Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has highlighted the ideological differences between herself and former Vice President Joe Biden, telling New York magazine that she and the presidential candidate would not be members of the same political party in other countries.

"In any other country, Joe Biden and I would not be in the same party, but in America, we are," Ocasio-Cortez told the publication in a profile piece on her published on Monday.

She added that she thought the Democratic Party is overly deferent to its most conservative members.

"For so long, when I first got in, people were like, 'Oh, are you going to basically be a tea party of the left?' And what people don't realize is that there is a tea party of the left, but it's on the right edges, the most conservative parts of the Democratic Party," she said.

The House of Representatives will introduce and vote on a war powers resolution this week to limit President Donald Trump's military actions regarding Iran, according to Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

In a letter to colleagues Sunday, Pelosi said the resolution is similar to one introduced in the Senate by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia.

"It reasserts Congress's long-established oversight responsibilities by mandating that if no further Congressional action is taken, the Administration's military hostilities with regard to Iran cease within 30 days," she said.

Kaine introduced his resolution on Friday. It seeks a debate and vote to prevent escalation of hostilities with Iran.

Iran's Parliament (Majlis) has unanimously passed a motion designating the Pentagon and all subsidiaries terrorist after the US military assassinated Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, a senior Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) commander, on President Donald Trump's direct order.

All the 233 lawmakers present at an open session of the parliament on Tuesday unanimously adopted the triple-urgency motion, which amends an earlier law that labeled American forces based in West Asia — known as the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) — as a terrorist organization.

The motion branded as terrorists all staff members of the Pentagon and subsidiary companies and institutions in addition to those who commanded and perpetrated General Soleimani's assassination.

The amendment further urges the government to allocate 200 million euros from the National Development Fund of Iran to the IRGC's Quds Force, now led by Brigadier General Esmail Ghaani following General Soleimani's martyrdom.

As a citizen of the united states, a graduate of West Point, Ranger School and numerous other Army schools, and a former officer in the Regular Army, sworn to support and defend the Constitution, I am disgusted at the despicable, immoral and illegal murder of General Soleimani (of Iran), General Al-Ibrahim aka Mahdi Al-Muhandis (of Iraq), and their drivers and accompanying soldiers, by drone strikes on their cars as they were driving from the Baghdad Airport while on their way to attend the funerals of members of their militias killed by aircraft strikes days earlier.

The Constitution contains provisions for the declaration of war, because the Constitution explicitly states that one of its purposes is "to provide for the common defense" of the nation.

It assigns the grave authority of declaring war to the Congress, in Article 1 of the Constitution, and it is understood that the founders gave this authority to Congress because the members of Congress most fully represent the will of the people, and the rules and procedures of the two houses of Congress require deliberation and debate before enacting legislation and certainly before declaring war, enabling different arguments to be aired and considered.

The representatives of the people of the united states have not declared war on either Iran or Iraq, and thus no state of war exists between the united states and those countries, making the cold-blooded assassination of officers (or anyone else) from those countries illegal and completely against the "laws of nations" which is described in the Constitution (see sentences underlined in red from Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, shown above).

Indeed, by all accounts, this dastardly assassination was perpetrated before Congress was even told about it. By the time the Congress was told, the assassination of the two generals and their accompanying soldiers had already taken place.

The citizens of the united states are now being assured that abundant intelligence exists showing that these generals were planning attacks on American targets in Iraq and beyond, just as we have been told that the Iraqi militia positions hit by American airstrikes were somehow determined to have been linked to rocket attacks on the "K1" base in Kirkuk where one contractor was killed -- thus far without any actual evidence having been presented to the world to back up these allegations (very limited details have been released).

Why should we have reason to doubt what we are being told about the perpetrators of the attacks on K1?

Why should we have reason to be suspicious about the allegations we are hearing about General Soleimani preparing extensive attacks on Americans?

The following American PBS TV report aired in December 2017. It explains exactly who the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) of Iraq are.

The group's Iraqi-Iranian deputy leader, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, was the other high-profile commander the US assassinated alongside Iranian general Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad Airport last week.

In this report, you'll learn that the PMU did almost all the actual fighting and dying to prevent Baghdad falling to ISIS in 2014-15. Without them, Iraq today would literally be 'Islamic State'.

PMU officers acknowledge that without Iranian support - which is primarily supplied to them in the form of advisors - they could not have succeeded in defending Iraq. Otherwise, the PMU are staffed by IRAQI patriots.

These are the 'terrorists' - engaged against ISIS near the Syrian border - who the US bombed on December 29th, killing 25 of them. These are the 'terrorists' who then protested the US assault by barricading the entrance to the US embassy in Baghdad (killing no one)...

When I wrote that the coup against President Trump had morphed into a Civil War, I wasn't kidding. The sham impeachment created the perfect environment for the Democrats and Republicans to get something definitive from him by playing the House and the Senate off each other.

With the Senate Neocon Occupied Territory the escalation of belligerence since Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed through the impeachment vote has been serious.

First, there was the rider to the NDAA which upped the sanctions on everyone willing to work on Nordstream 2. Then Lindsey Graham pushed the frankly insane DASKA bill through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Pelosi forced her impeachment vote through the House on partisan lines. Then, clearly overstepping her authority, she refused to send the Articles to the Senate hoping to add a more serious charge, like Obstruction of Justice or Treason for laundering Russian money through Deutsche Bank.

It is under these circumstances we should view the events in Iraq over the last week, especially the killing of IRGC Quds Forces Commander Qassem Solemaini.

Because I've warned from the beginning of this impeachment, Trump was just 17 votes in the Senate away from conviction. And failure on his part to respond to an attack on our troops now or our soil, the embassy in Baghdad, would have been enough to turn that many against him and install Mike Pence.

Iran has promised retaliation for the assassination of Qassem Suleimani. Donald Trump said this will lead to a disproportionate response from the US. One side can deliver on its threats, the other can't, unless it goes nuclear.

Iran means business

"Our reaction," Iranian general Hossein Dehghan said at the weekend, "will be wise, well considered and, in time, with decisive deterrent effect."

Dehghan also noted that Iran was not seeking a wider confrontation with the US.

"It was America that has started the war. Therefore, they should accept appropriate reactions to their actions. The only thing that can end this period of war is for the Americans to receive a blow that is equal to the blow they have inflicted."

Dehghan is no run-of-the-mill former Iranian general officer, but was one of the major decision makers within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) during the Iran-Iraq War, and later went on to command the IRGC Air Force, before eventually being appointed Iran's minister of defense. After stepping down from that position, Dehghan became a special advisor to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic Ali Khamenei.

His words must be viewed as representing those of Khamenei himself.

Republican attorneys general are arguing that billionaire Michael Bloomberg is using his vast wealth to embed an army of lawyers into state offices for the purpose of taking on oil companies and President Donald Trump.

Bloomberg Philanthropies financed a group that is planting private attorneys into state attorneys general offices for the explicit purpose of pushing back against Trump's regulatory rollbacks.

"What's problematic is the arrangement through which a private organization or individual can promote an overtly political agenda by paying the salaries of government employees," Indiana Attorney General (AG) Curtis Hill, a Republican, told the Daily Caller News Foundation, citing a common criticism of New York University's State Energy and Environmental Impact Center (SEEIC).

Bloomberg's philanthropy supported the center with a $6 million grant. The NYU School of Law launched the group in 2017 to "identify and hire NYU Law Fellows who serve as special assistant attorneys general in state attorney general offices, focusing on clean energy, climate and environmental matters," according to the NYU Law website.

Bloomberg, a prominent Democratic donor and presidential contender in 2020, is effectively weaponizing attorneys general offices for his own purposes, Republicans say.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised the US attacks on Iraq that killed senior Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the leader of Iraqi militias that were instrumental in the defeat of ISIS - so-called Islamic State.

President Donald Trump "is worthy of full appreciation for acting with determination, strongly and swiftly," Netanyahu said Friday.

Other senior Israeli politicians, including supposed opposition leaders, lauded the American attack. Among them, Amir Peretz, head of the ostensibly center-left Labor-Gesher party, said Soleimani "deserved to die" and thanked Trump. Peretz's hatred of Iran is perhaps understandable. He was defense minister during Israel's 2006 invasion of Lebanon, in which that country's resistance - supported by Iran - dealt Israel a humiliating defeat.

Yossi Melman, a veteran analyst of Israeli intelligence, called the US escalation "good news for Israel" because it draws the United States even further into Israel's attacks on Iran and its interests.

In an initial response, Iran's foreign minister Javad Zarif lauded Soleimani as the head of "the most effective force" in fighting ISIS and al-Qaida, and termed his killing an act of "international terrorism."
There is, no doubt, great satisfaction in Israel and among its most fanatical supporters at a move that ratchets the situation towards even more catastrophic violence.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., insisted Sunday that if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi does not deliver articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate by the end of the week, the Senate should "take matters in our own hands."

Graham accused Pelosi of playing political games and trying to exert control over the Senate trial by keeping it from starting. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., recognized Friday on the Senate floor the chamber's rules prevented him from doing anything until Pelosi does her part, but Graham proposed a solution that could remove what McConnell has called an "impasse" in the process.

"What I would do, if she continues to refuse to send the articles as required by the Constitution, I would work with Senator McConnell to change the rules of the Senate so we could start the trial without her, if necessary," Graham proposed on Sunday Morning Futures. When asked how long he would wait before taking this step, Graham replied, "Days, not weeks."