Friday, March 21, 2025. In the US, our world is crumbling as democracy is under attack, the rule of law is under attack, education is under attack, Chump's brought back legal segregation and on and on. We can't afford -- as a country -- liars right now who are going to harm us and our party in the 2026 mid-terms and in the 2028 presidential election. That's our big focus today.
Let's start with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:
ICYMI:
Ahead of Expected EO to Abolish Department of Education, Murray,
Seattle School Board President, Parents, Advocates Raise Alarm Over
Trump Dismantling Dept. of Ed
ICMYI: Senator Murray Blasts Trump’s Plans to Decimate the Department of Education
ICYMI:
Ahead of Confirmation Vote, Senator Murray Blasts Linda McMahon’s
Nomination: “We Cannot Have a Secretary of Education Who Doesn’t Believe
in Having a Secretary of Education”
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior
member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and
Pensions (HELP) Committee, issued the following statement on the
executive order President Trump is expected to sign this afternoon
seeking to eliminate the Department of Education (ED):
“We should be focused on helping our kids with math and
reading—the basics they need to succeed. Absolutely no one is asking for
three out-of-touch billionaires to rip apart the Department of
Education over some deranged far-right culture war.
“Donald Trump knows perfectly well he can’t abolish
the Department of Education without Congress—but he understands that if
you fire all the staff and smash it to pieces, you might get a similar,
devastating result. In taking a wrecking ball to the Department, Trump
is making it harder for students to get help getting financial aid,
jeopardizing the funding schools and families count on every day, and
making it easier for predatory businesses to rip students off.
“Trump and Musk are selling snake oil—because the obvious
truth is dismantling the Department and ripping support away from
students and schools won’t do a thing to help improve test scores and
make sure our kids get the support they need to thrive. And while Trump
claims he wants to ‘return education to the states,’ we know that
couldn’t be farther from the truth—because Trump and Musk are, at this
very moment, trying to exert ever more control over local schools and
dictate what they can and cannot teach.
“Trump, Musk, and McMahon’s goal is clear: destroy public
schools and enrich themselves in the process. The billionaires running
our government may not understand why federal financial aid or funding
for working class school districts or watchdogs protecting students from
scammy for-profit colleges matters—but the constituents I talk to every
day do, and they are not sitting quiet while Trump seeks to destroy
public education in America.”
A senior member and former chair of the HELP Committee, Senator
Murray has championed students and families at every stage of her
career—fighting to help ensure every child in America can get a
high-quality public education. Among other things, Senator Murray
negotiated the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), landmark legislation that she got signed into law, replacing the broken No Child Left Behind Act.
As a longtime appropriator, she has successfully fought to boost
funding to support students and invest in our nation’s K-12 schools, and
she has secured significant increases to
the Pell Grant so that it goes further for students pursuing a higher
education. Senator Murray also successfully negotiated the FAFSA
Simplification Act, bipartisan legislation to reform the financial aid
application process, simplify the FAFSA form for students and parents,
and significantly expand eligibility for federal aid.
On Monday, Senator Murray led a letter
demanding detailed answers from the Department of Education about the
Trump administration’s mass firings and other detrimental actions, which
risk major reductions in support for and oversight of federal
investments in our nation’s K-12 schools and institutions of higher
education and which threaten vital support for students with
disabilities, access to Pell Grants and other financial aid, oversight
of student loan servicers, scrutiny of for-profit colleges, and more.
The letter follows an earlier March 6 letter Senator
Murray sent alongside colleagues demanding answers about the chaotic,
harmful actions taken by ED since January—which the Department has yet
to respond to.
During Secretary Linda McMahon’s confirmation hearing, Senator Murray pressed McMahon
on whether she will ensure approved funding gets out to serve students
as the law requires and whether she would protect students’ data from
DOGE. She also asked McMahon to name a single requirement of ESSA.
McMahon couldn’t name any. Ahead of McMahon’s confirmation, Senator
Murray spoke out
on the Senate floor against her nomination and sounded the alarm over
President Trump and Elon Musk’s plans to dismantle the U.S. Department
of Education.
A fact sheet outlining how the Department of Education supports students in Washington state is HERE.
###
Now we're going to move over to a different topic, one that involves lying, distortions, efforts to take over the Democratic Party, efforts that will destroy our party (the Democratic Party) in elections in 2026 and 2028 if not addressed. We're going to spend the bulk of the snapshot on this issue.
Ann's "F**k you, Little Chris Hayes" went up last night. So last night on ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES, Chris wanted to talk and inform. But not really. Really informing would have required telling his viewers that the man he brought on to talk about what we Democrats need to do was not, in fact, a Democrat. Waleed Shahid is not a Democrat.
He's many things including a racist. He went honk-honk-honkey-ing to defeat Kamala Harris. Kamala is a Black woman. Waleed is a White man. Rashida Tlaib is also White -- as Elaine noted in "Consequences." Let's stop there for just a minute. We all learn. In 2008, in a supportive segment on Ralph Nader in a snapshot, I called him a person of color. He immediately responded to correct me. He was White. He was an Arab. And he was correct. I looked into it. Arabs have always been considered White.
Afro-Iraqis are Black. But unless you belong to a group like that, if you're Arab -- and most of Iraq is -- then you're White. And let's include this video about Afro-Iraqis.
So White Waleed attacked the Black woman. And like so many others in DSA, they pretend they believe in reparations. They don't. The spirit of reparations would have said you backed the Black woman -- she's running against a White racist, you back the Black woman -- it's not just right, it's the historically right thing to do. She was qualified and she was running against a convicted monster who was a racist and who called her a whore in the debate -- a remark the media intentionally overlooked. DSA worked to defeat her.
That includes honk-honk-honkey Waleed.
On racism, let's note this about today's DSA.
Karen Attiah is the Black journalist DSA was attacking and you can go to this thread for more people -- including DSA members -- noting the very real problem of racism in the DSA.
Chris might need to address the lack of Black people on his program -- especially considering he brought on White Waleed, noted racist.
Viewers had a right to know that Waleed was a Socialist, that he wasn't a Democrat and that he worked to defeat Kamala. Viewers had a right to know that.
Equally true, I don't like echo chambers. And I don't like the circle jerk. NPR is under attack. That's another reason Ava and I wrote "MEDIA: Taylor Lorenz doesn't do analytics or journalism (at least not in
any meaningful manner)" Tuesday to replace the piece we'd written on Sunday intending for it to go up there -- it's in this morning's gina & krista round-robin instead. We called out by name a liar at NPR. And what he's doing can get NPR cut off from federal funding. He's part of a behind-the-scene circle jerk. They work together to ensure that 'the message' gets out. We quoted from three e-mails but I've seen many more. And what happens is Amy Goodman, the NPR man and many other media types get these 'blasts' telling them what stories to cover and who to have as their guest. Amy had Waleed already this week so I guess was time for him to be handed off to another outlet.
Taylor Lorenz did a hideous video yesterday (see Ava and my "MEDIA: Taylor Lorenz doesn't do analytics or journalism (at least not in
any meaningful manner)"). She wanted you to know about fake asses.
She's part of the DSA circle jerk which is why she didn't tell you
about those fake asses. JACOBIN is the DSA bible and Ana did their
podcast, hosted it. She did it very poorly and gathered a ton of
complaints but they kept her on. That's a whole other story but just in
case this is the last snapshot what I'm really trying to get at today
is that you need to start asking yourself if it's okay that outlets you
trust are lying and tricking you? Is it really worth it to you? All of
these things taking place in the shadows and hidden from you. That's
okay?
Why are we hearing from Waleed to begin with? Is it MSDSA?
And how little does Chris respect his audience that he knowingly lies to them?
Last night, I made the above points to a friend at MSNBC -- an exec -- who did not get the point I was making until I moved over to this:
Donald Trump's revenge tour is reaching your living room: He wants to SHUT DOWN MSNBC!
Trump's
latest attack on free speech could have DIRE consequences. We must
stand up for the
First Amendment and the brave journalists who work to
find the truth and hold the powerful accountable, and our URGENT Live
Poll will show that Americans support MSNBC.
Recognize it? It's from junk mail that the DSCC blasted yesterday.
Chump wants to end MSNBC.
Why is Chris helping him with that?
Because that's what he's doing when he knowingly lies to viewers. He's giving Chump ammunition. Chris knowingly lied to the viewers last night.
I don't know how Chump would shut down MSNBC -- or how DSCC thinks he would. Cable channels that are strictly cable (as opposed to a channel that broadcasts over the airwaves and that you can get on cable -- say your local NBC station) do not require broadcast licenses so it's not as though Chump could press for them to lose those. But he is at war with MSNBC and when Chris Hayes lies to viewers, he helps Chump. He feeds into every accusation Chump makes about MSNBC.
Now I don't like DSA as I've made clear here many times over the years. I think they're fake asses and do nothings. I have had friends in DSA and I have known people in DSA.
And that would be where we would leave it if this was a year or two ago.
But it's not.
They get it here:
I have always found DSA to be too close to the extreme right. I've noted repeatedly that DSA -- and the organization they replaced -- turn into neocons and fright wingers. I've also tried to explain that Bernie is not DSA. Bernie's a Socialist. DSA is only one group of Socialists in the US. Unlike SEP (another US Socialist organization), DSA hides in a political closet as they plot. AOC is DSA. I've also noted that I'm encouraged by the fact that DSA has a rift with her. And I'm told -- in e-mails to the public account -- that's not true.
Yes, it is.
Here's a DSA member posting about that rift last night.
Here's another.
Angered that AOC disavowed Marxism?
Yes, that is today's DSA. That's not the DSA Barbara Ehrenreich helped launch. And it's why Maurice Isserman the 2023 column for THE NATION entitled "Why I Just Quit DSA:"
All well and good -- except for the return of the entryists. Suddenly, in the eyes of revolutionary purists in a host of small competing sects, DSA was no longer to be sneered at as just a reformist swamp. “Why rob banks?” career criminal Willie Sutton was once allegedly asked by a reporter. “Because that’s where the money is,” he replied. The exchange is apocryphal, but substitute warm bodies for cold cash, and it offers a concise explanation for DSA’s sudden attractiveness to sectarian strategists. Unknown numbers-- hundreds, perhaps more -- started joining in 2016, some of them former members of defunct Marxist-Leninist groups, others (in violation of DSA bylaws) still belonging to and carrying out the agendas of such groups. They proceeded to quarrel and compete among themselves, splitting and recombining under various banners like “Red Star,” “Marxist Unity Group,” and even the “Communist Caucus.” But they remained united in one overarching shared aim -- to take a well-meaning, not particularly well-organized, and essentially social democratic organization still committed in practice to the original DSA vision of creating “the left wing of the possible,” and reinvent it as the mass vanguard party of the proletariat that somehow they had never been able to pull off while operating under their own banners of deepest red.
The freaks Chris is putting on air and letting hide in a political closet believe they can take over the Democratic Party because they've taken over DSA. Back in 2021, DSAers Bill Barclay, Leo Casey, Jack Clark, Richard Healey, Deborah Meier, Maxine Phillips, Chris Riddiough and Joseph M. Schwartz attempted to warn others of what was taking place. For IN THESE TIMES, they wrote "The Dangers of Factionalism in DSA:"
As DSA has grown in size and political influence, so too has the
interest it has attracted from small political groups to its left. These
“sects,”
short for sectarian organizations, see opportunities for themselves in
the large numbers of young people new to politics who have joined DSA,
viewing them as potential recruits for their emaciated ranks.
The recent announcement of the Trotskyist organization Socialist Alternative (SAlt) that its members were coming aboard, followed by a similar declaration
from its leading member, Kshama Sawant, has simply made public
a process that has been underway for some time — that various marginal
Trotskyist organizations have infiltrated the DSA in a practice known as
“entryism.”
We're noting that section for a reason. Remember Kshama Sawant? If not, she shows up two minutes into the video below.
That's actually Ra-Sharir (played by Necar Zadegan ). It just seems like the idiot Sawant.
Maybe you saw the little hustler on Jordan Chariton's show repeatedly ahead of the election as she attacked Kamala Harris. Jordan? DSA. That's how he ended up at Cenk's YOUNG TURKS. Cenk and Kyle of course started Justice Socialists which they called Justice Democrats because they knew it would be hard to elect open Socialists. Kyle, of course, has been pimping Sawant for over 11 years on his show SECULAR TALK. And Brie-Brie and all of them. They turned the failed and minor politician into a minor celebrity. It culminated in this moment reported by David Gutman (SEATTLE TIMES):
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and former Seattle City
Councilmember Kshama Sawant rallied Tuesday in Seattle, amid Democratic
fears that even a small vote for Stein could be enough to tip the
election to Donald Trump.
Sawant gave a blistering speech,
assailing the two-party system, but focusing her ire on the Democratic
Party and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Kamala Harris deserves to
lose 1,000 times over,” Sawant said, blaming her for the deaths of tens
of thousands of people in Gaza.
And let's grasp that Ra-Sharir -- oops, Swant -- can't learn. She also campaigned against Hillary Clinton. And then? Showed up to protest Chump. So she knew what could happen. I'm not ragging on 2016 voters. I say all the time -- and have since the site started -- you vote with the best information you have on hand. You can't predict what someone will do when they get into office.
But you could in 2024. That's when you knew Chump was the face of evil. Not only had the country seen what he did with four years in the White House, we also saw him try to overthrow the government after he lost in 2020.
So Swant being dumb in 2016? I don't care that much. I do care that she learned nothing from it and, eight years later worked to defeat Kamala. That was work to re-elect Chump. And she can't lie otherwise. Not only did she know what would happen based on her 2016 actions but, as David Gutman reported, "Sawant, a leftist force on the City Council for a decade, admitted the obvious -- that Stein has no chance to win." She knew Jill wouldn't win. Her goal was to get Chump back in the White House.
That is The Politics of Destruction and we're all suffering from it now.
Like MAGA these freaks who've taken over DSA only know destruction. And when they are brought on as guests, they need to be identified. I'm not interested in MEIDASTOUCH NETWORK other than Coach D and Ben and Ben's son because yesterday they brought a lying DSAer (see Ava and my "Media: OWNED finds Eoin Higgins owned by bad journalism") -- as usual racism doesn't matter to this new DSA which is why the guest wrote an entire book about the billionaires backing Alien Musk and not only didn't note that Musk and two others were shaped by apartheid in South Africa, he also didn't credit the movement in the USA to end apartheid in the 80s as a significant moment. He doesn't even mention it while slamming teenagers of the 80s for doing nothing. I'm tired of DSA and their polluting our politics in secret.
The Politics of Destruction is all the DSA knows. And they're toxic and shouldn't be allowed on camera to disguise who they are.
If you still aren't seeing the problem, grasp that not all DSAers are in the closet. Some, based on their postings, should be because they're letting the secret out that DSA's public faces have been working so hard to hide.
The BLUESKY below is being copied and pasted because it doesn't have the embed option.
Les Bernese⚧🌹✝
@lespuppypawplay.bsky.social
I am also a candidate member of the Party of Communists USA and a DSA member.
March 20, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Yeah, DSA's rules said no to being a DSAer and a member of the Communist Party. But that was when they had some sanity. DSA and the Communists are one and the same today. All the more reason that when they're brought on by Chris or MEIDASTOUCH, they need to be identified in terms of their political affiliation. It matters.
It matters to DSA because it's their organization. It matters to the rest of us as well.
DSA's been lying for years about being Socialist by concealing that when they run this person or that person. But now DSA has huge overlap with Communism.
That's the why behind Maurice Isserman "Why I Just Quit DSA" and that column, which, again, I only learned of this week, changes a lot of things.
I've previously talked about AOC running for president and thought she had a chance at it.
If she wants to make a very public break and denounce them for the infiltration of Communism she might have a shot at the nomination but she wouldn't win in the general election.
These are the fringe freaks who do real damage and today's damage is AOC's career beyond the House.
Communism is not popular in the United States. Socialism is a question mark. Bernie could have done it --won the election, had he been the nominee in 2016 or 2020 because he was lifelong Socialist Bernie and people knew it and they knew him. The media downplayed it but people knew it. And they felt they knew Bernie and could have gotten behind him. (And if I didn't believe that, I wouldn't have made myself physically sick by campaigning non-stop for him through February of 2020 -- by the end of that month, I was speaking and then sleeping, speaking and then sleeping, because I was so exhausted from one event after another for Bernie.)
Again, he isn't DSA.
AOC and DSA already have huge friction. It's time for a break so that the public can see that she's not a part of that. She can build up support that way and maybe be a solid contender by 2032. If she handled it right, she might even be able to pull off a successful run for the Senate in 2028.
Socialist Rashida Tlaib has endorsed Socialist Zohran Kwame Mamdani for NYC mayor. In her endorsement she noted she was a Socialist so, Cult of Rashida, who've e-mailed saying, "She's not a Socialist!" look up her announcement -- believe it was on Twitter. (Which says all we really need to know about her.) Is Kwame really going to win that race?
NYC would be a Socialist's best chance of running openly as a Socialist (something Rashida's going to have to try doing this go round). I don't think he's going to win -- not just because of lack experience (failed rapper really doesn't sing on the resume) but also because of DSA.
And also because of the impression Socialist is greeted with by Americans.
That impression is not helped by Waleed and others being too ashamed to identify themselves as Socialists. Their desire to hide makes it seem that have something that needs to be hidden.
Before this week, I thought AOC would struggle in 2028 as a presidential candidate but could pull it off. The Communist infiltration -- call it what it is, it's why DSA had the rules (now being broken) -- however makes it near impossible.
Forget FOX "NEWS," it's going to be a lot of the press talking about the Communist candidate due to DSA.
If you're DSA and you're not a nut job, start talking publicly to normalize who you are and what you stand for . If you're DSA and not a nut job and also my friend, I told you so. And I get why you didn't tell me about Maurice's 2023 column. For decades now I've told you I won't be part of DSA because it will end up a Communist front. And, look, that's what it's becoming.
The only left candidates less popular than Socialists? Communists. And you've let them invade DSA.
REUTERS notes, "Billionaire Elon Musk, U.S. President Donald Trump's close ally, is due
to be briefed on Friday by the Pentagon on the U.S. military's plan for
any war that might break out with China, the New York Times reported on
Thursday, citing U.S. officials." Between that and Donald Chump acting as a body pillow for Vlad Putin, 2028's election will probably have concerns for foreign influence like never before. That'll be because of MAGA who backed a candidate who worked to destroy the United States and its allies to build up its enemies. That doesn't mean, however, that MAGA and FOX "NEWS" will be open to Communist and Communist-linked candidates. No, they'll just howl all the louder to deflect.
AOC needs to figure out if she's going to be in the House or if she wants a post-House career.
The 2026 mid-terms are 591 days away. We have to win at least one house of Congress. The Democrats have to win at least one. I want two but we have to win at least one. And our focus is on that these days. It's no longer the "Iraq snapshot" and I'm no longer in the mood to humor every fringe faction of the left. The DSA declared war on our party in 2024 when it worked to defeat Kamala Harris.
As bad as that action was, it's worse because they weren't electing a Republican. This wasn't Mitt Romney or John McCain or anyone who would've chosen policies we didn't agree with. No, this was different because their actions, their choices put Donald Chump back in the White House. This isn't about policies, it's about who we are as a nation.
They sided with the man who didn't agree with democracy or rule of law. A Convicted Felon rarely agrees with rule of law.
I would have loved to have spent this morning talking about Alien Musk and his financial problems or about the disgusting deportations to El Salvador -- anytime you do a mass deportation you are going to deport the wrong people -- a point we made repeatedly before the election. There are so many problems and issues to cover.
But this is also a big one. And when Chris Hayes and others want to lie to you and bring on anti-Democrat who is a Socialist and not tell you that, not identify the guest? Then this becomes the big issue because nobody else wants to tackle it.
Let's wind down with this from THE BLACK COMMENTATOR:
