11 days remain until the last ballot is cast in the 2018 elections
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Today’s comic by Mark Fiore is The really dangerous caravan:
What’s coming up on Sunday Kos…
- The heroes fighting voter suppression, by Sher Watts Spooner
- American political terrorism has always been part of our national fabric, by Frank Vyan Walton
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Mental vacillation about Midterm 2018 is exhausting but a resolution is near, by Egberto Willies
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Donald Trump is a historically weak president who is undermining America's national security, by Laurence Lewis
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Democrats are the party of diversity, and Latinas are becoming a bigger part of it, by Denise Oliver Velez
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There is no room for nationalism in the promise of America, by Mark E Andersen
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Book review and five questions for co-author of 'Identity Crisis,' a new book on the 2016 election, by Ian Reifowitz
• U.S. Geological Service updates its volcano threat assessment: The 161 volcanoes in the report are ranked into five threat categories from “very low” to “very high.” Eighteen of them remain on the very high threat list, the same as in a 2005 USGS assessment. Eleven of those volcanoes are in Washington, Oregon, and California, five in Alaska, and two in Hawai’i. Significant changes were made in other categories. “The very low threat category underwent the greatest amount of change, dropping from 32 to 21 volcanoes, owing to better knowledge of the eruptive histories of those volcanoes,” the report’s authors state. The total count decreased by eight compared with previous reports.
• Caitlyn Jenner finally gets a clue about Donald Trump. She has irked some transgender activists for engaging with the Trump regime regarding transgender rights and related issues. In an opinion piece published in The Washington Post Thursday, she conceded that she had made a mistake in assuming Trump would make good on his announced support for LGBTQ Americans at the 2016 Republican Convention:
Sadly, I was wrong. The reality is that the trans community is being relentlessly attacked by this president. The leader of our nation has shown no regard for an already marginalized and struggling community. He has ignored our humanity. He has insulted our dignity. He has made trans people into political pawns as he whips up animus against us in an attempt to energize the most right-wing segment of his party, claiming his anti-transgender policies are meant to “protect the country.” This is politics at its worst. It is unacceptable, it is upsetting, and it has deeply, personally hurt me.
MIDDAY TWEET
• Man arrested after trying to steal original copy of Magna Carta in a smash-and-grab: The man set off alarms when he used a hammer to try to break into the glass box in which the Great Charter is displayed at Salisbury Cathedral. Employees of the cathedral wrestled him to the ground. The Magna Carta established the concept that the king was himself subject to the law, rather than an exception standing above it. It stated that “no free man shall be seized or imprisoned ... except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.” It was signed by English barons and King John in 1215 and is considered to be the founding document of English law and civil liberties. It influenced the English descendants who wrote the U.S. Constitution nearly six centuries later. But its terms were quickly violated by both sides and civil war broke out within months. The would-be thief, a 45-year-old man, has not yet been charged or identified, and authorities have not announced what motives he may have had. Three other original copies of the document are held at Lincoln Cathedral and the British Library in London, which has two.
• Resistance to science-informed policy regarding climate change is most stubborn in the states most affected.
• Feds report 3rd-quarter inflation-adjusted GDP grew at an annualized rate of 3.5 percent: That was slightly higher than experts had expected and compares with 4.2 percent in the 2nd quarter and 2.2 percent in the first. Key components on the plus side were consumer spending and inventory growth, while investment in residential development fell sharply. Although forecasts for the 4th quarter vary widely, 3 percent sounds about right to many analysts. Donald Trump said last summer when the 2nd quarter gross domestic growth rate came in above 4 percent that while this was an “amazing” number, “we’re going to go a lot higher than these numbers.” But few economists see 4 percent as sustainable. In August, the Congressional Budget Office forecast a 2.4 percent growth rate in 2019, despite Trump’s boasts. And despite the constant media descriptions of the economy as “robust” and “booming,” the “r” word—recession—is beginning to be heard. That’s not surprising given the length of the current economic expansion. Come June, that expansion will be a match for the longest growth stretch without a recession in post-World War II history. As always in scrutinizing GDP numbers, it’s wise to remember the words of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Some #GunFAIL & other gun stories to catch up on. Next: the courts. A revealing look at the law & economics seminars for judges. There’s historical precedent for attacking SCOTUS as political, and it starts with the Gop. Gingrich blurts out the Kavanaugh plan.