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Thursday, June 20, 2024
Top News: Sanders Says US Should Halt 'All Offensive Military Aid'
King Trump and the Greedy Knights of the Business Roundtable
DON'T BE FOOLED!
The Business Roundtable is an association of more than 200 CEOs of America’s biggest corporations, their most powerful voice in Washington.
Last Wednesday, its chair, Joshua Bolten, told reporters that his group planned to drop “eight figures” while “putting its full weight behind protecting and strengthening tax reform.”
Translated: It’s going to pour money into Trump’s campaign to ensure that Trump’s 2017 tax cuts — most of which benefit big corporations and the rich — don’t expire in 2025, as scheduled.
On Thursday, Trump met at the Business Roundtable’s Washington headquarters with over 80 CEOs, including Apple’s Tim Cook, JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, and Walmart’s Doug McMillon.
Trump reportedly promised the CEOs he’d cut corporate taxes even further and curtail business regulations if elected president.
Trump’s 2017 tax cuts reduced the rate of corporate income taxes from 35 percent to 21 percent. That has cost the nation $1.3 trillion. Those tax cuts, along with the tax cuts put in place by George W. Bush, are the primary reason the national debt is rising as a percentage of the economy.
What have corporations done with the money they’ve saved? They haven’t invested it or used it to raise wages. Nothing has trickled down to average workers.
A large portion has gone into stock buybacks. The year after the tax cut went into effect, corporations bought back a record $1 trillion of their shares of stock. Buybacks raise stock prices — and, not incidentally, CEO compensation, which is largely in shares of stock.
Making Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent—as the Business Roundtable seeks—will cost $4 trillion over the next 10 years, $400 billion per year—and cause the debt to soar.
Yet the CEOs that Trump met with last week have been thriving under Biden.
Corporate profits are way up. Stocks are at near-record levels. Inflation has plummeted. Industries like energy that appeared to be at risk from Biden’s policies are doing well.
So why are these CEOs attracted to Trump, whose antics are likely to destabilize the economy?
Is it mere ideology?
Kathy Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City (a nonprofit that represents the city’s top business leaders) relates that Republican billionaires have told her “the threat to capitalism from the Democrats is more concerning than the threat to democracy from Trump.”
In my experience, CEOs of large corporations are more practical than ideological. They’re coming around to Trump because they want even more tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks—which means even more money in their own pockets.
The Business Roundtable’s motto—“More than Leaders. Leadership”—suggests a purpose higher than making its CEOs and corporations richer.
In August 2019, the Roundtable issued a highly publicized statement expressing “a fundamental commitment to all of our stakeholders [emphasis in original],” including a commitment to compensating all workers “fairly and providing important benefits,” as well as “supporting the communities in which we work,” and protecting the environment “by embracing sustainable practices across our businesses.”
Signed by 181 CEOs of major American corporations, the statement concluded that “each of our stakeholders is essential” and committed “to deliver value to all of them.”
The statement got a lot of favorable press. But it was rubbish. At the time, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were gaining traction in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries with their criticisms of corporate America, and the CEOs of the Roundtable were worried. They needed cover.
Then, after the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, many of these CEOs announced they wouldn’t provide campaign funds to Republican members of Congress who refused to certify the 2020 election.
Now, they’re lining up to fund Trump, because they and their corporations want another giant tax cut and rollbacks of regulations.
If the Business Roundtable’s CEOs were honestly committed to all their stakeholders, they wouldn’t seek massive tax cuts.
If they cared about preserving American democracy, they wouldn’t support Trump or any Republican.
The greedy cynicism of America’s corporate elite is now on full display.
Bowman v. Latimer Is About Whether Billionaires Control Congress, Says Sanders
AIPAC & ITS AFFILIATED GROUPS ARE ANTI-DEMOCRACY
PAY ATTENTION TO THE CRYPTO ORGANIZATIONS SUPORTING
CANDIDATES
WARREN BUFFETT CALLED CRYPTO 'RAT POISON SQUARED'
With early voting already underway in New York, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders warned Tuesday that Westchester County Executive George Latimer's primary challenge to Democratic Congressman Jamaal Bowman in the state's 16th District is ultimately about the power of the ultrarich.
"The Democratic primary between Rep. Jamaal Bowman and George Latimer is not just a clash of two very different points of view. It is a clash over the future of the Democratic Party and the future of American politics," said Sanders (I-Vt.). "It is a clash over whether we will have, at least minimally, a democratic form of government in which Congress represents the needs of ordinary Americans, or whether Congress will be completely controlled by the billionaire class and corporate interests."
Sanders' statement came as the senator prepares to rally with Bowman on Friday at MacEachron Park in Hastings-on-Hudson. On Saturday, they are set to be joined by Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents New York's 14th District, for a get-out-the-vote rally at St. Mary's Park in the Bronx. The official primary date is June 25.
Bowman—a critic of the U.S.-backed Israeli war on Gaza—has been the top congressional target of pro-Israel lobbying groups during this cycle. In fact, largely thanks to spending by a group tied to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), "it had become the nation's most expensive House primary this year," Gannett reported this week.
United Democracy Project (UPD), an AIPAC-affiliated super political action committee (PAC), has spent over $14 million on advertising for the contest, according to AdImpact. The group is followed by Latimer—who filed paperwork for his campaign after visiting Israel and was accused of "straight up Islamophobia" during a debate with Bowman last week.
"Latimer's campaign will attract more billionaire super PAC money than any primary race in history," Sanders said Tuesday. "The donors behind these super PACs, AIPAC's United Democracy Project and the crypto-backed Fairshake, are not only spending a huge amount of money to support Latimer's campaign, but are also making large donations to right-wing extremist Republican candidates."
"For the billionaires who control these super PACs, it doesn't matter much whether you are a Democrat or a Republican. It only matters that you support the corporate agenda and Establishment neo-con foreign policies," he continued. "The defeat of Bowman would not only result in the loss of a strong, progressive member of Congress, it would be a message to every member of Congress that if you oppose corporate interests the billionaire class will take you down. We must not allow that to happen."
Sharing Sanders' full remarks on social media, Bowman said that "AIPAC and their Republican billionaire donors are using NY16 as a test. They think they can buy our district—but we won't let them. On June 25th it's the many v. the money, and we will win."
Fellow "Squad" member Ocasio-Cortez also took aim at AIPAC on social media Tuesday, declaring that it is "time to rally."
"Big money, from AIPAC to Wall Street, have poured millions to buy this election," she said, urging participation in the Saturday rally. "To win, we must mobilize thousands."
In addition to targeting Bowman, AIPAC, UDP, and wealthy right-wingers are working to oust another Squad member: Democratic Congresswoman Cori Bush, who is facing St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell the August 6 primary for Missouri's 1st District.
"We've got your back, Jamaal Bowman!" Bush declared on social media last week. "From St. Louis to the Bronx, I know the people will stand with us to show that we are #NotForSale!"
After Netanyahu Video, Sanders Says US Should Halt 'All Offensive Military Aid'
NEITHER NETANYAHU NOR ISRAEL GOVERN US FOREIGN POLICY &
GENUFLECTING TO THIS ARROGANT & CORRUPT BULLY IS WORTHY
OF ONLY CONDEMNATION!
IT'S TIME TO INSIST ON A CEASEFIRE & HUMANITARIAN AID FLOW!
IT'S TIME TO INSIST ON PEACE!
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said Tuesday that the Biden administration should immediately halt all shipments of offensive weaponry to Israel after the country's far-right prime minister claimed in a video that American arms aren't flowing quickly enough.
"No doubt, we will hear similar complaints when he addresses Congress on July 24," Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a video statement of his own. "Virtually everyone recognizes Israel's right to defend itself from terrorism and respond to the horrific October 7th Hamas attack that killed 1,200 innocent Israelis and took hundreds of hostages. But the Israeli government did not and does not have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people. Yet that is exactly what has happened."
Sanders' remarks came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a brief English-language video accusing the Biden administration of "withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel."
The prime minister, who is currently facing possible arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court, added that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken "assured me that the administration is working day and night to remove these bottlenecks."
"I certainly hope that's the case. It should be the case," Netanyahu added. "During World War II, Churchill told the United States, 'Give us the tools, we'll do the job.' And I say, give us the tools and we'll finish the job a lot faster."
Netanyahu did not specify which weapons he was referring to, but the Biden administration recently paused a shipment including 2,000-pound bombs that Israel has repeatedly dropped on areas of Gaza packed with civilians. The Biden administration has continued approving other weaponry—including tank ammunition and mortar rounds—even as it acknowledges that Israel has used U.S. arms to commit war crimes in Gaza.
"Let's be clear: the right-wing, extremist Netanyahu government has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians and injured nearly 85,000, sixty percent of whom are women, children, or elderly," Sanders said Tuesday. "It is absurd that Netanyahu has been invited to address Congress. We should not be honoring people who use the starvation of children as a weapon of war."
"Instead," Sanders added, "the United States should be withholding all offensive military aid to Israel and using our leverage to demand an end to this war, the unfettered flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, a stop to the killing of Palestinians in the West Bank, and initial steps towards a two-state solution."
Netanyahu's video reportedly led the Biden White House to cancel a scheduled Thursday meeting with Israel on Iran. According to Axios, U.S. President Joe Biden's top advisers "were enraged by the video—a message U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein delivered personally to Netanyahu in a meeting hours after it was published."
But Netanyahu has repeatedly taken swipes at the Biden administration and crossed its supposed "red lines" with no material consequences. The administration has approved more than 100 weapons sales to Israel since October 7, and the U.S. has provided crucial diplomatic support for the Israeli government on the world stage, repeatedly thwarting efforts to secure an end to the assault on Gaza.
"The way Netanyahu relishes humiliating American officials is comical," The Intercept's Murtaza Hussain wrote late Tuesday. "The U.S. has been replenishing Israel's weapon stocks throughout the war, without which it would be economically unsustainable. Not to mention giving them diplomatic and political cover."
Sanders and a growing number of Democratic lawmakers are planning to boycott Netanyahu's scheduled address to a joint meeting of Congress next month, citing his government's creation of one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in modern history and continued indiscriminate attacks on the Gaza Strip.
"I will not attend," Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told NBC News on Sunday. "I said that if he wants to come to speak to members of Congress about how to end the war and release hostages, I would be fine doing that, but I’m not going to sit in a one-way lecture."
UN Human Rights Office Condemns Israel's Use of 2,000-lb Bombs Against Gaza Civilians
SILENCE MAKES YOU COMPLICIT TO GENOCIDE!
THERE IS NO EXCUSE TO IGNORE THE ACTIONS OF ISRAEL!
The United Nations Human Rights Office released a report Wednesday concluding that the Israeli military's repeated use of heavy weaponry—including 2,000-pound bombs supplied by the United States—in the Gaza Strip has likely violated international laws of war barring the targeting of civilians and disproportionate attacks.
The new report specifically examines six Israeli attacks that the U.N. Human Rights Offices says are "emblematic" of the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) broader assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 37,000 people, unleashed a hellish humanitarian crisis, and destroyed much of the Palestinian enclave's infrastructure—including education, healthcare, and water facilities.
The attacks analyzed by the U.N. took place between October 9 and December 2 of last year and involved the use of 2,000-pound, 1,000-pound, and 250-pound bombs on residential buildings, a market, refugee camps, and a school. At least 218 people were killed in the six Israeli attacks, the U.N. found, and evidence suggests the actual number of fatalities "could be much higher."
The report says Israeli forces used roughly nine 2,000-pound bombs in a December 2 attack on a neighborhood in Gaza City, causing destruction across a distance of 130 meters.
"These attacks of an apparent indiscriminate nature are among hundreds of a similar nature, giving rise to the appearance of a pattern of attacks over months," the report states. "The pattern of Israeli strikes exemplified by the six incidents above indicates that the IDF may have systematically violated the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack—fundamental principles of international humanitarian law on the conduct of hostilities—in the course of its attacks in Gaza since 7 October 2023."
"The requirement to select means and methods of warfare that avoid or at the very least minimize to every extent civilian harm appears to have been consistently violated in Israel's bombing campaign."
Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement Wednesday that "the requirement to select means and methods of warfare that avoid or at the very least minimize to every extent civilian harm appears to have been consistently violated in Israel's bombing campaign."
The human rights office's report is the latest of several recent U.N. analyses accusing Israeli forces of committing grave war crimes in Gaza—including torture, using starvation as a weapon of war, and genocide—as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demands more weaponry from the U.S. to continue its devastating assault.
Reuters reported Wednesday that "Israeli tanks backed by warplanes and drones advanced deeper into the western part of the Gaza Strip city of Rafah," killing at least eight people and forcing more residents to run for their lives. At least a million people have fled Rafah since Israel began invading the city last month.
"Residents said the tanks moved into five neighborhoods after midnight," Reuters noted Wednesday. "Heavy shelling and gunfire hit the tents of displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area, further to the west of the coastal enclave... Residents said Israeli army forces blew up several homes in western Rafah, which had sheltered over half of Gaza's 2.3 million people before last month, when Israel began its ground offensive and forced most of the population to head northwards."
As Boycott Grows, Ocasio-Cortez Says Netanyahu Invitation 'Should Be Revoked'
SILENCE IS COMPLICITY IN GENOCIDE!
THE REST OF THE WORLD HAS RECOGNIZED PALESTINE & CONDEMNED
NETANYAHU....EXCEPT THE US!
AS A NATION, WE SHOULD BE EMBARRASSED BY THOSE WHO EMBRACE
GENOCIDE!
ILLEGAL ISRAELI SETTLERS ARE KILLING UNARMED PALESTINIANS!
WHAT HAPPENED TO HUMANITY?
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said late Tuesday that Democratic and Republican leaders should withdraw their invitation for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak at a joint meeting of Congress next month after he released a video attacking the Biden administration for "withholding" weapons from Israel's military.
"This man should not be addressing Congress. He is a war criminal," Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote on social media. "And he certainly has no regard for U.S. law, which is explicitly designed to prevent U.S. weapons from facilitating human rights abuses."
"His invitation should be revoked," she added. "It should've never been sent in the first place."
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) formally invited Netanyahu to address a joint meeting last month, roughly two weeks after the Biden administration all but acknowledged what leading human rights organizations had been saying for months: that Israeli forces have used American weaponry to commit war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
The invitation also came roughly two months after Schumer criticized Netanyahu in a speech on the Senate floor, accusing the prime minister of being "too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza" and calling for new leadership in Israel.
"The United States needs to be using its leverage, including restrictions on arms sales, as a way to advance a push toward peace in the Middle East."
Netanyahu, who is scheduled to address Congress on July 24 as he faces a possible arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, said in his video remarks Tuesday that the Biden administration "has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel" over "the past few months." The Israeli prime minister was apparently referring to the administration's decision last month to pause a shipment that includes 2,000-pound bombs.
But the administration is still moving ahead with other weapons deals with Israel, including an $18 billion sale of F-15 fighter jets and Joint Direct Attack Munition kits that the Israeli military has used against civilians in Gaza.
Ocasio-Cortez's call for the cancellation of Netanyahu's scheduled address came as the number of Democrats planning to boycott the Israeli prime minister's speech continued to grow, with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) recently announcing their decisions to skip the joint meeting.
"Benjamin Netanyahu has created a humanitarian disaster," Warren told The Hill on Tuesday. "The United States needs to be using its leverage, including restrictions on arms sales, as a way to advance a push toward peace in the Middle East."
"We need a cease-fire, massive humanitarian relief, the return of the hostages, and we've gotta have a breakthrough on getting the parties to the negotiating table," the senator added. "Giving more arms to Israel is not pushing in the right direction."
In addition to vowing to boycott Netanyahu's scheduled speech, some congressional Democrats are reportedly discussing "counter-programming" plans "focused on peace, bringing the hostages home, and ending this horrible conflict," Axios reported last week, citing an unnamed House Democrat.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is among the lawmakers pledging to boycott the Israeli prime minister's speech, said Tuesday that "it is absurd that Netanyahu has been invited to address Congress."
"We should not be honoring people who use the starvation of children as a weapon of war," said Sanders.
In an email sent out on Wednesday, the progressive group Justice Democrats urged its supporters to demand that their elected representatives either boycott or disrupt Netanyahu's July 24 address, noting that the Israeli prime minister and his government "are still actively carrying out what historian Robert Pape has called 'one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history.'"
"We need our leaders in Washington to stop using our taxpayer dollars to send billions in weapons and bombs to Israel, and demand a permanent cease-fire and the release of all hostages—not roll out the red carpet for Netanyahu," the group added.
Top News | 'He’s Not Going to Run Unopposed': Sanders Rejects Schumer for Majority Leader
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