October, 02 2018, 12:00am EDT
Repeal of Initiative 77: "Another Sign That Voters in the District are Second-Class Citizens"
"The DC Council just told every voter in the District that their voices don't matter."
WASHINGTON
This afternoon, following the DC Council's vote to overturn Initiative 77, a ballot measure passed in June by DC voters to eliminate the tipped minimum wage in the District, the Patriotic Millionaires of DC issued the following statement:
"The DC Council just told every voter in the District that their voices don't matter. Regardless of the content of the ballot measure, which happens to be a well-deserved pay raise for tipped workers, for the Council to overturn an initiative that a majority of DC voters voted 'yes' on is appalling. It's just another sign that voters in the District are second-class citizens in their own country. It is incredibly sad to see the Council representing one of the most progressive cities in the country siding with the wealthy restaurant industry over their own constituents, particularly people of color who overwhelmingly voted for this ballot measure. How are they any better than Republicans in Congress who have done the same thing in the past? The people of DC deserve better."
The Patriotic Millionaires is a group of high-net worth Americans who share a profound concern about the destabilizing level of inequality in America. Our work centers on the two things that matter most in a capitalist democracy: power and money. Our goal is to ensure that the country's political economy is structured to meet the needs of regular Americans, rather than just millionaires. We focus on three "first" principles: a highly progressive tax system, a livable minimum wage, and equal political representation for all citizens.
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After Missouri Executes Brian Dorsey, Cori Bush Says Abolish Death Penalty
His case, the congresswoman said, "demonstrates the systemic rot of our criminal legal system, which not only fails to prevent violence but actually enables violence itself."
Apr 10, 2024
Democratic U.S. Congresswoman Cori Bush renewed her demand for an end to the death penalty nationwide after her home state of Missouri executed 52-year-old Brian Dorsey on Tuesday evening.
"There is no place in a humane society for state violence. Gov. Mike Parson could have saved Brian Dorsey's life by granting clemency, but he chose to uphold his legacy as the 'Deadly Governor' by denying Mr. Dorsey mercy," Bush said in a statement.
Bush and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) had written to Parson last week urging the Republican to spare Dorsey's life.
Others who recently tried to prevent Dorsey's execution included family members, five of the jurors who sentenced him to death, over 70 current and former correctional officers, and former Missouri Supreme Court Judge Michael Wolff, who previously upheld his sentence.
\u201cI spent 27 years working in corrections .... I believed that the whole purpose of \u2018corrections\u2019 was to rehabilitate people. I knew Brian Dorsey for many years, and I can say without hesitation that he was completely rehabilitated.... Brian\u2019s execution doesn\u2019t make sense to me.\u201d— (@)
The right-wing U.S. Supreme Court also declined to intervene. Dorsey was injected with a single dose of pentobarbital at the state prison in Bonne Terre and pronounced dead at 6:11 pm local time, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections.
"Dorsey took a few deep breaths as the drug was injected, then several shallow, quick breaths," The Associated Pressreported Tuesday. "At one point he raised his head from the pillow and blinked hard. After several seconds, all movement stopped."
Based on advice from private counsel hired by the Missouri State Public Defender to defend him, Dorsey pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for killing his cousin, Sarah Bonnie, and her husband, Benjamin Bonnie, at their home on December 23, 2006.
"Had counsel investigated and completed an expert evaluation of their client, they would have learned that Mr. Dorsey was not guilty of first-degree murder, as he was neurologically incapable of deliberation," a lawyer for Dorsey wrote in a recent legal filing.
Bush—who is among dozens of congressional Democrats who have advocated against capital punishment—expressed alarm that Dorsey was killed "despite serious concerns about his state of mind when he committed the offense and the legal representation he was provided."
His case, she said, "demonstrates the systemic rot of our criminal legal system, which not only fails to prevent violence but actually enables violence itself."
"We are so much more than our worst mistakes, and not a single one of us deserves to die because of them," the congresswoman added. "We must refuse to allow another life to be taken by our government. We must abolish the death penalty."
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Why Trump Doesn't Get to Say Arizona 'Went Too Far' on Abortion
"In overturning Roe, Trump's Supreme Court directly invited Arizona's total ban," wrote columnist Robert Reich. "It's all Trump's doing."
Apr 10, 2024
One progressive lawmaker complained of "whiplash" Wednesday as presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump attempted to distance himself—and his own stated abortion policy proposals—from the Arizona Supreme Court's reinstatement of a 160-year-old abortion ban.
A day after the high court upheld a ban on abortion care from the moment of conception, with no exceptions for pregnancies that result from rape or incest, the former president agreed with a reporter that the state had gone "too far" and that abortion law in Arizona will "be straightened out."
As U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) noted, on Monday Trump clearly said he believes states should be empowered to determine their own abortion laws, as well as saying he is "proudly the person responsible" for the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022—clearing the way for state abortion bans.
"Now that Arizona turned the law back to 1864, he says it shouldn't be up to the states?" asked McGovern.
As President Joe Biden's reelection campaign pointed out, the Arizona Supreme Court cited Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the decision that overturned Roe, 22 times in its decision to reinstate the 1864 law.
"One person is responsible: Donald Trump," said the Biden campaign.
Bans like Arizona's, said Rahna Epting, executive director of MoveOn, are "the Republican plan."
"This is Donald Trump's plan," said Epting. "They can't run from it. They can't hide from it. And they can't lie to voters about it."
Trump—who lied at least 30,573 times while in office—claimed on Wednesday that he would not sign a national abortion ban if Congress sent one to his desk.
While Democratic politicians have called out the Republican this week, "mainstream outlets are misleadingly sanitizing the language of Donald Trump, this time by obscuring evidence that he would sign a national abortion ban," Media Matters for America researchers highlighted Tuesday.
Right-wing judges and legislators have moved full steam ahead with pushing for abortion bans and restrictions, even as it has become increasingly clear that forced pregnancy is unpopular with Americans.
Pew Research's latest survey in Arizona found that 49% of adults believe abortion care should be legal in most or all cases, while 46% said it should be illegal.
An AP-NORC poll found last year that 64% of adults believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. The survey was taken after several women in states with so-called "exceptions" to abortion bans suffered physical and mental health harms after being denied abortions despite health complications.
Like Trump, Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake tried Tuesday to denounce the state Supreme Court ruling, but several critics reminded the public that she spoke in favor of the 1864 law in 2022. Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), whose district Biden won in 2020, quickly posted a statement on social media calling the decision a "disaster for women and providers."
Columnist and former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich said the ruling "should make Trump squirm," considering his stated support for each state's right to decide their own abortion policies and his "proud" ownership of the Dobbs ruling.
"In overturning Roe, Trump's Supreme Court directly invited Arizona's total ban," wrote Reich. "It's all Trump's doing. In 2016, during a debate with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Trump pledged to remake the U.S. Supreme Court with nominees who were against abortion... Later in that debate, Trump predicted his nominees would help deliver the end of Roe v. Wade."
"Trump's 'pro-life' justices did end Roe—therebyleaving it up to the states whether to ban abortion," he added. "So Arizona has now resurrected its 1864 law that did just that. Trump can't escape responsibility."
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'Do the Right Thing,' Say Assange Defenders as Biden Mulls Dropping Case
"This would be the best decision Biden ever made," said one supporter of the jailed WikiLeaks publisher.
Apr 10, 2024
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday said his administration is weighing the Australian government's requests to drop charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been deprived of his freedom since 2010 and is currently jailed in London's notorious Belmarsh Prison while fighting extradition to the United States.
Asked by reporters at the White House about requests from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and members of the country's Parliament for the U.S. and United Kingdom to drop the extradition effort and charges against Assange—an Australian citizen—Biden said that "we're considering it."
Stella Assange, Julian's wife, responded to Biden's remarks on social media. "Do the right thing," she wrote. "Drop the charges. #FreeAssangeNOW."
Srećko Horvat, a Croatian philosopher and co-founder of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 pan-European progressive political party,
said that "this would be the best decision Biden ever made."
British journalist Afshin Rattansi
asked, "Why has Julian Assange been put through this ordeal in the first place?"
Assange—who is 52 years old and suffers from various health problems—faces multiple U.S. charges under the Espionage Act and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for his role in publishing classified government documents, some of them revealing war crimes and other misdeeds. Among the files published by WikiLeaks are the "Collateral Murder" video—which shows a U.S. Army helicopter crew killing a group of Iraqi civilians—the Afghan and Iraq war logs.
Three U.S. administrations have pursued charges against Assange. During the administration of former President Donald Trump—who is the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee—officials including then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo allegedly plotted to assassinate Assange to avenge WikiLeaks' publication of the "Vault 7" documents exposing CIA electronic warfare and surveillance activities. In 2010, Trump called for Assange's execution.
The U.K. High Court ruled last month that Assange could not be immediately extradited to the U.S., where he faces up to 175 years behind bars if convicted on all counts. The tribunal gave the Biden administration until April 16 to guarantee that Assange won't face the death penalty. Absent such assurance, Assange will be allowed to continue appealing his extradition.
Last month, Assange's legal team denied reports that a plea deal with the U.S. government may have been in the works.
Assange has been imprisoned in Belmarsh since 2019. Before that, he spent nearly seven years in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had been granted political asylum under the government of leftist former President Rafael Correa.
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
found in 2016 that Assange had been arbitrarily deprived of his freedom since his first arrest on December 7, 2010. In 2019, Nils Melzer, then the U.N.'s special rapporteur on torture, said Assange had been subjected to "psychological torture."
Following the High Court's decision last month, Amnesty International legal adviser Simon Crowther said that "the U.S. must stop its politically motivated prosecution of Assange, which puts Assange and media freedom at risk worldwide."
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