"America, Where Are You Now...."- Steppenwolf’s The Monster-Take Three

"America, Where Are You Now...."- Steppenwolf’s The Monster-Take Three

A YouTube Film Clip Of Steppenwolf Performing Monster. Ah, 

Those Were The Days

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

Steppenwolf: 16 Greatest Hits, Steppenwolf, Digital Sound, 1990

America where are you now?

Don't you care about your sons and daughters?

Don't you know we need you now

We can't fight alone against the monster

Chorus Line From The Monster

The heavy rock band Steppenwolf (maybe acid rock is better signifying that the band started in the American dream gone awry 1960s night when the likes of the Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, The Byrds and groups like the transformed Beatles and Stones held forth, rather than in the ebb-tide 1970s when the harder sounds of groups like Aerosmith and Black Sabbath were  needed to drown out the fact that  we were in decisive retreat),  one of many that was thrown up by the musical counter-culture of the mid to late 1960's was a cut above and apart from some of the others due to their scorching lyrics provided mainly, but not solely, by gravelly-voiced lead singer John Kay.

That musical counter-culture not only put a premium on band-written materials, as against the old Tin Pan Alley somebody wrote the lyrics, somebody else sang the song division before Bob Dylan and the Beatles made singer-songwriters fashionable) but also was a serious reaction to the vanilla-ization of rock and popular music in the earlier part of the decade that drove many of us from the AM radio dials and into “exotic” stuff like electric blues from Chicago with mad monks Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf jumping (country too from whence they all came in the great World War II to the factories migration leaving the old-timers like Son House, Skip James,John Hurt back in the woods  to carry on that tradition, come to think of it) and the various strands of folk music from hard rain falling, times are changing, blowing in the wind protest fuss to rediscovery of old time traditional music from the mountains (think the original Carters) to the hollows with Hobart Smith and Buell Kazee.    

Some bands played, consciously played, to the “drop out” notion popular at the times. “Drop out” of rat-race bourgeois society and it money imperative, its “white picket fence with little white house attached” visions. That the place where many of the young, the post-World War II baby-boomer young, now sadly older, had grown up and were in the process of repudiating for a grander vision of the world, the “world turned upside down” as an old time British folk tune had it (and reflecting an earlier turned upside down world around the 17^th century English revolution. Drop out and create a niche somewhere (a commune maybe out away from the rat-race places which did spring up in the likes of Taos, Oregon, and the hills of old Vermont which if you care to see what happened to that old vision once the seekers got older you can go to and witness first hand these days but take your heart medicine along cause it ain’t pretty), so some physical somewhere perhaps but certainly some other mental somewhere and the music reflected that disenchantment.

That mental somewhere involved liberal use of drugs to induce, well, who knows what it induced but it felt like a new state of consciousness so make of that what you. The drugs used, in retrospect, to make you less “uptight” not a bad thing then, or today. The whole underlying premise though whether well thought out or not was that music, the music of the shamans of the youth tribe, mimicking recently learned Native American traditions was the revolution. An idea that for a short while before all hell broke loose with the criminal antics of Lyndon Johnson and one Richard M. Nixon, all hell broke loose with Tet 1968, with May 1968, with Chicago 1968, with the “days of rage,” with Altamont and with a hundred other lesser downers I subscribed to (hence the expression “generation of ’68” to signify that portion of youth always a minority that took the plunge to the “newer world.” That before those events and a draft notice made me get “religion” on the need for “in-their-face” political struggle. And every other young man and not a few young women have to decide to cooperate or seek that second road.       

Musically much of that stuff was ephemeral, merely background music, and has not survived (except in lonely YouTube cyberspace). Yeah, Neal Young, the Airplane, the Doors, the Byrds still sound good but a lot of it is wha-wha music now you know Ten Years After, a lot of Rod Stewart, even the acid-etched albums by the Beatles and Stones, it is no wonder that the latter do not have any tunes from Their Satanic Majesties on their playlists). [CL1] Others, flash pan “music is the revolution,” period exclamation point, end of conversation bands assumed a few pithy lyrics would carry the day and dirty old bourgeois society would run and hide in horror leaving the field open, open for, uh, us. That music too, except for gems like The Ballad Of Easy Rider, is safely ensconced in vast cyberspace.

Steppenwolf was different, was political from the get-go taking on the deadliness of bourgeois culture, worse the chewing up of their young in unwinnable wars with no apologies or second thoughts, the pusher man, the draft resister and lots of other subjects (and a few traditional songs too about the love that got away, things like that which hadn’t, hasn’t change much whatever the new vision and dreams).  Not all the lyrics worked, then or now. (See below for some that do). Not all the words are now some forty plus years later memorable. After all every song is written with some current audience in mind, and notions of immortality as the fate of most songs are displaced. Certainly some of the less political lyrics seem entirely forgettable. As does some of the heavy decibel rock sound that seems to wander at times like, as was the case more often than not, and more often that we, deep in some a then hermetic drug thrall, would have acknowledged, or worried about. But know this- when you think today about trying to escape from the rat-race of daily living then you have an enduring anthem Born To Be Wild that still stirs the young (and not so young). If Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone was one musical pillar of the youth revolt of the 1960's then Born To Be Wild was the other.

And if you needed (or need) a quick history lesson about the nature of American society in the 1960's, what it was doing to its young, where it had been and where it was heading (and seemingly still is as we seek to finish up the endless Afghan wars and the war signals for deep intervention into the Syria civil war or another war in Iraq get louder, or both are beating the war drums fiercely) then the trilogy under the title "The Monster" (the chorus which I have posted above and lyrics below) said it all.

Then there were songs like The Pusher Man a song that could be usefully used as an argument in favor of decriminalization of drugs today and get our people the hell out of jail and moving on with their lives and others then more topical songs like Draft Resister to fill out their playlist. The group did not have the staying power of others like The Rolling Stones but if you want to know, approximately, what it was like for rock groups to seriously put rock and roll and a hard political edge together give a listen to the group sometime.

Words and music by John Kay, Jerry Edmonton, Nick St. Nicholas and Larry Byrom

(Monster)

Once the religious, the hunted and weary

Chasing the promise of freedom and hope

Came to this country to build a new vision

Far from the reaches of kingdom and pope

Like good Christians, some would burn the witches

Later some got slaves to gather riches

But still from near and far to seek America

They came by thousands to court the wild

And she just patiently smiled and bore a child

To be their spirit and guiding light

And once the ties with the crown had been broken

Westward in saddle and wagon it went

And 'til the railroad linked ocean to ocean

Many the lives which had come to an end

While we bullied, stole and bought our a homeland

We began the slaughter of the red man

But still from near and far to seek America

They came by thousands to court the wild

And she just patiently smiled and bore a child

To be their spirit and guiding light

The blue and grey they stomped it

They kicked it just like a dog

And when the war over

They stuffed it just like a hog

And though the past has it's share of injustice

Kind was the spirit in many a way

But it's protectors and friends have been sleeping

Now it's a monster and will not obey

(Suicide)

The spirit was freedom and justice

And it's keepers seem generous and kind

It's leaders were supposed to serve the country

But now they won't pay it no mind

'Cause the people grew fat and got lazy

And now their vote is a meaningless joke

They babble about law and order

But it's all just an echo of what they've been told

Yeah, there's a monster on the loose

It's got our heads into a noose

And it just sits there watchin'

Our cities have turned into jungles

And corruption is stranglin' the land

The police force is watching the people

And the people just can't understand

We don't know how to mind our own business

'Cause the whole worlds got to be just like us

Now we are fighting a war over there

No matter who's the winner

We can't pay the cost

'Cause there's a monster on the loose

It's got our heads into a noose

And it just sits there watching

(America)

America where are you now?

Don't you care about your sons and daughters?

Don't you know we need you now

We can't fight alone against the monster

© Copyright MCA Music (BMI)
All rights for the USA controlled and administered by
MCA Corporation of America, INC

--Used with permission--

Born To Be Wild

Words and music by Mars Bonfire

Get your motor runnin'

Head out on the highway

Lookin' for adventure

And whatever comes our way

Yeah Darlin' go make it happen

Take the world in a love embrace

Fire all of your guns at once

And explode into space

I like smoke and lightning

Heavy metal thunder

Racin' with the wind

And the feelin' that I'm under

Yeah Darlin' go make it happen

Take the world in a love embrace

Fire all of your guns at once

And explode into space

Like a true nature's child

We were born, born to be wild

We can climb so high

I never wanna die

Born to be wild

Born to be wild

© MCA Music (BMI)
All rights for the USA controlled and administered by
MCA Corporation of America, INC

--Used with permission--

THE PUSHER

From the 1968 release "Steppenwolf"

Words and music by Hoyt Axton

You know I've smoked a lot of grass

O' Lord, I've popped a lot of pills

But I never touched nothin'

That my spirit could kill

You know, I've seen a lot of people walkin' 'round

With tombstones in their eyes

But the pusher don't care

Ah, if you live or if you die

God damn, The Pusher

God damn, I say The Pusher

I said God damn, God damn The Pusher man

You know the dealer, the dealer is a man

With the love grass in his hand

Oh but the pusher is a monster

Good God, he's not a natural man

The dealer for a nickel

Lord, will sell you lots of sweet dreams

Ah, but the pusher ruin your body

Lord, he'll leave your, he'll leave your mind to scream

God damn, The Pusher

God damn, God damn the Pusher

I said God damn, God, God damn The Pusher man

Well, now if I were the president of this land

You know, I'd declare total war on The Pusher man

I'd cut him if he stands, and I'd shoot him if he'd run

Yes I'd kill him with my Bible and my razor and my gun

God damn The Pusher

Gad damn The Pusher

I said God damn, God damn The Pusher man\

© Irving Music Inc. (BMI)

--Used with permission--

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It Wasn’t Always The Trail Of Tears That Told The Tale-Or The Cigar Store Indian Either-The Art Of T.C. Cannon At The Peabody-Essex Museum

It Wasn’t Always The Trail Of Tears That Told The Tale-Or The Cigar Store Indian Either-The Art Of T.C. Cannon At The Peabody-Essex Museum 

By Frank Jackman

Every red-blooded kid, boy kid anyway and don’t ask me about girl kids because frankly I couldn’t tell you since we were not on speaking terms-then- back in the day, back in the golden age of television longed to fight the “injuns.” Fight the “injuns” depicted on one thousand television screens and the unworthy opponent of the “avenging angel” white man. Except for maybe Tonto, the Lone Ranger’s sidekick and philosophical brethren and even he was suspect when the actually fighting began ad he might return to the well-known savagery his race was known for. Of course those were simpler days, so-called, when at least in America, at least among the knowledgeable everything thing was black and white (beyond the television set as well). The Americans were the good guys against the red hordes that were ready to descend on Western Civilization and make us their robotic slaves and the good guys in the ubiquitous Westerns that sated our reading hours, our evening T.V fare and our Saturday afternoon double feature matinee imaginations wore white hats and the bad guys black. And to quote a term of the time if only metaphorically from Zane Grey or Louis Lamour “the only good injun was a dead one.”     

That is quite a psychic barrier to overcome, no question if you were not an Indian, what now are more familiarly called Native Americans or better indigenous peoples since that term has a too anthropomorphic look on the page. (Although as late as the 1970s when many identity groups began to assert their identities the most famous name from such struggles led-by still unjustly imprisoned Leonard Peltier after the shoot-out at Wounded Knee was the American Indian Movement, AIM.) So delving into the book, the real history of the West book (neglecting the very real native presence right at the Eastern door forgetting that this is all sacred land if not to the white intruder then to those who were here already) and not some dime store novels the ragings of the white man for the land, for the water, for the destruction of the many cultural gradients that have made up the in native experience we, some of us anyway, began to see some serious justice in those cries from the trail of tears. Began to admire those warrior-kings, those ghost-dancers mourning the lost night and began to create a different look, the proud warrior look from some deep place in the imagination.    

Then along came an artist, one T.C. Cannon, a gringo name, but deepest die Native American who did not give a flying fuck about what image the white man had of the “injun.” Did not care whether the white man thought he was a cigar store Indian on some dusty road to the Petrified Forest or thought Sitting Bull was right or thought that Ira Hayes got another raw deal after all. Didn’t care. He was making art, too short a lifespan making art killed in the inevitable car accident before his time, for his people to look at, for his people to respond to, for the sake of the song, for ten thousand years of warrior-kings. (Like Ira Hayes another warrior from out West famed at Iwo Jima he served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. Served like a disproportionate number of young Native American in all this country’s war). Painted them, beautiful, sad, depressed, silly, dandified, every which way, warts and all. And now we whom he did not paint for, whom he did not care whether we liked his art or not can appreciate what he had wrought at the Peabody-Essex.                

A season of moral action begins next Monday-Support The Poor People's Campaign

A season of moral action begins next Monday

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Dear Alfred, Next Monday, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will launch a season of nonviolent moral fusion direct action in Massachusetts, and we need you to join us. In communities across America—black, white, brown and Native—we have built a Poor People’s Campaign to become what Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called “a new and unsettling force in our complacent national life.” On May 14, we will make the demands of the poor and dispossessed known to our failing leaders in Massachusetts by standing together at the Statehouse in Boston.  Sign up now to join us in nonviolent moral fusion direct action next Monday. By engaging in highly publicized, nonviolent moral fusion direct action, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will force a serious national examination of the enmeshed evils of systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and our distorted moral narrative. These enmeshed evils know no boundaries. That’s why we need people who care about Massachusetts to build something better. Sign up today to join the Massachusetts Poor People’s Campaign in Boston next week. In solidarity, Massachusetts Coordinating Committee P.s. -- We need people to film, take pictures, video, and live tweet, too. If you can help sign up for this on the RSVP form and we will be in touch. Sent via Action Network, a free online toolset anyone can use to organize. Click here to sign up and get started building an email list and creating online actions today. Action Network is an open platform that empowers individuals and groups to organize for progressive causes. We encourage responsible activism, and do not support using the platform to take unlawful or other improper action. We do not control or endorse the conduct of users and make no representations of any kind about them. You can unsubscribe or update your email address or change your name and address by changing your subscription preferences here.

From CodePink- Open Letter to the People of Iran from the American People

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Thank you for supporting an apology to the Iranian people. We will publicize the letter on social media and inside Iranian publications. We commit ourselves to doing everything we can to stop the our government from dragging us into another disastrous war.

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Please forward this email on to others who may want to sign:

Here's the full petition:

An apology to the people of Iran

Open Letter to the People of Iran  from the American People

Dear Friends,

We, the undersigned, apologize for Donald Trump’s reckless, baseless, and dangerous decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear agreement and we pledge to do everything we can to reverse that decision.

We are ashamed that our government has broken an agreement that was already signed not just by the United States and Iran, but also by France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China, and then approved by the entire UN Security Council in a unanimous vote. We are ashamed that our government has broken a deal that was working, a deal with which Iran was complying, a deal  that was making our entire world safer and could have moved our nations closer towards the path of friendship.

Unlike our president, we believe that a deal is a deal. Unlike our president, we want to resolve the conflicts in the Middle East, not escalate them. Unlike our president, we want our nation’s resources to be dedicated to enriching people’s lives, not enriching the weapons makers. Unlike our president, we want to live in peace and harmony with the people of Iran.

We understand that our nation already has a dreadful history of meddling in the internal affairs of your country. The 1953 coup that overthrew your democratically elected government was unconscionable. So was US support for Iraq’s Saddam Hussein when he invaded Iran in 1980, including selling him material for making chemical weapons that were used against you. The 1988 shooting down of an Iranian civilian airliner, killing all 290 passengers and crew, was unconscionable. So, too, are the decades of covert actions to overthrow your government and the decades of sanctions that have brought such needless suffering to ordinary Iranians.

We understand that the US government has no business interfering in your internal affairs or in the Middle East in general. We should not be selling weapons to nations guilty of gross human rights violations or sending our military to fight in faraway lands. With all the flaws in our own society--from massive inequality and racism to a political system corrupted by monetary influences--we should clean up our own house instead of telling others how to govern themselves.

We will do everything in our power to stop Donald Trump from strangling your economy and taking us to war with you. We will ask the UN to sanction the United States for violating the nuclear agreement. We will urge the Europeans, Russians, and Chinese to keep the deal alive and increase their trade relations. And we will work to rid ourselves of this unscrupulous president and replace him with someone who is trustworthy, moral, and committed to diplomacy.

Please accept our hand in friendship. May the peacemakers prevail over those who sow hatred and discord.

Sincerely,

Your friends can sign here: http://www.codepink.org/an_apology_to_the_people_of_iran?recruiter_id=369391

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Monday, May 14, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will launch

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Nonviolent Moral Fusion Direct Action in Boston

Dear Smedleys

This Monday, May 14, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will launch a season of nonviolent moral fusion direct action in Massachusetts, and Massachusetts Peace Action needs you to join us there. 

In communities across America—black, white, brown and Native—poor people, people of faith, and their supporters have built a Poor People’s Campaign to become what Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called “a new and unsettling force in our complacent national life.”

On May 14, we will make the demands of the poor and dispossessed known to our failing leaders in Massachusetts by standing together at the State House in Boston.  Sign up now to join us in nonviolent moral fusion direct action next Monday.

By engaging in highly publicized, nonviolent moral fusion direct action, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will force a serious national examination of the enmeshed evils of systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy, and our distorted moral narrative.

These enmeshed evils know no boundaries. That’s why we need people who care about economic injustice, racism, militarism, and environmental devastation to build something better. Sign up today to join the Massachusetts Poor People’s Campaign in Boston on Monday.

Monday marks the opening of 40 days of moral direct action in Boston and across the United States.  Stay tuned for details of actions focusing on racism and immigration May 21; the war economy, militarism, and gun violence May 28-29; health of the planet and of the people June 4; economic injustice June 11; and the need for a new moral narrative on June 23, when we will travel to Washington.

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, co-coordinator of the Poor People's Campaign, spoke out forcefully on the necessity of moral resistance in the face of militarism in his sermon last Sunday.  Click here to watch this important presentation.

Find more information on Facebook, or on the PPC website.

Forward together -- not one step back!

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One Week Until Our Next Big Action: The Poor People's Campaign!

Hello again DS Family, Just thought I'd forward the message below again with the gentle reminder that our next big action, The Poor People's Campaign, kick's off next Monday in 40 states across the nation and the District of Columbia! Be sure to catch our daily countdown on Twitter, Instagram, and/or Facebook for interesting facts about why we're doing this campaign. Many thanks to the scores of you who have already signed up using this unique Democracy Spring/Poor People's Campaign link. For those who haven't, please be sure to do so today so you don't miss the information specific to your location for the mandatory non-violent direct action training ahead of Monday's action in your state or DC (either Sunday evening or Monday morning). In solidarity, Renaldo and the entire DS team DONATE HERE ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Renaldo, Democracy Spring <hello@democracyspring.org> Date: Wed, May 2, 2018 at 7:17 PM Subject: Our Next Big Action: The Poor People's Campaign! To: hello@democracyspring.org Fellow Patriots, By now you've probably seen Kai's "Big Announcement" last week on passing the torch to Tania, Shani, and me. If not, here's a link to that announcement on our website. We've been working around the clock to advance the work and mission of Democracy Spring and I'm proud to announce our next big action: "The Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival." A mass nonviolent direct action campaign, Democracy Spring has partnered with Repairers of the Breach; the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice; the Popular Education Project; and over 100 local and national partners to push the sleeping giant of poverty in America -- where 1 in 2 Americans are poor or low-income (according to the Supplemental Poverty Measure) -- to the top of the national agenda. From our perspective, this campaign (the resurrection of a dream that was killed shortly after its revolutionary dreamer, Dr. King, 50 years ago) is not just promising because of its sustained, escalating nonviolent direct action over 40 days in over 40 states across the country, but also because of its laser focus on the link between political and socio-economic (dare I add environmental) disenfranchisement! Indeed, the campaign has already commissioned a report and map showing the states with some of the worst voter suppression laws are the same states with the worst poverty and healthcare rates (i.e. the lowest or no minimum wage, and denied Medicaid expansion). Furthermore, while the official poverty rate is about the same today as it was when Dr. King decried it 50 years ago, the share of national income going towards the top 1% of earners has nearly doubled (the 400 wealthiest Americans now own more wealth than the bottom 64% of the U.S. population, or 204 million people) -- even while healthcare (the leading cause of bankruptcy) and education costs continue to soar, the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour can't afford anyone a two-bedroom apartment at market rent in any state or county in the nation, and congress and the White House hand the rich yet another tax cut on the backs of the poor. This political and economic inequality erodes our democracy in direct (voter suppression at a time when we have internationally low voter turnout compared to other democracies) and indirect (campaign finance laws that leave our policymakers beholden to the wealthy few at the expense of the many) ways and we must face these threats by building on the wisdom of our forbears who taught us -- from the founding revolution to abolition, women’s suffrage to the labor, farm workers, and civil rights movements  -- that no major democratic struggle in American history has been won without the weapon that Dr. King called "the sword that heals," nonviolent direct action. So, will you join us? Will you help us break the righteous record we set in April 2016 for the largest act of American civil disobedience this century? Will you step up locally to help your state advance the new pro-democracy wave to counter what I call "The 7 Deadly Sins of American Democracy"? Will you follow the lead of grassroots patriots like those in Florida who are advancing Felon Re-enfranchisement? Will you follow the lead of grassroots patriots in Oregon in 2016 (which had the largest voter turnout increase of any state during the last presidential election) or, most recently, those in New Jersey who organized to make their state the 12th since 2016 to enact Automatic Voter Registration? If so, sign-up at this unique Democracy Spring/Poor People's Campaign link so that we can ensure that you get all the information you need (based on your location) ahead of our launch in just under 2 weeks! The 40 days of action will commence on Monday, May 14th (the day after Mother's Day) in 40 states (at/around the state capitols) and the District of Columbia with a form of civil disobedience on each Monday over those 6 weeks. However, you MUST attend a training ahead of each action (usually on the Sunday before or at 11am on Monday) to participate. For more information, sign-up at the link above and see the Action Map here (which includes the contact info for your local coordinators). The themes for each week are as follows: Week One (May 13-19) - Somebody's Hurting Our People: Child poverty, Women, LGBTQIA community, and People with Disabilities Week Two (May 20-26) - Linking Systemic Racism and Poverty: Voting Rights, Ending Mass Incarceration, treatment of indigenous people and Justice for Immigrants Week Three (May 27-June 2) - The War Economy: Militarism, Veterans and the Proliferation of Gun Violence Week Four (June 3-9) - Ecological Devastation and Health - Clean Air, Clean Water, and Healthcare for All Week Five (June 10-16) - Everybody’s Got a Right to Live: Jobs, Income, the Right to Organize, Education and Housing Week Six (June 17-22) - A New and Unsettling Force - A Fusion Movement Rising Up That said, I'll leave you with these words from Rabbi Maimonides: "The world is equally balanced between good and evil. Your next act will tip the scales." For Real Democracy, Renaldo and the entire DS Team DONATE HERE Sent via ActionNetwork.org. To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from Democracy Spring, please click here.

Senators Have a New Plan to Expand Indefinite Detention and Endless Global War

By Christopher Anders, Deputy Director, ACLU Washington Legislative Office

MAY 3, 2018 | 4:00 PM

HTTPS://WWW.ACLU.ORG/BLOG/NATIONAL-SECURITY/SENATORS-HAVE-NEW-PLAN-EXPAND-INDEFINITE-DETENTION-AND-ENDLESS-GLOBAL-WAR

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse with this Congress, a bipartisan pair of senators have teamed up to write the single most dangerous piece of unconstitutional legislation of this Congress. 

Last week, Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) introduced S. Res. 59, which is a new Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF). An AUMF is roughly the modern equivalent of a declaration of war, and the Corker-Kaine AUMF gives President Trump and lots of future presidents the authority to take the country to war against an endless list of groups and individuals in an endless list of countries. 

The result will be true global war without end.

The two senators wanted to get a quick vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week and have the bill rocket through the Senate and House and onto the president’s desk. Fortunately for all of us, senators from both parties, from Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) to Sen. Jeff Merkely (D-Ore.), forced a slowdown. But Corker and Kaine are working overtime to try to jam through their AUMF, which is a dumpster fire of bad ideas.

Here are just some of the harms packed into their proposed AUMF:

It immediately authorizes war against eight groups. With literally no strategic or operational restrictions, the Corker-Kaine AUMF authorizes immediate war against eight groups in six countries. The American military could be sent into battle in countries such as Libya, Somalia, or Yemen to fight groups that most Americans have never even heard of. This could lead to the immediate deployment of tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of American military service members to fight if Congress passes and Trump signs this AUMF.

The U.S. could declare war on a person. The president — not just President Trump, but likely every president for the next generation or longer — will be able to add new groups or new countries to the AUMF by simply sending a one-paragraph note to Congress. Absurdly, the Corker-Kaine AUMF even gives the commander-in-chief the option of going to war against a “person.” The president would not even have to explain why the new group or person is an enemy or what kind of danger awaits from military action in a newly added country.

SENATORS: DON’T GIVE TRUMP A BLANK CHECK TO WAGE WORLDWIDE WAR

TAKE ACTION NOW

Congress abdicates its war-making powers. In a stunningly unconstitutional move, the Corker-Kaine AUMF takes the most important power that the Constitution gives to Congress alone — the power to declare war — and turns it almost entirely over to this president and every future president. The only way that Congress would be able to stop a determined president from going to war everywhere and against anyone the commander-in-chief chooses would be to get a two-thirds majority of both houses of Congress to override the president's veto.

This flips the constitutional order on its head since the Constitution says a majority of both houses must agree to go to war before military action is taken. By contrast, the Corker-Kaine AUMF requires two-thirds of both houses to try to stop a president from using the war power that the AUMF would give the president.  This provision to swap the Constitution’s requirement of a majority in both houses to declare war for a two-thirds majority of both houses to stop war breaches checks and balances and the separation of powers. It can’t possibly be constitutional.

So, what more could be added to a piece of legislation that unconstitutionally sets us up for war everywhere and forever? 

How about amping up the authority for any president to use the military to lock people up with no charge or trial? And expanding this authority with no boundaries — and with no statutory prohibition in the AUMF against locking up American citizens or anyone picked up even in the United States itself?  We believe it would still be unlawful for a president to try it (again), but why risk it?

Congress went down this same road in 2011, with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and hundreds of thousands of activists from the ACLU and our allies called and emailed their members of Congress urging its defeat. It narrowly passed, and President Obama signed it — with a promise not to use it against American citizens, but without denying that a president could have the power to order military detention.

The Intercept has an explanation of how this new detention provision could work. It is truly hard to believe that anyone in Congress would believe that it is a good idea for the legislature to head down this road again. Please sign our petition urging your senators to do everything they can do to make sure the Corker-Kaine AUMF never becomes law.  

The Corker-Kaine AUMF is beyond dangerous.  It is unconstitutional. And it is set up to never end. The Senate has a duty to kill this legislation immediately and show all members of Congress and the executive that abdicating Congress’s duty to declare war stays with the people’s representatives and no one else.

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