Yesterday was the darkest day of the year and man, it felt like it.
Today is the day when things should start to get brighter.
I always look forward to this time of year because I love the feeling that things are getting brighter every day. I love the feeling that things are improving.
The thing is, it doesn’t always feel like things are getting lighter right away. Even though it is getting dark later, it takes a while to notice.
For one thing, the changes are small and tough to see. For another, it doesn’t start getting lighter in the morning until early January. For the next couple of weeks, it will actually get light *later* every morning, not earlier.
Here we are waiting for the light to break, knowing it is coming, and yet every morning we continue to wake to darkness.
And that is the same situation we are in politically. This is the beginning of the end of the darkest period, even though it doesn’t feel like it.
This is the beginning of the end of Trump. We knew that he wouldn’t go down easy. We knew that the crazy would get worse before it got better. And that is where we are now. His crazy is becoming more extreme and although that is a part of this process, it sure doesn’t feel good.
It is scary, but we have to have faith that this will end, because it will.
Don’t listen to the people saying this will never end and or Trump will be reelected in 2020. They are wrong. This is going to end. Those negative people are the same people who argued that we would never take the house because of gerrymandering. They are the same people who said we would never stop the ACA repeal. They are the same people who said Trump would declare martial law if the Democrats took the House. They are the same people who said we would never win a senate seat in Alabama. They are people who mistake cynicism for intelligence. They are people who mistake pessimism for realism. They are people who are afraid and think negativity will protect them. They are wrong on all those counts.
The light of American democracy is bright and strong. And due to our hard work, it is going to shine for much longer. We will not be defeated by this failed reality TV show, lying, bankrupt, grifter.
Here are just some of the reasons I know this national nightmare is going to end:
1. Trump Is Losing His Hold On Power
Trump has been badly weakened. It will get worse for him.
Stephen Miller, the Trump kingdom’s Immigration Iago, wants you to believe that his boss retains great leverage in the ongoing government shutdown fight — so much so that he will, repeat will, get his great border wall.
The meta-message that Miller hoped to convey is that Trump retains formidable strength in the shutdown battle over the wall, but the real story right now is that Trump is weakened. He lacks leverage in the shutdown fight, and it’s plausible that he’s losing influence over congressional Republicans.
Trump’s rage-tweets about special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation are looking increasingly pathetic and impotent.
Yet a new NBC News poll demonstrates with remarkable clarity that Trump is decisively losing that argument. It finds that 62 percent of Americans think Trump has not told the truth about the Mueller investigation, while a meager 34 percent think he has
as Wired’s Garrett Graff puts it, as we head into 2019, Trump “faces a legal assault unlike anything previously seen by any president.”
On still another front, seven Senate Republicans joined with Democrats last week to vote to end the U.S. involvement in the Saudi war in Yemen, a resounding rebuke of Trump. While there’s still a long slog ahead on this, political scientist Jonathan Bernstein notes that this sort of cracking is an important signal.
GOP senators reject Trump proposal to go 'nuclear' on wall
Senate Republicans quickly rejected President Trump's push that they go "nuclear" and change Senate rules to eliminate the legislative filibuster in order to pass a funding bill with $5 billion for his wall on the Mexican border.
"I’ve long said that eliminating the legislative filibuster would be a mistake," said outgoing Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch(R-Utah) in a string of tweets explaining his position.
"It’s what’s prevented our country for decades from sliding toward liberalism. It’s inconvenient sometimes, but requiring compromise is in the interest of both parties in the long term," Hatch said.
Retiring GOP Sen.
Jeff Flake (Ariz.) pledged that he wouldn't vote to nix the 60-vote filibuster in order to clear money for the border.
Chris Matthews Predicts Trump Could Resign ‘In The Coming Weeks’
Matthews said Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump could be the “next dominoes to fall” in the investigation and could face prosecution and possible prison time.
“But what if the prosecutor were to offer the president an alternative. What if he were to say he would let the children walk if the old man does the same? That would mean giving up the presidency in exchange for acquittals all around ― not just for himself, but for all his kids.”
I do think Trump will be out of office before the election of 2020, but I don’t think he will leave to save his kids. You are way overestimating trump if you think he cares that much about anyone but himself.
2. Trump Is In Enormous Russia Related Trouble
Fox News Legal Analyst Warns Trump Of ‘Doomsday’ Scenario In Mueller Probe
And he warned team Trump that if the president doesn’t submit to an interview, he’ll be facing a grand jury.
Napolitano told Fox News anchor Shepard Smith that if Trump agrees to an interview, his legal team would be with him. They could stop, leave the room and confer after every question.
Before a grand jury, the president would face questions alone.
Mueller Ready to Pounce on Trumpworld Concessions to Moscow
New court filings by Mueller’s office could answer a central question of the Russia investigation: What did the Kremlin hope to get from its political machinations?
For more than a year, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office has questioned witnesses broadly about their interactions with well-connected Russians. But three sources familiar with Mueller’s probe told The Daily Beast that his team is now zeroing in on Trumpworld figures who may have attempted to shape the administration's foreign policy by offering to ease U.S. sanctions on Russia.
The Special Counsel’s Office is preparing court filings that are expected to detail Trump associates’ conversations about sanctions relief—and spell out how those offers and counter-proposals were characterized to top figures on the campaign and in the administration, those same sources said.
Mueller seeks Roger Stone’s testimony to House intelligence panel, suggesting special counsel is near end of probe of Trump adviser
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III asked the House Intelligence Committee on Friday for an official transcript of Trump adviser Roger Stone’s testimony, according to people familiar with the request, a sign that prosecutors could be moving to charge him with a crime.
Spoiler alert: Stone will turn on Trump. In a NY minute.
3. Trump Is In Enormous Legal Trouble
A COMPLETE GUIDE TO ALL 17 (KNOWN) TRUMP AND RUSSIA INVESTIGATIONS
Investigations by the Special Counsel
1. The Russian Government’s Election Attack
2. WikiLeaks
3. Middle Eastern Influence
4. Paul Manafort’s Activity
5. The Trump Tower Moscow Project
6. Other Campaign and Transition Contacts With Russia
7. Obstruction of Justice
Investigations by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York
8. Campaign Conspiracy and the Trump Organization’s Finances
9. Inauguration Funding
10. Trump SuperPAC Funding
11. Foreign Lobbying
Investigations by the US Attorney for the District of Columbia
12. Maria Butina and the NRA
Investigations by the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia
13. Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova
14. Turkish Influence
Investigations by New York City, New York State, & Other State Attorneys General
15. Tax Case
16. The Trump Foundation
17. Emoluments Lawsuit
A.G. Underwood Announces Stipulation Dissolving Trump Foundation Under Judicial Supervision, With AG Review Of Recipient Charities
Attorney General Underwood’s lawsuit sought the dissolution of the Foundation under judicial supervision and with the oversight of the Attorney General's Charities Bureau. The lawsuit – which also seeks millions in restitution and penalties and a bar on President Trump and his three eldest children from serving on the boards of other New York charities – remains ongoing.
“This is an important victory for the rule of law, making clear that there is one set of rules for everyone. We’ll continue to move our suit forward to ensure that the Trump Foundation and its directors are held to account for their clear and repeated violations of state and federal law.”
This is HUGE. Cohen may have been the one to bury the bodies trump wanted buried, but AMI was the PLACE they were all buried. And now the prosecutors have all of it. Any guesses as to how many crimes are being uncovered?
How Donald Trump Got Caught in a Legal Vise
The breadth of investigations is so sweeping that they may hang over the president and his entourage long after Robert Mueller’s probe is finished.
The breadth of investigations is so sweeping — as many on social media and reporters with the Washington Post, the Associated Press, and Bloomberg News have already noted — that few of the worlds Trump inhabits have escaped prosecutors’ attention. The Trump Organization, the Trump Foundation, the Trump family, the Trump campaign, the Trump transition, the Trump inauguration, and the Trump White House are all being probed for wrongdoing.
Trump Testimony From Decades Ago Indicates Knowledge of Campaign-Finance Laws
Legal experts say that could be critical if investigators pursue a case over hush-money payments to women in the 2016 campaign
And who is defending trump? this idiot:
Rudy Giuliani is the fool for our time
He had told CNN on Sunday that “no one signed” a letter of intent for Donald Trump to build a Moscow project. On Tuesday, CNN obtained the letter — signed by Trump.
Giuliani, asked by the New York Daily News to explain himself, said, “I don’t think I said nobody signed it.” Completing the reversal, he said “of course” Trump signed it: “How could you send it but nobody signed it?”
The “fool” has been a dramatic fixture at least since Shakespeare scribbled, and Giuliani is the fool for our time. Occasionally he speaks accidental truths, but mostly he plays the clown. He’s America’s crazy uncle at a time when, according to a Wired tally, seven sets of prosecutors and investigators are pursuing at least 17 court cases involving Trump.
4. Mulvany is Not Going to Save Trump
Pre-Christmas Trump: Rebuked, rampaging
As a sign of the mood inside, officials at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue tell us that Trump is complaining about his incoming chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, in conversations inside the West Wing and with Capitol Hill.
- Trump asked one trusted adviser: "Did you know [Mulvaney] called me 'a terrible human being'" back during the campaign?
- We're told that Trump was furious when the slight surfaced in a two-year-old video right after he promoted Mulvaney. (A spokeswoman says that was before Mulvaney met Trump.)
An outside adviser to Trump told me as the president's "landmark day of chaos" unspooled: "He is straddling the political precipice."
5. Trump Is Bringing Down The GOP
Trump is doubling down on his strategy that cost the GOP the House
With his threat to shut down the federal government unless he receives funding for his border wall, President Donald Trump is employing a tactic that is unpopular to advance a goal that may be even more unpopular.
Trump's threats -- and the muted public resistance to them from GOP congressional leaders -- offer the latest evidence that the party's drubbing in the midterm election has not changed the White House's fundamental strategic calculus.
Though the proposed border wall faces widespread opposition among all the groups in the electorate that powered the big Democratic gains in the House last month, and government shutdowns historically have alienated a broad range of the public, both the end and the means remain popular among the President's core supporters.
6. Democrats Are Poised For Power
GILLIBRAND CALLS FOR END OF CASH BAIL
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand held a press conference over the weekend with Reverend Al Sharpton – in order for them to eliminate cash bail in the justice system.
Democrats will probe Trump Organization projects in Dominican Republic, around the globe
Rep. Elijah Cummings sent a letter to the Trump Organization on Wednesday, renewing a congressional request for records as part of a close examination into overseas deals being negotiated by the company, which is run by President Donald Trump’s adult sons Don Jr. and Eric, including any engagement with developers in the Dominican Republic.
Incoming Dem chairman vows hearings on ObamaCare lawsuit 'right away'
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), the next chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, vowed Monday to hold oversight hearings "right away" on the Trump administration's involvement in a court case over the weekend that ruled that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often called ObamaCare, was unconstitutional.
check this guy out:
7. The Echo Chamber is Turning On Trump
Mattis’s Resignation Creates New Cracks Between G.O.P. Lawmakers and Trump
Hawkish Republican lawmakers, still reeling from President Trump’s decision on Wednesday to yank American forces from Syria, found fresh cause for alarm on Thursday, after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned in protest and reports circulated that the president was preparing to pull thousands of troops out of Afghanistan.
In perhaps the most surprising response, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the usually circumspect majority leader, issued a cutting and lengthy statement
Republicans, particularly in the Senate, have increasingly found themselves at odds with Mr. Trump on hot-button foreign policy issues. In a stinging rebuke of the president’s defense of Saudi Arabia over the killing of a dissident journalist, the Senate voted last week to end American military assistance for the kingdom’s war in Yemen.
What should worry Trump most: Republican allies are turning on him
A former Trump aide who asked to be described as "a Trump ally" told Axios that the sudden wave of criticism from the Hill over Syria and Mattis should scare the president because he would desperately need these lawmakers' support during a possible impeachment battle.
- "Once Republican lawmakers start rebuking the president publicly like this over policy, it makes it easier for them to say: 'It's not just Mueller or ethics. There are other concerns.' Then it's a slippery slope."
Catch up quick: In an unusually harsh statement, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he was "distressed" about Mattis' departure: "It is regrettable that the president must now choose a new Secretary of Defense. But I urge him to select a leader who shares Secretary Mattis's ... principles."
- Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said after the Mattis announcement: "This is a sad day for America."
Trump Is Losing His Friends
Mattis quits on principle, and congressional Republicans grow more willing to criticize the president.
The people who are supposed to be President Trump’s biggest political allies are not happy with him.
These people — congressional Republicans and even members of Trump’s own administration — are unhappy with his foreign policy. They’re also unhappy with how he is handling year-end budget negotiations. And their dissatisfaction is a problem for Trump. It has already made him a weak president and could soon make him weaker.
‘Fox & Friends’ Slams Trump on Syria Withdrawal: Only a Child Would Think ISIS Is Defeated
Host Brian Kilmeade unleashed again on the president on his favorite morning show—and, judging by his tweets, Trump was not happy.
And yes, people like Ann Coulter and Rush Lumbaugh are thrilled that they goaded trump into shutting down the government for his wall and are laying off him for now, but this is NOT going to end with him getting his money for his wall. So they will once again be furious with him for not delivering on their racist fantasy.
Senator Graham calls for hearings on troops in Syria, Afghanistan
Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters he wanted to hear directly from Mattis at any hearing. Mattis announced plans on Thursday to depart in a candid resignation letter to Trump that laid bare the growing divide between them.
Heading to a meeting of Republican senators, Graham said, “In lunch I’m going to ask for hearings like right now about Syria.” Trump said Islamic State had been defeated there so it was time to withdraw U.S. forces.
There are even arguments that Mattis resigned in order to bring trump down.
leaving it in this way and at this time was the most powerful thing he could do towards removing Trump and ending his chaos, destruction and compromising of democracy at home and worldwide.
Here’s the kicker: he doesn’t actually leave until February 28. He’s still an adult in the room for two more months, whatever crazy crap Trump tweets or blathers about him, having provided a pretext no one can argue with (sufficient notice for a proper confirmation process for his successor).
My guess is that Mattis is anticipating that by Feb. 28, Trump will be gone, or at least rendered so powerless that he can’t do much more damage, and adults in the room are no longer needed, at least not so desperately. I hope he is right. His move is a gamble, as generals sometimes make. But he has access to far more information than I do.
However much I disagree with his hawkish stances at other times, I think history will appreciate what James Mattis did here.
Well-played, General.
musical break:
8. The Legal System Still Works
A FEDERAL JUDGE RULES IN FAVOR OF ACTIVISTS WHO COVERTLY RECORD POLICE INTERACTIONS
The ruling is an important step forward for the First Amendment's "right to record," which has become increasingly valuable at a time when images of police brutality often go viral.
9. The Country Is Moving Left
It is easy to think that the lunatic right is the majority, but they aren’t. WE are the majority. In addition to the evidence of that from the midterms, here is more:
It’s the beginning of the end for the gun lobby’s power
Sometimes, dramatic shifts in American politics go unnoticed. They are buried under other news or dismissed because they represent such a sharp break from long-standing assumptions and expectations.
So please open your mind to this: Taken together, the events of 2016 and the results of the 2018 election will be remembered as the beginning of the end of the gun lobby’s power.
Voters who told exit pollsters that they cast ballots on the basis of gun policy voted for Democrats overwhelmingly, 70 percent to 29 percent. The exit poll (conducted by Edison Research and reported by CNN) offered other evidence of which side was most energized by the issue. For example, among voters in households without guns, Democrats in House races prevailed by 72 percent to 26 percent. Those in households with guns voted Republican, but by a narrower margin, 61 percent to 36 percent.
The Green New Deal has Strong Bipartisan Support
Some members of Congress are proposing a “Green New Deal” for the U.S. They say that a Green New Deal will produce jobs and strengthen America’s economy by accelerating the transition from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy. The Deal would generate 100% of the nation’s electricity from clean, renewable sources within the next 10 years; upgrade the nation’s energy grid, buildings, and transportation infrastructure; increase energy efficiency; invest in green technology research and development; and provide training for jobs in the new green economy.
In the survey, we showed respondents a brief description of the Green New Deal, which was identical to the first paragraph of this report (above). The description was followed by the question “How much do you support or oppose this idea?”
The survey results show overwhelming support for the Green New Deal, with 81% of registered voters saying they either “strongly support” (40%) or “somewhat support” (41%) this plan.
NIKE REPORTS STELLAR EARNINGS ON HEELS OF KAEPERNICK CAMPAIGN
In its first earnings report reflecting business conditions since its controversial "Just Do It" campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick, Nike reported an increase in quarterly sales.
For the quarter, Nike Inc. saw revenue increase 10 percent to $9.4 billion, led by a 14 percent rise in the Nike brand to $8.9 billion. Net income was also up 10 percent to $847 million.
10 reasons to celebrate the First Step Act
1. Federal prisons will also rehabilitate and heal - not just punish.
2. Thousands serving outdated sentences for crack cocaine charges can come home -- and some wrong-headed components of the 1994 Crime Bill get scaled back.
3. Less obvious changes win big applause from people in federal prison and their families.
4. Incarcerated women and juveniles will suffer less.
5. Congress will have new "sunshine" mechanisms to help hold the Bureau of Prisons accountable for public safety and racial disparities.
6. This is a rare clean bill that "does no harm."
7. One of America's most "tough on crime" Presidents has become a vocal proponent of "smart on crime" policies.
8. The conservative movement has embraced justice reform with unprecedented force and passion.
9. Justice reform advocates broke the McConnell roadblock.
10. The cynics lost.
Last-minute scramble for ACA plans appears unaffected by court ruling
Nearly 8.5 million Americans signed up for Affordable Care Act health plans for 2019 in the 39 states relying on HealthCare.gov — with a last-minute rush that suggests shoppers were undeterred by a federal court ruling that deemed the law unconstitutional.
Tucker Carlson Ads Down by Nearly Half Amid Boycott
The advertiser boycott against Fox News host Tucker Carlson appears to be having a significant impact on his primetime show. According to CNN, Wednesday night’s episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight had four commercial breaks—down from the usual five—with just 20 regular ads (not including in-house promos for Fox content).
Kids 50 years ago almost never drew scientists as women. Now they do almost a third of the time
If you had asked a young child 50 years ago to draw a picture of a scientist, about 99% of the drawings would be of men.
Ask children to do the same drawing today, and close to a third of the pictures would be of women.
This change through the decades was charted in a new study that examined how children develop gender stereotypes in science.
10. Hope From Around The World
Hungary’s prime minister stole the country’s democracy. Now Hungarians are rising up.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has effectively dismantled his country’s democracy. His Fidesz party has altered the electoral system to make an opposition victory nearly impossible, dismantled the independence of the courts, and turned roughly 90 percent of the country’s media outlets into mouthpieces for the government’s populist, anti-immigrant rhetoric.
But in the past week, something genuinely hopeful happened: Thousands of protesters began taking to the streets of Budapest in sustained anti-government demonstrations. Backed by the major anti-Orbán opposition parties, the protests, which began Wednesday, have featured signs with slogans like “all I want for Xmas is democracy” and chants against state-run media (“the TV is lying!”)
Three countries where democracy actually staged a comeback in 2018
there are parts of the world where, quite unexpectedly, the struggle for democratic reform made giant strides — a reminder that the right mix of activism, leadership and circumstances can suddenly change the course of history.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the year came in Ethiopia, a country of 100 million people and a solidly authoritarian past.
Armenia has experienced a similarly dramatic turnaround.
Two continents and an ocean away, the people of Peru also showed their appetite for change.
Finally, Keep This In Mind If You Are Worried About Mattis:
There never were any “adults in the room”
The only real grown-ups in American politics are in the resistance.
Secretary of Defense James Mattis’s decision to resign, complete with a strongly worded letter slamming President Donald Trump, is not so much the end of “adults in the room” safeguarding the country from the president’s worst instincts as it is the end of the myth that there ever were any such adults.
Mattis was, after all, recommended to Trump in the first place because Barack Obama had fired him for his reckless advocacy of military confrontation with Iran. And while the last grown-up was unable to restrain Trump from imprisoning asylum-seeking children, abusing his pardon power for Joe Arpaio, abusing declassification power, undertaking a partisan purge of the FBI, cheering the French far right, or issuing apologias for neo-Nazis, he finally decided to take his stand over Trump making the perfectly defensible decision to withdraw US forces from a hazily defined open-ended mission in Syria that lacked any legal authorization.
Trump is not inexperienced, naive, or in need of expert guidance.
He’s simply unfit for the presidency in ways that have always been clear. He lacks relevant subject matter knowledge, disposition to learn, empathy, respect for the rule of law, or comprehension of American values.
And in response, millions of people have, over a period of years, attended marches and rallies, contributed to and volunteered for campaigns, and otherwise added to the anti-Trump resistance. Those people are, so to speak, the adults in the room: the ones trying to get an unfit president and his enablers out of office so that they can be replaced by other, more competent people.
as window dressing, Mattis and all the other grown-ups were playing a destructive role.
Got that? WE are the adults in the room. We have been this whole time.
So keep calling your reps. Keep organizing. Keep sending postcards and texts. Keep donating money. Keep marching.
We will get there together ❤️ ✊ ❤️
