March, 20 2018, 05:45pm EDT
44 Senators Made History by Voting to End Illegal US War in Yemen
In first-ever vote on withdrawing U.S. armed forces from an unauthorized war, 44 Senators voted to withdraw U.S. troops from the Saudi-led war in Yemen.
WASHINGTON
FCNL's Legislative Director on Middle East Policy Kate Gould has issued the following statement:
"Today, 44 senators made history by supporting the first-ever vote on withdrawing U.S. armed forces from an unauthorized war. Forty-four senators took an important step toward restoring congressional authority over decisions on war and peace, as required by the Constitution, and toward ending U.S. collusion in the famine-inducing Saudi-led war in Yemen.
On the very same day the Saudi Crown Prince visited the White House and Capitol Hill, this historic vote sent a crystal clear message that U.S. complicity in the Saudi-led slaughter of Yemeni men, women, and children must end.
It is fitting that this historic vote occurred on the 15th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a sobering reminder of the catastrophic consequences of the decision to go to war. Since that fateful day, it is staggering how rarely Congress has voted on or debated U.S. wars around the globe. The Sanders-Lee-Murphy legislation forced the Senate to both debate and vote on a war that the U.S. has waged in the shadows for three years.
Despite Trump's White House and Saudi-funded lobbyists teaming up to run a full-court press on Capitol Hill, the momentum to end this war continues to build. Opponents of this legislation took to the floor today to argue in favor of ending this famine-inducing war, and justified their vote on the grounds of favoring action in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) over S.J. Res. 54. We look forward to working with SFRC leadership and members to ensure that meaningful action is taken, which the committee has failed to do for more than three years.
Today's debate, as well as the courageous vote by 44 senators, is owed in no small part to the indomitable power of citizen activists in every state who generated tens of thousands of calls and emails to ensure Yemen topped every senator's agenda.
The groundswell of grassroots activism to end this war is not going to let up until this illegal war ends, and U.S. pilots stop fueling U.S.-made bombers to rein down U.S.-made bombs on schools, hospitals and neighborhoods. The U.S. must stop literally fueling the deliberate killing and starvation of countless civilians in Yemen, and support a peaceful solution to end this crisis."
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'The Right Call': Biden Blocks Trump-Approved Mining Road Through Alaskan Wilderness
The move is "a monumental step forward in the fight for Indigenous rights and environmental justice," a tribal leader said before the decision was final.
Jun 28, 2024
The Biden administration on Friday blocked the construction of an industrial road that would have opened up access for mining in the Alaskan wilderness, earning praise from campaigners who said the project threatened Indigenous livelihoods and local ecosystems.
The administration separately moved to protect millions of acres of Alaska land the Trump administration had opened up to development.
The Ambler Road, which would have been the first step in a copper and zinc mining project worth an estimated $7.5 billion, had been approved in the final weeks of the Trump administration, even though it ran through a national park and the foothills of the Brooks Range. Biden's Interior Department reassessed the road proposal and recommended cancellation after releasing a final environmental analysis in April, making Friday's announcement expected.
"Today, my administration is stopping a 211-mile road from carving up a pristine area that Alaska Native communities rely on, in addition to steps we are taking to maintain protections on 28 million acres in Alaska from mining and drilling," President Joe Biden said in a
statement. "These natural wonders demand our protection."
Alaska Native tribes and conservation groups had strongly opposed the road project, which would have crossed tribal lands, the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, 11 rivers, and thousands of streams. They said it would impact Indigenous livelihoods by, for example, disturbing caribou migration and salmon spawning. The area is currently roadless.
Dan Ritzman, the Sierra Club's director of conservation, said in a statement that the Biden administration made "the right call."
"Those who would seek to revive this project should listen to the local communities along the proposed route of the road, who have time and time again made their voices clear in opposing this damaging project," Ritzman said.
Many Indigenous communities had banded together in strong opposition to the project in recent years, and they celebrated the administration's decision.
"This is a historic win for the Alaska Native community," Brian Ridley, chief of the Tanana Chiefs Conference, said in a statement in April, when the Interior Department issued its recommendation. "It reaffirms that our voices matter, that our knowledge is invaluable, and that our lands and animals deserve protection. The Biden administration's choice to reject the Ambler Road Project is a monumental step forward in the fight for Indigenous rights and environmental justice."
The Biden-Harris administration today took action to protect public lands in Alaska — safeguarding vital ecosystems that are critical to Alaska’s subsistence economy and the way of life for Alaska Native communities.https://t.co/K2xXIbj0lp
— US Interior Press Team (@USInteriorPress) June 28, 2024
The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state agency, had proposed the road project and is likely to challenge the Biden administration's ruling in court.
Alaska's congressional delegation lobbied hard for the project to go forth, and has not given up: this week, Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican, tried to revive the project through a defense bill amendment, arguing that it was a matter of national security.
Ambler Road proponents argue that the U.S. needs access to the minerals in the area, which could be used in wind turbines, photovoltaic cells, and transmission lines needed for a clean energy transition. Ambler Metals, a joint venture mining company that's spearheaded the project, has conducted exploratory work in the area and pushed these arguments. The company spent $370,000 on lobbying the Interior Department over two years, according toPolitico.
The proposed site for Ambler Road was several hundred miles south of Willow, an $8 billion ConocoPhillips oil drilling project in the Alaskan wilderness that did receive federal approval last year, angering environmentalists.
The Interior Department also on Friday formally recommended that 28 million acres of public land in Alaska maintain protection from development. The land has been protected since 1971 under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act but the Trump administration—again in a move made in its final weeks—had sought to end the protection.
"This sweeping action [by the Trump administration] would have opened the 28 million acres to extractive development activities, such as mining and oil and gas drilling," an Interior Department
statement said.
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Christian Nationalism 'On the March': Oklahoma Mandates Bible Teachings in Public Schools
"It's not just happening in Oklahoma; we're seeing it from Texas to West Virginia, from Florida to Idaho," said one church-state separation advocate.
Jun 28, 2024
Advocates for the separation of church and state said Thursday that they plan to take all necessary steps to stop Christian nationalists across the country "from trampling the religious freedom of public school children and their families" after Oklahoma school superintendent Ryan Walters became the latest right-wing leader to mandate Christian teachings in schools.
Walters announced Thursday that "immediate and strict compliance is expected" for a new policy mandating that public schools teach the Christian Bible as part of the state curriculum.
Including the religious text in class materials is necessary "to teach our kids about the history of this country, to have a complete understanding of Western civilization, to have an understanding of the basis of our legal system," said Walters. "We're talking about the Bible, one of the most foundational documents used for the Constitution and the birth of our country."
The announcement came days after Republican Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana signed into state law a new policy requiring all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments by 2025.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) endorsed the policy on Wednesday, saying, "I think there's a number of states trying to look to do the same thing, and I don't think it's offensive in any way." Last weekend, former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump also expressed support for the requirement, saying it could be "the first major step in the revival of religion, which is desperately needed in our country."
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which has launched a legal challenge against the Louisiana law, said Thursday that Walters' policy is "textbook Christian nationalism" and "a transparent, unconstitutional effort to indoctrinate and religiously coerce public school students."
"This nation must recommit to our foundational principle of church-state separation before it's too late. Public education, religious freedom and democracy are all on the line."
"Public schools are not Sunday schools," said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United. "Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters has repeatedly made clear that he is incapable of distinguishing the difference and is unfit for office."
"Walters is abusing the power of his public office to impose his religious beliefs on everyone else's children," continued Laser. "Not on our watch. Americans United is ready to step in and protect all Oklahoma public school children and their families from constitutional violations of their religious freedom."
Laser noted that the organization is already challenging Walters and other Oklahoma officials who are pushing to open the first publicly funded religious charter school, which was blocked by the state Supreme Court this week.
That effort, Walters' announcement, and Louisiana's Ten Commandments law all illustrate that "Christian nationalism is on the march across this country," said Laser.
"It's not just happening in Oklahoma; we're seeing it from Texas to West Virginia, from Florida to Idaho," she said. "Christian nationalists and their lawmaker allies want to replace school counselors with religious chaplains; allow teachers and coaches to pray with students; teach Creationism in science classes; and ban books and censor curricula that feature LGBTQ+ people and racial and religious minorities."
"Americans United will do everything in our power to stop Christian nationalists like Ryan Walters from trampling the religious freedom of public school children and their families," added Laser. "This nation must recommit to our foundational principle of church-state separation before it's too late. Public education, religious freedom and democracy are all on the line."
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) also said it would take "any necessary steps" to stop Walters from imposing the Bible teaching requirement on Oklahoma educators.
"Walters' concern should be the fact that Oklahoma ranks 49th in education," said FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. "Maybe education would improve if Oklahoma's superintendent of education spent his time promoting education, instead of religion."
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'The Stakes Could Not Be Higher': Debate Disaster Ignites Calls for Biden to Step Aside
"You're deluded if you believe Joe Biden, at this stage of his life, is the best person Democrats have to offer against Donald Trump, against a fascist," said journalist Mehdi Hasan.
Jun 28, 2024
President Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance Thursday evening against presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump—an unhinged, would-be authoritarian whose lies were glaring and constant—sent much of the Democratic Party establishment into a spiral of panic and ignited calls for the incumbent to step aside to allow another Democratic candidate to take on the former president in November.
The alarm began to set in just minutes into the
CNN-moderated event in Atlanta, with Democratic operatives and lawmakers exchanging despairing texts with reporters and each other after the president declared—after appearing to lose his train of thought—that "we finally beat Medicare," an absurd line that followed his stumbling attempt to explain that the nation's ultra-rich pay far too little in taxes.
"For example, we have a thousand trillionaires in America—I mean billionaires, in America," said Biden, his voice raspy from what his campaign says was a cold. "And what's happening? They're in a situation where they, in fact, pay 8.2% in taxes. If they just paid 24% or 25%, either one of those numbers, they'd raised $500 million—billion dollars, I should say, in a 10-year period."
The beltway access outlet Politicoreported that the text message inboxes of its journalists quickly blew up with expressions of dismay from Democratic lawmakers and the names of potential options to replace the 81-year-old incumbent, who cruised through the primary process without a serious challenge.
"I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue," an unnamed member of the House Democratic caucus wrote to Politico. An anonymous Democratic insider told the outlet that they believe "there are short lists being made" for Biden's potential replacement, lists that reportedly include Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
An unnamed Democratic lawmaker toldThe Financial Times that "many House Democrats tonight, representing a wide cross-section of the Democratic caucus, were privately texting one another that Biden needs to announce he's decided not to run for reelection"—a belated conclusion that drew disdain from commentators who have been warning for months that a Biden reelection bid could be calamitous.
"Hilarious to watch elite consensus shift and see all the media folk who knowingly created the Biden 2024 catastrophe now desperately try to maintain credibility by depicting themselves as the courageous voices demanding a course correction when it may already be too late," The Lever's David Sirota wrote Friday morning.
The frenzied discussions of a last-ditch replacement effort spilled over into the
editorial pages of major newspapers, panel discussions with former White House officials and ex-lawmakers, and the segments of prominent corporate television shows, including MSNBC's "Morning Joe"—which Biden reportedly watches obsessively.
Morning Joe, Biden’s favorite show, is wavering.
“If he were CEO and he turned in a performance like that, would any corporation in America, any Fortune 500 corporation in America keep him on as CEO?”
pic.twitter.com/bSZisE3FDU
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) June 28, 2024
In a panel discussion following Thursday night's 90-minute debate, CNN national political correspondent John King said that "there is a deep, a wide, and a very aggressive panic in the Democratic Party" that began shortly after the debate kicked off and "continues right now."
"It involves party strategists, it involves elected officials, and it involves fundraisers. They are having conversations about the president's performance, which they think was dismal, which they think will hurt other people down the party in the ticket," said King. "And they're having conversations about what they should do about it. Some of those conversations include should we go to the White House and ask the president to step aside. Other conversations are about should prominent Democrats go public with that call."
Dire concerns about Biden's performance and broader readiness to compete in the November election were amplified by Trump's showing during Thursday night's debate, which further showed that the presumptive Republican candidate poses a grave threat to democracy, the climate, workers, and fundamental rights.
"Tonight put on full display how broken our political system is. Our generation deserves better," Stevie O'Hanlon, communications director for the youth-led Sunrise Movement, said in a statement. "The debate also made it undeniable that a Trump presidency would be a climate catastrophe. When Trump was asked if he would address the climate crisis, he ignored the question completely—because he can't answer it. He has promised oil and gas CEOs that he will expedite drilling permits, hasten fracked gas pipeline approvals, and release 'vast stores' of oil and gas on public lands. In return, they're bankrolling his campaign."
"Biden touted achievements that young people fought hard and long to win: the Civilian Climate Corps and the Inflation Reduction Act. Like in 2020, we will fight like hell to defeat Donald Trump so we have the political conditions to end the fossil fuel era and win a Green New Deal," O'Hanlon added. "But President Biden and the Democratic establishment's choices have made an election against a convicted felon dangerously tight. Young people have offered Democrats the vision, energy, and policy on which to beat Donald Trump. They have turned away from it. If there is to be any chance of beating Trump this November, they must listen to young voters."
"Biden is manifestly not up to the task of combating Trump's lies, vitriol, and neofascism—nor is he capable of articulating a coherent progressive vision capable of galvanizing voters this fall."
It's far from clear that mounting calls for Biden to end his reelection campaign and clear the way for a viable replacement will move Democratic leaders or the White House, which has been adamant that the president will be on the ballot in November even as Democratic voters indicate they would prefer someone else as their nominee.
A Gallup survey released ahead of Thursday's debate showed that just 42% of Democratic voters are pleased with Biden as the nominee and a majority want a different candidate.
But Robert Costa of CBS News reported in the debate's aftermath that unnamed sources close to Biden said there is "zero chance" the president "steps away from running."
Newsom, one of the Democrats most commonly floated as a potential alternative to Biden, came to the president's defense Thursday night, urging the party to rally behind the incumbent.
"You don't turn your back because of one performance," Newsom said. "What kind of party does that?"
Alex Wagner presses Gov. Gavin Newsom on questions about whether Biden should step down.
Newsom: “You don’t turn your back because of one performance. What kind of party does that?”
“This president has delivered. We need to deliver for him at this moment.” pic.twitter.com/J5G9XGNYWn
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 28, 2024
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) also stood by the president, telling reporters on Friday that he should not drop out of the race even as one unnamed House Democrat—described as an "outspoken defender" of Biden—toldPolitico's Jonathan Martin that Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) should seriously consider a "combined effort" to convince the incumbent to step aside.
"The movement to convince Biden to not run is real," the lawmaker said.
However, Martin noted, "many top party officials" feel that "Biden can't be persuaded let alone pressured."
"One Democratic governor called the debate 'beyond bad,' but said it was 'too late' to nominate a new standard bearer," Martin reported.
But analysts argued Thursday's debacle solidified the case that a Biden candidacy is untenable—and could gift Trump and his far-right allies another four years in power, which they're planning to use to unleash a massive assault on reproductive rights, public education, immigrants, environmental regulations, and more.
"I'm not saying that Joe Biden is going to lose the presidential election because of tonight's debate. The race is still ridiculously too close to call at this point," saidZeteo's Mehdi Hasan, a former MSNBC host. "But it's not looking good. And what I am saying is that you're deluded if you believe Joe Biden, at this stage of his life, is the best person Democrats have to offer against Donald Trump, against a fascist."
"Small-d American democracy, if it is to survive, needs Democrats—big-d Democrats—to put their big boy pants on and get their act together," Hasan added.
I have spent months, both on MSNBC and at Zeteo, refusing to obsess over Biden’s age and fitness for office. But no longer. Not after tonight’s car crash of a ‘debate’.
It’s time for Biden to step aside. The Democrats need to find a new nominee. https://t.co/20UUcW06TK pic.twitter.com/oMtRbED3Bx
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) June 28, 2024
After acknowledging that "a comatose Joe Biden would make a better president than Donald Trump," Vox's Eric Levitz wrote Thursday that even though "there is no way for the Democratic Party to deny Biden the nomination at this point," party leaders could "personally lobby the president to step aside and endorse his preferred successor, preempting the hazards of a contested Democratic convention in late August."
"Waiting months to anoint a presumptive nominee would be highly risky. Rallying around Biden's handpicked heir now would be much less so," Levitz added. "The president's policy positions and governing record matter more than his current skills as a rhetorician. But precisely because of how much is substantively at stake in this election, Democrats cannot afford to wager it on American voters changing their minds and deciding that Biden isn't too old for his job after watching him struggle to remember the topics of his own sentences."
RootsAction, a progressive group that urged Biden in late 2022 not to run for reelection and has been calling on the president to step aside for more than a year, said in a statement that Thursday night underscored the incumbent's "severe liabilities as a candidate.
"Biden is manifestly not up to the task of combating Trump's lies, vitriol, and neofascism—nor is he capable of articulating a coherent progressive vision capable of galvanizing voters this fall," the group said. "There is still time before the party convention to decide on a different nominee for the party. Democratic leaders must finally heed the clear preference of Democratic voters and reconsider their backing of Biden’s candidacy."
"We need a swift intervention to make Biden voluntarily a one-term president so a Democratic nominee can be up to the job of defeating Trump," RootsAction added. "The stakes could not be higher for the future of the United States, and the world."
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