Bad guys and bad laws get a drubbing
It's good news galore, from DC to Idaho and everywhere in between
Welcome to a Thursday edition of Progress Report.
Apologies for being a bit late with this edition of the newsletter; I dragged my injured shoulder over to the hospital on Monday for a nerve-killing procedure and the aftermath made typing more complicated than anticipated. You can’t keep a poster down, though, so I’m back and ready to dive into the news.
First, a quick obligatory thought on this week’s biggest story, the Justice Department’s decision that it was indeed illegal for Donald Trump to attempt a violent overthrow the US government.
It’s unfortunate and frankly infuriating that it took so long and required such a thorough embarrassment for the DOJ to make the easiest decision in the world. The timing allows Republicans to claim it’s politically motivated, and it’s most definitely going to get reported as a campaign issue as much as a blockbuster legal one. But better late than never, because if Trump had escaped all accountability for attempting a military coup, it would have invited the end of American democracy.
In asserting the federal government’s power to enforce serious consequences on even the most powerful traitors and conspirators, the DOJ is sending out a warning to the growing number of antidemocratic kooks that have embedded themselves in every level of government. I’d like the Senate to embark on a similar investigation of the antidemocratic kooks on the Supreme Court, but we’ll save that for another day.
To keep the positive vibes going, this edition of the newsletter is a collection of good news stories and developments that will make you feel a bit more hopeful about the future.
Tennessee: Democratic state Reps. Justin Pearson and Justin Jones were re-elected to their old seats in the state legislature on Thursday, four months after being expelled by Republican legislators for having the audacity to help kids communicate their displeasure over being regularly shot up in school.
Both Pearson and Jones were already back in the legislature, having been handed interim appointments by their local governments, but Thursday’s vote codified their return and the state GOP’s utter humiliation.
Florida: The major political media is finally tuning into the special relationship between Ron DeSantis and neo-Nazis. The Miami Herald published a piece by its editorial board calling out Ron for his ongoing refusal to condemn his biggest, most racist fans.
Here’s a snippet from the conclusion:
DeSantis isn’t simply a governor anymore. He’s a serious presidential candidate with a shot at the Republican nomination for the White House. He should be on the record, with no equivocation and no weasel words, because it is beyond obvious: Nazis are bad.
What does it tell us that he’s not?
The rest of the piece recounts a number of instances in which DeSantis has failed to condemn the Nazis that have rallied around him, no how explicit they are about their passionate support.
So why is this good news? Well, it’s always good for a major media outlet to recognize that a governor is a Nazi, especially in this era of nihilism. But even more than that, it’s a sign that our work is permeating the consciousness.
Since last October, I’ve been running the site NazisForDeSantis.net, which tracks the connections between the Florida governor and the white nationalist storm front movement. Not only is there a disturbing number of instances, none of them have been followed by any words of condemnation by DeSantis, who very clearly agrees with them.
It’s critical to keep this work going, especially with the satirical voice that allows people to better grasp how utterly insane it is for any governor to be this solicitous and deferential to Nazis. The site, which is not cheap to host, will stay up and continue to collect examples now through next year.
Healthcare: Putting aside the fact that medical debt shouldn’t exist at all, you won’t find a better deal than this: For $1 million, the City of Pittsburgh is going to purchase $115 million of its residents’ medical debt on the secondary market.
Here’s what makes that a steal (again, you have to put aside the fact that this shouldn’t exist at all): Instead of going to some outside collector, the debt will ultimately be forgiven, helping out a whole lot of people who really need the help.
The bulk purchase, made through the nonprofit RIP Medical Debt, will reduce or eliminate medical debt for 24,000 Pittsburghers. Actually purchasing and negotiating down the debt from local health systems (and I’d bet most of it will come from the “nonprofit” University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) isn’t always the easiest, but residents who qualify won’t have to do a thing.
So long as they make less than three-times the federal poverty limit, and they’ve got medical debt in collection, RIP Medical Debt will negotiate their freedom.
Wisconsin: After spending more than a decade of waiting and raging, it took voting rights advocates less than one full day to file the lawsuit that should make Wisconsin a real democracy once again.
On Tuesday, Janet Protasiewicz took her seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, tipping the balance of the state’s highest court to the left for the first time in 15 years. On Wednesday, the legal group Law Forward filed a lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s egregiously gerrymandered legislative maps, which were enacted over Gov. Tony Evers’ veto in 2021.
The case and the desired remedy are both pretty interesting:
The Wisconsin Elections Commission and state senators representing odd-numbered districts are named as respondents in the lawsuit. The lawsuit relies on a legal remedy known as a writ of quo warranto, which can be used to challenge a lawmaker's right to hold office. If the lawsuit is successful, it will force the senators to run in new districts in a special election in 2024 for a new two-year term despite being in the middle of a four-year term.
A mass special election in new, much fairer districts would be a giant national story — record sums were already spent on the judicial election that Protasiewicz won in the spring.
Mess with Texas: We haven’t been able to say this all that often of late, but there’s some good civil liberties news to report out of Texas.
In Houston, a volunteer for the group Food Not Bombs was found not guilty of breaking the law when he provided food to homeless people outside the public library. And as absurd as it sounds, this is a big deal.
In March, city police ticketed 45 volunteers for operating a hot food line outside the Houston Public Library, something the organization has been doing four nights a week since 1995. The citations came after police posted a sign outside the library ordering the group to move its operations, citing an obscure city ordinance that’d been on the books but unenforced since 2012.
As one of many cities now increasingly criminalizing homelessness instead of actually trying to solve the problem, Houston decided to suddenly enforce the ordinance, expending precious resources that could have gone to finding shelter for the homeless population. The city said it will continue to “vigorously” enforce the law, but this setback has to be an embarrassment.
Over in Dallas, an appeals court judge struck down an even more egregious and outdated law.
Technically meant to crack down on prostitution, the city ordinance cops to issue citations to anyone that they considered to be “manifesting the purpose” of prostitution. What exactly is “manifesting the purpose” of prostitution, you ask? Anything that police wanted it to be!
It’s a meaningless phrase that invites liberal application by illiberal forces — among the activities considered to be “manifesting the purpose” of prostitution are repeatedly trying to engage another person in conversation and attempting to stop a vehicle by waving. In essence, it made anyone that’s ever lived in a city a potential suspected prostitute.
The law had been on the books for decades, but only recently became a flashpoint when the city launched a new task force focused on prostitution, which led to an increase in citations and ultimately the lawsuit in which a judge ruled the ordinance unconstitutionally vague. The city has time to appeal, but it’s more likely to rewrite the ordinance.
Idaho: A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction on the most extreme anti-abortion law in the country this week, preventing Idaho’s attorney general from prosecuting doctors who refer pregnant Idahoans to clinics in other states to receive abortion care.
A clear violation of first amendment rights and an abridgment on interstate commerce, the law would carry anywhere from 2-5 years in prison for physicians found guilty of doing their job. Labrador will appeal.
Ohio: It took a few extra days, but the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol looks to have collected enough petition signatures to qualify a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana… and regulate it like alcohol. It’s going to be a very busy November in Ohio.
New York: Free ice cream, green energy, and lower utilities bills? I don’t always have great things to say about our state government, but this makes me even happier to be a New Yorker.
Elected officials and activists have fanned out across the city in ice cream trucks to rally public support behind the NY HEAT bill, which would allow the state’s utility regulator to start decommissioning natural gas pipelines and plants as well as cut off subsidies from dirty power plants. The bill passed the state Senate but is stuck in an Assembly committee, where these things often go to die, but advocate aren’t giving up that easily.
Denver: Yeah, its centrist new mayor is a weird sicko, but there’s reason to be optimistic in the Mile High City. Sick of soaring housing costs and the rush of gentrification, voters elected a new slate of diverse, progressive city council members that care deeply about housing, equity, and justice.
Sworn in this week, the new council — which has six Latina members and two out Black LGBTQ+ members among its 13 councilors — is already setting some very ambitious goals.
Denverites should expect a focus on efforts to stabilize low- and middle-income households, push back on gentrification and prevent — or even reverse — economic displacement in a city that has developed a reputation for rapid growth trampling people on its financial edges.
There’s a fair amount of overlap in interest among the new representatives, as well as a real diversity of experience. The real estate lobby is immensely powerful in the city, but it looks promising from the outset, at least.
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...re medical debt ▶️ IF ONE'S RX & TX ARE FDA "APPROVED "
if one uses the plants and seeds of the earth and becomes better or well one is broke
and stays broke because there are no funds available... tho the naturopath spends oop for EVERY treatment & usually practitioner.