As we continue our effort to keep you up-to-date on how money corrupts American government and politics, as well as other news of the day, we’re pleased to publish this daily digest compiled by BillMoyers.com’s Michael Winship.
Here’s the deal –> Reuters: “Iran and six major world powers reached a nuclear deal on Tuesday, capping more than a decade of negotiations with an agreement that could transform the Middle East. Reaching the agreement did not bury the controversy of one of the most bitterly contested diplomatic issues of the day: the European Union called it a ‘sign of hope for the entire world,’ while Israel called it an ‘historic surrender.'”
President Obama: “This deal is not built on trust. It is built on verification.” He said that he would veto any attempt by Congress to block it. The White House offers these details. And here is the actual text of the agreement.
New Horizons snaps first close-up pictures of Pluto –> “We have completed the initial reconnaissance of the Solar System, an endeavor started under President Kennedy more than 50 years ago and continuing to today under President Obama,” said the mission’s chief scientist Alan Stern. Details at BBC, pictures at NASA and a special Nova program with all the images and early data findings airs on PBS tomorrow night.
Hillary Clinton: “We have to build a growth and fairness economy — you can’t have one without the other.” –> At Manhattan’s New School, Secretary Clinton delivered her first major economic policy address as a Democratic presidential candidate yesterday. “The defining economic challenge of our time is clear,” she said. “We must raise incomes for hard-working Americans so they can afford a middle-class life.”
The Washington Post reports, “With liberals openly concerned about her historic coziness with Wall Street — and with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), her insurgent primary rival, drawing thousands at his rallies by railing against big banks — Clinton struck a tough tone on the financial industry.” But George Goehl, executive director of National People’s Action Campaign, said, “Secretary Clinton today identified the symptoms of our ailing economy, but her diagnosis is off… Tinkering at the edges won’t solve the wealth and income inequality crisis, we need real structural change.” Read Clinton’s complete speech.
Scott Walker says he’s “someone who will stand up for America.” –> The Wisconsin governor officially announced his candidacy yesterday, via Twitter, a video and a speech at the Waukesha County Expo Center in Wisconsin, saying, “… If you work hard and play by the rules, you can do and be anything you want. That’s the American dream. And that is worth fighting for.” Read Heath Carter in The New Republic on the conflict between Walker’s professed faith and his record of union-bashing. Responding to Walker’s announcement, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka declared, “Scott Walker is a national disgrace.”
Fighting the new Jim Crow –> Just days after it was announced that Barack Obama would become the first sitting president to visit a federal prison this week — and the day before he addresses the NAACP convention on criminal justice reform — the White House revealed that Obama was commuting “the unduly harsh sentences” of 46 federal prisoners. ThinkProgress quotes a blog post from counsel to the president: “While I expect the President will issue additional commutations and pardons before the end of his term, it is important to recognize that clemency alone will not fix decades of overly punitive sentencing policies.”
We’re not making this up –> Katherine Krueger at Talking Points Memo reports, “An all-Republican county commission in Missouri voted unanimously Monday to observe a full calendar year of ‘mourning’ after the Supreme Court’s gay marriage decision, a protest that will include lowering flags to mark the somber occasion.”
Meanwhile –> “Pentagon leaders are finalizing plans aimed at lifting the ban on transgender individuals in the military, with the goal of formally ending one of the last gender- or sexuality-based barriers to military service, senior US officials told the Associated Press. An announcement is expected this week, and the services would have six months to assess the impact of the change and work out the details, the officials said Monday.” AND: Also from AP, “The executive committee of the Boy Scouts of America has unanimously approved a resolution that would end the organization’s blanket ban on gay adult leaders and let individual scout units set their own policy on the long-divisive issue.”
Recommended –> Benjamin Wallace-Wells’s New York magazine portrait of author (and Moyers & Company guest) Ta-Nehisi Coates. AND: At The National Memo, David Cay Johnston’s list of 21 very interesting questions for Donald Trump about his finances and past business dealings.
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