As you all know, GNR is taking a break from the Roundup for a little while. So I’ve been asked to step in today and bring y’all the good news. Fortunately, there’s so much of it that the job has been easier than I feared it would be.
Of course, I’m not GNR, so I haven’t been able to amass the epic amounts of stories and goodness that she always brings us. But I think I’ve put together a nice selection to help start your day on a positive note, if I do say so myself (and I just did).
Anyway, let’s start out with a little music.
And now the news:
Marvel’s “Black Panther” continues its record-breaking streak, passing the $1 billion mark at the global box office in just 26 days.
The Ryan Coogler tentpole is the 33rd movie to gross $1 billion. It’s the 16th Disney film to reach this milestone, and the fifth Marvel film to do so — joining the ranks of “The Avengers,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Iron Man 3,” and “Captain America: Civil War.”
“Black Panther” has grossed $521 million domestically, making it the ninth-highest release of all time. In its fourth weekend, “Black Panther” is heading for a $40 million-plus weekend, which would make it the No. 2 superhero release of all time over “The Dark Knight’s” $535 million.
This film has become both a symbol and a means of African-American empowerment. With its incredible success, as well as that of films like Get Out and Wonder Woman, Hollywood seems to be finally realizing that movies by, for, and about previously marginalized groups can be worthwhile without having to be aimed at niche audiences. And yes, the Black Panther sequel is on the way.
I have seen a low-quality pirated download of this movie, and will definitely be headed to a theater when there’s a little less crowding (if that ever happens). It is a huge understatement to say it is worth seeing. You can find showtimes in your area by going here and clicking on “Get Showtimes and Tickets.” (It will show you results for my zip code but you can change that.)
The nationwide protest is both a memorial and protest action. Students and teachers across the United States will
walk out of their schools and universities to honor the lives of the 17 people killed at Stoneman Douglas and press lawmakers to pass stricter gun control laws, according to EMPOWER, the group organizing the action.
The link will take you to an “everything you need to know” feature about tomorrow’s massive action. The national media has largely decided to treat this movement as last week’s news, but a quick search reveals that, locally, it is being paid attention to. Most school districts seem to be taking steps to somehow accommodate the student movement, with many being openly supportive of the walkout. You can find dozens of stories about that here. There’s also a good DKos diary here. The movement these young folks have put together is not going away.
It needs to be noted that, for safety and security reasons, walkout organizers and school districts are asking that anyone not affiliated with a school not participate in this action. To support the students and their movement, you can go to the Women's March National Student Walkout site and find info and links to affiliated organizations.
And don’t forget the big March For Our Lives on the 24th. Jared Kushner's brother has donated $50,000 to that—perhaps you could help out, too.
Lamb holds a 51% to 45% lead over Saccone if turnout yields a Democratic surge similar to voting patterns seen in other special elections over the past year. Another 1% opt for a third party candidate and 3% are undecided. Lamb also has the edge using a historical midterm lower turnout model, albeit by a much smaller 49% to 47% margin. A model with higher turnout overall, similar to a presidential electorate, gives Lamb a 51% to 44% advantage. This marks a turnaround from last month’s Monmouth poll of the race, when Saccone held a small lead in all the models – 49% to 46% in the surge model, 48% to 44% in the high turnout model, and 50% to 45% in the low turnout model.
This is according to a Monmouth poll released yesterday. These are the best numbers yet for Lamb. According to the Monmouth article, Trump’s recent actions on steel tariffs have had no effect at all on this election, despite speculation that that was the reason he did it.
Even a victory in Pennsylvania's 18th House District on Tuesday could be bad news for national Republicans.
For starters, the seat has no bearing on the balance on power in the House as Republicans hold a clear majority. And
after a court mandate that new maps go into effect, this seat will likely be eliminated next Congress.
So the real importance of Tuesday's special election pitting Republican Rick Saccone against Democrat Conor Lamb is, instead, what the results say about the strength of each party heading into November's midterm elections.
Republicans may hope that a win will provide them with
an ego boost. But history tells us
it's far more significant to look at the margin between Lamb and Saccone, not at who ultimately wins or loses. And if we're only looking at the margin, it's pretty clear that the result in Pennsylvania's 18th could very likely end up being bad news for Republicans.
To be clear, I believe the polls are underestimating the Democratic vote as they did in Virginia and I’m cautiously optimistic about a Lamb victory. But it’s going to be tight, and we need to remember that the real good news is that there’s a close race in a district that voted for Trump by 20 points. A narrow GOP victory is bad news for them, and a Dem win is catastrophically bad news. And, of course, bad news for them is good news for us.
A good DKos diary has more on this.
Internal political strife is usually the domain of Pennsylvania’s sometimes dysfunctional Democratic Party while the Republican Party publicly purports to be united under one big happy tent.
But this year, the reverse is happening.
The increasingly nasty GOP campaign for governor threatens the party’s facade of unity.
On Thursday, GOP Chairman Val DiGiorgio came very close to rebuking Paul Mango, a GOP candidate for governor, over an attack ad Mango is running against the party's endorsed candidate for governor, Scott Wagner.
The ad claims Wagner, a York County state senator and businessman, supports abortion rights because of a 2014 York Dispatch article that paraphrased him as saying Pennsylvania’s existing abortion law was “doing its job.”
The 32-second “Sons and Daughters” ad claims only Mango will stand up for the unborn, with pictures of babies showing on the screen.
Republican gubernatorial candidates are fighting with each other over who is the most extreme on abortion issues, which can only be be good news for Democratic Governor Tom Wolf. While Pennsylvanians are divided on the abortion issue, few are as extreme as the two Republican candidates are trying to portray themselves as. And while they battle over who is farther out of the mainstream, Wolf is unopposed in his primary and doesn’t have to worry about intra-party warfare.
White House officials were alarmed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' struggle to answer basic questions about the nation's schools and failure to defend the administration's newly proposed school safety measures during a tour of television interviews Sunday and Monday, according to two sources familiar with their reaction.
Though DeVos was sworn in to her Cabinet position 13 months ago, she
stumbled her way through a pointed "60 Minutes" interview with CBS' Lesley Stahl Sunday night and was unable to defend her belief that public schools can perform better when funding is diverted to the expansion of public charter schools and private school vouchers. At one point, she admitted she hasn't "intentionally" visited underperforming schools.
…
Things worsened as DeVos continued her cable television tour Monday morning.
…
The White House did not respond to a request for an official comment regarding DeVos' performance. It is unclear what Trump's own reaction to her interviews was, but officials in the West Wing said things went from bad to worse as DeVos continued her interviews.
The 60 minutes interview was a real trainwreck. This is probably the first time that Ms Devos’ ignorance about education has been exposed to the general public, and the more people learn about the incompetence of Trump’s appointees the better. It’s also good news that there’s still someone at the White House that can see how bad stuff like this is.
About the only bright spot for the Education Secretary is that at least she wasn’t attacked by
a grizzly bear.
CNN anchor and talk radio host Michael Smerconish got Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti to reveal that at least ten individuals have come forward with offers to cover any financial repercussions resulting from the former porn star telling her full story about President Donald Trump in spite of a “hush money” settlement negotiated by Trump attorney Michael Cohen.
Avenatti says that Ms Daniels has not accepted any of these offers of financial help, but on Monday she
offered to return the $130,000 payment she received to keep quiet, and one has to wonder where she’s getting that kind of loose spending money.
Of course, paying off a porn star is far from the worst thing Trump has done, but the longer this is in the news the more embarrassing it is for him. And it will be even more embarrassing if we learn that there were, uh, performance issues.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice is said to be close to completion, but he may set it aside while he finishes other key parts of his probe, such as possible collusion and the hacking of Democrats, according to current and former U.S. officials.
That’s because Mueller may calculate that if he tries to bring charges in the obstruction case — the part that may hit closest to Trump personally — witnesses may become less cooperative in other parts of the probe, or the president may move to shut it down altogether.
…
Any clear outcome of the obstruction inquiry could be used against Mueller: Filing charges against Trump or his family could prompt the president to take action to fire him. Publicly clearing Trump of obstruction charges — as the president’s lawyers have requested — could be used by his allies to build pressure for the broader investigation to be shut down.
Other key matters under investigation by Mueller’s team, with its 17 career prosecutors, include whether Trump or any of his associates helped Russia meddle in the 2016 campaign. Mueller is also expected to indict some of those responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee before the election and publicly leaking stolen material in an effort to hurt Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Many of us are impatient to see the Mueller hammer fall on some of the main culprits, but it looks like he’s not going to act until he’s ready to take down the whole lot of them. It’s good to see that he’s apparently working to indict on all the crimes he’s uncovering, and that there’s going to be a whole lot of folks in handcuffs before it’s all over. Mark Sumner has written a
good diary explaining all this.
The Trump administration broke the law when it missed a deadline last year in implementing the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ozone pollution rule, a federal court ruled Monday.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt was supposed to announce by Oct. 1 which areas of the country were in compliance with the 2015 Obama administration rule.
Pruitt later announced findings for areas that comply, but not for areas that do not.
Judge Haywood Stirling Gilliam Jr. of the federal District Court for the District of Northern California said Monday that Pruitt broke the law, and ordered him to publish the findings for almost all of the rest of the country by April 30.
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The decision is one in a string of court losses the Trump administration has faced in its ongoing mission to change, delay or undo the Obama administration’s aggressive environmental agenda. Other recent decisions have faulted the Energy Department for blocking energy efficiency rules and both the EPA and Interior Department for delaying methane regulations.
The Judiciary is the one branch of government the GOP does not own, and it has been a bulwark against many of Trump’s worst ideas. We all need to keep working to retake Congress as part of the effort to preserve an independent court system.
Well, that’s what I’ve got for you today, except that spring has come to central Texas and soon the fields around here will be covered in wildflowers.
Your regular team will be back tomorrow with more to keep us all encouraged and fired up.
And remember, like
the man says, “If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own.”