Lots of good news below, which I love to share!
I’ve been thinking a little about where this good news comes from and why I continue to be so enthusiastic about our future.
And it is all due to us. To you.
Good news doesn’t come without hard work. It doesn’t come without effort.
Every election we win. Every person whose rights are protected. Every positive step for our planet. All of those come from the hard work of our incredible army. An army of optimism, enthusiasm, love, caring, and hard work.
I saw this cartoon and it reminded me of each and every one of you:
Let’s continue to plant flowers together!!!
Now onto the good news.
Democrats are Doing Great Things
US weekly jobless claims at 16-month low
he number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level in nearly 1-1/2 years, suggesting job growth likely remained solid in January.
The unexpected decline in initial claims reported by the Labor Department on Thursday added to
strong retail sales growth in December in painting an upbeat picture of the economy
Americans are actually pretty happy with their finances
Americans overall have a surprising degree of satisfaction with their economic situation, according to findings from the Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll.
GDP growth is the highest in the developed world, inflation is headed back down to optimal levels, and consumer spending keeps on growing.
By the numbers: 63% of Americans rate their current financial situation as being "good," including 19% of us who say it's "very good."
Neither number is particularly low: They're both entirely in line with the average result the past 20 times Harris Poll has asked this question.
Americans' outlooks for the future are also rosy. 66% think that 2024 will be better than 2023, and 85% of us feel we could change our personal financial situation for the better this year.
- That's in line with Wall Street estimates, which have penciled in continued growth in both GDP and real wages for the rest of the year.
Stunning stat: 77% of Americans are happy with where they're living — including renters, who have seen their housing costs surge over the last few years and are far more likely than homeowners to describe their financial situation as poor.
The bottom line: Americans who believe their community's economy is strong outnumber those who think it's weak. They're right.
Psst: Joe Biden Has Solved the Student Debt Crisis
After digging deeper into SAVE’s details, I learned that the plan is more than an extra-lenient repayment program—it’s President Joe Biden’s vehicle for delivering billions in forgiveness after the Supreme Court defeated his $430 billion debt cancellation plan this summer.
Under other repayment plans, the average borrower ends up paying more than the original amount they borrowed because interest accumulates. But the average undergraduate borrower who uses SAVE will repay only 60 cents on every dollar they borrowed. For low-income borrowers, the entire balance will be forgiven.
There’s never been a program like it. For millions of Americans, SAVE will be debt cancellation in the form of debt repayment. In other words, the large-scale debt relief activists have spent years fighting for is finally here—it just didn’t arrive in the packaging anyone expected.
ACA ENROLLMENT HITS 20.4M ─ AND COUNTING
Affordable Care Act (ACA) signups have blown up since open enrollment began on December 15th, marking the third year of increasing sign ups for ACA under the Biden Administration.
Signups have already surpassed last year’s numbers by 4 million and more are expected as the January 16th deadline approaches. Some states have also extended the open enrollment deadline through the end of January. Roughly 3.7 million of these signups, representing about one-fifth of the total, are new members.
Promising news for November
We continue to overperform in special elections this is, imho, the best predictor of future success.
Tom Keen Wins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A big win. Home of Trump and DeSantis the day after they place 1-2 in Iowa. Dems outspent 2-1 in a GOP seat. Outspent, hostile territory, GOP seat and we flipped it! Congrats everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know many of you donated and worked on the race - thank you. What a great way to start this critical election year.
Dems flip this GOP held seat, despite all the advantages Republicans currently have in Florida. Another sign of Dem heightened performance, GOP struggle, another Dem takeaway of something Republicans hold.
Florida Democrats flip GOP seat, boosting party and humiliating DeSantis
Florida Democrats kicked off the new year with a major victory as businessman and Navy veteran Tom Keen flipped a Republican-held seat in the state House―a development that represents Gov. Ron DeSantis' second electoral humiliation in the span of 24 hours.
Our next big test comes on February 13th, in NY-3, in the special election to fill the Santos Congressional seat.
and good news on that front:
and this:
And this is GREAT News for us → Trump won’t get all of the Haley votes
In the NBC News/Des Moines Register poll released this past weekend more Haley voters - 20% of Iowa’s GOP vote - said they would support Biden in the general election than Trump.
A majority of the independent polls taken since Thanksgiving have Biden tied or ahead.
While Trump may have lead for a brief period a few months ago, he no longer leads. Today polling is telling us it’s a close, competitive election. A majority of the independent polls taken since Thanksgiving have Biden tied or ahead. The Morning Consult weekly tracking poll this week had Biden gaining 3 points from the week before, and now leading 43%-42%. Credible polls released this week in 3 important states have Biden leading and even beating his 2020 results (all polls via 538):
MI - 45%-41% (+4) - Biden won MI by 2.8 points in 2020 - MIRS
NH - 42%-34% (+8) - Biden won NH by 7.4 points in 2020 - USA Today/Suffolk
PA - 49%-46% (+3) - Biden won PA by 1.2 pts in 2020 - Quinnipiac
Another way we measure enthusiasm is with donations — Biden Money Haul: Nearly $100 Million Raised, Most Ever by a Democrat at This Point
Biden announced Monday that his campaign and the Democratic National Committee raised $97 million in the final three months of 2023, continuing its fundraising dominance with a sizable $117 million in the campaign’s bank account.
The Democratic haul from October to December – which includes money raised by the Democratic National Committee and through Biden’s joint fundraising agreement with a range of Democratic groups – surpasses the $72 million the operation raised in the second quarter of 2023 and the $71 million in the third quarter of the year. And the campaign claimed on Monday that its substantial bank account is the “highest total amassed by any Democratic candidate in history at this point in the cycle.”
Colin Allred, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, raises $4.8 million in fourth quarter of 2023
Colin Allred, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, raised $4.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to his campaign.
The Dallas congressman entered the new year with $10 million cash on hand, according to figures first shared Wednesday with The Texas Tribune.
Allred is among several Democrats vying to challenge U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who is running for a third term, in the March primary.
Great News for Voting Rights
Democracy Was on the Docket in 2023, and Voters Won
Following their humiliating defeats in 2020 and 2022, Republicans and their conservative allies insisted that they were going to upgrade their anti-voting efforts heading into the presidential election cycle. Instead, a new report from Democracy Docket shows that 2023 was another year in which courts protected citizens’ voting rights and ensured free and fair elections.
Once again, pro-voting groups dominated in every category of court wins. In a year that saw 146 separate court orders across 34 states, pro-democracy forces won more than twice as many times as they lost. This includes winning nearly twice as many final orders and 70% of the interim orders in cases that are still pending. Pro-voting victories spanned state and federal courts at all levels.
In a nod to the 2024 battleground map, the states that saw the most court victories were: Arizona (19), Pennsylvania (11) and Georgia (6).
and lets not forget Ohio → A Banner Year for Democracy in Ohio
In a banner year for democracy in Ohio, through two back-to-back elections and despite the GOP’s best efforts to thwart us, voters overwhelmingly protected the people’s power and enshrined the right to abortion into the state constitution.
In fact, if I could buy a bunch of billboards across the state to emblazon 57-43 (the vote margins for both the August and November election) to serve especially the Republicans who worked in overdrive to keep those wins from happening a reminder about how Ohioans feel about them, I would. It’s been a long time since we’ve experienced these types of monumental wins in Ohio and damn does it feel good.
Something that has been particularly moving to see this year was how the state’s progressive movement engaged in these fights arm in arm, in lockstep, to fight for a better future in our state.
Two massive coalitions made up of labor unions, civil and voting rights organizations, faith leaders, issue- and community-based groups, reproductive justice, rights and health leaders, grassroots organizations and more proved just how much we can accomplish when we come together to defend our power, our democracy, and our rights. They also put up an incredibly massive voter mobilization and voter education efforts in just six months that outpaced programming for all of 2022, an election cycle when we had a U.S. Senate race and all of our statewide constitutional seats on the ballot, to drive Ohioans out to vote.
A New Congressional Map Is on the Horizon for Louisiana
After more than a year and a half of waiting, Louisiana voters are finally on the doorstep of a congressional map featuring adequate Black representation. On Wednesday, in a 27-11 vote, the Louisiana Senate overwhelmingly advanced a proposed congressional map that would create an additional majority-Black district after being ordered to do so by a court order.
The map, which is supported by Landry, would increase the Black makeup of the 6th Congressional District — stretching from Caddo Parish to East Baton Rouge Parish that is currently held by U.S. Rep Garret Graves (R) — from 23% to 54%, almost certainly taking out the Republican and netting Democrats an additional seat in Congress. The district would span more than 200 miles in length.
Renewed Hope for a Fair Congressional Map in Wisconsin
On Tuesday, Wisconsin voters restarted an effort to achieve a fair congressional map in the Badger State, asking the state’s Supreme Court to reopen previous litigation over the matter.
The filing argues that Wisconsin’s congressional map must be redrawn in accordance with the court’s recent ruling striking down the state’s legislative maps. In that case, which was decided in a 4-3 vote by the new majority liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court last December, the court ruled that Wisconsin’s legislative districts were noncontiguous, meaning not touching, in violation of the state constitution.
Specifically, the voters argue that the legislative decision overturned what is known as the “least change” approach to redistricting, which was used in the original decision in the case voters are now trying to renew.
The group of voters are hoping that remedial congressional maps are permitted to be submitted, and that the court ultimately selects a new map in time for the 2024 elections.
Trump’s results in Iowa were embarrassing (for him)
If he can’t win all the hard core older folks….
Trump remains the dominant leader of the hard-right older Republicans who turn out for caucuses, but is so generally unpopular that 49% of Iowa caucusgoers—the party’s most dedicated supporters in a deeply Republican state—chose someone else. The Trump base is older—entry polls showed that only 27% of yesterday’s voters were under the age of 50—and Trump won most handily in the rural, white counties that look least like the rest of the country.
Turnout was abysmal
huge sums spent, competitive race, unprecedented investment in ground operations, lots of candidate time, and overall GOP turnout was abysmal, coming in at 110,000, down from 186,000 in 2016, and the lowest 24 years. If Rs were fired up, ready to take on Biden they would have shown up and voted. They didn’t. It’s another sign of this ongoing GOP struggle we discuss aboe.
Don’t let weather be an excuse here - the drop was much too big to be explained by weather; the test of the strength of a campaign or party is whether they can get their voters to show up - and here they didn’t; this GOP enthusiasm problem is something that just keeps repeating all across the country in election after election.
read that again: his “popularity” came from the counties that are LEAST predictive of winning the country.
and more bad news for the biggest loser → Donald Trump Loses Three Lawyers in One Day
Trump lost three of his lawyers in one day when attorney Joe Tacopina filed a declaration requesting the withdrawal of his firm's representation of the former president in multiple lawsuits.
Trump is facing four criminal indictments and a total of 91 felony charges. One of these four cases alleges that the former president falsified business records over a hush money payment to former adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair secret in the weeks before the 2016 election. Trump, the clear front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has pleaded not guilty to the case's 34 felony counts and has denied any wrongdoing in this and the other cases against him.
Tacopina withdrew his firm's legal services from the hush money case only two months before the trial was set to start, at the end of March. Tacopina also requested to withdraw his firm's legal services from E. Jean Carroll's civil defamation and battery case against Trump, which awarded the former Elle columnist $5 million in damages last May.
"A lawyer might attempt to withdraw as counsel of record for a client in a pending case for a number of reasons," McAuliffe said. "The attorney-client relationship might have suffered a fundamental breach of confidence, running in either or both directions. A strong-willed client who thinks he or she is more of a lawyer than the actual lawyer can create an untenable scenario for that lawyer to continue representing the client's interests.
"However, with Donald Trump, any lawyer who agrees to act as his counsel is on clear notice on that front," McAuliffe said.
Before I get the Lighter Side, I’ve been writing a Boosting Biden post every weekday of this year and plan to continue to the election. You can share these every day (or some days) with Facebook groups or other groups via email with friends on other social media… anywhere! Educate other people about what Biden has done and we can win!
Here are the posts so far. Not too late to read and SHARE:
Dark Brandon Saved us From a Recession: Boosting Biden Day 1
Dark Brandon Destroyed Crime: Boosting Biden Day 2
Dark Brandon Reduced Inflation: Boosting Biden Day 3
Dark Brandon Put the First Black Woman on the Supreme Court: Boosting Biden Day 4
Dark Brandon Cleaned up the Great Lakes: Boosting Biden Day 5
Dark Brandon's Stimulus Saved the Economy: Boosting Biden Day 6
Dark Brandon Created Workforce Hubs to Retrain Workers for Modern Jobs: Boosting Biden Day 7
Dark Brandon Expanded ACA so 10 States have (almost) universal health care! Boosting Biden Day 8
Dark Brandon went after cheating 1%ers AND WON: Boosting Biden Day 9
Dark Brandon Protected People with Disabilities: Boosting Biden Day 10
Dark Brandon Pardoned Thousands Convicted of Marijuana Use: Boosting Biden Day 11
Dark Brandon Created Jobs: Boosting Biden Day 12
Dark Brandon protected our soldiers from sexual harassment and assault: Boosting Biden Day 13
Dark Brandon Cancelled Billions in Student Loans: Boosting Biden Day 14
Dark Brandon OWNED the republicans at the State of the Union: Boosting Biden Day 15
On The Lighter Side
What can you do to save democracy?
Well, as already mentioned, you can share the boosting Biden posts.
You can also donate to re-elect Joe via the Good News community:
Your donation will come bundled with others from our Good News community and will show the Biden team that there are many of us who support him and combine hard work with optimism in our battles for a better America!
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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 💓💚💛🧡✊🏻✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿✊❤️🧡💛💚