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US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland testifies during the House Intelligence Committee hearing as part of the impeachment inquiry into US President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on November 20, 2019. - The US ambassador to the European Union told an impeachment hearing Wednesday that he was following the orders of President Donald Trump in seeking a "quid pro quo" from Ukraine. Gordon Sondland -- whose appearance before Congress is being watched especially closely as he was a Trump ally -- said he believed the president was pressing Ukraine to investigate his potential 2020 rival Joe Biden. (Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP / via Getty Images)
I've watched every minute of the public impeachment hearings. I'm watching the Sondland testimony now, as I write. And I'd like to start this brief comment with an observation: anyone who cares about the future of democracy in the U.S. ought to do two things: read today's Washington Post op-ed by Stacey Abrams: "Republicans' extreme positions open the door for Democrats in Georgia," and then commit themselves to work as hard as they can to support the kind of voter mobilization that Abrams, and many others, are promoting.
Only this can save us if we can be saved.
I have long argued that impeachment proceedings are one necessary form of resistance to the Trumpist assault on liberal democracy and that such proceedings ought to be understood primarily as political rather than narrowly legal processes. Everything that is now transpiring confirms this judgment.
Political scientists argue about what causes liberal democracy to come about and what sustains liberal democracy one it has been "consolidated." Much of the contemporary public discussion has been shaped by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt's important book, How Democracies Die. The book neatly articulates one critical political science perspective: that the key to liberal democracy is the existence of political elites -- associated with several political parties -- who are willing to seek power through free and fair competitive elections and to support the rule of law that structures such elections.
Midway through the current impeachment hearings, and halfway through the particularly damning testimony of Ambassador Sondland, two things are clear.
One is that Donald Trump came to power in part through collusion with Russia, and he has subsequently done everything in his power to obstruct inquiry into this collusion and then to arrange further collusion via Rudy Guliani, with the Ukrainian government to win re-election.
The second is that House Republicans, the Republican party, and in general, the media apparatus, are doing everything in their power to obstruct the impeachment inquiry and to undermine its integrity to smear many of its witnesses. They want to prevent their being any honest public accounting for the constitutional abuses of Trump.
To put this in another way, drawing in part on the argument of Levitsky and Way: it is now evident that one major political party in the U.S two-party system is now not (if it ever was) committed to the norms of liberal democracy. This party is not committed to anything approaching free and fair electoral competition. It is not committed to the notion of any Congressional oversight of the Presidency unless they control Congress (in which case it is committed to entirely bogus inquiries). It is not committed to the Constitution nor the rule of law.
But it is committed to defending the power of its Leader (and of itself) by any means necessary, and that includes lying, character assassination, implications, and explicitly accusing witnesses of treason. Hence, they are committed to incitement of potential violence against witnesses as well as their critics and political opponents.
The impeachment is underway. It is, therefore, important for it to be vigorously and effectively prosecuted. I have repeatedly argued that this requires a broadening of the impeachment, and especially an explicit defense of the Mueller Report, and a willingness to link that report to the current hearings strongly. The Republicans repeatedly weaponize this Report as a symbol of Democratic "hoax" and "failure." It is hard for me to understand how the Democrats can continue to ignore the Report -- which was produced by a Justice Department-appointed Special Counsel and not the Congress, and was then killed by Trump obstruction and Barr lying -- and fail to make use of its damning evidence.
But it seems pretty clear that a broader impeachment is not the course that will be taken by House Democrats. It also seems clear that the poison that is now spreading extends much deeper and more extensive than any impeachment hearing could mitigate.
If this is true, then it is also true that House Democrats and their impeachment proceedings cannot be relied upon to provide the kind of vigorous defense of democracy that we need.
They will conduct their business. They will prove beyond a shadow of any reasonable doubt that Trump's administration endangers the Constitution. And their Republican counterparts will obstruct them at every turn and, regardless of "evidence" and principle and law, these Republicans will keep their Leader in office, and in the process further degrade due process, public discourse, and simple standards of empirical truth.
That brings me back to Stacey Adams. She represents a new generation of Democratic leadership and a newly mobilized Democratic party that is serious about grass-roots democracy. She also represents the future of democracy in the U.S. if there is to be one.
Trump and Barr and Pompeo and Nunes and Jordan and Graham and Johnson and the rest are enemies of constitutional democracy. And they must be defeated politically at the ballot box, so that we can be freed of their torments, and can begin the process of moving forward to make more real the promise of democracy.
Trump and Musk are on an unconstitutional rampage, aiming for virtually every corner of the federal government. These two right-wing billionaires are targeting nurses, scientists, teachers, daycare providers, judges, veterans, air traffic controllers, and nuclear safety inspectors. No one is safe. The food stamps program, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are next. It’s an unprecedented disaster and a five-alarm fire, but there will be a reckoning. The people did not vote for this. The American people do not want this dystopian hellscape that hides behind claims of “efficiency.” Still, in reality, it is all a giveaway to corporate interests and the libertarian dreams of far-right oligarchs like Musk. Common Dreams is playing a vital role by reporting day and night on this orgy of corruption and greed, as well as what everyday people can do to organize and fight back. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. |
I've watched every minute of the public impeachment hearings. I'm watching the Sondland testimony now, as I write. And I'd like to start this brief comment with an observation: anyone who cares about the future of democracy in the U.S. ought to do two things: read today's Washington Post op-ed by Stacey Abrams: "Republicans' extreme positions open the door for Democrats in Georgia," and then commit themselves to work as hard as they can to support the kind of voter mobilization that Abrams, and many others, are promoting.
Only this can save us if we can be saved.
I have long argued that impeachment proceedings are one necessary form of resistance to the Trumpist assault on liberal democracy and that such proceedings ought to be understood primarily as political rather than narrowly legal processes. Everything that is now transpiring confirms this judgment.
Political scientists argue about what causes liberal democracy to come about and what sustains liberal democracy one it has been "consolidated." Much of the contemporary public discussion has been shaped by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt's important book, How Democracies Die. The book neatly articulates one critical political science perspective: that the key to liberal democracy is the existence of political elites -- associated with several political parties -- who are willing to seek power through free and fair competitive elections and to support the rule of law that structures such elections.
Midway through the current impeachment hearings, and halfway through the particularly damning testimony of Ambassador Sondland, two things are clear.
One is that Donald Trump came to power in part through collusion with Russia, and he has subsequently done everything in his power to obstruct inquiry into this collusion and then to arrange further collusion via Rudy Guliani, with the Ukrainian government to win re-election.
The second is that House Republicans, the Republican party, and in general, the media apparatus, are doing everything in their power to obstruct the impeachment inquiry and to undermine its integrity to smear many of its witnesses. They want to prevent their being any honest public accounting for the constitutional abuses of Trump.
To put this in another way, drawing in part on the argument of Levitsky and Way: it is now evident that one major political party in the U.S two-party system is now not (if it ever was) committed to the norms of liberal democracy. This party is not committed to anything approaching free and fair electoral competition. It is not committed to the notion of any Congressional oversight of the Presidency unless they control Congress (in which case it is committed to entirely bogus inquiries). It is not committed to the Constitution nor the rule of law.
But it is committed to defending the power of its Leader (and of itself) by any means necessary, and that includes lying, character assassination, implications, and explicitly accusing witnesses of treason. Hence, they are committed to incitement of potential violence against witnesses as well as their critics and political opponents.
The impeachment is underway. It is, therefore, important for it to be vigorously and effectively prosecuted. I have repeatedly argued that this requires a broadening of the impeachment, and especially an explicit defense of the Mueller Report, and a willingness to link that report to the current hearings strongly. The Republicans repeatedly weaponize this Report as a symbol of Democratic "hoax" and "failure." It is hard for me to understand how the Democrats can continue to ignore the Report -- which was produced by a Justice Department-appointed Special Counsel and not the Congress, and was then killed by Trump obstruction and Barr lying -- and fail to make use of its damning evidence.
But it seems pretty clear that a broader impeachment is not the course that will be taken by House Democrats. It also seems clear that the poison that is now spreading extends much deeper and more extensive than any impeachment hearing could mitigate.
If this is true, then it is also true that House Democrats and their impeachment proceedings cannot be relied upon to provide the kind of vigorous defense of democracy that we need.
They will conduct their business. They will prove beyond a shadow of any reasonable doubt that Trump's administration endangers the Constitution. And their Republican counterparts will obstruct them at every turn and, regardless of "evidence" and principle and law, these Republicans will keep their Leader in office, and in the process further degrade due process, public discourse, and simple standards of empirical truth.
That brings me back to Stacey Adams. She represents a new generation of Democratic leadership and a newly mobilized Democratic party that is serious about grass-roots democracy. She also represents the future of democracy in the U.S. if there is to be one.
Trump and Barr and Pompeo and Nunes and Jordan and Graham and Johnson and the rest are enemies of constitutional democracy. And they must be defeated politically at the ballot box, so that we can be freed of their torments, and can begin the process of moving forward to make more real the promise of democracy.
I've watched every minute of the public impeachment hearings. I'm watching the Sondland testimony now, as I write. And I'd like to start this brief comment with an observation: anyone who cares about the future of democracy in the U.S. ought to do two things: read today's Washington Post op-ed by Stacey Abrams: "Republicans' extreme positions open the door for Democrats in Georgia," and then commit themselves to work as hard as they can to support the kind of voter mobilization that Abrams, and many others, are promoting.
Only this can save us if we can be saved.
I have long argued that impeachment proceedings are one necessary form of resistance to the Trumpist assault on liberal democracy and that such proceedings ought to be understood primarily as political rather than narrowly legal processes. Everything that is now transpiring confirms this judgment.
Political scientists argue about what causes liberal democracy to come about and what sustains liberal democracy one it has been "consolidated." Much of the contemporary public discussion has been shaped by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt's important book, How Democracies Die. The book neatly articulates one critical political science perspective: that the key to liberal democracy is the existence of political elites -- associated with several political parties -- who are willing to seek power through free and fair competitive elections and to support the rule of law that structures such elections.
Midway through the current impeachment hearings, and halfway through the particularly damning testimony of Ambassador Sondland, two things are clear.
One is that Donald Trump came to power in part through collusion with Russia, and he has subsequently done everything in his power to obstruct inquiry into this collusion and then to arrange further collusion via Rudy Guliani, with the Ukrainian government to win re-election.
The second is that House Republicans, the Republican party, and in general, the media apparatus, are doing everything in their power to obstruct the impeachment inquiry and to undermine its integrity to smear many of its witnesses. They want to prevent their being any honest public accounting for the constitutional abuses of Trump.
To put this in another way, drawing in part on the argument of Levitsky and Way: it is now evident that one major political party in the U.S two-party system is now not (if it ever was) committed to the norms of liberal democracy. This party is not committed to anything approaching free and fair electoral competition. It is not committed to the notion of any Congressional oversight of the Presidency unless they control Congress (in which case it is committed to entirely bogus inquiries). It is not committed to the Constitution nor the rule of law.
But it is committed to defending the power of its Leader (and of itself) by any means necessary, and that includes lying, character assassination, implications, and explicitly accusing witnesses of treason. Hence, they are committed to incitement of potential violence against witnesses as well as their critics and political opponents.
The impeachment is underway. It is, therefore, important for it to be vigorously and effectively prosecuted. I have repeatedly argued that this requires a broadening of the impeachment, and especially an explicit defense of the Mueller Report, and a willingness to link that report to the current hearings strongly. The Republicans repeatedly weaponize this Report as a symbol of Democratic "hoax" and "failure." It is hard for me to understand how the Democrats can continue to ignore the Report -- which was produced by a Justice Department-appointed Special Counsel and not the Congress, and was then killed by Trump obstruction and Barr lying -- and fail to make use of its damning evidence.
But it seems pretty clear that a broader impeachment is not the course that will be taken by House Democrats. It also seems clear that the poison that is now spreading extends much deeper and more extensive than any impeachment hearing could mitigate.
If this is true, then it is also true that House Democrats and their impeachment proceedings cannot be relied upon to provide the kind of vigorous defense of democracy that we need.
They will conduct their business. They will prove beyond a shadow of any reasonable doubt that Trump's administration endangers the Constitution. And their Republican counterparts will obstruct them at every turn and, regardless of "evidence" and principle and law, these Republicans will keep their Leader in office, and in the process further degrade due process, public discourse, and simple standards of empirical truth.
That brings me back to Stacey Adams. She represents a new generation of Democratic leadership and a newly mobilized Democratic party that is serious about grass-roots democracy. She also represents the future of democracy in the U.S. if there is to be one.
Trump and Barr and Pompeo and Nunes and Jordan and Graham and Johnson and the rest are enemies of constitutional democracy. And they must be defeated politically at the ballot box, so that we can be freed of their torments, and can begin the process of moving forward to make more real the promise of democracy.
"What Republicans are trying to jam through Congress right now is a level of economic recklessness we’ve never seen before," said a group of Democratic lawmakers.
A new analysis indicates Republicans' plan to extend soon-to-expire provisions of their party's 2017 tax law, as well as their push to tack on additional tax breaks largely benefitting the rich and big corporations, would cost $7 trillion over the next decade, a figure that a group of congressional Democrats called "staggering."
The analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), published on Thursday, updates previous estimates that suggested the GOP effort to extend expiring provisions of the 2017 law would cost $4.6 trillion over a 10-year period. The new assessment shows that extending the law's temporary provisions—which disproportionately favored the wealthy—would cost $5.5 trillion over the next decade.
The projected cost of the GOP agenda balloons to $7 trillion after adding Senate Republicans' call for $1.5 trillion in additional tax cuts in the budget resolution they advanced in a party-line vote on Thursday. The GOP has come under fire for using an accounting trick to claim their proposed tax cuts would have no budgetary impact.
"The Republican handouts to billionaires and corporations will come at a staggering cost, and it's unconscionable that their plan to pay for those handouts includes kicking millions of Americans off their health insurance, hiking the cost of living with tariffs, and driving up child hunger," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), and Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) said in a joint statement issued in response to the CBO figures.
"Even after making painful cuts that will inflict hardship on typical American families, Republicans will still risk sending us into a catastrophic debt spiral that does permanent harm to our economy," the Democrats added. "What Republicans are trying to jam through Congress right now is a level of economic recklessness we've never seen before."
The CBO's updated cost analysis came as President Donald Trump plowed ahead with what's been characterized as the biggest tax hike in U.S. history, one that will hit working-class Americans in the form of price increases on household staples and other goods.
Trump administration officials, not known for providing reliable numbers, have claimed the president's sweeping new tariffs could produce roughly $6 trillion in federal revenue over the next decade. The Trump tariffs have sent financial markets into a tailspin, heightened recession fears, and prompted swift retaliation from targeted nations, including China.
In an appearance on MSNBC on Thursday, Boyle—the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee—said Trump's tariffs represent "the single largest tax increase in American history."
"It's a tax that everyone will pay in this country, based on the goods that they buy," said Boyle. "However, it's also a tax that is highly regressive—the poorest amongst us will end up paying a higher percentage of their income."
The new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator joins "a team of snake oil salesmen and anti-science flunkies that have already shown disdain for the American people and their health," said one critic.
Echoing a party-line vote by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee last week, the chamber's Republicans on Thursday confirmed President Donald Trump's nominee to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, former televison host Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Since Trump nominated Oz—who previously ran as a Republican for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania—a wide range of critics have argued that the celebrity cardiothoracic surgeon "is profoundly unqualified to lead any part of our healthcare system, let alone an agency as important as CMS," in the words of Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.
After Thursday's 53-45 vote to confirm Oz, Weissman declared that "Republicans in the Senate continued to just be a rubber stamp for a dangerous agenda that threatens to turn back the clock on healthcare in America."
Weissman warned that "in addition to having significant conflicts of interest, Oz is now poised to help enact the Trump administration's dangerous agenda, which seeks to strip crucial healthcare services through Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act from hundreds of millions of Americans and to use that money to give tax breaks to billionaires."
"As he showed in his confirmation hearing, Oz will also seek to further privatize Medicare, increasing the risk that seniors will receive inferior care and further threatening the long-term health of the Medicare program. We already know that privatized Medicare costs taxpayers nearly $100 billion annually in excess costs," he continued, referring to Medicare Advantage plans.
CMS is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, now led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who, like Oz, came under fire for his record of dubious claims during the confirmation process. Weissman said that "Dr. Oz is joining a team of snake oil salesmen and anti-science flunkies that have already shown disdain for the American people and their health. This is yet another dark day for healthcare in America under Trump."
In the middle of Trump's tariff disaster, the Senate is voting to confirm quack grifter Dr. Oz to lead the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services.
[image or embed]
— Jen Bendery (@jbendery.bsky.social) April 3, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Oz's confirmation came a day after Trump announced globally disruptive tariffs and Senate Republicans unveiled a budget plan that would give the wealthy trillions of dollars in tax cuts at the expense of federal food assistance and healthcare programs.
"While Dr. Oz would rather play coy, this is no hypothetical. Harmful cuts to Medicaid or Medicare are unavoidable in the Trump-Republican budget plan that prioritizes another giant tax break for the president's billionaire and corporate donors," Tony Carrk, executive director of the watchdog group Accountable.US, said ahead of the vote.
"None of Dr. Oz's 'miracle' cures that he's peddled over the years will help seniors when their fundamental health security is ripped away to make the rich richer," Carrk continued. "And while privatizing Medicare may enrich Dr. Oz's family and big insurance friends, it will cost taxpayers far more and leave millions of patients vulnerable to denials of care and higher out-of-pocket costs."
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), was similarly critical, saying after the vote that "at a time when our population is growing older and the need for access to home care, nursing homes, affordable prescription drugs, and quality medical care has never been greater, Americans deserve better than a snake oil salesman leading the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services."
"Dr. Mehmet Oz has been shilling pseudoscience to line his own pockets. He can't be trusted to defend Medicare and Medicaid from billionaires who want to dismantle and privatize the foundation of affordable healthcare in this country," the union leader added. "AFSCME members—including nurses, home care and childcare providers, social workers and more—will be watching and fighting back against any effort to weaken Medicare and Medicaid. The 147 million seniors, children, Americans with disabilities, and low-income workers who rely on these programs for affordable access to healthcare deserve nothing less."
"While your kids are getting ready for school, kids in Gaza were once against just massacred in one," said one observer.
Israeli airstrikes targeted at least three more school shelters in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing dozens of Palestinians and wounding scores of others on a day when local officials said that more than 100 people were slain by occupation forces.
Gaza's Government Media Office said that at least 29 people—including 14 children and five women—were killed and over 100 others were wounded when at least four missiles struck the Dar al-Arqam school complex in the Tuffah neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, where hundreds of Palestinians were sheltering after being forcibly displaced from other parts of the embattled coastal enclave by Israel's 535-day assault.
Al Jazeera reported that "when terrified men, women, and children fled from one school building to another, the bombs followed them," and "when bystanders rushed to help, they too became victims."
A first responder from the Palestine Red Crescent Society—which is reeling from this week's discovery of a mass grave containing the bodies of eight of its members, some of whom had allegedly been bound and executed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops—told Al Jazeera that "we were absolutely shocked by the scale of this massacre," whose victims were "mostly women and children."
Warning: Video contains graphic images of death.
Horrifying scenes following the Dar Al-Arqam School Massacre!#Gaza pic.twitter.com/xOvuq3Zztx
— Dr. Zain Al-Abbadi (@ZainAbbadi11) April 3, 2025
An official from Gaza's Civil Defense, five of whose members were also found in the mass grave on Sunday, said: "What's going on here is a wake-up call to the entire world. This war and these massacres against women and children must stop immediately. The children are being killed in cold blood here in Gaza. Our teams cannot perform their duties properly.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Zaher al-Wahidi said that the death toll was likely to rise, as some survivors were critically injured.
Dozens of victims were reportedly trapped beneath rubble of Thursday's airstrikes, but they could not be rescued due to a lack of equipment.
The IDF claimed that "key Hamas terrorists" were targeted in a strike on what it called a "command center." Israeli officials routinely claim—often with little or no evidence—that Palestinian civilians it kills are members of Hamas or other militant resistance groups.
Israel also bombed the nearby al-Sabah school, killing four people, as well as the Fahd School in Gaza City, with three reported fatalities.
Some of the deadliest bombings in the war have been carried out against refugees sheltering in schools, many of them run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)—at least 280 of whose staff members have been killed by Israeli forces during the war.
The United Nations Children's Fund has called Gaza "the world's most dangerous place to be a child." Last year, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres for the first time added Israel to his so-called "List of Shame" of countries that kill and injure children during wars and other armed conflicts. More than 17,500 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Thursday's school bombings sparked worldwide outrage and calls to hold Israel accountable.
"While your kids are getting ready for school, kids in Gaza were once against just massacred in one," Australian journalist, activist, and progressive politician Sophie McNeill wrote on social media. "We must sanction Israel now!"
There were other IDF massacres on Thursday, with local officials reporting that more than 100 people were killed in Israeli attacks since dawn. Al-Wahidi said more than 30 people were killed in strikes on homes in Gaza City's Shejaya neighborhood, citing records at al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza.
Al Jazeera reported that al-Ahli's emergency room "is overwhelmed with casualties and, as is so often the case over the past 18 months, the victims are Gaza's youngest."
Thursday's intensified airstrikes came as Israeli forces pushed into the ruins of the southern city of Rafah. Local and international media reported that hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families fled from the area, which Israel said it will seize as part of a new "security zone."
Human rights defenders around the world condemned U.S.-backed killing and mass displacement, with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—whose bid to block some sAmerican arms sales to Israel was rejected by the Senate on Thursday—saying: "There is a name and a term for forcibly expelling people from where they live. It is called ethnic cleansing. It is illegal. It is a war crime."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, are fugitives from the International Criminal Court, which last year issued arrest warrants for the pair over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel is also facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
According to Gaza officials, Israeli forces have killed or wounded at least 175,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including upward of 14,000 people who are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble. Almost everyone in Gaza has been forcibly displaced at least once, and the "complete siege" imposed by Israel has fueled widespread and sometimes deadly starvation and disease.