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The movement to abolish the Electoral College just got a major boost as Democrats gained five new state trifectas. Stephen Miller’s biographer warns he wants “a servant class, not a working class.” A new rule is on track to kick thousands of mixed-immigration-status families off of federal housing assistance, including 37,000 children. And federal prosecutors subpoena the American Federation of Teachers for information on pro-Palestine students.
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Movement to End the Electoral College Gets Boost After Democratic Wins
It only took 226 years for the country to consider the idea that the person with the most votes should win.
Democrats’ sweeps of state governments in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin last week has brought the movement to end the Electoral College closer than ever. Those five states represent 61 electoral votes, and with four of them joining the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, the agreement would hit the 270-vote majority needed to take effect.
Under the compact, member states would award their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, even if that candidate lost in their state. So far, 18 states and D.C. have signed on, representing 222 electoral votes.
Several newly elected Democrats already are backing the concept. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a possible 2028 presidential candidate, told Pod Save America that “the national popular vote makes sense,” and Wisconsin Gov.-elect David Crowley told the Associated Press that the state can “do away with” the Electoral College.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, who sponsored a bill in support of the measure when she was a state lawmaker, declined to say whether she supports it in a television interview this week. The state’s Democratic Senate leader, Priya Sundareshan, said the compact “goes a long way to demonstrating that every vote matters.”
Stephen Miller’s Biographer Warns He Wants “a Servant Class”
Most kids who bully the janitor get detention, not the West Wing.
Trump appointed Stephen Miller, his longtime adviser and author of the administration’s immigration agenda, as his new chief of staff last week. In an interview with WIRED, Miller’s biographer Jean Guerrero said she now sees him as “a class supremacist” rather than a white nationalist, because he “wants a servant class, not a working class.”
Guerrero called Miller “the most effective sycophant in Trump’s orbit” and Trump’s “longest-lasting and most trusted adviser.” She said she now also sees him as “a case study in oligarchic capture.”
Guerrero traced Miller’s world view back to his teenage years, when he would demand that janitors clean up the trash he intentionally left on cafeteria tables. She said Miller “didn’t mind having immigrants around so long as they stayed ‘in their place,’ where they were quietly serving him.”
Guerrero said she doesn’t expect Miller to hold back in his new role. She predicted he will shift toward characterizing “anyone who fights for social justice, not just for immigrants, as domestic terrorists,” calling that “the war that Stephen Miller has been dying to fight for a very long time.”
Trump’s New Rule Would Strip Housing From Thousands of Families
Family separation used to require a trip to the border.
HUD published a final rule Thursday that would bar mixed-immigration-status families from most federal housing assistance, disqualifying an entire family if one member is ineligible. The rule goes into effect in mid-December and may impact nearly 80,000 people, including 37,000 children, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Current rules already prohibit ineligible members from personally receiving aid, but eligible family members can receive assistance on a prorated basis and the ineligible member can continue living with them. The new rule ends that arrangement, forcing families to choose between separating or losing their housing altogether.
A typical mixed-status family in HUD housing is a family of four with one ineligible parent, one eligible parent such as a permanent resident, and U.S.-citizen children. The average mixed-status household makes $18,000 a year, according to the Terner Center.
The HUD analysis estimated the rule would cost the federal government an additional $300 million in funds to serve the same number of families. Trump has proposed slashing $3.8 billion from HUD’s affordable housing, homelessness, and community development programs.
Trump Subpoenas Teachers’ Union for Info on Pro-Palestine Students
Charging twelve people with vandalism apparently requires the membership records of 1.7 million union members.
Federal prosecutors subpoenaed one of the country’s largest unions as part of an investigation into pro-Palestine protests at the University of Michigan. Copies obtained by The Intercept show that the American Federation of Teachers and its local chapter, the Graduate Employees’ Organization, both received grand jury subpoenas in August.
The subpoenas are related to a case involving 12 pro-Palestine activists, dubbed the “Michigan 12,” who were charged with felony vandalism during protests that called for the university to divest from holdings tied to Israel. The indictment does not name the GEO, but prosecutors say it is linked to the defendants through the Tahrir coalition, a pro-Palestinian student group on campus.
The subpoenas seek a wide range of records, including full membership rolls, payroll records for officers, reimbursement policies, and audit reports and transcribed minutes of meetings going back to January 2023. GEO president Hiab Teshome suggested the AFT subpoena could be an attempt to circumvent the local union and get its data through the national organization.
The subpoenas were issued by federal prosecutors the same day a local judge dropped separate felony embezzlement charges against Teshome. GEO called the charges meritless and Teshome was cleared by the university’s student government before the dismissal.
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It’s freaking about time they got rid of that undemocratic, dam* useless whatever it is!! Rump👹would Not have won the first time, if not the second. (I don’t remember which election it screwed up!!) The one terrific outcome is that we now have Democrat Socialists! Absolutely unbelievable 😈🌷🌱
It's time for this old fashioned voting system to be thrown in the ash pit of history. Of all the unfair voting systems this takes the cake! We have the chance to do it without a constitutional amendment, so let's get it done!!!!