Thanks Benny, ive been lurking but will work on posting more. Lifes been keeping me busier than normal, but all is well and hope you all are all hanging in as well.
🚨🚨🚨 I am here today but I may not be soon because @dailykos has announced LAYOFFS. I really need your help convincing management to come to the table and negotiate with our union in good faith. This is not a drill. *Please* sign the petition: https://t.co/ZkPNdrBRmEpic.twitter.com/H2OBdm7FzO
So sorry! These actions do not at all surprise me given that when I ran a round table about unionizing political bloggers Markos and other blog owners worked behind the scenes to kill the discussion, and personally told me the idea was “bullshit”. oh, so many stories I could tell
The whole twitter pre elon (and to be clear elon’s a f*&kwit and twitter is somehow worse off) reminds me exactly how dkos was run during bernies run. censored, shadowbans, etc. Wouldnt surprise me if theres a lot of crossover individuals involved and a lot of the same was happening to blogs/forums as there was twitter itself.
I would also be far more interested in a twitterfile dump on how suppression of the bernie movement was handled by dem operatives (tanden, horsewhisperer, etc.) Than any of the mostly nothingburger stuff that’s come out.
WE really dont know yet what actually went on in the deep dark area’s of the PTB as far a Bernie goes espically with HRC in 2016. Down the road someone will leak out something in a tell all book. Most presidential candidates are well connected in the deep dark areas of the political world before they run. I still dont understand how cult 45 got thru that. Even his fellow billionaires cant stand him and the mainstream R’s didnt want him.
GOS made it quite clear to Bernies supporters comply or leave. Many left so i really dont feel sorry that DKM has this problem. The only real power workers have is if they dont like thier working conditions LEAVE for a better oppertunity. MGT will get the point about worker treatment or go under at some point.
Their banner says it all: TREES GIVE LIFE, POLICE TAKE IT.
Hundreds of forest defenders and their supporters held a vigil in Little Five Points on Wednesday night, January 18, to grieve and honor their comrade who the police killed today. The police called it self-defense, but we have all heard that story too many times before, and it turned out not to be true.
Forest defenders refuse to let this murder of one of their own stop them from protesting the building of the largest militarized police training center for urban warfare in the country in the South Atlanta forest, a/k/a Weelaunee Forest.
Why do they need something this large? Is this in preparation for a militarized fascist police state to control minority communities and destroy human rights movements? Those are a few of the questions forest defenders are asking.
Events leading up to a forest defender killed by police started in December when aggressive police tactics escalated against the unarmed, non-violent political movement to Stop Cop City, as they call the proposed police facility.
On December 13, forest defenders in tree houses were sprayed with tear gas and pepper balls and forcibly removed from the trees at gunpoint. They bulldozed down trees with tree houses, destroyed an encampment on public parkland, and a makeshift kitchen. Police removed residents walking the trails at gunpoint.
Six forest defenders were arrested in that raid and charged with domestic terrorism. The police called them terrorists, and the media reported that lie without evidence.
Atlanta Community organizer @kamaufranklin says there needs to be a full and independent investigation into the death of activist Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran during a violent raid Wednesday on protesters opposing a $90 million training facility known as “Cop City.”
There is a lot of speculation about the governor’s threat of a lawsuit. First, I remain dubious she’ll file: would escalate dramatically by turning this into a fight over separation of powers and the prerogatives of the legislature instead of a conflict over a nominee. (1/5)
On the other hand, the headline on the WaPo editorial board’s take is laughable: “It will take time to rebuild trust on Supreme Court after leak probe.” A long, long time since the Court failed to do a proper probe, which is the opposite of seeking to regain trust.
this is racist and is crime against the poor, working class of every race in Iowa. i'd like to see the rich and republicans adhere to this here diet. what a shameful place the Iowa State House has become. https://t.co/qRIeKWyBEa
In solidarity with the movement to Stop Cop City and Defend Weelaunee Forest
We call on all people of good conscience to stand in solidarity with the movement to stop Cop City and defend the Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta.
On January 18, in the course of their latest militarized raid on the forest, police in Atlanta shot and killed a person. This is only the most recent of a series of violent police retaliations against the movement. The official narrative is that Cop City is necessary to make Atlanta “safe,” but this brutal killing reveals what they mean when they use that word.
Forests are the lungs of planet Earth. The destruction of forests affects all of us. So do the gentrification and police violence that the bulldozing of Weelaunee Forest would facilitate. What is happening in Atlanta is not a local issue.
Politicians who support Cop City have attempted to discredit forest defenders as “outside agitators.” This smear has a disgraceful history in the South, where authorities have used it against abolitionists, labor organizers, and the Civil Rights Movement, among others. The goal of those who spread this narrative is to discourage solidarity and isolate communities from each other while offering a pretext to bring in state and federal forces, who are the actual “outside agitators.” The consequence of that strategy is on full display in the tragedy of January 18.
Replacing a forest with a police training center will only create a more violently policed society, in which taxpayer resources enrich police and weapons companies rather than addressing social needs. Mass incarceration and police militarization have failed to bring down crime or improve conditions for poor and working-class communities.
In Atlanta and across the US, investment in police budgets comes at the expense of access to food, education, childcare, and healthcare, of affordable and stable housing, of parks and public spaces, of transit and the free movement of people, of economic stability for the many. Concentrating resources in the hands of police serves to defend the extreme accumulation of wealth and power by corporations and the very rich.
What do cops do with their increased budgets and their carte blanche from politicians? They kill people, every single day. They incarcerate and traumatize schoolchildren, parents, loved ones who are simply struggling to survive. We must not settle for a society organized recklessly upon the values of violence, racism, greed, and careless indifference to life.
The struggle that is playing out in Atlanta is a contest for the future. As the catastrophic effects of climate change hammer our communities with hurricanes, heat waves, and forest fires, the stakes of this contest are clearer than ever. It will determine whether those who come after us inherit an inhabitable Earth or a police state nightmare. It is up to us to create a peaceful society that does not treat human life as expendable.
The forest defenders are trying to create a better world for all of us. We owe it to the people of Atlanta and to future generations everywhere to support them.
Here are some ways to support the defense of the forest in Atlanta:
Donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund to support legal costs for arrested protestors and ongoing legal action. Call on investors in the project to divest from Cop City (list of APF investors). Call on builders of the project to drop their construction contracts. Organize political solidarity bail funds, forest defense funds, and forest defense committees where you live. Participate in or organize local solidarity actions. Endorse and circulate this statement of solidarity. Email defendweelaunee@riseup.net.
Mayoral challenger Jesús “Chuy” García is an unidentified member of Congress referenced in federal court filings detailing an alleged scheme by then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan to appoint one of García’s political associates to a lucrative position on Commonwealth Edison’s board of directors, the Tribune has learned.
García is not accused of wrongdoing, and through a spokesman, denies he played any role in the push by Madigan to appoint Juan Ochoa to the utility’s board, which is one of the centerpiece allegations in the ComEd bribery conspiracy case set for trial in March.
But García’s name surfacing — even superficially — in one of the biggest political corruption investigations in Illinois history could make waves in the upcoming city election, where García is running as a progressive and is widely considered to be the strongest challenger in a crowded field seeking to unseat Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
It also highlights a particularly thorny political problem for García, who has tried to distance himself from Madigan’s old-school politics even though he’d formed a yearslong alliance with Madigan that helped them both strengthen their spheres of influence.
In an email response to questions from the Tribune, a spokesman for García’s campaign said García “has never been asked to speak with any ‘federal authorities,’ including the FBI, federal prosecutors or anyone in the U.S. attorney’s office about anything related to ComEd, Madigan, or Ochoa, nor has he done so.”
García’s campaign also said he does not anticipate he will testify in any of the ComEd-related trials.
“Rep. García has never been asked to provide any information to federal investigators about this matter, and has no knowledge of it other than what he has read in news sources following the announcement of the ComEd plea agreement. He has no information to provide, as he was completely unaware of the misconduct alleged in those cases,” the statement said. “Rep. García is not involved in this or any related investigation in any manner.”
Ochoa is expected to testify in the ComEd Four case about a meeting he tried to set up with a U.S. congressman and Madigan in February 2019, more than a year after Madigan allegedly agreed to lean on ComEd to put Ochoa on the board, according to a prosecution filing last week. The purpose of the meeting was to talk about a political action committee that the congressman and Ochoa had recently started, but Madigan apparently thought Ochoa was upset over the board appointment taking so long.
Madigan allegedly directed longtime confidant Michael McClain to reach out to Ochoa and assure him the wheels were still in motion, prosecutors have alleged in court filings. In a secretly recorded phone call, Ochoa told McClain it was a misunderstanding, but acknowledged he “probably would have” brought up the board appointment when he and the congressman got in to see the speaker, according to prosecutors.
Federal investigators referred to the mix-up in both a search warrant affidavit made public last year and a court filing last week detailing evidence in the case. In the affidavit, García’s name was blacked out, while in the more recent filing he was referred to only as “a member of Congress,” multiple sources with knowledge of the case told the Tribune.
García isn’t the only congressman to surface in the probe. Last week, the Tribune reported that Ochoa also is expected to testify how he enlisted the help of former U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a close ally of García’s, to repair Ochoa’s tattered political relationship with Madigan and lobby for his appointment to ComEd’s board.
In the emailed statement Friday from García’s campaign, the campaign spokesman said the congressman had no role in getting Ochoa appointed to the ComEd board and didn’t ask Madigan to put Ochoa on the board.
“With regard to Juan Ochoa and his appointment to the ComEd board, Rep. García was informed by Juan Ochoa, that Madigan was supporting Ochoa’s effort to be appointed to the board,” the statement said.
Lightfoot already has sought to take advantage of the García-Madigan relationship, seeking to make the indicted ex-speaker a political albatross that could weigh down the García campaign.
he mayor has launched a television attack ad featuring a cartoon García dancing with Madigan and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, two unpopular defendants linked to political contributions to García.
Lightfoot doubled down following a candidate forum Sunday , telling reporters she found it “astounding” that García would say to the audience that he defeated the Democratic machine in the past when he stayed aligned with Madigan as more recent scandals unfolded.
“What’s clear in looking at his background is that he decided after his defeat in 2015, that if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” Lightfoot said, though she sought García’s endorsement four years ago.
The mention of Democratic heavyweights such as García and Gutierrez in the ComEd case could also lend credence to what’s expected to be a key element of the defense: That the machinations behind Ochoa’s appointment, as well as other allegations of wrongdoing, were nothing more than legal, time-honored political logrolling.
In fact, Madigan wasn’t the only power broker they were pushing. Ochoa is expected to testify that he and Gutierrez also met with then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel about the appointment in November 2017, the Tribune reported last week.
Madigan hinted at his defense when he was indicted last year, writing in a statement that prosecutors were “attempting to criminalize a routine constituent service: job recommendations.”
McClain’s lawyer, Patrick Cotter, has made similar arguments, saying in a statement when the case was first indicted that in their “zeal” to get Madigan, prosecutors were attempting “to rewrite the law on bribery and criminalize long-recognized legitimate, common, and normal lobbying activity into some new form of crime.”
Madigan’s legal team declined to comment for this story, as did Cotter.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office also had no comment.
Ochoa, a former Marine who heads the Riverside-based facilities management firm Miramar Group, Inc., could not be reached. His lawyer, Ricardo Meza, had no immediate comment.
The Ochoa scheme was just one aspect of bombshell allegations that first came to light in July 2020, when the U.S. attorney’s office unveiled a criminal complaint charging ComEd with a yearslong bribery scheme involving jobs, contracts and payments to Madigan allies.
Under the terms of a deferred prosecution agreement with the government, ComEd agreed to pay a record $200 million fine and cooperate with investigators in exchange for the charges being dropped in 2023.
In November 2020, an indictment was unsealed charging McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Prammagiore, lobbyist John Hooker, and consultant and former City Club of Chicago President Jay Doherty with bribery conspiracy. They’re scheduled to go on trial March 6.
Another ComEd official, former Vice President Fidel Marquez, pleaded guilty in September 2020 and is expected to testify against his former colleagues about the scheme to influence Madigan as well as conversations he recorded for the FBI.
Madigan and McClain were both charged in a separate indictment last year with racketeering conspiracy alleging they participated in a range of corrupt schemes, including the ComEd conspiracy as well as similar allegations involving AT&T Illinois.
The scandal helped end Madigan’s reign as the nation’s longest-serving speaker in January 2021. Madigan later resigned from the Illinois House and as Illinois Democratic Party chairman.
Before Madigan allegedly became the fervent proponent of putting Ochoa on the ComEd board of directors, he had not always been a fan.
In fact, Madigan spared little criticism after Ochoa, a former head of the relatively obscure Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, was appointed in 2007 by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich to lead the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority of Chicago, a large, quasi-governmental body that was overseeing hundreds of millions of dollars of tourism, trade shows and other revenue streams at McCormick Place and Navy Pier.
I had thought the FTX scandal could hurt many candidates. Lightfoot is taking advantage of it. But I worry more about Maxwell Frost, whose campaign will need to raise money to donate the FTX’s contribution.
But in the meantime, this will not sit well with JB Pritzker, who has a steel glove when it comes to scandals. For decades, Mike Madigan wielded the levers as he represented the “Tammany Hall” of Chicago, and the ConEd scandal got him thrown out. I think Pritzker will side with Lori Lightfoot, even if he’s not congruent with her actions. Pritzker controls the party in IL and he has broad support of the citizens.
Its damn near impossible to avoid the Mob and the corrupt union bosses in Chicago Politics. Its as prevalent as ever just not in the limelight like it used to be.
I look at Frost as an innocent slate. SBF fooled a lot of people with his Ponzi scheme, including a boatload of wealthy ones who should have known better. What Frost does in Congress will determine if he’s dirty, believe me. As a Floridian fed up with crap like Scott Rott, Gov. Gargoyle, etc., I know political corruption way too well.
its a tough job to avoid all the traps of corruption that are in DC espically when your a rookie. The newbies get an orientation to congress but no info about avoiding the currupt lobbiest that target them.
wpDiscuz
Hello Birdies!
Nice to see you, LD!
Thanks Benny, ive been lurking but will work on posting more. Lifes been keeping me busier than normal, but all is well and hope you all are all hanging in as well.
+270!
Add this to the list that proves how big of a asshole Markos is.
That’s seldom in dispute. He’s a neoliberal, what can one say?
Sounds familiar, eh?
Hmmmm… inclusive??? Not!
Here’s a link to the rec list topping diary on this from the Guild
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/20/2148040/-Daily-Kos-announces-staff-layoffs-Daily-Kos-Guild-demands-to-negotiate
Snort! Where’s the surprise? 💩 It’s a good thing we Progressive Birdies, the c99ers, and other Progressives split when we did.
The whole twitter pre elon (and to be clear elon’s a f*&kwit and twitter is somehow worse off) reminds me exactly how dkos was run during bernies run. censored, shadowbans, etc. Wouldnt surprise me if theres a lot of crossover individuals involved and a lot of the same was happening to blogs/forums as there was twitter itself.
I would also be far more interested in a twitterfile dump on how suppression of the bernie movement was handled by dem operatives (tanden, horsewhisperer, etc.) Than any of the mostly nothingburger stuff that’s come out.
That’s an idea, LD.
WE really dont know yet what actually went on in the deep dark area’s of the PTB as far a Bernie goes espically with HRC in 2016. Down the road someone will leak out something in a tell all book. Most presidential candidates are well connected in the deep dark areas of the political world before they run. I still dont understand how cult 45 got thru that. Even his fellow billionaires cant stand him and the mainstream R’s didnt want him.
GOS made it quite clear to Bernies supporters comply or leave. Many left so i really dont feel sorry that DKM has this problem. The only real power workers have is if they dont like thier working conditions LEAVE for a better oppertunity. MGT will get the point about worker treatment or go under at some point.
I am so depressed at the state of the world. This really hit home. My organization, Atlanta Grandmothers for Peace (I’m not very active anymore), has been involved in this effort. We’re devastated.
https://streetsofatlanta.blog/2023/01/19/atlanta-forest-defender-shot-and-killed-by-police/
Check out the story – https://streetsofatlanta.blog/2023/01/19/atlanta-forest-defender-shot-and-killed-by-police/
Activists Demand Independent Investigation After Cops Kill Protester in Atlanta
https://truthout.org/articles/activists-demand-independent-investigation-after-cops-kill-protester-in-atlanta/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=1e1cda34-e7e0-47b9-aa12-b6ae4162ced4
Atlanta Community organizer @kamaufranklin says there needs to be a full and independent investigation into the death of activist Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran during a violent raid Wednesday on protesters opposing a $90 million training facility known as “Cop City.”
Thank you – this is the reporting I was hoping to find, but you did it!
Let her have her vote, vote it down and move on to the next nominee. Her political capital is being wasted otherwise.
I’m still saddened by David Crosby’s passing. I was lucky to see Crosby Still and Nash, before Crosby landed in a Texas pen. I think he paid his dues.
Here’s one of my favs, eloquent harmonies.
☮️🎼👍!
Here’s an interesting tweet to match that:
High schools weren’t great down here when I graduated in 1970. They are piss-poor now, but no learning makes serfs and slaves for the haves. 💩💩
Sorry, but I have to paraphrase Kanye from the GWB days – Ron DeSantis don’t like black people.
Sounds like DeathSentence is using the Fahrenheit 451 play book
T and R, LD!! ☮️🙂👍Always great to see your posts, and hope you and JD are well. 👏
Doing well! Heres some recent adventure pics
smdh
Monday it is.
Birdies, are we ready to get behind Gallego? If so, I’m wondering if @bernin could add Gallego to our Senate list?
Yep. Chickensh1t is better than Sinema so Gallego is a definite improvement. +270.
I don’t see a consensus yet, so we will wait a bit.
TYT’s interesting evaluation/analysis of the Gallego run –
This Could Mean Kyrsten Sinema’s Time In The Senate Is About To End
In solidarity with the movement to Stop Cop City and Defend Weelaunee Forest
T and R x 2, LD!! 🙂
Unidentified congressman in federal ComEd conspiracy documents is mayoral candidate US Rep. Jesús ‘Chuy’ García, sources say
I had thought the FTX scandal could hurt many candidates. Lightfoot is taking advantage of it. But I worry more about Maxwell Frost, whose campaign will need to raise money to donate the FTX’s contribution.
But in the meantime, this will not sit well with JB Pritzker, who has a steel glove when it comes to scandals. For decades, Mike Madigan wielded the levers as he represented the “Tammany Hall” of Chicago, and the ConEd scandal got him thrown out. I think Pritzker will side with Lori Lightfoot, even if he’s not congruent with her actions. Pritzker controls the party in IL and he has broad support of the citizens.
Its damn near impossible to avoid the Mob and the corrupt union bosses in Chicago Politics. Its as prevalent as ever just not in the limelight like it used to be.
I look at Frost as an innocent slate. SBF fooled a lot of people with his Ponzi scheme, including a boatload of wealthy ones who should have known better. What Frost does in Congress will determine if he’s dirty, believe me. As a Floridian fed up with crap like Scott Rott, Gov. Gargoyle, etc., I know political corruption way too well.
its a tough job to avoid all the traps of corruption that are in DC espically when your a rookie. The newbies get an orientation to congress but no info about avoiding the currupt lobbiest that target them.
No one knew that FTX was gonna go sour at time. Frost will want to donate his share, trust me, for distance.