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"Make no mistake about it, this was nothing more than an attempted partisan coverup for the shameless and illegal conduct of Donald Trump."
by
Jon Queally, staff writer
72 Comments
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/05/senate-republicans-acquit-trump-cowardly-and-disgraceful-final-act-their-show-trial?
In what critics called the final act of a "ham-handed coverup" by Republican lawmakers, President Donald Trump was acquitted by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday on both impeachment counts—one for abuse of power and one for obstruction of Congress—approved by the U.S. House of Representatives last month.
In the first vote on abuse of power, the vote was 48 in favor of conviction and removal of the president with just one Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, joining with the 47 members of the Democratic caucus. All 52 other Republicans in the Senate voted to acquit.
In the second vote on obstruction of power, the vote was 47-53, strictly along party lines.
Immediately following the vote, progressives expressed outrageand condemned the senators who voted to acquit the president.
Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, was among those who said that while the outcome was not unexpected, it would not soon be forgotten.
"Americans deserved the truth, but they got a ham-handed coverup instead," Hobert Flynn said. "The Republican majority in the United States Senate denied the American people the truth and violated their oaths of office in a fruitless attempt to sweep Trump's illegal acts under the rug."
"In a cowardly and disgraceful final act to their show trial," she continued, "Senate Republicans—with the notable exception of Mitt Romney—buried their heads in the sand and voted to condone President Trump's blatant abuse of the powers of the presidency. Make no mistake about it, this was nothing more than an attempted partisan coverup for the shameless and illegal conduct of Donald Trump."
"This is not an 'acquittal,' this is a cover-up," said Stand Up America founder and president Sean Eldridge in a statement. "What Republican senators just did threatens the foundation of our democracy and upends the rule of law."
Eldridge called the Senate vote part of a "sham trial that hid evidence from the American people," and accused Republicans of choosing "partisan cowardice over patriotism."
"The American people will not take this assault on our democracy sitting down," said Eldridge. "We will organize like never before to hold Donald Trump and Senate Republicans accountable at the ballot box this November."
Rahna Epting, executive director of MoveOn Political Action, echoed the call for electoral payback. "Republican senators may have failed to do their job, but voters won't fail to do ours," said Epting. "We have one message for Donald Trump and the Senate Republicans who time and time again have helped cover up his abuses: We will see you at the ballot box."
"This trial may close, but this movement continues," said By the People executive director Alexandra Flores-Quilty.
Flores-Quilty added that her group and others would continue to push to hold both Trump and Republican lawmakers accountable.
"Just as past Americans came together to defeat kings and Jim Crow, we will unite to make this country what it should be," said Flores-Quilty. "A government of, by, and for the people."
"Intervening in Venezuela's internal politics is the one thing that is bipartisan! How sad," said CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin.
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/05/no-better-distillation-washington-democrats-and-gop-join-trump-standing-ovation?
In a moment observers described as a telling display of the bipartisan support for regime change that pervades Washington, D.C., congressional Democrats applauded along with their Republican colleagues after President Donald Trump used his State of the Union address Tuesday night to praise Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who headed a failed U.S-backed coup against his country's elected president last year.
Trump hailed Guaidó—who was in attendance for the address—as the "true and legitimate president of Venezuela," a line that was met with a raucous standing ovation from members of both political parties, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the top Democrat in Congress.
As NPR reported, "Guaidó received an extended bipartisan standing ovation. It was one of the few times that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrats stood to applaud during Trump's speech."
Watch:
Keane Bhatt, policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), tweeted in response to the show of unity that "there is no better distillation of Washington, D.C. than a State of the Union in which Nancy Pelosi—having just led the impeachment of Donald 'All Roads Lead to Putin' Trump—twice joins in a rousing standing ovation of Juan Guaidó, Trump's appointed 'president' of Venezuela."
CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin reacted with dismay to the bipartisan standing ovation for Guaidó, whose coup attempt against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro quickly collapsed last year despite support from the U.S. and other nations.
"The Democrats, including Pelosi, just got up to applaud the self-proclaimed 'president' of Venezuela Juan Guaidó," tweeted Benjamin. "Intervening in Venezuela's internal politics is the one thing that is bipartisan! How sad."
"From where I come, when you get 6,000 more votes that's generally regarded to be the winner."
Jake Johnson, staff writer, Jon Queally, staff writer
303 Comments
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/06/because-i-got-6000-more-votes-bernie-sanders-declares-victory-iowa-caucus?
Touting his 6,000-vote lead over Pete Buttigieg with 97% of Iowa Democratic caucus precincts reporting, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday declared victory in the first-in-the-nation presidential contest and slammed the state Democratic Party's handling of the process as "extremely unfair to the people of Iowa" and the entire 2020 Democratic presidential field.
"What I want to do today, three days late, is to thank the people of Iowa for the very strong victory they gave us at the Iowa caucuses on Monday night," Sanders said during a press conference in Manchester, New Hampshire. "Even though the vote tabulations have been extremely slow, we are now at a point with some 97% of the precincts reporting where our campaign is winning the popular initial vote by some 6,000 votes."
The latest batch of caucus results released by the Iowa Democratic Party early Thursday morning show Sanders ahead of Buttigieg in the first alignment popular vote 42,672 to 36,718—a lead of 5,954 votes. In the final alignment popular vote, as Common Dreams reported ealier, Sanders is leading Buttigieg by more than 2,500 votes—44,753 to 42,235."In other words, some 6,000 more Iowans came out on caucus night to support our candidacy than the candidacy of anyone else," the Vermont senator added. "And when 6,000 more people come out for you in an election than your nearest opponent, we here in northern New England call that a victory."
Sanders' declaration of victory came just hours after Buttigieg, in a conference call with supporters Wednesday night, claimed victory in the Iowa caucus and called himself "the momentum candidate."
Asked Thursday why the public should believe his victory declaration over Buttigieg's, Sanders responded, "Because I got 6,000 more votes."
"And from where I come," Sanders added, "when you get 6,000 more votes that's generally regarded to be the winner."
Sanders brushed aside news that Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez demanded that the Iowa Democratic Party immediately "recanvass" the results of the caucus, emphasizing that he won the popular vote and that he and Buttigieg are likely to emerge from the process with the same number of national pledged delegates.
"We won an eight-person election by some 6,000 votes," Sanders said. "That is not going to be changed."
Watch full the press conference:
"The 2020 Iowa caucus was never about the number of DNC delegates. It was always about the momentum story," tweeted Becky Bond, a former aide to Sanders who worked on Beto O'Rourke's presidential campaign last year, following Thursday's press conference.
Major news outlets and prominent journalists covering the primaries should "change their criteria for declaring a winner in Iowa to the popular vote," Bond added, and should do so "while it still matters."
The decision came after 90% of students who voted on a referendum voted in favor of divestment.
Julia Conley, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/08/something-big-shifting-georgetown-announces-fossil-fuel-divestment-students-across?
Student-led anti-fossil fuel campaigns at universities across the country pointed to Georgetown University Friday as the school's board of directors announced it would divest from fossil fuels and redouble its efforts to invest in renewable energy instead.
The university's decision came after a sustained pressure campaign from Georgetown University Fossil Free (GUFF), a student group which submitted multiple proposals to the Georgetown Committee on Investments and Social Responsibility before the panel recommended the divestment this week. The school community also voted on a referendum regarding divestment on Thursday, withn more than 90% voting in favor.
GUFF issued a statement thanking the board of directors for its decision to divest and the school community for participating in the campaign.
"We are thrilled that our university has taken this important step in supporting climate justice, student voices, and financial accountability," GUFF wrote.
Similar groups at other schools called on administrators to follow suit:
Under Georgetown's new policy, the board of directors said, "the university will continue to make investments that target a market rate of return in renewable energy, energy efficiency and related areas while freezing new endowment investments in companies or funds whose primary business is the exploration or extraction of fossil fuels."
The school will divest from public securities in fossil fuel companies in the next five years and existing investments in those companies in the next decade.
"Divestment allows us to divert more capital to fund development of renewable energy projects that will play a vital role in the transition away from fossil fuels—part of the long-term solution required to prevent the most dangerous effects of climate change," Michael Barry, Georgetown's chief investment officer, said in a statement.
Climate action advocates including 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben and author Naomi Klein applauded the move.
"Something big is shifting," Klein wrote.
In November, hundreds of Harvard and Yale students stormed the field during the two schools' annual football game to demand the institutions divest from fossil fuels. The University of California system announced it would divest last September, and more than 1,000 other institutions around the world have committed to divestment in recent years.
As Georgetown students and faculty were celebrating the board's decision Friday, the Sunrise Movement chapter at George Washington University two miles away expressed frustration with the school's board of trustees, which announced it would form an "environmental, social, and governance responsibility" task force without naming divestment from fossil fuels as an immediate goal.
"There is absolutely no need to 'explore' whether or not GW's endowment should divest from fossil fuels," wrote the group. "The moral imperative is clear and does not need a moment's thought as to whether or not it is actively contributing to the degradation of our planet."
The Sunrise Movement chapter vowed to make sure it was "sufficiently considered in this process" and demanded the university join Georgetown in fully divesting from fossil fuels.
Lee Fang
February 4 2020, 2:34 p.m.
https://theintercept.com/2020/02/04/iowa-caucus-app-shadow-acronym/?utm
DEMOCRATIC OPERATIVE Tara McGowan is denying that her high-profile liberal firm ACRONYM played a role in the Monday evening caucus debacle, claiming that her firm was merely an investor in the company Shadow Inc., which developed the app at the center of the controversy. But internal company documents, a source close to the firms, and public records show a close and intertwined relationship between Acronym and Shadow.
In addition, ahead of the caucuses, questions swirled inside Shadow over the company’s ability to deliver a quality product, and there was concern from at least one staff member that senior leaders of Shadow and Acronym — both of which were launched as a new Democratic bulwark against President Donald Trump — have been far from neutral in the Democratic primary.
Throughout the caucus yesterday, Democratic officials reported widespread problems downloading the app and inconsistencies uploading caucus results, leading to the Iowa Democratic Party’s decision to take the unusual step of delaying the release of the results. This is the first year the app was used, and ahead of the caucuses, the Iowa Democratic Party asked that the app’s name be kept secret. The New York Times reported that “its creators had repeatedly questioned the need to keep it secret.”
Kyle Tharp, a spokesperson for Acronym, released a statement on Monday night downplaying his company’s affiliation with Shadow.
“ACRONYM is an investor in several for-profit companies across the progressive media and technology sectors,” Tharp said. “One of those independent, for-profit companies is Shadow, Inc, which also has other private investors.”
David Plouffe, a former campaign manager to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential bid who joined Acronym’s board, also distanced himself from the company during an MSNBC panel last night. “I have no knowledge of Shadow,” said Plouffe. “It was news to me.”
But previous statements and internal Acronym documents suggest that the two companies, which share office space in Denver, Colorado, are deeply intertwined.
Last year, McGowan, a co-founder of Acronym, wrote on Twitter that she was “so excited to announce @anotheracronym has acquired Groundbase,” a firm that included “their incredible team led by [Gerard Niemira] + are launching Shadow, a new tech company to build smarter infrastructure for campaigns.” McGowan also noted that “With Shadow, we’re building a new model incentivized by adoption over growth.” The acquisition was announced in mid-January of last year.
In an interview on a related podcast last month, McGowan described Niemira as “the CEO of Shadow, which is the technology company that Acronym is the sole investor in now.”
What’s more, internal documents from Acronym show a close relationship with Shadow. An internal organizational chart shows digital strategy firm Lockwood Strategy, FWIW Media, and Shadow as part of a unified structure, with Acronym staff involved in the trio’s operations.
In an all-staff email sent last Friday, an official with Lockwood Strategy reminded team members about “COOL THINGS HAPPENING AROUND ACRONYM.” The list included bullets points such as, “The Iowa caucus is on Monday, and the Shadow team is hard at work,” and “Shadow is working on scaling up VAN integration with Shadow Messaging for some Iowa caucus clients.” (VAN refers to the widely used Democratic voter file technology firm.) Acronym staffers also attended the Shadow staff retreat.
A person with knowledge of the company’s culture, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, shared communications showing that top officials at the company regularly expressed hostility to Sen. Bernie Sanders’s supporters. McGowan is married to Michael Halle, a senior strategist with the Buttigieg campaign. There is no evidence any preference of candidates had any effect on the coding issue that is stalling the Iowa results.
Acronym launched with a promise to compete with the Trump campaign’s strong emphasis on digital media, launching Democratic messages through paid advertisements on Facebook and other platforms. But the source said the company in many ways was woefully unprepared for the many challenges it had taken on, including the Iowa caucus app.
A precinct captain for Sanders, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press, confirmed that the rollout was rushed. “We didn’t know about the app until like a month ago. And we didn’t have access to the app until like three days ago,” the source said.
“This app has never been used in any real election or tested at a statewide scale and it’s only been contemplated for use for two months now,” David Jefferson, who also serves on the board of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan election integrity organization, told the New York Times.
Federal campaign finance records show that the Iowa Democratic Party and the Nevada Democratic Party retained Shadow to develop its caucus app. Shadow has also been retained for digital services by Buttigieg’s campaign, which paid the company $42,500 for software-related services last July, and by Joe Biden’s campaign, which paid Shadow $1,225 for text messaging services, last July as well.
Shadow was launched by former staffers to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, including Niemira, Krista Davis, Ahna Rao, and James Hickey, according to professional biographies listed on LinkedIn. Shadow did not respond to a request for comment.
Acronym, which includes a hybrid model of a 501(c)4 entity that does not disclose donors and a Super PAC that does, has been a favorite for deep-pocketed Democratic donors. Donald Sussman, the founder of Paloma Partners, and Michael Moritz, a partner at Sequoia Capital, each donated $1 million to Acronym last year. Filmmaker Steven Spielberg gave $500,000. Investor Seth Klarman, once a major donor to Republican causes, gave $1.5 million to Acronym.
Acronym appears to have deleted portions of its website showcasing its involvement in Shadow. “ACRONYM is thrilled to announce the launch of Shadow, a new technology company that will exist under the ACRONYM umbrella and build accessible technological infrastructure and tools to enable campaigns to better harness, integrate and manage data across the platforms and technologies they all use,” wrote Niemira in a now-deleted blog post.
This morning, William McCurdy II, the chair of the Nevada Democratic Party, released a statement announcing that the party will not be using the Shadow app for its February caucus.
“NV Dems can confidently say that what happened in the Iowa caucus last night will not happen in Nevada on February 22nd. We will not be employing the same app or vendor used in the Iowa caucus,” said McCurdy. “We had already developed a series of backups and redundant reporting systems, and are currently evaluating the best path forward.”
