There is a lot of great news to report today, including some pretty explosive russia/trump stuff, but before I get to it, I hope you don’t mind if I share some thoughts I have had recently about what it means to be a Democrat.
It is hard for the party to gets its message across, with the trump show dominating all media, but we continue to see signs of democrats fighting for all Americans, again and again.
Every time I write one of these I find more evidence of Democrats fighting for our country.
Democrats have plans to break up consolidation of power and lower prescription drug prices
Democrats have plans for build our infrastructure
Democrats support a living wage
Democrats support common sense gun laws and oppose the NRA’s strangle hold on American politics
Democrats support universal health care
Democrats oppose corruption and pay-to-play politics in Washington
Democrats support paying teachers what the deserve for the work they do for our future.
Those are great things, but more than that, to me, Democrats represent the future. America frequently falters, but the general path is one if increased inclusion and opportunity for more and more. That is what the Democratic party represents. The trumpist republicans represent a step to the past.
Our strength comes from our diversity. We have more women and more African Americans running than ever before in our party. And the Trumpist Republicans? They keep turning towards hate. Just look at this quote that came our yesterday:
Disgusting. Not only do they use hatred and divisiveness for their own gain, but they revel in it. Every time I think I have lost my capacity to be surprised and distressed by this man, he reaches further for the bottom.
But on the same day I read that, I read the opposite about our party. And I take great hope and pride from the fact that our party stands for the polar opposite of hatred. Our party is moving MORE towards inclusion and MORE towards openness. For example, check out this research on white Democrats:
The Rising Racial Liberalism of Democratic Voters
white Democrats have become much less likely to endorse individualistic explanations of racial inequality and more supportive of structural explanations of racial inequality. In 2016, for the first time since the question was asked, a majority of white Democrats agreed that discrimination held black people back.
A similar trend can be seen in Pew data: In 2014, 41 percent of Democrats agreed that racial discrimination was the main reason black people couldn’t get ahead, a number that rose to 64 percent in 2017. Not only have Democrats shifted their attitudes about African-Americans, they have changed their thinking about policies that affect Latinos and other people of color. In 1994, 65 percent of Democrats supported decreased immigration (67 percent of white Democrats), a share that fell to 29 percent in 2016 (30 percent of white Democrats).
But is this the result of a change of heart or a sorting process in which racial conservatives leave the Democratic Party and racial liberals leave the Republican Party?
To study this, I used the Voter Study Group, a panel survey that re-interviewed individuals in 2016 who had previously been interviewed in 2011. By examining only individuals who identify as Democrats in both the baseline survey and the 2016 survey, I can weed out the possibility that the shift I’m measuring is due only to attrition. And indeed, on every question in the racial resentment battery, white Democrats were more likely to take the liberal position in 2016 than they were in 2011, often startlingly so.
Democrats are becoming more accepting, more open, and more woke. And not only as a party, but as individuals. And despite the BS of people trying to get us in pie fights, it just ain’t working → If Democrats are having a civil war, nobody told the voters
To peruse the coverage of the Democratic primaries of 2018, you’d think there was a battle royale within the Democratic Party: insurgent vs. establishment, Bernie vs. Hillary, progressive vs. moderate, grass roots vs. party bosses.
There’s been mention of a “battle between progressives and moderates” (the Guardian), a Democratic “identity crisis” (The Post), a “full-blown Democratic war” (CNN), a “civil war” (Fox News) and a “fight for the future of the Democratic Party” (BuzzFeed).
But if a civil war has been declared, somebody forgot to tell Democratic voters. They are stubbornly refusing to view 2018 through the progressive/moderate, insurgent/establishment lens.
Those trying to plot these races on the progressive/centrist axis or the insurgent/establishment axis will have trouble discerning a pattern. That’s because those are false choices this year. Those distinctions are not driving voters in 2018.
Overriding all other considerations this year in Democratic voters’ minds (and candidates’ messages) is stopping President Trump and his congressional enablers. Related to that is the other major influence of this primary season: a huge rise in support for female candidates among men and women alike, likely driven by Trump’s misogyny, the #MeToo movement and Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016.
The moral arc of justice bends towards justice, my friends. I know these are dark times for our country. I know trumpism is a movement towards the worst, most racist parts of people but we, the Democrats, will NOT let this happen.
More of us dislike him than like him. More of us voted for her than for him. More of us are motivated and working hard for our country. And more of us are Democrats than Republicans
I have so much faith in us. I have so much pride in our party. And I have so much hope for our future.
We will get through these times because we will continue to work hard for America.
And helping us out may just be stupid watergate →
Russia Russia Russia
You know who is going down soon? Roger Stone. First there is the Assange stuff which is pretty f-ing damning
Roger Stone’s Ever-Changing Assange Explanations
On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Stone, in emails written to an associate of WikiLeaks founder-slash-embassy crasher Julian Assange, had solicited “damaging” information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the late stages of the 2016 presidential campaign.
The emails appear to contradict Stone’s sworn testimony before the House Intelligence Committee last September, during which he said his solicitation of information from WikiLeaks indicated that he “merely wanted confirmation” that Assange had information about Clinton.
That inconsistency is the latest wrinkle in Stone’s long-inconsistent description of his relationship with Assange, as well as any role he may have played in the actions of a Russian intelligence officer who took credit for providing WikiLeaks with stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee.
and now it looks like Mueller is also looking at his finances → Roger Stone's finances examined by special counsel
Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has been probing Roger Stone's finances as it summons a series of witnesses to gather more information about one of President Donald Trump's longtime advisers, according to people familiar with the situation.
Mueller's team has questioned associates about Stone's finances, including his tax returns.
The interest in Stone's finances could be tied to Mueller's charge of investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election and potential collusion, though another possibility is Mueller is pursuing something unrelated that turned up in the course of the investigation.
"The normal thing for a prosecutor in the course of your investigation is if you come across something that is itself worthy of criminal investigation, you don't turn a blind eye to it. You investigate," said CNN legal analyst Michael Zeldin, a former assistant to Mueller.
Whatever the reasoning, the probe into Stone's finances should give him cause for concern, Zeldin said.
Mueller has not interviewed him at all which is a pretty strong sign (in addition to the damning evidence) that he is a target in the investigation. And when he is brought in, one question will be…
Could Roger Stone spill Trump's secrets to Mueller?
The self-proclaimed dirty trickster and longtime Trump adviser may know more about the president's dirty laundry than his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. What if Mueller flips him?
President Donald Trump worries that his lawyer, Michael Cohen, might cut a plea deal and turn against him. But an even greater threat may be creeping up on Trump: Roger Stone.
Although Cohen is considered the keeper of Trump’s most private secrets, Stone has known the president for much longer, and is a self-described dirty trickster with broad knowledge of his personal, business and political histories.
But Stone may also feel limited loyalty to his former boss, with whom he has at times bitterly feuded.
The former Richard Nixon campaign aide and longtime Trump political adviser served Trump’s presidential campaign for less than two months in 2015 before leaving in a “You’re fired/I quit” dispute. But he continued as an outside adviser whispering in Trump’s ear. And now Mueller is examining whether Stone had any first-hand knowledge of the Russians who hacked into Democratic email accounts and dished it all up to take down Hillary Clinton.
If the special counsel finds enough to charge Stone, some people who know him well doubt he will stay devoted to a president who has embraced him but also dubbed him a “stone-cold loser.”
You know who else Mueller hasn’t interviewed?
Why hasn’t Mueller talked to Donald Trump Jr. yet?
We will stipulate at the outset that the investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and his team is a black box, by design. We get trickles of information about who Mueller’s team is talking to and who’s been called before a grand jury, usually thanks to those people subsequently revealing those conversations publicly. (Sometimes, as in the case of former Trump aide Sam Nunberg, we are informed ahead of time, loudly.)
It’s almost certain that Mueller’s team has talked to scores more people than we know about or can think of simply by the nature of his investigation. At one point, Paul Manafort’s real estate agent testified before the grand jury. Who knew?
So it’s odd that one very prominent name appears not to have talked to Mueller: Donald Trump Jr. Again, it’s unclear. Maybe Trump Jr. has had extended conversations with Mueller’s investigators and we don’t know about it. Given how closely Mueller’s efforts are being watched, though, that seems unlikely. And there are few people who might be able to offer more insight on the Russia investigation than Donald Trump Jr.
does this mean Jr is a target?
Former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega raised another possibility.
“It’s entirely true, based on public reports so far, that Donald Trump, Jr. appears to have been involved in many significant events that would be of interest to Special Counsel Mueller,” she wrote in a message to The Post. “That very fact suggests a third alternative explanation for Mueller’s failure to interview him thus far: Don, Jr. is a serious subject or, quite possibly a target of the Special Counsel investigation.”
“Federal prosecutors rarely interview targets of an investigation,” she continued. “Instead, they build the case around them, with documents, emails, public admissions and other witnesses.”
And he sure is asking questions that relate to Jr: Mueller Asked About Money Flows to Israeli Social-Media Firm, Source Says
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team has asked about flows of money into the Cyprus bank account of a company that specialized in social-media manipulation and whose founder reportedly met with Donald Trump Jr. in August 2016, according to a person familiar with the investigation.
And it sure does seem like he has already commited perjury →
Coons says that reports about a second Don Jr meeting suggest that he may have given false statements to Congress when interviewed by Senate Judiciary staff last year
And this just came out last night! → 'Trump's son should be concerned': FBI obtained wiretaps of Putin ally who met with Trump Jr.
The FBI has obtained secret wiretaps collected by Spanish police of conversations involving Alexander Torshin, a deputy governor of Russia’s Central Bank who has forged close ties with U.S. lawmakers and the National Rifle Association, that led to a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. during the gun lobby’s annual convention in Louisville, Ky., in May 2016, a top Spanish prosecutor said Friday.
“Just a few months ago, the wiretaps of these telephone conversations were given to the FBI,” Grinda said in response to a question from Yahoo News during a talk he gave at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington. Asked if he was concerned about Torshin’s meetings with Donald Trump Jr. and other American political figures, Grinda replied: “Mr. Trump’s son should be concerned.”
The comments by Grinda were the first clear sign that the FBI may be investigating Torshin, possibly as a part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Torshin — a close political ally of Vladimir Putin — had multiple contacts with conservative activists in the United States during the election, seeking to set up a summit between the Russian president and then candidate Trump. Although the summit never transpired, Torshin did meet briefly with the president’s son at a private dinner in Louisville during the May 2016 annual convention of the NRA. A member of the NRA since 2012, Torshin has been a regular attendee of the group’s conventions in recent years and hosted senior members of the group in Moscow."
The comments by Grinda were the first clear sign that the FBI may be investigating Torshin, possibly as a part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Torshin — a close political ally of Vladimir Putin — had multiple contacts with conservative activists in the United States during the election, seeking to set up a summit between the Russian president and then candidate Trump. Although the summit never transpired, Torshin did meet briefly with the president’s son at a private dinner in Louisville during the May 2016 annual convention of the NRA.
Sounds like Jr isn’t mentioned on the tapes, but that the establish that the guy he met with is not innocent and is tied up in this Russian stuff and its links to the NRA. gosh, it would be a shame if the NRA went down with this ship 😉
and don’t forget about Manafort who is facing a lot of pressure to turn on trump →
The Newest Threat to Manafort Comes From Inside His Own Family
It might feel like a lifetime ago. You might have missed it, with all of the other major breaks in the far-flung investigations into Trumpworld. But last week, Paul Manafort’s former son-in-law and business partner, Jeffrey Yohai, reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors in Los Angeles. And that has the potential to significantly increase Manafort’s legal risk.
Yohai pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges related to real estate transactions and misrepresenting his income and assets to obtain an American Express “Black Card.” Yohai has agreed to cooperate with, and provide information to, federal and state authorities placing yet another Manafort insider in the government’s back pocket.
it’s possible that Yohai’s plea deal will provide context to the existing investigation and may even eventually trigger new criminal charges against Manafort.
And were you thinking things might get better for Cohen? Nope, more breaking news that sure looks like collusion → At Trump Tower, Michael Cohen and Oligarch Discussed Russian Relations
Eleven days before the presidential inauguration last year, a billionaire Russian businessman with ties to the Kremlin visited Trump Tower in Manhattan to meet with Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, according to video footage and another person who attended the meeting.
In Mr. Cohen’s office on the 26th floor, he and the oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, discussed a mutual desire to strengthen Russia’s relations with the United States under President Trump, according to Andrew Intrater, an American businessman who attended the meeting and invests money for Mr. Vekselberg. The men also arranged to see one another during the inauguration festivities, the second of their three meetings, Mr. Intrater said.
Days after the inauguration, Mr. Intrater’s private equity firm, Columbus Nova, awarded Mr. Cohen a $1 million consulting contract, a deal that has drawn the attention of federal authorities investigating Mr. Cohen, according to people briefed on the inquiry.
Who is Viktor Vekselberg?
in the past, Vekselberg crossed paths with other key Trump-related figures. In December 2015, he attended the now-infamous 10th anniversary gala for the Kremlin-owned RT channel, where Putin sat beside Michael Flynn, who was later -- briefly — Trump’s national security adviser .
Vekselberg, who was one of two dozen Russian business executives and government officials to be sanctioned in April as part of the U.S. response to the poisoning of a Russian double agent in London, is now under intense scrutiny.
This is a connection they first lied about
The subsidiary investment arm in question has previously denied that the Putin-connectedViktor Vekselberg had anything to do with the $1 million consulting contract and reported$580,000 in payments to Cohen.
On Friday, the New York Times and CNN reported that Vekselberg had attended meetings with Cohen shortly before the inauguration. The Times reported that the meeting took place on Jan. 9, 2017. The payments to Cohen from Columbus Nova, a company that had been previously listed on Vekselberg’s firm’s official website as a subsidiary of his own, began that same month.
In a statement earlier this month after the emergence of those payments, Columbus Nova said they were made completely independently of Vekselberg and his Renova Group.
in case that doesn’t sound suspicious enough, here is more:
The Times reported earlier this month that Vekselberg had been interviewed at an airport and had his electronic devices searched by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
Vekselberg was one of seven Russian oligarchs hit with sanctions last month for Moscow’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 election. Despite bipartisan support in Congress and the backing of his own advisers, Trump has reportedly attempted to block sanctions against Russia, some of which were watered down last month. Mueller is reportedly investigating Cohen’s role in promoting a peace plan between Russia and Ukraine that would have involved the lifting of Russian sanctions by the United States. Earlier this week, the BBC reported that Cohen had accepted somewhere between $400,000 and $600,000 to set up a White House meeting between Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Trump.
The money paid by Vekselberg’s subsidiary investment vehicle went to the same shell company that paid adult film performer Stormy Daniels $130,000 in exchange for a now-contested hush money agreement to keep silent about an alleged Shark Week sex affair with Trump.
And in case you have been worried about Trump’s propaganda war being successful —> Trump Is Winning His PR Battle With Mueller. So What?
I’m as prone to panic as the next guy inside the Beltway who gorges on the news. Then why haven’t I burrowed into my bomb shelter to await the Trump apocalypse whose impending signs have been sighted everywhere? Why am I sipping sweet whiskey in my Barcalounger, confident that the Trump gang will get a serving of justice? To begin with, the comparison of the Starr investigation with the Mueller probe doesn’t hold up. What “worked” for Clinton can’t work for Trump because the underlying facts are so different. Ken Starr’s investigation of Bill Clinton was a simple one, primarily designed to support articles of impeachment against the president for one count of perjury and one of obstruction of justice. There was no greater network of crimes involving foreign money and influence. The Mueller probe, so far at least, has been a complex criminal one, leading to six guilty pleas, not counting the this week’s capitulation by Evgeny Freidman, Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s longtime business associate in New York.
The idea that a public relations campaign alone can divert or nullify Mueller’s criminal roll-up doesn’t really stand up. The special counsel has no doubt gathered millions of pages of evidence and testimony, performed complex forensics on financial documents, and has placed them in a safe place where jawboning by the president and his allies and silly accusations about “spies” can’t touch them.
. Unless or until Trump pulls the trigger on sacking Mueller, he will continue amassing evidence and building his cases. The FBI agents assigned to the case will continue to gather string. If Trump nukes the special counsel, any pending indictments will survive (as will the guilty pleas), and Mueller’s team of prosecutors might well continue under the supervision of a new special counsel or their cases might be advanced by other federal prosecutors. And even if Trump nuked every prosecutor who dared to advance Mueller’s findings—assuming that would be possible—state and local prosecutors free of the president’s control could step up to pursue the leads.
If political observers seem unduly panicked by Trump’s feral barking, cut them a break. Not even when President Richard Nixon was caterwauling his Watergate best—either on the tapes or before the cameras—have we ever heard such malicious fabrications as Trump’s from a president. This isn’t Bill Clinton’s playbook. It’s Joseph McCarthy’s. You can bamboozle and exaggerate only so long before the crowd figures out the scam.
The sledding ahead is likely to be rough as Trump finds himself cornered and trapped. He’s likely to do even wilder stuff. But he would be wrong to think he can end the investigations by cutting the head off the snake because he’s got the wrong analogy. Our justice system is more like a starfish. Cut off one of its legs and it will grow back. Again and again.
It is hard to know exactly how much illegal stuff about trump will come out, and how much evidence there will be of said stuff, but if it is as bad as many of us suspect, some very smart people argue that: Donald Trump should not assume he's above the law. A sitting president can be indicted
Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani would be unwise to assume presidents can't be indicted. The Constitution doesn't bar it and Rod Rosenstein could allow it.
Giuliani is relying on 1973 and 2000 opinions from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), but both he and they are mistaken. Subjecting the president to the time-consuming need to defend a prosecution would not, as argued,unconstitutionally incapacitate the executive branch.
The Supreme Court heard similar arguments from Presidents Nixon and Clinton when they tried to avoid potentially damaging proceedings. In Nixon’s case, it was a criminal subpoena for his tape recordings of Oval Office conversations. In Clinton’s, it was a civil lawsuit brought by Paula Jones.
The Supreme Court rejected the presidential blocking moves both times. While a president is entitled to special accommodation, the court has held that a president enjoys no special immunity from court jurisdiction and the legal process while in office.
If in fact a president is so consumed by a legal defense that he or she cannot lead the executive branch, there are other options. The vice president is constitutionally permitted under the 25th Amendment to assume the office when a president cannot perform its functions. If Trump finds himself in a position where he cannot faithfully execute his official duties, he may resign, or invoke the 25th Amendment and step aside temporarily.
Those options, while obviously unpalatable to the president, are consistent with a basic principle of our democracy: No person is above the law.
whew! That was a LOT of Russia related stuff!
Summary — no wonder Donny is freaking out. The walls sure are closing in!!
Good Election News
Trump is a terrible surrogate
Trump just stepped all over GOP midterm messaging.“Your vote in 2018 is every bit as important as your vote in 2016 — although I’m not sure I really believe that,” Trump ad libs. “I don’t know who the hell wrote that line.”
Dem operatives craft Trump-Mueller message for 2018 elections
How can Democrats most effectively rally support for Robert Mueller’s investigation of the Trump team’s ties to Russia?
Remind the public — which mostly thinks the probe has failed to uncover potential crimes — that the months-long investigation has yielded almost two dozen indictments so far, a group of top Democratic operatives urged party officials, activists and candidates on Wednesday.
According to recommendations released Wednesday by Navigator, a group of leading party pollsters and strategists who are trying to help progressive leaders and Democratic candidates devise the most politically effective messages for 2018, 59 percent of the public thinks the special counsel investigation into Russia’s attempts to support Donald Trump’s campaign has yet to reveal any evidence of wrongdoing by his team.
Women are at the heart of November
72 women ** SO FAR ** have won a majority party nod for the House. That's more than the *total* number of women nominated in the 1990 election. It's May.
Surging gas prices could fuel backlash against Trump
A huge jump in driving costs in recent months is likely to push a wave of economic anger across the nation — just in time for the midterm elections.
Good Poll News
Poll: Trump reelection bid begins in a hole
Just 36 percent say they would vote to reelect the president in 2020, compared with 44 percent who would pick the Democrat.
the next one is preemptive good poll news 😄 When this N. Korea summit started to come together there was discussion in the comments about how this would affect Trump’s poll numbers. the very smart OldHippieDude suggested that it might bump him up a few points, but he would lose that when he did something stupid.
Indeed, it did bump him up a few points.
And. indeed, he did something stupid (or another something stupid) yesterday and although it will take a while to trickle into poll numbers, there is reason to think this will bring down his numbers again. Why? Well not only did the uptick occur in synchrony with the N. Korea stuff but Trump’s Handling Of North Korea Has Been One Of The Few Things Americans Liked About His Presidency
Check out this chart from 538:
His handling of NK was literally the ONLY think that a majority of Americans approved of. Literally the only one. So I would expect this to take a couple of weeks to show up in the poll numbers, but assuming that he doesn’t have miraculous camp David type summit between the Israelis and Palestinians next week, I think it is safe to say that this will hurt his numbers.
That makes me happy because I know these numbers stress a lot of you out. And stressing you all out keeps you from doing the work for November that you need to do.
The numbers continue to worry me less because I continue to believe that the 42% approval is not his base. Only somewhere between 13 — 18% of Americans think he is honest, shares their values, and cares about him. Those folks are the hardcore base. The rest of these people see the economy not tanking and no new war and are low information voters who just don’t want to rock the boat. They will turn on him when, like John Brennan says,:
Also, 42% is pathetic
At a time of relatively low military casualties and strong job growth, the president’s popularity at home roughly matches that of George W. Bush’s during the worst months of the Iraq war, 2005–2006, and Barack Obama’s during the most disappointing months of the weak recovery from the recession of 2009. The president’s options are narrowing even before the midterm elections.
so don’t stress about the polls. Keep your eyes on November instead! Are you donating your time and money? See the end of the diary for ideas on what you can do.
We have Great Allies
The new AG itching to take on Trump
The man aspiring to be the new face of the resistance is a practicing Sikh who likes to call attention to his turban and happens to have jurisdiction over 20 of President Donald Trump’s properties, including Bedminster.
New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal says he sees an opening in the continuing wake left by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s surprise resignation, and he’s ready to take it.
“If with him not being there, there’s a gap, we’ll fill that gap to make sure there’s no backsliding,” said Grewal, ticking off a list of active or potential lawsuits against the administration over immigrants, the stripping down of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, threats to the state coastline, the proposed citizenship question on the Census and more.
In four months on the job, Grewal has joined or started 30 actions against the federal government, from debt collection to carbon emissions. He has embedded himself with the Democratic attorneys general who've banded together since last year to take on Trump, and which Schneiderman had been a national leader on.
Senator Jeff Flake to Harvard Law Grads: Trump ‘Debased’ Presidency
In highly charged and notably ominous terms, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) on Wednesday laid bare his fears about the damage Donald Trump was inflicting on the office he holds, and called out his fellow Republicans for lacking the spine to fight to it.
“Our presidency has been debased by a figure who has a seemingly bottomless appetite for destruction and division and only a passing familiarity with how the Constitution works,” Flake declared, according to an advanced copy of the commencement address he was delivering to graduates of the Harvard School of Law. “And our Article I branch of government, the Congress, is utterly supine in the face of the moral vandalism that flows from the White House daily.”
‘This Is Not of God’: When Anti-Trump Evangelicals Confront Their Brethren
Mr. Claiborne and his group are the other evangelicals. The Red Letter Christians, a reference to the words of Jesus printed in some Bibles in red type, are not the evangelicals invited for interviews on Fox News or MSNBC. They don’t align neatly with either political party. But they have fierce moral and theological objections to those evangelicals who have latched onto Mr. Trump and the Republican Party.
Let’s go where the Christians are, go where toxic Christianity lives,” Mr. Claiborne said last year, when proposing the idea for a revival in Lynchburg at an annual retreat for the Red Letter Christians.
The revival last month was the most energetic of several recent attempts by Christians in various camps to confront what they see as Mr. Trump’s “court evangelicals” selling out the faith. The critics have written columns, and a book called “Still Evangelical?” They convened a closed-door summit last month at Wheaton College. A number of bereaved, eminent elders plan a procession to the White House soon to hand over their manifesto, “Reclaiming Jesus: A Confession of Faith in a Time of Crisis.”
“There is another Gospel in our country right now, and it is the Gospel of Trump,” Mr. Claiborne preached at the revival in his Tennessee drawl. “It doesn’t look much like the Gospel of Jesus.”
Concerned by Trump, Some Republicans Quietly Align With Democrats
Since Donald J. Trump began dominating American politics more than two years ago, Democrats concerned about his policies and behavior have taken solace in a group of influential Republicans who have consistently assailed the president as anathema to the values of their party, and the country more broadly.
In the past year, however, influential liberal donors and operatives have gone from cheering these so-called Never Trump Republicans to quietly working with — and even funding — them. Through invitation-only emails and private, off-the-record meetings, they have formed a loose network of cross-partisan alliances aimed at helping neutralize President Trump, and preventing others from capitalizing on weaknesses in the political system that they say he has exploited.
Other Good News
House Approves Giving Terminally Ill Quicker Access to Experimental Drugs
Patients with life-threatening conditions will get the right to try unproven drugs under legislation that passed Tuesday in the House
Offshore wind finally gets blowing in the US
All the way back in December 2016, I wrote about a milestone: The US finally had its first operating offshore wind farm, the Block Island Wind Farm off of Rhode Island.
As milestones go, it was somewhat sad (the farm is just 30 megawatts) and late (offshore wind’s been around for 20 years), but at least it signaled the US was in the offshore-wind game.
Recent developments suggest that momentum is now gathering in earnest.
The US will be catching up to Europe for years. The EU already has 16,000 MW of offshore wind installed, and growth is only accelerating; investment in the industry could top $10 billion in 2018, led by the UK, where prices are coming in at eye-popping lows.
Nonetheless, it really does look like the US is getting into gear. The US Department of Energy predicts around 22,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030. But like so many other clean energy technologies, offshore wind already seems to be advancing and getting cheaper faster than anyone expected. My bet is that DOE’s number, like the vast bulk of predictions about renewable energy to date, will prove wildly below the mark.
Harvey Weinstein Accusers Say They Never Thought He Would Be Arrested
Once the most powerful man in Hollywood, disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein surrendered himself to New York police Friday morning, a watershed moment for the Me Too movement catalyzed last fall by the countless women who came forward with sexual harassment and assault allegations against him.
Some of the actresses who came forward with sexual assault claims against the once powerful Hollywood mogul responded with both surprise and relief.
Finally, some Seth Meyers because he is so awesome and 100% on our side in all this
Before I go, please remember NOVEMBER NOVEMBER NOVEMBER!!!
Do these things! Or at least some!
Donate to ActBlue
Donate to Swing Left
Send postcards to voters in other districts
Sign up to go door to door in your district
Sign up to drive people to the polls
Find your local Democratic Party and volunteer!
Huge love to all of you in particular those who come to the comments to spread love, hope, and ideas for action. It is because of all of you that I have hope. If you come to the comments in need of some love, hope, and ideas for action, we’ll provide them for you. It is ok to be stressed out and worried. We all get there sometimes. It is just not ok to give up. Not with all of us in this together! ❤️
I remain proud, lucky, and pumped up to be in this with all of you!!! ❤️ ✊ ❤️