Love the post but I don’t see that Jeffries has been an effective House fighter and he is supposed to be leading the attack. As someone mentioned in another post, Jeffries is not a wartime consigliere. Also, it bothers me that we keep talking about men as leaders of the future for the Democratic Party. I have news for you. It is the women who have kept the fighting pulse beating for the Democrats…not the men. Yet, we keep being told that the country “isn’t ready” for a female leader. Let’s talk about a few women for a change.
Thanks for speaking up for the women. AOC and Jasmine Crockett are sold short every time. Mikie Sherrill, Abigail Spanberger, as well as Zohran Mamdani won their seats because they focused on the economy and ways to address it that show concern for people.
I do want to say that men and women in Chicago are standing up the the Trump administration. However, Google is supporting ICE by providing them with facial recognition software to find immigrants, and taking down apps people use to help identify and warn of ICE in the area. Everyone should complain to Google, or stop using them if you can.
And what about Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury (NM), who’s been speaking out every chance she gets about the Epstein files. She was also on Ari Melber’s show last night.
Yes. Thank you Katherine. We do need to make a comprehensive list of the women change makers so that people know who they are. Elizabeth Warren comes to mind as well. Today Ruth Ben-Ghiat had feminist scholar Soraya Chemaly on. I think you would like the talk. Ruth always records the first half where she or she and a guest talk, and then she turns of the recording for the Q and A. Here is the link. https://youtu.be/6eGcBR_DPtI
I was going to say the same thing! “The ever on message Jeffries”, really? He is no leader. He has no strategy. He is a master of obsequious nonsensical blathering that contains nothing but white washed pablum for old guard attitude don’t rock the boat democrats.
Yes. I initially had high hopes for him, but he has not risen to the extraordinary demands of our current conditions. As hard as they've been, the same conditions were an opportunity to learn to then apply new skills, which would be needed anyway in anyone aspiring to higher positions. Garcia has left him in the dust.
Schumer and Jeffries seem too conventional and rooted in the past to lead in these turbulent times with fascism at our doorstep in the guise of our President, Congress and SCOTUS. We need people who think outside the box to step up.
I agree..We do not need division. We can use discussion. The Shutdown ending showed how little discussion and agreement there is internally with no insight as to goals, goals that were achievable. James Carville ( at first) and Schumer maybe less lately were of the minds that TRUMPMAGA are well on the way to destroying themselves. It's ALSO true that we have to be *amassing* ( gathering in support) and informing and protesting in every way we can. Walk and chew gum. The infighting is harmful especially when commenters hang on to their disappointments and start blaming and dividing taking attention from the big war because the smaller battle did not achieve its maximum IMAGINED result. We don't know. We should not project either what we don't know. Just keep on and keep it together. We will prevail.
Yes, indeed. Let's talk about a few women fighters. The shutdown is over and keep critisizing DEM Senators who voted for is not useful. Rather it has brought Rep. Adelita Grijalva, the 218th vote to open the Epstein files. The battle has begun.
And what about Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury (NM), who’s been speaking out every chance she gets about the Epstein files for several months now. She was also on Ari Melber’s show last night.
Thank you, I want new leadership in the House and in the Senate. I loved Jeffries but have been disappointed with him and Schumer repeatedly. I also want my senators gone. Warner voted yes to what has led us to the racial profiling we have today. Plus he’s old. Kaine has betrayed us and was one of the democratic
Hopefully we are a few days from the Trumpepstein vote. Garcia is on the the 2025 House Oversight Committee which includes Chairman James Comer (R-KY), Nancy Mace, Marjory Taylor Greene who are signers of the discharge petition. Other Republicans: Eric Burlison (MO-7), Glenn Grothman (WI-6), Clay Higgins (LA-3),Pete Sessions (TX-17) and William Timmons (SC-4).
I'd like to commend US Rep. Chris Deluzio and Rep. Pat Ryan both of Pennsylvania for blasting the Senate vote to end the shutdown. They were on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and they weren't afraid to speak honestly about Trump. Both are veterans that are part of the Veteran's Caucus. They were amazing.
Interesting to me that commentators on this post keep attacking Democratic leaders instead of looking at the horrors of this regime, which has nurtured whole cadres of "Young Republicans" who are nothing but Hitler Youth and who, alas, would embrace that label with pride. The latest is the case of a Boston University student, leader of the Hitler Youth chapter at BU, who repeatedly called ICE about Hispanic workers at a car wash in Allston, MA. ICE brutally (as if they ever did it any other way) arrested nine people, most of whom have work visas and legal status but whose papers were in their lockers, not on them, so one is now held in a concentration camp in TX, another in VT, and the rest who knows where. Their employer, a Hispanic with American citizenship, told the Boston Globe that he has their papers but has not been able to find out exactly where they're held so as bring them to the ICE concentration camp. The families are left without providers. The little POS is proud of having made room for American workers at this car wash. STOP CONCENTRATING ON FAILURES OF A PARTY FIGHTING AGAINST A TRIFECTA OF NAZIS AND FOCUS ON THE NAZIS! These "young Republicans" are the future of the rethug party.
It astounds me that members of Congress and the public accept these snatchings so nonchalantly. This is America and we let people be snatched off the streets and taken to secret holding cells?
Donna, once people get accustomed to something happening everywhere - evil and outrageous as it may be - it eventually loses its shock value. It's less nonchalance for many, I think, than exhaustion. The question is: how can one exist day to day when constantly whipped up, even though it's justified? Holding onto that level of rage has its inevitable consequence...
I agree. And certainly these clowns give us no end of awful surprises. But I also am aware of a simple fact of our constitutions, which is that maintaining a "fight" stance is impossible, continuously, over the long term. We're just not built to be in a continuous rage. Maybe taking frequent breaks from it would help: focusing on something good (nature? music? other people?) that doesn't anger us?
In this case, a Nazi Youth was instrumental in denouncing the existence of Hispanic workers, without any proof that they were here illegally. And his cohorts applaud, while the gubernatorial candidate passes off the Nazi behavior as a "college student's tweet."
My point is, what has been released so far are not the FBI files, and the files confiscated by the FBI are what are explosive and important. Those have not been released.
We need to support every star Democrat we can find because it will take an army to sustain our democracy through to the end of this “administration” ($cabal).
No mention of any of the courageous women leading this fight also: Crockett. Stansbury, AOC, and so many more. Also, I haven't seen Jeffries lead, so much as shout from behind.
Hear! Hear! There were a number of women in government who should have been on that list, including MY Representative Melanie Stansbury - so proud to have her representing me!
Well, you really are Contrarian, aren't you? I'm still struck by your seeing the "defecting" democrats as somehow having lost it or giving in. I see them as having had enough and also putting themselves and the rest of the so-called "governing" body back into the possibility of governing - addressing the SNAP issue right off the bat and beyond. There's a benefit to taking a stand - that happened for the extended shut down, and then there's a benefit to coming to the table and moving on.
Respectfully, I strongly disagree. The Dems weren't holding back the SNAP payments, Trump was. There is PLENTY of reserve and discretionary funds available that could have paid for SNAP. Those defectors played right into the Republicans hand and ended up getting ZERO for the 40+ days of shutdown and now the Dems not only look foolish and weak, they also looked like they betrayed all those voters who elected them this year BECAUSE they actually looked like maybe, just maybe they might have some shred of a spine. But it turns out that the joke was on the voters!
And it's since been revealed that the acquiescing Democrats were major recipients of donations from the airline industry. They wanted to get people flying again worse than they wanted to make sure that health insurance was protected.
Industry talk is that a lot of legislators take airline money. One thing the get out of it is flights out of DCA to their homes that don't make a lot of economic sense.
“Rep. Robert Garcia shows Democrats how to fight MAGA.” Precisely!!! You’ve got to take it to these fascist thugs, pound them every day, day after day, and don’t let up. My god, they provide more than enough criminality and crap to use for a lifetime. If Schumer and Jeffries had any brains and fight in them at all, this regime would be reeling. Those two wimps need replacing pronto.
A free press is essential for a democracy. So is a an independent rule of law. When I reflect on what role I played during these dark days I will be able to look at my support of The Contrarian. Let’s support Jennifer and Norm.
Your support plays a much bigger role than you think. Our Contrarians are central to overcoming these "dark days" in our democracy. Thank you being a part of this fight with us.
Trump as we all already knew was not going to keep his promises. First how can you when your entire presidency has been marred in a retribution campaign? The court battles he has created have hindered his ability to get anything done other than the ones that have been won by the opposition. Garcia appears to be making a valiant effort to counter the MAGA cult. Quite frankly I like Jamie Raskin I think he should run for president in 2028. Though I also like Gretchen Whitmer somewhere in a high place where she can be useful. There’s also other good women out there too.
Help me with my misunderstanding of what just happened. It appears to me that we didn't cave to the Repubulicans so much as recognize that there wasn't going to be a deal anytime soon and our government services would continue to spin down to the greater expense of a lot of us.
I'm a little disappointed that Jennifer seems so convinced that there was another path. Maybe there was, but it wasn't evident to me.
There is a great quote of lyndon Johnson to the effect that sometimes there is no good resolution and so we'd stand around and discuss it and then agree on the soultion preferred by the guy whose stomach hurt the most.
Next time I post it will be about how the "dog who didn't bark" was misunderstood by Epstein and apparently a lot of the rest of us.
Trump never had the role of the dog in this affair.
The dog who didn't bark describes far more accurately the behavior of our present DOJ, don't you think?
An interpretation more likely imo... The dog in this is not Trump. It's a "dog" (guard) who knew Trump was familiar, one of them..i.e. part of what was going on.
From AI "The dog who didn't bark" refers to a clue from a Sherlock Holmes story where the absence of an expected event—the dog barking at a stranger—reveals that the intruder was someone the dog knew. The phrase is used as a metaphor in other contexts to highlight what is missing or unsaid as a key piece of information. "
Potter, I like your interpretation but wonder who is the "dog" in the Epstein Email? Parsing doesn't suggest any possibility other than Trump which I think we agree makes no snese. It's possible that Epstein didn't understand the Holmes reference which would be the only one I can think of. I read Sherlock in high school and I think in my case understood the reference. You don't hear any barks for DOJ these days.
There are other interpretations of this. One is that the dog is in fact Trump.. which Maxwell says countering Epstein's use of the phrase ( as I describe interpreted above). So they were using this language to say a couple of things... that Trump knew what was going on and had not barked about it ( at that point).. and/or that the dog (i.e they) has/have not shared how complicit and involved Trump was with their scheme and held that over and against him ( could ruin him). I am just guessing. Google "who is the dog that did not bark regarding Trump"
PS. Both Epstein and Maxwell use this analogy to discuss Trump.. two different ideas. Perhaps that this goes both ways--they are threatened and can threaten back.
Love the post but I don’t see that Jeffries has been an effective House fighter and he is supposed to be leading the attack. As someone mentioned in another post, Jeffries is not a wartime consigliere. Also, it bothers me that we keep talking about men as leaders of the future for the Democratic Party. I have news for you. It is the women who have kept the fighting pulse beating for the Democrats…not the men. Yet, we keep being told that the country “isn’t ready” for a female leader. Let’s talk about a few women for a change.
Thanks for speaking up for the women. AOC and Jasmine Crockett are sold short every time. Mikie Sherrill, Abigail Spanberger, as well as Zohran Mamdani won their seats because they focused on the economy and ways to address it that show concern for people.
I do want to say that men and women in Chicago are standing up the the Trump administration. However, Google is supporting ICE by providing them with facial recognition software to find immigrants, and taking down apps people use to help identify and warn of ICE in the area. Everyone should complain to Google, or stop using them if you can.
And what about Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury (NM), who’s been speaking out every chance she gets about the Epstein files. She was also on Ari Melber’s show last night.
Yes. Thank you Katherine. We do need to make a comprehensive list of the women change makers so that people know who they are. Elizabeth Warren comes to mind as well. Today Ruth Ben-Ghiat had feminist scholar Soraya Chemaly on. I think you would like the talk. Ruth always records the first half where she or she and a guest talk, and then she turns of the recording for the Q and A. Here is the link. https://youtu.be/6eGcBR_DPtI
The militarized gangster war on the "enemy within" that Trump & Co have unleashed on POC & people with an accent including US citizens is beyond criminal. Most of MSM & his 6 Supremes turn a blind eye or worse. https://digitaledition.chicagotribune.com/shortcode/CHI785/edition/8123abcc-907f-4e53-84d1-c8d6b2da793c?page=aa2948fa-c543-4dea-a701-40b91ffbe8d3&
I was going to say the same thing! “The ever on message Jeffries”, really? He is no leader. He has no strategy. He is a master of obsequious nonsensical blathering that contains nothing but white washed pablum for old guard attitude don’t rock the boat democrats.
Yes. I initially had high hopes for him, but he has not risen to the extraordinary demands of our current conditions. As hard as they've been, the same conditions were an opportunity to learn to then apply new skills, which would be needed anyway in anyone aspiring to higher positions. Garcia has left him in the dust.
I find Jeffries to be "robotic" and difficult to relate to. His messages may be good, but his delivery leaves much to be desired.
He might need to stop hanging out so much with the very antiquated Schumer...
Brava, Liz!!
Schumer and Jeffries seem too conventional and rooted in the past to lead in these turbulent times with fascism at our doorstep in the guise of our President, Congress and SCOTUS. We need people who think outside the box to step up.
We are a minority. The last thing we need is division. Trumepstein is the first chance we've had at "shared" government.
If things work out in our favor, will you apologize?
I agree..We do not need division. We can use discussion. The Shutdown ending showed how little discussion and agreement there is internally with no insight as to goals, goals that were achievable. James Carville ( at first) and Schumer maybe less lately were of the minds that TRUMPMAGA are well on the way to destroying themselves. It's ALSO true that we have to be *amassing* ( gathering in support) and informing and protesting in every way we can. Walk and chew gum. The infighting is harmful especially when commenters hang on to their disappointments and start blaming and dividing taking attention from the big war because the smaller battle did not achieve its maximum IMAGINED result. We don't know. We should not project either what we don't know. Just keep on and keep it together. We will prevail.
Yes, indeed. Let's talk about a few women fighters. The shutdown is over and keep critisizing DEM Senators who voted for is not useful. Rather it has brought Rep. Adelita Grijalva, the 218th vote to open the Epstein files. The battle has begun.
And what about Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury (NM), who’s been speaking out every chance she gets about the Epstein files for several months now. She was also on Ari Melber’s show last night.
Avoid circular firing squads; Eyes on the Prize. Resist the authoritarians. #VoteBlue
Exactly!
Thank you, I want new leadership in the House and in the Senate. I loved Jeffries but have been disappointed with him and Schumer repeatedly. I also want my senators gone. Warner voted yes to what has led us to the racial profiling we have today. Plus he’s old. Kaine has betrayed us and was one of the democratic
Thank you, thank you Rep Garcia.
Hopefully we are a few days from the Trumpepstein vote. Garcia is on the the 2025 House Oversight Committee which includes Chairman James Comer (R-KY), Nancy Mace, Marjory Taylor Greene who are signers of the discharge petition. Other Republicans: Eric Burlison (MO-7), Glenn Grothman (WI-6), Clay Higgins (LA-3),Pete Sessions (TX-17) and William Timmons (SC-4).
What if we try a little jufitsu, Jen? https://flareusa.cargo.site/
I'd like to commend US Rep. Chris Deluzio and Rep. Pat Ryan both of Pennsylvania for blasting the Senate vote to end the shutdown. They were on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and they weren't afraid to speak honestly about Trump. Both are veterans that are part of the Veteran's Caucus. They were amazing.
Interesting to me that commentators on this post keep attacking Democratic leaders instead of looking at the horrors of this regime, which has nurtured whole cadres of "Young Republicans" who are nothing but Hitler Youth and who, alas, would embrace that label with pride. The latest is the case of a Boston University student, leader of the Hitler Youth chapter at BU, who repeatedly called ICE about Hispanic workers at a car wash in Allston, MA. ICE brutally (as if they ever did it any other way) arrested nine people, most of whom have work visas and legal status but whose papers were in their lockers, not on them, so one is now held in a concentration camp in TX, another in VT, and the rest who knows where. Their employer, a Hispanic with American citizenship, told the Boston Globe that he has their papers but has not been able to find out exactly where they're held so as bring them to the ICE concentration camp. The families are left without providers. The little POS is proud of having made room for American workers at this car wash. STOP CONCENTRATING ON FAILURES OF A PARTY FIGHTING AGAINST A TRIFECTA OF NAZIS AND FOCUS ON THE NAZIS! These "young Republicans" are the future of the rethug party.
It astounds me that members of Congress and the public accept these snatchings so nonchalantly. This is America and we let people be snatched off the streets and taken to secret holding cells?
Donna, once people get accustomed to something happening everywhere - evil and outrageous as it may be - it eventually loses its shock value. It's less nonchalance for many, I think, than exhaustion. The question is: how can one exist day to day when constantly whipped up, even though it's justified? Holding onto that level of rage has its inevitable consequence...
We lose the surprise element, but when we lose the shock, we lose our humanity.
I agree. And certainly these clowns give us no end of awful surprises. But I also am aware of a simple fact of our constitutions, which is that maintaining a "fight" stance is impossible, continuously, over the long term. We're just not built to be in a continuous rage. Maybe taking frequent breaks from it would help: focusing on something good (nature? music? other people?) that doesn't anger us?
In this case, a Nazi Youth was instrumental in denouncing the existence of Hispanic workers, without any proof that they were here illegally. And his cohorts applaud, while the gubernatorial candidate passes off the Nazi behavior as a "college student's tweet."
I wish people in media would say ‘the Epstein files the FBI holds, not just the 20,000 files just released.
My point is, what has been released so far are not the FBI files, and the files confiscated by the FBI are what are explosive and important. Those have not been released.
better to get files fro the epstein estate
We need to support every star Democrat we can find because it will take an army to sustain our democracy through to the end of this “administration” ($cabal).
This is the leadership Democrats need. We should no longer tolerate the old guard. It’s time to embrace new blood.
No mention of any of the courageous women leading this fight also: Crockett. Stansbury, AOC, and so many more. Also, I haven't seen Jeffries lead, so much as shout from behind.
Hear! Hear! There were a number of women in government who should have been on that list, including MY Representative Melanie Stansbury - so proud to have her representing me!
Well, you really are Contrarian, aren't you? I'm still struck by your seeing the "defecting" democrats as somehow having lost it or giving in. I see them as having had enough and also putting themselves and the rest of the so-called "governing" body back into the possibility of governing - addressing the SNAP issue right off the bat and beyond. There's a benefit to taking a stand - that happened for the extended shut down, and then there's a benefit to coming to the table and moving on.
Respectfully, I strongly disagree. The Dems weren't holding back the SNAP payments, Trump was. There is PLENTY of reserve and discretionary funds available that could have paid for SNAP. Those defectors played right into the Republicans hand and ended up getting ZERO for the 40+ days of shutdown and now the Dems not only look foolish and weak, they also looked like they betrayed all those voters who elected them this year BECAUSE they actually looked like maybe, just maybe they might have some shred of a spine. But it turns out that the joke was on the voters!
And it's since been revealed that the acquiescing Democrats were major recipients of donations from the airline industry. They wanted to get people flying again worse than they wanted to make sure that health insurance was protected.
Industry talk is that a lot of legislators take airline money. One thing the get out of it is flights out of DCA to their homes that don't make a lot of economic sense.
I highly doubt that motive. Most of them aren't running for another term.
Which in my view offered them protection for retribution.
Why would they want to appease the airline industry when they would have nothing to gain by it other than wrath from their own constituents?
Excellent again.
I want to see Elissa Slotkin and Jasmine Crockett also mentioned in any discussion of 'new young faces' that represent true modern democracy!
“Rep. Robert Garcia shows Democrats how to fight MAGA.” Precisely!!! You’ve got to take it to these fascist thugs, pound them every day, day after day, and don’t let up. My god, they provide more than enough criminality and crap to use for a lifetime. If Schumer and Jeffries had any brains and fight in them at all, this regime would be reeling. Those two wimps need replacing pronto.
Thank you Robert Garcia! Much appreciated. Keep it up.
A free press is essential for a democracy. So is a an independent rule of law. When I reflect on what role I played during these dark days I will be able to look at my support of The Contrarian. Let’s support Jennifer and Norm.
Your support plays a much bigger role than you think. Our Contrarians are central to overcoming these "dark days" in our democracy. Thank you being a part of this fight with us.
Trump as we all already knew was not going to keep his promises. First how can you when your entire presidency has been marred in a retribution campaign? The court battles he has created have hindered his ability to get anything done other than the ones that have been won by the opposition. Garcia appears to be making a valiant effort to counter the MAGA cult. Quite frankly I like Jamie Raskin I think he should run for president in 2028. Though I also like Gretchen Whitmer somewhere in a high place where she can be useful. There’s also other good women out there too.
Help me with my misunderstanding of what just happened. It appears to me that we didn't cave to the Repubulicans so much as recognize that there wasn't going to be a deal anytime soon and our government services would continue to spin down to the greater expense of a lot of us.
I'm a little disappointed that Jennifer seems so convinced that there was another path. Maybe there was, but it wasn't evident to me.
There is a great quote of lyndon Johnson to the effect that sometimes there is no good resolution and so we'd stand around and discuss it and then agree on the soultion preferred by the guy whose stomach hurt the most.
Next time I post it will be about how the "dog who didn't bark" was misunderstood by Epstein and apparently a lot of the rest of us.
Trump never had the role of the dog in this affair.
The dog who didn't bark describes far more accurately the behavior of our present DOJ, don't you think?
An interpretation more likely imo... The dog in this is not Trump. It's a "dog" (guard) who knew Trump was familiar, one of them..i.e. part of what was going on.
From AI "The dog who didn't bark" refers to a clue from a Sherlock Holmes story where the absence of an expected event—the dog barking at a stranger—reveals that the intruder was someone the dog knew. The phrase is used as a metaphor in other contexts to highlight what is missing or unsaid as a key piece of information. "
Potter, I like your interpretation but wonder who is the "dog" in the Epstein Email? Parsing doesn't suggest any possibility other than Trump which I think we agree makes no snese. It's possible that Epstein didn't understand the Holmes reference which would be the only one I can think of. I read Sherlock in high school and I think in my case understood the reference. You don't hear any barks for DOJ these days.
There are other interpretations of this. One is that the dog is in fact Trump.. which Maxwell says countering Epstein's use of the phrase ( as I describe interpreted above). So they were using this language to say a couple of things... that Trump knew what was going on and had not barked about it ( at that point).. and/or that the dog (i.e they) has/have not shared how complicit and involved Trump was with their scheme and held that over and against him ( could ruin him). I am just guessing. Google "who is the dog that did not bark regarding Trump"
PS. Both Epstein and Maxwell use this analogy to discuss Trump.. two different ideas. Perhaps that this goes both ways--they are threatened and can threaten back.
Again.. just guessing.