How Trump's Way Of Looking At Short Term Metrics Is Destroying American Innovation

In 2014 Oklahoma reelected conservative Republican Mary Fallin over conservative Democrat Joe Dorman 460,298 (55.8%) to 338,239 (41%). Although there have been some shocking recent special election wins by Democrats in Oklahoma, the state Senate has 39 Republicans and just 8 Democrats and the state House has 73 Republicans and 28 Democrats. The Oklahoma congressional delegation consists of 5 Republican congressmen and 2 Republican senators... and no Democrats. The state Agriculture Commissioner is a non-partisan job but every other executive brand job-- from Auditor, Attorney General, Treasurer and Labor Commissioner to Lt. Governor, Secretary of Commerce, Insurance Commissioner and Superintendent of Public Instruction-- is held by a Republican. Oklahoma is what you would call a one-party state.

Tangent: Democrats keep running conservative establishment types-- and losing. Last year Allison Ikley-Freeman's successful campaign for a state Senate seat in Oklahoma-- a seat where Trump beat Hillary 61.4-32.7%-- was in a very red district southwest of Tulsa. No one though she had any chance at all. It's the kind of area where the DCCC always says-- and always wrongly-- that only a rich Republican-lite Blue Dog could win. But Allison is a young progressive who was outspent 3-1, campaigning on Bernie-like issues. And she's a proud lesbian, married to an African-American. She doesn't fit the DCCC model at all.

Yesterday, Boing Boing ran a story about how Oklahoma schools have now gone on 4-day weeks so teachers can work at Walmart on Mondays to make rent. That's what one party conservative rule looks like. This is one party conservative governance:

In 1992, Oklahoma passed a ballot initiative saying that the state could only raise taxes with a three quarters majority in the state assembly, creating a one-way ratchet where every tax cut becomes effectively permanent, including the sweetheart deals cut for frackers and the deep cuts to taxes on the wealthiest residents of the state.

As a result, the state is going broke. Teachers haven't gotten a raise in 10 years and the only way they can afford to accept the pay-- third-worst in the nation-- is by negotiating a four-day school week in 90 districts, freeing teachers up to take jobs at Walmart on Mondays to make ends meet.

Teachers are fleeing the state in droves, including the Teacher of the Year, who quit his job in 2016 shortly after receiving his award, taking a better-paid teaching job in a neighboring state (the Dallas school system actively recruits Oklahoma teachers with Oklahoma City hiring booths).

Teachers are especially hard hit: their health plan was replaced with a private system that eats up more than $1000/month for a family of three-- one teaching aide was actually paying to work her job, spending $200/month more on health insurance than she was paid in salary. Teachers make ends meet with public housing vouchers and food stamps, and school food-bank drives sometimes give their leftovers to hungry teachers and their families.

It's not just teachers: the highway patrol has been given orders not to completely fill their gas-tanks at the pump, to help with state cash-flow; drunk drivers go free because there is no one available to process their tickets, and the prison system is on the verge of collapse.

Another example: Oklahoma

Looks bad, doesn't it. And it's not just Oklahoma. 7 states have failed education systems that are even worse than Oklahoma's. From bad to worse:

• Alabama
• Alaska
• Arkansas
• Mississippi
• West Virginia
• New Mexico
• Louisiana

And this is connected to an embarrassing new report from Bloomberg, the annual innovation Index. For the first time-- and you won't hear Señor Trumpanzee bragging about this one, the way he bragged about airline safety and a rising stock market-- the U.S. fell out of the top 10. Why? Education. And if Trumps-The-clown cuts off immigration... the U.S. will keep falling. The top 10:

• 1- South Korea
• 2- Sweden
• 3- Singapore
• 4- Germany
• 5- Switzerland
• 6- Japan
• 7- Finland
• 8- Denmark
• 9- France
• 10- Israel

There are 7 criteria Bloomberg uses to come up with their scores.

The U.S. fell to 11th place from ninth mainly because of an eight-spot slump in the post-secondary, or tertiary, education-efficiency category, which includes the share of new science and engineering graduates in the labor force. Value-added manufacturing also declined. Improvement in the productivity score couldn’t make up for the lost ground.

“I see no evidence to suggest that this trend will not continue,” said Robert D. Atkinson, president of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation in Washington, D.C. “Other nations have responded with smart, well-funded innovation policies like better R&D tax incentives, more government funding for research, more funding for technology commercialization initiatives.”

Singapore jumped ahead of European economies Germany, Switzerland and Finland into third place on the strength of its top ranking in the tertiary-efficiency category.

“Singapore has always placed strong focus on educating her populace, especially in STEM disciplines,” said Yeo Kiat Seng, professor and associate provost at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, referring to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It also has a “steadfast commitment to funding R&D and innovation,” added Yeo, who holds 38 patents.

  South Korea remained the global-innovation gold medalist for the fifth consecutive year. Samsung Electronics Co., the nation’s most-valuable company by market capitalization, has received more U.S. patents in the 2000s than any firm except International Business Machines Corp. And its semiconductors, smartphones and digital-media equipment spawned an ecosystem of Korean suppliers and partners similar to what Japan developed around Sony Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp.

China moved up two spots to 19th, buoyed by its high proportion of new science and engineering graduates in the labor force and increasing number of patents by innovators such as Huawei Technologies Co.

The U.S. did well in several of the criteria-- #2 in Patent activity, #1 in high tech density, #6 in productivity-- but got destroyed in 2 areas where the Trump Regime has no interest: educational efficiency (#42) and researcher concentration (#20). They're about the future and Trump is about the quarter, not about long term success. He's the worst thing that ever happened to America.

One of the first people I turned to, among the Blue America candidates, for a perspective on this was Jenny Marshall a an educator herself. "As a public school teacher in North Carolina I can tell you first hand that neither Trump with his disastrous pick of Betsy DeVos nor Virginia Foxx give one thought to bettering educational opportunities for all students. They seek to defund, deregulate and eventually privatize our public school system so that only those with the means will succeed. It feeds in to this elitist model that doesn’t look at the whole picture though. For our country to innovate we must broaden the base making education equitable for all students. That is why I am an advocate for fully funded, tuition free public schools from pre-K all the way through college. On the other side of the aisle Rep. Foxx is making it harder on students to obtain a college degree if her PROSPER Act passes. Even more horrible is that Rep. Foxx chairs the education and workforce committee in the House. The exact place that forward thinking ideas begin to shape into law. With Foxx in charge we will see little gains in education or workforce development."

There is no candidate Blue America has endorsed who is more passionate about education and its relationship to innovation and economic development than Lisa Brown, until recently Chancellor of Washington State University, Spokane. She knows what she's taking about and told us that "state and federal government can support innovation and real economic development that can actually reverse rising inequality by focusing on a critical factor, what economists call 'human capital.' Human capital is investing in the potential of the people-- from quality early learning  through ample K-12 and skills training, to medical schools, like the one I helped start in eastern Washington. The tax bill, supposedly focused on economic growth, missed this critical human capital element entirely, and  the version House Republicans originally passed was actively anti-education-- taxing graduate students and worsening the burden of student loan debt. Leaving the Dreamers to languish is the moldy icing on a stale cake-- not only a human rights violation-- but a significant anti-innovation move, that will cost us economically, as we lose the tremendous potential of these young people to transform their lives and contribute to their communities."

Antoinette Sedillo Lopez served as a Law Professor at the University of New Mexico for over 27 years, including eight years as Associate Dean of UNM’s Clinical Law program. She told us she's concerned that the U.S. has dropped out of the top 10 in innovation, but she's not surprised. "While we have some of the best colleges, universities and vocational/apprenticeship training programs in the world, our government doesn't sufficiently invest in the long term success of our people. In order for our country to continue to innovate and grow, we need to invest in research and quality education and training in science, technology, engineering art and math. And, we must also invest in human needs that allow for the type of innovation that takes place in countries like Sweden. Single-payer healthcare, livable wages, and debt-free college allow for people to commit themselves to R&D and innovation. Giving people the dignity and security of having readily accessible healthcare, employment opportunities, affordable housing, and educational and training opportunities without a debt-sentence, is the type of forward-thinking investments in human capital that we need to make. The costs of not prioritizing human needs not only affect the individuals in our communities, but affects our overall ability to thrive as a country."

  Philadelphia chemist Nina Ahmad completely agrees. "Our research funding has fallen behind 2003 levels when indexed for inflation, even with recent modest increases and despite the President's best effort to enact further cuts," she told us. "As a scientist, I have seen the way that investing in research can spur economic growth for people throughout the economic spectrum. However, this Congress decided we needed a massive tax giveaway to the wealthy first. We need to change our priorities. Soon."

Lillian Salerno, the progressive in the race against Pete Sessions in the north Dallas area told us that she grew up with meager resources and that her parents didn’t go to college, nor could they afford to send her. But she told us that she "depended on quality public schools and PELL grants to help me achieve the life that allowed me to become a business owner, provide jobs, and advocate for anyone without a voice loud enough to be heard in DC. My government invested in me and believe me, I paid them back ten fold. Without teachers like Mr. Erpamer, my English teacher, I likely would never have attended the University of Texas, dramatically changing the course of my life and my family’s life. Look, the American dream is built on a foundation of equitable access to high quality education. If we don’t elevate the teaching profession, pay teachers what their worth, and give all of our public schools, in every neighborhood across our country, what they need to be successful, we are putting the nail in the coffin of the American dream. And that’s what the GOP wants to do. Income inequality is working for them, but it sure as hell isn’t working for us. It is time we demanded that the rich stop getting richer on the backs of the rest of us-- our teachers, children, and public servants included. I have nieces, brothers, and sisters who are teachers and school and district leaders. Every single one of them is a passionate advocate for every kid, every single kid no matter their zip code or background, getting what they deserve from our public education system. I see how their passion translates into long work hours, working overtime with no pay, and spending their own money on school supplies. They deserve to be paid what their worth and given what they need to help our children soar to the greatest heights. What are our educators worth? Well, frankly, a lot more than the GOP lawmakers who are putting our children at risk of not reaching their fullest potentials. I can think of nothing more criminal than that." Before she decided to run for Congress, Lillian worked in the Obama administration as Deputy Undersecretary for Rural Development.

And how could we not end this with the progressive Democrat who has the best chance to break the Republicans' grip on the congressional delegation, Tom Guild, who's running for the House seat in Oklahoma City... and an educator himself.

Oklahoma has followed a trickle down economic model and has put the trickle in trickle down with great gusto. For the last decade, Republican legislatures have given away the store to the fossil fuels industry and the uber wealthy, aka Okies with God’s unlisted phone number. For the last eight years they have had a Republican trickle downer as governor and hold all statewide elected and congressional offices, a super majority in the state house, and a super duper majority in the state senate. They have refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. They have defunded public education both K-12 and higher education. They have watched the Sooner State’s infrastructure crumble around us. They finally had to pony up money to refurbish the state capitol building when pieces of the sky like mortar etc. were literally falling on the heads and desks of public employees trying to concentrate on their work.

Four years ago the gross production tax was lowered from 7% to 2% to reward big individual donors and also PAC donors in the oil and gas industry. They continually lowered the state income tax mainly for the benefit of the wealthy and also the faulty automatic trigger for lowering income taxes they put in place triggered reductions even when the money coming into the state budget was falling. As a result, many Oklahoma school districts now have four day school weeks, so that teachers can work at Walmart three days a week to pay their bills. This results in inadequate education for our children and more financial pressure on parents to safeguard their children while they try to earn a living. Teacher’s salaries are pathetically low and as a result quality teachers are flocking to surrounding states in droves.

The state legislature made it ILLEGAL for municipalities to raise the minimum wage just as we were filing a petition to do just that in the state’s capital city. It’s so low that Okies can’t survive with just one job. The legislature made it ILLEGAL for cities and towns to regulate oil and gas production in their city limits just as Stillwater and other local governments were trying to impose reasonable regulations. This was to protect their huge wealthy donors.

The state of the state of Oklahoma is dismal and decaying. The Republican governor is one of the two most despised in the country even though she rules the roost in a DEEP RED STATE. The state legislature is so bad that a compensation panel LOWERED their pay just recently in a DEEP RED STATE.

Why is Oklahoma a failed state? Follow the money! The state chamber crowd that heavily funds local and state races yells “jump” and the governor and legislature ask, “How High Master!”  The fossil fuels industry unleashes their PACs on anyone and everyone who doesn’t bow to them and also heavily finances dutiful lackeys holding public office. Oklahoma is on par with the dismal track record of autocratic governments around the world. Just what you would expect from a wealthy selfish oligarchy with pliable politicians answering their beckon call.

What’s Wrong with Oklahoma? The same thing that’s wrong with Kansas!

Trump Era: Breakdown Of Law And Order-- Pennsylvania Edition

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court looked at the unconstitutional gerrymander the Republicans in the state legislature perpetrated on the citizens of the state and threw it out. The Justices instructed the Republicans not to show up for prison but to redraw the maps in time for the November midterms. Prison terms would have been more appropriate... but the Court was lenient. One of the leaders of the crooked gang, Senate president Joe Scarnati, announced Wednesday that he doesn't plan to cooperate with what the Supreme Court ordered. This is how desperate Pennsylvania Republicans are to hold onto their illegitimate and illegal power:

"In light of the unconstitutionality of the Court’s Orders and the Court’s plain intent to usurp the General Assembly’s constitutionally delegated role of drafting Pennsylvania’s congressional districting plan, Sen. Scarnati will not be turning over any data identified in the Court’s Orders," his lawyers wrote in a letter to the court.

...In declaring the state’s congressional map an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander, the state high court ordered a new map redrawn in time for the primary election in May. It gave the General Assembly less than three weeks to approve a new map, then have it signed by Gov. Wolf. If that does not happen, the justices said in their order, they would adopt their own boundaries.

Days later, the court issued another order, announcing it had retained Stanford University professor Nathaniel Persily as an adviser and requesting the current municipal boundaries from the General Assembly. It also requested the parties submit maps and technical data used in expert testimony. Lawyers for the plaintiffs-- 18 Democratic voters from across the state--— submitted their maps and data Wednesday, as did a lawyer for Lt. Gov. Mike Stack. Other parties, including Wolf, said they did not have any data to provide.

Scarnati and Turzai have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the state court ruling, arguing that the U.S. Constitution gives state legislatures the power to run elections. By saying it would intervene and draw its own map, the lawmakers wrote, the state high court takes that power from the legislature. The court has not officially agreed to consider the case, but U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. has requested a response from the plaintiffs by 4 p.m. Friday.

In the meantime, lawmakers have taken the initial steps toward drawing new lines.

Meanwhile, for those perplexed about the sudden retirement of powerful Philly Machine boss, Bob Brady-- he isn't running for reelection-- there is a back story for those outside of Philadelphia-- and it isn't the bullshit Pelosi spit out about Brady's outstanding service as "a forceful champion for working people in Pennsylvania and across the nation." True, he doesn't want to be beaten by Nina Ahmad but there's more to it than that.

The FBI last year filed charges against four people in an investigation into a payment Brady's campaign made to a primary opponent in 2012. Three people have pleaded guilty, including a political consultant to Brady.

Brady's campaign gave a city judge who challenged him in the 2012 primary $90,000 to quit the race, according to the plea memo unsealed after the judge's campaign aide pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance laws. And Brady himself tried to "influence" a witness in the case, according to prosecutors, who said they filed the case under seal for fear he would "corrupt(ly)" pressure the aide not to cooperate.

At the end of last year, one of Brady's campaign workers agreed to take the fall for Brady. No one was buying it though.

A political consultant for U.S. Rep. Bob Brady pleaded guilty to lying about a $90,000 payoff made by the congressman’s campaign to get an opponent to quit a 2012 primary.

Donald Jones, 62, pleaded guilty on Friday to making false statements to the FBI in a campaign finance probe involving the boss of the Philadelphia Democratic Party.

“I accept full responsibility for my actions and consider my guilty plea a first step in making amends,” Jones said in a statement issued by his attorney Alan J. Tauber. “I apologize to the people of Philadelphia and to my family for bringing this dishonor upon them.”

The district is just 42% white but the establishment white Machine is not giving up without a fight; there's also a black establishment machine, which is likely to run Joanna McClinton. It looks to me that the white machine is going to put up Richie Lazar as the man they want to hold onto Brady's seat and keep Ahmad out of it. Earlier in the month The Inquirer was already speculating that "Many in Philadelphia’s political circles wonder whether Brady is scheming to install Lazer as his successor... One political operative said Lazer replacing Brady would be 'a status quo bait and switch.' Another said that if Lazer does run, it probably would be with Brady’s blessing." The fount of corruption in Philly politics, John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty, building trades leader, is behind Lazar, just as Brady always has.

Making Congress Better: 2 Great Candidates-- Nina Ahmad in Philly And Lisa Brown In Spokane

This week Blue America endorsed two inspiring candidates for Congress on opposite ends of the country. Nina Ahmad in running in Philadelphia and Lisa Brown is running for the eastern Washington seat based in Spokane. Yes, they're both women and since 51% of the population of this country are women and just 19% of the House are women, its great that two will help right that egregious disparity. But that isn't why we decided to endorse either of them. We endorsed them because they are-- by far-- the best candidates running, regardless of gender. Tomorrow McConnell has scheduled a vote in the Senate for a 20-week abortion ban that impedes a woman’s right to choose what’s best for her health, denies access to life-saving procedures, and criminalizes medical professionals. Paul Ryan has already gotten it through the House and Trump would love to make a big deal of it in an Oval Office signing ceremony.

Yesterday Nina, who is running in a Philadelphia district which Bob Brady, the city's Party Machine Boss, thinks he owns, told her supporters that "the only definition of modern womanhood that I believe is that each and every one of us has the right-- the freedom-- to choose. Whether we want to ensure dinner is on the table at 6pm or decide instead to spend our time as 'nail-biting manophobic hell-bent feminist she devils who shriek from the tops of a thousand tall buildings' [which is how Missouri GOP crackpot Senate candidate Courtland Sykes actually referred to women trying to make the country a better place] we must work together with Americans of all backgrounds and lifestyle choices to solve the real issues facing our nation. Pennsylvania currently has ZERO women in its federal delegation." The Pennsylvania primary is on May 15.

Washington state holds it's primary on August 7 but it already looks like the Democrat who will face off against Republican heavy-weight Cathy McMorris Rodgers is former Washington State University chancellor and former Senate majority leader Lisa Brown, an economist. She is running on a progressive platform of ideas that starts with her belief that "true economic growth and jobs come from investing in people (through education) and in infrastructure. I championed early learning and delivered infrastructure projects to eastern Washington (working with legislators on both sides of the aisle and all corners of the state)." Whether it's net neutrality, affordable college education or marijuana legalization, Lisa and Nina have already been at the forefront of the movements in their states pushing for the most progressive solutions to problems that plague working families.

Interviewing these two women gave me the personal satisfaction of feeling I was talking to people I could learn from and be rallied by. Lisa has to flip a longtime red district blue the way it used to be and Nina has to help a deep blue district throw off the bonds of a corrupt, self-serving machine, two worthy goals for two of 2018's very best candidates. Please consider contributing what you can to both by clicking on the ActBlue congressional thermometer on the right. Lisa wrote a guest post here and Nina wrote a guest post here... in case you're looking for a double dose of inspiration today. These are two of the best congressional candidates I've run across for the 2018 cycle-- and we have some really fantastic candidates this year. I'm getting very optimistic and November and more optimistic about 2019.

You Want Candidates Who Will Vote With Republicans Against The DREAMers? Vote For New Dems And Blue Dogs

Breitbart appears frightened that Señor Trumpanzee could abandon Stephen's racism and xenophobia for something more pragmatic. They were calling him "Amnesty Don" Thursday morning (above) but appear to have changed the headline slightly by afternoon (below). But they're still whining about the DREAMers, as you can see. This is what one of the Breitbart Nazis had to say "President Trump told mainstream media reporters on Wednesday that he was open to breaking his immigration commitment by giving a pathway to U.S. citizenship to nearly 800,000 illegal aliens shielded from deportation by the President Obama-created Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. In statements outside the White House, Trump told the Associated Press (AP) that he would be open to giving U.S. citizenship to DACA illegal aliens, saying 'It’s going to happen.'" They fumed over AP's report that Señor Trumpanzee said "he’s open to a pathway to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of young people who were brought to the country as children and are now here illegally. Trump told reporters, 'We’re going to morph into it. It’s going to happen, at some point in the future, over a period of 10 to 12 years.' Trump was talking about the young immigrants who had been protected from deportation and given the right to work legally in the country under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program."

DREAMers weren't overjoyed by Trump's announcement, basically because the Stephen Miller framework he got Trump to put on the table is so onerous. Greisa Martinez Rosas, Advocacy Director for United We Dream and potential beneficiary of the Dream Act, said:

“Let’s call this proposal for what it is: a white supremacist ransom note. Trump and Stephen Miller killed DACA and created the crisis that immigrant youth are facing. They have taken immigrant youth hostage, pitting us against our own parents, Black immigrants and our communities in exchange for our dignity.”

“To Miller and Trump’s white supremacist proposal, immigrant youth say: No.

“With each passing day, immigrant youth are losing their livelihoods and are at risk of deportation. People like Eric, Yuridia, and Damaris could soon face the same fate as Luis, who was kicked in the head by deportation agents and confined in a detention camp.

“But our fear, our pain, and our lives must not be used to shackle our parents and ban those seeking refuge; we must not be used to tear apart the moral fabric of this country. For months, we have organized and mobilized the country to demand a common sense solution that delivers protection without harming others: the Dream Act.”

“So let us be clear: any politician who backs up this ransom note is enabling Trump and Miller’s white supremacist agenda.

“Members of Congress of conscience must make the moral choice to reject this white supremacist proposal and pass legislation that protects us without harming others. Dream Act now.”

Earlier this week the whole Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- the Blue Dogs and New Dems-- abandoned the DREAMers and voted with the Republicans. In case you're wondering, the New Dems have endorsed 23 candidates so far this cycle:

• Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ)
• Greg Stanton (AZ)
• Dave Min (CA)
• Harley Rouda (CA)
• Hans Keirstead (CA)
• Lauren Baer (FL)
• Jason Crow (CO)
• Paul Davis (KS)
• Elissa Slotkin (MI)
• Angie Craig (MN)
• Dean Phillips (MN)
• Dan McCready (NC)
• Brad Ashford (NE)
• Mikie Sherrill (NJ)
• Max Rose (NY)
• Anthony Brindisi (NY)
• Susie Lee (NV)
• Chrissie Houlahan (PA)
• Jana Lynne Sanchez (TX)
• Jay Hulings (TX)
• Ben McAdams (UT)
• RD Huffstetler (VA)
• Dan Kohl (WI)

They didn't get a chance to vote but the organization they each sought and got an endorsement from sure did. If you help elect them, they will be on the wrong side of every vote in Congress that means anything. In the words of CREDO Political Director Murshed Zaheed, "Not surprisingly, a racist immigration fantasy masked as a proposal from a racist White House is a white supremacist’s wish list. It goes without saying that {President} Donald Trump’s Stephen Miller’s racist immigration proposal should be dead on arrival in Congress. The negotiators in Congress should work to enact a clean DREAM Act without a single compromise to Republicans’ nativist agenda. Time is up. Congress must pass the DREAM Act now."

Four candidates Blue America likes a lot Antoinette Sedillo Lopez in Albuquerque, Mary Matiela in Tucson, Nina Ahmad in Philly and Ricardo Franco, the progressive running for the Devin Nunes seat in the Central Valley, both shared their perspectives with us. Antoinette: "The Trump/Stephen Miller proposal is a repudiation of some of the most important principles that this country holds dear. I don't believe  that the American people will sell out our values and accept the militarization of our country’s borders with an enormous ICE presence acting to remove immigrants and, of course, sowing fear and discord in our communities. I don't believe that Americans are willing to pay for a $25 billion wall that is simply a hateful symbol and will not have any tangible positive effect on our country. Family unification has been a bedrock principle of immigration law because families are foundational to building our society; eliminating this policy would betray our values. Poll after poll shows that most Americans support DREAMers, young people who do not belong to any other country but ours, where they have grown up and continue to contribute. Anything less than a clean Dream Act betrays our values of inclusion and compassion.  This proposal is an embarrassment, and it should be rejected by all who are willing to stand up to this President’s divisive agenda. We all should stand strong against this hateful proposal."

Mary Matiela, the best of the candidates running to replace Martha McSally in Tucson: "No doubt, Dreamers have contributed to this country-- they are doctors, nurses, soldiers, builders, painters, etc. Dreamers are our colleagues, our neighbors, and our family-- we cannot, must not abandon them. Trump's plan, where the pathway to citizenship evolves over 15 years, is deceitful and cruel; we must reject it! Legislators must urgently work on a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, i.e., not by February 8."

The most recent Blue America endorsee, Nina Ahmad, came to the U.S. from Bangladesh and has made her life into a stunning success story that has been a big boon for our country and for Philadelphia. Yesterday she said that "Once again, we see President Trump using DREAMers as a bargaining chip rather than treating them as the human beings they are. The DREAM Act is a popular piece of legislation that should have been passed years ago. As an immigrant, I hope Democrats reject the premise that this is a compromise and focus on the humanity of immigrants and their families. We can do better than what Trump has proposed."

And Ricardo Franco, who's starting to get some real traction against Nunes: "From my years in business I know that you don't bargain or argue over something that has consensus or unanimous support. More than 85% of the country believes our DACA recipients should stay.  Only Trump and career politicians disconnected from the lives of their constituents would ever think bargaining over something like this is reasonable. I have sat in the homes of people who are threatened by the loss of DACA and shared their fear. Passing a clean DREAM act is a matter of life and death to many of our constituents. How ignorant must a legislator be to not understand this?  We can no longer tolerate any members of Congress that don't take this and other issues with the respect and seriousness that humanity commands."

And New York state's Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, said that since Trumpanzee "abruptly ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program last September, DREAMers have been left in fear and uncertainty. Every day, an estimated 122 DACA recipients lose their protections from deportation, resulting in thousands of young people facing threat of separation from their families and friends since Trump’s devastating decision. Over 40,000 DREAMers are New Yorkers, and I’m keeping up the legal fight to protect them from this administration’s harmful and unlawful actions against them. But leaders in Washington, D.C. have the opportunity to solve this problem and prevent additional young people from losing their protections right now by passing the bipartisan DREAM Act. While I’m fighting in the courts... Each day that passes without a legislative, long-term solution for DREAMers leaves many to wonder if and when they’ll be forced back to a country they do not know, in many cases countries where their health and safety are at risk. President Trump promised to have 'heart' when it came to defending DREAMers, but so far he’s failed to deliver, instead choosing to blow up negotiations with Congressional leaders and hold DREAMers hostage while he demands billions of dollars in funding for his border wall... No matter what happens, I will continue to fight for DREAMers’ right to stay here in the country they call home."

Republicans Are Starting To Get Marijuana Campaign Money While Establishment Dems Sleep

Last summer we met Jasper Ward and his dad, former Kentucky congressman Mike Ward. Since then Jasper and Mike have been helping progressive candidates around the country-- like Kendra Fershee in West Virginia and Dan Canon in Indiana-- with marijuana legalization messaging. Yesterday Jasper noted that "Democrats are missing a huge opportunity to be strong on an issue that not only is good policy, not only is popular with voters, but also is good politics. Republicans will never legalize nationwide, and are trying to take us back a generation now."

Mike is describing the geriatric Democratic leadership, not cutting edge progressive candidates and not tuned-in leaders. Last week, for example, Barbara Lee, who represents Oakland and Berkley in Congress and Ro Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley, introduced the Marijuana Justice Act to, in Lee's words, "reverse decades of failed drug policies that have caused irreparable damage to communities of color. Senator Cory Booker is the leading the same charge in the Senate. This is the most ambitious marijuana bill to be introduced in Congress-- and for good reason. For far too long, our country’s drug laws have failed communities of color, torn families apart, wasted billions of taxpayer dollars, and have yet to keep us safe. The time has come for Congress to step up and have the courage to do what Jeff Sessions is not, which is to take a close look at this issue and pass legislation to fix our country’s drug laws. Right now, arrests for marijuana account for more than half of all drug arrests in the United States. Under our current drug laws, police have arrested more Americans in possession of marijuana than all violent crimes combined, and most of those arrests fall disproportionately on people of color. The Marijuana Justice Act reverses these trends by:

• Removing marijuana from a list of controlled substances, legalizing it at the federal level.
• Expunging federal marijuana use and possession of crimes.
• Establishing a community reinvestment fund to help pave a pathway forward for communities disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs.

"I’ll say it again: we are not going to turn our backs on progress and return to an era of failed drug policies and mass incarceration. We are not going to stand idly by while communities of color suffer unfairly under our country’s failed drug policies. And we are certainly not going to wait for Jeff Sessions and this administration to do something about it."



Early yesterday morning, Trevor Hughes, writing for USA Today reported that marijuana money increasingly flowing to Republican lawmakers. Under the out-of-step leadership of expired-date Democrats like Pelosi, Hoyer, Clyburn and Crowley, Democrats are ignoring an important issue in an important and vibrant industry with a huge base of support. They are... old and in the way.

Marijuana business owners are increasingly pouring their profits into lobbying lawmakers as they face a federal crackdown from the Trump administration.

A USA Today survey found hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing from the cannabis industry into campaign finance accounts of both lawmakers and political action committees, with emphasis this year on Congressional Republicans who are trying to stop the Trump administration from targeting marijuana businesses.

Combined, medical and recreational marijuana marketplaces across the country are worth a staggering $8 billion, and last year generated at least $2 billion in taxes, said Matt Karnes of cannabis data firm GreenWave Advisors. It’s no surprise those businesses want to protect what they’ve built, experts say.

“These are legitimate, taxpaying businesses that want and deserve to be heard, and lawmakers at every level of government have become more comfortable with accepting their contributions,” said Mason Tvert, a cannabis activist who helped lead Colorado’s legalization effort in 2012.

Politicians are increasingly willing to accept those contributions from an industry that remains illegal at the federal level and now faces even more scrutiny after Attorney General Jeff Sessions earlier this month rolled back Obama administrationpolicies not to interfere with state laws allowing people to use recreational marijuana.

...Democrats have typically been the largest recipients of marijuana campaign money in the past, but Republicans are now taking the lead in accepting those donations, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which analyzed contributions at the request of USA Today. Experts say the recent shift is largely attributable to the belief by marijuana businesses that Republicans who support states' rights are their best allies today.

...Republican California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher recently became a favored lawmaker of cannabis contributors for his strong support of the industry: He's the author of legislation banning the Justice Department from targeting legal medical marijuana businesses. Rohrabacher said he’s noticing more and more marijuana money and lobbying on Capitol Hill.

“They’ve got a lot to learn. But they’re learning it because they’re here now,” he said. “The voters of those states have granted them the title of legitimate businessmen.”

The rapidly growing marijuana industry is finding that politicians are increasingly willing to accept their campaign contributions, said Eli Scislowicz, the operations director of the NuLeaf cannabis dispensary in Lake Tahoe’s Incline Village, Nev.

“In 2007, we might have gotten a few weird looks if we offered them money, but not anymore,” he said.

If you'd like to see more members of Congress who will fight for legalization, please consider contributing to candidates who are working towards that already. You can see a list of them-- and contribute to their campaigns if you want to-- by tapping on the ActBlue Green Wave thermometer on the right. I spoke with Alan Grayson about this. When he was in the House, he told me that he didn't just vote for legalization. "I wrote a bill," he explained, "providing that the federal government could not punish marijuana use any more than the state does, which I then pushed out to Republicans as a 'states’ rights' bill. I also rounded up Democrats to vote for Dana’s amendment allowing V.A. doctors to prescribe marijuana for pain relief wherever it’s legal, which passed.

Doug Applegate, a retired Marine colonel, is also thinking about veterans when it comes to this policy. "When it comes to marijuana, he told me, "we need to research, regulate and tax. Anecdotal evidence indicates that marijuana may be an effective treatment for PTSD. California expects marijuana taxes to have a substantial change on revenues.; so research, regulate and tax."

Blue America's newest endorsed candidate, Nina Ahmad in Philly, has a similarly sensible perspective: "The 'War on Drugs' policies have unfairly targeted communities of color since their inception. We can't allow the rich and the large corporations to control this industry and turn their backs on those communities which have felt the devastating negative effects without seeing any positive growth."

Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, the progressive candidate for the open blue seat in Albuquerque said that "As a longtime law professor and advocate for criminal justice reforms, I believe that our so-called war on drugs has led to deeply harmful racial disparities in our incarceration rates, and that is largely due to our marijuana policy. While I have supported state-level ballot measures that would decriminalize and legalize marijuana use, I also believe we need to have a national/federal strategy. While I don't always agree with him, I've been heartened by Senator Booker's recently introduced bill, the Marijuana Justice Act, which would legalize marijuana, expunge federal marijuana convictions and penalize states with racially-disparate arrests or incarceration rates for marijuana-related crimes. If we care about reforming our criminal justice system, the conversation has to begin with the legalization of marijuana. Otherwise, we are letting this corrosive imbalance in incarceration continue unabated. This is simply another example of institutionalized racism."

And Marie Newman, the progressive running for the Chicagoland seat occupied by Blue Dog Dan Lipinski, summed it up it up nicely: "We have the information we need. We need to legalize."

Meet Nina Ahmad-- You'll Be Happy You Did

Machine bossism is not dead-- far from it. The Queens Democratic Party boss, Joe Crowley, has been picked by Hoyer and Pelosi to take over the Democratic congressional caucus after they're gone. The political capo dei capi of New Jersey Democrats, George Norcross, was able to install his kid brother, Donald, in a South Jersey congressional seat the Machine owns (Camden, Cherry Hill, the eastern Philly suburbs, Gloucester County), and in Philly, on the other side of the Delaware, you have Bob Brady, a congressman and the machine boss of Philadelphia (technically, since 1986, the chairman of the Philadelphia Democratic Party). When Bill Clinton appointed 17-year Congressman Tom Foglietta Ambassador to Italy, there was no primary and barely a general election battle at all. Brady waltzed into the seat and has sat there ever since. He generally gets around 80% of the vote with no serious opposition. Last year he was investigated by the FBI for paying off an opponent, Jimmy Moore, to withdraw from the race. In 2015, during Pope Francis' visit to the United States, Brady stole the glass that the Pope drank from, drank from it himself and had his wife, Sen. Bob Casey and his wife drink from it and allowed Joe Crowley to stick his fingers in the glass. The Philadelphia Inquirer has written that "running against him could equal career suicide." Now he has an opponent who doesn't care about that kind off politics, Nina Ahmad. Will Bunch did an excellent profile of her for The Inquirer about a week ago. When he asked her "Aren’t you afraid of taking on the (Democratic) machine?" she told him "Death has visited my door-- rape, and being killed."

[T]here’s something very different about this race in Pennsylvania’s First Congressional District-- one of the nation’s poorest, snaking down the Delaware from Philly’s river wards to struggling Chester in Delaware County.

...Ahmad makes a strong case that working-class and poverty-plagued women need to win the war against entrenched patriarchy more urgently than affluent females, who have the means to hire a lawyer and sue a male boss for sexual harassment. “These are women who have to suck it up and have been sucking it up for ages, because they don’t have the luxury to smack the man who’s been pawing them as they do their work,” she said, “because that’s one of the three jobs they have to keep so they can put food on the table.”

Nina Ahmad was born in Bangladesh and lived through genocide and war in 1971, only to come to the U.S. and earn a PhD in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and the go on to work as a molecular geneticist. She became politically active as an organizer for Howard Dean in 2004, served on President Obama's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, was elected president of the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Organization for Women and served as Deputy Mayor for Public Engagement under Mayor Jim Kenney, where she did outreach to ensure communities of color, women, and millennials were represented in government. Did I mention she's one of the best congressional candidates I've ever spoken to? I asked her to introduce herself to DWT readers and Blue America members. If you like what she has to say, consider contributing to her campaign by clicking on the thermometer on the right.


Confronting Monopoly Power And Its Role In Racial Inequality
-by Nina Ahmad

Monopoly of any industry smacks of a “rigged” system. The rising income inequality can be attributed to the consolidation of wealth and power in the hands of a few. A growing number of candidates are pledging to tackle the trend towards the monopolistic market domination, and I can be counted on to be amongst those who will fight to ensure the corporate power over our economy and our politics is regulated. But less examined in the fight against these forces are the burdens it has placed on people of color locked into an economic class structure that continues to hobble them at the knees. One must be careful to not use race as a stand in for class, but the reality is that structural barriers to racial equity result in low-income communities that disproportionately contain people of color with women being most affected. As a legislator, it will be my job to ensure that all people in my district have a voice, and I wanted to examine the real-world consequences of our failed policies and try to foster solutions for the future.

Starting in the 1980s, the Reagan administration and the courts changed the focus of anti-trust laws to protect businesses with considerable market power under the conservative concept of “economic efficiency." The old gospel of trickle-down economics has, of course, had the opposite effect. Wealth inequality is now at its highest level since the great depression.

Of course, when inequality grows, it adversely affects those at bottom the most, and people of color have the built-in disadvantage I spoke of earlier.  According to an article in Forbes Magazine, (Forbes!) the wealth gap between the median white family and the median African American family will grow from about 25x in 1983 to more than 99x in 2024.  As we concentrate more wealth up the chain, we are further stacking the deck.

The growing influence of monopoly power threatens to further create problems. The social & economic injustice of the “digital divide” facing people in poor communities is further entrenched by the callous and cruel decisions. With the FCC’s decision to end net neutrality, the monopolies that control telecommunications can charge more for certain products, which will further hurt people of color. When people don’t connect to the internet, they fall behind educationally, then economically, and the cycle of poverty is strengthened. The government needed more regulation in that case, not less, and in Congress I will fight to undo this injustice.

As an immigrant woman of color, I am keenly aware of the intersections of race and economic mobility. Monopoly of power in the hands of a few primes and solidifies the structural and institutional barriers to economic freedom. My candidacy for Congress is founded on principle that all marginalized constituencies need more representation in Congress. As the old cliché goes: “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” In an era where the courts have allowed corporations unlimited political power, we need more people in Congress who are willing to stand up to the powerful and who will make economic justice with a racial equity lens a central part of their platform going forward.