European Union and Japan will report their official June global temperature data during the next two weeks.
Darren Bailey, the former Illinois Republican state senator who lost a bid last year for governor to Democratic incumbent JB Pritzker, is now running for Congress.
He filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday to run against five-term incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Bost. Bailey is set to make a formal announcement at a Fourth of July event with 500 guests at his home in Xenia.
The downstate Illinois contest is set to be the most watched in Illinois in 2024 as it pits two far-right Republicans against each other.
Bailey is a southern Illinois farmer whose run for governor was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, and Bost is a five-term congressman and U.S. Marine Corps veteran who was also endorsed by Trump. The former president called Bost a “terrific representative” for the 12th District.
This is the first real contest for Bost, whose last primary challenge was in 2018. Bost has consistently won his district by double digits against Democrats, including in 2022 when he won by 50 points. Bost has more than $648,000 on hand, according to FEC records.
A Trump endorsement would be huge in the high-profile contest.
A person familiar with the Trump campaign said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has told the former president that he supports the reliably conservative Bost, who also endorsed McCarthy’s election for the top House job.
Bailey’s team would also like an endorsement, though short of that would want Trump to remain neutral.
Trump likes to back winners, and he could be miffed that Bailey lost by double digits to Pritzker.
The governor’s race drew national headlines when Pritzker and the Democratic Governors Association spent $35 million on ads during the Republican primary to define Bailey as a far-right conservative against a more moderate candidate. That fueled the Republican base to get out the vote and secure Bailey’s place in the general election — and eased the way for Pritzker’s victory.
The ads also helped build Bailey’s image as a MAGA Republican. He has assembled a strong grassroots following and is seen in Illinois Republican circles as a formidable candidate against Bost.
The race is already creating tension within the GOP.
“Darren Bailey moved to a downtown Chicago penthouse to get blown out by JB Pritzker, now he’s back seeking another political promotion,” Chris Gustafson, a spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement. “Mike Bost is focused on delivering conservative results for Southern Illinois and that’s why voters will re-elect him.”
Bailey was possibly angling for Bost’s seat even before last year’s governor’s race was wrapped up. Flyers were distributed in the deeply conservative 12th District promoting Bailey even though it’s an area that Bailey had easily sewn up for the governor’s contest.
Bailey’s real challenge in the governor’s race was winning over the Democratic stronghold of Chicago, where the bulk of the state’s population lives.
The 12th District, meanwhile, voted for Trump 56 percent to 41 percent in 2020, and 55 percent to 40 percent in 2016.
I don’t know if Mike Bost has much of a relationship with JB Pritzker. If those two find beneficially mutual agreements, Bost will keep his seat as an endorsement from Pritzker is worth more than an endorsement from Biden.
Ever since Ruth Bader Ginsburg died and conservatives got a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court, Americans have become quite familiar with judicial tyranny at the highest levels of the legal system. Just last week, the Court protected homophobia in a case based on a premise that seems to have been invented wholesale, and stole $10,000 from student loan debtors (though as my colleague David Dayen explains, the Biden administration is attempting to redo the loan forgiveness with a different legal strategy).
Yet the problem of feral judges also exists further down the judicial hierarchy. Back in April, district judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a go-to option because he’s the only judge in the Amarillo division of the Northern District of Texas and conservatives filing cases there know that he will hear them, attempted to ban abortion pills throughout the country, with a completely crackpot ruling in violation of all law and precedent. And this week, Louisiana district court judge Terry A. Doughty issued a temporary injunction prohibiting federal agencies—including the FBI, Department of Health and Human Services, the Census Bureau, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and many others—from even talking to social media companies with “the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.”
This is just a temporary injunction before the full ruling, but the attached memorandum strongly suggests that Doughty is going to side with the plaintiffs and issue a permanent injunction soon. Even if his action does get overturned on appeal, this is no way to run a country.
The premise of the case is a lunatic conspiracy theory pushed by Elon Musk and others. Readers may recall that some months ago, Musk gave internal Twitter communications to handpicked writers like Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, and Michael Shellenberger, who concocted a narrative that the government was conspiring with Twitter’s prior management to systematically censor conservative voices and content.
The details of the “Twitter files” are complicated, but as Mike Masnick explains carefully at Techdirt, the conspiracy story is largely nonsense. Government officials occasionally contacted social media platforms to inform them about content that may have violated the platforms’ terms of service, which anyone can do. Most of the time, Twitter, along with the other platforms, left that content up. The stuff that did get deleted was, as a rule, genuinely bad—containing revenge porn, lies about election details, and most of all misinformation about the pandemic or COVID-19 vaccines. That’s really all that happened.
Judge Doughty clearly swallowed the conspiracy theory whole. “The plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits in establishing that the government has used its power to silence the opposition,” he wrote. The social media censorship story fit with pre-existing right-wing dogma. Conservatives from cable news anchors on down to Facebook grandpas long ago convinced themselves that every media institution is biased against them, so as to make their demands to be given special treatment more convincing. When Cat Turd 2 complains about being “silenced” by “the algorithm,” what he means is that everyone on Earth should be forced to read and enjoy his posts.
This world-historic capacity for self-pity can also be seen in Doughty’s opinion. “If the allegations made by plaintiffs are true, the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history,” he writes. That’s right, folks. The FBI requesting that posts that lie about vaccines during the worst pandemic in a century be deleted was worse than the Palmer Raids, COINTELPRO, the McCarthy hearings, and the Pinckney gag rule.
The lunacy of the lawsuit can be judged not only by Doughty’s overheated rhetoric, but also by the plaintiffs. In addition to the attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri, they include Jayanta Bhattacharya, Martin Kulldorff, Aaron Kheriaty, and Jill Hines, who are various flavors of anti-vaccine crackpot, and Jim Hoft, who runs the notoriously deranged Gateway Pundit blog. These are the people who are telling the federal government who it can communicate with. It’s as if Dr. Oz, Jenny McCarthy, and that guy who did the Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You to Know About book got to tell the FDA what kinds of drugs it could approve.
Judge Doughty has been on a run in the Biden administration, blocking the vaccine mandate for health care workers and the ban on new leases for oil and gas drilling. He’s part of the reliable band of right-wing email-forwarding uncles who happen to have been given lifetime tenure on the federal bench.
But an injunction against a public policy is one thing. An injunction against entire agencies of the federal government speaking to dozens of companies in nonbinding ways is quite another.
America’s system of checks and balances is supposed to work by each branch of the government contesting for power with the others. That is not remotely how the government works today. Instead, the judiciary exercises dominion over the other two branches. Random district judges decanted out of Federalist Society cloning tanks seize personal control of giant chunks of federal policy, based on lawsuits filed by totally deranged activists, and they keep that power unless and until the rest of the creaking judiciary system can see through the appeals process. I would not be at all surprised if the Supreme Court lets this particular decision stand.
And it keeps going day after day. Just as I was finishing this article, another right-wing judge blocked an ATF rule restricting the sale of parts used to create ghost guns.
There are options to deal with this out-of-control judiciary. But as long as President Biden continues to submit to this judicial despotism—last week, he said it would be a mistake to expand the Supreme Court—right-wing judges and justices will keep pushing the envelope.
Just finished. Yep, Elliott Abrams. Why is SloMoJoe showing his senile ? RW arse by nominating yahoos who only served under GOPuke Prezzes? Guess he figures he’ll get re-elected no matter what he pulls. Hey, you old wrinkled clown, I’m not insulting my intelligence by voting for you. Abrams looks the part of a totally malevolent clown: cross between a spider and a skeleton.
"But the weathered photo of Officer Venable had not actually spent decades in the mayor’s wallet. It had been created by employees in the mayor’s office in the days after Mr. Adams claimed to have been carrying it in his wallet." Amazing story by @emmagfhttps://t.co/V8vMn6ocHR
"City resources were used to create a photo that Mr. Adams surely knew had not been in his possession for decades; city employees were pressured to get involved."
The last eight years have been the eight hottest on record. This year is on track to be the hottest year in recorded history, and this Fourth of July might have been the hottest day in the past 125,000 years.
Climate change is ravaging the planet. We are now seeing floods, droughts, extreme weather disturbances and wild fires causing unprecedented damage. If there is not bold, immediate and united action by governments throughout the world, the quality of life that we are leaving our kids and future generations is very much in question.
In the short term, we will be looking at more melting of the Arctic ice caps, rising sea levels and increased flooding. We will experience more drought and a decrease in food production. We will see major damage caused by intense storms, tornadoes and other extreme weather disturbances. We will see a decline in economic activity and the migration of millions of people as a result of water shortages. We will see a major disruption in all forms of marine life as a result of warming sea water and the acidification of the oceans,
Over last few weeks we’ve gotten a glimpse of what this dystopian future could look like. The unprecedented forest fires in Quebec, preceded by massive fires in Nova Scotia, British Columbia and Alberta, have resulted in dangerously unhealthy air all across the United States. New York, Washington DC, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee and other cities have reported some of their worst air quality levels ever as people with chronic illness have been forced to remain indoors. Meanwhile, during this same period, Texas has experienced a record-breaking heat wave. In Corpus Christi the heat index, a measure of temperature combined with humidity, reached a 125F – close to the level at which humans are able to survive.
As a result of long-standing drought six western states that rely on water from the Colorado River have recently agreed to dramatically cut their water use. That river, which provides water for 40 million people and a $5tn-a-year agricultural industry, is drying up. The state of Arizona recently restricted future home-building in the Phoenix area due to a lack of groundwater, based on projections showing that wells will run dry under existing conditions.
Needless to say, climate change is not just an American issue. Despite the frightening impact of climate change on the United States, highly populated Asian countries are facing even worse challenges. Sea levels on China’s coastline have hit their highest on record for the second year in a row, rising more quickly than the global average. China’s coastal areas are home to approximately 45% of the country’s population of about 1.4 billion people, and contribute to over half of the country’s economic output. Major cities like Shanghai, Tianjin and Shenzhen are all located along the Chinese coast and could face catastrophic flooding in years to come – creating havoc with the entire Chinese economy.
Last year, India experienced a searing heat wave, during which parts of the country reached more than 120F. In 2022, India experienced its hottest April in 122 years and its hottest March on record. It experienced extreme weather on 242 out of 273 days between January and October 2022. Long-term projections indicate that Indian heat waves could cross the survivability limit for a healthy human resting in the shade by 2050. The impact of these continued heat waves will not only result in more deaths and disease in India but will increase poverty as a result of reduced economic output.
From June to October 2022, heavy rainfall in Pakistan caused flooding and landslides at a rate nearly 10 times the national 30-year average. The floods affected nearly 33 million people, damaged 4.4 million acres of agricultural land and killed 800,000 livestock. In the aftermath, rising food prices exacerbated already stressed levels of hunger and malnutrition in the country. The number of people experiencing severe hunger has more than doubled since the floods hit in June: today, 14.6 million people are experiencing severe hunger in Pakistan and the malnutrition rates are dire.
Climate change is taking a major human, economic and environmental toll in Europe, the fastest warming continent of the world. The year 2022 was marked by extreme heat, drought and wildfires. Based on country data submitted so far, it is estimated that at least 15 000 people died in Western Europe alone specifically due to the heat in 2022. Among those, more than 4600 deaths in Spain, more than 1000 in Portugal, more than 3200 in the United Kingdom, and around 4500 people died in Germany as a result of extreme heat.
As devastating as climate change has been for the United States, Europe, China and other developed countries, its impact is even worse for the poorest countries on earth who lack the resources to protect their inhabitants from the growing hunger, disease and migrations that droughts and floods are causing. Here are a few examples as reported by the UN World Food Program:
South Sudan’s temperatures are increasing at two and half times the global average. This has resulted in extreme weather events including four consecutive years of flooding that have left half the country underwater. The unprecedented flooding has swallowed large swathes of the country while other parts are grappling with devastating drought. Today, some 64% of the country’s population (7.7 million people out of 12 million total) are experiencing severe hunger.
In February of 2022, Madagascar was hit with four tropical cyclones. These storms destroyed infrastructure, decimated rice crops and left over 270,000 people in urgent need of food. Today, nearly 2 million people in Madagascar are experiencing hunger and are in need of humanitarian assistance
In Somalia, there is no end in sight to the drought in that extremely poor country. Somalia has experienced five failed rainy seasons, drying up crops and killing livestock. This has resulted in 6.5 million people facing crisis levels of hunger.
It is no great secret that human beings are not particularly anxious to address painful realities – especially when it requires taking on powerful special interests like the fossil fuel industry. This time we must.
Our Earth is warming rapidly. We see this every day in every part of the world.
Drought, floods, forest fires and extreme weather disturbances are increasing. We see this every day in every part of the world.
Hunger, disease and human migrations are increasing. We see this every day in every part of the world.
Instead of denying this obvious reality, instead of doing the bidding of oil and coal companies, instead of fomenting a new cold war with China, members of Congress must develop an unprecedented sense of urgency about this global crisis. We must bring the world together NOW to address this existential threat. Failure to act will doom future generations to a very uncertain future. For the sake of our common humanity we cannot allow that to happen.
wpDiscuz
Thanks jcb. News from your neck of the woods.
Former Rep. Mondaire Jones launches comeback bid for House seat in New York
Why is Gretchen Whitmer’s sister running in NY? You would think she would stay in MI cos her sister is rightfully beloved and respected there.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/steel-city-became-vanguard-progressive-movement-rcna90410
U.S. Rep. Colin Allred raises $6.2 million in first 2 months of Senate race
I hope one of these guys will finally topple Cruz, but it’s just not fundraising. Like him or not (as most do not), Cruz is decent on the debate stage. On the other hand, Cruz may not want to debate to control his narrative. The ERCOT fiasco in 2021 is always on the minds of tv commentators.
Do not forget the all-important 50-State-Strategy. Whichever Demos are running must visit every county in that state. They all contain voters: reach out to them!
Dave Dayen
Biden Administration Begins Student Debt Relief Plan B
All I know is I’m one person who paid off her student loans who totally supports debt relief.
Student loans when I was in school are very different from the costs of education these days. It also used to be possible to work your way through school, I did, in part. The only way a high school graduate can work their way through school these days is if they’re a professional athlete, or an entertainer. The astronomical costs of education these days is one more way the the oligarchy grows their slave class. Uneducated means far more controllable.
One of my old HS teachers did that did roofing for cash, worked his ass off but paid for the majority of his education. Now a days to make tuition these days is to sell drugs without getting killed or prostitue your self and that has its own set of dangers. Work a full time job for the summer in this day and age forgettabout it-not happening. Sure you can get a 2yr in voc-tech for a lot of good paying jobs.But the STEM jobs require 4yrs and will pile up the debt. Its sad that lust for greed will prevent some very bright kids from getting the education we need to help solve the numerous problems the world has.
Both comments rate a +270 each and how!
https://www.axios.com/2023/07/05/warmest-june-global-temperatures-hottest-day
Well the temps are definitely crazy and the fires have made the skies hazy
I love this tune and artist, but am 😪over climate crisis.
llinois Republican Darren Bailey challenges Rep. Mike Bost
I don’t know if Mike Bost has much of a relationship with JB Pritzker. If those two find beneficially mutual agreements, Bost will keep his seat as an endorsement from Pritzker is worth more than an endorsement from Biden.
Must be nice to have morons contributed to his legal defense fund
“morons” is a polite term for those yahoos.🤡
After the latest round of mass shootings this holiday weekend
LOL Shapiro faked out PA Republicans in the legislature.
I hope he succeeds, yuk-yuk-yuk.😂
What do you expect out of a bunch of garbage that calls itself, “The Federalist Society”? 💩
T and R x 3, jcb!!☮️👍🙂 Even political junkies like me have to give politics a break on occasion cos it can get so discouraging!😡
In my view, Biden has gone off the deep end with this appointment. smdh
This is a long video, but really good if you have the time. SHAME on Biden
I’m afraid to listen, Aint.🙄
Obf, try to watch starting at about 37 minutes when Ilhan Omar is questioning Abrams.
It’s Elliott Abrams (guessing here). I’ll do it.
Just finished. Yep, Elliott Abrams. Why is SloMoJoe showing his senile ? RW arse by nominating yahoos who only served under GOPuke Prezzes? Guess he figures he’ll get re-elected no matter what he pulls. Hey, you old wrinkled clown, I’m not insulting my intelligence by voting for you. Abrams looks the part of a totally malevolent clown: cross between a spider and a skeleton.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Booted From Right-Wing House Freedom Caucus
Question for the GQP, How batshit crazy is MTG when the batshit crazy GQPers kick her out of their batshit crazy Freedom Caucus?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-booted-183345371.html
Then again maybe have a thunderdome death match where 3 women enter(Boebert,Kari lake and MTG) and if were lucky NONE leave !!!
I had to read it to believe it.👏👏👏
Oh man, is this scheme for real? The City of New York needs to get to the bottom of it. This sounds like Tammany Hall–remember that sordid history?
Bernie’s op ed
https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/07/this-year-is-set-to-be-the-hottest-in-history-congress-must-act-now
I came across this AP read today. Fits right in with Bernie’s warning about climate crisis/catastrophe: https://prospect.org/environment/2023-07-06-waterlogged-in-southeastern-virginia/ 🙁