Good morning! Here’s your daily digest of money-and-politics news and the headlines of the day, compiled by BillMoyers.com’s John Light. (You can sign up to receive Morning Reads daily in your inbox!)
Home of the brave –> An open letter signed by a dozen of America’s leading authors reminds Congress that its fear of Syrian refugees is unfounded and anti-American: “Refugees are not the enemy. Refugees are our spouses, our parents, our grandparents. Some among us are refugees themselves; others have experienced the violence of war. But we are all writers. As such it is our duty to bear witness.” The writers (Reza Aslan, Geraldine Brooks, Teju Cole, Aleksandar Hemon, Marlon James, Phil Klay, Laila Lalami, Yiyun Li, Tom Lutz, Maaza Mengiste, Gary Shteyngart and Jane Smiley) call on Congress to rethink its actions and allow the refugees in.
Smuggling out the truth –> The New Yorker’s David Remnick has a report on a group of young Syrian refugees, now based in Europe, dedicated to getting reports on ISIS’s brutality in their home city of Raqqa out to the media. They go by the name RBSS, for “Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently.” Remnick: “ISIS has controlled Raqqa for nearly two years and much of the foreign press looks to R.B.S.S. for first-hand reports about the daily life — and depredations — in Raqqa.”
Military masking the truth? –> The New York Times reported Sunday that US Central Command officials appeared to alter the language of reports on ISIS “to paint a more optimistic picture of America’s role in the conflict than was warranted.” Following the Times report, President Obama tasked his own staff with investigating discrepancies between CentCom’s information and that of other agencies, like the CIA.
AND: British Prime Minister David Cameron said he would make the case before Parliament this week that the UK should join the military campaign against ISIS. A vote is expected before Christmas. Via: BBC.
Staying on point –> Obama called on his international colleagues Sunday to not let the recent terror attacks distract from next week’s crucial business of cutting a climate deal in Paris. “I think it’s absolutely vital for every country, every leader, to send a signal that the viciousness of a handful of killers does not stop the world from doing vital business,” he said. Fiona Harvey reports for The Guardian.
Reshaping elections –> The Center for Public Integrity reports that a single, “secretive nonprofit group” active during Mitch McConnell’s 2014 reelection bid raised more money from anonymous donors supporting the Senate majority leader than all the campaign contributions to his opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, combined.
Bending election law ’til it breaks –> Robert Maguire and Will Tucker at OpenSecrets.org and Time magazine: “For two consultants working to help put Carly Fiorina in the White House, the legal firewall between campaign and super PAC must look more like a mirror. As one moves, so does the other; as one takes thousands of dollars in salaries and sets up a skeletal business entity to receive even more, the other does, too.”
Beyond dog whistles –> “Republican front-runner Donald Trump doesn’t do dog whistles. He specializes in train whistles,” writes New Republic’s Jeet Heer. First, a Black Lives Matter protester was assaulted and ejected from a Birmingham, Alabama, rally after being called a racial slur. Trump said the man “should have been roughed up.” The candidate made a number of other ridiculous statements. Here are just a couple of fact checks: No, black Americans are not responsible for most killings of white Americans. AND: No, thousands of Muslims were not cheering in New Jersey as the World Trade Towers collapsed on 9/11.
Not for the reason we’d hoped –> Isaac Park at The American Prospect: “The wage gap between men and women is finally starting to close — but only because male wages are falling, according to a new briefing paper released Tuesday by the Economic Policy Institute.”
Dems’ growing disadvantage? –> In an analysis for The New York Times, Alec MacGillis looks at how traditionally Democratic states have become Republican in recent years. One major factor, he writes, is that the poorest Americans in these states are growing poorer and not voting; those who are voting are a bit wealthier, and reacting negatively against what they see as a culture of dependency among those below them on the economic ladder.
Where we all agree –> Harold Meyerson at The Washington Post: “At first glance — and second, and third — Americans look to be marching off in two diametrically opposed directions. … [But] across party lines, Americans believe that our economic system is rigged to favor the wealthy and big corporations, and that our political system is, too — so much so that by nearly a 2-to-1 margin (64 percent to 36 percent), Americans believe their ‘vote does not matter because of the influence that wealthy individuals and big corporations have on the electoral process.'”
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