Even Dogs Don't Like This Senator
Woof.
Welcome to a Monday night edition of Progressives Everywhere!
We’ve got some fun and exciting items on the docket for you tonight (as well as some typically 2020 not-so-fun-but-important items). But how often do you get anything fun and exciting?!
Take a Walk on the Wild Side
Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson is quietly one of the most pernicious, contemptible people to ply their miserable trade on Capitol Hill. He doesn’t get the headlines or viral news clips that vocal right-wing lunatics such as Sen. Tom Cotton or Rep. Matt Gaetz get, but when it comes to both policy and impact on our democracy.
Johnson is the Hunter Biden Ukraine kook, the billionaire tax loophole bandit, and this year, he’s been the “we overreacted to COVID-19” guy. He didn’t just utter that nonsense this summer, either — Johnson said the same thing in a New York Times article today, even as over 2000 Americans are dying every single day from the virus. Even worse, the article focused on his inexplicable and egregiously irresponsible decision to invite a leading anti-vaxxer to a major Senate hearing tomorrow.
There is a prominent vaccine skeptic, an outspoken critic of masking and social distancing, and at least two doctors who have promoted the use of an anti-parasitic drug that government scientists have recommended against using to treat the coronavirus.
It is the latest example of how Mr. Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican who has used his powerful investigative panel to amplify groundless accusations pushed by President Trump, has now embraced the role of the Senate’s leading Covid contrarian.
Even as some of his Republican colleagues have sought to use their platforms to encourage Americans to take precautions against the spread of the virus and persuade the public that vaccines against it will be safe and vital, Mr. Johnson has suggested that the dangers of the coronavirus have been overblown and excessively regulated.
Ron Johnson is a billboard for the mundanity of evil. He doesn’t make big proclamations, he doesn’t hold giant rallies, he doesn’t retweet racists and anti-Semites. But with every action he takes, he seeks to screw over the average American, whether it’s financially, environmentally, or medically (he doesn’t believe healthcare is a right, just FYI).
Thankfully, Johnson is up for re-election in 2022 and given what happened in Wisconsin this year, we’ve got a great shot of kicking him out of office. With eyes trained on taking him down, I’m volunteering for Tom Nelson, the County Executive of Outagamie County, who is already in the race against Johnson. Nelson is a proud progressive and Outagamie is largely rural, which makes him perfectly positioned to recapture parts of the state where Democrats have fallen short.
I wrote and produced the campaign video below, which I promise will make you laugh:
If you want to help take down Ron Johnson, your donations to Tom’s campaign would make a huge, huge difference, especially this early in the game. Showing a strong opening is really essential in this age of big-money campaigns.
Important News You Need to Know
There was a slow, steady flow of news today, as certain Democrats continued to prepare to take power and certain Republicans continued to flail like racist seal corpses.
Erase Those Student Loans!
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer continues to beat hard on the student loan forgiveness drum. Today, Schumer again called for Biden to flick his pen and erase $50,000 in debt per person for each of the over 40 million Americans stuck with the absurd and predatory penalties that served as a gate around the most likely shot at living a decent life in this country.
Per CNBC:
“We have come to the conclusion that President Biden can undo this debt, can forgive $50,000 of debt the first day he becomes president,” Schumer said on Monday outside his office in Midtown Manhattan. “You don’t need Congress; All you need is the flick of a pen.”
What I love about the CNBC story is that it suggests Biden might want to be cautious with asserting executive power, as if forgiving the overbearing burdens placed on 40+ million Americans (about 100 million with families included) is even in the same universe as all the egregious abuses that Trump has pulled over the last four years.
I don’t know that Schumer is suddenly becoming a leftist populist, but I do think he’s savvy enough to know that student loan forgiveness is by far the most dramatic thing Biden can do to immediately help families in the midst of financial nightmares. Plus, as we learned yesterday, Schumer looks at Twitter a lot!
I’ve written a lot about the advantages of forgiving student loans right here in this newsletter; this issue right here may be the most in-depth exploration.
Oh, And Speaking of Executive Power:
DACA is BACK!
In a sign that they’re exhausted and looking for other jobs, the Trump administration today confirmed that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is back at full-strength. Once again, it will protect from deportation people who were brought to the United States as young children, which isn’t nearly as good as citizenship but sure beats the alternative (deportation).
Did you know that DACA was an Obama executive order that benefited young people and is now seen as one of his best political and policy achievements? Huh…
Sweeping Criminal Justice Reform in Los Angeles
Last month, Angelenos booted punitive District Attorney Jackie Lacey and replaced her with former San Francisco DA George Gascón. The new top prosecutor was sworn into office today and immediately began fulfilling his campaign promises, enacting a boatload of big reforms.
In no particular order (because they’re all great), here are some of the orders he issued today:
Ending cash bail for non-violent offenses
Prosecutors will no longer seek the death penalty
They will also no longer seek adult charges for juvenile offenders
Ending sentence enhancements used to put accused gang members in jail for longer periods of time
No more solitary confinement
There’s a lot more to come — I’m a New Yorker through and through but I’m very impressed and look forward to helping a reformer candidate win Manhattan DA next year.
Tough Times in NYC
I love this city and I’m heartbroken about what’s happening to my neighbors. We braved the virus this spring and now the small businesses and community hubs that define New York are falling one by one, destroying institutions, jobs, and families.
This year’s “Reasons to Love New York” edition of NY Magazine is truly poignant and devastating. In 500 Reasons Why We Loved New York, the magazine highlights many of the beloved neighborhood spots that have closed thus far in 2020. Because we don’t do much traveling around the city these days, especially since the weather turned cold, so many of the names in the story come as a surprise to me, and I’ve been in text threads all day mourning favorite old spots.
It’s not just about being a customer at these places; a million New Yorkers are out of work, and those that have stayed on the payroll at restaurants and other spots are really struggling.
Shadiness in Georgia
The fact that Joe Biden was able to win Georgia was especially impressive considering the state’s egregious record of voter suppression over the last half-decade. There are some great groups working hard to fight the state from making things worse for the dual Senate runoffs (including some highlighted here!), but there’s still some shadiness going on in Cobb County:
Cobb County, which borders Atlanta on the west, will offer five polling sites when early voting begins Dec. 14. For the Nov. 3 general election, it had 11 locations to serve the county’s more than 537,000 voters.
Advocates warned in a letter Monday that the closures “will be harmful to Cobb County’s Black and Latinx voters” because many of the shuttered polling sites are located in minority neighborhoods. The next closest sites are between five and 12 miles away, and public transportation options in that area of the county are inadequate, the letter stated.
Janine Eveler, the Cobb County Elections Director says they just don’t have the staff to open more than five polling sites. After all, she explains, some of them are going to be out for the holidays, and what can be done about such an obviously avoidable problem?
But hey, Eveler says she just can’t find people willing to be trained and work “14-hour days for six days a week for three weeks,” because employment is just so robust right now.
Wait, Before You Go!
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