27 June 20
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26 June 20
RSN: Norman Solomon | Progressives Must Fight With - and In - the Democratic Party
Norman Solomon, Reader Supported News
Solomon writes: "After defying the odds and defeating corporate opponents on Tuesday, the strong progressives Jamaal Bowman and Mondaire Jones are headed to Congress from New York - and there's no way it would be happening if they hadn't been willing and able to put up a fight in Democratic primaries."
Norman Solomon, Reader Supported News
Solomon writes: "After defying the odds and defeating corporate opponents on Tuesday, the strong progressives Jamaal Bowman and Mondaire Jones are headed to Congress from New York - and there's no way it would be happening if they hadn't been willing and able to put up a fight in Democratic primaries."
The same was true in 2018 with the election of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley as they beat the party establishment.
After three decades of contributing mightily to the blight of Congressional militarism, Rep. Eliot Engel couldn’t be rescued by the high-profile endorsements of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Nor could Engel be saved by the eleventh-hour support of Hillary Clinton.
Other Democratic incumbents are being challenged by progressives in difficult and inspiring campaigns: intent on doing what, according to conventional political wisdom, can’t be done.
While the Republican Party has given “faith” a bad name, Barack Obama did the same for “audacity” and “hope.” Being an ally of the military-industrial complex and corporate power isn’t audacious or particularly hopeful. But progressives need plenty of audacious hope and insistence that political organizing must include insurgent election campaigns.
The obstacles are enormous. That’s usually true of social change worth fighting for.
In the electoral arena, the goal is not only about winning elections. It’s also about replacing the top-down weight of entrenched politicians with the bottom-up power of grassroots activism. A current example is the effort by progressive activists in California to make Congressman Ro Khanna the chair of the state’s delegation for the Democratic National Convention, instead of Gov. Gavin Newsom.
That would be appropriate. Khanna was a national co-chair for the 2020 campaign of Bernie Sanders, who won the state’s presidential primary by a margin of 8 percent over Joe Biden.
If raw political power is the metric, Newsom has a clear advantage in the lead-up to a decisive statewide “virtual meeting” of national-convention delegates set for Sunday. But in recent days, 130 Sanders delegates (including me) from Congressional districts across the state – 90 percent of all such Sanders delegates – have signed a statement calling for Khanna to be the delegation chair.
The statement pointed out that “Ro Khanna has been a national champion on issues supported by California Democrats – health care for all, national budget priorities based on human needs and opposing Trump on huge increases in military spending and endless wars, criminal justice reform, and a path to citizenship for immigrants.”
If Newsom allows a democratic process, Khanna could win. From all indications, Newsom doesn’t want to take the chance.
California Democratic Party rules are vague, saying only that “the Delegation Chair will be selected by the National Convention Delegates” on June 28. There’s plenty of room for top party officials to short-circuit actual democracy by refusing to allow a proper election process. The anticipated plan is to offer the delegates one big omnibus package that includes designating Newsom as chair.
Suspicion of the Democratic Party’s power structure has run deep among Bernie supporters. If the Democratic governor of the largest state is perceived as blocking a democratic process in order to strong-arm his way into becoming delegation chair, the ripple effects could extend throughout the country – including the dozen swing states, where a robust turnout from progressive voters will be vital this fall.
At the moment, national polls are rosy for Biden. We’ve been here before, with media depicting Trump on the ropes. Few political pundits saw the demagogue’s prospects as anything but dim against Hillary Clinton in 2016. Four years later, razor-thin margins in swing states could tip the balance, notwithstanding the nationwide popular vote.
Politicians are not known for humility, and few are inclined to bypass a beckoning limelight. California’s delegation chair is apt to draw appreciable media attention in mid-August when Democrats convene a virtual convention. Newsom could do his party and his country a greater service by yielding that particular spotlight rather than basking in it.
Especially after events of 2016, when facts emerged showing that the Democratic National Committee put anti-Sanders thumbs on the scales, many progressives have become acutely sensitive to shortages of fairness in party proceedings. The last thing we need are fresh examples of powerful politicians opting for self-serving actions over democratic principles.
Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and the author of many books, including War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. He is a Bernie Sanders delegate from California to the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
Attorney General William Barr. (photo: Alex Brandon/AP)
Four Ways William Barr Is Already Subverting the 2020 Elections
Joshua A. Geltzer, The Washington Post
Geltzer writes: "A normal attorney general of the United States right now would be focused on protecting the integrity of the fast-approaching November elections. Instead, the attorney general we have - William Barr - is intent on doing the opposite: unraveling the government's efforts to hold accountable those who infected our last presidential election, in 2016, and undermining the integrity of the vote in 2020."
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Joshua A. Geltzer, The Washington Post
Geltzer writes: "A normal attorney general of the United States right now would be focused on protecting the integrity of the fast-approaching November elections. Instead, the attorney general we have - William Barr - is intent on doing the opposite: unraveling the government's efforts to hold accountable those who infected our last presidential election, in 2016, and undermining the integrity of the vote in 2020."
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March and protest against racism and police brutality in Denver, June 5, 2020. (photo: Hart Van Denburg/CPR)
The FBI Has a History of Targeting Black Activists. That's Still True Today
Mike German, Guardian UK
Excerpt: "The FBI has long disrupted and discredited civil rights leaders. It should put its authorities to better use by holding officers accountable."
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Mike German, Guardian UK
Excerpt: "The FBI has long disrupted and discredited civil rights leaders. It should put its authorities to better use by holding officers accountable."
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Elijah McClain's family, including his father LaWayne Mosley (left), have been calling for justice for the officer-involved death of the 23-year-old for nearly a year. (photo: Andy Cross/DP)
Vanessa Romo, NPR
Romo writes: "What does it take to reopen an investigation into a police-involved death of a young Black man after the district attorney refuses to press criminal charges and the officers have been cleared of any wrongdoing? In Aurora, Colorado, the answer is millions of people signing an online petition, thousands of calls to local and state elected officials and intense social media pressure compounded by national media coverage."
Guatemalans walk off a plane after its arrival at La Aurora International Airport on August 23, 2019, in Guatemala City. (photo: Josue Decavele/Getty)
Exporting the Virus: How Trump's Deportation Flights Are Putting Latin America and the Caribbean at Risk
Melissa del Bosque and Isabel Macdonald, The Intercept
Excerpt: "Jude said his body ached, and he was feverish. The 40-year-old was being held with dozens of other Haitians in a crowded U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility at the Alexandria International Airport in Louisiana."
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Melissa del Bosque and Isabel Macdonald, The Intercept
Excerpt: "Jude said his body ached, and he was feverish. The 40-year-old was being held with dozens of other Haitians in a crowded U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility at the Alexandria International Airport in Louisiana."
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In the days following George Floyd's killing, pictures of Israeli authorities taking similar positions over the necks of Palestinians have begun appearing across social media. (photo: Reuters)
Sheren Khalel, Middle East Eye
Khalel writes: "The video of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, an unarmed African American, for nearly nine minutes as he slowly died, gasping for air, has struck a familiar chord with many Palestinians and anti-occupation activists."
"We have seen this not only in the occupied territories when soldiers perform arrests, but inside Israel by police officers as well."
Days after Floyd was killed, Mohammad al-Qadi, a Palestinian marathon runner from the occupied West Bank, posted several pictures depicting uniformed Israelis arresting Palestinians by using knee-to-throat techniques similar to the one that resulted in Floyd's death.
"Crazy how the same thing happens in Palestine but the world chooses to ignore it," al-Qadi said.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003 also established a special office in Israel, which has institutionalised the relationship between Israeli and American law enforcement.
"I think we can learn a lot from other countries, particularly Israel, which unfortunately has a long history of preparing for and responding to terrorist attacks," Senator Susan Collins said about the special office during a congressional hearing at the time.
Despite the US and Israel's copious use of tear gas and pepper spray against protesters, both are considered chemical agents and are banned under international law for use in warfare.
Included in that ban is Israel's newest crowd control creation, "skunk water", which Israel first deployed against Palestinian protesters in 2008.
Sprayed via water cannons at protesters, the stench of the foul-smelling liquid stays for days on any surface that it touches, such as asphalt, buildings, clothes and even skin.
"The physical side effects of the skunk [water] may include nausea, skin rash, and vomiting," the ACLU said in a 2016 report.
Israel's so-called counterterrorism training sessions have included seminars on the benefits of the noxious-smelling water.
"The problem with this method is that it is indiscriminate, as it targets groups of protesters without distinction. In many cases, homes, individuals and businesses were harmed by its use despite not having taken any part in the protests in which it was used," Khoury told MEE.
While it has reportedly not yet been used by law enforcement in the US, the St. Louis Police Department began stockpiling skunk water after massive popular protests broke out in Ferguson in 2014 following a fatal police shooting of an unarmed Black teenager. The police department of Bossier City, Louisiana, has also purchased skunk water, according to records obtained by Defense One.
Private American security companies have also started advertising its potential use for "border crossings, correctional facilities, demonstrations and sit-ins".
Amid reports of police brutality during crackdowns on the recent nationwide protests in the US, Anthony Lorenzo Green, an advisory neighbourhood commissioner of DC's 7th Ward, pointed the finger squarely at Israel's training of American police.
Green shared a video posted by an activist who linked the crowd control methods DC police were using to those used by Israeli forces when he had been in the occupied West Bank last year.
"@DCPoliceDept are trained by the [Israeli army]. They don't want you to know that," Commissioner Green tweeted.
Amnesty USA's Wilcken said under the current circumstances, it is unsurprising that those shocked by the police's use of force are drawing such comparisons.
"Peaceful protesters across the United States find themselves under attack by police forces," Wilcken said.
"Harsh and violent tactics employed against demonstrators bring to mind security forces from other parts of the world that have employed similar and even harsher methods," he continued. "Israel is one such country."
Truckers line up at the entrance of a terminal in the Port of Long Beach, California. (photo: Beatrice de Gea/Los Angeles Times)
Goodbye, Diesel Exhaust. California Adopts Nation's First Zero-Emission Truck Rule
Los Angeles Times
Excerpt: "California, again, is leading the nation's fight against climate change. The California Air Resources Board adopted a rule Thursday requiring that by 2045, all trucks sold in the state be zero-emission models."
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Los Angeles Times
Excerpt: "California, again, is leading the nation's fight against climate change. The California Air Resources Board adopted a rule Thursday requiring that by 2045, all trucks sold in the state be zero-emission models."
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