Why Hasn't Pelosi Pulled The Funding Bill For The Department Of Homeland Security?

Why hasn't the House Democratic Leadership pulled the bill for funding for Department of Homeland Security off the floor. It's supposed to be voted on next week? Are Pelosi and Hoyer actually contemplating funding an agency that is helping Trump deploy his private militia/secret police on our streets? Many people are wondering.

ACRE, the Action Center on Race and the Economy, is a campaign hub for organizations working at the intersection of racial justice and corporate accountability. They provide research and strategic support for organizations working on campaigns to win structural change by directly taking on the corporations that are responsible for pillaging communities of color, devastating working-class communities, and harming our environment. Maurice BP-Weeks, Co-Executive Director, was very clear about ACRE's reaction to Pelosi moving forward with the funding bill: "As Trump unleashes an all-out attack on our cities with his brutal, militarized, and out-of-control secret police, Democrats shouldn’t be appropriating another single penny for his out control and reckless fascist regime. Bringing any bill to the House floor to fund a DHS that is deploying a cold, calculated, and secret police force is not only unconstitutional, but also deeply immoral. Democrats ought to be pulling every lever they have in their power right now to defund and abolish Trump’s secret police not to pour more money into it. Unfortunately, their track record is lacking to say the least. Democratic leadership in the past supported some of the same heavily militarized DHS practices that disappeared, surveilled and terrorized the Muslim, Arab and South Asian communities around the country for decades, and refused to take action when undocumented people were detained in countless raids. We’re at another make or break moment for Democratic leadership. If despite all the calls to defund and abolish the police nationwide the House chooses to further fund Trump’s secret force, they will cement a leadership failure of epic proportions. The time for rhetoric and nuance is over."




PPP did a series of surveys for MoveOn, released this week, that show voters in Arizona, Maine, and North Carolina prepared to vote against Trump and his Senate enablers at least in part because of the way Trump is using military force against civilian protesters in Portland. "Majorities of voters in all three states," reported MoveOn, "oppose Trump’s militarized used of federal agents without identification, witnessed in Portland and pledged to expand into NYC, Baltimore, Detroit, Philly, and Chicago. And voters want Congress to act to rein Trump in on this front-- again, majorities in all states, and particularly strongly in North Carolina, where 61% of voters support the no-brainer policies included in Sen. Merkley’s Preventing Authoritarian Policing Tactics on America’s Streets Act (eg: must wear ID on uniform, no unmarked vans for detentions, etc.). This Resolution has 42 cosponsors in the Senate-- Tillis, McSally, and Collins are all absent... This is more evidence of the broader story we’ve all seen: Republicans in the Senate have been choosing Trump over their constituents and their country. Our poll also shows that this decision might cost Republicans their jobs and control of the Senate. In all three races, the Republican incumbents are trailing their Democratic challengers. 

• In Maine, Gideon leads Collins 47-42 (in the first poll since Gideon clinched the nomination).
• In North Carolina, Cal’s up on Thom 48-40.
• And in Arizona, Kelly leads McSally 51-42. 

If you follow Marianne Williamson on Twitter you have probably noticed that she is more than outraged by the Trump unconstitutional incursions in Portland and his threats to do the same thing in Albuquerque and Chicago. A few days ago she used a longer form to write that Trump has announced that his goon squad is "going to go into American cities with high crime rates and fill them up with militarized agents who will fix all that. How, exactly? Well, no one is sure, because violent criminals don’t wear signs that say, 'Me! I’m the bad guy! Come get me!' Our esteemed crime-busters from DHS will presumably do what they’ve done in Portland: pretty much take anyone around and grab them into unmarked vans, in one of those 'proactive arrests' meant to make people aware that they should not and will not do anything criminal… such as… standing around in public after 10pm. The situation would be funny if it weren’t so dangerous. My biggest fear-- I’m sure everyone’s biggest fear if they think about it-- is that someone’s going to get killed in all this. And then, my fellow Americans, expect all hell to break loose. The giant of the American spirit has been slow to awaken to the deeper problems in our midst, but it’s awakened now. And she’s pissed."

I don’t think the president’s goons from the Department of Homeland Security (I always thought that name was creepy), untrained though they apparently are, are being told to shoot lethal weapons at protestors. But that’s not the point. Situations like this are volatile and they shouldn’t even be happening. Only in a dictatorship do squads of secret police invade cities, presumably to establish “law and order” but doing nothing but spreading chaos and fury.

When running for president, at my CNN Town Hall I said we needed to be aware of the risk of encroaching fascism. No wonder the political status quo didn’t think those the words of a serious candidate, huh? But what an insane system calls crazy might not be, and what it calls sane might be what is bound to drive all of us crazy. Such is the state of America today.

Am I hopeful? Yes, because hope is a moral imperative. Am I cynical? No, because to me that’s an excuse for not helping. In truth, I think that in the long run we’re going to be more than okay; I think we’re going to be magnificent. I think we’re going to have Lincoln’s proverbial “new birth of freedom.” But not immediately, not easily, and not without pain. Not in the short term, and perhaps not even in the middle term. There’s no reason to expect things will not get ugly very, very soon. The president is sending his troops to cities whose citizens simply will not have it.

Nor should they. This has gone too far. There are times when you have to draw a line, and now is such a time. A dangerous man is trying to destroy our democracy and we must not let him. America does not belong to him; it belongs to us. And millions of us are buckling up.

After she ended her presidential run, Marianne endorsed several progressive candidates for Congress this cycle. I asked a few of them if they're as disturbed by Trump's display of aggressive authoritarianism as she is. You can probably imagine that Shahid Buttar, running for the San Francisco seat occupied by Pelosi, is incensed. He told me that "the democracy of which we are rightfully proud is fragile. It has sustained brutal damage at the hands of Republicans-- and Democrats-- who have openly embraced authoritarian policies for generations. Mass incarceration, domestic surveillance, indefinite detention, executive secrecy, and militarized police are all facets of a problem far worse than the sum of its parts: fascism. The generations that preceded us fell asleep at the switch, but the sordid abuses of an aspiring tyrant have awakened in America a memory of our civic commitments. Today, from Portland to Washington, we are taking action reclaim our sovereignty, resist the unconstitutional orders of a criminal president, and hold the corporate opposition accountable for having funded authoritarian agencies for decades without meaningful oversight. I’m disgusted by our so-called leaders, and horrified by their mounting violations of our rights. At the same time, the growing movement to defend democracy makes me immensely proud of We the People of the United States."

West Virginia progressive Cathy Kunkel notes that even in the most Trump-friendly state, Trump has been turning toxic. "Congressman Alex Mooney has spent the last four years," she told me, "defining himself by his support for President Trump. And here in West Virginia-- as around the country-- voters are not impressed by Trump's handling of the pandemic. Running on Trump's coattails is not the strategy it was 4 years ago."

Eva Putzova, a former Flagstaff, Arizona City Council member, lived in Slovakia at one time and this authoritarian outburst from the dying-- but very dangerous-- embers of Trumpism is not her first brush with fascis, something she tweeted about yesterday. This morning she told me that "Trump's Homeland Security forces are no different than KGB, STASI, and my home country's ŠTB. What we see in the U.S. cities today is what we fought against in 1989 in former Czechoslovakia. I'm extremely worried about Trump's abuse of power and the long-term effects it can have on our democracy, especially when we consider how the public health crisis limits people's appetite to protest that power."

History professor and Riverside County congressional candidate Liam O'Mara noted that his district, the 42nd "has been changing along with the rest of Riverside, but went for Trump from a combination of progressive apathy and Trump's own populist rhetoric. But while he claims to stand for the common man, all he cares to do is line his own pockets and funnel taxpayer cash to the oligarchy. And that's totally Ken Calvert's jam. For 28 years now, #CrookedKenCalvert has been serving his corporate owners in the defense and real estate industries, and actively making life harder for people in the 42nd. He likes to brag that he's helped with freeway congestion, but what he's actually done is helped developers throw up bedroom communities for commuters, thus creating that traffic, and then funneled jobs to contractors to deal with the same traffic... and never mind all the pollution. People are starting to get wise to Calvert's lies, and his full-throated support for reopening schools is just to help Trump's own play for reëlection. Crooked Ken doesn't care if kids die or get permanent lung damage, or if they bring the infection home to vulnerable family members. He cares only about serving Trump and the oligarchy. And people are talking about it. Is DC a swamp of corruption? Oh yeah. And we could have started draining it four years ago by electing Bernie Sanders. Instead we elected a swamp-monster like Trump, who brought in dozens of lobbyists to top jobs. Naturally, the long-term corrupt like Calvert drifted into his orbit, and now we have to knock them both out in November."

David Kim, is a progressive Democrat running for Congress in Los Angeles, promising a more activist and grassroots approach to governance than the incumbent, Jimmy Gomez. "As an immigration attorney who defends people fleeing dangerous governments," said Kim this morning, "I am incredibly saddened and disturbed by Trump's escalating displays of authoritarianism. I am equally disgusted that Congress has taken no proactive measures to address the current situation, such as pulling the bill for funding DHS off the floor. If our leaders allow Trump to oppress and silence the people with his fascist goon squad, then they, along with Trump, will be sent home in November by a mass of voters fed up with our morally bankrupt system. The American people cannot, must not, and will not let this country devolve into an authoritarian dystopia."

This week Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) introduced a bill in the House to restrict the ability of the U.S. Marshals Service to deputize other federal employees to perform the functions of a Deputy U.S. Marshal. The bill would also prohibit the Attorney General from designating Drug Enforcement Administration officers to enforce federal laws outside of their Title 21 authority. The bill allows for an exception when the federal support is requested by the state governor. The bill is in response to what the Trump goon squad has been doing in Portland, a city represented by Blumenauer. Lieu noted that "What happened in Washington, DC and Portland is outrageous... We cannot allow this Administration or any future one to abuse its authorities against Americans practicing their First Amendment right to protest. In light of reports that the Trump Administration may use authoritarian tactics in additional cities around the country, we are working at breakneck speed to reign in this unfettered and troubling use of force."

Blumenauer sees right through what Trump has been up to, "From the dramatic influx of unnecessary federal agents, to the egregious use of violent tactics, it’s clear that the Trump Administration’s goal in Portland is to inflame tensions for political gain, rather than to keep our city safe. No community should face such a siege from the very people sworn to protect them. In order to ensure the rights of all Americans, it’s clear that we must fundamentally change the way federal officials can be deployed and used."

Trump Is A Notorious Racist-- So Is Republican Oligarch Michael Bloomberg

Is this the 2020 presidential campaign that Americans deserve? Image Trump and Bloomberg-- two notorious racists-- fighting about who's the bigger racist! Or how about a five-month debate between Trump and Biden about who's a bigger liar, about who's more senile and about whose family is more corrupt and disgusting?

Thank God for Bernie (and, to a lesser degree, Elizabeth)! But back to the notorious racist oligarch with the "D" next to his name for a moment. Charles Blow's column yesterday was entitled The Notorious Michael R. Bloomberg. And Blow, no Trump fan, wrote of the American oligarch trying to buy the presidency that "his racist stop-and-frisk policy as New York mayor can't be forgotten." While you're reading Blow's column and listening to Bloomberg speak on the Aspen video below, remember that 3 African-American members of Congress have been bought off by him, New Dem Gregory Meeks of Queens (Congress' most corrupt member), pretty much just as corrupt Bobby Rush of Chicago, and New Dem and single-issue congresswoman Lucy McBath. The reformer running for the Chicago seat Bobby Rush holds, Robert Emmons, noticed the Rush endorsement of Bloomberg. He recalled that "In 2013, I was wrongly pulled from my PoliSci 280 class by two detectives because I fit a 'Xerox' description. Because I was a 20-year-old Black man, I was guilty until proven innocent. The harm that came afterwards proved irreversible. This was a blatant example of the prejudice in our criminal justice system, and perfectly fits the description of Mike Bloomberg’s philosophy on 'fixing' black and brown communities. The fact that our incumbent, a former Black Panther, would align himself with such a candidate is very confusing, until you remember that Bobby Rush has been bought and sold by big money his entire career. If our incumbents’ behavior ever confuses you, just follow the money."

Let’s state some facts: Michael Rubens Bloomberg notoriously expanded stop-and-frisk in New York City to obscene proportions, violating the bodies and constitutional rights of mostly minority men and boys, and not only defended the policy, but mocked his detractors and bragged about it.

What Bloomberg did as mayor amounted to a police occupation of minority neighborhoods, a terroristic pressure campaign, with little evidence that it was accomplishing the goal of sustained, long-term crime reduction.

Nearly 90 percent of the people stopped were completely innocent. He knew that. They were the collateral damage in his crusade, black and brown bodies up against walls and down on the ground, groped in the middle of the city by strange men with guns, a vast expanse of human psychological wreckage about which he couldn’t care less.

A recording from a speech Bloomberg delivered at the Aspen Institute in 2015 underscores just how callous and cavalier he was in his thinking about this racist policy.




"Ninety-five percent of your murders-- murderers and murder victims-- fit one M.O.," Bloomberg said. "You can just take the description, Xerox it and pass it out to all the cops. They are male, minorities, 16 to 25. That’s true in New York. That’s true in virtually every city."

He goes on to say: “One of the unintended consequences is, people say, ‘Oh my God, you are arresting kids for marijuana, they’re all minorities.’ Yes, that’s true. Why? Because put all the cops in minority neighborhoods. Yes, that’s true. Why do we do it? Because that’s where all the crime is.”

Later he says, “The way you get the guns out of the kids’ hands is to throw them against the wall and frisk them.”

So many things to dissect here.

First, Bloomberg didn’t see individual criminals, many of whom happened to be minorities; he saw a class of criminals who were minorities. “They are male, minorities, 16 to 25.” Many of these were children.

He was articulating an explicitly race-based policy.

He spoke nonchalantly about giving these young people criminal records for marijuana, ignoring the enormous harm these criminal records cause to individuals and whole communities. And a vast majority of those people and communities were minorities.

As Daniel Nichanian, editor of The Appeal, wrote this week on Twitter: “Each year of Bloomberg’s 12-year mayorship, at least 50 percent of the people arrested for marijuana were black. And at least 85 percent were nonwhite each year, usually much higher. That’s tens of thousands of people each year.”

And Bloomberg defended the practice by saying that the only way to get the guns out of the kids’ hands was to throw the kids against a wall. But nearly 90 percent of these young people were completely innocent. They had done absolutely nothing wrong, let alone possess a gun.

The Columbia Law School professor Jeffrey Fagan produced a report that became part of a class-action lawsuit against the city in 2010. It found that “[s]eizures of weapons or contraband are extremely rare. Overall, guns are seized in less than 1 percent of all stops: 0.15 percent... Contraband, which may include weapons but also includes drugs or stolen property, is seized in 1.75 percent of all stops.”

As Fagan wrote, “The N.Y.P.D. stop-and-frisk tactics produce rates of seizures of guns or other contraband that are no greater than would be produced simply by chance.”

Bloomberg didn’t care about any of this. He didn’t care about these innocent black and brown bodies. Somewhere in each barrel of good apples there was a bad one, and he was willing to spoil the whole batch to purge that rare bad one.

These minority boys were being hunted. Their neighborhoods were experiencing an occupation. Citizens wanted crime abatement, but they didn’t expect apartheid.

And yet in the same way that white people in New York City had turned away when Bloomberg was executing his racist policy, many Democrats-- including some black ones-- appear willing now to turn a blind eye to his past.

Bloomberg is blanketing the airwaves with slick ads and glamouring liberals into amnesia and acquiescence. These liberals are then openly gaming out scenarios in which Bloomberg is the last, best option.

They don’t recognize that Bloomberg is the master of this sort of emotional manipulation. During his 2001 campaign for mayor, he ran ads that The New York Times noted focused on old crime fears.

“The scenes, set to dramatic synthesizer music punctuated by sharp blasts of percussion, come from what could well be called ‘N.Y.P.D. Bloomberg,’” The Times reported. “They seem calibrated to throw fear into the hearts of the citizenry at the thought of crime mushrooming again in a post-Giuliani New York City.”

During a campaign debate that year, Bloomberg, a Republican at the time, was asked how prevalent he believed racial profiling was in the New York Police Department. His answer is fascinating to examine in retrospect. He said: “In terms of the actuality, it is probably a very small number of police officers. Most police officers in this city work very hard. They are not racist thugs.”

But then he turned them into just that, making them part of a citywide system of racial profiling. Even the police objected. When Bloomberg was finally forced last fall to apologize for stop-and-frisk so he could run for president, Patrick Lynch, president of the city’s Police Benevolent Association, issued a blistering statement:

“Mayor Bloomberg could have saved himself this apology if he had just listened to the police officers on the street. We said in the early 2000s that the quota-driven emphasis on street stops was polluting the relationship between cops and our communities. His administration’s misguided policy inspired an anti-police movement that has made cops the target of hatred and violence, and stripped away many of the tools we had used to keep New Yorkers safe.”

In 2012, after million of stops, Bloomberg stood up in a church in Brownsville, Brooklyn, among the neighborhoods hardest hit by the policy, and declared that racial profiling was banned in the Police Department. “We will not tolerate it,” he said.

That was a Donald Trump-level lie.

The next year a federal judge ruled that the way the city used stop-and-frisk was unconstitutional because it amounted to a “policy of indirect racial profiling.”

No amount of Democrats’ anti-Trump fear and panic will ever erase what Bloomberg did. Democrats have a field of fascinating candidates. Many have some crime and justice issues of their own, but nothing approaching the scale of Bloomberg’s racist policy.

If Democrats cast aside all of these candidates in favor of Bloomberg and his wealth, I fear they will be making it harder to defeat Trump in November.

If that's not bad enough, I would suggest you also read Brian Slodysko's AP piece from yesterday, Bloomberg once blamed end of 'redlining' for 2008 collapse, one that clearly shows the difference between real Democrats and a Bloomberg kind of "Democrat." Slodysko wrote that "At the height of the 2008 economic collapse, then-New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the elimination of a discriminatory housing practice known as 'redlining' was responsible for instigating the meltdown. 'It all started back when there was a lot of pressure on banks to make loans to everyone,' Bloomberg, now a Democratic presidential candidate, said at a forum that was hosted by Georgetown University in September 2008. 'Redlining, if you remember, was the term where banks took whole neighborhoods and said, People in these neighborhoods are poor, they’re not going to be able to pay off their mortgages, tell your salesmen don’t go into those areas.' He continued: 'And then Congress got involved-- local elected officials, as well-- and said, Oh that’s not fair, these people should be able to get credit. And once you started pushing in that direction, banks started making more and more loans where the credit of the person buying the house wasn’t as good as you would like.'"

You're reading that right. Bernie and Elizabeth and most Democrats blamed the greed of the banksters, greedy oligarch Bloomberg blamed... poor people who wanted to buy homes and Democratic elected officials who wanted to end discriminatory policies like redlining entire neighborhoods.

Bloomberg, a billionaire who built a media and financial services empire before turning to electoral politics, was correct that the financial crisis was triggered in part by banks extending loans to borrowers who were ill-suited to repay them. But by attributing the meltdown to the elimination of redlining, a practice used by banks to discriminate against minority borrowers, Bloomberg appears to be blaming policies intended to bring equality to the housing market.

The term redlining comes from the “red lines” those in the financial industry would draw on a map to denote areas deemed ineligible for credit, frequently based on race.

“It’s been well documented that the 2008 crash was caused by unethical, predatory lending that deliberately targeted communities of color,” said Debra Gore-Mann, president and CEO of the Greenlining Institute, a nonprofit that works for racial and economic justice. “People of color were sold trick loans with exploding interest rates designed to push them into foreclosure. Our communities of color and low income communities were the victims of the crash, not the cause.”

Greg Meeks' opponent this year is progressive Shan Chowdhury. He wasn't happy about Meeks' endorsement of Bloomberg-- especially not in NYC. "We all have seen the videos and heard the testimonies of individuals who were hurt by Bloomberg’s time as the mayor of NYC. Stop and Frisk set a record number of unjust arrests landing people in prison and ruining their lives. As a Muslim-American, I was stopped by two NYPD officers late at night coming home from the local mosque. They accused me of a neighborhood robbery which I knew nothing about. They insisted I fit the description of their suspect. I went home that night and cried. I was stripped of my identity. I felt unsafe for being a Muslim in the most diverse nation in the world I called home. I would be stopped several times after that. Now, I am livid because we have corrupt politicians like Meeks who are bought off by billionaires and simply do not care about the trauma poor communities of color have gone through. We cannot replace one racist oligarch with another. Anyone like Meeks who thinks otherwise, is complicit in this injustice. I can never support anyone who unjustly throws Black people in prison. I can never support anyone for targeting Muslims. I can never support someone who is transphobic. It’s time for Meeks to go because we need a representative who actually gives a damn about their people. I will always fight for all people."

A question people are asking Congressman Meeks today: "Did he have to stop and frisk you to get your endorsement or just hand you some cash so you could cut a ribbon?"

Crooked Chicago Pol Endorses Bloomberg

If this was still the 1960's-- when Bobby Rush was a co-founder of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panthers-- you might scratch your head and wonder how he could have endorsed a multi-billionaire former Republican mayor of New York who instituted a stop and frisk policy aimed directly at African-Americans. But over five decades have gone by and selling his endorsement to the highest bidder is exactly what anyone who's been paying attention would expect from uber-corrupt Chicago Congressman Bobby Rush today.

Lynn Sweet covered the endorsement announcement for the Chicago Sun Times this week and noted that Bloomberg, whose only endorsements have been bought-and-paid for, named Rush a national campaign co-chairman. "Rush," she wrote, told her that he was "impressed by Bloomberg’s approach to the 'economic discrimination in the black community' [and that] he will serve as a surrogate for Bloomberg and have 'influence into strategies.'" Rush is the fourth House member to endorse Bloomberg. The others are ex-Republican Harley Rouda (New Dem-CA), Blue Dog chieftain Stephanie Murphy (FL) and Max Rose (Blue Dog-NY), exactly the kind of corruption-oriented, right-of-center money-grubbers you would expect to gravitate to Bloomberg.

Blue America has endorsed Robert Emmons, Jr., the progressive young reformer who is taking on Rush this cycle. We asked him how he sees the endorsement. "Congressman Rush, like many Democrats at the time," he reminded us, "voted in favor of the 1994 Crime Bill. Also like many Democrats who voted for the bill, he later apologized for doing so. But nothing about his apology rings true after endorsing a Chicago mayoral candidate who wanted to use drones to monitor black and brown communities around Chicago, and now the presidential candidate responsible for implementing stop and frisk, Michael Bloomberg."

Emmons continued: "For months we have called attention to Rush’s corporate loyalty, and his endorsement to Mike Bloomberg follows a clear pattern. If Congressman Rush were to support a candidate because he truly believed that individual would work to empower our community, I would have no issue with it. But he has a history of moving where the money moves, and this is business as usual. There is nothing that myself and my team are more committed to than actual reform in our community, and we’ll keep fighting for Medicare for All, a Green New Deal and Restorative Justice. We’ll continue to support Bernie Sanders, a presidential candidate who supports true progressive reform through an agenda with far more to offer our district than Bloomberg. #NotMeUs #WeAreTheSolution"

If you'd like to help Emmons raise money to combat the Bloomberg-Rush machine, please consider tapping on the 2020 Chicagoland thermometer above and contributing what you can to his campaign.

War And Peace Doesn't Just Happen To Happen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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





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

Dear Democratic Colleague,

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you for your patriotic leadership during this difficult time.

While Trump Fiddles, Our Crucial Task Is Saving Mankind-- And Planet Earth-- Before It's Too Late

What's the absolutely single most important thing Bernie can achieve if he's elected president in 2020? Yeah, I know they're all import but pick just one.

 Medicare-for-All?

• Create a Medicare for All, single-payer, national health insurance program to provide everyone in America with comprehensive health care coverage, free at the point of service.
• No networks, no premiums, no deductibles, no copays, no surprise bills.
• Medicare coverage will be expanded and improved to include: include dental, hearing, vision, and home- and community-based long-term care, in-patient and out-patient services, mental health and substance abuse treatment, reproductive and maternity care, prescription drugs, and more.
• Stop the pharmaceutical industry from ripping off the American people by making sure that no one in America pays over $200 a year for the medicine they need by capping what Americans pay for prescription drugs under Medicare for All.

Revitalize democracy itself?

• Restore the Voting Rights Act and overturn Citizens United.
• End racist voter suppression and partisan gerrymandering.
• Make Election Day a national holiday, secure automatic voter registration, and guarantee the right to vote for every American over 18, including those Americans currently incarcerated and those disenfranchised by a felony conviction.
• Abolish super PACs and replace corporate funding with publicly funded elections that amplify small-doner donations.

Statehood for Washington, DC and for Puerto Rico?

College For All?

• Guarantee tuition and debt-free public colleges, universities, HBCUs, Minority Serving Institutions and trade-schools to all.
• Cancel all student loan debt for the some 45 million Americans who owe about $1.6 trillion and place a cap on student loan interest rates going forward at 1.88 percent.
• Invest $1.3 billion every year in private, non-profit historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions
• End equity gaps in higher education attainment. And ensure students are able to cover non-tuition costs of attending school by: expanding Pell Grants to cover non-tuition and fee costs, tripling funding for the Work-Study Program, and more.

Fair taxation?

• Establish an annual tax on the extreme wealth of the top 0.1 percent of U.S. households.
• Only apply to net worth of over $32 million and anyone who has a net worth of less than $32 million, would not see their taxes go up at all under this plan.
• Will raise an estimated $4.35 trillion over the next decade and cut the wealth of billionaires in half over 15 years, which would substantially break up the concentration of wealth and power of this small privileged class.
• Ensure that the wealthy are not able to evade the tax by implementing strong enforcement policies.

Racial Justice?

• In order to transform this country into a nation that affirms the value of its people of color, we will address the five central types of violence waged against black, brown and indigenous Americans: physical, political, legal, economic and environmental.
• Whether it is a broken criminal justice system, or massive disparities in the availability of financial services, or health disparities, or environmental disparities, or educational disparities, our job is to-- and we will-- create a nation in which all people are treated equally. That is what we must do, and that is what we will do.

Jobs Guarantee?

• Enact a federal jobs guarantee, to ensure that everyone is guaranteed a stable job that pays a living wage.
• Create 20 million jobs as part of the Green New Deal, rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and creating a 100% sustainable energy system.
• Create millions of healthcare jobs to support our seniors and people with disabilities in their homes and communities.
• Create new jobs in early childhood education.

All those things and the rest of Bernie's platform are absolutely crucial. But saving the planet may be the most important of all. And Bernie is a major backer of a Green New Deal. In short:

• Transform our energy system to 100 percent renewable energy and create 20 million jobs needed to solve the climate crisis.
• Ensure a just transition for communities and workers, including fossil fuel workers.
• Ensure justice for frontline communities, especially under-resourced groups, communities of color, Native Americans, people with disabilities, children and the elderly.
• Save American families money with investments in weatherization, public transportation, modern infrastructure and high-speed broadband.
• Commit to reducing emissions throughout the world, including providing $200 billion to the Green Climate Fund, rejoining the Paris Agreement, and reasserting the United States’ leadership in the global fight against climate change.
• Invest in conservation and public lands to heal our soils, forests, and prairie lands.
• End the greed of the fossil fuel industry and hold them accountable.

A bit more detail from the platform:

Climate change is a global emergency. The Amazon rainforest is burning, Greenland’s ice shelf is melting, and the Arctic is on fire. People across the country and the world are already experiencing the deadly consequences of our climate crisis, as extreme weather events like heat waves, wildfires, droughts, floods, and hurricanes upend entire communities, ecosystems, economies, and ways of life, as well as endanger millions of lives. Communities of color, working class people, and the global poor have borne and will bear this burden disproportionately.

The scientific community is telling us in no uncertain terms that we have less than 11 years left to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, if we are going to leave this planet healthy and habitable for ourselves, our children, grandchildren, and future generations. As rising temperatures and extreme weather create health emergencies, drive land loss and displacement, destroy jobs, and threaten livelihoods, we must guarantee health care, housing, and a good-paying job to every American, especially to those who have been historically excluded from economic prosperity.

The scope of the challenge ahead of us shares similarities with the crisis faced by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1940s. Battling a world war on two fronts-- both in the East and the West-- the United States came together, and within three short years restructured the entire economy in order to win the war and defeat fascism. As president, Bernie Sanders will boldly embrace the moral imperative of addressing the climate crisis and act immediately to mobilize millions of people across the country in support of the Green New Deal. From the Oval Office to the streets, Bernie will generate the political will necessary for a wholesale transformation of our society, with support for frontline and vulnerable communities and massive investments in sustainable energy, energy efficiency, and a transformation of our transportation system.

We need a president who has the courage, the vision, and the record to face down the greed of fossil fuel executives and the billionaire class who stand in the way of climate action. We need a president who welcomes their hatred. Bernie will lead our country to enact the Green New Deal and bring the world together to defeat the existential threat of climate change.

Bernie knows he doesn't have the support in the House-- let alone in the Senate-- to pass all of his proposals. He's counting on long-term citizen mobilization. In the Climate Crisis world he already has the Sunrise Movement. And today the Sunrise Movement added four more congressional candidates to its list of nominees. Remember, the first was Audrey Denney (CA). Then came Jessica Cisneros (TX). And now... these four:

You know what the four have in common, aside from the reasons Sunrise has endorsed them? Well, yes they are all Blue America candidates-- and you can contribute to their campaigns by clicking on the ActBlue thermometer on the right. But they are also all candidates the DCCC is furiously working to sabotage. The endorsements this week were for people in the early March primaries (Illinois, Texas and Ohio). "The endorsements,' they wrote, "span a range of political newcomers running on the Green New Deal, including Robert Emmons Jr. (IL-01) and Marie Newman (IL-03) of Chicago, IL, Morgan Harper (OH-03) of Columbus, OH, and Mike Siegel (TX-10), whose district spans between Austin and Houston, TX. With the exception of Siegel-- who is running to oust a Republican representative in a purple district-- the candidates plan to unseat Democratic incumbents in blue districts. Though this announcement signifies the first bracket of Congressional endorsements, it comes after the separate endorsements of primary challenger, Democrat Jessica Cisneros of Texas’ 28th district, and Republican challenger, Democrat Audrey Denney of California’s 1st district."

“The scientists are telling us that 2020 is our last opportunity to elect climate leaders that can immediately enact bold, transformational action over the course of the next decade to save our planet. Meanwhile, establishment politicians of both parties are complacent. So I think that’s why we’re seeing this wave of candidates joining the urgent calls from young people in launching campaigns across the country boldly championing the Green New Deal. These candidates, such as the four we’re endorsing today, come from communities tired of political corruption and neglect, and vigilantly attuned to the linked climate and economic crises we are facing as a nation,” remarked Evan Weber, Political Director of Sunrise Movement. “These insurgent campaigns are a clear indicator of the appetite for an entire new way of doing things, and a restructuring of our society under a populist agenda that guarantees things like living wage jobs, affordable and safe housing, universal clean air and water, and Medicare for All-- all policies which we see bundled into the Green New Deal framework.”

Siegel, a civil rights lawyer and former public school teacher, and Newman, business leader and progressive advocate, enter the race with some campaign experience, having run competitive races in 2018 against Democrat Dan Lipinkski and Republican Mike McCaul. The two now see the 2020 elections as a critical political moment to break through the field by championing popular platforms like the Green New Deal.

“In 2018, we built a broad coalition of unions, environmentalists, and progressives across urban and rural communities, in a district that has been red for a long time,” Mike Siegel, TX-10 explained. “We nearly beat McCaul. In 2020, energy from groups like Sunrise Movement and inspiring agendas like the Green New Deal are going to take us over the finish line.”

“I am proud to have the support of the Sunrise Movement and I am dedicated to joining them in the mission of advocating for and innovating and organizing toward 100% clean and renewable energy by 2030. Solving the climate crisis and expanding our economy are not mutually exclusive pursuits,” Marie Newman, IL-03 remarked. “We have the opportunity, particularly in districts like mine that are major transportation hubs, but across the entire country, to embrace new and innovative technologies, to build a green economy, to create good paying union jobs, and to save our planet from a climate crisis. Lipinski and his dwindling circle of fossil-fuel funded Democrats are a threat to the Democratic Party truly being a party of the people.”

Harper, a 36 community advocate and former staffer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Emmons Jr., a 27 year old community organizer, launched into politics after coming of age amidst the rise of the climate crisis, polarized racial tensions, and economic inequality. They began to realize their own political potential after witnessing the uprising of political newcomers, such as Green New Deal champion Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The two are running against establishment Democrats Joyce Beatty, 69 and Bobby Rush, 73 who both oppose the Green New Deal and have received hundreds of thousands of dollars from utilities and fossil fuel interests.

“The Green New Deal is the solution that the 1st District of Illinois needs to combat the climate crisis, reinvigorate our local economy, and curb the cycle of violence that plagues our communities,” Robert Emmons Jr., IL-01 said. “The Sunrise Movement understands that jobs, healthcare, clean water, clean air, and clean soil are essential to gun violence prevention and I am beyond grateful for their support.”

“Every day that Congress fails to address climate change with the same magnitude and urgency as the climate crisis we face, is a failure of leadership. Plain and simple,” said Morgan Harper, OH-03. “The Sunrise Movement has led with the forcefulness to deal with our climate crisis and it’s an honor to have their endorsement. We believe that our future exists without fossil fuels and with a green new deal to transform our economy for a more sustainable future.”

And what about Bernie? They haven't endorsed in the presidential race yet, but they did rate the candidates on a 200 point scale:

183 points

165 points

75 points

The Good E-Mail Series: Robert Emmons, Jr.

Robert Emmons is running for the South Side Chicago seat (IL-01) occupied by entrenched, corrupt careerist Bobby Rush. A grassroots activist without a rolodex that rains money, Emmons is doing his best to raise campaign cash the old-fashioned way, explaining why he has something to offer to the voters in his district. He sent this one out yesterday, under the subject line The price of your zip code? 30 years of your life:

A recent Economist article revealed that a ride on the 23-mile, north-to-south “L” train Red Line in Chicago corresponds with a staggering statistic: life expectancy varies by 30 years depending on what end of Red Line you’re on. That’s how disparate our income levels are in Chicago-- a disparity that literally deprives people in the poorer areas of Chicago of 30 years compared to people in the more prosperous neighborhoods.

The statistics are no surprise to me. Our campaign focuses heavily on the disparities and injustices responsible for the struggles in our community. When Blue America, a progressive organization that’s endorsed us, asked me to weigh in on The Economist piece, I mentioned the loss of my best friend, who died of gun violence near the lower half of that Red Line route.

Don’t let any more people become a statistic.

As I told Blue America, his death was preventable: “It was preventable with a living wage, Universal pre-k, Medicare-for-All, and a Green New Deal. We must approach the epidemic that is gun violence as a public health crisis, and then eradicate the disease once and for all.”

Blue America sees what I see here in IL-01 and across the country: not only do we need to oust Republican lawmakers, we also need to oust apathetic Democrats who’ve let our communities suffer on their watch. That’s why Blue America has endorsed our campaign and three other Chicago-area progressives. And all of us are running against Democrat incumbents who aren’t getting the job done.

Folks, getting the job done is literally a matter of life and death. Help me dismantle the system that is literally responsible for the early deaths of people in our most vulnerable communities.

In solidarity,

—REJr

Short and to the point-- just the way a fundraising letter should be. Please consider contributing to Robert's campaign by clocking on the Chicagoland thermometer just above on the right.

Chicago Zip Codes Shouldn't Determine Which Side Of The City's 30 Year Life Expectancy Divergence You're On

This map of Chicago from The Economist shocked me as the magazine makes the point that if you take a ride along Chicago's red line-- a rail service running north-south for 23 miles-- life expectancy varies by 30 years from one end to the other! Thirty years! In a developed country! In the richest country in the world! And it's not all caused by the epidemic of opioid addiction and the NRA-GOP worship of fire arms.

In the last decade, Chicagoland stopped sending Republicans to Congress. But there are still worthless conservatives representing the area. And if Dan Lipinski is the worst and best known, he isn't the only one. Blue America has 4 strong progressive candidates running in primaries against 4 Democratic incumbents who are not part of the solution-- Marie Newman, Kina Collins, Robert Emmons and Rachel Ventura. I asked all four to look at the map and help me understand it. Marie-- who is running for the seat occupied by Lipinski-- was the first to respond. "Environmental, economic and racial injustices are clear and stark in the Chicago area. This affects my district, IL-03-- the southwest side of the city and suburbs-- dramatically and everyday. My platform was built on addressing the environmental crises in my district as well as the income divide and addressing hate head on. We need to create equality and we need to do it now."

That probably has something to do with presidential candidates Bernie, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker endorsing her-- not to mention congressional superstars AOC and Ro Khanna, despite warnings from the DCCC not to.

Kina Collins may not be as well known yet, but we've got to change that. In fact, even before The Economist published the map, she was the first to talk with me about the huge disparity in life expectancy and told me it went into her decision to run for Congress. "In IL-07 we have the largest life expectancy gap in the country from Streeterville with an average age of 90 years just 10 miles south to Englewood with an average life expectancy of 60 years. I am running on a healthcare reform platform to address this health inequity not only in Chicago, but across the country. Your ZIP code should not determine whether you get quality healthcare or not, and we must address the institutional racism and inequity that is built into the healthcare system. Before I announced my candidacy for Congress, I worked as the National Organizer for Physicians for a National Health Program, a national non profit of 20,000 doctors and medical students fighting to secure a single payer medicare for all system. Healthcare is everything, from the water we drink to the air we breathe. That's why when elected I will work to close the healthcare equity gap by supporting Medicare-For-All and a Green New Deal."

While canvassing in New Lenox yesterday, Rachel Ventura told me that "One's life expectancy, chances of getting into college, or median household income should not be determined by the zip code you live in. This map underscores the need for a single-payer, improved Medicare for All system that provides high quality healthcare for every resident of the United States. Additionally, one might consider that life expectancy is negatively impacted in poor areas because of increased levels of pollution. While there are no multiple shades of red to parse out life expectancy in the 11th Congressional District, I am certain that residents who live near the Will County refineries (Citgo and Exxon Mobile) or coal ash pits have lower life expectancy rates. I'm sure that those who live in the more affluent parts of the 11th district retire earlier, earn more money, have access to higher levels of education and better healthcare. We need to close the wealth gap, pass the green new deal and win Medicare for All. This won't happen with a multi-millionaire representing the district who opposes these substantial changes."

Robert Emmons is the last of our Chicagoland candidates but he's running in the first district. Tragically, he lost his best-friend to gun violence in 2015. Robert told me "his death was (statistically speaking) predictable. It was predictable because he was living in a society that failed him-- and our community-- at every turn. Our economic system failed him, our education system failed him, our racist criminal justice failed him. Let’s be clear, his murder was 100% preventable. It was preventable with a living wage, universal pre-k, Medicare-for-All, and a Green New Deal. We must approach the epidemic that is gun violence as a public health crisis, and then eradicate the disease once and for ALL. Zip code should not define whether or not you live or die. When we elect progressives to Congress, we send that message loud and clear."