Organize, Don't Agonize
'Own October': Pelosi tells colleagues to organize, not agonize after Kavanaugh confirmation. The Hill: "'We must not agonize, we must organize. People must vote,' Pelosi said Sunday in an open letter to colleagues. 'To achieve this, we must OWN OCTOBER with our For The People agenda, which I hope you will advance in events and on social media in the weeks ahead.' She said Democrats must now turn their attention to the Nov. 6 elections. 'The GOP's Decision to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court has wounded the very soul of justice in our country,' Pelosi said. 'Amid our heartbreak, however, we renew our resolve and determination.' 'What is at stake in this election is nothing less than the health and financial security of families across America,' she wrote. "That is why we must fight even harder to win so that we can advance our For The People agenda."That agenda includes lowering health care and drug costs, raising workers' wages along with economic growth and cleaning up corruption in Washington. Many Democratic leaders have said that anger over Kavanaugh's confirmation could propel a blue wave at the polls. But the bruising battle in the Senate also suggests a narrower path for Senate Democrats in their attempt to regain control of the chamber, as Kavanaugh's confirmation appears to have unified and energized the Republican base."
GOP House Majority Is Crumbling
The GOP House is crumbling. Politico: "The Republican House majority continues to show signs of collapsing, with Democrats steadily gaining ground toward erasing the 23-seat margin and ending eight years of GOP control. A total of 68 seats currently held by Republicans are firmly in play — rated as “Lean Republican” or worse for the GOP — presenting a stark contrast to the Democratic side, where only a half-dozen Democratic seats are in similar jeopardy. The political environment has been jolted temporarily by the searing fight over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. But prior to that recent battle — which ended with Kavanaugh’s confirmation last week — Democrats had improved their electoral position since Labor Day, according to more than a dozen operatives and strategists in both parties. With a month to go until Election Day, there are now 209 seats either firmly or leaning in the Democratic column — only 9 shy of the 218 the party needs to wrest away control of the chamber — according to the latest update of POLITICO’s race ratings. The ratings, which reflect extensive reporting on the state of the 23-seat GOP majority, evaluations of both parties’ strategies, historical trends and polling data, reveal Democratic candidates have grabbed the lead in a number of House seats — including some with long-time GOP incumbents. Republican outside groups have already started cutting off funding to some races where prospects had dimmed."
UN Warns Fossil Fuels Threaten Civilization
Only fundamental change can save society, U.N reports. The Intercept: "On Monday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a daunting report, suggesting that we are currently on track for around 3 degrees Celsius of warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. The IPCC authors promise that we will see coastal cities swallowed by the sea, global food shortages, and $54 trillion in climate-associated costs as soon as 2040. That fast-approaching catastrophe is the motivation for the demands of Global South residents and their allies, for whom rising tides and superstorms are already a reality. They’ve long chanted '1.5 to survive' through the fluorescent-lit halls of U.N. climate talks, and this new report — which outlines pathways to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius — is a testament to that work. The figure is in line with the “well below 2 degrees” target outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement and, according to the co-chair of one of the IPCC working groups that crafted the report, Jim Skea, hitting that target 'is possible within the laws of physics and chemistry.' A social reaction on par to the approach to DDT, in other words, could yet salvage human civilization. It’ll be enormously difficult — far more so than getting a single chemical banned. And we’d eventually have to do it everywhere. Capitalism, moreover, wasn’t built around DDT the way it was around fossil fuels. 'Limiting warming to 1.5 is not impossible,' IPCC chair Hoesung Lee said in a press conference last night, 'but will require unprecedented transitions in all aspects of society.'"
What MAGA Really Means
'Good and Mad' author Rebecca Traister explains why it's okay for women to be angry. Salon: "So much of what we are seeing, the election of Donald Trump, the enthusiasm for him, the sort of fever for like "Make America Great Again," this is all code. We know what it's code for. It's not even a secret. Donald Trump has stripped it of its window dressing, and in fact the treatment of Dr. Blasey Ford is also stripped of its window dressing. Like nobody is even pretending to really care. They pay a couple of sentences of lip service: We've heard her, sorry for what you've been through, but they also talk about the women that are making accusations about Brett Kavanaugh as smear jobs, con jobs. Donald Trump talked about them as being paid off. There's not even, they're not even trying. It actually stands in for the bigger thing that they're angry about. The anger expressed by Lindsey Graham and Brett Kavanaugh, which is the anger of, 'You're trying to interfere with our further accrual of federal institutional power.' That's what's happening here. That's the far broader story about those in political power in the United States."
More from OurFuture.org:
This Is Your Future Without Public Schools. Jeff Bryant: "What if some communities no longer have public schools? That question, once unthinkable in America, may now be something policy leaders and lawmakers in at least one state have to consider. In Michigan – home state to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos whose political donations and advocacy for 'school choice' and charter schools drastically altered the state’s public education system – some of the state’s largest school districts lose so many students to surrounding school districts and charter schools that the financial viability of the districts seems seriously in question. Can a school district experiencing such losses in student enrollment continue to keep the doors open?"
