Peter Chen

Starting to think right-wingers complaining about attacks on free speech on college campuses did not actually care about free speech at all

🚨BREAKING - VICTORY! After months of community pressure, Union County announced they WILL NOT contract with private prisons including ICE.

Huge victory for people’s power! When we fight, we win!

In short, the agreement gives legal form to an extortion scheme _the first of its kind!-that defies the relevant statutes as well as the constitutional separation of powers and the First Amendment.

Fantastic and timely intervention by the indispensable Dave Pozen on the true meaning of the Columbia shakedown for higher ed: replacing the rule of law with regulation by deal, which ultimately undermines both regulation and education.

balkin.blogspot.com/2025/07/regu...

Op-Ed: We need more eyes on public utilities’ key votes | NJ Spotlight News PJM Interconnection's policies are shaped by votes by public utilities that profit when energy prices go up and energy is connected inefficiently.

“Simply put, the public utilities that vote to increase our energy bills can do so without any accountability due to zero transparency in how they vote.” -Asm Karabinchak via @njspotlightnews.org
www.njspotlightnews.org/2025/07/nj-r...

If you like conspiracy theories, can I interest you in the very public conspiracy of wealthy elites that will kill tens of thousands of Americans each year by taking away their health care, all in the name of making themselves richer?

Congestion pricing made us stay in NYC Not long ago, my family was seriously considering leaving New York City. We live in Jackson Heights, where our son attends a great local school and we’re surrounded by the kind of energy and divers…

Six months in, congestion pricing is more popular than ever.

Why? Because it's delivering on its promise of reduced traffic, safer streets, cleaner air, and major new investments in public transit.

AI data centers are using more power. Regular customers are footing the bill • New Jersey Monitor Regular energy consumers, not corporations, will bear the brunt of the increased costs of a boom in artificial intelligence that has contributed to a growth in data centers and a surge in power usage,...

AI data centers are using more power. Regular customers are footing the bill newjerseymonitor.com/2025/07/21/r... via @bypaigegross.bsky.social

Gee it'd be really great if there were some kind of Democratic Party that could promote this agenda

Nothing says "government efficiency" like "force everyone to pay for-profit tax filing services every year to pay their taxes rather than a popular free service."

The campaign to make it illegal for ChatGPT to criticize Trump The conservative pressure campaign against social networks was hugely successful — and now it's coming for AI

The campaign to make it illegal for ChatGPT to criticize Trump, by Casey Newton @caseynewton.bsky.social / Platformer www.platformer.news/andrew-baile...

Headline 1, "Americans are losing spending power, say researchers: Most can no longer afford a 'minimal quality of life.'" Headline 2, "The 10 richest Americans got $365 billion richer in the past year. Now they're on the verge of a huge tax cut."

The United States summed up in two headlines.

Senators face crucial vote on $9.4 billion rescissions package - Roll Call The Senate could take a procedural vote as soon as Tuesday on the Trump administration’s request to rescind $9.4 billion in appropriations.

#GreatRead via Roll Call highlighting that people relying on foreign aid and public media face cuts if the Senate approves the Trump administration’s $9.4 billion rescissions package: rollcall.com/2025/07/14/s...

It is absolutely wild that in my fairly short lifetime, we went from having giant, slow-moving, named storms once every 10 years or so, to now having record-breaking rainfall and floods on a random Monday.

Like I *KNOW* flooding. My childhood home I lived in for 26 years was in a 100-year flood zone. One of my earliest childhood memories is my dad putting on waders to carry us out one by one during Hurricane Floyd. We had to evacuate to my grandparents house nearby.

How many more people need to die before New Jersey acts on climate change? | Opinion 1 year after 30 people died in Tropical Storm Ida, Gov. Murphy must stand up to the lies and disinformation spread by irresponsible developers who want to exploit the most vulnerable among us to make ...

An apt time to repost this op-ed I wrote w/Jen Coffey of @anjec.bsky.social

Yesterday morning NJ lawmakers announced rollbacks of our flood rules.

“How many more historic storms will hit our state — and how many more people need to die — before state policymakers act?”

www.nj.com/opinion/2022...

Housing advocates push for more money for NJ affordable housing fund • New Jersey Monitor Housing advocates are criticizing state officials for diverting money from a fund intended to produce affordable housing.

Housing advocates push for more money for NJ affordable housing fund newjerseymonitor.com/briefs/housi...

"Reich citizenship will not be laid in the cradle of every one born in Germany, but will be ceremoniously conferred on him after he has shown himself worthy of it through special accomplishments, through loyal services to the State." NY Times, July 6, 1933.

Can't wait for Dem electeds to convince themselves this means they have to move further right on immigration

As NJ temperatures rise, pregnancies are threatened | NJ Spotlight News Rising global temperatures are amplifying the health dangers during pregnancy. In New Jersey, communities of color face the greatest risks.

Growing research warns that extreme heat can harm maternal and infant health, contributing to lower birth weights, increases in preterm births and stillbirths and increased hypertension among mothers. In NJ, communities of color face the greatest risks.

Shot/chaser

Funny how the tough guys end up nowhere to be found when actual crises happen

They didn't stop just because Musk flounced out. Tearing down our government from the inside

Here’s a Prime (Day) example of why trickle-down economics don’t work:

In recent years, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, who has a net worth of over $200 billion, paid zero dollars in federal income taxes. He just paid $50 million for a lavish wedding in Italy.

can't wait for another scolding on civility and collegiality from right-wingers and centrists

starting to feel like some of this AI stuff might be a little bit questionable tbh
it is just a feeling i am starting to have

Again, the administration’s basic strategy is to use SCOTUS to bail it out of inconvenient district court injunctions against doing probably-to-almost-certainly illegal things. Then it does the things. Then later by the time the merits are considered, the damage has been done. Repeat.

Last week at CBPP, we focused on the #FederalBudget and #FederalTaxes, #FoodAssistance, #health, #housing, #SocialSecurity, and #StateBudgets and #StateTaxes. www.cbpp.org/blog/in-case...

House & Senate Republicans passed a bill that will raise families' food & health care costs, increase poverty & hunger, take health coverage away from millions of ppl & drive up deficits - all to give costly tax cuts to the wealthy & corporations.

NEW: Congress sure looks like it's about to blow giant holes in the New Jersey state budget.

www.njspotlightnews.org/2025/07/afte...
@njspotlightnews.org