President Adopts Grayson Amendment Against Police Militarization

Not in Our Neighborhoods Dear Friend,  Yesterday, President Obama acted to restrict the Defense Department and other federal agencies from providing military equipment to local police departments. In essence, the President adopted, by Executive Order, the Grayson Amendment that I introduced last year in the House of Representatives. My amendment was defeated, but shortly thereafter, we all saw militarized police occupy the streets in Ferguson, Missouri. Live and learn. I thank the President for adopting my amendment. It will help us take a giant step back from the militarization of Main Street, and let us remain the Land of the Free, as well as the Home of the Brave.  Ferguson made the difference, changing attitudes and changing minds. Who can forget what it looked like to see an American community occupied by paramilitary police forces, in military vehicles, pointing military weapons at innocent Americans? It looked like a nightmare. And the fact that in Ferguson, it was a largely white police force deploying military weapons against a largely black community made it even worse.  Our Founding Fathers were concerned about militarized police. The Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits the quartering of troops in people's homes. From the very beginning, we have established and maintained a clear line between police and military forces. In the 1870's the Posse Comitatus Act confirmed the fundamental principle that our armed forces operate outside of our borders, and the police operate within.  The result has been peace and security, in the lives of ordinary Americans. Apart from the Japanese occupation of part of the remote Aleutian Islands in Alaska during World War II, no foreign forces have occupied this country since the War of 1812, when British soldiers burned my present workplace, the Capitol, to the ground. The two-century absence of military forces from our streets is an enormous accomplishment that few other countries have matched. It's the foundation of American prosperity, and a fundamental tenet of our freedom. We live in peace, and therefore we can do great things. That's America. Having a military or paramilitary presence in our streets is, in a fundamental sense, un-American.  The militarization of American police is recent. The Section 1033 Program authorizes the free transfer of military equipment, including tanks, missiles, machine guns and weaponized drones, both new and used, to local police forces. For many years, it was tiny. In 1990, the DoD gave only $1 million in military equipment to local police authorities. In 2013, the amount was almost $450 million.  The mission of our police is to serve and protect, not unnerve and disrespect. We have a delicate balance in the United States between public authority and individual rights. Every time that we occupy a neighborhood with military force, not only are we attacking those who threaten mischief, but also those who are innocent.  Whenever we militarize the police, we run the risk of igniting a spiral of violence between the police and the populace. In a sense, it has already started. Last year, police officers killed 623 Americans. Contrast that with the United Kingdom, where in the last 10 years, officers killed only 20 people - even in the aftermath of the civil war in Northern Ireland.  Demilitarization will make police officers safer as well. Police officers have told me that the friction between them and the general public makes their job very difficult. Some of them have stopped wearing clothes or insignia that identify them as officers when they are off-duty. By presenting a friendly face toward the innocent public, the police can turn to them for help, and at the same time, feel safer themselves.  The President has taken a solid first step toward unwinding the cycle of violence. But the underlying program that the President has throttled back still exists. The Department of Defense still has the legal authority to buy and deliver military equipment to police forces. What one President stops, another one can re-start.  I'll be introducing my amendment again this year, and I'm hoping for wide, bipartisan support. If freedom means anything, it means that our streets are not war zones.  Courage,  Rep. Alan Grayson

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WHY THIS LAWMAKER OPPOSES ABORTION FOR EVERYONE EXCEPT HIS WIFE AND MISTRESS

Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN)

CREDIT: AP PHOTO/MARK HUMPHREY

WHY THIS LAWMAKER OPPOSES ABORTION FOR EVERYONE EXCEPT HIS WIFE AND MISTRESS


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THIS PHOTO IS RAISING QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW POLICE ARE TREATING WHITE BIKERS AFTER A MASS MURDER

THE REALLY AWFUL TRUTH ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE		NO, STRESS ISN'T THE CAUSE OF MISCARRIAGES

MARCO RUBIO REFUSES TO ANSWER A BASIC QUESTION ABOUT THE IRAQ WAR		WHY THIS LAWMAKER OPPOSES ABORTION FOR EVERYONE EXCEPT HIS WIFE AND MISTRESS

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Sen. Bernie Sanders backs free college

Sen. Bernie Sanders backs free college. Bloomberg:

“Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders will introduce legislation on Tuesday to make public college tuition-free in the United States … The move could put added pressure on Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, who has yet to release her plan for higher education.”

MORNING MESSAGE

Richard Eskow

Obama’s Trade War Against Warren Wounds His Party – and His Legacy

The president’s Wall Street legacy has already been largely shaped by two actions: the bank bailout, and his administration’s refusal to prosecute individual bankers for acts of widespread fraud. Even now, eight years after that fraud brought down the economy, the government continues to reach settlement agreements that protect big banks from the consequences of their criminal actions. ... Now the president is staking his reputation on a trade deal that is increasingly likely to be seen as a joint Obama/GOP initiative. If he succeeds, his legacy may suffer a mortal blow, and his party is likely to pay a terrible political price in years – and elections – to come.

FAST TRACK MAY CLEAR SENATE THIS WEEK

Republicans predict fast track passage. W. Post:“‘We’ll pass it later this week,’ McConnell said on ABC’s ‘This Week with George Stephanopoulos.’ ‘The president has done an excellent job on this’ … Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said Sunday that he was confident about the bill’s chances in his chamber … ‘We will have the votes,’ Ryan said on CNN’s ‘State of the Union.'”

But House GOPers say unions outgunning corporate lobbyists. Politico:“Unlike unions, they say, Big Business advocates aren’t flooding Capitol phone lines. They’re not winning over skeptical Republicans. And they haven’t made much headway with business-friendly Democrats who are considering voting for the package, either.”

GOP Sen. Rob Portman breaks ranks on currency manipulation. Politico:“The conservative editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal have repeatedly lashed Portman’s ‘killer amendment,’ saying he’s ‘abandoning his policy chops in favor of re-election politics.’ … Portman’s campaign is emblematic of the careful and delicate balancing act a Rust Belt Republican must perform in a region of the country where manufacturing jobs have been wiped out.”

“The costs of globalization have been greater and more enduring than [trade deal advocates] expected” reports NYT:“There is also mounting evidence that the benefits of globalization have accrued disproportionately to upper-income households, while the costs have fallen heavily on the less affluent, contributing to the rise of economic inequality.”

SENATE MAY EXTEND HIGHWAY FUND

Senate tries to pass short-term Highway Trust Fund extension this week before recess. The Hill:“The extension lasting through the end of July would give Congress extra time to find a way toward a long-term infrastructure bill … Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) placed it on the Senate calendar before adjourning last Thursday, which would allow a vote this week before the full Senate. The House is slated to take up a two-month extension bill on Tuesday.”

House Dems consider voting “no.” Roll Call:“Voting against a bill that would keep countless transportation and infrastructure projects — and jobs — afloat past May 31 is hard to defend at first blush. Still, a growing number of Democrats and even some GOP moderates are arguing what’s more destructive is the succession of short-term patches preventing longterm certainty and sustainability.

Sen. Cory Booker sounds alarm on infrastructure. The Hill:“‘The United States of America is falling behind dramatically its global peers in terms of the quality of its infrastructure,’ Booker said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’ ‘China invests about 9 percent of their G.D.P. in infrastructure, Japan 6 percent, Europe 5 percent. America’s only doing 1.5 percent,’ said Booker, noting that the U.S. has ‘trillions of dollars of an infrastructure debt.'”

HILLARY TURNS TOWARD SMALL BIZ

Hillary Clinton to tout deregulatory measures targeting small businesses. Bloomberg:“The trip to Iowa, as well as a return visit to New Hampshire on Friday, are chances for Clinton to appeal to Main Street and the centrist voters she’ll need in the general election, after tacking left earlier this month … Clinton, her campaign said, plans to outline ideas for cutting red tape for small businesses, expanding access to capital, finding tax relief for business owners and stimulating exports.”

Yet “Clinton is banking on the Obama coalition to win” says W. Post:“[The] strategic conclusion by Clinton’s emerging campaign [is] that it can harness the same kind of young and diverse coalition as Barack Obama did in 2008 and 2012, bolstered by even stronger appeal among women. Her approach … is a bet that social and demographic shifts mean that no left-leaning position Clinton takes now would be likely to hurt her in making her case to moderate and independent voters in the general election next year.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders backs free college. Bloomberg:“Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders will introduce legislation on Tuesday to make public college tuition-free in the United States … The move could put added pressure on Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, who has yet to release her plan for higher education.”

Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast is a project of the Campaign for America's Future.more »

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'Gilded Age Union-Busting'

'Gilded Age Union-Busting'

Berry Craig: Gilded Age steel tycoon Henry Clay Frick is long gone. But his old union-busting tactic in is play at the Century Aluminum plant in Hawesville, Kentucky.

READ HERE

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MONDAY, 18 MAY 2015 When Cops Are Immune from Law Enforcement Jessica Price: We hear news of officers throughout our country speeding, stealing during arrests, and wrongfully arresting people for failure to provide identification, often without repercussion. These reports are, sadly, no longer shocking. READ MORE 'Gilded Age Union-Busting' Berry Craig: Gilded Age steel tycoon Henry Clay Frick is long gone. But his old union-busting tactic in is play at the Century Aluminum plant in Hawesville, Kentucky. READ HERE Jerry Brown’s Budget Lifts Few Out of Poverty Dan Braun: Governor Brown has taken the design for an effective ladder out of poverty and fashioned a small stepladder for a handful of Californians. READ MORE The Vietnam War: After Forty Years Lawrence Wittner:Today, 40 years after the American war in Vietnam ended in ignominious defeat, the traces of that terrible conflict are disappearing. READ MORE Sen. Sessions Tells Truth About TPP Kevin Zeese: Sessions’ action flies in the face of the threats made by the US Trade Representative to prosecute elected officials who tell people what is in the trade agreement. READ MORE

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Derailing Amtrak: Tracking the Latest Disaster in the Infrastructure Crisis

Derailing Amtrak: Tracking the Latest Disaster in the Infrastructure Crisis Ellen Brown: There are ways Congress could fund its massive infrastructure bill without raising taxes. But the conservative-controlled Congress seems to have other plans for the nation’s profitable public assets. READ HERE shared from TUESDAY, 19 MAY 2015 Why Do White Supremacist Biker Gangs Get a Media Pass? David A. Love: If the Texas biker gangs were black, the media would be on this thing like white on rice. Yet even though they were armed, because they were white, they were treated as human beings, with dignity. READ MORE Derailing Amtrak: Tracking the Latest Disaster in the Infrastructure Crisis Ellen Brown: There are ways Congress could fund its massive infrastructure bill without raising taxes. But the conservative-controlled Congress seems to have other plans for the nation’s profitable public assets. READ HERE How Data Can Stop Police Violence Amy Roe: In 2014, Black people in the U.S. were nearly three times more likely than Whites to be killed by police, according to Mapping Police Violence, a data visualization website. READ MORE How Hawaiʽi Sees Ferguson Michael Haas: If police forces throughout the country were to call upon the Honolulu Police Department for technical assistance, the situation in Ferguson might never have happened. READ MORE Is Adult Protective Services Protecting Abusers? Janet Phelan: If the President is truly serious about routing out the systemic abusers, his Attorney General has hundreds of reports about guardians abusing their wards READ MORE

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Bernie Sanders' Bold, New Plan May Have Just Locked Down the Millennial Vote

Bernie Sanders' Bold, New Plan May Have Just Locked Down the Millennial Vote By Scott Bixby  

May 19, 2015

Sen. Bernie Sanders wants your votes, millennials — and with the introduction of his latest bill, he may have just clinched them.

On Tuesday, the independent senator from Vermont introduced the College for All Act, which would make attendance of any four-year public college or university free of charge for any American student who can meet admissions standards.

"We live in a highly competitive global economy and, if our economy is to be strong, we need the best educated work force in the world," said Sanders in a statement on Sunday ahead of the bill's introduction. "That will not happen if, every year, hundreds of thousands of bright young people cannot afford to go to college, and if millions more leave school deeply in debt."

The senator, a self-described democratic socialist who announced his candidacy for the White House less than a month ago, reaffirmed previous statements in support of European-style redistribution of wealth to provide for social services. "Countries like Germany, Denmark, Sweden and many more are providing free or inexpensive higher education for their young people," Sanders said Sunday. "They understand how important it is to be investing in their youth. We should be doing the same."

Sanders' bill addresses the root cause of student load debt: the disproportionately high cost of higher education. The legislation, an expansion of a proposal he floated in February that would have cut higher education costs in half, would provide $47 billion in federal funding per year to eliminate undergraduate tuition and fees at public colleges and universities. 

"We used to lead the world in the percentage of our people who graduated college," said Sanders. "Today we are in 12th place. We used to have great universities tuition-free. Today they are unaffordable. I want a more educated work force. I want everybody to be able to get a higher education regardless of their income."

The issue hits millennials hard — and their wallets even harder. The cost of higher education has risen by 1,225% since 1978, according to Bloomberg News, a rate of inflation that outpaces increases in the cost of housing, food and even health care. Student loan debt has reached $1.16 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, dwarfing national credit card debt to become the single largest source of non-mortgage debt in America. More than 7 million people are currently in default over student loans, at an average of more than$28,000 per graduate. The class of 2015's average liability is even worse: $35,000 per graduate. 
This trillion-dollar debt load has peaked at a time when the job prospects of millennial graduates are less than promising. Although the labor market for college graduates is improving, according to researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the unemployment rate for workers aged 20 to 24 is still at 9.6%, more than doublethe rate for so-called prime-age workers (ages 25 to 54). According to those same researchers, 44.6% of employed millennial graduates are underemployed, working in jobs that "typically do not require a college degree."
Since the Great Recession, the national dialogue around the skyrocketing cost of higher education has been one about "worth," i.e., whether a degree in art history is "worth" going into tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. Everyone from Ivy-educated "thought leaders" to the president of the United States have expressed this utilitarian view of postsecondary education, criticizing the decision by college students to follow their passions instead of simply major in engineering. (Honestly, Mr. President, we get enough of that from our moms.)

It's one of Sanders' biggest issues — and smartest bets. Sanders may be best known for his self-described socialism, rather than for being a realistic contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, but his passion and experience for student-loan reform is beyond reproach. A 24-year veteran of Congress, Sanders has sponsored the Student Loan Affordability Act, a bill which would extend subsidized federal student loan rates, as well as making employee educational assistance tax-deductible. He's also sponsored legislation that would make employee educational assistance tax-deductible for employers. 
In May 2014, surrounded by indebted Vermont college students and graduates, Sanders announced that he was introducing legislation to help students earn college credits in high school in order to cut the amount of time they spend paying tuition costs.
Sanders' bill could make debt-free college the new 2016 litmus test for millennial voters. Lowering the cost of higher education was the single most important issue that would have increased turnout among Democrats in the 2014 elections, according to polling conducted by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. An ideal bill, according to a paper by the PCCC and the think tank Demos, would feature federal aid to states to lower the cost of college tuition, need-based aid to qualified students and other cost-cutting efforts like standardizing transfer credits and eliminating physical textbooks.

The notion of debt-free college has already been on the periphery of the 2016 Democratic primaries. In an email to supporters, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley declared that the party's "ultimate goal should be simple: Every student should be able to go to college debt-free." Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, hashighlighted the issue as one that needs to be taken up by "a champion for everyday people."

With the introduction of Sanders' bill, the pressure is only going to increase on frontrunner Clinton to detail an educational plan of her own. Last month, when Clinton spokesman Jesse Ferguson was asked about debt-free college, he said that the former secretary of state's student-loan plan would be rolled out "in the months ahead." As Sanders' bill gains political traction with voters (if not with the Senate's Republican majority), the Clinton camp may be compelled to take tuition-free college off the back burner. 
Although Republicans have stayed generally silent on the issue of student-loan debt (beyond blocking consideration of Sen. Elizabeth Warren's bill allowing the refinancing of student loans), the response to Sanders' bill will likely feature cries of "socialism!" and "Scandinavia!" But for millennial voters, the "s-word" may not be the poison pill it once was: A recent Pew poll showed that 49% of of 18- to 29-year-olds view socialism in a positive light.

Scott Bixby
Scott is a Senior Editor at Mic. Scott's writing has appeared in Bloomberg Businessweek, Esquire, GQ, The Daily Beast, and in a secret diary that he keeps under his mattress.

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The Other 98%...the amazing People Power displayed at the paddle inSeattle

Hey y’all - I’m still lit up from the amazing People Power that was on display at the “Paddle in Seattle” this weekend. I’m also bursting with pride at how Team O98 represented. On Saturday, over 500 kayaks took to the waters of Elliott Bay to say “ShellNo” to the massive Polar Pioneer, one of Shell’s Arctic oil exploration platforms. Other98’s “Mosquito Fleet” was out in force to keep folks safe and out of harm’s way. In the center of this massive “kayak-tivist” armada was the People’s Platform, a 4,000 square foot solar powered barge that Other98 built (with the help of dozens of friends) to help lift up the voices of folks from all over the world who have a beef with Shell’s Arctic drilling. We now have a crack team of media-makers living aboard the People’s Platform (anchored just 1000 yards away from Shell’s drill rig). Our stated objective is to light up the night and give Shell hell until they attempt to leave the Puget Sound. If you haven’t already, please check out our Indiegogo and help us go BIG with the barge. Every little bit helps, and we have awesome perks at every donation level. Other98 worked with a coalition that included Coast Salish canoe families, Greenpeace, 350Seattle, RisingTide, Bayan, and the Raging Grannies to pull off an epic day in the fight for Climate Justice. Our action is now reverberating across the planet and still spawning media stories in outlets of all sizes, from personal blogs to the world’s biggest newspapers. Here are a few highlights: •  This piece from the Associated Press was picked up by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Houston Chronicle, and many more major newspapers •  Grist.org assembled a collection of incredible images that you should definitely see •  The Guardian, a UK outlet, wrote a truly excellent piece with some great interviews, including a profile of yours truly. If you only read one piece, make it this one. •  Seattle’s Pulitzer Prize-winning alt weekly, The Stranger, wrote a piece highlighting the leadership of indigenous people throughout #ShellNo: Why Descendants of Chief Seattle Led the Protest Against Shell on Saturday. We also published our own roundup of favorite moments at other98.com. We were stoked to see so many stories mention the People’s Platform. It really does take a spectacle to get the eyes of the world on you. If you donate, you’d be directly boosting the efficacy of this action, which is pretty cool! Just click here to chip in. After this weekend, more than a few kayak-tivists may consider paddling out to stop Shell from heading up to the Arctic. Stay tuned... Thanks again for everything you do. I hope you’re as proud of this action as we are, because you made this happen too. Thank you. In solidarity, John Sellers The Other 98%

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