Category: Uncategorized

EXCLUSIVE: Newly established independent studio Wrong Turn Productions is backing the film We Can’t Stay Here, an upcoming documentary that follows “families under siege raising transgender children and the extraordinary lengths they will go through to protect them.” Emmy and Peabody winner Gene Gallerano and William Martin III are directing the feature, which is now […]

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Medico (Good Trouble) has taken over as director of Bender, a coming-of-age comedy starring Bill Burr, Chris O’Dowd and Ruth Bradley that we scooped last fall. Medico takes the reins from Pluribus helmer Adam Bernstein, who has exited the project for reasons not disclosed. Also new to the project is Irish actress Geraldine Hughes (Rocky Balboa), who […]

The mid-tier DTC darling will go public imminently, taking its sustainability-led IP to market. It’s a big move with substantial implications for millennial brands.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Friday called for a national tax on the country’s wealthiest Americans, unveiling his plan to address growing wealth inequality a day after a proposed billionaire tax — to which he objected —  secured a spot on California’s November ballot. In an op-ed posted on Substack, titled “It’s time for a…

Vice President Vance quipped on Thursday that the Watergate scandal that led to former President Richard Nixon’s resignation would have been a “12-hour news story” in the current media landscape. “The idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy,” Vance said during a conversation with the Richard Nixon Foundation at the Richard…

This week, the Republican-led House easily passed a landmark housing bill on a 358-32 vote, following a similarly lopsided 85-5 vote in the GOP-led Senate. The grand total of Democrats voting against the legislation across both chambers? Zero.

As it turns out, the legislative success story was derailed, at least for now, by Donald Trump’s latest tantrum, but there’s another element to the developments that has gone largely overlooked.

In the aftermath of the president’s cancellation of Wednesday’s bill-signing ceremony, The New York Times reported that some congressional Democrats “had been anxious about helping Republicans pass a major housing bill that would give the G.O.P. a notable win on the affordability issues at the center of the midterm campaigns, and dilute Democratic attacks on rising costs.”

A day later, Democratic Rep. Ro Khana of California appeared on MS NOW and emphasized a related point on his party’s support for the housing bill:

Here’s the irony: I got asked by conservatives and some independent journalists, “Why are the Democrats giving Donald Trump a win right before the midterms?” And I said, “You know, Democrats actually do policy.” The fact is that this is going to stop Wall Street from buying up homes; this is going to help us build more homes; and we actually do things because we believe it will help people.

There is no way a Republican Congress would’ve done this for Joe Biden or a Democratic president.

It’s a fair point, but just as notably, it’s an underappreciated one.

Democrats knew that passing this bill would make it easier for Republicans — in the White House and on Capitol Hill — to say they’re addressing the affordability issue. Democrats knew that this bill would address an issue that polls show is an important priority for millions of Americans. Democrats knew that this bill would let hundreds of GOP members of Congress, nearly all of whom will be on the ballot in roughly 18 weeks, take a victory lap at a time when Republicans were desperate for a win on any issue. Democrats knew that this would likely end up in Republican campaign ads as proof that the GOP can deliver something meaningful.

And yet, literally every Democrat in the House and Senate who voted on this legislation supported it — regardless of the political and electoral implications — because they thought the bill would help people.

It’s a case study in how a governing party operates, prioritizing policy outcomes above all.

As for Khana’s argument that a Republican-led Congress never would’ve helped deliver a comparable victory for Democrats in an election season, I’m hard-pressed to imagine any fair-minded observer coming to a different conclusion.

The post With support for housing bill, Democrats show how governing parties operate appeared first on MS NOW.

EXCLUSIVE: Following the record-breaking launch of its first trailer, Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man: Brand New Day has scored another milestone as the film’s second trailer became the No. 2 biggest trailer launch of all time with 590.8M views in its first week. This is according to WaveMetrix. The first trailer for the Tom Holland and Zendaya sequel made […]

Writing, directing and starring in his own magnificent obsession, John Early feels like a cinematic heir to John Waters, Todd Haynes and Douglas Sirk.

Blyth, an Oscar nominee at 17 as Joan Crawford’s wayward daughter in “Mildred Pierce,” later sang opposite Mario Lanza and Howard Keel in MGM musicals of the 1950s.