Biden's Berlin Wall

Biden’s Berlin Wall

by C.A. Matthews

Having worked closely with immigrants over the years, I can’t help but take each setback in their collective struggle for equal rights and justice as personal. So many come to the US fleeing gang violence, destitution, climate catastrophe, religious and racial discrimination… And what do they find when they land on US shores? Often more of the same.

The US hides its bias behind a veneer of supposed legality and practicality. But is it really legal? Take for instance Biden’s latest twist in immigration law that prevents individuals from claiming asylum when they come to our southern border. In other words, he wants to get rid of US Code 8, Section 1158 which clearly states:

§1158. Asylum
Any alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters), irrespective of such alien's status, may apply for asylum in accordance with this section or, where applicable, section 1225(b) of this title.

It’s pretty straightforward. If you are fleeing for your life, and you claim asylum, you are to be given an asylum hearing inside the US no matter how or where you enter the country. Until your claim has been adjudicated by an immigration judge, you're allowed to stay safely within the US. That is the law.

But Genocide Joe is trying hard to get the Trump bigots on his side for the upcoming presidential election. He has decided that brown and black people who usually enter on foot at our southern border shouldn’t be able to qualify for asylum even before they can open their mouths to request it. It's telling how immigrants with money (usually white and European in origin) can fly directly into any US airport and request asylum then and there, no problem. Very telling.

Does the president even have the authority to prevent non-citizens from entering the US? Some say he does under INA Section 212(f), however:

INA § 212(f) does not allow the president to interfere with or subvert other parts of the INA or other federal laws. That includes INA § 208, which grants people the right to seek asylum in the United States… While 212(f) authority has been used in recent years in an attempt to restrict access to asylum at the U.S./Mexico border, the courts have identified significant limitations. Some courts have also ruled that the president may not invoke this authority to address purely domestic considerations, such as high unemployment or costs to taxpayers. From Understanding INA Section 212f

The ongoing genocides in Gaza, Sudan, and other parts of the world—along with a potential for World War III involving Ukraine to begin any day now—have stolen the news limelight lately, making this heinous stunt violating human rights at our southern border almost invisible to the majority of Americans. But these types of violent conflicts are the driving forces behind much of the immigration to the US today. 

The US is the driver of its own immigration problems because it can’t keep itself from stealing others' land and resources. It can't stop itself from overthrowing democratically elected governments in countries that won’t do business with American businesses on US corporations' terms alone.

Until we shut down the US war machine and dismantle the military-industrial-Congressional complex, we’re going to see more and more people coming to our borders fleeing from the violence and climate catastrophes the US military has instigated in their homelands.

As the executive director at Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) states:

"This move to drastically reduce asylum access is dangerous, immoral, and illegal," said Anna Gallagher, executive director at CLINIC. "We are appalled that the United States is abandoning its commitment to humanitarian protection and national and international asylum law in issuing this executive order. The policy will strip countless migrants of their legal right to seek asylum with due process, and as a result many lives will be endangered and lost, and families separated."

Who really needs due process or to respect the legal rights of others, huh? Obviously, we’ve decided that the migrants we don’t want to let in for whatever reasons don’t have any rights at all. It was bad enough when Trump and his cadre use the misnomer “illegals” to describe immigrants coming to our border seeking asylum, but now we have Butcher Biden continuing the Trump tradition of separating family members, separating children from their parents. This move will cause ever more desperate immigrants to seek the services of human traffickers to help smuggle them into the US. More deaths, more lawsuits, more unhappiness…

The US Southern Border Wall https://borgenproject.org/10-facts-about-mexicos-southern-border/

I talked to our resident historian, Coast Watcher, about the walls at our southern border, the barbwire-covered walls circling the bomb-pummeled territory of Gaza, historic walls such as the one that divided East and West Berlin. That got Coast Watcher thinking about how certain patterns of history are once again repeating themselves. 

Is Biden really trying to keep desperate people out of the US, or is he very slyly trying to keep desperate Americans locked in? Why would the Biden administration fear Americans escaping? Are there not enough cannon fodder (soldiers) for a big war planned in the near future? Should we expect American citizens to be denied human rights like we're currently denying them to asylum seekers, like the Israeli government denies the rights of the indigenous Palestinian people?

 https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/berlin-wall-pictures-1961-1989/

The New Iron Curtain?

by Coast Watcher

A common theme of far-right criticism leveled at Biden is, “He’s a Commie!” On the face of it such an accusation is far from accurate. Biden was, is, and (for what little remains of his putrid life) always will be a conservative authoritarian.

And yet, that little comment throws up a few surprising parallels between the United States of Israel—er, America—with the former Communist Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR. In English, we called it the German Democratic Republic, or more commonly East Germany.

The first parallel is how in both nations the mainstream media was/is almost entirely state-controlled. (Not owned by the state necessarily in the US but controlled.) Little is published that contradicts or criticizes The Regime. Social media takes up a lot of the slack here in the US, but with increasing levels of censorship it’s taking on the appearance of samizdat. In terms of online material much that is frowned upon is self-censored by the corporations who own the social media platforms on behalf of the status quo. 

A recent example of censorship in Biden’s America is how the Columbia Law Review’s website was closed down by the university board of directors after the site published an article by Rabea Eghbariah criticizing Israel.

Secondly, there’s The Regime’s obsession with walls. The DDR created a beauty when it erected the Antifaschistischer Schutzwall (the Anti-fascist Protection Barrier, a.k.a. The Berlin Wall, a.k.a. The Iron Curtain). Supposedly a wall against the pernicious influence of capitalism, the Berlin Wall acted to prevent the hemorrhaging of the East German population to the West. Something in the region of 20% of the DDR’s people voted with their feet against the totalitarian regime during its existence, causing immense harm to the DDR's economy and its image.

Part of the Gaza Wall activestills.org

Of course, both Biden and Trump claim the wall built along America’s southern border is to prevent mass illegal immigration. Looking at posts on X (Twitter) from people seeking to leave the increasingly totalitarian United States, I wonder how long it’ll be before the border wall is turned around to face inward. If the US wants you to stay put, you will be walled in similar to how the Gazans have been walled into their own homeland by the white settler colonists, a.k.a. Israeli Zionists.

The DDR shut down political dissent as soon as it appeared. We’re seeing that very same phenomena in the United States nowadays. Police response to pro-Palestine demonstrations on university campuses has been far beyond proportional to any trouble caused. Zionist vigilantes have been allowed to beat up on student protesters while the cops look the other way and arrest the peaceful students who were beaten. 

The message is clear. There is to be no resistance, no objections to the official narrative. Anyone who supports the Palestinian people are “Hamas” and subsequently “terrorists” to be locked up.

And when it comes to protesting the government’s policies in any way, shape or form, here’s a quote from Police Superintendent Larry Snelling in reference to the upcoming so-called “Democratic” Party conference in Chicago: “Protesting peacefully doesn’t always mean you’re protected by the First Amendment.”

What’s free speech good for if you can’t even be protected from harm by your own government while exercising your First Amendment rights peacefully? The East German Stasi would have been proud.

CodePink SE Los Angeles and Inland Empire joined other activists in vocally disrupting Vice President Kamala Harris’s guest spot on the Jimmy Kimmel Live television show. They were forcefully removed, assaulted, and illegally detained by the show’s security. So much for free speech anywhere in the US.

And then there’s the economy… The DDR suffered massive financial stress due to its totalitarian policies. Everything from food to furniture to cars became harder for the workers to afford. The East Germans were left with rising food costs and increasingly decrepit infrastructure.

The United States is on course for the same trouble with, as an example, a week’s grocery bill for two people in New York City costing over $750. The price of eggs has skyrocketed. Locally this most staple of cheap foods costs about $1.49 a dozen as of this past week. What will it cost next week? Will working class people even be able to afford eggs at all by November?

And it’s not like the US has experienced any recent example of infrastructure failures such as derailed trains carrying toxic chemicals deliberately set on fire in the middle of a small town or bridges falling over from a small tap from an overloaded ocean-going container barge.

It should be noted that the DDR was not above dealing with the hated Capitalist West when it came to earning hard currency to keep its failing economy afloat. The DDR took incredible quantities of industrial waste from West Germany, dumping it on its own soil and causing pollution for generations. Sounds familiar when you consider how states like Ohio take in toxic fracking water waste to make some extra cash at the expense of their own citizens’ health when the pollutants leak into their drinking water.

It's not hard to draw a parallel between the East German government taking capitalist cash like this and the US taking “backhanders and gifts” from oil companies to license fracking and drilling for oil on federal lands and preserves. In the US they sometimes call this money influx “campaign donations.”

Of course the DDR government paid little to no attention to climate change. Thirty plus years on from the Berlin Wall’s collaspe, the US government is doing as little or less. This in spite of record-breaking heatwaves across the Southwest and dramatic flooding in parts of the Central and Eastern states so far this season. There are just too many more important things to occupy the attention of the powers-that-be, like growing the US military budget.

When it came to the DDR’s military budget, it was given a 6% increase each year until it reached the point where the regime’s military became a major partner in the Warsaw Pact alliance. Military and security expenditures amounted to a 9.2% slice of the DDR budget, a sizable chunk of change.

The US military sucks up a woeful 14.7% of national expenditure. It’s not like that money could be spent on things like universal health care or providing a free education from kindergarten through college such as the East Germans had. We wouldn’t want Americans to become used to things like that. They could become “Commies.” And who really wants that?

When it comes to the government, the East German public had little say in how it was run. Show elections happened every few years. You might think there would be a big difference between the DDR and the USA when it comes to elections, but the Princeton study shows real input from the American public amounts to no more than 3% of all policies fielded in Congress. This is much like the DDR, where the status quo Communist Party always won 98% or more of the vote—something which was shown to be false when independent observers oversaw the ballot count in the elections of May 1989.

That particular election led to huge trouble for the DDR government, paving the way for the massive uprising against the totalitarian regime that threw down the Berlin Wall and brought about German reunification.

But it’s not like that at all in the US where exit polls are no longer taken in presidential elections. It’s not like Americans don’t have a wide variety of candidates to choose from when they open up their ballot for president every four years… Even in states like New York that force independent and third party candidates to collect 45,000 verified signatures within a short six week period. No comparison at all to GDR with its limited choice of candidates. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along now.

Perhaps my analogy will only go so far, although the parallels are there to see. Perhaps someday Americans will finally tell their bought-and-paid-for politicians where they can shove their military budget appropriations and demand serious and lasting beneficial changes for the people—hopefully before we all get blown to hell by the nuclear fires of World War III. 

Sources:
The Berlin Wall
https://www.stiftung-berliner-mauer.de/en/topics/berlin-wall
US military spending
https://www.usaspending.gov/agency/department-of-defense
 DDR military spending
https://www.rand.org/pubs/reports/R3726z1.html

Don’t Forget the USS Liberty’s Dead and Wounded https://scheerpost.com/2024/06/08/dont-forget-the-uss-libertys-dead-and-wounded/

Related Articles and Other Interesting Links

Understanding INA Section 212f https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/understanding-ina-section-212f-president-authority-suspend-entry-migrants

‘What Are They Afraid Of?’: Columbia Law Review Board Shuts Down Website Over Nakba Article https://scheerpost.com/2024/06/06/what-are-they-afraid-of-columbia-law-review-board-shuts-down-website-over-nakba-article/ 

Peace Activists Assaulted And Forcibly Removed From Jimmy Kimmel Taping https://popularresistance.org/peace-activists-assaulted-and-forcibly-removed-from-jimmy-kimmel-taping

Biden's new immigration order restricts asylum claims along the border. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-executive-order-immigration-border-asylum/

A century ago, anti-immigrant backlash almost closed America’s doors https://theconversation.com/a-century-ago-anti-immigrant-backlash-almost-closed-americas-doors-228589

'Historic, But So, So Late': Israel Added to UN's Child-Killing 'List of Shame' https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-killing-children-2668478068

Israel has bombed a school less than a day since it bombed the last one https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/israel-has-bombed-a-school-less-than

Israel kills over 200 Palestinians to rescue 4 captives; U.S. allegedly involved in operation https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/israel-kills-over-200-palestinians-to-rescue-4-captives-u-s-allegedly-involved-in-operation/

Narcissistic Personality Disorder in the USA https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/06/07/narcissistic-personality-disorder-in-the-usa/

Rights group accuses Israel of hitting residential buildings with white phosphorous in Lebanon  https://apnews.com/article/israel-lebanon-human-rights-watch-white-phosphorus-616984b69e1cbe1efc5bbee4cb3ba8ae

US weapons parts used in Israeli attack on Gaza school https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/6/us-weapons-parts-used-in-israeli-attack-on-gaza-school-al-jazeera-analysis

US Bombs Used in Israeli Massacre of 40 in Gaza Refugee Camp https://scheerpost.com/2024/06/07/us-bombs-used-in-israeli-massacre-of-40-in-gaza-refugee-camp/

Israeli forces killed captives during Nuseirat 'massacre', alleges Hamas https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-israeli-forces-kill-other-captives-during-nuseirat-massacre-alleges-hamas

US Targets Journalists Who Criticize Administration's Foreign Policy https://denniskucinich.substack.com/p/us-targets-journalists-who-

State department says it's Hamas' fault Israel won't accept Biden's peace deal (Hamas is willing to accept the deal) https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/state-department-says-its-hamas-fault

The Reckless Brinkmanship With Russia Just Keeps On Escalating https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-reckless-brinkmanship-with-russia

Lawmakers move to automate Selective Service registration for all men  https://www.federaltimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2024/05/23/lawmakers-move-to-automate-selective-service-registration-for-all-men/

If You Want to See White “Supremacy” at Work, Don’t go to a Trump Rally, Observe the Democrats’ Approach to Climate Change
https://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php/if-you-want-see-white-supremacy-work-dont-go-trump-rally-observe-democrats-approach-climate-change

The CIA Has “Georgia On Its Mind” https://joebrunoli.substack.com/p/the-cia-has-georgia-on-its-mind

Police Are Sending Student Protesters to the ER. Campus Cops Don’t Keep Us Safe. https://scheerpost.com/2024/06/05/police-are-sending-student-protesters-to-the-er-campus-cops-dont-keep-us-safe/

The Fight for Palestinian Recognition in American Academia https://www.citizenschronicle.org/p/the-fight-for-palestinian-recognition

Some of AIPAC’s Biggest Donors Are Also Financing Attacks Against Labor Rights https://truthout.org/articles/some-of-aipacs-biggest-donors-are-also-financing-attacks-against-labor-rights/

Scott Ritter: On My Way to Russia I Met Big Brother. https://www.youtube.com/live/lOsW84wYdzg?si=G3L4wgiRDIrK6z9A

Russian warships will arrive in Havana next week, say Cuban officials citing ‘friendly relations’ https://apnews.com/article/cuba-russia-warships-caribbean-ukraine-97905c0a6072e39e2869a18e28b0aeef

Israel Reportedly Used Fake Social Media Accounts To Garner Support From US Lawmakers On Gaza War https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2024/06/05/israel-reportedly-used-fake-social-media-accounts-to-garner-support-from-us-lawmakers-on-gaza-war/

When Opposing A Genocide Means You're A Nazi https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/when-opposing-a-genocide-means-youre

Everything About Israel Is Fake https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/everything-about-israel-is-fake

The Media Skew Public Perception By Manipulating People's Attention https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-media-skew-public-perception

'We Want Peace': Spain Applies to Join ICJ Genocide Case Against Israel  https://www.commondreams.org/news/spain-genocide-case

Police Can Be Held Liable for Killing a Dog but Not a Black Person https://scheerpost.com/2024/06/07/police-can-be-held-liable-for-killing-a-dog-but-not-a-black-person/

Mexico Elected a Climate Scientist. But Will She Be a Climate President? https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07062024/mexico-president-elect-claudia-sheinbaum-climate-policy/

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What Have We Become? (The Collapse of the Big Tent)

What have we become? Do we like what we see when we look in the mirror, America? Why don't we like what we see? Our guest blogger takes a look at the history behind why our country hates looking in the mirror nowadays. Perhaps there's a way out of this collapsing big tent?

The Collapse of the Big Tent

by Coast Watcher

The term big tent, first used in 1975 refers to “a widely inclusive composition or character that allows people of differing backgrounds, opinions, and interests to be members of a group or organization (such as a political party).” (Source: Merriam-Webster)

The Democratic Party is fond of using the term. Although it may stem from 1975, the concept of an all-inclusive party harks back to the glory days of the 32nd President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

After the disastrous Republican administrations of the 1920s, feelings ran strong against the selfish, greedy, generally corrupt or plain inept mainstream parties. The Republican government caused the Wall Street Crash of 1929 following years of corrupt practices which led to economic depression, mass unemployment and penury for millions of Americans. The Democrats were still viewed with suspicion after Woodrow Wilson broke his solemn promise not to involve the United States in WWI. All told, the burgeoning Socialist movement that had made great strides in the United States during the first three decades of the twentieth century promised a better way of doing things.

This frankly terrified the patrician class and Big Businessmen such as the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts who could see the prospect of a Soviet-style revolution on the horizon if they didn’t act quickly enough.

Roosevelt’s canny promise and shaping of a New Deal coalition united various

unions, minorities, left-leaning voting blocs and interest groups that effectively made the Democratic Party the majority party for thirty years. Even the brief interregnum of Eisenhower’s presidency doesn’t count against this record since Eisenhower himself was pro-New Deal. The coalition effectively channeled the Socialist movement into a safer, more manageable course. What most people seem to forget is the fact that Roosevelt, although a progressive by the standards of his time, was also a patrician–one of those with the most to lose in the event of a Socialist government taking power.

The New Deal coalition began to fall apart in 1968 due to bitter factionalism engendered by the election of that year. Following Carter’s troubled single term in office, Reagan’s presidency took more steam out of the Democratic Party’s engine.

In the 1980s, after a period of navel-gazing spent during their time in the political wilderness, the Democratic Party decided it liked the old adage "if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em" –only they went a step further. The party motto became "if you can’t beat ‘em, become like ‘em." The neoliberal Third Way policies eventually bore fruit in Clinton’s two terms in office, a presidency that showed few progressive values.

The same applies to the Obama administration. Although he put forward a piece of legislation of genuine use to the American people in the shape of the Affordable Care Act, Obama did little to force it through against the reactionary Republicans. He allowed the GOP to include the clause requiring citizens to buy health insurance or face a fine, something introduced with the specific intent of making the ACA toxic to the American voter. (The GOP knew they could rely on the typical short memory of voters to forget they were responsible for the clause, so a future Republican government could repeal the hated piece of legislation – and gain kudos for doing so). Obama also failed to introduce much else in the way of progressive policies beyond a few token environmental protections.

Democratic talk of a big tent was becoming alarmingly familiar as the party dealt with what amounted to a case of “values” shock—the post-election impression that Democrats keep losing because they have lost touch with mainstream American values.  Peter J. Boyer, New Yorker, November 14, 2005

Thrilled as they may still be with their victory, many Democrats are now realizing that … their future depends on a tricky proposition: actually becoming the centrist, big-tent party they've spent two years claiming to be.  Jonathan Darman, et al., Newsweek, November 20, 2006

We have big arguments within the party because we got a big tent…    Barack Obama, quoted in Rolling Stone, October 14, 2010

So, it seems the Democratic Party persists in claiming it has a big tent capable of including many other political-Left viewpoints, but it’s manifestly obvious the DNC is doing little, if anything, to prove it. They actually are the centrist, big-tent party steered by a neoliberal faction. The Democrats recently removed all the progressives on DNC committees. We see their frequent attempts to promote candidates for the 2020 election they think will be acceptable to progressives, yet even a cursory analysis exposes the candidates’ deep corporate neoliberal ties. The New Deal coalition remains the model that party activists seek to replicate, yet the neoliberal faction wants to retain the total control over the course such a coalition will steer as it has done for the past

thirty-plus years.

It’s now obvious the big tent has rotted and is falling over. The three-ring-circus show that is the Democratic Party is winding down as the acts fall out with the neoliberal management and each other. The left-leaning groups, the progressives, even stalwart Democrats who’ve supported their party through thick and thin for decades, are leaving the show. They see little – if any – difference to the rival show put on by the GOP.

There are some, like Senator Bernie Sanders, who think the big tent may be saved. They cling to the idea of a New Deal coalition and seek to replicate the successes of the original. Perhaps they may succeed, but it looks increasingly likely that the coalition will never reform. Few on the political Left want anything to do with the Democrats after what transpired during the 2016 primaries. Perhaps another coalition of the Left will form without the Democrats, and the steady progress toward a Socialist state on the Scandinavian pattern that was interrupted in the 1930s will resume. The Democratic Party’s big tent will be allowed to fall down, leaving only ghostly applause for what once was.

 
Jimmy Dore points out the how the big tent is fighting against progressives.
https://youtu.be/ynug4CLOTp0

BIO: Coast Watcher studies American history and tries to spot the good patterns repeating themselves, but he's a realist. He's hoping America will turn around and make a future to believe in soon.

***

The first national health care town hall (over 1 million views and counting) was not broadcast by mainstream media but on three digital outlets. Here's the video in case you missed it or want to share it with a friend. Lots of good information.

 ***

From Friends of the Earth:

Tell your Senators: Kick Clovis out of the USDA!

Good news! Michael Dourson -- a Monsanto hack -- just stepped down from his job at the Environmental Protection Agency.

Last year, Donald Trump nominated Dourson to run the Office of Chemical Safety Prevention and Pollution. Pressure from people like you forced Dourson to withdraw his nomination. But EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt hired him as a senior advisor anyway. Now, months later, he’s leaving that position.

But Dourson wasn’t the only failed Trump nominee to be given a job in the Trump administration. Sam Clovis -- a conservative talk radio host with no scientific background -- is currently serving as a senior advisor at the USDA. Clovis was forced to withdraw his nomination to lead the agency’s science program in November.

This is the second time Trump has gone around the nomination process and given his Big Ag friends jobs that they’re completely unqualified for. Congress could hold Trump accountable -- but we need your help to push it to act!
Tell your Senators: Stop Trump from filling his government with Big Ag cronies!

Clovis says the science on climate change is “junk science” and has made it clear that he will not prioritize climate science at the USDA. But farmers and the agriculture industry are on the front lines of both the effects and causes of climate change. We need science-based leadership to help farmers respond to climate threats.

What’s more, Clovis has a well-documented record of homophobic, racist, misogynistic and anti-science rants as a former radio show host. He called progressives “race traders and race traitors." He’s vocally against fair wages for working people. And he vehemently opposes civil rights protections for the LGBT community.

This is someone who shouldn’t be in any sort of leadership position -- let alone serving as a key advisor on federal programs to protect our food system! Trump likely gave him the job as a reward for his role on his campaign.
Tell your Senators: Kick Sam Clovis out of the USDA!

Thanks to a groundswell of public pressure -- including more than half a million comments from Friends of the Earth members like you -- we stopped Clovis from getting a Senate-confirmed job at the USDA.

This shows that when you speak up, you can push the Senate to act and hold the Trump administration accountable.

We can’t let Trump undermine our critical food programs by staffing his government with anti-science extremists. We need your help to get Sam Clovis out of the USDA once and for all.

Tell Congress: No anti-science extremists leading key USDA programs!

Standing with you,
Lisa Archer,
Food and technology program director,
Friends of the Earth


Also from Friends of the Earth:

Big Ag and the Trump administration are attacking organic farming.
In an outrageous assault on organic agriculture, Trump’s USDA is moving fast to kill protections for livestock on organic farms.

This attempt to roll back the standard is the biggest attack on organic agriculture in almost twenty years.  

Congress could step up and stop the USDA’s attack on organic standards. But we need your help to push it to act!

Call now! Tell your Senators you OPPOSE the USDA’s attempt to kill the organic animal welfare rule!

The Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices rule provides animals on organic farms with real outdoor access, ample space to move around, and protection from unnecessary physical alterations. 

Most organic farmers already meet these standards. The rule would ensure that everyone using the organic label lives up to the humane conditions that consumers expect from organic. The rule is overwhelmingly supported by organic farmers, consumers, and animal advocates.

Tell your Senators: Don’t let the USDA eliminate protections for organic livestock!

The organic label was born out of a public outcry for a healthier, safer and more transparent food system. The Senate needs to hear loud and clear that the American people want healthy, organic food from animals who were treated with dignity and respect -- not more giveaways to Big Ag.

Call your Senators and ask them to stop Trump’s attack on organic agriculture!

Standing with you,
Dr. Kendra Klein,
Staff Scientist,
Friends of the Earth

***

From the Sierra Club:

We can't let this happen on our watch.

This month, the Trump administration proposed opening 90% of US waters to offshore drilling between 2019 and 2024. That's right -- if this plan becomes law, the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, and Eastern Gulf coasts will all be in the hands of Big Oil. That means oil rigs from Maine to Louisiana, and from Alaska down to California. 

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is collecting comments on this catastrophic new five-year plan. We have until March 9 to tell them how unpopular and short-sighted this plan is.
 
While they attempt to hand our coasts over to oil companies, Trump and his buddies are also rushing to dismantle safety regulations that were enacted after the Deepwater Horizon spill.¹ And on New Year's Day, Congress also failed to renew a longstanding oil tax that funds cleanup efforts for oil spills.²
It almost sounds too sinister to be true -- they want to open 90% of our coasts to drilling but won't enforce basic safety standards or fund programs to clean up the inevitable spills. 

Tell BOEM that the people have spoken -- no drilling off our coasts!
 
Thanks for all you do to protect our coasts,
Lena Moffitt
Senior Director, Our Wild America Campaign
Sierra Club 

1. Eilperin, Juliet and Grandoni, Dino. "Trump administration to overhaul safety-monitoring rules for offshore drilling" The Washington Post. 12/28/18.
2. Eilperin, Juliet and Grandoni, Dino. "Without fanfare, oil companies just received a tax break on New Year's Day" The Washington Post. 1/5/18.

***

Before you keep reading: This one is sickening.

Okay. Ready for this?

The Pentagon funded forces engaged in child sexual assault and other “gross violations of human rights” in Afghanistan — to the tune of 71 billion dollars.
Appalling doesn’t begin to describe it. But in the deafening chaos of the Trump era, even a story as awful as this might slip through the cracks if we don’t speak up. So it’s up to us make this story huge.

Tell Congress: Immediately halt appropriations to Afghan security forces until the Pentagon proves that no American tax dollars will fund human rights violations.

But wait — it gets worse. The Pentagon knew, this whole time. They also knew that a highly specific law prohibits exactly this situation: Congress has made it illegal for the Department of Defense to assist foreign security forces if they have credible evidence that human rights are being violated. But instead of stepping in, the Pentagon dug up a shady legal loophole to dodge accountability and claim they are in the clear.

Let that one sink in for a minute. The Pentagon’s response to clear evidence of human rights violations was: How can we cover our behinds?

The muck and mire of America’s failed war in Afghanistan just keep getting deeper. And it's clear that the Pentagon isn't about to solve their own fiasco. But Congress created the watchdog agency that dug up this story, and Congress passed the laws that should make this behavior 100% illegal. Now, we need to make Congress shut the loophole and shut down American support for these human rights abuses. 

Sign now: Congress must not send another penny to Afghan security forces while these gross human rights violations continue.

Thank you for working for peace,
Cassandra, Stephen, Amy, and the Win Without War team

***

Happy birthday in Palestinian Arabic is “kul sana wa inti salmeh,” which literally translates something like, “May you be safe this year and every year.” 
We’re hoping Ahed Tamimi’s next year, and every year after, is safer than this one. Her birthday is January 31st, and this year, her 17th, she’ll be celebrating it in prison. 

Click here to send Ahed a message of support and solidarity on her birthday.

Ahed’s story of slapping an armed soldier after the IDF tried to enter her family’s home on December 15 is but one small incident during an entire young life controlled by military occupation. 

Earlier that day, a soldier shot Ahed’s 14-year-old cousin Mohammed in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet, which required risky surgery to remove. Three years ago, soldiers shot her mother Nariman in the leg. Two years before that, soldiers shot and killed her uncle Rushdi. The year before that it was another cousin, Mustafa, who died from a high-velocity tear gas canister to the face point-blank. This is an incomplete list.

So who is on trial? Ahed. A young girl the same age as my daughter, who is sitting behind bars facing a sentence of 10 years for defending herself and her family. 

Let her know that you won’t let Israel put yet another child behind bars and make her disappear. That you’ll be thinking about her on Wednesday— and next week when her trial begins.

Send Ahed a birthday card that honors her life and her brave act of resistance.

 "Kul sana wa inti salmeh ya Ahed!
Sending you love and solidarity on your 17th birthday, Ahed.
We stand with you and with all Palestinian prisoners.
Thank you for your bravery and steadfastness, and happy birthday!"

Ahed isn’t the first child to be locked up in Israeli military detention and she won’t be the last—until we pressure Israel to change. 

By standing up for Ahed, we are standing up for the approximately 350 reported children currently in Israel’s military detention— for the approximately 700 Palestinian children Israel arrests and prosecutes every year. Ahed herself, when she had a chance to talk with her father, told him “to make a campaign for all the women and children in prison.”

Ahed, her family, and all the nonviolent resisters in her village of Nabi Salih, are heroes in my book. They endure tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets, home invasions, arrests, and tragedy after tragedy. 

To ensure a safer year— a safer world— for Ahed and all Palestinian children, we must continue to work towards ending these many decades of military occupation. And we will continue to push for the legislation introduced by Rep. Betty McCollum, the Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Detention of Palestinian Children Act, to prevent the use of U.S. tax dollars for the Israeli military’s ongoing mistreatment of Palestinian children. 

Today, please join me in saluting Ahed and wishing her a happy birthday, and a safer, happier, more peaceful future.
I know it’s getting closer.

Granate
Communications Strategist