Trump vs. Sessions: Whose side should progressives take?/News conference at National Press Club To call for end of U.S. warplanes over Syria

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-rr-sessions-criticism-20170727-story.html

Trump vs. Sessions: Whose side should progressives take?

Some in Congress and conservative groups are coming to Sessions' defense. (July 26, 2017)

Yes, I realize that the Trump administration is ripe fodder for the comedians. Each day, there is a new sideshow, the latest being Donald Trump’s beat down of Attorney General Jeff Sessions (“Sessions’ backers emerge as Trump pounds away,” July 26). However, what perspective should progressive thinkers take?

Of course, Mr. Sessions should never have been confirmed as attorney general. His distasteful record on civil rights should have disqualified him. And later, we discovered he is not known for his veracity regarding his meetings with Russian officials. Unfortunately, President Trump’s virulent attack on the former senator comes out of right field, not left.

And the vocal supporters of the country’s highest law official like the fact that Mr. Sessions wants to put more people for longer sentences in prison. This is madness, as mass incarceration has caused a multitude of problems, one of which is evident in Baltimore as certain communities here have lost a healthy percentage of the population to incarceration.

Progressives could congratulate President Trump for being a great organizer for protesters challenging his reactionary policies. And while Mr. Sessions has embraced the Trump policies of anti-immigration and pro-maximum sentences, in the Donald’s world this does not mean you will escape his venom. So progressives should hope President Trump continues to tweet up a storm so that his right-wing agenda becomes an afterthought. And let us hope that administration officials get so caught up in the ad hominem attacks that a miasma of despair sets in.

Max Obuszewski, Baltimore

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News conference at National Press Club To call for end of U.S. warplanes over Syria

by RootsAction.org on August 03, 2017

Tuesday, August 8 at 10 a.m.
Zenger Room, National Press Club
529 14th St. NW, Washington

News conference speakers will include:
*  CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou
*  Former State Department official Matthew Hoh
*  Christie Edwards, Chair of the ASIL Lieber Society on the Law of Armed Conflict and an advisor to the Center for Civilians in Conflict on international humanitarian, human rights, and gender issues.
*  David Swanson, World Beyond War
*  Norman Solomon, RootsAction.org

Speakers will talk about the reasons behind a petition to Congress and Defense Secretary James Mattis calling for removal of all U.S. military aircraft from Syrian skies.

Sponsors include a coalition of six organizations: Daily Kos, The Nation magazine, RootsAction.org, Veterans For Peace, Watchdog.net, World Beyond War.

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RootsAction.org is an online initiative dedicated to galvanizing Americans who are committed to economic fairness, equal rights, civil liberties, environmental protection -- and defunding endless wars. RootsAction is endorsed by Jim Hightower, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cornel West, Daniel Ellsberg, Glenn Greenwald, Naomi Klein, Bill Fletcher Jr., Laura Flanders, former U.S. Senator James Abourezk, Frances Fox Piven, and many others.

http://rootsaction.org

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