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Many of those showing up at town hall events have never done anything like that in their lives. Photograph: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AFP/Getty Images

Americans are flooding into town halls across the country. Fearful that their country is being torn apart, they are turning out to protest their representatives in record numbers. Clearly, the furious crowds have gotten under Donald Trumps skin. In a sneering tweet, the president dismissed the so-called angry crowds at town hall events as planned by liberal activists. Well take that as a compliment.

More than two dozen progressive activist groups are using ResistanceRecess.com, a site posted just last week by MoveOn.org, to search among more than 500 local congressional events around the country. Anyone can RSVP for an event and get a reminder email. So yes, thats evidence of planning apparently more planning than goes into a typical executive order issued by this White House.

But heres the thing: the crowds are unmistakably real, and the anger runs deep.

Many of those showing up at town hall events have never done anything like that in their lives. Just like the participants in the millions-strong Womens March and the spontaneous airport protests, the people filling these town hall events are acting with moral urgency and with a deeply responsible sense of civic duty. Now its up to members of Congress to decide how to respond.

They can listen to their constituents, do their jobs and pull the country back from the precipice that Trump seems so determined to drive it off of. Or they can fail to heed the voices of their own voters and face the consequences at the ballot box.

But one things for sure: even after Congress returns from recess, the resistance isnt going anywhere. We voters are watching.

The intensity at the town halls is so high that more than 200 elected officials have reportedly abandoned public forums in February entirely. But theyre in for the worst of it. Where politicians are cowering in fear of their constituents, citizens are forging ahead with town hall events of their own with an empty seat at the front reserved for their member of Congress.

If their invited representatives dont show up, the absence will speak volumes to the local news cameras and Facebook Live feeds streaming from their constituents mobile phones. And to make sure nobody forgets that their officials have gone AWOL, theyre buying local newspaper ads calling them out and plastering milk cartons with MISSING stickers in their local supermarkets.

Resistance Recess is blowing the Republicans momentum out to sea. But its not just Republicans facing energized crowds. In blue states and congressional districts, citizens are thronging to public events as well, demanding full-throated, no-fear resistance from Democratic lawmakers.

Their message: when fundamental principles, and our very constitution, is at stake, there is no room for compromise. Democrats who get the message and pledge to fight are greeted by cheers. Those who still havent realized that these arent normal times and that their role now is to resist, not appease are engulfed by fierce chanting: Do your job!

What are the thousands of people asking for? Protection of the vital healthcare programs that millions of lives depend on. An immediate, public, and comprehensive investigation into Trumps ties with Russia. The rejection of Trumps big-business-is-always-right supreme court nominee. Opposition to Trumps racist and xenophobic immigration policies and the travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries.

From Republicans, a willingness to put country before party. From Democrats, the use of every available tool to block Trumps toxic and unconstitutional agenda that would divide our communities, poison our environment and bankrupt the country for the personal benefit of billionaires like the president himself, his cabinet and his corporate-honcho allies.

If Congress doesnt start standing up to Donald Trump, we liberal activists have a lot more planned from now through the 2018 elections and beyond. We are only getting started.

Read more here:
Yes, liberals are planning town hall protests. It's called democracy - The Guardian

Alan Colmes, a top-rated television commentator who, as co-host with conservative Sean Hannity of Hannity & Colmes, became best known as the liberal in the lions den of Fox News, has died at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 66.

His wife, Jocelyn Elise Crowley, said that he died late Feb. 22 or early Feb. 23. The cause was lymphoma.

Mr. Colmes joined the fledging Fox News Channel in 1996 and hosted the political talk show with Hannity for 12 years. It became the channels longest-running prime time program before Mr. Colmess departure from the show in 2008.

Mr. Colmes gamely endured withering criticism from some liberals, who perceived a betrayal in his presence on Fox, which was founded by Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch as a counterbalance to what many conservatives saw as the left-wing bias in the news media.

Some liberals have a problem with me simply because I work at Fox and nothing I do short of storming off the set in a rage will get them to respect that I work there, an interviewer for The Huffington Post, Steve Young, quoted Mr. Colmes as saying.

I feel quite lucky to have the platforms I have on both television and radio, Mr. Colmes continued. Even if everything its detractors say about Fox were true, the most liberal of liberal attitudes would be that one would get credit for being in the lions den. After all I do have the biggest audience of all the liberals.

Alan Samuel Colmes was born on Sept. 24, 1950,and grew up on Long Island, N.Y. His father, an auctioneer, ran jewelry stores with his mother.

Mr. Colmes graduated in 1971 from Hofstra University on Long Island before venturing into radio and then television.

Hannity, who knew Mr. Colmes from his own radio work, joined Fox at its inception and was slated to host a show privately dubbed Hannity & LTBD Liberal to Be Determined. The liberal to be determined turned out to be Mr. Colmes.

Mr. Colmess books included Red, White and Liberal: How Left Is Right & Right Is Wrong (2003) and Thank The Liberals* *For Saving America (And Why You Should) (2012).

Survivors include his wife of 13 years, Jocelyn Elise Crowley of New York City; and a sister.

This obituary is a developing story and will be updated.

Read more here:
Alan Colmes, co-host of 'Hannity & Colmes' and liberal in 'lion's den' of Fox News, dies at 66 - Washington Post

The first congressional recess of the new Congress is playing out exactly how a group of dejected former Democratic Hill staffers had hoped in the wake of President Trump's victory.

Liberal activists across the country have apparently read a 26-page "how to" manual created by a new non-profit called "Indivisible" and are flocking to Republican lawmakers' town hall meetings, ribbon-cutting ceremonies and district offices to support the Affordable Care Act and protest Trump.

"Indivisible: A practical guide for resisting the Trump agenda" was written by former Democratic staffers that outlines how progressives can use the most successful tactics employed by the Tea Party to their advantage.

Just as the guide's main authors envisioned, the Tea Party town hall shoe is now on the other foot.

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Some Republicans welcome the feedback while others are avoiding open-ended forums, opting for small group meetings, conference calls and closed events.

Videos of rowdy meetings dot social media sites, with members requiring police presence to control crowds and hecklers peppering Republicans with questions and jeers.

Residents of Charleston scoffed when Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., repeated Trump's claim that Mexico will pay for the wall he wants to build along the U.S.-Mexico border. Virginians broke into choruses of "Thanks Obama!" when Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., said the economy is doing well.

A women's group called Ultraviolet, gathered scores of supporters outside of House Speaker Paul Ryan's Janesville, Wis., office Wednesday to deliver nearly 86,000 post cards urging him not to repeal Obamacare. They came with guitars, cake and a singing telegram, signs reading "Impeach Trump" and "Hands off our health care" but Ryan was in Texas touring the southern border.

For members who refuse to hold open meetings or have canceled town halls, locals are posting "missing" signs and declaring them "AWOL."

Also from the Washington Examiner

"I think one of the most pivotal moments in modern American history was his immediate withdrawal from TPP."

02/23/17 2:37 PM

Trump and some Republicans are dismissing the demonstrations as paid affairs but "Indivisible" says neither its founders nor its members accept salaries or payment from any political group or organization.

"We simply are providing constituents with the information and tools to make their voices heard," spokeswoman Sarah Dohl told the Washington Examiner.

"As of today, we have a group registered in every congressional district in the country. The website has been visited over 13 million times. We're floored by the momentum building and the number of people showing up and speaking out for the first time to hold their members of Congress accountable. These constituents are effectively changing the narrative from coast to coast, and everywhere in between, and we're more confident than ever that, together, we will win," Dohl said.

Trump took to his favorite medium to refute the authenticity of the protests.

"The so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans are actually, in numerous cases, planned out by liberal activists. Sad!" he tweeted Tuesday evening.

Also from the Washington Examiner

"Hold us accountable to what we promised, and delivering what we promised," Bannon said.

02/23/17 2:28 PM

"Indivisible" denies "targeting" any specific member but Republican offices with close ties to Trump think they are being singled-out.

Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., who was the first lawmaker to endorse Trump has never held a town hall he prefers meeting constituents in smaller groups his spokesman explained but voters inspired by "Indivisible" are hounding him to hold one, his office said.

Under the banner "reclaim recess," former Labor Secretary Robert Reich takes to a white board to draw how Democrats can make Republicans feel the pressure.

"No town hall, no problem," "Indivisible" explains.

"Something strange has been happening in the last month or so: Members of Congress from all over the country are going missing," the group wrote on its website. "They're still turning up for votes on Capitol Hill, and they're still meeting with lobbyists and friendly audiences back homebut their public event schedules are mysteriously blank. Odd."

Lawmakers "do not want to look weak or unpopular and they know that Trump's agenda is very, very unpopular," it reads. Some "have clearly made the calculation that they can lay low, avoid their constituents, and hope the current storm blows over. It's your job to change that calculus."

Their strategy is apparently paying off in terms of making some members of Congress look silly.

"Heller now says he'll do a town hall if 'no applauding and no booing.' Seriously? He's a U.S. senator!" well-known Nevada pundit Jon Ralston tweeted Wednesday about Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev.

Continued here:
Liberals copy Tea Party tactics to protest Trump at town halls - Washington Examiner

It is absolutely comical to watch various elements of liberalism scream, pout, march and spew vulgarities since that paragon of virtue, Hillary Clinton, lost the election and messed up their playhouse.

It is astounding that a vulgar-mouthed woman who calls herself Madonna seems to be the spokesperson for todays liberal woman.

It is sad to see that our public universities have become liberal indoctrination centers as opposed to education centers.

Please witness the current trend for rude mobs to shout down any speaker with whom they disagree.

This culminated in violence recently on the University of California, Berkeley campus with ninja-clad rioters throwing fire bombs at police. Shades of the Ku Klux Klan!

Want to know whats wrong with our country?

Its called humanisim, where many are so progressive that they think they are wiser than God.

Dont believe it? Just look at the menu of sexual ideas and practices many worship, which God clearly states are sin.

Galatians 6:7 states: Be not deceived; God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Continue reading here:
Liberals pout, weep and stage protests - Greensboro News & Record

Chuck Grassley just cant escape death panels.

Back in 2009, the Iowa senator suggested that the Affordable Care Act might create something akin to a death panel, where the government decides which patients survive. In remarks at a town hall, he seemed to endorse the idea that the health care law had a program meant to ration end-of-life medical care. (It didnt.)

This week, eight years later, Grassley had another town hall, and death panels came up again. But this time, the term meant something very different because Obamacare supporters, not critics, were the ones saying it.

Grassleys quote at the 2009 town hall became infamous, echoing through the following months and years of health care debate. And I don't have any problem with things like living wills, but they ought to be done within the family, Grassley said then. We should not have a government program that determines you're going to pull the plug on Grandma.

The death panel myth had incredible staying power. PolitiFact ended up naming it the lie of the year in 2009. The group cited Grassley as a prominent Republican [who] didnt reject the death panels claim. Six years later, in 2015, some people still believed it: A Vox poll that year found 26 percent of Republicans and 12 percent of Democrats believed the ACA created a government panel that helps make decisions about patients end-of-life care.

But just as Obama eventually embraced the once-derisive term Obamacare, liberals are trying to take back the radioactive death panels phrase in the second round of health reform debate. At a town hall meeting Tuesday in Iowa, Grassley faced accusations that Obamacare repeal would be akin to a death panel, as it could end health coverage for millions of Americans.

Over 20 million will lose coverage, and with all due respect, sir, youre the man that talked about the death panels, an Iowa farmer who relies on the health law argued at the event. We're going to create one great big death panel in this country that people cant afford to get insurance.

Grassley helped the death panel myth take off. He was a legislator who told his constituents they were right to worry about the government pulling the plug on Grandma. But eight years later, hes facing a quite different argument from his constituents: that ending the Affordable Care would pull the plug on them if they lose coverage.

Why has the death panel myth had such staying power? It arguably taps into fears of rationing, the idea that some people wont get the medical care they need because the government doesnt want to spend the money. This is not a uniquely American problem. Other countries, including Canada and Britain, run into the same issue. But the fear from Grassleys constituents in 2009 and 2017 is essentially coming from the same place: a worry that those who need access to medical care may find themselves denied.

It saved my life': Talk of Obamacare repeal worries addicts: In Kentucky, which has been ravaged worse than almost any other state by fentanyl, heroin and other drugs, Tyler Witten went into rehab at Medicaid's expense after the state expanded the program under a provision of the act. Until then, he had been addicted to painkillers for more than a decade. "It saved my life," he said. Adam Beam and Carla K. Johnson, Associated Press

McConnell-linked group to hardliners: It's repeal AND replace: The group's polling and ads are hitting at a critical time, with Freedom Caucus members and other hardliners saying they're mostly interested in repealing the law and then working out a replacement later. Outside conservative groups also worry that the longer Republicans try to agree on a replacement, the longer the repeal effort will take, giving Democrats and progressive groups time to mobilize against it. Jonathan Swan, Axios

ObamaCare fix hinges on Medicaid clash in Senate: Sen. John Thune (R-SD) calls it the single thorniest issue of the entire debate. You dont want to punish or penalize states that didnt expand [Medicaid], but the states that did expand are going to say, We dont want to get punished for expanding, either. To me, thats probably the thorniest and most difficult issue to resolve, said Thune, the chair of the Senate Republican Conference. Alexander Bolton, the Hill

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Today in Obamacare: liberals are taking back the term "death panels" - Vox