Joy Comes With Justice As Bland, Mallory and Sarsour Step Down From The Women's March

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The January 21, 2017 Women’s March was the largest single-day march in US history, coming the day after Trump’s inauguration.

Justice has come to The Women’s March, an organization launched with the unified, anti-Trump passions of millions of women and men worldwide on January 21, 2017, the day after Donald Trump’s Presidential Inauguration . The Women’s March was the largest single-day protest in U.S. history.

After that breathtaking launch, The Women’s March devolved into recriminations against Jewish women, in particular, and white women generally. The Women’s Marches scheduled in many cities for 2019 were either cancelled or were held after public rejections of the Women’s March National Board led by original march organizers Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian-American activist; Tamika Mallory, an African-American gun control activist; Bob Bland, a white fashion designer, and Carmen Perez-Jordan.

The pervasive attitude that The Women’s March team was focused — not on building a large network of pro-women’s rights women and men nationwide — but their own New York activists short list of priorities that prioritized racial, Palestinian and sexual minority issues over women’s issues was wide-spread. White women, in particular, had little place in The Women’s March group as it evolved.

Women's March Co-Chairs Linda Sarsour and Tamika Mallory speak during the Power to the Polls voter-registration tour last year in Las Vegas. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

The organizers preferred to remind Hillary supporters and Democratic women that the majority of America’s white women voted for Trump, as Tamika Mallory did during the Power to the Polls voter-registration tour last year in Las Vegas. It was staggeringly depressing in the time of Trump to listen to Mallory use her platform not to rally the Hillary supporters, but denounce white women as pro-Trump.

College-educated white women voted for Hillary, but they were shunned and charged with not being true feminists, especially as Jewish women not being willing to denounce Israel over the Palestinian conflict.

Mallory, in particular, refused to criticize Nation of Islam black nationalist Louis Farrakhan, who made incendiary remarks about Jews, at an event in which she sat in the front row. Mallory is passionate in her support for Farrakhan, calling him a GOAT. Sarsour also refused to criticize Farakhan for his virulently anti-Semitic comments.

Tamika Mallory, Linda Sarsour, Bob Bland and Carmen Perez. Perez will stay on with The Women’s March group.

On Monday, The Women’s March announced that co-Chairs Bob Bland, Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour stepped down from the board July 15, though the organization has been slow to announce their departures. ,reports The Washington Post.

A diverse cast of 16 new board members that includes three Jewish women, a transgender woman, a former legislator, two religious leaders and a member of the Oglala tribe of the Lakota nation will inherit an organization recovering from a failed attempt to trademark the Women’s March name and fractured relationships with local activist groups and the Jewish community.

A new operating structure will be put in place shortly, which is a good thing because in its totally destructive state, the national Women March leadership was a total threat in telling white suburban women — an important voting block in the success of Democrats in the 2018 midterms — to go to hell. After Mallory’s speech in Las Vegas, I simply can’t imagine what she would have said to white women in the presidential election campaign. .

The three members who have resigned — Bob Bland, Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour — are avid Bernie Sanders supporters, which is a key reason why they refused to allow Hillary Clinton to be one of about 20 women honored at the maiden Women’s March launch on January 21, 2019. Despite their protestations to the contrary, the founders never sought unity with Hillary supporters, all but accusing us of electing Trump.

Words do not express my job at seeing these three women — especially Mallory and Sarsour — step down from The Women’s March organization. Now — let us rise in unity! We’ll cover the responses to this news in a followup article. Few will be as candid as my commentary, but these women totally crushed the Trumped-down spirits of so many women all over America .~ Anne

Nicolas Valois Snaps Military Fashion As Madame Figaro France Inspires Delayed 9/11 Reflections

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Nicolas Valois Snaps Military Fashion As Madame Figaro France Inspires Delayed 9/11 Reflections

Model Loane Normand suits up in utilitarian military looks so fancied in Europe. Cecile Martin styles Normand in images by Nicolas Valois for Madame Figaro France August 31, 2019.

Speaking of taking a fancy to bad-ass military women, it’s Madame Figaro France who just introduced me to the new Valerie Plame Campaign video. Plame is a well-known CIA agent who was outed in the Bush administration and had to leave the service. She’s now running for Congress (the House of Representatives) as a Democrat from New Mexico. We have multiple new military and CIA women in Congress elected in November 2018 — and I love them.

Now that Madame Figaro has set up this nod to America’s women , let me share more of my favs. Next up, Amy McGrath running in Kentucky to unseat Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Amy narrowly lost her House election in November 2018.

Super Majority's Ai-jen Poo, Cecile Richards + Alicia Garza Launch National Women Voters Bus Tour

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Led by National Domestic Workers Alliance director Ai-jen Poo, former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, and Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza, the recently-formed Supermajority political action group will launch a 14 states and Washington, D.C. bus tour starting September 15.

Women are the majority of Americans. That's why @supermajority launched #MajorityRules—our vision, informed by tens of thousands of women, for how we can all live, work, & rise together—and it all starts with a nationwide bus tour.
Meet us along the way! https://t.co/1pkaN1N2GZ

— Ai-jen Poo (@aijenpoo)September 4, 2019

Based on answers from Super Majority’s Women's Poll, answered by 60,000 women so far, the organization will unveil a policy platform called the “Majority Rules.” Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and Latinx rights advocate Paola Ramos will intersect with the Super Majority bus, along with Democratic presidential candidates including Julian Castro, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), and Pete Buttigieg.

"Women have always been powerful in their own right, but too often, we have been excluded from the political decisions that shape our futures," said Richards in a statement. "This bus tour is an opportunity for our leaders—from the community level to the halls of Congress—to hear directly from women and speak to them about how they will ensure the issues we care about, our Majority Rules, are treated like the national priorities that they are."

While women make up the majority of U.S. voters, Poo added, they are too often treated as a "special interest group" by politicians and the press.

"We are the most powerful force in America," she said. "It's time our leaders acknowledge us, look like us, and represent us. This bus tour will reach women across America who are doing more than resisting; they're taking action to better their lives, their communities, and their country so we can rise together."

Is the CNN Democratic Presidential Contenders Climate Town Hall at Hudson Yards or Not?

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HUDSON YARDS, SITE OF CNN’S CLIMATE CRISIS TOWN HALL. THE EVENT WILL FEATURE 10 DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT. AP PHOTO/MARK LENNIHAN

Of all the places in New York that CNN could have chosen to host its Sept. 4 Democratic presidential candidates forum on climate change, activists, political leaders and fashionistas alike are stunned that the network apparently chose 30 Hudson Yards, substantially owned by billionaire and recent $12 million fundraiser for President Donald Trump Stephen Ross.

Pardon us while we pick up our dropped jaws from the floor. News of Ross’ moneybags haul for Trump’s re-election caused boycotts of Ross’ Equinox gym and the decision of several prominent designers to pull out of Hudson Yards venues for the upcoming New York Fashion Week.

Queens Councilmember Costa Constantinides wrote a letter to CNN earlier this month asking the network to move the venue to an outer borough, where Superstorm Sandy revealed the devastating impact of the climate crisis. The letter was signed by more than a dozen Queens and Brooklyn lawmakers, reports The Queens Eagle.

“If 30 Hudson Yards is the venue, it’s a property developed by Stephen Ross: an ardent supporter of Donald Trump, who believes climate change is a hoax, and a leading figure in Big Real Estate, which fought tooth and nail to stop the landmark passage of the Climate Mobilization Act in April,” Constantinides said in a statement to the Eagle. 

“The candidates should see the communities already living with the effects of climate change on a daily basis, which there are plenty of in Queens and Brooklyn,” he continued. “If the town hall is indeed at Hudson Yards, where a three-bedroom condo goes for $9.5 million, it is a slap in the face to every Rockaway resident still waiting to get his or her home back nearly seven years after Sandy.”

Remarkably, as of two days ago, numerous officials at both CNN and Hudson Yards were denying that they knew anything about a town hall on September 4. A Friday Google search gives no location for the event, with CNN publishing the agenda. for the seven-hour series of one-on-one interviews with the candidates.

Employing due diligence, the Eagle did locate individuals at both CNN and Hudson Yards who — off the record — confirmed the Democratic event was good to go. Still, a staff member at the Shed performance space expressed surprise that the climate policy town hall would actually take place in the complex.

“It would be weird because of the Stephen Ross thing,” the person said.

Staff members were informed that the Shed would not be involved in “anything political” after the Ross boycott, the person added.

How the Conservative Right Hijacks Religion and Why Democrats Must Challenge Them

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How the Conservative Right Hijacks Religion and Why Democrats Must Challenge Them

Democrats are beginning to challenge the Republican grip on the language of religion and faith in the United States. Democrat Sen. Chris Coons, a graduate of Yale Divinity School, recently wrote an essay for The Atlantic, “Democrats Need to Talk About Their Faith.”

This is a bold and necessary move. However, it may come up against scientific and progressive resistance. This resistance is based on the claim that science and religion, or religion and progressive politics, are incompatible.

Scorn for religion can be seen both among some learned atheists or in popular culture. Oxford evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins dismissively discusses religion in The God Delusion; comedian, political commentator and talk show host Bill Maher’s documentary Religulous also took a smug and barbed approach and has faced criticisms of liberal Islamophobia.

Bernie Sanders Campaign Should Stop The White Women's Privilege Lectures

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Bernie Sanders Campaign Should Stop The White Women's Privilege Lectures

Last February Jennifer Wright addressed Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders’ problem with women, writing Bernie Sanders’ Sexism Problem for Harper’s Bazaar.

“We have got to look at candidates, you know, not by the color of their skin, not by their sexual orientation or their gender and not by their age. I mean, I think we have got to try to move us toward a non-discriminatory society which looks at people based on their abilities, based on what they stand for.” Vermont Public Radio, Feb. 2019

Many women and people of color view that statement as a reaffirmation of the “let white men rule, we’re better at it” theory of political governance. Wright perfects her roast of Sanders, and I encourage to read her piece, while I pull out a few highlights that still simmer in my conscious as a super active person in the Hillary Clinton campaign.

There was a bit of poetic justice when women who worked for Bernie in his 2016 primary campaign came forward to discuss how they were paid less and experienced sexual harassment. You see, with rare exceptions — finally hiring Symone Sanders who served as his national press secretary until late June 2016 — Bernie couldn’t really find many good women of any skin color to hire at a high level. His campaign was run by white men — a feature that he has fixed in his current 2020 run for the Democratic nomination.

Still, when women working in the field and as organizers complained about both wages and fending off sexual advances from male staffers, Bernie grabbed his mop of white hair and defended his inaction saying initially “I was a little bit busy running around the country”. After all, Bernie Sanders said that “women’s issues were a distraction” and Planned Parenthood — who is getting the crap kicked out of them by the Trump administration — is “the establishment”.

Rep. Lauren Underwood (D) Introduces Bill To Standardize Health Care Screenings At US Border

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Rep. Lauren Underwood (D) Introduces Bill To Standardize Health Care Screenings At US Border

In the cage match between Trump and the Squad, it's easy to miss enlightened comments about the Mexico border migrant crisis like the one Democratic Congresswoman Lauren Underwood just delivered on 'Morning Joe'.

Congresswoman Underwood introduced The U.S. Border Patrol Medical Screening and Standards Act, which would standardized processes and training to ensure consistent medical screenings for migrants in US custody at the Mexico border, according to a news release.

"We progressive women aren't going anywhere," was her final statement. Underwood never embraced all of the Squad's positions or style; not did she try to separate herself from them. But as a Democratic woman of color who defeated a Republican in Illinois’s 14th congressional district in 2018, she's in that camp derided by our most left-wing voices. As if 'she' is the problem in executing the Democratic agenda and not Republicans!

Trump’s Reelection Support is 50-50 in Texas, Biden and O’Rourke Lead the Democrats, UT/TT Poll Says

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Trump’s Reelection Support is 50-50 in Texas, Biden and O’Rourke Lead the Democrats, UT/TT Poll Says

Half of the registered voters in Texas would vote to reelect President Donald Trump, but half of them would not, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

Few of those voters were wishy-washy about it: 39% said they would “definitely” vote to reelect Trump; 43% said they would “definitely not” vote for him. The remaining 18% said they would “probably” (11%) or “probably not” (7%) vote to give Trump a second term.

“That 50-50 number encapsulates how divisive Trump is,” said James Henson, who runs the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin and co-directs the poll. But, he added, the number is not necessarily “a useful prediction for an election that’s 16 months away.”

Among Republicans, 73% would “definitely” vote for Trump; among Democrats, 85% were “definitely not” voting for another term.

“This squarely focuses on Trump,” said Daron Shaw, professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin and co-director of the poll. However, he said, “it isn’t a matchup with a flesh-and-blood Democrat. It shows Trump’s relative weakness, compared to a generic Democrat in this state.”

Independents were less emphatic than either the Republicans or the Democrats, but 60% said they wouldn’t vote for the president in an election held today, including 45% who would “definitely not” vote for him.

Women Activists Form SuperMajority.com, Led By Cecile Richards, Alicia Garza + Al-jen Poo

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Women Activists Form SuperMajority.com, Led By Cecile Richards, Alicia Garza + Al-jen Poo

Three very prominent women activists: Cecile Richards, the former head of Planned Parenthood; Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter; and Ai-jen Poo, executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance have formed Super Majority. The group, which describes itself as multiracial and intergenerational, has a goal of training and mobilizing 2 million women over the next year to become organizers and political leaders in their communities, reports TIME.

A community for women who want to use our power to transform this country-for good. http://bit.ly/2Was7P3


Did Cindy Crawford's George Magazine Cover Portend America's Struggle With A Female President?

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Did Cindy Crawford's George Magazine Cover Portend America's Struggle With A Female President?

Supermodel Cindy Crawford graced the first cover of ‘George’, a crucial decision in making it clear that the magazine was’t the “John Kennedy magazine” but a publication that stood on its own. Kennedy invited fashion photographer Herb Ritts and his creative director Matt Berman over to his TriBeCa loft, where they joined Kennedy’s wife Carolyn Bessette.

(Kate) Story writes that Bassette loved the Crawford idea, calling it “perfect”. Bessette listed the supermodel’s attributes: “She’s all-American, a self-made woman, sexy, strong, and smart.”

For a moment, there was more to the story — a move that would have been sensational for ‘George’ and also for America’s always on its knees women’s movement, as exemplified by Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump two decades later.

Story writes: “It wasn’t just the wig. After studying old paintings on the set of the photo shoot, the team decided to stuff Crawford’s skintight breeches with a sock.

Michigan Trumpsters Chant "AOC Sucks" As Junior Condemns All Things Green Except Money For Trump Family

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Michigan Trumpsters Chant "AOC Sucks" As Junior Condemns All Things Green Except Money For Trump Family

Part of the crowd at Thursday night’s Trump March 28, 2019 rally in Michigan started chanting "AOC sucks," referencing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), after Donald Trump Jr. criticized her ideas. After all, the president’s son is such an authority on American politics, and his father loves women targets, in particular.

“Think about the fact that every mainstream, leading Democratic contender is taking the advice of a freshman congresswoman who three weeks ago didn’t know the three branches of government,” the president's son told the crowd ahead of his dad’s speech. “I don’t know about you guys, but that’s pretty scary.”

After Junior’s remark — AOC calls him ‘Junior’ — the crowd broke into the "AOC sucks" chant. Read Charlotte Alter’s cover story 'Change Is Closer Than We Think.' Inside Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Unlikely Rise’. We hope that AOC will just ignore the chants, because they may be with her all the way to 2020.

The Trump crowd loves to denigrate smart women because females with brains that function on overdrive have a very small place in their universe. Daddy’s girl Ivanka Trump, Trumpsters embrace. Do you see a pattern here? I’m sure that Trump had a proverbial heart attack when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — hardly a member of the Trump family inner sanctum — showed up on the cover of last week’s TIME magazine.

Kamala Harris Eyes March 3, 2020 California Primary | Early Voting Timed With Iowa + New Hampshire

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Harris in Los Angeles with beneficiaries of the DREAM Act—which the senator has made a priority to protect. Photographed by Zoe Ghertner,Vogue, April 2018

As America readies another presidential election season and trained journalists are talking Iowa and New Hampshire — two states that do not at all mirror the voter makeup of America or the wins of the 2018 mid-terms — Sen. Kamala Harris is beating down door in California. Not content with a wait and see strategy, Senator Harris is locking down endorsements and financial contributions in her new Super Tuesday March 3 primary state — and her home state — that could give her an enormous edge in winning the Democratic nomination. The decision of California to move up its primary from being last in the country makes it suddenly very relevant.

If she has anything but stellar success in California, writes Politico, her presidential aspirations for 2020 could end quickly. Kamala Harris has a true political machine in California and no home-state challengers. Not that Harris isn’t busy making appearances out of California.

In particular, she’s courting voters in another Super Tuesday state — South Carolina. If Biden runs, he does have close relationships with African American voters in the South Carolina, but it’s pretty inconceivable that African American women won’t break big for Sen. Harris in South Carolina.

Donald Trump and Beto O'Rourke Duke It Out In El Paso As Congress Works Against A New Shutdown

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FORMER CONGRESSMAN AND POSSIBLE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE BETO O'ROURKE MARCHED IN HIS OWN RALLY MONDAY. IMAGE: IVAN PIERRE AGUIRRE FOR THE TEXAS TRIBUNE

Donald Trump and Beto O'Rourke Duke It Out In El Paso As Congress Works Against A New Shutdown

As Trump spoke, O’Rourke led a march to a park just steps away from the coliseum. There, the former congressman and U.S. Senate candidate pressed his case — to raucous cheers — that El Paso is “safe not because of walls but in spite of walls.”

“We can show the rest of the country ... that walls do not make us safer,” O’Rourke said, arguing such barriers force immigrants to cross in more remote, dangerous stretches of the border.

“We know that walls do not save lives,” he added. “Walls end lives.”

Democrats Court Rural Southern Voters With Stacey Abrams’ State of the Union Response

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Democrats Court Rural Southern Voters With Stacey Abrams’ State of the Union Response

By Sharon Austin, Professor of Political Scieence and Director of the African American Studies Program, University of Florida. First published on The Conversation

In a brief, direct and optimistic speech about fighting immigrant scapegoating, racism and voter suppression, Stacey Abrams celebrated diversity in her Democratic rebuttal to Donald Trump’s divisive 2019 State of the Union address.

“We will create a stronger America together,” she said.

Abrams is the first African-American woman to deliver a State of the Union response in the 53-year history of this tradition. She is the first black woman to be nominated by a major party to run for governor. Before that, she was the first African-American ever to serve as House minority leader in the Georgia General Assembly.

Her State of the Union response has increased speculation that she is a rising political starwith a bright future in the Democratic Party.

By choosing Abrams to give the State of the Union response, Democrats were clearly reaching out to African-Americans and women, a key base for the party.

But Abrams’ speech also spoke to an often-overlooked constituency the Democratic Party may not have even thought about when they picked her. It’s a constituency Abrams has already cultivated: rural Southerners of color.

Abrams campaigned in both urban and rural counties last year, defying the logic of a Democratic Party that tends to court big city voters while leaving rural Americans to be won over by Republicans like Donald Trump.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren Releases DNA Report Concluding Strong Evidence Of Her American Indian Ancestor

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has called Trump’s bluff, releasing Monday morning a DNA test suggesting “strong evidence” that she has a distant Native American ancestor.

The DNA analysis, by Stanford University professor Carlos D. Bustamante concludes that “the vast majority” of Warren’s ancestry is European but that “the results strongly support the existence of an unadmixed Native American ancestor in the individual’s pedigree, likely in the range of 6-10 generations ago.”

The finding supports Warren’s family story about her Oklahoma upbringing that her great-great-great-grandmother O.C. Sarah Smith was all or partially Native American.

At a July 2018 political rally in Montana, Trump claimed that he would donate $1 million to Warren if she took a DNA test “and it shows you’re an Indian.”

After the early morning release of her DNA test, Warren tweeted Trump a reminded of his promise, advising him: “Please send the check to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center” an organization the senator described as “a nonprofit working to protect Native women from violence.”

Straight-Talkin', Fully Informed Amy McGrath Wins Upset In Kentucky 6th District Democrat Primary

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Straight-Talkin', Fully Informed Amy McGrath Wins Upset In Kentucky 6th District Democrat Primary

AOC has been all-in with Kentucky District 6 House candidate Amy McGrath, jumping for joy over her stunning Tuesday night victory over Jim Gray, Lexington's well-liked and Democratic-party backed former mayor. 

The New York Times writes that Republicans immediately tried to paint the Marine fighter pilot and mother of three as a far left candidate, while the very national Dems who backed her opponent Gray rallied quickly around her. AOC has no such torn allegiances, as we have been for McGrath all the way. 

"I have never heard someone so persistent," her campaign's highly-credentialed ad maker Mark Putnam told the Times. 

Amy McGrath has a story about refusing to accept the word "no": No, you cannot compete against the boys in sports. No, you cannot serve in combat or fly fighter jets. And no, you certainly cannot defeat the popular mayor of the largest city in your congressional district as a first-time candidate.

What I personally love deeply about Amy is not only her feminism, but her willingness to stand up to Trump. Of all the candidates running for office -- female or male -- McGrath won my heart with her second campaign video by Putnam. 

Her third one about taking her kids to the doctor was pretty good, too. 

Dem Kentucky House Candidate Amy McGrath Delivers Progressive Power Punch Campaign Video

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I was jazzed last night, seeing that Kentucky Congressional candidate Amy McGrath's story was front page landing photo and story at The Huffington Post.

The retired Marine colonel, wife and mother of three who has been teaching political science at the US Naval Academy, is one of more than 11,000 women pursuing public office after Trump's 2016 election win.

Many of us saw McGrath's incredible campaign ad as a triumph that motivated women in despair over Hillary's loss and Trump's arrival. We forgot in two-minutes of blazing determination to fight for true women's equality the DNC's decision that protecting women's body autonomy is no longer a core Democratic value. Instead, working-class, white men will rule, suggests the DNC, because we must cater again to them.

McGrath has a different vision of how Democrats can win, from the male-dominated DNC, now sounding a bit Republican on women's rights.

Speaking of Trump’s recent decision to ban transgender people from the military, McGrath doesn't waver.

“These people are patriotic Americans who stepped up to the plate,” she explains. “Do you have my back when I’m getting shot at, are you competent, are you someone of integrity? That’s what we really care about.”

Trump’s attempt to ban immigrants and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries “is a terrible policy” that amounts to “a strategic win” for the enemies she spent years fighting. This position puts her toe-to-toe with a Trump family that has NEVER served in the American military or even run for public office.

“They want to pit America and Americans against their religion (Islam), and he just handed them the Powerball lottery,” McGrath said. “This is not a war that can be won by more bombs being dropped on people. It’s a war that’s going to be won ... in people’s minds. When you hand the enemy exactly what they want in order to make more propaganda, you’re creating more fighters. This ban does not get to the root of the problem, and it does not protect Americans.”

More tough talk from progressive Kentucky Congressional candidate Amy McGrath could prove to be formidable in a Democratic race for one of 24 wins to put the party in control of the House in the 2018 elections. ~ Anne