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Bernie Sanders on new Trump immigration ad: ‘It is really sad’

Sen. Bernie Sanders denounced a web ad recently put out by President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, which called Democrats “complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants.”

“It is really unbelievable and so sad for our country that we have a President of the United States that says such nonsense and such outrageous statements,” the Vermont Independent, who caucuses with Democrats, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday morning.

The ad was released hours into the government shutdown. The largest point of contention between political parties that led to the government shutdown was immigration policy — including the funding for a proposed border wall and the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which has protected undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children from deportation.

“They need a path toward citizenship,” Sanders said, referring to the beneficiaries of DACA, known as Dreamers. “Then you see a President put something like that on the air, trying to divide us up, trying to foment hatred. It is really sad.”

Bernie Sanders On Government Shutdown (Audio @ Link)

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

And now we return to our main story, the government shutdown. Bernie Sanders is the independent senator from Vermont, and he joins us now. Good morning, sir.

BERNIE SANDERS: Good morning.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You want Republicans to make a deal on DACA, people who are brought to this country illegally as children. But how much of a deal are you willing to make on legal immigration?

SANDERS: Well, I believe that we need comprehensive immigration reform that has to include 800,000 DREAMers, young people who are brought into this country as infants, but it has to go beyond that. But what this shutdown is about is most certainly not just the DREAMers. We are into almost four months of the fiscal year, and Republicans have not yet given us a budget, an annual budget. And this is not the way you run a $4 trillion entity which is called the United States government. Just the other day, the United States Armed Forces, the Pentagon, the secretary of defense said it is impossible for him to do his job. It is responsible. It is wasteful. It is dangerous for the Pentagon if they don’t have an…

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Sure. We…

SANDERS: …Annual budget. We have got to give it to them.

‘Billionaire Boom’: While World’s Richest 1% Took 82% of All New Wealth in 2017, Bottom Half Got Zero, Zilch, Nada

Call it the ‘Year of the Billionaire.’

In 2017, a new billionaire was created every two days and while 82 percent of all wealth created went to the top 1 percent of the world’s richest while zero percent—absolutely nothing—went to the poorest half of the global population.

That troubling information is included in Oxfam’s latest report on global inequality—titled Reward Work, Not Wealth (pdf)—released Monday. In addition to the above, the report details how skyrocketing wealth growth among the already rich coupled with stagnant wages and persistent poverty among the lowest economic rungs of society means that just 42 individuals now hold as much wealth as the 3.7 billion poorest people on the planet.

“The billionaire boom is not a sign of a thriving economy but a symptom of a failing economic system,” Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam’s executive director of Oxfam International. “The people who make our clothes, assemble our phones and grow our food are being exploited to ensure a steady supply of cheap goods, and swell the profits of corporations and billionaire investors.”

US shutdown: White House phone message blames Democrats

Donald Trump is not taking your calls to the White House at the moment

Members of the public phoning the White House during the US government shutdown are being played a recorded message blaming congressional Democrats for the fact that their call cannot be taken.

People calling the White House telephone comment line 202-456-1111 received the following recorded message:

Thank you for calling the White House. Unfortunately, we cannot answer your call today, because congressional Democrats are holding government funding, including funding for our troops and other national security priorities, hostage to an unrelated immigration debate. Due to this obstruction, the government is shut down. In the meantime, you can leave a comment for the president at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact. We look forward to taking your calls as soon as the government reopens.

WOMEN’S MARCH 2018 CALLS ON WHITE WOMEN TO GIVE BLACK WOMEN A SEAT AT THE TABLE

Black women are the next powerhouse force in American politics—and the Women’s March wants to help them be front and center in 2018 and beyond.

Speakers at this year’s “Power to the Polls” event on Sunday in Las Vegas gave special attention to women of color and black women especially, whose contributions to the feminist movement they said have been ignored and pushed to the side for too long.

“This march is being led by women of color,” Nina Turner, the president of Our Revolution, a Democratic political action organization, told a roaring crowd. “But…let me put a special message out to black women: Don’t let anyone make you feel marginalized. If you feel you aren’t getting the respect you deserve, do what [Congresswoman] Shirley Chisholm did—don’t just bring your own seat, kick down the door.”

Women’s March co-chair Carmen Perez put out a similar call to action, focusing on white women’s responsibility to create space for people of color within the movement and in the political arena.

“If you don’t see your community at the table, make sure to pull up a chair,” Perez said. “And if you’re white, scootch your chair over a little. Make room for us.”

#WomensMarch2018 #Dallas pic.twitter.com/a7NOBtYwEK

— TheProgressiveWing (@ProgressiveWing) January 21, 2018

As Washington Inflames Tensions in Syria, Turkey Launches Airstrikes Against U.S.-Backed Kurdish Forces

Trump critics this weekend tied the administration’s decision to continue U.S. military presence in Syria to Turkey’s aggressive bombing of U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in the country’s northern region.

Dozens of Turkish jets bombed more than 100 targets on Saturday as members of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army crossed into the Kurdish-controlled area of Afrin and fought militias there. At least eight people were killed.

The fighting came days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the U.S., Turkey’s NATO ally, of “insisting on forming a terror army on our borders” in response to the Trump administration’s plan to arm and train 30,000 Kurdish forces.

“Our mission is to strangle it before it’s even born,” Erdogan warned last week.

The Immigration Debate We Must Not Lose byJames Zogby

“As I look at the Republicans who are leading the charge against immigration, I see descendants of Germans, Irish, Italians, and Jews—all of whom were once reviled, locked out, and victims of bigotry.”

Trump Administration Turns ICE Into Tool for Political Repression

The Trump administration has emboldened ICE, opening up immigration rights activists to any efforts by ICE to remove the very people who are successfully campaigning against their abuses of power

Class war in the American west: the rich landowners blocking access to public lands

Private landowners present a rising threat to the millions of acres set aside for public use by blocking access to public lands

Women Aren’t Just Marching Against Trump—They’re Running Against Trumpism By John Nichols

As women take the lead in flipping Republican statehouse seats to the Democrats, candidates like Maine’s Diane Russell are eyeing governorships.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Reflects On The #MeToo Movement: ‘It’s About Time’

When Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg began her legal crusade, women were treated differently than men by law. By the time she first put on judicial robes she had already worked a judicial revolution.

Today the issues are both the same and different. At front and center is the question of sexual harassment.

At the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday, Ginsburg had this to say about the #MeToo movement: “It’s about time. For so long women were silent, thinking there was nothing you could do about it, but now the law is on the side of women, or men, who encounter harassment and that’s a good thing.”

Ginsburg isn’t worried that the #MeToo movement might cause a backlash against women. “So far it’s been great,” she said. “When I see women appearing every place in numbers, I’m less worried about a backlash than I might have been 20 years ago.”

Ginsburg recalled moments from her time as both a student and teacher when she experienced sexism and how she handled it. “Every woman of my vintage knows what sexual harassment is, although we didn’t have a name for it,” Ginsburg said.

The DNC promised $10M to rebuild state parties. It has not delivered

Last July, eight months after the Democratic Party experienced one of its most devastating defeats in history, DNC chairman Tom Perez announced an “unprecedented” rebuild of the party from the ground up with a $10 million fund dedicated to state parties. That fund could provide hundreds of thousands of dollars to each state party, an enormous sum for often cash-strapped organizations.

That money hasn’t arrived.

In fact, the DNC didn’t even have $10 million on hand as of November 30 and declined to comment on whether it had the money now. And even if it did, it wouldn’t distribute the money right away, frustrating state party officials who are anxious about the coming midterm elections and describe the effort to rebuild as slow and halting.

“What our fear is, is that no matter how high this wave is in 2018, that we won’t have the ability to take advantage of that and win governors races, congressional races, and state legislative races that would normally be out of reach but could be competitive,” Ray Buckley, the chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, who ran for DNC chairman against Perez last year, told VICE News.

Our Revolution endorses Veronica Escobar for congressional seat

Our Revolution El Paso has endorsed former county judge Veronica Escobar for the Democratic primary for the 16th Congressional District seat.

The endorsement came after a forum was hosted at Cafe Mayapan where six congressional candidates answered questions on varying issues from immigration to health care.

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Our Revolution is a nation-wide progressive organization formed after the 2016 presidential elections. The organization was founded in order to continue the momentum built up by presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and advocate for the issues he campaigned on.

“I am honored to have the support and endorsement of Our Revolution who shares my passion and dedication to ending income inequality and standing up for our border communities,” said Escobar in a press release. “Fighting for healthcare for all, ending gender inequality and establishing quality care for our Veterans are just a few of the issues I will continue to champion alongside Our Revolution as we work to strengthen our democracy so that it works for everybody.”

Pence, in Jerusalem, Says Honoured to Be in ‘Israel’s Capital’

.S. Vice President Mike Pence pointedly referred to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on Monday as he met the country’s leader, further vexing Palestinians who have already snubbed his visit over a U.S. policy shift towards the holy city.

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On Monday he said he was honoured to be “in Israel’s capital, Jerusalem” at the start of talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Echoing that sentiment, Netanyahu told the vice president. “This is the first time that I stand here where both leaders can say those three words: ‘Israel’s capital Jerusalem.'”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has called the declaration a “slap in the face”, left for an overseas visit before the vice president’s arrival.

“The American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the occupation are illegitimate. The American administration must not contribute to escalating the situation further,” said Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Abbas, after Pence’s remarks.

Dem challenger slams Paul Ryan for $500k thank-you from Kochs after GOP tax scam

Paul Ryan passed a 1.5 trillion dollar tax bill that takes from working people to give to the super rich.

Days later, he got $500,000 in Koch contributions.https://t.co/mctzh9RYu8

— Randy Bryce (@IronStache) January 21, 2018

The Former Obama Staffer Fighting to Be the First Muslim Woman in Congress

As the 2016 presidential election approached, Fayrouz Saad was ready; she’d already bought her plane tickets to DC to attend what she thought would be America’s first presidential inauguration of a woman.

But Saad—like the majority of the country, of course—found herself disappointed with the results as they rolled in on November 8, 2016. By the end of the night, she had plane tickets to DC for an event that wouldn’t be happening and a future president who ran on a platform opposing everything she stood for.

Saad is the 34-year-old Muslim daughter of Lebanese immigrants, a former Obama administration employee, and an “unapologetic progressive.” She’s also a 2018 candidate for Congress representing Michigan’s 11th District.

Instead of giving up her DC plane tickets, Saad used them to attend the 2017 Women’s March on Washington, which took place the day after Trump was elected. “I came out of that march and out of that entire experience certainly renewed in my beliefs,” she tells Broadly. “I knew I wanted to certainly do something to push back against the administration, to fight back against what [Trump] represented, and to fight for these progressive values and issues.”

‘Grab ’em by the midterms’: Sacramento Women’s March looks to November election

A year ago, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg stood on the Capitol steps and vented his frustration about Donald Trump’s election with 20,000 gloomy protesters at the city’s first Women’s March.

On Saturday, he noticed a different feeling in a pink-hatted crowd of more than 30,000 as he stood in the same place for the city’s second Women’s March.

This time, the marchers seemed to think they had the muscle to check Trump by winning in upcoming elections that could flip the balance of power in the House of Representatives.

“A year ago we wondered how bad it would be, and it certainly has lived up to expectations,” he said. “But we are stronger, too. We have resisted and we have organized.”

The Candidate Who Plans to Be the First Native American Woman in Congress

Deb Haaland is running for a seat in Congress representing New Mexico’s District 1. She’s also an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna. If she wins, she’ll be the first indigenous woman in Congress in US history—and reaching that milestone is one of the main motivators behind her campaign.

“I just felt like my voice—considering the fact that we’ve never had a Native American woman in Congress—might be a voice at the table that Congress has never heard,” she tells Broadly, “I could bring something significant to decision making.”

Haaland is not new to such firsts. In 2015, she was elected as the chair of New Mexico’s Democratic Party and subsequently became the first Native American woman in the US to chair a state party. Immediately after finishing her term as state chair in April of last year, she announced her decision to run for a seat in the US House of Representatives. The decision came after current representative Michelle Lujan Grisham announced that she would be running for governor of New Mexico come 2018, instead of seeking reelection.

While serving as New Mexico’s Democratic Party Chairwoman, Haaland led the party through several victories: they increased their seats in the Senate, won two out of three statewide elections, and made New Mexico one of only two states to flip their state house blue. These victories, she says, came partly because she encouraged New Mexicans to hold Trump and the GOP accountable for their actions. If she could do it with her state party, why not try to do the same in Congress?

Prigg says struggles in poverty fuel his run for 12th Congressional District seat

Democratic 12th Congressional District primary candidate Tom Prigg brought a progressive platform to his town hall meeting Thursday in the city, saying his message will resonate with voters looking for an alternative to U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus.

Prigg, a brain research associate at Carnegie Mellon University and a former Army sniper from McCandless Township, repeatedly recalled growing up in poverty in Washington County and shared how that has spurred his campaign.

“I felt like we were forgotten. I felt like everything was a struggle and I had to work 10 times harder than everybody else. I felt like there was really no chance of ever breaking out,” Prigg said, explaining that he joined the military and used his benefits to attend college.

“Today, though, it’s 40 years later and I don’t see anything changing. In fact, what I see is our country slipping back to those kinds of conditions,” Prigg told about 40 people in the Franklin Center on Aliquippa’s Franklin Avenue. “I see kids losing (Children’s Health Insurance Program) coverage. I see Social Security is now being threatened. Medicare is being threatened. Healthcare, threatened. I see wages not going up. I see jobs getting worse.”

Prigg is one of four candidates seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Rothfus, R-12, Sewickley, in the November general election. The primary election is May 15.

After Selling Cable Company, Ned Lamont is ‘All In’

Ever since he burst onto the stage of Connecticut political life more than a decade ago, Ned Lamont has been known as the Greenwich cable television entrepreneur who was seeking statewide office.

But since losing the 2010 governor’s race to Democrat Dannel P. Malloy, Lamont quietly stepped back from his cable company before eventually selling it.

Now Lamont, 64, is devoting more than full time hours in an attempt to win the wide-open race to succeed Malloy as Connecticut’s next governor.

“I’m doing this 120 percent,’’ Lamont told Capitol Watch. “You’ve got to earn this. I’m in this thing all in.’’

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Once again, Lamont will be spending his own money on the race, but it will be done in a hybrid fashion along with small contributions. He will not accept public financing, which can provide the party nominees with $6 million each in the general election under an updated law that was signed on Halloween that strips out increases for inflation.

“What I’m going to do is raise more small-money donations than anyone in this race,’’ Lamont said in an interview. “Small-money donations. Bernie Sanders donations.’’

If the reasoning is true, this is pretty petty… the guy had pre-commitments with possible constituents. If anything a compromise of a video message/live stream appearance/etc should have been worked out… or deny the endorsement based off of a policy issue like the TPP fasttrack vote mentioned in the second article in this mini-thread

Texas AFL-CIO declines to endorse O’Rourke after he misses convention

The political arm of the Texas AFL-CIO has declined to endorse U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso, in his campaign to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, after O’Rourke did not appear at its convention this weekend in Austin.

On Sunday, the labor group released a list of statewide candidates it had decided to support, and it offered no endorsement in the Senate race. The group’s constitution requires two-thirds support to endorse a candidate, and O’Rourke did not make the cut, said Rick Levy, the president of the Texas AFL-CIO.

“I think that our members don’t like to be just taken for granted,” Levy told The Texas Tribune. “Just because you have a D or an R behind your name doesn’t determine whether you’ll have our support.”

O’Rourke said in an interview that his campaign had tried to find a way for him to make it to the convention, but he was unable to attend because he had previously scheduled campaign events elsewhere in the state. He ended up canceling those events, though, because he was stuck in Washington, D.C., over the weekend due to the government shutdown.

O’Rourke noted the AFL-CIO gave him a 100 percent rating on his voting record in 2016, and his lifetime score is 95 percent. Cruz, on the other hand, got 67 percent in 2016 and 12 percent overall.

“It’s on me to further develop and strengthen those relationships and if anybody feels they’re being taken for granted, that’s on me to fix,” said O’Rourke, who faces two little-known opponents in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. “I’m just going to do a better job reaching out and trying to work with the members of the AFL-CIO.”

Trump administration could be sued over pesticide threat to orca and salmon

A female orca breaches in Puget Sound. The unique resident population has lost eight of its 76 members in the last 18 months.

Commercial fishermen and environmental groups could file lawsuits against the Trump administration, if it fails to follow a recommendation by one of its own agencies to protect salmon, sturgeon, orca and other endangered species in the Pacific north-west.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) recently issued a long-awaited opinion on three organophosphate pesticides – chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion.

It did so after a long court fight. Environmental groups sought publication of the opinion while the Trump administration, supported by pesticide manufacturers, pushed for a two-year delay.

The 3,700-page federal report was issued on 29 December. The scientists warned that the widely used pesticides pose a threat, through run-off into rivers and oceans, to dozens of endangered and threatened species.

They also made detailed recommendations to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for new restrictions on how and where the pesticides can be sprayed.

In March 2017, however, the EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, reversed an Obama-era effort to ban the use of chlorpyrifos on fruits and vegetables. Peer-reviewed academic studies have found the pesticide can hinder the development of children’s brains, even at tiny levels of exposure.

Citizens to protest PennEast Pipeline Monday

Citizens, elected officials and homeowners along the route of the proposed PennEast pipeline are to gather on Monday, Jan. 22, in protest of the conditional approval of the pipeline issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission late Friday evening.

According to a news release, the protest will take place at Hoff Farm at 892 Sergeantsville Road (Route 523) in Stockton at 4 p.m. Overflow parking will be at 112 Woman Road in Stockton.

““The federal review of PennEast was a complete sham,” said Hopewell Township Mayor Kevin Kuchinski in a statement. “The fight to stop this unneeded pipeline is now on our turf, where New Jersey’s strong authority to protect its residents and environment can be used to hold PennEast fully accountable to the law.”

The Commission issued a conditional approval, but PennEast still needs permits from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and the Delaware River Basin Commission in order to construct the pipeline.

“Taking private property for an unneeded and harmful pipeline, that is not in the public interest, is un-American,” said Vince DiBianca, member of Homeowners Against Land Taking (HALT) PennEast, in a statement. “As impacted homeowners, we are bound-and-determined to stop it and will consider every legal tool at our disposal.”

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline points the wrong way to energy’s future

Duke Energy and other advocates for building the Atlantic Coast Pipeline have come up with a peculiar new justification for the $5 billion project – climate change.

They say this winter’s record-setting run of sub-freezing temperatures led to a spike in natural gas demand and prices that shows the value of expanding the region’s access to natural gas.

Duke Energy’s North Carolina President David Fountain said in a recent op-ed, “The sustained record cold temperatures were a stark reminder of how important this project is for North Carolina families and businesses. The heavy demand to heat residential homes, hospitals and industrial buildings to protect from the freeze caused natural gas prices to soar due to constrained delivery infrastructure.”

The point has a surface logic, but it fails upon deeper examination.

Despite the claims of climate-change deniers, colder winters do not refute global warming, they reflect it. Scientists explain that a loss of arctic ice caused by a warming atmosphere weakens wind patterns that normally keep the arctic air mass farther north. That change allows arctic air to come farther south, thus the record lows in North Carolina even as the overall atmosphere is warming. That brings us to the irony of Duke Energy citing the blast of extra cold air as a reason to increase the burning of fossil fuels that cause global warming.

Bayou Bridge Pipeline Faces Mounting Legal Challenges in Louisiana

Though Energy Transfer Partners has all the permits and permissions it needs to start work on the Bayou Bridge pipeline, the project still faces multiple legal challenges.

The162-mile pipeline, being built by the same company behind the Dakota Access pipeline, will span southern Louisiana from Lake Charles, near the Texas border, to St. James, about 60 miles west of New Orleans. This route will cut through the Atchafalaya Basin, a national heritage area that contains America’s largest swamp.

“If the Bayou Bridge pipeline is built, a 75-foot-wide swath of trees will be pulverized,” Dean Wilson, executive director of the Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, told me, pointing to markers that surveyors recently put up along the pipeline route. The markers gave me a clearer picture of what will be lost if the pipeline is built.

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“A project of this magnitude will certainly impact the basin,” Wilson said, “and the state needed to take such factors into account before permits were granted.” The absence of an EIS is a point of contention for the Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, the Waterkeeper Alliance, Gulf Restoration Network, and the Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association, which are working with Earthjustice to reverse the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant a permit.

My Bernie News Roundup email account received this message…

Twitter begins emailing the 677,775 Americans who took Russian election bait

On Friday, Twitter took an end-of-the-week opportunity to dump some better-late-than-never news onto its userbase. For anybody who followed or engaged with a Twitter account that faked like an American during the 2016 election season but was actually linked to a major Russian propaganda campaign, you’re about to get an email.

Twitter announced that it would contact a massive number of users with that news: 677,775 users to be exact. This count includes those who interacted with the 3,814 accounts that Twitter has directly linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA), the Russian troll farm whose election-related meddling was exposed in 2017.

That number of accounts, Twitter noted, is a jump from Twitter’s prior count of 2,812 IRA-linked trolls, which it had disclosed as part of an October 2017 hearing in Congress. Twitter says that this specific pool of troll accounts generated 175,993 posts during the 2016 period of activity that Twitter has been analyzing, and the service noted that 8.4 percent of those posts were “election-related.” In its Friday disclosure, Twitter did not take the opportunity to acknowledge how the remaining percentage of these posts, which included anything from “I’m a real person” idle banter to indirect and divisive messaging, may have ultimately contributed to the troll farm’s impact.

Left says Dems caved on shutdown

Progressives are hammering Sen. Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) for his agreement with Senate Republican leadership to end the government shutdown on Monday.

Even House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has spoken out against the deal, saying there was no reason to support it.

“I don’t see that there’s any reason — I’m speaking personally and hearing from my members — to support what was put forth,” Pelosi said at a press briefing shortly before Schumer signaled Senate Democrats would agree to it.

“It’s official: Chuck Schumer is the worst negotiator in Washington – even worse than Trump,” said Murshed Zaheed, political director at Credo, a progressive advocacy group.

“Any plan to protect Dreamers that relies on the word of serial liars like [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell [R-Ky.], [House Speaker] Paul Ryan [R-Wis.] or [President] Donald Trump is doomed to fail,” Zaheed added.

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“The Majority Leader’s comments last night fell far short of the ironclad guarantee I needed to support a stopgap spending bill,” said Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) “I refuse to put the lives of nearly 700,000 young people in the hands of someone who has repeatedly gone back on his word. I will do everything in my power to continue to protect Dreamers from deportation.”

Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) all voted against closing debate on the agreement.