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IMPORTANT ISSUES! THESE ARE NOT SOLICITATIONS
Trump Rallied For Him. Now He’s Sitting In A Jail Cell.
Plus: a judge caught the EPA changing one word to gut clean air law, and a Boston courtroom is standing between this regime and your mail ballot
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Thanks so much for joining me on this wonderful Monday—I’m glad you’re here. Only 57 days until the midterms, and every one of them is a day we can use.
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400 Emails Later, The Vote Was 7-0
Last week, Trump posted on social media that the only reason a community wouldn’t want a data center is if it wants to end up backwards and poor. The night after, seven members of the Planning and Zoning Commission in Prosper, Texas, took a vote on a data center.
A Dallas-area developer wanted farmland rezoned to put one up. It would cover roughly 225,000 square feet and cost around $580 million. Town staff had already recommended the project for approval. That’s usually where a story like this ends. But then more than 400 emails came in against the data center.
Dozens showed up to the commission meeting and spoke for over an hour, some coming from towns next door. No one could tell them how much electricity the data center would pull from the community, because the power draw depends on the tenant, and no tenant has signed. According to the developer, the entire project would only come with 20 to 50 permanent jobs.
Even Prosper Mayor David Bristol stood up as a private citizen and asked the commission to deny it. All seven members voted no. A half-billion-dollar project didn’t get a single yes vote. That recommended rejection is scheduled to be in front of the Town Council Tuesday night.
A Fox News poll in July found voters oppose building a data center in their area by forty points, 70 to 30. The group most likely to say yes was MAGA supporters, and even they came in under 50%. Prosper loudly said what most of the country is already thinking.
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A 19-Year-Old Made A Former
Governor Answer
When Jonah Bevin was five years old, he came to the US from Ethiopia—he’s 19 now. He spent time in boarding schools for troubled teens, including one in Jamaica that the police raided while he was in its custody.
Last year, a judge let him into his parents’ divorce case to ask for child support covering that time. His father is Matt Bevin, the Trump-endorsed former Governor of Kentucky.
Child support is calculated from what a parent earns. So the court ordered both parents to open their books. Jonah’s mother did—Bevin turned in a financial statement that was blacked out.
The judge ordered him again and he ignored her. So she held him in contempt in March, giving him more time. When Bevin blew that deadline, the judge issued a warrant for his arrest.
Bevin spent the summer refusing to show up to the courtroom. When his son took the stand in July, Bevin asked if he could watch via video—because showing up in person meant he’d be getting arrested. The judge said no.
Deputies arrested him Thursday on a Christmas movie set at a Kentucky horse farm. The next day, Judge Angela Johnson denied him bond and ordered him to serve 60 days. A former GOP governor is sitting in a jail cell rather than show a judge what he earns in a child support case brought by his own son.
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California Beat The EPA And The Oil Lobby
California’s been setting car exhaust limits way before Washington, and federal law has protected that for 60 years now. California writes what is considered the standard, and the Clean Air Act requires the EPA to sign a permission slip unless it can point to one of a few narrow exceptions. It’s signed more than 75 of them.
Congress has a fast track for killing a federal rule—simple majority, no filibuster, done. It can’t do that to a permission slip, because a permission slip isn’t a rule. Each of these documents says so, in the EPA’s own words, printed in the government’s own record book.
So Lee Zeldin’s EPA took four of those waivers, one of them signed more than 15 years ago, and suddenly started calling them rules. Nothing else changed. Then the EPA mailed them to Congress for the fast-track treatment and stapled the original paperwork to the back—including the page that says it isn’t a rule.
Judge Beryl Howell blocked it and threw out two attempts to toss the case, which came from the EPA and the oil industry. Then the judge wrote that it might look like a clever policy move, but it undermines honest compliance with the law—which is what Americans should expect from executive branch agencies.
They didn’t just get caught. They confessed in writing and mailed it in.
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A Judge Just Saved Mail Voting Again
Nearly a third of America votes by mail, and North Carolina put the first ballots out on Friday. In March, Trump ordered the Postal Service to screen them first. Before your state can mail you a ballot, it would be required to upload your name to a new federal portal. It would also need to get its envelopes approved in DC. Anything that doesn’t line up gets handed back to the state, which means it never reaches you.
Federal Judge Indira Talwani blocked Trump’s order in June, so the regime took it to the Supreme Court claiming they were being harmed every day they couldn’t act. Then, a few weeks ago on a Friday night around nine o’clock, the Postal Service issued its final rule. Three days later the justices ruled for the regime, saying states sued too early because no final rule existed yet. It had existed for three days.
Talwani had a word for that. Feigned. She wrote that the Court had accepted the government’s feigned compliance. And when election officials from more than 20 states swore that complying this late was impossible, she noted the government didn’t even respond.
On Friday, Talwani blocked the mandatory parts of the new USPS rules and refused to pause her order while the regime appeals. Likely unlawful, she found. Likely unconstitutional. And on this timeline, people losing their vote was practically inevitable. The regime is back at the Supreme Court as I write this. But as of now, no one can be forced into that portal, because the judge read the calendar and said absolutely not.
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North Carolina Is Already Voting
The read I’d give a candidate at a kitchen table with 57 days left.
Voting has started. On Friday, North Carolina became the first state in the country to mail absentee ballots. That same morning, the State Board of Elections changed how those ballots get counted.
They made it easier to throw ballots out.
Counties must now reject a ballot if the signature doesn’t match the name on the envelope. Or if the inner envelope isn’t sealed correctly. The vote was 3-2, on party lines.
They didn’t have to do it yet.
The rules are part of a state law that doesn’t take effect until January 1, 2027. One of the board’s Democrats said the memos weren’t posted publicly until 7:09 that morning, and asked what the need for the secrecy was.
That board answers to the legislature.
In 2023, Republicans passed a law stripping the appointment power to the State Board of Elections from the governor. Then-Governor Roy Cooper vetoed it, but Republicans overrode him.
Cooper is winning.
He’s led every public poll this year. Elon University had him up 11 among likely voters in late July. High Point had him up 50-45 in mid-August. Carolina Forward had him up 50-43 in early August, with Cooper leading on independents 48-20. Carolina Journal had him up 52-39. Cooper has raised more than $35 million, compared to GOP nominee Michael Whatley’s $16.1 million.
The map is moving blue.
Cook Political Report moved the North Carolina Senate seat to lean Democratic in April, and moved Iowa and Texas toward Democrats in August. But Cook’s math still only has Democrats picking up one to three seats, and it takes four to take the majority.
They killed the grace period.
NC counted ballots postmarked by Election Day for 15 years. Session Law 2023-140 killed it. Cooper vetoed that bill too, warning it would put up new barriers for younger and non-white voters. Republicans overrode him anyway. A ballot now has to be in the county board’s hands by 7:30 p.m. on November 3.
Watch this one.
The state has already voluntarily submitted its envelope design to the Postal Service. On Thursday, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice wrote state officials that complying with the federal rule would violate NC law.
The Bottom Line:
Roy Cooper is clearly ahead, and Republicans know it. That’s why they spent Friday morning changing the rules for which mail ballots get thrown out. People who are winning don’t do that. His lead is big enough to survive it.
It’s been a long road to get here. But after a decade of fighting Trump and his accomplices, there’s no way we’re slowing down now.
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Onward!
Scott
A Trump-endorsed former governor is sitting in a cell today because his 19-year-old son wouldn’t back down. Who’s the next one who belongs in there? (name your top 3)
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Two focuses for today!
**Yosemite.** A Nevada developer wants a strip of the park for a private road. 1,172 letters in the first three days. https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-stop-trumps-yosemite-giveaway
**Mail voting.** Hearing is Thursday, and ballots are already going out in some states. https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-protect-our-use-of-voting-by-mail-and-voting-machines/
JUST A FEW OF MANY COMMENTS:
Thank you Scott for all this great news! I just came back from a 12-day camping trip to South Dakota & Wyoming. I camped at the Badlands which is breathtaking & went to Yellowstone National Park & that was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The natural waterfalls, the mountains & all the wild animals I saw. Even though I haven’t been to Yosemite I can’t understand why having a developer put in a trail thru beautiful pristine land that is for all of us to enjoy, would even be considered! There must be something in it for tRump. But anyway I sent in my letters and like you say “ONWARD”!
Thank you for taking action and sharing your beautiful travel memories, Vivian. Preserving those pristine lands for future generations is exactly why we have to keep fighting. Onward!
My dearly departed veteran husband toured the Badlands and Yellowstone. It is my wish to go there myself one day and see it all for myself.
I truly hope you get to make that trip, Sylvia. The Badlands and Yellowstone are absolute treasures that belong to all of us.
Thank you for taking action and sharing your beautiful travel memories, Vivian. Preserving those pristine lands for future generations is exactly why we have to keep fighting. Onward!
That sounds AWESOME
My family took a special 3 week vacation when I was young.
We saw the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and the Badlands.
I can still recall one part of the Badlands. The Guide said a plane could take off or land on top of one giant rock. That has stayed with me all my life.
We went on to visit relatives in Washington State and then in Nebraska.
What a wonderful memory to hold onto, Diane. The sheer scale of those natural wonders is unforgettable, which is exactly why protecting them from private development is so crucial.
I hope I can go to the Grand Canyon & Yosemite one day. What a beautiful memory you have. Thanks for sharing🫶🏻
One year, we planned a vacation to see relatives in NEW MEXICO (or do we have to call it NEW AMERICA already?) and explore the area.
The GRAND CANYON was top priority - I had been there a few times, my partner had not.
He kept asking 'what's to see?' How does one explain?
(I had a video he refused to watch.)
ALL I COULD EXPLAIN WAS "IT'S A BIG HOLE IN THE GROUND!"
We used my brother's camper, spent a few days puttering around - did both rims.
Some things you can't explain and must see for yourself!
But I would encourage everyone to at least watch the videos that are available to get some insight into WHY those places were preserved for the FUTURE!
While funding for maintenance and upkeep has been slashed and the ORANGE TURD has amended signs, the LAND is INTAKE and too many will fight to mandate its protection.
They dropped new rejection rules in North Carolina the same morning the first ballots went out. Cooper is ahead anyway. That’s not a reason to get quiet. That’s a reason to check your registration and tell two people.
Spot on. We cannot let new obstacles quiet us down. Checking registration and mobilizing everyone we know is the best response to those tactics.
There are quite a number of other Republican officeholders, past and present, who ought to be sitting with Bevins in a jail cell!
Name ONE who shouldn't.
It is definitely hard to narrow it down to just one these days!
Impossible!
The sheer volume is overwhelming sometimes
Charlie Baker, Massachusetts governor from 2015 to 2023. The MA Republican Party didn't go full MAGA till after he was elected to a second term. Also Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger of the 1/6 committee. I guess you didn't watch any of that?
Well taken, but the ones who aren't corrupt, with VERY few exceptions, aren't in office any more.
I watched practically every minute. And I agree, and that’s the trouble with making quips, they have no nuance. Of course there are and were some good governors who are (not many now) or were Republicans. And Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, although they were not governors of course,I admire very much and I read Kinzinger every day.
You make a very fair point, Pam. The list of those needing accountability is unfortunately quite long.
MASSACHUSETTS MEDIA gave the WHITE TOOTHED GOVERNOR a FREE PASS!
I called him DAY LATE CHARLIE!
An article would be posted about what BAKER should do and he would act.
The WHITE TOOTHED GOVERNOR appointed political hacks and incompetents like SLOW ZONE SHORTSLEEVE.
WE are paying for their MBTA failures NOW!
SLOW ZONE SHORTSLEEVE approved a NO BID CONTRACT for a bathroom and lunchroom - would a private company approve a NO BID CONTRACT? Wouldn't you reasonably expect to get more than ONE BID? The WHITE TOOTHED GOVERNOR excused that failure along with multiple MBTA failures that were left to MAURA HEALEY!
Prior to that, MASSACHUSETTS had the ANIMAL ABUSER MITTENS ROBME who waited to mandate 9C budget cuts - PAGES OF THEM! But don't look for any records because MITTENS ROBME deleted EVERYTHING when heft office - against state statute,
Of those 9C BUDGET CUTS were trivial items, but FREE TB TESTING was eliminated.
Who's gonna have TB? Recently released prisoners, homeless people...it jeopardized public health, but MITTENS ROBME was known for incompetence....was he ever in the COMMONWEALTH? Mostly campaigning for pResident....so how'd that go?
Those 9C BUDGET CUTS were so offensive that I saved the BOSTON GLOBE pages of LISTS!