Global
We start GREEP Zoom #257 with HEDY TRIPP's report from the ICE/Gestapo attack on Minnesota, with a preview of collective training now in progress.
From Oregon, with the help of MIKE HERSH, we get a follow-up from progressive activist DR. MELISSA BIRD on the ground with the realities of a vote-by-mail state.
From Virginia’s Center for Common Ground the great ANDREA MILLER updates us on election results in their pivotal Governor’s race and the meticulous preparations for the fall mid-terms.
From SUSIE SHANNON we get a direct report from the California Democratic Convention’s approach to ICE, and about its vastly disappointing planks on other truly vital issues.
Engineer STEVE CARUSO asks that the Emperor “put his clothes back on.”
From Santa Monica’s PAUL NEWMAN we hear a warning about ICE’s revival of the tactics of the old Ku Klux Klan.
Co-convenor MYLA RESON warns of the mis-use of the term “clean energy” for fossil/nukes.
From CHARISSE SEBASTIAN we are reminded that our elders often no longer have driver’s licenses for voter ID.
There’s a new push to pass the SAVE Act, requiring voters to produce a document such as a passport or birth certificate in order to register to vote. An estimated 21 million American citizens don’t have these documents readily available!
Let’s be clear: The attempt to restrict the number of eligible citizens who can vote is an attempt to change the outcome of the elections. The SAVE Act must be stopped!
- Make a call: Stop the anti-voter SAVE Act
- Send an email: Tell Congress: Reject the SAVE Act
A 19 y/o US citizen Nasralla Abu Siam was killed by Israeli settlers last Thursday in the occupied West Bank. He was shot and then got beaten by a club after he attempted to prevent Israeli settlers from stealing livestock in the village of Mukhmas, east of Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as reported by Palestine Chronicle.
Siam later succumbed to his injuries. Five other Palestinian villagers who also came to defend the farmer were injured by the settlers according to residents and the Palestinian Health Ministry.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres promptly condemned the killing of Palestinian American teenager Nasrallah Abu Siam. However, President Trump only said he was "aware of" the settler killing a Palestinian American in the West Bank a few days earlier, but "Mr. America First" avoided condemning the murder or demand an investigation. This man will bow his head and bend his knees to the shithole in the Middle East no matter what!
The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters.” — Antonio Gramsci
The old world is dying—
you can hear it breathing in the walls.
The clocks still tick,
but time has grown uncertain,
as if even history
walks in circles.
Between the heartbeat and the horizon
there is a trembling—
a space where shadows learn to stand upright.
Now is the time of monsters.
They rise from unattended fears,
from wounds left to fester,
from stories repeated
until they calcify.
They wear familiar faces.
They speak in borrowed voices.
They promise shelter
while quietly counting bones.
But even monsters borrow their shape from light.
Somewhere beneath the rubble,
a stubborn seed splits stone.
Somewhere a hand reaches for another—
not to conquer,
but to steady.
California politics is currently being shaken up thanks to a drive, led by the Service Employees International Union, to enact a one-time wealth tax on the state’s billionaires to offset federal cuts to healthcare and support public education and food assistance programs. Campaigning for the measure, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders told an enthusiastic crowd that “never before have so few people had so much wealth and so much power.” In a democratic society, he thundered, “the billionaire class cannot have it all.”
It’s a message that’s particularly relevant in today’s world.
EPA rescinds 2009 Greenhouse Gas finding
The US Environmental Protection Agency on February 12 announced that it has repealed the 2009 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Endangerment Finding, a landmark ruling that was the foundation of the US government's efforts to curb greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and slow the pace of climate change.
If the action survives court challenges, it would invalidate existing GHG reduction mandates for the US energy sector and oil producers. It would also make it harder for future administrations to regulate climate-warming emissions. The EPA also said it is rescinding all GHG reduction mandates for vehicles — the largest US source of climate-warming emissions.
The 2009 endangerment finding determined that carbon dioxide and five other GHGs threaten public health and safety. The agency made its finding after the US Supreme Court determined that these emissions are pollutants under the Clean Air Act. The EPA's current position is that now regulating GHGs exceeds its authority unless Congress passes specific legislation stating it should do so.
Thirty-two years ago, on February 25, 1994, Brooklyn-born Zionist settler Baruch Goldstein carried out the Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre in Al-Khalil (Hebron) in the occupied West Bank, murdering 29 Palestinians in cold blood and wounding over one hundred and fifty more as they prayed. Seven of the martyrs were children. Source: Wikipedia.
The massacre started during "Fajr prayer" on Friday, February 25, 1994, corresponding to the 15th of Ramadan, 1415 AH. The settler Baruch Goldstein stood behind one of the mosque's pillars and waited until the worshipers prostrated themselves in prayer. He then opened fire on them with his machine gun while they were in prostration.
At the same time, others assisted him in reloading his weapon with explosive "dum-dum" bullets. Shrapnel from the bullets and grenades pierced the heads, necks, and backs of the worshipers.
The Ibrahimi Mosque massacre resulted in the martyrdom of 29 worshippers and the injury of 15 others before worshipers overpowered Goldstein and killed him.
