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From left, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senior Adviser to President Donald Trump Jared Kushner as they wait for the President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to begin their meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.

This article originally appeared at The Huffington Post. Subscribe here.

Dear Messrs. Ryan, McConnell, Pence, and Priebus,

Its now pretty clear that President Trump, one way or another, will be removed from office. Events and James Comeys testimony have established an open-and-shut case of obstruction of justice.

Trump tried to get Comey to drop the investigation of Michael Flynn; then when Comey refused, Trump fired him. It doesnt get any clearer than that. Not even in Watergate.

In addition, details of the Trump campaigns collusion with the Russians successful efforts to undermine the 2016 election have yet to come out from the special prosecutors investigation. When they do, they wont be pretty; nor will the details of Trumps repeated co-mingling of his business interests with his official business as president.

There is also the fact that Trump is plainly insane. We can argue about the diagnosisserious people have proposed everything from dementia to neurosyphilisbut this is clearly not a man in his right mind. His competence in speaking is steadily deteriorating, as shown by expert comparisons of his clear sentences two decades ago with his near-gibberish in recent weeks and months.

Trump is so damaged that he cant even seriously act in his own self-interest because he cant remember his lies from day to day. His impulsivity regularly undermines yesterdays spin and last weeks alibi.

So Id like to appeal to you both as patriots and as partisans.

The first appeal is simple. This man should not be president of the United States. The 25th Amendment, on grounds of serious impairment, is the most straightforward way to get him out. It is basically a coup by the cabinet, ratified by a two-thirds majority of Congress.

This is something that happens in other democracies all the time, and is about to happen in Britain because of Prime Minister Teresa Mays political lapses. But Trumps lapses are far more serious.

As the mess in Qatar indicates, Trumps plain confusion and lack of serious attention to complex foreign policy issues could cause disastrous national security consequences. He could get us all blown up. I am not privy to your private conversations, of course, but I assume Trumps madness does come up.

Weighing against that is Trumps usefulness to you as Republican conservatives. With him in the White House, you can pass legislation that Trump will sign, get him to issue executive orders furthering your agenda, get conservatives appointed to courtsand as my colleague Paul Starr has observed, the more vulnerable Trump is, the more captive he is to your protection.

On the other hand, Trump is so thoroughly out of his mind that he may not grasp that. I assume that your partisanship, for now at least, outweighs your patriotism. That is a shamehistory will judge you harshly, assuming that we are not all blown to bits.

So let me appeal next to your self-interest.

Trump will go sooner or latereither his obstruction of justice, corruption, and plain treason will become so flagrant that some of your Republican colleagues will begin breaking ranks. Or if they dont, you will be handing the Democrats a massive victory in 2018 and 2020, as you share responsibility and blame for the national catastrophe of the Trump presidency.

You would be much better offand so would the countryif you got Trump out in the next few months, and then sought to regroup under President Pence.

I realize, of course, that Im not a disinterested observer. As the co-editor of a leading progressive journal, I hope that you pay the full consequences of sticking with Trump. But as a political analyst, I think that with Pence youd at least have a fighting chance to hold on to power; and with Trump, youd have no chance.

I may be a sometime partisan, but Im enough of a patriot that I hope that you decide to oust Trump, if not on grounds of patriotism then on grounds of partisanship. And as fellow human beings, we should all be averse to getting blown up.

Yours truly,

Robert Kuttner

Read the original post:
An Open Letter to the Republican Leadership - The American Prospect - The American Prospect

Tue., June 13, 2017, 12:25 p.m.

Candidates in Georgias 6th Congressional District race Republican Karen Handel, left, and Democrat Jon Ossoff prepare to debate Tuesday, June 6, 2017, in Atlanta. The two meet in a June 20 special election. (Branden Camp / Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

WASHINGTON House GOP leaders warned their rank-and-file members Tuesday of the potential for heavy midterm losses next year that could cost Republicans their majority, and they urged renewed attention and focus to a positive agenda and message.

The warning was aimed at encouraging lawmakers to stay focused and not be chasing all the different other shiny objects, according to Republican Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina.

It comes a week ahead of a special election in Georgia, where Democrats are spending heavily to contest what should be a safe Republican seat. The outcome will be seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump and whether Democrats can capitalize on the excitement of their base to get wins in GOP-leaning districts next year.

House leaders reminded lawmakers that historically the presidents party loses 30-plus House seats in first-term midterms, according to members present. Democrats need to pick up 24 seats to take the House. GOP leaders issued their warning in a closed-door meeting held away from the Capitol so they could discuss politics and fundraising, which are not supposed to be mixed with official business under ethics rules.

The 18 cycle is going to be our first real test out of the box after a change in administration so we have to do our jobs, we need to be fundamentally sound, we need to have our game face on every day and we need to be developing the right resources, said Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas, a leadership ally. The message from leadership, and I think its a very appropriate message, is we arent going to take anything for granted.

There is concern among Republicans over the outcome next week in the Georgia district previously held by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. The district has long been in GOP hands, but Democrats are pouring in resources to try to get a win for their neophyte candidate, Jon Ossoff, over Republican Karen Handel. Its become the most expensive House race in history.

In Tuesdays meeting lawmakers were shown polling data indicating the race was tied, they said. They claimed optimism even as they argued a GOP loss in Georgia shouldnt be over-interpreted. Republicans also suffered a near-loss recently in a special election in heavily Republican Montana, although their candidate ended up winning even after a last-minute assault charge.

If we dont win the seat I dont know that it qualifies as a sign of whats to come, it could be an outlier, Womack said of the Georgia race.

The House GOP focus on the looming midterm struggle comes with scrutiny of the Trump administration over Russia connections at a fever pitch. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was testifying Tuesday afternoon on Capitol Hill, and Republicans have been struggling to stay focused on their agenda and draw attention to it.

Thus far, they have not realized their marquee goals of passing major health care or tax legislation, but argue they arent getting the attention and credit they should for smaller yet still significant bills like one on reforming the Veterans Affairs administration that the House is passing this week.

Lets put this all in perspective. We are focused on solving peoples problems, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said Tuesday when asked about scuttlebutt that the president could be considering firing the special prosecutor on the Russia investigation.

Im not saying this isnt important. These investigations are important. They need to be independent. They need to be thorough. They need to go where the facts go, Ryan said. But we also have a duty to serve the people that elected us to fix the problems that theyre confronting in their daily lives, and thats what were doing.

Read more:
House Republicans brace for potential 2018 midterm losses - The Spokesman-Review

This post originally appeared on Media Matters.

Amid a heated atmosphere of anti-media Republican rhetoric that has at times turned into violence against journalists, McClatchy is reporting that Republican plans for the 2018 elections will feature a deliberate strategy to help GOP candidates win elections fueled by public hatred of reporters.

An open campaign against an institutional pillar of a democratic state would be a frightening thing to watch. Theres also every reason to believe it could work.

After all, President Donald Trump was elected last November after a campaign that regularly featured scathing personal insults against individual journalists and the institution writ large. His speeches were built in part on jeering at the press to the delight of his audience, including disgustingly ridiculing the physical disability of a reporter who had debunked one of his falsehoods. He threatened to change the laws to make it easier to sue reporters and to use the power of the state to retaliate against news outlets whose coverage he disliked. His campaign manager manhandled a reporter during a campaign event.

Trumps attacks on the press regularly resulted in oceans of unfavorable coverage (but little collective action of the sort that might have brought a change in the candidates behavior). Commentators warned that he was setting the stage for authoritarianism. His mockery of the reporters disability was turned into negative campaign advertisements that were in heavy rotation in swing states.

He won.

In an election decided by so few votes, it is extremely difficult to determine the cause of victory. I wouldnt go so far as to say he won because of his attacks on the press. But they were self-evidently not disqualifying.

Targeting the press might not move swing voters in the 2018 midterms indeed, polls show that voters broadly disapprove of such attacks. But that wouldnt be the purpose of such an effort. As McClatchy explains, this is a base mobilization strategy aimed at getting Trump die-hards to the polls on Election Day.

Those voters are primed for such an effort. Conservatives have inculcated their voters for decades with claims that journalists are biased liberals who cannot be trusted. When Trump took that argument to its natural conclusion, lashing out at reporters at his rallies as a candidate and then as president, those voters cheered him on. Since his election, the president has sought to delegitimize the press and other sources of critical information about his administration, condemning their reports as deliberate efforts to push fake news.

Voters take their cues from their partys leaders, and the available polling data show that the GOP base has followed the president as he has increasingly wallowed in these anti-media conspiracy theories. Polls show that four out of five Republicans agree with Trumps statement that certain news organizations are the enemy of the American people, like the way he talks about the press, and believe the mainstream press frequently publishes fake news. Trust in the press has fallen throughout the public at large in recent years, but the numbers among the Republicans the reported strategy seeks to target are truly catastrophic.

The hermetically sealed media bubble that conservatives have built in recent decades serves both as a cause of this plummeting support for journalists and a key weapon for Republican strategists seeking to utilize this anti-press strategy. In order to build their audiences, outlets like Fox News and Breitbart.com regularly tell their viewers and readers that the mainstream press cannot be trusted. This has led to the creation of a parallel right-wing media apparatus that ensures conservatives can detach from reality in favor of a steady news diet of alternative facts. Those outlets are eager to assist the White House by delegitimizing any negative information reported about the president as more evidence of a biased press, and they will surely assist Republicans in their efforts to win votes by slamming the media.

It is dangerous to weaponize criticism ofinstitutions at the heart of the democratic process for partisan gain. Such an effort echoes ones weve seen before in countries that used to be free. The consequences of this strategy could be dire for our political system.

Republican politicians should refuse to engage in these tactics. Republican leaders should disavow this strategy immediately. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI)* and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have an outsized influence on the political strategies their candidates use by virtue of the huge war chests they help assemble. If they want to stop it, they can.

Unfortunately, there is little evidence so far that they will. To this point, GOP leaders have responded to the presidents attacks on the press with polite statements of disagreement and disdain for the idea that they should have to respond to his statements. Since the campaign, they have put their desire for political victories over any worries about the disastrous downsides of Trumps presidency. Meanwhile, rank-and-file members have started parroting Trumps framing of negatives stories as fake news.

With Trumps agenda stalled and few legislative accomplishments to point to, conservatives have seized on a breathtakingly cynical strategy to maintain power. The most frightening part is that it might work.

*CORRECTION: This post originally identified Ryan as representing Ohio he is the representative for Wisconsins 1st District.

Go here to read the rest:
Republican strategists say they will run against the media in 2018. Here's why that could work. - Salon

On the eve of the Democratic National Convention, protesters march for action on climate change. (AP Images / Sipa USA)

Greg Lemons is the staunchly Republican mayor of Abita Springs, a bite-size town in rural Louisiana that both draws its water and gets its name from the famous and pristine aquifer that flows beneath its soil. A chatty and cheerful fellow, Lemons like to think of himself as a pragmatic leader, the sort of person who strives to fix problems instead of fight about them. Nevertheless, in late 2014, he found himself in a legal brawl.

It was autumn of that year when he first heard that the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources had approved an exploratory drilling permit for a proposed fracking project just outside of town. The project, which had been approved despite the mayors protests, didnt sit well with him. He feared it would degrade the communitys environment, disrupt its quality of life, and ruin its reputation.

We are very sensitive about our water here, says Lemons, adding that much of his towns economic activity, including the locally based Abita Brewing Company, is based on the renowned quality of its aquifer. I was not content to stay silent about it.

In late December 2014, he sued, arguing in state court that the drilling permit violated local zoning ordinances. Though Abita Springs quickly lost its legal case and exploratory drilling commenced, the fracking project ultimately folded for financial reasons. In the meantime, Lemons learned some important lessons.

While he fought the frackers, with their noxious chemicals and earth-shattering drills, the mayor started reading up on alternatives to oil, gas, and coal. He educated himself about solar panels and wind farms, about energy-efficient lighting and electrical vehicles. He learned about the jobs that these technologies could help create and the budget savings they might enable. Being a business-minded member of the GOP, he liked what he saw. Soon enough, he was enamored with the economic and environmental promise of green energy.

It convinced me that we need to develop sustainable energy sources and we need to start now, he says. We should have started a long time ago.

So, alongside other residents in his town of 2,500, he set to work. He formed a committee to research and develop renewable-energy plans for the city. He started replacing all the towns light bulbs with energy-efficient alternatives. He initiated talks with local electricity providers, hoping to obtain solar-powered street lights, install solar panels on municipal buildings, and perhaps even develop a solar farm outside of town in the months and years ahead. He crafted a plan to bring electric vehicle charging stations to Abita Springs. And in March of this year, in order to signal an official commitment to these lofty goals, Mayor Lemons joined the Sierra Clubs Ready for 100 campaign, announcing that his town will strive to run on 100 percent renewable energy by 2030.

Little Abita Springs, in other words, is putting the Trump administration to shame. And its not alone. As the White House withdraws from the Paris climate agreement, as it capitulates to the reactionary agenda of fossil-fuel interests, small towns and large cities alike are stepping into the breach.

The very day Trump turned his back on Paris, 285 mayors across the country announced that they would still uphold the agreements goals. Thirty cities, meanwhile, have joined the Sierra Clubs Ready for 100 campaign, committing themselves entirely to renewable energy in the coming decades. And though large progressive centers like San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, often get the most attention, its tiny towns and small cities above all that have acted quicklyand with strong commitmentto reshape their energy economies to save money, create jobs, and combat climate change. From Abita Springs to Georgetown, Texas, and Greensburg, Kanas, little communities laboring out of the spotlight are walking away from fossil fuels, and fast.

There is a really diverse set of cities that have pledged to do this, says Shane Levy, a spokesperson for the Sierra Clubs Ready for 100 campaign. Some cities, like San Francisco, Madison, Boulder, which are more progressive, might be making the commitment out of concern for climate change. But a lot of it has to do with cost and autonomy, and some of the more rural and conservative cities are among the leaders in actually following up and making the transition.

Take, for example, Greensburg, Kansas, a tiny heartland town of 700 people that was nearly wiped off the map by a massive tornado back in 2007. After its harrowing run in with the weather, residents decided to rebuild the community around green energy. Just months after the tornado, the city council adopted a sustainable comprehensive plan that charted the course for obtaining renewable power. Five years later, Greensburg started getting every bit of its electricity from solar and geothermal sources as well as a 12.5 megawatt wind farm that sits outside the towns borders. Oil, gas, and coal have been cut out entirely.

Consider Georgetown, Texas, too. Its transition to renewable energy started in 2010, when students at locally based Southwestern University convinced officials there to work with the city-owned utility, Georgetown Utility Systems, to derive all the campuss electricity needs from wind and solar sources. Seeing the budgetary stability that decades-long, fixed-rate renewable energy contracts offered the school, the city soon followed suit and signed up for long-term renewable energy contracts of its own.

It was originally a business decision, says the citys conservative Republican mayor, Dale Ross. Our main mission was to mitigate two kinds of risk: the first was price volatility in the energy market and the second was regulatory risk from government policies. That was the challenge and we found the solution in wind and solar.

But then if you want to get philosophical, he adds, dont we have moral and ethical obligation to leave the planet in a better condition than we found it?

This year, Georgetown, which sits in the center of Texas oil-and-gas country, started getting all of its energy from wind and solar farms around the region. And, increasingly, its in good company.

Small cities like Burlington, Vermont, and Aspen, Colorado, also boast a 100 percent renewable status, while many others are close behind. Grand Rapids, Michigan, for instance, currently gets 27 percent of its energy from green sources and aims to run on 100 percent renewable energy by 2025. This past January, Bowling Green, Ohio, a town of 31,000, unveiled the largest solar farm in the state, a 20 megawatt public-private partnership that will power roughly 3,000 homes.

The very day Trump turned his back on Paris, 285 mayors announced that they would still uphold the agreement's goals.

We have had a sense that the environment and energy are nonpartisan issues here at the local level, says Bowling Green Councilman Daniel Gordon, a Democrat, who supported the project. We dont have debates about whether climate change is real, everyone agrees that it is.

Then there are towns and cities like Moab, Utah; Pueblo, Colorado; and, yes, Abita Springs that are just getting started.

LeAnn Pinniger Magee, who chairs the mayors Abita Committee for Energy Sustainability, says the towns first step is to install solar panels on its big electric welcome sign and also install an electric vehiclecharging station on site. The project, she estimates, will be completed this summer, and shortly afterward the town plans to launch a solar-powered street light pilot program that, if successful, could save it $20,000 a year in electricity costs.

We are just three months into this, she says but we have so much support from the community that we are confident that we can make some big changes within the next five years.

Mayor Lemons, for his part, likens realizing his towns renewable-energy dreams to eating an elephant.

You take one bite at a time, he says.

It will take a lot of small bites to make up for the Trump administrations decision to skip the meal altogether. Then again, there are a lot of committed people at the table, and more are joining every day.

On June 2, the day after Trump withdrew from the Paris agreement, the mayor of Pittsburgh announced his citys intention to generate all of its electricity from renewable energy by 2035. Santa Barbara, California, soon followed suit, declaring on June 6 that it would like to run entirely on renewable energy by 2030. Later this month, meanwhile, the nonpartisan US Conference of Mayors will vote on a resolution that would declare its support for 100 percent renewable energy in cities nationwide.

Its up to us as leaders to creatively implement clean energy solutions for our cities across the nation, said Steve Benjamin, mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, and vice president of the US Conference of Mayors, in a recent statement about the proposed resolution. Its not merely an option now; its imperative.

Indeed, whether or not the fossil-fuel lobbyists and their friends in the Trump administration want it, the clean- and renewable-energy revolution is well underwayand its urban.

Read more here:
Even Republican Mayors Are Rejecting Trump's Energy Policies - The Nation.

News & Observer

NC Republican group's $100 offer to debate anyone News & Observer In Asheville, the Buncombe County Republican Party wants to hold a debate with a group that doesn't share its conservative views. The party announced Monday that it will make a $100 donation to charity if any organized political or neighborhood group ...

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NC Republican group's $100 offer to debate anyone - News & Observer