Disappearance has become a feature of the Trump’s ICE raids, a process that often finds people in a prison network in central Louisiana. I got a behind-the-curtain look at the operations of American Siberia—the newfangled ICE detention towns where people are sent to disappear. This is how the town of Jena came to rely on GEO Group—ICEs favored private prison operator—and how GEO Group buys its silence. Not just with jobs and tax revenue, but with free lunches, Christmas caroling, and doling out cash every three months.

Something truly insane: the crypto lobby, which two years ago was mostly Sam Bankman-Fried doing effective altruism, has now spent more money influencing elections over the 14 year period since Citizens United *than every industry other than fossil fuels.* slate.com/news-and-polit… I wrote about the stunning evolution of the crypto influence machine, from one convicted criminal with a bad haircut to the faceless, merciless, corporate money machine, that has created the new playbook for both taking over elections and legislation. slate.com/news-and-polit…

NEW: Sources say AIPAC is gearing up to spend over *$100 MILLION* as part of a campaign to knock the Squad out of congress in 2024. Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar, Jamaal Bowman, Summer Lee, and Rashida Tlaib are all marked for high dollar challenges. slate.com/news-and-polit… The siege will be funded by Republican megadonors, and Democratic leadership has said nothing to dissuade it. Meanwhile, they created a blacklist of vendors when progressives launched primary campaigns against incumbents in 2019. The party's entire left flank could get wiped out.

Car dealers are superrich, one of the top 5 jobs in the .1 percent of American earners. They are militantly organized and extremely conservative, donating to GOP at a 6 to 1 clip with one of the fiercest lobbying shops on earth. So I went to their annual blowout party weekend… Dealers, the ultimate do-nothing middlemen, have also found themselves in the middle of the EV revolution. The choice to make electric vehicles the centerpiece of the Biden climate strategy means that these hyperpartisan conservatives are supposed to deliver decarbonization.

Great profile—deftly points to Yglesias's branding of aggressively conventional wisdom as unconventional, a trick that works bc his willingness to carry water for the rich/powerful is often so brazen it's hard to believe someone would say it so straight. washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023… The explainer's dilettantish features are nicely surmised, but it's also worth adding that Yglesias is deeply incurious and a bad reporter, which is why he constantly gets stuff wrong (basis points, SBF, Santos, Andrew Yang as NYC mayor, etc).

I'm pretty surprised there hasn't been more shame and consequence for the obviously corrupt crypto boosters in politics and journalism. @HeerJeet is doing god's work trying to force some accountability from Yglesias, but there are a lot of Voxworlders who are skating right now. @HeerJeet explain to me again how the Vox vertical SBF paid for was working on a "profile" of SBF by a reporter who SBF said was a "friend," who then burned him by posting their chat log and everyone went home happy, no questions asked

Mondaire Jones caving to Sean Patrick Maloney's pressure and ceding NY-17 to him cost progressives two seats in congress. If not for that one move we'd be talking about a dominant night for New York progressives. Somewhat similar story at the state level—if not for @KaeganForNY's spoiler campaign in SD-21 we'd be talking about a clean sweep for socialist candidates and 4 DSA members in Albany.

https://twitter.com/Devinitelybk/status/1562490865482100736

NEW: There's more to the NYT Ed Board's shock endorsement of Dan Goldman in NY-10. The Goldmans have extensive ties to the Sulzberger family, who own the paper, and publisher A.G. Sulzberger emphatically did not recuse himself from the endorsement process. prospect.org/politics/new-y… One member of the Sulzberger/Perpich clan sent his only ever NY State political donation to Goldman's doomed AG campaign. The Goldmans and Perpichs were both on the board of elite Sidwell Friends while their six kids (Dan and NYT employee David) attended. prospect.org/politics/new-y…

Superrich self-funded candidates become a huge liability for Dems in two crucial senate races. In Missouri, if self-funded Trudy Busch Valentine successfully buys the Dem nomination today, Democrats will be guaranteed to lose against a very weak GOP field. prospect.org/politics/democ… In Wisconsin, two self-funded multimillionaires—Alex Lasry and Sarah Godlewski—combined to loan themselves $20m, muddle the race for a year, and drop out without winning one vote. The primary process utterly failed to vet the now-uncontested Mandela Barnes.prospect.org/politics/democ…

There's absolutely no way Sinema is on board with ending the carried interest loophole, barring some profound change in her personality on the level of divine intervention, so this just seems like a nice diary entry from Manchin about things he likes.

https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/status/1552395048867749889

exercise caution

AIPAC has turned itself into the single biggest power player in Democratic primaries. It’s not just gunning for progressives, it’s taking down close allies of Pelosi and Hoyer betting correctly that they’re too fearful to call out the big money takeover. prospect.org/politics/aipac… The breaking news here is the $6m they’ve put into MD-04, almost triple their record. They’re on track to spend $20m on Dems this cycle and 0 on Republicans, even against vocal antisemites. It’s a radical change—in 2020 they didn’t even formally endorse. prospect.org/politics/aipac…

New: Police budgets are at an all-time high and climbing. But clearance rates—the rate at which cops make an arrest related to a crime—are at historic, all-time lows. Cops nationwide have stopped “solving” crimes. Only 50% of murders even lead to an arrest.prospect.org/justice/why-ar… Clearance rates notoriously skew in favor of cops—they are not conviction rates, and any arrest counts. And yet, cops are only solving 25 percent of crimes *in a good year* and the number keeps dropping. In SF, it’s under 10 percent. prospect.org/justice/why-ar…

The GOP is making a huge push for nonwhite voters, setting up community centers nationwide and courting minorities with an extremely offline, secretive, and media unfriendly campaign, offering free dinners, movie nights, easter egg hunts, more. prospect.org/politics/rncs-… It’s part of a new ground game approach that borrows from Bernie Sanders campaign, the Black Panther Party, and Tammany Hall. It’s not exactly vote buying, but…the party sees an opening with minority groups, even while Tucker sings replacement theory. prospect.org/politics/rncs-…

NEW: Speaking of grooming, @ryanlcooper and I dug into how Rep John Rose (R-TN) met his wife, and found evidence that they likely met while she was a 17-year-old high school senior at the state FFA contest. Rose was the 42-year-old vice chairman of TN FFA. prospect.org/politics/how-r… @ryanlcooper Chelsea won Rose's family scholarship for her time at Tennessee Tech. Rose was also on the board of TTU while Chelsea attended. She said in 2010 he helped "coach" her through the interview process, which would have happened before she arrived in college. prospect.org/politics/how-r…

Romania is home to 60% of Europe’s remaining old growth forest. Ikea is the country’s largest landowner. Logging opponents keep getting attacked and killed. For @newrepublic my report from the front lines of the battle to save Europe’s most important trees.newrepublic.com/article/165245… @newrepublic Old growth forest is critical to the EU’s climate ambitions—it’s the most effective carbon capture method on the planet. But Europe has almost no old growth forest left. Romania, because it was a walled off Soviet state, still has spruce, beech, and more.

I dug into why things are so jammed at the ports, which we’ve been told by our best/brightest is the result of giving immoderate American consumers stimulus checks. Imagine my surprise when I found a report from 2015 warning of exactly today’s breakdown. prospect.org/economy/we-wer… The report, published by the deregulated and powerless FMC, warned that the ports had actually neared the breaking point in 2005. If not for the Great Recession and Obama's too small stimulus, business as usual would have broken them then (the report says this almost verbatim).

A recap of where we are on the Supreme Court nomination: Jim Clyburn and Lindsey Graham are in all-out campaign mode for Michelle Childs, who is the only candidate the White House has acknowledged is under consideration. Clyburn/Graham are claiming she's the true "anti-elitist." On Monday, we reported that Childs had served as a partner at an anti-union law firm in South Carolina, and routinely defended corporations against racial and gender discrimination allegations, often brought by Black women. prospect.org/justice/clybur…

But wait there's more: As a judge, Michelle Childs, Clyburn's pick for the Supreme Court, repeatedly made harsh and excessive rulings on criminal justice issues that were overturned by higher courts. One ruling the 4th circuit called an abuse of authority. prospect.org/justice/michel… In one case, a South Carolina inmate alleged cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the 8th amendment, bc the food he was forced to eat in SC's prison was so unhealthy. Childs dismissed it, the fourth circuit reinstated it. prospect.org/justice/michel…

NEW: Jim Clyburn is currently making a huge push for Michelle Childs as Biden's Supreme Court pick. As a lawyer, Childs repeatedly defended employers accused of racial and gender discrimination by Black women, and was a partner at an anti-union law firm. prospect.org/justice/clybur… Appointing a Black woman who made a career out of opposing Black women who experienced workplace discrimination would seem to undermine Biden's pledge (she's also Lindsey Graham's preferred pick). But Biden owes Clyburn a favor and Clyburn is asking. prospect.org/justice/clybur…

Every one of these infuriating inside-Bidenworld stories, be it sabotaging student debt relief or immigration reform, traces back to one person, who’s fast proving to be the archvillain of the Biden Admin: Susan Rice.

https://twitter.com/maria_hinojosa/status/1487452360528039940

Susan Rice was given her job as head of Domestic Policy Council with zero expertise on domestic policy as a favor to Barack Obama. Rice’s expertise is foreign policy (see: Benghazi), and if not for the cynical right wing freak out over that campaign she might have been VP.

On Sunday @PunchbowlNews got a luxury skybox at the WFT game and invited the lobbyists of many major firms who worked against the Build Back Better Act to attend as special guests, for free, to hobnob with the site's journalists. Is that ethical? prospect.org/power/does-pun… @PunchbowlNews Access journalism has long existed in a gray area ethically. But inviting the people who had the greatest investment in/influence over a piece of legislation a publication covered breathlessly for an off-record holiday party is worse than gray. prospect.org/power/does-pun…