Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under. 

--H.L. Mencken

Make History—Don’t Repeat It!

by C.A. Matthews

I have to stifle my giggles whenever an acquaintance goes on about how “Trump is the worse president ever! He’s supporting a genocide in Gaza! He’s taking away our freedom of speech! He’s trying to steal Greenland! No other president has ever done such horrible things!”

(Yes, I know that Biden also supported Israel’s genocide in Gaza among other horrendous things, but to these poor dears, Joe Biden is a kindly old man who likes licking ice cream cones and playing with little girls’ hair. He’s some sort of saint apparently in Dem circles. No kidding.)

The reason I want to giggle—actually I want to laugh out loud in their faces—is because it’s just too obvious how well our government’s propaganda works. These people are clueless! Any US history classes they may have taken in high school or college were woefully inadequate. Their instructors obviously never went into depth on certain topics, and the textbooks used in those classes didn’t waste much print on those topics, either.

It’s as if American powers-that-be don’t want to air our dirty laundry to the working masses. If American workers really learned about their country’s actual history, they might get ideas. Bad ideas. Ideas and examples of how Americans stood up against oppression, intolerance, bigotry, and outright theft of land, labor, and resources in the past.

In A People’s History of the United States, historian Howard Zinn doesn’t beat around the bush. He tells things straightforwardly, without the narrative spin that always seems to make the wealthy, white, occasionally slave-owning male elites the heroes in your average US history book. From now on, whenever somebody says a silly thing like Trump is the “only president to support a genocide,” I will point them to Zinn’s classic tome.

Here’s what Zinn has to say in the seventh chapter of A People’s History about one particular incident of genocide that was not only supported by the United States government, it was actually committed by the US government against several groups of indigenous people...

To learn more about US history that doesn't bear repeating, please continue reading the rest of this article by copying or clicking on this Substack link: 

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Does the US Deserve Redemption?

 

Hey, I've got a smart idea: let's make laws that require corporations to act like sociopaths, pursuing profit without any consideration for morality or human well-being, then let's allow our entire civilization to be ruled by corporations.

Oh cool, we already did that, good thinking. --Caitlin Johnstone, You Have To Be Trusted By The People That You Lie To

 

Does the US Deserve Redemption?

by C. A. Matthews

After that one millionth, “Oh, no, not again!” feeling, you begin to wonder “Why bother?” Why bother getting upset or angry or depressed or frustrated when you know that feeling will come again and again and again and again…

The United Nations Security Council on February 21 heard testimony from Professor Jeffrey Sachs and former CIA Intelligence Anaylyst Ray McGovern about the Nord Stream pipelines bombing. It’s obvious to everyone that the US (with the help of Norway) were the culprits, and it was an act of terrorism that should be punished. But nothing is going to be done about it. The UN refuses to condemn the bombers. They’ll pretend like it never happened, although it actually happened, and it destroyed several member nations’ property and caused the largest methane leak in history.

The United States is a Teflon-coated bully that can destroy the environment and drone bomb the world and nobody will ever stand up to the US because of fear of retaliation, probably. That “Oh, no, not again!” feeling never goes away when it comes to the amount bullshit the United Nations will allow the US to get away with, and all because we’re the only country to drop not one, but two atom bombs on another country.

I’ve had enough of it. I’m ready for somebody or somebodies to call us on our shit and take us out once and for all. It will come as a great surprise to some Americans that there are many countries who have been longing for the day when the United States of America is no more. It’s not like these folks necessarily nurse an irrational hatred of our people, our junk food cuisine, our insipid Hollywood movies and exported TV shows, or even our gas-guzzling, climate-changing cars. It’s that they’ve had enough of our imperialism. 

It’s our imperialism that makes the US a pariah around the world. The list of countries we’ve invaded, helped stage a coup d’etat, economically sanctioned, or simply bombed grows longer by the day. Here’s a list of the countries the US has attempted to overthrow since World War II:

(* indicates successful ouster of a government)

• China 1949 to early 1960s

• Albania 1949-53

• East Germany 1950s

• Iran 1953 *

• Guatemala 1954 *

• Costa Rica mid-1950s

• Syria 1956-7

• Egypt 1957

• Indonesia 1957-8

• British Guiana 1953-64 *

• Iraq 1963 *

• North Vietnam 1945-73

• Cambodia 1955-70 *

• Laos 1958 *, 1959 *, 1960 *

• Ecuador 1960-63 *

• Congo 1960 *

• France 1965

• Brazil 1962-64 *

• Dominican Republic 1963 *

• Cuba 1959 to present

• Bolivia 1964 *

• Indonesia 1965 *

• Ghana 1966 *

• Chile 1964-73 *

• Greece 1967 *

• Costa Rica 1970-71

• Bolivia 1971 *

• Australia 1973-75 *

• Angola 1975, 1980s

• Zaire 1975

• Portugal 1974-76 *

• Jamaica 1976-80 *

• Seychelles 1979-81

• Chad 1981-82 *

• Grenada 1983 *

• South Yemen 1982-84

• Suriname 1982-84

• Fiji 1987 *

• Libya 1980s

• Nicaragua 1981-90 *

• Panama 1989 *

• Bulgaria 1990 *

• Albania 1991 *

• Iraq 1991

• Afghanistan 1980s *

• Somalia 1993

• Yugoslavia 1999-2000 *

• Ecuador 2000 *

• Afghanistan 2001 *

• Venezuela 2002 *

• Iraq 2003 *

• Haiti 2004 *

• Somalia 2007 to present

• Honduras 2009 *

• Libya 2011 *

• Syria 2012

• Ukraine 2014 *

From William Blum’s Overthrowing Other People’s Governments: The Master List

And the US continues to get away with these sordid kinds of things. We actually don’t get sanctioned, boycotted, bombed or nuked in return. We love to claim certain “baddies” are out to get us with their “spy-surveillance-lost-weather-balloons,” but no, that’s more of our own paranoia reflecting back at us. Luckily, most other nations are wise and mature enough not to fall for the US provoking hostilities and ignore Americans slurs made against them as a people. 

So, what if one day the US actually did get “caught in the act”? (We’ve been caught red-handed before and nothing happened, but what if?) What if one day the United Nations actually doled out an ample punishment for our imperialistic ways? Not a slap on the wrist, but an actual penalty to drive the point home that nobody likes a bully? What would that be like?

I, for one, would love to see the most polluting, most corrupt, and most violent American military machine put out of business. Forever. The UN could confiscate their facilities and re-tool them to do more productive and peaceful activities. At the end of the day, there would be no more military-industrial-Congressional complex. Good-bye Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, General Dynamics, Boeing… Total death to the War Machine! It's time to end the most polluting, environmentally damaging organization in the world, the US military! 

It also would put an end to all the well paid lobbyists and the kickbacks they give to the Congressional part of that MIC complex. No more huge piles of money buying off the loyalties of American politician-puppets. The idiots in Washington DC and our state houses would have to actually work for We the People and live only on the wages they’re given as an office holder. (Watch the current crop of politicians abandon ship like rats when the corporate money dries up.)

I hope the UN will enact sanctions against our “Death Industry” as well. Sanctions would put an end to the Big Pharma/Big Health Insurance cartel that has caused more unnecessary American deaths than every war we’ve legitimately taken a part in. Imagine every American having access to health care when they need it, not when or if they can afford to purchase it. Imagine! No more tricking young men and women into joining the military simply to gain health care coverage, either. People poisoned by a chemical spill and burn caused by a private corporation will have one less worry when it comes to treating their chronic illnesses.

The UN could also hold the US accountable to follow all the treaties we’ve ever signed that recognize human rights for all people. These human rights would include not locking up persons of color for decades and slapping life sentences/death sentences on them for the same crimes a rich white person with money might commit and receive only a slap on the wrist. This would mean allowing asylum seekers into the country who are searching for safety, instead of kicking them back into the dangerous border region of northern Mexico. This would mean the US government would have to follow all the treaties they've broken with Native American tribes.

So many good things would come about if the corrupt socioeconomic system of capitalism, the thing that drives American imperialism, was wiped off the map. Completely. Forever. 

But what would replace it? And, more perplexing still, do Americans as a people, a country, a nation, even deserve redemption?

Can a country whose Constitution holds that enslaved African Americans were worth 3/5 of a person for census purposes ever be absolved of that sin? Can a nation that committed outright genocide against its indigenous population ever be forgiven for their inhumanity? What reparations have we made to persons of color? What land have we given back to Native Americans without strings attached? Have we really wiped away the taint of “otherness” from those of Japanese descent whose grandparents we locked up in concentration camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor? If so, why are hate crimes against Asian Americans on the rise? 

I could go on here about other minorities who have been treated poorly both in the past and in the present day, but you get my meaning. What is worthy of redemption in a country that treats/have treated persons of color, the migrant, the indigenous, the working poor, the sick and disabled, the differently gendered with such scorn and contempt? 

As Black History Month comes to a close, it’s time to take account of all the ways Americans have caused harm to the human beings on this planet. A massive methane leak caused by a terrorist act on a Russian/German LNG pipeline only exacerbates the climate emergency and will only hurt ourselves in the long run. Destroying our neighbors' property is not a positive action, and it doesn’t encourage mutual cooperation and peace among the nations. Why do We the People allow sociopaths to become our political leaders and make such heinous decisions for both the US and the world?

So many Americans claim they follow the “Golden Rule,” but do they? Do they love their neighbors as themselves? We seem to hold back our love and wish evil upon them, but why? Fear? Greed? Selfishness? Laziness? 

Americans need to take a good look around at all the war, violence, and chaos we've caused and are still causing. If we wish to be deemed worthy of redemption, then we need to start putting things right and fix the wrongs that we've done. Today. 

It's simple: Shut down the War Machine. Start peace talks. Stop taking advantage of the economically oppressed and lock up the sociopathic oligarchs for their crimes against humanity. We the People know, deep down, these are the right things to do. We can’t keep kidding ourselves with all this “freedom and democracy” nonsense if we don’t practice what we preach. 

Related Links:

UPDATE: Hungary Calls for a UN Investigation into the Nord Stream pipeline attack: https://popularresistance.org/hungary-demands-un-investigation-into-nord-stream-pipeline-attack/

Jeffrey Sachs and Ray McGovern at the UN on the Nordstream 2 Sabotage https://popularresistance.org/jeffery-sachs-and-ray-mcgovern-at-the-u-n-on-the-nord-stream-2-sabotage/ 

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs and Ray McGovern Address the UN Security Council on the Nord Stream Investigations (video) https://youtu.be/R_EX-VwKjng 

Ray McGovern Interview - The Nord Stream Pipeline Attack (video) https://www.youtube.com/live/LsjcVv2l8wU

You Have To Be Trusted By The People That You Lie To https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/you-have-to-be-trusted-by-the-people 

 

Overthrowing Other Peoples' Governments: The Master List

https://williamblum.org/essays/read/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the-master-list 

 

How Many Countries Has the US Invaded https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/how-many-countries-has-the-us-invaded

 

US Wars and Hostile Actions: A List  https://davidswanson.org/warlist/

China Report Excoriates ‘US Hegemony’, War Crimes, CIA Coups, 400 Foreign Interventions https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/02/22/china-report-us-hegemony-wars-coups-intervention/

Why and How to End the War in Ukraine https://popularresistance.org/why-and-how-to-end-the-war-in-ukraine/

More Evidence Emerges that US Wanted Russia to Invade https://popularresistance.org/more-evidence-emerges-that-us-wanted-russia-to-invade/

How US and Ukraine's Far-Right Made Pro-Peace Zelensky a 'No Peace' President https://mate.substack.com/p/how-us-and-ukraines-far-right-made

 

How Can the Peace Movement Be More Effective?

https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/25/how-can-the-peace-movement-be-more-effective/ 

 

There Has Never in History Been A Greater Need for a Large Anti-War Movement  https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/there-has-never-in-history-been-a

 

Pay For Your Own Wars, Big Oil! https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/02/pay-for-your-own-wars-big-oil.html

 

Poisoning America For Profit: A Brief History of Norfolk Southern's Greed https://popularresistance.org/poisoning-america-for-profit-a-brief-history-of-norfolk-southerns-greed/

 

American Chernobyl  https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/02/american-chernobyl.html

 

Seen on Twitter:

Why hasn't ANY congressperson introduced articles of impeachment over Joe Biden’s unilateral, illegal terror attack on NATO Germany’s Nord Stream pipelines?#Ukraine #Russia #Kiev #NordstreamSabotage #WWIII #Crimea #Bakhmut #Artemovsk

— JRkiefer1 🇭🇹 🇸🇾 🇾🇪 🇻🇪 🇮🇷 🇵🇸 (@josephkiefer77) February 23, 2023

pic.twitter.com/BhUxsGP3s0

— Broken Soldier⏳🇾🇪 (@DavidJSoldier1) February 27, 2023

The 50 Year Apology

 

The 50 Year Apology

by C.A. Matthews

It’s amazing how fast your mind can go back in time when you hear a name or see a face that you haven’t seen in almost 50 years. 

This week I’m taking the wise advice of Vegematic (subscribe to his YouTube channel and watch his latest here) and taking a break from the stress of the current headlines. I’m tripping down Memory Lane and writing about something that greatly interested me when I was younger, namely film-making and Hollywood.

I wanted to be a movie director/documentary maker when I was fresh out of high school. My dream never materialized, but I’ve followed some film creatives over the years. One face that I saw on television at the Academy Awards Show almost fifty years ago flashed in front of me this past week. 

It made me think of how “important” I thought the Hollywood elite were back then. Now I know better—they are simply puppets, repeating what the oligarchs want repeating so the struggling masses don’t rise up and overthrow the oligarchy. As puppets, what they say and do isn't all that important to me anymore, but I still find their actions and non-actions fascinating.

Zach Sharf of Variety sets the scene:

Sacheen Littlefeather dominated headlines this week after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences issued a formal apology to her for the mistreatment she faced at the 1973 Oscars. Littlefeather, who was 26 years old at the ceremony, took to the stage on behalf of Marlon Brando, who was named best actor for “The Godfather,” and declined the award for him. Brando cited Hollywood’s problematic portrayal of “Native American Indian people in film and television” as his reason for rejecting the Oscar.

 (...)“[John Wayne] did not like what I was saying up at the podium,” Littlefeather said. “So, he came forth in a rage to physically assault and take me off the stage. And he had to be restrained by six security men in order for that not to happen.”

“It was interesting because some people were giving me the tomahawk chop. I thought, ‘This is very racist. Very racist indeed.’ And I just gracefully walked and ignored them,” Littlefeather continued.

 Samantha Ibrahim of The NY Post tells us what all the apology entails:

Littlefeather was sent a formal apology from the Academy earlier this summer regarding the incident and is set to be gifted a longer one during an event titled “An Evening With Sacheen Littlefeather” come September.

“The abuse you endured because of this statement was unwarranted and unjustified,” wrote former Academy President David Rubin in the note. “The emotional burden you have lived through and the cost to your own career in our industry are irreparable.

“For too long the courage you showed has been unacknowledged,” he continued. “For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our sincere admiration.”

Here's a clip of what actually happened that night:

https://youtu.be/2QUacU0I4yU

Almost fifty years later, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences wants to make a formal apology to Sacheen Littlefeather. They want to say they’re sorry for allowing a bunch of racist assholes to taunt and boo her statement, a political statement she made on behalf of her friend Marlon Brando. They want to say they didn’t agree with John Wayne’s drunken threats, but they don’t want to come out and simply say that Hollywood's most beloved Western actor (and huge money-maker to this day) John Wayne was wrong, either.

But come on! Fifty freakin’ years? What was the big hold up admitting your sins, Hollywood elitists?

Sacheen Littlefeather’s budding career in film was destroyed that night. She was instantly blacklisted (or is that red-listed?) and never appeared in a movie or TV show again. Walking onto that television stage was a big sacrifice to make for a young actress with a promising career, but Sacheen did so because she believed in the nobility of the cause she represented. She admired Brando’s gumption for turning down his Best Actor "Oscar" for The Godfather on the first world-wide live television broadcast of the awards ceremony in order to share a most important message. Viewers around the world heard the name “Wounded Knee” for the first time and were motivated to find out more about the injustices that happened there.

Littlefeather’s life hadn’t been a bed of roses before the incident at the Academy Awards. She was sent at a very young age to live with her maternal grandparents. They forced her to attend an all-white Catholic school where she felt like she didn't fit in. But she started to reconnect with her Apache roots as she matured and became an activist in the 1960s.

Sacheen received a degree in holistic health and nutrition after she suffered from collapsed lungs, a consequence of her childhood  tuberculosis, at the age of 29. Using her healing knowledge, she joined with Mother Teresa to take care of AIDS sufferers in hospices. As a mentor, she has become an admirable role model for many young Native Americans.

No one will ever convince me that the Academy is just about the arts and sciences of motion pictures. Hollywood is just as political (perhaps even more so) as Washington, DC. Obscenely wealthy, powerful white males can never be seen as “weak” to the lower classes, so they couldn’t be seen making an apology to a Native American activist concerning their racist conduct in 1973...or 1983...or 1993… or 2003...or 2013...

That it took almost five decades, a documentary about Sacheen’s life, and the public acknowledgment that she is battling breast cancer, only proves how little their apology really means to them.

So why are they doing it now? There could be some genuine contrition on some of their parts. But I think it’s more likely because the internet has made it far easier for folks to see the horrors of racism up close and personal. 

White elites, like the oligarchs of Hollywood, know that they are making big business off of people of color worldwide and that market is growing. It’s better for their profit margins for them not to be confused with your garden variety, right-winger, white-robe-wearing yahoo type of racist. They want to clean up their image in order to make more money.

If there’s anything that neoliberals have learned over the last six years, it’s this: Make a big production out of looking like a humble servant of the people while you simultaneously screw over the public by spewing tons of propaganda to sell your sick and twisted version of reality. 

You know the reality I speak of all too well. It’s the neoliberal reality where $800+ billion goes to a proxy war (with nuclear war overtones) to fatten the military industrial complex billionaires. It's the reality where nothing much ever goes to feed, house, or provide medical care for struggling working class Americans. In neoliberal reality, there's no such thing as "discrimination" or "racism" because what neoliberals themselves don't experience cannot possibly be happening elsewhere in their country or anywhere on the planet.

You might have been taught from an early age to think that the “good guys” in the movies where the white cowboys like John Wayne and the “bad guys” were the red-skinned “savages” native to North America. Sacheen Littlefeather’s brave sacrifice in front of the cameras in 1973 proves that narrative wrong on oh-so-many levels. Her courage in real life is a billion times more heroic than any silly stunt openly racist John Wayne might have performed on the silver screen. 

May many more activists follow Sacheen Littlefeather's example both now and in the future.

Related Articles:

Sacheen Littlefeather: John Wayne ‘Came Forth’ to ‘Assault’ Me at the 1973 Oscars but Was ‘Restrained by Six Security Men’ https://variety.com/2022/film/news/sacheen-littlefeather-john-wayne-assault-oscars-1235345008/ 

 

Sacheen Littlefeather: Raging John Wayne tried to attack me at 1973 Oscars https://nypost.com/2022/08/19/sacheen-littlefeather-raging-john-wayne-tried-to-attack-me-at-1973-oscars/

‘I promised Brando I would not touch his Oscar’: the secret life of Sacheen Littlefeather  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/03/i-promised-brando-i-would-not-touch-his-oscar-secret-life-sacheen-littlefeather

Sacheen: Breaking The Silence (documentary)
https://www.onebowlproductions.com/sacheen

trailer: https://youtu.be/XggxxJpyrsw 

 

Feb. 27, 1973: Activists Occupy Wounded Knee https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/activists-occupy-wounded-knee/ 

 

Wounded Knee '73: American Indian Movement (video)

https://youtu.be/fY5Wbduzl2Y 

 

Nuclear Waste Ravaged Their Land. The Yakama Nation is on a Quest to Rescue It. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/20/yakama-nation-nuclear-waste-cleanup

 

If Everyone is King, No One Is

https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/if-everyone-is-king-then-no-one-is 

 

Research Shows Critical Race Theory Could Be a Valuable Teaching Tool for Overcoming Racism
https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/research-shows-critical-race-theory

The Human Species is Acting Like a Self-Destructive Individual
https://soundcloud.com/going_rogue/the-human-species-is-acting-like-a-self-destructive-individual

 

The Chris Hedges Report: Psychology of a Klansman

https://popularresistance.org/the-chris-hedges-report-psychology-of-a-klansman/

 

Will You Survive Humanity's Deadly Trajectory? (The Vegematic Show) https://youtu.be/kFVxJlnIRgw

 

Toledo Pride Parade 

The LGBTQIA+ community, another discriminated group, is also due a "50 year apology" from the elite establishment. Some cities celebrate Pride Month in June, but Toledo does things a little differently--it's celebrated all summer long here. This past weekend was the annual Pride Parade, and the turnout was wonderful after the COVID hiatus. Happy Pride everyone!

Seen on Twitter:

The Academy has finally apologized to Sacheen Littlefeather, after she was booed and heckled and almost violently assaulted by a drunken John Wayne in 1973 — and it only them 50 years. pic.twitter.com/pSnYlQ3uAe

— Lakota Man (@LakotaMan1) August 15, 2022

Being casually racist in academia = objective scholar

Calling out casual racism in academia = violent activist

Do i have that right?

— Dr. Matthieu Chapman (@matthieuchapman) August 21, 2022

Native American women were not granted U.S. citizenship until 1924.

Literacy tests and poll taxes were used to disenfranchise them as late as 1962.

Some states labeled them "wards of the state" and claimed living on a reservation excluded Native women from voting rights. pic.twitter.com/EqJuPaIXCR

— AJ+ (@ajplus) August 26, 2022

Let Us Be Thankful For Each Other

 

I wrote the following essay a couple of weeks before the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict came in. These were the contest specs:

Every year for Thanksgiving, the Wall Street Journal features a passage from a pilgrim detailing what colonists perceived when they arrived in the “New World.” The passage is full of disdain and racism towards indigenous people, and petition starter Randy, an indigenous activist, thinks it’s time to stop publishing this story.

But what should one of the nation’s most widely-read newspapers publish on Thanksgiving? How can we as a nation stop telling the false story behind the holiday and instead tell a story of our nation that honors indigenous people? We want to read something which positions the descendants of the U.S.’ original inhabitants and settlers as modern day accomplices in the fight for a more just nation...

So, in spite of the fight for a fair and just nation taking a bit of a blow from the Kenosha, Wisconsin trial, here's what I came up from the contest prompt. I really hope channels of communication stay open wide enough so we can continue to work through our conflicts and truly become thankful for each other.

Let Us Be Thankful For Each Other

by C.A. Matthews

If lockdowns and self-isolation have taught us anything, it's this: People need people. Real flesh and blood people, not just online people. We need a variety of people in our lives actually, because it can get awfully tiresome seeing the same four walls and the same few faces for weeks on end. Variety is the spice of life is how the old saying goes. So, let us enjoy meeting a variety of folks this holiday season along with hanging out with those most familiar to us.

One thing that Americans should be thankful for is that we have each other--and we're definitely not lacking in variety. We have a lovely diversity of Native peoples whose ancestors gifted those peoples who came to this continent later with their extensive knowledge of the flora and fauna. In return, these latecomers deprived the Native gift-givers of their lands, languages, and cultures. To make things even worse, the latecomers have up until recently made spurious claims that they are somehow the heroes of the story of how our peoples came together.

These outrageous wrongs should be addressed. Reparations should be made to the children of both our Native peoples as well as the children of those whose ancestors were brought to America in chains and forced to labor as slaves. Americans should make amends to all we have denied civil rights to because of their race, creed, or country of origin. 

Let's not kid ourselves. Americans are not perfect. Those Americans who don't appreciate our diversity of peoples are to be pitied, not lauded. They should be thankful that the majority have shown tolerance of their intolerance. We've been far too tolerant of this evil for far too long. On a holiday dedicated to thankfulness, let us practice forgiveness as well. First, we must beg forgiveness from all peoples we have wronged. Second, we must forgive ourselves for not acting sooner to end the harms of systemic racism.

As we gather around the Thanksgiving table to enjoy time-honored favorite dishes and conversation with friend and stranger alike, let us give thanks for each other. Sure, things could be better--much better--between us and our neighbors, but all is not lost. We still have each other. It's the one thing that in spite of our checkered past and our uncertain future we can count on--each other. And while there are open channels of communication, there is a possibility of healing.

Combining the strength of our different viewpoints, we can learn how to help each other and save our hurting world. There's no need to rely on only one viewpoint, only on one people's culture, overlooking all others'. Diversity is our strength. Variety is the spice that makes our homemade pumpkin pie recipes sing!

Americans, let us remember our past and vow not to repeat the worst parts of it. Let's put our self-centered ways behind us. Let us be there for our fellow Americans today and every day. This and every Thanksgiving, let us truly be thankful for each other. 

Travyon Martin was an unarmed 17-year-old kid. He was killed carrying a bag of skittles. The right-wing called him a threat.

Kyle Rittenhouse was 17 years old and armed. He shot and killed 2 people with an AR-15. The right-wing calls him a hero. pic.twitter.com/JursSJFT7j

— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) November 19, 2021

***

Our Afghan friends need your support.

Most of our Afghan neighbors are arriving with humanitarian parole, which only temporarily allows people fleeing danger to remain in the U.S. These Afghans will need to find another pathway to safety once their parole expires.   To ensure that Afghans find real, lasting safety in the U.S., Congress must pass the Afghan Adjustment Act, which would allow Afghan humanitarian parolees to seek legal permanent residence in the United States.  Call on your Senators and Representative to urge them to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act! This is one of the most important things you can do to ensure Afghans have an opportunity to build a life in the United States. We are asking for broad, bipartisan support—please ask your friends, family, congregations, and communities to join us!  Contact Your Congresspersonhttps://www.votervoice.net/LIRS/campaigns/89654/respond

Contact Your Congressperson

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Thank you for all you’ve done to build our movement for people, planet, and peace over profit!  Our work together has set the progressive agenda on issue after issue, from an emergency Green New Deal and Medicare for All to free public higher education, democracy reforms like Ranked-Choice Voting and much more. Now, in the face of accelerating climate collapse, crushing inequality, endless war and the epic failure of public health — we need independent politics more than ever to advance these transformative solutions our lives depend on.  I’m writing today to alert you to a battle that may well determine whether alternative parties and independents will be able to gain access to the ballot — an essential part of the struggle in elections to come. Currently, we are fighting a decision by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) that strikes another blow against open, fair elections by seriously limiting our ability to use federal public matching funds to gain ballot access. Specifically, the FEC is demanding that our 2016 campaign repay over $175,000 in funds we earned under the federal matching funds program over five years ago. The FEC’s demand grows out of their refusal, after the fact, to recognize our use of matching funds to complete ballot drives during the 2016 primary campaign. Since our 2016 campaign account is all but closed, the FEC is attempting to hold me, as the candidate, personally liable for repaying this massive, unjust bill from my personal funds. Will you contribute now to help me fight the FEC's decision and stand up for the future of independent politics?

Please contribute today If the FEC ruling is allowed to stand, grassroots candidates running independently of the big money corporate parties will simply run out of money before overcoming onerous ballot access hurdles around the country. To make matters worse, the precedent of receiving a ruinous bill from the government years after the election would be an obvious deterrent to future grassroots candidates who rely on matching funds to challenge power without selling out to corporate political machines. In many states this would also make it far more difficult to run in local “down-ballot” races where Greens and other independents have had the most success. After fighting for over a year within the FEC bureaucracy, we and our legal team are eager to challenge this injustice in court. But to move forward, we must urgently raise at least $20,000 to cover the latest round of legal costs and our barebones operating expenses. And, in case justice does not prevail, we must prepare to pay down the penalties. Incredibly, the FEC’s rules prohibit me from contributing critically needed funds to my own defense because it would exceed the maximum I’m allowed to donate to my own campaign! That means I am essentially dependent on your generosity for defending myself and the matching funds program. To make this fight winnable, please donate by visiting jillstein.net or make out a check to “Jill Stein for President (2016)”. Every donation, no matter the size, is greatly appreciated! (Maximum donation is $2,700 for the primary election period, which is how the FEC classifies our current expenses.) Send checks to James Lane, Treasurer, 269 12th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215. For FEC compliance, please write in the memo: "2016, debt". Include address, occupation, and employer. (Additional details below.) Polls show unprecedented hunger for a new party, disgust with the political establishment, and strong support for our visionary proposals. That’s why this battle for public funding is so critical — to protect our right to a politics that’s independent of the corporate money machine and to advance the solutions we so urgently need. Thank you so much for your support at this critical moment, as the future of humanity and the planet are truly in our hands!

All my best,  Jill Stein Green Party nominee for president 2012, 2016

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 From the Juggernaut Project:

Tell the Justice Department: Remove Trump’s roadblocks and allow equal protections in the Constitution.

Surprise! Nearly 100 years since it was first introduced, the Equal Rights Amendment, which reads, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex,” was finally ratified by a quorum of states. Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the amendment in January 2020.

The House of Representatives had recently passed a law removing the time limitation on ratification of the amendment, and the bill is still pending in the Senate. But during the Trump administration, former Attorney General Bill Barr improperly weighed in on the process. The Constitution gives absolutely no authority to the Executive Branch when it comes to the Amendment process — but the Trump Administration was determined to pull out all the stops to stop equality under the law.

Sign the petition: Get rid of Trump-era roadblocks and advance the Equal Rights Amendment!

SIGN THE PETITION

The Equal Rights Amendment has satisfied all Constitutional requirements, but that has not stopped the enemies of equality to prevent it from moving forward. The Trump administration purposely used questions about the timing of ratification to kill the amendment. But the current Justice Department under President Joe Biden has the power to remove these roadblocks.

The ERA will help people of all genders achieve equality under the law, and women in particular, have waited long enough for the highest legal protections against discrimination in the land. It’s time for Attorney General Merrick Garland to act to protect this process.

Add your name today. Tell Biden’s Justice Department to overrule Trump’s unconstitutional roadblocks and advance the Equal Rights Amendment.

Thanks for taking action.

The Juggernaut Project