Today’s Good News Roundup is sponsored by Roundup Weed Killer. Which is great for keeping all those plants popping out of the snow healthy (I mean they got enough to worry about with the cold and all. Don’t need Weeds on top of it.)
Okay that’s not true, but we are kind of a weed of sorts: After all there’s no greater weed than the weed of pessimism and cynicism that threatens to grind our forward momentum against Trumpism to a halt. And of course the biggest weed of them all: Donald Trump himself.
But I digress, lets get on with the good news.
One of the biggest red flags for President Trump’s reelection emerged this week from a region that he can never stop talking about: the Rust Belt. The president still frequently likes to remind reporters about his conventional-wisdom-busting victories in the blue-wall states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, but he isn’t paying attention to how much they’ve reverted to Democratic form lately.
Senate Republicans are all but conceding that Democratic senators will be coasting to reelection in Midwestern states that Trump narrowly carried. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, notably, has left off Democratic seats in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio when he listed off the most competitive races for this year’s midterms. The Democrats’ leading Senate super PAC, so confident of its prospects in the region, isn’t reserving any time for Sens. Tammy Baldwin, Bob Casey, Debbie Stabenow, or Sherrod Brown.
Meanwhile, Ohio is becoming a major warning sign for the GOP’s fortunes in the upcoming midterms—and beyond. The state backed Trump by a healthy 8-point margin in 2016, fueled by dramatic swings towards Republicans along the blue-collar eastern spine of the state. Trump’s winning margin in bellwether Ohio was nearly identical to his winning margin in ruby-red Texas. Given the promising political trends from Trump’s election, Republicans were hopeful that they could upset Brown and hold the governorship with an established figure like Attorney General Mike DeWine. Early polling showed the Senate race competitive and DeWine holding a healthy lead over the opposition.
So that’s the biggest bit of good news today I have so far. Back in 2016 it looked like our major battle in the senate was fighting to keep the seats we had to prevent the GOP from getting a super majority. Now it seems the GOP has given up trying to get that. Which means we can focus our strength on flipping the few seats we need to retake the Senate.
MIAMI — One day in late May 2016, Roger Stone — the political dark sorcerer and longtime confidant of Donald Trump — slipped into his Jaguar and headed out to meet a man with a Make America Great Again hat and a viscous Russian accent.
The man, who called himself Henry Greenberg, offered damaging information about Hillary Clinton, Trump’s presumptive Democratic opponent in the upcoming presidential election, according to Stone who spoke about the previously unreported incident in interviews with The Washington Post. Greenberg, who did not reveal the information he claimed to possess, wanted Trump to pay $2 million for the political dirt, Stone said.
“You don’t understand Donald Trump,” Stone recalled saying before rejecting the offer at a restaurant in the Russian-expat magnet of Sunny Isles, Fla. “He doesn’t pay for anything.”
Once again, Trump has more connections with Russia. At this point they’re gonna need multiple cork boards to keep track of them all.
On Friday, a federal judge revoked former Trump campaign advisor Paul Manafort’s 10 million dollar bail in response to charges of witness tampering.
In an appearance on MSNBC, former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman wondered how Manafort could have been so brazen as to try to intimidate witnesses while already facing serious charges.
Akerman also noted that Manafort could face as much as two decades in prison. Manafort is 69-years old, that could amount to a life sentence.
“Paul Manafort, if he does not cooperate, may never ever see the outside of a jail cell,” Akerman said.
Earlier Velshi observed that Manafort appeared to have been “poking the bear.”
An incredulous Akerman retorted that he wasn’t “poking the bear. This is taking a hatchet and pounding it on the bear.”
You better play ball Paulie. Trumpikins can’t save you now.
WASHINGTON—A Trump administration policy of separating immigrant children from adults at the southern border is putting pressure on Republicans and threatening to engulf broader negotiations on Capitol Hill about dealing with those already in the U.S. illegally.
The administration’s “zero-tolerance policy” of detaining adults attempting to cross into the U.S. has resulted in the division of families traveling with children, and the federal government is beginning to run out of space for its detainees.
Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, a Republican whose district spans 800 miles of the Mexico border and who is locked in a competitive race for his seat, toured a temporary tent facility on the southern border the administration constructed to house the swelling number of separated children. He used the tour to distance himself from the administration’s policy.
“This really isn’t a Republican or Democratic issue,” Mr. Hurd told CNN following the tour. “This is an issue about how should you treat children.”
Meanwhile, divided Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill are trying to show results on the issue of illegal immigration ahead of midterm elections in which centrists and conservatives are facing competing demands from voters.
Yeah, no snark or silly comments on this one. This whole situation is utterly sickening to me. The way we are treating migrant families, and the flagrant behavior of ICE are inexcusable. I want these to be the talking points of every Democrat running this year: The Republican Party is the party of ripping children from the arms of their mothers. The Republicans must be brought to task for these injustices, at any cost.
And, as always, I like to end on a lighter story. So…
Mexicans jumping in jubilation on Sunday shook the ground hard enough to set off earthquake detectors after their team scored a surprise victory over World Cup defending champions Germany.
The Institute of Geological and Atmospheric Investigations said highly sensitive earthquake sensors registered tremors at two sites in Mexico City, seven seconds after the game’s 35th minute, when star player Hirving Lozano scored. It called the tremors an “artificial” quake.
Fans waving Mexican flags and wearing traditional “sombrero” hats, gathered at the iconic Angel of Independence monument in downtown Mexico City, to watch the match on on a giant screen in front of a towering cathedral.
As Mexico beat Germany 1-0 in Moscow, they sang the country’s unofficial soccer anthem, “Cielito Lindo,” or “Pretty Little Sky,” a popular folksong.
Wow, now THAT is how you celebrate a win. Way to go Mexico, you guys certainly have reason to celebrate.
Anyways, that’s the good news for today. Have a good Monday all.