Musk has gone quiet, but the Tesla Takedown in Baltimore hasn't! We were out today on the holiday weekend. I can't post the video, but the horns were honking!
Please see my share about Kathryn Pollak under today's Daily Dems..., a local Indivisible leader and neighbor of mine in Durham. Kathryn led her 13th week Tesla Takedown in Raleigh yesterday. Here is a link to my comment
Thank you! It's wonderful to hear about others who are holding the line. I just checked out her Substack. She's definitely a winner for you all! I second your nomination of her! 🏆 🏆
Padilla, Schiff, Gallego, Gillibrand, et al supposedly are already on board with what I call the crypto corruption compromise. I hope they back down and support their fellow Dems. And don't sell out.
Here is the text from the article. I am not a subscriber, but a friend shared this privately in an ongoing group chat:
"Crypto’s war chest speaks for itself"
"Earlier this week, Andrew Desiderio and I wrote about a key episode in the Democratic Party’s deepening cold war over the crypto industry: a senior Senate staff meeting on Monday that touched on stablecoin reform. The story hinged on a political Rashomon effect.
Just hours before the Senate held a key procedural vote on the GENIUS Act, co-sponsor Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-N.Y.) chief of staff, Jess Fassler, discussed the bill with fellow aides.
Fassler also invoked Gillibrand’s role as chair of the DSCC as he urged some Democrats to ease off their attacks over the bill — to end what Democratic insiders refer to as the “circular firing squad.” This is when progressives and moderates go to war over policy.
Some staffers in the room took that message as a plain and rational call for unity ahead of the 2026 midterms. Others heard a threat about ignoring the risks of crypto’s political spending.
Just about every lawmaker on Capitol Hill knows the crypto industry spent the 2024 election and is likely to do so again in 2026. That kind of concentration of campaign spending power is unlike anything we’ve ever seen in American politics from a new-ish sector of the economy. It has its own gravitational pull. More and more, I can see the impact in my daily work.
Trust the process: This wasn’t an easy item to report out or write. Democratic chief meetings aren’t as leaky as others. But over the course of a day, we talked to staffers in the room on both sides of the experience.
Even after several calls, I wasn’t sold on the story. The problem was the incentives. The chiefs who didn’t hear a threat worked for senators who backed the bill. The chiefs who were fighting to kill-slash-overhaul the crypto legislation said the subtext was clear. I didn’t feel great about publishing a “some-say-while-others-say” story based solely on accounts who had clear incentives to spin, baby, spin.
Our breakthrough came after a chief, whose office backed the GENIUS Act, confirmed the reaction from inside the room. It may not have been a universal reaction, but it sure didn’t seem to be isolated, either. We published the thing.
I want to credit Fassler for responding on the record to our reporting. I think it’s credible to believe him when he said he didn’t intend to make any threats about outside spending in that meeting.
But again, the crypto industry’s $100-million-plus war chest possesses its own political gravity. The threat to elected officials from the sector is real, no matter how we talk about the policy. The road to crypto regulation was always going to be paved with good intentions."
Musk has gone quiet, but the Tesla Takedown in Baltimore hasn't! We were out today on the holiday weekend. I can't post the video, but the horns were honking!
Please see my share about Kathryn Pollak under today's Daily Dems..., a local Indivisible leader and neighbor of mine in Durham. Kathryn led her 13th week Tesla Takedown in Raleigh yesterday. Here is a link to my comment
https://ariellaelm.substack.com/p/daily-dems-doing-the-work-making-5da/comment/119928485
Thank you! It's wonderful to hear about others who are holding the line. I just checked out her Substack. She's definitely a winner for you all! I second your nomination of her! 🏆 🏆
Seven senators introduce amendment to GENIUS act to prevent Trump corruption:
https://www.banking.senate.gov/newsroom/minority/senators-to-introduce-amendment-to-genius-act-to-prevent-trump-corruption
Awesome. We need more resistance! I love all of this resistance.
Padilla, Schiff, Gallego, Gillibrand, et al supposedly are already on board with what I call the crypto corruption compromise. I hope they back down and support their fellow Dems. And don't sell out.
Joe, could you provide details (or a link to details) on the compromise. Sincere question. I need to educate myself on this.
Also there is this punchbowl readback article:
https://punchbowl.news/archive/52425-the-readback/#__cryptoswarchestspeaksforitself__
Here is the text from the article. I am not a subscriber, but a friend shared this privately in an ongoing group chat:
"Crypto’s war chest speaks for itself"
"Earlier this week, Andrew Desiderio and I wrote about a key episode in the Democratic Party’s deepening cold war over the crypto industry: a senior Senate staff meeting on Monday that touched on stablecoin reform. The story hinged on a political Rashomon effect.
Just hours before the Senate held a key procedural vote on the GENIUS Act, co-sponsor Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-N.Y.) chief of staff, Jess Fassler, discussed the bill with fellow aides.
Fassler also invoked Gillibrand’s role as chair of the DSCC as he urged some Democrats to ease off their attacks over the bill — to end what Democratic insiders refer to as the “circular firing squad.” This is when progressives and moderates go to war over policy.
Some staffers in the room took that message as a plain and rational call for unity ahead of the 2026 midterms. Others heard a threat about ignoring the risks of crypto’s political spending.
Just about every lawmaker on Capitol Hill knows the crypto industry spent the 2024 election and is likely to do so again in 2026. That kind of concentration of campaign spending power is unlike anything we’ve ever seen in American politics from a new-ish sector of the economy. It has its own gravitational pull. More and more, I can see the impact in my daily work.
Trust the process: This wasn’t an easy item to report out or write. Democratic chief meetings aren’t as leaky as others. But over the course of a day, we talked to staffers in the room on both sides of the experience.
Even after several calls, I wasn’t sold on the story. The problem was the incentives. The chiefs who didn’t hear a threat worked for senators who backed the bill. The chiefs who were fighting to kill-slash-overhaul the crypto legislation said the subtext was clear. I didn’t feel great about publishing a “some-say-while-others-say” story based solely on accounts who had clear incentives to spin, baby, spin.
Our breakthrough came after a chief, whose office backed the GENIUS Act, confirmed the reaction from inside the room. It may not have been a universal reaction, but it sure didn’t seem to be isolated, either. We published the thing.
I want to credit Fassler for responding on the record to our reporting. I think it’s credible to believe him when he said he didn’t intend to make any threats about outside spending in that meeting.
But again, the crypto industry’s $100-million-plus war chest possesses its own political gravity. The threat to elected officials from the sector is real, no matter how we talk about the policy. The road to crypto regulation was always going to be paved with good intentions."
A bloody awesome damning lead article in last week's Economist (I share the web archive):
https://archive.ph/2025.05.21-153345/https://www.economist.com/briefing/2025/05/15/the-crypto-industry-is-suddenly-at-the-heart-of-american-politics
Then Friday the response by Warren et al:
https://www.banking.senate.gov/newsroom/minority/senators-to-introduce-amendment-to-genius-act-to-prevent-trump-corruption
Absolutely. First the supposed compromise:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/senate-democrats-genius-bill-advance
Glad you’re taking today off!