RSN: How the Polluter-Backed National Black Chamber Misleads Minorities, Israeli Group Helps Blockaded Gazans Negotiate Path to Outside World, Trump Represents What's Wrong With America, While Bernie Represents What's Right

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Robert Reich | Trump Represents What's Wrong With America, While Bernie Represents What's Right

Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Facebook Page
Reich writes: "Bernie is taking on Trump. On Sunday, during an appearance on 'Face the Nation,' Bernie said he'd to a better job representing the economic interests of Trump's middle-class and blue-collar followers, because Trump opposes raising the minimum wage and supports tax cuts for higher-income earners."
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It's Official: There Never Was a 'War on Cops'
Christopher Ingraham, The Washington Post
Ingraham writes: "This year will go down in the record books as one of the safest for police officers in recorded history, according to data released this week from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund."
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High Price of Drugs Leaves Even the Insured And Affluent Struggling
Joseph Walker, The Wall Street Journal
Walker writes: "For many of the poorest Americans, medicines are covered by government programs or financial-assistance funds paid for by drug companies. For those in the middle class, it is a different story."
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Texas' Updated Abortion Restrictions Will Hurt Abused and Neglected Minors Most
Marie Solis, Mic
Solis write: "After passing a bill in May that put into place new hurdles for teenagers seeking an abortion, the Texas Supreme Court amended the state legislation to make it even stricter."
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Marijuana Legalization Is Already Making Mexican Drug Cartels Poorer
German Lopez, Vox
Lopez writes: "We're still not sure of the full impact of marijuana legalization, in terms of pot use and abuse, in the states that have legalized. But a report from Deborah Bonello for the Los Angeles Times shows one way that legalization for recreational and medical purposes is working."
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Israeli Group Helps Blockaded Gazans Negotiate Path to Outside World
Joshua Mitnick, The Christian Science Monitor
Mitnick writes: "Officially, the Gaza Strip's 1.8 million residents cannot exit the territory through Israel. Shadi Bathish, an Israeli Arab paralegal, works with residents to obtain rare exit permits."
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Working from his cramped Tel Aviv office, Shadi Bathish, a paralegal for the Israeli non-profit 
Gisha, helps Palestinians from the Gaza Strip obtain the rare permits to exit the blockaded 
coastal territory. (photo: Joshua Mitnick)

Officially, the Gaza Strip's 1.8 million residents cannot exit the territory through Israel. Shadi Bathish, an Israeli Arab paralegal, works with residents to obtain rare exit permits.

he phone calls from Gaza start in the morning. There are students trying to get to universities abroad; a daughter trying to see a terminally ill parent in the West Bank; a bride trying to get to her own wedding in Jordan.

On the other end of the line – at a cluttered desk in a cramped Tel Aviv office – sits Shadi Bathish, a 39-year-old paralegal who helps Palestinians navigate the Israeli military’s sometimes Kafkaesque bureaucracy and obtain the rare permits to exit the blockaded coastal territory.

The job makes Mr. Bathish one of the few Israelis with a direct line to the hardships of Gaza residents, many of whose homes and neighborhoods were destroyed by the 2014 war between Hamas and Israel.

The war left Gaza in a catastrophic state: In addition to more than 2,000 deaths, some 7,000 homes were razed, and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced. For now, Israel and Hamas have settled back into a state of tense mutual tolerance, but Gaza remains a powder keg waiting to explode in a new conflict.

“We hear a lot of [Palestinian] frustration first hand.… We listen to a lot of painful situations,” says Bathish, an Israeli Arab who works for the legal non-profit Gisha – Hebrew for “access.” The group seeks to roll back restrictions on Palestinians’ movements, particularly the Gaza blockade.

“Once I fielded a call from a person who didn’t meet their parents for a decade. What do I tell him? Wait for the political situation to improve?”

Staying with the 'story'

Though Gaza's 1.8 million residents officially cannot leave the territory through Israel, the Defense Ministry makes exceptions for students studying abroad, merchants, patients admitted to Israeli hospitals, and to reunite immediate family members in the case of marriage or death.

Last month about 30,000 Gazans were allowed to leave; more than three-fourths were either merchants or patients and their families. While that is several times higher than it was six years ago, it's a fraction of the 780,000 monthly exits to Israel in 2000, before the outbreak of a Palestinian uprising.

Along with two other Arabic-speaking case workers, Bathish, a former television news producer originally from Nazareth, explains the Israeli permit policy to Gazans, and helps them follow up on permit requests with representatives of the Israel liaison office that handles civilian affairs in Gaza.

“In journalism, you tell a story of someone and leave it open. In this line of work, I follow it up until the person gets an answer,” he says.

Because of Gaza’s chronic electricity shortages, clients who lack power during the day often e-mail correspondence to Bathish overnight.

'Just want to live my life'

Because Gisha opposes Israel's military blockade, Bathish says he walks a fine line between advising Gazans on their eligibility to leave and helping to implement the military policy.

“A lot of people call us and say, I just want to visit my parents, but they are well,” he says. “We tell them, your complaint is justified, but unfortunately we can’t help you legally.”

Even though Gisha is staffed by Israelis, politics seldom intrudes on these phone calls.

“They say we don’t have any anger toward any political party and they don’t care that you’re an Israeli,” he says. “Others feel obligated to say: I’m a person without political affiliation. I’m not Fatah or Hamas, I just want to live my life.”

Amid the devastation, Palestinians were hopeful earlier this year of a deal between Israel and Hamas that would ease the blockade. But that didn't happen. Meanwhile, international aid pledged for the rebuilding of Gaza hasn't arrived. There’s a shortage of cement for the effort. The monthly numbers for Palestinians getting permits to exit through the Erez checkpoint has dropped since the summer. And in recent months there’s been an increase in requests to emigrate from Gaza to other countries.

Thank-you notes

In addition to answering the hotline from Gaza, Bathish also spends time on the phone with Israeli military officials, following up on unanswered requests, and occasionally threatening a court petition. Last week, he sought approval for a 2-1/2-week-old request by a Palestinian woman to visit her mother in Gaza who had slipped into a terminal coma.

“[The permit] can’t wait anymore. I’m 90 percent sure the mother will die before the daughter gets to see her,” he says. “That’s the difficulty of this work.”

The case worker says he’s been surprised to receive thank-you notes from Gazans, even when they fail to obtain an exit permit. “They tell us, ‘It was important we could turn to you. We understand you did all you could.’ ”

But there are successes, too. Sometimes those clients make a pit stop at the Gisha office to shake hands and snap a picture with the owner of the voice on the other side of the phone. Many insist on bringing small presents.

Those are the moments, says Bathish, when it’s hardest to hold back one’s emotions.

“That’s when you realize that you made a difference,” he says. “We can’t solve the political situation, but there are people living and suffering from this situation, and we need to sustain them to help them lead a decent life.”

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/34359-israeli-group-helps-blockaded-gazans-negotiate-path-to-outside-world

Martin Luther King III | How the Polluter-Backed National Black Chamber Misleads Minorities
Martin Luther King III, The Washington Post
King writes: "For months now, the National Black Chamber of Commerce has been warning communities of color that the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan will cause job losses and generate higher energy bills. In fact, the opposite is true."
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or months now, the National Black Chamber of Commerce has been warning communities of color that the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan will cause job losses and generate higher energy bills.

In fact, the opposite is true.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s first-ever limits on carbon pollution from power plants will create clean- energy jobs, improve public health, bring greater reliability to our electric power grid, bolster our national security, demonstrate the United States’ resolve to combat climate change and maybe even reduce our utility bills.

By limiting the emission of carbon dioxide, the Clean Power Plan also will slow a main driver ofextreme weather, which has inflicted widespread economic damage and human misery, including death.

That’s what the National Black Chamber of Commerce neglects to mention.

Why? As it turns out, the money behind the chamber’s campaign comes from polluters who stand to gain if the Clean Power Plan is blocked. According to The Post, the chamber received more than $800,000 over the past decade from ExxonMobil, and among the sponsors of the group’s national conference in August were other companies that oppose strong action to combat climate change.

At the heart of the chamber’s case is a now-discredited 2014 report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that purported to analyze the then-proposed Clean Power Plan — not the actual plan the EPA advanced this summer.

That report has been widely debunked by fact checkers, including PolitiFact, a Pulitzer Prize-winning independent media analysis organization, and The Post’s Fact Checker, which gave the Chamber of Commerce’s “ report’’ its worst rating for veracity: four Pinocchios.

Here’s what the Clean Power Plan will actually deliver. In addition to cutting carbon pollution nationwide by 32 percent from 2005 levels in 15 years, it will prevent up to 3,600 premature deaths and 90,000 asthma attacks in children, according to the Obama administration.

The chamber also conveniently leaves out why we must tackle climate change.

Extreme weather is on the rise and costing us dearly. Americans paid about $100 billion in 2012 alone just to clean up after extreme weather, including powerful storms, massive fires, severe floods and powerful storms.

Look at who suffered first and suffered the most after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans.

It was the communities — largely African American — in low-lying areas that got hit worst when the levees broke.

Fourteen of the 15 hottest years since record-keeping began in the 1800s have occurred since 2000, according to the U.N. World Meteorological Organization. And 2015 is on course to set an all-time heat record. We all know who suffers the most during extreme waves — folks who can’t afford air conditioning in their homes.

And consider who lives closest to coal-fired power plants and is most exposed to their pollution; 39 percent of the 6 million Americans who live within 30 miles of a power plant are people of color, according to the NAACP.

No wonder polls indicate that most African Americans actually support provisions of the Clean Power Plan. Many people of color live on the front lines of environmental hazard and harm. According to a Nov. 4 poll by Green for All and the Natural Resources Defense Council, 77 percent of African Americans recognize that their community suffers a greater burden from air pollution and climate change than the population at large.

That explains why 83 percent support limiting power plant carbon pollution under the EPA plan, according to the joint poll.

The national survey also found that 66 percent believe the Clean Power Plan will foster job creation.

African Americans are not going to be fooled by any group supported by industrial polluters. They know climate change is real and that we have to do something about it. Only 3 percent believe concern about climate change is overblown.

African Americans and all people of color can benefit greatly by supporting the Clean Power Plan, which will help reduce the impacts of climate change and expand the use of clean, renewable energy from the wind and sun.

In so doing, we will join with Americans of all races in a vibrant coalition for environmental progress and justice — and secure a brighter, healthier and more prosperous future.

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/34358-how-the-polluter-backed-national-black-chamber-misleads-minorities