FOCUS: Scott Galindez | GOP Senators Facing the Heat on Health Care Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News Galindez writes: "On Thursday July 6th, activists sat in 28 Senate offices in 21 states demanding senators vote no on the GOP healthcare plan. Across the country, nearly 50 people were arrested for speaking out against draconian cuts to Medicaid in order to give billions of dollars in tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans." READ MORE
Consultants Mark Penn and Andrew Stein want to steer the Democratic Party safely away from calls to restore economic justice, end pointless wars, and to protect women and people of color. They're the ones who are taking us off course.
Health Care Protests
GOP Sen. Palco says will vote against ACA repeal at packed KS town hall. Kansas City Star:“The mass of people stretched into the grass outside the community center in western Kansas where U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran laid out his objections to the Republican-crafted health care plan Thursday. The room at the McKenna Youth and Activity Center was meant to house 65 people but roughly 150 showed up for the town hall in Palco, Kan., population less than 300. Moran, a Kansas Republican, has emerged as one of the key swing votes in the fight over health care. He warned that the current Senate bill, which slashes Medicaid funding, would harm rural hospitals and endanger the state’s elderly and disabled populations.”
People with disabilities are staging protests in senators’ offices all over the country. Vox:“President Donald Trump called the Republicans’ health care plan ‘mean.’ Disability advocates have another word for it: deadly. Worried about the proposed cuts to Medicaid in the Senate Republicans’ version of the health care bill, several activists with disabilities staged a sit-in at the Phoenix office of Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) on Wednesday. One protester, Anastasia Bacigalupo, live-streamed her arrest on Facebook as she and two other women being arrested shouted, ‘I’d rather go to jail than die without Medicaid.'”
As Trumpcare Protests Grow, GOP Senators Duck and Dodge Determined Voters. Common Dreams:“As the Republican Senate leadership aims to push through a deeply unpopular healthcare bill, GOP senators across the country are spending their July 4th recess clashing with their constituents—or avoiding them. Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Susan Collins of Maine, and Dean Heller of Nevada were all met with impassioned protests when they arrived at Independence Day parades and gatherings.”
Government Ethics Director Resigns in Protest
Ethics Office Director Walter Shaub Resigns, Saying Rules Need To Be Tougher. NPR:“Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub Jr. is turning in his resignation on Thursday. The move follows months of clashes with the White House over issues such as President Trump’s refusal to divest his businesses and the administration’s delay in disclosing ethics waivers for appointees.”
States Sue DeVos
States sue Betsy DeVos over student loan rule delay. CNN:“Democratic attorneys general from 18 states and Washington D.C. sued Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Thursday after she delayed an Obama-era rule meant to protect student borrowers… The rule would have clarified the federal loan forgiveness process for students who were defrauded or misled by their colleges. While students in this situation could previously apply for forgiveness, the rule would have created several protections.”
Trump Mob Pal Cooperates With Feds
Trump business associate with organized crime links is cooperating in money-laundering probe. ThinkProgress:“Felix Sater, former business partner of President Donald Trump with deep ties to the Mafia and Russian government, is cooperating in an international investigation into an alleged money-laundering network. Sater has a history of channeling money from prominent families in the Eastern bloc into Trump properties. This could pose problems for Trump, given Sater’s history of outing former close associates in exchange for immunity.”
Illinois Lawmakers End Budget Impasse
Illinois lawmakers override budget veto, ending two-year stalemate. NYT:“After more than two years of political sparring, missed payments to creditors and plunging credit ratings, Illinois did on Thursday what most states do every year. It finished a budget. Yet as some lawmakers and state officials cheered an end to the longest state budget impasse in the nation’s modern history, at least one prominent and unyielding critic remained. Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican who has clashed with the Democratic-held Legislature since the moment he took office, had vetoed the spending plan, which includes a tax increase. The governor doubled down on his disgust even as at least 10 members of his own party joined Democrats to override his veto, ending the standoff.”
More from OurFuture.org:
Why Democrats Should Unite On A Charter School Moratorium. Jeff Bryant:“The nation’s largest labor union, the National Education Association, broke from its cautious regard of charter schools to pass a new policy statement that declares charter schools are a “failed experiment” that has led to a “separate and unequal” sector of schools that are not subject to the same “safeguards and standards” of public schools… Now that labor and civil rights groups have come together in a unified call for a moratorium on these unregulated, privately-operated schools, prominent leaders in the Democratic party can champion this issue knowing they have a grassroots constituency that supports them.”
Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast and OurFuture.org are projects of People's Action.more »
“Though the protesters think of themselves as idealists, they engaged in political thuggery, pure and simple. These people do not want, as they’ve claimed, to hold a town hall meeting with me. These are unruly activists on whom the lessons of civility and democratic participation have been lost,” he continues. “These holier-than-thou obstructionists will be held responsible for this outrageous assault. They are exposing themselves for what they are — enemies of American self-government and democracy.”
The GOP-ers are the true thugs (crooks) and enemies of democracy. And their leader is a lunatic. Dangerous combo.
Lori LeppalaWe should ask @DanaRohrabacher what HE was doing in Russia?
Congressman says constituents asking for a town hall are ‘enemies’ of democracy
He also accused them of “political thuggery.”
A group of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s (R-CA) constituents went to his office on Tuesday to deliver Valentine’s cards. They go every Tuesday now, asking Rohrabacher to hold a town hall meeting in his district.
But now, after a confused tussle in the hallway involving a 2-year old and a 71-year-old-woman, Rohrabacher is now accusing them of engaging in “political thuggery, pure and simple.”
The delegation is one of many grassroots groups around the country organizing around the Indivisible guide, which is a how-to manual for people looking to have a more effective voice in government. It was put together by former congressional staffers after Trump’s victory.
Like many of the other Indivisible groups, the Orange County Indivisible group has been met with scorn and accusations of not being ‘real’ constituents. For the past three weeks, at Rohrabacher’s office the door has been closed and locked, and they have slid their documentation underneath.
Two weeks ago, they were met with the police. And this Tuesday, as a 2-year-old girl slid a valentine under the door on Tuesday, one of Rohrabacher’s staffers opened it, hitting her in the head and knocking her to the ground.
According to local reporting, one of the constituents then grabbed the door and tugged on it, causing 71-year old district director Kathleen Staunton, who was on the other side of the door, to lose her footing and fall. A spokesman for Rohrabacher’s office told media that she later fell unconscious and had to go to the hospital.
In a video of the immediate aftermath, the little girl can be heard crying, as visiting constituents apologize, and one of them helps Rohrabacher’s staffer up. The door is then closed, and the group leaves.
“I don’t think anybody from either side was trying to hurt anybody,” the mother of the young girl told a local reporter.
According to Mike Lisenbery, one of the organizers of the Indivisible group, the group visiting Rohrabacher’s office was predominantly composed of older retired women. This account is borne out in photographs of the group. The video shows that there were about 10 people in the hallway.
In his press release, however, Rohrabacher paints the incident as malicious and characterizes the activists as an unruly mob of thugs.
“I am outraged beyond words that protesters who mobbed my Huntington Beach office violently knocked down my faithful district director, Kathleen Staunton, causing her to be hospitalized,” Rohrabacher is quoted by saying.
“Though the protesters think of themselves as idealists, they engaged in political thuggery, pure and simple. These people do not want, as they’ve claimed, to hold a town hall meeting with me. These are unruly activists on whom the lessons of civility and democratic participation have been lost,” he continues. “These holier-than-thou obstructionists will be held responsible for this outrageous assault. They are exposing themselves for what they are — enemies of American self-government and democracy.”
Rohrabacher’s fiery response has flabbergasted his visitors, as did his one-sided depiction of the events. The only mention of the two-year-old is a passively-framed aside: “In the tumult, a two-year-old girl apparently brought along with the crowd was also hit by a swinging door.”
“Everybody is taken a little be aback by his staff, really not — not trying to assume any culpability for knocking the little girl to the ground and really blaming it on us,” Lisenbery told ThinkProgress. “His staff should have known what was going on outside the door because they have security cameras outside the door, and they’ve told us before they can see us on the cameras.”
“They are exposing themselves for what they are — enemies of American self-government and democracy.”
Rohrabacher posted his press release to his Facebook page. According to Lisenbery, any comments pushing back against his depiction of the events have been swiftly deleted, along with links to the video of the actual proceedings (embedded above).
“This is a very hamfisted attempt by him to spin the events in his favor,” said Lisenbery. “Calling people political thugs, calling people activists, when it’s a lot of adults, mostly retirees with a lot of time on their hands, who are engaged in political action for the first time in their lives — it’s offensive to the people he claims to represent.”
This isn’t the first time that Rohrabacher’s account has differed wildly from that of his constituents. In local media two weeks ago, his staff characterized the visitors as purposefully disruptive and from out-of-district — which the activists said was untrue on both counts.
While Rohrabacher’s response may seem hamfisted to those involved, his narrative is part of a long-running tactic of elevating small instances of violence in order to discredit larger movements. Right-wing commentators and lawmakers have long used isolated acts of violence to discredit the largely peaceful Black Lives Matter movement, for instance. And when protests in one city after Trump’s election victory turned violent, the massive outpouring of peaceful protests were then lumped in as of-a-kind.
In dismissing the activists, Rohrabacher is also echoing a common refrain among Republican congresspeople who are struggling to respond to newly politically active constituents in the aftermath of the presidential election.
In Tennessee, Rep. John Duncan (R) said he wouldn’t hold town halls for fear of “extremists, kooks, and radicals.” In Utah, Rep. Jason Chaffetz dismissed a particularly raucous town hall as “more of a paid attempt to bully and intimidate.” In Illinois, Rep. Peter Roskam snuck out the back door to avoid protesters, and a spokesman characterized them as “national groups” as opposed to local constituents.
And on the radio on Tuesday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), even extended the logic to a justification for ignoring Democratic politicians.
“These are people who have brought in anarchists to destroy this town. Of whom 240-some where arrested, with the support of George Soros and the Democrat left. This is not a cooperative environment,” he told Boston Herald Radio.
There’s no evidence that George Soros is paying protesters. Anarchists did smash some windows in downtown D.C. during Trump’s inauguration, but they were not connected to political groups, nor to the hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters who marched the next day at the Women’s March. Issa’s statistics are also misleading. The number Issa cites — which, in reality, is 229 — includes both the protesters and legal observers, journalists, and bystanders who were rounded up dragnet-style by the police.
Flynn in FBI Interview Denied Discussing Sanctions With Russian Ambassador Sari Horwitz and Adam Entous, The Washington Post Excerpt: "Former national security adviser Michael Flynn denied to FBI agents in an interview last month that he had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with that country's ambassador to the United States before President Trump took office, contradicting the contents of intercepted communications collected by intelligence agencies, current and former U.S. officials said." READ MORE
Immigrants Flee US for Canada - in Pictures Christinna Muschi, Reuters Excerpt: "Migrants are fleeing the US for Canada, making the journey through snow and ice to seek refugee status in the country. Reuters photographer Christinna Muschi documented some of them as they crossed the border from the US into Hemmingford in Quebec." READ MORE
EPA Workers Try to Block Pruitt in Show of Defiance Coral Davenport, The New York Times Davenport writes: "Employees of the Environmental Protection Agency have been calling their senators to urge them to vote on Friday against the confirmation of Scott Pruitt, President Trump's contentious nominee to run the agency, a remarkable display of activism and defiance that presages turbulent times ahead for the E.P.A." READ MORE
Duck and Cover: More Than 200 Republicans Are Skipping February Town Halls With Constituents Alex Thompson, VICE Thompson writes: "Members of Congress are set to return to their districts this weekend for their first weeklong recess since Donald Trump's inauguration. Heading home during legislative breaks is nothing new, but this year most Republicans are foregoing a hallowed recess tradition: holding in-person town halls where lawmakers take questions from constituents in a high school gym, local restaurant, or college classroom." READ MORE
