Last Call For Climate Of Destruction, Con't

Record Midwest flooding continues, this time in Iowa, while the Trump regime keeps insisting that climate change isn't real and that Trump is the best president on disasters or some crap.  The levees broke yesterday and downtown Davenport is basically gone.

For weeks, residents of Davenport, Iowa, looked warily toward the flooded Mississippi River as it encroached on their downtown, the water kept at bay only by temporary barriers lining the street.

On Tuesday, those barriers broke, sending murky river water rushing into businesses and forcing residents to scramble to safety. About 30 people who did not make it out in time were rescued by firefighters.

“The whole city had a very frantic feel about it,” said Rebecca Nicke, a co-owner of Abernathy’s, a vintage store located about half a block from the barrier, who said she ran for her vehicle and drove toward a hill when she heard the water coming.

“You start shaking,” said Ms. Nicke, who salvaged much of her inventory but does not expect to be able to return to her building for weeks. “And everything around me was like a blur.”

The flooding in Davenport, the third-largest city in Iowa, came amid a record-setting year of floods that have devastated cropland, small towns, infrastructure and Native American reservations across a large area of the Midwest. The damage in Davenport was more limited in scope than recent months have brought to parts of Nebraska, Missouri and western Iowa, but it was a reminder of the ongoing risks to the region as rivers rise and rainfall compounds the problems.

In the region around Davenport, the Mississippi has been above major flood stage for 39 days, a record. More rain is in the forecast with few signs of relief ahead.

“We’re not expecting the river to really go down anytime soon,” said Jessica Brooks, a hydrologist at the National Weather Service office in Davenport. “With the levels as high as they are and the flood conditions as they are, any additional rain we get will probably cause additional rises.”

Davenport was not the only place dealing with flooding on Wednesday as storms moved through the region.

In Douglas County, Mo., a 59-year-old man, who was apparently homeless and camping near a creek, was found drowned on Wednesday after a flash flood swept through the area.

Heavy rains also caused flooding in parts of Michigan and Illinois, where officials closed roads and warned residents not to drive through high waters. In Dearborn Heights, Mich., the mayor requested an emergency declaration from the state and opened a shelter for flood victims. In Detroit, officials said they would ask residents to help fill sandbags after water breached a sea wall in a residential area.

More rain, more flooding, more years of 100-year and 1000-year floods happening every 10.  And Republicans will do everything in their power to make America choose between social programs and climate change preparations.  That $2 trillion infrastructure deal won't even get a vote in the Senate, let alone pass.

Republicans will continue to make sure nothing happens, and that they are the ones most able to loot the treasury while the rest of us suffer.

It's Mueller Time, Con't

House Democrats like Nancy Pelosi at least understand what's at stake here with Attorney General Bill Barr's obvious cover-up attempts.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday accused Attorney General William Barr of committing a crime by lying to Congress, blasting him in a closed-door meeting and later at a news conference.

“We saw [Barr] commit a crime when he answered your question,” Pelosi told Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.) during a private caucus meeting Thursday morning, according to two sources present for the gathering.

“He lied to Congress. He lied to Congress,” Pelosi said soon after at a news conference. “And if anybody else did that, it would be considered a crime. Nobody is above the law. Not the president of the United States, and not the attorney general.“

The allegation comes as Democrats have intensified their criticisms of the attorney general over his handling of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, his refusal to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, and the Justice Department’s unwillingness to comply with a subpoena for the full unredacted report.

Pelosi’s comments were an apparent reference to Barr’s response to Crist last month during a House Appropriations Committee hearing, when the attorney general said he was not aware of any concerns that Mueller’s investigators might have expressed about his four-page summary of Mueller’s findings.

Barr’s response appeared to contradict the revelation earlier this week that Mueller himself wrote to the attorney general saying he was worried that Barr’s summary “threatens to undermine ... public confidence” in the Russia probe. Mueller also said Barr’s memo “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of the investigation.

So let's get going with those impeachment hearings against Barr at the very minimum, guys. 

It's time to play hardball.  Mocking Barr is one thing.  Arresting him is another.

Giving It Up To Mitch

High-profile Democratic challengers for Senate Republicans are in fact passing on Senate runs, leaving Mitch McConnell free and clear to block any and every cabinet, agency, and federal judge nominee in 2021 of a Democratic president, and I'm disappointed across the board.  Stacey Abrams doesn't want anything to do with David Perdue's seat in Georgia,and now both Beto O'Rourke and Julian Castro are bailing on John Cornyn's seat in Texas, with O'Rourke running for President instead.

All this means Democrats are in serious trouble in the Senate in 2020.

Senate Democrats' bid to take back the majority is running into a big roadblock: Some of their most coveted recruiting targets are refusing to run.

After straining to defend seats in bright-red states in 2018, Democrats are focused on picking off Republicans to claim the Senate majority in 2020. But, so far, a number of the party’s high-profile recruits have said no to Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the party’s campaign arm.

Stacey Abrams, a rising star in the party after nearly winning the Georgia governor’s race last year, passed on a Senate run Tuesday despite a sustained and public recruitment that included multiple meetings with Schumer. Hours later, Rep. Cindy Axne, who flipped a swing district last year, confirmed she was running for the House again — and not challenging Iowa's first-term Republican senator, Joni Ernst.

Democrats haven’t struck out everywhere: Former astronaut Mark Kelly in Arizona was a huge get in a critical battleground state. But three Democrats in other key states have passed on Senate bids to run for president despite the crowded field, and the party has missed out on its top recruits in Georgia and North Carolina.

“The Senate is not an appealing place for smart, talented candidates because it’s a broken institution. And Democrats have not yet offered a vision for how to fix it, aside from wringing their hands and wishing things were different,” said Adam Jentleson, a longtime aide to former Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “What’s the pitch? 'Come here, do nothing and let Mitch McConnell eat your lunch every day?'”

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, chairwoman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, denied she and Schumer had blown it. Democrats need to flip only a handful of seats, and they'll be in a position to get them, she said.

“We don’t need all of these states to take back the majority. We just need three or four. And we’re going to do really well,” Cortez Masto said. “Just because we don’t get somebody that you’re aware of doesn’t mean we’re not going to have somebody that can beat those Republican incumbents.”

Schumer declined to say whether Abrams’ decision was a personal rejection of him but said the party will find a strong candidate to take on freshman Sen. David Perdue.

“We’re going to win in Georgia. And we have lots of good candidates in many different states, including Georgia,” Schumer said.

At this point Chuck Schumer and Catherine Cortez Masto are one for six with Commander Kelly running in Arizona against Martha McSally.  If Dems don't win back the Senate, I guarantee you McConnell will block everything.  Nothing the new Democratic president wants to do will get done.  It won't get passed.  It won't get a vote.  Mitch will block it, period.

And Democrats don't seem to give a damn.

StupidiNews!

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A new research study on drought and climate change finds man-made factors contributing to lack of water as far back as 1950.