Bernie Sanders seeks override of Trump's Yemen veto

[Uncle Joe]

(snip)

Now Sanders, one of many Democratic presidential candidates, is betting that more of his fellow senators will stand up to defend Congress as an institution and its constitutional authority to declare war. On Monday, he issued a broad call that they support a veto override vote.

”The president’s action is a very serious challenge to congressional authority that demands a response," Sanders, I-Vt., wrote in a letter to his fellow senators. “For far too long Congress, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, has abdicated its constitutional role with regard to the authorization of war … Congress must now act to protect that constitutional responsibility by overriding the president’s veto.”

(snip)

A Sanders aide acknowledged that flipping more than a dozen Republicans would be a heavy lift, but the senator’s hope is that lawmakers will want to push back on the White House’s argument and continue to “shake the cobwebs off” in asserting Congress’s constitutional war powers.

(snip)

Congress has grown uncomfortable with the humanitarian crisis in Yemen as well as Trump’s close relationship with Saudi Arabia as he tries to further isolate Iran, a regional rival — especially after the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi who lived in the U.S. and had written critically about the kingdom.

(snip)


https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2019/04/22/bernie-sanders-urges-override-of-trumps-yemen-veto/

[artislife]

1. Yemen is a very sad affair

The bombing, the starving.


tears.

[Uncle Joe]

2. 85,000 thousand children dead from starvation as of last November and

that's a conservative figure.

Yemen: up to 85,000 young children dead from starvation

An estimated 85,000 children under the age of five have starved to death over the last three years as a result of Yemen’s civil war, a report from Save the Children has found, as the charity urged an immediate ceasefire to prevent more loss of life.

The figure is a conservative estimate based on UN data on severe acute malnutrition, which the international body says has afflicted more than 1.3 million children since the conflict between Houthi rebels and the Saudi-led coalition that seeks to restore Yemen’s exiled government began in 2015.

About 14 million people – half of Yemen’s population – are currently at risk of famine, largely because of Saudi border blockades designed to weaken the Houthis, which have also strangled civilian access to food, fuel, aid and commercial goods.

Fears for Yemen’s civilian population have increased in recent weeks because of an escalation in fighting around the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, through which about 80% of the country’s imports flow.

(snip)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/21/yemen-young-children-dead-starvation-disease-save-the-children

[artislife]

3. I followed this for two reasons

One, I used to know a few Yemenis from Detroit. They worked on the merchant sea ships and stayed at the hotel I worked at. They were lovely. They would make me stews and bring back trinkets. I cried when one died of pancreatic cancer and I celebrated when another won 250,000 in the state lotto.

Two, because in my teens, my father was an engineer and we lived in Algeria near a salt mine. The Algerian people were so kind to us and I am grateful that I have lived there and other countries which allows me to see the world in a broader sense.


I have a lot of issues with how we treat brown people around the globe.


My father was quite dark, he being half Mexican and half Ojibwa Native American. He was once stopped near Oran, Algeria in a routine traffic block. The guy looked at his American papers and ran his hand down his face and asked why he was so dark. My father told him. Now Oran is near the Moroccan border near the Straight of Gilbraltar. Months later, when we were down in the Sahara near the Libyan border, there was another road block. My father pulled up and the man said " the red Indian" and waved him through. Everyone in that hemisphere loves Native Americans!

[Uncle Joe]

4. Thanks for sharing artislife.