Night Owls, a themed open thread, appears at Daily Kos seven days a week
At Responsible Statecraft, Matthew Petti writes—Progressives urge House Dems to help Biden save the Iran nuclear deal that Donald Trump has done everything he can to destroy:
Sixteen progressive groups have signed a letter urging the next House Foreign Affairs Committee chair to help a “potential Biden administration” save the nuclear deal with Iran.
All three candidates to run the committee — one of two powerful foreign policy bodies in Congress — have voiced their support for the deal. Progressives are now asking for specific commitments from the candidates, including a promise to put economic sanctions relief on the table and stop any “poison pill” legislation that would undermine diplomacy with Iran.
Rep. Brad Sherman (D–Calif.) and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D–N.Y.) are currently favored to win the chairmanship, while Rep. Joaquín Castro (D–TX) is running as an insurgent progressive candidate. [...]
The letter was also signed by the Arms Control Association, the progressive Jewish organization J-Street, and foreign policy-focused groups Just Foreign Policy and Win Without War. [...]
Rep. Eliot Engel (D–N.Y.), the current chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was one of nineteen House Democrats who joined with Republicans to vote against the [JCPOA] deal in 2015. […]
Engel will not be returning to Congress in 2021, as he was defeated in New York’s June primary elections, [...]
TOP COMMENTS • HIGH IMPACT STORIES
QUOTATION
“In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.”
~~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary (1881-1906)
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
At Daily Kos on this date in 2005—Brown has resigned. It means little:
So Brown has quit as FEMA chief. Yay. I'd rather see him criminally indicted. But this is a start.
It's important to root out the incompetents who aggravated this disaster -- the people running the show and those who nominated and approved of them (like Bush and Lieberman). There must be accountability for the disaster, and that accountability must transcend political lines. D or R, we shouldn't care. What's important is to ensure that those at fault suffer the consequences.
But we can't allow this disaster to be framed in the context of a few incompetents and political hacks. Because ultimately, the federal (non) response to New Orleans went exactly according to the conservative playbook. And that's the biggest point in this whole mess.
Conservatives believe government shouldn't exist to help people. That everyone should be left to the wolves.
New Orleans demonstrated to us in vivid color what Republicanism is made of. New Orleans was, in reality, a crowning achievement of conservatism. That is, until political pressure forced the federal government to lend a hand and those lucky duckies in the gulf coast began receiving "handouts."
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: ALL-NEW for Friday! Ian Reifowitz reviews the week's mass murder and treason, yet keeps things PG-13. Darwin Darko brings an update from the recently-spared Stars & Stripes on how Biden can rescue a sane policy for trans military service members.
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