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The thing about being a Democrat is that its pretty easy. Any US citizen can do it; you just check a box on a voter registration form. Joe Manchin is a Democrat. So, until recently, was Kyrsten Sinema. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who on economic issues is closer to a lot of Republicans than to progressives, is a Democrat.

In San Francisco, everyone in elected office is a Democrat, and if there are any Republicans on city commissions, I dont know them.

So the word Democrat doesnt have much meaning in local politics. Some folks who are Democrats would like to change that; some of us think that the Democratic Party should work to fight economic inequality by taxing the rich, that homelessness is not a criminal-justice issue, that more cops dont make the city safer, that the private market wont solve the housing crisis.

But people who say the San Francisco Democratic Party should stand for progressive San Francisco values are not, despite what Heather Knight at the Chronicle says, embrace [ing] zero-sum politics rather than a shared opportunity to fix the citys biggest problems.

Knight seems oblivious to the reality of local politics. She writes:

San Francisco politics have long been toxic, but theblue-vs.-blueinfighting has grown particularly nasty in recent years.

Yesand the person most directly engaged in petty, vindictive zero-sum politicsthat is, my way or the highwayis Mayor London Breed. Breed routinely does things like kill an affordable housing project because it would help a supervisor she dislikes, and refuse to spend housing money because it wasnt her idea.

I am not the only one who sees this; ask even the more conservative folks at City Hall, and off the record they will tell you how frustrating it is that the mayor wont work on shared opportunities to fix the citys biggest problems.

Knight never says anything about that.

No: Its always the left that is causing all the problems.

Knight is mad that the DCCC didnt charter a Westside club. It will eventually wind up chartering this group, which is what it is; there are other chartered clubs that help very conservative candidates. Maybe the new club will turn out to be a great progressive force for change.

But lets not be naive here. From Knight:

The club wants to improve the citys public schools, make its streets cleaner and safer, get more housing built and strengthen public transit a platform most Democrats across the political spectrum say they support.

Yes: Everyone in San Francisco, including Republicans, would say they support those things.

But thats not the point. The point is, do we improve the public schools by, for example, using demonstrably racist policies for admission at Lowell? Do we improve the schools by letting schools in rich areas raise money they dont share with schools in poor areas?

Do we make the streets cleaner and safer by criminalizing homeless people? Do we get more housing built by allowing private developers to demolish existing housing and build very expensive small condos and group housing that wont work for most families? Do we think trickle-down economics works, despite more than four decades of solid evidence that it doesnt?

Do we strengthen public transit by cutting lines, or by raising taxes to replace fair-box revenue?

These are real issues, not platitudes. If they matter to Democrats, its fair to ask the nascent Westside Family Democratic Clubor any other applicantwhere the members stand on them At least, it is if the San Francisco Democratic Party means something different than the national party of Manchin and Feinstein.

Maybe it doesnt.

As former state Assemblymember Tom Ammiano put it to the LA Times: Why does New York get AOC, when we get Scott Wiener?

Whatever. I dont care that much about which Democratic club gets a charter; the corruption of local politics by tech and real-estate money goes so, so far beyond that.

But I wish Knight would for once at least grasp what this blue-blue divide is all about: That lives are at stake, that the policies of the neoliberal wing of the party have wrecked the economy and the city, , and that its not crazy for people who want things to work better to challenge those policies.

Oh and its the mayor, not the progressives, who is the real obstacle here.

Ack.

So on to this week.

The Castro Theater landmarking is, it appears, finally headed to an actual vote. Delayed in the name of maybe parties getting together to find a solution, which as far as I can tell has not happened, the question of landmarking the interior of the theater, including the existing seating, will come back to the Land Use and Transportation Committee Monday/8.

The Castro Theater Conservancy has offered to take over the lease or buy the theater. Another Planet Entertainment, which has the master lease, and the Nasser Family, which owns the property, have rejected that offer.

That could change if the seats are landmarked, because at that point APEs plans to run the place as both a theater and a nightclub become pretty much impossible.

Right now, it appears that both sides are gearing up for a battle at the full board, where it takes six votes to grant landmark status. The committee will likely send this on to the board, with an amendment that would designate the existing seating and raked floor as protected.

Then a few weeks from now, each side will try to count to six.

Sups. Dean Preston and Connie Chan want to ask the Mayors Office of Housing and Community Development how its been spending $672 million a yearand how it plans to implement the recommendations of the Housing Stability Fund Oversight Board.

The presentation that MOHCD has prepared for the board is, to say the least, a bit disappointing: its five-year plan calls for reducing the number of people experiencing homelessness by all of 15 percent. A lot of money is going into shelters, following an approach advocated by the mayor and Sup. Rafael Mandelman, which is in essence getting people off the streets and out of sight.

It calls for 3,250 units of permanent affordable housing, which is about 7 percent of what the city has promised the state it will create over the next eight years.

That hearing starts at 1:30pm.

The full board will hold a Committee of the Whole hearing on the nightmare that is Laguna Honda Hospital, where the feds want to, at the very least, cut 120 beds from the public nursing home. At worst, the Biden Administration could order the eviction of 500 people, most of whom will probably die.

There is nowhere for them to go. Very few critical nursing beds exist in California, and even fewer that take Medicare. Th data is pretty clear: Moving these folks is a death sentence.

The Gray Panthers have a good summary here. The item is slated for 3pm.

The full board will also hear a resolution by Sup. Aaron Peskin urging District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to make public the videos that she cited in determining not to charge a security guard with homicide in the shooting of Banko Brown.

The evidence that we have, and its limited, makes clear that Brown was unarmed at the time he was killed.

That resolution could pass unanimously. Even state Sen. Scott Wiener, who is usually on the side of Jenkins and Breed, just released a statement calling for the release of the video.

It puts Jenkins under a lot of pressureI would suspect because the video shows that the guard had no reason to believe his life was in danger, and that her decision not to file charges was entirely political.

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Who are the 'toxic' local Democrats, really? - 48 hills - 48 Hills

TEXAS, USA While lawmakers in Austin continue to spar over legislation that would ban transgender children from getting any type of medical assistance to transition, one of the Democrats working hard to delay the Republican-backed legislation joined Inside Texas Politics to explain why.

The really frustrating part is that the proponents of this legislation say, 'Oh, were protecting children.' But the problem is the children themselves, their family members, their doctors have come and said, 'We dont want your protection, we dont need your protection and your protection that youre offering actually hurts us,' said Rep. Gene Wu.

Under the bill, children already using medical assistance such as puberty blockers would have to be weaned off.

Wu says Democrats are working hard to grandfather in all of those kids so they wouldnt have to stop treatment.

But the Houston Democrat doesnt think any of those amendments will pass.

Democrats have managed to the delay the bill at least two times, though, on a technicality.

And during earlier debate in the House, Speaker Dade Phelan had the House gallery cleared after opponents of the bill continued to interrupt the debate. State police physically removed some people from the Capitol.

Republicans have argued the legislation protects Texas children and their families. It is a legislative priority for the party, so it is still expected to pass.

Wu says if the GOP is so interested in keeping kids safe, it would pass gun safety legislation, such as raising the minimum age to buy a firearm.

The opposition is not willing to even pass a single gun-related bill that would actually make kids safer, not even give any consideration, said Wu. But theyre using this, theyre using this saying Oh, were going to protect kids.'

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State Representative says Democrats will continue to try to delay controversial transgender bill - WFAA.com

WASHINGTON Republican attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris are taking hold, and the White House is running out of time to reframe the narrative, Democrats say.

At a meeting two days after President Joe Biden announced his 2024 reelection bid, a group of Democratic strategists told the White House as much during a briefing for television pundits on the pairs agenda.

For more than two years, Republicans had been attempting to paint Harris as incompetent. And yet, the strategists found, the White House was still developing its strategy for how to combat the ruthless assault against the first Black and Asian American woman to hold the vice presidency.

A discussion ensued about ways to lift up Harris and improve her image, four participants in the meeting said. Democrats in the room argued that Harris would benefit from more public appearances in environments where she can be herself and in front of voting groups with whom she is already popular.

President Joe Biden carries away take-out food from Taqueria Habaneros with Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington, DC, on May 5, 2023.

Biden has since made a visible show of support for Harris, defending her in an interview and playing up an unannounced visit the pair made to a Mexican restaurant on Cinco de Mayo.

But some Harris allies fear its too late. The vice presidents poll numbers have been below 50 percent since the duos first year in office, and several Democrats, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, expressed concern that they may be beyond repair.

Views about Harris, a former state attorney general who briefly ran for president and served a partial term in the U.S. Senate, may be hardening, and some Democrats say Bidens team did not take the issue seriously fast enough.

In a CBS News poll taken late last month, Harris had a 43% approval rating and a 57% disapproval rating. Although she has wide Democratic support, Harris is viewed favorably by just 35% of swing voters.

Harris negatives rose early in the administration after she was tasked with leading an effort to stem the tide of illegal migration to the U.S. from Central American nations. The assignment led to a barrage of attacks from Republicans, who sought to make her the face of the border crisis.

Story continues

In the last year, Harris has found a niche in promoting abortion rights, railing against the Supreme Court decision that gave states the ability to ban the practice.

It has helped the vice president focus on a single issue that she talks about repeatedly, said Jamal Simmons, a former communications director to Harris who departed the White House in January. She continues to have 10 or 12 issues that she cares about and focuses on and pop up. This issue of reproductive freedom is one that is not going away.

The attacks on Harris are not a new phenomenon. But with the presidential campaign underway, Republicans focus on the vice president has intensified.

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley suggested last month that Biden, who is 80, would not live through the end of a second term.

Last week, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador wrote in a Fox News op-ed that Harris, 58, is one of the most incompetent elected officials in the country."

Rep. Jim Clyburn, a national co-chair of Bidens reelection campaign, said the White House should not stoop that low.

That kind of low life stuff, they ought not respond to, Clyburn, D-S.C., said in an interview.

Vice President Kamala Harris shops at Home Rule Records with owner Charvis Campbell in Washington, DC, on May 3, 2023.

He tied the attacks that are meant to discredit Harris to the period after the Civil War, known as the Reconstruction era, and said discrimination against Black office holders and anti-democratic events such as the Jan 6. insurrection will continue if they are left unchecked.

Patrick Gaspard, an Obama-era official who was executive director of the Democratic National Committee, said he believes Americans are not yet paying close attention to the 2024 race. There isn't anyone in that White House from the president on down who can be shook by this at all, said Gaspard, referring to the criticism of Harris.

The White House knows that attacking the vice president as a means of undercutting the ticket is part of an old political playbook, which Biden himself is familiar with having run for reelection alongside former President Barack Obama, he said. And most voters will be concerned about near-term challenges, including the economy and their personal rights, Gaspard added.

Staunch backers of Harris say that with the right approach, the vice president can still build on her support. In a Suffolk University/USA TODAY poll from mid-December nearly 11% of voters said they were undecided about Harris.

What will help her numbers go up is when they begin conducting a paid advertising campaign that extols the work shes been doing the last two years, Simmons, the former Harris aide, said.

Harris allies say that questions about who the vice president is and what she has accomplished stem from a lack of familiarity with her background and record that was exacerbated by the constraints on holding in-person events during the pandemic.

I just think that Vice President Harris hasn't gotten the credit she deserves, Biden said in an MSNBC interview that aired this past Friday. She is really very, very good. And with everything going on, she hasn't gotten the attention she deserves.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris smile during a meeting with his "Investing in America Cabinet," in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Friday, May 5, 2023, in Washington. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona appears on a screen as he attends the meeting virtually. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) ORG XMIT: DCEV420

The recent addition of Stephanie Young, a senior adviser whos focused on communications, was viewed by Democrats with close ties to the White House as a step toward bolstering Harris' image. She came to the vice presidents shop from When We All Vote, an organization founded by former first lady Michelle Obama.

Young delivered the section of the presentation that pertained to Harris during the meeting with Democratic pundits and strategists alongside Harris press secretary Kirsten Allen.

The meeting was an opportunity to share more about the Administrations work overall. It also served as an opportunity to share the Vice Presidents work and ensure the leading voices communicating with the American people were fully aware of what the Vice President is doing on the American peoples behalf. It was a two way conversation to increase understanding and connection, a White House official who declined to be named said in a statement to USA TODAY.

The official emphasized Harris work on abortion rights, gun violence prevention and infrastructure projects and said the vice president would be out and in the fight over those issues in the weeks and months ahead.

Democrats said they expect the White House to strategically deploy Harris to rally base voters, much as it did in the 2022 midterms putting her in front of audiences with whom she's popular. The vice president has relatively high approval ratings with Black voters, registered Democrats and voters under the age of 30, in particular.

Harris recent trip to Tennessee, where she spoke to students at a historically Black university and met with three state legislators who were ejected from office, was among the recent public appearances that White House allies praised.

Harris is representative to a diverse generation of younger voters of what is possible in America, said Cristina Tzintzn Ramirez, president of the progressive, youth advocacy group NextGen America.

And having the vice president out on the campaign trail making the case for another four years to Gen Z voters would be really smart on their part, she said. There is a lot that they can talk about about what they've done, and not just pointing to the other side and how bad the other side is.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dems want to boost Harris' image. Some VP allies fear its too late.

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Democrats want to fix Kamala Harris' image problem. Some VP allies fear its too late. - Yahoo News

FILE President Joe Biden speaks from the Treaty Room in the White House on April 14, 2021/ (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool, File)

Democrats in Washington, D.C. and Sacramento love to talk about their support for the working class. Unfortunately for the working class, talk is cheap. Democrat policies? Anything but cheap.

President Joe Biden has repeatedly pledged to oppose any tax increase on households making less than $400,000 per year. Meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed that we dont leave our workers behind during his State of the State Address last year.

These Democrats have a funny way of protecting working families.

California has some of the highest electricity costs of any state in the country. Last year, Gov. Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 205, requiring Californias private electric utilities to implement a new income-based fee and rate structure. Those utilities just proposed a new income-based monthly fee topping out at $85 a month for Southern California Edison customers. The fee, which is designed to pay for fixed utility costs, is in addition to the rate-based charges families are used to that are determined by their monthly energy usage.

These new income-based fees are not just for the wealthy households earning between $69,000 and $180,000 will see a fixed cost fee of $51 on their bill every month, and those earning more than $180,000 will pay $85 a month. According to Edison, half of their ratepayers will see lower overall bills under this new fee and rate structure which means the other half of the ratepayers will not be so fortunate. And if you think this income-based billing is going to stop with your electric bill, then you clearly havent been paying attention to Democrats in Sacramento.

Back in Washington, the Biden Administration has rolled out a proposal that performs mental gymnastics to get around the Presidents pro-middle class pledge. The proposal is so outrageous, it punishes Americans for having a high credit score. Thats right, under this new stupefying policy, individuals and families with high credit scores will pay a new fee on their monthly mortgage. If thats not bad enough, the revenue from these new fees will be given to people with bad credit scores to lower their mortgage payments.

Homeowners with good credit who put 20% down when purchasing their home will be paying the highest fees. This is a dangerous policy targeting responsible families. Bear in mind that we already have significant first-time, veteran, and other homebuyer assistance programs that do not include President Bidens punitive shakedown of fiscally-sound homeowners.

Your electric and mortgage bills are just the start. Next year, the IRS will begin implementing a new tax law passed by Democrats and signed into law by President Biden that will require massive amounts of new reporting requirements.

Under the Democrats law, any online transactions totaling more than $600 annually will have to be reported to the IRS. Money received through online platforms like Venmo, PayPal, Square, and CashApp totaling $600 or more will trigger the reporting requirement. If you couldnt make it to that Taylor Swift concert or Lakers game and sell your tickets via a website like StubHub or Ticketmaster, and receive payments of more than $600, it will also trigger an IRS reporting requirement.

This sure doesnt sound like a tax law designed to protect middle-class families making less than $400,000 a year, does it?

The Biden Administration will tell you that despite the new law, it doesnt actually change what income is taxable. Yet the Biden Administration also just passed a law to hire 87,000 new IRS agents who will no doubt be assigned to auditing regular Americans who are simply trying to keep ahead of devastating inflation rates impacting every sector of the economy.

Innovation has always been an American strength. Usually thats good news, but in this case Democrats in Washington and Sacramento are innovating new ways to drain working families of their hard-earned money. Make no mistake, when they realize that these tactics are not enough to implement their big spending dreams, they will continue to find ways to take more and more of middle-class Americans paychecks.

Ken Calvert serves in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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Ken Calvert: The Democratic agenda is financially punishing working families - OCRegister

May 8, 2023 by Josh Holton and filed under Abortion Rights, Florida History, Gun Control, LGBT, News and Public Affairs.

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Hundreds of protesters marched in Tampa this Sunday to protest of some of the many controversial bills passed during the Florida legislative session. Many organizations are standing up against legislation that they say makes the state more dangerous and less free for Floridians.

The recently completed legislative session included bans on gender affirming care for minors, limits on diversity initiatives at universities, and attacks on Disney. Florida Democrats came out to say they are fighting back. Democratic State House Representative Dianne Hart said the new law to limit abortions after the 6th week of pregnancy might only be the beginning if DeSantis has his way.

You think six weeks is bad? Next year well be looking at zero! To ban abortions altogether. Next year youll be looking at open carry; put your gun on your hip and dont worry about it. You dont need a permit, so everybody will be armed. You all saw what happened yesterday.

Only a day earlier a shooter killed 8 and wounded 7 people in Allen, Texas, prompting President Biden to urge an assault weapons ban. But DeSantis signed a law in April eliminating the need for Floridians to acquire a permit to carry a concealed firearm. Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried was arrested in April for joining a protest against the 6-week abortion ban, saying these issues are important to all people.

These are issues that transcend partisan politics, but we are the ones, Democrats, who are going to fight back and make sure that the people are represented.

Sarah Parker is the president of Womens Voices of Southwest Florida and was one of 10 others arrested in April for protesting the abortion ban.

We did not expect Senator Book and Nikki Fried to get arrested. They didnt expect him to throw oxygen on the ember that we call the Democratic Party. They did not expect activists, Gen Z, and Millennials, to now sit at that table. And we are doing it. We are going to be Ron DeSantis worst nightmare.

According to the Florida Division of Elections fewer than half of state registered Democratic Party members voted in 2022, so Parker called on organizers to work to redefine the state Democratic Party and encourage greater turnout in the next election. For WMNF News Im Josh Holton.

Tags: abortion, Democrat, Dianne Hart, Florida Democratic Party, gun control, LGBTQ, Nikki Fried, sarah parker

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Florida Democrats fight back after end of the legislative session - WMNF