[What A Day]([link removed])

Wednesday, September 25, 2024
BY MATT BERG & CROOKED MEDIA

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- Al Gore, on the fossil fuel industry’s [influence in politics]([link removed]), particularly among Republicans

Donald Trump is losing his lead on the economy, while Kamala Harris makes her pitch to help everyday people and not, you know, billionaire cronies and corporations.
 

- The economy is what matters most to voters this election, [hands down]([link removed]). Being strong on the economy has always been former President Donald Trump’s big sales pitch — he’s an experienced businessman (who ran numerous companies [into the ground]([link removed])). But data shows that Trump was [not decisively better]([link removed]) on the economy than President Joe Biden, and Americans are starting to feel more optimistic about the economy heading into November. While voters still favor Trump’s handling of the economy over Vice President Kamala Harris, his advantage is dramatically slipping, according to a [Washington Post]([link removed]) analysis of several polls.
 

- “For Donald Trump, our economy works best if it works for those who own the big skyscrapers — not those who actually build them, not those who wire them, not those who mop the floors. I have a very different vision,” Harris [said in an economic speech]([link removed]) in Pennsylvania hours ago. “We have an extraordinary opportunity to make our middle class the engine of America's prosperity, to build a stronger economy where everyone everywhere has a chance to pursue their dreams and aspirations.” If she wins in November, the veep says she’ll push for middle-class tax cuts and tax hikes on wealthy people and corporations, while Trump has pitched corporate tax cuts for companies that make products in the United States.
 

- Earlier this afternoon, Trump spent much of a North Carolina rally promising to use tariffs to boost American manufacturing and saying that Harris will be soft on China. One of Trump’s recent fixations has been promising to slap 200 percent tariffs on Mexican-made John Deere tractors, an idea that economists and business leaders [including billionaire Mark Cuban]([link removed]) have said would “destroy” the company. Even hardline Republicans aren’t on board with Trump’s grand vision. “I’m not a fan of tariffs. They raise the prices for American consumers,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) [told reporters]([link removed]).

Economists are coming out in droves to back Harris, warning that a second Trump administration would implement policies that haven’t worked.
 

- I don’t pretend to understand how the economy works, what high tariffs will do to a company, or why my oat milk feels weirdly expensive some weeks. Instead, I listen to nerdy-types who know this stuff inside and out — like the [more than 400 economists]([link removed]) who are endorsing Harris: “The choice in this election is clear: between failed trickle-down economic policies that benefit the few and economic policies that provide opportunity for all. It is a choice between inequity, economic injustice, and uncertainty with Donald Trump or prosperity, opportunity, and stability with Kamala Harris.” Most of the endorsers are left-leaning, but it’s not the first time [accomplished economists have warned]([link removed]) about a Trump return.
 

- No, Harris is not a “communist,” no matter how often Trump and billionaire conspiracist Elon Musk call her one. You’ll also often hear the convicted felon claim that the economy is weak, but [inflation is easing]([link removed]) and the unemployment rate [is at 4.2 percent]([link removed]), which is considered healthy. No matter how he tries to spin it, the numbers point to a strengthening economy, a good sign for the working class — especially if Harris is able to implement the policies she’s proposing.

If hundreds of engineers told you one plane will likely crash into the sea and another will fly safely, which would you board?

In partnership with Crooked Ideas’s Anti-Doom Initiative: a conversation about the climate crisis that centers on progress, not panic. 
 
Along the Saco River in rural Maine, Grandy Organics employs 40 people in a [solar-powered]([link removed]) granola bakery. Owner Aaron Anker says that’s a double climate victory — for energy, and short commutes. “Most of those people would have to drive to work in Portland or even New Hampshire, otherwise.” Anker says they’ve all thrived, in the town of Hiram. Over 24 years, Grandy employees got married, became friends, bought homes and took vacations. “Your business becomes sort of like your baby. Then it becomes about the people.” But Anker knew the company needed new efficiencies.

The Inflation Reduction Act delivered: A Rural Energy For America grant of $171,219 has helped cover energy efficient stoves, a dishwasher, and an HVAC system for the bakery. 

“We really had to evolve,” Anker says. 

WIth much larger pots of money, the IRA is also enabling large-scale, public infrastructure to evolve. 

Mining coal out of seams underground releases methane, a planet-warming gas that must be vented for safety. “That makes Pennsylvania’s industrial emissions footprint unique,” [according]([link removed]) to the Department of Environmental Protection’s Louie Krak.
It’s not just coal: Pennsylvania also wants to shrink emissions for oil and gas production, and cement, iron and steel plants. That’s where [RISE PA]([link removed]) comes in. It’s a [$400 million]([link removed]) program meant to incentivize manufacturers to capture carbon and expand renewable energy. Financial carrots are key because Pennsylvania still has no regulatory stick to force industry to cut greenhouse gasses, and because clean tech is still pricey. It’s going to take [way more money]([link removed]) to bring industrial emissions down, but Krak says this is a good start.
 
And five thousand miles west, the island of Kaua’i — like all of Hawaii — long was oil-dependent for electricity. After a bad hurricane, its residents [went co-op, buying the local utility]([link removed]). Pretty quickly, the board invested in renewables, to stabilize and lower electric rates, says Kaua’i Island Utility Cooperative spokeswoman Beth Amaro. “Our rates were 70% higher, that’s seven-zero, than rates on Oahu.” 
 
Not anymore. Now solar panels nestled into unused agricultural land capture energy all day, and the utility shifts clean power into peak hours with batteries. Electric rates are the lowest among islands. A [$24.5 million Powering Affordable Clean Energy loan]([link removed]) will expand solar and strengthen the island’s grid, pushing the island toward 100% green energy. 
 
“We can't just tap into an adjacent grid to help us even if, say, we're having a huge weather event. We're kind of on our own until after something passes,” Amaro says. 

“We have to be ready for it all.”

Tomorrow: The Inflation Reduction Act buys monitoring, for the health of people and bison.

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Don’t miss this week’s episode of Hysteria, where Erin Ryan and Alyssa Mastromanaco break down the SAVE Act, the recently passed law requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship. They break down its implications for women who have changed their last names - giving you all the info you need just in time for voter registration! Tune in for new episodes of Hysteria every Thursday, and make sure to search Hysteria on the Audacy app!

Many Secret Service failures led to the close-call assassination attempt against Trump in July, which was “foreseeable” and “preventable,” a Senate investigation [released Wednesday found]([link removed]). There wasn’t a clear chain of command among the Secret Service at the event, investigators found, and there was no coverage planned for the building that the shooter climbed. 
 
Israel’s military said it shot down a missile from Hezbollah aimed at Tel Aviv on Wednesday, which [marked the first time]([link removed]) the Iran-backed group has fired directly at the city. Israel is continuing its bombardment of Lebanon, where the militia is based, striking about 280 sites by Wednesday afternoon. Israeli airstrikes this week have killed hundreds of people in Lebanon, as President Joe Biden [warned that]([link removed]) “all-out war is possible.”
 
The Trump campaign said it was [briefed on efforts by Iran]([link removed]) to kill the former president, and Trump said he believes the country “will try again.”
 
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) [called on]([link removed]) New York City Mayor Eric Adams to resign following a federal corruption probe into his inner circle. She’s the highest-profile politician to call for him to step down.
 

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CFR Spotlights Foreign Policy in the U.S. Presidential Election
 
In the run-up to the November presidential election, the Council on Foreign Relations has launched Election 2024, an initiative that offers a wide range of resources–including a content hub, candidate tracker, podcasts, videos, and more–to help voters better understand the critical international issues at stake. 
 
Elections matter. Leaders matter. The world matters.
 

Donald Trump’s Electoral College advantage [seems to be shrinking]([link removed]), according to New York Times pollster Nate Cohn. If current polling trends hold, he argues, “the Republican advantage in the Electoral College will be at its lowest level in a decade.” Can we still abolish it? That would be cool. Let’s do that.

A judge ruled that the assets belonging to Alex Jones, the InfoWars whackjob, [will be sold off piece by piece]([link removed]) to pay $1 billion he owes to the relatives of the Sandy Hook school shooting victims.
 

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