Jason Ali Allen For Oregon

Due to a recent ruling by the Supreme Court, the 2020 Census will now conclude on October 15th at 11:59PM Hawaii time (October 16th, 5:59AM Eastern Daylight Time). It is critical each and every American respond to the 2020 Census before the deadline and include information on their ethnic heritage. Our representation in Congress, funding for our children's schools, and our access to health services for the next decade will depend on data from the 2020 Census. The 2020 Census is safe, easy, and takes less than ten minutes to complete.

If you have not filled out your form, please respond in one of the following ways:

Online— Visit my2020census.gov and complete the questionnaire.

By phone— Call 844-330-2020 to complete the questionnaire in English

By post— Paper Census questionnaires must be postmarked by October 15, 2020.

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If you only have the bandwidth for one op-ed about Iran let it be this one published 48 hours ago in The Washington Post by a man of my mother's generation co-written with an Iranian-American analyst younger than myself:

"The U.S. should strive for a stable Iran. Instead, it is suffocating it"

By Ardeshir Zahedi and Ali Vaez June 20

We belong to two very different generations of Iranians. One of us served in senior official positions in the pro-Western monarchy that ruled Iran prior to the 1979 Islamic revolution; the other is a child of that revolution. One presided over the golden age of Iran-U.S. relations; the other was subject to years of state-sponsored anti-American indoctrination. Yet, despite these differences, we share a sense of belonging to both countries and grave concerns about the collision course they are on.

The Trump administration seems to believe it can achieve what has eluded its predecessors for four decades: fundamental change in Tehran. It has resorted to a time-worn set of tools to attain this objective: strangling the Iranian economy through sanctions, destabilizing Iran by supporting dissidents and secessionists, and launching an information war against the leadership in Tehran. It appears convinced that exercising what it calls “maximum pressure” will cause Iranian capitulation or regime collapse.

The Iranian people, meanwhile, strive for democracy as they have for more than a century, amid growing discontent over endemic corruption, repression and environmental degradation. They deserve a government that respects their rights, preserves their dignity, and offers them peace and a chance at prosperity. Washington’s belligerence, however, could once again bring their democratic struggle to grief. This is for several reasons.
First, the Trump administration has very little credibility as the would-be standard-bearer of positive change. Its rhetoric promising to “crush” Iran or usher in “the official end of Iran” through military action belies its professed distinction between the leadership and the Iranian people.

The administration’s list of public missteps toward the Iranian people is as long as it is regrettable. It includes preventing almost all Iranians from visiting the United States; misstating the historic name of the Persian Gulf; failing to express sympathy with Iranians after terrorist attacks by the Islamic State and separatist groups; and, perhaps most consequentially, withdrawing from the nuclear deal that remains popular in Iran and to which many there had pinned their hopes for a better life.

These mistakes have helped transform top-down anti-Americanism in Iran into a bottom-up phenomenon. Nothing spurs a rally-around-the-flag effect among 83 million Iranians more than humiliation and threats of foreign aggression.

How can Iranians buy into the administration’s professions of positive intent when Washington selectively decries their leaders’ corruption and human rights violations while overlooking the same behavior among U.S. allies? Why didn’t President Trump ask his North Korean or Russian counterparts to fundamentally reorient their policies before he would engage them in fruitless pageantry?

The administration’s Iran policy is not a strategy. It is a pressure tactic wrapped in bellicosity folded inside a chimera. It is bereft of a viable vision and based on the naive assumption that overthrowing the Islamic republic will miraculously lead to a pluralistic and pro-American order. That previous U.S.-sponsored regime change in the region has ushered in failed states or worse autocracies seems to be an afterthought.

Even when the administration seems to vie for rapprochement, it is unconvincingly inconsistent. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says, “We are prepared to engage in a conversation [with Iran] with no preconditions,” but in the same news conference , he goes on to say that would happen only “when the Iranians can prove that they want to behave like a normal nation.” This kind of double-speak and condescension does not instill trust.

The suffocating sanctions that the United States is slapping unilaterally on Iran have pushed the country into a deep inflationary recession, impoverishing its middle class and enriching state-affiliated actors, especially men with guns and experience in circumventing restrictions. This could lead to one of two outcomes: a weakened Iranian society, in which making ends meet will overshadow any quest for liberty; or a blind, desperate revolt that ends either in a brutal crackdown or a bloody civil war.

Either scenario will leave behind a broken, radicalized and militarized Iran, perhaps entrenching the Islamic republic’s most hard-line elements. How does that temper Iran’s behavior? How is that in the United States’ interest?

Bullying and crude threats will achieve little beyond entangling the United States and the region in another senseless war while deepening the two countries’ 40-year estrangement. The United States should strive for an Iran that is stable with a strong middle class and highly educated youths connected to the moderating influence of the outside world. The Iranian people want to restore the friendship between Iran and the United States, two countries that enjoyed 123 years of cordial ties before 1979. But the path to their hearts and minds is not through sanctions and military intervention.

It is not too late for this administration to cease demonizing and threatening Iran, and step aside from its maximalist demands. One of Iran’s most renowned poets, Rumi, offers a better way forward: “Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
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Ardeshir Zahedi is Iran’s former foreign minister (1966-1971) and ambassador to England (1962-1966) and United States (1960-1962 and 1973-1979).

Ali Vaez is the International Crisis Group’s Iran project director, based in Washington.

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We need 43 more Representatives and 13 more Senators to vote Yes on stopping US military participation the Saudi's war crimes in Yemen to override Trump's veto and wrest back Congress' war powers from an imperial presidency (a problem that predates Trump).

To Reassert Congressional War Authority, Sanders Demands Vote to Override Trump Veto on Yemen "For far too long Congress, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, has abdicated its constitutional role with regard to the authorization of war."

Per Jeanne Atkins, DPO Chair: Official DNC fact-check SOTU rebuttal:
The DNC team has been fact-checking President Trump’s address this evening. As expected, President Trump mislead the American people with outright lies to push his own failed agenda. We are including fact-checking readouts from our team below. For more, visit .
Trump Is Lying About The Iran Deal -- It’s Working
In his State of the Union Address tonight, Trump once again touted his withdraw from the Iran Deal.
Trump: “To ensure this corrupt dictatorship never acquires nuclear weapons, I withdrew the United States from the disastrous Iran nuclear deal.”
Trump’s top intelligence officials testified last week that Iran is not in violation of the Iran deal.
Washington Post: “Conversely, the intelligence officials assessed that the government of Iran was not trying to build a nuclear weapon, despite the Trump administration’s persistent claims that the country has been violating the terms of an international agreement forged during the Obama administration. Officials told lawmakers that Iran was in compliance with the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.”
International inspectors have repeatedly verified that Iran is complying with the nuclear deal.
Reuters: “Iran is carrying out its commitments under its nuclear deal with major powers, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano said in the text of a speech posted online by his agency on Wednesday.”
In fact, Trump’s decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran is forcing them to rethink the deal, which is working.
Washington Post: “But Iranian leaders are discussing reneging on the deal if they fail to reap the economic benefits it was supposed to bring after international sanctions were lifted, Haspel said. The Trump administration has reimposed U.S. sanctions.”
Trump Is Misleading America on the Fight Against ISIS
In his State of the Union Address tonight, Trump exaggerated his role in fighting ISIS and downplayed the continuing threat.
Trump: “When I took office, ISIS controlled more than 20,000 square miles in Iraq and Syria. Today, we have liberated virtually all of that territory from the grip of these bloodthirsty killers.”
Trump prematurely declared victory over ISIS in Syria despite the continuing threat.
Associated Press: “President Donald Trump is declaring victory over the Islamic State group in Syria, but the militants remain a deadly force, and U.S. partners warn a premature U.S. withdrawal will allow them to storm back.”
Associated Press: “Despite losing the physical caliphate, thousands of IS fighters remain in Iraq and Syria and the group continues to carry out insurgent attacks.”
Top intelligence and defense officials warned that ISIS remained a threat despite Trump’s claims they have been defeated.
New York Times: “Daniel R. Coats, the director of national intelligence, also challenged Mr. Trump’s insistence that the Islamic State had been defeated, a key rationale for his decision to exit from Syria. The terror group, the annual ‘Worldwide Threat Assessment’ report to Congress concluded, ‘still commands thousands of fighters in Iraq and Syria,’ and maintain eight branches and a dozen networks around the world.”
NBC News: “A draft Pentagon report warns that without continued pressure, ISIS could regain territory in six to twelve months, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the draft.”
ISIS was already on the decline by the time Trump’s presidency began.
CNN: “Trump's comments on ISIS also compared progress against the terror group under his tenure favorably to the end of the Obama administration -- at one point he claimed Wednesday that ‘ISIS was out of control in Syria’ when he took over -- though by the time Trump's presidency began, ISIS was already on the decline, with the US declaring 75% of ISIS fighters killed by December 2016.”
Trump merely continued the successful campaign against ISIS that began under Obama.
CNN: “But Trump has often skimmed over the fact that the ISIS campaign began under former President Barack Obama -- including operations to retake both ISIS strongholds in Iraq and Syria.”
Washington Post Fact Checker: “Trump exacerbates the braggadocio by specifically saying he has done ‘by far’ more than Obama, even though he inherited a structure and plan developed by Obama. Experts credit Trump with some tactical shifts that may have stepped up the tempo — though the number of civilian deaths has soared as a result. But in reality, according to several metrics, more was done under Obama.”
Trump Has Made Us Less Safe
In his State of the Union address tonight, Trump claimed he had improved America’s standing in the world.
Trump: “Under my Administration, we will never apologize for advancing America's interests.”
The truth is that Trump has repeatedly embarrassed us on the global stage, and his leadership has made us less safe and caused the world to lose respect for the United States.
Despite Trump’s summit and claims that he neutralized North Korea’s nuclear threat, North Korea secretly continued to build new missile bases.
Global approval of the U.S. hit a new low under Trump.
Trump damaged relationships with key allies, and the decline of America’s standing left openings for other countries to fill the leadership void.
Trump withdrew the U.S. from the U.N. human rights council.
Donald Trump praised dictators like North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un; congratulated authoritarians after undemocratic elections; and he extended a warm invitation to Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte, who has openly defended the murder of journalists and extrajudicial killings.
Trump refused to accept U.S. intelligence and stood by Saudi Arabia after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
Trump stood on the global stage and sided with Vladimir Putin over U.S. intelligence agencies.
Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian officials in the Oval Office.
Trump’s Economic Agenda Has Failed Working Americans
Tonight, Trump touted his the economy as one of his biggest accomplishments.
Trump: “The State of our Union is strong. Our country is vibrant and our economy is thriving like never before.”
But the truth is that under Trump’s watch the economic outlook of our country has worsened. While Trump’s administration has given wealthy corporations a short-term boost, they’ve rolled back crucial protections for consumers, student borrowers, retirees, and working Americans across the country.
See for yourself:
The gap between the richest Americans and everyone else has grown under Trump’s watch.
The economic indicators Trump has frequently pointed to as evidence of his policies’ success have all begun to falter:
Last year, the stock market had its worst year since the 2008 financial crisis.
In December, a key manufacturing index tumbuled by the largest amount in a decade.
Consumer confidence fell to its lowest levels in over two years.
Americans are more pessimistic about the future of the economy than they’ve been in nearly two decades.
The Trump administration has systematically rolled back crucial protections for workers and consumers to benefit corporate interests and donors.
Trump eliminated protections for student borrowers, gutted enforcement of payday lenders, and let corporate wrongdoers off the hook.
Donald Trump Just Attacked a Woman’s Right to Choose. Again.
Thanks to the ceaseless efforts of Trump and Republicans to come between women and their doctors, access to safe, legal abortion is at risk. Here’s just a glimpse of what they’ve done to restrict access to reproductive health care in the past year:
Thanks to Trump’s pledge to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision is under threat like never before.
There are 15 abortion cases one step away from the Supreme Court that could roll back or overturn Roe v. Wade. If the landmark decision is overturned, more than 25 million women could lose access abortion in their state — that’s one-third of all women of childbearing age in America.
The Trump-Pence administration is poised to finalize what amounts to a domestic gag rule on Title X.
The Trump administration has proposed plans to eliminate Title X funding for health care providers like Planned Parenthood who provide vital reproductive care and information to their patients. If enacted, this rule would kneecap Title X – a program that 4 million Americans each year rely on for affordable birth control and reproductive health care – threatening the health of millions of women and their families across the country.
Anti-abortion politicians have passed hundreds of restrictions on abortion in recent years.
As soon as next week, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on a Louisiana case that could eliminate all but one remaining abortion provider in the state. Louisiana’s law is just another in a series of more than 400 anti-choice pieces of legislation passed by Republican state lawmakers since 2010.
The Trump administration attempted to gut the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPPP).
After the appointment of abstinence-only advocate Valerie Huber to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), which oversees the office that administers funding for TPPP, the Department of Health and Human Services quickly changed grant criteria for the program into an abstinence-only based program, using rebranded terms like “sexual risk avoidance.”
The Trump administration moved to allow employers to refuse to cover workers’ birth control by citing religious or moral objections.
After the Trump administration expanded exemptions allowing employers to refuse to provide health insurance that includes cost-free birth control, a federal judge in Pennsylvania issued an injunction to block the rule nationwide.
Meanwhile, the American people have spoken — they want more access to health care, not less. The 2018 elections mandated it.
Two-thirds of Americans do not want to see Roe v. Wade overturned. That’s why state advocates are passing policies like New York’s Reproductive Health Act, and introducing bills in Rhode Island, New Mexico, and Virginia to protect women and expand access to reproductive health care including safe, legal abortion.
While Trump and Republicans continue to try to limit access to reproductive health care, Democrats are fighting to ensure women have the right to access the care they need. We believe that every woman has a fundamental right to make decisions about her own body with her doctor.
Trump’s New HIV/AIDS Initiative is Filled With Empty Promises
In his State of the Union tonight, Donald Trump announced a notable goal to end HIV/AIDS transmissions by 2030. However, the Trump administration has consistently undermined advancements in HIV/AIDS research, attacked people living with HIV/AIDS and sabotaged access to quality health care at every opportunity. Here’s Trump’s real record on HIV/AIDS:
FACT: Trump celebrated a court ruling in favor of a lawsuit he backed to overturn the ACA, endangering coverage for around 130 million people with pre-existing conditions, including HIV/AIDS.
CBS News: Around 130 million people in the United States have pre-existing conditions, and without the ACA, insurers would no longer be required to cover those conditions.
Vox: “To put it simply, the ACA was a ‘watershed moment in the [HIV] epidemic’s history,’ as the Kaiser Family Foundation’s director of global health and HIV policy, Jennifer Kates, told me in 2017. The law was designed to get more people access to health care, including those who were traditionally denied coverage because of ‘preexisting conditions’ like HIV, or who were driven out of the marketplace because their health care was unaffordable. And so under the law, the disease was no longer a barrier to health insurance.”
FACT: The Department of Health and Human Services proposed new rules to eliminate requirements that insurance plans for Medicare beneficiaries cover prescription drugs in “protected classes,” such as HIV/AIDS.
“The Trump administration proposal is bad medicine and dangerous to people living with H.I.V.,” said Carl E. Schmid II, the deputy executive director of the AIDS Institute, a public policy and advocacy organization for patients. “Not all H.I.V. medications are the same. The Medicare Part D program is working well for people with H.I.V., and there is no reason to take these draconian actions.”
FACT: The Department of Health and Human Services redirected money from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program to help fund the separation of immigrant families.
POZ: “Trump Agency Is Using Federal HIV Funds to Separate Immigrant Families”
FACT: Both of Trump’s budget proposals sought to cut global HIV/AIDS funding by over $1 billion, which could cause 300,000 deaths per year.
Huffington Post: “His 2019 budget proposal would cut $1.2 billion from global HIV programs like PEPFAR and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.”
CBS News: “Trump’s 2018 budget not only slashes PEPFAR by 17 percent—from $4.6 billion to $3.8 billion—it cuts global health programs overall by $2 billion. It also downsizes the National Institute of Health’s National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which funds HIV/AIDS research, by 23 percent.”
The Daily Beast: “Trump’s Budget Cut for HIV/AIDS Would Kill 300,000 People Per Year, Report Says”
FACT: United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar created a "Conscience and Religious Freedom Division," giving health care providers the ability to refuse treatment to LGBTQ people if they have a "moral objection."
HIV+ Magazine: “In January 2018, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services created the Division of Conscience and Religious Freedom under the Office of Civil Rights (OCR). This division was created following a 2017 executive order by President Trump directing agencies to expand religious freedom protections in ways that could increase discrimination against LGBT individuals and same-sex couples.”
CDC: “Gay and bisexual men are the population most affected by HIV in the United States. In 2016, gay and bisexual men accounted for 67% of the 40,324 new HIV diagnoses in the United States and 6 dependent areas. Approximately 492,000 sexually active gay and bisexual men are at high risk for HIV”
FACT: Vice President Mike Pence, while governor of Indiana, opposed a needle exchange program and exacerbated the local HIV/AIDS crisis.
Politico: “But when confronted with a spiraling HIV outbreak in his home state as a result of opioid addicts sharing contaminated needles, Pence dragged his feet…”
FACT: Trump’s Department of Defense instituted a “Deploy or Get Out” policy, which would remove HIV+ military personnel from service solely because of their status.
Washington Post: “They tested positive for HIV. Then the military kicked them out.”
Sergeant Nick Harrison, an 18-year veteran of both Afghanistan and Kuwait: “This is about every person living with HIV knowing that they can perform any job in the world, including serving in the military [...] I look forward to the day that I can serve my country to the full extent of my abilities, based on my performance and unfettered by unfounded fears and misperceptions about HIV.”
Trump Did Nothing To Lower Skyrocketing Prescription Drug Costs
In his State of the Union tonight, Trump claimed he had lowered prescription drug costs.
Trump: “The next major priority for me, and for all of us, should be to lower the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs”
In reality, Trump gave massive tax breaks to pharmaceutical companies and did nothing to actually lower costs, which continue to skyrocket.
Despite Trump’s promises, pharmaceutical companies have already raised prices on more than one thousand drugs in the first few days of this year, including increases of nearly 10%.
The biggest drug companies announced more than $50 billion in stock buybacks after the Trump tax law, but made no plans to lower drug prices.
Trump’s drug pricing plan did nothing to lower costs, and could actually increase out-of-pocket costs for millions of patients.
House Democrats have already gotten to work to lower costs and launched an investigation into pharmaceutical companies raising prescription drug prices.
Trump Falsely Blames Immigrants For Crime And Gang Activity
Trump is lying about crime to try to fearmonger and push his anti-immigrant agenda:
Trump: "We are removing these gang members by the thousands, but until we secure our border they're going to keep streaming back in. Year after year, countless Americans are murdered by criminal illegal aliens."
See the truth here:
Trump falsely conflates MS-13 gang members with undocumented immigrants.
BuzzFeed: “Trump Keeps Trying To Link MS-13 Gang Violence To Immigrants. The Data Show Otherwise.”
Despite Trump’s fearmongering, immigrants committed fewer crimes on average than native-born Americans.
PBS: “Immigration Doesn’t Bring Crime Into U.S., Data Say”
NBC News: “No Evidence Undocumented Immigrants Commit More Crimes”
Washington Post: “Trump’s repeated statements about immigrants and crime underscore a common public perception that crime is correlated with immigration, especially illegal immigration. But that is a misperception; no solid data support it, and the data that do exist negate it. Trump can defend himself all he wants, but the facts just are not there.”
The Trump administration released a “misleading” report trying to link immigration and terrorism.
Politifact: “Donald Trump’s Team Misleads In Tying International Terrorism Report To Immigration”
Trump Lies About The Border
Trump touted the need for a border wall in his State of the Union address tonight, but the truth is that he is manufacturing a crisis, and his border wall is ineffective.
Trump just now: “This is a moral issue. The lawless state of our southern border is a threat to the safety, security, and financial well‑being of all Americans.”
FACT: A border wall would not keep opioids out of the country.
Washington Post: “The White House Says The Border Wall Would Keep Opioids Out Of The U.S. It Wouldn’t.”
FactCheck.org: “But experts, including those within his own administration, say the vast majority of the illegal he**in enters the U.S. through legal ports of entry.”
NBC News: “While standing 70 feet underground in the Galvez smuggling tunnel between Tijuana and San Diego, Border Patrol agent Lance Lenoir told NBC News last year that border fencing will not stop drug smugglers. ‘As long as they get from point A to point B in secret, they're going to do it,’ Lenoir said. ‘They're always tunneling somewhere.’”
FACT: Trump is manufacturing a “crisis” at the border despite border apprehensions remaining near historic lows.
Washington Post: “By any available measure, there is no new crisis at the border. Apprehensions of people trying to cross the southern border peaked most recently at 1.6 million in 2000 and have been in decline since, partly because of technology upgrades, tougher penalties post-9/11, a decline in migration rates from Mexico and a sharp rise in the number of Border Patrol officers.”
USA Today: “But even those numbers remain at historic lows for the U.S. During the 2000s, it was common for Border Patrol agents to arrest over 100,000 people each month.”
New York Times: “The recent caravans from Central America primarily consist of migrants who are not trying to sneak across the border but instead are presenting themselves to border officials and requesting asylum.”
FACT: The majority of illegal immigration did not occur at the southern border.
CBS News: “But only one-third of the recent undocumented immigrant population came to the United States through the southern border, according to the Center for Migration Studies (CMS), a New York City-based think tank. The rest came legally on work visas and stayed after they expired, according to CMS. In other words, a wall wouldn't have kept them out.”
FACT: Trump’s border wall would not protect against terrorism.
NBC News: “U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered only six immigrants on the U.S-Mexico border in the first half of fiscal year 2018 whose names were on a federal government list of known or suspected terrorists, according to CBP data obtained by NBC News.”
Associated Press: “President Donald Trump and his officials persist in promoting the discredited notion that terror suspects are pouring into the U.S. from Mexico by the thousands. Despite their portrayal of Mexico as a teeming portal for terrorists, the State Department issued a report in September finding ‘no credible evidence indicating that international terrorist groups have established bases in Mexico, worked with Mexican drug cartels or sent operatives via Mexico into the United States.’”
FACT: The border wall is not a national security necessity, according to our nation’s top intelligence officials.
New York Times: “Perhaps the strongest rebuke of Mr. Trump’s security priorities comes in what is missing from the threat assessment: any rationale for building a wall along the southwestern border, which Mr. Trump has advertised as among the most critical security threats facing the United States. The first mention of Mexico and drug cartels comes on Page 18 of the 42-page report, well after a range of other, more pressing threats are reviewed.”
FACT: Both of Trump’s homeland security secretaries have dismissed the efficacy of a border wall.
John Kelly: “‘A physical barrier in and of itself will not do the job. It has to be a layered defense,’ Kelly said, stressing the need to build partnerships with Latin American countries to combat drug and human trafficking.”
Kirstjen Nielsen: “President Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that she does not support building a wall along the entire length of the U.S. southern border.”
As always, please reach out with any questions.
In Solidarity,
The Political & Organizing Team
Democratic National Committee