As Election Day Nears, Military Hawks Circle to Promote New Wave of War

A slew of bipartisan reports are hoping to push the former secretary of state to increased military action in the Middle East, particularly Syria

By Lauren McCauley, staff writer

"D.C. foreign policy elite are giddy that hawkish Barack Obama will be replaced by much more hawkish Hillary Clinton."
—Zaid Jilani, The Intercept

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/10/20/election-day-nears-military-hawks-circle-promote-new-wave-war

Though the hawkish stance of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has been too often ignored this election season, new reporting on Thursday highlights how her presumed win in November will likely usher in a more aggressive, bipartisan foreign policy in the Middle East and beyond.

"The Republicans and Democrats who make up the foreign policy elite are laying the groundwork for a more assertive American foreign policy via a flurry of reports shaped by officials who are likely to play senior roles in a potential Clinton White House," the Washington Post's White House correspondent Greg Jaffe reports.

One such study, published Wednesday by the Center for American Progress (CAP)—which is run by president Neera Tanden, policy director for Clinton's presidential campaign—recommends the next administration step up its "military engagement" amid a more "proactive and long-term approach to the Middle East."

This includes, among other things: building "on the Obama administration's campaign to defeat the Islamic State and Al Qaeda militarily by deepening multilateral cooperation with regional partners and taking steps to help create a regional security framework;" as well as being "prepared to use airpower to protect U.S. partners and civilians in certain parts of Syria."

The latter recommendation is seemingly a direct regurgitation of Clinton's repeated call for a "no-fly zone" in that region—one she reiterated during Wednesday's presidential debate.

Jaffe also highlights an upcoming report by the Brookings Institution, due out in December, which has been produced by a "team of top former Clinton, Bush, and Obama administration officials," as well as one authored by a bipartisan group led by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on behalf of the Atlantic Council.

"Taken together," Jaffe reports, "the studies and reports call for more-aggressive American action to constrain Iran, rein in the chaos in the Middle East and check Russia in Europe. The studies, which reflect Clinton's stated views and the direction she is likely to take if she is elected, break most forcefully with Obama on Syria." 

"Virtually all these efforts," he continues, "call for stepped up military action to deter President Bashar al-Assad's regime and Russian forces in Syria."

Jaffe further notes that "in the rarefied world of the Washington foreign policy establishment, President Obama's departure from the White House—and the possible return of a more conventional and hawkish Hillary Clinton—is being met with quiet relief."

Or, as The Intercept journalist Zaid Jilani put it, "D.C. foreign policy elite are giddy that hawkish Barack Obama will be replaced by much more hawkish Hillary Clinton."

Indeed, Jaffe's attempt to paint Obama as "doveish" was ridiculed by journalist Glenn Greenwald and others who have worked to highlight the president's ongoing secret drone war and military operations across the Middle East and Africa.

Jaffe writes that "[t]he disagreement over Syria policy reflects a broader rift between the Obama White House and the foreign policy establishment," of which Clinton is a member.

The reporting comes in the final weeks of the presidential campaign, during which Obama has campaigned aggressively on behalf Clinton, turning his back on any of these tensions. But Jaffe quotes a "senior administration official who is involved in Middle East policy" who said of the call for a no-fly zone: "You can't pretend you can go to war against Assad and not go to war against the Russians."

To which Greenwald and Jilani quipped:

Obamas administration is cautioning Hillary Clinton is risking war with Russia, behind anonymous quotes.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/washington-foreign-policy-elites-not-sorry-to-see-obama-go/2016/10/20/bd2334a2-9228-11e6-9c52-0b10449e33c4_story.html?postshare=771476985034353&tid=ss_tw …pic.twitter.com/mADdicyKNy

You're ruining all the nice feelings by bringing up stuff like this.  https://twitter.com/ZaidJilani/status/789178926660583425 …

Bernie Sanders Raises $2 Million in Two Days for Downticket Democrats

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/10/21/showing-strength-political-revolution-sanders-raises-2m-two-days-downticket-dems

Showing Strength of 'Political Revolution,' Sanders Raises $2M in Two Days for Downticket Dems

House Speaker Paul Ryan unintentionally galvanized the left with threat of "a guy named Bernie Sanders" taking over the Senate Budget Committee

By Lauren McCauley, staff writer

Though he may not have won the presidential nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders has again demonstrated the power of his influence, raising nearly $2 million in just two days for down-ticket Democrats hoping to carry the mantle of his "political revolution" into Congress come November.

As of late Thursday, emails to Sanders' donor list brought in a whopping $1.88 million for 13 progressive candidates for the House and Senate.

An aide told reporters the one of the biggest beneficiaries of Sanders' fundraising efforts was Deborah Ross, the Democratic nominee challenging Republican Sen. Richard Burr in North Carolina. Her campaign took in an estimated $300,000 after Sanders sent an email declaring that contest "one of the most important Senate races," and describing Ross as an enemy of the Koch brothers—who have poured millions into that fight—and a champion for working families.

Further galvanizing the left were comments made by GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan, who told young conservatives last week: "If we lose the Senate, do you know who becomes chair of the Senate Budget Committee? A guy named Bernie Sanders. You ever heard of him?"

And while the warning was meant to stir Republicans to action, instead, it ignited a flurry of excitement among Sanders supporters, thrilled at the possibility that the progressive darling may gain control over the budget.

"The prospect of Bernie Sanders writing budgets and setting national priorities is, well, 'awesome,'" wrote The Nation's John Nichols.

Predictably, Sanders and his team had a field day with Ryan's remarks.

[IMAGE]

In an email to supporters late Wednesday, Sanders laid out his plan for changing the political landscape and advancing "the most progressive agenda of any party in American history."

"Consider for a moment the power that exists in the U.S. Senate," he explained. "Right now, the Republican majority is using their power to block any meaningful action on addressing income inequality or climate change."

"With a Democratic majority, we can change all of that," Sanders continued. "What Paul Ryan is specifically afraid of is the power of the budget committee. That committee defines the spending priorities of the entire government. The work of that committee says how much revenue the government should have, and where its money should go. I have some thoughts on how the government should allocate its spending. I'm sure you do, too."

Contributions made directly to the Sanders campaign offshoot Our Revolution are evenly divided between: Ross, New York's Zephyr Teachout,Russ Feingold in Wisconsin, Catherine Cortez-Masto in Nevada, New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, Katie McGinty in Pennsylvania, Michigan'sPaul Clements, Standing Rock Sioux tribal member and North Dakota Congressional candidate Chase Iron Eyes, Minnesota incumbent Rep. Rick Nolan, Nanette Barragán in California, Washington state's Pramila Jayapal,Morgan Carroll in Colorado, and Wisconsin's Tom Nelson.

While the national media spotlight has remained on the presidential contest, Ryan's threats have unintentionally given renewed vigor to the movement to #FlipTheSenate and #TurnCongressBlue.

Naomi Klein and Glenn Greenwald Discss Ethics of WikiLeaks' Podesta Emails

'There's debate, even among people who believe in radical transparency, over the proper way to handle information like this'

By Nika Knight, staff writer

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/10/20/naomi-klein-and-glenn-greenwald-tackle-ethics-wikileaks-podesta-emails

A discussion between The Intercept's Glenn Greenwald and author and activist Naomi Klein tackled thorny privacy issues surrounding WikiLeaks' indiscriminate release of John Podesta's hacked emails in a 30-minute discussion published by The Intercept late Wednesday.

The Intercept has covered the release of thousands of emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign manager in depth, from exploring Clinton's speeches to Wall Street to examining the Clinton campaign's inner workings, and Greenwald had previously described the decision to cover the emails as "an easy call."

But Klein wondered whether The Intercept might be betraying some of its core principals—most prominently, its privacy advocacy—by not taking note of the moral issues raised by such indiscriminate email dumps.

"Personal emails—and there's all kinds of personal stuff in these emails—this sort of indiscriminate dump is precisely what Snowden was trying to protect us from," Klein said. "That's why I wanted to talk with you about it, because I think we need to continuously reassert that principle."

"Certainly Podesta is a very powerful person, and he will be more powerful after Hillary Clinton is elected, if she's elected, and it looks like she will be," Klein added.

"But I'm concerned about the subjectivity of who gets defined as sufficiently powerful to lose their privacy because I am absolutely sure there are plenty of people in the world who believe that you and I are sufficiently powerful to lose our privacy," Klein said, "and I come to this as a journalist and author who has used leaked and declassified documents to do my work."

"But I'm also part of the climate justice movement, and this is a movement that has come under incredible amounts of surveillance by oil industry-funded front groups of various kinds. There are people in the movement now who are being tracked as if they were political candidates, everywhere they go," Klein continued, referring to right-wing groups' harassment of prominent climate activists.

Greenwald noted that WikiLeaks has radically changed its stance on privacy since its start, moving from curating leaked material to simply releasing all of it to the public.

"So there's debate, even among people who believe in radical transparency, over the proper way to handle information like this," Greenwald said. "I think WikiLeaks more or less at this point stands alone in believing that these kinds of dumps are ethically—never mind journalistically—just ethically, as a human being, justifiable."

Listen to the whole discussion here:

https://soundcloud.com/the_intercept/disclosure_glennnaomi_v1

Vivienne Westwood Says She Wouldn’t Vote for Warmonger Hillary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj1vT8IPaKs

TiSA Agreement Leaks Show Corporations Pushing Privatization of Public Services

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVDJ0i33L0Y

Final Presidential Debate: Recap and Analysis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=griBXbxQrCk

Meet the “People’s Action 22”: Candidates Fighting For All Of Us

By George Goehl, LeeAnn Hall

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/10/18/meet-peoples-action-22-candidates-fighting-all-us

In the final weeks of a dispiriting presidential election, hope is on the horizon – and it’s down-ballot. That’s where you will find more and more everyday people deciding to challenge neoliberal politics and build a bottom-up movement that fights for fairness in our economy and democracy for all people.

We are proud to announce the first slate of progressive candidates endorsed by People’s Action, a national organization of more than a million people in affiliated groups across 29 states.

The candidates who make up our “People’s Action 22” will help build on the progressive political revolution ignited by Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.

The candidates who make up our “People’s Action 22” will help build on the progressive political revolution ignited by Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. They are grassroots leaders committed to fighting for people instead of corporate profits. They have proven their commitment to racial justice, gender justice, climate justice and economic justice.

We know this because the “People’s Action 22” candidates come from out of the justice movement in America; many of them as leaders within our own organizations. They live in the real America, not in the corporate boardrooms.

They know what it’s like to not be able to make ends meet. They understand what it’s like to have to choose between meals or medicine for your children. They understand what it’s like to be targeted for police violence because you are black, or to have your family threatened by deportation.

Each of these candidates represents the world we believe is possible, one where everyone has what they need to reach their full potential. With these down-ballot candidates, we have a start on creating the world as it should be.

The “People’s Action 22” list includes leaders like:

● Gina Melaragno in Maine, who was inspired to run for state representative by her own experience with lack of health care access.

● Pramila Jayapal, a Washington state senator running for Congress, who founded Hate Free Zone (now the People’s Action member organization OneAmerica) in response to hate and discrimination after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

● LaTonya Johnson, running for state senate in Wisconsin, who owned and operated a child care center for 10 years, caring for Milwaukee’s poorest children and their parents struggling to cover their basic needs.

Zephyr Teachout of New York, a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, was the first executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, working for transparent government. She has fought big banks and led the movement against fracking in New York.

They will work to make sure our democracy is power for those who don’t have it – to hold accountable those who use their power only to maximize their profits.

Every day, new leaders with values we share are stepping up and standing out in our communities. People’s Action is committed to supporting the next generation of progressive leadership as part of our mission to build a country that works for everyone.

The full slate of the “People’s Action 22” is below:

Russ Feingold, Wisconsin, U.S. Senate

Christina Hartman, Pennsylvania, U.S. House of Representatives District 16

Pramila Jayapal, Washington, U.S. House of Representatives, District 7

Zephyr Teachout, New York, U.S. House of Representatives, District 19

Heidi Brooks, Maine, State House of Representatives District 61

Mari Cordes, Vermont, House of Representatives, Addison, District 4

Arturo Fierro, New Mexico, State House of Representatives District 7

Lauren Freedman, Michigan, Kalamazoo School Board

Kim Foxx, Illinois, Cook County, State’s Attorney

LaTonya Johnson, Wisconsin, State Senate District 6

Denise Lopez, Nevada, Sparks City Council Ward 1

Theresa Mah, Illinois, State House of Representatives, District 2

Gina Melaragno, Maine, State House of Representatives District 62

Sara Niccoli, New York, State Senate, District 46

Ilhan Omar, Minnesota, State House of Representatives District 60B

Chris Rabb, Pennsylvania, State House of Representatives District 200

Jamie Raskin, Maryland, Congressional District 8

Gustavo Rivera, New York, State Senate District 33

J. Alejandro Urrutia, New Hampshire, State House of Representatives District Hillsborough 37

Andru Volinsky, New Hampshire, Executive Council Dist. 2

Mandy Wright, Wisconsin, State Assembly, District 85

David Zuckerman, Vermont, Lieutenant Governor