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1/31 News Roundup & Open Thread – Lawmakers Reintroduce Resolution To End Yemen Carnage, Police Use Private Security To Target Anti-Pipeline Organizers & More

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Lawmakers Reintroduce War Powers Resolution To End Carnage in Yemen and Reclaim Congress’ Constitutional Authority

With the government now reopened, a the newly-elected Congress in session, and the U.S. still complicit in the world’s worst humanitarian disaster, a bipartisan group of Senators and House members—led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)—officially re-introduced a War Powers Resolution on Wednesday in order to block further U.S. military participation in the Saudi-led war on Yemen.

While the same resolution in December passed the Senate in an historic bipartisan vote, it was not taken up for a vote in the Republican-controlled House at that time. But now that Democrats control the lower chamber, Rep. Khanna argued the people of Yemen can wait no longer.

With an estimated 14 million people on the brink of famine and 85,000 children already dead as a result of the war, Khanna said “the U.S.-Saudi military campaign in Yemen has triggered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.” Now, he added, is time “to end U.S. military participation in the Saudi regime’s war in Yemen by reasserting Congress’ constitutional role on matters of war and peace.”

Passage of the resolution in December, said Sanders, was a clear declaration by the U.S. Senate “that we will not continue to have our military posture dictated by a despotic, murderous regime in Saudi Arabia” and called for both the House and Senate to quickly pass the resolution.

“Our immediate job is to end the terrible war in Yemen,” Sanders added. “But the time is also long overdue for Congress to reclaim its constitutional right, and to make certain that no president, Republican or Democrat, engages in a military conflict unauthorized by the U.S. Congress.”

At a morning press conference, Sanders and Khanna were joined by Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) as well as Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) – all key co-sponsors of the joint resolution.

Read the Senate resolution here. Read the House version here.

“With the new Democratic majority in the House,” said Sen. Murphy, “I am optimistic that Congress will once again sound the alarm over the atrocities committed in Yemen and end U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition that is killing thousands of civilians, blocking humanitarian aid, and arming radical militias.”

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1/29 News Roundup & Open Thread – The Climate Kids Are Coming, Wall Street Executives Make 2020 Preferences Known & More

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The Climate Kids Are Coming

If you don’t know who Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg is, you can think of her as an international climate-change counterpart to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Like the rock-star congresswoman from New York, Thunberg is a charismatic young woman whose social-media savvy, moral clarity, and fearless speaking truth to power have inspired throngs of admirers to take to the streets for a better world and call out the politicians and CEOs who are standing in the way.

Ocasio-Cortez, 29, is known for championing the #GreenNewDeal and schooling right-wing haters on Twitter. Thunberg, 16, is known for launching the #SchoolStrike4Climate movement—tens of thousands of high-school students worldwide are skipping school on Fridays until their governments treat the climate crisis as an emergency—and for torching billionaires and heads of state at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week.

Demolishing the convenient notion that we are all to blame for climate change, Thunberg told a Davos panel that included president Trump’s former chief economics adviser Gary Cohn, “Some people, some companies, some decision makers in particular have known exactly what priceless values they have been sacrificing to continue making unimaginable amounts of money.” She paused before a final thrust of the knife: “I think many of you here today belong to that group of people.”

Call them the Climate Kids. Like Ocasio-Cortez and Thunberg themselves, the grassroots activist movements they have roused are comprised almost exclusively of teenagers and twentysomethings. These are not your father’s environmentalists: supplicant, “realistic,” and accepting of failure. These young people are angry about the increasingly dire climate future awaiting them and clear-eyed about who’s to blame and how to fix it. And they seem to have the bad guys worried.

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“Power concedes nothing without a demand,” said Frederick Douglass during the fight against slavery. “It never has and it never will.” It’s their understanding of this fundamental theory of social change that makes Thunberg, Ocasio-Cortez and all the Climate Kids so effective and exciting. They grasp what many of their elders apparently never learned: that the climate struggle is about power—not having the best science, or the smartest arguments, or the most bipartisan talking points, but power. Specifically, it’s about the power Exxon and the rest of the fossil-fuel industry have over governments and economies the world over, and the industry’s willingness to use that power to enforce a business model that is guaranteed to fry the planet. With the moral absolutism of youth and the self-preservation instinct of all living things, the Climate Kids recognize that either the industry goes or they do. And they are not going down without a fight.

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1/25 News Roundup & Open Thread

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Warren Forces Issue of Massive Economic Inequality Into 2020 Debate With ‘Ultra-Millionaire Tax’

Weeks into a national conversation over the possibility of taxing the wealthiest Americans at far higher rates in order to correct severe income inequality in the U.S., Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) made clear that the issue will be addressed in the 2020 presidential election, unveiling a plan to tax assets over $50 million.

Two economists who are advising Warren, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman of University of California at Berkeley, announced to the Washington Post that the senator is proposing an annual tax of two percent for assets over $50 million, as well as a three percent tax for assets above $1 billion. The proposal, the economists estimate, would raise $2.75 trillion over 10 years and would affect just .1 percent of American households—raising the percentage at which their wealth is taxed to just 4.3 percent from 3.2 percent.

The “Ultra-Millionaire Tax” would apply to “all household assets…including residences, closely held businesses, assets held in trust, retirement assets, assets held by minor children, and personal property with a value of $50,000 or more,” according to a paper by the economists.

Warren’s proposal, which economist Thomas Piketty recommended in his book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” comes weeks after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) first told the press about her plan to tax income over $10 million at 70 percent—a proposal supported by a majority of Americans, including 45 percent of Republicans, according to a poll by The Hill.

As journalist David Dayen explained at The Intercept and on Twitter, Warren’s plan would raise more than Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal, which the Post estimates would create $720 billion in tax revenue over a decade.

Some suggested that Warren’s plan represents a clear shift away from Democrats’ fear of pushing to raise taxes, as progressives like Ocasio-Cortez force their colleagues to pay more serious attention to nation’s crisis of economic inequality. If embraced by the party, such a proposal would certainly be an alternative to the Republican Party, which passed a $1.5 trillion tax cut for corporations and the wealthiest Americans in 2017, falsely claiming that working families would benefit from pay raises which never materialized.

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1/24 News Roundup & Open Thread

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Greta Thunberg’s Demand to Davos Elite: Act Urgently on Climate for ‘Sake of This Beautiful Living Planet”

Sixteen-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg threw down the gauntlet to the global elite gathered in the Swiss Alps for the World Economic Forum (WEF) this week, urging them to work towards meaningful climate action in order to “safeguard the future living conditions for humankind.”

“Some people say that the climate crisis is something that we all have created. But that is just another convenient lie,” the Swedish teen says in a video posted to Twitter. The video was also posted on the WEF Facebook page and was intended to be shown to the attendees inside.

In fact, there is blame to be assigned, she says, namely to “some companies and decision makers” who have “known exactly what priceless values they are sacrificing.”

She calls on those powerful interests to set aside their drive for massive economic profits and instead “safeguard the future living conditions for humankind” by committing to “real and bold climate action.”

She expresses skepticism that that will happen, but said she hopes she’s proven wrong “for the sake of your children, for the sake of your grandchildren, for the sake of life and this beautiful living planet.” Doing so would allow them to “stand on the right side of history,” she adds.

Thunberg posted the video a day ahead of her arrival—by train—in Davos, where she’ll take part in a panel discussion. Meanwhile, her joint op-ed with former United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres declared it “outrageous” that the climate crisis is not taking center stage at the WEF gathering.

Published Wednesday at the Washington Post, the pair, “united by the same concern for our planet,” argue that it “should be the number one priority.”

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1/23 News Roundup & Open Thread – Sanders Speaks to Students at Benedict College & More

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Sen. Bernie Sanders visits HBCU Benedict College

Senator Bernie Sanders visited Benedict College and answered questions from many college students.

During his visit, Sanders spoke about many hot button topics, from ending the government shut down, to college affordability.

The crowd asked questions regarding what to do about the government shutdown and how to ensure affordable healthcare.

The Republican National Committee released a statement saying“Bernie Sanders’ agenda of socialized healthcare, socialized college education and higher taxes is in complete contrast to President Trump’s pro-growth agenda that has been working for South Carolina families. While Sanders continues to live in his fantasy-land of economics, President Trump’s America First agenda will continue delivering results for voters of the Palmetto State.”

Sanders disagreed saying these are not radical ideas and that the young voters should fight for what they believe in.

“When you stand together, you are enormously powerful. You are the future of this country. And if you’re not involved, if you’re not thinking politically, I have real worries about our own future,” Sanders said.

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1/19 News Roundup & Open Thread – ‘If the Water Is Rising, Then So Must We’: Indigenous Peoples March in Washington & More

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‘If the Water Is Rising, Then So Must We’: Indigenous Peoples March in Washington Against Global Injustice

In an event described as “breathtaking, heartbreaking, strong, and beautiful,” representatives from native communities around the world came together in Washington, D.C. on Friday for the first-ever Indigenous Peoples March.

Organized as a rebuke to the violence and injustices that Indigenous Peoples often face—from the murder of native girls and women to police brutality to having unceded tribal lands torn away by colonizing governments and fossil fuel corporations—the march kicked off Friday morning outside the U.S. Interior Department.

“I think it’s a collective cry for help because we’re in a time of crisis that we have not seen in a very long time,” Nathalie Farfan, an Ecuadorian Indigenous woman and march organizer, told Remezcla earlier this week. “When I say crisis, I mean collective crisis. A lot of Indigenous people from around the world are suffering from the same colonization.”

“This is the time to bring awareness to these injustices that have divided us all,” Farfan added. “That’s why we are saying unity is power, and we need all Indigenous people to come.”

With a nod to human-caused global warming, which also inspired Indigenous groups to plan the march, one participant declared from the streets on Friday, “If the water is rising, then so must we.” Supporters and marchers posted updates to social media with the hashtags #IndigenousPeoplesMarch, #IPMDC19, #WhyIMarch, and #WaterIsLife.

The march moved from the Interior Department to the Lincoln Memorial, where organizers planned an all-day rally, followed by an evening fundraising concert at the Songbyrd Music House. Indigenous leaders addressed the crowd at the memorial.

Acknowledging that she feels a responsibility to educate federal lawmakers on Indigenous issues, as one of the first Native American women in Congress, Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), who was scheduled to speak at the rally Friday afternoon, said in a statement, “For too long Native communities have been left out of the national/global conversation, and our men, women, and children suffer because of it.”

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1/17 News Roundup – Sanders Hammers EPA Nominee Wheeler Over Climate Change Stance & More

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BERNIE SANDERS QUESTIONS WHY TRUMP’S EPA NOMINEE ANDREW WHEELER FAILED TO MENTION CLIMATE CHANGE ONCE IN OPENING STATEMENT

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders grilled acting Environmental Protection Agency head Andrew Wheeler about his views on climate change at his confirmation hearing Wednesday morning.

“You are the nominee to be head of the Environmental Protection Agency. You just, in your opening statement, did not mention the words ‘climate change,'” he said to Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist.

Sanders then asked if the American people should have confidence in Wheeler’s ability to head the agency and reduce the impacts of climate change in the future. “Yes, they should have confidence,” responded Wheeler. “We are moving forward to reduce the effects of c02,” he continued before outlining policy particulars.

Sanders, a supporter of the Green New Deal, which would move the U.S. economy to sustainable energy sources, continued to clash with the EPA nominee. “We are the strongest economy in the world,” he said. “And if the leadership of the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States says to Russia and to China and to India, and to countries all over the world, that we have to move aggressively to protect this planet for our children and our grandchildren, we can have some impact on the entire international community, are you prepared to do that?”

Wheeler responded that he was “implementing the laws that Congress has passed.” But the EPA has issued a number of rule change proposals independent of Congress. Those rules include weakening the definitions of protected waters, which kinds of chemicals can be emitted into the atmosphere and aiding coal energy plants.

Throughout his testimony, Wheeler insisted he believed in climate change and was working to curb it, though he did tell Sanders that he “would not call it the greatest crisis, no sir.” But he added that “I consider it a huge issue that has to be addressed globally.”

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1/15 News Roundup & Open Thread – Sanders: Democrats Need to Rein In Our Out-of-Control Military Spending & More

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Bernie Sanders: Democrats Need to Rein In Our Out-of-Control Military Spending by Bernie Sanders

On domestic policy—taxation, healthcare, the environment, education, criminal justice, immigration and so forth—there are major differences between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. On foreign policy, not so much. In fact, a number of observers have correctly pointed out that, to a very great degree, we have a “one-party foreign policy.” As a result, there is almost no debate about the basic premises underlying our long-term foreign policy positions. In a complicated and volatile world, this is not a good thing.

Several months ago, Democrats, with virtually no opposition, gave President Trump every nickel that he wanted in increased defense spending. At a time when our infrastructure is crumbling, when public schools lack the resources to provide a quality education for our kids, when 30 million people have no health insurance, there were very few Democrats opposed to Republican efforts to increase military spending by $165 billion over two years.

Democrats, for good reason, vehemently oppose almost everything Trump proposes, but when he asks for a huge increase in military spending, there are almost no voices in dissent. Why is that? Do we really have to spend more on the military than the next 10 nations combined—most of which are our allies? Why do we dramatically increase funding for the military when the Department of Defense remains the only major government agency not to have undertaken a comprehensive audit? Why is there so little discussion about the billions in waste, fraud and cost overruns at the Pentagon?

Here’s a truth that you don’t often hear about in the newspapers, on television or in the halls of Congress. But it’s a truth we must face. Far too often, American intervention and the use of American military power have produced unintended consequences that have caused incalculable harm. Yes, it is reasonably easy to engineer the overthrow of a government. It is far harder, however, to know the long-term impact that that action will have.

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Unfortunately, today we still have examples of the United States supporting policies that I believe will come back to haunt us. One is the ongoing Saudi war in Yemen.

On March 20, 2018, Republican Sen. Mike Lee, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy and I brought a resolution to the floor to end U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen and to change the nature of how Congress does foreign and military policy.

We introduced this resolution for two reasons. First, the war in Yemen has been a humanitarian disaster for the people of that impoverished country. Some 10,000 civilians have been killed, 40,000 more have been wounded and more than 3 million have been displaced. In November 2017, the United Nations emergency relief coordinator said that Yemen was on the brink of “the largest famine the world has seen for many decades.” Fifteen million people lack access to clean water and sanitation because water treatment plants have been destroyed. More than 20 million people in Yemen, over two-thirds of the population, need some kind of humanitarian support, with nearly 10 million in acute need of assistance. More than 1 million suspected cholera cases have been reported, representing potentially the worst cholera outbreak in world history. That is reason enough to end U.S. military support for what Saudi Arabia is doing in the civil war in Yemen.

But the second reason is even more important. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution is very clear. It is Congress that has the responsibility to declare war and send our armed forces into harm’s way. Over the years, Congress has, under both Democratic and Republican leadership, abdicated that responsibility and given it over to the president. The time is long overdue for Congress to regain control over this vitally important process, as the founding fathers mandated.

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1/14 News Roundup & Open Thread

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Bernie Sanders staffs up for 2020

Bernie Sanders is adding firepower to his political team ahead of a potential 2020 campaign, locking down digital alumni who were key to his surprise performance in 2016 and recruiting the media production company that helped launch Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to prominence.

The flurry of activity, detailed by four people familiar with the campaign’s thinking, is the latest sign that the Vermont senator is closing in on a decision on a second run for the White House.

Means of Production, the filmmaking cooperative that created the viral campaign video that propelled Ocasio-Cortez’s House campaign, is in talks with the Sanders team about a major role in 2020. And two people who powered Sanders’ record-breaking small-dollar fundraising operation in 2016 have agreed to join a subsequent presidential bid if it materializes, according to a Sanders campaign aide: Tim Tagaris and Robin Curran, his digital fundraising director and digital production director in 2016, respectively.

The aide said another pair that have helped Sanders build a digital media juggernaut out of his Senate office — media producer Armand Aviram and digital director Georgia Parke — are likely to be part of his 2020 team, too.

The behind-the-scenes moves underscore one of Sanders’ key strengths: He is poised to enter the Democratic primary field with a digital operation and social media army that outpaces virtually any other candidate, at least for now. For all the attention on Beto O’Rourke’s online dominance last year, only Sanders would start the campaign on the foundation of a full-fledged, grass-roots presidential campaign.

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On Saturday, the People for Bernie Sanders hosted more than 400 house parties throughout the country to push Sanders to run in 2020.

Winnie Wong, a co-founder of the group, said the events showed that outside pro-Sanders organizations also have extensive social media power that can be put to use in a presidential election.

“Sanders’ grass-roots social media machine is very much driving these house parties,” she said. “We are able to organize without any formal organizing plan in place.”

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1/11 News Roundup – Sanders, Ilhan Omar and Colleagues Announce Legislation to Lower Drug Prices & More

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Confronting Pharma Greed That Is ‘Literally Killing People,’ Sanders and Khanna Unveil Bills to Lower Drug Prices

Confronting the rampant and deadly greed of the pharmaceutical industry, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) joined Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and several other Democratic lawmakers on Thursday to introduce a package of legislation aimed at dramatically reducing the nation’s sky-high prescription drug prices.

“The United States pays by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs,” Sanders declared in a statement. “This has created a healthcare crisis in which one in five American adults cannot afford to get the medicine they need.”

“If the pharmaceutical industry will not end its greed, which is literally killing Americans, then we will end it for them,” the Vermont senator added.

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“I believe that healthcare is a basic human right,” Omar said during the press conference. “Instead of taking donations from the pharmaceutical industry, we need to hold them accountable for taking advantage of the American people. Medications are too expensive, and we must act boldly to lower prices.”

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1/9 News Roundup – Ocasio-Cortez On ‘The Rachel Maddow Show’, Sanders Replies To Trump & More

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claims Trump lied about immigrants in Oval Office address

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., joined The Rachel Maddow Show following President Trump’s Oval Office address to the nation Tuesday night. The purpose was to allow Trump to make his argument to the American people for the need for a border wall, and he cited violent crimes and drug trafficking as two of the main reasons. Ocasio-Cortez, who recently said there’s “no question” Trump is racist, once again did not mince words when speaking about the president.

“In the actual address, there was falsehood after falsehood, and we have to make sure we get the facts straight,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Immigrants commit crimes at a far lower rate than native-born Americans.”

Trump had stressed the need to stop people from crossing the border illegally, saying, “Every day, Customs and Border Protection agents encounter thousands of illegal immigrants trying to enter our country.” Ocasio-Cortez responded by pointing out that many people in this country illegally came here legally —and not necessarily at the southern border.

“The majority of the reason that people are undocumented is visa overstay,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “It’s not because people are crossing a border illegally. It is because of visa overstay which, mind you, he’s talking about legal immigration. He’s trying to restrict every kind of immigration there is in the United States.”

Ocasio-Cortez blamed Trump for the very problem he’s trying to fight, citing the separation of families at the border and his attempts to end the diversity visa lottery. “He’s fighting against almost every way people can actually legally enter this country, forcing them to become undocumented, and then he’s trying to attack their undocumented status. This is systematic. It is wrong and anti-American,” she said.

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1/7 News Roundup & Open Thread

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls Trump a racist, outlines ‘radical’ policies on ‘60 Minutes’

Go ahead, “call me radical,” newly sworn-in Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told Anderson Cooper in an interview on “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday in which she also called President Trump a racist.

The 29-year-old Boston University graduate, who gained notoriety this past fall after defeating a longtime incumbent in her New York Democratic primary, has become the youngest woman to ever serve in the US Congress. In the interview that aired Sunday night on CBS, Ocasio-Cortez outlined some of her ambitious policy proposals — as well as her frank thoughts on Trump.

Although the freshman congresswoman acknowledged during the interview that she doesn’t often speak about the president — “I think he’s a symptom of a problem,” she said by way of an explanation — she did have choice words to say about him when Cooper asked.

“The president certainly didn’t invent racism. But he’s certainly given a voice to it and expanded it and created a platform for those things,” she said.

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In the “60 Minutes” interview, Ocasio-Cortez also spoke about her progressive policy ideas, as well as how she planned to pay for them. For starters, she floated the idea of a marginal tax in which the very rich would pay as much as 70 percent on a portion of their income to fund her programs, including a “Green New Deal,” which would convert the entire US economy to renewable energy sources.

“People are going to have to start paying their fair share in taxes,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

When Cooper continued to press Ocasio-Cortez on how she would pay for her proposals, she replied, “No one asks how we’re going to pay for this Space Force. No one asked how we paid for a $2 trillion tax cut. We only ask how we pay for it on issues of housing, health care, and education.”

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