How Blessed We Are To Live In A Decent And Democratic Age Where Such Things Could Not Possibly Occur

To be honest, it's hard to understand why anyone still supports Trump-- and nearly 40% of voters do. But it always makes me ill to read that Jews do. Not many, but some. I've always been fascinated that there were actually Jews who voted for Hitler. Something like 24% of Jews voted for Trump. Far fewer Jews voted for Republicans in 2018 but there really should be no Jews-- other than Sheldon Adelson-- who vote for him in 2020. My grandmother used to tell me Jews valued education more than other groups so they were "smarter." (Roland, my closest friend, teaches school in Compton and he says Latinx immigrant families value education more than any other group, although you always hear how much Chinese families do and Indian families and...)

Same for gays, right? Latinx? women?

Anyway, Jews shouldn't be voting for fascists. If if they're not Einstein, how smart do you have be to understand how dangerous that is? Yesterday, the New Yorker published a film review by Anthony Lane that, for the most obvious of reasons, caught my attention: The Hour Of Reckoning Descends In Mr. Klein. It is about a restored version of the 1976 film, Mr. Klein, by Joseph Losey, starring Alain Delon (as Monsieur Klein).

Klein is a Jewish name. I was shocked when I found out that my father, for business purposes when I was a child, used the name Kent. The Mr. Klein, Robert Klein, living in German-occupied Paris, played by Delon, is a Roman Catholic from Alsace, and something of a passive anti-Semite. Lane explains that Klein is "an art dealer who lives in style on the Rue du Bac, on the Left Bank. His apartment is stacked with pictures, and he himself is a kind of objet d’art, lounging in a sumptuous robe with green and gold stripes as if posing for a portrait. Outside, he wears a well-cut suit, with an overcoat and a hat, which he lightly tips, as etiquette demands, to those he greets. He might easily have slipped from the pages of Proust, and it’s only proper that Delon went on to play the Baron de Charlus, one of Proust’s most formidable characters, in Swann in Love (1984). As for Losey, he toiled in vain, for years, to refashion In Search of Lost Time for the cinema."

If Proustian manners persist, in the era of Mr. Klein, they resemble elegant clothes draped over a sickly body. Folks still frequent the cabaret, relaxing with cocktails or champagne, but the audience is dotted with German officers, in uniform, and the entertainment features an actor masked as a cartoon Jew, who lurches offstage to much applause. Klein is there, too, with his girlfriend, Jeanine (Juliet Berto), doing his smiling best to enjoy the show.

This urge to accommodate oneself to new conditions, however unsavory, and perhaps-- should the opportunity arise-- to take advantage of them is visible throughout the film, and all the more galling for being couched in courtesy. Witness Klein, at the start, doing business with a Jewish customer who wants to sell a seventeenth-century Dutch painting, presumably in readiness for leaving France while he still can. A little haggling ensues, and Klein gets the painting for a pittance. (Its subject is a gentleman, clad in black, holding up a flask that contains a golden liquid. Could it be urine? Is he another monitor of the human species?) Though Klein would never put the matter so crudely, he is reaping a tidy profit from the persecuted. He floats above their woes.

Not for long. One day, a copy of a Jewish newspaper is left at his door. Klein is dismayed, and he presents himself at the offices of the paper, calmly explaining that, as a non-Jew, he should not have received it. Proceeding to the Préfecture de Police, he learns that there is a second Robert Klein: a welcome relief for our hero, for what is more easily resolved than a case of mistaken identity? The trouble is that he is now a figure of interest to the authorities. His very attempt at clarification has trapped him in the machinery of state, the workings of which the film invites us to watch-- the long black Citroëns sliding out of police headquarters, in convoy, or the wall-size map of Paris on which the corralling of undesirables can be plotted, district by district, when the hour of reckoning descends.

Like Orson Welles, Losey was a Wisconsin boy who spent much of his adult life in exile. What drove him abroad, in 1951, was the House Un-American Activities Committee, and the accusation-- quite correct, not that he or anyone else deserved to be blacklisted, let alone hounded out-- that he had Communist sympathies. (In 1935, he went to Russia, and attended a parade in Red Square. “The old boy up there was Uncle Joe,” he recalled. “It was impossible to think of him as other than warm, lovely.”) In common with many of those who profess a revolutionary faith in the betterment of mankind, Losey could be mean and difficult toward individual souls, and his rancor was compounded by ill health. On his birthday, during the shooting of Mr. Klein, his asthma was so bad that Delon had to blow out the candles on the cake.

The miracle of the film is that Losey had the imaginative guts to probe his own fears and failings. To have one’s mail opened by the F.B.I., as he did in America, is to be schooled in paranoia-- ideal training for the creation of Klein. The governing theme of the tale, Losey claimed, was indifference, “the inhumanity of the French towards sections of their own people.” Hence the vital presence of Delon, one of the most pitiless of stars. Because he is a natural hunter, notably as the assassin in Melville’s Le Samouraï (1967), it’s deeply discomfiting to see him dwindle and pale, for once, into the hunted. So caustic, in fact, is the atmosphere of Mr. Klein that his beauty seems to peel away, a loss unthinkable to the audiences who swooned over him in The Leopard (1963). Klein has no eyes for anyone but himself and his alter ego, and those eyes are the color of a winter sea.

He is hardly the first person, it must be said, to fall victim to a predatory glitch. “Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.” So runs the first line of The Trial, lit by Kafka’s terrible clairvoyance. Hitchcock, of course, preferred the comedy of errors, and the bellboy at the Plaza, in North by Northwest (1959)-- who calls out for “George Kaplan” and gets Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) instead, thus unleashing the rest of the story-- foreshadows the page, in Losey’s film, who strolls among the diners at La Coupole, in Paris, exclaiming “Robert Klein!” But which Klein is being summoned to the telephone? Could both be at the restaurant? It’s no surprise when our Klein, like Thornhill, decides to turn detective, and to pursue his other self.

Sleuthing takes him to a number of destinations. One is a seedy refuge in Pigalle, with rat droppings on the floor and a lone bullet, left in a drawer; another is a château in the countryside, with snow on the ground and a highborn family in residence. The lady of the house (Jeanne Moreau), we gather, is the lover of the second Klein, though she confuses the issue by visiting the bedroom of the first. Our man also travels to Strasbourg to see his aging father (Louis Seigner), whose outrage at the suggestion of Jewish blood in the family’s veins is all too revealing. “We’ve been French and Catholic since Louis XIV!” he cries out. (Losey offered the part of the father to Fellini. No luck.) Strewn across the film are a handful of clues, which lead us to suspect that the other Klein is a member of the Resistance-- that he is as brave and as principled as Delon’s Klein is slippery, suave, and hollow. In one haunting sequence, the two of them speak on the phone. Yet I continue to wonder, viewing the movie again, if the gallant Klein truly exists, or if the art-loving, morally compromised Klein merely needs him to exist. Maybe we all dream of a better half, who could somehow atone for our sins.

So do we actually see the double, face to face? Never. The closest we get is a glimpse of a hand, supposedly his, raised aloft and waving, like that of a drowning man, in a crowd that is swept along at a Paris velodrome. By now, it matters not a jot, in the bureaucracy of terror, which Klein is which, for the roundup of Jews is under way, and the trains are waiting. One of the final images, in Losey’s icy labyrinth of a film, is of children being forcibly torn from their parents by officers of the law. How blessed we are to live in a decent and democratic age where such things could not possibly occur.

If Biden is elected-- God forbid-- he will pardon Trump and his family instantly-- you know... so the country can move on (to nothing). Let's hope he, at least, doesn't pardon Stephen Miller.

Moving a little closer to home, I came across a post This is How Holocausts Happen, How Nations Lose Their Humanity by John Pavlovitz yesterday that I want to share. "Populations don’t become monstrous overnight," he wrote. "Nations don’t abandon humanity in a single moment... generational human rights atrocities don’t form in an instant or in a vacuum. Corporate sickness is never sudden. There is always a slow, deliberate, almost imperceptible pattern:

The metamorphosis of a people, begins with an opportunistic leader who understands the power of weaponized fear, who feeds them a steady diet of the things that terrify them: misinformation, fake emergencies, and abject lies all designed to create an urgency in them and to make them feel hopelessly assailed.

He or she creates for these emotionally-vulnerable people a necessary enemy; an encroaching threat to tangibly embody the nightmares they have made in their heads—someone to go to war against, to take back their country from—someone he or she can save them from.

The manipulator begins to dehumanize and vilify this group with otherizing language, with ever more caricatured stereotypes, with phony statistics and manufactured stories and edited news; painting the picture of human beings they begin to see as less than human.

Finally, on top of the terror and the untruths and the ghost stories, they wield the greatest weapon people have in the arsenal of systemic discrimination: religion. They wield faith. so as to actually make those they manipulate believe that their mission is not just important or right, but holy-- that they are being obedient to God while eradicating human beings.

In that state of frantic, perpetually terrorized self-righteousness, they begin to allow everything. They begin to justify all manners of cruelty, all denials of care, all acts of violence—because they are purifying and protection their divinely-curated country.

Once this happens; once ordinary, rational, decent, even compassionate people begin to lose their ability to see the humanity in front of them-- it’s too late to help them see clearly.

This is how holocausts happen... These are the first steps down a road that at the beginning seems unthinkable.

...We have every historic ingredient in place to abandon the best of ourselves and to become something monstrous, something History records as yet another shocking failure of the center.

How does it turn out? Or how does John think it will turn out? It's a lot easier to go to his website and read the whole post that is to teach yourself French to understand all the subtitles in Mr. Klein.

You think Republicans aren't instinctively as anti-Semitic as they are xenophobic, racist and anti-everybody else? Forget it! Yesterday's NY Post ran a story about how the Rockland County GOP GOP plotted to scare voters with the idea of a Jewish take-over... with this ad:

Numerous Rockland County Republican elected officials in February previewed the controversial video put out by the party that critics have branded as anti-Semitic for warning of a “takeover” by the Hasidic Jewish community, The Post has learned.

The early look at the digital attack ad-- some six months before its public release-- shows that the targeting of the ultra-orthodox community was a well-thought-out, deliberate strategy, sources said.

No one in the room objected to it, a GOP source who attended the February meeting told The Post.

“The video was introduced by Lawrence Garvey [the county GOP leader] and played in front of a room of 20-35 people. The entire video was played with Ed Day [the Rockland County executive] there,” the source said.

“We were told we are raising money for the county legislators’ races and unveiling a strategy and we saw the video then. I thought it was a bad strategy,” the source said.

But the source didn’t raise an objection at the time.

The GOP’s “A Storm is Brewing” video blames Hasidic Jews for housing over-development in the suburban county.

“Aaron Wieder [a Rockland County legislator]and his Ramapo bloc are plotting a takeover,” it says.

The caption of the video also says: “The stakes have never been higher. The future of our County, our communities, and our homes hangs in the balance of this year.

“If they win, we lose!”

The Rockland County GOP took down the video Thursday following a firestorm of criticism-- including from the Republican Jewish Coalition, state Attorney General Letitia James and Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“This video is absolutely despicable. It is pure anti-Semitism, and should be immediately taken down. The Rockland County Republican Party is an embarrassment and has no place associating itself with our party,” the RJC said in a tweet.





County Executive Day on Friday denied he had anything to do with the video.

“This is not my video and it was not my place to approve or disapprove of anything produced by the Rockland County Republican Committee,” Day said in a statement.

“I have already issued a clear, unequivocal response to this video, answered numerous inquiries from my constituents and in point of fact, played an integral role in making sure it was taken down.”

But sources point out that campaign literature and ads that Day put out for his 2017 re-election campaign included the same language used in the discredited party video.

“Now those who threatened our way of life have registered thousands of new voters looking to takeover Rockland and undo the work we’ve done. A STORM IS COMING ….,” the Day 2017 campaign piece said.

One of Day’s ads in that race warned, “A Storm is Brewing in Rockland.”

Rockland County Dems said the video ad posted on Facebook was just the latest anti-Jewish smear by Republicans.

[All three of the spectacular illustrations on this page were created by award-winning artist and frequent DWT contributor Nancy Ohanian and can be purchased through her website.]

Fight Back Against Cheri Bustos-- And Win Some Art For Your Trouble

If you read DWT with any regularity-- or just wander over from time to time to look at the pictures-- you probably know the work of artist, cartoonist and charicaturist Nancy Ohanian, who does many of the illustrations. Nancy had long careers at the New York Times and the L.A. Times and in the academic world and just recently won this year's National Press Foundation’s Clifford K. and James T. Berryman Award for Editorial Cartooning. She also just put together her third deck on gorgeous, collectible playing cards, each card decorated with a different one of her creations. Lots of Trump poses, of course, but plenty of other 2018-19 political characters we'll never forget, whether we want to or not. Nancy gave Blue America 5 decks to give away this week to lovers of political art.

This is how we're going to do it. We want to raise money to combat the DCCC's anti-democracy Cheri Bustos Rule against primaries so we're asking you to go to our ActBlue congressional primary page. Donate any amount to any candidate-- or any combination of candidates-- and you'll have a shot at the random drawing for one of the decks.

The old establishment diktat about the only to win "Republican seats" is by running a Republican-lite campaign has been proven false over and over and over. Last week the Virginia Democratic establishment got slapped down again when they ran a corrupt conservative "ex"-Republican legislator against incumbent Democrat Lee Carter because they think Carter is too far to the left. In 2017, the voters of Manassas turned out in their highest numbers ever to replace the "untouchable" Republican House Majority Whip and replace him with democratic socialist Lee Carter. Last week the Democratic establishment's shill candidate lost his primary bid against Carter. But the Democratic establishment never learns.

As you probably know, Cheri Bustos has blacklisted firms that work with progressive candidates running against Blue Dogs. And Pelosi has given her the OK. So far we have four candidates we're trying to help overcome the DCCC roadblocks. There will be more soon; we're still vetting candidates to be as sure as we can be that when they get to Congress they won't disappoint. (Just like the cards won't disappoint you.)

Jennifer Burton, a Democratic media consultant, owns a company called SWAY. She explained for Politico readers this past week, how Bustos and Pelosi are damaging the Democratic Party. While Pelosi and other Democratic leaders pat themselves on the back for an increasingly diversity caucus, she wrote, "they are cutting off opportunities for female and minority political consultants-- often leaving key decisions about messaging and voter outreach in the hands of white men" by enforcing Bustos' idiotic, wrong-headed policy, part of an agenda to bolster progressives and target progressives. (Bustos herself is a rapid Blue Dog and New Dem with ambitions to run for Speaker.) The policy is clear: "Any consultants who work against Democratic incumbents will be barred from working with the DCCC and will not be recommended to its preferred candidates in 2020 and future election cycles."

The DCCC’s purpose is to protect Democratic incumbents and, in turn, the House’s Democratic majority. But, in practice, this policy protects the old boy’s network that dominates the culture of the DCCC and the outside firms it pushes Democratic candidates to hire for polling, direct mail, television ad-making and mor

In short, the committee is blacklisting people like me.

I have worked in Democratic politics for the past 30 years-- for former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, for the DCCC and for various political media firms, including the one I started six years ago. In this time, I have seen many Democratic challengers beat incumbent Democrats in primary fights—Sheila Jackson Lee, Hilda Solis, Seth Moulton, Ro Khanna, Donna Edwards, Denise Majette, and, of course, two of the party’s newest superstars, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley. (It’s worth noting that all of these cases involved safe Democratic seats that had no chance of going Republican because of primary challenges.)

Not surprisingly, many candidates who challenge congressional incumbents are women and people of color; it’s often hard for them to make the leap into politics, and sometimes their only option is to run against the system. The DCCC’s rule will clearly hurt these kinds of candidates. But what people outside the Beltway might not realize is that many times these primary races are also the only opportunities afforded to female consultants and consultants of color.

Last cycle, I worked for Marie Newman, who took on Dan Lipinski, a Democratic congressman from Illinois who is anti-abortion and who fought for many years against marriage equality. Marie got within 2 points of knocking off Lipinski and now is running again. I’m signed up to work for her because I share her progressive values. Several weeks ago, two other consultants on Marie’s team decided to quit her race because of the DCCC blacklist policy. But I’m standing my ground, even though it means I will be exiled by the DCCC.

The political consultant world resembles Hollywood, where the top jobs-- director, cinematographer, writer-- go to white men. In our ranks, the top job on a campaign (and the most lucrative job) is usually the media consultant, the person who is responsible for the messaging and ad-making on a campaign. And the person in that job is usually a man. In 2018, according to information I received, the DCCC hired eight media firms to handle independent-expenditure campaigns-- that is, efforts to spend money on advertising to help Democratic challengers, independent of the campaigns themselves. (I confirmed on OpenSecrets that these eight firms were listed as vendors of the DCCC.) Of the almost 20 principals from these eight firms, only three were women and only one was a person of color.

Diversity in the consultant ranks is not a trivial matter. When the backbone of the Democratic Party is women and nonwhite voters, it’s clear that having more women and people of color in consulting roles would enhance political messaging to our most loyal constituencies. From my own experience, I’ve seen how much it matters to women candidates and candidates of color to have consultants that look like them on their teams, and how our work is better because we’re more aware of sensitivities, tone, and even how best to film and light these candidates.

My own firm prides itself on its diversity, both in our own ranks and among the clients we work for. Last cycle, six of the eight people at our firm were African Americans, including two of our principals and all of our editors and directors of photography, and we worked for more than 20 candidates of color.

When the DCCC hires consultant firms, it always asks about diversity within the staff and leadership, but the firms have yet to be held accountable. Drop in on any campaign conference call (we have a lot of them), and you’ll hear a lot of mansplaining, often of tone-deaf strategies about how best to reach women and minorities. Or talk to any female consultant, and you’ll hear countless stories about unfair treatment from these Democratic committees.

At a time when the Democratic presidential field includes four women in the top tier and several candidates of color, it’s hard to believe the Democratic Party still has so few women and people of color in leadership positions at its own consulting firms. The new DCCC chief, Illinois. Congresswoman Cheri Bustos, is perpetuating this problem with the committee’s new policy. A better approach would be to stop punishing consultants who work for candidates they believe in and start hiring more firms that actually look like the people that make up the Democratic Party.

"Until that happens," Burton concludes, she "won’t be bowing to the DCCC’s new demands." And it won't happen-- certainly not whole Pelosi, Hoyer, Bustos and other fossils run the House Democratic Party. The thermometer on the right will give you an opportunity to contribute to any or all of the outstanding progressive candidates primarying reactionary incumbents. And don't forget, 5 random donors will find a deck of Nancy Ohanian cards in their mailboxes. Did I mention that the decks are autographed? (Contest ends Wednesday morning at noon, EST.) UPDATE: Bustos is an honorary co-chair of the despicable Third Way.

The Joe Biden Contest

House of Cards by Nancy Ohanian

When I worked at Warner Bros, we would spend immense energy on rolling out new releases, especially for superstar artists like Madonna, Prince, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, Depeche Mode, Green Day... Every department in the company would pull together to create an atmosphere that would drive radio airtime, TV appearances, advance music sales, advance ticket sales, press, word of mouth, etc. Sometimes we would plan half a year in advance to lock up scarce opportunities everyone else was competing for.

Even if you were rolling your eyes about the exploratory committee silliness followed by the "big announcements" that some of the campaigns engaged in, set-up can make a huge difference of how a candidate is perceived by the public. Howard Schultz's rollout was so lame that he managed to spend massive amounts of money to turn the public completely against him. Gillibrand didn't do that much better and is going in for a do-over. Beto had a mixed response-- confusion on the one hand, gigantic first-day "sales" and lots and lots of press for someone who isn't very well-known outside of Texas. Next up: Biden.

CNN reported over the weekend that his team is readying major endorsements and a message of strength ahead of his imminent announcement. He stumbled in a pre-announcement in Delaware last week, barking "It can't go on like this, folks. I know I get criticized and told I get criticized by the new left. I have the most progressive record of anybody running for the United States-- anybody who would run!" 3 problems:

• he let the cat out of the bag by lumping himself in with everyone running.
• did no one in his campaign know that there hasn't been a "new left" since the '70s?
• progressive record? not even close.

Since Biden has no real reason to be running other than careerism and ego, CNN reports that Biden is hoping to seize command of the highly-fluid contest through major endorsements and by pounding away that the most important thing for Democrats is to defeat Trump-- rather than to defeat Trump and replace him with a transformative agenda. It was Biden-like politicians for decades that tilled the soil for Wall Street and the plutocracy, making a Trump even possible. Elect Biden and create the environment for another Trump or... worse.

As he prepares for a possible run, Biden has hunkered down for strategy sessions with a tight knit group of advisers and held meetings with top Democrats and elected officials. One subject of discussion has been the early selection of a running mate, which one aide said would help keep the focus of the primary fight on the ultimate goal of unseating Trump.

Last week, Biden stirred speculation as he met privately with Stacey Abrams, a Democratic rising star who ran for governor in Georgia last fall and is weighing another run for office-- potentially even the presidency. Biden requested the meeting, according to a person familiar with the sit-down, which comes as the two mull their own respective political futures. Abrams also huddled with a half-dozen other Democratic presidential hopefuls, but her meeting with Biden takes on added weight because of his attempts to shore up support among black leaders amid lingering questions about his treatment of Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings and his support for a sweeping crime bill two decades ago.

Biden's team has started gaming out scenarios for what a campaign launch could look like with Wilmington, Delaware, and Scranton, Pennsylvania, where Biden was born, among several potential locations floated for an announcement rally, a source with knowledge of the discussions said. While the rest of the Democratic field settles into place, Biden's allies say the former vice president is keenly aware of the attention any announcement will draw.

"His launch will be watched by many, many eyeballs to see how he pulls it off, how much he raises," one Democratic donor in touch with Biden and his advisers said. "That's always been the question mark with him-- his discipline and his capability to execute a campaign."

One lingering question for Biden is his ability to fundraise, particularly on the small dollar, grassroots level. Other Democratic contenders like former Rep. Beto O'Rourke and Sen. Bernie Sanders have relied on massive online fundraising lists to churn out impressive fundraising figures of about $6 million.

"I think he in certain ways has been wise to string this out because the shorter the race, the better for him. He doesn't have the same demands that others have except for one that's going to be a challenge perhaps for him and that's raising money," said David Axelrod, former senior adviser to President Obama and a senior CNN political commentator. "Joe Biden's not by generation and nature a social media candidate. So he can't delay this much longer. He has to get around to the business of raising the resources that he needs."

Biden has already said he won't rely on a super PAC and as he teased a possible presidential run last week. "Our elections are drowning in money, and every dark dollar chips away at our faith in the system. You're going to hear a lot about this before it's all over, I'm not in a position to tell you now," he said.

...For as long as he can, Biden hopes to focus on the imperative to defeat Trump, aides said, rather than dwelling on what distinguishes him from his Democratic rivals.

Biden, who has been carefully watching the field of Democratic hopefuls grow, will try to quickly seize command of the race. Democrats familiar with his plans say he intends to unveil a roster of prominent supporters, including black leaders whose endorsements are seen as critical to his candidacy, as the race moves beyond Iowa and New Hampshire.

One of my favorite card images

And that brings us to our contest. Who is this "roster of prominent supporters" his campaign is boasting about? Can you guess? Wait, before you guess, let me tell you who he's not getting. The most obvious is another version of himself, Ed Rendell, an old style, middle-of-the-road corporate Dem from Pennsylvania. But he's already given his heart to another centrist, Amy Klobuchar. Same problem with another Biden-type establishment Dem, Ohio's Ted Strickland, who's riding with Jay Inslee.

And scratch virtually anyone from New Jersey; Cory Booker wrapped up the whole political class, from the right (Josh Gottheimer, Jeff Van Drew and Mikie Sherrill) all the way to the mushy middle (Senator Menendez, Governor Phil Murphy) and even a couple on the left, Bonnie Watson Coleman and Was Baraka. And-- in New Jersey-- even more important: the machine bosses (Joe DiVincenzo, Donald Norcross, Stephen Sweeney, Nicholas Scutari. LeRoy Jones...).

Beto has already started picking up the kinds of politicians from the Republican wing of the party who Biden might have been counting on: head Blue Dog Stephanie Murphy, New York New Dems Sean Patrick Maloney and Kathleen Rice. Beto also nabbed Martin O'Malley. Colorado and Hawaii are wide open since the local politicians there are not thrilled about favorite son John Hickenlooper or favorite daughter Tulsi Gabbard (although her right-wing father did endorse her). And Elizabeth Warren already wrapped up Joe Kennedy III.

So... who's the big roster of prominent supporters? I don't know. But if you're good at guessing games, you can win two different gorgeous collectible decks of cards by award-winning artist Nancy Ohanian. Each card has a drawing of a different political figure's caricature, although many of them are unflattering drawings of Trump and the cast of characters he's brought onto the national stage from Putin and Flynn to Jared, Ivanka and Pence. There are also pictures of some of your favorite anti-Trump leaders, like Mueller, Bernie, Elizabeth Warren, John McCain, Hillary, to name a few. The shell of each deck was autographed by Nancy.

So here are the rules: name the Biden endorsers he'll roll out on the first day (or two days, if he waits a day to announce them). You get a point for every name you get right and lose a point for every name you get wrong. The person with the highest "score" wins the two decks of cards. Easy-- and you don't have to contribute anything-- although you can if you want to (here). Just e-mail your list to downwithtyranny@gmail.com/ Since it's a big mystery when the "big day" is, all lists have to be received by noon (PT) on April 2 or before Biden announces if he announces before April 2. If two people get the same number of points, the list that was sent first wins the prize.

Contest-- Want Something Nice To Hang On Your Wall?

We're very proud that one of our artists-- and a dear friend-- Nancy Ohanian, was just honored by the National Press Foundation with their 2019 Berryman Award for Editorial Cartoons. The same day, Ted Lieu also presented her with a Congressional Certificate of Recognition. There is a video of Nancy accepting her award here. You might remember that I wrote about this last week, here. Today we want to give away 4 prints (the ones above)-- each autographed by the artist-- from her heroes of the revolution series:

• Ted Lieu (California)
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York)
• Rashida Tlaib (Michigan)
• Randy Bryce (Wisconsin)

We'll randomly select 4 donors and give each donor one print-- the one you want. How will we know which drawing you want? Well, imagine you decide to donate $20. Add one cent for Randy Bryce, two cents for Rashida Tlaib, three cents for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or four cents for Ted Lieu. So if you want the Randy Bryce image, you'd give $20.01. Or say you want to contribute $5 and have a chance to win the Rashida print, You contribute $5.02. Easy enough, right?

And the money you give goes where? Our independent expenditure committee spends money supporting the progressive congressional candidates we endorse. You can see the list here: our 2020 House candidates so far.

But this is where you contribute if you want to win one of the prints. Or you can just tap on the ActBlue contest thermometer on the right. (If you don't want the print but still feel like giving, donate to one of the candidates-- or all of them-- at the link right above.) AND... I just thought of this... if you're feeling' flush... we're going to send one person a package of 10 of Nancy's prints. Which person? The one who contributes the most in this little contest-- which ends next Saturday night at 9pm (PT).

This is what Congressman Ted Lieu said about her: "Nancy Ohanian is a national treasure. Her art is powerful, moving and informative. Satire and humor can reveal truth in a way that other forms of communication cannot. And Nancy is one of the masters at it."

National Press Foundation Honors Nancy Ohanian

Three weeks ago, Nancy Ohanian was awarded the National Press Foundations' Clifford K. & James T. Berryman Award for Editorial Cartoons. If you've been reading DWT before today, you're already familiar with her incredible work. When the judges announced she was going to get this year's award they explained that her "work is a masterful exercise in composition. Her powerful images exhibit a high degree of technical skill, creating unforgettable visual satire." Please watch her explaining some of her drawings to the audience of journalists.

It was Skip Kaltenheuser who first introduced us to Nancy Ohanian and her work. He is a member of the National Press Club and told me this morning that "We’re lucky when we cross paths with an artist’s sensibility that throws light on the confounding parts of our world. Click to enlarge an image at Nancy’s site, and then click through the political collection. Look closely for the details slipped in. Watch how Nancy's brushes lift the veils concealing deception and hypocrisy, while favoring the lucky few. It’s the art of around-the-corner correlations, providing insight. Even better, a laugh at our interesting times. Beyond Nancy’s startling speed, what’s triply impressive is that her images shoulder the full burden. A simple title, but no punchlines, no dialogue. Just the image and how the viewer connects. My favorite changes every time I look, and I wish I had such skills and the imagination to match."

On the same day of the National Press Foundation awards banquet, Ted Lieu awarded Nancy a Congressional Certificate of Recognition for work going all the way back to when she was the chief editorial cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times. "Nancy Ohanian is a national treasure," said Congressman Lieu. "Her art is powerful, moving and informative. Satire and humor can reveal truth in a way that other forms of communication cannot. And Nancy is one of the masters at it."

We're Winning Already!!

Voter Suppression, Nancy Ohanian's latest drawing

Everybody's stoked for the results to start coming in Tuesday. But... one of the most valuable and loved members of our team did just win. It was just announced that one of the DWT and Blue America artists, Nancy Ohanian, is the recipient of the 2018 National Press Foundation’s Clifford K. and James T. Berryman Award for Editorial Cartooning. I remember when David Horsey won this same award 20 years ago. Last year it was Kevin KAL Kallaugher who draws for the Baltimore Sun and for The Economist. Nancy's work in eye-popping and galvanizing.

Fascism Comes To America by Nancy Ohanian

Nancy's work-- and she told me that every drawing submitted had been published at DWT-- was judged to exhibit "power to influence public opinion, plus good drawing and striking effect. The cartoons should represent the highest standards of journalism." That's sure how we see her work as well-- and why we've been publishing at this blog so frequently-- and so proudly.

Tweeter by Nancy Ohanian

The judges' statement about her work: "Nancy Ohanian’s work is a masterful exercise in composition. Her powerful images exhibit a high degree of technical skill, creating unforgettable visual satire." She has been incredibly generous contributing signed prints to help Blue America-endorsed candidates and we've been able to raise thousands of dollars for Blue America's efforts to FLIP CONGRESS.

Ted Lieu's chief of staff, Marc Cevasco, is a big fan-- of her art and of her willingness to help Congressman Lieu raise funds for California candidates with her work. ""This award could not have gone to a more deserving political cartoonist. Not only is Nancy an incredibly talented artist, but she also happens to be a truly wonderful person. Nancy's strong convictions, values and humanity shine through strikingly in her work. As the proud owner of one of her prints, every time I see it I am reminded of how fortunate I am to get to work every day fighting the good fight alongside impressive people like Nancy Ohanian."

 

Ted Lieu by Nancy Ohanian

The award banquet is February 13 in Washington, DC. Nancy's first congressional caricature this cycle was for @IronStache. When Randy heard she won he told us that "I’ve seen a lot since I’ve gotten into this race but a highlight has been Nancy’s artwork. It’s a real honor to be the subject of her talent... Nancy-- much thanks for being so amazing!

Randy Bryce by Nancy Ohanian

The Gubernatorial Races In 9 Charts-- And The Last Blue America Contest Of 2018 Ends Today At Noon (PT)

First the contest. Blue America is giving away...

• $5,000 to each of 3 progressive candidates for their GOTV efforts
• $1,000 to one candidate
• 5 beautiful, signed prints by Nancy Ohanian from her Heroes of The Revolution series: Randy Bryce, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ted Lieu, Alan Grayson.

Remember, this contest ends at noon today Pacific Time. All the rules are here, but it's pretty easy. Click on the thermometer. All of the candidates on the list won their primaries and were then either told to go pound sand by the elitist dogs at the DCCC or were just ignored by the DCCC entirely. But don't get me started... Heard that a member of Congress read by post where I referred to the DCCCers as "scumbags" the other day and then called the executive director up and called him a "scumbag" and he blew up and blamed me. Pick any 3 candidates from the list and contribute at least $1.18 to each of them. You can donate any amount-- as long as it isn't over the $2,700 limit-- but make sure you add $0.18 so we know you want it counted as a "vote." The 3 candidates with the most "votes," each gets a $5,000 check. And the candidate with the most money gets a $1,000 contribution. We will randomly pick 5 contributors by tomorrow and each one will get to pick any of the 4 signed prints as a thanks for participating gift from Blue America. Got it? Ready, set, go! Here are the 4 prints. First Ted Lieu and Randy Bryce. And after that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Alan Grayson:

OK, as promised, here are the 9 gubernatorial contests-- all of which were considered toss-ups at the beginning of the cycle. Look at them now, at least according to FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver:

A one in twenty chance to win! I bet Schuette wishes he hadn't helped try to cover up the Flint water scandal. His career is so cooked! I bet he thought he could win because Trump "somehow" managed to take the Michigan electoral votes. Maybe some other time, Bill. Though... hopefully not.

Ron DeSantis was also counting on Trump-- and that was enough to get him the Republican nomination. But that's where that ended. He's spent the entire campaign hiding from the voters and hiding from the media and every time he's been forced to pop his head out of his whole, his favorabilities have gone down and his chances to win have followed. He still appears to have a 20.5% chance though. Let's see if a rally or two in Florida with Trump can drive his chances down further. What do you think?

This is a race worth investing in if you still have any money left. Scott Walker is the ultimate Koch puppet and everyone in Wisconsin will be able to breath the air of freedom if his ugly career is short-circuited. I see a much bigger anti-red wave in Wisconsin than most people do-- and Walker has a lot to do with it, almost as much as Trump. Let's keep our fingers crossed that Wisconsin comes through for Tony Evers, Tammy Baldwin, Randy Bryce and that the state Senate flips as well.

What's wrong with someone like Greg Orman-- with less than a 1 in a 100 chance to win-- to not drop out and endorse, and vigorously campaign for, Laura Kelly? After all, at this point he is throwing the race to Kris Kobach, one of the arch-villains of American politics. Is that how Orman wants to go down in Kansas history? What an asshole!

Here's where we-- Georgia, the nation, the world-- see if grotesque and completely blatant cheating pays off. Brian Kemp should be headed towards a prison cell, not to the governor's mansion.

Help Blue America Give Away $15,000 To 3 Candidates

We planned to spend this $15,000 on an independent project to help one of the Blue America candidates. But then we thought that the candidates could probably spend it more effectively than we could at this point in the game. They all need the money for their Get-Out-The-Vote field operations. So we're going to give $5,000 each to 3 candidates. Which 3? That's up to you. Just vote for the 3 you think will spend the money best or need it most or deserve it most or... whatever criterion you want to use.

How to vote-- easy. Click the thermometer-- this is the page for progressives who won their primary and were then abandoned by the DCCC-- and put in any amount you want for three candidates, but end your vote with 18 cents so we know it counts as a vote. In other words, if you want to vote for Mike Siegel, Dayna Steele and Kara Eastman but just want to make a contribution to Ammar, you can give $1.18 cents or $100.18 to Mike, Dayna and Kara and just $1.00 or $100.00 to Ammar. Easy, right? Only the "votes" with the 18 cents count towards the $15,000 give away. The 3 candidates who get the most "votes," get the $5,000. Oh-- and one more thing-- whichever candidate gets the most money from these contributions wins $1,000. So maybe one of the candidates will win $6,000 or maybe there'll be 3 candidates who get $5,000 each and one who gets a grand. We'll see on Friday.

And, to make this even more interesting for you... We're going to give 5 randomly selected contributors a choice of beautiful autographed prints by the artist Nancy Ohanian. You can chose between a picture of Ted Lieu (the one up top), Randy Bryce, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or Alan Grayson. We'll e-mail the 5 contest winners and ask which print each one wants. And we'll pick the 5 winners on Friday at noon (PT)-- and announce which 3 candidates win the $5,000 and overnight the checks to the campaigns immediately. You game?

I asked some of the campaigns how they plan to spend the money so close to election day. I got Randy Bryce's campaign manager, David Keith, on the phone as he was setting up for the big Bernie Sanders rally in Kenosha on Monday afternoon. He told me that "Unlike so many 'professional' Democratic campaigns, we don’t believe in relying solely on TV ads and pointless mail pieces. We believe you win by doing one simple thing: getting more votes than the other side. That’s why our investments in the next few weeks are all going into the field and voter protection. We are making sure that our 16 months of voter contact isn’t blocked by the GOP’s last minute tricks. We are making sure that absentee votes are counted, in full. We are making sure that every voter who requests a ride, gets a ride. Elections are about votes and that is our singular focus." This guy means business.

This is one of the prints by Nancy Ohanian you can win

Kara Eastman is in a neck-and-neck race with an unapologetic Trump enabler in Omaha. She can use a financial boost, especially after the DCCC decided not to respond to the million dollars in negative smears Paul Ryan's SuperPAC has been running against her. "In the last two weeks of this election," she told us, "every cent matters. We have to reach voters and remind them of just how important this election is. Democracy is at stake here. We've been spending every last minute knocking on doors and making calls to get as many voters to the polls as we can on election day, and need resources to keep up our get out the vote effort."

Mike Siegel, fresh off two Rachel Maddow appearances, told me that his campaign commissioned a closing ad to highlight his service as a public school teacher. With an additional $5,000, he will send the ad to tens of thousands of teachers, retired teachers, and other persuadable voters. This isn't like wasting money on broadcast TV; this is targeted advertising to exactly the audience he needs to hit. Mike is running in a district that went for Trump over Clinton by just nine points, and is eminently winnable this cycle. He told me this boost will make a big difference in his outreach.

Our newest endorsee, Audrey Denney, has a structural problem-- a gigantic district, covering all or part of 11 counties in the northeast corner of the state. She told me that this $5,000 and the contributions that come in as part of the contest "will help fund our 5 campaign offices around the massive district and staff them with 5 full time field organizers. Our field organizers are mobilizing our more than 4,000 volunteers to knock doors and make phone calls to get the vote out!" She's smart enough to know this race is going to be all about turnout and that's what her campaign is laser-focused on right now.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by Nancy Ohanian

Trump Is A Con Man-- Maybe The Biggest Con Man In History

Virtually everything he says is meant to manipulate, primarily his low-IQ base. I have a very recent example. Over the weekend he tweeted this for his easily/eagerly manipulated dumbbell fans:

Just three days earlier he had tweeted this ALL CAPS message, presumably to congressional Republicans and his dumbbell fans, who are, alas, frequently one and the same.

You would have thought, maybe, he would have had the brains to delete the first one before sending the second one. But, he doesn't even care that much if people see him as a liar and con man. Like he said during the campaign, he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters. (Video up top).

He tweeted he had "never pushed the Republicans in the House to vote for the Immigration Bill, either GOODLATTE 1 or 2" but 3 days earlier he had tweeted explicitly that House Republicans should pass Goodlatte II. By going back and forth on the legislation for a week, he confused House Republicans-- probably as much as he already is himself-- who were waiting for his command like the loyal dogs they have all become, and the bill failed... gigantically in a body completely controlled by a lap-dog Republican Party who would all go out and start shooting people in the middle of Fifth Avenue if their master commanded them-- via Twitter-- to do so.

Nancy Ohanian, one of the country's top political artists, just finished Last Supper of The Second Year. This is probably a good time to click on the image and take a closer look. I won't hold you in suspense though. Left to right: Jeff Sessions, Ivanka, neo-Nazi Stephen Miller, Kim Jong Un, John Bolton, Kushner-in-law, Mike Pompeo, John Kelly, Melania, Señor T, Kellyanne, Rudy Giullian, Rupert Murdoch, Huckabee's daughter Sarah, Mike Dense, Trumpanzee Jr., Putin. Enjoy:

You have to click on the image

I asked a friend of mine, a psychologist who watches Trump intently, about this whole lying tweet phenomena. She confirmed that his behavior is indicative of conditions related to his addiction to adderall combined with his longterm dependence on finasteride, the active ingredient of Propecia, which he's been taking to try to keep his hair from falling out, and has caused severe mental problems, probably even psychosis. We are all so up shit's creek without a paddle. Another reason to elect a Democratic House and Senate in November.