By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
Renowned scholar and activist Dr. Cornel West declared his candidacy for the upcoming presidential race under the banner of the People’s Party, as announced on Monday. In a compelling video shared on Twitter, West expressed his intention to run for the pursuit of truth and justice, emphasizing that the presidency serves as a means to achieve these noble ideals. With a strong academic background, including positions at prestigious institutions such as Harvard University and Princeton University, West is recognized for his intellectual activism. In his Twitter video, West articulated his decision to run as a third-party candidate, citing the reluctance of the established political parties to address critical issues concerning Wall Street, Ukraine, the Pentagon, and Big Tech. He referred to former President Donald Trump, a leading contender for the Republican nomination, as a “neo-fascist” and labeled President Biden as a “milquetoast neoliberal.” West’s educational journey has taken him through esteemed universities such as Yale, Princeton, and Harvard, and he presently holds a professorship in philosophy at Union Theological Seminary. Throughout his career, he has been known for his progressive activism and his outspoken critique of former President Barack Obama. Fair wages, affordable housing, abortion rights, universal healthcare, the urgent need to address climate change, and preserving American democracy were some of the significant issues West highlighted in his campaign video. The platform through which West intends to pursue his presidential aspirations is the People’s Party, which Nick Brana founded after previously working on Bernie Sanders’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. While the party attempted to recruit Sanders after his 2016 campaign, the senator declined involvement and subsequently sought the Democratic nomination once again in 2020. “Will we succeed? Only time will tell. But some of us are ready to fight until the end,” declared West in his announcement video, leaning towards the camera, his words resonating with determination. “We will fight passionately, with style, and with a smile.
By: Patrick Darrington, Alabama Political Reporter
May 31, two incarcerated individuals in separate prison facilities in Alabama were found unresponsive in their cells and later determined to be deceased following unsuccessful life-saving measures.
The two individuals were Tarrance Demetri Guyton, 56, and Steven Ray Harris, 65. ADOC confirmed that Guyton was reported dead at the St. Clair Correctional Facility and Harris’ death was reported at the Staton Correctional Facility.
With their passing, at least 54 individuals have died in Alabama state prisons this year. The total is likely an undercount.
Both Guyton and Harris are suspected of dying from drug overdoses, sources inside said, but ADOC did not confirm that. Their causes of death will be confirmed following an autopsy and investigation by ADOC’s Law Enforcement Services Division.
With summer arriving, the conditions inside ADOC are anticipated to worsen. With a lack of air conditioning to combat the heat, tensions are expected to flare, leading to more violence.
Special to the Democrat by John Zippert, Co-Publisher
The Inflation Reduction Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Biden, in August 2022, provides in Section 22007, an authorization of $2.2 Billion to compensate farmers who “experienced discrimination in USDA Farm Loan Programs, prior to January 1, 2021”.
USDA is working now to develop the regulations and the claims process for farmers who experienced discrimination in USDA farm lending programs to receive these funds. USDA has designated a national administrator for the process -the Midtown Group; and two subsidiary groups, Windsor Group for the counties east of the Mississippi river and Analytic Acquisitions for the western half of the nation.
The Section 22007 process is for farmers who experienced discrimination in the USDA farm loan programs, this includes racial and ethnic discrimination against Black farmers, Latino, indigenous, Asian-Pacific islanders, gender discrimination against women and LBGQT persons, religious discrimination and other forms of discrimination, which farmers may wish to assert in their claims.
Dania Davy, an attorney who heads the Federation of Southern Cooperative’s Land Retention Program said, “There is a lot of misinformation already about the Section 22007 program. This is not a new
class action lawsuit. This is not the re-opening of any prior lawsuit or settlement process. This is a new process for people who were discriminated against in USDA Farm Loan Programs. We are awaiting the regulations and the claim form, which USDA plans to release next month in June. They hope to complete this process in the next six months by the end of 2023.”
Davy further commented that, “USDA is saying you will not need a lawyer to fill out the claim form. You will not have to pay a fee for getting assistance in filling out these claim forms. The Federation and other community-based organizations with agricultural experience and knowledge of USDA programs, will be contracted to provide technical assistance in the filing of claim forms for Section 22007 funds. If you choose to employ your own attorney to file your claim, you will need to pay for these services out of your award.”
The maximum claim can be up to $500,000 but the average claim will be much less and closer to the $50,000 basic claim assistance offered in the
prior discrimination settlements.
Farmers who experienced recent discrimination in USDA programs, may contact the Office of Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (OASCR), Information Research Service, at (866) 632-9992 (toll free) or send an email to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at CR-INFO@usda.gov.
USDA has set up a website for information on the Section 22007 process, which is: http://www.farmers.gov/22007, that will have up to date information on the process going forward, as well as answers to frequently asked questions.
The Federation, Rural Coalition, Intertribal Agriculture Council and many other community-based organizations who work with BIPOC farmers are awaiting the release of the regulations and claim form for the 22007 discrimination process. Once this critical information is released then these groups plan to implement strategies to assist farmers with their claims.
The Federation can be reach through their website at; http://www.federation.coop or by phone at 404/765-0991 at the Atlanta administrative office or 205/652-9676 at the Rural Training and Research Center in Epes, Alabama.
The NAACP is warning Black people to stay away from the Sunshine State. CNN reports the historic advocacy group released a statement issuing a travel advisory in response to Governor Ron DeSantis’ deliberate attempt to erase African American history and DEI initiatives in schools.
“Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals,” the NAACP said. “Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color.” The NAACP, long an advocate for Black Americans, joined the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), a Latino civil rights organization, and Equality Florida, a gay rights advocacy group, in issuing travel advisories for the Sunshine State, where tourism is one of the state’s largest job sectors. The advisory has been in the works for months as the Hillsborough County Chapter of the organization met with other NAACP members back in March and agreed to work with the national office on this advisory.
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson says DeSantis’ antics conflict with the ideals that the group was founded upon. “Let me be clear–failing to teach an accurate representation of the horrors and inequalities that Black Americans have faced and continue to face is a disservice to students and a dereliction of duty to all,” Johnson said. Since winning the governor seat, the controversial Republican politician has focused heavily on social issues. Last year, the state made headlines after DeSantis signed the “Stop WOKE Act” into legislation, putting restrictions on how race and gender are discussed in classrooms, NBC News reported.
Under his administration, several areas of “concern” have been removal including Black Queer Studies, Movement for Black Lives, Black Feminist Literary Thought, The Reparations Movement and Black Struggle in the 21st Century. Books by Bell Hooks, Angela Davis and other Black authors have also been banned.
Internal Revenue Service building in Washington, D. C.
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel has acknowledged what many have known for some time: Black taxpayers face an IRS audit exponentially more than other groups. Werfel acknowledged the disparity in a letter this week in which he responded to a request for information about the “apparent racial disparity” in selecting tax returns for audit, along with a plan to address the issue. “Let me start by stressing that the IRS is committed to enforcing tax laws in a fair and impartial manner,” Werfel said in the letter addressed to the U.S. Senate. “When evidence of unfair treatment is presented, we must take immediate action to address it. It is also important to reiterate that we do not and will not consider race as part of our case selection and audit processes.” He continued: “Nevertheless, a recent study estimated, using imputed race values, that Black taxpayers are audited at three to five times the rate of non-Black taxpayers. “The research further suggests that most of this disparity is driven by differences in correspondence audit rates among taxpayers claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). “We are deeply concerned by these findings and committed to doing the work to understand and address any disparate impact of the actions we take.” Werfel noted that as soon as Congress confirmed his appointment, he met with an IRS team that had already studied the issue of race discrimination in audits. He noted that the research has continued as authorities try to pinpoint what drives the disparity and how to fix the issue. Researchers discovered that Black taxpayers are five times more likely to face an audit when filing federal returns than any other race. When President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS received $80 billion, which the agency pledged to use to determine a better system to eliminate such discrimination. “Back in March, my colleagues and I raised alarms with the new IRS boss about Black taxpayers being over-audited, and today he confirmed our suspicions,” tweeted Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-N.J.). “The IRS is making strides, but extra audits of Black Americans are disgraceful and must end.” Werfel promised that the IRS would accelerate an existing research effort to detect and ensure compliance among “ghost preparers,” individuals who are paid to prepare returns for others but do not identify themselves to the IRS. “Initial evidence confirms that unscrupulous and ghost preparers disproportionately prepare returns in minority communities,” Werfel noted. “We are making broad efforts to advance our commitment to fair and equitable tax administration and evaluating the best ways to address bias within our audit program.”
Research has long shown that Black people live sicker lives and die younger than white people. Now a new study, published Tuesday in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) casts the nation’s racial inequities in stark relief, finding that the higher mortality rate among Black Americans resulted in 1.63 million excess deaths relative to white Americans over more than two decades. Because so many Black people die young — with many years of life ahead of them — their higher mortality rate from 1999 to 2020 resulted in a cumulative loss of more than 80 million years of life compared with the white population, the study showed. Although the nation made progress in closing the gap between white and Black mortality rates from 1999 to 2011, that advance stalled from 2011 to 2019. In 2020, the enormous number of deaths from Covid-19 — which hit Black Americans particularly hard — erased two decades of progress. Authors of the study describe it as a call to action to improve the health of Black Americans, whose early deaths are fueled by higher rates of heart disease, cancer, and infant mortality. “The study is hugely important for about 1.63 million reasons,” said Herman Taylor, an author of the study and director of the cardiovascular research institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine. “Real lives are being lost. Real families are missing parents and grandparents,” Taylor said. “Babies and their mothers are dying. We have been screaming this message for decades.” High mortality rates among Black people have less to do with genetics than with the country’s long history of discrimination, which has undermined educational, housing, and job opportunities for generations of Black people, said Clyde Yancy, an author of the study and chief of cardiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Black neighborhoods that were redlined in the 1930s — designated too “high risk” for mortgages and other investments — remain poorer and sicker today, Yancy said. Formerly redlined ZIP codes also had higher rates of Covid infection and death. “It’s very clear that we have an uneven distribution of health,” Yancy said. “We’re talking about the freedom to be healthy.” A companion study estimates that racial and ethnic inequities cost the U.S. at least $421 billion in 2018, based on medical expenses, lost productivity, and premature death. In 2021, non-Hispanic white Americans had a life expectancy at birth of 76 years, while non-Hispanic Black Americans could expect to live only to 71. Much of that disparity is explained by the fact that non-Hispanic Black newborns are 2½ times as likely to die before their first birthdays as non-Hispanic whites. Non-Hispanic Black mothers are more than 3 times as likely as non-Hispanic white mothers to die from a pregnancy-related complication. (Hispanic people can be of any race or combination of races.)
Racial disparities in health are so entrenched that even education and wealth don’t fully erase them, said Tonia Branche, a neonatal-perinatal medicine fellow at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago who was not involved in the JAMA study. Black women with a college degree are more likely to die from pregnancy complications than white women without a high school diploma. Although researchers can’t fully explain this disparity, Branche said it’s possible that stress, including from systemic racism, takes a greater toll on the health of Black mothers than previously recognized. Death creates ripples of grief throughout communities. Research has found that every death leaves an average of nine people in mourning. Black people shoulder a great burden of grief, which can undermine their mental and physical health, said Khaliah Johnson, chief of pediatric palliative care at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Given the high mortality rates throughout the life span, Black people are more likely than white people to be grieving the death of a close family member at any point in their lives. “We as Black people all have some legacy of unjust, unwarranted loss and death that compounds with each new loss,” said Johnson, who was not involved with the new study. “It affects not only how we move through the world, but how we live in relationship with others and how we endure future losses.” Johnson’s parents lost two sons — one who died a few days after birth and another who died as a toddler. In an essay published last year, Johnson recalled, “My parents asked themselves on numerous occasions, ‘Would the outcomes for our sons have been different, might they have received different care and lived, had they not been Black?’” Johnson said she hopes the new study gives people greater understanding of all that’s lost when Black people die prematurely. “When we lose these lives young, when we lose that potential, that has an impact on all of society,” she said. And in the Black community, “our pain is real and deep and profound, and it deserves attention and validation,” Johnson said. “It often feels like people just pass it over, telling you to stop complaining. But the expectation can’t be that we just endure these things and bounce back.”
KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.
Apr. 17, 2023 (GIN) – The label says “Fairtrade” but the conditions at some of South Africa’s money-making vineyards are anything but…
That’s what two academics from Rhodes University of South Africa concluded in a study of the country’s wine industry once characterized by the use of enslaved workers and the exploitation and paternalistic control of Black and coloured laborers by white farmers for over 300 years.
Following the end of apartheid and the country’s reintegration into the international community, winegrowers were able to import modern technologies and access global export markets for the first time. As a result, South Africa is now the ninth-largest producer of wine in the world and generates more than US$550 million in export value annually.
A number of wineries have formed to fulfill the standards of Fairtrade International such as workers’ rights and environmental protections.
The group certifies products and ingredients after reviewing company practices and is a symbol commonly associated today with chocolate, coffee, cotton and various other items.
Fairtrade products are sold at a higher price because a percentage of the sale value is designated for day care centers, literacy programs and medical centers.
But interviews with a number of farmworkers suggest that while the wine bottles might bear the Fairtrade label, the workers on these farms do not feel fairly treated.
Of some 30 farmworkers interviewed, most were not even aware that the farm they worked on was Fairtrade certified. Several farmworkers reported poor and unsafe living and working conditions. One woman complained of the vineyard lacking toilets for women. “We have to relieve ourselves in the vineyards. The only toilets you see is when there is an audit.”
“We were promised that these houses would be temporary,” said another. “It is cold and when it rains the rain comes in. … We have reported this, and nothing happens. I have to constantly move my bed when it rains because the water comes through. I have been here since 1979. They [farm management] have ignored me. They don’t care.”
An investigative documentary (Cheap Wine, Bitter Aftertaste) that spotlights Germany, the second-largest importing country of South African wine after Great Britain, found problems.
Eighty percent of farm workers in the wine sector were seasonal, forcing them to turn to the state’s Unemployment Insurance Fund when the harvest season ends in March.
The minimum wage is about one third below the living wage needed to support a household, as calculated by the NGO Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity.
As to working conditions, the workers’ harshest criticism was over the use of pesticides, particularly the herbicide paraquat which is banned in many countries. “There is no simple answer to the problems faced by workers on wine farms in South Africa, wrote Gisela ten Kate from the Dutch activist group SOMO in an article titled: “Labor Conditions in South African wine industry remain appalling.”
“Dutch supermarkets need to take their role in the supply chain seriously, to pay fair prices so that farmers can pay a proper wage.
Finally, the human rights defender Oxfam International wrote: “We found proof of labor rights violations and inhumane conditions.”
Oxfam has been part of the global Fair Trade movement since its inception. Today, it still inspires many of volunteers to champion just and sustainable trade.
“We believe the current trade system is far from just or sustainable. It was captured by imperialistic and colonialist forces in the past and remains, even today, under the control of the powerful and the rich to a large extent.
“Trade justice,” affirmed Oxfam ,”offers an alternative approach. But As long as it excludes people and future generations from its welfare-creating properties, trade cannot be considered just or sustainable.”
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
In 2022, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra implemented actions to improve maternal health and reduce health disparities, and this year, the Biden-Harris Administration has continued to champion policies to improve maternal health and equity. Vice President Kamala Harris convened a meeting with Becerra and other Cabinet leaders amplifying a whole-of-government approach to reducing maternal mortality and morbidity. On Monday, April 10, President Biden issued another proclamation to begin Black Maternal Health Week. The president called the week a reminder that so many families experience pain, neglect, and loss during what should be a joyous occasion. Biden called it urgent that all act. “Black women in America are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women,” the president remarked. “This is on top of the fact that women in America are dying at a higher rate from pregnancy-related causes than in any other developed nation.” He insisted that tackling the crisis begins with understanding how institutional racism drives these high maternal mortality rates. Studies show that Black women are often dismissed or ignored in hospitals and other health care settings, even as they suffer from severe injuries and pregnancy complications and ask for help, the president reminded. He said systemic inequities are also to blame. “When mothers do not have access to safe and stable housing before and after childbirth, they are at greater risk of falling ill,” Biden exclaimed. “When women face barriers traveling to the hospital for prenatal and postpartum checkups, they are less likely to remain healthy. Air pollution, water pollution, and lead pipes can have dangerous consequences for pregnant women and newborns. And when families cannot afford nutritious foods, they face worse health outcomes.” He claimed his administration has penned the blueprint for addressing the maternal health crisis, an agenda that lays out specific actions the federal government would take to improve maternal health and secured funding from Congress to help implement it. “Vice President Kamala Harris has been a leader on the issue of maternal mortality for years and led the charge to improve maternal health outcomes, including by issuing a call to action to address disparities in maternal care,” Biden stated. “She continues to elevate the issue nationally, convening State legislators, medical professionals, and others so all mothers can access the care they need before, during, and after childbirth.” The president continued: “Additionally, my American Rescue Plan gave States the option to provide a full year of postpartum coverage to Medicaid beneficiaries — up from just 60 days of coverage. “As a result, my Administration has approved requests from 30 States and Washington, D.C. to provide women with Medicaid coverage with a full year of postpartum coverage, and we have made this option permanent for every State that extends Medicaid postpartum coverage. “My Administration has helped facilitate Medicaid expansion in four States since I took office, and I continue to call on the Congress to close the Medicaid coverage gap. “We are also working to expand and diversify the maternal health workforce, helping health care providers hire and train diverse and culturally competent physicians, certified nurse midwives, doulas, and community health workers to support women during pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum care.” The president’s budget includes $471 million to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity rates, improving access to care in rural communities, expanding implicit bias training for health care providers, and further supporting the perinatal health workforce. “This week, as we continue our work to make pregnancy and childbirth safe, dignified, and joyful for all, let us remember that health care should be a right and not a privilege,” Biden continued. “Let us give thanks to the extraordinary maternal health care workforce, which serves its patients and their families every day. And let us join in common cause to end the tragedy of maternal mortality once and for all.”
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent For more than two decades, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from Dallas businessman and Republican mega donor Harlan Crow without disclosing them, a bombshell new report from ProPublica has revealed. Citing documents and interviews, the nonprofit and Pulitzer Prize winning legal news organization said Thomas who has a salary of $285,000, has vacationed on Crow’s superyacht around the globe. Had Thomas footed the bill himself, one trip on Crow’s yacht would have set him back a cool half-million dollars. What’s more, the controversial conservative justice often flies on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet. That’s a $70,000 trip. Justices are required to report all gifts of $415 or more that are “anything of value” and not fully reimbursed. There’s no record of Thomas reporting the gifts or reimbursing anyone for the trips. “He has gone with Crow to the Bohemian Grove, the exclusive California all-male retreat, and to Crow’s sprawling ranch in East Texas,” the legal news site reported on Thursday, April 6. “And Thomas typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.” The extent and frequency of Crow’s apparent gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court, and ProPublica further notes that the trips appeared nowhere on Thomas’ financial disclosures. “His failure to report the flights appears to violate a law passed after Watergate that requires justices, judges, members of Congress and federal officials to disclose most gifts,” the site reported, citing two ethics law experts. Thomas, the experts said, also should have disclosed his trips on the yacht. “It’s incomprehensible to me that someone would do this,” Nancy Gertner, a retired federal judge appointed by President Bill Clinton, told ProPublica. When she was on the bench, Gertner said, she was so cautious about appearances that she wouldn’t mention her title when making dinner reservations: “It was a question of not wanting to use the office for anything other than what it was intended.” Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer who served in administrations of both parties, said Thomas “seems to have completely disregarded his higher ethical obligations.” “When a justice’s lifestyle is being subsidized by the rich and famous, it absolutely corrodes public trust,” said Canter, now at the watchdog group CREW. “Quite frankly, it makes my heart sink.” As ProPublica noted, federal judges sit in a unique position of public trust. Each justice enjoys lifetime tenure, which is supposed to inoculate them from feeling any temptation toward corruption. Intentionally, a code of conduct for federal judges below the Supreme Court requires them to avoid even the “appearance of impropriety.” Members of the high court, Chief Justice John Roberts has written, “consult” that code for guidance. However, the Supreme Court is left almost entirely to police itself. And many opine that Thomas has exploited that privilege and, along with his wife Ginny, have thumbed their noses at Democracy. “The most glaring example of the Supreme Court’s ethical vacuum is Clarence Thomas,” political columnist Jonathan Chait wrote for New York Magazine. “The right-wing justice has operated, in conjunction with his wife, in the center of a network of conservative activists whose project is indistinguishable from his legal work.” Meanwhile, ProPublica reported evidence that Thomas has taken even more trips on the superyacht. The report noted that Crow often gave his guests custom polo shirts commemorating their vacations. ProPublica found photographs of Thomas wearing at least two of those shirts. In one, he wears a blue polo shirt embroidered with the Michaela Rose’s logo and the words “March 2007” and “Greek Islands.” “Thomas didn’t report any of the trips ProPublica identified on his annual financial disclosures,” the outlet noted. “Ethics experts said the law clearly requires disclosure for private jet flights and Thomas appears to have violated it.”
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
For more than two decades, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from Dallas businessman and Republican mega donor Harlan Crow without disclosing them, a bombshell new report from ProPublica has revealed. Citing documents and interviews, the nonprofit and Pulitzer Prize winning legal news organization said Thomas who has a salary of $285,000, has vacationed on Crow’s superyacht around the globe. Had Thomas footed the bill himself, one trip on Crow’s yacht would have set him back a cool half-million dollars. What’s more, the controversial conservative justice often flies on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet. That’s a $70,000 trip. Justices are required to report all gifts of $415 or more that are “anything of value” and not fully reimbursed. There’s no record of Thomas reporting the gifts or reimbursing anyone for the trips. “He has gone with Crow to the Bohemian Grove, the exclusive California all-male retreat, and to Crow’s sprawling ranch in East Texas,” the legal news site reported on Thursday, April 6. “And Thomas typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.” The extent and frequency of Crow’s apparent gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court, and ProPublica further notes that the trips appeared nowhere on Thomas’ financial disclosures. “His failure to report the flights appears to violate a law passed after Watergate that requires justices, judges, members of Congress and federal officials to disclose most gifts,” the site reported, citing two ethics law experts. Thomas, the experts said, also should have disclosed his trips on the yacht. “It’s incomprehensible to me that someone would do this,” Nancy Gertner, a retired federal judge appointed by President Bill Clinton, told ProPublica. When she was on the bench, Gertner said, she was so cautious about appearances that she wouldn’t mention her title when making dinner reservations: “It was a question of not wanting to use the office for anything other than what it was intended.” Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer who served in administrations of both parties, said Thomas “seems to have completely disregarded his higher ethical obligations.” “When a justice’s lifestyle is being subsidized by the rich and famous, it absolutely corrodes public trust,” said Canter, now at the watchdog group CREW. “Quite frankly, it makes my heart sink.” As ProPublica noted, federal judges sit in a unique position of public trust. Each justice enjoys lifetime tenure, which is supposed to inoculate them from feeling any temptation toward corruption. Intentionally, a code of conduct for federal judges below the Supreme Court requires them to avoid even the “appearance of impropriety.” Members of the high court, Chief Justice John Roberts has written, “consult” that code for guidance. However, the Supreme Court is left almost entirely to police itself. And many opine that Thomas has exploited that privilege and, along with his wife Ginny, have thumbed their noses at Democracy. “The most glaring example of the Supreme Court’s ethical vacuum is Clarence Thomas,” political columnist Jonathan Chait wrote for New York Magazine. “The right-wing justice has operated, in conjunction with his wife, in the center of a network of conservative activists whose project is indistinguishable from his legal work.” Meanwhile, ProPublica reported evidence that Thomas has taken even more trips on the superyacht. The report noted that Crow often gave his guests custom polo shirts commemorating their vacations. ProPublica found photographs of Thomas wearing at least two of those shirts. In one, he wears a blue polo shirt embroidered with the Michaela Rose’s logo and the words “March 2007” and “Greek Islands.” “Thomas didn’t report any of the trips ProPublica identified on his annual financial disclosures,” the outlet noted. “Ethics experts said the law clearly requires disclosure for private jet flights and Thomas appears to have violated it.”
DoD Secretary Lloyd Austin and Alabama Senator Tommy Tubberville
By: Josh Moon, Alabama Political Reporter
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in a rare offensive, spent some time during Tuesday’s Senate Armed Services hearing to publicly call out Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s blockade of senior military promotions, saying the delays are hurting military readiness and will leave the military poorly positioned should it enter into a global conflict.
“There are a number of things happening globally that indicate that we could be in a contest on any one given day,” Austin said during the hearing. “Not approving the recommendations for promotions actually creates a ripple effect through the force that makes us far less ready than we need to be. The effects are cumulative and it will affect families. It will affect kids going to schools because they won’t be able to change their duty station. It’s a powerful effect and will have an impact on our readiness.”
Tuberville has blocked at least 160 promotions over the military’s policy that allows troops to be reimbursed for travel and granted leave to receive reproductive health care, including abortions. Tuberville argued that the new policy allows for taxpayer money to be spent on abortions.
“I want to be clear on this: My hold has nothing to do with the Supreme Court’s decision to the access of abortion,” Tuberville said. “This is about not forcing the taxpayers of this country to fund abortions.”
But the policy specifically doesn’t pay for abortions, only travel expenses for troops stationed in areas, such as Alabama, where all abortion services are illegal, to travel to neighboring states to receive legally provided care.
Austin said the policy is “on solid legal ground,” and said it provides some 80,000 female troops with access to care that they should have the option to receive but sometimes don’t because of where they are stationed, which is out of their control.
Regardless, Tuberville’s blockade of the promotions – a position that other Republicans on the Armed Services Committee have not joined – comes at the worst possible time. Hundreds of top-level military leaders have retired or are planning to retire in the coming few months. The Pentagon said more than 650 general and flag officers will require Senate confirmation soon, including at least 80 three- or four-star generals or admirals.
Armed Services chair Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island) cautioned that, “If we cannot resolve the situation, we will be, in many respects, leaderless at a time of great conflict.”
Austin also spoke privately with Tuberville recently in hopes of moving him away from the blockade. Tuberville does not appear ready to budge.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, during a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday, criticized Tuberville and said his block of military promotions over a political issue risks politicizing a process that has until now remained above the political fray. “If every single one of us objected to the promotion of military personnel whenever we feel passionately or strongly about an issue, our military would simply grind to a halt,” Schumer said. “This level of obstruction—of routine military promotions—is a reckless departure from Senate norm; none of us want to live in a world where military appointments get routinely politicized and that’s just what the Senator from Alabama is doing.
