In his weekly e-newsletter, Elie Mystal lambastes the Republicans’ shameful priorities—and their lethal penalties.
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The loss of life toll from the flooding in Texas has climbed to not less than 120 individuals as of this writing. That quantity contains not less than 36 kids who had been campers at Camp Mystic, in Kerr County, Texas, which we now know was constructed on a harmful flood plain. We additionally know that native officers had been nicely conscious of the hazards, and did nothing. Experiences point out that an early-warning system for floods would have value Kerr County round $1 million—and when it didn’t get a grant for that cash, the hassle stalled. In the meantime, the Texas Legislature didn’t move a invoice this spring that might have supported grants for native disaster-warning programs.
Texas has spent $11 billion on “border safety” since 2021 as a part of “Operation Lonestar” (I’ve written about that unconstitutional stupidity right here). Nevertheless it wouldn’t direct funds to the city to assist hold kids protected.
If Kerr County had requested for $1,000,000 to booby-trap the river with alligators and different sadistic loss of life traps to drown immigrants who tried to swim throughout it, Governor Greg Abbott would have discovered the cash. However retaining kids protected from preventable disasters isn’t Abbott’s precedence.
Or America’s.
The Unhealthy and The Ugly
Disaster actor and Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem has criticized the “gradual” response of the Federal Emergency Administration Company (FEMA) to the flooding. She’s utilizing the catastrophe to resume her calls to get rid of the company. However that gradual response is a direct results of a FEMA coverage instituted by Noem herself. Any FEMA contract costing over $100,000 now requires Noem’s private, written approval. If FEMA is gradual, it’s as a result of Noem is simply too busy selecting out her subsequent canine for goal observe to do her precise job.
Talking of issues which can be a direct risk to kids that this nation does nothing to cease, a brand new report tells us that the main supply of stolen weapons is… parked vehicles. These weapons then go on for use disproportionately in crimes. So not solely is the proverbial “good man with a gun” truly ineffective in stopping crime; it seems that the great man most likely left his gun in his automotive, which was then stolen by the unhealthy man.
The trial over Trump’s assaults on overseas college students at Harvard received underway this week. I will probably be ignoring this for some time. Ultimately there will probably be a verdict, which Trump will lose; then that verdict will probably be appealed, and the Supreme Court docket will discover some solution to make Trump win. I’ll concentrate once more then.
I’m not being flip about what’s going to occur within the Harvard trial. That is what occurs on a regular basis now. A brand new report reveals that, in Could and June, Trump misplaced in district courtroom 94.3 % of the time. However when instances went to the Supreme Court docket on this previous time period, Trump received 93.7 % of the time.
Talking of this yr’s Supreme Court docket time period, Adam Feldman has written up a year-end statistical evaluation of all of the courtroom’s instances on Empirical SCOTUS. He finds that what’s emerged is a “structural majority” the place the six Republicans constantly outvote the three liberals on vital partisan points, though this yr the liberals occurred to win greater than regular. There’s no extra “swing” vote on the bench. I didn’t want to tug out my calculator to inform you that, however when you like numbers, Adam’s could be compelling.
Impressed Takes
David Dickson and Mark Hertsgaard clarify in The Nation that the kids in Texas didn’t should die.
Paramount proves but once more that company earnings are extra necessary for media conglomerates than democracy. In The Nation, Victor Pickard explains that we have to wean our media off company possession.
Worst Argument of the Week
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis is retiring. Apparently, meaning now, and solely now, he’s in a position to find a backbone. Tillis voted towards Trump’s spending invoice. In a press release saying his retirement, he stated“I look ahead to having the pure freedom to name the balls and strikes as I see match and representing the good individuals of North Carolina to the most effective of my skill.”
I freaking hate this. Tillis has been a senator since 2015. He’s had the “pure freedom” to “name balls and strikes” this entire rattling time. Certainly, it’s been his job to signify the individuals of North Carolina “to the most effective of (his) skill” ever since he was elected. The concept he can solely absolutely carry out this job when he has one foot out of the door is infuriating.
We settle for this warped logic on a regular basis, particularly from Republicans. Someway, we’ve absorbed the concept a US senator, elected to a big six-year time period (which is the longest time period of workplace for any elected official within the nation), is by some means “not free” to do what they consider to be proper so long as they want to search reelection. Solely upon saying retirement will we even dare to hope that Republicans may place themselves within the service of the individuals of this nation, as a substitute of Donald Trump.
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Even then, nonetheless, that hope is usually dashed anyway. Tillis may have many alternatives to frustrate the Trump administration relating to judicial appointments, as an illustration. He sits on the judiciary committee, and Trump’s nominees are universally terrible. However will he?
Court docket Accountability’s Alex Aronson predicts that Tillis may develop into like former Nevada senator Jeff Flake: an individual who talks a very good sport however votes for Trump’s nominees at any time when the chips are down. Folks may keep in mind that Flake famously referred to as for an investigation into tried rape expenses towards Trump’s Supreme Court docket nominee Brett Kavanaugh, after a constituent yelled at him in an elevator and altered his thoughts on the difficulty. However individuals ought to always remember that Flake did, ultimately, vote to verify Kavanaugh, though no severe investigation ever befell.
I count on Tillis will take the identical route. He’ll obtain a Susan Collins degree of “concern” after which go proper again to reaching a Susan Collins degree of complicity.
A senator who feels free to “vote their conscience” solely once they now not need to be in politics shouldn’t have gotten into politics within the first place.
What I Wrote
Nothing from me this week digitally, as I’ve been engaged on a print piece. Additionally, I’m recovering from the top of the Supreme Court docket time period. I’ve been enjoying plenty of No Man’s Sky with my kids.
In Information Unrelated to the Present Chaos
There’s a brand new Superman film out. Superman isn’t my favourite comedian e book hero: He’s too highly effective, which implies that many of the tales about him should invent dumb methods to make him much less highly effective so as to add stress, drama, and stakes. However, no matter, I’ll most likely watch it.
Apparently, once I go see it, I can’t should take care of any Republicans within the theater. The white wing has turned on the Man of Metal due to a remark made by the film’s director, James Gunn.
Present Challenge
Gunn stated: “Superman is the story of America. An immigrant that got here from different locations and populated the nation, however for me it’s principally a narrative that claims fundamental human kindness is a price and is one thing we’ve got misplaced.”
Can you determine how that assertion angered bigots? For many who don’t communicate Republican, the issue is that Gunn referred to as Supes an “immigrant”—and “immigrants” are unhealthy, in response to Republicans.
The white-wing outrage machine went into overdrive, with numerous white tradition warriors vowing to boycott the film. Former Superman TV actor and infamous MAGA pinhead Dean Cain stated that the brand new film is “too woke.” Nonetheless, my favourite hysterics come from Stephen L. Miller (the white-wing journalist Miller, not the Trump deputy chief of ghoulishness Miller). He stated“Superman isn’t an immigrant. He’s an orphan. The truth that they will spend $300 million on a movie and may’t get this very fundamental idea proper is one thing.”
The truth that Stephen Miller will get paid to publish phrases for a residing is admittedly one thing.
Superman is, after all, an immigrant—he’s not from America, and even Sol 3 (Earth), but he lives right here—and he’s an orphan. As regular, Republicans have bother with ideas that require a number of issues to be true on the similar time. He’s additionally an “unlawful” immigrant, in response to MAGA logic, as a result of he was despatched right here with out correct documentation, and by no means went again to Krypton to “wait in line” behind all the opposite house aliens who got here to Earth “the best means.” And he’s a “refugee.” His residence planet was actually destroyed, and he’s right here looking for asylum within the vastness of house.
Nonetheless, however Miller’s demonstrable ignorance of Kal-El’s backstory—or, for that matter, Kal-El’s creators’ backstory—I welcome his newfound care and respect for orphans. I can solely assume that Miller will now welcome, with open arms, the entire “not immigrants” from Gaza who’ve been orphaned by Israel’s bombing. Welcome to the progressive wing, Steve.
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Elie Mystal
Elie Mystal is The Nation’s justice correspondent and a columnist. He’s additionally an Alfred Knobler Fellow on the Sort Media Middle. He’s the creator of two books: the New York Occasions bestseller Permit Me to Retort: A Black Man’s Information to the Structure and Unhealthy Legislation: Ten In style Legal guidelines That Are Ruining America, each printed by The New Press. You may subscribe to his Nation e-newsletter “Elie v. U.S.” right here.
