Putting the Fourteenth Amendment on ICE

 Slipping Into Slavery

by C.A. Matthews

We're skating on slippery ice in the USA. We're sliding down the icy slope of evil into a morass of immorality and cruelty at an unprecedented speed. Will we have the courage and compassion to pull ourselves out of the abyss? Or is it too late?

The slippery slide includes our Supreme Court, which this week wiped out the rights of workers to sue their employers, forcing arbitration upon workers that never goes their way. "Slave wages" are all the rage, as billionaires rail against Fight for $15 activists. "Right to hire" laws in reality mean the "right to fire" if your bosses decide they don't like it when you speak up against their sexual harassment or racism or ageism... No accountability means workers are slaves to the whims of capricious capitalists, as fewer and fewer workers belong to a union that would increase their power to collective bargain.

Back at the border, ICE has been exposed as a human trafficking agency extraordinaire, providing free labor and child sex slaves to consenting capitalists. (Read Coast Watcher's piece and check out the links below on this breaking story. This meme gives you the details on the worldwide horror of human trafficking, a.k.a. slavery.)

And, as many of you know, our for-profit prison system provides free/cheap labor for many multinational corporations. This explains why our militarized police continues to incarcerate people of color to satisfy their corporate bosses' desires for sweatshop profits--and perhaps to act out their own violent, racist agenda. We don't need to go to Africa to find new slaves, do we? We find them in our cities and towns driving cars down our streets or taking a college campus tour or picnicking in the park. The more you lock up--the bigger your profit margin!

To clarify the point I'm making, the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

This explains why Trump calls immigrants "animals," since he's making a case they aren't "any persons within [US] its jurisdiction" and so they are  not "entitled to equal protection of the laws."  In other words, human beings (because of their nationality) can be bought and sold like cattle and forced to work on chicken farms in Ohio with no one the wiser about whatever happened to them. "Due process of law" be damned!

After all, who cares if a cow or chicken is slaughtered for meat? Who cares if human beings are taken from the border or wrongly incarcerated and put into bondage, or working for capitalists who don't pay a living wage? Since these capitalists hold us "inferiors" in contempt and begrudge paying even a state minimum wage to American workers, why would they care about the legal rights of "free laborers" that are available via ICE and human trafficking?

And our government cooperates fully with capitalists, doesn't it? Our elected officials can't wait to give huge corporations like Amazon and Walmart tax breaks while their employees are forced to apply for Food Stamps. Our current system of government and these capitalist exploiters enjoy a very cozy relationship.

It's hard to put into words the disgust and fear one feels when reading these mainstream news articles about ICE and human trafficking. The sad thing is, many independent journalists have been following this story for years and were routinely ignored since the information they uncovered was inconvenient. Perhaps now is the time we all educate ourselves about the breadth and depth of the evil inherent in our establishment political parties and the mainstream media. 

This past week, both establishment parties voted to roll back banking regulations that would  protect us from another mortgage crisis. There's no such thing as a "lesser evil." Just evil.

For it makes no real difference who sits in the White House--Democrat or Republican--obviously. This trafficking of children didn't start yesterday. It's been going on for years, and the evil is ongoing. There's no incentive for it to stop as long as capitalists can make mega-profits off the slave labor/slave wages of the workers. There's no public outcry possible when billionaires have their cronies in the mainstream media cover things up for them. That is, until their pot of immorality boils over, and it gets too messy to mop and sweep it under the carpet. 

I  have some hope. Let's see how well the establishment parties "sweep it under the carpet" this time, shall we? I know--why don't we take their broom and mop away so they can't? (First off--let's end the Citizens United ruling once and for all.) Exposed for the hypocrites and villains they are, let's introduce these corrupt officials to the for-profit prison system and see how they like being incarcerated and forced to work for nothing, huh?

Read the following articles and contact your elected officials by phone, letter, email and in-person visits. Tell them you won't support them in the upcoming elections until they do something to end all of these inhuman, unjust, immoral, evil, racist, anti-worker activities now. Power to the people--human beings, not corporations!

Obama Administration Placed Children With Human Traffickers
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/obama-administration-placed-children-with-human-traffickers-report-says/2016/01/28/39465050-c542-11e5-9693-933a4d31bcc8_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f3ba36a9ba59

Op-Ed: What kind of country would tear apart and lock up families fleeing violence in their homelands? Ours
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-sessions-separating-families-20180508-story.html

US Placed Immigrant Children with Traffickers
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/01/29/us/politics/us-placed-immigrant-children-with-traffickers-report-says.html

Border Patrol Kicked, Punched Migrant Children, Threatened Some with Sexual Abuse, ACLU Alleges
http://www.newsweek.com/customs-and-border-control-beat-kicked-and-threatened-migrant-children-under-941385

Who buys a trafficked child for sex? Otherwise ordinary men
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/nation-now/2018/01/30/sex-trafficking-column/1073459001/

We're making undocumented people wear yellow bracelets now
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/50327-were-making-undocumented-people-wear-yellow-bracelets-now

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Putting the 14th Amendment on ICE
by Coast Watcher

In late April 2018, a Senate homeland security subcommittee hearing took evidence from Steven Wagner, acting assistant secretary with the Department of Health and Human Services. Wagner testified that the federal agency had effectively "lost" 1,475 children who had crossed the US-Mexico border on their own, which is to say they were unaccompanied by adults. Most of these children are from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras and were fleeing drug cartels, gang violence and domestic abuse.

The HHS had placed 7,635 of them with sponsors. From October to December 2017 conducted a random sampling of these children and discovered that while 6,075 still lived with their sponsors, 28 had run away, five had subsequently been deported, and 52 were living with someone else. Wagner admitted the rest were missing. The admission raises concerns these missing children could be in the hands of sex traffickers or used as unregistered laborers in the black economy.

Jim Jordan in Marion, Ohio

Consider this: If the follow-up calls were made from a random sampling, it means that the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may have taken into its custody more than 34,000 children since 2013, who have subsequently gone missing.

One example of how this can happen occurred in Ohio two years ago. The Senate subcommittee released a report detailing how HHS officials placed eight children with human traffickers who subsequently forced the minors to work on an egg farm in Marion, Ohio. Marion is the center of Ohio’s Fourth Congressional District, a hideously gerrymandered Republican fiefdom currently occupied by Tea Party leader Congressman Jim Jordan.

https://www.azcentral.com/picture-gallery/news/politics/immigration/2014/06/18/first-glimpse-of-immigrant-children-at-holding-facility/10808687/

Department officials had failed to establish procedures to protect the children, nor did they follow up with the so-called sponsors. Following this incident, in 2016 the HHS and Department of Homeland Security signed an agreement to establish joint procedures for handling the affairs of unaccompanied minors. That agreement has not been implemented.

The procedures to be followed when unaccompanied children cross the border are these. They are usually apprehended by Border Patrol agents or turn themselves in to customs officers. Once they are processed they are given into the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services. The HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement has over a hundred shelters around the country where it houses children and provides care until such time as they can be turned over to a sponsor to await their immigration court hearings. These sponsors are usually family members already legally resident in the United States, and they are supposed to undergo rigorous background checks.

Thirty days after the placement, HHS officers follow up with calls to ensure that the minors continue to live with the sponsors, are enrolled in school and are aware of their immigration court dates. However, several immigration advocates who work with unaccompanied children said the department did little follow-up.

Allison E. Herre, a lawyer with Catholic Charities of Southwestern Ohio, said she had seen sponsors who forced the children to work instead of attending school and who failed to ensure that the children attended their court proceedings. The HHS claims it is not legally responsible for children after their release from the refugee office.

Let’s look at the relevant article of the Fourteenth Amendment:

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

In other words the State must guarantee all persons equal protection of the laws, whether they are American citizens or immigrants – illegal or otherwise.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency seems to think otherwise.

They and the Department of Health and Human Services are responsible for what must be the largest violation of habeas corpus for legal minors in the history of the United States. We are seeing the slow revelation of systemic governmental violation of the law extending back years, beyond President Trump’s notorious "Zero Tolerance" policy, back through the Obama administration and beyond.

Public outcry over this horrible abuse of children is rising. Faced with this Trump recently attempted to shift the blame for the failures onto Obama’s Democratic government. To some extent he’s correct, but his own Zero Tolerance policy is not helping matters one bit. With his political base calling for a wall along the US-Mexico border and their blatant displays of racism, it’s unlikely that we’ll see any measures to recover these missing children any time soon – unless the vast majority of people stand up and demand positive action. 

Laws are only good if the will to enforce them is there. The Constitution of the United States is the statutory law of the land. Let’s all demand that Trump and his government actually observe the laws and take action to find these children.

Related articles:

The US lost track of 1500 immigrant children last year. Here's why people are outraged now

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/05/27/the-u-s-lost-track-of-1500-immigrant-children-last-year-heres-why-people-are-outraged-now/

New York Times: Migrant children missing
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/26/us/politics/migrant-children-missing.html

Bio: Coast Watcher watches the corrupt establishment and notes how cooperative the mainstream media is with those in power until We the People speak up and demand change.  Don't be silent! We can't afford to wait for change--we have to make it ourselves.

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Workers can't even sue their employers for sexual harassment or for banning unions? This happens only in the USA it seems, a country where 408 people were killed by police last year. Lee Camp gives us the lowdown on these breaking stories in his unique comedic style.
 

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From the Economic Policy Institute:

The decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis―siding with businesses and the Trump administration over working people―deals a significant blow to workers’ fundamental right to join together to address workplace disputes.

In its decision, the Court majority has affirmed that employers may force working people to sign away their right to join together and act collectively to seek justice when disputes arise in the workplace.

Whether it’s fair pay, discrimination, or sexual harassment, workers rely on their ability to join together―whether informally or in formal litigation―to remedy violations of workplace protections. The National Labor Relations Act has long guaranteed working people the right to join together to improve their wages and working conditions. Congress must act to restore this fundamental right by banning forced arbitration agreements and class and collective action waivers.

Sign the petition demanding Congress act immediately to protect the rights of over 60 million U.S. workers who are being forced to sign away their rights to seek justice in the courts.

EPI research shows that between 1994 and today, the share of nonunion, private-sector employers who require their workers to sign forced arbitration agreements has increased from just 8 percent to 54 percent! That means that now, more than half of U.S. workers whose legal rights are violated by their employer are not able to pursue a claim in court. Further, research shows that 23.1 percent of private-sector nonunion employees, or 24.7 million American workers, no longer have the right to bring a class action claim if their employment rights have been violated. With yesterday’s ruling, that number will go even higher.  

This flies in the face of over 80 years of established law ensured by the National Labor Relations Act, which has guaranteed workers’ rights to stand together for “mutual aid and protection” when seeking to improve their wages and working conditions.

Demand immediate action by Congress to protect the rights of working people to seek justice in the court.

At a time of eroding protections for working people, EPI is fighting for the right to a safe workplace free of harassment or discrimination based on race, gender, or religion, and we’re working to strengthen laws protecting employment rights including minimum wage and the right to equal pay.

Thank you for all that you do on behalf of all working people.

Sincerely,

Celine McNicholas
Director of Labor Law and Policy, Economic Policy Institute

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It’s Time to End Predatory Prison Phone Rates

We are in the second of six weeks of action through the Poor People's Campaign – a nation-wide effort calling for voting rights protections, programs to address poverty, attention to ecological devastation and measures to curb militarism and the war economy. Each week we’re taking on different issues and this week's theme is " Linking Systemic Racism and Poverty: Voting Rights, Ending Mass Incarceration and Justice for Immigrants."

We already know that communities of color are disproportionately impacted by our system of mass incarceration. What is sometimes overlooked are the specific ways this keeps families trapped in poverty. The practice of private corporations charging families excessively high rates for the right to talk to their incarcerated loved ones is one such example.

Studies have shown that maintaining strong relationships between families and their incarcerated loved ones is critical to the process of reentry.

Thanks to sustained advocacy by many of you, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) attempted to make prison phone calls more affordable. They were subsequently sued by several of the largest prison telephone operators, including Securus and Global Tel*Link. These companies were successful in preventing most of the reforms that would have fixed this broken industry and made it easier for families to stay in touch.

That’s why Congress needs to step in. Just last month, Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois introduced the Inmate Calling Technical Corrections Act of 2018 (S.2520) which would address the need to eliminate predatory prison phone rates by restoring appropriate authority to the FCC, to regulate local rates and additional fees.

Act now. Tell Congress to stand with families and act to protect them from exploitative prison phone rates.
  Sign the petition today!

As The World Burns

As the world burns, the ghosts of what many hoped was our long dead past rear their ugly heads again. Coast Watcher gives us a historical comparison between a past and current regime that will turn your blood cold.

This dangerous precedence was predicted before 2016.

The Ghosts of Himmler and Heydrich

by Coast Watcher

Recently the Department of Homeland Security created a job posting seeking a contractor for a media monitoring services project. The job briefing entails the creation of a searchable database capable of handling the details of 290,000-plus news sources from all over the world. It would cover “traditional news sources as well as social media, identify any and all media coverage related to the Department of Homeland Security or a particular event.” 

Also: “Services shall provide media comparison tools, design and rebranding tools, communication tools, and the ability to identify top media influencers.” The database will also be capable of instantly translating media from 100 languages, including Chinese and Russian, into English. It should also be able to analyze the coverage’s “sentiment” and “momentum.”

The news spread and an immediate alarm went out among journalists, bloggers and media influencers. Any government monitoring of media, in whatever form it takes, hints that the ground is being prepared for a major crackdown on dissension. President Trump is notorious for being at loggerheads with the mainstream media. In one of his usual Twitter-fits of rhetoric, he once labeled journalists as the “enemy of the people.”

Some of the reactions to this revelation:
 

Maybe the Trump Homeland "Security" forces would like dissidents to wear monitoring bracelets and submit themselves for tattoos, too. ~ Dr. DaShanne Stokes

I have friends who have been prohibited from leaving their countries, exiled from their countries with their citizenship stripped, detained and questioned by authorities, tortured, and/or imprisoned for years because of their social media commentary. This is dangerous. ~ Leah McElrath

Needless to say the Establishment fired back with its usual tactic of denigrating and belittling opposition:

(Those suspicious of its purpose are) tin foil hat wearing, black helicopter conspiracy theorists. ~ Homeland Security press secretary Tyler Houlton

 
Houlton did not respond to queries as to what the agency intends to do with the information, but I think we can guess. Once again we can take a lesson from history, in particular the crushing of dissent in Nazi Germany.

Even before the Nazi government took power in 1933, the party was at work against those it deemed its enemies. Heinrich Himmler was appointed Reichsführer-SS and put in charge of security for the party and gathering intelligence against the Nazi Party’s prime rivals, the Bolshevist Movement and Social-Democrats. Himmler initiated a card index system to track and correlate the information gathered, a task later taken on by former German naval officer Reinhardt Heydrich who expanded the system.

The index was not intended purely for intelligence and the browbeating or blackmailing of opponents. It was directed toward the Nazi goal of Machtergreifung, the seizure of total power within the state. The indexes were used to draw up lists of the most dangerous enemies, differentiating between those who would be dealt with for good by imprisonment or execution after the assumption of power and those who could be frightened off, either into silence or exile.

History shows how the indexes came to be used. Information is power and the Nazi administration wielded it with ruthless efficiency. The SS was its

tool. It was answerable only to Hitler. Trump's stated aim to set up an intelligence service answerable only to him has obvious parallels for those with an eye to history.

Most people today will shrug and say the government of the United States has systematically gathered information about those who might harm it since the beginning of the Cold War. The FBI is rumored to have established a similar system of media watching during the 1960s comparable to the one begun by Homeland Security today. 

To those who say this gathering of information isn't harmful, I say don’t be so sure. With the power of the Internet, we’re seeing information gathering methods Himmler and Heydrich couldn’t have dreamed of in their wildest fantasies, but of which their ghosts would approve of wholeheartedly. 

Do we really want to return to an era where a dictatorial and genocidal regime can use technology to shut down opposition and dissent? Will there be anyone left who cares about our freedom of speech if the means to carry it out are all but eliminated?


Sources:

Himmler – Peter Padfield, MJF Books, New York.

Homeland Security To Compile A Database of Journalists, Bloggers And Influencers:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/homeland-security-searchable-database_us_5ac7f41de4b07a3485e4bb1d

BIO: Coast Watcher says some days can't tell if he's reading a history text or the morning headlines. Those who don't remember and learn from history are doomed to repeat it--especially the worst bits. His motto: Stay awake and keep learning!

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More on the propaganda machine of the Mainstream Media (warning-- contains strong language):

https://youtu.be/vzlmceAw1BU 

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 The Revolution Continues has set up an easy way to donate to the cause of keeping it ad-free. Three years without obnoxious ads (that many other sites have to cover costs) has been great, but the editor does have to pay for Internet, electricity, etc. Any amount you can donate to keep this progressive site going without those awful ads is appreciated. Thank you.

You can donate via Paypal at http://paypal.me/camatthews

Power to the people and not the corporations!

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From the Color of Change:

By now, you’ve probably seen the video of dozens of local news anchors around the country reciting in unison a script parroting Trump’s war on the media, warning about “fake news.”¹ The script is the brainchild of the Sinclair Broadcast Group, an ultra-conservative media corporation that owns almost 200 television stations that reach 40% of the U.S. population. 
If Trump’s FCC approves their plan to buy the Tribune Media Company, Sinclair will be able to pump their right-wing propaganda to over 72% of U.S. homes.²

Sinclair Broadcast Group has often been compared to Fox News, but Sinclair is much more dangerous. Unlike Fox News, where some people know the content is biased, Sinclair is forcing trusted local anchors to parrot Fox-type content that undermines trust in the rest of the media and promotes damaging stereotypes. And with 3 out of 4 U.S. adults regularly consuming local news, millions of people are unknowingly peppered with pro-Trump propaganda.³ But, just like Fox News, Sinclair Broadcast is vulnerable to pressure from their core advertisers. As we’ve done so many times in the past - like with Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly - we can hold advertisers accountable for funding Sinclair’s pro-Trump propaganda.

Tell advertisers to ditch Sinclair’s pro-Trump propaganda machine.

While Sinclair claims they’re focused on “fair and objective reporting," their close relationship to the Trump administration, and unquestioning repetition of Trump talking points proves this to be false.⁴ According to Senior Advisor (and Trump son-in-law) Jared Kushner, Sinclair media outlets were given increased access to the Trump presidential campaign in exchange for Sinclair stations broadcasting Trump interviews without critical commentary.⁵ Boris Epshteyn, a former high-level member of the Trump administration who wrote the infamous Holocaust Remembrance Day statement that failed to mention Jewish people who died in the Holocaust, was hired by Sinclair shortly after his departure from the White House and is now their Chief Political Analyst.⁶ His “Bottom Line with Boris” segments are “must runs” and required to be aired on Sinclair stations 9 times per week.⁷ Epshteyn’s commentary is often nothing more than just a parroting of White House talking points, including harmful rhetoric that minimized the level of hatred and violence committed by white supremacists in Charlottesville last summer.⁸
 
The Sinclair threat goes beyond spreading pro-Trump propaganda. When news outlets lack accountability, they let down Black people with racially biased coverage and damaging stereotypes. We know from our report “A Dangerous Distortion of Our Families: Representations of Families, by Race, in News and Opinion Media,” that Black families are erroneously over-represented as lacking stability and more likely to be on welfare.⁹ These harmful depictions of Black families in the news media influence perceptions of Black communities and can dictate policy. Inaccurate and damaging portrayals of Black families gives false support to Trump administration policies that actively oppress Black people and communities such as increased policing in schools and communities, further demonizing of Black immigrants, and more cuts to social safety net programs.

Tell advertisers to stop supporting the spread of pro-Trump propaganda. 

Local news stations are often seen as neutral reporters, but the reality is that they are owned and run by major corporations like Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sinclair shouldn’t get to exploit our trust in local journalists and use that trust to promote propaganda from an illegitimate presidential administration. Even though Sinclair is a major media company, they rely on local advertisers for much of their revenue. Because of the intimate connection local advertisers have with their communities, our voices are much more likely to be heard by them. And we’ve already seen this in action with Democratic Congressional candidate Amy McGrath removing her ads from all Sinclair owned TV stations in her district.¹⁰
 
In an election year, political ads like the ones Amy McGrath pulled will be crucial to Sinclair’s bottom line. If we put pressure on other local candidates and corporate advertisers we can create a mass exodus of Sinclair advertisers and force them to abandon Trump’s propaganda.

Local news stations should not be propaganda hubs. Tell advertisers to cut ties with Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Until justice is real, 

--Arisha, Rashad, Brandi, Jade, Johnny, Future, Corina, Chad, Mary, Angela, Saréya, Eesha, and the rest of the Color Of Change team

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 References:

1. "How America's Largest Local TV Owner Turned Its News Anchors Into Soldiers In Trump's War On The Media", The Concourse, 31 March 2018 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/33245?t=9&akid=10462%2E3399430%2E3_7Ck0
2. "Tribune Media shareholders vote in favor of merger with Sinclair Broadcast Group", LA Times, 19 October 2017 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/33246?t=11&akid=10462%2E3399430%2E3_7Ck0
3. "How Americans Get TV News At Home", Pew Research Center Journalism and Media, 11 October 2013 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/4644?t=13&akid=10462%2E3399430%2E3_7Ck0
4. "Sinclair defends itself over uproar after local news anchors read anti-'false news' screed", USA Today, 2 April 2018 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/33247?t=15&akid=10462%2E3399430%2E3_7Ck0
5. "Kushner: We struck deal with Sinclair for straighter coverage", Politico, 16 December 2016 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/33248?t=17&akid=10462%2E3399430%2E3_7Ck0
6. "White House aide Epshteyn wrote controversial Holocaust memorial statement", Politico, 30 January 2017 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/33249?t=19&akid=10462%2E3399430%2E3_7Ck0
7. "Sinclair increases 'must-run' Boris Epshteyn segments", Politico, 10 July 2017 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/33250?t=21&akid=10462%2E3399430%2E3_7Ck0
8. "This is the pro-Trump propaganda being quietly broadcast on local stations across the country", ThinkProgress, 12 October 2017 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/33251?t=23&akid=10462%2E3399430%2E3_7Ck0
9. "A Dangerous Distortion of Our Families: Representations of Families, by Race, in News and Media, Dr. Travis L. Dixon, December 2017 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/33252?t=25&akid=10462%2E3399430%2E3_7Ck0
10. "Amy McGrath pulls ad from Sinclair-owned TV station in Lexington for 'fake news' message", Courier Journal, 3 April 2018 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/33253?t=27&akid=10462%2E3399430%2E3_7Ck0

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Stop corporations from choking our oceans and waterways with single-use plastics!

Recruit 7 people to demand action from the CEOs of 7 corporate plastic polluters! 

SHARE THIS PETITION

What if I told you that every minute of every day, the equivalent of one garbage truck load of plastic is dumped into the sea? I imagine you’d be pretty shocked. Well, from straws to soda rings, our oceans are filling up like a landfill — and fast. We’re witnessing how these plastics choke or entangle species like seabirds, turtles, and whales, get into the food chain, and kill marine life. This has got to stop.

We can no longer tolerate this cycle of destruction for so-called "convenience.” You’ve already taken the first step C.A.. You signed our petition demanding that the CEOs of seven of the largest producers of single-use plastics come up with better designs and methods for the delivery of goods, and I thank you for that! But there is so much more to be done.

We need your help to get as many other people as possible to sign the petition as well. Would you please recruit at least seven friends or family members to add their voice to those who have already spoken up? It’s as easy as sharing this link.

You can help us achieve one million signatures by Earth Day, April 22. All of these actions will call for an end to corporate plastic pollution by convincing executives at Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Starbucks, McDonald's, and others to replace their single-use plastic packaging.

The more people who join the campaign, the more likely we are to succeed.

Here's how you can spread the word:

• Forward this email to seven friends or family members.
• Click here to share the petition on Facebook. Be sure to tag seven friends!
• Click here to grab the petition link and share it however you like.

For too long, corporations have been telling us that the responsibility for dealing with their waste lies solely with us, the consumers.

But what would happen if millions of us speak out? We could change that story!

That’s why we are building an international movement of people demanding that corporations take responsibility for the problem they’ve created by moving away from throwaway plastic.

I believe that 2018 is the year that things begin to change. I promise you, it’s the beginning of the end of single-use plastics.

Greenpeace has always been a people-powered organization. When enough of us join together, there’s nothing we can’t do.

For a plastic-free future,

Annie Leonard
Executive Director, Greenpeace USA

P.S. Such a campaign is a massive undertaking, and we’re grateful to have your help. Adding your name to the petition was a vital first step. Now I’m asking you to expand your commitment by recruiting friends and family members to add their names, too. Please share the link far and wide.

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Tell Congress: Don't destroy America's largest national forest

The petition to Congress reads: "The Tongass National Forest in Alaska is our largest national forest, home to some of the oldest trees in the United States, fragile ecosystems and protected species. Do not allow dangerous road building and old growth harvesting in the Tongass." Add your name:

Inside America's largest national forest, the trees are older than the United States itself, dating over 1000 years, but these ancient trees of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska could be all but decimated if Donald Trump, Republicans in Congress and the logging industry get their way. For years, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski – who some have called the "#1 anti-public land lawmaker" – has been pushing to substantially increase old-growth timber harvesting in much of the Tongass' 17 million acres, which would jeopardize natural habitats, infringe on indigenous rights and put an entire ecosystem at risk.1 Senate Democrats recently defeated a provision snuck into a government funding bill that would have opened up the Tongass for more logging, but Sen. Murkowski is not done fighting for short-term industry profits over the health of Alaska's wilderness.2 We must act now to prevent future attacks on the Tongass and protect this important national forest. Tell Congress: Don't destroy America's largest national forest. Click here to sign the petition. Located in the southeast region of Alaska, the Tongass National Forest is a 500-mile archipelago, which encompasses the world's largest temperate rainforest and is "home to five species of Pacific salmon, humpback and orca whales, otters, beavers, Alexander Archipelago wolves, plus some of the largest concentrations of brown bears and bald eagles found in the United States."3 Its old-growth trees store vast amounts of carbon – an estimated 10-12 percent of all of America's national forests – and play a critical role as "Alaska’s first line of climate change defense."4,5 And local indigenous people, including the Tlingit and Haida, have lived in this region for centuries and rely on the forest's healthy natural resources for survival.6 Right now, the Tongass is protected by the "roadless rule," a critical moratorium enacted nearly two decades ago that blocks much-needed road building to access the millions of acres of old growth forests in the Tongass. For years, the logging industry and their Republican backers have attempted to repeal this critical rule but have been stymied in the courts, including by our allies at Earthjustice. Recent efforts could be given new life, especially with public lands foe Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke overseeing national forest regulations.7 It's only a matter of time before Sen. Murkowski and Senate Republicans again sneak poisonous provisions into future spending bills to destroy the Tongass. For years, Sen. Murkowski fought to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for fossil fuel extraction, and she recently succeeded when she snuck an ANWR drilling provision into last year's Trump Tax Scam.8 We can not let Republicans ruin one more fragile ecosystem to benefit another failing extractive industry. Tell Congress: Don't destroy America's largest national forest. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/save_tongass?t=7&akid=27965%2E9999572%2EHTIxQt Thanks for all you do. Josh Nelson, Co-Director CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: Jake Bullinger, "Lisa Murkowski, the #1 Anti-Public Land Lawmaker," Outside, Feb. 7, 2018. Earthjustice, "Earthjustice Statement on FY2018 Omnibus Appropriations Bill," March 21, 2018. Libby Stortz, "Stop attacking the Tongass," Juneau Empire, March 14, 2018. Dominick A. DellaSala, "The Tongass Rainforest as Alaska’s First Line of Climate Change Defense and Importance to the Paris Climate Change Agreements," Forest Legacies. Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network, "Alaska Indigenous Women to Senator Murkowski: End The Assault On Our Communities and Lands," HuffPost, Jan. 10, 2018. Krista Langlois, "Thanks to Trump, This Senator Finally Gets Her Chance to Decimate Alaska’s Environmental Protections," Mother Jones, March 11, 2018. Earthjustice, "Federal Courts Uphold Landmark Federal Forest Protections Again," Sept. 22, 2017. Graham Lee Brewer, "Alaska is open for drilling," High Country News, Jan. 6, 2018.