Category: Uncategorized

Jeff Bryant

Teaches Strike Back Against Charter Agenda

The emergence of charter schools as an important consideration in teacher collective bargaining agreements, and the recognition of charters as a form of privatization, are two major developments in the education policy and politics of choice. In the latest teacher strike in Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest school system, some 30,000 teachers walked off the job saying unchecked growth of charter schools and charters’ lack of transparency and accountability have become an unsustainable drain on the public system’s financials. The teachers have included in their demands a cap on charter school growth, along with other demands, such as increased teacher pay, reduced class sizes, less testing, and more counselors, nurses, librarians, and psychologists. In the upcoming 2020 elections, teachers are intent on pushing the issue of school choice into the debate and demanding that candidates, especially Democrats, make a tough choice themselves and answer, “Whose side are you on?”

VA Teachers March To Demand Funding

Thousands of Virginia teachers march to state capitol demanding more funding, better salaries. ThinkProgress: “Thousands of Virginia teachers left their classrooms and rallied in Richmond on Monday to demand more education funding and higher salaries. Teachers gathered in front of the state capitol building, just as their fellow educators did during strikes and rallies last year in West Virginia, Kentucky, Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, and North Carolina. Virginia Educators United (VEU), which organized Monday’s rally, wants schools to have adequate support staff, such as nurses and social workers, competitive wages for support staff, improved school infrastructure, and better recruitment and retention of high-quality teachers. VEU encouraged teachers to take a personal day to attend the rally. ‘I just think it’s one of those things where we have been waiting patiently and we always say, the [Great Recession] this, the recession that. That was 2008; we don’t have time to wait anymore so we need to fund education now,’ Kevin Hickerson, president of the Fairfax Education Association, told ThinkProgress. Hickerson said that in Fairfax, like many other school districts across the country, it’s common for teachers to be working two or three jobs in order to make ends meet. The district needs to take additional steps to ensure support personnel, such as custodians, bus drivers, and cafeteria workers, can afford to live in the communities in which they work.”

SCOTUS Ruling May Undermine Roe V. Wade

The Supreme Court may kill Roe v. Wade as soon as this week. ThinkProgress: “Lawyers representing a Louisiana abortion clinic and at least two physicians filed an application in the Supreme Court on Monday asking the court to halt a Louisiana law that is identical to a Texas law the justices struck down in 2016. The court is almost certain to deny this application in a 5-4 vote — possibly as soon as tonight. When it does so, it will effectively mark the end of Roe v. Wade. Yes, the court is very unlikely to hand down an opinion this week which uses the words ‘Roe v. Wade is overruled.’ But these abortion providers filed this application because a federal appeals court openly defied the Supreme Court’s most recent abortion decision. When the court refuses to enforce its own decision, that will send a clear signal to lower court judges throughout the country that they are free to uphold restrictions on abortion. The case is June Medical Services v. Gee. Gee involves a Louisiana law requiring “a physician performing or inducing an abortion” to ‘have active admitting privileges at a hospital that is located not further than thirty miles from the location at which the abortion is performed or induced and that provides obstetrical or gynecological health care services.’ If that law sounds familiar, that’s because it is identical, almost word-for-word, to a Texas law that the Supreme Court struck down in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. Whole Woman’s Health was a 5-3 decision, however, and the Supreme Court now looks very different than the court that struck down the Texas law in 2016.”

Climate Change Is The Real National Emergency

Climate change, not border security, is the real national emergency. The Intercept: “be over for now, but President Donald Trump’s threat to declare a national emergency still looms. The continuing resolution passed Friday afternoon does not contain funding for a border wall, and the president has suggested that if Congress doesn’t compromise on a funding plan within three weeks, he may still proclaim a national emergency at the border. When Trump first threatened to use emergency powers to unlock $5.7 billion for his $20 billion border wall project, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. came out strongly against it — but not for humanitarian reasons or because he is concerned about an unmistakable creep toward authoritarianism. Rather, Rubio worried that normalizing the call for a state of emergency might make it easier for politicians to act on a genuine existential threat: ‘If today, the national emergency is border security,’ said Rubio, ‘tomorrow, the national emergency might be climate change.’ Rubio is right to worry. Climate change is a legitimate emergency, unlike Trump’s border ‘crisis,’ which is a fabrication sewn of foam-mouthed racism and vain partisan panic. Security and militarization at the border has increased steadily over the last decades; border crossings have been in decline for years; and most heroin smuggled over the border comes through legal border crossings, not the areas that are targeted for a wall. Meanwhile, overwhelming scientific evidence says that climate change could take hundreds of millions of lives and trigger a global economic collapse in the next several decades, making anything we might recognize as human civilization physically impossible.”

ICE Courthouse Arrests Surge

ICE courthouse arrests rise 1,700 percent under Trump. The Intercept: “years after Donald Trump’s inauguration ushered in sweeping changes to the nation’s immigration enforcement system, accounts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arresting undocumented immigrants in and around New York courts have increased by 1,700 percent, according to a new report. The expanded courthouse operations have been coupled with increased reports of New York-based immigration agents using physical force to take undocumented immigrants into custody, the Immigrant Defense Project said Monday. ‘ICE operations increased not only in absolute number but grew in brutality and geographic scope’ from 2017 to 2018, the IDP report found, with plainclothes agents in New York relying on ‘intrusive surveillance and violent force to execute arrests.’ Included in the new report are accounts of New York-based agents grabbing people off the street as they attempt to go to or leave court, shuffling them into unmarked cars, and refusing to identify themselves as bewildered family members look on. ‘This report shows that ICE is expanding surveillance and arrests in courthouses across the state, creating a crisis for immigrants who need access to the courts,’ Alisa Wellek, IDP’s executive director, said in a statement. ‘We cannot allow ICE to turn New York’s courts into traps for immigrants.’”

Wall Street Pressures Dems On 2020

“It Can’t Be Warren and It Can’t Be Sanders”: Wall Street Executives Make 2020 Preferences Known. Common Dreams: “The first 2020 Democratic presidential primary is still over a year away, but Wall Street executives are reportedly already freaking out about two likely progressive candidates: Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). ‘It can’t be Warren and it can’t be Sanders,’ the CEO of a ‘giant bank’ anonymously told Politico, which reported on Monday that Wall Street executives are “getting panicked” about the presidential prospects of the Senate’s two fiercest financial sector critics. Warren launched an exploratory committee for president last month, vowing to take on the ‘corruption’ that is ‘poisoning our democracy.’ Sanders, for his part, has yet to publicly announce a bid for the White House—but Yahoo News reported on Friday that the Vermont senator plans to launch his campaign ‘imminently.’ Both progressive senators have placed scrutiny of Wall Street’s size, record of large-scale fraud, exorbitant CEO pay packages, enormous political influence, and lack of stringent regulations at the center of their political agendas for years, and deep-pocketed bankers who have profited immensely from President Donald Trump’s tenure are worried that one of the two could ascend to the White House and threaten their pocketbooks. ‘Bankers’ biggest fear,’ Politico reported, is that the 2020 Democratic presidential “nomination goes to an anti-Wall Street crusader” like Warren or Sanders.”

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Leo Gerard

‘Right To Work’ Groups Don’t Give A Damn About Workers

Since the day in December that President Trump shut down the government, the unions representing government workers supported their members by organizing public protests across the country, establishing food banks, and filing lawsuits to reopen government. These are the organizations — unions — that reactionary far-right groups have spent the last seven months urging workers to quit. “Get out now that you can,” the right wingers calling themselves ‘right-to-work patrons’ told public sector employees in YouTube videos, Facebook ads, Tweets, telephone calls and door-to-door solicitations. They spent millions trying to kill the unions that buttressed federal workers. So where were those right-to-work groups during the shutdown? Nobody’s heard a peep from them. That’s because they’re all bogus. They’re not about a right to work. They’re about destroying unions, and the higher wages and better benefits that collective bargaining gets for workers. They don’t really give a damn about public sector employees’ right to work. They’re all about lining the pockets of the millionaires and billionaires who fund this ‘movement,’ not workers.

Shutdown Ends For Now, With Few Paychecks

Some federal employees still can’t afford diapers as they await paychecks. WaPo: “The partial government shutdown is over — at least for the next few weeks — but that did not matter to the group unloading thousands of diapers off a truck at Reagan National Airport on Sunday morning, a donation that aims to help Transportation Security Administration workers and others who still have not received a paycheck since December. Federal employees likely will have to wait until late this week to get paid after missing two paychecks in January. The pause in cash flow has left many reliant on food banks and unable to afford life’s basic necessities, including diapers, tampons, maxi pads and adult incontinence products, all of which are expensive and nearly impossible to do without. At least 20 diaper banks across the country have provided diapers, feminine and incontinence products, formula and more to federal employees during the shutdown and in the few days since Congress and President Trump agreed to reopen the government. Diaper banks started to receive calls for help in mid-January, and the entreaties became more and more desperate the longer the shutdown went on, according to organization officials. The requests continue even though the government is set to reopen, and groups are planning to hand out diapers and other products this week.”

Dems Open Voting Rights Agenda In Congress

As government reopens, the new Congress tries to begin again. NYT: “
“With the government shutdown over for now, the 116th Congress will hit reset this week, showcasing a Democratic agenda in the House that was overshadowed by the struggle to reopen the government and furnishing both chambers with early opportunities to test whether divided government can produce results. With the government shutdown over for now, the 116th Congress will hit reset this week, showcasing a Democratic agenda in the House that was overshadowed by the struggle to reopen the government and furnishing both chambers with early opportunities to test whether divided government can produce results. The House, which spent weeks passing futile bills to reopen the government, will turn to legislation higher on the Democrats’ priority list, including a bill to raise pay for civilian federal employees. Leading Democrats also plan to reintroduce a marquee bill to close the pay gap between men and women that they have fought to enact for years. In the Senate, Republicans will try to push through a bipartisan Middle East policy bill that includes a disputed provision targeting the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel. With the measure, Republicans will test for fractures in the resurgent Democratic Party, where Palestinian rights activists have found new voices in House freshmen such as Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. dAnd in both chambers, lawmakers have teed up a high-impact lineup of hearings — effectively the first of the year. House Democrats will zero in on the cost to the military of President Trump’s election-eve troop deployments to the border and begin to consider their ambitious legislation to expand voting rights, make political giving more transparent and do away with partisan gerrymandering. The House, which spent weeks passing futile bills to reopen the government, will turn to legislation higher on the Democrats’ priority list, including a bill to raise pay for civilian federal employees. Leading Democrats also plan to reintroduce a marquee bill to close the pay gap between men and women that they have fought to enact for years. In the Senate, Republicans will try to push through a bipartisan Middle East policy bill that includes a disputed provision targeting the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel. With the measure, Republicans will test for fractures in the resurgent Democratic Party, where Palestinian rights activists have found new voices in House freshmen such as Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. And in both chambers, lawmakers have teed up a high-impact lineup of hearings — effectively the first of the year. House Democrats will zero in on the cost to the military of President Trump’s election-eve troop deployments to the border and begin to consider their ambitious legislation to expand voting rights, make political giving more transparent and do away with partisan gerrymandering.”

Utah GOP Wants To Kill Medicaid Expansion

84 days after residents voted for Medicaid expansion, Utah lawmakers want to repeal or cap it. ThinkProgress: “The Utah state legislature returns to work on Monday and GOP lawmakers are already proposing multiple bills that hobble a successful ballot measure to expand health care to more low-income residents. Utah State Sen. Allen Christensen’s (R) bill would prevent the ballot initiative — ‘Proposition 3,’ which was approved in November and allowed for a clean Medicaid expansion — from going into effect. It would do so if the federal government approves a waiver submitted by the state in July to impose a per capita cap on federal reimbursement for more enrollment restrictions. Politico reported early this month that the Trump administration is currently exploring whether it can allow states to implement Medicaid block grants, a policy sought by conservatives to attempt to limit spending. When ThinkProgress asked Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) if he’s interested in the idea, his office replied, ‘Governor Herbert supports meaningful changes to Medicaid that bring the program into alignment with state demographics and budget constraints.’”

Super-Rich Get $2.5b Every Day, Stash It Away

The upward march of the billionaires. Axios: “The world’s billionaires increased their wealth by $2.5 billion per day in 2018. There are now more than 2,200 of them, and the amount of wealth stored in offshore tax havens was estimated at $7.6 trillion in 2015. Billionaires have historically been alluring, magical figures. The U.S. even elected one of them to the presidency. But he isn’t doing so well. Increasingly, billionaires are seen as avatars of inequality and greed.”

The Real Meaning Of Walls

The real wall isn’t at the border. It’s everywhere, and we’re fighting against the wrong one. NYT: “President Trump wants $5.7 billion to build a wall at the southern border of the United States. Nancy Pelosi thinks a wall is “immoral.” The fight over these slats or barriers or bricks shut down the government for more than a month and may do so again if Mr. Trump isn’t satisfied with the way negotiations unfold over the next three weeks. But let’s be clear: This is a disagreement about symbolism, not policy. Liberals object less to aggressive border security than to the wall’s xenophobic imagery, while the administration openly revels in its political incorrectness. And when this particular episode is over, we’ll still have been fighting about the wrong thing. It’s true that immigrants will keep trying to cross into the United States and that global migration will almost certainly increase in the coming years as climate change makes parts of the planet uninhabitable. But technology and globalization are complicating the idea of what a border is and where it stands. Not long from now, it won’t make sense to think of the border as a line, a wall or even any kind of imposing vertical structure. Tearing down, or refusing to fund, border walls won’t get anyone very far in the broader pursuit of global justice. The borders of the future won’t be as easy to spot, build or demolish as the wall that Mr. Trump is proposing. That’s because they aren’t just going up around countries — they’re going up around us. And they’re taking away our freedom. oday, relatively few land borders exist to physically fend off a neighboring power, and countries even cooperate to police the borders they share. Modern borders exist to control something else: the movement of people. They control us. Those are the walls we should be fighting over.”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Robert Borosage

Why The ‘Ideas Primary’ Matters

The 2020 Democratic campaign is starting off with an “ideas primary,” with the already-crowded field of potential candidates competing on reform proposals and messages, seeking to hone their distinctive appeal. While U.S. presidential contests may seem never-ending, if the debate is about policy – instead of personality – is that such a bad thing? The coming year will feature not only continued opposition to Trump’s clown show, but also a debate about the fundamental reforms needed to transform this country. That presents a real opportunity for progressive groups, activists, and intellectuals. Big ideas – good and bad – will have a chance to gain a public platform. There aren’t many redeeming features to the American institution of the permanent campaign, but this might be one of them.

Trump Tells Unpaid Workers To Borrow Groceries

Trump tells federal workers to borrow groceries as second missed pay day looms. ThinkProgress: “President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that the 800,000 federal workers who are facing a second missed paycheck at the end of this week should essentially borrow groceries to get through what has become the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. ‘Local people know who they are, when they go for groceries and everything else,’ Trump said of federal workers during a meeting on trade at the White House. ‘And I think… that they will work along. I know banks are working along. And that’s what happens in times like this,’ Trump continued. ‘They know the people, they’ve been dealing with them for years, and they work along.’ Trump’s apparent suggestion that local grocery stores will let furloughed federal workers take food on an IOU was offered as an explanation for comments made Thursday by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who questioned why federal workers who aren’t getting paid would need to turn to food banks for help. Ross, himself a millionaire, said workers should simply take out emergency loans to cover their living expenses. ‘True, the people might have to pay a little bit of interest,’ Ross said. ‘But the idea that it’s ‘paycheck or zero’ is not a really valid idea.’ Those comments were echoed Thursday by White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, who praised federal workers for ‘volunteering’ through the shutdown because they support Trump. ‘God bless them. They’re working for free. They’re volunteering,’ Kudlow told reporters.”

Senate Blocks Trump’s Path To The Wall

Trump just lost his leverage for building a wall. Bloomberg: “President Donald Trump doesn’t seem to realize it, but his claim to any leverage on the shutdown is officially dead after two Senate votes on reopening the government failed Thursday afternoon. The question now: Will Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans let him twist in the wind, bleeding away support little by little while the nation continues to suffer the consequences of the closure? Or will they finally move to end this fiasco? First, here’s what the Senate did. Neither Trump’s plan nor the Democratic alternative reached the 60 votes needed to defeat filibusters. But two Republicans — Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Utah’s Mike Lee — opposed Trump’s bill; only one Democrat, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, voted for it. With one absent Democrat and two missing Republicans, that meant a narrow 50-to-47 margin. The point of Trump’s proposal was supposedly to demonstrate that he could pick off enough Democrats by floating a measure labeled as a compromise. However, since the plan added restrictions on asylum and on Temporary Protected Status, and offered very limited protections, there was very little to tempt Democrats who may have wanted a deal. Instead, the vote demonstrated only that there is no easy bargain to be made on Trump’s terms. Giving Democrats very little — enough to bring over just one vote — cost Trump two Republican votes. Meanwhile, the Democrats’ clean funding bill to reopen the government while negotiations continue on border safety, a bill that had passed the House easily, did well in the Senate as six Republicans joined every Democrat to get a 52-to-44 margin. That’s far short of 60. But it’s a solid majority, and a bigger one than Trump’s bill got, despite the Republican’s 53-47 majority in the chamber.”

Roger Stone Indicted For Lying

Roger Stone, adviser to Trump, is indicted in Mueller investigation. NYT: “Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime informal adviser to President Trump who has spent decades plying the dark arts of scandal-mongering and dirty tricks to help influence American political campaigns, was indicted Friday in the special counsel investigation. Mr. Stone was charged with seven counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, making false statements and witness tampering, according to the special counsel’s office. The indictment is the first public move in months by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and possible coordination with Trump associates. Mr. Stone, a self-described dirty trickster who began his career as a campaign aide for Richard M. Nixon and has a tattoo of Nixon on his back, has long maintained that he had no connection to Russia’s attempts to disrupt the 2016 presidential election. He sometimes seemed to taunt American law enforcement agencies, daring them to find hard evidence to link him to the Russian meddling campaign. The special counsel’s investigators spent months encircling Mr. Stone, renewing scrutiny about his role during the 2016 presidential race. Investigators interviewed former Trump campaign advisers and several of his associates about both about Mr. Stone’s fund-raising during the campaign and his contacts with WikiLeaks, one of the organizations that made thousands of Democratic emails public in the months before the election.”

The ‘Terrible’ Suffering Of MAGA Teens

Portraying the MAGA teens as victims is an extension of Native American erasure. The Intercept: “By now, millions around the world have seen the viral video of dozens of Catholic schoolboys sporting “Make America Great Again,” or MAGA, hats tomahawk-chopping and mocking a Native elder, who was drumming and singing at the feet of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Nathan Phillips, the military veteran and water protector from the Omaha Nation, waded into the crowd of high school students, as he tried to defuse a tense situation between the students and a group of black Israelites who were taunting Natives and passers-by with racist and homophobic comments. It was an iconic moment loaded with history. And what should have been a time of soul-searching for a nation founded on Indigenous genocide has instead morphed into an attack on Indigenous people. Concern from both liberal and conservative media outlets shifted from confronting the issue of Indigenous erasure — why were Native people marching in D.C. in the first place? — to defending the innocence of white youth. As soon as the jarring video made international news, an organized media campaign quickly spun the story — turning the jeering Covington Catholic High School students into victims. And concern from both liberal and conservative media outlets shifted from confronting the issue of Indigenous erasure — why were Native people marching in D.C. in the first place? — to defending the innocence of white youth. Although disgusting, it’s not surprising. And, in perhaps the biggest shame, this pervasive counternarrative quickly wiped the hopeful signs of the weekend out of the national conversation. Reckoning with the events requires first honoring all that happened last weekend. The confrontation between Phillips and the Covington boys was a single incident, and it shouldn’t eclipse an otherwise historic weekend. These times can be dark, but the Indigenous Peoples March offered a moment of hope: The issues that matter to Native people were put front and center in a show of solidarity. The odds may be daunting, but our communities showed that they’re coming together to fight — with a watchful eye on history and a necessary glance toward the future.”

Less Than Zero Compassion For Workers

The fierce urgency of now. Common Dreams: “Oh, the gobsmackingly tone-deaf claptrap issuing from the mouths of court clowns and grifters. Following in the tawdry tracks of Lara Trump’s ‘little bit of pain’ came corrupt billionaire and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross saying he can’t understand why federal workers are going to food banks to feed their kids when they’re just going through a mere ‘liquidity crisis’ – so why don’t they get a loan at 9% interest by using their 2008 pick-up as collateral, or maybe dip into their portfolio or sell some of their art or rent out one of their flippable properties, and anyway there’s only a few hundred thousand of them which won’t make a dent in the all-important-when-they’re-turning-off-your-water gross domestic product, ‘so it’s not like it’s a gigantic number overall.’ Next up was Larry Kudlow, head of the White House National Economic Council, who bested his former dismissal of the widely devastating shutdown as a ‘glitch’ by boasting that federal workers were ‘volunteering’ because of “their love for the country” and ‘presumably their allegiance to President Trump.’ Then he got all prickly when a reporter pointed out that coerced working without pay is not in fact volunteering, sneering about “semantics” and maintaining he had made himself perfectly clear, which, alas, he had. Best commentary on the subject, initially about Ross but equally, abominably applicable to Kudlow and all the other corrupt miscreants of this regime: ‘When these government workers run out of food, I hope they start to eat the rich.’”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Miles Mogulescu

Can Elizabeth Warren Be The Next President?

Over the past ten years, I’ve written hundreds of articles on topics from Medicare For All, voter suppression, Constitutional law, to Trump’s gold-plated toilet. None has generated more excitement than one I wrote in December 2014, urging Elizabeth Warren to run for President. That post went viral, with over half a million Facebook reposts and millions of tweets and retweets. The level of enthusiasm Senator Warren’s ideas, and the idea of her candidacy, generated was tremendous. There’s no proving it, but I believe there’s a high probability Warren would have defeated Trump. My 2014 article on Warren focused on one of her electrifying speeches on the Senate floor, demanding an end the big money influence in Washington and holding big banks accountable for creating the 2008 financial crisis. These words ring as true today as they did then. I encourage you all to read, watch and reflect on Senator Warren’s speech, which is fearless and inspires me just as much now as it did as when she first spoke it.

White House Digs In For A Shutdown Into Spring

Trump admin planning for even longer shutdown. WaPo: “White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has pressed agency leaders to provide him with a list of the highest-impact programs that will be jeopardized if the shutdown continues into March and April, people familiar with the directive said. Mulvaney wants the list no later than Friday, these people said, and it’s the firmest evidence to date that the White House is preparing for a lengthy funding lapse that could have snowballing consequences for the economy and government services. The request is the first known request from a top White House official for a broad accounting of the spreading impact of the shutdown, which has entered its fifth week and is the longest in U.S. history. So far, top White House officials have been particularly focused on lengthening wait times at airport security, but not the sprawling interruption of programs elsewhere in the government. And the request startled some agency officials, who had been struggling to manage the fallout from the shutdown so far. Many of them are simply trying to determine how to keep some agency functions operating at a time when a growing number of workers are refusing to show up because they aren’t getting paid. Now, in addition to dealing with the daily problems caused by the shutdowns, Mulvaney is forcing them to comprehend how to run parts of their bureaucracies without money for an extended period of time. The impact is expected to spread to at least tens of millions of people, who rely on government services that are impacted.”

Forcing People To Work Is Servitude

There’s a word for forcing people to work for untold weeks without paying them. LA Times:“The longest government shutdown in history is almost certain to extend into its 35th day Friday, denying some 800,000 full-time federal workers their second consecutive paycheck. It’s just a partial shutdown — nine out of 15 government departments and dozens of agencies are affected, representing about 44% of the federal workforce — but these employees will have endured nearly a month without their main source of income. That’s not counting half a million or more federal contractors whose work has also been cut off by the shutdown. It’s shameful enough that hundreds of federal workers are reduced to lining up for free meals and other handouts, seeking temporary relief on their mortgages and asking for more time to pay their bills. What’s worse is that about 420,000 of them have been required to keep working throughout the shutdown, even though they’re not being paid, because their jobs are deemed ‘essential.’ These include Border Patrol, Coast Guard and Transportation Security Administration employees who are defending the United States from the very threats that prompted President Trump to shut down the government in the first place. Forcing ‘essential’ workers to stay on the job makes a shutdown considerably less painful — and dangerous — for the general public, removing much of the urgency to strike a deal. Yes, Congress has assured all these workers that they will eventually be paid the wages they didn’t collect during the shutdown. But in the meantime, forcing people to work without pay week after week becomes hard to distinguish from slavery. And the money they’re not collecting is money they’re not spending, either, which is dragging down the overall economy. (And we’re not even focusing here on how the shutdown is affecting the general public, including diminished or canceled federal services, closed federal parks, museums and other facilities, cutbacks in environmental enforcement efforts and some food inspections, and potentially an interruption in food stamp benefits.)”

Trump Cancels SOTU Speech

Trump concedes to Pelosi’s disinvitation. LA Times: “The U.S. Constitution says the president ‘shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union.’ It doesn’t say where, when or how. So after Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested last week that President Trump delay his State of the Union address in the House until a partial government shutdown is over — and Trump said he would do so anyway — Pelosi turned her suggestion into a refusal. After a brief figurative stare-down, Trump blinked and said he would find some ‘alternative.’ But then, several hours later, the president conceded in a tweet that ‘there is no venue that can compete with the history, tradition and importance of the House Chamber’ and said he would postpone the address until after the government reopens. Meanwhile, the shutdown has gone on for more than a month. The Senate has a chance today to vote on competing bills to end the impasse, but the hopes of doing so appear slim.”

Provoked By Trump, Religious Left Finds Its Voice

Provoked by Trump, the religious Left is finding its voice. NPR: “Religious conservatives have rarely faced much competition in the political realm from faith-based groups on the left. The provocations of Donald Trump may finally be changing that. Nearly 40 years after some prominent evangelical Christians organized a Moral Majority movement to promote a conservative political agenda, a comparable effort by liberal religious leaders is coalescing in support of immigrant rights, universal health care, LGBTQ rights, and racial justice. ‘We believe that faith has a critical role to play in shaping public policies and influencing decision makers,’ says the Rev. Jennifer Butler, an ordained Presbyterian minister and founder of the group Faith in Public Life. ‘Our moral values speak to the kinds of just laws that we ought to have.’ Her group, part of what could be considered a religious left, claims to have mobilized nearly 50,000 local clergy and faith leaders, with on-the-ground operations in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Ohio. Butler herself founded the organization in 2005, with a precedent in mind: It was religious leaders who drove the abolitionist movement in the nineteenth century and the civil rights movement in the twentieth century. ‘I think religion helps people understand who they should be,’ Butler says.”

Undermining Democracy, One Brick At A Time

For two years, Trump has been undermining American democracy. Here’s a damage report. WaPo: “Can U.S. democracy survive when between 35 and 45 percent of the population cheers a president who behaves like an autocrat? When Donald Trump took office two years ago, I and many others began sounding the alarm — not out of partisan worry but out of concern for democracy. Trump, we argued, was an existential threat to the republic. For the first time in American history, the president of the United States was an authoritarian-minded demagogue who viewed checks and balances as outdated nuisances rather than sacred principles. Now, two years later, should we still be alarmed? Or was I an alarmist? First, Trump has chipped away at the institutional pillars of democracy. On a near-daily basis, Trump tries to undercut rule of law to advance political goals or to save his own skin. Second, Trump has taken a buzz saw to democratic norms, the soft guardrails of democracy. Democratic norms — the unwritten guidelines of political behavior — give meaning to democratic institutions. Without the norms, the institutions might as well just be ink on parchment. Third, and most important, Trump has injected authoritarianism into the bloodstream of the Republican Party. Polls have shown that a majority of Republicans now agree that the press is an “enemy of the people” rather than ‘an important part of democracy.’ That’s why the most chilling part of the president explicitly praising a congressman for violently assaulting a reporter wasn’t the depraved comment — it was the crowd. The thought of violence against journalists — who they saw as the ‘enemy’ — sent the red-hat-wearing mob into a frenzy. As someone who has studied how democracy dies across the globe, I remain deeply worried about Trump’s America.”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Sam Pizzigati

What L.A. Teachers Say About Rising Inequality

The teachers’ strike in Los Angeles, America’s second-largest school district, was the latest walkout in a new surge of teacher activism that began last year. L.A. teachers went on strike to demand the same dignity and decency teachers sought in the mid-20th century. But the L.A. struggle, many observers believe, amounts to much more than a battle over how school officials treat teachers. Teachers in L.A. went on strike, in a most fundamental way, against how unequal America has become. They’re speaking out against our billionaire class. our billionaires have been up to no good. They’ve essentially staged an unfriendly takeover of the L.A. board of education, shoveling mega millions into the campaigns of school board candidates pledged to advancing an agenda that funnels public tax dollars to “charter schools” that have next to no accountability to the public. Public education and plutocracy, educator activists in L.A. and nationwide increasingly understand, do not mix. Public schools do not thrive when billionaires prosper.

L.A. Teachers Win Smaller Classes, Better Pay

L.A. teachers end six-day strike after the majority approve contract deal. CNBC: “L.A. teachers overwhelmingly approved a new contract Tuesday and planned to return to the classroom after a six-day strike over funding and staffing in the nation’s second-largest school district. Teachers overwhelmingly approved a new contract Tuesday and planned to return to the classroom after a six-day strike over funding and staffing in the nation’s second-largest school district. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, accompanied by leaders of the union and the Los Angeles Unified School District, announced the agreement at City Hall a few hours after a 21-hour bargaining session ended before dawn. The deal was broadly described by officials at the news conference as including a 6 percent pay hike and a commitment to reduce class sizes over four years.Specifics provided later by the district and the union included the addition of more than 600 nursing positions over the next three school years. Additional counselors and librarians were also part of the increase in support staff. Marianne O’Brien said the need for additional support staff was one of the main reasons she walked picket lines.’ This is not just for teachers. It’s also for counselors, nurses, psychologists and social workers,’ said O’Brien, who teaches 10th grade English. The new contract also eliminates a longstanding clause that gave the district authority over class sizes, officials said. Grades 4 through 12 would be reduced by one student during each of the next two school years and two pupils in 2021-22. Clashes over pay, class sizes and support-staff levels in the district with 640,000 students led to its first strike in 30 years and prompted the staffing of classrooms with substitute teachers and administrators.”

SCOTUS Revives Military Transgender Ban

Supreme Court revives transgender ban for military service. NYT: “The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted the Trump administration’s request to allow it to bar most transgender people from serving in the military while cases challenging the policy make their way to the court. The administration’s policy reversed a 2016 decision by the Obama administration to open the military to transgender service members. It generally prohibits transgender people from military service but makes exceptions for those already serving openly and those willing to serve ‘in their biological sex.’ The vote to lift two injunctions blocking the policy issued by lower courts was 5 to 4, with the Supreme Court’s five conservative members in the majority. Lawyers questioning the new policy said there was no need to enforce it while the cases challenging it moved forward. ‘Transgender individuals have been permitted to enlist in the military since January 2018. The government has presented no evidence that their doing so harms military readiness, effectiveness or lethality, the brief said. In granting stays of injunctions issued by Federal District Court judges in California and Washington State, the justices in the majority may have been influenced by the complaint by the administration that lower courts have been able to frustrate its policies by the issuance of injunctions applying to the entire country.”

Senate Unlikely To End Shutdown

Senate leaders plan competing bills to end shutdown. NYT: “The Senate will hold competing votes on Thursday on President Trump’s proposal to spend $5.7 billion on a border wall and on a Democratic bill that would fund the government through Feb. 8 without a wall. It will be the first time the Senate has stepped off the sidelines to try to end the monthlong government shutdown. The procedural move by Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, and Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, is the first time the parties have agreed to do virtually anything since the shutdown began Dec. 22. With most Republicans united behind Mr. Trump’s insistence that any legislation to reopen the government include money for a border wall and most Democrats opposed to the linkage, neither measure is expected to draw the 60 votes required to advance. That means Friday is likely to come and go without action to end the shutdown, forcing 800,000 federal workers to go without a paycheck for the second time this month. But there was hope that the votes could usher in a more cooperative phase in a crisis that has so far been marked almost entirely by partisan posturing; if both measures fall short, the votes could add new energy to efforts to negotiate a bipartisan compromise. With the shutdown now in its fifth week, the pressure is growing on both parties to reopen the government. The Republican legislation, unveiled Monday night, would provide $5.7 billion in wall funding and large spending increases for the detention and removal of immigrants, as well as three-year provisional protections for 700,000 of the young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers and for about 325,000 immigrants mostly from Latin American countries and Haiti who have been living in the United States under Temporary Protected Status. But the measure also included several changes to asylum law, long advocated by Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s senior adviser and an architect of his immigration agenda, that would make it more difficult for people to seek refuge in the United States from persecution and violence at home. Among them were provisions to bar Central American children from claiming asylum inside the United States, requiring them instead to do so in their own countries, and allow any of them to be quickly sent back to their own countries. A spotlight on the people reshaping our politics. A conversation with voters across the country. And a guiding hand through the endless news cycle, telling you what you really need to know. Another revision would create a host of new grounds for deeming an asylum claim ‘frivolous,’ including if the migrant seeking protection was also trying to obtain work authorization, had used a fraudulent document — knowingly or unknowingly — or did not file in a timely way. Mr. Schumer rejected the plan as meant not to forge a compromise but to shift blame away from the president for the shutdown stalemate, calling the asylum changes a ‘poison pill.’”

Progressives Named To House Oversight Committee

4 progressive Democrats named to House Oversight Committee. Politico: “The House Oversight Committee is adding a group of progressive flamethrowers to its ranks. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) won spots on the high-profile committee on Tuesday, two sources told POLITICO. The new members, all of whom are freshmen except Khanna, have been critical of President Donald Trump, and their addition to the committee comes as Democrats have pledged to launch wide-ranging investigations into the president and his administration. Tlaib drew swift backlash when she vowed to ‘impeach the motherf—er,’ referring to Trump. Republicans have discussed a censure for Tlaib for railing against Trump. Ocasio-Cortez has also become a favorite target of Republicans for her liberal views and willingness to take on the president, particularly on social media. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the chairman of the Oversight Committee, dismissed concerns about the outspoken freshman lawmakers. ‘If I based the choices going on the committee based on what people said or their reputations or whatever, I probably wouldn’t have a committee,’ Cummings told POLITICO. ‘I am excited — there were a lot of people that wanted to come on our committee.’ The Democratic steering committee, which handles the committee rosters, sent a list of the new additions to Cummings, who said he approved it.”

Trump’s Stealth Plan To Kill Medicaid

Trump forges ahead with plan to cut care. Pacific Standard: “Just when it seemed safe to go back to the doctor, here comes the Trump administration’s latest plan to gut Medicaid. Observers thought that when Democrats won back control of the House of Representatives, the Affordable Care Act and the major health-care entitlements ought to be safe from repeal. Instead, Politico reports that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma has been quietly planning to unilaterally impose spending caps on Medicaid for the states. Right now, Medicaid works by setting a fixed rate at which the federal government reimburses states based on their Medicaid costs. Depending on the wealth of the receiving state, it receives between one and three dollars from the feds per Medicaid dollar spent on individual needs. That means the reimbursement is linked to actual expenses, and while both state and the federal government regulate costs closely, there’s no cap on total expenditures. Block grants, which Republicans have been trying to impose since early in the Reagan administration, estimate total expenses (by a variety of different proposed formulas) and award total funding to the states in a lump sum. The consequences of the plan would vary depending on the funding formula used in allocating the initial grants. Paul Ryan’s 2017 proposal, for example, linked block grant growth to inflation. Medical costs routinely outstrip inflation, so that’s a formula designed to bankrupt the program.”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Leo Gerard

The Indignity of Work Without Pay

Forty percent of conservative Republicans view the government shutdown as inconsequential. That is, they believe furloughing 380,000 federal workers and giving them no idea when they might see another paycheck is no problem, then ordering another 420,000 federal employees to work without pay. is nothing. This repudiates the dignity of work. It disrespects government workers and the services they perform for Americans. It also disrespects the workers routinely helped by government employees, from farmers to factory laborers, who now are denied the government services they need. The typical government worker is short $5,000 in pay after four weeks of government closure and confronting the indignity of feeding the family from food banks, selling possessions on eBay, begging on GoFundMe and missing mortgage, rent, car loan, credit card and utility bill payment deadlines. On top of that, the White House admitted earlier this week that the shutdown is damaging the U.S. economy at twice the rate first projected. That contraction added to the trade war could cost thousands of jobs. Mitch McConnell, who leads GOP lawmakers in the Senate, could end the shutdown today, but he refuses to. Americans are losing the dignity of work because McConnell refuses to do his job.

Shutdown Threatens Food Safety

Health risks rise as shutdown hits second month. Forbes: “The government shutdown is threatening the health of millions of Americans, increasing the risk for harm as the partial closure of key federal agencies enters its second month, say public health, medical and food safety groups. Hundreds of organizations representing doctors, hospitals and public health urged the White House and Congress to end the government shutdown in a letter last week to President Donald Trump. As of Tuesday, the shutdown began its 32nd day, adding to worries that food safety for Americans was endangered along with the mounting health needs of 800,000 furloughed government workers. ‘Several agencies’ ability to provide critical services, ranging from food and environmental risk inspections to health services, have already been drastically reduced or are threatened if the shutdown continues,’ the more than 280 organizations wrote in their letter, which was sent to Trump at the White House and posted on the Trust for America’s Health website. ‘We fear a prolonged shutdown will cause needless suffering and have long-lasting health consequences. Basic health protections could be endangered by an ongoing shutdown.’ Worries are mounting about the federal government’s suspension of ‘routine food inspections except at ‘high-risk facilities’ and the Food and Drug Administration’s ‘ability to enforce food safety rules,” the health organizations wrote to Trump. The FDA is “sharply impaired as 40 percent of its workforce is furloughed.’ ‘The FDA oversees 80 percent of the food supply, and regular inspections and enforcement help stop food borne illness before people get sick,’ the health organizations wrote to Trump. ‘The FDA also will not be able to assess new drug and device applications if the shutdown continues, meaning life-saving innovations will take longer to come to market.’”

Housing Crisis Looms In Shutdown

Shutdown’s pain cuts deep for the homeless and other vulnerable Americans. NYT: “One month after the government shutdown began, its effects have begun to hurt some of the most vulnerable Americans: not just homeless people, but also those who are one crisis away from the streets. And nonprofit groups dedicated to helping low-income renters are already scrambling to survive without the lifeblood payments from HUD that began being cut off on Jan. 1. That has left a small but growing number of tenants, like Ms. Wormley-Mitsis, in limbo. Landlords, especially smaller management companies operating on narrow margins, have begun pressuring poor, disabled and elderly tenants who cannot afford to make up the difference. On Friday afternoon, a TriState Management employee in Newton, Ark., taped notices on the doors of 43 federally subsidized tenants, demanding that they cover the gap between what they typically pay and the full rent. ‘As of Feb. 1, 2019, all tenants will be responsible for full basic rent,’ the letter said. ‘We will extend the due date for the rent to the 20th of the month. This will remain in effect until the government opens up.’”

Social Safety Net Is Unraveling

Some fear federal safety net is unraveling for those in need . AP: “Doris Cochran, a disabled mother of two young boys, is stockpiling canned foods these days, filling her shelves with noodle soup, green beans, peaches and pears — anything that can last for months or even years. Her pantry looks as though she’s preparing for a winter storm. But she’s just trying to make sure her family won’t go hungry if her food stamps run out. For those like Cochran who rely on federal aid programs, the social safety net no longer feels so safe. As the longest government shutdown in U.S. history stretches into a fifth week, millions of poor Americans who depend on food and rental assistance are becoming increasingly worried about the future. Most major aid programs haven’t dried up yet. But each day the stalemate in Washington drags on, the U.S. inches closer to what advocates call a looming emergency. Those dependent on the aid are watching closely under a cloud of stress and anxiety. ‘I just don’t know what’s going to happen,’ Cochran said, ‘and that’s what scares me the most.’”

Unpaid Government Workers Call In Sick

10 percent of TSA workers call in sick as government shutdown drags on. USA Today: “he slowly growing wave of sickouts among TSA workers reached 10 percent as the agency that provides security at the nation’s airports acknowledged ‘many employees are reporting that they are not able to report to work due to financial limitations.’ The Transportation Security Administration said Monday that the rate of unscheduled absences Sunday compared with a 3.1 percent rate on the same day one year ago. The nation’s 800,000 federal employees will miss their second paycheck this week as the government shutdown extends into its second month. About half of those employees, including about 50,000 airport security workers, are considered “essential” and are working anyway. ‘While national average wait times are within normal TSA times of 30 minutes for standard lanes and 10 minutes for TSA Precheck, some airports experienced longer than usual wait times,’ the TSA said in a statement.”

Trump A Dealmaker No More

Trump two years in: The dealmaker who can’t seem to make a deal. WaPo: “Donald Trump was elected president partly by assuring the American people that ‘I alone can fix it.’ But precisely two years into his presidency, the government is not simply broken — it is in crisis, and Trump is grappling with the reality that he cannot fix it alone. The shutdown also has accentuated several fundamental traits of Trump’s presidency: his apparent shortage of empathy, in this case for furloughed workers; his difficulty accepting responsibility, this time for a crisis he had said he would be proud to instigate; his tendency for revenge when it comes to one-upping political foes; and his seeming misunderstanding of Democrats’ motivations. ‘What really drove him was ‘Art of the Deal,’ that he could get stuff done in D.C. and deal with the knuckleheads,’ said Republican strategist Mike Murphy, a sharp Trump critic, referring to Trump’s book on negotiating. ‘People saw him as some sort of business wizard. That’s all disintegrating. It’s like McDonald’s not being able to make a hamburger.’”

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MORNING MESSAGE

James Mumm

Organizing To Win Governing Power

As we enter a perilous period in American history, with Donald Trump’s bottomless insecurity fueling white supremacy and fascism on the one hand and environmental Armageddon on the other, there is an opening of historic proportions for mass revolutionary organizing. The cutting-edge ambition of organizers today is to step up and win governing power. Will we break out of our self-limiting orthodoxies, face oppressive structures head-on, and take risks that swing for the fences?

Thousands More Migrant Children Separated From Families

Family separation may have hit thousands more migrant children than reported. NYT: “The Trump administration most likely separated thousands more children from their parents at the Southern border than was previously believed, according to a report by government inspectors released on Thursday. The federal government has reported that nearly 3,000 children were forcibly separated from their parents under last year’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, under which nearly all adults entering the country illegally were prosecuted, and any children accompanying them were put into shelters or foster care. But even before the administration officially unveiled the zero-tolerance policy in the spring of 2018, staff of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the agency that oversees the care of children in federal custody, had noted a “sharp increase” in the number of children separated from a parent or guardian, according to the report from the agency’s Office of Inspector General.”

Judge Strikes Down WI Early Voting Restrictions

Federal judge in Wisconsin strikes down early-voting restrictions passed in lame-duck session. NBC: “A federal judge on Thursday struck down early-voting restrictions Wisconsin Republicans adopted in a December lame-duck legislative session, saying the limits mirror restrictions he blocked two years ago. Republicans voted in December to limit in-person early voting to no more than two weeks before an election. The move came after a difficult midterm election in November, in which the overwhelmingly Democratic cities of Madison and Milwaukee held early voting for six weeks — far longer than in smaller and more conservative communities. The GOP lost every statewide race but retained majorities in the Legislature and quickly convened the lame-duck session to pass bills that Gov. Scott Walker, also defeated in the election, could sign before leaving office.”

House GOP Forgets To Vote For Shutdown

House Republicans really don’t want to look like they voted to reopen the government. Vox:“The House floor erupted into chaos Thursday afternoon as House Republicans accidentally appeared to allow a vote aimed at reopening the government without objection. They were very upset about it. There’s a lot of procedural stuff at play, but the gist is this: House Democrats took up yet another short-term spending bill to reopen the government. The bill was called up and passed on a voice vote rather than a roll call vote — in which each individual’s yea or nay is entered into the congressional record — to the apparent surprise of House Republicans. Usually, every vote in the House is initially brought up on a voice vote, but typically, someone will request a recorded vote where members can say yea or nay on a bill, showing exactly who is voting for or against a certain proposal. This time, Democrats requested the voice vote, and either Republicans didn’t realize what was happening or didn’t hear the process. Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) was the ‘chair,’ or the person at the moment charged with overseeing the proceedings on the House floor. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) told reporters that Butterfield was waiting for someone to request a recorded vote, but no one did, and Hoyer confirmed that after rewatching tapes of the proceedings on the floor. ‘On our side, we were surprised!’ Connolly told reporters. Either way, the resolution to reopen the government passed on a voice vote, and most Democratic representatives promptly exited the chamber, heading to the airport to fly back home to their districts for the weekend. Republicans, meanwhile, were just catching up on the fact that a vote had actually happened. As members of the House GOP angrily called for another vote, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) tried to stop them… while also trying to figure out what they were asking for.”

Trump Nixes Pelosi Trip, Melania Flies For Free

Melania Trump jets to Mar-a-Lago on military plane after POTUS grounds Pelosi’s troop visit. HuffPo: “Hours after President Donald Trump abruptly canceled House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s flight on a military aircraft to visit troops in Afghanistan with a congressional delegation, Melania Trump jetted down to Mar-a-Lago in Florida for vacation — on an Air Force plane. The first lady boarded the military jet on Thursday at Andrews Air Force Base, NBC and other media outlets reported. Quartz estimated the cost of the vacation flight at $35,000. On Thursday, Trump wrote to Pelosi that he was canceling her flight due to the shutdown.’ Pelosi was scheduled to visit Brussels with other lawmakers to meet with “top NATO commanders, U.S. military leaders and key allies ― to affirm the United States’ ironclad commitment to the NATO alliance,” said Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill. She then planned to visit troops in Afghanistan. Hammill pointed out that Trump flew to Iraq during the government shutdown and so did a delegation led by Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.). Yet Trump grounded Pelosi the day after she suggested that he postpone his State of the Union address until the government shutdown was over.”

Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast and OurFuture.org are projects of People’s Action.

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MORNING MESSAGE

Tara Raghuveer

It’s Time For A Homes Guarantee

Our nation is in a full-blown housing emergency. Today, a person working full time in a minimum-wage job cannot afford a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the United States. This is the humanitarian crisis we should be talking about: the one that’s right under our noses, and is growing larger every day. Most people – especially low-income families and communities of color – live one emergency away from eviction and homelessness. That’s why People’s Action members from across the country traveled to Washington to demand a Homes Guarantee for all, especially the 12 million Americans who currently pay over 50 percent of their income to rent. In the richest country in the history of the world, everyone deserves a safe, truly affordable, accessible place to live. Join us as we demand a Homes Guarantee: it’s about time.

Government Shutdown Enters Fourth Week

Shutdown damage ripples across country. NYT: “the sharpest effects of the longest shutdown in the nation’s 242-year history are only beginning to emerge across the country. In many parts of the United States, the shutdown has underscored how deeply the federal government is connected to everyday life, and the spending standoff has created cascading crises far from the border. About 800,000 federal workers are going without pay — and a growing number of them, worrying about missing mortgage and credit card payments, are filing for unemployment benefits. Thousands more federal contractors are off the job and will most likely not be able to recoup their missed paychecks. Restaurants and shops near major federal offices, especially in Washington, have emptied out. So have laboratories run by NASA and the Smithsonian Institution’s museums along the National Mall. Food inspections have become fewer, as have many checks by the Environmental Protection Agency. Travelers have complained that airport security lines, run by Transportation Security Administration officers who are working without pay, have come to a crawl. Trash has piled up at National Park Service sites, or at least those that are still open. Native American tribes have missed out on millions of dollars in federal funding for basic services, farmers have been squeezed by issues with loans and payments, and states have written checks to keep some services and properties, like the Statue of Liberty, running normally. The federal courts have hung on so far, with a goal of saving enough money to run as they ordinarily do through Jan. 18.”

L.A. Teachers Call Strike

L.A. teachers move forward with a strike. NPR: “Los Angeles public school teachers are expected to go on strike Monday morning, a result of failed negotiations between the teachers union and the school district. The strike has looked inevitable since Friday, when United Teachers Los Angeles rejected another offer from district leaders.’We are more convinced than ever that the district won’t move without a strike,”‘ declared union President Alex Caputo-Pearl at a Sunday press conference. UTLA has more than 30,000 members, including teachers, librarians, school nurses and counselors. The last time the city saw a teacher strike was nearly 30 years ago. The district says schools will remain open for the same hours during the strike, with the same before- and after-school programs. It has also said that student learning will still take place, with plans to keep schools staffed by administrators, volunteers and 400 newly hired substitute teachers. Negotiations with the LA Unified School District started in early 2017, and union members have been working without a contract for more than a year. LAUSD is the second largest school district in the nation, and the strike would affect about 480,000 students. The district and the union are close on teacher salaries, but educators and union leaders say the strike is about more than paychecks. ‘It’s about the conditions that the kids are learning in,’ says Scout Wodehouse, a drama teacher at Orthopaedic Hospital Medical Magnet High School in downtown LA.”

All The Ways The Shutdown Harms Us

The astonishing effects of the shutdown, in 8 charts. Vox: “While President Donald Trump and Democrats continue to duke it out over the politics of a border wall, the impact of the stalemate has already become very, very real for hundreds of thousands of federal workers, many of whom missed their first paycheck on Friday. The National Parks Service, the Transportation Security Administration, and the IRS are just a few of the government agencies that have been affected by the impasse, which is expected to cause serious economic fallout as well. The current shutdown is only a partial one, as Congress has already funded 75 percent of the federal government until September. Right now, there are still seven outstanding spending bills that have yet to be passed, which affect nine federal departments including Agriculture, Transportation, and the Interior. Because of the way funding is doled out across agencies, certain services are affected even though they may technically fall under departments that have already been covered. The FDA, for example, is under the Department of Health and Human Services, but receives funding from USDA as well, a gap in funds that’s led to a pause in some food safety operations. Aside from its effects on workers and local businesses, the shutdown will also reverberate across the US economy. According to S&P Global Ratings, the shutdown could shave approximately $1.2 billion off real GDP for each week that the government is partially closed.”

IA Rep. Steve King Called Out For Racism

House GOP leader says ‘Action will be taken’ on Steve King over white supremacist views. HuffPo: “House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Sunday said “action will be taken” against Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) over his recent comments to The New York Times questioning why terms such as “white supremacist” and “white nationalist” are considered offensive. McCarthy said on CBS’ ‘Face The Nation’ that he will meet with King on Monday to discuss the veteran lawmaker’s future in the Republican Party. Following his on-camera interview, McCarthy told host Margaret Brennan that he is reviewing whether King will keep his congressional committee assignments, CBS reported. In his interview with the Times, King said he’s OK with immigrants of various races legally entering the U.S. ― so long as American culture stays white and European. ‘White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?’ King, 69, told the newspaper. ‘Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?’”

The Case For A General Strike

The case for a national general strike protesting Trump’s heartless shutdown. Salon: “It is hard to understate the utter disdain and contempt being shown by President Donald Trump toward the 800,000 federal workers whose lives he has upended with the government shutdown. If this Trump shutdown had happened, say in France, where there is some residual social cohesion, there would have already been a national general strike in support of these workers. For decades Americans had that muscle of collective action and their children and grandchildren benefited. From the end of slavery and child labor to the very concept of the weekend itself, these advances in our circumstance were the fruits of bitter struggle. But our ancestors took this on because a sufficient number of them loved and cared for each other enough that knew their fates on this earthly plain were surely all interconnected. How long could Trump’s tyranny stand if all of working America stood up to this gold-plated bully?”

Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast and OurFuture.org are projects of People’s Action.

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MORNING MESSAGE

Leo Gerard

Tax Dollars Can Buy Happiness

In capitalist America, there are summer homes and pleasure boats for the wealthy but there is no rest for the weary and worried. The rich and corporations get massive tax breaks. And the 99 percent? They get stagnant wages, growing bills and constant angst. Corporatists have recently sought to shame two clear-eyed lawmakers – Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – for daring to offer prescriptions to cure America’s rampant economic anxiety. The solutions they propose, which include basic income programs, universal health care and a living wage job guarantee to every person seeking employment, give workers a shot at climbing into and staying in the middle class, which is something we all deserve.

Federal Workers Protest Government Shutdown

Angry furloughed federal workers protest shutdown at the White House, around the country. NBC: “‘I have rent to pay,’ a demonstrator said. ‘I have bills I need to pay. I want to go to work.’ Hundreds of furloughed government workers and contractors descended on the White House on Thursday to plead to be allowed to return to work. Holding signs such as “Stop the war on workers” and “We want work, not walls,” the protesters assembled in the bitter cold outside of AFL-CIO union headquarters before making their way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. President Donald Trump wasn’t at the White House, but many of the protesters blamed him for the shutdown, which has now stretched in to its 20th day with no end in sight. Congress and the president have been locked in a stalemate over his demand for $5.7 billion to build a border wall that he’d said Mexico would pay for.”

Oil Drillers Take Advantage Of Shutdown

Oil drillers, nature lovers get access to public lands despite shutdown. WaPo: “Food is going uninspected by regulators. Time-sensitive data is going uncollected by scientists. And other federal workers are going without pay while doing critical work manning airport terminals and border crossings. While the partial government shutdown’s effects reverberate throughout the federal bureaucracy, the Trump administration is actively working to ease the impact on wilderness lovers and oil drillers alike. Officials at the Interior Department have made a conscious effort to pursue two priorities President Trump has emphasized in his time in office — energy exploration and access to public lands — during the shutdown, according to a top department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to talk frankly. When discussing what is most critical during the shutdown, ‘we have looked first to executive orders, those things the president has made a point of giving us guidance and direction on, and secretarial orders,’ the official said.”

FBI Warns Shutdown Threatens National Security

Shutdown threatens national security, FBI agents group warns. WaPo: “A group representing FBI agents warned Thursday that the partial government shutdown is threatening national security as thousands of federal law enforcement professionals, working without pay, grow anxious that personal financial hardships may jeopardize their security clearances and as furloughs of their support staffs slow investigations. The shutdown is the result of President Trump’s insistence that more miles of border wall be built in the interest of national security — to keep migrants and drugs from entering illegally — and Democrats’ refusal to go along with his demands for $5.7 billion in wall-construction funds. With the shutdown well into its third week, groups representing government employees ranging from those who patrol borders and guard courthouses to those who make undercover drug buys have expressed alarm that the political drama has reduced them to bargaining chips while they continue doing dangerous jobs that keep Americans safe. ‘It’s uncharted territory, as this shutdown is going to be the longest in history,’ said Thomas O’Connor, president of the FBI Agents Association. ‘For special agents, financial security is national security.’”

Trump Wants To Build Wall With FL, PR Disaster Recovery Funds

Border wall funds could be diverted from a pool meant for Puerto Rico, Texas and other areas hit by disasters. CNN: “The Trump administration is actively examining using billions of dollars in unspent Defense Department disaster recovery and military construction funds for the construction of a border wall in the event the President declares a national emergency, according to a US official.

Congress appropriated $14 billion in supplemental funds to repair infrastructure in areas of the country hardest hit by disasters including hurricanes, like Hurricane Maria which slammed Puerto Rico in 2017 and resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. In anticipation of a national emergency declaration, the official tells CNN that the Pentagon was asked to provide lists of unspent funds including those earmarked for civil works projects that are part of disaster recovery in Puerto Rico, Texas, California, Florida, and elsewhere. The official said the funds were only recently received. There is more than $13 billion not yet physically spent on the infrastructure repair projects, but that have been promised to these communities. For instance, more than $2 billion planned for projects in Puerto Rico has not yet been spent. More than $4.5 billion for projects in Texas, including those related to 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, has also not been spent. Trump was briefed Thursday on a proposal to use $5 billion for portions of the wall based on priorities identified by the Department of Homeland Security, the official said. Under a current proposal, a 30-foot high steel slat wall — the so-called bollard wall — would be put up across 315 miles of federal lands over 18 months. As the government shutdown continues with no deal between the White House and congressional Democrats in sight, President Trump inched closer to declaring a national emergency to approval to begin construction of the border wall.”

Dems Bristle At Ocasio-Cortez Demands

Exasperated Democrats try to rein in Ocasio-Cortez. Politico: “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is already making enemies in the House Democratic Caucus — and some of its members are mounting an operation to bring the anti-establishment, democratic socialist with 2.2 million Twitter followers into the fold. The effort, described by nearly 20 lawmakers and aides, is part carrot, part stick: Some lawmakers with ties to Ocasio-Cortez are hoping to coax her into using her star power to unite Democrats and turn her fire on Republicans. Others simultaneously warn Ocasio-Cortez is destined for a lonely, ineffectual career in Congress if she continues to treat her own party as the enemy. ‘I’m sure Ms. Cortez means well, but there’s almost an outstanding rule: Don’t attack your own people,’ said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.). ‘We just don’t need sniping in our Democratic Caucus.’ It’s an open question whether Ocasio-Cortez can be checked. She’s barely been in Congress a week and is better known than almost any other House member other than Nancy Pelosi and John Lewis. A media throng follows her every move, and she can command a national audience practically at will. None of that came playing by the usual rules: Indeed, Ocasio-Cortez’s willingness to take on her party establishment with unconventional guerrilla tactics is what got her here. It’s earned her icon status on the progressive left, it’s where the 29-year-old freshman derives her power — and, by every indication, it’s how she thinks she can pull the Democratic Party in her direction.”

Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast and OurFuture.org are projects of People’s Action.

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MORNING MESSAGE

Adam West

People’s Action Fights Rollback Of Credit Protections

When her daughter was seven months pregnant, Billie Aschmeller took out a $1,000 loan using her car title as collateral. Although she was on a fixed income, Billie wanted to help buy items her daughter and new grandchild would need — including a crib, car seat, and a new winter coat. Every month Billie paid $150 on the loan, and after nearly a year she had paid more than $1,500 to the title loan company; however, she still owed the lender more than $800. Billie found herself living in her car because she could no longer afford to pay rent in addition to her loan payments. Billie’s story is not unique; millions of Americans find themselves in similar circumstances when dealing with short-term lenders. Many of these loans come with interest rates over 400% on an annual basis. Fortunately, one group is working to change this growing problem. People’s Action directly addresses changes taking place at the CFPB, an entity set up to protect consumers in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. With less enforcement of consumer protection laws, People’s Action fears a return to a time before the crackdown on unfair financial practices, with consumers being hurt by companies more concerned with profits than fairness. “After all the work and the grassroots demands that the CFPB take on these predatory lenders — five years’ worth of looking at how the industry could be regulated — the new administration came in and is now trying to roll back those protections,” said Jessica Juarez Scruggs, Deputy Director of Policy for People’s Action. One bright spot in the saga, according to Jessica, is the new balance of power in the incoming Congress. With Democrats likely to press any head of the CFPB to enforce regulations, there’s hope that consumers will regain protections that have been eroding recently. When combined with the pressure being applied by People’s Action, this may be just the relief consumers need.

Trump Forces Federal Employees To Work Without Pay

Pelosi On Trump: Maybe he thinks workers can just ‘Ask their father for more money.’ Crooks and Liars: “Donald Trump just walked out on a ‘negotiation’ with Democratic leaders in what appears to be a staged stunt to pretend he cares about reopening government. After the walkout, leaders stepped to the microphone for comment. First up: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who placed the entitled, spoiled child named Donald Trump in the proper frame. ‘Our meeting did not last long,’ Pelosi told reporters, “But it is so sad that in a matter of hours, or just a few days, many people, federal workers, will not be receiving their paychecks.’ She then ticked off all of the prices workers will pay for Trump’s petulant fury: Downgraded credit ratings, paying their mortgages, their car payment, and everything else people depend on their wages to cover. ‘The president thinks maybe they could just ask their father for more money, but they can’t,’ she continued, dropping the hammer on Trump. ‘I will say this, if you don’t understand the income insecurity, then you would have a policy that takes pride in saying I’m going to keep government shut down for months or years unless you totally agree to my position.’”

Air Safety Threatened By Shutdown

How is the shutdown affecting America? Let us count the ways. NPR: “The Transportation Security Administration is part of the Department of Homeland Security. Many of its workers considered ‘essential,’ so many are working without pay — though a greater number than usual have been calling in sick. So far, lines at airport security have not been significantly longer. TSA employees are among the lowest-paid federal workers. ‘If there’s no check on the 26th, I have no idea what we’re going to do,’ 36-year-old Jacinda, whose husband is a TSA officer in Portland, told NPR. “Our rent is due, the electric bill is due, our cellphones are now past due. … I’m scared and I’m trying to be OK because I can’t be sad every day for my kids, and I can’t be stressed out because it affects how I parent.” She said her husband is stressed out too — and that he’s been given instructions on how to file for unemployment, though he’s still working 40 hours a week. Also affected: air traffic controllers, who are working unpaid. ‘It’s a very high-stress job and you need to be on your game at all times,’ says Mick Devine of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. ‘There is a concern that as this goes on the human factors aspect of this shutdown will take a toll on the psyche and concentration level of our members.’ Many planes are not being inspected and pilot training is not being certified, says Capt. Dennis Tajer, a pilot for American Airlines and a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association. That’s because many of the FAA safety inspectors aren’t working.”

Veterans Bear Brunt Of Shutdown

America’s veterans said to be disproportionately affected by government shutdown. ABC: “As the partial government shutdown continues for a third week, veterans groups are sounding the alarm because of what they say is the disproportionate impact on America’s veterans and a growing fear that financial uncertainty could lead to self-harm. An estimated one-third of the federal workforce is made up of veterans, according to the Office of Personnel Management, meaning that more than 250,000 veterans are not currently receiving paychecks. ‘This shutdown has consequences that go beyond loss of pay,’ the Union Veterans Council said in a statement this week. ‘Financial instability is one of the main cause of suicides among the veterans’ community. These hard-working men and women who sacrificed so much for their country should not have their families held hostage by lawmakers that cannot relate to living paycheck to paycheck.’ Edward M. Canales is a local union president with the American Federation of Government Employees and a veteran liaison officer who serves as a resource to veterans working in the U.S. Bureau of Prisons west of the Mississippi River.”

Shutdown May Force U.S. Credit Downgrade

Fitch warns of U.S. credit rating downgrade as shutdown continues. Fortune: “The U.S. is slated to hit its debt ceiling on March 1 if the government doesn’t take action. In the event the debt ceiling is not raised, the U.S. government would be legally banned from borrowing money to pay financial obligations. The only way to pay those debt obligations, then, would come byway of cash in the U.S. treasury. A protracted government shutdown could have a profound impact on the debt ceiling and could ultimately push the U.S. into default if the debt ceiling isn’t handled. And that has concerned Fitch. ‘If this shutdown continues to March 1 and the debt ceiling becomes a problem several months later, we may need to start thinking about the policy framework, the inability to pass a budget… and whether all of that is consistent with triple-A,’ McCormack said, according to Reuters.”

EPA Loosens Regulation Of Air Pollutants

This EPA rule change could kill thousands. Common Dreams: “While Americans were quietly preparing to ring in the New Year, the EPA gave families a deadly present to start the year off wrong. On December 28, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a proposal that would effectively weaken the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), which protect American families from mercury and other harmful air pollutants emitted by power plants. The EPA ‘proposes to determine that it is not ‘appropriate and necessary’ to regulate’ these emissions, the EPA wrote in a statement. This means that the regulations will lose the necessary legal mechanism that actually enables them to actually be enforced. These regulations save a lot of lives — 11,000 every year, according to the EPA’s own data — and they prevent 130,000 asthma attacks annually. These regulations save a lot of lives — 11,000 every year, according to the EPA’s own data — and they prevent 130,000 asthma attacks annually. Stripping this regulatory power virtually guarantees more asthma attacks and more preventable deaths. For families, those aren’t just numbers. At any age, exposure to even small amounts of mercury can lead to serious health problems. The worst health impacts include irreparable brain development defects in babies and young children, and cancer, heart disease, lung disease, and premature death among people of all ages. Infants, young children, and pregnant mothers are particularly vulnerable to mercury — as well as to arsenic, lead, dioxin, and acid gases, which are also regulated by MATS.”

Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast and OurFuture.org are projects of People’s Action.

Please consider a donation of any size to support our work: DONATE NOW