You know what comment I get on every single one of these? Every week, someone will come into the comments and say that the news I shared is all well and good, but no one should get complacent.
“Don’t get complacent!”
Of course, the goal of these posts is to do the opposite of complacency. People cannot and will not act without hope. Without hope we stay home. Without hope we hide under our beds.
So I share reasons to be hopeful with the goal of INCREASING activity.
However, week after week people post “lets not get complacent” in the comments because the assumption is that people will see that there are reasons to be hopeful about the election and will decide not to work hard.
I get the concern. A lot of people WERE complacent in 2016 when the polls had Hillary so far ahead and it hurt us badly. Secretary Clinton says people come up to her all the time and tell her how they didn’t bother to vote because they thought it was in the bag and how regretful they are.
So yes, we were once complacent.
But in addition to strongly believing that hope motivates us more than it makes us lazy, I also think that complacency is just not something most of us even have in us anymore.
Honestly, can you even imagine being complacent? With Trump running for President? Can you even imagine thinking “yah this will be fine. I don’t need to do anything” Seriously, try for a minute to even think about the LUXURY of being complacent. The luxury of holding that childlike innocence that everything will just turn out.
Trump took that from us. Complacency is the last thing I worry about. And its the last thing you should worry about too.
Now onto the good news!
Democrats do great things
Biden administration announces major expansion for Ariz. chip facility
President Biden’s administration announced a $6.6 billion infusion into expanding a massive semiconductor manufacturing facility in Arizona, a federal investment that administration officials argue will put a U.S.-based facility at the forefront of modern technological manufacturing.
The federal funds are coming from the Chips and Science Act, bipartisan legislation passed in 2022 amid concerns that the United States is ceding too much semiconductor manufacturing to Asia. The lack of domestic production also became an supply chain issue during the covid pandemic, due to the use of computer chips in products including smartphones, laptops, cars and fighter jets.
“We’re on a roll,” Raimondo said on the call. “We have more to come.”
In the shadow war with Iran, Biden just scored an unheralded victory
Iran and its proxy groups did not launch an all-out assault against Israel and its allies, as Hamas leaders might have hoped, following Hamas’s brutal Oct. 7 incursion into Israel. But Hezbollah, which is trained and armed in Lebanon by Iran, did intensify its rocket attacks on northern Israel; the Houthis in Yemen did begin attacking shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden with drones and missiles; and other Iranian-backed proxy groups targeted U.S. military outposts in Iraq and Syria with a barrage of missile and drone strikes.
That semi-covert Iranian campaign reached a dangerous turning point on Jan. 28, when a drone launched by a Tehran-backed militia struck a small U.S. base in Jordan, known as Tower 22, killing three U.S. service members and wounding dozens more. Iran had crossed a U.S. red line. How would Washington respond?
Republican hawks came out in full-throated cry demanding that the U.S. military “strike targets of significance inside Iran” (Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina) or even “Target Tehran” (Sen. John Cornyn of Texas). We don’t know what would have happened if President Biden had taken the senators’ rash advice, but it might have led to a larger war between the United States and Iran.
Luckily, Biden, with his decades of foreign policy experience, chose a more prudent path — but one that still represented a considerable escalation beyond ineffectual U.S. responses to earlier strikes against American bases that had not produced any fatalities.
On Feb. 2, U.S. forces dropped more than 125 precision munitions on 85 targets in Iraq and Syria belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and its affiliated militia groups.
Five days later, on Feb. 7, a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad killed a senior commander of Kataib Hezbollah, one of the most dangerous Iranian-backed terrorist groups.
The clear message was that other Iranian commanders would be next if they didn’t knock off their attacks against U.S. troops. And guess what? Iran did stop.
Biden to forgive $7.4 billion more in student loan debt for 277,000 borrowers
The Biden administration said Friday that is using existing student loan forgiveness programs to cancel another round of student debt, totaling $7.4 billion for 277,000 borrowers.
Under President Joe Biden, the Department of Education has made it easier for some specific groups of borrowers, like public sector workers, to qualify for loan forgiveness. It also launched a new repayment plan that creates a shorter pathway to loan forgiveness for many low-income borrowers – and is at issue in at least two legal challenges from Republican-led states.
In total, the Biden administration has authorized the cancellation of $153 billion in student loan debt for nearly 4.3 million people. That’s more than 9% of all outstanding federal student loan debt.
United States will not accept flood of cheap Chinese products, Yellen says
The United States will not accept another wave of cheap Chinese goods that flood global markets and hurt both American businesses and American workers, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said in Beijing on Monday at the end of a four-day visit through the country.
Her remarks came after Beijing agreed to talks to prevent rising trade tensions from derailing tentatively improving relations with Washington.
The Chinese government’s support for expanding manufacturing in sectors such as solar, electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries has “growing negative spillovers” on the globe — much like a glut of Chinese steel exports “decimated” industries around the world in the 2010s, Yellen said from the garden of the American ambassador’s official residence.
“I’ve made clear that President Biden and I will not accept that reality again,” she said.
China has largely welcomed Yellen, who is seen in Beijing as a pragmatist who opposes the “decoupling” of the world’s two largest economies.
Chinese state media lavished enthusiastic praise on Yellen for her proficiency with chopsticks during meals at state-run restaurants serving regional Chinese cuisine.
Biden rule will require more gun dealers to run background checks
Thousands more firearms dealers across the United States will have to run background checks on buyers when selling at gun shows or other places outside brick-and-mortar stores, according to a Biden administration rule that will soon go into effect.
The rule aims to close a loophole that has allowed tens of thousands of guns to be sold every year by unlicensed dealers who don't perform background checks to ensure the potential buyer is not legally prohibited from having a firearm.
It's the administration's latest effort to combat gun violence. But in a contentious election year, it’s also an effort to show voters—especially younger ones for whom gun violence deeply resonates—that the White House is trying to stop the deaths.
“This is going to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and felons," President Joe Biden said in a statement. "And my administration is going to continue to do everything we possibly can to save lives. Congress needs to finish the job and pass universal background checks legislation now."
Good Election News
No Labels was thwarted
After months of attempting to recruit a third-party candidate for 2024 — and months of Democrats’ denunciations — the group No Labels announced it would have no ticket for this year’s presidential race. President Biden’s campaign, the larger anti-MAGA coalition, and democracy defenders in the United States and around the world could not be more overjoyed. A significant threat to the campaign to defeat four-time indicted former president Donald Trump has been eliminated.
Rs Are Running Scared on Abortion, As They Should Be
Congrats everyone. Trump blinked this morning, taking a cowardly path on a disastrous issue for him and the Rs. “Leaving it to the states” is absurd place, for he is still responsible for ending Roe, for stripping the rights and freedoms away from the women of America, for unleashing the escalating assault on reproductive freedom across the country, for sanctioning and green lighting the most extreme abortion bans in the country; and now his allies on the right are going to feel betrayed by him. It is a squirming, “I got no place else to go” position, one that confirms how much trouble MAGA is in right now.
Let’s be very clear that “leaving it to the states” is a more extreme position than a 15 week ban for it sanctions and accepts the most extreme state bans as legitimate without providing an alternative. As Trump is about to find out there is no safe place for Rs on abortion other than a full retreat and a restoration of a woman’s right to choose.
All this reinforces what a political disaster MAGA has become, how the extremism that Trump has unleashed has made his party unmanagable, unpopular, and a stone cold electoral loser. It remains today, as I like to say, the ugliest political thing we’ve ever seen, and despite his tortured efforts there isn’t any way to put lipstick on this MAGA pig. Today what we saw from Trump wasn’t leadership but cowardice and weakness, for even he has begun to realize how hard it is going to be for him to win with what he has wrought. He’s the captain of a sinking ship.
Trump's attempt to address abortion loses big—with everyone
Under pressure to clarify his position on abortion, Donald Trump released a video explanation on Monday that, quite effectively, pissed everyone off and made no one happy. And when called on it, he lost his mind, crapping on key allies.
Again, the smart move would’ve been to issue that ambiguous statement, then shut the hell up. Instead, Trump has taken a one-day story and given it follow-up legs. And he’s doing it both by attacking one of the most critically important constituencies in his party—anti-abortion groups and voters. Indeed, attacking Dannenfelser in this fashion would be akin to Biden going after the leadership of the AFL-CIO. It might not be political suicide, but it’s certainly politically punching oneself in the face.
Trump thinks he ended the abortion conversation. Biden's just getting started
A week after Donald Trump hinted at an announcement on a national abortion ban, he seems desperate to put the issue to bed.
"By allowing the States to make their decision ... we have taken the Abortion Issue largely out of play," Trump posted Monday on Truth Social, following a video announcement in which he said individual states should decide the issue.
Good luck with that. Even within his own camp, Trump's announcement angered anti-abortion zealots, such as former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
But frankly, that's the least of the Trump campaign's worries. After Trump posted, the Biden-Harris campaign immediately flooded the zone with a campaign designed to make Trump pay for taking a position he hoped would blunt the matter moving forward.
One message, carried by President Joe Biden himself: Don't trust Trump.
"If MAGA Republicans put a federal ban on his desk, he'd sign it!" Biden said in his own video response to Trump's post.
Biden team increasingly hopes to ride the abortion issue to victory
The Biden campaign plans to spend every day until Nov. 5 reminding voters of Trump’s record on abortion, hoping the issue will mobilize their core voters, bring disaffected voters back into the fold and make inroads with voters whom Democrats have often struggled to win.
“There is no doubt that this issue is central to the contrast between us and Trump,” Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s campaign chair, said in an interview. “There is no way he can wiggle out of his ownership of this issue.”
She said the campaign aims to connect the issue of abortion to a broader message on Trump’s record of disarray and division. “They are being reminded more and more of things they hoped to forget — the chaos and the pain that have come in the wake of Trump’s leadership,” O’Malley Dillon said of voters. “Abortion is central to that.”
The Election Is Changing, Getting Better For Dems
I’ve been writing about this a lot recently, but we’ve gotten a lot of a new data in these past two weeks and it’s worth reviewing.
Yesterday I wrote about 18 polls taken in recent weeks which have Biden leading. A new one came out yesterday afternoon, TIPP, which has Biden up 43-40. So 19 polls with Biden leads now. If we look at just the polls released in the last 2 weeks, 10 have Biden ahead, 7 have Trump ahead, and 2 have the race tied
Of the 7 showing Trump leads, 4 are aligned with GOP/right wing politics - DailyMail, Echelon, Fox News, Trafalgar - and we know that in 2022 many of these GOP aligned polls showed the election 2-5 points more Republican than where the election ended up. We need to take these with a grain of salt. The CNBC poll has Trump up 1, a 3 point Biden gain since their last poll. Of the 2 polls showing the race tied, Harris X had Trump up 6 a few weeks ago. Biden has gained ground in many of these of these polls over the past several weeks. Things are clearly moving in our direction. It’s a new day in the 2024 election.
Trump protest vote warnings
A month after Nikki Haley dropped out of the Republican race, former President Trump is still dealing with a contingent of voters showing up to cast primary ballots for candidates who aren't him.
Why it matters: President Biden has more successfully unified his voters despite never facing a strong primary opponent and an organized protest vote over the war in Gaza.
- In 10 recent primary contests, more than one-quarter of GOP primary voters cast a ballot for a non-Trump candidate.
- "Joe Biden has a real golden opportunity to capture all those disaffected people who voted for Nikki Haley," said Arizona-based GOP strategist Barrett Marson.
Driving the news: In the key battleground state of Wisconsin on Tuesday, 20.8% of Republican primary voters cast a ballot for a candidate other than Trump.
Democrats pounce on Arizona abortion ruling and say it could help them in November’s election
Democrats pounced Tuesday on an Arizona Supreme Court ruling that permits enforcement of an 1864 law effectively banning abortion in the state, blaming former President Donald Trump and Republicans and pressing for political advantage on an issue that could dominate a critical 2024 battleground.
“The girls today and the young women do not have the rights that we once did because of Donald Trump,” said Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, a Democrat. “Donald Trump is dangerous and reckless.”
Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes, who was elected by just 280 votes in 2022, attributed her victory to backlash over the Dobbs decision. She said Tuesday’s ruling will again spur independents and Republicans who support abortion rights to vote for Democrats.
“If past is prologue, this is going to have a deep and lasting impact on politics in Arizona,” Mayes said.
Other Good News
4-day workweeks may be around the corner. A third of America’s companies are exploring them
Burnout is such a problem for workers that some bosses are considering shrinking the length of the workweek.
Nearly one-third (30%) of large US companies are exploring new work schedule shifts such as four-day or four-and-a-half-day workweeks, according to a KPMG survey of CEOs released this week.
The findings show how some executives are searching for ways to attract and retain talent in a red hot job market where many employees feel over-worked and underpaid.
“We are all working to figure out what is optimal, and we will continue to experiment and pivot,” Paul Knopp, chair and CEO of KPMG US, told CNN in an interview.
Many workers say they would love a shorter work week.
Want a mood boost? Get out there and try something new.
In 2014, Tabitha Brown was busy raising two young children and juggling a career — and not as satisfied with her life as she wanted to be.
“I needed to shake things up, so I decided that every day, for 30 days, I would try something new,” says Brown, a social media personality and actress who wrote about her experiment with trying everything from new foods to new hairstyles in her book “I Did a New Thing: 30 Days to Living Free.”
“A lot of us get used to feeling down, and a big part of it could be that you’re just exhausted by the same old thing,” according to Brown, whose 30 days morphed into a practice she has continued for a decade. “Trying something new, and really paying attention to the positive emotions it can bring, can help you discover — or rediscover — something that you love about yourself and your life.”
Decades in the making, South Carolina-Iowa final was a perfect finish
If the hair did not rise up on your neck, if something in your chest did not swell, you were insensate. This was a game that, for all the divided loyalties and warring ambitions between South Carolina and Iowa, offered something that binds. It was decades in the thankless making for women’s basketball, so when the acclamation finally came pouring down like the clouds of confetti Sunday afternoon, it seemed fitting that the champion cutting down the net was a pioneering coach in Dawn Staley, whose tremendous Gamecocks held off the NCAA Division I all-time scoring leader in the rightly celebrated Caitlin Clark, 87-75, to finish 38-0.
“I want to personally thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport,” Staley said, an expression that showed how much the building of the women’s game, after years of disrespect and underselling, remains a joint enterprise. “She carried a heavy load for our sport, and it’s not going to stop here.”
On The Lighter Side
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