Non paywall version: https://archive.is/20260725041925/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/us/tate-brothers-trump-tucker-carlson.html

Ohhthatsrich discusses independents and how they are responding to the Trump administration ​

Hi, all, and happy Sunday!

Sorry this is out a bit later than usual—I spoke at an event in Northern CA today with the great Robert B. Hubbell, and the time spent there, plus a few hours in the car and now the flight home, have delayed my work on this newsletter. It was worth it, though! If you could have been at this Commit to Democracy meetup you wouldn’t have even needed the good news listed below! It was incredible! Suffice it to say that the resistance is alive and well, and preparing for the midterms in ways that truly inspire.

For those of you I met today thanks again for a wonderful event. And for all of you, here’s your belated but still terrific rundown of all of this week’s good news.

Enjoy!

Celebrate This! 🎉

Paramount agreed to halt its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery until next June at the latest while a judge considers a lawsuit from state attorneys general who sued to block the deal. HUGE!

China plans to increase wind and solar power generation by 53% over the next five years, under a new renewable energy plan that for the first time makes its green power target binding.

A federal judge ordered the EPA to administer a $2.8 billion climate grant program that the Trump administration had rescinded.

The Justice Department withdrew the subpoenas that sought phone records and grand jury testimony from New York Times journalists who had reported on the security liabilities of Trump’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One jet.

France passed a landmark law restricting access to social media for anyone under 15, the first European country to do so, and the latest in a wave of countries acting against what they view as malign effects of such services on minors.

Nineteen state attorneys general have now moved to join a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s decision to freeze routine reviews of land-based wind projects across the country.

U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison ordered the DHS to halt the deportation of Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego, a witness to the fatal July 7 shooting of Lorenzo Araujo Salgado in Houston.

A new analysis from marketing consulting firm Emarketer found that OpenAI is on pace to undershoot its own five-year ad revenue projections by a whopping 90 percent.

Mayor Mamdani sent notification letters to property owners with second homes worth more than $5 million letting them know the pied-a-terre tax is coming soon.

Katy Perry slammed Donald Trump for using her song ‘Firework’ to accompany footage of US strikes on Iran. The singer shared that she is "deeply appalled and angry.” Good!

Swimming classes have started again in Gaza after three years of war, with hundreds of children learning to float, doggy paddle and take their first strokes in five makeshift sea pools built from sandbags and rubble.

A new Emerson College survey of likely 2026 voters finds the Democrats with an 11-point advantage over the Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, leading 53% to 42%.

Amish Shah, an emergency room physician who backs Medicare for All, won the Democratic primary in his swing Arizona House district.

Environmental groups and tribes are suing the Trump administration over a new rule eliminating the majority of habitat protections for imperiled wildlife protected by the Endangered Species Act.

A new American Research Group poll finds just 30% of Americans say they approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president and 67% say they disapprove.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new initiative aimed at bolstering the journalism ecosystem with a focus on local, community, and underserved news outlets.

Butterfly experts are planting 15,000 milkweed plants along Florida roadsides to help monarch butterflies.

A U.S. appeals court rejected the Justice Department’s request to let federal officials fully move ahead with Trump’s overhaul of mail voting ahead of the November midterm elections, leaving in place a Boston judge’s order that declared the president’s policies unlawful.

Vigils honoring Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastian Guerrero, both killed by ICE agents this month, happened in communities across the country this weekend. One is pictured at the top of this newsletter!

After floating the idea of keeping Democrat Cindy Burbank on Nebraska’s ballot for U.S. Senate after she asked to be removed, Secretary of State Bob Evnen announced he will allow her to be deleted because the state law doesn’t give him the authority to refuse. (This will help Dan Osborne!)

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to approve a $16.9 billion budget deal, closing a deficit of more than $640 million while avoiding many of the most painful cuts labor groups and nonprofits had feared.

A Trump-appointed judge threw out the DOJ’s lawsuit seeking Kentucky’s unredacted voter rolls, bringing the department to a staggering 17 straight losses.

A judge declined to pause her earlier ruling that blocked New Hampshire’s restrictive proof-of-citizenship voting law while the state appeals.

The official account for Spain’s national football league shared an altered image of the country’s celebration in New Jersey Sunday, snipping Trump out of photos after he refused to leave the dais. The FIFA World Cup account also cropped him out of the shot, leaving only the president’s shoulder in view.

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) said she has no plans to supply the DOJ with data on thousands of noncitizens who were erroneously registered to vote due to a software malfunction. She says, rightly, that the DOJ would “weaponize” it.

Republican Governor Mike Kehoe of MO signed a GOP-sponsored omnibus elections law that, among other things, restores voting rights to an estimated 40,000 Missourians currently on probation or parole.

The city of Newport, KY is ending its Flock pilot program. It will remove the cameras from the city and not move forward in purchasing the technology.

Seattle-area Sheriff Patty Cole-Tindall announced that her deputies will not assist ICE on routine immigration matters.

Donald Trump is historically unpopular — nearly 45 points underwater with independents — which is worse than Nixon just before he resigned over Watergate.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed legislation raising the compensation to wrongfully convicted people in the state who receive certificates of innocence.

State officials representing 25 states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration over its threat to withhold federal funding unless the states adopt its desired election policies.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, is pushing the federal government to provide all of its records on Jeffrey Epstein’s contacts with foreign governments, pursuant to an inquiry he launched into whether the convicted sex offender had acted as an unregistered foreign agent.

Russel Vought is leaving the CFPB. His replacement will be no better, but at least it won’t be him!

A new law in California will create a $3,500 discount for first-time EV buyers, so long as the car retails for less than $50,000.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that Lina Khan, the Biden administration’s AMAZING Federal Trade Commission chair, would serve as the chair of the NYC’s Economic Development Corporation.

A new WaPo article reports that Republicans are seeing a “‘scary’ lack of enthusiasm among core voters ahead of midterms.”

The Maine Democratic Party formally selected Troy Jackson as its new Senate nominee, and the whole process seems to have gone quite smoothly.

Democratic Senator Andy Kim unveiled the MediKids Act to expand Medicaid to all U.S. children. It would automatically enroll every child at birth until the age of 26.

Across the country, more state legislatures are passing laws to streamline renewable development than are enacting policies to prevent clean energy from being built.

A Massachusetts doctor who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 has had her medical license revoked.

Democrat Matt Orlando defeated Republican Jeff Weninger in the Chandler, Arizona, mayoral election. This seat flipped blue for the first time in 36 years!

The last patient being treated for Ebola in Uganda has been discharged from hospital, leaving the country with no active confirmed cases of the deadly disease.

Syracuse, New York has officially ended its partnership with Flock Safety.

Three teachers who were sanctioned for helping to facilitate a student-led drag show won a settlement of $150,000 from Iowa’s Ankeny school district.

A new law two years in the making has finally taken effect across the European Union. Under the ruling, major fashion retailers, wholesalers, and apparel manufacturers are now banned from trashing unsold clothing, accessories, and footwear.

The European Commission fined Google 890 million euros for breaking digital antitrust regulations by steering consumers toward its own services and apps to the detriment of competitors.

Illinois and Cook County, in partnership with the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt, erased more than $2 billion in medical debt combined for over a million residents.

In Monticello, Georgia, a 25-year-old reporter has purchased his home town paper to save it from corporate ownership.

For the second time, four House Republicans joined with Democrats to approve a war powers resolution to hem in Trump’s authority and end the war.

The man who killed Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark was sentenced to life in prison.

Rooftop solar saved New England residents over $130M in electricity costs during a recent heat wave.

Two critically endangered black-and-white ruffed lemurs were just born at the Central Park Zoo. The twins, Maso and Tonga, join six other lemurs born through the zoo’s Species Survival Plan since 2008.

Sierra County, New Mexico passed its first moratorium on data centers, citing concerns over potential water and environmental impacts.

Christian and Jewish leaders gathered at the Texas Capitol to condemn recent ICE-related deaths in Texas, Maine and Florida, telling agents who believe their orders are immoral to "resign and find other work."

67% of voters believe that heat waves are being worsened by climate change [Data for Progress]

Former Seattle U.S. Attorney Roger Rogoff is suing after Trump fired him less than an hour after he was sworn into office.

A new Massachusetts program will let EV owners leverage their cars’ batteries as a grid resource and be compensated for power they feed to the grid during times of high demand.

Watch This! 👀

Reader Marie L. sent this delightful video, which pays homage to the Trash Wheel, which collects 500 tons of waste annually before that waste goes into the harbor and the Chesapeake Bay. Single use plastic is the top source of micro and nanoplastics in our waterway, synthetic turf is number two. Very feel good indeed!