Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said that Democratic candidate Conor Lamb “has essentially run as a Republican” in the Pennsylvania House special election.
“He’s pro-gun. He says he’s personally pro-life. He says he’s pro-coal, he’s pro-tariff. He says he’s anti-Nancy PelosiNancy PelosiTrump on collision course with Congress over bases with Confederate names Black lawmakers unveil bill to remove Confederate statues from Capitol Pelosi: Georgia primary ‘disgrace’ could preview an election debacle in November MORE,” McEnany said on ABC News ahead of the election results Tuesday.
“Imagine that, a Democratic candidate who’s against Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader,” she said. “He has made himself into essentially a Republican. So you have a Republican in name and a Republican in truth running against one another.”
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McEnany was referring to GOP candidate Rick Saccone in her comments.
Lamb has said he is personally against abortion, but supports abortion rights. He has also promised to vote against House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in her next leadership bid.
Republicans spent the last few days of the campaign trying to avoid an upset by Lamb in the election. The Democrat had held a lead over Saccone in the latest polls ahead of the election.
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 campaigned for Saccone in Pennsylvania last week, and Donald Trump Jr.Don John TrumpTrump Jr. calls elderly supporter who was assaulted Trump Jr. hits Howard Stern for going ‘establishment,’ ‘acting like Hillary’ Trump Jr., GOP senator lash out at Facebook for taking down protest pages on stay-at-home orders MORE also traveled to the district this week to stump for the candidate.
Democrats have highlighted a possible win by Lamb as a sign they can flip deep-red districts in upcoming elections.
Senate Republicans’ campaign arm is out with a new suite of digital ads Monday that ties red-state Democrats to dismissive comments from Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhite House accuses Biden of pushing ‘conspiracy theories’ with Trump election claim Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton qualifies to run for county commissioner in Florida MORE about supporters of 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.
The new ads, which will air in states that Trump won in 2016 where a Democratic senator is now up for reelection, uses footage from two Clinton speeches — one from the 2016 campaign and one from a discussion in India earlier this month. ADVERTISEMENTThe ad plays video of the famous line from the 2016 campaign that saw the Democratic nominee and former secretary of State pan half of Trump supporters as part of a “basket of deplorables.” Then it pivots to the more recent footage, where Clinton framed supporters of Trump’s campaign as people who want to look “backwards.” The ads end by mashing up footage of the Democratic senators campaigning for Clinton with her controversial comments. It’s the latest attempt by Republicans to poke at the scabs of a bruising 2016 election and mobilize voters around opposition to Clinton. It’s not the first time Clinton has found her way into GOP Senate advertising. Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley’s campaign created a similar digital ad earlier this month that tied his opponent, Sen. Claire McCaskillClaire Conner McCaskillMissouri county issues travel advisory for Lake of the Ozarks after Memorial Day parties Senate faces protracted floor fight over judges amid pandemic safety concerns Amash on eyeing presidential bid: ‘Millions of Americans’ want someone other than Trump, Biden MORE (D), to Clinton’s most recent comments. Vulnerable Democrats have sought in recent days to distance themselves from the comments Clinton made in India, for which she’s since apologized. During an interview on MSNBC’s “Kasie DC” on Sunday, McCaskill called on Clinton to “be more careful and show respect to every American voter, and not just the ones who voted for her.”
Democratic 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 (Mass.) has now raised more than $3 million dollars in the first three months of 2018, according to The Boston Globe, driven by a groundswell of small donations.
The senator, who is up for reelection this year, raised $3.12 million in the first quarter of the year, her campaign said, adding to a campaign account that now has more than $15 million in cash on hand. Warren’s fundraising surge began last year, when she raised nearly $1 million per month ahead of November’s midterm elections.
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Warren’s upcoming federal campaign filing report, due out Sunday, is expected to show that nearly 99 percent of her donations totaled less than $100, according to the Globe. And 82 percent of the donations were below $25 each, the campaign told MassLive.
The senator’s campaign began 2018 with a total of $14.1 million in cash on hand.
The campaign estimates that more than 10,400 of the small contributions came from Massachusetts residents, though it has not said how much the Warren raised from donors outside the state.
Warren, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, has now raised more than 10 times that of the three leading Republican challengers seeking to represent the deep-blue state in 2018. She is considered a virtual lock for reelection.
Some of Warren’s fundraising is likely being fueled by the possibility of a presidential run in 2020.
Warren has denied she’s preparing for a White House run, but many Democrats see her as a likely candidate.
At a Vatican seminar attended by Nobel Peace Prize winners, United Nations officials, and representatives from countries with nuclear capabilities, Pope Francis urged leaders to move towards nuclear disarmament on Friday.
The pontiff’s speech came a week after he made a plea for an end to “useless massacres” in an anti-war speech at a military cemetery in Italy, in which he alluded to the rising tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, exacerbated in recent months by President Donald Trump’s bellicose threats in response to Kim Jong-un’s nuclear tests.
Pope Francis argued that the insistence on maintaining nuclear arsenals by nations including the United States, North Korea, and France “creates nothing but a false sense of security,” and therefore total disarmament is the only acceptable solution.
Nuclear weapons, he said, “exist in the service of a mentality of fear that affects not only the parties in conflict but the entire human race. International relations cannot be held captive to military force, mutual intimidation, and the parading of stockpiles of arms.”
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“Weapons that result in the destruction of the human race are senseless even from a tactical standpoint,” added the pope.
Pope Francis also expressed “gratitude and appreciation” for the U.N.’s recent treaty calling for an elimination of nuclear weapons. The agreement was adopted in July, but all the nuclear states abstained from voting. So far, three parties have ratified the treaty.
The seminar signified a shift in the Catholic Church’s tolerance of the existence of nuclear programs. Bishops in the U.S. expressed a “strictly conditional moral acceptance of deterrence” but the Pope’s recent remarks indicate that the conditions may now call for a policy change.
“The church’s tolerance of deterrence was predicated on it being a step toward disarmament,” said Stephen Colecchi, director of the U.S. bishops’ conference’s Office of International Justice and Peace, in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter. Today, regimes are “planning modernization of nuclear weapons. You don’t modernize a weapons system that you intend to disarm from. So I think deterrence is on very thin moral grounds.”
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Scores of leading global economists this week demanded an end to the funding of fossil fuel projects and called for a massive increase to investments in renewables, saying “it will take unprecedented actions to limit the worst consequences of our dependence on oil, coal, and gas.”
The declaration, signed by economists including James Galbraith, Juliet Schor, Jeffrey Sachs, and Yanis Varoufasis, “affirms that it is the urgent responsibility and moral obligation of public and private investors and development institutions to lead in putting an end to fossil fuel development.”
The case for “keeping it in the ground” is clear, they write, given that the potential carbon from already developed fossil fuel projects will push the planet to beyond a so-called safe level of warming.
“Thus, not only are new exploration and new production incompatible with limiting global warming to well below 2ºC (and as close to 1.5ºC as possible), but many existing projects will need to be phased-out faster than their natural decline. Simply put: there is no more room for new fossil fuel infrastructure and therefore no case for ongoing investment,” the declaration states.
Instead, they write, “let us all prioritize the tremendous investment opportunities for a 100 percent renewable future that support healthy economies while protecting workers, communities, and the ecological limits of a finite planet.”
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“It’s time to stop wasting public money on dirty fossil fuels and invest it instead in a sustainable future.” —Tim Jackson, University of SurreySuch a future offers a promise of “a new economic paradigm of prosperity and equity,” they write.
The declaration was released ahead of the One Planet summit, convened by French President Emmanuel Macron, taking place two years after the historic Paris climate accord was reached. Trump will not attend, but the global leaders who do will ostensibly energize the push for continued climate action, though it was organized in part by the World Bank Group, which continues to fund dirty energy.
“It is time for European leaders, especially President Macron, who understands the threat posed to our planet by Donald Trump’s climate change denial, to help smash our economies’ reliance on fossil fuel subsidies and investment,” said Varoufakis. “Not one more penny or cent can go to coal, oil, or gas subsidies.”
A mass mobilization with that message is set to take place in Paris on Dec. 12, the day of the summit.
“If our leaders remain hesitant to put their full support behind green investments, despite it making economic sense,” said signatory Tim Jackson of the University of Surrey, “I would like to remind them that they have enormous public support. It’s time to stop wasting public money on dirty fossil fuels and invest it instead in a sustainable future.”
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Georgia’s public utility commission voted 5-0 on Thursday to continue construction on two half-finished nuclear reactors that will cost an estimated $25 billion, even though the project is now “more than $10 billion over budget and five years late.”
“Georgia Power should scrap this disaster immediately and instead transition away from dangerous nuclear and fossil fuel-based electric generation and toward a 100 percent clean energy economy.” —Ted Terry, Sierra Club’s Georgia Chapter
Opponents of nuclear power were disappointed by the unanimous decision, which the Wall Street Journal notes was considered “a victory for Southern Co., whose subsidiary Georgia Power is the primary owner of the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, which has two existing reactors.” The project has faced opposition from local residents as well as national groups that emphasize the long-term risks of nuclear power.
“Georgia Power should scrap this disaster immediately and instead transition away from dangerous nuclear and fossil fuel-based electric generation and toward a 100 percent clean energy economy that creates good jobs, protects our environment, and shields our communities from the gross financial risks associated with bad bets like Vogtle,” said Ted Terry, director of the Sierra Club’s Georgia Chapter, after the vote.
“Georgia Power’s profits have soared because they’ve been allowed to pick the pockets of families, schools and churches for a boondoggle that even the [public utility commission’s] staff has called too uneconomic to continue—yet today commissioners chose not to stop it,” Terry added. “The commission has failed Georgia’s hard-working families and businesses today by choosing to be lapdogs for Georgia Power instead of watchdogs for the people of Georgia.”
Construction on the reactors “has been plagued by delays and spiraling costs, compounded when the main contractor filed for bankruptcy” in March, the Associated Press reports.
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“Most people have to pay for their mistakes, but Georgia Power is still profiting from theirs,” said Kurt Ebersbach, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center. “There’s something wrong with a system that rewards this kind of failure.”
The decision will likely “shape the future of the nation’s nuclear industry, partly because the reactors at Plant Vogtle were the first new ones to be licensed and to begin construction in the U.S. since 1978,” the AP notes—all while consumers of power in Georgia pay the price.
“Under state law, Georgia Power’s 2.4 million customers will ultimately reimburse the state-regulated monopoly for the flagship plant as they pay their monthly electricity bills,” the AP explains. “That law allows Georgia Power to charge its customers now for the interest it pays on the borrowed money needed for the project. Under an older law, the utility had to wait until the plant was operating to collect those interest charges from its customers, a practice that meant the interest owed grew during the construction period.”
“Even though customers had no control over Georgia Power’s mistakes, they’re going to be the ones footing the bill,” said Nathaniel Smith, chief equity officer at the Atlanta-based nonprofit Partnership for Southern Equity. “These impacts will be especially difficult on the most vulnerable Georgians who are already struggling to put food on the table.”
However, there may still be hope for cancelling the project. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Georgia utility regulators “conditioned their approval of the Vogtle nuclear project on no small caveat: that Congress approves roughly $800 million worth of tax credits”—meaning that if federal lawmakers don’t approve the tax credits, the state regulators may reconsider their decision.
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A rivalry that has been building for weeks will hit its boiling point next Wednesday on AEW Dynamite as Darby Allin and Ricky Starks will finally go one-on-one.
While they have clashed in a tornado tag team match and the recent Casino Battle Royal, next week will be their first singles meeting. The two were supposed to be part of a six-man tag on this week’s Dynamite but the match was canceled due to Lance Archer’s positive COVID-19 test.
In another featured match, former AEW World Champion Chris Jericho will face Private Party’s Isiah Kassidy in singles action. The two had a verbal exchange following a Matt Hardy promo when Kassidy stepped up and called out Jericho for a match. This will be his first singles match in AEW and a rare one in general for his young career.
The rest of what was announced:
AEW World Champion Jon Moxley will make an appearance.
AEW Tag Team Champions FTR will face SCU in a 20 minute challenge where SCU must defeat the champions within the time limit in order to win.
Dr. Britt Baker will be action for the first time since the Tooth and Nail match at All Out.
Advocacy groups vowed to continue their fight for peace and justice on Sunday after the Israeli government announced they are banned from the country for their support of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement known as BDS.
“Israel’s desperate attempt to counter the BDS movement with this latest blacklist, along with the millions of dollars they are spending on internet trolling and propaganda campaigns, will not stop our principled support of equality and justice for the Palestinian people.” —Nancy Kricorian, CODEPINK
“By banning the leaders of peace organizations like CODEPINK, Israel is isolating itself even further as an apartheid state,” said Ariel Gold, national director of CODEPINK. “Their BDS blacklist is contrary to democratic principles and Jewish values. As an American Jew, I am proud of my work to challenge Israel’s policies of repression. I will not give up the fight.”
The list of 20 groups was published Sunday by the Strategic Affairs Minister, and follows Israel’s passage of a law in March 2017 banning BDS supporters from entering the country.
“We have shifted from defense to offense,” said Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan. “The boycott organizations need to know that the State of Israel will act against them and not allow [them] to enter its territory to harm its citizens.”
In addition to CODEPINK, the U.S.-based groups on the list include the Nobel Peace Prize-winning American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), American Muslims for Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), National Students for Justice in Palestine, and U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights. Among the European organizations on the list are War on Want and Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
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According to JVP executive director Rebecca Vilkomerson, the development “is disconcerting but not surprising, given the further erosion of democratic norms as well as rising anxiety about the power of BDS as a tool to demand freedom. JVP members are now joining Palestinians as well as Muslims from around the world, people of color, and other activists who are often barred from entry.”
For CODEPINK member Nancy Kricorian, being included on the list is actually a source of pride.
“As I read through the names of groups now banned from entering Israel because of their advocacy for Palestinian rights,” she said in a statement, “I thought that this list was rather a roll of honor. Israel’s desperate attempt to counter the BDS movement with this latest blacklist, along with the millions of dollars they are spending on internet trolling and propaganda campaigns, will not stop our principled support of equality and justice for the Palestinian people.”
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The United States’ global standing has plummeted under the Trump administration, according to Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) annual report and an international Gallup survey regarding the country’s reputation as a world leader.
The “authoritarian populist agenda” promoted by President Donald Trump along with lawmakers in several European Union countries, and those leaders’ promotion of xenophobia and racism, has left a vacuum that leaders including Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China have taken advantage of, asserting their own anti-rights agendas.
Trump “displays a disturbing fondness for rights-trampling strongmen,” wrote Kenneth Roth, executive director of HRW, in his introduction to the group’s World Report 2018. The report details the president’s warm relations with Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte, who has spearheaded a “war on drugs” that’s killed thousands; and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has waged attacks on his opponents and the press.
Meanwhile, Roth wrote, “Secretary of State Rex Tillerson largely rejected the promotion of human rights as an element of U.S. foreign policy while more broadly reducing the role of the U.S. abroad by presiding over an unprecedented dismantling of the State Department,” as possible reference to the departure of 60 percent of department’s career diplomats since Trump took office.
The administration’s abandonment of human rights, Roth added, “makes it much more difficult to stigmatize these authoritarian leaders when Trump says these are great guys.”
The report also denounced the president’s threats to human rights within the U.S., noting that “Trump has targeted refugees and immigrants, calling them criminals and security threats; emboldened racist politics by equivocating on white nationalism; and consistently championed anti-Muslim ideas and policies,” and cataloging his administration’s threats to women’s rights and Americans’ right to healthcare as well.
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As HRW praised “France, the Netherlands, Canada, Belgium, Ireland, and even tiny Liechtenstein” as largely resisting the pull of anti-human rights agendas in recent years, Gallup’s new World Poll also exhibited a shift away from looking to the U.S. as a global leader.
In former President Barack Obama’s last term, the annual poll found that 48 percent of those surveyed approved of U.S. leadership, compared with a new low of 30 percent under Trump.
The previous low of 34 percent was reached in George W. Bush’s last term after an eight-year presidency in which he launched the illegal invasion of Irag and oversaw a global economic collapse. Trump achieved the new low after just one year in office.
“It is clear that based on the trajectory of what the world thinks of the U.S., many of the U.S. alliances and partnerships that the Trump administration considers a ‘great strength’ are potentially at risk,” wrote Julie Ray on Gallup’s blog post regarding the report.
U.S. leadership is now on nearly equal footing with that of China in the eyes of those surveyed, and ranks just above Russia, while Germany was seen as the top global power.
In Washington, D.C. and more than two dozen states across the country on Monday, supporters of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival gathered to kick off 40 days of “moral action” to highlight “the human impact of policies which promote systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, and environmental devastation.”
Led by co-chairs Rev. Dr. William J. Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis—and inspired by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s original Poor People’s Campaign in the late 1960s—the campaign, which was announced last year, livestreamed a press conference from D.C. and delivered to lawmakers a letter outlining their demands for policy changes.
Watch:
Barber, in a series of tweets, denounced rampant voter supression, systemic poverty, a lack of living wages, ecological devastation, and “Christian nationalism,” emphasizing an urgent need for sweeping changes in public policy on a national scale.
“We are tired of a dog-eat-dog system of life,” declared Rev. Saeed Richardson, director of policy for the Chicago Renewal Society.
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“We are witnessing an assault on the poor, on immigrants, on black and brown people, and on the Earth,” said Rev. Joan Javier-Duval in Vermont, “and we can’t let it happen any longer.”
“This is about fighting injustice anywhere so that we don’t let ourselves lose the vision of what America can be,” noted Diana Martinez of the pro-immigrant Kansas/Missouri Dream Alliance. “Because when racism and nativism become the rule of law it hurts all of us.”
Participants from events across the U.S. shared on social media messages, photos, and videos depicting the goals of the #PoorPeoplesCampaign:
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