Inside Bloomberg's Very Republican Campaign

I had a great afternoon on Sunday. I heard two inspiring congressional candidates speak at a fundraiser on Bunker Hill, Mike Siegel (TX-10) and Cenk Uygur (CA-25), one of Mike's supporters and a co-host of the event. Both were uplifting and inspiring, as were the other speakers. When I got home the phone was ringing. When I picked it up, it was a very calm, professional voice-- too calm and too professional-- attached to someone who wanted to ask me a few questions about the primary. I quickly realized it was a Bloomberg push poll. Those are very expensive and no other candidates would really be able to afford one on a national (Super Tuesday, presumably) scale. Once I realized it was a push poll, I asked the pollster how much Bloomberg was paying him for his soul and asked him if he is a whore and always ready to sell out his country. I also asked him if he would do the same job for Trump if Trump was paying him. It didn't end well.

Jonathan Swan, over at Axios was also noticing how corporate and buttoned up the Bloomberg campaign is-- a campaign right out of the pre-Trump-anarchy Republican Party playbook, just right for an oligarch. Swan, who spent a week on the campaign jet, explained why he got a corporate feeling about the whole operation, top to bottom, including his events. "It's calm, orderly and punctual. His audiences clap politely, and you can't walk two steps without running into a paid staffer with talking points. Nobody whoops or yells. Nothing is left to chance. No expense is spared. The candidate is self-consciously low-key. He compared the Mini-Mike rallies with the raucous, fascistic Trumpanzee rallies:

• The supporters I met didn't profess their love for Bloomberg like regular fans at Trump rallies, who come across as football fans cheering for their quarterback (though some wore printed T-shirts saying "I Like Mike").
• Bloomberg promises to govern quietly. "What about no tweeting from the Oval Office ever again?" he said to applause in Fresno.
• Even the protesters are well-behaved. During Bloomberg's speech in Compton on Monday, a young man, standing in silence, held up a sign saying, "Billionaires should not buy elections." At a Trump rally, the president would have told security to "get him the hell out!” At the Bloomberg event, a staffer politely asked him to move to the back.

The Bloomberg supporters Swan spoke with told him they "admired his wealth and accomplishments [and] expressed anxiety about the state of the Democratic field and were looking for a safe bet to beat Trump. One supporter said that you need a very rich man to beat Trump."

The words the Bloomie campaign is trying to pound into the skulls of the low-IQ morons who parrot whatever they're told are "pragmatic," "practical," "decency" (which is ironic and laughable), "sanity" and "commonsense plans that are workable." I guarantee you that eventually you will see mushy-brained Democratic voters (as well as low-end legislative endorsers who Bloomberg bought, like Haley Stevens (New Dem-MI), Harley Rouda (New Dem-CA), Scott Peters (New Dem-CA), Stephanie Murphy (Blue Dog-FL), Bobby Rush (IL), Mikie Sherrill (Blue Dog-NJ), Max Rose (Blue Dog-NY) and Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT) being interviewed on MSNBC repeating those exact words to explain why they are backing a Republican oligarch in a Democratic Party primary. Today we hear that mediocre California Assemblyman Ian Calderon, for example, is endorsing Mini-Mike, citing his "practical progressive plans."

After Bloomberg's speech in the grassy courtyard at Fresno City College, Swan asked his state director, Dan Kanninen, about how different the sedate Bloomberg events are from Trump's raucous and profane hate-rallies. Kanninen spoke the way political operatives talk-- in terms of how to manipulate voters, saying that he thinks "there's a big element that wants a cooling rod in this boiling teapot."

Michael Bloomberg: American Oligarch by Nancy Ohanian

Later Swan sat down for a chat with Mini-Mike and asked him what he thinks of "the 'cooling rod' metaphor and whether he's self-consciously trying to lower the temperature of national politics." Bloomie responded that he isn't and that he's "just not a person that yells and screams. That's just not me. Never has been and probably won't be. I got elected three times without being rah-rah yelling and screaming, but being more rational and explaining. At my age, I'm not going to change. I'm just not going to get in a yelling and screaming match with him... He can yell and scream all he wants and I'll just sit there and say, 'Thank you, Mr. Trump, Mr. President,' and say my own thing in my own style, my own way."

Swan added that "on the other hand, while Bloomberg talks about returning to 'human decency,' his campaign mocked Trump for his 'obesity' just the day before our interview. I pointed out the comment to Bloomberg." Bloomberg acknowledged the ugly personal attack Trump-- it was a retort to Trump calling him Mini-Mike. But, Mini assured Swan that someone else in the campaign did it without asking him. I asked my internal contact inside Team Mini-Mike who laughed and said that that just "would not be possible. No one says anything to the press without explicit approval from Mike. He is the mice of mice-est managers and no one can use a piece of toilet paper without him approving first... I think Swan knows that and it's funny he let him off the hook so easily. Billionaires have that effect on everyone."

Asked whether it was the wrong thing for his campaign to put out a statement saying Trump was lying about his "fake hair, his obesity, and his spray-on tan," Bloomberg laughed.

"I don't know why he'd find that objectionable," he said, finally.

Swan didn't ask him if he is trying to accomplish anything for the American people other than dispatching Trump-- or at least didn't include anything about that in his post. Nor did he remind his readers that Mini-Mike is responsible for the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. In 2016 it looked like Democrat Katie McGinty was about to take the Pennsylvania Senate seat of reactionary Republican Pat Toomey, the kind of dedicated Wall Street whore Bloomberg loves. So Bloomberg funneled 12 million dollars into the Toomey campaign and Toomey won-- beating McGinty 48.9% to 47.2%, with the Bloomberg money stealing Chester, Bucks and Erie counties from McGinty. Toomey, happily reelected, went on to cast, with Susan Collins, the 2 deciding votes in the confirmation of the most far right member of the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh. Every horrible decision he votes on should be hung around Mini-Mike's neck.

As you probably know by now, Bloomberg announced his immigration plan. He stuck with Democratic orthodoxy he couldn't oppose, like protecting DREAMERs, ending family separations and ending construction of Trump's wall and supporting a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented immigrants already living in the country. But what makes it different is a visa program based on different regions of the U.S. with their own economic and social needs, as well as creating a special visa for students who want to stay in the U.S. after they graduate with certain degrees and for entrepreneurs who generate jobs.

Flagstaff progressive candidate for Arizona's first congressional district, Eva Putzova, doesn't trust Bloomberg to do what's right. "We need," she said, "to normalize the status of the 11 million undocumented people in the U.S, inclusive of DACA recipients, and the parents of DACA recipients (DAPA). We  need to reunite families who have been unjustly separated, and expand the Refugee Act to cover people fleeing climate disasters and domestic and other violence. We need to abolish ICE and put the immigration agencies back under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice as it was before 2003. We need an entire Immigrant Bill of Rights that includes the above points and many others as well. Michael Bloomberg has no intent to truly overhaul our broken and cruel immigration beyond simplistic, liberal-sounding, but totally inadequate proposals. More importantly, the presidency should not be for sale and it's disturbing that the Democratic Party is so quick to legitimize his undemocratic candidacy through such a widespread and concerted effort as we are seeing throughout our communities."

Gang's all here

Scapegoating Immigrants Wasn't Invented By Trump Or Hitler-- Let's Look At India And Israel Today

Far right political leaders Modi and Netanyahu

You’ve probably read about serious riots in India in the last week-- and if you’ve been online much, you have probably come to see that many people are openly referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a fascist and genocidist, something DWT readers have known for over 2 decades. India has over 200 million Muslims and the Modi government has always been eager to target them. A new law, the Citizenship Amendment Act passed in early December, offering amnesty to non-Muslim illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

There have been massive protests in Delhi, Chennai (Madras), Bangalore, Jaipur (where 300,000 people took to the streets) and Kolkata (Calcutta), not to mention throughout the states of Assam and Uttar Pradesh.





In India, scapegoating and ratcheting up the hatred and bigotry is backfiring on Modi and his government. This kind of thing is slightly less obvious in Israel, which has better p.r. than Modi’s government. A few days ago Haaretz reported that a government report classifies more than a third of immigrants to Israel as “not Jewish,” although most actually are Jewish. It’s a matter of definition... and government aid. Jews from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the U.S. have been having trouble being accepted as “legitimate” Jews and getting automatic citizenship and welfare. Even the right to marry is in jeopardy. Presumably, 2018 marked the first time in Israel’s history when Jewish immigrants were outnumbered by non-Jewish immigrants, although most of the non-Jewish immigrants self-identify as Jews. Since independence in 1948, Israel has welcomed over 3 million immigrants.

More than one out of three immigrants moving to Israel since 2012 is not considered Jewish by the state, according to figures published on Tuesday by the Interior Ministry’s Population Registry. Among immigrants originating from the former Soviet Union, who account for the majority of immigrants to Israel in recent years, the share was significantly higher.

The Interior Ministry, which does not typically publish such figures, was forced to release them in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by Hiddush, an organization that advocates for religious freedom in Israel. But the initial figures, which Hiddush published on Monday, contained glaring errors that were quickly picked up on by organizations active in aliyah.

According to the updated figures, 61 percent of immigrants arriving from Russia since 2012 and 66 percent of those coming from Ukraine are not considered Jewish by the state. By contrast, fewer than 5 percent of those moving to Israel from the United States fit this definition. Among immigrants from France-- another major source of aliyah during the period in question-- under 4 percent were considered not Jewish.

During the period in question, a total of 199,876 immigrants became Israeli citizens under the Law of Return. Among them, 37.5 percent were registered as not Jewish.

To qualify as Jewish under the Law of Return, which governs eligibility for aliyah, an individual must have either been born to a Jewish mother or converted to Judaism in a recognized Jewish community. Although all such converts are registered as Jewish in the Population Registry, if they were not converted by rabbis approved by the Orthodox-run Chief Rabbinate, they are prohibited from marrying other Jews in Israel. Therefore, the percentage of immigrants deemed ineligible to marry other Jews in Israel among those who arrived in the country in the last eight years is likely higher than 37.5 percent (although no exact figures were provided by the Interior Ministry).

Under the Law of Return, the spouses, children and grandchildren of Jews are allowed to immigrate to Israel, even if they do not fit the Population Registry’s definition of Jewish. These individuals belong to a category designated as “other” or “no religion” by the Population Registry and Central Bureau of Statistics.

According to estimates published by Prof. Sergio DellaPergola of Hebrew University, Israel’s leading demographer, a total of 426,700 Israeli citizens, or just under 5 percent of the total population, currently fall into this rather bizarre category. Because only a small percentage of these “others” opt to convert to Judaism, and given their childbearing rate, their numbers have been growing by thousands every year.

Responding to the Population Registry figures, Rabbi Seth Farber, the founder and executive director of ITIM— an organization that advocates for immigrants— said: “The numbers reflect the new reality of Jewish peoplehood:  There are tens of thousands of people who identify as Jews and seek to tie their destiny to the Jewish future and the Jewish state, but do not meet the halakhic definition of Jewish [meaning under traditional Jewish religious law]. The State of Israel and the halakhic community have a great responsibility to find ways to enable these individuals and families to join the halakhic community-- should they seek to. The diversity represented in these numbers is real, and we must create conversion reform in Israel. The alternative is to blind ourselves to the future of the Jewish people and to our present reality.”

Israel is in a serious demographic war with Arabs-- who have a much higher birthrate than Israeli Jews-- and the only way to keep up has been to vigorously encourage non-Muslim immigrants. There were over 37,000 in 2018 and Israel is on track to increase that by 20% this year. In 2018, about 10,500 people came from Russia, 6,400 from Ukraine, 2,400 each from the U.S. and from France. Meanwhile, Israel has completely shut off asylum seekers from Africa. Not a single one was admitted in 2018.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Quantum physicists theorize that there are indeed alternate universes. If so, I think I might enjoy living in the one depicted in the above cartoon. In the alternate universe shown here, Trump himself is just about to board the prison bus to be deported to an unknown location. See the freaky Trump hair in the door window and the red tie dragging on the ground?

If I could choose my universe, I might go with one where Trump is very slowly lowered into a vat of lye or perhaps a live volcano. "How do you like your Trumps, sir?" "Nicely cooked," I would reply. "Nicely cooked to eliminate the danger of parasites." Then again, maybe I would just choose a universe where Trump is bundled up and dropped off at New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center. He could be stuffed into the Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Suite, with his entire administration as his neighbors in the cellblock. Oh, how I'd love to see youtube footage of Kellyanne Conway, Stephen Miller, and the rest of them banging their tin cups on the bars, screaming for service!

Instead, we live in a universe where a massively mentally ill head case is running our country for the purposes of personal profit and nurturing his dreams of inflicting maximum cruelty upon as many people as he possibly can. He obviously gets off on this sort of thing or we wouldn't see it every damn day of his administration. He's so sick that, in a total banana republic or Third Reich move, he even directed his I.C.E. gestapo to go to Mississippi and round up 200 people, over 40 of which are legal U.S. citizens, at exactly the same time that he was poorly faking compassion in El Paso and turning El Paso into yet another "it's all about me" moment. And, get this: Many of the people rounded up came from... you guessed it, El Paso! Coincidence? Not a chance! You could almost see the White House staff cackling in their offices.

My Experience at the Border-- Guest Post by Kara Eastman

For the past couple of years, my half-brother, an interpreter for the federal criminal court system in Las Cruces, New Mexico, has been telling me about devastating policy and procedural changes around immigration. Prior to the election of our current president, he had not seen children separated from their parents and guardians at the border. He had not seen so many people seeking asylum in the U.S. denied. And he had not seen so many people jailed for 30, 40, 50 days to then be returned to their countries of origin.

I decided to go to three cities that straddle the U.S.-Mexico frontier to see what the media, elected officials, and humanitarian groups have been describing. I also am disappointed that I have not heard about any member of the Nebraska delegation visiting the border. I believe that candidates for federal office should demonstrate how they will act as members of Congress, and I needed to see for myself what is happening in places like El Paso and New Mexico. I strongly feel an obligation to properly inform people in my district as I run for the House of Representatives in Nebraska’s second district. Finally, I really wanted to see my brother in action at work.

Our trip included a visit to a shelter and a nonprofit organization in El Paso, and a shelter in Ciudad Juárez (Mexico). After our shelter visit in El Paso, we walked across to Mexico for our next meeting. Getting there took a few minutes, but walking back across the border took over an hour because of our lack of proper infrastructure. There were a number of checkpoint lanes that had been closed, and the single file line to get back into the U.S. was very long.

As a result of Trump’s policies, there are many fewer people working at the ports of entry. The long lines are intended to be a deterrent for people getting across illegally. But the actual consequence is that hardships have been created for people that cross legally. A woman who works for the nonprofit told me her commute is now TWO HOURS each way as she works in El Paso but lives in Juárez.

In El Paso, I met a Mexican woman who is the spouse of a deceased American citizen. She has to come to the U.S. for a month each year to collect her spouse’s earned income benefits. However, European citizens who have deceased American spouses can have their checks mailed to them. This was both shocking and dismaying. Imagine the hardship of having to leave a home, bring a child to the U.S., live in a shelter, and then return home, only to do it again the next year.

The shelter we visited in Juárez is currently home to 680 men, women, and children. They are all awaiting either asylum or immigration hearings. The shelter is over capacity, lacks enough food, and does not have the proper refrigeration to store the donated food they receive.

I have run 2 homeless shelters throughout my career and never have I had to grapple with not having enough food for clients. In addition, the idea that the shelter residents were waiting in vain, thinking they may be granted permission to come to the U.S. legally, when the reality is they will not be, was heartbreaking.

On the second day of my trip, I went to work with my brother in Las Cruces to watch criminal court hearings. I was told that the day before, they had processed 98 people. I was there on a Tuesday, which is typically less busy, and I watched about 50 people have their hearings. My brother told me that the average cost for a person to be sent back to their country of origin (from arrest to final deportation) is about $10K per person. He also told me that it used to be people would spend very little time in jail if they were arrested under Section 1325 of the law. I watched as both men and women, ranging from ages 18 to 65, after spending 40 and 50 days in jail, were being sent back to their countries. I watched the conveyor belt of deportations and listened to the stories of people coming here fleeing violence, looking for work, or trying to see their families. I made a point to look at each one individually, people sitting in the courtroom shackled and handcuffed, waiting to hear that the U.S. does not welcome them no matter what their circumstance is.

I returned from my trip with a heavy heart and with a list. There are solutions to fixing our broken immigration system, but they are not coming from our current policy-makers. Residents of El Paso love their neighbors in Juárez; they love their binational city. Policy-makers who have not talked to people in border cities should not be making policies for our country, because they simply do not understand what our actual needs are. The President is deceiving people when he talks about crime in El Paso--it is one of the safest cities in the country (despite the horrific recent tragedy).

We need to fix the system; we need more ports of entry and more jobs created for people to work at the border. We need a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients and the TPS community. We hear a lot about expanding the guest worker program for “skilled labor” when we also need ways for people to work in the U.S. to perform essential labor (picking crops, working at meat packing plants, etc.).

We should view the border between the U.S. and Mexico the way we once looked at Ellis Island. Our country needs immigrants in order for us to thrive. We also should stop the denigration of the hard-working border officials who ensure our border is secure. I heard from some who said they signed up to protect our country, not to turn people away who are desperately seeking help, and certainly not to separate children from their parents. Our country will be safer when we fix the system that is too expensive, too ineffective, and too immoral.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Yeah, I know this meme has been around for a while but every day it just gets more and more poignant when it comes to Trump and his dumbass lynch mob of mindlessly arrogant and hypocritical treason puppets.

If I was a snarky individual, I might say that Melania is the epitome of immigrants who will do the jobs that most Americans won't do; well, at least a couple of those jobs. You couldn't pay me enough to get in bed with anyone named Trump but then I have a healthy amount of self-esteem. Melania? Apparently not so much. Not that I'm being judgmental or anything like that. You couldn't pay our immigrant workers enough to do that either, unless they could bring their machetes. They'll go out in the blazing sun every day for a pittance and pick the fruits and vegetables that we eat, all so they and their families can continue to survive and hold onto an ever-dimming hope for a better future. That takes a ton of love. But when it comes to the evil orange obesity; as the saying goes, they'll do anything for love, but they won't do that. That's the job of a Slovenian porno queen.

Make the call. Burn up the lines. Report Melania! Don't expect any positive results of course, but think how much better you'll feel. I know. It works! It puts a smile on my face every time!

Immigrants Have Probably Made More Valuable Contributions To America Than Every Republican In Mississippi Combined

Anyone think they don't come from immigrant antecedents? Even "Native Americans" just got here-- from Siberia-- before the rest of our ancestors. They probably came looking for a better life... or maybe they were feeling from oppressors. My grandfather came from the Pale with his family when he was a young boy, fleeing Cossacks and tsarist pograms. The U.S. turned his family away but-- for some reason I never quite understood-- allowed my grandfather and an older sister to enter the U.S. The 11 other members of the family wound up in northwest Brazil. I only met any of them once-- when as just a child, and because I could speak a little Spanish (a relative of Portuguese, their language)-- I was their guide at the 1964 World's Fair. They told me most of the extended family lived in Salvador, Belém and Recife. They were generally successful-- penniless when they arrived, like my grandfather, devoted to education, hard work and entrepreneurship as a way out of poverty generationally.

My grandfather, my idol, was a socialist and a successful small business owner. His first grandchild-- me-- was the first to go to college, embraced his socialism and his ethos of hard work and entrepreneurship. A few years I sighed when I realized I had paid over a million dollars in federal income taxes. Who likes to pay that to the federales? Well... I didn't, but I thanked God that I had done so well for that to be my share. I may have been grumpy about paying that much but I was also glad to be able to and to contribute (especially after having gone to a free state university and having needed to avail myself of food stamps when I was getting on my feet at one time).

So what made me blurt that out today? I read a report from New American Economy: New American Fortune 500 in 2019: Top American Companies and Their Immigrant Roots. Although I wound up running a division of a Fortune 500 company, an AOL-TimeWarner record label, my own company-- the one I founded-- like my grandfather's was far from a big company. I sold mine to a big company though. "Immigrant entrepreneurs," the report began, "have long been an important part of America’s economic success story. Some of the largest and most recognizable American companies were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants, including household names such as Apple and Costco, as well as newcomers to the Fortune 500 list like Broadcom and Intuit. Even Levi’s was created by two immigrants, Levi Strauss from Germany and Jacob Davis from Latvia, who invented that now iconic staple of the American wardrobe-- blue jeans... [M]ore than two out of every five Fortune 500-- the 500 largest corporation by revenue in the country-- had at least one immigrant or child-of-immigrant founder. This pattern has continued over the years since. This year, we find that an even higher share-- almost 45 percent-- of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children."

This year they found that "44.6 percent, or 223 companies, in the Fortune 500 were founded by immigrants or their children. Of those companies, 101 were founded directly by foreign-born individuals while another 122 were founded by the children of immigrants. Of this year’s crop of New American Fortune 500, several notable new companies made the cut.

New American Fortune 500 companies brought in more than $6 trillion in revenue.

These New American firms make important contributions to both the U.S. and the global economy. In fiscal year 2018, the 223 New American companies on the 2019 Fortune 500 list brought in $6.1 trillion in revenue. To put it in context, that figure is greater than the GDP of many developed countries-- including Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom. In fact, a country with a GDP equal to the revenues of the New American Fortune 500 firms would be the third largest economy in the world, behind only the United States and China.

New American Fortune 500 companies employ 13.5 million people.

These companies are a strong driver of job creation. On average, each New American Fortune 500 company employs 60,629 workers, 10.7 percent more than the average number of workers at non-New American Fortune 500 firms. Together, New American Fortune 500 firms employ over 13.5 million people-- a population that would rank as the fifth largest state in the country, just after New York but easily beating Pennsylvania.

Seven states have at least ten New American Fortune 500 firms.

When we compare companies at the state level, New American Fortune 500 firms are significant players in some states’ economies. Among the states that have 10 or more New American Fortune 500 companies, New York, America’s original immigrant gateway, leads the pack with 35 firms. California comes in second with 29 New American Fortune 500 companies, followed by Illinois with 21, Texas with 18, Virginia with 12, and both Florida and New Jersey with 10 each. Given their number and size, these New American companies have an outsized impact on each state’s economy. For example, in New York, the Fortune 500 companies brought in revenue that equaled 56.3 percent of the state’s total GDP and employed almost 2 million people around the world. In Illinois, New American companies brought in combined revenue equal to 70.3 percent of the state’s GDP.

Immigrant entrepreneurs play an indispensable role in our economy.

The New American Fortune 500 is only one example of how immigrants and their children create American jobs and drive our economy. Medium and small businesses are also vital to the U.S. economy, employing many more millions at neighborhood stores, restaurants, professional services, and other local businesses. Immigrants have a significant role to play here, with nearly 3.2 million immigrants running their own businesses. Data from 2017 also shows that immigrants continue to be more likely to be entrepreneurs than their U.S.-born counterparts. This increased propensity for business creation among immigrants is crucial for the U.S economy, as research shows that nearly all net job growth in the United States is attributed to new firms and startups.

Stef Kight explainedfior Axios readers why this matters: "The share of the most successful and globally recognized U.S. companies that have immigrant founders is growing, according to NAE's Hanna Siegel and Andrew Lim, while the Trump administration has tried to make it more difficult for immigrants to come to the U.S., often claiming that they take American jobs and lower wages."

Generally this welcoming attitude towards immigrants has been a shared American value, although there has also always been an ugly minority-driven racist, nativist, xenophobic strain-- stain-- as part of the country's polity-- even a Know Nothing Party that these ideas were based on. But now we actually have one of them in the White House.

Serious Question: Marco Rubio Knows EXACTLY What Trump Is-- Why Why Is His Head Still Up Trump's Ass?

You don't usually see major newspapers calling sitting senior senators in their own cities a "reliable sycophant" in an headline. But Sunday, the Miami Herald decided an editorial about Marco Rubio and Señor Trumpanzee needed just that: As Trump’s reliable sycophant, Rubio drags us further into the president’s swamp.

For all his huffing and puffing about Trump, Rubio rarely over votes against him. His Trump adhesion score is 90.9%, even higher than Rick Scott's! Besides Scott, Cory Gardner (R-CO), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Patrick Toomey (R-PA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Todd Young (R-FL), John Kennedy (R-LA), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Steve Daines (R-MT), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ben Sasse (R-NE), James Lankford (R-OK), Michael Enzi (R-WY), Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rand Paul (R-KY) have all voted less in lockstep with Trump than Rubio has.

The editors of Rubio's hometown paper went to town on him because Rubio refused to denounce Trump as a racist for the barrage iff attacks he's been making against 4 congresswomen of color, AOC, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. They called his weak response "pathetic" and laughed at Time Magazine's long ago assertion that Rubio could be "The Savior of the Republican Party." The Herald editors wrote that "He was supposed to be a rising star who would help shake the party up after the disastrous election of 2012. The son of immigrants, he would help the party overcome its long-term demographic challenge as its older base shrinks and America becomes ever more diverse. But Rubio flamed out in the 2016 presidential election, among the last victims of Donald Trump’s brutal, degrading, slash-and-burn campaign-- though not before lowering himself by trying to beat Trump at his own game, ridiculing the size of his opponent’s hands, suggesting that it reflected on other aspects of Trump’s physiology."

Rubio tried to regain a bit of dignity when he left the race. “America needs a vibrant conservative movement,” he said. “But one that’s built on principles and ideals, not on fear, not on anger and not on preying on people’s frustrations.”


But during the first two-and-a-half years of Trump’s presidency, Rubio abandoned the pretense of idealism or principles, except, perhaps, in his on-target approach to the crisis in Venezuela. Otherwise, he has transformed from Trump critic to a sycophantic cheerleader-- derided by former adviser and Washington Post columnist Max Boot as a “Trump fan-boy”-- to the point that he’s willing to kill Obamacare even though his own state leads the nation in enrollment.

The Miami native who some, including us, thought could lead the Republican Party in finding a reasonable path on comprehensive immigration reform and help it broaden its appeal to minorities in America could not find the spine to do more than mildly criticize Trump after his blatantly racist attacks on four Democratic congresswomen.

Trump told the women that they should “go back” to the countries they came from instead of complaining about his policies-- never mind that three of the women were born in America and the fourth has been a U.S. citizen longer than Trump’s own wife.

Rubio wouldn’t say if he thought Trump’s racist tweet was racist. He only conceded that, “The president shouldn’t have written that.”

Even after Trump whipped a crowd in Greensville, North Carolina, into a hateful froth against U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar that erupted in chilling chants of “Send her back! Send her back!”-- Rubio couldn’t muster the courage to truly object to the horrifying display of blatant racism. He called the chant “grotesque,” which it was, but he reserved most of his vitriol for “left wing politicians and many in the media.”


How disappointing. Obviously, he was not the only Republican to punt or remain silent last week. But, Rubio, in particular, should know the dangers of this moment and the path down which Trump is taking his followers, his party and the nation. He should have a deeper understanding of America’s tortured racial history and comprehensive knowledge of the animosity once faced by Cuban immigrants like his parents. He can do better. It leads us to ask whether he thinks his Senate bill, filed Thursday, to extend TPS for Haitians is compensation for his timidity in the face of Trump’s “go back” tweets.

Rubio, far from the Republicans’ savior, seems just another slick politician with his finger in the wind-- pushing the party deeper into Trump’s swamp.

Instead of calling Trump to task, Rubio decided to call Democrats "self-righteousness," "political bullies" and "hypocrites." Republican Party strategist (and co-host of The View) Ana Navarro responded by pointing out that Rubio's probably should have been more offended by Trump's "go back where you came from" posture towards the 4 congresswomen since Rubio knows his own "parents came here, fleeing poverty [and] who represents a community where they were told, 'We won’t rent to Cubans, to blacks or to dogs ... you can’t drink from this water fountain'-- I have seen him try to justify this." These days are long gone:




The Democrats ran the weakest imaginable candidate against Rubio in 2016, spoiled, conservative nothing Patrick Murphy, and Rubio still managed to beat him 4,822,182 (52.0%) to 4,105,251 (44.3%). But in the two massive counties serviced by The Herald, Murphy beat Rubio in Miami-Dade (54.6% to 43.3%) and 63.8% to 34.1% in Broward. Democrats don't get another swing at Rubio until 2022, likely to be a good Republican year if the Democrats don't accomplish any fundamental change-- which is basically what their frontrunner, Status Quo Joe, has promised his donors.




Immigrants by Nancy Ohanian (Rubio's mother?)

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

The picture for tonight's meme was taken last week when VP Mike Pence led a delegation of Neo-Nazi $enators and sympathizers down to McAllen, TX to view some of the administration's handiwork at the camps. The picture begged for captions. In addition to the one in tonight's meme, here are some others that I have seen or thought of myself.

• Khakis Are The New Swastika.

• Did Pence Wet Himself In His Excitement?

• Good Thing Melania Hooked Onto Trump, Ha Ha.

• Now Would Be A Good Time For The Rapture.

• I Don't Get This Performance Art Stuff.

• How Many Can We Fit Into A Boxcar?

• Is This Slave Auction Gonna Start Soon Or What?

• My Jesus Loves Brown Guys In Cages!

• Lindsey, Don't You Just Love Men In Cages?

• I Feel A Heil Trump Comin' On! Can I Get A Heil Trump?

• These Human Suits Are Starting To Itch!

• We Are DEVO.

• So Glad The Party Had My Compassion Chip Removed.

• Invasion Of The Body Snatchers!

• Let's Try To Blend In So The Press Doesn't Notice Us.

• Marsha Blackburn! Did You Fart Again??!!?

• Damn, I Could Go With A Baloney & Processed American Cheese With Mayo Right Now!

• Eight To Beam Up To The Whites-Only Ship! Now Scotty! Now! Scotty?? Scotty?? Scotty!!!

Trump's Xenophobia And Racism Is Very Appealing To Some In Tennessee

Elaine Chao, Trump's Secretary of Transportation-- and Mitch McConnell's beard-- was born in Taiwan and Trump's Secretary of Veteran's Affairs, Robert Wilkie, was born in Germany. Texas Senator Ted Cruz was born in Canada. Currently 28 members of Congress were born in other countries, including close Trump crony, Mark Meadows, who was born in France. Among the naturalized Americans in Congress today are Stephanie Murphy (Vietnam), Ilhan Omar (Somalia), Adriano Espaillat (Dominican Republic), Ted Lieu (Taiwan), Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (Ecuador), Norma Torres (Guatemala), Salud Carbajal (Mexico), Chuy Garcia (Mexico), Albio Sires (Cuba), Pramila Jayapal (India) and Mazie Hirono (Japan).

A normal American president would be thanking them for their service to the country and celebrating the fact that they chose to become citizens of the U.S. But no one ever accused Trump or being a normal American president. Many people have noted that, at least technically, he isn't even a legitimate president, since Russia helped to put him into the White House by stealing the 2016 election.

Sunday morning Trump was ranting and raving on Twitter about how "'Progressive' Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is too be run. Why don't they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done. These places need your help badly, you can't leave fast enough. I'm sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!"

Ted Lieu was on MSNBC a couple of hours later and he noted that Trump is a "racist ass." Want the full context? "I never thought I’d see the day when a president was telling immigrants to go back to where we came from. Donald Trump is demonstrating he’s a racist ass. He’s not uniting us. I can’t wait until he leaves the office of the presidency." James Slack, a spokesman for UK Prime Minister Theresa May said she thinks "the language used to refer to these women was completely unacceptable." Bloomberg reported that "May’s comments are likely to put pressure on the two rivals to succeed her, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson, to join her in denouncing the president’s language when they take part in a live debate on Tuesday evening." The head of Britain's Conservative Party is calling at Trump-- knowing full well he will attack her as soon as he hears about it, while not ONE Republican congressmember has said "boo." Where is John Katko? Fred Upton? Brian Fitzpatrick? Elise Stefanik? Lee Zeldin? Peter King? Doug LaMalfa? Where's Mario Diaz-Balart, Don Bacon, Michael McCaul and Jaime Herrera Buetler? All hiding out! Not a peep out of any of these morally bankrupt enablers! (UPDATE: Texas Republican Will Hurd, the party's only African American member in Congress-- and who represents a 70% Latino district, was just on CNN and he agreed that Trump's tweets were racist. That's one.)




Earlier today, Señor Trumpanzee tried defending his Sunday tweets telling the 4 Democratic women of color to go back to the "broken and crime infested" countries they came from, apparently unaware that 3 were born in the U.S.A., and asserting, falsely, to reporters, "These are people that hate our country." When asked if he was concerned that most people see his disgusting tweets as racist, he said, "It doesn't concern me because many people agree with me." That's true; many do-- basically his own revolting Know Nothing racist base. Meanwhile, congressional Democrats rallied behind the AOC, Ilhan, Ayanna and Rashida-- and Pelosi is scheduling a vote on a resolution condemning Trump's comments. This will force every Republican to take a stand. I wonder if it will make any of her "Majority Makers" uncomfortable too.

Milwaukie, Oregon Mayor Mark Gamba, like Ted Lieu, wants Trump to know what he thinks of his racist, xenophobic and unAmerica attack on the 4 congresswomen. "The Conman in Chief is terrified of the four young congresswomen because even at his level of self delusion he recognizes what true patriots look and sound like. He recognizes that if they can start to shift our country towards a direction that truly serves the 99%, his game is up as is that of all the status-quo corporate sellouts. I stand with @AOC, @RashidaTlaib, @IlhanMN, @AyannaPressley."

Jim Himes, a congressman from Connecticut who was born in Peru, told us a couple of hours after Trump's crazy tweet storm, that "Once again Trump demonstrates the contempt he holds for people of color and those he doesn’t deem sufficiently American because they’re not of European descent. Apart from betraying our country’s core values, he is encouraging white nationalism. This white guy is not holding his breath for the President’s demand that I return to Peru, the country of my birth."

It's worth remembering that although Ilhan Omar was born in Somalia-- but has been living in Minnesota since she was 10 years old-- the other 3 women Trump was attacking were all born in the U.S. Ayanna Pressley was born in Cincinnati. AOC was born in New York City. And Rashida Tlaib was born in Detroit, which she now represents in Congress. Ilhan responded by e-mailing her constituents that "Trump knows exactly what he is doing with this bigoted attack. He’s stoking white nationalism because he is angry that I am serving in Congress and fighting against his hate-filled agenda.

Since the beginning of Trump’s time in office he has tried to ban immigrants from Somalia from entering our country. He may have succeeded in getting his Muslim ban but he won’t succeed in banning my voice and fight.

I will fight each and every day to repeal the ban and put it into the dustbin of history where it belongs.

His administration has created and is fueling a human rights crisis on our southern border. He is keeping children in cages, detaining immigrants for profit, forcing people to live in unsanitary conditions separated from their loved ones. I have spoken out about these terrible conditions at every turn, have called for abolishing ICE, and voted ‘no’ on the recent bill to give the Trump administration more funding on the southern border with zero oversight or accountability.

I have repeatedly called for impeachment proceedings to begin in the House because we have a constitutional responsibility to investigate Trump for high crimes and misdemeanors.

Donald Trump is lashing out at me because I am fighting back against his hate-filled policies at every turn and that makes me a target. I am fighting for an agenda that is supported by the American people and that terrifies him.

By telling me that I should return to Somalia, Trump is trying to silence the voices of the people I represent. But I will always fight for what is right and will never back down in the face of Trump’s attacks on me.

I didn’t run for Congress to sit on the sidelines. I ran to restore moral clarity to Congress and to fight for and defend our democracy. And that is exactly what I plan to continue doing. Donald Trump lashing out at Alexandria, Ayanna, Rashida, and me shows that he is threatened and angry about our progressive, for-the-people movement.

One Republican congressman finally spoke up. Maryland's one Republican, far right crackpot Andy Harris, defended Señor Trumpanzee‘s tweets, telling a Baltimore radio station, WBAL, that they were not racist. "They’re obviously not racist. But again, when anyone disagrees with someone now the default is to call them a racist, and this no exception." So there you go! Harris' gerrymandered district-- by the Democratic-controlled legislature-- packs every Republican within reason into one big red district in otherwise all-blue Maryland. The state's PVI is a nice healthy D+12-- and Harris' is R+14. Trump beat Hillary there 62.0% to 33.4%, while statewide, she beat Trump 1,677,928 (60.33%) to 943,169 (33.91%).

Has anyone connected Trump's penchant for putting women and children into concentration camps with his German ancestry? Maybe instead of slamming these 4 women of color working for all of us in Congress, Trump should join Ted Cruz in condemning therapist Republican governor of Tennessee for honoring the founder of the KKK. Because of Bill Lee's proclamation, Saturday was officially Nathan Bedford Forrest Day in Tennessee, as it has been since 1921.

If if Trump refuses to condemn the Tennessee governor, Rep. Steve Cohen, who represents Memphis in Congress, sure did: "We should not be honoring Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and the perpetrator of the massacre at Fort Pillow. Gov. Lee should be bringing Tennessee into the 21st century not backsliding into the 19th."

In Trump's world Forrest is the "real" American while AOC and her colleagues are not. Here's a biographical sketch of Forrest-- so you can decide for yourself:

Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of the most polarizing figures of the Civil War era, was born July 13, 1821 in Chapel Hill, Tennessee-- a small town on the Duck River. When his father, a blacksmith, died when he was 16, Forrest moved to the Memphis Delta and eventually became a successful businessman-- indeed a millionaire-- dealing in cotton, land and slaves.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Forrest volunteered as a private before deciding to raise and equip an entire unit at his own expense. He was commissioned lieutenant colonel, and issued this call to arms in June, 1861:

“I wish none but those who desire to be actively engaged. COME ON BOYS, IF YOU WANT A HEAP OF FUN AND TO KILL SOME YANKEES”

In February 1862, Forrest’s unit was stationed at Fort Donelson on the Cumberland when Gen. Ulysses S. Grant forced its surrender. Rather than accept Gen. Buckner’s decision to capitulate, Forrest and his men slipped away, through the snow, and fought at the Battle of Shiloh less than two months later. That summer he began to make the kind of lightning raids that made him perhaps the single most feared cavalry commander of the entire war and earned him the nickname “the wizard of the saddle.”

He was promoted to brigadier general and at the close of the year made himself a thorn in the side of Grant’s Vicksburg campaign, disrupting his lines of communication and attacking his supply depots. During a skirmish at Parker’s Crossroads on New Year’s Eve, Forrest and his men were totally surprised when a Union force suddenly appeared in their rear and threatened to surround them. “Charge ‘em both ways,” Forrest famously ordered. They did, and were able to escape the trap and to fight another day. Constantly on the move, bold on the attack and swift in retreat, no Union commander was able to effectively come to grips with Forrest’s cavalry during the war.  In September, they took part in the great battle of the Western Theater: Chickamauga. Forrest’s men pursued the retreating Union army into Chattanooga and took hundreds of prisoners. In December, 1863 he was again promoted to major general.

The following spring, in April 1864, Forrest and his men were involved in one of the most controversial episodes of the Civil War. After surrounding Fort Pillow, near Memphis, Forrest demanded the surrender of the garrison, which included 262 soldiers of the U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery. When the Union forces refused, Forrest’s men easily overran the fort. Then, according to several eyewitness accounts, the Confederates, enraged by the sight of black men in Federal uniform, executed many of the colored troops after they had surrendered: an unambiguous war crime.  Though accounts varied, the incident stands as one of the most gruesome of the Civil War era; “Remember Fort Pillow” became a rallying-cry for African-American soldiers throughout the Union Army.

Later in the summer, Forrest won one of his greatest victories at Brice’s Cross Roads, defeating a force twice the size of his own. His legend was constantly growing. That year, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman declared: “that devil Forrest must be hunted down and killed if it costs ten thousand lives and bankrupts the federal treasury.”

Forrest continued to torment the Union high command as the war entered its fourth year. In February, 1865 Forrest was again promoted, to lieutenant general, becoming the only man on either side to rise so far. When Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant in April, Forrest surrendered as well, declaring that, “any man who is in favor of a further prosecution of this war is a fit subject for a lunatic asylum.” Over the course of the conflict, Forrest had given as much as probably any man for the cause.  He had 29 horses shot from under him, killed or seriously wounded at least thirty enemy soldiers in hand-to-hand combat, and had been himself wounded four times.

After the war, Forrest is best known as having been a prominent figure in the foundation of the Ku Klux Klan, a group composed of mostly Confederate veterans committed to violent intimidation of blacks, northerners and republicans. He was “Grand Wizard” until he ordered the dissolution of the organization in 1869. Forrest died of diabetes in Memphis on October 29, 1877.

UPDATE: Mike Siegel's follow up:

I stand with Ilhan.

If you’ve been on this list for a while, you know I don’t spend much energy talking about the President. You hear enough about Trump elsewhere, I’m sure, and I prefer to focus on the concrete work we are doing here in the Texas 10th to improve the lives of the people.

But what the President said yesterday deserves comment. In essence, Trump told four members of Congress-- all women, from diverse racial backgrounds-- to “go back to where you came from.” A racist message, based on the assumption that only white people are “from here.”  Nonsensical, to an extent, given that three of the Representatives are American-born. But also targeted: in particular at Rep. Ilhan Omar, a naturalized U.S. citizen who arrived here as a refugee from Somalia.

Trump thinks that attacking Omar, who is Muslim, Black, and progressive, is good politics.

We need to show the world he is dead wrong.

Mike's young family

I was lucky enough to be born in this country. But I come from a family that includes Jewish ancestors, who came here as refugees; much of our family was not so lucky, unfortunately, and perished in the Holocaust. I also come from a family that includes Protestant ancestors, who came here as refugees, fleeing religious persecution. And so many of us have similar histories: how we came here, recently or generations ago, for sanctuary and opportunity.

And that, truly, is what makes America great. Despite the structural flaws in this country, the history of injustice and inequality, there is also a recurring theme: of families from around the world, from hundreds of countries and cultures, who arrived here to build a better life, not just for themselves, but for all of us.

And the attack on Rep. Omar-- at the same time we are locking up asylum seekers in concentration camps, and announcing nationwide “raids” to terrorize immigrant communities-- is an attack on the promise of America itself. Trump knows he cannot win if the diverse, open-hearted people of this country come together. His regime only prospers through division, fear and hatred.

We must fight back. We must stand up for Rep. Omar-- not just because she is an important voice and leader, a loving community member and sincere and committed representative, but also because she represents the best of this country. The promise of a better life. The poetry inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, that all will be welcome within these borders.

So let’s stand up for Ilhan. Let’s stand up for refugees. Let’s stand up for all of the marginalized communities in this country. Let’s unite across cultures and differences.

Together, we are strong. Unbeatable, even. And Trump knows that. Let’s make sure his days are numbered.

Trump's Concentration Camps-- Funded By 176 Republicans And 129 Pelosi-Democrats

American Dream Revisted by Nancy Ohanian

The bad news: on June 27 129 Democrats joined with the GOP to vote to authorize funds for Trump's concentration camps. Briana Urbina is a top progressive candidate taking on Stony Hoyer this cycle. She told me she "cannot forgive my representative for voting in support of the cruel and inhumane treatment of immigrants at the border. The practices of this administration cannot be divorced from the system that funds it. Steny should be using his power in leadership to dismantle this system not bolster it. Our district has a vibrant and beautiful immigrant community. I have been honored to serve immigrant families as a pro bono attorney. I will continue my service to all Marylanders, native and foreign born when I am sworn in as the first Latina elected to Congress from Maryland."

The good news: 95 Democrats voted against funding the concentration camps despite Pelosi and Hoyer having shit-fit. These are the 95 who are fit to call themselves Democrats:

• Alma Adams (D-NC)
• Pete Aguilar (New Dem-CA)
• Nanette Barragán (D-CA)
• Karen Bass (D-CA)
• Don Beyer (New Dem-VA)
• Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)
• Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR)
• Brendan Boyle (New Dem-PA)
• Anthony Brown (New Dem-MD)
• G.K. Butterfield (D-NC)
• Tony Cárdenas (New Dem-CA)
• André Carson (New Dem-IN)
• Judy Chu (D-CA)
• David Cicilline (D-RI)
• Gil Cisneros (New Dem-CA)
• Katherine Clark (D-MA)
• Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
• Lacy Clay (D-MO)
• Gerry Connolly (New Dem-VA)
• Lou Correa (Blue Dog-CA)
• Danny Davis (D-IL)
• Pete DeFazio (D-OR)
• Diana DeGette (D-CO)
• Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
• Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA)
• Debbie Dingell (D-MI)
• Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)
• Eliot Engel (New Dem-NY)
• Veronica Escobar (New Dem-TX)
• Adriano Espaillat (D-NY)
• Dwight Evans (D-PA)
• Ruben Gallego (D-AZ)
• Chuy García (D-IL)
• Sylvia Garcia (D-TX)
• Jimmy Gomez (D-CA)
• Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
• Deb Haaland (D-NM)
• Brian Higgins (D-NY)
• Katie Hill (New Dem-CA)
• Steven Horsford (New Dem-NV)
• Jared Huffman (D-CA)
• Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)
• Pramila Jayapal (D-WA)
• Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
• Joe Kennedy (D-MA)
• Ro Khanna (D-CA)
• Brenda Lawrence (New Dem-MI)
• Barbara Lee (D-CA)
• Andy Levin (D-MI)
• John Lewis (D-GA)
• Ted Lieu (D-CA)
• Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)
• Alan Lowenthal (D-CA)
• Nita Lowey (D-NY)
• Ben Ray Luján (D-NM)
• Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)
• Betty McCollum (D-MN)
• Donald McEachin (New Dem-VA)
• James McGovern (D-MA)
• Gregory Meeks (New Dem-NY)
• Grace Meng (D-NY)
• Gwen Moore (D-WI)
• Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (New Dem-FL)
• Jerry Nadler (D-NY)
• Grace Napolitano (D-CA)
• Joe Neguse (D-CO)
• Donald Norcross (New Dem-NJ)
• AOC (D-NY)
• Ilhan Omar (D-MN)
• Frank Pallone (D-NJ)
• Bill Pascrell (D-NJ)
• Mark Pocan (D-WI)
• Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)
• David Price (D-NC)
• Mike Quigley (New Dem-IL)
• Jamie Raskin (D-MD)
• Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA)
• Linda Sánchez (D-CA)
• Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA)
• Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
• Brad Sherman (D-CA)
• Adam Smith (New Dem-WA)
• Darren Soto (New Dem-FL)
• Jackie Speier (D-CA)
• Mark Takano (D-CA)
• Dina Titus (D-NV)
• Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)
• Paul Tonko (D-NY)
• Norma Torres (New Dem-CA)
• Lori Trahan (New Dem-MA)
• Juan Vargas (New Dem-CA)
• Marc Veasey (New Dem-TX)
• Filemon Vela (Blue Dog-TX)
• Nydia Velázquez (D-NY)
• Peter Welch (D-VT)

It must have stung Pelosi especially hard when she wasn't even able to control members of her own leadership team and inner circle-- like Hakeem Jeffries and Ben Ray Luján, each fearful of primaries from the left. But these were Pelosi's "good soldiers" who told themselves a nice story that made it ok to vote funding for concentration camps. If any of them call you for a contribution to their reelection efforts, ask them why they decided our taxpayer money should go for locking children seeking asylum in cages inside concentration camps.

Babies in Cages by Nancy Ohanian

Colin Allred (New Dem-TX)
Cindy Axne (New Dem-IA)
Joyce Beatty (D-OH)
Ami Bera (New Dem-CA)
Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog-GA)
Lisa Blunt Rochester (New Dem-DE)
Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY)
Julia Brownley (New Dem-CA)
Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog-IL)
Salud Carbajal (New Dem-CA)
Matt Cartwright (D-PA)
Ed Case (Blue Dog-HI)
Sean Casten (New Dem-IL)
Kathy Castor (D-FL)
Emmanuel Cleaver (D-MO)
Jim Clyburn (D-SC)
Steve Cohen (D-TN)
Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN)
Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA)
Joe Courtney (D-CT)
TJ Cox (D-CA)
Angie Craig (New Dem-MN)
Charlie Crist (Blue Dog-FL)
Jason Crow (New Dem-CO)
Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)
Elijah Cummings (D-MD)
Joe Cunningham (Blue Dog-SC)
Sharice Davids (New Dem-KS)
Susan Davis (New Dem-CA)
Madeleine Dean (New Dem-PA)
Suzan DelBene (New Dem-WA)
Antonio Delgado (D-NY)
Val Demings (New Dem-FL)
Ted Deutch (D-FL)
Michael Doyle (D-PA)
Anna Eshoo (D-CA)
Abby Finkenauer (D-IA)
Lizzie Fletcher (New Dem-TX)
Mike Foster (New Dem-IL)
Lois Frankel (D-FL)
Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
John Garamendi (D-CA)
Jared Golden (D-ME)
Vicente Gonzalez (Blue Dog-TX)
Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ)
Al Green (D-TX)
Josh Harder (New Dem-FL)
Jahana Hayes (D-CT)
Denny Heck (New Dem-WA)
Jim Himes (New Dem-CT)
Kendra Horn (Blue Dog-OK)
Chrissy Houlahan (New Dem-PA)
Steny Hoyer (D-MD)
Hank Johnson (D-GA)
Bill Keating (New Dem-MA)
Robin Kelly (D-IL)
Dan Kildee (D-MI)
Derek Kilmer (New Dem-WA)
Andy Kim (D-NJ)
Ron Kind (New Dem-WI)
Ann Kirkpatrick (New Dem-AZ)
Raja Krishnamoorthi (New Dem-IL)
Anne Kuster (New Dem-NH)
Conor Lamb (D-PA)
Jim Langevin (D-RI)
Rick Larsen (New Dem-WA)
John Larson (D-CT)
Al Lawson (New Dem-FL)
Susie Lee (New Dem-NV)
Mike Levin (D-CA)
Dan Lipinski (D-IL)
Dave Loebsack (D-IA)
Elaine Luria (New Dem-VA)
Stephen Lynch (D-MA)
Tom Malinowski (New Dem-NJ)
Sean Patrick Maloney (New Dem-NY)
Doris Matsui (D-CA)
Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT)
Lucy McBath (New Dem-GA)
Jerry McNerney (D-CA)
Joseph Morelle (D-NY)
Stephanie Murphy (Blue Dog-FL)
Richard Neal (D-MA)
Tom O'Halleran (Blue Dog-AZ)
Jimmy Panetta (New Dem-CA)
Chris Pappas (New Dem-NH)
Donald Payne (D-NJ)
Ed Perlmutter (New Dem-CO)
Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)
Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
Dean Phillips (New Dem-MN)
Chellie Pingree (D-ME)
Katie Porter (D-CA)
Kathleen Rice (New Dem-NY)
Max Rose (Blue Dog-NY)
Harley Rouda (New Dem-CA)
Raul Ruiz (New Dem-CA)
Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD)
Bobby Rush (D-IL)
John Sarbanes (D-MD)
Adam Schiff (New Dem-CA)
Brad Schneider (Blue Dog-IL)
Kim Schrier (New Dem-WA)
Bobby Scott (D-VA)
David Scott (Blue Dog-GA)
Jose Serrano (D-NY)
Terri Sewell (New Dem-AL)
Donna Shalala (New Dem-FL)
Mikie Sherrill (Blue Dog-NJ)
Albio Sires (D-NJ)
Elissa Slotkin (New Dem-MI)
Abigail Spanberger (Blue Dog-VA)
Greg Stanton (New Dem-AZ)
Haley Stevens (New Dem-MI)
Tom Suozzi (New Dem-NY)
Mike Thompson (Blue Dog-CA)
Bennie Thompson (D-MS)
Xochitl Torres Small (Blue Dog-NM)
David Trone (New Dem-MD)
Lauren Underwood (D-IL)
Jefferson Van Drew (Blue Dog-NJ)
Pete Visclosky (D-IN)
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (New Dem-FL)
Maxine Waters (D-CA)
Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ)
Jennifer Wexton (New Dem-VA)
Susan Wild (New Dem-PA)
John Yarmuth (D-KY)

"Denny Heck voted to give money to concentration camps," his progressive primary opponent, Joshua Collins told me. "And he did it with no expectations of improved oversight or improved conditions. We might as well be burning money because they're already getting over $700/day per detainee, and still won't even give them toothpaste and soap. That vote was despicable. And it signifies why we have to replace Representatives like Denny Heck. He's not just a lazy centrist who won't budge on important issues like Medicare for All and a Green New Deal. He's actively helping the Republicans. And when asked why he makes all these bad votes, and why he refuses to support impeachment, his office says it's because he takes his marching orders from Nancy Pelosi. If he is being funded by large corporations and controlled even more explicitly by Nancy Pelosi, why in the hell should he be representing Washington's 10th? He needs to retire already. He's gotta go. That's why I'm running against him."

23 hours to go on this poll, but the trend seems set

Progressive Democrat Matt Tirman is running for the House seat occupied by New Dem chief Derek Kilmer in the sprawling 6th district west of Seattle. "The vote to give $4.6 billion in funding to ICE was not one to help the children being kept in cages at the border," he told me this morning, "but one to assuage the enormity of guilt felt by those in Congress. This was not a way to help reunite families, or help provide the humanitarian aid so desperately needed. This was simply a way for congressional members, like Rep. Kilmer, to stick a band aid on the issue and hope the American people will be placated so they could go march in their hometown parades without having to worry about messy questions about kids in cages."

Dean Obeidallah penned an OpEd for CNN yesterday, Why is Nancy Pelosi slamming AOC and helping Trump?. He was as pissed off as every progressive I know about Pelosi's slide over to the Dark Side, in terms of Trump's concentration camps and in her vicious attacks against progressives who opposed her collaboration with America's #1 enemy. She has especially singled out freshmen women Ilhan Omar (MN), AOC (NY), Rashida Tlaib (MI) and Ayanna Pressley (MA) for the full scale viciousness many Democrats would rather see her aiming at McConnell and Trump. She's become a real detriment to the Democratic Party and with her legacy in shreds, should step down and disappear immediately.

"Whatever"

Pelosi's criticism came after a June 25 vote in which the four were the only Democrats to oppose a House bill to provide funding for the crisis at the southern border because as they put it in a statement, "in good conscience, we cannot support this supplemental funding bill, which gives even more money to ICE and CBP and continues to support a fundamentally cruel and broken immigration system."

In response to that vote, Pelosi told Dowd, "All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world," adding, "But they didn't have any following. They're four people and that's how many votes they got."

by Jack Spencer

In response, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter, focusing in on the dismissiveness of the speaker's "public whatever" remark. "That public 'whatever' is called public sentiment. And wielding the power to shift it is how we actually achieve meaningful change in this country," she tweeted.

What makes Pelosi's remark so stunning is that it flies in the face of her often-repeated philosophy that she has espoused to House Democrats since taking control of the chamber in the 2018 midterms. "Our diversity is our strength and our unity is our power," she wrote last November.

Pelosi is 100% correct with that approach. That means, though, that diversity of opinion needs to be respected-- not belittled. This unity is vitally needed in the time of Donald Trump, since the Democrat-controlled House is the only chamber that serves as a legitimate check on the President.