Todayâs title was stolen from this tweet by Chris Jackson
Jackson is referring to how the WH destroyed the MAGA hypocrites on Twitter. If you havenât seen it, check it out. If you have, enjoy it again:
But it isnât just that. It is also Biden, in person, knocking it out of the park. Check out some highlights:
The memes keep giving me life:
Lots of reason for hope and optimism. And Iâll go over many more below.
IMHO, the biggest challenge in front of us is keeping the House so we can continue to do great things and we can keep the Rs from running 24/7 hearings on the Biden kids and blocking every good thing that Biden tries to do.
FiveThirtyEight has our odds of keeping the House at 22% but I think we can do it. Why?
First, a lot of the pessimism is based on Bidenâs numbers and those are climbing
Second, Roe blow back is real
BRUNI: Is it possible weâre reading too much into the abortion factor?
JONG-FAST: No, abortion is a much bigger deal than any of the pundit class realizes. Because abortion isnât just about abortion.
BRUNI: Doug, do you agree?
SOSNIK: I am increasingly nervous about making predictions, but I do feel safe in saying that this issue will increase in importance as more people see the real-life implications of the Roe decision. So, yes, I agree that it will impact the midterms. But it will actually take on even more importance in 2024 and beyond.
JONG-FAST: One of the biggest things weâve seen since the Dobbs decision is doctors terrified to treat women who are having gynecological complications. In 1973, one of the reasons Roe was decided so broadly was because some doctors didnât feel safe treating women. Weâre having a messy return to that, which is a nightmare for the right.
SOSNIK: For decades, the getting-candidates-elected wing of the Republican Party â which means people like Mitch McConnell â has had a free ride with the issue of abortion. They have been able to use it to seed their base but have not been forced to pay a political price. With the overturning of Roe, that has all changed. And polling shows that a majority of Americans donât agree with their extreme positions.
JONG-FAST: I also think a lot of suburban women are really, really mad, and people who donât care about politics at all are furious. Remember the whole news cycle devoted to the 10-year-old rape victim in Ohio having to go out of state for an abortion. Roe is seismic.
Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, it has been increasingly hard to see the once-clear signs of a G.O.P. advantage.
As the start of the general election campaign nears, itâs becoming increasingly hard to find any concrete signs of Republican strength.
Tuesdayâs strong Democratic showing in a special congressional election in New Yorkâs 19th District is only the latest example. On paper, this classic battleground district in the Hudson Valley and Catskills is exactly where the Republicans would be expected to flip a seat in a so-called wave election. But the Democrat Pat Ryan prevailed over a strong Republican nominee, Marc Molinaro, by around two percentage points, outperforming Mr. Bidenâs narrow win in the district two years ago.
he result adds to a growing pile of evidence suggesting that Democrats have rebounded in the aftermath of the Supreme Courtâs decision in late June to overturn Roe v. Wade. No matter the indicator, itâs hard to see the once-clear signs of a Republican advantage.
New York voters sent a message. And it wasnât about inflation
Itâs becomingly increasingly clear that when abortion rights are on the ballot, abortion rights win. Thatâs one lesson, at least, from this weekâs special election in a swing district of New Yorkâs Hudson Valley, in which pro-choice Democrat Pat Ryan beat Republican Marc Molinaro.
you can see it in the way they are panicking
Third, Mini-Trumps Are a Midterm Disaster
Fourth, special elections are showing a real shift towards us
Fifth, voters are seeing what a really important election this is:
So, in sum, I think we have a good chance (with hard work) of saving the House.
Here is one thing you can do:
I made an ActBlue fund that divided up donations to the 38 House seats rated as most likely to determine control of the House. We win most of these seats and we continue Bidenâs agenda.
We lose these seats and the agenda grinds to a halt, Marjorie Taylor Greene starts chairing committees and the House has nonstop hearings on Hunter Biden.
So, you know, big stakes and all.
Anyway, I set up this fund exactly two weeks ago. In two weeks we have raised over $69,000! We are so close to making our goal of $76,000 and $2000 to each campaign!
I have already had two campaign manager reach out to thank me and to find out who the heck we are. I am sure others are grateful as well.
Last week I shared a letter from Josh Riley who is running to represent NY-19. This week we have a letter from Congressman Tom OâHalleran a sitting rep from Arizona who is running for Arizonaâs 2nd district. Due to redistricting, this is a tough race. It is currently listed as âleans Râ.
OâHalleran used to be a Republican but he switched parties in 2014. Before you assume that he shares nothing but a party affiliation with us, here is how he voted on major votes:
He is one of us and he needs our help to win.
Here is his thanks to YOU:
We really are making a difference!
Want to help us save democracy? Donate here:
So that we can have more of this:
Democrats are doing great things
Biden signs executive order kick-starting implementation of sweeping US chip manufacturing law
President Joe Biden on Thursday signed an executive order aimed at kick-starting the implementation process of the sweeping $280 billion law to boost US domestic chip-making and scientific research, according to a copy of the order obtained by CNN.
Biden signed the order just two weeks after signing the law known as the CHIPS and Science Act. Itâs a move that reflects an urgency â and understanding of the substantial task ahead â for top administration officials as they continue to grapple with the acute risk posed by the concentration of the critical semiconductor industry.
The executive order âdemonstrates that we are quickly executing on the Presidentâs vision for a 21st century American industrial strategy,â National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said in a statement. âThe CHIPS Act will secure critical supply chains for American manufacturers and shore up vulnerabilities to lower costs for families and strengthen our national and economic security.â
Democrats Designed the Climate Law to Be a Game Changer. Hereâs How.
When the Supreme Court restricted the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency to fight climate change this year, the reason it gave was that Congress had never granted the agency the broad authority to shift America away from burning fossil fuels.
Now it has.
Throughout the landmark climate law, passed this month, is language written specifically to address the Supreme Courtâs justification for reining in the E.P.A., a ruling that was one of the courtâs most consequential of the term. The new law amends the Clean Air Act, the countryâs bedrock air-quality legislation, to define the carbon dioxide produced by the burning of fossil fuels as an âair pollutant.â
That language, according to legal experts as well as the Democrats who worked it into the legislation, explicitly gives the E.P.A. the authority to regulate greenhouse gases and to use its power to push the adoption of wind, solar and other renewable energy sources.
Biden helped save the postal service
President Biden signed the Postal Reform Act into law.
The Postal Reform Act saved the US Postal Service (USPS) billions of dollars. $53 billion was saved by eliminating the poison pill that the Republicans enacted in 2006 that required the Service to pre-fund retiree benefits up to 75 years into the future. A move that was designed to destroy the Postal Service so that it could be replaced with a privatized Service. One that surely would not go to all the recipients mandated by the US Postal Service. In addition, the Act increased transparency, mandated a 6 day work week and allows for new products and services. Postal employees will now be integrated into the Medicare system in 2025 saving another $22 billion dollars for USPS and saving out-of-pocket expenses for postal retirees.
It saved the US Postal Service from committing Republican engineered suicide and although we wish Mr. DeJoy was booted out already, it will take a lot more to bankrupt the Service and we can enjoy it for a long time.
Debt relief is a BFD
The arguments against Bidenâs loan forgiveness plan are terrible
At the most basic level, loan forgiveness isnât novel or even unusual. Our bankruptcy system allows people to discharge loans every day â yet perversely, the law makes it extraordinarily difficult to get released from student loan debt even if youâre bankrupt. Some well-known people have used the bankruptcy system to eliminate their debts.
The government, furthermore, bails out people, companies and industries all the time when it decides that doing so is worthwhile. In the Great Recession we bailed out banks, insurers and auto companies. Donald Trump handed out tens of billions of dollars to farmers hit by his pointless trade war. Pandemic relief distributed hundreds of billions of dollars in forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans to businesses.
This leads to one of the most bizarre arguments against this program: Sure, it helps some people, but what about people it doesnât help? What about people who never went to college, or who already paid off their loans? Why should they chip in to help these other people?
That argument could be raised against almost every government program in existence. This is the nature of paying taxes and having a government
And thatâs whatâs at the heart of the objections to Bidenâs loan forgiveness: Most of those making them are perfectly happy to have the government help some people, just not these people. And if thatâs your argument against student loan forgiveness, you havenât shown why the program is bad; all youâve done is reveal yourself.
TFG is in huge trouble
Trumpâs risk of indictment for his document snatch just skyrocketed
The sheer number of documents previously recovered and their sources (from the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency) raise the stakes considerably for Trump, undercutting his followersâ frivolous excuses and ludicrous accusations of an FBI plot to persecute him.
Even more incriminating, the Times reports, âMr. Trump went through the boxes himself in late 2021,â meaning he was clearly aware of the contents and could view the classification markings. If the FBI and Justice Department are looking for evidence of Trumpâs direct knowledge of the materials and willful refusal to return all of them, this would fit the bill.
If, contrary to what Trumpâs counsel said, the government did not previously get back all sensitive materials, the only logical conclusion would be that Trump refused to part with documents he falsely told aides were âmine." This might be the rare case when Trump lacks even a hint of plausible deniability (e.g., the ability to shift blame to his attorney).
Itâs Over: Trump Will Be Indicted
I have finally seen enough. Donald Trump will be indicted by a federal grand jury.
You heard me right: I believe Trump will actually be indicted for a criminal offense. Even with all its redactions, the probable cause affidavit published today by the magistrate judge in Florida makes clear to me three essential points:
(1) Trump was in unauthorized possession of national defense information, namely properly marked classified documents.
(2) He was put on notice by the U.S. Government that he was not permitted to retain those documents at Mar-a-Lago.
(3) He continued to maintain possession of the documents (and allegedly undertook efforts to conceal them in different places throughout the property) up until the FBI finally executed a search warrant earlier this month.
That is the ball game, folks. Absent some unforeseen change in factual or legal circumstances, I believe there is little left for the Justice Department to do but decide whether to wait until after the midterms to formally seek the indictment from the grand jury.
the released documents yesterday show huge trouble:
and donât forget this:
Georgiaâs big Trump election investigation, explained
While the congressional committee investigating January 6 has been holding public hearings and the Justice Department has been steadily securing convictions of hundreds of those who breached the Capitol, a grand jury in Atlanta has been meeting behind closed doors to focus on efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to reverse Joe Bidenâs election win in Georgia.
That Georgia investigation intensified this summer, drawing closer to Trumpâs inner circle and potentially posing a clearer legal threat to Trump than the other probes into his campaign to overturn the 2020 presidential election that culminated in the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
The grand jury is exploring whether Donald Trump and his allies violated Georgia state law in their efforts to reverse the former presidentâs 2020 loss in the state. Those efforts included his notorious phone call on January 2, 2021, with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which Trump said he wanted âto find 11,780 votes.â
Other Good News
The GOPâs Big Tent Might Finally Collapse Now That Roe v. Wade Is Gone
Do Republicans have a case of BDE, otherwise known as Big Divorce Energy? According to my Magic 8 Ball, signs point to yes.
I may be attuned to this because Iâm at the age now where some of my friends are starting to get divorced. This tends to happen around the time their children head off to college, which means mom and dad were (in all likelihood) staying together for the children.
A similar BDE dynamic may be at work in the Republican Party, where a marriage of convenienceâthat began roughly around 1973âheld together for the sake of the (in this case, unborn) children.
The recent election in Kansas has made it conventional wisdom to say that the Dobbs decisionâwhich overturned Roe v. Wade, helps Democrats at the ballot box. The interesting thing about the Kansas election, though, was that it demonstrated how many Republicans were voting pro-choice. Now, it would be a mistake to make too much of this, but this past Tuesdayâs elections suggest that this trend is worth your attention.
âIn addition to making Democratic voters more motivated and more loyal, Dobbs is making key Republican voters less motivated and less loyal,â writes Josh Barro. He goes on to note that Trumpâs surprising success in 2016 partly hinged on attracting working-class white voters who were not religious and who were turned off by the traditional conservative message.
The problem is that Dobbsâwhich is a sop to the old Reagan and Bush-era conservative baseâis problematic for the new batch of right-wingers that Trump (the vulgarian that he is) brought into the fold.
Consider the reaction of Barstool Sports bro Dave Portnoy, who would presumably like to continue trolling the woke leftâand railing against COVID-19 lockdownsâwhile also enjoying consequence-free casual sex. âWe are literally going backwards in time! It makes no sense how anybody thinks itâs their right to tell a woman what to do with her body,â one of the MAGA rightâs new heroes said in a profane rant.
It takes two to tango, and this divorce may be mutually consensual. Aside from the irreligious right being irritated, devout pro-lifers have now been given permission to declare âmission accomplishedâ and tune out.
Itâs ironic that victory often pacifies the masses, but it does.
Biden Administration Plans for New Booster Campaign Soon After Labor Day
The Biden administration plans to offer the next generation of coronavirus booster shots to Americans 12 and older soon after Labor Day, a campaign that federal officials hope will reduce deaths from Covid-19 and protect against an expected winter surge.
Dr. Peter Marks, the top vaccine regulator for the Food and Drug Administration, said in an interview on Tuesday that while he could not discuss timing, his team was close to authorizing updated doses that would target the versions of the virus now circulating.
Eight Sources Say Feds Are Not Done With Matt Gaetz
Eight people with direct knowledge of the probe confirmed to The Daily Beast that the case is still unfoldingâalbeit at a methodical paceâas federal prosecutors work their way across a number of spokes of possible criminality. While each zone has its own sets of witnesses, subjects, and targets, all of it spirals out from one man: a crooked local tax official and Gaetzâs former âwingman,â Joel Greenberg.
Lyle Mazin, a criminal defense attorney who represents a witness in the case, told The Daily Beast that the quiet should not be misconstrued as reluctance on the part of Roger Handberg, a federal prosecutor who led the local team conducting the investigation and now leads the Florida Middle District U.S. Attorneyâs Office.
âHeâs methodical. He doesnât let anything go,â Mazin said. âIf youâre going after a monster, you have to get it rightâespecially when you have a bunch of Trump supporters whoâll come after you.â
No one who spoke to The Daily Beast believes that the Gaetz probe was closed, and defense attorneys for witnesses and subjects who have recently enjoyed a quiet season said they expect to hear from prosecutors again. Some have struck agreements for advance notice of charging decisions.
Officials âcautiously optimisticâ about falling monkeypox cases
After three months of surging monkeypox cases, the worldwide outbreak may have peaked, amid evidence that gay men are curbing risky sexual behaviors and more people are getting vaccinated against a virus that spreads by close contact.
New U.S. cases of monkeypox have fallen by about 25 percent in the past two weeks, from 444 cases a day on Aug. 10 to 337 on Aug. 24, according to The Washington Postâs rolling seven-day average. Nearly 17,000 Americans have being diagnosed with monkeypox since the virus first emerged in mid-May, with cases overwhelmingly concentrated among men who have sex with men.
Globally, new cases fell by 21 percent from last week, the World Health Organization reported Thursday.
On The Lighter Side
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I am so lucky and so proud to be in this with all of you â🏼â🏾â🏽🧡💚💛💜â🏾â🏽â🏻