Progressives Every Day: The biggest corruption sting in Ohio history
Progressives Every Day: The biggest corruption sting in Ohio history
And COVID spikes continue where you most expect them
Welcome to a Tuesday edition of Progressives Everywhere! It was a truly impressive day for corrupt and sociopathic Republicans, so let’s get right to it!
Actually, before we start, just a note on the structure of this ol’ newsletter going forward:
I’m now going to divide the news into categories (as you’ll see below)
Instead of repeating the same context over and over again and risk going overly long, I’m going to be newspaper-lean and cover more stories.
This means you’ll be less bored and get more news!
I could have just gone ahead and done it this way without saying anything, but I have legitimate OCD and always feel the need to do some throat-clearing declarations.
Power, Corruption, and Lies
(Enjoy this as your soundtrack)
Larry Householder, the Republican Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly being the centerpiece of what the FBI describes as the worst bribery scheme in the state’s history.
Investigators say that Householder helped disburse $61 million from FirstEnergy (which later became Harbor Energy) to lawmakers in exchange for their votes on a $1 billion bailout for two of its nuclear power plants. The money was required to get the unpopular bailout across the finish line, and the FBI made it very clear that Householder was the man pulling the strings on the whole enterprise — they literally called Generation Now Ohio, the new organization that took the money, “Householder’s Enterprise.”
It’s important to note that Householder is not some aberration, a bad actor who was pulling some shady business unbeknownst to his colleagues. A whopping 54 different lawmakers took money from FirstEnergy between 2017 and 2019, and 41 of them voted for the bailout. And that’s just money that was legally donated — the illegal stuff was spread around at much higher denominations to help Householder, whose first speakership ended in 2004 amid money launder allegations, regain power and influence with his colleagues.
Sadly, many Democrats and organized labor leaders supported Householder’s speakership because he promised to lead a bipartisan House. Whether that included spreading illicit money around to both parties remains to be seen.
Really makes you wonder why Democrats are inviting one of the most prominent Ohio Republicans to speak at the convention, no?
Oh, and isn’t this some bullshit?
I don’t know what to say about this except that Republicans are misogynist monsters who deserve zero benefit of the doubt or to be taken seriously in any way. They say the fish rots from the head down, but in the case of the GOP, it’s an evenly distributed blight.
By the way, Ted Yoho is retiring, but Roger Williams, a Republican Congressman from Texas, is again facing Julie Oliver, a really dynamic Democrat who gave him the closest race of his career in 2018. I interviewed Oliver in 2018 and I could see her pulling off an upset in a big blue year.
Gotta love Republican courage from Rep @RogerWilliamsTX: when he undeniably sees another man engaged in virulent harassment of a young woman, just pretend you never saw it in the most cartoonish manner possible and keep pushing. (He’s lying, by the way. He joined in w/ Yoho) https://t.co/TAjvXBdd9u@KatieBoWill @RealMikeLillis @AOC Third member of Congress who witnessed the exchange when asked later, demurs: "I was thinking about some issues I've got in my district that need to get done."
Paul D. Shinkman @PDShinkmanGuess what?! Charlie Kirk, a wunderkind grifter who has never been definitively proven to not be the love child of Donald Trump Jr. and Tucker Carlson, is enriching himself and his creepy old groomers with donor money while taking inappropriate tax breaks!
Elections (and Future Elections) and Voting Rights
The Supreme Court threw the Jim Crow poll tax back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit last week, which will hear the case on August 18th. The court is stacked with Trump appointees, some of whom have no business being involved in deciding this case.
Speaking of Florida, after checking in with Andrew Gillum and considering his political future yesterday, here’s a look at some of the Democratic Party’s other rising stars in the state.
Two notes here: One of them is Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who I wrote about last week as a potential gubernatorial candidate last week. Also getting a quick mention is State Rep. Anna Eskamani, a first-term legislator who Progressives Everywhere supported in 2018. She is very good at Twitter.
OK, here’s a Florida trifecta. Incoming Senate Democratic Leader Gary Farmer is not a fan of electing progressives everywhere. It’s just incredible to see a Democratic leader actively suggest that the party shouldn’t even try to win elections — it’s one thing to try to conserve money on the down low, but saying it in public is infuriating.
Labor and Workers’ Rights
Conservatives and business interests have been working hard to either prevent or at least pause planned minimum wage increases in cities and states across the country. They’ve been pretty successful, too — even Virginia paused the heralded increase that Democrats explicitly ran on in 2019 by another four months, meaning that the state will still mandate just the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour until May 2021.
Bizarrely, some corporations are actually being more progressive on the issue than Democratic-governed states, including Best Buy, which just raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour on Tuesday. The boost will go into effect on August 2nd, which is when the temporary pay increase the company gave to workers toiling through the pandemic is scheduled to end. At least someone recognizes the need to continue expanded financial benefits.
Sarah Nelson, the flight attendant union leader and one of the most effective progressive activists right now, wrote a great piece for Labor Notes about fighting airlines who are demanding even more concessions from employees after years of stock buybacks. I recommend reading through the site’s entire series on concessions — no matter where you work, you’re likely going to be facing some kind of request from an employer at some point soon.
COVID-19 and Related Drama
This map is terrifying but also in no way surprising. If there were an option to overlay a map identifying where people wore masks, everything from Texas on east would likely look the same. (Speaking of Texas, COVID-19 cases and hospital stays are reaching new heights.)
While Texas Gov. Greg Abbott continues to push for schools to open for in-person instruction as quickly as possible, the biggest counties in the state are not having it. They are either mandating or strongly recommending that school boards take advantage of a new waiver that will allow schools to stay closed and offer online-only instruction for up to eight weeks. In Houston, schools may not open for in-person instruction until October.
Quibis
Getting ahead of the game, the executive director of South Carolina’s election commission is requesting all kinds of smart adjustments, including universal vote by mail and online ballot applications.
Meanwhile in North Carolina, a prosecutor is doubling down on racist charges against a Black woman who accidentally voted when she was ineligible to do so because she was on probation.
lol:
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