Month: September 2020

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Open Internet advocates and lawmakers were urging supporters on Friday to help secure one last vote in the Senate in favor of reversing the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) unpopular net neutrality decision.

The FCC sent its official order to roll back net neutrality protections on Friday, following its vote in December.

With the Republican-led panel’s 3-2 decision along party lines, internet service providers (ISPs) like Verizon and Comcast will be free to give preferential treatment to wealthy internet companies that can afford to pay for faster service—essentially creating “fast lanes” and “slow lanes” for the internet.

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Immediately after the vote—which was opposed by 83 percent of Americans, according to a University of Maryland poll—Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) announced his plan to introduce a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution under which the Senate could vote to reverse the FCC’s decision.

With the order now officially on Capitol Hill, it only needs to be sent to the House and published in the Federal Register, after which Market will have 60 days to gather enough support for a vote to nullify the decision.

The 50 senators who have said they would vote to restore net neutrality include one Republican—Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine)—as well as all 47 Democratic senators and both Independents.

On Thursday, Louisiana constituents joined advocacy groups Fight for the Future and Free Press to deliver 6,000 petition signatures to the office of Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), urging him to throw his support behind the CRA.

“The internet has become an invaluable tool for many people who work from home or have their own businesses,” said Jas Duplessis, a Louisiana resident who protested outside Kennedy’s office. “Restricting it minimizes the opportunity people have to make their own place in the world financially, destroys a large aspect of the free market and takes away from the American dream.”

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Sen. Joe ManchinJoseph (Joe) ManchinTrump administration seeks to use global aid for nuclear projects Shelley Moore Capito wins Senate primary West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice wins GOP gubernatorial primary MORE (D-W.Va.) highlighted a 1968 mine explosion in his first reelection ad on Wednesday — an apparent jab at a potential Republican opponent who oversaw a company responsible for another fatal mine disaster.

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Manchin’s video is seen as a reference to Don Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy and a contender for the Republican nomination.

ADVERTISEMENTBlankenship was convicted in 2015 of conspiring to violate safety standards at the Upper Big Branch mine, where a mine disaster in 2010 left 29 people dead. Blankenship was released from his 1-year prison sentence in 2017.

In his campaign ad, Manchin stands in front of what appears to be a memorial for those that died in an earlier mine explosion in 1968 and points out the names of people he knew who died.

“I lost an uncle, I lost a neighbor, I lost guys I played ball with,” Manchin says. “This is real for me.”

“People here have been screwed by both political parties,” Manchin goes on to say. “Yes, Washington sucks, but West Virginians don’t give up, and I will never give up trying to make it better.”

Manchin’s seat became a top GOP target after President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE won the state by more than 40 points in 2016.

The West Virginia primaries will be held on May 8. Manchin is currently facing Paula Jean Swearengin, a more progressive challenger, in the Democratic primary, although he’s expected to carry the nomination.

Blankenship — a GOP donor who has been active in local and state politics — is running in a close race against Rep. Evan JenkinsEvan Hollin JenkinsWest Virginia New Members 2019 Republican Carol Miller holds off Democrat in West Virginia House race Trump to fundraise for 3 Republicans running for open seats: report MORE and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.

The Republican establishment in Washington, wary that Blankenship’s conviction for the mine disaster will make him a poor general election candidate, have launched attacks to stop from winning the GOP nomination. 

President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE trounced Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), Sen. Jeff FlakeJeffrey (Jeff) Lane FlakeGOP lawmakers stick to Trump amid new criticism Kelly holds double-digit lead over McSally in Arizona: poll Trump asserts his power over Republicans MORE (R-Ariz.) and others in hypothetical New Hampshire presidential primary matchups, according to a new Suffolk University poll.

Roughly 68 percent of voters polled said they favored Trump over Kasich, who garnered support from 23 percent of voters. 

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Trump also beat out Flake, with 72 percent of voters favoring Trump, and 15 percent of voters favoring Flake. 

Kasich and Flake have been two of Trump’s most outspoken critics in the Republican Party, and speculation has swirled around the two launching presidential bids to challenge Trump for the Republican nomination. 

The Ohio governor has proved to be a thorn in the administration’s side, taking opposing stances on issues such as health care and immigration. 

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Flake publicly ripped into Trump and compared his rhetoric to that of former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin earlier this year. 

Kasich and Flake have both lamented the current state of the GOP under Trump, publicly questioning if there is room for them in the party. 

The poll also looked at hypothetical matchups between Trump and Sen. Marco RubioMarco Antonio RubioHillicon Valley: Georgia officials launch investigation after election day chaos | Senate report finds Chinese telecom groups operated in US without proper oversight Republican Senators ask FCC to ‘clearly define’ when social media platforms should receive liability protections Trump’s tweet on protester sparks GOP backlash  MORE (R-Fla.), as well as Trump and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt RomneyWillard (Mitt) Mitt RomneyMilley discussed resigning from post after Trump photo-op: report Trump on collision course with Congress over bases with Confederate names Attorney says 75-year-old man shoved by Buffalo police suffered brain injury MORE, who’s currently running for a Utah Senate seat. In both cases, Trump also handily wins: 66 percent of voters favored Trump over Rubio, while 63 percent favored him over Romney, according to the poll. 

The poll was conducted among 800 likely New Hampshire general election voters April 26-30. 

The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. 

The legal and political challenges to Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens’s (R) once-promising rise through the ranks have now become a broader problem for Republicans across the Show Me State. If Greitens goes down, he appears to be inclined to take down another rising star, Attorney General Josh Hawley (R), with him.

Greitens had originally been scheduled to go to trial this week on felony invasion of privacy charges stemming from an affair he had the year before he won election. Prosecutors dropped the charge on Monday, but could refile the charges.

Hawley is challenging Sen. Claire McCaskillClaire Conner McCaskillMissouri county issues travel advisory for Lake of the Ozarks after Memorial Day parties Senate faces protracted floor fight over judges amid pandemic safety concerns Amash on eyeing presidential bid: ‘Millions of Americans’ want someone other than Trump, Biden MORE (D) in November’s midterm elections. On the same day, voters will also decide on ballot measures that would raise the minimum wage and create a legal medical marijuana program.

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Those ballot measures have the potential to drive Democratic turnout, or at least attract millions in spending aimed at boosting turnout among working-class Democratic voters — especially minorities in Kansas City and St. Louis — who might otherwise skip Election Day.

Greitens had the option to move one of those ballot measures, a constitutional amendment concerning medical marijuana, to the August primary, when it would not coincide with the Senate race. Last week, he told Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s (R) office he would instead leave it on the November ballot, according to Maura Browning, Ashcroft’s director of communications.

That decision is seen as a direct shot at Hawley, the state’s top law enforcement official. Hawley has investigated Greitens and called on him to resign.

The Hawley investigation into the relationship between Greitens and a charity he founded prompted a prosecutor in St. Louis to charge the governor with computer tampering, based on evidence uncovered by Hawley’s office.

“This is a guy who will literally stop at nothing to save his political skin, including denigrating, on the record, for attribution, the legal skills of the attorney general,” said Gregg Keller, a Missouri-based GOP strategist who managed then-Sen. Jim Talent’s (R) reelection bid in 2006. “He’s a drag because he has waged war on Josh Hawley for no other reason than the fact that Josh Hawley is doing his job as attorney general.”

Republicans expected Democrats to qualify both the minimum wage measure and the three separate marijuana-related measures for November’s ballot. Ashcroft prepared to certify signatures as soon as possible so that the measures could appear on the August ballot, rather than the November ballot.

But Greitens decided to leave the medical marijuana question to November, when it could drive Democratic turnout, with the full knowledge his actions could make it more difficult for Hawley to beat McCaskill.

One source said Greitens’s sentiment came down to two words: Screw Hawley.

A spokesman in Greitens’s office disputed that Greitens used that language or that politics played a role in his decision to leave the November ballot as-is.

“Regarding the notion that politics has played into this, that’s ludicrous,” the spokesman, Parker Briden, told The Hill. “That never entered the picture until this fictional narrative was invented by a few operatives hoping to drive the Republican Party apart.”

Hawley’s campaign declined to comment.

Using ballot measures to drive turnout is hardly uncommon, in Missouri or around the country. In 2004, 11 states voted on initiatives to ban same-sex marriage in hopes of exciting conservative voters as President George W. Bush sought reelection.

In 2006, Missouri voted for its own same-sex marriage ban — though the Democratic governor at the time, Jay Nixon, opted to put that proposed constitutional amendment on the August primary ballot. That November, McCaskill beat Talent by fewer than 50,000 votes.

Both minimum wage increases and medical marijuana initiatives are broadly popular with voters. Of the 30 minimum wage increases that have appeared on ballots across the country since 1912, only two were defeated — both in 1996, in Missouri and Montana. Sixteen states have legalized marijuana for medical purposes via ballot measures; Florida, where a ballot measure needs 60 percent of the vote to pass, was the most recent to reject a medical marijuana measure, in 2014.

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But there is little evidence that ballot measures themselves, even those on hot-button issues like raising the minimum wage or banning same-sex marriage, actually drive voters to the polls. Instead, Missouri Republicans fear those measures will inspire Democratic-leaning groups like labor unions to pour millions into turning out the vote, on top of their support for McCaskill.

“The real challenge on our side is going to be to try and match the base intensity that the Democrats clearly have,” said John Hancock, a former chairman of the Missouri Republican Party. “There’s no needed impetus, it seems to me, to generate Democrat base turnout. Whether you put an initiative on the ballot or not, they’re going to be red-hot smoking, regardless.”

President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE’s approval ratings in Missouri, a state he won by 18 percentage points, remain relatively strong compared to the rest of the country. Republicans said Greitens is the real drag on the state GOP.

“Overall, the Republican brand is going to be tarnished by Gov. Greitens in every election that occurs,” said Scott Dieckhaus, a St. Louis-based Republican strategist. “First and foremost, he has more headlines than any Republican in the state.”

Missouri lawmakers will return to Jefferson City on Friday for a special session to consider impeachment. Most prominent Republicans have called on Greitens to spare the spectacle and resign.

“We’ve got to get through this Greitens business,” Hancock said. “If Greitens remains a divisive figure through the election, I think that bodes very ill for us.”

Women’s rights groups applauded Tuesday as the Senate voted against a bill banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

In a statement, the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) noted that the ban likely would not have stood up in court if it had passed, as the Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that women should have access to safe, legal abortions, especially when maternal or fetal health are at risk—and characterized it as a “distracting” symbolic vote.

“As the clock ticks for Washington to approve a budget and find a solution for Dreamers, the Senate wasted time on an unconstitutional abortion ban,” said Nancy Northrup, president of the organization. “This vote was a distraction. While it was stopped in it tracks, it’s clear that anti-choice politicians and Senate leadership are prioritizing chipping away at constitutional freedoms over keeping the lights on and supporting policies the American people want.”

“As the clock ticks for Washington to approve a budget and find a solution for Dreamers, the Senate wasted time on an unconstitutional abortion ban.”—Nancy Northrup, CRR

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The bill was rejected in a 51-46 vote, compared to a 54-42 vote when it was last defeated in 2015. Three Democrats—Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia—voted in favor of the measure, while Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) opposed it.

Ilyse Hogue, head of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said the focus on this bill byanti-choice Republicans’ “reveals their true priorities: to punish women, ban abortion, and try to score an ideological win to appeal to their fringe base.”

“The fact that fewer Senators voted for this legislation than two years ago demonstrates that the country is catching up to the reality of these situations and demanding sanity in our legislation,” Hogue added. “If the anti-choice GOP continues to be out-of-step with the values of hard working women and families, we’ll make sure they pay the consequences at the ballot box in November.”

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An editorial in a newspaper run by the Chinese Communist Party sharply criticized the U.S. in the midst of the current debate over gun control—a debate that’s been resolved for decades in most of the world’s industrialized countries—and accused the U.S. of hypocrisy in touting its human rights record.

“It’s inhumane for the U.S., which boasts about its human rights record, to turn a blind eye to gun violence, snub increasing calls for gun control, and risk more innocent lives,” read the opinion column in the English-language version of the Global Times. “The U.S. has no other choice but to adopt gun control. The right of life is the most fundamental human right. The right to bear arms cannot overpower the individual’s right to live.”

While the U.S. government acts as an arbiter of human rights abuses around the world, the paper said, it has failed to protect its own citizens as many legislators accept donations from the National Rifle Association (NRA), the powerful gun lobby which has opposed even widely popular gun reforms like universal background checks and has aggressively marketed military-style semi-automatic weapons like the AR-15, frequently used in mass shootings, as an appropriate firearm for hunting and home-defense.

“Washington has been pointing an accusing finger at other countries over human rights… However, more Americans have been killed by gunfire in the country than American soldiers being killed in all U.S. wars,” read the column. “Gun ownership in China is strictly regulated, which helps reduce gun-related crimes and deaths. The U.S. should learn from China and genuinely protect human rights.”

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While China has its own record of human rights abuses, its stringent gun control measures have kept mass shootings like the one the that took place in Parkland, Florida last week from becoming the regular occurrence that they are in the U.S.

In China’s annual report on global human rights last year, it noted the U.S. government’s “serious infringement on right to life [and] personal security.”

“In 2016, the U.S. government exercised no effective control over guns, law enforcement departments abused their power, and crimes were not effectively contained,” wrote China’s State Council Information Office. “As a result, civil rights, especially the right to life, were seriously threatened and people’s personal rights were continuously infringed upon.”

The report listed several recent deadly mass shootings, and also decried the incarceration rate in the U.S.—higher than any other country in the world.

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UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said making the nation’s electricity grid publicly-owned is the best course to “put tackling climate change at the heart of our energy system.”

Speaking Saturday at a conference in London, Corbyn decried the failure of privatization of public services and laid out an economic vision that addresses the climate crisis while narrowing inequality.

“The challenge of climate change requires us to radically shift the way we organize our economy,” he said.

The Attlee administration that presided over Britain following World War II and created the welfare state, he said, “knew that the only way to rebuild our economy was through a decisive turn to collective action.”

“Necessary action to help avert climate catastrophe requires us to be at least as radical,” he said.

The Tory-led government of Prime Minister Theresa May has not taken that radical action, Corbyn charged, instead having “licensed fracking, declared a moratorium on renewable levies while massively subsidizing fossil fuels, dithered over tidal, held back onshore wind, U-turned on making all new homes zero carbon, and is failing to take the necessary measures to meet our legal commitments to reduce CO2 emissions.”

As such, “A green energy system will look radically different to the one we have today,” he said. “The past is a centralized system with a few large plants. The future is decentralized, flexible, and diverse with new sources of energy large and small, from tidal to solar.”

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“The greenest energy is usually the most local,” he said, “but people have been queuing up for years to connect renewable energy to the national grid.”

“With the national grid in public hands we can put tackling climate change at the heart of our energy system, committing to renewable generation from tidal to onshore wind.”

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Such a grid would “act as the great leveler, distributing energy from where it is plentiful to where it is scarce and guaranteeing that everyone has access to clean, affordable energy all of the time,” he said.

“Anything else is not only unjust, it risks doing immeasurable harm to the climate cause.”

“Because we will only win support for the changes that are needed if we make sure that everyone shares in the benefits,” he said, echoing themes of his party’s manifesto. The benefits, Corbyn argued, are “not just in cheaper energy, an end to fuel poverty, cleaner air, and a sustainable planet, but also in the creation of new good jobs and industries in renewable energy and green tech across the country.”

According to the Campaign against Climate Change Trade Union Group, Corbyn’s speech is a “must read for anyone who recognizes that ‘business as usual’ won’t cut it to tackle the climate crisis.”

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Pipeline executives are extremely upset that protests by environmentalists and Indigenous groups are disrupting their ability to plunder the planet at will, and they aired their discontent publicly on Thursday at the CERAWeek energy conference in Texas.

“And we’re just getting started.”
—350.org

Singling out the “Keep It in the Ground” movement—which calls for an “immediate halt” to all new fossil fuel development—as a particularly strong obstacle to their ambitious construction projects, pipeline CEOs complained that opposition to dirty energy has grown in “intensity” over the past several years, posing a serious threat to their companies’ bottomlines.

“There’s more opponents, and it’s more organized,” lamented Kinder Morgan CEO Steven Kean, according to the Houston Chronicle.

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Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline—which would carry tar sands 700 miles from Alberta to Burnaby, British Columbia—is currently facing fierce resistance from Indigenous groups and local governments. At least 7,000 people are expected to participate in a march and rally against the pipeline in Vancouver on Saturday, the Seattle Times reports.

Other pipeline CEOs appearing at the CERAWeek conference echoed Kean’s concerns, highlighting the success of efforts by environmental activists to delay, disrupt, and cancel projects through non-violent civil disobedience, litigation, and other tactics.

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Bitterly recounting how activists tried to drill a holes in his company’s pipelines, Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren reportedly said: “Talk about someone that needs to be removed from the gene pool.”

Energy Transfer Partners is behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, which became fully operational in June of last year after many weeks of resistance from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and its allies.

Legal challenges to the pipeline—which has already spilled several times—continue to mount.

According to the Houston Chronicle, Warren said he has “increased Energy Transfer’s presence on social media platforms” in an attempt to win over the public.

Responding to the executives’ complaints on Twitter, 350.org—one of the most prominent organizations in the movement against fossil fuels—wrote simply, “we’re just getting started.”

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Protests over the deadly police shooting of 22-year-old unarmed Stephon Clark are continuing on Saturday, with a former NBA player set to lead a rally in Sacramento to continue the call for justice and accountability.

“I love Sacramento and this community will always be a part of me,” said Matt Barnes, whose basketball career included playing with the Sacramento Kings. “As the father of two boys, I can’t stay silent on this issue. We clearly need to unite, organize, and act to bring the accountability that is so desperately needed. This rally is the beginning to seeing that change.”

The schedule rally follows four consecutive nights of protests over the March 18 shooting.

A protest Friday evening, led by Black Lives Matter Sacramento, came hours after an independent autopsy showed that Sacramento police shot Clark eight times, with the first six of those times in his back, thus refuting the police version that Clark “turned and advanced towards the officers while holding an object which was extended in front of him.” [That object was a cellphone.]

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“The proposition that has been presented that he was assailing the officers, meaning he was facing the officers, is inconsistent with the prevailing forensic evidence,” forensic pathologist Bennet Omalu said at a news conference with family attorney Benjamin Crump.

Crump, for his part, said, “This independent autopsy affirms that Stephon was not a threat to police and was slain in another senseless police killing under increasingly questionable circumstances.”

“His back was turned—he didn’t get a chance,” said Latarria McCain, among those protesting Friday night.

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Also raising questions about the shooting is the fact that officers muted their body cameras after firing shots. “Any time there is muting on this camera, it builds suspicion—as it has in this case,” Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn told CNN affiliate KCRA. “And that is not healthy for us in our relationship with our community.”

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As the March of Great Return continued along the Israeli border on Friday, Gaza health officials reported that Israeli forces ignored international calls for restraint and injured more than 500 Palestinians with tear gas and live ammunition, shooting at least 122 protesters.

“Israel is treating the protest in Gaza as it has handled similar events in the past: Broad, unlawful use of lethal force at a heavy price to lives, baseless legal interpretations issued to justify this policy, and whitewashing the crimes within days.”
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While thousands of Palestinians gathered at the border for the third consecutive Friday as part of a six-week protest of Israel’s occupation, human rights and peace advocates fiercely condemned “the unlawful shooting of unarmed demonstrators in Gaza” as ordered by top Israeli officials.

Since the protests began last month, at least 34 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces.

“For the past two weeks, the world has watched in horror as Israeli forces unleashed excessive, deadly force against protesters, including children, who merely demand an end to Israel’s brutal policies towards Gaza and a life of dignity,” said Magdalena Mughrabi, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Denouncing Israel’s “horrifying use of live ammunition against unarmed protesters,” Mughrabi also noted that “under international law, lethal force can only be used when unavoidable to protect against imminent threats to life.”

“Israel is treating the protest in Gaza as it has handled similar events in the past: Broad, unlawful use of lethal force at a heavy price to lives, baseless legal interpretations issued to justify this policy, and whitewashing the crimes within days,” declared the Israel-based group B’Tselem. 

If the international community does not pressure Israel to stop firing at protesters, B’Tselem warned, “it will pull the rug out from under the global effort to protect human rights in the post-WWII era.”

The groups also repeated calls for an independent investigation into Israeli forces’ use of firearms against protesters.

Ahead of the protests on Friday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and five Democrats in the House broke with the party establishment and spoke out against the violence by Israeli forces.

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“I am deeply concerned about the deaths and injuries in Gaza,” Warren told The Intercept on Thursday. “As additional protests are planned for the coming days, the Israel Defense Forces should exercise restraint and respect the rights of Palestinians to peacefully protest.”

The five representatives issued a statement urging Palestinians to demonstrate nonviolently and Israeli soldiers “to refrain from shooting live ammunition at unarmed Palestinian protesters from hundreds of meters away, across the fence separating the two territories.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was the first member of Congress to condemn Israel’s response to the protests in a pair of tweets late last month.

Yousef Munayyer, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and other advocates are encouraging Americans to contact their federal representatives to push them to respond to the killings:

Some advocates are called for an immediate arms embargo on Israel:

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