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Overnight News Digest for January 18, 2023 ("Let Justice Roll Down..." edition) [1]
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Date: 2023-01-18
Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame, jck, and JeremyBloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
This may be a little inside baseball for a lot of folks, but I think it’s the biggest story of the day. With SCOTUS in the process of filleting so many of our constitutional rights, blue state Dems are counting on our local control to ride out the worst of the storm. But thanks to disgraced Pseudo-Dem Andrew Cuomo, New York has a high court with a conservative majority — which used its power to jam up redistricting, costing Dems at least 4 seats and possibly control of the House in the process.
So of course, in one of her first acts after screwing up her re-election so badly that she barely squeaked through, Governor Hochul is spitting in the face of the Unions and pro-choice activists who worked so hard to save her ass and drag her across the finish line just two month ago by nominating yet another conservative justice who would lock in right-wing control until 2030.
Well, the ACTUAL Democrats in the NY State Senate just said a big NO to that.
The final vote count was 2-10-7, with only two members voting in favor of totally advancing LaSalle. Ten members voted against LaSalle, while one Democrat joined the committee’s six Republicans in voting to advance LaSalle without recommendation. All in all, LaSalle’s advancement fails by a vote of 9-10. New York Senate Democrats voted against LaSalle due to concerns over his judicial record on labor, abortion, and criminal justice. Hochul did not heed their earlier warnings, and instead promised to do “everything” in her power to push him onto the state’s Court of Appeals. The effort first began in December, when, just weeks after beating a Republican during a midterm election in New York by only five points, Hochul chose to nominate LaSalle, whose record has been criticized by liberals, progressives, workers, and abortion voters as being antagonistic to supposed Democratic values ...All Hochul’s efforts were for naught. But she may not be done yet. Despite the committee’s “no” vote, Hochul is reportedly hiring a litigator to stake a legal battle on the basis of whether a nominee can be voted down in the Judiciary Committee in the first place. x LaSalle’s nomination is dead in committee! #NoOnLaSalle is a victory for organizers, lawyers, civil rights advocates & electeds who dared to oppose governor’s nominee. We should be able to trust our judges, not appointing one w/ anti-civil rights decisions to the highest court.
https://t.co/653Bt7G9va — Samy Nemir Olivares (@Samynemir) January 18, 2023
For more background on the problems with LaSalle’s right-leaning judicial philosophy, check out this:
In the lead-up to Hochul’s decision, a coalition of progressive New York organizations released an assessment calling the prospect of LaSalle’s nomination “unacceptable” and zeroing in on his rulings on cases that dealt with abortion, criminal justice, and labor. Last week, a group of 46 law professors released a joint letter raising concerns about LaSalle due to what they described as his “activist conservative jurisprudence” and his “cavalier attitude towards reproductive rights, hostility to organized labor, and a worrying insensitivity to due process.” “He’s put his judicial philosophy out there, on paper, and it strikes me he is to the right of the majority of New Yorkers,” Steve Zeidman, a professor at CUNY law school who signed onto that letter, told Bolts on Thursday. “This is someone who is less concerned with individual civil liberties, and more concerned with siding with the government and corporations,” Zeidman added.
More background here:
The surprise vacancy on the court marked a major windfall for Hochul, a chance to make a defining appointment just days into her new term. Given the weakness of Hochul’s reelection effort, it was also a chance to unify the Democratic Party amidst a chorus of concerns, turn the page on the Cuomo era, and win some goodwill from voters and the groups that helped push Hochul’s wheezing campaign across the finish line. This is generally how politics works. Instead, Hochul picked arguably the most conservative judge of the options recommended by the state Commission on Judicial Nomination, one with a particularly noxious record on two of the most important issues in Democratic politics today: abortion and labor. To boot, in the 2014 case People v. Bridgeforth, the judge, LaSalle, signed off on the dismissal of jurors based on skin color, claiming that “dark-colored” was not a “constitutionally cognizable class protected under the Equal Protection Clause.” That decision was quickly overturned. Not surprisingly, LaSalle was met with swift condemnation from progressives. But the opposition has been much broader: A number of typically moderate labor unions have come out strongly against the pick, as has the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Many of the 14 state senators who have already said they won’t support LaSalle are far from being Democratic Socialists of America types. And in perhaps the most stunning example of coordinated pushback, mainstream women’s groups across the country have called for LaSalle to be voted down. It’s very uncommon for these groups to publicly defy a sitting Democratic governor, especially one they just helped elect.
Many of the headlines reporting on today’s vote read “Progressives block LaSalle” or “Liberal Senators oppose Hochul’s pick”. BUT it wasn’t progressives, or liberals… it was DEMOCRATS. Nearly ALL of them.
So what the hell was she thinking? One explanation — she wanted to nominate a Latino, and he was the only Latino judge that made the short list:
But while LaSalle has gained support from some in the Latino community – a group of officials and attorneys put out a press release of joint support that included former New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito – the choice did not uniformly spark the backing that was sought. Notable Latino lawmakers including state Sens. Jessica Ramos and Gustavo Rivera have publicly announced their intention to vote “no” on LaSalle’s nomination, despite the fact he would be the first Latino chief judge. “Latinos deserve representation at the highest levels of the legal system, but we also need courts that respect workers and the right to organize,” Ramos said in a statement on Thursday. Political analyst Eli Valentin noted that Hochul’s attempts to make inroads with the Latino community make sense given its growing population and political sway in the state, but that ultimately, she made a mistake in choosing LaSalle. “I think the governor did a terrible job rolling this out,” Valentin told City & State. “I don’t think that she had enough conversations around this nomination with key people, both in the Legislature and outside groups that influence the process.” He also said that the nomination revealed a generational split among Latino leaders between traditional trailblazers who have fought to simply get members of the community at the table, and newer people who give ideological concerns equal weight to demographic ones. LaSalle’s nomination leaves Hochul in a politically fraught situation no matter how it ultimately turns out. On the one hand, she can continue to stand with her nominee and he never makes it to the floor. "A nomination for the Court of Appeal failing, and failing early this year as people are having budget conversations, would be a big political blow,” O’Donnell said. On the other hand, she could cut her losses and pick a different nominee, but be forced to pick a non-Latino judge instead since LaSalle was the only one who made the shortlist. Perhaps most explosively, Hochul could throw her weight around and force a confirmation vote with Republican support, likely destroying whatever working relationship she still has with the Senate Democrats for the rest of the year, if not the rest of her tenure. “I just think she played it wrong from the beginning,” Valentin said. “I don’t see this playing out for the governor, and it would be her first major loss in 2023.” x Read my statement on today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing: pic.twitter.com/eQ2p25OIYf — Senator Michelle Hinchey (@SenatorHinchey) January 18, 2023
So why is Hochul choosing this particular hill to die on this early in her term? Nobody seems to know.
I can’t JUST be the Latino question — Yes, LaSalle was the only Latino on the panel, but if she dropped the nomination she would get a new panel. That’s the process. So what the hell is she thinking?
In the meantime, the fight may continue — She’s talking about SUEING her own party to force them to let her get a floor vote in the Senate where she would theoretically be able to get enough GOP support to confirm LaSalle to the court.
As Kossack Mahtin noted in their diary,
At the very least, the more people who call/text/tweet/email their state senators to let them know they oppose confirming LaSalle to the Court of Appeals, the better. You can use this tool to do so. Whether forced by litigation, or merely just to prove a point to Gov.
So, what else is new in the world tonight?
In sad news, the progressive labor PM of New Zealand is standing down:
New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has said she is resigning, in a shock announcement that came as she confirmed a national election for October this year. Ardern became the world’s youngest female head of government when she was elected prime minister in 2017 at age 37. She has led New Zealand through the Covid-19 pandemic, and major disasters including the terror attack on two mosques in Christchurch, and the White Island volcanic eruption. “This has been the most fulfilling five and a half years of my life. But it’s also had its challenges – amongst an agenda focused on housing, child poverty and climate change, we encountered a … domestic terror event, a major natural disaster, a global pandemic, and an economic crisis,” she said. Asked how she would like New Zealanders to remember her leadership, Ardern said “as someone who always tried to be kind.” x She has been an inspiration and her honesty and integrity shines bright.
Jacinda Ardern resigns as prime minister of New Zealand
https://t.co/kbGsLRlgjF — Irene Corman (@corman_irene) January 19, 2023
This is also disappointing, but not exactly surprising (Really? Corporations haven’t been honest about their climate commitments? ):
The forest carbon offsets approved by the world’s leading provider and used by Disney, Shell, Gucci and other big corporations are largely worthless and could make global heating worse, according to a new investigation. The research into Verra, the world’s leading carbon standard for the rapidly growing $2bn (£1.6bn) voluntary offsets market, has found that, based on analysis of a significant percentage of the projects, more than 90% of their rainforest offset credits – among the most commonly used by companies – are likely to be “phantom credits” and do not represent genuine carbon reductions. The analysis raises questions over the credits bought by a number of internationally renowned companies – some of them have labelled their products “carbon neutral”, or have told their consumers they can fly, buy new clothes or eat certain foods without making the climate crisis worse.
And remember how we just HAD to build more gas plants because the were DEPENDABLE and RELIABLE, unlike wind and solar which are so INTERMITTENT?
Power plant owners in the PJM Interconnection may owe $1 billion to $2 billion for failing to provide electricity during Winter Storm Elliott in late December, according to an initial estimate released Wednesday by the grid operator.
About 45,950 MW, or 23.2% of PJM’s generating fleet, was unexpectedly offline on Dec. 24, mainly because of plant equipment that didn’t operate and fuel supply problems, Donnie Bielak, PJM senior manager for dispatch, said during a presentation to the grid operator’s Market Implementation Committee. Gas-fired generation accounted for 70% of the unplanned outages, he said.
The poor performance by gas-fired generators could lead to political fallout, according to ClearView Energy Partners. “Natural gas generators have often argued that they are more flexible and more reliable – particularly when intermittent renewables and/or storage may not be available in the case of protracted system stress,” the research firm said Wednesday. “Broad underperformance could provide contradictory evidence for such assertions.” x "Gas-fired generation accounted for 70% of the unplanned outages, he said"
https://t.co/3u0PQv6Fw1 — Kevin O'Rourke (@krorourke) January 17, 2023
On the other hand, wind and solar energy reached 10% of global production in 2022. That’s GREAT news!
x In 2021, 🌪️☀️ #wind and #solar hit a tenth of global electricity, with China leading the world.
Asia accounts for nearly half of the world's wind and solar generation in 2021.
Read more here:
https://t.co/NgN66AxIqS pic.twitter.com/q2sZ90LtMq — Ember (@EmberClimate) January 19, 2023
Meanwhile, UK and Germany keep demonstrating the old adage “When you’re in a hole, the first you need to do is STOP DIGGING FOR COAL”.
Climate activist say the coal mine's planned expansion would release vast amounts of greenhouse gas and violate German commitments to the 2015 Paris climate accord. Thunberg shared pictures and video of the ongoing German protests over the weekend. x An image for our age... pic.twitter.com/b90OK6Jzsw — Leo Hickman (@LeoHickman) January 17, 2023 "We are currently in Lützerath, a German village threatened to be demolished for an expansion of a coal mine," she wrote in a tweeted picture of herself with other protesters. "People have been resisting for years. " x So the UN chief uses his @wef speech in Davos to demand that fossil fuel producers are held to account.
Meanwhile, in Germany, @GretaThunberg & others are detained for protesting a new coal mine?
It's a mad, dark world. @NewStatesman:
https://t.co/6A7V2cxo7W — India Bourke (@india_bourke) January 18, 2023
In GOP madness news for the day, another MAGA Congressman wants to save us from something that is NOT happening, but is not interested in saving us from something that IS happening.
A U.S. Congressman from western Michigan wants to block any federal agency from banning gas-burning stoves and ovens after a national controversy exploded over the health safety of the appliances. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland, co-sponsored a bill to prohibit any federal rules that would prevent the use or purchase of gas-powered stoves, ranges, or ovens. This comes as lawmakers and politicos hotly debate whether toxic chemicals emitted from such appliances warrant consumer protection regulations, all while climate activists encourage residents to switch to electric appliances for environmental benefits. … White House officials said President Joe Biden would not support such a gas appliance ban, and the CPSC, an independent agency, said it’s not cooking up any such ban either.
So who IS planning on taking away your choices by banning appliances? Why, GOP politicians, of course!
Wyoming's legislature is considering a bill wherein they'd ask the people of Wyoming not to buy EV cars because they want to support oil and gas companies. Most importantly, if the state lawmakers pass this bill, they will send a copy to California's Gov. Newsom and President Biden, ensuring that someone in their respective offices is aware that Wyoming is still there. Essentially, Wyoming wants California to know it has a big truck that rolls coal
Happy? Be careful what you wish for…
House Republicans’ installation of some of their most incendiary conservatives on the Oversight Committee is sparking an unexpected feeling inside the White House: unbridled glee. The panel tasked with probing Biden policies and actions, as well as the president’s own family, will be stocked with some of the chamber’s biggest firebrands and die-hard Trumpists — including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) — ideal figureheads for a White House eager to deride the opposition party as unhinged. … “The Republicans have brought the QAnon caucus to the Oversight Committee, and you can expect them to run with the most ludicrous conspiracy theories one can ever imagine,” said Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.). “And I think our job is very simple, which is to make sure that we ground our work and any of these investigations in reality.”
Oh, and SCOTUS is about to go medieval on us all again:
The Supreme Court announced on Friday that it will hear Groff v. DeJoy, a case that could give religious conservatives an unprecedented new ability to dictate how their workplaces operate, and which workplace rules they will refuse to follow. Yet Groff is also likely to overrule a previous Supreme Court decision that treated the interests of religious employees far more dismissively than federal law suggests that these workers should be treated. ...In cases brought by business owners seeking exemptions from federal and state laws, for example, the Court has permitted those owners to discriminate against LGBTQ people and to deny certain health benefits to their employees. If the Court applies a similar standard to employees seeking religious accommodation, in the worst-case scenario, it could give a manager the right to refuse to hire any LGBTQ employees or to treat women subordinates differently than men...
How’s the weather?
Thanks to El Niño, the world is about to experience something like time travel to the year 2050. It won’t be pleasant. But rather than devolve into panic at the grim climate future it portends, we should use it as a warning about the need to do more to slow global warming. Climate scientists warned recently that the likely return of the El Niño weather pattern in the Pacific later this year could cause global temperatures to temporarily surge 1.5C above their pre-industrial average in 2024. That margin represents a warming benchmark the whole planet has set as a barely tolerable maximum for many decades in the future, not for the next few years. The repercussions could be grim. The strong El Niño of 2015-16 produced the highest average global temperature on record, in 2016, along with a horrific drought in Ethiopia, a powerful cyclone in Fiji, rain and snowfall records in parts of the US and history’s worst coral reef die-off. For some reason, it didn’t cause flooding in California; but El Niño events typically strengthen atmospheric rivers of the sort that have been drowning that state for the past few weeks. x "The Coming El Niño Could Be a Glimpse of a Grim Future" by @MarkGongloff for @Bloomberg News:
https://t.co/ZqBRE9P3l1 — Prof Michael E. Mann (@MichaelEMann) January 18, 2023
“Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!”
After an impressive snow drought in the northeast, caused in part by an onslaught of Atmospheric River events in California, the weather pattern is changing and computer forecast models are picking up on changes and suggesting the chance for a nor’easter or multiple nor’easters which could bring snow to areas that haven’t seen much at all in about 1-2 weeks. This afternoon’s ECMWF has a strong nor’easter signal on it for around January 23, with heavy inland snow and wind-whipped heavy rains depicted on surface charts of the northeast. It’s possible with time, the rain/snow line depicted by this model may shift significantly south and east or north and west. Today’s GFS also depicts a storm signal for around January 23 and another one on January 26 and a third one on January 31.
Something pretty:
x Timelapse of the aurora explosion from January 13 right outside our AirBnB near Seljalandsfoss, Iceland! You can really see how fast the aurora changed, it was amazing to see in person, the camera doesn't do it justice!@TamithaSkov #aurora #northernlights pic.twitter.com/NYopz5ftjU — Vincent Ledvina (@Vincent_Ledvina) January 18, 2023
What are you happy about tonight? Tell us what’s on your mind...
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