Who stands in the way of abundant clean energy? @ezraklein and @DKThomp's "Abundance" pins the blame on left-leaning voters and environmental groups. Unsurprisingly, reporting shows otherwise. Entrenched corporate powers block new renewable energy sources, not "the groups" This is something the American people seem to know well. In fact, polling out today from @TCFdotorg shows that voters overwhelmingly (and correctly) blame corporations and billionaires for blocking crucial projects. But elite media figures seem more misinformed than the public

NEW @ColdChrisFiles1 explored the high (low)lights of the new lead to HUD's Fair Housing Office, Craig Trainor.
therevolvingdoorproject.org/staten-island-… Trainor's origin story is that of young prosecutor who (allegedly) was arrested for drinking and driving. /2

Fantastic piece by @AaronRegunberg advocating for climate populism/pro-working-class environmentalism.

It applies our corporate crackdown lens to the climate crisis: name and shame specific villains from Big Oil, etc. whose insatiable quest for profits is making life harder. 🧵 As Aaron argues, "If Democrats are looking for issues and villains that demonstrate which party fights for the people versus which one further empowers and enables the elites, the climate crisis actually provides one of our strongest playing fields." newrepublic.com/article/188679…

RELEASE: New Memos Detail The Trump Administration’s Troubling Stewardship of the Federal Executive Branch

Today, the Revolving Door Project released a series of memos cataloging the Trump approach to running the federal executive branch. 1/

therevolvingdoorproject.org/release-new-me… The series serves as a reminder to the public that the president’s primary responsibility is to direct the vast apparatus known as the executive branch of the federal government. 2/

NEW: @mattyglesias & other "permitting reform” advocates say regulations preclude “energy abundance” at expense of consumers, but FTC’s revelation of an oil price-fixing scheme places blame where it belongs: on the profit-maximizing fossil fuel industry.🧵
therevolvingdoorproject.org/biden-can-run-… The FTC shared evidence showing that ex-Pioneer CEO Scott Sheffield conspired with U.S. drillers and OPEC officials to constrain the global supply of oil—driving up gasoline prices and padding Big Oil's profits.

This collusion cost American consumers thousands of dollars each.

NEW: Payday lenders want the Supreme Court to kill the CFPB. To accomplish that, they've hired Trump's favorite BigLaw firm to argue their case.

Meet the @JonesDay lawyers who want to make it easier for corporate predators to rip you off 🧵
therevolvingdoorproject.org/payday-lenders… @JonesDay As @davidenrich has reported, @JonesDay:

- defended Trump's campaign in over 20 lawsuits and received over $20 million from Trump & the RNC
- helped pick Trump's SCOTUS and judicial nominees
- fed 23 lawyers directly into high-ranking Trump admin jobs npr.org/2022/09/13/112…

Last night Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the former CEO of FTX was arrested ahead of an indictment by the Southern District of New York. Over the past month, we have witnessed SBF's crypto empire collapse, sending shockwaves through the industry and beyond.

THREAD: RDP has been skeptical of the crypto industry from the start. Reinventing unregulated securities markets on the blockchain promised no more than the same old Ponzi schemes. So we were watching when crypto – led by SBF – made their move on D.C.

OSHA is investigating retaliation claims following a fire in an Amazon warehouse, the latest in Amazon's long list of workplace safety violations, highlighting the need for a well funded OSHA. This week’s omnibus bill must include a substantial increase to OSHA’s budget. 1/4

https://twitter.com/josheidelson/status/1601011327547240448

The House’s proposal calls for $712 million for OSHA, a $100 million increase but still below 2010 levels when adjusted for inflation. Perpetual underfunding has resulted in declining staff levels and decreasing workplace inspections. 2/4

Now that more than tens of thousands of rail workers are being forced to work under a contract that many of them rejected, it's worth remembering that the administration's wholesale abandonment of the unions was a policy choice. 1/ Yes, letting them strike could have done economic harm, but the mere threat of a strike could have given them the leverage they needed.

Plus, there were plenty of ways Biden and pals could have still asked Congress to intervene while still helping workers. 2/

NEW: @SenSherrodBrown is calling on the FTC to investigate RealPage, following a bombshell @propublica investigation revealing a nationwide cartel of corporate landlords used the company's software to collude on astronomical rent hikes. propublica.org/article/yields… @SenSherrodBrown @propublica As @krystalball noted last month, RealPage's rent-setting software is being used by corporate landlords "to raise rent prices as much as possible".

WATCH ⬇️

Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Raytheon & Northrop Grumman are the top 5 contractors with the Defense Dept. All have each given hundreds of thousands of dollars since Jan. 6 to election deniers, according to @ProPublica’s new tracker. projects.propublica.org/fortune-500-co… Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies and Northrop Grumman all pledged to suspend political giving to the members of Congress who sought to undermine the 2020 elections after Jan 6. All four companies broke that promise. projects.propublica.org/fortune-500-co…

Welcome to the end of October Omnibus Awareness Month, where we’ve shown how the #OmnibusMakestheGovernment. Here’s a recap of our work spotlighting the importance of the federal appropriations process to fully functioning agencies and departments. On Day 1, we highlighted how weak funding limits the National Labor Relations Board’s ability to protect workers all over the country from labor rights violations.

https://twitter.com/revolvingdoorDC/status/1576978814466342923?s=20&t=Hn1XALL9tad7DqVf0FdfDw

With so much left to do, and dwindling days left to do it, why did a Dem-controlled Congress take an Autumn recess? Our answer: they shouldn’t have. prospect.org/politics/how-g… Dems took the recess to allow incumbents to campaign prior to the midterms. Historically, this has had real strategic political value, but what was once effective does not remain so forever.

Today is Day 20 of #OMG Omnibus Awareness Month, where we show how #OmnibusMakestheGovernment. Up today: the federal government’s HR department, the Office of Personnel Management. 💼 Over and over again this Omnibus Awareness Month, we’ve reiterated the need for exec branch agencies to staff up – and @USOPM is the key to quick hirings of talented, would-be civil servants, as the agency oversees federal hiring and workforce policy.

In this week’s “Hack Watch” newsletter: how the mainstream media’s rote, shallow formula for covering government spending emboldens the conservative effort to make a bogeyman of big government budgets. Read and subscribe here! revolvingdoorproject.substack.com Why is it that journalists platform without objection deficit hawks who relentlessly critique government spending—except by the Pentagon, which has never passed a financial audit because of its chronic mismanagement of billions of taxpayer dollars? npr.org/2021/05/19/997…

Folks, we give you a perfect example of how @LHSummers tries to reify neoliberal economists as the sole, unquestionable authority on economic policy, and how compliant interviews like this one @CNN let him do it.

A thread.

https://twitter.com/LHSummers/status/1585241727803494400

To summarize what happens in this video, Anderson Cooper asks @LHSummers ...

1) Can policymakers do anything to lower inflation?
2) Is a recession inevitable, and if so, how long?
3) What concerns you the most right now in the economy?

Today, @politico dropped a story hailing Larry Summers as a "Democratic hero". While Summers' actions to get Manchin on board with IRA were useful, he's hardly earned that superlative. And the piece gives him way too much credit for the bill's ideas. 1/🧵

politico.com/news/2022/08/1… As @owenslindsay1 pointed out a lot of the policy that the article credits as Summers's actually originated with Elizabeth Warren. Making no mention of her hard work advancing those policies while giving Larry all the credit is just wrong. 2/

https://twitter.com/owenslindsay1/status/1559189894072762368?s=21&t=rxJlWD2TBkvtqRfuxfBYdQ

THREAD: BlackRock announced yesterday that it was starting an investment trust for wealthy investors to track the price of Bitcoin. One more reason Larry Fink can never be characterized as environmentally conscious, no matter how hard he tries. politico.com/newsletters/mo… Fink consistently seeks to be seen as an environmental ally, even though BlackRock is the world’s top investor in fossil fuels. nytimes.com/2021/01/26/bus…

HAPPENING NOW: The @USPS Board of Governors convenes at 4PM ET for their August meeting, the first since Biden nominees gained a majority on the Board earlier this year.

Watch live here ⬇️ about.usps.com/who/leadership… @USPS The big question on everyone's minds: will the Biden-majority Board finally fire Louis DeJoy?

Unfortunately, the answer is probably not. therevolvingdoorproject.org/will-the-new-p…

THREAD: @FMC_Gov's Daniel Maffei tells @petersgoodman that monopolization in ocean shipping isn't the culprit for the years of backlogs that have caused soaring prices.

He doesn't mention that he's actively furthered that monopolization while at FMC.
nytimes.com/2022/08/08/bus… As our @DylanGyauchL and @MekedasB showed in March, a day before Biden first called for the FMC to step up to the supply chain crisis, Maffei directly told shipping CEOs "I wouldn't ban or undo the alliances" and shippers were being a made a "scapegoat."
therevolvingdoorproject.org/shipping-carte…

THREAD: Reports that Biden is prepared to declare a national climate emergency are encouraging. But he needs to give up on Manchin AND, critically, quit the strategy of using executive action only when legislation fails. washingtonpost.com/climate-enviro… This morning’s @playbookDC wrote that “[Biden] isn’t likely to take big executive actions on climate until it’s clear that door has entirely closed with Manchin.” politico.com/playbook