 20 December 19 Billions to Control the Political Dialog
Billions are spent every year in the US to control the political dialog. That money comes in ways the Supreme Court has approved and in ways no one can document.
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19 December 19
Russ Feingold | Senators Have a Duty to Keep an Open Mind on Impeachment
Russ Feingold, The Washington Post
Feingold writes: "No proceeding in the Senate is more rare, and, with the possible exception of voting on whether to declare war, no duty of a senator is more solemn or consequential."
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Russ Feingold, The Washington Post
Feingold writes: "No proceeding in the Senate is more rare, and, with the possible exception of voting on whether to declare war, no duty of a senator is more solemn or consequential."
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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi speaks on Oct. 5, 2017, in Washington. (photo: Alex Wong/Getty)
Timing of Trump Impeachment Trial in Limbo as Pelosi Holds Out for Assurances
Nicholas Fandos, The New York Times
Fandos writes: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated Wednesday night that the House could indefinitely delay sending the articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate, leaving ambiguous the timing of a trial to decide whether to acquit him or convict and remove him from office."
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Nicholas Fandos, The New York Times
Fandos writes: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated Wednesday night that the House could indefinitely delay sending the articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate, leaving ambiguous the timing of a trial to decide whether to acquit him or convict and remove him from office."
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Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-MI. (photo: Susan Walsh/AP)
Dingell Responds to Trump's Attacks: 'We're a Family Grieving'
Quint Forgey and Sarah Ferris, Politico
Excerpt: "Rep. Debbie Dingell on Thursday responded to President Donald Trump's attacks on her during a campaign event the previous evening and acknowledged her family is 'still hurting' from the loss of her late husband, former Rep. John Dingell - whom the president suggested was in hell."
Quint Forgey and Sarah Ferris, Politico
Excerpt: "Rep. Debbie Dingell on Thursday responded to President Donald Trump's attacks on her during a campaign event the previous evening and acknowledged her family is 'still hurting' from the loss of her late husband, former Rep. John Dingell - whom the president suggested was in hell."
EXCERPT:
Dingell sought to clean up the president’s version of events Thursday, claiming it was actually Trump who called her earlier this year to say he would be lowering the flags, and clarifying that her husband did not lie in state in the Capitol rotunda after Trump appeared to imply he had arranged a memorial there.
“I didn’t want anything that was out of the ordinary or something where somebody would do something special,” Dingell said, asserting that her husband “earned his burial” at Arlington National Cemetery as a World War II veteran and the longest-serving member of Congress.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, when asked Thursday about Trump’s comments, told reporters at a news conference that “what the president misunderstands is cruelty is not wit.”
“The president clearly is insecure when it comes to statespersons,” she said.
Dingell said Trump’s statements at his rally were not making it any easier for her family to mourn. Her brother-in-law entered Hospice care last month, and as difficult as Thanksgiving was without her husband, “Christmas is harder,” she said.
“We're a family grieving. So I think we should take a lesson from this and all respect each other, period,” she said. “In the broader — we need more civility in this country. Some things should be off limits. And you know what? We’re all human beings.”
Dingell declined to say whether she was demanding an apology from the president, insisting that she is “not going to get into any politics” and referencing former first lady Michelle Obama’s mantra, “When they go low, we go high.”
“I don’t want to politicize my husband. I don’t want to politicize his death,” Dingell said.
Sen. Susan Collins. (photo: Andrew Harrer/Getty)
Who's Behind the Mysterious PAC Dropping Huge Sums to Reelect Susan Collins?
Lachlan Markay, The Daily Beast
Markay writes: "One of the most vulnerable Republican 2020 Senate incumbents is getting major air cover from a new super PAC designed to sound like a local group. But all signs point toward the involvement of the country's biggest business lobby 500 miles away in Washington, D.C."
Lachlan Markay, The Daily Beast
Markay writes: "One of the most vulnerable Republican 2020 Senate incumbents is getting major air cover from a new super PAC designed to sound like a local group. But all signs point toward the involvement of the country's biggest business lobby 500 miles away in Washington, D.C."
EXCERPTS:
The group, a super PAC called 1820 PAC, has dropped about $700,000 on ads this year pressing for the re-election of Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who is facing a tough fight in a race sure to be one of the most expensive of the cycle. The name of the PAC is a reference to the year of Maine’s founding, but 1820’s mailing address is in Washington. And a PAY DIRT analysis of public records shows the fingerprints of one of DC’s heaviest political hitters: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
1820 PAC was formed in March, and within a few months had amassed a sizable war chest. Its top donor by far is Stephen Schwarzman, the chairman and CEO of private-equity giant Blackstone, who chipped in half a million dollars in May. The group has also received $100,000 donations from investors Robert Burt and Howard Leach; $25,000 apiece from a company run by former AIG chief Hank Greenberg, and a division of film studio Lionsgate, and an investment fund founded by Dallas developer Trammell Crow; and $1,000 from Reed.
The group won’t disclose its finances for the second half of 2019 until January. But in the first six months of the year, none of its donors hailed from Maine.
The tactic is generally considered aboveboard legally. But the Maine Democratic Party filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission in October alleging 1820’s use of the B-roll footage violated super PAC coordination rules. “Over 70 percent of [the video content in one 1820 ad] is footage created by the Collins’ campaign,” the party wrote, meaning, “1820 PAC essentially paid to air Collins’ own advertisement.”
Whether or not the practice was illegal, the overlap in both the creative and strategic aspects of the ads from 1820 and the Chamber underscore the synergy between the two groups.
It’s not altogether surprising that the Chamber would want to see Collins re-elected. She enjoys only a modest 78 percent lifetime rating on the organization’s legislative scorecard, but her race will be crucial to efforts to maintain a Republican Senate majority. And while the Chamber has broken with Trump-era GOP orthodoxy on some key issues, Democrats’ leftward shift over the last few years poses a far greater threat to the Chamber’s legislative agenda than Republican skepticism of free trade and immigration.
Black voter turnout was 59.6% in 2016, 66.6% in 2012, and 65.2% in 2008. The voter turnout for black people in each election was higher than Latinos and Asians and higher than whites in 2012. (photo: Kamil Krzaczynski/Getty)
Do Black People Vote? The Racist Lie Rooted in the American Psyche
Rashawn Ray, Guardian UK
Ray writes: "There is a common stereotype among black and white Americans, and it's that black people don't vote."
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Rashawn Ray, Guardian UK
Ray writes: "There is a common stereotype among black and white Americans, and it's that black people don't vote."
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Israeli forces in West Bank. (photo: AFP)
How the Israel Army Muzzles Free Expression for Palestinians
Amy Braunschweiger, Human Rights Watch
Braunschweiger writes: "The Israeli army detained Farid al-Atrash for five days. He wishes it hadn't affected him so profoundly when authorities crammed him into a crowded cell or transported him to court in a cramped metal enclosure inside a military vehicle. Thousands of Palestinians, after all, have been detained for much longer and treated worse than he was, he says."
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Amy Braunschweiger, Human Rights Watch
Braunschweiger writes: "The Israeli army detained Farid al-Atrash for five days. He wishes it hadn't affected him so profoundly when authorities crammed him into a crowded cell or transported him to court in a cramped metal enclosure inside a military vehicle. Thousands of Palestinians, after all, have been detained for much longer and treated worse than he was, he says."
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Ethan Bates and Cody Sauve adjust the wiring box on a solar array outside their Delta High School classroom. Bates' father was a coal mine foreman. (photo: Luna Anna Archey/High Country News)
In Rural Colorado, the Kids of Coal Miners Learn to Install Solar Panels
Nick Bowlin, High Country News
Bowlin writes: "Along with a group of other seniors and a few juniors, Baty is enrolled in 'Solar Energy Training.' The class not only provides a science credit needed for graduation; it also trains students for careers in solar energy or the electrical trades."
Nick Bowlin, High Country News
Bowlin writes: "Along with a group of other seniors and a few juniors, Baty is enrolled in 'Solar Energy Training.' The class not only provides a science credit needed for graduation; it also trains students for careers in solar energy or the electrical trades."
EXCERPT:
The economics of renewables are changing Delta at the county level, too. The area’s electric cooperative, Delta-Montrose Electric Association (DMEA) is ending its contract with its wholesale power supplier, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association. Tri-State long required that buyers like DMEA purchase 95% of their electricity from the utility, limiting the amount of solar and other renewables local co-ops could produce. The company is notorious for its continued reliance on coal-fired power plants.
For many Delta residents, solar offers a certain self-sufficiency and local independence they find appealing, as evidenced by DMEA’s defection from corporate control. It’s also cheaper: DMEA can cut customer costs by increasing its share of renewable power. As a rural electric co-op, DMEA’s members call the shots, and in October 2018, they voted to raise money and sell stocks in order to buy out their Tri-State contract. Politically, Delta County might not be an obvious leader in renewable energy; it voted for President Trump by about 70%. But solar panels on homes and businesses are increasingly common, with demand sometimes outstripping the capacity of local solar firms.
In the school district where Graves works, DMEA has encouraged the adoption of solar by funding solar arrays at every high school in its service area. Through SEI, the co-op has administered grants for Graves’ class, and it funds solar trainings for teachers across the area.
FROM AN EDUCATIONAL VIEW, the solar class’ value rests in its capacity to combine technical training and scientific learning outside the traditional grade structure. This dynamic was on full display on a bright fall day in October. The class was participating in an energy reduction contest against other Delta County high schools. Sponsored by the Colorado Energy Office, the Renew Our Schools program promotes student-run energy efficiency projects. At the end of the five-week competition, the winning school would receive $12,000.
The contest transformed the kids from students to energy auditors. Graves sent them out to prowl the hallways, counting light bulbs and measuring the energy used by the tech lab’s computers. In the hallways, every other light fixture is dark, the bulbs removed by solar students. At a separate table, another group used the data to calculate savings if the building’s sodium vapor bulbs were replaced by LED lights. Lights, the kids found, account for about half of the school’s peak power demand.
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