Progressive Breakfast: The "Mother Emanuel Nine"

MORNING MESSAGE

Robert Borosage
The “Mother Emanuel Nine”
At this point, this country is choosing to undermine its own future rather than to invest in the health, safety and education of the young people of color that will be central to tomorrow’s citizenry and workforce. More than one in five African-American young people is neither working nor in school. Hope is trampled early ... Change will only come from struggle. The haters feel increasingly oppressed and, as Dylann Roof showed, will strike out. They can’t be countered by politicians too cowardly even to call for taking down the confederate flag in South Carolina ... The “Mother Emanuel Nine” must not simply be remembered in our prayers. They must be alive in our actions.

Fast Track Vote Looms

Fast track cloture vote “as early as Tuesday” reports The Hill: ” … the Senate would also take up Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) … as part of a [separate] trade preferences bill … McConnell sought to reassure Democrats that TAA could still pass, asking lawmakers to have ‘a little faith.’ … Under McConnell’s plan, the Senate would take up TPA and then the trade preferences bill including TAA. The TAA-trade preferences bill would then go to the House as soon as this week.”
Key pro-fast track Senate Dems keeping quiet. Politico: “Of the 14 Senate Democrats who voted last month to advance the plan, he can afford to lose — at most — three … As the lone Democrat in her party’s leadership who previously voted for the trade agenda, how [Sen. Patty Murray] comes down now could influence other fence-sitting Democrats … Murray’s fellow Washington state Democratic senator, Maria Cantwell, warned … she is prepared to block the legislation … [She had] joined Murray in voting to advance the trade package last month…”
Opponents look to Sen. Warren. The Hill: “Now that the fight is returning to her home turf, her allies say she has an opportunity to take a final stand on the issue.”

Greece Talks Advance

Greece, EU move toward deal. Bloomberg: “A new proposal by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras drew a rare positive nod from European officials ahead of marathon talks on Monday … An International Monetary Fund official said that creditor institutions are still assessing Greece’s proposals and it’s too early to say whether they are sufficiently credible to break the deadlock.”
Thousands in Athens protest cuts. Al Jazeera: “Protesters called to resist pressure from international creditors to accept more austerity in exchange for unlocking billions of euros in bailout funds. More than 7,000 people took to the streets carrying banners that read ‘A different Europe with Tsipras’ and ‘You can’t blackmail the people, the country is not for sale’.”
Larry Summers fears Europe will unravel without compromise, in W. Post oped: “With an end to European support and consequent bank closures and credit problems, austerity will get far worse in Greece than it is today … Once Greece fails as a state, Europe will collect far less debt repayment than it would have with an orderly restructuring.”

Decision Week For Supreme Court

More than Obamacare and same-sax marriage to be decided this week. Slate: “…there are 11 cases still outstanding on the Supreme Court’s docket [including] a challenge to the EPA’s regulations involving the emissions of hazardous air pollutants … a case about the meaning of the Fair Housing Act [and] the fate of nonpartisan redistricting commissions …”
Justice Kennedy may save Obamacare. TNR’s Simon Lazarus: “Justice Kennedy takes very seriously what he repeatedly lauds as the ‘federal balance.’ … His preoccupation with coercive effects of conditional federal spending laws draws inspiration from a vein of scholarship little noted outside wonky conservative legal circles.”

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