By James Zogby
November 16, 2018

Foes of Palestinian human rights have also fallen on a new and more ominous strategy to delegitimize and silence pro-Palestinian voices. The efforts to pass legislation like the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act and the Israel Anti-Boycott Act serve one purpose – that is, to silence critics of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians by criminalizing criticism of Israel.

Both efforts are unconstitutional. The purpose, however, is not to pass good laws. It is to show the power of some pro-Israel organizations to force Congress to jump through a clearly unconstitutional hoop and to intimidate into silence those organizations or individuals who dare to challenge Israel’s behavior toward Palestinians. These proposed bills are nothing more than “old wine in new bottles.”

The good news is that these efforts will fail.

https://www.mediamonitors.net/the-struggle-to-advocate-for-palestinians-has-never-been-easy/

You guys are just so over the top anti-Bernie. Back in Missouri, I knew a lot of racists. Hell, I'm not sure you could grow up in Missouri without being racist. But we were educated. We learned. And I left, but it was still there. I moved into inexpensive housing in the inner city Washington DC, and the cheapest rent I could find was with a black guy. I am absolutely certain that before we shook on the tenancy, I hesitated and took his race into consideration. And if you claim he didn't take my race into consideration, you're unable to understand. We were together five or six years, through a move to another place, and we never had a disagreement, we marveled about how well we got along.
I kept in touch with the guys back home I grew up with, back when Missouri was a blue state [I was born in a town whose newspaper was named, "The Daily Democrat-News"] it was the primaries that were most important. After the primary, everybody worked for the candidate. So that's what I grew up understanding. So I'm kind of knocked back by Bernie opposition.
He conceded and the election is over. But he has a huge following and all of his followers must be absorbed into the Democratic party, because, consider the alternative. They are the future of our party, and we must bring them in. And damn it, Bernie is saying the things they, and I, want to hear. He articulates what should be mainstream Democratic positions, and he draws the crowds and does as well as you could expect with his endorsements, and, dammit, he is not irrelevant, and he is not the enemy.
Don't get me wrong, if he runs for president again, I will bring out my swords. <-- Metaphor, it's a metaphor!!]
--but come on, don't trash him. He has progressive ideas and a national following. He is important if only for that.

We lost MO for the Civil Rights Act. LBJ was right.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/lyndon-johnson-civil-rights-racism




.

Sanders warned against complacency and insisted it would be a “very, very serious mistake” if Democrats did not at least try to pass progressive legislation, so as to call Trump’s populist bluff. Failure to do so, he implied, would mean ceding vital territory to Trump, a man with “no core beliefs.”
...
"I think the Washington Post is going to be very surprised at who shows up on the first day of Congress and gets sworn in, because that is going to be the most progressive freshman class in the modern history of the United States. Many of these folks are not just women, not just people of color, who campaigned on Medicare-for-all, raising the minimum wage to 15 bucks, campaigned on making public colleges and universities tuition-free, of undoing Trump’s tax breaks for billionaires. The political establishment notwithstanding, the future belongs to progressives."

"[W]hat the Democrats have got to do. They’ve got to raise the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour, they’ve got to make public colleges tuition-free and they’ve got to lower student debt. All of these proposals are enormously popular. And they’re good public policy."

"I believe it’s terribly important that the Democrats come out of the gate full-steam ahead and start passing really good legislation that puts Trump and the Republicans on the defensive."

my two cents:
The voters have a hard time seeing the difference between the parties, through all the mud and lies. Young people especially challenge us to explain the difference between the parties. They voted for Democrats and turned out in large numbers because we are the only alternative. But if we don't deliver progressive policies, they'll just say, See? No difference.
Both parties are beholden to the plutocrats due to the cost of running for office. Let's try progressive change now.

whoops, forgot the link:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/taibbi-bernie-sanders-interview-753484/

Source: AP via Yahoo

"told the U.S. military mobilizing at the Southwest border that if migrants try to throw rocks at them, the troops should act as though the rocks are "rifles."

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/latest-trump-claims-dems-let-homicidal-immigrant-125144392--politics.html?.tsrc=jtc_news_index

---

He is deranged. He must be removed from office and committed to an institution that can give him the mental health care he sodesperately needs.

We have this weird Governor's campaign in Maryland, "Democrats for Hogan", a Repug. The thrust is mainly that the Democrat, Ben Jealous, is "too leftist" for Maryland.
This is typical Repug BS, but polls show Dems buying it.
Jealous is not terribly happy about giving huge tax breaks to Amazon if they'll locate their next facility in Montgomery County, and he's opposed to installing Lexis Lanes, [toll lanes] as Virginia has, on the Interstates through the state, both of which Hogan, the Repug, supports.
Hogan is a "cancer survivor", so there's some sympathy vote, but if he dies in office, who knows what kind of Trumpist will be chosen to replace him?

I'm sorry, there is just no such thing as "too leftist". Maryland Democrats need to learn about solidarity.

Don't let a PR campaign give an inch to the Repugs. They must be removed from office.

I missed the paid for by...
Nancy Pelosi AS THE WICKED WITCH OR SOMETHING?

is the immigrants from Honduras...
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/honduran-migrant-caravan-grows-4000-amid-spike-u-s-border-n921286

Must watch these hearings. Even if you are fifteen, or fourteen, or seventeen, you need to understand that your acts have consequences.
High school guys with hardons have very little awareness of consequences.
There are always consequences.

I'm working on a campaign now and am in an uncomfortable position of trying to reconcile formerly Bernie supporters (twenty-somethings) with the rest of the party. They rightly feel that Bernie's positions are exactly what they want, and if the Democratic party doesn't go that way, they have no reason to support Democrats. I'm there. Bernie articulated the FDR vision, and this is exactly where our party must go. But when I point out about my candidate, "he's a liberal Democrat", there is a sudden reticence to continue even listening.

I'm working on media events, but even people being recruited want to know my candidate's "positions." I thought, "he's not trump" was enough. But they want solid policies at the lowest, county legislature level. What do we do at the county level? We fund schools, we oversee the Sheriff, we build new jails...

It's not like we can give you free college. Or maybe we should just say that? You can't lie anymore, in the Democratic party. The Repugs can lie all the time, because their core supporters have no way to test statements for factual basis. But Democrats are so much smarter than that, and these kids are so hair-trigger ready to bolt, it's scary.

This is the hardest campaign I've ever been a part of. It's the kids, and the black women. What should we say, what can we offer? At the county level?

I signed up for facebook because my church group was communicating that way. Then one of the members started playing "Farmville" and then it got weird.
Fortunately I had lied about every bit of information they requested. Except, of course, my URL.

We must establish inalienable privacy rights.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/technology/privacy-researchers-facebook.html