The last time we looked at Ted Lieu's infrastructure legislation there were 33 co-sponsors. That was back at the end of May when he introduced it-- HCR 63-- "Supporting efforts to enact a bold jobs and infrastructure package that benefits all Americans, not just billionaires." Now there are 85 co-sponsors-- including, not just the progressives who backed Lieu's plan originally, but even some of the most reactionary Democrats in Congress.
As I sat down to write this post, the big headlines at Bannon's and Mercer's extreme right website were a series of attacks on Trump chief economic advisor Gary Cohn, Trump Chief of Staff
The new PPP survey has Congress' approval down at 9%. By a 49-35% margin, voters want to see Democrats win control of the House in 2018. On top of that, the Republican Speaker, Paul Ryan, has a job approval rating of just 16%-- with 62% of Americans disapproving of the way he's handling his job.
Dave Weigel had observed for the Washington Post hours before Paul Ryan's fake CNN town hall-- in reality a deceitful infomercial gifted to his campaign with pre-screened questions and a pre-selected audience by CNN-- that the staged event had "turned into a marketing opportunity for progressives. Randy Bryce, Ryan’s likely Democratic opponent in 2018, has purchased time for two 30-second spots that will run during the broadcast in the Republican’s district. The first spot is designed like the sort of question-from-voters videos that are often used at town halls.
So... as we discussed over the weekend, the DCCC and the Beltway consultants are telling their client candidates in tough primaries to just lie about healthcare. They tell the conservatives they back that the words "Medicare for all" don't really mean anything and that it's OK to use them as long as they don't get tied down in a pledge to sign onto John Conyers' H.R. 676, the actual very specific Medicare-For-All bill.
New NBC News/Marist polls of registered voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin caused a stir when they were released yesterday. Mark Murray reported that Señor Trumpanzee's job approval ratings in the 3 key Midwestern states are in the mid-30s.
Trump is fighting with Republicans again. He's all but endorsed one of the right-wing lunatics primarying Jeff Flake (R-AZ)-- and is expected to explicitly do so when he travels to Phoenix to pardon Joe Arpaio this weekend.
Yesterday we noted that Randy Bryce is calling on Paul Ryan to lead the House in censuring Trump for his pro-Nazi, pro-KKK remarks.
Mess of Indiana conservatismBefore we get into the Indiana Senate race, there's some breaking news I want to share. Randy Bryce, the progressive Democrat and iron worker running for the southeast Wisconsin congressional seat occupied by Paul Ryan just moments ago issued a statementcalling on Ryan to initiate censure proceedings in the House against Trump for his divisive 'both sides' comments.
The Last Supper by Nancy OhanianIf you've never heard of it before, Trump's Manufacturing Jobs Initiative council has come into the public eye in the last couple of days-- and for all the wrong reasons. He established the council in January to informally advice him on job creation issues.
