Two different groups have been identified to help us take back the house.
First we have the “Biden 18.”
Those are the 18 Republicans in districts won by Joe Biden in 2020. These should be very winnable races for us in 24. They are: Arizona’s 1st and 6th; California’s 13th, 22nd, 27th, 40th and 45th; Nebraska’s 2nd, New Jersey’s 7th; New York’s 1st, 3rd, 4th, 17th, 19th and 22nd; Oregon’s 5th; Pennsylvania’s 1st; and Virginia’s 2nd.
Second, we have the Strong Six — these are six Democratic-held that Republicans are likely to target (btw — we fundraised, SUCCESSFULLY, for all 6 of these seats in 2022. ThankYouVeryMuch). They are: Rep. Eric Sorensen IL-17; Rep. Don Davis NC-01; Rep. Gabe Vasquez NM-02; Rep. Pat Ryan NY-18; Rep. Greg Landsman OH-01.
Put these together and we have The 24 in 24! 24 races that can determine control of the House!
We here at the GNR have set up a fundraising ActBlue account where you can donate and have it evenly distributed between these 24 races.
Go ahead and donate at this link:
Note: only 14 of these races have accounts already set up. As the other 10 add accounts, we will add them to the group.
Now onto the good news:
Democrats are doing great things
Every week, brings more and more good things the Dems have done! Like these:
Biden administration to invest $1.2 billion in projects to suck carbon out of the air
The Biden administration will announce on Friday its first major investment to kickstart the US carbon removal industry – something energy experts say is key to getting the country’s planet-warming emissions under control.
Direct air capture removal projects are akin to huge vacuum cleaners sucking carbon dioxide out of the air, using chemicals to remove the greenhouse gas. Once removed, CO2 gets stored underground, or is used in industrial materials like cement. On Friday, the US Department of Energy will announce it is spending $1.2 billion to fund two new demonstration projects in Texas and Louisiana – the South Texas Direct Air Capture hub and Project Cypress in Louisiana.
“These two projects are going to build these regional direct air capture hubs,” US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told reporters. “That means they’re going to link everything from capture to processing to deep underground storage, all in one seamless process.”
Granholm said the projects are expected to remove more than 2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air annually once they are up and running – the equivalent of removing nearly 500,000 gas cars off the road.
The machines are being built to essentially supercharge the natural carbon removal already done by trees, bogs and oceans – which is not happening fast enough to capture fossil fuel emissions at the scale humans are emitting them.
White House senior adviser Mitch Landrieu told reporters these will be the first direct air capture projects at this scale in the US and “will be the largest in the world.”
Another project in Iceland that opened in 2021 removes about 10 metric tons of CO2 every day, roughly the same amount of carbon emitted by 800 cars a day. At the time, that project’s operator Climeworks said it was the largest one in the world.
The US direct air capture projects alone could increase global capacity for the technology by 400 times, said Sasha Stashwick, policy director at Carbon180 – an independent nonprofit focused on carbon removal.
“The industry’s very nascent at the moment,” Stashwick told CNN. “These are meant to be the first commercial-scale deployments at the mega-ton scale. It’s a very, very big deal.”
The Biden administration seeks to protect nearly 1 million acres surrounding the Grand Canyon where there are uranium deposits amid tribal nations’ cultural and sacred sites.
The Biden administration announced the creation of a new national monument surrounding the Grand Canyon in the hopes of protecting it from mining and development. But that still won’t stop a controversial mine from producing uranium within the monument’s boundaries.
Biden’s designation of a new national monument is expected to protect nearly 1 million acres of land and stop new mining and development. But with mining rights already grandfathered in, the existing Pinyon Plain Mine is an exception.
July CPI report shows inflation gauge rose 3.2%, less than expected
The consumer price index rose 3.2% from a year ago in July, a sign that inflation has lost at least some of its grip on the U.S. economy.
Prices accelerated a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, in line with the Dow Jones estimate, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. However, the annual rate was slightly below the 3.3% forecast though higher than June and the first increase in more than a year.
Markets reacted positively to the report, with futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average up more than 200 points and Treasury yields mostly lower
“It is not quite ‘mission accomplished’ yet, but significant progress on the inflation front has been made,” said Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at SS Economics and professor of economics and finance at Loyola Marymount University. “On balance, the inflation picture has improved significantly. The Federal Reserve will stop raising the interest rate soon.”
The US Economy Is Great. Stop Worrying About It.
Is it possible for economic news to be a little too good? If many economic worries seem to be dwindling, is that reason to be scared? After periods of success, are economies due for a comeuppance — perhaps even for reasons stemming from their earlier achievements?
What prompts these questions is the current US economy. The good news is evident: Its 2.4% growth rate last quarter exceeded expectations, inflation has fallen to the 3% range, wage gains are finally exceeding price hikes, stock prices have rebounded, measures of volatility have been low, and consumer sentiment is improving.
The US Economy Is Great. Stop Worrying About It.
There is always the possibility that an expansion could turn into a recession, but strong growth is not by itself cause for concern
Ohio results continue to reverberate
I know I am a few days late to the party, but the implications of Ohio continue to be discussed!
A Huge Win in Ohio Offers a Blueprint for 2024
Abortion Remains the Republicans’ Achilles Heel
The Dobbs decision fundamentally changed American politics.
The results in Ohio show that abortion remains the driving issue in American politics and the Republicans’ weakness. I wrote this around the one year anniversary of the Dobbs decision, delving into why the issue is so problematic for Republicans:
The best political strategies center on issues that unite your base and divide theirs. Abortion is one of those issues. In the NBC News/WSJ poll, nearly one-third of Republicans disapprove of the Dobbs decision. Only seven percent of Democrats approve of it. We are a pro-choice party; the Republicans are conflicted. They must appeal to their extremist base but risk pushing more moderate members into our camp.
Abortion rights have won in every election since Roe v. Wade was overturned
Anti-abortion advocates scored a big win on June 24, 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. But since then, their luck seems to have run out.
Abortion has been on the ballot in seven states since that landmark court decision one year ago and in each instance, in red states and blue states, anti-abortion advocates have lost.
Abortion setback in Ohio alarms GOP, as Democrats see a 'roadmap for 2024'
A decisive defeat for abortion foes in the red state of Ohio, the seventh such loss since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, has sent alarm bells ringing among some Republicans and prominent conservatives over the clear salience of the issue.
But Republican strategists face a no-win conundrum. Retreating on abortion would infuriate the majority of their base that wants to ban the procedure, while their current strategy is alienating a formidable slice of swing voters who favor some GOP positions but oppose the party’s stance on reproductive rights.
The end of Roe v. Wade drove voters toward Democrats in the 2022 elections and since then, abortion opponents have lost a series of state elections: a ballot measure in Kansas, this year's Wisconsin Supreme Court race and now Ohio’s Issue 1 ballot measure.
“There shouldn’t be any sugarcoating over what happened last night. It was a major setback in what became a very public fight between pro-choice and pro-life groups,” Bill Stepien, the campaign manager for former President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign, said on Fox News. “This happened in Ohio, which is not a pink state anymore. This is a state that is red.”
“As long as sex is salient, as long as people can get pregnant, this issue is remaining very salient,” said Celinda Lake, a veteran Democratic pollster. “And it’s very motivating.”
“This is going to be the roadmap for 2024. Because issues matter,” Lake said. “Democrats should just not underestimate this issue and should continue to utilize it.”
Republicans know abortion is popular, so they tried to make it harder for voters to legalize it. Now they’re losing on reproductive rights—in state after state.
Among Issue 1’s many issues were what it aimed to block—and sloppy attempts by the far-right to lie about Issue 1’s purpose and intent. Ohio’s far-right is so used to getting its way—and is so disconnected from the actual views of Ohioans—that it seems like they actually believed they’d get away with pissing on their constituents’ legs and telling them that it’s raining.
Ohio should be a warning to anti-choice conservatives around the country that a lot of people hate their bad ideas.
Actually, there were several warnings to anti-choice conservatives across the U.S. before Tuesday.
Voters do not support putting government officials between a woman and her gynecologist. People don’t want laws to project an image of a jowly AARP-eligible small-time politician peering judgmentally over the stirrups. We are a divided nation, but a definitive percentage of voters—and an even more definitive percentage of reproductively capable voters—agree that this is fucking creepy.
Conservatives could have learned their lesson from Kentucky. Or Montana. Or Michigan. Or Kansas. Or Wisconsin. In each of these purple-to-red states, abortion was on the ballot after Roe fell, and in each of those states, voters chose to support abortion rights or reject abortion restrictions.
But if there’s one thing the anti-choice movement cannot learn, it’s to take the W.
After the Dobbs decision left laws regulating abortion up to the states—undoing decades of legal precedent and throwing millions of American women back to the 1960s—Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito smarmed that if Americans wanted abortion rights, they could always vote for them.
At the time, the comment seemed like a gloat from a man confident that resistance to his agenda was futile. But voters responded to Alito’s challenge by accepting it
Bad News for TFG
How Donald Trump finally met his match in Jack Smith
The supposed watchword of Smith’s investigation from the start has been to treat Trump like any other defendant. Indeed, a chief charge in the indictment - obstruction of an official proceeding - already has been brought against some 300 of the marauders; how could a fair justice system give a pass to the man who spearheaded it?
But this conventional storyline overlooks the several ways in which Smith has acted with careful attention to Trump’s qualities and weaknesses. Smith is the very antithesis of a generic prosecutor: he has sussed out his quarry as meticulously as Ahab sussed out the white whale.
Enter Jack Smith, who had already been working at near warp speed in the eight months since his appointment. He crafted an indictment that discerns Trump’s broader political strategy and looks to neutralize it.
Smith is no doubt a rule-of-law, by-the-book prosecutor; but to Trump’s misfortune, he is more than that: he is a skilled fighter who knows how to analyze his adversary’s vulnerabilities. As a consequence, the odds that the country will be able to know the verdict on Trump’s alleged crimes before the election has increased dramatically. Whether you’re pro, con, or undecided on Trump, that is a good thing for the democratic process..
We keep hearing about the charges already filed, but, my friends, more is coming:
Special counsel obtained search warrant for Donald Trump’s Twitter account
Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained a search warrant for Donald Trump’s Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, earlier this year, according to newly revealed court documents.
Twitter’s initial resistance to complying with the Jan. 17 warrant resulted in a federal judge holding the company, now called X, in contempt and levying a $350,000 fine. A federal court of appeals upheld that fine last month in a sealed opinion. On Wednesday, the court unsealed a redacted version of that opinion, revealing details of the secret court battle for the first time.
And the Carroll case:
and Georgia:
and Jack Smith isn’t done:
Special counsel still scrutinizing finances of Trump’s PAC
Special counsel Jack Smith’s probe of efforts by Donald Trump and others to subvert the 2020 election remains ongoing — with at least one interview this week that focused on fundraising and spending by Trump’s political action committee.
Meanwhile, the grand jury that indicted Trump last week was spotted meeting Tuesday in the federal courthouse in Washington.
In a closed-door interview on Monday with Bernard Kerik, investigators asked multiple questions about the Save America PAC’s enormous fundraising haul in the weeks between Election Day and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, according to Kerik’s lawyer, Tim Parlatore, who was present for the interview and shared details with POLITICO.
“It’s a laser focus from Election Day to Jan. 6,” Parlatore said.
and this has implications beyond Trump: He is pulling the party down with him
From Steve Schmidt:
"What I'm talking about is the panic of the party's pollsters and election strategists. They see the writing on the wall. They know what's coming down the pike."
"Republicans understand that Donald Trump is going off the rails. Look at his behavior."
"When the trials begin, and there is action to cover and to report on, as the events are taking place, I think it is safe to say that the American people will be highly engaged."
"Part of what is broken in American politics, is the life-cycle between the Media and the politician -- the ubiquity of coverage, the constant presence of these people in our faces, is leading the American people to turn off their televisions."
"The coverage of the Donald Trump story -- as it move into its 8th year, as we approach the decade mark -- has become brutally tedious. What is it that we're supposed to talk about, day after day, after day? When you consider his depravity, his treachery, his treason, against the United States of America."
"Now Republicans in Washington DC, the ones who run the elections, are deeply panicked … they know the incredibly high price that has been paid up and down the ballot, for Trump sycophancy. They know the cost of the appeasement and collaboration -- of the moral cowardice. They know the cost of what it looks like, when these Candidates are made to seem idiotic, under questioning that they can't keep straight. They can't walk the fine line of being for -- and against -- Trump."
"They can't possibly make the case that they support and defend the Constitution of the United States."
On The Lighter Side
Today’s OTLS is dedicated to the memes, jokes, and videos that have come from the Montgomery brawl. If you aren’t familiar with it, this is a good description
tl:dr — some awful White boaters refused to move their boat so that a big boat could dock (even though it was clearly signed). A Black worker tried to get them to move the boat and they attacked him. At least one witness signed a sworn statement saying that they called him the N word before attacking. Other Black people defended him and it turned into a brawl involving (among others) a Black man who swam to the rescue and one who used a folding chair as a weapon. Violence is never ok, but it was amazing to see the story flipped and people jump in to protect. It was amazing to see, in the exact area where slave ships docked, a boat filled with Black passengers pull in and save a fellow Black person from White aggression. It was something.
And the memes that followed are worth of being celebrated! here are some of my favorites:
What can you do to save democracy?
Here are some ideas:
We here at the GNR have set up a fundraising ActBlue account where you can donate and have it evenly distributed between 24 races that will be key to winning the House in 24!
Go ahead and donate at this link:
Note: only 14 have accounts already set up. As the other 10 add accounts, we will add them.
More worried about keeping tfg out of the WH? You could:
Looking for something else? Maybe something that doesn’t involve donating? GREAT! Here are some other ideas:
So pick just one and get to it!
I am so lucky and so proud to be in this with all of you 💓💚💛🧡✊🏻✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿✊❤️🧡💛💚