I bet he writes his own speeches and let's a speechwriter edit it.

He said what needs to be said. I only wish it were said 20 years ago when we had a better chance of getting onto a more successful path.

AOC, Warren, Sanders, Crockett and a couple of others.

I hope that egos don't get in the way here. For example, a person with 2028 ambitions might decide to not participate in FIghting Oligarchy because he sees AOC as a rival. I hope none of that comes into play. The moment is too important, but a certain amount of ego is inherent in politics.

I am not sure what is happening with FIghting Oligarchy. They had a flurry of highly successful events, and I rather expected that to continue. Their website says they are planning more but need contributions. Well, there have been a lot of contributions, so I don't believe money is the limiting factor.

I suspect this is a strategic pause. I am sure that Bernie and AOC were surprised at the huge response, especially in MAGA country. My guess is that they are concerned about burning white hot for a month and then disappearing. I hope they are recruiting some more fighters to join the tour, and plan to resume these events in a month or so when store shelves are empty and recession is at hand.

This has to be planned like a revolution. It is not the events themselves, but the moment that makes it powerful. We can already see that shipping activity has dropped at least 1/3, and will probably get worse as small businesses find out there is no grand China deal and these businesses simply can't operate at Trump tariff prices. And large businesses stocked ahead, but that will run out in a month or two. Meanwhile, everybody will be jacking up the prices on whatever goods are already imported before the tariffs.

Timing is important. I hope the Fighting Oligarchy people are planning along these lines. I wish there could be a little more transparency. If I knew what they intend to do, I could certainly donate more.

Merchandise that will not fit inside the store?

Lots of shipping containers.

that have heavy seasonal business. This time of year, they have loads of garden supplies stacked outside,

But I have never seen anything like that at Target. There might be 2 or 3 semi trailers, but that is just normal stocking.

Dissing the Dems in New Hampshire is such a winning strategy for who?

The crowd of Democratic donors and elected officials cheered when Pritzker criticized “incrementalism,” and applauded at the references to “pundits” who had given bad advice. It rose for a standing ovation when he talked about the deportation of Kilmar Ábrego García: “It’s wrong to snatch a person off the street and ship them to a foreign gulag with no chance to defend themselves in a court of law.”

I’d say he’s talking to fellow Democrats and they think it’s a winning strategy.

You might consider reading full articles and watching entire speech.

I’m a fan.

just ask Jeanne Shaheen. You take from it what you will. To me what he is saying is very simply the same old schtick of blaming the Democratic Party as a whole, for every wrong occurring in this country for over 50 years.

speech and interviews and then came to this conclusion. I appreciate that.

they hammer those messages over and over again to control the narrative.

Schumer's message when he appeared on Chris Hayes was to let Krasnov burn it all down and then beat them in the next election.

No one told Bernie and AOC to go across the country, even in bright red areas, pushing a narrative of what Krasnov is doing to them.

The majority of the protests that I see happening every day have been organized by Indivisible.

I cannot understand how DOGE is legal or Constitutional?

"I cannot understand how DOGE is legal or Constitutional?"

There is absolutely nothing legal about any of these firings and budget cuts. Appropriations are 100% the province of Congress, and it is ILLEGAL for the Executive Branch to impound funds. If Congress appropriates it, the Exec branch has to spend it.

This has been the law since the 1970s, but Beltway Dems never even mention that. They have decided they either don't care about the slash and burn, or else they are happy to wait 3 years for these cuts to be restored through litigation.

This is EXACTLY the attitude the good Governor is talking about. We should be screaming bloody murder about these things. We criticize the MSM for not covering it, but why should they? If Dems don't think it is worth even an occasional comment, then why should any media person put a target on their own chest?

When Bernie and AOC drew crowds of 20,000-plus, the media covered that. That's how it works.

which is why a broken government can't fix it. There needs to be something(?) other than the status quo. Not Legilsative. What is that? Electing different bodies to fill the same seats in a broken house with no tools to fix the frigging house(?) Thats where you get what we got. I have no answers, but I'm such a sucker for defending people who are just being human. AOC is an extremely talented speaker. That is not a common trait, and she should be used in a way where she can use her gift for the greatest good. Chuck Schumer is not. I don't know what he brings to the table, or why his fellow Senators choose him to be the Senate Leader. Bernie Sanders? Whatever. I've been listening to him for a long time. And that is the problem. Good talks, but no mention of how to get out of money in politics, voting rights, health care, just blame. Doing the same thing over and over. Insanity. Here I am.

But not enough senators joined so he tries to explain to the public

That’s not on him

of Democrats in this thread dedicated to fighting fascism. I’m sorry you disagree.

fighting fascism by dissing unknown Democrats. I don't see the correlation. Fascism is reality, real live actions being taken on a daily basis. Talk is talk. Involves zero action.

or at least ignoring, bipartisanship. What this administration is up to are fighting words. I mean that figuratively?
Some democrats will benefit from my/our choices for where our money goes soon. We have some soloish singers. Now we need the chorus.

And the GQP is gonna Find Out.

It’s about time we acted like the Constitution is on fire, because it is.

People from Chicago can recognize a fire when they see one.

When regular posters say exactly what the Governor said, the flagger brigade is all over them. But I guess a Governor of one of the largest states deserves some immunity from the flagger brigade.

The Governor is 100% correct. We are at war, whether we recognize it or not. Timidity, whether among elected officials, or among us rank and file, is no answer.

It wasn't that long ago that his words would get a spanking.

And for many people, that first step is extremely difficult.

if anyone should KNOW change is needed

I would do so on the basis of:

yup

What i see more is people who, despite everything we have been through, are cocksure that somehow if we keep doing all the same things, we will get a different result.

And I understand some people take longer to smell the coffee. But when they attack and bully those who can easily smell the coffee, that's, well, disappointing.

but then I have seen it way too many times, where you just want to scream WAKE UP!!!!! Alas, it's not only repukes who hold us back......

and we may have a plan to actually win the house.

are the ones who are actually hurting the party. New/independent voters see these people telling people to shut up and be happy or mocking them for not voting for us get turned off by all of this & they start to believe the Republican lies that we are coastal elitists. You even have posters on here mocking others because they don't know everything they know about all the complexities of our congressional system..

and so happy I am. I frankly thought Pritzker was a wealthy dilettante who would be an ineffective governor at best and corrupt as all get out at worst. Oh was I wrong. He is my current first choice in the presidential primaries for 2028.

Love it

"We need to speak to these people nicely. Ask what they're REALLY FEELING. If necessary give them everything they want. Then maybe they'll sing kumbaya with us"

send stern letters- that's the ticket

...please articulate the strategy behind doing nothing. This isn't a snarky question. I mean it. Many in Dem leadership see this as the correct option at this time. But, I don't know the strategy behind it.

I get the do-nothing behavior up to a point. With the GOP in the majority in the House and Senate, and also in control of he WH and SCOTUS, the Dems are essentially powerless to force any "official" undoing of any of the destruction that's happening. We have no bargaining power whatsoever. The 60-vote threshold in the Senate to invoke cloture is about the only tool available to us now, and even that can be turned off by Repubs with a simple majority vote.

Consequently, some Dems feel the right thing to do is let the Trump agenda play out - since we kind of have little choice anyway - in the hopes that it will so hurt the country and alienate so many voters that Repubs will lose big in the next few years of elections. Do-nothing Dems seem to feel that protesting loudly and engaging in any obstruction or loud activism is just tilting at windmills and that it could have the effect of making us look like a bunch of whiners, losers and weaklings in the eyes of the electorate.

If this is so, then what is the endgame? Or even the "mid"-game, to coin a term?

Pritzker, who has spent more than $350 million on his campaigns for governor and an unsuccessful campaign to pass a progressive state income tax, said he agreed with the anti-“oligarchy” campaigning of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Oligarchy is a group of the most powerful people in society who are trying to impose their will on everyone else, and make them pay for what the oligarchs are unwilling to pay for,” said Pritzker. “There’s a big difference between the people that Bernie Sanders is talking about and what I believe in.” He was opposing Trump’s agenda of “the largest tax increase, with the tariffs on working-class people, and the largest tax cut for wealthy people. That is exactly the opposite of what people thought they were voting for in November.”

He rocks.

...for wanting to replace those ineffective democrats that Pritzker denounces. I agree with Hogg (and Pritzker). Democratic members of Congress are our national leadership. They must either lead the fight against fascism or get out of the way. I think Musk had a pretty good idea: tell us five things you did to defeat the fascist oligarchy this week!

He deserves the criticism. Pritzker is trying to light a fire under Democrats, not undermine them. Many of those safe districts that Hogg gripes about have minority and women Democrats in office. We need them there. And if Hogg goes after Democrats rather than republicans, we could lose some of those safe seats. He need to remain neutral. Why do we have to tear down our own side?

young involved people such as m. frost
i agree with d.hogg

The Democratic Party itself needs to be more democratic. We can do that with more primaries or by enacting term-limit legislation.

I actually support Joe Manchin’s ideas on term limits. President gets one 6-year term. They can’t do their job running for reelection. Congress members can serve 12years. Supreme Court justices must retire after 18.

Current reality. Keeping Trump in for most of COVID would have destroyed us. And, right now, the thought of Trump stretching out his plans and getting comfy for 6years?

Gawd no.

How about only one 4 year term for President? That way they concentrate their entire 4 years on running the country. Period.

Our biggest problem at the moment is not the traditional policy issues that we often debate left versus right. Our problem today, far above every other issue, is the frontal assault on our constitutional and democratic form of government. This is being driven by the oligarchs and their fascist cohort, and supported largely by the GOP. However there are plenty of Democrats who have not been overly enthusiastic about opposing that. And that's where we are today.

When I listen to and look at Governor Pritzker, I think of Governor Christie, who is perhaps his alter ego in the gop. They have both been willing to speak the bare truth even when it goes against factions of their own party. So what I am thinking is, for the next presidential cycle, we probably need to set our normal special interests aside and really focus on what it would take to elect somebody that would restore our democracy. I am thinking about a ticket of Pritzker and Christieto run. That clearly would be a radical departure from any kind of precedent in modern political history. But I think we need a radical departure at this moment.

I know many will not like that idea. Particularly many of the Insiders from both parties, mainly the ones who have been on corporate payrolls deeply. I encourage everyone else to think a little bit about this and how it might change the whole National dialogue.

Christie is a monster

So again, no!

But seriously, come back and think about this in 90 days when we are in a deep recession with Supply chains all screwed up and no leadership from either party to take us forward. What seems insane today may actually look sensible by then.

including the working class governor Tim Walz -- yes, again, or Bashear, Newsom, Mills, Whitmer, Stein, Hochul -- that this good oligarch would never have to even think about some rethug on his ticket.

Even a Pritzker/Sanders ticket works for me. Or a Pritzker/Warren ticket (she'd be a fearless president of the Senate). Or Pritzker with most any senator from a high electoral count state.

Haven't you learned after all these decades? NO Republican on their best day is ever as good as any Democrat on their worst day.

Rethugs perform sensible. They are never, everever sensible. Stop thinking crazy, okay?

What I am suggesting is that our country is so polarized, it might take something really unprecedented to shake the foundations of fascist. A Pritzker/Christie ticket would force the media to move away from the "Left-right horse race" mentality. Of course, for this to work, there would have to be a strong bargain about policies and power sharing. I'd think this would be a single-term commitment, with an agreement to set policy differences aside for 4 years, and dedicate the team effort to restoring the rule of law, returning the SC to a Constitutional basis, restoring and buttressing the independence of inspectors general, putting new firewalls in place to prevent the abuses that Trump got away with, and the elimination of dark money from political campaigns.

As a practical matter, I doubt that Christie could sign on to these things. And if not, then there would be no chance of it working. But if he COULD buy into these principles, this could be a powerful moment, as it would send the clear message that our democracy is more important than most policy differences, especially those that are manufactured to be wedges between people.

In my dream scenario, this ticket would win well over 60% of the popular vote, and practically all of the electors, being a real mandate from the people.

I agree with you that it seems very unlikely because there are so many interests that simply don't want a functioning democracy, government of, by, and for the people.

Would someone provide link to Pritzker’s complete speech? TIA.

HE TRULY GETS IT

Republicans have the House, Senate and White House and we’re debating whether we need a NEW plan or should stick with the old? Seriously?

Where do Democrats currently stand with citizens polled? Somewhere around 30%?

If my son wrapped his 10th truck around the 10th tree, I wouldn’t suggest he go do the same thing tonight…..even though I love him with all my heart. I’d suggest….no, demand that he make some changes.

I dislike his billionaire status.

But, why oh why, does the media see someone emerge to lead people into action and start asking about “running for president “? Is it really all they can think about?

Everything he can to make equality, justice, and prosperity for everyone!

He has always been a fighter, look at videos of him taking on Wreck it Rauner before either ran for office. He is unafraid to say truth out loud to other billionaires with receipts, and he has a gleam in his eye while doing so.

If all of our small handful of heroes run for president in 2028,
it is going to be a difficult decision for me whom I will support.