 Joining us as always as always I'm out of it. It's you know, I Should have taken the weekend off and I don't I don't stop I never stop I just keep going and going until I crash joining us is the founder and treasurer of the blue America pack He also writes the down with tyranny blog How he climbed how he climbed the blue America pack raises money for progressive candidates all around the country The D triple C will not run anybody against speaker of the house Paul Ryan, but I understand The blue America pack has found a candidate to take on Paul Ryan Yes, we're part of a coalition of groups that have been scouring the the southeast part of Wisconsin which is where Paul Ryan has his district and we've been doing this really really hard I mean certainly blue America has been non-stop working on this and we finally found someone who would be a great candidate not us alone, but working families party which is strong in Wisconsin and The labor unions which who are you know, very very strong and in fact much stronger than the Democratic Party in Wisconsin So between the labor unions the working families party in blue America. We have come up with an incredible guy named Randy Bryce and He hasn't declared yet. It's still sort of under the radar a little bit. People don't know yet Although in the next few weeks, I think everyone will know your listeners are getting a little Early warning on this something that hasn't happened yet, but will he's an iron worker Yes, he's an iron worker. He is or you know, he's you know, he's the real thing I mean his you know Hillary lost that district this guy is pretty much the opposite of her I mean he's got all the good stuff that that she had like, you know, he's pro-choice and pro Equality of and you know all that sort of stuff and he's good on the environment as she was but he but in term when it comes to the bread and butter issues that People didn't like her stands on the kind of you know a little bit establishment way that she approached that stuff is very different from Randy Who you know, it was a Bernie it was a leader in of Bernie's campaign in his part of Wisconsin and in fact Bernie won that district in the primary Though it's a it's a very much when people describe the white working-class districts that she did so poorly in that Trump won This is one of those districts. I mean Obama won the district And Hillary lost the district and the D triple C has never ever once run a candidate there They they've they they not only do they not run candidates But when candidates do run there they sabotage them and when I talk about sabotaging your candidate People say what the hell do you talking about and what I'm talking about is steady Hoyer and Ben Ray Luhan and Nancy Pelosi getting on the phone and calling unions and calling Big Democratic donors and saying don't give you wasting your money. Don't do it and this time They're not going to be able to do that Randy is very beloved Among the unions. He's he's an activist in his union and he's the head of the AFL CIO's Outreach to veterans. He's a veteran as well But he's the head of their veterans operation it for the whole state and in his part of Wisconsin He's an official of the iron workers union So he's not someone that the Democrats are going to be able to mess with the way they have messed with previous candidates So that's a really good thing. I'm gonna challenge you Before you do I just wanted to just put in a little plug here. Okay, which is that? Randy you can follow Randy at Twitter on Twitter by His name it which is iron stash So in other words, he's an iron worker as you mentioned and he's got this big mustache So he calls himself iron stash on Twitter. What's the challenge? I'm a challenge you just to make it interesting You say that they don't run anybody good against Paul Ryan. They don't run candidates against Paul Ryan Okay, so Ryan. I'm looking this up Paul Ryan The Democrats ran a guy named Ryan Solin he ran as a Democrat that's different from the Democrats ran I mean the D triple C doesn't run any candidates against him would and what I said is that not only do they not run candidates But they sabotage. Yeah, anyone who looks like they could possibly give Paul Ryan any kind of a challenge. So this guy Ryan Solin was just some random person who ran in the The D triple C didn't even look twice at it. It didn't matter to them He didn't raise any money and he didn't make any noise and it didn't make any difference But the last time a viable Democrat ran against him. I was a few years ago and a guy Who had been a local? City city official and in I think either Rastina or Kenosha one of those towns a guy named Rob Zerban ran against Ryan and he managed to raise a huge amount of money and the D triple C freaked out and they really Were you know flipping out that he could actually? You know cause Ryan some kind of damage and they really went after him in a horrible way So instead of helping a Democrat a good solid progressive Democrat Who was raising lots of money and looked like he could do some some, you know Maybe win possibly win You know, they didn't want to know about it now. I want to tell you why this is so horrible I mean it destroys the Democratic Party when when the D triple C does this kind of stuff for just as an example This this coming in 2018 the the US senator Who's a Democrat a very good progressive Democrat named Tammy Baldwin is up for reelection Don't you think that if there's a Democrat running in one of the congressional districts? It's gonna help to turn out votes who they'll you know, that'll help Tammy Baldwin keep her seat That's expected to be a very tight and crucial race I mean the Democrats need everything they can get to keep her in the Senate It's crucial. It's so important and yet here we have the D triple C. Just say no, that's it That's all I know how to do when it comes to Wisconsin. They publish their list of Districts that they're going to be targeting this year. I mean some of the districts that they're claiming they're gonna target or absurd I mean literally absurd a district in Alabama where they have they have they have as much chance of electing somebody in that district as you have of becoming Trump's vice president In the next month. I mean it's insane and and yet they have no candidates in Against Ryan, but no candidates in the state of Wisconsin at all. They're not they're not targeting one district in Wisconsin a purple state We're we're Democrats win and that and that's the D triple C for you I've said so much about them already I feel like your audience is probably ready to kill me when I say the other way That's Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee They they're they're charged with electing Democrats to the house and they do a terrible job at it I want to pitch you an idea for Dan with tyranny that you might want to read or a sign Oh, I hope you want to write it. Here's the idea Okay, Paul Ryan is gonna kill 24 million Americans with his new health care plan He's from Wisconsin. Do you know that Wisconsin is notorious for producing serial killers? Supposedly there's something in the water that drives people mad Jeffrey Dahmer Ed Gein David Spann Bauer some guy named Walter Ellis. They're some of the greatest serial killers in American You know that I wasn't a serial killer, but someone went into a Sikh Temple in Ryan's district and shot a bunch of people there And that was just a couple of years ago while Ryan was in in uh in Congress He follows in a long tradition of serial killers from Wisconsin I'm being serious. Wisconsin is plagued by serial killers I would love you to write that story for down with tyranny. I think you would make it really funny and fun All right, hang on. I'll do it if you'll edit it for me because I tend to overwrite it. All right. I will I will write that Okay, that would be fun North Carolina has been disciplined by the supreme court north Carolina used to be A democratic stronghold the republicans have taken it over and they want to keep all their power By making it impossible for african americans to vote twice the supreme court has wrapped their knuckles saying stop it This is racist and the north carolina legislature goes back and they rewrite their gerrymandering laws and their voting right laws You say something is happening in illinois On memorial day yesterday. What happened yesterday? It happened in illinois. It's a little bit different I mean what the supreme court did was fabulous and went hopefully that and what it's based on The idea of racial gerrymandering that you're not allowed to use Race to Gregiously gerrymanders stay so they they tore up their their map. They said these two districts are Are cannot be used and you have to redraw them The thing is is you can't just redraw two districts because the districts around them are then affected So they really have to come up with a new map So that's really good news. The other part of that though. That's important is that That what the supreme court has or the conservatives under the supreme court have always said is that partisan gerrymandering rather than racial gerrymandering is okay And the supreme court seems to be moving away from that now So there'll be some cases that come up probably pretty soon Uh, there's one in fact in wisconsin this day. We were just talking about Where they said well, we didn't do racial gerrymandering. We just did partisan gerrymandering So they purposely tried to pack democrats into a few districts So that they would they they would be lots and lots of democrats in just a couple of districts And that would make it easier for republicans to win in districts where there are fewer democrats So that so now the supreme court is considering that and a few other cases and that's imminent So that that's a an outgrowth of this um supreme court Decision that came down a couple of weeks ago in in north carolina. Now what happened yesterday Which has to do with voter participation is that the illinois Uh legislature met. Well, I was surprised to hear that we're meeting on memorial day, but happy That the house met so what had happened is is uh, I think about a week or so before the the illinois state senate unanimously so that means every republican and every democrat uh, voted unanimously so yes yesterday the illinois state legislature passed also unanimously A bill for automatic voter registration That means if you go and get a you know, do any kind of business with the state like get a driver's license Renew a driver's license Anything that has to do with the state that automatically Registries you to vote if you're a citizen of the state. So if you're a citizen of legal age Um, and you you get a driver's license. That means unless you ask not to So you could opt out if you don't want to register to vote But if you unless you ask not to that means you can register to vote you are automatically registered to vote So that's a really good thing. Uh, it passed Uh in illinois yesterday, like I said the week before it passed in the senate unanimously Yesterday it passed in the house unanimously now it had passed the year before as well But they've got a republican governor This guy rounder who's pretty awful and he vetoed it But they worked with him to address his concerns and now It looks like he's going to sign this bill that that passed yesterday now today Uh, main is I was looking at the same bill and just before I spoke with you Uh, I was on the phone with shana bellows an old friend of mine who's a state senator in main And an ultra progressive. She's fantastic. She used to be the head of the ACLU in main And she ran for the u.s senate, but she's in the state senate now And she's the sponsor of this automatic voter registration. So the The the main house Passed it on thursday. So last thursday the house of representatives of main passed this bill every democrat every independent and one republican voted for it So it passed it was narrow, but it did pass and then Today actually today the um, the state senator is going to vote on it. They need to get one republican Uh, to go along with it and then it'll pass the problem with it is Uh, the they have a terrible governor Um, this crazy guy named paul the page and he's very likely to veto it Right, he's the one who's trying to get rid of all the socialist art in the state capital That's right. And he's a racist He's against uh, increasing, uh, the franchise. He's against more people voting. He really opposes that stuff And he he will vote he will veto this bill. He's gonna veto the bill. How do you know he's gonna veto the bill? well As soon as he got elected and a republican legislature was in power back in 2010 They did a very odd thing in the early 1970s. I think 1972 Maine was one of the first states to do uh same day registration So same day registration means when you go when you go to vote You can say hey, I want to register to vote that day at the same place So you can register to vote and vote on the same day. So that's considered really really progressive Maine has had that for over 40 years along comes paul the page And what does he do? He has the republican legislature repeal that of something that's been on the books for over 40 years This is this is a crazy person So fortunately, Maine has this thing that other states don't have Called the people's veto and shenna by the way, uh was the uh, the head of a Basically a like a state referendum to to repeal the repeal and they were successful So Maine is still a state that has same day voter registration Thanks to shenna who as I said is the uh sponsor in the in the senate today of Um automatic voter registration explain to me what automatic voter registration means It means same day registration or you're just automatically registered Yeah, if you if you deal with the state in any way like like I said driver's license say for example That automatically if you and if you're of you know, if you're a citizen of the state and you are um Of of you know, the whatever age the voting ages. I guess it's seven. It's 18 everywhere. I think I'm not sure I think some states may have have a different voting age. That's what I've I've read a little bit about That um, there's some questions about that, but I think there are states that have slightly different voting ages I think it's 17 and 18 though um Yeah, not for federal elections So for federal elections is 18 everywhere, but in some states for state elections. It's 17 right in any case So if you're of the right age To vote and you deal with in any state office Um, like the DMV is a good example You will be asked if you want to opt out if you want to opt out and not register to vote Then they don't register to vote but but other than that you will be registered to vote So oregon did this and they were the first state they did it in 2015 and it's Gigantically increased their Their voter participation and then the second state that did it also in 2015 But a few months later with california. So it's really starting to happen all over the country I mean connecticut has it colorado has it now alaska past it Vermont there there are more and more states that that of doing it new jersey past it also But again, they unfortunately they have a That huge slob. I can't remember his name. Oh chris christy. He vetoed it as well He also vetoed a bill that would have outlawed underage marriages You read make a strange guy. Yeah, you read that. I bet he would also outlaw a bill that Outlaws marrying your cousin. Uh-huh I'm gonna ask. Oh, no, that was iiani. I keep mixing them up. I'm right If people Were allowed to vote in this country if the people who Are willing to get off their ass and go vote were allowed to vote if all the people who wanted to vote Were allowed to vote. What would this country look like? Well, it would be far more progressive. There would be far fewer republicans in office Um, so how do I know that? There was a study recently done about what happened in wisconsin Why did wisconsin go, you know, very very narrowly, but it did go for Uh trump and how did that happen after giving such good solid Majorities both times for obama And what they what they, you know, they had instituted some very very stringent Anti voter legislation in wisconsin They have a a state senate controlled by the republicans a state house controlled by the republicans And of course a very very right wing crackpot Republican governor and they you know, they have, you know, really strict voter id Which which is very specifically targets black people Um and and the elderly And students They can't discourage People from voting instead of encouraging people from voting when you think about wisconsin Wisconsin is the birthplace of progressivism I mean, it's the last state in the world you would expect to be doing this kind of thing But they they did do it and it and and african-american voter participation in 2016 was way down and it is Uh, it is thought certainly this this um The study that I looked at uh makes the assertion that that is the reason why trump won Fewer voters that's what they were that's what they aimed for and that's what they got Going back to gerrymandering Do we know If in 2016 whether or not more americans voted for a democratic congressman than a republican congressman? No, we don't they have been times when the republicans have controlled the house Um, even though they were as many as a million fewer republican voters, but 2016 wasn't one of those Real really that kind of speaks to That kind of speaks to trump and gives him a bit more of a mandate than I was willing to uh to give him Oh wait, what does it have to do with trump? We're talking you were talking about congressional Just uh people voting for congress. I know but you know, he didn't win the popular vote But the fact that the republican house got more votes in the democratic house Gives them a little bit more legitimacy No, well, okay. I mean I it shouldn't you shouldn't have that in your mind because um most republican not all but most republicans Certainly most republican incumbents Did much better than trump So in other words, you got you got um, you know, I'll just pick a district at random that I was thinking about recently A district in houston where john colbertson is the congressman colbertson won re-election Handily, you know, he won. I don't know 60 percent say very he did very well And trump lost to hillary in that same district in texas So so trump even in the districts that a lot of districts that trump won He he underperformed the republican he he underperformed almost every republican senator So that that's a an easy uh comparison because it's a whole state so, you know republicans John mccain I'm gonna make this figure up. This isn't a real figure, but just to give you an idea John mccain got, you know, one, you know, I don't know three million votes in arizona and trump had two and a half million votes in arizona So that that those aren't real figures, but it gives you the idea of what i'm talking about the senators the republican senators Almost all of them beat trump gene forte We get that whole thing about legitimacy. Okay. I listen i'm i Donald trump is an illegitimate president the republicans are illegitimate Greg gene forte is the new congressman from montana despite body slamming a reporter for the guardian Were most of the votes already cast when he? Yes 260 Thousand votes had already cast so the majority of votes had had been cast They the secretary of state reported they were getting calls all day from people asking if they could um If they could change their vote unfortunately The the vote on election day was not that different from the early voting so Gene forte was going to win this thing with or without the body slamming I think that there were even some people Some republicans not people who were excited about the body. Yeah, but it was a good idea He raised a hundred thousand dollars that day and people specifically some not all of them Some people specifically saying they were giving him money because of the body slamming Because these horrible, you know liberal media types deserve to be beaten. He actually identified the reporter as a liberal reporter Right. I don't know how he knew that but somehow he thinks he does I mean, I don't know what that reporter. I don't know that reporter's politics If you're a reporter and you're trying to ascertain the truth that automatically makes you a liberal in america Well, maybe maybe that's that's the point. Maybe that that makes you a liberal wanting to uh report the truth because what the guy was asking him. I mean june 4th day Although he told a uh a call Full of lobbyists that he was overjoyed that uh trump care passed He was trying to raise money from lobbyists and they were on the phone when trump care passed and he was overjoyed about it But when it came to talking to the voters, he couldn't very well say Um, you know, i'm in favor of this bill that's going to take away 10 percent Of the people who live in montana take away their their insurance. He didn't want to say that So what he said is he can't make a comment on how he would vote on it until he sees the cbo report So the cbo report came out and what this reporter was asking him is hey The cbo report came out. Can you make that comment now about uh, how you'll vote on on the the republican health care bill And that's when he decided to beat him up You know, it wasn't just body slamming all according to the fox news Uh reporters who were there who swore that who swore on an affidavit Um, he also choked him. He put they said he put both his hands around the guy's neck and was pummeling him Well, it reminds me of grim The congressman grim who threatened to throw a low Grim threatened to do that But you're right, but no one no one ever saw grim do that here. We have witnesses I mean grim has done much worse than that before grim was a congressman. He was a murderer But you know a mafia guy, but no one ever saw him murder anybody Really? I thought he was like an fbi agent or something He was a double agent. He he worked for the fbi and for the mafia And he would go back and forth and eventually the mafia kicked him out Because they realized that he was more on the mafia side than on their side more on the fbi side than the mafia Oh, no, he was more on the mafia side. Oh, he was kicked out of the fbi for being more on the mafia side Mafia so will embrace him And he threatened to throw a reporter Off the ledge inside the capital. He ended up going to prison for Tax evasion, I believe her campaign finance Was that he violated? Yeah, it was they let him off very very very easy I mean, they had so much stuff on him that you know, he resigned from congress Uh, and was able to you know, get a very light Late light charges against him He he is a long record that goes way way way back and the fbi is very very savvy to it But he you know always made a A threat that he could bring down a lot of people with him. I'm sure he could have right greg g and forte is 56 years old I'm going to assume this is not the first time he's been violent with somebody Sending him to washington dc Will be interesting Yes, I don't think that the uh the other members of congress are excited to have a violent guy like that amongst them But uh, hey, it's everything is so partisan these days that people don't look beyond party labels Everything is so partisan right now. Is it more violent now than you've ever seen that you have the governor of texas Holding up a pistol and saying He's going to use it on reporters There's a lawsuit One of the white supremacists who beat up A protester at a trump rally Is suing trump because he says trump Claimed that if you punch a protester, I'll pay your legal bills. How violent how violent is our culture I mean, I I was around in 68 when robert kennedy and martin wither king were assassinated is this As violent as 68 or is it just being over reported? Well, I don't think it's being over reported and I and we are yet to see how violent it gets. I mean trump has Certainly created a very violent A milieu and I'm somewhat worried about it. I think a lot of people are worried about it Yeah, he's he's enabled these kind of people to you know, I mean everyone saw what he did at his campaign rallies telling Telling people, you know be moaning the fact that you have to be politically correct and you can't just break their legs and stuff like that Uh, you know and and his fans Are, you know, there are a lot of them are, you know, extremely low IQ And uh, and a lot of them are very very addicted to prescription drugs prescribed and you And you put that together and you have a uh, uh, you know, you could have some Some major violence and they have guns. They're addicted to guns And the adrenaline of being angry Oxycontin Yeah Before you go, I want to ask you about tom price's seat But two questions. One is you weren't expecting g and forte to lose. Were you? I was hopeful. I was definitely hopeful that he would lose. I don't know that I would say I expected it I knew it was going to be close. I had seen polls that showed him leading and I had seen polls that had had shown Um, let's just name the the singer leading and that would have been a but it would have been a major. I'm sorry Rob quist the guy was the singer, but that would have been it would have been a big upset Yes, and and most of the professional polling elite said that that uh, Chris was going to lose they they were all positively lose But but I felt it was going to be close tom price Gave up his seat to run health and human services and destroy obama care. There's a special election Coming up. Where does that stand right now? When is it and what are you expecting to happen? Well, uh, the most recent poll Shows the democrat ahead by seven. Uh, john osloff leading, uh, caron handle the republican by seven points. That's that's huge most people are saying Ignore that poll. It's an outlier because every other poll shows them One or two points just one or two points. Uh separating them so Mike I I tend to think that this is a tie and again It's going to all be about turnout if the democrats turn out there Their people they'll also for win if they don't then handle win and when is that again? When is it just like in uh in montana the the amount of money that the republicans have poured into this Is is mind boggling. I mean they're they're pouring in Six or seven times more than the democrats are When is when is this election? It's june I'm I forgot which day it is but it's a couple of weeks from now. It's coming up in june and finally trump care is mcconnell kind of Make it happen Well, he's going to try to make it happen Whether he can succeed or not if he can succeed it'll be a miracle because There are so many republicans that have said no to this issue or that issue That I don't see how it can and then you had from You know sort of still high from his perceived Home run that he hit in europe Uh, although no one else sees it that way But he does coming back and saying we need to pour more money into health care Uh, which I you know, I'm sure that all of the republicans in congress are thinking what the hell is he talking about now? Because they're taking money out of health care You've got people like lisa muckowski from alaska and susan collins saying they're not going to vote for the bill If it includes defunding planned parenthood Okay, well the republicans of the house are not going to vote for the bill unless there is the defunding of planned parenthood So there's a lot of that on a lot of different levels. I mean, especially republicans who are seen as vulnerable In some way are not going to vote uh to defund Medicaid to the tune of 880 billion dollars Uh, they don't they don't want to do that that's that's going to put a lot of people it's going to kill people so um I I my my gut tells me that that mcconnell's not going to be able to pull this off Okay, and lastly before you go and this really is the The final before you go two things are happening right now. One is Kim Jong-un keeps firing these ballistic missiles into the sea of japan Trump is silent not saying anything It's also pretty much settled that the only way to get trump out is through impeachment that Mueller's investigation Will reveal obstruction of justice, but there's no way to prosecute a sitting president Unless you get rid of him first. So the only way to get rid of trump is Political you have to do it through impeachment and you can't impeach the guy Unless you overthrow the house of representatives and then the senate So he's gonna be there for a while probably. I mean the thing is remember if mother finds a smoking gun A real smoking gun that even republicans can't stomach He could be impeached. Yeah, I don't expect that he'll be impeached until 2018 if the democrats take back the house I think there's a good chance that trump will be impeached now Now uh being convicted is another story. Remember Clinton was impeached, but he was not convicted the senate found him innocent So that and that's a political vote and it's not likely that that the democrats are gonna have 60 votes I mean the democrats are not gonna have 60 votes to to find him guilty So yes, you're right. He will be around probably until 2020 unless You know, he keels over eating some fast food or uh Or he decides to retire or resign for one reason or another. He'll be there till 2020 The smoking gun may be north korea What happens when mattis and rex spillerson and china say, okay, that's it No more test missiles Ra, ra, we're going to war against north korea What happens to impeachment then Did you say china? Yeah, wouldn't china go in and discipline north korea now? Isn't there talk that china is gonna work with them that talk is from trump I don't think north korea's china's gonna do anything like that But let's let's just leave china out of this and just say that the u.s decides to do something I don't know what it is that they can do. I mean this you don't think they're gonna fight a grand war in korea, do you I'm saying that once they find out that trump obstructed justice and it's Incontrovertible evidence to impeach He starts bombing north korea Well, he can't bomb. He's not bombing anybody and I don't think that mattis and um Tillerson and any of them were going to go along with something that crazy. I really don't I don't Mattis went along with the travel ban Yeah, well the travel ban is different from uh incinerating soul and tokyo Okay, how we climb is the founder and treasurer of the blue america pack People should go to the blue america pack and give money to the blue america pack if you're progressive And you want to give to A cause where all the money goes to where they promise then go to actually um, let me interrupt you there for a second What we encourage people to do is to give directly to the candidates not to the pack if they want to give to the pack They're welcome to we love it But we most of the money that comes to the blue through blue america goes directly to the campaigns of the progressive candidates And and we would much prefer Since the candidates know best how to spend their own money how to spend money we prefer people to donate to them So we have a list of uh progressive candidates that are well vetted who are guaranteed progressive And uh, and if you go to the blue america pack the the list is there And if you want to give one guy five dollars and one guy ten dollars and one guy one dollar Or you only want to give a hundred dollars to one person and nothing to anybody else You have all those opportunities to do that right and pay attention Because the only way to get rid of trump is through politics And i think you're right. Yeah and read down with charity. I get to talk to you next week, sir Great look forward to it. Thank you. Bye. Bye david