Progressive Breakfast: Baton Rouge, Minneapolis, and Dallas Through A Father's Eyes

MORNING MESSAGE

As I took my oldest son to summer camp on Thursday morning, we rode in uneasy silence, listening to the news of Philando Castile’s death ... I was emotionally wrung out ... I thought about the times I have been in similar circumstances. More than 20 years ago, I was stopped by police late one night on Capitol Hill. It was around 4 a.m., and I was giving my fraternity brother a ride home, when I saw blue lights flashing behind me. The officer said she stopped me for the same reason Castile was told he was stopped: my taillight was out ... I was lucky that night. I drove away, with just a warning. Philando Castile wasn’t.

SANDERS ENDORSES CLINTON TODAY

Sanders, Clinton unite, though future relationship uncertain. W. Post: “While they have a common enemy in Republican Donald Trump, Clinton and Sanders don’t have much of a personal or professional relationship. And many of their supporters remain deeply suspicious of the other candidate.”
Endorsement only part of Clinton effort to woo Bernie supporters. Politico: “That outreach appears to have produced material results … Fully 85 percent of Sanders’ primary supporters said they would vote for Clinton, compared to just 69 percent of hers backing Obama after she dropped out eight years ago … the Clinton operation prioritized winning over the loudest liberals, some of whom are proponents of the #BernieorBust movement … A collection of Clinton’s top aides have also gone out of their way to personally speak with Sanders’ convention delegates…”
Bill McKibben praises platform in Politico Magazine oped: “…the platform hammered out over the weekend in Orlando, Florida, is, … the most progressive of any major party ever, and by a lot … Nothing in the platform guarantees success—Clinton could decide to ignore the promises her team made. It will be up to the movement to enforce these promises—but we’re good at doing that, in no small part thanks to the lessons in relentlessness we’ve learned from Bernie.”
Holding out paid off, says Time’s Sam Frizell: “Weeks of backroom and telephone negotiations resulted in Sanders-backed policy ideas landing on Clinton’s platform and in the Democratic Party’s blueprint … Sanders’ moderate successes brings him to Portsmouth on Tuesday with something of the swagger of a victor…”
Can Bernie bring his voters to Clinton? AP: “…many Sanders fans at a Democratic meeting in Orlando over the weekend had clear reservations about casting a ballot for Clinton … As of Monday, 10 permits have been issued by the city for rallies and marches during the convention, and six of those are for Sanders supporters … Some people said they would get behind Clinton, though they want to hear Sanders’ reasoning.”
Obama renews call for public health insurance option, in The Journal of the American Medical Association. NYT: “After defending the Affordable Care Act in all its intricacies for six years, President Obama proposed ways to improve it on Monday, saying that Congress should provide larger subsidies for private health insurance and create a public plan like Medicare to compete with private insurers in some states. At the same time, he accused the pharmaceutical industry of trying to protect its profits by opposing any constraints on drug prices.”

OBAMA TO ADDRESS SHOOTINGS IN DALLAS

Obama to speak at Dallas service. NYT: “This will be the 11th time in his presidency that he has sought to comfort a city after a mass killing, and the second time in a month that such a killing grew out of bias.”
Obama meets law enforcement leaders. W. Post: “[Obama said] that he considered the killing of the five police officers in Dallas on Thursday ‘a hate crime’ and that he would work actively to serve as an intermediary between minority activists and police. ‘I’m your best hope,’ Obama remarked at one point, according to the Fraternal Order of Police’s James O. Pasco … ‘I don’t disagree,’ said Pasco, who has criticized aspects of the administration’s gun-control policy. ‘We’re all in this together.'”

BAYH BOOSTS DEMS BID FOR SENATE CONTROL

Evan Bayh jumps into Indiana Senate race. Politico: “The surprise entry by the former two-term senator and governor instantly upended the Senate landscape by putting in play a red state … Democrats have circulated internal polling that shows Bayh with a double-digit lead … ‘This was done single-handedly by Chuck Schumer,’ [Sen. Harry] Reid said in an interview … Bayh and his wife, Susan, have also come under criticism for her work on boards for corporations that lobby Congress…”
House Dems campaign arm expands ad buys. Roll Call: “The House Majority PAC reserved broadcast and cable airtime in seven new media markets Monday, covering six congressional districts that are either Tossups or Republican-leaning seats the party hopes to put in play this fall. The PAC’s reservations for the fall now exceed $24 million across 30 media markets.”

CONGRESS CONSIDERS ENERGY BILL

House and Senate move towards energy bill compromise. The Hill: “…Senate leaders have agreed to restrict the negotiated bill and take out provisions that Obama would veto … The Senate passed its broad, bipartisan energy bill in April. The bill would modernize numerous energy policies, with an eye toward improving the electric grid, encouraging energy efficiency, easing exports of natural gas and other priorities. The House’s bill, passed last year, was far more partisan…”
WH threatens veto of House EPA bill. The Hill: “. The legislation would cut spending for the departments by $64 million from current spending levels and is $1 billion less than what President Obama requested in his budget. The bill also contains policy riders designed to block administration rules on water, power plant emissions and coal mining.”
Natural gas industry tries to contain methane leakage. NYT: “Southwestern is helping to lead an industry group, One Future, which aims to reduce methane leakage to less than 1 percent of total national gas production. Some estimates put the current amount at nearly twice that level or more. Other members of the group include Apache, BHP Billiton, Hess, Kinder Morgan and AGL Resources … Mark K. Boling, executive vice president of Southwestern, which is based in Houston [said,] ‘The Paris climate accord tells us we have got to do something about this.’'”

BREAKFAST SIDES

Jamie Dimon gives his workers a raise, announces in NYT oped: “Over the next three years, we will raise the minimum pay for 18,000 employees to between $12 and $16.50 an hour for full-time, part-time and new employees … Wages for many Americans have gone nowhere for too long. Many employees who will receive this increase work as bank tellers and customer service representatives. Above all, it enables more people to begin to share in the rewards of economic growth.”
NLRB allows unions to organize offices with indirect workers. American Prospect: “…the board announced a decision … ruling that unions that want to represent bargaining units including direct employees as well as ‘permatemps,’ contract workers, and other indirect workers that share a ‘community of interest’ are no longer required to get permission from the parent company. The old standard, established by George W. Bush’s NLRB in 2004, which required unions to gain such parent-employer consent, allowed companies to use staffing agencies and subcontractors as a barrier to organizing drives.”

6.4M children rely on Social Security. Bloomberg: “More children are being supported by Social Security as the American family heads back to a living arrangement more akin to the early 20th century, with multiple generations living under the same roof … Many Americans aren’t just using Social Security—and any paltry savings they’ve accumulated—to support themselves. Now, some also bear the burden of caring for grandchildren.”
Vote suppression laws could “tilt the scales” in November, says Hedrick Smith: “Republican control [of state governments] generated new restrictions on voters and voting that go into effect for the first time in this year’s elections in 16 states … the bluntest instrument in the GOP arsenal is the strict new legal mandate in 11 states that a government-issued photo ID is required to register and vote …”

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