Congress

What Does WWII Have To Do With Military Spending

September 18, 2020 David Swanson, Let's Try Democracy. Educate! Congress, Pentagon Budget, Wars and Militarism, World War II

“I’m going to perform a magic trick by reading your mind,” I tell a class of students or an auditorium or video call full of people. I write something down. “Name a war that was justified,” I say. Someone says “World War Two.” I show them what I wrote: “WWII.” Magic![i] If I insist on additional answers, they’re almost always wars even further in the past than WWII.[ii] If I ask why WWII is the answer, the response is virtually always “Hitler” or “Holocaust” or words to that effect. This predictable exchange, in which I get to pretend to have magical powers, is part of a lecture or workshop that I typically begin by asking for a show of hands in response to a pair of questions.

September 14, 2001: The Day America Became Israel

September 14, 2020 Maj. Danny Sjursen, USA (Ret.), Popular Resistance. Educate! AUMF, Congress, Israel, Wars and Militarism

The rubble was still smoldering at Ground Zero when the U.S. House of Representatives voted to essentially transform itself into the Israeli Knesset, or parliament. It was 19 years ago, 11:17pm Washington D.C. time on September 14, 2001 when the People’s Chamber approved House Joint Resolution 64, the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) “against those responsible for the recent attacks.” Naturally, that was before the precise identities, and full scope, of “those responsible” were yet known - so the resolution’s rubber-stamp was obscenely open-ended by necessity, but also by design.

Ending The Pentagon’s Pandemic Of Spending

September 14, 2020 Mandy Smithberger, Tom Dispatch. Educate! Congress, COVID-19, Military contractors, Pentagon Budget

The inadequate response of both the federal and state governments to the Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the United States, creating what could only be called a national security crisis. More than 190,000 Americans are dead, approximately half of them people of color. Yelp data show that more than 132,000 businesses have already closed and census data suggest that, thanks to lost wages, nearly 17% of Americans with children can’t afford to feed them enough food. In this same period, a number of defense contractors have been doing remarkably well.

Group That Helped Draft Anti-BDS Laws In US Didn’t Disclose Grant From Israel

September 5, 2020 By Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. Educate! Anti-BDS Law, BDS, Congress, Israel

There’s been a lot of talk about foreign governments intervening in our political process over the last few years, but some stories certainly don’t permeate mainstream discourse. A case in point was on display this week. The Forward reported that the Israel Allies Foundation (IAF) received a grant from the Israeli government for more than $100,000 last year. The IAF is a nonprofit that was established in 2007 to foster cooperation between pro-Israel forces and governments around the world. In 2014, the group helped develop South Carolina’s anti-BDS law, which prohibits state entities from contracting with groups that boycott Israel. The IAF went onto lobby 25 additional states to adopt anti-BDS measures after South Carolina’s was approved. The IAF didn’t disclose the grant (which is probably illegal), but it’s certainly not the only such organization to take money from Israel. The Forward reports that 11 pro-Israel groups have received $6.6 million from that government since 2018.

Senate Democrats’ New Climate Report Disappoints

August 30, 2020 By Marlee Kokotovic, Nation of Change. Educate! climate crisis, Congress, Democratic Party, Fossil Fuels

Senate Democrats released a climate action report earlier this week leaving green groups, environmental activists, and progressive campaigners disappointed. Critics of the report are saying there is not nearly enough action involved to fight the threat of global heating that is caused by human activity. “The report fails to address the vital need to end the extraction, processing, and burning of fossil fuels, and instead sees a future for fossil fuels tied to the false promise of carbon capture.”

#SaveThePostOffice Call-In Day! Wednesday, August 26

August 25, 2020 A Grand Alliance to Save the Post Office, Popular Resistance. Resist! 2020 Elections, Congress, Neoliberalism, US Postal Service

Since the Coronavirus crisis hit, USPS has become more essential than ever, from delivering life-saving medicine, to sustaining our democracy through mail-in voting. It has also become more endangered than ever, facing a massive budget crisis. Postal workers and the public are united in urging Congress to pass $25 billion in emergency COVID-related relief for USPS. Through mass public outcry, we’ve begun to roll back Trump’s new appointee Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s most recent plans to reduce service.

Congress: Postal Service Delays ‘Far Worse Than Previously Acknowledged’

August 23, 2020 J. Edward Moreno, The Hill. Educate! Congress, Louis DeJoy, US Postal Service

House Democrats on the Oversight and Reform Committee released documents Saturday showing that Postal Service delays they say are “far worse than previously acknowledged.” The assessment from the lawmakers comes a day after Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, where he apologized for a “dip” in service but assured the panel that the "nation’s election mail" would be delivered "fully and on time.” Democrats in both chambers of Congress have been been concerned about the operational changes that DeJoy announced earlier this summer that included a shuffling of personnel, a curtailing of over time and a removal of mail-sorting machines, among other things.

Rotting Food, Dead Animals And Chaos At Postal Facilities

August 22, 2020 Laura J. Nelson and Maya Lau, LA Times. Educate! Congress, Louis DeJoy, US Postal Service, Worker Rights

Six weeks ago, U.S. Postal Service workers in the high desert town of Tehachapi, Calif., began to notice crates of mail sitting in the post office in the early morning that should have been shipped out for delivery the night before. At a mail processing facility in Santa Clarita in July, workers discovered that their automated sorting machines had been disabled and padlocked. And inside a massive mail-sorting facility in South Los Angeles, workers fell so far behind processing packages that by early August, gnats and rodents were swarming around containers of rotted fruit and meat, and baby chicks were dead inside their boxes.

The CIA Democrats In The 2020 Elections

August 22, 2020 Patrick Martin, WSWS. Educate! 2020 Elections, CIA, Congress, Democrats, Military Industrial Complex

In the course of the 2018 elections, a large group of former military-intelligence operatives entered capitalist politics as candidates seeking the Democratic Party nomination in 50 congressional seats—nearly half the seats where the Democrats were targeting Republican incumbents or open seats created by Republican retirements. Some 30 of these candidates won primary contests and became the Democratic candidates in the November 2018 election, and 11 of them won the general election, more than one-quarter of the 40 previously Republican-held seats captured by the Democrats as they took control of the House of Representatives.

How The US Failed At Its Foreign Policy Toward Venezuela

August 9, 2020 Vijay Prashad and Érika Ortega Sanoja, Popular Resistance. Create! Congress, Elliott Abrams, US Foreign Policy, US Regime Change, Venezuela

On August 4, 2020, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on Venezuela. Appearing before the committee was U.S. State Department Special Representative Elliott Abrams. Abrams, who has had a long—and controversial—career in the formation of U.S. foreign policy, was assaulted by almost all the members of the Senate committee. The senators, almost without exception, suggested that Abrams had been—since 2019—responsible for a failed U.S. attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro.

Trump’s Order To Bypass Congress On COVID-19 Relief Faces Likely Legal Challenges

August 9, 2020 Chris Megerian, Anna M. Phillips and Sarah D. Wire, LA Times. Resist! Congress, COVID-19, Pandemic, Recession

Washington, DC - President Trump on Saturday said he was bypassing Congress and taking unilateral action to provide financial relief to Americans struggling during the coronavirus crisis, despite uncertainty about his legal authority to do so. Following the breakdown of talks on Capitol Hill to reach a bipartisan deal, Trump signed four orders that he said would extend enhanced federal unemployment benefits, defer some employees’ payroll taxes, continue a temporary ban on evictions and reduce the burden of student loans.

Study: Return To Work Not Affected By $600 Unemployment Boost

August 9, 2020 James Myall, Maine Center for Economic Policy. Educate! Congress, COVID-19, Unemployment, Worker Rights and Jobs

There’s no relationship between expanded Unemployment Compensation payments and individuals’ likelihood of returning to work, according to two recent studies. One, by researchers at Yale University, finds that more generous UC payments are not related to lower rates of return to work. Another shows employers saw no overall decline in the number of applicants per job vacancy as a result of the increased payments. The findings refute the assertion by some pundits and politicians from both parties who claim the additional $600 weekly payment to laid-off workers established by Congress in March is a “disincentive to return to work.”

Trump Scuttles Economic Stimulus Negotiations

August 8, 2020 Jack Rasmus, Popular Resistance. Educate! Congress, COVID-19, Recession, Trump

In recent days, the Democrats’ leaders, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Shumer, reportedly reduced the cost of their original ‘Heroes Act’ proposals by $1 trillion. Instead of the original cost of $3T in the Heroes Act passed last June, they were willing to agree to a reduced package of $2 trillion. Never mind the attempt to reach a compromise on some middle ground. The White House, through his assigned negotiator, staffer Mark Meadows, Trump rejected the Democrats' offer. Meadows reportedly slammed the table (a two-bit amateur negotiating tactic) and walked out of negotiations with Pelosi-Shumer in a huff.

Consequences Of Inadequate Action By Congress

August 7, 2020 By Kirstyn Flood, Economic Policy Institue. Educate! Congress, COVID-19, Jobs, Recession

Without federal aid to state and local governments, millions of jobs in the public sector will be lost by the end of 2021, severely impacting Black workers, women, and veterans, who are disproportionately employed in these jobs. Additional jobs will be lost—in both the private and public sectors—if Congress fails to reinstate the $600 weekly unemployment benefit that expired last week. EPI experts weigh in on what could happen if Congress fails to act to prevent further economic shock. (1) The coronavirus shock was historically large—and the bounceback has already likely stalled. (2) UI claims and GDP growth are historically bad, (3) State and local governments have lost 1.5 million jobs since February, and (4) The Senate’s failure to act on federal aid to state and local governments jeopardizes veterans’ jobs.

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