.
I’ve reached the age where I’m allowed—and expected—to be sick and tired of a lot of things. Most of the stuff I’m supposed to be sick and tired of—black music, movie stars I never heard of, children playing in my front yard, etc—don’t bother me. But there is one thing I’m especially sick and tired of, enough so to almost make up for my usually tolerant attitude.
I’m sick and tired of being told that I’m supposed to be scared all the time, especially when allegedly liberal and progressive people tell me I should. Every freakin’ day I’m subjected to headlines or tweets along these lines:
“Trump’s authoritarianism should terrify you”
“Ryan’s pledge to repeal Obamacare is terrifying”
“Rollback of environmental regulations is scary”
“GOP’s acquiescence to Trump should have you petrified”
“Rise of the alt-right is terrifying” (These scare-mongers love “terrifying”)
I don’t know just what it is these people expect me to do. If you’re scared to death or, better yet, “terrified,” your reaction is to cover your head and hide, hoping it will all go away. All these kind of headlines and tweets do is try to convince us that the only action we can take in the face of the relentless and unstoppable forces of evil is to cower in helpless fear.
Well, screw that.
Being smart enough to dress and feed myself, I am well aware of the need for concern. But I’ll be damned if I’ll let anyone talk me into being terrified and helpless. Because to be terrified is to surrender. And there is no reason except laziness for surrender.
The forces of evil, and the evil people currently running the country, are relentless, but they are not unstoppable. In fact, they are being stopped on many fronts now, and all indications are that they will continue to weaken in the near future.
Part of the reason for that is the hilarious incompetence of Trump, his co-conspirators, and his enablers. But most of the reason is that the majority of people who are good and decent have chosen to fight for the future of their families and their country rather than allow themselves to be frozen with fear.
Remember that next time you see an op-ed headline, tweet, or DKos diary title telling you to react to the latest outrage with terror and pants-shitting fear. When we confront the forces of repression and corruption, we can beat them. There will be some defeats, and sometimes things won’t go the way we want. But because we have not given up, we have won, we are winning, and we will continue to win.
Don’t let anyone tell you different.
LIKE A BROKEN RECORD: DEMOCRATIC PROSPECTS LOOKING GOOD FOR THE MIDTERMS
GENERIC HOUSE POLLING AVERAGE SHOWS WIDENING LEAD FOR DEMOCRATS
538 has recently changed their methodology for averaging generic congressional polling, resulting in a system that is slower to react to current events. Nonetheless, as of yesterday their average shows a 9.2% advantage for Democrats as of yesterday. This is the largest gap since January. 538 now rates our chances of taking the House at anywhere from 74% to 83%, depending on which of their models you use.
As encouraging as that is, it doesn’t mean we can relax. But victory is definitely in sight.
RNC CHAIR SAYS GOP’S CHANCES OF HOLDING THE HOUSE ARE 50-50
You’d think that the RNC’s leader would be stating the most wildly optimistic view possible of the midterms. You’re probably right.
Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, said Sunday she believes the party has a “50-50” shot to keep control of the House of Representatives during the upcoming midterm elections.
“We’ve had an unprecedented amount of retirements and that has made it harder in some of these swing districts. But right now I’d say it’s 50-50,” McDaniel told CBS’ Margaret Brennan. “We are out every day working. The RNC has raised to date $250 million. We’ve put [549] staff on the ground. We’ve trained 20,000 field organizers. That’s four times more than we did in 2016.”
The RNC is fielding four times the personnel they did in 2016, and still the best they can claim is that they might hold the House? SAD!
During the interview, Ms McDaniel did say something that is probably a more realistic appraisal of the situation.
She continued: “Candidates who think that they’re in safe districts, they’re going to have to give everything and we’re going to be there backing it up at the RNC.”
I share her feeling that there are almost no safe red districts this year. It remains to be seen how the RNC thinks they will be able to back up every one of their incumbents, even with $250 million.
ANOTHER POLL SHOWS ANDREW GILLUM LEADING RON DESANTIS IN FLORIDA GOVERNOR’S RACE
After a poll last week showed Gillum with a seven point lead, a second poll released yesterday showed the Tallahassee mayor with a four point lead.
Democrat Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum is leading Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) by 4 points in Florida’s gubernatorial race, according to a new Florida Chamber of Commerce poll released Wednesday.
Gillum leads DeSantis 47 percent to 43 percent in the statewide poll. The Democrat also leads his Republican opponent in all major media markets across the state except Jacksonville, according to the poll.
Considering the poll’s source, it’s probably safe to say that Gillum’s lead is outside the margin for error.
DeSantis’ is running with the support of Trump, which may do him more harm than good.
DeSantis easily defeated Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam last month in the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary after being backed by President Trump in the race.
However, the president’s support is not guaranteed to boost the Republican’s electoral prospects.
A Quinnipiac poll from earlier this month found that 51 percent of respondents in Florida said they disapprove of Trump’s job as president.
republicans worried about losing the senate as well as the house
It would have been almost unthinkable just a few short months ago, but Republican leaders are beginning to express concern about their ability to hold the Senate.
Republicans have grown increasingly worried about losing control of the Senate, as President Trump’s approval rating tumbles and Democrats gain steam in key battleground races.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday sounded some of the most doubtful notes of Trump’s presidency that Republicans will keep the upper chamber of Congress, telling reporters, “I hope when the smoke clears, we’ll still have a majority.”
His comments came as Republican strategists and officials fretted over a fresh round of private polling on the Senate races, while public polls registered further erosion in Americans’ approval of Trump. “Shipwreck” was how one leading strategist described the situation, adding an expletive to underscore the severity of the party’s problems.
At the start of Trump’s tenure, some Republicans envisioned enough wins to secure a filibuster-proof majority of 60 seats, confident they could oust many of the 10 Democrats running in states Trump won in 2016. Even a few weeks ago, Republicans were talking more assuredly about flipping seats.
But less than two months till the Nov. 6 election, Republicans barely mention Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — states Trump won — as opportunities to knock out a Democrat, while McConnell reiterated that nine seats, plus Texas, were at stake.
Texas in particular has surprised GOP strategists (and almost everyone else), and the party’s prospects could be further hurt by the necessity to divert resources to a state once thought to be a Republican slam-dunk.
These difficulties have come into sharp focus in Texas, where Cruz is fighting for political survival against O’Rourke, a rising liberal star who is raising record-setting sums of cash and attracting large crowds across a ruby-red state. At the end of June, O’Rourke had close to $14 million cash on hand to Cruz’s $9 million, according to Federal Election Commission reports.
The shock waves are being felt well beyond the state, as its several expensive media markets could force the party to spend money there that it will have to subtract from GOP hopefuls in other battlegrounds.
“Other campaigns are going to be shorted due to the lackluster nature of the campaign,” said one White House official, speaking of the Cruz operation.
Of course, the main reason for the GOP’s woes is that their party’s entire ideology for the past several years is best summed up by Alice Cooper. “Everybody has problems and personally I don’t care.”
MUELLER’S APPROVAL INCREASES, AS DOES SUPPORT FOR TRUMP’S IMPEACHMENT
In the wake of Paul Manafort’s and Michael Cohen’s convictions, public approval of Robert Mueller’s investigation has increased according to a new CNN poll.
Special counsel Robert Mueller's approval rating for handling the Russia investigation stands at 50% in a new CNN Poll conducted by SSRS. That outpaces President Donald Trump's approval rating on the matter by 20 points.
Mueller's approval rating stands at its highest level in CNN polling, rising 3 points since August, a shift within the poll's margin of sampling error. Trump's rating, meanwhile, dipped 4 points, narrowly larger than the error margin.
Support has also grown for Trump’s impeachment and removal from office.
Nearly half of Americans in the poll (47%) say the President ought to be impeached and removed from office, and among those who say Trump did direct Cohen to make the payment to Daniels, 69% say he ought to be impeached. Support for impeachment has risen since June, when 42% said Trump should be removed from office. That increase comes almost entirely among independents -- 48% now say the President ought to be impeached, up from 38% in June -- who have also soured on Trump's job performance generally.
Emphasis added. In most elections, self-described independents are the deciding factor. Many Republicans are now running on what they say is the threat that Trump will be impeached if Democrats gain control of Congress. This becomes problematic if nearly half of voters—especially independents—think that’s a good idea.
MISCELLANEOUS GOOD NEWS
HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS FORM THEIR OWN DRUG COMPANY TO FIGHT HIGH COST OF MEDICATION
120 healthcare organizations, including companies representing about 500 hospitals, are countering artificial drug shortages and excessive prices by joining together to create their own non-profit pharmaceutical distributor.
Healthcare providers are sick of price gouging and drug shortages – so as a means of taking on the pharmaceutical industry, hundreds of American hospitals and healthcare workers are creating their own not-for-profit drug company.
The company, Civica Rx, is being officially launched to help patients by addressing shortages and high prices of lifesaving medications. Since the initiative was announced in January 2018, more than 120 health organizations representing about a third of the nation’s hospitals have contacted Civica Rx and expressed a commitment or interest in participating with the new company.
Civica Rx has identified 14 hospital-administered generic drugs as the initial focus of the company’s efforts. It will be an FDA-approved manufacturer and will either directly manufacture generic drugs or sub-contract manufacturing to reputable contract manufacturing organizations.
ATLANTA ENDS RELATIONSHIP WITH ICE, ORDERS ALL DETAINEES REMOVED FROM CITY JAILS
The city of Atlanta is formally ending its relationship with ICE, having decided that it can no longer take part in Trump’s ethnic cleansing campaign.
Atlanta is preparing to permanently end its relationship with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in regards to accepting immigration detainees at the Atlanta City Jail, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced Thursday.
“We will no longer be complicit with a policy that intentionally inflicts misery on a vulnerable population without giving any thought to the fallout,” Lance Bottoms said. “As the birthplace of the civil rights movement, we are called to be better than this.”
LARGE NUMBERS OF PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY THE YOUNG, ARE LEAVING FACEBOOK
There has been a massive exodus of Facebook users in the last year. One of the country’s biggest threats to privacy and sources of misinformation (not to mention a prime tool of Russian election meddling) has experienced a precipitous drop in users. Some are “taking a break,” while many have wisely deleted the app altogether.
The Facebook exodus among young people is real, and disenchantment with the leading social media platform is extending to older users, too. According to new data from Pew Research Center that sampled US Facebook users aged 18 and up, 4 in 10 (42 percent) of those surveyed have taken a break from the social network for “several weeks or more” in the last year; a quarter of respondents said they’ve deleted the mobile app entirely from their smartphones.
The movement away from Facebook really does seem to be generational: 44 percent of users between 18 and 29 told Pew they deleted Facebook’s app versus the 20 percent of people aged 50–64 who did so. For users over 65, that number dropped to 12 percent.
ACTION ITEMS
help “spread the vote” get id’s for people who need them to vote
I told you last Thursday about Spread the Vote, which is working in several states to assist would-be voters without required ID’s. They take care of everything from obtaining necessary documents to providing transportation to necessary agencies, and they pay for everything. Here’s a little segment that ran on CNN last weekend.
(It should be noted that the assertion that an affidavit could not be challenged is false, but this is CNN, after all.)
I have met and spoken with Texas state director Christina Sanders, and this is an organization that deserves your support. You can volunteer here, or donate here.
BIG BETO O’ROURKE RALLY WILL FEATURE MUSIC BY WILLIE NELSON AND OTHERS
This happened last July just down the highway from where I Iive, and I missed it. I won’t make that mistake again.
The Beto O’Rourke campaign is holding a “Turn Out For Texas” rally on September 29 in Austin.
Willie Nelson is showing his support for Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke, headlining his rally in Austin on Sept. 29.
The event, which takes place at Auditorium Shores, will also feature Joe Ely, Carrie Rodriguez, Tameca Jones, and Nelson’s sons Lukas Nelson and Micah Nelson. O'Rourke is also expected to speak at the rally, which is open to the public but requires registration online.
If you live anywhere in Central Texas, you should join almost 10,000 people who have already RSVP’d. Maybe we can make this bigger than Trump’s forthcoming rally for the Zodiac Killer.
Sign up to attend here. Maybe the Old Hippie Dude will see you there.
EQUAL TIME
Once again, in the interests of being fair and balanced, here’s a Republican response to today’s Roundup.
And that will do it for today. Remember, if you need more good news, go out and make some of your own.
Badass fiddle player Carrie Rodriguez will be at the Beto rally. Let’s have her play us out today.