POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: TRAHAN vs. the MLB — What HARRIS’ exit means for Mass. — GATEWAY city schools to get upgrade

TRAHAN vs. the MLB — What HARRIS’ exit means for Mass. — GATEWAY city schools to get upgrade

BY STEPHANIE MURRAY GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. WHAT HARRIS' EXIT MEANS FOR MASS. — California Sen. Kamala Harris sent a shockwave through the 2020 presidential field when she dropped out of the race yesterday. Her exit leaves a few well-known supporters as free agents late in the primary contest. The end of the Harris campaign comes at a time when some Democratic hopefuls are looking to Boston to raise money before the year ends. Former Gov. Deval Patrick held a fundraiser on Monday at the home of Vertex Pharmaceuticals founder Joshua Boger. Pete Buttigieg, the South Bend, Ind. mayor, will raise money in Boston tonight. And tomorrow, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Attorney General Maura Healey (a Warren surrogate) will attend the Democratic National Committee's fourth IWillVote Gala of 2019 in Boston. DNC chair Tom Perez will also be in town for the party fundraiser. While Harris lagged in the polls here — an October survey showed her at 3 percent — she had cashed checks from some big-name donors in Massachusetts. Early in the 2020 cycle, former Attorney General Martha Coakley, now on the government affairs team at Juul, attended a Harris fundraiser . The event was hosted at the home of Boston philanthropist Georgia Murray and her husband Mark Maloney. Sean Curran, who is now raising money for Patrick, was a co-host of that Harris fundraiser. Just a month ago, Boston City Council President Andrea Campbell traveled to Iowa to support Harris after endorsing her in September. And while he hasn't endorsed anyone, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh in May listed Harris as one of the three Democrats he thought had a good chance at beating President Donald Trump. The end of Harris' presidential bid also frees up a campaign aide with Boston ties. Katie Prisco-Buxbaum, who served as Southwest finance director on the Harris campaign, was Campbell's campaign manager during her 2015 city council race. Harris' national finance director, Jennifer Liu, left the campaign before Harris dropped out of the race. A former Patrick aide, the ex-governor had offered her a position on his campaign, according to a Washington Post report. Liu previously served as finance director on Coakley's campaign for governor and Middlesex Sheriff Peter Koutoujian's congressional bid. Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for the Playbook? Get in touch: smurray@politico.com. TODAY — Gov. Charlie Baker, First Lady Lauren Baker and Lt. Governor Karyn Polito hold a Gold Star Families tree dedication at the State House, and host the State House Christmas tree lighting and holiday open house. Baker and state Rep. Michelle Ciccolo to participate in a ribbon cutting for Thermo Fisher Scientific's new clinical and commercial gene therapy manufacturing site in Lexington. Baker and Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone make a MassWorks announcement in Somerville. Presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg holds a fundraiser in Boston. DATELINE BEACON HILL - "Dead mice, crumbling concrete: Education reform won't fix the sorry state of some schools," by Malcolm Gay and Meghan E. Irons, Boston Globe: "Step into Kaitlyn Lausier's basement classroom, and years of financial neglect in this once-prospering city can be seen everywhere: the long fluorescent tube lights, the bare brick walls, the flaking radiator that warns in English and Spanish not to touch its scorching sides. Gateway cities like Lynn, mid-size urban centers whose lower property values are a draw for lower-income households, are slated to be among the big winners in the sweeping school-funding reform bill signed into law last week by Governor Charlie Baker. Such districts are expected to see millions in fresh spending from the new law — a down payment meant to reverse yawning student achievement gaps fueled by years of underinvestment." - "Tougher child rape penalties pushed," by Christian M. Wade, Eagle-Tribune: "Convicted child rapists who commit new crimes could be sentenced to life without parole under a proposal by Gov. Charlie Baker to toughen sex offender laws. Baker's proposal, which went before the Legislature's Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, would increase the penalty for rape of a child with force by someone who has already been convicted of sexual offenses to life without parole. It establishes new charges for the rape of multiple children with force, which would carry a mandatory life sentence. It also would require a hearing by a new, five-member "sexual dangerousness review board" of psychologists to resolve disputes over the release of a sex offender held under the state's civil commitment law. The opinions of two "qualified experts" are currently all that's required to certify a sex offender as non-dangerous and eligible for release from custody." - "Petition to block state taxpayer funding for abortions falls short," by Stephanie Ebbert, Boston Globe: "For the third time in five years, a petition drive aimed at ending state taxpayer funding for abortions has failed to garner the support it needed to land on the election ballot. The Massachusetts Alliance to Stop Taxpayer Funded Abortion alerted supporters Tuesday that its petition-gathering drive had not reached the threshold necessary to start the process to amend the constitution by ballot question. Taxpayer funding for abortions is prohibited on the federal level by the so-called Hyde Amendment (except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.) But Massachusetts is one of 16 states where abortions are covered by Medicaid." - "Senate's Israel Trip A New Wrinkle in Supp Saga," by Matt Murphy, State House News Service: "If bad optics and the state comptroller's threat to take action on his own weren't enough impetus for Senate President Karen Spilka to want to cut a budget deal with the House, the Ashland Democrat may have another reason to soon bring the protracted negotiations with the House to a close. Spilka, who is just the third Jewish president of the Senate, is scheduled to lead a delegation of 10 senators to Israel for a 10-day trip that begins on Thursday. The group, which plans to return home on Dec. 15, includes Senate Ways and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues and Ways and Means Vice Chair Cindy Friedman, who both sit on the three-member Senate conference negotiating the close-out budget with three House conferees." - "As other states take on housing crunch, Mass. still stands pat," by Tim Logan, Boston Globe: "In a sign of how difficult it has been for Massachusetts to tackle its mounting housing crisis, a modest bill that would make it easier for cities and towns to build more homes — only if they want to — has been in legislative limbo for two years and counting, despite broad support and a months-long push for passage by Governor Charlie Baker. During that time, other states facing similar housing shortages have taken action." - "Charlie Baker defends EBT card 'integrity' after Herald reports Hawaii, Las Vegas spending," by Joe Dwinell and Mary Markos, Boston Herald: "Despite evidence of EBT spending in vacation hot spots like Hawaii and Las Vegas, the Baker administration is standing by the "integrity" of the tax-funded welfare program. The state Department of Transitional Assistance said Tuesday the agency has hired more staff to target EBT card abuse. But, as the Herald reported Monday, EBT card transactions were recorded at hotels in Hawaii on Hanalei Bay and Waikiki Beach. The agency said both transactions prompted an investigation. The DTA was not able to share that information Monday when asked to explain why EBT cards were used at the Princeville Resort on the island of Kauai for a total of $400 in November of last year and $140 in January at the Sheraton Waikiki in Honolulu." - "Nursing home funding ballot campaign files signatures," by Michael P. Norton, State House News Service: "Supporters of a potential 2020 ballot question updating rates paid by state government to nursing homes say they are positioned to advance to the next stage in the process. The Massachusetts Senior Coalition announced Tuesday that it has submitted 87,000 locally certified voter signatures to the Secretary of State's office and said the total will rise to more than 95,000 before Wednesday's filing deadline. Ballot questions need 80,239 certified signatures to keep their proposals alive." FROM THE HUB - "Amid backlash over plan to evict artists, Boston Center for the Arts delays new residency program," by Brian MacQuarrie, Boston Globe: "Responding to broad criticism of its plan to evict dozens of longtime artists, the Boston Center for the Arts has proposed delaying a new residency program by a year and offering at least 25 percent of its studios to artists who currently rent space in its sprawling South End complex. The center's leaders on Monday told artists who rent heavily subsidized workspace on Tremont Street that the residency program will not begin until June 2021, and that 10 spaces will be set aside for applicants from among the approximately 40 artists who work there now, many of them for decades." - "Striking Harvard Grad Students Hope to Send a Message 'Nationwide,'" by Spencer Buell, Boston Magazine: "Chanting "What's up? Time's up!" and marching down the winding paths in Harvard Yard, a small army of grad students at the nation's wealthiest and most prominent university walked off the job Tuesday morning. It's a move they hope will help secure a better contract for the thousands of teaching and research assistants at Harvard, and will send a loud-and-clear message at a time when student workers have been asserting themselves on private college campuses." - "South Boston home where 'Whitey' Bulger's victims were buried may be torn down," by Emily Sweeney, Boston Globe: "The home that James "Whitey" Bulger called "The Haunty" may get torn down. The Boston Landmarks Commission recently received an application from owner Mark Little to demolish the residence at 799 East Third St. in South Boston "to make way for a new 4-unit townhouse style development with 8 garaged parking spots." Located in City Point, one of Boston's hottest neighborhoods, the cozy-looking home has been advertised as a developer's dream in a prime location, complete with architectural plans and renderings to build anew. But what the real estate listings haven't said is that it once served as a secret burial ground for Bulger's gang." PRIMARY SOURCES - "Warren, Patrick looking to make moves in an unsettled Democratic field," by Adrian Walker, Boston Globe: "Deval Patrick is arriving at the party just as the early guests are starting to leave, and Elizabeth Warren is frantically looking for her next move. Barely two months before the New Hampshire primary, a presidential campaign that should be coming into focus looks as opaque as it has at any point, and two Massachusetts candidates are searching for the way forward. After a summer in which Warren appeared to be the most dynamic Democratic candidate, the narrative of her campaign has shifted. Now she is the candidate who inspires worry among the party faithful as much as any other emotion, the policy nerd who may have ridden the wave of fresh ideas as far as it will carry her." ALL ABOARD - "To balance its budget, T to seek additional funds," by Bruce Mohl, CommonWealth Magazine: "IN A SIGN OF MOUNTING pressures on the MBTA's operating budget, the Fiscal and Management Control Board is preparing to take a portion of a legislative appropriation that had been set aside for capital projects and use the money to cover the authority's rising expenses. In and of itself, the shift of funds would not be a big deal - the money is there. But sources say the need for more operating funds at the T reflects a new fiscal reality at the agency." - "The New Orange Line Cars Are Making an "Uncommon Noise" Now," by Alyssa Vaughn, Boston Magazine: "Well, this is a new one. As first reported by the Boston Herald, the new Orange Line cars have once again been taken out of service—this time for emitting an "uncommon noise" from their undersides. MBTA representative Lisa Battiston would not reveal any further details on what the noise sounded like, but explained that it was discovered by vehicle engineers who have been monitoring the trains' performance. Battiston says that the cars are being removed from service "out of an abundance of caution" for an investigation." FROM THE DELEGATION - "FAA needs 'stern review' of Boeing after Milton sky fall: U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch," by Rick Sobey, Boston Herald: "U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch on Tuesday called for a rigorous federal review after a 100-pound evacuation slide fell from a Boeing aircraft and landed in a Milton front yard Sunday, in what he called a potentially "fatal error." "We want the FAA to do a stern review of the aircraft, and make sure this is not something systemic," Lynch told the Herald. He added that Milton residents should have a "very high" level of concern following Sunday's incident, when a silver 6-foot escape slide dropped from a Boeing 767 onto an Adams Street yard. The slide came from the wing of a Delta plane traveling from Paris to Boston's Logan International Airport. No one was struck by the slide, which crashed through the trees and landed just feet away from residents outside." - "Push to 'Save Minor League Baseball' continues," by Aaron Curtis, The Lowell Sun: "The battle to keep Minor League Baseball in Lowell — and 41 other communities across the nation — continued on Tuesday with the formation of the Save Minor League Baseball Task Force, headed by U.S. Reps. Lori Trahan and Dave McKinley, of West Virginia. "Together along with our colleagues we will make perfectly clear that Congress is ready to defend our communities, which stand to lose out in MLB's proposal to slash the number of Minor League teams," said Trahan, a Lowell Democrat. Dave Heller, owner of the Lowell Spinners, along with several other minor league baseball owners, converged on Capitol Hill on Tuesday for the launch of the bipartisan task force." ABOVE THE FOLD — Herald: "ORANGE LINE LEMONS," — Globe: "Report makes case for impeachment," "Other states take on housing crunch, but Mass. stands pat." THE LOCAL ANGLE - "'We feel them in our hearts;' on 20th anniversary of the Cold Storage fire, the Worcester 6 are remembered with emotional tribute," by Melissa Hanson, MassLive.com: "Hundreds of firefighters and civilians gathered on the cold pavement on Worcester's Franklin Street Tuesday night, a chill still in the air from the season's first snowstorm. Exactly 20 years ago, hundreds of firefighters were at this spot, heat and smoke in the air from a massive fire that would claim the lives of six firefighters. The group stood somberly, reflecting on the incredible loss the Worcester Fire Department and city suffered on Dec. 3, 1999, when flames consumed the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. building, changing the department, and the families of the fallen, forever ." - "State nears approval of power line to run through Sudbury, Hudson, Stow," by Cesareo Contreras, MetroWest Daily News: "An Eversource proposal to build a 9.7-mile, 115-kilovolt transmission line primarily on a former rail bed that extends from Sudbury through Stow, Marlborough and Hudson is a step away from earning state approval. After more than two years of deliberation, the state Energy Facilities Siting Board on Monday made a "tentative decision," indicating that it was in favor of the project. The towns of Hudson, Sudbury and Stow, as well Hudson Lighting and Power and citizens group Protect Sudbury, will have until next Tuesday to file written comments in response to the decision." - "Councilors may seek billboard review with outside attorney," by Jessica Trufant, The Patriot Ledger: "Town councilors say they want the attorney general's office to advice them about their options for forcing the owner of a controversial digital billboard on Route 3 to take the structure down and halt plans to build a second further south on the highway. The town council on Monday night voted to send a letter to the attorney general's office seeking input on the glowing digital billboard, which has been fiercely opposed by nearby neighbors. Council President Michael Smart also said he will look into whether the council can legally hire its own attorney to explore the town's options in getting out of the billboard agreement the town entered with Cove Outdoor LLC." - "Passed bill is prelude: Student Opportunity Act win sets stage for big school district decisions," by Bill Shaner, Telegram & Gazette: "A windfall of state money dedicated to historically underfunded school districts is on its way, and the Worcester Public Schools is one of the districts set to benefit the most. Governor Charlie Baker signed into law a bill that promises an additional $1.5 billion in school funding over the next seven years. The Student Opportunity Act delivers more money to both large urban school districts and small rural ones to address funding inequities which have disadvantaged those school districts for years." MEDIA MATTERS - "Boston Herald Editor Joe Sciacca Jumps To Channel 7," by Callum Borchers, WBUR: "Boston Herald fixture Joe Sciacca said Tuesday he is leaving as editor-in-chief of the shrinking newspaper to join Channel 7 as the station's enterprise editor. Sciacca exits a year after the Herald's parent company, Digital First Media, expanded his portfolio to include the Lowell Sun, the Sentinel & Enterprise of Fitchburg and four other publications. Sciacca joined the Herald in 1983 and has led it for almost a decade. "I'm trying to find out if they can teach an old dog new tricks over in television," he said on WBUR's Radio Boston." TRANSITIONS - Bernie Sanders' Massachusetts state director, Joe Caiazzo, is no longer with the campaign. Link. REMEMBERING EDWARD J. DOHERTY ... via the Boston Globe: "Known throughout his Globe editing career for his dependable news judgment, Edward J. Doherty was often the go-to managing editor tapped by the newspaper's ombudsman to explain why certain photos were published. ... Mr. Doherty, who began working in newspapers 70 years ago, while helping to financially support his mother and sisters, died Thanksgiving morning. He was 91, lived in Marshfield, and previously was in Melrose for many years." Link. HAPPY BIRTHDAY - to Springfield state Rep. Angelo Puppolo, Marina McCarthy, Sarah Baron, deputy director of the states team for Elizabeth Warren's campaign; Jennifer Taub, and Maureen Forry. DID THE HOME TEAM WIN? Yes! The Bruins beat the Hurricanes 2-0. Want to make an impact? POLITICO Massachusetts has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Bay State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you're promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness among this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com.   Follow us on Twitter Stephanie Murray @StephMurr_Jour   Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook  |  Playbook PM  |  California Playbook  |  Florida Playbook  |  Illinois Playbook  |  Massachusetts Playbook  |  New Jersey Playbook  |  New York Playbook  |  Brussels Playbook  |  London Playbook View all our politics and policy newsletters FOLLOW US

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$300,000 on a useless training

The VA either knowingly or negligently spent taxpayer dollars to pay instructors without the relevant experience to quote government audit standards at people who are unlikely to conduct that kind of audit in their current jobs. VA Whistleblower Office Wasted $300,000 on “Useless” Training As the Department of Veterans Affairs' Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection faces congressional scrutiny, we learned from sources within the office that it shelled out over $300,000 last month on ineffective and at times irrelevant training for its staff who work on misconduct and whistleblower retaliation allegations. Insiders who spoke to POGO described an office in disarray, with the expensive, hastily planned, and ineffective training as the latest symptom of poor management. The VA either knowingly or negligently spent taxpayer dollars to pay instructors without the relevant experience to quote government audit standards at people who are unlikely to conduct that kind of audit in their current jobs. SPEND SMARTER How Corporate Lawbreakers Get a Leg Up at the Justice Department Potential corporate defendants have many more opportunities to influence the process than most people have. And it happens before corporations or their executives are charged with violating the law, if they face charges at all. CAN YOU BUY JUSTICE?

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Protect whistleblowers

It’s not new to see the motivations of whistleblowers and inspectors general questioned when their disclosures are politically inconvenient. Group of Former Intelligence Community Watchdogs Call for Protecting Whistleblowers

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Defense News: Schumer & Pelosi have 9 days to end the Yemen war

Defense News says Schumer & Pelosi have 9 days to end the Yemen war in 2019.
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Defense News reports that Congressional leaders hope to draft a compromise House-Senate conference report on the National Defense Authorization Act [“NDAA”], the bill that funds the Pentagon and its contractors, by September 19. That would imply that there’s at most 9 days left to convince the Democratic Congressional leadership to make ending U.S. participation in the Saudi war in Yemen a top priority in House-Senate negotiations. The House voted to prohibit further U.S. participation in the war when it passed the Smith-Khanna-Schiff-Jayapal amendment to the NDAA. The Senate hasn’t yet voted on this amendment, because Mitch McConnell hasn’t yet allowed it to do so. 

Because the NDAA funds the Pentagon and its contractors like Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin, it is uniquely perceived in Washington as a “must pass,” “veto proof” bill. Congress already voted to prohibit U.S. unconstitutional participation in the Saudi war in Yemen when it passed the Bernie Sanders-Mike Lee-Chris Murphy Yemen War Powers Resolution, but Trump vetoed that bill. Congress already voted to stop arming the Saudi war in Yemen when it passed resolutions of disapproval against Trump’s Saudi-UAE arms deals, but Trump vetoed those as well. What’s different about the NDAA is that it’s very hard for Trump to veto, because if Trump vetoed the bill then the Pentagon would not get our tax dollars until Congress and Trump came to agreement. Unless Trump has stopped caring about keeping our tax dollars flowing to Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin – who believes that? - it’s very unlikely that Trump will veto the bill, even if Congress uses the bill to end the Yemen war. It’s very unlikely that Trump will want to go on TV and explain to Americans that he had to veto the bill that “funds the troops” because he insists on continuing to unconstitutionally help the Saudi regime starve Yemeni children to death. 

As the Washington Post reported, a bipartisan group of Senators and Representatives including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Adam Schiff, Mark Pocan, and Matt Gaetz is urging Congressional leaders to include the Smith-Khanna amendment in the version of the NDAA it sends to Trump. “Now we must use Congress’s power of the purse to block every nickel of taxpayer money from going to assist the Saudi dictatorship as it bombs and starves civilians in Yemen,” Sanders said.

Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed formally heads the Senate Democratic side of the negotiations, because he is the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Reed has promised activists in Rhode Island that he will make ending the Saudi war in Yemen a top priority in the negotiations. But so far, Majority Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi have no made public commitment like Jack Reed has to prioritize ending the Yemen war on NDAA. 

This is why we need to pull out the stops in the next 9 days to pin down Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi on making public commitments like the one Jack Reed made. Some people may try to tell you that you have no say in this if you don’t live in New York or San Francisco. But Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are now acting in their capacity as leaders of all Democrats in America, so it must be the case that we all have a say. 

Their phone numbers are below. When you reach a staffer or leave a message, you can say something like: 

”I urge you to make a public commitment like the one Jack Reed made to prioritize ending the Saudi war in Yemen on NDAA.” 

Please report your phone calls to Schumer and Pelosi in the comments below this post at Daily Kos to inspire others to call. And if you get or find a commitment from Schumer or Pelosi to make ending the Yemen war a priority on NDAA like the one Jack Reed made, please note that in CAPS.

Chuck Schumer: 

DC: (202) 224-6542

Albany: (518) 431-4070

Binghamton: (607) 772-6792

Buffalo: (716) 846-4111

NYC: (212) 486-4430

Rochester: (585) 263-5866

Syracuse: (315) 423-5471

Nancy Pelosi:

DC: (202) 225-4965

San Francisco: (415) 556-4862

Thanks for all you do to help U.S. foreign policy become more just,

Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy



If you think our work is important, please make a donation to support it.http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate

© 2019 Just Foreign Policy

Jack Reed's other excuse for starving Yemeni children

Use the Demand Progress number to tell Jack Reed to end the Yemen war:

202-899-8938

Report your call & share this post.

Yesterday I responded to one of Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed’s excuses for continuing to enable the starvation of Yemeni children by the Saudi regime: there’s no point in trying to cut off U.S. participation in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen in the National Defense Authorization Act, Jack Reed claims, because Trump might veto the bill. I noted that it is extremely unlikely that Trump will veto the NDAA because the NDAA “funds the troops,” and it would be extremely bad press for Trump to veto the bill that “funds the troops” over a stubborn desire to keep helping the Saudi regime starve Yemeni children to death. I also noted that even if Trump did veto the NDAA, the Earth would not stop spinning on its axis. It would just be another round in the negotiation between Congress and Trump over the provisions of the bill. At the end of the day, Congress is going to fund the Pentagon and its contractors in a bill that Trump will sign. Who believes that Congress and Trump won’t eventually come to an agreement so that Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin can keep gorging themselves on our tax dollars? Be serious. 

Today we will consider another Jack Reed excuse for not doing his job: “Now that the UAE is pulling out of the war, the Saudis will have to end the war anyway.”  

It is certainly true that even if Congress does nothing, the war will eventually end. Wars don’t go on forever. Its war in Yemen is costing the Saudi regime money and it’s costing the Saudi regime business deals. In a wide swath of humanity, its war and blockade in Yemen have made the Saudi regime politically radioactive. 

But this sort of “therapeutic nihilism” is not how Members of the United States Congress, whose salaries we pay with our tax dollars, are supposed to view their Constitutional responsibilities. The NDAA is a unique opportunity to end the war. The next such opportunity will come roughly twelve months from now. Twelve months is a long time to continue enabling the Saudi regime to starve Yemeni children to death. 

The UAE isn’t pulling out of the war because they recently had a spiritual conversion experience. They’re pulling out of the war because of international pressure. “Power concedes nothing without a demand.” The Emiratis are tired of being blamed for helping enable the Saudi bombing and blockade. The Emiratis care more than the Saudi regime does about their international reputation. If you’re watching Serena Williams play tennis in the U.S. Open, you may have noticed the words “Emirates Airlines” over her shoulder as she prepares to serve. Emirates Airlines is wholly owned by the UAE government. Every time you see those words, you’re watching an ad for the UAE government, like the swoosh on Serena Williams’ jersey is an advertisement for Nike. A government spending money to advertise itself in the U.S. Open is a government that cares more about its international reputation than the Saudi regime does. 

Every movement in the Trump Administration’s involvement in the Saudi war on Yemen came about as a result of Congressional pressure. The Trump Administration “voluntarily” stopped refueling Saudi warplanes bombing Yemen just before the Senate voted to prohibit it. Now the Trump Administration is talking about opening talks with the Houthis to end the war. Why is this happening now? Because Congress is poised to end the war if it includes the House-passed Smith-Khanna-Schiff-Jayapal amendment in the NDAA that is sent to Trump. 

Have you ever helped organize a union? I helped organize three of them. Here’s a pattern: when the boss thinks the union is on the cusp of organizing a majority of the workers, Mr. Mean may suddenly become Mr. Nice. You guys don’t need a union. We can solve all our problems by Working Together. The boss is trying to pick off enough swing voters to defeat the union organizing drive. If the union organizing drive is defeated, Mr. Mean will soon return. 

This is what will happen if Congress passes up its unique opportunity to end the Yemen war on NDAA. The Trump Administration will lose interest in ending the war through diplomacy. The war will drag on for another year. And the Saudi regime will starve more Yemeni children to death. 

Call Jack Reed now at 202-899-8938. This phone number, set up by Demand Progress, connects you first to Jack Reed’s DC office, then to his two Rhode Island offices in succession, finally to the office of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Of course you can stop whenever you want. A script is suggested that you can follow. Here’s what I said when I made my calls:

“I’m calling to urge that Senator Reed ensure that the NDAA that is sent to Trump includes the Smith-Khanna-Schiff amendment to end U.S. participation in the Saudi war in Yemen that passed the House.” 

Only one of the four people I talked to asked for my “address in Rhode Island.” I cheerfully gave my address in Illinois. The staffer accepted it without complaint. 

A good thing about using the Demand Progress number — 202-899-8938 - is that it allows Demand Progress to say that X number of people have called Reed and told him to end the war on NDAA. The last I heard, Reed’s office was getting fifty calls a day. Let’s try to get that up to a hundred. Please also report your call in the comments below this post, to help inspire others to call. Then please share the post. 

Thanks for all you do to help U.S. foreign policy become more just,

Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy

If you think our work is important, please make a donation to support it.http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate

‘These Revelations Really Show the Election Was Fraudulent’ - CounterSpin interview with Brian Mier on Brazilian election fraud view post on FAIR.org Janine Jackson interviewed Brian Mier about Brazilian electoral fraud for the June 21, 2019, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. MP3 Link Washington Post (12/23/15) Janine Jackson: “In Brazil, a nerdy judge is a superstar,” declared the Washington Post in December of 2015. The glowing profile was of then-Judge Sérgio Moro, overseeing the trials of those caught in the enormous Lava Jato, or Car Wash, anti-corruption campaign—that, the Post explained, has shaken some of Brazil’s most important institutions, including its state-controlled oil company Petrobras and the Workers’ Party that has governed the country for 12 years. Readers learned that “friends and colleagues” described Moro as “deeply moral”. And he’s impartial: The Post cites Moro telling an audience, “The judge, as you all know, only judges following the law, following the facts and following the evidence.” The Post and others raised an eyebrow when Moro released secretly taped phone calls between then-President Dilma Rousseff and previous President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in which they spoke of Lula taking a government post. And at least once, the paper quoted someone calling Lava Jato a “witch hunt.” But Sérgio Moro and his anti-corruption crusade remained the heroes of the piece for years, even as, Lula’s imprisonment having cleared the field, fascist Jair Bolsonaro rose to take Brazil’s presidency—and then turned around and gave the famously impartial judge who made it possible a newly created, unprecedentedly powerful position in his government, and a promise of a spot on the Supreme Court. Interesting, then, to see how US media deal with exposés reported this month by Glenn Greenwald and others at the Intercept Brasil, including internal discussions of the Lava Jato task force that do more than suggest that Moro and his team were not the above-it-all ethical crusaders we were told about. Well, the news is not new to those following our next guest’s work. Brian Mier is co-editor at Brasil Wire. He’s Brazil correspondent for TeleSUR English’s news program From the South, and he’s editor of the new book Year of Lead: Washington, Wall Street and the New Imperialism in Brazil. He joins us now by phone from São Paulo. Welcome back to CounterSpin, Brian Mier. Brian Mier: Thanks for having me. The Intercept (6/9/19) JJ: The Intercept Brasil received, through a whistleblower, a large cache of materials, of which they have released a tiny fraction, but that fraction included communications among the Lava Jato task force, including Moro. What specifically did we learn from those communications, and what does it serve to illustrate? BM: We learned what everyone suspected all along, which is that Sérgio Moro is not even vaguely impartial, and that he was essentially coaching the prosecution team through the entire investigation. They admitted in Telegram [messaging app] conversations, three days before Lula’s final judgment, that they didn’t think they had enough evidence to convict him. And we also learned that they had hidden information about corruption involving former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who was a neo-liberal. And we also learned that they had an unusual relationship with a Supreme Court justice, Justice Fux, who barred Lula, in a very unusual move, from speaking to reporters during the entire election year. And in Brazil, it’s totally normal for reporters to go in and interview mass murderers, drug kingpins, all kinds of people behind bars; it was an unusual exception. And the same judge also blocked a habeas corpus for Lula. We even see at one point the chief prosecutor, Deltan Dallagnol, talking about how he was praying that the PT didn’t win the 2018 presidential election. Two prosecutors were talking about praying to God that the PT didn’t win. JJ: And the important thing for listeners to remember is that this is while—I’m just going to cite one media source, NPR, in October 2017, this is in the context of Lula’s going to prison as a result of the Lava Jato, and that that might upend the presidential race, and NPR is quoting Moro saying, ”What happens outside the court is not my concern.” Over and over again, we were told that the task force and Sérgio Moro were not interested in the election itself, or not interested in keeping down the PT and Lula; they were just interested in corruption. BM: Frankly, it’s outrageous, the amount of coverage and lionizing, and the way the media in the US held Moro up as this kind of superhero figure—when he was only the judge, he wasn’t the prosecutor. So why did Time make this lower court judge from Curitiba one of their 100 personalities of the year? Fortune magazine made him one of the personalities of the year, Bloomberg made him one of the personalities of the year, all before Lula was arrested. He wasn’t the prosecutor. Something that’s really unusual, too, that only is legal in Brazil, that dates back to the Inquisition, actually: Moro was the judge who oversaw the investigation. In other words, he’s the one who authorized all of the preventative imprisonments, all of the search warrants, all of the wiretapping authorizations, and then he was allowed to rule on the same case. That doesn’t happen anywhere except Brazil, because one of the roles of the judge should be to analyze whether all of the evidence is legal or not. And in the case of Lava Jato, clearly, much of it was not. They wiretapped 14 hours of telephone conversations from Lula’s defense team. In any other country in the world, they would be debarred and jailed for that. JJ: These are among many things that Americans are just learning about, but even amongst the coverage, what coverage I’ve seen of these latest revelations, except for your work, I really haven’t seen any consideration or noticing of the US role here. You know, Brazil is just, as the New York Times saida few years ago, just a “turmoil-prone nation.” Of course, we know that the US has its fingers everywhere, really, but what specifically should we know about the US role in today’s Brazil, and in this Lava Jato investigation? BM: First of all, the entire investigation is a collaborative investigation between the US Department of Justice, the SEC, and the Curitiba public prosecutor’s office. It’s been that way from day one. People from the DoJ have publicly talked about the investigation. You can read about it on the DoJ website. People have come down and visited Sérgio Moro and his team during the investigation, like Patrick Stokes from the Department of Justice. And they’ve actually collected something like $2 billion in fines from Brazilian companies. And these are companies that were crippled because of the Lava Jato investigation, during the lead-up to the impeachment. The investigation crippled the Brazilian economy. There’s a company called Odebrecht Construction Company, which laid off 230,000 workers after Sérgio Moro paralyzed their operations because of Lava Jato. And there’s several major Brazilian companies that were crippled in 2015. And a study cited in the BBC showed that because of Lava Jato specifically, Brazil lost 2.5 percent GDP that year; it was 500,000 direct job layoffs. And so this naturally destabilized the economy, causing a drop in popularity for the president, Dilma Rousseff, laying the groundwork for her removal on a budget infraction technicality that was legalized the day after she left office, by the senate. JJ: Right. BM: So the US involvement, it isn’t just the fact that it’s a joint operation, but the tactics they used are very similar to traditional tactics from the DoJ. These kind of sadistic tactics, like arresting family members, creating a media circus, leaking things to the media and suppressing information beneficial to the defense. In the case of Lava Jato, Sérgio Moro barred 86 defense witnesses for Lula from testifying, for example. JJ: If we had followed this in US media all along with any kind of balanced way, these revelations from the Intercept would be less surprising. But as it is, if I could characterize US media coverage, it would be the Washington Post quoting a source saying, “These revelations risk generating the perception that the entire operation is flawed.” So we’re still three degrees, at least, of distance. And the idea is the evidence of collaboration between the judge and the prosecutor in the Lava Jato case “raises questions”—rather than answers them. What are you making of US media response to this? BM: I look at what Gramsci used to call the “integral [US] state,” which is the government, the political parties, educational institutions, think tanks and the big media companies. And what I see the big media doing is trying to guarantee that this investigation is completely undermined, that Lula stays in jail, that the PT doesn’t rise back up in power and undo the privatizations that the post-coup governments have enacted in Brazil, that directly benefited all of these huge US companies, like Exxon Mobil, Microsoft, Boeing, Monsanto; they all benefited immensely because of this process, which started with Lava Jato, that threw Dilma Rousseff out of office—she wasn’t directly tied up in Lava Jato, but they used, the investigators leaked, all of this misinformation about her in the lead-up to the impeachment. And also Lula’s arrest. To his credit, Glenn Greenwald‘s the only big American journalist I’ve seen who, from day one, was saying Lula was arrested, obviously, to keep him from being reelected as president. And that was obvious to everyone down here, really, but at least he’s been saying it, but I haven’t seen that anywhere else in the news, all of the US news companies. Even the left media in the US is maddening, too, because they tried to act like the entire problem was due to failures of the Brazilian left.  ‘That’s why PT didn’t win the elections, because the left sold out,’ or something, which is equally ridiculous. And that feeds into the corporate media narrative, that Brazil’s problems are their own problems; there’s no US influence whatsoever, Brazil’s this kind of geopolitical vacuum. It doesn’t fit with the history of Latin America at all, if you look. A Harvard Latin America publication a few years ago, cited 41 US-backed coups in a 100-year period. That’s an average of like 2.6 coups per year in Latin America sponsored by the US, and that’s only the ones that are successful. I mean, we see unsuccessful coup attempts all the time, like in Venezuela right now. New York Times (6/10/19) JJ: A lot of narrative that I have seen in US media seems to say, Lava Jato—and I know you’ve written about this as well—Lava Jato “lost its way.” It started off good; the New York Times had it as, Lava Jato “appeared to mark a transformational moment,” but now the “legacy has come under scrutiny as more Brazilians have come to question whether the anti-corruption crusaders were motivated by partisan politics.” So there’s this idea that it was good in its intentions and its beginnings, but somewhere along the way, it got political. BM: Yeah, which is ridiculous, because some of the things that Lava Jato investigation did, they crippled the Brazilian economy by paralyzing the operations of some of its biggest companies. They destroyed a lot of strategic industries in Brazil. One thing people don’t talk about, but Brazil’s most important nuclear scientist was arrested by Lava Jato, and this killed Brazil’s submarine program. The shipping industry has been destroyed. The five largest construction companies were either destroyed or seriously weakened; 75 percent of Brazil’s petroleum reserves, which are huge, have been sold off at below market rates, mostly to American corporations. And on top of that, it crippled Brazil’s defense strategy. Now, for the first time ever, the Brazilian military is going to engage in joint operations with the Naval Southern Command in the area. And Brazil’s aligned itself with the US against Venezuela, against the other countries that are specified in the latest address that the SOUTHCOM admiral commander made to the Senate earlier this year. The hostile nations in the Americas now are considered to be Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. And now Brazil’s lining up, allied with the US against those countries. The investigation has really just restructured the economy, the defense strategy and destroyed strategic industries. Embraer was the third-largest airplane company in the world, and it was attacked by Lava Jato; the US government got something like $134 million in fines from Embraer, so it was weakened for the kill. They had to change the laws to allow Boeing to purchase it. And so now this airplane industry, that received hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer-funded government subsidies over the last 40 or 50 years, is now owned by Boeing. Washington Post (6/11/19) JJ: Let me ask you about the message that US media are sending to US citizens. I’m looking at a Washington Post op-ed; you kind of need to untangle this a little bit, because the op-ed says, Look, these revelations from the Intercept Brasil show clear collusion between the judge and prosecutors; that’s illegal. Moro should resign immediately. He can’t be on the Supreme Court like Bolsonaro wanted him to. And then it says, “But there’s more at stake here for Brazil.” And it explains that the Car Wash investigation was very popular. And it “was hailed abroad as an example of the strength of an independent judiciary going after powerful interests. If proof were to emerge that the investigations and prosecutions were politically motivated,” the piece says, that “would be a mortal blow to institutional independence”—and here’s the important part—“a dangerous development in a country already in the grips of right-wing populism…. Widespread distrust of institutions,” the piece says, is going to “feed the salvationist narrative taking hold in Brazilian politics. And Bolsonaro is a direct product of that.” So what I’m hearing is, if you talk about how skullduggery got Bolsonaro elected, well, you’re doing the kind of thing that got Bolsonaro elected, you know, so better not undermine those institutions. I mean, oh my goodness. BM: What is it? It’s apology for fascism. You know, Bolsonaro is literally a neo-fascist (or client-fascist, as Noam Chomsky would say). I mean, he’s not like an old-school fascist, because he doesn’t place his country first; he places America first. He saluted the American flag, which is outrageous. So this is why you would call him a sub-fascist; he’s a fascist at the orders of the United States, and of international imperialism. If you make these kinds of arguments, you’re really supporting Bolsonaro. Because what these revelations in The Intercept really show is that the election was fraudulent. And within Brazilian law, based on these facts, the elections could still be cancelled and reheld. That’s what Naomi Klein is suggesting, and a lot of Brazilians are suggesting this as a course of action as well. Because we have the worst president in Brazilian history in power right now. He’s just out of his mind. They’re ripping down hundreds of hectares of Amazon rainforest per minute right now; everyone’s going to be affected by this. And we now have solid proof that the election was illegitimate—not even mentioning the illegal use of the social media app, WhatsApp , financed illegally by the private sector, with apparent support from Steve Bannon and his crew, which convinced a large part of the electorate that Fernando Haddad was a child molester in the weeks leading up to the election; Fernando Haddad was the opposition candidate. I mean, that alone should have been enough to annul the elections. So it’s obvious now, if democracy is going to return to Brazil, the elections have to be nullified and reheld, because we have solid proof. You’re not respecting Brazilian institutions if you allow the results of that election to continue. JJ: Just finally, one 2016 Washington Post piece , among all the accolades for Sérgio Moro, it did note that Lula “remains popular among Brazilians, who remember his presidency as the best years of their lives.” And that sentence felt completely out of place, and almost incoherent amidst US media coverage that makes it seem as though—I’m talking about present-day coverage—there’s “Team Moro” and “Team Lula.” And it’s just this kind of simplistic ideological battle. There’s no real-world story being offered from the media that would explain why people in Brazil would support the PT, or support Lula at all. And we talked, last time we had you on, about the lack of nuance in coverage. And I have to say, again and again, the narrative would be so different and more nuanced if regular, non-elite people and their lives and their priorities were the center of media coverage. Brian Mier: “There’s this kind of infantilism of Brazilians, and Latin Americans in general, and all Third World peoples, especially people who aren’t white, in US news coverage, which plays into Americans’ inherent sense of superiority over other countries.” BM: I think there’s this kind of infantilism of Brazilians, and Latin Americans in general, and all Third World peoples, especially people who aren’t white, in US news coverage, which plays into Americans’ inherent sense of superiority over other countries. And so I’ve seen things in the Guardian like, “Oh, well, the PT’s still popular, because a lot of poor people are going to vote for them.” Because they’re doing something in their own self-interest! Because when Lula was president, he moved 20 percent of the Brazilian population above the poverty line through massive increases to the minimum wage. They never mentioned the minimum wage increases as the primary factor of this happening, because God forbid anyone in the US would take inspiration from that. It’s almost like a kind of racism, the way they treat Brazilian people in the coverage. Or it is, literally, racism. JJ: What should we look for going forward? Media, US media, are saying, “Oh, yes, these revelations are indeed…revelations.” And yet I don’t see it necessarily changing the meta-narrative. I mean, I see the New York Times that’s talking about how: The revelations come as Mr. Moro is struggling to persuade Congress to approve a set of far-reaching reforms that would give investigators far more authority in corruption inquiries. In other words, we’re still going to call those reforms, whatever it is that Moro wants to do. It just seems like you can have these kind of bombs that go off, in terms of information, and yet they’re really not going to change that narrative. BM: Let me give you an example, quickly, of one of his “reforms” that he’s unable to pass. He wants police to be able to shoot anyone they want, if they feel afraid. All it would take would be for a policeman to say, “Oh, I was scared,” to justify killing someone. And Brazil has the largest number of police killings in the world, and in Rio de Janeiro right now, they’re killing five people a day, under this Bolsonaro-worshipping, pure fascist governor, who has orderedpolice to start using snipers and helicopters above favelas. That’s one of his “reforms” he’s trying to push through. The meta-narrative, it’s maddening. I saw an article in Jacobin, for example, it’s all about “Solidarity With Glenn Greenwald,” because of the death threats he’s been receiving. Well, you know, he’s a very brave guy, and he’s been receiving death threats all year, because his husband took over for Jean Wyllys, the congressman who had to flee Brazil for being the first openly gay congressman; he fled Brazil because of death threats , and Greenwald’s husband took over. It’s terrible that he’s getting death threats. But that’s not the main thing at stake here. The main thing at stake is that there was a coup. They turned over all of Brazil’s natural resources to foreign corporations at far below market rate. They crippled the public health and public education system. They say 100,000 people might die now because of the cuts made to the health system; there’s no more free antiretroviral drugs available in the state of Bahia right now. And that the elections were entirely fraudulent. And that there’s a neo-fascist in power, with 16 military generals in his cabinet, who were all active players in the military dictatorship, because everybody got amnesty, unlike Argentina. It’s about 230 million people. About 15 million people have dropped below the poverty line since the 2016 coup. Media always try to dumb everything down into this either-or issue. It’s all binary. We shouldn’t allow media, even the left media, to try and individualize this issue into something about Greenwald, or about Moro. You know, it’s about 230 million people. JJ: We’ve been speaking with Brian Mier; he’s co-editor at Brasil Wire, correspondent for TeleSUR English’s  From the South and editor of the new book Year of Lead: Washington, Wall Street and the New Imperialism in Brazil. That’s out now, and you can get more information at BrasilWire.com . Brian Mier, thank you so much for joining us this week on CounterSpin. BM: Thanks a lot, Janine.

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