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Former Kentucky Rep. Charles Booker overwhelmingly won the states U.S. Senate Democratic primary on Tuesday, taking the progressive candidate one step closer to his goal of unseating far right Republican Sen. Rand Paul in November.

With about 97 percent of votes counted as of Wednesday morning, Booker has won over 73 percent of the votes in the state, beating out the next most popular candidate, Joshua Blanton, by over 60 points. Booker, a Black racial justice activist, ran on a platform of connecting the hood to the holler in other words, connecting the states urban and rural residents in unity.

The commonwealth of Kentucky has never had a Black person to be the top of the ticket, to be a major party nominee for U.S. Senate, Booker said in his acceptance speech on Tuesday night. If anybody tells you change is not possible, if anybody tells you that ceilings cant break, tell them, look at Kentucky.

Paul won the Republican nomination by a landslide, with over 86 percent of votes on Wednesday morning.

Polling has found that Paul has a strong chance of winning over Booker in the red state this fall; a Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy poll from earlier this year found that 55 percent of those polled said theyd vote for the incumbent, while 39 percent said theyd vote for Booker. A far right politician, COVID denier and supporter of Donald Trumps attempted coup, Paul has been a U.S. senator since 2011, largely representing a capitalist libertarian viewpoint.

Booker ran on a progressive platform, supporting proposals like Medicare for All and calling for a Green New Deal. He has said that Kentucky voters have been inspired by racial justice movements in recent years and that there are opportunities to unite Kentuckians, regardless of race or residence, behind common goals.

Major unions and progressive organizations have endorsed Booker; when Booker ran to oust Sen. Mitch McConnell in 2020, he gathered endorsements from popular progressive lawmakers like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York).

Democrats have historically had a hard time winning against Republicans in Kentucky. The last time the state had a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate was in 1999, over 20 years ago.

In 2020, Amy McGrath an establishment-backed Democrat who spent millions to defeat Booker in the primary roundly lost to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been in office since 1985. McConnell won by nearly 20 points, despite the nearly $91 million spent on the race by McGraths campaign.

At the time, political reporters and progressives said that Booker could have won against McConnell, had the Democratic party establishment not lined up behind McGrath, who the Louisville Courier-Journal editorial board called unimaginative and uninspiring in their endorsement of Booker. Considering that Booker lost by only about 3 points to McGrath in that election despite having been outraised 50-to-1 in campaign funds was a show of the progressive appetite among Kentucky voters, analysts said.

This time around, as of the end of April, Paul has over $8 million on hand going into the general election campaign, while Booker has only around $470,000, according to OpenSecrets. The race will be closely watched. While Booker faces long odds, a triumph over Paul would be a huge win for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

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Progressive Charles Booker Wins Primary to Challenge Rand Paul in November - Truthout

By David M. GreenwaldExecutive Editor

Pushing back against the notion that Progressive Reform is in retreat, Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner during a forum said, We are winning. How much are we winning? Two years ago, 10 percent of the US population had a progressive prosecutor. It is now 20.1% of the US population.

He added, There is no political party in the United States that is as successful as the one youre looking at, which is the progressive prosecutor partyif you want to call us thatnobody can match that.

While San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin faces a recall vote next month and LA DA George Gascn is facing a recall drive, it is important to remember that these are only the latest attempts to thwart progressive prosecution and criminal justice reform.

Before them, both Kim Foxx of Cook County (Chicago), Illinois, and Larry Krasner of Philadelphia were elected and faced various efforts to push back. The four of them were part of a discussion on Tuesday about efforts to reform the criminal legal system.

The discussion was co-hosted by the LA Progressive and ACLU and moderated by LA Black Lives Matter Founder Melina Abdullah.

Krasner was one of the first of the wave of progressive prosecutors and the state has done everything to turn back the tide of reform. But even with a well-financed opponent backed by the police union, Krasner still prevailed with nearly two-thirds of the vote.

So what do they do when they cannot beat us in elections? Krasner asked. Number one, they try to end democracy because elections are not working for them. And number two, they recall, they recall George. They recall Chesa. They recall in Virginia, theyre doing it right now. Any state where they can do it, theyll do it.

What are they doing in Pennsylvania? he asked. Well, they tried to pass a bill to term limit me, which has already passed the Pennsylvania house. They tried to pass a bill to take away my cases, which has already passed in the Pennsylvania housewhat we are going to do in the future, because it doesnt seem to be working out any other way, is we are going to save democracy.

As he was speaking, his office was preparing to secure the election for one of the most watched primaries in the country on Tuesday.

He then said provocatively, The way that we are going to do it is somehow slowly were going to convince our colleagues in the Democratic Party that instead of running away from criminal justice reform, they better run at it and hug it as hard as they possibly can, because the reality is, Donald Trump knows how to turn out Duck Dynasty and a bunch of guys with long beards who want to kidnap people. And if Democrats dont stop acting like its the Clinton era and rejecting progressives and rejecting criminal justice reform, then they will not turn out the sensible and progressive and young and broke and Black and brown votes that they need to beat this bunch of fascists.

He said this starts with Chesa Boudin and George Gascn and our colleagues in Virginia who are being recalled as well.

He noted the nonsense Im facing and the nonsense Kim Foxx has faced from the very beginning.

He said, She (Kim Foxx) was outspent five to one, and she beat that bum by 20 percent. He said, The people want what we have and thats why other people are trying to steal away what the people want.

Krasner argued, The people are 100 percent with us. It is the institutions that are not ready to embrace, Its getting better, but its media. It is the mainstream political parties that should be supporting us. It is judges. Although that changes, you know, this is a great social justice movement. Like any other, it takes a few decades. Lets just say maybe 30 years. Were in a crucial part of that success, which is weve gotten to the point where they vigorously fight us.

He argued that they figured out that they cant beat us in the ballot box.

So what are they going to do now? he asked. Lets find a way for 15 people to cause a new election for Chesa. Thats what theyre trying to do.

He continued, saying it is absolutely essential that we not be back on our heels. The democratic party in the United States has been playing Republican light ever since at least bill Clinton, if not before that. People do not want Republican.

He predicted that John Fetterman would win the Democratic nomination for a key Senate seat.

This is a guy who is a political outsider in many ways, an anti-politician. He flew a flag with a marijuana leaf on it from the State Capitol as Lt. Governor, when everybody thought that was nuts, five, six years ago, he said. He is about to win by 30 points over the Clinton era candidate.

He said, And the reality is we have had to do this on our own. We have not always been kissed and embraced by the mainstream democratic party. Its one of the institutions that we have to modify. We have to change. Its just not immediate.

He predicted that both George (Gascn) and Chesa (Boudin) are going to get through it.

I believe in my heart that what is going to happen, is when the people get to say what they want to say, at the end of the day, theyre going to say, we wanted it, he said. This is part of the normal process of a social justice movement.

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Commentary: Krasner Offers a Fiery Defense of Reform and Progressive Prosecution, Pushing Back against the Recall - The Peoples Vanguard of Davis

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It's time that progressive politicians condemn left-wing extremist violence with the same lack of equivocation as most conservatives denounce right-wing extremism

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Former Conservative minister and senior RBC executive Michael Fortier and his family were asleep in their Montreal home at 1:30 a.m. on May 4, when he was woken by a neighbour banging on his drain pipe to warn him that the Jaguar and Land Rover parked in the driveway were on fire.

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The neighbours daughter had been studying for her final exams and saw the flames, alerting her parents. The warning allowed Fortier, his wife and three kids to get out of the house unscathed. One witness said someone could have died if the flames had engulfed the house.

The next day, surveillance footage showed two men pulling up on bikes, taking out a package and tossing it towards one car. They left as casually as if leaving an ice cream shop, said someone who saw the footage.

Responsibility for the attack was later claimed by anonymous extremists on the anarchist website MTL Counter-info, acting in the spirit of vengeance. They claimed to be supporting Wetsuweten land defenders trying to block the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline in B.C. As glaciers melt and drought, fire and famine spread, Mr. Fortier thinks that his money and connections will protect him, his children and grandchildren. But the ecologically-dispossessed will know the names of those responsible. He must understand that no one is safe amid the storm, it concluded.

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RBC has become the focus for a number of acts of vandalism smashed windows and spray paint on bank branches and the home of RBC Quebecs president even though it is only one of 20 or so lenders to Coastal GasLink.

But the attack on Fortiers home was a noticeable escalation. It invites the question: what will these furtive eco-warriors do for an encore? How far will they go to prove the point that no one is safe?

This is not the first time that left-wing extremists have targeted the Coastal GasLink pipeline. On Feb. 17, around 20 hooded figures cut the locks on a construction site near Houston, B.C., before threatening workers and causing millions of dollars of damage to heavy equipment. Video footage showed attackers wielding axes, hitting a truck with an employee inside and firing off flares. The RCMP said last week that it has made no arrests and has no updates on the incident.

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While horrific hate crimes such as the mass shooting in Buffalo have, rightly, focused attention on the scourge of right-wing extremism, ideologically motivated violence on the far-left is often characterized as legitimate protest, perhaps because there are lingering sympathies with its goals among progressives. But it is not acceptable or justifiable.

To be clear, research across Western countries indicates that the number of victims claimed by right-wing extremists and jihadists is far, far higher than those killed by the left. But as Teun van Dongen, a senior research fellow at the International Centre of Counter-Terrorism (ICCT), wrote recently: Fairness means we hold all forms of extremism to the same standards, not that we consider all forms of terrorism to be equally dangerous and harmful.

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While left-wing extremism may kill fewer people, assessments by law enforcement in Western countries consider the threat to be increasing and evolving. Germany, for example, recorded a record number of crimes committed by left-wing extremists in 2020. Notably, violence is increasingly directed toward people, rather than symbolic targets like buildings and vehicles.

A survey by the ICCT suggested left-wing terror attacks far outnumber attacks by jihadists and right-wing extremists, particularly in Germany and Greece, even while the number of victims is a fraction.

The concern is that left-wing websites are incubators for hate that in time might spawn similar levels of violence as the white supremacy online breeding grounds.

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The U.S.-based Network Contagion Research Institute noted that some anarcho-socialist websites use the kind of violent rhetoric and dehumanizing insults usually associated with jihadists and right-wing extremists.

In Canada, ideologically motivated violent extremism has been dominated by extreme anti-authority rhetoric that in the words of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service is often rooted in the weaponization of conspiracy theories. CSIS said it has observed a marked increase in violent threats to elected officials since the onset of the pandemic.

Statistics Canada said hate crimes in Canada rose by more than a third to 2,669 in the first year of COVID the largest number since comparable data became available in 2009.

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All reasonable people condemn the crimes committed against Black, Jewish, Indigenous and Asian populations by white supremacists.

But the same opprobrium should be awarded to anarcho-socialist violence, on the basis that all extremism should be held to the same standard.

As for the people the Montreal anarchists claim to be championing, many members of the five Wetsuweten bands, including elected chiefs and some hereditary chiefs, support the $6.2-billion pipeline and strongly resent the interference of outsiders who oppose it.

Im sick and tired of our people living off welfare were still living in poverty and people are just trying to work and make some money, said Theresa Tait Day, a hereditary sub chief. I ran into a few claiming to be land defenders coming to Smithers. I said go home, we dont need you here. But they did come and one even had a warrant out for their arrest.

Its time that progressive politicians condemn left-wing extremist violence with the same lack of equivocation as most conservatives denounce right-wing extremism.

Email: jivison@postmedia.com | Twitter: IvisonJ

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John Ivison: A banker's cars firebombed in the night and progressive politicians stay silent - National Post

But the group, known as APP, first and foremost brands itself Americas top defender of the family, lobbying in favor of bills that ban transgender girls from participating in high school sports and prevent trans children from receiving any type of gender-affirming care. (Medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, support certain gender-affirming care for adolescents such as counseling or providing medication that delays puberty.)

APP President Terry Schilling has called pediatricians who provide gender-affirming care groomers, meaning pedophiles, and referred to transgender women as biological males who believe they are women. The group has also delved into racial issues, describing the Black Lives Matter movement as a rhetorical Trojan horse pursuing an identiarian race-based caste system for the U.S.

While those are messages that some left-leaning antitrust advocates call discriminatory and hateful, others insist that working with people you disagree with even on fundamental social issues is worth the compromise.

Consolidated corporate power is the biggest problem that were facing right now in our politics, said Matt Stoller, research director at the anti-monopoly group American Economic Liberties Project, who regularly works with populist figures on the right, including APP. He said divisions within both parties about antitrust changes mean that supporters have to cobble together a majority.

As LGBTQ rights dominate political discourse leading up to the 2022 midterms, antitrust advocates who also work on social justice issues are increasingly reckoning with the anti-gay and anti-trans rhetoric from their counterparts across the aisle. And the compromises theyre willing or unwilling to make could determine whether Congress is able to put into action its biggest antitrust effort in a century.

Democrats dont have votes to pass tech antitrust bills on their own, so theyre prepared to rely on Republican supporters in both chambers. House Speaker Nancy Pelosis office told POLITICO in March that she is willing to put the antitrust bills on the floor even if their passage will require GOP support.

So progressives have been coordinating with APP on strategy and messaging. Jon Schweppe, APPs director of policy and government affairs, attends a semi-regular private meeting in which progressive and Republican activists discuss the status of antitrust legislation in Congress. Meeting attendees have included other Republican antitrust advocates and left-leaning groups like Demand Progress and AELP. Conservative groups that support antitrust reform, including the Internet Accountability Project, did not return a request for comment.

There have been some left groups that weve partnered with, mostly in terms of sharing intelligence and talking about bill text, Schweppe said in an interview. I dont have great intel by myself on whats happening on the Democratic side and a lot of these left groups dont have great intel on the right side. So we share information. Schweppe declined to name the groups.

Schweppe himself has said there is a major overlap between trans people and furries, a name for people who dress up as animals. He has advocated for conversion therapy, a term for attempting to change an individuals sexual orientation or gender identity, which is opposed by mainstream scientific groups and banned in some states as a form of abuse. APP is opposed to the Equality Act, which would amend civil rights law to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. It lobbied against marriage equality and has pivoted to advocating against trans rights in recent years.

But those stances havent deterred many progressive advocates from working with the group. One progressive antitrust advocate, who requested anonymity to discuss the dynamic candidly, said that given they have the same goal as APP on this issue, theres no reason to be oppositional to them out of spite.

Another Democratic strategist who works on antitrust issues said the Democrats need support from populist Republicans to push bills across the finish line, so intel sharing across a variety of groups of varying ideologies is vital.

Not everyone in the progressive antitrust world is willing to make the compromise.

It doesnt make sense to work with someone that doesnt share our values and doesnt share our goal, said Jeremie Greer, co-founder and executive director of economic rights group Liberation in a Generation. I dont think were fighting for the same thing. Greer argued that the push for antitrust reform is essentially about increasing equality and strengthening democracy and a group fighting against LGBTQ and minority rights is fundamentally opposed to that work.

Even if they share information behind closed doors, APP and progressive antitrust groups dont often promote each other publicly. APP mainly leads letters and campaigns geared towards the GOP while left-leaning groups target Democrats. Thats partially because some progressives dont want to give the group a bigger platform and also its just a matter of marketing. In terms of official partnerships, it doesnt make sense for either of us, Schweppe said. If APP partnered with a left group and sent a letter to Democrats, the Democrats in the Senate would be like, Huh?

APPs Schweppe estimated he spends about 30 percent of his time advocating against the big tech companies, while the rest is spent on APPs other priorities. He said hes aware that some of the left-leaning groups disagree with his views on gay and trans rights but that hes heartened it has not stopped them from working with him.

Still, Schweppe said he was blacklisted from a recent public day of action in support of the legislation, dubbed #AntitrustDay by the organizers. Schweppe said he signed up APP to participate in the days advocacy, which included petitions, outreach to lawmaker offices and a social media campaign but his groups name was left off the website when the day rolled around on April 4.

It looked like the coalition was much more interested in being a left-only coalition than a bipartisan one, Schweppe said.

Evan Greer, director at digital rights group Fight for the Future and one of the days organizers, confirmed that APP signed up and her group chose not to list the group. Greer said it was because the day of action was for small businesses and human rights/consumer protection groups.

The divisions among advocacy groups are a microcosm of the larger tensions in the movement to break up the major tech companies. Progressives and Trump-aligned Republicans agree that its time to reduce the power of the tech giants in the economy a dynamic that has created strange bedfellows like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), or Reps. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash).

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) speaks at the Practical Federalism Forum hosted by American Principles Project in Hooksett, N.H., Oct. 3, 2015.|Cheryl Senter/AP Photo

That coalition has required lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to turn a blind eye to areas they diverge. Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), the top Republican co-sponsor of the antitrust bills that passed out of the House Judiciary Committee last year, this week criticized Apple for its lobbying against bills that limits protections for trans and gay people. He worked on those bills hand-in-hand with House Judiciary antitrust chair David Cicilline (D-R.I.), who is openly gay and the chair of the LGBTQ-friendly House Equality Caucus. Bucks tweet was deleted within 24 hours.

Lobbyists for the major tech companies have seized on the ideological differences between the Democrats and Republicans working on antitrust, seeking to erode their alliance.

Theres probably some people reexamining who their allies are in these fights, said Adam Kovacevich, CEO of Chamber of Progress, a tech trade group that brands itself as left-of-center. Its increasingly becoming a Republican talking point to go after companies for supporting social inclusion. That should raise questions for Democrats about what is motivating these bills.

Some left-leaning activists say they do think its important to consider where Republicans are coming from, even if it could affect bipartisanship.

Its hard because, when it comes to Big Tech, we need the votes, said Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, an anti-monopoly group. I would argue that breaking the power of the big tech companies is critical to the future of multi-racial democracy and a vibrant, equitable economy.

Mitchell, who said she has not worked with APP and is not familiar with it, said its a delicate balancing act for progressives. Her group does not work with Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), for instance, in part because of the support he showed on Jan. 6 for the throng of Trump supporters and white nationalists who ransacked the Capitol.

Many Democrats involved in regulating the tech companies have also declined to work with Hawley since the Jan. 6 insurrection. But liberals have not mounted a similarly consistent push when it comes to shunning or working with people who espouse anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.

Just because youre kind of racist or bigoted on LGBTQ issues doesnt mean we should not acknowledge the overlap in concerns about concentration, said the progressive antitrust advocate who supports working with anti-trans groups. Its self-defeating to fight with each other about something you agree on.

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Behind closed doors, progressives fighting 'Big Tech' work with anti-trans group - POLITICO

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly kicked progressive advocates in the teeth by signing a rightwing political stunt masquerading as legislation on Monday.

The law supposedly bans sanctuary cities in the state. What it really does is target undocumented Kansans and those who worked patiently to pass an ordinance protecting them in Wyandotte County. The bill was introduced by Kellys gubernatorial rival, Attorney General Derek Schmidt, and pushed through in the last days of the legislative session.

No doubt Kelly saw the writing on the wall. A veto would tar her as insufficiently tough on border issues (never mind that Kansas actual border issue is businesses moving to Kansas City, Missouri). The Legislature had enough votes to override a veto anyway.

The cold, calculating decision? Sign the bill, blame the U.S. Congress, and move on to a pleasant photo op designating the Sandhill plum as the official state fruit.

Both Republicans and Democrats in Washington have failed to address immigration issues for decades. We need a national solution and we need it now, the Democratic Kelly said, conveniently blaming both parties and removing herself from the equation altogether.

Kellys political course should be clear to everyone at this point. Shes working to make sure as little daylight exists between her and Schmidt as possible. Where distinctions exist, she angles to make them as advantageous as possible.

Kellys political course should be clear to everyone at this point. Shes working to make sure as little daylight exists between her and Schmidt as possible. Where distinctions exist, she angles to make them as advantageous as possible.

For instance, the governor consistently called for a full repeal of the states sales tax on groceries. Schmidt has supported cutting the tax, but not necessarily to zero. While Republicans in the Legislature grumble about critical race theory and attempt to pass parents bill of rights legislation, Kelly will tout her commitment to fully funding public schools without gimmicks.

Progressive advocates dont appear to have other options. Are they going to vote for the Republican Schmidt instead? And are there enough of them to be decisive in a statewide vote for governor? Kelly has dared them, in essence, to stay home on Election Day and suffer the consequences.

I expect that when November rolls around, most of these advocates will turn out and vote for Kelly. They might grit their teeth and curse, but they will vote.

Politics works on two fundamental principles: power and fear. Those in the political sphere work to accumulate the first. Their relationships with others are determined by the second. Politicians who have gained power fear the folks who can legitimately put their electoral prospects or legislative majorities at risk. Thats why folks take the Kansas Chambers calls.

Kelly rightly fears what national and state Republicans could do to her reelection bid if she vetoed the sanctuary city bill. She didnt fear what national and state progressives would do. Indeed, for many conservative voters, the spectacle of her kicking liberals in the teeth might earn their grudging respect. It shows shes not like the rest of those silly, pie-in-the-sky Democrats.

This was, as I wrote last week, a bill that no one wanted. Precious few voters called for it. But the fact that it passed by wide margins and was signed by Kelly shows vividly who holds power in Kansas politics.

I dont have pleasant answers or easy solutions for this situation. Ambitious progressives are often told to go build power at the local level. Beyond that, they are often told to participate in the committee process at the Statehouse through testimony.

Well, progressives did both for the Safe and Welcoming ordinance. They created a local groundswell of support in Wyandotte County and then defended the measure as best they could in Topeka. They did everything right, and look at what it got them.

A mouthful of bloody, broken teeth.

Building progressive political power in Kansas will take serious investment from those inside and outside the state. It will take a commitment of years, if not decades, to build institutions with enough clout to instill fear in politicians of both parties. Most importantly, it will recognize that simply electing a Democratic governor doesnt mean that liberals suddenly seized political power. It means a canny politician figured out how to win a specific race.

Kelly will do what she thinks she needs to win. Ive pointed out before that shes uncommonly agile as a candidate. She may well earn another term. Perhaps she will even use that term to do good for undocumented folks.

Thats cold comfort in the moment, however, to Kansans targeted in Wyandotte County.

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Kelly signs anti-sanctuary city bill, and Kansas progressives face a moment of truth - Kansas Reflector