TOP NEWS: Fetterman Calls for Assault Weapons Ban After July 4th Parade Massacre

 

July 05, 2022 Top News Top US Nurses Union Urges Senators to Suspend Filibuster to Protect Abortion Rights "Reproductive health services," says National Nurses United, are "fundamental to ensuring economic justice for women across the country." by Brett Wilkins 'Win for Wildlife' as Federal Court Restores Endangered Species Protections Gutted by Trump "In the midst of a global extinction crisis, the court's decision to vacate the rules will help ensure that imperiled species receive the protections they desperately need," said one advocate. by Julia Conley Fetterman Calls for Assault Weapons Ban After July 4th Parade Massacre The Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania's open U.S. Senate seat also demanded the prosecution of "gun dealers whose weapons routinely wind up at crime scenes." by Jake Johnson More Top News • 'Grave Injustice': Judge Rules Against West Virginia Community Devastated by Opioids • Nearly Two Dozen GOP States Attempting to Use Covid Relief Funds for Tax Cuts • Jayapal Warns GOP Will Enact Federal Abortion Ban If It Retakes Congress • GOP Senator Defends Guantánamo Bay Prison as 'Absolutely Vital Institution' • Doctor Describes Gruesome 'Wartime Injuries' at Highland Park Shooting • Senate Urged to Block Biden's Pro-Privatization Nominee for Social Security  Board Defenders of Social Security on Tuesday urged the U.S. Senate to block President Joe Biden's little-noticed nomination of Andrew Biggs—an American Enterprise Institute senior fellow with a history of supporting Social Security privatization—to serve on the independent and bipartisan Social Security Advisory Board. Social Security Works, a progressive advocacy group, is leading the charge against Biggs, highlighting his role in the George W. Bush administration's failed attempt to privatize the New Deal program in 2005. At the time, Biggs worked on Social Security as an associate director of Bush's National Economic Council. "Andrew Biggs has advocated for Social Security cuts throughout his career. And now, he's been nominated to oversee Social Security," Social Security Works tweeted on Tuesday. The group, whose president currently serves on the Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB), is also sharing a sample call script for those who wish to contact their representatives about Biggs. "The Senate can, and must, block this terrible nomination," the organization wrote. "Please call your senators at 202-224-3121 and tell them to vote NO on Andrew Biggs." The White House announced Biggs' nomination to the SSAB in May, a move that drew little notice at the time. Last month, The Lever's Matthew Cunningham-Cook called attention to the president's pick and warned it suggests "there could soon be a coordinated push in Washington to cut the Social Security program, which provides retirement, disability, and survivor benefits to 66 million Americans." While Biden vowed on the campaign trail to back an expansion of Social Security, he has previously supported cutting the program's benefits. Biden was vice president when former President Barack Obama proposed a "grand bargain" with the GOP that would have entailed cuts to Social Security. Biggs, too, has a long record of advocating Social Security cuts. As Cunningham-Cook wrote last month, "For years, Biggs has been a vocal critic of expanded Social Security and workers' right to a secure, stable retirement free from the vagaries of the stock market." "He has dismissed the retirement crisis as a non-issue and as recently as 2020 blamed problems with the Social Security system on 'older Americans' game of chicken,'" he added. "While the seat on the bipartisan board is by tradition assigned to a Republican, Biden could have chosen a moderate candidate—or even leaned on precedent to avoid the nomination process altogether. Former President Donald Trump routinely refused to nominate Democrats for seats on boards and commissions." Simmering outrage over Biggs' nomination to serve on the SSAB, which was formed in 1994 to advise the president and Congress on Social Security, comes as progressives are demanding an expansion of the program's modest benefits—while Republican lawmakers, per usual, eye cuts. Last month, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) led the introduction of the Social Security Expansion Act, which would lift the cap on income subject to the Social Security payroll tax and boost the program's annual benefits by $2,400. "At a time when half of older Americans have no retirement savings and millions of senior citizens are living in poverty, our job is not to cut Social Security," Sanders said at the time. "Our job must be to expand Social Security so that every senior citizen in America can retire with the dignity they deserve and every person with a disability can live with the security they need." • 'Congress Must Do More NOW,' Sanders Says After Mass Shooting at July 4th Parade VIEW ALL NEWS Opinion Susan B. Anthony Was Rolling Over in Her Grave This July 4th The great suffragist would surely be appalled by the Dobbs ruling and the radical logic behind it, which repudiates a century of progress in human rights and democracy. by Jeffrey C. Isaac Hell on Earth: From Tired Metaphor to an Increasingly Accurate Description When will the pain of climate change become too great to ignore any longer and will it then be too late? by Tom Engelhardt What Is Wrong With Us? We are habituated to the notion that deadly interpersonal violence is somehow normal and is to be expected anywhere and everywhere. Of course, this is not true. by Thomas Meisenhelder VIEW ALL OPINION Call 207.775.0488 to donate by phone or mail a check to: Common Dreams, PO Box 443, Portland, ME 04112, United States Common Dreams is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Your contribution is tax-deductible. EIN: 20-3368194

Trump candidate stuns with vile massacre response REPUBLICAN DARREN BAILEY

 

It's Our Democracy!

Today’s Action: Tell Congress to expand and balance the Supreme Court!

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Today's Top Stories:

Hours after massacre, Trump-backed GOP candidate for governor tells Illinois to "move on" and "celebrate" Independence Day
Republican Darren Bailey spoke hours after the Highland Park mass shooting and told Illinoisians to "move on" and celebrate "the most amazing country."

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VIDEO OF THE DAY: Liz Cheney finally asked about a criminal referral for Trump
The disgraced ex-president's day in court is coming...if Merrick Garland's Justice Dept. can muster the courage to do the right thing.

Take Action: Demand the Justice Department indict Trump's election steal lawyer John Eastman!

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Supreme Court takes up the SINGLE MOST DANGEROUS case yet
No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen: OMG.

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4th of July rooftop shooter in custody after killing six, injuring dozens in Highland Park, Illinois, mass shooting
A 22-year-old gunman — now in custody — fired several hundred rounds at a 4th of July parade, killing six and wounding dozens in Highland Park, Illinois, in just the latest ultraviolent mass shooting in the United States.

Take Action: Tell Congress to pass paid family leave and affordable child care!

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Akron horror: Policing experts say bodycam footage raises more questions in Jayland Walker killing
As Akron police released body-camera footage of the fatal shooting of Black motorist Jayland Walker showing multiple police officers discharging a hail of bullets, policing experts say the video produces more questions than answers early on.

Take Action: Tell Big Tech companies to keep abortion data away from the cops!

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"I’m terrified I might be here forever": Brittney Griner pleads for help in letter to Biden from Russian prison
The WNBA star has been detained in Russia for over four months after security at a Moscow-area airport allegedly found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her carry-on bag as she tried to enter the country.

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Drug distributors win key federal opioid trial in hard-hit West Virginia county
A federal judge in West Virginia sided with three major US drug distributors on Monday, ruling that the drug companies can't be held responsible for the addiction epidemic in Cabell County after flooding the area with highly addictive opioids.

excerpt:

A federal judge in West Virginia sided with three major U.S. drug distributors on Monday, ruling that the drug companies can't be held responsible for the addiction epidemic in Cabell County after flooding the are with opioids. U.S. District Judge David Faber issued his 184-page ruling nearly a year after lawyers for Cabell County and the drug companies — AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson — concluded a three-month bench trial in Faber's court. 

The three drug companies distributed 81 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to Cabell County over an eight-year period ending in 2014, a quantity that works out to 94 pills for each adult and child every year. Lawyers for the county argued that the drug distributors acted unreasonably, recklessly, and without regard for public health and safety, ignoring red flags that their "tsunami" of pills were being funneled to the black market as the area wrestled with a growing opioid-fueled addiction crisis.

Lawyers for the drug companies countered that they were only fulfilling orders from licensed pharmacies based on prescriptions written by doctors. Judge Faber agreed, writing that while "the opioid crisis has taken a considerable toll on the citizens of Cabell County and the city of Huntington," cases such as this one "must be decided not based on sympathy, but on the facts and the law," and the plaintiffs did not prove the companies violated public nuisance laws or tie the companies' conduct to the harm in the communities. 

The use of public nuisance laws in opioid cases has had mixed results across the country, but this was the first one involving opioid distributors to end up at federal trial, The Associated Press reports. "The result could have huge effects on similar lawsuits." The plaintiffs said they are "deeply disappointed" with the ruling and may file an appeal. Drug overdose deaths hit a new nationwide high in 2021, and Cabell County reported significantly higher numbers of emergency responses to suspected overdoses compared with previous years.

Take Action: Demand Congress reform the extremist Supreme Court!

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The fight for abortion rights isn't over yet — not by a long shot!
John Fetterman for Senate: John Fetterman has vowed to kill the filibuster and codify Roe into law — but we need to send him to the Senate to do it. Can you chip in today to help him win one of the most flippable races in the country?

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NRA posts appallingly insensitive July 4th greeting day of mass shooting
“The only reason you’re celebrating Independence Day is because citizens were armed,” the NRA tweeted the same day an "armed citizen" senselessly murdered six and wounded dozens with a high-powered assault rifle at a 4th of July parade in Illinois.

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Rep. Lauren Boebert's terrible take on Denmark shooting slammed as "deadly" stupid
The QAnon blowhard congresswoman seized on the recent mall shooting in Copenhagen as evidence that strict gun control laws don’t work. However, she failed to point out that it was Denmark’s first mass shooting in seven years.

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Fox News facing major financial damage in dogged suit over election lies
A massive $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit by a voting machine company over Fox News election lies got a whole lot more serious when a judge ruled the action can proceed in a scathing ruling against Rupert Murdoch and his son.

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NATO poised to sign accession protocols for Sweden, Finland
Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine is having profound consequences on the future of Russia, the expansion of NATO to more neighboring nations chief among them.

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America the beautiful...

American Airlines glitch temporarily threatens to stop 12,000 flights

2 police officers shot during 4th of July festival in Philadelphia

12 injured in stampede after firecrackers mistaken for gunfire cause panic in Orlando

California sex-trafficking victim imprisoned for killing violent pimp finally pardoned after 20 years

It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world

Russian diplomats depart Bulgaria amid soaring tensions

Boris Johnson caught lying about Downing Street sexual misconduct allegations

Tensions reaching "fever pitch" as anti-prophet murders trigger "revenge’ calls in India

Israeli military gunfire "likely" killed Palestinian American journalist, US concludes

Uzbekistan says 18 killed, hundreds wounded in unrest as central government moves to restrict power of the autonomous province Karakalpakstan

Hope...

Discover 3 amazing environmentally friendly leather alternatives

“Britain’s kindest plumber” has helped more than 52,000 families

158 Tesla mega-batteries to shut down and replace coal-fired power plant

The Large Hadron Collider will embark on a third run to uncover more cosmic secrets

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Today’s Action: Tell Congress to expand and balance the Supreme Court!

One of the worst possible outcomes from our unbalanced Supreme Court took shape last month, ripping the right to choose away from people across the country. The fraying thread of reproductive healthcare has been fully cut by a stacked court majority, hellbent on disheveling the separation of church and state. Not so fun facts: five of the six conservative justices currently sitting on the Supreme Court were a) appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote when they first took office and b) confirmed by some of the slimmest Senate margins in US history. And that’s arguably not even the worst part.

In 2016, Republicans stonewalled then-President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee for 293 days, refusing to hold hearings, and ultimately gifting the open seat to Trump in early 2017. Four years later, in the waning days of the 2020 election, Republicans jammed through a deeply unpopular Supreme Court justice in a historically short period of time. They succeeded by ignoring their own voters' opinions, their own precedent, and their own committee rules — to the detriment of all other legislative needs, including pandemic relief. A court that should be a 5-4 left-leaning majority is now one completely unrepresentative of America.

Call (202-224-3121) or write your members of Congress and demand they support the expansion of the Supreme Court!

Changing the number of justices has precedent, would allow for more accurate representation, and is more necessary than ever. The far-right court will not stop with reproductive rights. Part of Justice Alito’s ridiculous argument against protecting the right to abortion is that the right to privacy is not explicitly stated in the Constitution. This myopic, originalist argument would clear the way for multiple other precedents to be unraveled — same-sex intimacy, same-sex marriage, access to contraceptive care, and more.

It doesn’t stop at the judicial level. Conservatives across the country, emboldened by a radically imbalanced court, are systematically disenfranchising millions of voters and criminalizing abortion seekers. Expanding the court means protecting the voices of marginalized communities across the country.

Call (202-224-3121) or write your members of Congress and demand they restore balance and representation to the Supreme Court by expanding its numbers!

PS — Please don't forget to sign the petition to impeach Clarence Thomas before he executes a judicial coup, and be sure to follow OD Action on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

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