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UN Report Card Gives US 'Failing Grade' on Human Rights

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A United Nations committee of independent monitors this week released a damning assessment of human rights in the United States, showing an overall dismal performance on issues from Guantanamo Bay detentions to mass surveillance to accountability for past atrocities—earning what the U.S. Human Rights Network called a “failing grade.”

The United Nations Human Rights Committee’s investigation was one of a handful of periodic reviews aimed at evaluating countries that have ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights established in 1976. In particular, the assessment measured U.S. implementation of the committee’s recommendations for improving the country’s human rights record.

The experts determined that the U.S. performance in 2014 was “relatively poor,” Vincent Ploton, head of external relations for the Geneva-based Centre for Civil and Political Rights (CCPR), told Common Dreams.

The agency delivers grades that range from “A” the “E.” The U.S. score for 2014 was summarized in the following graphic, compiled by CCPR. Ploton explained: “There is only one B1 grade, which means substantial action was taken.  C1 means that there was no implementation, and C2 is worse, as it means the information provided by the U.S. was not relevant to the recommendations. D1 means there was no response.”

 

The U.S. had no A grades, and “the fact that the CIA report was only partially published was likely the reason for the B1 grade,” noted Ploton, referring to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation of post-9/11 CIA torture.

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“These low grades suggest the U.S. has a long way to go before it is in compliance with international law,” said Faiza Patel, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, in a statement. The Brennan Center and Amnesty International previously raised concerns to the Committee about mass surveillance in the United States. “The Administration and Congress must take immediate steps to address the lack of intelligence oversight and restore the right to privacy in the digital age.”

The findings prompted immediate condemnation from human rights and social justice organizations based in the U.S., including the Dream Defenders, who joined a civil society delegation to Geneva last year to urge the repeal of “Stand Your Ground” laws.

“It is shocking that after being given an entire year to address Stand Your Ground’s ‘incompatibility with the right to life,’ the United States has failed to act with a sense of urgency,” said Ciara Taylor, director of political consciousness for the Dream Defenders. “We see utter disregard for the lives of people of color in policies like Stand Your Ground, and in the daily actions of local law enforcement officials, who are positioned within the system to uphold these policies and the State’s many systems of oppression.”

“The Committee is right: the US is pressing forward with military commissions which violate international human rights standards,” declared James G. Connell III, an attorney for Guantanamo detainee Ammar al Baluchi. “Torture corrupts everything it touches, and these military commissions are no exception.”

And as journalist Kevin Gosztola wrote in his assessment of the UN report on Wednesday, “Detainees in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay remain in prison cells without charge or trial. There is no plan to abandon the dysfunctional and second-class legal system known as military commissions. Not only do those detainees lack rights to a fair trial, but they continue to endure torture and abuse as the political class in America ignores the fact that most never committed any crimes against the United States.”

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Connecticut Abolishes Death Penalty, Bans Further Executions

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Connecticut’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits the planned executions of 11 men on death row, thereby abolishing all capital punishment in the state.

The 4-3 decision came three years after the state passed a law that repealed the death penalty but did not spare those already sentenced to die.

“Upon careful consideration of the defendant’s claims in light of the governing constitutional principles and Connecticut’s unique historical and legal landscape, we are persuaded that, following its prospective abolition, this state’s death penalty no longer comports with contemporary standards of decency and no longer serves any legitimate penological purpose,” Justice Richard Palmer wrote for the majority.     

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“For these reasons, execution of those offenders who committed capital felonies prior to April 25, 2012, would violate the state constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment,” he continued.

The court’s decision came in response to an appeal by Eduardo Santiago, a man on death row in Connecticut. While he was represented by public defenders, the ACLU and its Connecticut chapter both filed separate amicus briefs to support his case.

Dan Barrett, legal director for the Connecticut ACLU, told Common Dreams: “We are overjoyed at the ruling, because it once-and-for-all declares that killing prisoners not a part of justice in Connecticut.”

The court concluded that the death penalty violates the state’s constitution because of: “the freakishness with which the sentence of death is imposed; the rarity with which it is carried out; and the racial, ethnic, and socio-economic biases that likely are inherent in any discretionary death penalty system.”

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Beyond Abortion and Equal Pay: Survey Highlights Wide Scope of "Women's Issues"

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Presidential candidates who think “women’s issues” are limited to abortion rights and equal pay are sorely mistaken, according to the results of a new survey released Wednesday by the Ms. Foundation for Women. 

“While just 16 percent of respondents identified as ‘feminist’ without hearing a definition of the word, that proportion jumped to 52 percent once the term was defined as ‘a belief in political, economic, and social equality across genders.'”

“This survey tells us that policymakers, community leaders, and movements must change the way we approach problems and issues,” said Ms. Foundation president and CEO Teresa C. Younger. “Women do not lead single-issue lives. For instance, access to birth control and abortion is impacted by income level, racial and cultural bias, gender discrimination and immigrant status. We must implement policies and build movements that address the totality of women’s lives, rather than creating a patchwork of silos.”

The survey results were publicized Wednesday to coincide with Women’s Equality Day, the national holiday commemorating passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Among the poll’s more intriguing findings was that while just 16 percent of respondents identified as “feminist” without hearing a definition of the word, that proportion jumped to 52 percent once the term was defined as “a belief in political, economic, and social equality across genders.”

“When people understand that a feminist believes in political, economic, and social equality across genders, the majority identify as feminists,” said Younger. “We have to do a better job of defining our movements for equality—rather than letting detractors define us. We also must work to address issues where they intersect—not in isolation.”

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The survey also found wide recognition that women of color have fewer opportunities than white women and that there is a deficit of women in positions of power at both the community and national levels.

Unsurprisingly, two-thirds of the survey’s respondents recognize income inequalities between men and women.

“There’s an awareness that economic issues disproportionately affect women that I did not fully expect,” said Tresa Undem, a partner at PerryUndem Research/Communication, which conducted the survey of 1,051 U.S. adults in late May. “How the economy affects women specifically is not something we hear a lot about. But it is clearly something many people recognize firsthand.”

To that end, researchers from the non-profit Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) said Wednesday that the pay disparity between men and women is lower among union members than among American workers as a whole but it still exists.

According to an IWPR analysis (pdf) of Census Bureau and Labor Department figures, women in labor unions “earn 88.7 cents on the dollar compared with their male counterparts, a considerably higher earnings ratio than the earnings ratio between all women and men in the United States.”

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Planned Parenthood Not Invited to Hearing on Planned Parenthood

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Not one representative from Planned Parenthood has been invited to attend the first Capitol Hill hearing on a series of controversial, secretly-recorded videos released by an anti-choice group over the summer—even as conservative lawmakers use the occasion to demand the organization answer for their alleged remarks in the footage.

The meeting will be held Wednesday by the House Judiciary Committee, which will hear testimony from “expert witnesses,” including the general counsel of the National Right to Life group, as well as two women who are described as “abortion survivors.”

According to a statement from the committee released last week, the hearing will focus on late-term abortions and the procedures involved in harvesting fetal tissue for medical research. The videos, released by the Center for Medical Progress, allege to show Planned Parenthood officials discussing profiting off the sale of fetal organs and other donations.

But at a hearing titled, ‘Planned Parenthood Exposed: Examining the Horrific Abortion Practices at the Nation’s Largest Abortion Provider,’ Planned Parenthood itself will not be heard.

“We know very little about this hearing, aside from its provocative title and that the three witnesses called by the Republican majority are longtime activists who advocate for banning abortion completely,” said Planned Parenthood vice president of communications Eric Ferrero. “While all of these congressional investigations are based on false claims and videos that have been completely discredited, we continue to be fully transparent and cooperate with all of the committees.”

Ferrero continued, “Planned Parenthood is the nation’s leading provider of reproductive health care and sex education, we follow all laws and have extremely high medical and professional standards. Our focus is on providing high-quality preventive health care and accurate sex education to millions of people who rely on us every year.”

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The hearing is part of a larger effort to defund the organization, in what some say is simply the latest incarnation of an ongoing battle for women’s rights. As Planned Parenthood executive vice president Dawn Laguens said Wednesday, “For 15 years anti-abortion activists have been trying to manufacture public outrage, and for 15 years their attacks have fallen apart upon closer inspection.”

“There’s a reason those who oppose women’s access to health care have had to resort to lying and inventing false claims to make their case: the vast majority of the American public wants to ensure women have access to safe, legal abortion,” Laguens said. “The Center for Medical Progress may have a different name, but this is the same cast of characters and follows the same script.”

The ‘cast of characters’ also includes certain lawmakers who are using the controversy to push a renewed call for defunding the organization. Ted Cruz, Senator from Texas and Republican presidential candidate, issued a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urging him to oppose “any legislation that authorizes or appropriates federal dollars for Planned Parenthood.”

Also among the group’s longstanding opponents is House Judiciary Committee chairperson Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who previously co-sponsored a bill to prohibit federal funding of Planned Parenthood. And dozens of Republican lawmakers have said they were willing to stage a government shutdown in order to block subsidies from being released to the organization.

But McConnell has urged his colleagues to temper their expectations, noting in an interview last week, “We just don’t have the votes to get the outcome that we’d like…. The president’s made it very clear he’s not going to sign any bill that includes defunding of Planned Parenthood so that’s another issue that awaits a new president hopefully with a different point of view.”

According to a new study published Tuesday, defunding Planned Parenthood could cut off access to the only contraceptive healthcare provider available to millions of women around the country, particularly minority and low-income women.

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Permanent State of Emergency? France Seeks Alarming Expanse of Police Powers

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Citing last year’s Paris attacks as justification, the French government is seeking to expand police powers permanently—relaxing rules around the firing of weapons, enabling nighttime raids, and loosening restrictions on searching and detaining suspected terrorists, according to a draft bill seen by the newspaper Le Monde. 

Politico Europe reported Tuesday that the draft, sent to the French Supreme Court for review in December, lays out plans to “perennially strengthen the tools and resources at the disposal of administrative and judicial authorities, outside the temporary legal framework implemented under the state of emergency.”

In November, the French Parliament voted overwhelmingly to extend the state of emergency through the end of February and to increase certain powers including allowing the government to impose a house arrest as long as it has “serious reason to think that the person’s conduct threatens security or the public order.”

In December, the French cabinet backed reform proposals that could see that state of emergency enshrined in the nation’s constitution.

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Agence France-Presse reported at the time:

The constitutional reforms—which are outlined in the draft bill leaked by Le Monde—must now be passed by a three-fifths majority in the upper and lower houses of Parliament, where debates will start on February 3.

“The new bill is likely to stoke a debate about respect for civil liberties in France under the state of emergency,” Politico Europe wrote, with civil society groups warning that the proposals would put many people at even greater risk of human rights violations.

Indeed, as John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s director of Europe and Central Asia declared in November: “Time and again we have seen emergency measures extended and codified until they become part and parcel of the ordinary law, chipping steadily away at human rights. In the long run, the pernicious ideology underpinning the Paris attacks can only be defeated by upholding the foundational values of the French Republic.”

Meanwhile, the New York Times editorial board on Tuesday urged the French Parliament to reject “these unnecessary and divisive constitutional changes. The push to diminish civil liberties and end judicial oversight will only magnify the potential for the abuse of power, without making the public safer.”

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Tommy Hilfiger launches circular initiative, Tommy For Life

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PVH-owned Tommy Hilfiger is the latest big-name fashion brand to be
launching a new circular initiative in a bid to breathe new life into old
clothes.

Tommy for Life is a new circular business model that will take pre-owned
or damaged Tommy Hilfiger and Tommy Jeans garments and either fix them or
‘remix’ them into completely new, limited-edition styles. They will then be
resold exclusively at tommyforlife.com.

The new initiative will first be piloted in the Netherlands, before
being rolled out to other European markets in 2021.

The programme is split into three product lines. Reloved: Previously
owned products traded-in by consumers. Refreshed: Restored items from store
and e-commerce returns. Remixed: Products beyond repair that are then taken
apart and used to create new, unique designs. This last category will be
launched next year.

So how does it work? First of all, from today customers are invited to
send in their pre-loved and damaged Tommy pieces either in store or via
mail in exchange for discount vouchers.

Next, Tommy’s partner for the initiative, The Renewal Workshop – a
circular solutions company located in the industrial North of Amsterdam –
will sort, clean and repair the donated items. Pieces that are beyond
salvage will be remixed into new lines of unique designs. If they’re in
such a bad state they can’t be remixed, then they will be recycled into
yarns or repurposed, for instance into insulation.

Tommy Hilfiger launches circular programme

And it’s not just customers’ defunct clothing that Tommy wants to fix,
it will also be using damaged clothing from across its own supply chain,
for example items from retail inventories that become unsaleable or proved
defective, such as becoming stained as a result of handling, broken seams,
or lost buttons.

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Tommy for Life is part of the brand’s broader Make it Possible
sustainability initiative, with the brand having already announced a goal
to make products that are fully circular and that can be part of a
sustainable loop by 2030.

“The time to drive real, impactful change in the fashion industry is
here and now, so we are committed to identifying ways to innovate our
business models, practices and the way we interact with our consumers,”
said Martijn Hagman, Tommy Hilfiger Global and PVH Europe CEO.

“‘Tommy for Life’ provides solutions to one of our industry’s greatest
challenges: switching from a “take-make-waste” approach to a model in which
we keep products and materials in use as long as possible. Our investments
in a business model that pioneers this at this scale and complexity will
have true impact – not only on our brand, but on the future of the industry
as a whole.”

Photo credit: Tommy Hilfiger

Poll: Bernie Sanders country’s most popular active politician

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Vermont Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersThe Hill’s 12:30 Report: Milley apologizes for church photo-op Harris grapples with defund the police movement amid veep talk Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness MORE (I) is the country’s most popular active politician, underscoring his importance to the Democratic Party as it seeks to rebuild in the wake of a disastrous 2016 election cycle.

Sanders is viewed favorably by 57 percent of registered voters, according to data from a Harvard-Harris survey provided exclusively to The Hill. Sanders is the only person in a field of 16 Trump administration officials or congressional leaders included in the survey who is viewed favorably by a majority of those polled.

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White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon is far and away the least popular political figure in the poll, with only 16 percent viewing him favorably, compared with 45 percent having a negative view of him.

“In losing to Hillary [Clinton], Bernie Sanders has floated above today’s partisan politics while Bannon has, rightly or wrongly, taken the blame for the administration’s failures,” said Harvard-Harris co-director Mark Penn. “It is symptomatic of the Democrats increasingly consolidating to the left while the Republicans are fractured and unable to come together. Sanders is an asset to the Democrats while Bannon is a liability to the administration.”

Only 32 percent have a negative view of Sanders, including nearly two-thirds of Republicans.

Besides Republicans, though, Sanders is popular among broad swaths of the registered voting population.

Those figures could buoy a potential 2020 presidential run. Sanders, who would be 79 on Election Day in 2020, hasn’t ruled out another bid. 

Among registered voters, fifty-eight percent of women view Sanders favorably, as do 55 percent of men. He is most popular among people aged 18 to 34, who give him a 62 percent approval rating. Sanders also has majority support among those over the age of 50.

While Sanders struggled during his Democratic primary challenge against Clinton in states with large African-American voting populations, he is viewed favorably by 73 percent of black registered voters.

That’s better than Hispanics, at 68 percent favorable, Asian-Americans, at 62 percent favorable, and whites, at 52 percent favorable.

Sanders is viewed favorably by 80 percent of registered Democrats, even though he has steadfastly refused to join the party whose presidential nominee he campaigned for.

The Vermont senator is touring the country with new Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez as the two work to unify a party that split sharply along the line between grassroots activists and the establishment during the primaries.

There is still lingering bitterness between Sanders supporters, who believe the party stacked the deck against their candidate, and mainstream Democratic operatives, who view Sanders as an interloper who will drag the party too far left.

Still, no other Democrat comes close to matching Sanders’s popularity.

Sen. Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth WarrenWarren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases OVERNIGHT DEFENSE: Joint Chiefs chairman says he regrets participating in Trump photo-op | GOP senators back Joint Chiefs chairman who voiced regret over Trump photo-op | Senate panel approves 0B defense policy bill Trump on collision course with Congress over bases with Confederate names MORE (D-Mass.), a progressive and potential presidential candidate in 2020, is in positive territory at 38 percent favorable and 32 unfavorable.

Clinton is at 42 percent positive and 53 percent negative. That’s down from a 44-51 split in same poll in February.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is viewed favorably by 31 percent of registered voters and unfavorably by 48 percent, while Senate Democratic Leader Charles SchumerChuck SchumerOvernight Health Care: US showing signs of retreat in battle against COVID-19 | Regeneron begins clinical trials of potential coronavirus antibody treatment | CMS warns nursing homes against seizing residents’ stimulus checks Schumer requests briefing with White House coronavirus task force as cases rise Schumer on Trump’s tweet about 75-year-old protester: He ‘should go back to hiding in the bunker’ MORE (N.Y.) is at 27 percent positive and 35 percent negative.

On the Republican side, President Trump’s favorability rating is at 44 percent positive and 51 negative.

Vice President Pence is the top-rated official in the White House, posting a 44-41 split.

Trump’s newly confirmed Supreme Court justice, Neil Gorsuch, is also in positive territory at 34 percent favorable and 29 percent unfavorable. Though he is little known, Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, posts a positive 20-13 split.

The other Republican officials in the poll overall had negative approval ratings.

House Speaker Paul RyanPaul Davis RyanBush, Romney won’t support Trump reelection: NYT Twitter joins Democrats to boost mail-in voting — here’s why Lobbying world MORE (R-Wis.) is viewed favorably by 34 percent of voters and unfavorably by 47 percent. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote GOP senator to try to reverse requirement that Pentagon remove Confederate names from bases No, ‘blue states’ do not bail out ‘red states’ MORE (R-Ky.) fares worse, at 23 positive and 42 negative.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway is at 24 positive and 46 negative. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, comes in at 23 positive and 34 negative.

FBI Director James Comey, who scored criticism from both sides during the presidential campaign, is also deep in negative territory in the poll. Only 18 percent said they view him favorably, compared with 36 percent who said they view him unfavorably.

The online survey of 2,027 registered voters was conducted between April 14 and April 17. The partisan breakdown is 36 percent Democrat, 31 percent Republican, 30 percent independent and 3 percent other. Harvard-Harris Poll uses a methodology that doesn’t produce a traditional margin of error.

The Harvard-Harris Poll survey is a collaboration of the Harvard Center for American Political Studies and The Harris Poll. The Hill will be working with Harvard-Harris throughout 2017. Full poll results will be posted online later this week.

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Alongside Housing Activists, Warren Blasts HUD's Collusion with Wall Street

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Wednesday took part in a Washington, D.C. rally to urge the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to quit selling home loans to hedge funds and private financial firms.

Warren joined Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) and a group of community activists at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation on Capitol Hill to protest predatory lending schemes that allow financiers to foreclose on struggling borrowers without first modifying loan terms. Warren blasted HUD and the FHFA for their role in the crisis and called on the government to make it easier for nonprofit housing groups to buy distressed mortgages at auction.

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“HUD and FHFA have been lining up with the Wall Street speculators,” Warren said in a speech before the march. “This should surprise absolutely nobody…. Wall Street is interested in profits, not in working out a way for people to stay in their homes.”

“These Wall Street investors made money by crashing the economy, got bailed out and now they’re back to feed at the trough again, scooping up these loans at rock-bottom prices so that they profit off them a second time—and it is up to us to stop that!” Warren said to a cheering crowd.

“We need to get something straight: These federal agencies don’t work for Wall Street. They work for the American people,” she continued. “HUD and FHFA could make these changes right now if they just had the courage to stand up for families instead of bowing to Wall Street.”

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Following Warren’s speech, the activists—many dressed in orange T-shirts that read, “Communities for Change”—marched to protest outside FHFA headquarters, where they reportedly met with agency chief Mel Watt and HUD officials.

Speaking to Warren’s credibility on Capitol Hill, Dana Milbank, a Washington Post columnist who attended the rally, writes:

According to Edward Golding, HUD’s principal deputy assistant secretary, the meeting between activists and HUD officials included discussions over how federal agencies could “make better use of one of its tools, the Distressed Asset Stabilization Program (DASP), to further the Department’s goal of stabilizing communities  and assisting them as they, and their public-minded partners, work to address severely distressed mortgages that are on the verge of foreclosure.”

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As Pope Francis Arrives in DC, Federal Workers Strike Against Poverty Wages

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Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was among those who joined federal workers in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday as they rallied to leverage the much-anticipated arrival of Pope Francis as a way to lift their ongoing campaign for better wages and treatment.

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As Ned Resnikoff reports for Al-Jazeera:

Sanders attended the rally and offerd his continued support to the workers’ campaign.

“In my view, when we talk about morality and when we talk about justice we have to understand that there is no justice when so few have so much, while so many have so little,” Sanders told the workers. “The time has come for President Obama and the U.S. Senate to end this injustice by requiring all contract workers to be paid at least $15 an hour with the right to form a union. The time has come to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.”

In a letter (pdf) addressed to Pope Francis, who arrives Tuesday for a five-day U.S. visit, the workers invited the head of the Catholic Church to meet with them so he could better understand the plight of workers who may “cook and clean at the U.S. Capitol and other federal buildings,” but remain trapped in “utter poverty” due to their low-wages and inability to form a union.

“We may be invisible to the wealthy and powerful we serve everyday—but we know we are worthy of a more abundant life as children of God,” the letter stated. “That’s why we are joining with other low-wage workers across America who are fighting to provide a decent life for ourselves and our families. As you prepare to meet with the Congress and President, we hope that you will also take a little time to meet with us and listen to our stories.”

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Charles Gladden, a 63-year-old worker who signed the letter and spoke with Resnikoff, explained the workers’ call for a “$15 minimum wage and a union” is just a start and expressed optimism that if the Pope—who has voiced his compassion for the world’s poor workers and contempt for income inequality—takes up their concerns with lawmakers and Obama, it could give the ongoing fight a needed breakthrough.

“For [Pope Francis] to speak and mention Good Jobs Nation and the Senate workers directly to Congress, that would be an even bigger plus,” Gladden said. “Because we’re all fighting for the same thing.”

In an op-ed that appeared in the Guardian on Monday evening, James Powell, another federal worker involved in the effort, explained how difficult his life has become even though he is gainfully employed by the federal government at the U.S. Capitol:

Though not all lawmakers in Congress are Catholics, Powell acknowledged, many of them are and many others identify as Christians or people of faith.

Perhaps, he said, Pope Francis will take the opportunity to remind U.S. lawmakers of the “their moral obligation to help the ‘least of these'” in society.

“The truth,” Powell concluded, “is that the pope may be the only person who can broker a bipartisan solution to inequality at the US Capitol and help low-wage workers. That’s why the pope may be our only hope.”

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Drone War Exposed: The Intercept Journalists Talk Obama's "Kill List," Whistleblowers, and Endless War

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One of the most secretive military campaigns in U.S. history is under the microscope like never before. In a major exposé based on leaked government documents, The Intercept has published the most in-depth look at the U.S. drone assassination program to date. “The Drone Papers” exposes the inner workings of the U.S. military’s assassination program in Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia, revealing a number of flaws and far more casualties than the intended targets. The documents were leaked to The Intercept by an unnamed U.S. intelligence source who says he wanted to alert Americans to wrongdoing. We are joined by The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill, lead author of the exposé, “The Drone Papers.”

The Intercept series “The Drone Papers” exposes the inner workings of how the drone war is waged, from how targets are identified to who decides to kill. They expose a number of flaws, including that strikes have resulted in large part from electronic communications data, or “signals intelligence,” that officials acknowledge is unreliable. We speak to Intercept reporter Cora Currier, whose article “The Kill Chain,” reveals how the U.S. identifies and selects assassination targets, from the collection of data and human intelligence all the way to President Obama’s desk.

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President Obama has reversed plans to withdraw most U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the time he leaves office. On Thursday, Obama said a deteriorating security situation will force him to maintain the current deployment of 9,800 soldiers through 2016. When Obama’s term ends in 2017, the U.S. will keep at least 5,500 troops at four bases across Afghanistan. After 14 years of war, the Taliban now holds more of Afghanistan than at any point since the 2001 U.S. invasion, and some estimates put them in control of half the country. President Obama’s announcement comes nearly a year after he declared an official end to the U.S. combat mission, though U.S. military operations have continued. The move assures that despite previous pledges, the war will continue under his successor. We are joined by Intercept reporters Jeremy Scahill, Ryan Devereaux and Cora Currier, whose new series “The Drone Papers” includes a detailed look at the drone war in Afghanistan based on government leaks.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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