WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Hundreds of Haitian migrants are being rounded up and deported from the US. The large-scale expulsion involves several daily flights and a show of force at the border, while Haiti faces economic and political crises.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

"We need to re-establish a functional relationship between the two powers,” he said, calling that “essential to address the problems of vaccination, the problems of climate change and many other global challenges that cannot be solved without constructive relations within the international community and mainly among the superpowers.” -- AP

@RichLowry

BREAKING: An enormous gathering of journalists in Washington, DC today was orderly and peaceful, and a few Justice for J6  protestors showed up.

 Aaron Schneider

As a result, the US continues its embargo, causes unnecessary suffering to the Cuban people, fails to produce change, and turns the US (not Cuba) into an international pariah in conflict with its own allies. -- Aljazeera 

Dr. Matshidiso Moeti

Rich countries worry about booster shots. They should be worried about Africa. -- New York Times

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

 Multiple funeral pyres of those who died of COVID-19 burn in New Delhi.

Bill Gates

Directly asked during an interview with Sky News if he thought it "would be helpful" to have vaccine recipes be shared, Gates quickly answered: "No." -- Salon

Moustafa Bayoumi

Officials talk about “catch and release” as if they are chatting about fish when they’re really talking about people’s lives. -- Guardian 

Simon Balto

A single guilty verdict or a single justice department investigation do not in and of themselves have the capacity to topple and replace violently oppressive systems that are generations in the making. -- Guardian

Paul Krugman

“Change is coming, whether we seek it or not.”

So declares a remarkable document titled “Preserving Coal Country,” released Monday by the United Mine Workers of America. -- NY Times

Labor attorney Thomas Geoghegan 

...described the NLRB process which hampered the Amazon workers union drive, as akin to a “bloodless bureaucratic death squad.”  -- Capital & Main

"We are not a match..."

A New York man bragged about storming the Capitol to his Bumble match. The prospective date replied, "We are not a match," and reported him to authorities. https://t.co/SlhpKKZtCO

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 26, 2021

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

R.I.P. Ramsey Clark

“A right is not what someone gives you; it’s what no one can take from you.” (1927-2001)

Honduran immigrant Maria Ana Mendez

“I have no idea where my daughter is,” Ms. Mendez said in an interview on March 26. “No one is telling me anything at all.” -- New York Times

Katie Wright

Daunte Wright's mother, Katie Wright

"He got out of the car, and his girlfriend said they shot him," she said. "He got back in the car, and he drove away and crashed and now he's dead on the ground since 1:47. ... Nobody will tell us anything. Nobody will talk to us. ... I said please take my son off the ground." -- Star Tribune

Fareed Zakaria

Welcome to the new age of bloated Pentagon budgets, all to be justified by the great Chinese threat...The U.S. has 20 times the number of nuclear warheads as China. -- CNN

Letter to Biden signed by more than 100 state and local officials 

Now is the time for your administration to fulfill its commitment to human rights and refugee protection; only then can we urge the global community to also do their part.” -- Washington Post 

 

Georgia politicians are leaving nearly 2 billion dollars on the table and denying affordable health care to nearly 500,000 Georgians by refusing to expand Medicaid.

That’s a moral and economic failure. We must expand Medicaid.

— Reverend Raphael Warnock (@ReverendWarnock) April 11, 2021

Wednesday was a MAGA dress rehearsal

It appears that Wednesday's assault on the U.S. Capitol was only a dress rehearsal for so-called Million Militia Marches leading up to Inauguration Day, with armed white-supremacist and fascist groups primed to attack government buildings and perceived enemy politicians in all 50 states. 

As with the online chatter ahead of that assault on the Capitol, new online calls to action are rife with insurrection talk and vows to bring guns to Washington in defiance of the city's strict weapons laws. Twitter cited some of these posts in its announcement Friday night stripping Trump of his account and preventing him from creating new ones in the future. Some event listings are openly discussing delivering "justice" for Ashli Babbitt, a rioter and Air Force veteran who was fatally shot by police inside the Capitol on Wednesday.

Unlike the first assault, which was an attempt to overturn the Democrats' electoral victory and keep Trump in power, the next actions, planned or unplanned, reflect a lack of faith in electoral politics on the part of the MAGAs. An online militia forum called for recruits in Kentucky because "diplomatic efforts have been exhausted."

Whereas the last riot had a semi-official air about it, having been inspired and called for by the POTUS himself, the next rounds will be organized mainly by loosely-affiliated Republican and other right-wing groups, Proud Boys, and neo-Confederates, who apparently have given up on any electoral or constitutional path to power. Most have already turned on Trump and Pence for having sold them out last week. 

For example, the St. Croix County, WI Republican Party is telling its members to "prepare for war" and to remove "leftist tyrants" from office. Scrawled across the top of the party's homepage is the Latin phrase "Si vis pacem, para bellum," which is followed by its translation: "If you want peace, prepare for war."

But rather than influence the next elections, the next wave is designed to cause fear and chaos, including disruption of the pandemic recovery. This, the very definition of terrorism. 

The question remains...how prepared will police, FBI, Secret Service, and the military be for another round of riots? Once shooting begins, security efforts have already failed and the fascists have succeeded. They are quite willing to use their rank-and-file protesters as human shields and cannon fodder. Another question has to do with cops and even elected officials taking part or even leading the assaults as was the case Wednesday. 

Here in Chicago, aldermen and community activists are demanding the resignation of John Catanzara, the President of the Fraternal Order of Police after he came out in full-throated support of the Trumpists, making excuses for the riots even as rioters caused the deaths of capitol cops. 

*************

As long as we're talking impeachment, why not start here? Globally, there were more than a half-million new corona cases reported yesterday. One-third of them in the U.S. alone. US deaths: 375,373 (up 1,365 from yesterday). This with a president and political regime purposefully sabotaging Covid recovery and enabling massive profiteering off the pandemic. 

*************

The department with the oxymoronic name Homeland Security is in total shambles and that's probably a good thing. With the main threat to national security coming from the White House rather than from foreign terrorists, and the inability (unwillingness) of the regime to protect even itself against Trump-inspired, white-supremacist, domestic terrorism, another DHS director has called it quits. 

Chad Wolf, who was never formally appointed, lasted only 14 months before joining the mass exodus of rats from this sinking ship. How do you "resign" from a post to which you were never appointed? Beats me. Wolf was roundly condemned for his role as Trump's wingman in the war on immigrants. If one thing has become clear since Wednesday, it's that the main threat to homeland security is homegrown, not imported.

As the siege on the Capitol shows, White supremacists are not pro-cop. They are anti-Black. They defend cops who kill Black people and attack cops who get in their political way.

Story by @katemshepherd https://t.co/24rRiUXnPy

— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) January 11, 2021

I’m still tripping that folks thought they could take off a few days of work, go do an insurrection, and then fly on home and resume normal life.

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) January 11, 2021

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

 

Rebecca Solnit

Biden's victory is only the prelude. What happens now is up to us. -- Guardian

James Downie, WaPo's Digital Opinions Editor

Black, brown, and working-class voters delivered Joe Biden the presidency; the hard work of turning out those voters wasn’t done by the national party this year, but by grass-roots organizers over many years. -- Democratic leaders play a ridiculous blame game with progressives

Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon

After Biden pulled ahead in Pennsylvania, Sturgeon tweeted: ''The world can be a dark place at times just now — but today we are seeing a wee break in the clouds.'' - Washington Post

Mayor Lori Lightfoot

 “With the Republicans [potentially] retaining control of the Senate, it’s far from clear that any additional monies will be flowing by way of stimulus.” -- IL Playbook

IL State Rep. Bob Morgan on Madigan

 “Allegations surrounding Speaker Madigan and Commonwealth Edison are extremely troubling, as are [previous] ones about sexual harassment by top aides. Leadership requires taking responsibility, and the pervasive culture of mistrust and corruption in Illinois rests at Mike Madigan’s feet.” -- Statement

Erendira Rendon, Immigrant Advocacy and Defense Project V.P.

“This win doesn’t mean that all of a sudden the immigrant community is safe now." -- Tribune

New tactics called for in these difficult times

Homeless families threatened by coronavirus occupy vacant houses in southern California. 

"This is our moment to prove ourselves and a nation that, in Chicago, we may get bent, but we will never be broken." -- Mayor Lori Lightfoot

Brother Fred and I should be back on the air with Hitting Left by March 27th. Of course, we'll be doing the show from our respective homes so long as this sheltering-in-place (or as I call it, house arrest) remains in effect.

I understand, support, and am complying with the extreme measures called for here in Chicago by Gov. Pritzker and Mayor Lightfoot, necessary for containing COVID-19. But I worry about the unintended consequences and what the new, rapidly-changing conditions mean for us activists and organizers. The victories by Democratic Party centrist Joe Biden over Bernie Sanders in the primaries have progressives looking at new organizing and electoral tactics.

The collapse of the global economy could be catastrophic and will likely cause the death of nearly as many people as the virus itself, especially among the most vulnerable populations throughout the world and people currently incarcerated here in our jails, prisons, and immigrant detention facilities.

These consequences are exacerbated by the Trump gang's misleadership, political opportunism, racism, and propensity towards profiteering from the crisis. In January, millionaire Republican Senators Burr & Loeffler were given a briefing by Trump officials about the COVID threat. Then, as Trump was downplaying the risks, they dumped their stocks before the catastrophic market crash. And they weren't the only ones taking advantage of insider trading.

While some form of bailout may be necessary, it should be targetted at helping those most in need with controls in place on how that money is spent. One of the reasons industries are so short on cash right now is that they have spent billions in past bailout money, buying back their own stocks instead of investing in their workers or preparing for difficult times like these.

I'm also worried about Trump using the crisis as an excuse to suspend democratic rights, grab more power for himself, launch a war against Iran or other perceived enemies, and even canceling the November elections if it looks bad for him and the Republicans.

Some good news coming out of China where Wuhan officials have reported three straight days with no new COVID cases. Whether you believe these reports or not, it's clear that in China and South Korea, the virus now seems under control. Businesses are reopening, including American-owned companies like Apple stores. Apple just reopened 42 of them in China, while at the same time, closing all of its stores in the U.S. and Italy.

Trump and the Republicans, on the other hand (joined at times by leading Democrats), are continuing their anti-China polemics, even referring to COVID as the "China Virus." When asked to explain, Trump said, it was because the virus "originated in China." His explanation had some on Twitter referring to him as Buick Skylark and Motel 6.

Yes, humor, even dark humor, will help us survive all this.

But while Cold War and racist, anti-foreigner politics rule the WH, China and other countries continue to make progress against the disease. Chinese and Cuban doctors have been in Iran, Italy, and Venezuela recently, where they have offered their services and expertise. They have reportedly developed medical treatments that lower the fatality and suffering rates for those afflicted with COVID19, and are distributing them – without any patent or profit – to those in need. Iran and Venezuela are countries to whom the IMF has refused to offer loans under pressure from U.S.-imposed sanctions.

In Iran alone, the COVID death toll could rise to 3.5 million. But the U.S. has announced that it will be expanding its inhuman sanctions anyway.

Now, the epidemiologist who helped eradicate smallpox is calling Trump’s early handling of COVID-19 is "the most irresponsible act of an elected official that I've ever witnessed in my lifetime.”

Among the other unintended consequences...Hundreds of American troops are being withdrawn from Iraq in part over the coronavirus. And mother Earth is getting a breather from air pollution demonstrating the importance of and what's possible with a Green New Deal.

More good news... People here are creatively developing new ways to resist, carrying on political campaigns and where necessary, using Occupy tactics and other forms of direct action to support the homeless.

These new tactics for organizing, including a review of the March 18th NY Times piece by Astead Herndon, Progressive Ideas Remain Popular. Progressive Presidential Candidates Are Losing. Why?" will be food for our discussion on our upcoming Hitting Left shows.

Tune in on Fridays at 11a.m. CDT at WLPN 105.5 FM in Chicago or on livestream at lumpenradio.com.

I've got problems with the impeachment strategy

Republicans aren't disputing the facts. They're telling Democrats where to shove them.

I know it's early in the game, but so far my fears about the current shitshow that is the Democrats' impeachment hearings are coming true. It's not that I'm against impeaching the grifter president. His attempt to use the weapons sale to Ukraine as quid pro quo to get dirt on Joe Biden and his son is a clear criminal act and should be prosecuted. Trump and the Republicans aren't even disputing the facts. They are simply reminding us that POTUS is above the law.

In my mind at least, the hearings, which are taken by most as impeachment itself, fail as a political strategy leading up to the 2020 elections.

I just can't imagine the predictable outcome of a failed impeachment attempt moving the needle much, especially in the battleground states, let alone inspiring millions of young voters in a crusade to win the White House and Congress.

To make matters worse, Nancy Pelosi's messaging about the "dangers" facing us in the upcoming election (even when she is misquoted on Fox News) gives the impression that without the hearings, Trump is bound to win the election.

“The weak response to these hearings has been, ‘Let the election decide.’ That dangerous position only adds to the urgency of our action, because the President is jeopardizing the integrity of the 2020 elections.”-- Nancy Pelosi

Pelosi's pessimism is understandable, especially given the slumping of her favorite candidate, Joe Biden. But I'll leave that for a future post.

The hearings, duller than a Chicago Bears game, have put all the Democrats' eggs in the Ukraine basket. They have nearly pushed all other issues like health care and education to the side, issues that gain traction with key voter blocs. Stories and events that present an even stronger rationale for impeachment or certainly for defeating the Republicans next year now pale in comparison to the Ukraine fiasco.

On the global front, there's Trump's pardoning of convicted war criminals, a move opposed by his own Pentagon brass. Or his putting the final nail in the coffin of a negotiated just peace settlement in Israel/Palestine by sanctioning and encouraging future Israeli settlements in the West Bank. This happened, by the way, with hardly a peep from the Democrats.

I could go on about the U.S. role in sanctioning the right-wing coup in Bolivia; the continued separation of thousands of children from their parents as part of the human rights immigration crisis on the southern border; or Trump's disastrous trade wars. All of these now have a media half-life of about four days because of all the air all being sucked up by Trump's phone call to Zelensky.

I hope I'm wrong and that the hearings inspire a move of swing Trump voters. I just don't see it happening that way.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mayor Lori Lightfoot greets supporters Saturday ahead of the Southeast Side Labor Day parade.

Don Villar, Chicago Federation of Labor

"We're here today because of you, workers. You know, 125 years ago, not far from here, just down the road, is where we had the massive Pullman Strike. They were fighting for the same thing you’re fighting for. They’re fighting for fairness, equality, respect, dignity, the same thing, it seems like 125 years later we’re still fighting the same fight. So this is for you this Labor Day." -- At Southeast Side Labor Day March

Trump

...causes confusion by saying record storm will hit Alabama, forcing national weather service to issue correction. Trump says he has ‘never heard of a category 5’ storm before - a remark he has made repeatedly in recent years. -- Independent

Natascha Elena Uhlmann, author of Abolish Ice

The US spends more than $7bn a year on an agency so universally reviled that even its own agents want to be distanced. What could an alternative vision of justice look like? -- Guardian

Thoughts and prayers have done nothing to stop the epidemic of gun violence. Yes, this is fucked up; and if we don't call it out for what it is, we will continue to have this bloodshed in America. pic.twitter.com/Z4jgzpz6Ur

— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) September 1, 2019

Prayers are good. They’ve helped me get through some very tough times. But we don’t elect people to Congress to pray in the face of a national crisis. We send them there to pass some damn legislation that can address the problem. Get off your asses and do your job! https://t.co/RAHJMRZK1u

— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) September 1, 2019

Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane #Dorian will be felt across Alabama. The system will remain too far east. #alwx

— NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) September 1, 2019

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

In the wake of the largest U.S. immigration raid in a decade, educators in Mississippi this week were left to console and support children with detained parents.

Celina Moreno, the president of Intercultural Development Research Assoc.

It's a time for schools to proclaim very loudly that all of their students are valuable ... that they're not expendable and their families are not expendable. School districts should also develop emergency plans so they're not left scrambling if an immigration raid leaves children traumatized or homeless. -- Edweek

Steve Bannon

"President Trump is not a racist." -- Interview. Then ["Grits ain't grocery, eggs ain't poultry..." -- Little Milton].

Joe Biden

"Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.” -- Town hall in DesMoines

Beto O'Rourke on Trump's Epstein-conspiracy theory

"He’s changing the conversation if we allow him to do that then we will never be able to focus on the true problem, of which he is a part." -- The Hill

What the overdose crisis "illustrates is not that there are a few bad apples in the pharmaceutical industry, but that the country’s entire health care system is driven by profit at the expense of public health and safety."
https://t.co/Lju9IXja9R

— DA Larry Krasner (@DA_LarryKrasner) August 11, 2019

A Dystopian Vision Of American Education

In the wake of the latest wave of politically-driven, mostly white, male supremacist terrorism that left at least 31 dead in El Paso and Dayton, Trump and the Republicans are scrambling to create a narrative that acquits them and their leadership of culpability and collusion in the bloody affair.

In the past few days, the GOP line has shifted blame away from Trump's demagogic violent appeals to his racist supporters, on to the mentally ill, video games, and "fake news".

That was exactly the imagery laid out in the El Paso shooter's "manifesto".

Their narrative portrays America as a holy battlefield in a war in defense of white, christian values and a future of Republican political power.

It now includes a dystopian vision of schools as armed camps with gun-toting teachers, cops and militia surrounding school buildings and waiting for the invading enemy of infidels to make their next move.

This represents a giant-step past their previous neoliberal vision of school "choice".

Their current line was best articulated by Trump adviser Sean Hannity yesterday. The Fox News host is calling for a volunteer army of armed ex-cops and soldiers that would be “everywhere.”

"I'd like to see the perimeter of every school in America surrounded, secured by retired police ... have one armed guard on every floor of every school, all over every mall, the perimeter and inside every hall of every mall."

“Every school,” Hannity said. “Secure the perimeter of those schools. Equip them with retired police and military, they should be on every floor of every school.”

There are close to 100,000 public and 35,000 private K-12 schools in the United States so a force large enough to “surround the perimeter” and be on each floor would require several hundred thousand people, if not more. -- Huffington Post

Aside from the fascist, police state implications, school safety and curricular issues involved in all this, Hannity's plan leaves me wondering how it matches up with veteran cops' view of their own retirement. 

I may be wrong, but I can't imagine that hundreds of thousands of veteran 1st-responders are dreaming about spending their golden years guarding the perimeters of schools and shopping malls for no pay, instead of fishing or hanging out with the grand kids. 

Deplorables are jumping for joy at the reports that the Dayton shooter wasn't a Trump-supporting white supremacist. But I don't see why they're so happy. Here's an early report on what motivated this 2nd-Amendment gun freak.

High school classmates of the gunman who killed nine people early Sunday in Dayton, Ohio, say he was suspended for compiling a "hit list" of those he wanted to kill and a "rape list" of girls he wanted to sexually assault. https://t.co/lEAGcCTOwW

— KTLA (@KTLA) August 5, 2019

Arm this guy with a military-style assault weapon? Great say Republicans.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Friday we were joined by the Communications Director of the Chicago Federation of Labor, Jake Lewis (second from right) and award winning scientist and union activist Loreen Targos who is with AFGE Local 704, which represents about 1,000 Environmental Protection Employees in the midwest. 

Jake Lewis, Chicago Federation of Labor

"What we've seen from [Mayor Lori Lightfoot] so far, is a willingness to speak up on [labor union] issues and to put herself front and center on big policy issues like Fair Work Week." -- Hitting Left

Loreen Targos, Award-winning EPA scientist, AFGE Local 704

Millennials and Gen Z members (I hear they're great) need to get into the unions and remind maybe some union leaders what it's all about and that's building grassroots power and fighting for what helps membership. -- Hitting Left

Eugene Robinson

 Trump no longer pretends to be the voice of forgotten working-class Americans. He has become the voice of insecure white Americans, whom he encourages to resent foreigners, immigrants and uppity minorities. His border policy — separating babies from their mothers, putting children in cages — is the fulfillment of an ugly revenge fantasy. Cruelty isn’t an unfortunate byproduct of Trump’s crackdown on asylum seekers. It’s the whole point. -- Washington Post

As an Australian I find it odd that Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pressley and Tlaib are seen as the “far left” when they’re just fighting for things that, well, pretty much every other developed country has had for years.

Just my two cents.

— Elle De Sylva ❄️ (@elle_desylva) July 21, 2019

Padma Lakshmi

The president is himself a second-generation American. Two of the women he has married are immigrants, but the only difference between them and Omar — and myself — is skin color. It’s clear that Trump equates being American with being white. But he doesn’t have the right to judge the Americanness of any of us. -- Washington Post

Donald Trump

... told reporters on Friday that his supporters who want him to deport Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) are "incredible patriots." -- Shareblue

Lindsey Graham

 “I don’t think it’s racist to say,” Graham told reporters on Thursday. “I don’t think a Somali refugee embracing Trump would be asked to go back. If you’re racist, you want everybody to go back because they are black or Muslim." -- Think Progress

Megan Rapinoe 

“I think this country was quite literally built on the backs of people who weren’t from here and were forced to come here in slavery.” -- Charlotte Observer

WATCH: Brittney Cooper on Trump: "He sees women of color as the people who reproduce all of these folks who are keeping him from making America white again... Our job is not to play nice with this, it is to call it out at every level." pic.twitter.com/BmoAvi4RU6

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 21, 2019

The power in a word

Response to the R-word, from the right was violent and swift. Trump's former ICE director threatened our congressman, Chuy Garcia with a "beating" after Chuy aggressively questioned him about the horrid conditions in the detention centers. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi got in trouble Tuesday for calling President Donald Trump’s racist tweets “racist.” It turns out there’s a congressional rule that lawmakers can’t accuse a sitting president—or any member of the House or Senate—of racism on the floor. Pelosi was even briefly prohibited from speaking at all from the floor after the parliamentarian ruled her remarks criticizing Trump’s tweets were out of order. -- Slate

I guess I wasn't the only one demanding that Pelosi and the Democrats call out the President and his men for racism. Yesterday, the tide turned, at least on that score, Dems actually began using the R-word to push back on Trump's invitation to The Squad (and to all those who "don't love America") to leave it.

Speaker Pelosi even felt it safe enough, despite the so-called, congressional rule, to use the word in a House Resolution condemning Trump's "xenophobic tweets". Only four House Republicans dared vote for the resolution which won by 240-187 over near-solid GOP opposition.

The rule, as you might have guessed, was handed down from slave-owning English and American politicians.

But one-by-one, Democratic pols around the country seemed liberated when the word was put back in play by Pelosi, and when they were permitted to join-in, at least for the moment, alongside their four women-of-color colleagues in a unified party front.

Be still my beating heart. The secret for victory in 2020 was thereby revealed.

The blowback from the right was immediate and violent. The word itself was enough to pull the hood off the Trumpists. When Congressman Jesus "Chuy" Garcia aggressively questioned Trump's former ICE director, Thomas Homan, about the horrible conditions in the detention centers, even implying racist motives, Fox News talking-head Horan, said, "he broke" let out that he "thought about getting up and throwing that man a beating right there in the middle of the room," thereby confirming Chuy's contention. Even though, Chuy never used it, such is the power in a word.

Also, if he thinks our congressman can be intimidated by threat of a beatdown, Homan must not know where Chuy is from.

This from the Chicago Tribune...

Homan clashed with other Democratic lawmakers while defending the Trump administration policies. When New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Homan recommended family separation at the border, for example, Homan responded by saying he recommended zero tolerance, apparently in reference to migrants who cross the border illegally. He also noted that U.S. citizens who are arrested with children would also be separated from their children.

On Tuesday, Garcia’s office issued a statement saying it wasn’t going to validate comments from an angry man, which they say is how Homan described himself on television.

“Congressman Garcia didn’t call him racist, but it is clear the Congressman got under Mr. Homan’s skin for a reason. If the shoe fits, Mr. Homan should wear it,” according to the statement.

The shoe fits.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

As Saturday's anti-ICE march in Chicago

Cong. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia 

“It’s about damn time we tell this racist president loud and clear: Stop criminalizing desperation.” -- At Saturday's rally in Chicago.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

"I believe these women. I believed the canker sores that I saw in their mouths because they were only allowed to be fed un-nutritious food. I believe them when they said they were sleeping on concrete floors for two months. I believe them."

"And what was worse about this, Mr. Chairman, was the fact that there were American flags hanging all over these facilities — that children being separated from their parents in front of an American flag — that women were being called these names under an American flag." -- Share Blue Media

Sen. Bernie Sanders

“I support Alexandria’s and the other women’s desire to bring more people, especially younger people, working-class people into the Democratic party," he said. "That is the future of the Democratic party.” -- Fox News

Rep. Ilhan Omar

“There are few things more dreadful than dealing with a man who knows he is going under, in his own eyes, and in the eyes of others. Nothing can help that man. What is left of that man flees from what is left of human attention.” ~James Baldwin -- Twitter

Tara Tidwell Cullen from the National Immigrant Justice Center.  

“This has been an opportunity for communities to come together and learn to understand what their rights are and be able to exercise their rights." -- Tribune

MLL in Little Village

Mayor Lori Lightfoot

... praised activists who are trying to organize against raids by informing people about their rights, which the former federal prosecutor said includes not letting ICE in if they don’t have a warrant signed by a judge. She said it’s important to remind people “that this is a city that for 150 years has been a city of welcome for immigrants (from) all over the world.” -- Tribune

Diana Nayeri, author of The Ungrateful Refugee

[Tucker] Carlson had nothing to do with Omar’s rescue from Somalia. He is just a privileged man who won the lottery of birth. If it were up to him, she would never have been allowed in. -- Slate

Trump tells elected women of color to, "Go back to the countries you came from..."

....and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2019

Saluting these women. Stay pushing. Stay shining. Stay working. Stay a pain in the ass of the #RacistInChief and all his co-horts. Stay true to who you are. Stay safe. Stay together. Stay making us proud. #FourQueens pic.twitter.com/jkcXe6Z96F

— Ava DuVernay (@ava) July 14, 2019

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Rain-soaked Pride crowds and Chicago's new mayor revel in a historic parade: "Our battles are not over, but today feels particularly sweet" -- Chicago Tribune

Hawaii Rep.Tulsi Gabbard at Rainbow-Push Convention

“We have no time to waste. There is so much at stake. We have too many leaders who have, for so long, been dragging us into these wasteful, regime-change wars one after the other, costing us so many lives, taking trillions of dollars out of our pockets... dollars that belong here in rebuilding our own communities.” -- Sun-Times

Rev. Jesse Jackson on Elizabeth Warren

 “Personality is the conduit through which information gets — she has a personality that’s magnetic, and she’ll be in this race to the end. I don’t know how it’ll end up, but she’ll be a factor in the outcome of this race. ” -- The Hill

Jackson defends Buttigieg...“What happened there is not his fault,” he said, blaming structural problems of longtime segregation in the city’s housing and the fact that most of the city’s police officers live outside the city, making them what he called an “occupying force”.  -- Politico

Van Jones on Kamala Harris

 CNN political analyst Van Jones praised Harris' "masterful" debate performance, saying "a star was born" Thursday night. -- CNN

A 16-year-old mother from El Salvador

“My baby and I slept directly on the cement. Two hours after we crossed, we met Border Patrol and they took us to a very cold house. They took away our baby’s diapers, baby formula, and all of our belongings. -- HuffPost

Tucker Carlson on Trump/Kim DMZ photo-op 

 "You've got to be honest about what it means to lead a country, it means killing people. A lot of countries commit atrocities, including our allies." -- Daily Beast

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia shake hands and hand out “know your rights” cards in Little Village.

Chuy and the Mayor

“The hateful words that we hear on a regular basis from President Trump and other people in his administration do great harm,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said. “Whether they’re intending to take action or not, we have to be diligent and we have to push back against the hate.”

Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, D-Ill., said the reversal it was “typical of the president’s bullyish ways.”  -- Sun-Times

Dr. Dolly Lucio Sevier 

After visiting Ursula facility in McAllen, which is the largest CBP detention center in the country, Dr. Sevier wrote in a medical declaration: "The conditions within which they are held could be compared to torture facilities." -- ABC News

Sen. Dick Durbin (IL)

"I voted for the war on drugs. I know why I did it." -- Politico

Danny Green

When asked if NBA champions Toronto Raptors would visit the White House, he answered: "To put it politely, I think it's a hard no." -- Sporting News

 Mick Jagger at Soldier Field concert

  'I want to welcome Lori Lightfoot ... I'm sorry Ed Burke couldn't make it tonight." -- Sun-Times

“He should apologize to the children that have been separated from their parents,” said Rep. @AOC of GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who demanded she apologize for calling ICE detention centers “concentration camps.” https://t.co/zf2Zdt9diu by @nicholasballasy pic.twitter.com/jjLXI0bjcV

— The Intercept (@theintercept) June 21, 2019

STATEMENT FROM MAYOR LORI E. LIGHTFOOT ON PLANNED ICE RAIDS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 21, 2019

CONTACT:

Mayor’s Press Office

312.744.3334

press@cityofchicago.org

STATEMENT FROM MAYOR LORI E. LIGHTFOOT ON PLANNED ICE RAIDS

"We are all aware of the threat from President Trump regarding raids by ICE, and in response, Chicago has taken concrete steps to support our immigrant communities. I have directed – and Superintendent Johnson has confirmed – that CPD has terminated ICE's access to CPD's databases related to federal immigration enforcement activities. I have also personally spoken with ICE leadership in Chicago and voiced my strong objection to any such raids. Further, I reiterated that CPD will not cooperate with or facilitate any ICE enforcement actions. Chicago will always be a welcoming city and a champion for the rights of our immigrant and refugee communities, and I encourage any resident in need of legal aid to contact the National Immigrant Justice Center."

###

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot 

"We are a city that is a sanctuary city. We have immigrants from all over the world who call Chicago their home. They’ll continue to do that, and we’re going to continue to make sure that this is truly a welcoming community for those immigrants and we want them to come to the city of Chicago.” -- FOX News

Noam Chomsky

"Wikileaks was producing things that people ought to know about those in power. People in power don't like that." -- Democracy Now

Ra Joy

Transformation is sustained change, and it’s achieved when ordinary people get involved and get engaged. -- Hitting Left

Stephen Moore, Trump's nominee for the FED

"Capitalism is a lot more important than democracy. I'm not even a big believer in democracy." -- CNN 

Ilhan Omar is a leader with strength and courage. She won't back down to Trump's racism and hate, and neither will we. The disgusting and dangerous attacks against her must end.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 13, 2019

#IStandWithIlhan Omar. President Trump’s anti-Muslim attacks on her are unfounded and dangerous. We must all reject his strategy to divide Americans by race and religion. Our commander in chief cannot be the #HaterInChief. Our country is better than that.

— Congressman Chuy García (@RepChuyGarcia) April 13, 2019

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Following public outcry, hundreds of families of asylum-seekers are no longer being detained in an enclosure beneath an El Paso, Texas, bridge

Shaw Drake, policy counsel for A.C.L.U.' border rights center

“We are demanding an immediate investigation by the inspector general into abuses inflicted on asylum seekers by Border Patrol agents in the outdoor facilities." -- NY Times

Latino Caucus Chair, Ald. Gilbert Villegas endorses Lightfoot

“I think you have certain pockets of the Latino community that are tired of the status quo and then you have others that feel that, taking a look at President Preckwinkle, someone who’s viewed as a powerful politician maybe potentially having the ability to do something for their community." -- Tribune

Rev. Al Sharpton at Rainbow/Push

...portrayed Mayor Rahm Emanuel as a hypocrite Saturday for criticizing Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s handling of the Jussie Smollett case when the mayor long was silent on the police murder of Laquan McDonald. Sharpton described Emanuel’s behavior as “Hypocrisy 101.” -- Chicago Tribune

CTU's Stacey Davis Gates declares victory

“I feel like we have already won,” said Stacy Davis Gates, the group’s vice-president, who counts as a victory the propulsion of two black women who support one of her group’s most cherished causes — an elected school board — to the runoff. -- Chalkbeat

Don Rose predicts win for Lightfoot

Preckwinkle's strong attacks tended to fizzle if not backfire--which brings us up to today. Lightfoot has become a phenomenon, which is why I make my prediction. -- Column: It's all over but Toni's concession. 

Will there be Tic Tacs? https://t.co/yy9LNwkptK

— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) April 1, 2019

DAY 7 of our 'National State of Emergency'

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

“I would say it’s better for the middle school kids in Kentucky to have a secure border,” Graham said on CBS News’s "Face the Nation. “We’ll get them the school they need, but right now we’ve got a national emergency on our hands.”

Ft. Lauderdale, FL -- It's DAY 7 of our "National State of Emergency". I hope all you are somehow surviving, safe and doing well.

I'm the kind of guy who runs towards the danger, not away from it. So yesterday, I flew down to our southern border, FT. Lauderdale to be exact, to see how Floridians were handling having Spanish-speaking immigrants and drugs flowing into their wall-less state. 

I'm also trying to escape the Chicago tundra for a while,  catch some 80-deg weather and get in the therapy pool to help speed recovery of my post-surgical knee.

Bravely carrying on in my stead this morning on Hitting Left, will be brother Fred and our favorite political strategist, Joanna Klonsky (yes, we're related). They will be joined in-studio by Ald. Scott Waguespack of the 32nd Ward and leader of the City Council's Progressive Caucus. Together, hopefully they can make some sense out of the race for mayor. Lord knows, I've tried and failed.

Yes, like everyone else who's awake, I'm mocking DT's phony, self-serving declaration and hoping it can be reversed by members of congress before he can use autocratic power to shift billions out of school budgets to pay for his fu**ing wall. I've already heard Lindsey Graham making the case that paying for the wall is more important than school funding.

Now don't get me wrong. There is an undeclared national emergency down on the southern border that needs responding to. Thousands of immigrant children have been separated, possibly permanently, from their parents and families and hundreds, including infants and toddlers, still remain in custody, unaccounted for, in government camps.

While Nancy Pelosi tries to get a few Repugs to join with Democrats in reversing the SOE, some veterans groups are blasting DT for abusing power with his bogus declaration and slamming his plan to take money intended to build housing for military families and waste it on a racist border wall.

In El Paso, Sunday, hundreds of educators protested the government's treatment of immigrant children in a "teach-in", saying that as mandatory reporters, they are obliged to speak out against detainment and family separations.

Shout-out to protest organizer, Mandy Manning, the 2018 National Teacher of the Year, who teaches newly arrived refugee and immigrant students in Washington state.

I'll try and send more reports on the National State of Emergency from down here on the border as the week progresses.

Stay strong, America!

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Victory in Denver Teachers Strike.

Harry Roman, Denver Teachers Union President

During the daylight hours, Roman said he found it surreal to look outside the window of the Denver Central Library’s fifth-floor conference room and see masses of red-clad teachers marching and chanting about the wages he and his team were trying to improve. “It felt like, ‘Wow, we’re creating a movement here,’ ” Roman said. “It was very, very touching.” -- Denver Post

Lindsay Graham

Kentucky kids would be better off if school funds were diverted to the border wall. “I would say it’s better for the middle school kids in Kentucky to have a secure border...We’ll get them the school they need, but right now we’ve got a national emergency on our hands." -- TPM

Senior German official 

"We fool ourselves if we think Trump is just an aberration,” said a senior German official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly. “Trump is a symptom more than a cause.” -- Washington Post

Dr. Angela Davis comes home to Birmingham

It was here [at Carrie A. Tuggle Elementary School] I watched black teachers stand up and “take exception" to white representatives of the board of education calling them by their first names. Where “I acquired, the consciousness of what it means to stand for black freedom...Here is where I acquired the sense of possibilities to resist...This school helped shape my sense of relationship with my community.” -- AL.com