THREAD about corruption and my opponent Scott Baugh.

Let's be clear: pay-to-play corruption is a core part of Trump's MAGA movement, just as it is with Putin and every other authoritarian out there. This is wrong and it's un-American.
1/
politico.com/news/2024/10/1… Whether it's Jared Kushner, Elon Musk, or my opponent @ScottBaughCA47, there is a culture of corruption and pay-to-play and total disregard for the rule of law that’s endemic to MAGA politicians. 2/

🧵 I’m the Democrat running to succeed Katie Porter in #CA47 and I wanted to introduce myself. I beat back over $5 million in MAGA-funded attack ads to decisively win the primary. I’m battle-tested and ready to win this crucial swing seat. 1/ I’m a father, a CA State Senator, and a former UC Irvine law professor, who has been a leader in the fights to preserve women’s reproductive rights, prevent gun violence, and address climate change. But what I really want you to know about me is where I come from. 2/

I started my legal career at the SEC right after the Enron and Worldcom accounting scandals. Later on in my career, I had to deal with the fallout from the financial crisis, which was sparked by bad mortgages bundled into complex securities. 1/
punchbowl.news/article/tim-sc… The SEC was itself started after the massive and shocking securities frauds of the early 20th century, which many blamed for causing the stock market crash of 1929 and leading to the Great Depression. 2/

I was shocked to learn that my legislation barring the sale of guns and ammunition on state property, including most of our fairgrounds, was enjoined by a Trump-appointed judge on the thinnest of pretense. 1/
sfchronicle.com/politics/artic… This is a glaring example of judicial activism of the worst kind, and a dire wake-up call to the very real dangers of political control by the MAGA wing of the GOP. This decision underscores the pressing imperative of electing a Democratic House majority to protect our values. 2/

I don't pretend to be a foreign policy expert, but I think what is happening in Ukraine right now has much more massive implications for our global political and economic order than most people are realizing. 1/ Russia is finished as a "great power," China's influence has dramatically waned (due to the fact that it bet so heavily on its alliance with Russia), and there is a major reordering occurring right now among the former Soviet republics. 2/

If you're not completely outraged about this DeSantis/Abbott stunt to transport immigrants to MA, you're not paying attention...

- The immigrants were falsely told there were jobs and free housing waiting for them.

1/
mvtimes.com/2022/09/15/att… - FL and TX contacted Fox News about these planes, but did NOT contact local or state authorities, which of course meant that no one in Martha's Vineyard or Massachusetts had made any preparations to accommodate these Venezuelan asylum seekers.

2/

This is an incredible, well-documented analysis that absolutely eviscerates the "originalist" claim that the Founders intended for the Second Amendment to encompass an individual right to bear arms. Worth reading in its entirety. 1/
politico.com/news/magazine/… Things I learned from this piece:

James Madison, the author of 2A, twice introduced legislation in Virginia to ban the possession of guns in public (unless for military duty), making clear his belief that 2A did not prohibit restrictions on an individual right to bear arms.
2/

This weekend, I #WearOrange because there is too much gun violence, including in the City of Orange which I represent.

Aiden Leos, Jenevieve Raygoza, Luis Tovar, Letitia Solis Guzman, Matthew Farias, and tens of thousands of other victims of gun violence should be alive. 1/ Yesterday morning, I was proud to join @wave4all, @oc_brady, @MomsDemand, and @Everytown for a discussion on how to end gun violence in this country, and how CA can continue to lead the way. 2/

For several decades, we've seen judges appointed, not based on their credentials or the brilliance of their legal reasoning, but rather based on hyperpartisanship and their willingness to embrace extremist positions, including overturning Roe v. Wade. 1/
latimes.com/politics/story… Our judiciary is much dumber as a result, and we're now poised to see an all out assault on women's reproductive rights, coming from so-called "originalist" judges who are actively legislating from the bench. 2/

11 years ago yesterday, Citizens United was decided, one of the worst opinions in modern Supreme Court history.

Citizens United has been criticized for lots of reasons. One that I and others have made is it creates conflicts w/ state corporate law. 1/
digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjreg/vol33/is… The Court's decision essentially ignores shareholders who may not want their investments used for political activity, summarily dismissing these concerns as ones that can be addressed through the "procedures of corporate democracy," despite ample evidence that may not be true. 2/