Senate could actually vote down Yemen war Wednesday
The Senate will weigh in tomorrow on whether to halt U.S. support for the war in Yemen, and in what could be a historic vote, Democrats, along with a handful of Republicans, are close to the numbers needed. If they succeed, it could be a turning point. Alex Emmons and I have the background here.
For Giving Tuesday, I started a fundraiser for The Intercept, which is a bit self-interested, but it’s a cause I wholeheartedly support. We’re mostly funded by billionaire Pierre Omidyar, but are working on balancing that out with small contributions, and we’ve made major progress in that direction recently.
In some ways, I think an ideal funding structure would be half readers and half benevolent billionaires, because if you’re 100% funded by readers, then you are tempted to trim your journalism if you think something you’re working on might make readers mad. And it’s good to sometimes make readers mad (as my inbox suggests I do quite effectively). It’s also not healthy longterm to be fully funded by any single source. So you can help us balance that out here.
Speaking of billionaire-funded operations, No Labels and its congressional offshoot, the Problem Solvers Caucus, have thrown a last-minute wrench into the Speaker election, demanding rules changes or they will oppose Nancy Pelosi. I have a story looking at the man behind the mission: none other than Mark Penn. This is one of those stories that is simultaneously unbelievable and totally believable. The Daily Beast, meanwhile, reported that No Labels contemplated making Nancy Pelosi a “bogeyman” during the 2018 midterms.
House Democrats meet Wednesday morning to vote on their House leadership. Pelosi has no challenger for Speaker, so her real challenge will be getting 218 affirmative votes on the House floor in January. Steny Hoyer and James Clyburn, running for the number two and three spots, are also unopposed. (Only the Speaker needs to be ratified on the House floor.)
But the number four spot, Caucus Chair, is where the action is. The left has organized behind Rep. Barbara Lee, who is facing off against New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries. Caucus elections are about personal relationships and internal party politics, yet a large coalition of outside progressive groups has been trying to lobby Democrats to get behind Lee. It’ll be an interesting test of the left’s strength. Aida Chavez reports on that fight here.
In the Mississippi Senate race, Mike Espy is trailing with about two-thirds of the vote counted, but the race is much closer than Republicans would like.
Briahna Gray wrote today about how Amazon, UPS and a handful of other corporations have yet to give back their contributions, while other companies flee from the racist campaign run by Hyde-Smith.
The guy who has been bird dogging all these corporations is Judd Legum. You may recall I recommended his newsletter a few months ago, which he quit his day job to write.