Chris Hedges's Blog, page 279

Turning Trump’s Favorite Cause Into a Big Liability

California Democratic Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a politician barely known outside his state, is waging an effective but largely unnoticed fight against headline-grabbing President Donald Trump.

Their battlefield is immigration. Trump now is using the issue to bring out his prejudiced, white older base to win the 2020 election, and it’s a tactic he has exploited since he first became a candidate.

“Our area is full, the sector is full. Can’t take you anymore. I’m sorry,” Trump said during a roundtable on the border at the U.S. Border Patrol station in Calexico, Calif., on April 5. “So turn around. That’s the way it is.” A day later, at the Republican Jewish Coalition meeting in Las Vegas, he described asylum for immigrants as “a scam” and said those applying are “some of the roughest people you’ve ever seen.”

Becerra, son of immigrants from Mexico, has a different vision of America. As he told the New York Times in 1997, “We are stronger today because we are a nation of immigrants.  And our immigrant brothers and sisters are among the hardest-working neighbors we have in America today. I can say that from firsthand knowledge—not hearsay or anecdote—as the son of immigrants. …  I can tell you how hard my mom and dad worked every day to help build our country.”

Becerra was born into a working-class family in Sacramento and was educated in public schools before moving on to Stanford University and Stanford Law School. He was a legislative aide and then was elected to Congress from a heavily Latino East Los Angeles district in 1993. He served there until Gov. Jerry Brown appointed him attorney general in 2017. In assuming that office, Becerra replaced Kamala Harris, who was elected to the Senate. While on Capitol Hill, he had risen high in the House leadership, but as is the fate of some of the most effective House members, he never became well known outside of Washington, his district or in state politics.

From the outset, Becerra went after the Trump administration in a methodical, lawyer-like manner, more Stanford Law School than Trump real-estate pitch or “Apprentice” performance.

Immigration is a federal matter. State authority is limited. Still, Becerra managed to use state power to challenge the president. Sometimes working with nonprofit legal aid organizations and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Becerra filed more than 40 lawsuits, many dealing with immigration. A year ago, Adam Liptak remarked in The New York Times, “California has been doing well in court, winning more than a dozen rulings against the administration.”

“If I were a baseball player, our batting average would be phenomenal,” Becerra said at a press conference with Newsom. “It’d be out of this world. I’d be a free agent making some good money.” Newsom added, “Hall of Fame.”

Becerra is also using the investigatory power of his office to go after Trump and his administration’s immigration enforcement methods. Empowered by a new state law, California Department of Justice officials investigated conditions at the federal detention centers where almost 75,000 immigrants are held. The largest number of these detainees are from Mexico and Central America, most of them guilty only of immigration violations, which are civil offenses. They are detained in conditions that are often worse than in federal prisons for criminals convicted of felonies.

Local newspapers had previously reported many of the inhumane conditions, as had immigrant rights groups. But Becerra put it together in one detailed report titled “Immigration Detention in California.” Released in February, the report provided a devastating picture of the treatment of immigrants jailed for long periods of times for minor violations.

Such appalling conditions are made all the more unacceptable because the detained immigrants have not been charged, tried or convicted of a crime. A new report by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University backs up Becerra’s findings. Countering Trump’s portrayal of immigrants as dangerous, TRAC noted that four in five detainees either had no criminal record or had committed minor offenses such as a traffic violation. Just one in five had been convicted of a felony.

They were picked up after seeking asylum at the border or for being in the country without documents. A minority had been arrested by local police, usually on suspicion of possession of small amounts of marijuana or for driving under the influence. “The end result is the confinement of many immigrants in highly restrictive settings without any specific finding that they pose a risk of flight or danger to the community, ” Becerra’s report said.

Becerra’s investigators visited the 10 detention centers in California, talking to guards, officials and inmates. The abuses inflicted on the inmates “include restrictions on liberty, adversarial interactions with facility staff, lack of language accommodation, limited access to medical and mental health care, obstacles to communicating with support systems outside the facility,” the report detailed.

Those in the centers are imprisoned for long periods. At Otay Mesa, in the San Diego area, the average length of stay is 41 days, with one inmate held there for 1,055 days. In the center in Orange County, the average stay is 81 days and the longest was 1,500 days.

There is no sign of relief.  Most detainees are awaiting hearings in immigration courts, where the wait list now exceeds 1 million. It would take 5.1 years to work through the backlog, assuming the courts take up no new cases, according to TRAC.

The long incarcerations and poor conditions in the detention centers are the results of Trump’s efforts to inflame the country against immigrants hailing from south of the border. Trump is all noise, playing to what he sees as a white nationalist country that shares the prejudices he hopes will inflame his electorate.  It’s his chosen path to re-election.

Becerra speaks of shared values. “Anyone here an immigrant or a child or grandchild of immigrants?” Becerra asked the last Democratic National Convention. “Anyone here the first in a family to go to college? Who here makes a living working with your hands?”

So far, the many Democratic candidates for president, fearing Trump’s so-called “base,” are at a loss on how to counter him on immigration. Maybe the way is not trying to catch every Trump lie and effort to inflame hate. Maybe a better approach is to follow Becerra’s lead, chipping away at the legal and rhetorical underpinnings of Trumpism while reminding the country of the bonds Americans share.

 

Massive Fire Engulfs Notre Dame Cathedral, but Worst Is Avoided

PARIS—A massive fire engulfed the upper reaches of Paris’ soaring Notre Dame Cathedral as it was undergoing renovations Monday, threatening one of the greatest architectural treasures of the Western world as tourists and Parisians looked on aghast from the streets below.

The blaze collapsed the cathedral’s spire and spread to one of its landmark rectangular towers, but Paris fire chief Jean-Claude Gallet said the church’s structure had been saved after firefighters managed to stop the fire spreading to the northern belfry. The 12th-century cathedral is home to incalculable works of art and is one of the world’s most famous tourist attractions, immortalized by Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”

The exact cause of the blaze was not known, but French media quoted the Paris fire brigade as saying the fire is “potentially linked” to a 6 million-euro ($6.8 million) renovation project on the church’s spire and its 250 tons of lead. The Paris prosecutors’ office ruled out arson and possible terror-related motives, and said it was treating it as an accident.

As the spire fell, the sky lit up orange and flames shot out of the roof behind the nave of the cathedral, among the most visited landmarks in the world. Hundreds of people lined up bridges around the island that houses the church, watching in shock as acrid smoke rose in plumes. Speaking alongside junior Interior minister Laurent Nunez late Monday, police chief Jean-Claude Gallet said “two thirds of the roofing has been ravaged.” Gallet said firefighters would keep working overnight to cool down the building.

Late Monday, signs pointed to the fire nearing an end as lights could be seen through the windows moving around the front of the cathedral, apparently investigators inspecting the scene. Remarkably, only one of the about 400 firefighters who battled the blaze was injured, officials said.

The fire came less than a week before Easter amid Holy Week commemorations. As the cathedral burned, Parisians gathered to pray and sing hymns outside the church of Saint Julien Les Pauvres across the river from Notre Dame while the flames lit the sky behind them. Paris Archbishop Michel Aupetit invited priests across France to ring church bells in a call for prayers.

French President Emmanuel Macron was treating the fire as a national emergency, rushing to the scene and straight into meetings at the Paris police headquarters nearby. He pledged to rebuild the church and said would seek international help to do so.

“The worse has been avoided although the battle is not yet totally won,” the president said, adding that he would launch a national funding campaign on Tuesday and call on the world’s “greatest talents” to help rebuild the monument.

Built in the 12th and 13th centuries, Notre Dame is the most famous of the Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages as well as one of the most beloved structures in the world. Situated on the Ile de la Cite, an island in the Seine river, its architecture is famous for, among other things, its many gargoyles and its iconic flying buttresses.

Among the most celebrated artworks inside are its three stained-glass rose windows, placed high up on the west, north and south faces of the cathedral. Its priceless treasures also include a Catholic relic, the crown of thorns, which is only occasionally displayed, including on Fridays during Lent.

French historian Camille Pascal told BFM broadcast channel the blaze marked “the destruction of invaluable heritage.”

“It’s been 800 years that the Cathedral watches over Paris,” Pascal said. “Happy and unfortunate events for centuries have been marked by the bells of Notre Dame.”

He added: “We can be only horrified by what we see.”

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said in a Twitter message that Paris firefighters were still trying to limit the fire and urged Paris citizens to respect the security perimeter that has been set around the cathedral.

Hidalgo said Paris authorities are in touch with the Paris diocese.

Reactions from around the world came swiftly including from the Vatican, which released a statement expressing shock and sadness for the “terrible fire that has devastated the Cathedral of Notre Dame, symbol of Christianity in France and in the world.”

In Washington, Trump tweeted: “So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris” and suggested first responders use “flying water tankers” to put it out.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, said he was praying “to ask the intercession of Notre Dame, our Lady, for the Cathedral at the heart of Paris, and of civilization, now in flames! God preserve this splendid house of prayer, and protect those battling the blaze.”

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Associated Press writers Elaine Ganley and Sylvie Corbet contributed.

Eliminating Inequality Begins With a Tax Code Overhaul

One area in which the two parties of the millionaires and billionaires put in place policies that favor the rich are tax laws. Tax policy has favored the wealthy under both parties, but the Trump administration has brought this tax corruption to new levels. We need to transform tax policy to build the working class base of the economy, shrink the wealth divide, and confront the climate crisis. An honest analysis of the tax code calls out in stark detail the extreme injustice of the economy in the United States.

The tax system favors the wealthy as low- and middle-income people are hit the hardest while big business and high-income people are subsidized. The most regressive tax of all is the FICA payroll tax at 15.3 percent for Social Security and Medicare. 15.3 percent includes the employer match. But employers include the tax in their labor budgets and it limits what they can pay their workers. The 12.4 percent Social Security share of FICA is outright regressive because it is capped for high-income earners at $128,400 in 2018.

The Trump Tax Favors the Wealthy at the Expense of the Working Class

On December 19, 2017, the Trump Tax Bill passed Congress. It was a gift for big business and the wealthy. It cut tax rates for corporations to 21 percent from 35 percent. It created a new 20 percent deduction for pass-through businesses that is favorable to commercial real estate companies like the Trumps’. It lowered individual tax rates for the wealthy in the top bracket to 37 percent from 39.6. It also helped the super rich by exempting larger inheritances from the estate tax, doubling the thresholds to $11 million for individuals and $22 million for married couples.

The benefits of the Trump law go to the most wealthy people in the United States. The Tax Policy Center reported that the top 0.1 percent would receive an average tax benefit of $193,380 in 2018. And over half of the bill’s total benefits would go to the top 10 percent of earners. The Joint Committee on Taxation, the official congressional scorekeeper, estimates that by 2027, every income group making less than $75,000 would see a net tax increase. JPMorgan Chase, the biggest bank in the country, bragged to its investors that the Trump tax cuts increased its bottom line by $3.7 billion. People know the Trump Tax was for the rich and not them, nearly two-thirds favor its outright repeal.

The Trump tax bill is the opposite direction the country needs to go at a time of record wealth divides when three people have the wealth of half the population. The Trump tax law made inequality worse as it resulted in a record amount being spent to buy back stock — more than $1 trillion — artificially raising stock prices and increasing top management pay and investment earnings.

Tax Cuts for the Rich Hurt the Economy for Working People

The Trump tax bill has once again demonstrated the failure of supply-side tax cuts for the rich to trickle down to the rest of us as expanded production, more jobs, and higher wages. This trickle-down theory in practice just makes the rich richer. Given capitalism’s endemic tendency to overproduction, more money for the rich is not invested in the real economy of production but in financial maneuvers like stock buy-backs, which simply rearrange and concentrate who owns the real productive assets of the economy. It would be more productive and efficient to tax the rich and invest that money through the public sector in needed programs, like improved Medicare for All, and needed infrastructure and production, like mass transit and clean energy systems.

Growing Economic Inequality

The income gap between the rich and everyone else has been growing markedly, by every major statistical measure, for more than 40 years. As of 2017, the richest 0.1 percent take in 188 times as much income as the bottom 90 percent. Between 1979 and 2007, paycheck income for those in the richest 1 percent and 0.1 percent exploded. Meanwhile, the bottom 90 percent of earners have seen little change in their average income, with just a 22 percent increase from 1979 to 2017. An estimated 43.5 percent of the U.S. population,140 million people, are either poor or low-income, according the the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Supplemental Poverty Measure, which is a far more realistic measure of actual living costs compared to the old Official Poverty Line, which simply multiplies the minimum food diet by three.

As bad as income inequality is, wealth inequality is even more pronounced. The wealthiest 5 percent own two-thirds of the nation’s wealth: the top 10 percent owns nearly 80 percent of the nation’s wealth. Over the past three decades, the most affluent U.S. families have added dramatically to their net worth, while those on the bottom have dipped into “negative wealth,” i.e., their debts exceed the value of their assets.

When looked at through a racial lens, the situation is even worse. The median black family, with just over $3,500 net wealth, owns just 2 percent of the net wealth of the median white family at nearly $147,000. The proportion of black families with zero or negative wealth rose by 8.5 percent to 37 percent between 1983 and 2016. The median white family has 41 times more wealth than the median black family and 22 times more wealth than the median Latino family. The U.S. poverty rate for white men is 7.0 percent, while it is 21.4 percent for black women, 18.7 percent for Latinas, and 22.8 percent for Native American women. The low wealth and high poverty in communities of color are not only due to current policy, but the enduring impacts of slavery and racial discrimination and exclusion in the United States since its founding. Major investments and empowerment of communities of color are essential to create economic and racial justice.

The Tax System Should Reduce Inequality

We need a tax plan that takes the opposite approach of the Trump tax plan, and the Obama-era tax plan that preceded it. A February 2019 poll, found that 76 percent of registered voters want the wealthiest Americans to pay more. Rather than failing to build the economy by reducing taxes on the wealthy, we need to actually build the economy by creating a strong foundation of purchasing power in the working class by ending poverty and economic insecurity.

First, we need to end the regressive payroll tax by lifting the $128,400 cap on Social Security taxes. Currently, undocumented immigrants contribute billions of dollars in federal taxes each year, and their income taxes and payroll tax dollars are keeping Social Security and Medicare solvent showing the hypocrisy and dishonesty of the immigration debate in the U.S. Lifting the cap on taxes for the wealthy would put Social Security on such a firm financial footing that it would be a major contribution to doubling Social Security payments in order to address the retirement security crisis.

Second, put in place more a progressive income tax, especially on the wealthiest. In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty recommends top marginal income tax rates of 80 percent on income above $500,000 and 50 or 60 percent on income above about $200,000 for the United States in order to combat inequality and fully fund and revitalize the public sector. In fact, throughout the 1950s and until 1962, the top marginal tax rate was over 90 percent and remained over 70 percent until 1980. This was a period of shared prosperity where wages kept pace with increases in productivity. The high top marginal rates incentivized top management to reinvest earnings in their companies instead of bleeding them dry with excessive executive compensation, as we have seen over the last 40 years with the decline of US manufacturing.

Third, institute a wealth tax,  Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman of the University of California, Berkeley, proposed taxing wealth in excess of $50 million at 2 percent per year and wealth above $1 billion at an additional 1 percent tax. This would affect only seventy-five thousand households and would raise some $2.8 trillion over a decade.

Fourth, increase the inheritance tax, reversing the trend of reducing such taxes. Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed a top rate of 77 percent on estates worth more than $1 billion, and rates of at least 45 percent on estates valued above $3.5 million. This would raise up to $315 billion over a decade and only impact the wealthiest, not the ability of people to pass down their home to their children or small businesses or family farms.

Fifth, tax wealth at the same rates we tax work. Capital gains — profits from the sale of stocks, bonds, and other assets — are taxed at much lower rates than income from work is taxed. The current top federal rate for this tax is 20 percent, compared with the top income tax rate of 37 percent. This reform would impact the very wealthy. For households making over $10 million, capital gains account for 46.4 percent of income. For households making less than $100,000, capital gains account for a tiny 0.7 percent of the income.

Sixth, put in place a progressive carbon tax as a tool to combat the climate crisis. A progressive carbon tax taxes carbon at its source. Some of its proceeds are returned to individuals and households as rebates and other proceeds fund the transition to clean renewable energy.

Funding a Green New Deal

More progressive and ecological taxation is essential to fund the ecosocialist Green New Deal for climate and economic security. The goals are to transition to 100 percent Green Energy by 2030 while ending the insecurity of the economy with an Economic Bill of Rights that guarantees to all living-wage jobs, an income above poverty, decent housing, comprehensive health care, and lifelong public education from pre-K through college.

The Green New Deal can close racial income and wealth gaps by empowering racially-oppressed communities through community control of Green New Deal programs so these communities are no longer subject to discrimination and exploitation by outside employers, landlords, real estate agents, and other gatekeepers. In addition, HR 40 for a Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans should be enacted to find the best way to create individual and collective wealth to compensate for hundreds of years of unpaid and underpaid labor.

In addition to a more progressive tax system, we need to get our spending priorities straight. The U.S. military budget is greater than those of the next 10 largest military powers combined and eight of them are US allies. The military budget takes more than 60 percent of federal discretionary spending totaling$989 billion annually. $21 trillion of Pentagon financial transactions between 1998 and 2015 cannot be traced, documented, or explained.

The U.S. can cut its military budget by 75 percent and still spend more on the military than any other nation. We can invest the resulting peace dividend in a Global Green New Deal to meet basic needs like clean water and preventive health care around the world as well as to help developing countries leap over the fossil fuel age into the solar age. By acting as the world’s humanitarian superpower instead of its global military occupation force, we can make friends instead of enemies. A Global Green New Deal will build a sustainable peace where the world’s nations work cooperatively to solve our common problems of the climate and poverty.

Amazon, run by Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, paid no federal taxes on $11.2 billion in profits in 2018. In comparison, undocumented people contribute some $11 billion in taxes every year. The third richest man in the world, Warren Buffett, admits he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary. These are two examples of many that demonstrate that transformation of the US tax system is urgently needed.

Justice Department Expects to Release Redacted Mueller Report Thursday

WASHINGTON—The Justice Department expects to make a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Trump-Russia investigation public Thursday morning, a spokeswoman said Monday.

The redacted report would be sent to Congress and also made available to the public, Kerri Kupec said.

Special counsel Robert Mueller officially concluded his investigation late last month and submitted a nearly 400-page confidential report to Attorney General William Barr. The attorney general then sent Congress a four-page letter that detailed Mueller’s “principal conclusions.”

In his letter, Barr said the special counsel did not find a criminal conspiracy between Russia and Donald Trump’s associates during the campaign, but Mueller did not reach a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice. Instead, Mueller presented evidence on both sides of the obstruction question. Barr said he did not believe the evidence was sufficient to prove that Trump had obstructed justice.

Democrats have questioned how Barr could boil down Mueller’s full report so quickly and allege that it may have been written in a favorable way for the president.

Over the past several weeks, a small group of Justice Department officials has been scouring the document to redact grand jury information and details relating to pending investigations, among other materials.

Progressives Demand Democrats Put People Over the Pentagon

The current political brawl over next year’s budget is highly significant. With Democrats in a House majority for the first time in eight years, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and most other party leaders continue to support even more largesse for the Pentagon. But many progressive congressmembers are challenging the wisdom of deference to the military-industrial complex — and, so far, they’ve been able to stall the leadership’s bill that includes a $17 billion hike in military spending for 2020.

An ostensible solution is on the horizon. More funds for domestic programs could be a quid pro quo for the military increases. In other words: more guns and more butter.

“Guns and butter” is a phrase that gained wide currency during escalation of the Vietnam War in the mid-1960s. Then, as now, many Democrats made political peace with vast increases in military spending on the theory that social programs at home could also gain strength.

It was a contention that Martin Luther King Jr. emphatically rejected. “When a nation becomes obsessed with the guns of war, social programs must inevitably suffer,” he pointed out. “We can talk about guns and butter all we want to, but when the guns are there with all of its emphasis you don’t even get good oleo [margarine]. These are facts of life.”

But today many Democrats in Congress evade such facts of life. They want to proceed as though continuing to bestow humongous budgets on the Pentagon is compatible with fortifying the kind of domestic spending that they claim to fervently desire.

Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill have reflexively promoted militarism that is out of step with the party’s base. In early 2018, after President Trump called for a huge 11 percent increase over two years for the already-bloated military budget, Pelosi declared in an email to House Democrats: “In our negotiations, Congressional Democrats have been fighting for increases in funding for defense.” Meanwhile, the office of Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer proudly announced: “We fully support President Trump’s Defense Department’s request.”

What set the stage for the latest funding battle in the House was a Budget Committee vote that approved the new measure with the $17 billion military boost. It squeaked through the committee on April 3 with a surprising pivotal “yes” vote from Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who is now among the lawmakers pushing to amend the bill on the House floor to add $33 billion in domestic spending for each of the next two years.

As Common Dreams reported last week, progressives in the House “are demanding boosts in domestic social spending in line with the Pentagon’s budget increase.” But raising domestic spending in tandem with military spending is no solution, any more than spewing vastly more carcinogenic poisons into the environment would be offset by building more hospitals.

Rep. Ro Khanna and Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Pramila Jayapal, who both voted against the budget bill in committee, have said they won’t vote for it on the House floor. In Khanna’s words, “You can’t oppose endless wars and then vote to fund them.” Jayapal said: “We need to prioritize our communities, not our military spending. Progressives aren’t backing down from this fight.”

The New York Times described the intra-party disagreement as “an ideological gap between upstart progressives flexing their muscles and more moderate members clinging to their Republican-leaning seats.” But that description bypassed how the most powerful commitment to escalation of military spending comes from Democratic leaders representing deep blue districts — in Pelosi’s case, San Francisco. Merely backing a budget that’s not as bad as Trump’s offering is a craven and immoral approach.

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ staff director, Warren Gunnels, responded cogently days ago when he tweeted: “How can we keep giving more money to the Pentagon than it needs when 40 million live in poverty, 34 million have no health insurance, half of older Americans have no retirement savings, and 140 million can’t afford basic needs without going into debt? This is insanity.”

Yet most top Democrats keep promoting the guns-and-butter fantasy while aiding and abetting what Dr. King called “the madness of militarism.”

Omar Says More Death Threats Coming Since Trump Pushed Video

WASHINGTON — Rep. Ilhan Omar says she’s faced increased death threats since President Donald Trump spread around a video that purports to show her being dismissive of the 2001 terrorist attacks. “This is endangering lives,” she said, accusing Trump of fomenting right-wing extremism. “It has to stop.”

Her statement late Sunday followed an announcement by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that she has taken steps to ensure the safety of the Minnesota Democrat and the speaker’s call for Trump to take down the video.

Soon after Pelosi’s statement, the video disappeared as a pinned tweet at the top of Trump’s Twitter feed, but it was not deleted.

Pelosi was among Democrats who had criticized Trump over the tweet, with some accusing him of trying to incite violence against the Muslim lawmaker. An upstate New York man recently was charged with making death threats against her.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders defended Trump earlier Sunday, saying the president has a duty to highlight Omar’s history of making comments that others deem anti-Semitic or otherwise offensive and that he wished no “ill will” upon the first-term lawmaker.

But Omar said that since Trump retweeted the video Friday night, she’s received many threats on her life that referred or replied to the posted video.

“Violent crimes and other acts of hate by right-wing extremists and white nationalists are on the rise in this country and around the world,” she said. “We can no longer ignore that they are being encouraged by the occupant of the highest office in the land.” She said: “We are all Americans.”

Earlier, Pelosi issued a statement while traveling in London saying she had spoken with congressional authorities “to ensure that Capitol Police are conducting a security assessment to safeguard Congresswoman Omar, her family and her staff.”

Pelosi said officials will continue to monitor and assess threats against Omar and called on Trump to discourage such behavior.

“The President’s words weigh a ton, and his hateful and inflammatory rhetoric creates real danger,” Pelosi said. “President Trump must take down his disrespectful and dangerous video.”

The video in Trump’s tweet included a snippet from a recent speech Omar gave to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in which she described the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center as “some people did something,” along with news footage of the hijacked airplanes hitting the Twin Towers. Trump captioned his tweet with: “WE WILL NEVER FORGET!”

Critics accuse Omar of being flippant in describing the perpetrators of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. She later sought to defend herself by tweeting a quote from President George W. Bush, in which the Republican president referred to the attackers as “people” just days after 9/11.

Neither Trump’s tweet nor the video included Omar’s full quote or the context of her comments, which were about Muslims feeling that their civil liberties had eroded after the attacks. The tweet was posted atop Trump’s Twitter feed for much of Sunday, with more than 9 million views. It remained lower in the feed after Pelosi requested that the video be pulled.

Sanders questioned why Democrats weren’t following Trump’s example and calling out Omar, too. Democrats who criticized the president over the tweet defended Omar, with some noting their past disagreements with her.

“Certainly the president is wishing no ill will and certainly not violence towards anyone, but the president is absolutely and should be calling out the congresswoman for her — not only one time — but history of anti-Semitic comments,” Sanders said. “The bigger question is why aren’t Democrats doing the same thing? It’s absolutely abhorrent the comments that she continues to make and has made and they look the other way.”

Omar repeatedly has pushed fellow Democrats into uncomfortable territory with comments about Israel and the strength of the Jewish state’s influence in Washington. She apologized for suggesting that lawmakers support Israel for pay and said she isn’t criticizing Jews. But she refused to take back a tweet in which she suggested American supporters of Israel “pledge allegiance” to a foreign country.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat who represents Manhattan’s financial district, which was targeted on 9/11, said he had no issues with Omar’s characterization of the attack.

“I have had some problems with some of her other remarks, but not — but not with that one,” he said.

Sanders commented on “Fox News Sunday” and ABC’s “This Week.” Nadler appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union.

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Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervillap

Take Down ‘Dangerous’ Tweet of Ilhan Omar Video, Pelosi Tells Trump

WASHINGTON—House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Sunday that she has taken steps to ensure the safety of Rep. Ilhan Omar following President Donald Trump’s retweet of a video that purports to show the Minnesota Democrat being dismissive of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The California Democrat also called on Trump to take down the video. Soon after her public request, the video was no longer pinned to the top of Trump’s twitter feed.

Pelosi was among Democrats who had criticized Trump over the tweet, with some accusing him of trying to incite violence against the Muslim lawmaker who has already seen one upstate New York man face criminal charges for making death threats against her.

The White House defended Trump earlier Sunday, saying the president has a duty to highlight Omar’s history of making comments that others find offensive and that he wished no “ill will” upon the first-term lawmaker.

Pelosi, who was traveling in London, issued a statement saying she had spoken with congressional authorities after Trump’s tweet “to ensure that Capitol Police are conducting a security assessment to safeguard Congresswoman Omar, her family and her staff.”

“They will continue to monitor and address the threats she faces,” the speaker said. She called on Trump to discourage such behavior.

“The President’s words weigh a ton, and his hateful and inflammatory rhetoric creates real danger,” Pelosi said. “President Trump must take down his disrespectful and dangerous video.”

The video in Trump’s tweet included a snippet from a recent speech Omar gave to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in which she described the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center as “some people did something,” along with news footage of the hijacked airplanes hitting the Twin Towers. Trump captioned his tweet with: “WE WILL NEVER FORGET!”

Critics accuse Omar of offering a flippant description of the assailants behind the attack that killed nearly 3,000 people. She later sought to defend herself by tweeting a quote from President George W. Bush. Days after 9/11, the Republican president referred to the attackers as “people.”

Neither Trump’s tweet nor the video included Omar’s full quote or the context of her comments, which were about Muslims feeling that their civil liberties had eroded after the attacks. The tweet was posted atop Trump’s Twitter feed for much of Sunday, with more than 9 million views. It remained lower in the feed after Pelosi made her request for the video to be pulled.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders questioned why Democrats weren’t following Trump’s example and calling out Omar, too. Democrats who criticized the president over the tweet defended Omar. Some also noted their past disagreements with her.

“Certainly the president is wishing no ill will and certainly not violence towards anyone, but the president is absolutely and should be calling out the congresswoman for her not only one time but history of anti-Semitic comments,” Sanders said. “The bigger question is why aren’t Democrats doing the same thing? It’s absolutely abhorrent the comments that she continues to make and has made and they look the other way.”

Omar repeatedly has pushed fellow Democrats into uncomfortable territory with comments about Israel and the strength of the Jewish state’s influence in Washington. She apologized for suggesting that lawmakers support Israel for pay and said she isn’t criticizing Jews. But she refused to take back a tweet in which she suggested American supporters of Israel “pledge allegiance” to a foreign country.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat whose constituents include Manhattan’s financial district, which was targeted on Sept. 11, 2001, said he had no issues with Omar’s characterization of the attack.

“I have had some problems with some of her other remarks, but not — but not with that one,” he said.

Sanders commented on “Fox News Sunday” and ABC’s “This Week.” Nadler appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union.

‘Mayor Pete’ Makes It Official: He’s Running for President

SOUTH BEND, Ind.—Pete Buttigieg, the little-known Indiana mayor who has risen to prominence in the early stages of the 2020 Democratic presidential race, made his official campaign entrance Sunday by claiming the mantle of a youthful generation ready to reshape the country.

“I recognize the audacity of doing this as a Midwestern millennial mayor,” he said after introducing himself as “Mayor Pete.” “More than a little bold, at age 37, to seek the highest office in the land.” He was greeted with cheers of “Pete, Pete, Pete” from an audience assembled in a former Studebaker auto plant.

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The South Bend mayor, a Rhodes Scholar and Afghanistan War veteran who has been exploring a White House run since January, has now joined a field of a dozen-plus rivals vying to take on President Donald Trump in 2020.

“The forces of change in our country today are tectonic,” he said. “Forces that help to explain what made this current presidency even possible. That’s why, this time, it’s not just about winning an election — it’s about winning an era.”

Buttigieg will return this week to Iowa and New Hampshire, which hold the nation’s first nominating contests, to campaign as a full-fledged candidate now being taken more seriously.

Over the past few months, Buttigieg has appeared frequently on national TV news and talk shows and developed a strong social media following with his message that the country needs “a new generation of leadership.”

Buttigieg’s poll numbers have climbed. Some polls put him behind only Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who sought the party’s nomination in 2016, and former Vice President Joe Biden, who has not yet said he’s running.

Buttigieg’s campaign has raised more than $7 million in the first three months of this year, a total eclipsed by Sanders’ leading $18 million but more than Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Cory Booker of New Jersey.

“Right now, it’s pretty fun,” Buttigieg told The Associated Press last month while visiting South Carolina , where he was met by larger-than-expected crowds.

His challenge is finding a way to sustain the momentum over the long term and avoiding becoming a “flavor-of-the-month” candidate. Scrutiny of his leadership in South Bend has increased, as has his criticism of Vice President Gov. Mike Pence , who was Indian’s governor when Buttigieg was in his first term as mayor.

Buttigieg would be the first openly gay nominee of a major presidential party; he married his husband, Chasten, last year. He would be the first mayor to go directly to the White House. And he would be the youngest person to become president, turning 39 the day before the next inauguration, on Jan. 20, 2021. Theodore Roosevelt was 42 when he took office, while John F. Kennedy was 43 and Bill Clinton 46.

The campaign kickoff speech echoed themes that have resonated with voters during Buttigieg’s exploratory phase.

He talks often about how political decisions shape people’s lives, including his own — from serving as a lieutenant in the Navy Reserve in 2014, to being able to marry his husband and to not having to worry about how to pay for his father’s hospital bills after his father’s death this year.

Buttigieg also says the best way for Democrats to defeat Trump may be to nominate a mayor experienced in helping to revive a Midwestern city once described as “dying,” rather than a politician who has spent years “marinating” in Washington.

He has criticized Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” saying the way to move the country forward is not to look backward or cling to an old way of life.

“There’s a myth being sold to industrial and rural communities: the myth that we can stop the clock and turn it back,” he said in the kickoff speak. “It comes from people who think the only way to reach communities like ours is through resentment and nostalgia, selling an impossible promise of returning to a bygone era that was never as great as advertised to begin with.”

South Bend, which neighbors the University of Notre Dame, was hit hard by the decline of manufacturing, dating to the 1963 closing of the Studebaker auto plant that costs thousands of residents their jobs.

The hulking, dilapidated factory loomed over the city for much of the past 60 years as what Buttigieg called a daily reminder of South Bend’s city’s past. Partially remodeled, it’s now a mixed-use mixed-use technology center outside downtown — and the setting for Bettigieg’s announcement.

Several thousand people assembled inside, where a steady stream of raindrops fell on speakers on the stage through the leaky roof. An overflow crowd of a few hundred more stood outside.

“I like that he’s young. He’s so relatable. He doesn’t seem like a politician to me,” said Tom Lacy, a 62-year-old retired who came from Peoria, Illinois, for the event with his wife, Candy, on their 35th wedding anniversary. “The contrast between him and our current president is unbelievable.”

Nausher Ahmad Sial, a 68-year-old developer from South Bend, said the 2020 election is about the future of the country and “we need to try new blood.”

Sial, who came to the U.S. from Pakistan 35 years ago, said he has worked with Buttigieg on development projects in the city and described the mayor as a “very honest, very fair guy.”

Lawyer: Ecuador Is Spreading Lies About Assange

LONDON—A lawyer representing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Sunday that Ecuador’s government has spread lies about his behavior inside its embassy in London, where Assange sought asylum in 2012.

Lawyer Jennifer Robinson told British TV network Sky News the Ecuadorian government is spreading falsehoods to divert attention from its decision to revoke his asylum and allow his arrest at its British embassy,

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“I think the first thing to say is Ecuador has been making some pretty outrageous allegations over the past few days to justify what was an unlawful and extraordinary act in allowing British police to come inside an embassy,” Robinson said.

The Latin American country has claimed Assange’s actions deteriorated before his arrest Thursday and included putting excrement on walls, leaving soiled laundry in the bathroom and not properly looking after his cat.

Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno ended Assange’s protected status after more than 6½ years and opened the way for his arrest there Thursday.

Moreno said Assange abused Ecuador’s goodwill, mistreated embassy staff and used his perch to try to interfere in other country’s political affairs.

Assange has had “a very difficult time” since Moreno took office in Ecuador in 2017, Robinson said.

Assange, who appeared much older when he emerged from the embassy than when before he sought refuge there in August 2012, is in custody at Belmarsh Prison in southeast London awaiting sentencing in Britain for skipping bail to avoid being sent to Sweden as part of an investigation of a rape allegation. Sweden is considering reviving the investigation.

The United States also is seeking his extradition after charging him with conspiring to break into a Pentagon computer system, which could lead to competing extradition demands.

U.K. Home Secretary Sajid Javid would be expected to have the final say in which claim takes priority. More than 70 British legislators have urged Javid to give priority to a case involving rape allegations ahead of the U.S. request.

He would not be expected to enter a plea to the Department of Justice case unless he loses his extradition case and is brought to a courtroom in the United States.

Assange has denied the rape allegation, asserting the sex was consensual. He also has not formally responded to the U.S. conspiracy charge. His indictment was made public hours after his Thursday arrest, but Assange’s lawyers say he is a legitimate journalist whose prosecution would have a chilling effect.

The extradition court in Britain will not be judging the evidence against him, but will evaluate whether the crime he is accused of would be a crime in Britain.

Assange’s next court appearance is scheduled for May 2. In the meantime, he is expected to seek prison medical care for severe shoulder pain and dental problems, WikiLeaks has said.

The Tax System Works Against Us All

Tax Day is here. What’s in your return?

According to a new poll, only 17 percent of Americans say they’re paying less in taxes this year, despite the GOP’s promises that the huge tax cuts they passed were for the middle class. Tax returns due April 15 are the first to be filed under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which passed Congress and was signed by President Trump about 16 months ago.

It was their signature achievement, a tax cut package costing nearly $2 trillion that was supposed to rev up the economy, produce jobs and investment, and give every family a $4,000 raise.

It hasn’t worked out that way. In fact, multiple polls show that a plurality of voters opposed the tax law from the beginning — and still do. In fact, nearly two-thirds now favor its outright repeal. Those same polls show that the public strongly believes our tax system favors the wealthy and big corporations, who aren’t paying their fair share.

How did a major tax cut plan that promised happy-days-are-here-again prosperity for most working families fall so flat with taxpayers?

Because most of us aren’t seeing benefits from the tax cuts in our paychecks or tax returns. But we’re seeing the real results in newspaper headlines.

Big, profitable corporations like Amazon and Netflix pay $0 in federal income taxes, or even get refunds. J.P. Morgan Chase, the biggest bank in the country, brags to its investors that the tax cuts fattened its bottom line by $3.7 billion — on top of the $29 billion it would’ve made even without the tax cuts. Drug companies save billions from the tax cuts, while the prices they charge for lifesaving medicines .

Americans have also seen how the federal deficit has exploded — a 77 percent increase in just the first quarter of 2019 — with trillion-dollar annual deficits projected for years to come.

What really worries them is how Trump intends to make up some of the difference: with $2.5 trillion in cuts to programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security disability benefits, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Axing the ACA would leave 20 million people without health coverage and endanger 130 million more who have pre-existing medical conditions.

Meanwhile, big corporations used their windfalls not to raise pay or invest in new factories, but instead spent a record amount — more than $1 trillion — buying back shares of their own stock. This artificially boosts their share price, which in turn rewards wealthy shareholders and CEOs.

Wall Street is happy, but Main Street not so much. The top 1 percent owns almost half of all stock in the U.S.

And there’s more. The corporate tax rate on domestic profits was cut from 35 percent to 21 percent, and the rate on offshore profits is just half of that. This change alone cost $1.3 trillion and incentivizes companies to keep their profits offshore — and to send jobs there, too.

After seeing all this, is it any wonder that taxpayers think something’s up?

It shouldn’t be this way. The unpopular Trump-GOP tax cuts benefiting the rich and big corporations should be repealed, along with the many loopholes and special breaks that predate the new law and similarly distort the tax code in favor of the well-to-do.

It their place, Congress should enact a fair share tax system to raise significant new revenue that can be put to work addressing our many needs: protecting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, expanding health care coverage, rebuilding our roads and bridges, confronting climate change, and providing affordable housing and college aid.

It can be done. All it takes is a tax system that is the foundation of an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few.