Welcome once again to $27 Quotes — a weekly place where you can sit back, relax, enjoy some inspiring quotes and good music, and (most importantly) spend time gazing at a picture or two of foresterbob’s cat Noble Fur.
I usually try to feature short quotes, but some of tonight’s quotes are a bit longer than usual. Let’s see how many we can fit in...
Here’s a little music to listen to while reading the quotes. From her album Sing To Me The Dream, here is Holly Near with La Pajita:
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Usually the quotes featured here are things said during the past week. This first quote is a little older but very much worth sharing:
Black history is American history. And American history teaches us that racism has for generations shaped every crucial aspect of our economic and political system.
Racism told white workers not to organize in the South because so long as you’re white, you’re a little better off than your brother on the line. A little better off — even though neither of you has a union to protect you or a pension to support you.
Racism told segregated white communities that they should just abandon their public schools, rather than let their kids learn and play with Black children and generations of America’s school children lost out.
And by the 2000s, Racism told everyone in Washington to look the other way when the banks were testing out predatory loans in Black and Brown communities. Those banks then spread those loans across the market and crashed the entire economy for all working people.
And to this day racism still whispers the convenient lie to some white people that if your life has problems, you should blame “them” — people who don’t look like you.
So, I want to speak directly to the question on some white people’s minds when we talk about the need to address what our government has done in Black communities. The uncomfortable question of “what will this mean for me”?
The wealthy and well-connected want us to believe that more for your neighbors will always mean less for you. But, the truth is, when we come together, we can all move forward.
When Black civil rights warriors won the fight for voting rights, voter turnout all across the south — for Blacks and whites — skyrocketed.
And when Black people won the fight to end school segregation and demanded federal funding for their children’s educations, poor white children got better educations too.
The lesson is clear: Racism doesn’t just tear apart Black and Brown communities — it keeps all working people down.
~ Elizabeth Warren
That’s from a speech Elizabeth Warren delivered in Atlanta last month. You can read a transcript of the entire speech here.
A Green New Deal
If I told you someone was attacking the country, you would not hear politicians say, “We have decades to deal with it.”
The major threat we are facing now is climate change. We do not have decades to deal with it. We need to pass a Green New Deal now.
~ Bernie Sanders
A Green New Deal is not radical or extreme. What's radical and extreme is allowing fossil fuel companies to cause the displacement and deaths of millions of people in order to turn a profit.
~ Bernie Sanders
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20 million people are being displaced from their homes every year due to climate-fueled disasters.
20 million.
Half measures are not enough.
~ Bernie Sanders
The evidence is clear: climate change threatens our economy. And I have bills for that. I introduced the Climate Risk Disclosure Act and cosponsored Brian Schatz’s Climate Change Financial Risk Act to make our economy more resilient to the Climate Crisis.
~ Elizabeth Warren
We need big, bold action to fight the Climate Crisis — and I’m in this fight all the way. That’s why I’m proud to be an original cosponsor of senator Ed Markey and representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal resolution to transform our economy and save our planet for our children and grandchildren.
~ Elizabeth Warren
It's simple: we need a Green New Deal because our kids and grandkids deserve a habitable planet.
~ Bernie Sanders
Washington is working great for oil companies and giant polluters — just not for the communities on the front lines suffering from the devastating effects of climate change.
If we want to win a Green New Deal and defeat climate change, we need to root out corruption in Washington.
~ Elizabeth Warren
What the scientists are telling us is in fact they have underestimated the severity and the speed in which climate change is damaging not only our country but the entire world.
And if we do not act boldly … if we don't have the guts to take on the fossil fuel industry and tell them that their short-term profits are not more important then the future of this planet, then I've gotta tell you, according to the scientists the world that we're going to be leaving our kids and our grandchildren is gonna be increasingly unhealthy and uninhabitable. And I think we have a moral responsibility to make sure that does not happen.
You know, as a parent and as a grandparent, I just don't want any parent or grandparent to have to be in a position where 20 or 30 years [from now] kids are asking you, "Didn't you know what was going on? Didn't you know what climate change was doing? Why didn't you do something about it when you knew about it?" I don't want any of us to be in that position.
We're talking about rising sea levels which will inundate major cities in our own country and around the world before the end of the century. We're talking about more drought, we're talking about more extreme weather disturbances. We are talking about the United Nations telling us that hundreds of millions of people will be climate refugees. They're going to be forced to leave the land they're on now because there is no drinking water, there is no land to grown their crops and they're gonna have to go elsewhere, causing incredible national security issues and wars all over the world.
So this is a very, very major crisis and as president what I will try to do is not only transform our own energy system but lead the world -- because this is a global crisis -- and maybe say to countries all over the world that instead of spending 1.8 trillion dollars on weapons of destruction designed to kill each other, maybe we should pool our resources and fight against our common enemy which is climate change.
~ Bernie Sanders
You can hear Sanders saying all that, and more, in this video:
Standing With Workers, part 1:
A Part-Time Worker Bill of Rights
Two thirds of part-time retail and food workers want full-time work — but corporations often keep workers part-time to save on wages and benefits. Jan Schakowsky and I are introducing the Part-Time Worker Bill of Rights Act to boost protections for part-time workers…
For far too long, companies trying to boost their profits have taken advantage of part-time workers by assigning them unpredictable work schedules --creating real hardships for them. My legislation with Congresswoman Schakowsky puts an end to this practice by giving part-time workers the rights, stability, and other protections they deserve to build better financial futures for themselves and for their families
~ Elizabeth Warren
Over two-thirds of part-time retail and food workers would prefer full-time work. However, many companies boost short-term corporate profits by using more part-time workers. Elizabeth Warren and I today introduced the Part Time Workers Bill of Rights to address this head on!
~ Jan Schakowsky
Many hard-working Americans are working several part-time jobs to make ends meet. Companies are using their part-time status to rig the system and maximize profits while exacerbating income inequality. These hard-working Americans are working more hours between all their jobs than many full-time workers, but making less per hour and receiving fewer benefits. The Part-Time Worker Bill of Rights seeks to eliminate many of the incentives provided to employers that allow them to exploit workers who want to work full-time but are being forced into a part-time rut due to corporate greed,
The Part Time Workers Bill of Rights Act ensures employers will provide part-time workers access to additional hours before hiring new employees, and give then access to benefits they need to provide for their families. It would also give part-time workers access to family and medical leave and ensure access to employers' retirement plan programs.
~ Jan Schakowsky
You can learn more about the Part Time Worker Bill of Rights Act here.
Standing With Workers, part 2:
A Fair Work Week
Working families all across the country are getting crushed. As corporations rake in larger and larger profits, wages have stagnated while the costs of basics like housing, child care, education, and health care have gone up. Today a full time minimum wage job cannot keep a mother and her child out of poverty and a parent working a full time minimum wage job can’t afford a two bedroom apartment in any county in this country.
My aim as president will be to return power to working families and to pursue an agenda of economic patriotism that puts the interests of American workers ahead of the interests of multinational corporations.
~ Elizabeth Warren
Unpredictable work schedules are leaving too many part-time workers with no control over their time and not enough hours to make ends meet. My Fair Workweek Plan will put power in the hands of part-time workers and help them control their schedules.
As corporations rake in larger profits, working families across the country are getting crushed by rising costs and wages that are barely budging. Adding to their challenges, many employers—especially in the retail and service industries—are using algorithms to assign schedules.
Millions of workers face unpredictable schedules that can change dramatically day-to-day—even by the hour—with almost no advance warning. A third of workers involuntarily work part-time because they aren't assigned enough hours by giant corporations trying to keep costs down.
These unpredictable schedules make it nearly impossible to work another job, go back to school, or schedule child care. And workers of color—especially women of color—bear the brunt of these abusive scheduling practices.
Under my Fair Workweek Plan, employers with 15 or more employees will be required to give two weeks’ advance notice of work schedules. And employees will be empowered to ask for schedules that work for them, without fear of retaliation.
My plan will give workers who work at companies with more than 15 employees the rest they desperately need by guaranteeing workers 11 hours between shifts and compensating them with higher pay for hours voluntarily worked within that window.
And it's time to remove the perverse incentives that keep giant corporations from making their workers full-time. I'll extend leave and benefit protections to part-time workers, and require employers to offer additional hours to existing part-time workers before hiring new ones.
Giant companies are raking in profits while squeezing working families to the breaking point. It's time to put more power in the hands of workers. My plan ensures that the 27 million part-time workers in America are treated with respect and can build a future for their families.
~ Elizabeth Warren
Standing With Workers, part 3
Unlike Trump, we will not abandon fossil fuel workers.
Our Green New Deal guarantees:
- -5 years of a fossil fuel worker's previous salary
- -Housing assistance
- -Job training
- -Health care
- -Pension and early retirement support
- -Priority placement in new good-paying union jobs
~ Bernie Sanders
Family Farms
Thousands of family farmers are forced off their land every year by big agribusinesses. It’s time the government had the backs of family farmers instead of doing favors for corporate agriculture monopolies.
~ Bernie Sanders
The time is long overdue for the U.S. government to stand with family farmers. If I am elected president, we will break up massive agriculture corporations and revitalize rural America.
~ Bernie Sanders
SNAP!
Donald Trump’s administration is putting forward changes is the food stamp program which will make it difficult or impossible for many people who now rely on food stamps to be able to get them.
Donald Trump’s food stamp rule is cruel, immoral and outrageous.
After giving over a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the wealthiest people and most profitable corporations in America, no, Donald Trump, you do not take food out of the mouths of nearly 700,000 hungry Americans.
Instead of taking from the poor and giving to the rich, we need to do the exact opposite.
We need to end hunger in America and repeal the Trump tax breaks to the rich and the powerful.
As president, that's exactly what I intend to do.
~ Bernie Sanders
If Republicans were willing to scrutinize billionaires half as much as they scrutinize people on food stamps, this country would be a much better place.
~ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Death In Custody
From NBC News:
Video contradicts border agency's account
of death of ill migrant teen in its custody
"The agency seems to have been untruthful with Congress and the public about the circumstances surrounding his tragic death," Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson said.
A video of the final hours of a Guatemalan teenager inside a Customs and Border Protection cell shows him collapsing to the floor and later dying next to a toilet where he was discovered by another teen the next morning.
Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez, who was called “Goyito” by family members, died May 20, eight days after he surrendered to border authorities after crossing the border in South Texas.
The potentially disturbing black-and-white security camera video and other documents obtained by ProPublica from Weslaco, Texas, police under Texas open government laws shows 16-year-old Carlos weak and unable to stand, then collapsing at one point on the concrete floor.
Later, Carlos is seen getting up and staggering to the toilet behind a partial wall and collapsing on the floor there. He appears to struggle to get up or move but hours later, at about 6:05 a.m., Carlos’ cellmate, who also appears to be a teenage boy, finds him. After failing to wake him up, the teen calls for agents.
The video directly contradicts Customs and Border Protections statements that Carlos was found unresponsive during a welfare check...
And it gets worse:
United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), along with Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), sent a letter to Kevin McAleenan, Acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Alex Azar, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), expressing serious concerns over DHS's recent announcement that migrant families currently detained at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) holding centers will not be vaccinated for the flu ahead of this year's flu season. This action is at odds with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation for all individuals above the age of 6 months, including immigrants, to receive a flu vaccine by the end of next month.
Since 2018, at least seven migrant children who had been in CBP care have died. Though the flu is a preventable illness, medical professionals have recently reported that at least three children in U.S. custody died, in part, from the flu. CBP's largest detention center, located in McAllen, Texas, has also had to temporarily stop processing migrants earlier this year due to a flu outbreak that affected nearly three dozen detainees. Despite these recent deaths, CBP confirmed last week that it would not be vaccinating the migrant families it has detained ahead of this year's flu season. While CBP has justified its decision by citing, in part, the "short term nature of CBP holdings," DHS and HHS recently announced a new rule to amend the Flores Settlement Agreement, which, if implemented, would allow CBP to indefinitely detain migrant families.
"This dangerous decision not to administer vaccinations for a disease that has already proven fatal to migrant children in CBP's custody is immoral and irresponsible, placing entire communities at risk of the flu and its associated complications," wrote the senators in their letter. "CBP must do more to ensure the health of migrant families under its care, and we strongly urge the agency to reconsider its plan not to vaccinate those in its custody."
The senators argued that CBP's decision not to vaccinate those in its custody, considering this new potential for prolonged detentions, threatens the health of the children and parents under its watch and could make flu outbreaks more likely, which in turn could result in additional risk to CBP personnel and the public.
"CBP's decision not to vaccinate against this preventable harm, which has already proven fatal for children in its custody, is inexcusable," the senators continued.
Some good people have responsed to this horrible situation:
The CBP said it won’t give recommended flu vaccines to detained families, but the flu has been fatal to kids in its custody. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this is an immoral, irresponsible decision. DHS must reverse it before more people die.
~ Elizabeth Warren
Today I introduced a bill with Pramila Jayapal one year after Jakelin Caal Maquin's death, a 7 yr. old who died in CBP custody. Congress has yet to receive any of the information we've requested on the details surrounding her death.
It is a dark stain on the moral fabric of this country
~ Joaquin Castro
Our inhumane and reprehensible detention system comes at a high moral cost. We need to shine a light on the federal government’s deadly negligence and improve accountability.
Today, I joined Joaquin Castro to introduce a bill that incorporates critical pieces of my Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act and requires federal agencies to investigate the death of everyone who dies in their custody and send a report to Congress.
It’s past time to restore our values as a country and create an immigration system that recognizes the fundamental value of every single human life.
~ Pramila Jayapal
ICE is spending millions on contractors to come up with new, cruel ideas for an already abusive system. My Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act eliminates for-profit detention centers and invests in humane alternatives. We need Congress to act now.
~ Pramila Jayapal
Housing and Homelessness
12 million Americans are paying more than half their income in rent
About 6,300 people are evicted every single day.
Make no mistake: we as lawmakers bear responsibility for the deplorable conditions of our public housing. It is time we address it once and for all.
~ Ilhan Omar
For decades we've been told that the private market alone can provide affordable housing.
It's a lie.
Housing is a basic human right and we need to invest the resources necessary to make sure no one in America is homeless or struggling with rent.
~ Ilhan Omar
A Call Worth Making
Here’s the problem:
Millions of Americans are drinking water contaminated with toxic PFAS, which are linked to cancer.
The annual spending bill for the Defense Department, called the NDAA, is our best chance to finally reduce PFAS ongoing releases, get PFAS out of our tap water, and clean up legacy PFAS pollution.
The final NDAA may fail to include critical PFAS provisions, which means polluters will be putting even more PFAS into our drinking water and water utilities will be doing nothing to take it out.
If we fail to fix the NDAA, millions of people will still be drinking water polluted with PFAS – for years.
If we fail to fix the #NDAA, we will be letting big PFAS polluters like 3M and DuPont off the hook.
~ Mark Ruffalo
And here’s an action you can take to help fix it:
Martin Luther King Jr. once said budgets are moral documents. That is especially true with regards to the annual spending bills for the Defense Department, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Congress should not even be considering an NDAA that fails to reduce PFAS discharges into drinking water supplies, fails to keep PFAS out of our tap water, and lets companies like 3M and DuPont off the hook when it comes to cleaning up legacy PFAS pollution.
The EPA has known of the dangers of toxic PFAS for nearly two decades but done nothing to protect us. Now, Congress may once again fail to act. Enough is enough.
Making matters worse, the NDAA does not stop our support of the Saudi-led Yemen war and for both of these issues, this budget falls wildly short of our values as Americans. Every member of Congress should reject this bad bill and send our legislators back to the drawing table.
Every American should call their Senators and Representatives now at 202-225-3121 and tell Congress to oppose the NDAA.
~ Mark Ruffalo
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Quickie Quotes
I will never stop fighting for an America that greets people seeking a better life here not with a clenched fist, but with open arms.
~ Ilhan Omar
Prisons should not be for profit.
Health insurance should not be for profit.
We need to move in the direction of protecting human lives and dignity, not defending the limitless greed of massive corporations.
~ Bernie Sanders
Amazon was valued at $1 trillion but pays $0 in federal taxes. So imagine my surprise to find out it didn’t need taxpayers to fork over billions in corporate welfare to create jobs in New York. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and many others fighting for working people were right.
~ Bernie Sanders
The Winner!
Tonight’s first quote was a few weeks old. This last quote is even older. But it’s a real winner — a literal winner. It comes from a prize-winning essay Pete Buttigieg wrote 19 years ago, back in 2000, for the JFK Profile in Courage essay contest:
A new attitude has swept American politics. Candidates have discovered that it is easier to be elected by not offending anyone rather than by impressing the voters. Politicians are rushing for the center, careful not to stick their necks out on issues. Most Democrats shy away from the word “liberal” like a horrid accusation...
Just as film producers shoot different endings and let test audiences select the most pleasing, some candidates run “test platforms” through sample groups to see which is most likely to win before they speak out on major issue. This disturbing trend reveals cynicism, a double-sided problem, which is perhaps, the greatest threat to the continued success of the American political system.
Cynical candidates have developed an ability to outgrow their convictions in order to win power. Cynical citizens have given up on the election process, going to the polls at one of the lowest rates in the democratic world. Such an atmosphere inevitably distances our society from its leadership and is thus a fundamental threat to the principles of democracy. It also calls into question what motivates a run for office – in many cases, apparently, only the desire to occupy it...
Fortunately for the political process, there remain a number of committed individuals who are steadfast enough in their beliefs to run for office to benefit their fellow Americans. Such people are willing to eschew political and personal comfort and convenience because they believe they can make a difference. One outstanding and inspiring example of such integrity is the country’s only Independent Congressman, Vermont’s Bernie Sanders.
Sanders’ courage is evident in the first word he uses to describe himself: “Socialist”. In a country where Communism is still the dirtiest of ideological dirty words, in a climate where even liberalism is considered radical, and Socialism is immediately and perhaps willfully confused with Communism, a politician dares to call himself a socialist? He does indeed. Here is someone who has “looked into his own soul” and expressed an ideology, the endorsement of which, in today’s political atmosphere, is analogous to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Even though he has lived through a time in which an admitted socialist could not act in a film, let alone hold a Congressional seat, Sanders is not afraid to be candid about his political persuasion.
After numerous political defeats in his traditionally Republican state, Sanders won the office of mayor of Burlington by ten votes. A successful and popular mayor, he went on to win Vermont’s one Congressional seat in 1990. Since then, he has taken many courageous and politically risky stands on issues facing the nation. He has come under fire from various conservative religious groups because of his support for same-sex marriages. His stance on gun control led to NRA-organized media campaigns against him. Sanders has also shown creativity in organizing drug-shopping trips to Canada for senior citizens to call attention to inflated drug prices in the United States...
Sanders has used his unique position as the lone Independent Congressman to help Democrats and Republicans force hearings on the internal structure of the International Monetary Fund, which he sees as excessively powerful and unaccountable. He also succeeded in quietly persuading reluctant Republicans and President Clinton to ban the import of products made by under-age workers. Sanders drew some criticism from the far left when he chose to grudgingly endorse President Clinton’s bids for election and re-election as President. Sanders explained that while he disagreed with many of Clinton’s centrist policies, he felt that he was the best option for America’s working class.
Sanders’ positions on many difficult issues are commendable, but his real impact has been as a reaction to the cynical climate which threatens the effectiveness of the democratic system. His energy, candor, conviction, and ability to bring people together stand against the current of opportunism, moral compromise, and partisanship which runs rampant on the American political scene…
~ Pete Buttigieg
If you’d like to read the entire essay, you can find it here.
To close things out, here’s another glimpse of the fabulous feline, Noble Fur:
Hope you’re all enjoying these last weeks of 2019. Soon we’ll see what 2020 brings. Let’s hope for the best, and work hard to see that it is.