On Wednesday Ro Khanna was one of the congressional progressives-- Ted Lieu was another-- happy to see Trump announce he was withdrawing American troops from Syria. Ted: "I strongly agree with the President’s decision to withdraw US troops from Syria. Congress never authorized the US to go to war in Syria.
Few Americans have ever heard of the newly elected members of Congress, especially not the ones being touted as consequential by the establishment media. But...
It should be a given by now that when Trump wholesale "borrowed" all Bernie’s populist talking points-- albeit with nothing whatsoever behind them-- about cutting the prices of pharmaceuticals, he was just talking out of his ass. Trump will never force the drug manufacturers to bring prices of drugs down to the levels they are in other countries.
by Reese ErlichI’m on a low-budget book tour, sleeping in spare bedrooms and munching granola in the kitchens of progressives all along the East Coast. Many had felt beaten down and pessimistic from two years of Trumpism. But I now sense some optimism and a renewed fighting spirit.Just look at the surprising battle in the Senate over US participation in the Yemen War. On Nov.
In 1969 I was in Istanbul, living in my VW camper and on my way to India. Istanbul was so exotic, a city of around two and a half million people. And the Sultanahmet district was seedy with a distinct air of danger. Middle class Turks mostly avoided it and, despite having the 4 top tourist destinations in the city-- Hagia Sofia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace and the Grand Bazaar. But back in those days, Istanbul wasn't much of a tourist destination.
No one except Trump's most ardent, die-hard fans ever believed U.S. troops on the southern border were anything more than a prop in Trump's shit show of a midterm campaign. Now he's running around-- with almost 40 less supporters in Congress-- clucking like a blind duck how his name wasn't on the ballot so that all those losses were anyone's fault but his own.
A Step Backward by Nancy OhanianWednesday evening, by a vote of 201-187, the House voted to make sure Saudi war crimes against Yemen would continue unabated— and with U.S. support. House Democrats, primarily led by Ted Lieu and Ro Khanna, have been working to end the slaughter in Yemen since Obama was still in office.
Last year, in a special election to replace Tom Price-- who Trump had named to his cabinet (and soon fired him once it became public he was as crooked as almost everyone else in the cabinet)-- Republican Karen Handel beat Democrat Jon Ossoff 134,799 (51.8%) to 125,517 (48.2%) in the R+8 suburban Atlanta district where Trump had only defeated Hillary 48.3-46.8%.
