MOMocrats

Donald Trump promised the American people that we would get tired of all the endeavors he would be winning for us. It turns out he was right - just not the way he envisioned. Last week's implosion of the AHCA was a huge win for Americans who benefit from the provisions of Obamacare, which remains the law of the land. The orders blocking Trump's travel ban remain in place. Trump's polling numbers continue to sink with each passing day. And the grassroots progressive movement is on FIRE. If Trumpie keeps on winning this way, we should have very good news in 2018.

But all is not perfect: The House investigation into Russian interference in our presidential election has gone off the rails, thanks to the inept "leadership" of obstructor-in-chief Devin Nunes. Newsweek reported yesterday that James Comey wanted to warn the American public about the Russia-Trump connection before the election, but was not permitted to do so. And every day, the federal government falls further into kleptocracy. MOMocrats Aliza Worthington, Karoli, and Donna Schwartz Mills disuss these issues and more from a progressive point of view. An Engender Media Group production.

The House Republicans and Trump team have been working all night to tweak their terrible healthcare bill to get it through a floor vote tonight. But it's really tough to come up with a plan that will please both ultra-conservative "Freedom Caucus" members AND representatives from states whose constitutents are covered by the current Obamacare plans. We don't think it can be done, but Spicey says the Trump White House has "no Plan B." So tonight is going to be interesting - not that anything that has occurred in the political arena has been dull: The revelations about the Trump campaign and Russia (and what House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes did yesterday!) dwarf the capers on series like The Americans... and the Gorsuch hearings to fill the stolen seat on the Supreme Court have had all the drama of an episode of Law and Order. MOMocrats Karoli, Aliza Worthington and Donna Schwartz Mills discuss the week's political news from a progressive point of view. An Engender Media Group production.

Yesterday was a bad one for Donald Trump: His revised, legally-vetted travel ban was supposed to go into effect at midnight until yet another Federal judge slapped it down for violating the First Amendment right to freedom of religion - even though this time, the order had no mention of the term "Muslim." The thing is - Trump and his minions have been on record multiple times stating that their intent was to prevent Muslims from entering the country, and the judge considered that context. It didn't take the President long to complain about it to another one of his unprecendented first-term campaign rallies in Nashville. MOMocrats Karoli, Aliza Worthington and Donna Schwartz Mills discuss this and all the other crazy political news (Tax returns! Budgets! Deep State!) in this week's podcast from the progressive point of view. An Engender Media Group production.

If we lived in normal times, MOMocrats Aliza Worthington, Karoli and Donna Schwartz Mills could spend an entire hour talking about the House Republicans bill to replace the Affordable Care Act. But these are not normal times - and while the MOMos will discuss the sorry state of the GOP proposals, they will also get into the rest of the crowded field of news: Donald Trump's crazy Twitter rant (was that really just a few days ago?), the continuing revelations about the campaign's ties to Russia (was there a quid pro quo? And now that missing former MI6 dossier author Christopher Steele has resurfaced, what more will we learn?), and much, much more in the MOMocrats' weekly podcast looking at the day's political news from the progressive point of view. An Engender Media Group production.

The drip-drip-drip of revelations about the Trump administration's ties to Russia turned into a flood last night as three different news organizations published explosive pieces examining different aspects of this complex and complicated story:

(1) The New York Times reported that by the end of President Obama's administration, officials were so disturbed by the intelligence they were receiving on Russian involvement in the 2016 election that they took desperate measures to ensure that the information would not disappear once the Trump team took over.

(2) The Washington Post published an account of Attorney General Jeff Sessions meeting twice with the Russian ambassador - even though he told the Senate Judicial Committee under oath that no such meetings had ever taken place. Since that report, there have been bipartisan calls for an independent prosecutor, or for Sessions to at least recuse himself from any investigations. Nancy Pelosi and Elijah Cummings have called for Sessions to resign for committing perjury. So far, Sessions doesn't appear to be heeding any of these suggestions.

(3) The Wall Street Journal - which is a part of Rupert Murdoch's Fox media empire - corroborated the Washington Post article, with additional information about the investigation that turned up this new information.

MOMocrats Karoli, Donna Schwartz Mills and guest Aliza Worthington discuss these developments and more in this week's podcast on politics from a progressive point of view. An Engender Media Group production.

Four million people took to the streets the day after Donald Trump's inauguration to protest his dangerous, dark vision of the world - which is not rooted in reality. He repeats the fearmongering, cherry-picked statistics he hears about on Fox News and talks of carnage in our cities' streets - while - aside from a small uptick in some areas - the actual crime rate in the United States is the lowest it has been in decades. The protests against the team in the White House has continued and expanded to Congress. Thanks to guides like the one put out by Indivisible, citizens are taking a leaf from the Tea Party playbook that allowed a small, vocal minority to sway public opinion to oppose Obama's healthcare reform. Ironically, legislators holding town halls this year are hearing the other side from people who - now insured - do not want their healthcare taken away. Only this time, the people who are becoming active in politics represent a wider swath of the population. MOMocrats Karoli and Donna Schwartz Mills discuss with guest Aliza Worthington.

The election of Donald J. Trump and his rapid-fire issuance of careless, unvetted executive orders has awakened a sleeping giant on the left. On his first weekend in office, Trump was greeted by the spectacle of the Women's March. And once he signed his uncontitutional order restricting travel from seven predominantly Muslim nations (including legal permanent residents of the United States), spontaneous demonstrations exploded across the country. 

Our representatives also report an exponential increase in phone calls and visits to their office, by frustrated progressives who are taking a page from the Tea Party, a minority faction of that successfully took the Republican Party hostage and hasn't let go - culminating in the election of this disastrous leader.

MOMocrats Karoli and Donna Schwartz Mills welcome Daily Action founder Laura Moser, the woman behind one of the new daily text-message services that are helping people resist extremism in Trump's America. Her service is currently reaching 200,000 Americans and is growing.

Karoli and Donna will also spend some time talking about the Muslim ban, Cabinet hearings and the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the stolen SCOTUS seat that should have gone to Merrick Garland.

We all knew that President Trump was going to be a disaster. But MOMocrats Karoli and Donna Schwartz Mills had no idea of the velocity of bad policy, executive orders, gag orders, and crazy tweets we'd be buffeted by in the space of just six days. While President Trump obsesses and fumes over his unpopular poll numbers, losing the popular vote, and low inauguration attendance, the country is showing the strain. Agencies that work with climate science have been placed under gag orders, red states hit by storms last week are still waiting for FEMA response (Trump hasn't appointed anyone to the agency yet) - and on Wednesday, the ENTIRE senior management team at State resigned. And that's just a drop in the bucket. But at least, we all had a very nice march on Saturday. An Engender Media Group production.

This week, we say good-bye to President Obama and try to prepare for the new Administration of Donald Trump, who despite recent revelations of ongoing intelligence investigations into ties with Russia, WILL be sworn in as our 45th President - along with the basket of deplorables he's designated for his cabinet. MOMocrats Karoli and Donna Schwartz Mills agree with civil rights hero, Representative John Lewis, that Donald Trump is NOT a legitimate President. They'll talk about the chaos surrounding this transition, as well as Saturday's Women's March in Washington, DC and 300 cities around the world. Put on your hat - it's going to be a wild ride. This week's MOMocrats MOMochat political podcast from a progressive point of view is produced by Engender Media Group.

We're not quite sure what a dervish looks like, but this week we've been schooled in what it's like to be so overwhelmed by news events and political maneuvers that it's impossible to keep up with it all - and that is what Donald Trump and the Republicans had in mind when they packed half a dozen confirmation hearings, Obamacare repeal motions, AND Trump's first press conference in months over just a couple of days. What they had not counted on was the explosive publication by Buzzfeed of an unverified dossier reporting Russian intel on Trump's business dealings and sexual proclivities. Whether true or not, it's the rare instance where the Trumpets could not distract the public from the revelations.

MOMocrats Karoli and Donna Schwartz Mills also talk about the bittersweet Presidential farewell speech by Barack Obama in this week's podcast looking at political news from the progressive point of view. Produced by Engender Media Group.