Steven S Smith

Everyone should read these threads I did about industry lobbyists and the EPA and understand them. Take the time to see the unambiguous evidence of what's happening now at this moment inside the EPA. Please retweet them. Please read them. Each one of the threads. It's happening in slow motion.

“The Department of Justice is putting its formidable thumb on next week’s elections in a way that seems clearly intended to call into question the legitimacy of any result that is especially unfavorable to Republicans—before those results have even come in.” Me on DOJ’s California and Alaska suits:

I visited MLK Community Hospital in South LA, the only safety-net hospital serving poor patients in the area. The ER was built for 25,000 patients a year; it gets 120,000. I saw patients getting treated in the gift shop, the chapel, in tents, even outdoors. And this is before the Medicaid cuts.

New Mexico? How about New Hampshire? (Hampshire, of course, is a ceremonial county in SE England.) Then there are the cities, including 23 named Paris. York is the obvious target, but how about Mexico, MO?

“Donald Trump’s treachery was predictable and predicted. Even so, watching him throwing a financial lifeline to Putin as the monstrous mob boss murders Ukrainians is sick-making stuff. The president’s “October Suprise” was a stab in the back.” charliesykes.substack.com/p/russia-rus...

Whatever else is behind it, a good bet is that Sinema's endorsement of Repub Feely in AZ1 has her clients' (data centers?) money behind it.

That $366 million Elon is spending to try and convince voters that Congress should stay Republican? It's more money than McCain's 2008 campaign spent. But it's also, relative to Musk's net worth, the same as a household at the median income spending $32.

Billions of dollars’ worth of contracts predicting oil would fall and the S&P 500 would rise were placed about 15 minutes before Trump announced a U-turn on Iran in a post on Truth Social. CFTC staff began to investigate...then were told to lay off. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Support Ukraine!

Agreed

Senate Ds taking to the floor to address presidential impoundments is great. They did nothing meaningful about it on the CR. Let's see what they do on full FY27 funding bills.

Susan Collins on how to push back on Trump’s $810 mill rescission: “One of the things that could be done is the GAO could be authorized to sue the administration under the Impoundment & Budget Control Act of 1974. So that's one option. But Congress would have to authorize that.”

Huh? Rail line complications give reason to doubt that this will happen for years. Involves switches from one major railroad network to another, mass investment in cars and locos, freight line bottlenecks, IA's intersection limits. For now, just trying to buy IA votes.

Right. "Cloture having been invoked, the pending motion to recommit falls." CR, Nov 13 2002, S10856.

Must read by @jrakove.bsky.social

From suggestions to norms to written rules. House Ds likely to formalize expectations for the behavior of their committee leaders: paying DCCC dues, attending House votes, and voting with the rest of the caucus on procedural votes. www.washingtonsun.com/congress/hou...

Other news organizations should leave the White House. They can of course still cover the administration--almost none of their coverage depends on being there physically. But they shouldn't stay there, raising their hands dutifully in the briefing room, as if it's business as usual.

Massie went on for over an hour reading his impeachment resolution… Giving notice of your intent to offer a question of privilege has a lot of potential as a method of filibustering (you have to read your resolution in full). It’s only a matter of time before it gets curtailed.

Challenges the view that constituents' knowledge of legislators' votes is better than we think. Actually, not so good.

www.contrariannews.org/p/25-year-la...

At 1:30 today at The Contrarian, I will have a long piece looking at the 25 year history of futile attempts to deal with continuity of government, serious issues raised on 9/11, heightened by, among other things, Covid & the January 6 violent insurrection. Link will post then

Not sure it was a great life decision to write law review articles about matters that are as fresh as today's headlines. But, in any event, here's an updated version of my slush funds piece: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

If Hegseth runs for president, I expect him to come across like the West Wing‘s Republican candidate for president in an early series, Gov Robert Ritchie (James Brolin). Remember him? "Crime. Boy, I don't know.”

ATP and WTA tennis need an 7-month schedule that limits the number of major and 1000 Masters tournaments for players in that period. The ranking and financial pressures to play nearly continuously year-round seems to be hurting players and hurting the game. Playing Jan-Nov is absurd.

It’s not so much that you can’t, but rather that the clerks will be annoyed if you do. (🧾 in post below)

Must read cstewartiii.bsky.social

As a present to the Russian embassy in DC for UA Independence Day, I am planning to make a giant arch of 500 blue and yellow balloons for display at the #GatesOfHell. Anyone in the DMV who wants to help me inflate and hang balloons should join me at Wisconsin and Edmunds NW at 5:00 pm on Sunday.

Worth a read: An investigation ditched by the NYT. substack.com/inbox/post/2...

The moral imperative is clear: Democrats must self-regulate to avoid exploitation of small donors.

Emmer is embarrassing, truly embarrassing. His state party leadership went to some trouble to nominate articulate, intelligent candidates for statewide office this year but they are stuck with this guy in US House “leadership.”

Republicans cut healthcare for millions with Trump's #BigBeautifulBill and now: www.npr.org/2026/07/31/n...

But we all appreciate the debate and deliberation that took place on the floor during that hour.

The US currently gives more military aid to Egypt than to Ukraine. Why?

Update on this: This bill just passed the Senate, 86-11. Efforts to strip the sweeping new tariff authorities from the bill failed. Lunacy

Some notes on presidents and Senate filibuster reform. The (nearly) unprecedented tension between Trump and Senate Rs. stevesnotes.substack.com/p/note-47-pr...

Slava Ukraini!

the memo from Doran Schrantz shared in this Kuttner piece via this link is an absolute must-read www.documentcloud.org/documents/28...

Presidents and filibuster reform: A short note. stevesnotes.substack.com/p/note-47-pr...

Read @nedfoley.bsky.social, pointing out a big David French mistake in his @nytopinion.nytimes.com column Another reminder: the House is not a continuing body electionlawblog.org?p=157565