CITIZEN UNITED

Posted on December 11, 2020 by mekorganic

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010), is a landmark United States Supreme Court case concerning campaign finance.

The Court held that the free speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures for political communications by corporations, including nonprofit corporations, labor unions, and other associations.

10 Ways Citizens United Endangers Democracy

  1. “Independent” Spending Farce Leads To SuperPACs
  2. Legal Money Laundering Increases Secret Spending
  3. Corporate Money Distorts Democracy
  4. Court is Blind to Reality of Corruption
  5. Citizen Voices are Drowned Out
  6. Money Is Still Not Speech
  7. Open Season on Remaining Money in Politics Protections
  8. Increases Corporate Power
  9. Unlimited Corporate Spending is Bad for Business and Shareholders
  10. Risks Reducing Respect for the Supreme Court

10 Ways Citizens United Endangers Democracy

Citizens United v. FEC

Why “Citizens United” ruling was wrong?

Money Is Speech: Why the Citizens United v. FEC Ruling Is Bad for Politics and the Market

2019-11-05 Historic’ Alaska Ruling Could Provide Roadmap to Defeating Citizens United

2018-02-17 How Citizens United Continues to Transform Money in Politics

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From Creating Better World

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CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT

Posted on December 11, 2020 by mekorganic

The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers. Building on the 1875 Page Act, which banned Chinese women from immigrating to the United States, the Chinese Exclusion Act was the first law implemented to prevent all members of a specific ethnic or national group from immigrating.

The act followed the Angell Treaty of 1880, a set of revisions to the U.S.–China Burlingame Treaty of 1868 that allowed the U.S. to suspend Chinese immigration. The act was initially intended to last for 10 years, but was renewed in 1892 with the Geary Act and made permanent in 1902. It was repealed by the Magnuson Act on December 17, 1943, which allowed 105 Chinese to enter per year. Chinese immigration later increased with the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which abolished direct racial barriers, and later by Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which abolished the National Origins Formula.

Source: Chinese Exclusion Act

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

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From Creating Better World

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CHELSIE MANNING – WHISTLEBLOWER

Posted on December 10, 2020 by mekorganic

Whisteblower Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley) is the US Army Private (Pfc) who leaked military and government documents to the online media outlet Wikileaks which became the basis for the Collateral Murder video, which showed the killing of unarmed civilians by a US Apache helicopter crew in Iraq.

Leaks made by Manning also resulted in the Afghan War Diary, the Iraq War Logs, and a series of embarrassing US diplomatic cables that became known as Cablegate.

The Guantánamo files are among hundreds of thousands of documents US soldier Bradley Manning is accused of having turned over to the WikiLeaks website more than a year ago.

In 2013, she was convicted by a military court or the disclosures and sentence to 35 years in prison. In 2017, in the last days of his presidency, President Barack Obama coummuted her sentence. She was released from prison in May of 2017.

In February 2019, Manning received a subpoena to testify in a US government case against WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. Manning condemned the secrecy of the hearings and announced she would avoid testifying, saying “we’ve seen this power abused countless times to target political speech. I have nothing to contribute to this case and I resent being forced to endanger myself by participating in this predatory practice.” Manning also said she had provided all the information she had in 2013 during her court martial and that she stood by her previous answers.

On March 8, 2019, Manning was held in contempt of court and jailed in the women’s wing of the federal detention center in Alexandria, Virginia, with the judge conditioning her release on her testifying or the grand jury concluding its work.

Manning was released on May 9, 2019, after the grand jury’s term expired. She was immediately served with another subpoena to appear before a new grand jury on 16 May. On 16 May 2019, Manning again refused to testify before the grand jury investigating Julian Assange stating that she “believe[d] this grand jury seeks to undermine the integrity of public discourse with the aim of punishing those who expose any serious, ongoing, and systemic abuses of power by this government”.

She was returned to jail for the 18-month term of the grand jury. In addition a fine was imposed of $500 for each day she spends in jail over 30 days and $1,000 for each day she spends in jail over 60 days.

Source: Chelsea Manning

2020-02-19 Chelsea Manning’s Lawyers Demand Her Release, Decry ‘Punitive’ Incarceration

Chelsea Manning Believes Subpoena From WikiLeaks Grand Jury May Be ‘Perjury Trap,’ According To Unsealed Documents

2011-04-25 Guantánamo Leaks Lift Lid on World’s Most Controversial Prison

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From Creating Better World

Posted in Chelsea Manning, Guantanamo Bay, Julian Assange, Uncategorized, whistleblower | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

CALIFORNIA INDIAN WARS

Posted on December 10, 2020 by mekorganic

In 1850 California was admitted to the United States as its 31st state. As with some other states, Native Americans were not seen as desirable inhabitants of the state.

For the first decade of its existence, the State of California carried on a series of privatized wars of extermination against the Native American population. California’s first governor, Peter Burnett, openly called for the extermination of Indian tribes.

The Act for the Government and Protection of Indians, April 22, 1850. Passed by the legislature of California, it allowed settlers to continue the Californio practice of capturing and using Native people as forced workers.

It also provided the basis for the enslavement and trafficking in Native American Native labor, particularly that of young women and children, which was carried on as a legal business enterprise. Raids on villages were made to supply the demand, the young women and children were carried off to be sold, the men and remaining people often being killed. This practice did much to destroy Native tribes during the California Gold Rush.

The California Indian Wars were a series of massacres, wars, and battles between the United States Army (or often the California State Militia, especially during the early 1850s), and the Indigenous peoples of California. The wars lasted from 1850, immediately after the acquisition of Alta California during the Mexican–American War became the state of California, to 1880 when the last minor military operation on the Colorado River that ended the Calloway Affair of 1880.

Source: California Indian Wars

Indians 101: California’s War on Indians, 1850-1851

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From Creating Better World

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BAY OF PIGS – U.S. CUBAN INVASION FIASCO

Posted on December 10, 2020 by mekorganic

US President Dwight D. Eisenhower was very concerned at the direction Castro’s government was taking, and in March 1960 he allocated $13.1 million to the CIA to plan Castro’s overthrow.

Over 1,400 paramilitaries, divided into five infantry battalions and one paratrooper battalion, assembled in Guatemala before setting out for Cuba by boat on 13 April 1961. Two days later, on 15 April, eight CIA-supplied B-26 bombers attacked Cuban airfields and then returned to the US. On the night of 16 April, the main invasion landed at a beach named Playa Girón in the Bay of Pigs. It initially overwhelmed a local revolutionary militia.

The Cuban Army’s counter-offensive was led by José Ramón Fernández before Castro decided to take personal control of the operation. As the US involvement became apparent to the world, and with the military initiative turning against the invasion, President John F. Kennedy decided against providing further air cover.[7] As a result, the operation only had half the forces the CIA had deemed necessary. The original plan devised during Eisenhower’s presidency had required both air and naval support. On 20 April, the invaders surrendered after only three days, with the majority being publicly interrogated and put into Cuban prisons.

The failed invasion helped to strengthen the position of Castro’s leadership, made him a national hero, and entrenched the rocky relationship between the former allies. It also reinforced the relations between Cuba and the Soviet Union

Source: Bay of Pigs Invasion

2011-04-18 Bay of Pigs, 50 Years Later: The Lessons Kennedy Never Learned

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From Creating Better World

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AFGHANISTAN- IRAQ WAR/OCCUPATION

Posted on December 10, 2020 by mekorganic

A major Washington Post investigation released Monday is a confirmation of the peace movement’s message that “there’s no military solution in Afghanistan.”

That’s according to Paul Kawika Martin, senior director of policy and political affairs at Peace Action, replying to “The Afghanistan Papers.” The report exposes how top officials spanning the George W. Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations waged a deliberate misinformation campaign to conceal the total failures of the 18-year war in Afghanistan.

The bombshell from investigative reporter Craig Whitlock “broadly resembles the Pentagon Papers,” and it is based on over 2,000 pages of notes from interviews with a federal agency that “bring into sharp relief the core failings of the war that persist to this day” and belie comments by officials “who assured Americans year after year” of progress made in the war.

Source: Investigation Reveals US Officials’ Public Deception Campaign on Afghan War

THE AFGHANISTAN PAPERS: COSTS AND BENEFITS OF AMERICA’S LONGEST WAR

Afghanistan: Background and U.S. Policy: In Brief

Setting the record straight on ‘The Afghanistan Papers

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From Creating Better World

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9/11 TERRORIST ATTACKS

Posted on December 10, 2020 by mekorganic

Lt. Col. Shelton F. Lankford, US Marine Corps (ret.) “My mourning for the country I live in is not abstract, but real and very immediate. Since the unsolved crime of 9/11/01, I have seen our republic descend into darkness, as we used the lie of 9/11 to justify aggression abroad and repression at home. We have officially become a torture state. Accountability for egregious crimes at the highest levels is non-existent.” “September 11, 2001 seems destined to be the watershed event of our lives and the greatest test for our democracy in our lifetimes. The evidence of government complicity in the lead-up to the events, the failure to respond during the event, and the astounding lack of any meaningful investigation afterwards, as well as the ignoring of evidence turned up by others that renders the official explanation impossible, may signal the end of the American experiment. It has been used to justify all manner of measures to legalize repression at home and as a pretext for behaving as an aggressive empire abroad. Until we demand an independent, honest, and thorough investigation and accountability for those whose action and inaction led to those events and the cover-up, our republic and our Constitution remain in the gravest danger.”

Founders of the 9/11 Consensus Panel Honor Shelton Lankford, USMC, 1942-2019

9/11 – Act of Treason

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From Creating Better World

Posted in 9-11 Research, 911 Citizen Investigation Team, 911 Documentary, 911 National Security Alert, 911 Reward, 911SpeakOut, 911Truth, 911Truth Archive | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

S. Brian Willson

Posted on December 9, 2020 by mekorganic

S. Brian Willson (born July 4, 1941) is a U.S. American Vietnam veteran, peace activist, and trained attorney.

Willson served in the US Air Force from 1966 to 1970, including several months as a combat security officer in Vietnam. He left the Air Force as a Captain. He subsequently became a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Veterans For Peace (Humboldt Bay Chapter 56, California, later Portland, OR Chapter 72, and the UK Chapter in England). Upon completion of Law School at American University in Washington, D.C., he became a member of the District of Columbia Bar. Willson has had a variety of jobs including penal consultant, prisoner rights advocate, dairy farmer, legislative aide, town tax assessor and building inspector, veteran’s advocate, and small businessman.

As a trained lawyer and writer, he has documented U.S. policy in nearly two dozen countries. Since 1986, Willson has studied on-site policies in a number of countries, among them Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Cuba, Haiti, Iraq, Israel (and Palestinian territories), Japan, and Korea, both North and South. Documenting the pattern of policies that he says “violate U.S. Constitutional and international laws prohibiting aggression and war crimes,”

Source: Wikipedia

Brian’s Blog

Autobiography

Blood on the Tracks: The Life And Times of S. Brian Willson

S. Brian Willson Videos

Brian Willson, a profile in pacifist courage at the Awareness Film Festival

Brian Willson, a profile in pacifist courage at the Awareness Film Festival

“Blood on the Tracks”: Brian Willson’s Memoir of Transformation from Vietnam Vet to Radical Pacifist

Paying the Price for Peace

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From Creating Better World

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Benjamin Ernest “Ben” Linder

Posted on December 9, 2020 by mekorganic

Benjamin Ernest “Ben” Linder (July 7, 1959 – April 28, 1987), was an American engineer. While working on a small hydroelectric dam in rural northern Nicaragua Linder was killed by the Contras, a loose confederation of rebel groups funded by the U.S. government. Coming at a time when U.S. support for the Contras was already highly controversial, Linder’s death made front-page headlines around the world and further polarized opinion in the United States.

Source: Wikipedia

N SEARCH OF BEN LINDER’S KILLERS

The American That Reagan Killed

Death of Ben Linder; the Story of a North American in Sandinista Nicaragua

Linder – A Symbol of Solidarity

The Death of Ben Linder

A History of Casa Ben Linder: To Die in Nicaragua

Linder (1959-1987) The gift of a dreamer

Contras shot Ben Linder ‘at point-blank range’

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From Creating Better World

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Rachel Aliene Corrie

Posted on December 9, 2020 by mekorganic

Rachel Aliene Corrie (April 10, 1979 – March 16, 2003) was an American activist and diarist. She was a member of a pro-Palestinian group called the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). She was killed by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) armored bulldozer in a combat zone in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, under contested circumstances during the height of the second Palestinian intifada.

She had gone to Gaza as part of her senior-year college assignment to connect her home town with Rafah in a sister cities project. While there, she had engaged with other International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activists in efforts to prevent the Israeli army’s demolition of Palestinian houses. According to the Israeli authorities the demolitions were carried out to eliminate weapons-smuggling tunnels.[According to human rights groups the demolitions were used as collective punishment.

Less than two months after her arrival, on March 16, 2003, Corrie was killed during an Israeli military operation after a three-hour confrontation between Israeli soldiers operating two bulldozers and eight ISM activists.

The exact nature of her death and the culpability of the bulldozer operator are disputed, with fellow ISM protestors saying that the Israeli soldier operating the bulldozer deliberately ran over Corrie, and Israeli eyewitnesses saying that it was an accident since the bulldozer operator could not see her.

The Israeli army conducted an investigation, which concluded that the death was an accident, and that the driver of the bulldozer could not see Corrie due to limited visibility from his cab. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as well as B’Tselem and Yesh Din criticized the military investigation.

In 2005, Corrie’s parents filed a civil lawsuit against the state of Israel. The lawsuit charged Israel with not conducting a full and credible investigation into the case and with responsibility for her death, contending that she had either been intentionally killed or that the soldiers had acted with reckless neglect. They sued for a symbolic one US dollar in damages.

In August 2012, an Israeli court rejected their suit and upheld the results of the 2003 military investigation, ruling that the Israeli government was not responsible for Corrie’s death. The ruling was met with criticism by some human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and by activists.

An appeal against the August 2012 ruling was heard on May 21, 2014. On February 14, 2015, the Supreme Court of Israel rejected the appeal.

Source: Wikipedia

On March 16, 2003, Rachel Corrie, 23-year-old U.S. peace activist, was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer while undertaking nonviolent direct action to protect the home of a Palestinian family from demolition.

Our friend and fellow activist for peace, Rachel Corrie, 23 years old, was crushed to death on Sunday, March 16, when she was run over by an Israeli-driven, U.S.-made Caterpillar D9 bulldozer.

She, nonviolently, was trying to prevent the Israeli military from demolishing a Palestinian doctor’s home in the Rafah area of the Gaza Strip.

Rachel was in Rafah as a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) a Palestinian-led movement of both Palestinians and internationals working together for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

The ISM uses nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles to challenge and resist Israel’s brutal 36-year military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and to campaign for the implementation of U.N. resolutions and international law.

In response to the international community’s failure to offer Palestinians an international protection force, Rachel Corrie and other ISM activists actively have confronted Israel’s policy of home demolition, and international apathy toward this policy, by living with families whose homes are threatened and by refusing to leave them, or areas threatened with demolition.

The ISM believes that its presence slows the process of destruction and hopes that the international community ultimately will act to support the daily nonviolent struggle of normal Palestinian families to exist.

Rachel Corrie (1979-2003): An American Martyr for Palestine

The Death of Rachel Corrie – Mother Jones

Rachel and Anne: A Legacy of Two Martyrs

The Murder of Rachel Corrie – Israeli Army Bulldozer

Photostory: Israeli bulldozer driver murders American peace activist

International Solidarity Movement (ISM)

March 16, 2003: Rachel Corrie Killed

Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice

Rachel Corrie

The Death of Rachel Corrie

Rachel Corrie – NY Tijmes

Rachel Corrie – AWTT

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From Creating Better World

Posted in Amnesty International, Hall of Shame, Human Rights Watch, International Solidarity Movement, Israel, Palestine, Rachel Corrie | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment