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There can no longer be any doubt: Donald Trump is trying to engineer a coup by preventing millions of Americans from voting, undermining public confidence in our democracy, and stealing the 2020 election.
He openly admitted on Fox News that he is blocking funding for the U.S. Postal Service to prevent people from voting by mail. He has crippled the institutions capable of holding him accountable, attacking journalism as "fake news" and packing the judiciary with political hacks.
And he has said over and over again that he has no intention of accepting the results of any election that doesn't declare him the winner.
These are the words and actions of an authoritarian attacking the foundations of democracy to keep himself in power.
But there is a way to stop him: When Trump's attacks on democracy are accurately reported and called out as dangerous threats, he's been forced to walk them back.
After the U.S. Postal Service was caught removing truckloads of street-corner mailboxes in states all over the country last week, Trump's political hack of a postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, was forced to back down due to the outcry. That's the strategy that can stop Trump's anti-democratic tactics: document them, report them, and ignite a firestorm of protest. But it won't be cheap or easy.
That's why Common Dreams is launching an emergency pre-election Summer Fundraising Drive to make sure we have the funding we need to defend the integrity of our elections and call out every last attack on our ability to conduct free and fair elections. The corporate media is unwilling or incapable of holding Trump accountable and safeguarding our democracy. But we will.
This is our most crucial fundraising drive in years. Maybe ever. Whatever you can afford helps, whether that's $5, $25, or $100. As a nonprofit, independent news outlet, we refuse all corporate advertising and rely instead on many small donations from readers that add up and power our cutting edge news-gathering organization.
Please donate today to help Common Dreams meet our pre-election Summer Fundraising Campaign goal of $80,000 by September 1.
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Kimberly Monaghan
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Adri Nieuwhof Rights and Accountability 18 August 2020
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/israel-lobbyists-force-dutch-government-suspend-funding-farmers-organization
Pro-Israel groups have been campaigning to undermine a large Palestinian agricultural development organization by accusing it of “funding terror.”
UK Lawyers for Israel, UKLFI, and Dutch pro-Israel lobby group Center for Information and Documentation Israel, CIDI, have both been calling on the Dutch government to end funding to the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, UAWC.
On 9 July, Sigrid Kaag, the Dutch minister of international trade and development, gave in to the pressure and suspended UAWC’s funding pending the outcome of an external review.
Pressure on Dutch government
In May, last year, UKLFI sent a letter to the Dutch representative in Ramallah with information about UAWC’s supposed links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, PFLP.
UKLFI repeated the accusations in a letter sent to Minister Kaag in June this year, citing NGO Monitor as its major source of information.
NGO Monitor has close ties to Israel’s political and military establishments.
CIDI joined UKLFI’s attack on UAWC by bringing the issue to the attention of lawmakers. As a result, the nationalist, right wing PVV party and Christian parties SGP and CU asked the ministry if it was prepared to end Dutch funding of UAWC.
The UAWC was established in 1986 to support Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank and Gaza who suffer from Israel’s policies of theft of land and water.
The union describes itself as independent, with no political or religious affiliation to any party or political organization.
It was set up to help Palestinian farmers reclaim and rehabilitate their land, in part to support farmers themselves and in part to prevent the Israeli confiscation of land for settlement expansion.
UAWC also develops projects to cultivate land and maintain an infrastructure of agricultural roads and water resources. It supports projects in the fishing and livestock sector.
The Netherlands has financed UAWC projects since 2013. All donations are subjected to a strict reporting, monitoring and evaluation system.
Arrest of UAWC staff
On 25 September last year, Israeli forces arrested Samer Arbeed, an employee of the union.
Arbeed’s arrest was connected to an explosion near the Jewish settlement of Dolev that killed Israeli teen Rina Shnerb and injured her father and brother.
Interrogators from Israel’s domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet “used exceptional ways to investigate” Arbeed under the “ticking time-bomb” procedure. After two days of questioning, Arbeed was admitted to hospital in critical condition.
On 3 October, UAWC informed the Dutch ministry that an employee had been taken into custody on suspicion of involvement in the Dolev attack. A second employee was arrested a few weeks later in relation to the same attack.
The Netherlands Representative Office in Ramallah entered into dialogue with UAWC to obtain further information about the arrests.
UAWC informed the representative office that it had again reminded the staff of the ban on active membership of political organizations, including the PFLP. The union also terminated the contracts of the two employees.
The Dutch ministry then clarified its position in its response to UKLFI’s 18 June, 2020 letter.
“UAWC is not listed as a terrorist organization by the EU or UN, nor are its board members listed as members of a terrorist group. Previous international screening and the Netherlands’ own oversight of UAWC did not reveal any ties between UAWC and organizations on any international terrorism list.”
Minister Kaag, however, told parliament that she wants to act with caution and therefore decided to commission an external investigation into the possible links between PFLP and UAWC.
In the meantime, she said, she suspended UAWC’s funding pending the outcome of the review. Other donors, according to the minister herself, did not see any grounds to take similar measures.
Undermining Palestinian groups
The attack on UAWC is in line with an Israeli government strategy to undermine Palestinian organizations.
Last year, the Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy published a report, Terrorists in Suits: The Ties Between NGOs promoting BDS and Terrorist Organizations.
The report effectively sets out to smear Palestinian organizations who defend the rights of the Palestinian people. And its impact on organizations listed in the report has been dramatic.
Thus, Mahmoud Nawajaa, national coordinator of the Palestinian Boycott National Committee (BNC) was recently detained, taken from his home in the middle of the night in front of his children.
He has only just been released after over three weeks. The military has issued no charges.
Not so lucky is Khalida Jarrar, board member of Addameer prisoner rights organization and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
Jarrar was arrested in October 2019. She remains in administrative detention – without charge or trial – today.
UKLFI has smeared Defense for Children International – Palestine, but had to retract its allegations that DCIP provides “financial or material support to any terrorist organization” after legal action.
And human rights group Al-Haq has been smeared and attacked for many years.
All of these groups featured in the Terrorists in Suits report which relies “on outdated and unsubstantiated allegations,” according to al-Haq and is “premised on racist caricatures, attempting to paint Palestinian civil society organizations as essentially suspicious and violent, in order to discredit and defund them.”
In 2016, then minister Bert Koenders refused to give in to the pressure to cease funding Palestinian groups whom NGO Monitor had accused of supporting the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
Rather than allow herself to be bullied, Minister Kaag should follow the example of her predecessor.
Tomorrow at Noon: KNOCKING ON THE DOOR of the LRSD ADMIN BLDG
Thursday Aug 20 12pm
Join us at the LRSD Administration Bldg at 810 W. Markham. One by one we will knock on the door to deliver the message to administrators that we need SAFE, EQUITABLE SCHOOL. Opening in-person schooling at this moment before schools can ensure SAFETY and EQUITY will result in MASS MURDER in and put everyone in our communities at risk.
We will gather at 11:30. Parking is available across the street in the chain fenced lot or in front of the LRSD Administration building.
We will practice 6ft distancing, wearing masks and using hand sanitizer.
RSVP HERE:
https://www.facebook.com/events/685359738716015/
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"This isn't just an attack against the fabric of our democracy: it's a personal attack against each and every American citizen."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/18/mail-voters-and-candidates-sue-block-unconstitutional-assault-postal-service-trump
A group of voters from several states and candidates for public office in New York filed a federal lawsuit Monday against President Donald Trump and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy alleging that the pair's ongoing assault on the U.S. Postal Service unlawfully threatens Americans' right to vote amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
Among the plaintiffs in the suit is Mondaire Jones, a progressive activist and attorney who won the Democratic primary for New York's 17th congressional district in June running on Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and tuition-free public college. In a series of tweets Monday, Jones wrote that "we've all watched in horror this week as Trump and DeJoy have been sabotaging the USPS: postal boxes ripped out, overtime halted, mail sorting machines destroyed."
Filed in the Southern District of New York, the lawsuit (pdf) decries as "unconstitutional" efforts by Trump and DeJoy to "ensure USPS cannot reliably deliver election mail." The legal action comes as Democratic lawmakers in both chambers of the U.S. Congress are moving ahead with legislative action to end the Trump administration's sabotage of Postal Service operations."Let's be real, we know why Trump is doing this: he's deliberately sabotaging the USPS to make it harder to vote by mail in the General Election. We know because he told us," Jones added. "This isn't just an attack against the fabric of our democracy: it's a personal attack against each and every American citizen. We need to take steps to make it easier to vote, not harder."
"While President Trump himself is holding up necessary funding for the Post Office," the lawsuit says, "a flurry of steps taken by DeJoy all but guarantee that thousands upon thousands (if not millions) of ballots will simply not reach their destinations on time, will likely lack postmarks that are required by state law, and that the volume of election mail that is coming may be delayed for weeks."
As the Associated Press reported, "Besides candidates for political office, plaintiffs included individuals who say they must vote by mail because they fear traveling or because they worry about contracting the coronavirus."
"Those individuals included a Chicago resident who recently underwent a bone marrow transplant, a digital colorist for film and television who votes in California, an 85-year old Suffolk County, New York, voter at an assisted living facility, and Mary Winton Green, a 97-year old retired philanthropist and Cook County, Illinois voter who first voted in 1944," according to AP.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction requiring Trump and DeJoy—a major Republican donor to the president—to "take all steps necessary and sufficient to ensure that the USPS is adequately funded so that it can... deliver all election mail (1) consistently with past practice, (2) in a manner that ensures absentee and other mail ballots are treated equal to in-person ballots, and (3) with sufficient staffing and overtime to handle a record level of mail voting."
The lawsuit also demands that the court "unwind the harm already caused by Defendants' actions and policies and... mitigate any harms that may flow from already accomplished harms."
"Like the existence of the USPS, our right to vote is enshrined in the Constitution," said Jones. "Trump does not have the authority to undermine our constitutional rights. That's why we've filed for an injunction to right this wrong before the General Election."
"The future of our democracy is at stake. The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/18/price-failure-just-too-great-imagine-dnc-speech-sanders-urges-popular-front-defeat
Calling the 2020 election the most important in modern U.S. history—one in which the survival of democracy, the economy, and the planet hang in the balance—Sen. Bernie Sanders used his primetime address at the virtual Democratic National Convention Monday night to warn of the existential dangers of handing President Donald Trump a second term and urge the nation to unite to ensure he is defeated in November.
"I and my family, and many of yours, know the insidious way authoritarianism destroys democracy, decency, and humanity," said Sanders. "As long as I am here, I will work with progressives, with moderates, and yes, with conservatives to preserve this nation from a threat that so many of our heroes fought and died to defeat."
"We must come together, defeat Donald Trump, and elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our next president and vice president," the senator from Vermont added.
Sanders' eight-minute speech convention speech came just over four months after he ended his second bid for the presidency with a vow to continue fighting for the vision of transformative progressive change that defined his 2016 and 2020 campaigns.
The senator echoed that message Monday, thanking his supporters for helping to move the U.S. "in a bold new direction" by making mainstream ideas that were previously deemed "radical," from Medicare for All to tuition-free public college.
"Our campaign ended several months ago, but our movement continues and is getting stronger every day," said Sanders. "But let us be clear: if Donald Trump is reelected, all the progress we have made will be in jeopardy. At its most basic, this election is about preserving our democracy."
Under Trump's administration, the "unthinkable has become normal," said Sanders, pointing to the president's open assault on voting rights and the U.S. Postal Service, deployment of federal agents against peaceful protesters, and threats to refuse to leave office should he lose in November.
Sanders also highlighted Trump's disastrous response to both the coronavirus pandemic—which has killed more than 170,000 people in the U.S.—and the resulting economic collapse that has left tens of millions jobless, hungry, and on the brink of complete financial ruin.
While noting his significant disagreement with Biden on the key issue of Medicare for All, Sanders voiced confidence that if elected in November, the former vice president will move forward with a policy agenda to make the U.S. "more equitable, more compassionate, and more inclusive."
"I know that Joe Biden will begin that fight on day one," said Sanders, citing Biden's support for increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, strengthening union rights, establishing 12 weeks of paid family leave and universal pre-K, expanding health insurance via a public option, reducing the cost of prescription drugs, lowering the Medicare eligibility age, and transitioning the U.S. to 100% clean electricity by 2035.
"My friends, I say to you, to everyone who supported other candidates in this primary, and to those who may have voted for Donald Trump in the last election: the future of our democracy is at stake," said Sanders. "The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake."
"My friends," Sanders concluded, "the price of failure is just too great to imagine."
New research from the Economic Policy Institute finds that CEO compensation grew by 1,167% from 1978 to 2019, "far outstripping" the growth of the stock market.
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/18/wages-stagnate-and-executive-pay-continues-balloon-report-shows-top-ceos-now-make
New research published Tuesday by the Economic Policy Institute shows that the top executives at the largest corporations in the United States now make 320 times more than what their typical employees earn in wages and benefits.
The think tank's research comes amid a global pandemic that is likely to exacerbate the decades-long trend of surging income and wealth inequality in the U.S.—a trend that, according to EPI, won't be reversed by CEOs opting to take salary cuts during a public health crisis that has left tens of millions of Americans jobless.EPI's latest annual analysis of executive compensation finds that the CEOs of the top 350 firms in the U.S. raked in an average of $21.3 million in 2019, a 14% increase from 2018. The 320-1 ratio of CEO-to-worker pay in 2019 is more than five times higher than the 61-1 ratio reported in 1989.
EPI's new report shows that CEO compensation grew by 1,167% from 1978 to 2019, "far outstripping" the growth of the stock market.
"CEOs who volunteer to take salary cuts aren't giving up a lot given how much of their pay comes from stock awards and options," EPI said.
Lawrence Mishel, a distinguished fellow at EPI and co-author of the new report, said in a statement that "while wage growth for the majority of Americans has remained relatively stagnant for decades, CEO compensation continues to balloon."
"This has fueled the spectacular income growth of the top 0.1% and 1.0% and the growth of income inequality overall," said Mishel, who told the Washington Post that CEO pay could rise again in 2020 despite the nationwide economic collapse caused by the Covid-19 crisis.
"CEOs offering salary cuts during the coronavirus pandemic yield press releases," Mishel added, "but no real progress toward reducing inequality and raising workers' wages."
As a substantive alternative to CEO public relations stunts, EPI proposed several policy changes that would significantly reduce the yawning gap between CEO compensation and typical worker pay:
Reinstating higher marginal income tax rates at the very top of the income ladder;
Setting corporate tax rates higher for firms that have higher ratios of CEO-to-worker compensation;
Capping compensation and tax anything over the cap; and
Allowing greater use of "say on pay," which allows a firm's shareholders to vote on top executives' compensation.
Jori Kandra, research assistant at EPI and co-author of the new report, said the "huge growth in CEO pay" over the past four decades "is not a reflection of the market for talent."
"We know this because CEO compensation has grown more than three times faster than the growth of earnings for the top 0.1% of earners, which was 337% over the same period," said Kandra. "This means that CEO pay can be curbed to reduce the growing gap between the highest earners and everyone else with little, if any, impact on the output of the economy or firm performance."
According to a new analysis of FEC records, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy "has given tens of thousands of dollars to Republican senators up for re-election this November."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/18/warnings-gop-attempt-control-narrative-senate-republicans-set-hearing-dejoy-just
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson announced Tuesday that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy—a major donor to the GOP—will testify at a virtual Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Friday, just days ahead of DeJoy's scheduled appearance before the Democrat-controlled House Oversight Committee.
The timing of the planned Senate hearing—and Johnson's stated reasons for inviting DeJoy to testify—immediately sparked concerns that the GOP is attempting preempt the House panel's questioning and put its own spin on the postmaster general's disruptive and possibly illegal changes to the U.S. Postal Service's operations ahead of the November elections.
Under immense pressure from the public and members of Congress to reverse his new policies, DeJoy said in a statement Tuesday that he is "suspending" changes to USPS operations until after the November elections—an announcement that appeared to raise more questions than it answered.Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, warned in a tweet Tuesday that "Senate Republicans scheduled the hearing with DeJoy before his appearance on Monday at the House hearing clearly to try to control the narrative and say all of his changes were reasonable and in good faith."
Democratic members of Congress made clear following DeJoy's statement that they still have every intention of questioning his changes during the House Oversight Committee hearing next week.
"Sunshine in the form of public pressure has forced Mr. DeJoy to completely reverse himself. But he cannot put the genie back in the bottle," said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.). "While this is a victory for all voters and every American that relies on the USPS, congressional oversight cannot be interrupted."
"If Mr. DeJoy has nothing to hide," Connolly added, "he will come to Congress with answers to our questions about the service disruptions that have defined his tenure as postmaster general. Accountability is the cornerstone of our democracy."
Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, told Politico that he scheduled the Senate hearing with DeJoy because he "wanted to give the [postmaster general] an opportunity to tell his side of the story before he appeared before a hostile House committee."
In a statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Johnson echoed that sentiment, declaring that the "Postal Service has had significant financial problems for years, and it is important for everyone to fully understand its current fiscal challenges."
Johnson did not mention the 2006 mandate signed into law by former President George W. Bush requiring USPS to prefund its retirees' health benefits through 2056—a requirement that no other federal agency is forced to meet.
"The postmaster general should have an opportunity to describe those realities before going before a hostile House committee determined to conduct a show trial," Johnson said.
As the Washington Post reported, the Senate hearing Friday "will be DeJoy's first opportunity to publicly answer lawmakers' questions about the nation's embattled mail service, which is experiencing delays as a result of policies DeJoy implemented cutting overtime and eliminating extra trips to ensure on-time mail delivery."
Johnson, according to the Post, "is expected to press DeJoy on whether the Postal Service truly needs the $25 billion in emergency funding that the House has pushed."
Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the top Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, vowed in a statement Tuesday to press for "answers on Mr. DeJoy's recent directives and their impacts on all Americans, who rely on the Postal Service for prescriptions, running their small businesses, voting, and other crucial purposes."
Senate Republicans have largely been quiet about DeJoy's sweeping changes to Postal Service operations even as they caused major mail backlogs across the U.S., slowing the delivery of prescription medicines and threatening the timely arrival of mail-in ballots.
As Salon's Roger Sollenberger reported Tuesday, DeJoy—a former logistics executive who was previously in charge of fundraising for the 2020 Republican National Convention in Charlotte—"has given tens of thousands of dollars to Republican senators up for re-election this November."
"FEC records also show that DeJoy regularly maxed out with tens of thousands of annual contributions to the official GOP committees dedicated to electing Republican lawmakers: the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee," Sollenberger wrote.
