The Dispatch
Populists Surge in Colombia Amid Violence
Plus: A judge blocks Trump’s $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, and a sexting scandal engulfs Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner.
Center Right
Bloomberg Politics
Colombian Bonds Surge as Right-Wing Outsider Moves Into Runoff
Center
Colombia’s dollar bonds rallied Monday after right-wing outsider Abelardo de La Espriella unexpectedly won the first-round of voting for president and went into the runoff as clear favorite against leftist Ivan Cepeda.
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The New Republic
How Trump Is Wrecking the Agency That Protects Worker’s Labor Rights
A great riddle of the 2024 election is how Donald Trump managed to double (to 14 points) his advantage among working class voters, defined as those lacking a college degree, compared to 2016. This is a mystery because Trump spent much of his first term undermining labor rights. The main (though by no means only) vehicle for doing so was the Trump-appointed majority on the National Labor Relations Board, which adjudicates labor-management disputes.Among other anti-worker rulings, the Trump NLRB effectively scuttled a legal challenge that the Obama NLRB’s general counsel had initiated holding McDonald’s liable for labor-law violations committed by its franchisees; permitted management to require as a condition of employment that workers give up their right to sue the company; empowered management to slow down union elections, a common tactic to undermine organizing drives; and denied workers the right to use work email to communicate about workplace issues. Despite all this, Trump in 2024 expanded his share of the very working-class voters he worked so hard to undermine, from 51 percent in 2016 to 56 percent. Trump even bumped up his share of union-household votes, from 42 percent in 2016 to 45 percent, reducing the Democratic advantage from 9 percentage points to eight. It was hard not to conclude that America’s working class, which had been dying in shocking numbers from what the economists Ann Case and Angus Deaton called “deaths of despair,” was committing economic suicide as well.Fentanyl-related deaths began to decline around 2022 and continue to do so, raising some hope that the working class will cease committing self-harm at the ballot box. Early signs are trickling in that this is starting to happen. Trump’s even beginning to falter with white working class voters, who until now had been his most stalwart supporters. So perhaps the proles will now pay more attention to the havoc Trump II is wreaking at the NLRB.The main Trump plan this time out has been to put the NLRB on ice by denying it a quorum. That was achieved by firing NLRB Board Chair Gwynn Wilcox, a Democratic appointee, a few days after Trump’s inauguration. No reason was stated for the firing, making it plainly illegal under the 1935 National Labor Relations Act (“Any member of the Board may be removed by the President, upon notice and hearing, for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, but for no other cause”). Wilcox sued. A district court judge reinstated her, but then the D.C. Court of Appeals issued an emergency stay of that decision, the “emergency” in this case apparently being that the NLRB might resume operations with a lawfully appointed board member. On further “en banc” consideration, however, the appeals court concluded the firing really did violate the law, and so reinstated Wilcox. That prompted the Supreme Court to execute the final chess move, blocking Wilcox’s reinstatement on the grounds that the high court intended to overturn the 1935 precedent upholding Wilcox’s job protection (Humphrey’s Executor) but just hadn’t got around to it yet. (They’re very busy people!) The vehicle for Humphrey’s Executor’s execution won’t be Wilcox’s case (to which the Supreme Court denied cert) but rather a separate case about Trump’s firing Democratic Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter. The high court heard Trump v. Slaughter arguments in December. Considering that it previously broadcast to the world that Trump would win, why haven’t we seen a decision? Because the reactionary majority has to concoct some plausible-sounding reason to dismantle Humphrey’s Executor for the NLRB, the Federal Trade Commission, and all the other independent agencies it doesn’t take seriously enough to care whether Trump fouls them up—but to keep Humphrey’s Executor for the one independent agency the Republican majority does take seriously, which is the Federal Reserve. If Trump fouls the Fed up, that will screw up their retirement accounts! But you can’t say that in a legal opinion, so they’re struggling to come up with something that sounds better. In denying the NLRB a quorum, Trump denied Wilcox the opportunity to preside over a Democratic NLRB majority until Trump got around to filling its two vacancies—three after Wilcox’s ouster. (Presidents must reserve two of the five NLRB board positions for the opposing party, and by law all five board members serve fixed terms.) Putting the NLRB on ice also denied parties the chance to appeal to the full board in Washington any adverse decision handed down by a regional NLRB administrative law judge. That had the effect of leaving many ALJ decisions in limbo, management’s second-favorite destination for unfair labor practice challenges.
Left
The Tyee | BC's home for today's news, analysis and updates
BC’s Right-Wing Populists Have a New Queen. How Will Findlay Rule?
She became leader of the BC Conservatives by inflaming party divisions she now must unify.
Far Left
New York Post
California governor candidate Steve Hilton reveals his first major move if he wins election — and Dems will hate it
With the California’s primary election just days away, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton is making his final pitch to voters for why he’s the man for the job — outlining how he intends to bring down the state’s cost of living, while putting more money in people’s pockets.
Right
Bloomberg Politics
Australia Populist Party Surges to Poll Lead as Budget Struggles
Australia’s populist One Nation party surged past the ruling Labor party to lead a nationwide opinion poll for the first time, highlighting voter disappointment with last month’s budget and reinforcing signs of a fracturing of the conservative side of politics.
Center
The Last Refuge
Mike Steger Recaps Current State of “Fortress America” – President Trump’s American Manufacturing Surge
Mike Steger takes less than 20-minutes to walk through a year of President Trump’s multifaceted U.S. manufacturing policy initiatives that have positioned the U.S. economy for a massive surge in growth. Steger recaps several consequential moves by President Trump and his cabinet to fundamentally change economics in the Western Hemisphere. Each point is well delivered […] The post Mike Steger Recaps Current State of “Fortress America” – President Trump’s American Manufacturing Surge appeared first on The Last Refuge.
Far Right
The Hill News
Kim on clashes outside New Jersey ICE facility: ‘One of the most difficult weeks of my entire life’
Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) on Sunday called the past week of clashes between law enforcement officers and demonstrators protesting conditions inside a federal immigration detention center “one of the most difficult” of his life. Kim met with protesters outside Delaney Hall in Newark, N.J., last weekend after they gathered in solidarity with detained migrants on…
Center
The Atlantic
The Arc of the Voting Rights Act
Louisiana Republicans erased a majority-Black congressional district.
Center Left