thenation--2020-07-22--A New America Is Possible—Now

A New America Is Possible—Now

The word “ jubilee ” comes from the Hebrew “ yovel , ” meaning a “ trumpet blast of liberty.
” It was said that , on the day of liberation , the sound of a ram ’ s horn would ring through the land .
These days , I hear the sound of that horn while walking with my kids through the streets of New York City , while protests continue here , even amid a pandemic , as they have since soon after May 25 when a police officer put his knee to George Floyd ’ s neck @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I hear it when I speak with homeless leaders defending their encampments amid the nightmare of Covid-19 .
I hear it when I meet people who are tired , angry , and yet , miraculously enough , finding their political voices for the first time .
I hear it when I read escaped slave and abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass ’ s speech on the eve of the Emancipation Proclamation .
I also feel Frederick Douglass ’ s sharp reminder , from that same speech , of the need for eternal vigilance when I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the movement to transform this world of ours—like Pamela Rush , who lived in the Mississippi Delta with raw sewage in her yard and died from Covid-19 complications , the closest hospital being nearly an hour from her home .
( She leaves behind a daughter who needs a continuous positive airway pressure , or CPAP , machine to breathe and a son . )
These are , after all , times of staggering danger , but also enormous possibility , moments that should be met with unbridled imagination , absolute seriousness , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Above all , in a world distinctly stacked against us , we must believe that we can succeed .
¡Sí , se puede !
Yes , we can !
On June 20th , I distinctly heard that sound of the jubilee horn , when nearly three million people tuned in for the Mass Poor People ’ s Assembly and Moral March on Washington to express the untold stories , demands , and potential solutions of a growing social movement to a host of injustices .
Alongside social media , radio , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and American Sign Language ) , toll-free numbers broadcast the program to homeless encampments and other places abandoned by much of this society long before Covid-19 hit , and 300,000 listeners sent the agenda of the Poor People ’ s Campaign to their governors and Congress .
Meanwhile , that very day in Tulsa , Okla. , President Trump was speaking at a rally in which he trafficked , as he always does , in explicit racism and hate even as he denied the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people sat largely maskless and shoulder to shoulder in that auditorium , which could have held 19,000 .
They nonetheless seem to have helped spark a surge in coronavirus cases in that city about two weeks later .
Also on June 20th , the Poor People ’ s Campaign ( of which I am a cochair ) launched a “ Moral Policy Agenda to Heal America : The Poor People ’ s Jubilee Platform.
” It detailed not just a list of demands , but a blueprint for the moral reconstruction of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fast .
It ’ s meant to remind us all that ending poverty and systemic racism , working to mitigate climate change , and halting this country ’ s ever-growing militarism , at home and abroad , is not only possible , but that we essentially know what it will take to get us there .
Among the policies needed are universal single-payer healthcare , quality and free education through college , debt relief , a guaranteed income , the right to a living-wage job , true environmental protections , indigenous and immigrant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ living for all , including the poor , in a country with a Congress and president focused mainly on the rich and on funding the Pentagon at ever more staggering levels .
This Jubilee Platform , as we call it , affirms many of the truths discovered by freedom-fighters across the ages—including the well-kept secret in America that there is actually enough for everyone and that all of us are deserving of our nation ’ s abundance ; that when we lift from the bottom up , everyone rises ; that our society @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for which we ’ ll have to depend on the leadership of those most impacted by injustice ; and that , as Reverend Martin Luther King , Jr. , once suggested , we truly “ can force the power structure to say yes when they may be desirous of saying no.
” There Need Be No Poor Among Us Many people have said that this platform is far too ambitious , that such demands are both politically inconceivable and ridiculously too expensive .
Don ’ t believe them .
Instead , believe me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ life , not death , far outweigh the costs , whatever they may be .
After all , child poverty already costs our country , at a minimum , an estimated $ 700 million annually ; voter suppression in just one state , Florida , added up to at least $ 385 million annually in administrative and court costs ; failing to adequately address climate change and create a genuine green economy could , in the end , cost an estimated 15.7 percent of our gross domestic product a year , wiping out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our economy—and , if the effects of climate change arrive more quickly than expected , it could be worse .
Meanwhile , endless wars , not to speak of the 800 US military bases scattered across the planet , cost hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars a year without making our country or the world any safer .
Instead of bankrolling war and the military-industrial complex , Americans could swiftly cut $ 350 billion from the annual Pentagon budget , use it to enhance genuine security at home ( particularly during this pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ military budget than China , Russia , and Iran combined .
The government could raise the federal minimum wage to a living one and experience a ripple effect as that money circulated back through the economy , both faster and further than the billions Congress has given through tax cuts to the already immensely wealthy and corporations .
And the United States could gain $ 886 billion in estimated annual revenue from fair taxes on that 1 percent of Americans , the most powerful corporations , and Wall Street .
Imagine a society @ @ @ @ @ @ @ infrastructure , creating ever more and better jobs not related to the military-industrial complex , while accelerating a clean energy transition ( and the jobs that went with it ) .
Imagine what that would do for our country and the planet .
In the process , the United States could provide health care , housing , and education for everyone .
In the richest country in the world , there are , in reality , abundant resources , even if for far too long our public policies have funneled far too much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of jubilee in that policy platform is not meant as just another rhetorical flourish .
It is meant as a rallying cry , a word that captures in the best possible way a future economic and social vision of justice , a political roadmap for our moment , and an expression of the moral heart of movements of the oppressed in this country .
Indeed , jubilee has often been invoked as a shorthand for the promise of freedom in this country , from the pre–Civil War abolition movement to today .
On @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eve of the moment when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves , Frederick Douglass gave a speech , “ The Day of Jubilee Comes ” that he began this way : “ This is scarcely a day for prose .
It is a day for poetry and song , a new song.
” He then warned , however , that it was unwise “ for the friends of freedom to fold their hands and consider their work at an end .
The price of Liberty is eternal vigilance.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and struggle later , on June 19 , 1865 , the Union Army arrived in Galveston , Texas , and the enslaved people of that city—the last to do so—learned that they had been emancipated .
The memory of that day has since held special meaning for many Black communities , as well as others seeking freedoms of various sorts .
Some know it as Juneteenth .
Others call it Jubilee Day .
In my 25 years of grassroots anti-poverty organizing , from homeless encampments to welfare offices , we ’ ve declared @ @ @ @ @ @ @ debt and family separation or inadequate housing and healthcare systems .
An understanding of what jubilee means , and the hope it represents , has always been grounded in a study of history and theology .
I ’ m a minister and teach in a theological seminary , so I couldn ’ t be more aware that “ jubilee ” appears throughout the Bible , including in the law codes of Deuteronomy , the most cited Old Testament book .
Those codes established a covenant with God in which there was to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ debts were canceled , slaves manumitted , wages finally paid , the poor and hungry given provisions , and farmland allowed to lie fallow ( an early form of ecological conservation ) .
Together , those codes served as sacred law and the people were told that , if they were followed , “ there need be no poor people among you.
” None of those laws were meant to be about charity , but about the responsibilities of a land and a people .
They amounted , in fact , to a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It was no accident , in fact , that the first mention of jubilee came two books earlier in Leviticus in a similar set of liberatory codes handed down by God after the Jewish people had been freed from Egypt .
They were to provide a clean break with the hellish world those Jews had just escaped and the first building blocks of a new , more just one .
What does all this have to do with the United States today ?
For one thing , even before Covid-19 hit , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people in the richest country in the world , the richest country , in fact , in history and one in which inequality has risen to levels not seen in a century .
Meanwhile , wages for most workers have been stagnating for decades and , in the Covid-19 moment , historic rates of unemployment hit , along with the threat of a massive wave of evictions amid a widening economic crisis .
In addition , over the past few decades , poverty has become an increasingly endemic and permanent fixture of American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ should be obvious that the United States is in dire need of a new vision .
The Day of Jubilee Is Coming The problems of 2020 clearly demand a jubilee vision for the nation , something that , in the wake of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations , feels more possible now than it has for generations .
Reverend William J. Barber II , my Poor People ’ s Campaign cochair , often says that we are on the cusp of a Third Reconstruction ( after the post–Civil War one and the civil @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those previous periods , monumental social , political , and economic changes were birthed by movements in the midst of insufferable conditions and in the face of regressive governments .
The last few months offer evidence that growing segments of society—if not the Trump administration and various Republican state governments—are willing to imagine bold solutions to issues like poverty and systemic racism and are prepared to organize what could be a new reconstruction to make them a reality .
Six months into the pandemic , tens of thousands of Americans are continuing to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the struggles of low-wage workers and the unemployed demanding both immediate relief and permanent rights to housing and decent work at a living wage .
Those in a revitalizing labor movement are taking increasingly militant action , including the national Strike for Black Lives on July 20th by low-wage workers .
Meanwhile , this summer ’ s racial justice uprisings have awakened one of the largest protest movements in American history , while transforming the conversation on previously untouchable institutions like the police and the military .
An unprecedented debate has now opened @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and why politicians have invested so much money in social control and violence , while gravely underfunding the cornerstones of a healthy society : education and environmental protection , healthcare , housing , infrastructure , and food and water supplies , among other things .
The nation ’ s misplaced priorities are not only damaging the social fabric , but moving us toward a fundamentally unstable economy in which only the truly wealthy will truly prosper .
Beneath the often-detached waves of the stock market is a roiling ocean of troubles : more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , for instance , within the most expensive healthcare system among developed countries .
In 2019 , 137 million Americans faced financial hardship thanks to high medical costs and rising debt .
Meanwhile , the Pentagon awarded Boeing roughly the same amount in annual military contracts as it would cost to expand Medicaid in the 14 states that have yet to do so .
In America , scarcity is a myth and nothing more .
The money is there to be found and , during a pandemic , it needs to be .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Campaign and the Institute for Policy Studies released a “ moral budget ” outlining where this country ’ s abundant resources have been so disastrously funneled and how they could be redirected toward the rest of us .
Where would such moneys go ?
Toward making a reality of what the Constitution has always promised : establishing real justice ( the right to democracy and equal protection under the law ) , promoting the general welfare ( the right to an adequate standard of living ) , ensuring domestic tranquility ( the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ securing the blessings of liberty ( the right to health and a healthy environment ) , and providing for the common defense ( reprioritizing our resources to defend life over profit and our real security over that of the national security state ) .
To do this , the nation would need to enshrine education , healthcare , housing , and welfare as universal rights ; raise wages , while creating new labor standards and encouraging the right to unionize and organize ; demilitarize the economy and our communities ; protect the vote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in democracy , not incipient Trump-style autocracy ; forgive debts , rather than improving the ability of banks to collect them ; declare climate change a national emergency ; and invest in infrastructure while building a fully green economy .
Social movements , especially when first gaining ground , are often told to be “ practical , ” to make their demands few and modest .
It ’ s worth noting , though , that the same is never asked of the super-rich , of the 1 percent , certainly not in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was bailed out to the tune of nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars , nor in the current crisis when Congress ’ s stimulus package to date has largely amounted to an even greater giveaway program .
A jubilee platform is not a proposal to tinker around the edges .
It is a plan for reconstruction that hopes to address the pain and hope of millions fighting every day simply for the right to live .
The project of reconstructing society around the needs of the poor and dispossessed requires a movement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ economic and racial disasters of our time .
When We Lift from the Bottom , Everyone Rises I have been engaged in a movement to reconstruct society led by the poor and dispossessed for more than a quarter of a century .
In that time , many have come forward to claim that ending poverty is impossible , that this is as good as it gets , that the costs of addressing inequality are simply too great .
Especially in my role as a member of the ordained clergy and a biblical scholar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I haven ’ t heard someone quote a line from Jesus in the Bible— “ the poor will be with you always ” —to make the point that humanity has always known poverty to be eternal and that its mitigation is best reserved for charity or philanthropy .
Indeed , that biblical passage has become yet another tool wielded by supporters of the wealthy to deflect attention from systemic failures in our country and help them further consolidate their power—to reinforce that social uplift is far too costly to imagine and change of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new report on the growing crisis of global poverty , Phillip Alston , the former UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights , explained the consequences well : “ The overwhelming success of the ideological campaign that supports neoliberal policies is that it has succeeded in convincing people that those in poverty have no one to blame but themselves , while supporting the notion that trickle-down policies will address it.
” We may live in a time that essentializes poverty , but the irony of that line from the Bible on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ critiquing it ( and the rich ) by cleverly referencing the law codes of Deuteronomy .
In his time , the Roman Empire had created a society rife with suffering and death , as well as its own predatory regime of wealth accumulation .
Jesus references perhaps the most powerful prescription for justice in the Old Testament with the message that “ there need be no poor people among us ” and instructs nations to forgive debts , pay people what they deserve , abolish slavery , and organize society around the needs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of his was never actually saying that poverty was inevitable , but that the “ poor will be always with us ” as long as we cater to the rich rather than build a society that cares for everyone .
That ’ s no less true today .
May we choose another way .

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.
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The word “jubilee” comes from the Hebrew “yovel,” meaning a “trumpet blast of liberty.” It was said that, on the day of liberation, the sound of a ram’s horn would ring through the land. These days, I hear the sound of that horn while walking with my kids through the streets of New York City, while protests continue here, even amid a pandemic, as they have since soon after May 25 when a police officer put his knee to George Floyd’s neck and robbed him of his life. I hear it when I speak with homeless leaders defending their encampments amid the nightmare of Covid-19. I hear it when I meet people who are tired, angry, and yet, miraculously enough, finding their political voices for the first time. I hear it when I read escaped slave and abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass’s speech on the eve of the Emancipation Proclamation.
I also feel Frederick Douglass’s sharp reminder, from that same speech, of the need for eternal vigilance when I learn of the death of leaders in the movement to transform this world of ours—like Pamela Rush, who lived in the Mississippi Delta with raw sewage in her yard and died from Covid-19 complications, the closest hospital being nearly an hour from her home. (She leaves behind a daughter who needs a continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, machine to breathe and a son.) These are, after all, times of staggering danger, but also enormous possibility, moments that should be met with unbridled imagination, absolute seriousness, and the music of those jubilee horns. Above all, in a world distinctly stacked against us, we must believe that we can succeed.
¡Sí, se puede! Yes, we can!
How to Heal America
On June 20th, I distinctly heard that sound of the jubilee horn, when nearly three million people tuned in for the Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington to express the untold stories, demands, and potential solutions of a growing social movement to a host of injustices. Alongside social media, radio, and TV (in English, Spanish, and American Sign Language), toll-free numbers broadcast the program to homeless encampments and other places abandoned by much of this society long before Covid-19 hit, and 300,000 listeners sent the agenda of the Poor People’s Campaign to their governors and Congress.
Meanwhile, that very day in Tulsa, Okla., President Trump was speaking at a rally in which he trafficked, as he always does, in explicit racism and hate even as he denied the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis it has induced. Only about 6,000 people sat largely maskless and shoulder to shoulder in that auditorium, which could have held 19,000. They nonetheless seem to have helped spark a surge in coronavirus cases in that city about two weeks later.
Also on June 20th, the Poor People’s Campaign (of which I am a cochair) launched a “Moral Policy Agenda to Heal America: The Poor People’s Jubilee Platform.” It detailed not just a list of demands, but a blueprint for the moral reconstruction of a society that now looks to be failing fast. It’s meant to remind us all that ending poverty and systemic racism, working to mitigate climate change, and halting this country’s ever-growing militarism, at home and abroad, is not only possible, but that we essentially know what it will take to get us there. Among the policies needed are universal single-payer healthcare, quality and free education through college, debt relief, a guaranteed income, the right to a living-wage job, true environmental protections, indigenous and immigrant rights, and an adequate standard of living for all, including the poor, in a country with a Congress and president focused mainly on the rich and on funding the Pentagon at ever more staggering levels. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
This Jubilee Platform, as we call it, affirms many of the truths discovered by freedom-fighters across the ages—including the well-kept secret in America that there is actually enough for everyone and that all of us are deserving of our nation’s abundance; that when we lift from the bottom up, everyone rises; that our society desperately needs a moral revolution of values for which we’ll have to depend on the leadership of those most impacted by injustice; and that, as Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., once suggested, we truly “can force the power structure to say yes when they may be desirous of saying no.” Current Issue View our current issue
There Need Be No Poor Among Us
Many people have said that this platform is far too ambitious, that such demands are both politically inconceivable and ridiculously too expensive. Don’t believe them. Instead, believe me, that the benefits of investing in life, not death, far outweigh the costs, whatever they may be.
After all, child poverty already costs our country, at a minimum, an estimated $700 million annually; voter suppression in just one state, Florida, added up to at least $385 million annually in administrative and court costs; failing to adequately address climate change and create a genuine green economy could, in the end, cost an estimated 15.7 percent of our gross domestic product a year, wiping out the equivalent of $3.3 trillion from our economy—and, if the effects of climate change arrive more quickly than expected, it could be worse. Meanwhile, endless wars, not to speak of the 800 US military bases scattered across the planet, cost hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars a year without making our country or the world any safer.
Instead of bankrolling war and the military-industrial complex, Americans could swiftly cut $350 billion from the annual Pentagon budget, use it to enhance genuine security at home (particularly during this pandemic), and still have a larger military budget than China, Russia, and Iran combined. The government could raise the federal minimum wage to a living one and experience a ripple effect as that money circulated back through the economy, both faster and further than the billions Congress has given through tax cuts to the already immensely wealthy and corporations. And the United States could gain $886 billion in estimated annual revenue from fair taxes on that 1 percent of Americans, the most powerful corporations, and Wall Street.
Imagine a society that truly began to invest in public infrastructure, creating ever more and better jobs not related to the military-industrial complex, while accelerating a clean energy transition (and the jobs that went with it). Imagine what that would do for our country and the planet. In the process, the United States could provide health care, housing, and education for everyone. In the richest country in the world, there are, in reality, abundant resources, even if for far too long our public policies have funneled far too much to far too few.
Jubilee and Justice
The inclusion of jubilee in that policy platform is not meant as just another rhetorical flourish. It is meant as a rallying cry, a word that captures in the best possible way a future economic and social vision of justice, a political roadmap for our moment, and an expression of the moral heart of movements of the oppressed in this country. Indeed, jubilee has often been invoked as a shorthand for the promise of freedom in this country, from the pre–Civil War abolition movement to today.
On December 28, 1862, on the eve of the moment when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves, Frederick Douglass gave a speech, “The Day of Jubilee Comes” that he began this way: “This is scarcely a day for prose. It is a day for poetry and song, a new song.” He then warned, however, that it was unwise “for the friends of freedom to fold their hands and consider their work at an end. The price of Liberty is eternal vigilance.”
Two and a half years of death and struggle later, on June 19, 1865, the Union Army arrived in Galveston, Texas, and the enslaved people of that city—the last to do so—learned that they had been emancipated. The memory of that day has since held special meaning for many Black communities, as well as others seeking freedoms of various sorts. Some know it as Juneteenth. Others call it Jubilee Day.
In my 25 years of grassroots anti-poverty organizing, from homeless encampments to welfare offices, we’ve declared jubilee countless times, whether from crushing debt and family separation or inadequate housing and healthcare systems. An understanding of what jubilee means, and the hope it represents, has always been grounded in a study of history and theology.
I’m a minister and teach in a theological seminary, so I couldn’t be more aware that “jubilee” appears throughout the Bible, including in the law codes of Deuteronomy, the most cited Old Testament book. Those codes established a covenant with God in which there was to be an unbroken cycle of jubilee years when debts were canceled, slaves manumitted, wages finally paid, the poor and hungry given provisions, and farmland allowed to lie fallow (an early form of ecological conservation). Together, those codes served as sacred law and the people were told that, if they were followed, “there need be no poor people among you.”
None of those laws were meant to be about charity, but about the responsibilities of a land and a people. They amounted, in fact, to a call for a radical reconstruction of society. It was no accident, in fact, that the first mention of jubilee came two books earlier in Leviticus in a similar set of liberatory codes handed down by God after the Jewish people had been freed from Egypt. They were to provide a clean break with the hellish world those Jews had just escaped and the first building blocks of a new, more just one.
What does all this have to do with the United States today? For one thing, even before Covid-19 hit, there were 140 million poor and low-income people in the richest country in the world, the richest country, in fact, in history and one in which inequality has risen to levels not seen in a century. Meanwhile, wages for most workers have been stagnating for decades and, in the Covid-19 moment, historic rates of unemployment hit, along with the threat of a massive wave of evictions amid a widening economic crisis. In addition, over the past few decades, poverty has become an increasingly endemic and permanent fixture of American life.
In that context, it should be obvious that the United States is in dire need of a new vision.
The Day of Jubilee Is Coming
The problems of 2020 clearly demand a jubilee vision for the nation, something that, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, feels more possible now than it has for generations. Reverend William J. Barber II, my Poor People’s Campaign cochair, often says that we are on the cusp of a Third Reconstruction (after the post–Civil War one and the civil rights movement). In each of those previous periods, monumental social, political, and economic changes were birthed by movements in the midst of insufferable conditions and in the face of regressive governments.
The last few months offer evidence that growing segments of society—if not the Trump administration and various Republican state governments—are willing to imagine bold solutions to issues like poverty and systemic racism and are prepared to organize what could be a new reconstruction to make them a reality. Six months into the pandemic, tens of thousands of Americans are continuing to go on rent strikes and engage in the struggles of low-wage workers and the unemployed demanding both immediate relief and permanent rights to housing and decent work at a living wage.
Those in a revitalizing labor movement are taking increasingly militant action, including the national Strike for Black Lives on July 20th by low-wage workers. Meanwhile, this summer’s racial justice uprisings have awakened one of the largest protest movements in American history, while transforming the conversation on previously untouchable institutions like the police and the military. An unprecedented debate has now opened up about how society spends its resources and why politicians have invested so much money in social control and violence, while gravely underfunding the cornerstones of a healthy society: education and environmental protection, healthcare, housing, infrastructure, and food and water supplies, among other things.
The nation’s misplaced priorities are not only damaging the social fabric, but moving us toward a fundamentally unstable economy in which only the truly wealthy will truly prosper. Beneath the often-detached waves of the stock market is a roiling ocean of troubles: more than 80 million people uninsured or underinsured, for instance, within the most expensive healthcare system among developed countries. In 2019, 137 million Americans faced financial hardship thanks to high medical costs and rising debt. Meanwhile, the Pentagon awarded Boeing roughly the same amount in annual military contracts as it would cost to expand Medicaid in the 14 states that have yet to do so.
In America, scarcity is a myth and nothing more. The money is there to be found and, during a pandemic, it needs to be. Last summer, the Poor People’s Campaign and the Institute for Policy Studies released a “moral budget” outlining where this country’s abundant resources have been so disastrously funneled and how they could be redirected toward the rest of us.
Where would such moneys go? Toward making a reality of what the Constitution has always promised: establishing real justice (the right to democracy and equal protection under the law), promoting the general welfare (the right to an adequate standard of living), ensuring domestic tranquility (the right to work with dignity), securing the blessings of liberty (the right to health and a healthy environment), and providing for the common defense (reprioritizing our resources to defend life over profit and our real security over that of the national security state).
To do this, the nation would need to enshrine education, healthcare, housing, and welfare as universal rights; raise wages, while creating new labor standards and encouraging the right to unionize and organize; demilitarize the economy and our communities; protect the vote, not the gerrymander, while investing in democracy, not incipient Trump-style autocracy; forgive debts, rather than improving the ability of banks to collect them; declare climate change a national emergency; and invest in infrastructure while building a fully green economy.
Social movements, especially when first gaining ground, are often told to be “practical,” to make their demands few and modest. It’s worth noting, though, that the same is never asked of the super-rich, of the 1 percent, certainly not in the financial crisis of 2007–08 when Wall Street was bailed out to the tune of nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars, nor in the current crisis when Congress’s stimulus package to date has largely amounted to an even greater giveaway program. A jubilee platform is not a proposal to tinker around the edges. It is a plan for reconstruction that hopes to address the pain and hope of millions fighting every day simply for the right to live. The project of reconstructing society around the needs of the poor and dispossessed requires a movement led by those most impacted by the economic and racial disasters of our time.
When We Lift from the Bottom, Everyone Rises
I have been engaged in a movement to reconstruct society led by the poor and dispossessed for more than a quarter of a century. In that time, many have come forward to claim that ending poverty is impossible, that this is as good as it gets, that the costs of addressing inequality are simply too great. Especially in my role as a member of the ordained clergy and a biblical scholar, rarely has a week passed that I haven’t heard someone quote a line from Jesus in the Bible—“the poor will be with you always”—to make the point that humanity has always known poverty to be eternal and that its mitigation is best reserved for charity or philanthropy. Indeed, that biblical passage has become yet another tool wielded by supporters of the wealthy to deflect attention from systemic failures in our country and help them further consolidate their power—to reinforce that social uplift is far too costly to imagine and change of that sort inconceivable.
In a blistering new report on the growing crisis of global poverty, Phillip Alston, the former UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, explained the consequences well: “The overwhelming success of the ideological campaign that supports neoliberal policies is that it has succeeded in convincing people that those in poverty have no one to blame but themselves, while supporting the notion that trickle-down policies will address it.”
We may live in a time that essentializes poverty, but the irony of that line from the Bible on the poor is that Jesus was actually critiquing it (and the rich) by cleverly referencing the law codes of Deuteronomy. In his time, the Roman Empire had created a society rife with suffering and death, as well as its own predatory regime of wealth accumulation. Jesus references perhaps the most powerful prescription for justice in the Old Testament with the message that “there need be no poor people among us” and instructs nations to forgive debts, pay people what they deserve, abolish slavery, and organize society around the needs of the poor. That jubilee passage of his was never actually saying that poverty was inevitable, but that the “poor will be always with us” as long as we cater to the rich rather than build a society that cares for everyone. That’s no less true today.
May we choose another way.


thenation--2020-07-22--Why Portland Became the Test Case for Trump’s Secret Police

A major American city has been taken over by violent anarchists , according to the Trump administration and right-wing news .
Portland , Ore. , is “ a city under siege , ” the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security , Chad Wolf , said last week .
On Thursday , Wolf visited Portland to see for himself the “ lawless destruction , ” which is allegedly so dire as to warrant the deployment of federal forces , who have spent the last few weeks teargassing , beating , and temporarily kidnapping protesters .
Fox News ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; Tucker Carlson claimed the whole city had been “ destroyed by the mob.
” This would be alarming stuff , if it were true .
Portland , where I live , has been the site of ongoing protests against police brutality and racism since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis , a 54-day stretch of activism as of this writing .
Over the past two months , mostly peaceful demonstrators have filled bridges , parks , and Interstate 84 , sometimes numbering in the thousands .
In what is now a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ converges near the Justice Center and Federal Courthouse downtown .
Usually small provocations—tossed water bottles or fireworks or a Granny Smith apple with a bite out of it—spark a wave of violence from law enforcement .
Occasionally , there have been more overt acts of vandalism , particularly in the immediate wake of Floyd ’ s death , including broken windows and small fires .
( For more detailed timelines of the protests in Portland from local reporters , read this and this . )
But the city is hardly wracked by chaos @ @ @ @ @ @ @ downtown that are marked by graffiti , boarded-up windows , and metal fencing , things feel normal—or rather , as normal as possible given the impact of Covid-19 , which has had a far more disruptive effect than have the protests .
The bulk of the “ violence ” cited by Wolf amounted to graffiti and other property damage .
Meanwhile , his agents and other federal officers have seriously injured a number of protesters , including a Navy veteran who had his hand broken by federal officers after he tried talking to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ downtown is often jovial—at least until law enforcement arrives—with people dancing and chanting and giving out vegan stew , barbecue , and donated bike helmets .
On Friday night around 10:30 pm , shortly after federal forces started spraying tear gas , filling a city block with noxious fumes , a few families were strolling by shuttered storefronts just a few blocks away , apparently unaffected by the “ siege.
” Federal agents showed up in Portland in early July , after Trump signed an executive order protecting statues and monuments from “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In response , the Department of Homeland Security created a task force to “ surge ” resources .
Ostensibly , federal forces are in Portland to protect federal property , including the courthouse .
But their primary effect has been to escalate violence .
On July 11 , a deputy with a tactical unit of the US Marshals Service shot a demonstrator named Donavan LaBella in the head with an impact munition , fracturing his skull .
On July 16 , reporters for Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that federal agents were grabbing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into unmarked cars .
“ I am basically tossed into the van… .
And I had my beanie pulled over my face so I couldn ’ t see and they held my hands over my head , ” Mark Pettibone , one of the people detained , told OPB .
While Pettibone had been at the demonstration that night , he was on his way home when he was whisked away .
“ I just happened to be wearing black on a sidewalk in downtown Portland at the time.
” As The Nation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ agency responsible for Pettibone ’ s detention was the Border Patrol Tactical Unit ( BORTAC ) , a SWAT team-style unit officially charged with responding to terrorist threats .
A number of lawsuits have been filed against the federal government for civil rights violations , and protests that had dwindled to a hundred people or so are now drawing thousands to downtown .
“ Things had been in fact kind of winding down…until the federal police force or whatever it is , I ’ m still not quite sure , came in and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran , who joined the demonstrations over the weekend and on Tuesday night .
“ They ’ re responding with this horrific amount of force that is causing so much trauma and injury to what had been relatively minor acts of , at the very worst , vandalism of property.
” How did a city of 653,000 become the testing ground for what Trump has suggested will be broader interference in US cities—part of an election-year strategy to stoke fear and advance an authoritarian vision of “ law and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ intervention in Portland was laid long before this summer ’ s protests by right-wing groups and media , which turned the city into a bogeyman .
While Oregon has a legacy of state-sanctioned racism and is still home to a disproportionately large number of hate groups , Portland has also long been the site of antifascist organizing and other left protest movements .
( Demonstrations in Portland against George H.W .
Bush between 1989 and 1991 were so notorious that a member of the administration dubbed the city “ Little Beirut.
” ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Patriot Prayer have repeatedly targeted the city over the past few years , holding rallies that inevitably drew counterprotests and created media spectacles .
Demonstrations in Portland immediately following Trump ’ s election in 2016 were huge and , at times , explosive , with police deploying tear gas , flash grenades , and rubber bullets in response .
The following year , days after a white supremacist stabbed and killed two people on Portland ’ s light rail , the alt-right group Patriot Prayer held a “ Trump Free Speech Rally ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hundreds of counterdemonstrators .
Similar incidents occurred throughout 2017 and repeatedly in the years since , and conservative media eagerly latched onto a narrative of Portland as lawless anarchist enclave .
National Review , for instance , devoted a cover in 2018 to a story by Kevin Williamson in which he described anti-fascist “ goons and thugs ” as being in effective control of Portland .
In July 2019 , clashes between the alt-right and counterdemonstrators drew attention from Trump ( “ Portland is being watched very closely… Hopefully the Mayor will be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” he tweeted ) and prompted Texas Senator Ted Cruz to call for federal prosecution—a premonition of what was to come .
“ Portland ’ s drawn the fascination and ire of a lot of right-wing media personalities , fascist groups , neo-Nazi groups , and of course the president , ” said attorney Juan Chavez , who directs the civil rights project at the Oregon Justice Resource Center and is involved in litigation against the city of Portland regarding treatment of protesters .
“ We ’ re a big enough city to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ laboratory for a lot of these tactics .
And exacerbating this is the way our city government has portrayed protesters in the past , and the way Portland police have portrayed protesters in the past and currently.
” City leaders have been sharply critical of the federal response , and have demanded that the Trump administration remove its officers .
But Chavez and some activists say that the initial response to citywide protests by local politicians and police helped grease the skids for federal intervention .
For weeks , Mayor Ted Wheeler , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ little to restrict the police ’ s use of tear gas and impact munitions against protesters and journalists beyond issuing statements of concern and loose directives with unclear enforcement mechanisms .
( A temporary restraining order issued by a federal judge and a new state law restricting tear gas use did eventually put pressure on the bureau to justify its uses of force . )
Now , Portland police appear to be coordinating with federal officers to disperse crowds downtown .
Portland Police Association President Daryl Turner met with Wolf during his visit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conference over the weekend parroted the claim that the city is “ under siege by rioters.
” “ Basically , you had thousands of people hitting the streets and getting met with tear gas , impact munitions , and harsh police tactics , and that really set the tone for where we were going , ” said Chavez .
“ I think the city didn ’ t grasp what they were dealing with .
There was an immediate political response , that while it came quickly it wasn ’ t adequate .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not feel like they had adequate civic feedback on their demands.
” The Importance of Being Anti-Fascist While the city implemented some reforms this year—removing police from public schools , disbanding the controversial Gun Violence Reduction Team , and reallocating $ 15 million from the bureau ’ s budget—many activists wanted a deeper transformation .
“ They ignored us , they did not center victims or protesters , they did nothing to de-escalate , they did nothing to engage , ” said Teressa Raiford , the founder and executive director of Don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ organizing for police reform in Portland for years and in June filed a class-action lawsuit against the city for “ indiscriminate ” use of tear gas .
“ That is why Donald Trump took advantage of the situation .
He knows exactly what ’ s happening here in Oregon .
It ’ s a shame .
It ’ s disgusting.
” Despite the public attention to the demonstrations and apparent public support for the Black Lives Matter movement , Raiford said that immediate safety issues for Black residents are still going unaddressed .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ an 18-year-old named Shai-India Harris was shot and killed while walking down the street in southeast Portland .
Police have not arrested anyone in her case .
It ’ s not clear how all of this will end .
Appearing on Fox News on Monday , Wolf said that the DHS was “ not going to back down.
” Neither are the protesters .
“ The entire community , the entire city is on our side—everybody from nurses to teachers to children to parents to families that have lost their loved ones , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The most immediate questions concern the extent to which the violence will escalate .
Longer term , Chavez wonders about the legal endgame .
“ Can and will the federal courts allow this type of federal invasion of a state ?
In a lot of ways I think we ’ re in uncharted constitutional territory , ” he said .
Even if the courts do act , it may not be fast enough to protect the people who will be out in the streets again tonight .

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A major American city has been taken over by violent anarchists, according to the Trump administration and right-wing news. Portland, Ore., is “a city under siege,” the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, said last week. On Thursday, Wolf visited Portland to see for himself the “lawless destruction,” which is allegedly so dire as to warrant the deployment of federal forces, who have spent the last few weeks teargassing, beating, and temporarily kidnapping protesters. Fox News’s Sean Hannity decried “constant chaos”; Tucker Carlson claimed the whole city had been “destroyed by the mob.”
This would be alarming stuff, if it were true. Portland, where I live, has been the site of ongoing protests against police brutality and racism since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, a 54-day stretch of activism as of this writing. Over the past two months, mostly peaceful demonstrators have filled bridges, parks, and Interstate 84, sometimes numbering in the thousands. In what is now a predictable pattern, each night a group converges near the Justice Center and Federal Courthouse downtown. Usually small provocations—tossed water bottles or fireworks or a Granny Smith apple with a bite out of it—spark a wave of violence from law enforcement. Occasionally, there have been more overt acts of vandalism, particularly in the immediate wake of Floyd’s death, including broken windows and small fires. (For more detailed timelines of the protests in Portland from local reporters, read this and this.)
But the city is hardly wracked by chaos. Outside of the few square blocks downtown that are marked by graffiti, boarded-up windows, and metal fencing, things feel normal—or rather, as normal as possible given the impact of Covid-19, which has had a far more disruptive effect than have the protests. The bulk of the “violence” cited by Wolf amounted to graffiti and other property damage. Meanwhile, his agents and other federal officers have seriously injured a number of protesters, including a Navy veteran who had his hand broken by federal officers after he tried talking to them. The mood in the crowd downtown is often jovial—at least until law enforcement arrives—with people dancing and chanting and giving out vegan stew, barbecue, and donated bike helmets. On Friday night around 10:30 pm, shortly after federal forces started spraying tear gas, filling a city block with noxious fumes, a few families were strolling by shuttered storefronts just a few blocks away, apparently unaffected by the “siege.” Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
Federal agents showed up in Portland in early July, after Trump signed an executive order protecting statues and monuments from “criminal violence” during racial justice protests. In response, the Department of Homeland Security created a task force to “surge” resources. Ostensibly, federal forces are in Portland to protect federal property, including the courthouse. But their primary effect has been to escalate violence. On July 11, a deputy with a tactical unit of the US Marshals Service shot a demonstrator named Donavan LaBella in the head with an impact munition, fracturing his skull. On July 16, reporters for Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that federal agents were grabbing people on the street and pulling them into unmarked cars.
“I am basically tossed into the van…. And I had my beanie pulled over my face so I couldn’t see and they held my hands over my head,” Mark Pettibone, one of the people detained, told OPB. While Pettibone had been at the demonstration that night, he was on his way home when he was whisked away. “I just happened to be wearing black on a sidewalk in downtown Portland at the time.” As The Nation’s Ken Klippenstein reported, the agency responsible for Pettibone’s detention was the Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC), a SWAT team-style unit officially charged with responding to terrorist threats.
A number of lawsuits have been filed against the federal government for civil rights violations, and protests that had dwindled to a hundred people or so are now drawing thousands to downtown. “Things had been in fact kind of winding down…until the federal police force or whatever it is, I’m still not quite sure, came in and literally blew things up,” said Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran, who joined the demonstrations over the weekend and on Tuesday night. “They’re responding with this horrific amount of force that is causing so much trauma and injury to what had been relatively minor acts of, at the very worst, vandalism of property.”
How did a city of 653,000 become the testing ground for what Trump has suggested will be broader interference in US cities—part of an election-year strategy to stoke fear and advance an authoritarian vision of “law and order”? The groundwork for federal intervention in Portland was laid long before this summer’s protests by right-wing groups and media, which turned the city into a bogeyman. While Oregon has a legacy of state-sanctioned racism and is still home to a disproportionately large number of hate groups, Portland has also long been the site of antifascist organizing and other left protest movements. (Demonstrations in Portland against George H.W. Bush between 1989 and 1991 were so notorious that a member of the administration dubbed the city “Little Beirut.”) Extreme groups like the Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer have repeatedly targeted the city over the past few years, holding rallies that inevitably drew counterprotests and created media spectacles. Current Issue View our current issue
Demonstrations in Portland immediately following Trump’s election in 2016 were huge and, at times, explosive, with police deploying tear gas, flash grenades, and rubber bullets in response. The following year, days after a white supremacist stabbed and killed two people on Portland’s light rail, the alt-right group Patriot Prayer held a “Trump Free Speech Rally” rally; police responded to by detaining hundreds of counterdemonstrators. Similar incidents occurred throughout 2017 and repeatedly in the years since, and conservative media eagerly latched onto a narrative of Portland as lawless anarchist enclave. National Review, for instance, devoted a cover in 2018 to a story by Kevin Williamson in which he described anti-fascist “goons and thugs” as being in effective control of Portland. In July 2019, clashes between the alt-right and counterdemonstrators drew attention from Trump (“Portland is being watched very closely… Hopefully the Mayor will be able to properly do his job,” he tweeted) and prompted Texas Senator Ted Cruz to call for federal prosecution—a premonition of what was to come.
“Portland’s drawn the fascination and ire of a lot of right-wing media personalities, fascist groups, neo-Nazi groups, and of course the president,” said attorney Juan Chavez, who directs the civil rights project at the Oregon Justice Resource Center and is involved in litigation against the city of Portland regarding treatment of protesters. “We’re a big enough city to matter but small enough to be a laboratory for a lot of these tactics. And exacerbating this is the way our city government has portrayed protesters in the past, and the way Portland police have portrayed protesters in the past and currently.”
City leaders have been sharply critical of the federal response, and have demanded that the Trump administration remove its officers. But Chavez and some activists say that the initial response to citywide protests by local politicians and police helped grease the skids for federal intervention. For weeks, Mayor Ted Wheeler, also serving as police commissioner, did little to restrict the police’s use of tear gas and impact munitions against protesters and journalists beyond issuing statements of concern and loose directives with unclear enforcement mechanisms. (A temporary restraining order issued by a federal judge and a new state law restricting tear gas use did eventually put pressure on the bureau to justify its uses of force.) Now, Portland police appear to be coordinating with federal officers to disperse crowds downtown. Portland Police Association President Daryl Turner met with Wolf during his visit to Portland, and in a press conference over the weekend parroted the claim that the city is “under siege by rioters.”
“Basically, you had thousands of people hitting the streets and getting met with tear gas, impact munitions, and harsh police tactics, and that really set the tone for where we were going,” said Chavez. “I think the city didn’t grasp what they were dealing with. There was an immediate political response, that while it came quickly it wasn’t adequate. And because of that, basically people did not feel like they had adequate civic feedback on their demands.” Related Article The Importance of Being Anti-Fascist Cari Luna
While the city implemented some reforms this year—removing police from public schools, disbanding the controversial Gun Violence Reduction Team, and reallocating $15 million from the bureau’s budget—many activists wanted a deeper transformation. “They ignored us, they did not center victims or protesters, they did nothing to de-escalate, they did nothing to engage,” said Teressa Raiford, the founder and executive director of Don’t Shoot PDX, which has been organizing for police reform in Portland for years and in June filed a class-action lawsuit against the city for “indiscriminate” use of tear gas. “That is why Donald Trump took advantage of the situation. He knows exactly what’s happening here in Oregon. It’s a shame. It’s disgusting.”
Despite the public attention to the demonstrations and apparent public support for the Black Lives Matter movement, Raiford said that immediate safety issues for Black residents are still going unaddressed. On July 10, for instance, an 18-year-old named Shai-India Harris was shot and killed while walking down the street in southeast Portland. Police have not arrested anyone in her case.
It’s not clear how all of this will end. Appearing on Fox News on Monday, Wolf said that the DHS was “not going to back down.” Neither are the protesters. “The entire community, the entire city is on our side—everybody from nurses to teachers to children to parents to families that have lost their loved ones, great grandmas,” Raiford said. The most immediate questions concern the extent to which the violence will escalate. Longer term, Chavez wonders about the legal endgame. “Can and will the federal courts allow this type of federal invasion of a state? In a lot of ways I think we’re in uncharted constitutional territory,” he said. Even if the courts do act, it may not be fast enough to protect the people who will be out in the streets again tonight.


thenation--2020-07-22--We Can No Longer Afford the Military-Industrial Complex

More than 100 members of Congress recognized reality this week .
Ninety-three members of the House of Representatives voted Tuesday , as did 23 senators on Wednesday , to cut the Pentagon budget by 10 percent because we can no longer afford to squander our lives , our fortunes , and our sacred honor on a military-industrial complex that is robbing America of its future .
“ Every dollar wasted at the Pentagon is a dollar not being spent on test kits , personal protective equipment or contact tracing , “ declared Congressional Progressive Caucus cochairs Pramila Jayapal and Mark @ @ @ @ @ @ @ proposed the historic move to reorder American priorities .
“ Every handout to Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman is money that could have been spent on ending this pandemic , keeping small businesses afloat and staving off an economic meltdown.
” Pocan , Lee , and Jayapal were among the 92 Democrats who backed an amendment to reduce the size of the $ 740 billion National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 .
They were joined by Representative Justin Amash , the Michigan Libertarian who was originally elected as a Republican but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s abuses of power .
In the Senate , a version of the amendment sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders drew backing from half the Democratic Caucus , including minority leader Chuck Schumer .
John Lewis Never Stopped Bending the Arc Toward Justice Why the Hell Is the Supreme Court Allowing a New Poll Tax to Disenfranchise Florida Voters ?
The burgeoning support for new priorities reflects an emerging sense that old budget calculations no longer make sense in a time of surging pandemic threats and mass unemployment .
“ This week we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blank check that the Pentagon has gotten all too often .
Ninety-three members of Congress said ‘ Enough !
’ by supporting a 10-percent cut to defense spending , ” said Pocan after the House vote .
“ That ’ s real , substantive progress on reprioritizing spending towards things that benefit the average American rather than enriching greedy defense contractors and wasteful , unnecessary programs.
” Tuesday ’ s House vote saw a historic show of opposition to Pentagon waste , fraud , and abuse .
The level of support for slashing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ space is opening up in the Democratic Party for a 2020 politics that focuses on getting America ’ s budget priorities right .
Unfortunately , too many congressional Democrats are still sending the wrong signal .
Of the 324 House votes against refocusing spending on the urgent domestic needs of a nation that is wrestling with Covid-19 and surging joblessness , 139 came from Democrats .
The other 185 came from members of a Republican caucus that was united in standing on the wrong side of history .
In the Senate , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Joe Biden ’ s vice presidential prospects , Kamala Harris of California and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois—voted with the Republicans to block the amendment .
It is frustrating that so many members of Congress—especially Democrats—still fall for the lie that unlimited Pentagon spending is needed to “ defend ” the United States .
Their cowardice is absurd , practically and politically , at a point when 57 percent of Americans say they favor the 10 percent cut proposed by Pocan , Lee , and Jayapal .
The people get the point Sanders is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We should not pass a $ 740 billion defense budget at a time when so many are struggling.
” They recognize the logic of Barbara Lee ’ s moral and practical argument that This is the logic that must prevail .
And it is gaining ground .
“ Today ’ s historic vote in the U.S. House marks the beginning of the end of the military-industrial complex ’ s vice grip on Congress , ” Robert Weissman , the president of Public Citizen said Tuesday .
“ This is the first time in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ considered a cut to the Pentagon budget .
It won ’ t be the last .
Against the backdrop of constant increases in Pentagon spending over the last two decades , the strong showing today for a modest 10 percent cut to the Pentagon budget augurs a fundamental change in spending policy that is long overdue and soon to come .
”

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More than 100 members of Congress recognized reality this week. Ninety-three members of the House of Representatives voted Tuesday, as did 23 senators on Wednesday, to cut the Pentagon budget by 10 percent because we can no longer afford to squander our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor on a military-industrial complex that is robbing America of its future.
“Every dollar wasted at the Pentagon is a dollar not being spent on test kits, personal protective equipment or contact tracing,“ declared Congressional Progressive Caucus cochairs Pramila Jayapal and Mark Pocan, who with Representative Barbara Lee proposed the historic move to reorder American priorities. “Every handout to Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman is money that could have been spent on ending this pandemic, keeping small businesses afloat and staving off an economic meltdown.”
Pocan, Lee, and Jayapal were among the 92 Democrats who backed an amendment to reduce the size of the $740 billion National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. They were joined by Representative Justin Amash, the Michigan Libertarian who was originally elected as a Republican but left the party to oppose President Trump’s abuses of power.
In the Senate, a version of the amendment sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders drew backing from half the Democratic Caucus, including minority leader Chuck Schumer. More From John Nichols A GOP Debate Without Trump Is the Definition of Pointlessness August 11, 2023 A Win for Abortion Rights, a Win for Democracy: Ohio Voters Reject Issue 1 August 9, 2023 The Biggest Threat to Donald Trump Could Be the Constitution Itself August 4, 2023
The burgeoning support for new priorities reflects an emerging sense that old budget calculations no longer make sense in a time of surging pandemic threats and mass unemployment.
“This week we made great progress towards reining in the blank check that the Pentagon has gotten all too often. Ninety-three members of Congress said ‘Enough!’ by supporting a 10-percent cut to defense spending,” said Pocan after the House vote. “That’s real, substantive progress on reprioritizing spending towards things that benefit the average American rather than enriching greedy defense contractors and wasteful, unnecessary programs.”
Tuesday’s House vote saw a historic show of opposition to Pentagon waste, fraud, and abuse. The level of support for slashing the Defense Department budget signaled that a space is opening up in the Democratic Party for a 2020 politics that focuses on getting America’s budget priorities right.
Unfortunately, too many congressional Democrats are still sending the wrong signal. Of the 324 House votes against refocusing spending on the urgent domestic needs of a nation that is wrestling with Covid-19 and surging joblessness, 139 came from Democrats. The other 185 came from members of a Republican caucus that was united in standing on the wrong side of history.
In the Senate, a number of prominent Democrats—including a pair of Joe Biden’s vice presidential prospects, Kamala Harris of California and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois—voted with the Republicans to block the amendment.
It is frustrating that so many members of Congress—especially Democrats—still fall for the lie that unlimited Pentagon spending is needed to “defend” the United States. Their cowardice is absurd, practically and politically, at a point when 57 percent of Americans say they favor the 10 percent cut proposed by Pocan, Lee, and Jayapal.
The people get the point Sanders is making, when he says, “We should not pass a $740 billion defense budget at a time when so many are struggling.”
They recognize the logic of Barbara Lee’s moral and practical argument that
a 10 percent cut to the Pentagon budget could pay for: 225,871,999 coronavirus tests
563,425 monthly relief payments of $1,200
270,444 COVID-19 patient hospital stays AND create… 109,529 clean energy jobs
146,039 infrastructure jobs
81,133 jobs with supports created in high poverty communities
This is the logic that must prevail. And it is gaining ground.
“Today’s historic vote in the U.S. House marks the beginning of the end of the military-industrial complex’s vice grip on Congress,” Robert Weissman, the president of Public Citizen said Tuesday. “This is the first time in recent decades that the Congress has seriously considered a cut to the Pentagon budget. It won’t be the last. Against the backdrop of constant increases in Pentagon spending over the last two decades, the strong showing today for a modest 10 percent cut to the Pentagon budget augurs a fundamental change in spending policy that is long overdue and soon to come.”


thenation--2020-07-22--Another Long Day of GOP Disrespect for Women

I didn ’ t love the Democratic Party ’ s “ war on women ” rhetoric against the GOP in 2012 , though it seemed to work .
And sometimes it was hard to know what else to call it .
The new GOP House majority opened the 2011 session trying to defund Planned Parenthood .
Rush Limbaugh called Georgetown student Sandra Fluke a “ slut ” after she lobbied for contraception without a co-pay under the Affordable Care Act .
Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin insisted women couldn ’ t get pregnant during rape ( and thus opposed a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our bodies “ have a way of shutting that whole thing down.
” Newly elected GOP state legislatures enacted myriad abortion restrictions ( including Virginia ’ s attempted “ transvaginal ultrasound ” requirement ) .
If it wasn ’ t a war , it certainly looked like a deliberate effort to make the GOP the party of white men .
But by 2016 , many Americans , including women , seemed inured to GOP misogyny .
Donald Trump lost the women ’ s vote overall , but he won white women 47-45 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pew Research Center ( exit polls had that figure at 52-43 , but most researchers who looked at election data later concluded that was wrong ) .
Hillary Clinton , who thought Trump ’ s admitting a star like him could “ grab ’ em by the pussy ” would be a deal breaker for white women , was wrong .
Or maybe not .
Trump ’ s election inspired the largest multiracial mass movement of women the nation has ever seen , from the Women ’ s Marches that dwarfed his inauguration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who ran for office—and won—over the next two years .
In November 2018 , Democrats essentially split the votes of white women but won 60 percent of the college-educated among them .
The most recent Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that 56 percent of white women disapprove of Trump ’ s performance as president , as do 61 percent of white women college graduates .
Then came Tuesday , with nonstop breaking news featuring all the creative ways Republicans are finding to disrespect women—even Republican women .
Midday , we learned that Florida @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “ disgusting , ” crazy , and a “ fucking bitch ” for suggesting poverty and Covid ’ s prevalence in low-income neighborhoods could partly account for rising crime rates .
Around the same time came reports from a fractious House Republican Caucus meeting where Freedom Caucus leaders ganged up on the only woman in party leadership , GOP conference chair Liz Cheney , for supporting Dr. Anthony Fauci and criticizing Trump .
( Cheney seemed unscarred by her encounter with Representative Jim Jordan , coolly noting that her voting record @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s . )
I ’ m no Cheney fan , but you love to see it .
Bill Barr Gets Shredded : A Threat to ‘ Our Rule Of Law and to Public Trust in It ’ As Bill Barr Flails , Trump Is Losing His Roy Cohn This Isn ’ t the Way to Push Warren as Biden ’ s VP Later , Trump did find one woman to say kind words about—and it was Ghislaine Maxwell , indicted on sex trafficking charges related to her longtime partner , the late convicted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he had any comment on the charges against Maxwell , Trump said only , “ I wish her well.
” It raised speculation , not unfairly , that given his long association with Maxwell and Epstein , Trump wants to stay on her good side .
Or perhaps he ’ s signaling a pardon or commutation if she ’ s convicted .
The long day of disrespect ended with Trump ’ s Gestapo again attacking and teargassing peaceful protesters in Portland , including a group of women who ’ ve banded together as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” to try to form a line of nonviolent protection against the brutal federal force .
Now numbering in the hundreds , they chanted , “ Don ’ t shoot your mother , ” even as tear gas and rubber bullets came at them .
If Trump is trying to lose every suburban woman ’ s vote—this is a group that turned against Republicans in 2018—brutalizing mothers is an excellent strategy .
New Wall of Moms chapters have already formed in New York , Philadelphia , Chicago , and other cities where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
What unites these disparate disturbing events is a pervasive GOP discomfort with women who break rules , wield their own power , and won ’ t stay in their lane .
“ Moms ” are to be cherished—unless they interfere with police violence .
Republicans profess to welcome women leaders—but when their only woman leader goes her own way on one or two issues , she must be slapped down .
The GOP freakout over Ocasio-Cortez , so much of it showing up as poorly masked sexual panic , is worth a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ woman worth respecting , apparently , is the wealthy and powerful consort to a wealthy , powerful man who partied with Trump , Prince Andrew , Bill Clinton , and other powerful men—and who might continue to have power over some of them because she has information about their misdeeds .
I should note that Yoho offered a convoluted non-apology apology to Ocasio-Cortez Wednesday morning .
“ The offensive name-calling words attributed to me by the press were never spoken to my colleagues , and if they were construed that way , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : “ I can not apologize for my passion , or for loving my God , my family and my country.
” But Yoho is retiring this year , so Ocasio-Cortez will have the last word .
To prove it , she posted herself on TikTok walking out of the Capitol last night to the song “ Boss Bitch .
”

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I didn’t love the Democratic Party’s “war on women” rhetoric against the GOP in 2012, though it seemed to work. And sometimes it was hard to know what else to call it. The new GOP House majority opened the 2011 session trying to defund Planned Parenthood. Rush Limbaugh called Georgetown student Sandra Fluke a “slut” after she lobbied for contraception without a co-pay under the Affordable Care Act. Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin insisted women couldn’t get pregnant during rape (and thus opposed a rape exception from abortion bans) because our bodies “have a way of shutting that whole thing down.” Newly elected GOP state legislatures enacted myriad abortion restrictions (including Virginia’s attempted “transvaginal ultrasound” requirement). If it wasn’t a war, it certainly looked like a deliberate effort to make the GOP the party of white men.
But by 2016, many Americans, including women, seemed inured to GOP misogyny. Donald Trump lost the women’s vote overall, but he won white women 47-45, according to a 2018 study by the Pew Research Center (exit polls had that figure at 52-43, but most researchers who looked at election data later concluded that was wrong). Hillary Clinton, who thought Trump’s admitting a star like him could “grab ’em by the pussy” would be a deal breaker for white women, was wrong.
Or maybe not. Trump’s election inspired the largest multiracial mass movement of women the nation has ever seen, from the Women’s Marches that dwarfed his inauguration crowds to the unprecedented number of women who ran for office—and won—over the next two years. In November 2018, Democrats essentially split the votes of white women but won 60 percent of the college-educated among them. The most recent Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that 56 percent of white women disapprove of Trump’s performance as president, as do 61 percent of white women college graduates.
Then came Tuesday, with nonstop breaking news featuring all the creative ways Republicans are finding to disrespect women—even Republican women. Midday, we learned that Florida Representative Ted Yoho called New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “disgusting,” crazy, and a “fucking bitch” for suggesting poverty and Covid’s prevalence in low-income neighborhoods could partly account for rising crime rates. Around the same time came reports from a fractious House Republican Caucus meeting where Freedom Caucus leaders ganged up on the only woman in party leadership, GOP conference chair Liz Cheney, for supporting Dr. Anthony Fauci and criticizing Trump. (Cheney seemed unscarred by her encounter with Representative Jim Jordan, coolly noting that her voting record behind Trump is stronger than Jordan’s.) I’m no Cheney fan, but you love to see it. More From Joan Walsh The Promise of Justice in Fani Willis’s Indictment August 15, 2023 Please, Please Stop Blaming “Progressives” for Donald Trump’s Fascism August 11, 2023 The Ron-mentum Continues… Circling the Drain August 9, 2023
Later, Trump did find one woman to say kind words about—and it was Ghislaine Maxwell, indicted on sex trafficking charges related to her longtime partner, the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Asked if he had any comment on the charges against Maxwell, Trump said only, “I wish her well.” It raised speculation, not unfairly, that given his long association with Maxwell and Epstein, Trump wants to stay on her good side. Or perhaps he’s signaling a pardon or commutation if she’s convicted.
The long day of disrespect ended with Trump’s Gestapo again attacking and teargassing peaceful protesters in Portland, including a group of women who’ve banded together as Portland’s “Wall of Moms,” to try to form a line of nonviolent protection against the brutal federal force. Now numbering in the hundreds, they chanted, “Don’t shoot your mother,” even as tear gas and rubber bullets came at them. If Trump is trying to lose every suburban woman’s vote—this is a group that turned against Republicans in 2018—brutalizing mothers is an excellent strategy. New Wall of Moms chapters have already formed in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and other cities where Trump has promised to send his goons.
What unites these disparate disturbing events is a pervasive GOP discomfort with women who break rules, wield their own power, and won’t stay in their lane. “Moms” are to be cherished—unless they interfere with police violence. Republicans profess to welcome women leaders—but when their only woman leader goes her own way on one or two issues, she must be slapped down. The GOP freakout over Ocasio-Cortez, so much of it showing up as poorly masked sexual panic, is worth a whole book. The only kind of woman worth respecting, apparently, is the wealthy and powerful consort to a wealthy, powerful man who partied with Trump, Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, and other powerful men—and who might continue to have power over some of them because she has information about their misdeeds.
I should note that Yoho offered a convoluted non-apology apology to Ocasio-Cortez Wednesday morning. “The offensive name-calling words attributed to me by the press were never spoken to my colleagues, and if they were construed that way, I apologize for their misunderstanding.” He continued: “I cannot apologize for my passion, or for loving my God, my family and my country.” But Yoho is retiring this year, so Ocasio-Cortez will have the last word. To prove it, she posted herself on TikTok walking out of the Capitol last night to the song “Boss Bitch.”