Good election news
From the NY Times, Aug 5 — The list of Progressive voices in Congress keeps growing. Squad
member Rashida Tlaib cruised to victory over moderate Dem Brenda Jones of Detroit. This was a rematch of 2018, and Tlaib increased her margin of victory to a 2-to-1 lead. This follows earlier Progressive victories in New York and Illinois. Then in Tuesday’s primary, BLM organizer and nurse Cori Bush defeated a 50-year Democratic dynasty in St. Louis to add even more power to the Congressional Progressive Caucus when she assumes office. This district is a safe Dem district. The CPC is large, but hasn’t had enough members willing to buck party leadership, unlike the Republican “Freedom Caucus” that is more successful in pressuring their party to lean more conservative.
“That speaks to how a growing left-wing movement could further alter the balance of power among Washington Democrats, on Capitol Hill and potentially in a Biden administration. More than simply being left of party leaders on the ideological spectrum, those in the new crop of House leftists have an inside-outside view of political power and are open to pushing their party publicly if they deem the tactic necessary.” Astead W. Herndon
good polling news
I rarely have a lot of Trump news in my GNRU, but there is a lot of good Trump news this month. Feel free to skip ahead, it won’t hurt my feelings. I’ve indicated where the Trump news ends in this GNRU below.
From FiveThirtyEight, Aug 5 — We know that Biden is leading Trump. But what about Clinton in
2016? Wasn’t she leading too? Yes. But not like this. In 2016, the Democratic Convention had just ended and Clinton hit her polling peak. She was up over Trump by 7 points nationally. Biden isn’t going to have a convention bounce, but Biden’s national advantage has been greater than Hillary’s best days for months. And there are basically no undecided voters this time.
How about swing states? “Things are mostly good for Biden at the state-level, too. Just as he does nationally, Biden enjoys more overall support than Clinton in each of the battleground states we looked at.” What is the bad news? “there are several key states where Biden’s margin against Trump is actually lower than Clinton’s was at this point in 2016.” But we are measuring against Clinton’s best days where her lead was the highest, and there were undecided voters last time that Trump cold grab. There are very few voters that have not made up their minds this time. Trump isn’t going to be able to pull voters out of the hat. Geoffrey Skelley and Anna Wiederkehr
good news from republicans pushing back on trump
From Raw Story, Aug 4 — Shortly after having a Facebook post deleted, Trump’s campaign Twitter account HAS BEEN SUSPENDED!! Twitter demanded that the campaign delete the misinformation tweet where he said that children were not getting the coronavirus. When the campaign refused, the account was suspended.
Twitter spokeswoman Liz Kelley said the tweet “is in violation of the Twitter Rules on COVID-19 misinformation. The account owner will be required to remove the Tweet before they can Tweet again.” Sarah K. Burris
From Politico, Aug 4 — We know about The Lincoln Project and Republican Voters Against Trump. Now there is Vote Common Good, GOP faith voters who support Biden. VCG is partnering with The Lincoln Project to persuade religious Americans to vote out Donald Trump.
“The initiative will focus on courting white evangelicals and white Catholics — two demographics Trump won by significant margins in 2016 — who have lost patience with the president’s behavior or been disappointed with his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protest movement against racism. The efforts will be concentrated in six battleground states — North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Florida — where multiple polls have shown Trump trailing his Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.
Part of VCG’s plan is to forge personal connections with religious conservatives in crucial 2020 swing states. Soon they will launch a postcard campaign sending handwritten notes to religious voters asking them to lean deep into their faith for guidance this November. Though the postcards, which Pagitt described to POLITICO, will vary in style — one will include VCG’s sogan, “Faith, not fear. Hope, not hate. Love, not lies,” the other will feature the “love is patient, love is kind” passage from 1 Corinthians 13 — each will contain a personal note from another voter.” Gabby Orr
From Politico, Aug 2 — ‘Hating Joe Biden doesn’t juice up their base’: Key swing state slips away from Trump.
Senior citizens and suburbanites in Pennsylvania comprise more than half the electorate and they are defecting to Biden.
“It’s a very big problem in a swing state that’s central to his Rust Belt path to victory. Four years ago, Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate since 1988 to carry Pennsylvania, in part by winning older and suburban voters, as well as blue-collar white workers in ancestrally Democratic areas.”
Biden’s advantage comes from the general perception that Trump has botched the Covid-19 response which is hitting seniors especially hard plus his broken campaign promises. In addition, Biden is a Scranton native whose party is out of power, making him the candidate for change. Also, Trump’s nickname of Sleepy Joe is actually an advantage for Joe in a state that likes un-flashy politicians. HOLLY OTTERBEIN
From RawStory, Aug 5 — Agencies are pushing back: CIA ignores request to brief GOP senators trying to dig up dirt on Joe Biden’s son.
“The spy agency’s resistance comes amid intelligence officials’ deep skepticism of the probe, which is being led by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and focuses on Hunter Biden’s role on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma,” reported Andrew Desiderio and Natasha Bertrand.
It is unclear why the CIA blew off the request, but the report notes that “Johnson is considered “toxic” by some members of the intelligence community, according to people with direct knowledge of the dynamic.” (My bolding because I think the CIA getting wise that Republicans are toxic was a hoot-PL) Matthew Chapman
good news about trump digging deeper holes
From Raw Story, Aug 4 — Trump creates a ‘minefield’ of legal problems for his own staff with plan for White House acceptance speech
“President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he might deliver his Republican National Convention speech from the White House. But legal experts who spoke with Bloomberg warned that might not be a good idea.
Kedric Payne, the general counsel and senior director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, similarly told CNN that delivering an acceptance speech from the White House would be “an overt campaign act.”
“He’s been riding the line in making statements about Biden at White House events. This is beyond the line.”
The Hatch Act forbids the use of government property and employees for political activities. Although the president and vice president are exempted from the federal law, their staff at the White House could face repercussions. Eric W. Dolan
good news about investigations
From The Hill, Aug 2 — Deutsche Bank launches investigation into longtime banker of Trump, Kushner
It is common practice at Deutsche Bank to prohibit employees from conducting personal business with clients out of concerns about a conflict of interest. In spite of that, Rosemary Vrablic, the longtime personal banker for Jarod Kushner, Ivanka and Donald Trump, and two colleagues bought an apartment from Bergel 715, a real estate firm where Kushner is a partner, for about $1.5 million. This was about 22% above the last sales price, but is not considered an unheard-of increase so there is no evidence of this being below-market for the property.
Kushner testified during a 207 closed-door House Intelligence Committee meeting that he introduced Vrablic to the president at the same time he borrowed $175 million for his Doral golf resort and had other loans for other Trump properties. Justine Coleman
From the New York Times, Aug 5 — Trump’s Bank Was Subpoenaed by N.Y. Prosecutors in Criminal Inquiry
While Trump has been fighting the release of his financial records in the courts, the Manhattan district attorney’s office has been quietly subpoenaing records from Deutsche Bank and they have been complying with the requests.
The focus of the investigation appears to be following up on Michael Cohen’s testimony that Trump committed insurance and loan fraud by inflating the value of properties when it was convenient to do so. Any crimes discovered in this investigation are state crimes and not subject to pardon. David Enrich, Ben Protess, William K. Rashbaum, Benjamin Weiser
good news about filling a vacancy on scotus
From The Hill, Aug 3 — Senate GOP divided over whether they'd fill Supreme Court vacancy
While Mitch McConnell is perfectly willing to flaunt his hypocrisy, some in his caucus might not be.
”Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) says that confirming a Trump nominee to the high court in the middle of an election year or during the lame-duck session in November and December would create a “double standard” after what happened in 2016.
“When Republicans held off Merrick Garland it was because nine months prior to the election was too close, we needed to let people decide. And I agreed to do that. If we now say that months prior to the election is OK when nine months was not, that is a double standard and I don’t believe we should do it,” she said. “So I would not support it.” “
“[Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)], who now serves as the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said he’s inclined to follow the same course Republicans adopted in the last presidential election.” Sen. Grassley, who was the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time that Merrick Garland was nominated, denied Garland a hearing.
Senators Collins and Romney have also voiced some concerns about the possibility of holding a hearing to fill a possible SCOTUS vacancy so late in a term.
The Dems are also prepared to fight back on this.
From NBC News, Aug 3 — “Democrats are warning Republicans not to fill a possible Supreme Court vacancy this year after denying President Barack Obama the chance in 2016, saying it would embolden a push on the left to add seats to the court whenever they regain power.
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said she has been "talking with people who have different ideas about what we can do — including adding to the court, including having certain circuit court judges cycle in and other ideas" like term limits.
"I'm open to those kinds of suggestions," she said.
Demand Justice is a pressure group founded by Brian Fallon, a former aide to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
Demand Justice is urging Democrats to endorse an expansion of the Supreme Court and lower courts, as well as to impose term limits and a code of ethics for justices.”
But let’s not have an opening on SCOTUS for a while yet. All nine of them need to stay healthy until January 22.
GOOD NEWS ABOUT MONUMENTS
We’ve been talking a lot about taking down monuments. How about putting one up?
From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Aug 1 — Monuments to honor John Lewis’ legacy in the works
The national Monuments Foundation and the Trust for Public Land is developing a 16-acre, $80
million park in Atlanta to feature civil rights and African American history. The park will include a library of 12,000 volumes surrounded by 18 bronze statues, plaques and monuments dedicated to peacemakers with ties to Georgia, including Martin Luther King, Jr, Andrew Young and Julian Bond. The first statue to be dedicated will be a 7-foot statue of John Lewis, to be unveiled as early as September. There is a video at the link here: Ernie Suggs, J.D. Capelouto
Good news about health and hospitals
From Slate, July 31 — Republican Voters Have Come Around on Masks
“Public opinion within the GOP has shifted in favor of masks. In a Navigator survey taken in late May, Republican voters said they were “pro-mask,” not “anti-mask,” by a margin of 24 percentage points. By July, that margin had grown to 38 points. In the May survey, 24 percent of Republicans said they generally didn’t wear masks; by July, that number was down to 13 percent.
Republicans don’t just support masks. They support mask mandates. Two weeks ago, in an AP/NORC poll, a two-to-one Republican majority (58 percent to 27 percent) endorsed “requiring Americans to wear face masks when they’re around other people outside their homes.”
Even Trump fans—who are generally more hostile to masks than Republicans as a whole are—tend to favor mask mandates. In the Fox News poll, most voters who approved of Trump’s job performance backed a national order requiring masks indoors. In the Morning Consult poll, most Trump approvers endorsed a mask mandate punishable by fines or jail.” William Saletan
From azcentral — Marvel-ous hospital gowns bring out the superhero in young patients
200 hospital gowns that look like super heroes were donated to the Valleywise Health Medical
Center in Glendale, AZ by the Starlight Children’s Foundation in Culver City, Calif.
“Young patients put on the gowns, and Kyla Brown sees the change in attitude. The kids know these superheroes and tap into their powers to muster their own strength and courage.”
The children get to keep their gowns to wear at home to help them feel super as they recover.
There are more cute pictures at the link here: Karina Bland
From Slate, July 28 — Wearing a mask of your own face
This was just so silly, I had to share it. These people are wearing masks of their own faces. The company that makes these from your photo can also give you a mask of someone else, such as a celebrity like Kerry Washington.
good news from my home town
For me, the best news is that the Apple Fire is 30% contained. I am not in any danger, but I can see the fire from here, and wildfires always make me nervous. At least there are no high winds right now to cause the burn to grow.
Confetti
This is the section where I post links to little things that brought me joy.
New blood test may identify Alzheimer's 20 years before symptoms
New blood test may find cancer four years before symptoms
Youtube palooza
Last month, my Youtube obsession was about beekeeping. This month, it’s about natural pest control using minks. This guy rescues minks from a mink farm, trains them to respond to his whistle commands and does rodent eradication using minks with assist from terrier and grayhound dogs. The minks and dogs clear vermin without poisons or lead that could be hazardous to scavengers. The minks go down a rat hole and dispatch rats in their holes. Rats that escape are nabbed by the dogs. The minks and dogs are so tidy they actually bring the rats up and put them neatly in the bucket. Joseph the Minkman makes the point that this is actually the most humane way to clear a rat infestation because the rat doesn’t suffer and it is so fascinating to watch. If you have issues with rats, this might not be a great video for you.
