Former US Defense Secretary James Mattis bragged President Donald Trump had called him “the most overrated general,” comparing himself to similarly ‘overrated’ actress Meryl Streep, while the #Resistance clamored for more. Read Full Article at RT.com

From the November Harper’s Index: Portion of Americans who wouldn’t be “at all surprised” if the genocide of a religious group occurred in the United States: 1/3 Number of species classified as threatened or endangered under Republican administrations since 1993: 77 Under Democratic administrations: 915 Factor by which a French person is more likely than an American to believe that vaccines are unsafe: 3 Average number of times per week Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is mentioned on Fox News: 42 On CNN: 14 Number of states whose supreme court benches are all white: 24 Total number of state-level recall elections from 1908 to 2009: 25 From 2010 to the present: 20 Percentage of Democratic voters who cite a personal characteristic as the most important factor in selecting a president: 28 Who cite a policy consideration: 27 Number of Democratic congresspeople with “A” ratings from the NRA after the 2008 elections: 67 With “A” ratings after the 2018 midterms: 3 Number of states that prohibit local governments from enacting gun regulations beyond existing state laws: 43 Rank of subscription television services among forty-six major U.S. industries in terms of customer satisfaction: 46 Of breweries: 1 TOP COMMENTS • HIGH IMPACT STORIES  QUOTATION «Michelle and I are heartbroken over the passing of our friend, Elijah Cummings. As Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, he showed us all not only the importance of checks and balances within our democracy, but also the necessity of good people stewarding it. Steely yet compassionate, principled yet open to new perspectives, Chairman Cummings remained steadfast in his pursuit of truth, justice, and reconciliation. It’s a tribute to his native Baltimore that one of its own brought such character, tact, and resolve into the halls of power every day. And true to the giants of progress he followed into public service, Chairman Cummings stood tallest and most resolute when our country needed him the most.»  ~~Barack Obama TWEET OF THE DAY x‘I only have a minute, 60 seconds in it, forced upon me, I did not choose it,but I know that I must use it,give account if I abuse it,suffer if I lose it.Only a tiny little minute,but eternity is in it.’— Rep. Elijah Cummings’ first floor speech is all too resonant today pic.twitter.com/RkqnTanv83— NowThis (@nowthisnews) October 17, 2019 BLAST FROM THE PAST At Daily Kos on this date in 2008—CO-Sen: Schaffer on His Own Now:  National Republicans have decided Bob Schaffer is a sinking ship, and you know what happens with the rats then. Last week there were rumors that the NRSC was going to pull out of Schaffer's campaign for the Colorado Senate seat being vacated by Wayne Allard. That speculation is confirmed today. Mark Udall, has been posting consistent leads in polling for the last month, probably one reason a cash-strapped NRSC has decided to retrench and defend other seats. It's not just the NRSC that have been scared off. «Independent» 527s, are also pulling out, looking to Oregon and North Carolina to try to salvage a few Republican incumbents. On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Greg Dworkin and Ian Reifowitz round up another crazy day of news. Impeachment drama continues, even as we lost Elijah Cummings. Someone's making a killing in the markets off of Trump chaos. Meanwhile, in Normalville, health care & taxes are still key. x Embedded Content RadioPublic|LibSyn|YouTube|Patreon|Square Cash (Share code: Send $5, get $5!) LINK TO DAILY KOS STORE

In order to protect lives, Mexican authorities were forced to release the notorious drug lord Joaquin «El Chapo» Guzman’s son after heavily armed cartel gunmen launched a vicious assault against security forces holding their boss. Read Full Article at RT.com

Rolando, the 27-year-old asylum-seeker who survived a gunshot wound to the head only to be mistreated and abused in U.S. custody, has won his case, The Guardian reports. The indigenous man’s story made headlines when he shared that, instead of finding safety in the U.S. after fleeing attempts on his life in Guatemala, he was thrown into solitary confinement and deprived of proper medical care in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. Medical records showed that he was treated with only ibuprofen despite suffering blinding headaches and regular bleeding from his eyes, ears, and nose. He has no criminal record and should have been released on parole to access care and community help, but ICE kept him jailed, even when a doctor said he was a “serious patient that presents with significant complexity of risk” following an ER visit. With the help of immigrant rights advocacy group Al Otro Lado, he was finally freed on his third attempt, and subsequently began sharing his horror story of abuse committed by the U.S. He continued sharing that story this week, but this time before an immigration judge. “Rolando told the Guardian that returning to Guatemala would mean a certain death. A judge ultimately sided with Rolando and granted asylum,” the paper reported. Not without the U.S. insisting on continuing to harm him, of course, because apparently it wasn’t enough to throw some pills at him and leave him to bleed out. “At trial, the US continued to argue that he should be denied asylum and sent back to Guatemala despite forensic evidence of the torture he survived, as well as the detailed claims of violence he faced as an indigenous Guatemalan,” Al Otro Lado attorney Anne Rios relayed.  Rolando, and justice, won out. “It’s really exciting,” Rios said. “Many people are fighting so hard to win their case, and when it happens, it’s almost like they are in shock, which is what I found with him. It’s also about what’s next.” She added that Rolando “still has a very long journey in front of him,” and the organization will be working to help him settle into a new life here. “It’s really about where he can go to be safe and comfortable.”

Rep. Elijah Cummings, a fierce advocate for Baltimore and a civil rights and human rights champion, died today at the age of 68. It was a surprise to us all as Rep. Cummings continued to be vigorous in his pursuit of justice and fairness right up until the end, chairing the House Oversight Committee through the impeachment inquiry process. You can read the excellent piece written by Daily Kos’ Mark Sumner about him here. Around the world, people are mourning the death of a great man. Named after Elijah from the first book of Kings in the Old Testament, Cummings lived up to his namesake, fighting against suffering brought upon people by corrupt leaders. His passing leaves us all feeling the empty wind of loss blowing through our collective hearts. Here’s how people across the nation paid their respects: xToday our country lost a true leader. Congressman Elijah Cummings was a friend, a passionate fighter for justice, and a powerful voice of moral conscience in our government who served his country for decades with dignity and integrity. I’m blessed to have known him. #RIPElijah— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) October 17, 2019 x“When we’re dancing with the angels, the question will be asked — in 2019, what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact?” - @RepCummings We’ll miss you, Elijah. pic.twitter.com/tBd5E6X2Cw— Congressmember Bass (@RepKarenBass) October 17, 2019

Chicago public school teachers, along with school staff represented by SEIU, are on strike as of Thursday morning. The teachers, who a poll shows have public support, are striking not just or even mostly for better pay—though, as a video you can watch below shows, many are struggling to get by—but for nurses and counselors and librarians in every school, for smaller class sizes and more bilingual teachers and more special education teachers and for “real sanctuary schools.” The city has tried to derail the strike by offering—and making a big public deal about—substantial raises, but the teachers are making clear that it’s bigger than that. The teachers are also fighting for affordable housing for students, at least 16,450 of whom are homeless, with homelessness disproportionately affecting black students, and for lower-paid school staff who are required to live within city limits but struggle to afford city housing costs. The Chicago Teachers Union is pointing directly at racism as a factor in the state of Chicago schools. ”Here’s what I have learned from the systems in place. They’re governed by white supremacy,” union Vice President Stacy Davis Gates told HuffPost. “We have a school district that is 90% children of color, we have immigrant children in our system―why on earth would it be difficult to enshrine class size protections and make sure there’s a nurse in every school?” There are around 25,000 teachers on strike, along with 7,500 support staff, affecting the nearly 300,000 in the city’s schools. A former student who came out to support the teachers told CNN that “I see that many schools do not have complete sets of books for each kid. Some schools do not have the help for bilingual students, someone to help them in their native language. Some schools do not have a special education teacher, the kids are falling behind. Some buildings are falling apart, making it unsafe for kids.” Chicago teachers last went on strike in 2012, but Jane McAlevey traces out how the CTU's activism helped set the conditions for the more recent wave of teacher strikes from West Virginia to Los Angeles. Now Chicago teachers are again the ones on strike, but in a seriously different environment around the fight for public education than they saw (and began to reshape) in 2012. Sen. Bernie Sanders has been strongly supportive of the teachers.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials released few details regarding the in-custody suicide of Roylan Hernández-Díaz on Tuesday. That’s probably because the details are damning. An internal government report obtained by BuzzFeed News reveals that the 43-year-old Cuban man was actually an asylum-seeker who, frustrated over his ongoing jailing even though he’d passed his initial interview, had begun a hunger strike shortly before his death. “Hernandez-Diaz's wife, Yarelis Gutierrez, 43, said she last spoke to him on Oct. 9 after an immigration court hearing,” BuzzFeed News reported. “She described her husband as angry and disappointed after being asked to provide more evidence about his persecution in Cuba because it was difficult to obtain, especially from within ICE detention.” All in all, from the time he was initially detained at a port of entry until he died at the Richwood Correctional Center, a remote, Louisiana facility operated by private prison profiteer LaSalle Corrections, Hernández-Díaz spent about five months in federal immigration custody. «He told me he was going to participate in a hunger strike because of the abuse he endured in detention,» Gutierrez said. «He never said he was going to hurt or kill himself. This is all news to me and I don't believe it's true.» Miami Herald reports that other detainees confirmed the asylum-seeker had begun a hunger strike over conditions affecting detainees. “They were hopeful that they would be freed or at least released on parole, but months went by and they were still detained,” one relative said. “In Louisiana, the detainees face very bad conditions. They are treated badly, and the authorities don’t believe that they are politically persecuted.”  Hernández-Díaz had tried to be paroled into the U.S. several times, but was denied by ICE’s New Orleans office earlier this month. “A day later, his case in immigration court was reset to January. Advocates sued ICE earlier this year office over its low rate of release for asylum-seekers in the southern region.” BuzzFeed News reports that as of August, nearly 10,000 asylum-seekers have been kept jailed by ICE even though they, like Hernandez-Diaz, passed their initial interviews. This is the second death of a person in ICE custody this month. Thirty-seven-year-old Nebane Abienwi, originally from Cameroon, died after being jailed at another privately run jail in California. NBC News reports that Hernández-Díaz’s “death was under investigation and ICE had notified his next of kin as well as the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, and the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility, according to the agency.”

A new study released by Palgrave Communications Tuesday estimates that the U.S. “green economy” employs 9.5 million people and cranks out $1.3 trillion in annual sales revenue. That’s 4% of the nation’s workforce and 7% of the gross domestic product. It’s also 16.5% of the global green economy. U.S. green sales rose 20% between 2013 and 2016, and they are expected to rise further as more efforts are made to reduce the impacts of the climate crisis. During that same four-year period, the coal industry saw the loss of another 37,000 jobs. The study found especially big increases in renewable energy, with consultancy and wind energy rising 9.36% and 8.56% respectively in 2015-2016. That strong showing was more than three times the GDP growth rate for the same period. Competition is rising. China plans to create 13 million clean energy jobs by the end of next year.   The study’s authors, Lucien Georgeson and Mark Maslin, wrote: The economic case for driving economic growth and job creation through fossil fuels has weakened based on the employment estimates in fossil fuels, and there are genuine risks of stranded assets. To safeguard US economic development and job creation, we suggest that economic, environmental and education policies need to be developed to support the US green economy in the context of global developments in the green economy. They didn’t attempt to calculate the effects on the U.S. green economy that might be produced by having fossil fuel fool Donald Trump in the White House for another four years. 

The Kremlin continues to have Donald Trump’s number … although, to be fair, when it comes to Trump’s bizarre, bro-ish letter asking Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan not to slaughter Kurds in Syria, basically everyone has Trump’s number. “Let’s work out a good deal! You don’t want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and I don’t want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy—and I will,” Trump wrote, concluding, “Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool!” It was a letter so bizarre that reporters had to double-check with the White House that it was real. And that astonishing weirdness is exactly what a Russian official commented on. “You don’t often encounter such language in correspondence between heads of state. It’s a highly unusual letter,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. He’s not wrong. And it’s hard to read the fact that he bothered to comment on it, and in those terms, as anything but deserved mocking of Trump.

A Navy “doomsday” aircraft designed to be used as a command center in a nuclear war was knocked out of commission – by a bird, which caused over $2 million in damages when it was sucked into an engine during a test flight. Read Full Article at RT.com

A terrorist plot inspired by the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US was foiled recently by French police, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner has revealed, defending his record after fatal stabbings at the Paris police HQ. Read Full Article at RT.com

Weeks of White House talking points were upended today when acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney confirmed that the White House tied U.S. military aid to Ukraine to a demand that the nation investigate a Trump and Giuliani-led conspiracy theory intended to boost Trump's political chances by alleging Democratic «corruption.» The remarkably incoherent grab-bag theory, positing that «missing» emails from Hillary Clinton may be on a Democratic National Committee server that was «hacked» by Democrats themselves and now remains hidden somewhere in Ukraine, has been widely debunked by U.S. intelligence services, which are unanimous in concluding that 2016 election-related hacking was carried out by the Russian government in an attempt to boost the candidacy of Donald Trump. It is related to a similar «corruption» theory that suggests wrongdoing in Ukraine by the Biden family (also debunked), but comprehension of the full Giuliani theory is likely impossible without the ingestion of an enormous quantity of cocaine. In other impeachment inquiry news: • The Mulvaney admission destroyed prior White House, Senate, and House Republican statements insisting that the Ukrainian exchanges were non-criminal because no «quid pro quo» was on offer—pretending at a legal requirement that does not in fact exist, but one that many or most of Trump's defenders, both lawmakers and in the media, were aggressively selling to the public. Those supporters will now have to insist to the public that their prior statements are now ... inoperative? • U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland's private testimony to House impeachment investigators was expected to be the news of the day, until Mulvaney's press conference upended the administration's prior talking points. Sondland had previously been expected to claim ignorance of a political quid pro quo tying U.S. military aid to Trump/Giuliani demands that Ukraine investigate the the family of one of Trump's most likely 2020 rivals; those claims were being met with skepticism even before Mulvaney's televised admissions. • Energy Secretary Rick Perry offered his written resignation to Donald Trump today, although when Perry will actually be leaving his post remains unclear. While Perry has insisted that he was not planning to resign and that he was not involved in Trump's Ukrainian schemes, Perry had direct involvement in Giuliani-led efforts to manipulate the Ukrainian energy industry, efforts which have now led to the arrest of three close Giuliani associates. • Trump Attorney General William Barr, who has not yet resigned, and his Department of Justice continue to deny involvement in the now-a-quid-pro-quo, even though Trump himself singled Barr out as a point man in the scheme three times during his call with the Ukrainian president. The Department of Justice was quick with a statement after Mulvaney's assertion of a «quid pro quo» exchange: «That is news to us.» (Note: Because the agency was previously made aware of a whistleblower complaint and legal referral on this very subject, it is not in fact news to them.)

Never say never again—I’m back like Sean Connery! I had the temerity to take a vacation, and I can only hope you’ll forgive me. Campaign Action Said trip did involve riding the Riesenrad, which you may remember from the classic film The Living Daylights (or from The Third Man, whichever). Goldfinger: But I’m back just in time for another round of key campaign finance updates from Virginia, where you may recall that elections for all 140 seats of the state legislature are just over three weeks away. And while flipping just two seats in each chamber to win a majority might seem like not a huge lift on paper, we can count on Republicans pulling out all available stops to keep their decades-long claw-hold on power. Not only are Virginia GOPers scratching and clawing to hold on to the seats they have, but they’re also making credible plays to unseat a couple of first-term Democrats in the House of Delegates. Just how pitched is the battle for control of the legislature this fall? Well, for general cash money frame of reference, all candidates for the General Assembly, D and R, have raised about $53 million so far—up 67% from 2015, the last time all 140 seats were up. In the most recent round of reports (which cover the month of September), Democratic challengers out-raised GOP incumbents in every competitive state Senate race. The top four fundraisers in both state House and state Senate races were Democratic challengers. Currently, Democratic House candidates boast a whopping $9.2 million cash on hand. Republican House candidates, on the other hand, are sitting on a respectable-in-a-vacuum-I-guess $7 million. Additionally, the Democratic party and caucus fundraising committees frankly embarrassed their GOP counterparts over the past quarter. The state Republican Party and House and Senate campaign committees raised just under $3 million combined. Meanwhile, the state Democratic Party and House and Senate campaign committees raised over $9.8 million. Republicans make up a little of that deficit in terms of leadership committee fundraising—they currently have majorities in both chambers, after all, so it’s not a surprise. The GOP speaker’s, House and Senate majority leaders’, and Senate president’s PACs raised a combined $1.4 million. Democratic House and Senate leaders raised $623,736. … so, not exactly much of a dent in that party/caucus committee deficit. Womp womp.

This was a day so jam-packed with news that impeachment got a run for its money, which is saying something. The main non-impeachment story was Trump’s Syria debacle and his administration’s staggering betrayal of the United States’ Kurdish allies and show of weakness toward Turkey. But before we get there, let’s start by honoring the late Rep. Elijah Cummings as a giant of House oversight and a champion of immigrant families. This is a sad day. ● On the Syria-Turkey front, Mike Pence went to Turkey to work things out with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Things got off to a shaky start and ended with total capitulation on Pence’s part. His “deal” was basically that Turkey will stop attacking for five days, during which the Kurds will just … leave their homes. At that point, Turkey gets part of Syria and will face no U.S. sanctions. This according to a deal between the U.S. and Turkey without involving the Kurds or Syria. As Hunter wrote, “Pence's announcement amounts to an agreement for Turkey to ethnically cleanse a Turkish-demanded ‘safe zone’ with the United States’ approval, and possibly its assistance.”  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is presumably praying that this sticks, allowing his foot-dragging over a Senate vote on the House rebuke of Trump over Syria to succeed. McConnell claims he wants to do something “stronger,” but he sure doesn’t seem in a hurry. Through it all, Trump continued to embarrass himself, looking increasingly unstable and trying to humiliate House Speaker Nancy Pelosi only to have it flip back onto him and give her a chance to detail what she said that caused his meltdown. ● On top of all that? Outside of impeachment and Syria, Trump basically pissed on the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by announcing that yes, next year's G-7 summit will be held at his Doral property. And his administration continued terrorizing immigrants, from keeping Dreamers stuck in limbo to abusing asylum-seekers. And his administration admitted it's planning to take free school lunches away from as many as 1 million kids. Those stories—the side notes in a day dominated by impeachment and Syria—would be a serious week or more of news from a less corrupt administration.

On Wednesday, Democratic leaders from the legislative branch of government met with the executive branch of government. The two individuals on top of those institutions were Speaker Nancy Pelosi and white supremacist in chief Donald Trump. The meeting ended as most meetings with Trump end: with him attempting to bully people and those people leaving the room wondering how soon he will be in jail or living in exile. Trump, attempting to win the day decided to tweet out the above image with the caption, “Nervous Nancy’s unhinged meltdown.”  Donald Trump is nothing if not incompetent, and the responses from across the Twitterverse were not the kind of responses he probably expected to get. As Daily Kos’ Hunter explained, Donald Trump and his team of dunces aren’t particularly smart. xTrump: Nancy Pelosi ticked me off, how do I get back at her?Mulvaney: Release an immediately iconic photo of her literally standing up to you, one that will be in every U.S. history book for the next 100 years?Trump: I love it. https://t.co/hoCxESltZx— Hunter (@HunterDK) October 16, 2019

Can Trump do anything right? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer don’t seem to think so, calling his agreement to pause Turkey’s military campaign in northeastern Syria a “sham." Read Full Article at RT.com

The co-director of HBO's new doc «Liberty: Mother of Exiles» talks patriotism and the statue's mystery model

Ambushes may work on talk shows and Bravo, but it backfired on the President who gets emotional education from TV

After a disastrous press conference performance in which acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney agreed that the White House had held up U.S. military aid in a «quid pro quo» exchange requesting a Ukrainian investigation of a bizarre Trump-Giuliani conspiracy theory suggesting Democratic «corruption» in the country—an admission that destroyed weeks of Republican defenses of Trump and his team—Mulvaney is finally attempting to walk that admission back. In a brief statement, Mulvaney is now claiming that «the media has decided to misconstrue my comments to advance a biased and political witch hunt» and that «there was absolutely no quid pro quo.» We can go right to the tape for this one, and to the transcript: Mulvaney referred to «the corruption related to the DNC server» and that «that's why we held up the money.» So he's lying. But it's not a surprise that Mulvaney was forced to issue such a statement. Pundits and legal experts alike immediately noted the catastrophic nature of what Mulvaney had just admitted to: Trump's team was indeed illegally withholding U.S. military aid in an attempt to extract a political favor from the Ukrainian president.

Mass protests continue to rage in Catalonia, as people took to the streets for the fourth consecutive night to condemn harsh prison sentences handed to the pro-independence leaders by the Spain’s Supreme Court. Read Full Article at RT.com

Moscow Mitch McConnell is already figuring out how quickly he can dismiss an impeachment of Donald Trump from the House. He wants «a speedy impeachment trial that concludes before the end of the year,» and that's the message he’s sending House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. On Wednesday, McConnell said he expects the House to approve articles of impeachment as early as Thanksgiving. Politico reported, «McConnell then surmised that the Senate could deal with the trial by Christmas, concluding the impeachment proceedings before the Democratic presidential primaries begin.» That's, of course, without any agreement from or even discussion with Pelosi. But Republican senators in the meeting said that «[McConnell] thinks Democrats are of the same mind: let’s not drag this out for five weeks.» McConnell also has had «zero» discussions with Senate Democrats, Sen. Chuck Schumer said. «I'm not urging him to do it immediately,” Schumer told reporters on Wednesday, saying that Democrats want it done in »a fair and bipartisan way and I hope that Leader McConnell would obey those strictures.« Meanwhile, Republican senators on Wednesday »asked how they can force a vote to dismiss the trial.« That's McConnell's attempt to drive this process. For her part, at her weekly press conference on Thursday, Pelosi said, »I have no idea« about the timeline at this point. »The timeline will depend on the truth-line, and that's what we're looking for." Chances are that that timeline got pushed out just a tiny bit longer with Mick Mulvaney's full confession of the Ukraine scheme on Thursday. That's one more witness to tangle with. Whatever McConnell wants, there's going to be a mound of evidence that will play out for as long as it takes and make it harder and harder for his vulnerable conference to dismiss. You know what to do. Give $1 to our nominee fund to help Democrats and end McConnell's career as majority leader.

The parents of Matthew Shepard ripped Attorney General William Barr in a statement on Wednesday for pretending to care about LGBTQ rights, after the Justice Department decided to hold a ceremony marking the tenth anniversary of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act’s signing. The murder of Shepard, a 21-year-old gay man who was tortured and left to die in a brutal act of hatred two decades ago, helped lead to the passage of the historic legislation.  Judy and Dennis Shepard, who have become fierce advocates for LGBTQ equality and justice following their son’s murder in 1998, had been invited but were not able to attend the ceremony commemorating the ten years since President Barack Obama signed the bill into law, but in a statement read aloud by Cynthia Deitle, a representative from the Matthew Shepard Foundation, they called out Barr’s rank hypocrisy.  “We find it interesting and hypocritical that he would invite us to this event commemorating a hate crime law named after our son and Mr. Byrd, while, at the same time, asking the Supreme Court to allow the legalized firing of transgender employees. Mr. Barr, you cannot have it both ways,” they said in the statement. “If you believe that employers should have the right to terminate transgender employees, just because they are transgender, then you believe they are lesser than and not worthy of protection.”  It’s gone far beyond anti-LGBTQ attacks. A report from the Brennan Center for Justice earlier this year found that Barr’s “Justice Department has made no effort to comprehensively account for all incidents of far-right violence across these different program categories to reveal the full scope of their impact on American society.” The Shepards called out Barr, who was not present at the ceremony, for refusing to lead on hate crimes targeting other vulnerable communities, including immigrants and religious minorities. “As the head of the Department of Justice, he can take a stand as a member of this administration to disavow and condemn any person who fuels the fires of hate with their words and action,” they said. “He must lead and demonstrate his refusal to accept hate in all its manifestations. He must demonstrate courage, even if it means disagreeing with the administration. So far, he has done none of these deeds.”

Sens. Doug Jones of Alabama and Gary Peters of Michigan are the two most vulnerable Democrats in Morning Consult's quarterly Senate rankings survey. They've each gained support in the past quarter, with Jones up 3 points and Peters up 1 point. Both are holding their heads above water—with not overwhelming support, but support. On the other hand, Morning Consult notes, the «most vulnerable Republican senators are not improving their standing in their home states ahead of a tough 2020 election cycle.» Iowa's Joni Ernst had the biggest slide, a 9-point drop. Forty-three percent of Iowa voters disapprove of the job she's doing, against 39% approval. This is the first time she's been underwater. Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Cory Gardner of Colorado each saw 3-point drops in net approval. They, Ernst, and Arizona's Martha McSally all have approval ratings below 40%. Susan Collins slid down another 2 points, after winning last quarter's prize for the biggest fall from grace. Her approval rating dropped from 45% to 43%, and her disapproval inched up—it was 48% last quarter and is 49% now. This year is the first time Collins has been underwater in Morning Consult's surveys. Meanwhile, potential Democratic challengers to these senators racked up some impressive fundraising in the past quarter. In Iowa, Theresa Greenfield outraised Ernst by $1.1 million. In Arizona, Mark Kelly outraised McSally by about $2.5 million. In Maine, Sara Gideon brought in $3.2 million this quarter, Collins $2.1 million. John Hickenlooper, who jumped into the Colorado Senate primary on Aug. 22, raised $2.1 million, nearly matching Gardner's haul of $2.45 million in about a third of the time. Former state Sen. Cal Cunningham raised nearly as much as Tillis in the quarter, $1 million to Tillis' $1.2 million. Any way you look at it, the Senate map is not looking so great for Moscow Mitch and team, particularly as the cavalcade of Trump administration officials deciding to bare their souls to House committees in the impeachment probe grows. It's going to be a long year for everyone, but a very hard year for them in particular. Let's keep up the pressure. Please give $1 to our nominee fund to help Democrats end McConnell's career as majority leader and boot these jokers!

Energy Secretary Rick Perry, known for liaising with the government in Ukraine and aggressively pushing overpriced US gas down European allies’ throats, has notified President Donald Trump he would resign by the end of the year. Read Full Article at RT.com

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski didn't mince words Thursday when she was asked about the White House announcement that the next G-7 summit of world leaders would be held at Donald Trump's Doral resort in Florida. «Is it appropriate to hold the G-7 at [Trump's] Doral golf club?» she was asked following the press conference by chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. «No,» Murkowski responded.  Murkowski was equally as clear about the other revelation from Mulvaney's press conference: that the White House withheld military aid from Ukraine in exchange for a favor that would benefit Trump's political ambitions. «You don't hold up foreign aid that we had previously appropriated for a political initiative. Period,» she said, responding to reporters’ questions.  Murkowski, perhaps more than any other GOP senator, actually consults her own moral compass from time to time and comes up with answers that part ways with the rest of the caucus. She doesn’t rush to microphones to make statements, but she’s definitely an interesting barometer of whether cracks could emerge in the Republican caucus. Let’s just say that Mulvaney’s confession didn’t land well.