2016 congressional races

When Le Trumpanzee started snarling about how the debates, the fire marshalls, the polls and the elections may be fixed, he may not have had in mind the reports that "senior RNC" members are now actively exploring how to replace him on the ballot.

This morning, New York's Richard Hanna became the first Republican congressman to publicly announce he's actually voting for Hillary Clinton, telling his constituents that Trump is "unfit to serve our party and cannot lead this country." It's politically safe for him; he's retiring in January.

At one point Trump was sending out feelings to see if Mark Cuban, an actual self-made billionaire, would run with him. Cuban laughed at the prospect and this weekend endorsed Hillary in Pittsburgh, his hometown, mentioning along the way that Trump has gone batshit crazy.

Blue America endorsed Bill Ostrander in the 9 person race for the Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo CA-24 congressional seat. He ran a strong issues-oriented campaign, very much in line with Bernie's political revolution, to which he ascribed. He wasn't left standing on election night and voters in the 24th will have to pick between a garden variety careerist Democrat or a corruption-tainted GOP extremist.

You think Trump is a traitor because he called on Russia to hack U.S. government and non-government agencies to find the Secretary of State's e-mails? Sounds like he might be too. But Members of Congress who vote for TPP absolutely are. Turning American justice and sovereignty over to international corporate tribunals-- ISDS (Investor-state dispute settlement)-- is out-of-the question for most Americans, grassroots Democrats, independents and Republicans.

The Trumpist catastrophe in Cleveland last week tee-ed up the perfect beginning for a united Democratic Party convention in Philly today. But the "United Together" theme some marketing consultant got paid so much to come up with, turned into "United Apart," complements of Debbie the Destroyer. And instead, the first images on national television were of Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz being boo-ed off the stage at a Florida delegates meeting. And people wondering about Clinton's leadership abilities...

Many people are celebrating that Wasserman Schultz was finally given the heave-ho as DNC chair a few minutes ago, but that doesn't mean the job is done. She was causing great harm to Democratic Party values long before she was elevated to that post and unless she's thrown out of Congress by Broward and Miami-Dade Democratic voters on August 30, she will continue doing exactly that into the foreseeable future.

Indiana's somewhat senile retiring lobbyist-turned-senator, Dan Coates, called Ted Cruz "a wrecking ball" yesterday and added gratuitously that "he's the most self-centered, narcissistic, pathological liar I’ve ever seen." He went on to accuse Cruz of trying to hurt the Republican Party.

Thursday the House had 13 roll call votes. As usual, an array of Blue Dogs and New Dems crossed the aisle to vote with the GOP on them. 10 of the 13 roll calls were concerned with passing a Department of the Interior appropriations bill.

Suggested reading for Cliven Bundy's pet congressmanIn his seminal book, The Progressive Revolution: How The Best In America Came To Be, Mike Lux listed some of the achievements of the progressive movement in this country, achievements that often took years of struggle against conservative forces doggedly serving the interests of great wealth and entren