Dear Progressive Reader,
This past week was marked by three days of public hearings conducted by the House Intelligence Committee, bringing the total to five. The action may now move to the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by New York Democrat Jerry Nadler, as it is the Judiciary Committee that is charged with drafting any articles of impeachment that may come out of this process. Media reports indicate that the Senate is already discussing a timeline for an impeachment trial in early 2020. Cartoonist Mark Fiore this week gave his public service message on the process to Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, one additional name that started to appear with some frequency in this week’s witness testimony was that of Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, the Republican who unseated progressive Democrat Russ Feingold in 2010 and beat him in a rematch in 2016. Johnson, who had been a “Russia Hawk” in his first term, is now firmly in the Trump camp regarding Ukraine. Johnson was interviewed on Wisconsin Public Television yesterday and was asked by host Frederica Freyberg, “what is your reaction to these impeachment hearings with the slate of witnesses who described the ‘Three Amigos’ running the Rudy Giuliani diplomacy of this-for-that at the behest of the president with the military aid in the balance?” Johnson answered quite simply, “I think it’s very unfortunate this has been exposed and made so public.” And his reasons for fearing these public revelations are apparently quite personal. As Jud Lounsbury writes this week, “Johnson not only was aware of the extortion, but actively participated in it by personally applying pressure on Zelensky.” It remains to been seen if Johnson or Representative Devin Nunes (whose 2018 meetings with Ukrainians are now being reported) will be called upon to testify about their roles in all of this.
In addition to five days of testimony on impeachment, the 2020 electoral cycle now includes five separate debates of the Democratic candidates for the presidency. Although this debate’s audience was less than one third of others (from between twenty-four and twenty-seven million in the first sessions down to just less than eight million on November 20), it was, as Ruth Conniff notes, the “most watchable of the five Democratic debates so far,” where “candidates who have been running toward the back of the pack put in the best performances.” In many ways the format was much more listenable, with less cross-talk and fighting between the candidates, but the audience was left with no real narrowing of the field. As Conniff concludes, at the end of the evening “Democrats left the stage and walked back out into a country where Donald Trump is still President.”
One important issue that has not been discussed on the debate stages, or the campaign trail, is the absence of dental insurance for so many Americans. “Dental care is still not covered by most health insurance plans,” writes Jess Pernsteiner in an op-ed for our Progressive Media Project. “As we head into a presidential election year in which health care is emerging as a major issue, we must do all we can to include dental care as a health care benefit, to protect and improve the health and lives of all Americans.”
Protests against austerity measures and authoritarian rule continue around the globe, from Hong Kong to Iran to Chile, and this week are emerging in Colombia as well. Jeff Abbott reports from Guatemala on an Indigenous-led protest in support of Bolivian president Evo Morales, who was ousted earlier this month in what is being called a U.S.-supported rightwing coup. Meanwhile, on Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the United States would reverse forty years of government policy and no longer term Israeli settlements in the West Bank “illegal.” Stephen Zunes is not surprised, and points out that “Three previous U.S. administrations all ignored the gross power asymmetry between the Palestinians under occupation and the Israeli occupiers—an imbalance compounded by the fact that as the chief mediator in negotiations, the U.S. is also the primary military, economic, and diplomatic supporter of the occupying power.”
Finally, if you are in the Madison area, mark your Progressive calendars to “save the date” for a special event. Legendary actor and television star Ed Asner will be in town for two performances of his new political comedy for the stage, God Help Us!, on December 12 and 13 at the Bartell Theater as a benefit for The Progressive. I hope you can join us.
Keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.
Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher
P.S. – We have begun our annual “Fall Harvest” fundraising drive, where we seek to reap the harvest of all the seeds we have planted during the past year with hard-hitting, independent reporting on issues that matter to you. Your donation today will help keep us on solid ground and help us continue to grow in the coming years. Please use the wallet envelope in the current issue of the magazine, or click on the “Donate” button below to join your fellow progressives in helping sustain The Progressive as a voice for peace, social justice, and the common good. |
|
—
|
|
