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      Perhaps it’s time to kick Joe Manchin out of the Democratic party | Robert Reich

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      Perhaps it’s time to kick Joe Manchin out of the Democratic partyRobert ReichAt every opportunity, Manchin has sabotaged Democrats’ agenda. What’s going on here? It’s spelled m-o-n-e-y After putting a final spear through the heart of what remained of Biden’s and the Democrat’s domestic agenda, West Virginia’s Democratic senator Joe Manchin now rejects any tax increases on big corporations or the wealthy – until inflation is no longer a problem.This is rich, in every sense of the word. Raising taxes on big American corporations and the wealthy would not fuel inflation. It would slow inflation by reducing demand – and do it in a way that wouldn’t hurt lower-income Americans (such as those living in, say, West Virginia).As a 76-year-old let me say: Joe Biden is too old to run again | Robert ReichRead moreManchin’s state is one of the poorest in America. West Virginia ranks 45th in education, 47th in healthcare, 48th in overall prosperity and 50th in infrastructure.Tax revenue from corporations and billionaires could be used to rebuild West Virginia, among other places that need investment around America.But Manchin doesn’t seem to give a cluck. After all, the Democrats’ agenda – which Manchin has obliterated – included pre-K education, free community college, child subsidies, Medicare dental and vision benefits, paid family leave, elder care, and much else – all of enormous value to West Virginia. (On a per-person basis, West Virginians would have benefitted more than the residents of all but two other states.)It’s not as if Manchin has championed anything else Democrats have sought. Remember Manchin’s “bipartisan compromise” on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act? Nothing came of it, of course.Nothing has come of any of the fig leaves Manchin has conjured to cover his unrelenting opposition to every other Democratic goal.What’s going on here? It’s spelled m-o-n-e-y.Few if any American-based global corporations or billionaires reside in West Virginia, but lots of money flows to Manchin from corporations and billionaires residing elsewhere.Manchin has not only taken more campaign contributions from oil, gas and coal companies than any other senator (as well as dividends from his own coal company), he has one of the largest war chests from all big American corporations.If the Democratic party had any capacity to discipline its lawmakers or hold them accountable (if pigs could fly), it would at least revoke Manchin’s chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.To continue to allow this crucial position to be occupied by the man who has single-handedly blocked one of the last opportunities to save the Earth is a thumb in the eye of the universe.I’m told the Democrats don’t dare take this step for fear Manchin would leave the Democratic party and switch his allegiance to the Republicans.Why exactly would this be so terrible? Manchin already acts like a Republican.Oh, no! they tell me. If Manchin switches parties, Democrats would lose control over the Senate.Well, I have news for Democrats. They already lost control over the Senate.In fact, the way things are right now, Biden and the Democrats have the worst of both worlds. They look like they control the Senate, as well as the House and the presidency. But they can’t get a damn thing done because Manchin (and his intermittent sidekick, Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema) won’t let them.So after almost two years of appearing to run the entire government, Democrats have accomplished almost nothing of what they came to Washington to do.America is burning and flooding but Democrats won’t enact climate measures.Voting rights and reproductive rights are being pulverized but Democrats won’t protect them.Gun violence is out of control but Democrats come up with a miniature response.Billionaires and big corporations are siphoning off more national wealth and income than in living memory and paying a lower tax rate (often zero), but Democrats won’t raise taxes on big corporations and the wealthy.Which means that in November’s midterm elections, Democrats will have to go back to voters and say: “We promised a lot but we delivered squat, so please vote for us again.”This does not strike me as a compelling message.By kicking Manchin out of the party, Democrats could at least go into the midterms with a more realistic pitch: “It looked like we had control of the Senate, but we didn’t. Now that you know who the real Democrats are, give us the power and we will get it done.”Maybe this way they’ll pick up more real Democratic senators, and do it.
      Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
      TopicsDemocratsOpinionJoe ManchinUS SenateUS CongressUS politicscommentReuse this content More

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      Democratic members of Congress arrested during pro-choice protest

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      Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and House colleagues arrested during pro-choice protest The legislators were engaged in peaceful civil disobedience against the loss of abortion rights in front of the supreme court Several prominent Democratic members of Congress were arrested on Wednesday during a protest in support of abortion rights in front of the supreme court, in the aftermath of the historic overturning of Roe v Wade last month.The politicians gathered in front of the US Capitol before marching to the court building, chanting “our bodies, our choice” and “we won’t go back”.The group, which included the prominent progressives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush, proceeded to stand along a crosswalk, or pedestrian crossing area, in front of the court, which is surrounded by a large black fence claimed to be unclimbable and erected to keep protesters away.Happening rn: MOCs & EDs of orgs across the country are risking arrest at the Capitol. #BansOffOurBodies @CPDAction pic.twitter.com/Cl9ldc9iBf— Maegan LLerena 🦋 (@maeganllerena) July 19, 2022
      The group sat down in the middle of the street as an act of peaceful civil disobedience, as a group of police officers gathered around them, broadcasting a pre-recorded message announcing imminent arrest for blocking the street.The officers then began to arrest the lawmakers, cuffing them and leading them to an area taped off away from the street.Multiple members of Congress, including @AOC, being arrested by Capitol Police for blocking traffic outside the Supreme Court in abortion rights demonstration: pic.twitter.com/fysQN1oBAw— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) July 19, 2022
      A livestream of the protest was posted online by CPD Action, the protest-centered arm of the Center for Popular Democracy, a social justice organization, which coordinated the direct action.CPD Action said 18 members of Congress were arrested. Seventeen were women. Andy Levin of Michigan was the sole congressman among them.In a statement, Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York who was also arrested, said: “I have the privilege of representing a state where reproductive rights are respected and protected – the least I can do is put my body on the line for the 33 million women at risk of losing their rights.”Jackie Speier, a representative from California who was also arrested, said on Twitter: “Proud to march with my Democratic colleagues and get arrested for women’s rights, abortion rights, the rights for people to control their own bodies and the future and our democracy.”Reps. Jackie Speier and Carolyn Maloney getting arrested pic.twitter.com/c1AP7ILHDu— Nancy Vu (@NancyVu99) July 19, 2022
      It has been less than a month since the supreme court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade ruling, which protected the right to an abortion under the constitution. Abortion is now banned or under threat of being banned in 60% of states.Backlash against the supreme court, which is now dominated by six conservative justices, including three appointed by Donald Trump, intensified in May when a draft of the decision to overturn Roe was leaked. Soon after, the court installed the 7ft security fence.Immediately after the release of the official decision, massive protests swept the US from New York to Los Angeles, including in large cities of Republican-led states such as Missouri and Texas.Joe Biden has announced and the House has since passed bills offering federal protections – but these are largely symbolic as long as the Senate is all but certain to reject such legislation, and as the individual states now have the right to dictate abortion regulation.Analilia Mejia, co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy Action, said the protest “sent a powerful message to Republican lawmakers and [the supreme court]: we will not back down.“Our rights, our freedoms, and our reproductive autonomy matters. Abortion is healthcare and a human right – and you don’t represent the vast majority of Americans who believe we, not the government, should dictate our own health decisions.”Polling shows consistent majorities in favor of abortion being legal in at least some cases.Mejia said: “We will not stop fighting for the world our communities deserve – one that honors our right to decide our futures.”TopicsAbortionProtestReproductive rightsUS politicsDemocratsnewsReuse this content More

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      Biden to make Wednesday climate address as dangerous heat grips US and world – as it happened

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      President Joe Biden will outline his next steps to tackle climate change in an address in Somerset, Massachusetts on Wednesday, the White House announced. “The president will deliver remarks on tackling the climate crisis and seizing the opportunity of a clean energy future to create jobs and lower costs for families,” according to a statement.The president may use the trip to declare the national climate emergency The Washington Post reports his administration has been mulling. Reuters quotes a White House official as saying, “We are considering all options and no decision has been made.”President Joe Biden plans an address on climate change tomorrow, where he may announce new executive orders to curb US emissions after his attempts to achieve reductions via legislation stalled in Congress. However, he won’t declare a climate emergency, at least not yet.Here’s what else happened today:
      The January 6 committee will continue with its hearing planned for the Thursday prime-time TV hour despite its chair Bennie Thompson testing positive for Covid-19.
      The second day of Steve Bannon’s trial got underway in Washington.
      The Secret Service has lost for good text messages from 5 and 6 January 2021, when the US Capitol was attacked. The National Archives is demanding an investigation.
      Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska is in Washington for meetings with the Biden administration and an address to Congress on Wednesday.
      Nancy Pelosi’s reported trip to Taiwan has prompted a warning from China.
      There are at least 120 Republicans election deniers running for office, according to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight.
      A small explosion and fire occurred at Hoover Dam, but was quickly contained.
      Following today’s revelation that the Secret Service deleted text messages from the January 6 attack and the day before, The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports that National Archives is now demanding an investigation:The US National Archives has asked the Secret Service to conduct an internal investigation over “erased” text messages from the day before and the day of the Capitol attack, according to a letter sent to the agency’s records management officer on Tuesday.The request marks the latest escalation of the matter after the watchdog for the Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general, notified Congress he had sought the texts only to be told they no longer existed.In the letter sent to the Secret Service records officer, reviewed by the Guardian, the National Archives requested the agency launch an internal review and report within 30 calendar days if it finds any texts were “improperly deleted”.Secret Service told to begin an inquiry into erased January 6 text messagesRead moreJackson Women’s Health Organization, Mississippi’s only abortion clinic and the subject of the supreme court case that overturned Roe v. Wade last month, has given up its legal battle to continue operating.Reuters reports that the clinic was making a last-ditch legal effort before the state supreme court to get it to halt Mississippi’s almost total ban on abortions, but threw in the towel after the clinic’s owner sold the building. Its fate seemed sealed earlier this month after a judge rejected the clinic’s petition to halt the ban, which went into effect following last month’s ruling by the US supreme court in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.Mississippi’s only abortion clinic to close after judge leaves state law in forceRead moreUkraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska is in Washington for meetings at the White House and an address to Congress. As you can see above, she’s already met Joe and Jill Biden.Here’s what Zelenska had to say about the visit after meeting with secretary of state Antony Blinken:Feels strange – not to hear any sirens. At the @FLOTUS invitation, I arrived to the USA to discuss our needs in the fight against the aggressor. It is also the topic of the meeting with @SecBlinken. His position remains the same: independent 🇺🇦 will exist much longer than Putin. pic.twitter.com/dTUA8QtFk9— Олена Зеленська (@ZelenskaUA) July 19, 2022
      Tomorrow, she will address senators and House representatives in the Capitol. In a letter to lawmakers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “We hope that all Members will take advantage of this important and timely opportunity to hear directly from First Lady Zelenska, to learn more about the terrible toll of the Russian invasion and to express our gratitude to the people of Ukraine for their fight for Democracy.”Meanwhile in Washington, a group of House Democrats was arrested in front of the supreme court after staging a demonstration in support of abortion rights.Multiple members of Congress, including @AOC, being arrested by Capitol Police for blocking traffic outside the Supreme Court in abortion rights demonstration: pic.twitter.com/fysQN1oBAw— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) July 19, 2022
      Here’s where they’re being corralled. The group also includes the assistant House speaker, Katherine Clark. pic.twitter.com/2jNIRB2WtU— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) July 19, 2022
      Members arrested:Dean, Velasquez, Lee, Speier, Clark, Jacobs, Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Andy Levin, Carolyn Maloney, Adams, Watson Coleman, Escobar, Bush, Schakowsky, Omar & Pressley.w/ @OrianaBeLike https://t.co/pR0b0sve5u— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) July 19, 2022
      Last week, the Democratic-led House approved legislation that protected abortion access nationwide, after the supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states to ban the procedure. However, there’s no sign the legislation will be able to overcome a Republican filibuster in the Senate.House approves legislation to protect abortion access across US Read moreA small explosion and fire broke out but was quickly extinguished at Hoover Dam, which is at the center of the western United States’s massive drought.touring the #hooverdam and heard an explosion #fire pic.twitter.com/1tjWuNWBaZ— Kristy Hairston (@kristynashville) July 19, 2022
      The embankment straddling the Nevada-Arizona border holds back Lake Mead, which has dropped to its lowest level since it was full 20 years ago due to drought and climate change. Reuters reports that the blaze at Hoover Dam had been extinguished before the local fire department arrived. It is unclear if the lake’s low water level played a role in the explosion, but authorities warn that the reservoir could soon hit “dead pool” levels, when water will no longer be able to flow downstream. Former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio has ended his bid for the Democratic nomination in the state’s 10th congressional district.It’s clear the people of #NY10 are looking for another option and I respect that. Time for me to leave electoral politics and focus on other ways to serve. I am really grateful for all the people I met, the stories I heard and the many good souls who helped out. Thank you all! pic.twitter.com/gpt6V6WLUf— Bill de Blasio (@BilldeBlasio) July 19, 2022
      De Blasio, who led America’s largest city for eight years and left office with low approval ratings, was trailing in polls to represent the district that includes part of the city in the U.S. House of Representatives.The Secret Service will tell Congress it doesn’t have any new texts to give to the House subcommittee investigating the January 6 insurrection, according to Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig. MORE NEWWWS – @SecretService will tell Congress it doesn’t have any new texts from its agents around Jan 6 attack to provide. Anything not already turned over has been purged. Its gone.— Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig) July 19, 2022
      The House committee set a deadline for today for the Secret Service to hand over deleted texts that were sent among agents, Donald Trump and Mike Pence on the day before and the day of the riot. Last week, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security notified the committee that texts from those days had been deleted. The explanation from the Secret Service for the deletions have shifted several times, from software upgrades to device replacements. From the Guardian’s senior reporter Nina Lakhani, who reports on climate justice: As attention focuses on the extreme temperatures scorching large swathes of Europe and the US, its worth drawing attention to other parts of the world where dangerous heat and drought have also been causing misery.In Monterrey, Mexico’s third largest city where temperatures above 100F are the norm throughout the summer, residents are enduring a second month of water rationing as three dams which supply households are almost dry. Authorities are turning on taps for only six hours per day, though some residents have gone without any running water for long spells, and are forced to spend hours every day lining up at communal taps. The national water authority has declared a state of emergency across the country because of drought.According to the North American Drought Monitor, 56% of Mexico is experiencing some level of drought with northern states like Nuevo Leon (home to Monterrey), Sonora, Chihuahua, and Coahuila particularly badly due to a combination of La Niña and global heating. Most of the country’s wheat is farmed in this northern belt, which is among three crops (along with maize and rice) that make up almost half the world’s calories. All three grains are vulnerable to extreme heat and drought, in large part because industrialised agriculture favors monocropping over crop diversity.This was a little reported consequence of the punishing spring extreme heatwave in India and Pakistan, where more than a billion people faced temperatures from 100 to 122F from late March to the end of June, a period of almost 100 days. As a result, wheat yields dropped by about 15%, compounding the shortages caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Livestock died across the subcontinent.The number of deaths so far attributed directly to the extreme spring heat is surprisingly low, just 90, compared to more than 1100 so far in Spain and Portugal, though this is likely at least partly down to issues with counting and reporting heat deaths. (Recent floods in India and Bangladesh have led to high death tolls, but this could be because such deaths are easier to count.) It’s the monsoon now in India, so temperatures have dropped significantly – it’s only 90F in Delhi today – but the humidity is very high. Humid heat is far more dangerous than dry heat, so the death toll could rise across the Asian subcontinent without anyone paying much attention.Read more about crop scientists in Mexico developing heat and climate resilient wheat varieties here:The race against time to breed a wheat to survive the climate crisisRead moreJoe Biden is not going to declare a climate emergency when he delivers an address on climate change in Somerset, Massachusetts tomorrow, according to the Associated Press. A source told the AP that while Biden is planning to announce steps the White House is taking to address climate change, he will not declare a climate emergency. President Biden is not going to issue an emergency climate declaration this week, according to an @AP source. https://t.co/PWfms6Eq0R— Chris Megerian (@ChrisMegerian) July 19, 2022
      Earlier today, the Washington Post reported that Biden was floating the idea of declaring an emergency after senator Joe Manchin effectively blocked a spending package that would have allocated billions toward addressing the climate emergency. Manchin told Democratic leaders last week that he does not support the package, ultimately striking down its chance of passage.It’s day two of Steve Bannon’s federal trial in Washington DC as he faces charges of contempt for Congress, ignoring subpoenas from the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. A lawyer for Bannon has asked the judge to delay the trial by a month so the defense team can figure out what evidence they could offer. The judge, Carl J Nichols, denied his lawyer’s request, but said he may push back the start of opening arguments a day so both teams can organize themselves. Just in: Judge Carl Nichols denies Steve Bannon’s — latest — request to delay trial, this time by a month— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) July 19, 2022
      Bannon’s trial began yesterday with jury selection. Attorneys have narrowed the pool down to 22 prospective, with a final 12 needed, along with two alternatives.Ohio’s supreme court has struck down the state’s 15 congressional districts, saying they were so distorted in favor of Republicans that they violated the state constitution.In a 4-3 ruling, the court gave the state legislature 30 days to come up with a new map. If the legislature fails to come up with a new plan, a GOP-controlled commission would then have another 30 days. Any new map would be in effect for the 2024 elections. After striking down the initial map Republicans passed earlier this year, the Ohio supreme court declined to intervene again ahead of the state’s primary and block a revised map. The map they struck down Tuesday was that revised plan. The plan creates 10 Republican-leaning districts and five Democratic-leaning districts, the court noted. While all 10 GOP districts are solidly Republican, three of the five Democratic ones are highly competitive, meaning Republicans could win them in a strong year for the party. Projections show Democrats would most likely win four in the state’s congressional delegation, despite winning around 47% of the statewide vote.That split violates a provision in the state constitution that prohibits maps that “unduly favors or disfavors a political party or its incumbents.” Ohio voters overwhelmingly approved adding that language to the state constitution in 2018.“Comparative analyses and other metrics show that the March 2 plan allocates voters in ways that unnecessarily favor the Republican Party by packing Democratic voters into a few dense Democratic-leaning districts, thereby increasing the Republican vote share of the remaining districts,” the court’s majority wrote. “As a result, districts that would otherwise be strongly Democratic-leaning are now competitive or Republican-leaning districts.”The three judges who dissented argued that the majority opinion sought to use a system of proportional representation, which is not required under Ohio’s constitution.Tuesday’s ruling marks the seventh time the Ohio supreme court has struck down congressional and state legislative maps this cycle. Despite all of those rulings, all of the maps struck down passed by lawmakers will be in place for at least the 2022 elections.The Republican judge blocking her party from rigging electoral districtsRead morePresident Joe Biden plans an address on climate change tomorrow, during which he could declare a national climate emergency after his attempts to get legislation lowering America’s carbon emissions through Congress stalled.Here’s what else has happened so far today:
      The January 6 committee will continue with its hearing planned for the Thursday prime-time TV hour despite its chair Bennie Thompson testing positive for Covid-19.
      The Secret Service will turn over texts to the January 6 committee that were said to have been deleted.
      Nancy Pelosi’s reported trip to Taiwan has prompted a warning from China.
      There are about 120 Republicans election deniers running for office – at least, according to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight.
      President Joe Biden will outline his next steps to tackle climate change in an address in Somerset, Massachusetts on Wednesday, the White House announced. “The president will deliver remarks on tackling the climate crisis and seizing the opportunity of a clean energy future to create jobs and lower costs for families,” according to a statement.The president may use the trip to declare the national climate emergency The Washington Post reports his administration has been mulling. Reuters quotes a White House official as saying, “We are considering all options and no decision has been made.”120. That’s the number of Republican candidates who deny the results of the 2020 election and will be on the ballot this fall, according to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight, which notes that may not be the full count.Election denying is most common in House of Representatives and governorship races, and least in secretary of state and Senate contests, according to the analysis. It’s also hard to pin down the degree to which Republican politicians refuse to accept the validity of the results of the last presidential race, since many haven’t made their views known – which FiveThirtyEight concludes means some likely believe baseless theories about the outcome, but are keeping it to themselves.Finally, the analysis finds that election denying is no surefire path to victory. Candidates who rejected the theory have in fact won 54 percent of races against an election denier, versus 36 percent for the deniers themselves. Here’s what FiveThirtyEight has to say about that dynamic:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} In other words, questioning the results of the 2020 election might not be a surefire path to the nomination, but it hasn’t proven to be a dealbreaker for Republican voters, either. That speaks volumes as to the overall direction the Republican Party is moving in. More

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      To avert election disaster, Democrats need to run a fiercely pro-worker campaign | Steven Greenhouse

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      To avert election disaster, Democrats need to run a fiercely pro-worker campaignSteven GreenhouseYou won’t hear this on Fox News, but Biden did a terrific job lifting America out of the pandemic-induced downturn. The nation added 8.9m jobs during Biden’s first 18 months in office If the Democrats hope to avoid disaster in this November’s elections, they need to do a far better job making their case to working-class voters. Many blue-collar Americans are understandably upset about inflation, but it’s less understandable that they give higher marks on the economy to Republicans than to Democrats, considering that President Biden and the Democrats have done far more to boost the economy and help workers.You will hardly ever hear this on Fox News, but Biden and the Democrats pushed through an emergency rescue plan that did a terrific job lifting America’s economy out of the pandemic-induced downturn. They did such a good job that millions of workers moved to higher-paying employment as the nation added 8.9m jobs during Biden’s first 18 months in office – more than in any other president’s first 18 months.TopicsJoe BidenOpinionBiden administrationDemocratsUS unionsUS politicsWorkers’ rightsUS economycommentReuse this content More

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      Pro-Israel hardliners spend millions to transform Democratic primaries

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      Pro-Israel hardliners spend millions to transform Democratic primariesCritics say Aipac and its allies are seeking to influence Democratic politics with money from Republican billionaires Pro-Israel lobby groups have poured millions of dollars into a Democratic primary for a Maryland congressional seat on Tuesday, in the latest attempt to block an establishment candidate who expressed support for the Palestinians.A surge in political spending by organisations funded by hardline supporters of Israel, led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), has reshaped Democratic primaries over recent months even though debate about the country rarely figures as a major issue in the elections.Critics accuse Aipac and its allies of distorting Democratic politics in part because much of the money used to influence primary races comes from billionaire Republicans.Aipac has spent $6m on Tuesday’s contest in Maryland, more than any other organisation, to oppose Donna Edwards, who served eight years as the first Black woman elected to Congress from Maryland before losing a bid for the Senate in 2016.Edwards is endorsed by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, among other leading Democrats.The other Joe: how Manchin destroys Biden’s plans, angering DemocratsRead moreBut she angered some pro-Israel groups during her stint as a representative by failing to back resolutions in support of Israel over its 2011 war in Gaza and other positions. She also backed the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran when it was strongly opposed by the Israeli government and therefore Aipac.Aipac launched a super political action committee, or super Pac, the United Democracy Project (UDP), in December as a legal mechanism to spend unlimited amounts to directly influence elections and counter growing criticism within the Democratic party of Israel’s continued domination of the Palestinians.The lobby group kickstarted the UDP with $8.5m and donations from wealthy donors with close ties to Israel. They include two Republican billionaire businessmen and Trump campaign funders, Paul Singer and Bernie Marcus, as well as the billionaire Israeli American Democratic donor Haim Saban.UDP-funded television ads criticising Edwards make no mention of Israel and instead attack her as an ineffective politician who got nothing done during her stint in Congress. Over the past two months, Edwards has lost a significant lead in opinion polls over her rival, Glenn Ivey, who is now marginally ahead.A more liberal pro-Israel group, J Street, which calls for the US government to take a harder line with the Israeli government to end to the occupation, has backed Edwards through its Super Pac with about $700,000 in ads.A J Street spokesperson, Logan Bayroff, accused Aipac of being a Republican front organisation in part because of its endorsement of members of Congress who voted to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory following the 6 January 2021 storming of the Capitol.“It’s alarming that a group that has endorsed some of the most rightwing extremist Republicans, with a super Pac funded in part by Republican billionaire megadonors, could go into a Democratic primary and spend and spend with the single-minded purpose of crushing a fairly popular mainstream candidate who they’ve labelled anti-Israel with no evidence, no real justification at all, for such a claim,” Bayroff said.“This is all about trying to drive the party back into more rightward direction on Israel and foreign policy. It’s really alarming and it’s fundamentally anti-democratic when a group can influence this process in such a way because most voters wouldn’t know where this money is coming from. I think that’s dangerous.”Bayroff said Aipac and UDP were attempting to intimidate candidates into “feeling that they cannot offer good faith criticism of Israeli policy, that they cannot vocally support Palestinian rights”.“They recognise that the political space on these issues in the Democratic party has opened up and they want to try to arrest and reverse that trend, and push us back to a place in which there’s really very little public debate or discussion about the correct American role in the region,” he said.The most visible sign of that shift has come from members of “the Squad” of congressional progressives – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib – who are unusually vocal in their support of the Palestinian cause. Opinion polls also show that younger Democrats, including American Jews, are more openly critical of Israel.A UDP spokesman, Patrick Dorton, dismissed J Street’s accusations including the charge of being a Republican front group by pointing to Saban’s financial support.“We’re exercising our democratic first amendment rights in participating in these elections. If you want to look at politicians who’ve intimidated people and chilled discussion on the US Israel relationship, look at the Squad,” he said.“In part UDP was formed because there were an increasing number of candidates with radical anti-Israel views running for Congress. Our view is that is dangerous for American democracy and could negatively impact the the bipartisan support for the US-Israel relationship.”UDP and other pro-Israel groups, such as the Democratic Majority for Israel and Pro-Israel America, have spent heavily to oppose candidates regarded as anti-Israel in Democratic primaries from Texas to Ohio and California.The UDP helped defeat six of seven contenders it opposed, including the co-chair of Bernie Sanders’ most recent presidential campaign, Nina Turner, in a solid Democratic seat in Ohio. Turner, who has argued that substantial US aid to Israel should not be used to perpetuate the occupation of Palestinian land, at one point held a lead of 30 percentage points – but lost.TopicsUS politicsIsraelDemocratsUS foreign policyMiddle East and north AfricanewsReuse this content More

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      West Virginia to resume abortions after judge blocks enforcement of ban – as it happened

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      A West Virginia judge on Monday blocked officials from enforcing a 19th-century ban on abortions after the US supreme court overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade decision that recognized the right of women nationally to terminate pregnancies, Reuters reports.The decision by Kanawha county circuit judge Tera Salango clears the way for the state’s lone abortion clinic to resume services, which it suspended out of fear of prosecution following the high court’s 24 June ruling.We’ll have more details soon…Today has been a hot one across much of America, with parts of the country enduring a wave of temperatures that hit dangerous levels in places, even as major action against climate change has stalled indefinitely in Washington. Meanwhile, abortion advocates in West Virginia succeeded in getting the state’s ban on the procedure blocked, though the Republican-dominated statehouse appears to have been expecting such an outcome.Here’s a rundown of the day’s major events:
      A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced legislation to codify same-sex marriage rights into law after conservative supreme court justice Clarence Thomas last month signaled the court could reconsider its ruling protecting the unions.
      Jody Hice, a Georgia congressman and 2020 election denier, has been subpoenaed by a grand jury looking into attempts to subvert the election results in the state.
      The trial of Steve Bannon, a former top adviser to Trump, got underway. He’s facing contempt charges for defying the January 6 committee.
      A prominent economist outlined his argument against the relentless pursuit of economic growth in an interview with The New York Times Magazine, arguing it was unsustainable.
      The daily White House press briefing is happening now, with Council of Economic Advisers member Jared Bernstein at the podium. After the apparent defeat of Joe Biden’s legislative effort to fight climate change last week, The Guardian’s David Smith reports Bernstein is restating the president’s resolve to use executive actions to lower America’s carbon emissions:Bernstein: “The president will aggressively fight to tackle climate change because he knows it’s one of the reasons he’s here.”— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) July 18, 2022
      Bernstein on Biden: “He has taken unprecedented action already to tackle the climate crisis.” He will continue to do so “even if the legislative path is closed to him”.— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) July 18, 2022
      Bernstein: “The president will always try to pursue the best legislative path to get the best deal for the people who sent him up here. But if that path closes, he will find another path.”— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) July 18, 2022
      Bernstein is also mounting a defense of Biden’s economic record, noting strength in retail sales and the recent drop in the budget deficit.At White House press briefing. Economic adviser Jared Bernstein: “If you look at retail sales from just last week, you’ll see American consumers still helping to fuel really remarkable job gains…. Where we are right now remains solidly within expansion.” pic.twitter.com/IxnURQxmnZ— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) July 18, 2022
      Bernstein: “The budget deficit has come down 77% in the first nine months of this fiscal year. That’s the biggest decline on record.”— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) July 18, 2022
      Communities across parts of the greater Phoenix area are today dealing with fallen power lines, road closures and power outages after severe thunderstorms over the weekend triggered flash floods, dust storms and ping-pong ball sized hail.The skies have been lit up by lightning across the region – from the White Mountains area to the Colorado River, with almost 25,000 flashes in just 12 hours on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. More thunderstorms are expected this afternoon and evening, which has made gardeners and farmers happy as last year’s monsoon failed to deliver. Much of Arizona is today enjoying a brief relief from above-average scorching temperatures thanks to a spate of monsoon storms over the past week, but it’s expected to get hotter again tomorrow with temperatures in Phoenix, one of America’s hottest cities, forecast to top 112F on four consecutive days from Tuesday to Friday. On a rare coolish day in Phoenix (top temperature 109F), the sweltering heat in the UK has caught the eye of meteorologists at the National Weather Service. We in the Desert Southwest are not the only ones seeing very hot temperatures…much of the UK will be seeing record high temps today/tomorrow as well…forecast highs today/tomorrow for London are 36-38C (98-100F)! UK may see their 1st 40C (104F) ever! https://t.co/mm5MDGNyNf https://t.co/cAn6AFdFgk— NWS Phoenix (@NWSPhoenix) July 18, 2022
      West Virginia’s Republican leaders knew a court ruling could stop the state’s abortion ban from coming into effect.“The West Virginia Legislature is strongly advised to amend the laws in our state to provide for clear prohibitions on abortion that are consistent with Dobbs”, attorney general Patrick Morrisey wrote in a June memorandum following the supreme court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the constitutional right to abortion.However governor Jim Justice said lawmakers in the Republican-dominated Senate and House of Delegates “are not ready” right now to craft new abortion legislation, the State Journal reported. While the legislature will hold a special session later this month to debate a proposal to slash the state’s income taxes, Justice predicted a special session on legislation to restrict abortion would have to be called later.Here’s a little more on the West Virginia abortion ruling. Circuit court judge Tera Salango sided with the state’s last remaining abortion clinic on Monday by overturning a 19th-century law that made performing or receiving the procedure a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.The ruling allows the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia to immediately resume providing abortions, which it stopped following the 24 June US Supreme Court decision overturning federal protections provided by Roe v Wade.The state argued that an abortion ban on the books dating back 150 years, which included an exception when the woman’s life was in danger, was still enforceable.But Salango agreed with the position of the ACLU of West Virginia, which argue for the clinic that the law was invalid, partly because it had not been enforced in more than 50 years, but also because it had been superseded by others, including a 2015 law allowing abortions until 20 weeks.A West Virginia judge on Monday blocked officials from enforcing a 19th-century ban on abortions after the US supreme court overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade decision that recognized the right of women nationally to terminate pregnancies, Reuters reports.The decision by Kanawha county circuit judge Tera Salango clears the way for the state’s lone abortion clinic to resume services, which it suspended out of fear of prosecution following the high court’s 24 June ruling.We’ll have more details soon…A bipartisan group of congress members has introduced a bill called the Respect for Marriage Act in response to a warning from Justice Clarence Thomas that the right wing Supreme Court majority could soon take aim at same-sex marriage.Thomas, one of six conservatives on the panel, appeared to signal in June that the court would likely follow up its overturning of Roe v Wade abortion protections by looking at other “settled” issues, including the 2015 Obergefell ruling that legalized gay marriage.House judiciary chair Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, said Monday that the bipartisan group, which includes Republican Maine senator Susan Collins, was proposing the new act in an attempt to enshrine marriage equality into federal law.Nadler said: .css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Three weeks ago, a conservative majority on the Supreme Court not only repealed Roe v Wade and walked back 50 years of precedent, it signaled that other rights, like the right to same-sex marriage, are next on the chopping block.
      As this Court may take aim at other fundamental rights, we cannot sit idly by as the hard-earned gains of the Equality movement are systematically eroded.
      If Justice Thomas’s concurrence teaches anything it’s that we cannot let your guard down or the rights and freedoms that we have come to cherish will vanish into a cloud of radical ideology and dubious legal reasoning. Nancy Pelosi’s office has announced that Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s first lady and wife of president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will address members of both chambers of Congress on Wednesday morning.Olena Zelenska, the First Lady of Ukraine, will speak to Congress on Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/EHnZk5iVgZ— Kyle Stewart (@KyleAlexStewart) July 18, 2022
      The announcement said she will speak at 11am, but gave no details of the topic. Zelenska, who has spent most of the war since Russia’s 24 February invasion in an undisclosed location, has made only rare public appearances.She spoke with the Guardian’s Shaun Walker last month:Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska on being Russia’s target No 2: ‘When you see their crimes, maybe they really are capable of anything’Read moreBetsy DeVos, who served as Donald Trump’s education secretary throughout his single term of office, now believes the department she led should be abolished.DeVos was speaking at a weekend conference in Florida hosted by Moms for Liberty, a conservative parents’ activist group dedicated to electing rightwing candidates to school boards and opposing diversity and perceived “wokeism” in classrooms.“I personally think the Department of Education should not exist,” DeVos told the three-day gathering in Tampa, to loud applause, according to Florida Phoenix.Decisions about education, she said, should be made by state government and local school boards, which she asserted were best placed to serve their communities.Her comments almost exactly echoed the language of a bill by Republican Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie last year that said: “unelected bureaucrats in Washington DC should not be in charge of our children’s intellectual and moral development.”DeVos, who once advocated for guns to be allowed in schools to counter the threat from grizzly bears, was among several ultra-conservative speakers at the summit of a group set up during the Covid-19 pandemic to fight mask and vaccination mandates in schools.They included Florida Republican senator Rick Scott, who was applauded by attendees for voting against the bipartisan gun reform package signed into law by Joe Biden last month.The conference also featured a breakout panel on school safety including Scott and Ryan Petty, a Florida board of education member whose daughter Alaina was among 17 murdered in a 2018 high school shooting in Parkland, Florida.The panel, the Phoenix reported, discussed arming school personnel and tightening security on campuses, but not gun reforms advocates say might have prevented shootings such as in Parkland and in Uvalde, Texas in May, where a teenage gunman killed 19 students and two teachers.The Moms for Liberty group has a high profile supporter in Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis, whose raft of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in recent months includes the so-called “don’t say gay” bill banning discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms.DeSantis, a likely 2024 presidential candidate whose state education department banned dozens of math textbooks earlier this year for “prohibited topics,” urged attendees to resist what he sees as left-wing wokeism.“Now is not the time to be a shrinking violet. Now is not the time to let them grind you down. You’ve got to stand up and you’ve got to fight,” he said, according to Politico.The president of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has defended WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and repeated his offer asylum to him. In June, the UK approved Assange’s extradition to the US to face prosecution for charges involving WikiLeaks’ disclosure of confidential diplomatic cables and military records.At a routine press conference Monday, Reuters reports, Lopez Obrador said: “I left a letter to the president about Assange, explaining that he did not commit any serious crime, did not cause anyone’s death, did not violate any human rights and that he exercised his freedom, and that arresting him would mean a permanent affront to freedom of expression.”Lopez Obrador has called Assange “the best journalist of our time.” Lopez Obrador claims to have penned a similar letter for former President Donald Trump before he left office. Legal fights over abortion access continue across the US. Today in West Virginia, the state’s lone abortion clinic is asking a judge to toss an 150-year-old state law so that the facility can immediately resume providing the procedure. The Women’s Health Center of West Virginia suspended performing abortions on 24 June, when the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade. The 1800s West Virginia law states that obtaining or performing an abortion is a felony, which can result in up to 10 years imprisonment, according to The Associated Press. The exception is for instances where a woman or other pregnant person’s life is at risk. The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia has contended that the statute isn’t valid because it hasn’t been enforced in more than five decades, and has been superseded by more contemporary statutes on abortion, which recognize the right to this procedure, AP says. Advocates point to West Virginia’s 2015 abortion law, which permits the procedure up to 20 weeks. The state’s attorney general, Patrick Morrisey, has contended that the old law remains enforceable.Lawyers for the state contend that the law hasn’t been enforced solely because Roe would have made illegal the prosecution of abortion recipients and providers, per AP. Democratic Florida congresswoman Val Demings revealed this morning that she has Covid-19. “I’ve tested positive for Covid and am currently isolating with mild symptoms,” Demings said on Twitter. “Thank you for the many well-wishes, and stay safe.”Demings, who is campaigning against Republican senator Marco Rubio for the US Senate, reportedly attended Florida Democrats’ Leadership Blue conference in the central Florida city of Tampa this weekend. At the conference, the congresswoman’s husband, Orange ounty Mayor Jerry Demings, told Politico that her voice was hoarse from speaking at several events. Politico notes that it’s not known where Demings contracted Covid-19. Other prominent democrats – including Florida congressman Charlie Crist and Illinois governor JB Pritzker – attended the convention. Politico reports that no other top speakers have publicly disclosed whether they have tested positive for Covid. Demings, who was once considered as a possible vice-president to Joe Biden, attracted national attention when she worked as an impeachment manager during Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial.It’s a hot day across much of America, with parts of the country enduring a wave of temperatures that will hit dangerous levels in places, however major action against climate change is still stalled indefinitely in Washington. Meanwhile, more allies of Donald Trump are feeling legal heat related to the 2020 election and the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.Here’s what has happened today so far:
      Jody Hice, a Georgia congressman and 2020 election denier, has been subpoenaed by a grand jury looking into attempts to subvert the election results in the state.
      The trial of Steve Bannon, a former top adviser to Trump, begins today. He’s facing contempt charges for defying the January 6 committee.
      A prominent economist outlined his argument against the relentless pursuit of economic growth in an interview with The New York Times Magazine, arguing it was unsustainable.
      The Washington Post has published an excellent look at where US emissions are now, and what senator Joe Manchin’s death blow against Biden’s climate agenda means for the fight to stop global temperatures from rising.America’s carbon emissions are already on the downward trajectory from their peak in 2005, the data says, and thus, Manchin’s decision last week not to support provisions to hasten their decline means the US likely won’t hit goals intended to keep global warming in check.From the Post’s report:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} A major part of the goal can be achieved by riding the ongoing downward trend in emissions, which reflect government policies and actions taken by the private sector, particularly the energy industry, to become more sustainable. For instance, a recent analysis by the Rhodium Group, a research firm that closely tracks emissions policies, found that the United States is already on track to reduce emissions by somewhere between 24 and 35 percent below their 2005 level by 2030.
      But that’s nowhere near enough to meet the pledge.
      The current blowup of negotiations with Manchin “makes it harder, and it makes any additional actions by the executive branch that much more critical. The stakes are now that much higher,” said John Larsen, a partner with Rhodium.
      Several analyses have suggested that policies like those contained in the Senate legislation could have accounted for about a billion additional tons of annual U.S. emissions reductions.
      “We estimate the Senate budget deal likely would have cut emissions by roughly 800 million to 1 billion metric tons in 2030,” said Princeton University professor Jesse Jenkins, an energy policy expert and modeler.
      In Jenkins’s analysis, there would still be a gap, albeit a small one – of hundreds of millions of tons – to achieve the Biden administration pledge.
      Somewhat separate from all of this is what it means for the Earth – after all, every major emitter has to act or else each one’s progress, or lack thereof, will be moot.The Guardian’s Joan E Greve has taken a look at a question swirling around Joe Biden as he struggles with both his advanced age and record low approval ratings: could he decide not to run again in 2024?Joe Biden is having a rough summer. The US supreme court has overturned Roe v Wade, ending federal protections for abortion access. Although gas prices are now falling, they remain high and have driven inflation to its largest annual increase in more than 40 years. West Virginia senator Joe Manchin has finally ended any hopes that the president had of passing a climate bill in Congress. With an evenly divided Senate, Biden’s options for addressing these problems – or enacting any of his other legislative priorities – are bleak.The American people have taken note. Biden’s approval rating has steadily fallen since April and now sits in the high 30s. A recent Monmouth poll found that only 10% of Americans believe the country is heading in the right direction. Too old to run again? Biden faces questions about his age as crises mountRead more More

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      US faces extreme heat as Biden’s climate crisis plan stalls – live

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      For the past year and a half, it seemed like Joe Biden would get to sign a major piece of legislation addressing climate change. The vehicle was at first his marquee Build Back Better spending plan, which would have allocated more than a trillion dollars to addressing a host of Democratic priorities. Then that died, and Democrats quietly began working on a follow-up bill that could pass both the Senate and the House of Representatives, which the party controlled with razor-thin margins.Now, it seems like Congress won’t act to curb America’s carbon emissions at all. Joe Manchin, the centrist Democrat whose vote is necessary to get any legislation that doesn’t win Republican support through the Senate, has said now is not the time to spend money fighting climate change due to the current high rate of inflation, even as extreme weather continues to batter the United States and world.The senator’s declaration last week was a major loss for the White House, but Biden may still get to use his pen by signing to-be-announced executive orders intended to keep temperatures from rising.Steve Bannon, a former top advisor to Donald Trump, is going to trial today for defying a subpoena by the January 6 committee, as Sam Levine reports:A federal criminal trial is set to begin on Monday to determine whether Steve Bannon, the influential former adviser to Donald Trump, broke the law by refusing to comply with a subpoena for documents and testimony by the panel investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol.Last fall, the congressional committee investigating the deadly Capitol riots subpoenaed Bannon to sit for a deposition and to provide a wide range of documents related to the events of January 6. Bannon refused to comply. The committee cited him for contempt and referred him to the US justice department for prosecution in October of last year.The justice department pursued the referral, and a federal grand jury indicted Bannon on two counts of contempt of Congress, both misdemeanors, in November. It is extremely rare for the justice department to pursue such charges – before Bannon, the last contempt prosecution was in 1983. Bannon faces between 30 days and a year in prison if convicted on each charge.Steve Bannon’s criminal contempt of Congress trial set to beginRead morePerhaps we are doing this whole development thing wrong. In an interview with The New York Times Magazine, Herman Daly, a lauded economist who was once a senior figure at the World Bank and is now a emeritus professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, argues that modern economics’ obsession with growth is misguided, due in part to the damage done to the planet.Economic growth is considered a major barometer of a country’s health, both for wealthy nations and the developing world. In the interview, Daly argues that we are viewing growth incorrectly, and that it’s implausible all nations can continue expanding their GDP endlessly. From the interview, here’s an encapsulation of his argument:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} It’s a false assumption to say that growth is increasing the standard of living in the present world because we measure growth as growth in G.D.P. If it goes up, does that mean we’re increasing standard of living? We’ve said that it does, but we’ve left out all the costs of increasing G.D.P. We really don’t know that the standard is going up. If you subtract for the deaths and injuries caused by automobile accidents, chemical pollution, wildfires and many other costs induced by excessive growth, it’s not clear at all. Now what I just said is most true for richer countries. Certainly for some other country that’s struggling for subsistence then, by all means, G.D.P. growth increases welfare. They need economic growth. That means that the wealthy part of the world has to make ecological room for the poor to catch up to an acceptable standard of living. That means cutting back on per capita consumption, that we don’t hog all the resources for trivial consumption.The article only briefly gets into what Daly would propose to change the growth paradigm across the world, and indeed, his ideas would be a tough lift for many countries:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} Daly’s policy prescriptions for how this would happen include, among many ideas, establishing minimum and maximum income limits, setting caps for natural-resource use and, controversially, stabilizing the population by working to ensure that births plus immigration equals deaths plus emigration.Many parts of the United States will today also face blistering heat, particularly in the south and southwest, and the Great Plains.The New York Times has published a map looking at where temperatures will be highest. The good news is that the heat will cool later this week. The bad news is that for the next few days, much of the country will face heat levels that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says warrant “extreme caution”. And the worst affected areas will face temperatures at the “danger” level, when heat cramps or exhaustion are “likely” and heat stroke is also a possibility.Britain is weathering a record-breaking heat wave that just saw Wales endure its hottest day on record. Follow The Guardian’s live coverage for more:Extreme UK weather live: Wales provisionally records its hottest day with 35.3C in Gogerddan, near AberystwythRead moreThe unhoused are one group bearing the brunt of the climate crisis – particularly in California. Sam Levin reports:In a remote stretch of southern California desert, at least 200 unhoused people live outside, battling the extremes: blazing hot temperatures in the summer, snow in winter, rugged terrain inaccessible to many vehicles, a constant wind that blankets everything with silt, and no running water for miles.For Candice Winfrey, the conditions almost proved deadly.The 37-year-old lives in a camper in the Mojave desert, on the northern edge of Los Angeles county, miles from the nearest store. During a record-breaking heatwave in July 2020, she found herself running out of water. The jug of a gallon she had left had overheated, the water so hot it was barely drinkable. It was more than 110F (43C), and no one was around to help. She recalled laying in her tent, trying not to think about the heat exhaustion and dehydration overtaking her. “I thought I was gonna die. I was seeing the light. I was just waiting it out and praying to God that I’d make it.”As police crack down on homelessness, unhoused end up in Mojave desertRead more“Collective suicide”: that’s what the UN secretary general said humanity is facing due to rising temperatures, as The Guardian’s Fiona Harvey reports:Wildfires and heatwaves wreaking havoc across swathes of the globe show humanity facing “collective suicide”, the UN secretary general has warned, as governments around the world scramble to protect people from the impacts of extreme heat.António Guterres told ministers from 40 countries meeting to discuss the climate crisis on Monday: “Half of humanity is in the danger zone, from floods, droughts, extreme storms and wildfires. No nation is immune. Yet we continue to feed our fossil fuel addiction.”He added: “We have a choice. Collective action or collective suicide. It is in our hands.”Humanity faces ‘collective suicide’ over climate crisis, warns UN chiefRead moreFor the past year and a half, it seemed like Joe Biden would get to sign a major piece of legislation addressing climate change. The vehicle was at first his marquee Build Back Better spending plan, which would have allocated more than a trillion dollars to addressing a host of Democratic priorities. Then that died, and Democrats quietly began working on a follow-up bill that could pass both the Senate and the House of Representatives, which the party controlled with razor-thin margins.Now, it seems like Congress won’t act to curb America’s carbon emissions at all. Joe Manchin, the centrist Democrat whose vote is necessary to get any legislation that doesn’t win Republican support through the Senate, has said now is not the time to spend money fighting climate change due to the current high rate of inflation, even as extreme weather continues to batter the United States and world.The senator’s declaration last week was a major loss for the White House, but Biden may still get to use his pen by signing to-be-announced executive orders intended to keep temperatures from rising.Good morning, US politics blog readers. Today, we’re going to take a closer look at the real-world consequences of American politics, specifically the collapse last week of Democratic efforts to get Congress’s approval of a plan to fight climate crisis. The United States and the world at large is today grappling with extreme heat and other calamities fueled by rising global temperatures, and experts warn if Washington and other top carbon emitters don’t change something, it will only get worse.Here’s more about what’s happening today:
      Texas and much of the central US could see their hottest temperatures of the summer this week, The New York Times reports. Meanwhile in Britain, temperatures may climb to an unheard-of 43C – or 109.4F. The Guardian has a live blog covering the crisis.
      Democrats may not be able to get a major climate change bill through Congress, but they are moving forward on several other measures with an eye towards rescuing Joe Biden’s presidency, Punchbowl News reports.
      The criminal contempt trial of Steven Bannon, a former top advisor to Donald Trump, begins today, with jury selection. More

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      Why are Democratic billionaires backing white candidates over better candidates of color? | Steve Phillips

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      Why are Democratic billionaires backing white candidates over better candidates of color?Steve PhillipsWith white billionaire friends like these, progressives and Democrats are likely to lose political power and also set back the cause of racial justice in this country The 2022 Democratic primaries have seen a surge of white billionaires, ostensibly Democrats, throwing their weight – and their money – around to try to boost the fortunes of hand-picked, under-qualified white men running against candidates of color. They are doing this despite the candidates of color often being more experienced and better suited to both win and govern in a period of fractious racial conflict where democracy itself is under ferocious attack. With white billionaire friends like these, progressives and Democrats are likely to lose political power and also set back the cause of racial justice in this country.Not only is it a bad look and a continuation of institutional racism in a party that is nearly half people of color, but, most immediately, it’s bad electoral politics. Most of these billionaires and billionaire-backed politicians are weaker candidates than the person of color they are trying to block.In Oregon’s sixth congressional district primary, two white billionaire-backed Super Pacs spent more than $11m trying to help Carrick Flynn, an inexperienced white academic from Georgetown who was running against Andrea Salinas, a far more experienced Latina state legislator, in the most heavily Latino district in Oregon (Salinas survived the onslaught and won the contest in May). In Pennsylvania, another Super Pac flush with millions of dollars from white billionaires spent $3m trying to defeat Summer Lee, a progressive Black female state legislator (Lee managed to withstand the attacks, defeating her opponent by a scant 978 votes).In the Los Angeles mayoral race, lifelong Republican Rick Caruso switched his party registration to Democrat just this past January and proceeded to dump $37m into the race trying to defeat Karen Bass, an African American congresswoman and longtime community-based leader. There are few people with more experience and expertise than Bass when it comes to addressing the challenges facing Los Angeles. Bass defeated Caruso by seven points in the June primary election, but has to square off against him again in November in what will now be a needlessly expensive and wasteful contest.As problematic as the above examples are, the situation in the Wisconsin US Senate race threatens the prospects of progressive people across the country.The imperative of expanding the Democratic majority in the Senate is one of the most urgent needs of this moment. Whether it’s codifying Roe v Wade, passing a new Voting Rights Act, expanding the supreme court so it reflects and protects the interest of the people, or advancing any one of several other desperately needed justice and equality measures, Democrats must increase their numbers in the Senate so that they can jettison the filibuster and pass these critical policies.To do that, they must flip as many Republican-held seats as possible, and one of the best opportunities for such a pick-up is in Wisconsin where the Republican Ron Johnson is up for re-election in a state where Democrats have won most of the statewide elections in the past four years.The lieutenant governor, Mandela Barnes, is an inspiring young progressive African American with both a track record and enormous political potential that is reflected in the latest polling. Mandela’s path is being blocked, however, by Alex Lasry, the son of Marc Lasry, the billionaire who owns the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team (In full disclosure, I have contributed to Mandela and all the Black candidates mentioned in this column, and I have backed many Black candidates for the past 20 years: like the actress Issa Rae, I tend to root for everybody Black).The junior Lasry has never held elected office and didn’t even live in the state until his father bought the basketball team eight years ago. The elder Lasry has contributed significantly to the Democratic party, spending $500,000 to support Barack Obama (and, coincidentally or not, his son subsequently got a job working in the Obama White House). A third candidate in Wisconsin, the state treasurer, Sarah Godlewski, is also running and also dipping into her multimillion-dollar fortune to fuel her bid, but at least she has won office previously and served in public office.By any objective measure, Lasry is a weaker candidate than Mandela. Lasry has no electoral track record, and has never received a single vote in a Wisconsin election, while Mandela has been elected to the state legislature, and, most important to this year’s contest, he won statewide office four years ago in the race for lieutenant governor. Digging deeper into the latest polling data shows that Mandela is a far stronger candidate than Lasry in a general election bid to oust the incumbent Johnson.Biden’s 2020 win in Wisconsin confirmed the formula necessary for victory in that state. It is the same formula that Obama used to twice win Wisconsin and the White House – turn out large numbers of people of color, garner overwhelming support of those voters of color, and also secure a meaningful minority of the white vote. Biden won the support of 92% of Black voters, 60% of Latinos, and 46% of whites.In the June poll released by Marquette Law School testing each candidate’s strength against Johnson, Barnes hits or approaches those benchmarks, while Lasry falls far short of the numbers needed to win.In addition to the current state of play, the highest upside in the electorate for Democrats is with Black voters, who are overwhelmingly Democratic yet tend to vote at lower levels. In 2020, Black turnout was 34% lower lower than whites, meaning that 250,000 eligible people of color didn’t cast ballots. In what will likely be a close contest, that is a very sizable pool of people, almost all of whom would vote for the Democrat if inspired by a candidate who has lived the Black experience.Some white billionaires can and do play constructive roles in the struggle for social change. The Georgia businessman Arthur Blank and California philanthropist Patty Quillin contributed to the millions of dollars that went to helping elect King’s successor, the Rev Raphael Warnock, to the US Senate in 2021. Far from trying to defeat candidates of color, Mackenzie Scott has moved billions of dollars to organizations run by people of color.I do not believe that Democratic billionaires set out to intentionally target candidates of color, but that is what is happening, and their actions are dividing the progressive movement and imperiling the prospects of defending democracy from an unrelenting rightwing onslaught working to make America white again. Rather than fund electoral ego trips and weak candidacies, they should be pouring those many millions of dollars into civic engagement groups doing the work of turning out the voters necessary to win in November. Democracy is at stake. Justice and equality are at stake. Progressives need to be smart and data-driven in rallying behind the candidates with the best chance to oust Republican incumbents. And it wouldn’t hurt to not be racist in the process.
      Steve Phillips is the founder of Democracy in Color and author of Brown is the New White: How the Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American Majority. He is a Guardian US columnist
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