Month: September 2020

GOP operative: 'I just donated to a Democrat for the first time' in Alabama Senate race

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Tim Miller, a prominent GOP operative and the former communications director for Jeb Bush’s 2016 presidential campaign, said Tuesday that he has donated to Democratic Senate candidate Doug Jones’s campaign in Alabama.

“I just donated to a Democrat for the first time in my life if any of yall want to do so as well,” Miller, a partner at the consulting firm Definers Public Affairs, tweeted.

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The move comes as Alabama GOP special election nominee Roy Moore faces allegations that he pursued sexual and romantic relations with teenage girls when he was in his 30s.

While Moore has forcefully denied most of the allegations, including one from a woman who says she was 14 years old when she had a sexual encounter with Moore, he has faced calls from GOP officials across the country to withdraw from the race.

President Trump broke his relative silence on Moore on Tuesday, stressing that the former state Supreme Court chief justice has denied the allegations.

“We don’t need a liberal Democrat in that seat,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

Miller has spoken critically of Trump in the past, and previously led the anti-Trump super PAC “Our Principles.” He’s currently a contributor to Crooked Media, a website founded by three aides to former President  Obama.

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Michigan state senator to run for Congress

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Michigan state Senator Steve Bieda (D) on Wednesday announced that he will run for the state’s open seat in the 9th Congressional District now that Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) has officially said he will retire when his current term ends.

In an announcement, Bieda praised Levin for his many years in Congress and thanked constituents in the district who have urged him to launch a bid.

“Working families in the 9th Congressional District need leadership that is proven, steady and strong,” he said.

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“As your congressman, I pledge to never stop fighting for good jobs for the middle class, to protect our Great Lakes and to hold elected officials to the highest ethical standards.”

Bieda has served as a Michigan state senator since 2011 and previously served as a state representative.

He also took a shot at President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE in the announcement, saying that there is no room to vote for someone who has to learn on the job because “the stakes are too high.”

“In this day and age, there is no room for error and no room for a congressperson who needs on-the-job training for how to pass a bill or to win bipartisan legislative support on progressive issues,” Bieda said.

“With Donald Trump in the White House, the stakes are too high.”

There was speculation Bieda would launch a bid for the House seat after it was reported that Levin would not run for reelection in 2018.

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Levin in his retirement announcement said he plans to join the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy after he departs from Congress.

Former Rep. John ConyersJohn James ConyersFormer impeachment managers clash over surveillance bill VA could lead way for nation on lower drug pricing The Hill’s 12:30 Report: Dems release first transcripts from impeachment probe witnesses MORE Jr., another Michigan Democrat who served for decades in the House, announced Tuesday that he would retire immediately after weeks of being embroiled in a sexual misconduct scandal.

AG Sessions Basically Endorsed the Worst of DHS' Harsh New Deportation Plan

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After the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) approval of a sweeping new deportation guidelines last week, new reporting on Monday revealed that the aggressive plan has already been endorsed by the recently installed Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The guidelines, signed by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and dated Friday, would empower federal authorities to “hire thousands of additional enforcement agents, expand the pool of immigrants who are prioritized for removal, speed up deportation hearings, and enlist local law enforcement to help make arrests,” the Washington Post reported.

Also under the new guidelines, parents of unaccompanied minors who travel from Mexico and Central America “could be prosecuted if they are found to have paid smugglers to bring the children across the border,” according to The Post.

After the the memo was first reported, an unnamed White House official told reporters that the rules are still “under review by the White House Counsel’s Office.”

But as McClatchy‘s Franco Ordoñez pointed out on Monday, Sessions, the controversial new head of the Department of Justice, had specifically called for these harsh terms months prior while still serving in Congress, suggesting that the memos “are not out of the mainstream of Trump administration thinking in spite of the White House insistence that the orders have not yet been approved.”

What’s more, Ordoñez noted that “former Sessions aide Stephen Miller is now a top adviser to Trump and is believed to have been behind Trump’s controversial immigration executive orders.”

He reported:

“Strong leadership and a commitment to the faithful execution of the laws on the books would convey a clear message to the world that if you come to the United States illegally, you will be removed,” read the letter, which was co-authored by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and obtained by McClatchy.

Coming amid a widespread immigration crackdown, with deportation raids now targeting law-abiding and long-term residents, the new terms raised alarm among rights groups who say they violate fundamental human rights.

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“This is immigration enforcement under Trump: due process, human decency, and common sense are treated as inconvenient obstacles on the path to mass deportation,” Joanne Lin, senior legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a Friday statement. “The Trump administration is intent on inflicting cruelty on millions of immigrant families across the country.”

“Immigrants and allies have proven that we can fight back against Trump,” Lin vowed, “and we will not allow his radical, unprecedented combination of unconstitutional actions and terrible policy to become our reality.”

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Opposition Rises Against Anti-Woman, Pro-Corporate Nominee Neil Gorsuch

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With Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation hearing set to begin in less than one week, advocacy groups are highlighting the federal judge’s troubling record on issues ranging from reproductive rights to labor protections to campaign finance law. 

Gorsuch will sit before the Senate Judiciary Committee starting Monday, March 20. According to Politico on Tuesday, “some Democrats are privately beginning to believe that Gorsuch—barring a blunder at his Senate confirmation hearings next week—will clinch the 60 votes he needs to be approved without a filibuster.”

“Based on his record, writings, and the circumstances of his nomination, we believe Gorsuch would put reproductive freedom in grave danger and pose an imminent threat to our constitutional rights.”
—50+ women’s rights groups

But that’s not stopping progressives from voicing their opposition, as more than 50 abortion-rights groups did in a letter (pdf) sent Tuesday to to all 100 Senate offices. 

“Gorsuch has demonstrated he will go to extraordinary lengths to reach a result that would block women’s access to basic reproductive healthcare,” the groups wrote, noting that Gorsuch appears set to pass the “outrageous litmus test” established by President Donald Trump that any Supreme Court nominee be committed to overturning Roe v. Wade. 

“By selecting Gorsuch, a candidate put forward by the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation, Trump made it clear he believes Gorsuch passes this dangerous test and earned the applause of anti-abortion groups—including Americans United for Life, Susan B. Anthony List, and the extremist group Operation Rescue,” the letter reads. “Based on his record, writings, and the circumstances of his nomination, we believe Gorsuch would put reproductive freedom in grave danger and pose an imminent threat to our constitutional rights.” 

Also Tuesday, 121 democracy, civil rights, environmental, and labor organizations separately asked members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to probe Gorsuch’s position on the role of big money in politics. The letter (pdf) coordinated by Demos and Every Voice urges senators to ask this “essential question”:

(The groups’ call is perfectly timed. A Demos investigation published Tuesday “shows that 77 percent of money spent in competitive races in 2016 was directly attributable to Supreme Court rulings striking down basic protections against big money dominating our politics.”)

“Time after time, Judge Gorsuch has sided with the wealthy and powerful at the expense of everyone else,” said Nick Nyhart, president and CEO at Every Voice. “If promoted to the Supreme Court, Judge Gorsuch could hand even more influence to big donors and corporations in our elections. Senators have a responsibility to press Judge Gorsuch at his hearing on whether he will side with everyday Americans and ensure the influence of money in politics is kept in check.”

This argument is in keeping with elected Democrats’ planned “line of attack,” identified by the New York Times on Monday. Democrats plan to suggest, the Times wrote, that “Judge Gorsuch’s rulings have favored the powerful and well connected.”

The Times reported:

Furthermore, the Times added, “Mr. Trump’s decision last week to ask for the resignations of dozens of United States attorneys appointed by President Barack Obama—a prerogative of any president—is expected to sharpen Democrats’ focus on Mr. Trump’s respect for legal processes and Judge Gorsuch’s degree of independence.”

“We must have a Supreme Court that acts a check and balance, not a rubber stamp. Gorsuch has shown he is not up to the task.”
—Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Voces de la Frontera

As Voces de la Frontera executive director Christine Neumann-Ortiz declared Tuesday, “Donald Trump’s relentless attacks on immigrants show that now more than ever, we must have a Supreme Court that acts a check and balance, not a rubber stamp. Gorsuch has shown he is not up to the task.”

Indeed, following last month’s public battle between Trump and the judiciary, GQ writer Jay Willis predicted that the matter of judicial independence will almost certainly feature prominently during Gorsuch’s confirmation hearing. 

At the hearing, Willis wrote at the time, “[t]his question…will be near-impossible to duck”: 

Left-leaning groups aren’t the only ones organizing around Gorsuch’s pending hearing. The National Rifle Association’s (NRA) Freedom Action Foundation has reportedly made a $1 million ad buy highlighting how gun rights hang in the balance given the current composition of the Supreme Court. The ads are set to run Tuesday through March 22, according to McClatchy, which also reported: 

Tuesday’s efforts come on the heels of a letter sent earlier this month to Senate Democrats by 11 leading progressive groups, urging lawmakers to “do better” in resisting Gorsuch’s nomination.

“As a judge, Gorsuch opposed reproductive freedom and women’s rights; LGBTQ rights; civil rights; workers’ rights; immigrants’ rights; disability rights; environmental protections; and sought to increase the influence of corporate money in our elections,” they wrote. “Imagine how much damage he could do with a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.”

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"Thunderous Applause" Welcomes Sanders' Call for Medicare-for-All

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A cheering crowd gave a rousing endorsement to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ plan to introduce Medicare-for-All, or single-payer, legislation to Congress in the coming weeks, announced this weekend at a Vermont town hall meeting.  

“We have got to end the international disgrace of being the only major country on earth not to guarantee healthcare to all people as a right not a privilege,” Sanders (I-Vt.) told the 1,000-strong audience in Hardwick, Vermont, where he appeared alongside the other members of the state’s congressional delegation. “Within a couple of weeks I am going to be introducing legislation calling for a Medicare-for-All, single-payer program.”

Vermont Public Radio said the announcement “drew thunderous applause” from the crowd at Hazen Union High School. 

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As Common Dreams reported, last week’s defeat of TrumpCare (also known as the American Healthcare Act or AHCA) left an opening for such a push. Multiple analyses have shown that replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) with a universal, single-payer health system is in fact the only way to increase coverage and fulfill President Donald Trump’s campaign promises on healthcare. And as Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) co-founders David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler asserted in an editorial on Wednesday, “Democratic politicians are feeling pressed and emboldened to embrace progressive policies” as the resistance shows its strength.

That call will only grow louder. The Huffington Post reported Saturday that a broad array of progressive groups—including the Working Families Party, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Credo, Social Security Works, and the National Nurses United (NNU)—is coalescing behind the single-payer goal in the wake of last week’s political wrangling.

“The problem is the insurance companies, Big Pharma—they’re gonna come back and use the chaos to their advantage,” Social Security Works executive director Alex Lawson said to HuffPo. “If Democrats go with a half-a-loaf policy, Republicans are going to blame them for the failures of Big Pharma. They have to immediately pivot to expanding Medicare.”

Meanwhile, Sanders’ Democratic colleague in the House, Rep. Peter Welch, said that once Sanders’ measure is introduced in the Senate, he’d put forth a companion bill in his chamber.

“It’s a goal,” Welch told Vermont Public Radio after the Hardwick town hall meeting. “In this Congress, we won’t pass it. But I think we have to keep the goal out there, because we need in this country, like any industrialized country, a healthcare system that’s affordable, accessible, and universal.”

VPR reported:

Indeed, at a televised town hall forum in West Virginia earlier this month, that appeal was on display as a roomful of Trump voters cheered loudly for Sanders’ assertion that universal healthcare is a right.

Sanders reiterated his plan on CNN‘s “State of the Union” on Sunday, telling anchor Dana Bash: “Ideally, where we should be going is to join the rest of the industrialized the world and guarantee healthcare to all people as a right. And that’s why I’m going to introduce a Medicare-for-All, single-payer program.”

Watch below:

Sanders also spoke of shorter-term goals in his interview on CNN: “Let us do, among other things, a public option. Let us give people in every state in this country a public option from which they can choose. Let’s talk about lowering the age of Medicare eligibility from 65 to 55. Let’s deal with the greed of the pharmaceutical industry.”

The senator from Vermont also tweeted on Saturday, “Right now we need to improve the Affordable Care Act and that means a public option.”

But corporate crime watchdog and single-payer advocate Russell Mokhiber warned against embracing the public option as a stand-in or even a stepping stone for Medicare for All.

In a piece published Sunday, Mokhiber quoted pediatrician and PNHP member Margaret Flowers, who co-directs the group Health Over Profit for Everyone. She said:

“We look to Senator Sanders to act on what he promised during his presidential campaign, a national improved Medicare-for-All now, not tomorrow,” Flowers said. “Tomorrow never comes. It is not up to him to decide if single-payer can pass in Congress. That task is for the people to decide.”

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Cutting Off 'Fly-Over' States, Trump to Axe Amtrak for 220 Cities

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In addition to slashing funding for the arts, education programs, climate change research, and worker protections (among many other things), another lesser known casualty of President Donald Trump’s “morally obscene” budget proposal: Amtrak.

The president’s so-called “skinny budget” will eliminate all federal funding for Amtrak’s national train network, meaning 220 cities will lose all passenger service, the  National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) warned this week.

“It’s ironic that President Trump’s first budget proposal undermines the very communities whose economic hardship and sense of isolation from the rest of the country helped propel him into office,” said NARP president Jim Mathews.

“These working class communities—many of them located in the Midwest and the South—were tired of being treated like ‘flyover country,'” Mathews continued. “But by proposing the elimination of Amtrak’s long distance trains, the Trump administration does them one worse, cutting a vital service that connects these small town economies to the rest of the U.S..”

“These hard working, small town Americans,” he added, “don’t have airports or Uber to turn to; they depend on these trains.”

Specifically, Trump’s proposal slashes $2.4 billion (or 13 percent) from transportation spending, threatening long distance routes including the east coast’s Silver Star and Silver Meteor lines, the New York-Chicago Cardinal train service, the Empire Builder, which connects Chicago to the Pacific Northwest, as well as the effort to restore the Gulf Coast line.

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In addition to cutting Amtrak’s national network—which provides the only connection to the national network for 23 states and 144.6 million Americans—it also cuts $2.3 billion in funding for new transit and commuter rail projects that would have provided thousands of construction and long-term job opportunities.

Further, in one of her first official acts, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao indefinitely suspended a grant which would have provided funding for two electric, high-speed rail lines in California: one which would have run from Los Angeles to San Francisco and the other a Bay Area commuter line.

Mathews noted that the cuts come at the same time that Trump continues to “promise that our tax dollars will be invested in rebuilding America’s infrastructure.”

“Instead,” he continued, “we have seen an all-out assault on any project—public and private—that would advance passenger rail. These cuts and delays are costing the U.S. thousands of good-paying construction and manufacturing jobs in America’s heartland at this very moment.”

Trump’s planned infrastructure investment has been largely panned as a “huge tax giveaway for the rich,” as it will largely go to subsidizing developers and investors rather than be used for much needed projects and services.

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Groups Decry Trump Plan to Demand Social Media Passwords at US Border

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Raising concern about the violations of privacy occurring in the name of U.S. border security, a coalition of consumer rights groups on Tuesday launched a new campaign opposing the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) so-called “extreme vetting” practice that requires travelers to reveal their social media passwords.

“Asking people to hand over the passwords to their accounts will make all of us less safe, not more safe.” —Evan Greer, Fight for the Future”Even if you support ‘extreme vetting,’ password for entry is an extremely bad idea that sacrifices privacy and digital security for political posturing and ‘security theater,'” said Nathan White, senior legislative director at Access Now, one of the 29 organizations launching the ‘Fly Don’t Spy’ campaign. 

“We’re launching this campaign today to make it clear to Secretary John Kelly that we will not tolerate discrimination or a reckless disregard for privacy and cybersecurity,” White added, inviting others to include their name on a petition directed at the DHS chief.

The campaign was launched the same day that Kelly gave a speech in Washington, D.C. defending his tactics. Since his confirmation, Kelly has overseen implementation of President Donald Trump’s controversial immigration policies, which include the currently-defunct ban on individuals from majority-Muslim nations, the mass-deportation of immigrants, and stepped-up border security which many say unfairly targets Muslim travelers.

According to the right-leaning Washington Times, Kelly also accused the Obama administration of “politically meddling” in a way that “discouraged” DHS employees from carrying out their jobs. Further, he reportedly “said he and President Trump have made a decision to free up agents to enforce the laws as written, and he said he and his department won’t apologize for that.”

Rights groups are particularly concerned about a plan that would make certain travelers “disclose their social media handles and passwords and answer questions about ideology as a condition of admission to the country,” Jameel Jaffer, founding director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, wrote last week.

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“The aim,” Jaffer continued, “is to empower consular and border officials to ensure that would-be visitors to the United States embrace American values, a concept that the Trump administration has not defined.”

Jaffer continued:

Notably, Kelly defended the idea, telling senators on the Homeland Security committee recently, “If [travellers] don’t cooperate…they can go back.”

“Asking people to hand over the passwords to their accounts will make all of us less safe, not more safe,” said Evan Greer, campaign director at Fight for the Future, another member of the Fly Don’t Spy coalition.

“Not only does it undermine our basic right to privacy and have a chilling effect on free speech,” she continued, “but it will inevitably make our information more vulnerable to hackers, identity thieves, and stalkers. Targeting people for this type of surveillance based on their religion or country of origin is clearly a form of discrimination.”

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Despite Court Ruling, Privacy Watchdog Vows to Keeping Fighting Against Trump's Election Panel

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Despite a federal judge’s ruling on Monday rejecting a challenge to an election commission established by President Donald Trump, the privacy watchdog behind a lawsuit aimed at blocking the collection of detailed voter data from across the country vows to press ahead with its opposition.

The ruling from the federal court in Washington, D.C. relates to the controversial panel which critics argue is using bogus claims of “voter fraud” to compile data on nearly every voter in the country—information that could then be used to actually supress the vote in future elections.

“Now that this body exists,” wrote the Washington Post‘s EJ Dionne in his latest column, “it will almost certainly try to find ways to rationalize purging legitimate voters from the rolls and erecting yet more barriers to voting.”

On Monday’s 35-page ruling on Monday, Politico‘s Josh Gerstein reports,

In response to the ruling, EPIC expressed disappointment and said they would continue to challenge the collection.

“EPIC will  push forward,” said Marc Rotenberg, the group’s president in a statement (pdf). “The Commission cannot evade privacy obligations by playing a shell game with the nation’s voting records.”

The group said they will continue to monitor the behavior of the commission and noted a section of Kollar-Kotelly’s ruling in which she said that future behavior of the panel will be monitored by the court.

“Defendants have represented that they are only collecting voter information that is already publicly available under the laws of the states where the information resides; and Defendants have clarified that such information, to the extent it is made public, will be de-identified. All of these representations were made to the Court in sworn declarations, and needless to say, the Court expects that Defendants shall strictly abide by them.”

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In pictures: Moschino makes puppet show for presentation SS21

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Due to the ongoing corona crisis, shows on location with real models remain a challenge. However, fashion brands are coming up with original alternatives: from online performances to a three-dimensional ‘digital village’. But the prize for the most charming, and, admittedly a bit uncomfortable, goes to Moschino’s puppet show, last Sunday during Milan Fashion Week SS21.

This is not a puppet show, this is a fashion show: Moschino’s puppets for SS21

The presentation takes the form of a short film in which designer Jeremy Scott encounters a puppet show at a fair where a puppet version of himself is hoisting a model into a miniature couture dress. “Ah, I love puppet shows,” sighs the real Jeremy, in which the little designer contradicts him: “This is not a puppet show, this is a fashion show!” A little door swings open in the décor, and behind it, there’s the cream of fashion in the form of dolls. Anna Wintour is there, as well as Nina Garcia, Edward Enninful, Andrew Bolton and Vanessa Friedman.

The models, also puppets, show a collection of forty sophisticated looks, complete with doll bags and doll heels. The dolls were made in the studio of the late Jim Henson, the man behind the Muppets, Sesame Street and The Dark Crystal. Scott has worked with the studio before: in 2011 he dressed Muppets character Miss Piggy for the big Muppet movie.

Lovely as it was, the presentation had something alienating at the same time. Perhaps because the Moschino show also seems to be a critique of the traditional fashion show, which has been described by critics more than once as a ‘puppet show’: as a spectacle in which models and audience are ‘played’. Seen in this light, the show fits in well with the oeuvre of Scott and Moschino as a brand that likes to magnify the bizarre emblems and mechanisms of the fashion world and thus bring them to attention.

Take a look at the images below:

Photo credits: Moschino SS21 via Catwalkpictures

This article was previously published on FashionUnited.nl. Translation and editing: Andrea Byrne

Julian Castro to Cruz after Ala. Senate election: 'Be afraid'

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Julian Castro, secretary of Housing and Urban Development under former President Obama, issued a warning to Sen. Ted CruzRafael (Ted) Edward CruzSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote The Hill’s Morning Report – Trump’s public standing sags after Floyd protests GOP senators introduce resolution opposing calls to defund the police MORE (R-Texas) after Democratic candidate Doug Jones won the Alabama Senate race Tuesday.

“Be afraid, @tedcruz . Be very afraid,” Castro tweeted.

Jones’s stunning victory over Republican opponent Roy Moore comes after a closely watched campaign to fill the seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff SessionsJefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsMcCabe, Rosenstein spar over Russia probe Rosenstein takes fire from Republicans in heated testimony Rosenstein defends Mueller appointment, role on surveillance warrants MORE.

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Moore was accused of sexual misconduct last month by multiple women, including one woman who said Moore initiated a sexual encounter with her when she was 14 years old and he was in his 30s.

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Moore denied the allegations, but faced calls to drop out of the race from top Republicans.

President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE threw his support behind Moore, however, urging his followers on Twitter to vote for Moore and holding a campaign rally near the Alabama border in support of Moore.

Jones becomes the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Alabama since 1992.

His victory tightens Republicans’ margin in the Senate, giving them just a 51-49 advantage over Democrats heading into the 2018 midterm elections.

Cruz is facing a challenge from Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) in 2018. O’Rourke has raised nearly $2.8 million since he jumped into the race, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.