Welcome to Thursday’s Good News Roundup! 😄
Oldhippiedude has the day off, so it’s chloris creator here.
We know we’re responsible for the big blue wave, and you’ll see below that the wave is producing some wonderful results.
But the fight’s not over. Trump’s gotta be worried about going to prison, and he will do his best to lie, to obstruct justice, and to derail justice by stuffing the courts. The same is true for a number of Republicans.
Moreover, we can expect to be targeted as the Russians and the Republicans fight back. Even here, at DKos. We’re going to have to be vigilant, and not let ourselves get too distracted by the attempts to divide us.
Let me give an example from my own bruised heart. I was a fervent Hillary Clinton supporter in 2016, and I still harbor resentment toward Bernie Sanders. I don’t think Sanders yet recognizes how the Russian trolls supported him and attacked her during the primary, and I don’t think he did enough in the general to support her. We even saw that here. Even if Dkos was able to get rid of direct trolls themselves, I believe that many non-troll posters and commenters were influenced by what they saw or heard through other sources and media. So even though I believe Sanders has some fantastic points to his platform, I don’t think he’s done enough to heal the party.
But I also know that the attacks that were so vicious were fomented by the Russians and the Republicans. I have to remember that, and not lose heart, and to forgive those who were misled before.
Don’t lose heart. We have truth on our side. We have a lot of good people. Pick one or more activities to do on a regular basis and do them on a regular basis. For example, could you register voters? Yosef52 has suggestions.
I’m not going to do my usual format, because I’m doing Friday’s GNR as well and I don’t want to cannibalize my own stories. So we’ll just go with what I find between when I start this and when I have to close it because it’s time to post.
On to the news:
(CNN)Michael Cohen on Wednesday provided the House Intelligence Committee with new documents showing edits to the false written statement he delivered to Congress in 2017 about the Trump Organization's pursuit of the Trump Tower Moscow project into the 2016 campaign season, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
The documents Cohen provided are intended to further explain his public testimony last week, in which Cohen said that President Donald Trump's then-personal lawyer Jay Sekulow made changes to his statement to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, and that it was reviewed ahead of time by lawyers like Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the President's daughter and son-in-law who are both White House advisers
I watched a bit of him after the testimony. He said it was a long day (but at least he wasn’t in prison, and he was originally supposed to start his prison sentence today) but that the committee seemed happy with his testimony.
And without the blue wave (US!) this testimony would have never happened.
In a major victory for grassroots and national organizations—including Daily Kos—JPMorgan Chase announced Tuesday that it will sever ties with the private prison industry. The announcement comes after a decade-plus fight to get corporations, including Chase, to divest from private prisons. In September 2018, Daily Kos joined the #FamiliesBelongTogether Coalition in its campaign demanding that Wall Street banks cancel contracts with private prisons and immigrant detention centers.
I’m embarrassed to say that I did not know this was happening, which is odd, because I spend a lot of time at Daily Kos. At any rate, this was accomplished by a lot of pansies protesting together.
What other protests are happening? Someone better informed than I, please comment.
Days after a top Republican House member leveled an anti-Semitic attack against Democratic investigations of the Trump administration, House Democrats are debating a resolution against anti-Semitism … but it’s directed against one of their own. Under pressure, though, the vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism in the wake of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s mention of “the political influence in this country that says it is okay for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country” is being delayed and may be broadened to also condemn anti-Muslim bias. ✂️
Under pressure from such groups, including IfNotNow and the Counsel on American Islamic Relations, as well as from progressive lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrats have postponed the vote on the anti-Semitism resolution and may be rewriting it extensively. Meanwhile, the furor is threatening to overshadow the vote on the House Democrats’ signature bill to reform and clean up U.S. elections.
This was an attempt to divide us — I am pleased that the progressive side is making progress.
This was possible because we worked to elect these people.
As expected, a very different tone between Democrats and Republicans on the House homeland security committee before which Nielsen is testifying.
The panel’s chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson, slammed Donald Trump’s “nonexistent emergency” while criticizing Nielsen for her role in enforcing the president’s restrictive immigration agenda. ✂️
Kirstjen Nielsen confirmed in her testimony before the House homeland security that the Trump administration has deported parents without their children after they arrived at the US-Mexico border seeking asylum.
Nielsen said parents were provided a choice to submit to voluntary deportation with or without their children, particularly as pressure intensified last year over family separations at the border.
More than 450 parents were deported without their children -- an issue that is the subject of at least one lawsuit against the Trump administration.
I nearly did not include this because what has been done to these children makes my heart weep. But we would not be getting any oversight if it were not for the great blue wave last year. And that is so important.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday said that Democrats are introducing a resolution to create a Senate committee on climate change.
✂️ Schumer added on Wednesday that the climate change panel would include a bipartisan group of senators that focuses on climate change specifically and would "hold hearings, debate the issue and to craft, refine and enact legislation to address the problem."
The resolution is unlikely to pass in the GOP-controlled Senate but comes as Democrats are trying to turn the tables on Republicans as the chamber is in the middle of a debate on climate change.
But you know, the tornadoes in Alabama, the dust storm that swallowed Phoenix — these might convince some red-state voters too.
And bravo to Senator Schumer for planning this step.
(CNN)The New York State Department of Financial Services has opened an inquiry into the Trump Organization's insurance practices, sending a subpoena Monday to the company's longtime insurance broker, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The nine-page subpoena, sent to Aon Plc, was issued days after President Donald Trump's former personal attorney
Michael Cohen suggested in testimony to Congress that the Trump Organization had inflated the value of its assets, this person said.
A spokeswoman for Aon on Tuesday confirmed receipt of the subpoena.
"We can confirm that we received a subpoena from the New York State Department of Financial Services and, as is our policy, we intend to cooperate with all regulatory bodies," the spokeswoman, Donna Mirandola, said in a statement. "We do not comment on specific client matters.”
A couple of things to note. Aon, as Trump’s broker, will have all the values of insured properties that Trump listed (inflated or deflated, and probably internationally, not just nationally). It’s a smart move, going to them, because Aon is not a government institution. Also, the request was made by NY State, not the feds, so it’s theoretically beyond Trump’s meddling.
Thanks AOC! By getting her elected, and her asking those questions during the Cohen hearing, we’re making a difference.
Rep. Elijah Cummings is proving that the Michael Cohen hearing did not distract the House Oversight and Reform Committee from other important investigations, as Republicans repeatedly charged during that hearing. Though those same Republicans may not be too happy with this demonstration that Cummings can, indeed, walk and chew gum at the same time. Cummings has sent a major document request to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, centering on voter suppression during his time as the state’s top elections official.
Kemp, of course, edged out Stacey Abrams in an election rife with voter suppression under his purview as secretary of state and, Cummings writes, “The Committee is particularly concerned by reports that Georgians faced unprecedented challenges with registering to vote and significant barriers to casting their votes during your tenure as Secretary of State and during the 2018 election.” He then offers six specific examples, including that “In 2018, 53,000 Georgians, most of them minorities, who tried to register had their applications placed on hold by your office” and in some “counties with significant minority populations, voters waited for hours to cast their ballots, even though hundreds of available voting machines sat unused in government warehouses.”
Elijah Cummings is a hero. And so is Stacey Abrams. Chris Hayes interviewed her for his “Why Is This Happening?” (WITH) podcast (Chris Hayes is especially fond of prepositions). You can listen to it if you listen to podcasts. Or you can
read the transcript here.
Note that we would not be getting any of this, we’d still have a do-nothing House, if we hadn’t done the Blue Wave.
On Monday, the Democratic Party leadership informed the public that they would be unveiling their “Save the Net” legislation to re-install net neutrality consumer protections rolled back under Donald Trump. On Wednesday, they have released a three page bill. The Bill, titled “To restore the open internet order of the Federal Communications Commission,” or “Save the Internet Act of 2019,” seeks to simply reinstate those protections rolled back by the Republican FCC. While many of us hoped that the Democrats would release a more robust set of net neutrality laws, more in line with what California recently passed, there is some very smart politicking going on here. As Speaker Pelosi said during the press conference, “A full 86 percent of Americans opposed the Trump assault on net neutrality, including 82 percent of Republicans. That's hopeful.”
Jessiestaf (Mondays) is usually great about reporting this, but it is a good follow up. And only because of Dems in the House, which, you know, is due to us.
A federal judge in California ruled Wednesday against the Trump administration’s move to add a citizenship question to the Census.
U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg, of the Northern District of California, said that the addition of the question was a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. Unlike the judge in New York who also ruled against the question, Seeborg also said that the question violated the Constitution’s Enumeration Clause, which requires the “actual Enumeration” of the population every decade to be used for congressional apportionment.
In doing so, he blocked the administration from adding the question — even if it found a way to do so that was legal under the administrative law.
OK, this wasn’t caused by the blue wave, probably, but it’s good news anyway.
National support for President Trump’s impeachment has ticked up in recent months, according to a new Monmouth University poll released Wednesday.
About 42 percent of adult respondents to the survey say they think Trump should be impeached, up from 36 percent in November, while 54 percent say he should not be ousted. Another 4 percent are unsure. The uptick was mostly driven by respondents who identified as independents, 40 percent of whom backed impeachment, up 14 points from four months ago.
This seems to be the result of Cohen’s testimony last week. See what 💙 oversight can do. And we’re just at the beginning.
In a new radio interview with Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade, Eric Trump admitted that he sometimes thinks his father becoming president was not worth all of the “pressure” on his family.
After giving his guest permission to “punt on this question,” Kilmeade asked, “When you and your dad talk with your family around, do you guys ever look at each other and say, was this worth it? Was it worth it to be—to have the family dynamics be put on this type of pressure?”
While Eric Trump said he has not had those specific discussions with his father, he did admit that it is something that has talked about with his wife, Lara Trump. “Have I thought it in my mind? Have I said it casually at dinner with my wife?” he asked. “A hundred percent.”
You know why he doesn’t think so? Because of us. Because we have not let ourselves be mowed down but have protested, fought back, yelled, and taken the House with the great blue wave.
It would be great if his father could be persuaded in a similar fashion.
Donald Trump has two survival options. He can win the 2020 election, and continue in a job he hates — and it’s not looking all that good for him, but we cannot take it for granted — or he can negotiate his one trump card, the presidency, and resign. However, the closer the dems are to taking back the White House, the less valuable that trump card becomes. On the other hand, if it appears that Trump will win a second term, then he doesn’t need to play his trump card at all.
It is a fight that we have to win. Get ready to fight, my friends. And let’s send the criminals to prison.
A custom of oldhippiedude is a musical interlude. So I am including something soothing for these trying times.
Soothing music
Builders of a 1,400-acre solar energy farm proposed for the town of Paris submitted Tuesday an engineering report to the Department of Natural Resources that provides a glimpse of what project may look like.
Invenergy LLC plans to construct the Paris Solar Farm on leased acreage west of I-94 and north and adjacent to Highway 142.
Up to 300 megawatts of direct current electricity would be generated with photovoltaic panel arrays or modules mounted on single posts. Powered by an electric motor, the panels, perhaps as many as 700,000, would tilt and track the sun’s progression across the sky.
The project is expected to be completed by 2021!
💙 What You Can Do to Rescue Democracy 💙
It turns out that participation in democracy is not just an every-four-years event but requires active participation, like, whenever you can find time. However, given that we have taken back the House, the tactics moving forward need to be different. Indivisible has ideas to share.
Indivisible 2.0
This Guide is for what comes next. The 2016 Indivisible Guide was about using constituent power to defend our values, our neighbors, and our democracy. This Guide is about using our constituent power to go on offense.
Offense is exciting, but it’s more complex than defense. We have the opportunity to use congressional oversight to hold Trump and his cronies accountable. We can set the legislative agenda with a bold progressive vision rooted in inclusion, fairness, and justice. But none of this is automatic — we have to demand it of Congress.
If you sign up for Indivisible, they’ll give you action items for the week.
And some other ideas:
You can relax and recharge.
You can join protests and freeway blog.
You can help register new voters (see Yosef diary above).
You can smile.
You can get out the vote for special elections.
You can reach out to upset Republicans. Remember, a lot of them crossed over in the midterms! Get them to feel good about being blue.
You can share your ideas below.
🌻
🍀 “My experience has been that work is almost
always the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.” 🍀
Eleanor Roosevelt
🔥 If you’re going through hell, keep going! 🔥
Winston Churchill
🌹 🌹 🌹
Truth Matters. Love Matters.