Government

Stamp Money Out Of Politics

August 3, 2013 Staff, http://www.stampstampede.org/ Educate! Corporatism, Finance and the Economy, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government

Stamp Money Out of Politics is a campaign to amend the U.S. Constitution to end the rule of money. From protests, to ballot initiatives, to support in congress, the movement to amend the constitution is gathering momentum rapidly. They note that We're over 25% of the way to an amendment, with 16 states having voted for an amendment and 150 Members of Congress already supporting it. Their tactic of the Stampede is for tens of thousands of Americans to legally stamp messages on U.S. currency to Get Money Out of Politics. As more and more stamped money spreads, so will the movement to amend the Constitution. Every dollar you stamp will reach 875 people, if you stamp 5 dollars a day for a year, that's over a million. Together, we can create a stampede that Congress can't ignore.

Col. Robert Helvey On Strategic Nonviolence

August 3, 2013 Steve York, www.aforcemorepowerful.org Strategize! Democracy, Government

My career has been that of a professional soldier. And one of my last assignments was to be the defense attache in Rangoon [Burma]. And I really had an opportunity — two years living in Rangoon and getting around the country — to really see first hand what happens when a people are oppressed to the point that they're absolutely terrorized. When people would talk to me-- and it required a bit of courage to talk to a foreigner-- sometimes they would place their hands over their mouth because they were afraid someone was watching and they could read their lips. That's how paranoid they became. And, you know, there was no future for [those] people, and there was a struggle for democracy going on, but it was an armed struggle on the periphery of the country and in the border regions. And it was very clear that that armed struggle was never going to succeed.

“Big Brother” Watching You…For A Long Time

August 3, 2013 Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, www.blackagendareport.com Educate! Government, NSA, Privacy

In1947, President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9835 instituting a program of “loyalty reviews for federal employees.” The Order called for dismissal if there were "reasonable grounds...for belief that the person involved is disloyal to the Government of the United States." Then FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover designed the Truman loyalty-security program, marked by a lack of transparency and accountability, using it to successfully double the size of the FBI over a six-year period, from 3,559 personnel in 1946 to 7,029 in 1952. Under Hoover’s “Insider” program, victims of the “loyalty” program were kept in the dark and were not allowed to know the identity of their accusers or respond to accusations. Obama’s “Insider” program appears to be on the same trajectory as more Americans find themselves monitored, tracked and accused of being “Un-American” for exposing government corruption.

Government Secrecy Increasing, Classification Is Reckless And Expensive

August 3, 2013 John Glaser, www.extremeprejudiceusa Educate! Government, Secrecy, Wars and Militarism

Here’s a riddle: How do you make it easier to push through legislation in Congress that is overwhelmingly opposed in the public without any political consequences? SecrecyAnswer: Keep the votes secret. That’s exactly what’s happened to an Obama administration plan to provide weapons directly to the Syrian rebels. The Senate committee that approved the plan was, unusually, allowed to classify their votes, presumably in order to insulate themselves from any repercussions from their constituents. Because really…why should elected representatives have to tell the people they supposedly represent how they are doing the job they were elected to do!?

Video-Noam Chomsky: The State Fears Its Own People

July 30, 2013 Staff, www.alternet.org Educate! Chelsea Manning, Democracy, Edward Snowden, Government, NSA, Surveillance, Video

Noam Chomsky said that whistleblower Edward Snowden, who remains in Russia after releasing a trove of documents about secret NSA surveillance, should be honored. "He was doing what every citizen ought to do," Chomsky says in the video below. "He was telling Americans what the government is doing." Chomsky goes on to explain that governments always claim security as their justification for civil liberties abuses, but that overwhelmingly the security in question is that of the state ... from its own population. To smatterings of applause, Chomsky goes on to explain how America's drone campaign abroad is a far bigger threat to our security than leaked information about surveillance.

North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Florida Rumble with Citizen Protest

July 30, 2013 Harriet Rowan and Alex Oberley, www.prwatch.org Organize! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Democracy, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, Trayvon Martin, Worker Rights and Jobs

Three State Capitols around the country are echoing with the songs and chants of people who feel scorned by their state government. In Wisconsin, protesters who participate in a daily sing-along are facing a crack down from the Capitol Police, with over 50 people arrested in three days. In Florida a group called the Dream Defenders has been occupying the State Capitol for 13 days, demanding that Governor Rick Scott call a special session to address the repeal of Florida’s "Stand Your Ground" law and to address racial profiling. And in North Carolina, civil rights and religious organizations are organizing weekly protests at the Capitol, dubbed “Moral Mondays,” to express their opposition to an avalanche of retrograde policies that are radically reshaping the state.

Lesson Learned [Again]: We Cannot Trust Progressive Democrats

July 28, 2013 Cole Stangler, www.inthesetimes.com Educate! Government, NSA, Progressive Caucus

'When push comes to shove and you actually have a chance of winning one of these votes, you’ll usually see a bunch of people who purport to be progressives back with the institutionalists.' On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of legislators in the House came extraordinarily close to passing an amendment that would have prevented the National Security Agency from collecting bulk data on Americans. The Amash-Conyers amendment would have limited Section 215 of the Patriot Act to apply only to individuals subject to investigation under that law, barring mass surveillance programs like PRISM. Failing by a 217-205 vote, the amendment earned support from an unlikely coalition of Republicans and Democrats—a group that could perhaps lead future legislative rebellions against the surveillance state.

Video: Revolution, An Instruction Manual

July 28, 2013 Staff, www.stormcloudsgathering.com Strategize! Finance and the Economy, Government, Human Rights, Media, Solidarity, Video

The causes of revolution are numerous in form, but there is one common root, and that's discontent. Discontent is the emotion that builds and builds under the surface, it is a storm which brews in the mind of the people, just waiting to be unleashed. Discontent is a not sufficient driving force for a revolution, that is if your goal is actually to leave a better world for your children and grandchildren. In order for an upheaval to have positive results it must be driven by a clear and realistic vision, a vision that accounts for the world and humans the way they actually are right now, not the way we wish they would be or hope that they might be, and it must differentiate between that which can and cannot be changed in the short term.

“A Bag Full Of Cash”: The Root Of The Corrupt US Government

July 22, 2013 Carl Gibson, www.readersupportednews.org Educate! Corporatism, Energy, Environment, Finance and the Economy, Government, Worker Rights and Jobs

Shut the Chamber's new 28-page report, "Bagful of Cash: How the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Orchestrated a Corporate Takeover of Government." My goal when writing the report was to publish a one-stop-shop for everything relating to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's domination of all institutions of merit, from Congress to the courts, to the election cycles. This report also shows how the U.S. Chamber has invested millions of corporate dollars into opposing all legislation relating to healthcare, financial reform, closing corporate tax loopholes, and climate change. The report also highlights the U.S. Chamber's support of austerity, fracking, the Keystone XL pipeline, and mostly Republican pro-corporate candidates running for Congress.

Mission Creep: When Everything is Terrorism

July 19, 2013 Bruce Schneier, www.theatlantic.com Educate! Government, Wars and Militarism

One of the assurances I keep hearing about the U.S. government's spying on American citizens is that it's only used in cases of terrorism. Terrorism is, of course, an extraordinary crime, and its horrific nature is supposed to justify permitting all sorts of excesses to prevent it. But there's a problem with this line of reasoning: mission creep. The definitions of "terrorism" and "weapon of mass destruction" are broadening, and these extraordinary powers are being used, and will continue to be used, for crimes other than terrorism.

The Power Structure Fears The People: Embrace Our Power

July 19, 2013 Paul Jay, www.therealnews.com Strategize! Finance and the Economy, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, Solidarity

he question is: how do you make the power elite frightened of you? Who was the last liberal president we had? It was Richard Nixon--not because he was a liberal, but because he was frightened of movements. And there's a scene--I think it's in Kissinger's memoirs, 1971, huge antiwar demonstration surrounding the White House, and Nixon has put empty buses, city buses end-to-end as a kind of barricade, and he's standing at the window wringing his hands, going, Henry, they're going to break through the barricades and get us. And that's just where you want power, people in power to be. And that's why Sarkozy, who was a cretin, was unable to do too much damage to France, because if you got up in France and told French university students that they were going to pay $50,000 a year to go to college, they'd shut the damn country down.

VIDEO: Hedges – We Must Grasp Reality to Build Effective Resistance

July 18, 2013 Paul Jay, www.therealnews.com Strategize! Environment, Government

"We are fed this mantra that is really fiction, and the mantra goes that we can have everything we want. That reality is never an impediment to what we desire. " "It's a lie. It's not true. And I think we can't even use the word hope until we confront reality and begin to resist against the real. If we are resisting against a fantasy or fiction. If we believe that Barack Obama is going to save us. Then it's like writing letters to Uncle Joe Stalin, if he only knew what they were doing here out in Ukrainian wheat fields where of course millions of people died of famine. Then everything we do is futile. So I think it is fundamental that we grasp reality in order to build effective resistance and unfortunately reality at this moment in human history is pretty bleak."

The Lion Sleeps No More, Anonymous Calls for Global Protest, #NOV5TH

July 14, 2013 Anonymous, www.PopularResistance.org Organize! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, Solidarity, Video

Anonymous calls for national day of action on November 5th -- #NOV5TH -- says to governments all over the world "take this message as your last will and testament, the game is officially over." The "Global Day of Civil Disobedience" will target all government facilities across the globe. Anonymous urges that it is time "to relight the flame of protest until our demands are met." They urge solidarity, that we stand united in the face or ecological and economic crisis.

Low-Wage Food Workers Stage One-Day Strike at Smithsonian Museums

July 14, 2013 Kate Irby, www.mcclatchydc.com Organize! Government, Worker Rights and Jobs

Smithsonian strikers called on President Barack Obama to issue an executive order to force federally contracted businesses, such as restaurants within the Smithsonian, to provide all workers with a “living wage.” In the District of Columbia, that would mean employers currently paying workers at the minimum wage of $8.25 per hour would have to pay at least $13.68 per hour to workers with no children, or at least $26.37 per hour if the employee had one child. Speakers said the strikers represent a population of 2 million workers nationwide who are employed by private businesses contracted with the government who struggle to make ends meet.

Popular Resistance Newsletter – MIA: Rule of Law

July 12, 2013 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance Newsletter Chelsea Manning, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Edward Snowden, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, NSA, Surveillance

At the entrance to the New York City Courthouse, the words “Where Law Ends There Tyranny Begins” are inscribed in the marble wall. Our constitutional rights, particularly the first and fourth amendment rights, are disappearing. And the US government and national security state behave as if they are above the law. MIA Rule of Law risks the further division in the United States as the people see no path to justice. Private corporations contracted by the US government and others are tracking activists by monitoring social media and using geo-location tools.

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