OK, this was another sh!tf^ck of a week. For sure. The headlines out of red states are truly disturbing.
There is only one way out of this: winning in 2020. We need to keep the House. We need to take the White House. And we sure as heck could use the senate and more local and state races.
Nothing will change unless we win and win big.
The GREAT news is that we CAN WIN. I had lots of good news for today, but I am going to focus instead on all the reasons why WE ARE GOING TO SEND TRUMP PACKING IN 2020!!!
Before I launch into the reasons we are going to win in 2020, I’d like to preemptively address some concerns I am sure are on some of your minds:
What if they cheat?
Oh sweetie, they are going to cheat. They are going to lie. They are going to suppress votes. They are going to conspire with enemies of the United States in order to get what they want.
We are going to win anyway.
Aren’t you giving people a false sense of security that will lead us to another 2016?
No, darling, I am not. The entire argument that we are going to win is dependent on our hard work, sweat, and dedication. We stay home: we lose. Luckily, I really don’t believe we are going to do that.
Thing about it: Who do you hate more than anyone? Who do you dream of beating? Who do you fantasize about banishing to obscurity? Who has made your last two years a bitter battle? That is easy to answer for ALL OF US: Donald J Trump.
Good news: that asshole is going to be on the ballot in 2020! No, really! We get to run against the asshole that is the most hated president EVER in the history of polling. Never before has there been a president that didn’t get above 50% EVER in his presidency. Never has there been a man (and yes, they have all been me — so far) who has NEVER had more people like than hate him. Never has there been anyone with such high and passionate STRONGLY DISAPPROVE numbers.
Can you even imagine voting third party with trump on the ballot? Can you imagine staying home? Can you imagine doing anything other than your VERY BEST to make sure that we get him out of office? Me neither.
And that is just one reason why….
WE CAN BEAT THIS ASSHOLE.
Here are more:
1. We are the Majority
The Democrats are rapidly becoming the party of the young—and the consequences could be profound.
As a liberal graduate student and a conservative professor, we rarely see eye to eye on politics. Yet we agree that the generation war is the best frame for understanding the ways that the Democratic and Republican parties are diverging. The Democrats are rapidly becoming the party of the young, specifically the Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) and Gen Z (born after 1996). The Republicans are leaning ever more heavily on retirees, particularly the Silent Generation (born before 1945). In the middle are the Gen Xers (born between 1965 and 1980), who are slowly inching leftward, and the Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964), who are slowly inching to the right.
2. He is a ^&*ing Moron
Trump could be turning Asian Americans into reliable Democratic voters
In the 2014 midterm elections, 49 percent of Asian American voters backed a Democratic House candidate, according to exit polls. But in 2018, that number shot up to 77 percent.
It was a massive surge — and it’s a trend that’s been building for some time: As the Republican Party has moved to the right, especially on issues like immigration, Asian American voters are increasingly aligning themselves with Democrats. Since 2016, Trump’s presidency has only amplified this shift, with the White House’s focus on anti-immigrant policy putting voters off even more.
Trump is staking reelection on one of his biggest lies
President Trump has spent the past 24 hours tweeting manically about trade, repeating the absurd falsehood that China is paying us billions in tariffs. We keep hearing that this shows Trump “doesn’t understand” how tariffs work.
But this is better seen as a straight-up, deliberate lie — a lie upon which Trump is staking his reelection.
If this does continue, Trump’s lie about China paying us billions in tariffs will become ever more imperative for him.
That’s why it’s such a big deal that Fox News’s Chris Wallace debunked this falsehood by getting economic adviser Larry Kudlow to admit that China is not paying the tariffs. In fact, they amount to a tax on U.S. consumers
GOP senators raise alarms, criticize Trump as U.S.-China trade war heats up
Senate Republicans expressed growing concern Tuesday that President Trump’s escalating trade war with China is hurting their constituents in rural America, ratcheting up tension between the White House and Congress on a signature issue.
Some Republican lawmakers, increasingly frustrated with Trump, took the unusual step of openly criticizing a president from their own party.
Trump's trade war puts Southern Republicans in an awkward spot
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky didn't have anything to say when approached by CNN on Tuesday. Asked if trade with China has been good for his state, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said he didn't know. Fellow South Carolinian Sen. Lindsey Graham said it was a good question and that he'd have to think about it. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas just shrugged.
There's a reason Southern Republicans are reluctant to talk about tariffs. As much as any region in the country, the South has benefited from free trade, which has helped boost demand for its agricultural goods and provided its factories with low-cost components to feed the region's growing industrial base.
But those economic interests cut against the political preferences of the majority of voters in Southern states, where Trump enjoys some of his highest approval ratings in the country.
Farmers are losing patience with Trump’s trade war
Farmers in the Midwest are losing a lot of sleep these days.
A recent flare-up in the US-China trade war has them panicking that much of their crops may rot for a second year in a row. Some are even worried they may lose their farms if the international spat continues much longer.
“We don’t want to be collateral damage,” Kevin Paap, a corn and soybean farmer in southern Minnesota, told me. “If they don’t reach a conclusion soon, it’s going to be really somber times.”
“The patience of American farmers has worn very thin,” Shayne Isane, who is borrowing money to keep his pork and soybean farm running in northern Minnesota, told me. “If a trade deal can be reached then it was all worth it, but if it doesn’t getting settled soon, it will be disastrous for American farmers.”
Isane, who voted for Trump, told me that the president may lose political support from farmers if the trade dispute continues. “Rural Americans were some of his biggest supporters,” he said. “Now that support is a little tenuous.”
3. Some of his allies are also $%&#ing idiots
4. Their efforts to destroy abortion rights are riling up our base BIG TIME. THEY. WILL. PAY. AT. THE. BALLOT. BOX
Roe v. Wade Is in Danger. So Is Trump if It Goes Down.
The worst thing that could happen to Donald Trump would be for Roe v. Wadeto be overturned.
this week’s poll from pro-Trump Fox News shows that with abortion threatened like never before, 57 percent say of Roe “let it stand.”
Now Trump is waking a sleeping giant.
For years, abortion has been a one-issue cause for the pro-life movement, but with Roe imperiled, that changes. Soybean farmers, Walmart shoppers, Dreamers, climate-change believers, and Nazi-non-sympathizers may not vote as a bloc, but for many women—who came out in droves in the midterms to turn the House blue—this will be the final straw.
Alabama’s Extremist Abortion Bill Ruins John Roberts’ Roe Plan
SCOTUS was all teed up to quietly gut America’s abortion rights. Then Alabama happened.
one could feel sorry for Chief Justice John Roberts. He is, after all, caught in an unsightly squeeze play between anti-abortion zealots in Alabama, and slightly less wild-eyed anti-abortion zealots in Georgia, Ohio, Tennessee, and Indiana (the court seems unable to make a decision on whether to grant the Indiana petition it has been sitting on for months now). There’s finally a five-justice majority within striking distance of a decadeslong dream to overturn Roe v. Wade, and the anti-choice activists are getting ahead of themselves like slurring drunks at a frat party and making everything more transparently nasty than it need be.
There are easy and near invisible ways for the high court to end Roe. That has always been, and remains, the logical trajectory
But the state of Alabama runs now to the Supreme Court with its mask of tender solicitude for women and their health askew. The briefest look at the debate as Alabama on Tuesday passed the cruelest and most punitive abortion regulation in modern American history shows exactly how much concern they have for the health of pregnant women or the suffering of future children
Abortion ban reaction: Democrats erupt, Republicans stay quiet as both sides see an impact in the 2020 election
An Alabama bill intended to test whether President Trump’s Supreme Court appointees will allow for the banning of abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, threatened Wednesday to reshape the dynamics of the 2020 election.
Democrats erupted with loud and sustained outrage in an effort to reclaim the upper hand on a politically sensitive issue that has recently found them on the defensive after liberal states proposed extending protections for abortions late in pregnancy.
Republicans leaders, by contrast, spent much of the day avoiding questions about the Alabama law, wary of being dragged into a debate over whether to refuse rape and incest victims the option of abortion following forced pregnancies.
5. Democrats are going to have hearing after hearing leading up to the election showing trump for who he is
House Panel Investigates Obstruction Claims Against Trump Lawyers
The House Intelligence Committee is investigating whether lawyers tied to President Trump and his family helped obstruct the panel’s inquiry into Russian election interference by shaping false testimony, a series of previously undisclosed letters from its chairman show.
The lawyers have so far balked at the committee’s requests. Mr. Schiff is prepared to issue a subpoena to compel cooperation if necessary, according to a senior committee official.
Schiff: House Intel to consider ‘enforcement action’ against Barr
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff announced on Thursday that the panel will consider an “enforcement action” against Attorney General William Barr next week for defying the chairman’s subpoena for special counsel Robert Mueller’s unredacted report and its supporting intelligence materials.
Schiff’s announcement came a day after the Justice Department put a counteroffer on the table as it negotiates with the panel for lawmakers’ access to the full report, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO
6. Democrats are giving us plenty to run on by being awesome
Democrats have an ambitious plan to save American labor unions
House Democrats have a plan to make unions great again.
They’re trying to get support for a sweeping labor reform bill that would reverse decades of Republican-backed policies meant to crush labor unions.
The Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act), introduced earlier this month by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), would push back on a series of Republican-backed laws that have cropped up in more than two dozen states in the past decade.
House passes drug pricing bills paired with Obamacare fixes
Democrats force GOP members to vote no on a popular issue.
House Democrats this evening passed the session’s first legislation aimed at lowering drug prices, as the party looks to solidify its political advantage on a key issue for voters ahead ahead of 2020.
The health care vote — the House’s second in two weeks — came over bitter protests from Republicans, who accused Democratic leaders of politicizing once-bipartisan drug price proposals by pairing them with polarizing measures to strengthen Obamacare.
7. The investigations are not over
A TALE OF THREE (FORMER) MUELLER DOCKETS
Because I’m wondering why Robert Mueller remains a DOJ employee, which makes it harder for the House Judiciary Committee to get his testimony by subpoenaing him, I wanted to observe the status of three different former Mueller dockets, three weeks after Mueller submitted his “final report.”
First, there’s Manafort’s (and Rick Gates’) docket.
THE NEW ADDITION: MIKE FLYNN
THE HYBRID: ROGER STONE
Prosecutors: Person 'connected to' Congress tried to influence Flynn's cooperation with Mueller
In a newly unredacted filing from prosecutors related to Flynn’s sentencing — originally submitted to a federal judge in December — Mueller’s team revealed that Flynn assisted Mueller’s investigation of efforts by President Donald Trump and his allies to thwart Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“The defendant informed the government of multiple instances, both before and after his guilty plea, where either he or his attorneys received communications from persons connected to the Administration or Congress that could’ve affected both his willingness to cooperate and the completeness of that cooperation,” according to the newly revealed portion of the filing. “The defendant even provided a voicemail recording of one such communication.”
Though Mueller’s report spelled out potential efforts by Trump allies to discourage Flynn from cooperating with Mueller, the report is silent on any of those efforts arising from Capitol Hill.
THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN DISCUSSED REACHING OUT TO WIKILEAKS AFTER WIKILEAKS HELPED THEM WIN
This revelation — that top people on the campaign considered reaching out to WikiLeaks — is not just new information, but information that likely is not included in the Mueller Report — unless it is included in the WikiLeaks declination and presumed referral — given the structure of the redacted sections (which end on October 7).
The timing of this, with Stone having received whatever testimony Flynn gave in this in discovery, and Assange awaiting extradition proceedings at Belmarsh but with little of this showing up in the Report itself, is acutely interesting.
Also interesting: Mueller did not include Flynn’s cooperation on the Peter Smith effort in his cooperation addendum (which Mueller notes is not comprehensive, although that shows up three times in the Mueller Report).
The Michael Flynn Tape May Have Just Changed the Landscape of the Investigation Into Trump
the important thing in this report is that there is a tape. Someone wanted to obstruct justice in the case of Michael Flynn and is now in that Nixonian He-Said-He-Said bind. And the judge in this case clearly knows it.
Tape makes a difference. We may now be in a very different place.
RICK GATES’ STATUS REPORT SUGGESTS TRUMP WILL BE A FOCUS OF ROGER STONE’S TRIAL
prosecutors also mention Roger Stone’s November trial (though none of Stone’s prosecutors are on this filing).
That’s interesting given the way the very redacted passages treating Stone’s charges in the Mueller Report flesh out Gates’ role as a liaison between Trump and Stone in the effort to optimize the WikiLeaks releases. Stone’s indictment had been coy on this point (so much so, I’ve wondered whether Big Dick Toilet Salesman told Mueller to stop mentioning Trump in charging documents after the Michael Cohen plea). It describes senior members of the campaign contacting Stone to find out what WikiLeaks had coming.
And there’s this very pregnant passage using the passive voice to describe someone — the indictment doesn’t name who — directing a senior campaign official to contact Stone about further releases, which would lead to Stone’s efforts to find out, in part via Jerome Corsi, what was coming in late July and early August.
And while the passage of the Mueller Report describing all this is heavily redacted, it does seem to confirm that — after Trump and Manafort both showed great interest in the WikiLeaks releases, at least Manafort and probably both (given the reference to Manafort “separately” telling Gates to stay in touch with Stone) told Gates to reach out to Stone.
In addition, the government’s ability to tie the President directly to this part of the operation will make it harder (though nothing is beyond Trump) to pardon Stone before the trial, even while it will provide incentive to Trump to do so. Trump’s centrality in all this may be one reason William Barr is so aggressively protecting the Stone related disclosures, including with his refusals to share unredacted copies of the report with Congress: because Trump’s documented role in encouraging Stone’s efforts is far stronger than it is in any of the other potential incidences of election tampering.
Finally, all this may change the calculus if and when Julian Assange gets extradited to the US. Trump was asked about — but refused to answer — whether he considered a pardon for Assange.
Trump’s lies to Mueller are perhaps best documented as they pertain to WikiLeaks. Using Gates as a witness at Stone’s trial will make the trial an exhibition of the President’s lies as much as those of his rat-fucker.
Bad Football, Fake Springsteen, Real Probe: Inside New Jersey’s Investigation Into Trump’s Inaugural
The owner of the New York Jets. A Bruce Springsteen cover band. And a firm that hired a pair of Donald Trump’s golf caddies. Those are just some of the characters featured in the local efforts in New Jersey to raise money for Donald Trump’s inaugural—efforts that are now under scrutiny by the state’s attorney general.
Little is known about the probe, other than it is examining how and where the inaugural solicited funds in the Garden State. Prosecutors in New Jersey are staying tight-lipped, and, unlike in the federal investigation launched across the Hudson River in New York, no specific individuals or corporations have been named in any subpoenas. No one has been publicly accused of wrongdoing.
But after speaking to more than a dozen individuals who had either donated to the inaugural committee or helped with fundraising activities in New Jersey, a fuzzy picture has begun to emerge. And it is just as eccentric as the Garden State itself.
8. There are cracks in their armor
Fox’s Napolitano Stunned by Lindsey Graham: I’ve Never Heard a Senator Say to ‘Disobey’ a Senate Subpoena
Napolitano spoke with Neil Cavuto on Fox Business today about Attorney General Bill Barr assigning a prosecutor to look into the origins of the Russia probe.
“I’m personally very fond of Senator Graham,” Napolitano said. “I’ve known him since he was one of the prosecutors in the Clinton impeachment. But I never heard of a senator saying disobey a valid lawful subpoena issued by the chairman of another Senate committee. The subpoena, just like the one to Bill Barr, is presumed valid. If you can’t or don’t want to comply with it, you’ve got to challenge it in court. You can’t just sit on it and you can’t not show. Somebody will show up with handcuffs.”
“No matter who you are,” Cavuto said.
“No matter who your father is,” Napolitano added.
Fox News’ Chris Wallace: Bill Barr ‘Clearly Is Protecting’ Trump
Reacting to a Fox News interview with Attorney General William Barr that included Barr essentially threatening Democrats who criticize him and justifying the president calling the Mueller probe a “witch hunt,” Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said Friday that Trump now has a new fixer.
This isn’t the first time that Wallace has dinged Barr for acting on the president’s personal behalf. Following Barr’s presser ahead of the release of the redacted Mueller report, the Fox News Sunday host said that the attorney general was acting like Trump’s defense lawyer. He later called Barr’s decision not to charge the president with obstruction of justice was “troubling” and “politically-charged” based on Mueller’s conclusions.
Vermont GOP governor says open to supporting Trump's 2020 challenger
Vermont’s Republican governor Phil Scott suggested he could support former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld in the Republican presidential primary, but stopped short of an official endorsement.
9. Our Candidate are amazing and their target is firmly TRUMP.
Pete Buttigieg says Pence is advancing 'homophobic policies'
Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg on Friday accused Vice President Mike Pence of advancing “homophobic policies,” saying that while he doesn’t know whether Pence is truly homophobic, his policies are “hurting other people” just the same.
“I don’t know what’s in his heart,” Buttigieg told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in an interview airing Friday. But, he added, “if you’re in public office and you advance homophobic policies, on some level it doesn’t matter whether you do that out of political calculation or whether you do it out of sincere belief.”
“The problem is, it’s hurting other people,” said Buttigieg, the South Bend, Indiana, mayor.
2020 Democrats Slam ‘Cruel’ Trump Administration Policy Denying Citizenship to Kids of LGBT Couples
From the 2020 campaign trail to the halls of Congress, Democrats condemned a State Department policy that withholds American citizenship from some children of U.S. citizens who are born abroad.
Kamala Harris wants public defenders to get paid as much as prosecutors
Public defenders are notoriously overworked, underpaid, and constantly juggling an overwhelming caseload. As a startling New York Times story found this past January, one attorney in Louisiana was working 194 felony cases, while another was balancing 413. Public defenders in certain places are often fielding two to five times the cases they can effectively handle, according to the piece. And they’re doing it for pay that’s far from comparable for the work.
Kamala Harris, a long-time prosecutor and current 2020 candidate, wants to take a first step toward fixing this.
Earlier this month, Harris introduced a bill aimed at limiting public defenders’ workload and increasing their pay to be comparable with that of prosecutors. This week, Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) is offering a companion bill in the House.
10. We Are Amazing
Unfortunately, many of the things I feared about the trump years have come true.
Fortunately, one thing I did not anticipate has also come true. Millions and millions of Americans have come together to fight for our democracy, to fight for one another, and to fight for the true core of America.
Yes, the other side has the advantages that come with a lack of a moral code. They will lie and cheat and steal to win. And the threat of that is real and important.
But we have the advantage of being on the right side of history. We have the advantage of having the creative people and the intellectuals and the funny awesome and hardworking Americans who are willing to march and donate and see the humanity in all the people around them.
And more than that: we have the advantage of HAVING to win. There are no higher stakes than we have now for our country, for our planet, and for one another. Our backs are against the wall here. And, ironically, that gives me great hope.
Because I know we won’t quit. I know we won’t give up. We CAN’T. If you love your country. If you love your planet. If you love yourself. If you love literally any other human being you HAVE to give all you can for 2020 because it is our big chance to save it all.
And you will. And I will. And millions and millions of other Americans will. Together, we will save this country and then save the planet. I’ve seen the mountaintop. And we are going to get there.
In summary:
We are going to band together, work our asses off, stay united AND WIN BIG IN 2020. We did it in 2018 and we are going to do it again!!
Before I go, we’ve been celebrating two years of GNRs on DailyKos this week ❤️ Its been an amazing two years here and I am so grateful for the community we have built. In the spirit of celebration, I thought I would share some of my favorite images I have shared over the last two years Enjoy:
That is it for today. I remain so lucky, proud, and humbled to be in this with all of you ❤️ ✊ ❤️