Author name: moderat ereport

Justin Brannan Or, to put it another way: Stop helping Republicans and back people like Zohran Mamdani. Now! The post Democrats: Let’s Get Our Shit Together! appeared first on The Nation.

Dean Baker When Trump talks of turning the economy around, he speaks the truth—he just gets the direction of change wrong. The post Bringing Back Stagflation, Lower Growth, and Higher Prices appeared first on The Nation.

Jeet Heer If the planet is to survive, the future needs to be green. China seems to get that—but the US is blowing it. The post Trump’s Fossil Fuel Fanaticism Is Surrending the Future to China appeared first on The Nation.

The first draft of the lower chamber’s new redistricting map targets Democratic members of Congress in the Austin, Dallas and Houston metro areas and in South Texas. By Gabby Birenbaum and Eleanor Klibanoff, Graphics by Carla Astudillo, for The Texas Tribune Texas GOP lawmakers released their first draft of the state’s new congressional map Wednesday, proposing revamped district lines that attempt to flip five Democratic seats in next year’s midterm elections. The new map targets Democratic U.S. House members in the Austin, Dallas and Houston metro areas and in South Texas. The draft, unveiled by state Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, will likely change before the final map is approved by both chambers and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott. Democrats have said they might try to thwart the process by fleeing the state. This unusual mid-decade redistricting comes after a pressure campaign waged by President Donald Trump’s political team in the hopes of padding Republicans’ narrow majority in the U.S. House. Currently, Republicans hold 25 of Texas’ 38 House seats. Trump carried 27 of those districts in 2024, including those won by Democratic U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar of Laredo and Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen. Under the proposed new lines, 30 districts would have gone to Trump last year, each by at least 10 percentage points. Datawrapper Content The map was immediately panned as racist and illegal by Democrats, who have been raising the alarm about the prospect of voters of color being diluted. The proposed map splits voters of color in Tarrant County among multiple neighboring Republican districts and changes the shape of the 35th District in Central Texas, which was originally created as a result of a court order to protect the voting rights of people of color. Rep. Greg Casar, who represents the 35th District that runs from his hometown of Austin to San Antonio, slammed the map as an insult to Texas voters. “If Trump is allowed to rip the Voting Rights Act to shreds here in Central Texas, his ploy will spread like wildfire across the country,” Casar said in a statement. “Everyone who cares about our democracy must mobilize against this illegal map.” Datawrapper Content The changes would create two more districts in which white residents make up a majority of eligible voters, or citizens who are old enough to vote, hiking the number of such districts from 22 under the current map to 24. It would also add one additional district where Hispanic residents, the state’s largest demographic group, form the majority, bringing the total to eight under the new plan. And it would create two majority Black districts, where previously there were none. The traditional racial politics of redistricting have been scrambled somewhat by Republicans’ increasing reliance on Hispanic voters, among whom they made historic gains in 2024. Four of the five districts that Republicans have drawn with the intention of flipping would be majority Hispanic — though the Hispanic populations in the new seats in Houston and Central Texas are almost exactly 50%. The districts represented by Cuellar and Gonzalez — both of which are overwhelmingly Hispanic and anchored in South Texas — would become slightly more favorable to Republicans. Trump received 53% and 52% in those districts, respectively, in 2024; under the new proposed lines, he would have gotten almost 55% in both districts. Datawrapper Content Also targeted are Democratic U.S. Reps. Julie Johnson of Farmers Branch — whose Dallas-anchored district would be reshaped to favor Republicans — and Marc Veasey of Fort Worth, whose nearby district would remain solidly blue but drop all of Fort Worth — Veasey’s hometown and political base. That seat — now solely in Dallas County — contains parts of Johnson’s, Veasey’s and Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s current district, raising the prospect of a primary between Veasey and Johnson. The map’s newly proposed GOP seat in Central Texas also triggers the prospect of Austin Democratic Reps. Casar and Lloyd Doggett facing each other in a primary for the area’s lone remaining blue district. To avoid that scenario, one of the two would have to step aside or run an uphill race for a new Central Texas district, based in San Antonio, that Trump would have won by 10 points. Related | As GOP moves to rig the map in Texas, Democrats gear up for a fight In a statement, Doggett, 78, sidestepped the question of what this means for his political future, saying “the only ‘What if’ that matters is ‘What if this crooked scheme is approved to give Trump a rubber stamp to do whatever he pleases.’” In the Houston area, the proposed map would remake four Democratic districts. The biggest upheaval would be in the 9th Congressional District, a seat represented by Rep. Al Green that currently covers the southern part of Harris County and its direct southern neighbors. It would shift to the eastern parts of Houston, where no current member of Congress lives. Instead of being a seat that former Vice President Kamala Harris won by 44% under the current boundary, Trump would have won it by 15%. Texas’ Republican-dominated Legislature last drew these maps in 2021, with an eye toward protecting incumbents by making their seats as safe as possible. Trump won every Republican-held Texas district in 2024 by double-digit margins, as did every GOP incumbent who received a Democratic opponent. Edinburg Rep. Monica De La Cruz’s 14-point victory was the closest of any winning Republican. To pick up new seats, Republicans have proposed to pack more Democratic voters into districts in the state’s blue urban centers, giving Democrats even bigger margins in districts they already control, such as those represented by Crockett, Rep. Joaquin Castro in San Antonio and Rep. Sylvia Garcia in Houston. And they’re looking to disperse Republican voters from safely red districts into several districts currently represented by Democrats, such as the ones held by Johnson and Casar. No Republican incumbents’ districts were made significantly more competitive. The map-drawers managed to move more Republican voters into Democratic districts around Dallas and Houston without imperiling the nearby seats of GOP Reps. Beth Van Duyne, R-Irving and Troy Nehls, R-Fort Bend. Both faced competitive races in 2020 before their districts were redrawn in 2021 to become solidly Republican, and neither was made to sacrifice those

Federal judges are, by and large, a cautious lot, not given to dramatic public pronouncements or calling attention to themselves. But now that the judiciary is under a sustained attack from the Trump administration and allies, some judges are speaking out.  During a Thursday webinar presented by the newly formed Speak Up for Justice, a nonpartisan group working to defend the judiciary, a couple of lower court judges were forthright about the threats they’ve faced after ruling against the Trump administration.  U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell, an Obama appointee, revealed that, after blocking President Donald Trump’s catastrophic funding freeze, he received 6 credible death threats, along with more than 400 threatening voicemails.  He played one during the webinar, with the caller saying, “How dare you try to put charges on Donald J. Trump,” and, “I wish somebody would fucking assassinate your ass.”  A cartoon by Clay Bennett. Similarly, after U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour blocked Trump’s birthright citizenship ban, he was swatted as a result of someone anonymously telling the police that Coughenour killed his wife.  From the bench, Coughenour has been forthright about Trump’s actions.  “It has become ever more apparent that, to our president, the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals. The rule of law is, according to him, something to navigate around or simply ignore, whether that be for political or personal gain,” he told Justice Department lawyers. Yes, much of this stems from the Trump administration’s near-constant attacks on judges, often whipped up by Trump personally. There’s also the willingness of congressional Republicans to go along with it, including some of Trump’s more ardent supporters introducing bills calling for the impeachment of judges who rule against him.  But the Supreme Court, particularly Chief Justice John Roberts, is also at fault.  Rather than squarely addressing the fact that these threats overwhelmingly come from the right and are driven by the president, Roberts has instead offered vague, anodyne statements.  “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” he said in one statement.  Yes, that’s all Roberts had to say after Trump personally called for the impeachment of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who ordered the Trump administration to return the planes of deportees heading to El Salvador—an order the administration defied.  Related | Supreme Court cleared the way for Trump’s war on homeless people The Trump administration has now filed a misconduct complaint against Boasberg for private comments to his judicial colleagues, in which he expressed concern about the administration defying court orders.  The problem isn’t just that Roberts is wishy-washy about these threats, speaking about them without ever mentioning Trump by name or acknowledging that his actions are the foundation for the attacks. But he has also joined the other conservatives on the Supreme Court to give Trump whatever he wants, constantly overturning lower court rulings.  These days, separation of powers is indeed for suckers.  

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Capehart on Thursday called out The Washington Post’s shifting editorial focus when explaining his decision to leave the paper. While guest-hosting “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” on Thursday, Capehart alluded to Post owner Jeff Bezos’ February directive that the editorial section stop publishing pieces critical of traditionally conservative principles like “free markets.” Capehart also cited the paper’s new editorial head’s edict that the section “communicate with optimism about the country in particular and the future in general.” “How can we communicate with optimism about the future in general when we’re living in the here and now, where American democracy is in peril?” Capehart said. “Unapologetic patriotism is incomplete if it doesn’t allow for a mirror to be held up to America, her people, and her president—to hold them all accountable when they have strayed from her founding principles.”  After detailing the Trump administration’s various abuses of power—such as deploying troops in Los Angeles—Capehart continued, “And we’re supposed to ignore it, leave it to others to wrestle with on their news pages and websites? No, no, no, no, no. The Constitution gives us the inherent, unapologetically patriotic right to rail against such affronts to democracy and the rule of law, and the First Amendment demands it.” YouTube Video Capehart joins at least 100 journalists and staffers who have resigned or taken buyouts since November, according to a list compiled by Politico. Shortly before the 2024 presidential election, Bezos killed the Post’s endorsement of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. The Post continues to bleed both subscribers and talent as Bezos further prostrates himself before Trump, revealing his utter lack of principles.

Friday’s jobs report should send a chill through every American’s spine, as it showed that job growth in the United States was virtually nonexistent over the last three months—a direct consequence of the chaos President Donald Trump created with his nonsensical tariff policy. The U.S. economy added just 73,000 jobs in July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced, missing forecasters’ already measly expectations of 110,000 jobs.  Datawrapper Content But even more troubling is that BLS revised down the previous two jobs reports by an eye-popping 253,000 jobs, saying that just 19,000 jobs were added in June and 14,000 added in May. That makes the last three jobs reports the weakest since the anomaly of the COVID-19 crisis. Not taking the COVID-19 months into account, this was the worst three consecutive months for job creation since 2010 and the aftermath of the Great Recession. “This labor market is in trouble,” Navy Federal Credit Union Chief Economist Heather Long wrote in a post on X. “Healthcare [and] social assistance are pretty much the only sectors hiring. This is NOT healthy.” Indeed, without job growth in the health care and social assistance sectors, job growth over the last three months would actually have been negative, as industries such as manufacturing, mining, trade, professional and business services, and government all lost jobs. “The weakest periods of job growth in the last decade all happened under Trump,” Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee wrote in a post on X. It’s just the latest report released this week that shows the U.S. economy is in trouble. On Thursday, the Commerce Department announced that inflation is up, especially in industries hit by Trump’s nonsensical tariffs. Meanwhile, the GDP report showed that the economy stagnated in the first half of the year. “We came into this week and we said it was a pivotal week for the economy. And I gotta say—indicator after indicator has turned out worse than expected,” Matt Egan at CNN reported. “Core GDP really showed that the U.S. economy slowed down during Q2. Yesterday’s inflation report—that heated up.” Even worse for this entire situation is that Trump announced MORE stupid tariffs on dozens of U.S. trading partners on Thursday night, including a massive 35% levy on Canadian imports. But don’t worry, Trump is laser-focused on ways to add jobs. The $200 million hideously ostentatious ballroom he’s adding to the White House will add a few construction jobs, right?  As Marie Antoinette is rumored to have said to the starving peasants of France, “Let them eat cake!”

A cartoon by Mike Luckovich. Related | New poll finds Trump in hot water over Epstein scandal