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babylonsister
babylonsister's Journal
babylonsister's Journal
June 21, 2019
Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour Auctions Off 126 Guitars and Raises $21Mil for Climate Change Battle
By McKinley Corbley -
Jun 21, 2019
Earlier this week, legendary Pink Floyd guitarist and songwriter David Gilmour auctioned off dozens of his guitars – and he sold them all so he could donate the proceeds to charity.
In total, Gilmour auctioned off 126 of his guitars at Christie’s, raking in a whopping total of $21 million.
The most notable guitar to hit the auctioneer’s block was the iconic black Stratocaster that Gilmour used to record “Comfortably Numb,” “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” and “Money”, according to Guitar World.
The axe ended up fetching a hefty $4 million after it was purchased by the owner of the Indianapolis Colts.
The English rock star says that he will be donating every penny of the auction’s sales to environmental nonprofit ClientEarth.
James Thornton, ClientEarth CEO, said: “I’d like to express my deep and heartfelt gratitude to David Gilmour for this utterly remarkable gift. David has a long history of supporting charities and I am honored that he has chosen ClientEarth to benefit from this landmark auction.”
https://twitter.com/_DavidGilmour/status/1141417928136503301
Pink Floyd's David Gilmour Auctions Off 126 Guitars and Raises $21Mil for Climate Change Battle
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/david-gilmour-auctions-126-guitars/?fbclid=IwAR2L1QiVZFP3KRPDPXGZBP4FIZwIYFMO2iv_JoEJamjYVDnIlu9oL780190Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour Auctions Off 126 Guitars and Raises $21Mil for Climate Change Battle
By McKinley Corbley -
Jun 21, 2019
Earlier this week, legendary Pink Floyd guitarist and songwriter David Gilmour auctioned off dozens of his guitars – and he sold them all so he could donate the proceeds to charity.
In total, Gilmour auctioned off 126 of his guitars at Christie’s, raking in a whopping total of $21 million.
The most notable guitar to hit the auctioneer’s block was the iconic black Stratocaster that Gilmour used to record “Comfortably Numb,” “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” and “Money”, according to Guitar World.
The axe ended up fetching a hefty $4 million after it was purchased by the owner of the Indianapolis Colts.
The English rock star says that he will be donating every penny of the auction’s sales to environmental nonprofit ClientEarth.
“The global climate crisis is the greatest challenge that humanity will ever face, and we are within a few years of the effects of global warming being irreversible,” tweeted Gilmour.
“We need a civilized world that goes on for all our grandchildren and beyond in which these guitars can be played and songs can be sung.”
“We need a civilized world that goes on for all our grandchildren and beyond in which these guitars can be played and songs can be sung.”
James Thornton, ClientEarth CEO, said: “I’d like to express my deep and heartfelt gratitude to David Gilmour for this utterly remarkable gift. David has a long history of supporting charities and I am honored that he has chosen ClientEarth to benefit from this landmark auction.”
https://twitter.com/_DavidGilmour/status/1141417928136503301
June 21, 2019
Justice Thomas just handed down an opinion that would make it legal to kick black people off juries
Jim Crow all over again.
Ian Millhiser
Jun 21, 2019, 11:55 am
The Supreme Court just undid the work of a prosecutor whose astounding incompetence was matched only by his racism. This prosecutor somehow managed to try Curtis Flowers, an African American man from Mississippi, six times for the same murders — and he botched every single trial.
The upshot of the Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision in Flowers v. Mississippi is that Mr. Flowers will need to be tried again — this time because of the prosecutor’s long record of excluding jurors because they are black. Even Justice Samuel Alito, who is normally a free space for prosecutors playing Supreme Court bingo, joined Brett Kavanaugh’s majority opinion tossing out Flowers’ conviction. (Alito did write separately to note that this is “a highly unusual case” that is “likely one of a kind.”)
There are few surprises in Kavanaugh’s opinion — sometimes easy cases make for easy decisions. One surprise is that two members of the court, Justice Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, dissented.
Perhaps most strikingly, however, was the nature of Thomas’s dissent, which went so far as to suggest that prosecutors should be free to remove jurors because of their race.
more...
https://thinkprogress.org/clarence-thomas-flowers-mississippi-batson-juries-6fb2bde2a085/
Justice Thomas just handed down an opinion that would make it legal to kick black people off juries
Justice Thomas just handed down an opinion that would make it legal to kick black people off juries
Jim Crow all over again.
Ian Millhiser
Jun 21, 2019, 11:55 am
The Supreme Court just undid the work of a prosecutor whose astounding incompetence was matched only by his racism. This prosecutor somehow managed to try Curtis Flowers, an African American man from Mississippi, six times for the same murders — and he botched every single trial.
The upshot of the Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision in Flowers v. Mississippi is that Mr. Flowers will need to be tried again — this time because of the prosecutor’s long record of excluding jurors because they are black. Even Justice Samuel Alito, who is normally a free space for prosecutors playing Supreme Court bingo, joined Brett Kavanaugh’s majority opinion tossing out Flowers’ conviction. (Alito did write separately to note that this is “a highly unusual case” that is “likely one of a kind.”)
There are few surprises in Kavanaugh’s opinion — sometimes easy cases make for easy decisions. One surprise is that two members of the court, Justice Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, dissented.
Perhaps most strikingly, however, was the nature of Thomas’s dissent, which went so far as to suggest that prosecutors should be free to remove jurors because of their race.
more...
https://thinkprogress.org/clarence-thomas-flowers-mississippi-batson-juries-6fb2bde2a085/
June 21, 2019
"Cocked and loaded" to strike Iran, Trump says he called off operation when told 150 would likely di
Wait! He has a conscience? 
"Cocked and loaded" to strike Iran, Trump says he called off operation when told 150 would likely die
By Kathryn Watson
Updated on: June 21, 2019 / 9:35 AM / CBS News
President Trump said the U.S. military was "cocked and loaded" to retaliate against Iran on three different sites Thursday night, but called off the operation after learning 150 people would likely die from the strike. Mr. Trump, explaining his decision on Twitter, said the response would have been "not proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone."
As CBS News has reported, the president ordered the drone strike Thursday night, but backed down, avoiding — for now — a significant escalation of tensions between Iran and the U.S.
more...
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-says-he-stopped-iran-strike-after-he-learned-likely-human-toll/?fbclid=IwAR1YQC5cWmVeg-siwkgjZXrZPGYyF9gs2pv2PT7EVak-zxLAW9uewrcCdhw
June 21, 2019
46 mins ago
Private Prisons Have Boomed Under Trump. Elizabeth Warren Just Vowed to Eviscerate Them.
Other leading Democratic presidential candidates have also raised the idea.
Samantha Michaels
Sen. Elizabeth Warren unveiled a plan Friday to end the government’s relationship with private prisons if she’s elected to the White House. Warren would phase out federal contracts with private prisons, both under the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. She would also pressure state and local governments to stop working with private prison companies by tying the receipt of federal public safety funding to their use of public facilities. “There should be no place in America for profiting off putting more people behind bars or in detention,” Warren wrote in an essay on Medium announcing her plan.
The proposal comes days before the first Democratic debate of the 2020 presidential race, and adds to a growing chorus among Democratic candidates to curtail or stop the use of private prison companies, which have seen their revenue soar under the Trump administration.
snip//
Warren also announced a plan to reduce corporate influence in public prisons, something most other candidates haven’t talked about, according to Kara Gotsch of the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice reform group. Public prisons work with thousands of companies that provide phone, banking, health care, food, and commissary services, among other things. They “come up with extortive schemes to make millions off of the backs of incarcerated people,” Warren wrote, noting incarcerated people are sometimes forced to pay around $25 for a 15-minute call.
She pledged to stop contractors from charging service fees to inmates for health care and phone calls, and to prevent them from gouging prices for commissary or package services. (Sanders’ proposed legislation likewise called for more oversight to prevent companies from overcharging inmates for banking and phone services.) Warren also suggested creating a position within the Justice Department for a “prison conditions monitor” to audit and investigate contractors. “Washington hands billions over to corporations profiting off of inhumane detention and incarceration policies while ignoring the families that are destroyed in the process,” she wrote. “We need to call that out for what it is: corruption.”
“It’s not a small undertaking, quite frankly, given how infiltrated private corporations are in prisons,” says Gotsch of Warren’s proposal.
Private Prisons Have Boomed Under Trump. Elizabeth Warren Just Vowed to Eviscerate Them.
https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2019/06/private-prisons-have-boomed-under-trump-elizabeth-warren-just-vowed-to-eviscerate-them/46 mins ago
Private Prisons Have Boomed Under Trump. Elizabeth Warren Just Vowed to Eviscerate Them.
Other leading Democratic presidential candidates have also raised the idea.
Samantha Michaels
Sen. Elizabeth Warren unveiled a plan Friday to end the government’s relationship with private prisons if she’s elected to the White House. Warren would phase out federal contracts with private prisons, both under the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. She would also pressure state and local governments to stop working with private prison companies by tying the receipt of federal public safety funding to their use of public facilities. “There should be no place in America for profiting off putting more people behind bars or in detention,” Warren wrote in an essay on Medium announcing her plan.
The proposal comes days before the first Democratic debate of the 2020 presidential race, and adds to a growing chorus among Democratic candidates to curtail or stop the use of private prison companies, which have seen their revenue soar under the Trump administration.
snip//
Warren also announced a plan to reduce corporate influence in public prisons, something most other candidates haven’t talked about, according to Kara Gotsch of the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice reform group. Public prisons work with thousands of companies that provide phone, banking, health care, food, and commissary services, among other things. They “come up with extortive schemes to make millions off of the backs of incarcerated people,” Warren wrote, noting incarcerated people are sometimes forced to pay around $25 for a 15-minute call.
She pledged to stop contractors from charging service fees to inmates for health care and phone calls, and to prevent them from gouging prices for commissary or package services. (Sanders’ proposed legislation likewise called for more oversight to prevent companies from overcharging inmates for banking and phone services.) Warren also suggested creating a position within the Justice Department for a “prison conditions monitor” to audit and investigate contractors. “Washington hands billions over to corporations profiting off of inhumane detention and incarceration policies while ignoring the families that are destroyed in the process,” she wrote. “We need to call that out for what it is: corruption.”
“It’s not a small undertaking, quite frankly, given how infiltrated private corporations are in prisons,” says Gotsch of Warren’s proposal.
June 20, 2019
Brava!! And what a bunch of cowards. 
https://www.thedailybeast.com/transgender-in-military-gallup-poll-shows-71-percent-support-for-trans-people-serving-despite-trump-ban
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown Dispatches State Troopers to Find Senate Republicans Who Skipped Out on Climate Vote
Julia Arciga
Published 06.20.19 6:13PM ET
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown Dispatches State Troopers to Find Senate Republicans Who Skipped Out on Clima
Brava!! And what a bunch of cowards.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/transgender-in-military-gallup-poll-shows-71-percent-support-for-trans-people-serving-despite-trump-ban
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown Dispatches State Troopers to Find Senate Republicans Who Skipped Out on Climate Vote
Julia Arciga
Published 06.20.19 6:13PM ET
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has sent state troopers to find nearly a dozen Republican state senators who reportedly fled to prevent a climate bill from being able to move forward, The Oregonian reports. Eleven GOP senators are reportedly hiding in order to keep the Senate from having enough people present to vote on the bill, with some out of the state. Senate President Peter Courtney asked the sergeant at arms to search the capitol for the missing members upon realizing they were missing, then requested Brown dispatch troopers to find the senators. “It is absolutely unacceptable that the Senate Republicans would turn their back on their constituents who they are honor-bound to represent here in this building,” Brown said in a statement. “They need to return and do the jobs they were elected to do.” The Senate Democrats announced that the lawmakers would be fined $500 per day, but an online fundraiser gathered over $3,000 in support of the Republicans.
June 20, 2019
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg hires 30 more Iowa staffers
Barbara Rodriguez, Des Moines Register Published 6:30 a.m. CT June 20, 2019
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has hired 30 additional staffers in Iowa, the latest sign the South Bend, Indiana, mayor is building up his organization in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.
Buttigieg's campaign told the Des Moines Register on Thursday that the new staff includes a political director, an organizing director, a data director, an operations director and two dozen organizers. The staff will all be in Iowa by the end of June.
The announcement is a significant increase for Buttigieg's Iowa operations. In early May, the campaign announced it had four paid staffers in the state. Several other 2020 hopefuls have aggressively staffed up in Iowa, a sign of the importance of on-the-ground organizing.
Buttigieg's hiring move comes as his political profile in the state and around the country has risen dramatically. He was relatively unknown in Iowa when he visited in February. Several Iowa campaign visits later, a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom/CNN Iowa Poll shows Buttigieg near the top of a crowded Democratic presidential field.
more...
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2019/06/20/democrat-pete-buttigieg-indiana-mayor-hires-30-additional-staffers-iowa-organizing-poll-caucuses/1505073001/
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg hires 30 more Iowa staffers
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg hires 30 more Iowa staffers
Barbara Rodriguez, Des Moines Register Published 6:30 a.m. CT June 20, 2019
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has hired 30 additional staffers in Iowa, the latest sign the South Bend, Indiana, mayor is building up his organization in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.
Buttigieg's campaign told the Des Moines Register on Thursday that the new staff includes a political director, an organizing director, a data director, an operations director and two dozen organizers. The staff will all be in Iowa by the end of June.
The announcement is a significant increase for Buttigieg's Iowa operations. In early May, the campaign announced it had four paid staffers in the state. Several other 2020 hopefuls have aggressively staffed up in Iowa, a sign of the importance of on-the-ground organizing.
Buttigieg's hiring move comes as his political profile in the state and around the country has risen dramatically. He was relatively unknown in Iowa when he visited in February. Several Iowa campaign visits later, a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom/CNN Iowa Poll shows Buttigieg near the top of a crowded Democratic presidential field.
more...
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2019/06/20/democrat-pete-buttigieg-indiana-mayor-hires-30-additional-staffers-iowa-organizing-poll-caucuses/1505073001/
June 20, 2019
Congress
Trump administration won’t share evacuation plan for migrant child detention center, Rep. says
Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell pressed the Trump administration on its emergency preparedness at Miami’s Homestead Facility
Posted Jun 20, 2019 11:11 AM
Several weeks into hurricane season, a South Florida congresswoman is pressing the Trump administration to provide its emergency evacuation plan for migrant children detained in vulnerable coastal areas.
At the Homestead Facility, the nation’s largest camp for unaccompanied migrant children, children are sheltered in tents, metal trailers and a former U.S. Job Corps building. It is located south of the city of Miami, and is situated in the second-most vulnerable hurricane zone in South Florida, the Miami Herald reported.
When Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell asked federal officials to outline their emergency evacuation plan for the camp, the congresswoman received a brief, boilerplate response.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the sheltering of migrant children who arrive at the border without their parents, has not made its plan available to the congresswoman or to the public.
more...
https://www.rollcall.com/news/congress/rep-debbie-mucarsel-powell-hurricane-evacuation-plan-for-unaccompanied-migrant-children-should-not-be-secret?fbclid=IwAR30G45o5N2aB7Fyhc4OE3Ao-5Q-37pt2vKDGUPaqa4rfSuTsInDjpTsFSA
Trump administration won't share evacuation plan for migrant child detention center, Rep. says
Congress
Trump administration won’t share evacuation plan for migrant child detention center, Rep. says
Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell pressed the Trump administration on its emergency preparedness at Miami’s Homestead Facility
Posted Jun 20, 2019 11:11 AM
Several weeks into hurricane season, a South Florida congresswoman is pressing the Trump administration to provide its emergency evacuation plan for migrant children detained in vulnerable coastal areas.
At the Homestead Facility, the nation’s largest camp for unaccompanied migrant children, children are sheltered in tents, metal trailers and a former U.S. Job Corps building. It is located south of the city of Miami, and is situated in the second-most vulnerable hurricane zone in South Florida, the Miami Herald reported.
When Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell asked federal officials to outline their emergency evacuation plan for the camp, the congresswoman received a brief, boilerplate response.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the sheltering of migrant children who arrive at the border without their parents, has not made its plan available to the congresswoman or to the public.
“The administration refuses to answer to the American people and we’re insulted by their lack of accountability,” the first-term Democrat told the paper. “It’s not just their constitutional duty to respond to our inquiries, they ought to have a plan in place by now.”
more...
https://www.rollcall.com/news/congress/rep-debbie-mucarsel-powell-hurricane-evacuation-plan-for-unaccompanied-migrant-children-should-not-be-secret?fbclid=IwAR30G45o5N2aB7Fyhc4OE3Ao-5Q-37pt2vKDGUPaqa4rfSuTsInDjpTsFSA
June 20, 2019
'He Never Called Me Boy...'
By Connie Schultz
snip//
"He never called me 'boy.' He always called me 'son,'" Biden told donors. "Well, guess what? At least there was some civility. We got things done. We didn't agree on much of anything. We got things done. We got it finished. But today, you look at the other side and you're the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We don't talk to each other anymore."
He never called me "boy." No mention of how "boy" was a common term of derision and disrespect for black men in the Jim Crow south, or how Biden's white skin determined Eastland's willingness to work with him. Instead, we're supposed to see Biden's ability to get along with a man who called black people "an inferior race" as a model for how to engage with civility in 2019.
When I first learned about Biden's comments, I thought about all the black people in my life: friends, neighbors, students and colleagues. How would they feel hearing this? What did they deserve to hear from white people like me?
I had to do what I'm always insisting other white people do during uncomfortable discussions about race: Speak up.
My message, on Twitter and on my public Facebook wall: If Joe Biden wants to boast about his relationship with a racist, he is not who we need to succeed the racist in the White House.
more...
https://www.creators.com/read/connie-schultz/06/19/he-never-called-me-boy?fbclid=IwAR2jkRpFKEi7UZKYNmfa7FsHRtObTK0eRqa6hGdcDzIwxGtU9Hq_3JFlPGE
'He Never Called Me Boy...' By Connie Schultz
'He Never Called Me Boy...'
By Connie Schultz
snip//
"He never called me 'boy.' He always called me 'son,'" Biden told donors. "Well, guess what? At least there was some civility. We got things done. We didn't agree on much of anything. We got things done. We got it finished. But today, you look at the other side and you're the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We don't talk to each other anymore."
He never called me "boy." No mention of how "boy" was a common term of derision and disrespect for black men in the Jim Crow south, or how Biden's white skin determined Eastland's willingness to work with him. Instead, we're supposed to see Biden's ability to get along with a man who called black people "an inferior race" as a model for how to engage with civility in 2019.
When I first learned about Biden's comments, I thought about all the black people in my life: friends, neighbors, students and colleagues. How would they feel hearing this? What did they deserve to hear from white people like me?
I had to do what I'm always insisting other white people do during uncomfortable discussions about race: Speak up.
My message, on Twitter and on my public Facebook wall: If Joe Biden wants to boast about his relationship with a racist, he is not who we need to succeed the racist in the White House.
more...
https://www.creators.com/read/connie-schultz/06/19/he-never-called-me-boy?fbclid=IwAR2jkRpFKEi7UZKYNmfa7FsHRtObTK0eRqa6hGdcDzIwxGtU9Hq_3JFlPGE
June 20, 2019
more...
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/why-did-biden-praise-racist-senator-booker-deblasio-850220/
Why Did Joe Biden Praise a Segregationist?
June 19, 2019
5:37PM ET
Why Did Joe Biden Praise a Segregationist?
2020 rivals slam the vice president, who called for political “civility” by invoking his relationship with a Mississippi senator who once called to “abolish the Negro race”
By Tim Dickinson
At a fundraiser on Tuesday night, Joe Biden was lamenting the decline of comity in America’s political culture when his remarks took a dark detour.
The former vice president voiced nostalgia for his ability to partner with Southern segregationist Democrats back when he joined the Senate in the 1970s. “At least there was some civility,” Biden said. “We didn’t agree on much of anything. We got things done. We got it finished.”
For Biden, the remarks seemed intended to build on the narrative he’s framed for himself as an old-school politician, versed in bipartisanship, who knows how to make Washington work. Decrying the current state of affairs in the Beltway, Biden added: “Today you look at the other side and you’re the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We don’t talk to each other anymore.”
But in his remarks — delivered on the eve of Juneteenth, the day that marks the bitter end of slavery in 1865, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation — Biden voiced fondness for one colleague in particular, James Eastland, a Mississippi senator with a despicable legacy of racial hatred and incitement who was also a mentor to Biden in his early days in Washington. “I was in a caucus with James O. Eastland,” Biden told the assembled donors. “He never called me ‘boy,’ he always called me ‘son.’”
Biden’s remarks have drawn swift rebukes from 2020 challengers, including New Jersey Senator Cory Booker and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio — both of whom have insisted Biden needs to apologize.
Eastland was a giant in the Senate and an avatar of the darkest racism of the Civil Rights-era South. He was a plantation owner who championed white supremacy in language that now shocks the conscience. During the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycotts of the mid-1950s, Eastland appeared at a rally of the White Citizens Council to deliver remarks that stopped just short of a call for racial genocide. As memorialized by the historian Robert Caro, Eastland said:
In every stage of the bus boycott we have been oppressed and degraded because of black, slimy, juicy, unbearably stinking niggers … African flesh-eaters. When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to abolish the Negro race, proper methods should be used. Among these are guns, bows and arrows, slingshots and knives… All whites are created equal with certain rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of dead niggers.
more...
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/why-did-biden-praise-racist-senator-booker-deblasio-850220/
June 19, 2019
House Democrats vote to repeal 9/11-era law used to authorize perpetual war
Democrats want Trump to know: Any military action against Iran needs congressional authorization.
By Tara Golshan Jun 19, 2019, 6:30pm EDT
As the United States escalates tensions with Iran, House Democrats are sending President Donald Trump a message: If he wants to take any military action, he has to get permission from Congress first.
The House voted Wednesday to repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), which was passed in the days after 9/11, and gave President George W. Bush the authority to go to war with al-Qaeda and any related organization. For the past 18 years, presidents of both parties have used this same 2001 congressional war authorization as justification for wars all over the Middle East.
The vote is particularly significant now, as Trump administration officials briefed Congress Wednesday on what they said are connections between Iran and al-Qaeda. Trump’s administration has been escalating tensions with Iran, leading to mounting concern on Capitol Hill that the administration is itching for war.
This week, the United States announced plans to send an additional 1,000 troops to the Middle East to counter Iran, after blaming the country for attacking oil tankers that belonged to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, and Norway. Iran denies any involvement in the attacks. The Trump administration has called an Iranian strike on Americans in the Middle East “imminent,” and Iran has indicated that it may stop abiding by the 2015 nuclear arms deal (which Trump removed the United States from in 2018).
This is the first time the House has successfully passed a repeal of the 2001 AUMF since it was enacted. The provision was attached to a government funding bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. It was an amendment brought forward by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), who notably was the only House lawmaker to vote against the war authorization in 2001 — a decision some have hailed as prescient.
more...
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/19/18691936/house-democrats-vote-repeal-9-11-aumf-war-iran
House Democrats vote to repeal 9/11-era law used to authorize perpetual war
House Democrats vote to repeal 9/11-era law used to authorize perpetual war
Democrats want Trump to know: Any military action against Iran needs congressional authorization.
By Tara Golshan Jun 19, 2019, 6:30pm EDT
As the United States escalates tensions with Iran, House Democrats are sending President Donald Trump a message: If he wants to take any military action, he has to get permission from Congress first.
The House voted Wednesday to repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), which was passed in the days after 9/11, and gave President George W. Bush the authority to go to war with al-Qaeda and any related organization. For the past 18 years, presidents of both parties have used this same 2001 congressional war authorization as justification for wars all over the Middle East.
The vote is particularly significant now, as Trump administration officials briefed Congress Wednesday on what they said are connections between Iran and al-Qaeda. Trump’s administration has been escalating tensions with Iran, leading to mounting concern on Capitol Hill that the administration is itching for war.
This week, the United States announced plans to send an additional 1,000 troops to the Middle East to counter Iran, after blaming the country for attacking oil tankers that belonged to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, and Norway. Iran denies any involvement in the attacks. The Trump administration has called an Iranian strike on Americans in the Middle East “imminent,” and Iran has indicated that it may stop abiding by the 2015 nuclear arms deal (which Trump removed the United States from in 2018).
This is the first time the House has successfully passed a repeal of the 2001 AUMF since it was enacted. The provision was attached to a government funding bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. It was an amendment brought forward by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), who notably was the only House lawmaker to vote against the war authorization in 2001 — a decision some have hailed as prescient.
more...
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/19/18691936/house-democrats-vote-repeal-9-11-aumf-war-iran
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Gender: FemaleHometown: NY
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Current location: Florida
Member since: Mon Sep 6, 2004, 09:54 PM
Number of posts: 171,059
