Month: April 2019

Tell Congress We Demand Medicare For All Now

MORNING MESSAGE

George Goehl, Felicia Wong

Pfizer Shareholder Meeting Offers Inside Look At Big Pharma

Pfizer’s board of directors will gather in New Jersey on Thursday for the company’s annual shareholders meeting. They will celebrate the enormous success Pfizer had in 2018, having made $53 billion in revenue and over $11 billion in profits, on top of the $11 billion windfall they posted from the Trump tax cuts alone at the end of 2017. Those numbers make Pfizer one of the most profitable companies on Earth. Despite these enormous profits, or perhaps to generate them, Pfizer raised prices on 41 of its prescription drugs in January. While Pfizer executives and shareholders are patting themselves on the back, we need to ask ourselves how to change this level of corporate extraction at the price of American families. Fortunately, there is no shortage of common-sense reforms available. The need for reform is clear, and popular support for lowering drug prices is growing. In moving these proposals forward, we have a chance to create a society in which having fair and affordable access to the life-improving medicines people need supersedes outlandish profit for a few. The result would be a healthier America, and a healthier American economy.

Read more at STATNews

Trump Stalls Like A Mob Boss

How Trump can stall House Democrats. Axios: “President Trump’s White House appears to have figured out the secret of congressional oversight: there’s not much Democrats can do if they say no to everything. The millions of voters who elected a Democratic House in November are about to find out how hard it is for one party — with just one chamber of Congress and without the cooperation of the other party — to investigate a president who’s determined to run out the clock. Yes, House Democrats can subpoena whoever and whatever they want — but those subpoenas are hard to enforce. They can hold administration officials in contempt, but in all of the most recent examples where Congress did that, it fizzled. Usually, the breakdown happens because the Justice Department won’t prosecute an administration official if Congress holds them in contempt. Congress hasn’t used its strongest contempt power — ‘inherent contempt,’ where a witness can be put on trial and imprisoned in the Capitol — in nearly a century. What the Trump administration is doing is fighting everything from the House Judiciary Committee’s subpoena of former White House counsel Don McGahn to a request for Trump’s tax returns. It’s also saying no to subpoenas for testimony on security clearances and a citizenship question that’s being added to the 2020 census. And Trump and the Trump Organization are suing House Oversight Committee chairman Elijah Cummings to block a subpoena for Trump’s financial records. The strategy could have a downside even for a White House that lives for these fights. ‘It totally undercuts the argument that we’ve been transparent and because there was no criminal wrongdoing that’s why we encouraged everyone to cooperate,’ said one former senior White House official. ‘Now we look like we’ve got something to hide and we’re not being open and transparent.’”

Deutsche Bank Hands Over Trump Financial Records

Deutsche Bank begins process of providing Trump financial records to New York’s attorney general. CNN: “Deutsche Bank has begun the process of providing financial records to New York state’s attorney general in response to a subpoena for documents related to loans made to President Donald Trump and his business, according to a person familiar with the production. Last month, the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James issued subpoenas for records tied to funding for several Trump Organization projects. The state’s top legal officer opened a civil probe after Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen testified to Congress in a public hearing that Trump had inflated his assets. Cohen at that time presented copies of financial statements he said had been provided to Deutsche Bank. The New York attorney general’s office declined to comment. The bank is in the process of turning over documents, including emails and loan documents, related to Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC; the Trump National Doral Miami; the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago; and the unsuccessful effort to buy the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. The bank is already the subject of a joint investigation between the House Financial Services and Intelligence committees into Trump’s businesses and money laundering.”

Biden Calls Out White Supremacists In Presidential Bid

Joe Biden uses Charlottesville as motivation for 2020 run: ‘We are in the battle for the soul of this nation.’ USA Today:“Joe Biden is officially in the race for president. His long-awaited answer to the biggest political question in the country the past few months ended on Thursday, making him one of 20 Democrats vying to become the party’s 2020 presidential nominee. In his announcement, Biden went after President Donald Trump and the statements he made after violent clashes between activists and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. In the wake of the demonstrations, which killed one person, Trump said there were fine people on ‘both sides,’ a remark that drew wide condemnation. ‘With those words, the president of the United States assigned a moral equivalence to those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it,’ Biden said in the video. ‘In that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had ever seen in my lifetime.’”

DHS Chief Warned: “Don’t Tell Trump” About Election Security Threats

In push for 2020 election security, top official was warned: don’t tell Trump. NYT: “In the months before Kirstjen Nielsen was forced to resign, she tried to focus the White House on one of her highest priorities as homeland security secretary: preparing for new and different Russian forms of interference in the 2020 election. President Trump’s chief of staff told her not to bring it up in front of the president. Ms. Nielsen left the Department of Homeland Security early this month after a tumultuous 16-month tenure and tensions with the White House. Officials said she had become increasingly concerned about Russia’s continued activity in the United States during and after the 2018 midterm elections — ranging from its search for new techniques to divide Americans using social media, to experiments by hackers, to rerouting internet traffic and infiltrating power grids. But in a meeting this year, Mick Mulvaney, the White House chief of staff, made it clear that Mr. Trump still equated any public discussion of malign Russian election activity with questions about the legitimacy of his victory. According to one senior administration official, Mr. Mulvaney said it ‘wasn’t a great subject and should be kept below his level.’ Even though the Department of Homeland Security has primary responsibility for civilian cyberdefense, Ms. Nielsen eventually gave up on her effort to organize a White House meeting of cabinet secretaries to coordinate a strategy to protect next year’s elections.”

Border Militias’ Deep Roots In White Nationalism

There’s a reason the history of American border militias is riddled with sociopaths and violence. Daily Kos: “The return of border militias in response to Donald Trump’s fearmongering about a ‘crisis’ on the U.S. border with Mexico—and the threats, intimidation, and violence that these militias bring—is not just an accident. Indeed, these militias have played key roles over the past decade-plus in stirring up the politics that put Trump in the White House and help keep him there now. The new border watchers, particularly the United Constitutional Patriots in New Mexico who have been harassing asylum seekers, are very much in the historic mold of the militias who have prowled the southern desert for the past two decades. Fittingly, the leader of the UCP was arrested over the weekend for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Where did these border militias come from? What are they really about? And why do they have such a history of criminality and death attached to them? The idea of a ‘citizens border watch’ grew out of the longtime embrace by the radical right of vigilante violence, a la the Ku Klux Klan. Indeed, the very first such operation was organized in 1977-79 by David Duke and Tom Metzger. The concept gained new life in the 1990s with the rise of the small-cell militia concept as part of a larger “leaderless resistance” against the federal government. The main progenitor of the concept was a California man named Glenn Spencer, who ran an outfit called American Patrol that claimed Latinos wanted to reclaim the U.S. Southwest for Mexico as part of ‘Reconquista.’”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Leo Gerard

How Big Corporations Take Your Tax Dollars

Big corporations claim to hate socialism if it means Medicare for All, but they sure as hell love socialism when it’s welfare for them. Sixty profitable corporations paid no federal taxes in 2018, twice the number that typically paid nothing in the years before the 2017 tax breaks took effect. In fact, it’s worse than that. Fifty-seven of these corporations demanded rebates from the government – which means taxpayers like you and me paid them to exist. These are corporations on the dole. Amazon, the online marketplace, made nearly $11 billion last year and instead of paying the current, low 21 percent corporate tax rate on that income, it demanded that taxpayers give it $129 million. Which they did. It wasn’t a rebate since Amazon paid no taxes. It was a big fat, gift withdrawn involuntarily from workers’ pockets, wrapped in a fuzzy, flocked Amazon smiley bag, and deposited directly into corporate coffers. This is perverse wealth transfer, from the poor and middle class to the rich and corporations. And taxpayers didn’t even get Amazon Prime in exchange.

Trump Stonewalls Congressional Subpoenas

Trump says he is opposed to White House aides testifying to Congress, deepening power struggle with Hill. WaPo: “President Trump on Tuesday said he is opposed to current and former White House aides providing testimony to congressional panels in the wake of the special counsel report, intensifying a power struggle between his administration and House Democrats. Trump said that complying with congressional requests was unnecessary after the White House cooperated with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe of Russian interference and the president’s own conduct in office. The White House made it clear that it plans to broadly defy requests for information from Capitol Hill, moving the two branches of government closer to a constitutional collision. On Tuesday, two White House officials said the administration plans to fight a subpoena issued by the House Judiciary Committee for former White House counsel Donald McGahn by asserting executive privilege over his testimony. Separately, the administration directed a former White House official not to comply with a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee, prompting the panel to move to hold him in contempt of Congress. And the Treasury Department defied a second demand from House Democrats to turn over six years of President Trump’s tax returns. Taken together, the moves mark a dramatic escalation of tensions between the president and congressional Democrats — deepening a fight that may ultimately be resolved only by a protracted court battle.”

IA’s Longest-Serving Republican Leaves Party Over Trump

‘If this is the new normal, I want no part of it’: IA GOP Rep. dumps Trump. WaPo: “owa’s longest-serving Republican legislator, state Rep. Andy McKean, ditched the GOP on Tuesday as he offered a searing renunciation of President Trump, saying he could no longer support Trump as the party’s standard-bearer because of his “unacceptable behavior” and ‘reckless spending.’ McKean revealed he would join the Democratic Party, a decision he described as ‘very difficult’ after spending nearly a half-century as a registered Republican and 26 years in the legislature. But ultimately, he said, ‘I feel as a Republican that I need to be able to support the standard-bearer of our party.’ And ‘unfortunately,’ he said, he could not bring himself to support Trump. ‘Unacceptable behavior should be called out for what it is,’ he said during the news conference at the Iowa Statehouse in Des Moines, ‘and Americans of all parties should insist on something far better in the leader of their country and the free world.’”

Trump Considered Sending Kids To Guantanamo

Trump reportedly considered detaining kids at Guantanamo. Common Dreams: “The Trump administration earlier this year reportedly considered detaining migrant children at Guantánamo Bay, the 17-year-old U.S. prison in Cuba that human rights advocates have condemned as a horrific stain on American history. ‘The idea of incarcerating children at Guantánamo should send chills down the spine of anyone with a conscience,’ Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) tweeted Tuesday. ‘This is what happens when our president is so racist that he sees migrant children as an ‘invasion’ and not vulnerable children to be protected.’ The Trump administration’s proposal was first reported by the New York Times, which explained that Guantánamo ‘has a dormitory facility that has been used in the past to hold asylum-seekers.’ Officials with the Department of Homeland Security “examined” the plan earlier this year, the Times reported. According to the Times: ‘While there were no ‘immediate’ plans to house migrant children at Guantánamo Bay, the Defense Department is attempting to identify military bases that might be used for that purpose.’”

Candidates Make Case For Reparations

The case for African American reparations, explained. The Conversation: “For the first time, most major Democratic presidential contenders are talking about whether the U.S. government should consider paying reparations to the descendants of African Americans who were enslaved and suffered from large-scale racial discrimination. At least three of these candidates, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, former San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, support the creation of a commission that would study the impact of slavery and the Jim Crow discrimination against black Americans that continued after emancipation. The commission would make recommendations about how to compensate black Americans for those injustices. The question of whether the U.S. government should compensate the descendants of enslaved and oppressed African Americans has never gotten this much attention. Even former President Barack Obama deflected this concept while he was in the White House. Now, this issue appears to be gaining traction.”

Kushner To Unveil New Immigration Plan

Jared Kushner’s “neutral” immigration plan. Axios: “In his private briefings on his yet-to-be-released immigration plan, Jared Kushner has told people his plan will be “neutral” on immigration numbers, multiple administration and Hill sources familiar with the proposal tell Axios. By neutral, Kushner says he means it will neither raise nor lower the overall number of legal immigrants coming into the U.S. Kushner has told Axios’ sources, which includes a handful of Republican lawmakers, that he wants the plan to increase the numbers of high-skilled immigrants entering the U.S. and to decrease the number of immigrants coming based on their family ties. Kushner plans to turn his proposal into legislation and he told TIME’s Brian Bennett on Tuesday that he would present the plan to President Trump in the coming days. Kushner is describing a broad plan — covering legal and illegal immigration, addressing asylum laws, seasonal guest worker programs for farmers and the hotel industry, interior enforcement and border security. Most Republicans on the Hill have no idea what’s in the plan, and our sources that have been briefed, both in the administration and on Capitol Hill, still have only a vague idea of what the final plan will entail.”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Sen. Warren Just Stepped Up On Free College For All

Kat Legier

Senator Elizabeth Warren just stepped up to support Free College For All. And it’s not just a pose. How do I know? Because I got to ask her myself – twice. Just after Senator Warren announced she was running for president, I went to her Town Hall in Dover. I got in the question line, and asked her if she would support Free College For All for every student, including the undocumented and formerly incarcerated. At that time, she wasn’t sure On April 12, she came back for another event near the UNH campus. Once again, I got in the question line, so I could follow up on where she stood on Free College For All. This time, she recognized me right away. When I asked her if her position had changed, she immediately took my hand and told me that she was about to unveil a whole plan on Free College in a couple of weeks. Sure enough, Sen. Warren just unveiled her plan to eliminate tuition at all public two- and four-year colleges, and cancelling hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt. Under this plan, three-quarters of all households will see their federal student loans forgiven, which she says will help reduce the racial wealth gap. It’s still way too early to know who I’ll vote for – and Senator Warren is not the only candidate who’s trying to address our education crisis. But the fact that she has unveiled a plan to address this key concern, after engaging directly with me and other young people on the campaign trail, is very exciting. Senator Warren told me, personally, that the whole reason she changed her mind about Free College For All was because of youth like us, going these events, raising our voices and concerns and asking her what she plans to do about it. That’s how she realized how urgent it is to address this issue.

SCOTUS Hears Arguments On Census Citizenship Question

SCOTUS set to hear arguments with decades of implications. NPR: “The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments Tuesday in a legal battle with lasting implications that could dramatically affect political representation and federal funding over the next decade. The justices are weighing whether to allow the Trump administration to add a question about U.S. citizenship status to forms for the upcoming 2020 census. In multiple lawsuits brought by dozens of states, cities and other groups, three federal judges at U.S. district courts have issued rulings blocking the administration’s plans for the question. It asks, “Is this person a citizen of the United States?” All three judges — in New York, California and Maryland — ruled that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’ decision to include the question violated procedures for adding new census questions under administrative law. The judges in California and Maryland have also ruled that adding the question is unconstitutional because it hurts the government’s ability to carry out the constitutional mandate for a once-a-decade head count of every person living in the U.S.”

Trump Ignores IRS Deadline To Release Taxes

IRS faces a second deadline to release Trump tax returns to Democrats. CNN: “The Trump administration faces another deadline Tuesday to hand over six years of President Donald Trump’s personal and business tax returns. House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal gave the IRS until 5 p.m. to respond to the request, appealing directly to the tax agency after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin — who oversees the IRS — stepped in to decline a similar request earlier this month citing ongoing consultation with the Justice Department. The Massachusetts Democrat has indicated that defying his request — as the IRS is expected to do — would be interpreted as noncompliance and lead to an escalation in the standoff between the administration and House Democrats over the President’s financial records.Democrats argue that it is up to Rettig, a Trump appointee, and not Mnuchin to release the returns. ‘It is not the proper function of the IRS, Treasury or Justice to question or second guess the motivations of the committee or its reasonable determinations regarding its need for the requested tax returns and return information,’ Neal wrote to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig. ‘Please know that if you fail to comply, your failure will be interpreted as a denial of my request.’”

IRS Surrenders Dark Money Oversight

IRS Surrenders Dark Money Oversight, Non-Profits Run Rampant. ProPublica: “In the past decade, people, companies and unions have dispensed more than $1 billion in dark money, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The very definition of that phrase, to many critics, epitomizes the problem of shadowy political influence: Shielded by the cloak of anonymity, typically wealthy interests are permitted to pass limitless pools of cash through nonprofits to benefit candidates or political initiatives without contributing directly to campaigns. Such spending is legal because of a massive loophole. Section 501(c)(4) of the U.S. tax code allows organizations to make independent expenditures on politics while concealing their donors’ names — as long as politics isn’t the organization’s ‘primary activity.’ The Internal Revenue Service has the daunting task of trying to determine when nonprofits in that category, known colloquially as C4s, violate that vague standard. But the IRS’ attempts to police this class of nonprofits have almost completely broken down, a ProPublica investigation reveals. Since 2015, thousands of complaints have streamed in — from citizens, public interest groups, IRS agents, government officials and more — that C4s are abusing the rules. But the agency has not stripped a single organization of its tax-exempt status for breaking spending rules during that period. (A handful of groups have had their status revoked for failing to file financial statements for three consecutive years.).”

Border Militia Leader Allegedly Trained Group To Assassinate Obama And Soros

Leader of right-wing border militia allegedly said the group was training to assassinate Obama, Clinton, and Soros. Slate:: “The leader of a right-wing militia in the news recently over allegations it forcefully detained asylum-seekers at the southern border in order to hand them over to Border Patrol agents reportedly once said his group was training to assassinate President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and George Soros, an FBI agent said in an affidavit filed Saturday in support of the man’s arrest. Larry Mitchell Hopkins, also known as Johnny Horton Jr., was arrested Saturday on charges of possessing a firearm and ammunition as a felon and appeared in federal court in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on Monday. He is currently the only member of the militia group to face any charges. The affidavit from the FBI agent came from reports to the agency’s public access line in October 2017 of ‘alleged militia extremist activity’ in Flora Vista, New Mexico, according to NBC News. Hopkins ‘allegedly made the statement’ that his group, the United Constitutional Patriots, was training for the assassinations ‘because of these individuals’ support of Antifa,’ but it’s not clear to whom he made the statements. Hopkins’ attorney denied those allegations.”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Amy Traub

Why America Needs a Public Credit Registry

For many Americans, the words “bad credit” are like the sound of a closing door. That’s because there’s a deeply harmful, but seldom-spoken, truth about credit reporting: It ruins lives, and crushes hopes. When private companies gather data on our borrowing history and sell it to others to determine future lending decisions, they can reinforce economic disadvantages — and deepen America’s racial wealth divide. Private credit reporting is failing for all of us who must rely on credit reports produced by for-profit companies to navigate financial transactions. For communities of color, credit scores evoke the decades of bank redlining and unequal access to credit whose impact persists to this day. We can’t even look at our own credit scores without paying a fee. It’s time to move the credit reporting system away from these unaccountable companies entirely, and toward a publicly-run credit registry that would operate in the interest of consumers.

Mueller Report Reveals Russia Influence, Coverup

Mueller reveals Trump’s efforts to thwart Russian inquiry in highly anticipated report. NYT:“Robert S. Mueller III revealed the scope of a historic Russian campaign to sabotage the 2016 presidential election in a much-anticipated report made public on Thursday, and he detailed a frantic monthslong effort by President Trump to thwart a federal investigation that imperiled his presidency from the start. The report laid bare that Mr. Trump was elected with the help of a foreign power, and cataloged numerous meetings between Mr. Trump’s advisers and Russians seeking to influence the campaign and the presidential transition team — encounters set up in pursuit of business deals, policy initiatives and political dirt about Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate for president. The special counsel concluded that there was “insufficient evidence” to determine that the president or his aides had engaged in a criminal conspiracy with the Russians, even though the Trump campaign welcomed the Kremlin sabotage effort and ‘expected it would benefit electorally’ from the hacks and leaks of Democratic emails. Then, after federal investigators opened an inquiry into the extraordinary Russian campaign, the president repeatedly tried to undermine it.”

Russia Breached FL Election Systems

Mueller Report Raises New Questions About Russia’s Hacking Targets In 2016. NPR: “While the headlines about special counsel Robert Mueller’s report have focused on the question of whether President Trump obstructed justice, the report also gave fresh details about Russian efforts to hack into U.S. election systems. In particular, the report said, ‘We understand the FBI believes that this operation enabled [Russian military intelligence] to gain access to the network of at least one Florida county government’ during the 2016 campaign. That came as news to Paul Lux, president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections — which has been working closely with federal authorities to protect their election systems against such attacks. ‘I haven’t heard even a whisper’ about such a breach, Lux told NPR, noting that the report referred to a county ‘government’ office network, not specifically to an ‘elections’ office, although the two are frequently connected.”

14 Criminal Referrals Open From Mueller Probe

Mueller mystery: What are the other 12 criminal referrals? NBC: “His report is done, but Robert Mueller’s work will live on for a while longer. Over the course of its sprawling 22-month investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the special counsel’s team referred 14 criminal cases to other offices, Mueller’s 448-page report revealed. Only two of those referrals — one involving former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, the other former Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig — are public at this point. ‘During the course of the investigation, the Office periodically identified evidence of potential criminal activity that was outside the scope of the Special Counsel’s jurisdiction,’ the report says. ‘After consultation with the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, the Office referred that evidence to appropriate law enforcement authorities, principally other components of the Department of Justice and the FBI.’” Mueller had been tasked by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein with investigating ‘any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump’ and ‘any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.’”

WI’s Evers Challenges Foxconn Giveaways

Wisconsin’s governor really hates the Foxconn deal. He wants to renegotiate. CNN: “Tony Evers, the Democratic governor of Wisconsin, says he doesn’t think Foxconn will ever add 13,000 jobs in his state. And he says it’s time to drop the lush incentive deal his predecessor used to lure the Taiwanese electronics company to Wisconsin. In 2017, Foxconn and former Governor Scott Walker, a Republican, struck the deal to build a large manufacturing plant, promising it would be a first step to creating a kind of Silicon Valley in Wisconsin. The deal was enormously controversial. The state agreed to give Foxconn $3 billion in tax cuts and financial handouts based on the number of jobs the company creates. But it could also get potentially more than $1 billion in incentives from local governments The overall package would be one of the most expensive state incentive packages ever granted to a company. Evers has been a critic of the deal, and it was an issue in the 2018 election in which he defeated Walker. At a press conference Wednesday, Evers said it was an ‘unrealistic expectation” that Foxconn would meet its goal to hire 13,000 workers. ‘The bottom line is they’ve shrunk their expectations. That’s what they’re communicating now,’ Evers said. The package of tax cuts and other incentives awarded Foxconn needs to be renegotiated, he said.”

Armed Vigilante Groups Swarm Border

Armed vigilantes apprehend hundreds of asylum seekers near Mexican border. ThinkProgress:“Members of a heavily-armed group of vigilantes calling themselves the United Constitutional Patriots intercepted and apprehended hundreds of asylum seekers this week, despite having no authority to do so. One of the men filmed while others took the asylum seekers, including children, into custody on Tuesday night. For the past two months, the group has camped out in the desert near the town of Sunland Park, on the border between New Mexico and the Mexican state of Chihuahua. A Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official told ThinkProgress that while the agency welcomes community assistance, it does not condone vigilante groups taking border enforcement into their own hands. ‘Interference by civilians in law enforcement matters could have public safety and legal consequence for all parties involved,’ the official said in a statement. ‘Border Security operations are complex and require highly trained professionals with adequate resources to protect the country.’ Groups like United Constitutional Patriots are not a new presence on the border. A variety of organizations, such as the Minutemen and Arizona Border Recon, regularly patrol the border with the stated aim of gathering ‘intelligence’ on migrant crossings. These groups generally deny that they’re militia members or that they’re on the border to do anything other than provide intel to Border Patrol.”

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MORNING MESSAGE

James Mumm

O Bondage Up Yours!

Part feminist rallying cry, part anti-consumerist manifesto, this title of English punk band X-Ray Spex’s 1977 debut single describes how I feel after reading three compelling recent books on philanthropy. As a longtime participant in GrantWorld myself, I’m agitated and challenged by what I’ve read. And while the change these authors call for may be slow to come, I think that taken together, these books may come to be seen as the beginning of much-needed healing and reform in the world of charitable giving. am a big believer in independent resource generation, particularly through ways that recruit, develop, train and mobilize members to build and run their own organizations. But as a social justice organizer and grantee, I know there can be a temptation to reach for easy money by pitching ideas to foundations which are legally required to give money away to qualified organizations. When did community, worker and electoral organizing turn into a Venn diagram, where all we can aspire to is what lies in the overlap between what’s fundable and what builds power?

AG Barr Releases Redacted Mueller Reports

Justice Dept. to release two versions of redacted Mueller report. CNN: “There will be two versions of the redacted special counsel report, with one being released to the public and one that will eventually go to a limited number of members of Congress with fewer redactions, the Justice Department said Wednesday. Some of the redactions in the Mueller report will be because of the gag order in the case involving Republican activist Roger Stone, they wrote. Prosecutors say they are making these redactions so not to potentially prejudice a jury, since Stone has pleaded not guilty to the charges he faces and is headed to trial. In a court filing related to the Stone case, prosecutors outlined a careful plan to prevent leaks of the less-redacted version the Justice Department plans to provide to Congress. First, prosecutors will “secure” the less-redacted version — suggesting it won’t be available immediately. They will also keep it in an “appropriate setting” and limit its access to only some members of Congress and their staff. If Congress wants copies of the less-redacted version, prosecutors may want to ask a federal judge for permission before giving it to them, prosecutors wrote on Wednesday.”

DOJ, WH Coordinate Redacted Releases

White House and Justice Dept. officials discussed Mueller report before release. NYT: “Not all of Robert S. Mueller III’s findings will be news to President Trump when they are released Thursday. Justice Department officials have had numerous conversations with White House lawyers about the conclusions made by Mr. Mueller, the special counsel, in recent days, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. The talks have aided the president’s legal team as it prepares a rebuttal to the report and strategizes for the coming public war over its findings. A sense of paranoia was taking hold among some of Mr. Trump’s aides, some of whom fear his backlash more than the findings themselves, the people said. The report might make clear which of Mr. Trump’s current and former advisers spoke to the special counsel, how much they said and how much damage they did to the president — providing a kind of road map for retaliation. The discussions between Justice Department officials and White House lawyers have also added to questions about the propriety of the decisions by Attorney General William P. Barr since he received Mr. Mueller’s findings late last month.”

Bolton Announces “Anti-Socialist” Sanctions

Trump Administration Announces Measures Against Cuba, Venezuela And Nicaragua. NPR:“The Trump administration has announced new sanctions and penalties against Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua aimed at both ending the rule of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and weakening Cuba’s communist regime. One of the measures will allow lawsuits against foreign firms operating on property in Cuba that was seized from U.S. citizens during the Cuban revolution — a reversal of more than 20 years of U.S. policy. Announcing the crackdown in Coral Gables, Fla., on Wednesday, national security adviser John Bolton called Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua the ‘troika of tyranny’ and said the new measures would ‘end the glamorization of socialism and communism.’”

Private Health Insurance Stocks Fall

Private Health insurance stocks ‘in free fall’ as Medicare for All gains momentum. Common Dreams: “With comprehensive Medicare for All legislation now introduced in both chambers of Congress and bolstered by surging grassroots support, health insurance stocks are ‘crumbling’ as investors grow increasingly fearful that single-payer could eventually become a reality. ‘Together, the shares of hospitals and insurers lost $28 billion in market value on Tuesday,’ Bloomberg reported. ‘The slide in hospital and insurance stocks continued Wednesday, wiping out billions of dollars more in market value from some of the biggest health companies in the U.S.’ As Bloomberg’s Sahil Kapur put it on Twitter, ‘Health insurance stocks are in free fall as Democrats introduce ‘Medicare for All’ legislation in Congress and Bernie Sanders pushes it on Fox News.’”

Trump’s New Interior Chief Faces Ethics Charges After Four Days

Four Days On The Job, Trump’s Interior Sec Already Charged On Ethics. Crooks and Liars: “After only 4 days on the job, the Interior Department’s office of inspector general reports that it has opened a formal investigation into ethical conflicts by a former lobbyist for natural resources industries and newly confirmed Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. Bernhardt is being investigated for a number of questionable ethical violations, including pushing a former lobbying client’s policy goal, blocking a science report on the harmful effects of a pesticide, and [prepare yourselves for a shock Gentle Readers!] continuing to act as a lobbyist. Somewhere, former Interior Department Secretary Ryan ‘low heels’ Zinke is smiling.

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MORNING MESSAGE

Sam Pizzigati

Reaching Critical Mass On Taxing The Rich

Serious societal change typically only takes place when the pressure for change hits “critical mass.” One idea whose time has come is getting the super-rich to pay their fair share of taxes: Sen. Ron Wyden from Oregon has announced his intention to push a bold new tax on capital gains. Income from the sale of stocks, bonds, and other asset makes up just 6.1 percent of the dollars Americans report on their tax returns. But the richest of our rich, our top 0.001 percent, grab 55.1 percent from capital gains. The wealthy, Senator Wyden points out, currently delay and defer taxes on their assets for years and years, then pass the assets to their heirs tax-free. Wyden wants to to end this free pass for America’s richest by taxing their annual gains in asset value.

Barr Wants To Detain Asylum Seekers Indefinitely

In new effort to deter migrants, Barr withholds bail to asylum seekers. NYT: “The Trump administration on Tuesday took another significant step to discourage migrants from seeking asylum, issuing an order that could keep thousands of them in jail indefinitely while they wait for a resolution of their asylum requests. The order issued by Attorney General William P. Barr was an effort to deliver on President Trump’s promise to end the ‘catch and release’ of migrants crossing the border in hopes of escaping persecution in their home countries. The order — which directs immigration judges to deny some migrants a chance to post bail — will not go into effect for 90 days. It is all but certain to be challenged in federal court, but immigrant rights lawyers said it could undermine the basic rights of people seeking safety in the United States. ‘They want to send a message that you will get detained,’ said Judy Rabinovitz, a deputy director of the Immigrants Rights’ Project at the American Civil Liberties Union. ‘We are talking about people who are fleeing for their lives, seeking safety. And our response is just lock them up.’ Mr. Barr’s order is the latest effort by the Trump administration to reduce the number of immigrants who are able to seek protection from violence, poverty and gangs by asking for legal status in the United States.”

DHS Wants To Detain More Kids

DHS wants Congress to make it easier to keep migrant kids detained. Daily Beast: “Members of the the Department of Homeland Security advisory council recommended Congress enact emergency legislation to make it easier for the Trump administration to detain children with their parents indefinitely, according to a draft report released to the acting secretary on Tuesday. A council subcommittee spent nearly seven months looking at the issue of the treatment of family and children on the southern border and conducted several site visits and conducted more than 100 interviews in the drafting of the report. The subcommittee recommended “emergency action” by Congress in an attempt to implement what the report dubbed as the ‘Flores Fix’. The suggestion includes the the introduction and adoption of legislation that would roll back, not overturn, Flores vs. Reno, known as the Flores agreement, which in 1997 laid out a set of regulations for the detention of unaccompanied immigration children. In 2015, a California court ruled that Flores include children who traveled across the border with their parents. The committee recommended that Congress immediately roll back that decision.”

Suppression Of Native Voters Focus Of Congressional Hearings

Native voting rights in focus at Congressional field hearings. Center for Public Integrity:“Some Native Americans have faced significant obstacles to voting — and a U.S. House subcommittee will today conduct a field hearing on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota to hear testimony about it.The hearing on Standing Rock is one of a series of field hearings the elections subcommittee of the House Administration Committee is conducting across the country.Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, chairwoman of the subcommittee, said it is ‘gathering contemporaneous evidence of voter suppression efforts across the country. As demonstrated by the many issues which arose during past election cycles, Native Americans face numerous obstacles exercising their right to vote.’ The congressional representatives are expected to hear from a panel of witnesses that includes OJ Semans, co-executive director of Four Directions, a South Dakota-based nonprofit that advocates for voting rights, Jacqueline De Leon, a staff attorney at the Native American Rights Fund. Tribal representatives and others who work on Native American voter turnout issues in the Dakotas are also expected to testify.”

Trump Vetoes Curb On His War Powers In Yemen

Trump vetoes Yemen War Powers Resolution, his 2nd veto since taking office CNN: “President Donald Trump issued the second veto of his presidency Tuesday, stopping a congressional resolution that would have sought to end US involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. Trump was expected to issue the veto as the resolution was seen as a rebuke of Trump’s Middle East policies. Supporters of the War Powers Resolution argued the US shouldn’t be involved in the war without explicit permission from Congress. Opponents argued the US does not have “boots on the ground” and is offering noncombat technical assistance to Saudi Arabia, an ally. Several supporters made clear their votes were also aimed at expressing their frustrations with Trump’s continued support for Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has been implicated in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The bill passed the House 247-175. Sixteen Republicans voted yes with Democrats and one voted present. In the Senate the vote was 54 to 46, with seven Republicans voting with Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not responded to questions on whether she intends to seek a vote to override the President’s veto. In a statement Tuesday night, Pelosi called on Trump to ‘put peace before politics.’”

Trump Has No Problem With Death Threats Against Rep. Omar

Trump ‘not at all’ concerned that his tweet triggered death threats against Ilhan Omar. ThinkProgress: “President Donald Trump made clear Monday that he was unconcerned about whether his recent actions and rhetoric against Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) were dangerous and posed a threat to her wellbeing. Speaking to a local news reporter in Omar’s home state of Minnesota, Trump shrugged off the congresswoman’s statement Sunday, in which she said that a video the president had posted to Twitter last week had caused an uptick in violent threats against her life. Tom Hauser of KSTP-TV asked Trump Monday if he had any second thoughts about the tweet given the death threats Omar received as a result. ‘No, not at all,’ Trump responded. He then proceeded to attack Omar once again. ‘Look, she’s been very disrespectful to this country,’ Trump said. ‘She’s got a way about her that’s very, very bad — I think — for our country. I think she’s extremely unpatriotic and extremely disrespectful to our country.’” Trump is no stranger to Islamophobic rhetoric. During his presidential campaign, then-candidate Trump suggested that Muslims should be put on a registry… as president, he has implemented multiple iterations of a Muslim travel ban. Earlier this month, a New York man was arrested for threatening to kill Omar. According to the FBI, he said he loved Trump and ‘hates radical Muslims in our government.’”

More from OurFuture.org:

Hard Knocks Turned Alison McIntosh Collectivist. Leo Gerard: “Alison McIntosh learned early that life is a little easier with help from friends. Her first professional job reinforced that notion. And now, as a University of Pittsburgh graduate student, she is asking her co-workers to embrace collectivism. McIntosh, who is working toward a Ph.D. in critical and cultural studies, is urging her fellow teaching assistants, graduate student researchers, and teaching fellows – 2,000 of them altogether – to vote next week to join the United Steelworkers (USW) union. ‘We have more power collectively. We must work together and across the board,’ she told me. Though she knew little about unions before she started talking to organizers at Pitt, her life experiences compelled her to embrace the idea that if Pitt’s fragmented bunch of graduate researchers and teachers pulled together, their joint voice would be strong enough to persuade the university to make their lives a little easier.”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Leo Gerard

Grad Students Stand With Steelworkers

“Steelworker” generally evokes images of hulking mills, not ivory towers. But this week, 2,000 graduate students at the University of Pittsburgh are voting on whether to become members of the United Steelworkers (USW) union. A blue collar is not required to be a USW member. All that’s necessary is a sense of belonging to a team of co-workers who believe they all benefit from banding together to jointly seek better wages and working conditions from their employer. Pitt’s tiered system pays administrators very well, salaried professors less, grad students dramatically less, and part-time instructors, often doctoral graduates hired as contractors to teach a course at a time, a pittance. As individuals, they can’t change any of this. But with a union, they might be able to.

Pitt Grad Students Vote To Join USW

A key labor moment arrives at the University of Pittsburgh. Post-Gazette: ” First came a push to get prospective members to sign cards indicating support, then a petition seeking a campus election and finally a hearing before state labor officials, who ultimately gave that vote the green light. Now, more than two years after it began, a campaign to organize graduate assistants at the University of Pittsburgh into a labor union finally is in the hands of the students themselves. The election covers approximately 2,000 graduate employees who work on the sprawling public research campus in Oakland, the region’s largest. It comes amid a flurry of organizing efforts on campuses nationwide. In February 2017, the effort at Pitt by a student organizing committee to align with the United Steelworkers gathered momentum with the push to secure card signatures from 30 percent or more of the potential bargaining unit, the share needed to petition for an election. They succeeded. In March of this year, following a lengthy hearing on that petition, the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board ruled that a vote could go forward.”

Dems Rally Behind Omar As Attacks Escalate

Dems rally behind Omar as Trump escalates attacks. The Hill: “House Democrats rallied behind Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Monday as President Trump escalated his attacks suggesting the freshman lawmaker downplayed the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It’s a change from past controversies involving Omar, one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress. Fellow Democrats who rebuked her in recent weeks for comments viewed as anti-Semitic are now rushing to her defense. ‘There have been occasions when she’s made comments that she’s apologized for that were inartful or that were taken as anti-Semitic. This was certainly not one of them,’ Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chairwoman Karen Bass (D-Calif.) said Monday on a call with reporters. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) also backed Omar, a fellow CBC member: ‘What she said was true: that after the attack on 9/11, Muslims were treated horribly in this country.’ House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) has been among the most outspoken Jewish Democrats to publicly call out Omar for her criticism of Israel. But Nadler, who represents the part of Manhattan where the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers occurred, notably defended Omar this time. ‘She was talking about discrimination against Muslim Americans. And she just said that, after that happened, it was used as an excuse for lots of discrimination and for withdrawal of civil liberties,’ Nadler said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.’ ‘I have had some problems with some of her other remarks, but not with that one.’”

Sanders Takes on Fox News

Sanders takes on Fox and emerges triumphant. Politico: “Bernie Sanders entered the Fox’s den on Monday night — and he not only survived the hour-long encounter, but often dominated. Appearing at a Fox News-hosted town hall smack dab in the middle of Trump Country, the Democratic presidential front-runner played the part, swatting down tough questions from the hosts about health care, defense spending, and his newfound wealth. At one point, the Vermont senator even led the network’s audience in a call-and-response that found them cheering loudly for his policies. In the days preceding the event, Sanders faced backlash from liberals who said he shouldn’t participate given the network’s nativist bent and cheerleading for President Donald Trump. But when it was over, Sanders had received an hour of positive exposure on the highest-rated cable channel — something none of his primary rivals have yet risked. The town hall took place in a cultural center in the shadows of a former steel mill here, in a county in Pennsylvania that voted for Trump after twice supporting Barack Obama. But the room was packed with Sanders supporters, and the Vermont senator fed off the energy of the crowd.”

Subpoenas Of Trump’s Finances

House Democrats double down on their investigations into Trump’s finances. ThinkProgress: “As Washington awaits special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report — which President Donald Trump and his allies claim fully exonerates him of any wrongdoing, though it’s still unclear exactly what evidence Mueller compiled — House Democrats are moving full steam ahead on investigations unrelated to the special counsel’s office. Top Democrats on the Hill have expanded their probe into Trump’s finances, looking for evidence about whether the president and his businesses may have committed financial crimes. On Friday, a memo revealed that House Oversight and Reform Committee Chair Elijah Cummings (D-MD) plans to subpoena accounting firm Mazars USA LLP, seeking 10 years of the president’s personal and business-related financial records. And on Saturday, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal (D-MA) sent a new letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, re-upping his request for six years of Trump’s tax returns, and giving the agency until April 23 to comply. The investigations by the two committees are among many congressional probes into possible crimes involving the president and his campaign, inauguration, business practices, and inner-circle.”

TN Plans To Restrict Voter Registration Drives

Civil and voting rights organizations oppose TN’s proposed restrictions to voter registration drives. Common Dreams: “A collective of national civil and voting rights organizations sent a letter to the Tennessee General Assembly asking them to reject bill SB971/HB1079 that would create burdensome requirements, threatening civil and criminal penalties for individuals and groups conducting voter registration drives. The bill, scheduled for a vote in the House Monday, will intimidate groups from conducting community-based drives to avoid the risk of being subject to the bill’s severe penalties. In a state that struggles with voter registration and turnout, leaders should look for ways to encourage activities like voter registration drives, but these new restrictions will have the exact opposite effect.”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Naomi Runder

Candidates, Listen Up! Students Need Free College For All

I never expected to be a student in Iowa. As a high school senior in Nashville, Tennessee, I wasn’t sure I could be a student anywhere, without savings or family wealth. When I received a full-tuition scholarship, I knew I would follow wherever it took me – in my case, to the cornfields of Iowa and Grinnell. One perk of going to school in Iowa is that the next president of the United States will more than likely come through my backyard multiple times over the next year. I know what I have to ask them. Just this weekend, along with fellow Iowa Student Action organizer Sara Castro, I got to ask Beto O’Rourke and Bernie Sanders if they would support Free College For All. We’re not seeking to create divisions or controversy. We’re fighting for our own survival. The uncertainty I felt about whether I would be able to get a college education is something I don’t want other young people to feel – but I know that many do. If a presidential candidate wants my vote, and the votes of young people across this country , then they are going to have to start presenting a serious vision of Free College For All.

Conservatives Lock Down WI Supreme Court

WI conservatives cement outsize power in a state that went blue just last year. Vox: “Wisconsin Democrats’ winning streak abruptly ended this week with a state Supreme Court election that likely means mean Republicans will have outsize power in the state for many years ahead. On Wednesday, liberal Lisa Neubauer conceded the race for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat to conservative Brian Hagedorn, cementing Republicans’ control of the state’s top court until at least 2023. The outcome of this race is of major consequence to Democratic leaders in the state, who, after ousting Republican Gov. Scott Walker in November in a major victory, saw the state’s Republican legislature strip powers from elected Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in a lame-duck session. For the past four months since taking power, Democrats have had to fight in the courts for their right to govern. They’ve had some big wins in the lower courts, but this state Supreme Court race is a major defeat. At its core, this is a story about power grabs. Despite losing the popular vote in 2018, Wisconsin Republicans still control both chambers of the state legislature and five of its eight congressional seats; it’s the product of some aggressive gerrymandering that diverges from the state’s reputation as a political battleground. There was hope that the 2020 census would be an opportunity for the state to turn the page away from the partisan play. But with conservatives cementing their power over the state’s top court, Wisconsin Republicans have shown they’re only tightening their grasp.”

Georgetown Students Vote For Reparations

Georgetown students vote in favor of paying reparations to the descendants of the slaves who made the school possible. CNN: “Georgetown University might not be here today if the Maryland Society of Jesuits who oversaw the school hadn’t sold 272 slaves. The university was one of the Jesuits’ most ambitious projects. The revenue from the 1838 sale, which amounts to about $500,000 today, was used to sustain the school financially and pay off its debt. Now, some Georgetown students are trying to institute a reparations fund for the descendants of the slaves who were sold. A group known as the GU272 Advocacy Team has pushed through student government a bill that would create a new $27.20 fee every semester for all Georgetown undergraduates. The fee would go toward a reconciliation fund, which would be overseen by a board of students and descendants of the 272 slaves sold in 1838. They estimate the fund would generate more than $400,000 a year and would “be allocated for charitable purposes directly benefiting the descendants of the GU272 and other persons once enslaved by the Maryland Jesuits,” according to the bill. Students voted on the bill in a referendum Thursday night. In a nearly 2-to-1 margin, students approved the measure. But it still needs to go before the board of trustees because it involves proposed changes to tuition.”

WH Wanted To Flood Sanctuary Cities With Asylum Seekers

Treating human beings as political pawns, Trump pushed to drop asylum seekers in Democratic sanctuary cities. Common Dreams: “In what critics and rights groups condemned as further evidence that the Trump administration views asylum seekers as mere political pawns rather than vulnerable human beings, the White House reportedly considered dropping migrants off in Democratic districts as a supposed ‘punishment’ for their opposition to the president’s anti-immigrant agenda. ‘The extent of this administration’s cynicism and cruelty cannot be overstated,’ said Ashley Etienne, a spokeswoman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whose district was reportedly floated as a ‘target’ by the White House. ‘Using human beings—including little children—as pawns in their warped game to perpetuate fear and demonize immigrants is despicable.’”

Trump Steamrolls Over Presidential Red Lines

Trump bulldozes across the presidency’s red lines. Politico: “President Donald Trump has spent the last few weeks trying to bend to his will what are arguably three of the federal government’s least political institutions – the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Reserve and Department of Justice. Frustrated by the organizations’ deliberate pace and the substance of their decision-making, Trump has tried to remake them in his own image. He’s purging staffers who disagreed with him, or whom he felt were insufficiently loyal at DHS, and he hopes to stock the Fed with vocal political allies who can do his bidding on monetary policy. Trump cares little about how such moves will be perceived, former administration officials and Republicans close to the White House say. They argue he always prefers to push the boundaries of what is possible, legally and otherwise. And in year three of his presidency, he’s pushing harder than ever before.”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Laura Kaplan-Weisman

Medicare For All Is The Care Every Family Needs

My name is Dr. Laura Kaplan-Weisman, and I am a family physician from Maryland. I provide primary care to people of all ages and all walks of life, and I feel strongly that what our country needs now is universal health care. That’s why I traveled to Washington to stand with Senator Bernie Sanders as he introduced the 2019 Medicare For All Act. Necessary treatments remain unaffordable for average Americans. I could tell stories for hours about patients I know whose health has worsened because they can’t afford to see physicians like me, fill their prescriptions, or get essential tests. Mike is a 38-year-old teacher and father whose diabetes and high blood pressure are uncontrolled because he can’t afford his $50 copayments. Alan is a 50-year-old woodworker who can’t afford to take off work to have knee replacement surgery. And Louise and Dolores, who both became homeless after their savings were exhausted by medical costs. I could go on. Their stories are just a few examples of how I see my patients grow sicker every day due to the rising, unaffordable costs of healthcare in the the United States.

Suspect In LA Black Church Arson Arrested

A man arrested in connection with the Louisiana black church fires is a law enforcement official’s son. CNN: “A man arrested in connection with fires at three historically black Louisiana churches is a law enforcement official’s son, according to local reports. Officials with knowledge of the investigation told CNN on Wednesday night that a 21-year old man from St. Landry Parish was arrested in connection with the fires. CNN has been provided the name of the subject but is not reporting it until it is announced by authorities. St. Mary Baptist Church in Port Barre burned on March 26, followed by Greater Union Baptist Church in Opelousas on April 2 and two days later, Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in the same town. The fires are believed to have been intentionally set, a local elected official said Tuesday. The FBI and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting in the investigations. The NAACP has labeled the fires ‘domestic terrorism,’ adding the ‘spike in church burnings in Southern states is a reflection of the emboldened racial rhetoric and tension spreading across the country.’”

Treasury Skips Deadline To Release Trump Tax Returns

Donald Trump’s tax returns: what we might learn. NYT: “the fight over whether members of Congress have the right to see the president’s tax returns is intensifying. The House tax-writing committee has demanded them, and late Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said his department would not comply with the request by the date set by the committee. Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump repeated that he would not disclose his returns, falsely claiming that there is no law that gives Congress the authority to obtain them. Mr. Trump is the first president in four decades to not publicly release his tax returns. The refusal — coupled with his continued ownership of a far-flung network of closely held businesses — has fanned suspicions that he has something to hide.”

PA’s Porter Grills JPMorgan CEO On Pay Gap

Freshman Dem Stumps Jamie Dimon Over Employee Pay Shortfall. Crooks and Liars: “During Wednesday’s hearing with bank CEOs, Rep. Katie Porter drove home how wide the gap is between Jamie Dimon’s lavish lifestyle at $31 million per year and a theoretica entry-level employee at JP Morgan Chase. In Porter’s scenario, she imagined a single mom of a 6-year old living in Irvine, CA. She found a job at JP Morgan Chase on Monster.com advertised at $16.50 hourly wage. She then proceeded to outline how this single mom would face at least a $567 shortfall each month after taxes and expenses. Her question for Dimon was simple: ‘How should she manage this budget shortfall while she’s working full-time at your bank?’ Hedging, Dimon answered, ‘I don’t know that all your numbers are accurate. That number is generally a starter job. You can get those jobs out of high school, and she may have my job one day.’ Oh! That pie-in-the-sky attitude, where if you just hope hard enough as a single parent of a six-year old making $16.50/hour, you too can make $31 million a year. It’s like a drug. An insidious, addictive, lie-drug. Porter would have none of it, reminding Dimon that maybe she would, but TODAY she’s $500 short of meeting her bills. ‘She may,’ Porter shot back. ‘But, Mr. Dimon, she doesn’t have the ability right now to spend your $31 million.’”

Trump Vacilates On Immigration

It’s Trump vs. Trump as immigration divides White House. Politico: “President Donald Trump is in a fight over immigration — with himself. Trump denied on Tuesday that he is ‘cleaning house’ at the Department of Homeland Security. But on Wednesday, the White House was eyeing a replacement for a senior DHS official whose job congressional Republicans are trying to save. The president has also said he has no plans to renew the administration’s highly controversial migrant child separation policy — even as officials throughout the administration weigh a plan to make arrested border-crossers choose whether to ‘voluntarily’ separate from their kids. And while Trump recently told senior aides that White House adviser Stephen Miller is his unofficial immigration czar, he told reporters on Wednesday that his son-in-law Jared Kushner would be out with an ‘exciting’ immigration plan ‘soon.’ As the president faces blowback from his slow-motion decapitation of the Department of Homeland Security, Trump is presenting two public faces on immigration. He is offering rhetoric that undersells the dramatic moves underway in his administration to curb illegal immigration and deter asylum seekers from entering the country. And he is toggling between Kushner, who has spent months fashioning an immigration package that can attract bipartisan support and appease the business community, and Miller, who as a Senate aide was notorious for killing legislation like that.”

Why Europeans Don’t Get Huge Medical Bills

Why Europeans don’t get huge medical bills. Salon: “Should America just get rid of health insurers? Americans don’t seem to like insurance companies much, even if they’re happy with their health coverage itself. Several Democratic health-care proposals would end private health insurance entirely, an idea that some Americans seem to applaud, until you tell them that it would entail higher taxes and a government-run system. And then they sometimes, but not always, become less sanguine. One reason insurance companies get a bad rap is that they’re associated with “surprise medical bills.” These billing nightmares occur when insured patients go to a hospital they thought was in-network, but then—sometimes inadvertently—see a doctor who is out-of-network while they’re there. (This is on top of the exorbitantly high medical bills that many uninsured people receive, no matter what doctor or hospital they go to.)There is, however, a way to eliminate those bank-busting surprise medical bills without eliminating health insurance. Just ask Europe. Several European countries have health insurance just like America does. The difference is that their governments regulate what insurance must cover and what hospitals and doctors are allowed to charge much more aggressively than the United States does.”

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MORNING MESSAGE

Mehrdad Azemun

The #PeoplesWave Is Rising

The #PeoplesWave of grassroots champions rising up to reclaim our government has just begun. After taking back the U.S. House in November and important wins in Chicago’s municipal elections in February, Tuesday’s victories in Illinois and Wisconsin are evidence this momentum continues to build. Indeed, these advances at the municipal level are almost more exciting than marquee victories, as they demonstrate that organizing from the grassroots really works. In Chicago, The People’s Lobby/Reclaim Chicago, ONE People’s Campaign and Jane Addams Seniors in Action have all built people-powered electoral operations in wards across the city to end the power of machine politics and remake the City Council. These efforts are now bearing fruit. We know each and every step towards taking back our democracy can never be taken for granted: they are thanks to the tireless efforts of the People’s Action members and volunteers in the streets who make these wins happen.

Dems Demand Trump’s Tax Returns

House Democrat demands six years of Trump tax returns from I.R.S.. NYT: “The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, using a little-known provision in the federal tax code, formally requested on Wednesday that the I.R.S. hand over six years of President Trump’s personal and business tax returns, starting what is likely to be a momentous fight with his administration. Representative Richard E. Neal, Democrat of Massachusetts, hand-delivered a two-page letter laying out the request to Charles P. Rettig, the Internal Revenue Service commissioner, ending months of speculation about when he would do so and almost certainly prompting a legal challenge from the Trump administration.”

House Votes To Subpoena Full Mueller Report

Some on Mueller’s Team Say Report Was More Damaging Than Barr Revealed. NYT: “Some of Robert S. Mueller III’s investigators have told associates that Attorney General William P. Barr failed to adequately portray the findings of their inquiry and that they were more troubling for President Trump than Mr. Barr indicated, according to government officials and others familiar with their simmering frustrations. At stake in the dispute — the first evidence of tension between Mr. Barr and the special counsel’s office — is who shapes the public’s initial understanding of one of the most consequential government investigations in American history. Some members of Mr. Mueller’s team are concerned that, because Mr. Barr created the first narrative of the special counsel’s findings, Americans’ views will have hardened before the investigation’s conclusions become public.”

Recount Likely In WI Supreme Court Race

Conservative claims win in Wisconsin Supreme Court case, but recount likely. The Hill: “A conservative former adviser to ex-Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) claimed victory in a closely fought race for a state Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin early Wednesday, potentially cementing a Republican-leaning majority for years to come. With all but a small handful of precincts reporting, Judge Brian Hagedorn clung to a narrow 6,000-vote lead — or about four-tenths of a percentage point — over Judge Lisa Neubauer, the candidate backed by Wisconsin’s Democratic Party. The Associated Press had not yet called the race, and it was not immediately clear how many absentee votes had yet to be counted. A recount is likely if the results remain that close; state law allows a losing candidate to request a recount if the results are within 1 percentage point. Hagedorn’s win is an early sign that Wisconsin remains at the fulcrum of the national political debate. Walker won his two terms as governor, as well as a recall election, by the slimmest of margins. Gov. Tony Evers (D) beat Walker in 2018 by just 30,000 votes.”

ICE Arrests 280 In TX Raid

ICE arrests more than 280 at Texas business, biggest workplace immigration raid in a decade. NBC: “Federal immigration authorities arrested more than 280 employees of a Texas company in what officials said was the biggest single workplace raid in a decade. The homeland security investigations unit of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said the employees of CVE Technology Group Inc. in the city of Allen, north of Dallas, were arrested on administrative immigration violations and that they were working in the United States unlawfully. The raid was part of an ongoing investigation into complaints that the company may have knowingly hired people who are in the U.S. without authorization and that many of those workers were using fraudulent identification documents, the agency said. CVE Group Inc. is a New Jersey-based company that refurbishes and repairs consumer tech products and has a national receiving center in North Texas, according to the company’s website.”

WH Seeks To Strip Legal Immigrants Of Citizenship

Trump administration spends enormous resources to strip citizenship from FL truck driver. The Intercept: “watching, the federal government on Tuesday went to trial in one of the first denaturalization cases of the Trump era, a project the administration enthusiastically rolled out in 2017. The man at the center of the trial is Parvez Manzoor Khan, a 62-year-old Floridian. The federal government has so far expended extraordinary resources trying to denaturalize Khan, a truck driver and grandfather of three who’s been a citizen without incident since 2006. His case has been in the works for a year and a half, involves high-ranking Justice Department lawyers, and will likely continue for at least another year — even as the backlog in immigration courts, which also fall under the Justice Department’s purview, continues to grow. In a budget request for the 2019 fiscal year, the administration asked for $207.6 million to investigate 887 additional leads it expects to get into American citizens who may be vulnerable to denaturalization, and to review another 700,000 immigrant files. The fact that the Trump administration’s test case centers on a truck-driving grandpa who potentially could have become a citizen even if he’d been completely forthright with immigration officials is simultaneously a damning indictment of the federal government’s strategy and further evidence of its efforts to demonize nonwhite immigrants at any cost.”

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