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MORNING MESSAGE
Tim Wilkins
“The one percent in this country is very powerful – no ifs, ands or maybes. But you know what? The 99 percent, when we stand together, is even more powerful. With these words, Sen. Bernie Sanders issued a rallying cry for a broad social movement – one centered on solidarity, more than a single candidate – to create a mandate for change in the 2020 presidential elections. Sanders spoke to the hundreds of activists from New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Connecticut and New York who gathered at Monarch Farms in Claremont, New Hampshire for a conversation with him last Thursday. “We’ve got to build an unprecedented grassroots movement,” Sanders said, “not only to beat the most dangerous president in modern American history, but we need that movement to transform our economy, our energy system and our government. And the only way we do that is when millions of people are prepared to stand up and fight.” The event followed a People’s Issue Forum organized by People’s Action, Rights & Democracy (RAD), and the New Hampshire Youth Movement (NHYM). This conversation featured frank discussions of what is at stake for voters around health care, workers’ rights, immigration and the environment. Sanders listened carefully as People’s Action members shared personal stories of environmental, racial and economic injustices in their communities. Sanders thanked the activists for their commitment to change and encouraged them to continue.“ I appreciate that you’re willing to address the major crises that are facing this country,” Sanders said. “The only way real change has ever taken place in this country is not when somebody on top did it, it’s when millions of people stood up and fought for justice.”
Impeachment Hearings To Go Public
Dems seek John Bolton’s testimony, prepare to release transcripts. AP: “For only the fourth time in U.S. history, the House of Representatives has started a presidential impeachment inquiry. House committees are trying to determine whether President Donald Trump violated his oath of office by asking Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden and his family and to investigate the country’s involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, told The Associated Press on Friday that the three committees leading the impeachment investigation plan to begin releasing transcripts of closed-door interviews as soon as early this week. As they prepare to go public, impeachment investigators are continuing to schedule private depositions. Democrats have called in 11 witnesses this week, including Energy Secretary Rick Perry and former national security adviser John Bolton. It’s unclear whether any of them will come to Capitol Hill.”
GA Wants To Purge 330,000 Voters
With 330,000 people on Georgia ‘Purge List,’ rights advocates warn of massive voter suppression. Common Dreams: “Voting rights advocates in Georgia vowed to fight for the rights of more than 300,000 people in the state whose registrations may be purged from the rolls in the coming weeks by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s administration. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Monday that about 330,000 voter registrations may be canceled in early December if the voters do not confirm that they still live in the state. The purge is targeting people who have not voted in the last five years and could affect about four percent of the state’s eligible voters.’Voters should not lose their right to vote simply because they have decided not to express that right in recent elections,’ Fair Fight Action’s Lauren Groh-Wargo told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The group was founded by Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial candidate in the state. While Kemp was serving as secretary of state in 2017, his office oversaw the largest purge of voter registrations in U.S. history, kicking more than 534,000 people off the rolls. Voting rights groups condemned Georgia’s Republican leaders for what they saw as massive voter suppression effort—especially after Kemp went on to win the 2018 election by 1.4 percentage points. ‘Having a long history of voter suppression, the Georgia secretary of state’s office has a responsibility to guarantee that not a single voter is wrongly included on the purge list,’ Groh-Wargo told the Journal-Constitution.”
Payday Lenders Brag Of Influence Over Trump In Leaked Tapes
Payday lenders discussed raising money for Trump’s campaign to fend off regulation. WaPo: “Billing himself as one of President Trump’s top fundraisers, Michael Hodges told fellow payday lenders recently that industry contributions to the president’s reelection campaign could be leveraged to gain access to the Trump administration. ‘Every dollar amount, no matter how small or large it is’ is important, Hodges, founder of Advance Financial, one of the country’s largest payday lenders, said during a 48-minute webcast, obtained by The Washington Post. The Sept. 24 webinar sponsored by Borrow Smart Compliance, an industry consultant, gives surprisingly frank insight into the payday lending industry’s strategy to push for weaker government regulations by forging a tight relationship with the Trump administration and the president’s campaign. The payday lending industry, made up of businesses that make short-term loans to consumers at high interest rates, is awaiting new rules that could weaken Obama administration requirements. Those rules include a requirement that the companies must ensure consumers can afford to repay the money they borrow.”
EPA Enforcement Grinds To A Standstill
EPA career staffer says Trump has effectively immobilized the agency. Truthout: “Nicole Cantello has spent 29 years as an EPA attorney holding polluters accountable and currently works as senior counsel for water and water enforcement in the Great Lakes region. Cantello spoke to The Revelator in her capacity as union president about how life has changed for EPA workers during the Trump administration, how those changes affect the environment and why we need a plan to rebuild the agency. ‘It’s so different under the Trump administration, where every single matter that you might bring has a political tinge to it and you cannot bring a case under this administration that there isn’t some kind of issue that is going to raise alarm bells. It seems like things have basically come to a standstill here. There are just so many hoops to jump through that it’s very difficult to bring enforcement cases,” said Cantello. ‘When our enforcement is very low, you know things are really wrong. It means that human health and the environment are not being protected. It means that polluters don’t fear the EPA and that means that they can pollute with impunity, or they believe that they can. And that means that there’s going to be more pollutants being discharged into lakes and streams or into the air.’”
How A 1979 Massacre Spawned The Alt-Right
The massacre that spawned the alt-right. Politico: “‘Death to the Klan!’ On Saturday, November 3, 1979, that chant swept over Morningside Homes, a mostly black housing project in Greensboro, North Carolina, as dozens of protesters—some donning blue hard hats for protection—hammered placards onto signposts and danced in the morning sun. eath to the Klan!” On Saturday, November 3, 1979, that chant swept over Morningside Homes, a mostly black housing project in Greensboro, North Carolina, as dozens of protesters—some donning blue hard hats for protection—hammered placards onto signposts and danced in the morning sun. What happened next took just 88 seconds, but still reverberates 40 years later. In a confrontation where white supremacists began firing pistols, rifles and shotguns, and with television cameras rolling but police nowhere to be found, five communists were shot dead in broad daylight. Ten others were injured, some left to lie bleeding in the streets. But that November morning became momentous for more than the grotesque video footage that still lives on the Internet: The Greensboro Massacre, as it became known, was the coming-out bloodbath for the white nationalist movement that is upending our politics today. Before Greensboro, America’s most lurid extremists largely operated in separate, mutually distrustful spheres. Greensboro was the place where the farthest-right groups of white supremacy learned to kill together. After November 3, 1979, it was suddenly possible to imagine Confederate flags flying alongside swastikas in Charlottesville. Or a teenager like Dylann Roof hoarding Nazi drawings as well as a Klan hood in his bedroom while he plotted mass murder.”
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