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Thursday, May 09, 2019
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VFP joins the Venezuela Embassy Protection Collective May 08, 2019 share on Facebook share on Twitter VFP flag across the street from the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, DC.
VFP joins the Venezuela Embassy Protection Collective
May 08, 2019
VFP flag across the street from the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, DC.
Over the last several days, VFP members from around the U.S. have joined the vigil outside the Embassy of Venezuela in support of VFP member Ken Ashe and other peace activists who are under siege inside the Embassy. The activists are in the Embassy at the invitation of the democratically elected government of Venezuela.
Late last night, Tuesday, five VFP members participated in a successful delivery of food, medicines, and clothing to our friends inside the Embassy. Despite intimidation and physical blocking from right-wingers, we remained nonviolent, and achieved our objective.
VFP members here this week include Bill Perry, Mike Hearington, Bruce Berry, Al Glatkowski, Russell Johnson, San Adams. VFP president Gerry Condon and Board member Maurice Martin are also present. And Ken Ashe, of course, who is among those inside the Venezuelan Embassy.
More VFP members are on the way. Some have requested and are receiving travel assistance funds from Veterans For Peace. San Diego VFP has contributed $500 for travel assistance. Chapter 27 in Minneapolis has contributed funds for food for the Embassy Protection Collective (those inside the Embassy). To donate to VFP efforts, click here!
Most VFP members can stay in DC for a few days to a week. So in order to maintain a VFP presence, we will need to keep a good rotation going.
“This is a profound act of resistance, and very symbolic too,” said VFP president Gerry Condon. “The Trump administration’s attempt to take over the Venezuelan Embassy and give it to right wing Venezuelans is a key part of their strategy to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Venezuela.”
Veterans For Peace is also calling on GI’s to resist illegal orders to participate in military aggression against the people of Venezuela
Where Have All The Flowers Gone- With Legendary Folk-Singer Pete Seeger In Mind
Where Have All The Flowers Gone- With Legendary Folk-Singer Pete Seeger In Mind
A while back, a few months ago now I think I mentioned in a sketch about how I came to learn about the music of Woody Guthrie I noted that it was hard to pin just exactly when I first heard his music since it pre-dated my coming to the folk minute of the 1960s. After some thought I pinpointed the first time to a seventh grade music class (Mr. Dasher’s class whom we innocently then called Dasher the Flasher just for rhyming purposes but which with today’s sensibilities about the young would not play very well) when he in an effort to have us appreciate various genre of music made us learn Woody’s This Land Is Your Land.
In thinking about when I first heard Pete Seeger sign I came up against that same quandary since I know I didn’t associate him with the first time I heard the emerging folk minute. That folk minute start which I do clearly remember the details of got going one Sunday night when tired of the vanilla rock and roll music that was being play in the fall of 1962 on the Boston stations I began flipping the small dial on my transistor radio settling in on this startling gravelly voice which sounded like some old-time mountain man singing Come All You Fair And Tender Ladies. I listened to a few more songs on what turned out to be a folk music program put on every Sunday evening between seven and nine at the request of some college kids in the area who were going crazy for roots music according to the DJ.
After thinking about it for a while I realized that I had heard Pete not in solo performance but when he was with The Weavers and they made a hit out of the old Lead Belly tune, Good Night, Irene. In those days, the early 1950s I think, The Weavers were trying to break into the popular music sphere and were proceeding very well until the Cold War night descended upon them and they, or individual members including Pete were tarred with the red scare brush. Still you cannot keep a good man down, a man with a flame-throwing banjo, with folk music DNA in his blood since he was the son of the well-known folk musicologist Charles Seeger, and with something to say to those who were interested in looking back into the roots of American music before it got commercialized. Interested in going back to the time when old cowboys would sing themselves to sleep around the camp fire out in the prairies, when sweat hard-working black share-croppers and plantation workers down South would get out a Saturday jug and head to the juke joint to chase the blues away, and when the people of the hills and hollows down in Appalachia would Saturday night get out the jug and run over to Bill Preston’s old seen better days red-painted barn and dance that last dance waltz to that weeping mountain fiddle. Stuff like that, lots of stuff like that to fill out the American songbook.
It is unacceptable for the president to declare executive privilege in response to subpoenas about the Mueller report. Congress — and the public — deserve to know the full truth. Bernie Sanders
It is unacceptable for the president to declare executive privilege in response to subpoenas about the Mueller report. Congress — and the public — deserve to know the full truth.
Alfred -
President Trump’s Justice Department just took an unprecedented action and denied a lawful request from the House of Representatives asking for unredacted documents relating to the Mueller report.
They are exerting “executive privilege,” declaring that they will not respond to any subpoenas.
President Trump seems determined to engineer a constitutional crisis. His refusal to comply with a standard congressional subpoena is completely unacceptable, especially because he has been insisting for weeks that the Mueller report fully exonerates him. If that is true, then why is he trying to block lawmakers from simply reading the full report? What is he trying to hide?
One of the most fundamental jobs of members of Congress is to oversee the executive branch of the federal government. Lawmakers have a right and an obligation to read the entire Mueller report in order to perform those oversight responsibilities.
The report did not reach a conclusion on whether President Trump and his administration obstructed justice — and that means it is especially important for Congress to thoroughly investigate Mueller’s full findings. We cannot do that if the president blocks access to the report.
As Donald Trump has said before, “Let it come out, let the people see it." I couldn’t agree more. It is unacceptable for the president to declare executive privilege in response to these subpoenas. Congress — and the public — deserve to know the full truth.
Donald Trump may think he is a dictator — but he is not. He is not above the law and he is not above the constitution.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders
Paid for by Bernie 2020
PO BOX 391, Burlington, VT 05402
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The biggest petition delivery in our history MoveOn Impeachment Team
The biggest petition delivery in our history
Dear MoveOn member,
On Monday, 790 former federal prosecutors released a statement saying that, given the findings of the Mueller report, Donald Trump would be charged with obstruction of justice if he were not president.1
The statement includes high-ranking former career government employees and political appointees from the George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Reagan, Nixon, Ford, and Eisenhower administrations.
The attorneys state, "Each of us believes that the conduct of President Trump described in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report would, in the case of any other person not covered by the Office of Legal Counsel policy against indicting a sitting President, result in multiple felony charges for obstruction of justice.”2
Alfred, we need Congress to see that impeachment is essential—and that it's truly possible. But right now, Democrats in Congress are acting too timidly. The Democratic leadership seems scared of using their constitutional power and have turned their backs on calling for impeachment.
That's why this Thursday, MoveOn and a big coalition of allies are delivering 10 million petition signatures to Congress demanding the House begin impeachment hearings. 10 million! This may be the largest petition delivery in history.
It's a sign of the widespread, energized demand for action. And we raised $75,000 in the last 24 hours from MoveOn members like you to put up a billboard in a high-traffic location in Washington, D.C., calling on Congress to listen to the will of the 10 million. Now, if we can raise another $75,000, we'll also buy billboards in the districts of key House leaders who are standing in the way of impeachment hearings. But we need your help to do it. Will you chip in $3 now?
Recent polls show that 34% of Americans support impeachment—which is exactly the percentage of Americans who wanted to impeach Richard Nixon before the House began hearings. But once Congress held impeachment hearings and the American public saw the evidence, the number rocketed to 68%, and Nixon resigned rather than face conviction.
Congress can't just follow the polls. It has a responsibility to act, to show that it is doing everything in its power to confront an out-of-control and abusive White House.
And with history as a guide, taking this kind of action can build the case for impeachment to become a galvanizing issue this year and, if necessary, in next year's elections.
But to do this, we need to inspire House Democrats to lead and then shame the Republicans who are taking no action at all.
The second remedy to Trump is through next year's elections. And, in all likelihood, that is where we'll have to defeat him. Even if the House does hold hearings and does impeach, the Republican-controlled Senate has shown its cowardice in confronting the standard-bearer of its party.
Which means Trump could be impeached in the House but not convicted in the Senate.
At that point, again, it will be on all of us to defeat him. But we'll be joined by an energized electorate that has seen leadership from Democrats and been audience to the crimes and corruption and abuses of the Trump administration. We'll be joined by first-time voters who see that progressive candidates stand for something and are willing to fight. And we'll be fueled by the determination that we are doing all we can to stop Trump's abuses.
Impeachment is essential. It's constitutional. It's possible. And ultimately, it will draw lines that will fuel a fight through 2020 if need be.
So, can you pitch in $3 to help us pull off the biggest petition delivery in history and erect billboards in key districts across the country, putting wind in the sails of the Democrats, shaming Republicans, and exposing Trump's crimes and corruption and abuses for the American people to see?
Trump is not above the law. And it's up to us to insist that Congress hold him accountable by holding impeachment hearings. Impeachment is in the Constitution to hold accountable a president who is out of control, who is abusing power, obstructing justice, defying the law, and harming vulnerable communities, all while enriching himself and his cronies.
Thanks for all you do.
–David, Emma, Elsie, Bill, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. Statement by Former Federal Prosecutors, Medium, May 6, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/65355?t=5&akid=233728%2E38417624%2E7eLuqV
https://act.moveon.org/go/65355?t=5&akid=233728%2E38417624%2E7eLuqV
2. Ibid.
Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?
PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
This email was sent to Alfred Johnson on May 9th, 2019. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.
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