Hey everyone, welcome to the 2018 midterm election After party! Hosted by the Good news roundup. Running from November 7th 2018 to ?
Yep it was a pretty good week last week wasn’t it? We won and we won big. We put the lie to the idea that Trump was the new normal. We squashed the Kavanaugh speed bump, we purified the red tide. In other words we did it.
Now the job isn’t over yet. Trump is still up to his bullshit, firing that exiled Keebler elf Jeff Sessions in an attempt to stop the Mueller investigation, and who knows what else he will get up to, but for Trump its all downhill from here. He and the GOP had complete control for two years, and they couldn’t break us. They could barely tie their own shoes. We saved the ACA, we won back the House, we stood up for woman, for immigrants, for minorities, we’ve run bigots and Nazi’s out of town and we’ve run the Alt Right straight into the ground.
And guess what? We’re just getting started. I know its tempting to sit on our laurels, but we have to keep it up, we wont let up, we’re going to make Trumps life a living Hell, and in two years we’re gonna chase that piece of crap out of Washington and back under whatever rock he crawled under.
But for now, lets take a look at the news.
President Donald Trump lost. And it was not even close.
On Tuesday, the president and his allies paid a high political price for their preposterous claims about caravans filled with leprosy, Middle Eastern terrorists, Hispanic "breeders" and gang invaders. Those lies cost the hobbled president every bit as much as his vicious attacks on the free press and his foul campaign calls to imprison political adversaries. Despite all claims to the contrary, Trump Republicans faced a bitter reckoning at the polls in dozens of congressional races and hundreds of legislative battles across the United States.
Trumpism proved to be so politically toxic that Republicans likely took their worst shellacking in U.S. House races since the darkest days of Watergate. Trump Republicans lost at least 30 seats in Congress and took a beating nationally. In state legislative races, the tally was even worse, with more than 300 Republican legislators watching their political careers get washed away by the blue wave.
In states such as Nevada, GOP politicians paid a particularly heavy price for their fealty to the former Manhattan Democratic donor. As the Nevada Independent's Jon Ralston noted Thursday, his state's six Republican constitutional officers were reduced to one. Nevada no longer has a Republican representing it in the U.S. Senate and just one in the House of Representatives, and Trump's party also lost seats in the Nevada Assembly and in the state Senate. As Ralston noted with a dash of understatement, "That is a wave."
If enough of the remaining undecided races break their way, Democrats could soon control a larger majority in the House than Republican Dennis Hastert ever did during his eight years as speaker. Trump's sagging fortunes also allowed Democrats to pick up more governorships than either party had done since the GOP landslide of 1994.
Republicans who believed Trump would never pay a price for his misogyny, you were wrong. Historically wrong. When the new Congress is sworn in, more than 100 women will become elected members of the People's House. That will be the first time in history that so many women will have a hand in running the country's government, and they will direct our future away from Trump's dystopian vision. Doesn't that seem only fitting since their success is owed in part to Trump's odious attitude toward women?
There’s nothing I can really add to this one is there? Its like Joe Scarborough is making sweet literary love to my eyeballs with each word of this (Okay eww, sorry that sounded better in my head). ANYWAYS, just reading this makes me giddy with glee. I am beaming like I haven’t in a while.
Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican fixture in California who represented Orange County for 15 terms, has lost his bid for re-election. His defeat underlines the party’s setbacks in a part of the state that was long a symbol of its political dominance.
The Associated Press called the race on Saturday, with Harley Rouda receiving 52 percent of the vote to Mr. Rohrabacher’s 48 percent.
Mr. Rouda, 56, is a former Republican turned Democrat who became a symbol of the Democratic efforts to win back Congress this year. Mr. Rohrabacher, 71, was viewed as particularly vulnerable because he defended Russia in the midst of allegations about its efforts to intervene in elections in the United States.
In July, Mr. Rohrabacher admitted to meeting with Maria Butina, who was charged by federal prosecutors this summer with conspiracy and acting as a foreign agent, during his trip to Russia in 2015. Mr. Rohrabacher was considered so valuable to the Kremlin that the F.B.I. warned him in 2012 that Russia regarded him as an intelligence source worthy of a code name. His support for President Vladimir Putin of Russia raised questions even among fellow Republicans.
Mr. Rouda capitalized on that in his campaign, running ads emphasizing Mr. Rohrabacher’s Putin ties and criticizing Mr. Rohrabacher for questioning the assertion by United States intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
Mr. Rouda has said he is in favor of Medicare for All and a $15-an-hour federal minimum wage tied to inflation, along with free tuition at public colleges. In a post on Twitter after the race was called, he thanked his supporters “who dedicated countless hours to flipping” the 48th Congressional District. He told The Associated Press that he intended to be “honest, transparent, accessible and tireless” in Washington.
And the best part is WE STILL KEEP WINNING. There are a bunch of results still coming in, and recounts, and a lot of them favoring us.
With Democrats having obtained a majority in the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterms, a debate one will be hearing a lot in Democratic Party circles is: to impeach, or not to impeach? Democratic opponents of impeaching President Donald Trump argue that even with a House majority; Democrats shouldn’t overplay their hand. But Democratic activist Tom Steyer, founder of Need to Impeach and NextGen America, doesn’t agree. Steyer is very much a proponent of impeachment, and he outlines his reasons in his latest op-ed for the New York Times.
Steyer opens his article by describing the blue wave that occurred on November 6. Democrats, Steyer notes, “received 7% more votes than Republicans — about three million — in an election that saw a higher percentage of voters than any midterm since 1966. Those voters flipped seven governorships and 367 state legislative seats to Democrats, giving them majorities in seven more state chambers.”
But that blue wave, Steyer quickly adds, “should have been even bigger. Democrats’ inability to run the table on a Republican Party that depended on lying, race-baiting and suppressing the vote is a sign that the American people do not know what the Democratic Party stands for.” And impeachment, Steyer asserts, would be a way for Democrats to show voters that they mean business when it comes to holding Trump accountable.
“As President Trump continues to accelerate his lawlessness,” Steyer declares, “the new Democratic House majority must initiate impeachment proceedings against him as soon as it takes office in January.”
Trump, Steyer argues, deserves impeachment for “a longstanding pattern of obstructing justice” by trying to undermine Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia-related investigation—and Steyer cites the firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions on November 7 as an egregious example. Trump, Steyer asserts, continued his pattern of corruption “by firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions and installing Matthew Whitaker — who has publicly called for curtailing the special counsel’s investigation — as acting attorney general, sparking a constitutional crisis that threatens the rule of law itself.”
Do it Democrats. Doooooo it. You know you wanna.
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough said President Donald Trump is “freaked out” now that Democrats gained subpoena power over him after retaking the House of Representatives.
The “Morning Joe” host said the president’s unhinged news conference Wednesday — and his firing of attorney general Jeff Sessions — was a response to the midterm election results.
“The bottom line is, he lost big time yesterday,” said co-host Mika Brzezinski. “He hates losing. On top of it, Democrats have gained the power to basically ask him every question they finally want the answer to.”
“Donald Trump was freaked out yesterday,” Scarborough said. “Everybody could see how freaked out he was. It was embarrassing watching him fire Jeff Sessions.”
Scarborough said the Sessions sacking, and his deeply conflicted temporary replacement, should be considered additional evidence in the special counsel probe Trump’s trying to stop.
“”(If) you’re (Robert) Mueller, you’re putting together this obstruction of justice charge, and he has this hole in the puzzle,” Scarborough said. “What can I put there? Oh, he fires the United States attorney general and appoints a hack, and may not have done that legally, to obstruct justice and stop this investigation.”
Hey, some more from Mr. Scarborough. I didn’t even plan this I am just grabbing links off of Bing in real time.
I know a lot of people were concerned when Trump fired Sessions. But make no mistake; Trump firing Sessions was a foolish act of desperation. It was the act of a bully who has just taken a bloody nose, and is now desperately looking for someone, anyone, to punch down upon in order to feel like a big man again.
We saw this in the weeks leading up to the election; Threatening Trans rights, sending troops to the border for a caravan that’s nowhere near us, talking about repealing the 14th amendment. All acts of a cowardly desperate man who senses his hour is due and is flailing about at whatever target he feels he can get away with hurting. And he is hurting those people don’t get me wrong, but Trumps foolish and thoughtless acts of evil only betray the weakness of a coward whose time has nearly come. I’m going to make a bold claim right now. Trump will resign his post as President within the year. By the end of 2019 he will no longer be President, because he does not have the belly for this work. And if I am wrong, then I will take the Sam Wang route and eat a bug (For the purposes of this bet, I consider Gummy Worms to be bugs BTW. I may be confident but I’m not stupid. I also have a policy to never bet anything I can’t afford to lose).
And if you’re still worried about Mueller, don’t worry. Chuck Schumer has you covered.
Stepping up Democratic efforts to shield the Russia investigation, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday he would seek to tie a measure protecting special counsel Robert Mueller to must-pass legislation if acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker does not recuse himself from oversight of the probe.
READ MORE: Donald Trump’s advisers worried about Mueller’s next steps in Russia probe
Schumer pointed to Whitaker’s “history of hostile statements” toward the Mueller investigation.
“If he stays there, he will create a constitutional crisis by inhibiting Mueller or firing Mueller. So Congress has to act,” Schumer told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“We Democrats, House and Senate, will attempt to add to must-pass legislation, in this case the spending bill, legislation that would prevent Mr. Whitaker from interfering with the Mueller investigation.”
Schumer sent a letter to the Justice Department on Sunday along with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats that calls for Lee Lofthus, an assistant attorney general and the department’s chief ethics officer, to disclose whether he had advised Whitaker to recuse himself from oversight of the probe.
The Democrats cited Whitaker’s past public statements, which have included an op-ed article in which he said Mueller would be straying outside his mandate if he investigated President Donald Trump’s family finances and a talk radio interview in which he maintained there was no evidence of collusion between the Russia and the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.
Yep, I know a lot of people malign Schumer and House leader Nancy Pelosi, but dammit, they’re the best we have right now, and they’re on top of this. They put the GOP over the proverbial barrel on the Budget bill last year (After McConnell foolishly squandered budget Reconciliation on the Tax Scam. And how did that work out for you Mitch? Wont save you this year either). And I trust Schumer to be able to handle Trump and his cronies now.
That does it for the good news. Once again allow me to promote the official Good News Roundup Playlist, brought to you by the fine folks at Spotify. Almost 100 songs now, nearly six hours of music designed to read the GNR to, and to give you some hope during these troubled times.
So, with that, have a good morning, get out there, and resist!