Regarding immigration, I just want to remind folks of the ultimate timeline

[Tom Rinaldo]

The 2018 and 2020 elections. The dreamers can not wait until then, just like CHIP families could not wait until then for the relief they just got. We have to remove the immediate threat to over a million people who grew up in America as Americans, but who lack the documentation needed to protect them from deportation by the Trump regime. Their lives can be torn apart well before the mid term elections, and before Democrats retake the White House. Any other immigration concessions that Congressional Democrats make to Trump, and may they be minimal at most, can potentially be reversed with Democrats in power.

That may require Democrats holding close to 60 seats in the Senate to accomplish, but we got there in 2008, we can do it again. 2020 could well be the blue wave year that gets us to that magic number again with the presidency on the ballot. Of course I want Democrats in congress to fight as hard as possible to protect legal immigration into this country as well as establishing a fair path to citizenship for dreamers. But I will not condemn them if they can't protect as much while sitting in the minority as they can once we regain full control of the federal government.

[Tom Rinaldo]

1. Weekender Kick. n/t

[Wounded Bear]

2. Desperation will not help...

I understand what you're getting at, but acting out of desperation plays into the Repubs' hands.

Dems need to retire the circular firing squads and work together.

[Tom Rinaldo]

3. This is about retiring the circular firing squad

It's not like I'm being published in "The Hill" here. Republican strategists don't read me to find out clues about where Democratic leaders are prepared to draw hard lines and where they will compromise.

Every single concession Democrats are forced to make in negotiations with Republican racists pains me greatly. I don't want a dollar of our taxes wasted on that fucking wall, for example, when there is so much real suffering in places like Puerto Rico going unaddressed. I can see the white supremacist agenda clearly in the immigration proposal that the White House is pushing. And Democrats can push back. We can not however win on every front while Republicans control Washington. I just hope we all remember that before we start sniping at each other over possible "concessions" that result in a final budget deal.