WEEK IN REVIEW: The Global Ruling Class Is Frog-Marching Us Towards Extinction

 

The Week in Review

GOP 'Working Hand in Hand With Big Pharma' to Kill Drug Price Reform Behind Closed Doors "Republicans are going to use every tool they have to keep drug prices high and drug industry profits higher," said one Democratic senator. Read more → Corporate Interests Have Given $21.5 Million to GOP 'Sedition Caucus' Since Jan. 6 Attack "Corporations owe an explanation as to why they keep funding Donald Trump's pawns in Congress who tried to finish what the insurrectionists started." Read more → Sanders Shreds Big Tech's $76 Billion 'Corporate Welfare' Payday in CHIPS Act "Bottom line: Let us rebuild the U.S. microchip industry, but let's do it in a way that benefits all of our society, not just a handful of wealthy, profitable, and powerful corporations." Read more → Fetterman Challenges Ultra-Millionaire Dr. Oz to Live on $7.25 an Hour "My opponent Dr. Oz doesn't care about the people across Pennsylvania who are hurting, and he doesn't even believe that our embarrassingly low minimum wage needs to be increased." Read more → After House Passes Assault Weapons Ban, Advocates Say Senate Opponents Must Be Forced to Vote The bill stands virtually no chance of passing in the Senate, but campaigners said a vote would "show young people why we need to turn out to expand [Democrats'] majority in the Senate." Read more → Following Trump's Lead, GOP Pushes Bill to Make Federal Workers Fireable 'At Will' "Efforts to try to change the civil service aren't just Trump," warned one public policy expert, "and if Republicans take control of Congress following the midterms, this may very well go from idea to specific action." Read more →

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Opinion

The Corporate Oligarchs Have Put Humanity on a Path Toward Self-Annihilation We are stumbling—seemingly oblivious—into the bared teeth of the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch driven by humanity itself. We are walking straight into it and pretending it's not here. by Thom Hartmann Read more → The Global Ruling Class Is Frog-Marching Us Towards Extinction We were warned for decades about the death march we are on because of global warming. And yet, the global ruling class continues to frog-march us towards extinction. by Chris Hedges Read more → The Most Dangerous Looming Supreme Court Decision You Never Heard Of Spread the word, because the midterms elections have become even more crucial. by Robert Reich Read more →

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This story was so difficult to take in

 

The shocking story made national news this month. It’s disturbing, and mentions rape, so please only keep reading if you can, OK?

This broke my heart. It’s taken me a while to fully take it in. 

A 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio had to cross state lines into Indiana, and thankfully was able to receive an abortion on June 30, less than a week after Roe v. Wade was overturned. 

Since then the doctor from Indiana who performed the abortion has been put under investigation by the Indiana Attorney General, after receiving WEEKS of harassment since the story went wide.

It’s difficult to think that this case will not be unique as states begin cracking down on their abortion bans. 

And in those cases, without the state attorney general getting involved and all the media, it will be up to the local DAs to decide whether or not to charge the physician and the women or child receiving an abortion.  

As a father, I can’t stand to think about this.

But I know that one of the best ways we can help, and ensure physicians can continue to give life-saving procedures like this abortion to a little girl, is by electing and protecting strong-willed, pro-choice DAs ready to fight for them.

DAs across the county, including 24 Real Justice-elected DAs, have taken the pledge to not prosecute women for abortion charges. But we NEED to see that number grow in order to help women and girls in this situation.

We NEED the funds to back upcoming elections to defend and elect more DAs that will protect women and girls from this legal treatment. We are counting on you to help close our fundraising gap this weekend. PLEASE, can you help us with a donation of whatever you can afford today?

We have been sending you emails all month telling you just how important DAs are in this fight — but cases like this are proof of just how badly we need them.

It’s DAs on the ground that are going to be the first line of defense in this fight. And especially in conservative states, we need to ramp up our fight!!!

We are working on a number of races to defend and elect pro-choice DAs, but we need the financial backing to give them as much support as possible. 

I know this story was tough to take in, but we can't just sit back and see this happen more and more. 

You can be part of the push to give women and girls the protection from pro-choice DAs to receive an abortion without getting fined or going to jail for their decision.

Please. I’m counting on you. Make a donation today before our deadline this Sunday so we can defend and elect more DAs to protect as many women as we can in towns and cities nationwide.

Appreciate you, 

Shaun

 

Pol. Adv. Paid for by Real Justice PAC, realjusticepac.org

Not authorized by any federal, state, or local candidate or a committee controlled by a candidate.

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RSN: FOCUS: Nate Silver | The Political Environment Might Be Improving for Democrats

 

 

30 July 22

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FOCUS: Nate Silver | The Political Environment Might Be Improving for Democrats
Nate Silver, FivethirtyEight
Silver writes: "As was the case when we launched the forecast a month ago, the Deluxe version of FiveThirtyEight’s midterm model still rates the battle for control of the Senate as a 'toss-up.'"

As was the case when we launched the forecast a month ago, the Deluxe version of FiveThirtyEight’s midterm model still rates the battle for control of the Senate as a “toss-up.” But within that category there’s been modest, but consistent movement toward Democrats. Their chances of winning the Senate now stand at 55 percent. That’s up from 47 percent from forecast launch on June 30. It’s also up from 40 percent in a retroactive forecast dated back to June 1.

This is matched by Democrats’ improved position on the generic congressional ballot, which asks voters which party they would support in a congressional election. Democrats are now essentially tied with Republicans in our generic ballot polling average, after having trailed by 2 to 3 percentage points over most of the late spring and early summer.

In the Classic version of our forecast — which doesn’t use the race ratings published by the Cook Political Report and other expert groups — the movement toward Democrats has also been steady. There, their chances sit at 67 percent, up from 56 percent at launch on June 30 and 52 percent in the June 1 retroactive forecast. (We discussed some of the differences between our Classic and Deluxe versions of the forecast on this week’s podcast, and it’s a theme we’ll revisit in the coming weeks.)

It’s always hard to know how much to emphasize relatively modest movement in the forecast. Sure, the difference between a 47 percent chance and a 55 percent chance might matter to a poker player (raises hand) or an options trader. But in practical terms, the story is the same, which is that the battle for Senate control is highly competitive and neither party has a clear advantage.

In this case, though, I think the shift is worth discussing. One reason, as I’ve discussed previously, is that our model is designed to be pretty conservative — at least at this relatively early stage of the race.2 It takes a fair amount of data to get the model to change its opinion in July, more so than in October. So although the shift may be modest, it probably isn’t just statistical noise.

The other reason is that there are plenty of news developments to help explain the shift; the political climate would appear to be getting better for Democrats.

The most important of these is probably the Supreme Court’s June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Democrats have made a fairly clear improvement in the polls since then. And although abortion may not be as important to voters as the economy, it did rank as the second-most-important issue in this week’s Suffolk/USA Today poll.

That’s not the only factor working in Democrats’ favor, though. Consider:

• Congress has been surprisingly productive, with bipartisan bills on gun safety and funding semiconductor manufacturing passing, a possible breakthrough on a Democratic spending and climate bill and movement toward bills to codify same-sex marriage and to reform how presidential elections are certified.


• It’s not clear how much the Jan. 6 hearings have changed public opinion, but they have highlighted an issue where the public is relatively sympathetic toward Democrats, with 79 percent of voters saying former President Donald Trump acted either unethically or illegally in a new CNN poll.


• COVID-19 — an issue that was something of a no-win for President Biden — is on the backburner for most voters. In the aforementioned Suffolk/USA Today poll, so few voters mentioned COVID-19 as their most important issue that it wasn’t broken out as one of the 25 issues respondents named. Cases remain high, but deaths are low compared to earlier stages of the pandemic.


• Granted, the economic news hasn’t been good for Democrats. Most voters think the economy is in a recession, even though the bureau that determines recessions in the U.S. hasn’t declared one yet and may never do so. But at the same time, some highly visible indicators have improved: Gas prices are down and the stock market has been in a rebound over the past five to six weeks.

There are a lot of “ifs” here. Economists are unsure about what to expect with inflation going forward; the next COVID-19 variant could be more deadly; there are still a lot of hurdles to clear in the Democratic legislative progress (*cough* Sen. Kyrsten Sinema *cough*); and Democrats may not be able to sustain the same level of attention currently given to abortion and the Jan. 6 hearings. Plus, Biden’s approval rating remains terrible to the point where even most Democrats say they want a different presidential nominee in 2024. But ultimately, Democrats have a lot of outs to a winning hand in the Senate, even if they’re drawing thin in the House.

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