#baltimore governor

[mariacallous]

Some prominent conservative lawmakers and commentators are advocating for ending no-fault divorce, laws that exist in all 50 US states and allow a person to end a marriage without having to prove a spouse did something wrong, like commit adultery or domestic violence.

The socially conservative, and often religious, rightwing opponents of such divorce laws are arguing that the practice deprives people – mostly men – of due process and hurt families, and by extension, society. Republican lawmakers in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Texas have discussed eliminating or increasing restrictions on no-fault marriage laws.

Defenders of the laws, which states started passing a half-century ago, see legislation and arguments to repeal them as the latest effort to restrict women’s rights – following the overturning of Roe v Wade and passage of abortion bans around the country – and say that without such protections, the country would return to an earlier era when women were often trapped in abusive marriages.

“No-fault divorce is critical to the ability, particularly the ability of women, to be able to exercise autonomy in their own relationships, in their own lives,” said Denise Lieberman, an adjunct professor at the Washington University School of Law in St Louis, who has a specialty in policies concerning gender, sexuality and sexual violence.

Before 1969, when then California Republican governor Ronald Reagan, who had been divorced, approved the country’s first no-fault divorce law, women, who are more likely to experience violence from an intimate partner, were often forced to stay in marriages. If they could not prove that their husband had been abusive or persuade him to grant a divorce, they would not be able to take any assets from the marriage or remarry, according to a study in the Quarterly Journal of Economics.

States around America gradually followed suit and passed similar laws allowing unilateral divorce until 2010, when New York became the last state to approve the practice.

Between 1976 and 1985, states that passed the laws saw their domestic violence rates against men and women fall by about 30%; the number of women murdered by an intimate partner declined by 10%; and female suicide rates declined by 8 to 16%.

Without such laws, “it’s hard to prove anything in court relating to a family because you don’t have any witnesses”, said Kimberly Wehle, professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law. “It’s very difficult to get evidence to show abuse of children. How do you do it? Do you put your kids on the stand?”

Conservative commentators such as Matt Walsh, Steven Crowder and lawmakers such as the Republican senator JD Vance of Ohio have argued that the laws are unfair to men and hurt society because they lead to more divorces.

The divorce rate in the United States increased significantly from 1960, when it was 9.2 per 1,000 married women, to 22.6 in 1980. But by 2022, the rate had fallen to 14.5.

On the increase in divorces, Vance said in 2021: “One of the great tricks that I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace” is the idea that “these marriages were fundamentally, you know, they were maybe even violent, but certainly they were unhappy, and so getting rid of them and making it easier for people to shift spouses like they change their underwear, that’s going to make people happier in the long term”.

Beverly Willett, a writer and attorney, argues that unilateral no-fault divorce is also unconstitutional because it violates a person’s 14th amendment right to due process.

The defendant “has absolutely no recourse to say, ‘Wait a minute. I don’t want to be divorced, and I don’t think that there are grounds for divorce. I would like to be heard. I would like to call witnesses,’” said Willett, who experienced a divorce she didn’t want because she thought her marriage could be saved. “I believed in my vows” and “didn’t want to give up”.

But Willett’s argument relies on the idea that “women are either property or that somehow men’s liberty is restrained by not allowing them to stay in a marriage with someone who does not want to be married”, said Wehle, who also wrote about it in the Atlantic. “I disagree with the idea that women are somehow property interests of their husbands. That is an arcane relic of law that has no place in modern society.”

Willett responded to Wehle’s critique by writing that “nobody has suggested a return to antiquated laws of the 18th and 19th century. Considerable reform that protects women and ensures their equality in family court has been enacted since then.”

On the argument that no-fault divorce reduces domestic violence, Willett points to data that most domestic violence occurs between unmarried couples and says regardless, with “any contract, any lawsuit, you still have to follow the constitution”.

But without such laws, victims of domestic violence would then have to navigate a court system that can be time-consuming, “very adversarial and very costly” because the plaintiff often must then pay for child care and transportation, said Marium Durrani, vice-president of policy for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

“Any sort of additional barrier that we add to the ease of legal proceeding is, frankly, a nightmare and an enormous burden for survivors,” said Durrani. “I’m not trying to be an alarmist, but it can increase death [if] a survivor of domestic violence has to prove that they are being abused in a divorce proceeding.”

Still, Lieberman does not think Republicans will succeed in their efforts to make it more difficult for people to get divorced.

“I do believe that that train has left the station. I mean, we have had no-fault divorce now for 50 years,” Lieberman said. But “I didn’t think the supreme court would overturn Roe v Wade, which we had for 50 years, so I suppose we will see.”

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #11

March 22-29 2024

The Administration, with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in the lead responded to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. Working with Governor Wes Moore and Mayor Brandon Scott (both Democrats) The Department of Transportation promises to clear the harbor and rebuild the bride. DoT has already released $60 million in emergency funds as a "down payment" and President Biden is expected to seek $1 billion from Congress.

Vice President Harris announced a number of actions and investments designed to improve the quality of life of the peoples of northern central America. driven by poverty, lack of economic opportunities, and out of control crime people in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras are taking great risks and trusting criminal human traffickers to try to reach the US. The Administration is working to improve conditions in the Northern Triangle so that is no longer necessary. Vice President Harris announced $1 billion dollars in new investments as part of the Central America Forward public-private partnership, since 2021 it has invested $5.2 billion in the region. Harris also announced $175 million dollars of direct aid from the US to Guatemala at a meeting with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo.

The Department of Energy announced a $1.5 billion dollar loan to help restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant. This would mark the first time a nuclear power plant was brought back online after being decommissioned. The hope is keep the plant running till 2051, this 100% green power source is projected to prevent 111 million tons of CO2 emissions in its new life time, the same as taking 100,000 cars off the road. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer touted it as key for her state reaching its goal of 100% clean energy by 2040.

Vice President Harris launched a social media push to inform the public about the Biden-Harris Administration's SAVE Plan. The Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan was launched last year as part of President Biden's efforts to bring student loan forgiveness to millions of borrowers. Currently 7.7 million people are enrolled in SAVE, under which anyone making $16 a hour or less has a monthly payment of $0 on their student loans. 4.5 million SAVE enrollees are making $0 a month payments and another 1 million pay less than $100 a month on their loan repayment, over 150,000 people so far have had their loans totally forgiven. Republicans are suing to try to shut down the SAVE Plan

President Biden took keep steps to ensure quality healthcare this week. Biden extended the window for low-income Americans to apply for Obamacare. The original deadline of July 31st has been pushed back to November 30th. Biden also rolled back Trump era rules that allowed subsidies for "Junk Health insurance" These plans offer very little coverage and often mislead consumers into believing they have insurance when they aren't covered. These short term plans also don't have meet Obamacare standards and can refuse coverage for preexisting conditions.

The EPA announced new regulations aimed at "turbocharging" the number of electric trucks on the road. The new rules aim to have 25% of new long-haul trucks, the heaviest often diesel trucks on the road, and 40% of medium-size trucks (box trucks and landscaping vehicles) be nonpolluting by 2032, currently just 2% are. The regulation would apply to more than 100 types of vehicles including tractor-trailers, ambulances, R.V.s, garbage trucks and moving vans. The new tailpipe limits are expected to prevent about a billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2055.

the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services  announced that thanks to President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, 41 different drugs will coast those on Medicare Part B less money than it did last year.  An estimated 763,700 people on Medicare use at least one of these drugs every year. Some enrollees will save as much as $3,575 per dose.

The Department of Energy announced $6 billion for an effort to decarbonize energy-intensive industries. The investment in 33 projects across 20 states will eliminate 14 million metric tons of CO2 emissions each year when finished. Each project is meant to be highly replicable and serve as a blueprint for future private sector ventures. 

President Biden signed an Executive Order to Strengthen the Recognition of Women’s History. The Order will launch a review of all historic sites run by the National Parks Service to determine ways to better highlight the role of women, from all backgrounds, in American History.

The Senate Confirmed President Biden's nominees, Ernesto Gonzalez, and Leon Schydlower to federal judgeships in Texas. This brings the total number of federal judges appointed by President Biden to 190.

[tomorrowusa]

The Republican war against women continues.

In addition to reproductive freedom, MAGA Republicans are now seeking to get rid of no-fault divorce.

Conservative US lawmakers are pushing for an end to no-fault divorce

Some prominent conservative lawmakers and commentators are advocating for ending no-fault divorce, laws that exist in all 50 US states and allow a person to end a marriage without having to prove a spouse did something wrong, like commit adultery or domestic violence. The socially conservative, and often religious, rightwing opponents of such divorce laws are arguing that the practice deprives people – mostly men – of due process and hurt families, and by extension, society. Republican lawmakers in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Texas have discussed eliminating or increasing restrictions on no-fault marriage laws.

Religious fundamentalist MAGA males want to be able to point the finger of blame at women in divorce cases. And by packing the courts with misogynist judges along the lines of Alito and Thomas, it will be women who will usually end up on the losing side.

Today's GOP superficially professes loyalty to the memory of Ronald Reagan. But in addition to their idolization of the Evil Empire, this is another way they are trying to nullify his legacy.

Before 1969, when the then California Republican governor, Ronald Reagan, who had been divorced, approved the country’s first no-fault divorce law, women, who are more likely to experience violence from an intimate partner, were often forced to stay in marriages. If they could not prove that their husband had been abusive or persuade him to grant a divorce, they would not be able to take any assets from the marriage or remarry, according to a study in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. States around America gradually followed suit and passed similar laws allowing unilateral divorce until 2010, when New York became the last state to approve the practice.

Getting rid of domestic violence laws could be next on the Republican fundamentalist agenda. Putin did this in Russia – another reason why the MAGA crowd loves Putin.

Between 1976 and 1985, states that passed the laws saw their domestic violence rates against men and women fall by about 30%; the number of women murdered by an intimate partner declined by 10%; and female suicide rates declined by 8 to 16%. Without such laws, “it’s hard to prove anything in court relating to a family because you don’t have any witnesses”, said Kimberly Wehle, professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law. “It’s very difficult to get evidence to show abuse of children. How do you do it? Do you put your kids on the stand?”

Republicans want to socially return the country to the 1950s when women were in the kitchen, gays were in the closet, and blacks were out of sight. They would ultimately want to turn the clock back to the 1650s when women were little better than chattel slaves.

[layce2015]

Supernatural (Dean Winchester x Female!Reader)

Sympathy For The Devil

Masterlist pt 1

Masterlist pt 2

*(y/n)'s POV*

"Come on!" Dean shouts as he grabs both me and Sam and pulls us away from the sigil. We run but the doors slam shut. We go and rattle the door but it wouldn't budge and the light was seeping through the door. Then there was a high-pitch noise sounding out in the room. Sam looks at me and Dean then we look back at the light, I squeeze my eyes shut then cover my ears and fall to my knees, as does the boys.

Suddenly, everything stopped and it felt like I was sitting on something. I open my eyes and realized that I was sitting in a plane. I look to my right and see Sam sitting next to me in the seat and I turn left to see Dean in a seat across the side aisle of it. "What the hell?" Dean asked us, the look of astonished and shock on his face. "I don't know." I said and I look over at Sam, who shrugs and shakes his head.

"Folks, quick word from the flight deck. We're just passing over Ilchester, then Ellicott City, on our initial descent into Baltimore—" the pilot on the intercom said and I turn to Dean. "Ilchester? Weren't we just there?" I asked him and he nods.

"So if you'd like to stretch your legs, now would be a good time to—Holy crap!" the pilot exclaimed and then the plane shakes and goes off kilter, people were thrown around and screaming. Oxygen masks drop down and the boys and I grab our masks as a white light outside the window grows blinding, the high-pitched noise coming back.

*3rd Person POV*

"And Governor O'Malley urged calm, saying it's very unlikely an abandoned convent would be a target for terrorists, either foreign or homegrown." the radio announcer said through the radio of the rented car Sam and Dean got. (Y/n) had gotten her motorcycle back after the boys took her back to Cold Springs, she follows close behind them as they ride throw town.

"Change the station." Dean tells Sam and he pokes a button on the digital radio.

"—Hurricane Kinley, unexpectedly slamming into the Galveston area—"

"—announced a successful test of the North Korean nuclear—"

"—a series of tremors—"

"—swine flu—"

The radio shuts off and Sam sighs as silence befalls the brothers. "Dean, look—" Sam starts to say but Dean shakes his head. "Don't say anything." he said and there was a pause of silence. "It's okay. We just got to keep our heads down and hash this out, all right?" Dean said. "Yeah, okay." Sam mutters.

"All right, well, first things first—How did we end up on Soul Plane?" Dean asked. "Angels, maybe? I mean, you know, beaming us out of harm's way?" Sam suggests. "Well, whatever. It's the least of our worries. We need to find Cas and Ariel." Dean said and Sam turns his head. "Who's Ariel?" Sam asked. "She's another angel. Didn't really get to know her much but...after we find them, I've got some questions for her." Dean said as they continue to drive.

The trio walk through Chuck's devastated house. Suddenly,  there was a nois and they both turn but nothing. They keep looking around until Chuck jumps out and hits Sam on the head with a toilet plunger. Sam stumbles back, hand to his head. "Geez! Ow!" he shouts.

"Sam." Chuck said, confused. "Yeah!" Sam yells. "Hey, Chuck." Dean and (y/n) said and Chuck stares at them then back to Sam. "So...you're okay?" he asked him. "Well, my head hurts." Sam groans. "No, I mean—I mean, my—My last vision. You went, like, full-on Vader. Your body temperature was one-fifty. Your heart rate was two hundred. Your eyes were black." Chuck said and (y/n) furrows her brow.

"Your eyes went black?" she asked Sam, who looks back over his shoulder. "I didn't know." he said. "Where's Cas and Ariel?" Dean asked Chuck. "They're dead. Or gone. The archangel smote the crap out of them. I'm sorry." Chuck said, sadly. "You're sure? I mean, maybe they just vanished into the light or something." (y/n) said, in denial. "Oh, no. Both of them, like, exploded. Like a water balloon of chunky soup." Chuck said.

Sam takes a closer look at Chuck and waves a hand at his own left ear. "You got a—" he said and Chuck waves a hand at his own right ear. "Uh...right here?" he asked and Sam indicates the other side of Chuck's head. "Uh, the..." Sam said as Chuck feels at his hair.

"Oh. Oh, God." Chuck groans as he pulls something out. "Is that a molar? Do I have a molar in my hair?" he asked and the trio noticed that it was, indeed, a molar. "This has been a really stressful day." Chuck grumbles whole Dean sighs.

"Cas, you stupid bastard." Dean mutters. "Stupid? He and Ariel werr trying to help us." (y/n) said to him. "Yeah, exactly." Dean exclaims.

"So, what now?" Sam asked. "I don't know." Dean yells. "Oh, crap." Chuck said, looking uncomfortable. "What?" (y/n) asked him. "I can feel them." Chuck said, upset. "Thought we'd find you here." a voice said and the boys and (y/n) turn around to see Zachariah and two other angels standing behind them.

"Playtime's over, Dean. Time to come with us." Zachariah said and Dean points at him. "You just keep your distance, asshat." Dean growls. "You're upset." Zachariah said, unfazed. "Yeah. A little. You sons of bitches jump-started judgment day!" Dean shouts. "Maybe we let it happen. We didn't start anything. Right, Sammy?" Zachariah said and he winks at Sam, who looks down in guilt.

"You had a chance to stop your brother, and you couldn't. So let's not quibble over who started what. Let's just say it was all our faults and move on. 'Cause like it or not, it's Apocalypse Now. And we're back on the same team again." Zachariah said. "Is that so?" Dean asked, suspiciously. "You want to kill the devil. We want you to kill the devil. It's...synergy." said Zachariah.

"And I'm just supposed to trust you?" Dean asked then he shakes his head. "Cram it with walnuts, ugly." he spat and Zachariah starts to get angry. "This isn't a game, son. Lucifer is powerful in ways that defy description. We need to strike now, hard and fast—before he finds his vessel." Zachariah said.

"His vessel? Lucifer needs a meat suit?" (Y/n) asked, confused. "He is an angel. Them's the rules. And when he touches down, we're talking Four Horsemen, red oceans, fiery skies—the greatest hits." Zachariah said then he turns to Dean. "You can stop him, Dean, but you need our help." he said. "You listen to me, you two-faced douche. After what you did, I don't want jack squat from you!" Dean yells, angrily.

"You listen to me, boy! You think you can rebel against us? As Lucifer did?" Zachariah asked but then he noticed Dean's hand was bleeding. "You're bleeding." he points out. "Oh, yeah—a little insurance policy in case you dicks showed up." Dean said and he slaps his bloody hand on an Angel Banishing Sigil drawn behind a door. "No!" Zachariah shouts and Sam, (y/n) and Chuck flinch as a white light flashes and the angels vanish.

"Learned that from my friend Cas, you son of a bitch." Dean spat. "This sucks ass." Chuck sighs, depressed.

Sam rushes down a staircase, past a couple making out, and enters the motel. Dean loads a gun while (y/n) sat on the bed, her hands clasped in front of her face. Sam enters the room. "Hey." Dean said as (y/n) raises her head to him. "Hey." Sam said as he closes the door, pulls something out of his shirt, and tosses it to Dean. Dean catches it and examines it. "Here. Hex bags. No way the angels will find us with those. Demons, either, for that matter." Sam said as (y/n) looks over at it.

"Where'd you get it?" she asked him. "I made it." Sam replied. "How?" Dean and (y/n) asked. Sam hesitates long enough for Dean and (y/n) to look up at him. "I...I learned it from Ruby." Sam said and Dean puts the gun down and approaches Sam.

"Speaking of. How you doing? Are you jonesing for another hit of bitch blood or what?" he asked him. "I-it's weird. Uh, tell you the truth, I'm fine. No shakes, no fever. It's like whoever...put me on that plane cleaned me right up." Sam said. "Supernatural methadone." (y/n) jokes. "Yeah, I guess." Sam said and he pauses.

"Guys--" he started to say but Dean interrupts him. "Sam." He said as he turns away. "It's okay. You don't have to say anything." he said. "Well, that's good. Because what can I even say? I'm sorry? I screwed up? Doesn't really do it justice, you know? Look, there's nothing I can do or say that will ever make this right—" Sam said. "So why do you keep bringing it up?!" Dean asked, loudly, and Sam sighs while (y/n) jumped slightly at this. 

Dean then turns back to him. "Look, all I'm saying is, why do we have to put this under a microscope? We made a mess. We clean it up. That's it." he said and Sam nods. "All right, so, say this is just any other hunt. You know? What do we do first?" Dean asked. "We'd, uh, figure out where the thing is." Sam said. "All right. So we just got to find...the devil." (y/n) said, giving a slight shrug.

Meanwhile, a woman named Becky, whose bedroom walls have poster-size prints of the covers of Carver Edlund's Supernatural: Route 667 and Supernatural: The Benders, sits at her computer, typing and reading aloud. "And then Sam touched—" she stopped then shakes her head, backspace a bit then continues to write. "No. —caressed (y/n)'s clavicle with one hand and her cheek with the other. 'This is wrong,' said (y/n). 'You know I'm with Dean.' She said but her eyes were filled with lust and excitement. 'Then I don't want to be right,' replied Sam, in a husky voice, and he leans into her and presses a firm kiss to (y/n)'s lips. She was shocked at first but then excitement overtakes her as she wraps her arms around Sam's strong, broad shoulders."

Suddenly, she gets a message which appears on her screen: CARVER EDLUND CALLING. She frowns and clicks Accept. The window expands to a videophone: it's Chuck. He glances over his shoulder and back while Becky covers her mouth, excited enough that it causes her difficulty speaking.

"Oh...my...God. You. You're..." she stammers, excitedly. "Carver Edlund, yeah. Hi, Becky." Chuck said. "You got my letters. And my marzipan." Becky exclaims while Chuck can't quite meet her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Um...yummy. But, uh—" he stammers. "I am your number-one fan. You know, I'm samlicker81." she said.

"I'm sorry. You're—You're what?" Chuck asked. "Webmistress at morethanjustfriends dot net?" Becky said. "Oh. Yeah. No, yeah. You're my...number-one fan." he said and Becky grins. "That's why I contacted you. You're the only one who will believe me." he said, looking heavenward.

Becky frowns, concerned. "Are you all right?" she asked. "No. I'm being watched. Okay, not, not now—at least, I don't think so. But I don't have much time. I need your help." Chuck said and Becky switches back to overexcited. "You need my help?" she asked, excitedly. 

"That's right. I need you to get a message to Sam, Dean and (y/n). Okay?" He said and Becky sighs, reality intruding. "Look, Mr. Edlund...Yes, I'm a fan, but I really don't appreciate being mocked. I know that Supernatural's just a book, okay? I know the difference between fantasy and reality." she said, sternly. "Becky, it's all real." Chuck said, frantically. And Becky snaps back to overexcitedness. "I knew it!" she screams.

Back at the hotel, Sam stares at John's journal while (y/n) and Dean were watching TV. (Y/n) was sitting up on the bed while Dean was laying across the bed, his head on her lap. "How would you then explain an earthquake, a hurricane, and multiple tornadoes, all at the same time, all around the globe?" the man on the TV asked to an environmentalist. "Two words. Carbon emissions." he said and (y/n) shakes her head in disbelief at this as she runs her fingers through Dean's hair. "Yeah, right, wavy gravy." Dean scoffs, sarcastically.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Dean sits up, quickly, and pulls his gun as (y/n) pulls her own gun while Sam answers the door. It's Becky, who is excited she's having trouble breathing.

"You okay, lady?" Sam asked her. "Sam...is it really you?" she asked him, her voice shaking. Sam glances back at Dean and (y/n). Becky steps closer and puts a hand on Sam's chest. "And you're so firm." she said and Sam raises an eyebrow at her.

"Uh, do I know you?" he asked her and Becky pulls back. Sam continues to stare, bewildered, while Dean and (y/n) share a look. "No. But I know you. You're Sam Winchester." Becky said then she looks over at (y/n). "Oh my God! You're (y/n) (l/n)! You're so pretty!" Becky exclaimed and (y/n) furrows her brow in confusion. "Uh, thank you?" (Y/n) said, not sure how to take this, then Becky looks at Dean, who's staring at her, his gun hand out of sight.

"And you're—not what I pictured." she said, a bit disappointed, to Dean, who seemed a bit offended. "I'm Becky." She introduced as she pushes past Sam into the room. "I read all about you guys. And I've even written a few—" she said then she glances down, giggling a little.

"Anyway, Mr. Edlund told me where you were." She said and Dean and (y/n) stand up. "Chuck?" Dean asked as Sam closes the door. "He's got a message, but he's being watched. Angels. Nice change-up to the mythology, by the way. The demon stuff was getting kind of old." Becky said. "Right. Just, um...what's the message?" Sam asked her.

"He had a vision. The Michael sword is on earth. The angels lost it." Becky said. "The Michael sword?" (y/n) asked, confusion. "Becky, does he know where it is?" Sam asked him. "In a castle, on a hill made of forty-two dogs." she replied. "Forty-two dogs?" Dean said, confused.  "Are...you sure you got that right?" Sam asked her. "It doesn't make sense, but that's what he said." Becky said then she steps closer to Sam.

"I memorized every word." She said then she touches Sam's chest. "For you." she said and Sam glances at Dean and (y/n) then back down at Becky. "Um, Becky, c—uh, can you...quit touching me?" he asked her. "No." she whispers and (y/n) bites her lips as she holds back a laugh.

*(y/n) POV*

After the crazy girl left, we called up Bobby to come see us. Few hours later, there was a knock at the door and Dean goes to open it, revealing Bobby. "Hey, Bobby." Dean said and he and Bobby hug. "Hey..." I greet him and Bobby goes to hug me too.

"Good to see you three all in one piece." Bobby said as he goes to hug Sam and Dean closes the door. "You weren't followed, were you?" Dean asked him. "You mean by angels, demons, or Sam's new superfan?" Bobby asked and Sam and I laugh.

"You heard." Sam said. "I heard, Romeo." Bobby jokes and Sam rolls his eyes. "So...sword of Michael, huh?" Bobby asked. "You think we're talking about the actual sword from the actual archangel?" I asked Bobby. "You better friggin' hope so." Bobby said.

Minutes later, Bobby opens a book to a painting of Michael surrounded by other angels. In this painting, Michael looks like a winged woman and the other angels like naked babies with wings. "That's Michael. Toughest son of a bitch they got." Bobby said as Sam flips to another painting. Again, Michael has a feminine face.

"You kidding me? Tough? That guy looks like Cate Blanchett." Dean jokes and I chuckle. "Well, I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley, believe me. He commands the heavenly host. During the last big dust-up upstairs, he's the one who booted Lucifer's ass to the basement. Did it with that sword." Bobby said as he points to the sword in the painted Michael's hand.

"So if we can find it..." Bobby said. "We can kick the devil's ass all over again." I said and Bobby nods. "All right. So, where do we start?" Sam asked. "Divvy up and start reading—try and make sense of Chuck's nonsense." Bobby said and Sam gets up and heads for a pile of old books and stares at the books for a long moment, not reaching for them.

"Kid? You all right?" Bobby asked then Sam turns to Bobby. "No, actually. Bobby, this is all my fault. I'm sorry." he said. "Sam..." Dean and I said, warningly. "Lilith did not break the final seal. Lilith was the final seal." Sam explains. "Sam, stop it." Dean yells but Sam continues.

"I killed her, and I set Lucifer free." Sam admits and Bobby looked taken aback. "You what?" he said, shocked. "You guys warned me about Ruby, the demon blood, but I didn't listen. I brought this on." Sam said while Dean and I don't say anything.

Bobby then stands and walks closer to Sam. "You're damn right you didn't listen. You were reckless and selfish and arrogant." he yells at Sam. "I'm sorry." Sam said, apologetically. "Oh, yeah? You're sorry you started Armageddon? This kind of thing don't get forgiven, boy. If, by some miracle, we pull this off...I want you to lose my number. You understand me?" Bobby yells at Sam, who nods. Dean doesn't protest but I couldn't hold back.

"Bobby, isn't that a bit harsh? I mean, yes, Sam screwed up but we are gonna fix it." I defended and Bobby turns to me. "Don't you dare argue with me, girl." Bobby growls at me and I glare at him. "I'll do whatever the hell I want!" I yelled while Dean holds me back.

"(Y/n), it's okay." Sam tells me then he sighs. "There's an old church nearby. Maybe I'll go read some of the lore books there." Sam tells Bobby. "Yeah. You do that." Bobby growls and Sam starts to leave the room. "I'll go with him." I said then I walk pass Dean and glare at Bobby as I walk up to Sam and we leave the room.

As Sam shuts the door behind us, I curse under my breath. "Can't believe him..." I muttered and Sam sighs. "(Y/n), I appreciate you standing up for me but...honestly, I deserve it." Sam said and I turn to him. "No, you don't." I said. "Yes, I do. This is all my fault. I didn't listen to you or Dean." He said and I frown. 

“Sam you didn’t know what was gonna happen.” I said. “That doesn’t make it alright. I…I started the apocalypse (Y/n).” Sam said. “I know and we’ll fix it.” I assured him. Sam shakes his head and looks down. “Hey.” I said softly, place my hand on his arm. Sam lifted his head slightly to look at me. “We will Sam. I know things are pretty mess up right now, but all that matters is that we’re all together again. Let’s just take this one step at a time.” I said.

“Aren’t you mad at me? For Ruby and everything else?” Sam asked. “Of course I’m mad.” I replied, slightly raising my voice a little by accident. Sam nodded and looks down again, like a dog that’s knows it’s in trouble.

“But you’re still my best friend Sam.” I added and Sam look up to meet my eyes. “And I can’t blame you for wanting to kill Lilith. I still think about that horrible night we lost Dean and those four terrible months we had to live without him, because of her. Honestly I think a part of me would have done the same and that scares me.” I explained, averting my gaze as I felt tears building up from thinking about Dean’s death.

I roughly wipe my eyes and look back up at Sam. “But what’s done is done and right now…I’m just glad you’re okay.” I said. Sam smiles, tearfully, and steps closer, to hug me. “Thank you, (Y/n).” He whispered, burying his face in my shoulder. “Anytime Sammy.” I said, patting his back, reassuringly.

*3rd Person POV*

Bobby and Dean were sitting, doing research, when Bobby speaks up. "I never would have guessed that your daddy was right." He said. "About what?" Dean asked him. "About your brother." Bobby replied and Dean looks up

"What John said—you save Sam or kill him. Maybe..." Bobby trails off. "Maybe what?" Dean asked him. "Maybe we shouldn't have tried so hard to save him." Bobby said. "Bobby." Dean said, exasperated.

"He ended the world, Dean. And you, (y/n) and I weren't strong enough to stop him proper. That's on us. I'm just saying, your dad was right." Bobby said then an idea comes to Dean. "Dad." he mutters then he rummages through his bag and pulls out a plastic Ziplock full of cards. "It's got to be in here somewhere." Dean mutters.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Bobby asked. "Here." said Dean as he pulls a card out and reads it. Bobby stands up as Dean walks over to him. "I don't believe it." Dean whispers. "What the hell is it?" Bobby asked. "It's a card for my dad's lockup in upstate New York. Read it." he said and Bobby takes the card.

"Castle Storage. 42 Rover Hill." He reads. "Castle on a hill of forty-two dogs." Dean recites as he takes the card back. "So you think your dad had the Michael sword all this time?" Bobby asked. "I don't know. I'm not sure what else Chuck could have meant." Dean said. "Yeah. Okay. It's good enough for me." Bobby said before he attacks Dean, knocking him through the barrier between the kitchenette and the beds.

Bobby then yanks Dean up and slams him down again as his eyes go black.

Bobby grabs Dean by the throat and drags him to his feet just as a female demon enters, a male demon came up behind her. "I always knew you were a big, dumb, slow, dim pain in the ass, Dean. But I never dreamed you were so V.I.P." the female demon said then she sees Ruby's knife on the table and picks it up. "I mean, you're gonna ice the devil? You? If I'd have known that, I'd have ripped your pretty, pretty face off ages ago." she said as she turns to Dean

"Ruby." Dean said and the female demon shakes her head. "Try again. Go back further." She said, a small smile forming on her face, and Dean's face lights up with realization. "Meg?" he said and her smile grows. "Hi. These are the days of miracle and wonder, Dean. Our father's among us. You know we're all dreaming again for the first time since we were human? It's heaven on earth. Or hell. We really owe your brother a fruit basket." she said and Dean rolls his eyes. "My God, you like the sound of your own voice." he snarks.

"But you, on the other hand, you're the only bump in the road. So every demon—every single one—is just dying for a piece of you." Meg said and Dean smirks. "Get in line." Dean said. "Oh, I'm in the front of the line, baby. Let's ride." she said then she kisses Dean.

"What is that, peanut butter?" Dean asked after she pulls back from the kiss. "You know, your surrogate daddy's still awake screaming in there. And I want him to know how it feels slicing the life out of you." Meg said and she hands the knife to Bobby, who raises it to Dean's throat as he struggles.

"Bobby!" Dean shouts and Bobby looks back at Meg. "Now!" Meg shouts and Bobby raises the knife to stab Dean. "Bobby! No!" Dean yells and the black fades from Bobby's eyes. The knife comes down and Bobby flashes gold as the demon in him dies, Bobby had stabbed himself. He collapses as Dean rushes Meg and the male demon.

The male demon slams Dean into the wall then the floor. Sam and (y/n) enter and see Bobby on the floor, bleeding, and Dean getting beaten.

"No!" Sam and (y/n) shouted when Meg turns to them. "Heya, Sammy and (y/n). You two miss me? 'Cause I sure missed both of you." she said. "Meg?" Sam said and she grins. Sam swings and misses then Meg kicks him in the crotch and knocks him to the ground while the male demon continues to beat Dean up.

"It's not so easy without those super-special demon powers, huh, Sammy?" Meg said a she goes to punch Sam but then her and her comrade were thrown off of the boys. "He may not have them, but I still do." (Y/n) growls as her hand was held out towards Meg then Dean grabs the knife out of Bobby's stomach and stabs the male demon in the chest, killing him.

Meg tries to get up but (y/n) uses her power to hold her down. "Besides, you and me have some unfinished business, bitch." (Y/n) growls but then Meg screams and smokes out of the woman, who collapses. (Y/n) lowers her hand and let's out a heavy sigh at this then her and Dean share a look.

*(y/n)'s POV*

The boys and I burst into a hospital emergency room, Sam and Dean carrying Bobby. "Need some help here!" Dean shouts as we run in. "What happened?" the nurse asked once she jumps up from her chair. "He was stabbed." Sam said then the nurse turns to a couple nurses nearby.

"Can we get a gurney?" she asked and the two nurses rush a gurney over to Bobby. "Hang on, Bobby. Hang in there. You're gonna be okay." Dean said as we get Bobby onto the gurney and the nurses rush him off, the boys and I follow him until the nurse stops us.

"Just wait here." she tells us. "We can't just leave him." I said, frantically. "Just don't move. I've got questions." the nurse said and she leaves. "Guys, we got to go." Dean tells us and I shake my head. "No." I said. "No way, Dean." Sam said. "The demons heard where the sword is. We got to get to it before they do, if we're not too late already. Come on!" Dean said and he leaves; Sam and I follow him as they head to the Impala and I got on my bike.

Dean opens the trunk of the Impala after we make it to these storage building. We load guns and close the trunk then Dean unlocks the storage room, Sam and I stand watch. Minutes later, we enter the room, our shotguns ready. Then we found dead demons sprawled across the floor.

"I see you told the demons where the sword is." a voice said and we turn to see Zachariah and two other angels with him. "Oh, thank God. The angels are here." Dean said, sarcastically. "And to think...they could have grabbed it any time they wanted." Zachariah said then he waves a hand to close the door. "It was right in front of them." he said.

"What do you mean?" I asked him. "We may have planted that particular piece of prophecy inside Chuck's skull, but it happened to be true. We did lose the Michael sword. We truly couldn't find it. Until now. You've just hand-delivered it to us." Zachariah said to us and Sam and I share a confused look as Dean said. "We don't have anything."

cIt's you, chucklehead. You're the Michael sword." Zachariah said to Dean, who stares at him in shock. "What, you thought you could actually kill Lucifer? You simpering wad of insecurity and self-loathing? No. You're just a human, Dean. And not much of one." Zachariah said and my fist clenched at this.

"What do you mean, I'm the sword?" Dean asked them. "You're Michael's weapon. Or, rather, his...receptacle." Zachariah replied. "I'm a vessel?" Dean said, confused. "You're the vessel. Michael's vessel." Zachariah said.

"How? Why—why me?" Dean asked. "Because you're chosen! It's a great honor, Dean." Zachariah said, a smile on his face. "Oh, yeah. Yeah, life as an angel condom. That's real fun. I think I'll pass, thanks." Dean said and Zachariah chuckles a bit. "Joking. Always joking." he said then his face goes serious. "Well...no more jokes."

Then Zachariah raises one hand, fingers like a gun, and points at Dean, then shifts to me. "Bang." he said then I felt my legs break and I collapse on the ground, screaming in pain. "God!" I screamed. "(Y/n)!" Sam shouts, panicked. "You son of a bitch!" Dean yelled, angrily, as my eyes filled with tears.

"Keep mouthing off, I'll break more than her legs. And then it will be Sam's turn. I am completely and utterly through screwing around. The war has begun. We don't have our general. That's bad. Now, Michael is going to take his vessel and lead the final charge against the adversary. You understand me?" Zachariah yells at Dean. "How many humans die in the crossfire, huh? A million? Five, ten?" Dean asked him while I take deep breathes and Sam kneels down to me. "Probably more. If Lucifer goes unchecked, you know how many die? All of them. He'll roast the planet alive." Zachariah said.

"There's a reason you're telling me this instead of just nabbing me. You need my consent. Michael needs my say-so to ride around in my skin." Dean said. "Unfortunately, yes." said Zachariah. "Well, there's got to be another way." Dean said, desperately. "There is no other way. There must be a battle. Michael must defeat the serpent. It is written." Zachariah said, firmly. "Yeah, maybe. But, on the other hand...Eat me. The answer's no." Dean said, standing his ground.

"Okay. How about this? Your friend Bobby—we know he's gravely injured. Say yes, and we'll heal him. Say no, he'll never walk again." Zachariah said and I glance up at Dean.

"No." Dean said, firmly, and Zachariah frowns. "Then how about we heal you from...stage-four stomach cancer?" he said then Dean doubles over, coughing. He spits into his palm, where there was blood. "No." Dean groans while Sam looks between me and Dean. "Then let's get really creative. Uh, let's see how...Sam does without his lungs." Zachariah said and Sam starts to gasp for breath.

"Sam! Dean!" I cried. "Are we having fun yet? You're going to say yes, Dean." Zachariah said then Dean raises his head to him. "Just kill us." he spat at him. "Kill you? Oh, no. I'm just getting started." Zachariah said, and he sounded like he was getting some sick pleasure from this.

Then a two bright lights flash and Zachariah turns to see both Angles collapse, a bloody hole in their throats. There stood Castiel and Ariel and Zachariah looked stunned. "How are you..." Zachariah stammers "Alive? That's a good question." Castiel growls then Zachariah turns to Ariel. "Ariel? Y-You...we thought..." he said and Ariel shakes her head.

"How did these three end up on that airplane? Another good question. 'Cause the angels didn't do it. I think we know the answer, don't we?" Ariel said, sternly, to Zachariah. "No. That's not possible." Zachariah said, shocked. "It scares you. Well, it should." Castiel said and Ariel points at me and the boys. "Now, put these three back together and go. I won't ask twice." she threatened. Zachariah vanishes and that's when I started to feel my legs again and Sam was able to breath and Dean was coughing up blood.

"You three need to be more careful." Ariel said to us as we stand up, sounding like a mother giving a warning to her children. "Yeah, I'm starting to get that. Your frat brothers are bigger dicks than I thought." Dean said. "She doesn't mean the angels. Lucifer is circling his vessel. And once he takes it, those hex bags won't be enough to protect you." Castiel said and he puts one hand on Dean's chest, the other on Sam, then Ariel reaches out one hand and places it on my chest, making all three of us gasp.

"What the hell was that?" I asked them. "An Enochian sigil. It'll hide you from every angel in creation, including Lucifer." Castiel replied. "What, did you just brand us with it?" Dean asked. "No. We carved it into your ribs." Ariel said and there was a pause of silence.

"Hey, Cas, were you two really dead?" I asked him. "Yes." Castiel replied as Ariel nods. "Then how are both of you back?" Dean asked but then both Castiel and Ariel vanish, leaving us alone with two dead angels.

"Unlikely to walk again?! Why, you snot-nosed son of a bitch! Wait till I get out of this bed!" Bobby shouts at the Doctor, who then leaves the room. The boys and I standing by the window to his room. "I'll use my game leg and kick your friggin' ass! Yeah, you better run!" Bobby shouts then he looks over at us.

"You believe that yahoo?" Bobby asked us, annoyed. "Screw him. You'll be fine." Dean assures him and Bobby sighs. "So, let me ask the million-dollar question. What do we do now?" Sam asked. "Well...We save as many as we can for as long as we can, I guess. It's bad. Whoever wins, heaven or hell, we're boned." Bobby said, shrugging.

"What if we win?" Dean asked and Bobby, Sam and I turn to face him, who sounded a bit too confident. "I'm serious. I mean, screw the angels and the demons and their crap apocalypse. Hell, they want to fight a war, they can find their own planet. This one's ours, and I say they get the hell off it. We take 'em all on. We kill the devil. Hell, we even kill Michael if we have to. But we do it our own damn selves." Dean said, confidently. "And how are we supposed to do all this, genius?" Bobby asked with a bit of a sneer in his voice. "I got no idea. But what I do have is a GED and a give-'em-hell attitude, and I'll figure it out." Dean said.

"You are nine kinds of crazy, boy." Bobby said. "It's been said." Dean said and he pats Bobby on the shoulder. "Listen, you stay on the mend. We'll see you in a bit." Dean said and he heads for the door, Sam and I start to follow him until Bobby spoke up.

"Sam?" He said and Sam and I stop. "I was awake. I know what I said back there. I just want you to know that...that was the demon talking. I ain't cutting you out, boy. Not ever." Bobby said and Sam sighs, almost sounding a bit relieved. "Thanks, Bobby." he said. "You're welcome. I deserve a damn medal for this, but...you're welcome." Bobby said and I give him a smile. "You just try to get better, Bobby." I said and we leave the room.

"You know, I was thinking, Dean—maybe we could go after the Colt." Sam suggests as we walk to the Impala and my bike. "Why? What difference would that make?" Dean asked him. "Well, we could use it on Lucifer. I mean, you just said back there—" Sam started to say but Dean stops in the middle of the road. "I just said a bunch of crap for Bobby's benefit." he said and Sam and I stop, looking at him.

"I mean, I'll fight. I'll fight till the last man, but let's at least be honest. I mean, we don't stand a snowball's chance, and you guys know that. I mean, hell, you of all people know that." Dean said as he looks at Sam then goes around him.

"Dean..." Sam said and Dean turns back. "Is there something you want to say to me?" Sam asked him. "I tried, Sammy. I mean, I really tried. But I just can't keep pretending that everything's all right. Because it's not. And it's never going to be. You chose a demon over your own brother, and even over your friend, and look what happened." Dean said and Sam rolls his eyes. "I would give anything—anything—to take it all back." Sam said.

"I know you would. And I know how sorry you are. I do. But, man...you were one of the two that I depended on the most. And you let me down in ways that I can't even..." Dean pauses, struggling for words, and I frowned at this. "I'm just—I'm having a hard time forgiving and forgetting here. You know?" Dean said.

"What can I do?" Sam asked him. "Honestly? Nothing." Dean said and Sam nods a little, looking down. "I just don't...I don't think that we can ever be what we were. You know?" Dean said and Sam nods again. "I just don't think I can trust you." Dean said and Sam looks up at him, seemingly not expecting those words to come out of Dean's mouth. 

"Dean..." I said in a soft voice but Dean shakes his head and walks away, paused at the trunk of the Impala to look back, then gets into the driver's seat. Sam sighs and he and I share a look for a moment before I turn my head away then go to my bike, which is parked next to the Impala.

I walk up to my bike then ball up my fist and, weakly, hit the seat of my bike with the side of my fist. Now with Lucifer out and about, it feels like everything's changing and things are gonna get worse before they get better. But, as I turn my head to look over at the boys as Sam gets into the Impala, there is one thing I don't want to be change and that is this bond I share with these boys.

But it seems after what Sam has done, the cracks are breaking through. And I am just terrified what's to come.

@rach5ive @kitsun369 @itzabbyxx @cevans-winchester @ellie-andthemachine

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Lori Ann Larocco at CNBC:

Billions in trade came to a screeching halt at U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports after members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) began walking off the job after 12:01 a.m. ET on October 1. The ILA is North America’s largest longshoremen’s union, with roughly 50,000 of its 85,000 members making good on the threat to strike at 14 major ports subject to a just-expired master contract with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), and picketing workers beginning to appear at ports. The union and port ownership group failed to reach agreement by midnight on a new contract in a protracted battle over wage increases and use of automation. In a last-ditch effort on Monday to avert a strike that will cause significant harm to the U.S. economy if it is lengthy — at least hundreds of millions of dollars a day at the largest ports like New York/New Jersey — the USMX offered a nearly 50% wage hike over six years, but that was rejected by the ILA, according to a source close to the negotiations. The port ownership group said it hoped the offer would lead to a resumption of collective bargaining.

The 14 ports where preparations for a strike have been underway are Boston, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, Wilmington, North Carolina, Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, Tampa, Miami, New Orleans, Mobile, and Houston. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement issued shortly after midnight that “the first large-scale eastern dockworker strike in 47 years began at ports from Maine to Texas, including at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. In preparation for this moment, New York has been working around the clock to ensure that our grocery stores and medical facilities have the essential products they need.” Rhetoric from ILA leadership has been aggressive in the weeks leading up to the strike, with ILA president Harold Daggett, who was a union member the last time it went out on strike in 1977, telling rank-and-file members — who unanimously voted to authorize a strike — in a recent video message, “We’ll crush them.” 

[...] The most significant issues would be faced by food and automobile industries, Kamins said, as they rely especially heavily on the ports that will be shut down. While a surge in inflation is highly unlikely even with a longer strike, even a modest reacceleration could create uncertainty and force the Federal Reserve to be more cautious about lowering interest rates, which would weigh on the overall outlook for job growth and investment. A one-week strike could cost the U.S. economy $3.78 billion, according to an analysis by The Conference Board, and cause supply chain slowdowns through mid-November. In all, the ports threatened with strikes handle $3 trillion annually in U.S. annual international trade.

Many industries are preparing for major repercussions. Noushin Shamsili, CEO and president of Nuco Logistics, which specializes in pharmaceutical imports and exports, said the strike comes at a critical time for inventory replenishment for the pharma sector. “Almost all of this industry is just on time,” said Shamsili. “Raw materials are being brought in to complete drug manufacturing. Medical supplies for clinics and hospitals are on these vessels. For a while importers did not bring in a lot of cargo because they were overflowing with supplies post-Covid. Now they have started reordering medical devices, gloves, syringes, and tubing.” Shamsili also said the East Coast ports are a gateway for generic medicine made in India. Approximately 48% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients used in the U.S. are being imported from India. Without these APIs, medications cannot be produced. APIs are also manufactured in Europe, which also use the East Coast ports as U.S. points of entry.

[...] The Biden administration finds itself in a delicate political moment, with the presidential election one month away and President Biden vowing he will not use existing labor law to force union workers back on the job, which is within his powers under the Taft-Hartley Act. The Taft-Hartley Act, passed in 1947, was a revision of U.S. law governing labor relations and union activity that granted a U.S. president the power to suspend a strike for an 80-day “cooling off period” in cases where “national health or safety” are at risk. 

Today begins the strike along East Coast and Gulf Coast ports after International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) members walked off their jobs.

This strike, depending on how long it lasts, could have a major impact on the elections and the economy.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Steve Brodner

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

June 13, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUN 14, 2024

The Port of Baltimore reopened yesterday, fewer than 100 days after a container ship hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, collapsing it into the channel. The port is a major shipping hub, especially for imports and exports of cars and light trucks—about 750,000 vehicles went through it in 2022. It is also the nation’s second-biggest exporter of coal. In 2023 it moved a record-breaking $80 billion worth of foreign cargo. 

After the crash, the administration rushed support to the site, likely in part to emphasize that under Democrats, government really can get things done efficiently, as Democratic Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro demonstrated in June 2023 when he oversaw the reopening of a collapsed section of I-95 in just 12 days. Reopening the Port of Baltimore required salvage workers, divers, crane operators, and mariners to clear more than 50,000 tons of steel.

Yesterday, at the reopening, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg noted the “whole of government” response. State leadership under Maryland governor Wes Moore worked with those brought together by the Unified Command set up under the National Response System to coordinate the responses of the local government, state government, federal government, and those responsible for the crisis to make them as effective and efficient as possible; the Coast Guard; the Army Corps of Engineers; the first responders; and the port workers. 

Buttigieg noted that the response team had engaged all the stakeholders in the process, including truck drivers and trucking companies, trade associations, and agricultural producers. He gave credit for that ability to the administration’s establishment of the White House Supply Chains Disruptions Task Force, which, he said, “put us in a strong place to mitigate the disruptions to our supply chain and economy.”  

Clearing the channel was possible thanks to an immediate down payment of $60 million from the Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration. The department estimates that rebuilding the bridge will cost between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion. President Joe Biden has said he wants the federal government to fund that rebuilding as it quickly did in 2007, when a bridge across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis suddenly collapsed. Within a week of that collapse, Congress unanimously passed a measure to fund rebuilding the bridge, and President George W. Bush signed it into law. But now some Republicans are balking at Biden’s request, saying that lawmakers should simply take the money that has been appropriated for things like electric vehicles, or wait until insurance money comes in from the shipping companies. 

Meanwhile, former president Trump traveled to Capitol Hill today for the first time since the January 6, 2021, riots. Passing protesters holding signs that said things like “Democracy Forever, Trump Never,” Trump met first with Republican lawmakers from the House and then with Republican senators, who, according to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), gave him “a lot of standing ovations.” Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) called it “bring your felon to work day.” 

Republicans billed the visit as a brainstorming session about Trump’s 2025 agenda, but no discussions of plans have emerged, only generalities and the sort of cheery grandstanding McConnell provided. The meeting, along with a press appearance at which Trump made a short speech but did not take questions before shaking a lot of Republican hands, appeared to be an attempt to overwrite the news of his conviction by indicating he is popular in Congress.

The news that has gotten traction is Trump’s statement that Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the Republicans are holding their convention in July, is a “horrible city.” Republicans are trying hard to spin this comment as a misunderstanding, but their many different attempts to explain it away—as meaning crime, or elections, or Pere Marquette Park (!)—seem more likely to reinforce the comment than distract from it. 

Indeed, it’s possible that the agenda had more to do with Trump than with the nation. Anna Massoglia of Open Secrets reported today that Trump’s political operation spent more than $20 million on lawyers in the first four months of 2024, and Rachel Bade of Politico reported hours before the House meeting that Trump has been obsessed with using the powers of Congress to fight for him and to, as she puts it, “go to war against the Democrats he accuses of ‘weaponizing’ the justice system against him.” 

Bade said that after his May 30 conviction by a unanimous jury on 34 criminal counts, Trump immediately called House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), insisting in a profanity-laden rant that “We have to overturn this.” Johnson is sympathetic but has too slim a House majority to deliver as much fire as both would like, especially since vulnerable Republicans aren’t eager to weaponize the nation’s lawmaking body for Trump. 

As David Kurtz of Talking Points Memo explained this morning, House Republicans “are already advancing Trump’s campaign of retribution.” Yesterday they voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress and recommended his prosecution for refusing to hand over an audio recording of special counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Biden. Biden, who was not charged over his retention of classified documents as vice president, has provided a transcript of the interview but has exerted executive privilege over the recording.

The demand for the audio is particularly galling, considering that Biden voluntarily testified while Trump refused to be interviewed by either special counsel Robert Mueller or special counsel Jack Smith. But Biden has a well-known stutter, and having hours of testimony in his own voice might offer something that could be chopped up for political ads. 

Indeed, former Republican representative Ken Buck (R-CO) acknowledged that Republicans are “just looking for something for political purposes,” and House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-KY) sent out a fundraising appeal promising that the audio recording “could be the final blow to Biden with swing voters across the country.” 

White House Counsel Edward Siskel wrote to Comer and Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) saying that the administration “has sought to work in good faith with Congress.” It released Hur’s long report editorializing on Biden’s mental acuity without redacting it, allowed Hur to testify publicly for more than five hours, and provided transcripts, emails, and documents. “The absence of a legitimate need for the audio recordings lays bare your likely goal,” Siskel wrote, “to chop them up, distort them, and use them for partisan political purposes.”

The attack on Garland, journalist Kurtz notes, continues the steady stream of disinformation the House Republicans have been producing through their “investigations” and impeachment hearings and press conferences. 

In the Senate, six MAGA Republicans demonstrated their support for Trump by threatening to block Biden’s key nominees in protest of the New York jury’s conviction of Trump, although they are trying to frame the convictions as “the current administration’s persecution of” Trump. The senators are J. D. Vance (R-OH), Mike Lee (R-UT), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and Eric Schmitt (R-MO). 

While MAGA Republicans show their reverence for Trump, Democrats are working to get them on the record on issues the American people care about. 

Today, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) held a vote on whether to advance a bill that would provide federal protection for in vitro fertilization (IVF), an infertility treatment in which a human egg is fertilized outside the body and then placed in a human uterus for gestation. IVF is popular: a March poll by CBS News/YouGov found that 86% of Americans think it should be legal, while only 14% think it should be illegal. But the white evangelical Christians who make up the Republicans’ base are increasingly demanding that the nation’s laws recognize “fetal personhood,” the idea that a fertilized egg has the full rights of a living human. This would end all abortion, of course, as well as birth control that prevents implantation, such as IUDs and Plan B. And, if fertilized eggs are fully human, it would also end IVF because the procedure often results in some fertilized eggs being damaged or discarded. 

This is a vote Republicans did not want to take because voting to protect IVF will infuriate their base and voting to end it will infuriate the 86% of Americans who support it. So they tried to get around it by signing a statement noting that IVF is legal and that they “strongly support continued nationwide access to IVF.” While it is true that IVF is currently legal, the Alabama Supreme Court in February ruled that frozen embryos should be considered unborn children and their destruction could be prosecuted under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. In the wake of that decision, two of Alabama’s eight fertility clinics paused their IVF treatments. 

In today’s vote, all but three Republicans voted against taking up the bill protecting IVF. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted in favor of it; Eric Schmitt of Missouri did not vote. All the Democrats voted in favor, although Schumer changed his vote to a “no” so he could bring the vote up again later. 

Regarding the difference between the statement and the votes, Leah Greenberg of Indivisible posted: “Who are you gonna believe, me or my voting record?”

In another window onto the future of reproductive rights, the Supreme Court today unanimously decided that the antiabortion groups trying to get the drug mifepristone banned did not have standing to bring the case. This preserves access to mifepristone, commonly used to induce medical abortions, but as legal observers point out, the court ruled only on standing, meaning that others, who do have standing, could bring a similar case. 

This afternoon, Biden posted: “Kamala and I stand with the majority of Americans who support a woman��s right to make deeply personal health care decisions. And our commitment to you is that we will not back down from ensuring women in every state get the care they need.”

And so, going into the 2024 election, the question of abortion is on the table.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

John Hanson

John Hanson was a Liberian senator during the mid-19th century who has been erroneously claimed as the first Black president of the United States. Not much is known about Hanson’s early life. He was born into slavery in Baltimore, Maryland, around 1791. According to some historians, Hanson purchased his freedom but the method and year are unknown.

In 1816 the American Colonization Society (ACS) was formed in Washington, D.C., with the purpose of sending former enslaved people to a colony in West Africa. In 1822 the ACS established that colony. That year two members of the Society purchased land for the colony at Cape Mesurado, on the west coast of Africa. The new colony was named Liberia in 1824 and the first Black settlers in Liberia named the city they founded, Monrovia, after then U.S. President James Monroe.

Hanson emigrated to Liberia in 1827 through the Society and quickly became a member of the mercantile and political elite formed by these former slaves. The ACS, which controlled the colony until its independence in 1847, organized the Commonwealth of Liberia in 1839 and appointed its first governor, Thomas Buchanan. Hanson was elected as a senator of the newly established Colonial Council in December 1840, representing Grand Bassa County. John Hanson died in Liberia in 1860 at the age of 69. After his death, Hanson was hailed as a faithful, loyal, and patriotic servant of the young nation, only the second Western-style republic (after Haiti) in the world at that time, by Stephen Allen Benson, then president of Liberia.

False information about Hanson as the first Black president of the United States had already been circulating long before the internet. The new media, however, spread that information much farther and much faster than ever before. Hanson was often confused with a white politician of the same name, who was falsely claimed to be the first president of the United States. in 1781, this other man was named president of Congress under the Articles of Confederation before the U.S. Constitution officially established the office of president of the United States. Because of his position as president of the Congress, some have erroneously argued that he, not George Washington, was the actual first president. Adding to the confusion was the fact that Hanson has been thought to be the dark-skinned man on the back of the $2 bill. The image on the $2 bill shows the drafting of The Declaration of Independence by painter John Turnbull. The image some claimed as Hanson is actually Robert Morris, one of the original signers of the Declaration. Morris’s image appears dark on the bill due to the type of printing used then.

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/people-african-american-history/john-hanson-1791-1860/

[lboogie1906]

Brandon Maurice Scott (born April 8, 1984) is a politician serving as the mayor of Baltimore, since 2020. The city of Baltimore uses a strong mayor-council structure for its government, meaning it holds strong mayoral powers. He is the former president of the Baltimore City Council and was a candidate for lieutenant governor of Maryland in 2018, as well as a representative for Baltimore’s second district. On May 6, 2019, he was elected to replace Jack Young as council president after Young succeeded Mayor Catherine Pugh. In September 2019, he announced his candidacy for mayor and won the June 2020 Democratic primary. He won the November 3 general election and took office on December 8, 2020.

He was born and raised in Baltimore. He has had a passion for local government since he was a child and always wanted to work for the city of Baltimore. As a child, he admired Congressman Elijah Cummings and saw him as a role model. He ran track and cross country at Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School where he graduated in 2002. He went on to receive a BA in Political Science from St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 2006. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Published: Sep 19, 2024

Regina Jackson and Saira Rao achieved a degree of fame at the height of the backlash in 2020 after police killed George Floyd, an unarmed black American accused of buying cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 note. For a hefty fee, rich white women would hire the pair to help them confront unconscious biases at dinner parties that featured such ice-breakers as, “Raise your hand if you’re a racist.” Guests may often have broken down in tears when told that their claims to be colour-blind were simply another brick in the edifice of white supremacy, but there was lots of interest. The two women were featured in many news reports and made a film about their dinners, “Deconstructing Karen”, in which a guilt-stricken participant confesses, “I am a liberal white woman. We are absolutely the most dangerous women.”

The media scrum has since subsided. The last “Race2Dinner” event took place a year ago. The pair now host screenings of the film instead. The problem, says Ms Rao, is not just that they are fed up with having to “sit across from a white person to tell them why they can’t use…the N-word”. It is also that public interest in matters of racial injustice has cooled. “The pulse of anti-racism, anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism, anti-genocide, is dead. There is no pulse,” Ms Rao laments.

Woke me up

Republicans love to blame everything they consider wrong with America on an epidemic of “wokeness”, by which they tend to mean anything that smacks of virtue-signalling or political correctness. Thus a bridge over Baltimore harbour collapsed earlier this year not, as it might have seemed, because it was hit by a wayward cargo ship, but because one of the nearby port’s six commissioners is a black woman whose human-resources firm helps companies assess how diverse their workforces are, among other things—or so a Republican candidate for governor of Utah asserted. Donald Tru.mp, when accepting the Republican nomination for president in July, blamed “woke” leadership for the failings of America’s armed forces. The party’s official platform this year complains of “woke…government” spurring politically motivated prosecutions. The implication is that woke attitudes are proliferating, and that only Republicans can stem their rise.

In fact, discussion and espousal of woke views peaked in America in the early 2020s and have declined markedly since. The Economist has attempted to quantify the prominence of woke ideas in four domains: public opinion, the media, higher education and business. Almost everywhere we looked a similar trend emerged: wokeness grew sharply in 2015, as Donald Tru.mp appeared on the political scene, continued to spread during the subsequent efflorescence of #MeToo and Black Lives Matter, peaked in 2021-22 and has been declining ever since (see charts). The only exception is corporate wokeness, which took off only after Mr Floyd’s murder, but has also retreated in the past year or two.

The term woke was originally used on the left to describe people who are alert to racism. Later it came to encompass those eager to fight any form of prejudice. By that definition, it is obviously a good thing. But Democrats seldom use the word any more, because it has become associated with the most strident activists, who tend to divide the world into victims and oppressors. This outlook elevates group identity over the individual sort and sees unequal outcomes for different groups as proof of systemic discrimination. That logic is then used to justify illiberal means to correct entrenched injustices, such as reverse discrimination and the policing of speech. It is this sort of “woke warrior” that Republicans love to lambast.

Wide awoke

Our analysis subsumes both the advocates and the denigrators of woke thinking, by looking at ideas and actions associated with this sort of activism, for good or for ill. It measures, for example, talk of “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) in the corporate world, regardless of whether it is being invoked as a way to correct the under-representation of women and racial minorities or as an example of pious window-dressing. Some of the yardsticks we use apply only to the more doctrinaire form of woke activism, such as the number of drives to censure academics for views deemed offensive. Others capture only the more positive aspects of the movement, such as polling data on the proportion of Americans who worry about racial injustice. Either way, the results are consistent: America has passed “peak woke”.

The simplest way to measure the spread of woke views is through polling. We examined responses over the past 25 years to polls conducted by Gallup, General Social Survey (GSS), Pew and YouGov. Woke opinions on racial discrimination began to grow around 2015 and peaked around 2021. In the most recent Gallup data, from earlier this year, 35% of people said they worried “a great deal” about race relations, down from a peak of 48% in 2021 but up from 17% in 2014. According to Pew, the share of Americans who agree that white people enjoy advantages in life that black people do not (“white privilege”, in the jargon) peaked in 2020. In GSS’s data the view that discrimination is the main reason for differences in outcomes between races peaked in 2021 and fell in the most recent version of the survey, in 2022. Some of the biggest leaps and subsequent declines in woke thinking have been among young people and those on the left.

Polling about sexual discrimination reveals a similar pattern, albeit with an earlier peak than concerns about race. The share of Americans who consider sexism a very or moderately big problem peaked at 70% in 2018, in the aftermath of #MeToo. The share believing that women face obstacles that make it hard to get ahead peaked in 2019, at 57%. Woke views on gender are also in decline. Pew finds that the share of people who believe someone can be a different sex from the one of their birth has fallen steadily since 2017, when it first asked the question. Opposition to trans students playing in sports teams that match their chosen gender rather than their biological sex has grown from 53% in 2022 to 61% in 2024, according to YouGov.

To corroborate the trend revealed by opinion polls, we measured how frequently the media have been using woke terms like “intersectionality”, “microaggression”, “oppression”, “white privilege” and “transphobia”. At our request, David Rozado, an academic based in New Zealand, counted the frequency of 154 of such words in six newspapers—the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, New York Post, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Washington Times—between 1970 and 2023. In all but the Los Angeles Times, the frequency of these terms peaked between 2019 and 2021, and has fallen since. Take the term “white privilege”: in 2020 it featured roughly 2.5 times for every million words in the New York Times, but by 2023 had fallen to just 0.4 mentions for every million words.

We found largely the same trend in television, by applying the same word-counting method to transcripts from ABC, MSNBC and Fox News from 2010 and 2023, and in books, using the titles of the 30 bestselling books each week between 2012 and the middle of this year. Mentions of woke words in television peaked in 2021. In popular books the peak came later, in 2022, with only a small drop in 2023 followed by a much greater fall so far in 2024.

In academia, which is often thought of as a hotbed of wokeism, the trend is much the same. Calls for academics to be disciplined for their views, as documented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, peaked in 2021 with a total of 222 reported incidents. (Many of these calls came from the right, not just from the left.) A similar database, compiled by the College Fix, a conservative student newspaper, finds 2020 was the peak in calls for scholars to be censored or cancelled. These findings also dovetail with polling data: the share of Americans who think that expressions of racist views should be restricted rose sharply between 2016 and 2021, reaching around 52%, and has since declined slightly, down to 49% in 2022.

Teaching and research also seem to be shifting away from wokery, at least somewhat. The use of our set of 154 woke terms began to rise sharply in 2015 in papers on the social sciences collected by JSTOR, a digital library of academic journals. By 2022 the incidence of “intersectional”, “whiteness”, “oppression” and the like were at their peak. At our request, Jacob Light, an economist at Stanford University, counted the frequency of woke words in a collection of course catalogues from American universities. Classes that invoked woke terms in their name or synopsis rose by around 20% between 2010 and 2022, but remained stable last year.

In part, academia’s retreat from wokeness has been ordained by law. The Supreme Court banned race-based affirmative action in admissions last year. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, 86 bills in 28 states have aimed to curb DEI initiatives in academia over the past year; 14 have become law. For example Alabama will from October 1st prohibit state-funded universities from having any DEI offices or programmes, from promoting “divisive concepts” about “race, colour, religion, sex, ethnicity or national origin” and from allowing transgender students to use the toilets of their choice.

Nine states ban academic institutions from demanding “diversity statements” from job applicants. Critics have assailed these personal meditations on the importance of inclusivity as ideological litmus tests. Earlier this year several prominent universities, including Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, gave in to pressure from donors and alumni and dropped them. Others, such as the University of California, have faced lawsuits over their continuing use.

Wokeness is also in retreat in corporate America, even though it appeared there only relatively recently. Mentions of DEI in earnings calls shot up almost five-fold between the first and third quarters of 2020, in the aftermath of Mr Floyd’s death. They peaked in the second quarter of 2021, by which point they were 14 times more common than in early 2020, according to data from AlphaSense, a market-research company. They have since begun to drop sharply again. In the most recent data, from the second quarter of 2024, mentions were only around three times higher than before Mr Floyd’s death.

The share of new job listings that mention diversity continues to grow, however, as ever more firms add boilerplate about inclusivity at the bottom of ads. But the evidence also suggests that firms are less willing to put their money where their mouth is, DEI-wise. The number of people employed in DEI has fallen in the past few years. According to Revelio, which tracks labour statistics at a group of big American firms, DEI roles as a share of overall employment doubled from the beginning of 2016 to the end of 2022 (to 0.02% of all employees, or around 12,600 roles). But in the most recent estimates, from July, these numbers were down by 11% from their peak (to 0.018% of employees, or 11,100 roles). According to Farient Advisers, a pay consultancy, the share of S&P 500 companies that tied bosses’ remuneration to diversity targets peaked in 2022 (at 53%) and dropped in 2023 (to 48%).

The fall in corporate enthusiasm for DEI could have several causes. First, in any belt-tightening, support functions are the first to suffer cuts. This is how DEI consultants explain away the recent shrinkage of DEI departments at big tech firms such as Meta and Microsoft. Second, after the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action in education, companies are scared that they may be sued for any practices that could be construed as discriminating against certain groups. A third possibility is that firms are taking note of declining public enthusiasm for corporate social activism. Gallup detected a big drop between 2022 and 2023 in the share of Americans who like companies to take a stand on matters of public debate. Less than half, for instance, think businesses should speak out on racial issues or LGBT rights. Bud Light, a popular brand of beer, suffered a big drop in sales last year after a promotional collaboration with a transgender social-media star. Its parent company’s shares have only recently recovered.

Asked why firms that two years ago were happy to talk up their DEI credentials were now ghosting The Economist, Johnny Taylor, from SHRM, an association for people working in human resources, says with a laugh, “Two years ago Budweiser was the number-one-selling beer in the country.” Other big brands including Disney, a media firm, and Target, a retailer, have also experienced backlashes for behaviour some customers considered too woke. Robby Starbuck, an activist who campaigns for firms with relatively conservative customers to abandon DEI, says he wants to “Make Corporate America Sane Again”. Egged on by the likes of Elon Musk, a billionaire conspiracy theorist, he has won concessions and grovelling apologies from Coors, Ford, Harley Davidson, Jack Daniel’s and John Deere. Mr Starbuck claims that whereas his first targets relented only after he posted castigating videos about them online, these days firms are beginning to drop DEI initiatives pre-emptively.

The wake of woke

Although our analysis shows a clear subsidence in wokery, there are several reasons for caution. For one thing, although all our measures are below their peak, they remain well above the level of 2015 in almost every instance. What is more, in some respects, woke ideas may be less discussed simply because they have become broadly accepted. According to Gallup, 74% of Americans want businesses to promote diversity, whatever the troubles of DEI.

Over time, attitudes to wokeness will doubtless change again. It’s easy to see how Mr Tru.mp might prompt a revival in woke activism on the left if he wins the presidency again. By the same token, if Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, becomes president next year, she may spur a reaction among anti-woke activists. After all, some of the biggest differences in opinion between Democrats and Republicans concern social issues: 80% of likely Democratic voters believe the legacy of slavery still affects black people, for example, compared with only 27% of Mr Tru.mp’s supporters, according to Pew. There is also a chance that Gen Z, the most woke generation, retains this outlook as it ages, which would lead to a gradual increase in woke views among the broader population.

For now, however, advocates of woke thinking are in despair. Ms Jackson, from Race2Dinner, thinks things have got “much worse”, particularly when looking at “what’s going on with banning books, banning LGBTQ, banning trans folks, stopping DEI”. She thinks Mr Tru.mp has “given everybody permission to just be an asshole”. Critics are exultant: Ruy Teixeira of the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank, says, “I think people will one day look back on the 2015 to 2025 era as being a bit of a moment of madness.” But even though Mr Teixeira thinks the woke wave has set social progress back, he does note that, over the long run, America has been reducing discrimination and improving opportunity for minorities of all sorts. That trend, he believes, is lasting.

[antoine-roquentin]

corollary to the prior post:

The New Yorker article notes that William Newsom III, the father of the current governor, was also advisor to the son of the richest man in the world in the 1950s, Gordon Getty. In fact, Gordon and William (and John Paul Getty Jr.) grew up together and went to the same Jesuit prep school, St Ignatius. 4 years above them was future San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, 4 years below was future California governor Jerry Brown. Newsom III owed his appointment as judge to Brown in 1975 a year after Brown’s electoral win, where he quickly made good on the governor’s hippie style by ruling the Bohemian Club in violation of anti-discrimination statutes by not hiring women as employees, calling to mind Nixon’s famous remarks (the Grove is the Club’s yearly camp).

William Newsom III in turn owed his fortunes to his father, William Newsom II’s, patronage of a young Pat Brown, Jerry’s father, whose 1943 run for San Francisco District Attorney he financed to the tune of $5,000 obtained from his construction magnate father. In turn, he was Pat Brown’s campaign manager for his 1962 victory over Richard Nixon. This was a repayment for the 1960 transferal of expensive land in the Squaw Valley from the state to Newsom II, which Brown engineered with his gubernatorial powers.

Another St. Ignatius classmate was Paul Pelosi. His brother Ron ended up marrying Newsom III’s sister, Barbara, while he, of course, married the scion of a prominent Baltimore political family, Nancy D’Alesandro. Over the decades, these families became quite intertwined, sharing board memberships on charities and companies around the state. In turn, Billy Getty, son of Gordon, became quite close with current California governor Gavin, who was his best man at his wedding and opened a wine store with him. The duo are seen here with another Getty grandchild, Peter:

And while Gavin was mayor of San Francisco, he was a patron of then-District Attorney Kamala Harris, godmother of Billy Getty’s son.

Of course lots of people have discussed monopoly capitalism and interlocking boards of governance and how they restrict the functioning of creative destruction. It’s a straightforward contradiction that capital becomes more closely tied in a few hands even as it spreads outwards and decimates traditional social relations. However, I do think it’s important to talk about in the context of an article that gives the impression of the Getty family and the California government as opposed when in fact they are closely aligned in numerous hypocritical ways.

[mightyflamethrower]

This post updates the financial troubles of Denmark’s Ørsted, recent BOEM auctions, and pushback against Maryland governor Wes Moore. Today, operational offshore wind capacity is less than 50 megawatts versus the Biden-Harris Administration goal of 30,000 MW by 2030.

Ørsted

Denmark’s Ørsted, the worldwide leading offshore wind developer, recorded a $575 million loss in the second quarter. In part, the loss is the result of disappointing developments in the U.S.

The company has delayed commercial operation of its 704-MW Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut from 2025 to 2026. Ørsted’s ambitious U.S. offshore wind program has been lagging, despite solid support (subsidies, permits) from the Biden administration.

A year after an Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) auction for Gulf of Mexico leases failed to attract significant interest, BOEM continues to delay another attempt to find adequate bidders off the east coast.

Reuter’s summarized Ørsted’s issues:

Ørsted’s impairment losses also related to its Ocean Wind project in the United States whose development it halted last year, an increase in U.S. interest rates, and its decision to cease development of its green e-methanol FlagshipOne project, which was due to open in Sweden next year. Shares in Ørsted, once a green investor favourite, ended down 7.2%, having fallen as much as 9.3% earlier. They remain at less than one-third of their value since peaking in early 2021.

BOEM Auctions

In March, BOEM solicited interest in another Gulf of Mexico auction, which resulted in industry yawns. The agency stated on July 26th that it

received 25 comments in response to the March 2024 [Proposed Sale Notice], with one company expressing interest in participating. As a result, BOEM is cancelling this sale due to a lack of competitive interest. BOEM may decide to move forward with a lease sale at a future time, based on industry interest. —————

BOEM last week (Aug. 14) held a lease sale for the Mid-Atlantic region, off Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia with takers.

Norway’s Equinor Wind won a provisional lease for 101,443 acres some 26 nautical miles off Delaware for $75 million. Dominion Energy’s Virginia Electric and Power subsidiary won a provisional lease for 176,505 acres 35 miles off the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay for $18 million. Six companies participated in the auction.

The Equinor lease is not far from where Baltimore-based US Wind has a federal lease for a proposed two-phase, 2-GW project off Maryland’s Ocean City. BOEM last month (July 29) issued a final Environmental Impact Statement for the Maryland project. Maryland has also issued renewable energy certificates for the US Wind project.

US Wind, reports BOEM,

proposes to install up to 114 turbines, up to four offshore substation platforms, one meteorological tower, and up to four corridors for offshore export cables, which would make landfall in Delaware Seashore State Park. The lease area is approximately 8.7 nautical miles offshore Maryland and approximately 9 nautical miles offshore Sussex County, Delaware, at its closest points to shore.

US Wind, in partnership with Spain’s Haizea Windgroup, is also developing a plant to make monopile foundations for wind projects at Baltimore’s Sparrows Point, once the home of Bethlehem Steel when it was the world’s largest steel mill. According to the company

“Sparrows Point Steel is poised to become the best offshore wind heavy logistics and fabrication yard on the East Coast. Haizea’s depth of knowledge and expertise will cement Maryland’s role as a hub of offshore wind manufacturing in the U.S.”

MD Gov. Wes Moore vs. Critics

Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore last week (Aug. 16) faced opponents of his aggressive push for offshore wind in Ocean City. Local TV station WBOC spoke to Moore about growing local opposition on the eastern shore of Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia. Earlier in the month, Moore signed a memorandum of understanding with BOEM to open up more offshore federal land to wind development. Last year, Maryland passed a new law expanding the state’s goal for offshore wind development to 8.5 GW.

Moore told WBOC, “You’re talking about being able to power three million homes in the state of Maryland and turn us into a net exporter of clean energy. That’s exciting, it’s new jobs, it’s new opportunities.”

Many people on the Eastern Shore, particularly those who depend on the Chesapeake Bay for a living, see burgeoning wind farms as a potential disruption to their ways of life. Jimmy Hahn, an Ocean City area commercial fisherman, told the TV station, “They’re trying to steal our grounds, they’ve stolen our bottom, they’ve stolen the area that we fish in, their last resort is to buy the place where we sell our fish at and once they accomplish that we have nowhere else to work.”

Moore responded, “All those conversations have to happen with local leaders, it has to happen with local communities. There has to be measures of both transparency and accountability as to what we’re hoping for and what we’re going to achieve.”

Vineyard Wind: Yellow Flag

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has given Avangrid a yellow flag to continue limited work on its Vineyard Wind project off the Massachusetts coast.

BSEE shut down the 804-MW project last month following the failure of a 351-foot blade on one of its turbines, spreading debris widely to beaches on nearby Nantucket Island and as far as mainland beaches on Cape Cod. Reuters reported that the Interior Department agency last week (Aug. 13) confirmed the updated shutdown order, while Avangrid and blade maker G Vernova continue to investigate the cause of the massive blade failure.

“The updated suspension order still does not allow further blade installation or power production at this time, the companies said,” according to Reuters. Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova said they are removing portions of the damaged blade that remained on the wind turbine to remove risks of further ocean debris.

[harriswalz4usabybr]

Monday, October 14, 2024 - Tim Walz

Today the Governor spent his time in Baltimore and the surrounding suburbs door knocking for our campaign, the Alsobrooks Senate campaign, and the ballot measure Question 1. Supporting Question 1 establishes the right to reproductive freedom in the Maryland Constitution. In a post-Roe world, we know this issue is top of mind for many voters around the country. After 10 hours of door knocking today, the Governor feels confident that the people of Maryland will protect their mothers, sisters, daughters, and granddaughters.

~BR~

[petervintonjr]

"A first-class citizen does not beg for freedom. A first-class citizen does not plead to the power structure to give him something that the whites have no power to give or take away. Human rights are human rights, not white rights."

Meet "Glorious" Gloria Hayes Richardson (later Dandridge), the first woman to found and lead a grassroots civil rights organization outside of the Deep South, the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee (CNAC). Born in 1922 Baltimore, Maryland during the Depression, Gloria was fortunate to be born into a reasonably privileged Black family --her father's family, the Hayes, owned real estate and operated businesses; and her mother's family, the St. Clairs, were politically active and well-connected --her maternal grandfather was the sole Black member of the Cambridge, Maryland city council. Gloria graduated from Howard University in 1942 and worked for various Federal agencies during World War II, but was unemployable in social services after the war due to her race. In 1948 she married schoolteacher Harry Richardson and spent the next 13 years raising their children, where the story might be expected to end.

It was her own teenage daughter Donna that changed Gloria's life trajectory. In 1961 Donna became involved with the Freedom Riders and then the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), in an attempt to desegregate Cambridge's public accommodations. Gloria also joined in the efforts but pointedly did not subscribe to, nor endorse, the SNCC's prevailing commitment to non-violence. When desegregation actions faltered, Gloria instead created the aforementioned Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee (CNAC) as an adult-run SNCC affiliate. With the advantage of being in a so-called "border" state rather than in the Deep South, the CNAC was able to expand its scope of grievances, such as housing discrimination and health care. It also pursued its protest actions more aggressively (and with more violent consequences) than was the hallmark of the SNCC. In the summer of 1963 protest actions were sufficient to prompt Maryland Governor Millard Tawes to enact martial law. In an iconic photo (the basis for my illustration), Richardson visibly and angrily pushes back against a National Guard bayonet rifle. In July of that year Richardson actually landed a face-to-face meeting with then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and made it plain to him that the civil rights movement was not just about desegregation and voter registration drives, but also about systemic poverty and joblessness (Black unemployment ran to nearly 40% that year). In the aftermath of that meeting, the Treaty Of Cambridge was negotiated, which proposed to desegregate Dorchester County public facilities, establish provisions for public housing, and create a human rights commission.

Unfortunately Richardson's unapologetic means and methods, while certainly inspiring and headline-grabbing (and also placing her at No. 2 on the Ku Klux Klan's target list, just after Martin Luther King), also bore a cost: barely a month later, while she and five other women from the CNAC had been specifically invited to sit on the stage with King at the March On Washington, she was not allowed by its organizers to actually speak and only managed a quick "hello" to the assembled crowd that day, before her microphone was cut.

After the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, after two years of near-continuous demonstrations, an exhausted Gloria resigned from the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee and moved to New York. In later years she divorced Harry Richardson and married Frank Dandridge, a freelance photographer. For the rest of her life Gloria remained steadfastly committed to pushing back against entrenched white supremacy, and never compromised in her advocacy. Notably she did not support Barack Obama's presidential campaign, viewing him as lacking the same depth and background of the civil rights advocates of the 60's. However she did live to the age of 99 --long enough to be able to watch from her New York apartment window the hopeful spectacle of a new generation of angry protestors taking their outrage to the streets, after the murder of George Floyd. Gloria died shortly afterwards, on July 15, 2021. The city of Cambridge, Maryland now features her likeness on a 50' x 20' mural, just adjacent to a depiction of a fellow Dorchester County native, Harriet Tubman.

"This Supreme Court is backward and extremely right-wing. They did a job on affirmative action and will certainly go after Roe v. Wade."      --from a disturbingly prophetic interview in 2008

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Marin Cogan at Vox:

Listen to the way Democrats talk about guns, violent crime, and the criminal justice system these days, and you’ll notice that things sound different from the way they did in 2020. That year, following a national protest movement centered around the high-profile police killings of unarmed Black Americans, including Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, Democrats focused their message on protecting citizens from police abuses and overhauling the criminal justice system, rather than reducing violent crime. But four years later, after a historic spike in gun homicide and an election cycle where Republicans attacked them over the issue, Democrats have found a new message. Leaders are still talking about ending gun violence — an important issue for their base, given that it’s the core reason that the United States has a homicide rate that is much higher than other comparable countries. They’re also still supportive of police reform, though it has been less prominent as a campaign issue this year.

But now, with Republicans opposing nearly all of their gun control legislation, they’re highlighting their other efforts in crime prevention and public safety, too. “We made the largest investment, Kamala and I, in public safety, ever,” President Joe Biden said at the Democratic National Convention in August, referring to the $10 billion in funding committed through the American Rescue Plan to public safety efforts for cities and states. Vice presidential nominee Tim Walz touted his administration’s investment in fighting crime as Minnesota governor at the DNC, and Chris Swanson, a sheriff from Genesee County, Michigan, took to the stage to declare that “crime is down and police funding is up,” in a speech that would have been almost unthinkable at the 2020 Democratic convention, when activists and other prominent voices on the left were calling to “defund the police.” Mayors leading major cities are now highlighting increases in funding and support for programs built around more recent innovations in violence reduction, including community violence intervention and hyperlocal crime reduction programs.

“Community safety is a year-round, collaborative effort,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said earlier this year, unveiling a new summer safety program for the city, which has seen a major drop in gun homicides in 2024 compared to the previous year. “Our comprehensive approach to reducing gun violence is working,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said, crediting the work of the city’s group violence reduction strategy in contributing to the city’s largest year-over-year reduction in murders last year. It’s not just that Democrats are responding to the rise in gun homicides in 2020 and 2021 and the political backlash that came with it. The change reflects a broader shift in thinking among Democrats and their nonpartisan allies who work in violence reduction, criminal justice, and police reform. It’s one that acknowledges the seriousness of preventing and reducing violent crime — the core concern of the “tough on crime” crowd — without accepting the idea that the solution is mass incarceration. There is a growing sense that increasing public safety, ending gun violence, and reducing mass incarceration, rather than being separate or even in tension, are pieces of the same pie, and that efforts to improve one should help improve the others.

[...]

As researchers deepened the body of existing research on racial bias in the criminal justice system, and activists organized to press lawmakers for change, a series of police killings of Black Americans brought the issue into the public’s view. By 2020, the movement for police and criminal justice reform had already made important progress, thanks to a network of organizers and activists, and funding from foundations and bipartisan coalitions. That support had helped build momentum for drug sentencing reform during President Barack Obama’s administration as well as his administration’s creation of a task force aimed at police reform. Those efforts helped pave the way for the most significant sentencing reform bill in years, the First Step Act, signed by President Donald Trump. The bill gave judges more flexibility to avoid lengthy sentences dictated by federal mandatory minimums, allowed incarcerated people to earn time credits that could move up their release date if they participated in rehabilitative programs, and made retroactive the earlier reform passed under the Obama administration, eliminating the sentencing disparity between those convicted of possessing crack versus powdered cocaine. By the last election cycle, the Democrats’ platform included the most progressive police reform agenda in modern American history. The bill focused on greater accountability for police, but also included proposals to invest more in community-based violence reduction.

But as reformers were making strides, violent crime began to rise again in cities, due to a number of factors related to the pandemic, policing after the George Floyd protests, and the ubiquity of guns. By the end of 2020, the country had seen the largest increase in its homicide rate in nearly a century, and the problem got more difficult to ignore. The following year, homicides remained high. Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans increasingly pointed their fingers at Democrats running big cities, arguing that their policies were responsible for rising violent crime and attempting to connect them with the left’s “defund the police” movement. By 2022, six in 10 registered voters listed crime as a “very important” issue for them in the midterm election cycle that November. Then, a new crop of Democrats, responding to voters’ concerns, launched campaigns for mayor across the United States. Many made violent crime reduction their primary campaign issue.

Some, like New York’s Eric Adams, who won in 2021, and Philadelphia’s Cherelle Parker, who won in 2023, campaigned on more funding and support for police. (Federal prosecutors announced Thursday that they had indicted Adams on federal corruption charges, and the NYPD has been under heavy scrutiny for illegal stops on citizens, a recent subway shooting, and a separate investigation that resulted in the police commissioner’s resignation in September.) Others, like Wu and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, have focused their efforts on outreach and intervention programs, and focused on investing in community partnerships. The details of each city’s violence prevention program are different, but the broad elements are largely the same: They include more funding for both the police and for community organizations aimed at addressing the people and places most likely to suffer from high rates of violent crime, especially gun homicide.

There has been a major difference in how the Democratic Party is approaching the crime issue this cycle than the 2020 cycle.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Jack Ohman, Sacramento Bee

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

March 26, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

MAR 27, 2024

At about 1:30 this morning, local time, the Dali, a 985-foot (300 m) container ship operating under a Singapore flag, struck the steel Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, that spans the lower Patapsco River and outer Baltimore Harbor. The bridge immediately collapsed. 

Eight maintenance workers were on the bridge repairing potholes when the ship hit. Two were rescued from the water, but the other six remain missing. Search and rescue operations were complicated by twisted metal and debris from the collapsed bridge. This evening, the Coast Guard called off its search. Tomorrow morning, divers will begin recovery efforts.

It is possible there were motorists on the bridge, too, but fewer than there might otherwise have been. Crew members issued a “Mayday” call—an internationally recognized word meaning distress—that Maryland police heard. At 1:27, police radio recorded an officer saying a ship had lost control of its steering as it approached the bridge, and to stop traffic and evacuate the area. There were cars submerged in the water, but they may have belonged to the construction workers.

The loss of the bridge will tangle traffic and disrupt supply chains. Named for the Maryland lawyer who in 1814 wrote the poem that became the national anthem, the Francis Scott Key bridge carries I-695, the Baltimore Beltway, and is used by about 30,000 people a day. 

The Port of Baltimore is one of the nation’s largest shipping hubs, especially for both imports and exports of cars and light trucks. About 850,000 vehicles go through that port every year. So does more than 20% of the nation’s coal exports. In 2023 the port moved a record-breaking $80 billion worth of foreign cargo. Now the shipping lane is closed and must be cleared of debris. 

“There is no question this will be a major and protracted impact on supply chains,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said from Baltimore today.

Perhaps learning from the 2023 East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment, when the government response was fast but quiet and thus opened a window for right-wing complaints they weren’t doing enough, the administration was out front today. Buttigieg rushed to the scene from a trip out West, and Maryland governor Wes Moore told reporters Buttigieg had called him at 3:30 am, just two hours after the crash.  

By around 6:00 am, the National Transportation Safety Board already had a team of 24 people on the scene to launch an investigation into the cause of the collision. 

Speaking today, President Joe Biden said: “I’ve directed my team to move heaven and earth to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge as soon as…humanly possible. And we’re going to work hand in hand…to support Maryland, whatever they ask for. And we’re going to work with our partners in Congress to make sure the state gets the support it needs. It’s my intention that federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge, and I expect…the Congress to support my effort.”

Former member of President Obama’s 2012 campaign Jason Karsh noted Biden’s speech and said on social media: “[B]ecause Biden got infrastructure spending done for the first time in over a generation, and because [Pennsylvania] was able to rebuild that bridge that collapsed in record time, Dem[ocrat]s have the credibility to say things like this. Competence in government matters.”

It remains far too soon for any solid understanding of what caused the deadly crash.

Despite the impossibility of solid information in the hours immediately after the collision—or perhaps because of it—verified accounts on X (formerly Twitter) began spreading conspiracy theories. They posted that the accident was linked to terrorism, Jewish people, or diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. “Did anti-white business practices cause this disaster?” one posted. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones wrote that the collision was “deliberate” and that “WW3 has already started.” 

Technology reporter Taylor Lorenz, who studies social media patterns, explained in the Washington Post that many of these accounts are “engagement farming.” This is the practice of posting extremist comments to generate attention, which can then be monetized by, for example, getting a cut of advertising that appears near those comments. Comments with heavy engagement can receive thousands of dollars. 

For a long time now, America’s political right has riled people up with wild political rhetoric to get them to buy stuff. Just today, Trump began to hawk Bibles for $59.99, plus shipping and handling, with a video message saying “Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country, and I truly believe we need to bring them back…. That’s why our country’s going haywire—we’ve lost religion in our country.” 

That system appeared to be in play as Trump supporters apparently flocked to today’s public offering of the Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind the Truth Social app, sending the stock upward 16%. That surge would value the company at more than $7 billion, although in the first nine months of last year it had only about $3 million in sales and lost nearly $50 million. Julian Klymochko, founder and CEO of Accelerate Financial Technologies, told NPR’s Rafael Nam that the $7 billion valuation “is completely detached from any sort of fundamentals.” 

Buying stock in the company is “more of a political movement or just a speculative meme stock [a stock driven by social media] that’s completely detached or unrelated to the underlying business fundamentals of Truth Social,” Klymochko said.

As well as convincing supporters to buy products, extremist rhetoric can push them toward violence. Yesterday, John Keller, the head of a Department of Justice task force set up to protect election workers, told reporters Trump’s lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen has put the U.S. in a “new era” in which election workers are “scapegoated, targeted, and attacked.” 

Today, on his social media network, Trump attacked individuals related to his upcoming election interference case. He lashed out at one of the prosecutors on Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s staff who previously worked for the Justice Department; Judge Juan Merchan, the judge in his upcoming criminal case for election interference; and the judge’s daughter. Of the judge and his daughter, Trump told his angry followers: “These COUNTRY DESTROYING SCOUNDRELS & THUGS HAVE NO CASE AGAINST ME. WITCH HUNT!” 

Legal analyst Joyce White Vance of Civil Discourse called out Trump’s “rank effort at intimidating the judge by threatening his family,” which she said “merits a gag order but also serious pushback from [Republican] leadership—which we know won't come.” 

Republican leadership indeed stayed quiet, but the judge noted Trump’s pattern of using  “threatening, inflammatory, [and] denigrating” statements against individuals in his legal cases and placed a gag order on him. Merchan noted that in the past, Trump’s statements had intimidated the individual targeted and required them to hire protection. 

Trump can still talk about Merchan or Bragg, but he cannot comment on any attorney, court staff member, or family member of prosecutors or lawyers. He can’t make statements about any potential or actual juror. 

Other news today suggests that Americans outside the MAGA bubble are turning against the poisonous politics that appeals to fear and hatred so its perpetrators can gain money or power.

The outrage over NBC’s hiring of former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel was so strong that today the chair of NBC News, Cesar Conde, emailed staff to tell them he had “decided that Ronna McDaniel will not be an NBC News contributor.” McDaniel had trafficked in lies to support Trump and had worked with him to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. 

When the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine today, observers thought the justices seemed inclined to back away from the decision of extremist antiabortion judge Matthew Kacsmaryk taking the abortion drug mifepristone off the market. Antiabortion activists have long sought to ban abortion nationwide, but a strong majority of Americans support reproductive rights and have made their wishes known at the ballot box. 

Voters’ frustration with the extremists who have captured the Republican Party appeared to be behind the results in today’s special election for a seat in the Alabama legislature. There, voters in a swing district elected a Democrat, who ran on protecting abortion access, to replace a Republican. In 2022 that Democrat, Marilyn Lands, won about 45% of the vote. Today she won almost 65% of it.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

Look who's Laughing

Meghan's BFF was spotted laughing backstage at the Chris Rock Live Show: Meghan's BFF, Janina Gavankar, famously told Gail King Meghan had receipts for those RACIST BRF conversations.🤥

Janina Gavankar was also filmed attempting a high five at the wedding, she was spotted in a vehicle with Harry & Meghan outside NOprah's house, and she credited herself with the (Soho House) Sussex trio 2019 Holiday photograph.

Janina heard the jokes a few times prior to the Live Taping so she knew what to expect. I wonder if Harry (or backers) telephoned Chris Rock (like South Park) to ask him not to use Meghan in his show?🤔 I think her influence could explain his use of Megflix talking points: "British Empire, Colonialism, and seems like a nice lady..."

Janina Gavankar, one of Meghan Markle’s longtime best friends, was at the live taping for Chris Rock’s blockbuster Netflix show Saturday night – and watched as the comedian skewered the Duchess of Sussex, Page Six can reveal.

The “Vampire Diaries” actress, who has been a staunch defender of Prince Harry’s wife and a close pal of hers for over 20 years, was at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theater to witness Rock make history for the streaming service’s first live global streaming event. Sources told Page Six that Gavankar, 42, joined her good friend Dave Chapelle backstage to watch the show in the VIP Green Room.

“Janina looked to be enjoying the show very much, she was standing up by the TV screens and laughing,” one eyewitness told us. Rock had finely honed his routine over the past few months at a number of gigs around the country, including at Radio City Music Hall in New York City back in October, where he made the same comments about Markle and the royals.

We’re told that Gavankar had been to previous shows, so she knew what to expect.

Gavankar joined a host of big names at Saturday’s show, including director Spike Lee and wife Tonya Lewis Lee, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, author Nelson George, comics Darnell Rollins, Sam Jay and actor Stephen Hill, alongside Arsenio Hall, David Spade and former “Saturday Night Live” stars Leslie Jones and Dana Carvey.

Gavankar was a guest at the Sussexes wedding in May 2018.

She also went on British TV after the royal family responded to the Oprah interview by saying “recollections may vary” at the couple’s claims of their hellish time behind palace walls.Speaking on “This Morning,” Gavankar hit back at the family’s claims they weren’t aware of the full extent of Meghan’s struggles while she was a working royal family member.

“Though their ‘recollections may vary,’ ours don’t because we lived through it with them,” Gavankar said, quoting directly from the Palace’s statement. “And there are many emails and texts to support that.”