Trump’s comments came during the period when he was most actively caging and orphaning kids This tweet resurfacing Donald Trump’s comments calling immigrants “animals” went viral this weekend: .@realDonaldTrump on people asking for asylum “These aren’t people. These are animals.” pic.twitter.com/pTKY08Obm2 — Mark Elliott (@markmobility) April 5, 2019 Yes, this actual comment was made on May 16, 2018. Members of […]

One of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ favorite “talking points” is that public schools are not “innovative,” and that the solution to our problems in education is to invest public tax dollars in creating more charter schools and voucher programs for private and religious schools: “There’s still not enough innovation,” she said Tuesday, continuing her familiar focus on school choice […]

If an airline treated one dog the way this administration treated thousands of kids, it would be wiped off the face of the earth. A member of the Trump Administration has now admitted under oath to Congress that when this president ordered children to be taken from their parents at the border, there was no system set up to track […]

A recent story in the Washington Post’s “Answer Sheet” focused on the fates of the 4 finalists for 2016 National Teacher of the Year… Nate Bowling was the 2016 Washington state Teacher of the Year and one of four finalists for the National Teacher of the Year. There were three other finalists who were the winners in their states that […]

In 2018, over half of the Democratic candidates for the state legislature and Congress who won their primary and went on to the general election in Michigan were women. When you talk about women finally getting parity in terms of high elected office (or ANY elected office, for that matter), there’s only one political party who is even close to […]

We are up against formidable political opponents. The conservative right and the corporatists — not always the same players — have spent decades rigging the game in every system imaginable in their favor. They’ve gerrymandered our districts, convinced even liberals that taxes are bad and deficits are worse, and they privatize everything not nailed down to funnel tax dollars into […]

After receiving the good news last month that a federal judge had commanded the Michigan Secretary of State to allow for straight-ticket voting, yesterday we got bad news: A three-judge panel of the 6th District Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the ban on straight ticket voting could remain in place for the November election. The result, of course, is […]

Michigan has long been a bellwether for the national political landscape and, judging by the results of our primary last week, the November general election will be as much of a wave election for Democrats as 2010 was for Republicans. Shri Thanedar’s attempt to purchase a governorship with his personal fortune was resoundingly smacked down by voters. He did only […]

It’s no secret that Michigan is one of the most heavily gerrymandered states in the entire country. Here’s the 11th Congressional District, for example: The 9th District is almost as bad: Note that they are both adjacent and interlocking. The 11th District is highly Republican and 9th District is reliably Democratic. For good measure, here’s the 14th which is another […]

Candidates need to run against their opponents; but someone needs to run against Trump Democrats are fueled by massive disapproval of Donald Trump but they’re actually running against their Republican opponents. The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent has been making that case for months: If Democrats are running against Trump, it’s subtle: They are trying to project calm, stability, decency and […]

I first learned of Shri Thanedar when he hired my good friend Tony Trupiano (R.I.P.) to introduce him around to the various progressive circles in Michigan in the spring of 2017. This was necessary because almost nobody in Michigan progressive politics had ever heard of Shri Thanedar prior to then. Within in a very short time, it was clear to […]