With Trump as president, it is easy to forget how utterly hopeless many Congressional Democrats are, including many who look like progressives.
The best indicator of Democratic corruption is its slavishness toward the lobby that is to them what the National Rifle Association is to the GOP: the Israel lobby (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its satellite organizations).
A children’s speech pathologist who has worked for the last nine
years with developmentally disabled, autistic, and speech-impaired
elementary school students in Austin, Texas, has been told that she can
no longer work with the public school district, after she refused to
sign an oath vowing that she “does not” and “will not” engage in a
boycott of Israel or “otherwise tak[e] any action that is intended to
inflict economic harm” on that foreign nation. A lawsuit on her behalf was
filed early Monday morning in a federal court in the Western District
of Texas, alleging a violation of her First Amendment right of free
speech.
In the 2019 GOP-controlled Senate, the first bill to be considered –
S.1 – is not designed to protect American workers, bolster U.S.
companies, or address the various debates over border security and
immigration. It’s not a bill to open the government. Instead, according
to multiple sources involved in the legislative process, S.1 will be a
compendium containing a handful of foreign-policy related
measures, a main one of which is a provision, with Florida’s GOP Sen.
Marco Rubio as a lead sponsor, to defend the Israeli government. The
bill is a top legislative priority for AIPAC.
In May 2018, the state of South Carolina passed a bill lawmakers said
was aimed at fighting anti-Semitism in the state's public school system.
But many critics were instead alarmed: Rather than simply cracking down on speech critical of Jewish people, the law instead banned criticism of the state of Israel.
Less than 24 hours after Senate Democrats successfully voted down a motion to proceed to legislation that would give states and localities more power to punish pro-Palestinian boycotts of Israel, rights groups raised alarm and urged Americans to call their senators
immediately on Wednesday as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
(R-Ky.) moved to bring the bill up for yet another procedural vote.
A debate about the power in
Washington of the pro-Israel lobby is underway, after Rep. Ilhan Omar,
D-Minn., responded sharply to reports that Republican leader Kevin
McCarthy was targeting both Omar and fellow Muslim Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a
Democrat from Michigan. Omar quoted rap lyrics — “It’s all about the Benjamins baby”
— to suggest McCarthy’s move was driven by the lobby’s prolific
spending. Asked specifically who she was referring to, Omar responded, “AIPAC!”
lhan Omar (D-MN) has stirred controversy by replying to scurrilous
statements of her Republican opponents in Congress by suggesting that
they are shilling for anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim lobbies that back
the right wing Likud government of Israel to the hilt because they
receive campaign contributions from the Israel lobbies.
Adam Milstein, a real estate millionaire and prolific donor to
right-wing, pro-Israel causes, had a busy few days on Twitter this
month. In one tweet, he accused Rep. Ilhan Omar of being a “terrorist.” In another, he questioned Omar’s and Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s loyalty to the United States. He also accused Tlaib and Omar, the first two Muslim-American women elected to Congress, of having links to the Muslim Brotherhood, indulging a tired trope popular among anti-Muslim bigots.
Rep. Steny Hoyer, the number two Democrat in the House, came under fire from progressives Sunday night after he used his address at AIPAC's policy conference
to attack left-wing members of his caucus and throw his full support
behind a resolution condemning the boycott, divestment, and sanctions
movement.