Welcome once again to a $27-group / The Political Revolution open thread — 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.
Lots of words coming up, so maybe I should include a little music to start with ...
“Everybody’s talking but you don’t hear a thing...”
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The I-Word, part 1
No human being is "illegal." I urged my House Judiciary colleagues to stop dehumanizing immigrant communities and instead use the term "undocumented."
~ Pramila Jayapal
Two more immigrant children died over the past week after having been in Customs and Border Protection custody. That’s five six deaths in the past six months. It’s appalling. CBP owes the American people an explanation for these children’s deaths and its failure to keep them safe.
In December I called for the the DHS’ Office of Inspector General to investigate these deaths at the border, and that review is underway. But we need answers now: why are children dying after being taken into CBP custody and what steps is CBP taking to end this string of tragedies?
~ Elizabeth Warren
How many more children must die before we address the atrocities our country is committing at our southern border?
~ Ilhan Omar
While climate change is making droughts and famines worse, making conflicts fiercer and repression more brutal, the U.S. is resettling historically low numbers of refugees. We must address the climate crisis and offer support to climate change refugees.
~ Ilhan Omar
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The I-Word, Part 2
Opening an impeachment inquiry is not an act we should undertake out of political expediency. It is something we should do to uphold the rule of law and Constitution of the United States.
The President has done everything in his power to obstruct Congressional investigations. It is our responsibility as a coequal branch of government to investigate whether that rises to the evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors.
The fate of our constitutional republic is at stake.
~ Ilhan Omar
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We are now at the point where we must begin an impeachment inquiry. I don't say that lightly. We've taken every step we can with subpoenas and witnesses. Trump obstructs everything. A president who thinks he's king, accountable to nobody, and above the law, is absolutely unacceptable.
~ Pramila Jayapal
… and for those of you who enjoy listening as well as reading, here’s a good 1-minute quote:
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Solidarity!
Young people have already demonstrated that they can take on powerful fossil fuel companies and force politicians to answer their call to action.
To the more than 1 million people walking out for climate justice today: I stand with you.
~ Bernie Sanders
This next quote is from an article Rex Santus wrote recently for Vice. If you’d like to read the complete article, click the link at the top.
Bernie’s Campaign Is Showing Solidarity with Striking Workers
Like No Other 2020 Candidate
McDonald’s workers striking across the country Thursday have several demands, including raising their minimum wage to $15 minimum. And one of the policy’s biggest proponents, 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, emailed his supporters to rally people to the picket lines.
It’s not uncommon for members of the 2020 Democratic field to show up to picket lines or tweet out their support to striking workers. But Bernie is taking labor solidarity to a new level by tapping into his campaign’s massive listservs to mobilize support for striking workers. It’s an extraordinary and possibly unprecedented move, according to labor historians and union organizers.
The Vermont senator's presidential campaign sent geo-targeted emails Tuesday to supporters in or around 10 cities throughout the U.S. to support striking McDonald’s workers, according to the campaign. Employees at the fast-food chain are staging one-day walkouts and other work actions to fight for a $15 minimum wage, union rights, and workplaces free of sexual harassment.
“Bernie Sanders is joining in solidarity with McDonald’s workers in Dallas, and you can do the same right here in Iowa,” reads one of the emails. “Showing up at a picket line for striking workers is an incredible act of solidarity to show that you support their fight for a better life...”
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Yemen
The people of Yemen are suffering because of a disastrous, brutal war. We should be ending that war, not funding it.
~ Bernie Sanders
Donald Trump wants to keep selling American weapons to his Saudi buddies. But he knows Congress won't approve selling to a regime that's bombed thousands of Yemeni civilians and murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi – so he's trying to go around us
Selling more weapons to Saudi Arabia doesn't make America safer or align with our country's values. It only benefits defense contractors and Donald Trump's alarming desire to sow chaos abroad. l'll do everything I can in Congress to stop it.
~ Elizabeth Warren
Congress voted to tell Donald Trump to end the United States' complicity in Yemen's ongoing humanitarian crisis. His response? Veto the resolution, then declare a fake "emergency" to keep selling weapons the Saudis will use to kill more civilians.
It's revolting to suggest that we need to help the Saudis kill civilians in order to stand up to Iran. Our only "emergency" is a President who cares more about making money for his defense contractor buddies than the democratic will of Congress or the moral catastrophe in Yemen.
~ Elizabeth Warren
The 2001 AUMF must be repealed. We must end the state of continuous war, as these wars have made us less safe. Military use should only be used as a last resort going forward.
~ Ilhan Omar
Judge Not ...
Last week, Alabama passed an extreme abortion ban in a thinly veiled attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade. This week, senate Republicans is trying to shove through 5 judges who have spent their careers undermining women's reproductive rights. This is a full-scale attack on women's health.
Daniel Collins argued in a brief submitted in the Hobby Lobby case that companies should be able to deny contraceptive coverage to employees. Now senate Republicans and Donald Trump want him on the Ninth Circuit.
Howard Nielson, nominee to be a Judge for the District of Utah, defended a highly restrictive Texas law that would have prevented countless women from accessing abortions. The Supreme Court disagreed and ultimately struck it down.
It gets worse. Stephen Clark sponsored an ad calling Roe v. Wade “BAD LAW” and comparing it to Dred Scott, a heinous Supreme Court decision that deprived Black Americans of their constitutional rights. No wonder Republicans want him on the federal bench.
Carl Nichols, Donald Trump's nominee to be a Judge in the District of Washington DC, argued that pharmacists should be able to deny patients access to emergency contraceptives (which they're required by law to provide) because of religious objections.
Kenneth Bell once argued the "indefensibility of the abortion rights position," claiming there was "no middle ground." Thanks to the senate Republicans, he could wind up on the federal bench in North Carolina, where legislators have already considered an anti-abortion bill this year.
Republican state legislators are already stripping away women's constitutional rights. And Donald Trump & senate Republicans are making their jobs easier by appointing judges who could overturn Roe v. Wade.
I'll be voting no on every one of these guys.
~ Elizabeth Warren
Dirty Money
(and cleaning up the mess)
I just introduced a bill to bar corporations who are convicted of serious crimes from corrupting our political system—with my sister congresswomen Lori Trahan, Jan Schakowsky, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
In 2014, BP pleaded guilty to 14 criminal counts, including manslaughter, over the April 20, 2010 drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 people and unleashed the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
Even as BP was arguing in court over the billions of fines it owed in Clean Water Act violations, it found a way to spend nearly $5 million on lobbying and campaign corporations that year.
Companies that break the law shouldn’t be allowed to poison our democracy with dirty money. This is just common sense.
~ Ilhan Omar
The bill Omar introduced is the Protect Democracy from Criminal Corporations Act. If you’d like to learn more about what it is and what it says, just click this link.
The enormous student debt burden weighing down our economy isn’t the result of laziness or irresponsibility. It’s the result of a government that has consistently put the interests of the wealthy and well-connected over the interests of working families.
~ Elizabeth Warren
In my view, if McDonald’s has enough money to buy back $22 billion of its own stock, it damn well has enough money to pay all of its workers at least $15 an hour.
~ Bernie Sanders
10 years ago this week, Congress passed a bipartisan bill to help get the tricks and traps out of the fine print of credit card agreements. But the fight’s not over. We need a strong Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to hold credit card companies accountable when they cheat customers and break the law.
~ Elizabeth Warren
The chief executives of 177 health care companies made $2.6 billion in 2018 - that’s $700 million MORE than what the National Institutes of Health spent researching Alzheimer’s. Health care needs to be about patients, NOT profits!
~ Pramila Jayapal
Raising their minimum wage to $15 an hour:
- -Amazon
- -Disneyland
- -Costco
- -Target
Still paying poverty wages: Walmart.
Walmart is owned by the richest family in America. They must pay ALL workers a living wage.
~ Bernie Sanders
Shocker: Walmart and Exxon don't want MedicareForAll. These companies have fought against health and well-being of working Americans for decades. Their opposition just tells me we're on the right track.
~ Pramila Jayapal
If we could find over a trillion dollars to bail out Wall Street, we can damn well afford to protect the pensions of Americans. If I am elected president, I will impose an immediate moratorium on any future pension cuts and I will reverse the pension cuts that have been approved.
~ Bernie Sanders
13 million children are living below the poverty line and two-thirds of those children are people of color. In the wealthiest nation in the world, there is no reason any child should ever go hungry. Congress must double down and commit to end child poverty once and for all.
~ Barbara Lee
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It's simple: all students must have access to healthy school meals.
No child should go hungry or be shamed for not being able to pay.
As a nation we must provide year-round, free universal school meals for our children.
~ Bernie Sanders
I was proud to stand with Bernie Sanders today as we introduced the Inclusive Prosperity Act. It’s time for Wall Street to pay their fair share of taxes and invest in critical programs like MedicareForAll, debt-free college, affordable housing, and more.
~ Barbara Lee
Congress must rein in corporate greed and make Wall Street pay its fair share to ensure that every American is able to benefit in our economy, not just the rich and powerful. I am joining Bernie Sanders and Barbara Lee to introduce the Inclusive Prosperity Act.
~ Mark Takano
We're often told our nation can’t afford the basics:
“We can’t afford Medicare for All...”
“We afford a Green New Deal..."
I’m proud to join Bernie Sanders and Barbara Lee on the Inclusive Prosperity Act, proof that we do not suffer from scarcity in this country. We suffer from greed.
~ Ilhan Omar
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Women’s Health
Extremists are currently trying to manipulate state laws in order to impose their beliefs onto an entire society -- all with complete disregard for the voices and the rights of American women.
Their recent efforts - like those in Alabama and Georgia - are only the latest in a long history of efforts to criminalize women simply for existing, and to punish us when we don’t conform to their attempts to control us.
A proposal in Texas would go so far as to threaten women who obtain an abortion with capital punishment. If that were being proposed by any other country, we’d be calling it a dangerous violation of human rights.
This week marked the 100th anniversary of the House passing the 19th Amendment. An entire century has passed and we are still forced to fight for the right to make our own decisions as human beings.
We should be outraged by that. And we cannot stand for it. We cannot be silenced. The women of this country will be heard.
~ Ilhan Omar
I'm proud to cosponsor the Women’s Health Protection Act. It would stop the bans by enshrining Roe v. Wade into federal law — ensuring everyone in this country has access to abortion, no matter where they live.
~ Elizabeth Warren
The Women’s Health Protection Act is sponsored by champions Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA). Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) is a lead cosponsor in the Senate, and Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) and Rep. Lois Frankel (D-FL) are lead cosponsors in the House of Representatives. The bill has strong support, as 170 additional members of the House signed on for re-introduction, and 42 additional Senators …
~ Act For Women!
Lots of rules, not a lot of justice
I'm a new Member of Congress, and sometimes the rules of this place are truly confounding to me. I want to tell you a quick story.
One of my constituents came to me recently - she has cancer, and needs a bone marrow donor - quick!
Her community is organizing bone marrow registration drives to help find a match for her, and for other people of South Asian descent, who are under-represented in bone marrow registries.
I called the House Ethics Committee to see if my office would be able to promote the bone marrow drives being organized across the country for this purpose. Their answer: nope.
It violates House Ethics rules for House members to promote private events, even for non-profits, and even to save the lives of our constituents. So I won't be promoting this event using my official House accounts or resources (because I can't).
I'm telling you this because I want the American people to know how backwards our Congressional rules can be.
I'm not allowed to promote bone marrow drives. Meanwhile, it's fine for politicians to spend hours and hours a week soliciting corporate PAC money. And it's fine for a politician to leave office and become a lobbyist for the industry they once oversaw.
I understand the rules and I'm going to follow them. I also get why rules have to be strict because they could be abused. But for outsiders like me, sometimes this place just doesn't make sense. Lots of rules, not a lot of justice.
~ Katie Porter
No Apologies
a few additional first degree Berns ...
We can’t properly reform our broken criminal justice system without ending the death penalty.
~ Bernie Sanders
Since the late 1980s, the number of racially segregated schools has more than tripled.
This segregation isn't by accident—it's the result of policy decisions made in courts, in state legislatures and in Washington.
I will not tolerate still having separate and unequal schools.
~ Bernie Sanders
It has been the honor of my life to serve Vermont. We were the first state in the country to outlaw slavery and the first state legislature to vote to legalize same-sex marriage. Vermont has led the struggle for human freedom and justice – and we will continue to do so.
~ Bernie Sanders
And lastly,
tonight’s title quote
The best way to push back when people seek to divide our communities is by coming together and affirming that there is more that unites us than divides us.
~ Ilhan Omar