Max Schmidt

Attorney. Ally. Advocate. Chicago-based policy researcher and wonk.

[Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @ReichlinMelnick]

The Trump admin has an almost-complete failure rate at efforts to punish sanctuary jurisdictions. There are only a small handful of exceptions across both terms.

Courts are clear: these policies are legal.

[John Hudson @John_Hudson]

tfw you used Claude to write your NDAA amendment but forgot to hide your tracks

[Block Club Chicago @BlockClubCHI]

Meet the hardworking beavers of Lincoln Park’s South Pond. 🦫 https://t.co/wyU4DODSV9

[Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @ReichlinMelnick]

This is madness! Deliberate collusion with a federal judge to rapidly erase regulations without any input from affected parties.

It’s clearly an unlawful act by all, and now litigants will have to seek to intervene in the already-completed lawsuit to overturn his actions.

[Sean Morrow @snmrrw]

taxpayers give this guy 300k a year because he stepped in a hole

[Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @ReichlinMelnick]

This is nonsense. First, the 10 million number is wrong: it’s millions too high. Plus, many migrants moved in with people already here (so did not need new housing).

Second, we know why housing spiked: COVID! The spike began months BEFORE the huge rise in migrants entering.

[Max Schmidt @Schmidt_M_]

“In my opinion…” doing a lot of heavy lifting here for “I made this up…”

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

Rep. Haridopolos: "The number one reason why we have these higher housing costs in my opinion is you had 10 million people coming here illegally over four years. You had too many people demanding housing."

[brendan 🍉 @lakeshoredr1ve]

"chicago is way too packed" when it had almost a whole million more people at its peak population in 1950

[Ariana Jasmine @arianajasmine__]

For those of you who don’t know, he grew up in extreme poverty, used to practice with rocks, then at 17 left his nomadic family and ventured to Tehran alone (without his father’s support), was homeless camping outside one of the soccer team camps until someone gave him a chance.

What a man.

[Robert Downen @RobertDownen_]

A few quotes from the Texas GOP convention:

-“Islam is a disease that spreads by immigration."
-“True Christians and Americans will hold nothing but contempt and disdain for the toxic ideology of Islam.”
-"We don't need them in any level of government."
https://t.co/6ehtGO38xI

[CCCTU @CCCTU_Local1600]

We lost a giant. Bea Lumpkin, math professor at Malcolm X College, CCCTU and CTU member, and tireless labor activist, passed away June 15 at 107 years old. She never stopped fighting for workers and students. Rest in power, Bea.
Full tribute: https://t.co/53DziqqeRp

[Heather Cherone @HeatherCherone]

BREAKING: Chicago taxpayers paid $27.5 million to a man who was wrongfully convicted of a 2008 murder and spent 10 years in prison, setting a new city record for a payment to resolve a wrongful conviction case, according to records obtained by @wttw news. https://t.co/b9cIP4tSxO

[Javier Blas @JavierBlas]

COLUMN: The Chinese 'oil weapon.'

The Strait of Hormuz crisis shows Beijing is now a stabilizing force for oil prices. This potentially reshapes the energy risk premia — and Asian geopolitics if conflict breaks out over Taiwan.

@Opinion https://t.co/LLuf9cdzrw

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

Fascinating argument by Bloomberg's top energy analyst Javier Blas 👇: he argues that China effectively saved the world economy during the Iran war by absorbing the brunt of the global oil supply shock on its own, without visible economic damage.

According to his calculations, China "cut its average daily waterborne oil imports by the same amount as the combined oil consumption of Germany, France and the UK."

And, still according to Blas, they "did so without suffering economic harm" because they could rely on many levers: their huge strategic petroleum reserve, a massive surge in EV usage, their remaining coal-fired electricity capacity, and coal-to-chemicals replacing lost feedstocks.

Had China not been ready to absorb that blow, a good argument can be made that the economic damage to the West, and the world at large, would have spiraled far beyond what we saw.

Effectively, China's energy strategy at all levels (petroleum reserves, EVs, etc.) and its ability to withstand huge supply shocks paid off for everyone, not just for them.

It sounds awfully familiar: in 2008 too it was China's stimulus package and continuous buying of US Treasuries that averted a complete breakdown of the global financial system.

So twice in 20 years the country the West loves to present as a "threat" to the global economy effectively saved it from a US-made global economic disaster 🤷

[Michael McFaul @McFaul]

ICYMI:

"Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop or acquire any nuclear weapons."

Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
Vienna, 14 July 2015

[Jon Seidel @SeidelContent]

The “Broadview Six” are asking a judge to take the extraordinary step of appointing a special counsel to investigate — and possibly prosecute — Justice Department officials in Chicago and Washington D.C. for criminal contempt.

NEW from @Suntimes: https://t.co/1LuGljGc34

[Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @ReichlinMelnick]

I don’t know what @SecMullinDHS is smoking if he thinks that these CBP officers — the ones he’s threatening to pull from airports near blue cities — are going to be good at riot control because they deal with large crowds (inside the airport) on a daily basis.

[Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @ReichlinMelnick]

🚨Trump is going to deport Iranian women who PROVED to an immigration court that they would be persecuted in Iran to the Central African Republic, a country so dangerous to others the U.S. recommends no American travel there.

Trump is destroying this country's legacy of freedom!

[Jason Meisner @jmetr22b]

Today’s front (expletive) page

https://t.co/4z748ebb3s

[Max Schmidt @Schmidt_M_]

@gilbert36ward am I reading this correctly? You want to punish anyone possessing weed outside of a dispensary sealed container or taking a single vape hit with a minimum $1000 FINE AND 120 DAYS IN JAIL if it happens within 1/3rd of a mile from a park?

[Chicago Tribune @chicagotribune]

In its effort to crack down on repeat drug dealers, the proposed Chicago ordinance would also set harsher penalties for people who smoke marijuana in public. https://t.co/H2YNo5OLAr