AIPAC Goes In For The Kill-- Their Members And Allies Will Spend Anything To Defeat Ilhan Omar

Most of the freshmen from 2018 have terrible voting records. In fact most of them have been rated "F" by ProgressivePunch. The half dozen worst Democrats in Congress-- at least in terms of this metric, several of them voting more conservatively than some Republicans:

• Jared Golden (Blue Dog-ME)- 38.03
• Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT)- 30.99
• Kendra Horn (Blue Dog-OK)- 29.58
• Abigail Spanberger (Blue Dog-VA)- 29.58
• Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY)- 26.76
• Joe Cunningham (Blue Dog-SC)- 25.35

Only 11 freshmen have been rated "A" by Progressive Punch:

• Andy Levin (D-MI)- 100
• Joe Neguse (D-CO)- 97.18
• Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)- 97.18
• AOC (D-NY)- 95.77
• Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)- 95.77
• Chuy Garcia (D-IL)- 95.77
• Ilhan Omar (D-MN)- 92.96
• Veronica Escobar (D-TX)- 92.96
• Lori Trahan (D-MA)- 92.96
• Sylvia Garcia (D-TX)- 91.55
• Debra Haaland (D-NM)- 91.55

Of course voting records aren't the only way to judge a member of Congress Voting is just one function-- at least for some of them. For example, I would argue that even though Cunningham has the lowest score of any Democrat, Brindisi is much worse. He runs around whining and blustering every time anything remotely progressive comes up. "Are you trying to make me lose my seat?" is his constant refrain. Many members would very much like to see him lose his seat. On the other side of the coin, AOC has arguably had more impact on Congress and the country than any other freshman and more than the vast majority of members. Same with Ilhan Omar, who we're here to say a few words about today.

First though, let me note that she has been a good fundraiser, although she takes nothing from corporate PACs. But she's made some real enemies by speaking her mind and by organizing around positions not appreciated by Big Money status quo interests, especially AIPAC who is 100% out to destroy her. As are Republicans who know they can't win the seat (PVI is D+26 and Trump only took 18.5% of the vote and is expected to do even worse this year). In 2018, Ilhan was elected 78.0 to 21.7%, after winning a 6-way primary with an astounding 48.2% of the vote, her closest challenger at 30.4%. But because they can't win the seat they have a star candidate they're backing Antone Melton-Meaux, an unknown who popped up out of nowhere late last year. Please consider contributing to Ilhan's campaign by clicking on the 2020 Blue America Worthy Incumbents thermometer on the right.

Yesterday, Briana Bierschbach, a reporter of the Minneapolis Star Tribune noted that "Millions of dollars are pouring into the primary race for Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District, where opposition to Minneapolis U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar is fueling an unprecedented surge in donations to her top Democratic opponent, political newcomer Antone Melton-Meaux. Melton-Meaux, a mediation lawyer who emerged on the DFL scene late last year to challenge Omar, told the Star Tribune he raised a staggering $3.2 million between April and the end of June, with $2 million cash left in the bank before the Aug. 11 primary. He dramatically outraised Omar, who took in $471,624 during the same time period. Omar’s campaign said she has $1,111,861 left on hand ahead of the primary election."

The fundraising gap would be striking for any newcomer challenging an incumbent, but it’s especially notable in a race against Omar, a freshman Democrat and member of “The Squad” who has risen to prominence as one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress. Omar herself is a prolific fundraiser, fueled in part by her national profile and her unabashed criticism of President Donald Trump.

But Omar’s policy positions and not infrequent Twitter flaps with the president have made her a popular target for conservatives, and she has faced criticism from Jewish leaders and some fellow Democrats for several past tweets and remarks about the political influence of Israel. Omar apologized after criticism that she was using anti-Semitic tropes in her comments, but she reaffirmed her criticism of the “problematic role of lobbyists in our politics.”

It’s a dramatic surge for Melton-Meaux, who reported raising nearly $400,000 between December and the end of March. The influx of money came, in part, from some conservative donors and pro-Israel groups like nonpartisan NORPAC, which held a virtual fundraiser for Melton-Meaux in May. According to data from ActBlue, an online fundraising tool, a number of individual donors outside of the district contributed the maximum amount allowed in May. He’s also received donations from prominent Minnesota Democratic fundraisers such as Sam and Sylvia Kaplan.

“It’s about the residents who live there, but they’ve certainly invited in enough outside money that now it’s become more of a regional or national battle,” said Todd Rapp, a longtime veteran of DFL campaigns. He said he’s never seen so much money flood in a single intraparty contest. “It’s kind of moved beyond our borders.”

Melton-Meaux said he’s gotten support from nonpartisan groups that have contributed to members of both parties. He said Omar’s past comments have diminished her trust with the Jewish community and fueled support for his campaign.

“We started at a time when people really believed we had no shot at this,” said Melton-Meaux. “We were told by most that we couldn’t do it. Our strategy has been really simple, being honest and transparent and going right to the public with a message that may be kind of cultural right now, and that is that people want leadership that shows up.”

In a statement, Omar’s campaign said an “overwhelming majority” of her constituents approve of the job she’s doing in Congress and her donations were a result of grassroots organizing, with her average contribution coming in at $18.

“Rep. Omar has been fighting for big structural changes to address systematic inequalities in education, health, environment, and the economy at home and across the nation. That’s why Wall Street and GOP donors are threatened by her,” said Deputy Communications Director Isi Kirshner-Breen. “Our campaign is about organizing people. That’s what progressives do. And organized people will always beat organized money.”

Melton-Meaux has emerged as the most prominent of four DFL primary challengers to Omar, running on a message of focusing on the needs of the Fifth District, which includes Minneapolis, St. Louis Park, Richfield, Crystal, Robbinsdale, Golden Valley, New Hope, Fridley and parts of Edina.

The district is one of the safest Democratic seats in the nation, meaning the winner of the August primary is all but certain to head to Congress next year. Republicans have endorsed north Minneapolis businessman Lacy Johnson, who also has cashed in on donations from around the nation, raising more than $1.1 million by March.

Melton-Meaux has picked up prominent endorsements in the primary race from civil rights activists Josie Johnson and Nekima Levy Armstrong, Golden Valley Mayor Shep Harris, former U.S. Attorney Andy Luger and others.

But Omar secured the DFL Party’s endorsement in the race in May and the backing of prominent Democrats such as Attorney General Keith Ellison, who previously held the Fifth District seat in Congress, and unions like the AFL-CIO and Education Minnesota. On Monday, Omar’s campaign announced endorsements from Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman, who served with Omar during her one term in the Legislature, and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

What Will Congress Do About Annexation?

Historically, AIPAC has been aligned with the Democratic establishment-- and when progressive elements have rebelled and demanded even-handed policies towards Palestine, AIPAC has been able to successfully full smear campaigns-- unrelated to Israel-- against them and replace them with more malleable members of Congress. AIPAC, for example, destroyed the political careers of both Earl Hilliard (D-AL) and Cynthia McKinney (D-GA). Fear of AIPAC has kept Democrats in line. On Friday, The Forward wondered aloud if that is now over: AIPAC's Biggest Democratic Allies Break Ranks To Publicly Oppose Israeli Annexation.

It's worth mentioning that not all of AIPAC's biggest allies have broken ranks. Netanyahu's #1 ally in the House, Eliot Engel, chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee-- in the midst of a red-hot primary into which AIPAC is funneling over a million dollars for Engel-- has been silent. "Top congressional Democrats," wrote Aiden Pink, "have issued multiple public statements Thursday and Friday expressing their opposition to Israel’s plan to annex part of the West Bank. The pro-Israel organization AIPAC has publicly expressed its opposition to such statements, but some of the signatories include the lobby’s most prominent and longstanding Democratic allies."

Lockstep AIPAC shills Chuck Schumer, Bob Menendez and Ben Cardin released a joint statement opposing annexation:

As strong and dedicated supporters of the U.S.-Israel relationship, we are compelled to express opposition to the proposed unilateral annexation of territory in the West Bank.

A sustainable peace deal that ensures the long-term security of Israel and self-determination for Palestinians must be negotiated directly between the two parties. Real diplomacy via direct negotiations, while an arduous road, is the only path for a durable peace. For that reason it has consistently been the long-standing, bipartisan policy in Congress to oppose unilateral action by either side. Unilateral annexation runs counter to those longstanding policies and could undermine regional stability and broader US national security interests in the region.

We are committed to sustaining a US-Israel relationship based on shared democratic values and our important security assistance partnership. We are also committed to continuing to engage Israelis and Palestinians to find ways to live together with peace, freedom, security and dignity and achieve a two-state solution.

Netanyahu has been threatening to unilaterally begin the process of proclaiming sovereignty over parts of the West Bank in two weeks. Trump and Pompeo are encouraging him. 115 House Democrats sent their own letter, authored by Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Ted Deutch (D-FL) and David Price (R-NC)-- all mayor Israel supporters-- to Netanyahu, Gantz and Ashkenazi last week.

We write as American lawmakers who are long-time supporters, based on our shared democratic values and strategic interests, of Israel and the U.S.-Israel relationship. We firmly believe in, and advocate for, a strong and secure Jewish and democratic State of Israel, a state able to build upon current peace treaties and expand cooperation with regional players and the international community. We have consistently endorsed the pursuit of a negotiated peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians resulting in two states for two peoples and a brighter future for the Israeli people and the Palestinian people. In that vein, we write today to express our deep concern that the push for unilateral annexation of territory in the West Bank after July 1st will make these goals harder to achieve.

Longstanding, bipartisan U.S. foreign policy supports direct negotiations to achieve a viable two-state solution that addresses the aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians, and their desire for long-term security and a just, sustainable peace. This position was twice reconfirmed by the U.S. House of Representatives last year. Our fear is that unilateral actions, taken by either side, will push the parties further from negotiations and the possibility of a final, negotiated agreement.

We remain steadfast in our belief that pursuing two states for two peoples is essential to ensuring a secure, Jewish, democratic Israel able to live side-by-side, in peace and mutual recognition, with an independent, viable, de-militarized Palestinian state.

Unilateral annexation would likely jeopardize Israel’s significant progress on normalization with Arab states at a time when closer cooperation can contribute to countering shared threats.  Unilateral annexation risks insecurity in Jordan, with serious ancillary risks to Israel. Finally, unilateral annexation could create serious problems for Israel with its European friends and other partners around the world. We do not see how any of these acute risks serve the long-term interest of a strong, secure Israel.

As committed partners in supporting and protecting the special U.S.-Israel relationship, we express our deep concern with the stated intention to move ahead with any unilateral annexation of West Bank territory, and we urge your government to reconsider plans to do so.

Pink wrote that "The list of 115 signatories 'runs the gamut from J Street Democrats to AIPAC Democrats,' a Democratic congressional source told Jewish Insider. Other members of Congress are reportedly expected to sign on before the letter is released to the public next week. The large number of AIPAC allies is surprising considering the lobby’s opposition to the letter. 'We have not taken a position on annexation,' an AIPAC spokesperson told Haaretz. 'However, we do not support this letter. It publicly criticizes Israel for potentially deciding upon a policy that would only be adopted with the approval of the U.S. government, it fails to reaffirm America’s full commitment to Israel’s security assistance, and it focuses only on what it sees as inappropriate Israeli behavior, while failing to note that Palestinian leaders have been unwilling to return to the negotiating table for nearly a decade.'"

A similar letter signed by 19 Democratic senators, including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, was released two weeks ago. Individual Democratic senators, like Kamala Harris, have also written personal letters of their own to Netanyahu expressing their views.

“As the United States has repeatedly made clear, unilateral moves by either party, such as annexation, put a negotiated peace further out of reach,” wrote Harris, who is considered a leading contender for the Democratic vice presidential nomination. “Both Israel and the Palestinians must avoid unilateral moves in order to preserve prospects for an eventual peace.”

And how does Biden feel about annexation? He seems opposed, at least tepidly. One of his foreign policy advisors, Nicholas Burns-- an under secretary of state under George W. Bush-- told an Israeli foreign policy magazine that annexation "would greatly harm Israel, internationally and among its strongest supporters" and that annexation "is the one issue which could most harm the U.S.-Israel relationship."

Trump's foreign policy has been disjointed and chaotic... often influenced by bad actors with skin in the game happy to offer the notoriously corrupt Trump what amounted to bribes. Sunday night former national security advisor (#3), John Bolton, shared his thoughts about the disaster that is Trump with Martha Raddatz, just hours after announcing that he plans to vote for Joe Biden in November.

Trump Did NOT Cause COVID-19... But He Is Responsible For The Way The U.S. Is Botching The Response

The last thing in the world Trump wants to see are headlines like this one from Politico yesterday: Trump's mismanagement helped fuel coronavirus crisis. And once large numbers of people start dying, Trump will get really desperate, desperate that voters don't blame him, though they should. "For six weeks behind the scenes, and now increasingly in public, Trump has undermined his administration’s own efforts to fight the coronavirus outbreak-- resisting attempts to plan for worst-case scenarios, overturning a public-health plan upon request from political allies and repeating only the warnings that he chose to hear. Members of Congress have grilled top officials like Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Centers for Disease Control Director Robert Redfield over the government’s biggest mistake: failing to secure enough testing to head off a coronavirus outbreak in the United States. But many current and former Trump administration officials say the true management failure was Trump’s... Interviews with 13 current and former officials, as well as individuals close to the White House, painted a picture of a president who rewards those underlings who tell him what he wants to hear while shunning those who deliver bad news... 'If this sort of dysfunction exists as part of the everyday operations-- then, yes, during a true crisis the problems are magnified and exacerbated,' said a former Trump HHS official. 'And with extremely detrimental consequences.'" Ironically, it's his own moron supporters who will pay the most dearly, since that 30-some-odd percent of Americans are the only people who believe a word that comes out of his filthy mouth.

Something like 20,000 people went to Fascistpalooza-- they refer to it as CPAC-- last week and speakers included many of the leaders of the far right of American politics including Señor Trumpanzee, Coronavirus Czar Pence, Jared Kushner-in-law + Ivanka, Don Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle, Kellyanne Conway, Betsy DeVos, Mike Pompeo, Lawrence Kudlow, Alex Azar, Mark Meadows, the U.S. psychopathic ambassador to Israel, David Friedman (suspected by some of being the Typhoid Mary of the far right), Richard Grenell, Ken Cuccinnelli, Sam Brownback, Nikki Haley, hate talk radio host Mark Levin, Ronna Romney McDaniel, Sebastian Gorka, Ted Cruz (who announced on Sunday evening that he will be self-quarantining at home in Texas after learning that he had a "brief conversation and a handshake" with the guy who tested positive for COVID-19), Joni Ernst, Marsha Blackburn, Dan Sullivan, Paul Gosar (also quarantined now), Gym Jordan, Liz Cheney, Devin Nunes, Andy Biggs (one of the 2 members of Congress who voted against coronavirus funding), Louie Gohmert, Matt Gaetz, Doug Collins, Paul Gosar, Steve Scalise, Roger Williams, Glenn Beck, James O'Keefe (the Project Veritas guy) and dozens of other neo-fascists only known inside the movement. They-- and all the attendees-- were exposed to COVID-19.

Glenn Beck's propaganda website announced over the weekend that "one of the attendees at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, the country's largest annual gathering of conservatives, has tested positive for the coronavirus. While the identity of the patient is unknown, the American Conservative Union confirmed the patient tested positive for the disease in a New Jersey hospital and was exposed to the virus before attending CPAC. The Hill reported that the patient is currently being quarantined.

The American Conservative Union also announced that the person with coronavirus did not shake hands with Trump or Pence, although some people may recall that at a Florida fundraiser for Vern Buchanan, Pence shook hands with a cadet who is now quarantined.

The big annual AIPAC convention nearly had as many attendees as CPAC. And so far 3 people have tested positive for coronavirus. Speakers included Coronavirus Czar Pence, Status Quo Joe, Michael Bloomberg, Austrian neo-fascist Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Joe Trippi, Mike Pompeo, Miss McConnell (R-KY), Steny Hoyer, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Michael McCaul (R-TX), Steve Scalise (R-LA), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Liz Cheney (R-WY), Lee Zeldin (R-NY), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Blue Dogs Josh Gottheimer (NJ), Abigail Spanberger (VA) and Mike Sherrill (NJ), Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Chuck Schumer and top Schumer operative J.B. Poersch, Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Juan Vargas (D-CA), Ann Wagnwer (R-MO), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Virginia Foxx (R-NC), David Kustoff (R-TN), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Adam Smith (D-WA), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Angie Craig (D-MN), and Félix Antoine Tshisekedi-Tshilombo, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Top political leaders in Italy and Iran have tested positive for coronavirus and members of the Iranian parliament have begun dying. Pelosi has discussed shutting down Congress to avoid spreading the disease among members-- who, remember, go home (i.e., everywhere) every weekend and shake hands with their constituents and then come back to Congress. It's too late to down anything about it now. As Buzzflash editor Mark Karlin noted, "Richard Hatchett, the doctor leading efforts to find a vaccine for Coronavirus, says it is 'much more lethal than normal flu... This is the most frightening disease I've ever encountered in my career.'"

Amidst the news reports on Coronavirus, there is a steady flow of warnings from epidemiologists that the Coronavirus presents a tsunami pandemic. Although it may be an outlier estimate, according to a CBS Evening News interview with a top Harvard epidemiologist, he predicts 40-70% of every adult in the world over the age of 35 will be infected with Coronavirus, “with millions of people dying.” That may be alarmist, but if you watch the interview with this solemn, low-key Harvard expert, you are left shaken not only by the gravity of what might face us, but by the willful denial of the potential catastrophe led by Trump.

Trump’s visit to the CDC on Friday was surreal, typical of his deranged preoccupation with and perpetuation of an alternative universe that is grounded in a Fox News fantasy that is aimed at controlling his base, while consolidating power and attempting to steal the 2020 election to assert “unitary executive authority” over the US. His indefatigable propaganda, that conflicts with epidemiological experts in regards to the Coronavirus, will not be modified by any concessions to reality if they detract from his pernicious fantasy world that he has constructed largely with the input of Fox News TV personalities, particularly with the ongoing advice of Sean Hannity.

In the unhinged news conference at the CDC, Trump appeared as if he had slept in his golfing clothes and wore a red campaign cap as he made pronouncements that had more to do with spreading deadly disinformation on the Coronavirus than in limiting its wildfire expansion.

“Anybody that needs a test gets a test…. the tests are all perfect,” Trump said from behind a CDC lab desk. “like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.”

He couldn’t resist trying to again claim that his call to Ukrainian President Zelensky on July 24, 2019, was “perfect,” even though he was impeached over it. But, of course, as with his violation of asking for a foreign power to assist him in the 2020 election, he was equally guilty of promising universal testing when the kits are, as of today, still in extremely short supply. Less than 2000 people in the entire US had been tested as of Thursday.

He boasted the demented falsehood, “People are really surprised I understand this stuff [the Coronavirus]. Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability.’”

He managed to squeeze in his usual barb at one of his self-perceived “enemies,” in this case Democratic Washington Governor Jay Inslee whose state is currently at the initial epicenter of the Coronavirus outbreak in the US, and has just declared an emergency in the state. Trump called him a “snake” and a bad man because when Mike “HIV Epidemic and Smoking Doesn’t Cause Cancer” Pence called Inslee to offer federal help, Inslee recounted, “I told him [Pence] our work would be more successful if the Trump administration stuck to science and told the truth.” It was like a dagger through Trump’s vampire heart, striking at the very gaslighting that the DC press has generally faithfully reported. There was so much more of Trump’s vast array of unabashed lying during the “briefing,” but one particular exchange sticks out more than the other dangerous lies, in part because it was the frightening truth. He was asked when the passengers on the stricken Grand Princess, moored off of San Francisco with no one allowed to leave, would be discharged to quarantine on the mainland (only a small percentage have been tested thus far), and Trump said he has been against letting them off because it would hurt “my numbers.”

What did he mean? He was just publicly, as he is wont to do, revealing his con. He didn’t officially include any passengers on the ship who have contracted the Coronavirus as being among Americans who have been infected (the number of whom have the virus is not trustworthy as revealed by the CDC). The infections appear to be vastly under reported because there are, as noted above, not enough test kits to determine, even roughly, how many people are affected, and Trump wants to keep “his numbers” low to reinforce his lie that the Coronavirus is a Democratic “hoax” and “will disappear some day like magic.”

But no reporter followed up on this despicable statement on his part. The Grand Princess, given that the Coronavirus is transmitted at up to 6 feet, is Trump's Voyage of the Damned. He is facilitating infection of passengers by not letting them off the ship, because he doesn't want known US infection numbers to ratchet up. Couldn’t one reporter call him out on how he is indifferent to the passengers confined and destined to be infected?

There was so much more inanity to the briefing filled with lies, bombast, name-calling and even a Trump digression to ask a Fox reporter how his ratings were for a recent town hall appearance. In short, if was vintage unhinged Trump.

However, we are facing a catastrophic pandemic being managed by a mentally incompetent faux president, and lives are on the line-- many lives, as he and his anti-science Sancho Panza, Mike Pence, run havoc through efforts to mitigate the virus’s spread, not to mention handling the devastating economic fallout, the stress on the US public health system, social disruption, the uninsured, and honest recommendations about avoiding the virus.

In short, Trump needs to be restrained in a mental health facility, not to be “governing” the nation. His handling of the Coronavirus is beyond incompetent. He is offering "advice" that will actually accelerate the spread of the virus. If the DC press corps didn't treat his lunacy with such deference, we might see the virus spread at a lower rate (and its exponential spread is just starting), but they are incapable-- for the most part-- of doing anything other than transcribing his lies and false assurances aimed, in large part, at trying to stop the stock market from plunging even further.

Some cable news stations have become more critical of his pronouncements and tweets, and are starting to interview actual medical experts, but, for the most part, the media continues to treat the travesty of the likes of his CDC press briefing as standard practice. They normalize Trump’s pathology.

Don't these "reporters" have families they cherish and now face Coronavirus unchecked by a lunatic? How can they still act as if Trump is suited for office? The virus is closing in on DC-- and it will inevitably start to infect the DC media, members of Congress and staffers, and even likely the White House. That is because unlike Trump’s other enemies, a virus does not care about a person’s status in life. It can’t be stopped by bullying, deceit and power.

Part of the problem, as explained before on BuzzFlash, is that the major media is owned by corporations, who are concerned with profits, who have wealthy people on their boards, and rely on conservative advertisers. The interest of the publishers filters down to reporters to treat Trump as an actual president and not to demand the truth from him. This is what Noam Chomsky famously called the “manufactured consent” guard rails of the media.

This epidemic is going to get worse, far worse, and the infections and deaths are on Trump's hands. He is a toxic contagion of misinformation and a sociopathic, cruel demagogue, who only values creating a spectacle for the media, chaos and grifting. Meanwhile, we will all suffer from his evil.

The media, particularly the DC White House “reporters,” are Trump’s enablers as the Coronavirus will take a larger toll than it would otherwise if Trump’s cons were challenged. Our lives are at risk, and many many reporters still assist Trump by making excuses for, what one news outlet euphemistically called, his “freewheeling style."

What Trump needs is not servile scriveners. He needs a mental health intervention.

The media is largely inured to a mentally impaired impostor presiden and treat him as though he merits his authority.

Let's hope that the 2020 election isn't canceled due to a "national emergency" declared by Trump as the Coronavirus pandemic explodes out of control due to Trump's ineptitude and political cynicism. Our economy may have imploded by then too. Is the media prepared for this, or will they just again report Trump’s rants rather than ferret out the truth as we enter into full-fledged fascism?

That the DC press corps is still normalizing Trump when he is making preposterous claims about his "ability" to contain the virus when he is worsening the pandemic, that he is endangering our lives, is mind boggling. Aren't these journalists supposed to take a deep dive into the truth?

Under Trump, the US has become the epitome of ignorance. We are purveyors, under Trump's macabre "hunches," of a primitive denial of reality.

Trump is frustrated because he can't give the Coronavirus a nickname and mock it. However, the Coronavirus cannot be intimidated by the rantings of a carnival barker con man. Death and disease have an agenda that can't be bullied.

Journalist Nancy LeTourneau, in a March 5 article in the Washington Monthly straight forwardly charges that the “media still won’t address Trump’s unfitness for office”:

The unwillingness of the news media to discuss Trump’s unfitness for office keeps the public from grappling with the fact that his response to this crisis has been a disaster. That will also shield the president from accountability when this particular crisis gets much worse-- which most experts assume is just a matter of time...

Since shortly after Trump was inaugurated, I have been saying that we need to talk about his mental health issues. To anyone who has been paying attention, he has only deteriorated since that time...

It is becoming more clear every day that none of us are safe as long as Donald Trump is president. That is why all of us have to talk about the elephant in the room that the media wants to avoid: this president is not well.

...[Trump] is clearly mentally unbalanced, narcissistic, cruel and preoccupied with his role both as the master entertainer and creator of diversionary spectacle. Add to that his role as a demagogue seeking to become a dictator and his functioning as a mafia don who only values personal loyalty to him over loyalty to the United States, and you have a clear and present danger in the White House.

...Tourneau concludes: “The unwillingness of the news media to discuss Trump’s unfitness for office keeps the public from grappling with the fact that his response to this crisis has been a disaster. That will also shield the president from accountability when this particular crisis gets much worse-- which most experts assume is just a matter of time.”

...Journalism should be a noble calling, but for the most part it functions now as a fluffer for Trump’s ruinous shortfalls.

Some fault lines are starting to show, as some journalists realize the disastrous future that awaits us as a “normalized” Trump leads us over a cliff. It may be too late, and many of the White House reporters are still treating Trump with deference and recording his misinformation as though it were true, but all we can hope for is that the crack in the dam of the corporate press will widen as DC journalists realize that their lives and the lives of their families are on the line too.

UPDATE: Just one extraordinary example of how Trump is endangering US citizens and urging exposure to the virus, and why he must be removed from control of the strategy to manage the pandemic:

TRUMP: “A lot of people will have this [the Coronavirus], and it’s very mild. They will get better very rapidly. They don’t even see a doctor ... So, if we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work-- some of them go to work, but they get better.” – Fox News interview Wednesday.

Remember, "The White House overruled health officials who wanted to recommend that elderly and physically fragile Americans be advised not to fly on commercial airlines because of the new coronavirus, a federal official told The Associated Press. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention submitted the plan this week as a way of trying to control the virus, but White House officials ordered the air travel recommendation be removed, said the official who had direct knowledge of the plan. Trump administration officials have since suggested certain people should consider not traveling, but they have stopped short of the stronger guidance sought by the CDC."

All along the way, Trump has made every possible wrong decision on how to handle Covid-19. "From the beginning," reported Michael Shear at the NY Times "the Trump administration’s attempts to forestall an outbreak of a virus now spreading rapidly across the globe was marked by a raging internal debate about how far to go in telling Americans the truth. Even as the government’s scientists and leading health experts raised the alarm early and pushed for aggressive action, they faced resistance and doubt at the White House-- especially from the president-- about spooking financial markets and inciting panic. 'It’s going to all work out,' Mr. Trump said as recently as Thursday night. 'Everybody has to be calm. It’s going to work out.' … But from Mr. Trump’s first comments on the virus in January to rambling remarks at the C.D.C. on Friday, health experts say the administration has struggled to strike an effective balance between encouraging calm, providing key information and leading an assertive response. The confused signals from the Trump administration, they say, left Americans unprepared for a public health crisis and delayed their understanding of a virus that has reached at least 28 states, infected more than 300 people and killed at least 17."

Business Insider reported that "Hospitals are bracing for what could be millions of admissions nationwide as the virus spreads." How are American businesses responding?

• Apple is recommending employees at its Silicon Valley headquarters work from home.
• Google is letting its tens of thousands of Bay Area employees work from home.
• Cisco is closing a building at its massive Silicon Valley campus after a worker was exposed to the coronavirus.
• Sequoia Capital, the prestigious VC firm that famously warned startups about the 2008 financial crisis, published a memo urging startup founders to prepare for business disruptions.
• Bank of America is splitting up its Wall Street traders and sending some to Stamford amid concern over coronavirus.
• An employee at investment giant TIAA has contracted coronavirus, and the Manhattan WeWork office where they were working has been closed for cleaning.
• Goldman Sachs switched a 400-person conference at the last minute to an audio-only webcast.
• Morgan Stanley is moving about half of its Wall Street traders to its disaster-recovery site outside NYC.

Yesterday, I suggested looking at Maureen Dowd's NY Times column, Trump's Crazy Fantasy World in regard to his mental illness. Today I want to bring up something else from the same column: "Trump," she wrote, "is continuing his Panglossian handling of the coronavirus. 'The tests are beautiful!' he said as he toured the C.D.C. Friday evening, after a kerfuffle over delays in testing. 'The tests are all perfect, like the letter was perfect, the transcription was perfect,' he added, referring to his communication with the president of Ukraine. 'This is the highest-level test anywhere.' 'I like this stuff, I really get it,' he said, adding that maybe he should have become a scientist, like his uncle the 'super genius,' instead of running for president. Meanwhile, the stock market is still freaking out and financial angst is spreading from boardrooms to kitchen tables. We can vividly see in this crisis how close to the surface Trump’s id is and how easily he cleaves to delusions. He personalizes everything so much that when things go bad, he can only see it as an attack on him by the forces out to get him. He seems psychologically incapable of dealing with a virus that is complex and uncertain. The virus will be in every community and needs truth, honesty and intelligence-- all absent from the unstable Trump, who at his core is a frightened boy and pretender."

The Republican Wing Of The Democratic Party-- Plus Some Republicans-- Make Their Move: STOP BERNIE!

Everyone knew Bernie would win yesterday, but no one predicted his win would be as decisive and sweeping as it turned out to me. You almost feel sorry for all the right-of-center, anti-working class pundits on MSNBC. I thought Chris Matthews was on the verge on moving on to the next world while the caucus votes were coming in, not to mention former Bush staffer Nicolle Wallace, and the man who has never been right about anything for two decades, James Carville. I don't know what Joy Reid or Claire McCaskill had to say since I press mute as soon as either one of them starts talking. Bernie spent the weekend not celebrating in Las Vegas but campaigning in some of Texas' bluest cities, El Paso and San Antonio yesterday and in Houston and Austin today. The RealClearPolitics Texas polling average had Bernie leading even before the Nevada bump kicks in:

• Bernie- 23.5%
• Status Quo Joe- 21.0%
• Elizabeth- 14.5%
• Bloomberg- 14.0%
• Mayo Pedro- 7.0%
• Klobuchar- 6.0%
• Tulsi- 3.0%

Front-runner status has some unique perils. Third Way, the heart of the Republican wing the Democratic Party, is trying to organize a Stop Bernie Movement, asking Status Quo Joe, Bloomberg, Mayo Pete, Klobuchar and even Elizabeth Warren to band together in South Carolina to work together to kill the candidacy of the one candidate who champions the working class. The reactionaries' letter, titled "Stand up to Bernie or You-- and We-- All Lose," was the same kind of claptrap that the Wall Street-owned conservative Democrats hurled at FDR and used, unsuccessfully, to try to derail him and the New Deal.

At the Las Vegas debate, each of you took aim at one another, often to withering effect. But with few exceptions, you declined to really challenge Senator Sanders. If you repeat this strategy at the South Carolina debate this week, you could hand the nomination to Sanders, likely dooming the Democratic Party-- and the nation-- to Trump and sweeping down-ballot Republican victories in November.

The reasons for this dire prediction are many, as we note below, but one is paramount: Bernie Sanders is a socialist, and the political toxicity of his self-selected brand cannot be overstated. As recent polling from Gallup shows, 53% of voters, including 51% of Independents, say they would not vote for “an otherwise well-qualified candidate for president” if that candidate is a socialist. That’s game over.

Senator Sanders seems aware of the problem. Lately, he’s argued that Republicans are the real socialists, since they provide corporate giveaways through tax breaks. He’s said that regular Americans have socialism already, in the form of Social Security and Medicare. He claims, without evidence, that socialism is so popular that it would bring out younger and low-propensity voters at unprecedented levels. And he has tried to append the meaningless modifier of “Democratic” to his “socialist” label.

But none of this will work. Senator Sanders has said it many times, including in past political debates: “I am a Socialist. Of course, I am a Socialist.” His attempts to redefine the term or parse the nuances of his socialism, which has run from his early nearTrotskyism to his latter-day Nordic style, will be utterly lost. What voters will know, after nearly one billion dollars of negative ads from Team Trump, is that Bernie Sanders and his Party have embraced socialism.

To be sure, Donald Trump will call any Democratic nominee a “socialist”. But if it’s one of you, that charge will not stick, because it will be an obvious lie. You are Democratic capitalists. Your words, ideas, and histories are clear on this point, and voters will know it. By contrast, if Trump’s opponent is, as his team fervently hopes, a proud socialist, he will make the entire election-- for president and for every other office on the ballot-- a referendum on socialism. That is a fight that Democrats cannot win.

In this campaign-- and in his 50 years in public life-- Bernie Sanders somehow has skated past any serious, sustained scrutiny of his ideas and his record. Yet those are so extreme-- so far outside the mainstream-- that they simply must not be ignored during the remaining fight for the 2020 nomination. Either you will air and debate them now, and deny Sanders the nomination, or they will come roaring out of the Trump machine in the fall, when they will prove fatal.

On Friday, Open Secrets explored the question, Who is funding the anti-Bernie Sanders super PAC? "Several outside groups are trying to slow the momentum of current Democratic presidential frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) by spending millions on ad buys, as he continues to dominate the polls," wrote Ilma Hasan. "The campaign against Sanders originated with hybrid PAC Democratic Majority for Israel, a pro-Israel moderate group, that spent over $1.4 million against Sanders. The group spent over $800,000 running ads against the frontrunning Democratic presidential candidate in Iowa and it’s spending $600,000 in Nevada, according to recent filings with the Federal Election Commission." But who, exactly are the scumbags putting up the money to harm them working class?

Most of the PAC’s contributors have a clear history of giving money to candidates on both sides of the aisle. Its biggest donor is Stacy Schusterman, CEO of Samson Resources, an oil and gas company, who donated $1 million to the group in 2019. Schusterman has a long history of donating to Democratic candidates, except in 2016 when she contributed almost $130,000 to 25 Republican lawmakers including $2,700 to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI).

Venture capitalist Gary Mark Lauder was the second highest donor to the hybrid PAC giving $500,000. New York businessman Milton Cooper was the next highest at $150,000. Active in donating to various Democrats, he also contributed $4,000 to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and $2,000 to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) in 2019.

Ron Zeff, founder and CEO of Carmel Partners, a real estate investment firm, gave the group $100,000. He previously contributed over $70,000 to the GOP. Zeff also donated to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign in 2012 against President Barack Obama.

The Sanders campaign said it raised $1.3 million within a day of the super PAC ads airing. Of the non-billionaires in the race, Sanders is the only candidate to report substantial cash on hand through January.

On Wednesday, Mark Mellman, president of Democratic Majority for Israel, announced the group will no longer be running any ads against Sanders or contribute in the presidential race after its ad buys in Nevada run out. The group will focus on Democratic congressional races instead, Jewish Insider reported.

“We will be involved in congressional races and in some cases those are Democrats running against Republican and in some case, those are pro-Israel champions running against anti-Israel challengers,” Mellman reportedly said.

The pro-Israel super PAC is closely affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee [AIPAC] and some of it’s largest donors are top members of the group, according to The Intercept.

While Mellman’s group will be taking a backseat, the committee has been running an anti-Sanders campaign through Facebook ads since last year. It recently came under scrutiny for accusing “radicals” in the Democratic Party of “pushing their anti-Semitic and anti-Israel policies down the throats of the American people.” The group later apologized for “the ad’s imprecise wording (that) distorted our message and offended many.”

Another group meant to boost moderates, The Big Tent Project, reportedly has a budget of $1 million to run ads against Sanders. Big Tent has spent $200,000 of the budget running two test ads in Nevada and South Carolina, as both states will hold upcoming primaries. Sanders is projected to win both states according to FiveThirtyEight’s average of polls.

While one ad accuses the frontrunner of dumping waste in Latino communities, the other criticizes his healthcare policy. “The cost? Another four years of Trump,” the ad says. Run by Jonathan Kott, a former top aide to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Big Tent is classified as a 501(c)(4) and is not required to disclose its donors.

Sanders has long questioned American policy toward Israel and advocates an approach that addresses both Israeli security and a “pro-Palestinian” perspective. His criticism has made pro-Israel Democrats and supporters anxious, resulting in a surge of anti-Sanders ads.

As Sanders is projected to win the upcoming contests, big Democratic donors have concerns about him being the presidential candidate, Politico reported. The concern within democrats is that an anti-Sanders campaign could result in boosting his contributions from an already devoted support base. For others, it’s about Sanders’ possible inability to woo moderate and Republican voters.

How ironic-- and sad-- is it that Israel's neo-fascist criminal leader and all-in Trump ally, Benjamin Netanyahu, is directing his American puppets to derail the candidacy of the first Jewish candidate to have a realistic chance of winning the American presidency? Oh, and then there's the pretend "progressive TV channel" that is corporately owned and operated-- and not even pretending it's not anti-working class now:

Bernie's Ahead In Nevada-- But There Are Shady Big Money Forces Trying To Stop Him

He Can Do It by Nancy Ohanian

The Kaiser Family Foundation and Cook just released a fascinating report about the "blue wall states," where last cycle's centrist status quo Democrat did so miserably against Trump. They chose 4 states-- Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Trump won Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and Hillary managed to hold onto Minnesota by the skin of her teeth. Minnesota's support for Democrats has been legendary but someone so egregiously in favor of the status quo and so obviously an establishment shill talking out of both sides of her mouth, was just too much for too many voters. The last time a Democrat lost Minnesota was in 1972. Minnesota's votes for Democrats since then:

1976- Jimmy Carter beat Ford- 54.9% to 42%
1980- Carter beat Reagan- 46.5% to 42.6%
1984- Mondale beat Reagan- 49.7% to 49.5%
1988- Michael Dukakis beat George HW Bush- 52.9% to 45.9%
1992- Bill Clinton beat George HW Bush- 43.5% to 31.8%
1996- Bill Clinton beat Bob Dole- 51.1% to 35%
2000- Al Gore beat George Bush II- 47.9% to 45.5%
2004- John Kerry beat George Bush II- 51.1% to 47.6%
2008- Obama beat McCain- 54.1% to 43.8%
2012- Obama beat Romney- 52.6% to 45%
2016- Hillary beat Trump 46.4% to 44.9%

Trump keeps whining about Minnesota because it was so close and he's demanding his campaign try again. Problem with that is that his favorability has crashed by 10 points since inauguration day and now stands at 41% favorable and 58% unfavorable. (11 points underwater. Trump is also underwater in Michigan and in Pennsylvania by 11 points, and underwater in Wisconsin by 14 points.)

Now let's look at the blue wall states today that Hillary managed to lose in 2016 with her miserable status quo campaign. Democratic motivation in all 3 is significantly higher than GOP motivation. The question asked was if voters were more motivated to vote in 2020 than they were in 2016. Democrats are motivated to defeat Trump and Republicans are motivated to destroy America by reelecting him. In Michigan, Democrats are more motivated 65-43%. In Pennsylvania Democrats are more motivated 66-54%. And in Wisconsin Democrats are more motivated 62-46%.

When asked to offer in their own words what one thing will motivate them to vote in the 2020 presidential election, one-fifth of all Blue Wall voters offer responses related to defeating President Trump (21%). This is followed by those who say voting is their civic duty (9%), health care (8%), re-electing President Trump or not wanting to elect a Democrat (8%), and the economy (4%) is their top motivation. Overall, one-fourth (23%) of voters offer issues such as health care, the economy, and immigration, as their motivation for voting in the 2020 presidential election.

Republican voters in the four states don't profess to being anti-American or suicidal but most of them do admit that there is literally no policy that Trump could enact that would make them not vote for him. Think in terms of the cuts he wants to make to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, as well as his erratic and dangerous foreign and trade policies and the way he has run up the deficit with nothing to show for it.

Moving along, we also just saw the first legitimate poll for Nevada, the next state that will be voting. The Las Vegas Review-Journal< Adelson's paper, reported that Bernie "leads the presidential field by a solid margin among likely Democratic caucusgoers heading into Nevada’s four-day early voting period."

• Bernie- 25%
• Status Quo Joe- 18%
• Elizabeth- 13%
• Steyer- 11%
• Mayo Pete- 10%
• Klobuchar- 10%

Bernie and Elizabeth have the highest favorability scores (71%) and Klobuchar and Mayo have the lowest, respectively 62% and 59%. Now, speaking of Nevada, Ryan Grim and Akela Lacy went to town on where all those vicious, negative ads on Bernie blanketing local TV are coming from. Remember that grotesque slob Mark Mellman from the Iowa smear campaign? He's behind the anti-Bernie campaign, which means that AIPAC (Israel) is paying for it. "In the past," wrote Grim and Lacy AIPAC enjoyed broad bipartisan support in Congress. But as it’s cozied up to the GOP in recent years and taken a harder right-wing stance on Israel policy, reflecting a rightward drift in Israel, more Democrats are cutting ties with the group and tacking further left. AIPAC’s faltering relationship with Democrats was the initial spur for Mellman’s new organization, founded by donors and operatives linked to AIPAC." By the way, Mellman's devious ads aren't about Israel; they try drilling a negative and destructive message into voters' heads: Bernie, he asserts, can't win. Yet every head to head match up against Trump shows Bernie winning and yesterday YouGov's new polling showed Bernie beating every conservative running, especially Mini-Mike and Mayo Pete. Look at these numbers:

On Wednesday, Rep. Betty McCollum slammed AIPAC as trafficking in “hate speech” for a recent social media ad campaign that warned that “radicals in Congress” presented a threat “maybe more sinister” than the Islamic State, along with photos of Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and McCollum. Representatives of AIPAC spent Wednesday and Thursday on Capitol Hill apologizing in private meetings with House Democrats for those ads, claiming that they were made by AIPAC’s Democratic digital firm (though how that shifts responsibility from AIPAC is unclear). Omar, Tlaib, and McCollum were not invited to-- nor even aware of-- those meetings, despite being the subjects of the ads, Tlaib and Omar told The Intercept.

Sanders has long been one of the most outspoken critics of unconditional U.S. support for Israel and has become an even sharper critic of the alliance during his 2020 campaign. He said in October that he would condition military aid to Israel on changing its settlement policy, and redirect some military aid to humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip. DMFI [Mellman's hate group] sent a fundraising email in January attacking Sanders for that comment. While Sanders would certainly be more sympathetic to Palestinians than any president in U.S. history, he tends to qualify support for Palestinian rights by first prioritizing Israel’s security.

...The DMFI ads have been controversial and represent one of the first Super PAC interventions by a Democratic group against a Democratic presidential candidate in the post-Citizens United era. (Hillary Clinton in 2016 had the benefit of the group Correct the Record, which was legally a Super PAC and attacked Sanders. The group  coordinated with the Clinton campaign, rather than operating independently, yet that coordination went unpunished.) But the revelation that AIPAC has been encouraging donors to fund DMFI suggests how seriously the lobby is taking Sanders’s candidacy and that it is willing to intervene in the Democratic primary. On Thursday night, news leaked that a Super PAC connected to the Democratic group EMILY’s List had been contemplating an attack ad against Sanders. In a statement, the group said the ad had not been approved and that it would support whichever candidate won the Democratic nomination.

Big-money groups are doing all they can to ensure that Sanders doesn’t become the nominee, however, and after the Iowa caucuses, DMFI boasted that its ads had left a mark on Sanders. “Now that almost all of the Iowa results are in, the incredibly close race shows that DMFI PAC’s ad blunted Senator Sanders’ momentum,” the group wrote to its email list after some of the results were in. “The network entrance poll proves it. Among those who decided which candidate to support before DMFI PAC’s ad aired, Sanders was in first place by a 6 point margin. However, among those who made a decision while the ad was airing, Sanders came in 5th, 10 points behind the leader.”

Conservative writer Jonathan Tobin, in a recent piece for Ha’aretz, discussed AIPAC’s posture toward Sanders in a recent column headlined, “AIPAC Must Stop Bernie Sanders-- at All Costs.”

In the lead up to the Iowa caucus, the Democratic Majority for Israel, a year-old political action group and super PAC, invested heavily in negative ads aimed at derailing the campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders. Mark Mellman, the veteran Democratic strategist who leads the group, told me that its efforts-- which are funded by the party’s leading pro-Israel donors-- helped steer late deciding voters away from the Vermont Democratic Socialists.

It’s in that context that the AIPAC Facebook ads that so offended Democrats must be seen. For centrist pro-Israel Democrats, the problem with Sanders is not just that he is the most critical toward Israel of all the Democrats. It’s that the left-wing activist base that is fueling his candidacy is also largely hostile toward the Jewish state. Sanders is backed by Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who are supporters of the BDS movement and are accused of using anti-Semitic language and tropes in their criticisms of Israel’s supporters.

Yesterday, probably because of the far right extremists playing negatively in the election on behalf of Netanyahu and the Likud, the more moderate Jewish Democratic Council of America is warning normal Jewish-Americans about Mellman and others like him loaded with cash from anti-progressive sources. The group's chairman, Ron Klein, and executive director, Halie Soifer, so-wrote a letter yesterday emphasizing that "the U.S.-Israel relationship has been increasingly politicized by Republicans and used to divide Democrats in an attempt to win Jewish votes. It's very harmful to play this cynical game, particularly when we know that Israel is at its strongest when it has bipartisan support. It is essential to arm yourself with the facts in order to refute false narratives and to understand where the Democratic candidates stand on this issue. The Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) is here for you as a resource on this-- and other-- key issues in the 2020 election. Keep reading for more on where the Democratic candidates stand on Israel. So, let’s set the record straight-- all 2020 Democratic presidential candidates:

• Support U.S. military assistance to Israel;
• Support Israel's right to exist in safety and security as a Jewish state;
• Support a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and
• Oppose the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

These are the cardinal principles of-- what has historically been and should continue to be-- bipartisan support for Israel. Some of the Democratic presidential candidates do differ on some issues related to Israel, particularly when it comes to the possibility of conditioning U.S. aid or precluding its use for unilateral Israeli annexation of the West Bank.

...One essential reminder as we navigate the next few months together-- let’s not let Republicans set the agenda or narrative when it comes to Israel, or any other issue. We should judge each candidate on the totality of his or her record on Israel and the myriad of other issues we care about. Most importantly, let’s remember that our goal is defeat Donald Trump in November and elect candidates who share our values.