Category Archives: ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture
Progressive Breakfast: We Can’t Breathe
MORNING MESSAGE
Isaiah J. Poole
We Can’t BreatheThere is more to this chant – the haunting last words of Eric Garner before he died at the hands of New York City police that were echoed in demonstrations around the country Wednesday night – than a protest against the epidemic of police brutality against black men. We need to recognize the smog of a heritage of racial discrimination that permeates our institutions and inhibits the ability of all of us to breathe.
Democrats split over bill to keep government open. The Hill:“Some Democrats are signaling support for the Republican proposal, viewing it as the best chance to secure long-term funding for most government functions while the Democrats still control the Senate. Others are calling for a united Democratic opposition … to highlight Republican divisions and to protest spending levels they deem too low. And still others are warning that a core element of the GOP’s spending strategy — a short-term funding extension for the Homeland Security Department (DHS) — threatens national security in an era of heightened terrorist threats.”
But Boehner may need Democratic votes. Bloomberg:“…Boehner needs Democratic votes because at least 20 members of his party are ready to reject a plan to keep most of the government operating through September 2015 … House leaders are considering a revision that would move up a fight over immigration funding to shortly after Congress reconvenes in January, said a Republican aide familiar with the plan. Democrats want to cut from the spending bill at least 70 Republican-sponsored provisions that would poke holes in President Barack Obama’s policies on the environment, health care and other matters, said Representative Jim Moran, a Virginia Democrat.”
House will vote separately on negating Obama’s immigration action. The Hill:“[White House spokesperson] Josh Earnest said the legislation would ‘exacerbate flaws in our broken immigration system’ and distract ‘limited enforcement resources’ from targeting criminals for deportation. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has said he would allow a vote on the bill Thursday, which bars the president from exempting ‘categories of persons unlawfully present in the United States’ from deportation.”
“Meaningless show vote”grumbles Sen. Ted Cruz.
Obama talks trade and tax reform with corporate leaders. NYT:“…Obama said he believed there was a narrow path to overhaul the tax code in the next Congress. But he said the effort faced significant obstacles because the White House wanted to focus just on corporate taxes, while Republicans insisted on overhauling both corporate and individual taxes … Mr. Obama also stressed his determination to complete negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership … Selling the pact at home, he said, will be just as important as negotiating it, and he was clearly seeking allies among the business executives.”
Also talks infrastructure needs. Bloomberg:“…Obama recalled the gleaming new infrastructure he saw when he traveled to China last month for a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders. ‘One thing I will say is if they need to build some stuff, they can build it,’ Obama told the CEOs today. ‘And over time, that wears away our advantage competitively. It’s embarrassing.’”
But Obama’s congressional outreach mainly focusing on Democrats. W. Post:“…White House officials are looking to Hill Democrats as a defense against Republican efforts to undo key elements of Obama’s legislative legacy … The president’s ability to sustain the vetoes he is likely to issue will depend on whether he is able to mend relations with congressional Democrats…”
Rep. Paul Ryan prepares tax package. Politico:“…the Wisconsin Republican said he’s going to use his new perch in the House to pursue what he calls ‘phase one’ of tax reform — focusing only on the business Tax Code — while understanding that he’s not going to get it all while President Barack Obama is in office. But that doesn’t mean he’s giving up on the big ideas he’s pitching to shape the Republican Party’s agenda for 2016.”
House approves narrow tax break extension. USA Today:“The Senate and White House have signaled they will not oppose the plan … The one-year, retroactive fix will allow millions of businesses and individuals to claim the breaks on their 2014 tax returns, but the fate of the package next year, known as tax extenders, is uncertain after President Obama cut short bipartisan negotiations for a long-term deal with a veto threat … The short-term fix mainly benefits businesses, but it also includes a mix of tax breaks benefiting a number of special interests including teachers, commuters and Puerto Rican rum producers … Some Democrats are unhappy the package leaves out two provisions: a tax credit that helps some laid-off workers pay for health insurance and a tax credit for buying electric motorcycles.”
WH summit today to tackle college affordability. McClatchy:“College presidents and school district leaders from around the country will attend it and announce 600 new commitments to help more students prepare to get into college and graduate. The new commitments fall into four areas: greater promotion of college completion, efforts by elementary and secondary schools to prepare students for college, more money for 5,000 additional high school counselors in districts that need help getting more students to college; and increasing the number of college graduates in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields.”
GOP may target NLRB. Roll Call:“Among the targets: a potential NLRB ruling that says college athletes are school employees, union elections should happen more quickly and national franchise companies should be responsible when franchisees violate labor laws … Democratic member Nancy J. Schiffer’s term expires on Dec. 16, and if her replacement isn’t confirmed by then, observers expect the board to make several controversial rulings … Failing to get these decisions out by mid-December could leave the board deadlocked for months with two Democratic members and two Republicans … epublican Harry Johnson’s term expires in August, so Hill GOP leaders could wait to confirm a Republican and Democrat simultaneously. But delaying that vote pushes the issue closer to the 2016 presidential campaign…”
Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast is a project of the Campaign for America’s Future. more »
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Zach Silk, Yes on 594
It’s time.
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Right before Thanksgiving, I mentioned that we’d be working closely with the Center for Gun Responsibility to keep educating the public and helping to pass commonsense laws to build on the progress we’ve made by voting Yes on 594.
And that work started yesterday at 10:00 a.m., when we celebrated the official certification of Initiative 594 and unveiled our legislative agenda for the future.
Are you ready to take the next step with us?
Yes, I am — let’s keep fighting to reduce gun violence in Washington!
I think you’ll be pleased with what we revealed yesterday morning with our partners from the Center for Gun Responsibility.
In addition to gathering feedback from our supporters, we worked with our advisory board to get input from all corners of Washington. As always, our approach is evidence-based — grounded in relevant research and best practices — and aimed at what we know will reduce gun violence in Washington. In short, we’re going to focus on:
* Child Safety: Creating criminal liability for adults whose firearms are used by children to commit gun violence.
* Gun Violence Protection Orders: Utilizing a system similar to Washington’s existing Domestic Violence Protective Orders that would provide tools to families and law enforcement to keep guns out of the hands of those who are a threat to themselves or others.
* Notification When Firearms Are Returned: Allowing family members and survivors to sign up for alerts when a firearm is returned to its owner after having been removed.
* Access to Mental Health Services: Supporting increased funding for mental health services and increasing the tools available to family members and mental health professionals to make sure that those in crisis get the care and services they need.
* Keeping Guns Out of Dangerous Hands: Adding convictions for crimes shown to be high predictors of future firearm violence to the list of factors that render a person ineligible to buy or possess guns.
* Gun Range Health and Safety: Addressing the extensive instances of lead-related health and safety violations at gun ranges throughout Washington State.
It’s ambitious — but your support has shown us that we can accomplish great things when we set our minds to it. So I just have one question: Are you ready to take the next step with us?
Yes, I am — let’s keep fighting to reduce gun violence in Washington!
Once again, I can’t thank you enough for helping Washington vote Yes on 594. Thank you for continuing to fight for commonsense reforms!
Let’s do this.
Zach Silk
Campaign Manager
Yes on 594
Right before Thanksgiving, I mentioned that we’d be working closely with the Center for Gun Responsibility to keep educating the public and helping to pass commonsense laws to build on the progress we’ve made by voting Yes on 594.
And that work started yesterday at 10:00 a.m., when we celebrated the official certification of Initiative 594 and unveiled our legislative agenda for the future.
Are you ready to take the next step with us?
Yes, I am — let’s keep fighting to reduce gun violence in Washington!
I think you’ll be pleased with what we revealed yesterday morning with our partners from the Center for Gun Responsibility.
In addition to gathering feedback from our supporters, we worked with our advisory board to get input from all corners of Washington. As always, our approach is evidence-based — grounded in relevant research and best practices — and aimed at what we know will reduce gun violence in Washington. In short, we’re going to focus on:
* Child Safety: Creating criminal liability for adults whose firearms are used by children to commit gun violence.
* Gun Violence Protection Orders: Utilizing a system similar to Washington’s existing Domestic Violence Protective Orders that would provide tools to families and law enforcement to keep guns out of the hands of those who are a threat to themselves or others.
* Notification When Firearms Are Returned: Allowing family members and survivors to sign up for alerts when a firearm is returned to its owner after having been removed.
* Access to Mental Health Services: Supporting increased funding for mental health services and increasing the tools available to family members and mental health professionals to make sure that those in crisis get the care and services they need.
* Keeping Guns Out of Dangerous Hands: Adding convictions for crimes shown to be high predictors of future firearm violence to the list of factors that render a person ineligible to buy or possess guns.
* Gun Range Health and Safety: Addressing the extensive instances of lead-related health and safety violations at gun ranges throughout Washington State.
It’s ambitious — but your support has shown us that we can accomplish great things when we set our minds to it. So I just have one question: Are you ready to take the next step with us?
Yes, I am — let’s keep fighting to reduce gun violence in Washington!
Once again, I can’t thank you enough for helping Washington vote Yes on 594. Thank you for continuing to fight for commonsense reforms!
Let’s do this.
Zach Silk
Campaign Manager
Yes on 594
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314,000 jobs
In case you missed it, U.S. businesses added 314,000 jobs last month, according to today’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That means the private sector has now added 10.9 million jobs over 57 straight months of job growth — the longest streak on record.
What’s more, our economy has added 2.6 million jobs in the first 11 months of this year — which is already more than any full calendar year since the 1990s.
It’s been a long road to this economic recovery, and there’s still more work to do to ensure that hardworking Americans see higher wages. But our economy is making real progress, and we’re outpacing much of the world in putting people back to work.
President Obama Nominates Ashton Carter as the Next Secretary of Defense
This morning, President Obama announced his nomination of former Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter to be the next U.S. Secretary of Defense. Carter has been in public service for more than 30 years, and has served in various positions under 11 Secretaries of Defense.
House Republicans Vote to Make Immigration System Worse, Not Better
Press Secretary Josh Earnest discusses the President’s right to take action on immigration, and Republicans’ refusal to support immigration reform.
College Opportunity Day of Action: Ensuring There’s No Limit to What We Can Achieve
President Obama, Vice President Biden, and First Lady Michelle Obama joined college presidents and education leaders from around the country yesterday to announce 600 new actions to help more students prepare for and graduate from college.
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It’s Getting Hotter In Here
Fourteen Of The Last Fifteen Years Will Be The Hottest Years In Recorded History
We already know that man-made climate change is happening, but yesterday delivered us another shocking statistic to further confirm the threat. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva and the U.K.’s Met Office both released new reports finding that 2014 would likely be the hottest year ever recorded. (The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a similar report two weeks ago.)
The Met Office released the chart below to demonstrate the extent of increased temperatures since 1850.
We know it’s pretty complicated, so bear with us as we walk through some of its most critical points.
1. Including 2014, the 21st century will have hosted fourteen of the fifteen hottest years in recorded history. Not coincidentally, the five next hottest years all took place just before the end of the Millennium between 1990 and 2000.
2. If this year’s trends continue as WHO, Met, and NOAA say they will, then 2014 will be the fourth time the hottest year record was broken since 1997 (1998, 2005, 2010, 2014).
3. The graph in the upper right corner shows the shocking comparison between the last two decades (red and orange) and the century from 1850 to 1950 (purple and blue). Global temperatures 150 years ago were more than a full degree Celsius cooler than they are now.
Joe Romm at ThinkProgress puts these figures in perspective:
It is not remarkable that we keep setting new records for global temperatures — 2005 and then 2010 and likely 2014. Humans are, after all, emitting record amounts of heat-trapping carbon pollution into the air, and carbon dioxide levels in the air are at levels not seen for millions of years, when the planet was far warmer and sea levels tens of feet higher. The figure above from the Met Office makes clear that humans continue to warm the planet.
In the words of WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud, “There is no standstill in global warming.”
These reports continue to prove why it’s imperative that the United States and other countries crack down on carbon dioxide emissions. It’s why the Obama administration’s new EPA clean power rules are so important. It’s also why the United States’ recent deal with China to limit carbon emissions is so crucial. As the world’s two largest carbon dioxide emitters, China and the U.S. play leading roles — and only with concerted global action can we make a significant dent in future emissions.
BOTTOM LINE: Climate deniers will continue to ignore organizations like WMO and the Met Office and the NOAA. But the facts are the facts: the world is getting warmer. These latest reports remind us in shocking fashion what we already know: We need to immediately address humanity’s role in climate change head on, or risk permanently endangering the health of future generations and of the planet.
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