Friday, July 19, 2019

Get to know Ayanna Pressley and #TheSquad Massachusetts Peace Action Cole Harrison

Massachusetts Peace Action Cole Harrison<info@masspeaceaction.org>
To  Al Johnson  
Peace Action Endorsed: #TheSquad
Dear Al,
In the past few days, President Trump has taken to Twitter in a series of xenophobic, racist rants targeting four members of Congress, Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” he tweeted.  In fact, all four are U.S. citizens, three of them born in the U.S. The fourth, Ilhan Omar, was born in Somalia, spent four years in a Kenyan refugee camp, arriving in the U.S. at age twelve. She's a naturalized U.S. citizen. Telling these four women of color to "go back from where they came" is racist, divisional politiics and nothing less than a direct message to whip up Trump’s white-nationalist base.
Now, we need to show these courageous leaders that we have their backs by helping securing their place in Congress! The four freshmen you see above are perhaps the strongest pro-peace core we’ve seen elected to Congress in recent memory. Now, to help them keep their seats and climb in seniority in their respective committees, I need you to chip into their campaigns in support of their staunch, pro-peace leadership.
Collectively, these four women have been leading advocates for the progressive changes to U.S. foreign policy you and I seek. These four progressive champions, who collectively call themselves "The Squad," have already changed the face of American politics for the better. They have foregrounded a national conversation on Palestinian rights and the U.S.-Israel relationship. They have worked to end endless war and promote government spending that reflects the priorities of the people instead of corporate interests. They have each dedicated themselves to the causes of peace, justice, equality, and environmental sustainability. It’s imperative that we protect and keep pro-peace leaders like them in Congress. Please help them today by chipping in what you can to their courageous campaigns!
Chip in today
Don’t just take my word for it though.
Upon receiving our endorsement, Rep. Pressley said: My first priority is always to reduce violence and trauma, and to affirm the dignity and humanity of survivors — that means ending endless war and pursuing peace by all possible means. It also means fundamentally altering our approach to foreign policy — investing more in foreign assistance, specifically to improve conditions for women and girls around the world, and decreasing our military budget to provide more funding for critical domestic priorities like education, healthcare, and housing. We need a foreign policy that represents the best our nation has to offer, and I will continue working with Peace Action and other advocates to advance one.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar added, “I share Peace Action’s conviction that we are safest when our foreign policy helps make others safe, that we are strongest when we invest in our communities instead of in endless war, and that we are greatest when our values extend beyond the water’s edge. I look forward to continuing to work with Peace Action to advance the cause of peace.”
If these sound like the kind of pro-peace leaders you want to see casting votes in Congress, then chip in today to show them the support they need!
Trump’s attempts to motivate his white-nationalist base must be pushed back at every opportunity. The path to defeating Trump is to stand beside pro-peace champions like Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The actual election may be in the distance, but the work to build up the campaigns for our pro-peace allies is at our doorsteps today.
Thank you for helping to build the most progressive, diverse, pro-peace Congress we can!
Cole Harrison
For peace and justice,
Coleman Harrison
Cole Harrison
Executive Director
Massachusetts Peace Action
P.S. To maximize your impact, be sure to forward this message on to your friends, family and colleagues!

Visit our website to learn more about joining the organization or donating to Massachusetts Peace Action!
We thank you for the financial support that makes this work possible. 
Massachusetts Peace Action, 11 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138
617-354-2169  • info@masspeaceaction.org • Follow us on Facebook or Twitter
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The Centennial Of Pete Seeger’s Birthday (1919-2014)- On The Cententary Of His Birth-Remembering Woody Guthrie in the age of Obama By Lamar W. Hankins / The Rag Blog / July 19, 2011-This Land Is Your Land- If You Fight For It

Markin comment:

This Land Is Your Land- If You Fight For It- By Any Means Necessary

Remembering Woody Guthrie in the age of Obama By Lamar W. Hankins / The Rag Blog / July 19, 2011

Woody Guthrie, the song writer, musician, social philosopher, and populist extraordinaire, would have turned 99 this past week (July 14) had he lived. He died of Huntington's disease in 1967. He wrote perhaps thousands of songs, some of which continued to be sung after his death by popular performers, including Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul and Mary, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Tom Paxton, his son Arlo Guthrie, and many others.

Guthrie was born in Okemah, Oklahoma, traveled to California with migrant workers during the dust bowl and then all over the country. He hosted a live radio program in California that was very popular for a few years, but Woody did not take kindly to being told what to do or whom to associate with or what he could say, so that job ended.

In 1941, he was hired by the Department of the Interior to write songs about the Columbia River and the dams being built there in connection with a documentary project. Producing electricity from the flowing waters of the Columbia caught his imagination.

When he saw an item in the newspaper that offended his sense of social justice, he was inclined to write a song about it. That's how "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos" came to be written. A group of Mexican migrant workers were killed as they were sent back to Mexico after harvesting crops in the western U.S. He lamented how these people were used to put food on the tables of Americans and their deaths weren't given a second thought. Their names weren't even reported in the news articles. "All they called them were just deportees."

You don't have to agree with everything Woody wrote to appreciate his contribution to American culture. After all, no two people agree on everything, but the strength of his feeling for the American people cannot be denied. That feeling is best found, perhaps, in what has become an anthem of populism -- "This Land is Your Land."

This Land is Your Land
(words and music by Woody Guthrie)


Chorus:

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me

(Chorus)

I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me

(Chorus)

The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me

(Chorus)

As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress-passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

(Chorus)

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

(Chorus 2x)


In 2008, from everywhere in the country, the spirits of populists and caring people, and those who spent their lives working for social and economic justice for all, were lifted by the election of Barack Obama as president. At a special pre-inaugural gathering, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen, and others joined in singing all those verses to Woody's anthem. That's how high expectations were for Obama among those who favor a more compassionate world.

Such enthusiasm does not exist today. Obama has thrown in with the wealthy, the corporatists, the bankers, the exploiters, the war profiteers, and he seems to have forgotten the millions of average Americans who are without jobs, without the money to pay their mortgages, without hope for a better future.

I know that Obama faces great opposition, assuming that he cares about Woody's people, but that is no excuse for not using every ounce of his energy and influence for average Americans, rather than the elite. If this land was made for us all, it seems that we should have a government at least as good as its people. I've come to wish that at least we had a president that good as well.

[Lamar W. Hankins, a former San Marcos, Texas, city attorney, is also a columnist for the San Marcos Mercury. This article © Freethought San Marcos, Lamar W. Hankins. Read more articles by Lamar W. Hankins on The Rag Blog.]

The Rag Blog
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Medicare for All will save our local communities Our Revolution Jim Hightower

Our Revolution Jim Hightower<info@ourrevolution.com>
To  alfredjohnson34@comcast.net  

Friends,

Medicare for All is under attack. The health care industry is pushing hard to change people’s minds that it’s the best way to guarantee health care as a human right. Despite Joe Biden’s misguided (to be kind) comment that Medicare for All is “irrational,” the truth back here in the real world is that we are making tangible progress right here in Texas.

The Medicare for All movement recently received its biggest endorsement yet in the Lone Star State! The South Texas County Judges and Commissioners Association — a highly influential coalition of Democratic and Republican county judges and commissioners — voted unanimously to endorse Medicare for All.

County commissioners and judges carry a lot of weight. They are the ones who pave our roads, build our bridges, and are the gatekeepers to county finances and services. The problem is that most county budgets are eaten up by out of control health care costs, depriving them of the funds they need to fix our roads, help fund our schools, and other projects that support the common good of our communities.

In other words, Medicare for All is a signature part of how we rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and adequately fund other services to benefit our communities. Pitch in $10 today and help us continue to organize elected officials across the state to support Medicare for Y’all!

Our counties are being forced to pay for health care (that Medicare for All could easily resolve) preventing our local communities from properly investing in the common good. Our communities can’t make critical investments if rising health care costs deprive them of funds. Is it any wonder so many of our communities, especially in rural America, are struggling to get by?

We will need local leaders on our side to achieve Medicare for All. Never underestimate the pressure a local leader can apply to their Congresscritter. Contribute $10 today to keep our momentum going strong.

Solidarity,

Jim Hightower
National Board Member
Our Revolution
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PO Box 66208
WASHINGTON, DC, 20035

Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee. Our Revolution is a 501(c)(4) organization. Donations to Our Revolution are not deductible as charitable contributions for Federal income tax purposes. All donations are made to support Our Revolution’s general mission and are not designated for any specific activity.
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Can you split a $2.70 contribution between Ilhan Omar’s re-election campaign and our campaign for president? Send a message that we will fight back against Trump’s racism: BernieSanders.com

BernieSanders.com<info@berniesanders.com>
To  alfred johnson  
Ilhan Omar was taunted with racist chants at a Trump rally last night. Bernie wants to do all we can to keep her in Congress — you can read his note below.

Split a contribution between our campaigns now to send an unmistakable message against Trump’s racism.

logo
Alfred -
Last night, I was at dinner with Ilhan Omar, her daughter, and some other members of Congress when we heard the news that thousands of people at a Donald Trump rally were chanting "send her back."
To my surprise, Ilhan was pretty unfazed. Sadly, as she told me, she has been dealing with this kind of hatred and racism for a long time.
And she knows, as we do, that Trump is a demagogue doing what he does best: dividing and conquering through hate.
No. Trump won't talk about trying to throw 32 million Americans off their health care. He won't talk about his massive tax breaks for billionaires. He won't talk about his budget which called for huge cuts to Medicaid and Medicare. And he certainly won't talk about how climate change is destroying the planet.
But he will try to divide the country up based on the color of our skin, our religion, where we were born or our sexual orientation.
Brothers and sisters: Now is the time, more than at any other moment in our lifetimes, to say NO to racism, NO to divisiveness, NO to the hatred that Trump is trying to foment.
Ilhan Omar is a leader with strength and courage. She won’t back down to Trump’s racism and hate, and neither will we. So today, I want to ask you to do something important that will help ensure her voice is with us in Congress for a long time to come:
Can you split a contribution between Ilhan Omar’s re-election campaign and our campaign for president? Send a message that we will fight back against Trump’s racism.
If you've saved payment info with ActBlue Express, your donation will automatically be evenly split between Ilhan Omar and Bernie Sanders:
EXPRESS DONATE: $100
EXPRESS DONATE: $200
EXPRESS DONATE: $350
EXPRESS DONATE: $500
EXPRESS DONATE: $1000
OR DONATE ANOTHER AMOUNT
Bernie at dinner with Ilhan Omar
(Ilhan and me at dinner last night shortly after the news came through about the Trump rally)
Ilhan and I have worked together on a number of important issues since she was elected – most recently our effort to cancel all student debt in this country.
She is a critical voice in our fight for justice in America, and I am excited to work with her and other progressives when we are in the White House.
Split a contribution between her campaign and ours today:
Thank you for reading, and for supporting our campaigns.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders






Paid for by Bernie 2020
(not the billionaires)
PO BOX 391, Burlington, VT 05402
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The Centennial Of Pete Seeger’s Birthday (1919-2014)- *For The Folkies From Muskogee And Elsewhere- The Bob Feldman Music Blog On "My Space"- In Honor Of Woody Guthrie's 98th Birthday

Click on the headline to link to the Bob Feldman Music Blog( for lack of a better name) entry above on My Space.

Markin comment:

This is great stuff for any music aficionado, especially of folk, social protest, and roots music. I am going to be "stealing" entries off of this site periodically but you should be checking it out yourselves. Kudos, Bob Feldman.
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Take 1 minute to complete this LIVE poll: Bernie 2020 10:52 AM To alfred johnson Quick reply allReplyForwardDelete Big news: Bernie will debate on Tuesday, July 30 He will be joined by Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, and Beto O'Rourke. Which issue do you want to see Bernie talk about the most in the debate? These have been the top issues so far. Medicare for All Climate Crisis Money in Politics Income Inequality Foreign Policy Immigration Another Issue

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CNN: Add a progressive journalist for Democratic debates RootsAction Education Fund

RootsAction Education Fund<info@rootsaction.org>
To  alfredjohnson34@comcast.net  





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CNN is hosting the next Democratic presidential debates on July 30 and 31, but the AT&T Warner-owned network has announced no plans to include a progressive journalist on the panel of questioners. This contrasts with CNN’s Republican debates of 2015-16 in which unabashed conservatives were included to question candidates and thus influence the substance and tenor of the debate.

Click here to tell CNN that this double-standard is unacceptable.

In all four GOP presidential debates last cycle, right-wing Salem Radio host Hugh Hewitt was part of CNN’s panel. His questions strayed far from those asked by mainstream “objective” journalists – for example, pushing candidates on whether they’d “nominate conservative justices” committed to “religious liberty” as “an absolute litmus test.” Or when Hewitt goaded candidates to not “stay neutral” between Israel and Palestinians. Or when he bizarrely pushed a candidate to be as “ruthless as Churchill” in ordering air strikes that would kill “thousands of innocent children and civilians.”

Please urge CNN to quickly add a strong progressive to its debate panel.

An unapologetic progressive journalist would widen the debate by asking questions of Democratic candidates that CNN journalists will likely not ask – questions reflecting the concerns of Democratic voters and activists. Four years ago, CNN’s first GOP debate offered three panelists: CNN anchor Jake Tapper, CNN correspondent Dana Bash, and rightwinger Hewitt. In its March 2016 GOP debate, CNN offered four panelists: two CNN journalists (Tapper and Bash) and two conservatives: Hewitt and Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times.

But for its upcoming Democratic debates this month, CNN is proposing a narrow panel of three of its own journalists: Tapper, Bash, and anchor Don Lemon.

Click here to sign a petition urging CNN to broaden its Democratic debate panel, and end the double-standard by which rightwingers question Republican candidates but leftwingers are not invited to question Democrats.

As the media watch group FAIR recently suggested to CNN: “Any number of progressive media outlets could provide qualified journalists” – including Democracy Now!, The Nation, and The Intercept. Such journalists would be more sober than Hugh Hewitt, and would offer a needed complement to Tapper, Bash and Lemon.

Sign now to let CNN know that broadening the panel of questioners would serve its viewers and democracy.

After signing the petition, please use the tools on the next webpage to share it with your friends.

This work is only possible with your financial support. Please chip in $3 now.



-- The RootsAction Education Fund Team

Background:
FAIR:  “CNN Should Treat Left and Right Alike in Presidential Debates.” 
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