FOCUS: Why Obama Is Standing by the Syrian Refugees
Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=33139"><span class="small">Peter Beinart, The Atlantic</span></a>
Monday, 23 November 2015 13:31
Beinart writes: "Barack Obama has opposed the current nativist, bigotry-laden, hysteria around the matter of accepting Syrian refugees. He knows he may not win. But he wants future historians to know exactly where he stood."
Barack Obama. (photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Why Obama Is Standing by the Syrian Refugees
By Peter Beinart, The Atlantic
23 November 15
The president isn’t speaking to his opponents—he’s talking to history.
nce upon a time, liberals criticized Barack Obama for only taking on fights he knew he could win. Not anymore. In 2013, Obama responded to the Sandy Hook shooting with a fervent, if unsuccessful, push for gun control. Now, over the past week, he’s met the nativist hysteria sparked by the attacks in Paris with an impassioned, enraged rhetorical barrage on behalf of the admission of Syrian refugees. He’s done so even though polls show that a clear majority of Americans now oppose admitting any Syrians. And even though, last Thursday, 47 House Democrats broke with him to help overwhelmingly pass a bill that would make admission of Syrian refugees virtually impossible.
Nonetheless, Obama has been unyielding. Last Monday from Turkey he went after Ted Cruz, declaring that, “When I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which person who’s fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted when some of those folks themselves come from families who benefitted from protection when they were fleeing political persecution, that’s shameful. That’s not American.” On Tuesday in the Philippines, Obama targeted Chris Christie for being “worried about three-year-old orphans. That doesn’t sound very tough to me.” On Wednesday he fired off six straight tweets on the subject, the last of which declared that, “Slamming the door in the face of refugees would betray our deepest values. That’s not who we are. And it’s not what we're going to do.” Then, after meeting refugee children on Saturday in Malaysia, he declared that, “American leadership is us caring about people who have been forgotten or who have been discriminated against or who’ve been tortured or who’ve been subject to unspeakable violence or who’ve been separated from families at very young ages. That’s when we’re the shining light on the hill.”
Why is Obama picking a fight on an issue that, according toThe Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, is a “political winner” for the GOP?
Because of the way he interprets American history.
Every president tells the story of America’s past to justify the policies he’s pursuing in the present. For George W. Bush, the story was about America being roused from its complacency by external danger. In 1999, then candidate Bush quoted Winston Churchill as declaring, in the late 1930s, that “the era of procrastination, of half measures-of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close.” Then, in his second inaugural, Bush described his own era as “years of relative quiet, years of repose, years of sabbatical” followed by “a day of fire.” The implication was that to fulfill his role in history, Bush needed to rally Americans against the evil that lurked beyond their shores.
Obama tells the story of American history differently: as America overcoming the evil within itself. In his 2008 Democratic convention speech, he talked about “a promise that has led immigrants to cross oceans and pioneers to travel west, a promise that led workers to picket lines and women to reach for the ballot.” The first two references—to immigrants escaping foreign oppression and pioneers overcoming nature’s hardships—are standard political fare. But by twinning them with workers battling exploitation and women battling sexism, Obama suggested that external and physical forces aren’t the only barriers to American progress. Sometimes, the barriers are other Americans.
It’s a theme that recurs in Obama’s speeches. In his first inaugural, he said America’s “greatness” resided in those Americans who “traveled across oceans in search of a new life ... settled the West ... and plowed the hard earth” but also those who “toiled in sweatshops and endured the lash of the whip.” In other words, America achieved greatness because Americans seeking dignity and freedom triumphed over Americans who sought to deny them those things. In Obama’s second inaugural he talked about the “star that guides us” toward full equality, “just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall.” This March, on the 50th anniversary of the march from Selma to Montgomery, he said what occurred there was “a clash of wills; a contest to determine the true meaning of America.”
Obviously, Obama knows America faces enemies abroad. But unlike Bush, who took World War II and the Cold War as his precedents for the “war on terror” and thus cast America as a virtuous nation menaced by foreign malevolence, Obama refers frequently to America’s malevolence within. He sees American history as a series of moral struggles pitting Americans seeking equal opportunity and full citizenship against Americans who defend an unjust or bigoted status quo.
Obama clearly sees the current nativist, bigotry-laden, hysteria as such a struggle. He knows he may not win. But he wants future historians to know exactly where he stood. They will. And as a result, I suspect, they’ll record the Syrian refugee battle among his finest hours.
Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=36361"><span class="small">Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Facebook Page</span></a>
Monday, 23 November 2015 12:07
Reich writes: "Trump channels the anxieties of Americans into fear and hate. Bernie channels them into hope and tolerance."
Robert Reich. (photo: Perian Flaherty)
Sanders vs Trump - Hope vs Fear
By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Facebook Page
23 November 15
t’s instructive to compare Bernie’s rally in Savannah, Georgia last night with Donald Trump’s rally in Birmingham, Alabama on Saturday. Two southern states, two populist aspirants for the presidency, two immense crowds. But the two events and the two candidates couldn’t have been further apart. Trump channels the anxieties of Americans into fear and hate. Bernie channels them into hope and tolerance. Trump told the white, middle-aged crowd he’d seal America’s borders against Mexicans and Muslims. Bernie told a diverse, young crowd he’d make public universities tuition-free and reduce incarceration. At Trump rallies, black protesters are kicked and beaten by Trump’s white supporters. At Bernie’s rallies, protesters are respected and heard. (Yesterday, Trump said of the treatment one black protester got in Birmingham, “maybe he should have been roughed up…. This is not the way Bernie Sanders handled his problem, I will tell you, but I have a lot of fans and they were not happy about it. And this was a very obnoxious guy, a troublemaker, looking to make trouble.”)
Trump's right-wing populism poses a clear and present danger to this nation. Bernie's left-wing populism offers the only practical way forward. Rarely in American history has the choice been this stark.
Bernie Sanders Fights Hard for Votes in South Carolina
Monday, 23 November 2015 09:32
Galindez writes: "Declaring that 'the killing of African-Americans has got to stop' during a forum on criminal justice reform in Charleston, South Carolina, on Saturday, Bernie Sanders put police reform at the top of a list of proposals to remake the criminal justice system in the United States. 'Too many African-Americans and other minorities find themselves subjected to a system that treats citizens who have not committed crimes like criminals,' Sanders said."
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, discussed racial justice when he addressed supporters in Sumter, S.C., earlier this year. (photo: Sean Rayford/NYT)
Bernie Sanders Fights Hard for Votes in South Carolina
By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News
23 November 15
uring a forum on criminal justice reform in Charleston, South Carolina, on Saturday, Bernie Sanders took aim at politicians who use “tough on crime” rhetoric to get elected. The forum was also attended by Dr. Ben Carson and Martin O’Malley. Hillary Clinton declined an invitation to participate.
“For too long in this country politicians have used getting tough on crime as a wedge issue to win elections. It is clearly about time to start talking – as we have in this election – about the really disastrous effects of too many politicians trying to win too many elections by locking too many people up,” Sanders told the forum held at Allen University.
“And we should lay it all right out on the table,” Sanders added. “People in American jails are disproportionately people of color. That’s the reality in America today. That’s a reality that has to change.”
According to a press release from the Sanders campaign, among what he called “shocking statistics,” Sanders said that one in four black males born today can expect to spend time in prison during their lifetime, that blacks are imprisoned at six times the rate of whites, and that minorities are sentenced to death at significantly higher rates than whites. He also noted that the Department of Justice found that blacks were three times more likely to be searched during a traffic stop, compared to white motorists.
Sanders also spoke about what he called an “endless stream of tragedies” that he said “screams out for justice” involving blacks killed by police during arrests or while in custody.
“The Black Lives Matter movement which has arisen in response to these deaths has done a needed and commendable job in raising public awareness of this issue. The proliferation of cell phone video has brought the reality of these deaths into the living room and onto the computer screens of people across this country. I know you have heard these names before but they bear repeating so we do not lose sight of the real human price being paid: Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Samuel Dubose, Rekia Boyd and too many more. But people must do more than just echo the phrase Black Lives Matter. We must put actions behind those words. Actions that will bring about the fundamental reform that is needed in the face of this crisis,” Sanders said.
Declaring that “the killings of African-Americans has got to stop,” Sanders put police reform at the top of a list of proposals to remake the criminal justice system in the United States. “Too many African-Americans and other minorities find themselves subjected to a system that treats citizens who have not committed crimes like criminals,” Sanders said.
During the question and answer period, Sanders promised that police reform would be a major priority of his administration. Sanders also said he believed his agenda will resonate in South Carolina and by the time votes are cast he will have closed the gap in the palmetto state.
Sanders’ proposals include:
Eliminating for-profit prisons within two years.
Ending mandatory minimum sentencing and giving judges the discretion to better tailor sentences to the specific facts of a given case.
Removing marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances and letting states decide whether possession should be a crime.
Establishing a new federal police training program that trains police to de-escalate confrontations and to humanely interact with people with mental illnesses.
Making police forces reflect the diversity of our communities.
Requiring greater civilian oversight of police departments and ongoing and meaningful community engagement.
Making law enforcement officers wear body cameras to help hold them accountable, while protecting the privacy of innocent people.
Providing federal funding to help state and local governments adopt new policing standards. State and local governments who participate in police reform should be rewarded by the federal government. Those who do not should have federal justice funding withheld.
Bernie’s Sunday Began in Black Churches
Bernie Sanders made two appearances Sunday morning in African-American churches in North Charleston, South Carolina. The first stop was at Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church. The second was at Royal Missionary Baptist Church. He spoke for 5 to 8 minutes at each congregation.
“I am running for president of the United States because I believe in our great country we can do a lot better for working people and for poor people than we are currently doing.”
“I think as you know we are economically a lot better off today under President Obama than we were seven years ago.… But what we should also remember: We are the wealthiest country in the history of the world, but most people wouldn’t know that because a lot of that wealth rests in the hands of the few, and many, many people have very little.”
“In America today, we should not have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on earth. In America today, we should not have 29 million people without any health insurance, and many more with large deductibles and copayments. In America today, we should not have a situation where 51 percent of African-American high school graduates between 17 and 20 are unemployed or underemployed. And in America today, we should not have more people in jail than any country on earth.”
“So I think it makes a lot of sense for us to be investing in education and jobs rather than jails and incarceration.”
“And in America we should not be seeing what we’re seeing on our television sets in terms of what some police officers have done to unarmed people. That we should not be seeing, and we need major criminal justice reform in this country. All Americans should know when they walk down the street, they are not going to be harassed by police departments. They’re not going to be unfairly arrested. So I want to see us as a nation which does not have more people in jail than any other country, but has the best educated population on earth.
“And that is why I believe in the year 2015, 2016, we should make public colleges and universities tuition free. I want to see every child in South Carolina regardless of the income of his or her family know that if they study hard in school, they pay attention, they will be able to make it to college, regardless of the income of their families.”
“There are some people out there – I’m not going to be political – who talk about cutting Social Security or cutting Medicare. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me when people are trying to get by on 11, 12, 13,000 dollars a year. We’ve got to expand Social Security, not cut it.”
“I just wanted to thank all of you for allowing me to say a few words, and I look forward to working with all of you to make sure our great country fulfills its promise for all of our people and creates the kind of nation that you and I know we can become. Thank you so much.”
At Royal Missionary Baptist, Sanders was introduced by the Rev. Joseph Spann, who praised Sanders’s commitment to helping the poor. Sanders’s remarks were similar to the remarks above, though Sanders spoke a little longer, almost eight minutes, touching on a few more subjects.
Sanders Draws Contrast With Clinton on Family Leave, Social Security
According to a press release sent out by the Sanders Campaign, Bernie spoke to 600 people packed inside the Penn Center’s Darrah Hall on Sunday and called for paid family leave for new parents and expanded benefits for seniors who rely on Social Security.
Sanders is one of 19 Senate co-sponsors of the Family and Medical Leave Act introduced by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
Under the measure, workers would be entitled to three months of paid leave to care for a newborn child. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton does not support the legislation. Sanders urged all presidential candidates to join him in supporting guaranteed family and medical leave.
He also called on other White House hopefuls to join him in supporting expansion of Social Security benefits for seniors and the disabled.
Sanders blasted the lack of a cost of living increase for Social Security recipients this year and explained that his legislation would change the formula for determining the cost of living increase. Sanders would implement a formula that takes into effect the rising cost of health care and prescription drugs.
Legislation Sanders has introduced in the Senate also would increase Social Security benefits and scrap a cap on income subject to the payroll tax. Now, someone making millions of dollars a year pays no more than someone making $118,500 a year. Levying the same tax rate on annual income greater than $250,000 would only impact the top 1.5 percent of wage earners while boosting benefits for millions of retirees.
“I would hope that every Democratic candidate for president of the United States is prepared to lift the cap and expand benefits for millions of seniors in this country who desperately need to see those benefits expanded,” Sanders said.
According to published reports, Hillary Clinton has not categorically ruled out benefit cuts including an increase in the retirement age.
Sanders’s plan to expand and extend Social Security would boost the income of a typical senior making less than $16,000 a year by about $1,300 a year. It would also make sure that Social Security could pay every benefit owed to every eligible American for the next 50 years.
Sanders spent the weekend in South Carolina and Georgia. The three-day swing will close with a rally in Atlanta on Monday.
Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott will be spending a year covering the presidential election from Iowa.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
Stopping Illegal Logging Will Protect Endangered Species While Saving American Jobs
Monday, 23 November 2015 09:14
Excerpt: "Second in size only to the Amazon, the Congo Basin rainforests are a hotbed of biological diversity. From lowland gorillas to African teak, more than 10,000 species of tropical plants are found alongside 400 species of mammals and 1,000 species of birds. Unfortunately, these rainforests and the communities that depend on them are under attack from illegal logging."
The Congo Basin's rivers, forests, savannas and swamps teem with life. Many endangered species, including forest elephants, chimpanzees, bonobos and lowland and mountain gorillas live in the Congo Basin. (photo: WWF)
Stopping Illegal Logging Will Protect Endangered Species While Saving American Jobs
By Eric Parfait Essomba and Jesse Prentice-Dunn, EcoWatch
23 November 15
econd in size only to the Amazon, the Congo Basin rainforests are a hotbed of biological diversity. From lowland gorillas to African teak, more than 10,000 species of tropical plants are found alongside 400 species of mammals and 1,000 species of birds. Unfortunately, these rainforests and the communities that depend on them are under attack from illegal logging. As one of the largest consumers of wood products, the U.S. has the responsibility, and the tools in place, to help stop illegal logging in the Congo Basin.
Worldwide, trade in forest products is worth up to $400 billion USD. Up to 30 percent of timber traded globally has illegal origins, but in the Congo Basin region more than 50 percent of all timber exports are estimated to be illegal, with countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo reaching up to 90 percent. Much of this valuable tropical wood now heads to China, where it is made into wood products and shipped elsewhere, including to the U.S. Over the past ten years, timber exports from the Congo Basin to the U.S. represented approximately $15 million USD per year.
Driven by widespread corruption, weak and contradicting laws, and a lack of enforcement, illegal logging has thrived in Congo Basin countries. Throughout the region logging companies and illegal loggers systematically violate local laws by felling and exporting trees outside their allotted concessions, cutting greater wood volumes than authorized, then use falsified documents to launder to export the timber. This has considerable detrimental impacts not only on the local economy but also on forest-dependent communities as they are deprived from their main source of livelihood and income.
The illegal timber trade doesn’t just harm forests and communities in the Central African region, it also undercuts American jobs and threatens our climate. More than 370,000 people work in the U.S. wood products manufacturing industry, making everything from cabinets to paper. However, each year American companies lose roughly $1 billion USD due to cheaper illegally sourced imports and less valuable exports. Further, illegal logging drives deforestation, which accounts for 17 percent of all carbon pollution worldwide. Put another way, deforestation emits more than all cars, trucks, trains and planes in the world combined.
Although half a world away, the U.S. can, and should, help fight the illegal timber trade in the Congo Basin. One of the U.S.’ first conservation laws, the Lacey Act, was amended in 2008 to prevent the importation of illegally sourced wood products. Companies must take steps to ensure their products are legal, with violators facing fines or jail. However, a law is only effective if it is enforced. It is critical that the Obama administration fully enforces the Lacey Act in order to send a strong signal to companies that they must source their wood legally.
Thankfully, last month the Department of Justice concluded a two-year investigation into Lumber Liquidators, which faced allegations of knowingly importing flooring made from timber illegally harvested in Siberian tiger habitat. In a plea agreement, Lumber Liquidators pleaded guilty to four misdemeanors and a felony for importing flooring made of illegally sourced wood. This marks the first time a major U.S. company has been found guilty of a felony for smuggling illegal wood. This is a welcome step, but it is no silver bullet.
The U.S. can help protect the Congo Basin’s stunning biodiversity. To do that, the Obama administration must increase the level of scrutiny of timber exports coming from the Congo Basin region, support Central African enforcement agencies in investigating suspicious companies and continue to fully enforce the Lacey Act. Stopping illegal logging will not only save forests in the Congo Basin, it will protect American jobs and our climate.
Trump's Focus on Muslims Distracting Him From Campaign Against Mexicans, Supporters Fear
Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=9160"><span class="small">Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker</span></a>
Sunday, 22 November 2015 14:03
Borowitz writes: "There are growing fears among supporters of the Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump that his new focus on Muslims is distracting him from his campaign against Mexicans."
Donald Trump. (photo: AP)
Trump's Focus on Muslims Distracting Him From Campaign Against Mexicans, Supporters Fear
By Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
22 November 15
The article below is satire. Andy Borowitz is an American comedian and New York Times-bestselling author who satirizes the news for his column, "The Borowitz Report."
here are growing fears among supporters of the Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump that his new focus on Muslims is distracting him from his campaign against Mexicans.
After the billionaire said he would consider shutting down mosques if he were President, supporters expressed concern that such signature proposals as a wall with Mexico and mass deportations were being lost in the shuffle.
Carol Foyler, who viewed a recent Trump appearance on television, said that she was “alarmed” to hear him talk about closing mosques “without mentioning the wall with Mexico even once.” “I just worry, I guess, that with all of this talk about Muslims he’s really forgetting about Mexicans,” she said. “It feels kind of like a bait-and-switch.”
Another Trump supporter, Harland Dorrinson, agreed. “Shutting down the mosques is a great idea, sure, but he shouldn’t do that if it’s going to divert resources from forcibly deporting eleven million immigrants,” he said. “I would be very sad to see that happen.”
But Tracy Klugian, a die-hard Trump volunteer who is working for his campaign in Iowa, called such criticism of her candidate “misguided.” “You don’t get to be a successful businessman like Donald Trump without being able to multitask,” she said.
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nce upon a time, liberals criticized Barack Obama for only taking on fights he knew he could win. Not anymore. In 2013, Obama responded to the Sandy Hook shooting with a fervent, if unsuccessful, push for gun control. Now, over the past week, he’s met the nativist hysteria sparked by the attacks in Paris with an impassioned, enraged rhetorical barrage on behalf of the admission of Syrian refugees. He’s done so even though polls 
t’s instructive to compare Bernie’s rally in Savannah, Georgia last night with Donald Trump’s rally in Birmingham, Alabama on Saturday. Two southern states, two populist aspirants for the presidency, two immense crowds. But the two events and the two candidates couldn’t have been further apart. Trump channels the anxieties of Americans into fear and hate. Bernie channels them into hope and tolerance. Trump told the white, middle-aged crowd he’d seal America’s borders against Mexicans and Muslims. Bernie told a diverse, young crowd he’d make public universities tuition-free and reduce incarceration. At Trump rallies, black protesters are kicked and beaten by Trump’s white supporters. At Bernie’s rallies, protesters are respected and heard. (Yesterday, Trump said of the treatment one black protester got in Birmingham, “maybe he should have been roughed up…. This is not the way Bernie Sanders handled his problem, I will tell you, but I have a lot of fans and they were not happy about it. And this was a very obnoxious guy, a troublemaker, looking to make trouble.”)
uring a forum on criminal justice reform in Charleston, South Carolina, on Saturday, Bernie Sanders took aim at politicians who use “tough on crime” rhetoric to get elected. The forum was also attended by Dr. Ben Carson and Martin O’Malley. Hillary Clinton declined an invitation to participate.
econd in size only to the Amazon, the 
here are growing fears among supporters of the Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump that his new focus on Muslims is distracting him from his campaign against Mexicans.
