Trump hates when he's exposed as a loser-- as he often has been-- and the release yesterday on a new Monmouth poll showing his campaign taking a backseat to the other fascist candidate in the race. Trump slipped from 23% in August down to 19% in December. Meanwhile, Cruz's support has grown in the same period from 9% to 24%.
Earlier we mentioned that the House voted to authorize unconstitutional domestic spying on American citizens yesterday. The day didn't get any better. Next up was the crackpot Republican bill to overturn the EPA's climate change regulations for power plants.
Alas, not enough restrictions to make it worth voting forYesterday, the House voted overwhelmingly to give NSA the right to unconstitutionally spy on American citizens. The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 (H.R. 4127) passed 364-58, majorities in both parties voting to sell us down the river. Only 36 Democrats and 22 Republicans stood firm for the American people toward.
This has been quite the year for me. Last October I was diagnosed with a rare but treatable form of cancer, Mantle Cell Lymphoma. Lucky for me I found an amazing doctor who's one of the specialists in this disease and she fought it, apparently successfully.While she fought that, I did my best to survive the treatment, treatment that was incredibly intense, in some ways the worst thing I had ever experienced in my life.
Tuesday night had some special significance for Asian-Americans. Philadelphians didn't just elect their first Asian-American woman to the City Council, they gave public education advocate Helen Gym the highest vote of the 7 at-large victors. I expect that in a few years she will be on the national stage.
If you're a regular DWT reader, you probably already know I turned into a virtual papist when Francis became Pope. If I thought future popes would be like him instead of like the guy he replaced, I'd probably seriously consider converting to Catholicism.
I had a very painful call last night from one of my favorite congressmen, die-hard, serious, thoughtful progressive Ted Lieu (CA-33-- Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Malibu, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Venice). It was a tough decision, he told me, but he had decided to vote against the Iran deal. I know what kind of response he's going to get from his base. I was certain he was going to vote for it, so I wasn't prepared for his decision.
Chances are you've gotten Labor Day messages from politicians all day today. Even Democrats who devote their entire careers to super-serving the interests of Wall Street, like Florida New Dem Patrick Murphy (a member of the House Financial Services Committee, where no Republican ever outdoes him in his commitment to fellating the banksters), felt obligated to make some noises about the dignity of labor.
The last thing the Republican Party Establishment wanted was a raucous racist primary that highlights the disdain with which Republican candidates view minorities. But the party's angry, confused base had their own ideas-- and plenty of power-mad candidates to pander to them, one of whom is a celebrity TV reality star who knows how to command an audience and daily headlines.It doesn't matter what Reince Priebus wants, or what the GOP's 2012 autopsy mandated, or even-- perhaps (we'll see)-- what the billionaire insurgent Koch family wants.
Grayson and Lieu, relentless warriors for peace and justiceSo Obama has authorized bombing strikes in Syria-- and they started, from Turkish airbases, this week. He's bombing a sovereign country, and not just without congressional approval. He's doing it after Congress slapped him over that in 2013. This is from a letter Alan Grayson wrote to his constituents in Florida in September 2013:
