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MORNING MESSAGE

Adrienne Evans

We Can Create The World We Want To Live In

I’ll never forget a conversation I had in a little bar in Hagerman, Idaho. about two hours east of where I grew up. My car was the only one in the lot without a gun rack. I said, “Let me just ask you some simple questions. What do you think about the concept that we all start out from the same place? Now we won’t all end up in the same place, but at least some of us won’t be advantaged or disadvantaged from the start.” And people were like, “God damn, that sounds like a great idea! Isn’t that what America is?” That just opened the door for me to a new way of talking with people. How are these conversations going to happen? How are we actually going to move people? It’s not by going in with our rhetoric, or with a moral authority and saying “I’m right.” It’s by really getting people to see a different future than the one that they’re in. Nothing that’s amazing in this world has happened by playing it safe. You have to cultivate the creativity and the energy in the passion of people who are working in communities to build that future and make it real.

People’s Action congratulates Adrienne Evans, executive director of United Vision for Idaho, on receiving a 2020 Roddenberry Fellowship. The program, whose alumni include Alicia Garza, Michael White and Judith LeBlanc, seeks to empower activists to “think, question, and challenge the status quo” with the intention of creating “a brighter future.”

Public Impeachment Hearings To Begin

Republicans admit they have no fact witnesses — and Trump did it. WaPo: “House Republicans acknowledged that they have no witnesses and no documents to dispute the main facts concerning President Trump’s impeachable conduct: a demand from Ukraine for dirt on a political rival; withholding of aid vital to Ukraine’s defense against Russia; concealing evidence of the scheme by moving a transcript to a secret server; and threatening the tipster who alerted Congress to gross malfeasance. They admitted all that? Well, in a manner of speaking they did. House Republicans sent Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) a list of witnesses they want to testify in the impeachment inquiry, including former vice president Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden and the anonymous whistleblower who filed the initial complaint against President Trump. Hunter Biden lacks any direct knowledge of anything that occurred in the Trump White House, and hence he cannot rebut evidence of Trump’s demand that Ukraine interfere with our election. By Republicans’ own admission, the whistleblower lacks first-hand knowledge of events. (“Witnesses who testified out of public view have corroborated the crux of the case against Trump — that he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his political rivals — so the Democrats see no need for the whistleblower, who heard the story secondhand, to testify. Three career State Department officials are returning next week for the public hearings.”

SCOTUS Evaluates DACA

The Supreme Court could decide DACA’s fate. Vox: “The Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday on a trio of cases asking whether the Trump administration acted properly when it decided to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program — an Obama-era program that allows unauthorized immigrants who were brought to the the US as children to live and work in the United States. A question looms over tomorrow’s hearing, however: Why did the Supreme Court agree to hear these cases in the first place? Certainly the human stakes in these cases — Trump v. NAACP, McAleenan v. Vidal, and Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California — are enormous. Almost 670,000 immigrants are protected by DACA. Ending the program opens them up to deportation. Families could be ripped apart; communities will be devastated. There really is a significant human toll here. But the Supreme Court typically only hears cases that involve a significant legal question. Indeed, the Court’s own rules state that it will only agree to hear a case ‘for compelling reasons,’ and they emphasize that the Court typically only hears ‘important’ questions of federal law. In this instance, the legal issue at the heart of the case is tiny.”

Arpaio’s Hate Spurred Progressive Surge In Arizona

Joe Arpaio’s surprising legacy in Arizona. Politico: ” In the Phoenix City Council chambers, a squat, round room that evokes the traditional Navajo home known as a ‘hogan,’ Carlos Garcia is easy to spot. His chestnut hair, long and limp, is perennially fastened in a ponytail that hangs like a string halfway down his back. His feet are shielded by a pair of weathered sneakers. One afternoon last month, he showed up for work clad in a black golf-style shirt- ‘That’s the most dressed up you’re going to see me,’ he quipped – with the words ‘City of Phoenix Councilman Carlos Garcia’ embroidered over his heart. Garcia joined the council in March, but his style remains as casual as it was during his time protesting a mother’s impending deportation in front of the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in 2017, or chanting into a bullhorn outside the federal courthouse where Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio stood trial that same year, accused of racially profiling Latinos.
‘My priority is to make sure people feel comfortable with me,’ Garcia says.”

The Battle Over Inequality In Idaho

‘Go back to California’: Wave of newcomers fuels backlash in Boise. LATimes: “California bashing is a cyclical sport with a long history in the heart of Idaho’s Treasure Valley. Growth spurts have more than doubled Boise’s population since the 1980 census. Four months before federal counters hit the streets here that year, a Washington Post headline crowed, “To Most Idahoans, A Plague of Locusts Is Californians.” So where did all the hostility come from? Sheer numbers, for certain. A January report from the Idaho Department of Labor said the Gem State was tied with Nevada as the fastest growing in the nation. The agency also reported that more Californians were moving here than transplants from any other state. Which brings us to the heart of the problem: income inequality. Anyone moving to Boise from another part of Idaho is still saddled with the same bottom-of-the-barrel minimum wage, an anemic $7.25 an hour. So it’s most likely not the Idahoans who are driving up home prices and filling up rental properties, because they can’t afford to. The median home price in Ada County, where Boise is located, has risen 19.3% since February 2018, according to the Idaho Statesman. It is now a whopping (for Idaho) $349,994. Conversely, the vacancy rate for apartments in the price range of the county’s lowest-income residents was 0.45% as of Oct. 18. Boise needs 1,000 new housing units each year for the next decade, according to officials in this city of 228,000. That’s just not happening.”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Tim Wilkins

Sanders Rallies The 99 Percent In New Hampshire

“The one percent in this country is very powerful – no ifs, ands or maybes. But you know what? The 99 percent, when we stand together, is even more powerful. With these words, Sen. Bernie Sanders issued a rallying cry for a broad social movement – one centered on solidarity, more than a single candidate – to create a mandate for change in the 2020 presidential elections. Sanders spoke to the hundreds of activists from New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Connecticut and New York who gathered at Monarch Farms in Claremont, New Hampshire for a conversation with him last Thursday. “We’ve got to build an unprecedented grassroots movement,” Sanders said, “not only to beat the most dangerous president in modern American history, but we need that movement to transform our economy, our energy system and our government. And the only way we do that is when millions of people are prepared to stand up and fight.” The event followed a People’s Issue Forum organized by People’s Action, Rights & Democracy (RAD), and the New Hampshire Youth Movement (NHYM). This conversation featured frank discussions of what is at stake for voters around health care, workers’ rights, immigration and the environment. Sanders listened carefully as People’s Action members shared personal stories of environmental, racial and economic injustices in their communities. Sanders thanked the activists for their commitment to change and encouraged them to continue.“ I appreciate that you’re willing to address the major crises that are facing this country,” Sanders said. “The only way real change has ever taken place in this country is not when somebody on top did it, it’s when millions of people stood up and fought for justice.”

Impeachment Hearings To Go Public

Dems seek John Bolton’s testimony, prepare to release transcripts. AP: “For only the fourth time in U.S. history, the House of Representatives has started a presidential impeachment inquiry. House committees are trying to determine whether President Donald Trump violated his oath of office by asking Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden and his family and to investigate the country’s involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, told The Associated Press on Friday that the three committees leading the impeachment investigation plan to begin releasing transcripts of closed-door interviews as soon as early this week. As they prepare to go public, impeachment investigators are continuing to schedule private depositions. Democrats have called in 11 witnesses this week, including Energy Secretary Rick Perry and former national security adviser John Bolton. It’s unclear whether any of them will come to Capitol Hill.”

GA Wants To Purge 330,000 Voters

With 330,000 people on Georgia ‘Purge List,’ rights advocates warn of massive voter suppression. Common Dreams: “Voting rights advocates in Georgia vowed to fight for the rights of more than 300,000 people in the state whose registrations may be purged from the rolls in the coming weeks by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s administration. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Monday that about 330,000 voter registrations may be canceled in early December if the voters do not confirm that they still live in the state. The purge is targeting people who have not voted in the last five years and could affect about four percent of the state’s eligible voters.’Voters should not lose their right to vote simply because they have decided not to express that right in recent elections,’ Fair Fight Action’s Lauren Groh-Wargo told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The group was founded by Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial candidate in the state. While Kemp was serving as secretary of state in 2017, his office oversaw the largest purge of voter registrations in U.S. history, kicking more than 534,000 people off the rolls. Voting rights groups condemned Georgia’s Republican leaders for what they saw as massive voter suppression effort—especially after Kemp went on to win the 2018 election by 1.4 percentage points. ‘Having a long history of voter suppression, the Georgia secretary of state’s office has a responsibility to guarantee that not a single voter is wrongly included on the purge list,’ Groh-Wargo told the Journal-Constitution.”

Payday Lenders Brag Of Influence Over Trump In Leaked Tapes

Payday lenders discussed raising money for Trump’s campaign to fend off regulation. WaPo: “Billing himself as one of President Trump’s top fundraisers, Michael Hodges told fellow payday lenders recently that industry contributions to the president’s reelection campaign could be leveraged to gain access to the Trump administration. ‘Every dollar amount, no matter how small or large it is’ is important, Hodges, founder of Advance Financial, one of the country’s largest payday lenders, said during a 48-minute webcast, obtained by The Washington Post. The Sept. 24 webinar sponsored by Borrow Smart Compliance, an industry consultant, gives surprisingly frank insight into the payday lending industry’s strategy to push for weaker government regulations by forging a tight relationship with the Trump administration and the president’s campaign. The payday lending industry, made up of businesses that make short-term loans to consumers at high interest rates, is awaiting new rules that could weaken Obama administration requirements. Those rules include a requirement that the companies must ensure consumers can afford to repay the money they borrow.”

EPA Enforcement Grinds To A Standstill

EPA career staffer says Trump has effectively immobilized the agency. Truthout: “Nicole Cantello has spent 29 years as an EPA attorney holding polluters accountable and currently works as senior counsel for water and water enforcement in the Great Lakes region. Cantello spoke to The Revelator in her capacity as union president about how life has changed for EPA workers during the Trump administration, how those changes affect the environment and why we need a plan to rebuild the agency. ‘It’s so different under the Trump administration, where every single matter that you might bring has a political tinge to it and you cannot bring a case under this administration that there isn’t some kind of issue that is going to raise alarm bells. It seems like things have basically come to a standstill here. There are just so many hoops to jump through that it’s very difficult to bring enforcement cases,” said Cantello. ‘When our enforcement is very low, you know things are really wrong. It means that human health and the environment are not being protected. It means that polluters don’t fear the EPA and that means that they can pollute with impunity, or they believe that they can. And that means that there’s going to be more pollutants being discharged into lakes and streams or into the air.’”

How A 1979 Massacre Spawned The Alt-Right

The massacre that spawned the alt-right. Politico: “‘Death to the Klan!’ On Saturday, November 3, 1979, that chant swept over Morningside Homes, a mostly black housing project in Greensboro, North Carolina, as dozens of protesters—some donning blue hard hats for protection—hammered placards onto signposts and danced in the morning sun. eath to the Klan!” On Saturday, November 3, 1979, that chant swept over Morningside Homes, a mostly black housing project in Greensboro, North Carolina, as dozens of protesters—some donning blue hard hats for protection—hammered placards onto signposts and danced in the morning sun. What happened next took just 88 seconds, but still reverberates 40 years later. In a confrontation where white supremacists began firing pistols, rifles and shotguns, and with television cameras rolling but police nowhere to be found, five communists were shot dead in broad daylight. Ten others were injured, some left to lie bleeding in the streets. But that November morning became momentous for more than the grotesque video footage that still lives on the Internet: The Greensboro Massacre, as it became known, was the coming-out bloodbath for the white nationalist movement that is upending our politics today. Before Greensboro, America’s most lurid extremists largely operated in separate, mutually distrustful spheres. Greensboro was the place where the farthest-right groups of white supremacy learned to kill together. After November 3, 1979, it was suddenly possible to imagine Confederate flags flying alongside swastikas in Charlottesville. Or a teenager like Dylann Roof hoarding Nazi drawings as well as a Klan hood in his bedroom while he plotted mass murder.”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Gloria Oladipo

Don’t Call The Police, Call Your Neighbors

Here is a hard truth: Police do not keep communities safe. This year alone has produced numerous stories of officers causing distress, damage, or death in communities they’re sworn to protect. As this epidemic worsens, communities need to find new ways to handle crisis situations without police intervention. Modern U.S. police forces evolved from watch systems developed in the early colonies, which were gradually professionalized after the emergence of cities — and the rise of slavery. In the South, these forces were used as “slave patrols,” tasked with catching runaway slaves and squashing uprisings. The role of police has greatly expanded since then, with officers intervening in everything from mental health crises to routine schoolyard incidents. With police now receiving military-grade weapons and often legally insulated from accountability, citizens are at the mercy of choices officers make — decisions that may be made under extreme distress or tainted with bias. Black Americans are most at risk, but we aren’t alone. In rural communities, fatal encounters with police officers are also increasing, yet widely unreported. That’s one reason Western states like New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arizona, Alaska, and Wyoming, as well as other largely rural states like West Virginia, are among the top in the country for officer-involved shootings. Neighbors to get to know each other prior to conflicts in an effort to increase direct communication, instead of using armed police as mediators. Obviously, in some situations, calling police may still occur. But by understanding the often dire consequences of calling them in, we can be a lot more mindful about whether circumstances truly demand it. Even better, we can develop the relationships and skills necessary to solve problems with one another, helping to build safe and accountable communities for everyone.

House Votes To Proceed With Impeachment

The Impeachment inquiry is fully legitimate. The Atlantic: “n declaring the initiation of a formal impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, Speaker Nancy Pelosi was solemn: “We’re not here to call bluffs. We’re here to find the truth, to uphold the Constitution of the United States. This is not a game for us; this is deadly serious.” In the weeks since, she has upheld that intention: Three different committees of the House of Representatives, with their Republican and Democratic members in attendance, have called a series of witnesses, who have all confirmed the whistle-blower’s report that Trump had improperly solicited foreign intervention on his behalf in the 2020 presidential election. And now the House has formally approved an impeachment resolution affirming all the steps the Democrats have taken thus far in the investigation and setting out the roadmap for the rest of the inquiry, which will include the additional measure of holding public hearings. If you add up the nonsense that the president’s defenders have proliferated and his protestation that the Constitution allows him to do whatever he wants, their proposed result is disturbing: an executive who can shut down an impeachment inquiry and protect from disclosure anything done by anyone in the executive branch, and who is immune to criminal investigation and allowed to defy subpoenas. This is not the president our Constitution established. He would be a king, in spite of the fact that the Founders’ generation rebelled against one. They set out to create a presidency that was accountable to Congress if the occupant abused power and breached the public’s trust. Donald Trump’s efforts to delegitimize the impeachment inquiry destroy their vision.”

Biden Flags In Iowa Polls

Warren leads tight Iowa race as Biden fades, poll finds. NYT: “The top Democratic presidential candidates are locked in a close race in the 2020 Iowa caucuses, with Senator Elizabeth Warren slightly ahead of Senator Bernie Sanders, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., according to a New York Times/Siena College poll of likely Democratic caucusgoers. Ms. Warren appears to have solidified her gains in the first voting state while Mr. Buttigieg has climbed quickly to catch up with Mr. Sanders and overtake Mr. Biden, the onetime front-runner. Ms. Warren is drawing support from 22 percent of likely caucusgoers, while Mr. Sanders is at 19 percent, followed by Mr. Buttigieg at 18 percent and Mr. Biden at 17 percent. The survey is full of alarming signs for Mr. Biden, who entered the race in April at the top of the polls in Iowa and nationally. He is still in the lead in most national polls, but his comparatively weak position in the earliest primary and caucus states now presents a serious threat to his candidacy. And Mr. Biden’s unsteadiness appears to have opened a path in the race for other Democrats closer to the political middle, particularly Mr. Buttigieg.”

Warren Lays Out Plan To Pay For Medicare For All

Elizabeth Warren’s plan to pay for ‘Medicare For All’. NPR: “Sen. Elizabeth Warren says she can fund “Medicare for All” without raising taxes on the middle class. Instead, among other things, she would boost the wealth tax on the ultra-rich that she has promoted on the campaign trail. Warren had promised at a recent debate that she would not sign a bill that raises health care costs for the middle class. Under a plan released Friday morning, the Massachusetts senator and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate goes further: Middle class Americans would no longer pay health premiums or copays and would also not pay any taxes to replace those costs. However, she will boost what had been a 3% wealth tax on people with more than a billion dollars to 6%. Her plan would also have employers pay higher taxes to the government, which she says would replace what they currently pay toward private health insurance. Warren is proposing $20.5 trillion in new federal spending under the proposal. Altogether, Warren’s plan says that total national health costs would not go up under the single-payer health proposal. Rather, all of the estimated $52 trillion in health spending over a decade would be paid via the federal government.”

Sanders Talks Health, Inequality At NH Town Hall

Sanders talks health care, wealth inequality at Claremont town hall. Valley News: “U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., stood in a barn in Claremont, fielding questions Thursday afternoon from activists about health care, immigration reform and wealth inequality. Sanders said that when he put forth ideas about raising the minimum wage and addressing climate change during the 2016 campaign cycle, he found support in New Hampshire residents. ‘The establishment told me that those ideas were too wild and extreme. But the people of New Hampshire did not,’ he said to cheers from the crowd. Sanders touched on a lot of those same ideas during the Rights and Democracy Town Hall on Thursday, a question-and-answer event hosted by local activist groups People’s Action, Rights and Democracy and New Hampshire Youth Movement. It was the last stop on Sanders’ tour around New Hampshire this week, during which he held rallies in Keene and Concord and officially filed papers with the Secretary of State’s Office earlier in the day to run in the New Hampshire primary. The topic of health care costs became the forefront of the Claremont discussion, with attendees asking questions about opioid abuse, mental health and the rising cost of some prescription medications. ‘Parents are burying their children in mass numbers, there are mass graves of our children across this country,’ said Brenda Siegel, a Newfane, Vt., resident and member of Rights and Democracy, addressing the opioid crisis. Siegel, who lost in a Democratic primary for governor in Vermont last year, and another activist asked Sanders how he would combat opioid addiction. ‘Addiction is a health issue, not a criminal issue,” Sanders said, adding that he wants the country to focus on treating addiction rather than jailing people with substance abuse problems. He said that his proposed single-payer ‘Medicare for All’ plan would support that goal. ‘It says health care, mental health, is a human right, not a privilege.’”

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Watch The Nevada People’s Presidential Forum!

We’re 24 hours out from the Nevada People’s Presidential Forum this Saturday, Oct. 26 from 1-4 p.m. PST. Leading presidential candidates will be in Las Vegas, answering real questions from real people – members of People’s Action. Get your ticket or sign up to watch our livestream or host a house party, all for free. This is a no-stump zone: we’re flipping the script and challenging candidates to find out who the real people’s champion in 2020 will be.

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MORNING MESSAGE

George Goehl

The People’s Forum Is Letting Voters’ Voices Be Heard

Many low-income and working-class people – black, Latinx, Native, Asian, as well as many white folks – feel unseen in our politics. That is why People’s Action, the working-class people’s organization where I serve as director, has created a new kind of presidential debate. Last month, more than 2,000 people gathered in person – with thousands more watching via live stream – for a People’s Presidential Forum in Des Moines, Iowa, hosted by People’s Action, Iowa CCI Action Fund and Student Action. In a candidate-centric political culture, we want to make sure that we can hear the voices of the people, not just the voices of candidates. In a much-needed twist, we asked candidates to agree that there would be no stump speeches – or any speeches, for that matter. Big kudos goes out to Pete Buttigieg, Julián Castro, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren for agreeing to this format. Candidates spent roughly the same amount of time listening as talking, and all their answers had to respond to personal experiences from everyday people from all walks of life. Our next People’s Forum will be in Las Vegas, Nevada, on 26 October. If we truly want more people to engage in elections, we need to center people in the process. As many said at the Iowa forum, we have found the leaders we are looking for, and it’s not the candidates, it’s all of us.

The Nevada People’s Forum, hosted by PLAN Action and People’s Action, will be at the East Las Vegas Community Center on Saturday, Oct. 26 from 1-4 p.m. PST. Click here to attend or atch the livestream.

Congress Doing DOJ’s Job In Impeachment Inquiry

As Trump impeachment probe heats up, some say Congress is doing inquiry the Justice Department should’ve done. USA Today: “At the time, the disclosure was offered almost as a footnote to the explosive contents of a phone call in which President Donald Trump pressed his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate political rival Joe Biden. As a summary of the call was released by the White House last month, senior Justice Department officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified, said prosecutors had reviewed whether the president’s solicitation of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky was a potential crime. The review, done at the request of the inspector general of the Intelligence Community, was narrow. It was based entirely on the written summary of the call, which even the White House indicated was imperfect. Authorities conducted no interviews to learn why a whistleblower took the extraordinary step of taking his concern to the inspector general for the nation’s intelligence agencies. And it took only a few weeks for prosecutors to conclude there was no violation of campaign finance law. Yet in the month since that decision was made public, a fast-moving House impeachment inquiry and a separate criminal investigation raise serious questions about the Justice Department’s assessment of the president’s conduct. ‘In hindsight, the decision by prosecutors was premature and ill-advised,’ Richard Ben-Veniste, one of the Watergate prosecutors, said. ‘The information provided by the whistleblower cried out for further inquiry.’”

ICE Holds Juveniles In Secret Detention

‘Secret and unaccountable’: Where some immigrant teens are being taken by ICE: Angelina Godoy started digging for answers more than a year ago. The human rights researcher had heard that ICE agents occasionally swept up migrant kids and locked them up in juvenile detention facilities, but she had no idea why. One of the places ICE supposedly housed these young people, Godoy learned, was a few hours from her home in Seattle. She searched online for information about the detentions, but couldn’t find anything that explained what was going on. She then filed a series of public records requests with officials at the juvenile detention center closest to her, hoping they could shed light on what ICE was doing and why these minors were being held in places run more like jails than the shelters most migrant children end up in when they are detained. She had specifically requested detailed detainee files, with names and personal information redacted, and the facility was ready to share them with her. But what happened next stunned her: ICE blocked the facility from sharing the records and the federal government even went to court to keep the information secret. Unbeknownst to Godoy, she had stumbled upon an obscure pocket of the immigration system, where little is known, and little is divulged. For more than a decade, ICE has been taking a small number of immigrant teens it deems to be dangerous far from their families and detaining them for months at a time. For immigration attorneys and human rights experts such as Godoy, the practice is alarming.”

Chicago Teachers Take On Wall Street

How Chicago teachers are taking on Wall Street. The Intercept: “Chicago’s massive school strike, tens of thousands of teachers and staff converged downtown on Wednesday to picket outside City Hall. Inside, Mayor Lori Lightfoot was delivering the first budget address of her term, which began in May, to the city council. As chants echoed from demonstrators outside, Lightfoot issued a resolute message: There is no more money to meet the strikers’ demands, which include class-size caps; more nurses, librarians, and social workers; and a pay bump for support staff making poverty wages. Speaking to reporters following the address, Lightfoot emphasized that the city did not intend to give money to Chicago Public Schools, or CPS, which has a separate budget but whose board is appointed by the mayor. ‘What we’ve been very clear about, is they’ve got to live within their means, whatever those means are and they can’t exceed that, and look to the city to bail them out,’ Lightfoot told the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board. Members of the Chicago Teachers Union, or CTU, bristled at the term. ‘A bailout? For smaller class size? Come on, that’s not a bailout — that’s an investment in the future of our country,’ CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates shot back in an evening press conference. The mayor’s words hit at the heart of a theme that has become central to CTU’s organizing: the city’s tendency to provide bailouts and financial incentives for Wall Street and corporate entities, rather than invest in public services. Ever since the Chicago teachers staged a landmark strike in 2012, they have expanded the scope of issues — and enemies — the union is taking on, deploying a strategy known as “bargaining for the common good.’ This time, the CTU’s 25,000 members are on strike alongside 7,500 special education assistants, custodians, and other school support staff represented by SEIU Local 73. As the strike enters its second week, a contract victory may depend on unions and their allies winning their larger political argument: that there’s plenty of money in the city, it’s just concentrated in the wrong hands.”

DeVos Held In Contempt For Student Loan Violations

DeVos held in contempt for violating judge’s order on student loans. Politico: “A federal judge on Thursday held Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in contempt of court and imposed a $100,000 fine for violating an order to stop collecting on the student loans owed by students of a defunct for-profit college. The exceedingly rare judicial rebuke of a Cabinet secretary came after the Trump administration was forced to admit to the court earlier this year that it erroneously collected on the loans of some 16,000 borrowers who attended Corinthian Colleges despite being ordered to stop doing so. U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim wrote that “the evidence shows only minimal efforts to comply with the preliminary injunction” she issued in May 2018 ordering the Education Department to halt its collection of the loans. DeVos is named in the lawsuit in her official capacity as secretary of Education. She will not be personally responsible for paying the $100,000 in monetary sanctions, which will be paid by the government. The judge ordered that the fine go to a fund held by the former Corinthian students’ attorneys. It’s meant to help defray the damages and expenses associated with the improper collection of the loans, she said. The judge ordered the government and the attorneys to come up with a plan for administering the fund.”

Education Dept. Official Resigns, Calls For Student Debt Forgiveness

Trump administration official resigns, calls for massive student debt forgiveness. CNBC: “A senior government official appointed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos resigned Thursday, saying the current student loan system is ‘fundamentally broken’ and calling for billions of dollars in debt to be forgiven. A. Wayne Johnson was hired as the chief operating officer of the Office of Federal Student Aid, which manages the country’s $1.6 trillion outstanding student loan portfolio. He later worked in a strategic role, directing how student loans are serviced for borrowers. Johnson told The Wall Street Journal he reached his conclusion after watching climbing defaults and realizing that a majority of student debt will never be repaid. Indeed, five years into repayment, half of student loan borrowers haven’t paid even $1 toward their debt’s principal, according to the Education Department’s own data. And 40% of student loan borrowers could default by 2023, according to an analysis by the Brookings Institution. ‘We run through the process of putting this debt burden on somebody … but it rides on their credit files — it rides on their back — for decades,’ Johnson, who wrote his dissertation at Mercer University on student debt, told the Journal. ‘The time has come for us to end and stop the insanity,’ he added. Johnson proposes forgiving $50,000 in student debt for all borrowers, about $925 billion, according to the newspaper. For people who’ve already repaid their debt, he suggests offering them a $50,000 tax credit. The plan would be paid for with a 1% tax on corporate earnings.”

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Ensure our shared vision for justice is carried forward by generations
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Watch The Nevada People’s Presidential Forum!

We’re 48 hours out from the Nevada People’s Presidential Forum this Saturday, Oct. 26 from 12-4 p.m. PST. Leading presidential candidates will be in Las Vegas, answering real questions from real people – members of People’s Action. Get your ticket or sign up to watch our livestream or host a house party, all for free. This is a no-stump zone: we’re flipping the script and challenging candidates to find out who the real people’s champion in 2020 will be.

Sign up for the Nevada People’s Presidential Forum NOW!

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MORNING MESSAGE

Ryan Greenwood

How You Can Make 2020 The Year The People Win

At People’s Action, we believe in the power of extraordinary everyday people. We also believe this power belongs in government – including in the highest office of the land. That’s why our movement politics program elevates the voices of the multi-racial working class, so we rise above the barriers of concentrated wealth and racism that seek to silence us in society. Elections are the greatest public conversation in the United States over who we are as a nation. We don’t want to beg those in power for crumbs. We want our values to have a voice. And we want real people to run the table. At our People’s Forums, real people ask this cycle’s leading presidential candidates specific and hard policy questions. But we also ask about candidates’ life experiences and mindset, which includes asking about a time they felt powerless, and what they learned from that experience. That’s the People’s Action difference: real people, real experiences, and a real seat at the table. Our forums are truly a #NoStumpZone, where candidates hear stories and are asked hard questions by the extraordinary everyday people of the multi-racial working class, not by celebrity moderators. Our next People’s Forum is this Saturday, October 26th from noon to 4 p.m. PST in Las Vegas, hosted by PLAN Action of Nevada at the East Las Vegas Community Center. Tickets are free, or you can watch the livestream and join the conversation at CrowdCast. Will you join us at our next People’s Forum to help make 2020 the year the people win? We hope so!

Elijah Cummings Lies In State At U.S. Capitol

Elijah Cummings to lie in state at Capitol. Politico: “Congress on Thursday will bid goodbye to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the son of sharecroppers who rose to become one of the Democratic Party’s most influential figures at a tumultuous time in American politics. The late Oversight Committee chairman — who represented his majority-black Baltimore district in the House for two decades — will become the first African American lawmaker to lie in state in the Capitol, an honor bestowed to only a few dozen statesmen, presidents and military leaders throughout U.S. history. Earlier in the day, Cumming’s casket will lie in state about 75 feet away from a statute of another civil rights icon, Rosa Parks, and just steps away from the bust of the former Confederate president Jefferson Davis — a reminder of Washington’s troubled history on race relations, which Cummings himself battled throughout his life. The ceremony in the Capitol will feature remarks from the highest-ranking members of Congress: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, as well as close friends in the House.”

GOP Lawmakers Disrupt Impeachment Hearings

Why did Republicans storm the Capitol? They’re running out of options. NYT: “Around 10 a.m. Wednesday, a gaggle of conservative House members on Capitol Hill staged a ‘protest,’ barging into the secure room — called a SCIF — where members of three House committees were preparing to hear testimony from Laura Cooper, a deputy assistant secretary of defense. Shepherding the demonstrators was Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, one of President Trump’s fiercest apologists, whose account live-tweeted the stunt. This was not a fringe move. Representative Steve Scalise, the minority whip, was among the sea of dark-blue suits that surged into the hearing room. Chaos ensued. There were shouting matches. Some of the invading members brought along their cellphones, though they are prohibited inside the secure room. Ms. Cooper’s testimony was delayed, and Democrats called in the sergeant-at-arms for help restoring order. The entire spectacle was a circus — which was the point. This was a publicity stunt aimed at delegitimizing the impeachment investigation that Mr. Trump and his defenders have portrayed as a partisan inquisition. If a few rules and national security precautions got violated along the way, so be it. Mr. Gaetz & Co. were happy to oblige a president who has demanded to be protected at all costs. In fact, Mr. Trump is said to have given them a thumbs-up the day before. Why wouldn’t he? As more and more testimony is disclosed, it becomes clearer that the president’s only defense against impeachment is to distract from the facts and complain about how unfairly he’s being treated.”

Building A Wall Through Colorado?

Trump says wall being built through state that doesn’t border Mexico. The Hill: “Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) mocked President Trump after he said during a recent speech that the U.S. is building a border wall in Colorado. ‘Well this is awkward…Colorado doesn’t border Mexico,’ Polis wrote on Facebook after the apparent misstatement by Trump. ‘Good thing Colorado now offers free full day kindergarten so our kids can learn basic geography,’ he added. During a speech in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, Trump said,’”We’re building a wall in Colorado.’ ‘We’re building a beautiful wall, a big one that really works that you can’t get over, you can’t get under,’ he continued, adding, ‘And we’re building a wall in Texas. And we’re not building a wall in Kansas, but they get the benefit of the walls we just mentioned. And Louisiana’s incredible.’ Trump in a tweet early Thursday said the remark was made ‘kiddingly.’”

Trump Wants Logging In Alaska’s Tongass Forest

Trump wants to exempt Tongass National Forest from roadless rule. NPR: “The Trump administration wants to reverse a nearly two decade rule to allow more logging in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Environmentalists and tribal governments oppose the move. The Trump administration is seeking to lift federal protections on the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, paving the way for possible timber harvests and road construction in the largest national forest in the U.S. The rule has long prohibited development on 9.2 million acres of inventoried roadless areas in the Tongass. The Forest Service’s proposal, if approved by the Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, would eliminate that rule for the Tongass and convert 165,000 acres of old-growth and 20,000 acres of young-growth to suitable timber lands.”

Saving Family Farms With Better Soil

The key to saving family farms is in the soil. Common Dreams: “Would it sound too good to be true if I was to say that there was a simple, profitable and underused agricultural method to help feed everybody, cool the planet, and revitalize rural America? I used to think so, until I started visiting farmers who are restoring fertility to their land, stashing a lot of carbon in their soil, and returning healthy profitability to family farms. Now I’ve come to see how restoring soil health would prove as good for farmers and rural economies as it would for the environment. Over the past several years, I drove through small towns from Ohio to the Dakotas visiting farmers to research Growing A Revolution, my book about restoring soil fertility through regenerative farming practices. Along the way, I saw a microcosm of the national economy in which run-down farms and hollowed-out towns stood in stark contrast to farms and communities thriving with renewed vitality. These revitalized farms came in all sizes—hand-worked three-acre vegetable farms to horizon-spanning ranches where enormous remote-controlled contraptions seemingly cast out of Star Wars seeded and harvested fields with GPS-guided precision. Yet it was not size or technology that distinguished these places, but how they worked the land. How did those farmers do it? The successful regenerative farmers I visited all combined three unconventional practices that cultivate beneficial soil life: They parked their plows, planted cover crops, and grew complex crop rotations. Some also reintroduced livestock to their fields, employing a shifting mosaic of single-wire electric fences to frequently move cattle and implement regenerative grazing methods. These farmers were rethinking how they saw and treated their land.”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Jeff Bryant

How Charter-School Billionaires Corrupt School Leadership

It’s rare when goings-on in Kansas City, Missouri schools make national headlines, but in 2011 the New York Times reported on the sudden departure of the district’s superintendent John Covington, who resigned unexpectedly with only a 30-day notice. The main reason Covington left Kansas City was not because he was pushed out by job stress or an obstinate resistance: He left because a rich man offered him a job. What caused Covington’s exit, Kansas City Star reporter Joe Robertson reported, was “a phone call from Spain.” That call brought a message from billionaire philanthropist and major charter school booster Eli Broad. “John,” Broad reportedly said, “I need you to go to Detroit.” It wasn’t the first time Covington, who was a 2008 graduate of a prestigious training academy funded through Broad’s foundation (the Broad Center), had come into contact with the billionaire’s name and clout. Broad was also the most significant private funder of the new Michigan program he summoned Covington to oversee, providing more than $6 million in funding from 2011 to 2013, according to the Detroit Free Press. But Covington’s story is more than a single instance of a school leader doing a billionaire’s bidding. It sheds light on how decades of a school reform movement, financed by Broad and other philanthropists and embraced by politicians and policymakers of all political stripes, have shaped school leadership nationwide.

Jeff Bryant is a writing fellow and chief correspondent for Our Schools, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He is a communications consultant, freelance writer, advocacy journalist, and director of the Education Opportunity Network, a strategy and messaging center for progressive education policy.

DeVos Sent $11m In Student Aid To Unaccredited For-Profit Colleges

Trump administration let nearly $11 million in student aid go to unaccredited for-profit colleges. WaPo: “A trove of documents released Tuesday by the House Education and Labor Committee shows the Education Department provided $10.7 million in federal loans and grants to students at the Illinois Institute of Art and the Art Institute of Colorado even though officials knew the for-profit colleges were not accredited and ineligible to receive such aid. The documents build on prior reports from the committee describing efforts by Education Department officials to shield Dream Center Education Holdings, owner of the Art Institutes and Argosy University, from the consequences of lying to students about the accreditation of its since-closed schools. Now it appears the Education Department tried to shield itself from an ill-fated decision to allow millions of dollars to flow to those schools. Rep. Robert C. ‘Bobby’ Scott (D-Va.), chairman of the House Education Committee, is threatening to subpoena Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for more documents related to the department’s role in Dream Center’s actions. Scott says the agency has obstructed the committee’s investigation and refused to answer questions, as emails and letters paint a picture of a federal agency complicit in an effort to place profits before students. By law, for-profit colleges must be fully accredited to participate in federal student aid programs. Neither the Art Institute of Colorado, the Art Institute of Michigan or the Illinois Institute of Art in Chicago and Schaumburg held that seal of approval from their accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission, in the 2018 spring semester. In reviewing Dream Center’s 2017 acquisition of the chain, the accrediting commission raised concerns about the quality of education at the campuses and downgraded their status for up to four years.”

Taylor Deals Crushing Blow To Trump Impeachment Defense

A true public servant deals Trump a crushing blow. Bloomberg: “A career civil servant who is a West Point graduate, soldier, officer, military attache and veteran diplomat told Congress on Tuesday that President Donald Trump personally and explicitly tried to force Ukraine’s president to investigate Trump’s political opponents by withholding crucial military aid and a coveted White House meeting. William Taylor testified that the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, told him that “everything” Ukraine wanted depended on whether its president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, pursued an investigation. Sondland also told Taylor that Trump wanted to squeeze Zelenskiy into “a public box” by forcing him to commit openly to a probe. Taylor said Sondland told him that tying military aid to efforts to kneecap political opponents didn’t amount to a quid pro quo. But it was exactly that, of course, and in his testimony Taylor didn’t hesitate to describe it as such. He said Sondland told him he needed to understand the give-and-take with Ukraine as a business transaction because Trump was a businessman. ‘When a businessman is about to sign a check to someone who owes him something,’ Taylor quoted Sondland as saying, ‘the businessman asks that person to pay up before signing the check.’ Sondland told Taylor that he even coached Zelenskiy to tell Trump he would ‘leave no stone unturned’ in pursuit of Trump’s political opponents.”

Ambassador Runs Rogue Strategy In Hungary

In Hungary, a freewheeling Trump ambassador undermines U.S. diplomats. NYT: The annual Independence Day celebration at the United States Embassy in Budapest is usually a modest garden party, a chance for the ambassador to celebrate American freedom, democracy and the rule of law. This year, the ambassador, David B. Cornstein, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a blowout gala for 800 guests. He flew in the singer Paul Anka from California. The guest of honor was Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, who has curtailed the very freedoms the event was meant to highlight Standing at a lectern, Mr. Cornstein declared Mr. Orban ‘the perfect partner’ and ‘a very, very strong and good leader.’ Mr. Anka serenaded the Hungarian leader with a personalized rendition of ‘My Way.’ For many in the room, it was a bewildering spectacle: an American ambassador lavishing praise on a far-right leader whose party has methodically eroded Hungarian democracy and pushed anti-Semitic tropes. But it was just another demonstration of Mr. Cornstein’s pattern of emboldening Mr. Orban. Since becoming ambassador in June 2018, Mr. Cornstein has assiduously courted Mr. Orban, giving the Hungarian leader unexpected influence in the Trump administration. Mr. Cornstein used his decades-long friendship with President Trump to help broker a coveted Oval Office meeting for Mr. Orban last May — a meeting now under scrutiny by impeachment investigators in Washington.”

Corporate America Fears Warren’s Rise

Corporate America freaks out over Elizabeth Warren. Politico: “Democratic-leaning executives on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley and across the corporate world are watching Elizabeth Warren’s rise to frontrunner status in the Democratic primary with an increasing sense of existential panic. And they feel mostly paralyzed to do much about it — other than throwing money at other candidates and praying. Warren’s grassroots fundraising prowess shows she doesn’t need big corporate money. She’s got $26 million in the bank. And taking her on directly just makes her stronger with her populist base. Any attack on Warren from the tech or Wall Street worlds just turns into an immediate Warren talking point. When CNBC host Jim Cramer did a piece on money managers freaking out about Warren, the candidate grabbed the clip and tweeted above it: ‘I’m Elizabeth Warren and I approve this message.’ It’s led to fairly widespread frustration that Warren’s rise seems unstoppable. ‘There’s really not a damn thing you can do about Warren. There is nothing,’ said one prominent Wall Street hedge fund manager and Democratic bundler who is raising money for a Warren rival. ‘It’s the same thing Republicans went through with Trump. You look at her and think what she is going to do is going to be horrible for the country. But if you say anything about it you just make her stronger.’”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Tom Conway

American Democracy is Not A Charity Case

America’s very democracy is dying because billionaires amass ever more wealth—and thus ever more political power—while everyone else struggles with less. Less money. But, just as importantly, less clout in government. To preserve a functioning democracy, everyone, including billionaires, must pay a fair share of taxes so that America has the money it desperately needs to address shared priorities, reinvigorate the middle class and repair the social fabric torn by income inequality. And we need real limits on campaign contributions to stop the nation’s slide from democracy, where many have a voice, to oligarchy, where only the rich are heard. In a functioning democracy, everyone gets a voice in these kinds of decisions through proper representation and taxation. Taxes are an obligation for the common welfare. Everyone contributes a fair share so that the pool is big enough for the people—through their duly elected representatives—to address shared priorities, from national defense to public schools. But Americans don’t have an equal voice. And they will never get a just tax policy as along as the rich can buy whatever political policy they want with unchecked campaign contributions and loads of lobbyists. The U.S. Supreme Court gave the rich this gift – the power to spend unlimited amounts on campaign ads and use corporations to inject unlimited dark money into politics. The rich have used piles of money to muffle individuals, even large groups of individuals. Last year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg gave $200 million in Facebook stock to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which asserts: “A healthy democracy is dependent on all community members influencing public policy decisions that affect their lives and neighborhoods.” Zuckerberg’s charity isn’t going to make that true nationwide, however. Americans must change the system corrupted by big money.

Twin Crises As Congress Returns

Trump faces twin crises as Congress returns. Politico: “Congress returns Tuesday to an impeachment inquiry moving into high gear and a rapidly unfolding foreign policy disaster in Syria that’s undermining President Donald Trump’s standing in his own party. House investigators are scheduled to hear crucial testimony this week from several key witnesses in the Ukraine scandal, including Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union and a major GOP donor. And a number of top Trump officials and associates — including Vice President Mike Pence, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney — are facing deadlines this week to comply with Democratic demands for documents related to the president’s efforts to persuade Ukraine to investigate the Biden family. So far, polls show support rising for Trump’s impeachment, yet the public remains ambivalent about actually removing him from office. And the GOP base remains solidly behind Trump, as do Republican lawmakers. For Republicans, Trump’s behavior is growing more unpredictable even as his reelection campaign moves forward, making it harder to defend the president even as their political futures are increasingly tied to his own. Trump’s pullout from Syria, which has left the U.S.-allied Kurds to fend for themselves, has angered Republicans more than any action he’s taken since assuming office in January 2017, rattling the GOP national security and foreign policy establishments to the core.”

Impeachment Inquiry Pace Accelerates

House Democrats tap impeachment gusher. Axios: “The White House is tense — and some aides are frantic — as Democrats on Capitol Hill tap a gusher of revelations that paint an increasingly vivid portrait of President Trump’s unrestrained conduct of foreign policy. Why it matters: Democrats are moving fast. Letters to potential witnesses reveal the breadth and speed at which the inquiry is unfolding, a stark contrast to the Mueller report which stretched over nearly two years. The probe now reaches into the Pentagon, with Democrats sending a letter demanding the appearance of Acting Assistant Defense Secretary for International Security Affairs Kathryn Wheelbarger. Some White House officials are demoralized, amid unusual chaos and uncertainty, even for this West Wing, according to a former top Trump official. ‘Others … are girding for a fight and confident in their boss and the likely political outcome,’ the official said. Mulvaney has complained to people that White House counsel Pat Cipollone is developing the impeachment legal strategy with Trump and not sharing information with key staff. Mulvaney and Cipollone, Trump’s two most vital strategists for impeachment, aren’t getting on, as documented by the Times and others. And tensions are rising between Cipollone and those who think he has been playing this wrong. At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, House Democrats tell Axios that every witness has bolstered the case against Trump, with what Democrats contend is little contradictory evidence. Our takeaways: If everyone agrees to appear, Democrats will have interviewed 11 Trump administration officials by the end of next week.”

Giuliani, Mulvaney Created ‘Shadow Foreign Policy

Bolton objected to Ukraine pressure campaign, calling Giuliani ‘a hand grenade’. NYT “The effort to pressure Ukraine for political help provoked a heated confrontation inside the White House last summer that so alarmed John R. Bolton, then the national security adviser, that he told an aide to alert White House lawyers, House investigators were told on Monday. Mr. Bolton got into a tense exchange on July 10 with Gordon D. Sondland, the Trump donor turned ambassador to the European Union, who was working with Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, to press Ukraine to investigate Democrats, according to three people who heard the testimony. The aide, Fiona Hill, testified that Mr. Bolton told her to notify the chief lawyer for the National Security Council about a rogue effort by Mr. Sondland, Mr. Giuliani and Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, according to the people familiar with the testimony. ‘I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up,’ Mr. Bolton, a Yale-trained lawyer, told Ms. Hill to tell White House lawyers, according to two people at the deposition.”

Immigrants Key To Urban Renewal

The immigrants Trump denounces have helped revive the cities he scorns. NYT: “President Trump has turned repeatedly throughout his tenure and his re-election campaign to two targets: immigrants whom he has described as ‘invading’ the country, and American cities he has called out of control. Through his language, the two are linked. His foils are depicted as violent and infested, and in some deep sense at odds with American values. But to the extent that each presents real policy challenges — how to integrate foreigners, what to do about struggling places — cities and immigrants are intertwined. The president’s two oft-cited problems have historically been solutions to each other. ‘There’s this symbiotic relationship that immigrants need cities in order to acclimate to a new society, and cities need new immigrants,’ said Jacob Vigdor, a professor of public policy at the University of Washington. Research by Dowell Myers at the University of Southern California has shown that immigrants increase home values in sagging markets, and Mr. Vigdor’s work at the county level has shown that their arrival encourages U.S.-born residents to follow, spurring population growth where it had been declining. Other studies have shown that some of the biggest urban crime declines have been in neighborhoods where new immigrants have arrived. That’s most likely because foreign-born residents have lower crime rates than native-born ones, and their population growth in neighborhoods previously full of vacant properties can help restore eyes on the street.”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Judith LeBlanc

Tribal Sovereignty And The Struggle For Democracy In 2020

In Indian Country, we are concerned about the future. From an indigenous point of view, we link our ancestors and the past with the future by how we walk in the present, how we organize our power. We are in a unique position because of our inherent, moral and legal relationship to the federal government based on our treaties. While the majority of Indians live in cities, tribal sovereignty and the fulfillment of treaty rights will have an impact on Indians no matter where they live. Our treaty rights guarantee us healthcare from birth to death, as well as education, housing and caretaking of land. Every movement is grappling with these issues, but we have a special connection as sovereign nations within a nation to the process of achieving those basic human rights for all. In order for democratic processes to be deeper and more effective in the United States, the government must recognize those treaty rights. There is lots of innovation and a struggle for clarity about how we can exercise our collective power to achieve tribal sovereignty and the political power that flows from it. We will never achieve tribal sovereignty unless there is a fight for democracy and a system that recognizes our nation to nation relationship with the federal government. Strategically, Indian Country organizing must be fully engaged in the struggle to defend democracy, which is under attack in every way.

Judith LeBlanc is director of the Native Organizers Alliance, which recently hosted the Frank LaMere Presidential Forum, the first-ever forum with candidates focused on Native nations, in Sioux City, Iowa.

Sanders Unveils ‘Corporate Accountability’ Plan

To Tackle ills of ‘unfettered capitalism,’ Sanders plan would give workers seats on corporate boards and reverse Trump tax cuts. Common Dreams: “Taking aim at the vast inequities produced by America’s business-dominated economic system, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday unveiled a far-reaching proposal that would roll back President Donald Trump’s tax cuts and transfer more power to U.S. workers by giving them seats on corporate boards and ownership shares in their companies.’The establishment tells us there is no alternative to unfettered capitalism, that this is how the system and globalization work and there’s no turning back. They are dead wrong,’ Sanders, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, writes on his website. ‘The truth is that we can and we must develop new economic models to create jobs and increase wages and productivity across America.’ ‘Instead of giving huge tax breaks to large corporations that ship our jobs to China and other low-wage countries, we need to give workers an ownership stake in the companies they work for, a say in the decision-making process that impacts their lives, and a fair share of the profits that their work makes possible in the first place,’ said the Vermont senator.”

TX Police Shooting Sparks Outrage

Hundreds join family to honor slain woman and protest Fort Worth police. Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “The family of a 28-year-old woman fatally shot by Fort Worth police early Saturday morning gathered Sunday outside their home where she was shot, holding candles in a vigil. Several hundred people stood with them. Sunday night’s vigil for Atatiana Jefferson was emotional — some yelled in anger while speakers addressed the crowd. Others cried when the family’s attorney, S. Lee Merritt, described Jefferson as a tomboy who wanted to go back to medical school. Starting at 7 p.m., the crowd at the intersection of Mississippi Avenue and Allen Avenue listened to various church leaders and community activists talk about Jefferson. She liked to take the sticker off fruit and put it on her forehead — she was silly that way, Merritt said. She also liked to play video games with her 8-year-old nephew. That was what she was doing when Fort Worth police got a call at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday from a concerned neighbor who said her front door was open. Two officers responded to the house in the 1200 block of East Allen Avenue and went into the backyard. One looked through the window and yelled, “Put your hands up! Show me your hands!” He did not identify himself as an officer before he fired, killing Jefferson in the same room as her nephew, according to police.”

ICE Poultry Plant Raids Cripple MS Town

Months after ICE raids, rural MS town is still reeling. The Intercept: “Migdalia couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat. Her whole body ached. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with me,’ she told her children. She thinks the pains began in late June, around the time that President Donald Trump announced massive immigration raids across the country. On August 7, the day Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers stormed her workplace, her feet ached. ‘I could feel it coming, that’s what was happening to me,’ Migdalia said, her electronic ankle bracelet flickering on her leg. For 14 years, Migdalia had been slicing chicken breasts and pulling entrails at the chicken processing plant at Koch Foods Inc. in Morton, Mississippi. She was arrested there in August, as ICE targeted seven factories owned by five different chicken companies around Mississippi, taking with them 687 workers, almost all of whom were undocumented Hispanics. It was the largest immigration raid in history in a single state. Two months later, some 300 people who were arrested in that raid remain detained at two ICE centers in Louisiana. The majority have not yet had the opportunity to defend themselves in front of an immigration judge. Among them, about 90 people have been charged in criminal courts with a count of identity theft, for working with Social Security numbers that were not theirs. None of the companies targeted in the raid have been charged with immigration or labor law violations.”

UAW Calls Mack Truck Strike In Three States

UAW calls strike of 3,600 workers at Mack Truck plants in 3 states. Detroit Free Press: “More than 3,600 hourly workers at Mack Trucks Inc., in Florida, Maryland and Pennsylvania went out strike at six plants at 11:59 p.m. Saturday seeking “fair pay and benefits,” the UAW confirmed early Sunday. ‘UAW members get up every day and put in long, hard hours of work from designing to building Mack trucks,’ Ray Curry, secretary-treasurer of the UAW and director of the Heavy Truck Department, said in a prepared statement. ‘UAW members carry on their shoulders the profits of Mack and they are simply asking for dignity, fair pay and job protections.’ This strike comes in the middle of a national strike of 46,000 UAW members striking General Motors in 10 states and 55 locations. The GM strike, which began Sept. 16, has dragged on so long that Wall Street has suggested it could harm the automaker’s credit rating if not resolved soon. Talks in Detroit after four weeks of picketing are said to be making progress. The UAW also called a strike of 850 maintenance workers employed by Aramark at five GM sites in Michigan and Ohio. That strike started 24 hours before autoworkers went out. All UAW strikers now qualify for $275 a week strike pay from the UAW, up from $250 a week ago. The Detroit-based union started the strike on GM with about $800 million in the strike fund and notes there’s plenty of money to sustain workers for the long haul.”

Pence Wants Indiana’s Punitive Medicaid Model To Go Nationwide

Mike Pence wants Indiana’s punitive form of Medicaid to become a national model. Truthout: “Before Pence ascended to the national stage as Vice President, and he recruited his longtime ally Seema Verma to lead the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, they together crafted a unique Indiana approach to Medicaid. Their goal was to reshape the 54-year-old program into something far smaller and more punitive. The Healthy Indiana Plan, they promised, would demand ‘skin in the game’ from enrollees like Rhonda Cree. Medicaid works as a federal-state partnership, with the federal government paying most of the cost and the states agreeing to follow guidelines set at the national level. All U.S. states have agreed to the terms, and Medicaid accounts for almost one-fifth of the country’s personal healthcare spending. The platform for Pence and Verma’s ambitious remodeling of Medicaid was provided by the Affordable Care Act of 2010’s invitation to states to significantly expand their Medicaid coverage. Under the ACA, all adults in households whose income is less than 133% of the federal poverty level, a little under $17,000/year for an individual, would be eligible for Medicaid. the ACA included a tantalizing offer for Indiana and other states: if they expanded Medicaid coverage as the new law called for, the feds would pay the full cost of the initial expansion, and 90% of the cost after that. Pence’s constituents, most notably the well-connected leaders of Indiana hospital systems that would benefit from more of their patients being covered by Medicaid, pushed him to accept the deal. Caught between his ideology and political pressure, Pence turned for help to Verma, a former Indiana hospital administrator who had launched her own consulting firm. Verma had already gained a reputation for taking a conservative approach to public healthcare systems, earning contracts from multiple state agencies and private companies. At Pence’s request, Verma took the lead in crafting a version of Medicaid expansion that would look less like a government program than a high-deductible insurance plan offered by the for-profit insurance industry. The Healthy Indiana Plan, Pence promised, would be a ‘hand-up, not a hand-out.’ It would demand healthy behaviors and personal responsibility from low-income Hoosiers, or they would face dire consequences.”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Sasha Abramsky

HUD Is Planning a Bureaucratic Pogrom Against Public Housing Tenants

Donald Trump’s Department of Housing and Urban Development is proposing rule changes that would upset decades of settled policy. Under the proposed new rules, if a single member of a family lacks legal status, the entire family can be evicted within 18 months. Quite apart from its cruelty, the policy is utterly impractical—and costly. It is almost guaranteed to have expensive health, educational, and employment consequences. This is, quite simply, government-sponsored vandalism in furtherance of Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda. “We don’t know how many of those folks have family or what everyone will do,” says Bill Przylucki, the executive director of POWER. “But a lot of people don’t have a plan. And we don’t have low-income housing stock to absorb these folks.” In the late spring and early summer, groups like Przylucki’s coordinated a large-scale response during the public comment period that’s required before any proposed rule change may be published in the Federal Register. More than 30,000 comments were filed by individuals, community groups, public health and housing experts, educators, and so on. And of the comments the NHLP has analyzed so far, the overwhelming majority were firmly opposed to the changes.

People United for West Side Renewal (POWER-LA) is a People’s Action member group in Los Angeles, California. Read the full article in The Nation.

Trump’s Border Plan: Shoot Them In The Legs

Shoot migrants’ legs, build alligator moat: behind Trump’s ideas for border. NYT: “The Oval Office meeting this past March began, as so many had, with President Trump fuming about migrants. But this time he had a solution. As White House advisers listened astonished, he ordered them to shut down the entire 2,000-mile border with Mexico — by noon the next day. The advisers feared the president’s edict would trap American tourists in Mexico, strand children at schools on both sides of the border and create an economic meltdown in two countries. Yet they also knew how much the president’s zeal to stop immigration had sent him lurching for solutions, one more extreme than the next. Privately, the president had often talked about fortifying a border wall with a water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators, prompting aides to seek a cost estimate. He wanted the wall electrified, with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh. After publicly suggesting that soldiers shoot migrants if they threw rocks, the president backed off when his staff told him that was illegal. But later in a meeting, aides recalled, he suggested that they shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down.”

Johnson & Johnson Agrees To Opioid Settlement

In opioid settlement, Johnson & Johnson agrees to pay Ohio counties $20 million. NPR: “Johnson & Johnson and two Ohio counties have reached a tentative $20.4 million settlement that removes the corporation from the first federal lawsuit against opioid manufacturers, scheduled to begin later this month. In a statement released Tuesday, the healthcare giant said the agreement with Cleveland’s Cuyahoga and Akron’s Summit counties allows it “to avoid the resource demands and uncertainty of a trial.” However, the terms stipulate that Johnson & Johnson makes “no admission of liability.” In 2017, Ohio had the nation’s second highest per capita rate of fatal opioid overdoses, with 46.3 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. West Virginia had the highest rate at 57.8 per 100,000, the CDC said. In August, the drug maker was ordered to pay $572 million in a case in Oklahoma, which blamed Johnson & Johnson for helping fuel the opioid crisis in the state. The company has appealed the ruling. The case involving the Ohio counties is the first federal case to be brought against pharmaceutical companies and is therefore seen as potentially setting precedent for how similar suits will be handled. Four other drug makers have already settled ahead of the Oct. 21 trial, but McKesson Corp., AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. and Henry Schein Inc. are still listed as defendants, according to Reuters.”

Court Freezes GA’s 6-Week Abortion Ban

Court freezes Georgia’s 6-week abortion ban. Politico: “A federal judge in Atlanta on Tuesday temporarily blocked a Georgia law banning abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat can be detected — one of the strictest curbs of its kind in the nation and one of a series passed by Republican-led legislatures earlier this year. ‘Because the constitutional liberty of the woman to have some freedom to terminate her pregnancy is implicated here, and because a preliminary injunction preserves the status quo, the public interest factor weighs in favor of Plaintiffs,’ wrote U.S. District Court Judge Steve Jones. The injunction puts the law on hold while a broader challenge to its constitutionality plays out. The law also conferred full legal rights on fetuses but did not give guidance on how to implement that change under Georgia laws, a provision those challenging the law argued was vague and could be enforced in arbitrary and discriminatory ways.”

Sanders Plans Tax On Corporate CEOs

Sanders unveils plan to tax companies with high-earning CEOs. Politico: “Bernie Sanders has a new plan to reduce the widening gap between the rich and poor. The presidential candidate and decadeslong crusader against income inequality unveiled a proposal Monday to raise taxes on businesses whose CEOs make at least 50 times more than their median workers. The boost in corporate taxes would be imposed on companies that bring in $100 million or more in annual revenue. ‘The American people are sick and tired of corporate CEOs who now make 300 times more than their average employees, while they give themselves huge bonuses and cut back on the health care and pension benefits of their employees,’ Sanders said in a statement. ‘It is time to send a message to corporate America: If you do not end your greed and corruption, we will end it for you.’ According to government data released this month, income inequality in the U.S. is at its highest point in at least 50 years. Sanders also introduced a wealth tax plan last week in hopes of lessening the nation’s divide in fortunes. His presidential primary opponent Sen. Elizabeth Warren proposed a wealth tax early this year. Both candidates have expressed support for wealth taxes before this year.”

State Dept. IG Meets With Impeachment Committees

State Department inspector general to meet with Hill committees Wednesday. WaPo: “The State Department inspector general and two former state officials agreed to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told House Democrats on Tuesday that State Department officials scheduled to appear this week for depositions before committees conducting the impeachment inquiry would not show up. Meanwhile, the president is bringing the rhetorical heavy artillery to the most serious challenge to his presidency in nearly three tumultuous, norm-busting, warp-speed years in office. In Tuesday night tweets, Trump escalated his attacks on Democrats, arguing that ‘what is taking place is not an impeachment, it is a COUP.’ Expanding on the lexicon of outrage and victimhood honed during the probe into Russian interference in the last election, Trump is invoking the muskets-and-ramparts idioms of the country’s beginnings. The ratcheting up of his rhetoric is also indicative of Trump’s tendency to interpret any criticism of him as an attack on the government, worrying critics and scholars who warn of the dangers posed by his l’état, c’est moi call to arms.”

Warren Plans Tax On Corporate Lobbying

Warren outlines tax on federal lobbying. The Hill: “Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a 2020 White House hopeful, on Wednesday announced a plan to ‘end lobbying as we know it’ with a proposed tax on any corporation or organization that spends more than $500,000 annually in lobbying the federal government. Her plan calls for a 35 percent tax rate on corporations and organizations spending between $500,000 and $1 million on lobbying, 60 percent for those spending between $1 million and $5 million, and 75 percent on all spending over $5 million. ‘Corporate lobbyists are experts at killing widely popular policies behind closed doors,’ Warren wrote in announcing the proposal. She presidential candidate has focused much of her presidential campaign on government corruption and social inequality. A previously announced anti-corruption plan would prohibit most federal officials from serving as lobbyists after leaving the government, prevent lobbyists from donating to candidates and ban lobbying in Washington on behalf of foreign entities.”

Global Climate Fight Is Local

The fight to stop the climate crisis is local. Common Dreams: “Everywhere the global #ClimateStrike movement exists, the fight to protect ourselves from fossil fuel extraction and climate injustice is personal and lives at home in our communities. I participated in the historical week of Global Climate Strikes, where an estimated 7.6 million people took to the streets across the world to demand real action on climate. As I stood looking at sign after sign from diverse youth as young as ten years old unapologetically demanding an end to the era of fossil fuels, I truly felt that the change we’ve been demanding for decades would finally be possible. We’re at a turning point where a blossoming and growing multigenerational and multiracial climate movement is calling for social and economic transformation that is rooted in justice. The September 20th global climate strikes was the slingshot into a week of continued momentum across the U.S. in towns and cities everywhere. These actions show that the work is everywhere, with clear targets from the fossil fuel industry to financial institutions to local government. Communities are applying national demands put together by youth ahead of the U.S. strikes to the local level, and they are applying pressure until we win.”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Tobita Chow

How The U.S. Left Should Approach China

While Trump’s trade war with China threatens to trigger a global recession, Trump is reacting by continuing his economic attacks as well as blaming supposed internal enemies, such as the “fake news media.” This emerging feedback loop between deepening nationalism and economic dysfunction is reminiscent of dynamics that led to World War II. To halt our descent into this abyss, and to defeat Trump, we must reject this false choice between Trump’s anti-China protectionism and the “free trade” status quo that preceded him. The way forward is not mutual attacks on each other’s economies. Instead, in solidarity with labor activists in China, we should demand U.S. politicians commit to ending the trade war and renewing trade negotiations centered on global standards for wages, working conditions and labor rights to improve living conditions and create jobs in the United States, China and beyond.

Tobita Chow is the director of Justice Is Global, a special project of People’s Action that is building a movement to create a more just and sustainable global economy and defeat right-wing nationalism around the world.

New Impeachment Revelations

New revelations shed light on Trump-Ukraine call. CBS: “A series of rapid-fire developments brought the House impeachment inquiry into clearer focus Monday afternoon, with Democrats issuing new demands for evidence and new revelations about the circumstances of the president’s call with Ukraine coming to light. Just before 4 p.m., three House committees announced they had subpoenaed Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, for documents related to his work on behalf of President Trump to persuade Ukraine to open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden. Shortly after the subpoena was announced, The Wall Street Journal reported Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on the July 25 call between the president and the Ukrainian leader. CBS News has confirmed Pompeo was on the call. The New York Times reported Mr. Trump had called the prime minister of Australia to request assistance in the Justice Department review. The call came at the behest of Attorney General William Barr. A Justice Department official then told CBS News that Barr had asked Mr. Trump to reach out to a number of foreign officials to request their assistance in his review, which is being led by the U.S. attorney in Connecticut. A source familiar with the matter said Barr traveled to Italy as part of his effort, and The Washington Post reported he has also reached out to intelligence officials in the United Kingdom.”

MS City Claims Immigrant Killed By Police ‘Had No Constitutional Rights’

Mississippi city claims undocumented man killed by police had no constitutional rights. Common Dreams: “A court filing publicized late last week drew outrage on Monday over the case of Ismael Lopez, a 41-year-old man who was killed by police two years ago in Southaven, Mississippi. To avoid responsibility for the man’s death, attorneys for the city are arguing that Lopez had no constitutional rights due to his status as an undocumented immigrant—blatantly contradicting U.S. law and numerous rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court. Lopez was shot in the back of the head when the police came to his home, where he’d lived for 16 years, in July 2017. His widow, Claudia Linares, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Southaven this past summer, a year after a grand jury declined to indict the two officers involved in his death. Southaven officials argued in a court filing revealed late last week that Lopez did not have Fourth Amendment or 14th Amendment rights—leaving him without protection from unreasonable search and seizures or equal protection under law. ‘If [Lopez] ever had Fourth Amendment or 14th Amendment civil rights, they were lost by his own conduct and misconduct,’ reads the court filing. ‘Ismael Lopez may have been a person on American soil but he was not one of the ‘We, the People of the United States’ entitled to the civil rights invoked in this lawsuit.’”

Sanders, Buttegieg, Booker Surpass Fundraising Goals

Sanders raises $25.3 million in third quarter, campaign says. The Hill: “Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) raised more than $25 million over the past three months, his presidential campaign said Tuesday, eclipsing his fundraising total from the second quarter of the year. Sanders’s $25.3 million haul was fueled by some 1.4 million donations and bolstered by a strong final day of fundraising on Monday, which the campaign was its second-best day for donations since its launch in February. Sanders’s $25.3 million third-quarter haul surpassed at least one of his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination. South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s campaign announced early Tuesday that he had raised roughly $19.1 million in the last three months, short of the $24.8 million he raised in the second quarter. Another Democratic hopeful, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), said on Monday that he had raised more than $2 million in the last 10 days of September. He had previously warned that he would exit the presidential race if he did not raise at least $1.7 million by the end of the month. He has not yet disclosed his full third-quarter fundraising haul.”

Trump Plans Medicare Cuts By Executive Order

Trump’s executive order to “save” Medicare will likely push more cuts. Truthout: “Progressives responded with a mixture of alarm and ridicule to news that President Donald Trump is planning later this week to sign an executive order to ‘protect’ Medicare, a government-run program, from ‘socialist destruction.’ The Washington Post reported that the executive order, which Trump is set to unveil Thursday during a trip to Florida, is part of a concerted attack on the push for Medicare for All, a proposal championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and backed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Observers said Trump’s planned executive order is reminiscent of the infamous ‘keep your government hands off my Medicare’ line that was shouted at a Republican lawmaker during a town hall in 2009, in the heat of the fight over the Affordable Care Act. While the full details of the executive order have not yet been released to the public, the Post reported that the order could call for further privatization of Medicare by expanding ‘plans offered through Medicare Advantage.’ Progressives warned that, as with Republican calls to ‘save’ Social Security, Trump’s executive order could mean attempted cuts to the crucial program, which covers tens of millions of elderly Americans and people with disabilities.”

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