Heidi Sloan

Socialism-- of the Scandinavian variety-- was once very popular in Montana, particularly among miners. Montanans were voting for the Socialist Party candidate for president, Eugene Debs, almost doubt the rate of the U.S. in general and in 1917 Butte elected a Socialist Party mayor. That all eroded with the infamous Anaconda Road Massacre-- a corporate/fascist  response to the Industrial Workers of the World and the Metal Mine Workers Industrial Union strike in 1920.

This story has a happy ending-- but it didn't always seem like it would while Kate Aronoff was writing it in real time last week in Austin. The big Texas AFL-CIO convention was considering which candidates to endorse for November.

Trump has demanded his congressional puppets start endorsing him during the impeachment trial. The optics may seem good for him, but they look dreadful for the Republican incumbents who are falling in line.

Before running for Congress to replace Rep. McCaul in TX-10, Mike Siegel was best known in Texas as the lead lawyer for the City of Austin in the statewide legal battle over Texas Senate Bill 4, a "show me your papers" anti-immigrant law passed after Trump took office in 2017.

If I were Status Quo Joe, I'd be embarrassed to admit I was endorsed by California New Dem Ami Bera, a member of Congress so toxic that the California Democratic Party decided to not back him for reelection. After all, caught in an illegal campaign finance scheme, he let his elderly father take the rap and go to prison in his place! In fact, when you go through the list of members who've endorsed Biden, most are embarrassing-- Blue Dogs and New Dems from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

The Trumpists were whooping it up after the assassinations at the Baghdad Airport.

About 3 weeks ago, independent polling firm SSRS did a survey of Texas voters for CNN. Texas isn’t a blue state but it will be part of Super Tuesday on March 3, so-- like California-- will play an outsized role in determining who the Democratic nominee will be. The horse race question elicited these results:

What Blows Up Must Come Down by Nancy OhanianKeeping drug prices high has paid off well for conservatives.

If you’ve been reading DWT with even the slightest regularity, you probably know what a big fan of Medicare I am. I feared it when I was in my late 50s because I had what I thought was perfect private insurance, a platinum plan that AOL-TimeWarner gave to divisional chairmen and presidents. But once I retired and turned 65, I had to move to Medicare-- and just as I was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer.

These people all belong in prison-- but only because no one would ever agree their crimes are capital offensesDick Gephardt’s dream was to be President or Speaker of the House or very wealthy; he never made it beyond majority leader, but he sure did become very wealthy, selling access to his friends in office to the highest bidders. Now he’s one of the nation's most contemptible Goldman Sachs and PhRMA lobbyist scumbags.