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Washington Progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez led efforts Wednesday to block U.S. arms sales to Israel, a move that was unlikely to succeed but highlighted tensions among Democratic lawmakers grappling with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A clear majority of Republicans back Israel in its military confrontation with Gaza that authorities say has claimed more than 220 Palestinian lives and killed 12 people in Israel.

Democrats are more divided, leaving President Joe Bidens administration under pressure from his partys liberal flank.

At a time when so many, including President Biden, support a ceasefire, we should not be sending direct attack weaponry to Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu to prolong this violence, Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement.

The harsh truth is that these weapons are being sold by the United States to Israel with the clear understanding that the vast majority of them will be used to bomb Gaza, added Rashida Tlaib, a U.S. congresswoman of Palestinian origin.

The United States is Israels largest supplier of military equipment.

Congress was formally informed on May 5 of the latest sale to Israels defense ministry, totaling $735 million.

According to congressional rules, lawmakers have until Thursday to present and approve a resolution opposing the sale if it is to be blocked.

Democratic leaders, who do not support the resolution, have not set a date for a vote.

A substantial majority of American Jews identify as Democrats, and the party traditionally has supported Israel, albeit with a few critical voices.

The latest Middle East bloodshed however has stirred up fresh criticism of the Jewish state among moderate Democrats.

But the new initiative to block the arms sale remains, at least for now, limited to the partys left wing.

Some moderate Democrats had mulled asking for a postponement, but ultimately they retreated.

The Republicans, on the other hand, reiterated their unwavering support for Israel Wednesday, with several senators taking to the floor to demand Joe Biden and his administration stand firmly with our ally Israel.

One of the senators, conservative Ted Cruz, slammed Democrats on Twitter, saying Ocasio-Cortez and her close allies were gunning for a promotion from press secretaries for Hamas to defense secretaries for Hamas.

Biden toughened his tone Wednesday, telling Netanyahu that he expects significant de-escalation in Israels military confrontation with the Palestinians.

After a ninth night of violence, Israel intensified its airstrikes Wednesday on Gaza.

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U.S. progressives attempt to block arms sale to Israel - The Japan Times

In her three years in the national spotlight, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has become the undisputed face of unabashed progressivism. But there is another hidden-in-plain-sight legacy of her 2018 primary victory: Her campaign logo and poster have reshaped the visual branding of the left.

If Donald J. Trump redefined the red hat as a symbol of the right, Ms. Ocasio-Cortezs slant and her break from the traditional red, white and blue color palette has formed something of a new graphical language for progressivism. Political designers say her logos vibe has come to convey insurgency, youth, diversity, liberalism and winning.

What A.O.C. did is she changed what it is to run for office, said Amoy Barnes, a 34-year-old Black Democrat running for City Council on Staten Island. When Ms. Barness consulting firm presented her a set of past political logos to provide inspiration, she immediately gravitated toward the Ocasio-Cortez design. Being a young woman of color with her bright purple and the slant and her full name she set a bar to say we dont have to do things the same way.

Gavan Fitzsimons, a professor in the business school at Duke University who studies the impact of branding in the unconscious minds of voters and consumers, said that familiar design can trigger powerful associations.

Voters that see those elements are unlikely, at least initially, to notice the similarity with the A.O.C. design, Mr. Fitzsimons explained. But, he added, what happens cognitively is it shines a light in your head.

Essentially what they are doing is borrowing from all the work she has done on the progressive side of the Democratic Party, he said of look-alike logos.

The distinctive A.O.C. typography has even found itself on T-shirts sold by politicians of both parties serving as a visual shorthand of sorts for the left.

Senator Bernie Sanders, whose 2016 presidential bid inspired Ms. Ocasio-Cortezs own political career, is using it to sell shirts supporting the Green New Deal (the signature policy initiative of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez).

While Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the former White House press secretary for Mr. Trump now running for governor of Arkansas, has adopted the tilted text for her anti-left clothing line demanding, Lets cancel cancel culture.

All of which has been amusing to the design team that created Ms. Ocasio-Cortezs logo, and who have begun cataloging various duplications that pop up on the campaign trail and in popular culture. Theyre everywhere, said Scott Starrett, who helped design her logo. Finding them is actually quite fun now.

Mr. Starrett socialized with Ms. Ocasio-Cortez before she was A.O.C. in an interview he kept lapsing into referring to her as Sandy, as her pre-politics friends and family knew her and said they had discussed her ideology long before he and Maria Arenas at the design firm Tandem sketched out her logo.

The color palette and speech bubble in the final design drew inspiration from Rosie the Riveter, Mr. Starrett said. The poster with her outward gaze was drawn from a Cesar Chavez stamp. And the overall look came from boxing, farmworker unionizing and luchador posters.

The inverted exclamation mark with a star punctuated her Puerto Rican heritage, and simultaneously turned her name into a rallying cry. We wanted this idea that she was shouting her name to get attention, and also the idea that people were shouting her name, Mr. Starrett said.

The slant and condensed font, though, was as much a typographical necessity as anything. Mr. Starrett said they had lobbied for not spelling out her full name, but Ms. Ocasio-Cortez held firm. She wanted her whole name. They tilted and stacked it to make it fit.

The way she went with that angled typography, that has entered the vernacular, said Sol Sender, who led the design team that created former President Barack Obamas famous 2008 logo a red, white and blue O for his name, and a rising sun, signifying a new day which itself spurred a raft of copycats.

When Melquiades Gagarin began his own 2020 long-shot primary challenge for Congress in a Queens congressional district neighboring Ms. Ocasio-Cortezs, his logo intentionally embraced the upward slope.

Mr. Gagarin called it an homage to the A.O.C. campaign itself but also the activist, progressive spirit that she embodies. Splashed across his website was a photo of Mr. Gagarin gazing off into the distance, just as Ms. Ocasio-Cortez had in her signature posters.

It almost came to be a joke, Mr. Gagarin laughingly said, that if you werent looking off to a distance you werent a progressive candidate.

Mr. Gagarin lost, as insurgents often do. One winner: Magdalena Pea, whose copycat design and bid for first-grade class senator at her elementary school in Queens won praise from Ms. Ocasio-Cortez herself earlier this year.

I love it! she wrote approvingly in a tweet. (Ms. Ocasio-Cortez declined an interview request for this article.)

As impressed as Mr. Sender was with Ms. Ocasio-Cortezs iconography she was announcing herself as a candidate that was going to stand for something different and the whole design language supported that he is disappointed at the glut of imitators.

Dig deeper, he urged fellow designers. Come on, dont you have your own ideas?

Almost no design is truly original. Others have used angled text before including the Clinton-Gore ticket in 1992. And some archconservative Republicans are still using it now, including Trump-aligned Representative Mo Brooks, who is running for Senate in Alabama.

The Ocasio-Cortez logo was distinctive not just for the slant of the text. It also featured an unusual-for-politics color scheme of purple and yellow.

Theres really a struggle with embracing red, white and blue, said Tarik Nally, a designer based in Louisville. Not because we dont love our country or colors. But because that can be considered establishment.

Mr. Nally crafted the logo for Charles Booker, an insurgent Democrat who ran for Senate in Kentucky in 2020. He used purple and yellow and Ms. Ocasio-Cortezs signature upward tilt.

Progress and increase and movement and upward momentum, Mr. Nally said. It just felt right. Mr. Booker lost in the partys primary last year but is considering running again in 2022.

Ahead of her 2020 re-election, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez queried her team about redesigning the logo to stay ahead of the curve, as Mr. Starrett described it. He successfully rebuffed the idea, making the case that the original logo was still shaping the curve.

That race only reinforced the power of Ms. Ocasio-Cortezs design. She faced a primary battle against the former CNBC journalist Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, whose logo was flat with a blue forward arrow.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez won in a landslide. Now Ms. Caruso-Cabrera is running for New York City comptroller and has refreshed her logo to tilt upward, mirroring the woman she had run against.

First time Ive thought about that, Ms. Caruso-Cabrera said when asked about the logo similarities as she walked through the Union Square farmers market on one recent afternoon. The upward tilt, she said, was always about optimism.

Moments later, a young woman walked past carrying a canvas sack of groceries, and wearing a yellow Ocasio-Cortez T-shirt.

Kitty Bennett contributed research.

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A.O.C. Had a Catchy Logo. Now Progressives Everywhere Are Copying It. - The New York Times

He said he welcomed the change. If it makes consultants nervous, Mr. Rubin added, its meant to.

People who say, I cant control it, I dont understand it, well, thats the whole point you cant control it, Mr. Rubin said. If youre good on the issues they care about, theyre going to be with you. If youre not, theyre not.

That became clear last week when the Markeyverse went on the offensive.

Their target, this time, was Mr. Markey himself, who on Tuesday had put out a carefully worded Twitter thread on the mounting violence in Israel, apportioning some blame on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides.

This was a disappointment for many of the young progressives, who had been hoping for a sharp rebuke of Israel, like the ones that came from Mr. Sanders and Ms. Warren, or from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Though Mr. Markeys voting record on foreign policy was no secret he voted to authorize the occupation of Iraq in 2002, for example it had faded into the background in their embrace of his candidacy, which focused heavily on his record on climate. Now, the group chats and Slack channels that comprise the Markeyverse were flooded with emotion, disappointment and betrayal.

Its horrible to watch, and its disappointing, said Emerson Toomey, 21, one of the authors of Eds Reply Guys, a Twitter account that helped establish Mr. Markey as a progressive star.

Ms. Toomey, a senior at Northeastern University, was computing, with some bitterness, the hundreds of thousands of hours of unpaid labor she and her friends had provided to the senator. It made her question the compact she had assumed existed, that, in exchange for their support, he would accommodate their views on the issues that mattered.

Maybe he just said those things to us to get elected, she said.

They had shifted into full organizational mode, circulating a letter of protest that, Ms. Walsh hoped, could induce Senator Markey to revisit his positions on the conflict.

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An Army of 16-Year-Olds Takes On the Democrats - The New York Times

As Senate Republicans prepare to unveil their much slimmer infrastructure counter-proposal this week during meetings with President Joe Biden, roughly five dozen congressional Democrats are urging party leaders to ignore the GOPs demands for anarrow package and instead embrace progressives calls for rapidly making robust and comprehensive investments to improve life for working people in the U.S.

In a letter sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (DCalif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) on Monday, nearly 60 House Democratsled by Congressional Progressive Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (DWash.) but including across section of the partywrote that the infrastructure framework unveiled last month by the Biden administration made acompelling case to the American people that government can and should be aforce for good in thiscountry.

Nonetheless, the Democratic lawmakers, who are currently developing Build Back Better legislation in the House, advocated for anational infrastructure plan that is bigger, broader, and enacted as quickly as possiblewith or without the support of congressionalRepublicans.

While bipartisan support is welcome, the pursuit of Republican votes cannot come at the expense of limiting the scope of popular investments, wrote thelawmakers.

Echoing points made last week by climate justice advocates who criticized Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer for engaging in performative negotiations with GOP leaders, the House Democrats stressed in their letter that widespread climate denial among Republican lawmakers poses athreat to bold, necessary action onclimate.

Moreover, they wrote, Republicans also enacted former President Donald Trumps massive tax giveaway80% of which accrued to the wealthy and large corporationsand will likely remain amajor obstacle to any opportunities to secure fair, progressive tax revenues to curb income and wealthinequality.

Indeed, as Common Dreams reported last month, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (RKy.) has already vowed to oppose Bidens $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan and $1.8 trillion American Families Planthe White Houses framework for improving the nations physical and social infrastructureas long as the spending proposals include even modest tax hikes on the richest Americans and corporations, which they do.

Furthermore, the House Democrats wrote in their letter, Republicans have consistently opposed the high-road labor and equity standards that President Biden rightly included in the American Jobs Plan to ensure the creation of high-paying union jobs with benefits, equitable hiring for women [and] people of color, and investments in Indigenous and marginalized communities that have endured decades ofunderinvestment.

On ahost of priorities that can be delivered by this Congress, the trade-offs for Republican votes are stark, the lawmakers added. We ask that you work with the White House to prioritize transformative legislation that our voters were promised, which may require reforming or even eliminating the Senate filibuster as well as wielding the full powers available of the presidency, vice presidency, and relevant federal agencies to achieve thesegoals.

As ABC News, which first obtained the House Democrats letter, reported Tuesday, Biden also appears to be pursuing amulti-track strategy on infrastructure legislation that could involve amore measured initial compromise with Republicans on funding for roads, bridges, airports and broadband, followed by alarger package that Democrats could pass with 50 votes in the Senate using the budget reconciliationprocess.

Warning against this approachwhich is also favored by conservative Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.)the House Democrats wrote that we believe that robust legislation comprising the American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan must be enacted as rapidly as possible, preferably as asingle, ambitious package combining physical and social investments hand inhand.

Physical and human infrastructure needs are inextricably linked, the lawmakers noted. Peopleespecially women and people of color, who have suffered disproportionate job losses during this recessioncannot get back to work without child care, long-term care, paid leave, or investments in education and job retraining. This human infrastructure cannot be secondary to the physical infrastructure needs or languish under Republicanobstructionism.

As for the size of the infrastructure package, the lawmakers pointed out that the presidents initial proposals pale in comparison to the $7 trillion figure put forward by Biden on the campaigntrail.

Bidens campaign proposal to invest approximately $7 trillion in health, clean energy, infrastructure, and child care, the lawmakers noted, is much closer in ambition to the roughly $10 trillion THRIVE Act, which seeks to create 15 million good-paying union jobs, reduce racial inequality, and cut climate pollution in half by 2030. Introduced last month, the THRIVE agenda is co-sponsored by more than 100 members of Congress and endorsed by over 250 labor, racial justice, and environmentalgroups.

Given the scale of our unemployment, caregiving, healthcare, climate, and inequality crises; the historically low cost to make the necessary investments our country needs; and the singular governing opportunity presented to us, we urge our colleagues in Congress to pursue alarger upfront investment that truly meets this historic moment, the lawmakers wrote in their letter to Pelosi and Schumer, suggesting that the THRIVE Act represents asolid infrastructureplan.

Emphasizing their eagerness to enhance their constituents daily lives and strengthen their faith in agovernment that works for working people, an economy that provides security and opportunity to all, and aplanet that their children and grandchildren can enjoy for generations to come, the House Democrats told Pelosi and Schumer that they hope to work with you and our committee chairs to develop arapid legislative timeline to enact an ambitious and comprehensive proposal before the Augustrecess.

This story first appeared at Common Dreams.

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House Progressives Are Urging Democrats to Ditch the GOP and Pass a Bold Infrastructure Plan - In These Times

History was made on May 18, 2021. Ed Gainey secured the Democratic nomination for Pittsburgh mayor, almost certain to become the citys first-ever Black mayor. He ran on progressive policies, and to the left of incumbent Mayor Bill Peduto on policing. He focused his campaign on racial and economic inequalities, promising to do more to address these glaring issues in the Steel City.

While this moment is truly historic for Pittsburgh a city and region that are overwhelmingly white, and have many documented instances of racism against Black people there are also several other impressive electoral wins that deserve recognition.

Allegheny County voters also approved a ballot initiative that would limit the use of solitary confinement at the Allegheny County Jail. A yes on that question received 69% of the vote.

Additionally, out of nine open seats for Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, voters selected five candidates who were endorsed by a coalition of criminal-justice reform groups. Common Pleas Judges are responsible for overseeing trials for criminal, civil, and family cases and delivering sentencing.

The coalition said back in March that electing these candidates would help move reforms like reducing the use of cash bail, increasing diversionary programs and alternatives to carceral punishment, and other mechanisms to combat mass incarceration and racial and other demographic disparities in the system.

There were also victories at the Magisterial District Judge level. The Magisterial District Judge court is directly below Common Pleas and is responsible for assigning bail conditions, deciding eviction cases, and is a defendant's first introduction to the states criminal judicial system. In Lawrenceville, candidate Xander Orenstein narrowly defeated incumbent Anthony Ceoffe on a platform of being more compassionate in eviction cases and limiting cash bail. Orenstein, if they were to win the general election, would become the states first nonbinary magistrate judge.

Jehosha Wright also won his race for Magisterial District Judge in the North Side, after receiving the backing of some criminal justice reform-minded politicians.

In Mount Oliver, JoAnna Taylor ousted Mount Oliver Mayor Frank Bernardini, a conservative Democratic incumbent who was seen last year with Democratic Mount Oliver council member Nick Viglione, who was sporting a MAGA hat at a Allegheny County Democratic Committee meeting. State Rep. Jessica Benham (D-South Side) also congratulated Lisa Pietrusza for winning a spot on Mount Oliver Council, and Jamie Piotrowski for winning her election for Pittsburgh Public Schools board member.

I am so thrilled about the progressive movement we are building in South Pittsburgh - JoAnna, Jamie, & Lisa represent the hard organizing work we are doing in areas that dont get much progressive political attention, tweeted Benham on May 19.

In Sharpsburg, progressive candidate Brittany Reno defeated councilor Joe Simbari in the boroughs mayoral race. Simbari was one of four councilors who initially opposed a LGBTQ nondiscrimination ordinance for the town. And at least two council candidates who were endorsed by an LGBTQ group won seats on the borough's council.

Abigail Gardner owns Scottie Public Affairs consultant group and has advised progressive candidates in the past. She says that this election is another sign that progressives are becoming attractive replacements to more typical conservative Democrats in the region.

In these smaller municipalities, there is a ton of progressive energy and candidates with the ability to knock doors and win, said Gardner. I think there is more than enough data points from across the county, that any long term incumbent might be vulnerable to challengers and new voices are very successful.

There were also some progressive win in McKees Rocks, West View, and elsewhere, but not all progressive candidates came up victorious. Bethani Cameron lost her race for Pittsburgh City Council, and Steve Singer lost his race for Allegheny County Council. Both ran to the left of incumbents who are more conservative.

Gardner says that some progressive losses show that not all districts are moving to the left, and that they still prefer conservative politicians, whether Democrat or Republicans. For instance, County Councilor Bob Macey (D-West Mifflin) held on in his Mon Valley district, which was actually carried by Donald Trump in 2020. And Pittsburgh City Councilor Anthony Coghill (D-Beechview) represents arguably the citys most conservative district in the South Hills.

Black women won three of the nine open spots on the Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, which are elected countywide. Women, both white and Black, were the top five vote getters for Common Pleas elections. Out of the nine seats available, only two white men were elected to a body that has historically been composed of white men.

Leah Williams Duncan won her Magisterial District Judge race and will become the countys first Black woman Magisterial District Judge.

Municipal races and judicial races, that show the strength of women and people of color, that were always the base of the Democratic party, they are flexing their muscle, says Gardner. And are showing how to better represent the face of the voters.

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Criminal justice reforms, progressive victories, and other takeaways from a historic 2021 Pittsburgh primary election - PGH City Paper