Democrats

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats February 28, 2019

We Really Need To Talk: To Win & Exercise Power, Dems Need To Confront Power & Corruption Within The Ranks

  The idea that Republicans have a monopoly on all the seedy operators is naive. By Zach Carter HuffPost (2/25/19) It should not be difficult for Democrats to defeat President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 by nearly 3 million votes. His overall approval rating has never ― not for one day ― eclipsed 50 percent. His main political tactic, scapegoating immigrants,  doesn’t work very well. After making the 2018 midterms a referendum on a migrant caravan, Trump ended up ceding 41 House seats to the Democratic Party ― the worst result for…

ALL ARTICLES, American Socialist Tradition, Democrats, Documentaries, History They Don't Want You To Know, Progressive History February 21, 2019

Eugene V. Debs And The Enduring History & Essential Role Of American Socialism

Socialism has been carried into the twenty-first century by way of Sanders, a Debs disciple, and by way of the utter failure of the two-party system. By Jill Lepore The New Yorker (2/17/19) Eugene Victor Debs left school at the age of fourteen, to scrape paint and grease off the cars of the Vandalia Railroad, in Indiana, for fifty cents a day. He got a raise when he was promoted to fireman, which meant working in the locomotive next to the engineer, shovelling coal into a firebox—as much as two tons an hour, sixteen hours a day, six days a…

ALL ARTICLES, American Socialist Tradition, Democrats February 21, 2019

Robert Reich: Why Nation Owes Bernie Sanders Our Enduring Gratitude

  By Robert Reich Common Dreams (2/19/19) It’s easy to forget the condescension and amusement that greeted him when he announced his first campaign for president, on May 26, 2015. How, it was asked, could a rumpled, 73-year-old, self-described Democratic Socialist – a junior senator from tiny Vermont, who was born in Brooklyn, Jewish, hadn’t even been a Democrat for most of his political career, and eschewed money from super PACs – possibly triumph against Hillary Clinton? In the end, he didn’t. But he triumphed in other ways. Bernie won a surprising 46 percent of the pledged delegates to the…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, Economic Injustice, History They Don't Want You To Know, Rethuglicans February 18, 2019

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Exposes Cynical Lobbyist Tricks

  The Young Turks (2/14/19) There’s nothing these people won’t do to influence politicians. Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, breaks it down. Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/… “On Wednesday morning, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted a picture of a line of people outside a House committee hearing on marijuana banking.* According to Ocasio-Cortez, the people in the photo are homeless and were paid by lobbyists to hold their places in line. The practice of lobbyists paying people to stand in line for committee meetings is, according to previous reporting, a longtime practice in Washington, DC. In 2009, CNN wrote…

ALL ARTICLES, Climate Change, Democrats, FEATURE February 18, 2019

The Real Threat To The Green New Deal—And The Planet—Comes From Corporate-Owned Neoliberal Democrats

A party that responds to a challenge of this magnitude with stratagems, political calculations, cynicism, and half measures will not inspire voters; one that leads us toward a literal salvation, will. By John Atcheson Common Dreams (2/16/19) Predictably, Trump came out against the Green New Deal with a bombastic – and ill-informed – rant in a campaign style rally in El Paso. Here’s what he had to say: “I really don’t like their policy of taking away your car, of taking away your airplane rights, of ‘let’s hop a train to California,’ of you’re not allowed to own cows anymore!” Meanwhile,…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, Economic Injustice, History They Don't Want You To Know, Rethuglicans February 11, 2019

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Exposes The Corruption Of DC In 5 Incredible Minutes

  By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (2/11/19) And to think some people — some democrats even — have been saying AOC needs to shut up, sit down and learn from the wise  ‘experienced’ hands in congress. I mean WTH, she’s only 29, what does she know about how congress works? Well, she knows exactly how congress works and nailed those ‘experienced’ hands exposing the rigged game congress has become. And she did it in only 5 minutes of congressional hearings. It’s the old farts in congress — too any of them democrats — who need to shut up,…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, Resistance Tunes February 11, 2019

Love Me, I’m A Liberal

  By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (2/11/19) As we see over and over again, well-intentioned mainstream liberals have rubbery spines. Yes, they want change … but not too much change. Sure they want to see more healthcare, but ‘Medicare 4 All’? Um, well, we can’t ask for that, the insrance companies will never go along with something that radical. Besides, they caution, the republicans would never let us have that so we need to be “practical”, “cautious” and settle for “incremental improvements” … and to hell with those who still won’t have access to healthcare after all that….

ALL ARTICLES, Climate Change, Democrats, FEATURE, Health Care February 7, 2019

Time For Bravery: Dear Democrats, On Health Care & Climate Change Stop Substituting The So-Called “Possible” For What’s Morally Necessary

    By John Atcheson Common Dreams (2/3/19) In a recent column in the New York Times, David Leonhardt cites a Kaiser survey on Medicare for all, and concludes that supporting it would be an “unforced error” for Democrats. Sherrod Brown, a genuine progressive, made the same observation. Richard Eskow, writing in Common Dreams last week shows why Kaisers’ survey is flawed. But there is a bigger flaw embedded in Leonhardt’s and Brown’s assumption—specifically, the entire notion that Democrats should only run on things that poll well. This perspective is shared by the party’s leadership, by most of the media, and virtually all of the political consultants and contributors….

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, Economic Injustice, Rethuglicans February 7, 2019

Joke’s On You, Suckers! Inside The Bizarre Bipartisan Pro-Corporate ‘Alfalfa’ Political Club

“The marriage of our law makers and corporate interest.” [Editor’s Note: This is both a Republican and Democratic corruption scene. The embodiment of all that is corrupt in American politics. Democrat John Kerry is the president of this rotten little cabal of thieves. Alfalfa Club? Talk about a bad seed! — Mark L. Taylor] The Young Turks (1/28/19) “It’s that time of year again: when the biggest of bigwigs don black tie garb and descend upon the Capital Hilton ballroom to bask in the collective glow of their stunning accomplishments — and consume lots of booze. It’s the 106th annual…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, FEATURE January 31, 2019

Wall Street Executives Make Their 2020 Preferences Known: “It Can’t Be Warren And It Can’t Be Sanders”

“Wall Street likes Biden, Booker, Harris, Gillibrand, and Beto. Guess who they hate? Sanders and Warren. All the rest is commentary.” By Jake Johnson Common Deams (1/28/19) The first 2020 Democratic presidential primary is still over a year away, but Wall Street executives are reportedly already freaking out about two likely progressive candidates: Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “It can’t be Warren and it can’t be Sanders,” the CEO of a “giant bank” anonymously told Politico, which reported on Monday that Wall Street executives are “getting panicked” about the presidential prospects of the Senate’s two fiercest financial sector critics. Warren launched an exploratory committee…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, Health Care January 31, 2019

New Dem Health Subcommittee Chair Has Taken More Big Pharma Cash Than Any Other Rep

When it comes to bills that address the issue of rising drug prices, Dem Rep. Eshoo has not been a supporter.  By Donald Shaw Sludge (1/25/19) The Democratic rep who will lead the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health in the new session of Congress has taken more money from the pharmaceuticals and health products industry over her career than any other member of the House. Rep. Anna Eshoo of California’s 18th Congressional District will chair the subcommittee after accepting more than $1.6 million in campaign contributions from PACs and individuals affiliated with pharmaceutical and health products companies over the course of…

ALL ARTICLES, Climate Change, Democrats January 31, 2019

Empty Words & Emptier Action: Majority Of Congressional Democrats Support GOP Climate Crisis Deniers

The Democrats are afraid to treat climate change as the crisis it is. We must make them afraid not to. By Branko Marcetic Jacobian (1/28/19) Imagine for a second that the scientific community has just told the world in no uncertain terms there is a meteor headed to Earth that will almost certainly wipe out most, if not all, life on the planet. One of the major political parties in the US is skeptical. They cast aspersions on the scientists, call the whole thing a hoax, repeat meteor-denying propaganda even as the enormous space rock becomes more visible in the…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, Economic Injustice, Health Care January 28, 2019

Are Corporate Dems Quietly Sticking A Shiv In Medicare For All Behind Closed Doors?

Here’s A Simple Question To Ask Your Congress Critter: Why don’t ALL citizens have health care at least as good as that enjoyed by you members of congress and your families on our tax money? Really, next time you get a chance — be it a democrat or republican — ask them that question and let us know what they tell you. ***** Rep. Ron Kind studiously avoiding the issue of Medicare4All and HR 676 at the 2018 Third Congressional District Convention, despite the signs and bright red “Medicare 4 All” buttons dotting the convention all. He said not a…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, Economic Injustice January 28, 2019

At Cushy Oligarch Gala With Ex-Bush Official, Obama Brags Up Oil Production & Implores Wall Street To Thank Him For Making Them So Much Money

  By Ben Norton Gray Zone (11/30/19) Barack Obama urged bankers to thank him for helping make them so much money during his tenure as president. He also boasted of turning the US into the world’s largest oil producer, while surrounded by wealthy Republicans in tuxedos. Obama made these appeals for elite adulation at a lavish gala hosted by former Secretary of State James Baker. His comments came just a few hours after he met with former Republican President George H. W. Bush at his home in Texas. If there was any single event that captured Obama’s centrist, neoliberal capitalist…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, Resist!, Rethuglicans January 24, 2019

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Panics The Sacred Cash Cows & Rattles Potemkin Politicians

Corporate Dems Tell AOC To Sit Down, Zip The Lip & Learn From The Real ‘Experts’… A group of GOP House members booed her on the floor, to which she replied, “Don’t hate me cause you ain’t me, fellas.” By Matt Taibbi Rolling Stone (1/22/19) One of the first things you learn covering American politicians is that they’re not terribly bright. The notion that Hill denizens are brilliant 4-D chess players is pure myth, the product of too many press hagiographies of the Game Change variety and too many Hollywood fantasies like House of Cards and West Wing. The average American politician would lose at…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, FEATURE, Worker Notes by Tom Crofton January 24, 2019

It’s Really Quite Simple: Two Questions To Quickly Sift The Growing Gaggle Of Dem Presidential Candidates

By Tom Crofton The Commoner Call (1/24/19) The large and growing field of Democratic candidates for President offer a wide range of personal histories, beliefs, and issues to run on. This is good for the country. There seems to me to be a very simple way to narrow the field quickly. My two simple, straightforward questions to each and every one: Do you support single payer health care for all instead of any plan based on insurance, and do you see that the enormity of the climate crisis requires a massive federal response? All other issues are really quite dependent on these…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, Health Care January 24, 2019

Beware Betrayal: Progressives Warn Of Corporate Dems Pushing ‘Diluted’ Half-Measures As Alternative To Medicare For All

Corporate democrats’ alternative to Medicare for All. By Jake Johnson Common Dreams (1/22/19) A Medicare buy-in. A Medicaid buy-in. Medicare for retiring police officers and firefighters under the age of 65. Defend and strengthen Obamacare. With Medicare for All polling at an unprecedented 70 percent support among the American public and headed toward its first-ever congressional hearing, Politico on Tuesday reported that there is a growing effort among congressional Democrats—including some 2020 presidential hopefuls—to “water down” the grassroots push for a transformative single-payer program by offering up more incremental approaches to solving America’s for-profit healthcare crisis. The proposals listed above, which Politicoencapsulated with the term “Medicare for More,” are just a handful…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, Health Care January 21, 2019

New Analysis Shows Why Timid Democrats Are Wrong To Fear Bold Embrace Of Medicare For All

  By Julia Conley Common Dreams (1/14/19) On the same day a new poll showed an overwhelming majority of Americans think the nation’s healthcare system is “in state of crisis,” a new analysis shows that Democrats should listen to those Americans—and end their reluctance to run on the promise of a bold solution like Medicare for All while propping up the for-profit system. A new Gallup survey released Monday showed that 70 percent of respondents saw the U.S. healthcare system as having “major problems” or being in a “state of crisis.” Eighty-four percent of Democrats expressed these concerns about the system in…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, Ron "Wall Street" Kind January 21, 2019

Hooked: Meet The Most Corporate PAC-Addicted Reps In Congress. Guess Who Is No. 4 On The List…

Rep. Ron kind doing his best to ignore the needs and desires of his constituents for universal Medicare For All health care at the 2018 Third Congressional District Democratic Convention.   By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (1/21/19) Wisconsin’s Rep. Ron Kind ranks as Number 4 Top Corporate PAC Sell-Out in the House of Representatives!!! Want to have health care coverage for your kids? Well don’t bother talking to “Bottom Dollar” Ron Kind, the Wisconsin rep financed and funded by the corrupt industrial ‘health’ complex. The photo is from the Third CD 2018 convention, where “Bottom Dollar” jumped away…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, FEATURE January 21, 2019

These 2020 Dem Hopefuls Are Begging On Wall Street. Don’t Be Fooled By Their Fake Progressive Veneer

The American ruling class has a nice hustle going with elections.  By Bhaskar Sunkara The Guardian (1/15/19) It’s a framing that’s been everywhere over the past two years: the Resistance v Donald Trump. By some definitions that “resistance” even includes people like Mitt Romney and George W Bush. By almost all definitions it encompasses mainstream Democrats, such as the likely presidential hopefuls Cory Booker, Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand. In their rhetoric and policy advocacy, this trio has been steadily moving to the left to keep pace with a leftward-moving Democratic party. Booker, Harris and Gillibrand know that voters demand action and are more supportive than ever of…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, Progressive History January 17, 2019

Corporate Democrats Are Also Terrified Of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. And That’s A Very Good Thing.

Corporate Dem AOC Freak Out! ***** Grassroots progressives are a direct challenge to the mutual-protection racket among corporate Dems. By Norman Soloman HuffPost (1/14/19) In the last few days, both Politico and the New York Times have reported that freshman Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [AOC] has ruffled the feathers of fellow congressional Democrats. Chief among the reasons for the tension? Ocasio-Cortez’s apparent support for progressive primary challenges against centrist Democrats. It’s one of the most significant ideas the young New York congresswoman has brought with her to Washington. That’s because turning the Democratic Party into a truly progressive force will require turning…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, Documentaries, Worker Notes by Tom Crofton January 14, 2019

Still Waiting For State Democratic Party Leadership To Listen To The Grass Roots

Fixing the problems of money hijacking our democracy will not be done with money. By Tom Crofton The Commoner Call (1/14/19) The leadership of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin (DPW) is traveling the state to discuss the recent elections. Unfortunately the lessons the grassroots have learned are not on the agenda. The listening sessions are advertised as a chance to get feedback from the activists, but are really a chance for the activists to listen to the leadership. We have heard the message before, “raise more money”. Those of us who have run grassroots campaigns in rural areas know how…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats January 7, 2019

Democrats Are Hunting Big Game – Did Big Money Already Bag Them?

  By Robert Reich The Guardian (1/6/19) Democrats are now in control of the House of Representatives, under Speaker Nancy Pelosi. After two years of Republican control over both chambers of Congress and the presidency, some balance has been restored to our democracy. I know and have worked with many members of the 116th Congress. They are people of integrity who will strive to do what is right for America. Nancy Pelosi is tough and courageous. Were it not for her insistence, Barack Obama would not have pushed for the Affordable Care Act. But they are not miracle workers. Republicans still control the…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats December 31, 2018

Missing The Mark: ‘Not the Leadership This Moment Calls For’: Progressives Slam Pelosi For Pushing ‘Weak’ Climate Panel Over Bold Green New Deal Committee

“The party of the resistance is recklessly taking the path of least resistance on climate and inequality.” By Jake Johnson Common Dreams (12/28/18) Following presumptive House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) official announcementon Friday that Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) will chair the new Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, progressives accused the Democratic leadership of moving ahead with a “weak” congressional panel instead of listening to grassroots demands for a more bold and visionary Green New Deal Select Committee. Justice Democrats—an advocacy group that helped organize recent mobilizations in support of a Green New Deal—declared in a statement that the Democratic leadership appears dead-set…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, FEATURE, Health Care December 31, 2018

Democratic Establishment & Corporations Look To Crush Progressive Push On Medicare For All

Progressives say they’re more concerned about courting voters than winning over big business. By Adan Cancryn Politico (12/10/18) The united front that helped Democrats save Obamacare just a year ago is falling apart over single-payer health care. Deep-pocketed hospital, insurance and other lobbies are plotting to crush progressives’ hopes of expanding the government’s role in health care once they take control of the House. The private-sector interests, backed in some cases by key Obama administration and Hillary Clinton campaign alumni, are now focused on beating back another prospective health care overhaul, including plans that would allow people under 65 to…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, FEATURE December 27, 2018

Corporate Joe Biden: Okay, Cross Him Off The List. Next…

  “I don’t think 500 billionaires are the reason why we’re in trouble. But we have not seen this huge concentration of wealth. And the folks at the top aren’t bad guys. I get in trouble in my party when I say wealthy Americans are just as patriotic as poor folks, I’ve found no distinction. I really haven’t. But this gap is yawning. It’s gaping and it’s having the effect of pulling us apart.” (And, oh yeah, and according to Corporate Joe Biden, Social Security and Medicare earned benefits “need adjustment”, too.) — Joe Biden, Brookings Institution talk “about 8…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats December 17, 2018

WDRT ‘Conversations’ — Mike McCabe On The Midterm Elections: “What Just Happened?”

Government watchdog and former candidate for governor, Mike McCabe.   By Dan Peak WDRT Conversations (12/13/18) On Thursday December 13 I talked with former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike McCabe about the Wisconsin Republican lame-duck session power grab legislation now signed into law by Scott Walker. The discussion is a free-flowing exchange about what happened, how it happened and how this act flies in the face of Wisconsin democracy. You can link to the hourlong audio download HERE. The Republican power-grab dramatically scales back the authority of the incoming Democratic Governor Tony Evers and Attorney General-elect Josh Kaul. This action by…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats December 17, 2018

Insightful Analysis Of State Election Results Show It Is Time For New Democratic Strategies To Win Back State Legislatures

You don’t need to look far to see and hear a lot of people asking, “just what do Democrats stand for?” Why is this so often the case? I propose that it’s because they are relying on a strategy that is based on a fundamentally flawed premise. By Scott Witkopf Frame4Future (12/14/18) The post mid-term election message from Democrats nationwide who failed to take back state legislatures was consistent with that coming out of my home state of Wisconsin – if it weren’t for unfair redistricting maps drawn to benefit Republicans in 2011, Democrats would have won back the state legislature. I propose that not…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats December 17, 2018

Progressive Pretenders: Dems Who Claimed To Reject Corporate PACs Grabbed Cash From Corporate-Funded NewDemPAC

  Corporate Dem: A man of few words ***** Turns out that Blue Wave had some corporate floaters. By Donald Shaw Sludge (12/7/18) Dozens of Democrats ran for House seats in the 2018 cycle on pledges to reject corporate PAC money and instead rely on smaller donors to fund their campaigns. But a Sludge review of campaign finance records shows that a majority of those Democrats took campaign contributions from a PAC affiliated with the New Democrat Coalition, which itself was funded by more than $2.4 million in contributions from PACs in the last cycle, including PACs affiliated with nearly…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, Resist! December 17, 2018

Green Party In Germany Provides Effective Response To Far Right: “Give courage rather than spread fear!”

  In recent months, the Green Party has risen in national polling to become Germany’s second-most-popular party, and it has done so by drawing strong and clear contrasts between its vision and the populist far right’s. By Emily Schultheis HuffPost (12/12/18) BERLIN — The rise of far-right populism is a narrative that dominates world politics, from President Donald Trump in the U.S. to President-elect Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Hungary. It has left traditional politicians on both sides of the Atlantic grappling with how to respond. But Germany may offer an answer. Germany has its own…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Democrats, FEATURE, M. Taylor Columns, Rethuglicans, Weasel Walker December 6, 2018

COUP! Unable To Even Name The Foe, Wisconsin Dems Flap Hankies & Rattle Teacups At Fascist Onslaught Against State Govt.

A brass knuckle legislative coup. By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (12/6/18) What has happened in Madison this week with the hard right Republican legislature preemptively kneecapping the administration of Democrat Governor-elect Tony Evers and Attorney General-elect Josh Kraul before they even have a chance to take the oath of office is a brass knuckle legislative coup. While it is shocking the republicans would take such action it is not surprising; after all, that is what fascists do; abandon legal niceties, tradition and the normal transition of power. All those vestiges of democracy are as dead to the GOP…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats December 6, 2018

Republican Wet Dream: What It Means That Hillary Clinton Might Run For President In 2020

Third time’s a charm, right? Right? By Norman Solomon Reader Supported News (12/4/18) wenty-five years ago – when I wrote a book titled “False Hope: The Politics of Illusion in the Clinton Era” – I didn’t expect that the Democratic Party would still be mired in Clintonism two and a half decades later. But such approaches to politics continue to haunt the party and the country. The last two Democratic presidencies largely involved talking progressive while serving Wall Street and the military-industrial complex. The obvious differences in the personalities and behavior of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama diverted attention from their underlying…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats November 29, 2018

Labor’s Challenge To The New Democrats In Congress

  By Leo Gerard OurFuture.org (11/21/18) In his victory speech on election night, U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb said he would always remember the union members who helped him defeat two Republican incumbents in one year. “Side by side with us at each step of the way were men and women of organized labor. . .  I will never forget that. I will never forget that. Thank you,” he told a cheering crowd overflowing a ballroom at the Hilton DoubleTree, 20 miles north of Pittsburgh. In his first contest last spring, in a district that went for President Donald Trump by nearly 20 points and…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats November 26, 2018

Handmaiden Of The Right: Hillary Clinton’s Chilling & Failed Pragmatism

You cannot outflank the right by adopting its promises, that way you only end up as its handmaiden. By Nesrine Malik Portside (11/23/18) Ever since Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump in 2016, her insistence on staying in the public eye has been viewed with a particular kind of intolerance. Some on the right have turned her into a symbol of everything they hate, to be demonised at their rallies. Others, on the left, abhor her refusal to cede space to a newer generation, hanging in the air like a bad smell, a constant memory of the moment it all went wrong….

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats November 12, 2018

Reforming The Message: Beto O’Rourke’s Biggest Blind Spot Cost Him Texas. Democrats, Take Note

  By Lawrence Lessing The Guardian (11/11/18) Yet just below the surface of these moderate gains hides a truth that the Democrats need to understand – and quickly. There is a clear model for victory going forward. It is not the model being promoted by the most active and vocal Democrats just now. According to the most progressive, the formula for a blue wave is for Democrats everywhere to become more bold and more progressive. The weakness of the party, this faction insists, is that it isn’t extreme enough. What would guarantee victory, these sorts say, is a stronger and more vibrant…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, Resist!, Rethuglicans November 12, 2018

Neither Republicans Nor Democrats Are Up To The Massive Challenges We Face

By Sarah van Gelder HuffPost (11/8/18) The midterm elections are over. Women won historic gains in the House, which Democrats now appear to be on track to control. Voters in three red states ― Idaho, Nebraska and Utah ― approved expanding Medicaid, a repudiation of GOP efforts to discredit government run health care. And voters in Florida approved a measure giving ex-felons the right to vote ― one of the most significant expansions of voting rights in decades. The most expensive midterm election in U.S. history fired up people on all sides, including many young people who went all out to put…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Democrats, Rethuglicans November 8, 2018

Things Are Moving Fast Now: With Trump Moving On Mueller & Wisconsin Republicans Looking To Gut Powers Of The Governor It’s Time to Check Where We Are On The Trail To Tyranny

20 Lessons From The 20th Century On How To Survive Trump’s America “Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle.” By Timothy Snyder (11/21/16) This article first appeared as a post on the author’s Facebook page. Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so. Here are…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, M. Taylor Columns November 5, 2018

HuffPost Interview With DNC Chair Tom Perez Lays Bare What Is So Absolutely Maddening About The Democrats

Should we ever get a guarantee of decent health care for all the first surgery for a pre-existing condition is to do a ‘brave heart’ transplant on the democratic party. By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (11/5/18) There are some things unequivocally obvious. You know, like ice is cold, the sun rises in the east, a dropped ball will respond to gravity, limburger cheese stinks and Donald J. Trump is a racist. Despite the growing body count and Trump’s overt and covert wink-winking, racist dog-whistling and compassionate heart for all things fascist you won’t hear such obvious truth from…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Democrats, M. Taylor Columns, Rethuglicans October 29, 2018

The New Reality: We Are No Longer In The United States

  While the run-up to the midterms has our all out attention the real story begins the morning after the election … no matter who wins. By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (10/29/18) Even in the light of almost two years of Trumpian excess, duplicity and mendacity, the past week of right wing violence was stunning. There was the gunning down of two African American innocents at a suburban Louisville, Kentucky grocery store by a white shooter who had earlier tried to get into a nearby predominantly African American church and told a white witness, “Don’t shoot me. I…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats October 15, 2018

A Lesson For Dems? Deep Red West Virginia District Trump Won By 49 Points Is About To Flip To Outspoken Progressive Dem Richard Ojeda

  By Igor Derysh Salon (10/13/18) West Virginia’s 3rd congressional district is among the most conservative in the nation, but a new poll shows Democrats are making this year’s race very competitive. The district had been represented by Rep. Evan Jenkins, a former Democrat himself, who vacated the seat to stage an unsuccessful campaign for the Republican Senate nomination. (State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey won the Republican primary, and will face incumbent Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin next month.) Now, two polls show split results in the race to replace Jenkins, which pits Democratic state Sen. Richard Ojeda, a retired Army officer, against Republican Carol Miller,…