There Really Is A Reason We Have Primaries-- Too Bad So Few People Use Them

Do you watch the Humanist Report much? If not, maybe you should. In the video above, host Mike Figueredo successfully explains why progressives need to show some spine when it comes to dealing with foot draggingly corporate careerist Democrats, especially in leadership. As you know, Marianne Williamson has endorsed Shahid Buttar, who's running against Nancy Pelosi, Mckayla Wilks, who is running against Pelosi's top lieutenant, Steney Hoyer, and Jen Perelman, who is taking on faded party leadership figure Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Look at Marianne's list of candidates; 14 of them are taking on entrenched Democratic incumbents.

One senior congressional Democrat, a progressive, didn't agree that anyone can lump Pelosi and Hoyer together. "It's like apples and hand grenades," he told me. "And to have this video come out within 24 hours of her calling Trump a "fat fuck" is bad timing. Would anyone else call Trump a "fat fuck!"

Yesterday Shahid Buttar told us that he's "incredibly grateful for Marianne Williamson's support. Having seen her as a voice encouraging empathy at the highest levels of our national politics, I'm eager to build a brighter future together with her-- finally putting people and communities, rather than corporations, at the center of our public policy. Often, it takes a voice like hers, from the outside of politics, to see so clearly what the root of the problem is in Washington-- entrenched Democratic so-called leaders like Nancy Pelosi who are our immediate hurdles to progress. I'm impressed by Marianne's courage in joining me to take on the top brass of political corruption, and I hope other figures in the Democratic Party have the strength to follow in her footsteps."

Well, one of those figures is Eva Putzova who served on the Flagstaff City Council and as a Bernie DNC delegate. Now she's running for Congress in a district (AZ-01) held by former Republican state legislator Tom O'Halleran, who now bills himself as a Blue Dog. He opposes everything the Democratic Party stands for. Eva told us that she "became a U.S. Citizen in 2007 and the day after the naturalization ceremony I registered to vote as a Democrat because I am a democrat. Then in 2016, I went to the DNC as a delegate for Bernie Sanders, which opened my eyes to how the party leadership at both national and state levels is enmeshed with corporate interests and how the only way we can reclaim Democratic Party for democrats is to replace those who are bought by corporations. So many young people we talk to on the campaign trail are turned off by conversations about policies because they are turned off by the corrupted politics. I'm challenging the most Republican Democrat in Arizona precisely for these reasons: his votes and inaction on the most enormous challenges we face, like climate change, are a direct reflection of his support of the corporate agenda. The top Democratic Party representatives in Congress lost their ability to lead with courage and to drive transformation because they are out of touch with the people of this country and because they accepted and institutionalized corruption. They have to go because they are no longer Democrats."

All the details are here: https://secure.ngpvan.com/DAR1YEp-bkWTNtpHzgUd7A2

Michael Owens is a former Democratic chairman for Cobb County, which went blue under his leadership. He knows the party inside and out and he's taking on one of the last of the Georgia Blue Dogs, David Scott. He was very happy to have received an endorsement from Marianne. "Her willingness to suppprt progressive candidates," he said, "is a breath of fresh air, in what can often be the caustic environment of primary politics where challengers are running against establishment Democrats. The true strength in moving the progressive movement forward is through down ballot candidates."

Jan Perelman is the progressive Democrat running for the south Florida seat that Debbie Wasserman Schultz is sitting in-- opposing everything remotely progressive other than gay rights and abortion. When it comes to working families' interests, she's a baby step from being a Republican. "I'm always so amazed that I'm considered the 'left,'" Jen told us last night. "I have been a Democrat since I registered to vote in 1989. I am pro-labor, pro-environment, and anti-war, which are not radical positions. It was the Democratic Party that 'left' me when it was taken over by corporate interests and stopped representing working people. We cannot move forward as a country as long as entrenched corporate Democrats remain beholden to special interests. As a primary challenger who takes zero corporate money, I am going to do everything in my power to bring the Democratic party back to its roots as the party of the people."

Robin Wilt is also challenging an old school corrupt political hack, Joe Morelle, in Monroe County, New York. Robin was very enthusiastic about Marianne endorsing Shahid and told me that "not only proved that her run for the Presidency was not borne of vanity, but of integrity; but she has also demonstrated the type of political leadership and courage that the left wing of the party has long been lacking. As Democrats, as long as we remain complicit in supporting leadership within the party that does not advance an agenda that centers those most impacted by the deleterious policies that have produced the massive inequities that we witness today, we can no more say that we care about marginalized communities and the plight of the disenfranchised than can Republicans make that claim."

Continuing, Robin said that "It is disingenuous and craven to claim that you support universal health care, and then support leadership that blocks Medicare for All at every turn. It is disingenuous and craven to claim that you care about wealth and income inequality, and then support leadership that preserves a tax structure that benefits only the top 1% and accepts massive amounts of money from corporate interests. It is disingenuous and craven to claim that you care about climate justice, and then support leadership that thwarts implementation of the Green New Deal. It is disingenuous to claim that you care about housing justice and then support leadership that will not advance a Federal Homes Guarantee. In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King warned us about the well-meaning moderate that compromised his/her principles for the sake of pragmatism. King understood that whenever we compromise with a lie about who people are, and barter the human rights of the people we serve for our own comfort, we empower the political forces that have exploited our divisions to maintain power. The politicians who are blocking the expansion of healthcare to all Americans, abiding corporate polluters, increasing investment in the war and mass incarceration and detention economies, all while slashing our nation’s safety net and denying workers the right to earn a living wage are the selfsame politicians who are blocking a progressive agenda. Our silence is enabling their deceit. It is time that we follow Marianne Williamson’s courageous lead, give voice to the voiceless, and unabashedly support true progressives that adhere to the principles we hold dear."

Hector Oseguera, the New Jersey progressive running for a seat held by party hack Albio Sires, told us this morning that "It's an absolute honor to be part of Marianne Williamson's movement to bring the Democratic Party back to earth. This is a party that's supposed to represent the working-class people of this nation, but has gotten way too comfortable with their corporate sponsors. When you look at my race, you'll find that I'm the only Democratic candidate in this Democratic primary. The incumbent has an abysmal record on immigration, corporate welfare, and mass surveillance. Whether it's the environment, healthcare, or affordable housing, my opponent is to the far right of the average voter in my district, relying on a network of political cronies and corrupt big money interests to keep him in power. He's received dishonorable mentions in books like the Soprano State and the Jersey Sting, covering his history of corruption and ethics violations that have contributed to New Jersey's reputation as a politically corrupt state. This progressive movement, which owes a lot to Marianne's leadership, is working to dismantle the facade that corporate Democrats offer much substantive difference from their Republican colleagues."

In the Oklahoma City congressional district, Tom Guild is running against one of the most conservative Blue Dogs in the House, Kendra Horn. Tom noted yesterday that "Marianne Williamson is showing exemplary leadership in endorsing, raising money and fighting for progressive congressional candidates throughout America. My opponent opposes Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, raising the minimum wage to $15; she voted against labor’s major legislative initiative in Congress in 2020, voted against Sen. Tim Kaine’s and Ro Khanna's resolution to restrain Donald Trump from taking military actions that could start another endless war in Iran, and recently met remotely with lobbyists for Big Insurance Companies who were seeking money to bail out COBRA in the HEROES Act. That’s just a small sampling of her support for Republican-lite regressive policies. On the CARES Act she voted for the rule to let the bill proceed to the floor of the House to be debated and voted on, then she voted no on the bill. Go figure. Unless progressives oppose Nancy Pelosi’s DCCC gravy train and their support for Republican-lite members of the House running as Democrats, we essentially have two big corporate parties corrupted to the hilt by Wall Street and special interest campaign money. That may be one of the big untold stories as to why so many Americans choose to opt out and not vote every year. They see little structural and substantive difference between the two major parties on issues important to them. I thank Marianne for her support for our campaign and commend her for her integrity in grabbing the bull by the horns and supporting, Shahid, Pelosi’s primary challenger. Marianne has the guts of a government mule and that’s exactly what it will take for progressives to rule the roost. Progressives need to be tougher and stick out their necks to support fellow progressive candidates even when it’s hard to do and not convenient for them. I’m happy that I promoted Marianne to help her make the presidential debates and encouraged people on Facebook and Twitter to donate to her campaign. I was all in for Bernie, but saw that progressives needed all the help we could get in the primaries and in the debates. We need to GO BIG, GO BOLD, or GO HOME!"

Vote For A Republican-Lite Democratic Candidate And Don't Complain When You Get Republican-Lite Laws-- Conservative Democrats Defeat Assault Weapons Ban In Virginia

Last Thursday night-- in a post called Scrub From Your Mind: Any Blue Will Do"-- we looked at how the much ballyhooed new Democratic majority in the Virginia legislature failed to repeal the state's venal, anti-union right to work law. Yesterday the state Senate again sided with the GOP, failing to pass a ban on the sale of assault weapons. The House of Delegates had passed the bill 51-48 last week, even though 3 Democrats voted against it (Steve Heretick, Roslyn Tyler and Lee Carter) and one, Kelly Convirs-Fowler of Virginia Beach, abstained. Yesterday, conservative Senate Dem Creigh Deeds-- backed up by fellow Senate conservaDems John Edwards (Judiciary Committee Chair), Chap Petersen and Scott Surovell-- got it tabled in the Senate Judiciary Committee, while the NRA-packed crowd in the visitors bleachers cheered and applauded.

Creigh Deed's name might sound familiar, since he was the Democratic candidate for governor in 2009, when he lost to crooked conservative Republican Bob McDonnell, 58.6% to 41.2%. He is well known as one of Virginia's worst xenophobes in the Democratic Party, having voted to make English the official language of Virgina as well as for bills that would prevent undocumented immigrants from applying for state and local benefits and to prohibit them from paying in-state tuition rates. In 2005 Deeds he had run against McDonnell for Attorney General, losing narrowly, after being endorsed by his pals at the NRA.

He represents a solidly blue Senate district (the 25th) that includes the City of Charlottesville and much of surrounding Albemarle County, stretching to also include all of Alleghany County, Bath County, Highland County, Nelson County, Rockbridge County, and the cities of Buena Vista, Covington, and Lexington. The district gave Obama a 55.5% victory over Romney and gave Hillary a 54.7% win over Trump, who scored only 39.3% there. Kaine and Warner both took the 25th in their Senate runs and Ralph Northam won it in 2017 (59.7- 39.2%) when he was elected governor. The district is way more progressive than its state Senator.

State Senator Louise Lucas, a Judiciary Committee member, said she was "deeply disturbed" by the vote and said Deeds and the 3 other Democrats who voted with the GOP had "wimped out... I want you to count now, start now, and start counting the number of people who would’ve died based on us not passing this legislation. A lot of people are going to die because this body didn’t have the spine to do what two million voters wanted us to do."

The corporate Dem who serves as House Speaker, Eileen Filler-Corn, called the Senate vote "a disappointment... The Democratic platform last fall was very clear. Limiting access to weapons of war used in mass murder was a key part of that platform."

No one should really be surprised though. This is exactly what you can expect by electing Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. On the federal level, that would be Blue Dogs and New Dems. And that's why Blue America hosts this ActBlue page, supporting vetted progressives who are running in primaries against the worst Democrats in Congress. I asked some of them what they think about the Virginia Democrats decision to betray the people who voted for them. Michael Owens, the progressive Democrat taking on reactionary Blue Dog David Scott in the suburbs south and southwest of Atlanta, made the right connection: "Blue Dog Democrats and other conservative members of the Democratic Party do their constituents harm each and every time they bow down to a corporation or special interest lobbyist and put their profit-driven greed above the need of the people."

"Today," wrote Rachel Ventura last night, "I had a debate against Corporate Democrat Bill Foster. In it I pointed out that many Democrats are watching how the news media is casting the presidential race and defining it as a fight between progressives and moderates. It's not though. Instead, it is a struggle between the corporate wing filled with politicians who are bought and paid for, versus the people’s wing. Blue Dogs Democrats and Republicans are bought by the same industries. They both have taken money from Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Banks, and the list continues… my opponent is no different. These corporate politicians make us believe that our tax dollars must continue to go to endless wars and corporate bailouts. But they don’t. We can choose where are dollars are spent by sending a true representative to Congress. Incrementalism has only eroded the middle class and resulted in a president like Donald Trump. Since I first entered the political arena in 2016, my tagline has been 'no strings attached.' I have signed the 'no fossil fuel money' pledge and the 'patients over profit pledge.' My opponent cannot say the same. It is past time to send true representation to Washington D.C. as well as individual local and state reps like in Virginia!"

War And Peace Doesn't Just Happen To Happen

Alan Grayson: "We don’t let children play with guns, or even knives. So why would we let Donald Trump play with drones, missiles and nuclear weapons?"

Mike Pompeo's bullshit about people dancing in the streets after Trump had Iranian leader Qassim Suleimani assassinated apparently didn't include members of the Iraqi Parliament. On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Iraq's parliament unanimously voted to demand that Prime Minister Adel-Abdul Mahdi, who initiated the resolution himself, end the U.S. military presence in the country. Trump had talked with Mahdi on the phone before the drone attack on Suleimani's convoy at the Baghdad airport, but neglected to let him know about what was about to happen.

Also not dancing in the streets: progressive candidates running for Congress. This is a list of 2020 House candidates, 16 progressive Democrats endorsed by Blue America, along with their opponents. Each of the opponents voted in favor of the NDAA that gives Trump a free hand to start wars on a whim, like the one he’s ginning up against Iran right now. The Blue America-endorsed opponents have all said they would have voted against the NDAA.

• Shaniyat Chowdhury v Gregory Meeks (NY-05)
• Kara Eastman v Donald Bacon (NE-02)
• Kathy Ellis v Jason Smith (MO-08)
• Robert Emmons v Bobby Rush (IL-01)
• Mark Gamba v Kurt Schrader (OR-05)
• Morgan Harper v Joyce Beatty (OH-03)
• Marie Newman v Dan Lipinski (IL-03)
• Liam O’Mara v Ken Calvert (CA-42)
• Michael Owens v David Scott (GA-13)
• Rebecca Parson v Derek Kilmer (WA-06)
• Eva Putzova v Tom O’Halleran (AZ-01)
• J.D. Scholten v Steve King (IA-04)
• Mike Siegel v Michael McCaul (TX-10)
• Rachel Ventura v Bill Foster (IL-11)
• Kim Williams v Jim Costa (CA-16)
• Brianna Wu v Stephen Lynch (MA-08)

These Republicans and conservative Democrats should not be reelected and I want to ask you to help support the challengers. When you hear the phrase Bernie wants to send your children to college and Trump wants to send them to war, remember that it isn’t only Trump, it’s also Republican stooges like Michael McCaul, Ken Calvert and Steve King and reactionary Democrats like Tom O’Halleran, Jim Costa and Kurt Schrader. It’s time to take a stand. Eva Putzova sure has. She's running for the Arizona seat occupied by Blue Dog Tom O'Halleran, an "ex"-Republican legislator who voted for Trump's Pentagon budget. Eva has been completely clear that should would have voted NO. "Only Congress has the power to declare war," she told us yesterday, "and responsibility of oversight of and accountability for our use of military force. Yet Congress has increasingly enabled the reckless abuse of the AUMF by turning a blind eye to Executive overreach and by giving the Office of President ever-increasing military budget. As a member of Congress, my opponent has been complacent with the abuse of military power and bears responsibility for countless lives lost. His latest votes, failing to limit Trump's war-making ability and giving him the resources to start a war, are in conflict with the interests of his constituents, this country, and the entire global community."

Kim Williams, a former U.S. diplomat when Obama was president, is also running for a congressional seat held by a reactionary Blue Dog, Jim Costa (CA-16). "Last July," she told us, "Mitch McConnell rebuffed attempts to amend the NDAA by stating that Democrats were politicizing the process. He added that they would not be doing this if there were a Democratic president. But this argument fails to acknowledge a number of political realities. One, Congress should never have written a blank check to any President. Two, Republicans don’t win elections. The last two lost the popular vote by significant margins and neither showed the temperament nor the intellect to make life or death decisions. A functioning democracy should save us from the impulses of a single, flawed individual, and I can not understand how Members of Congress can argue that we should take slow, 'common sense' steps to address issues that cost real American lives like our failing healthcare system, air pollution, and poverty, but then fast track decisions around war. The fact that this President has a history of playing with decoys is even more troubling. Would he have made the same order if he wasn’t facing impeachment? I don’t think so. Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna have now introduced legislation that would block Pentagon funding for any unilateral actions taken by President Trump. If I am elected, they will have my full support."

Virtually all of the candidates we’ve endorsed have been bringing up Ro Khanna as a member of Congress they want to work with to preserve peace. Some say it in very simple terms and others have written long essays already! Last night Dr. Michael Owens, the progressive Democrat challenging Blue Dog warmonger David Scott in the suburbs south and west of Atlanta (GA-13) told me that “House Democrats should not cede any ground to this president when it comes to allowing him to use his judgement and executive branch authority. I would not have voted for the NDAA… mainly because we needed to have the amendments in the bill that Rep. Ro Khanna and Rep. Barbara Lee put forth. Amendments to block funding for a war with Iran barring congressional approval and the amendment to repeal 2001’s ‘Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists’ (AUMF) could’ve possibly reigned in President Trump’s reckless actions and questionable reasoning for the U.S. drone strike he authorized against the high-ranking Iranian officials.”

Rachel Ventura, the progressive Will County Board member challenging New Dem Bill Foster (IL-11), noted that when she is elected she "will exercise my role as congresswoman to keep any president-- Democrat or Republican-- in check. That is the job of the United States House of Representatives and I will do my job. Just last December, many members of Congress disregarded that job they had to do by passing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a blank check that allowed the president to use government funding to conduct the very strike that landed us in our current position. They could have supported Ro Khanna's amendment and any number of other measures that would have limited Trump's ability to continue destabilizing the world. Instead, they gave an unstable president a blank check to destabilize an already unstable region. So to all the members of Congress who voted to pass this funding bill, including my opponent Bill Foster, you can't give an 'unhinged' president a check in December and then criticize the same man for using that check a month later. It is hypocritical to criticize Donald Trump's wrongful assassination of a senior Iranian General after shirking your responsibility to keep the president in check. I will not be a part of the caucus that simply goes along to get along. I will be joining the courageous members of Congress in the progressive caucus who had the foresight to predict this nightmare."

Rachel's neighbor in Chicagoland-- they sometimes hold joint events-- Robert Emmons, who’s taking on Bobby Rush, put it much more succinctly: "War will cost us trillions of dollars. War will end thousands of lives. Reparations, ending everyday gun violence, universal pre-k, Medicare for All, universal transportation, and a Green New Deal will save lives. I choose pro-peace." Pretty straight to the point. And Marie Newman, a third Chicagoland progressive taking on a reactionary pro-war Dem (Dan Lipinski) told us "My opponent voted for the NDAA and that says it all. He believes this president should have full power to start wars whenever he wishes."

Rebecca Parson, the Democratic Socialist challenging northwest Washington New Dem Derek Kilmer, was even more succinct! "Derek Kilmer voted for Trump’s war budget and now Trump is stoking war with Iran. We need principled progressives in Congress, not corporate tools of the war machine."

One state down, Mark Gamba, the progressive mayor of Milwaukie, Oregon, is running for the congressional seat held by Blue Dog war-monger Kurt Schrader, who, needless to say, voted for the NDAA a couple of weeks ago. Mark told me today that "We go to war to make rich people richer. We do it both to secure access to other countries resources for our corporations and simply to enrich the military industrial complex. We allow our young people to be maimed, psychologically ravaged or be killed in order to enrich Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman and dozens of others. Never mind the fact that we kill millions of innocent civilians in other countries in the process. I believe in a strong national defense. But we were already spending more than the next 10 largest militaries in the world combined before the terrible vote by 188 house Democrats to increase it. Yet the only real threat we face goes completely unaddressed, simply because no defense contractor will make billions fighting climate change. No big surprise that Kurt Schrader was one of the Dems that took that bad vote. It’s long past time to replace corporate dems with people who are not beholden the Military Industrial Complex and who actually give a damn about our young people. It’s time to spend this kind of money solving the actual threat of climate change rather than the Trumped up threats from other countries. It may also be high time to preemptively launch antiwar protests. I’ll see you on the streets."

Liam O’Mara is the progressive running for the Riverside County congressional seat that lockstep Trump toadie Ken Calvert occupies. There are few districts in California where the contrast between the two candidates is as great. Yesterday, Liam, a history professor, told us that "Trump just made another massive blunder in the Middle East-- another in a long line of blunders that we keep making there. We violated Iraqi sovereignty, broke international law, committed an act of war against Iran, and may also have violated U.S. law-- and for what? To keep feeding the war machine, to get more troops sent overseas and keep up the endless waste of taxpayer dollars and lives? I think that the U.S. deserves better from its leaders. I think that it deserves investment in its citizens, in their quality of life, not in constant wars for oil and defense-contractor dollars. We should be building houses and hospitals, roads and bridges, factories and farms… not bombing ten countries, wasting trillions on unwinnable wars, and assassinating foreign leaders. It’s time to think about what kind of country we want-- a moral exemplar, devoted to the rule of law, or a rogue state, concerned only for power and greed. I know where I stand on that, and where Ken Calvert stands."





Yesterday, Pelosi sent out this letter to all the Democrats in Congress, announcing that the House would vote on a war powers resolution to prevent Trump from going to war with Iran on a whim. Note it is being carried for her by a conservative Democrat, Elissa Slotkin, rather than by one of the progressives who would be a natural-- like Barbara Lee or Ro Khanna. I suppose Pelosi thinks that will help her lock up votes on the right for the Democratic Party more easily.

Dear Democratic Colleague,

Last week, the Trump Administration conducted a provocative and disproportionate military airstrike targeting high-level Iranian military officials. This action endangered our servicemembers, diplomats and others by risking a serious escalation of tensions with Iran.

As Members of Congress, our first responsibility is to keep the American people safe. For this reason, we are concerned that the Administration took this action without the consultation of Congress and without respect for Congress’s war powers granted to it by the Constitution.

This week, the House will introduce and vote on a War Powers Resolution to limit the President’s military actions regarding Iran. This resolution is similar to the resolution introduced by Senator Tim Kaine in the Senate. It reasserts Congress’s long-established oversight responsibilities by mandating that if no further Congressional action is taken, the Administration’s military hostilities with regard to Iran cease within 30 days.

The House Resolution will be led by Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin.  Congresswoman Slotkin is a former CIA and Department of Defense analyst specializing in Shia militias. She served multiple tours in the region under both Democratic and Republican Administrations.

I greatly appreciate the solemnity with which all of our Members are working to honor our responsibility to protect American lives and values.

Thank you for your patriotic leadership during this difficult time.

The House Passed a Modest Bill To Lower Drug Prices-- Yesterday, Thanks To Conservative Greed, Moscow Mitch And Trump, Drugs Prices Went Up Across The Board

What Blows Up Must Come Down by Nancy Ohanian

Keeping drug prices high has paid off well for conservatives. Both Republicans and faux-Dems-- like former House Majority Leader and anti-health care lobbyist Dick Gephardt, now a DNC Super-delegate who will help select the next Democratic nominee— have become wealthy from the PhRMA bribes. Drug manufacturers-- like Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Amgen, Abbvie, Merck, AstraZeneca, Nephron, Novartis, Sanofi, Allergan, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline and Novo Nordisk and Abbott Labs have spent millions of dollars bribing politicians and buying scumbag lobbyists like Gephardt.

In the last cycle, here are the dozen currently-serving House members who took the most in bribes from Big PhRMA in just that 2 year period. In a just world they would all be rotting in prison instead of keeping the cost of medicine high. Do you ever vote for any of these criminal characters? (The number in brackets is the amount each has taken since 1990.)

• Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)- $214,150 ($839,550)
• Greg Walden (R-OR)- $207,500 ($650,603)
• Kevin Brady (R-TX)- $163,550 ($457,201)
• Richard Neal (D-MA)- $127,000 ($399,600)
• Linda Sanchez (D-CA)- $123,004 ($335,281)
• Frank Pallone (D-NJ)- $117,200 ($698,170)
• Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)- $111,556 ($305,206)
• Steny Hoyer (D-MD)- $96,000 ($720,572)
• Brett Guthrie (R-KY)- $95,000 ($401,862)
• John Shimkus (R-IL)- $94,500 ($616,485)
• Brad Schneider (New Dem-IL)- $94,268 ($211,133)
• Anna Eshoo (D-CA)- 90,950 ($893,315)

Although Fred Upton (R-MI) didn’t make it into the top 12 last cycle, since 1990 he’s taken the biggest share of PhRMA bribes of anyone currently serving in the House-- and is the single biggest culprit in the efforts to keep drug prices high for the American people. The 10 worst currently serving senators, each of whom has gobbled up some of the biggest portions in PhRMA bribes in their political careers are Mitt Romney (R-UT- $899,718), Moscow Mitch (R-KY- $860,313), Richard Burr (R-NC- $855,451), Robert Melendez (D-NJ- $727,573), Roy Blunt (R-MO- $659,140), Patty Murray (D-WA- $592,527), Bob Casey (D-PA- $572,534), Tom Carper (D-DE- $515,809), Chuck Schumer (D-NY- $485,779) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN- $467,402). If these politicians-- and the executives and lobbyists on the other side of the transactions-- were in prison, American drug prices would be less than half of what they are now.

I take a drug called Vimpat for neuropathy, a common side effect after chemotherapy cancer treatments. Most insurance plans, including Medicare Part-D, do not cover it and it costs, on average $1,126.19 a month. Dick Gephardt has made certain that there are no generic versions available. I bought some in Thailand recently, via Abbott Labs for around $300 a month. Big saving, although that’s still $3,600 year.

Reporters Michael Erman and Carl O’Donnell, writing for Reuters Tuesday, broke an exclusive story: Drugmakers from Pfizer to GlaxoSmithKline to hike U.S. prices on over 200 drugs. In fact most of the big drug firms that bribe American politicians “are planning to hike U.S. list prices on more than 200 drugs in the United States on Wednesday, according to drugmakers and data analyzed by healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors. Nearly all of the price increases will be below 10%, and around half of them are in the range of 4 to 6%, said 3 Axis co-founder Eric Pachman. The median price increase is around 5%, he said. More price increases are expected to be announced later this week, which could affect the median and range.”

Soaring U.S. prescription drug prices are expected to again be a central issue in the presidential election. President Donald Trump, who made bringing them down a core pledge of his 2016 campaign, is running for re-election in 2020.

…Pfizer will hike prices on more than 50 drugs, including its cancer treatment Ibrance, which is on track to bring in nearly $5 billion in revenue this year, and rheumatoid arthritis drug Xeljanz.

Pfizer spokeswoman Amy Rose confirmed the company’s planned price increases. She said the company plans to increase the list prices on around 27% of its portfolio in the United States by an average of 5.6%.

Of the medicines with increases, she said 43% of them are sterile injectibles, and many of those increases are less than $1 per product.

GlaxoSmithKline said it will raise prices on more than 30 drugs. The company will raise prices on the blockbuster respiratory treatments it delivers through its Ellipta inhaler, its recently acquired cancer drug Zejula and on several products in its HIV-focused ViiV joint venture, according to 3 Axis Advisors. Price increases ranged between 1% and 5%.

Sanofi said it will raise prices on around 10 of its drugs, with hikes ranging between 1% and 5%. The drugmaker noted the increases are in line with its commitment to not raise prices above medical inflation.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd raised prices on more than 15 drugs, in some cases by more than 6%, according to 3 Axis Advisors. A Teva spokesperson said the company regularly reviews prices in the context of market conditions, availability and cost of production.

…Ian Spatz, a senior adviser at consulting firm Manatt Health, said that drugmakers could be holding to relatively low price hikes in an attempt to stay out of politicians’ crosshairs. Trump, for instance, targeted Pfizer after a proposed round of price increases in 2018, saying in a tweet that the drugmaker “should be ashamed.”

“I’m sure many manufacturers are interested in making sure they are not called out on a large list price increase,” Spatz said.

The United States, which leaves drug pricing to market competition, has higher prices than in other countries where governments directly or indirectly control the costs, making it the world’s most lucrative market for manufacturers.

Trump, a Republican, has struggled to deliver on a pledge to lower drug prices before the November 2020 election. His administration recently proposed a rule to allow states to import prescription drugs from Canada.

The administration had previously scrapped an ambitious policy that would have required health insurers to pass billions of dollars in rebates they receive from drugmakers to Medicare patients.

The House of Representatives, controlled by Democrats, passed a bill earlier in December that would cap prices for the country’s most expensive drugs based on international prices and penalize drugmakers that do not negotiate with the Medicare insurance program for seniors. Trump has threatened to veto the bill, saying it would undermine access to lifesaving medicines.

Trump won’t have to veto it since Moscow Mitch has refused to allow it— or even more modest plans to be debated, let alone voted on. Michael Owens is running for a congressional seat in the suburbs south and southwest of Atlanta. The current congressman, corrupt Blue Dog David Scott, is perfectly content to see drug prices go up and up-- as long as he gets his cut. Owens, who is campaigning on Medicare-for-All, noted recently that he is personally allergic to shellfish and very aware of the surging prices of an Epipen-- from $94 in 2007 to $700 today. A few weeks ago he told me about his own life or death decision. “Do I pay $2,100 dollars (one for home, one for work and one for my backpack) or do I just try my luck with a $13.00 pack of Benadryl and hope that it gets into my bloodstream in time?… I need Epipens, but I also need a place to live… It’s time to stop the greed, and stand firmly on the side of saving more lives. Our tax money is used by highly profitable, private drug companies to research and develop medicines, and it is time our investment goes back into PROVIDING PUBLIC HEALTHCARE!

Heidi Sloan, a Democratic Socialist, running for a central Texas congressional seat against anti-healthcare crooked Republican Roger Williams, took a less specific point of view, expanding it out to cover a broader range of issues important to the people she seeks to represent in Congress. "I think a lot of the resistance to socialists versus progressives stems from a resentment about purity-- that when socialists insist on a framework that addresses structural issues, when we won't settle for half-measures, we're engaging in purity politics and hurting the left. That critique ignores history, as we would not currently have Donald Trump in office if the Democratic Party had not sent a corporate neoliberal to beat him. Centrists who have troublingly scarce ties or adversarial relationships with working people, labor, and marginalized communities should be criticized because we as a party must have high standards for leadership. We insist on high standards because it is what the working class deserves, and because we recognize that we cannot win unless we have the courage to demand what we actually want instead of what we think they will let us have."

Dick Gephardt And Status Quo Joe Are A Certain Kind Of Democrat-- One Where A "P" Works Better Than A "T" As A final Letter

These people all belong in prison-- but only because no one would ever agree their crimes are capital offenses

Dick Gephardt’s dream was to be President or Speaker of the House or very wealthy; he never made it beyond majority leader, but he sure did become very wealthy, selling access to his friends in office to the highest bidders. Now he’s one of the nation's most contemptible Goldman Sachs and PhRMA lobbyist scumbags. Believe it or not, he was once an actual contender for president (of the United States). First elected to Congress by the St. Louis Democratic Machine, he never experienced one moment of politics that wasn’t drenched in corruption, criminality and convenient flip-flopping on any issue he needed to switch positions on. People outside DC sensed he was a piece of shit and-- like Biden-- all his attempts to run for president, starting in 1987 were smartly rebuffed.

After he helped Bush and Cheney trick Congress into declaring war on Iraq (2002), his political career as a Democrat was pretty much done. He didn’t run for a 15th term in Congress but he switched from anti-Choice to “pro”-Choice and tried to run for president again. That’s how I allowed myself to interact with him, against my own better judgment. I’ll make the story of how, as short as I can. The RIAA had paid a huge bribe to the Democratic Party in order to get Congress and President Clinton to go along with some internet publishing deal. But they wanted a president of one of the labels to go thank Clinton personally and there was no one else among the label presidents who had ever experienced the internet, so I was chosen. Therefore they put the bribe in my name, without even asking me-- of even telling me. I’ll skip over the Clinton part and how he and Charlie Rangel tried shaking me down for more cash and go right to the Gephardt story.

By the 2004 campaign my name was on all the political fundraising call lists as a mega-donor because of that RIAA bribe I had nothing to do with. The good news was that I got calls from some cool people, like Howard Dean, but the bad news is that I got attention from the shady characters like Al Gore-- I’ll never forget his wife, who I loathed for her censorship attempts, asking me while I was dancing with my boyfriend at the White House if I would become a Gore bundler-- and Dick Gephardt. Gephardt insisted on meeting me in person even after I told him bluntly that I was firmly and irrevocably backing Howard Dean because he was opposed to the war Gephardt helped Bush start. So I met him. Terry McAuliffe was there too. I felt like I was drowning in a cesspool of the kind of criminality that was destroying politics. Once I made it clear to Gephardt that I wouldn’t give him 5 cents if his life depended on it, he dismissed me and I knew without a doubt I would never hear from him again. (His last campaign puttered out after one of his staffers called a Dean aide a “faggot” and punched him.) Among Gephardt’s endorsers were Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Jim Clyburn, Sherrod Brown, and lots of Blue Dogs who were soon defeated in their own reelection attempts. Gephardt, who had once won the Iowa caucuses, came in 4th in 2004 and that was that. He has devoted the rest of his life to crime, handing out bribes on behalf of corporations instead of taking them for himself from corporations the way he used to.

He immediately went to work for them after losing his presidential bid

So why bring this turd up? He led the battle against the public option in 2009 and has worked diligently to keep drug prices high by pushing to extend patents and block generic drugs from coming to market. It’s largely due to the efforts of Dick Gephardt that drug prices are often TEN TIMES higher in the U.S. than in other countries. And, as Lee Fang, just reported for The Intercept Gephardt is still helping PhRMA rip off the American public as he nears his 80th birthday. Ironically, for me at least, the lead picture in Fang’s article is Gephardt and McAuliffe. Today-- no surprise-- Gephardt is paid to act as a general in the war against Medicare-for-All.

Fang noted that the mere prospect of single payer has elicited swift derision from some corners of the Democratic Party, with Dick Gephardt “laughing off the idea at a health insurance conference earlier this month. ‘Not in my lifetime,’ scoffed Gephardt, when asked if the United States will ever adopt such a system. Gephardt, who serves as a Democratic ‘superdelegate’ responsible for choosing the party’s presidential nominee, was asked about the possibility of single payer at the Centene Corporation annual investor day conference at The Pierre, a ritzy five-star hotel in New York City. ‘There is no way you could pass single payer in any intermediate future,’ Gephardt declared. America, he added, has the ‘greatest health care system in the world, bar none.’ And while single payer would provide universal coverage, there would be less quality and innovation without the ‘involvement of the private sector.’ Haley Barbour, the former Republican National Committee chair, another speaker at the event, chimed in to agree. ‘Hear, hear. Put me down as agreeing with Leader Gephardt as usual,’ Barbour chuckled.”

The claim that single payer suppresses innovation is an old argument that does not stand up to scrutiny. Most medical innovation in the U.S. are already government funded, through universities receiving federal subsidies and grants, as well as through the National Institutes of Health. A single-payer insurance system, like Medicare, would simply negotiate for lower prices from providers, and would likely steer savings towards greater investments in research and development. Claims about lower quality care are also highly disputed, given that countries with single payer and tightly regulated universal health systems perform much higher than the U.S. in a range of health outcomes.

Despite well-entrenched opposition from much of the private health care industry, political momentum for single payer has enjoyed a rapid boom of late.

Does it make your blood boil? It does mine. It makes me want to commit myself to electing Bernie to the presidency and progressives to Congress even more. I spoke with some of the congressional candidates who are running on Medicare-for-All platforms and asked them how they deal with political opponents who use these same manufactured lies about Medicare in their campaigns. Eva Putzova isn’t from the Dick Gephardt wing of the party. She served as a Bernie delegate from Arizona to the Democratic National Convention in 2016 and she’s been fighting for working families every since. The revolving door between politics and corporate lobbyists is not something she looks at kindly, primarily because the results are horrifically damaging to the people she is running to represent in Congress. “We need to implement a single payer, Medicare for All system that will remove the profit-making insurance and pharmaceutical industries from the influence and control they presently exert on health care policy, and policy-makers,” she told me earlier today. “In no other industrialized nation do these profit-making interests have such influence as in the U.S. We need to chase these ‘money lenders from the temple’ as rapidly as possible in order to provide good, quality, universal healthcare to all Americans.”

Massachusetts progressive Brianna Wu addressed her comment directly-- “Here’s what I have to say to those elected officials and candidates who don’t support Medicare For All-- you’re simply not spending enough time listening to your constituents. I can’t count how many people in my district have told me they have no healthcare or inadequate health care. They don’t go to a doctor when they get sick because they just can’t afford it. Some have gone bankrupt because of obscenely high medical bills. These are real people who work hard for themselves and their families. In one of the wealthiest countries on Earth, it isn’t just unfair, it should be criminal. My opponent, Rep. Stephen Lynch, has said that he isn’t yet convinced that Medicare For All would be a good idea. I’m sure that’s true. He enjoys his cadillac insurance plan as a congressman. So do his campaign donors who work for the insurance industry. It’s clear that Rep. Lynch isn’t spending enough time listening to his constituents. If he and other establishment-backed elected officials did listen, they would learn that their days in office are numbered, and that we need Medicare For All. Now.”

Heidi Sloan has a keen understanding of how congressional agendas need to be analyzed. A TX-25 progressive, she is campaigning heavily on Medicare-for-All and for cleaning up campaign finance corruption and the revolving door between congressional offices and lobbying firms. "The most effective piece of the Affordable Care Act was the Medicare expansion, and now we have a movement of people demanding the expansion of Medicare to every person in this country. We have real enemies in this fight, people like Roger Williams who oppose us because his class interests conflict with the goal of single-payer universal healthcare. The ruling class is smart enough to realize that workers who don't depend on employers for healthcare are a lot more likely to go on strike or walk away from a lousy job. Besides, even one of the richest members of Congress doesn't want to lose contributions after the for-profit industry funding his campaign is abolished. He'd rather corporations profit off of the denial of healthcare than to have less industry money to run on. Roger Williams has got to go, and all of the crooked politicians who take corporate money have to go with him."

David Scott stays quiet in Congress-- a career-long backbencher and Blue Dog with a tendency to back Republicans back in Georgia. This year there’s a strong progressive contesting the right to represent the suburban district south and southwest of Atlanta-- Dr. Michael Owens. Yesterday he told us that his platform has "included Medicare for All since day one of my campaign-- which is in stark contrast to my opponent’s stance. This is very unfortunate especially when you consider that there are parts of my district that rank among the least insured in the whole state. This is typical of Scott. He has consistently not supported Medicare for All. In the 114th, 115th and now in the 116th Congress, Scott hasn’t backed Medicare-for-All legislation. I would have signed on as an original cosponsor of Pramila Jayapal’s H.R. 676.  Remember, Georgia currently has the highest maternal mortality rate in the United States-- 46.2 deaths per 100,000 live births. More than 60 of Georgia’s 159 counties do not have a pediatrician. My opponent’s solution is the same that it has been over the last 15 years-- to host a one-day ‘health fair.’ This is a far cry from the bold health care solutions we need. 'Affordable and accessible health care' is a term we should learn to not trust. We also shouldn't trust an elected official who has received over $400,000 from the insurance industry over the last 4 election cycles. The women, children and men of my district and of this country need a single payer system, specifically Medicare for All, to ensure that all Americans have healthcare. Not 'affordable and accessible' healthcare via insurance companies whose goal is to maximize profits and deny and delay coverage. Healthcare is an an American crisis and we must put the need of the people over the greed of the health insurance industry."

Rachel Ventura’s New Dem opponent, Bill Foster, is a total DC insider who plays all the lobbyist games that see congressmen betraying the interests of their constituents for the interests of their campaign donors and other insiders. It might not be as bad if he lived in the district and met some of the folks he’s supposed to be representing. Last night, Rachel told us that “In 2018, Americans spent an all-time high of $360 billion on prescription drugs! Bill Foster won’t support Medicare for all because he supports a tiered healthcare system for those who can afford better insurance. We all deserve to have quality healthcare! Dick Gephardt and my political opponent have one thing in common. They are both part of our political past. Gephardt’s candle is fading quickly and it won’t be long before we are passing single-payer healthcare. We will do things different when I am elected to represent the people of Illinois’ 11th congressional district. There is an intelligent group of young people running for office this cycle, and we are going to win. We will join those who are already reshaping the political landscape in Washington and fighting to represent people over corporations. Change starts in the political campaign. I won’t be taking a penny from big PhRMA or from the for-profit healthcare system. I will have no problem hanging a “not for sale” sign on my office door and refusing meetings with those who have corrupted our political system to a point where voters, in desperation, choose a chaotic outsider like Donald Trump. It’s time to put the past behind us. The old way of doing things and the old players who are still scrapping for relevancy in this changing system will one day be written about as the dark ages in American history.”

Is The DCCC Blacklist Backfiring?

The Republican wing of the Democratic Party

A reminder: As soon as Blue Dog/New Dem Cheri Bustos grabbed the DCCC chair for herself, she instituted an aggressive new policy aimed at progressives challenging Blue Dogs and New Dems (like herself). She officially declared that any campaign consultants, vendors, polling firms, strategists or operatives who worked for a campaign running against an incumbent would be blacklisted by the DCCC. (It's worth noting that several dozen current members of Congress, including some who demanded the action from Bustos-- like Henry Cuellar-- were originally elected by challenging incumbents.)

Bustos immediately went on the offensive against Marie Newman's campaign in a Chicagoland district occupied by anti-Choice, anti-gay, anti-healthcare, anti-immigrant Blue Dog Dan Lipinski, one of the worst Democrats in Congress. Marie nearly beat him in 2018 when close to a million in very right wing sewer money-- including from the Murdoch family-- flooded into the district in a smear campaign orchestrated by Mark Penn and his wife Nancy Jacobson of No Labels. Perfect Cheri Bustos allies!

This cycle presidential candidates Bernie (who also endorsed her in 2018), Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand and Jay Inslee have endorsed Marie-- as have Ro Khanna and AOC. Last week Marie told Elle readers that when AOC won her seat in 2018, "I sent her a Twitter message saying, 'You know, machines can be broken.' She said, 'Thank you, I hope so.' And that’s truly what I believe, that the Chicago machine can be broken and rebuilt. The most important thing in life is to learn from the past. I’m not afraid of hard work. It’s in my DNA.

Guess which side the Cheri Bustos' DCCC is on!

Last week, Natalie Shure, reporting for In These Times asked "why would voters in such a diehard Democratic district choose a candidate like Lipinski to begin with? The answer is simple: they didn’t. In 1975, William Lipinski, Dan’s father, was appointed Committeeman for the Democratic Party of his ward, a position he retained even after being elected to Congress in 1982. After serving 11 terms, the elder Lipinski won his primary in 2004 before abruptly announcing his retirement, leaving the appointment of a successor up to himself, in his capacity as the Democratic Committeeman. Dan was handed the seat by his father, which led him to move back to Illinois from Tennessee. It was a classic machine coronation, or as Newman put it, 'as slimy as it comes.'"

Newman-- like all the Democratic candidates the DCCC is working against-- supports the Green New Deal and Medicare-for-All, both of which Bustos and the DCCC work overtime to de-rail, counseling their approved candidates against both in no uncertain terms. Please consider contributing to the progressives running for those policies by clicking on the 2020 congressional thermometer on the right.

I checked in with some of the other candidates who are vigorously backing Medicare-for-All and the Green New Deal and who have been under attack by the DCCC. Mark Gamba, the progressive mayor of Milwaukie, is running for an Oregon congressional seat held by reactionary Blue Dog Kurt Schrader, a friend of Bustos'. Mark told me he had been gearing up his campaign for about 4 months when the DCCC struck. "I had good conversations with consultants, fundraising and compliance firms... Nothing had been inked but I felt comfortable setting a date for my announcement. Within days of the DCCC edict, every single one of those dried up. That edict did exactly what the DCCC hoped for; it cost my campaign months to pull together a team of people who were unconcerned about what the DCCC thinks. The astonishing thing in my case is that Schrader is not popular with the Democrats; he voted against Pelosi, voted against the $15 minimum wage and takes Koch money.

It boils down to this: he’s a cash cow. It’s all about the money. He’s willing to take money from literally anyone, he said so himself when challenged at a local town hall about some of his donors. The problems we face in America have been caused by the Republicans and the Democrats like Kurt Schrader:  We are the only industrialized nation on earth that does not have universal health care. We spend more on our military industrial complex than the next 10 largest militaries in the world combined-- six of which are our allies. We have more of our citizens incarcerated than any other country on earth. Our infrastructure is crumbling, our schools are underfunded, more and more people are homeless every day and we have not done a damn thing about the greatest existential crisis that humankind has ever faced-- Climate change. By their decision, the DCCC has aided and abetted Congress people who are so interested in the corporate cash, they will never be part of the solution.

We are going to win anyway; we have over a 1,000 people signed up to volunteer and small (non-corporate) donations are coming in from all over the country. Democracy is still alive and well in spite of the best efforts of the DCCC."

Jessica Cisneros, the progressive attorney running in South Texas for a seat held by Trump's-Dem Henry Cuellar said the DCCC, for all their bluster, was only been a minor inconvenience. She told me that when she was "in the process of hiring consultants, we kept running into people who would tell us 'hey, we are rooting for you, but we signed the DCCC pledge so we can't work with you.' That meant we had fewer options to choose from, but in the end it didn't prevent us from building out an incredibly talented team."

The DCCC boycott of reform candidates has led to a new data base of progressive vendors willing to work on primaries despite the DCCC’s ban. They tend to be younger, more progressive and there are more women and people of color-- groups that have had a tough time breaking into the DCCC old boys network of tired hacks anyway.

Waleed Shahid, Communications Director at Justice Democrats: "They kind of shot themselves in the foot. You had new, compelling candidates getting more people involved who want primary challenges like AOC and Ayanna, and then they come out with a policy that’s basically like 'No more AOCs or Ayannas.' It really galvanized progressives.”

Do you see the DCCC trying to make a case for Lipinski or their other corrupt conservative incumbents to the public? Nope, only among wealthy conservative donors and slimy lobbyists, Bustos' base. She even had to cancel her own public fundraiser with Lipinski because she was getting so much pushback from the Democratic base who are unhappy about his Republican policy positions. "Young Democrats of America at over 70 colleges even called for a boycott in donations over the “blacklist” policy.

CANCELED!

Dr. Michael Owens is on the other side of the country, in a suburban district southwest of Atlanta where the incumbent, Blue Dog David Scott literally raises money for Republican candidates! "When we launched our campaign," Michael told me, "we were getting a lot of interest from several of the big Democratic consulting firms and top consultants across the country that wanted to be part of this very critical race for Georgia's 13th District. Georgia is a critical battleground state and progressives are leading the way. As I'm a proven progressive party and grassroots leader, my campaign was generating lots of interests. But once the DCCC made it clear that they were going to aggressively enforce the policy, the calls from those consultants ceased and a few we were in discussions with stopped returning our calls. The DCCC's stated goal is to 'support Democratic House candidates every step of the way to fortify and expand our new Democratic Majority.' I'm a Democratic House candidate and I don't feel supported by this policy and I don't understand how it will help us win a larger majority in the House. In fact, it will do quite the opposite. I'm fully supportive of the DCCC effort in flipping seats. However, this policy isn't necessary, especially in solid blue districts. The DCCC should promote democracy and not stifle it. As it relates to Democratic primary elections like mine, the voters of the district should to decide who their next congressperson is, not the DCCC."

Brianna Wu isn't running for a seat held by a Blue Dog. Her conservative congressman in a Boston area district is a New Dem, just as bad. "When you think about corporate Democrats fighting progress, " she said, "Stephen Lynch is the first person that should come to mind. Lynch voted against Obamacare and for the Iraq war. Lynch thinks we have 100 years to address climate change. Amazingly, Lynch has introduced bills that remove LGBT from hate crime protections. If Alabama can elect a Democrat to the Senate, Massachusetts can elect a real Democrats to the House."

Several of these conservative incumbents have been so frightened by their own constituents that they've signed on as co-sponsors to legislation they have never backed. It's almost comical to watch.

Shaniyat Chowdhury is also up against a New Dem-- this one named Congress' most corrupt member-- Gregory Meeks, in southeast Queens. Shan is no fan of the DCCC. "The DCCC’s only priority is to protect Democratic incumbents who are able to funnel millions in dark money into the party. It’s quid pro quo at the most corrupt level in our political system. While I identify as a Democrat, I think our values need to reflect a working class agenda. The Democratic establishment has no problem protecting incumbents who are corrupt, hidden Republicans. For example, my primary opponent Gregory Meeks, is one of the most corrupt members of Congress. He rakes in millions of dollars from the finance industry and has no trouble voting with Republicans to deregulate the big banks that prey on working families. On top of that, he uses campaign money to showboat his luxurious lifestyle. Just last week, my team and I were canvassing on the busy streets off Jamaica Ave. Meeks happened to stand right behind us and we handed him our literature before he walked back to his fancy Lexus, which he claims on his campaign expenses. As we continued to canvass, we found out he was on his way to a high-dollar fundraiser that many of his corporate and real estate executive donors were attending. This is the type of machine we need out of our politics. It’s the machine that we need to beat so we can represent the working class."

CA-16 is a Central Valley district where the incumbent is an out-of-touch conservative Blue Dog, Jim Costa. Kim Williams is the alternative progressive reformer. "Last weekend we all participated in the state pre-endorsement process. The California Democratic Party requires at least 50% of the vote plus one to go on to the convention, and if the incumbent earns 80% of the vote, its an automatic endorsement. To participate, candidates must court votes from 80 delegates in the district. And for CA-16, those delegates included the incumbent, another establishment candidate, some of their campaign staff, their close friends and their family members. The list was so pre-cooked, I almost did not even bother to apply. But I’m glad I did because in spite of the tiny and close knit network that shaped this pivotal election, I was able to garner four votes and block anyone from moving forward. The state party will not issue an endorsement, and no candidate will be able to claim the backing of an entire state party based on a few dozen votes from friends. It was a small but important victory that will open the door to a more rigorous public debate and an opportunity to garner party backing based on an actual majority of votes."  

How Safe Is The Whistleblower? Are We In The U.S. Or In Russia?

I don't understand why Buzzflash was sending out fundraising e-mails for itself in the midst of the end of the quarter federal elections deadline, but aside from that, one of their e-mails was very worthwhile reading. Whether Trump or Barr had Trump-crony Jeff Epstein murdered while he was in federal custody or not-- one of them probably did, and Trump is blaming Hillary Clinton for the deed (a classic Trump indication of his own guilt)-- Trump has absolutely painted a target on the back on the Ukraine whistleblower. Buzzflash: "His or her personal safety is threatened, attorneys write in letter to Congress. Contrary to some reports, the whistleblower is not currently receiving federal protection. Apparently, Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes claimed that the whistleblower was under federal protection, based on a letter from his or her attorneys. A Wall Street Journal reporter, however, followed up with Mark Zaid, one of the whistleblower’s attorneys, who charged that 60 Minutes 'completely misinterpreted the contents of our letter.' Indeed the letter to congressional leaders from the Compass Rose Legal Group, and an enclosed more detailed letter to Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, emphasized 'conveying our serious [ongoing] concerns for our client’s personal safety.'"

"The letter to Maguire directly quotes Trump’s thinly veiled threat to the whistleblower last week as cause for concern. It also mentions a fifty thousand dollar bounty offered by Trump loyalists to any person who provides information leading to the identity of the whistleblower. On Sunday, Trump asserted that he deserves to 'meet my accuser.' Given that Trump has a history of inciting violence, the whistleblower’s attorneys have good cause to be concerned about his or her personal safety. It begs the question that besides behaving like a mafia don, Trump is engaging in witness intimidation, obstruction of justice and violations of the whistleblower act." Are we in the U.S. or in Russia?

Speaking of which, Trump's Kremlin allies are insisting that transcripts of Trump's calls with Putin cannot be released without Russian permission. That would be true-- if the U.S., and not just Trump, were a Russian colony. Reuters: "The Kremlin said on Monday that Washington would need Russian consent to publish transcripts of phone calls between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Congress is determined to get access to Trump’s calls with Putin and other world leaders, the U.S. House Intelligence Committee’s chairman said on Sunday, citing concerns that the Republican president may have jeopardized national security." As Buzzflash reminded it's readers, "The safety of the whistleblower is deemed clearly at risk by his or her attorneys, and given that any federal protection would ultimately fall under the purview of the Trump administration, such “protection” might be no protection at all."

Eva Putzova is the progressive Democrat running for Congress in Arizona's vast first district. I think she spoke for a lot of Americans when she said yesterday "As if we needed any more reasons to impeach Donald Trump, his not-so-veiled threat of civil war if he is removed from office should be added to the list. Trump is encouraging people to overthrow the government of the United States through violence. This constitutes treason--  the first cause for impeachment under  Article II, Section IV of the Constitution. I encourage the Congress to act accordingly." Montana Democratic congressional candidate Tom Winter sees it much the same way. "The president," he told us today, "is threatening actual war if he is held to account by a democratically elected Congress. How many Rubicons does this administration have to cross before it is held to account?" The progressive Democrat running in the suburbs southwest of Atlanta, Michael Owens told us this morning that "Retweeting the threat of a Civil War is an escalation from Trump that goes far beyond even his normal divisive rhetoric. We should never allow this to be normalized or be excused away. This shouldn't be defended by anyone on either side of the aisle regardless of the color of your district. It is dangerous, hate-filled and anti-American."

Lets send our thoughts and prayers-- for real-- that Adam Schiff gets to the whistleblower before Trump and Barr do. Monday morning, Trump enablers in the Senate were smearing him all morning. Texas Trump-backer John Cornyn-- who is up for reelection next year without a strong Democratic opponent-- started the ball rolling: "It doesn’t come from a person with personal knowledge. It’s like I heard these people say this, and now I’m reporting it. I think that is pretty bizarre. Secondly, after a certain point, it doesn’t just allege facts, it really is kind of a dossier or political diatribe, so I think there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical. Having said that, we are in the process of talking to the director of national intelligence and the inspector general." Strange Cornyn would go with that gaslighting after even the White House-doctored transcript confirmed everything the whistleblower reported.

The Senate Judiciary Committee chair, congenitally dishonest closet queen Lindsey Graham pulled his head out of Trump's ass long enough to lisp through his shit-packed lips that he wants "to know who was the person that went to the whistleblower." You bet he does-- for Trump. Graham, who knows more about blowing than anyone else in the Senate, said "This was a fairly sophisticated effort to write a narrative rather than blow a whistle." Graham is also running for reelection-- and also with the weakest possible opposition, a crooked lobbyist Schumer picked for the job. (A new poll shows Lindsey leading the crooked lobbyist-- but only be 7 points, 50 to 43%.)

But Republicans are realizing this is going to be a very bad electoral cycle for them. Trump's approval rating has cratered and is going lower and, almost daily, Republican congressmembers are eschewing reelection battles for jobs on K Street. Today, Corey Lewandowski announced he's re-thinking his plans to run for the Senate against Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire-- a day after a poll came out showing him losing in a landslide 56-34%, numbers that indicate there's not much love for the mediocre Shaheen but total disdain for Trump and his enablers.