I spent much of my life afraid of physical pain. Really afraid. Like, avoid a lot of potentially fun or cool situations because, “what if I got hurt?” kind of afraid.
Then I had my second child and got to the hospital too late for any pain medication. It was a quick but very, very, very painful back labor situation. Insane pain. Pain I can’t even describe.
But I didn’t have any choice, so I got through it.
And when I got the other side, not only did I have my son, but I no longer had my fear of pain.
Knowing that I made it through that kind of pain means knowing that it can’t destroy me.
It lost its power over me.
That is how I feel about the Trump years.
When Trump was elected, I was a shroud. I was a husk. I was terrified.
I could barely catch my breath, I was so scared of what would happen.
I felt the terror of all my family history of concentration camps, and fascist regimes, and scapegoated ancestors crashing down all around me — emptying me of life and filling me with fear.
And then it happened. Trump really was president.
And, in most ways, it was just as bad as we thought it would be.
But then there was us — millions and millions of us fighting back. With our bodies. With our voices. With our unity. With our wallets. With our votes.
And now, despite the fact that the MAGA Republicans are still right here with us, I am no longer afraid.
I am still angry. I am still outraged. I am still motivated.
But I am not afraid.
Because the goal of dividing us did not work.
Because our institutions held up (some more than others).
But mostly, because of all of us.
I stopped being afraid on that morning when we lined up at congressional offices to protect the sick and the differently abled.
I stopped being afraid on that afternoon when we took to city streets to stand up for Black lives.
I stopped being afraid on that evening when we wrote postcards and letters demanding equality for the LGBTQ.
I stopped being afraid on that night when we descended on airports all over this country to protect Muslims.
Those are the times when I lost my fear.
Those are the times when my fear was replaced by the fierce warrior self I saw mirrored back to me when I looked at all of you.
And as we usher in these super important midterm elections, we know that it is not likely to be easy either.
But we also know that we can face it.
We didn’t want to live through the Trump years, but we did.
We may be scarred, but we aren’t scared.
As awful as it was, I look back on that time as amazing as well.
It was a time in which suburban soccer moms, and hipster coffee shop musicians, and working folks, and single moms and dads, and college students, and older people just looking to enjoy their retirements, and everyone in between, found their fierce warrior selves.
The Trump years brought out the tough, loving, strong backbone of America. It taught us we are strong. It taught us to be united. It taught us to stand up for one another.
And for that, I am grateful. I am NOT grateful for that racist POS and the monsters he brought with him (and the grave damage they did). But I am grateful for what I learned about all of us.
I learned it when, despite all odds, we ushed in a Blue wave in 2018. I learned it when we got Biden elected and gave him a Blue House and Senate.
And I am seeing it now as we fight for these midterms.
One small example: look at our amazing fundraising effort! We raised over $80,000 for 38 tight House races. We sent each of those candidates over $2000.
Since we started that effort, with numbers shifting left (and more primaries happening) we have 22 more candidates for Congress who could keep the House blue! Let's support those new 22!
If you want to donate to the 22 candidates who have emerged since we set up our last fundraising effort, you can donate here:
Now onto the good news!
Dark Brandon is the Biden We Need Right Now
Biden defended democracy — and pounced on a political opportunity
President Joe Biden’s primetime speech Thursday night was an attempt to yoke two different but connected concepts together. The first was, as he said, “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” The second was simply to urge Americans to vote for Democrats in the fall.
Speaking in front of a bright red background set against Independence Hall that seemed to owe as much to Dark Brandon memes as the traditional trappings of the presidency, Biden’s warnings were mixed in with in political language aimed at voters who seem have recently seen reasons — like the overturning of Roe vs. Wade and a new barrage of unsettling investigations and revelations related to former President Donald Trump — to consider voting for Democrats in an election that looked dismal for the party in power just a few months ago.
The goal seemed to be to make “MAGA Republicans” a label for everything that voters find politically toxic about the GOP right now, linking swing voters’ disdain for and exhaustion with Donald Trump with their opposition to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.
the address was a fusion of Biden’s longstanding concerns about American democracy — he has often said that Trump’s response to the 2017 white supremacist march in Charlottesville inspired him to run for president — and a more traditional argument ahead of the midterms.
Biden’s remarks came as Democrats are feeling new optimism about their prospects in 2022. Although inflation remains high, gas prices have fallen considerably in recent months and Democrats have racked up success after success in recent special elections, winning a seat in Alaska for the first time in 50 years earlier this week and pulling an upset in a swing district in New York’s Hudson Valley last week. The change in the political climate tracks to June, after the Dobbs decision in which the Supreme Court held that women have no constitutional right to an abortion.
Biden’s fiery speech addressed the elephant in the room
Biden called out the elephant in the room. Given the existential threat that American democracy faces from within, elections are no longer solely about taxes, spending or other policy differences, as they once were.
hose who had disparaged the President as “Sleepy Joe” now need to find a new adjective. Biden displayed a fiery conviction that could not be faked. Defending against the rise of autocracy is what motivated him to run against Trump in 2020, and it’s one that resonated with voters, who sent him to a decisive victory against the incumbent president, a surprisingly rare feat.
Will it work this time? There’s reason to believe it will, because many Americans share Biden’s anxiety about democracy.
Sure, voters care about inflation and bread-and-butter issues. But a recent NBC poll found that concerns about “threats to democracy,” have soared, becoming one of the top issues for voters in August 2022. And a CBS News poll found 72% of Americans believe that democracy and the rule of law are in danger in the United States. (Granted, some believe those threats come from the left, not the MAGA right.)
To sound the alarm on democracy, Biden chose the perfect stage
President Biden’s bold rhetoric and stagecraft in his speech Thursday night were, if anything, understated. We are in a fight to save our democratic system, and it would have been wrong to pretend the battle is not both political and partisan.
“Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” Biden told the nation. There, he said it. He named names. One of our two major parties, in thrall to a would-be autocrat, is no longer committed to the American experiment — and thus can no longer be trusted with power.
The ominous red lighting that framed the president and the choice of Independence Hall as his setting conveyed danger, urgency and the sense that we are, as Biden said, “at an inflection point.” Looking toward the November election, he exhorted Americans to “vote, vote, vote.” And he left no doubt as to whom they should vote against.
MAGA Republicans are seething with rage because Biden hit his target
Republicans are in a rage over President Biden’s speech in Philadelphia, in which he flatly declared that the American democratic experiment is in serious danger due to Donald Trump and the Republicans who remain allied with his political project.
Here’s the most basic point of all. Despite screams that Biden’s speech was dictatorial and cast MAGA as the enemy, he said this:
There are far more Americans, far more Americans from every background and belief, who reject the extreme MAGA ideology than those that accept it. And folks, it’s within our power, it’s in our hands, yours and mine, to stop the assault on American democracy.
That’s a call for Americans to defeat Trump and MAGA in a manner that is peaceful and democratic. Biden is saying that an anti-MAGA majority exists in this country that can and must mobilize to stabilize our system.
And the idea that this majority is out there and exists for the rousing — well, that’s what enrages Republicans most of all.
Democrats are doing great things
and just in the last month:
The Inflation Reduction Act lays the groundwork for an EV supply that starts in the United States.
Much hay has been made about how the Inflation Reduction Act represents America’s biggest climate investment ever. But reading between the lines of the legislation, which tackles everything from taxes to health care, shows that the nearly $740 billion law has some caveats, including new provisions to a more than decade-old EV tax credit.
For years, prospective electric vehicle buyers could count on a federal vehicle tax credit, which amounts to a $7,500 discount on a wide range of EV models. The incentive was originally authorized in 2008 and played a critical part in promoting early EV startups and encouraging price-conscious consumers to take the plunge and go electric. The IRA extends the tax credit until 2032 and establishes an additional $4,000 credit for used EVs.
TFG is in big trouble
Former GOP Justice lawyers: Trump’s in a heap of trouble
“As someone who worked on the restructuring of our classification system while in the White House and who held [top secret/sensitive compartmented information] clearance myself, I can tell you that if I or anyone else had done a fraction of what Trump did here, we would have been prosecuted long ago. DOJ has shown extraordinary patience, but I think that patience is about to run out,” Norman Eisen, co-counsel on the amicus brief with Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21 and the Paul Weiss firm, tells me.
Facts tying Trump to direct knowledge of the nature of the documents (e.g., allegations he personally went through boxes, and the location of documents in his desks at Mar-a-Lago) will be critical to Attorney General Merrick Garland’s assessment.
This matches Ayer’s experience. “If I had somehow managed, when I left the DOJ as Deputy AG, to take with me a like number of highly classified documents, and had similarly resisted efforts of the government to get them back, I would certainly have been prosecuted and likely ended up in prison," he says.
Keisler doesn’t see any evidence the department is treating Trump less favorably than other defendants. “I think it’s clear the department was exceptionally deliberate and careful in the way it proceeded here, and that it took into account the special sensitivity of dealing with a former president,” he tells me. “It sought a search warrant only as a last resort — more than a year and a half after the documents were improperly taken to Mar-a-Lago — when all other, less intrusive efforts to obtain the government’s documents had been tried and were unsuccessful, and when it became clear that the department could not rely on the truthfulness of the president’s representatives’ statements.”
Bill Barr Blows Up Every Trumpy Defense of the Mar-a-Lago Docs in Brutal Fox News Interview
Bill Barr, the one-time attorney general under former President Donald Trump, told Fox News on Friday that the ex-president had no “legitimate reason” to hoard classified material at his Florida resort. Furthermore, he defended the Justice Department’s decision to raid Mar-a-Lago, arguing that the DOJ was “being jerked around” by Team Trump.
“Is there any legitimate reason for those materials to be in the former president’s possession?” Roberts asked.
“No. I can’t think of a legitimate reason why they should have been—could be taken out of the government, away from the government if they are classified,” Barr replied. “I frankly am skeptical of the claim that he declassified everything.”
The former AG continued: “You know, because frankly, I think it’s highly improbable, and second, if in fact he sort of stood over scores of boxes, not really knowing what was in them, and said, ‘I hereby declassify everything in here,’ that would be such an abuse and that shows such recklessness it’s almost worse than taking the documents.”
“Let me just say, I think the driver on this from the beginning was, you know, loads of classified information sitting in Mar-a-Lago. People say this was unprecedented, well it’s also unprecedented for a president to take all this classified information and put them in a country club, OK?”
HOW DOJ CONTINUES TO BUILD ITS CASE THAT TRUMP IMPROPERLY RETAINED NATIONAL DEFENSE INFORMATION
DOJ’s response to Trump’s request for a Special Master last night did a bunch of things — most notably, debunking lies Trump’s camp had been telling.
If Trump’s lawyers were smart, they’d read last night’s filing and realize that every time they make DOJ write up another document, DOJ further documents things that would be key evidence against Trump at trial.
This stunt about a Special Master — whatever else it is — is also helping DOJ strengthen any prosecution of Trump for his actions.
With Hard Work, We Can Win in November
Why Sarah Palin’s loss could be a sign of midterm troubles for Republicans
Sarah Palin’s loss in Alaska’s special election for its lone House seat on Wednesday was in part the result of a flawed candidate facing an electorate she had angered 13 years earlier, in a state with a ranked-choice voting system that gave Republican voters other options.
Though Alaska’s political environment is unique, the race bore the hallmarks of a slew of other races that could decide which party controls the House and Senate after November’s election. Former President Donald Trump stepped in, ignoring the concerns of local Republicans. His choice, Palin, struggled to appeal to more moderate Republicans and independent voters. Democrats, meanwhile, focused their message largely on abortion rights, energizing portions of the electorate that the party had feared would sit out the midterms.
Since the Supreme Court’s decision to end national abortion rights protections, conservatives have racked up a string of stunning losses. In ruby-red Kansas four weeks ago, voters overwhelmingly rejected an amendment that said there was no constitutional right to an abortion in the state. In New York last week, the Democratic candidate won a House special election in what was widely seen as a bellwether district.
Now, Alaska – a state that has voted for Republicans in every presidential election since Lyndon B. Johnson was up for reelection – has elected a Democrat to fill an at-large House seat that had been in GOP hands for nearly 50 years.
‘Where’s J.D.?:’ Vance’s Ohio Senate campaign prompts GOP concerns
Ohio voters will begin casting their ballots in six weeks – and J.D. Vance has been difficult to find.
The rookie GOP candidate goes days without any public events, and his campaign gives little information about his whereabouts.
He has been slow to build a fundraising operation, and a ground game, and is being dramatically outspent on air while racking up a nearly $900,000 in campaign debt last quarter. And now, a super PAC with ties to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is planning to spend a staggering $28 million on television ads here to save a Senate seat once viewed as a lock— and deny Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan a chance for a major, midterm upset.
Other Good News
Russian Morale Falling in Face of HIMARS, Efficient Air Strikes
The morale of Russian troops in Ukraine is deteriorating as a result of attacks from Ukrainian HIMARS and warplanes, according to a senior U.S. military official.
This assessment was made during the latest Pentagon briefing on the situation in Ukraine on Monday, held by a "senior defense official" and a "senior military official", neither of whom were identified.
The military official said the U.S. has received "a good number of reports talking about the morale of the Russian soldier" around Kherson, which he described as "miserable".
The labor market is still red-hot — and it’s helping union organizers
A red-hot labor market that has afforded workers more bargaining power with employers is fueling a string of recent union victories at high-profile U.S. companies. Workers have voted to unionize for the first time in recent weeks at Trader Joe’s and Chipotle. Unions have also made significant inroads at Amazon, Starbucks, Apple and REI, employers that have long resisted unionization.
Behind these small, but notable, victories is renewed popular support among Americans for the labor movement: Seventy-one percent of Americans approve of unions, matching a 53-year high, according to a
Gallup poll released Tuesday.
Looking to Keep The House Blue?
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I am so lucky and so proud to be in this with all of you ✊🏼✊🏾✊🏽🧡💚💛💜✊🏾✊🏽✊🏻