I appreciate how Buttigieg is responding to criticism of his handling of the police shooting

He's dealng with it in a straightforward, mature way, acknowledging he could have done better, and clearly trying to find a way to address the current problems and to do better in the future. I also appreciate that his supporters aren't accusing his critics of attacking him or calling him a racist but seem to be respectfully considering other points of view. His maturity, thoughtfulness, and decency are shining through.

Mayor Pete and his team are awesome!

Trump buddy Jeffrey Epstein charged by SDNY, not the state. That's encouraging

Barack Obama isn't our "Magical Negro"

If you're mad that The Little Mermaid isn't white . . .

Question for DU lawyers

Since the House Ways and Means Committee filed it's lawsuit today asking the Federal District Court to order the Treasury Department to turn over Trump's tax returns, numerous DUers have harshly criticized the committee for "taking too long" and for not suing earlier. Several lawyers on and off DU (including Joyce Vance) have said the committee has handled this correctly and tried to explain why the committee has proceeded the way they have, only to have our explanations rejected.

I'm curious if there are any DU attorneys who believe that the Ways and Means Committee erred in taking the time they have to lay the groundwork for the lawsuit filed today and that the committee should instead have filed this lawsuit immediately upon the Democrats taking over the House in January as several DUers have suggested.

I just now realized that that was Joaquin Castro, not Julian, at the border yesterday

Joaquin needs to grow his beard back.

BREAKING: House Democrats file suit to obtain Trump's tax returns

House Democrats are filing a lawsuit for Trump’s tax returns, seeking access to financial records
https://wapo.st/327vc5y

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal is filing a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday seeking to compel the Internal Revenue Service to turn over President Trump’s tax returns, according to a person familiar with the matter. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin denied multiple requests for the financial records, which the president refused to release in the 2016 presidential campaign in a break with decades of precedent.

Progressive Democrats: Please stop using the term "forced busing"

First, there isn't and never was such thing as "forced busing." What we're really talking about is "forced desegregation."

"Forced busing" - the pejorative and intentionally inflammatory term for court-ordered desegregation - was actually not the issue during the busing controversies in the 1970s - it was just a convenient and obviously very effective strawman. It's language designed to trigger white resentment, as Lee Atwater himself admitted and, in fact, bragged about.

Calling court-ordered desegregation "forced busing" is like referring to court-ordered recognition of gay marriage as "forced cake baking."

Millions of schoolchildren were bused every day for decades, often to schools miles away from their homes (even when other schools were closer). The bus was simply the mode of transportation used to take children to school.

The real issue was school reassignments ordered by courts after local school districts refused to comply with the constitutional requirements to stop segregating their schools based on race.

Many districts did this voluntarily. Because they did so on their own, there were no lawsuits, no court litigation and no need for judges to order them to do anything. They just did it.

But many districts refused to desegregate, rebuffed black parents' entreaties to provide equal educational opportunities for their children, dug in their heels, retrenched and said 'hell no." So the black parents had to go to court and sue for their children's civil rights.

The result of many of those suits was the courts ordering the school districts to develop plans to reassign students in order to overcome the long pattern of educational and housing segregation and discrimination that kept black children trapped in segregated, inferior schools.

The school districts and many white parents were furious about this. But most of the anger wasn't about the buses since there was no requirement that their kids ever get on a bus to get to school. They were upset about desegregation - the desegregation they had resisted in the 20 years after Brown and that was not being "forced" on them the way state and local governments are not being "forced" to recognize gay marriage or to register all eligible voters to vote, regardless of race. Many were also angry that their children might have to attend a previously all-black school they seemed inferior - a clear acknowledgement that black children were being being subjected to conditions that were viewed as unacceptable for white children.

But here's the thing. "Forced busing" i.e., court ordered school desegregation was ONLY "forced" because school officials, with the full support of many white parents, openly defied the law. If they had complied with the law and stopped discriminating against black children, there would have been no need for the courts to step in and "force" them to do anything.

So the distinction between "voluntary" desegregation and so-called "forced" busing is pure bull, nothing but subterfuge and obfuscation of the real issue that was at play.

What we're really talking about is the difference between local government officials obeying the law and local officials breaking the law in order to continue denying constitutional rights to their black citizens.

A court order to follow the law isn't "forced" anything and a court isn't out of line or overstepping or "interfering in local matters" when it requires local government officials to obey the law. It's what they're SUPPOSED to do.

So please stop adopting and repeating a long-standing right wing term that is
it only grossly inaccurate, but was created and used to divide, frighten and conquer.

I REALLY like Pete Buttigieg

Every time I see him, I feel so good about him. I love his brilliance, his empathy, his depth of insights into government, policy, people and the world. When I listen to him, I feel the way I felt when I first read "Dreams from My Father" and I thought, "Wow. This is the kind of person we need to have as president one day." This was a few years before Obama ran for the Senate and I didn't think, at the time, that he was ready either. But he got himself ready and when he was BOOM!

I don't think Buttigieg's yet ready to be president yet - he needs a little more "seasoning" beyond being mayor. But I hope he stays in the race, makes a strong showing in the primaries and then runs for governor or the Senate.

And I hope - and am sure I'll have the chance - to vote for him as president in a general election in the future. He's going to be president one day.

In the meantime, I'm just loving that we have people like Pete Buttigieg in public life. He gives me hope.

Lee Atwater on the power of the term "forced busing"