31 October 19
Robert Reich | 6 Ways Trump Has Sold Out America
Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog
Reich writes: "One of Donald Trump's main campaign promises was to put 'America First' and defend American interests above all else. It was a theme that riled up his base at rallies across the country, but this has turned out to be yet another big lie."
Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog
Reich writes: "One of Donald Trump's main campaign promises was to put 'America First' and defend American interests above all else. It was a theme that riled up his base at rallies across the country, but this has turned out to be yet another big lie."
At every turn, he has sold out America for his own personal interest. Instead of putting America first, here are 6 ways Donald Trump has put himself first:
1) He has encouraged foreign powers to interfere in our democracy. Trump is using the power of the presidency to encourage foreign leaders to interfere in our elections – asking the President of Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political opponents in exchange for military aid. He has also publicly called on Russia and China to investigate his political opponents.
2) He receives money from foreign governments through his hotels and real estate business. Since taking office, representatives of at least 22 foreign governments, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Russia, have spent money at properties owned by the Trump Organization. These payments are clear violations of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, which forbids the president from accepting anything of value from foreign governments. Trump had even planned to host next year’s G-7 meeting at his Doral golf resort, in Florida, but this brazen corruption was apparently too much even for his supporters in Congress.
3) He is making foreign policy on the basis of where his business is located around the world. The simplest explanation for why he cozies up to Turkey’s dictator Recep Erdogan, even withdrawing US troops from the Syrian border, is the Trump Towers Istanbul is his first and only office and residential building in Europe, and businesses linked to the Turkish government are also major patrons of the Trump Organization.
4) He has called on foreign powers to investigate Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who concluded that Trump’s campaign sought help from Russia during the 2016 election. The Trump administration has encouraged officials in Italy, Australia, and the United Kingdom to investigate details of Mueller’s investigation in an effort to discredit his report.
5) He is favoring authoritarian regimes around the world, turning his back on America’s allies. Beyond Turkey’s Erdogan, Trump has said he’s “in love” with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, and, of course, praised Vladimir Putin.
6) He has ignored American intelligence agencies, relying instead on foreign governments. He has repeatedly disputed that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, favoring Vladimir Putin’s version of what happened over the findings of our own intelligence community.
Donald Trump claims to be a patriot at the same time as he sells out America. He has brazenly sought private gain from foreign governments at the expense of the American people. Instead of putting “America First,” he has repeatedly put “Donald First.”
Tim Morrison, a key aide on the White House's National Security Council, is expected to leave his post imminently. (photo: Sarah Silbiger/Reuters)
Trump's Russia Director to Leave National Security Council Amid Impeachment Inquiry
Franco Ordoñez, NPR
Ordonez writes: "Tim Morrison, the top Russia official on President Trump's National Security Council, who is scheduled to testify in the impeachment inquiry on Thursday, is set to leave his White House post imminently."
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Franco Ordoñez, NPR
Ordonez writes: "Tim Morrison, the top Russia official on President Trump's National Security Council, who is scheduled to testify in the impeachment inquiry on Thursday, is set to leave his White House post imminently."
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A sign for early voting stands outside El Centro College on Tuesday, October 29, 2019 in downtown Dallas. (photo: Ashley Landis/The Dallas Morning News)
Democrats Challenge New Texas Limits on Polling Sites, Claiming It's GOP Response to Youth Surge in 2018
Paul Cobler, Dallas Morning News
Cobler writes: "Democrats are suing Texas in federal court, alleging a new state law banning temporary voting locations unconstitutionally depresses voter turnout among young people."
Paul Cobler, Dallas Morning News
Cobler writes: "Democrats are suing Texas in federal court, alleging a new state law banning temporary voting locations unconstitutionally depresses voter turnout among young people."
emocrats are suing Texas in federal court, alleging a new state law banning temporary voting locations unconstitutionally depresses voter turnout among young people.
The Texas Democratic Party and the party’s Senate and U.S. House campaign arms — the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — filed the lawsuit on Wednesday in federal court in Austin, asking a judge to block the law.
“Many of the locations where early voting will no longer be available are on or near college campuses, and the impact of this reduction in early voting locations will almost certainly fall disproportionately on young voters, who already suffer from limited automobile access compared to the general population,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit challenges House Bill 1888, which was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in June.
The law bars temporary or “mobile” polling sites that counties have used during early voting, typically for a day or two at a time.
Backers of mobile voting call it a cost-effective way to reach as many voters as possible.
“Mobile voting is an essential pillar of making voting more accessible,” said Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa, calling the rollback “their latest attempt to curb the Democratic rise in the state and steal an election from the rising Texas electorate.”
During the 2019 legislative session, supporters of H.B. 1888 argued that temporary polling sites benefit some populations but exclude others that don’t get assigned a temporary polling site.
State Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood and author of the bill, said the temporary voting locations allowed for a “selective harvesting of targeted voters.”
His bill required any polling place to remain open for the entirety of the early voting period, which he said would minimize selective targeting.
Democrats argue that Texas counties can’t afford to keep such sites open throughout the early voting period, and that temporary sites make it easier for many voters to cast ballots.
DCCC chairwoman Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., called it a “blatantly partisan attempt to shrink the electorate.”
The lawsuit points to an uptick in voter turnout among young people in the 2018 midterms, which propelled Democrat Beto O’Rourke to within 2.6% of Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in the 2018 Senate race.
Mobile voting locations on college campuses were a factor in the increase. Voter turnout among young people increased 234% between the 2014 and 2018 midterm elections, according to the Texas Secretary of State’s office.
The lawsuit centers around the “undue burden” on young peoples’ right to vote, but Democrats pointed out that the law could also depress turnout in areas across the state.
“We won’t stand by while Republicans work overtime to undermine Texas voters’ ability to access the ballot, particularly elderly Texans, people with disabilities, and college students,” Bustos said. “I look forward to the day when access to the ballot is treated like the universal American value that it absolutely must be.”
The chairwoman of the DSCC, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, said that “the gains Texas made in boosting turnout prove that when we remove obstacles to voting, more people cast their ballots.”
“We won’t stand by while others work to disenfranchise Texans who want to lawfully participate in our democracy,” she said.
Demonstrators hold a banner calling for the end of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. (photo: Getty)
Gay Couple Separated by ICE, Denied Release Despite Judge's Order
Matt Baume, Out
Baume writes: "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) appears to be illegally holding a gay asylum seeker from Honduras, refusing to release the man even after a U.S. District judge ruled that the agency must issue an 'individualized determination' in his case."
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Matt Baume, Out
Baume writes: "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) appears to be illegally holding a gay asylum seeker from Honduras, refusing to release the man even after a U.S. District judge ruled that the agency must issue an 'individualized determination' in his case."
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Robert E. Murray, right, CEO of Murray Energy with Energy Secretary Rick Perry. (photo: Washington Post)
Major Coal Producer and Trump Booster Files for Bankruptcy
Taylor Telford and Dino Grandoni, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "Murray Energy Corp., the private coal giant whose founder pushed the Trump administration for an overhaul of what it called 'anti-coal' environmental policy, filed for Chapter 11 protection on Tuesday."
Taylor Telford and Dino Grandoni, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "Murray Energy Corp., the private coal giant whose founder pushed the Trump administration for an overhaul of what it called 'anti-coal' environmental policy, filed for Chapter 11 protection on Tuesday."
EXCERPTS:
It’s the fifth coal company to land in bankruptcy court this year, in a rapidly shrinking industry that’s being squeezed out of the U.S. power market by cheaper options such as natural gas, solar and wind power.
The long-anticipated bankruptcy is another sign that President Trump’s efforts to save the sputtering coal industry, a central promise of his 2016 campaign, have largely failed.
It also speaks to the “significant stress on the coal industry today,” said Benjamin Nelson, a coal analyst and Moody’s vice president. Coal once fueled about half of all U.S. electricity; now it powers less than a quarter.
The legal maneuver also could imperil the solvency of a major pension fund that covers tens of thousands of coal miners and has renewed calls for the federal government to step in and help support the retirement payments.
“We’re talking about 82,000 miners who are going to lose their pensions, and we’re fighting this,” Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), whose state is home to large Murray Energy operations, said in a radio interview on West Virginia MetroNews on Tuesday.
In 2017, Murray met with White House energy officials to offer an “action plan” calling for deep cuts in the Environmental Protection Agency’s staff, withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, a rollback of safety and pollution regulations, and the repeal of President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan.
Within a year, the administration followed through by pledging to withdraw from the Paris accord, delivering cuts at the EPA and beginning to repeal and replace the Obama-era plan to curb climate-warming emissions from coal-fired power plants.
“Coal’s decline in the U.S. is driven by market forces, notably cheap gas and renewables, not by policy,” said Jason Bordoff, founding director of Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy and co-author of the study.
While three of Murray Energy’s rivals — Alpha Natural Resources, Arch Coal and Peabody Energy — trimmed debt and shed unprofitable assets during their bankruptcy proceedings in 2015 and 2016, Murray was scooping up mines in West Virginia and Illinois.
The spending spree helped saddle the company with about $2.7 billion in funded debt, as well about $8 billion in actual or potential obligations to fund pension and benefit plans, according to court filings.
Vendors sell fruits, vegetables, and cooking utilities to refugees outside of Badarash IDPs camp which has continued to swell for Syrian Kurdish refugees fleeing the recent Turkish incursion in Rojava October 24, 2019 in Dohuk, Iraq. (photo: Byron Smith/Getty)
"Turkey Is Reviving Islamic State in Rojava"
Steve Hudson, Jacobin
Excerpt: "Turkey has now invaded Rojava in an attempt to destroy this self-government and to resist all forms of Kurdish self-determination."
Steve Hudson, Jacobin
Excerpt: "Turkey has now invaded Rojava in an attempt to destroy this self-government and to resist all forms of Kurdish self-determination."
EXCERPT:
The immediate impact of the Turkish invasion has been disastrous, forcing as many as 300,000 civilians to flee their homes. Today, the Turkish-led forces are continuing their attacks even beyond a nineteen-mile buffer zone negotiated with Russia last week, from which SDF fighters have withdrawn. At the same time, the invasion by Turkish and jihadist forces has also allowed the release of IS prisoners, who are now reestablishing their presence in the region.
In this interview, Steve Hudson spoke to the pro-Rojava activists Rosa Burç and Kerem Schamberger about the reasons for the invasion, the proliferation of jihadists, and the threat to Rojava.
Steve Hudson: Tell us what Rojava is, and what has been going on there over the last few years.
Rosa Burç: Rojava literally means “the land where the sun sets” in Kurdish and is used as a synonym for West Kurdistan. For seven years, amidst the wider war in Syria, Kurdish forces as well as the civilian population have been fighting for a new form of self-determination. Over the last years they built up their autonomy. They did not do this in a vacuum, but through the fight against the IS. Rojava is a symbol of self-determination for the peoples in the Middle East and especially in Syria.
Steve Hudson: I often read it discussed in terms of democratic self-government — a grassroots democracy that upholds the rights of women and minorities.
Rosa Burç: Rojava is the natural response to the rise and breakdown of nation states in the Middle East. The Kurds and other minorities in the region have been systematically excluded from political life for almost a century. So, Rojava is something new — and has something of a grassroots character, because it circumvents the suppressive hegemony of the dominant nations and their respective states. Rojava is essentially a project for self-determination by those who have been denied fundamental rights by the existing nation-states.
The Keystone XL pipeline would ship more Canadian oil-sands crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast. (photo: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg)
Keystone Pipeline Leaks "Unknown Amount" of Oil in Northeastern North Dakota
James MacPherson, Associated Press
MacPherson writes: "A pipeline that carries tar sands oil from Canada through seven states has leaked an unknown amount of crude oil over more than quarter-mile swath in northeastern North Dakota, state environmental regulators said Wednesday."
James MacPherson, Associated Press
MacPherson writes: "A pipeline that carries tar sands oil from Canada through seven states has leaked an unknown amount of crude oil over more than quarter-mile swath in northeastern North Dakota, state environmental regulators said Wednesday."
EXCERPT:
State regulators were on the scene Wednesday afternoon, and they estimated that the area of the spill was 1,500 feet long by 15 feet wide. Glatt said some wetlands were affected, but not any sources of drinking water.
The company was still working to contain the spill Wednesday afternoon.
Crude oil began flowing through the $5.2 billion pipeline in 2010. It is part of a system that also is to include the proposed $8 billion Keystone XL pipeline designed to transport the oil from western Canada to terminals on the Gulf Coast.
Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. State Department held the sole public meeting on a new environmental review of the long-stalled proposal. A federal judge blocked it last year, saying more environmental study was needed.
The original Keystone is designed to carry crude oil across Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and through North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri on the way to refineries in Patoka, Illinois, and Cushing, Oklahoma. It has experienced problems with spills in the past, including one in 2011 of more than 14,000 gallons of oil in southeastern North Dakota, near the South Dakota border.
In 2017, the pipeline leaked an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil onto agricultural land in northeastern South Dakota, in a rural area near the North Dakota border.
