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Senate Hearing On Global Threats Turns Into A McCarthy Hearing

March 26, 2025 Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance. , , , ,
Today, in the US Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on global threats with the five heads of intelligence agencies of the US government, Senator Tom Cotton, accused on national TV a group I have worked with for over 20 years, CODEPINK: Women for Peace, of being funded by the Communist Party of China. During the hearing CODEPINK activist Tighe Barry stood up following the presentation of the Director of National Security Tulsi Gabbard’s lengthy statement about global threats to US national security and yelled ‘Stop Funding Israel,’ since neither Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton and Vice Chair Mark Warner had mentioned Israel in their opening statement nor  had Gabbard mentioned the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza in her statement either.

Can A Labor-Backed Candidate Inspire More Working-Class Independents?

January 21, 2025 Steve Early, Labor Notes. , , , , ,
While running for U.S. Senate in Nebraska, working class candidate Dan Osborn characterized the Senate as “a country club of millionaires that work for billionaires.” In November, he almost crashed their party. Osborn, a 49-year old former local union president who helped lead a multi-state strike against Kellogg’s cereal company, was recruited by railroad workers to challenge two-term incumbent Senator Deb Fischer, a Republican. Rail is a major industry in Nebraska, and Fischer had voted to break the 2022 national railroad strike. She also opposed the Railway Safety Act.

57 Groups To Senate: No More Weapons For Israel’s War

November 11, 2024 Demand Progress. , , , , , ,
Washington, DC — On Monday, Demand Progress and a coalition of 56 other progressive, faith-based, humanitarian, and foreign policy advocacy groups launched the No More Weapons for Israel’s War campaign. This month, for the first time ever, the U.S. Senate will hold yes-or-no votes on arms sales to Israel. The grassroots campaign will drive their millions of supporters to call on senators to support Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRDs) that could block transfers of certain offensive weapons like tank and artillery shells and Joint Direct Attack Munitions to the Israeli military. 

Christian Preachers, Senators, Show Hypocrisy Of Their Religious Beliefs

February 19, 2024 Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance. , , , ,
The February 12, 2024 U.S. Senate vote on $14 billion to Israel shows the depravity of most of the members of the U.S. Senate. In particular it showed the hypocrisy of the two Senators who are pastors of Christian denominations as well as the shallowness of the few Senators who called for a ceasefire and then voted for money to kill more Palestinians.  Only three Senators voted against the funding—Senators Saunders, Welch and Merkley. Senator Raphael Warnock voted for $14 billion for Israel. He is a Baptist preacher from Georgia.  For 19 years Warnock was the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, Martin Luther King Jr.’s former congregation.

US Anti-War Activists Confront Senators Over Support For Israel

February 9, 2024 People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , ,
On February 7, activists with feminist anti-war group CODEPINK confronted several US Senators who have been doubling down on their support for Israel throughout the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip. “Killing Hamas makes Israel safe,” said Florida Senator Ted Cruz to an activist who told him that “the war does not make Jews safer.” Cruz has received over one million dollars from the pro-Israel lobby since 1990, receiving USD 489,419 from 2019 to 2024. Cruz’s top pro-Israel Political Action Committee (PAC) donors are the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Republican Jewish Coalition. “Killing 30,000 civilians doesn’t make anyone safe,” the activist responds.

Senate Passes Massive $886 Billion National Defense Authorization Act

December 15, 2023 Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com. , , , , ,
On Wednesday, the Senate passed the mammoth $886 billion 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which funds the Pentagon and military spending in other government agencies. The bill passed in a vote of 87-13, with six Democrats, six Republicans, and one Independent voting against it. This NDAA now heads to the House, where it’s expected to pass in a vote on Thursday as the bill is the version that the two chambers negotiated. The NDAA includes an amendment to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which gives the FBI the power to conduct warrantless spying of foreign targets and Americans they interact with.

US Troops Are Occupying Syria’s Oil Fields; Congress Rejects Withdrawl

December 12, 2023 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. , , , , , ,
The US military has occupied Syrian sovereign territory since 2014, preventing Damascus from accessing its own oil and wheat fields. A top Pentagon official has acknowledged that Washington’s strategy is to starve Syria’s central government of revenue it needs to rebuild, after a decade of war fueled by foreign powers devastated the country. Former US President Donald Trump boasted in 2020: “They say, ‘He left troops in Syria’. You know what I did? I left troops to take the oil. I took the oil. The only troops I have are taking the oil. They’re protecting the oil. I took over the oil”.

Black People Won’t Be Silenced About Israel

December 10, 2023 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. , , , , ,
It is a bad sign when the leader of the United States Senate sounds something like an actress with bizarre feelings of entitlement. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer pulled off this dubious feat with his statements about U.S. policy towards Israel, what he perceives to be anti-semitism, and public opinion about Israel’s attack on Gaza. His remarks resembled those of actress Julianna Margulies, whose infamous rant differed only in its lack of politesse. Of course, a senator has better political sense and more awareness than an entertainer, but aside from the manner of delivery, their thought processes don’t differ very much.

Senate Urged To Block Biden’s Pro-Privatization Nominee For Social Security Board

July 6, 2022 Jake Johnson, Common Dreams. , , ,
Defenders of Social Security on Tuesday urged the U.S. Senate to block President Joe Biden's little-noticed nomination of Andrew Biggs—an American Enterprise Institute senior fellow with a history of supporting Social Security privatization—to serve on the independent and bipartisan Social Security Advisory Board. Social Security Works, a progressive advocacy group, is leading the charge against Biggs, highlighting his role in the George W. Bush administration's failed attempt to privatize the New Deal program in 2005.

Exxon’s Senate Puppets

July 8, 2021 George Ochenski, Counterpunch. , , ,
Montana is a very long ways from the Senate chambers in Washington, D.C. Yet, like every other state, we send two senators to represent us in what used to be called “the greatest deliberative body on earth.” We are continually flooded with self-congratulatory press releases promising they’re “fighting for Montana.” But a sad reality was revealed in last week’s bombshell news that Montana’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and Republican U.S. Steve Daines were named by Keith McCoy, Exxon’s senior director of federal relations in Washington, as two of 11 senators who he says are “crucial” to ExxonMobil. In truth, it appears our senators are actually “fighting” for the oil and gas industry, not the 1 million Montanans counting on them for Senate representation.

Protest At Mitch McConnell’s House Over Supreme Court Vacancy

September 23, 2020 Mark Moore, New York Post. , , ,
A crowd of protesters swarmed outside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s Kentucky home after the Republican leader said he would move to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death. About 100 protesters gathered outside McConnell’s Louisville home on Saturday after he said he would push for a Senate vote on filling the seat with the presidential election is less than seven weeks away, the Louisville Courier Journal reported. The demonstrators called out “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Mitch McConnell has got to go,” “vote him out” and ditch Mitch.”

Divided Senate Approves Huge Two-Year Military Budget

August 3, 2019 By Jason Ditz, News.antiwar.com , ,
Passed last week in a 284-149 vote in the House, split heavily along party lines, the two-year compromise budget deal reached between President Trump and Democratic leadership has passed the Senate Thursday, 67-28. The $2.78 trillion ($1.48 trillion military spending) measure lifts the cap on the size of the US debt. This is an increase over the already-passed NDAA for 2020, and military spending will now outpace the entire rest of discretionary spending. Since the expansion of the debt amounts to spending more money that the government flat out doesn’t have, this legislation also authorizes the Treasury Department to issue more debt in the form of bonds to raise money to cover the difference.

US Senate Fails To Restore Food Assistance For Puerto Rico

April 10, 2019 Julio Patron, Wsws.org , ,
Since a factional battle broke out between Democratic and Republican parties last weekend, the US Senate has failed to pass a disaster relief bill that allocates federal money to recovery projects in all areas of the country recently affected by fires, floods, tropical storms and other natural disasters. The failure to approve this funding has left more than a million Puerto Ricans with drastically-reduced food stamp payments, one year and seven months after Hurricanes Maria and Irma struck the US territory.

Importance Of Aligning House And Senate Single-Payer Bills The Right Way

November 23, 2018 Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein, Pnhp.org , , , ,
Single-payer reform is in the news — and in the U.S. House and Senate. One hundred twenty-three Congresspeople have signed on as co-sponsors of H.R. 676, the single-payer legislation in House of Representatives, and 16 Senators have formally endorsed S.1804, the Senate version. (Disclosure: H.R. 676 was closely modeled on the Physicians for a National Health Program reform proposal published in JAMA, for which we served as lead authors). While both bills would cover all Americans under a single, tax-funded insurance program, they prescribe different provider payment strategies. The Senate version largely adopts Medicare’s current payment mechanisms...

Collins’s Office Received 3,000 Coat Hangers Protesting Kavanaugh

September 9, 2018 Tal Axelrod, The Hill. , ,
Activists have sent Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) 3,000 coat hangers, referencing back-alley abortions, in their efforts to persuade her to vote against the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The mail-ins accompany TV ads aimed at swaying the senator’s vote and pledges to fund her Senate opponent in 2020 if she votes to confirm Kavanaugh, The Associated Press reports.  The centrist Collins is seen as a critical swing vote in Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing and has said she wouldn’t vote to confirm a nominee who was hostile to Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that legalized abortions. 
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