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Posted in coal, geo-thermal, hydroelectric, Nuclear Power, oil, renewables, solar, Uncategorized, wind | Tagged geo-thermal, hydroelectric, hydrogen, renewable, solar, wind | Leave a comment

Religious Freedom and Secular Equality

Posted on March 17, 2020 by mekorganic

The United States Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of religion.

We must affirm the right of each individual to the exercise of conscience and religion, while maintaining the constitutionally mandated separation of government and religion.

The federal, state, and local governments must remain neutral regarding religion.
We should call for:

Ending discriminatory federal, state, and local laws against particular religious beliefs, and non-belief. The U.S. Constitution states that there shall be no religious test for public office. This requirement should apply to oaths (or affirmations) for holding public office at any level, employment at all government levels, oaths for witnesses in courts, oaths for jury membership, and the oath for citizenship.
Prosecution of hate crimes based on religious affiliation or practice.
Elimination of displays of religious symbols, monuments, or statements on government buildings, property, websites, money, or documents.
Restoration of the Pledge of Allegiance to its pre-1954 version, eliminating the politically motivated addition of “under God.”
Ending faith-based initiatives and charitable choice programs, whereby public funds are used to support religious organizations that do not adhere to specified guidelines and standards, including anti-discrimination laws.
Ending school vouchers whereby public money pays for students in religious schools.
Ending governmental use of the doctrines of specific religions to define the nature of family, marriage, and the type and character of personal relationships between consenting adults.
Ending religiously based curricula in government-funded public schools.
Ending the use of religion as a justification to deny children necessary medical care or subject them to physical and emotional abuse.
Ending the use of religion by government to define the role and rights of women in our society.

Sources: Green Party

Posted in Bill of Rights, constitution, Pledge of Allegiance, religious freedom, secular equality, Uncategorized | Tagged Bill of Rights, religions | Leave a comment

Puerto Rican Independence

Posted on March 17, 2020 by mekorganic

In 1898, Puerto Rico was invaded by the United States and has been held by the U.S. in the form of a colony ever since.

In response to international pressure, in 1952, the U.S. established the “Free Associated State” status for Puerto Rico but continued to claim that Puerto Rico belongs to, yet is not a part of, the United States.

The root of the crisis is the colonial status of Puerto Rico as echoed in the UN Decolonization committee resolution on Puerto Rico adopted on June 22, 2015. The resolution states that the condition of political subordination prevents Puerto Rico from making sovereign decisions to attend to its serious economic and social problems including unemployment, marginalization and poverty (Olga Sanabria Davila, Crisis and Colonialism in Puerto Rico, 10/26/15).

We should support the right of the people of Puerto Rico to self-determination and independence in conformity with United Nations Resolution 1514(XV) of 1960. We should call for the release of all Puerto Rican political prisoners, such as Oscar Lopez Rivera, who has been held in U.S. prisons since 1981.

We need to call for the appropriate environmental clean-up and sustainable development of Vieques, the island that was used as a firing range by the U.S. military.
We should oppose the recruitment of the youth of Puerto Rico into the U.S. armed forces and their deployment to U.S. wars abroad by denouncing the recruitment attempts at educational institutions.

Further, We should recognize that:

Puerto Rico’s debt is unpayable.
In the last 20 years alone, foreign corporations operating in Puerto Rico have reaped over 600 billion dollars in tax free profits, 10 per cent of which would suffice to pay its current otherwise unpayable debt.
Austerity measures like a “Financial Control Authority,” which have proven to exacerbate economic suffering and strip away democratic rights to self-determination, must be opposed.
The social cost of increasing the sales tax, of reducing workers’ pay, education and health services, of eliminating labor rights gained and the dismantling of the retirement system among other recessionary measures, are a detriment to the quality of life of the people of Puerto Rico and to the strategic development of the country’s economy.
The present fiscal and economic crisis in Puerto Rico is largely due to the United States’ colonial power and exploitation in Puerto Rico.
Further, although Puerto Rico is a tropical island country seriously being affected by climate change, it is powerless to participate in initiatives and international negotiations to control and mitigate climate change and global warming.
As a colony of the United States, Puerto Rico’s position of political subordination cuts across the problem and independence would break the stalemate and create the possibilities of a solution.
Commitment to grassroots democracy is totally consistent with support for the decolonization of Puerto Rico as colonialism is contrary to democracy.
For the country ruled, democracy is non-existent where one country rules over another, even if there are elections every four years to elect local authorities.
In Puerto Rico the United States controls commerce, international relations, immigration, monetary issues, communications, postal matters, defense, labor relations and in others areas.

Conclusion: To truly support democracy in Puerto Rico, its decolonization has to be supported as the first step for the Puerto Rican people to live in a democracy.

Sources: Green Party

Puerto Rico

Posted in Free Associated State, Puerto Rica, Uncategorized, Vieques | Tagged austerity, colonial, colony, decolonization, Free Associated State, independence, political prisoners, Puerta Rica, Puerto Rican, UN, Vieques | Leave a comment

Political Reform

Posted on March 17, 2020 by mekorganic

We need to crack down on political corruption and strengthen the voice of the people at all levels of government.

Everyone deserves the opportunity to influence the governmental decisions that affect them. But the defining characteristics of modern politics in the United States are:

a corrupt campaign finance system that enables corporate and wealthy elites to purchase political outcomes.
an abundance of anti-democratic electoral, ballot access and debate rules designed to minimize participation and choice.

To achieve genuine citizen participation, citizens must share in the power of governing. We must seek to bring vibrant grassroots democracy to every part of the United States.

We must seek to repair U.S. electoral system, from how elections are financed, to conducting them in more fair and representative ways, to ensuring accountability and transparency on all levels of government. In particular, the U.S. winner-take-all voting system is fundamentally flawed, resulting in low voter participation, little choice or competition in countless elections, and far too few women and minorities in elected office.

The failure to fulfill the promise of democracy leaves millions of people in our country too discouraged to vote. Others who chose to vote seemingly trapped among false and limited choices. However, a system that promotes full and fair representation would draw millions of people in the United States into civic life and could revive democracy in this country.
Sources: Green Party

Posted in electoral reform, political reform, Uncategorized | Tagged corruption, electoral system, political reform | Leave a comment

Palestinian – Israel

Posted on March 17, 2020 by mekorganic

We should support popular movements for peace and demilitarization in Israel-Palestine, especially those that reach across the lines of conflict to engage both Palestinians and Israelis of good will.

We should reaffirm the right of self-determination for both Palestinians and Israelis, which precludes the self-determination of one at the expense of the other. We need to recognize the historical and contemporary cultural diversity of Israeli-Palestinian society, including the religious heritage of Jews, Christians, Muslims and others. This is a significant part of the rich cultural legacy of all these peoples and it must be respected. To ensure this, we support equality before international law rather than appeals to religious faith as the fair basis on which claims to the land of Palestine-Israel are resolved.
We should recognize that Jewish insecurity and fear of non-Jews is understandable in light of Jewish history of horrific oppression in Europe. However, we need to oppose as both discriminatory and ultimately self-defeating the position that Jews would be fundamentally threatened by the implementation of full rights to Palestinian-Israelis and Palestinian refugees who wish to return to their homes. We should refuse to impose our views on the people of the region. Still, we need to turn the U.S. government towards a new policy, which seeks to build confidence in prospects for secular democracy and which will recognize the equality, humanity, and civil rights of Jews, Muslims, Christians, and all others who live in the region.
We should reaffirm the right and feasibility of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in Israel. We must acknowledge the significant challenges of equity and restitution this policy would encounter and call on the U.S. government to make resolution of these challenges a central goal of our diplomacy in the region.
We should reject U.S. unbalanced financial and military support of Israel while Israel occupies Palestinian lands and maintains an apartheid-like system in both the Occupied Palestinian Territories and in Israel toward its non-Jewish citizens.
Therefore, we should call on the U.S. President and Congress to suspend all military and foreign aid, including loans and grants, to Israel until Israel withdraws from the Occupied Territories, dismantles the separation wall in the Occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem, ends its siege of Gaza and its apartheid-like system both within the Occupied Palestinian Territories and in Israel toward its non-Jewish citizens.
We should also reject U.S. political support for Israel and demand that the U.S. government end its veto of Security Council resolutions pertaining to Israel. We must urge our government to join with the U.N. to secure Israel’s complete withdrawal to the 1967 boundaries and its compliance with international law.
We support a much stronger and supportive U.S. position with respect to all United Nations, European Union, and Arab League initiatives that seek a negotiated peace. We should call for an immediate U.N.-sponsored, multinational peacekeeping and protection force in the Palestinian territories with the mandate to initiate a conflict-resolution commission.
We call on the foreign and military affairs committees of the U.S. House and Senate to conduct full hearings on the status of human rights and war crimes in Palestine-Israel. There needs to be an investigastion of violations committed during Israel’s 2008-2009 invasion of Gaza (“Operation Cast Lead”) as documented in the 2009 “UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict”(“The Goldstone Report”) authorized by the UN Commission on Human Rights.
We must recognize that despite decades of continuous diplomatic attempts by the international community, it has failed to bring about Israel’s compliance with international law or respect for basic Palestinian human rights. Despite abundant condemnation of Israel’s policies by the UN, International Court of Justice, and all relevant international conventions, the international community of nations has failed to stop Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights in Israel and the OPT, while Israeli crimes continue with impunity. We should recall that ending institutionalized racism (apartheid) in South Africa demanded an unusual, cooperative action by the entire international community in the form of a boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign against apartheid South Africa. BDS can become the most effective nonviolent means for achieving justice and genuine peace between Palestinians and Israelis, and for the region.
We should understand that despite abundant condemnation of Israel’s policies by the UN, International Court of Justice, and all relevant international conventions, the international community of nations has failed to stop Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Terrorities (OPT), while Israeli crimes continue with impunity.
We should now recognize that international opinion has been committed to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet, the two-state solution as neither democratic nor viable in the face of international law, material conditions and “facts on the ground” that now exist in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Given this reality, we should now support a U.S. foreign policy that promotes the creation of one secular, democratic state for Palestinians and Israelis on the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan as the national home of both peoples, with Jerusalem as its capital.
We recognize that such a state might take many forms and that the eventual model chosen must be decided by the peoples themselves. We also must acknowledge the enormous hostilities that now exist between the two peoples, but history tells us that these are not insurmountable among people genuinely seeking peace.
As an integral part of peace negotiations and the transition to peaceful democracy, we must call for the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission whose inaugurating action would be mutual acknowledgement by Israelis and Palestinians that they have the same basic rights, including the right to exist in the same, secure place.

Sources: Green Party

Israel-Palestine -Green Party

Posted in BDS, Gaza, Israel, Jewish, Palestine, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Uncategorized | Tagged Arab, BDS, Gaza, Human Rights, Israel, Jewish, occupoied territories, Palestine, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, UN | Leave a comment

Nuclear Weapons

Posted on March 17, 2020 by mekorganic

Our government should establish a policy to abolish nuclear weapons. It should set the conditions and schedule for fulfilling that goal by taking the following steps:

Declare a no-first-strike policy.
Declare a no-pre-emptive strike policy.
Declare that the U.S. will never threaten or use a nuclear weapon, regardless of size, on a non-nuclear nation.
Sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Our pledge to end testing will open the way for non-nuclear states to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which has been held up by our refusal to sign the CTBT. Honor the conditions set in the NPT for nuclear nations.
Reverse our withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and honor its stipulations.
End the research, testing and stockpiling of all nuclear weapons of any size.
Dismantle all nuclear warheads from their missiles.

Sources: Green Party

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner by Daniel Ellsberg

DAMON WILSON PRESIDENT & CEO OF THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY

Posted in Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), nuclear weapons | Tagged no first strike, nuclear weapons, pre-emptive | Leave a comment

National Endowment for Democracy

Posted on March 17, 2020 by mekorganic

Canadian Files CF FB

Covert Action

The National Endowment for Democracy. The idea was that the NED would do somewhat overtly what the CIA had been doing covertly for decades – and thus eliminate the stigma associated with CIA covert activities.
Thus, it was in 1983, the National Endowment for Democracy was set up to “support democratic institutions throughout the world through private, non-governmental efforts.”
In actuality, virtually every penny of its funding comes from the federal government, as is clearly indicated in the financial statement in each issue of its annual report.
Since in 1984, the year after it was founded, the NED has at least channeled secret and not so secret funds to:

A military-backed presidential candidate in Panama.
Gave US$575,000 to a right-wing French student group.
Delivered nearly half a million dollars to right-wing opponents of Costa Rican president Oscar Arias—because Arias had refused to go along with our anti-communist policy in Central America.
Gave US$400,000 in 1985 to the anti-Sandinista opposition in Nicaragua and then another US$2 million in 1988.
Persuaded a right-wing party in the mid-1990s to draw up a “Contract with Slovakia” modeled on Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America.
Persuaded free marketers to do the same in Mongolia.
Gave nearly US$1 million to Venezuelan rightists who went on to mount a short-lived putsch against populist leader Hugo Chavez in 2002.
Funded anti-Russian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko in Ukraine in 2005, and the later anti-Russian coup there in 2014.
Funded antigovernmental protests in Venezuela that seek regime change.
Channeled multi-million dollar funding to Lopez’s political parties Primero Justicia and Voluntad Popular, and Machado’s NGO Sumate and her electoral campaigns.
Complicit in an illegal coup d’état in Bolivia.
Funding individuals and organizations in Hong Kong uprising.

Fact Sheet on the National Endowment for Democracy – People’s Republic of China

National Endowment for Democracy – Consortium News

National Endowment for Democracy – Covert Action

NED – Bolivia 2018

2022-11-22 Outrageous Brainwashing Event—Sponsored By Bush Institute and CIA-Backed National Endowment for Democracy (NED)—Deliberately Falsifies History to Inflame American Hatred Against Russia and China

2022-06-21 Is There Really a U.S. Government Agency that Gives Out Awards for Deceiving the Public?

2022-05-30 The National Endowment for “Democracy”: A Second CIA

2022-03-07 National Endowment for Democracy Deletes Records of Funding Projects in Ukraine

2022-03-04 If the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) Is Subverting Democracy—Why Aren’t Some of the Left Media Calling It Out?

2021-11-22 Lukashenko explains why some NGOs were shut down in Belarus

2019-12-03 US Again Complicit in an Illegal Coup, This Time in Bolivia

2019-08-25 Is United States involved in the current civil unrest in Hong Kong via its National Endowment for Democracy

2016-01-31 WATCH: The CIA and the National Endowment for Democracy

2009-08-05 Honduran Coup: The U.S. Connection

Posted in Bolivia, CIA, Costa RIca, France, Hong Kong, Hugo Chavez, Mongolia, National Endowment for Democracy, Oscar Arias, Panama, Sandinista, Ukraine, Uncategorized, Venezuela | Tagged CIA, coup, coup d'etat, NED, NGO, regime change | Leave a comment

Monetary Reform

Posted on March 16, 2020 by mekorganic

Monetary Reform (Greening the Dollar)

The crisis in our financial system makes it imperative that we restructure our monetary system. The present system of privatized control has resulted in the misdirection of our resources to speculation, toxic loans, and phony financial instruments that create huge profits for the few but no real wealth or jobs. It is both possible and necessary for our government to take back its special money creation privilege and spend this money into circulation through a carefully controlled policy of directing funds, through community banks and interest-free loans, to local and state government entities to be used for infrastructure, health, education, and the arts This would add millions of good jobs, enrich our communities, and go a long way toward ending the current deep recession.

The new money that must be regularly added to an improving system as population and commerce grow will be created and spent into circulation by the U. S. Government for infrastructure, including the “human infrastructure” of education and health care.

This begins with the $2.2 trillion the American Society of Civil Engineers warns us is needed to bring existing infrastructure to safe levels over the next 5 years.

Per capita guidelines will assure a fair distribution of such expenditures across the United States, creating good jobs, re-invigorating the local economies and re-funding government at all levels. As this money is paid out to various contractors, they in turn pay their suppliers and laborers who in turn pay for their living expenses and ultimately this money gets deposited into banks, which are then in a position to make loans of this money, according to the new regulations.

To reverse the privatization of control over the money issuing process of our nation’s monetary system; to reverse its resulting obscene and undeserved concentration of wealth and income; to place it within a more equitable public system of governmental checks and balances; and to end the regular recurrence of severe and disruptive banking crises such as the ongoing financial crisis which threatens the livelihood of millions; the Green Party supports the following interconnected solutions:

Nationalize the 12 Federal Reserve Banks, reconstituting them and the Federal Reserve Systems Washington Board of Governors under a new Monetary Authority Board within the U.S. Treasury. The private creation of money or credit which substitutes for money, will cease and with it the reckless and fraudulent practices that have led to the present financial and economic crisis.
The Monetary Authority, with assistance from the FDIC, the SEC, the U.S. Treasury, the Congressional Budget Office, and others will redefine bank lending rules and procedures to end the privilege banks now have to create money when they extend their credit, by ending what’s known as the fractional reserve system in an elegant, non disruptive manner. Banks will be encouraged to continue as profit making companies, extending loans of real money at interest; acting as intermediaries be- tween those clients seeking a return on their savings and those clients ready and able to pay for borrowing the money; but banks will no longer be creators of what we are using for money.

Source: Green Party

Posted in Fair Banking, FDIC, monetary reform, SEC, Uncategorized | Tagged FDIC, human infrastructure, monetary reform, nationalize | Leave a comment

Military Defense Budget

Posted on March 16, 2020 by mekorganic

Our defense budget has increased out of all proportion to any military threat to the United States, and to our domestic social, economic and environmental needs.

The United States government must reduce our defense budget to half of its current size. The 2012 defense budget exceeded $700 billion, and that does not take into account military expenditures not placed under the defense budget.

The U.S. has over 700 foreign military bases. Our government must phase out all bases not specifically functioning under a U.N. resolution to keep peace and bring home our troops stationed abroad, except for the military assigned to protect a U.S. embassy. Many of these bases are small and can be closed immediately. Further reductions in U.S. foreign military bases at a rate of closure of 1/4 to 1/5 of their numbers every year.

The U.S. outpaces all other nations in military expenditures. World military spending totaled more than $1.6 trillion in 2015. The U.S. accounted for 37 percent of the total. U.S. military expenditures are roughly the size of the next seven largest military budgets around the world, combined.

There needs to be a freeze on large military weapons procurements until other serious domestic and climate change issues have been addressed. Climate Security is a National Security threat.

We must build on the Earth Charter that came out of the 1992 U.N. environmental Earth Summit. New definitions of what constitutes real security between nations must be debated and adopted by the foreign policy community.

Sources: Green Party

Project On Government Oversight (POGO)

National Priorities Project (NPP)

American Security Project (ASP)

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STOCKHOLM INTERNATIONAL PEACE RESEARCH INSTITUTE
National Priorities Program

Posted in military bases, military budget, National Endowment for the Arts, Uncategorized | Tagged foreign, military, military bases, military budget | Leave a comment

Military Arms Sales

Posted on March 16, 2020 by mekorganic

The U.S. is the largest arms seller and dealer in the world. We urge our government to prohibit all arms sales to foreign nations and likewise prohibit grants to impoverished and undemocratic nations unless the money is targeted on domestic, non-military needs. In addition, grants to other nations may not be used to release their own funds for military purposes.

The U.S. must not be a conduit for defense contractors to market their products abroad and must shift our export market from arms to peaceful technology, industrial and agricultural products, and education.

For the first time since 2002, the top five spots in the ranking are held exclusively by arms companies based in the United States: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and General Dynamics. These five companies alone accounted for $148 billion and 35 per cent of total Top 100 arms sales in 2018. Total arms sales of US companies in the ranking amounted to $246 billion, equivalent to 59 per cent of all arms sales by the Top 100.

While many of us think of humanitarian aid when we think of foreign aid, since 2001, US foreign aid has been increasingly driven by national security interests. In 2012 all of the top five foreign aid recipients were located in Middle East, reflecting the US tendency to distribute aid based on military and security concerns. Foreign aid to Iraq and Afghanistan reflected the US military involvement there, led by security assistance and redevelopment. Generous aid to Israel, Egypt and Pakistan similarly reflects US security concerns.

Source: Green Party