Month: March 2019

MORNING MESSAGE

Jawanza James Williams

Cuomo to New York’s Homeless: Drop Dead

Governor Andrew Cuomo refuses to spend a cent to help homeless New Yorkers. New York is in a homelessness crisis – one that’s getting worse every day. There are 89,000 New Yorkers sleeping in shelters every night, and many thousands more in the streets. Homelessness is up 50 percent in the city under Governor Cuomo and up 36 percent statewide. That’s why I joined VOCAL-NY and homeless individuals from across the state in a 24-hour vigil to demand funding for Home Stability Support (HSS), a rent subsidy that will keep thousands of low-income New Yorkers in their homes, and rehouse those already homeless. Twelve of us were arrested when they closed the Capitol for the night – but we came back the next morning and continued our protest. Governor Cuomo, New York’s homeless and poor may seem faceless and nameless to you, and their problems far away. They’re not to me. And if you really want to be taken seriously as a progressive leader, then support real solutions like Home Stability Support now for people like Patrick, Nathylin and me. Because until New York’s homeless crisis starts to improve, your reputation won’t, either.

AG Stonewalls Release Of Mueller Report

The Mueller report is more than 300 pages long. We’ve seen 101 words. CNN: “When people can’t see things, conspiracy theories fester. That goes double for President Donald Trump’s tax returns, which he’s made clear he’ll be keeping from public view, making many people wonder what he could be hiding. The Justice Department is supposed to be scrubbing the Mueller report for release in some form to Congress. Redactions, cuts or edits will only feed frustration and lead to further conspiracy theories. The American people are used to TMI, so the secrecy that keeps Robert Mueller’s report from public view is extremely difficult to process, especially given the seriousness of questions Mueller was investigating, like foreign election interference, possible campaign collusion and obstruction of justice. Mueller invested two years and employed scores of attorneys and investigators, and as of now, the public has seen 74 words from his full report. That jumps to 89 if you include the single footnote in Barr’s summary and 101 if you count the title. Those are the words and phrases inside quotation marks of the four-page summary Attorney General William Barr delivered to Congress.”

MD Overrides Veto, Approves $15 Minimum Wage

Maryland overrides governor’s veto, approves $15 minimum wage. The Hill: “Maryland will become the sixth state to implement a $15 minimum wage after its Democratic-controlled legislature overrode Gov. Larry Hogan’s (R) veto Thursday. The current minimum wage in Maryland is $10.10. Under the new law, it will reach $15 an hour by 2025 through a series of staggered increases, the Associated Press reports, starting next year when it will increase to $11 an hour. Businesses with less than 14 employees will have an extra year to raise wages to $15. Democrats originally passed the increase with a veto-proof majority, and voted to override Hogan’s veto by 96-43 in the state House and 35-12 in the Senate, according to Vox. Hogan had vetoed the measure, saying it would be untenable without similar measures in surrounding states. The veto override makes Maryland the sixth state to approve a $15 minimum wage, following California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, along with the District of Columbia.”

Judge Upholds ACA Against Trump Attack

Trump administration suffers another Obamacare blow in court. Politico: “The Trump administration has lost another Obamacare legal battle — its second this week — just as the president has revived his drive to destroy and replace the 2010 health law. A federal judge ruled late Thursday in Washington that the administration’s efforts to expand the availability of health plans that don’t meet the coverage rules of the Affordable Care Act is a deliberate and illegal “end run“ around the federal health care law. The ruling addressed insurance known as ‘Association Health Plans,’ which cost less than many Obamacare plans but can also provide fewer health benefits. The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge John Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, comes just one day after another federal judge rejected the Trump administration’s embrace of work requirements for people on Medicaid, concluding that those new rules in Kentucky and Arkansas violate the program’s primary goal of delivering health care coverage to low-income Americans. Medicaid work requirements and expanding coverage options outside Obamacare rules have been linchpins of the Trump administration’s approach to health care. The president and top officials have argued that such changes are necessary to bring relief to Americans who are suffering under the stringent rules and costs of the ACA. Several other Trump health policies are facing legal challenges.”

Trump Authorizes Nuclear Sales To Saudis

Trump administration authorized nuclear energy companies to share technological information with Saudi Arabia. WaPo: “The Trump administration has kept secret seven authorizations it has issued since November 2017 allowing U.S. nuclear energy companies to share sensitive technological information with Saudi Arabia, even though the kingdom has not yet agreed to anti-proliferation terms. The Energy Department and State Department have not only kept the authorizations from the public but also refused to share information about them with congressional committees that have jurisdiction over nuclear proliferation and safety.”

PR Governor Rebukes Trump: ‘I’ll Punch The Bully’

Puerto Rico governor on Trump: “If the bully gets close, I’ll punch the bully in the mouth”. CBS: “Escalating his recent criticism of the White House, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló vowed he would not allow his officials to be bullied by the administration and urged President Trump to stop treating Puerto Ricans as “second-class” U.S. citizens. In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Rosselló, who has been careful about being openly critical of the president, was asked if he felt working with the president was like ‘dealing with a bully. If the bully gets close, I’ll punch the bully in the mouth,’ Rosselló responded. ‘It would be a mistake to confuse courtesy with courage.’”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Peter Certo

Russia Was Never the Real Scandal

Robert Mueller won’t be filing any more indictments in the “Russiagate” investigation. While the search unearthed ample evidence that Russia wanted Trump to become president, the recent summary declared no concrete findings that the two camps knowingly “colluded.” The thing is, evidence of much more serious “collusion” — with corporations and the wealthy — has always been hiding in plain sight. Backed by health insurance corporations, Trump and the GOP have spent years trying to repeal, negate, or undermine the law that’s provided health care to between 20 and 30 million Americans. Backed by billionaires, they passed an almost incomprehensibly large tax cut for the rich that’s sent the deficit soaring to record heights. And In lockstep with fossil fuel companies, they’ve put coal lobbyists in charge of the EPA, oil men in charge of the State Department, and at every juncture tried to hound climate science out of government. This collusion provides ample evidence that “the system” is, in fact, not so sound. But thanks to the efforts of activists, the body politic may soon be. I’ll be fine if I never see another headline about Robert Mueller again. Let’s see more about the folks doing the real work of “resistance.”

Trump’s Ruthless Bid To Destroy Health Care

Why Trump’s new push to kill Obamacare is so alarming. NYT: “In a stunning two-sentence letter to a federal appeals court, the Justice Department announced on Monday that it would now seek the invalidation of the entire Affordable Care Act — every last one of its thousands of provisions. The irresponsibility of this new legal position is hard to overstate. It’s a shocking dereliction of the Justice Department’s duty, embraced by Republican and Democratic administrations alike, to defend acts of Congress if any plausible argument can be made in their defense. Nor is the Affordable Care Act some minor statute that can be shoved aside without disruption. It is now part of the basic plumbing of the American health care system. It guarantees protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions. It expanded Medicaid to cover 12.6 million more people, and it offers crucial protections to the 156 million Americans who get insurance through employers. Unceremoniously ripping up the law would inflict untold harm on the health care system — and on all Americans who depend on it. Yet the Trump administration has now committed itself to doing just that.”

DeVos Wants To Give Special Olympics Money To Charters

Betsy DeVos wants to gut funding for the Special Olympics. Vice: “Education secretary Betsy DeVos would like to do America’s children a favor: gut the beloved Special Olympics program, and invest a couple million in charter schools. ‘We are not doing our children any favors when we borrow from their future in order to invest in systems and policies that are not yielding better results,’ DeVos said in prepared remarks to Congress discussing the Department of Education’s budget proposal, filed by President Trump earlier this year. The proposal would eliminate the nearly $18 million previously allocated for the Special Olympics, and allocate an additional $60 million to charter school funding, according to the Detroit Free Press. Overall, her department would lose 10 percent of its budget if Trump’s proposal were taken up by Congress. DeVos has long been a proponent of school choice and charter schools. The Special Olympics benefits both adults and children with development and physical disabilities, and held its first quadrennial games in 1968.”

The Corruption Of The Charter School Industry

How one couple worked California charter school regulations to make millions. LA Times: “The warning signs appeared soon after Denise Kawamoto accepted a job at Today’s Fresh Start Charter School in South Los Angeles. Though she was fresh out of college, she was pretty sure it wasn’t normal for the school to churn so quickly through teachers or to mount surveillance cameras in each classroom. Old computers were lying around, but the campus had no internet access. Pay was low and supplies scarce — she wasn’t given books for her students. She struggled to reconcile the school’s conditions with what little she knew about its wealthy founders, Clark and Jeanette Parker of Beverly Hills. The Parkers have cast themselves as selfless philanthropists, telling the California Board of Education that they have ‘devoted all of our lives to the education of other people’s children, committed many millions of our own dollars directly to that particular purpose, with no gain directly to us.’ But the couple have, in fact, made millions from their charter schools. Financial records show the Parkers’ schools have paid more than $800,000 annually to rent buildings the couple own. The charters have contracted out services to the Parkers’ nonprofits and companies and paid Clark Parker generous consulting fees, all with taxpayer money, a Times investigation found. How the Parkers have stayed in business, surviving years of allegations of financial and academic wrongdoing, illustrates glaring flaws in the way California oversees its growing number of charter schools. Many of the people responsible for regulating the couple’s schools, including school board members and state elected officials, had accepted thousands of dollars from the Parkers in campaign contributions.”

Money Laundering Through Trump Properties

Former Trump associate accused of trying to launder stolen money through Trump company. ThinkProgress: “Special counsel Robert Mueller may have finished his investigation into whether President Donald Trump colluded with Russia, but a number of other probes into alleged wrongdoing by the president and his inner circle continue. Now, the president’s former business partner Felix Sater is accused in federal court of trying to launder billions of dollars of stolen money through Trump Tower Moscow. Sater also allegedly laundered millions through down-payments on condo purchases at the Trump SoHo property. BTA Bank and the city of Almaty, Kazakhstan, filed a lawsuit at a federal court in Manhattan on Monday alleging Sater conspired with Ilyas Khrapunov, a Kazakh businessman, to use $4 billion allegedly stolen years earlier from the bank and city to finance the the Trump Tower Moscow project in 2012. Plans to build the tower were dropped in the final months of the 2016 presidential election, and the building never materialized, but Sater found other ways to launder the money, the lawsuit says. Sater and Khrapunov invested $3 million in the Trump SoHo development in New York City and other U.S.-based real estate “schemes,” according to the court filing. Khrapunov is accused of using some of the money, allegedly stolen by his father-in-law, to help procure immigration status for his sister.”

Mueller’s Demurral Expands Presidential Powers

Mueller’s investigation erases a line drawn after Watergate. NYT: “After Watergate, it was unthinkable that a president would fire an F.B.I. director who was investigating him or his associates. Or force out an attorney general for failing to protect him from an investigation. Or dangle pardons before potential witnesses against him. But the end of the inquiry by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, made clear that President Trump had successfully thrown out the unwritten rules that had bound other chief executives in the 45 years since President Richard M. Nixon resigned under fire, effectively expanding presidential power in a dramatic way. Mr. Mueller’s decision to not take a position on whether Mr. Trump’s many norm-shattering interventions in the law enforcement system constituted obstruction of justice means that future occupants of the White House will feel entitled to take similar actions. More than perhaps any other outcome of the Mueller investigation, this may become its most enduring legacy.”

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MORNING MESSAGE

John Sarbanes, Michael Brune

To Clean Up the Planet, Clean Up Washington

For decades, majorities of Americans have favored swift, meaningful action on climate change. They understand that we must transition away from dirty fuels and toward clean, renewable energy. Yet despite this overwhelming support, Congress has repeatedly failed to act. This jarring disconnect between what the public wants to see and what Washington is prepared to deliver doesn’t just threaten the health and safety of everyone in our country — it undermines the very principle of representative democracy. The reason that Congress hasn’t acted is an open secret. Follow the trail of the millions of dollars in campaign contributions from corporate polluters over the years, and you’ll find countless lawmakers who’ve worked to block action on climate change. The special interests that are hostile to our environment have designed a sophisticated toolkit for furthering their narrow agenda, while avoiding accountability. This assault on our democracy must end. With H.R. 1, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to clean up Washington, make our democratic process more fair and inclusive, and insist that Congress respond to the will of the many, not the money. Doing so will remove long standing barriers that have slowed and blunted climate action.

Trump Proudly Signs Veto Promoting White Nationalism

After NZ massacre by white nationalist, Trump proudly signs veto promoting white Nationalism. Crooks and Liars: “It’s so on-brand for Trump to express fake sorrow about people being gunned down at prayer, and then turn around and use the exact same language that inspired the murderer to commit the slaughter. At the his ceremony celebrating his first veto to maintain his fake ‘natinal emergency’, he said some words that weren’t wrong, but weren’t quite right or true expressing solidarity with New Zealand for the tragedy they’ve suffered. He did say the word ‘mosques,’ though not the word ‘Muslims.’ In the very next breath he explained why he was proud —so proud — to sign the veto aimed at blocking his declaration of a National Emergency for funding his border wall. He vetoed that so proudly, and continued his propaganda about the dire threat of brown people rushing the border, killers and drug dealers, nearly to a person. ‘I will be signing and issuing a veto,’ Trump said. ‘People hate the word invasion, but that’s what it is.'”

Dem Candidates Condemn NZ Attacks

2020 Democrats condemn ‘white nationalism’ after New Zealand shooting.ThinkProgress: “Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke drew a connection between Friday’s deadly anti-Muslim shooting in New Zealand and the racist and xenophobic rhetoric regularly used by President Donald Trump and tolerated by his supporters. ‘We must call out this hatred, this Islamophobia, this intolerance, and the violence that predictably follows from the rhetoric that we use. We must be better than that. We know that we need leadership that reflects it,’ said O’Rourke, as he perched on a counter in a coffeeshop while on the campaign trail in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Although the former congressman did not use Trump’s name, O’Rourke was clear about the connection between Trump and the attack. Forty-nine people were killed in the attack at two mosques in Christchurch. Police in New Zealand said Friday that a 28-year-old man was in custody and charged with murder. The alleged shooter was a self-described terrorist who wrote a manifesto about white supremacy, in which he praised Trump, calling the president a ‘symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose.’”

GOP Rhetoric Fuels Global Rise Of White Supremacy

Politicians and pundits must stop their anti-Muslim rhetoric, The Intercept: “‘It’s the birthrates.’ So begins the online manifesto of the man accused of shooting and killing at least 49 Muslims in a terror attack targeted at two mosques in New Zealand. When I read his manifesto, I couldn’t help but think of high-profile American politicians, such as the president of the United States who said, “Islam hates us,” referred to “people coming out of mosques with hatred and death in their eyes and on their minds,” and compared a caravan of migrants to an “invasion.” Or Sen. Ted Cruz, who called on “law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized.” Or Sen. Marco Rubio who said he was in favor of “closing down anyplace — whether it’s a cafe, a diner, an internet site — anyplace where radicals are being inspired.” Or Sen. Lindsey Graham who declared: “If I have to monitor a mosque, I’ll monitor a mosque.” Or former Gov. Mike Huckabee who described Muslims in the Middle East coming out of mosques on Fridays “like uncorked animals.” Violence does not exist in a vacuum. In fact, since the 9/11 attacks, the right has demanded that progressives and Muslims crack down on ‘preachers of hate.’ Remember the so-called conveyor belt that leads from nonviolent rhetoric to violent acts by Muslims? Remember how ‘ideology matters’? Isn’t it past time for conservatives to take their own advice?”

McConnell Blocks HR1 In Senate

Blocking H.R. 1, the GOP seems afraid of democracy. Palm Beach Post: “For anyone who doubts that Americans are fighting a war today over the future of democracy, take a look at what’s happening in the U.S. Congress. On March 8, the House of Representatives voted for the Democrats’ major reform bill, 234-193 — an important blow against the incessant erosions of our political process. All 13 of Florida’s Democratic congressmembers voted for it; none of the 14 Republicans did. And in the Republican-controlled Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell won’t even bring the measure, H.R.1, up for debate. Instead, he and his allies are attacking the ‘terrible bill.’ What makes this bill so dastardly? Why, it seeks to lessen the influence of super-rich donors. To tighten ethics rules for Congress and force presidential candidates to reveal their tax returns. Most important, it would ban the most common forms of voter suppression and greatly expand voter participation. McConnell reads all this as threat. He calls the bill a ‘power grab.’ Think about that. The Kentucky Republican is practically shouting for all the world to hear: ‘If more people vote, they’ll vote against our party. And that’s not fair!’ Basically, McConnell is admitting that Republicans’ efforts to tamp down the votes of blacks, Hispanics, young people and the poor — nationally and in Florida, particularly under Gov. Rick Scott — had nothing to do with their standard rationale that they are fighting “voter fraud.” No. He’s saying that democracy is bad for the Republican Party.”

Trade Talks With China Stagnate

Trade fight with China enters overtime, with tariffs a costly sticking point. NYT: “The United States and China are pushing for a summit meeting in late April to complete a trade deal, while negotiators are still grappling over its terms and how they should be enforced. Although much remains unsettled, one thing is becoming clear: The Trump administration will continue to hold the threat of tariffs over Beijing to ensure that it lives up to whatever commitments it agrees to in the final deal. That approach is prompting concern among American businesses that the economic damage and uncertainty caused by President Trump’s trade war could persist even once negotiations are resolved. The tariffs, if they remain in place, would reduce United States gross domestic product by at least $1 trillion within 10 years.”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Ashley Bennett

We Will Not Rest Until Housing Justice Is Done

On Wednesday, Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced a historic housing bill, the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act. This bill is an important step forward in our fight to guarantee housing for all, and to close the wealth gap between Black and white Americans. I have been homeless myself, and experienced housing instability my whole life. Together with other People’s Action members from around the country who are directly affected by our nation’s housing emergency, I met with Senator Warren’s team on Capitol Hill last December to discuss this bill. We liked what we heard, but there were certain parts of the legislation we definitely wanted to improve. We shared our stories, gave feedback to the Senator’s team, and have worked with them for three months to improve this bill. This new version reflects what’s possible when grassroots leaders like us get to be at the table, and participate in the creation of policy that impacts our lives.

Black Caucus, Progressives Back Warren Housing Bill

Warren’s affordable housing bill is now backed by Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib. Boston Globe: “Senator Elizabeth Warren is reintroducing her ambitious legislation to create millions of new affordable housing units and help tackle ongoing housing segregation and the yawning wealth gap between white and black Americans. And, this time around, the presidential aspirant has more noteworthy new supporters for the bill. Representative Ayanna Pressley, one of the most prominent freshmen in Washington, is among the new backers of Warren’s American Housing and Economic Mobility Act, which is also being introduced Wednesday in the House by a group led by former Congressional Black Caucus chairman Cedric Richmond, whose district includes most of New Orleans. Also signing on to the Warren bill for the first time: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, one of Warren’s rivals in the crowded Democratic presidential primary field. ‘For too long, skyrocketing rents and housing costs have pushed home ownership out of the reach for families across the Massachusetts 7th and beyond,’ Pressley said in a press release. She called Warren’s bill a ‘critical step towards making housing more affordable and reversing decades of discriminatory policies that have denied black and brown families access to neighborhoods with decent paying jobs, high performing schools, and a chance at upward mobility.’”

Senate Poised To Rebuke Trump

GOP heads for unprecedented clash with Trump. Politico: “After more than two years of keeping his veto pen capped, Trump is going to have to put it to use — twice — courtesy of Republicans. In a remarkable bit of timing, the Senate will hold two votes this week placing GOP senators at odds with the president on foreign and domestic policy, likely forcing the first vetoes of his presidency. On the border resolution in particular, Trump has painted the vote as Republicans either standing with him on the border wall or supporting Democrats. But Senate Republicans claim the double-barreled veto fights, on legislation to curtail the U.S. role in Yemen’s civil war and block Trump’s national emergency declaration on the southern border, aren’t intended to be a personal condemnation of Trump. The White House has sent mixed and, at times, dueling messages about how it will handle an emboldened Republican Conference increasingly willing to defy the president. The president himself has told allies that he does not want to be ’embarrassed’ by a Senate vote on the national emergency resolution that garners over 60 votes and that he’s content to sign a veto on his signature campaign issue. And at the same time, he was making overtures to fence-sitting senators on Wednesday trying to pull them in his direction, including a midday call to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) about his emergency reforms while Lee dined with his colleagues. Yet in that call the president said he would not support compromise emergency reform legislation that might have won over a number of conservative skeptics and prevented a big vote against him. Lee read the call out to a Senate GOP that suddenly saw few ways out of a vote whose implications are almost entirely political.”

Senate Cuts Off U.S. Support To Yemen War

Senate rebuffs Trump with vote cutting off U.S. support in Yemen. Politico: “The Senate on Wednesday gave President Donald Trump’s foreign policy yet another vote of no-confidence, approving a resolution to cut off U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen’s bloody civil war. Seven Republicans joined all members of the Democratic Caucus in backing the bill, which senators viewed as an opportunity not only toreassert Congress’ authority to declare war, but to rebuke the Trump administration over its posture toward Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. ‘I think Republicans are just growing thin with Trump’s foreign policy, and they are more willing now to break with him now because they see his foreign policy getting more bizarre as time goes on,’ Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a chief sponsor of the Yemen War Powers resolution, said in an interview. The White House has dispatched top Pentagon and State Department officials to Capitol Hill to convince lawmakers that the U.S. should remain involved in the conflict — but to no avail, as the War Powers measure will soon reach the president’s desk. Trump has already threatened to veto it.”

Beto O’Rourke Enters Presidential Campaign

Beto O’Rourke enters the 2020 presidential campaign. NYT: “Beto O’Rourke, the 46-year-old former Texas congressman whose near-miss Senate run last year propelled him to Democratic stardom, announced on Thursday that he was running for president, betting that voters will prize his message of national unity and generational change in a 2020 primary teeming with committed progressives. His decision jolts an early election season already stuffed with contenders, adding to the mix a relentless campaigner with a small-dollar fund-raising army, the performative instincts of a former punk rocker and a pro-immigrant vision to counteract President Trump’s. ‘This moment of peril produces perhaps the greatest moment of promise for this country and for everyone inside it,’ Mr. O’Rourke said in a video announcing his candidacy, released hours before a planned three-day tour of Iowa was set to begin on Thursday morning.”

Trump Shutdown Stalled Software Fix Of Boeing Jets

Trump’s shutdown delayed necessary software patch On Boeing 737 MAX. Crooks and Liars:“You knew, right? Somehow, you just knew Trump had something to do with this latest disaster. Rachel Maddow did a riveting segment of her show on the reasons behind the Boeing 737 crash in Ethiopia — and how the general corruption and incompetence of the Trump administration contributed to the disaster. She disclosed how over the last six months, airplane pilots of domestic flights have been describing the same problem with the plane. You know, the planes you and your loved ones travel on, in American airspace. We have a former Boeing executive as the acting secretary of defense. Well, the good news is, it turns out that Boeing has in the works a software fix that they believe will address that problem in these planes. Good. The Wall Street Journal had the scoop on this this afternoon and where it ends is not good. But here is where it starts, quote, ‘Boeing is making an extensive change to the flight control system in these 737 MAX aircraft, going beyond what many industry officials familiar with the discussions anticipated. The change would mark a major shift how Boeing originally designed a stall prevention feature in the aircraft. The company spokesman confirmed the update would use multiple sensors and data feeds in the stall prevention system instead of the current reliance one one sensor and prompted investigation results indicated that erroneous data from a single sensor that measures the angle of the plane’s nose caused the stall prevention system to misfire and a series of events put the aircraft into a dangerous dive.”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Jessica Juarez-Scruggs

Will the Senate Sell Our Future for Campaign Dollars?

My name is Jessica Juarez Scruggs, and I recently joined the Sunrise Movement and a courageous group of young Kentuckians who took over the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to demand he stop playing political games and take real action to address our climate crisis. McConnell gloats over his role as a spoiler in the Senate – he thought he was clever by promising to bring the Green New Deal up for a vote . Doing this, he imagined, would turn the tables on Democrats, and highlight divisions within the party. No one would notice, he hoped, that he and other Senators like him, who are flush with campaign contributions from the fossil-fuel industry, have done nothing to address climate change in the last thirty years. But a cry is rising up all across the country, especially among young people, that lawmakers stand up and defend those who will bear the brunt of our climate catastrophe: our children. I was my daughter’s age when scientists began testifying about climate change before Congress, more than 30 years ago. Congress has failed to act for my entire lifetime.Now, my question is, will they fail us again?

New Budget Includes Massive Cuts To HUD

New HUD budget proposes massive cuts to affordable housing programs. ThinkProgress: “The federal government would largely abandon its longstanding commitments to keeping the poorest people in the country off the streets if President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) were adopted. The plan unveiled Monday is less detailed than the equivalent proposals HUD has put out each of the past two years when the budget season wasn’t marred by a government shutdown, housing policy experts said. Closer analysis of how this year’s plan might differ from those precedents will have to wait until HUD releases full program-level specifics in the coming weeks. But the broad contours of the budget released Monday are consistent with longstanding Trump administration themes concerning the agency and its mission. It would impose rent hikes on the poorest tenants of publicly-subsidized rental housing, zero out all funding for the Community Development Block Grants program, and retreat from federal responsibilities on housing construction and maintenance in both urban and rural communities. ‘They’re willing to pay for increases they want to the defense budget on the back of America’s poorest families,’ Sarah Mickelson of the National Low Income Housing Coalition told ThinkProgress. ‘We’re in the midst of this housing crisis and Trump wants to walk away from America’s commitment to housing and increase rents on poor families.’”

DeVos Wants Religious Schools To Get Federal Funds And Services

DeVos moves to allow religious groups to provide federally-funded services to private schools. The Hill: “Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced Monday her agency will no longer enforce a federal provision that prohibits religious organizations from giving private schools federally funded services. The decision is in response to a 2017 Supreme Court verdict that found that Missouri unconstitutionally denied a church-run preschool publicly-funded tire scraps for its playground. ‘The Trinity Lutheran decision reaffirmed the long-understood intent of the First Amendment to not restrict the free exercise of religion,’ DeVos said in a statement. ‘Those seeking to provide high-quality educational services to students and teachers should not be discriminated against simply based on the religious character of their organization.’ She added that a federal law overseeing all elementary, middle and high schools that mandates students receive ‘equitable services’ unconstitutionally bars contractors from having affiliations with religious organization.”

Supermercenary Prince Admits Plan To Manipulate Elections

Demolishing Erik Prince: One TV interview shows how to deal with Trump’s allies. Salon: “Erik Prince, the former Blackwater CEO, Trump lackey and brother of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, made the wonderful mistake of appearing on Mehdi Hasan’s show, ‘Head to Head,’ on Al-Jazeera English. I’m sure he regrets the hell out of it now. Here’s why. In little more than two minutes, Hasan not only illustrated how the press should be confronting the Trump crime family, he also worked his way through Prince’s series of excuses, the likes of which the rest of us commonly refer to as ‘gaslighting,’ the tactic most often employed by Trump and his loyalists to make us feel like up is down, black is white, and we’re losing our minds. Hasan began by quizzing Prince about his November 2017 congressional testimony in which he denied having any contacts with the Trump campaign — no ‘official or unofficial’ role in the Trump campaign save for posting some yard signs and writing ‘papers.’ It turns out, however, that among other behind-the-scenes schemes — including an alleged meeting in the Seychelles to establish back-channel communications with the Russians — Prince attended an August 2016 Trump Tower meeting in which reps from an Israeli firm, the Psy Group, briefed Prince, Donald Trump Jr., Stephen Miller and George Nader about using social media to manipulate voters.”

How An American City Falls Apart

The tragedy of Baltimore. NYT: “It takes remarkable fortitude to remain an optimist about Baltimore today. I have lived in the city for 11 of the past 18 years, and for the last few I have struggled to describe its unraveling to friends and colleagues elsewhere. If you live in, say, New York or Boston, you are familiar with a certain story of urban America. Several decades ago, disorder and dysfunction were common across American cities. Then came the great urban rebirth: a wave of reinvestment coupled with a plunge in crime rates that has left many major cities to enjoy a sort of post-fear existence. Until 2015, Baltimore seemed to be enjoying its own, more modest version of this upswing. The city’s busy port and its proximity to Washington, metro Baltimore enjoyed higher levels of wealth and income — including among its black population — than many former manufacturing hubs.The subsequent regression has been swift and demoralizing. Redevelopment continues in some parts of town, but nearly four years after Freddie Gray’s death, the surge in crime has once again become the context of daily life in the city, as it was in the early 1990s. In 2017, the church I attend started naming the victims of the violence at Sunday services and hanging a purple ribbon for each on a long cord outside. By year’s end, the ribbons crowded for space, like shirts on a tenement clothesline.”

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Robert Borosage

Democrats Need to Think Big for 2020

There is a dizzying array of potential presidential nominees for Democratic primary voters to choose from: so many that they won’t even fit on one debate stage. But there is one basic choice the party will have to make: Will it nominate someone based on perceived electability, which is usually code for incremental policy ideas and a long political career, or a fresh-faced progressive reformer with big ideas? This isn’t a new idea; both parties have embraced this line of thinking in the past. The problem is that it rarely works. If history is any judge, the promise of incremental change and working across the aisle isn’t realism; it’s a pie-in-the-sky fantasy. Barack Obama ran as the great unifier. After becoming president, he attempted to govern by reaching out to Republicans with moderate Republican ideas, exemplified by his health-care plan. He embraced wrongheaded Republican tax cuts that weakened his stimulus plan. He nominated a moderate, pro-corporate judge to the Supreme Court. Yet he received scorched-earth opposition, with Republicans scorning every major entreaty. And Republicans are now even more extreme post-Trump than they were in the Obama era. So before Democrats and the media elevate those with incremental-reform ideas as the pragmatic realists, they might want to take a long look at recent history and think again. In the end, Democrats might do better voting with their hearts than with their heads.

Selma Activists Demand Voting Rights

After 54 years, the fight for voting rights in Selma is ongoing, organizers say. USA Today: “Fifty-four years after the brutal beating of black civil rights protesters in Alabama catalyzed the passage of sweeping voting rights legislation, politicians and civic leaders gathered in a Selma church on Sunday morning and once again decried the state of voting rights in America. The annual church service in Selma’s Brown Chapel AME’s sanctuary was as much a commemoration of the historical Bloody Sunday march as it was a clarion call for looming Democratic legislative and political battles. ‘We can’t indulge in a moral amnesia and forget that you honor history not just by reciting it, but by emulating it,’ said U.S. Sen. and Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker of New Jersey. ‘Let it challenge you, demand from you. We come together to honor the sacrifices today. The only way we can honor the work done before us is by recommitting ourselves to it.’ Last week, Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., introduced a bill seeking to restore key provisions in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — the legislation that was sparked when hundreds of civil rights protesters attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery on March 7, 1965. The non-violent marchers were met with clubs and tear gas from white law enforcement in a brutal clash that shocked the nation.”

Sanders, Hickenlooper, Inslee Join Presidential Fray

Former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper joins race for president. The Guardian: “The former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper has joined the Democratic race for the 2020 presidential election, citing an ability to bring people together in a time of “crisis”. The 67-year-old’s campaign said he will formally launch his campaign with a rally in Denver on Thursday. Hickenlooper is a moderate who served two terms as governor of Colorado as the once conservative-leaning western state moved increasingly to the left, presiding over liberal policies that included the legalization of marijuana in 2012. He is the 14th candidate and second governor to join a historically diverse Democratic primary field. He joins more moderate senators Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota) and Cory Booker (New Jersey). Kamala Harris of California has made a strong start towards the centre of the race. Leading lights from the more progressive lane include Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Governor Jay Inslee of Washington has announced a run based on environmental concerns. Montana governor Steve Bullock is also considering a run, as is the Colorado senator Michael Bennet.”

Dems Expand Trump Probes

Impending Mueller report may just be the beginning of Trump’s investigation woes. CNN: “Democrats on Monday will launch an ‘abuse of power’ investigation that could be easily transformed into an even more serious process, with an expansive demand for documents from Trump’s government, his family and even his real estate empire. The President reacted to his worsening plight with a vehement defense on Sunday, after a week in which testimony from his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen deepened his political vulnerability and ahead of the expected filing soon of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, who would eventually lead any impeachment proceedings, on Sunday signaled a significant escalation into congressional inquiries into the President. The New York Democrat plans on Monday to request documents from 60 people and entities close to Trump, including from the Department of Justice, the White House and the Trump Organization.The document trawl will be used “to present the case to the American people about obstruction of justice, about corruption and abuse of power,” Nadler said on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday. Nadler stuck to the House Democratic position that impeachment “is a long way down the road,” apparently in order to avoid Republican arguments that the decision has already been made to try to oust Trump. The document requests are not taking place under the auspices of an official impeachment investigation. But Nadler said nevertheless that he believes the President had obstructed justice, a potentially impeachable offense.”

‘Fake News’ Flourishes In Heartland

Hiding in plain sight: PAC-connected activists set up ‘Local News’ outlets. Snopes: “On 6 February 2017, a website of uncertain origin named “The Tennessee Star” was born. At the time, it was unclear who funded or operated this “local newspaper,” which was largely filled with freely licensed content from organizations tied to conservative mega-donors. After some prodding by Politico in early 2018, the Tennessee Star revealed its primary architects to be three Tea Party-connected conservative activists: Michael Patrick Leahy, Steve Gill, and Christina Botteri. Now, a Snopes investigation reveals in detail how these activists used the appearance of local newspapers to promote messages paid for or supported by outside or undisclosed interests. Gill, for example, is the political editor of the Tennessee Star, but he also owns a media consulting company that at least one candidate and one Political Action Committee (PAC) paid before receiving positive coverage in the Tennessee Star. Several Star writers have in the past or currently work for PACs or political campaigns that they write about, without disclosing that fact. Though its owners claim that the Tennessee Star is funded by advertising revenue, it appears to be supported by wealthy benefactors. Whatever the Tennessee Star is, it is not a local newspaper producing transparent journalism.”

More from OurFuture.org:

Gritty Trade Negotiations. Leo Gerard: “It took grit to get this far. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer explained that to Congress last week. So, he said, no one in the administration is backing down now. They’ve managed to confront Beijing, a trade renegade, and do it with a powerful tool that previous negotiators lacked – tariffs. They launched the penalties last spring with charges on all imported steel and aluminum, then increased the pain with levies specifically on $50 billion in Chinese imports in July, followed by duties on $200 billion in Chinese imports in September. China retaliated, particularly with tariffs on agricultural goods. Some American businesses, farmers and workers suffered. And they complained. But the tariffs brought China to the table to discuss its violations – abuses that have damaged American industries and destroyed millions of American jobs for nearly two decades. Several lawmakers told Lighthizer that their constituents, particularly farmers, are suffering because of China’s retaliatory tariffs. U.S. Rep. Ron Kind of Wisconsin said family farms there are being hammered and, as a result, filing a record number of bankruptcies. U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington of Texas said these are desperate times for farmers and ranchers in his district, with agricultural income declining at the steepest rate since the Great Depression and suicides skyrocketing. Lighthizer made it clear he understood the urgency of reaching a settlement so that farmers get tariff relief. But, he said, after talking to business groups, agricultural representatives, labor unions and members of Congress, he felt obligated to produce an agreement that was specific, measurable and enforceable on all levels of Chinese government. In addition, he said, it must be a deal that enables the United States to unilaterally counteract violations that China refuses to resolve. Otherwise, all the pain suffered by American farmers and ranchers and the tenaciousness of the administration will be for nothing.”

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