December, 17 2019, 11:00pm EDT
Statement on Donald Trump's Impeachment
Today, Ezra Levin, Co-Executive Director of Indivisible, issued the following statement:
"The House vote to impeach President Trump was a vote for justice. He did the crime, he was caught, and now he has been impeached. This is how American constitutional democracy is supposed to work. But Indivisibles know this isn't the end of the end of the fight. The House did it's job, now it's time for the Senate to do theirs.
WASHINGTON
Today, Ezra Levin, Co-Executive Director of Indivisible, issued the following statement:
"The House vote to impeach President Trump was a vote for justice. He did the crime, he was caught, and now he has been impeached. This is how American constitutional democracy is supposed to work. But Indivisibles know this isn't the end of the end of the fight. The House did it's job, now it's time for the Senate to do theirs.
"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is publicly threatening to orchestrate a sham trial - a cover up to protect Trump. But he can't do that on his own - he will need to convince his fellow Republican Senators to go along with his plan.
"So Indivisibles now turn their focus to convincing Republican Senators to prioritize their democracy over their party. Those who stand up for the constitution will be paraded in the streets. But any Senator who goes along with McConnell's cover up will never live this down - and whether in 2020, 2022, or 2024, they will answer for their complicity. History is watching, and so are their constituents."
Indivisible Project (501c4) drives coordinated campaigns, powering the grassroots Indivisible movement to defeat the rightwing takeover of American government and win an inclusive democracy and bold progressive policies.
LATEST NEWS
'Threat to the Nation': Trump Calls for Protests to Stop Potential Arrest in Echo of Jan. 6
Trump has recently "excused or dismissed the violence of January 6," one journalist warned. "He is an authoritarian willing to (again) use violence for his own ends."
Mar 18, 2023
Former U.S. President Donald Trump claimed Saturday on his social media platform that he "will be arrested" on Tuesday and implored his supporters to "protest" and "take our nation back," sparking fears of additional right-wing violence.
Trump's call to action was reminiscent of how, six weeks after losing the 2020 presidential election, he took to Twitter to urge his supporters to join a "big protest" in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021. "Be there, will be wild!" he wrote. Hundreds of far-right insurrectionists showed up and, after Trump told them to march from a rally near the White House to the Capitol, stormed the halls of Congress in a bid to prevent lawmakers from certifying President Joe Biden's win. Multiple people died as a result of the failed coup, which was fueled by Trump and his Republican allies' incessant lies about voter fraud.
Trump is expected to be indicted by a Manhattan grand jury in a criminal case involving hush money paid to women who said they had sexual encounters with the former president, but its timing is unclear.
Just before 7:30 am ET on Saturday, Trump baselessly declared on Truth Social: "Illegal leaks from a corrupt and highly political Manhattan district attorney's office... indicate that, with no crime being able to be proven... the far and away leading Republican candidate and former president of the United States of America will be arrested on Tuesday of next week. Protest, take our nation back!"
Alluding to Trump's prior use of social media to provoke the Capitol attack, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington asked, "Will Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube allow him to use their platforms to incite riots?"
Mother Jones' D.C. bureau chief David Corn, meanwhile, noted that Trump has recently "excused or dismissed the violence of January 6."
"He is an authoritarian willing to (again) use violence for his own ends," Corn tweeted. "That is a threat to the nation."
As HuffPost's senior White House correspondent S.V. Dáte pointed out, "The coup-attempting former president... began inciting civil unrest if prosecutors came after him more than a year ago."
At a January 2022 rally in Texas, Trump promised to pardon January 6 rioters if he wins in 2024 and urged huge protests if prosecutors investigating his effort to subvert the 2020 election and other alleged crimes try to bring charges.
"If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protest we have ever had... in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta, and elsewhere because our country and our elections are corrupt," Trump told a crowd of his supporters 14 months ago.
According toThe New York Times:
Early Saturday morning, there was little evidence yet that Mr. Trump's new demand for protests had been embraced by extremist groups.
But Ali Alexander, a prominent organizer of "Stop the Steal" rallies after the 2020 election, reposted a message on his Telegram channel on Saturday suggesting that he supported mass protest to protect Mr. Trump.
"Previously, I had said if Trump was arrested or under the threat of a perp walk, 100,000 patriots should shut down all routes to Mar-a-Lago," Mr. Alexander wrote. "Now I’m retired. I'll pray for him though!"
Lacking the platform provided by the White House or the machinery of a large political campaign, it is unclear how many people Mr. Trump is able to reach, let alone mobilize, using his Truth Social website.
After the FBI in early August searched Trump's Mar-a-Lago palace and removed boxes of documents as part of a federal probe into the ex-president's handling of classified materials, many anonymous and some well-known reactionaries called for "civil war" on Twitter, patriots.win, and elsewhere.
Three days later, Ricky Shiffer, a Trump loyalist with suspected ties to a far-right extremist group and an unspecified connection to the January 6 insurrection, was shot and killed by police after an hourslong standoff. Shiffer, wielding an AR-15 and a nail gun, allegedly attempted to break into the FBI's Cincinnati office and fled to a nearby field when he was unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, Trump continued to lie about the Mar-a-Lago search on Truth Social, sparking an "unprecedented" surge in threats against FBI personnel and facilities.
As Dáte noted on Saturday morning, many people downplayed warnings issued ahead of the January 6 assault.
"Many of Trump's core supporters want authoritarianism," the journalist tweeted. "They believe in neither democracy nor the rule of law."
As the Times reported:
Although prosecutors working for the [Manhattan] district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, have signaled that an indictment of Mr. Trump could be imminent, there was no immediate indication as to why the former president appeared confident that he would be arrested Tuesday. People with knowledge of the matter have said that at least one more witness is expected to testify in front of the grand jury, which could slightly delay any indictment.
Three people close to Mr. Trump said that the former president's team had no specific knowledge about when an indictment might come or when an arrest could be anticipated. One of those people, who were not authorized to speak publicly, said that Mr. Trump's advisers' best guess was that it could happen around Tuesday, and that someone may have relayed that to him, but that they also had made clear to one another that they didn't know a specific time frame.
Trump is expected to be charged in connection with payments his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to silence adult film actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal—both of whom alleged affairs with Trump—in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.
Cohen has testified that at Trump's direction, he orchestrated payments totaling $280,000 to Daniels and McDougal. According to Cohen, the Trump Organization reimbursed him $420,000 and classified it as a legal fee. Trump's former fixer pleaded guilty to federal campaign violations in 2018.
Trump has so far evaded charges but that could soon change, as prosecutors are expected to accuse Trump of greenlighting the false recording of expenses in his company's internal records.
Citing five unnamed officials familiar with the matter, NBC Newsreported Friday that local, state, and federal law enforcement and security agencies are preparing for the possibility of a Trump indictment as early as next week.
If indicted, Trump would become the first U.S. president to face criminal charges in or out of office. Trump, who has denied all wrongdoing, says that he will keep campaigning regardless of whether he is arrested.
The Manhattan D.A.'s hush money probe is just one of Trump's many legal woes. The twice-impeached president is also facing a state-level criminal investigation in Georgia over his efforts to overturn that state's 2020 election results, as well as federal probes into his coup attempt and his handling of classified government documents.
Nevertheless, Trump is still seen as the front-runner to win the GOP's 2024 nomination.
David Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida, said Saturday morning that if Trump is indicted in New York, "there will be protests here," warning: "You have to worry about potential violence."
He pointed out that questions remain as to whether Trump would surrender to New York authorities or face extradition. Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another authoritarian demagogue who is widely considered Trump's leading rival for the GOP's 2024 nomination, "has to sign off [any] extradition orders," said Aronberg.
The Times noted that if "Trump is arraigned, he will almost certainly be released without spending any time behind bars because the indictment is likely to contain only nonviolent felony charges."
However, The Associated Pressreported that it is not clear when the other investigations into Trump "will end or whether they might result in criminal charges."
"But they will continue regardless of what happens in New York," the outlet explained, "underscoring the ongoing gravity—and broad geographic scope—of the legal challenges confronting the former president."
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'Macron Resign!' French Protests Intensify Over Attempt to Force Retirement Age Hike
"This forced passage with the use of Article 49.3 must be met with a response in line with this show of contempt toward the people," declared one union leader as MPs introduced no-confidence motions.
Mar 17, 2023
Protests in Paris and across France have ramped up since President Emmanuel Macron's government on Thursday used a controversial constitutional measure to force through a pension reform plan without a National Assembly vote.
Fears that the Senate-approved measure—which would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64—did not have enough support to pass the lower house of Parliament led to a Council of Ministers meeting, during which Macron reportedly said that "my political interest would have been to submit to a vote… But I consider that the financial, economic risks are too great at this stage."
"This reform is outrageous, punishing women and the working class, and denying the hardship of those who have the toughest jobs."
After the meeting, French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne announced the decision to go with the "nuclear option," invoking Article 49.3 of the French Constitution—a calculated risk considering the potential for a resulting motion of no-confidence.
Members of Parliament opposed to the overhaul filed a pair of no-confidence motions on Friday, and votes are expected on Monday. Although unlikely, given the current makeup of the legislature, passing such a motion would not only reject the looming pension law but also oust Macron's prime minister and Cabinet, and likely lead to early elections in France.
As Deutsche Wellereported:
"The vote on this motion will allow us to get out on top of a deep political crisis," said the head of the so-called LIOT group Bertrand Pancher, whose motion was co-signed by members of the broad left-wing NUPES coalition.
The far-right National Rally (RN) filed a second motion, but that was expected to get less backing. RN lawmaker Laure Lavalette however said her party would vote for "all" no-confidence motions filed. "What counts is scuppering this unfair reform bill," she said.
Leaders of the Les Republicains (LR) are not sponsoring any such motions. Reutersexplained that individuals in the conservative party "have said they could break ranks, but the no-confidence bill would require all of the other opposition lawmakers and half of LR's 61 lawmakers to go through, which is a tall order."
Still, Green MP Julien Bayou said, "it's maybe the first time that a motion of no-confidence may overthrow the government."
Meanwhile, protests against the pension proposal—which have been happening throughout the year—continue in the streets, with some drawing comparisons to France's "Yellow Vests" movement sparked by fuel prices and economic conditions in 2018.
Not long after Borne's Article 49.3 announcement on Thursday, "protesters began to converge on the sprawling Place de la Concorde in central Paris, a mere bridge away from the heavily guarded National Assembly," according toFrance 24.
As the news outlet detailed:
There were the usual suspects, like leftist firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, thundering against a reform he said had "no legitimacy—neither in Parliament, nor in the street." Unionists were also out in strength, hailing a moral victory even as they denounced Macron's "violation of democracy."
Many more were ordinary protesters who had flocked to the Concorde after class or work. One brandished a giant fork made of cardboard as the crowd chanted "Macron démission" (Macron resign). Another spray-painted an ominous message on a metal barrier—"The shadow of the guillotine is nearing"—in the exact spot where Louis XVI was executed 230 years ago.
Police used tear gas to disperse the Concorde crowd. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin told RTL radio 310 people were arrested nationwide—258 of them in Paris. He said, "The opposition is legitimate, the protests are legitimate, but wreaking havoc is not."
Anna Neiva Cardante is a 23-year-old student whose parents, a bricklayer and a cleaner, "are among those who stand to lose most."
"A vote in the National Assembly was the government’s only chance of securing a measure of legitimacy for its reform," Neiva Cardante told France 24 as police cleared the crowd Thursday. "Now it has a full-blown crisis on its hands."
"This reform is outrageous," she added, "punishing women and the working class, and denying the hardship of those who have the toughest jobs."
Across the French capital early Friday, "traffic, garbage collection, and university campuses in the city were disrupted, as unions threatened open-ended strikes," DW noted. "Elsewhere in the country, striking sanitation workers blocked a waste collection plant that is home to Europe's largest incinerator to underline their determination."
"Article 49.3 constitutes a triple defeat for the executive: popular, political, and moral," declared Laurent Escure, secretary general of the labor union UNSA. "It opens up a new stage for the protests."
The French newspaper Le Mondereported that "the leaders of France's eight main labor unions called for 'local union rallies' on the weekend of March 18 and 19 and for a 'new big day of strikes and demonstrations' on Thursday, March 23."
Philippe Martinez of the CGT union asserted that "this forced passage with the use of Article 49.3 must be met with a response in line with this show of contempt toward the people."
Fellow CGT representative Régis Vieceli vowed that "we are not going to stop," tellingThe Associated Press that flooding the streets and refusing to work is "the only way that we will get them to back down."
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Ilhan Omar Warns 'The Next Iraq Will Be Even Worse'
"Have we fully learned the lessons from this failed war of aggression, or are we doomed to repeat it?" the progressive lawmaker asked on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion.
Mar 17, 2023
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar on Friday marked the upcoming 20th anniversary of the George W. Bush administration's invasion of Iraq—where thousands of U.S. troops remain today—by asking if Americans have learned anything from the "failed war of aggression" and warning that waging another such war will have even more dire consequences.
In a Twitter thread, Omar (D-Minn.) asserted that "20 years later, the Iraq War remains the biggest foreign policy disaster of our generation, one that took thousands of American lives and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives."
As Common Dreamsreported Wednesday, the Costs of War Project at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs estimates as many as 580,000 people were killed in Iraq and Syria since 2003 and nearly 15 million people were made refugees or internally displaced by the war—which is forecast to cost a staggering $2.9 trillion by 2050.
The war was waged—under false pretenses against a country that had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks—by neoconservative Republicans in the Bush administration who since before 9/11 had sought a way to invade Iraq and oust erstwhile ally Saddam Hussein. The horrors of war and occupation included torture, indiscriminate killing, sex crimes, environmental devastation, and soaring birth defects caused by the use of depleted uranium weapons.
What then-White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer called Operation Iraqi Liberation—OIL—devastated much of Iraq but enriched multinational corporations while creating a power vacuum that was eventually filled by Islamic State, whose rise to power in much of Iraq and neighboring Syria led to a second phase of the war launched during the administration of former President Barack Obama that continues today.
"Have we fully learned the lessons from this failed war of aggression, or are we doomed to repeat it?" Omar asked.
"Our foreign policy discourse remains fundamentally pro-war," Omar noted. "Think tanks (often the same ones who cheerled the Iraq War) outflank each other to justify armed conflict and derail diplomacy with adversaries like Iran."
Omar—whom Republicans recently ousted from the House Committee on Foreign Affairs—continued:
Instead of seeing China as a geopolitical challenge to be managed, politicians gin up jingoistic sentiment and nationalism to see who can be the most "anti-China."
Our spending on Pentagon waste and new weapons continues to rise uncontrollably—with weapons contractors wielding more lobbying power than ever in Washington.
Our national media too often treat war as a game—a way to juice ratings as fewer Americans turn into TV news—rather than the most horrific state of conditions to be avoided at all costs.
Claims from senior national security officials are reported as fact, even when no evidence for those claims is presented.
Much like the lost Iraqi lives lost were often ignored 20 years ago, we continue to ignore the pain and suffering of Black and Brown people in places like Syria, Yemen, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Haiti, and more.
"To truly be able to avoid another Iraq, we need a national reckoning with how we got into it the first place," argued Omar, who fled civil war in Somalia with her family when she was a child.
"We need accountability for those who got us into this war," Omar said. "But most of all we need to see all of our lives connected as part of the human fabric—to understand that the parent who loses a child in war could be us, that the child who is displaced could be our child."
"Because the next Iraq," she added, "will be even worse."
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