Possibly lost in the âTerrorist Antifa Momsâ news out of Portland last week was the thought that we continually say things like this:
Another new low for Trump.
How dare he?
Trump flaunts the Constitution.
In the past, other presidents have used governmental authority for political ends, but no other president has used a combination of the FBI/DHS/ATF and private mercenaries to literally beat down our First Amendment rights. Whoâs stepping forward to stop him?
Without a principled Congress, nothing will stop him. The Republican Party steadfastly remains unshocked by his behavior. The Democratic Party can hold all the hearings it wants. It will never make a dent in Trumpâs behavior. The current national dumpster fire is 100% owned by the GOP.
From Trumpâs perspective, heâs doing exactly what heâs certain that he can get away with as President. Heâs moved the goalposts, because our system wasnât designed to hold back a President without principles. On to cartoons.
Protection of your Constitutional rights is now in the hands of Portlandâs mothers:
Hereâs the true cognitive test for Americans:
Whoâs behind these secret police masks?
Do Americans understand how close we are to Trump declaring Martial Law?
Delaware Water Gap, NJ – 2020 photo by Craig Conklin
OK, Wrongo was wrong, again. He said on Saturday that changing the name of the Dixie Chicks to the Chicks wasnât going to do anything for them. Wrongo ignored the power of a great protest song, and what it can do for your career.
And the Chicks have such a protest song in the just-released âMarch Marchâ which is featured below.
But first, a few words about the mostly-forgotten Dixie Chicks. They were country, but not the faux patriotic kind. Their name came from the song by Little Feat, âDixie Chickenâ. If youâve never heard it, youâre in for a treat, so listen at the link above.
Despite the name, they were pretty progressive in their music and lyrics. And they got in trouble for it in the Bush II administration. From Wikipedia: (brackets by Wrongo)
âOn March 10, 2003, nine days before the invasion of Iraq, the Dixie Chicks performed…in London, England. It was the first concert of their Top of the World tour in support of their sixth album, Home. Introducing their song âTravelinâ Soldierâ, [Natalie] Maines told the audience the band did not support the upcoming Allied invasion of Iraq and were âashamedâ that President George W. Bush was from Texas.
Many American country music listeners supported the war, and Mainesâs remark triggered a backlash in the United States. The Dixie Chicks were blacklisted by thousands of country radio stations, and the band members received death threats…â
This was a huge deal back then. The entire country music industry ostracized them. At roughly the same time as the Chicks were blacklisted, the House GOP pushed to rename french fries and french toast in their cafeteria to âfreedom friesâ and âfreedom toastâ. Freedumb!
But the Chicks were correct. It wasnât simply the Iraq war, it was illegal torture, the rise of the unitary executive, the attacks on free speech, and the destruction of the Iraqi state, and how that destabilized the Middle East. The Dixie Chicks’ protest grew to include all of that.
Looking back, Nashville didnât have a clue about how to respond after 9/11. In their simplistic view, we had WWII, a story about the good guys vs. the bad guys. We also had Vietnamâs multiple shades of gray. But from a marketing perspective, and based on their collective ideology, Nashville wanted Bushâs Iraq war to be perceived at the WWII end of the spectrum.
In retrospect, the Chicks were a lot closer to where most of America was on the Iraq war than their Nashville gatekeepers. If you have any doubts about their political bona fides, listen to their anti-Vietnam song, Travelinâ Soldier, written by Bruce Robison in 1996.
So onward to the Chicks’ new song. Watch it full screen, itâs worth it.
This is protest music at its best. There have been protest songs all along, but the last time they were truly relevant was in 1970, with the CSNY song âOhioâ memorializing the Kent State shootings.
In 2020, itâs taken a pandemic, a maliciously negligent government, and disgusting abuses of authority to maybe slap us wide awake. Time to wake up America! Listen to the Chicks do âMarch Marchâ:
Full Lyrics:
 [Chorus]
March, march to my own drum
March, march to my own drum
Hey, hey, Iâm an army of one
Oh, Iâm an army of one
March, march to my own drum
March, march to my own drum
Hey, hey, Iâm an army of one
Oh, Iâm an army of one
[Verse 1]
Brendaâs packinâ heat âcause she donât like Mondays
Underpaid teacher policinâ the hallways
Print yourself a weapon and take it to the gun range
(Ah, cut the shit, you ainât goinâ to the gun range)
Standinâ with Emma and our sons and daughters
Watchinâ our youth have to solve our problems
Iâll follow them, so whoâs cominâ with me?
(Half of you love me, half already hate me)
[Chorus]
[Verse 2]
Tell the olâ boys in the white bread lobby
What they can and canât do with their bodies
Temperatures are risinâ, cities are sinkinâ
(Ah, cut the shit, you know your city is sinkinâ)
Lies are truth and truth is fiction
Everybodyâs talkinâ, whoâs gonna listen?
What the hell happened in Helsinki?
[Chorus]
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Fall sunrise at Crystal Lake, near Ouray, CO â photo by Ryan Wright
Wrongo is now certain that 2020 is the worst year for America since 1968. Why? We have had riots in 140 cities. 40 million are unemployed, and the Death rate from COVID-19 has reached 106,003. Hereâs a map of where protests have occurred in the past few days:
We have a national problem of civil disobedience leading to rioting and looting. Note the number of states (in yellow) that have already activated the National Guard. We should assume that the number of cities with protests will probably grow.
Letâs talk briefly about policing in America. After the Ferguson uprising in 2014, we were astonished at the militarization of the police. We also started paying closer attention to the number of police killings in the US, but since there was no central database, independent groups started to compile them.
Cities and towns introduced new policies designed to reduce police violence, starting with police wearing body cameras. But according to the Police Shootings Database, police in America killed more people in the US in 2019 than in 2015, and the number has risen every year since 2017.
If police killings are increasing despite widespread public attention and local reform efforts, shouldnât we be asking why?
Minneapolis, like most other cities, has a civilian review board, but it didnât prevent Chauvin from killing George Floyd. In fact, the review board had failed to impose consequences for any of the eighteen previous complaints made against Chauvin. This shows how little these review boards are doing to change behavior.
Can change happen through the ballot box? Minneapolis implies that voting isnât enough: Minneapolis has a progressive mayor and a city council composed entirely of Democrats and Green Party members. But it doesnât prevent out-of-control racist cops from killing people. The glue holding this broken system together is police unions.
Loomis specializes in labor unions and labor issues. He says that it is in the publicâs interest to force the police unions to give up the blank check for violence that they currently have. The two concepts that should be written out of the union contracts are arbitration in discipline cases, and qualified immunity. Qualified immunity is a concept in federal law that offers government officials immunity from harms caused by actions they perform as part of their official duties.
Because of qualified immunity, police act like the laws don’t apply to them. This is a legal obstacle blessed by the Supreme Court that’s nearly impossible to overcome when the police violate our Constitutional or civil rights.
Despite that, blanket immunity shouldnât absolve cops of responsibility for violence. Since they are state actors, the burden of proof should be on them to prove their violence was justified, not the other way around.
In many cases, the police unions are also run by bad people. In Chicago, the police union just elected as president a cop who has been reprimanded several times and is currently stripped of his police powers.
Minneapolis’s police union has a hard line and controversial president, Bob Kroll, who said that George Floyd had a âviolent criminal historyâ and that the demonstrations were part of a âterrorist movement.â
Minnesota AG Keith Ellison blasted Kroll on âFox News Sundayâ:
â…he operates as sort of an alternative chief who, I think, undermines good order in the department.â
These are the kinds of people that rank and file police all across America want protecting them. That shows something about the true character of the rank and file.
Cities should pull the records of every cop with a double digit number of excessive force complaints and fire them. Force the unions to sue and then litigate it every step of the way. Make them defend the indefensible.
America needs stronger mayors, town councils and district attorneys who can be for âlaw and orderâ and also for protecting the rights of citizens who are swept up by day-to-day policing. We can have stronger public servants by voting them in.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms says just that in this video, which everyone can see here:
As an aside, Mayor Bottoms looks to Wrongo like an excellent choice for the Democratic VP.
Happy May Day! Look on the bright side: Halloween is 184 days away, and everybody already has their masks.
Joe Biden is the likely Democratic presidential nominee, and heâs carrying the hopes of many Americans that the Trump era will be just a single term. There are many hurdles for Biden to overcome on his way to winning the presidency, and a new one has emerged from an old story.
Tara Reade, a former Biden aide has accused him of sexually assaulting her in 1993. That story had been reported many times without really touching Biden politically, largely because the media was skeptical of Readeâs story when she came forward initially.
Recently, she changed her story from a creepy sexual harassment to sexual assault. And we now find out that she may have told others of the more serious allegation 25 years ago. That puts her story in a very different light.
Business Insider reported that two sources came forward to corroborate details about Reade’s new claims. One, a former neighbor of Reade’s, says that Reade disclosed corroborating details to her about the alleged assault in the mid-1990s, possibly one-to-two years after it happened.
Dealing with this sort of accusation when weâre focused on the political rather than the legal consequences, is tricky. People point to the Brett Kavanaugh nomination hearing and say that Kavanaugh and Biden are in the same boat. The WaPo says that at the time, Biden insisted that Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault:
â…should be given the benefit of the doubt…for a woman to come forward in the glaring lights of focus, nationally, youâve got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what sheâs talking about is real, whether or not she forgets facts.â
The HuffPo reports that Tarana Burke, a founder of the Me Too movement in 2007, thinks that Readeâs accusations against Biden are being felt differently because of the stakes in the 2020 election, which will feature two men in powerful positions who have both been accused of sexual assault.
Burke has suggested that Biden could be both âaccountable and electableâ for Democrats in 2020:
âThe defense of Joe Biden shouldnât rest on whether or not heâs a âgood guyâ or âour only hope.â Instead, he could demonstrate what it looks like to be both accountable and electable…â
Standards for evaluating evidence in the context of a job interview should be different than standards for evaluating evidence in a legal proceeding, or in a criminal trial.
Nobody has a right to become president of the US, or to be on the Supreme Court. If you think thereâs a reasonable chance that Readeâs sexual assault allegation is true, itâs perfectly appropriate to take your estimate of that probability into account when deciding whether to support Biden or not.
Wrongo thinks that it would be better for the country if Biden replaces Trump. Thatâs true for Wrongo even if he assumes Readeâs allegation is 100% accurate.
So what should Biden do? He has to put this behind him. He should say he believes her, even if he has no memory of the event. And he should earnestly apologize.
Fess up and move on.
Republicans know that dividing the left radically improves their chances in November. They can see how easily the Demsâ laudable virtue of âbelieve all womenâ could be weaponized.
One thing an apology will do is make it easier for Biden to select a woman VP, as he has promised to do. Bidenâs shaky past behavior around women will also be a part of the oppositionâs message in the fall. He has worked to overcome some of that over the years by co-sponsoring Clintonâs Violence Against Woman Act. He has improved his views on both abortion and the Hyde Amendment, and he’s sort of apologized to Anita Hill.
Whichever woman Biden chooses will be forced to answer questions (probably endlessly) about Bidenâs treatment of women, including the allegations of assault by Tara Reade. His VP choice may become the leader of the Democratic Party in four years, and the only way to inoculate the VP nominee against this is a full Biden apology.
Will a heartfelt apology hurt Biden? Certainly with some progressive voters. But even those whose only issue is a principled stand against sexual assault, will have to choose between Biden and Trump. If they do so based only on which man has sexually assaulted fewer women, itâs likely that Biden would be their choice.
This isnât the choice Wrongo had hoped for, but itâs the choice we have.
View from the top of Mt. Baden Powell in the Los Angeles National Forest â February 2020 photo by David Dodd
(Sunday cartoons will appear on Monday)
Is the game of investigating Trump over? What are the arguments for continuing to pick at this wound? This is a political calculation only. It no longer matters who said what in Ukraine, regardless of the damage caused by Trump. That ship has sailed.
Itâs time to focus on the 2020 election, particularly on the House and Senate races. Focusing on winning those elections, and particularly on holding the House while winning a majority in the Senate, requires that the Democratic Party deal with its current schism. The Party is messily divided between social liberals who are for reform of capitalism along with Medicare for All, and free college, and moderates who wish to tack back towards the middle of the road.
The question that Democrats have to deal with is which of these two poles can make it a majoritarian party in 2020 and beyond?
This dilemma faced the Republicans only a short time ago, when the Tea Party threatened to split the GOP in two. Those cracks remained evident until Trump came along and united them in a way that today makes them seem more like a cult than a political party.
In some ways, Democrats are like the American Whig party was in the early 1850âs, when it could no longer bridge the gap between the Whigs of the northern industrial states and the Whigs of the southern farming/slavery states. It was an irreconcilable dilemma, and in short order, the party simply ceased to exist, only to re-emerge as the Republican Party in 1856.
The Democrats have been trending this way since LBJ forced southern Democrats to vote for/against the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Later, the formation of the Democratic Leadership Council in 1985, founded in part by Bill Clinton, pushed the Democrats rightward.
The “Left Party” that is trying to emerge from the current shambles of the Democratic Party could be more properly defined as a reactionary movement. An attempt to return to the days of the New Deal and the rise of the middle class.
In that sense, Wrongo is a New Deal Reactionary. The New Deal was a good deal for most of us. We should want our New Deal back again.
The question on the table is: Which half of the divided Democratic Party should New Deal Reactionaries support? Is it the Sanders/Warren half, or the Biden/Bloomberg/Buttigieg half of the Party? If itâs Sanders, can we get a New Deal Revival, but no Recreational Socialism to go along with that?
Can the moderate/ConservaDems realistically be counted on to bring back the New Deal? We see that ConservaDems are willing to strap on their running shoes and do 3 miles in the morning, because âno pain no gainâ. But somehow, once at work in the House or Senate, they claim that the hardship doesnât make sense economically, so why even try?
The answers to these twin questions: Whether the Party can be re-united similar to the way Trump united the GOP, and which half of the Party should attempt that unification in November 2020, will determine the arc of our democracy for decades to come.
It was a terrible week, and now we need a break from âall acquittal, all the timeâ. That means itâs time for our Saturday Soother, a brief window when we can forget about the outside world and concentrate on breathing slowly and relaxing mind and body.
Letâs start by brewing up a vente cup of El Salvador Finca el Cerro Natural ($22.99/12oz.). The roaster, Virginiaâs Red Rooster Coffee says it tastes of strawberry and tangerine zest with a viscous mouthfeel.
Now, grab a seat by the fire and listen to Anna Netrebko perform âSolveig’s Songâ from Peer Gyntâs Suite No.2, live with the Prague Philharmonia conducted by Emmanuel Villaume in 2008:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Will Hurd is the third Texas Republican in the past two weeks to decide to spend more time with their families, and is the sixth incumbent GOP member of the House to go. He is the only black Republican member of the House of Representatives. Could this be why?
Itâs not that surprising Hurd wants to step down; he barely beat Democrat Gina Ortiz-Jones in the 2018 midterm election, winning by less than 1,000 votes. Ortiz-Jones is running again, and has been out-fundraising Hurd.
Wrongo gave money to Ortiz-Jones last time, and will again. She joined the US Air Force as an intelligence officer and deployed to Iraq in the Bush administration. After three years of active duty, she returned to Texas in 2006, working for a consulting company while caring for her mother, who had colon cancer (from which she later recovered).
Ortiz-Jones then returned to working as an intelligence analyst for the US Africa Command in Germany. In 2008, she joined the Defense Intelligence Agency, where she specialized in Latin America. In November 2016, she moved to the Executive Office of the President (Barack Obama) to serve under the US Trade Representative. Having served under presidents of both parties, Ortiz-Jones continued in her role during the Trump administration until June 2017, when she left.
Until 2016, there were always people like Will Hurd in the GOP. And before Trump came along, it was easy to get way more than four votes from Republicans in the House of Representatives to condemn a politicianâs racist comment.
Pulling out for a view from 50,000 feet, thereâs now an energized segment of America that are virulently hard core right wing. They are driven by a steady flow of lies and disinformation, and they wonât disappear or even move underground assuming Trump loses in 2020. Democrats will have to win real solid majorities in both Houses if there is to be effective government in DC, And they may be able to turn a few more Texas Congressional seats blue. Ortiz-Jones deserves your attention.
The debates are over until September, but this isnât what weâll see when they resume:
One goal among many:
This is exactly how the media and the GOP view the Dems:
Sunrise, Castle Reef, Montana â July 2019 photo by xzzy. Not to be confused with Capitol Reef NP, in Utah.
Yesterday, Wrongo showed an analysis of possible voter turnout by gender and age, and the implications for 2020. Overnight, a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll shows how it may be possible to craft policies that appeal to those groups, among others.
The poll was conducted from July 15 to 17, after the president’s tweets about the four Democratic congresswomen. It surveyed 1,336 adults largely (68%) by mobile phone, and has a margin of error of ±3.5%.
Some of the top line results: By a 53%-to-39% margin, Americans said they would definitely vote against Trump. That compares with the 54% of American voters who actually didnât vote for Trump in 2016, an insufficient number to win the Electoral College. Trump did better among independents. A third of which said they would definitely vote for him, while 54% say they definitely won’t.
But, letâs focus on a few topics that had majority female support. Overall, 59% of women disapproved of the job that Trump is doing, compared to 52% of all respondents. And 62% of women said they would âdefinitely not vote for himâ, substantially higher than the pollâs average.
All isnât roses for the Democrats with women. When asked âdo you think the ideas being offered by the Democratic candidates running for president would generally move the country in the right/wrong direction?â Women only gave the Democrats a 52% âright directionâ tilt. Overall, Americans split 46%-to-43% on whether Democrats would take the country in the right or wrong direction, within the margin of error in the poll. Much of that may be due to unpopular policies offered by the current crop of candidates.
Hereâs a list of the most popular policy proposals by Democrats:
89% say requiring background checks for gun purchases or private sales is a good idea
70% support offering Medicare for all as an option alongside private health insurance
67% are in favor of regulating prescription drug prices
64% are for a pathway to citizenship for immigrants in the US illegally
63% support legalizing marijuana
62% favor Increasing taxes on those making more than $1 million
57% are for banning assault-style weapons
56% support raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour
There are a few issues that are very unpopular, even with Democrats:
26% are for a guaranteed universal basic income of $1,000 per month
27% favor providing reparations for slavery
27% support decriminalizing illegal border crossings
33% support offering health insurance to illegal immigrants
41% are in favor of doing away completely with private health insurance
People are split on giving free college tuition at public colleges and universities (53% said itâs a good idea, 43% said itâs a bad idea.
Overall, independents said they were not impressed with the direction either President Trump or Democrats want to take the country at this point. Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion at Marist College, said:
“They’re not willing to grant President Trump reelection, and yet they’re not persuaded by Democrats at this point.”
Showing that Democrats are not truly happy with their choices for president, 82% of Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents say they have not yet made up their mind on who to support in the Democratic primary. A majority (54%) say they want a nominee who can beat Trump, rather than one who shares their position on most issues (42%). That’s up 13 points from last month when 47% said they wanted someone who shared their position on most issues versus 46% who said they wanted someone who has the best chance of beating Trump.
Turning to the other side, Trumpâs primary support comes from white males, Gen X (ages 39-54) and evangelicals. When asked if they would definitely vote for Trump in 2020, 66% of evangelicals, 51% of Gen X and 47% of white males said yes. Thatâs quite the weird coalition.
BTW, just 23% of Gen Z/Millennials (ages 18-38) said they are definitely voting for Trump.
As we said yesterday, Democrats have a chance to present a set of policies that will appeal to women and the youngest voters, in addition to their base. The field of 20+ has certainly reviewed the NPR/Marist Poll results at this point. Maybe a few are rethinking their stance on eliminating private insurance, or offering insurance to illegal immigrants.
Itâs still early, and this poll is just another snapshot. The true picture will emerge in a few months.
Going to the Sun Road, Glacier NP â 2016 photo by Wrongo
Megan Rapinoe, after the Womenâs Soccer Team ticker tape parade in NYC on Wednesday:
“This is my charge to everyone: We have to be better. We have to love more. Hate less. We got to listen more and talk less….It’s our responsibility to make the world a better place.” https://t.co/7LJHPDVRm9pic.twitter.com/5s5OuS4Gsx
America knows by now that Megan Rapinoe is the outspoken co-captain of the USA Womenâs Soccer team. She was the high scorer in the Womenâs teamâs march to their fourth World Cup victory. Sheâs also the person who said earlier in the tournament that she would not visit the White House if Trump extended an invitation.
Trump responded by criticizing Rapinoe on Twitter. He later congratulated the team on their win, but also vacillated on whether the team would be asked to visit. On Monday, Rapinoe said the team would visit Congress, but not the White House, even if Trump asked.
On Tuesday, Public Policy Polling conducted a poll about âMegan Rapinoe vs. Donald Trump, 2020â. It said:
âWe found that Rapinoe gets 42% to 41% for Trump.â
The new poll numbers are humorous, if not dispositive. After all, sheâs not running for president. But she has some of the leadership concepts down:
When asked by CNNâs Anderson Cooper what she would say to Trump, Rapinoe looked into the camera and said, âYour message is excluding people. Youâre excluding me, youâre excluding people that look like me, youâre excluding people of color, and youâre excluding Americans that maybe support you.â
Rapinoe is openly gay. Sheâs advocating for equal pay for equal work for women. Like AOC, sheâs Trumpâs equal on twitter. The back-to-back World Cup champion added:
âwe need to have a reckoning with the implications of Trumpâs Make America Great Again slogan, because âyouâre harking back to an era that was not great for everyone â it might have been great for a few people, and maybe America is great for a few people right now, but itâs not great for enough Americans in this world….You have an incredible responsibility as the chief of this country to take care of every single person, and you need to do better for everyone…â
More from Rapinoe to CNNâs Anderson Cooper:
âI donât think anyone on the team has any interest in lending the platform that weâve worked so hard to build, and the things that we fight for, and the way that we live our life â I donât think that we want that to be co-opted or corrupted by this administration,â
Rapinoe accepted an invitation on behalf of the team from Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), House Speaker Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). She added:
âThis is such a special moment for us, and to be able to sort of leverage this moment and talk about the things that we want to talk about and to celebrate like this with the leaders of our country is an incredible moment….So yes to AOC, yes to Nancy Pelosi, yes to the bipartisan Congress, yes to Chuck Schumer â yes to anyone else that wants to invite us and have a real substantive conversation, and that believes in the same things that we believe in.â
Sheâs a proud American who understands that despite Trump wanting to go back in time, itâs never again going to be 1953 in America. These women arenât ornamental, theyâre not trophies.
You would think that supporting the bill would be a no-brainer, but only 33 House Republicans voted for the bill. The NRA was opposed, warning that a vote in favor of the bill would be reflected in individual Congresspersonâs NRA ratings.
The current law has been on the books for 25 years. The original law already prohibits spouses or former spouses convicted of abuse from purchasing a firearm, but an amendment to the bill closed the so-called “boyfriend loophole,” adding unmarried partners to the language. It would also prohibit people convicted of misdemeanor stalking offenses from owning or buying firearms, as well as abusers subject to temporary protective orders.
That all was a bridge too far for the NRA. NRA spokesperson Jennifer Baker:
“The gun control lobby and anti-gun politicians are intentionally politicizing the Violence Against Women Act as a smoke screen to push their gun control agenda…”
The NRAâs objection was that too many violent people would be prevented from owning a gun.
Nancy Pelosi said in a speech on the House floor:
“There should be nothing partisan or political about ending the scourge of domestic violence and sexual assault, which one in three women faces today…”
Is this a good look for Republican lawmakers? We think of the GOP as excellent in controlling the political narrative, but a headline that says â157 House Republicans support violence against womenâ will leave a mark. It doesnât help the NRA either. The group can be said to favor gun rights more than they care about protecting women from domestic violence. Another bad look.
It gets worse for both the GOP and the NRA: Think back to the Texas church mass shooting, and remember that the shooter got a gun because the US Air Force never reported his domestic violence court martial conviction â 26 people died.
Common sense is not common. The VAWA has been in place for 25 years, and there has been very little serious opposition until now. The amendment seems reasonable. This may be a case where the NRA lost its ability to think objectively. But, the bill faces an uncertain future. With these new gun control provisions, it is likely to be dead on arrival in the GOP-held Senate.
Itâs clear now that the NRA doesnât care about the problem of domestic violence. All they want is more gun sales.
And the Republicans are right there with them. Their motto should be: Greed, Guns and God.
Time to wake up, America! The GOPâs position against the VAWA demonstrates their bias against women and in favor of the NRA. To help you wake up, Wrongo brings back the Monday rock song feature. Today we hear from Chrissy Hyde of the Pretenders. We present her song âMy City is Goneâ from her third album, âLearning to Crawlâ. It was released 35 years ago in 1984.
The song’s title was chosen because there had already been a song called âOhio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young:
Some might realize that the bass line in this song is used by the execrable Rush Limbaugh as the music bumper on his radio show. Hyde agreed to let him use it as long as the proceeds were donated to animal rescue.
Sample Lyrics:
I went back to Ohio
But my city was gone
There was no train station
There was no downtown
South Howard had disappeared
All my favorite places
My city had been pulled down
Reduced to parking spaces
A, o, way to go Ohio
Her lyrics could have been a letter sent 35 years ago to the Democrats as a warning about what was happening in the heartland. It was unread, and marked âreturn to senderâ.
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
“When Democrats next have power, we should be bold and clear: We’re done with two sets of rules — one for the Republicans and one for the Democrats,”…. “And that means when Democrats have the White House again, if Mitch McConnell tries to do what he did to President Obama and puts small-minded partisanship ahead of solving the massive problems facing this country, then we should get rid of the filibuster.”
Warren referenced a bill passed in the Senate last year that made lynching a federal crime, and pointed out that it was first introduced in 1918.
âIt nearly became the law back then. It passed the House in 1922. But it got killed in the Senate â by a filibuster. And then it got killed again. And again. And again,â Warren will say. âMore than 200 times. An entire century of obstruction because a small group of racists stopped the entire nation from doing what was right.â
Warren is correct on the merits about the filibuster, as she is on many other issues. The filibuster is a blunt tool for the reactionary forces in the Senate.
From a policy viewpoint, she is by far the best candidate. But she lags in the polls, and many are convinced that she canât be elected. She also trails in funds raising, behind Bernie and Beto. Warren hasnât released her first quarter totals, but her campaignâs finance director just left. HuffPo tells us that:
“A tricky gender gap is emerging in the race for donor dollars in the 2020 Democratic presidential race.”
That hasnât affected Kamala Harris who is raising large amounts from corporate donors. Maybe she has corralled the bigger feminists.
Barrâs playing it cute with the Democrats in the House:
Delaware Water Gap, NJ – 2020 photo by 
