Abandoning Progress For Process
Plus: The Koch Network’s Anti-Trump Ads Are Atrocious
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JEREMIAH JOHNSON: How Progressives Abandoned Progress For Process.
IN DECEMBER 2002, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg announced a plan to bring more housing to New York. As the plan’s details were hashed out, they came to include redeveloping parts of Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea. In 2005, the city upzoned Hudson Yards, paving the way for potential future development in the area. Then, in 2009, the city signed an agreement that included a commitment to develop a vacant parking lot at 54th Street and Ninth Avenue, owned by the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority, into a few hundred units of affordable housing.
But it wasn’t until August 2022—nearly two decades after Bloomberg sketched out his original proposal and more than a dozen years after the city committed to putting affordable housing on that specific site—that the city voted to approve the permit for the Lirio housing project there. And even now, as of June 2023, construction still has not yet begun. The developer claims the project will be finished by 2025. Count me among the skeptical.
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TIM MILLER: The Koch Network’s Anti-Trump Ads Are Atrocious.
THERE ARE CERTAIN ADVANTAGES that Republican-aligned anti-Trump forces should have this year that weren’t available to them in 2016.
For instance: There is an entire primary campaign’s worth of data and experience that can be leveraged to understand what types of tactics don’t work against Trump. Also: Trump has gone from an outsider with a malleable political identity to a former president with an actual record that can be dissected.
These advantages don’t guarantee success. It’s possible, even likely, that the GOP has become a personality cult/lifestyle brand and that there is no path to disentangle a plurality of the flock from their leader.
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Flag Day! Make sure that if you’re not flying Old Glory you know where you can retire a tired flag. (VFW, American Legion, Boy Scout troops.)
What are the documents in the Trump indictment? Here’s what we know.
Pence pivots… “this indictment contains serious charges and I cannot defend what is alleged.” Slowly, but surely, we’re getting closer to disowning. (We’ll never get there, I know.)
The Virginia teacher who was shot by a six year old… No longer has a job with the district, and is suing for $40 million.
‘It Doesn’t Count as a War Crime if You Had Fun’… Since neither Ukraine nor Russia are part of the ICC, the statement is technically partially true.
Trump’s indictment is a bad thing… For his rivals.
Marco Rubio and… Stephen Miller? That Stephen Miller? Yes.
“I gotta make a decision real soon.” Will Hurd is still thinking about it. Why is anyone’s guess. The guy didn’t even have the courage to impeach Trump! Maybe the “myth of the reasonable Republican” lane still has some room?
A gallery rapt for Romney… Not every day do you see sketch artists in the Senate press gallery! (Where cameras aren’t allowed.)
The latest Quinnipiac poll: Has Biden beating Trump 48/44, and a whole lot of unfavorables all around.
Who now? Miami Mayor Francis Saurez is now running for President. You might not know his name, unless you’re big into BitCoin, but the FBI and SEC sure do.
Pastor Rick Warren kicked to the curb.. The Southern Baptists kicked out his megachurch for supporting female pastors.
Hello, Infant! I am Ron DeSantis.
The Russian who surrendered… To a drone. (Watch the whole video.)
So, yes… A cult… Sarah Palin’s oddly specific definition of a cult sure seems to fit the bill of Trump die-hards. Though she can’t see the reality she just described.
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