Protest Reports
Despite enormous ongoing effort over more than a thousand years, during and since the formation and shaping of the modern world, and as the number of issues being contested has steadily increased, activists of many types have made insufficient progress on key issues, particularly in relation to ending violence and war (and the threat of nuclear war), stopping the exploitation of many peoples and halting the endless assaults on Earth’s biosphere.
Of course, in order for those of us who identify as activists to have any prospect of success in these and other endeavors, we need to understand how the world works and to develop an interrelated set of nonviolent strategies that are being effectively implemented to address each of the key aspects of this crisis.
Charlottesville, Virginia, has yet to take down its racist statues (the ones all the fuss has been about or any of the other ones). Charlottesville has yet to ban guns from public events. It blames the state legislature in both of those and many other topics. But the City of Charlottesville has our public dollars invested in weapons, and it is perfectly capable of changing that.
In this case, excuses may prove hard to come by. Charlottesville has divested in the past from Sudan and from South Africa.
The City has passed resolutions in the past opposing wars and urging Congress to move money from militarism to human and environmental needs. Yet the City has our money invested in weapons companies whose weapons are used in environmentally destructive wars in which most of the victims don’t look “white” — and often used on both sides of those wars.
And the City has our money invested in fossil fuel companies — exactly the entities National Security Advisor John Bolton says will benefit from overthrowing the government of Venezuela.
The U.S. State Department uses public funds and public employees to market private products designed for mass killing to foreign governments. Few corporations have benefitted more from this socialism for the oligarchs than Boeing. In one recent example, the U.S. government has persuaded the New Zealand government to buy four “Poseidon” planes from Boeing that are designed for working with submarines, of which New Zealand possesses zero.
The purchase price of $2.3 billion in New Zealand dollars, $1.6 billion in U.S. dollars, may be too small for White House occupant Donald Trump to hold an illustration-enhanced media event about. And “at least they buy our instruments of death” is not a case that needs to be made for New Zealand in the way that it apparently does for Saudi Arabia. Still, the deal is troubling to people in both countries, and they are speaking out.
Report from Liberation News Service: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_News_Service
The Indigenous People's March comes to Washington today, and the snow-clad streets of the citadel of the American Empire are going Native.
It might be mistaken for any other day. The slushy sidewalks are half full of sleepy eyed company men and Trump Administration apparatchiks, sliding to and fro. Those, that is, who are still showing up for their jobs.
And then, the sound of drums in the distance, the steady beat of moccasined feet approaching. They're about to do a stomp dance that's gonna rock this country coast to coast.
My boarding pass displayed the dreaded SSSS.
If you are a journalist and you discover something that is clearly unethical, and possibly even illegal, and you choose to report it what happens next? Well, you could win a Pulitzer Prize or, on the other hand, you might wind up hiding in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for six years.
Julian Assange is the founder and editor in chief of the controversial news and information site WikiLeaks. As the name implies, since 2006 the site has become famous, or perhaps notorious, for its publication of materials that have been leaked to it by government officials and other sources who consider the information to be of value to the public but unlikely to be accepted by the mainstream media, which has become increasingly corporatized and timid.
Thank you to the hundreds who made it out on a chilly evening--at very short notice--to support the Mueller investigation and the rule of law! And thank you to everyone for your willingness to stand up for our Democracy and our Constitution! Even if you could not attend tonight, your pressure and perseverance is important.
Please join us in pushing for our demands:
- The Mueller investigation must continue unimpeded until its completion.
- Whitaker must recuse himself from the Mueller investigation oversight.
- All documents must be preserved that are related to the Justice Department investigation.
Here are three ways to help:
- Call/Fax Senators Portman & Brown and your member of Congress and ask them to demand Whitaker's recusal. Ask them to commit to protect Mueller’s investigation.
- Write letters to editor calling out Trump's assault on democracy & the rule of law & asking our MoCs to stand up.
- Speak out on social media and to your friends and remain vigilant and firm in defense of democratic principles.
Contacts
Senator Portman: @senrobportman; 614-469-6774; Fax: 614-469-7419
A Trumpist victory this November 6 could strike a terrible blow to American democracy, and to our ability to survive on this planet.
I will vote…but that clearly is not enough for those of us hoping to avoid a Trump takeover in this country.
So I will also be a poll worker.
And I’ll do whatever I can to make sure our fellow citizens are registered, that we’re allowed to vote, and that our votes will be counted
Two more years of Trump control over both Houses of Congress, the White House, the judiciary and so many state and local governments could easily mean the end of any popular voice in the way our nation is run.
Election Protection Volunteers needed:
Wanted: Election Protection Volunteers
Help us protect our right to vote.
Green Party/Free Press will again be placing election observers inside the polling places for the critical November 6th election. Fair elections require vigilance. The Free Press continues to be the leader in election reporting. We held the public hearings after the 2004 election debacle, and have worked hard on election issues since. For more information: http://freepress.org/article/election-protection-2018
Election Protection Observers:
Ohio law allows election observers inside the County Board of Elections and/or local polling places if appointed by a political party 10 days in advance of the November 6th election. The Free Press, in conjunction with the Green Party, is looking for interested activists to observe and report on this election. Training and materials will be made available.