22 February 20
Over the years we have made a lot of powerful enemies, and withstood their collective wrath. Indifference to the organization’s funding by the community it serves is by every measure a far more dangerous enemy than all the others combined.
Indifference, the true enemy. In all things.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
Founder, Reader Supported News
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21 February 20
Robert Reich | Our Criminal Justice System Serves No True Justice
Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Facebook Page
Reich writes: "Three years and four months for lying to Congress, threatening a witness, impeding a federal investigation, and betraying the country."
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Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Facebook Page
Reich writes: "Three years and four months for lying to Congress, threatening a witness, impeding a federal investigation, and betraying the country."
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U.S. Marines patrol through the Haitian woods in search of guerrilla fighters as part of 'Banana Wars.' (photo: Wikimedia)
Danny Sjursen | Where Have You Gone Smedley Butler? A Nation Turns Its Lonely Eyes to (Someone Like) You...
Danny Sjursen, TomDispatch
Sjursen writes: "There once lived an odd little man - five feet nine inches tall and barely 140 pounds sopping wet - who rocked the lecture circuit and the nation itself."
Danny Sjursen, TomDispatch
Sjursen writes: "There once lived an odd little man - five feet nine inches tall and barely 140 pounds sopping wet - who rocked the lecture circuit and the nation itself."
EXCERPT:
But after retirement, Smedley Butler changed his tune. He began to blast the imperialist foreign policy and interventionist bullying in which he’d only recently played such a prominent part. Eventually, in 1935 during the Great Depression, in what became a classic passage in his memoir, which he titled “War Is a Racket,” he wrote: “I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service... And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street, and for the Bankers.”
Seemingly overnight, the famous war hero transformed himself into an equally acclaimed antiwar speaker and activist in a politically turbulent era. Those were, admittedly, uncommonly anti-interventionist years, in which veterans and politicians alike promoted what (for America, at least) had been fringe ideas. This was, after all, the height of what later pro-war interventionists would pejoratively label American “isolationism.”
Nonetheless, Butler was unique (for that moment and certainly for our own) in his unapologetic amenability to left-wing domestic politics and materialist critiques of American militarism. In the last years of his life, he would face increasing criticism from his former admirer, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the military establishment, and the interventionist press. This was particularly true after Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany invaded Poland and later France. Given the severity of the Nazi threat to mankind, hindsight undoubtedly proved Butler’s virulent opposition to U.S. intervention in World War II wrong.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, and his wife Jane O'Meara Sanders lead supporters to an early voting location after a campaign event at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2020, in Las Vegas. (photo: Patrick Semansky/AP)
Sanders' Gains With Black Voters Are a Big Deal Heading Into the Race's Next Phase
Chuck Todd and Carrie Dann, NBC News
Excerpt: "If you'd asked us this time last year about what the most obvious tangible challenges for Bernie Sanders would be in the 2020 primary electorate, Exhibit A or B would have been his limited past success with minority voters, specifically African Americans."
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Chuck Todd and Carrie Dann, NBC News
Excerpt: "If you'd asked us this time last year about what the most obvious tangible challenges for Bernie Sanders would be in the 2020 primary electorate, Exhibit A or B would have been his limited past success with minority voters, specifically African Americans."
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The Republican National Committee is sending mailers to people across the country that look like the official 2020 census form. (photo: AP)
GOP Is Accused of Sending Misleading 'Census' Forms Ahead of the Actual Count
Sarah D. Wire, Los Angeles Times
Wire writes: "The Republican National Committee is sending documents labeled '2020 Congressional District Census' to people in California and across the country just weeks before the start of the official nationwide count of the country's population."
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Sarah D. Wire, Los Angeles Times
Wire writes: "The Republican National Committee is sending documents labeled '2020 Congressional District Census' to people in California and across the country just weeks before the start of the official nationwide count of the country's population."
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (photo: Getty)
AOC Is Trying to Build 'The Squad' Into an Army
Paul Blest, VICE
Blest writes: "AOC is determined to build out The Squad into an army."
Paul Blest, VICE
Blest writes: "AOC is determined to build out The Squad into an army."
Her endorsements Friday could be her biggest confrontation yet with the traditional Democratic establishment.
The progressive freshman congresswoman on Friday endorsed a slate of other progressive women for the Senate and House on Friday, in what might be her biggest confrontation yet with the traditional Democratic campaign organizations she’s scrapped with over the past year since she took office.
The endorsements, via a new PAC formed in January called Courage to Change, include candidates running in open primaries, those running against establishment-backed candidates, and even some who are running against incumbent Democrats in the House, according to the New York Times.
Those endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez so far include labor activist and Texas Senate candidate Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, who’s running in an open primary against MJ Hegar, a 2018 House candidate who’s backed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The winner of the Democratic primary will take on Sen. John Cornyn in November.
Ocasio-Cortez also threw her support behind four candidates running for the House: Teresa Leger Fernandez in New Mexico, San Diego City Council president Georgette Gómez, community organizer Samelys López in the Bronx district that borders Ocasio-Cortez’s, and Kara Eastman, who narrowly lost her bid for a Nebraska congressional seat to Republican Don Bacon in 2018.
Ocasio-Cortez had previously backed Marie Newman and Jessica Cisneros, progressive women challenging Reps. Dan Lipinski of Illinois and Henry Cuellar of Texas, two of the most conservative House Democrats in the caucus.
Although the full slate of “over a dozen female candidates” hasn’t yet been released, Courage to Change has also sent money to three other incumbent progressive freshmen since 2019, according to an FEC filing in January: Reps. Katie Porter and Mike Levin of California, as well as Rep. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut.
AOC’s backing helps left-wing Democrats circumvent the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House Democrats’ campaign arm she’s clashed with repeatedly over the past year; in January, she announced she would stop paying DCCC dues (but then, she’s one of the few members of Congress who can afford to do that; last year, she raised nearly $6 million, according to Politico).
More importantly, Ocasio-Cortez is actively boosting the slate’s hopes of repeating her success in 2018, when she successfully primaried top Democrat Joe Crowley, in an attempt to build up the party’s left flank in Congress. Given that the party’s current presidential front-runner is left-wing Sen. Bernie Sanders, for whom Ocasio-Cortez is a top surrogate, building an alternative power base to the Democratic establishment in the coming years will be key for progressives who want to enact policies such as the Green New Deal and Medicare for All.
“One of our primary goals is to reward political courage in Congress and also to help elect a progressive majority in the House of Representatives,” Ocasio-Cortez told the Times. “There’s kind of a dual nature to this: One is opening the door to newcomers, and the other is to reward members of Congress that are exhibiting very large amounts of political courage.”
In addition to working to help elect other candidates like her, Ocasio-Cortez has her own primary to worry about this year. Earlier this month, former CNBC anchor Michelle Caruso-Cabrera announced that she was running for Congress against Ocasio-Cortez, joining a field of four other Democrats and eight Republicans challenging the freshman congresswoman packing in the heavily Democratic district.
AOC isn’t the only member of the Squad of four female progressive reps to go out on a limb for congressional candidates this cycle. Last week, Michigan Rep. Ilhan Omar endorsed Nabilah Islam, who’s running for a House seat in Georgia. And on Thursday, Omar retweeted a fundraising post from Arati Kreibich, a North Jersey neuroscientist and town councillor primarying incumbent Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a conservative who has frequently clashed with the Squad.
When asked if the retweet was an endorsement of Kreibich, an Omar spokesperson replied: “Don’t have any news beyond what you sent.”
Iranian man holding a sign outside of the U.S. Supreme Court after President Trump's travel ban was upheld in Washington, D.C. (photo: Leah Millis/Reuters)
New US Visa Rules Set Off 'Panic Wave' in Immigrant Communities
Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "After nearly a dozen years moving through the United States visa system, Sai Kyaw's brother and sister and their families were at the finish line: a final interview before they could leave Myanmar to join him in Massachusetts and work at his restaurant."
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Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "After nearly a dozen years moving through the United States visa system, Sai Kyaw's brother and sister and their families were at the finish line: a final interview before they could leave Myanmar to join him in Massachusetts and work at his restaurant."
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Colorado River in Grand Canyon at Toroweap. (photo: Getty)
Colorado River Flow Shrinks From Climate Crisis, Risking 'Severe Water Shortages'
Oliver Milman, Guardian UK
Milman writes: "The flow of the Colorado River is dwindling due to the impacts of global heating, risking 'severe water shortages' for the millions of people who rely upon one of America's most storied waterways, researchers have found."
Oliver Milman, Guardian UK
Milman writes: "The flow of the Colorado River is dwindling due to the impacts of global heating, risking 'severe water shortages' for the millions of people who rely upon one of America's most storied waterways, researchers have found."
EXCERPT:
“We’ve wasted nearly 30 years bickering over the science. The science is crystal clear – we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions immediately.”
The Colorado rises in the Rocky Mountains and slices through ranch lands and canyons, including the Grand Canyon, as it winds through the American west. It previously emptied into the Gulf of California in Mexico but now ends several miles shy of this due to the amount of water extraction for US agriculture and cities ranging from Denver to Tijuana.
The river’s upper basin supplies water to about 40 million people and supports 16m jobs. It feeds the two largest water reserves in the US, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, with the latter supplying Las Vegas with almost all of its water.
Snowpacks that last into late spring have historically fed streams that have nourished the Colorado River, as well as reducing the likelihood of major fires. As the climate heats up, the river is evaporating away and the risk of damaging wildfires is increasing.
The climate crisis is compounding existing threats to the river, which include intensive water pumping for agriculture, water use by urban areas and the threat of pollution from uranium mining. Lake Mead, the vast reservoir formed by the Hoover dam, has dropped to levels not seen since the 1960s.
A 19-year drought that racked stretches of the river almost provoked the US government to impose mandatory cuts in water use from the river last year, only for seven western states to agree to voluntary reductions. The problems are set to become more severe, however, as the climate becomes hotter and drier at a time when demand for water from expanding cities in the American west increases.
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