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16 July 21
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Analysis: Progressives are thrilled at the $3.5 trillion bottom line on a major spending deal that makes room for much of their agenda. But there's a long way to go.
After a faint and apparently feint call to spend $6 trillion in a budget "reconciliation" bill that would vastly expand Medicare, public housing and federal efforts to combat climate change, Sanders declared unmitigated victory when he and fellow Democratic Party heavyweights came to agreement on a $3.5 trillion bottom line.
It would be "the most significant piece of legislation passed since the Great Depression," Sanders said, with characteristic hyperbole.
The measure hasn't passed, however. The details aren't even public. And the resolution he's talking about, one piece of a two-track spending package, only paves the way for the filibuster-proof reconciliation process to begin.
Not to mention that since the Depression, Congress created the interstate highway system and Medicare and Medicaid, along with enacting the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and establishing several Cabinet-level agencies that deal with health, environmental protection, transportation and housing.
Moreover, Sanders faces challenges from centrists in both chambers, as well as some allies who are starting to make demands that might not be achievable under Congress's arcane rules.
But progressives sounded ecstatic notes Wednesday.
"Bernie Sanders did a phenomenal job to have so many of our priorities on child care, education, infrastructure and health care included," Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said. "As long as the bill is not watered down and has strong climate provisions, I expect progressives to rally around it."
The dollar figure would amount to the largest spending measure ever enacted by Congress, eclipsing the March 2020 Covid-19 relief bill by more than 50 percent. And it makes room for versions of the major planks of Sanders's campaign agenda, including elements of the Green New Deal designed to combat climate change, hundreds of billions of dollars to build affordable housing, and an expansion of Medicare that reflects the first phase of his controversial Medicare for All plan.
Republicans were quick to warn that pumping so much money into the economy would create new inflationary pressure at a time when the price of a basket of household goods is already rising.
"It’s disgusting that in the face of Biden’s inflation crisis that has devastating impacts on America’s low and fixed-income families, like mine growing up, Joe Biden and the Democrats can’t face reality and be fiscally responsible to protect American families," Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., a potential 2024 presidential hopeful, said in a statement.
In an interview on Fox Business, Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the chair of the Senate Republican Conference, called the Democrats' plan a "freight train to socialism."
But they aren't alone. Democrats are slow to criticize Biden on the record, but many worry about the economic implications of their party's agenda, and how they will play with voters.
"The serious question Democrats must start asking is if or when will moderates and independent voters rebel against such record levels of spending and the higher inflation that might follow," said one Democratic strategist who has worked on Capitol Hill and presidential campaigns. "If they do rebel, we will get slaughtered in the 2022 midterm elections."
Some House Democratic centrists hope that their counterparts in the Senate will balk at the size of the deal, along with the scope of tax hikes necessary to pay for the government programs. They're looking to Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., to force party leaders to reduce the bottom line.
"That proposal sent a lot of alarm bells to moderates in the House," said one senior House Democratic aide who works with centrists. "We’re hoping that Manchin and Sinema will step up and bring this down to earth."
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., now have to figure out how to move the budget resolution through both of their chambers — a step that would launch a "reconciliation" bill — as well as a traditional infrastructure package. A bipartisan group of senators is working to produce a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that would likely win support from House moderates in both parties, but that process has been slow and unwieldy.
And even though progressives are happy with where the leadership's budget stands right now in terms of the $3.5 trillion price tag, there are signs of potential rebellion within their ranks. Rep. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, D-Ill., said last week that he can't support a reconciliation bill if it doesn't include a path to citizenship for certain sets of undocumented immigrants.
Others on the left say that they will be watching closely to see whether a final reconciliation bill comprises their cherished climate-change initiatives.
"By far the biggest red line will be about investment in climate," said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a group that has sought to rally the left wing of the party.
For progressives who support Sanders, the trick is getting as many of their priorities into the reconciliation measure without killing both bills. If a single Democratic senator objects to the deal — or more than five House Democrats do — it can't go forward. And progressives might try to sink a bipartisan infrastructure deal if they think moderates will stop the reconciliation measure.
"The question is how do we draw the line carefully but also be able to deliver," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. "Any three or four people have a lot of power."
It's not clear yet which of the progressives' priorities can survive a "Byrd bath" — the Senate's term of art for cleaning a bill of provisions that don't conform to reconciliation rules. Immigration policy changes and some of the climate provisions could be on the chopping block.
For now, though, progressives are excited by Sanders's ability to frame the debate around a big dollar figure that could encompass much of his agenda.
"He's got a tough job," Jayapal said, "and we've got his back."
Rep. Joyce Beatty is taken into custody by U.S. Capitol Police officers in the Hart Senate Office Building after a demonstration supporting voting rights Thursday. (photo: Jose Luis/AP)
Beatty, the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, was part of a small group urging the Senate to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, federal legislation that would curtail restrictions being set on voting and gerrymandering at the state level.
Speaking on the Hill before her march into the Hart Senate Office Building, Beatty compared this moment to the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century, saying, “We might as well have the dogs and the hoses because we don’t have the Voting Rights Act, and that’s why we need to march in these streets, we need to march as those who were followers of Martin Luther King and John Lewis.”
Beatty added that she hoped she would get arrested.
“That’s what today is about: It’s about fighting for everyone,” she said. “It’s about fighting for justice. It’s about fighting for you.”
Less than an hour after speaking, Beatty was being zip-tied by U.S. Capitol Police, along with a small number of other protesters.
“Let the people vote. Fight for justice,” tweeted the congresswoman’s official Twitter account, with two photos of her being arrested. It later tweeted, “Good trouble,” a reference to the late Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon.
The Capitol Police said nine people were processed for "demonstrating in a prohibited area on Capitol Grounds." Beatty released a statement that said she stands “in solidarity with Black women and allies across the country in defense of our constitutional right to vote. We have come too far and fought too hard to see everything systematically dismantled and restricted by those who wish to silence us. Be assured that this is just the beginning.”
As of June 21, 17 states had enacted 28 new laws this year that restrict access to the vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. At least 61 bills with restrictive provisions are moving through 18 state legislatures, while 31 have passed at least one chamber. Earlier this month, a Supreme Court ruling by the six Republican-appointed justices delivered another blow to the Voting Rights Act in a case regarding Arizona laws, which Beatty referred to in her remarks Thursday afternoon.
The House passed the For the People Act in March, but it has been blocked by the Senate filibuster, which requires 60 votes to move forward. President Biden spoke about the importance of protecting voting rights on Tuesday but faced scrutiny from civil rights leaders and many congressional Democrats for failing to call for the elimination of the filibuster, which would allow for the bill to pass with a simple majority of Democratic votes.
On Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki called the filibuster “a legislative procedural process that is up to the Senate to determine the path forward on” and said that there is currently not the consensus among Senate Democrats needed to support removing it.
“I know we focus on one or two,” Psaki said, likely referring to moderate Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., “but there is certainly more than that, of individuals who oppose changes to the filibuster because of the history.”
Beatty and her fellow marchers chanted “End the filibuster” prior to their arrests.
Suspects in the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, who was shot dead early Wednesday at his home, are shown to the media in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, July 8, 2021. (photo: Estailove St-Val/Reuters)
“A review of our training databases indicates that a small number of the Colombian individuals detained as part of this investigation had participated in past U.S. military training and education programs, while serving as active members of the Colombian Military Forces,” Lt. Col. Ken Hoffman, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement to The Washington Post.
The Pentagon’s review is ongoing, Hoffman said. He did not say how many of the men received training or precisely what it entailed.
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), whose legislation provides oversight of foreign defense aid used in human rights abuses, said the episode was a grim reminder that U.S. assistance to other countries can take unexpected turns.
“This illustrates that while we want our training of foreign armies to build professionalism and respect for human rights, the training is only as good as the institution itself,” Leahy said.
“The Colombian army, which we have supported for 20 years, has a long history of targeting civilians, violating the laws of war and not being accountable. There has been a cultural problem within that institution.”
Colombian officials initially said that 13 of 15 Colombian suspects in the July 7 assassination plot once served in that country’s military, including the two killed by Haitian authorities after Moïse was fatally shot inside his home.
It is common for Colombian troops and other security personnel across Latin America to receive U.S. training and education. Colombia, in particular, has been a significant U.S. military partner for decades, receiving billions of U.S. dollars since 2000 in its effort to battle drug trafficking organizations, leftist guerrillas and far-right paramilitary groups.
That effort has included CIA-backed missions and a close relationship between Colombian military personnel and the U.S. Green Berets, who help train their elite counterparts in guerrilla warfare. A Colombian commando school is modeled on the Army’s grueling Ranger School, and the two militaries’ partnership dates to at least the 1950s.
Colombian military and police also use U.S.-provided weapons and equipment, an agreement that came under scrutiny earlier this year after police there killed multiple protesters during demonstrations against government tax proposals. A related analysis by The Post, published in May, found that Colombian authorities overstepped their own rules of engagement in some of the deadly encounters.
Fighting in Colombia’s decades-long war has been a springboard for military veterans to trade their U.S.-funded experience for hire in other global conflicts, such as in Yemen.
“The recruitment of Colombian soldiers to go to other parts of the world as mercenaries is an issue that has existed for a long time, because there is no law that prohibits it,” the commander of Colombia’s armed forces, Gen. Luis Fernando Navarro, told reporters last week.
Foreign military training provided by the United States is intended to promote “respect for human rights, compliance with the rule of law, and militaries subordinate to democratically elected civilian leadership,” Hoffman, the Pentagon spokesman, said in his statement. He did not immediately respond to questions seeking additional information.
The disclosure that some of the assassination suspects received U.S. training, which has not been previously reported, is certain to complicate the already murky understanding of how the plot to kill Moïse took shape, and who was involved.
Two U.S. citizens of Haitian descent are among those who have been arrested, and Haitian authorities identified five companies associated with the case, including CTU Security, based in Florida. Colombian police also identified 19 plane tickets purchased by a company credit card registered in Miami. The tickets were used by some of the 21 Colombian suspects to travel from Bogotá, Colombia, to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, authorities said.
Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 63, an American doctor and pastor who frequently traveled between Haiti and Florida, was arrested in connection with the plot. Authorities have claimed he was positioning himself to run for president in the impoverished Caribbean nation and had a role in hiring the alleged assassins, but they have provided little evidence about his alleged involvement.
To date, Haitian authorities have arrested at least 20 people in connection with Moïse’s death, which has plunged the country into a leadership crisis. Late Wednesday, officials confirmed they had detained the presidential palace’s head of security.
Authorities in Haiti are investigating Moïse’s killing with assistance from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and personnel from Colombia’s government. President Biden has condemned the assassination and appealed for calm, but on Thursday he appeared to turn down a request from Haiti’s government for military security assistance. Speaking at the White House, Biden said a contingent of Marines would be sent to reinforce the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince. Deploying American troops elsewhere in Haiti, he said, is “not on the agenda.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz. (photo: Reuters)
The fee, for legal consulting, was paid to Manhattan criminal defense attorney Marc Fernich
The Florida Republican and acolyte of former president Donald Trump is under investigation for possible sex trafficking of a minor. A spokesman for Gaetz did not address the payment but touted the congressman’s fundraising haul, which totaled more than $1.3 million in the second quarter of the year.
The June payment, for legal consulting, went to the law office of Marc Fernich, whose website says he specializes in “subtle, novel and creative arguments that other attorneys may miss.”
“These arguments can make potential winners out of seemingly hopeless cases, spelling the difference between victory and defeat,” the site adds.
It lists Epstein, along with Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, the Mexican kingpin known as “El Chapo,” among his “Notable Clients.” Fernich did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The campaign also paid $25,000 for legal consulting to Zuckerman Spaeder, a large D.C.-based firm that also did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
The $1.3 million raked in by Gaetz between April and June is a sizable sum for a member of Congress under investigation by the Justice Department as well as the House Ethics Committee. He spent about $1.8 million in the same period, the filing shows, and has $1.6 million on hand.
Virtually all of Gaetz’s contributions were from individual donors rather than party committees or PACs, the filing shows. He did receive a financial boost from Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), whose reelection campaign supplied Gaetz with $3,000 last month.
“Our FEC filings speak for themselves,” said Gaetz’s spokesman, Harlan Hill. “Despite an endless stream of lies from the media, Congressman Gaetz continues to be among the most prodigious fundraisers in Congress and is the only Republican who doesn’t accept donations from federal lobbyists or PACs. He thanks his tens of thousands of donors and promises to always fight for them.”
Gaetz, who represents a conservative district in Florida’s Panhandle, has risen to prominence as a combative defender of Trump, often taking his case to cable TV. The Justice Department has been examining whether a former county tax collector, Joel Greenberg, procured women for Gaetz and whether the two men shared sexual partners, including a 17-year-old girl. Gaetz has said he never had intercourse with a 17-year-old, which is considered statutory rape in Florida.
Inequality continues to grow in the U.S. (photo: Alistair Berg/Getty)
The average CEO of an S&P 500 company made 299 times more money than the median employee last year, the union federation said in a press release issued Wednesday. This is greater than the CEO-to-worker ratio of 264 to 1 in 2019, Reuters reports.
"2020's growth in pay inequity between workers and CEOs confirms the 'executive base salary reductions' touted during the COVID-19 crisis were just lip service," the AFL-CIO said in the release.
The greatest chasm between CEOs' and workers' pay emerged in the consumer discretionary sector, where the average pay ratio was 741-to-1. This sector includes Amazon and retail companies like Starbucks, McDonald's, and Chipotle, whose workers are often paid lower wages.
The AFL-CIO also found that CEOs of S&P 500 companies received $15.5 million in total compensation on average last year. The average S&P 500 CEO's pay grew $712,720 last year, according to the analysis.
In the past 10 years, the average S&P 500 CEO's pay has grown by $2.6 million, representing an increase of $260,000 per year. The average wage for production and nonsupervisory workers only rose $957 per year in the same period, the AFL-CIO says.
News of the growing pay gap comes as the US grapples with a shortage of workers to fill jobs at current wages as the economy reopens from the coronavirus pandemic. Some companies are responding by hiking up wages, offering additional benefits, and even offering cash to show up for an interview. Staff fed up with working conditions are also walking off their jobs en masse at some stores.
The Citizen Lab researchers said the Candiru spyware is part of a thriving private industry selling technology to governments and authoritarian leaders so they can gain access to the communications of private citizens and political opposition. (photo: John Taggart/Bloomberg)
The University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, which tracks illegal hacking and surveillance, said at least 100 activists, journalists and government dissidents across 10 countries were targeted with spyware produced by an Israeli company called Candiru.
Using a pair of vulnerabilities in Microsoft Corp.’s Windows, cyber operatives operating in Saudi Arabia, Israel, Hungary, Indonesia and elsewhere purchased and installed remote spying software made by Candiru, according to the researchers. The tool was used in “precision attacks” against targets’ computers, phones, network infrastructure and internet-connected devices,” said Cristin Goodwin, general manager of Microsoft’s Digital Security Unit.
Microsoft was alerted to these attacks by researchers at Citizen Lab, and after weeks of analysis, the company released patches on July 13 for a pair of Windows vulnerabilities believed to be the point of entry for the spyware, according to a Microsoft blog published Thursday. Microsoft doesn’t name Candiru but instead refers to an “Israel-based private sector offensive actor” it calls Sourgum.
Candiru didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Candiru is the name of an eel-like fish native to the Amazon River region that allegedly enters the urethra of humans before deploying short spines – a story some have dismissed as a myth.
The users of the spyware also hacked politicians and human rights activists, according to the researchers, who declined to name the victims.
The Citizen Lab researchers said the Candiru spyware is part of a thriving private industry selling technology to governments and authoritarian leaders so they can gain access to the communications of private citizens and political opposition. Another Israeli company, NSO Group Ltd., has been accused of providing spyware to repressive governments that have used it to snoop on journalists and activists.
NSO has maintained that it sells its technology exclusively to governments and law enforcement as a tool against terrorism and crime. In a report published on June 30, NSO Group said it refuses to sell spyware to 55 countries and has taken steps to curb misuse by customers.
John Scott-Railton, senior researcher at Citizen Lab, said the Candiru research “shows there’s a whole ecosystem selling to authoritarian regimes.”
“Tools like Candiru are used to export fear,” he added.
Citizen Lab’s findings also offered some fresh insight into the cost of doing business in the spyware industry.
For 16 million euros ($18.9 million), Candiru’s clients can attempt to compromise an unlimited number of devices but are limited to actively tracking only 10 at a time, according to Citizen Lab. For an extra 1.5 million euro ($1.8 million), buyers can monitor an additional 15 victims.
Candiru has clients in Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Local news organizations have reported contracts in Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Qatar, according to Citizen Lab’s report.
Candiru’s clients are restricted to operating only in “agreed upon territories,” according to Citizen Lab. The company’s clients sign contracts that limit operations outside the U.S., Russia, China, Israel and Iran, according to the report. But Microsoft said it has recently discovered activity with the spyware in Iran, suggesting the rules aren’t concrete, according to the report.
Streets and homes flooded in Newport Beach, California, during a high tide in July 2020. So-called sunny day floods are getting more common in coastal cities and towns as sea levels rise due to climate change. (photo: Matt Hartman/AP)
The problem is expected to get worse in the coming years, federal scientists warn.
In 2021, 14 coastal locations broke or tied records for the number of so-called sunny day floods, when water infiltrated neighborhoods even though there was no storm, according to the annual high tide flooding report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
That includes Galveston and Corpus Christi, Texas, which each set records of more than 20 days of high tide flooding in 2021. Residents of Pensacola, Fla., and Charleston, S.C., each experienced 14 days of high tide flooding in 2021.
That's a huge increase over just two decades ago: all four cities saw two days of tidal flooding or less in the year 2000.
"Damaging floods that decades ago happened only during a storm are now happening more regularly, even without severe weather," says Nicole LeBoeuf, the director of NOAA's National Ocean Service.
The cause of the flooding is clear: human-driven climate change. People are burning fossil fuels that release enormous quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. That's causing the Earth to heat up rapidly, which melts ice and causes the water in the oceans to expand, both of which drive sea level rise.
"Sea levels are going up quicker than anticipated and the number of flood days are following suit," says William Sweet, an oceanographer at NOAA's National Ocean Service. "There's a lot of heat and there's a lot of warm water."
In some areas, the land is also sinking. That includes the Chesapeake Bay region, where the land is naturally subsiding, and parts of the Gulf Coast where fossil fuel and drinking water extraction are hastening land loss. When the land sinks while the water rises, flooding is even more severe.
Scientists expect high tide flooding will continue to accelerate in the coming years. Long-term projections for the U.S. suggest that the average number of days with high tide floods could double by the end of the decade.
Beginning in the mid-2030s, a change in the lunar cycle will amplify climate-driven tidal flooding, a recent study by NASA scientists warned. The moon's orbit has a natural wobble, and when the moon is slightly closer to the Earth, tides are a little higher.
Local governments in coastal areas are increasingly reliant on official predictions about tidal flooding. Floods can affect emergency services and schools, and local planning departments must decide where to build new buildings in light of increased flood risk.
NOAA's ocean scientists continuously monitor tides around the U.S., and release seasonal predictions for each U.S. region. Those predictions include specific dates that residents in each region of the country can expect to see high tide flooding, such as water running in the streets or bubbling up through storm drains.
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