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The Question Dividing California’s Democrats

As Dave Min, running in one of the most pivotal congressional races in the country next year, chats with voters around Orange County, California, health care is on the tip of everyone’s tongue. While many want nothing less than a single-payer federal plan, as proposed by Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, “I don’t see consensus around that direction,” Min says.

Incremental steps such as allowing nonseniors to buy into a Medicare “public option” as part of Obamacare are more feasible — and have broader appeal in a “historically Republican, fiscally conservative district like mine,” he says. But Kia Hamadanchy, another of the seven Democrats who want a shot at Republican incumbent Mimi Walters, is all-in for single-payer. “You’re not a progressive unless you’re single-payer, for a lot of people,” Hamadanchy says. “It’s become a line-in-the-sand issue, kind of the way the Iraq War was in 2008.”

Democrats across the U.S. are divided over Medicare for all as part of a larger ideological question: Does the party need a moderate approach to capture Republican seats, or should it embrace the energy of Sanders acolytes and swing left with a more populist agenda? The debate is a critical part of the party’s discourse in Texas, Nebraska and New York, where Democrats are aiming to unseat Republican incumbents. But it’s a particularly combustible fight in California, where the state legislature held a heated debate this year over a state single-payer program that was blocked by the House speaker.

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Liberal pressure groups such as the Sanders-tied Our Revolution, Justice Democrats and National Nurses United are pushing for single-payer. But the Progressive Campaign Change Committee, which has at times clashed with the DCCC, is seeking consensus. PCCC co-founder Adam Green says he defines “Medicare for all” more broadly to include an optional Medicare buy-in of the type that Min supports in Orange County and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., is proposing in Washington. A January 2015 poll by Green’s Progressive Change Institute found 71 percent support for a Medicare buy-in, with just 13 percent opposed. “I don’t think single-payer or even the broader goal of Medicare for all will be a litmus test in 2018, but Medicare for all is such a political winner that it would be almost political malpractice for candidates not to run on it,” Green says.

Bernie Sanders Is Now Backing Randy Bryce—Which Could Be Very Bad News for Paul Ryan

An Army veteran and an ironworker by trade, Bryce mixes an everyman’s appeal with genuine progressive politics—a stark contrast with Ryan’s straight-laced conservatism. And Bryce received a boost to his progressive credentials last week when he was officially endorsed by Bernie Sanders.

“We’ve got to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid from people like Paul Ryan,” Sanders said in a statement announcing the endorsement. “I think Randy Bryce has an agenda that is going to make sense to working families. We need Randy in Congress.”

Sanders and Bryce line up on a range of issues, from unwavering support for workers and union rights to a $15 minimum wage.

Explaining why he stands with workers fighting for a higher wage, Bryce tells In These Times, “I’ve always been supportive of a $15 minimum wage. Otherwise what we’re doing is just giving welfare to corporations. We shouldn’t be subsidizing corporations so that they can profit more on the people’s backs.”

Bryce also shares Sanders’ belief in a universal healthcare system, backs the Vermont senator’s Medicare for All bill and supports a massive investment in infrastructure spending to revitalize deindustrialized communities like those in his Wisconsin district. Joe Dinkin, spokesperson for the Working Families Party—of which Bryce is a member and endorsed candidate—says that what connects Sanders and Bryce is a commitment to progressive values.

“What Bernie sees in Randy Bryce is a working class progressive that draws a perfect contrast to ‘Wall Street’ Paul [Ryan],” Dinkin says. “Randy wants to guarantee healthcare for all, to rebuild America’s roads and bridges and to make the billionaires pay for it. Paul Ryan wants to give billionaires a massive tax cut and make the middle class pay. This endorsement, coming from America’s most popular political leader, is a huge deal and proves that this is a top tier race.”

Anti-Fracking Protest Shuts Down Traffic at Energy Companies’ Offices

Holding a banner reading “We won’t stop—There’s too much at stake,” demonstrators shut down morning traffic at an office park outside Pittsburgh on Monday, in protest of the harmful effects 15 energy companies in the complex have on the environment.

The protesters set up two tripod structures in the middle fn a main intersection leading to Southpointe, a 589-acre property in suburban Washington County, Pennsylvania—home to companies including Halliburton, Chesapeake Energy, and Range Resources, all of which participate in fracking and mining.

Two community members climbed onto the tripods while three others sat between them with their arms in lockboxes for about four hours before police broke up the demonstration, according to Rising Tide North America, a grassroots environmental group.

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A community member named Patrick Young said that the disruption of traffic into the office park can’t be compared to the damage being done by the companies.

Energy companies have flocked to Southpointe in recent years as the gas and oil industries have sought to capitalize on the Marcellus shale, the sprawling rock formation underneath western New York and Pennsylvania, over which thousands of wells have been set up for fracking and mining. Last year, Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection found more than 250 cases of contamination and other negative impacts of fracking in private water supplies in the state.

Whitefish energy company halts work to restore Puerto Rico’s power over unpaid bill

Whitefish Energy Holdings has said it is halting work on restoring power in Puerto Rico because it has not been paid by the US territory’s government.

The company said late Monday that invoices for work done in October were outstanding and that it could no longer keep working. A letter sent to Puerto Rico officials stated the government owed Whitefish more than $83m.

CEO Andy Techmanski told CNN, which first reported the news: “We stopped because of the financial situation and lack of payment with [the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or Prepa] has gotten beyond its maximum threshold of what we can sustain as a business. The exit plan is to try to get payment out of Prepa so we can continue to work for the last 10 days of our contract.

“We took a huge leap of faith in coming here when others were very doubtful or scared to come because of the bankruptcy issues with the island and Prepa,” Techmanski said. “We came here to try to do something positive for the people of Puerto Rico.”

We obviously have different definitions of ‘positive’.

De Blasio heads to Iowa in hopes of defining a national role

Bill de Blasio is headed to Iowa again, but the mayor of New York City insists he’s really not running for president.

De Blasio, whose unfulfilled national ambitions have never been far from the surface, will be in Des Moines in early December preaching the progressive message as the best means for Democrats to win control of statehouses nationwide and, the biggest prize, the U.S. House of Representatives. He will also be trying to define a new role for himself in the party.

More to the point, he’s diverging from the Clinton brand of Democratic politics from whence he came and fully embracing the Sen. Bernie Sanders wing of the party — a seemingly more natural fit for a man who won his first mayoral term on the message of income inequality.

“I think the Democratic party is ill-defined right now, and I think it’s ill-defined because it’s lost touch with what should be its core ideology,” de Blasio said during a Gracie Mansion interview Sunday afternoon. “Because it’s ill-defined, they’re not winning elections, and the two go together.”

Jeff Beals running for NY-19:

https://youtu.be/9H4raUnxElk

Institute Index: The Mounting Injustice of the Proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline

The pipeline would carry fracked natural gas from West Virginia to North Carolina and possibly farther into South Carolina

Inequality Out of Control: The Average 1% Household Made Over $2.5 Million in the Past Year

“Inequality, like a malignant tumor, is growing out of control, and the only response from Congress is to make it even worse.”

In Defense of Millennial Politics

What so many critics of millennials fail to see is that a multitude of young Americans are engaging in politics outside of the established political system precisely because that system has failed to make room for them. What Routledge in particular fails to see is that words like “freedom” and “democracy” have been so abused and contorted that their invocation immediately makes millennials wary. And why shouldn’t it?

Many of us grew up during the Bush administration when “freedom” meant either chest-beating patriotism intent on burning down the world or returning to our regular shopping habits. “Freedom” brought torture, detention without trial, the Department of Homeland Security, expanded racial profiling, and endless war. Glibly-invoked, one-dimensional “freedom” took the lives of hundreds of thousands across the globe and left a generation of American veterans with traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder, and a VA office in shambles. All this in the name of freedom.

The Obama administration transfigured the freedom-as-belligerent-militarism of its predecessor into the freedom of a bureaucratically managed empire. This “freedom” called for the suspension of due process, whereby American citizens were put on kill lists and executed outside any system of law. “Freedom” entailed Hellfire missiles falling on the weddings and funerals of Afghan and Pakistani families. Freedom was Special Forces fighting battles we didn’t know about in countries where we weren’t officially at war. And while more of our citizens were incarcerated than anywhere else in the world, we were told that those who brought our economy tumbling down weren’t to be held criminally liable because of … “freedom.”

If economic “freedom” means that the wealthiest citizens wield undue influence over our collective future, then, yes, we are wary. The trope of the lazy millennial—entitled and disdainful of work—is hard to swallow when our generation came into the labor market in the midst of an enormous financial crisis. Out of necessity, we’ve improvised to makes end meet, hopped from contract to contract without benefits, and endured long periods of un- or under-employment, all while being saddled with unprecedented amounts of debt. We were reassured that if we simply embraced our entrepreneurial spirit the “freedom” of the market would support us. It wasn’t true.

When Will Democrats Stop Being Losers?

Most of the Party leaders are only too eager to tell you what an idiot Trump is, or how mean Ryan, McConnell and the rest of the conservative wrecking crew is. But they are loath to tell you what, exactly, they, themselves stand for.

Oh, yes, you will hear some vaguely progressive platitudes, especially around election time, but in terms of real, specific and substantive stands on behalf of the middle class and poor Americans, there’s more rhetoric than substance.

And yes, the Democratic Party Platform is one of the most progressive since the New Deal. But it’s also the greatest story never told, and you won’t hear many of those progressive ideals pushed by or embraced by the Party’s leaders. The fact is, much of what is progressive found its way in there from the Bernie delegates, and—as politicians know—Party platforms are where popular, but inconvenient ideas go to die.

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Democrats could be talking about universal access to a college education, transitions to single payer health care, lower drug prices, massive infrastructure investments, increased taxes on the uber-rich, closing corporate tax loopholes, and serious increases in job creation, and cuts to the bloated Defense budget. And their reform would decrease the deficit while accomplishing all this. It’s worth noting that the elements in the People’s Budget enjoy the support of the majority of Americans.

Meanwhile, Republicans would have to defend cuts in popular programs like Medicaid, healthcare, Pell grants and other educational support, while backing increases in taxes on tens of millions of middle class families, and cutting them for the ultra-wealthy and causing exploding deficits – all so they can pass permanent tax cuts for corporations. Unlike the People’s Budget, the Republican’s proposal is unpopular with the majority of Americans.

Who wouldn’t want to have this debate?

Mainstream Democrats, apparently. And that’s why folks stay home on election day.

Trump administration ends program for Haitians who came to US after quake

The Trump administration said on Monday that it was ending a temporary residency permit program that has allowed almost 60,000 citizens from Haiti to live and work in the United States since a 2010 powerful earthquake shook the Caribbean country.

The homeland security department said conditions in Haiti had improved significantly, so the benefit will be extended one last time – until July 2019 – to give Haitians time to prepare to return home.

“Since the 2010 earthquake, the number of displaced people in Haiti has decreased by 97%,” the department said in a press release. “Haiti is able to safely receive traditional levels of returned citizens.”

Advocates and members of Congress from both parties had asked the Trump administration for an 18-month extension of the program, known as “temporary protected status”. The government of Haitis’ president, Jovenel Moïse, also requested the extension.

Advocates for Haitians quickly criticized the decision, arguing the conditions in the island have not improved nearly enough for Haitians to be deported.

We Supported Their Dictators, Led the Failed ‘War on Drugs’ and Now Deny Them Refuge

As the Trump administration slashes refugee levels, an expert on Central America writes that US foreign policy decisions across the region are at the roots of the current refugee crisis.

AT&T’s Time Warner takeover: justice department aims to block $85bn deal

The US Department of Justice on Monday moved to block AT&T’s $85bn takeover of Time Warner, one of the largest media deals ever announced.

The decision to file suit against the deal is likely to set off a high stakes court battle – AT&T has already signaled it will go to court if the deal is blocked – and will start one of the biggest corporate merger legal battles in decades.

The suit argues the deal will “substantially lessen competition, resulting in higher prices and less innovation for millions of Americans”.

“This merger would greatly harm American consumers. It would mean higher monthly television bills and fewer of the new, emerging innovative options that consumers are beginning to enjoy,” said assistant attorney general Makan Delrahim of the department’s antitrust division.

Ignoring Washington’s Role in Yemen Carnage, 60 Minutes Paints US as Savior

In one of the most glaring, power-serving omissions in some time, CBS News’ 60 Minutes (11/19/17) took a deep dive into the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, and did not once mention the direct role the United States played in creating, perpetuating and prolonging a crisis that’s left over 10,000 civilians dead, 2 million displaced, and an estimated 1 million with cholera.

Correspondent Scott Pelley’s segment, “When Food Is Used as a Weapon,” employed excellent on-the-ground reporting to highlight the famine and bombing victims of Saudi Arabia’s brutal two-and-a-half year siege of Yemen. But its editors betrayed this reporting—and their viewers—by stripping the conflict of any geopolitical context, and letting one of its largest backers, the United States government, entirely off the hook.

As FAIR has previously noted (10/14/16, 2/27/17), US media frequently ignore the Pentagon’s role in the conflict altogether. Pelly did not once note that the US assists Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign with logistical support, refueling and the selling of arms to the tune of $400 billion. The US also routinely protects Saudi Arabia at the UN from condemnation—a shield that may have vastly prolonged the war, given that it signals the support of the most powerful country on Earth.