US Senator Amy Klobuchar, at the official launch of her 2020 Presidential Campaign, has released a list of 100 concrete actions she would take in her first 100 days as President of the United States © *Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

US Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for President, released a plan outlining the more than 100 concrete steps she would take in her first 100 days as President of the United States to take on the biggest challenges we face at home and abroad.

“The problems Americans are facing every single day require urgent action. That’s why Senator Klobuchar has a plan to get to work and deliver results on Day One,” the campaign stated.

Through executive action, Senator Klobuchar will begin to immediately deliver on her ambitious, optimistic agenda that will build a safer world, a stronger democracy, and a fairer economy while taking much-needed action on health care, climate change, and immigration.

“After four years of Donald Trump, a new President can’t wait for a bunch of congressional hearings to act,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar. “The urgent problems our country is facing require immediate action. That’s why in my first 100 days as President I will enact an ambitious, optimistic agenda to improve our health care, combat climate change, pursue economic justice and shared prosperity, and build a stronger democracy and safer world. With these concrete steps, we will put our country back on a path of progress where people have an opportunity to get ahead.”

During the first 100 days of Senator Klobuchar’s presidency, she will:

Get the United States back in the International Climate Agreement on day one. On day one of Senator Klobuchar’s presidency she will get us back into the International Climate Change Agreement, working so that the United States maintains global leadership to address the climate crisis.

Immediately suspend the Trump Administration’s efforts to eliminate the Affordable Care Act’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Senator Klobuchar will immediately suspend all Trump Administration efforts — both in federal court and at the Department of Health and Human Services — that would allow insurance companies to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

Rebuild our relationship with our allies and restore America’s standing in the world. To rebuild the relationship with our allies that President Trump has undermined, Senator Klobuchar’s first international trips as President will be to Canada and Europe to begin restoring trust with our most important allies.

Immediately allow for the safe importation of prescription drugs from countries like Canada. Americans pay double what Canadians do for some prescription drugs, which is why Senator Klobuchar will use existing Food and Drug Administration authority to grant a waiver that allows people to import safe prescription drugs for personal use from countries like Canada to decrease drug costs for seniors and all Americans.

Fill judicial vacancies by nominating well-qualified judges on day one. Senator Klobuchar will waste no time in working with the Senate and the American Bar Association to nominate a full slate of well-qualified judges who will follow the law to fill judicial vacancies on federal courts on day one of her presidency.

Revive the aggressive protection of voting rights. Senator Klobuchar will restore the federal government’s longstanding position of challenging intentionally racially discriminatory voting laws. And while Congress works to restore the Voting Rights Act (VRA), Senator Klobuchar will direct the Department of Justice to use Section 3 of the VRA to “bail-in” jurisdictions to its preclearance requirements, allowing federal courts to place jurisdictions under the oversight requirement of the VRA.

Prioritize cybersecurity and protect our elections and other American infrastructure from cyber attack. As President, Senator Klobuchar will make cybersecurity an immediate priority. She will issue an Executive Order launching government-wide cybersecurity initiatives, fast-tracking and streamlining procurement of modern information technology across agencies. She will also launch a cabinet-level taskforce on election cybersecurity to coordinate across agencies, including the intelligence community, on how the federal government can work with state and local governments to address cyber threats to our democracy and infrastructure. She will also introduce legislation that provides election security funding, requires backup paper ballots, and requires campaigns to report contacts from foreign nationals seeking to interfere in an election to federal authorities.

Update the standards for reviewing both horizontal and vertical mergers to ensure vigorous antitrust enforcement. To tackle unprecedented consolidation and monopoly power, Senator Klobuchar will direct the Department of Justice to update its guidelines to ensure vigorous and aggressive enforcement of our antitrust laws.

Undertake aggressive retrospective review of mergers. To tackle corporate consolidation in what she has called “the new gilded age,” Senator Klobuchar will direct her Attorney General to have DOJ’s Antitrust Division undertake aggressive retrospective reviews of mergers. She will introduce legislation to increase funding for antitrust enforcement efforts by adjusting merger filing fees and she will change the legal standards to promote competition and prevent consolidation.

Raise the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15. In line with her goal of increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, Senator Klobuchar will increase the minimum wage for federal contractors to that threshold.

Expand VA health benefits for women veterans and their babies. The Women Veterans Health Care Improvement Act of 2008 gave the VA the authority to provide care for newborn babies born to women veterans, but a narrow interpretation of the law is preventing access to care. Senator Klobuchar will direct the VA to expand covering the costs of medically-necessary emergency services for newborn babies of veterans.

Jump-start legislative negotiations for comprehensive immigration reform with the stated goal of passing it in the first year. Senator Klobuchar will jump-start negotiations for comprehensive immigration reform — which includes a pathway to citizenship, the DREAM Act and border security — with the stated goal of passing it in the first year of her presidency. Comprehensive immigration could reduce the deficit by $158 billion.

Protect DACA and TPS and Deferred Enforcement Departure designations. While she jump-starts negotiations for comprehensive immigration reform with the stated goal of passing it within the first year, Senator Klobuchar will undo attempts by the Trump Administration – many of which have been blocked by courts – to deport DREAMers and immigrants who are living, working and succeeding here under Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforcement Departure.

Shine a light on the corporate dark money spending. Senator Klobuchar will shine a light on the dark money by requiring publicly traded companies to disclose all political spending over $10,000 to their shareholders.

Bring transparency to dark money issue advocacy. Senator Klobuchar will direct the IRS to institute the requirement that tax-exempt organizations that engage in issue advocacy disclose to the IRS the names of individual donors who contribute more than $5,000 per year.

Propose landmark legislation that drives our changing economy forward and provides opportunity to all Americans. Our laws and our policies have not kept pace with our changing economy and the digital revolution. That’s why Senator Klobuchar will propose landmark legislation to take on monopoly power, empower our workers, and protect consumers’ privacy and health data privacy. She will also invest in quality child care, raise the minimum wage, provide paid family leave, support small business owners and entrepreneurs, as well as establish portable, worker-owned UP Accounts for retirement savings. She will also allow students to refinance their loans at lower interest rates, provide tuition-free community college and technical certifications, and expand Pell Grant eligibility and award amounts. To pay for these policies and reduce the debt, Senator Klobuchar will repeal the regressive portions of 2017 Republican tax reform, equalize tax rates for capital gains and ordinary income, put the Buffet rule in place, and close the carried interest and big oil loopholes.

Immediately close the “boyfriend loophole.” Senator Klobuchar leads legislation in the Senate to close the ‘boyfriend loophole’ by preventing people who have abused dating partners from buying or owning firearms, and she will take executive action to get it done immediately.

Introduce gun violence legislation. Senator Klobuchar will introduce gun violence legislation including putting universal background checks in place, closing the gun show loophole, and banning bump stocks, assault weapons and high capacity magazines.

Consider gun violence as a public health issue in CDC studies. Senator Klobuchar will direct the CDC to study gun violence as a public health issue and help identify approaches to reduce gun violence and save lives.

Propose a historic investment in public education. Senator Klobuchar will propose a historic investment in America’s education system that will fully fund education, increase teacher pay, and rebuild our crumbling school infrastructure.

End the misguided overuse of secret RFS small refinery waivers that have been granted to big oil companies at the expense of farmers. Senator Klobuchar will completely overhaul the EPA’s small refinery waivers and greatly increase transparency, ensuring that RFS waivers meant for small refiners do not go to big oil companies like Chevron and ExxonMobil and that these secret waivers do not line the pockets of big oil companies at the expense of farmers.

Protect federal employee labor rights. Senator Klobuchar will immediately rescind Executive Orders signed by President Trump that severely restrict federal workers’ rights, including the right to collectively bargain.

Prioritize mental health and addiction. Senator Klobuchar will take immediate action to combat substance use disorders and prioritize mental health, including launching new prevention and early intervention initiatives, expanding access to treatment, and giving Americans a path to sustainable recovery. This includes addressing workforce shortages for nurses, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals in many areas of the country and it means addressing the lack of hospital services and treatment beds.

End attacks on tribal sovereignty. Senator Klobuchar will respect tribal sovereignty including by stopping the Department of Justice from taking anti-sovereignty positions in litigation, directing the Department of Health and Human Services from deferring to states on Medicaid rules for tribal members, and increasing meaningful tribal consultation.

Make a plan to connect every household to the internet by 2022. Senator Klobuchar will work to close the rural-urban divide by connecting every household to the internet by 2022. This means directing federal support to close the last mile gap, overhauling broadband coverage mapping by establishing processes to verify carrier-reported data, and encouraging public-private partnerships in the areas of greatest need.

Restore the Clean Power Plan. To address the climate crisis, Senator Klobuchar will bring back the goals established by the Clean Power Plan, which set emissions standards for states with respect to reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.

Bring back the fuel-economy standards. Senator Klobuchar will restore and strengthen our fuel economy standards, which are key to fighting climate change. The Trump Administration has weakened the fuel-economy standards for cars and light trucks and has challenged the right of California and other states to follow more stringent standards.

Introduce sweeping legislation to address the climate crisis. Senator Klobuchar will introduce sweeping legislation to combat the climate crisis that builds on the framework of the Green New Deal, including a massive investment in green jobs and infrastructure, promoting rural energy development, supporting tougher building codes, buy clean, better greener transportation, appliance standards and climate resilience.

End “pay for delay” agreements that increase the cost of prescription drugs. Senator Klobuchar will take aggressive action to crack down on drug companies that are — in effect — paying the makers of generic drugs to delay cheaper versions of drugs from getting into the market.

Outline a plan to cut childhood poverty in half in ten years and end it within a generation. Senator Klobuchar will put forward a plan to cut childhood poverty in half in ten years, including expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Care Tax Credit, SNAP benefits and overhauling our country’s housing policy.

Restore and strengthen overtime rules. Too many American workers have been working overtime without getting paid for the extra hours. Senator Klobuchar will restore and strengthen the Obama Administration’s overtime rules to expand overtime pay to millions of workers, increasing the maximum salary for a worker to qualify for the overtime pay they’ve earned.

Propose legislation to get us to universal health care. Senator Klobuchar will propose legislation that gets us to universal health care, which includes creating a public health care option by expanding either Medicare or Medicaid, as well as improving the Affordable Care Act to help bring down costs to consumers through reinsurance, providing cost-sharing reductions, expanding premium subsidies, and continuing delivery system reform. Her legislation will also provide additional consumer protections and lower the costs of prescription drugs through aggressive reforms including lifting the ban that prohibits Medicare from negotiating the best possible price. These programs significantly reduce cost to consumers and help promote choice.

Develop best models of care to address disparities in maternal and infant mortality and address the shortage of maternity care health professional in underserved rural and urban areas. Senator Klobuchar will immediately implement a new law that tackles the shortage of maternity care health professionals —including nurses, midwives, and obstetricians — in underserved areas, and she will develop best models of care to address racial disparities in maternal and infant mortality.

Stop Trump sabotage of the ACA by ending workarounds that allow states to raise premiums for sicker people and shift ACA premium subsidies away from lower-income enrollees. Senator Klobuchar will eliminate the Trump Administration guidance that provides states more flexibility to increase insurance costs for sicker people and shift premium subsidies away from low-income enrollees.

Remove the citizenship question from the Census. Senator Klobuchar will direct the Department of Commerce to remove the Trump Administration’s citizenship question that was added to the 2020 Census from the short form during preparations for the 2030 Census.

Prevent outsourcing of jobs overseas by closing tax loopholes on corporations’ overseas earnings. The 2017 tax law instituted a new minimum tax on corporations’ overseas earnings but applied the tax on a global or “blended” rate, encouraging companies to move physical operations and jobs overseas. Senator Klobuchar will direct the IRS to mitigate the worst effects of this law and crack down on attempts to minimize tax liability through outsourcing.

Provide incentives for employers to adopt paid family leave and child care benefits. Senator Klobuchar will reward federal contractors by providing additional points during the contract bidding process if contractors offer paid family leave to their employees or child care benefits.

Restore freedom to travel to and trade with Cuba. Fifty years of an embargo have not achieved America’s policy objectives in Cuba. Senator Klobuchar believes that a better path forward would allow Americans the freedom to travel and conduct business there and that lifting the trade embargo will open a huge export market, create American jobs, and support both the Cuban and American economies. She will revive policies to expand the ability of Americans to travel to Cuba and facilitate U.S. exports to the island using credit to the maximum extent allowed by current law while respecting human rights and property claims against the Cuban government.

Create a clemency advisory board and position in the White House that advise the President from a criminal justice reform perspective. Senator Klobuchar will create a clemency advisory board as well as a position in the White House — outside of the Department of Justice — that advise the President from a criminal justice reform perspective. The clemency advisory board will investigate and review requests for clemency for federal offenses and ultimately prepare a recommendation for the President.

Aggressively combat illegal Chinese steel dumping. Senator Klobuchar will ensure the federal government is aggressively combating illegal Chinese steel dumping including through expanded personnel to enforce our trade laws and increased inspections of steel imports at ports of entry. She will also direct the U.S. Department of Labor to expedite approval of Trade Adjustment Assistance petitions for workers from the affected mining operations.

Restart the President’s Export Council. Senator Klobuchar will restart the President’s Export Council, which brings together business, labor, and agricultural leaders with Members of Congress and key Administration officials to help promote a comprehensive export and trade strategy.

Reverse dramatic proposed funding cuts to diplomacy and foreign assistance. Senator Klobuchar will reverse this Administration’s shortsighted approach to diplomacy and US foreign assistance. The FY2020 budget request would cut diplomacy and development funding by 23 percent, including a 30 percent cut to humanitarian assistance and a 22 percent cut to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

End the sale of junk insurance policies that eliminate existing protections for consumers. Senator Klobuchar will end efforts to provide short-term junk insurance that eliminates existing protections for consumers like protections for people with pre-existing conditions and Affordable Care Act requirements to cover essential health benefits.

Restore protections for journalists and protect the First Amendment. Senator Klobuchar will restore former Attorney General Eric Holder’s guidance on protections for journalists so that they are not jailed for doing their jobs.

End the family separation policy. Senator Klobuchar will issue an Executive Order putting an immediate end to the cruel and inhumane policy where the government is taking kids away from their parents and ensuring children are reunited with their parents without delay. She will also reverse this administration’s attempt to overrule the Flores Settlement Agreement, which prevents prolonged detention of children and prevents children from being detained in inhumane conditions by requiring basic levels of food, water and health care.

Restore staffing levels at the Department of Agriculture. Under the first two years of the Trump Administration, between December 2016 and March 2018, USDA had more staff departures than any other federal agency. This has severely impacted USDA’s ability to carry out its mission on behalf of rural communities and farmers. Senator Klobuchar will restore staffing levels to the appropriate levels.

Protect student borrowers. Senator Klobuchar will restore and strengthen rules that allow students who believe they were defrauded by their colleges to apply for loan forgiveness, providing relief to thousands of additional students.

Crack down on gun manufacturers and dealers that break the law. Senator Klobuchar will increase inspections and strengthen enforcement to crack down on gun manufacturers and sellers that violate the law.

Commit to strong financial regulation. Senator Klobuchar will rescind Executive Order 13772, which has allowed the Treasury Department and other financial regulators to weaken critical safeguards put in place after the financial crisis. She will commit to strong financial regulation that levels the playing field and promotes economic stability and growth.

Stop the use of noncompete agreements to stifle competition and hurt workers. Senator Klobuchar will instruct the FTC to initiate a rulemaking addressing anti-competitive noncompete agreements that prevent low-wage workers from pursuing new employment opportunities.

Strengthen minimum wage enforcement efforts. Senator Klobuchar will strengthen enforcement and expand investigations to make sure that are wage laws are properly enforced and that workers are able to recover back pay when the government rules in their favor.

Lift the ban preventing qualified transgender people from serving in the military and restore protections for the LGBTQ community. Senator Klobuchar will direct the Department of Defense to lift the ban on military service by transgender people. She will reverse the harmful anti-LGBTQ administrative actions taken by the Trump Administration when it comes to education, health care and civil rights, and she will work to pass the Equality Act in year one of her presidency.

Protect LGBTQ people from government-sanctioned discrimination. Senator Klobuchar will stop efforts to give federal protections to those discriminating against LGBTQ people. She will end all efforts by the Department of Justice that argue that transgender people do not have protections under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

Prioritize LGBTQ antidiscrimination policies across the federal government to address homelessness, suicide and access to life-saving drugs. Senator Klobuchar will expand efforts to reduce LGBTQ homelessness, address LGBTQ suicide rates, and increase access to PrEP. She will create an office of LGBTQ Antidiscrimination within the White House Domestic Policy Council to coordinate these efforts across federal agencies.

Propose a bold infrastructure plan to rebuild America and re-establish the Presidential Advisory Council on Infrastructure. The Presidential Advisory Council on Infrastructure was intended to provide the federal government with expertise from key sectors on infrastructure policy, but President Trump disbanded the council. Senator Klobuchar will reinstate the council to execute her first budget proposal: a bold, comprehensive infrastructure plan. This trillion-dollar investment includes repairing and replacing our roads, highways and bridges, building smart climate infrastructure, ensuring clean water, modernizing our airports, seaports and inland waterways, expanding reliable public transit options, rebuilding our schools, and overhauling our country’s housing policy. The plan will be paid for by changes to the tax code including adjustments to the corporate tax rate.

Restore asylum for the victims of gender-based violence. Senator Klobuchar will overturn former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s opinion in Matter of A-B and restore protections for immigrant victims of domestic violence seeking asylum in the United States.

End anticompetitive practices that increase the price of prescription drugs. Many pharmaceutical companies have found loopholes in regulations that allow them to block or delay cost-saving competition like refusing to provide samples or share important information about how to distribute a drug safely. As President, Senator Klobuchar will instruct HHS to issue regulations to stop anti-competitive practices and help reduce the cost of prescription drugs.

Reduce racial disparities in disciplining students. Senator Klobuchar will re-issue guidance directing schools to reduce racial disparities in how they discipline students, which prompted more than 50 of America’s largest school districts to institute discipline reform.

Bring cyber-security expertise into the Defense Department immediately. Senator Klobuchar will direct the Department of Defense to immediately provide adequate staffing for cyber security programs, as Congress has already provided the Pentagon with special authority to recruit civilian cybersecurity experts.

Strengthen prosecution of white-collar criminals. Senator Klobuchar will direct the Attorney General to issue a memorandum to federal prosecutors to strengthen prosecution efforts for individuals who are personally responsible for white-collar, corporate crime and tax fraud.

Expand Medicaid reimbursement for people receiving mental health or substance use treatment. While she works to pass a permanent legislative solution, Senator Klobuchar will make it easier for states to qualify for waivers that allow for Medicaid reimbursements for people receiving mental health or substance use care in facilities with more than 16 beds.

Fully fund the IDEA and reinstate the guidance protecting the rights of students with disabilities. Senator Klobuchar’s budget will fully fund IDEA to support students with disabilities. In addition, Senator Klobuchar will reinstate documents protecting the rights of students with disabilities after Secretary DeVos rescinded 72 guidance documents outlining those rights.

Restore oversight to eliminate discriminatory lending practices. Senator Klobuchar will direct financial regulators to restore Community Reinvestment Act protections, develop policies to encourage financial institutions to make loans and investment in local communities, especially communities in need, and conduct greater outreach to assess the true credit needs of certain areas.

Provide Americans a strong taxpayer advocate. The IRS Taxpayer Advocate exists to help taxpayers navigate tax laws and serve as an ally when Americans need to engage with IRS representatives. But the Trump Administration refused to designate the Taxpayer Advocate Service an “essential service,” forcing it to close shop during the government shutdown and leaving taxpayers without a crucial ally. Senator Klobuchar will designate the IRS an essential service so taxpayers have continued access to this support and advocacy.

Encourage reinsurance programs. Rather than penalizing states who put reinsurance programs in place, which happened under the Trump Administration, Senator Klobuchar will encourage states to adopt reinsurance programs that stabilize the state’s insurance marketplace, lower premiums, and allow more people to access to affordable, quality health care.

Provide incentives for states and localities to adopt sentencing and prison reforms. Congress passed the First Step Act, which changed the overly harsh sentencing laws on nonviolent drug offenders and reformed our federal prisons. But the reform only applies to those held in the federal system. The new law doesn’t help the nearly 90% of people incarcerated in state and local facilities. Senator Klobuchar will create federal incentives so that states can restore some discretion from mandatory sentencing for nonviolent offenders and reform the unconscionable conditions in state prisons and local jails.

Restore staffing levels at the EPA. The Environmental Protection Agency now has fewer staff members than President Reagan’s EPA had in his final year in office. Senator Klobuchar will restore appropriate staffing levels to allow the agency to effectively protect the environment.

Strengthen the Minority Business Development Agency. The Minority Business Development Agency provides technical and managerial expertise to help minority business overcome social and economic disadvantages. President Trump has proposed eliminating the agency, but as President, Senator Klobuchar will ensure it has the resources it needs.

End Illegal Robocalls. Senator Klobuchar will coordinate efforts to end illegal robocalls across the Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission, and Department of Justice and direct the Department of Justice to aggressively pursue robocall scammers while working with Congress to increase penalties for aggravated violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Ensure funding for Planned Parenthood, end the gag rule, and restore the Title X program. Senator Klobuchar will reverse the Trump Administration’s decision to change the Title X program to ban health providers like Planned Parenthood from receiving funding under Title X. And she will fight for legislation that codifies Roe v. Wade and protects women’s reproductive rights.

Remove barriers to education for homeless and foster youth. Senator Klobuchar will direct her Secretary of Education to remove barriers to higher education for homeless and foster youth, including by ensuring grant programs identify, recruit and prepare homeless and foster students for college.

Restore staffing levels at the Office of Civil Rights and the Office of Federal Student Aid. The Trump Administration has dramatically cut staffing levels at the Department of Education. Senator Klobuchar will restore staffing levels at the Department of Education, including at the Office of Civil Rights and the Office of Federal Student Aid, which has created obstacles for processing more than 87,000 borrower defense claims as well as impeded investigations into Title IX violations.

Prevent misclassification of workers. Senator Klobuchar will rescind the Department of Labor guidance under the Trump Administration that makes it easier for businesses to misclassify workers, which can result in reduced benefits, lower wages, discrimination, diluted worker protections, and abdications of legal responsibilities.

Expand investments in veterans telehealth services. Senator Klobuchar will further expand investments in VA telehealth to ensure rural veterans have access to medical professionals, especially for mental health services.

Ensure funding to prevent and respond to violent hate crimes and address racial discrimination. Senator Klobuchar will fully staff and fund the Justice Department’s Community Relations Service, a non-investigative office of “peacemakers” founded by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which provides communities facing racial and other conflict with confidential services to ease tensions.

Reinstate the National Climate Assessment Advisory Committee to immediately start addressing the climate crisis. The National Climate Assessment Advisory Committee was charged with translating the findings of the National Climate Assessment into concrete goals. Senator Klobuchar will reinstate this committee that President Trump let expire.

Improve free tax filing. Senator Klobuchar will direct the IRS to prevent tax preparation vendors from steering low-income taxpayers toward paid products, which has reduced the use of free filing products. She will also direct the IRS to devote greater resources to the enforcement of vendors’ obligations under the Free File program.

Reverse the Attorney General’s memo directing federal prosecutors to seek the most severe penalties in all cases. Senator Klobuchar would reverse former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s memo limiting federal prosecutors discretion and requiring them to seek the most severe penalties possible in all cases. She will also restore the Smart on Crime initiative, which had been hailed as a positive step forward in rehabilitating drug users by focusing on more serious drug cases and fewer indictments carrying mandatory minimums. Senator Klobuchar will start the evaluation process to reschedule marijuana, collecting the required scientific and medical evaluations and recommendations.

End attempts to reduce federal housing subsidies. Senator Klobuchar will reverse the Trump Administration’s proposed changes to federal housing subsidies that could triple rent for some households and be particularly harmful for seniors, families with children and people with disabilities.

Promote net neutrality. Senator Klobuchar will use federal contracting requirements to encourage broadband providers to honor net neutrality principles and promote a free and open internet.

Support agricultural research. The Trump Administration has repeatedly proposed budgets for USDA that cut billions for rural development, conservation, and research. These include the forced closure of agricultural research laboratories and stations. Senator Klobuchar will give these important programs the support they deserve.

Put rules in place to prevent pay discrimination. The Trump Administration has tried to block rules that require large companies to disclose what they pay employees by sex, race, and ethnicity in an effort to prevent pay discrimination. Senator Klobuchar will end the Trump Administration’s legal efforts to prevent the rule from taking effect.

Prevent the expansion of private school vouchers. Senator Klobuchar will stand firmly with our public schools and end discussions of Secretary Betsy DeVos’s $50 billion proposal to fund private school vouchers.

End the travel ban. Senator Klobuchar will put an end to the administration’s travel ban, recognizing that immigrants don’t diminish America, they are America. While security and vetting should stay in place, the Trump Administration’s ban was wrong.

Support the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. The Manufacturing Extension Partnership program helps small manufacturers innovate, upgrade their technology and improve production. Senator Klobuchar will support and expand this program, which the Trump Administration has tried to eliminate.

Hold for-profit colleges accountable if they put profits above students. The Trump Administration has repeatedly delayed rules requiring vocational programs at for-profit higher education institutions to show that they provide gainful employment for their students. Senator Klobuchar will hold for-profit colleges accountable if they put profits above students by ensuring that these protections are in place.

Establish a new senior fraud prevention office. Senator Klobuchar will establish a new senior fraud prevention office to educate consumers, expedite the handling of complaints, and coordinate prevention efforts across the federal government.

Collect data to address LGBTQ disparities. Senator Klobuchar will ensure all federal data collection efforts accurately reflect the needs of LGBTQ communities including reinstating LGBTQ data in the foster care system and Older American Act that the Trump Administration has tried to stop collecting.

Reopen and expand the Office for Access to Justice. Senator Klobuchar will reopen and expand the Office for Access to Justice, which makes access to legal aid more accessible to people and has the stated goal of making sure the justice system delivers outcomes that are fair and accessible to all, irrespective of wealth or status.

Raise the refugee admissions cap. Under President Trump, the State Department has dramatically lowered the annual cap on the number of refugees that can be resettled in the United States. Senator Klobuchar will direct the State Department to restore the cap to at least its pre-Trump Administration level.

Invest in the Veterans Health Administration. Expanding access to private care cannot come at the expense of fully funding and even expanding the current Veterans Health Administration (VHA) infrastructure. Senator Klobuchar will direct the VHA to use data on private care usage only as a means to help guide investments in its own growth, not as a way to further privatize its core functions.

Strengthen the National Science Foundation. Senator Klobuchar will fully support the National Science Foundation and ensure that research decisions are being made by researchers and scientists, not politicians.

Expand apprenticeships. Senator Klobuchar will direct her Secretary of Labor to analyze the use of apprenticeships for in-demand occupations and to launch a nationwide campaign to expand apprenticeship opportunities and their benefits.

Reinstate joint employer rules that protect workers’ rights. While the Trump Administration attempted to rewrite the “joint employment” standard, Senator Klobuchar will restore guidance recognizing the responsibilities of joint employers to their employees.

End the Trump Administration’s censoring of climate science. Senator Klobuchar will end Trump Administration efforts to censor climate science through actions like deleting climate-focused websites, removing the phrase “climate change” from reports, and preventing government scientists from attending conferences on climate change.

Set ambitious goals to reduce the carbon footprint of the federal government. The federal government has a significant carbon footprint. As President, Senator Klobuchar will set ambitious goals to increase the efficiency of federal buildings, data centers, and vehicles, reduce water consumption, and increase the use of renewable energy.

Reassess the granting of Medicaid waivers, including states that have privatized Medicaid. Senator Klobuchar will conduct a reassessment of the granting of Medicaid waivers for states that wish to privatize the program and impose discriminatory work requirements.

Restore disclosure rules that counter workers’ organizing efforts. Senator Klobuchar will restore a rule rescinded by President Trump mandating public disclosure when employers hire consultants to counter workers’ union organizing efforts.

Prevent federal funding from being used to arm teachers. The Trump Administration has indicated that it would consider providing federal funding to arm teachers. Senator Klobuchar will prevent any federal funding from being used for arming teachers.

Impose full sanctions on Russia for hostile act against the United States and its allies. In 2017, Congress passed legislation providing additional authorities for the President to impose sanctions on Russia in response to its election interference and other aggressive actions. The Trump Administration has resisted full implementation of these sanctions. Senator Klobuchar will use these authorities to the fullest extent possible to impose serious costs on the Putin regime and its enablers for hostile acts against the United States and our allies.

Improve train safety. The Trump Administration blocked a proposal to require two-person train crews for safety. Senator Klobuchar will direct the Department of Transportation to restart this rulemaking and she will also restore a number of rules to improve train safety.

Protect students from discrimination and violence. Senator Klobuchar will repeal Title IX regulations proposed under the Trump Administration and restore guidance reminding universities of their obligation to protect students from sexual violence.

Direct the Department of Defense and VA to track servicemembers and veterans exposed to toxic chemicals. Currently, servicemembers’ exposure to toxic chemicals such as mold, caustic fumes, open air burn pits, and airborne chemicals during military operations are not being properly documented and tracked by the Defense Department or VA. Senator Klobuchar would direct these agencies to record any environmental health hazard exposure in a servicemember’s records during deployment, and the record would then follow the servicemember through his or her career and into veteran status.

Expand loans for and investments in local communities in need. For the past 40 years, the Community Reinvestment Act has encouraged financial institutions to make loans and investment in local communities, especially low-income and minority communities. Senator Klobuchar will protect the CRA and instruct financial regulators to conduct greater outreach to assess the true credit needs of their communities.

Overhaul ethics rules for White House employees and other senior officials. Senator Klobuchar will make clear that the President and Vice President must follow our conflict of interest laws, do more to investigate foreign agents who lobby in the United States, give the Office of Government Ethics more enforcement power, and provide additional protections for all Special Counsels.

Support and strengthen the Economic Development Administration. The Economic Development Administration works directly with communities and regions to promote competitiveness and innovation. It has a proven track record of success and on average every $1 of EDA infrastructure funding generates $15 in private investment. Still, the Trump Administration repeatedly proposed eliminating the agency. Senator Klobuchar will ensure the agency has the resources to carry out its mission.

Restore reporting requirements of civilian casualties. Senator Klobuchar will issue an Executive Order restoring requirements for the release an annual report on the strikes undertaken by the U.S. military and Central Intelligence Agency outside of war zones and assessments of military and civilian deaths resulting from those strikes.

Work to re-enter the Iran nuclear agreement. The 2015 nuclear agreement imposed verifiable limits on Iran’s nuclear program that would prevent it from building a nuclear weapon. Senator Klobuchar will negotiate to bring the United States back into the nuclear agreement with the goal of avoiding war and a nuclear-armed Iran.

Connect more families to housing in higher opportunity neighborhoods. Senator Klobuchar would expand the pilot for mobility housing vouchers that allow families with children to use their vouchers in higher opportunity neighborhoods.

Prosecute unscrupulous payday lenders. Senator Klobuchar will direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Justice Department and other agencies to prosecute unscrupulous payday lenders that engage in predatory practices and charge customers exorbitant interest rates.

Undertake a comprehensive review and restore environmental protections repealed by the Trump Administration. The Trump Administration has revoked dozens of guidance documents and rules that protect people’s safety, health and the environment when it comes to our power plants, oil refineries, national parks and wildlife refuges, offshore drilling, pipelines, and oil and gas development. Senator Klobuchar will undertake a thorough review of all the repealed guidance and rules, and work to restore our environmental and safety protections.

Ensure fair labor practices and safe workplaces for federal contractors. Senator Klobuchar will restore policies ensuring fair pay and safe workplaces for federal contractors.

Protect health care workers’ right to organize. Senator Klobuchar will rescind an anti-union regulatory change enacted by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services that prevents union dues from being deducted from Medicaid-funded paychecks of home health care workers.

Direct the Department of Health and Human Services to consider VHA facilities when designating Health Professional Shortage Areas. Senator Klobuchar has long pressed for HHS to consider adding VHA facilities as Health Professional Shortage areas. Once designated, these facilities have access to health professional students with scholarships and loan forgiveness who pledge to practice in the program for at least two years. As President, Senator Klobuchar would direct HHS to revise its current regulations for defining Health Professional Shortage areas to include VHA facilities.

Stop the diversion of funds needed to modernize our military bases from being used for the border wall. President Trump is diverting funding meant for modernizing our military bases in order to build his border wall. Senator Klobuchar will rescind his national emergency declaration and return funding for its intended purpose.

Visit our troops stationed in combat zones. Visiting our military servicemembers serving in harm’s way is a long-standing Presidential tradition. Senator Klobuchar will visit U.S. troops in combat zones within her first 100 days in office.

Reopen international U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices. The Trump Administration is shutting down international USCIS offices – which deal primarily with international adoptions, family visa applications, petitions for citizenship for military members stationed in foreign countries, and citizenship applications, along with help on refugee processing and investigations of fraud. Senator Klobuchar will direct USCIS to reopen its international offices.

Reduce State Department vacancies. Senator Klobuchar will immediately direct her Secretary of State to accelerate hiring for key positions.

Prevent people with severe mental illness from acquiring guns. Senator Klobuchar will restore a rule requiring the Social Security Administration to submit records of people with severe mental illness to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

Curtail arms transfers and other support for the war in Yemen. Saudi and UAE military operations in Yemen have killed thousands of civilians and contributed to a humanitarian crisis that has left millions displaced and starving. The conflict shows no signs of ending, but the Trump Administration continues to go to extraordinary lengths to provide weapons and other support to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, including circumventing the standard Congressional approval processes. Senator Klobuchar will order a stop to arms transfers and support to the Saudi and Emirati forces until a negotiated settlement to the conflict is achieved.

Reinstate visas for same-sex partners of foreign diplomats. Senator Klobuchar will reverse the Trump Administration policy change of no longer issue family visas to same-sex partners of foreign diplomats or employees of international organizations who work in the United States.

Renew efforts to prevent another financial crisis. The Office of Financial Research, an independent bureau within the Treasury Department, was created by the Dodd-Frank Act to collect information on financial system risks, perform long-term research, and develop risk measurement and monitoring tools to help prevent future financial crises. Senator Klobuchar will restore the mission and stature of the office.

Protect funding for the Northern Triangle. Senator Klobuchar will end all Administration discussions to cut off direct assistance funding for Northern Triangle countries of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, recognizing that the cuts present a serious risk to our national security and undermine efforts to address the underlying conditions driving migration to the United States.

Crack down on money laundering and tax evasion. Senator Klobuchar will crack down on money laundering and tax evasion by empowering Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to aggressively implement new rules for identifying the “true” owner of financial accounts, especially large accounts used in financial transactions where the incidence of fraud and tax evasion is high. And she will call on Congress to enact legislation imposing greater disclosure requirements.

Protect retiree pensions. The Kline-Miller Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA) allows underfunded multiemployer pension plans to request permission from the Treasury Department to reduce retiree benefits in order to improve their financial condition. Senator Klobuchar believes retirees are entitled to the benefits they’ve earned during their working lives and will recommend that Treasury heighten the scrutiny of any applications to reduce retiree benefits under MPRA.

Combat segregation in housing. Senator Klobuchar will suspend Housing and Urban Development Secretary Carson’s proposed changes to the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, which would weaken efforts to combat segregation in housing policy.

Invest in adult basic education. Senator Klobuchar will reverse President’s Trump proposal to cut basic education programs for adults, and launch an initiative focused on increasing opportunities for adults to master literacy and basic math skills.

Restore consumer protections. Senator Klobuchar will direct the Department of Commerce, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Product Safety Commission, Federal Communications Commission, Department of Transportation and other consumer protection agencies to re-evaluate any Trump Administration actions that have weakened protections for consumers.

Maintain protest rights on public property in Washington, DC. Senator Klobuchar will end the Trump Administration attempts to limit protest rights in Washington, DC, like closing 80 percent of the White House sidewalk and putting new limits on spontaneous demonstrations.

Prevent abuses by IRS private debt collectors. Reports suggest that the IRS private debt collectors have abused and harassed low-income taxpayers whose tax debts are relatively small. Senator Klobuchar will overhaul the program and limit these abuses.

Invest in Alzheimer’s research. Senator Klobuchar will commit to preventing, treating and facilitating a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. She will also immediately expand initiatives that provide support for family caregivers.

End the Justice Department’s reliance on private prisons. As President, Senator Klobuchar will phase out the use of private prisons by directing the Department of Justice to decline to renew or reduce the scope of contracts when the contract reaches its end.

Restore national monuments. Senator Klobuchar will restore the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to protect their ecological and the tribal cultural significance and undertake a review of other boundary adjustment and management changes initiated by the Trump Administration.

Prioritize health care delivery system reform to reduce health care costs. Senator Klobuchar will immediately identify value-based delivery system reforms, including in Medicare and Medicaid, and she will create incentives for employers and insurers to expand new payment models.

Expand the open enrollment period for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act so more people can get insurance coverage. Rather than shortening the open enrollment period on the exchanges from November 1st to December 15th, which happened under the Trump Administration, Senator Klobuchar will expand the open enrollment period for exchange enrollment so more people can access health insurance.

Investigate deceptive online travel practices that hurt consumers. Senator Klobuchar will direct the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Transportation to investigate deceptive and fraudulent practices by online travel booking websites.

“Senator Klobuchar is committed to governing from opportunity and taking administrative actions when it comes to our foreign policy and security, veterans, health care, education, income inequality, worker protections, economic justice, immigration reform, unions, civil rights, climate change, the environment, criminal justice reform and gun violence prevention. She will be updating these goals with your ideas,” the campaign stated.

Economic Development, Governor Andrew Cuomo

NYS Accepting Applications for Luminate Accelerator to Spur Optics, Photonics, Imaging Enterprises, Key Initiative in ‘Finger Lakes Forward’ Revitalization

June 21, 2019 krubin

Former knitting mill being repurposed in Seneca Falls, gateway to the Finger Lakes. New York State is accepting new applications for Illuminate NY, one of the world’s largest business accelerators for startup firms in the optics, photonics and imaging industries, with a $1 million the top prize. Illuminate is one of the initiatives to revitalize the Finger Lakes economy © *Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

New York State has just announced that Luminate NY – one of the world’s largest business accelerators for startup firms in the optics, photonics and imaging industries is now accepting applications for Round III of the innovative competition. Selected teams will compete for one of 10 available slots in the third cohort of companies.

The Luminate NY accelerator, located in Rochester, assists promising optics, photonics and imaging companies with advancing their technologies and businesses through the assistance of a six-month mentoring program. Once selected, teams will compete for follow-on funding, including a $1 million top prize; $500,000 second prize; and two $250,000 prizes that will be awarded to two teams. The Luminate NY program is funded by the transformative Finger Lakes Forward Upstate Revitalization Initiative.

“Luminate NY is a globally recognized competition and resource for the most promising new companies in the cutting-edge fields of optics, photonics and imaging,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said. “This accelerator represents just one of the many strategic industry investments New York is making to foster new business growth and improve job opportunities as we continue working to propel the Finger Lakes economy forward.”

“Our business plan competitions have proven to be a catalyst for driving great ideas and job growth across the state,” said Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul.”Luminate NY is part of our strategy to encourage collaboration and provide support to the growing OPI industry in the Finger Lakes region. As we begin a new round, we remain committed to embracing Rochester’s spirit of innovation to deliver ambitious plans focused on the future.”

Luminate NY, which is administered by NextCorps, is looking for entrepreneurs from around the globe who are interested in solving OPI challenges, including but not limited to: machine vision, inspection, biophotonics, security, surveillance, augmented and virtual reality and autonomous vehicles. The winning teams must commit to remaining in the region for at least 18 months.

Applicants for Luminate NY must be incorporated, have at least two full-time employees and should have proven their core technology, preferably having developed a working prototype. Once admitted, companies will receive assistance, including capital, access to comprehensive lab facilities for technology development, education, and business mentoring. Applications will be accepted now through September 23, 2019.

The recruitment for new OPI-enabled technologies comes just one week before Luminate NY’s second cohort of companies competes for $2 million in follow-on funding. The free “Light Tomorrow with Today” Demo Day event will be held on June 27, 2019, at the CGI Big Tent at the Rochester International Jazz Festival. One company will be awarded $1 million, with the additional $1 million to be awarded to three companies based on judges’ ratings.

Luminate NY continues to build on the region’s historically strong OPI industry sector. Rochester is home to the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics’ Test, Assembly and Packaging facility at Eastman Business Park, the University of Rochester’s Institute of Optics, the Rochester Institute of Technology and to more than 100 local OPI companies and 17,000 employees who are building on the region’s legacy as a global imaging leader.

For more information about Luminate NY, click here.

Accelerating Finger Lakes Forward

Today’s announcement complements “Finger Lakes Forward,” the region’s comprehensive blueprint to generate robust economic growth and community development. New York State has already invested more than $6.1 billion in the region since 2012 to lay the groundwork for the plan—investing in key industries including photonics, agriculture and food production, and advanced manufacturing. Today, unemployment is down to the lowest levels since before the Great Recession; personal and corporate income taxes are down; and businesses are choosing places like Rochester, Batavia and Canandaigua as a destination to grow and invest in.

Now, the region is accelerating Finger Lakes Forward with a $500 million State investment through the Upstate Revitalization Initiative, announced by Governor Cuomo in December 2015. The State’s $500 million investment will incentivize private business to invest well over $2.5 billion; and, the region’s plan, as submitted, projects up to 8,200 new jobs. More information is available here.

Climate Action, Climate Change, Democratic Party, Democrats, Election 2020

Joe Biden Releases His Plan for a Clean Energy Revolution & Environmental Justice

June 12, 2019 krubin

Vice President Joe Biden, in the race for the 2020 Democratic nomination for President, released his plan for a Clean Energy Revolution & Environmental Justice *© Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

With Democrats clamoring for the Democratic National Committee to host a climate debate for candidates, several have issued their own climate action plans, including Vice President Joe Biden. The Biden Plan for a Clean Energy Revolution & Environmental Justice details how a Biden Administration will tackle the moral and economic imperative of climate change on day one.

“More severe storms and droughts, rising sea levels, warming temperatures, shrinking snow cover and ice sheets – it’s already happening. We must take drastic action now to address the climate disaster facing the nation and our world,” said Vice President Joe Biden. “Science tells us that how we act or fail to act in the next 12 years will determine the very livability of our planet. That’s why I’m calling for a Clean Energy Revolution to confront this crisis and do what America does best – solve big problems with big ideas.”

Here is an overview:

The Biden Plan for a Clean Energy Revolution & Environmental Justice

Addressing the global threat of climate change and revitalizing America’s economy

From coastal towns to rural farms to urban centers, climate change poses an existential threat – not just to our environment, but to our health, our communities, our national security, and our economic well-being. It also damages our communities with storms that wreak havoc on our towns and cities and our homes and schools. It puts our national security at risk by leading to regional instability that will require U.S military-supported relief activities and could make areas more vulnerable to terrorist activities.

Vice President Biden knows there is no greater challenge facing our country and our world. Today, he is outlining a bold plan – a Clean Energy Revolution – to address this grave threat and lead the world in addressing the climate emergency.

Biden believes the Green New Deal is a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face. It powerfully captures two basic truths, which are at the core of his plan: (1) the United States urgently needs to embrace greater ambition on an epic scale to meet the scope of this challenge, and (2) our environment and our economy are completely and totally connected.

If we can harness all of our energy and talents, and unmatchable American innovation, we can turn this threat into an opportunity to revitalize the U.S. energy sector and boost growth economy-wide. We can create new industries that reinvigorate our manufacturing and create high-quality, middle-class jobs in cities and towns across the United States. We can lead America to become the world’s clean energy superpower. We can export our clean-energy technology across the globe and create high-quality, middle-class jobs here at home. Getting to a 100% clean energy economy is not only an obligation, it’s an opportunity. We should fully adopt a clean energy future, not just for all of us today, but for our children and grandchildren, so their tomorrow is healthier, safer, and more just.

As president, Biden will make the United States a world leader to address the climate emergency through the power of example, by ensuring the U.S. achieves a 100% clean energy economy and net-zero emissions no later than 2050.

The Biden Plan will:

Ensure the U.S. achieves a 100% clean energy economy and reaches net-zero emissions no later than 2050. On day one, Biden will sign a series of new executive orders with unprecedented reach that go well beyond the Obama-Biden Administration platform and put us on the right track. And, he will demand that Congress enacts legislation in the first year of his presidency that: 1) establishes an enforcement mechanism that includes milestone targets no later than the end of his first term in 2025, 2) makes a historic investment in clean energy and climate research and innovation, 3) incentivizes the rapid deployment of clean energy innovations across the economy, especially in communities most impacted by climate change.
Build a stronger, more resilient nation. On day one, Biden will make smart infrastructure investments to rebuild the nation and to ensure that our buildings, water, transportation, and energy infrastructure can withstand the impacts of climate change. Every dollar spent toward rebuilding our roads, bridges, buildings, the electric grid, and our water infrastructure will be used to prevent, reduce, and withstand a changing climate. As President, Biden will use the convening power of government to boost climate resilience efforts by developing regional climate resilience plans, in partnership with local universities and national labs, for local access to the most relevant science, data, information, tools, and training.
Rally the rest of the world to meet the threat of climate change. Climate change is a global challenge that requires decisive action from every country around the world. Joe Biden knows how to stand with America’s allies, stand up to adversaries, and level with any world leader about what must be done. He will not only recommit the United States to the Paris Agreement on climate change – he will go much further than that. He will lead an effort to get every major country to ramp up the ambition of their domestic climate targets. He will make sure those commitments are transparent and enforceable, and stop countries from cheating by using America’s economic leverage and power of example. He will fully integrate climate change into our foreign policy and national security strategies, as well as our approach to trade.
Stand up to the abuse of power by polluters who disproportionately harm communities of color and low-income communities. Vulnerable communities are disproportionately impacted by the climate emergency and pollution. The Biden Administration will take action against fossil fuel companies and other polluters who put profit over people and knowingly harm our environment and poison our communities’ air, land, and water, or conceal information regarding potential environmental and health risks. The Biden plan will ensure that communities across the country from Flint, Michigan to Harlan, Kentucky to the New Hampshire Seacoast have access to clean, safe drinking water. And he’ll make sure the development of solutions is an inclusive, community-driven process.
Fulfill our obligation to workers and communities who powered our industrial revolution and subsequent decades of economic growth. This is support they’ve earned for fueling our country’s industrial revolution and decades of economic growth. We’re not going to leave any workers or communities behind.

The Biden plan will make a historic investment in our clean energy future and environmental justice, paid for by rolling back the Trump tax incentives that enrich corporations at the expense of American jobs and the environment. Biden’s climate and environmental justice proposal will make a federal investment of $1.7 trillion over the next ten years, leveraging additional private sector and state and local investments to total to more than $5 trillion. President Trump’s tax cut led to trillions in stock buybacks and created new incentives to shift profits abroad. Joe Biden believes we should instead invest in a Clean Energy Revolution that creates jobs here at home.

The Biden plan will be paid for by reversing the excesses of the Trump tax cuts for corporations, reducing incentives for tax havens, evasion, and outsourcing, ensuring corporations pay their fair share, closing other loopholes in our tax code that reward work not wealth, and ending subsidies for fossil fuels.

This all builds on Vice President Biden’s years of leadership on climate change – from introducing one of the first climate bills in the Senate to overseeing the largest clean energy investment in our country’s history, the Recovery Act and to mobilizing the world to achieve the Paris Climate Accord.

Vice President Biden has committed that Biden for President will not accept contributions from the oil, gas and coal corporations or executives.

For more on Vice President Biden’s plan, watch THIS video, view the policy HERE.

News & Photo Features, Trump Administration, Trump-Russia

Worse than Watergate: Former Prosecutor Discusses Nixon-Trump Parallels & Case for Impeachment

June 10, 2019 krubin

Nick Akerman, former Watergate prosecutor, discusses parallels between Nixon and Trump and the case for impeachment for obstruction of justice at Temple Emanuel of Great Neck, Long Island *© Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

By Karen Rubin, News& Photo Features

With House Judiciary Committee hearings beginning on the Mueller Report and the possibility the findings might trigger hearings to impeach Donald Trump, it is helpful to hear from Nick Akerman, who served as Assistant Special Watergate Prosecutor with the Watergate Special Prosecution Force under Archibald Cox and Leon Jaworski which ultimately led to the resignation of Richard Nixon. He is an expert on criminal and civil application of the Racketeer and Corrupt Organizations Statue (RICO), the Economic Espionage Act, the federal Securities Laws, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and State Trade Secret and Restrictive Covenant Laws. He also is an expert on computer crime and the prosecution of competitively sensitive information and computer data. Akerman, who appears regularly on MSNBC on subjects including the FBI’s ongoing investigation into alleged Russian tampering with US elections, recently opined on the comparisons between Watergate and Trump’s culpability during a talk on “The Critical Issues Confronting Our Nation” at Temple Emanuel of Great Neck. Here are highlights and some notes:

There is the obvious comparisons but differences: in Watergate, a bunch of American guys flew up from Miami, burglarized Democratic National Committee, took documents. A low tech operation and they got caught in a low tech way –they put tape over door and cop caught them. What was insidious about what happened [in 2016 campaign] is that it was a high tech operation against DNC, this wasn’t done by individuals in the United States but by Russians, sitting at computers in Moscow, hacking into DNC as referenced by fact 12 Russian intelligence officers were indicted by Mueller’s team.

In Watergate, we never knew what the burglars were trying to get; by the time they were caught, they didn’t get much.

Here, Russian operatives were hacking into DNC on multiple occasions, taking documents which they used and released during the course of 2016 presidential campaign that clearly had impact on what happened in campaign.

Back in Nixon era, had a conspiracy between Nixon and a foreign power in 1968 – which we didn’t learn about until 40 yrs later [so it never was part of the impeachment]- there was suspicion that Nixon had scuttled the Vietnam peace process during the 1968 campaign because he was concerned Johnson would settle and his lead over Humphrey would disintegrate –We learned later from notes of H.R. Handelman, that Nixon orchestrated it– that Anna Chenault interceded with the South Vietnamese government to keep them from coming to peace table. [As a result], Nixon make the war go on for four more years and some 26,000 Americans were killed (after 1968; 58,000 Americans altogether. Johnson knew of Nixon’s interference, confronted Senator Dirkson and said Nixon’s action constituted treason, but Johnson couldn’t release the information publicly, because would have revealed the US was bugging the South Vietnamese government]. Johnson was concerned that if he released that information that Nixon had interfered during campaign, it would appear that he was trying to throw the campaign to Humphrey.

In that, it sounds familiar: Obama was also concerned that it would appear he was exposing Russian interference to aid Trump in order to tilt the election to Hillary Clinton. [But it was also because when he presented the information to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, he refused to support it and Obama did not want to appear partisan.]

What Mueller said destroyed Trump’s claim of total exoneration based on Attorney General William Barr’s so-called summary of Mueller report. Mueller said, “If we had confidence the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.”

What kind of statement is that to make about the president of the United States? This is not a ringing endorsement of innocence by any means.

Mueller basically said he was tied to regulations issued by Department of Justice that don’t permit DoJ to indict a sitting president.

In Watergate, we didn’t have that problem [the rules governing Mueller as special counsel were very much constricted after the renegade Starr, and more constricted that the Nixon special counsel]. Archibald Cox was really independent, not part of DoJ, but careful to follow DoJ guidelines and regulations. When he was fired and Leon Jaworski came in, the staff believed Nixon should have been indicted but Jaworski overruled – in retrospect he was right – Congress was involved, the American public was being informed. His view: impeachment process was going on and he should provide evidence to the House Judiciary committee. So he could do the job. That’s not what we have today.

Mueller in his statement said it was also important to investigate a sitting president, to preserve evidence when memories are fresh and documents available. [Documents have already been destroyed, or kept out of the hands of investigators.)

What does that mean in prosecutor speak? Why is it important to investigate while the trail is hot? It might be that the people who conspired with the president could be prosecuted. More importantly, what he’s saying is that if the president committed crimes, the evidence should be put together, and if leaves office within statute of limitations (for obstruction of justice it is 5 years), so if leaves after one term, he is subject to being indicted.

[Some want to pass a law suspending the statute of limitations while a sitting president can’t be indicted, if that is the DoJ policy; note: that is only policy, not part of the Constitution or any law that prevents a sitting president from being indicted.]

[But because under the current policy, a sitting president can’t be indicted, that leaves the only remedy to Congress to impeach, especially since Trump has blocked evidence and witnesses.]

Mueller report lays out a complete trial for obstruction of justice- 8 instances of obstruction – any one of which anybody but a sitting president could be, should be, and has been convicted of.

There is a statement by over 1000 former DoJ employees and prosecutors (including me) who said precisely that: if this evidence were out there on anyone else, that person would have been indicted and convicted of obstruction.

For example, Trump requested [former FBI Director James] Comey drop the FBI investigation into [National Security Adviser] Michael Flynn – that purpose was to impede and stop the investigation.

Trump tried to stop Russian investigation by firing Comey – he admitted that to Lester Holt on tv and to the Russians [in the Oval office].

He tried to stop the investigation by firing [Special Counsel] Bob Mueller and asked [Attorney General] Jeff Sessions to limit the scope of investigation into Russian meddling in the election to only focus on future elections, and not 2016.

He attempted to influence and probably did influence his former campaign manager Paul Manafort to refuse to cooperate with Mueller, and that was extremely significant [because Manafort had such critical insight into what happened during the campaign, while Mueller was unable to get the Russians who were out of reach; recall Trump also jumped at the suggestion of handing over the former Ambassador McFaul in exchange for Putin extraditing the Russians, and allowing Putin to interrogate Americans Putin suspected of interfering in his election, like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.]

Trump publicly attacked his former fixer Michael Cohen and Cohen’s family, to intimidate him to not cooperate with Mueller investigation.

Why? Because there are practical problems with respect to charge anyone in the Trump campaign: the US doesn’t have subpoena authority in Moscow and other countries, so it is not an easy investigation. Whereas with Watergate, almost everything happened in the US, we could subpoena records, witnesses, and didn’t have to worry about foreign agents in foreign countries not subject to subpoenas.

But one huge problem: our federal criminal law does not address this new digital age. We had no problem in 1973 finding crimes – burglary was simple. Our laws have not kept up with new technology.

Page 167 of the Mueller report, right in the middle of the redacted portion relating to dissemination of stolen docs and emails from the DNC, right before the Democratic National Convention, is a whole series of emails disseminated by Wikileaks at the direction of the Kremlin to sow dissention of Sanders versus the Clinton supporters.

Within 30 minutes of the release of the Access Hollywood tape [in which Trump gloated over his ability to grab women by the pussy, because being a celebrity he could get away with it], Wikileaks, with the Russians, was releasing the Podesta emails to distract attention away. [It also came out simultaneously to Obama Administration releasing information of Russian waging a disinformation campaign on social media.]

This was pretty slick, sophisticated operation. But if you look at the Mueller report, it ruled out charges on the theory that trafficking in receipt of stolen property under National Stolen Property Act only covers tangible property, not intangible. Mueller couldn’t charge beyond reasonable doubt the crime of trafficking in stolen property, because it was data.

As for collusion, which is cooperation members of Trump campaign were cooperating in accepting this help. That is an important distinction, because of the difficulty in investigating crimes outside US – DoJ has no subpoena power in Russia, no ability to extradite Russians indicted for hacking into DNC or other Russians involved in use of social media to suppress Clinton vote – other major allegations –

[That makes no sense, since the government frequently prosecutes theft of intellectual property, which this was, and because it is illegal for a campaign to accept anything of value from a foreign country, which opposition research and social media campaign surely had value. They have the evidence that they could present at trial – even in absentia, if the Russians don’t want to defend themselves, that is their choice. But the evidence would show that Don Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort learned at the Trump Tower meeting that Putin wanted to help Trump win the election; that Manafort met on several occasions and delivered polling data that would help the Russians target enough communities in the swing states to suppress the Clinton vote and give Trump the 77,000 votes, across three states, that clinched the Electoral College. Kushner met with head of sanctioned bank and likely promised overturning sanctions; Michael Cohen and Felix Slater were negotiating the Trump Tower Moscow deal; Roger Stone was the intermediary with Wikileaks, and Wikileaks was working with the Russian hacker, Gucipher 2.0, and Michael Flynn met with Russians to guarantee that Trump would overturn sanctions.

[Here’s the thing: Trump, himself, probably only wanted to cement relationship with Putin for when he lost the election, but Putin saw the advantage in having a puppet in the White House who would overturn sanctions on Russian banks and businesses and individuals, promote oil and fossil fuels (the foundation of Russia’s economy) while dismantling the shift to clean, renewable energy; weaken US support of NATO, Paris Climate Agreement, and Iran Nuclear Agreement, break US as a global power while Russia and China become dominant political and economic powerhouses around the world including the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Trump may not have cared to win the presidency, but Manafort, Flynn, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Robert Mercer certainly did and were serving as agents of Russia. Meanwhile, other Trump-connected figures, like Broidy and George Nador, were working on behalf of Saudi Arabia and UAE and not only did Trump support their embargo of Qatar, where the US has its largest military base in the Middle East, but now is allowing Saudi Arabia to have the technology for high-tech bomb components.

[The fact that Putin and others knew about the private dealings, and who knows what from before, like money laundering for Russian oligarchs with Trump Organization properties and tax evasion, that made him and many of his aides like Michael Flynn all vulnerable to kompromat and doing Russia’s will.]

There are two buckets [of criminal activity]: the break in at DNC, hacking emails, stealing documents, while a group another group of Russian intel officers in St. Petersburg, was involved in social media disinformation campaign to microtarget Clinton voters and suppress their vote by passing fake news about Clinton – 13 Russian intel operatives were indicted February 2018 on this use of social media. [But what is not readily realized is how closely the Russian campaign dovetailed with the Trump Campaign’s social media disinformation campaign operated by Brad Parscale, now Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, who boasted about a disinformation campaign designed to suppress votes by women, blacks and liberals; Parscale was connected to Cambridge Analytica, a Steve Bannon/Robert Mercer entity, that linked up with Russia, and in England, was connected to the Brexit disinformation campaign. Facebook and Twitter had their own professionals embedded in Parscale’s office, while both social media giants were also disseminating the Russian bots.]

What we learn in Mueller report: Manafort provided [Russian agent Konstantin] Kilimnik with polling data multiple times, not just in cigar bar – but multiple times, on one occasion, in context of talking about battleground states, PA, MI, WI. If you take those three states with 66,000 votes among them, that’s how Trump won [the Electoral College]. So we have evidence, from [Rick] Gates (Manafort’s right hand man who revealed to Mueller), we have kalynick, Russian agent, getting polling data, talking about 3 states in particular, and Russians micro-targeting voters to suppress vote, but Mueller had to prove somebody in the Trump campaign engaged in conspiracy beyond reasonable doubt.

[See: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/08/manafort-russian-poll-share-konstantin-kilimnik-trump-investigation-2016-election-latest].

[Here’s the thing about surveillance and Trump’s charge of spying: they were monitoring the Russians and these encounters with Trump-connected Americans came up. Trump never said anything uncovered was untrue; to the contrary, his insistence that he must have been spied upon is proof that what they uncovered was accurate. The point of counter-intelligence is to determine if foreign agents have infiltrated or turned Americans into agents or moles, witting or unwitting “useful idiots.”]

The three states that elected Trump, on multiple occasions were talking about using data to send false news to potential Clinton voters, but what you can’t do is execute search warrant on St. Petersburg, pick up Russians for questioning. Mueller knew the key to investigation was Paul Manafort [so needed Manafort to turn and give evidence. That’s where Trump’s obstruction comes in, dangling the possibility of a pardon if he would just shut up].

In the end Mueller had a failure of proof because Manafort lied to him. When Manafort appeared before judge in DC, Amy… she found he lied about polling data [so why didn’t Manafort get more time, or have cooperation deal torn up?]. He was covering up the campaign; he was given 7 ½ years [a tiny amount of time for a guy who committed some $50 million in tax and financial fraud and basically was paying off his debts by selling out the country, essentially handing over secrets to a foreign power]. He was also indicted by New York State. The issue is whether at some point will he realize he doesn’t want to spend full 7 ½ years and cooperate – if he does, the Mueller team is no longer in place, so we are left with AG Barr who is basically a political hack for Trump and has done everything to paint rosy picture of Trump’s involvement, lied about what was in Mueller report, setting up situation for a month before the report was released, giving the impression Trump was exonerated by the report, when he wasn’t.

So it is an open question: what happens if Manafort decides to cooperate, if Roger Stone, right in the middle of dissemination of stolen documents, interacted with Gucifer 2.0, what happens if these people suddenly decide to cooperate? [More likely Barr’s DoJ will stop any investigation or prosecution altogether so the truth never comes out, the evidence is destroyed and Trump skates free.]

Impeachment, the “I” Word

That leaves us with the House of Representatives and the impeachment process.

Impeachment is a whole different animal – a political process not a legal process [I always hear that it is ‘political’ but what does that mean? Shouldn’t it be about Rule of Law, not about which party is in power?] The House doesn’t have to show evidence beyond reasonable doubt to start an impeachment case – doesn’t have to deal with same standard, but the House acts as grand jury, in doing so, brings charges, which then go to Senate, and it takes 2/3 of the Senate [67 votes] to remove somebody from office, based on impeachment from House. The obvious problem now is that 2/3 of Senate is not in any way, shape or form, going to remove Trump from office and the public is just not there at this point [which is why Trump and new fixer Rudy Giuliani have been undermining Mueller and the FBI, in the “court of public opinion”]. I totally believe Pelosi is correct, the public just doesn’t understand what Trump did.

[But it is chicken and egg- Trump has obstructed access to the evidence which would change public opinion and force the Senate to vote to impeach or else look like they support a criminal in the white House. In Watergate, the House finally was able to force Nixon to give over the tapes that damned him.]

Barr purposely muddled waters when he issued the ‘summary’ of the Mueller report – Mueller report over 400 pages, it is long and takes some background in knowing what happened beforehand.

The other significant document is the New York Times – the long [investigative] report they have done on Trump’s taxes. It is no coincidence Trump doesn’t want to turn over taxes – they go through that long history of tax avoidance, and what the Trump family did [and the fact he lost more money than any other American] – but if boils down to a long history of tax evasion – evading gift taxes, estate taxes, income taxes. Most of what was reported in the Times is passed statute of limitations, 6 years – but other matters.

[But here’s where impeachment would come in –not for a crime that is avoided because of statue of limitations, but shows unfit for office, unfit to be the one issuing tax policy, financial protections for consumers that he wants to overturn, shows he is vulnerable to blackmail from others who knows he committed tax fraud, bank fraud, lying to mortgage companies and insurance companies, as well as lying to the government, and the likelihood of money laundering, as well. These practices make him vulnerable to blackmail and collusion by anyone who knows, and the Russians could certainly have found those documents, like any other secret document. It’s like when an old drunk-driving offense is dug up during the campaign. But there are criminal financial practices that Trump apparently engaged in within the 6 years, and even during his time in office.]

In 2016 [during the campaign], we know that Trump sold two properties at 100 Central Park South, to son Eric for $330,000, even though the Trump Organization valued at $800,000 and $700,000, essentially passing assets not at true value, just like Fred Trump did to Donald to evade gift taxes.

Trump knows that the real vulnerability to him are the tax returns. Also, he doesn’t want the facts of Mueller report to be brought to life.

Keeping the Public in the Dark

One thing in Watergate: Cox was appointed in May 1973 and by June 1973, the Senate select committee was in full gear, there were TV hearings where people understood what happened, we had testimony that the burglary was connected to the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP), John Dean [White House counsel] laid out the elaborate obstruction of justice plot, the hush money to Watergate burglars – so as of summer of 1973, the public was pretty well educated.

[But Watergate was essentially one crime at the center, the burglary, when Trump campaign involved many different illegal, unethical activities, including the tacit agreement with the Russians that would overturn sanctions, which motivated the Russians to commit crimes on Trump’s behalf, which Trump encouraged, egging on the release of Wikileaks, for example. In some ways, Trump committed his offenses in the open, including saying on TV he fired James Comey because of the Russia investigation giving the impression, ‘how could it be illegal if he does it openly.’ But many more are surreptitious and convoluted. But Trump is already named as Individual Number 1 in campaign finance violations, which had it been any other president, would have been sufficient on its own to initiate impeachment.]

We haven’t had that. Prior to the new [Democratic-controlled] House, it was controlled by Republicans who kept everything out of the public [except when Nunes forced the release of FISA materials, intending to signal to intelligence officers to back off], the Senate didn’t do anything in public. What has to happen now has to be to bring the Mueller report to life: get McGahn [and Hope Hicks, Don Jr., Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Jared Kushner] to testify; these are people who worked at the Trump White House or still do, who have already provided testimony to the Mueller team.

One of things Trump administration tries to do – same as Nixon – is to stonewall. By not providing witnesses, documents. The recent court rulings are significant – tax returns. Most significant in last the 10 days is that New York State can provide tax returns to the House committees, and NYS tax returns mirror the federal returns.

Federal statute requires treasury to produce tax returns [What makes you think was Trump submitted to State jibed with Federal return?]

Where this is going will be a road to slog – court actions, committees – their job is to bring life to 435 page report that most American don’t have time or inclination to read.

[Why stonewall? First place, to diminish the weight of the charges; second, to push the process into the election campaign so he can argue that it is only political, and get the DoJ to impose its policy, which Comey conveniently ignored, of indicting or prosecuting someone during a campaign. That’s why there was a hiatus before the 2018 election.]

Around same section, p 176 –there is a prosecution decision Mueller explains that’s redacted –about whether or not to charge federal computer crimes statute. But just as the same as Russian intel officers who had hacked, Mueller concludes he doesn’t have enough evidence. The statute is computer fraud and abuse statute – hacking statute – the only reason to charge anybody would be if he were actually involved in the hacking done by Russians. We don’t know what’s under the redaction, but it is significant.

You can pick up bits and pieces. It is important that the public know about and be brought to attention.

AG Barr Muddies Waters

What Mueller writes about the law refutes that letter that Barr provided the White House and DoJ as a ‘job’ letter to be appointed as new AG. [It shows his ignorance of the law.] You wouldn’t want a first year law student to be writing, it’s just wrong. He says obstruction of justice doesn’t apply to anything other than a judicial proceeding which is wrong, the DoJ brings it up with FBI cases all the time. In Watergate, the principles in obstruction were charged with cover up of the FBI investigation, just like Trump did with Comey and Russia.

In the letter Barr provided to White House and DoJ [which is why Trump appointed him] Barr says that corrupt intent doesn’t apply because it’s an ‘amorphous’ statute. But there is a specific charge: simply acting with improper purpose to corruptly interfere, impede and obstruct a due administration of justice – straight forward. Yet Barr doesn’t buy into that. Barr was never a prosecutor, always a political appointee, and never tried a case. It’s disturbing for somebody who is AG supervising everyone else doing that.

Watergate was essentially simple, as you point out, and reduced to one crime, a two-bit burglary and a cover up – Trump’s crimes are many.

What about security of voting systems? If Russians can hack into the DNC (and voting rolls in 20 states), what protection is there?

That is a huge problem. The [Trump administration] has said we don’t have evidence Russians hacked in [to voting machines] but the systems are so antiquated, they don’t have means to capture audit trails to know if anyone did.

[The intelligence contractor Realty Winner is in prison for five years for blowing the whistle on the attempt by Russian military intelligence to attack U.S. elections, specifically by trying to “phish” more than 100 local election officials, which is not given the credit it should for opening the Russian investigation, separate and apart from George Papadoplous. See https://www.npr.org/2018/08/23/641229886/reality-winner-sentenced-to-5-years-3-months-for-leaking-classified-info. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who blocked Obama’s attempt to expose Russian meddling during the 2016 campaign, also is blocking House bill to modernize voting equipment.]

[Here’s the biggest problem: while the Constitution has a provision for Impeachment, there is no provision to review an election that has been stolen. You can have a criminal billionaire who pays hackers to flip switches to win the Electoral College, pay them a cool million dollars apiece to sweat out a year or so in jail, or pardon altogether.

[It’s circular – Trump will obstruct, stonewall, and don’t know that witnesses won’t destroy evidence, docs, tapes, unless there is impeachment inquiry.

[But I don’t understand the confusion over prosecuting for collusion – or conspiracy – when clearly, there were over 100 contacts between Trump, family, associates, campaign aides, and the Trump campaign benefited from the social media disinformation campaign to targeted districts, very possibly based on the polling data that Manafort supplied; from telegraphing his interest in lifting sanctions, weakening NATO, selling nuclear arms to Saudi Arabia, Japan and South Korea, and knowing (from the Trump Tower meeting with Kushner, Manafort and Don Jr) that Putin favored his election. It makes no sense that they can’t prosecute because data was stolen, not material, but data is intellectual property and it is criminal to steal intellectual property – which has value. So does the social media campaign waged by Russians based on Trump campaign’s own polling data, which by the way mirrored what Brad Parscale was doing – with an objective to suppressing turnout by women, blacks and liberals – who is now Trump’s 2020 campaign manager. And what about the Cambridge Analytica link which had Russia, Wikileaks (and Roger Stone), the Mercers and Steve Bannon and Brad Parscale’s fingerprints.]

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© 2019 News & Photo Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. For editorial feature and photo information, go to www.news-photos-features.com, email [email protected]. Blogging at www.dailykos.com/blogs/NewsPhotosFeatures. ‘Like’ us on facebook.com/NewsPhotoFeatures, Tweet @KarenBRubin

Climate Action, Democratic Party, Democrats, Economic Development, Economic Policies, Election 2020, Jobs, News & Photo Features

Warren ‘Economic Patriotism’ Agenda: Address Climate Change With $2 Trillion Plan for Green Manufacturing and Create 1 Million Jobs

June 8, 2019 krubin

Democratic candidate for President, Senator Elizabeth Warren unveiled an Economic Patriotism Agenda that includes $2 trillion in investment in green manufacturing which would create 1 million jobs *© Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

Charlestown, MA – Elizabeth Warren, Democratic Senator from Massachusetts who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president, laid out her vision of economic patriotism, calling for using new and existing tools to defend and create quality American jobs and promote American industry. Warren will continue to release individual plans reflecting how economic patriotism should shape our approach to specific parts of the American economy. She released the first plan: A bold $2 trillion investment of federal money over 10 years in American green research, manufacturing, and exporting — which includes ambitious new ideas to link American innovation directly to American jobs, and focuses on achieving not only the ambitious domestic emissions targets in the Green New Deal, but also spurring the kind of worldwide adoption of American-made clean energy technology needed to meet the international targets of the Green New Deal.

The plan is designed to ensure that American taxpayer investments in combating climate change result in good American jobs. The plan makes a historic $400 billion investment in clean energy research and development, and includes a provision that any production stemming from that federally-funded research should take place in the United States. It also makes a massive $1.5 trillion commitment to federal procurement of clean, green, American-made products over the next 10 years, and requires that all companies that receive federal contracts pay all employees at least $15 per hour, guarantee 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, let employees exercise collective bargaining rights, and maintain fair schedules at a minimum. According to an independent analysis from Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, these provisions ensure that Warren’s Green Manufacturing Plan would boost economic growth and create more than a million new jobs right here at home.

Warren’s plan also includes a Green Marshall Plan — a commitment to using all the tools in our diplomatic and economic arsenal to encourage other countries to purchase and deploy American-made clean energy technology. It creates a new federal office dedicated to selling American-made clean, renewable, and emission-free energy technology abroad, with a $100 billion commitment to assisting countries to purchase and deploy this technology — supporting American jobs while supplying the world with the clean energy products needed to cut global emissions.

Warren’s plan also identifies specific cost offsets that, according to the Moody’s economic analysis, cover nearly the entire cost of her plan: her Real Corporate Profits Tax, ending subsidies for oil and gas companies, and closing tax loopholes that promote shipping jobs overseas.

Warren’s Green Manufacturing Plan comes after her Public Lands Plan, two in a series of proposals as she continues to lay out her vision for how we implement the Green New Deal.

“The climate crisis demands immediate and bold action. Like we have before, we should bank on American ingenuity and American workers to lead the global effort to face down this threat — and create more than a million good jobs here at home,” Warren said.

Read more about Warren’s vision of Economic Patriotism here.

Read more about Warren’s Green Manufacturing Plan here.

Israel, Israel-Palestine, Jewish issues, News & Photo Features, Protest

Cuomo, Schumer Stand Up for Israel, Decry Anti-Semitism, as Marchers Shout Down Protesters

June 5, 2019 krubin

*Dueling flags at Celebrate Israel Parade 2019, NYC © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

By Karen Rubin, News& Photo Features

In stark contrast to the 40,000 marching with joyful exuberance and pride in the Celebrate Israel Parade on Sunday, June 2, there was a smattering of the oddest collection of protesters, who stood on one small stretch Fifth Avenue in front of the fountain between 58-59 streets.

Protesters at Celebrate Israel Parade 2019, NYC © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

There were religious Jews who claim that a state of Israel should not exist until the Messiah has come; a few Palestinians accusing Israel of terrorism, clearly ignoring the thousands of bombs lobbed from Gaza; and a couple of what are presumed American Jews who charge that the West Bank settlements are immoral and an impediment to peace.

Celebrate Israel Parade 2019, NYC © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Things got testy at points between the marchers and the handful of pro-Palestinians, with loud shouting matches and dueling flags, the protesters wielding cellphones, hoping to provoke some viral video, across a 10-foot “no man’s land” between metal barriers guarded by police.

When US Senator Charles Schumer came by, he at first passed stoically as a few hecklers taunted him (a Trump supporter yelled at him to “Go Home” – the Senator from New York is from Brooklyn) but finally turned his bullhorn to respond to a woman who screamed “Why are you supporting Israel?” with a comment that boiled down to “Why shouldn’t Jews have a homeland?” At which point his aides refocused him and he marched on.

Senator Charles Schumer addresses protesters at Celebrate Israel Parade 2019, NYC © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

The encounters seemed to get more heated as the afternoon wore on, but as the police successfully moved marchers along using tact and restraint to defuse the situation, even stopping the protesters from using an elongated pole on their flag like a lance, and the marchers went into a celebratory song and dance.

But as I stood between the two screaming entities, reflecting on the thousands of marchers parading jubilantly, protected by a police force against the smattering of opponents, I thought how different it would be living in a society that oppressed Jews (or any minority), where that minority had to live in fear, practice in secret, where the police, the courts and the government were agents of suppression and repression, and instead of thanking the police officer on 57^th Street as they passed, as I saw just about every group do, they had to fear the police, fear the state. The images of police beating protesters at Pettus Bridge in 1965 Selma; Kristallnacht in 1938 Germany came to mind.

How different things could be.

Governor Andrew Cuomo marches with Israel Counsel General Dani Dayan at Celebrate Israel Parade 2019, NYC © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

“And I want the people of this state to be clear: anti-Semitism is not just wrong and immoral and unethical and anti-American; it is also illegal,” Governor Andrew Cuomo told a press gaggle as he began the march. “And we will enforce the law to the fullest extent and you have my word on that.

“As a sign of solidarity, at this time of crisis for the Jewish people, I’m going to be doing another trip to Israel as a trip in solidarity right after the legislative session and I invite my Jewish colleagues to join us as a sign of solidarity. New York stands with Israel. We are all Jewish today. We all appreciate the Jewish community. They are part of what makes New York, New York and one of the best parts.”

Asked what is being done to combat the wave of anti-Semitism, Cuomo said, “We have increased the hate crime penalties all across the state. We are working on more understanding, more communication, but we’re also going to enforce the law because it has reached a critical point. Eighty-three percent increase in the state of New York. Twenty-two percent increase in neo-Nazi groups. And by the way, I invite all politicians to condemn the neo-Nazi groups for what they are. They are domestic terrorists. That’s what they are. And this is not part of the democracy. They spread hate, they spread violence, they attack and every politician—Democrat, Republican—should condemn these neo-Nazi groups and call them for what they are.”

Governor Andrew Cuomo had as his special guest Devorah Halberstam, who runs the Jewish Children’s Museum. Halberstam started the museum in honor of her son Ari Halberstam who was killed in an anti-Semitic attack. This week, an anti-Semitic note was left there, “Hitler is Coming.”

“We are here to celebrate Israel,” Cuomo said. And it’s more appropriate than usual this year because the blunt truth is there has been an increase in the number of anti-Semitic attacks in this country and in this state. There’s been about a 57 percent increase in anti-Semitic attacks in the United States of America. People have heard about the Pittsburgh horrendous temple attack, in California. But a 57 percent increase. There’s been an 83 percent increase in anti-Semitic attacks in the State of New York, 83 percent increase all over the state – upstate, Long Island, Brooklyn, I just mentioned Devorah Halberstam’s most recent attack.”

Pride and jubilation at Celebrate Israel Parade 2019, NYC © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Just a few days later, on June 6, after another incident of anti-Semitism in which the words “Kill All Jews,” “Israel” and “Mario Cuomo” were written on a mailbox in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Cuomo said, “Hate speech and threatening language has no place in our state, and the mailbox was immediately replaced with a new one after the graffiti was reported.

“Enough is enough. We are reaching our breaking point and these despicable acts of violence must stop. We will not back down in this fight against intolerance and bigotry, and we will continue to stand up to those individuals who spew hateful language and attempt to spread fear across our state.

“As New Yorkers and as a nation, we must denounce anti-Semitism and hate in all its forms. I am directing the New York State Police Hate Crimes unit to assist the NYPD in the investigation into this incident and to provide all resources necessary to hold accountable those responsible.

“In the face of these ongoing incidents that are ripping at the fabric of our State, we will do everything in our power to ensure the continued safety and equal treatment of all New Yorkers.”

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© 2019 News & Photo Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. For editorial feature and photo information, go towww.news-photos-features.com, email [email protected]. Blogging atwww.dailykos.com/blogs/NewsPhotosFeatures. ‘Like’ us onfacebook.com/NewsPhotoFeatures, Tweet @KarenBRubin

Israel, Jewish issues, News & Photo Features

Thousands Join Celebrate Israel Parade in NYC to Show Solidarity, Pride; Cuomo Denounces Anti-Semitism

June 5, 2019 krubin

Children from Mazel Day School, among the 40,000 marchers at the 55^th Celebrate Israel Parade on Fifth Avenue, New York City © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

By Karen Rubin, News& Photo Features

Tens of thousands of marchers and supporters turned New York City’s Fifth Avenue white and blue for this year’s Celebrate Israel Parade, the 55^th annual parade which has become one of the biggest events in a city known for its fantastic parades and festivals. Among the dignitaries and elected officials who marched to show support was Governor Andrew Cuomo who used the occasion to denounce anti-Semitism and announce he will soon make a visit to Israel to show solidarity.

Governor Andrew Cuomo marching with Israel Consul General Dani Dayan and state elected including State Senator Anna Kaplan at the Celebrate Israel Parade, NYC © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Governor Andrew Cuomo, who marched with his mother, Matilda, daughters Michaela and Cara, and administration officials, government leaders including State Senators Anna Kaplan and Brad Hoylman, and Assemblymember David Welprin and Council Member Ben Kallos, as well as the Israel General Consul Dani Dayan, noted his special guest, Devorah Halberstam, who runs the Jewish Children’s Museum. Halberstam started the museum in honor of her son Ari Halberstam who was killed in an anti-Semitic attack; this week, an anti-Semitic note was left there, “Hitler is Coming.”

“We are here to celebrate Israel,” Cuomo said. And it’s more appropriate than usual this year because the blunt truth is there has been an increase in the number of anti-Semitic attacks in this country and in this state. There’s been about a 57 percent increase in anti-Semitic attacks in the United States of America. People have heard about the Pittsburgh horrendous temple attack, in California. But a 57 percent increase. There’s been an 83 percent increase in anti-Semitic attacks in the State of New York, 83 percent increase all over the state – upstate, Long Island, Brooklyn. I just mentioned Devorah Halberstam’s most recent attack.”

Cuomo said the rise in bias and hate crimes was akin to a “cancer of the American body politic.”

“Cancer of the American body politic has been the new way. Cancer because one cell attacks another. When you have Jewish people being attacked, gays, members of the LGBTQ community being attacked, with anti-Semitic sayings just last night, anti-Muslim, anti-African-American. This is a cancer of hate that is all throughout our country and unfortunately even in our State of New York.

Governor Andrew Cuomo with family members at Celebrate Israel Parade 2019, NYC © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

“There was a time when we could have political differences, but it didn’t turn into hate. We’ve always had political differences, back to our founding fathers we had political differences. But we tolerate them and we understand them. We can have political differences about Israel and Palestine, that’s what makes democracy that debate. But when did the strongest four letter word in America become hate instead of love? That’s what’s most troubling. And that is what is now going on. These anti-Semitic attacks are personal to the Cuomo family. We have many friends who we grew up with who are of the Jewish faith. I have two brothers in law who are Jewish, my mother has two sons in law, my daughters have two uncles – Howard and Ken – who are Jewish. These anti-Semitic attacks, the Cuomo family takes personally. Every family in New York takes personally.

“And I want the people of this state to be clear: anti-Semitism is not just wrong and immoral and unethical and anti-American; it is also illegal. And we will enforce the law to the fullest extent and you have my word on that.

Cuomo made his remarks just before starting the march, the gaggle collected on the street which turned out to be across from Trump Tower. When a reporter pointed that out, Cuomo said, “I didn’t even notice that until you mentioned it.”

*Jewish Pride march in the Celebrate Israel Parade, NYC © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

Asked about the Pride flag that was burned at a downtown bar, Cuomo said, “Same thing. I call it a cancer that is spreading in this country. Why a cancer? Because cancer—one cell in the body attacks other cells and that’s what you’re seeing in this country right now. You’re seeing white versus black, Christian versus Muslim, anti-Semitism, anti-LGBTQ the other night. This is destroying America. Because America is diversity and once we start attacking each other for our diversity, that defeats America and who we are.

Burkarian Jews march in the Celebrate Israel Parade 2019, NYC © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

“We are a pluralistic society. Emma Lazarus, a great Jewish New Yorker who wrote the words for the Statue of Liberty. That’s the founding of this nation. George Washington visited a synagogue in Rhode Island and said, the Jewish people are here, free to celebrate their religion. It was freedom of religion. And now we are demonizing each other’s religious preferences? This is not America. This is not who we are. And we’re going to make the opposite statement in the state of New York. Let’s march, thank you.”

55^th Celebrate Israel Parade

This year marks the 55th anniversary of what has become one of the largest events in New York City, known for mammoth parades and festivals, growing exponentially each year in attendance and excitement since its founding in 1965 by Ted Comet.

Ted Comet founded the Celebrate Israel Parade in 1965 © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Some 40,000 marchers representing some 250 organizations from throughout the New York metro area, Connecticut, New Jersey, Philadelphia, dignitaries and musical guests, 30 floats, 15 marching bands including the famed Mummers from Philadelphia, groups of rollerbladers, motorcyclists, dance groups, juggling clowns, marched from 57^th Street to 74^th Street, with the theme, “Only in Israel,” to highlight the positive impact the Jewish and democratic state of Israel has on people in New York and around the world.

Mummers of Philadelphia march in the Celebrate Israel Parade 2019, NYC © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

The Celebrate Israel Parade broadcast is sponsored by Friends of Maimonides Medical Center. Parade Co‐Chair Judy Kaufthal remarked, “The Celebrate Israel Parade is the world’s largest expression of support for solidarity. It’s breathtaking to see Fifth Avenue filled with people of all ages celebrating Israel and its culture.”

The Parade is produced by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York (JCRC‐NY), in cooperation with UJA‐Federation of New York and the Consulate General of Israel in New York.

Michael Miller, Executive Vice President & CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York (JCRC‐ NY) said, “The Celebrate Israel Parade acts as a convener each year for international communities to stand together to promote unity on a global scale,” Michael Miller, Executive Vice President & CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York (JCRC‐ NY) said.

Edward A. Mermelstein, Founder and CEO of One & Only Realty and President of ZAKA, the Grand Marshall of the Celebrate Israel Parade 2019, NYC © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Edward A. Mermelstein, Founder and CEO of One & Only Realty and President of ZAKA, the Grand Marshall, said, “As an immigrant New Yorker and a proud Jew, walking up Fifth Avenue as the grand marshal of the Celebrate Israel Parade is the pinnacle of the American dream. I am so proud to stand with Israel.”

In addition to the Grand Marshal Edward A. Mermelstein, honorary Grand Marshals included:

Ted Comet, Founder of the Celebrate Israel Parade
Siggy Flicker, Author and TV Personality
Sid Rosenberg, Co-Host of Bernie & Sid in the Morning
Stephanie Butnick, Host of the Unorthodox Podcast
Liel Leibovitz, Host of the Unorthodox Podcast
Elizabeth Savetsky, @ExcessoriesExpert Instagram Influencer

Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon at the Celebrate Israel Parade 2019, NYC © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Israeli Public Officials included: Consul General Dani Dayan; Deputy Consul General Israel Nitzan and Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon

American Public Officials included:

Andrew Cuomo, NYS Governor, Attorney General Letitia James and NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli

NYS Attorney General Letitia James at Celebrate Israel Parade 2019, NYC © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

US Senator Charles Schumer

US Congress Members Eliot Engel, Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney

Congressman Jerrold Nadler and NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer at Celebrate Israel Parade 2019, NYC © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Bill de Blasio, NYC Mayor andCity Comptroller Scott Stringer

NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio with Israel Counsel General Dani Dayan Celebrate Israel Parade 2019, NYC © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams

Congressman Eliot Engel Celebrate Israel Parade 2019, NYC © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark and Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez

NYS Assembly Speaker Felix W. Ortiz and NYS Assembly Members Steven Cymbrowitz, Nicole Malliotakis, Helene Weinstein

New York City Council members at Celebrate Israel Parade 2019, NYC © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson and NYC Council Members Margaret Chin, Chaim Deutsch, Vanessa Gibson, Barry Grodenchik, Mark Levine, Mark Treyger, Eric Ulrich, Helen Rosenthal, Ben Kallos, Joseph Borelli, Andrew Cohen, Rafael Salamanca.

Here are more highlights from the Celebrate Israel Parade:

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© 2019 News & Photo Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. For editorial feature and photo information, go towww.news-photos-features.com, email [email protected]. Blogging atwww.dailykos.com/blogs/NewsPhotosFeatures. ‘Like’ us onfacebook.com/NewsPhotoFeatures, Tweet @KarenBRubin

Gender Equity, Health Care, News & Photo Features, Protest

New Yorkers Rally to #StopTheBans and Preserve Reproductive Freedom

May 23, 2019 krubin

New York City Stop the Bans rally to preserve reproductive rights: “I Survived.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

By Karen Rubin, News& Photo Features

As women rallied across the country in a national day of action against the rush of abortion bans, New York City said New York State would become a sanctuary and the city would seek to create a fund to help women who cannot afford to obtain abortion services.

Hundreds turned out in downtown Manhattan across from the US Court Building at a rally to #StopTheBans – the epidemic of increasingly draconian anti-abortion legislation designed to force the Supreme Court to render a new decision they believe will overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade which established that women have a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy up until the time the fetus was viable outside the womb, 24 weeks. Many states not only put significant barriers that have forced clinics to close, chipping away at the “undue burden” provision that has endured subsequent Supreme Court scrutiny, leaving only one or two clinics in a state, but all but 15 states deny Medicaid funding to cover abortions, while many private insurance companies also do not cover abortion services.

“A right without true access is merely a privilege,” said New York Abortion Access Fund’s Maddy Durante.

At the federal level, Republicans in Congress have tried multiple times to end funding to Planned Parenthood despite the Hyde Amendment’s prohibition of any federal funds to be spent on abortion services, is . Now, the Trump Administration is allowing private insurers to offer policies that do not cover maternity care, dismissing the rising rates of maternal mortality, especially among minorities and lower income women, as Trump reverses the gains in access to care made under Obamacare.

New York City Stop the Bans rally to preserve reproductive rights: “Maternal mortality is increasing.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

But though New York State’s recently adopted Reproductive Health Act not only allows for abortions beyond 24 weeks of gestation in cases where the mother’s life is at risk or the fetus is not viable, and also expands the professionals authorized to conduct abortions to certain physicians assistants, nurses and midwives, if the Supreme Court adopts the concept of fetal personhood, as these new extreme laws propose, that could jeopardize the legality of abortions everywhere.

That is a reason that many of the speakers at the Tuesday Stop the Bans Day of Action rally in New York called for a renewed rise in a nationwide movement to protect reproductive freedom, and insisted, “We are not going back.”

Here are highlights from the rally:

New York City Stop the Bans rally to preserve reproductive rights: “Together We Fight For All” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

“From Alabama to Ohio, extremist politicians are trying to ban safe, legal abortions,” declared Leann Risk, associate director, community organizing for Planned Parenthood, NYC. “Activists in all 50 states are engaged in a massive show of strength. We will not stand for the bans, not now, not ever, no way.”

Laura McQuade, Pres, CEO of Planned Parenthood NY: “We won’t stand for blatant injustice against our reproductive rights. ” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Laura McQuade, President and CEO Of Planned Parenthood NYC, declared, “We say to delusional politicians, stop the abortion bans. ..We are facing a sick attempt to strip us of fundamental humanity and autonomy. This is a coordinated attempt to drive care underground, to force a showdown in the Supreme Court…

“Fact: 73% of Americans do not want to overturn Roe; nearly one in four women in the United States will have an abortion in her lifetime.

New York City Stop the Bans rally to preserve reproductive rights: “We Will Not Go Back.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

“These are not lawmakers, but lawbreakers, trying to dismantle rights we have had for nearly five decades. We won’t stand for blatant injustice against our reproductive rights. Abortion is the law of the land – legal today, will be legal tomorrow, as long as Planned Parenthood (which has existed over 103 years) and ACLU and so many others exist.”

NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer declared, “It’s time for NYC to become the first in the nation to directly fund abortion care – guarantee access to abortion regardless of the ability to pay.” He is advocating a New York City Abortion Access Fund.

Gloria Allred: “We will never allow abortion to be criminalized again.. No elected official has the right to make a choice for us. Resist. Insist. Persist. Elect Pro Choice candidates.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Gloria Allred, the high-profile attorney, revealed her own terrifying experience, nearly bleeding to death when she was in her 20s because of a back alley abortion after being raped at gunpoint.

“As I lay hemorrhaging in a bathtub, [the abortionist] said, ‘It’s your problem now.’ Back then, the only time you would be admitted to a hospital is if you were bleeding to death. I was running 106 degree fever. I was put in a ward with others suffering after an illegal abortion” where the patients were shamed.

“The nurse told me, ‘This should teach you a lesson,’” Allred said. “It taught me a lesson all right: abortion should be safe, legal, affordable and accessible!

“We will never allow abortion to be criminalized again.. No elected official has the right to make a choice for us. Resist. Insist. Persist. Elect Pro Choice candidates.”

New York City’s First Lady Chirlane McCray: “The bans are about control. The people pushing the bans are chipping away at our rights…We cannot be silent.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

New York City’s First Lady, Chirlane McCray, said, “The bans are about control. The people pushing the bans are chipping away at our rights…We cannot be silent. Women are more than half the population. We will tell [these politicians] ‘Women brought you into this world and women can take you out [pause] of office. We will march, organize, donate and vote.”

NYC Mayor Bill DiBlasio with wife Chirlane McCray: “We know women will die because of these laws. We know the American people will support freedom of women. The rights of women matter most.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

She was soon joined by Mayor Bill DiBlasio who said, “New York respects women. We are not going back. This is a fight for our lives. We know women will die because of these laws. We know the American people will support freedom of women. The rights of women matter most.”

Eve Ensler, who wrote The Vagina Monologues: “Get your invasive, violent hands off our bodies. Our vaginas, uterus, minds are out of the bottle and we ain’t going fucking back.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Eve Ensler playwright, performer, feminist, and activist, best known for her play “The Vagina Monologues,” shared her own experience getting an abortion. “That abortion was the smartest thing I have done…. Tell that predator-in-chief and those misogynists, ‘Get your invasive, violent hands off our bodies. Our vaginas, uterus, minds are out of the bottle and we ain’t going fucking back. My body, my choice. Are you up for the fight?”

“We are here because we are outraged,” said Andrea Miller, president and CEO of the National Institute for Reproductive Health (NIRH). “These anti-abortion extremists tell women they can’t be trusted to make our own decisions. They don’t believe we should have the right to control our bodies, our families, our futures. That we are not able to choose our destiny. We say no. The decision whether, when, with whom to have children belongs to us, not politicians.

Andrea Miller, president and CEO of the National Institute for Reproductive Health: The decision whether, when, with whom to have children belongs to us, not politicians. .” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

“New York State passed the Reproductive Health Act. We knew what was coming, coming for our rights. We aren’t just seeing things go back. We are partnering with people moving forward. New York is not done if reproductive rights are not accessible, affordable.”

The NIRH is partnering with New York City on the first Abortion Action Campaign Fund – seeking $250,000 in the city’s budget to fund abortion care for those who cannot afford it. Call the City Council to show support.

“We know our health, our lives, our futures depends on stopping the bans. Make sure abortion is safe, legal, accessible, affordable.”

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer: “A frigging tough fight is ahead but we will never back down.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer urged support for the city to pass the funding. “To say we’re livid is an understatement… [The impact of these fetal personhood bills means] that a woman who suffers a miscarriage could be in the middle of a criminal investigation. Before Roe, women died, now abortion is one of the safest medical procedures that can be performed.

“A frigging tough fight is ahead but we will never back down,” she declared, prompting chants of “Won’t go back. Won’t go back.”

Clara Williams, a Planned Parenthood patient, related how difficult, how complicated and how personal the decision to seek an abortion is. At the time of her abortion, she was very young, her partner had left her, she did not feel she could properly care for a child.

Clara Williams, a Planned Parenthood patient, “What kind of life is it if we aren’t the authority, don’t have the right, to control our own destiny.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

“That is a decision no one can make for you, least of all a politician,” she said. “The rash of bans sweeping the nation, to force a showdown with the Supreme Court, make abortion inaccessible to communities of color, people of low income. Banning doesn’t end abortion, just marginalizes it.

“Abortion is nobody’s business. Whatever the reason, it is not undertaken flippantly. But what kind of life is it if we aren’t the authority, don’t have the right, to control our own destiny?”

“Abortion is necessary health care, and health care is a human right. Punishing those who provide health care, the doctors, is inhumane and cruel.”

Donna Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union said, “We won’t let them turn the 21^st century into Handmaid’s Tale…If they cared about life, they would be expanding health care, not making it a crime.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Donna Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union said, “We won’t let them turn the 21^st century into Handmaid’s Tale. It is ironic that those who would ban abortion claim to care about life, but Georgia has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country, Alabama has the highest infant mortality rate. If they cared about life, they would be expanding health care, not making it a crime.

“I am fortunate to live in New York. New York has stepped up to pass the Reproductive Health Act, which codifies Roe, protects New York from criminals led by the philanderer-in-chief and his sanctimonious minions. He may have stacked the court, but we won’t let them turn back the clock.”

The ACLU is mounting legal challenges in Georgia and Alabama.

“We will tell the philanderer in chief, ‘We’ll see you in court.’”

The vast majority – almost three out of four Americans – support a woman’s right to choose and preserving Roe, and they vote.

New York City Stop the Bans rally to preserve reproductive rights: “The Handmaid’s Tale is not an instruction manual.

“We know New York supports women’s right to control their own bodies. We rallied to make New York a sanctuary city against the Trump crusade against immigrants. We must also be a sanctuary for women. Thanks to the effort of the ACLU and others, abortion is legal in all 50 states and we have stopped the bans [from being enacted] so far. New York City, New York State must be a sanctuary..”

But even though New York State was one of the first to legislate reproductive rights, before the 1973 Roe v Wade decision, the laws were still surprisingly repressive, criminalizing abortion after 24 weeks.

Garin Marshall related his experience when he and his wife learned at 30 weeks that the fetus she was carrying, “a baby that was very much wanted”, was not viable. “We were denied care in New York State [because of the 24-week ban].” But they had the means to seek services elsewhere. Nonetheless, their experience helped change the law in New York, passing the Reproductive Health Act.

“Abortion was the right choice for our family. People are deserving of autonomy, dignity, respect,” Marshall said.

Garin Marshall helped pass the Reproductive Health Act in New York. “Men benefit from access to legal, safe, affordable abortion. Men created this problem. The house is on fire, but it is our house.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

But, he argued, this is not just women’s issue. Men have much at stake as well, for the women in their lives they love, and their families.

“Men benefit from access to legal, safe, affordable abortion. Men created this problem, especially white men, who held on to power and used it. Good men who do nothing have allowed this situation…This is our problem, too. The house is on fire, but it is our house.

“Fight for access to abortion throughout pregnancy, with no person left behind.”

NYC Councilmember Helen Rosenthal: “We can’t let these men who have no idea what they’re talking about get away with this crap. I used to walk around with a necklace with a hangar. We won’t go back, but only if we become a movement. Abortion access saves lives.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Councilmember Helen Rosenthal, who has been fighting for abortion rights for 20 years, declared, “We can’t let these men who have no idea what they’re talking about get away with this crap.

New York City Stop the Bans rally to preserve reproductive rights: “Never Again.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

“I used to walk around with a necklace with a hangar. We won’t go back, but only if we become a movement. Abortion access saves lives.

Planned Parenthood of NY Chief Medical Officer Ila Dayananda, “This is an attack on all of us. Under these laws, the fact a doctor can receive jail time for providing service is horrific. One in four women will have an abortion in their lifetime. Health care is a fundamental human right.

Planned Parenthood of NY Chief Medical Officer Ila Dayananda: “There is no banning abortion, only banning safe, legal abortion…People deserve to be empowered to make their own decision. We won’t go back. Smash the patriarchy.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

“There is no banning abortion, only banning safe, legal abortion. These bans particularly hurt women of color, low income. They should receive nothing less than compassion, expert health care, and to be able to make the decision for themselves. There are many complicated factors in this decision. People deserve to be empowered to make their own decision.

“We won’t go back. Smash the patriarchy.”

[Poster: Keep your filthy laws off my silky drawers]

New York Abortion Access Fund’s Maddy Durante urged financial support for those in New York seeking abortion.

“Abortion access is out of reach for many for a long time – both financial and legal access. If private insurance doesn’t cover an abortion, it is a potentially astronomical cost. Often, people can’t use insurance because of privacy and safety, because they fear partner violence.

Maddy Durante of New York Abortion Access Fund: “Care has been inaccessible for a long time. A right without true access is merely a privilege.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

“Our clients are immigrants, people living in affordable housing, undergoing family separation, parents and caregivers, and increasingly, people traveling to New York. They may have Medicaid but many states don’t allow Medicaid coverage for abortions.”

She said her organization has already provided assistance to 590 people through grass roots fundraising.

“Care has been inaccessible for a long time. A right without true access is merely a privilege. Petition the City Council to fund Abortion NYC.”

[Poster: I wish my uterus shot bullets, so the government wouldn’t regulate it.]

Shaavronna Newsome, Director of Operations for Black Lives Matter, NYC: “People imposing bans are hiding behind Christianity, but this is really about declining birthrate, capitalism, patriarchy. I am grateful to be in New York where I can choose.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Director of Operations for Black Lives Matter, NYC, Shaavronna Newsome. “People imposing bans are hiding behind Christianity, but this is really about declining birthrate, capitalism, patriarchy. I am grateful to be in New York where I can choose.”

Celia Petty, a founding member of NYC for Abortion Rights, told how she has had three abortions in her life – the first when she was very young and had just broken up with her boyfriend. “This was the 1970s. I wasn’t capable of raising a child. I was afraid I would regret. But I was relieved that I could wait until ready.”

Celia Petty of New York for Abortion Rights: “We seek full reproductive justice, the right to bear children in a safe, healthy environment. We want a grass roots movement to demand reproductive freedom – the right to control our bodies and our lives.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Her second was when she found she was pregnant with a six month old baby (don’t believe you can’t get pregnant if you are nursing). “I was trying to work full time and still care for a new baby. I couldn’t manage.”

The third time was again, despite using birth control, when she got pregnant with a 10-month old baby in the house. “I had to work to make ends meet. An abortion saved my life,” she says as her young granddaughter, clings to her leg as she speaks at the podium.

“A lot of women have abortions out of more desperate situations.”

An active founding member of New York for Abortion Rights, she said, “We seek full reproductive justice, the right to bear children in a safe, healthy environment. We want a grass roots movement to demand reproductive freedom – the right to control our bodies and our lives.”

That prompts the chant: “Without this basic right, women can’t be free. Abortion on demand, without apology.”

New York City Stop the Bans rally to preserve reproductive rights: “Trust Women.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

The New Yorkers who rallied in front of the US Courthouse in downtown Manhattan, were among tens of thousands of people gathered at more than 500 events in all 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico on the Stop the Bans Day of Action.

Add your name to ppaction.org

Speak out on social media, #StopTheBans

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© 2019 News & Photo Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. For editorial feature and photo information, go towww.news-photos-features.com, email [email protected]. Blogging atwww.dailykos.com/blogs/NewsPhotosFeatures. ‘Like’ us onfacebook.com/NewsPhotoFeatures, Tweet @KarenBRubin

Democratic Party, Democrats, Election 2020

Biden Opens 2020 Campaign for President with Pledge to Unify Country: ‘Let’s stop fighting and start fixing’

May 18, 2019 krubin

*Former Vice President Joe Biden officially launches his 2020 Campaign for President at a rally in Philadelphia. “Let’s stop fighting and start fixing.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

By Karen Rubin, News & Photo Features

Joe Biden, two-term Vice President under Barack Obama, officially launched his own campaign for 2020 at a rally in Philadelphia, his wife, Dr. Jill Biden’s hometown and the city where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, were birthed and for the first time, structured a government around “We the people.”

“I am running for three basic reasons,” he declared. “I want to restore the soul of this country…I want to rebuild the backbone of this country, this time bringing everyone along, the middle class — the middle class that built this country. And thirdly I want to unite the country.”

“In 1776, the Declaration of Independence: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident.’ Those words formed the American creed. Equality. Equity. Fairness. America didn’t live up to that promise for most of its people, for people of color, for women.

“But we are born of the idea that every single person in this country — no matter where you start in life — there’s nothing that’s beyond your capacity if you work hard enough for it.”

Unity – one America united around common values and a belief that each is entitled to the same opportunity – is a big theme for Biden, who blasted the divisiveness, the dysfunction of government, starting with Donald Trump.

“Some say Democrats don’t want to hear about unity. That they are angry– and the angrier you are – the better. That’s what they are saying to have to do to win the Democratic nomination. Well, I don’t believe it. I believe Democrats want to unify this nation. That’s what we’ve always been about. Unity.

“If the American people want a president to add to our division, to lead with a clenched fist, closed hand and a hard heart, to demonize the opponents and spew hatred — they don’t need me. They already have a President who does just that. I am running to offer our country – Democrats, Republicans and Independents – a different path.”

“I know how to make government work. I’ve worked across the aisle to reach consensus. And I can do that again with your help,” he said, often having to speak over a heckler and whistles.

“Compromise is not a dirty word; consensus is no a weakness – the founders designed constitution to require consensus – it’s what I did as Senator, what I did as vice president working with Barack Obama…

If I’m elected your president, I will do whatever to make progress on matters that matter most – civil rights, women’s rights, climate change policy that will save our children, grandchildren.

“I know there are times when only a bare knuckle fight will do –I can take on Republicans. That’s what took to pass the Affordable Care Act – it was a big… deal…

“Barack Obama was an extraordinary man…. Someone your children looked up to…I’m proud to have served as his vice president [and proudest of] passing health care. Past administrations tried and failed; it was done by Obama without a single Republican vote.

“The Recovery Act [at the time of America’s biggest economic crisis] was a big reason we have had 10 years of uninterrupted economic growth…

“Trump likes to take credit for economy and economic growth – but look at facts, not alternative facts- he inherited a strong economy from the Obama-Biden administration.

“The Recovery Act helped save the country from economic ruin – we had to get the work done – if we hadn’t, we could have had another Great Depression . Working together matters. The American people want government to work.

“The country is sick of division, sick of childish behavior – there isn’t a single person in this country who could get away with that in their job. All people want is for their senator, their congressman to do their job, and above all, a president who measures the day by people he brings together rather than division he sows…a president obsessing over personal grievance.

“The rest of the world isn’t waiting. China not waiting – they’re building 5G, mastering AI, rewriting the rules of the internet, moving into areas that shouldn’t be abandoned by us. The rest of the world isn’t abandoning the Paris Climate Accord…

“The greatest challenge we face will be over technology, intellectual property, clean energy, a warming planet – and not a single thing that building a wall [or attacking immigrants] can address….

“We have to focus on the future .. we will invest in educational assistance our people need to succeed in 21^st century because any country that out-educates us will out compete us.”

He declared. “Let’s stop fighting and start fixing,” prompting cheers of “We want Joe. We want Joe.”

On health care, he said that instead of starting over, certainly not tear down, “we need to go to the next step” with the Affordable Care Act.

On infrastructure, he said, “Highways, ports, airports need to be greener, more rational. No one should have to drink poisoned water; protect the nation from cyber attack [and bring] solar and wind energy across the same lines.

“We know what we have to do.That’s why I’m running – stop fighting, start fixing… together.

“There is not much time left,” he declared. “We need a clean energy revolution, starting now. Clean energy and jobs creation go together…

“We have to work together to get it done….We need a president who will lead.”

Getting down to brass tacks, he said, “The single most important priority on my list: defeat Donald Trump…

“I’ve watched [Trump] for 3 years instilling fear, undermining every institution designed to check abuse of power- all to solidify his base and expand power.

“Attacks on free press as the enemy of the people is nothing to be dismissed – tyrants, dictators all over the world use the same [rhetoric]. Attacking the independence of courts – saying he cannot trust a judge because of his Mexican ancestry, that’s not America, Democrat or Republican.

“Attack on Congress to legitimately engage in oversight a without whimper of Republicans in Congress who should know better…

“This undermines our standing around the world.

“Are we a nation that believes in the moral equivalent between neo-Nazis and the KKK, and those with courage to stand against them? We don’t but Trump does.

“Are we a nation who believes it’s okay to tear children from the arms of parents at the border? We don’t but Trump does.

“Are we a nation that [coddles up to] a tyrant like Kim Jong Un? We don’t but Tump does.

“Remember who we are, what we stand for, what we believe. Every day I am reminded nothing is guaranteed by our democracy, we have to fight for it, earn it.”

Biden cited Lincoln’s Gettsburg Address, saying, “the great task remaining before us, that government of, by, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

“That challenge has been handed down to every generation. That challenge is now handed to us, that future generations will measure us by. Will we be the ones to let government of, by, for the people perish from the earth?

“We will not, I will not, you will not let perish on my watch or yours.

But while we confront “the biggest threat any of us have faced in our entire lifetime,” he added, “on other hand, we‘ve never had a future more promising.

“I’m more optimistic about America’s future today, than when I was first elected, too young to be sworn in. We are in a better position to lead in the 21^st century. Our workers are 3 times as productive, we have the biggest economy in the world, the strongest military in the history of the world. Entrepreneurs…there are more great research universities in this city, this state, this country than all the world combined..

“We lead by the power of example not by the example of power. The only thing to defeat America is America itself and we cannot let that happen.

“Let them know who we are, what we stand for – unity over division.”

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Climate Action, Climate Change, Economic Development, Environment, Environmental Protection, Global Affairs, Immigration-Migration-Refugees, News & Photo Features

What I Learned From Traveling Around the World in 23 Days

May 9, 2019 krubin 1 Comment

Inle Lake, Myanmar. A trip around the world affords an opportunity to meet people on their own turf. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

By Karen Rubin, News& Photo Features

Bill Chalmers, the “ringmaster” and Chief Experience Officer of the Global Scavenger Hunt, launches us on this around-the-world-in-23-days mystery tour with what he calls a “chimpanzee test” – a test where a chimpanzee is likely to get more answers right than a human being who has news and information available to them. The test basically demonstrates that unlike the gloom-and-doom of headlines, the trendlines are positive and these are actually the best of times for human society.

Throughout this Global Scavenger Hunt, “A Blind Date With the World” – where we don’t know where we are going next until we are told when to go to the airport or get ourselves there, and along the way, complete scavenges and challenges – we are encouraged, even forced, to “trust in the kindness of strangers.” To interact with local people even when we can’t understand each other’s language. To learn and understand for ourselves.

For me, it is an incomparable opportunity to see in close proximity and context what is happening in countries literally around the globe – to examine this notion of American Exceptionalism, America First; to see the scope of such hot-button issues as trade, technology, migration and how they have played out over the longer course of human civilization. (I have a theory that 98% of Trump’s so-called hard-core base have never traveled beyond their own provincial border.)

As Chalmers notes, it is conceit to think we can parachute into places and understand the nuances of complex issues, but still, travel is about seeing for yourself, but also gaining an understanding of one another, disabusing stereotypes or caricatures, and most significantly, not seeing others as “other”, which works both ways. In very real ways (and especially now), travelers are ambassadors, no less than diplomats. Isolating people is not how change happens – that only hardens points of view, and makes people susceptible to fear-mongering and all the bad things that have happened throughout human history as a result. “See for yourself,” Chalmers tells us.

This is particularly poignant when we arrive in Myanmar: One of the first things I see upon arriving in Yangon, Myanmar (formerly known as Rangoon in its colonial days) is the National Human Rights Commission which at this juncture, strikes as ironic. But despite the awful headlines, we all find the people of Myanmar to be kind, gentle, considerate. And a complete lack of politics or angst.

And just after returning home, the two prizewinning Reuters journalists imprisoned for their reporting of the deadly crackdown on the Rohingya, were released.

War Remnants Museum, Ho C hi Minh City, Vietnam. Press photos from international journalists from the time of the Vietnam War document the atrocities committed and go unpunished © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Vietnam is a testament to the resiliency of human society to rebound after wars and other crises (as we see everywhere, in fact – in Spain, in Portugal, in Greece, places that suffered during World War II, and you reflect on the success of the alliances that set the stage for 70 years of progress, now being weakened). In Vietnam, visiting the Chu Chi Tunnels and the War Remnants Museum, you cannot help but feel ashamed at the war crimes that remain unpunished because of the wealth and power of the United States.

In Gibraltar, still a colony of Great Britain, I come upon a May Day labor rally that could have been New York City: Privatization. Nonconsultation and lack of transparency. Unfair distribution. Wage increases that don’t keep up with the cost of living.

May Day Rally in Gibraltar © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Abu Dhabi is like a fantasy of a society built on oil wealth, conspicuous ostentation, a gallery of skyscrapers that defy physics; Amman, Jordan, on the other hand, is the real world. But my side trip to Petra – a fantastic city carved out of the rock faces, showed how greatness is made possible by innovations in engineering a water supply. Petra was able to dominate (and protect) the caravan routes, and the result was fabulous art and culture.

This theme picked up again in Athens, visiting the National Archaeological Museum, where I am struck by the artistry from 2500 years ago (themes and imagery that I will see again repeated throughout history on our final stop in New York City, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art) and realize that the human species is not smarter or better than thousands of years ago, we just have better tools and technology.

But this panel about 6^th Century Greece stood out that notes the nexus between trade, migration, innovation, democracy and culture and rise of empire:

“The nature of the economy underwent a radical change as a result of the growth of trade. A new class of citizens emerged who were conscious of liberty and its potential and now demanded the right to play an active role in the running of public affairs….The liberty that was characteristic of the Greek way of life and which governed their thinking finds eloquent expression in their artistic creations. …Works of art and artists moved freely along the trade routes. The wealth and power of the city-states were expressed in the erection of monumental, lavishly adorned temples and impressive public welfare works.

“Greeks turned their attention to the natural world and to phenomena that gave rise to philosophical speculation, formulative ideas such as those of matter, the atom, force, space and time, and laying the foundations of science…”

But then came the rise of the Persian Empire and the Persian Wars.

Banquet Relief of Malku with Two Attendants, ca early 3^rd C, artifact from Palmyra. The ancient site has been destroyed by ISIS and the artifacts looted © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

These themes are repeated in New York City where our “Global Scavenger Hunt” ends. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art where the challenge I take is to find objects from five of the countries we visited, and this leads me to a fascinating exhibit, “The World Between Empires: Art and Identity in the Ancient Middle East.” The museum rarely (if ever) becomes political, but in this exhibit, archaeologists comment on the destruction of Palmyra and other ancient sites by ISIS.

“It may seem frivolous to focus on monuments, museums when people are enslaved and killed. But to wipe out, destroy culture is a way of destroying people. We must protect heritage as well.”

Palmyra only exists now “on paper” and in photos after the destruction by ISIS © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

It is a humbling experience, to be sure, to go to the origins of the great civilizations, fast forward to today. How did they become great? How did they fall? Greatness is not inevitable or forever. Empires rise and fall. Rulers use religion, art and monuments to establish their credibility and credentials to rule; successors blot out the culture and re-write history. Traveling around the world, you appreciate just what a small world it is, how interdependent we are, how vulnerable our societies are, and that individuals do have impact. Also, that people everywhere are more similar than different.

I come back to a monstrously disturbing New York Times headline: “Humans Are Speeding Extinction and Altering the Natural World at an ‘Unprecedented’ Pace:”

“Humans are transforming Earth’s natural landscapes so dramatically that as many as one million plant and animal species are now at risk of extinction, posing a dire threat to ecosystems that people all over the world depend on for their survival, a sweeping new United Nations assessment has concluded.”

The Barbary Macaques delight visitors to Gibraltar but the loss of 1 million species due to human activity and development is more threatening to society and civilization than the impact on tourism revenue © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

In this case, headlines are trendlines. And it isn’t just about aesthetics or seeing animals like the Barbary Macaques that delight tourists in Gibraltar, but whole economies and sustenance. It is a matter of national security, peace and progress. It is about food and water supply, disease, habitable spaces. Sea level rise alone is expected to trigger 300 million climate refugees, competing for dwindling resources. There have been periods of mass extinction in the past – in fact, homo sapiens (us) were touch and go there for awhile.

Chalmers started off our “Blind Date With the World” with the Nicholas Kristof model, that these are actually the best of times for human society despite the gloom and doom headlines. But I disagree: the trendlines are not that hopeful. We may well be living in a golden age of human capacity, but we must recognize that we now have the power of the Gods to shape, to destroy or to create. And we seem too short-sighted to see that.

“Governments must start putting people and the planet ahead of corporate interests and greed and act with the urgency this report illustrates,” writes Annie Leonard, Executive Director, Greenpeace USA. “Leaders must adopt strong targets and implementation plans to protect biodiversity with the active participation and Free, Prior, and Informed Consent of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Instead of plundering the forests and seas for short-term profit we need to shift our system into one that respects planetary boundaries.”

The Greek Gods may well have the last laugh at the extraordinary ability humans have to destroy themselves.

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