Welcome 😄 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News!
Yesterday’s GNR had some inspiring words from oldhippiedude, and I want to expand on them. Sometimes the news, although it seems bad (it is bad) — is not as bad as we think at first.
Or, even if it is that bad, we may still find ways to fight, and these ways may be a lot more effective than we expect. Because when we are outraged by something, it turns out a lot of others are as well.
We’re all waiting for the midterms, right? Voting starts very soon. I think it actually starts tomorrow, or even today, for expats and those overseas. If you are an overseas American and need help getting your ballot, go here.
On to Regular Scheduled Programming
No one here is naïve; we are aware of the very bad stuff that is happening. But we are here to read the efforts and the positive results of those (including ourselves) who are working so hard to save our country from those very bad people. Because sometimes the good news, which can be incremental, gets lost in the deluge of the click-bait bad (please save that click-bait bad for other diaries). Because we need to fortify ourselves before returning to the fight. Because we sometimes get ideas about how to fight while here. And also — because we’re a community 💙 ❤️ 💙 — we like to be here.
And, yes, there’s lots of bad news out there — the Republican party is so amazingly nasty, racist, and corrupt — and Trump’s deeds will take a lot of work to undo. But little of it is surprising, at least not surprising on what the bad guys are doing or are trying to do (at least not to us). What has been surprising is the outpouring on our side. We are furious with them for what they are doing and we are letting them know. And you know what? Anger and fury are pretty good motivators, and are reasons that a blue wave is predicted for November.
💚 There are more of us than there are of them.
💛 They are terrified when we organize. THERE IS LOTS OF EVIDENCE THAT THEY ARE TERRIFIED!
💔 They want us to be demoralized. We have to keep demoralizing them. Name, blame and shame!
💙 The best way to keep up your spirits is to fight. So, take the time to recharge your batteries, but find ways to contribute to the well-being of our country and our world.
💙 Russia, Russia, Russia 🐻
— and Other Toxic 🍄 Trump Matters
🍄
🔨 Bret Kavanaugh and the Supreme Court nomination
What’s this doing in the Russia section? Well, first, it is 🍄 toxic, but I also suspect that Russia, or at least that dark money, is involved. Kavanaugh had serious gambling debts (why would anyone think putting a serious gambler ⚠️ on the Supreme Court is a good idea?) which seem to have disappeared, and he may have been paid off by the Russians. I’m also wondering what carrots and sticks are making the Republicans on the Judiciary committee such willing pawns.
✊ Opposition to him is strong
As Judge Brett Kavanaugh faces allegations of assault and attempted rape, a new poll shows opposition to his Supreme Court nomination has skyrocketed over the past month.
Since Trump announced his pick, Kavanaugh has become one of the most unpopular Supreme Court nominees in the history of polling. But a new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that opposition to the already-unpopular Kavanaugh has increased by 8.4 percentage points in just over a month.
On Aug. 15, Kavanaugh’s nomination was opposed by 27.3 percent of respondents. But 35.7 percent of respondents opposed Kavanaugh’s nomination.in the most recent poll, taken from September 11-17. Support for Kavanaugh fell 2.2 percent over the same period, to an abysmal 31 percent.
This makes it a lot easier for Senators to reject him, especially D senators in red states (McCaskill)
More information is coming out, about Georgetown Prep, that particular incident, and plenty of other stuff.
🔨 Judicial impeachment may be a possibility
On Wednesday morning’s edition of Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom,” host Sandra Smith questioned the “timing” of the allegations against Kavanaugh, and asked Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) to respond to the accusation that Democrats are simply trying to delay the confirmation vote until after the election.
But Swalwell turned the tables, telling Smith, “If the Republicans rush through a nominee where you have unanswered sexual assault allegations, I can promise you that Democratic senators will be interested in going and looking at those allegations.”
“And if Judge Kavanaugh lied under oath, you could see a judicial impeachment,” Swalwell warned.
We’re pretty sure that Kavanaugh has already lied under oath. (As well as several other appointees.)
In fact, there seem to be several avenues that a future House or Senate could explore with respect to Kavanaugh. His gambling. His finances. His opinions and his paper trail. And, as many have pointed out, Maryland has no statute of limitations with respect to sexual assault, so perhaps he’ll have to spend some time in prison. SC judges have to be present to vote, right?
⚡️ Ex-Trump adviser Michael Flynn to be sentenced on December 18
⚡️ James Comey thinks we’re in the fourth quarter with respect to the Mueller investigation
- On Wednesday, he speculated that the Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's recent guilty pleas and agreement to cooperate with the special counsel Robert Mueller suggested Mueller was closing in on President Donald Trump.
- "The way you normally do investigations is you work from the bottom up, and so they're getting pretty high," he said.
- Comey also said the investigation had been conducted in secret and he couldn't be sure of its progress.
Comey’s speculation is speculation, but it is also educated-guess speculation. Here’s hoping that a whole bunch of 👟 👠 👡 👞 👢 will drop, and set off a 💣 in team Trump. Some more evidence to support this idea: Michael Cohen has been speaking to the Mueller team for weeks now. Cohen’s lawyer Davis says this shows that Cohen wants to be loyal to his country (unlike some of our Senators).
And I see no reason not to disturb the mid-terms, do you? After all, Trump isn't even on the ballot, so why should Mueller hesitate?
⚡️ Information about Putin’s Oligarchs and how they got inside the Trump team — if you want some background.
💙 Democrats Are Great 🌊
Republicans 🐘 Got Nothing 👎
💙 Primary data show that Democrats are crushing Republicans 👍
Riding a surge of enthusiasm in opposition to President Trump, more Democrats turned out in the primaries for House elections than Republicans this year — the first time that has happened since 2008.
Why it matters: 2008 was the last time Democrats won a majority in the House. They lost it in 2010, when Republican primary turnout skyrocketed and Democratic turnout plummeted — the reverse of what's happening now.
What's next: David Brady, electoral politics expert and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, predicts around a 7% Democratic turnout advantage in November driven by women, and particularly Independent women.
Democrats comprised 57% of primary voters. That’s a 14% advantage.
💜 From The New Yorker newsletter
There are just forty-seven days until the midterm elections. The primaries are finished, and the slate of candidates is set. Republicans are alarmed. Their own internal polling suggests that, on the so-called generic ballot for the House of Representatives, American voters prefer Democrats over Republicans by nine percentage points. Worse for Republicans, the same polling report, published by Bloomberg Businessweek’s Joshua Green, suggests that many of the Party’s own reliable voters have been so convinced by President Trump’s reassurances of a “red wave” to come in November, and so disdainful of media reports suggesting otherwise, that they have little urgency to vote. In Washington, D.C., the possibility of bad losses in the midterms has coaxed Republicans into a rush to confirm the deeply flawed Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, lest Democrats take control of the Senate before an alternative can be found.
But the source of the Republican weakness runs deeper. Paul Ryan is leaving Washington, and his libertarian brand of conservatism has lost its vogue. Trump’s Presidency has been full of warlike gestures but devoid of strategy: having promised a politics that would elevate those left behind, he has crafted tax policies that favor the rich and a failed health-care plan that would gut protections for working-class Americans. And, having won by slim margins in 2016 in the upper Midwest, he has imposed an aggressive tariff program that has meant chaos for farmers, who are struggling to sell their products overseas. The Republican Party is out of ideas.
I’d link to this if I could but it just appears in my inbox and I can’t find the link.
💙 Pennsylvania governor’s race appears in great shape
Democratic incumbent Tom Wolf is sitting comfortably in his bid for reelection in Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial race.
The first Rasmussen Reports telephone and online survey of the race finds Wolf with the support of 52% of Likely Pennsylvania Voters to Republican Scott Wagner’s 40%. Three percent (3%) like some other candidate, while five percent (5%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Among the 87% who say they are definitely going to vote in the upcoming election, Wolf posts a 53% to 40% lead.
And Rasmussen tends to have an R bias, so that’s extra good. (Note that it does seem as if a large number of Republican candidates have “Scott” in their names.)
If you want to wade into some Senate polling, this is a good piece by Nate Silver.
💰 Tax cuts seem to be hurting Republicans in the midterms
"When Republicans passed their massive tax cut plan late last year, they thought it was a surefire political winner. The sort of thing that would ensure they kept the Senate and probably the House too... But we’re now less than 7 weeks out from the midterms, and Republicans are feeling whiplash."
Yep, some people noticed it helped the rich and is threatening the budget.
💜 And, I understand Beto and Ted are having their first debate tonight! Go, go, Beto! Stolen shamelessly from oldhippiedude’s diary (so it’s his fault if the links don't work):
Ted Cruz-Beto O’Rourke debate: Time
Ted Cruz and Beto O’Rourke meet at 6 p.m. CT on Friday Sept. 21.
Time: 6 p.m. CT
Date: Friday, Sept. 21
Location: McFarlin Auditorium, Southern Methodist University, University Park.
Ted Cruz-Beto O’Rourke: Watch Online
The Ted Cruz-Beto O’Rourke debate will be available online by watching online at NBCDFW.com and dallasnews.com.
🐍 From the Schadenfreude Files 🍎
🐍 Trump’s wall is causing problems
Trump threatened to shut down the government over the border wall earlier this summer, and his recent outbursts have left some worried that the president could still consider this an option despite the fast-approaching midterms. As evinced by the bill’s 93-7 approval vote, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers are willing to push the funding battle over the wall — which Trump still maintains will somehow be ultimately paid for by Mexico — until after the election. Meanwhile, the GOP is fearing that a shutdown could spell disaster for their chances in November, and Trump doesn’t appear to be very sympathetic to his own party’s concerns. ✂️
The House of Representatives will take up the bill next week, and then it will be up to the president to sign it. Though GOP lawmakers feel the shutdown of a government they have total control of would be disastrous, Trump remained intrigued by the idea. “I would do it, because I think it’s a great political issue,” he told reporters earlier this month.
But of course the wall shouldn't be in the budget, because Trump promised that Mexico would pay for it! Mexico, however, has refused - ¡Olvídelo! - and I’ve heard nothing about them considering shutting down their government as a result.
Turns out, however, money is being exchanged by the United States and Mexico — except that WE ARE PAYING THEM. That’s right, they are not paying for the wall; our tax dollars are being used to support Mexico’s efforts to deport people crossing Mexico to get to the United States. $20 million bucks, folks.) So how good a negotiator is Trump? Seems to me like the money is going the wrong way.
(Note that I touched on this in last week’s roundup but the news has been so noisy that it has not gotten enough notice. But I think it should because I think it should sour some of the avid Trumpsters who still believe in his business skills.)
By the way, Trump is still really into walls, trying to get others to build them even if he can’t. From the same Rolling Stone article used to start this section:
On Tuesday, Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell claimed that Trump suggested building a wall across the 3,000-mile-long Sahara Desert to prevent African migrants from making their way into Europe. “You need to build a wall around the Sahara,” Trump said recently, according to Borrell. When Borrell asked Trump if he understood just how big the Sahara is, Trump argued that “it can’t be bigger than our border with Mexico.” Borrell then informed Trump that the Sahara is far bigger than the U.S. border with Mexico. “In any case, it wouldn’t be very useful to do that,” Borrell told the president.
Oh, and Spain, as far as I know, has no rights to the area of the Sahara. And the Sahara is already an impressive natural barrier. If you can cross the Sahara, you can scale a wall.
📎📎📎 Odds and Ends 📎📎 📎
🚋 Germany launches world’s first hydrogen-powered train 🌻
The world’s first ever hydrogen-powered train has just been launched for commercial use in Germany, signaling yet another victory in the shift towards sustainability.
The Coradia iLint passenger train, which was developed by rail transport company Alstom, can travel 600 miles (1,000km) on a single tank of hydrogen. Using special fuel cells, the trains generate energy through a combination of hydrogen and oxygen, with excess energy stored in lithium ion batteries.
Though they have the same range as diesel-powered trains, they produce no greenhouse gas emissions and they are cheaper to run than their fossil fuel counterparts.
Of course, when I think of hydrogen-powered stuff, I think of the Hindenburg disaster, but I am sure that the German engineers have also considered the matter and that that won’t happen. Wouldn't it be great if we could all use hydrogen power!
🌸 Big power plant developer gives up on coal
In one of the “biggest breaking stories of 2018” illustrating the ongoing transition from fossil fuels to renewables, a top power plant developer has just announced that it will be pivoting away from coal in favor of sustainable energy.
Japanese energy company Marubeni will no longer be building coal-powered plants. Instead, it will be doubling the sustainable energy capacity of its net power supply from 10% to 20% by 2023.
🐢 Mexico stops hotel construction to protect sea turtles
The Mexican government has denied permits to build a 520-room hotel, which would have erected twenty-three buildings and an artificial lake just inland from the Xcacel beach, north of the resort of Tulum. ✂️
The beach is a nesting area for loggerhead, hawksbill and green sea turtles.
Worldwide, six of the seven sea turtle species are classified as threatened or endangered due to human actions and lifestyles, which include poaching, fishing, and plastic.
💙 What You Can Do to Rescue Democracy 💙
This is a marathon, not a sprint, but this is the time to ratchet up our efforts. If you have any ideas of what else can be done, please comment on it below.
Donate to ActBlue
Donate to Swing Left
Send postcards to voters in other districts
Sign up to go door to door in your district
Sign up to drive people to the polls
Find your local Democratic Party and volunteer!
FreewayBlogger
Plus! Check out Yosef 52's diaries, posted daily, full of ideas and links! GOTV! GOTV!
🍀 “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.