Showing posts with label prisons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prisons. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Sitting In The Dock At The Hague...

 

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and others like him never need worry about going to prison for committing war crimes. Must be nice.

The Hague Invasion Act and the Hypocrisy of Joe Biden

by Coast Watcher

Last week, President Joe Biden described Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a war criminal” for ordering attacks on innocent civilians in Ukraine. A few days ago, Biden announced at the end of his remarks:

“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said on Saturday at the Royal Castle in Warsaw. The White House and the State Dept. have been scrambling to explain away Biden’s remark. (...)
It was the second time that Biden confirmed that the purpose of the draconian US sanctions on Russia was never to prevent the invasion of Ukraine, which the US desperately needed to activate its plans, but to punish Russia and get its people to rise up against Putin and ultimately restore a Yeltsin-like puppet to Moscow. Without a cause those sanctions could never have been imposed. The cause was Russia’s invasion.
--Joe Lauria, Biden Confirms Why the US Needed This War

Whatever the justification for accusing Putin of such crimes, Biden’s hypocrisy is breathtaking. Threatening to take out another leader is an act of war. The CIA has assisted many such coups d'etat--such as the 2014 overturn of the Ukrainian election. This is a war crime. And not many Americans are aware that the United States has created a legal fig-leaf for invading an allied country should it dare put an American on trial for the same kind of crimes Biden accuses Putin and his military of doing.

Titled "The American Service-Members Protection Act"  (or "The Hague Invasion Act"), President George W. Bush signed it into law in 2002. That was the same year the International Criminal Court (ICC) began operations at The Hague, Netherlands. The International Criminal Court was founded by the 1998 Statute of Rome as the first permanent judicial body to try persons accused of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. The United Nations Security Council can also entrust the ICC to conduct trials in certain cases.

The American Service-Members Protection Act allows the United States to help bring those accused of war crimes to justice—should such a measure be assessed as being in America’s best interests. What really should set alarm bells ringing is the tiny fact that the law also allows the US military to invade the Netherlands, specifically The Hague, should the ICC ever dare to put an American on trial. 

Consider that for a moment. The Netherlands is a founding member of NATO since it was established in 1949 at the start of the original Cold War. The United States, its ally, has made it legal to invade and attack the Netherlands should the ICC even attempt to allow justice to prevail against US service personnel or citizens.

The Hague Invasion Act also allows the US to withdraw military assistance for any of the 138 ICC signatory countries unless they agree not to extradite Americans to stand trial at The Hague. It also prohibits ICC officials from conducting investigations in US territories. The American government has explicitly stated that it will arrest any such official that sets foot on US soil and has promised sanctions against any official who attempts to investigate American war crimes elsewhere.

So what exactly constitutes a "war crime"? According to the Geneva Conventions:

War crimes include the following serious violations of international humanitarian law:
(i) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions:
In the case of an international armed conflict, any of the following acts committed against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention:
• wilful killing;
• torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;
• wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health;
• extensive destruction or appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly;
• compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power;
• wilfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of a fair and regular trial;
• unlawful deportation or transfer;
• unlawful confinement;
• taking of hostages.
Basis for the war crimes listed above
This list of grave breaches was included in the Geneva Conventions largely on the basis of crimes pursued after the Second World War by the International Military Tribunals at Nuremberg and at Tokyo and by national courts.

https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docindex/v1_rul_rule156

The American government has killed, tortured, and imprisoned millions of people across the globe in various wars, military interventions, and regime changes, yet its so-called leaders can stand up in front of us with straight faces and have the nerve to call Putin a war criminal. It takes one to know one! In their hubris they know they can do exactly the same or worse things and that there's little to no chance of any country ever daring to put an American on trial for his/her war crimes. 

What’s even sadder is that NATO and most other countries go right along with it as if it's no big deal. War crimes are atrocities only committed by non-Americans apparently. Any American who commits a war crime will never be punished by the ICC. They'll walk free.

https://popularresistance.org/america-plea-bargains-for-its-crimes-of-torture/  
What's the use of an international war crimes court that has no ability to punish those who commit war crimes? What's the use of not punishing war criminals who commit such acts as waterboarding, of holding and torturing their prisoners without charges for decades? You do remember the American government owns and operates Guantánamo Bay, don't you? 

Remember the prisoners being tortured and humiliated by US service personnel at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq? Remember the shocking photo of that poor guy being held naked on a dog leash while a female soldier used electric shocks and taunted him with sexual abuses? Those are war crimes by any name.

The US building biolabs in the Ukraine and working on deadly pathogens there over the past eight years? Nah, that's just a walk in the park. Nothing to see here, folks--move along now before we decide to disappear you to Gitmo, too.


BIO: Coast Watcher sometimes can't believe the audacity and evil intent of world leaders. Perhaps it's good they're starting to let their facades slip. We know more about the inner workings of these murderous cabals than ever before. What's keeping us from building guillotines to rid us of these tyrannical psychopaths?

What we do know about the US biological weapons involvement in Ukraine. And this is just a thumbnail sketch…

1991 – the US launches the Nunn-Lugar program for the former Soviet countries to control/eliminate Soviet weapons of mass destruction including bioweapons. The Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) was named as the program’s main executor.

1993 – the Ukraine-US Agreement on the Prevention of Proliferation of WMD is signed.

2005 – an additional protocol is signed to the agreement between the Ukrainian Health Ministry and the DTRA on the prevention of the proliferation of technologies, pathogens and know-how that can be used to develop bioweapons. This is the start of the transfer of the Ukrainian military biological potential into US specialists' hands.

2000s – large US military-industrial companies are engaged in military biological activity in Ukraine.

2005-2014 – Black & Veatch Special Projects, a DTRA contractor, builds and upgrades 8 biolabs in Ukraine instead of eliminating military biological infrastructure, as was originally claimed. One of the facilities, a biolab in Odessa, has been financed since 2011 for the study of “pathogens that can be used in bioterrorism attacks.”

2007 – US DoD employee Nathan Wolfe founded Global Viral Forecasting Institute (subsequently - Global Viral), a biomedical company. The mission stated in the charter is non-commercial study of transborder infections, including in China.

2009 – Rosemont Seneca Partners is established by former US Secretary of State John Kerry’s stepson Christopher Heinz and US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.

2014 – Anti-constitutional coup d’etat in Ukraine.

2014 – Hunter Biden joins the Board of Directors of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company.

2014 – Metabiota, a private commercial organization specializing in the study of pandemic risks is detached from Global Viral. Neil Callahan and John DeLoche, employees of Hunter Biden’s company Rosemont Seneca Partners are appointed to the board of Metabiota. Global Viral and Metabiota begin to get funding from the US Department of Defense.

2014 - Metabiota shows interest in Ukraine and invites Hunter Biden to "assert Ukraine's cultural & economic independence from Russia".

2014 - Metabiota and Burisma Holdings begin cooperation on an unnamed "science project in Ukraine".

2014 - Metabiota, Global Viral and Black & Veatch Special Projects begin full-fledged cooperation within the US DoD programs.

2014-2016 - Implementation of Metabiota and US DoD contracts, including a $300,000 project in Ukraine.

2016 – US citizen Ulana Nadia Suprun, a descendant of Ukrainian Nazis, is appointed Acting Health Minister of Ukraine. The US DoD and Ukraine’s Health Ministry cooperation program is greatly expanded.

2016 – an outbreak of swine flu among Ukrainian Defense Ministry personnel guarding a biolab in Kharkov, Ukraine; 20 dead. The incident is hushed up.

2016 – former US Assistant Secretary for Defense Andrew Weber is appointed head of Metabiota’s global partnerships department.

2016 – EcoHealth Alliance, a Global Viral founder Nathan Wolfe’s structure, is engaged in the study of bat-transmitted coronaviruses at the research center in a Wuhan laboratory, China.

2016 – the DTRA and Ukraine’s Health Ministry extend the contract after getting approval from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

2019 – the COVID-19 mutated bat coronavirus pandemic begins with an outbreak in Wuhan.

February 24, 2022 – launch of the Russian Army’s special operation in Ukraine.

February 24-25, 2022 – rapid elimination of strains in biolabs in Ukraine.

March 8, 2022 – US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland openly acknowledges the existence of cooperation between the US and Ukraine in pathogens.

(Original source:  https://t.me/MariaVladimirovnaZakharova/2246 and more at https://canadianpatriot.org/2020/04/11/the-project-for-a-new-american-century-and-the-age-of-bioweapons-20-years-of-psychological-terror/)

Other related articles:

Hague Invasion Act Becomes Law https://www.hrw.org/news/2002/08/03/us-hague-invasion-act-becomes-law#

Legally, the US Military Can Break People Out of The Hague https://www.wearethemighty.com/popular/us-can-invade-the-hague/

Biden Confirms Why the US Needed This War  https://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/27/can-russia-escape-the-us-trap/ 

Urging Regime Change in Russia, Biden Exposes US Aims in Ukraine https://mate.substack.com/p/urging-regime-change-in-russia-biden

International Law is a Meaningless Concept When It Only Applies to US Enemies https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/03/17/international-law-is-a-meaningless-concept-when-it-only-applies-to-us-enemies/#comments

The Lie of American Innocence  https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-lie-of-american-innocence-686

More Evidence that the US Is Trying to Prolong this War https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/more-evidence-that-the-us-is-trying?s=r 

The Impact of Ukraine on Yemen  https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/23/the-impact-of-ukraine-on-yemen/

Washington Should Think Twice Before Launching a New Cold War https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/22/washington-should-think-twice-before-launching-a-new-cold-war/ 

From Moscow to Washington, the Barbarism and Hypocrisy Don't Justify Each Other https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/23/from-moscow-to-washington-the-barbarism-and-hypocrisy-dont-justify-each-other/ 

Yes It's a Proxy War  https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/03/26/yes-its-a-proxy-war-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/

America Plea Bargains for its Crimes of Torture https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/24/john-kiriakou-the-us-plea-bargains-for-its-crimes-of-torture/ 

Bush War Crimes, Guantanamo In Spotlight at Ketanji Brown Jackson Hearings https://therealnews.com/bush-war-crimes-guantanamo-in-spotlight-at-ketanji-brown-jackson-hearings

US Lied About "Dangerous Pathogen" Research in Secret Ukrainian Biolabs https://popularresistance.org/u-s-lied-about-funding-dangerous-pathogen-research-in-secret-ukrainian-biolabs-newly-leaked-documents-reveal/

US Funds Nazis and Brings Back Firing Squads. Literally (video) https://www.rokfin.com/post/79671

 Seen on Twitter:

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Tuesday, December 14, 2021

RIP Freedom of the Press

 



RIP Freedom of the Press

by C.A. Matthews

Is this the final nail in the coffin? Or does it just feel like it?

Either way, the freedom of the press was dealt a severe blow at the reading of the verdict at the Julian Assange extradition hearing in London. Most trial watchers were not shocked that the UK government would give in and hand the Wikileaks publisher over to US government, even after a plot to kill Assange by the Central Intelligence Agency was revealed. I mean, why would the British ever dare cross a fellow nuclear power?

Or is that fascist-loving power?

It's been a "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" type of arrangement from the start. That the US government's "witness" against Assange turned out to be a convicted pedophile perjurer from Iceland was immaterial. Assange as a publisher enabled whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning to share embarrassing stories about the US, the UK, and dozens of other corrupt governments. He has to be locked away forever as a lesson to others so they don't get the same idea and publish even more embarrassing stories about corrupt governments in the future. He has to be silenced--by death, if necessary, as his recent stroke proves the physical and psychological torture he has been put through since entering Belmarsh prison.

So, rest in peace freedom of the press. You've led a somewhat checkered life. You've been painted as both savior and Satan. You revealed horrible things that tyrants wanted to keep hidden. You seemed to be forever fighting off fascists who would shut you down and publish their own propaganda, labeling it as "Fair and balanced," or "All the news that's fit to print."  

To your credit, you seldom backed down. You stood your ground. And many like Julian Assange have paid a horrible price for your tenacity. Telling the public the truth shouldn't be dangerous, but it is. What goes on behind closed doors at the highest levels--especially their damning emails during a contested presidential primary--is for the powerbrokers' eyes and ears alone. The elites will lie, cheat and steal to maintain their air of superiority. They will kill you when you reveal their murders of innocents in drone bombings.

Whoever thought journalism would become riskier than climbing a  greased rock peak without a tether during a massive thunderstorm?

To all those who wish to keep the spirit of a free press alive for another century or two, I offer this advice: Don't ever take it for granted. Journalists who sacrifice their time, health, and their very lives to tell us what's really happening (not what the establishment wants you to think is happening) are rare and precious. The fascists can and will wipe them out without a second thought. We saw that this past week.

Free Assange! Keep our press free!

Related Articles:

As Fascism Casts Off Its Disguises (Caitlin Johnstone) https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/as-fascism-casts-off-its-disguises/comments 

The Execution of Julian Assange (Chris Hedges) https://scheerpost.com/2021/12/13/hedges-the-execution-of-julian-assange/

They're Killing Him: Assange's Stroke Reveals the Western Version of the Bone Saw https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/theyre-killing-him-assanges-stroke

Press Freedoms Threatened as British Court Rules Assange Can Be Extradited to US  https://truthout.org/articles/press-freedoms-threatened-as-british-court-rules-assange-can-be-extradited-to-us/

Julian Assange Loses Appeal https://greenwald.substack.com/p/julian-assange-loses-appeal-british 

Julian Assange Can Be Extradited to US to Face Espionage Charges https://www.rsn.org/001/julian-assange-can-be-extradited-to-us-to-face-espionage-charges-court-rules.html 

Press Freedoms Under 'Grave Threat'  https://scheerpost.com/2021/12/10/press-freedoms-under-grave-threat-as-british-court-rules-assange-can-be-extradited-to-u-s-%ef%bf%bc/

Seen on Twitter:

***


How shameful is it that, on Human Rights Day of all days, we find out the UK courts have moved one step closer to handing over Julian Assange to the United States — a country whose leaders have expressed a desire to assassinate him?

The years long-persecution of Assange, led by White House administrations from both corporate parties, has not only caused Assange immense suffering for his innovative journalism — it endangers press freedom and democracy in three grave ways.

1. The war on Assange is fueled, at least in part, by Assange exposing the Democratic Party's corrupt handling of their 2016 primary. The parties of War and Wall Street shamelessly retaliate against challengers to their cartel.

2. Assange and Wikileaks are attacked for exposing the shameful realities of U.S. empire. Along with troves of documents, they published front line footage of bodies casually being obliterated by machines of war. The threat to Assange is a threat to all who expose the horrors of war in the name of peace.

3. To persecute Assange and Wikileaks for basic journalism is to endanger every working journalist and publisher in this country: from stalwart, independent, anti-corporate reporters to the advertising-dollar-addicted opinion writers and media empires cheering on Assange's prosecution. They are digging their own graves.

Free speech and a free press are the first defenses of the rest of our human rights. Give to the Green Party today so we can end the war on whistleblowers, together. Reality Winner, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning and so many more have sacrificed so much for our democracy.

As a Green, I'm proud that I can invite you to watch this video of Julian Assange addressing our 2016 Presidential Nominating Convention. It's a testament to our commitment to Grassroots Democracy. Please give today so we can make Grassroots Democracy a reality.

Peace,
Michael O'Neil
Communications Manager
Green Party of the United States

 ***

In a near-future dystopian world, hope blossoms where mutual aid and democracy begins...

Zonta’s world is turned upside down when Jake arrives at the commune to investigate the disappearance of agents of the Authority. Can she persuade him to switch sides before the Protectors (antifascist fighters) take action?

Available now from Extasy Books: https://www.extasybooks.com/Where-the-Bodies-Lie

***

From the Center for Biological Diversity:

Did you know that there’s an important global treaty to conserve biological diversity, and the United States is the only major country that’s not a member? 

In the midst of the extinction crisis, that’s unacceptable.
It’s high time for the United States to join the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Created at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, the convention’s mission is to protect the planet’s rich array of life and ensure sustainable, equitable use. The United States helped develop the treaty, but the Senate never ratified it. 

Next year the convention meets to set the global conservation agenda for the coming decade. With more than a million species on track to go extinct, this meeting is critical to saving life on Earth. The United States must participate in the meeting to call for an end to human-induced extinction — but if the Senate doesn’t take action, we’ll be on the outside looking in.

Tell President Biden and your senators to ratify the Convention on Biological Diversity and commit to ending extinction now.

Take Action

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Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Kamala the Cop



Kamala the Cop
by Coast Watcher



Once again the so-called Democratic Party has spat in the faces of ordinary people across the country. By choosing Kamala Harris as Vice Presidential nominee the party has made it obvious it’s no different to the Republican Party when it comes to the fundamental issues of government. That hoary old phrase “tough on crime” rings hollow when all it really means is oppression and disregard for civic rights and due process. 

Harris’ record on the matter of law and order is a shameful one. The former Attorney General for the State of California certainly filled her boots when it came to the perks of her office. If a person accused of a crime had enough cash, they could buy immunity from prosecution. In the case of Steve Mnuchin all it took was a “campaign contribution” to Harris for her to decline prosecuting him as his company OneWestBank for financial irregularities in the wake of the 2008 mortgage crisis.   

OneWest held the mortgages of over 30,000 home owners. In 2011 the Office of the Inspector General began an audit of the company following complaints. In a statement the IG wrote:

OneWest executives had instructed employees to reject as many loan modification applications as possible and created an environment that encouraged loan modification staff to misinform borrowers about their eligibility status, routinely shred loan modification applications, and inappropriately deny loan modifications. The letter also stated that the terms of the FDIC’s agreement with OneWest created a financial incentive for OneWest to foreclose rather than modify loans.


But after reviewing only a handful of cases the OIG refused to proceed. Mnuchin bought his way clear with a mere $2,000 to Harris’ senate campaign. The cost was dirt cheap compared to a likely heavy fine and possible jail sentence. At the end of the day, Steve Mnuchin walked away with billions of dollars. Thousands of Americans became homeless and their credit ruined where, had every transaction been legal and above board, they would not be put under such duress. 

Mnuchin is, of course, Secretary of the Treasury in Donald Trump’s deeply repugnant regime. To this day Harris refuses to say why she didn’t prosecute Mnuchin. 

Trump himself made contributions of $6,000 to Harris—$5,000 in 2011 and another $1,000 in 2013. Did Trump use his contribution to Harris, a person of color, as a fig leaf to cover his inherent racism. In a recent attack ad Trump’s campaign portrayed Harris as a  “phony” and, flying in the face of all evidence, as part of the “radical left!” 

If Trump thinks such a blatantly capitalistic person as Harris is “radical left,” I’d hate to see what would happen if he should ever come face to face with a genuine socialist.


Harris’ record on the California state prison service speaks for itself. Following a successful class action suit on behalf of inmates, Harris was ordered in 2011 to reduce the prison population due to serious overcrowding. Harris stated some non-violent offenders had to remain jailed to provide cheap labor to the state—and we're talking about pennies on the dollar pay. In 2014 the state was ordered to allow non-violent second time offenders who’d served half their sentence to become eligible for parole. Harris objected yet again, stating that it would deprive the state and private companies of a cheap labor pool. It must be pointed out that this  “labor pool” includes volunteer firefighters who risk their lives for a mere $2 a day to put out California's massively destructive and dangerous wildfires, yet these prisoners/firefighters are not allowed to count the hard-earned experience on their resumes when they are finally released. 

Harris became a US Senator in 2017, which positioned her nicely for the vice presidential nomination. Neoliberals ooh and ahh over the choice of a woman of color attaining such a status. That’s all very well, but Harris' wealth and status doesn't demonstrate that she really cares about ordinary people. As for her racial status, it’s not been of much benefit to those who share it. Most of those interned in California under her watch as AG were African-Americans and Hispanic Americans, and most of those were put there because of the notorious  “Three Strikes” law introduced by none other than then-Senator Joe Biden. So it is Harris’ nomination, coupled with presidential nominee Biden’s pungent record on law and order bills, that is pretty much a match made in hell for human rights.

Another telling trait of these two individual's stances against human rights: Harris no longer supports Medicare For All as she had previously stated while campaigning (more info in the links below).  She has gone over to Biden's position and supports private health insurance coverage tied to a worker's employment.Why this sudden change of heart? Perhaps when we see a final list of campaign contributors we'll know for sure who got to her this time. 

My belief is that, should the so-called Democratic Party win the election, the increasingly decrepit Biden will use the 25th Amendment to step down after a few months citing  “health reasons,” allowing Harris to become the first female president. We’ll then see yet another turn of the screw in the crushing of civil liberties, and yet another neoliberal corporate shill in the White House. Once again we’ll witness the soft pedal approach to any genuine reform to help ordinary citizens. It’ll be business as usual for capitalism, while the world continues to burn. 

The only way to stop these duopolist nightmare tickets of neoliberalism is to vote third party. The current two-party (in reality, one party) system has to be broken. All it requires is for the vote for a third party to pass 33.4% of the electorate and the Democrats and Republicans will be left twisting in the wind. For the sake of America and the world, this must come to pass.

BIO: Coast Watcher isn't taken in by pretty faces and identity politics. He does his research. He compares notes. He doesn't like what he sees in two corrupt cops running for the White House. He's advising all voters to use their brains to stop the further uncalled-for imprisoning of persons of color and the poor to provide plentiful cheap/free labor for the greedy capitalist state. Vote third party! We have nothing to lose but our future chains!
The following video (starts about five minutes in) shows how callously Harris treated poor parents of color and their children by criminalizing the parents of these children for truancy. She jokes and laughs about how much she wanted to  prosecute these beleagured families--even when her fellow office members thought it was a terrible idea. She even charged a homeless woman instead of helping this struggling family out! Heartless.

 https://youtu.be/ml3C03VxJL8

Related Links:

This Is Why Kamala Harris Refused to Prosecute Steve Mnuchin
Donald Trump Made Campaign Donations to Kamala Harris Years Ago His Campaign Says--It's Proof He's Not Racist 
https://www.wbtv.com/2020/08/13/donald-trump-made-campaign-donations-kamala-harris-years-ago-his-campaign-says-its-proof-hes-not-racist/
Kamala Harris' AG Office Tried to Keep Inmates Locked Up for Cheap Labor https://www.thedailybeast.com/kamala-harris-ag-office-tried-to-keep-inmates-locked-up-for-cheap-labor

Kamala Harris Embodies Most Dangerous Myth of American Exceptionalism
https://www.blackagendareport.com/kamala-harris-embodies-most-dangerous-myth-american-exceptionalism 

Kamala Harris Has Distinguished Career Serving Injustice
https://www.blackagendareport.com/kamala-harris-has-distinguished-career-serving-injustice

Senator Kamala Harris and Her Corrupt Ways (video series)
http://www.abovealllaws.com/2019/01/29/senator-kamala-harris-and-her-corrupt-ways-part-1-of-3-videos/

Kamala Harris No Longer Supports Bernie Sanders' Medicare For All Program
https://www.newsweek.com/kamala-harris-healthcare-medicare-all-bernie-sanders-1455106

***
All On The Line
The Trump administration and Mitch McConnell's Senate majority are determined to suppress the vote this year because it's the first step to controlling the redistricting process in 2021.

This explains why they've launched an onslaught of attacks against the Postal Service. It's a strategy to prevent certain votes from counting this fall.

Here are seven attempts and ongoing schemes to undermine the Postal Service:
  1. In April, President Trump called the USPS "a joke" and parroted unsubstantiated claims against the essential service to undermine its role in this year's consequential election -- just days after the USPS released a statement saying it was "imperative" that Congress and the administration take action to provide financial support.

    2.
  2. In May, the House passed the HEROES Act with $25 million in funding for the USPS -- yet three months later, Mitch McConnell's Senate has refused to pass this essential funding.

    3.
  3. In June, Trump mega-donor Louis Dejoy officially assumed the role of postmaster general.

    4.
  4. In July, Postmaster Dejoy supported President Trump's efforts to undermine the Postal Service by implementing new rules and procedures that intentionally slowed down mail services ahead of the big election this fall.

    5.
  5. In August, Postmaster General Dejoy announced plans to reassign more than 20 top-level USPS employees -- a move that the Washington Post says "de-emphasizes decades of institutional postal knowledge" and "centralizes power" around Trump appointee Dejoy.

    6.
  6. This week, Dejoy floated the idea of tripling the cost of sending mail-in ballots to voters. Senator Elizabeth Warren described this as an attempt to "sabotage the USPS" before the election.

    7.
  7. Yesterday, President Trump doubled down on his commitment to block funding for the USPS, explicitly citing how funding delays would prevent comprehensive vote-by-mail.

Here at All On The Line, we know protecting the vote this year will allow folks to put fair-minded leaders in charge of redistricting next year.

Here are two ways you can fight back against these attacks in the USPS. Contact your senators and demand they take action to fund the Postal Service. Or support our on-going advocacy work with a monthly donation of $7!
-- The AOTL Team 

*** 
The world is already facing an extinction crisis. Adding to the threat, today the Trump administration announced plans to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska to oil and gas drilling. The Refuge has been the sacred homelands of the Gwich’in people for centuries and is home to polar bears, caribou, and many other unique species. Drilling for oil in one of the last truly wild places on earth would be a disaster.

The Senate can block these rules from going into effect. Legislation has already passed the House, meaning the Senate can act now to block drilling in the ANWR before this nightmare begins. Your senators must fight for the Arctic Wildlife National Refuge. They need to hear from you right now!

The Refuge is the absolute last place that we should be drilling for oil, but right now, in a time of planetary crisis and decreased demand for oil, we simply do not need more oil wells anywhere — we need less. If we’re to have any hope of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees celsius, we need a full, managed phaseout of the fossil fuel industry.

This decision is yet another marker of the Trump administration’s catastrophic failure. We can’t let this administration divide us or roll back the clock on protections for wildlife refuges, for First Nations communities being impacted by environmental injustice, or for crucial ecosystems. This anti-science billionaire handout is abhorrent and is the last thing that our country needs in the middle of a pandemic, mass evictions, and an economic crisis. Fighting for the Refuge is part of the movement to resist, to demand better, and to push back against all of the destructive elements of this administration’s anti-people, anti-environment agenda.

Tell your senators to take up and pass the Arctic Cultural and Coastal Plain Protection Act and that you’re counting on them to protect this national treasure.

For a green and peaceful future.
Avery Raines
Senior Digital Strategist, Greenpeace USA

***

From Sum of Us:


R.I.P. US Postal Service: 1775-2020?
Cause of death: Covid-19 and Donald J. Trump
Sign the urgent petition to save USPS -- before it’s too late!
 Sign the petition 
Postal workers across the country are putting their lives at risk going door to door delivering life-saving medicine and other essential items even as this pandemic grows.

But if Trump and his corporate cronies get their way, our Postal Service could run out of money soon!

This would be an unmitigated disaster in the midst of this pandemic -- and with your help, we won’t let that happen.

Right now, Congress is putting together its next stimulus bailout package, and corporations stand to get billions of dollars. We urgently need to make a massive public outcry and let Congress know that if they want to bail out large corporations with public money, first they need to fund USPS -- and keep it out of the hands of private corporations!

Add your name now to demand USPS be properly funded before it’s too late!

For years, Trump and private equity firms have been threatening to privatize USPS.
Now that dream is about to be a reality.

This pandemic has significantly impacted USPS’ bottom line, which relies on revenue created by postage and postal services to keep functioning.

Now with each passing day, the Postal Service is bleeding cash -- and it's only a matter of time before the Postal Service as we know it disappears.

The only thing that can stop this is a massive public outcry from regular people like you and me who are relying on the Postal Service to keep us connected and supplied through this crisis.

Together, we can create enough public pressure to force vulnerable Senate Republicans to hold fast against Trump's plotting and keep the USPS as we know it alive. But we've only got a few short weeks left to make our case.

Will you join me in this fight?
Add your name now and demand that Congress holds fast against Trump’s plans to bankrupt and privatize USPS!

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