Americans for Democratic Action
Fighting for progress and resisting reaction since 1947
ADA: Updates (via Facebook)
Sarah Sanders will be leaving the White House at the end of the month. When she actually held press briefings (which oddly, hasn't been too often even though she's the press secretary), she often made headlines for making statements that could easily be proven false or taking away the media credentials of reporters who Donald Trump didn't like.
While nobody really is too optimistic about it considering the Trump Administration's history of casting the media as the enemy of the people, but it sure would be refreshing if Sanders's replacement actually made an effort to give factual information to the press instead of hiding and lying when things aren't going well for the president.
Sarah Sanders leaving White House at the end of the month, Trump says
“She is a very special person with extraordinary talents, who has done an incredible job!” the president tweeted.One chamber is running the country...the other two are running it into the ground.
Senator McConnell's Legislative Graveyard
Instead of working to find bipartisan solutions to our nation's problems, Republicans have turned the Senate into Senator Mitch McConnell's legislative grave...It's important to watch discussions that take place in local primaries because they could have an impact on national debates. Last night, two progressive candidates won their primaries to become the Commonwealth's Attorney for their respective counties in Northern Virginia.
Steve Descano (in Fairfax County) and Parisa Dehghani-Tafti (in Arlington County) focused in on topics like cash bail reform, raising the threshold for felony larceny charges, and several other progressive criminal justice issues. It will be interesting to see how this not only impacts other races in Virginia, but the national conversation as well.
Progressive challengers oust longtime prosecutors in Northern Virginia
The Democratic primary winners promise to end marijuana possession charges and cash bail.America is supposed to stand for freedom, but the Trump Administration has made it clear it only supports basic equality for certain people. Trump, Pence, and their anti-LGBT cronies have prevented US embassies around the world from displaying the Pride flag -- something they've done for years as we celebrate pride every June.
As ADA members were walking around DC this past weekend for Capital Pride, several people noticed that the Canadian embassy was flying a flag that combined the Canadian flag and the pride flag. It was almost like they were sending a message to Trump that there are still some countries out there willing to lead the fight for basic civil rights.
Pence says move to bar rainbow flags outside U.S. embassies was ‘the right decision’
In an interview with NBC News, the vice president defended the Trump administration’s decision, saying that “one flag should fly, and that’s the American flag.”ADA is part of a broad coalition of organizations that have signed on as organizational co-sponsors of HR51, which would make DC the 51st state. We’re up on the Hill today taking part in a discussion with Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton about the progress the legislation is making.
The House will be holding a committee hearing on it in late July, so keep an eye out for action ADA will be taking on the issue.
Join ADA, June 18th in DC to honor Federal Workers (accepted by NFFE President Randy Erwin). act.myngp.com/Forms/-1041456314317799424
In yet another example of what's wrong with the NRA, the organization is shelling out huge sums of money to members of its board of directors. So much so that even loyal NRA members are questioning the spending habits of the organization's leaders.
I guess this helps show the organization is no longer really dedicated to making sure hunters know how to safely use their guns, but have alternative motives in mind.
NRA money flowed to board members amid allegedly lavish spending by top officials and vendors
In all, 18 members of the 76-member board of directors collected money from the group during the past three years, public filings and internal correspondence show.It looks like the Trump Administration is once again refusing to let Congress do it's job. A letter was sent to a House committee saying the Department of Justice and Department of Commerce wouldn't provide Congress with information that was subpoenaed.
This could potentially lead to Attorney General Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross being held in contempt of Congress.
DOJ, Commerce reject Dem subpoenas for census docs
The attorney general and commerce secretary didn't comply with a Thursday deadline to turn over documents.Today's the 75th anniversary of D-day and people all across the world are remembering those who gave their lives to help defeat Nazi Germany. But in America, we have a president who's flippantly telling people he's increasing the defense budget as a way to make up for not serving in Vietnam.
In other words, he used his family's wealth to get out of serving in the military and is now trying to use taxpayer money to make his fragile ego feel better. When will Trump realize he can't simply buy his way out of his history of taking dishonorable actions?
Analysis | Trump’s flippant talk about the Vietnam War
In a new interview, he suggests he's compensating for not putting his life on the line by increasing the defense budget. And that's merely the latest.Even the Republican conference in the Senate realizes that Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on goods from Mexico would do far more harm than good. Maybe we’ll finally see Mitch McConnell and his cronies stand up for the American people.
Republicans threaten revolt, may block Trump's Mexico tariffs
GOP senators left a closed-door meeting with White House officials deeply frustrated with the president's plans.Read about the life and passing of Don Fraser, former Congressman from MN and former ADA President. www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/obituaries/donald-fraser-dead.html
In the wake of the tragic shooting last week in Virginia Beach, Virginia's governor has called for a special session of the General Assembly to address commonsense gun control ideas. This is a step in the right direction, but we shouldn't have to wait for mass shootings to be what cause us to make incremental progress towards addressing gun violence in our country.
Virginia Gov. Northam will convene special session of legislature to take up gun control
In wake of Virginia Beach, Northam, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and Attorney General Mark Herring challenge Republican lawmakersADA: What You Should Know
Honoring America’s Federal Workers and other Champions, June 18th in DC
Register for Early Bird tickets and sponsors. We've been proud to honor progressive champions for over 70 years. Join us, June 18th at the Washington Court Hotel in Washington, DC for our 2019 Awards Event where we will honor America's Federal Workers (AFGE President...
read moreInto the New Year!
What a year 2018 has been and as we head into 2019 together we have much to be thankful for (check out ADA's 2018 Election Report) but also much work to do on issues, 2019 elections such as our work trying to securing working majorities in Virginia!, and setting up...
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How has Congressional partisanship evolved?
A researcher in London has used ADA Voting Records over the past 70 years to create a tool that shows all sorts of interactive information on partisanship trends. Check out the tool HERE.
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