Thanks as always Simon for your hard work detailing the destruction of our Democracy and the hopeful signs if we stay united to fight Trump, Repubs and MAGAs. Your job and our lives are made even more insanely stressful by the words and actions of our very (un)stable genius.
. "Ukraine is slowing Russia and clawing back ground in key areas"
[George] Barros attributed Ukraine's gains to its "maturing in their operational planning." He said Ukraine was now "demonstrating a more sophisticated and a deeper capability for operational planning and for preparing the battlefield to set the condition for exploits and then executing those exploits."
Ukraine notably made its Delta system – an online battlespace management system that lets Ukraine view and share real-time battlefield data and make decisions – mandatory for all combat units.
That has helped a "maturation of command" that allows Ukraine to think beyond defeating the Russian forces immediately in front of it and also think "about the deeper depths of the battlefield and how do we degrade that," Barros said.
"So really, this maturation of the command is working." He said the Delta system is having effects. "These things take time, but it's happening. And these reforms are what are slowly but surely enabling some of these Ukrainian successes that we're seeing reported out on the day-to-day now."
Barros said that Ukraine has also been intensifying its intermediate-range strikes to hit Russia's positions and logistics that support its front-line forces. Doing that from late last year has been "degrading the Russian forces in the south," he said.
He said the progress Ukraine made across February and March had been months in the making, with planning starting in late 2025.
Volodomyr Zelenskyy recently visited a number of oil-producing countries in the Middle East, offering them Ukraine’s proven drone defense systems. Much to the embarrassment and irritation of Trump! This cost comparison reveals why:
– Iranian Shaheed drone: $50,000
– US Patriot missile: $2-3 million
– Ukrainian anti-Shaheed drone: $5,000
(Note: Don Jr and several of his corrupt associates are heavily invested in an American drone company. Which explains why Trump doesn’t want Ukraine offering a battlefield-proven and much-cheaper alternative to countries in dire need of such defense systems.)
Saw Anderson Clayton yesterday at a fundraiser in Charlotte for the NC statewide judicial candidates. Erie Holder spoke. Excited that if we do it right, we can take back the NC Supreme Court in 2028!
I’m not from North Carolina and I don’t live there now, but that’s been one of my quiet “nerd arcs“ that I’ve been following for a couple of years now ever since I heard her first discuss her plan to try to reclaim it by 2028. That would really be a Lynch pin for free in the people of North Carolina from the tyranny republicans have gerrymandered them into. That will be among the most satisfying things for me to see, and I believe they will accomplish it. 😎👍
Here is what is so absurd. We defended one of our seats in 2024 (won by 700 votes out of 5 million!). Then the GOP tried to steal the election by negating 68,000 votes. We had to spend $3 million in court fights--- and won in federal court when a Trump-appointed Judge agreed with us!
Thanks for the update on the Strait of Hormuz. Yesterday, it was pretty clear Trump was bullshitting, but that makes the actual state of affairs just that much more unclear. I listened to Malcolm Nance in the morning yesterday and he said others have said (and it is clear this happens) that he tries in negotiations to lock the other side in by just claiming they agreed to things they hadn't. (Unfortunately Nance also got a few things related to nuclear physics and applications wrong. I also think Trump calls it "nuclear dust" because he has to maintain the fiction that somehow it was all obliterated into "dust". But it just makes him look like an idiot who can't keep anything straight.)
I just listened to Krugman interview Prof. Kim Lane Scheppele from Princeton on Hungary, and I improved my knowledge about what happened there by an order of magnitude. One thing that made it easier for Orban to turn Hungary into a competitive autocracy was that with a 2/3 majority you can change the Constitution. Magyar and Tisza should have enough to reverse much of what Orban did. It is much harder to amend the US Constitution, which is saving us from Trump right now.
I've also started listening to the book "Without Precedent" by Lisa Graves, who was also interviewed by Krugman a couple of weeks ago I think. This book details how the Roberts court is harming our democracy. So we have a Constitution but we have bad-faith actors in the Federalist Society who have captured our judicial system. I'm only through the first two chapters but it is worth listening to.
In yesterday's comments someone recommended a Heather Cox Richardson video but couldn't find the link. I don't know if this is the one, but this one is extremely relevant to our work, our progress and to the situation that led us to the dissatisfaction that led to Trumpism- the control of our democracy by corporate interests which lead to wealth disparity and concentration, and the frustration of the average citizen that the American dream is out of reach. When we talk about "affordability" I think this involves more than just prices. It is the feeling that the most basic needs in our lives are out of our control, that we have no say in how we live.
To paraphrase the Joni Mitchell song Big Yellow Taxi -"tear down Main St and put up a data center"
The old "work hard" trope is a bunch of bs. There are plenty of people working two jobs just to barely keep their noses above water. The big guys get bailed out every time there is a crisis, usually caused by them and the politicians they have supported, and the small business and the family farms get toasted (just another opportunity for their land and assets to get snapped up by private equity for fire sale prices.)
It has to end!
Tax rates are not enough of an answer to this problem. There have to be laws about ownership - that is, the concept of more than your fair share, too big to exist, and so on need to enter the picture. We talk about the four freedoms. Let's talk about freedom from want. One solution is for example SNAP, but that's not enough. Why are there so many people who can't afford groceries -- and I mean people who are employed!!!!
I'm sick of the GOP bs about "work requirements" For fuckssake, they don't want to tell you how many people who work at Walmart are on SNAP. This isn't a "free market." For most of us its an extortion market and that is why we want candidates who refuse corporate donations and who are ready to admit that what Reaganism really was is a declaration of class war against the Four Freedoms.
So what can the Democrats, when in power, actually do about this through the processes of democracy? HRC looks back to the last gilded age for one answer: a re-invigoration of anti-trust laws
Simon, firstly, thank you for this newsletter and secondly, to echo Arctic Stone’s sentiment, Ukraine is WINNING!!! We’re all at a precipice no doubt and can feel the tide shifting in our favor significantly in spite of the chaos at hand.
That said, and as per the link above, this is a brief clip of a recent interview with our great democracy warrior Governor Newsom when he went on Bill Maher’s show. I have a love/hate relationship with Maher and the clip started by quoting the sentiment of Senator Fetterman (who I also am having issues with frankly).
However, what Newsom says here about our party as a whole and how we navigate forward, I feel is rather spot on. While healthy on its face, the fractures we see existing between the progressive wing of the party to the left of center wing of the party to the center wing of the party is all very real and will obv need to be confronted in due time (even though the overarching pro democracy goals are keeping each wing connected thank God).
Maybe not today, but at some point when it best fits, I’d love to hear your take on Newsom’ comments and how we use his assertion to our advantage as we progress towards the midterms and more so, towards the 2028 Presidential election. Newsom is trying to build on something that President Obama, Harris, Pete B., Senator Mark Kelly, and Governor Shapiro all articulate and have had success with, laying out a roadmap to future wins…least in my view.
if you read the commentary by the left wing of the party, as i often see at places like dkos, you quickly learn that newsom is a frequent target of their ire. frankly, if it isn't bernie sanders or one of his endorsed candidates, they are not interested. otoh, in their view, momdani is the most brilliant, articulate mayor in the history of nyc, and if every dem would be like him, it would usher in a golden age of progressivism. now, i happen to think the mayor of nyc is a very talented politician and seems to be good at what he does; that said, he did not overwhelm with his election victory, which should have been a blowout for a democrat; i mean, he was running against two geezers, one a sex pest and the other a radio clown in a red beret who founded a fake paramilitary organization that staged vigilante acts. i mention this only because some on the far left have this notion that dems lose because our candidates aren't singing the international....they view spanberger and sherill, who blew the doors off with their wins, as too centrist, for example. so, there is no real pleasing that crowd, in my experience. if it is not gaza, it will be something else; someone wrote, where are all the campus protests against the war in iran? maybe we just aren't hearing about them?
I agree with much of this sentiment. However, we don’t want to risk writing too many off either (unless they’re extremist). Personally, I view Hasan Piker as an extremist and feel he doesn’t nor should he represent the majority of the party. While the progressive wing poses issues for us to confront, the key to winning elections does seem to be the left of center (Obama, Harris, Newsom, Kelly, Pete B, Shapiro, Spanberger, Sherrill) all of whom ARE progressive in their own way. There’s progressive as it relates to actual progress and then there’s ‘progressive.’ The self proclaimed social justice warrior but only when it matters to them. The right has these same extreme factions although they’re inherently far more dangerous. We want to do everything possible to ensure we don’t become ‘the problem’ MAGA has become. AOC falls somewhere in the middle cuz she is progressive but not ‘extremist.’ She seasons herself year to year and I think reads the tea leaves better than given credit for. That said, I prefer to see her in the senate first to gain more experience and more tangible traction over ‘popularity traction.’ Hopefully, the party will be sharp enough to embrace Harris back into the fold so that should she run again and perhaps not even achieve the nomination, we don’t write off her appeal when in fact, she could plausibly ascend to AG which would fit into the crux of her strength. Arguably, it’s what she should have been under Biden cuz God knows with her having ran the DOJ rather than Garland…we wouldn’t be HERE!!! Please Gov Newsom or Senator Kelly! Should either of you win, make her AG 🙏🙏🙏.
well, kelly is short and bald....newsom has great hair. i wish that shit didn't matter, but it does. the left also has issues with kelly. as for aoc, i never did buy that she was some flaming leftist; she seems like an fdr democrat to me. but the narrative works for the right wing; she's depicted as a wild eyed radical feminist, a brown one at that....i think she has actually done a good job of hanging back and learning the ropes. now, i'm a left of center guy, but i want to win. getting obama in for 8 years but surrendering the things we wanted because the right wing astro-turfed a tea party movement and made sure it was plastered all over the media and they cut off his ability to get more done, is very frustrating; then we see biden getting things done and getting no credit for it; paul krugman even said so recently! i was a young man for reagan's terms, but seeing the chart showing biden's turnaround of the economy and inflation almost mirroring exactly reagan's in 84...with reagan going on to blow the doors off,while polling showed biden was going to get creamed if he stayed in the race, has me scratching my effin head. we had a good president who accomplished a lot but had no media savvy, and now we are suffering because his last second replacement just could not overcome racism, sexism, and not being perfect. betcha she'd win today.....but the knives are out for her already, from all the usual places, in our own house...
Joanna Coles’ (Daily Beast) latest interview with psychologist Dr. John Gartner provides chilling insight into Trump’s disordered and dangerous behavior
"Our country is on an unsustainable path, and must change course."
Absolutely, but how? Since Trump's Easter Tweet followed 2 days later by his civilization obliteration tweet, it feels we have escalated into a new level of chaos.
I believe we must, and will, keep winning and overperforming in special elections and the midterms provided we keep working, but the new Congress won't be sworn in until more than 8 months from now.
Simon points to the cracks in the GOP congress, and we must do everything we can to pressure and widen those cracks until a handful break from the mad king to get Trump off the stage.
Right now the House will be 217-214 once Mejia is sworn in to take Mikie Sherrill's former seat. If Massie were to shift to independent and 2 House Members just gave up and resigned immediately, the gavel would shift to Hakeem Jeffries. I know last week I quoted the aphorism "If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, everyday would be Christmas." However, It's close.. it's plausible. And we must continue to resist, persist and apply pressure to the GOP.
My Rep is Jimmy Panetta, son of Leon. He was first elected in 2016, so he had an interesting freshman year starting off at the same time as Trump. He joined a group called the problem solvers caucus which is a bipartisan group that meets regularly to find common ground on legislation, mostly budget items, and they have worked deals on things like agriculture, internet law, etc. Since that Easter week escalation from Trump, I have been calling Jimmy's office and pleading with his staff to FIND SOME REPUBLICANS!!! to help usher Trump of the world stage. Vance is bad, and ridiculous and embarassing, but he is a step away from crazytown, which is primary. We're not there yet as they still haven't passed a War Powers Act, but every day Trump is more unpopular, the midterms are a day closer and the pressure on the GOP to break ranks will continue to grow.
We have to keep pushing. Hopiates in red places have more leverage than I do to push their MoCs. I know it must be tough to speak to the deaf-eared electeds, but persist, and be creative and know they are under enormous pressure. I loved the quote a couple weeks ago from Marcia in Iowa to her red MoCs; "Trump is insane, what's your excuse?"
Keep pushing, keep praying, keep persisting and resisting. Big cracks become a broken regime.
Maybe if we can convince Trump that pulling out of Iran and paying them reparations is the same thing as strategic bankruptcy, he’ll go along with it and let the world start recovering….. what a fuck up 🤬
I couldn't access it - still behind a paywall for me
Okay, thank you. I’ll try again.
Me too, they offer free 7 days, but won't show the article unless you sign up.
I’m sorry. Don’t know what happened. I just tried again, this time met the paywall. I’ll remove my post. Sorry about the inconvenience.
Thanks Hical, it was an honest effort.
I’m sorry. I met a paywall this time. Have no idea how I got in the first time. I will remove my post.
https://davidsalzillo.substack.com/p/let-me-get-this-strait
Thanks as always Simon for your hard work detailing the destruction of our Democracy and the hopeful signs if we stay united to fight Trump, Repubs and MAGAs. Your job and our lives are made even more insanely stressful by the words and actions of our very (un)stable genius.
UKRAINE – Good news!
. "Ukraine is slowing Russia and clawing back ground in key areas"
[George] Barros attributed Ukraine's gains to its "maturing in their operational planning." He said Ukraine was now "demonstrating a more sophisticated and a deeper capability for operational planning and for preparing the battlefield to set the condition for exploits and then executing those exploits."
Ukraine notably made its Delta system – an online battlespace management system that lets Ukraine view and share real-time battlefield data and make decisions – mandatory for all combat units.
That has helped a "maturation of command" that allows Ukraine to think beyond defeating the Russian forces immediately in front of it and also think "about the deeper depths of the battlefield and how do we degrade that," Barros said.
"So really, this maturation of the command is working." He said the Delta system is having effects. "These things take time, but it's happening. And these reforms are what are slowly but surely enabling some of these Ukrainian successes that we're seeing reported out on the day-to-day now."
Barros said that Ukraine has also been intensifying its intermediate-range strikes to hit Russia's positions and logistics that support its front-line forces. Doing that from late last year has been "degrading the Russian forces in the south," he said.
He said the progress Ukraine made across February and March had been months in the making, with planning starting in late 2025.
https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-is-slowing-russia-down-and-making-gains-warfare-experts-2026-4
Russia’s military was once considered the second best in the world. It has now become apparent that Russia’s military is the second best in Ukraine!
Volodomyr Zelenskyy recently visited a number of oil-producing countries in the Middle East, offering them Ukraine’s proven drone defense systems. Much to the embarrassment and irritation of Trump! This cost comparison reveals why:
– Iranian Shaheed drone: $50,000
– US Patriot missile: $2-3 million
– Ukrainian anti-Shaheed drone: $5,000
(Note: Don Jr and several of his corrupt associates are heavily invested in an American drone company. Which explains why Trump doesn’t want Ukraine offering a battlefield-proven and much-cheaper alternative to countries in dire need of such defense systems.)
Saw Anderson Clayton yesterday at a fundraiser in Charlotte for the NC statewide judicial candidates. Erie Holder spoke. Excited that if we do it right, we can take back the NC Supreme Court in 2028!
I’m not from North Carolina and I don’t live there now, but that’s been one of my quiet “nerd arcs“ that I’ve been following for a couple of years now ever since I heard her first discuss her plan to try to reclaim it by 2028. That would really be a Lynch pin for free in the people of North Carolina from the tyranny republicans have gerrymandered them into. That will be among the most satisfying things for me to see, and I believe they will accomplish it. 😎👍
Followng the good example of Wisconsin!
Here is what is so absurd. We defended one of our seats in 2024 (won by 700 votes out of 5 million!). Then the GOP tried to steal the election by negating 68,000 votes. We had to spend $3 million in court fights--- and won in federal court when a Trump-appointed Judge agreed with us!
The caption should read "Trump finally unveils his health plan."
Thank you for sharing. That is excellent news for Ukraine. Let's hope their Delta system stays strong!
Thanks for the update on the Strait of Hormuz. Yesterday, it was pretty clear Trump was bullshitting, but that makes the actual state of affairs just that much more unclear. I listened to Malcolm Nance in the morning yesterday and he said others have said (and it is clear this happens) that he tries in negotiations to lock the other side in by just claiming they agreed to things they hadn't. (Unfortunately Nance also got a few things related to nuclear physics and applications wrong. I also think Trump calls it "nuclear dust" because he has to maintain the fiction that somehow it was all obliterated into "dust". But it just makes him look like an idiot who can't keep anything straight.)
I just listened to Krugman interview Prof. Kim Lane Scheppele from Princeton on Hungary, and I improved my knowledge about what happened there by an order of magnitude. One thing that made it easier for Orban to turn Hungary into a competitive autocracy was that with a 2/3 majority you can change the Constitution. Magyar and Tisza should have enough to reverse much of what Orban did. It is much harder to amend the US Constitution, which is saving us from Trump right now.
I've also started listening to the book "Without Precedent" by Lisa Graves, who was also interviewed by Krugman a couple of weeks ago I think. This book details how the Roberts court is harming our democracy. So we have a Constitution but we have bad-faith actors in the Federalist Society who have captured our judicial system. I'm only through the first two chapters but it is worth listening to.
Yeah, Simon did an interview on Hopium--sometime last fall, I think--with Lisa Graves. Likely still available somewhere in the Hopium interview list.
I either missed the Lisa Graves interview or I forgot about it... Thanks for pointing that out. At any rate I was unaware of the book.
In yesterday's comments someone recommended a Heather Cox Richardson video but couldn't find the link. I don't know if this is the one, but this one is extremely relevant to our work, our progress and to the situation that led us to the dissatisfaction that led to Trumpism- the control of our democracy by corporate interests which lead to wealth disparity and concentration, and the frustration of the average citizen that the American dream is out of reach. When we talk about "affordability" I think this involves more than just prices. It is the feeling that the most basic needs in our lives are out of our control, that we have no say in how we live.
To paraphrase the Joni Mitchell song Big Yellow Taxi -"tear down Main St and put up a data center"
The old "work hard" trope is a bunch of bs. There are plenty of people working two jobs just to barely keep their noses above water. The big guys get bailed out every time there is a crisis, usually caused by them and the politicians they have supported, and the small business and the family farms get toasted (just another opportunity for their land and assets to get snapped up by private equity for fire sale prices.)
It has to end!
Tax rates are not enough of an answer to this problem. There have to be laws about ownership - that is, the concept of more than your fair share, too big to exist, and so on need to enter the picture. We talk about the four freedoms. Let's talk about freedom from want. One solution is for example SNAP, but that's not enough. Why are there so many people who can't afford groceries -- and I mean people who are employed!!!!
I'm sick of the GOP bs about "work requirements" For fuckssake, they don't want to tell you how many people who work at Walmart are on SNAP. This isn't a "free market." For most of us its an extortion market and that is why we want candidates who refuse corporate donations and who are ready to admit that what Reaganism really was is a declaration of class war against the Four Freedoms.
So what can the Democrats, when in power, actually do about this through the processes of democracy? HRC looks back to the last gilded age for one answer: a re-invigoration of anti-trust laws
https://youtu.be/edJU2rmoCTc?si=PlhUexjSosC8z0_v
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1B2SZQS1Jv/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Simon, firstly, thank you for this newsletter and secondly, to echo Arctic Stone’s sentiment, Ukraine is WINNING!!! We’re all at a precipice no doubt and can feel the tide shifting in our favor significantly in spite of the chaos at hand.
That said, and as per the link above, this is a brief clip of a recent interview with our great democracy warrior Governor Newsom when he went on Bill Maher’s show. I have a love/hate relationship with Maher and the clip started by quoting the sentiment of Senator Fetterman (who I also am having issues with frankly).
However, what Newsom says here about our party as a whole and how we navigate forward, I feel is rather spot on. While healthy on its face, the fractures we see existing between the progressive wing of the party to the left of center wing of the party to the center wing of the party is all very real and will obv need to be confronted in due time (even though the overarching pro democracy goals are keeping each wing connected thank God).
Maybe not today, but at some point when it best fits, I’d love to hear your take on Newsom’ comments and how we use his assertion to our advantage as we progress towards the midterms and more so, towards the 2028 Presidential election. Newsom is trying to build on something that President Obama, Harris, Pete B., Senator Mark Kelly, and Governor Shapiro all articulate and have had success with, laying out a roadmap to future wins…least in my view.
if you read the commentary by the left wing of the party, as i often see at places like dkos, you quickly learn that newsom is a frequent target of their ire. frankly, if it isn't bernie sanders or one of his endorsed candidates, they are not interested. otoh, in their view, momdani is the most brilliant, articulate mayor in the history of nyc, and if every dem would be like him, it would usher in a golden age of progressivism. now, i happen to think the mayor of nyc is a very talented politician and seems to be good at what he does; that said, he did not overwhelm with his election victory, which should have been a blowout for a democrat; i mean, he was running against two geezers, one a sex pest and the other a radio clown in a red beret who founded a fake paramilitary organization that staged vigilante acts. i mention this only because some on the far left have this notion that dems lose because our candidates aren't singing the international....they view spanberger and sherill, who blew the doors off with their wins, as too centrist, for example. so, there is no real pleasing that crowd, in my experience. if it is not gaza, it will be something else; someone wrote, where are all the campus protests against the war in iran? maybe we just aren't hearing about them?
I agree with much of this sentiment. However, we don’t want to risk writing too many off either (unless they’re extremist). Personally, I view Hasan Piker as an extremist and feel he doesn’t nor should he represent the majority of the party. While the progressive wing poses issues for us to confront, the key to winning elections does seem to be the left of center (Obama, Harris, Newsom, Kelly, Pete B, Shapiro, Spanberger, Sherrill) all of whom ARE progressive in their own way. There’s progressive as it relates to actual progress and then there’s ‘progressive.’ The self proclaimed social justice warrior but only when it matters to them. The right has these same extreme factions although they’re inherently far more dangerous. We want to do everything possible to ensure we don’t become ‘the problem’ MAGA has become. AOC falls somewhere in the middle cuz she is progressive but not ‘extremist.’ She seasons herself year to year and I think reads the tea leaves better than given credit for. That said, I prefer to see her in the senate first to gain more experience and more tangible traction over ‘popularity traction.’ Hopefully, the party will be sharp enough to embrace Harris back into the fold so that should she run again and perhaps not even achieve the nomination, we don’t write off her appeal when in fact, she could plausibly ascend to AG which would fit into the crux of her strength. Arguably, it’s what she should have been under Biden cuz God knows with her having ran the DOJ rather than Garland…we wouldn’t be HERE!!! Please Gov Newsom or Senator Kelly! Should either of you win, make her AG 🙏🙏🙏.
well, kelly is short and bald....newsom has great hair. i wish that shit didn't matter, but it does. the left also has issues with kelly. as for aoc, i never did buy that she was some flaming leftist; she seems like an fdr democrat to me. but the narrative works for the right wing; she's depicted as a wild eyed radical feminist, a brown one at that....i think she has actually done a good job of hanging back and learning the ropes. now, i'm a left of center guy, but i want to win. getting obama in for 8 years but surrendering the things we wanted because the right wing astro-turfed a tea party movement and made sure it was plastered all over the media and they cut off his ability to get more done, is very frustrating; then we see biden getting things done and getting no credit for it; paul krugman even said so recently! i was a young man for reagan's terms, but seeing the chart showing biden's turnaround of the economy and inflation almost mirroring exactly reagan's in 84...with reagan going on to blow the doors off,while polling showed biden was going to get creamed if he stayed in the race, has me scratching my effin head. we had a good president who accomplished a lot but had no media savvy, and now we are suffering because his last second replacement just could not overcome racism, sexism, and not being perfect. betcha she'd win today.....but the knives are out for her already, from all the usual places, in our own house...
Enjoy this from the WSJ!!! Republic nerves “fraying”….
https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/republican-nerves-are-fraying-ahead-of-midterm-elections-126ddffa?st=zKxRxg
Joanna Coles’ (Daily Beast) latest interview with psychologist Dr. John Gartner provides chilling insight into Trump’s disordered and dangerous behavior
California voters, check out KQED Scott Shafer’s interviews with post-Swalwell gubernatorial candidates.
"Our country is on an unsustainable path, and must change course."
Absolutely, but how? Since Trump's Easter Tweet followed 2 days later by his civilization obliteration tweet, it feels we have escalated into a new level of chaos.
I believe we must, and will, keep winning and overperforming in special elections and the midterms provided we keep working, but the new Congress won't be sworn in until more than 8 months from now.
Simon points to the cracks in the GOP congress, and we must do everything we can to pressure and widen those cracks until a handful break from the mad king to get Trump off the stage.
Right now the House will be 217-214 once Mejia is sworn in to take Mikie Sherrill's former seat. If Massie were to shift to independent and 2 House Members just gave up and resigned immediately, the gavel would shift to Hakeem Jeffries. I know last week I quoted the aphorism "If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, everyday would be Christmas." However, It's close.. it's plausible. And we must continue to resist, persist and apply pressure to the GOP.
My Rep is Jimmy Panetta, son of Leon. He was first elected in 2016, so he had an interesting freshman year starting off at the same time as Trump. He joined a group called the problem solvers caucus which is a bipartisan group that meets regularly to find common ground on legislation, mostly budget items, and they have worked deals on things like agriculture, internet law, etc. Since that Easter week escalation from Trump, I have been calling Jimmy's office and pleading with his staff to FIND SOME REPUBLICANS!!! to help usher Trump of the world stage. Vance is bad, and ridiculous and embarassing, but he is a step away from crazytown, which is primary. We're not there yet as they still haven't passed a War Powers Act, but every day Trump is more unpopular, the midterms are a day closer and the pressure on the GOP to break ranks will continue to grow.
We have to keep pushing. Hopiates in red places have more leverage than I do to push their MoCs. I know it must be tough to speak to the deaf-eared electeds, but persist, and be creative and know they are under enormous pressure. I loved the quote a couple weeks ago from Marcia in Iowa to her red MoCs; "Trump is insane, what's your excuse?"
Keep pushing, keep praying, keep persisting and resisting. Big cracks become a broken regime.
Maybe if we can convince Trump that pulling out of Iran and paying them reparations is the same thing as strategic bankruptcy, he’ll go along with it and let the world start recovering….. what a fuck up 🤬