McAuliffe, Terry Gov

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">amanda 11 21</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div>
</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">11 21</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Plugged-in voters understand that the solution to this problem is to elect more Democrats, to create majorities strong enough that the Joe Manchins and Kyrsten Sinemas of the world can't derail the agenda. But low information voters, the kind who are most likely to tune out during an off-year, only see that Democrats can't get squat done and so they see no reason to vote. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/10/12/more-women-are-tuning-out-politics-danger-sign-democrats-virginia-beyond/" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">As one Democratic pollster told the Washington Post</a>, voters are saying, "It doesn't matter who we elect, it's all the same."
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Also predictable: That Republicans would fire up some nutty culture war lies and start a racist panic</b> (to be dropped the second it is no longer useful). They do this <em>every time, </em>as those of us who remember long-forgotten issues like "<a href="https://www.salon.com/2018/11/23/caravan-invasion-corporate-media-ignores-its-own-role-in-spreading-panic/" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">the caravan</a>" and the "<a href="https://www.salon.com/2010/12/31/park_51_a_look_back/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Ground Zero mosque</a>," which were once treated by Republicans as the most pressing issues of our time. Republicans signaled for months ahead of time that they were going to make <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/03/04/mr-potato-head-dr-seuss-and-trans-kids-how-democrats-are-already-letting-republicans-win-in-2022/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">transphobic urban legends</a> and <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/06/15/why-the-panic-over-critical-race-theory-is-the-perfect-right-wing-troll/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">this bullshit about "critical race theory" </a>the center of the campaign. But instead of hitting back hard and fast, Democrats let the situation fester. It was only at the last minute that McAuliffe's campaign started pointing out that "critical race theory" is a pretext for what is outright government censorship, <a href="https://mailchi.mp/salon.com/standing-room-only-the-coup-plotter-who-was-caught-on-camera?e=912ad27ec2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">no different in its origins than the Nazi book burnings</a>. By then, however, it was a matter of too little, too late — the Republican spin already dominated the narrative.</font></span></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There's a tendency in both the mainstream media and the hot take industry of social media to reduce the complex math of elections to simplistic narratives about voters "switching" sides. But that's really not how these things work. A bunch of Biden voters didn't see a few school board tantrums on the local news and suddenly become Tucker Carlson fans. The people who have always been bigots were hella fired up. A huge chunk of the "everyone else" category that constitutes the Democratic base is demoralized and checked out.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Getting racists to stop being fired up by race-baiting is probably a lost cause. So Democrats have to figure out how to outnumber them — and that requires getting their own people energized. The first step is to give would-be Democratic voters something to vote <em>for, </em>especially when there's no cartoon villains like Trump for people to vote against.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Progressives on Virginia loss: Corporate Democrats have only themselves to blame</b></font></div><div>
</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Jake Johnson and Common Dreams November 03, 2021</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>After Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe—a conservative whose campaign was flush with billionaire cash—fell to Republican private equity mogul Glenn Youngkin in Virginia's closely watched gubernatorial race on Tuesday, establishment Democrats wasted no time pinning the blame on progressives.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The finger-pointing started days before the polls opened in Virginia, a state that has trended blue in recent years and that President Joe Biden won by 10 percentage points in 2020.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Several conservative Democrats, including Sens. Mark Warner of Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana, suggested leading up to the contest that progressive lawmakers' refusal to allow a bipartisan infrastructure bill to pass the House without simultaneous approval of a broader reconciliation package could be at least partially to blame for a McAuliffe loss.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I've got to tell you, in Virginia, where we've got a gubernatorial race tomorrow, that would have really helped Terry McAuliffe a lot if we had been able to notch that win," Warner—who, like McAuliffe, previously served as Virginia's governor—said in an appearance on MSNBC, referencing Democrats' inability to secure an infrastructure vote last week amid progressive opposition.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Warner expressed the same sentiment on Fox News hours before the Virginia results were reported. "I think it would have helped Terry McAuliffe in Virginia," the senator said of a vote on the $550 billion bipartisan infrastructure bill.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tester, for his part, said of his progressive colleagues: "We haven't gotten anything done. That says enough about their strategy."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The blame game resumed almost immediately following McAuliffe's narrow defeat to Youngkin, a millionaire backed by former President Donald Trump and now the first Republican to win statewide office in Virginia since 2009. Politico reporter Heather Caygle tweeted after the race was called that Democratic members of Congress "are already texting me blaming progressives for [the] 'debacle' in Virginia."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Progressives were quick to push back on that narrative, characterizing it as baseless and self-serving on the part of a Democratic establishment that threw its weight behind McAuliffe—the former chair of the Democratic National Committee—in the Virginia gubernatorial primary earlier this year.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of Indivisible, noted that "progressives have been earnestly working to deliver on Biden's full agenda. It's conservative Dems who've ensured that every day for the last several months, the headlines are about how we aren't delivering paid leave, prescription drug reform, elder care, or voting rights."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Did progressives literally have a press conference yesterday for the sole purpose of declaring that a deal was not close? No, that was Joe Manchin," Greenberg continued. "Progressives were busy trying to pass Biden's agenda. As far as I'm aware, progressives also did not choose McAuliffe over a new generation of rising Black women leaders, nor did they run his campaign and choose his messaging, nor did they write his debate lines."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I don't want to play the blame game. I'd rather be focusing on what to do next (hint: pass Biden's agenda)," Greenberg added. "But folks have been working overtime to seed this narrative before the election was even over and it's important that we be clear: it's a ridiculous red herring."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other prominent progressives also weighed in.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Warren Gunnels, majority staff director for Senate Budget Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), tweeted that "maybe, just maybe, the 'debacle' in Virginia could have been avoided if we had a Congress that listened to the overwhelming majority of Americans and passed progressive policies like paid family leave and expanding Medicare instead of bowing down to wealthy campaign contributors."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Charles Idelson of National Nurses United lamented that "any time a Democrat loses, the party establishment, with the help of the corporate media, always blames progressives, no matter how weak or 'centrist' the losing candidate is, and no matter how much the Dem conservatives block reforms that would help the vast majority of people."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Writing for The Daily Beast late Tuesday, Democratic strategist Max Burns observed that Youngkin's campaign "centered around the bogeyman of 'Critical Race Theory,'" not the lack of a timely vote on a bipartisan infrastructure package that Trump and other Republicans have trashed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, made a similar point earlier this week. "I've watched all the attack ads on Terry McAuliffe and not a single one has talked about [infrastructure] not passing," she said Monday. "They've all been about other things."</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In his Daily Beast column, Burns argued that "the worst thing that could possibly happen... is for the party's conservatives to read McAuliffe's loss as a sign that Americans are turned off by the Democratic agenda."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alluding to fears that the Virginia race is a harbinger for Democratic performance in the 2022 midterm elections, Burns wrote that "there's one simple trick to averting a Democratic bloodbath next year: Do what voters say they want."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"A Vox/Data for Progress poll conducted last month found 71% of voters support raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans, and six-in-ten support Biden's signature spending plan at the full $3.5 trillion. These aren't mere 'suggestion' numbers—they're supermajorities. Democrats ignore those clearly stated wishes at their own electoral peril."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Joe Manchin's 'out-of-state' contributions 'dwarfed'- his West Virginia ... ›</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Democrats face political challenge in Virginia as the post-Trump era ... ›</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Virginia governor race: Organizers are turning out overlooked voters ... ›</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p></div></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/steve-bannon/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/steve-bannon/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">dart kos</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">on Wednesday evening <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa9F-3xQJ-g" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" title="" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Rachel Maddow</a> made an excellent point: While Democrats and the Biden administration focus on the mundane aspects of trying to do what's best for the American people—passing infrastructure legislation, preserving and protecting the right to vote against GOP measures to suppress it, combating the causes and effects of climate change, and trying to ensure that women retain autonomy over their own bodies, for example—for Republicans, even addressing or staking out a position on these issues has become, at most, a peripheral concern.[wedge issue cult war, own the libs]</font></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">You would expect a party that professes some legitimate relationship to the American people to at least set forth its policy views on these matters. But, as Maddow noted on Wednesday, that is not what Republicans are talking about. In reality, the Republicans have only one focus now: the </span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">negation of fair and lawful elections that don't go their way</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);"> </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">That has been the crux of their entire collective effort since Trump lost the election last November. It is the focus in California, where the racist Fox News crackpot Larry Elder apparently received unpleasant news from his internal polling <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/08/politics/larry-elder-claims-california-recall/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" title="" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">and is now playing the "fraud" card</a>, in the apparent expectation that he will lose that state's recall election against Gavin Newsom. It is happening in Nevada, where Trump-endorsed candidate Adam Laxalt has <a href="https://www.rgj.com/story/news/politics/2021/09/07/nevada-us-senate-race-republican-adam-laxalt-hints-legal-challenges/5758684001/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" title="" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">preemptively suggested </a>that if he fails to unseat Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto in 2022, it will only be due to some unspecified "fraud."</span></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The "stolen election/voter fraud" theme is now </span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">the</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> official GOP talking point. As Maddow observed, Republicans everywhere are now using it and will continue to use it in 2022 and beyond. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">The tactic is being chiefly promoted and driven by Steve Bannon,</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);"> Donald Trump's former chief of staff, and reinforced through his daily podcasts, which, like <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/bannon-has-his-maga-megaphone-back-gop-candidates-know-it-n1269050" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" title="" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">NBC News</a>, <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/heeding-steve-bannons-call-election-deniers-organize-to-seize-control-of-the-gop-and-reshape-americas-elections" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" title="" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">ProPublica</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pennsylvania-republicans-kick-start-2020-election-review-with-hearing-2021-09-09/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" title="" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">others</a> have pointed out, are now virtually required listening for most Republican officials, whether elected or intent on being elected. This is where their marching orders are coming from.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While Bannon's podcasts touch obliquely on current events (the latest fixation of their contrived outrage is Afghanistan, for example), the overwhelming emphasis is on conjuring up and amplifying the phony threat of "election fraud," urging on the nationwide bogus, partisan audits and investigations, and providing preordained conclusions to those investigations. <b>As<em> </em>Pro Publica reported in their analysis of Bannon's efforts, this nationalization of Trump's Big Lie has been extraordinarily successful up to this point, prompting a massive surge in local election precinct membership among Trump's most delusional, violent, and white nationalist base of support:</b></font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.531px; background: rgb(245, 245, 245);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The new movement is built entirely around Trump's insistence that the electoral system failed in 2020 and that Republicans can't let it happen again. The result is a nationwide groundswell of party activists whose central goal is not merely to win elections but to reshape their machinery.
</font></blockquote><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">Bannon's podcast is a disinformation megaphone the likes of which Josef Goebbels could have only dreamed of, and it is incredibly corrosive to this country's democratic institutions. It is the cynical product of a man who has exercised (or attempted to exercise) an insidious influence<a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/03/trump-steve-bannon-destroy-eu-european-union-214889/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" title="" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"> not only on far-right, proto-fascist movements and political parties in Europe</a> but now <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/163301/steve-bannon-brazil-maga-battleground-bolsonaro" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" title="" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">apparently in Brazil as well</a>, on behalf of would-be dictator Jair Bolsonaro</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. And the fact that the entire GOP is currently operating in lockstep with—and at the bidding of—such a person tells you everything you need to know about how the 2022 election will be framed: Every contest in which a Republican loses will now be susceptible to an ongoing, malicious attack on that election's integrity, bar none.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And Democrats have every reason to be appalled by this Bannon takeover of the Republican party. (In reality, all Americans should be appalled, but as the listless reaction by the GOP faithful to the terrorist assault of Jan. 6 showed, we cannot expect any fealty to democracy from the vast majority of Republicans.)<b> But there is a silver lining to this seditious perfidy by Bannon and others: it serves to make all forthcoming elections a referendum on Donald Trump, to the exclusion of all else.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">Bannon himself has created this effect by tying his entire effort to the 2020 election. (In his podcasts, rather than refer to it directly, he calls it "3 November," as if the bare mention of the date has a mobilizing resonance similar to Jan. 6 or Sept. 11.) All of the invented, phony, and racially tinged rhetoric about voter fraud hawked in his podcasts stem from the given assumption that Trump was wrongfully denied reelection. And Trump himself has been more than eager to support it, as he <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article254079148.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" title="" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">showed this week </a>by injecting his assessment of the California recall election as tainted, even before any votes were tallied. Trump's anointed candidates, such as Laxalt and the countless others who will follow him, have all irrevocably signed onto this playbook. That is their sole roadmap.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">So be it. Just a few weeks ago, plenty of political prognosticators were</span><a href="https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2021/08/23/democrats-sweat-turnout-disaster-in-california-without-trump-to-run-against-1390415" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" title="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"> gleefully downplaying</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Democrats' chances in California (and, by implication, the 2022 midterms), touting the fact that Trump was no longer on the ballot. Republicans, by leaping onto the Bannon bandwagon, have now made it essential that he be implicitly on the ballot, even as they resolve to delegitimize any Democratic wins as the product of fraud. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Seen in this perspective, every election from this point forward is a referendum on Trump and Trump-ism. Fascist-admirers like Bannon believe that this is a winning strategy, but to an electorate that has already rendered a decidedly negative verdict on Joe Biden's predecessor—a judgment which was amply reinforced by the horrific attacks by Trump supporters on Jan. 6—he may have inadvertently provided the single strongest motivation for Democrats to vote.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When Georgia held its special election on Jan. 5, pitting Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff against two GOP incumbents, it was in the wake of weeks of rhetoric from Trump attempting to delegitimize the electoral process. At that time, Trump's mob of white supremacist terrorists had yet to demonstrate their violent and utter contempt for our institutions by assaulting the Capitol. Many political observers concluded that Trump's efforts sabotaged the GOP's chances by depressing and demotivating the vote. But the converse effect, the<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-07/black-turnout-trump-meddling-hands-georgia-to-the-democrats" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" title="" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"> concerted mobilization of the Black vote by Stacey Abrams and others</a>, was perhaps less remarked upon. Far from having its desired effect, the tactic of falsely crying voter fraud hurt GOP turnout.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The entire underlying premise of Bannon's podcast is the illegitimacy of the Democratic voter</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. But as the elections of Sens. Warnock and Ossoff showed, people react very negatively to attempts to delegitimize them. For many, it simply increases their resolve to vote.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);"> While every district is certainly different, if Republicans expect the tactic to work as a national strategy, they have to resign themselves to the fact that the election thereby becomes all about Trump, everything that Trump did in office and has done in the wake of his defeat.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Gov. Terry McAuliffe, for example, is<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/570732-mcauliffe-releases-new-ad-tying-youngkin-to-trump-on-coronavirus" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" title="" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"> doing just that i</a>n Virginia right now.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump is the most polarizing figure in American politics, and by and large, all Democrats viscerally despise him. By overtly basing their entire strategy on the petulant lies of a failed president, Republicans who choose to follow down the primrose path Bannon has laid for them may well be giving the Democrats a midterm opportunity of a lifetime.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Democrats should embrace that opportunity: make every election a referendum on Donald Trump, tying every Republican to his attempts to overturn the election. And pull out all the stops to get our voters to the polls.</font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">wiki bs?</font></div><div><h2 style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GreenTech Automotive investigation</font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Franklin Center published a series of articles that raised questions about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GreenTech_Automotive" title="GreenTech Automotive" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">GreenTech Automotive</a> and its presumed chairman, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_Virginia" title="Governor of Virginia" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">Governor of Virginia</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_McAuliffe" title="Terry McAuliffe" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">Terry McAuliffe</a>. The investigation exposed the company’s reliance on a controversial fundraising program, EB-5, that has been criticized for its lax oversight and subject to abuse.<sup id="cite_ref-36" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_News_Foundation#cite_note-36" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[36]</a></sup> The investigation also revealed that McAuliffe’s public projections, starting back in 2010, of how many cars would be built and jobs created had not come to fruition.<sup id="cite_ref-37" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_News_Foundation#cite_note-37" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[37]</a></sup> In April 2013, it was revealed that McAuliffe had left the green energy car-maker in December of the previous year.<sup id="cite_ref-38" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_News_Foundation#cite_note-38" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[38]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">GreenTech Automotive filed an $85 million libel lawsuit against Franklin Center on April 8, 2013 in a Mississippi court.<sup id="cite_ref-39" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_News_Foundation#cite_note-39" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[39]</a></sup> Franklin Center described the suit as “intimidation” and pledged to continue investigating GTA and McAuliffe.</span><sup id="cite_ref-40" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_News_Foundation#cite_note-40" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[40]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-41" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_News_Foundation#cite_note-41" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[41]</a></sup> In July 2014, a federal judge in Mississippi dismissed GreenTech's case. GreenTech filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018, stating that articles from Watchdog.org “negatively affected governmental, investor and public perception of GreenTech” and led to investigations by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" class="mw-redirect" title="Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">SEC</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Homeland_Security" class="mw-redirect" title="Department of Homeland Security" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">Department of Homeland Security</a>. GreenTech also blamed U.S. Sen. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Grassley" title="Chuck Grassley" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">Chuck Grassley</a>, who had raised concerns about the company's use of a visa program, among others.<sup id="cite_ref-42" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_News_Foundation#cite_note-42" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: none;">[42]</a></sup></font></p></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">bs</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://freebeacon.com/issues/gun-control-activists-pour-another-million-dollars-virginia-state-elections/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">
</a></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://freebeacon.com/issues/gun-control-activists-pour-another-million-dollars-virginia-state-elections/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">http://freebeacon.com/issues/gun-control-activists-pour-another-million-dollars-virginia-state-elections/</a></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div></div><div><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></h2><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;"><a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/virginia-mcauliffe-climate-change-2411264830.html">http://www.ecowatch.com/virginia-mcauliffe-climate-change-2411264830.html</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="headline-container" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 10px;"><h1 class="headline h1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Virginia Governor Shows Trump What Climate Leadership Looks Like With His Own Executive Order</font></h1></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="js-scroll-trigger" data-target="body" data-triggers="render-rebelbar" data-toggle-class="with-floating-shares" data-loaded="true" style="margin-top: 10px;" /></font><div id="utm_campaign" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 10px;"><div class="article-body body js-expandable sm-mb-2 md-mb-4 js-update-url selectionShareable" data-url="http://www.ecowatch.com/virginia-mcauliffe-climate-change-2411264830.html" data-headline="Virginia Governor Shows Trump What Climate Leadership Looks Like With His Own Executive Order" data-elid="2411264830" style="margin-top: 10px;"><div class="article-description" style="margin-bottom: 20px;"><p style="line-height: 21px; margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe issued an <a href="http://news.trust.org/item/20170516205423-slwfl/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">executive directive</a> Tuesday to the Commonwealth's Department of Environmental Quality and the Air Pollution Control Board that will lead to a strong limit on carbon pollution from power plants through regional cooperation.</font></p><p style="line-height: 21px; margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality will now begin crafting plans to develop a program to reduce carbon pollution in the state.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Executive Directive 11 is designed to ensure Virginia's energy future includes a structure that enforces carbon-reduction mechanisms. This is the result of the Executive Order 57 process, through which more than 10,000 Virginians called on the governor to use his authority to reduce carbon pollution.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 21px; margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">clean energy</a> growth in Virginia continues to rise. According to the governor's office, the clean energy economy is creating $1.5 billion in revenue, <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/solar" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">solar</a> jobs are up 65 percent since 2014 and solar installations have risen 1,200 percent in just the last year.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 21px; margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <a href="http://www.sierraclub.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Sierra Club</a> applauds Gov. McAuliffe for protecting the health of Virginia families and communities. This is a perfect example of how states and local governments can ensure our nation takes climate action even as <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Donald Trump</a> buries his head in the sand while the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">seas are rising</a>. Leaders like Gov. McAuliffe know we have a moral obligation to act and will seize economic opportunities when we do, as the clean energy economy is already proving it will create good-paying jobs while powering homes and businesses.
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 21px; margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">No one can ignore the progress on climate action and clean energy on the state and local levels. This important policy comes on the same day as the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/st-johns-coal-plant-retire-2410358867.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">announcement</a> of the 253rd coal plant retirement since the beginning of the Sierra Club's <a href="http://content.sierraclub.org/coal/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Beyond Coal</a> campaign and on the heels of <a href="http://content.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2017/05/hanover-becomes-first-new-hampshire-town-commit-100-percent-renewable-energy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Hanover, New Hampshire</a> becoming the 29th city to commit to 100 percent clean energy as part of our Ready for 100 campaign. Forget his rhetoric: Trump cannot stop this momentum for clean energy and climate action that is being driven by citizen activism in states and communities across the country.</font></p></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=

amrising target

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/01/america_rising_the_republican_pac_that_s_filming_every_vulnerable_democratic.html

cooch guy at am ris

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b id="yui_3_16_0_1_1447519798638_12224" style="line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://org2.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=v8Qie3f1wMs4K7K6KVV3GHqmbEoQlzZA" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1447519798638_12223" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline: none; background: transparent;">NC, VA GOVERNORS PRESS FEDS TO MOVE ON ATLANTIC OIL AND GAS EXPLORATION PERMITS:</a></b><span style="line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Despite new data suggesting increased risks to whales, dolphins and porpoises, Govs. Pat McCrory and Terry McAuliffe are urging federal regulators to allow seismic testing from Delaware to Central Florida. (11/10/2015)</span><br style="line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" />

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...<span style="line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dominion Resources </span><a href="http://www.duke-energy.com/news/releases/2014090201.asp" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="line-height: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">plans to build</a><span style="line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> a 550-mile pipeline to </span><a href="https://www.dom.com/business/gas-transmission/atlantic-coast-pipeline/index.jsp" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="line-height: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">bring natural gas into the South</a><span style="line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, and it got the blessing of Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Tuesday.</span></font></div>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">McAuliffe called the pipeline, which would cross Virginia as it runs from West Virginia to North Carolina, a "game changer for manufacturing," <a href="http://www.newsleader.com/story/news/local/2014/09/02/dominion-move-forward-pipeline-plan/14957349/" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">according to the News Leader</a>.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas <a href="http://www.duke-energy.com/news/releases/2014090201.asp" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">announced on Tuesday morning that they selected</a> Dominion to build and operate the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The companies said they would like to have final approval for the project by the summer of 2016.</font></p>

<div id="modulous_mid_article" class="ad_spot" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We’re talking jobs, economic development and it’s good for the environment,” McAuliffe said,<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/mcauliffe-backs-550-mile-natural-gas-pipeline-disappointing-environmentalists/2014/09/02/e1bd59c6-32a5-11e4-a723-fa3895a25d02_story.html" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="line-height: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">according to The Washington Post's coverage</a> of the event announcing the agreement. "In addition this will allow Dominion who has coal plants that are 50, 60 years old, which they plan on shutting down -- this a lot less emissions. So what we’re doing today is great for the environment."</font></div>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good also touted it as an environmental boon in an <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/dominion-duke-to-build-5b-natural-gas-pipeline/2014/09/02/fdc194be-329d-11e4-9f4d-24103cb8b742_story.html" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">interview with The Associated Press</a>, arguing that the pipeline is part of the company's transition away from coal.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We’ve retired half of our coal fleet for the last 5 years, and certainly that will continue,” said Good. “We see natural gas as an important part of the electricity generation mix for many decades to come."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Environmental groups criticized the pipeline and McAuliffe's support for the project. Nancy Sorrells, co-chairwoman of the Augusta County Alliance, which opposes the pipeline, called the move "disappointing" in an interview with The Huffington Post.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"This is really just an ill-advised pipeline proposal for so many reasons. I can't find a reason why it's a good thing," she said. Forty-three miles of the pipeline would cross Augusta County, and Sorrells said that between 400 and 500 county residents have come out to speak against the pipeline at recent meetings.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Southern Environmental Law Center noted that the <a href="https://www.dom.com/business/gas-transmission/atlantic-coast-pipeline/pdf/acp-county-map-va-augusta.pdf" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">pipeline would pass through</a>the George Washington National Forest, the Allegheny and Blue Ridge mountains, and the Shenandoah Valley. "It crosses prime recreational and biological and recreational areas in the national forest, including much of the best remaining wild landscape in Virginia," said SELC senior attorney Greg Buppert, arguing that it raises "serious questions about whether it can be built without significant damage to pristine forests and rivers." It would also cross the Appalachian Trail.</font></p>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">this town: stopped at fundraiser on way home from kid birth 29 w/ wife/ macker</font></div>

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<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">seemingly odd theory on rathergate?</font></p>

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<p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cross-posted at <a href="http://www.bluevirginia.us/diary/9949/rightwardfacing-dog-who-is-watchdogorg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">Blue Virginia</a></font></em>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If you want to know the source of the conspiracy theories floating around Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe's former company, GreenTech Auto, look no further than a little website named Watchdog.org and its so-called "Virginia bureau."  It sounds like some sort of muckraking investigative site -- until a closer look reveals that this is in fact a watchdog trained to only bark at Democrats and wag its tail at Republicans.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">However, it's not just another volunteer-based, opinionated blog like, say, Blue Virginia.  Watchdog is funded by big corporate, conservative interests -- including the Koch brothers -- to essentially manage the opposition research for campaigns like Ken Cuccinelli's so that the campaigns can focus their time and money on other things.  </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They're certainly not legitimate journalists, but they've established their "bureaus" in state capitals across the country, and some state capital correspondents' associations grant them press credentials.  Unfortunately that includes our very own <a href="http://www.vapress.org/Vcca_Members.htm" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">Virginia Capital Correspondents Association</a>, of which Watchdog's Kenric Ward -- unlike any other blogger or lobbyist -- is allowed to be a member.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thanks to some investigative journalism done about <i style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">them</i>, here's what we do know about the shadowy Watchdog.org:</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">It gets big bucks from right wing donors</b>:  Watchdog is run by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, which itself was launched by the conservative Sam Adams Alliance.  These groups are so tied in to all the other major Tea Party power brokers and organizations that it's hard to go through all those links without pulling out a progressive version of Glenn Beck's chalkboard. ...kos</font>

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