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Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) participates in the vice presidential debate against U.S. Vice President Mike Pence at the University of Utah on October 7, 2020 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The vice presidential candidates only meet once to debate before the general election on November 3. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
'Fracking Is Bad, Actually': Ocasio-Cortez Interjects After Harris Falters Over Pence Attack on Green New Deal
"Kamala is doing well," said one climate movement leader, "but she'd be on even stronger ground if Biden had *endorsed* the Green New Deal. Far better to play offense than having to do this in-between approach."
Oct 07, 2020
Even as Vice President Mike Pence was busy "polluting the atmosphere with lies" about the climate crisis during Wednesday night's vice presidential debate, Democratic nominee Sen. Kamala Harris came under considerable criticism of her own after repeatedly highlighting Joe Biden's commitment to "not ban fracking" and an overall lackluster defense of the Green New Deal--the signature framework put forth by progressives and the scientific community to combat the threat of a rapidly warming world.
"Fracking is bad, actually," tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) after Harris repeatedly proclaimed, in response to Pence's charge that Democrats want to "abolish fossil fuels," that a Biden administration would not ban hydraulic fracturing.
Watch:
\u201cSen. Kamala Harris: "Joe Biden will not ban fracking. That is a fact. That is a fact." #VPDebate\u201d— The Hill (@The Hill) 1602121847
While Pence attacked Harris' support for the Green New Deal, which she co-sponsored in the U.S. Senate, backers of the proposal--a plan that would combat the existential planetary emergency by making major investments in renewable energy infrastructure projects that would create millions of jobs--pointed out that ending destructive fossil fuel extraction, including fracking, is a policy to embrace not run away from.
\u201cSo what IS the Green New Deal, anyway?\u201d— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) 1602125762
Outside observers also offered advice to the Biden campaign to step up its game if the Trump-Pence ticket is going to make attacking the Green New Deal part of its re-election strategy.
\u201cTHE GREEN NEW DEAL IS A JOBS PROGRAM.\n\nIT WOULD CREATE 20 MILLION JOBS.\n\nIT IS A GOOD THING.\n\n#Debates2020\u201d— Briahna Joy Gray (@Briahna Joy Gray) 1602121509
And as Ocasio-Cortez subsequently tweeted, the Green New Deal remains not only popular, but essential:
\u201cThe Green New Deal is and has been lied about nonstop, and yet is STILL popular.\n\nIt\u2019s a massive job-creation and infrastructure plan to decarbonize & increase quality of work and life.\n\nIt\u2019s okay to call the GOP out on those lies just as we call them out on all their other lies.\u201d— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) 1602121684
"Kamala is doing well," said Jamie Henn, co-founder of 350.org and director of Fossil Free Media, "but she'd be on even stronger ground if Biden had *endorsed* the Green New Deal. Far better to play offense than having to do this in-between approach."
\u201cMajority of Pennsylvanians oppose fracking. \n\nBiden-Harris are pandering to a minority of voters here https://t.co/EmlNtRAmgv\u201d— Mike Elk (@Mike Elk) 1602121549
\u201cFracking sucks.\n\nIt poisons people. \n\nIt generates earthquakes.\n\nIt destroys the land.\n\n#BanFracking #VPDebate2020\u201d— Peter Daou (@Peter Daou) 1602121561
According to Waleed Shahid of the Justice Democrats, "I feel like Kamala Harris over-corrected way too much after being being attacked as the 'liberal Senator of California' on her climate crisis responses."
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Even as Vice President Mike Pence was busy "polluting the atmosphere with lies" about the climate crisis during Wednesday night's vice presidential debate, Democratic nominee Sen. Kamala Harris came under considerable criticism of her own after repeatedly highlighting Joe Biden's commitment to "not ban fracking" and an overall lackluster defense of the Green New Deal--the signature framework put forth by progressives and the scientific community to combat the threat of a rapidly warming world.
"Fracking is bad, actually," tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) after Harris repeatedly proclaimed, in response to Pence's charge that Democrats want to "abolish fossil fuels," that a Biden administration would not ban hydraulic fracturing.
Watch:
\u201cSen. Kamala Harris: "Joe Biden will not ban fracking. That is a fact. That is a fact." #VPDebate\u201d— The Hill (@The Hill) 1602121847
While Pence attacked Harris' support for the Green New Deal, which she co-sponsored in the U.S. Senate, backers of the proposal--a plan that would combat the existential planetary emergency by making major investments in renewable energy infrastructure projects that would create millions of jobs--pointed out that ending destructive fossil fuel extraction, including fracking, is a policy to embrace not run away from.
\u201cSo what IS the Green New Deal, anyway?\u201d— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) 1602125762
Outside observers also offered advice to the Biden campaign to step up its game if the Trump-Pence ticket is going to make attacking the Green New Deal part of its re-election strategy.
\u201cTHE GREEN NEW DEAL IS A JOBS PROGRAM.\n\nIT WOULD CREATE 20 MILLION JOBS.\n\nIT IS A GOOD THING.\n\n#Debates2020\u201d— Briahna Joy Gray (@Briahna Joy Gray) 1602121509
And as Ocasio-Cortez subsequently tweeted, the Green New Deal remains not only popular, but essential:
\u201cThe Green New Deal is and has been lied about nonstop, and yet is STILL popular.\n\nIt\u2019s a massive job-creation and infrastructure plan to decarbonize & increase quality of work and life.\n\nIt\u2019s okay to call the GOP out on those lies just as we call them out on all their other lies.\u201d— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) 1602121684
"Kamala is doing well," said Jamie Henn, co-founder of 350.org and director of Fossil Free Media, "but she'd be on even stronger ground if Biden had *endorsed* the Green New Deal. Far better to play offense than having to do this in-between approach."
\u201cMajority of Pennsylvanians oppose fracking. \n\nBiden-Harris are pandering to a minority of voters here https://t.co/EmlNtRAmgv\u201d— Mike Elk (@Mike Elk) 1602121549
\u201cFracking sucks.\n\nIt poisons people. \n\nIt generates earthquakes.\n\nIt destroys the land.\n\n#BanFracking #VPDebate2020\u201d— Peter Daou (@Peter Daou) 1602121561
According to Waleed Shahid of the Justice Democrats, "I feel like Kamala Harris over-corrected way too much after being being attacked as the 'liberal Senator of California' on her climate crisis responses."
Even as Vice President Mike Pence was busy "polluting the atmosphere with lies" about the climate crisis during Wednesday night's vice presidential debate, Democratic nominee Sen. Kamala Harris came under considerable criticism of her own after repeatedly highlighting Joe Biden's commitment to "not ban fracking" and an overall lackluster defense of the Green New Deal--the signature framework put forth by progressives and the scientific community to combat the threat of a rapidly warming world.
"Fracking is bad, actually," tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) after Harris repeatedly proclaimed, in response to Pence's charge that Democrats want to "abolish fossil fuels," that a Biden administration would not ban hydraulic fracturing.
Watch:
\u201cSen. Kamala Harris: "Joe Biden will not ban fracking. That is a fact. That is a fact." #VPDebate\u201d— The Hill (@The Hill) 1602121847
While Pence attacked Harris' support for the Green New Deal, which she co-sponsored in the U.S. Senate, backers of the proposal--a plan that would combat the existential planetary emergency by making major investments in renewable energy infrastructure projects that would create millions of jobs--pointed out that ending destructive fossil fuel extraction, including fracking, is a policy to embrace not run away from.
\u201cSo what IS the Green New Deal, anyway?\u201d— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) 1602125762
Outside observers also offered advice to the Biden campaign to step up its game if the Trump-Pence ticket is going to make attacking the Green New Deal part of its re-election strategy.
\u201cTHE GREEN NEW DEAL IS A JOBS PROGRAM.\n\nIT WOULD CREATE 20 MILLION JOBS.\n\nIT IS A GOOD THING.\n\n#Debates2020\u201d— Briahna Joy Gray (@Briahna Joy Gray) 1602121509
And as Ocasio-Cortez subsequently tweeted, the Green New Deal remains not only popular, but essential:
\u201cThe Green New Deal is and has been lied about nonstop, and yet is STILL popular.\n\nIt\u2019s a massive job-creation and infrastructure plan to decarbonize & increase quality of work and life.\n\nIt\u2019s okay to call the GOP out on those lies just as we call them out on all their other lies.\u201d— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) 1602121684
"Kamala is doing well," said Jamie Henn, co-founder of 350.org and director of Fossil Free Media, "but she'd be on even stronger ground if Biden had *endorsed* the Green New Deal. Far better to play offense than having to do this in-between approach."
\u201cMajority of Pennsylvanians oppose fracking. \n\nBiden-Harris are pandering to a minority of voters here https://t.co/EmlNtRAmgv\u201d— Mike Elk (@Mike Elk) 1602121549
\u201cFracking sucks.\n\nIt poisons people. \n\nIt generates earthquakes.\n\nIt destroys the land.\n\n#BanFracking #VPDebate2020\u201d— Peter Daou (@Peter Daou) 1602121561
According to Waleed Shahid of the Justice Democrats, "I feel like Kamala Harris over-corrected way too much after being being attacked as the 'liberal Senator of California' on her climate crisis responses."
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LATEST NEWS
Trump Calls Tariff Madness a 'Beautiful Thing to Behold' as Global Markets Crater
"If the 4.8% fall in S&P 500 futures at the Asian opening isn't reversed, then it's on course for its worst three-day selloff since the Black Monday crash of October 1987."
Apr 07, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump late Sunday openly embraced the global chaos sparked by his sweeping tariffs, careening headlong into a potentially catastrophic trade war as worldwide financial markets plummeted and American retirees began to panic.
In a post on his social media platform, Trump declared that his tariffs are "already in effect, and a beautiful thing to behold."
"Some day people will realize that Tariffs, for the United States of America, are a very beautiful thing!" Trump wrote as recent retirees and people near retirement expressed fear and astonishment at the swift damage the president's policy decisions have done to their investment accounts.
One retiree, a 68-year-old former occupational health worker in New Jersey, told NBC News that she is "just kind of stunned, and with so much money in the market, we just sort of have to hope we have enough time to recover."
"What we've been doing is trying to enjoy the time that we have, but you want to be able to make it last," the retiree, identified as Paula, said on Friday. "I have no confidence here."
Trump's post doubling down on his tariff regime came as Asian markets cratered and U.S. stock futures opened bright red, signaling that Monday will bring another broad sell-off in equities. One of Trump's top economic advisers claimed in a Sunday interview that the president is not intentionally crashing the stock market, even as Trump—returning from a weekend golf outing in Florida—characterized the tariffs as "medicine."
"I don't want anything to go down," the president said. "But sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something."
Bloomberg's John Authers wrote early Sunday that "if the 4.8% fall in S&P 500 futures at the Asian opening isn't reversed, then it's on course for its worst three-day selloff since the Black Monday crash of October 1987."
Though the stock market and the economy are not synonymous, economist Josh Bivens recently noted that they are currently "mirroring each other: Stock market weakness is reflecting broader economic weakness."
"While the stock market isn't the economy, the stock market declines we have seen in recent weeks are genuinely worrying," wrote Bivens, the chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute. "They are a symptom of much larger dysfunctional macroeconomic policy that will likely soon start showing up in higher unemployment and slower wage growth for the vast majority."
'Totally Lawless': Judge Orders Trump to Return Man Sent to El Salvador Prison in 'Error'
"This was an illegal act," said U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis.
Apr 06, 2025
A federal court judge on Sunday declared the Trump administration's refusal to return a man they sent to an El Salvadoran prison in "error" as "totally lawless" behavior and ordered the Department of Homeland Security to repatriate the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, within 24 hours.
In a 22-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis doubled down on an order issued Friday, which Department of Justice lawyers representing the administration said was an affront to his executive authority.
"This was an illegal act," Xinis said of DHS Secretary Krisi Noem's attack on Abrego Garcia's rights, including his deportation and imprisonment.
"Defendants seized Abrego Garcia without any lawful authority; held him in three separate domestic detention centers without legal basis; failed to present him to any immigration judge or officer; and forcibly transported him to El Salvador in direct contravention of [immigration law]," the decision states.
Once imprisoned in El Salvador, the order continues, "U.S. officials secured his detention in a facility that, by design, deprives its detainees of adequate food, water, and shelter, fosters routine violence; and places him with his persecutors."
Trump's DOJ appealed Friday's order to 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Virginia, but that court has not yet ruled on the request to stay the order from Xinis, which says Abrego Garcia should be returned to the United States no later than Monday.
Trump Escalates 'Illegal' and 'Immoral' Push for IRS Data to Fuel Mass Deportations
"You'd be a fool to think Trump won't go after others he dislikes," warned Sen. Ron Wyden, "including American citizens."
Apr 06, 2025
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon slammed the Trump administration over the weekend in response to fresh reporting that the Department of Homeland Security has intensified its push for access to confidential data held by the Internal Revenue Service—part of a sweeping effort to target immigrant workers who pay into the U.S. tax system yet get little or nothing in return.
Wyden denounced the effort, which had the fingerprints of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, all over it.
"What Trump and Musk's henchmen are doing by weaponizing taxpayer data is illegal, this abuse of the immigrant community is a moral atrocity, and you'd be a fool to think Trump won't go after others he dislikes, including American citizens," said Wyden, ranking member of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, on Saturday.
Last week, the White House admitted one of the men it has sent to a prison in El Salvador was detained and deported in schackles in "error." Despite the admitted mistake, and facing a lawsuit for his immediate return, the Trump administration says a federal court has no authority over the president to make such an order.
"Even though the Trump administration claims it's focused on undocumented immigrants, it's obvious that they do not care when they make mistakes and ruin the lives of legal residents and American citizens in the process," Wyden continued. "A repressive scheme on the scale of what they're talking about at the IRS would lead to hundreds if not thousands of those horrific mistakes, and the people who are disappeared as a result may never be returned to their families."
According to the Washington Post reporting on Saturday:
Federal immigration officials are seeking to locate up to 7 million people suspected of being in the United States unlawfully by accessing confidential tax data at the Internal Revenue Service, according to six people familiar with the request, a dramatic escalation in how the Trump administration aims to use the tax system to detain and deport immigrants.
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security had previously sought the IRS’s help in finding 700,000 people who are subject to final removal orders, and they had asked the IRS to use closely guarded taxpayer data systems to provide names and addresses.
As the Post notes, it would be highly unusual, and quite possibly unlawful, for the IRS to share such confidential data. "Normally," the newspaper reports, "personal tax information—even an individual's name and address—is considered confidential and closely guarded within the IRS."
Wyden warned that those who violate the law by disclosing personal tax data face the risk of civil sanction or even prosecution.
"While Trump's sycophants and the DOGE boys may be a lost cause," Wyden said, "IRS personnel need to think long and hard about whether they want to be a part of an effort to round up innocent people and send them to be locked away in foreign torture prisons."
"I'm sure Trump has promised pardons to the people who will commit crimes in the process of abusing legally-protected taxpayer data, but violations of taxpayer privacy laws carry hefty civil penalties too, and Trump cannot pardon anybody out from under those," he said. "I'm going to demand answers from the acting IRS commissioner immediately about this outrageous abuse of the agency.”
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