The Koch brothers are planning to throw massive amounts of money at the 2018 midterms.

Courtesy of Axios:

The Koch network will spend 60% more on the 2018 cycle than it did on the 2016 presidential election, the largest midterm investment it's ever had, Tim Phillips of Americans for Prosperity told reporters Saturday. This includes up to $20 million on “communicating the benefits of tax reform," along with other policy and politics efforts. The network spent about $250 million on policy and politics in the 2016 cycle.

I would REALLY like to say this won't work because Americans are too smart to be manipulated by money and advertising, but we all now know, without a shadow of a doubt, that that is simply not true. 

This most certainly WILL have an effect, so it is up to all of us to focus on strong grassroots organizing and a huge get out the vote campaign.

Right now these elections are ours to lose.

Let's not give these assholes the satisfaction.

"I am woman hear me roar." And also watch me run for office.

Courtesy of NBC News:  

Now, a new flood of women — many of them Democrats who watched the election of Donald Trump with horror and disbelief — are raising their hands to run for office in 2018, signaling a potential reprise of a “Year of the Woman” that could make 1992’s election of two dozen new women to the U.S. House pale in comparison. 

They’re on track to break almost every record on the books. As of last week, 325 women were non-incumbent candidates for the United States House, along with 72 female members seeking reelection, according to data compiled by Walsh’s organization. Thirty-eight women not currently serving in the United States Senate are aiming for the upper chamber, along with 12 incumbents running again. And 75 women have set their sights on the nation’s governorships — plus four female incumbents fighting to keep their seats. 

In 2016, a high water mark for female candidates overall, there were 167 female major party nominees for the United States House and 16 for the Senate — well fewer than half the number of candidates vying for one of those spots now.

This is part of what is really terrifying the Republicans right now, and also shaking the foundations of the patriarchal hierarchy in this country.

The election of Donald Trump may have felt like a victory for the anti-feminists and misogynists, but what it has really done is to energize a blue wave of women who are determined to wash away the stench of the Trump agenda, and lift this nation up to reach its highest aspirations.

Personally I can hardly wait.

Republicans becoming increasingly worried about the "blue wave" predicted in the 2018 midterm elections.

Courtesy of New York Magazine:  

Republicans are growing more and more alarmed about the prospect of losing the House of Representatives in November, which would break the party’s stranglehold on unified power in Washington. (Senate control is more of a longshot for Democrats, but if the ball bounces the right way, it’s within grasp as well.)

A senior Republican on Capitol Hill told ABC News, “If the election were held today, the House would be gone. Fortunately, the election is not today.” 

These concerns have made their way to President Trump. The Washington Post reported on Sunday that “the concern has grown so acute that Trump received what one congressional aide described as a ‘sobering’ slide presentation about the difficult midterm landscape at Camp David last weekend, leading the president to pledge a robust schedule of fundraising and campaign travel in the coming months.” 

The problem with Trump’s plan is that, much as he may deny it, he is a primary, if not the primary, reason for the Republicans’ plight. The president’s approval rating continues to hover in the high 30s, a dismal number considering the country’s humming economy. And, as is his wont, Trump keeps making a spectacle out of himself and his party, as he did this week with his “shithole” comment and a series of other missteps you probably don’t even remember a few days after the fact.

I REALLY hope that Trump shows up all over the country to "help" GOP candidates, as that will insure Democratic victories in places that the Dems are struggling.  

I almost hesitate to share this information becasue I do not want the Democrats to become complacent.

Remember predictions of victory only come true if we actually show up to vote.

Democrats are notorious for skipping the midterms, but this year we need to show up by the truckloads, because if we take back both the House and the Senate, we essentially render Trump powerless.

And even if he gets impeached and replaced by Mike Pence, the destructive GOP agenda will still grind to a halt.

Clearly worried about the 2018 midterms Donald Trump is arguing that electing Democrats will undo all of his hard work. Damn, I hope so.

If the Dems (Crooked Hillary) got elected, your stocks would be down 50% from values on Election Day. Now they have a great future - and just beginning! https://t.co/9TzSC8F8vY

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017

Okay there is literally NOTHING to suggest that this is true.

Trump is simply making yet another fact free assertion, not realizing that the Democrats being mobilized by his presidency are typically are far better critical thinkers than the slack jawed morons who voted for him.

Why would smart voters want to put Democrats in Congress in 2018 Election when their policies will totally kill the great wealth created during the months since the Election. People are much better off now not to mention ISIS, VA, Judges, Strong Border, 2nd A, Tax Cuts & more?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017

I swear this reads like a campaign ad for Democratic challengers in 2018 and 2020.

In fact a former Obama speechwriter has already responded.

2017 saw the fewest number of jobs created in 6 years.
3.5 million more are uninsured.
Premiums are up.
And Trump has taken only one step: a $1.5 trillion tax cut, mostly for the rich and corporations.
I’ll take that fight. https://t.co/i4PKMX8KcE

— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) December 31, 2017

Trump simply does not realize that we do not buy his bullshit.

However I have to say I really enjoy watching the beginning of his freakout over the midterms.

I imagine that these will only become more openly desperate and factually inaccurate as we inch closer to November.

Republican politicians are jumping ship in droves.

Courtesy of Vox:  

More and more Republicans are looking at how the 2018 elections are shaping up — and deciding they want no part of them. 

Last week, Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX), and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) all announced they would retire from Congress rather than run for reelection. This makes 12 House Republicans and two senators who are calling it quits, not counting several more who are stepping down to run for another political office. 

So far, that number of GOP retirements isn’t outside the historical norm. But reports have suggested that this is just the start, and that several more Republican House members — perhaps many more — will also soon announce they’ll head for the exits. And revealingly, only two House Democrats and zero Democratic senators have so far made the same choice. That’s a dramatic discrepancy. 

Though the explanations offered for these decisions differ, and some of these GOP-held seats are in no real danger of flipping to Democrats, these retirements are revealing how members of Congress currently view the national political environment. They think there’s a real possibility of a Democratic wave.

Okay, deep breath, don't get too excited. It is still a long time before the midterms.

Still, we have to admit that this IS good news. 

Samantha Bee talks about "numbnut" Republican laws and takes Democrats to the woodshed for sleeping through the 2010 midterms.

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

“After the 2010 landslide, policies started happening to states the way sex happens to people who drink with Bill Cosby.” Bee shows maps that color in the states that have done the most damage since 2010 restricting freedoms for everyone but gun owners. “No wonder Democrats are so hung up on appointing the next Supreme Court Justice. They need him to strike down all the sh*tty state laws that might not have passed if they’d bothered to vote in 2010.” 

Bee closes with this: “Look, I know state elections aren’t fun. They don’t have cool concerts or dank memes. But, voting in them is important. Just think of it like a mammogram. It’s painful and inconvenient, but you gotta do it. Because early prevention prevents a lot less than late stage treatment.” 

You know I totally feel Samantha Bee's pain here.

I personally feel that there are far more likely Democratic voters in this country than Republican voters by quite a large margin, but they are almost catatonic during midterm elections and seem to think that if there is no headliner to capture their attention that they can skip the party altogether without any real consequence.

But the consequences are all around us and we need to find a way to inspire, incite, and perhaps even frighten liberals to vote in every single, Municipal, State, and Federal election.

If we really want to make this country a better place we have to do the work to make that happen.

And don't forget your response to somebody working hard to keep you from exercising your rights as an American should be to work even harder to exercise those rights.