LibertyVoter.Org

By Raw Story

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) was blasted on social media on Saturday over his stance on DC statehood.

“Sen. Joe Manchin III told reporters in his home state of West Virginia on Friday morning that he does not support the bill to make D.C. the nation’s 51st state, according to audio provided by the Democrat’s office and a report from WVNews. Manchin, a key swing vote in the closely divided Senate, said he believes a constitutional amendment, rather than legislation, would be required to admit D.C. as a state. His stance deals a major blow to statehood advocates who were hoping for his support after the bill passed the House last week,” The Washington Post reported Friday.

Manchin believes that a Constitutional Amendment is required for DC statehood, a position that did not go over well online. Here’s some of what people were saying:

Some notes for Joe Manchin:
1. DC Statehood does NOT require a constitutional amendment. Congress CAN grant 700,00… https://t.co/FNiGJOkI49

— Nick Knudsen

By Bandy X. Lee

Dr. Bandy X. Lee was interviewed by Prof. Johanna Fernández, author of The Young Lords: A Radical History (UNC Press, 2020), a history of the Puerto Rican counterpart of the Black Panther Party. She is the editor of Writing on the Wall: Selected Prison Writings of Mumia Abu-Jamal (City Lights, 2015) and with Abu-Jamal a special issue of the journal Socialism and Democracy, titled The Roots of Mass Incarceration in the US: Locking Up Black Dissidents and Punishing the Poor(Routledge, 2014). She teaches 20th Century U.S. history and the history of social movements at Baruch College (CUNY) and hosts “A New Day” on WBAI. She interviewed Dr. Lee, forensic psychiatrist and author of Profile of a Nation, for her “Race, Class, and Revolution” class at MayDay Space in New York. This is a two-part series. The first part of the interview series can be read here.

Where does politics begin and psychiatry end in assessing social problems?

As you know, we just experienced hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths, the near-loss of our democracy, and traumatization of a nation as a result of a president’s mental unfitness, and so we cannot say the two areas are always separate. If the psychological dangers and unfitness were addressed earlier on, as would have been routine for any other job, we may have avoided these predictable consequences. Mental health issues do not stop at the political realm, and a high political office does not make one immune from mental problems.

At the same time, just as political matters should not be labeled as psychiatric, psychiatric issues should not be labeled as political. Politicians are supposed to consult with experts in areas that exceed their ability to handle—and not pretend that it is politics as usual—just as mental health experts should not comment on areas outside their expertise. Mislabeling can lead to catastrophes, as we have seen under Donald Trump, when glaring psychological problems were interpreted as political strategy or “3-D chess.”

We associate Nazism or Stalinism with certain countries, while portraying Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin, or Pol Pot as such exceptional “monsters” that they would never be replicated on our soil, when the psychological characteristics they display are quite common—and it was handing them power that was exceptional. If we fail to understand the personality types that relentlessly seek but cannot handle power, which transforms them …read more

Source: ALTERNET

By Alex Henderson

This week, Arizona has had a blatantly partisan, Republican-inspired ‘audit’ of Maricopa County’s votes in the 2020 presidential election. And one of the people seen counting ballots, according to reporter Brahm Resnik, was former Arizona State Rep. Anthony Kern — a far-right Republican who was in Washington, D.C. on January 6 for former President Donald Trump’s infamous “Stop the Steal” rally.

The recount in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, was ordered by Republicans in the Arizona State Senate and has been conducted by the Florida-based firm Cyber Ninjas — with One America News, a cable channel that prides itself on being to the right of Fox News, handling the livestream. Arizona Democrats have been slamming the recount as a pointless farce, noting that the election results in that state were certified by conservative Republican Gov. Doug Ducey last year and were already verified repeatedly.

In other words, now-President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in Arizona was thoroughly vetted and settled. Regardless, Republicans in the Arizona State Senate wanted another audit more than five months after Biden won the state.

On Friday, Resnik — who is with KPNX-TV, the NBC affiliate in Phoenix — tweeted:

UPDATE I deleted retweet that showed ballot at audit table where ex GOP State Rep. Anthony Kern was counting ballot… https://t.co/EXTdRnB0bd

— Brahm Resnik (@brahmresnik)
1619810593.0

AZ Central previously reported Kern’s appearance at the steps of the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Trump is not the only Republican who was voted out of office in November 2020: Democrat Judy Schwiebert defeated Kern and has been serving in the Arizona House of Representatives since January 11.

Here are some reactions to Resnik’s reporting:

@brahmresnik That’s so fucked up. Thank you for sharing

— ☀️

By Heather Digby Parton

President Joe Biden gave his first speech to a joint session of Congress this week and by most accounts, it was a successful event. The TV ratings weren’t high but according to snap polls, those that did watch liked what he had to say and the media were complimentary about his delivery and presentation — which is half the battle.

Biden introduced a new piece of legislation called the American Family Act which features items such as paid family leave, universal daycare and preschool, free community college, elder care, and a number of other initiatives that other developed countries have had for years but which Americans have been staring at longingly from afar. It’s obvious that if we want a 21st Century economy, we’re going to have to at least catch up to what other countries have been doing since the middle of the 20th.

His initiative comes on the heels of the previously announced American Jobs Act (aka Biden’s infrastructure plan) and the already passed American Rescue Plan Act, as well as his administration’s very successful vaccine roll-out. Considering that Biden had virtually no transition and came into office on the heels of an insurrection and in the middle of a global pandemic, that’s not a bad first 100 days.

But the hard work is really just beginning.

The government has responded well to the pandemic crisis, which is a refreshing change from the previous administration. And the big COVID relief package has given the economy the boost it needed to recover (and it is recovering smartly). But Biden’s platform is much more ambitious. Taking office at a time of great turmoil in the country after years of unnecessary wars, economic and social stagnation, as well as pent-up demand for racial justice, he and the Democrats have decided to try to enact a truly transformative agenda.

Of course, that is a very tall order. As we are all well aware, the Democrats have a very narrow majority in the upper chamber and there are a few senators who seem to be determined to pare down these ambitious goals in the name of “bipartisanship” and “fiscal responsibility.” If that sounds familiar, it should. Centrist Democrats have been wringing their hands over deficits and taxes for the past 40 years, a form of inherited political PTSD from the Reagan Revolution. But there are fewer of them …read more

Source: ALTERNET

By Alex Henderson

After months of keeping a relatively low profile, former Vice President Mike Pence has started making himself more visible — and on Friday, Politico published two separate articles on him: a piece by Alex Isenstadt discussing Pence’s recent public appearances, and a Meridith McGraw article stressing that Trumpworld has left Pence behind. Meanwhile, Pence is being slammed on Twitter for a thread in which he accused President Joe Biden of promoting a “radical left” assault on “American traditional values.”

Pence has been mentioned as a possible GOP presidential candidate for 2024. And Isenstadt notes that Pence is making an effort to “increase his public profile.”

“Pence has spent several months out of the spotlight following a fallout with former President Donald Trump over the former vice president’s decision to certify the 2020 election results,” Isenstadt explains. “But Pence’s uptick in activity — including stops in a key early primary state and a planned appearance at a traditional GOP cattle call — underscores how he’s beginning to lay the groundwork for a possible future run.”

If Pence did run for president in 2024, the competition in the Republican primary — depending on who else decides to run — could include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and Trump himself.

Isenstadt reports, “According to a person familiar with the plans, (Pence’s) schedule includes a pair of stops in Texas next week. Pence is to speak at a fundraiser hosted by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and on May 7, he is slated to appear at a donor appreciation event hosted by former George W. Bush political adviser Karl Rove. The former vice president will be interviewed onstage by Republican Sen. John Cornyn, according to a copy of the schedule.”

According to Isenstadt, Pence’s itinerary also includes fundraising for Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, and a Heritage Foundation donor summit in North Carolina. But McGraw, in her article, points out that some people in MAGA World have turned against the former vice president — or are, at best, lukewarm.

“The final weeks of the Donald Trump-Mike Pence partnership were an unmitigated disaster,” McGraw notes. “Pence, the fiercely loyal vice president, was ushered to safety in the halls of Congress after he refused his boss’ wishes to not certify the election results. For …read more

Source: ALTERNET

By Common Dreams

With Covid-19 cases soaring in India, acclaimed author and activist Arundhati Roy wrote Wednesday that her country is witnessing “an outright crime against humanity” as outside observers fear the crisis could hamper global efforts to rein in the pandemic.

As of Thursday, India now has the second highest number of total cases in the world—over 18 million—since the pandemic began, but a surge in recent weeks has made it into a global hot spot for daily infections and deaths.

So far, there have been over 204,000 official Covid-19 related deaths, but the true toll is likely far higher.

“I do not know of a single family that has not seen at least one of its members infected. We are seeing hundreds of thousands of new cases every day and many more deaths,” Pankaj Anand, humanitarian and program director with Oxfam India, said in a statement Thursday.

“The health infrastructure in India is bursting at the seams,” said Anand, “and there are widespread reports of shortages of oxygen and other medical supplies in large cities.”

According to the Associated Press: “India has set a daily global record for seven of the past eight days, with a seven-day moving average of nearly 350,000 infections. Daily deaths have nearly tripled in the past three weeks, reflecting the intensity of the latest surge.”

Headlines over the past few days—like “Round-the-clock mass cremations” and “Covid cases cross 18 million, gravediggers work round the clock“—put the crisis in bleak terms.

The crisis is clear to Jyot Jeet, chairperson of the Delhi-based organization Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sewa Dal, which provides free medical care and has been providing cremation services amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“Day in and day out, we are surrounded by the smell of burning flesh, and the sounds of crying families,” he told NBC News.

The far-right government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has come under fire for its response to the pandemic.

In an op-ed published Wednesday at the Guardian, Roy wryly described Modi as being “busy, busy, busy” with other matters like “Destroying the last vestiges of democracy,” construction of “massive prison complexes,” and watching as “hundreds of thousands of farmers [were] beaten and teargassed.”

“The crisis-generating machine that we call our government is incapable of leading us out …read more

Source: ALTERNET

By The New Civil Rights Movement

36-year-old Meghan McCain shared with “The View” watchers on Thursday her anger that President Joe Biden “is going to be the most progressive president of my lifetime.” McCain, born in 1984, has lived through seven presidents before Biden – four Republican and now four Democratic, so it’s not surprising that the most recent Democratic president would be the most progressive.

But she wasn’t only furious that Biden will be the most progressive president, which she said was “very disappointing to the people who had faith in him for running as a centrist,” she was furious that he delivered what she called “the most progressive speech of any modern president since LBJ,” referring to President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

McCain went on to complain that “the answer to every single problem in the United States of America is to write a check and bankrupt my generation in the process, and if you don’t believe me because I’m conservative believe The New York Times,” McCain said.

“They said, ‘Biden, a lifelong centrist has moved leftward and moved the biggest expansion of American government in decades.’ And he’s getting praise from people like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.”

Watch:

…read more

Source: ALTERNET