U.S. and the rest of the world must cooperate for the benefit of all
Sunday, September 24, 2017
[mpen-dayton] FW: "I just signed" & "Take a Knee" & "Trump tells U.N. to "totally destroy" North Korea" & "Stop this moral atrocity with Heathcare" and more
From Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, the US has had a military presence across the world, from almost day one of its independence. For those who have ever wanted a clearer picture of the true reach of the United States military – both historically and currently – but shied away due to the sheer volume of research required to find an answer, The Anti Media points out that a crew at the Independent just made things a whole lot simpler.
Using data compiled by a Geography and Native Studies professor from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, the indy100 team created an interactive map of U.S. military incursions outside its own borders from Argentina in 1890 to Syria in 2014.
To avoid confusion, indy100 laid out its prerequisites for what constitutes an invasion:
âDeployment of the military to evacuate American citizens, covert military actions by US intelligence, providing military support to an internal opposition group, providing military support in one side of a conflict, use of the army in drug enforcement actions.â
But indy100 didnât stop there. To put all that history into context, using data from the Department of Defense (DOD), the team also put together a map to display all the countries in which nearly 200,000 active members of the U.S. military are now stationed.
For more details, click on the country:
The three countries with the biggest U.S. presence, according to DOD numbers, are Japan at 39,623, Germany at 34,399 and South Korea at 23,297.
The publication of the maps comes just after President Donald Trump announced the military would not be pulling out of its 16-year engagement in Afghanistan – a reversal of his previous stance – and that the U.S. would seek stronger ties with India to combat terrorism in South and Central Asia.
Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article.
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Cruel and craven Republicans are trying to gut our health care again. I just signed a petition demanding that Congress block the cruel and heartless Graham-Cassidy bill.
I just signed in support of the campaign: #TakeAKnee
Would you please also add your name to this important issue? Every name that is added builds momentum around the campaign and makes it more likely for us to get the change we want to see.
Will you join me by taking action on this campaign?
After you've signed the petition please also take a moment to share it with others. It's easy – all you need to do is forward this email.
From: Ken Miles via OrganizeFor Subject: Trump attacks Black athletes: What we all can do tomorrow
Ken Miles just started a petition to NFL Players, Fans, Coaches and Personnel: We’re calling on anyone at an NFL game this season, who condemns the comments of Donald Trump, to take a knee in solidarity with athletes like Michael Bennett, Eric Reid, and Colin Kaepernick and journalists like Jemele Hill.
Once again 45 has proven that Black people are nothing more than property to him. Twice in as many weeks, Donald Trump has come for the livelihood of Black athletes and journalists who continue speak out against injustice at great risk to their safety, employment and ability to pursue passions for which they’ve dedicated their lives. First, he called for the firing of Jemele Hill for tweeting her opinion on her personal social media platform. Then, this week at rally in Alabama, Trump called for NFL owners to “fire” athletes like Michael Bennett, Eric Reid, Colin Kaepernick and so many others from the San Francisco 49ers to the Buffalo Bills for speaking out in protest of police brutality and systemic racism.
Perhaps he was feeling emboldened by NFL buddies like Dan Snyder (Washington), Shad Khan (Jaguars), Bob McNair (Texans), Robert Kraft (Patriots), Woody Johnson (Jets) and Stan Kroenke (Rams), all of whom each contributed $1 Million to his inauguration. Or perhaps he had the consent of the league itself, as their marketing department contributed $100,000. Of course Trump was already bragging about NFL owners not signing Colin Kaepernick because he may send them a nasty tweet.
Either way, Trump felt way too comfortable calling for NFL owners to tell personnel that when any player that takes a knee they should “get that son of a bi*ch off the field right now…” This is just another sad example of Trump’s long history of misogyny and trashy attacks on Black folks who dare to stand against injustice.
It is time the league acts on its motto and “protect the shield” by forcefully supporting their players right to speak out about the issue of police brutality and systemic racism in the criminal justice system that affects them. Everyone in the NFL must choose what side they’re on and act in solidarity with players, and media members being targeted by the highest office in the nation.
That’s why we’re asking anyone at an NFL game this weekend to take a knee during the National Anthem--not only in solidarity with countless athlete-activists’ right to protest; but in defiance of Donald Trump’s ruthless targeting of Black athletes and journalists. We’re in a pivotal moment when everyday Americans and athletes with shared values of justice and equity are using their powerful voices to say enough is enough--no more racism, no more anti-Muslim bigotry, no more misogyny, and no more Trump! We need to continue to support the athletes that are risking their livelihoods to stand up for justice.
While President Trump is being denounced for his vile efforts to whitewash bigotry, Vice President Mike Pence is trying to skitter under the radar.
"President Trump's leadership inspires me every single day," Pence says.
What about the days when Trump defends and incites racist violence? Even Secretary of State Rex Tillerson remarked that "Trump speaks [only] for himself." When a journalist asked Pence, he dodged the question.
What about the days when Trump threatens nuclear war, or esclates the war on Afghanistan?
Or the day when Trump pardoned a Sheriff for illegal racist targeting?
What about the days when Trump removes environmental protections or hurricane preparedness?
Or the days when he tries to ban Muslims from entering the country?
What about the day when Trump set up a commission to suppress voting?
Or the days (every day of his presidency so far) when Trump accepts domestic and foreign payments ("emoluments") in violation of the U.S. Constitution?
P.S. RootsAction is an independent online force endorsed by Jim Hightower, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cornel West, Daniel Ellsberg, Glenn Greenwald, Naomi Klein, Bill Fletcher Jr., Laura Flanders, former U.S. Senator James Abourezk, Frances Fox Piven, Lila Garrett, Phil Donahue, Sonali Kolhatkar, and many others.
From: JV Subject: Trump Names Sarah Palin Ambassador to Nambia | The New Yorker
It’s about time. Obama never did fill that essential post. — JV
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Donald J. Trump on Friday capped a busy week of diplomatic activity by naming the former Alaska governor Sarah Palin the United States Ambassador to Nambia.
By naming Palin to this diplomatic post, the United States has become the first nation in the world to formally recognize Nambia’s existence.
In a joint appearance with Trump at the White House, Palin acknowledged that she “didn’t know a lot about Nambia” but said that she was looking forward to receiving a comprehensive briefing on the nation’s history, culture, and customs from the Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos.
“Then it’s Nambia, here I come!” Palin exclaimed.
In a sign that Palin’s appointment was a popular move, a new poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Americans support her permanent relocation to Nambia.
From: Stephen, Michelle, Mariam and the Win Without War team Subject: Trump tells U.N. to “totally destroy” North Korea
Donald Trump’s march to war grows more terrifying by the day. Just a few hours ago, in front of leaders from every member of the United Nations, our commander in chief threatened that he may “totally destroy North Korea.”
This is appalling. Trump is putting millions of lives at risk by promoting direct confrontation with a nuclear-armed North Korea. We can’t let him succeed.
Can you contribute to our movement today? We’re working night and day to strip the president of the power to wage unilateral, endless war. And we need your help. Donate This was Trump’s first-ever address to the United Nations General Assembly. Many would think he’d use his time in front of an institution dedicated to promoting world peace through diplomacy to touch on urgent issues like climate change, conflict in the Middle East, or maybe even humanitarian crisis like Yemen or Burma.
Instead, the president threatened war with North Korea and theatened to undo years of crucial diplomatic work by walking away from the Iran nuclear deal.
Donald Trump's unchecked power to declare and incite worldwide war is exactly why our work is so important. Will you help us respond to these calls for war by making a donation for peace today?
Right-wing activists opposed to Pope Francis just got Catholic University's seminary to cancel a speech by the Rev. James Martin, a popular spiritual writer who just wrote a book standing up for gay Catholics.
Martin has been appointed to a Vatican advisory position by Pope Francis, and his new book on the LGBT community and the Catholic Church, Building a Bridge, has been praised by two cardinals and three bishops.
He was scheduled to give an unrelated talk about Jesus' life and ministry at Theological College's annual alumni event, but after a vicious smear campaign by some fringe websites calling him a "homosexualist," seminary leaders decided to cancel.
The story is already making headlines, and the even the university president has distanced him from the decision.
If the cancellation stands, it will set a dangerous precedent and encourage right-wing activists to continue demonizing Martin and other Catholic leaders who are embracing Pope Francis' vision of a more welcoming church.
For more details on what MoveOn is doing and why your support matters so much, please see my message from earlier this week, below:
After multiple failed attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, my Republican colleagues in the Senate are trying one last-ditch, desperate effort to take away health care access from tens of millions of Americans.
Here's the truth: This bill, the Graham-Cassidy plan, is an even more damaging draft of Trumpcare than the ones before. Republicans know that it can't pass in the Senate under normal circumstances, so they're putting fast-track efforts into play.
They have until September 30 to pass this bill without the 60 votes they'd normally need, and because they know this plan is so harmful and is already incredibly unpopular, they are recklessly rushing to a vote in less than two weeks. They're not even letting the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office give a comprehensive score of the bill—including an estimate of how many millions of people would lose health care if this moral atrocity passes.
We need to stop this bill from passing, so that's why I'm asking you to support MoveOn's emergency campaign to defeat it. Your donation will pay for rapid-response ads and grassroots organizing to stop this bill now— before it's too late.
Will you pitch in to support MoveOn's campaign against the Graham-Cassidy Trumpcare bill? Donate
Here's what MoveOn is working on, and needs your help to expand:
Keeping the phones ringing off the hook. They are actively driving calls over email and using advanced analytics and phone technology to empower volunteer teams to call and send text messages to millions of folks who are represented by Republican senators.
Protesting on Capitol Hill and across the country to show the intensity of opposition to this bill. Just yesterday, MoveOn organized an emergency rally outside the Capitol that I and a dozen other senators attended—and now they are rolling out actions with allies all around the U.S. over the next 10 days.
Running ads in targeted states that expose the horrific cost of repealing the Affordable Care Act.
Making grants to local organizers in key states to aid emergency organizing efforts.
Can you donate now to make sure that MoveOn has the resources to fight and defeat the latest—and scariest—GOP plan to repeal health care?
For many Americans, this legislation could mean the difference between life and death. The Graham-Cassidy bill not only rolls back protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions, but also includes devastating cuts to Medicaid, dramatic cost increases for seniors and people with disabilities, and many other awful provisions.
If we don't act right now to stop Republicans from rushing this bill into law by September 30, millions of Americans will lose their health insurance.
I need you to step up and join us in this fight now. Can I count on you to chip in to fund MoveOn's critical rapid-response work today? Donate
I believe that we can defeat this bill—once and for all. But we can only succeed if all of us work together.
Want to support MoveOn's work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back towards sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with MoveOn? Donate
Contributions to MoveOn.org Civic Action are not tax deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.
From: Nicole Regalado; Campaign Manager, CREDO Action from Working Assets, CREDO Action Subject: Resistance needed: Trumpcare is back
It's time to turn up the heat. Tomorrow, we are delivering more than 170,000 petition signatures to Senate offices demanding that they do everything in their power to block and resist the latest version of Trumpcare (Graham-Cassidy).
Mitch McConnell could ram through a vote on the cruel and heartless Graham-Cassidy bill as early as Wednesday. We need to show key Republican senators that there is overwhelming opposition to this dangerous bill now.
Graham-Cassidy would end health coverage for millions of Americans, rollback Medicaid expansion and defund Planned Parenthood. We must keep pushing to make sure these senators do the right thing, protect our care and reject this cruel bill.
Petition to Congress: "Put the health and well-being of your constituents first. Block and resist the cruel and heartless Graham-Cassidy bill and stop right-wing Republicans’ last-ditch effort to gut health care for millions of Americans." Add your name:
Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Trump Republicans have not given up their quest to gut our health care. Two extreme right-wing Republican senators from South Carolina and Louisiana – Senator Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy, respectively – just introduced a so-called compromise bill (Graham-Cassidy) to win over the supposedly moderate wing of their party. But make no mistake, their latest proposal is just as cruel and heartless as the Trumpcare bills that came before it.
Graham-Cassidy would roll back Medicaid expansion, end protections for people with pre-existing conditions and cut funding to Planned Parenthood.1
Mitch McConnell is so desperate for a win on health care that he is now trying to ram through a vote on the Graham-Cassidy bill in the next few days to avoid a democratic filibuster and the public scrutiny of this dangerous bill.2,3 Our collective activism helped stop Trumpcare three times before. Now, we need to use the same grassroots power to block this latest attack and make sure that we defeat the Republicans’ zombie Trumpcare bill once and for all.
Republicans are using the same old dirty tricks to advance this latest version of Trumpcare. Once again, they are pushing through a secretive bill to steal health care from millions of people that they drafted behind closed doors and with no time for public hearings, constituent input or amendments.
The Graham-Cassidy bill would:
End employer-provided health coverage for many Americans.
Eliminate subsidies that help middle- and low-income people purchase health plans.
Dramatically cut funding to support states’ Medicaid costs and allow states to impose work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries, an attack that could leave millions of people with disabilities and low-income families without health coverage.
Give states the power to remove more expensive health services like maternity care from the list of essential benefits that insurance providers are required to cover.
Allow insurance providers to charge more and reduce the quality of care for people with pre-existing conditions.
Defund Planned Parenthood.
Increase health care premiums for seniors.4,5,6,7
Graham-Cassidy would also replace federal funding for Medicaid expansion and health care subsidies with a state block grant that would shrink over time. The block grant gives states the power to design their own health programs but less money to run them. Many Democratic states like California, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, and the federal government gave them more funding to cover the cost of new and more Medicaid beneficiaries. Graham-Cassidy would force states to absorb the cost of expanding Medicaid and eventually roll back the expansion.
By 2026, states that expand Medicaid would have 50 percent less federal funding to keep the program going.8Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who opposes the bill, has called Graham-Cassidy’s block grant scheme a “game” to take away federal funding from Democratic states.9It is also an insidious attack on the health care of more than 15 million low-income people covered under Medicaid expansion.10
Senate Republicans claim they are just a few votes short of repealing the Affordable Care Act and replacing it with Graham-Cassidy, which is why we must speak out now.11
We have signed petitions. We have made calls. We have showed up to congressional offices. We have shared videos, graphics and articles via our social media channels. Our activism has worked to defeat Trumpcare before, and we can win again if we put forward a massive show of resistance against Trump Republicans’ latest attempt to gut our health care. Will you help ramp-up the pressure now to make sure members of Congress do the right thing and reject the heartless Graham-Cassidy bill?
Tell Congress: Do everything in your power to protect our health care. Block the dangerous Graham-Cassidy bill. Click on the link below to sign the petition.
Imagine waking up just a few days from now, turning on the news, and feeling like you've been punched in the gut.
Imagine finding out that, in the dead of night, 50 Republicans (with help from Mike Pence) flipped just three Senate votes and passed the Graham-Cassidy Trumpcare bill—a bill that would take away health care from tens of millions of Americans, drive up insurance premiums, slash Medicaid funding by hundreds of billions of dollars, and eviscerate protections for pre-existing conditions.
That's a terrible thing to imagine—but could come true in just a matter of days.
Now imagine the alternative: The resistance—that includes you, Munsup—mounts an all-hands-on-deck, 72-hour push to stop Trumpcare ... And together, we win!
Imagine tens of millions of Americans—including those actively fighting cancer or dealing with debilitating chronic conditions—celebrating getting to keep their health coverage. The resistance, once again, shows that we are powerful. Energized, we've set the stage to win a clean Dream Act, block the worst elements of Trump's "Robin Hood in reverse" tax plan, and build the groundwork and infrastructure that progressives need to take back power in 2018 and 2020, as well as setting the stage for a more proactive debate on truly expanding access to health care as a human right.
Republicans have never been this close to passing Trumpcare—to stop them, we need three Republicans to commit to voting against it, and that hasn't happened yet. Though momentum seems to be on our side, with Senator John McCain announcing his apparent opposition to the bill on Friday, this is still WAY too close for comfort. We have just days before a key procedural deadline to ensure we defeat this terrible bill, and a vote is expected as early as Wednesday.
What our future will look like is up to us—and how well we organize. Which is why I'm writing you to ask:
Will you support MoveOn's emergency 72-hour sprint to save health care for 32 million Americans? Donate
The latest version of Trumpcare is really bad—it's the worst one so far. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said that the bill is even "more radical" than the previous versions of Trumpcare.1 Insurance companies have come out against it, as has a national organization of Medicaid program directors, with includes members from the reddest of red states.2,3
In short: The Graham-Cassidy bill is pretty much the worst piece of legislation that I've ever seen. And the polling shows that the bill is as unpopular as it deserves to be. Just 24% of Americans support the latest version of Trumpcare, while the Affordable Care Act is supported by 54%.4
I could give you reason after reason why this latest version of Trumpcare shouldn't be considered. (Is tens of millions of Americans losing their health care reason enough? How about taking away protections for pre-existing conditions?)
Senator Chuck Grassley recently said, "Republicans campaigned on this so often that you have a responsibility to carry out what you said in the campaign."5 Republicans believe that they must pass this bill because they promised their most hard-right supporters that they would—no matter how deadly it is. The only way to stop them is to make them realize that their constituents will hold them accountable if they follow through. We have to get Republicans to see that the political price is just too high.
And that's where MoveOn's all-hands-on-deck push comes in. With your help, MoveOn will reach every possible constituent of on-the-fence senators, make sure that senators' phones ring off the hook, ensure that protests happen at senators' offices, and that hard-hitting ads run during the crucial last 72 hours.
Will you support MoveOn's emergency 72-hour sprint to save health care for 32 million Americans? Donate
I know that a lot has been asked of you in recent months. But the moment we're in requires sustained effort from all of us. If you're frustrated, you're not the only one—believe me, I'm frustrated, too. And so is former President Barack Obama. He recently said that it's "frustrating to have to mobilize every couple of months to keep our leaders from inflicting real human suffering on our constituents."6
But consider how well our mobilization is working so far. We're successful because we don't give up.
Sustained mobilization during dark political times is the only way that permanent progress will be won, so I hope that you'll join me in this huge push for our collective values.
Want to support MoveOn's work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back towards sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with MoveOn?Donate
Contributions to MoveOn.org Civic Action are not tax deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.
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