These five minutes have people all across the country talking about Tulsi.

Of all the candidates on last night’s debate stage, Tulsi showed that she’s best prepared to lead as Commander in Chief on Day 1. 

With her signature composure, she demonstrated her uncompromising willingness to tell the truth no matter the political cost. She showed us what it would mean to have a combat veteran and experienced voice of foreign policy in the White House. And she gave us a way to restore the White House as a beacon of light, respect, love and compassion.

                                     Tulsi's Debate Highlights

LONGEST PERIOD IN U.S. HISTORY WITHOUT AN INCREASE IN THE FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE

Sunday marked the longest period in U.S. history without an increase in the federal minimum wage. The last time Congress passed an increase was more than 12 years ago–in May 2007. That’s when legislation was passed to increase the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour. (This took effect two years later, in July 2009.)
 
Since the minimum wage was first established in 1938, Congress has never let it remain unchanged for so long. By allowing the minimum wage to languish, Congress is essentially decreasing take-home wages for working families across the country. When the minimum wage remains unchanged for any length of time, inflation erodes its buying power.
 
Click here to share the chart, below, which shows that over the last decade, as the minimum wage has remained at $7.25 an hour, its purchasing power has declined by 17 percent. That translates to a loss of more than $3,000 in annual earnings for a full-time, year-round minimum wage worker.
 
When the minimum wage was last raised to $7.25 in the summer of 2009, it had a purchasing power equivalent to $8.70 in today’s dollars. Since its historical peak in February 1968, the federal minimum wage has lost 31 percent in purchasing power—meaning full-time, year-round minimum wage workers today earn $6,800 less a year than what their counterparts earned five decades ago.

The Changing Demographics of Mass Incarceration

After decades of constructing a system of mass incarceration, it appears that our nation is beginning to turn the tide. 

Some of the Deep South states that incarcerate the highest percentage of their residents – like Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi – have enacted reforms that are beginning to bring down their prison populations. At the same time, the federal prison population hasdecreased by 40,000 since peaking at 219,000 in 2013.

But it’s just a beginning. It will take much more reform to end the era of mass incarceration. It’s a period that began in the early 1970s – just after the civil rights movement – when President Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs” following a “law and order” presidential campaign calculated to appeal to white anxieties about the changing social order.

In the four decades that followed, the nation’s incarceration rate more than quadrupled, making the United States the world leader, by far, in the percentage of its residents behind bars. The prison and jail population rose seven-fold during this period, reaching 2.23 million by 2012.

The SPLC and many other advocates have shed light on how the criminal justice system criminalizes the poor and people of color and incarcerates them at disproportionate rates to feed what’s been called the “prison industrial complex.” As the societal cost of mass incarceration has become clear, even conservative lawmakers in the Deep South have begun to embrace change. And last year, Congress overwhelmingly passed modest,bipartisan reforms. 

Now, however, this progress is endangered by President Donald Trump, who is intent on filling up the nation’s jails and prisons with immigrants.

For the first time in U.S. history, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is detaining more than 50,000 people each day, at a cost of at least $7.4 billion annually. Over the past year, ICE has consistently incarcerated more people than the limit set by Congress, currently about 46,000.

These immigrants are held in jails and prisons, often in brutal conditions, even though the charges they’re facing are civil, not criminal. Many are simply asylum seekers who have every right to seek refuge in the United States.

Trump’s policies have been a panacea for the private prison industry, which was losing contracts after years of poor results, inhumane conditions and no cost savings.

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that the federal Bureau of Prisons would phase out its contracts with private companies, though the policy exempted ICE facilities. That same day, the stock prices of GEO Group and CoreCivic, the two leading prison companies, fell by 39 and 35 percent, respectively.

Then, Trump came along. A day after the election, CoreCivic’s stock soared by 43 percent. GEO’s was up 30 percent within a week.

There was good reason for their investors’ optimism. 

Less than a week into the Trump administration, Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed the Obama policy. Then Trump unleashed ICE to begin sweeping up immigrants across the country and sending them to remote prisons, mostly operated by private companies. Later on, he implemented asylum policies that resulted in long stays in detention for thousands of people who present themselves at the border.

ICE has long relied, to at least some extent, on for-profit companies to incarcerate immigrants. But that reliance has accelerated in recent years and grown more under Trump.

In 2009, according to the Migration Policy Institute, 68 percent of immigrant detainees were held in state and local jails under contract with ICE. But by 2015, the prison industry was operating nine out of the 10 largest ICE detention centers, and it accounted for 62 percent of detainee beds.

Today, the industry houses 73 percent of detained immigrants.

This is all good news for CoreCivic and GEO Group, which collectively manage half of the private prison contracts in the country.

Both groups have spent millions of dollars in federal lobbying over the past two decades, and both invested heavily in cementing their relationship with the Trump administration. In 2016, a GEO Group subsidiary donated $225,000 to a pro-Trump super PAC. Each company gave $250,000 to Trump’s unaccountable inauguration fund.

Meanwhile, years of research has demonstrated that conditions in privately run facilities are substantially worse than in public ones, because their sole aim is to maximize profit, leading to dangerous under-staffing and negligent health care.

The SPLC is, in fact, suing CoreCivic for its illegal and inhumane practice of forcing detained immigrants to work for as little as $1 a day at its Stewart Detention Facility in Lumpkin, Georgia, just so they can pay for basic necessities they must purchase from the prison’s commissaries.

Through its Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative, the SPLC is representing immigrants who are being detained in remote prisons in the Deep South and is suing the Trump administration across numerous fronts to hold it accountable for its abuses. 

But, with its immigration enforcement and incarceration policies, the administration seems to be doing everything it can to keep the prison industrial complex alive and thriving.

In recalling soldiers' D-Day sacrifice, archbishop prays for world peace

A U.S. Army soldier collects sand June 3, 2019, at Omaha Beach on the Normandy coast
 in France ahead of the 75th anniversary of D-Day June 6. Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio
 of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services is urging Catholics
 to pause in prayer and to remember and "give thanks for those
 who 75 years ago made the ultimate sacrifice" in the
Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II.
(CNS photo/Pascal Rossignol, Reuters)

In remembering the estimated 4,400 Allied troops who died storming the beaches of Normandy, France, 75 years ago on D-Day, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services said that "Jesus Christ reminds us there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends."

"At this time, in particular, we express deep gratitude for those who laid down their lives on D-Day," he said in a statement June 4.

Archbishop Broglio planned to travel again to France for the 75th anniversary of the Normandy invasion to commemorate and give thanks for the lives lost on the beaches of Normandy, in Europe and in the Pacific. The German casualties on D-Day were between 4,000 and 9,000.

"We ask God that their sacrifice not be in vain," Archbishop Broglio said. "We beg him to transform our power to turn war into a force for peace, to transform our weapons into plowshares, to give us the ability to negotiate, to talk and to listen."

In 2015, he journeyed to Normandy to commemorate the sad day and to help dedicate a monument on Utah Beach depicting three American GIs emerging from a Higgins boat. The Higgins boat was designed by Andrew Jackson Higgins to facilitate easy landing on beaches and in marshes, and was used extensively in the D-Day operations.

The archbishop remembered the boat's designers, those who "labored with vision to accomplish a goal, the liberation of peoples, their brothers and sisters in human society."

While in Normandy, Broglio also attended a commemoration for fallen Danish troops and celebrated Mass on the feast of Corpus Christi, during which he prayed for world peace.

At that time, he said he "was struck by the number of French men and women who came up to me and said: 'We will never forget what your countrymen did here.'"

Archbishop Broglio reminded the nation, too, to remember the sacrifices of American servicemen, as well as those of every soldier and civilian who lost life or loved ones.

For this year's commemoration, Archbishop Broglio prayed that Catholics and all Americans will "remain vigilant against the forces of evil in our troubled world, and to pour our energies into building lasting peace and justice among nations."

Homelessness jumps 12% in L.A. County and 16% in the city; officials ‘stunned’

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-homeless-count-encampment-affordable-housing-2019-results-20190604-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter

In a hard reality check for Los Angeles County’s multibillion-dollar hope of ending homelessness, officials reported Tuesday that the number of people living on the streets, in vehicles and in shelters increased by about 12% over last year. Read more from Benjamin Oreskes and Doug Smith, L.A. Times

Related: 2019 Greater Los Angeles homeless count by LAHSA

We Need to Join All of Our Forces to Stop the Impending Global Catastrophe!

U.S. Peace Council Statement US IMPERIALISM IS IN OVERDRIVE: We Need to Join All of Our Forces to Stop the Impending Global Catastrophe!   June 1, 2019 Since the September 11, 2001 attack on New York, leaders of the US military-industrial complex have put the Empire’s war machine into high gear, attacking, under the guise of an endless “war on terror” and “responsibility to protect,” one country after another and bringing death and destruction to many countries of the world, especially to those in the Middle East. Now, thanks to the Trump administration and his lunatic National Security Advisor, John Bolton, and his warmongering Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, US imperialism’s war machine has been put in overdrive. The never-ending wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria are now being supplemented by simultaneous threats of war and efforts to force a regime change against several countries; expanding the US economic war through imposition of illegal, anti-human sanctions against Syria, Iran and Venezuela, which has already resulted in the death of 40 thousand people and threats against the lives of an additional 300,000 people in Venezuela alone; withdrawing from missile and nuclear treaties with Russia and Iran, creating a humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen; dispatching more U.S. war ships and troops to the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf; expanding the reach of the US global war machine, NATO, into Latin America; starting an economic war with China; and increasing tensions with Russia. And on top of all this is a trillion-dollar military and war budget to fund the Empire’s “full spectrum dominance” project for the whole world, about which all politicians and presidential candidates, with the exception of one or two, are absolutely silent. All these point to the fact that the Empire is pushing the world toward a very dangerous global military, economic, environmental and humanitarian catastrophe, which demands extraordinary steps on the part of the US peace movement if such a disaster is to be prevented. The key question before all of us, now, is whether we are prepared to confront this historic responsibility. Unfortunately, despite all our valiant efforts in the past, we have not been able to stop this destructive war machine. And there is one key factor that has been responsible for it: Our movement has so far been too fragmented to be able to meet this challenge effectively. We have been fighting against various manifestations of the Empire’s destructive war efforts on a case by case basis — one day Palestine, another day Iraq, the next day Libya, the next day Syria, and now Venezuela and Iran — each perceived as a separate struggle to be carried out by a separate group of us in the peace movement. We have so far failed to address the very warmongering nature of the Empire itself as a unified global threat against the whole of humanity. The historic task before us requires that we not only understand our potential and historic responsibility but that we commit to struggle against all of the relatively easy reasons for our community to divide ourselves and embrace the delusionary framework of the sectarians that believe they can go at it alone. Over the last few years, the peace movement has shown significant progress, slowly re-building our capacity and reawakening our forces. We have much to be proud of. We have demonstrated the power of unity and have avoided the ideological and personality driven tripwires that could have undermined our progress. The Campaign to Divest from the Military, the global campaigns against nuclear weapons and for the environment, the creation of No Bases Coalition and the Global Campaign Against US/NATO Bases, the Peace Congress, the No Trump Parade, our peace delegations to Syria, Iran and Venezuela, the March 16th mobilization for Venezuela, the March 30th No to NATO mobilization, and the magnificent struggle at the Venezuela embassy to protect the integrity of international law and the will of the people of Venezuela, have been our response to the unity of the rulers and their commitment to death and destruction. But let us continue to build on this unity and concretize our coordination. Coming out of last years’ Peace Congress was the call for an organizing structure that would serve as a structure of communication and potential coordination among all of the peace, anti-war and anti-imperialist structures. The U.S. Peace Council is calling on all of our allies in the movement to reconstitute that structure and make it a permanent one. Overcoming the globally unified war machine of the Empire requires a nationally unified peace movement in the United States and a globally unified peace movement on the world scale. Let us take the necessary steps to build such a unified movement before it is too late. U.S. Peace Council • PO Box 3105, New Haven, CT 06515 • USPC@USPeaceCouncil.org • www.USPeaceCouncil.org • https://facebook.com/USPeace Council

The U.S. policy of maximum pressure against Iran has failed

By Majid Takht RavanchiMay 24 at 6:34 PM

On May 2, the United States stopped granting waivers for the importation of Iranian oil. The decision was yet another step in the U.S. economic war against Iran. The “maximum pressure” policy is designed to disrupt the Iranian economy and force Iran to enter negotiations on the United States’ terms for a new nuclear deal, substituting for the existing accord that was negotiated with the Obama administration and five world powers in 2015.

Iran rejected the latest U.S. action as illegal, as it did last year with the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. Iran regards the withdrawal as a violation of international law, including United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231.

In fact, Iran’s decision to remain in the nuclear deal, despite the U.S. withdrawal, was prompted by requests from European nations to give them enough time to compensate Iran for what it has lost as a result of the United States unilaterally abrogating its commitments and leaving the accord.

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My country has patiently waited for a year, but no tangible economic recompense has been forthcoming. Iran was left with no other option than to cease performing some commitments — such as observing limits on stockpiles of low-enriched uranium and heavy water — for two months, while still giving the remaining JCPOA members, and particularly Europe, time to finally and fully adhere to their commitments under the accord and make up for Iran’s losses. Our argument is basically that we cannot — and no one reasonably can — be expected to unilaterally honor a multilateral agreement.

The United States’ approach toward Iran has no clarity or cohesiveness. Instead, the policy is driven by an obsessional antagonism. It is no secret that a number of U.S. high officials — and certain leaders in the Middle East — are pushing President Trump to adopt a hard-line policy toward Iran, even calling for “regime change.” This group has presented what we call “fake intelligence” to “prove” that Iran is responsible for all of the Middle East’s problems — thus the urgency to confront us at any cost, including through military means.

The recent dispatching of a U.S. naval armada to the Persian Gulf is a response to the same fake intelligence, supported not by members of Congress or U.S. allies. Recently, I informed U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres about the need to establish a security structure in the Persian Gulf. Yet, let me be clear here: While Iran does not desire war in the region, neither with the United States nor with any other country, we will stand firmly against any act of aggression against our country.

Contrary to the views of some of his close associates, Trump appears not to want a war with Iran. But his approach toward us is contradictory — at times threatening us, at others calling for dialogue.

The United States’ proposal on dialogue with Iran faces three major hurdles. First, history shows that genuine talks cannot be productive if they are coupled with intimidation, coercion and sanctions. A dialogue can succeed if both sides accept the principle of mutual respect and then act on equal footing. 

Second, the Trump administration does not speak with a united voice on the need for a dialogue with Iran. Those who are eager to provoke a conflict are working to sabotage the possibility of useful and meaningful dialogue.

Finally, Trump’s sudden withdrawal from the JCPOA nuclear deal last year with no good reason — and to the disapproval of almost the entire international community — stirs concerns that any future deal might face the same fate, with no guarantee to the contrary.

This month, Trump said that the United States “is not looking to hurt Iran.” On May 20, however, he claimed that Iran’s “economy continues to collapse — very sad for the Iranian people.” This is clear evidence that the United States is determined to hurt the Iranian people, a crime under international law. Under these circumstances, how could any rational nation trust a U.S. offer of dialogue?

The U.S. policy of maximum pressure against Iran has failed. None of the Trump administration’s unjust demands has been met, and I can assure you that pressure will not work. So, what has the maximum-pressure policy accomplished? It has isolated the United States in the international arena and created yet more division between America and its allies. The policy has also stoked resentment toward the United States among Iranians from all walks of life. Yes, the illegal sanctions have hurt the Iranian people, but the sanctions have not changed Iran’s policies.

Throughout history, Iranians have always resisted the imposition of others’ will and have survived for millennia. That is self-evident to any historian. The language of threats and intimidation is anathema to Iranians, who have always demonstrated that respect begets respect. 

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