Corporate Lobbyists Vote To Keep Corporate Lobbyists In the DNC

A measure to bar corporate lobbyists from serving on the DNC was rejected with several corporate lobbyists on the DNC Rules Committee voting against it.




David Moore@ppolitics

https://readsludge.com/2020/08/05/corporate-lobbyists-vote-to-keep-corporate-lobbyists-in-the-dnc/

Last week, a proposal to reduce corporate influence over the Democratic Party was hastily rejected during a virtual meeting of the Democratic National Convention Rules Committee by a vote of 105 to 45, with eight abstentions. The resolution, which would have changed the DNC Charter to permanently bar corporate PAC donations and ban corporate lobbyists from serving on the party organization, was introduced by Brent Welder, a Kansas City area attorney and delegate appointed by the Bernie Sanders campaign.

Several of the Rules Committee appointees who voted against Welder’s resolution have backgrounds in corporate lobbying. Sludge found at least ten current corporate lobbyists and one major former lobbyist—as well as three corporate consultants, four corporate lawyers, and five corporate executives—among the members who voted against the proposal.

“If you are a lobbyist for a for-profit corporation, you shouldn’t serve on the DNC,” Welder told Sludge. “I guarantee you that 99.9% of Democrats in America agree with that, and only the place you find people who disagree with it are in the leadership of DNC.”

The Convention Rules Committee’s virtual meeting was co-chaired by former Rep. Barney Frank, who serves on the board of directors of New York commercial bank Signature Bank, and Maria Cardona, a principal at Dewey Square Group, a lobbying and public relations firm that worked for the insurance industry during the debate over health care reform early in the Obama presidency.

Welder, who also proposed a resolution on ranked-choice voting, said that he was approached by the Biden campaign through an intermediary and pressured to withdraw his measures.

“I was informed before the meeting that of all the amendments put forth, the Biden campaign was most upset about those two amendments, and urged me to withdraw them, which I politely declined to do,” Welder said. “There had been about 30 amendments originally proposed, the deadline was a few days before. By time the meeting happened, it was down to eight, as people had been pressured to withdraw amendment through various means. Of all the amendments, they tried to kill them without anyone knowing who voted for or against them.”

About two hours into the virtual meeting, which is viewable on YouTube, Welder was recognized for several minutes in the main room to speak on behalf of his resolution. “We need to neutralize the corporate influence, first within our party, that is preventing us from living up to the platform, our ideals, and being a true party of the people,” Welder said.

After Welder’s remarks, co-chair Maria Cardona opened the debate and said that members could begin voting on the proposal immediately through the portal. Cardona then turned the floor over to Illinois lobbyist Mike Kreloff, who read prepared remarks explaining that as a lobbyist who sometimes worked for corporations he thought a separate DNC commission, which he said has been running for 18 months, should be the venue for evaluating the resolutions. Jerry Goldfeder, a Biden appointee and a New York election lawyer, echoed Kreloff’s remarks and succinctly moved to table the resolution. Andrew Tuozzolo, chief of staff to New Orleans City Councilwoman Helena Moreno, immediately seconded the motion in the main speaking room, and Cardona initiated a new vote to table Welders’ resolution.

Welder then asked Frank for how long the resolution would be tabled and Frank replied that it would be tabled “until someone makes a successful motion to take it off the table,” adding that “with the expiration of the committee that wouldn’t be possible.” Welder replied, “Gotcha, that doesn’t make any sense at all.” The vote to table Welder’s resolution was then announced as 122-46.At that point, Wedler told Sludge, “The co-chairs shoved [my video call] back into the side room, where I couldn’t be heard.” Welder said that he believes his microphone had initially been left on inadvertently by the meeting co-chairs. “With other members there, protests sustained for 10-15 minutes, until the chairs first said the meeting was adjourned, but then said there would be an up or down vote on the proposal. Bernie campaign leadership had convinced them to untable it,” through an off-camera process, Welder said. Minutes before the long meeting ended, the final vote against Welder’s resolution among the committee of mostly Biden campaign appointees came in at almost two-to-one against.

While he decried the process for considering the resolution as flawed by design, Welder describes being able to raise his amendment as a “big step forward in transparency, to hold the DNC accountable for corruption that’s occurring.”

“Getting Big Money out of politics makes everything else possible,” Welder said. “A lot of people don’t realize the corruption that happens at the top ranks of the DNC, that rank and file Democrats have lots of good ideas that get railroaded by leadership.”

Sludge sought to confirm Welder’s account with DNC Communications Director Xochitl Hinojosa, a top Perez adviser going back to his stint as secretary of Labor, and DNC Secretary Jason Rae, but did not receive a response.

Below are some of the committee members with backgrounds in advancing corporate interests who voted against Welder’s resolution.
Corporate Lobbyists on Convention Rules

Maria Cardona, an at-large DNC member, is a principal at lobbying firm Dewey Square Group, whose past lobbying clients include AT&T (on “telecom liability issues”), multiple medical companies, and Countrywide financial corporation, the implosion of which triggered the subprime mortgage crisis. In 2016, The Intercept reported that consultants with Dewey Square Group lobbied against Obamacare and the Dodd-Frank financial reform package. In advocacy efforts for insurance industry clients such as the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, Dewey Square Group placed letters to the editor in newspapers “under names of elderly Massachusetts residents without their knowledge or consent.”

Committee co-chair Barney Frank, who had received over $1 million in payments from Signature Bank as of May 2018 when he agreed that the Trump administration’s deregulation of banks did not pose a major threat, did not appear to vote on Welder’s resolution, as no roll call vote was recorded for him.

Harold Ickes, an at-large DNC member, is a powerful lobbyist and party insider whose past clients have included Deloitte Consulting, Verizon, Northwell Health, JP Morgan Chase, Mastercard, and United Airlines. Ickes was appointed to the regular rules committee by Chair Tom Perez in an October 2017 “purge” of DNC leaders who had favored greater reforms for party transparency or backed Perez’s rival Rep. Keith Ellison for chair.

Joe Donnelly, a former U.S. senator from Indiana, is a partner at prominent lobbying firm Akin Gump, joining last April to “advise clients in the financial services, defense and health care industries, among others, on a host of policy matters.” Donnelly is not allowed to register as a lobbyist under Senate “cooling off” rules until January 2021.

Steve Dettelbach, an attorney, is a partner at lobbying firm Baker & Hostetler, where he is co-leader of the White Collar, Investigations and Securities Enforcement and Litigation team.

Mark Siegel is a partner at lobbying firm Locke Lord Strategies, where he has represented Pakistan in the United States. Siegel’s previous lobbying clients with the firm include America’s Mutual Banks (2014 and before), ​America’s Mutual Holding Companies (2014 and before), the Financial Planning Coalition (2013 and before), and the ​Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Dennis Speight, a DNC member from Texas, is registered in Texas as a lobbyist, as director of political affairs for the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and its PAC.

Charlie Baker, president and co-founder of lobbying firm Dewey Square Group, was among Tom Perez’s 25 party leaders nominated to the Convention Rules Committee. In 2015, Baker was named chief administrative officer of Hillary for America. In 2016, journalist Lee Fang reported in The Intercept that Baker had been registered in 2009 to lobby for the Medicines Company, a drug firm, and for Citizen Financial Group to help the bank lobby on Dodd-Frank in 2010.

John Podesta, a party insider and former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, founded the Podesta Group lobbying firm, which through 2017 lobbied for hundreds of major corporations, including a coalition of major American coal companies that from 2009 to 2012 fought against President Obama’s Clean Power plan. Podesta founded the Center for American Progress (CAP) in October 2003, a think tank whose corporate donors have included Comcast, Walmart, General Motors, Pacific Gas and Electric, General Electric, Boeing and Lockheed. Over the past several years, CAP has advanced increasingly neoliberal policies and rejected a single-payer health care system in favor of a public option plan, with senior staffers leading attacks on Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All plan during last year’s Democraic presidential primary.

Leticia Van de Putte, a former Texas state senator, is a lobbyist who co-founded the bipartisan external relations firm Andrade-Van de Putte & Associates, which a San Antonio Express News column last year described as “connecting business clients with government officials.” One set of photos in the company’s website gallery is labeled at an event with the South San Antonio Chamber of Commerce and Councilmember Rebecca Viagran.

Michael Stratton is the senior policy director at Denver, Colorado-based law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck, whose hundreds of corporate lobbying clients include dozens of oil, gas, and natural resources companies. Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck is the second largest lobbying firm at the federal level.

Mike Kreloff, who delivered the first prepared statement against Welder’s resolution, is a Springfield, Illinois lobbyist whose recent clients include the Chicago-based clean energy company Elevate Energy and the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Corporate Lawyers on the Convention Rules Committee

Kate Cook is a partner at Boston-based litigation firm Sugarman Roberts and former chief legal counsel to Gov. Deval Patrick. The firm’s services include environmental and energy law and business disputes.

Marcel Groen, former chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, is a partner at Fox Rothschild LLP, a politically-connected Philadelphia law firm whose corporate clients include Oaktree Capital, Biomed America, life sciences company Novasep Holding SAS, and PuraCap Pharmaceutical, LLC.

James Morphew appears to be a partner at Sorling Northrup, a Springfield, IL law firm with corporate practices in banking, insurance, and real estate.

Joseph Smallhoover, one of eight DNC members elected by Democrats Abroad, is an attorney whose boutique firm serves U.S. business clients in industries including mining, health products, speciality plastics, and “Counsel to a major US based pharmaceutical company in connection with its acquisition of rights to various molecules and their marketing in Europe.”
Corporate Executives and Consultants on the Convention Rules Committee

Daniel Halpern, a restaurant executive and co-chair of the DNC Budget and Finance Committee, voted no. Earlier this year, multiple DNC members told Sludge that the committee was not meeting its responsibility to distribute regular written reports to DNC members on the efficacy of the chair’s expenditures. Halpern is a past chairman of the Georgia Restaurant Association, a business group that in 2014 opposed a minimum wage increase to $10.10 in Georgia.

Erskine Bowles, a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton from 1996-1998 and a co-chair with Alan Simpson of President Obama’s deficit-reduction commission in 2010, co-founded the investment banking firm Bowles Hollowell Conner, which was active in private equity before its acquisition in 1998 by a bank holding company that later became part of Wachovia. A board member of the bipartisan policy organization Committee For a Responsible Federal Budget, Bowles went on to found Campaign to Fix the Debt, funded by Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson, which has been criticized as an advocacy group that advances corporate tax cuts and for slashing spending on social services. Fix The Debt “are spending millions, but they are protecting billions in defense contracts and tax giveaways that would otherwise be on the chopping block,” said Kevin Connor of the watchdog group Public Accountability Initiative in The New York Times.

Chris Tapio is the president of Townsend Calkin Tapio Public Affairs, a Sacramento-based firm whose “Successes” page lists ExxonMobil, California Association of Health Plans, Kaiser Permanente, California Hospital Association, Chevron, Visa, PG&E, and California Association of Health Facilities (CAHF). In 2016, he was described by California’s Capitol Weekly: “A 20-year veteran of capitol politics, strategist Chris Tapio is best known as a consultant and adviser to the moderate Democrats in the Legislature… busy working to connect newly-elected legislators with like-minded supporters in the business community…”.
Rules of Order, Unfollowed

A similar experience was reported by Jennifer Ann Leister, a Bernie Sanders campaign delegate and member of the Virginia Democratic Central Committee, who was nominated in June to the Convention Credentials Committee. The Credentials committee voted last week on several measures regarding the seating of convention delegates, such as those from states including Iowa, and delegates elected from Puerto Rico, after Mayor Mike Bloomberg discontinued his campaign.

Regarding the virtual meeting’s main room proceedings (viewable on YouTube), Leister told Sludge, “We were in a separate room where we couldn’t interact with speakers, the chat feature was turned off, and Robert’s Rules of Order were not being followed,” even though the committee’s Rules of Procedure documented stated, “Chairs of the Credentials Committee shall rely on Robert’s Rules of Order.”

“People were shouting but speakers couldn’t hear us,” Leister said. “It was interesting to see the difference between 2016 and 2020, because in 2016 everything was very public regarding who are the delegates and who’s on the committees. The Biden and Sanders campaigns were doing their best to arrange things so that it would be non-confrontational and I respect that—I do not understand why we weren’t allowed to ask questions about what we were voting on and have them answered.”

DNC-approved portions of the Convention Committee meetings are available to view on YouTube, but not the entire meeting proceedings with all 150+ committee members. What was video-captured and is shown on the DNC’s YouTube channel is just the “closed door” room of chosen speakers, not the separate side room of the majority of delegates on the 2020 committees. Under the opaque process of the virtual meetings, which was not detailed to all committee members ahead of time, the side rooms with the hundred-plus delegates—including those appointed by Bernie Sanders’ former presidential campaign, present under an April 30 deal negotiated with the Biden campaign—were not permitted to speak directly to main room presenters or raise issues during proceedings.

In October 2017, the DNC approved a resolution banning corporate PAC donations from contributors whose work conflicts with the party’s platform, but in the years since, party leadership refused efforts by reform-minded national DNC members to strengthen the ban to encompass all corporate PAC money and formalize the rule in the party charter. Tom Perez’s narrow win over then-Rep. Keith Ellison for DNC chair in February 2017 was widely seen as a victory for establishment party figures comfortable with the revolving door and a reliance on big money corporate fundraising.

The Convention Rules Committee is one of three DNC “standing committees” that form in the run-up to the national convention every four years, along with a Credentials Committee and Platform Committee, and which are composed primarily of delegates appointed by the presidential nominee—this year, the campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden. These temporary bodies are different from the DNC’s Charter call for standing committees on Credentials, Resolutions, Rules and Bylaws, and Budget and Finance, which are smaller in size, and some of which meet annually.

The convention committees that met last week, including the Platform Committee that voted against endorsing a single-payer health care system by 125 to 36 (with three abstentions), are now dissolved after their one virtual meeting. DNC officials emailed by Sludge did not respond to a request for updated lists of members of DNC committees, which are not posted publicly on the DNC’s website or any official social media accounts.

Melbourne’s ‘State of Disaster’ Is Covid as Usual in the US

NEIL DEMAUSE

https://fair.org/home/melbournes-state-of-disaster-is-covid-as-usual-in-the-us/




The Australian state of Victoria declared a “state of disaster” over Covid-19 on Sunday, August 2, sending the nation’s second-most-populous region, which includes the city of Melbourne, back into a strict lockdown. Nonessential businesses will be closed for the next six weeks, the government has imposed a nightly 8 pm curfew, and during daylight hours, trips outside the house are strictly limited: In metropolitan Melbourne, only one person per household will be allowed to leave their homes at any time to pick up essential goods, and no one can travel more than five kilometers from their home. “Where you slept last night is where you’ll need to stay for the next six weeks,” declared Victoria premier Daniel Andrews (CNN, 8/2/20).

These extreme measures — reminiscent of lockdowns put in place in the spring in Italy and Spain as those nations battled virus surges — were necessary to stem a massive outbreak in and around Australia’s second-largest city, reported US and international news outlets. “Australia’s Melbourne Clamps Down in Frantic Race to Curb Virus,” declared the New York Times headline on a Reuters wire story (8/3/20) discussing how “the surge in community transmissions in Victoria raised fears that the infection rate could blow out of control”; the renewed lockdown after a two-month-plus stretch of low infection rates in Australia “underscores how quickly early success in containing the virus can unravel,” noted CNN (8/3/20). The Wall Street Journal (8/3/20) reported that infections had soared since mid-June following


failures to adhere to infection-control procedures at hotels in Melbourne housing travelers returning from overseas spawned infection clusters in schools, public-housing towers and aged-care homes, and spread to other Australian states.

All of this is true, but it also elides one important piece of information: If Victoria were a US state, its infection rate would be one of the lowest in the nation.

As Bolivian Regime Delays Elections a Third Time, Media Continue to Ignore Coup

BRYCE GREENE

https://fair.org/home/as-bolivian-regime-delays-elections-a-third-time-media-continue-to-ignore-coup/




In the Bolivian elections last October 20, incumbent President Evo Morales of the Movement Toward Socialism party (MAS in Spanish) won a 10-point victory over his nearest challenger, as pre-election polls predicted. The next day, the Organization of American States issued a statement challenging the legitimacy of the elections, asserting a “hard-to-explain change in the trend of the preliminary results.” Immediately, right wingers violently took to the streets to protest the president. The OAS issued a followup statement confirming their analysis on November 10. The same day, the military forced Morales to step down.

Senator Jeanine Añez declared herself president with the support of high-ranking members of the Bolivian military, as well as the US State Department—despite the fact that her conservative party earned a mere 4% of the vote during the elections.

This military coup was immediately decried by observers who have seen this familiar pattern of toppling governments. Mark Weisbrot, director of the Center for Economic & Policy Research, debunked the OAS statement, noting that it provided “absolutely no evidence — no statistics, numbers, or facts of any kind,” to support its conclusions. The CEPR objections were largely ignored by corporate media (FAIR.org, 11/18/19).

Immediately after Añez took power, security forces unleashed deadly violence against those who resisted. Añez began to sell off public resources and take loans from international creditors.

When a country’s military forces the ouster of a sitting president, that is a military coup. Referring to it simply as a “resignation”—as in the Washington Post’s “Bolivia’s Morales Resigns Amid Scathing Election Report, Rising Protests” (11/10/19)—fails to capture the nature of the overthrow. Describing Morales’ ouster as merely happening “amid widespread unrest” is a way of telling readers: “This sort of thing happens all the time in this part of the world. No need to look into it.”

US media ignored dissenters from the OAS throughout this period, and endorsed the coup, as FAIR (3/5/20) has previously reported. Even when dissenting views were brought up, there was little discussion of the implication: that the US had supported yet another unlawful coup.


Añez came into power as an “interim” president, with a mandate to hold elections as soon as possible. The government instead delayed elections in March, then again in May, both times citing concerns about coronavirus. Notably, polls show that the MAS candidate, Luis Arce, has been leading in the polls for some time and would win fair elections.Four months after the coup was a done deal, with Morales and others forced from the country, the Washington Post published a research piece (2/27/20) that found that “the OAS’s statistical analysis and conclusions would appear deeply flawed.” The piece opened by explicitly describing the November 10 ouster of Morales as a “military-backed coup.” There was still no mention of the US role.

Even the New York Times (3/30/20) acknowledged that this delay was a way of consolidating power, publishing a piece headlined, “For Autocrats, and Others, Coronavirus Is a Chance to Grab Even More Power” that included the (first) delay of Bolivia’s “much anticipated” elections. It’s unclear whether Añez is meant to be considered an “autocrat” or one of the “others”; the piece only mentions that “a disputed election last year set off violent protests and forced President Evo Morales to resign.”

The New York Times (6/7/20) has since reported its own analysis of the Bolivian election results, concluding that “the Organization of American States’ statistical analysis was itself flawed.” The irregularities the OAS found were “an artifact of the analysts’ error,” the academic paper cited by the Times found.

FAIR (7/8/20) has previously reported on the Times’ belated admission. Glenn Greenwald, writing for the Intercept (7/8/20), put a fine point on the subject in a piece headlined “The New York Times Admits Key Falsehoods That Drove Last Year’s Coup in Bolivia: Falsehoods Peddled by the US, Its Media and the Times.”

Yet after both of the nation’s leading papers admitted that the reason for declaring the October election a fraud was itself a fraud, few have asked the critical questions about why the OAS and the United States were so quick to have Morales removed from office. In fact, few media outlets altered their coverage of Bolivia at all.

Reuters (7/9/20) described how “a disputed election led to widespread protests that eventually toppled…Evo Morales,” with a later piece (7/15/20) reporting that Añez “took power in a political vacuum.” A CNN segment (7/17/20) on the COVID crisis in Bolivia described how “widespread unrest last year led to the resignation of longtime leader Evo Morales.” None of these gave any hint that the complaints about the election had been debunked, and that the shift in power amounted to a coup.

Last week, the Bolivian government announced that elections would be delayed for a third time. Critics again claim that the crisis is being used to further consolidate power. Former President Morales, who is currently living in exile in Argentina, said that “the de facto government wants to gain more time to continue the persecution of social leaders and against MAS candidates. It’s yet another form of persecution.” One of the coup leaders, far-right leader Fernando Comacho, is calling for elections to be canceled altogether.

In Western reporting on the latest election delay, outlets consistently failed to place it in the context of the coup. It is as if the Times and Post’s admissions never happened.

A Reuters piece (7/23/20) headlined “Bolivia Election Delayed to October as Pandemic Bites, Opposition Cries Foul,” described how the current government came to power: “A fraught election last year sparked widespread protests and led to the resignation of the country’s long-term leftist leader.” They kept to the official narrative of a “fraught election,” rather than the reality of a right-wing usurpation, given cover by false OAS proclamations. There was no indication that the delay could be a form of power consolidation.

The Associated Press (republished by Washington Post, 7/23/20) not only ignored the context of the coup, it also whitewashed the opposition’s criticism of the delay. Morales was cited as objecting to the delay on procedural grounds, and worrying about the “country’s crisis of legitimacy.” No direct quotes from the former president were used.

US media have a well-documented history of supporting right-wing coups and regimes around the world, and not much seems to be changing. It is abundantly clear that Morales was unlawfully overthrown by his country’s military on false pretexts. The United States supported and continues to support this coup. That media narratives remain unchanged even after the release and acknowledgment of new evidence indicates that it is official dogma, and not reality, that sets the tone of journalistic coverage.

Outraised 250-1, Progressive Marquita Bradshaw Upsets Establishment Opponent in Tennessee Primary for US Senate

"The progressive movement is undeniable!" Bradshaw said following her win. "Thank you all so much for your support and this victory. It's time to put hardworking people first. Onward."


by
Jake Johnson, staff writer




https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/07/outraised-250-1-progressive-marquita-bradshaw-upsets-establishment-opponent




Despite being outraised 250-1 by her establishment-backed opponent, progressive environmentalist Marquita Bradshaw scored a stunning upset victory in the Tennessee Democratic primary for an open U.S. Senate seat on Thursday after running on a platform that included Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.

James Mackler, one of Bradshaw's four primary competitors, was endorsed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and raised more than $2 million over the course of the campaign, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Bradshaw, by contrast, had the backing of the Memphis-Midsouth chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and raised just over $8,400.

"The progressive movement is undeniable!" Bradshaw, whose campaign consisted entirely of volunteers, tweeted following her win. "Thank you all so much for your support and this victory. It's time to put hardworking people first. Onward."


The youth-led Sunrise Movement celebrated Bradshaw's win as a testament to the power of her vision of a Green New Deal that "puts racial justice at its core."




"She took down the party-backed candidate who raised millions of dollars," the group tweeted. "It's 2020 and big things are happening y'all."


In November, Bradshaw will face off against former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Bill Hagerty, who prevailed in a close Republican primary race Thursday with the backing of President Donald Trump. No Democrat has won a Senate election in Tennessee since 1990.

"This is a network that has reached across Tennessee," Bradshaw said of her campaign. "Now it's time to move forward to flip this U.S. Senate seat. And we can do it by working together, by staying true to the principles... by listening to voters."

"I don't have an opponent. We have issues to solve," Bradshaw added. "And that's the reason why we're leading in the state right now. And that's how we're going to flip this U.S. Senate seat."

Trump Blasted for Naming 'War Criminal' and Iran-Contra Convict Elliott Abrams as Iran Envoy

"Elliott Abrams has made a career of lying and committing criminal acts that have led to the death and suffering of innocent people from Guatemala to Iraq."

by
Jake Johnson, staff writer

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/07/trump-blasted-naming-war-criminal-and-iran-contra-convict-elliott-abrams-iran-envoy

Following the resignation Thursday of State Department Iran envoy Brian Hook, President Donald Trump named as his replacement current special representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams, a notorious warmonger and supporter of Latin American death squads who was convicted in 1991 of withholding information from Congress during the Iran-Contra scandal.


"From El Salvador to Guatemala, Nicaragua to Panama, Elliott Abrams' life's work has been defined by the worst impulses of U.S. foreign policy: embracing war, ignoring gross human rights abuses, and supporting horrific authoritarian regimes," said Stephen Miles, executive director of Win Without War.Abrams will now serve in both roles simultaneously, alarming anti-war groups who say someone with a record as blood-stained as his "should be barred for life from government positions and recognized as the war criminal that he is."

Abrams' appointment as special envoy to Iran comes days after he confirmed during a Senate hearing that he is still "working hard" to topple Venezuela's democratically-elected President Nicolás Maduro. Sina Toossi, senior research analyst at the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), warned that the Trump administration's installation of Abrams as the top U.S. diplomat to Iran shows the president and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are "doubling down" on their push for regime change in Iran as well.

"Like most Trump appointees," said Toossi, "he is not fit for the position, and will continue to hurt U.S. interests by enacting a failing strategy that will only succeed in spreading chaos and misery."


In a statement late Thursday, anti-war group CodePink provided a snapshot of Abrams' views and record dating back to his time in the Reagan administration:
In the 1980s, he defended the infamous Guatemalan General Efraín Ríos Montt, whose violent crackdown on the indigenous Ixil Mayan people of Guatemala was so brutal that it was classified as genocide by the United Nations.
He denied that the Salvadoran military was responsible for the devastating El Mozote massacre where, in 1981, a U.S.-trained battalion murdered more than 500 civilians, slitting the throats of children along the way. Not only did Abrams deny the massacre and push for continued U.S. support for the notoriously brutal Salvadoran government, but he even claimed in a 1994 interview that "the U.S. administration's record in El Salvador is one of fabulous achievement."
He is vehemently anti-Palestinian and shamelessly supports Israel. As George Bush’s aide on the National Security Council, Abrams did everything he could to thwart peace negotiations. He repeatedly undercut any U.S. pressure on Israel to stop the building of settlements and cited the Holocaust as justification for Israel's killings of Palestinians (Jews are "a people who had learned from history what happens to Jews without security"). In 2015, he applauded then-Speaker John Boehner's decision to invite Netanyahu to address Congress without the approval of President Obama. He lauds Evangelical descriptions of Israel such as the belief that "Israel is connected to the idea that God favors and protects Americans."
In 1991, Abrams pled guilty to withholding information from Congress related to his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal, the secret and illegal scam in the 1980s to siphon profits from Iranian weapons sales to support the right-wing Contra rebels trying to overthrow the Sandinista government.
Abrams was a key supporter of the disastrous invasion of Iraq. In 1998, he submitted a letter to President Clinton encouraging him to depose Saddam Hussein. As Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy during George W. Bush’s second term, Abrams was in charge of promoting Bush's strategy of "advancing democracy abroad.”
Abrams championed the U.S. overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, echoing the tactics used by the neocons for intervention in Iraq.
Abrams' opposition to the Iran Nuclear Deal is epitomized by his attempts to encourage Israel to bomb Iran's nuclear sites before negotiations became too serious. He expressed concern that Israel's capacity to impede the deal was "already being narrowed considerably by the diplomatic thaw, because it is one thing to bomb Iran when it appears hopelessly recalcitrant and isolated and quite another to bomb it when much of the world—especially the United States—is optimistic about the prospect of talks."
In January 2019, Abrams was appointed to be the U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela, and used his position to support an attempted coup, quash diplomatic talks, and increase brutal sanctions, even during the pandemic.


"The dangerous conflict resulting from Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear agreement will be exacerbated by a man committed to Washington's failed policies of regime change," CodePink said. "Elliott Abrams has made a career of lying and committing criminal acts that have led to the death and suffering of innocent people from Guatemala to Iraq. He embraces militarism, covers up for gross human rights abuses, and has a history of supporting authoritarian regimes."

"Trump is actively sabotaging the election under our noses—this isn't theoretical, it's happening RIGHT NOW."

'Friday Night Massacre' at US Postal Service as Postmaster General—a Major Trump Donor—Ousts Top Officials

America is in a dead sprint to authoritarianism. The man is pulling out all the stops to prevent the citizens of this country from holding a legitimate election in which he might face removal from office."

by Jon Queally, staff writer

Government watchdogs, Democratic lawmakers, and pro-democracy advocates declared it a "Friday Night Massacre" for the U.S. Postal Service after news broke in a classic end-of-the-week dump that Louis DeJoy—a major GOP donor to President Donald Trump and the recently appointed Postmaster General—had issued a sweeping overhaul of the agency, including the ouster of top executives from key posts and the reshuffling of more than two dozen other officials and operational managers.

According to the Washington Post:


The shake-up came as congressional Democrats called for an investigation of DeJoy and the cost-cutting measures that have slowed mail delivery and ensnared ballots in recent primary elections.

Twenty-three postal executives were reassigned or displaced, the new organizational chart shows. Analysts say the structure centralizes power around DeJoy, a former logistics executive and major ally of President Trump, and de-emphasizes decades of institutional postal knowledge. All told, 33 staffers included in the old postal hierarchy either kept their jobs or were reassigned in the restructuring, with five more staffers joining the leadership from other roles.

Already under fire for recent policy changes at the USPS that mail carriers from within and outside critics have denounced as a sabotage effort to undermine the Postal Service broadly as well as disrupt efforts to carry out mail-in voting for November's election amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the moves unveiled late Friday were viewed as an overt assault on democracy and a calculated opportunity to boost Republicans' long-held dream of undercutting or privatizing the government-run mail service while also boosting their election prospects in the process.

"Another Friday night massacre by this administration—and this time dealing another devastating blow to our postal service," said Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) "The American people deserve answers and we're going to keep fighting for them."

Scanlon was among more than 80 congressional lawmakers who sent a letter to DeJoy earlier in the day expressing "deep concerns" about operational changes he has made for mail carriers that have delayed deliveries and lowered standards.

"It is vital that the U.S. Postal Service not reduce mail delivery times, which could harm rural communities, seniors, small businesses, and millions of Americans who rely on the mail for critical letters and packages," the letter stated. "Eliminating overtime and directing postal workers to leave mail on the floor of postal facilities will erode confidence in the Postal Service and drive customers away, resulting in even worse financial conditions in the future."

Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, warned what occurred Friday is designed to weak the Postal Service, slow vote-by-mail, and disrupt the 2020 Census.

"We are sounding an alarm regarding personnel changes, policy shifts and service disruptions happening inside the U.S. Postal Service on Louis DeJoy's watch," Clarke said in a statement. "The postal service lies at the heart of our democracy and is critical to the success of an unprecedented vote-by-mail system that is needed for a fair and effective 2020 election season. The postal service helps ensure that our nation's most vulnerable communities are receiving medications and resources during the pandemic. It is also critical to the efforts to achieve a full and accurate 2020 Census."

Clarke said the administration's intentions are clear: "DeJoy, a Trump donor with no experience inside the postal service, has been installed to cause chaos and disruption at a time when the timely delivery of mail could not be more critical."

As Common Dreams reported earlier Friday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren was among those who signed the letter and also called for DeJoy's efforts to be investigated by the Inspector General of the USPS. Since 2016 alone, DeJoy has donated more than $2.5 million to the Republican Party and candidates. In 2020, prior to his appointment as Postmaster General by the GOP-controlled board of governors, DeJoy had already given approximately $360,000 to a Super PAC supporting Trump's reelection.

As the Post notes in its reporting, the reshuffling of top managers and executives—as well as a hiring freeze and push for early retirements—"worried postal analysts, who say the tone of DeJoy's first eight weeks and his restructuring have recast the nation's mail service as a for-profit arm of the government, rather than an essential service."

In a video posted to Twitter, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Oreg.) characterized DeJoy as a "political crony" of the president's and also denounced the brazen efforts now on display as a "Friday Night Massacre" scenario

Appearing Friday afternoon on Capitol Hill, DeJoy brushed off accusations that he is acting as a political bag man for Trump. "While I certainly have a good relationship with the president of the United States, the notion that I would ever make decisions concerning the Postal Service at the direction of the president or anyone else in the administration is wholly off-base," DeJoy said.

But outside critics like Walter Shaub, former head of the Office of Government Ethics and a fierce critic of Trump's behavior as president, said the latest move should be seen as nothing less than a direct effort by DeJoy to exploit his authority at the Postal Service to further the president's political interests and reelection prospects



According to Brian Tyler Cohen, a liberal commentator and podcast host, "Congressional Democrats need to do something about this" immediately.

"If we wait until October/November, it'll be too late," said Cohen. "Trump is actively sabotaging the election under our noses—this isn't theoretical, it's happening RIGHT NOW." Cohen said this situation should be treated like a "five-alarm fire" and said action must be taken by both lawmakers and the U.S. public without delay



Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.), chair of the House subcommittee which has oversight for the USPS, said what DeJoy is trying to pass off as simple organizational restructuring is actually "a Trojan Horse" designed to destroy one of the nation's most trusted and valued institutions from within.

Connolly on Friday night called it, "Deliberate sabotage to disrupt mail service on the eve of the election—an election that hinges on mail-in ballots."

# # #

Leading Demand for IG Probe, Warren Accuses Trump and New Postmaster General of 'Sabotaging' Postal Service

"They are delaying Social Security checks and other mail and potentially disenfranchising millions of voters."


by
Jake Johnson, staff writer

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/07/leading-demand-ig-probe-warren-accuses-trump-and-new-postmaster-general-sabotaging?




Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other top Democrats on Friday demanded that the U.S. Postal Service inspector general launch an investigation into recent operational changes implemented by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy that threaten the timely delivery of mail-in ballots and "the well-being of millions of Americans."

The call for a probe comes after DeJoy, a major Republican donor to President Donald Trump and a former logistics executive, confirmed in a memo (pdf) Friday that he is pressing ahead with an overhaul of the "organizational structure" of USPS with less than 100 days to go before the November elections.


As Common Dreams reported last week, mail carriers have raised alarm over new policies barring overtime and prohibiting workers from sorting mail ahead of their morning deliveries, warning that the changes could be intended to pave the way for privatization. The policies have already resulted in major mail backlogs across the nation, from Pennsylvania to Michigan to New York.In their letter (pdf) to Inspector General Tammy Whitcomb, the Democratic lawmakers wrote that "given the ongoing concerns about the adverse impacts of Trump administration policies on the quality and efficiency of the Postal Service, we ask that you conduct an audit of all operational changes put in place by Mr. DeJoy and other Trump administration officials in 2020."

The "slower and less reliable mail delivery" caused by DeJoy's policies, the lawmakers warned, endangers "the well-being of millions of Americans that rely on the Postal Service for delivery of Social Security checks, prescriptions, and everyday mail of all kinds."




The lawmakers also urged the inspector general to investigate DeJoy's potential conflicts of interest. As the Washington Post reported, DeJoy and his wife's "holdings include between $30.1 million and $75.3 million in assets in USPS competitors or contractors."

In addition to Warren, the letter was signed by House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.).

On Twitter, Warren declared that "Trump and his postmaster are sabotaging USPS."

"They are delaying Social Security checks and other mail and potentially disenfranchising millions of voters," Warren wrote. "The USPS Inspector General should investigate Trump megadonor Louis DeJoy's bad decisions and personal conflicts of interest."