The Progressive Wing

Dave Dayen

The September Issues

The fall congressional session right before elections is often a sleepy time, but not always. The financial crisis bank bailout passed on October 3, 2008, and the Iraq war authorization passed October 16, 2002. Democrats could take advantage of what could be a final opportunity with full governing power to add to their record and improve the country. Will circumstances converge on some consequential lawmaking in this pre-election period?
The first possibility won’t necessarily be seen by progressives as an improvement. When Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin reached agreement on the Inflation Reduction Act, they committed to a side deal deregulating the permitting process for environmentally sensitive projects. A leaked draft of this bill literally had the watermark of the American Petroleum Institute, to give you a sense of who it might favor.
Schumer has said that the permitting bill would be attached to a continuing resolution to fund the government, which must be authorized by September 30. Since the continuing resolution is seen as must-pass, opponents of weakening environmental laws around permitting would have to hold their noses and vote for it rather than risk an unpopular government shutdown before facing the voters, the theory goes.
That is why progressive Democrats opposed to permitting changes have been trying to separate the measure from the CR. But even putative allies of leadership, like Senate Environment and Public Works Committee chair Tom Carper (D-DE), are skeptical of the measure itself, whether it stays in the CR or not. “I just don’t want us to make the changes in permitting that will undermine our ability to fight climate change,” Carper told reporters in late August. Likewise, Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) told me that her red line was whether the changes would increase or decrease net emissions reductions. “Looking at how to reform or improve the permitting process does not mean you are reducing environmental standards,” she said.
There are definitely some climate hawks who hold out hope that permitting changes will expedite the build-out of clean energy. “We can’t have clean energy projects languishing for years,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) told me in an interview. Permitting reform could help with the important work of modernizing the grid, as well as accelerating projects to source minerals that are critical to electric vehicles.
But expecting an actually existing permitting bill, which apparently will require approval of the natural gas Mountain Valley Pipeline, to uniformly speed up solar and wind projects neglects the fact that Republicans will have to agree to it for it to pass a 60-vote filibuster threshold. Their condition will almost certainly be what they unanimously supported in August: banning consideration of climate change in permitting reviews. That won’t fly with most Democrats, who unanimously (except for Manchin) opposed that same vote last month.
I see the leadership falling short on this one. The pressure to complete a stopgap funding bill, the universal opposition from environmental groups, the grumbling from some Republicans infuriated by Manchin, the lack of specifics just a few weeks from the deadline, and the disinclination to even get close to a government shutdown could lead them to not risk a pre-election shutdown and postpone a permitting vote. That doesn’t satisfy Manchin’s demand, but he was only promised a vote, not success. That vote could easily fail, or Manchin could be told: “Your vote will fail, so you could watch that happen or keep working on it in the lame duck session.” My money’s on the latter.
Even optimists on Democratic fortunes in the midterms concede that a Republican House takeover is fairly likely.
Another major bill given promises for a September vote is the Big Tech antitrust measure called the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA). “Sen. Schumer is working with Sen. Klobuchar and other supporters to gather the needed votes and plans to bring it up for a vote,” was the language of the promise, and this is significantly less than “We’re going to vote on it on this day.” The probability of the bill getting a vote is further tempered by the fact that Schumer initially promised a vote on AICOA in “early summer,” and that a couple months back he told high-level donors at a fundraiser that the bill didn’t have the votes.
The last big dust-up on AICOA, which would bar tech companies from “self-preferencing” their own products over rivals on their platforms, was over a somewhat spurious question of whether it would prevent firms from content moderation. Since that time, one of the four Democrats who wrote a letter expressing that concern, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), has come around. “Senator Schatz has met with Senator Klobuchar and has been assured that modifications to the bill will be made to address his concerns,” according to a statement from a spokesperson. “He now plans to vote for the final bill, assuming those changes are included.”
That doesn’t mean AICOA will get past Schumer and a dense thicket of tech industry lobbying to reach the floor. Republican supporters may also back off the bill if changes to the content moderation piece are made. We’ll find out soon how real that promise was.
One bill that Democrats should put to a vote is the House-passed bill codifying same-sex marriage, if only to make it tough for Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who is struggling in his re-election effort. It’s a difficult wedge issue for the far-right Johnson: he could vote for gay marriage and anger his base, or vote against it and anger the majority of Wisconsinites. Smart political parties force their opponents into these situations, yet a Senate vote has yet to be scheduled.
Other items could fill floor time. There are certainly mounds of judicial and executive branch confirmations; Senate Democrats could spend every minute on them through the end of the year and still not make much of a dent. There’s a tech data privacy bill but Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) just made clear that she opposes it because it would compromise California’s state privacy law. The nation desperately needs more appropriations to deal with COVID-19, but Republicans have pretty much shut the door on that.
Last Friday, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) released principles for a Congressional ban on stock trading and ownership of individual stocks, which had some momentum earlier this year, and requested a floor vote by September 30. Banning stock trading is enormously popular—several Democrats, like John Fetterman, are running on it in the midterms—and the consensus principles spans the entire caucus, from AOC to centrists Jared Golden and Abigail Spanberger, along with one Republican (Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania). Though leadership has been cool to allowing a vote, they may find it impossible to delay.
After the elections, there’s the annual “tax extenders” bill, a selection of mostly minor business tax breaks that gets rammed through every year. This year, it could have more import if Democrats push to include the expired increase to the Child Tax Credit and other family tax provisions. An aggressive Democratic majority would make those extensions the price of extending the business tax breaks.
Also, there are changes to the Electoral Count Act. The bill just picked up its tenth Senate Republican co-sponsor, Iowa’s Chuck Grassley, yesterday, which would seemingly give it a lock on Senate passage. The talk has been that Congress will get to that in the lame duck session, after the midterms are out of the way; after all, we wouldn’t want to upset the delicate MAGA flowers by closing off one avenue of potential coup attempts.
Even optimists on Democratic fortunes in the midterms concede that a Republican House takeover is fairly likely. The session that begins today and the ensuing lame duck could be the last chances for a legislative record before the next presidential election. Democrats ought to take that seriously.

T and R, Ms. Benny!!🙂 I just don’t get the feeling the House will change hands like the media keeps squawking about. The Senate won’t. In fact, the Dems/Dims wil pick up seats in that chamber. Abortion, legalizing pot, and climate chaos are major issues for the young people. There’s a lot of anger out here. The FRight antics are fueling it.

Paul ADK

Not to mention the book bans and laws aimed at restricting knowledge. Someone should tell DeSantis and the rest of these happy fascists that the surest way to ignite a thirst for knowledge in a child is to tell them it’s forbidden, and they can’t know it. Or, better yet? Maybe not. They’re self destructing just fine as is.

The teens and college kids will just to PO the fascists at large.

One of my favorite pics from yesterday’s March thank you to all that showed up from all over the country even though Labor took over Broadway this isn’t a show it’s a call to action let’s keep this thing going‼️ #Hotlaborsummer 🔥 @amazonlabor ✊🏽 pic.twitter.com/0Nh7wfrtay
— Christian Smalls (@Shut_downAmazon) September 6, 2022

The union has to deliver on the new contract and you can bet Bezos is stalling.

Not so fast: Greg Abbott, Texas Republicans face a complex election landscape after abortion ruling, Uvalde shooting

Last year, Texas Republicans were pumping out red-meat laws in a marathon of special legislative sessions, preparing to lock in their dominance for another decade with redistricting and salivating at a midterm environment that historically should have favored them.
Things have gotten a little more complicated since then.
While the environment in Texas still favors the GOP, it has been upended by two issues in which public opinion has trended sharply against them: gun control and abortion rights. Now, as Republicans emerge from the traditional election turning point of Labor Day, they are set to try hard to recenter the conversation on issues that are more favorable to them.
“The No. 1 issue by far in the state of Texas is the border,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a radio interview Friday when asked to frame the fall campaign. He went on to offer differences with his Democratic opponent, Beto O’Rourke, on issues related to the border, as well as police funding and the oil and gas industry.
“The contrast on those issues [is] gonna be prolific and it’s gonna be the contrast on those issues that’s gonna ensure my reelection,” he said.
Abbott is facing his toughest November opponent in O’Rourke, and the two are poised to commence an unrelenting TV war after Labor Day as they try to turn out their bases and persuade the few remaining undecided voters. But it will come after Abbott got a three-week head start on O’Rourke, airing a pair of positive biographical ads since mid-August, an acknowledgment that the two-term incumbent’s image needs some buffing.
Polls show voters remain in a sour mood, with majorities saying the state is on the wrong track. And while Abbott’s approval rating has rebounded from its record lows last year, gone are the days of the kind of broad popularity he enjoyed when he was last on the ballot four years ago and cruised to a second term.
Abbott has steered the state sharply to the right since then, including on the two issues that Democrats now see as some of their strongest assets for November: abortion and guns. Abbott signed a “trigger law” that has banned virtually all abortions in the state following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June to end the nationwide right to abortion. And he has resisted supporting any new gun restrictions following the Uvalde school shooting in May — including raising the age to buy an assault-style rifle, which he argued last week was not workable because courts have found such an age limit unconstitutional.
Polls regularly show that Texas voters, often by wide margins, oppose outlawing all abortion and want stricter gun laws. Democratic candidates have been increasingly explicit about how central they believe the issues will be to the November election.
“This is one of the few truly unifying issues in the state of Texas right now,” O’Rourke said during a news conference in late August marking the effective date of the trigger law. In a subsequent TV interview, he called the election a “referendum on whether we’re going to go back literally half a century or whether this state is going to move forward.”
The same day the trigger law went into effect, O’Rourke released his first general election TV ads. Both criticized Abbott over abortion.
In Harris County — which includes Houston and is the state’s largest county— Democrats see so much upside in the issue that the county judge, Lina Hidalgo, started airing TV ads in early August accusing her Republican challenger of being silent on abortion rights following the Supreme Court’s decision. The challenger, Alexandra del Moral Mealer, did not respond to The Texas Tribune’s request for comment on her position.
Republicans are still trying to find a rebuttal. Rather than defend the laws he has signed, Abbott has sought to argue O’Rourke is the one with extreme views on abortion, noting his longtime refusal to say whether he supports any limits on the practice. When he has had to address the laws, including the lack of exceptions of rape victims, Abbott has made awkward comments like his suggestion Friday that victims can take emergency contraception to prevent a pregnancy.
At the same time, Texas Republicans have been making not-so-subtle appeals to women voters. Last month, Comptroller Glenn Hegar and state Sen. Joan Huffman, a Republican from Houston and the top budget writer in the Senate, abruptly announced their support for repealing the sales tax on feminine hygiene products, an idea Abbott quickly endorsed. Women also have factored prominently into his TV ads so far, the first of which was narrated by his wife, Cecilia Abbott.

part 2

As for O’Rourke, Abbott’s campaign has made little secret that it plans to hammer him over comments he made around the time of his failed 2020 presidential campaign, saying he would take border walls down, expressing support for the Green New Deal and praising activists who were pushing to “defund the police.” The issue of police funding is the topic of Abbott’s first negative TV ad against O’Rourke, which started airing Monday.
O’Rourke has denied that he supports defunding the police — a term with an ambiguous meaning to many — but said in 2020 that he “really love[d]” the idea of taking money away from “over-militarized” police departments and reinvesting it in social services.
When it comes to police funding, Republicans have found a fresh wedge in Harris County. Last month, Hegar accused county commissioners of violating a new state law to stop local governments from cutting police spending, an accusation that Abbott swiftly amplified. The county has denied the charge and is challenging the comptroller in court.
In addition to GOP efforts to change the topic from abortion and guns, Democrats also will have to contend with a president from their party, Joe Biden, who remains very unpopular in Texas. The state Democratic Party is seeking to counteract that, announcing Friday that it is launching a four-week tour after Labor Day to tout the administration’s accomplishments.
Nationally, Democrats have felt some relief from the tough political environment as Congress has proven unusually productive for an election year, passing a landmark health care and climate spending package last month. And they have been encouraged by recent election victories in Kansas, Alaska and New York where abortion was a leading issue.
Cliff Walker, a partner at the progressive consulting firm Seeker Strategies, said Texas Democrats have increasing reason to be optimistic due to “unprecedented national action” on important issues, combined with “unprecedented state failure” like the 2021 power grid collapse.
“This is a much better hand to play than anyone would have imagined, not just a few months ago, but at the start of the election cycle,” Walker said.
Republicans eye South Texas, Democrats seek rural, suburban edge
It all points to a more complex environment than Republicans had anticipated. The emergence of abortion and guns as top-of-mind issues has thrown up new obstacles in the suburbs, where they had hoped to regain territory they lost under former President Donald Trump. One major example of that is Texas House District 70, a new open seat in the Dallas suburbs that represents one of the few pickup opportunities for either party in the lower chamber post-redistricting.
Republicans are also conceding they cannot take rural Texas, a long-time firewall, for granted, with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick recently launching a 131-stop bus tour targeted at rural voters. O’Rourke has been barnstorming rural Texas, and Patrick is in a rematch with his 2018 Democratic opponent, Mike Collier, who performed better than O’Rourke that year in rural counties.
Republicans are still upbeat about their chances in South Texas, which they are targeting more seriously than ever after Biden underperformed there in 2020. In addition to the three congressional races there they have long been targeting, they are getting more serious about flipping an open state Senate seat in the Rio Grande Valley, which also happens to be the only competitive state senate seat on the November ballot after redistricting.
U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores, R-Los Indios, speaks at the Pro Life America’s Hopeful Future conference in McAllen on July 9, 2022. Flores, recently sworn into office after a special election, faces an uphill battle in November as she competes against Democrat Vicente Gonzalez for the Texas CD-34 seat.
The top super PAC aligned with the U.S. House GOP leaders, the Congressional Leadership Fund, recently announced it was reserving $3 million in TV ads to reelect U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores, R-Los Indios, who flipped the Rio Grande Valley seat in a June special election. The committee announcement was the most serious signal yet that national Republicans are committed to her November election, despite her running in a district redrawn to be more favorable to Democrats.
“South Texas continues to represent some of our best pickup opportunities nationwide,” said Calvin Moore, a spokesperson for the Congressional Leadership Fund.
The most competitive race in South Texas remains the open seat in the 15th Congressional District. Seeking to show how committed Democrats are to defending the seat, their nominee, Michelle Vallejo, released a list of over 100 endorsements from across the state Friday. It came with a statement criticizing Republican nominee Monica De La Cruz for her “extreme and radical views” on abortion, among other things.
De La Cruz, unsurprisingly, is talking about something else in her campaign. Her first TV ad features her flying over the Mexican border in a helicopter, landing and telling voters about “Biden’s border crisis” and the economic pressures under his administration.

Climate chaos is a major issue out there, too. Progressives have got to run on it.

Paul ADK

Progressives need to run on our whole platform, everywhere. Some of these places are so saturated in misinformation that it’s the only way to get the truth out there. You put the truth in front of most thinking people and they are going to go for it.

Elise Stefanik is calling her quite conservative opponent a radical extremist from “downstate” (which is ironic, since she doesn’t even live in the district anymore, and she certainly doesn’t rely on local fundraising). The only thing she does is spew lies that are not really countered by much of anything. People listen to her, and then watch Fox where every lie she spews is repeated and reinforced. I hope Mr. Moderate takes her out, if only for the pleasure of watching his primary challenge next time around, which is a presidential election year.

New Legal Twist: New Mexico judge orders County Commissioner be removed from office – his participation in Jan6 attack on the Capitol disqualified him under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. https://t.co/3vHUsHZTTS
— Jane Mayer (@JaneMayerNYer) September 6, 2022

jcitybone

“Do we all want to get together for an hour in the morning on November 3 and pray that Donald Trump will again become President of the United States of America?” – email sent by owner of ⁦@politico⁩ https://t.co/HFMYHDbmuD
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) September 6, 2022

Aint Supposed to Die A Natural Death

Capitalism has outlived its usefulness.

X 2700

That rag has always been right Hope that German knows.

I forgot wing. That rag has always been right wing.

Trump media deal suffers blow as SPAC fails to win extension

The blank-check acquisition firm that agreed to merge with former U.S. President Donald Trump’s social media company failed on Tuesday to secure enough shareholder support for a one-year extension to complete the deal.
At stake is a $1.3 billion cash infusion that Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which operates the Truth Social app, stands to receive from Digital World Acquisition Corp, the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that inked a deal in October to take TMTG public.
The transaction has been on ice amid civil and criminal probes into the circumstances around the deal. Digital World had been hoping that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which is reviewing its disclosures on the deal, would have given its blessing by now.
Digital World Chief Executive Patrick Orlando told a special meeting of his shareholders on Tuesday he would push back to noon on Thursday the deadline for the vote on extending the life of the SPAC by 12 months.
Digital World needs 65% of its shareholders to vote in favor of the proposal, but the support as of late Monday fell far short, Reuters reported. Digital World did not disclose the margin on Tuesday.
Digital World shares fell 17% to $20.74 in New York early Tuesday afternoon.

Source: Reuters

Maybe Biden’s speech was timed for this reason? Coincidence or not?

In the event Joe Biden doesn't run in 2024, K Street Democrats believe Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is the most likely nominee.
36% say California Gov. Gavin Newsom is most likely to be the nominee, while 33% say Vice President Kamala Harris will be the nominee. pic.twitter.com/tWfzq8aFdZ
— Punchbowl News (@PunchbowlNews) September 6, 2022

Aint Supposed to Die A Natural Death

Lololol…. roflmao

The Dumbo National Committee is capable of it.

🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮,Dems really what to lose 24

Today will be the hottest day ever recorded in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento regions.
Temperatures are forecast to reach as high as 120F in Walnut Creek and Danville in the East Bay! pic.twitter.com/H5PmMH5Ztj
— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) September 6, 2022

Benny

I think the blog owner is out that way…

Believe me, climate disaster is turning into a yuge issue out there. Same with the Northeast.

LieparDestin

In Sequoia national park at the moment infact. Its certainly hot.

LieparDestin

Big Bear started burning day after I left there. Sad stuff 🙁

To see those trees in person was a bucket list item once retirement happens. i may have to scratch that one off.

LieparDestin

So worth it!

I’ll wait right here for an apology from all those folks on this hellsite who blindly defended Israel and the IDF and claimed it was all some anti-Israel smear to suggest Shireen was killed by the Israelis. I won’t forget who they are, especially the next time they do the same. https://t.co/mfeezMZhVu
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) September 5, 2022

🙂

From NYT snippets:

A federal court in South Dakota has approved a settlement agreement meant to make it easier for Native Americans to register to vote. The agreement resolves Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. Barnett, a lawsuit in which the court ruled in May that South Dakota had violated the National Voter Registration Act. That act requires D.M.V.s and some other public offices to offer voter registration when people come in for other services. Plaintiffs said their registrations had been mishandled or lost, and the settlement requires more training and enforcement to prevent that.

🙂

Billionaires and their Super PACs must not be able to buy Democratic Party primaries. If Democrats really believe in democracy and campaign finance reform, we must ban SuperPacs in primaries. I stand with progressive reformers advocating for this change. https://t.co/2KEuGDFbk2
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 6, 2022

That’s a big IF and Bernie knows it.

More ATM requests:

The White House will ask Congress to provide additional $13.7 billion in aid for Ukraine in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, per Bloomberg.
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) September 6, 2022

Aint Supposed to Die A Natural Death

But, but, how we gonna pay for it????

The same way we always do, use the taxpayer mastercard that has an infinite limit courtesy of the american taxpayer…

Aint Supposed to Die A Natural Death

Except when it comes to paying for expenses that benefit poor and low wage people.

I’m getting tired of my government supporting neo-Nazis. We’ve got major problems right here to solve.

Yea the card come up “Declined” when its for4 that.

Texas Paul is done with the Trump rally MAGA Republican bullshit. (warning: uncensored language) pic.twitter.com/zoNWxY4TYi
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) September 6, 2022

Don’t know if this is an actor or it is a real citizen of the Lone Star state. Salty but funny.

jcitybone

NEW: Unearthed audio shows Dr. Oz saying incest is “not a big problem” as long as “you’re more than a first cousin away.” He added his daughters don’t want to have sex with him because “my daughters hate my smell… Girls don’t like their fathers’ smell.” https://t.co/E1wq3WqWbI
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) September 6, 2022

Creepy.