We will be watching to see whether the collapse of a trembling home insurance market accelerates after this added shock.

We had multiple hearings in @SenateBudget on this danger, which fossil-fuel-funded Republicans of course refused to take seriously.
bloomberg.com/features/2024-… Here’s how it works: climate change makes risk unpredictable; risk makes insurance unaffordable or unavailable; no insurance makes mortgages unavailable; without mortgages property values crash; cascading like 2008 into general economy.

Let’s look at the recent refusal of the Judicial Conference to “refer” Clarence Thomas to the AG for a “willfulness” determination about his multiple and repeated disclosure violations. A referral could lead to fines, and even “false statement” charges. Where does the referral requirement come from? It is federal law, from a statute passed many years ago by Congress and signed into law by the President, and never until now challenged by the Judicial Conference.

Oh, boy! The WSJ PolluterPage isn’t interested in accountability for its favorite SCOTUS justices.

Let’s review some of the “phantom” disclosure violations the WSJ PolluterPage doesn’t think anyone should know about. 🧵 1. “Another” $25K to Thomas’s spouse, from Court-fixer Leonard Leo. Not reported.

If this was “another,” how many other payments were there? Were any services rendered, or was it a gift for his benefit? If for his benefit, should’ve been disclosed.

Maybe Think Of It This Way: The anti-vaxxers are fond of saying that they don’t want to forbid or do away with vaccines like polio and smallpox; that they’ll still be available. That misleads from the actual point.

🧵 Many vaccines — polio, measles, DPT, rubella, chickenpox, mumps — are required for all children attending school. The reason is that vaccines work not just by increasing individual disease resistance, but by suppressing the underlying communicable disease.

And on the debt limit, dots are not hard to connect. The debt limit is what Republicans constantly use to extort concessions that they can’t win with votes. Democrats (yours truly particularly) want to be rid of it: “a bear trap in the bedroom.” But Republicans always WANT the debt limit, to use for political extortion (“nice little economy you got here . . . .”). So what’s up with this strange (for them) new Republican desire to get rid of it? Hint: it’s not about the debt limit.

Maybe Think About It This Way: Republicans dismiss allegations against Trump’s flawed nominees because the allegations are “anonymous.” But they’re actually not. People have spoken to these witnesses. They exist. What they are is private. People who have been assaulted or harassed by nominees have come forward, even received settlements, spoken to press, and offered to make themselves available to Republican senators.

Good to see Bob Brulle’s excellent work recognized here — and the dark-money corruption and lies propagated by the fossil fuel industry through its armada of phony front groups.

It's worse than this article exposes, so Maybe Think About It This Way:

🧵

truthout.org/articles/milli… The story begins years ago, after the god-awful Citizens United decision came down from the Supreme Court’s FedSoc cohort.

Maybe Think About It This Way:  Is our problem that the far right has declared war on normal America, and set up a war machine to accomplish that goal, and Democrats aren’t even set up to detect and defend against that war machine? Thought experiment: What if Churchill had been a Democrat in those darkest hours? Surely Churchill-the-Democrat would have gone out and commiserated with Londoners whose homes had been blown up by buzz bombs. As he did.

What does Doggie (“DOGE”) do? Maybe think of it this way: you have to watch a couple of precocious toddlers for the day. They need activities, but you don’t want them near stoves, cars, electrical equipment, or anything operational. So you put them in a playpen with lots of shiny, squeaky toys and a few playmates to keep them occupied. That’s what Doggie does. It keeps a couple of overactive billionaires occupied, far away from any decisions.

Trump DOD nominee Hegseth says about rape allegation: “The matter was fully investigated, and I was completely cleared.”

That’s not how it works. 🧵 Failing to charge a case does not “completely clear” the subject. Obvious example: subjects not charged criminally are often afterwards found liable civilly for the assault.

What is the evidence that it would be prudent to prepare in this administration for a tsunami of plunder and corruption?

🧵 1. Look no further than Trump’s own character, and his conviction “beyond a reasonable doubt” of multiple felony fraud charges.

When the grieving is done, it’s time for watchdog mode.

Trump is a felon, a liar and a cheat; that won’t change.

The creepy billionaires who put him there will be coming for plunder. It’s a safe bet that epic corruption will stain the Trump years. The plunder of America will be through fat contracts, special interest favors, massive tax cuts, and license to pollute for free. To pull off their plunder, they will try to break America’s democratic institutions.

If you wanted to build a corporate oligarchy out of our “republic, if you can keep it,” (Ben Franklin) here’s what you’d do:

🧵 1.   Allow unlimited corporate money to influence politics, and let the big special interest donors hide from citizens that they’re the true source of that money.

In 2018, I pledged to Christine Blasey Ford that I’d keep digging until we got to the bottom of the Trump White House’s shameful confirmation process for Justice Kavanaugh.

I did, and today we have some updates. 🧵

washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/… My report shows that the supplemental background investigation was a sham, controlled by the Trump White House, for political cover to Senate Republicans to put Judge Kavanaugh on track to confirmation.

whitehouse.senate.gov/wp-content/upl…

There are several conclusions you can draw from this sorry Supreme Court episode.

🧵

https://twitter.com/SenWhitehouse/status/1838637940265599016

One is what laughably fake and disposable doctrines textualism and originalism are. Trump v. United States was manufactured out of thin air; nothing textualist or originalist about it — doctrines of convenience.

The Judicial Conference (JC) has done some good recent work. 

🧵 First, they blew up the ‘Scalia trick’: accepting “personal invitations” from resort owners and not disclosing the freebie by pretending that made it “personal hospitality” under disclosure rules.

The Judicial Conference has made two important decisions: 1) to shut down the “Scalia Trick” of conflating personal invitations and personal hospitality to garner free undisclosed vacations, 2) to recommend requiring better disclosure from front-group amici filing amicus briefs. This disclosure effort began with my request to the Chief Justice, who referred the matter to the Judicial Conference, which heard me out at their 2022 and 2023 meetings, and then announced they’d update the rule. The proposed update was announced in June 2024.

Here’s what we know about Justice Alito’s wildly right-wing social life — and why his latest activities call into question his ability to be impartial.

🧵 One, he flies right-wing MAGA battle flags over his own houses for friends, neighbors, and guests to see.

I wish I could say I’m surprised.

Notice how the loudest opponents of ethics reform at SCOTUS are the ones raking in the most from shady, billionaire benefactors.

🧵
propublica.org/article/ginni-… When they’re throwing words around like “treasonous” about justices over an ethics code, it’s a sign.

In reality, every other federal judge is subject to an enforceable code of ethics, and that hasn’t killed judicial independence.

Where are we on the Supreme Court? Lots of progress, and a direction toward transparency, but more to be done. 🧵 1. On ethics the Court has gone from “go away,” to “here’s a letter all nine of us signed,” to “okay, here’s an ethics code but with not even factfinding,” to now Kagan saying their ethics code should be enforceable. That’s movement. More will come.

As best I can see — and I’ve been looking — this DOJ has not even done the basic due diligence to determine if (and what) investigation of the fossil fuel industry may be warranted. The watchman is sleeping.
thehill.com/policy/energy-… This is despite the multiple state and local lawsuits going forward against the fossil fuel industry all around the country. State AGs are litigating, this US AG won’t even do due diligence.