September 2020 – Page 2

In Final Pitches for Ellison, Progressives Say He's Exactly What Dems Need Now

Posted on September 29, 2020 by bamdj

With just hours left before the 447 voting members of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) choose their next chair, leaders of progressive groups are making their final case for “the candidate who has most consistently been in the trenches with the grassroots progressive base that Democrats need in this moment”—Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.).

The joint letter issued Friday from the leadership of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, MoveOn.org, Democracy for America, Presente Action, and 350 Action argues that with Ellison in the post, “we can hit the ground running” as he “has worked collaboratively for years as partners with groups like ours.” The letter states:

The letter urges the voting members “to be heroes” and choose Ellison.

National Nurses United (NNU) also reaffirmed its backing of the congressman on Friday, with its executive director, RoseAnn DeMoro, saying in a statement: “Selecting Keith Ellison to chair the DNC is exactly the direction the Democratic Party needs to go to rebuild and strengthen its ties with working class Americans, young people, communities of color, and the full diversity of the 99 percent of Americans who should be the base of the Democratic Party.”

“With allies of the far right and corporate interests now in control of all the branches of the federal government and a majority of state governments, it could not be more clear that the Democratic Party needs a new path that represents a fundamental break with reliance on Wall Street donors and the corporate class,” said DeMoro.

The other front-runner for the spot is former Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, who, as The Intercept wrote this week, “has an established record of not taking on the banks; both at the Department of Justice and the Department of Labor.”

350.org-co founder Bill McKibben, one of the signatories to the joint letter, wrote this week that Ellison and Perez “clearly represent the two wings of the party.”

Making his pitch for Ellison, filmmaker Michael Moore said Thursday the party has “a real chance to change things.”

“To just put in what the old guard wants again—what’s the message to young people out there?” he asked.

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Another observer offered similar thoughts about what the choice of either Ellison or Perez would represent in a “tweetstorm”:

As NPR puts it, whoever wins

According to Ajay Singh Chaudhary, executive director of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, the choice will be “about the future of the Democratic Party—and perhaps even if it has one.” He writes at Quartz:

The vote takes place Saturday in Atlanta, and as NBC News wrote: “Balloting could go multiple rounds before a victor emerges and back-room deal making for endorsements is expected. “

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Rob Van Dam, Katie Forbes no longer with Impact Wrestling

Posted on September 29, 2020 by bamdj

First reported by PWInsider and confirmed by Dave Meltzer, Rob Van Dam and Katie Forbes are no longer with Impact Wrestling.

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The two had not been working under a contract and their latest agreement had run out, wrapping up with a storyline that played out on last week’s AXS show. RVD pinned Sami Callihan in a match, giving Forbes five minutes alone with him. Callihan then took out RVD with a chair and hit a Cactus Special on Forbes to close out the angle.

The 49-year-old returned to Impact in 2019 and initially worked in an ECW reunion angle with Tommy Dreamer and Sabu against current day Impact stars. He was also part of the Cancel Culture group with Joey Ryan until Ryan was fired due to sexual assault allegations.

Forbes, Van Dam’s girlfriend, also signed with Impact in 2019 and debuted at their United We Stand event.

A former TNA World Champion and X-Division Champion, Van Dam didn’t hold any titles in his second run.

RESIST DAY #59: What You Can Do Today

Posted on September 29, 2020 by bamdj

Sunday, March 19, 2017

RSVP now for tonight’s “Ready to Resist Call” [Sunday, March 19 at 8 p.m. ET (7 CT/6 MT/5 PT)]. We’ll discuss the next phase of strategy to save our health care, in light of the House vote on Trumpcare being slated to take place this week. We’ll also learn about Trump’s Supreme Court pick, Neil Gorsuch, and how we can resist his nomination.
With members of congress back in their districts for a long weekend, Town Halls and similar events are happening locally nationwide
- website (and on ) for Town Hall events in your area this weekend.
Following this week’s release of the CBO’s “devastating” analysis of the House GOP’s plan to destroy healthcare, the time is now to step up the pressure on your elected lawmaker to oppose this legislation

using the district-specific Affordable Care Act numbers provided by Contacting Congress.
(or whatever name GOP wants to use). More resources .
Indivisible has provides additional resources and information .

With his confirmation hearings set to begin Monday, join national and local efforts to keep Neil Gorsuch from being confirmed to the nation’s highest court
- Call your U.S. Senators and tell them you oppose Gorsuch
- Join the and campaigns both national or in your community. Resources .

What You Can Be Doing Every Day

Check out the Indivisible Guide’s “Capitol Calendar.” See if there’s a local Indivisible group in your area. If there isn’t, start one.
” also has a running schedule of events and actions.
Sign up to receive ” on your mobile device
Every day: Make your voice heard with “5 Calls” (because calling actually works)
Every Sunday: Join “Ready to Resist” Strategy Calls
Every Tuesday: #ResistTrumpTuesdays (or on Twitter)

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To Those Who Trusted Him on Trade, Trump Prepares 'Punch in the Face'

Posted on September 29, 2020 by bamdj

In yet another broken promise, President Donald Trump appears to be walking back his campaign rhetoric on the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA—preparing to deliver what one critic described as “a punch in the face” to those who trusted Trump to make the trade deal better for working people.

According to the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, a draft proposal being circulated in Congress by the U.S. trade representative’s office “would keep some of NAFTA’s most controversial provisions, including an arbitration panel that lets investors in the three nations circumvent local courts to resolve civil claims.”

Such panels are regarded with suspicion by environmental, labor, public health, and democracy advocates, who say they put corporate welfare above the public interest. As Friends of the Earth president Erich Pica said Thursday, “These tribunals allow corporations to punish governments wishing to enforce sensible environmental and public interest regulations by imposing massive monetary damages.”

With the leaked proposal, Pica said, “Trump and members of his administration are proving that they will always prioritize CEOs over the working men and women who have suffered from NAFTA’s punishing trade policy.”

Citing trade scholar Jeffrey Schott, the Wall Street Journal further reported that “a number of the proposed negotiating objectives echo provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership [TPP], a 12-nation trade pact among Pacific Rim countries. Mr. Trump campaigned heavily against the TPP. The president pulled the U.S. from the deal on his first working day in office.”

Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, agreed in her analysis on Thursday: “For those who trusted Trump’s pledge to make NAFTA ‘much better’ for working people, it’s a punch in the face because the proposal describes TPP or any other same-old, same-old trade deal.”

She continued:

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“Mostly what I see here is the same corporate wish list and a set of international rules that work quite well for global corporations,” added Celeste Drake, the AFL-CIO’s trade policy specialist, in a comment to Politico.

In his press briefing on Thursday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer downplayed the proposal, saying it is “not a statement of administration policy” and “not an accurate statement of where we are at this time.”

But the Los Angeles Times noted that the draft may reflect lobbying on the part of Trump’s pro-corporate advisors such as former Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn, who now serves as director of the president’s National Economic Council. “He and others have been seeking to temper the more protectionist policies articulated during the campaign,” the LA Times wrote.

Matt Stoller, fellow at the Open Markets Program at the New America think tank, added in a series of tweets:

On the 2016 campaign trail, Trump called for killing NAFTA altogether, winning him support in Rust Belt states that have seen manufacturing jobs decimated over the last two decades.

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As such, “there are a lot of questions for how this document gets translated out for the very workers that voted for him in Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania,” the AFL-CIO’s Drake told Politico. “Of all the things people were voting for in November, it’s clear they were not voting for more of the same.”

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Sheriff Who Met DAPL Opponents With Brute Force Now Advising Other Law Enforcement

Posted on September 29, 2020 by bamdj

Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier, made infamous for leading his department in brutal confrontations with opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline, is reportedly advising other law enforcement on how to deal with protesters.

In an interview with the Omaha World-Herald published Tuesday, Kirchmeier predicted that the next flashpoint will come in Nebraska over the pending construction of the Keystone XL (KXL) tar sands pipeline.

Throughout the months-long standoff in North Dakota, the sheriff’s office was repeatedly criticized for acting as a security force for pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners, as well as for routinely employing an excessive use of force against demonstrators. Police in riot gear attacked the water protectors with rubber bullets, water cannons, teargas grenades, and other weapons.

In addition, military vehicles such as a BearCat and MRAPs were deployed, while protesters were monitored by helicopters and identification check-points.

Yet, Kirchmeier told the World-Herald “that several other states, including South Dakota, have asked him to relay what he learned from the Standing Rock protests, and said that eventually he expects to talk with those from Nebraska,” the newspaper reported.

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Among the lessons learned, according to reporter Paul Hammel, is how the county and state both “declared emergencies so they could utilize emergency funds to buy riot gear and cover the costs of officers who came from other states, including Nebraska.”

Further, “Kirchmeier said some tactical lessons were learned in confronting protesters, but he declined to share them,” Hammel wrote.

Since Trump’s State Department issued a permit last month for the portion of the pipeline that would run from tar sands fields in Alberta, Canada to existing pipelines in Steele City, Nebraska, opponents have been ramping up legal challenges and plans for non-violence resistance.

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And it seems that local law enforcement is also making preparations.

In Nebraska, Hammel reports:

Activist Jane Kleeb, who founded the organization Bold Nebraska that helped lead the original movement against KXL under former President Barack Obama, told Hammel that she is hopeful the project will not come to fruition, either because of the pending lawsuits or because it still needs approval from the Nebraskan government.

Otherwise, she said, “I think you’ll see creative, nonviolent civil disobedience if it comes to that…We’re obviously going to do everything we can to stand with landowners and the Ponca Tribe to protect their land and their legacy.”

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American Dream in Freefall: It's This Bad

Posted on September 29, 2020 by bamdj

Whither the American Dream?

It may not be totally dead, but a new study suggests that it is certainly on life support.

Published in the American Association for the Advancement of Science journal Science, the team of researchers led by Raj Chetty and David Grusky of Stanford University used data from federal income tax returns and U.S. Census and Current Population Surveys to look at trends of this “absolute mobility,” or earning more than one’s parents.

What they found was a dramatic decline over the past several decades. While nearly all—over 90 percent—of children born in 1940 were able to earn more than their parents, that figure drops to 50 percent for children born in the 1980s.

The authors write that the decline was particularly acute “in the industrial Midwest,” states like Michigan, and hit the middle class hardest, though they note “that declines in absolute mobility have been a systematic, widespread phenomenon throughout the United States since 1940.”

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Intertwined with the ability to move upward is the inequality gripping the nation. They note: “Higher GDP growth rates do not substantially increase the number of children who earn more than their parents because a large fraction of GDP goes to a small number of high income earners today.” Put another way, “Absolute mobility is highest when GDP growth rates are high and growth is spread broadly across the distribution.”

Thus, a big part of reversing the trend means “more equal economic redistribution,” the researchers conclude.

Noting the economic benefits that have been reaped most by those at the upper echelons, noted commentator Bill Moyers wrote months ago of “an ugly truth about America: inequality matters. It slows economic growth, undermines health, erodes social cohesion and solidarity, and starves education.”

It was a major theme of the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who continues to rail against the country’s “massive income and wealth inequality,” and condemned President Donald Trump’s budget blueprint last month as “morally obsence” for including “unacceptably painful cuts to programs that senior citizens, children, persons with disabilities, and working people rely on to feed their families, heat their homes, put food on the table, and educate their children.”

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Moore's wife asks supporters to 'report inappropriate news organization contact'

Convicted ex-coal exec releases first ad in Senate campaign

Accuser: Moore ‘unfit for public service’

RESIST DAY #47: What You Can Do Today

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

What You Can Be Doing Every Day