Republicans Are Giving Themselves COVID-19 In Mississippi And Tennessee

The two without masks both contracted COVID-19. One is the Mississippi House Speaker and the other is the Lt. Gov-- and, of course, they're both Trumpists

Tennessee is an overwhelmingly Republican state. All statewide elected officials are Republicans. The state Senate has 28 Republicans and 5 Democrats and the state House has 73 Republicans and 26 Democrats. Both U.S. senators are Republicans-- one a vaguely mainstream conservative and the other a full-on fascist. Only two of their nine members of Congress are Democrats, one representing Nashville and one representing Memphis. The Republicans in the state legislature have drawn up plans to split Nashville up between several red districts and eliminate a safe Democratic seat.

The governor, Bill Lee, is a far right Trumpist and he has refused-- even as Tennessee's pandemic has spiraled out of control-- to issue a statewide mask mandate. 9 of the 10 most populated counties-- Davidson (Nashville), Shelby (Memphis), Knox, Hamilton, Rutherford, Williamson, Montgomery, Sumner and Wilson have mask mandates, as do a handful of smaller counties. 7 crackpot counties where most people marry their siblings have announced there will be no mask mandates. The percentage next to the counties' names is the 2016 Trump win score:

• Cheatham- 71.4%
• Dickson- 71.0%
• Maury- 67.8%
• Putnam- 70.4%
• Hickman- 73.2%
• Marshall- 71.6%

Just sayin'.

Tennessee reported 2,553 new cases yesterday and another 2,555 today bringing the state's total to 99,004. They will likely cross the 100,000 mark tomorrow. There are 14,503 cases per million Tennesseans. The state is expected to see it's 1,000 death this weekend.

Yesterday, The Tennessean reported that in the state legislature there are now 10 members and staffers who have COVID. Kent Calfee, a Kingston Republican, was the first to contract it, about two weeks ago. His wife also has it.

Unlike the legislature, Gov. Bill Lee's administration is refusing to provide positive case totals to the public.

A spokesman for the governor declined to answer The Tennessean's questions about how many employees in the executive branch, including the governor's office, and people working at the state Capitol have tested positive for COVID-19.

...Earlier this year, a member of Lee's senior staff had to self-isolate after testing positive for COVID-19.

The administration's refusal to release such information comes months after state officials initially rejected calls to provide county-level COVID-19 fatality data, citing federal health privacy laws. The administration ultimately reversed course and began releasing the data.

Although Lee has expressed his support for open government and transparency, his administration has frequently rejected requests for public records, citing "deliberative process" and "executive privilege."

The rise in cases in the legislature comes as COVID-19 has reached record levels in Tennessee in recent weeks and as the governor and lawmakers hope to hold a special session, potentially in August, to take up coronavirus liability protections for businesses.

The Tennessean also reported (last night) that Dr. Deborah Birx went to Tennessee yesterday and personally appealed to Gov. Lee to shut the state's bars down. He refused. "It is at this very moment," she said, "where we could change the trajectory of the epidemic before it goes into full… of what we call logarithmic spread, as we’ve seen across the South."

Earlier this month, it was reported that the Mississippi legislature-- where mask-wearing is considered something only Democrats do-- 26 legislators are sick with the coronavirus. the governor, Tate Reeves (R), has warned the public to get tested for coronavirus if they have been in contact with a state lawmaker. Many politicians flouted recommendations to wear a mask inside the Capitol in recent weeks. Now, about one in six of Mississippi state lawmakers have tested positive for the coronavirus."

The leaders of both chambers-- Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann-- have tested positive for coronavirus. On Wednesday, the Enterprise Journal reported that Rep. Sam Mims, R-McComb, had tested positive for coronavirus. Mims chairs the House Public Health Committee.

...Reeves said at a press conference it would be too dangerous for lawmakers to come back to Jackson within the next two week to "that fishbowl of the Mississippi Capitol."

Opposition Research by Nancy Ohanian

Mississippi is worse off than Tennessee, running out of ICU rooms and unable to care for sick people. There are 18,245 cases per million Mississippians, 6th worst in the country. They added 1,342 new cases today bringing the small state's total to 54,299. There is no statewide mask mandate, although several counties have them because, you know, COVID-19 respects borders between counties. The far right loon of a governor says he won't issue a mask mandate statewide because that might discourage people from wearing them. No, he really said that.

Nine hospitals in the state were without any open ICU beds Monday as the coronavirus pandemic continues to batter Mississippi, and Reeves has been imploring Mississippians to wear masks while in public.

Reeves has ordered mask mandates in some-- but not all-- counties and has said his executive orders regarding social distancing are difficult to enforce. He has put the responsibility on individual Mississippians to make safe decisions.

"I know a lot of you think we can snap our finger and all of a sudden 100% of the people will comply and everything will be great," Reeves said at a Monday press conference.

But Reeves said the opposite might be true.

"If you live in Tishomingo County and there’s a statewide mask mandate you can’t help but say, 'Well, that’s probably for those folks in Hancock County,'" Reeves said. "If you put a statewide mandate, the folks in Hancock County are going to say, 'That’s for the folks up in Tishomingo County, they can’t possibly be talking about me.'"

...The Mississippi State Medical Association, an organization of nearly 5,000 doctors and medical students, called for a statewide mask mandate two weeks ago, saying early data shows face coverings significantly reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Reeves, too, wants every Mississippian to wear a mask, but said the messaging and reasoning behind his orders is more important than the order itself.

"We have to be very smart about convincing Mississippians that wearing a mask is the right thing to do. Now, keep in mind that back in March, the World Health Organization and a lot of otherwise really smart people said that wearing a mask would do you no good," Reeves said. "And so that being the case, there's a segment of our population that is naturally skeptical that this or any other measure will actually have any effect on the spread of the virus."

Maybe the governor knows his citizens better than anyone else. After all...

Will Governor Gavin Newsom Drag California Off The Same Corona Cliff That Bill Lee Is Dragging Tennessee Off?

Clueless Tennessee Trumpist, Governor Bill Lee, was eager for his state to lead the way... to mass graves. So just as his lax policies on social distancing started a steepening of the curve, he decided to... open up for business! Tennessee had 11,891 confirmed cases on Friday, up 1,156 new cases since Thursday. On Thursday there were 1,614 cases per million. One day later that had changed to 1,788. That is exactly what a steepening of the curve means. And it means that even if Tennessee's Republican Party wasn't forcing new infections by opening up too fast, it would mean an increasing number of deaths in June and July. Tennessee-- along with Florida, Georgia, Iowa, the Dakotas, Indiana, Mississippi and Nebraska will be the center of the contagion this summer.

Politico reported that, worse yet, "States like Georgia, Texas and Colorado have begun lifting stay-at-home orders without a robust army of public health workers to quickly identify people who’ve come into contact with coronavirus patients, worrying health experts that they could be at heightened risk for a new wave of infections." These moron governors are "erasing weeks of progress made in slowing the virus" because they're opening despite their states not having an extensive system for identifying patients and tracing their contacts. "The number of contact tracers states need depends on factors like infection rates, testing availability and population density. But those moving to relax restrictions have far fewer contact tracers per capita than many of those remaining locked down for at least a few more weeks... The governors in states with sparser contact tracing programs said dire unemployment numbers have left them little choice, but to begin gradually sending people back to work while case counts still grow, even if it means reopening before they can fully bolster public health measures. They say weeks of unprecedented shutdowns have ensured their health care systems won’t be overrun if coronavirus cases creep upward, and they can move swiftly to reimpose lockdown orders should new hot spots emerge."

That would be more true of states that had real-- or at least quasi-real-- lockdowns like New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey. The states we have to worry about are the ones like Tennessee. Fox News reported that the verifiably insane U.S. senator, Marsha Blackburn "says she thinks her state is 'doing very well with the reopening,' despite those who say businesses should remain closed. 'We have heard from so many people that say, We were ready for this. We wanted to go back to work. Our businesses are being incredibly careful,' Blackburn told Fox News. 'I have been very impressed with how the business owners are talking about having PPE [personal protective equipment] that is necessary for their employees.' Even with less than satisfactory COVID-19 numbers, the senator still believes that people will continue to do all that they can to ensure their own safety." She's a sociopath and an ignoramus. And many people will not do the right thing-- and will then spread it through the community.

Some medical experts are predicting a “second wave” of the coronavirus and say states that reopen too soon could possibly be the force behind that wave. When asked whether or not Tennessee would shut down again if new waves broke out, Blackburn said she believes her state will not have to.

“I think that my state is going to be one of those that does not have to revisit this. We have done a very good job of working through the quarantines. People have followed the CDC recommendations, they are taking so many precautions to reopen places of business,” Blackburn told Fox News.

To those who criticize Tennessee’s reopening, Blackburn had this to say:

“You've got a choice. You can bet on hope or you can get bet on fear. And I think this is one where the American people are willing to bet on hope and they are going to find a way to make this work. We overcome obstacles. We are innovators, and we are going to find a way to live and work and prosper and to deal with a coronavirus.”

To be honest, though, I'm more worried about California than I am about Tennessee. The governor, Gavin Newsom, is a full-on neoliberal corporate whore. He takes a lot of credit that he doesn't deserve for shutting down the state. Like Cuomo, Newsom resisted calls to shut down and, in fact, the 6 Bay Area counties told him to go fuck off and shut down before he acted. When he saw how much better they were doing that the rest of the state, he followed. Same with L.A.'s mayor, Eric Garcetti.

Friday, the neo-lib governor said state officials are "very, very close to making some announcements" that will be very meaningful to people in the retail and hospitality industries, including restaurants, although modifications will be in place. He said "it will be days, not weeks" before California joins Tennessee on the highway to hell. Newsom is buckling to pressure from corporate powers who want to economy up and running. He's all hot air and no guts/no brains.

California has come through this fairly well, although lately the worst indicator has been ticking up every day-- the number cases per million. A week or so ago it was less than a thousand; today it it rapidly approaching 1,400. This is no time to open up. All Californians' good work will be wasted. Newsom is playing dangerous game.

Gov. Bill Lee Embraces Death For Tennessee

As Señor Trumpanzee spent Monday morning frustrated at being shut out of his own pandemic briefings and rage-tweeting instead, people were reading accounts of more Trumpists demanding their rights to steepen the curve and kill the rest of us. Covering the dangerous sociopaths in Wisconsin, Holly Bailey wrote that "Like other protests here and in other states in recent days, attendees defied the advice of health-care professionals, who have urged social distancing. They stood shoulder to shoulder, many without masks or face coverings that officials say could prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The rally highlighted the growing political rift over how and when states should reopen businesses in the wake of the coronavirus and covid-19, the disease it causes, a contagion that has infected more than 950,000 Americans and killed over 54,000."

Wisconsin has 6,081 confirmed cases, which should be read as 1,052 cases per million, a number than has been steadily creeping up since the Republicans in the state legislature forced in-person voting on the state earlier this month. Tennessee is worse off-- 9,918 confirmed cases or 1,491 cases per million. But Tennessee has a crackpot governor, Bill Lee (R), who has decided-- with the acquiescence of the Republican-controlled state legislature-- to reopen the state's restaurants yesterday. Sunday's jump in new cases-- 478-- is "the highest number of new cases recorded in one day so far in the state... The increase marks the fifth consecutive day where the day-over-day rate increase has been more than 5%." Retail stores will be allowed to open tomorrow.

Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville will ignore the crackpot governor and set their own timetables for reopening businesses based on local conditions rather than right-wing ideology.

Under the state's plan, restaurants are asked to require employees to wear gloves and masks, use disposable menus, have a maximum of six people per table and limit overall occupancy to 50% capacity.

The state has asked restaurants not to have live music and to keep their bar areas closed. Restaurants are also asked to clean all front-of-house surfaces every two hours and halt any buffets, shared condiments or beverage stations.

The plan encourages restaurants to screen customers with "basic questions" about COVID-19 symptoms. 

No live music? That's actually a good idea. A report last week by T.A. Frank in Vanity Fair noted that singing is a way to infect people. "Enclosed spaces in which people raise their voices together have time and again proven to be the sites of major outbreaks," he wrote. "In Daegu, South Korea, members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus crowd together, embrace, and shout 'Amen' throughout an hours-long service, and one person is believed to have infected hundreds of others that way. A funeral in Albany, Georgia, at which people embraced and 'belted out hymns,' according to Ellen Barry in the New York Times, infected dozens. Hundreds of cases are believed to have emanated from an après-ski restaurant and bar in Ischgl, a resort town in Austria... Why is singing significant? One 2019 study published in Nature’s Scientific Reports found that 'the rate of particle emission during normal human speech is positively correlated with the loudness (amplitude) of vocalization.' It also found that 'a small fraction of individuals behaves as speech superemitters, consistently releasing an order of magnitude more particles than their peers.' In its review of the literature, it also offered wild (at least to this author) facts like this: Saying 'aah' for 30 seconds releases more micron-scale particles than does 30 seconds of coughing. That may be why weddings and funerals and birthday parties and church services of all sorts have been central to outbreak anecdotes. As for drinking establishments, a quiet pub with a bit of space between customers probably isn’t going to see a lot of people infected at once. But a rowdy spot in the Alps? A lot of infections. Shared vocalization is a magical thing in normal times, but these are coronavirus times. Even a cough-along is looking safer than a sing-along."





As long as we're talking about that Vanity Fair report and leaving Tennessee to its own devices, turns out you have to work hard to catch COVID-19 out of doors. "Coronavirus transmission is an indoor phenomenon that works in mysterious ways," wrote Frank. "Outdoor transmission, on the other hand, is a rarity. One impressive Chinese study, still in the preprint phase, examined 320 cities in China for every outbreak affecting three or more people. Not one was found to have occurred outdoors. Had the authors delved into two-person outbreaks, it still wouldn’t have changed much. Only one of out of the 7,324 cases fit the bill. In a village in Henan province, note the authors, a '27-year-old man had a conversation outdoors with an individual who had returned from Wuhan on 25 January and had the onset of symptoms on 1 February.' Even in that case, the people in question may have touched, shaken hands, or gotten very close for a long time... Based on the evidence we have so far, you’re less likely to get the coronavirus outside than you are to die inside from falling, poisoning yourself, or choking, all of which start to look tempting amid all the mindless restrictions on fresh-air activity. Absent compelling evidence for the benefits of joyless outdoor life, let people stroll (even sit!) on the beach, play some tennis, or throw a Frisbee back and forth. They’ll kill no one."

Georgia, South Carolina And Tennessee vs Argentina

Yesterday afternoon, three gubernatorial fools-- gubers for short-- announced that they're prematurely opening their states up for the pandemic-- although none of their states were very closed down to begin with. The 3 imbeciles are Brian Kemp (R-GA), Bill Lee (R-TN) and Henry McMaster (R-SC). Let's start by looking at some numbers-- total cases and cases per million.

• Georgia- 18,947 (1,840 per million)
• Tennessee- 7,238 (1,088 per million)
• South Carolina- 4,377 (883 per million)

Remember those numbers, because by Memorial Day weekend they're all going to be much higher. On Good Morning America yesterday, Dr. Fauci made it clear that this is a big mistake that will steepen the curve and cause the nation's efforts to banish the pandemic to slow down. He said that "this is something that is hurting from the standpoint of economics, from the standpoint of things that have nothing to do with the virus... unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery economically is not gonna happen. So what you do if you jump the gun and go into a situation where you have a big spike, you’re gonna set yourself back... it’s gonna backfire. That’s the problem."




Wire Train was a band on my indie label, 415 Records. The original drummer, was Federico Gil-Sola, a kid from Argentina, who has since moved back there. Last night he suggested I read a piece in The Nation by Jacob Sugarman about how Argentina is handling the pandemic, Argentina Is Showing the World What a Humane Covid-19 Response Looks Like. "In December of 2019," wrote Sugarman, "the Peronist-progressive coalition party Frente de Todos (Everyone’s Front) swept into power after four years of neoliberal mismanagement. Now that it had begun enacting a social democratic agenda, against the backdrop of an unprecedented public health crisis, the forces of reaction were making their voices heard. Indeed, their demonstration began shortly after Minister of Labor Claudio Moroni ordered the country’s largest steel manufacturer, Techint, to pause the firing of 1,450 temporary workers. (President Alberto Fernández has since issued an emergency decree banning layoffs for a period of two months.) “Muchachos, les tocó la hora de ganar menos,” Fernández told the country’s business leaders at the time. “Boys, it’s time for you to earn less.”

Herein lies the challenge not just for Argentina but also for countless other liberal democracies across the West. While the outlines of our global crisis are only beginning to emerge, it is clear that Covid-19 demands that these nations reimagine the role of the state after decades of free-market hegemony. New possibilities have presented themselves that seemed unimaginable as recently as February. Even the editorial board of the Financial Times recently conceded that more radical reforms like a wealth tax and a universal basic income will have to be put on the table. Fernández, whose conservative predecessor, Mauricio Macri, reduced the Minister of Health to a non-cabinet position, understands this intuitively, implementing a pandemic response that, if not offering an exemplar for the Americas, stands in stark contrast to the region’s more overtly authoritarian regimes.

“I was concerned that the Argentine state apparatus wouldn’t be up to the task, but the response [has been] good,” says Marcelo Leiras, a political scientist and adviser to Argentina’s minister of the interior, Eduardo “Wado” de Pedro. “The Minister of Health [Ginés González García], at the beginning, thought that this epidemic would not strongly effect Argentina. For good reasons, I think. We didn’t know how contagious this thing was. The president was wise enough to widen his circle of advisers and heed the most prudent, conservative advice. He was [also] bold in choosing a strong quarantine policy, which in economic terms was incredibly risky.”

“We have to keep in mind how inarticulate the international response has been to the [coronavirus],” he adds. “It’s reflective of the political disarray of the West in domestic and international terms. I think the president sensed that and reacted very quickly and consistently.”

Whereas U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro have abdicated responsibility for their nations’ pandemic responses, with each openly flouting epidemiologists and sniping at the governors of their respective states and provinces, Fernández issued a nationwide shelter-in-place order on March 20. At the time, Argentina had only 128 official cases nationwide, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. As with the Argentinian president’s prior decisions to close the country’s borders and place visitors from global hot spots in a two-week quarantine, the aim was simple: to flatten the curve before a swell in cases could overwhelm the country’s latticework of trade union clinics, public hospitals, and private health care providers. It is far too early to call the measures a success, but early returns suggest that they are working. Infections have come in well below initial projections, and as of April 12, Argentina’s death rate stood at two per 1 million habitants. Chile’s, by contrast, was four, and Brazil’s was five. The United States’ was 62.

“Argentina has acted very quickly in comparison with other countries,” says Rodrigo Quiroga, a bioinformatician at Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council. “[That includes] the rapid closure of the border, the mandatory isolation of those who came from countries with high rates of infections and the closing of schools. These measures, along with the quarantine, have reduced the number of cases in this first stage of the pandemic.”

Fernández’s economic actions have been no less audacious, especially when considering that his administration inherited a $311 billion debt that includes a record $57 billion loan in 2018 from the International Monetary Fund-- the institution that imposed punishing austerity measures after the country’s crash in 2002. Argentina has invested as much as 2 percent of its gross domestic product in an economic and social relief package-- among the highest within the G20-- while an executive order issued last month has ensured that no essential services be cut for retirees, social welfare recipients and households earning less than a combined 33,750 pesos (about $520) due to a lack of payment. These services include electricity, gas, water, mobile, and fixed landlines, as well as Internet and cable television. The Fernández administration has also suspended evictions and frozen all rent hikes through September, in addition to absolving “monotributistas,” the country’s bottom tax bracket, of penalties for failing to make their March tax payments.

More significantly, the president has created via executive order a 10,000-peso (about $150) Ingreso Familiar de Emergencia (Emergency Family Income) for domestic workers and other low-income earners, giving first priority to those who qualify for Asignación Universal por Hijo (Universal Child Allowance) and Asignación para Embarazadas (Allowance for Pregnant Women). Nearly 8 million Argentines will receive subsidies beginning April 21. The administration has further made every employer, regardless of trade and size, eligible for a Programa de Asistencia de Emergencia al Trabajao y la Producción (Emergency Assistance Program for Work and Production), postponing or reducing the tax commitments of small businesses by up to 95 percent and paying out between 50 and 100 percent of a monthly minimum wage salary for each of their employees. Meanwhile, the federal government has compelled banks to extend hundreds of millions of dollars in loans at a reduced interest rate in an effort to keep the economy afloat.

Although Argentina has declined to nationalize its private hospitals as Spain has done, it has secured their cooperation during the crisis so that its health care system doesn’t face a shortage of hospital beds. Fernández has likewise activated the armed services to build a number of triage centers in the event of a surge in cases. Taken together, these actions amount to a mass mobilization of the Argentinian state.

...Fernández has investigated relaxing quarantine restrictions in order to stimulate the economy, but the challenges will be immense. While the government maintains that its testing of Covid-19 is proportionate to the country’s low rate of infection (2,142 official cases as of April 12), it had administered just 19,758 tests-- 437 per million habitants-- two weeks before quarantine was tentatively set to end April 26. As the country attempts to ramp up the numbers of ventilators and test kits after years of funding cuts to the Administración Nacional de Laboratorios e Institutos de Salud “Dr. Carlos Malbrán” (the Malbrán Institute), and amid supply chain disruptions that have hampered much of Latin America, it may be all but impossible to control the virus’s spread in the more impoverished suburbs of Buenos Aires, where population density is high, access to quality health care is limited, and few enjoy the luxury to self-isolate. At the same time, a 2019 poll from Argentina’s Catholic University finds that nearly half of the country’s labor force (49.3 percent) works off the books, with 81.7 percent of that segment in low-quality jobs.

“The response has ultimately been reflective of the strengths and weaknesses of the Argentinian state,” says Leiras. “The Argentinian state is strong in dialogue and politics but bad in terms of infrastructure, in its ability to go to places and do things, to reach people with health services [for example]. In that respect, it’s like an octopus with very short tentacles.”

Yet, despite its deficiencies, Argentina has thus far managed to avoid the kinds of catastrophes emerging in countries like Ecuador, where bodies have piled up in the streets of Guayaquil, and Brazil, whose president now faces impeachment calls for his homicidal denialism. More recently, Fernández has encouraged the congress to pass a tax on the country’s biggest fortunes-- a response to his political opposition’s calls for government officials to reduce their salaries by 30 percent. The tax, which targets, among others, those who were granted immunity by the prior administration for hiding their wealth overseas, signals the president’s desire to fundamentally reorder Argentinian society as much as it aims to ameliorate the worst economic effects of the crisis. Fernandez grasps what many of his counterparts on the world stage have not: that our fates are intrinsically bound together, and that the historical epoch we’ve been thrust into demands a new social contract.

“For many years, Argentinians have been led to believe that politicians and union leaders were the source of all their problems,” the president mused in late March. “The real problem is those who believe that there are too many people, that this [isn’t] a country where we all have a place…. After the pandemic, everything will be different. We’ll live in another world. I believe that ours is a time of reflection, in which we can recover something that postmodernity has robbed of us.”

“Postmodernity has led us to believe that individualism was the secret and that success meant earning money,” he continued. “[We’ve seen] a microscopic bug lay waste to vast fortunes and destroy accumulated wealth. Microscopic. This same bug can kill [the rich] as easily as it can kill any one of us. What was the purpose then of accumulating so much?”

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.