An ActBlue fundraising page for former Democratic congressional staffer Jon Ossoff’s special election bid to replace GOP Rep. Tom Price passed $420,000 this morning.
The Democrats need to contest every seat that comes up, even if there is little chance of winning this time, to build support for 2018 and 2020. And not with Blue Dogs.
Fight for every seat on the progressive platform that polls show most Americans overwhelmingly support.
Jon Ossoff for Congress.
Jon Ossoff's ActBlue page.
Who will Trump name Poet Laureate?
a) Donovan, because, you know, Bob Dylan
(and because “In love pool eyes float feathers after the struggle/The hopes burst and shot joy all through the mind/Sorrow more distant than a star/Multi colour run down over your body/Then the liquid passing all into all/Love is hot, truth is molten”)
b) Tim McGraw, because, you know, Poet Lariat
(and because "I don't know why I act the way I do/Like I ain't got a single thing to lose/Sometimes I'm my own worst enemy/I guess that's just the cowboy in me")
c) David Petraeus, because, you know, General Petraeus
(and because what do you need to know about poetry to be Laureate, anyway?)
(and because “In love pool eyes float feathers after the struggle/The hopes burst and shot joy all through the mind/Sorrow more distant than a star/Multi colour run down over your body/Then the liquid passing all into all/Love is hot, truth is molten”)
b) Tim McGraw, because, you know, Poet Lariat
(and because "I don't know why I act the way I do/Like I ain't got a single thing to lose/Sometimes I'm my own worst enemy/I guess that's just the cowboy in me")
c) David Petraeus, because, you know, General Petraeus
(and because what do you need to know about poetry to be Laureate, anyway?)
Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tunes
If you think that Rep. Keith Ellison, the chair of the House Progressive Caucus, is going to win the DNC job in a walk, be aware that the party's neoliberals are not going to give up without a fight: e.g., Politico says former "Labor Secretary Tom Perez has raised over $825,000 in his bid to become the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee."
From the Duh! Desk:
“Privately, some leading Democratic strategists worry that" Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, "despite some forceful criticism, will lean too much toward making deals with Trump.”
"FOURTEEN Senate Democrats joined all but one Senate Republican in confirming Rep. Mike Pompeo as the new CIA director on Monday evening, failing a crucial first test of whether Democrats would present a united front to defend human rights and civil liberties in the Trump era.
"Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the lone member of his party to vote against his confirmation.
"Pompeo is a far-right Kansas Republican who has in the past defended CIA officials who engaged in torture, calling them 'patriots.' Last week, he left the door open to torture by acknowledging in his written responses to the Senate Intelligence Committee that he would be open to altering a 2015 law prohibiting the government from using techniques not listed in the Army Field Manual.
"As a member of Congress, he repeatedly appeared on the radio program hosted by anti-Muslim activist Frank Gaffney, and has portrayed the war on terror as a conflict between Islam and Christianity. He has also claimed that 'Islamic leaders across America [are] potentially complicit' in terrorism because they supposedly don’t speak out against it, which is not true.
"While Pompeo’s confirmation was opposed by Human Rights Watch, it netted votes from a variety of Senate Democrats, including the caucus’ leader: Chuck Schumer of New York.
"In addition to his stances on torture and Islam, Pompeo has also come under fire for his views on surveillance. In a 2016 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, he attacked a 2015 law that that he voted for, which ended the bulk collection on phone records by the NSA. The op-ed calls on the government to collect 'all metadata' and 'lifestyle' details on Americans.
"The CIA is prohibited by executive order from conducting electronic surveillance inside the United States. But the specific rules and policies governing CIA surveillance are secret and can be reinterpreted without public debate. Despite a push for transparency following the revelations in documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the Obama administration did not declassify a secret legal opinion about the CIA’s collection of financial records. And days before President Trump took office, the Obama administration issued new rules that would allow the CIA to sift through much of the raw data the NSA collects on Americans.
"In his confirmation hearing, Pompeo tried to assure Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., that there were 'legal boundaries'" to compiling dossiers on Americans, but that the government would be 'grossly negligent' to ignore 'publicly available' information.
"On the Senate floor Monday, Wyden called Pompeo 'the wrong man for the job.'
“'On issue after issue,' Wyden said 'the congressman has taken two, three, or four positions, depending on when he says it and who he is talking to. He has done this with surveillance, with torture, with Russia, and a number of other subjects.'
"He added: 'Congressman Pompeo does not seem familiar with the broad consensus that torture, in addition to being illegal, immoral and contrary to our national values, does not work.'
"But Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said on the floor that although he does 'not agree with some of the views that Congressman Pompeo' holds, he 'convinced me that he will follow the law banning torture.'
"Margaret Huang, executive director of Amnesty International USA, called the confirmation vote 'a clear sign that Congress has not done enough ‘extreme vetting’ of President Trump’s nominees’ views on human rights.'
"She continued: 'While Pompeo sailed through his confirmation hearing, his written answers to the Senate contradict his earlier testimony and could lay the groundwork for the agency to return to torture and secret detention. Torture is a war crime and a grave human rights violation.'
'The Democrats who voted to confirm Pompeo were:
Joe Donnelly of Indiana
Dianne Feinstein of California
Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire
Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota
Tim Kaine of Virginia
Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota
Joe Manchin of West Virginia
Claire McCaskill of Missouri
Jack Reed of Rhode Island
Brian Schatz of Hawaii
Chuck Schumer of New York
Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire
Mark Warner of Virginia
Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island
Angus King, the independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats, also voted in favor of Pompeo’s confirmation."
-- Zaid Jilani & Alex Emmons on The Intercept
"Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the lone member of his party to vote against his confirmation.
"Pompeo is a far-right Kansas Republican who has in the past defended CIA officials who engaged in torture, calling them 'patriots.' Last week, he left the door open to torture by acknowledging in his written responses to the Senate Intelligence Committee that he would be open to altering a 2015 law prohibiting the government from using techniques not listed in the Army Field Manual.
"As a member of Congress, he repeatedly appeared on the radio program hosted by anti-Muslim activist Frank Gaffney, and has portrayed the war on terror as a conflict between Islam and Christianity. He has also claimed that 'Islamic leaders across America [are] potentially complicit' in terrorism because they supposedly don’t speak out against it, which is not true.
"While Pompeo’s confirmation was opposed by Human Rights Watch, it netted votes from a variety of Senate Democrats, including the caucus’ leader: Chuck Schumer of New York.
"In addition to his stances on torture and Islam, Pompeo has also come under fire for his views on surveillance. In a 2016 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, he attacked a 2015 law that that he voted for, which ended the bulk collection on phone records by the NSA. The op-ed calls on the government to collect 'all metadata' and 'lifestyle' details on Americans.
"The CIA is prohibited by executive order from conducting electronic surveillance inside the United States. But the specific rules and policies governing CIA surveillance are secret and can be reinterpreted without public debate. Despite a push for transparency following the revelations in documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the Obama administration did not declassify a secret legal opinion about the CIA’s collection of financial records. And days before President Trump took office, the Obama administration issued new rules that would allow the CIA to sift through much of the raw data the NSA collects on Americans.
"In his confirmation hearing, Pompeo tried to assure Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., that there were 'legal boundaries'" to compiling dossiers on Americans, but that the government would be 'grossly negligent' to ignore 'publicly available' information.
"On the Senate floor Monday, Wyden called Pompeo 'the wrong man for the job.'
“'On issue after issue,' Wyden said 'the congressman has taken two, three, or four positions, depending on when he says it and who he is talking to. He has done this with surveillance, with torture, with Russia, and a number of other subjects.'
"He added: 'Congressman Pompeo does not seem familiar with the broad consensus that torture, in addition to being illegal, immoral and contrary to our national values, does not work.'
"But Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said on the floor that although he does 'not agree with some of the views that Congressman Pompeo' holds, he 'convinced me that he will follow the law banning torture.'
"Margaret Huang, executive director of Amnesty International USA, called the confirmation vote 'a clear sign that Congress has not done enough ‘extreme vetting’ of President Trump’s nominees’ views on human rights.'
"She continued: 'While Pompeo sailed through his confirmation hearing, his written answers to the Senate contradict his earlier testimony and could lay the groundwork for the agency to return to torture and secret detention. Torture is a war crime and a grave human rights violation.'
'The Democrats who voted to confirm Pompeo were:
Joe Donnelly of Indiana
Dianne Feinstein of California
Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire
Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota
Tim Kaine of Virginia
Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota
Joe Manchin of West Virginia
Claire McCaskill of Missouri
Jack Reed of Rhode Island
Brian Schatz of Hawaii
Chuck Schumer of New York
Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire
Mark Warner of Virginia
Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island
Angus King, the independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats, also voted in favor of Pompeo’s confirmation."
-- Zaid Jilani & Alex Emmons on The Intercept
EPA: Enable Polluters Act
When I moved to Elay in the 70s, on "smog days" the authorities would urge you to "[s]tay inside, don't move around too much and drive as little as possible;" you couldn't walk barefoot on the beach for all the tar balls and hypodermic needles; and there was a cancer epidemic among lifeguards (from the water, not the sun). Now the ocean is mostly safe and, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District, there have been no Stage 1 smog alerts since 2003, no Stage 2 alerts since 1988, and the last Stage 3 alert was in 1974. This is a must-watch.
7
7
quote unquote: Mark Twain for 2017/01/20
"Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day."
-- Mark Twain
Inauspicious start
Nobody wants to be at inauguration. Can't give tickets away. Scalpers taking yuge beating. As @realDonaldTrump would say: Sad.
Who's counting? ... Oh, right.
Three thousand charter buses applied for D.C. parking permits for Barack Obama’s first inauguration; 1,200 applied for the Jan. 21, 2017 Women’s March; 200 applied for Donald Trump’s inauguration (Washington Post).
"City expected to ban bunnies and spiders from performing on The Pier."
Just another of countless examples of the The City That Always Sleeps' codification of mediocrity. From banning ponies at the farmer's market to dumbing down any attempt at improving the visual landscape, the city staff can be counted on to choose conformity over diversity and vapidity over creativity every time. In the latest blow to a vibrant city life, the staff is shutting down live music at another restaurant on Main Street. Basta.
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| Flea Circus |
Schooling Congress
As a public service, is there not an educational institution in the District of Columbia that could offer GOP House and Senate members remedial education classes in Civics, History, Basic Science and Economics 101?
Or would it set the bar sufficiently high to require that elected officials pass the naturalization test -- "What is one right or freedom from the First Amendment?" "What is the 'rule of law'?" "What are two rights of everyone living in the United States?" "Name one state that borders Canada" -- before being allowed to take the oath of office?
This test contains all 100 USCIS Naturalization test questions and answers in random order: 100 Question US Citizenship Practice Test.
Or would it set the bar sufficiently high to require that elected officials pass the naturalization test -- "What is one right or freedom from the First Amendment?" "What is the 'rule of law'?" "What are two rights of everyone living in the United States?" "Name one state that borders Canada" -- before being allowed to take the oath of office?
This test contains all 100 USCIS Naturalization test questions and answers in random order: 100 Question US Citizenship Practice Test.
Must read:
Who wins and who loses when we forget American history:
Ignorance of Things Past by Lewis H. Lapham (Harper's)
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