Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 1232
November 23, 2016
California Independence Movement Formally Launches #Calexit*
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Californian secessionists have taken the first formal step in their desire to break away from the rest of the United States after filling a ballot proposal on Monday to the state’s attorney general. It could see the state vote on “Calexit” as early as 2018.
California Independence Movement Formally Launches #Calexit*
Hot on the heels of Brexit and a Trump victory, a group of Californians want out of a Trump-controlled United States.
Californian secessionists have taken the first formal step in their desire to break away from the rest of the United States after filling a ballot proposal on Monday to the state’s attorney general. It could see the state vote on “Calexit” as early as 2018.
Indigenous Californians
Secessionist group “Yes California” launched the ballot proposal with the plebiscite question for voters: “Should California become a free, sovereign, and independent country?” with March 13, 2019, set as the proposed date for vote.
The ballot proposal also wants to clear the path for independence by first changing the California state constitution to allow a legal break away, repealing Article III, Section 1 which states that “The State of California is an inseparable part of the…
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Torture 101
Taxi to the Dark Side
Directed by Alex Gibney (2007)
Film Review
Taxi to the Dark Side is a detailed expose of Bush administration torture polices at three overseas US prisons: Bagram in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Guantanamo in Cuba. It traces extensive documentary evidence that high level Bush administration officials (including Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney) personally approved illegal torture techniques and covered them up by court martially low level officers – who they dismissed as “a few bad apples.”
The film takes its title from an Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar who was accidentally swept up by occupying forces in 2002. Dilawar died of torture-induced injuries within five days of detention, a death an Army pathologist classified as homicide. A total of 105 detainees had died in US torture facilities as of 2007 when this film was made. Of these, 37 were classified as homicide.
During the campaign, Donald Trump promised to “bring back torture.” His reversal earlier this week makes this documentary especially pertinent, as he’s likely to face some backlash from his neocon supporters.
November 22, 2016
VOTE NOW: Trump is letting us vote our picks for his remaining cabinet positions via GOP website
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I put Ron Paul as Secretary of State, Alan Grayson as Attorney General, Ellen Brown as Secretary of the Treasury, Dr Jill Stein as Secretary of Health and Human Services and Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute for the Department of Energy.
Finding Truth In an Illusory World
~@ I wrote in Ron Paul for Secretary of Treasury….. This is a new one, public participation in assigning cabinet positions…. Hope all will participate…. WHEN is the last time we had a say in this??..
Currently up at the Republican Party’s website is a survey to offer up ideas on who should be named for positions Trump still needs to fill.
GOP link to survey:
https://gop.com/survey/cabinet-survey/
List of current considerations:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-administration-appointee-tracker/
Dear Mr. Trump, About Your 29 Ideas by David Swanson
Image by Susan Melkisethian via Flickr
by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
November 21, 2016
Regarding your 29 proposals, here’s a bit more than just the ranking you asked for. I’ll start with the best:
7. Announce our official withdrawal from the TPP.
That’s my favorite. Wonderful! We don’t need any more trade agreements that empower corporations over governments and impose unpopular laws on people. Good riddance! Don’t replace it with something worse, please!
8. Renegotiate NAFTA into terms that protect the American worker.
This could be a great one. I’m not clear why you wouldn’t just tear up the treaty you’ve repeatedly called one of the worst treaties in history. You could negotiate bilateral agreements with other nations. There’s no actual need for NAFTA. But if you’re going to first try to renegotiate it, the U.S. worker needs the right to organize, among other rights. The workers of Canada and Mexico need to be considered. As does the natural environment that we and our kids all have to live in.
5. Introduce an infrastructure package to modernize our country.
This, too, could be terrific. Or it could be disastrous. Modernized countries have fast electric trains, solar and wind energy, pedestrian and bicycle paths, electric car chargers, sustainable agriculture, free hospitals for all human beings, and architecture that leans more toward the beautiful than the monumental. We could use more schools and parks, more farmers’ markets, more urban gardens, and more places to vote. All of these dreams and much more could be easily achieved, even while radically boosting foreign aid, if the U.S. were to either cut military spending or tax billionaires or both. But you want to increase military spending and cut taxes on billionaires. Even if your idea of modernized infrastructure is coal mines and oil wells and highways, you have no way to pay for it — thank goodness. And don’t forget: the people who voted for you are obsessed with the debt, so don’t even try that route.
20. Enact a five-year ban on White House and congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service.
This is good, as far as it goes. Why not 10 years both before and after? And why just lobbyists? Why not anyone profiting financially from a sector governed by the relevant government position? And why just the White House and Congress? Why not all government departments and agencies? Putting an oil profiteer in charge of the EPA is not solved by the fact that the EPA isn’t in the White House.
25. Reform the Department of Veterans Affairs in order to provide proper treatment to America’s forgotten heroes.
This sounds good, if you actually mean it. But let’s not call them heroes. Let’s call them brave people who were abused by some of those recent wars you properly denounced during the campaign — though you supported them when it mattered most.
Source: Dear Mr. Trump, About Your 29 Ideas by David Swanson
Myanmar’s New “Democratic Dictator”: Aung San Suu Kyi
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The Western media is portraying Myanmar’s recent elections as historic. One commentator described Myanmar as an “exuberant nation prepared for a new era of democracy and political freedom.” But one wonders what sort of democracy and political freedom can be borne of elections in which nearly a million voters were banned from casting their ballots and with the apparent victor already declaring herself above the law.
By Tony Cartalucci
Global Research, November 21, 2016
New Eastern Outlook 21 November 2016
The Western media is portraying Myanmar’s recent elections as historic. One commentator described Myanmar as an “exuberant nation prepared for a new era of democracy and political freedom.” But one wonders what sort of democracy and political freedom can be borne of elections in which nearly a million voters were banned from casting their ballots and with the apparent victor already declaring herself above the law.
Sidestepping these inconvenient facts, the West is nonetheless excited about the prospect of Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) taking power in Myanmar.
This is in part due to the fact that Suu Kyi herself, along with the NLD she leads and a vast network of supporting “civil society” nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have all been created and sustained annually by billions of dollars worth of…
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Trump Reverses Campaign Pledge, Will Not Go After Hillary
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The first (I suspect of many) broken campaign promises.
Donald Trump reversed a major campaign pledge today. An aide says Trump Won’t Push for Investigations of Hillary Clinton.
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November 21, 2016
Turn Widespread Discontent Into Mass Movement
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers PopularResistance November 20th, 2016
At the end of last week, we focused on final preparations for an action camp and series of protests to stop ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in the lame duck session. We were cautiously optimistic that sustained resistance through the fall would be successful.
The TPP was signed on February 4th and President Obama did not seek ratification all year because members of Congress did not want their vote to be on record before the election. Strong actions throughout the year to pressure members of Congress to oppose the TPP had an impact. Even Rob Portman (R-OH), a former US Trade Representative under President Bush, switched his position and opposed the deal. During the presidential campaign, all of the candidates came out against the deal, except Gary Johnson. Sanders made the TPP an issue with Clinton; and Trump continued that through the General Election, especially in Rust Belt states. For the past two months Sen. McConnell and Speaker Ryan kept telling Obama – we don’t have the votes and will not consider the TPP in the lame duck. The White House and other TPP proponents lobbied Congress in hopes that the situation would change after the election.
The night before our long-planned action camp began, the White House announced they would not be submitting the TPP for ratification. After more than five years we had a major people-powered victory over transnational corporate power! The media gave Trump the credit but the reality was no matter who was elected, the movement to stop the TPP had the votes to prevent ratification. . . .
Source: Turn Widespread Discontent Into Mass Movement
Americans Should Un-Stupid Themselves
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The most stupid thing you can do right now is to ignore the several core serious messages of Trump that resonated so much with so many Americans because for one reason or another you hate the messenger.
Many Americans Should Un-Stupid Themselves – OpEd
To be upfront, I strongly believe that President Trump is exactly what the USA desperately needs at this time, a disrupter. I say this as someone who worked in the political world for over 20 years, is white, highly educated, old and affluent. I ask all who have negative views of Trump to open their minds and consider my arguments.
In September 2015 I published an article in which I said: “Trump surely has more current and potential supporters than the media and political establishment can accept. Unlike Trump, they have no imagination. The Donald, to his credit, is really on to something Great. I hope that many more Americans recognize that he is exactly what the nation needs. Stick that middle finger up at all the chronic liars that have sold out the vast majority of Americans.” More than…
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Sanders Draws Massive Crowds as Progressives Prepare to Fight Trump
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Sanders: “If Mr. Trump has the guts to stand up to […] corporations, he will have an ally with me.”
by Nika Knight, staff writer
Common Dreams | 18 November, 2016
“Real wages for American workers have gone down. Inequality has gone up. Those are real issues, and the Democratic Party has got to address them,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said at Johns Hopkins University on Tuesday. (Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
The election of a right-wing, repressive government led by President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican-dominated Congress has the American left searching for ways to mount a resistance and regain ground in future elections.
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A 1%er Looks at Inequality
This is a presentation Oscar Mayer heir Chuck Collins, author of Born on Third Base, gave on November 9th. At age 26, Collins made the brave decision to give his fortune away. He currently works as a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC. In his leisure time, he works to educate 1%ers about inequality and their ethical obligations to society. He has campaigned heavily with Bill Gates senior and other billionaires to retain the estate tax and to oppose tax cuts for the wealthy.
Most of the presentation concerns his efforts to challenge the views of other 1%ers on privilege and the grave threat inequality poses to American democracy and the planet.
The Q&As, in which he talks about Donald Trump’s election upset are the best part of the talk. Collins credits Trump’s victory to the dismissive way Democrats view and talk about the working class (ie “the deplorables”). He highly praises the late Joe Bageant’s Deer Hunting with Jesus for its exploration of this issue.
The best question is when an audience member asks if true equality is possible under capitalism.
Q&A’s start at 41:00
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