Nancy Pelosi to President Donald Trump: "You've come into my wheelhouse now"

HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI WAS THE CLOSING SPEAKER AT THE TEXAS TRIBUNE FESTIVAL. IMAGE BY BOB DAEMMRICH FOR THE TEXAS TRIBUNE.

Nancy Pelosi to President Donald Trump: "You've come into my wheelhouse now"

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi painted herself as a once-reluctant but now fully engaged general amid her party's push for an impeachment inquiry, in an onstage interview at The Texas Tribune Festival on Saturday.

To make her point, she used sweeping, solemn language to underscore her view that what is happening at the U.S. Capitol is an existential moment in American history.

"If this activity, this pattern of behavior were to prevail ... then it's over for the republic," she said. "We will have the equivalent of a monarchy."

"Let us be prayerful. Let us be solemn. Let us try not to make it further divisive," she added. "But we cannot ignore our oath of office to defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies foreign and domestic."

In her most extensive interview about impeachment since she announced plans to open an inquiry this week, Pelosi described herself as "heartbroken" over the revelation that President Donald Trump asked the Ukrainian president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden. White House disclosures of the conversation — and that Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine prior to the conversation — unleashed a firestorm in Washington last week.

"I think right now there is a cover-up of a cover-up," she said.

When asked why she moved from the strongest backstop against impeachment to the leader of the effort, she chose brevity: "The facts."

Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill on President Donald Trump: "It Feels Like A 1776 Kind of Fight

AOC is so thankful that the media -- especially the more liberal MSNBC -- finally acknowledges that a wide roster of Democratic women came to Congress in 2019. There is life out there, besides The Squad of uber progressives that includes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

These superstar military and intelligence women — many of them lawyers who became federal prosecutors and other professionals — have had more "air" time in the last two weeks, than in all the time since they were sworn into Congress last January. It's not that these Congresswomen don’t have a lot to say, even though they’ve been the subject of ridicule by Squad supporters. These leaders just aren't committed to fighting the "revolution" on Twitter, where no insult lives without a response.

In Politico, NJ Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill gets to speak. Rebecca Michelle "Mikie" Sherrill is an American Democratic politician, a former United States Navy helicopter pilot, and a former federal prosecutor  She is also the mother of four children.

Sherill joined six of her fellow Congressmen and Congresswomen this week to step off the sidelines from their previously noncommittal position on an impeachment inquiry for President Donald Trump. On Sunday night the newly-elected in Trump districts Congresspersons drafted an op-ed published in The Washington Post that was unusually blunt.

The group of seven — Reps. Gil Cisneros of California, Jason Crow of Colorado, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Elaine Luria of Virginia, Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia are all freshman Democrats.— felt they had to “preserve the checks and balances envisioned by the Founders and restore the trust of the American people in our government.”

In two and a half centuries, three presidents of the United States have faced impeachment. With each hour of new revelations about the despotic, unpatriotic, illegal reign of Donald Trump, it’s certain that Trump will be the subject of a floor vote of impeachment in the US House of Representatives. and now, Sherrill is at the center of this latest turn of events, and she’s one of the reasons it’s happening.

This is the third installment of a Politico series on the first term of Democratic Representative Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey. The first installment appeared in February, and the second was published in August.

None of this would be unfolding—it couldn’t be—if Sherrill and others like her hadn’t won in 2018, in districts like hers, flipping them from red to blue, giving Democrats control of the House of Representatives and thus the ability to perform meaningful oversight, including pressing forward on impeachment. But she had won partly by promising she wanted to work with not only those in her caucus but Republicans as well, preaching the necessity of bipartisanship. She didn’t come down here looking for a fight, and certainly not this one. It was “the squad,” not “the badasses,” who arrived clamoring to “impeach the motherfucker.”

Meet the record number of women who arrived in Washington, DC in January 2019. They arrived as part of a historic wave of women elected in the November 2018 mid-term elections.

Nancy Pelosi to Speak Saturday at The Texas Tribune Festival, As Trump Impeachment Looms

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be the keynote speaker, with Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith as moderator, at The Texas Tribune Festival this Saturday.. Image via Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune.

By Chase Karacostas. First published on The Texas Tribune

Just a few days after declaring that the U.S. House of Representatives will begin a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will appear in Austin as the keynote speaker Saturday at The Texas Tribune Festival.

This is Pelosi's third time to speak at the festival, and it's one of her first major public appearances after Tuesday's impeachment investigation announcement. The California Democrat's interview, moderated by Tribune CEO Evan Smith, will be from 7:15 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Paramount Theater.

Impeachment is sure to be a major topic of discussion, as is Trump's July phone call with the Ukrainian president requesting an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

Before this week, Pelosi had fended off demands from members of her caucus to pursue impeachment, even after a long-awaited report from special counsel Robert Mueller was released. Much of her hesitation lay with the desire to protect her party's hard-won majority in the House. However, her tune changed this week after reports that the call with the Ukrainian president was the reason for an "urgent and credible" whistleblower complaint filed last month.

On Wednesday, the White House released a record of the call showing Trump implored newly elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Biden's son, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company that Ukrainian authorities have investigated. While Biden was vice president, he urged Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor, though the country's investigation into the company was reportedly dormant at the time.

Trump put nearly $400 million of Congress-approved security assistance on hold in the days before the call, leading some to accuse him of implicitly dangling the revocation of aid if Ukraine did not investigate Biden.

Pelosi's panel will be streamed live on the Tribune's website.

Yang Gang + Swing State Dems Challenge Justice Democrats As Voices of the People

The Justice Democrats may have a new competitor -- the Yang Gang. I don't have all the differences worked out in my mind, but I know I like the Yang Gang because I like Andrew Yang as a political candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Note, I have no candidate that AOC is endorsing, but Yang has definitely enjoyed far more success in his candidacy than anyone thought possible.

Jonathan Herzog, a 25-year-old former Yang staffer, announced his intentions to primary House Head of the Judiciary committee Jerry Nadler, entering an increasingly crowded Democratic race for the 10th Congressional District seat in New York

Jonathan Herzog, like his former boss, is running on a platform advocating for a $1,000 a month universal basic income (UBI), which he and Yang have both referred to as the "Freedom Dividend."

“My first priority will be to pass the Freedom Dividend,” Herzog said in a video Tuesday announcing his campaign launch.

AOC is so disgusted with Nadler's incompetency and ineffectual judiciary hearings, that I think the country would be better off with new and younger blood. NADLER CANNOT LEAD AN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY.

Don't think House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn't juggling that hot potato as well, but we seem to be headed toward a special impeachment committee or commission, where Nadler is only one of the key members. Rep. Adam Schiff of California, head of the House Intelligence Committee, should head the effort, as far as I'm concerned.

The moderate swing-state Dems, who came out Tuesday night for impeachment and ALL legal means possible in the matter of Trump’s actions against Ukraine, tipped the balance in the matter of making Donald Trump the third president impeached in US history.

Unlike the squad, who is always calling Trump out (we will impeach the m#therf#cker), the swing state Dem women don't even mention Trump's name. These women — also first-term members of the House of Representatives — are all about protecting the Constitution, not seeking revenge on Trump. They are not involved in a Twitter war with Trump supporters, like members of the squad. It's very interesting to listen to the swing-state women Dems take a totally different approach. Yes, the fact that they have commanded navy war ships and large real-life squads of military men inspires my confidence in them.

The contrasts among these women: Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Elaine Luria of Virginia, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan just emphasizes the wide range of women in the Democratic party. All are important, but I am happy to see the swing district women (and a few men) begin to move in unison in their own squad. Progressive media is obsessed with the squad, as if they represent the entirely of the Democratic party, when they do not.

This is another reason why AOC is learning as much as we can about the Yang Gang, as an emerging balance to the as far left as they can go Justice Democrats, who want to blow up everything. Their voices are important but the equally innovative Yang Gang can be an important addition to the political mix among our young people.

Back to Nadler, who is ineffectual toast in my playbook, the Congressman has multiple challengers for his very important House seat. Besides Herzog,

Herzog joins a race in which Nadler has already attracted three women primary challengers. They are Amanda Pearl Frankel, Holly Lynch and Lindsey Boylan, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Boylan’s campaign so far is considered to be the more formidable, writes The New York Post.

The former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo raised $264,657 during the first quarter that she was in the race.

“I welcome all candidates,” she told The Post, responding to Herzog’s entry. “A healthy democracy needs more, not fewer candidates.”

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

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."

Greg Abbott Invoked Mental Illness After the El Paso Shooting. Where Is Evidence?

Greg Abbott Invoked Mental Illness After the El Paso Shooting. Where Is Evidence?

Hours after a white gunman walked into an El Paso Walmart on Saturday and killed nearly two dozen Hispanic shoppers, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott addressed a room full of reporters in the border city and expressed grief and support for the community.

As high-profile mass shootings continue to erupt across the country — three of which occurred in Texas in the last two years — a reporter asked the governor what he planned on doing to ensure one doesn’t happen again.

Abbott, a Republican, hesitated, then spoke at length about how the state Legislature reacted to the 2018 high school shooting in Santa Fe, eventually focusing on what he said was the most agreed-upon need: addressing mental health issues.

“Bottom line is mental health is a large contributor to any type of violence or shooting violence, and the state of Texas this past session passed a lot of legislation and provided funding for the state to better address that challenge,” he concluded, referring to bills aimed at improving children’s mental health care.

Behind him, U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat from El Paso, visibly stiffened, shaking her head slightly as Abbott connected mental illness to what appears to be an act of domestic terrorism fueled by a white supremacist ideology.

The next day, before a downtown El Paso vigil for the victims, she put into words what had been apparent on her face.

“I would also call on those who use mental illness as an excuse to please stop. Please stop,” Escobar told reporters, to light applause from those beginning to arrive for the service. “It further stigmatizes those who truly suffer from mental illness, and the fact of the matter is people with mental illness are far more likely to be victims of violent crime, not perpetrators.”

“This tragedy is not in vain if we can finally have a reckoning in this country as to what is really going on,” she added.

NRA Puts Nancy Pelosi + Gaby Giffords Out For Target Practice. Will Sandy Hook Ruling Dampen Their Machismo?

NRA Puts Nancy Pelosi + Gaby Giffords Out For Target Practice. Will Sandy Hook Ruling Dampen Their Machismo?

The National Rifle Association left little to the imagination in their March 2019 issue of American Rifleman, citing Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and gun control advocate, former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Gifford — herself an assault rifle victim — as in the line of fire and perhaps in need of a little target practice.

There’s no doubt that these are macho men. The white nationalist assassin from Australia who Facebook livestreamed with his assault on two New Zealand mosques Friday is also a macho man. that currently leaves 50 dead and 50 hospitalized — many in critical condition.

On Thusday, March 14th, the Connecticut Supreme Court overturned a lower-court ruling, agreeng with Connecticut’s Sandy Hook families that the marketing employed by Remington Arms, a major manufacturer of deadly assault rifles and specifically the AF15, was so aggregious in appealing to men’s “killer instincts” that it transgressed against federal immunity laws that protect gun manufacturers from liability.

Connecticut law, the court wrote in the majority opinion, "does not permit advertisements that promote or encourage violent, criminal behavior." While federal law does offer protection for gun manufacturers, the majority wrote, "Congress did not intend to immunize firearms suppliers who engage in truly unethical and irresponsible marketing practices promoting criminal conduct, and given that statutes such as CUTPA are the only means available to address those types of wrongs, it falls to a jury to decide whether the promotional schemes alleged in the present case rise to the level of illegal trade practices and whether fault for the tragedy can be laid at their feet."

Read on in Salon. Sandy Hook Lawsuit Court Victory Opens Crack In Gun Maker Immunity Shield

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

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.”

Mitch Landrieu Launches E Pluribus Unum Fund For Racial Reconciliation With Backing By Emerson Collective

Mitch Landrieu Launches E Pluribus Unum Fund For Racial Reconciliation With Backing By Emerson Collective

The removal of the statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in New Orleans, was the second of four Confederate monuments scheduled by then New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu for relocation in advance of the city’s 300 anniversary. The larger-than-life image of Davis atop an ornate granite pedestal roughly 15-feet high was erected in 1911, nearly 50 years after the end of the war, and commissioned by the Jefferson Davis Memorial Association.

A month earlier workers dismantled an obelisk that was erected in 1891 to honor members of the Crescent City White League who in 1874 fought in the Reconstruction-era Battle of Liberty Place against the racially integrated New Orleans police and state militia.

Two other works were also removed in the summer of 2017: a bronze statue of Gen. Robert E Lee that has stood in a traffic circle, named Lee Circle, in the city’s central business district since 1884, and an equestrian statue of P.G.T. Beauregard, a Confederate general. 

Former Alabama Senator and Attorney General in the Trump Administration Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III bears the Confederate general’s name.

Protests on both sides of the Confederate statue debate were fierce, prompting Mayor Landrieu to make an eloquent, emotional and gifted speech on the subject of removing the Confederate monuments on Friday, May 19, 2017.

The full text of Landrieu’s speech was published by The New York Times. I consider it to be one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard — from its sweeping beginning to its soul-wrenching end.

Thank you for coming.

The soul of our beloved City is deeply rooted in a history that has evolved over thousands of years; rooted in a diverse people who have been here together every step of the way — for both good and for ill. It is a history that holds in its heart the stories of Native Americans — the Choctaw, Houma Nation, the Chitimacha. Of Hernando De Soto, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, the Acadians, the Islenos, the enslaved people from Senegambia, Free People of Colorix, the Haitians, the Germans, both the empires of France and Spain. The Italians, the Irish, the Cubans, the south and central Americans, the Vietnamese and so many more. Read on.

Right-Wing Bogeyperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Challenges Sen. Joe Manchin's Energy Committee Role

Right-Wing Bogeyperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Challenges Sen. Joe Manchin's Energy Committee Role

Politico writes Monday that Ocasio-Cortez is leading a group of progressives very unsettled by the prospect of West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin assuming a minority leadership position on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

At a Friday rally outside the Capitol, Ocasio-Cortez joined other Democratic lawmakers and other incoming Democratic freshmen, arguing that allowing Manchin to become the ranking member of the Energy committee would undercut the momentum behind their "Green New Deal" proposal that calls for transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy sources within a decade of initiating the plan.

“The vast majority of Americans believe that we should not be taking money from the industries that we are legislating and really presiding over in our committee work, but in D.C. that’s a controversial opinion,” Ocasio-Cortez said alongside youth climate activists from the Sunrise Movement.

Manchin, who has a 47 percent lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters Joe Manchin has a steady — and expected position given that he’s elected to support voters in his coal country state — regularly accepts election campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry.

Supporters of the Green New Deal say the activism that propelled candidates like Ocasio-Cortez to Washington underscores the citizen support for action on climate change. The argument gained momentum with federal scientists from 13 agencies last week issuing a report forecasting dire economic and physical consequences across America if greenhouse gas emissions continue rising.

“A decade ago it was a little easier to hide behind, ‘I’ve got a state where we can’t do this,’” Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) told POLITICO after the event, noting her Maine delegation colleagues Sens. Angus King (I) and Susan Collins (R) often side with Democrats on climate issues. “It may be hard for Joe Manchin to be there, but I think there’s going to be a lot of other colleagues who say, ‘Hey, this needs to be on our agenda, we’ve got to move forward with some legislation.’ And they could be on both sides of the aisle.”

Sarah Ullman Delivers A Bounty Of Ace Ads On Gun Reform With Her PAC One Vote At A Time

Sarah Ullman Delivers A Bounty Of Ace Ads On Gun Reform With Her PAC One Vote At A Time

Meet Sarah Ullman, a young filmmaker on a mission to curb gun violence in America.  Showing just how dedicated Ullman is to leverage her PAC, One Vote at a Time, Vogue writes that her political ads helped flip 10 of the 15 seats Democrats picked up in the Virginia statehouse in 2017. 

In 2018, One Vote has signed on to work with 250 candidates in 10 states, including Stacey Abrams, who is running for governor in Georgia and the first-ever black woman gubernatorial candidate from a major party in United States history. In North Carolina, Ullman is excited about attorney Anita Earls, who is campaigning for a Supreme Court seat after helping to challenge the state’s redistricting laws. 

Ullman interned for House Rep (D-Conn) Chris Murphy in 2009. Living in Los Angeles, pursuing a career as a young director in 2016, Ullman listened to Murphy's 15-hour filibuster on the Senate floor in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida. 

As a familiar cycle of thoughts and prayers set in, Ullman felt helpless and angry. “I just was tired of feeling that way,” she says. She took to her Facebook page, asking her mostly film-industry–related friends and acquaintances, “What if I made campaign ads for people who are supportive of gun safety? Who’s with me?”

Trump Will Be Greeted By A Sea of Black As Democratic Women Dress For A #Me Too Moment

The most visible protest at Tuesday night's State of the Union message by President Donald Trump will likely belong to female Democrats in Congress, who are wearing black -- the polar opposite of January's address (not an official State of the Union speech) when they wore white in honor of Hillary Clinton and all the suffragettes. 

Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, co-founder of the Caucus on Black Women and Girls, will honor Recy Taylor, a black Alabaman who was kidnapped and raped by six white men in 1944. Coleman has ordered 200 red pins with Taylor's name embossed for members of the Black Caucus to wear. The New Yorker writes that Rose Gunter, Taylor's niece and caregiver until her death in December will be Coleman's guest. 

“I’m going to tell you that I didn’t know about her until Oprah Winfrey mentioned her,“ Watson Coleman told the magazine. “But I think that speaks to the fact that our history, our suffering, isn’t captured in the same way that non-minorities have captured their history, their suffering, their experiences, their contributions.”

Vanity Fair profiles the many guests -- at least 24 are Dreamers -- who will accompany House Democrats this evening. 

Stars Align In Alabama: Emmett Till; Four Birmingham, Alabama Church-Going Girls; Doug Jones; Dana Schutz & Racial Reconciliation

Stars Align In Alabama: Emmett Till; Four Birmingham, Alabama Church-Going Girls; Doug Jones; Dana Schutz & Racial Reconciliation

Nigerian-born, Huntsville-raised, U of Alabama grad Toyin Ojih Odutola first got the attention of Voguemagazine when the poet Claudia Rankine published as essay in Aperture magazine, "A New Grammar for Blackness'. 

A year later, Toyin Ojih Odutola has mounted a solo show 'To Wander Determined' at the Whitney Museum in New York. Upon entering the show, visitors see a letter written by Odutola in the persona of the 'Deputy Private Secretary' for two aristocratic families in Lagos. 

artNet writes: "For Ojih Odutola, their images form a corrective to a Eurocentric art history that thinks of both court portraiture and genre paintings as belonging to a primarily white world, with black characters as footnotes—cast as servants, slaves, or left out completely.."

The topic of black identity, colonialism, and cultural appropriation have lived front and center in our national -- and international -- dialogue in 2017. 

Mn. Lt. Gov. Tina Smith Will Assume Sen. Al Franken's Seat | Smith Will Run In 2018

CURRENT MINN. SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D) WILL BE JOINED BY CURRENT MINN. LT. GOV. TINA SMITH (D), TAPPED BY MINN. GOV. MARK DAYTON TO REPLACE CURRENT SEN. AL FRANKEN, WHO IS RESIGNING.

Mn. Lt. Gov. Tina Smith Will Assume Sen. Al Franken's Seat | Smith Will Run In 2018

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton appointed fellow Democrat Lt. Gov. Tina Smith on Wednesday to replace Sen. Al Franken until a special election in November. Smith, who previously said she was not interested in a permanent Senate seat, has reversed her decision and will run in a potentially bruising 2018 election.

“I will run in that election and I will do my best to earn Minnesotans’ support,” she said at the news conference where Dayton announced her appointment.

Franken, who resigned under pressure from fellow Democrats after he was accused of improper behavior by at least eight women, announced last Thursday that he would resign “in the coming weeks.” His office said Tuesday that he had not yet set a final departure date.

A native of New Mexico, Smith graduated from Stanford and earned an MBA from Dartmouth. She moved to Minn. for a marketing job with General Mills and eventually started her own marketing and political consulting firm. 

Smith has served as an executive for Planned Parenthood, certain to be a flash point with her Republican candidate. Her position will simultaneously solidify her support among Democratic women. 

Atlanta Mayor's Race Between Bottoms & Norwood Moves To Recount With Bottoms Leading By 800 Votes

Atlanta Mayor's Race Between Bottoms & Norwood Moves To Recount With Bottoms Leading By 800 Votes

For the second time in eight years, the leadership Atlanta, the South’s most influential city, is settling into a recount, writes The New York Times. 

Fewer than 800 votes separated Atlanta’s two candidates for mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms and Mary Norwood, after officials tallied more than 92,000 ballots that were cast in Tuesday's  runoff election. Ms. Norwood, seeking to become Atlanta’s first white mayor in more than 40 years, said she would ask for a recount once provisional and absentee ballots were counted this week.

Ms. Bottoms and her allies would not cede the moment of jubilation, declaring victory on Wednesday.

Six Democratic Women Senators Call On Franken To Resign Immediately

Six Democratic Women Senators Call On Franken To Resign Immediately

In statements Wednesday, six of Franken's female Democratic colleagues — Senators Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Patty Murray of Washington and Kamala Harris of California — pushed for him to step down. Murray is the third-ranking Senate Democrat and the highest ranking woman.

We wrote last week that the new accusation from a veteran was totally backing the women into a corner, especially Sen. Gillibrand. I called on Franken to resign that day, because no one person deserves center stage. That may sound unfair, but women have dealt with false accusations for years -- and we know the probability of false accusations varies from 2-8%. When a group of women come forward -- several of them Democrats -- the probability of false accusations dwindles to near zero. 

Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) Retires Under Sexual Harassment Claims, Endorses Son To Continue Political Dynasty

Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) Retires Under Sexual Harassment Claims, Endorses Son To Continue Political Dynasty

Michigan's John Conyers, a Democrat from Michigan, civil rights icon, and longest serving member of the US House of Representatives, announced on Tuesday that he will be retiring “today” amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment and a report that he paid more than $27,000 to keep an accuser quiet. 

The effective date is at once and not at the end of Conyers' term. It comes with yet another charge levied against Conyers today. Elisa Grubbs, who said that she worked for Conyers from 2001-13, claims that in addition to his inappropriate conduct with her, she saw him touching and stroking the legs and buttocks of Marion Brown, Grubbs' cousin, and other female employees working for the congressman on "multiple occasions."

“Rep. Conyers slid his hand up my skirt and rubbed my thighs while I was sitting next to him in the front row of a church,” Grubbs said. "When Rep. Conyers would inappropriately touched me like this, my eyes would pop out and I would be stunned in disbelief,” Grubbs wrote in an affidavit posted on Twitter by Brown’s attorney, Lisa Bloom.

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

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

EMILY'S LIST Will Target 50 Republicans For 2018, As The New Dem Boys Club Hugs Anti-Women Candidates

EMILY'S LIST Will Target 50 Republicans For 2018, As The New Dem Boys Club Hugs Anti-Women Candidates

EMILY's List is putting 50 House and Senate Republicans "On Notice" for 2018 in a new campaign. Hopefully, Emily's List will also take seriously the threat from Democratic leadership and develop -- in concert with Planned Parenthood, NARAL and other non-negotiable stalwarts of women's rights -- a strategy to deal with this self-defeating Democratic-leadership male stupidity. We can then contribute to special campaigns targeting anti-choice Democratic candidates wooed by the new Democrats Boys Club. They've got my money.

Maybe Hillary Can Help

Onward Together, the political action group formed earlier this year between Hillary Clinton and former Vermont governor and DNC chair Howard Dean, has hired Emmy Ruiz and Adam Parkhomenko, political operative veterans of her 2008 and 2016 presidential campaigns, to BuzzFeed. 

Charlotte Bacon's Newtown Girl Scout Troop's 10 Girls Now 5 As VP Joe Biden Set To Lead Gun Control Reform

Charlotte Bacon’s Newtown Girl Scout Troop’s 10 Girls Now 5 As VP Joe Biden Set To Lead Gun Control Reform