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Making “The city that works” work for more people

Published by Tom Sullivan on July 14, 2023

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson dons an apron

“No one should be too poor to live in one of the richest cities — Chicago — in one of the richest countries — America — at the richest time in the history of the world,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, the opening keynote speaker, told the Netroots Nation 23 conference on Thursday. “There is literally more than enough for everybody. Everybody. No one should lose at the expense of someone else winning.”

“Now, the soul of Chicago was on full display tonight because you see, and you can feel it in the air,” said Johnson, 47, a former public schoolteacher. “This multicultural intergenerational movement that has propelled us into this moment where we don’t have to shrink and we don’t have to hide from our values. We can actually run on our principles and values and win.”

After the speech, Johnson and other officials spent an hour serving food and drinks to several thousand attendees as part of his effort to promote new legislation that would raise pay for tipped workers in the city. Johnson plans to introduce the measure at this month’s City Council meeting.

Johnson in April won an upset runoff victory over Paul Vallas, the candidate backed by the Chicago Police Union, the Chamber of Commerce, and other establishment Democrats. Vallas ran a traditional tough-on-crime campaign that tried to brand Johnson as a radical out to “defund the police.”

American Prospect:

In the final stretch of the campaign, Vallas received endorsements from both Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), a close ally to Obama, and Arne Duncan, Obama’s former secretary of education, who penned an op-ed lauding the candidate’s record as CEO of Chicago Public Schools. Obamaworld was said to be “coalescing” around Vallas. But in the end, their endorsements proved inconsequential.

Johnson garnered his own set of endorsements from Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), as well as local fixtures such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson. But what ultimately won Johnson the day was the ground game his campaign ran across the city, tapping into the infrastructure that the Chicago Teachers Union and Working Families Party—his two main backers—had established over decades. It was a version of the people power that Obama himself rode to the presidency in 2008, now in the hands of a progressive who beat the Obama machine.

Chicago Magazine:

When it came to fundraising, Paul Vallas had Brandon Johnson beat. Days before the April 4 mayoral runoff, Vallas reported contributions of over $19 million, more than half of that coming from 44 individuals or organizations. Johnson clocked in at just over $11 million, largely from unions. But where Johnson had the upper hand, and what ultimately propelled him to an upset victory, was his community outreach — appealing to supportive voters to turn out to the polls.

Johnson’s field team contacted half a million voters in the campaign’s last days. Johnson bested Vallas by 15,000 votes.

Video here. Johnson speech begins at timestamp 1:27:00.

Witness the freak-out!

Published by digby on July 13, 2023

That’s right. Trump just called Biden a crackhead.

Anyway:

A Secret Service probe into who left a small bag of cocaine in the White House earlier this month has concluded without a suspect being identified—reigniting right-wing conspiracy theories about sham probes and Hunter Biden.

“At this time, the Secret Service’s investigation is closed due to a lack of physical evidence,” the Secret Service conceded in a press release on Thursday.

[…]

Outrage ensued from Republican lawmakers, who remain hell-bent on continuing the probe despite the Secret Service’s admission there are no leads left to chase.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) reportedly stormed out of a Secret Service briefing for lawmakers just moments after it began. Outside, he called the probe’s conclusion “bogus” and the investigation a “complete failure.”

“Y’all know you can’t go in [the White House] without giving your Social Security number anyway, and to say that it’s just some weekend visitor, that’s bogus,” Burchett said. “Nobody’s buying that at all.”

The unfounded finger-pointing at Hunter Biden was only stoked when White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre snapped at a New York Post reporter who asked if she could say “once and for all” the drugs didn’t come from a Biden family member.

“They [the Biden family] were not here on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, so to ask that question is incredibly irresponsible,” Jean-Pierre replied.

On other occasions, Jean-Pierre deflected questions about the cocaine—promising a proper probe but saying little more.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) insinuated on Thursday that the lack of answers may be part of a cover-up by the Biden administration, though she didn’t mention the president’s son by name.

“Every time there’s something strange going on with President Biden or his family, or anything regarding his administration or the White House, no one can ever seem to find an answer,” Mace said. “This is one of the most secure locations in the world, some of the best law enforcement officers in the world, and they don’t have any answers.”

The Hunter Biden conspiracy hasn’t been limited to lawmakers.

Last week, Fox News anchor Julie Banderas stopped short of outright accusing Hunter Biden, instead claiming to be “just asking questions” about whether the coke belonged to him.

When told Hunter Biden wasn’t among the hundreds and hundreds of people who would have been in the White House in the days preceding the discovery, she insisted, “[The Bidens] were there before it was discovered and after. Hunter Biden was, in fact, at Camp David two weekends in a row with his father. These are legitimate concerns of the American public.”

In an impromptu press conference Thursday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) demanded the Secret Service order drug tests for hundreds of people who visited or work in the White House to see if any results returned positive for cocaine.

“It makes no sense to me whatsoever why they would not follow through on one simple task, and that’s to drug test a list of 500 people that they have that are potential suspects for this,” Greene said. “This was a failure of this investigation.”

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) said she was told that the cocaine was found in the 15th of 182 lockers used by White House visitors to store their devices. The cubby in question was unlocked and missing a key, she said.

Unlike Greene, Boebert said she’s fine with the Secret Service choosing to not drug test White House visitors, adding that it would have been “a very unusual thing to drug screen random citizens,” the Post reported.

Lol. I wouldn’t put it past a Secret Service Trumper planting the thing. I know that sounds crazy but then I wouldn’t have thought some members of the SS would join Trump’s political operation and help him try to stage a coup so… anything’s possible.

My personal favorite right wing screech on this is that it’s Jill Biden who is doing rails in the Oval. Seriously:

This is all over the right wing media. That’s how batshit crazy they are.

Stickin’ with the union

Published by digby on July 13, 2023

There was a time when that statement would have sounded totally nuts. It’s not that far-fetched today…

They hate the modern world

Published by digby on July 13, 2023

Michael Knowles tag line on Twitter is “I am completely opposed to the error of the modernists….”

That is from the biggest podcast in the nation, The Daily Wire. And its raison d’etre is right wing theocracy. I would argue that it’s not science that’s caused despair and “suicidality” in the modern world — it’s people like him. But that’s just me. I’m not a scientist.

The liars are all upset again

Published by digby on July 13, 2023

Surprise

They have to be allowed to spread lies unencumbered or they are being persecuted:

In the days since Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads app premiered, a number of rather predictable media storylines and narratives have dominated the news cycles around the latest would-be Twitter replacement. One focuses on the sheer power of Zuckerberg’s Meta empire—Threads is now the fastest-growing app in history. Zuckerberg says his new platform hit 100 million sign-ups in less than a week. Of course, many of those users were already on other Zuckerberg digital properties: Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp.

A related narrative argues that this early but apparent success is a much-needed win for Zuckerberg, who squandered billions trying to convince people to join his online cartoon world, the metaverse. There’s also a more esoteric storyline about how the success of Threads might affect Zuckerberg’s looming antitrust battles. And yet somehow, the most predictable narrative is the right’s immediate cries that Threads is censoring their “free speech.”

This argument unfolded along exhaustingly familiar lines with right-wing figures regurgitating the same clichés and grievances they invoke every time a social media platform doesn’t cater to their ideological whims. On the day after Threads went live, Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted that “Threads will be the same Marxist style social media experience that Zuckerberg usually offers.” Less than a week after the app launched, one Fox News guest declared that the supposed censorship on Threads is “absolutely straight out of Orwell’s 1984.”

The most cited example of this supposed censorship—and the one MTG referenced in her tweet—was a warning that appeared for Threads users attempting to follow Donald Trump Jr. Apparently, if you tried to follow the former president’s son on Threads, a message popped up informing you that the account has “repeatedly posted false information.” This brief interlude into rationality concluded predictably. Trump Jr. posted screenshots and complained on Twitter. A Meta spokesperson rushed to assure him that the misinformation label was an error which was being removed.

Never mind that Donald Trump Jr. has repeatedly posted false information. It’s one of his rhetorical hallmarks. His Twitter account was banned in 2020 after he endorsed a conspiracy-minded doctor’s video claiming Hydroxychloroquine cures Covid-19. In 2019, he posted and then deleted a tweet questioning whether Kamala Harris was an “American Black.” On Instagram this year, he posted a meme nodding to the vile conspiracy theory that the attack on Paul Pelosi was actually a gay lovers’ quarrel. One study that analyzed tens of millions of Facebook interactions found that Donald Trump Jr. was one of the main “superspreaders” of election misinformation on Zuckerberg’s flagship property.

So naturally, Meta apologized and removed the warning. Oy vey…

And yet it was utterly unsurprising that Meta scrambled to assure Trump the younger that he can still spread all the misinformation he wants on the company’s new platform without consequences. For years, Zuckerberg and his enterprises have bent over backward to placate conservatives and court right-wing audiences. In the run-up to the 2020 election, he held face-to-face meetings with conservative heavyweights like Ben Shapiro, Tucker Carlson, and Lindsey Graham. He rarely grants media interviews but last year he appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast—one of the few media empires that enjoys a young, right-wing audience. The top publishers on Facebook are consistently right-wing figures and outlets like Shapiro, The Daily Caller, and Dan Bongino. Donald Trump has repeatedly said that Zuckerberg “used to come to the White House and kiss my ass.”

But none of Zuckerberg’s attempts to placate the right have ever actually worked. He may have won over the larger figures of the movement, people like Ben Shapiro—Shapiro’s Daily Wire’s coverage of Zuckerberg has been noticeably positive as of late—but the typical Republican voter is more likely to sound more like Marjorie Taylor Greene, accusing Zuckerberg of buzzword evils like peddling “Marxist style social media experiences.”

It’s hard to imagine how a social media experience might be legitimately characterized as “Marxist” but valid characterizations went out the window when outrage became the Republican base’s driving force. In fact, one reason Zuckerberg’s own algorithms tend to amplify right-wing content is that outrageous buzzwords drive engagement. When asked why right-wing content has such an advantage on Facebook, one executive told Politico, “People respond to engaging emotion much more than they do to, you know, dry coverage.”

Algorithms rewarding posts that engage with users’ emotions may be a marvelous idea when feeds are stacked with videos of dogs skidding across linoleum kitchen floors. But that same process is deleterious when it comes to news (and “news”) in our current political environment. Things go off the rails when the algorithm encourages emotional engagement in the political sphere—people reach for absurd emotional tricks like accusing their political opponents of pedophilia. And when users share avalanches of emotionally charged election fraud misinformation on Facebook, the more motivated among them might do things like storm the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overthrow American democracy.

But outrage for the sake of outrage itself is still the most powerful weapon for the exact sort of right-wing figures rushing to accuse Threads of censoring their “free speech.” Chaya Raichik, who runs the anti-LGBT account LibsOfTikTok, accused Zuckerberg of censorship after Threads removed her post saying that “non-binary isn’t real.” Again, a Meta spokesperson assured Fox Business that Raichik’s bigoted post is still live on Threads. But of course posting “non-binary isn’t real” is designed to spark emotional outrage. It’s hateful bumper sticker rhetoric and feels suspiciously like a post that was aimed to run afoul of Threads’ content moderation.

Raichik is one of a number of previously fringe-right Twitter figures who have become cozy with Elon Musk since the billionaire took over that social media platform and showed an almost impressive determination to run it into the ground. Spam accounts and misinformation are now so commonplace on Twitter that the site is basically unusable. But to the right-wing user, Elon Musk is a free speech “absolutist,” as he puts it (because, according to this right-wing ideology, private companies—not just the government—are subject to the First Amendment). And yet that characterization of Musk sinks under cursory examination: His iteration of Twitter has removed content critical of autocrats like Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey and Narendra Modi in India at the behest of those governments.


I’m on Threads but it has limited utility for me because it doesn’t have a web ap and I’m on my laptop most of the time. I don’t like to have to move back and forth to my phone and It’s a lot of trouble forwarding the links I want to read on the web. Whatever. It still has growing pains and I’m willing to use it for my work if that’s where it ends up. For now I’m on all of the twitter alternatives but still spend more time on twitter — reluctantly.

But the idea that Meta, of all companies, was going to be our big savior has always been laughable. All you have to do is look at what is successful on Facebook to see the problem. And the problem with it is a politics online problem generally, one which I ran into years ago when I had comments on this very blog. When right wing assholes invade it destroys the vibe and eventually the community. That’s the point. It’s just how it works. If you value free speech you instinctively don’t want to censor people for ideas but eventually you realize that they are just trolls trying to destroy what you’re doing.

Meta has made it clear that they don’t want to get into anything controversial which means the assholes win. And Elon is a right wing asshole himself. All the others just don’t have the reach and scale (at least not yet) to provide the global service that twitter did. So here we are.

QOTD: DeSantis

Published by digby on July 13, 2023

Ron DeSantis:

“The idea that he’s entitled to this, especially, you know, we had the Biden-Trump in 2020 and Biden’s president. The idea that he’s just entitled after that doesn’t make any sense.”

What a dolt. Until; he’s ready to stand up like an adult and admit that the election wasn’t stolen and the The Big Lie is a big lie, then most Republicans still believe he IS entitled to the nomination because the presidency was stolen from him. This mealy mouthed “… and Biden’s president” instead of “and Biden won” plaintive wail is just weak, weak, weak.

Looks like the circus is in town

Published by digby on July 13, 2023

Here we go again

Fergwadsakes:

House Republican leaders are now betting they can come up with 218 GOP votes for the FY2024 defense authorization bill after essentially ending any hope of a bipartisan deal with Democrats.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy is giving the House Freedom Caucus and other conservative hardliners what they’ve demanded all week — dozens of “culture war” amendment votes on the $886 billion NDAA package. Conservatives threatened to derail the defense-authorization bill unless they got these votes.

The House will take up these amendments today in what promises to be a long and bitterly partisan slugfest. McCarthy wants to vote on final passage for the NDAA bill by Friday.

You can see the list of NDAA amendments here.

These GOP amendments run the gamut of conservative talking points. They cover everything from the Pentagon’s abortion policy, DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives, Covid-19 vaccines, critical race theory and transgender-related medical services. Ukraine, China and Taiwan are also key amendment topics.

If some or all of these poison-pill provisions are added to the defense authorization legislation — which Congress has enacted every year since the early 1960s — then Democrats will oppose the measure. The House Armed Services Committee initially passed the bill by an overwhelming 58-1 vote on June 22.

The most high-profile amendment is authored by Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas). Jackson’s proposal would bar the Pentagon “from paying for or reimbursing expenses relating to abortion services.” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) has been holding up dozens of military promotions for months in a bid to force the Pentagon to rescind the abortion policy.

There are several amendments designed to block or reduce military aid to Ukraine. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) will get a vote on her proposal to cut $300 million in Ukraine funding.

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) has an amendment to prohibit DoD-run schools “from purchasing and having pornographic and radical gender ideology books in their libraries.” Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) wants to block the removal of Confederate names from military bases. And Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) is seeking to prevent the Pentagon from implementing Biden’s climate change executive orders.

The House Rules Committee met late Wednesday night to pass the rule covering this second tranche of controversial amendments. During that session, Republicans defeated numerous Democratic attempts to add their own amendments to the approved list. Of the 80 amendments cleared for potential floor votes, just four were from Democrats.

Rules Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) also said there was a “side agreement” that the House would move forward in September with repealing a number of outstanding resolutions authorizing the use of military force (AUMFs). This includes the AUMF passed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. This will be replaced by another resolution, Cole indicated.

Democrats blasted McCarthy and GOP leaders for — in their view — allowing a small faction of conservatives to essentially control what’s going on in the House.

“This is a very sad night,” complained Rep. Jim McGovern (Mass.), top Democrat on the Rules Committee. “It’s outrageous that a small minority of MAGA extremists is dictating how we’ll proceed. This is not how this place should work.”

McGovern was particularly upset that a bipartisan proposal banning the United States from providing cluster munitions to other countries has been revised to only banning them from being given to Ukraine. Biden just agreed to send these weapons to Ukraine for its summer counteroffensive against Russian forces.

Adding these conservative provisions to the bill will make cutting a deal with the Senate and White House much more difficult. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is expected to file a motion today to proceed to that chamber’s version of the NDAA bill beginning next week. Schumer is looking to pass the bill before the August recess.

Now let’s turn our attention to the FY2024 spending bills. The fight over these 12 appropriations bills is going to make the NDAA flap look like child’s play.

By today, House Republicans will have unveiled all 12 of their proposed FY2024 spending bills, including the critical Labor-HHS and Commerce-Justice-Science packages. Appropriations Committee Chair Kay Granger (R-Texas) has scheduled full committee markups for eight of the bills. GOP leaders hope to bring one or two bills to the floor before the August recess.

Yet because these bills are set at the FY2022 spending level — not the level agreed to in the Fiscal Responsibility Act — and Defense, Homeland Security and veterans’ programs were spared or even bumped up, House GOP appropriators have made tens of billions of dollars of cuts to social spending programs. Democrats are outraged by this decision and warn it will backfire.

“I am fearful … that we are on a trajectory, at best, for continuing resolutions. And at worst, a government shutdown,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the ranking Appropriations Democrat, warned during a Wednesday markup.

The clowns are running the show. And they are stupid, evil, clowns.

Making the right wear Dobbs

Published by Tom Sullivan on July 13, 2023

Keeping women’s mistreatment in the headlines

It may be a stunt, but one with a point (New York Times):

Democrats in Congress are making a fresh push for the nearly century-old Equal Rights Amendment to be enshrined in the Constitution, rallying around a creative legal theory in a bid to revive an amendment that would explicitly guarantee sex equality as a way to protect reproductive rights in post-Roe America.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Representative Cori Bush of Missouri are set to introduce a joint resolution on Thursday stating that the measure has already been ratified and is enforceable as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. The resolution states that the national archivist, who is responsible for the certification and publication of constitutional amendments, must immediately do so.

[…]

“In light of Dobbs, we’re seeing vast discrimination across the country,” Ms. Gillibrand said in an interview. “Women are being treated as second-class citizens. This is more timely than ever.”

If the GOP can conduct sham investigations into Hunter Biden and the FBI for their frothing base, why shouldn’t Democrats remind half the population that the authoritarian right considers them no more than birthing vessels?

The measure is unlikely to garner the 60 votes necessary to advance in the Senate, but could remind the almost “80 percent of Americans” who support the Equal Rights Amendment which party is and is not on their side. Senate Republicans in April blocked a different Democratic attempt to extend the expiration date for ratification.

Given enough oxygen by the press, of course. That’s the problem. The press falls all over itself to cover GOP clown shows from the likes of Jim Jordan and Marjorie Taylor Greene while yawning at Democrats’ attempts at, you know, governing.

At issue is the complex procedure for adding an amendment to the Constitution, which requires passage by both houses of Congress and ratification by three-quarters of the states, in this case, within a seven-year deadline. Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972, and subsequently enacted a law extending that deadline to 10 years. But by 1982, only 35 states had ratified. Since then, three more states — Nevada, Illinois and Virginia — have ratified the amendment, surpassing the threshold, but some others have rescinded their ratifications.

That has left the amendment in a legal and political limbo, its fate left in the hands of Congress and the courts.

Russ Feingold, the former Wisconsin senator who serves as president of the American Constitution Society, said he supported the Democrats’ new strategy.

“For the institution that actually put this limitation of the deadline on to say, ‘Actually, it doesn’t matter’ really is significant,” Mr. Feingold said. “The White House and members of Congress are beginning to see that credible legal scholars are saying this is already part of the Constitution.”

Since the reference to the deadline is in the amendment’s preamble, not the text itself, Gillibrand now argues, “President Biden can just do this. I’m going to make the legal and political argument over the next several months that this is something he can do.”

Whatever she/they do, it had best be splashy or the press will dismiss the effort as another boring, inside-the-Beltway process issue.

Bush contends that the amendment’s core “is packed with potential to protect access to abortion care nationwide, defeat bans on gender-affirming health care, shore up marriage equality, eliminate the gender wage gap, help end the epidemic of violence against women and girls, and so much more.”

Make it an issue. And don’t let up.

Political cartoons: The gloves are off

Published by Tom Sullivan on July 13, 2023

More, please

In Chicago for the next few days for the Netroots Nation conference, so please excuse the abbreviated postings.

A taste of Kiev

Air raid sirens screamed out across downtown Chicago multiple times and cell phone alerts chirped through the hotel to warn of tornadoes touching down in the area, a rare event according to one report. Friends were stuck on the tarmac at O’Hare Airport until the weather service called all-clear. They texted that could see the tornado from the plane (AP):

The weather service warned Wednesday evening that a confirmed tornado was on the ground near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Passengers took shelter and the storm disrupted hundreds of flights, but there were no immediate reports of injuries. A short time later, the weather service said the Chicago forecast area was “currently tornado warning free.” The storm moved into Michigan before passing through the state and into Canada early Thursday. Tornado watches that were in effect for parts of Michigan, Indiana and Ohio all expired.

The twister tore the roof of a motel west of the city.

No injuries reported, unlike with Russian missile attacks on Ukrainian cities.

While Presswatchers’ Dan Froomkin lambastes the Washington Post for wimping out on editorial cartoons, other outlets are stepping up.

One hopes Clay Bennett (Chattanooga Times Free Press) has good security at his home. And at the Times Free Press.

Mike Luckovich has been setting the standard in Atlanta for some time.

Jeroom Snelders is from Belgium.

(h/t Brad Friedman)

Panic time?

Published by digby on July 12, 2023

Not really

There’s a lot of handwringing and gnashing of teeth over that headline today. Oh my God! The Democrats are blowing it … again!!!! But it seems to me that the headline is totally missing the point.

We already knew that the GOP had higher turnout. This new study by Pew just reinforces the early data so I don’t think anyone should be surprised by it. Mid-terms always have higher turnout by the out party! Isn’t that the moldiest political trope in the world?

In most midterm years, the party that is not in the White House fares well. And while Republicans enjoyed a turnout advantage in 2022, they nevertheless fell short of expectations and did not match Democrats’ turnout advantage in 2018, the first midterm election after Mr. Trump took office.

Still, midterm voters historically skew older and whiter than voters in presidential years, a phenomenon that tends to benefit Republicans. The 2018 midterms were, in many ways, the exception to that rule, with increased turnout across age groups, but especially among young people. The 2022 electorate was more in line with historical trends.

The article goes on to spell doom and gloom for the Democrats because of this. I honestly don’t see why that should be. The Dems did very well and Donald Trump wasn’t even in the White House or on the ballot. He will be in 2024 and that’s likely to juice Democratic turnout substantially.

I’m not saying that Democrats shouldn’t work very, very hard to get turnout up in their base demographics like the Black community and Latinos. Nobody can be ignored, needless to say. I just don’t think this particular study tells us anything except that the 2022 election featured a traditionally Republican mid-term turnout and they tanked anyway. It seems to me that’s the real story.