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After oil prices soared following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, European governments already have imposed windfall taxes on their oil industries. But most U.S. lawmakers show little appetite to reverse that trend after oil companies like Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp <CVX.N. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representative Ro Khanna, both Democrats, are among legislators who have already introduced bills to tax excess oil company profits. Democratic Senators Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona and Joe Manchin from West Virginia would likely oppose a windfall profits tax, dimming its prospects, congressional sources and research groups said. Administration officials conceded privately that it may be difficult to enact a federal windfall profits tax, and said no deadline has been set for a next step.

WASHINGTON — Which party controls Congress next year could have big implications for Twitter — and its new “Chief Twit,” Elon Musk. A Jordan spokesman had no comment about Musk and Twitter, but Republicans expect the company will be more cooperative with any future GOP investigations with Musk at the helm. But upon taking control of Twitter, Musk said he would first form a “content moderation council,” and Yoel Roth, head of Safety and Integrity at Twitter, insisted that the company’s policies on hate speech have not changed. “If Elon Musk has said now that he’s going to start a content moderation board, that was one good sign, but I continue to be concerned about that,” Klobuchar said. Other Democrats are raising national security concerns about how Musk financed the $44 billion Twitter deal.

☆ ‘The Independent’ Review: John Cena and Journalistic Integrity
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

’Tis the season for election-conspiracy thrillers and campaign-finance mysteries, though the time might never be ripe enough for the likes of “The Independent,” an undercooked serving of political skulduggery that nevertheless provides a showcase for the magnetic Jodie Turner-Smith . “Your writing—it’s got punch,” says Nicholas Booker ( Brian Cox ), weathered dean of Washington political columnists. “It’s raw—but there’s something there.” He might have been reviewing “The Independent.” Instead, he’s appraising the work of Elisha “Eli” James (Ms. Turner-Smith), fledgling investigative journalist. Booker likes the cut of her jib, as he and his fellow ink-stained wretches might have said while standing around the AP teletype machine during the Nixon administration. (“The Independent” isn’t really a story about newspapers—which is fine, because its portrayal of the newspaper world is a caricature.)

The Democratic-led Senate confirmed four new circuit court judges in the last two weeks, most recently U.S. District Judge Florence Pan to the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. By contrast, Trump had installed 69 judges at this point in his tenure. The most recent two-term presidents, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, each secured 325 Senate-confirmed judges for district courts, circuit courts and the Supreme Court over eight years. McConnell's allies say a GOP-run Senate would force Biden to pick judges who are acceptable to conservatives in order to get floor votes. Republicans ended the tradition for circuit judges in the Trump era and some liberals want to end it for district judges so that GOP senators in red states cannot block Biden’s nominees for vacancies.

☆ Republican senators vote to block a bill requiring dark-money groups to disclose their donors: 'I don't want to see them doxxed'
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Bryan Metzger | Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Democrats teed up a procedural vote Thursday on a bill to disclose dark-money groups' donors. Super PACs, on the other hand, are subject to federal campaign finance disclosure laws, but their funding often comes from dark money groups. "Unfortunately, the Republican party has become as dependent on dark money as a deep-sea diver is on his air hose," said Whitehouse. Win McNamee/Getty ImagesA bipartisan problemSince the Citizens United ruling 12 years ago, dark money spending has exploded in elections. Nonprofits have poured around $2 billion into elections, most of which can be linked to dark money groups, OpenSecrets found.

☆ Millennials and Gen Z want to stop a climate catastrophe. But first they have to get elected.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +24 min

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, told young climate activists in 2019, "You didn't vote for me." AP Photo/Gemunu AmarasingheBut most policy debates aren't genuinely existential in the way climate change is. "Younger Democrats tend to have a much more friendly relationship and response to the party's activist class than older Democrats do." Fossil-fuel interests have played a central role in stymieing progress on climate change for decades. Nearly a decade later, Trump ran for and won the presidency — with Gingrich's early and staunch support — while calling climate change a "hoax."

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