You've given the Pentagon more than enough RootsAction Education Fund

You've given the Pentagon more than enough

RootsAction Education Fund<info@rootsaction.org>

4/20/2019 5:20 PM

To  alfredjohnson34@comcast.net  

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It’s your choice. If you make a tax-deductible donation now to the RootsAction Education Fund, most likely you’ll pay less taxes next year. More than half of the U.S. government’s discretionary spending is military-related. If you think there’s something wrong with such priorities, we certainly agree. In fact the efforts of the RootsAction network this week have helped -- at least for the moment -- to block the U.S. House of Representatives from voting for even more military spending next year. If you contribute now with a tax-deductible donation, you’ll be helping the RootsAction Education Fund to gear up for long struggles ahead -- working for peaceful resolution of conflicts instead endless wars. And we’re committed to freedom of information that can make possible the informed consent of the governed instead of media manipulation that’s so routine. That’s why the RootsAction Education Fund actively supports the rights of whistleblowers, journalists, and activists who insist on speaking truth to -- and about --  power. We challenge the kind of power that spends astronomical amounts of tax money on the military while so many people are suffering from lack of health care, education, housing, nutrition and other human rights. We can’t keep doing the work of the RootsAction Education Fund without support from people who care. That’s why we’re asking for your tax-deductible donation. Thank you! Please share on Facebook and Twitter. With best wishes, The RootsAction Education Fund team Background: >> National Priorities Project: Trump's FY2020 Budget Request Bloats Militarized Spending—and Slashes Actual Human Needs www.RootsAction.org Click here to unsubscribe and stop ALL email from RootsAction.

RSVP: Truth and Poverty Bus Tour Massachusetts Poor People's Campaign

RSVP: Truth and Poverty Bus Tour

Massachusetts Poor People's Campaign<massachusetts@poorpeoplescampaign.org>

4/22/2019 7:15 AM

To  alfredjohnson34@comcast.net  

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Alfred, There’s still a chance to sign up for the SPILL THE TEA tour stop on the MASSACHUSETTS Poor People’s Campaign’s National Emergency Truth and Poverty Tour! During the "Spill The Tea" tour, we will give a historic overview of the City of Boston after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and what leaders are doing today to carry the torch. The Massachusetts Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will take the movement to the streets for the Greater Boston “Spill The Tea” tour; a national mobilizing effort underway in over 40 states across the nation. Reverend Liz Theoharis (Co Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign) will join the Greater Boston efforts tour along with Unitarian Universalist faith leaders, Labor organizer’s, activist, students, the working poor and homeless in the spirit of the Freedom Rides to shift the narrative of this national emergency. The mobile “teach-in” will break through the narrative about who is hurt by systemic racism by creating a platform of diverse impacted people, faith community and supporters to share their stories of how they’re impacted by  poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy/militarism, and the Distorted Moral Narrative that continues to blame the poor for poverty. Join us in lifting the voices of the poor and marginalized in our community and highlighting solutions to our nation’s fundamental issues. You won’t want to miss out!   April 28, 2019. RSVP below. RSVP Forward together, MASSACHUSETTS Poor People’s Campaign From the Massachusetts Poor Peoples Campaign Coordinating Committee Sent via ActionNetwork.org. To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from Massachusetts Poor People's Campaign, please click here.

Your roundup of veterans' health care news VeteransPolicy.org

Your roundup of veterans' health care news

VeteransPolicy.org<execdirector@veteranspolicy.org>

4/22/2019 8:14 AM

To  alfredjohnson34@comcast.net  

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“Even VA privatizers agree that the MISSION Act is likely to stumble.” VHPI’s Suzanne Gordon writes in The American Prospect: A potentially costly and harmful experiment in veterans’ health care is scheduled to begin eight weeks from now. The Veterans Community Care Program (VCCP), created under the VA MISSION Act of 2018, will channel millions of the nation’s most vulnerable veterans to private-sector doctors and hospitals. VA leadership is determined to launch the program on June 6, in spite of federal reports and Capitol Hill testimony by both friends and foes of privatization that say it is not ready for rollout. This was made abundantly clear at an April 10 Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs hearing. Chairman Johnny Isakson (R-GA), a leading proponent of outsourcing veterans’ care from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to private doctors and hospitals, predicted, “We’re going to stumble before we walk.” It was a staggering admission: VA leaders and Republicans like Isakson seem willing to send waves of patients into the private sector where the care is likely to cause harm. Passed last June, with bipartisan support and only 83 congressional dissenters, the VA MISSION Act of 2018 was intended to remedy the problems inherent in the 2014 Veterans Choice Program. Sharon Silas, acting director of Health Care for the Government Accountability Office, catalogued a long list of Choice’s failings at the hearing. The program was hastily implemented, poorly coordinated, and riddled with cost overruns. Meanwhile, third-party administrators who mishandled reimbursement claims and overbilled for their services were greatly enriched as Choice delivered more than $19 billion to private-sector interests. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie, according to the GAO, has neglected to correct many of these administrative problems. These and many other stumbles have led some veterans’ service organizations, which originally supported the VCCP legislation, to express alarm. The VHA “is not yet prepared, nor likely to be prepared within eight weeks, to implement significantly more complex and expansive access standards without risking serious disruption to veterans’ healthcare,” warned Adrian Atizado, deputy national legislative director of the Disabled American Veterans, at the Senate Committee hearing. He questioned whether the VHA can “safely coordinate the clinical care of the increased number of veterans who use the VCCP networks.” Read the full article here. “VA privatization latest battleground for congressional rising stars” Leo Shane III reports at Military Times: A pair of prominent freshman lawmakers offered sharply different views about the future of the Department of Veterans Affairs health care this week, bringing the ongoing debate over fears of department privatization to the next generation of elected leaders. The duo — Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Republican Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw — have both built national followings since their elections last fall, and recently have sparred directly over social media concerning rhetoric surrounding Muslims and the Sept. 11 attacks. But this week marked each legislator’s first focused entry into VA policy discussions, and their comments suggested both will make those issues a key focus in months to come — with very different positions on the issue. Read more at Military Times. AOC ‘breaks with Democratic Party orthodoxy and decries’ VA privatization Jasper Craven reports on a National Nurses United event where Suzanne Gordon was on a panel alongside Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other veterans’ health care leaders. Read it at The Nation: On Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez broke from party orthodoxy. She offered a full-throated defense of the agency and made clear whom lawmakers are really serving with the new legislation: “They are trying to fix the VA for pharmaceutical companies, they are trying to fix the VA for insurance corporations and, ultimately, they are trying to fix the VA for a for-profit health-care industry that does not put people or veterans first.” “If we really want to fix the VA so badly, let’s start hiring, and fill up some of those 49,000 [staff] vacancies,” Ocasio-Cortez continued, as nurses in scarlet scrubs and veterans roared back in agreement. Ocasio-Cortez highlighted much of the good done by the VA, from the agency’s comprehensive screening process for war-related maladies to its holistic and coordinated approach to treatment. She protested an agency policy that severely restricts access to care for veterans with other than honorable discharges, noting that these military expulsions are often related to “a mental-health issue you generated on the job.” She said that should Medicare for All be passed, the VA would most likely remain unchanged. While many champions of universal health-care coverage are fighting to essentially abolish private health insurance while retaining the private-hospital system, AOC said in an ideal world, the civilian health system would mirror what’s currently offered to veterans. “If you ask me, I would like VA for all,” she said to cheers. Read more at The Nation. Coming up on Capitol Hill House Committee on Veterans Affairs Wednesday, April 24 at 10:30 a.m.: Joint Subcommittee Field Hearing: “Protecting Those Who Protect Us: Ensuring the Success of our Student Veterans” Additional oversight for Cerner Corp. on the horizon The troubled electronic health record project could soon have more oversight. Read more at FierceHealthcare.com: Lawmakers have made it clear that the Department of Veterans Affairs $16 billion electronic health records project would be under close scrutiny. This week, two senators took steps to ramp up that oversight of the beleaguered IT initiative. U.S. Senators Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) introduced this week bipartisan legislation to establish a third-party oversight committee to help monitor the implementation of the new EHR system.  The 11-member EHR advisory committee would be made up of medical professionals, IT and interoperability specialists, and veterans currently receiving care from the VA but would operate separately from the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense, according to a press release. Read the full article at FierceHealthcare.com. Quick Clicks: The Cincinnati Enquirer: 60 docs and pharmacists charged in ‘largest ever’ prescription opioid bust Government Executive: VA whistleblower protection office accused of retaliating against whistleblowers Patient Engagement IT: ‘VA Reviews Veteran Mental Healthcare Access Amid Suicide Reports’ NextGov.com: VA builds a network of physicians, surgeons and researchers to explore how 3D-printing can improve the lives of veterans Copyright © 2019 Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute, All rights reserved. You’ve subscribed to the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute newsletter (formerly FFVHC). Our mailing address is: Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute 4081 Norton Ave Oakland, CA 94602-4013 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT VENEZUELA, Eyewitness reports, Thurs., May 2, 7 pm, E5, Boston

Marilyn Levin<marilyn.levin@rcn.com>

4/22/2019 10:23 AM

To  act-ma  

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TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT VENEZUELA:

EYEWITNESS REPORT BACKS FROM RECENT VISITORS



Thursday, May 2, 7 PM

Encuentro 5

9A Hamilton Place, Boston

Across from Park St. Station (Venue is not wheelchair accessible)



Hear from three recent visitors to Venezuela who went to learn firsthand the
truth of how the government and population are responding to defend their
country from the U.S. led attacks. Their eyewitness accounts directly
counter the false narratives coming from the Administration, Congress and
the press, all supporting a discredited, unpopular opposition in order to
impose regime change and wrest control of Venezuela's oil and other
resources.



* Bahman Azad - U.S. Peace Council

* Lee Schlenker - Witness for Peace

* Luis Sanchez - Boston Venezuela Solidarity Committee



Sponsors: United for Justice with Peace, Social Action Committee First
Unitarian Universalist Society of Newton, MA State Green Rainbow Party,
Common Street Spiritual Center of Natick, Metro West Peace Action, Women's
International League for Peace and Freedom - Boston Branch, Boston Venezuela
Solidarity Committee, Mass. Peace Action, United National Antiwar Coalition,
Witness for Peace

Additional Report Backs:

May 3, 7PM First Unitarian Universalist Society of Newton

1326 Washington St., Newton

May 4, 7PM Common Street Spiritual Center -

13 Common Street, Natick



For more information: <mailto:ujpcoalition@gmail.com>
ujpcoalition@gmail.com



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Lordstown Bernie Sanders

Lordstown

Bernie Sanders<info@berniesanders.com>

4/22/2019 10:34 AM

To  alfred Johnson  

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alfred -

Last year, the CEO of General Motors made almost $22 million in compensation — nearly 300 times what the average worker at the company makes each year.

At the same time, GM is closing a number of profitable plants and shipping those jobs overseas, including one in Lordstown, Ohio.

I visited the Lordstown plant recently with a message for General Motors, and that is if corporations like GM think they can throw workers out on the street while they’re making billions in profits and then line up to receive even more money from federal government contracts, well… that ain’t going to happen when I am president.

We made a short video from our visit. You need to see what is happening in Lordstown. The piece is quite powerful. Watch and share it with your friends on social media:

FACEBOOK  |  TWITTER  |  YOUTUBE

Lordstown is an example of the horrific impact on a small town and a community when a company like General Motors gives billions of dollars in stock buybacks to make the very rich even richer while closing down plants and shipping those jobs overseas.

I have always felt there is something profoundly wrong with people and businesses that have so much money yet still decide that they are willing to step over working people, many with families and young children, in order to get more and more.

And what we have to decide is whether in our democracy, we are going to allow a handful of businesses on Wall Street to close down profitable plants like the one in Lordstown.

What we have to decide is whether or not we should allow a company like GM — which received a $50 billion bailout from the taxpayers of this country — to throw thousands of productive workers out on the street.

To say the least, that does not show a lot of love and gratitude.

So what we are going to do on this campaign, and when I am in the White House, is tell companies like General Motors that they are going to start being good corporate citizens — that their greed is going to end.

We are going to tell them that they will no longer continue to treat their workers with disdain and contempt.

And that starts with spreading the word about what GM is doing in places like Lordstown.

So please, watch our video from Lordstown and share it on your favorite social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

This is important. People need to see what is happening in Lordstown.

Thank you for sharing their story.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

---

Sign our petition: tell Donald Trump no more federal contracts for General Motors until they stop outsourcing American jobs, including the ones in Lordstown, Ohio.

ADD YOUR NAME