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Protesters gather during a rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on January 10, 2018 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The right to vote is the essential foundation of democracy. Yet today, across America, there is a systematic campaign by one party to curtail the right to vote, targeted particularly at minorities and the young.
As the Brennan Center for Justice reports, Republicans have introduced more than 250 legislative bills in 43 states that would make voting more difficult.
The campaign is propelled by the big lie spread by Donald Trump that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. Republicans claim to be intent on restoring people's confidence in the election system. In fact, Trump's lies were refuted by state Republican election officials, by federal courts, many presided over by Trump-appointed judges, and by Trump's own attorney general.
Republican senators and legislators and elected state officials do not question the legitimacy of their victories. Yet they are now using Trump's big lie as the rationale for suppressing the right to vote.
Many of the legislative changes are surgically targeted to impact Black and minority voters. In Georgia, for example, Republicans are pushing legislation to limit early in-person voting days, to end no-excuse mail voting (except for voters over 65, who tend to vote Republican), and to limit the hours that mail ballot drop boxes will be open. They even seek to end Sunday in-person voting in the weeks leading up to the election, to curtail the "souls to the polls" efforts by Black churches to encourage civic participation.
Georgia election officials notoriously cut the number of polling stations, particularly in Fulton County, where Black voters are concentrated. That forced voters to wait for hours in long lines to cast a vote. That, of course, made it more difficult for workers and those who were ailing to vote. Now to make it even harder, Republican legislators seek to prohibit volunteers from giving water and food to those waiting in line. Lines themselves are a national disgrace. The ban on water and food is an offense against basic decency.
One of the first objectives of the civil rights movement was passage of the Voting Rights Act, mandating federal protection of the right to vote, and prior federal review of changes that would discriminate against African Americans.
Today's Republicans--the modern-day Confederates--are brazen in their efforts to ensure that only the "right" people vote. The gang of five right-wing justices on the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, opening the floodgates to discriminatory state restrictions. The election in 2022 will be the first post-census election since the gutting of the Voting Rights Act. And Republicans are once more intent on making it harder for minorities to vote.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed essential legislation--H.R. 1, the For the People Act--to provide federal standards to elections to federal office. H.R. 1 (labeled S1 in the Senate) would provide for automatic voter registration and same-day voter registration. It would mandate a minimum of 15 days for early voting, with polls open at least 10 hours per day so that workers might have a chance to vote. It would limit purges of voting rolls.
The new law would require nonpartisan citizen commissions to do redistricting after a new census. It would require super PACs and "dark money" operations to disclose their donors. It would provide matching grants for small donations, reducing the force of big money in our elections.
These are simply common-sense standards for a clean election system. Yet Republicans furiously denounce them, and Senate Republicans promise to filibuster against the act, blocking its passage unless Democrats can unify around suspending the filibuster in order to allow the majority to pass it.
Over the last years, America has become increasingly polarized politically. But democracy--and the right to vote--must be above partisanship. There ought to be universal support for creating an election system that makes voting easy, limits big money and requires nonpartisan redistricting. It is shameful that the efforts to suppress the vote of African Americans and others that were perfected under segregation are being revived in a new guise in the 21st century.
Americans must mobilize to demand that the Senate pass H.R. 1 to protect the right to vote. And whether it passes or not, African Americans, Latinos, the young should see the efforts to suppress their vote as the insult that it is. And we should mobilize to vote in large numbers--overcoming whatever barriers are put in our way--to reaffirm our democratic rights, and to hold accountable those who would try to trample them.
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The right to vote is the essential foundation of democracy. Yet today, across America, there is a systematic campaign by one party to curtail the right to vote, targeted particularly at minorities and the young.
As the Brennan Center for Justice reports, Republicans have introduced more than 250 legislative bills in 43 states that would make voting more difficult.
The campaign is propelled by the big lie spread by Donald Trump that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. Republicans claim to be intent on restoring people's confidence in the election system. In fact, Trump's lies were refuted by state Republican election officials, by federal courts, many presided over by Trump-appointed judges, and by Trump's own attorney general.
Republican senators and legislators and elected state officials do not question the legitimacy of their victories. Yet they are now using Trump's big lie as the rationale for suppressing the right to vote.
Many of the legislative changes are surgically targeted to impact Black and minority voters. In Georgia, for example, Republicans are pushing legislation to limit early in-person voting days, to end no-excuse mail voting (except for voters over 65, who tend to vote Republican), and to limit the hours that mail ballot drop boxes will be open. They even seek to end Sunday in-person voting in the weeks leading up to the election, to curtail the "souls to the polls" efforts by Black churches to encourage civic participation.
Georgia election officials notoriously cut the number of polling stations, particularly in Fulton County, where Black voters are concentrated. That forced voters to wait for hours in long lines to cast a vote. That, of course, made it more difficult for workers and those who were ailing to vote. Now to make it even harder, Republican legislators seek to prohibit volunteers from giving water and food to those waiting in line. Lines themselves are a national disgrace. The ban on water and food is an offense against basic decency.
One of the first objectives of the civil rights movement was passage of the Voting Rights Act, mandating federal protection of the right to vote, and prior federal review of changes that would discriminate against African Americans.
Today's Republicans--the modern-day Confederates--are brazen in their efforts to ensure that only the "right" people vote. The gang of five right-wing justices on the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, opening the floodgates to discriminatory state restrictions. The election in 2022 will be the first post-census election since the gutting of the Voting Rights Act. And Republicans are once more intent on making it harder for minorities to vote.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed essential legislation--H.R. 1, the For the People Act--to provide federal standards to elections to federal office. H.R. 1 (labeled S1 in the Senate) would provide for automatic voter registration and same-day voter registration. It would mandate a minimum of 15 days for early voting, with polls open at least 10 hours per day so that workers might have a chance to vote. It would limit purges of voting rolls.
The new law would require nonpartisan citizen commissions to do redistricting after a new census. It would require super PACs and "dark money" operations to disclose their donors. It would provide matching grants for small donations, reducing the force of big money in our elections.
These are simply common-sense standards for a clean election system. Yet Republicans furiously denounce them, and Senate Republicans promise to filibuster against the act, blocking its passage unless Democrats can unify around suspending the filibuster in order to allow the majority to pass it.
Over the last years, America has become increasingly polarized politically. But democracy--and the right to vote--must be above partisanship. There ought to be universal support for creating an election system that makes voting easy, limits big money and requires nonpartisan redistricting. It is shameful that the efforts to suppress the vote of African Americans and others that were perfected under segregation are being revived in a new guise in the 21st century.
Americans must mobilize to demand that the Senate pass H.R. 1 to protect the right to vote. And whether it passes or not, African Americans, Latinos, the young should see the efforts to suppress their vote as the insult that it is. And we should mobilize to vote in large numbers--overcoming whatever barriers are put in our way--to reaffirm our democratic rights, and to hold accountable those who would try to trample them.
The right to vote is the essential foundation of democracy. Yet today, across America, there is a systematic campaign by one party to curtail the right to vote, targeted particularly at minorities and the young.
As the Brennan Center for Justice reports, Republicans have introduced more than 250 legislative bills in 43 states that would make voting more difficult.
The campaign is propelled by the big lie spread by Donald Trump that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. Republicans claim to be intent on restoring people's confidence in the election system. In fact, Trump's lies were refuted by state Republican election officials, by federal courts, many presided over by Trump-appointed judges, and by Trump's own attorney general.
Republican senators and legislators and elected state officials do not question the legitimacy of their victories. Yet they are now using Trump's big lie as the rationale for suppressing the right to vote.
Many of the legislative changes are surgically targeted to impact Black and minority voters. In Georgia, for example, Republicans are pushing legislation to limit early in-person voting days, to end no-excuse mail voting (except for voters over 65, who tend to vote Republican), and to limit the hours that mail ballot drop boxes will be open. They even seek to end Sunday in-person voting in the weeks leading up to the election, to curtail the "souls to the polls" efforts by Black churches to encourage civic participation.
Georgia election officials notoriously cut the number of polling stations, particularly in Fulton County, where Black voters are concentrated. That forced voters to wait for hours in long lines to cast a vote. That, of course, made it more difficult for workers and those who were ailing to vote. Now to make it even harder, Republican legislators seek to prohibit volunteers from giving water and food to those waiting in line. Lines themselves are a national disgrace. The ban on water and food is an offense against basic decency.
One of the first objectives of the civil rights movement was passage of the Voting Rights Act, mandating federal protection of the right to vote, and prior federal review of changes that would discriminate against African Americans.
Today's Republicans--the modern-day Confederates--are brazen in their efforts to ensure that only the "right" people vote. The gang of five right-wing justices on the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, opening the floodgates to discriminatory state restrictions. The election in 2022 will be the first post-census election since the gutting of the Voting Rights Act. And Republicans are once more intent on making it harder for minorities to vote.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed essential legislation--H.R. 1, the For the People Act--to provide federal standards to elections to federal office. H.R. 1 (labeled S1 in the Senate) would provide for automatic voter registration and same-day voter registration. It would mandate a minimum of 15 days for early voting, with polls open at least 10 hours per day so that workers might have a chance to vote. It would limit purges of voting rolls.
The new law would require nonpartisan citizen commissions to do redistricting after a new census. It would require super PACs and "dark money" operations to disclose their donors. It would provide matching grants for small donations, reducing the force of big money in our elections.
These are simply common-sense standards for a clean election system. Yet Republicans furiously denounce them, and Senate Republicans promise to filibuster against the act, blocking its passage unless Democrats can unify around suspending the filibuster in order to allow the majority to pass it.
Over the last years, America has become increasingly polarized politically. But democracy--and the right to vote--must be above partisanship. There ought to be universal support for creating an election system that makes voting easy, limits big money and requires nonpartisan redistricting. It is shameful that the efforts to suppress the vote of African Americans and others that were perfected under segregation are being revived in a new guise in the 21st century.
Americans must mobilize to demand that the Senate pass H.R. 1 to protect the right to vote. And whether it passes or not, African Americans, Latinos, the young should see the efforts to suppress their vote as the insult that it is. And we should mobilize to vote in large numbers--overcoming whatever barriers are put in our way--to reaffirm our democratic rights, and to hold accountable those who would try to trample them.
"President Trump's deal to take a $400 million luxury jet from a foreign government deserves full public scrutiny—not a stiff-arm from the Department of Justice," said the head of one watchdog group.
With preparations to refit a Qatari jet to be used as Air Force One "underway," a press freedom group sued the U.S. Department of Justice in federal court on Monday for failing to release the DOJ memorandum about the legality of President Donald Trump accepting the $400 million "flying palace."
The Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), represented by nonpartisan watchdog American Oversight, filed the lawsuit seeking the memo, which was reportedly approved by the Office of Legal Counsel and signed by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who previously lobbied on behalf of the Qatari government.
FPF had submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the memo on May 15, and the DOJ told the group that fulfilling it would take over 600 days.
"How many flights could Trump have taken on his new plane in the same amount of time it would have taken the DOJ to release this one document?"
"It shouldn't take 620 days to release a single, time-sensitive document," said Lauren Harper, FPF's Daniel Ellsberg chair on government secrecy, in a Monday statement. "How many flights could Trump have taken on his new plane in the same amount of time it would have taken the DOJ to release this one document?"
The complaint—filed in the District of Columbia—notes that the airplane is set to be donated to Trump's private presidential library foundation after his second term. Harper said that "the government's inability to administer FOIA makes it too easy for agencies to keep secrets, and nonexistent disclosure rules around donations to presidential libraries provide easy cover for bad actors and potential corruption."
It's not just FPF sounding the alarm about the aircraft. The complaint points out that "a number of stakeholders, including ethics experts and several GOP lawmakers, have questioned the propriety and legality of the move, including whether acceptance of the plane would violate the U.S. Constitution's foreign emoluments clause... which prohibits a president from receiving gifts or benefits from foreign governments without the consent of Congress."
Some opponents of the "comically corrupt" so-called gift stressed that it came after the Trump Organization, the Saudi partner DarGlobal, and a company owned by the Qatari government reached a deal to build a luxury golf resort in Qatar.
Despite some initial GOP criticism of the president taking the aircraft, just hours after the Trump administration formally accepted the jet in May, U.S. Senate Republicans thwarted an attempt by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to pass by unanimous consent legislation intended to prevent a foreign plane from serving as Air Force One.
"Although President Trump characterized the deal as a smart business decision, remarking that it would be 'stupid' not to accept 'a free, very expensive airplane,' experts have noted that it will be costly to retrofit the jet for use as Air Force One, with estimatesranging from less than $400 million to more than $1 billion," the complaint states.
As The New York Times reported Sunday:
Officially, and conveniently, the price tag has been classified. But even by Washington standards, where "black budgets" are often used as an excuse to avoid revealing the cost of outdated spy satellites and lavish end-of-year parties, the techniques being used to hide the cost of Mr. Trump's pet project are inventive.
Which may explain why no one wants to discuss a mysterious, $934 million transfer of funds from one of the Pentagon's most over-budget, out-of-control projects—the modernization of America's aging, ground-based nuclear missiles...
Air Force officials privately concede that they are paying for renovations of the Qatari Air Force One with the transfer from another the massively-over-budget, behind-schedule program, called the Sentinel.
Preparations to refit the plane "are underway, and floor plans or schematics have been seen by senior U.S. officials," according to Monday reporting by CBS News. One unnamed budget official who spoke to the outlet also "believes the money to pay for upgrades will come from the Sentinel program."
Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight, said Monday that "President Trump's deal to take a $400 million luxury jet from a foreign government deserves full public scrutiny—not a stiff-arm from the Department of Justice."
"This is precisely the kind of corrupt arrangement that public records laws are designed to expose," Chukwu added. "The DOJ cannot sit on its hands and expect the American people to wait years for the truth while serious questions about corruption, self-dealing, and foreign influence go unanswered."
The complaint highlights that "Bondi's decision not to recuse herself from this matter, despite her links to the Qatari government, adds to a growing body of questionable ethical practices that have arisen during her short tenure as attorney general."
It also emphasizes that "the Qatari jet is just one in a list of current and prospective extravagant donations to President Trump's presidential library foundation that has raised significant questions about the use of private foundation donations to improperly influence government policy."
"Notably, ABC News and Paramount each agreed to resolve cases President Trump filed against the media entities by paying multimillion-dollar settlements to the Trump presidential library foundation, with Paramount's $16 million agreed payout coming at the same time it sought government approval for a planned merger with Skydance," the filing details. "On July 24, the Federal Communications Commission announced its approval of the $8 billion merger."
"The Trump regime just handed Christian nationalists a loaded weapon: your federal workplace," said one critic.
The Trump administration issued a memo Monday allowing federal employees to proselytize in the workplace, a move welcomed by many conservatives but denounced by proponents of the separation of church and state.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) memo "provides clear guidance to ensure federal employees may express their religious beliefs through prayer, personal items, group gatherings, and conversations without fear of discrimination or retaliation."
"Employees must be allowed to engage in private religious expression in work areas to the same extent that they may engage in nonreligious private expression," the memo states.
Federal workers "should be permitted to display and use items used for religious purposes or icons of a religiously significant nature, including but not limited to bibles, artwork, jewelry, posters displaying religious messages, and other indicia of religion (such as crosses, crucifixes, and mezuzahs) on their desks, on their person, and in their assigned workspaces," the document continues.
"Employees may engage in conversations regarding religious topics with fellow employees, including attempting to persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views, provided that such efforts are not harassing in nature," OPM said—without elaborating on what constitutes harassment.
"These shocking changes essentially permit workplace evangelizing."
"Employees may also encourage their coworkers to participate in religious expressions of faith, such as prayer, to the same extent that they would be permitted to encourage coworkers participate in other personal activities," the memo adds.
OPM Director Scott Kupor said in a statement that "federal employees should never have to choose between their faith and their career."
"This guidance ensures the federal workplace is not just compliant with the law but welcoming to Americans of all faiths," Kupor added. "Under President [Donald] Trump's leadership, we are restoring constitutional freedoms and making government a place where people of faith are respected, not sidelined."
The OPM memo was widely applauded by conservative social media users—although some were dismayed that the new rules also apply to Muslims.
Critics, however, blasted what the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) called "a gift to evangelicals and the myth of 'anti-Christian bias.'"
FFRF co-president Laurie Gaylor said that "these shocking changes essentially permit workplace evangelizing, but worse still, allow supervisors to evangelize underlings and federal workers to proselytize the public they serve."
"This is the implementation of Christian nationalism in our federal government," Gaylor added.
The Secular Coalition for America denounced the memo as "another effort to grant privileges to certain religions while ignoring nonreligious people's rights."
Monday's memo follows another issued by Kupor on July 16 that encouraged federal agencies to take a "generous approach" to evaluating government employees who request telework and other flexibilities due to their religious beliefs.
The OPM directives follow the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 Groff v. DeJoy ruling, in which the court's right-wing majority declared that Article VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 "requires an employer that denies a religious accommodation to show that the burden of granting an accommodation would result in substantial increased costs in relation to the conduct of its particular business."
The new memo also comes on the heels of three religion-based executive orders issued by Trump during his second term. One order established a White House Faith Office tasked with ensuring religious organizations have a voice in the federal government. Another seeks to "eradicate" what Trump claims is the "anti-Christian weaponization of government." Yet another created a Religious Liberty Commission meant to promote and protect religious freedom.
Awda Hathaleen was described as "a teacher and an activist who struggled courageously for his people."
A Palestinian peace activist has been fatally shot by a notorious Israeli settler who was once the subject of sanctions that were lifted this year by U.S. President Donald Trump.
In June, Awda Hathaleen—an English teacher, activist, and former soccer player from the occupied West Bank—was detained alongside his cousin Eid at the airport in San Francisco, where they were about to embark on an interfaith speaking tour organized by the California-based Kehilla Community Synagogue.
Ben Linder, co-chair of the Silicon Valley chapter of J Street and the organizer of Eid and Awda's first scheduled speaking engagement told Middle East Eye that he'd known the two cousins for 10 years, describing them as "true nonviolent peace activists" who "came here on an interfaith peace-promoting mission."
Without explanation from U.S. authorities, they were deported and returned to their village of Umm al-Khair in the South Hebron Hills.
On Monday afternoon, the activist group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) reported on social media that Awda Hathaleen had been killed after Israeli settlers attacked his village and that a relative of his was also severely injured:
Activists working with Awda report that Israeli settlers invaded Umm al-Kheir with a bulldozer to destroy what little remains of the Palestinian village. As Awda and his family tried to defend their homes and land, a settler opened fire—both aiming directly and shooting indiscriminately. Awda was shot in the chest and later died from his injuries after being taken by an Israeli ambulance. His death was the result of brutal settler violence.
Later, when Awda's relative Ahmad al-Hathaleen tried to block the bulldozer, the settler driving it ran him over. Ahmad is now being treated in a nearby hospital.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz later confirmed these events, adding:
An eyewitness reported that the entry of Israeli settlers into Palestinian private lands, riding an excavator, caused a commotion, and the vehicle subsequently struck a resident named Ahmad Hathaleen. "People lost their minds, and the children threw stones," he said.
A friend and fellow activist, Mohammad Hureini, posted the video of the attack online. The settler who fired the gun has been identified by Haaretz as Yinon Levi, who has previously been hit—along with other settlers—with sanctions by former U.S. President Joe Biden's administration and other governments over his past harassment of Palestinians in the West Bank.
As the Biden State Department wrote at the time:
Levi consistently leads a group of settlers who attack Palestinians, set fire to their fields, destroy their property, and threaten them with further harm if they do not leave their homes.
The sanctions were later lifted by U.S. President Donald Trump. However, they'd already been rendered virtually ineffective after the intervention of far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has expressed a desire to ethnically cleanse Gaza and the West Bank of Palestinians to make way for Jewish settlements.
Brooklyn-based journalist Jasper Nathaniel, who has covered other cases of settler violence for Zeteo described Levi as "a known terrorist who's been protected by the Israeli government for years," adding that, "One of the only good things Biden did for Palestine was sanction him."
Violence by Israeli settlers in the illegally-occupied West Bank has risen sharply since the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas and the subsequent 21-month military campaign by Israel in Gaza.
Nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by settlers during that time. More than 6,400 have been forcibly displaced following the demolition of their homes by Israel, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The killing of Awda Hathaleen—who had a wife and three young children—has been met with outpourings of grief and anger from his fellow peace activists in the United States, Israel, and Palestine.
Issa Amro, the Hebron-based co-founder of the grassroots group Youth Against Settlements, described Awda as a "beloved hero."
"Awda stood with dignity and courage against oppression," Amro said. "His loss is a deep wound to our hearts and our struggle for justice."
Israeli journalist and filmmaker Yuval Abraham, who last year directed the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land about the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, described Awda Hathaleen as "a remarkable activist," and thanked him for helping his team shoot the film in Masafer Yatta.
"To know Awda Hathaleen is to love him," said the post from JVP announcing his death. "Awda has always been a pillar amongst his family, his village and the wider international community of activists who had the pleasure to meet Awda."
Israeli-American peace activist Mattan Berner-Kadish wrote: "May his memory be a revolution. I will remember him smiling, laughing, dreaming of a better future for his children. We must make it so."