All posts tagged "james talarico"

'Deeply divided' Republicans in tough spot in Texas no matter who they choose: expert

The pressure is on for the Republican Party in Texas as the wrong choice of candidate could make it an easy walk to victory for the Democratic Party.

An analyst specializing in Texas elections believes there is a clear downside to both candidates presented by the GOP - John Cornyn and Ken Paxton - but one is a clear disadvantage to the chances of a Republican Party win. Sawyer Hackett, speaking to Greg Sargent of The New Republic, believes the GOP has a real fight on its hands and that Dem representative James Talarico will be hoping Paxton tops the ticket.

Hackett explained, "I think definitely it’s easier against Paxton—just in terms of the kind of person he is, the kind of character he has. You see on the Republican side, frankly, a party that is deeply divided and unhappy.

"The sitting Republican senator, John Cornyn, who has served four six-year terms in the Senate for Texas, is now headed for a runoff with a far-right, criminally indicted, Republican-impeached fraudster and adulterer who has a toxic political agenda.

"I think the Talarico camp is kind of hoping and praying that he ends up on the top of that ticket, because I think every Democrat in the country would be excited about that matchup."

But if Cornyn comes out on top, it could be just as easy for Talarico, given how clear the split within the GOP is. Hackett added, "But frankly, I think even if Trump were to endorse Cornyn and push Paxton out of this race — probably for some sort of cabinet position — I still think the race is going to be extremely competitive for Talarico."

"Cornyn, I don’t think, is necessarily beloved across Texas. He has a better approval rating than Ken Paxton, but not that much better. He’s not necessarily known for having notched a whole bunch of accomplishments on behalf of the people of Texas.

"And frankly, I think Trump is the biggest factor in the general election — the most likely factor to determine how Democrats turn out and how excited Republicans are."

Nobel Prize winner flags one win that could 'blaze trail for Democrats in deep red states'

The chances of Texas turning blue at the next election are greater than ever before, but a key issue must be overcome, according to one prize-winning analyst.

Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman believes the state could see a wave of swing voters opt for Democratic Party candidate James Talarico. The Presbyterian minister beat Jasmine Crockett in the primaries and will face off against the Republican Party's pick, either John Cornyn or Ken Paxton.

Neither GOP candidate, Krugman believes, has much of a chance at uniting their party, but Talarico faces an uphill battle in getting swing voters on his side. The economist, writing in his Substack, explained why the Democratic Party may still fall short of turning Texas blue.

He wrote, "I don’t mean to say that Democrats have no chance of turning Texas blue. While Texas has mainly had extensive growth rather than rapid growth in productivity or per capita income, it has been transformed in one important respect: It’s now home to not one but two world-class metropolitan hubs in Houston and Dallas.

"Indeed, the maturing of those metropolises is certainly the main reason that Texas has become more culturally and professionally sophisticated.

"The only other red state with comparable metropolitan depth is Georgia, which I’ve circled along with Texas in the chart. Georgia has Atlanta — and Georgia, which has a similar education level to Texas, has become a genuine swing state.

"The rise of Texas urbanism hasn’t yet altered the outcomes of state-level races, in which Republicans have had a lock on power. But, as in Georgia, that could change."

Krugman went on to suggest that, even with the tide turning in the Democratic Party's favor, it would still be an uphill battle to win a majority.

"So the point here is that while Texas could be shifting towards the blue zone, it won’t come easily," Krugman warned. "It won’t be a simple matter of a state becoming more progressive as a result of economic progress.

"In other words, Texas is not about to become New Jersey, or even Colorado. But with the right Democratic candidates, who can straddle the divide between urban Democrats and non-urban Republicans, it could become Georgia. And maybe, just maybe, Texas could blaze the trail for Democrats in other deep red states."

Panicking Trump proves he sees a real threat

The pattern is clear: Corporate billionaires who either own or are purchasing U.S. media are censoring content to support Donald Trump. Trump’s blatantly illegal carrot is the conditioning of federal contracts, mergers, licensing, tax and regulatory relief on partisan fealty. His stick? Threatening the FCC licenses of networks that criticize him.

In January, singling out left-leaning shows like Saturday Night Live, The View, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert, Trump’s FCC Chairman Brendan Carr resurrected a long dormant “equal time” policy to issue new regulatory guidance requiring these shows to give “equal time” to political candidates in an election period. The rule was originally adopted in 1934, but the shows Carr is now targeting had been subject to a “news” exemption since 1959.

Despite declaring that the new regulations apply to shows “motivated by partisan purposes,” Carr is not applying them to Fox News, a blended news and entertainment network that runs 24/7 Trump propaganda. Nor is he applying them to uber-partisan right-wing talk radio, which the FCC also regulates. Instead, Carr is focusing on what he calls “left-leaning” entertainment programming.

Selective application of federal communication rules based on partisan leanings obviously violates the First Amendment. While networks could sue the FCC on First Amendment and misuse of administrative authority grounds, whether the Roberts court would rule in time for it to matter is another question.

FCC targets Talarico

On Monday, after either the FCC or corporate-owned CBS threatened legal repercussions if Stephen Colbert aired an interview with James Talarico, a Texas Democrat running for U.S. Senate, the taped interview was removed from the show. Whether CBS was directed to pull the interview or bent the knee in advance has been the subject of debate, but it’s clear the Trump administration grew concerned about Talarico in particular after he appeared on The View in early February.

Talarico, a Texas state representative, is a deeply religious Democratic lawmaker making waves with MAGA’s religious hypocrisy. He looks like a southern Baptist preacher but he sounds like a true man of faith. Taking on Trump’s far-right base, Talarico rails about the shameful gulf between the teachings of Christ and the suffering Trump is inflicting throughout the country and around the world.

A Presbyterian seminarian, Talarico has gained national attention for using his theological background to criticize Chrisian nationalism, condemning it as a “betrayal of Jesus of Nazareth,” that “worships power in the name of Christ.”

Talarico: It’s time to start flipping tables

Talarico relies on the teachings of Christ to challenge corporate interests.

He identifies the right vs. left political divide in the U.S. as deliberately orchestrated, while the true divide is top wealth vs. bottom, saying, “Billionaires want us looking left and right at each other instead of looking up at them while they pick our pockets.” The Trump oligarchy divides us “so we don’t notice they’re defunding our schools, gutting our healthcare, and cutting taxes for themselves and their rich friends. It’s the oldest strategy in the world: divide and conquer.”

He also argues that the separation of church and state protects religion by maintaining the church’s ability to speak truth to power. His opposition to a Ten Commandments bill went viral: “Maybe they should try following the Ten Commandments before mandating them.” He calls school vouchers, which move education dollars from public to corporate-owned schools, “schemes,” scams, and “welfare for the rich.”

Trump’s FCC mocks Equal Time

The equal opportunity section (315) of the Communications Act of 1934 was a good idea. It was adopted to further First Amendment freedoms by requiring all broadcast licensees to give equal coverage to all legally qualified candidates for political office.

It tracked with the Fairness Doctrine, which required, when a political opinion was aired, that both sides be presented. The Fairness doctrine was repealed under Ronald Reagan in 1987, and our country has grown more divided ever since.

The irony in watching Carr resurrect “fairness” is that Republicans have long opposed fairness in the media; the Heritage Foundation railed against the Fairness Doctrine in 1993, arguing that requiring both sides of a political argument violated free speech. Watching Carr now apply “equal time” to left-leaning talk shows while exempting right wing views makes a mockery of fairness principles that drove the law in the first place.

Giving Talarico the last word

During an interview, Joe Rogan told Talarico he should run for president. That spells escalating attempts to censor him from Trump’s FCC, so he gets the last word.

During Colbert’s interview with Talarico, which aired on YouTube, Talarico noted that the right is now “trying to control what we watch, what we say, and what we read. This is the most dangerous kind of cancel culture, the kind that comes from the top. A threat to one of our First Amendment rights is a threat to all of our First Amendment rights."

On his campaign website, Talarico writes about a barefoot rabbi who issued two overriding commandments: love God, and love your neighbor, “because there is no love of God without love of neighbor.”

“Every single person bears the image of the sacred; every single person is holy — not just the neighbors who look like me or pray like me or vote like me. 2,000 years ago, when the powerful few rigged the system, that barefoot rabbi walked into the seat of power and flipped over the tables of injustice. To those who love our country, to those who love our neighbors: It’s time to start flipping tables.”

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.

'Unmitigated disaster' warning for GOP as House pushes Trump law: 'It's going to hurt'

WASHINGTON — When Congress returns to Washington next week, Democrats will be on the defensive, rallying to kill the SAVE Act, a voting reform measure that party leaders say is a key part of President Donald Trump’s plan to seize control of elections.

“Oh, I think it's step one,” House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) told Raw Story. “Or step one, two, three, four — this is part of the plan.”

The SAVE Act would require voters to provide proof of citizenship, end mail-only voter registration, implement photo ID requirements in all 50 states and force new federally-mandated rules to purge noncitizens from state voter rolls.

“This has nothing to do with voter ID laws. This has nothing to do with the nonexistent problem of non-American citizens voting,” Clark said.

“It's all to do with voter suppression and rigging the election.”

‘They don’t want women to vote’

While the Senate is slated to take up the House-passed SAVE Act next week, the 2026 election is already under way.

In states like Texas, voters started casting ballots for Senate this Tuesday, including the highly anticipated Democratic primary between Rep. Jasmine Crockett and Texas state senator James Talarico, both rising stars of the party.

In Washington, the number three House Democrat, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), told Raw Story what’s “crazy about this now” is the GOP isn’t even trying to hide that the SAVE Act is an effort to impact 2026 primaries in spots like Texas, because if passed, the measure will take effect “immediately.”

“This is about them wanting to suppress votes in Texas, you know, in real-time right now,” Aguilar told Raw Story.

Aguilar and others say the measure’s requirement that voters produce a birth certificate, adoption papers, naturalization certificate, U.S. Passport, REAL ID or Tribal I.D. are onerous, especially for married people who have changed their last name.

A Pew Research study from 2023 showed more than 80 percent of married women take their spouse's last name. Critics point out the version of the SAVE Act that passed the U.S. House doesn’t allow voters to offer proof of name-change documentation.

Republicans “don't want women to vote,” Aguilar said. “They don't want people of color to vote. They don't want people to vote by mail. That's just kind of where they are, and it's unfortunate.”

‘It’s going to hurt Republican voters’

While almost all Democrats oppose the measure — only one House Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), supported it — many say it will actually hit Republicans harder.

“That is an unmitigated disaster for voters across America, Republicans as much as if not more than Democrats,” Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) told Raw Story.

“Wouldn't the SAVE Act codify Trump’s desire to nationalize elections?” Raw Story asked Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA).

“I don't think it'll do that,” Bera said. “But what it will do is, it'll make it really hard for folks to register to vote.

“I also think it's going to hurt Republican voters, right? Because the proof of citizenship usually is your birth certificate or passport. Probably more Democrats have passports than Republicans, right?”

Bera pointed to GOP efforts to end vote by mail since Donald Trump’s defeat by Joe Biden in 2020.

“That backfired on Trump as well, because Republican voters used to be better vote-by-mail voters, then all of a sudden he said don't do it, and then that helped us in the election.

“You win or lose elections based on your ideas and so forth, and, you know, Trump ran on a lot of the right things, I think, but he's clearly delivering the wrong messages. So it's an opportunity for us to correct that record.”

‘I trust Trump to be devious’

Democrats continue rallying the base around efforts to derail the SAVE Act, in part because of the unprecedented efforts Trump has already made to stay in power — as witnessed most viscerally on Jan. 6, 2021, when his supporters attacked Congress itself.

“Calling for nationalization is a terrible idea, a dangerous idea and a, very frankly, undemocratic idea,” Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told Raw Story. “And for a president who refuses to accept the court's judgments as to the validity of the election, a very scary alternative.

“And he told people to come down here, take over the Capitol, commit insurrection and treason so he could win the election. Any suggestions he makes about elections are without foundation or grounds or good intent.”

That’s why Democrats aren’t merely shrugging the SAVE Act off as politics-as-unusual.

“I trust Trump to be devious, smart,” Garamendi said, “and screw up this entire country.”

While Democratic leaders see the Constitution as on their side, they remain skeptical of the conservative Supreme Court.

“Do you trust the judiciary as the last backstop?” Raw Story asked House Whip Clark. “Or how nervous are you?

“We're going to keep pressing our case in courts and here [at the Capitol], but the SAVE Act isn't passed,” Clark said, “And we're going to make sure it doesn't get there.”

Trump's dumb move just handed Dems a massive gift — again

Donald Trump is the worst thing to ever happen to global politics, but he didn’t get there by himself. Putin’s occasionally useful puppet also happens to be surrounded by the most inept collection of political non-savants ever assembled.

Case in point: When the COVID-19 pandemic began in February 2020, Trump secretly told writer Bob “My Publishing Date is More Important Than American Lives” Woodward how serious the virus was, but seemed to forget that minor detail every time he spoke to the public. Weird!

If Trump had been any kind of competent person, or at least had surrounded himself with competent people instead of attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci on the daily, he would have recognized the coronavirus as the political gift it was in an election year. Trump needed only to embrace measures to stop the spread and he would have —to quote Bill Murray — saved the lives of millions of registered voters.

Instead, he killed off his own voting base in the Red States. And since the surviving MAGA cultists weren’t inclined to vote by mail after he convinced them it wasn’t safe, Trump lost bigly to Joe Biden.

I don’t have enough internet space to list all the mistakes Trump has made that could have been avoided, so let’s just fast forward to Monday night, when Bari Weiss’s spineless Trumpsimps at CBS wouldn’t allow Stephen Colbert’s interview with Texas Democrat James Talarico to air.

We all — including the crack legal staff at CBS, all of whom apparently just graduated from Trump University’s Bondi School of Law — know Trump is very worried about Texas going purple.

Instead of obeying in advance, the smart thing for CBS would have been to invoke the Fairness Doctrine and get a Republican booked too. Of course, Colbert would probably have requested Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), the only sensible Republican in the House, but would have had to settle for someone super-Trumpy yet vaguely Talarico-esque, say Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX), who’s joined performative, attention-seeking Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) in pretending Trump’s name isn’t in the Epstein Files more than a million times.

The best part of this is how beautifully Colbert handled the latest bit of Orwellian FCC-ery from Trumpocrite Brendan Carr, who basically helped Streisand Effect the entire Talarico interview.

Yes, this Brendan Carr. I wonder what’s changed since he tweeted this in 2019?

Anyway, Colbert got to tell his audience the network wouldn’t let him air the Talarico interview, and to drag Trump and his protectors on the same episode they were censoring. Yay, First Amendment still in effect!

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Even better, the interview with Talarico has racked up far more views on Colbert’s YouTube Channel (over 6 million at the time of this writing, so probably at least 2 million more by the time you read this) than it would’ve if guarding Trump’s snowflake feelings wasn’t CBS’s top priority.

- YouTube youtu.be

But wait, it gets even better!

Thanks to Trump being a giant baby, Talarico’s campaign raised a whopping $2.5 million after the news broke. I’m encouraged to see that Americans are reacting appropriately to censorship and the deliberate deterioration of our First Amendment rights.

Yes, Bari Weiss of CBS follows me on Twitter. No, I don’t follow her back, and she’s never responded to me. Weird, huh? Especially since Trump blocked me forever ago, in August 2015.

If Weiss had any real sense of how to run a news network, she would offer me a gig, representing the liberal take. But again, anyone connected to Trump is terrible at whatever they do. There’s a part of me that wishes they were trying to take him down from the inside, but none are smart enough to maintain a front like that for too long.

As someone who comes from terrestrial radio, my biggest fear about the second Trump Regime arose from its intention to control the flow of information on our airwaves, as laid out in Project 2025. Now we have Carr’s Federal Communications Commission nestled in Trump’s alimentary canal, more than willing to suppress truths Trump doesn’t like.

But don’t forget Kari Lake, who’s filtering all of the truth out of the Voice of America even more than she filters her face. I’m blocked on Twitter by both her personal account and her “Kari Lake War Room.” You know, because she’s so brave and cares so much about the truth — which I suggest is that whatever she sends out from the Voice of America is translated from the Russian first.

We have the First Amendment for so many reasons. If you don’t want to watch something or listen to it, you don’t have to. Unless you’re this giant snowflake baby, then you block some five-foot-nothing lady on Twitter because you can’t handle the truth she tells about you being a convicted felon accused of doing unspeakable things to women and children.

The irony of this kind of censorship happening in 2026 is that there’s more content available now than at any other time in our history. If you don’t want to see Stephen Colbert and James Talarico chatting about politics and their shared faith, just change the channel. It’s that part that really chaps MAGA’s collective IQ point. Those Trumpocrites think they’re the only ones who get to be churchy. But that’s a whole other kind of opinion column.

Tara Dublin is a political writer/commentator based in Portland, OR, who has been blocked by Donald Trump on Twitter since August 2015 and can occasionally be heard as a fill-in host on SiriusXM Progress. She is also the author of The Sound of Settling, a rock ‘n’ roll love story available at taradublinrocks.com

Trump-appointed judge rejects Texas Republican's book-banning bill: report

Texas state Rep. James Talarico said that the Republican bill to ban books in the state has been blocked by a conservative judge.

The judge, Alan Albright, was appointed to the federal bench by then-President Donald Trump in 2018.

Albright called the bill an “unconstitutional law” that “could lead to banning classic works of literature.”

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

The state has already said that they will appeal. They also asked the judge to allow the law to go into effect pending appeal. It was denied.

"The Reader Act would have required any book vendor that does business with a Texas school district to rank every book that's ever been sold by the vendor based on sexual content," said the Houston Chronicle. "Two independent bookstores, Houston's Blue Willow Bookshop and Austin’s BookPeople, as well as a coalition of professional publishing organizations, sued the state over the law, arguing that not only was it unconstitutional, but also that it created an undue burden on private businesses, was unenforceable, and was too broadly written."

The move came as Harris County Commissioners voted unanimously to approve a resolution for the Public Library system to become a Book Sanctuary. There is now a network of 2,828 book sanctuaries across the United States, reported the Houston Chronicle.