Democrats' Mini-MAGA Caucus Sells Out Immigrants - The Friday AM Quickie 1/10/25
My friends in LA are safe and I hope the same for you and yours. There's no rain in the forecast, but hopefully the worst is over. Jacob's returns to newsletter duty Monday. Take care out there! - Corey
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THE BIG NEWS
Do Democrats Even Want to Be an Opposition Party?
Democrats have reached nothing like consensus as to why Vice President Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump, and with the new, Republican-dominated Congress coming into session this month, the minority party's Senators and Representatives are running every which way – some into the MAGA fold.
CBS News reports that Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman – once seen as an iconoclastic ally of the socialist Bernie Sanders, but more lately likened to the conservative coal baron Joe Manchin III – will be the first sitting Democrat to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Trump is looking for votes to get his insane cabinet nominees confirmed by the Senate, and Fetterman is looking for, in his words, "a conversation."
Sure. It will be a big, beautiful, exchange of concepts. The greatest. Just don't expect the self-righteous "senator for everyone in Pennsylvania" to stick up for his hard-working Haiti-born constituents.
In addition to voicing support for the annexation of Greenland, Fetterman also this week became the first Democrat to sponsor the Laken Riley Act, a bit of Trumpist xenophobia intended to speed up the unjustified mass deportation of immigrant families. Several other Senate Democrats, including Arizona's newly elected Ruben Gallego, followed Fetterman's lead toward what Drop Site News calls a total capitulation on Trump's hateful signature issue. Many Democrats, per the New York Times, fortunately remain "concerned that the bill could push federal authorities to deport people who might not be guilty of the nonviolent crimes of which they had been accused." No big deal to the fash-curious faction flirting with Trump, apparently!
Meanwhile in the House, the Washington Post reports that New York Squad Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may be the aggressive, popular opposition leader Democrats are looking for – but first she has to overcome the resentment of her liberal and centrist peers. Among other revelations, the Post reports that when AOC made her unsuccessful bid last month for leadership of the House Oversight Committee, Steering Committee members including California Rep. Linda T. Sánchez and the indicted-but-reelected Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar "pressed her on her past decisions to endorse [leftist] primary challengers against [centrist] Democratic incumbents." AOC, according to the Post's anonymous sources, did not apologize.
"She did, however, tell her colleagues that she had 'matured' and understood that a leadership role required additional responsibilities to support the whole caucus. She promised not to try defeating her colleagues. She's a team player now and will help them win, she said, according to the two meeting attendees."
Make of that what you will, but some Democratic districts around the country would certainly benefit from competitive primaries. The millions who voted against Trump and his party, and the millions more who sat out the election, were not asking for MAGA Lite.
MORE STORIES TO WATCH
LA Fires: 10,000 Buildings Burned, 10 Confirmed Dead
- Dry Hydrants Show Local Water Systems Are Unequipped to Deal with Big Wildfires in Era of Climate Crisis Adding sufficient water storage infrastructure in hilly areas to combat large, long-lasting wildfires would be very expensive, one expert says – "but right now I'd imagine most people in LA would say it would've been worth the cost." via the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times.
- 'It Was Not If, It Was When,' Experts Say – But Preparedness Was Lacking Emergency shelters in Pasadena are short of cots and critical medical supplies, air purifiers are sold out at Home Depots citywide, and a third of a million people don't have electricity. via NBC News, LAist, the Associated Press, and the LA Times.
- Scientists Confirm That 2024 Was the Hottest Year on Record "The world doesn't need to come up with a magical solution to stop things from getting worse in 2025," says Imperial College London climate scientist Friederike Otto. "We know exactly what we need to do to transition away from fossil fuels, halt deforestation and make societies more resilient." via CNN and the Guardian.
- Neighbors and Strangers Helped One Another Survive the Harrowing Danger In addition to more than 7,500 emergency workers from all over California, surrounding states, and Canada – many union workers but also at least 783 incarcerated firefighters – have been battling the flames. via the AP, the LA Times, and HuffPost.
Trumpocalypse: Supreme Court, 5-4, Declines to Delay Trump Sentencing
- Federal Appeals Court Signs Off on Public Release of Special Counsel Jack Smith's Reports The timing of the report's release, alas, "remains a muddle." via the Washington Post and Politico.
- 15,000 Doctors Warn Senators RFK Jr. 'Is Actively Dangerous' to Public Health Kennedy's guide to Senate confirmation is Ken Nahigian, a pharma lobbyist who led Trump's 2017 transition. via NBC News and Politico.
- 'The Canal Is Ours': Panama Sends a Message With Martyr's Day March The crowd "chanted 'spilled blood will never be forgotten' and 'hands off Panama' as they approached the monument of the eternal flame, built to remember those that died in 1964," when US troops joined police in slaughtering 21 student protesters. via Reuters and the Associated Press.
- GOP Propaganda Crew Bribed Homeless Greenlanders to Appear in Stunt with Don Jr. Photos showing Trump's son and Charlie Kirk with Greenlanders in MAGA hats were staged, the "homeless and socially vulnerable" participants bribed with free lunch at Nuuk's nicest hotel. via the New Republic, DR News, and Politico.
QUICKEST QUICKIES
- Federal Judge Appointed By George W. Bush Strikes Down Biden Rules Protecting Trans Students Nationwide Kentucky Judge Danny Reeves' decision "displays extraordinary disregard for students who are most vulnerable to discrimination and are in the most need for federal protections under the Title IX rule," the National Women's Law Center said. via the Advocate and Politico.
- European Regulators Are Investigating Elon Musk's Free Ad for Germany's Far-Right AfD In a 75-minute X livestream yesterday, the South Africa-born oligarch engaged in World War II revisionism with Alice Weidel, co-leader and chancellor candidate of Alternative for Germany, "the heirs of Nazism." via the Associated Press and NBC News.
- Police Shoot and Kill Pizzagate Gunman During Traffic Stop Edgar Maddison Welch, 36, allegedly pulled a gun on a North Carolina cop attempting to arrest him over a probation violation; in 2016, Welch fired shots inside Washington, DC's Comet Ping Pong restaurant, having fallen for far-right conspiracy theories. via the New York Times and the Associated Press.
- Mountain Workers Unite: Utah Ski Patrollers Declare Victory After 2-Week Strike Amid 2 Feet of Fresh Powder "Despite the closed trails and long lift lines, some skiers expressed support for the strikers, chanting 'Pay your employees!'" via the AP.
SOME NUMBER
64,260
That's how many people died in Gaza due to traumatic injuries between October 2023 and the end of June 2024, according to a peer-reviewed statistical analysis published in The Lancet yesterday. The estimate is 41 percent higher than the Palestinian Health Ministry's count of the dead during the same period. Meanwhile, the US House passed a bill to sanction International Criminal Court officials over the court's war crimes investigation of Israel's relentless assault on Gaza, which Pope Francis yesterday called "shameful."
ON THE SHOW TODAY
1/10: Happy Friday! Sam and Emma speak with Osita Nwanevu, contributing editor at the New Republic, columnist at The Guardian, and author of the upcoming book The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding.
DON'T MISS MR CLIPS
WHY WOULD THEY DO THIS?!
"Influencers" turned out to be something of a misnomer, eh?
How Investors Are Undermining a Sustainable Future
If we're waiting for these people to be happy with the profits they're pulling from the green energy transition, we'll be waiting until we burn.
PARTING WORDS
"Very few people in the 1970s had heard the term climate change, yet Carter put his presidency on the line to pass laws to conserve energy, deregulate new oil and gas prices, and invest in clean, renewable alternatives to fossil fuels. It wasn't a perfect program, but thanks to President Carter, US energy consumption declined by 10 percent between 1979 and 1983. In many ways, he laid the foundations for future presidents to come to grips with climate change. Some thought he was crazy... but he was dead right, and we know that now."
-- Ted Mondale, son of former Democratic Vice President Walter Mondale, reading a eulogy of the late President Jimmy Carter that the elder Mondale wrote before he died in 2021, at Carter's state funeral yesterday.
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