Nina! Nina! Nina!

Nina! Nina! Nina!

by C.A. Matthews

Nina! Nina! Nina!

The chant is infectious. The roar of the crowd is deafening. To hear Nina Turner speak in person is electrifying. You just know you're going to hear the truth and it will set you free whenever you're in the presence of one of the progressive movement's most gifted orators.

I remember the first time we caught up with the former Ohio state senator on the campaign trail. It was early 2016. Nina Turner was the "opener" to Bernie Sanders at a Sanders rally at Baldwin-Wallace University, just south of Cleveland proper. It was a cold winter's day, but well worth the trip. Still a relative newcomer to the national progressive scene, Nina's straight talk and heartfelt inspiration mobilized the troops for Bernie that day.

We were fortunate to hear Nina introduce Bernie again--and all because we made that first trek in the dark and cold to Cleveland. After the Baldwin-Wallace rally, I was fortunate enough to get down to the floor to shake Nina's hand and chat with her for a minute.

 "Nina, you've gotta get Bernie to come to Toledo for a rally!" I shouted over the noise of the crowd. 

"You're right. We need to support our brothers and sisters in western Ohio," she replied. 

Meeting Nina Turner at Baldwin-Wallace University

Sure enough, within a few weeks' time--and with less than 24 hours notice--a Bernie rally was scheduled to take place in Toledo. Along with Bernie and Nina, we also heard from Congresswomen Tulsi Gabbard and Marcy Kaptur, among others. Sort of a "grand slam" of  political celebrities, you could say. 

Without Nina Turner's ever-present support and superb oratory skills, Bernie probably wouldn't have made it as far as he did before the DNC pulled the rug out from under him in the latter half of the 2016 primary season when their chosen candidate was slipping in the polls. It truly was a crime when the DNC leadership refused to allow Nina on stage to introduce Bernie at the nomination convention in Philadelphia. A knife in the back would have been kinder, in my opinion.

To say I'm a "big Nina Turner fan" is an understatement. Even after Bernie Sanders called it quits in 2016, I still harbored much respect and affection for Nina. I've kept up with her work as the first president of Our Revolution, and secretly hoped she would run for a statewide office (like governor) so I could vote for her. Finally, she's taking the plunge--only she's running for US Congress from Ohio 11th district (eastern side of Cleveland to the Akron area). Alas, I live in Ohio's 9th congressional district across the state. So close and yet so far!

While I'm excited to see Nina Turner running for Congress--as she will be a much needed progressive voice there--I won't lie to you. I'm very disappointed to see her running in the Democratic Party primary. Didn't she learn anything about the dirty Dem's duplicity during her time with Bernie Sanders' two presidential campaigns? The Democratic Party leadership have already provided obvious clues that they've chosen their candidate (Shontel Brown) to replace Rep. Marcia Fudge, who will be stepping down to serve in the Biden administration. And after Nina recently spoke at the virtual (online) convention for the Movement for a People's Party, the DNC isn't going to be happy about her openly siding with a new progressive party.

Oh, Nina! Nina! Nina! I feel like crying out. Why can't you run as an independent, a Green, the first big name under the People's Party banner or a Party for Socialism and Liberation candidate instead? Anything except one of those not-to-be-trusted Dems.

The next couple of months will be decisive. Nina will know for certain who all she'll be up against in the Democratic Party primary before too long. Biden will be installed as the next paid-off puppet of the oligarchy in D.C. on January 20. The People's Party has formed officially and been registered in its first state (Maine) and is working hard to do the same in many others. The Green Party US is mopping up after the bloodbath of ballot banishing in several states (including Ohio) and congratulating the many Greens who beat the odds and were successfully elected to local offices. Progressives and their organizations are in a state of flux presently. All is not lost, but things do need improvement.

By the time the special election to replace Rep. Fudge's vacated seat rolls around this spring, we should know more about the lay of the land. Nina could have changed her mind about running in the Democratic Party primary at that point. We'll see. My fingers are crossed that she'll win whatever primary she enters and then the special election and then be seated in Congress. After all, that's where Senator Bernie Sanders first entered the national stage--and just look how far he's come. 

I hope that one day soon we'll be able to call our favorite truth-teller, "President Nina Turner." And we'll be chanting joyfully together once more: Nina! Nina! Nina!

Related Links:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/09/nina-turner-files-run-congress-ohio

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/henrygomez/nina-turner-congress-ohio-11

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2020/12/12/national-democratic-party-complicated-iowas-caucus-efforts-dnc/6509514002/

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Tell Congress NOT to cut endometriosis funding!

Sign now with a click

Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, Chairman Shelby, Vice Chairman Leahy, Chairwoman Lowey, and Ranking Member Granger: As advocacy organizations and individuals that understand firsthand the pain and hardship endured by those living with endometriosis, we urge you to support the requests led by Representatives Finkenauer and González-Colón along with Senators Romney and Warren to prioritize funding for endometriosis research in the upcoming fiscal year. Specifically, we ask that you increase funding for the National Institute of Health National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to at least the levels included in the House-passed bill as well as include report language that lists endometriosis as an eligible condition under the Department of Defense Peer-Reviewed Medical Research Program (PRMRP). Endometriosis affects about one in ten women, can cause intense pain, and is a leading cause of infertility. Despite its prevalence and health impacts, too little funding has been dedicated toward better understanding, diagnosing, and treating this condition. Many women who live with endometriosis go for years, seeing multiple doctors and even spending thousands of dollars, before they can get a diagnosis and treatment. Women with endometriosis lose an average of six hours of productivity per week at work and the condition is estimated to cost over $78 billion annually in healthcare expenditures and lost productivity. Medical research is the key to finding better ways to diagnose and treat this common and life-altering condition. Specifically, we request: Inclusion of endometriosis as eligible for funding under the DOD PRMRP in FY 2021. We are concerned by the report put forth by the Senate Appropriations Committee, which does not include endometriosis among the condition eligible under the PRMRP. Endometriosis was included in both FY 2018 and FY 2020, and this opportunity for investment in endometriosis research through the PRMRP must remain available. When research funding is low or inconsistent for a medical condition, it is difficult to attract researchers to specialize in that condition or apply for related research grants and we respectfully ask that you reinstate endometriosis as an eligible condition for FY 2021. The highest possible funding level for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in final FY2021 appropriations legislation to ensure that resources are available to double funding for endometriosis research from the FY 2019 level and increase funding for endometriosis for $26 million. We appreciate efforts in both the House and Senate to increase funding for NICHD in FY2021 and ask that the highest possible increase be preserved in the final legislation. Over 6 million people in the United States are living with endometriosis and our members know firsthand how endometriosis affects the lives of these women and their loved ones. The critical issues that face women with endometriosis need to be addressed and require quick, decisive action to increase research and awareness. As such, we ask that you provide increased funding better to diagnose and treat this condition.

Sign now with a click

Visit petition page

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In a stunning recently-leaked video, Joe Biden is heard telling civil rights leaders that they should be satisfied with his rhetorical acknowledgment and expect nothing more. Biden screams at them saying that he will not be using his executive powers to stand up for the Black community that worked hard to elect him — or any other working-class community. This is a huge development because progressives had rested what little hope they had for Biden on the possibility of executive orders — hopes that Biden just smashed as he said he would only be undoing Trump orders. Adding insult to injury, Biden nominated dairy industry lobbyist and former Obama Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, to head the department again. "Vilsack is a rerun of pro-corporate policies that continue to drive rural communities away from the Democratic Party," said The Intercept. Biden and Harris are determined to convince you that their cabinet of lobbyists "looks like America." The first Latino Secretary of Health and Human Services, the first woman to run the Treasury, the first all-female communications team, the youngest national security advisor in decades. But what difference does it make if your family's poverty, hunger and homelessness are imposed by a Black, Latino or White person? We already have a Republican Party. What actually is the point of the Democratic Party?

Donate to power our movement

If confirmed, Vilsack will face one of the worst American hunger crises since the Great Depression, with a surge in food prices, COVID-19 cases, unemployment, and food lines running for miles. Instead of using his Obama-era experience to help minority-owned or small farms, Vilsack has used the intervening years to lobby for the corporate American Farm Bureau Federation and the U.S. Dairy Export Council, where he is currently the CEO. The USDA has been almost exclusively led by white men and has systematically discriminated against Black farmers by giving them less federal aid than White farmers.

Vilsack's nomination also risks the loss of one or both of the Senate seats in Georgia's special runoff election because of depressed turnout. He is loathed by progressives in the state for his ouster of civil rights leader Shirley Sherrod while heading Georgia's USDA department of rural development. Vilsack fired her after a deceptively-edited video on Breitbart said she was racist.

This administration is shaping up to be a mash-up of the Obama, Geroge W. Bush, and Clinton administrations. The only difference is they've all had more time to deepen their corruption as corporate lobbyists in the private sector. If it sounds like the country is moving backward, it's because it is. And the Peoples Party is going to turn that around.

Join our National Call this Thursday at 8:30 pm ET with special guest Thomas Frank, the author of Listen, Liberal and The People, No. We will also be joined by Scientists for a People's Party Coordinator, Johanna Heureaux-Torres, who will discuss actions to support Steven Donziger, the lawyer who helped win a historic Amazon clean-up deal against Chevron and now faces six months in jail. It will be our last National Call of the year and we will ring in the holidays with a celebration of everything our movement has accomplished this year! 

In Solidarity,

Carol Ehrle
Media and Messaging Coordinator
Movement for a People's Party

What Value Human Life?

What a time to be alive! What a time to have a government that cherishes you so much that it's willing to do whatever it takes to keep you safe and well! What a time to be sold a line of complete and utter bull hockey!

That's our guest blogger's take on recent events. What value human life? And if human life has no intrinsic value, what then?

https://youtu.be/4IrZbcwRLKM 

What Value Human Life?

by Redd Phlagg

Before I go into my usual rant mode, I just want to say one thing: If you think it's a good idea to share your coronavirus germs with others because you believe something invisible couldn't possibly be lethal or it simply doesn't exist in your reality, then get the hell off this page right now. This blog piece is for intelligent individuals who understand the basics of germ theory and know how to come in out of the rain during a thunderstorm. 

Are the anti-masker "covidiots" all gone now? Good. Now let's talk freely, we the intelligent adults left in the room.

How much is a human life worth? After I read an article or watch something put out by the mainstream media lately, my best guess is "not a whole helluva lot." Human life is cheap. And plentiful. Obviously it is, or else our government would be taking this pandemic business a whole lot more seriously than they have since the start of it in the US.

I'll be honest here--if you've been labeled an "essential worker" in the US, then that means you're essentially screwed because you work a job that puts you at risk for catching the coronavirus and for spreading it to others. Your life only has "value" in so far as it helps your bosses make profits. And don't kid yourself--if the bosses could replace you with a robot or an android they probably would, but we're not quite there yet in 2020.

Flesh and blood is still cheap and easy to get, but who knows if that'll be the case in the next few years. With fewer human beings on the planet due to COVID-19, the value of human life might go up. The bodies of the working classes might just become the spare parts supplier for the rich and comfortable who are in need of a new kidney or liver or heart or lungs. And lung transplants will become even more commonplace in the future since coronavirus causes severe damage to the lungs. And hearts. And kidneys. And livers.

I think you understand what I'm saying here. We have about the same value as livestock does. Today's cow is tomorrow's hamburger.

Surely our children's lives have worth you say, right? We would never put our babies in harm's way. No, never! You think not? Let's take a look at what's happening in a place where apparently the devil loves to fiddle and steal souls according to the popular Charlie Daniels' song.

Simply reporting unsafe conditions in your very own high school has become a hot topic in the state of Georgia (and probably elsewhere--particularly in the south and west, a.k.a. "Trumpistan"). Georgia State House Representative Beth Moore's recent Twitter feed attests to this uproar after brave high schoolers took photos documenting conditions in their school.

Beth Moore, GA House Rep HD-95

@MooreForGeorgia

I've set up a whistleblower email - reportmyschool@gmail.com - for #Georgia students, teachers & admins to share photos, videos & testimonials of unsafe conditions at school. I'll give you the anonymous cover you need if you've been threatened w/ "consequences." #gapol #paulding

I'm going to start sharing copies of the emails I'm receiving from verified teachers who wish to remain anonymous. This teacher adds, "My principal is wonderful and I feel she is being pushed to do things that she knows aren’t right or feasible either."

Worst testimony so far - from a verified teacher in a North #Georgia School District: "I am planning for 27 students in my tiny classroom. They are not making masks mandatory. My principal is joking to people that this is 'god's cleansing plan'."

Excuse me? Did a principal say "god's cleansing plan" in regards to the life and health of their students and teachers/staff? I think it might be part of  "god's cleansing plan" to kick this heartless principal to the curb and make sure they  are never allowed to be responsible for the health, safety and education of children ever again.

Here's Rep. Moore tweeting again after a parent went on a rant about wanting to send their children to school in person and labeling those advocating coronavirus safety measures as extremists:
https://twitter.com/MooreForGeorgia/status/1292321503057518598?s=2

Ok let's try this again: Those who want to keep their kids in face-to-face instruction should be *the most furious* about schools not following safety protocol. Why shame and silence the very people trying to keep your kids safe & our classrooms open? I don't get it. #Hypocrisy 

https://twitter.com/MooreForGeorgia/status/1292321503057518598?s=20
https://twitter.com/MooreForGeorgia/status/1292321503057518598?s=20

See what I mean about only conversing with intelligent adults on this topic? The parents who want to put their children at the most risk of contracting this virus are the ones yelling the loudest for the relaxing of rules implemented to prevent the virus from spreading.

Maybe these anti-mask parents don't give a rat's ass about their children's health and safety? Maybe they'd rather take less tax deductions next year? I don't know--and I don't get it. Surely if there's any chance of their child becoming ill or bringing home a virus that could cause another family member to contract a potentially lethal or debilitating illness they'd want to prevent it from happening in the first place, and they'd be okay with their kids doing online schooling for another few months.

But I guess not, if the covidiots are to be believed. "Masks kill! You'll die of carbon dioxide poisoning! It's child abuse to make my student wear a mask!" they shout in all caps on their Tweeter feeds. Their actions betray their beliefs. Human life has no value to them, whether it's an elder in a nursing home, a working person in a factory or hospital or school, or a young adult attending college or high school or children and toddlers in grade school and daycare.

We know there are lots of Americans out there who don't love their neighbors, but I just wished the current administration wasn't salivating at the thought of burying so many of us so early as well.

The only solution to this problem is to demonstrate to the cretins in power how much we value ourselves--even if they don't value us in return. We value our lives so much that we're willing to risk them in order to restore some semblance of democracy to our beleaguered nation.  And if we don't get justice in the form of universal health care, UBI for the millions of unemployed, and safe schooling for our students and teachers, then we show the oligarchs just how little we value their lives by giving them a close shave with a guillotine. 

It's a now or never moment. If we don't value human life, we will lose it. We can't afford those who don't value human life to have the upper hand anymore. It's killing us. It has needlessly killed so very many of us in these past five months. What more can I say to convince you?

Related articles:

School That Suspended Student Documenting Lack of Social Distancing Goes Virtual
https://truthout.org/articles/school-that-suspended-student-documenting-lack-of-social-distancing-goes-virtual/

Nearly 100,000 Children Test Positive for Coronavirus in the Past Two Weeks https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8609847/Nearly-100-000-children-test-positive-coronavirus-past-two-weeks.html

New Zealand Marks 100th Day With No Reported Cases of Coronavirus
https://abc13.com/6362502/

BIO: Self-described "Rant Master" Redd Phlagg has come to the conclusion that our government exists only to enrich the lackeys of the corporations. Redd isn't taking it lying down anymore, either: "Fight back. Your life does have worth. The rich bastards' lives are forfeit. Don't let them forget it at the voting booth, in the streets, or at their front doors."

 

***

Sen. Nina Turner and Dr. Cornel West to Keynote The People’s Convention

Contact:
media@peoplesparty.org

Detroit, MI — One week after the Democratic and Republican national conventions, Bernie 2020 National Co-Chair Sen. Nina Turner and Bernie 2020 surrogate Dr. Cornel West will join the Movement for a People’s Party to headline The People’s Convention. Turner will deliver a speech titled: Choice, Challenge and Change: The Necessity of a People’s Movement.

On Sunday, August 30, from 4-6 pm EST, thousands of Americans from all walks of life will gather to discuss the state of the nation at The People’s Convention. At the conclusion, participants will vote on forming a major new political party free of corporate money and influence.

The Convention will be digital and broadcast live on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter pages with well over a million followers, including The Jimmy Dore Show which will carry the convention to its nearly 800,000 subscribers on YouTube.

The convention will ask: “What kind of world do we want to build from the devastation of the pandemic and economic depression?”

It will feature speakers and a regional breakout session. There will be montages of the short, heartfelt videos recorded by hundreds of MPP’s 80,000 members across the country. Speakers will discuss plans to become the largest party in America in four years, including building local hubs and state parties, sending representatives to Congress in 2022, and winning the presidency in 2024.

Sen. Turner is the host of the Hello Somebody Podcast and former president of Our Revolution. She is a former Ohio State Senator and professor of African American history. Dr. Cornel West is the Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. He is the author of 20 books, a frequent commentator on CNN, and co-host of the Tight Rope Podcast.

“It looks as if the system cannot reform itself,” said West of the American political and economic system on CNN in May. “Yes we must vote the neofascist catastrophe out of the White House but the neoliberal disaster who enters the White House must be fought with a people’s movement and party,” he said, accepting the invitation to The People’s Convention.

Turner and West will be joined by political commentator Jimmy Dore, host of The Jimmy Dore Show and Comedy Central specials, and Ryan Knight, activist, Medicare for all advocate and host of the podcast “Amped Up.” 

Also in attendance will be fellow Bernie 2020 leaders, including climate scientist and campaign surrogate Dr. Peter Kalmus. “Climate and ecological breakdown is a planetary emergency, but corporate influence over both parties has blocked action for decades. We need a party free from corporate corruption – a people’s party,” said Kalmus.

Former Bernie 2020 volunteer national high school director, and national coordinator with Students for a People’s Party, Amaya Wangeshi, will speak. “There is no more compromise, there is no more reform, we have to stop waiting. People are dying right now, people are facing injustice right now; I don’t believe in sacrificing millions of lives just so you can play politics,” said Wangeshi of the corporate parties. The 16-year old daughter of Kenyan immigrants is also the founder of Beyond Bernie and founding director of Our Time, Our Revolution’s student organization. “The world better get ready, change is coming, and it’s coming like you’ve never seen it before.”

Omar Fernandez, President of the American Postal Workers Union of Vermont, which has endorsed MPP, will speak about the labor movement’s need for a party for working people. Jerry Perez, field director with Our Revolution Los Angeles and a U.S. Marine who was deployed to the Iraq and Afghan wars will speak on behalf of Veterans for a People’s Party. Cuban-American Eynelys Vinson, the vice-chair of Our Revolution Los Angeles, will share how Democrats block progress even when they have full control of government, and why Latinos need a party that speaks for them.

The People’s Convention comes as more than 700 National Sanders Delegates have drawn the line with the Democratic Party, stating that they will vote against the party platform unless it includes Medicare for all. It also arrives as the DNC Rules Committee overwhelmingly voted to allow the party to accept corporate PAC money and permit corporate lobbyists to sit on the DNC.

The Convention also takes place in the middle of a raging pandemic and unprecedented cascading economic collapse. Two avoidable catastrophes that the Democrats and Republicans knowingly chose when they spent trillions of dollars bailing out Wall Street while giving insufficient relief to the tens of millions who lost their jobs.

As a result, child hunger is at record levels, breadlines are overwhelmed, five million people have lost their employer-based health insurance, and up to 28 million people face eviction. Forty percent of small businesses may close forever and 42 percent of jobs may never return. Conditions that were just made dramatically worse because Congress let expanded unemployment insurance benefits and an evictions moratorium on federally-backed properties expire.

MPP partnered with Andrew Yang’s Humanity Forward, the Humanity First Movement, the Income Movement, Move to Amend, and other groups to lead more than 50 marches and car caravans to the homes of members of Congress across the country and demand a People’s Stimulus on July 11, 18, and 25.

“Four years from now, at the People’s Convention of 2024, when The People’s Party stands poised to win Congress and the White House, we will look back and celebrate this gathering as the moment that our nation turned the page on the Second Gilded Age. The moment that we took fate into our own hands. The moment that we gave rise to a new progressive era,” said Nick Brana, national coordinator with the Movement for a People’s Party. Brana was the national political outreach coordinator with Bernie 2016, and a founding staffer and former electoral manager with Our Revolution.

***

From MoveOn:

The new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, is disrupting the mission of the U.S. Postal Service, which is to deliver mail to Americans in a timely fashion.¹

In the last month, mail delivery has dramatically slowed down at the hands of Postmaster General DeJoy.² This right-wing conservative and Trump megadonor, who has no prior expertise pertaining to the Postal Service, was appointed by Donald Trump to the position of postmaster general in May, and his actions are hurting Americans across the country—and pose a threat to our election.^3,4

Tell the board of governors to remove Louis DeJoy as postmaster general.

The board of governors of the United States Postal Service must remove Louis DeJoy from the position of postmaster general because he is undermining the mission of the U.S. Postal Service.

On Friday, there was a major shake-up at the Postal Service, and twenty-three executives were reassigned or displaced. As The Washington Post reports, "The reshuffling threatens to heighten tensions between postal officials and lawmakers, who are troubled by delivery delays — the Postal Service banned employees from working overtime and making extra trips to deliver mail — and wary of the Trump administration's influence on the Postal Service as the coronavirus pandemic rages and November's election draws near."⁵

With a federal election less than three months away, and in the midst of a global pandemic, it is imperative that the timely delivery of mail be made a priority.

The board of governors must remove Louis DeJoy as postmaster general.

Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.

Thanks!
–Patrick Chaffeur

Sources:
1. "Trump-backed postmaster general plans to slow mail delivery," Fortune, July 24, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/141438?t=10&akid=270963%2E34981449%2ESuYbLU
2. "Does the mail seem slow? You're not imagining it," The Morning Call, August 1, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/141833?t=12&akid=270963%2E34981449%2ESuYbLU
3. "Trump ally Louis DeJoy named next postmaster general," CNN, May 6, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/141412?t=14&akid=270963%2E34981449%2ESuYbLU
4. "How Trump's war on the Postal Service could create an election nightmare," The Washington Post, July 15, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/141414?t=16&akid=270963%2E34981449%2ESuYbLU
5. "Postal Service overhauls leadership as Democrats press for investigation of mail delays," The Washington Post, August 7, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/141835?t=18&akid=270963%2E34981449%2ESuYbLU