Michael Gianaris/City and State:
LaSalle’s rejection was a defeat for Albany backroom politics
State Senate Democrats showed a new way to lead that puts people before power.
Some of the arguments in defense of this nomination bordered on absurd. We were told not to judge a judge based on his actual work product, which displays an affinity for those in more powerful positions, or on which political parties he has chosen to align with and financially support. We were told not to value the opinions of those with real concerns who fight on the front lines on behalf of organized labor, reproductive rights and civil liberties. The gaslighting by LaSalle’s supporters demonized those who simply wanted to scrutinize this nomination, instead advocating deference to a historical dereliction of duty that gave governors unfettered discretion to appoint anyone with virtually no imposition of checks and balances.
But this state Senate is committed to repairing the mistakes of the past, not using them as a guidebook. The Senate Democratic conference rose to prominence (and a historic supermajority) as an antidote to old-style, backroom Albany politics, and our efforts to reshape the system were – and are – vigorously opposed by Republicans and establishment Democrats alike, including so-called leaders of our own party. Under the transformative direction of state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, we vowed to govern from our values and remain accountable to the people – not the consultant class. We got back to basics and reconnected with the Democratic Party’s original mandate: to fight for average New Yorkers, heed the solutions they believe are needed to improve their lives and give them a fighting chance for success.
It remains astonishing that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul picked this fight to begin with.
Jennifer Rubin/The Washington Post:
A judge exposes DeSantis’s contempt for the First Amendment
Andrew Warren, the state prosecutor for Hillsborough County, Fla., spoke out against Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s forced-birth abortion plan and his persecution of LGBTQ youth. In August, DeSantis suspended him -- and falsely claimed it was because Warren had made a blanket promise not to prosecute certain cases. Warren sued. On Friday, a judge sided with him on the facts but did not give him the relief he sought.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle called DeSantis’s allegation against Warren “false.” “Mr. Warren’s well-established policy, followed in every case by every prosecutor in the office,” Hinkle wrote, "was to exercise prosecutorial discretion at every stage of every case. Any reasonable investigation would have confirmed this.”
POLITICO:
Election deniers set sights on next target
The new Alabama secretary of state's first move in office showed how ideas stemming from the stolen election myth are affecting government.
The latest example comes from Alabama and its newly elected secretary of state, Wes Allen. His first official act upon taking office earlier this month was unusual: The Republican fulfilled a campaign promise by withdrawing Alabama from an obscure interstate compact that helps states maintain voter rolls, citing data security concerns.
The media world is changing.
Aaron Blake/The Washington Post:
Classified documents show gap in how partisans criticize Trump, Biden
As for how serious a problem it is and which cases are the most problematic — that assessment depends heavily on which party you come from. And the good news for Pence is that Republicans are far more selective in their objections and partisan about the matter than are Democrats.
And the bad news for Mike Pence is the he’s still pulling <10% of the Republican primary vote. More importantly, it exposes just how poorly this whole “classified” document thing has been handled by the media.
Example:
And as it so happens:
Annie Lowrey/The Atlantic:
The Trillion-Dollar Coin Might Be the Least Bad Option
Why the legal scholar Rohan Grey thinks the U.S. Mint can defuse the debt-ceiling standoff
Rohan Grey is a law professor at Willamette University, in Oregon, and a leading promoter of an arcane idea that could save the country from all that drama: The Biden administration could exercise its unilateral legal authority over U.S. currency to mint a trillion-dollar platinum coin and use it to pay the government’s bills. The idea seems peculiar—it first surfaced in 2010 in the comments section of a niche blog devoted to unconventional monetary policy—but Grey and others believe it would be less disruptive than many alternative scenarios.
Tara Palmeri/Puck:
Who’s Afraid of Rick Scott?
“Rick Scott’s team is vicious,” said a former Ron DeSantis aide. “It’s very bad news for Ron if Rick gets in the race.”
Politics can be a soulless and gutless bloodsport, and yet it’s rare to see the sort of bizarre choreography that is taking place among the 2024 G.O.P. presidential frontrunners, contenders, and poseurs, alike. There hasn’t quite been a rapturous movement to enlist the various Republicans—Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Mike Pence, Glenn Youngkin or Mike Pompeo—who remain pottering around the sidelines, waiting for Trump’s campaign to implode or die listlessly. But they remain pressed to the glass in the hope that Trump, should he remain viable, and DeSantis bully club each other so ruthlessly that it opens up a lane for a third viable challenger.
John Roberts (former Fed economist)/His personal Wordpress:
What If Inflation Comes Down Quickly?
If inflation comes down more quickly than the Fed currently anticipates, the Fed would likely cut interest rates sooner—sooner, for example, than in their most-recent economic projections, when the first cut was in 2024. Lower rates would mean that unemployment wouldn’t rise as much. But monetary policy affects the economy with a lag, so a key question is how effective policy could be at limiting the rise in the unemployment rate once the good news arrives.
To shed some light, I use simulations of a (slightly modified version of a) Federal Reserve staff model to quantify what the Fed’s options might be if inflation were to come down quickly next year. The results suggest that a prompt reaction to good news on inflation could temper the increase in the unemployment rate and so help reduce the chances of a recession. Given the timing I assume—where convincing evidence of lower inflation isn’t available until the spring of next year—it wouldn’t be possible to avoid an increase in the unemployment rate altogether. Still, the results suggest that a prompt response to incoming news could eliminate most further deterioration and would speed the return of the unemployment rate to its longer-run value once inflation is back under control.
The next couple of sections elaborate. The final section provides technical detail.
And speaking of economists:
1. Brief conclusions: Over the next 6 months an attempt will be made to mobilise between 700,000 and 1 million people. /2
2. We estimate the target group for the first call-up to be 2-3 million people. In total, the probability of being drafted among members of this group exceeds 25%. /3
3. We estimate the expected casualties during the first 6 months among the conscripts at 60-70%. Of these we estimate 15-20% killed, 45-50% wounded.
4/
4. The demographic damage from the war in Ukraine to the Russian population will be many times greater than the damage from the COVID pandemic.
5/
5. We expect two waves of a spike in crime. The first wave will be among those returning from the war. The second wave will be among orphans who will grow up without fathers.
6/
6. Sabotage of conscription and all methods of evading military service is an optimal strategy at the individual level and makes it impossible to conscript significantly more young men.
7/
But this strategy does not significantly alter the number of conscripts in the first months of the campaign and thus avoid the loss of human life associated with it.
8/