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For Immediate Release
December, 05 2016, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Kathy Mulady, (206) 992-8787
k.mulady@peoplesaction.org
Donald Trump's Cabinet Nominees a Truly Toxic Swamp
People’s Action is planning and hosting resistance assemblies to counter nominations
WASHINGTON
Donald Trump's cabinet nominees signal a war on working people, the poor, people of color, immigrants and women. In response, People's Action has launched an all-out effort to oppose these nominees that will engage its entire family of affiliates across 30 states.
People's Action has joined with allies nationwide in hosting resistance assemblies to insist that Congress reject nominees whose policies would put Americans in jeopardy, and begin planning future action. These assemblies will take place from December 14 to December 18.
After promising to help families, Trump's proposed cabinet is filled with billionaires, family-fortune heirs, a white supremacist, right-wing zealots, anti-government crusaders and a hedge-fund manager who foreclosed on a 90-year-old woman over 27 cents.
They intend to auction our health care off to insurance corporations, shred our democracy, and destroy a nearly 200-year history of public education. In short, Trump has broken his promise to "drain the swamp" in Washington in favor of turning the swamp truly toxic.
"What Trump's cabinet appointees have in common is a track record of working in their own self-interest, not public service, and amassing personal fortunes, not fighting for working families," said LeeAnn Hall, co-director of People's Action.
The appointments are not final and the nominees must still be approved by the U.S. Senate.
"Donald Trump campaigned on draining the swamp, instead he's flooding it with Wall Street bankers and corporate lobbyists. How does appointing the bankers that we taxpayers bailed out signal change?" said George Goehl, co-director of People's Action.
"We are teaming of with other progressive organizations to pressure legislators to reject nominees with values so starkly opposite of the values of America's families and working people," said Goehl.
People's Action has been planning and leading resistance assemblies in auditoriums, churches and coffee shops around the country to help people who are scared or angry make sense of this moment and make concrete plans for the work ahead.
A look at the some of the appointees paints a undeniable picture of what's ahead:
Housing and Urban Development Secretary: Ben Carson
Carson is a neurosurgeon with no experience managing a complex agency, or developing housing policy on homelessness or discrimination. He believes it's up to charities and neighbors to take care of poor people, not the government. He likened a HUD initiative to promote racially integrated housing to "failed socialist experiments." He has compared gay rights advocates to pedophiles and bestiality supporters, and he opposes same-sex marriage.
Treasury Secretary: Steven Mnuchin
As the founder of OneWest, Mnuchin built his personal fortune on the backs of people thrown out of their homes during the 2008 financial crisis, while taking bailout money from the federal government at the same time. His bank went after a 90-year-old woman's home over a 27-cent underpayment. His firm's behavior was called "harsh, repugnant, shocking and repulsive" by a judge. One employee of Mnuchin's foreclosure firm admitted robo-signing 6,000 documents a week to be presented as false evidence in court.
Health and Human Services Secretary: Tom Price
Price is obsessed with repealing the Affordable Care Act, privatizing Medicare, and slashing Medicaid, guaranteeing the loss of health insurance for 22 million, including children and retired people. He's against women's right to choose and LGBTQ health protections. He's a member of the ultra-conservative Association of American Physicians and Surgeons which aims to keep government fully out of health care.
Education Secretary: Betsy DeVos
A billionaire married to a Amway heir, DeVos dreams of dismantling public schools, while promoting a charter school system with little public accountability that has been a disaster in Detroit. DeVos blamed Michigan workers earning too much for the state's economic problems - which Trump recently repeated in suggesting Detroit jobs should move to states where workers would be paid less. The DeVos family bankrolled campaigns against marriage equality and supporting tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.
Attorney General: Jeff Sessions
Sessions was rejected by GOP as federal judge for his racism and support for "whites-only" voting. He falsely prosecuted black civil rights workers for helping people vote and praised the Supreme Court decision gutting the voting rights law. He opposes equal rights for LGBTQ people and supports mass deportations of immigrants. He's been praised by KKK Grand Wizard David Duke, and called a "hero" by Neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer.
Secretary of Transportation: Elaine Chao
When she was labor secretary under George W. Bush, Chao opposed increasing the minimum wage and cut enforcement budgets that protect workers on the job and in their paychecks. Some question her willingness to support laws that now require federal contractors on transportation projects to pay fair wages. Plus, Chao has advocated deregulating the fossil fuel industry when we need a transportation system less dependent on climate change-inducing energy sources.
People's Action builds the power of poor and working people, in rural, suburban, and urban areas to win change through issue campaigns and elections.
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U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden on Friday warned that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's commission tasked with reducing the nation's growing debt is a "prescription for trouble" that will likely result in the slashing of vital programs on which tens of millions of Americans rely—including Social Security.
McCarthy (R-Calif.) recently announced the launch of a fiscal commission that will find ways to reduce the national debt—on the heels of striking a deal with President Joe Biden to suspend the nation's borrowing limit until 2025.
While some other leading Republicans have embraced the idea of a commission, many Democrats are wary.
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\u201cAfter trying to cut veterans benefits and funding for law enforcement during the debt ceiling negotiations, House Republicans will now create a commission to cut Social Security and Medicare.\n\nIt\u2019s Kevin McCarthy with Pandora\u2019s Box.\u201d— Mondaire Jones (@Mondaire Jones) 1685995803
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Civil society groups in Israel and Palestine face serious human rights violations by Israeli authorities seeking to perpetuate an illegal occupation and apartheid regime, according to a report published Thursday by the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The report—authored by the Independent International Commission Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory—examines "attacks, restrictions, and harassment of civil society actors by all duty bearers," including the Israeli government and occupation forces, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Hamas in Gaza.
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\u201c\ud83d\udea8According to \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf3 UN Commission of Inquiry, rights of civil society members in Israel & OPT are being violated by authorities in all areas through:\n\u27a1\ufe0fharassment\n\u27a1\ufe0fthreats\n\u27a1\ufe0farrests\n\u27a1\ufe0finterrogations\n\u27a1\ufe0farbitrary detention\n\u27a1\ufe0ftorture\n\u27a1\ufe0fdegrading treatment \n\ud83d\udc47\nhttps://t.co/1vFwjdbuBK\u201d— UN Palestinian Rights Committee (@UN Palestinian Rights Committee) 1686247724
The commission found that "the Israeli authorities' silencing of civil society voices that challenge government policies and narrative is intrinsically linked to the goal of ensuring and enshrining the permanent occupation at the expense of the rights of the Palestinian people."
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According to the publication:
The Israeli authorities' use of anti-terror legislation to categorize civil society organizations as terrorist organizations aims to delegitimize and isolate them and undermine their activity, and to harm their international funding and support. The commission concludes on reasonable grounds that the designations by Israeli authorities of six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations and a seventh Palestinian NGO as unlawful were unjustified, undertaken to silence civil society voices, and violate human rights, including freedom of association, freedom of expression and opinion, and the rights to peaceful assembly, to privacy, and to fair trial.
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A section of the report on the far-right government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu notes:
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According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Israeli forces have killed 20 journalists this century, with none of the killers ever facing prosecution. These include at least one U.S. citizen, Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot dead by an Israeli sniper while covering a May 2022 raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. Al Jazeera producer Ali Samodi was shot in the back but survived. An independent international probe subsequently concluded that Abu Akleh's "extrajudicial killing" was "deliberate."
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\u201c\ud83d\udea8Breaking news:\n\n A Palestinian journalist in full uniform, Momen Samreen, was deliberately shot in the head by Israeli occupation forces, during his work in Ramallah. His condition is serious!\n\nMomen is a very known journalist & works with various Palestinian media outlets\u201d— Younis | \u064a\u0648\u0646\u0633 (@Younis | \u064a\u0648\u0646\u0633) 1686183857
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