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Bernie Sanders’ Economic Inequality Town Hall Draws 1.7 Million Live Viewers

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ televised town hall on economic inequality drew about 1.7 million live viewers during an online broadcast Monday night.
The panel-discussion-style event, called “Inequality in America: The Rise of Oligarchy and Collapse of the Middle Class,” exceeded the viewership of Sanders’ first live town hall on single-payer health care in January.

The broadcast provided the Vermont independent with an opportunity to expand his new alternative media revue beyond “Medicare for all” to the broader issue of economic inequality, which he maintains that commercial media outlets frequently ignore.

“What I would say to our friends in the corporate media: Start paying attention to the reality of how many people in our country are struggling economically every single day ― and talk about it,” Sanders declared at one point during the discussion.

Not content to wait for the cable television channels and newspapers to take him up on his advice, Sanders partnered with The Guardian, The Young Turks, NowThis and Act.tv to dojust that for about an hour and a half on Monday night.

Three co-hosts aided Sanders in his efforts: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), New School economist Darrick Hamilton and filmmaker Michael Moore

Together they interviewed three guests with specialized knowledge of the economic and political structures suppressing economic mobility and funneling wealth upward. Catherine Coleman Flowers, a founder of the anti-poverty Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise Community Development Corp., spoke about the destitute poverty of the rural black community in Lowndes County, Alabama, where exposure to untreated sewage prompted a rare outbreak of hookworm.

Cindy Estrada, a vice president of the United Auto Workers, addressed the role of organized labor in raising living standards ― and how its decline has lowered them. And Gordon Lafer, a political scientist from the University of Oregon, explained how corporate interests neutralized public opposition through campaign donations and massive lobbying efforts.

One of the hardest things that has to happen now is for ordinary people to stand up and say: this is United States of America and the pain that we're seeing should not be happening. #InequalityTownHall

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 19, 2018

D.C.-bound for March for Our Lives? Groups opening up homes in nation’s capital

Student groups, religious organizations and others in the Washington, D.C., area are opening up their homes and offering support to those who will pack the streets of the nation’s capital Saturday to demand an end to gun violence.

The March for Our Lives was organized in response to the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14 that left 17 people dead. While the main march is in Washington, sister marches are planned nationwide.

A group of D.C. mothers founded March For Our Lives Lodging to help students find a place to stay. As of March 19, they have 1,200 available hosts and have found lodging for 400 people.

The group asks potential hosts and students to fill out a background form. “We have mothers sitting around looking at the information trying to find the perfect family to match them with,” co-founder Elizabeth Andrews said. “Our biggest concern is: We don’t want anyone who wants to come to the march decide not to come because they don’t think they can afford housing.”

March for Our Lives Lodging is accepting donations of rain ponchos, metro cards and food for bagged lunches to hand out to marchers.

Bernie Sanders helps launch global peace movement

Senator Bernie Sanders helped launch what purports to be a global peace movement, on the anniversary of the Iraq War, which he said precipitated much of the chaos in the Middle East.

Organizers of the Global Call for Peace said 11,000 callers from around the world, including Israel, participated in the Sunday launch.

The emphasis of the call, which was initiated by MoveOn.org, a US left-wing activist group, was on the tensions between the Koreas, but speakers also noted that it was the 15th anniversary of the Iraq War.

Sanders, an independent from Vermont, the first Jewish candidate to win major-party nominating contests when he ran for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, made what he said were the failures of that war the centerpiece of his appeal to join the movement.

“The war in Iraq was a foreign policy blunder of enormous magnitude,” he said, describing the ensuing chaos in Iraq and consequently the civil war in neighboring Syria and the spread of the Islamic State terrorist group, or ISIS.

El-Sayed seeks court ruling on eligibility for governor

Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is asking a judge to declare him an eligible candidate for governor after questions surfaced over whether his voter registration history in Michigan and New York could be grounds for a constitutional challenge.

Attorneys for the former Detroit health department director filed a request for declaratory judgment Monday in Wayne County Circuit Court. The 33-year-old is hoping for a quick resolution as he competes in the Democratic primary.

“We know we’re 100 percent eligible, and we’re not afraid to prove it in the court of law,” El-Sayed told The Detroit News.

“The folks who levied these attacks about my eligibility really wanted this to play out in the court of public opinion, with the goal of putting a question mark next to my name. Our goal today is to take that question mark and turn it into a period.”

Gretchen Whitmer receives endorsement from United Auto Workers

Democrat Gretchen Whitmer won another key endorsement from organized labor Monday in the race for Michigan governor, this time from the state’s largest union.

The announcement by the United Auto Workers, which came less than five months before the August primary election, was the latest in a string of positive developments for Whitmer. She secured support earlier from many other unions — including the state’s second-biggest, the Michigan Education Association.

At the UAW’s international headquarters in Detroit, President Dennis Williams said “there is no better candidate” than Whitmer, a former legislative leader who he said “has stood with working men and women for a long time.” The UAW has 385,000 active members and retirees in the state.

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El-Sayed landed support last year from the 13,000-member Michigan Nurses Association and some progressive groups. However, Whitmer — who has more political experience than her Democratic opponents — now has won the backing of 15 statewide labor organizations representing more than 850,000 workers and retirees. This month, she also picked up endorsements from the Teamsters and the state’s four Democratic U.S. House members.

BLM Leader Shaun King Endorses Shelby Township’s El-Sayed

Activist and Black Lives Matter leader Shaun King endorsed Abdul El-Sayed for governor Monday. El-Sayed, who led Detroit’s public health department and calls the Flint water crisis a prime motive for his run, was pleased to accept King’s support.

“Shaun is one of our nation’s leading voices for equity and racial justice,” El-Sayed said in a statement. “His support tells us that our progressive ideals and policy ideas for Michigan are consistent with a broader progressive movement toward a more just, equitable, and sustainable country. I am thankful for his solidarity and support.” El-Sayed added.

In addition to King’s endorsement, El-Sayed received official support from Congressman Ro Khanna, the Michigan Nurses Association, The People for Bernie Sanders, Millennials for Revolution, and local chapters of the progressive organization Our Revolution in Lansing, Ann Arbor, and Grand Rapids.

In endorsing El-Sayed, King cited the doctor, Rhodes Scholar and University of Michigan grad’s courage and commitment to equality.

“Abdul is not just fresh and new. That’s not enough. He’s smart and compassionate. He’s skilled and strategic. He’s courageous,” King said. “He cares about all of Michigan and will put the state on the path to be being a beacon of equality and fairness. I believe in Abdul and will fight my heart out to help him help Michigan,” King’s statement concludes.

Cambridge Analytica boasts of dirty tricks to swing elections

The company at the centre of the Facebook data breach boasted of using honey traps, fake news campaigns and operations with ex-spies to swing election campaigns around the world, a new investigation reveals.

Executives from Cambridge Analytica spoke to undercover reporters from Channel 4 News about the dark arts used by the company to help clients, which included entrapping rival candidates in fake bribery stings and hiring prostitutes to seduce them.

In one exchange, the company chief executive, Alexander Nix, is recorded telling reporters: “It sounds a dreadful thing to say, but these are things that don’t necessarily need to be true as long as they’re believed.”

The Channel 4 News investigation, broadcast on Monday, comes two days after the Observer reported Cambridge Analytica had unauthorised access to tens of millions of Facebook profiles in one of the social media company’s biggest data breaches.

US primary elections: five races that could reshape the political landscape

Spring is coming. This means the return of warm weather, flowers and competitive primaries. After Democrats notched wins over the winter in the special election for Alabama’s Senate seat and in Pennsylvania’s 18th congressional district, the change of the calendar means a change in the electoral landscape.

Starting with Tuesday’s competitive elections in Illinois – where a Democratic incumbent may lose his seat to a progressive challenger and a battle royale is shaping up for the governor’s mansion – the season will be filled with ferocious primaries as well as a special election caused by a congressional sexual harassment scandal. These are five of the most contested races coming up in the coming months.

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Where: Texas’s Democratic primary runoff for the 7th congressional district

Who: attorney Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, journalist Laura Moser

When: 22 May

Why It Matters: the race has become a battleground in the fight between Washington Democrats and leftwing activists in a suburban Houston seat once thought to be safe Republican territory before Hillary Clinton won it in 2016. Fletcher has been embraced by groups like Emily’s List as the best chance for the party to win the seat. In contrast, Moser was the subject of an opposition research document released by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) before the first round of voting in an attempt to keep her from making the runoff. Instead, it backfired and rallied support from progressive activists to her campaign. The winner of the runoff will face incumbent the Republican John Culbertson in November.

Mississippi implements most restrictive abortion law in US

Mississippi’s governor has signed the nation’s tightest abortion restrictions into law.

Governor Phil Bryant, a Republican, signed House Bill 1510 on Monday afternoon. It becomes law immediately and bans most abortions after 15 weeks’ gestation. Bryant has frequently said he wants Mississippi to be the “safest place in America for an unborn child”.

The law’s only exceptions are if a fetus has health problems making it “incompatible with life” outside the womb at full term, or if a pregnant woman’s life or a “major bodily function” is threatened by pregnancy. Pregnancies resulting from rape and incest are not exempted.

Abortion rights advocates are calling the law unconstitutional because it limits abortion before fetuses can live outside the womb. The owner of Mississippi’s only abortion clinic, Diane Derzis, opposes the law and has pledged to sue.

The Flint Water Crisis is not an isolated incident. We have systematic water failures across the state and across the country. We have to listen to the science and improve our failing water infrastructure and toughen our lead standards, #ForOurFuture. https://t.co/kW3N46RLKg

— Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) March 19, 2018

Judge rules Bayou Bridge pipeline can continue building through Acadia Parish property

A state judge on Monday ruled against an Acadia Parish landowner who wanted to halt construction of a 163-mile oil pipeline until resolution of a federal lawsuit aimed at shutting down the project.

The 163-mile pipeline crosses 11 south Louisiana parishes, including Acadia Parish, where Hope Rosinski owns 6 acres on which Bayou Bridge Pipeline LLC last year obtained rights to build after initiating expropriation action. Rosinski came to terms with Bayou Bridge in August for undisclosed compensation, and the company acquired an easement to access the property.

Judge Kristian Earles on Monday granted a preliminary injunction in favor of Bayou Bridge, effectively extending an initial restraining order to prevent Rosinski from interfering with construction. The company is ultimately seeking a permanent injunction to uphold the easement agreement.

Judge to decide if treetop protest is where pipeline has access rights

As several pipeline protesters continue to live on platforms in trees along the intended path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a judge is determining whether they’re illegally blocking the pipeline’s progress.

Monroe Circuit Judge Robert Irons has set a hearing for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday as a continued examination of a preliminary injunction request against the protesters.

The drama on the mountain and in the courthouse is part of the overall conflict over development of the $3.5 billion, 303-mile project.

The Tuesday hearing boils down to whether or not the protesters are actually in an area of national forest where the Mountain Valley Pipeline developers have gotten federal approval to start felling trees.

The pipeline developers claim that two or more protesters are blocking the area where it needs to fell trees by the end of this month to maintain its schedule.

Bent Mountain dig raises new concerns from pipeline opponents

A crew working for the Mountain Valley Pipeline is now conducting an archaeological dig on Bent Mountain.

The work has raised fresh concerns from landowners in the area who object to the operation and want to know more about what’s happening there.

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Landowners say previous work in the same area has revealed evidence of Native American settlement that could date back as far as 9000 years.

“And we feel now extremely protective of a site we know artifacts have been found in,” said Bent Mountain landowner Kathy Chandler. “The landowner has had requests in repeatedly to have the artifacts either identified to them, or now even left in place. And this feels very secretive.”

Monday afternoon, a spokesperson for the Mountain Valley Pipeline said the project team has a court order granting access to the property.

Because the landowner declined to allow the crew to remove artifacts from the property for analysis, MVP said the team is doing the work on site.

Greenpeace founder arrested at Kinder Morgan pipeline protest in Burnaby

Greenpeace International co-founder Rex Weyler joined the ongoing protests against Kinder Morgan’s pipeline expansion Monday.

Weyler, formerly a director of the original Greenpeace Foundation, was arrested along with Bob and Barbara Stowe, the son and daughter of Greenpeace founders Irving and Dorothy Stowe, with others who attached themselves with zip ties to the gate at the entrance to the Trans Mountain terminal in Burnaby. According to Burnaby RCMP, 14 people were arrested Monday related to the protests, following Saturday’s action where 28 were arrested after blocking the entrance to the tank farm.

Protesters blocked the entrance to the facility in waves. A group of four attached themselves to the gate with zip ties Monday morning, and after they were arrested, three more took their place.

Weyler was in the first wave of those blocking the entrance Monday. He said he was hoping the protests will stop the project and protect communities from a potential oil spill in the Salish Sea.

“A tanker spill in this body of water is going to impact all our communities, all our economies, our fishing economy, our tourism economy,” he said. “It’s my goal to stop this ridiculous project.”

More arrests at Trans Mountain pipeline protest site in Burnaby, BC

A 70-year-old man who planned to spend several days 20 metres up a tree at Kinder Morgan’s Burnaby, B.C., terminal was one of 15 people arrested Monday

Terry Christenson, a senior from Ontario who described himself as an expert on climbing and using ropes, manufactured a hammock-like perch suspended between trees and planned to eat meal supplements sparingly to make the trip last as long as possible.

“I’m going to stay as long as I can. Time to suffer,” he said. “Just trying to get inventive somehow. I get to go minimal.”

But it was not to be. According to a spokesperson for the protesters, Christenson was arrested around 8 p.m. PT.

RCMP said in a release that Christenson’s behaviour put himself and officers at risk and he and others were arrested for violating an injunction order keeping them five metres away from Trans Mountain sites.

Activists are planning a week of protests against the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

https://youtu.be/rbGBJ-VGFLQ

Washington state ‘allied’ with B.C. on Trans Mountain pipeline concerns

The governor of Washington says his state is “allied” with British Columbia in questioning whether the Trans Mountain pipeline should be expanded.

The project poses a threat to waters off the West Coast, Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday at a meeting with B.C. Premier John Horgan and officials from Oregon and California. The state is looking at marine safety laws that would help mitigate the impact of a tanker spill, he added.

“We are hopeful that the premier’s efforts to allow the voices of his citizens to be listened to will be successful, because it is very much in common with our citizens,” Inslee said, adding that residents in his state recently rejected proposals for both coal and oil ports.

Inslee commended B.C. for leadership on climate protection. But he said Trans Mountain may be a federal policy that “shoots Canada in the foot” and reverses some of the work the province has done.

Beto O’Rourke Doesn’t Want to Be Democrats’ Next National Cause

Beto O’Rourke wants to be a little more Conor Lamb, a little less Jon Ossoff.

O’Rourke, the Texas congressman who is running for U.S. Senate against Ted Cruz, is looking to live out a Democratic fantasy of turning Texas blue by taking down the only Republican who gets Democrats nearly as riled up as President Donald Trump, in a race no one thinks he can win.

But he insists he doesn’t want to become the next national Democratic cause along the way—that kind of attention can create a backlash, and with the background of first winning his House seat despite Bill Clinton and Barack Obama campaigning against him, O’Rourke doesn’t see the value of outside help.

“It may hurt,” O’Rourke told me in an interview for POLITICO’s Off Message podcast. “My takeaway is, I don’t know that it ever helps.”

Democrats in Texas and beyond can’t tell whether making O’Rourke into a national rallying cry is the only way to win or if it’s the only way to ensure he never comes close.

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O’Rourke wants to be seen as a renegade, running against all the conventional wisdom and usual politicking. He claimed victory on primary night in a webcam off-kilter Facebook Live chat from the dining room table of the row house he shares with a few colleagues on Capitol Hill; he’s planning to drive around all 254 counties in Texas (he’s hit 226 so far); he’s refusing to spend money on focus groups or pollsters; he casually curses in interviews—and makes sure he’s doing interviews all the time. He points out that he voted against Nancy Pelosi for House minority leader and insists that he got in the race against Cruz without any commitment of help from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

All that can generate some eye rolls in Washington—like from people who point out that the DSCC doesn’t commit to help any non-incumbent a year out, or who laugh at how much press he does—but it’s also been generating hundreds of people showing up to events in parts of the state that haven’t seen a candidate in years.

“I can understand how people think that this is crazy that I think that I’m going to win. But so much of this is crazy. Right? Like, what is this guy doing from El Paso? El Paso has produced precisely zero statewide victories in the history of the state of Texas. Last time a Democrat won was in 1988, for U.S. Senate, Lloyd Bentsen. So why in the world, against Ted Cruz of all people? That guy almost won the Republican presidential nomination,” O’Rourke said. “I think the confidence is borne not out of any kind of mental illness, but out of what I am seeing and hearing.”

Portraits of Suffering and Resilience in Puerto Rico Six Months After Hurricane Maria

Today marks six months since Hurricane Maria made landfall and ripped through Puerto Rico, lashing the island with winds well above 155 miles per hour and devastating the homes and communities of many of its 3.4 million residents. Many people forget that three weeks before Maria, Hurricane Irma passed just north, causing $1 billion in damages, killing several, and knocking power out to nearly half of the island. Maria’s follow-up hit on the island was even more brutal: direct, passing in a diagonal line from the southeast to the northwest, sparing nothing.

Eduardo Meléndez, a Puerto Rican photojournalist, has spent the last six months documenting life on the island. From the weeks-long cleanup to lines for gas and ice to protests to lack of electricity to this day, he’s tried to capture what he sees. I asked him what it’s been like to watch and to live through:

“Draining. Hopeless. You have a government who instead of helping the country is helping itself to whatever is left. We have seen thousands of people in dire need of help and resources while the government is spending thousands upon thousands on contracts for their friends.”

The Resistance Needs Better Heroes

A movement is defined by its heroes. The Resistance can find better heroes than the ones some of its members have chosen – and it should.

United Steelworkers Pennsylvania affiliate endorses Fetterman for lt. gov

The Pennsylvania affiliate of the United Steelworkers union endorsed Braddock Mayor John Fetterman’s campaign for lieutenant governor, Fetterman’s campaign announced Monday.

Fetterman, 48, is a progressive candidate who supports raising the minimum wage, legalizing marijuana and reforming immigration laws. He is running against six other Democratic candidates, including Aryanna Berringer of Murrysville and incumbent Mike Stack.

The union, which has about 8,500 members in the state, endorsed Democrat Conor Lamb in his apparent victory in the 18th Congressional District election last week. In a victory speech, Lamb credited unions with helping convince residents of the district to get out and vote for him. Lamb led Republican opponent Rick Saccone by about 600 votes in vote tallies; the state hasn’t yet finalized the results.

“I am honored and humbled to receive an endorsement from some of our hardest working men and women of Pennsylvania,” Fetterman said in a statement. “Labor unions are a vital part of our state. My commitment to protect working people is only made stronger with USW’s support.”

Andrew Gillum rallies Duval Democrats with familiar themes

Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum addressed a crowd of Jacksonville Democrats Monday evening, his second Northeast Florida foray in three days.

Gillum is no stranger to the region; in fact, he was campaigning here even in his pre-candidate phase.

Though Gillum’s remarks were familiar to those who have heard his stump speech, they were welcome expressions for Democrats in a county where the party message is often subverted by the Republican machine.

“We have to ask ourselves why it is that we can’t win statewide elections. I have a small theory,” Gillum said, which involves “running as Democrats” — and doing it statewide.

“We can go to all those places and explain our message loud and clear,” Gillum said, extolling the opportunity “all across our state.”

“We’re not going to do it by being afraid of our own shadow … afraid of being Democrats … I believe in fighting for what we believe in. Whether it is early childhood education,” Gillum said, or “46 percent of people not being able to make ends meet at the end of the month.”

Ars answers a federal judge’s questions about climate change

Climate science has kind of had its day in court before. In 2007, for example, the Supreme Court ruled that CO2 fits the definition of a pollutant under the Clean Air Act—a decision that forces the US EPA to draw up regulations to tackle climate change, regardless of political winds. But on Tuesday, climate science will literally have its day in court, as a federal judge receives a five-hour tutorial he requested on the subject.

The case pits San Francisco and Oakland against BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, and Royal Dutch Shell. The cities are alleging that major oil companies sold fossil fuels while knowing their use would change the climate—and, critically, publicly campaigning to convince the public they would not change the climate. As San Francisco and Oakland incur significant costs building infrastructure to protect their cities from sea-level rise, they want oil companies to chip in for the bill.

The case, which would obviously set a huge precedent if the cities won, already seems to have gone further than past attempts. Other judges have booted suits on the grounds that emissions should be regulated by the EPA and therefore the issue can’t be decided in a courtroom. But the specifics of the California case—going after sellers of fossil fuels rather than local users of fossil fuels—convinced Judge William Alsup that it can go forward.

Before arguments get rolling, however, Judge Alsup made a unique request: both sides are to present the facts of climate science itself, partly by answering a list of his questions. In recent years, oil companies have publicly accepted the scientific consensus on global warming, so they are unlikely to present a contrarian view in this case. But half of this “tutorial” will focus on the history of climate science, which the companies could seek to paint as more uncertain in order to excuse their stance in the 1980s and 1990s.

As for Judge Alsup’s (surprisingly specific) questions about climate change, they’re actually fundamental to the science and quite easily answered