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  • Peace Dollars: Putting Our Economic House in Order

    The total federal deficit at $31+ trillion?

    Maybe it’s time for some creative thinking . . . a totally unique strategy that benefits all Americans, not just capitalist predators.

    Special use currency is not unprecedented.

    Abraham Lincoln used “greenbacks” — the paper currency shown above, backed by nothing more than confidence in the government —  to finance the Civil War.  He printed $449,338,902 of this currency, a lot of money at the time.

    A century later, on June 4, 1963, John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order 11110 which set in motion the issuance of silver certificate notes, currency backed by silver reserves being held at that time by the U.S. Treasury.  Records show that Kennedy issued $4,292,893,825 worth of cash money.  This bypassed the established procedure of borrowing money into circulation from the Federal Reserve.  $20 billion of such United States Notes were eventually put into circulation before he was assassinated.  It has been suggested it was Kennedy’s and Lincoln’s introduction of such interest-free debt-free currency which was the primary reason both of them were murdered.

    Understand that their actions were completely within the framework of the Constitution.  Of course, presidents must seek Congressional approval, as the ultimate authority for creating money actually resides with Congress.  This is delineated in Article 1: The Legislative Branch, Section 8: Powers of Congress . . .

    There is no dispute that what both Lincoln and Kennedy did, while anathema to private banking interests, was entirely legal.  In fact, progressive economists would argue that it is incumbent on our elected officials to again secure absolute control of the currency, and that money creation never should have been ceded to the private banks.

    Risk of assassination aside, no legal case or compelling argument can be made against using this power.  Our current debt-driven system requiring us to borrow from the private banking institution, misleadingly named The Federal Reserve, to inject money into the economy is absurd and in the long term counter-productive.

    While ultimately our goal should arguably be to totally eliminate the Federal Reserve’s role in this process, at least for now we can pick up where Kennedy left off, prudently using what we call U.S. Peace Dollars, to cover a sizable portion of the federal government’s budgeting requirements.

    U.S. Peace Dollars would look almost exactly like their Federal Reserve Note counterparts.  Same layout, same denominations, same founders-of-the-nation and presidential images.

    Where U.S. currency now says … FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE

    … U.S. Peace Dollars not surprisingly would say … U. S. PEACE DOLLARS

    Where U.S. currency now says … IN GOD WE TRUST

    … U.S. Peace Dollars would say … PROMOTING PEACE

    Where in nearly microscopic print U.S. currency now says … THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

    … U.S. Peace Dollars would say … THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DOMESTIC FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

    Which brings up a critical feature of this financial instrument: U.S. Peace Dollars would be for domestic use only. This is to prevent them from being shipped overseas or being fed into the ongoing frenzy of currency speculation.  Banks would be instructed to block transfer of U.S. Peace Dollars equivalencies to non-domestic banking institutions.  For example, if a person deposited $8,000 of U.S. Peace Dollars into a domestic account, transfer of funds to non-domestic banks or use of funds for purchases outside the U.S. could only be made from balances of his or her account in excess of $8,000 accruing from regular Federal Reserve Note deposits.

    This restriction is to guarantee that U.S. Peace Dollars go exclusively toward promoting America’s domestic economy, meaning only purchasing goods and services “Made in the USA”.  This precludes exporting any newly generated Peace Dividend wealth, which would only exacerbate our already excessive, out-of-control trade deficit and facilitate capital flight from the country.

    Private banks would be incentivized to create U.S. Peace Dollars credit cards.  If there is institutional resistance to this by private banks, the U.S. government can fill that need by issuing through its own agencies such credit instruments.

    A host of small-business and employee-owned business incentives could be built around U.S. Peace Dollars, for example giving matching federal grants or at least preferential treatment for investing U.S. Peace Dollars in job-creating domestic business start-ups.  Worker-owned businesses and co-ops could be high on the priority list for such support.

    All of this points the economy in a hopeful and highly constructive, new direction.  Further expanding general usage of U.S. Peace Dollars down the road could gradually dismantle the current Debt Doomsday Machine of the Federal Reserve paradigm.  Imagine Congress arguing over the size of budget surpluses instead of budget deficits!

    Wouldn’t that be refreshing?


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by John Rachel.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • House Passes $858 Billion Military Spending Bill

    Peace advocates on Thursday slammed the House of Representatives’ passage of a mammoth $858 billion military spending bill as an early holiday gift for the Pentagon and the weapons corporations who benefit from the United States’ ongoing — but largely forgotten — War on Terror. House lawmakers voted 350-80 in favor of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), with 45 Democrats and 35…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Clashes Over Access to Birth Control Could Divide GOP’s Fragile House Majority

    The incoming GOP House majority is already showing signs of schism as far right members attempt to sabotage the long-expected rise of Republican leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy to the position of House speaker. Whoever prevails will have the unenviable job of balancing the thirst for culture war in the conspiracy-obsessed, MAGA wing of the GOP with the desire among members from swing states to…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • How Democracy Survived the Midterm Elections

    Reveal host Al Letson talks with leading academics and journalists to take the temperature of American democracy: What did we expect from the midterms, what did we get, and what does that mean for 2024?

    Reveal’s Ese Olumhense and Mother Jones senior reporter Ari Berman discuss how gerrymandering, abortion rights, election denial and fear of voting crimes played out in contentious states like Arizona, Wisconsin and Florida.

    Next, Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz, who report on threats to democracy for ProPublica and are hosts of the podcast WIll Be Wild, join Letson to discuss how the violence and disinformation that sparked the Jan. 6 insurrection continues to shape the country’s political landscape. The reporters tell the story of how the Department of Homeland Security backed off efforts to identify and combat false information after Republican pundits and politicians accused the Biden administration of stomping on the free speech rights of anyone who disagrees with them.

    Then, reporter Jessica Pishko delves into the world of a group called the constitutional sheriffs. This association of rogue sheriffs claims to be the highest law in the land and has increasingly come to see themselves as election police. Pishko attends a meeting in Arizona where Richard Mack, a leader of the movement who has also been involved with the far-right Oath Keepers, extols the rights of sheriffs to get involved in monitoring elections. In recent years, this right-wing group has grown from a fringe organization to one with national power and prominence. Pishko discusses the chilling effect these sheriffs have on voting.

    In his time as president, Donald Trump bucked the norms and mixed presidential duties with personal business, refused to release his tax returns and pardoned his political allies.This week, he announced he’s running for president again in 2024. Letson speaks with two lawyers who have spent the past two years identifying how to rein in presidential power and close loopholes Trump exposed: Bob Bauer, former White House counsel for President Barack Obama, and Jack Goldsmith, former assistant attorney general in President George W. Bush’s Office of Legal Counsel. They’re also co-authors of the 2020 book “After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency.”

  • Dems May Lose House Because Party’s NY Leaders Focused on Defeating the Left

    The balance of power in Congress is still up in the air two days after Tuesday’s midterm elections, and control of the Senate now rests on three states: Nevada, Arizona and Georgia. Meanwhile, Republicans have not yet won enough House seats to regain the majority, though there are still over 30 House races not yet decided. Many analysts say if Democrats lose control of the House, it may largely be because of New York state, where Republicans have flipped four congressional seats. Sochie Nnaemeka, director of the New York Working Families Party, says the “low-participation, low-energy election” was the result of the Democrats’ “failed strategies at the state level.” And Zohran Mamdani, New York state assemblymember for District 36, explains how GOP-favored redistricting, which he pins on Democratic leadership, “may be part of the reason why we do not hold the House.” Both Nnaemeka and Mamdani are part of a growing coalition calling for the resignation of Jay Jacobs, chair of the state’s Democratic Committee, who they say laid the ground for major Democratic losses to the GOP in Tuesday’s midterm elections.

    TRANSCRIPT

    This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

    AMY GOODMAN: The balance of power in Congress remains in play two days after the midterm elections. Control of the U.S. Senate rests in the hands of three states: Nevada, Arizona and Georgia. If the Democrats win two of the states, they’ll keep control of the Senate. Meanwhile, Republicans have not yet won enough House seats to regain the majority. There are still over 30 House races not yet decided. On Wednesday, President Biden held a news conference at the White House about the midterm results.

    PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: While the press and the pundits are predicting a giant red wave, it didn’t happen. … Democrats had a strong night, and we lost fewer seats in the House of Representatives than any Democratic president’s first midterm election in the last 40 years. And we had the best midterm for governors since 1986.

    AMY GOODMAN: Many analysts say if Democrats lose control of the House, it may largely be because of New York state, where Republicans have flipped four congressional seats.

    Democratic Congressmember Sean Patrick Maloney suffered one of the most shocking losses Tuesday. He’s the chair of the powerful Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. According to the Cook Political Report, Maloney is the first sitting House campaign committee chair to lose a race in 30 years.

    Meanwhile, in the New York governor’s race, Democrat Kathy Hochul defeated Republican-backed Lee Zeldin, but by just over five percentage points. Two years ago, Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in New York by 22 percentage points.

    On Wednesday, New York Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for the resignation of Jay Jacobs. He’s the chair of the New York State Democratic Committee.

    To look more at what happened in New York and what it could mean for the country, we’re joined by two guests. Zohran Mamdani is a New York state assemblymember. And Sochie Nnaemeka is director of the New York Working Families Party.

    Zohran Mamdani, I wanted to begin with you. If you can help to explain what took place in New York? It wasn’t just random that Democrats lost four major House seats, which could determine the balance of the House of Representatives. If you can talk about why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, yourself, as well, have demanded the resignation of the head of the Democratic Party of New York, and what this has to do with a ballot initiative and redistricting in New York, one of the most byzantine states for rules around elections and voting?

    ASSEMBLYMEMBER ZOHRAN MAMDANI: Absolutely. Well, I think on Tuesday what we saw was an illustration of just how broken our state party machinery is, and that is across the entirety of the state.

    Last November, we had a ballot measure which, if passed, would have ensured that we could have had a more favorable map for Democratic congressional races going into this election. And that ballot measure was opposed by the state Republican Party to the tune of $3 million and an entire statewide tour. Yet, meanwhile, the Democratic Party, headed by Jay Jacobs, spent zero dollars on supporting that ballot measure. And as is no surprise to any of us because of the disparity in spending and effort, that ballot measure lost. And the loss of that ballot measure was then used as a pretext in the court cases that occurred afterwards to ensure that we had state-drawn maps, maps which were then far more favorable to Republicans, and maps which may be part of the reason why we do not hold the House.

    So, all of that, from both November into this moment right here, has illustrated that our state party is simply not up to the job. The state party chairman, Jay Jacobs, is not the man to lead it, or the person, rather. He has, instead, been far more focused on defeating the left than defeating the right. He spent $7,500 to beat one of my colleagues, Jabari Brisport, who was running for reelection in a primary, which is 75 more hundred dollars than he ever spent on passing that referendum, which could have ensured that Joe Biden would have had control over the entirety of Congress to pass a Democratic agenda over the next two years.

    NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Zohran, could you explain — when you say what happened last November with the ballot measure, explain why it’s so important, redistricting and state-drawn maps.

    ASSEMBLYMEMBER ZOHRAN MAMDANI: Absolutely. So, every 10 years with the census, the state has to redistrict all of its districts, from the local to the congressional level. And there was a ballot measure which stated that if the Independent Redistricting Commission, a commission that had been created by Governor Cuomo, which had the same number of Democrats and Republicans — if that commission could not agree on a set of maps, then a simple majority of the Legislature would suffice in creating new maps. And as we know, whenever you create a commission with the same number of Democrats and Republicans, with the stakes as high as redistricting, there is a very low likelihood of them agreeing on any one set of maps. So we knew that it was going to come to the Legislature. And if this referendum had been passed, then it would have ensured that the Legislature had a clear mandate from New Yorkers to redraw those maps.

    The Legislature — the referendum did not pass. The Legislature drew its own maps. And then the Republicans sued those maps in court. And the highest court, the judges specifically who were appointed by Andrew Cuomo, sided with the Republicans and used this referendum as part of the justification for why those new maps had to be thrown out. And as a consequence, they ordered a special master, which is a title of an individual who drew new maps for the state of New York, to draw these maps. And many of these maps ended up being far more favorable to Republicans than the ones that would have been passed had we passed that referendum.

    AMY GOODMAN: And then you had people like Carolyn Maloney, these congressional stalwarts, the OG, the old guard, versus Jerrold Nadler. They have always been colleagues, for decades, in the House. I wanted to go to AOC’s tweet, Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: ”NYS Dem party leadership, which was gutted under Cuomo, stuffed with lobbyists, works to boost GOP, and failed to pass a basic state ballot measure to protect NY redistricting, must be accountable. I called for Jay Jacob’s resignation a year ago and I still hold that position.”

    Let’s put this question to Sochie Nnaemeka, who is the director of the New York Working Families Party. For people to understand in other states, that’s a line on the ballot you could vote for. For example, if you wanted to vote for Governor Hochul again, you could vote for her on the Democratic line, or you could vote for her on the Working Families line. Sochie Nnaemeka, if you can address what AOC is pointing to, the legacy of Andrew Cuomo, and big money donors and lobbyists who still control the Democratic Party of New York?

    SOCHIE NNAEMEKA: Absolutely. Good morning, Amy.

    What we saw was just a series of failures and failed strategies at the state level that really resulted in an election that did not have to be this close. Assemblymember Mamdani talked about the first kind of origin story of Cuomo’s failed districting initiative, Sean Patrick Maloney then jumping into a district south of him, pushing out Mondaire Jones, Democratic incumbents, retirements, and so on and so forth. We just saw a cascading series of crises that led to a low-participation, low-energy general election, a failed infrastructure ability to reach out to voters, especially young voters and voters of color in New York City by the state party.

    And ultimately, if the top of the ticket is not performing at a high level, it is impossible for us to imagine a surge or a wave at the down-ballot level. And so we’re seeing Republicans really taking seats across Long Island, holding on to seats in upstate New York. There is a failed strategy [inaudible] the Democratic Party. And for us, we think it’s a crisis of democracy, because unless you’re actually engaging, recruiting, activating and speaking to young voters, to voters of color, to voters in the city, you’re leaving it up to the consultants and the airwaves to battle for the hearts and minds of working people. That’s a failed strategy. And now the Democratic Party really has to rethink what kind of party that they want to lead.

    NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Sochie, what about victories for the Working Families Party outside of New York state?

    SOCHIE NNAEMEKA: What we did see is, in many states — we look at Pennsylvania, Summer Lee, who held on to her seat despite the influx, the kind of negative ads, the intense dark money that was spent against her. We saw that money also being used in the primary. And we see that in New York state, as Zohran referenced to — right? — the kind of tacit collusion between establishment Democrats and dark money to push out progressives, and then a lack of strategy at the general election. Delia Ramirez is going to win in the Illinois races. So, there is some energy across the United States.

    Unfortunately, in New York state, Democrats did not follow the same playbook that Joe Biden did, for example, that talk about big initiatives — commutations and pardons of federal offenses around marijuana, student debt initiatives. We need big, bold ideas. And in the absence of that, we just saw this relentless, rabid stream of Republican fearmongering.

    AMY GOODMAN: And we’ll be joined by Delia Ramirez tomorrow, the congressmember-elect from Illinois. She’s the first Latina congresswoman to represent Illinois, congresswoman-elect. Sochie, on that issue of the Working Party line, how many more votes did you get this time, and what does that mean? So what if you vote for a Democrat on the Democratic Party line or on the Working Families line? What kind of power does that give you?

    SOCHIE NNAEMEKA: Well, progressives across the state really stepped up to defeat the far right. We knew what was on the line. We knew what was at stake with an extremist like Lee Zeldin. And so, what we were telling voters is that you can work to defeat the far right, and you can put forward an affirmative vision of the New York state that you want.

    In the absence of that messaging from Democrats, we were telling New Yorkers, in particular young people, people of color, immigrants, those who the Democratic Party are maybe not chasing their votes, if you want universal healthcare in New York, if you want universal child care, if you believe that we should make the wealthy pay their fair share and pay what they owe in taxes, vote on the Working Families Party line to deliver that mandate. We see Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez saying that, in particular, that Democrats need working people’s backs to deliver on those big initiatives. Otherwise, the Democratic Party is beholden to corporate interests, to big donors, to consultants. And we have to use our party line to deliver that mandate.

    We had over 280,000 or so New Yorkers who chose to vote on the Working Families line to deliver that clear message. That is basically the margin of difference between Kathy Hochul and Lee Zeldin in this election. And so, we know that New Yorkers, that these ideas are incredibly — are popular with New Yorkers. And now we expect our partners in state government to heed that and to deliver a real working people’s agenda come January.

    NERMEEN SHAIKH: Zohran, could you talk a little bit about what you think is likely to happen, and also the base of support for Jay Jacobs, who you and, as we mentioned, Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are calling to resign?

    ASSEMBLYMEMBER ZOHRAN MAMDANI: Yes. I think, you know, first, to be clear, the constituency of calls for resignation has grown, to the extent that a number of my colleagues have been calling for that for many months, and some have also joined recently. I’m thinking of Assemblywoman Jessica González-Rojas, Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher, state Senator Jabari Brisport, state Senator Julia Salazar. The list kind of goes on and on, because so many people have seen that in terms of the vision that we have for the Democratic Party, a party that reflects the state that it is supposed to lead, there is this disconnect. And the disconnect boils down to the leadership of one person, Jay Jacobs, who last year compared the Democratic nominee for the Buffalo mayor’s race, India Walton, to the head of the KKK and faced no consequences for doing so, continued to keep his position.

    You know, I think what yesterday has shown us is very much what Sochie was saying. You can only get so far presenting a negative version of the Republican vision. We can only get so far telling people that “Vote to defeat Lee Zeldin.” We need to have an affirmative vision. The Working Families Party has laid out what that vision could look like, and now the Democratic Party needs to do so, as well.

    And when I think about that, I think particularly about two issues: housing and the climate crisis. Right? More than 75% of New Yorkers across the state are concerned about rising rents, and more than 67% believe that we need to pass good cause eviction as a means by which to keep those rents under control. And so, yesterday — two days ago, rather, when I was at the poll sites handing out literature, I was also talking to people about housing, because in my neighborhood, rents have skyrocketed. In Manhattan, the median rent is now over $4,000. We’re looking at a higher rent increase of 30% from last year to this year. So these are the issues that the state needs to deliver on when we get back to Albany in January. We need to pass good cause eviction. We need to pass the the Housing Access Voucher Program, because then we could have done something that we can point to when we come back to voters and say, “We see the rising costs in your life, and we’re taking action on doing so.”

    And the second issue is the climate crisis. Right? More than 68% of New Yorkers on Tuesday voted for the Environmental Bond Act. Sixty-eight percent of New Yorkers voted for the state to spend more than $4.2 billion on remedying the costs of climate change on a wide variety of issues. And that shows that there is a constituency broader than either party that wants the state to take action on the climate crisis. And so, when we get back to Albany, we have to heed that call, pass the Build Public Renewables Act, ensure that we have a greener energy grid, one that is giving out cut-price electricity to working-class New Yorkers and taking advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act that was passed in Washington, D.C.

    AMY GOODMAN: Zohran Mamdani, we want to thank you very much for being with us, New York state assemblymember, and Sochie Nnaemeka, director of the New York Working Families Party.

    Coming up, we look at what the midterms mean for the movement to reform the criminal justice system. A lot was made of the Republican framing of the issues in this election, particularly around crime. But when it came to who was elected, it’s very interesting to see the trend to more progressive criminal justice solutions. Stay with us.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Ukrainian Pianist Plays A Final Rendition Of Chopin In The Ruins Of Her House


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • “They hate me. They burned down my house,” Christian in Laos


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Regardless of Media Spin, Yesterday’s Budget Vote Was a Progressive Victory

    Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar are seen in the Capitol Visitor Center after a briefing by administration leaders on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan on August 24, 2021.

    The corporate news media certainly do love their deftly twisted story lines. Yesterday’s House voting binge on a variety of hugely important pieces of legislation got the treatment. Why? Because apparently they need the “Dems in Disarray” trope fully in the mix the way hummingbirds need nectar.

    For example, the $3.5 trillion budget blueprint — which includes crucial climate measures and social programs — passed on a straight party line vote on Tuesday. This was a large victory for Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who faced down an “uprising” of conservative House Democrats. I put “uprising” in quotes, because, really, the whole point of that knife-to-a-gunfight exercise was so more people would hear the name “Josh Gottheimer.” Not exactly the storming of the Bastille. In the end, all nine “rebel” Democrats voted with the caucus, including Gottheimer, who led the farcical charge. William Wallace weeps.

    The New York Times headline was a perfect example of the media phenomenon: “House Narrowly Passes $3.5 Trillion Blueprint,” as if the resolution passed by a single vote that was hanging by a finger. Progressives won this bill by the largest margin they could possibly win by. They won by a touchdown and a two-point conversion, and to call the win “narrow” is sneaky-misleading because everything in the House is narrow, due to the slim Democratic majority.

    Little drops of poison in the ear… well, it worked on Hamlet’s dad, so why not the American people? The corporate noisemakers do know how to push those buttons. This sort of contorted spin was ubiquitous once the voting was done on Tuesday — The Washington Post used the words “revolt,” “frenzy,” “embarrassment” and “debacle” in the second paragraph of its report, while failing completely to note that Pelosi ran the damn table all day long — and is going to make things really interesting if it continues into September.

    Why so? Next month is going to be one of the more extraordinary stretch runs of vital legislation in the history of the country. Coming soon to a vote are:

    – COVID-motivated enhanced federal unemployment benefits, which expire September 6;
    – The $1 trillion infrastructure bill, by September 27;
    – The $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill by September 15 (non-binding deadline);
    – The debt ceiling (fungible deadline, but best settled by end of September);
    – Funding for the federal government, ends September 30 (this and the debt ceiling could be combined);
    – Federal highway program authorization, expires September 30;
    – Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) authorization, expires September 30;
    – Increased benefits for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), expires September 30.

    My head hurts. They’re going to have to start a whole new channel over at C-SPAN to cover the last day of next month alone. Think of all the interesting ways the corporate media will find to spin all of this in favor of their masters. Ow, yeah, my head hurts.

    Tuesday also saw the passage in the House of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, easily the most vital piece of voting rights legislation since the Voting Rights Act itself. This was a concrete victory for voting rights activists. However, as the John Lewis Bill does not affect the budget, it cannot be passed via reconciliation in the Senate, and so must survive the filibuster and the 60-vote cloture barrier. In an evenly divided Senate and with Mitch McConnell riding herd over the Republican minority, it is all but certain the Lewis Act is doomed in that chamber. That not a single Republican voted for it in the House is a grim signal of its probable fate.

    Keep an eye on how rapidly that media will staple the black hat onto the House Progressive Caucus. After the votes yesterday, the caucus immediately issued a statement that threw down a bright, flashing marker on the process: “[W]e will only vote for the infrastructure bill after passing the reconciliation bill.” The Gottheimer group was after the exact opposite; they were ultimately ameliorated by a Pelosi promise to consider the infrastructure bill by September 27. Like I said, a “revolt” settled that easily? Mmm, not so much.

    “When asked about the new end-of-September deadline,” reports Punchbowl News, “Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she views the two pieces of legislation as being tied together, and indicated her vote on infrastructure is contingent on a reconciliation package being ready for a vote. ‘If that is not the case then they shouldn’t count on us,’ Ocasio-Cortez warned about progressives.”

    This is no small threat; the Progressive Caucus is comprised of nearly 100 souls. They are a legitimate big dog with the power to derail any legislation they deem unworthy or incomplete. They have not flexed that muscle to date, but it sounds a lot like they’re getting ready to if they feel the need.

    The media will have ample opportunity to label the Progressive Caucus as “radicals,” while the House Freedom Caucus — composed of ultra-conservative Republicans — prepares to disrupt and derail the wildly popular infrastructure bill because, according to them, it is a “Trojan Horse for the radical Pelosi/Biden agenda.” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is simply too weak to stop them. A lot of House Republicans would love to vote on this bill, but the Freedom Caucus is laboring to deny them the chance. In the immortal words of Al Pacino in Scarface, “Say hello to the bad guy.”

    As for the Republican minority in the Senate, what do you expect from a pig but a grunt? The infrastructure bill should sail past the 60-vote cloture barrier due to its wide popularity, but it is almost certain that no Republican will vote for the budget bill. This is to be expected, which is why the Democrats are planning on pushing the bill to passage by way of the reconciliation process, which needs only a simple majority for victory, and not one Republican vote if the Democratic Caucus holds together.

    That would be the problem right there. The real trouble in the Senate, to the astonishment of none, will come from Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, Jon Tester and however many “moderate” Democrats are lurking in the tall grass. They have threatened to vote against the bill unless it is pared down significantly. If and when this bill goes up for a final vote maybe $2 trillion smaller than the House-passed bill, you can thank conservative Democrats, who are at least as dangerous and destructive as their Republican pals.

    A wild and wooly month lays before us. When the progressives fight to salvage vital programs for the people and the environment, while Republicans and their right-leaning Democratic quislings chop away at the funding for those programs like maddened beavers, see if you can guess who the corporate media will side with. Three guesses, the first two don’t count.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Nina Turner Brings in Massive Fundraising Haul in Bid for Ohio House Seat

    Former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner waits backstage to be introduced ahead of Sen. Bernie Sanders at a rally at Winston-Salem State University on February 27, 2020, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

    Progressive Nina Turner’s congressional campaign announced Monday that it brought in a nearly $2.2 million haul since the Ohio Democrat launched her candidacy in December, including $1.55 million in the first quarter of 2021.

    The former Ohio state senator and 2020 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign co-chair is running for Ohio’s 11th congressional district; the seat was vacated by Rep. Marcia Fudge, who now serves as President Joe Biden’s Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary.

    Turner announced her campaign late last year and has since won endorsements from groups including Justice Democrats and Sunrise Movement Cleveland and federal lawmakers like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

    According to The Washington Post, the campaign cash shows Turner “far outpacing rivals in the special primary for a safe Democratic congressional seat in Cleveland.”

    Among Turner’s competitors is Cuyahoga County councilwoman and chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Shontel Brown, who, by contrast, raised just $680,000 overall in campaign funds—$640,000 of which came in the first quarter.

    Other veterans of the Sanders presidential campaign, including Anna Bahr and Winnie Wong, team celebrated the announcement.

    “You absolutely love to see it,” tweeted Wong.

    The Turner campaign says it’s received 77,578 individual contributions from every state, including Ohio, and from all the zip codes in the 11th district. The average donation in the first quarter was $28.

    “Momentum is building and people can feel it!” Marisa Nahem, press secretary for the congressional campaign, said in a Twitter thread that noted the campaign takes no corporate PAC money.

    Deputy campaign manager Kara Turrentine said the figures reflected a “truly people-powered campaign.” ⁦

    Turner’s progressive platform includes Medicare for All, a Green New deal, cancellation of student debt, and an end to for-profit prisons and immigrant detention centers.

    The primary for the special election to fill Fudge’s seat is set for Aug. 3, 2021.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • The Cost of COVID-19

    Can the biggest stimulus in modern U.S. history stave off home foreclosures, save businesses and prevent the worst economic crash since the Great Depression? 

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    This post was originally published on Reveal.