Hello Good Newsies! Tomorrow is Primary Day in New York. I am still stressing about who to vote for Attorney General. Other than that I know the D’s I will be supporting.
I wanted to start off a little off topic, although I consider this good news! In less that a week Markos has posted 4 times, count ‘em 4!! When I found this site back in 2005 I was so impressed with his writing I was hooked. I just lurked for quite some time before I even created an account. As this site has grown over the years he posts less often, understandable with all the projects he has. Yet now he is posting again and that makes me even more optimistic. Last week I did a quick post with the links to 3 of his posts:
www.dailykos.com/…
Then he posted again yesterday:
Traitor Trump can't trust anyone as the world crumbles around him
And then while reading Billeh’s Cheer and Jeers I found out this:
CHEERS to a bright spot on an otherwise lousy day. Be sure to take a moment today to face Berkeley, California and shout,"Lordy, Lordy, look who's fortysomethinger!" Yes indeed, our malevolent kingmaker, troll slayer and, as of this year, professional pollster, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, turns another year wiser, and we wish him many blessings on his camels. On behalf of the C&J community, I got him the usual gifts: a new star pin for his Che beret, a new pair of "I brake for Libturds" mud flaps, and a renewal of his subscription to Popular Hispanic Hippie Commie Pinko Socialist Tax-and-Spend Moonbat Vegetarian Cyclists Monthly. It's the least we could do. So that's what we did.
Happy Belated Birthday to my favorite progressive!
Then I found this and I teared up:
Happy birthday, Kos!!!!!
The man saved my sanity.
Onward.
Let’s start with a BaHaHaHa:
All-bark, no-bite Trump takes a powder on the lady lawsuits dogging him
Legal challenges from women Donald Trump has slandered and sought to silence show just how tough Trump really is when he's backed into a corner. And more than anything, he's a craven wimp. At the moment, Trump is being hounded by two lawsuits in particular: one a defamation suit by former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos, who alleges Trump sexually assaulted her in 2007; and the slightly higher profile effort by adult film actress Stormy Daniels to invalidate her non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with Trump and his former lawyer Michael Cohen
Trump now has a September 28 deadline to provide written answers to questions from Zervos's attorney, according to documents obtained by CNN.
CNN has reached out to Trump's attorney, Marc Kasowitz, for comment.
No response. What's the matter, Dons, cat got your tongue?
Oh Kerry Eleveld you really have a way with words. If you have a few minutes it is worth reading the whole thing.
Why do we have to be stuck with him Ireland?
Ireland Seems Pretty Happy Trump's Not Gonna Visit After All
Donald Trump’s upcoming visit to Ireland has been scrapped, according to the Irish Independent newspaper. But don’t shed a tear for the emerald isle just yet—Irish officials shockingly don’t seem too broken up about their missed opportunity to host the president of the United States.
“This is reflective of a relationship that is now not functioning, that needs to get sorted and needs structures in place,” Micheál Martin, leader of Ireland’s Fianna Fáil political party, told the Independent upon news of the canceled trip. It was a sentiment echoed by other Irish officials, including one diplomatic source who told CNN that many within the government “were definitely not looking forward to Trump’s visit.”
Trump owns, yes, you guessed it, a golf course and resort in the town of Doonbeg, in Ireland’s County Clair. He has yet to visit since becoming president.
Darn, I was hoping he would go and get stuck in one of those golfy swampy things and never return.
I know 9/11 was yesterday and perhaps you may have seen this, but it was another thing I did not know:
Meet the beautiful, remarkable tree that survived 9/11
After a month under rubble, a nearly lifeless callery pear tree was found by 9/11 workers who were determined to save it.
One can only imagine the grim job that 9/11 workers had at Ground Zero, working day in and day out to clean up the wreckage of such devastation. And one can only imagine the surprise they must have felt when, a month into the job, they discovered a bit of life sticking out from the rubble – the charred remains of a callery pear tree.
With little more than a few leaves issuing from a single branch – with snapped roots and burned and broken boughs – this perseverant tree was sent to Van Cortlandt Park for convalescence under the care of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Park workers say they weren't sure the tree would make it, but the little tree that could, did. In the spring of 2002 she sprouted a riot of leaves; a dove made a nest in her boughs.
Love and life will always prevail.
You rock California:
California Gov. Jerry Brown casually unveils history’s most ambitious climate target
California Gov. Jerry Brown kicked off a week full of climate change news with an announcement, and boy was it a doozy: at once surprising, strange, and stunning. It was so out of left field and yet so profound in its implications that few in the media, or even in California, seem to have fully absorbed it yet.
Brown had hoped to begin the week by signing a high-profile package of energy bills. The one he most wanted to sign, into which he had poured the most political capital, was a bill that would link California’s energy grid to a larger Western power market. The one for which he had shown the least enthusiasm, into which he had put the least capital, was a bill that would commit California to 100 percent use of zero-carbon electricity by 2045.
The latter bill, shepherded by state Sen. Kevin de León, passed the legislature. The former bill did not. Initially there were rumors that Brown was threatening to veto de Leon’s bill if the regionalization bill wasn’t also passed in a special session, but that was probably a bluff, and so on Monday, more or less as expected, Brown signed the bill, SB 100, into law.
That is big news in and of itself; 100 percent clean electricity is a difficult and worthy challenge.
But Brown didn’t stop there. Much to everyone’s surprise, on the same day, he also signed an executive order (B-55-18) committing California to total, economy-wide carbon neutrality by 2045.
Wait, whaaat? Zeroing out carbon entirely in California? In just over 20 years? In my expert opinion, that is ... holy shit.
SB 100 is a powerful law, a political and coalition-building victory as well as a policy achievement, and de León deserves enormous credit for it. Brown’s order is a signpost and an inspiration, a clear vision of where the state needs to go. Together, they ensure that California continues to accelerate and keeps its eyes on the horizon.
For the first time, true carbon zero is on the table as a policy option in the US. We might actually see it happen in California, in our lifetimes. It’s a stunner, a ray of hope in otherwise dark times, and a fitting way for Brown to conclude his long and fertile career of public service.
About time:
Trump’s approval rating just sank in 8 polls
President Donald Trump’s approval ratings have dropped precipitously in eight major polls, hitting their lowest point in six months.
Eight polling entities — ABC News/Washington Post, CNN, Gallup, IBD/TIPP, the Kaiser Family Foundation, Quinnipiac University, Grinnell College/Selzer & Co, and Suffolk University — give the president an average approval rating of 38 percent, a drop of 3 points from Trump’s previous approval polling average, 41 percent.
Since August 28 — just a week after former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was convicted on financial fraud charges and Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to eight federal crimes — the Trump presidency has been besieged by controversies, including an anonymous New York Times op-ed from a senior White House staffer and a new book by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward that depicts abject chaos in the White House.
Coupled with an unpopular Supreme Court nominee, the administration is having a difficult time trying to make the case for its own successes to the American populace — and it’s starting to show in polling.
I do so respect Paul Krugman.
And this:
Well deserved:
Stephen Miller’s Hometown Rabbi Berates Him In Scorching Holiday Sermon
Every year, Jewish Americans gather in synagogues during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, to listen to the sounds of the shofar. The instrument serves as a spiritual wake-up call, ushering in a period of repentance and atonement in the Jewish calendar known as the “Days of Awe.”
This year, a California rabbi decided to mark the start of the Jewish High Holidays with another sort of wake-up call ― a rousing sermon aimed directly at senior White House adviser Stephen Miller, a man the rabbi believes has strayed far from Jewish teaching.
Comess-Daniels spoke up during a Rosh Hashanah service on Monday to assure the community that the synagogue had tried its best to teach Miller the core Jewish values of mercy and compassion.
Comess-Daniels said the actions Miller is encouraging Trump to take “make it obvious to me that [Miller] didn’t get my, or our, Jewish message.”
Jewish history, the rabbi said, is full of stories of refugees and immigrants, of people escaping from slavery into freedom. Judaism teaches people to refrain from cruelness and to struggle for the sake of all that is righteous. It encourages Jews to work together to repair the world.
Miller’s actions at the White House have perpetrated “negativity, violence, malice and brutality,” the rabbi said. In particular, the “zero-tolerance” policy Miller helped craft was “completely antithetical to everything I know about Judaism, Jewish law and Jewish values.”
Well, well, well:
Sheldon Whitehouse Asks Brett Kavanaugh If He Has A Gambling Problem
“Have you ever sought treatment for a gambling addiction?” Whitehouse asks pointedly as part of a series of questions submitted this week about Kavanaugh’s unexplained personal debts.
In 2016, Kavanaugh reported credit card and personal loan debts of between $60,000 and $200,000. The Trump White House said these debts were the result of Kavanaugh buying baseball tickets for friends who later paid him back, as well as some spending on home improvements.
Whitehouse’s gambling questions stem, in part, from a publicly disclosed email from 2001 where Kavanaugh apologizes to his friends for “growing aggressive after blowing still another game of dice” on a weekend vacation in the Chesapeake Bay.
Whitehouse wants to know whether Kavanaugh has gambled at any point since 2000, how many times, with whom, where and how much money he has won or lost.
Whitehouse questions whether the White House has been telling the truth about Kavanaugh’s debts, asking if White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah gave a “wholly accurate” characterization of the sources of his debt.
“Did you tell the White House that you built up the debt by buying Washington Nationals season tickets for playoff games for yourself and a ‘handful’ of friends?” the senator asks.
“All judicial nominees must address all questions posed to them to be voted out of committee,”
Remember to follow Yosef 52 for all the voting information you need and how to spread the good word.
Finally, to any of the readers and/or commenters here on the GNR that are in areas that could be affected by Hurricane Florence:
Please stay safe, listen to your local officials, my heart is with you all.
Take us out Eric:
Last update:
Daily Kos Elections New Hampshire primary open thread
Good for Pappas!