I am very glad the the Justice department is appealing the special master ruling because that is the right thing to do. I am very glad that they are focusing on issues of national security and working to make sure that those are not ignored. And I am glad that there is some sign that the judge will be reasonable on that.
That all said, I am totally fine with Donald J Trump twisting in the wind for quite a while more before he gets thrown in jail. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I don’t need to see him locked up now. In fact, I would just as soon wait on that one.
I’d like to wait because the Republicans don’t deserve to be done with Trump yet. Trump didn’t create the problems with their party — he made them much worse — but the Republicans built a party on a foundation of lies and bigotry and fear and hatred. Trump took it to the next level, but it was his to take. It was made for him.
And now there are mini-trumps all over their party just waiting for their moments in the sun. And some of them are more savvy than him. Some are smarter than him. Some are better looking than him. And some are Ted Cruz. But all of them have embraced the worst parts of Trump and all of them are a danger to our democracy.
Trump has no real power over us right now. Do not let him live in your mind rent free. He is living on his disgusting gold-plated golf course, eating overcooked steaks with ketchup and living in fear of all that awaits him. His life is pathetic. He is pathetic.
But know this: When people like Ann Coulter and Mitch McConnell say that Trump is done, it isn’t because he really is done. It is because they desperately want him to be done. No one wants Trump locked up and shut up more than the Republican party. Because his idiot moves are tearing them apart. He is a constant reminder to the decent people of America (and we do outnumber the deplorable ones) that Republicans stand for extremism, racism, sexism, crime, and authoritarianism. They would love nothing more than to stuff those things back under the rug where they used to keep them — still handy but not as visible.
Trump likes candidates as dumb, obnoxious, and under-qualified as he is. Republicans know those people are less likely to win and they would love for Trump to go away so they can go back to their regular fear mongering and dog whistling racism. They want to do away with running the idiots Trump hand selects.
They want him gone more than we do. But, ironically, right now, they are less dangerous with him than without him.
The Lincoln Project Republicans are right. That party is too far gone to be saved. We need the extremists to lose along with Trump so, hopefully, something better will eventually come after them and we can have a functional two party system. Trump being gone won’t take away Trumpism. Losing big is the only thing that might — and that will be more likely to happen with that orange idiot mucking up the works for them.
So yes, I want to see Trump pay. But what is more important to me is the health of our nation and the wellbeing of our people. So if justice takes a while, I am fine with that. Let him yell into his impotent, pre-school, bankrupt version of Twitter.
We can wait.
What do we do in the meantime? We do all we can to save democracy by showing that Republicans can’t win. We do all we can to save Democracy by keeping the House of the hands of the lunatic fringe of Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
A few months ago, I set up a fund for 38 seats that could decide this election. Because you all are so amazing, we raised over $2000 for EACH of those seats. We raised over $80,000 for 38 tight House races.
Since we started that effort, with numbers shifting left (and more primaries happening) we have 22 more candidates for Congress who could keep the House blue! Let's support those new 22!
This batch includes Katie Porter’s seat! We need way more Porters and way fewer Boeberts. This fund will get us there.
I’d love nothing more than for us to also raise $2000 for each of these candidates
Can you donate?
C’mon, it’ll make you feel good. You can donate here:
Now onto the good news!
With Hard Work, We Can Win in November
‘They’re getting killed among women’: Skeptical female voters stand in way of GOP Senate
Republicans this election cycle thought they had finally achieved a breakthrough with suburban women after years of losing support.
Now, as the primary season has all but ended, the GOP is back where it once was: Appealing directly to skeptical female voters, the women whose support will make or break the party’s drive to retake the Senate majority.
Dems erase GOP’s Senate advantage
Over the past few months, the advantages Republicans enjoyed in Senate races have eroded, breathing new life into Democrats’ besieged majority. After rating the battle for the Senate as “Lean Republican” earlier this year, POLITICO’s Election Forecast now says neither party has a significant edge with two months to go until the midterms.
editor’s note, 538 has our odds of winning the Senate at 69%
A number of factors contributed to Democrats’ resurgence, but the declining national headwinds facing the party are most responsible. Democratic voters are energized after the Supreme Court’s abortion decision, and Donald Trump’s constant presence in the spotlight is driving Democratic anger.
Weaker Republican opponents in some states have also played a role: In Arizona, GOP nominee Blake Masters’ struggles since winning the primary last month have moved the state from “Toss Up” to “Lean Democratic” — a reflection of Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly’s growing lead over Masters.
Women Are So Fired Up to Vote, I’ve Never Seen Anything Like It
In the weeks following the leak of a draft ruling in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, which all but guaranteed the end of abortion protections under Roe v. Wade, it initially seemed this pattern would hold. About three weeks after the leak, a CNN analyst claimed that “the Republican wave is building fast” heading into the midterm elections. In late May, the highly respected election analysts at The Cook Political Report increased their estimate of how many House seats the G.O.P. would gain. The discussion was focused on not whether the November general election would be a red wave but rather just how big a wave it would be.
But once the actual Dobbs decision came down, everything changed. For many Americans, confronting the loss of abortion rights was different from anticipating it. In my 28 years of analyzing elections, I had never seen anything like what’s happened in the past two months in American politics: Women are registering to vote in numbers I never witnessed before. I’ve run out of superlatives to describe how different this moment is, especially in light of the cycles of tragedy and eventual resignation of recent years. This is a moment to throw old political assumptions out the window and to consider that Democrats could buck historic trends this cycle.
Is post-Roe voter registration benefiting Democrats?
Democrats appeared to be heading into the 2022 midterms with a perceived voter enthusiasm deficit brought on by inflation and an unpopular incumbent president. But over the last few months, the party’s outlook for the midterms has significantly improved, and many political strategists attribute the shift at least in part to voters’ outrage over the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Generally, voter registration is split pretty close to 50-50. It varies a little bit by state, but not much. To see a period of time over several weeks where women accounted for almost 70 percent of registered voters — I’ve never seen anything like that.
To me, that’s interesting because I think people might assume it’s mostly going to be a blue state, big city phenomenon. And it’s just not the case. Kansas is the number one state [in terms of the gender gap], Idaho is number two, Louisiana is in the top five. But then you also have states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, and Michigan and Wisconsin, that all have significant gender gaps, as well. We’re talking more like 12 points, not 40 points, like you had in Kansas. But still, that’s substantial.
Support for Legalized Abortion Grows Since Dobbs Ruling, WSJ Poll Shows
Voters have grown more supportive of legalizing abortion following the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, with a clear majority opposing restrictions, like bans at a certain point of pregnancy or barring women from traveling to get a legal abortion, according to a new Wall Street Journal poll that underscores the importance of the issue in the midterm elections.
According to the survey, 60% of voters said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, up from 55% in March. Another 29% said it should be illegal, except in cases of rape, incest and when the woman’s life is endangered, compared with 30% in March. And 6% said it should be illegal in all cases, down from 11% in March.
More than half of voters said the issue made them more likely to cast ballots in the midterm elections; majorities oppose 6-week and 15-week abortion bans
Democratic attorneys general candidates rake in donations post-Roe
Democrats running for state attorneys general are seeing a surge in donations and a polling upswing in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade — making several races formerly seen as longshots newly competitive.
Challengers in Arizona, Georgia, Kansas and Texas are more optimistic about their chances of flipping party control of the powerful post at a time attorneys general will have more sway than ever over who can have an abortion, under what circumstances, and which charges to file in cases when abortion restrictions are violated.
Nevada Republican Can’t Raise Money and Won’t Shut Up About It
It’s no secret that Nevada's Republican Senate nominee Adam Laxalt is behind on fundraising. But while he’s chest-thumping in public and forecasting the state will swing red, he’s simultaneously griping that his Democratic opponent isn’t having the same problem attracting donors.
In audio obtained by The Daily Beast from a July luncheon with the Southern Hills Republican Women, Laxalt, amid the sounds of clinking cutlery, said, “The Democrats have unlimited money, they have unlimited money. You think we have it bad here? Masto has, she just did $10 million she has to spend, we have $2 million. She’s on TV now because she has money and we don’t.”
“In Georgia, it’s $20 million to $3 million. In Ohio, it’s $12 million to $1 million,” Laxalt told the attendees, who paid between $36 and $41 to hear candidates speak at Dragon Ridge Country Club in Henderson, Nevada, according to an Eventbrite for the event.
Ohio shows signs of becoming swing state again for Democrats
Democrats are looking to make Ohio a swing state again this midterm cycle as poll numbers show the party has a chance of winning a key Senate race between Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan and Republican J.D. Vance.
Ohio has been a perennial swing state, and former President Obama won it twice in 2008 and 2012. But Ohio has mostly delivered bad news for Democrats ever since, as Democrats have lost various statewide races, and former President Trump took the state in 2016 and 2020 relatively easily.
Since President Biden’s loss in 2020, political observers have increasingly seen the Buckeye State as Trump territory, with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) being a notable holdout.
Ryan’s strong candidacy is changing that. Polls show him in a tight race with Vance, the “Hillbilly Elegy” author who Trump backed in the GOP primary.
Various Democratic House candidates are also showing strength — most notably Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who looked like she’d be in trouble after redistricting made her district more Republican. Kaptur is now in a toss-up race with Republican J.R. Majewski, who has come under scrutiny because he was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
What can you do to help?
With numbers shifting left (and more primaries happening) we have 22 more candidates for Congress who could keep the House blue! Let's support those new 22!
This batch includes Katie Porter’s seat! We need way more Porters and way fewer Boeberts. This fund will get us there.
Can you donate?
C’mon, it’ll make you feel good. You can donate here:
Democrats are doing great things
Biden Laid the Trap. Trump Walked Into It.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton warned that Donald Trump was a fool who could be baited with a tweet. This past Thursday night, in Philadelphia, Joe Biden upped the ante by asking, in effect: What idiot thing might the former president do if baited with a whole speech? On Saturday night, the world got its answer.
For the 2022 election cycle, smart Republicans had a clear and simple plan: Don’t let the election be about Trump. Make it about gas prices, or crime, or the border, or race, or sex education, or anything—anything but Trump. Trump lost the popular vote in 2016. He lost control of the House in 2018. He lost the presidency in 2020. He lost both Senate seats in Georgia in 2021. Republicans had good reason to dread the havoc he’d create if he joined the fight in 2022.
Show Trump a spotlight, and he’s going to step into it. But Republicans pinned their hopes on the chance that Trump might muster some self-discipline this one time, some regard for the interests and wishes of his partners and allies.
One of the purposes of Biden’s Philadelphia attack on Trump’s faction within the Republican Party was surely to goad Trump. It worked.
At his Pennsylvania rally, the former president gave exactly the narcissistic display his Democratic nemesis tried to provoke.
A Good Issue for Democrats
Despite the large partisan gaps on many aspects of Covid, Americans give Democrats higher marks for pandemic management than Republicans.
On most of these questions, the gap tended to hover around 10 percentage points — a sign that most Americans still do prefer their own political party’s approach to Covid. Yet the Democrats’ advantage is striking among a couple of groups. Self-identified moderates give the Democratic Party much better marks, as do people ages 65 and above, even though older Americans lean Republican.
Biden’s visit shows high stakes of $20 billion Ohio chip factory
President Biden on Friday celebrated the start of construction of a $20 billion project that aims to reassert the United States as a major technology manufacturer after decades of offshoring, with the building of two giant semiconductor factories that could deliver thousands of jobs in coming years.
The Intel manufacturing facility taking shape on a verdant plot of land outside Columbus is one of the most expensive and consequential investments in the United States in recent years – one offering enormous possible benefits for the economy
Bad News for Bad Guys
Federal Judge Stomps All Over Trump Russiagate Lawsuit Against Hillary
A federal judge in Florida has tossed a racketeering lawsuit that Donald Trump filed against Hillary Clinton and a slew of other defendants—dismantling his claims one by one in an absolutely withering critique.
“It is not simply that I find the Amended Complaint ‘inadequate in any respect,’” Judge Donald Middlebrooks writes at one point. “It is inadequate in nearly every respect.
Judge removes Griffin from office for engaging in the January 6 insurrection
A New Mexico judge ordered Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin be removed from office, effective immediately, ruling that the attack on the Capitol was an insurrection and that Griffin’s participation in it disqualified him under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. This decision marks the first time since 1869 that a court has disqualified a public official under Section 3, and the first time that any court has ruled the events of January 6, 2021 an insurrection.
trump is in a lose/lose situation
The corrupt and disgraced Trump appointed district court judge in Florida Aileen Cannon just issued back-to-back orders after the Department of Justice filed its Notice of Appeal and Motion for Partial Stay. The first orders requested Trump responded to the DOJ’s Motion by September 12. The second order asked Trump to consider the DOJs position about staying enforcement of the Court’s Order as it relates to the 100 confidential documents. These back to back orders demonstrate a fairly erratic judge but also show she may be regretting her previous horrible order granting a special master and enjoining the government from continuing to investigate based on the documents they obtained until the special master completes its work.
and this:
Why Trump won't like Steve Bannon's New York indictment
Former White House staffer Steve Bannon turned himself in to New York authorities Thursday morning to face a set of charges that should be intensely familiar to him: money laundering, scheming to defraud and conspiracy.
It’s the second time in as many years that Bannon's been accused of bilking donors with promises to construct a wall on the southern border. He was indicted by a federal grand jury that accused him of the same in August 2020. While these new New York state charges threaten to interrupt his current role as a Christian nationalist election army assembler, they also serve as a reminder to his onetime boss, former President Donald Trump, about the limits of protection from the law that even the presidency can afford.
Importantly, Bannon’s legal fate is a portent for his former boss. It indicates that even if Trump had issued himself a “self-pardon” in the closing days of his term, as he reportedly considered, it wouldn’t protect him from the state and local investigations into him and his businesses.
Trump won’t like this reminder of the reach that states can bring to bear against him and his cronies. His company is also under civil investigation in New York state, a case that steadily marches forward even as Bragg pursues a criminal investigation into the Trump Organization. And his attempt to force Georgia officials to declare him the winner of the 2020 election is the subject of an ongoing Fulton County investigation, one that will only close in tighter on Trump as more of his allies are forced to testify
Promising Ukraine News
Ukraine says it has regained ground
Ukraine claims it has regained significant territory on multiple fronts following an offensive launched this week in the Kharkiv region, a key battleground in the northeast, which appears to have surprised Russian forces and cut off key supply lines.
“In total, more than a thousand square kilometers of the territory of Ukraine have been liberated since the beginning of September,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told the nation in his overnight address on Thursday.
New War Losses Send Putin’s Stooges Into Frantic Meltdown
As Ukrainians celebrated reclaiming a slew of territories, many Russian propagandists went into overdrive to cover the furthest thing they could from the war: the health of Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday afternoon.
The sudden shift came after pro-Kremlin Telegram channels seemed to grow increasingly frantic in recent days as Ukraine launched a surprise counter-offensive in the Kharkiv region, apparently taking advantage of Russia’s reallocation of forces to strike them when they were least expecting it.
The refrain “there’s no panic” flooded social media channels operated by the most staunch supporters of Russia’s war, even as video emerged of Russian forces being captured, the Ukrainian flag being raised in newly retaken towns, and Russian-backed authorities apparently closing up shop in areas now encircled by Ukrainian troops.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces finally revealed the results of its ambitious counter-offensive on Thursday afternoon: more than 270 square miles of land reclaimed in the east and south of the country, and more than 20 villages in the Kharkiv region back under Ukrainian control.
Social media lit up with photos of Ukrainian soldiers proudly posing in front of signs in Shevchenkove, Borshchyvka, and Volokhiv Yar, areas where Russia’s military appeared to be confident they were in full control just a week earlier.
Team Putin Admits Their Worst Case Scenario Is Coming True
With state TV studios full of doom and gloom, prominent pundits and experts seem to be preparing Russian audiences for future losses of occupied Ukrainian lands, which are being painstakingly reclaimed by the Ukrainian military. During Wednesday’s broadcast of the state TV show 60 Minutes, host Evgeny Popov said: “We wish courage to our warriors, who are indeed doing very important work, they are resisting an enormous horde that has been trained in the West.”
During his Wednesday’s radio show, Full Contact, top Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov—with a noticeably bruised face—surmised: “I’m worried. Naturally, we want for our guys to crush [the other side] and only to advance, but life doesn’t work that way.” Solovyov refused to address the source of his injuries, but in light of Ukrainian military gains, his bruised ego was likewise on full display.
Other Good News
The updated booster shot is a reset for how to manage covid
Up until now, vaccines have targeted the original strain of the coronavirus. Many studies have demonstrated that omicron is better at evading existing vaccines than previous strains, leading some other countries, such as Britain, to authorize omicron-specific vaccines.
Doing the same in the United States makes sense. Omicron has been dominant here since December 2021 and constitutes virtually all new cases. The BA.5 subvariant alone makes up nearly 89 percent of infections. Both Pfizer and Moderna presented compelling data that a bivalent booster, composed of the original vaccine plus a component targeted to BA.4 and BA.5, will increase the antibodies directed against omicron subvariants.
For now, the Biden administration is right to emphasize existing tools, which are very effective but tragically underutilized. Simplifying the booster process is a much-needed step to improve vaccine uptake and mitigate the continuing impact of covid.
On the Lighter Side
Looking to Keep The House Blue?
Donate to the 22 candidates who have emerged since we set up our last fundraising effort. You can donate here:
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And don’t lose hope. Together, we can do this!
I am so lucky and so proud to be in this with all of you ✊🏼✊🏾✊🏽🧡💚💛💜✊🏾✊🏽✊🏻