This is the fucking energy I need:
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) went after Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), accusing him of being a “complete and total fraud” over his vow to remove Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) and others from committee assignments.
Ogles said Thursday that he is looking to strip some of his Democratic colleagues from their posts after they sang a song in support of Green on the House floor. The Texas Democrat was censured over his protest of President Trump’s Tuesday night speech to Congress.
Jeffries said Ogles’s resolution is “going nowhere.”
“I’m here in the office. Just finished up a telephone town hall meeting with my dynamic sister, our Attorney General Tish James. And my team informs me that some far-right extremists have introduced a resolution to try to throw Democratic Members of the House off of our committees,” Jeffries said in a statement Thursday night.
“That resolution is going nowhere,” he continued. “You ain’t throwing no one off of any single committee. These people are malignant clowns.”
“You aren’t throwing anyone off of any committee in the House of Representatives,” the Democratic leader added. “Don’t make me expose you to folks who don’t know you.”
All day, every day- that is what I need from you Rep. Jeffries. Just *chef kiss*.
WereBear
Attorney General Tish James is my FAVORITE AG, and I sent her a message to say so. I want to hear Democrats saying basic facts because apparently people are short of sources.
If we must meme, meme on.
SW
Very good!
cain
Malignant CLOWNS.. For the win!
Baud
@cain:
It is an apt description.
cain
@Baud: They have a great leader who is a malignant narcissist.
Scout211
In other unexpected good news, from Erin in the Morning:
Llelldorin
They challenged him in his bailiwick. Bad choice.
We have a bad habit of saying things like “we have bad Democrats.” It’s not true — we have outstanding Democratic legislators. (Far, far better than the “Bartleby the Senator” types in the Republican Party who when asked to hold townhalls… would prefer not.)
Unfortunately, they’re not who I’d choose, by and large, to lead street protests. We need a second group of leaders for that. AOC is good. Al Green is good. We need many others.
Old Man Shadow
By all means, please do so.
Belafon
Trump is supposed to be making some sort of announcement at noon eastern according to the Guardian.
sixthdoctor
Slightly OT, perhaps, but reading the responses gave me a nice leopards-face-munching lift.
eclare
I want people exposed. Do it, Hakeem.
RaflW
I was very hard on Jeffries yesterday morning, both here and on Bsky. I’m very glad to see this fighting spirit. I hope there’s more.
cain
@Belafon: I hope its that he’s giving up the presidency and retiring to Russia.
cain
@sixthdoctor: Hopefully he tells his other Trump loving friends.
But yeah, Leopard eats another face, bro.
humanadverb
I’d love to see that intensity in defense of people he doesn’t see around his workplace, but it’s still nice to see he’s capable of appropriate outage.
am
Yes. I didn’t care about the censure, and this makes me optimistic.
Getting a censure for protesting this president is somewhere between a trophy and a medal of honor. It has no consequences and is meaningless. It helps Rep Green more than it hurts him and if voting for censure helps some Dem reps in their districts, good.
Committee assignments are meaningful and Jeffries is showing teeth. He’s good, and this validates they have a strategy. To call Ogles a clown show is insulting to clowns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Ogles and the speaker has leverage and strength.
sixthdoctor
@cain: It does call into consideration right-wing’s successful hijacking of Spanish-language media and Univision.
But maybe some people are just fools, who knows.
And some good news, also illustrating that for all the evil he is, if you push back on Trump he’ll fold faster than Superman on laundry day.
Belafon
@cain: It looks like he’s got to lie about the jobs report.
marcopolo
Slightly OT but headed to my local Stand Up for Science action in a few minutes. We actually have 2 in St Louis today–we do a fair amount of science here so representing.
This morning there was a pro-Ukraine march targeting our R governor (who said crap about Zelensky/Ukraine after the oval office shitshow) outside of a local private high school that was giving him an award. And there are two, yes two, Tesla Takedown events tomorrow. Depending on how Saturday plays out I might drop by one of them.
Remember, we don’t need to wait for our electeds to act, we too have agency and power. Hope other blog folks are also making good trouble locally.
NotMax
@Belafon
Imposing a tariff on daylight when the clocks change this weekend?
Jackie
Slightly off topic, yet relevant:
This doesn’t sound like someone planning to re-run for office.
John S.
@Jackie:
Good. One and done. He can follow Sinema into irrelevance.
billcoop4
@Jackie:
Ignoring other issues with Fetterman, I suspect his stroke has caused a lot more issues for him than he’s let on.
BC
prostratedragon
@NotMax: Oh thanks.
trollhattan
@Old Man Shadow:
Until the Baud admin I’m strictly adhering to pants-on for our pols.
Geminid .
@am: This is a tactical error on Ogles’ part. The smart move would have been to hold a victory dance over Rep. Green’s Censure, while ladling out lavish praise for the ten “courageous” Democrats who joined in.
Republicans had a good wedge there, and could have driven it deeper into the Democratic coalition. They’d have had plenty of help too.
Instead, Rep. Ogles is offering Democrats an opportunity to reunite a critical time. But no one is ever gonna confuse Andy Ogles with Niccolo Machiavelli.
trollhattan
@Jackie: He would need a really big suitcase. Just sayin’.
circular reasoning
@marcopolo: Totally THIS.
I will be going to a local protest tomorrow at our county seat that is organized by our county Dems. Even (or maybe especially) in my rural Trumpy part of the world it is critical that we all do our part.
chemiclord
@Llelldorin:
Yep, and we need to be okay with both types of people.
sentient ai from the future
Sounds like this was because a line was crossed into jeffries’ authority, whereas prior to this the putative lack of fight was more along the lines of “don’t interrupt your enemy while they are making a mistake”
sentient ai from the future
@John S.: “I didn’t read the job description closely enough”
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid .: Today’s Republicans always choose to overreach and twist the knife when they get a win, whether that benefits them or not. It’s a kind of sadistic impulse.
Llelldorin
@chemiclord: Yes, exactly. We’ve always been terrible at getting this — that’s basically the plot of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence.
Baud
Via reddit
Geminid .
@Jackie: John Fetterman does not seem to me to be in good physical health. I’ve been sceptical as to whether Fetterman would run again because of that.
I also remember what Giselle Fetterman said of her husband during his Senate campaign: that he was an introvert. This was a view of John Fetterman that had not occurred to me before I read it in a Washington Post profile of Giselle Fetterman, but it made sense and I figured she would know.
So I would not be surprised if Fetterman retires in 2028. He reminds me of another one-and-done Senator, Jim Webb of Virginia. Webb beat Republican Senator George Allen in 2006 and then retired after one term. Webb could have won a another term, but I think he recognized that he was not cut out for a political life. Not everybody is.
RinaX
@Llelldorin: Thank you.
pajaro
@Llelldorin:
Thank you for this.
Jeffro
#SoStealingThat
stinger
@Scout211:
Hooray!
p.a
Just caught the end before commercials, but did It delay more tariffs today? Get the CDC (anyone left?) to NYC! It is Wall St whiplash ground zero. Physical & psychological manifestations.
Martin
Aren’t we past the making threats phase of this? You’ll be taken more seriously if you shiv Ogles without warning. That’s what gets peoples attention.
Shakti
@sixthdoctor:
Why do I get the feeling that if this guy said he had voted for Harris the news would’ve never talked to him, let alone have that Congress member boost this story?
” It’s either “leopards eating face” or “I did everything right I’m one of the good ones but look what happened”
Chief Oshkosh
@Old Man Shadow: Yeah, I didn’t get that part. Expose as many of these Dipshit Dacrulas to the light is what I say. Let ’em all dry up and blow away.
hells littlest angel
Was it yesterday or the day before yesterday that Jeffries was a spineless coward? You really can’t tell the players without a scorecard.
hells littlest angel
@sixthdoctor:he is reconsidering his support
Yeah, maybe think about that, pal. JFC.
TBone
– Will Rogers
sentient ai from the future
marcy has a really thought provoking post i figured i should flag for y’all, because i do think this community has a tendency to over-focus on the political side of things (as i do, which is part of why i’m here) at the expense of other roles and levels of organizing.
Jeffro
Btw Jackals: I thought I was up on all things wingnut but apparently not…
I went to pick up a post-workout smoked turkey bbq sandwich from my favorite local place today and while I was waiting for it, a few good ol’ boys came in. One of them had a circular insignia patch on his left shoulder – two crossed sledgehammers with the words “Men’s Alliance” around the edge.
So of course I looked it up once I got home and…well…picture if you crossed ‘Warrior Dash’ workouts with far-right fundamentalist Christianity (plus a generous helping of talk therapy and cigars around the fire afterwards).
Their FAQs are interesting (cringe RWNJ witty in places)
and OF COURSE they have a podcast, too.
I don’t see anything at all in the news, nothing about who funds it (other than “each local group funds itself”, etc etc)
Something to keep an eye on…
TBone
@marcopolo: hubby and I will be protesting on Court House steps in a nearby town tomorrow.
cain
@Belafon:
Lying is the default, it’s when he tells the truth is when it is astonishing.
It’ll be interesting watching him talk about how great the economy is while country goes into a depression. Watching his cultists talk about how great the economy as they struggle to pay for everything or looking for a job will only make them look weirder than ever.
cain
@Geminid .:
These people aren’t particularly astute or politically saavy. We aren’t talking about a McConnell.
TBone
@Belafon:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-latest-trump-considering-pressure-on-russia-and-sreuterseking-deal-with-iran/ar-AA1Asfvi
prostratedragon
@TBone: Apt.
TBone
Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social
NEW: The National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods is (or was) an advisory committee housed within the USDA which provides outside expert advice to advance food safety across the US and across different levels of govt. It was ordered disbanded this afternoon.
Actually two gone:
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2025/03/president-trump-eliminates-two-key-food-safety-committees/
He’s getting revenge for his Trump Steaks failure
lowtechcyclist
@sixthdoctor:
From the link in Rep. Beyer’s skeet:
Glad to see him start to wake up a bit, but how the everloving fuck could he have been that dumb about this?
TBone
@Jeffro: this is why my last words might be
Josie
@lowtechcyclist:
I don’t think it’s being dumb. I could tell by listening to him that English is not his first language. English as a second language speakers can function quite well most of the time, but politics is difficult because lies are constantly told and ideas are complex. These people are probably confused about who stands for what. We need for people who understand this to work in those communities to educate people politically.
JML
geez, y’all couldn’t fix the world while I was out having surgery? I guess there really limits to Jackal Power.
TBone
Interesting theory about why Elno has his fingers in all the pies
https://digbysblog.net/2025/03/07/what-does-elon-really-want/
Lobo
@TBone: Good message for representatives: How many people have to die on the altar of Musk/Trump?: See SpaceX debris diverting flights, FAA firings, cancelling cancer research, measles, food safety, etc.
Lobo
@Lobo:
chemiclord
@hells littlest angel: It’s simple. He always a feckless corporate Dem. He could lead a socialist revolution and raise the hammer and sickle over the Capitol Building and it would recieve a scornful, “He didn’t cite the correct passage from Hegel. Fuckin’ feckless corporate dem.”
lowtechcyclist
@Josie:
It didn’t leak across the language barrier into the Hispanic community generally that Trump was saying he’d round up 11 million illegals? There’s nothing complicated about that. And it’s pretty obvious that you don’t get there by rounding up just the criminals. Or even by any sort of one-by-one roundup.
TBone
@JML: glad you’re back in action!
chemiclord
@Josie:
The problem there is that it’s not like Trump is an unknown quantity. It’s not like he didn’t do this same exact thing during his first rodeo.
TBone
@Lobo: yes indeed. I’ll add: We may never know how many because abortion is healthcare and, in some important places, female mortality data is no longer being collected or published.
Heidi Mom
(Reply to Geminid at #35.) Also, one of Webb’s priorities as a Senator was the passage of an updated version of the GI Bill, and he got that done.
Eunicecycle
@lowtechcyclist: I think they (Trumpers) consider anyone here illegally to be criminals. Although technically it is a civil offense, not criminal
And that he didn’t expect innocent people would be swept up, too is very naive. I’ve heard some Native Americans have been picked up. Where exactly were they going to deport them?
The Thin Black Duke
@lowtechcyclist: Some brown people don’t realize that they will never be “white enough” in White America. Never.
Chief Oshkosh
@Josie: Eh…maybe.
It’s more likely that he voted for dominance/misogyny and to hurt other people. It’s a macho thing.
Harrison Wesley
@TBone: He’s going to pressure Russia? WTF does that mean? He’s going to fart in its general direction?
Matt McIrvin
@Eunicecycle: Yes, and they also think they reserve the right to define who is here legally.
Josie
@lowtechcyclist:
But this man probably heard the two words “criminals” and “illegals” and figured they didn’t apply to him. I’d guess the numbers meant nothing to him. Not everyone listens as carefully as we do.
HopefullyNotcassandra
Ogles looks to be a Congress critter of the criminal persuasion. The legit DOJ’s case into Ogles self loans that seemed to come from nowhere where stopped by the new and more criminal inclined DOJ of his Orangeanity.
https://www.rawstory.com/andy-ogles-2666910649/
Here is one example of Ogles hiding the ball using the stillborn death of his child, too
rikyrah
@sixthdoctor:
he got what he voted for
Glory b
@Llelldorin: i don’t know, AOC’s campaign events for Jamaal Bowman and Nina Turner were pretty low attendance events, but sure, she should give it a shot.
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen Green leading a protest type event.
As for Jeffries, I seem to recall that black and brown people on here said for you guys to stop running around with your hair on fire and got yelled at.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Geminid .: No, but they might confuse him for George Santos.
Andy Ogles has a similar mo
Alce _e_ardillo
@Geminid .: Well, it doesn’t hurt that Ogles is an idiot.
Alce _e_ardillo
@Glory b: I just finished putting it out, and I can’t get the smell out of my hair.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Shakti: It might feel that way. Nonetheless, there is coverage of ICE picking up random American citizens simply because they were speaking Spanish.
Here is a story out of Wisconsin.
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/2025/01/30/telemundo-report-of-ice-detaining-puerto-rican-family-in-milwaukee-draws-concern/78058292007/
Geminid .
I started following Hakeem Jeffries fairly closely in late November, 2018 when he was elected House Caucus Chairman after the midterms. Later I researched Jeffries’ political history, including how he elbowed his way into the rough-and-tumble world of New York City politics.
Jeffries strikes me as someone who knows when to issue a threat, and how. A good example was right after the Caucus Chairman election, when two people “close to” a well-known, newly elected New York Congresswoman told a Politico reporter that they intended to primary Jeffries, and even had a candidate lined up already.
Asked to comment, Jeffries told the reporter, “Democracy is a beautiful thing….Spread Love, it’s the Brooklyn Way.” The last was a quote from the late Brooklyn rapper Biggie Smalls, whose work Jeffries learned to appreciate while growing up in Crown Heights. The meaning was clear, and the threatened primary never materialized.
geg6
@Jackie:
Based on the shit he’s been saying and doing since the election, he better not be think of getting reelected with my help. I regret everything I did to get him elected and all the times I defended him. My mistake. I won’t do it again.
Glory b
@Alce _e_ardillo: Lol.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@lowtechcyclist: Take a drive through red country. Put on the radio. Begin seething. It is lie, lie, lie, hate, lie ad nauseum. Put on the radio in same red area, tune in a Spanish speaking station. Bring a Spanish speaker if you do not speak it. Once more it is lie, hate, lie, commie dem, lie, hate. It is slightly different than the Rush Limbaugh 6.0 playing in English, but the notions are the same.
The Spanish misinformation sewage release is a relatively recent change.
Then try and tell anybody you meet they are being manipulated. It does not go over well even when the manipulated marks know and even love you. It can feel like running into a wall at full speed. Part of the manipulation is the constant repetition that the democrats are the liars and their supporters are brainwashed. The lies are quite actually killing them, and not softly with kisses.
DFH
Sorry, Hakeem. Don’t wait for someone to “make you” expose the bozos.
Just do it.
LAC
@Glory b: Yes, and now we are in the selective memory/move goalposts phase. Not missing a step.
lowtechcyclist
@Josie:
I guess it just boggles my mind that this wasn’t the subject of extensive discussion among Hispanics generally, political or not.
chemiclord
@Chief Oshkosh:
I had a coworker from Guatemala explain to me, “The one group that has hated me almost as much as white people are Mexicans.”
There is not much solidarity in Latin America, and it is very possible he had no problems with how Trump handled things before because Trump was going after those other groups, and not his specifically.
sixthdoctor
@Jeffro: Just for proper credit, I stole that from the Simpsons.
Captain C
@Harrison Wesley: If he does that the Geneva Convention might pick him up for illegal chemical warfare and crimes against humanity.
satby
@LAC: no worries. As soon as Jeffries doesn’t do whatever performative (whatever), they’ll be back to saying he should step aside. Like clockwork.
Paul in KY
@sixthdoctor: Personally, I hope that happens to every Hispanic person who voted for Cheetolini. Better have them documents handy…
Paul in KY
@Geminid .: In general, they are dipshits. They just bamboozled enough dumbasses to get TFG in there, etc.
Paul in KY
@Baud: Ha! I sure do love her!
Glory b
@LAC: Wash, rinse, repeat.
Citizen Alan
@chemiclord: i have often said I wish I could peer into an alternate reality where bernie sanders won the nomination in 2016 and went on to beat trump in the general and become president, just so that I could see the exact moment that the Online Left turned on him and derided him as a corporate sellout. Probably prior to the convention, when he dared to select someone other than nina turner or cornell west as his vp running mate.
Paul in KY
@Jeffro: 100% anyone with that patch is a douchewad. Like a TFG sign. Helps you catagorize them.
Paul in KY
@TBone: God bless you & your hubby & all the other protesters!
Citizen Alan
@Eunicecycle: a good friend of mine back in Mississippi is 1/2 Choctaw. And he used to complain constantly that he was pulled aside for special screening every single time he flew somewhere because the TSA agents thought he looked middle eastern.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@marcopolo: I’ll be at the 6:30 rally.
Geminid .
@Citizen Alan: I always wondered if Elvis Presley had a native ancestor or two, maybe Choctaw. He looked it.
Gin & Tonic
@Glory b: Good legislative representatives and good street protest leaders are very, very seldom the same people.
Hoodie
@Geminid .: Ogles is a clown. Not sure this was even going to be a wedge for Dems, but Jeffries probably wanted to nip it in the bud after the brouhaha about the protests in Trump’s speech. I’m kind of in the camp that most of that stuff was ineffective, but it’s not the end of the world that it happened. Mostly what we’re seeing now is Dems trying to figure out ways to go after Trump, and there will be some fits and starts, minor conflict, etc. If I were to pick a strategy, stick to the tariffs, which are an economic and foreign policy disaster in the making, and the abandonment of Ukraine, which is a massive hit to American prestige.
am
@Geminid .: they’re not going to confuse him with Barney Fife.
Ruckus
@sentient ai from the future:
To me over my 3/4 of a century I’ve noticed that conservatives are somewhat losing their concepts of life and government. (Look who they elected – twice) They want a world they think they had but never really did. They want, in a democracy to be able to control how you look, how you think (not that they do…) and how you vote. They have lost a lot of power and think that they want to go backasswards in time to when slavery was not illegal. But they make a very scientific error. Time does not go backwards. It only moves forward. They talk a horrible concept that if we continue to have an actual democracy they think they will lose their place in line. But that is the exact point of this country and why we had a civil war. All humans are created equal. It is their actions which place them not equal. And they do those actions because it supposedly gives them that power over others and that power isn’t their’s to have. It isn’t any of ours to have.
PatD
I don’t care for Jeffries in leadership but this is exactly what I want to see from him and other Dems. Show that you care and that you understand that Republicans are trying to destroy our institutions, our way of life and reduce our standard of living and you will do everything in your limited power to stop that.
PatD
@satby: 100%. The stakes are such that it is all about what you have done lately. No one cares how well you wrangle votes (others can do that) or that thing you did in 2010 to pass a bill. The primary job now is pure obstruction and helping build a backlash that leads to a wave midterm election.
Gloria DryGarden
@lowtechcyclist: we all know L1 English speakers who didn’t pick up on the lies, either.
Gloria DryGarden
@TBone: would like YY to weigh in on your middle quote box. He always deepens the perspective.
meanwhile, holy cow!
Gloria DryGarden
@Geminid .: google says yes
Several of us “look like it” esp in our cheekbones, and it’s from way back. There’s a photo of my mom’s cousin, next to a photo of my sister, in her kitchen, and the resemblance is uncanny. It was my great grandmother’s great grandmother. My great aunt told me her name and who she married, a year before she died. That’s all I know; I’d like to research it more. Not feeling safe about these databases like ancestry. But the looks carried down the generations through all kinds of white dilutions.
Jeffro
@sixthdoctor: many thanks! (but you still deserve credit for bringing it to my/our attention!)
Jeffro
@Paul in KY: yes, thank you…I kinda had it figured out ;)
Kayla Rudbek
@TBone: AI lies (the polite term is hallucinates) all the time. We have successfully taught the computers how to steal and lie.
Ella in New Mexico
Good for him! Feel your power, Hakeem and use it!
What he also needs to do is to go after the 10 Democrats who voted with R’s to censure Green in the first place and have one of his “come to Jesus meetings” with THEM like he did with Green and my brace Rep. Melanie Stansbury for daring to break decorum the other night.
It’s completely shameful the 10 did that, and was shocked to see Jared Moskowitz was one of them.