To Will Lawrence, a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement and a former member of the Democratic Socialists of America who beat Republican incumbent Rep. Tom Barrett in a Michigan swing district on Tuesday, the Democrats’ historically successful night translates into a responsibility to achieve transformative change.

“It’s undoubtable that this was a sweeping mandate around the entire country,” said Lawrence, who ran a campaign focused on his opposition to data centers, a notoriously unpopular area of tech development that the left has pushed Democrats to oppose.

Forgive me, I know El-Sayed’s victory over Mike Rogers in Michigan has been extremely difficult for Islamophobes and anti-Arab racists to come to terms with, particularly since it comes hot on the heels of Zohran Mamdani’s Muslim takeover of New York. So I would like to send everyone mourning the midterms my thoughts and sharia prayers.

Poor old Loomer, in particular, seems in need of prayers at this time; she is having a very public crisis of faith.

The movement that led to at least 18 progressive victories in congressional races and 42 left-wing winners down-ballot “started with a man with 1% vote and three people at his announcement” of his presidential bid in 2015, said one organizer Tuesday night as Democrats won control of the US Senate and House, a majority of governorships, and made major gains in state legislatures.

“Bernie made the path” for progressive politicians to win crucial elections, said a labor organizer based in San Francisco, referring to Sen. Bernie Sanders(I-Vt.). “This wave has been a long time coming.”

In a huge win for public transit, voters in the San Francisco Bay Area appear to have approved a measure that will slightly increase the sales tax to fund transportation in the region over the next 14 years, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The measure will allow transit agencies, including BART, to preserve their service and avoid deep cuts to stations and transit lines amid the end of emergency pandemic funds.

Unlike other ballot initiatives in the state, the Regional Transit Measure didn’t face a well-funded campaign advocating against it. But it presented voters with a big ask: to rethink their relationship to public transit dramatically, and shift to a system where all residents—not just riders—pay to keep their region connected.

Supporters say Nixon modeled how an unapologetic progressive candidate can drive out voters in Florida, and Democrats across the ideological spectrum agree that her candidacy was a tide that raised other Democrats. Florida’s 60% turnout nearly hit the three-decade high it reached in 2018, when Democrats nominated another young, Black progressive, Andrew Gillum, for governor.

Her race was “a mandate from the people in the state of Florida showing that they’re long overdue for the leadership from the people that are true progressives and care about the people,” said Gainesville activist and Nixon supporter Chanae Jackson.

This was the very core of Trumpism, the trick that wowed rightwingers around the world: how he could yoke together minimum-wage workers with the 1%; Latinos and black voters with those happy to dabble in a little light racism; the Epstein-haters with the Epstein class (who can forget Elon Musk’s email to Jeffrey: “What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?”). And he did it by alchemising class antagonism into culture war.

[article is more than 2 years old]

Democrats’ sweeping statehouse gains Tuesday have opened a path to effectively replacing the Electoral College with a national popular vote in time for the 2028 presidential election — without needing to amend the Constitution.

Why it matters: The results could give Democrats the legislative power to fundamentally change how America picks its president, potentially ending the possibility of winning the White House while losing the national popular vote.

Driving the news: Democrats have won control of the governorship and both legislative chambers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Nevada, enough to push an agreement called**** the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact beyond the 270-vote threshold required to take effect.

• The compact has been enacted by 18 states and Washington, D.C.**** since launching in 2006, representing 222 electoral votes so far.

• The agreement only kicks in when participating states collectively control at least 270 electoral votes. The five new Democratic trifectas could bring the total to 283.

Supporters of Ballot Measure 7A to fund the Front Range Passenger Rail District are claiming victory.

If passed, there would be a 0.333% sales tax in the Front Range Passenger Rail District to fund the southern portion of the Colorado Connector, also known as CoCo.

The daily regional train would serve communities up and down the Front Range from Pueblo to Fort Collins. The tax would also pay for a new station in Trinidad on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief long-distance route between Los Angeles and Chicago.

Following the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street, one of London’s busiest shopping streets has also become permanently car-free after a “positive” trial.

On Tuesday, October 27, Camden Council announced Camden High Street would ban vehicles for good after an 18 month trial.

Cllr James Slater, executive member for planning who is also set to assume the role of Council Leader in November, said the scheme had already improved air quality and tackled the issue of pedestrians “overspilling” onto the pavement.

President Trump spent much of the past two years promising to bring down energy prices.

Instead, his war with Iran, as well as other policies, drove up the cost of gasoline, diesel and electricity. At the same time his administration worked to thwart efforts to fight climate change, blocking renewable energy investments that could have reduced the country’s reliance on fossil fuels or brought down costs.

On Tuesday, voters’ frustration with soaring energy prices helped propel Democrats to a blowout, with Republicans losing control of the House and the Senate, as well as the governorships of many historically conservative states.

“It’s quite clear that energy and energy affordability in particular played a big role in the electorate’s decision-making last night,” said Hasan Nazar, head of policy at Crux, a clean energy finance company.

Critics also argued that the initiative does the opposite of what it purports to do, by exposing cisgender girls to uncomfortable questions and discrimination based on what someone else perceives their gender identity to be.

“The negative impacts (this) would have, not only on trying to bully and shame transgender people of all ages back into closets, into the shadows, but also to enforce a stereotype of what girls are supposed to look and dress and act like,” Joel Edman, a spokesman for Progress Arizona said. “The real risk that this measure poses is having all girls potentially scrutinized for being too tall, or too strong, or too good at whatever sport they want to play with their friends.”

I-638 only applies to transgender girls and not transgender boys, and requires all students on K-12 girls sports teams to provide medical documentation that confirms their “biological sex,” according to the initiative’s language.

If the initiative passes, it could throw the blue state’s status as a haven for transgender people into question. If the final vote count indicates the initiative has passed, it will also likely face a legal challenge if approved by voters, several legal experts told The Times.

Question 3: Bike and bus lanes

Voters were overwhelmingly backing a measure that would streamline the process for building new bike and bus lanes.

The proposal would also speed up the disposition of unused city property and the leasing of office space for city workers.

Lesser Idaho for those east of the Cascades! /s

So I shopped using my trailer as a shopping cart, took it through the checkout, and then rolled out.

I’ve since had to do this once or twice more as other places nearby have also removed their bike racks as property managers wage a silent war against bikers while the city is trying to make biking more attractive.

I’m not about to leave my bike outside or stop buying food. Instead I’ll just take my bike into the business, trailer included, until they ask me to leave.

No one has asked me to leave yet.

Shefali Aurora, ACLU of Iowa staff attorney, said Monday that “state officials have made it clear that they denied The Satanic Temple permission to hold events in the Capitol rotunda because they disagreed with their religious viewpoint. It is a foundational principle that the government cannot restrict speech in this way, favor one religion over another, or discriminate against religious groups because they don’t agree with them …

construct underground parking beneath the development?

1. Donald Trump has certainly done monumental damage to the American state, bringing levels of corruption and administrative malfeasance and downsizing that indicate a long-term hit to administrative capacity. Yet it won’t be until a successor from the opposition comes along that we’ll truly see what was done and what can be undone or remade. What we do know is that Trump 1 wasn’t able to stop the dramatic innovations of Joe Biden and that Biden’s innovations had virtually no effect on Trump 2.
2. Despite deep grumblings of an epically dissatisfied electorate, entire sectors of the political economy and social world remain on track to continue the path they’ve been on. Climate change is virtually off the table as a topic of policy and politics. Wealth inequality is worse today than it was ten years ago.

Oda Al-anizi, a disability rights advocate who lives with a spinal cord injury, has been using Toronto’s bike lanes for the last few years because of a new e-bike attachment to his wheelchair that allows him to move around the city more easily.

“The city has been more open to me and I’ve been able to more easily have a social life or go to work,” he said.

Al-anizi, a longtime Toronto resident, said bike lanes are an issue for people with disabilities and mobility issues, especially for those who don’t feel seen by drivers on the road or have accessible transit modes.

“Drivers can’t see sometimes, I am pretty low and [they] can get aggressive,” he said “For me, it’s very important to be in a dedicated space for bike lanes, it makes me feel a lot more safe.”

use a drop box rather than the US Postal Service if possible