Category Archives: ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Israel-Pal​estine: This is how it ends


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Dear friends,

As more innocent children are killed in a new round of violence in Israel-Palestine, it’s time to take definitive non-violent action to end this nightmare. Our governments and companies aid, trade and invest in the status quo. If we call on key businesses to stop financing those responsible,, we can help make the cost of conflict too high to bear — join the call:

SIGN THE PETITION

A new round of violence in Israel-Palestine has already killed over 180 people including 36 children. It’s not enough just to call for another ceasefire. We need to end this decades-long nightmare by taking definitive non-violent action.

Our governments have failed — while they have talked peace and passed UN resolutions, they and our companies have continued to aid, trade and invest in the violent status quo. The only way to stop this hellish cycle of Israel annexing Palestinian lands, daily collective punishment of innocent Palestinian families, Hamas firing rockets, and Israel bombing Gaza is to make the economic cost of this conflict too high to bear.

We know it works — when EU countries just advised their companies not to invest in the illegal Israeli settlements it caused an earthquake in the cabinet, and when citizens successfully persuaded a Dutch pension fund, PGGM, to withdraw, it caused a Foreign Ministry internal crisis.

This can save lives, not just now, but for years to come. History tells us that raising the financial cost of oppression can pave a path to peace. Click to call on key businesses to uphold the law and stop financing the violence — if we all take smart action now and turn up the heat, we can turn the calculation of the extremists and warmongers profiting from this misery upside down:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/gaza_this_is_how_it_ends_31/?biEWLbb&v=42506

In the last five weeks three Israeli teenagers were murdered in the West Bank, a Palestinian boy was burnt alive, an American kid was brutally beaten up by Israeli police, 200 Palestinian kids are behind bars, and now 36 Gazan kids have died in Israeli air strikes. This is not the “middle east conflict”, it’s becoming a war on children and innocents.And we are becoming numb to this global shame.

The media makes out like this is an intractable conflict between two equal warring parties, but it is not. Palestinian extremists’ senseless attacks on innocent civilians must be condemned and ended but the root of the conflict lies elsewhere — in the historic dispossession of the Palestinian people. Israel occupies, colonizes, raids, and controls the water, the trade, and the borders of a legally free and sovereign nation that has been recognised by the United Nations, and its military is one of the most powerful in the world. In Gaza, Israel has created the largest open-air prison in the world, and then blockaded it. Now as bombs fall, the families literally have no way to get out.

These are war crimes and we wouldn’t accept that anywhere else. Half a century ago Israel and its Arab neighbours went to war and Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. Occupying territory after war happens all the time. But no military occupation should turn into a decades-long tyranny which only fuels and benefits extremists who use terror to target the innocent. And who suffers? The majority of loving families on both sides that just want freedom and peace.

Calling for companies to withdraw investments from Israel can seem to unfairly punish Israel’s people. But we know that the majority of Israelis want peace and security, just like their Palestinian neighbours. And yet their government pushes war and violence that big tech and weapons corporations profit from while everyday citizens on both sides suffer. Like extremists in Hamas, Israel’s government has its own extremists that will only be silenced by seeing the financial costs to their call for war.

British G4S provides extensive security equipment that runs the Israeli occupation. Huge European funds like the Netherlands’ ABP invest in Israeli banks that fund Israel’s colonisation of Palestine. France’s Veolia builds and runs transport for Israeli setters illegally living on Palestinian lands, sustaining a system of segregation. Massive banks like Barclays invest in suppliers of Israeli arms and other occupation businesses. And Caterpillar provides bulldozers that are used to demolish Palestinian homes and farms. If we can create the biggest global call ever to get these companies to pull out, we will show clearly the world will no longer be complicit in this bloodshed. The Palestinian people are calling on the world to support this path and progressive Israelis support it too. Let’s join them:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/gaza_this_is_how_it_ends_31/?biEWLbb&v=42506

Our community has worked to bring peace, hope, and change to some of the world’s toughest conflicts, and often that means taking difficult positions to address the root cause. For years our community has looked for a political solution to this nightmare, but with this new round of horror unfolding in Gaza, the time has come to turn to sanctions and disinvestment to finally help end the horror for Israelis and Palestinians.

With hope and determination,

Alice, Fadi, Ben, Laila, Anna, Jo, Nell and the entire Avaaz team

MORE INFORMATION:

Israel-Gaza conflict: 80 per cent of Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes are civilians, UN report says (The Independent)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelgaza-conflict-80-per-cent-of-palestinians-killed-by-israeli-strikes-are-civilians-un-report-says-9606397.html

These are the names of 21 children killed in Gaza (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/07/09/these-are-the-names-of-13-children-kill…

Palestinians: Most Gaza dead are children, women, elderly (Haaretz)
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.604443

UN independent expert calls for boycott of businesses profiting from Israeli settlements (UN)
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=43376#.U7_ynqhMrRI

12 more EU countries warn against trade with Israeli settlements (Haaretz)
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.603030

Caught on Tape: US Teen Allegedly Beaten by Israeli Police (ABC News)
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/caught-tape-us-teen-tariq-abu-khdeir-allegedly-24449873

Israelis, Palestinians Pro Peace Process, but Not Hopeful (Gallup)
http://www.gallup.com/poll/161456/israelis-palestinians-pro-peace-process-not-hopeful.aspx

Exposing the Israeli Occupation Industry
http://www.whoprofits.org/

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Who put these mysterious, giant arrows in the middle of the desert?


 

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~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Rookie?


 Washington State … Support Suzan DelBene
Great news! The Seattle Times weighed in with a big endorsement for the August 5 primary election:

“U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Medina, spent her first term in Congress operating at a level beyond her rookie status. She deserves re-election to continue her work on behalf of the 1st District.” – Seattle Times Editorial Board

I’m humbled by the endorsement, and so proud of the grassroots campaign that has made our success possible. Thanks to you and your continued support, we’ve been able to make progress in this deeply divided Congress.

This endorsement, and the momentum it gives, comes at a critically important time. Midnight tomorrow marks the final reporting deadline of this race before the primary. This race is the most competitive congressional contest in the state and out-of-state interests have already targeted me for defeat – a strong showing before the final deadline will send the message that we are in it to win.

Please chip in to our campaign right now, and let’s keep the momentum going! Every dollar makes a big difference.

Thank you,

Suzan
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

BREAKING: Restrictiv​e abortion ban ~~ a repost


16 Republican lawmakers in Michigan — all men — introduced bills that would force women to have an invasive transvaginal ultrasound before an abortion, and would criminalize abortions as early as six weeks (before many women even know they’re pregnant).

If passed, these would be some of the most radical and restrictive abortion bans ever enacted.

Send an urgent $3 donation to EMILY’s List right now to help defeat radical anti-choice elected officials like the group pushing this dangerous legislation in Michigan.

These bills are so extreme that Right to Life Michigan, the leading anti-choice group in the state, won’t back the full package because they don’t think it will “stand constitutional muster.”

But that isn’t stopping the Republicans in Michigan. They don’t believe women should have the right to make their own health decisions and they’re going to do everything in their power to roll back the rights we’ve fought so hard to protect.

EMILY’s List is supporting seven pro-choice Democratic women running for office in Michigan, and electing them is the best thing we can do to stop this kind of legislation from getting passed — and getting copied in other states.

Donate $3 right now to help elect pro-choice champions — and to prove we won’t stand idle while extreme anti-choice elected officials try and roll the clock back 50 years on reproductive health.

Thanks for all you do,

Stephanie

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

and … It’s Only Tuesday!


By

And The Crazy Things Conservatives Have Said This Week Are Piling Up

Is it just us, or does this week seem to already have a particularly large number of right-wing conservatives saying crazy things? Here are six of the most unfortunate:

1. Todd Akin Says He And Joe McCarthy Were Both Victims Of The Liberal Media. Remember Todd Akin? The failed Missouri Senate candidate has recently re-emerged in the public sphere to defend his claim in 2012 that women who were victims of “legitimate rape” could not get pregnant. In a phone interview with St. Louis Dispatch, the former congressman compared himself sympathetically to Sen. Joe McCarthy (R-WI), who spearheaded the infamous Communist witch hunt in the 1950s.

2. Rupert Murdoch Says Climate Change Should Be Approached With Great Skepticism. The chairman and CEO of News Corporation — one of the world’s largest media conglomerates, which includes Fox News and The Wall Street Journal — reflected candidly on climate change in a wide-ranging interview Sunday, saying he thought it should be approached with great skepticism. “At the moment the north pole is melting but the south pole is getting bigger,” he said. “Things are happening. How much of it are we doing, with emissions and so on? As far as Australia goes? Nothing in the overall picture.” Murdoch went on to argue that “we shouldn’t be building windmills and all that rubbish.”

3. Congresswoman Urges GOP To Bring Policy Discussion ‘Down To A Woman’s Level’. Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) is a second-term Congresswoman and chair of the Republican Women’s Policy Committee. In a panel on women and the Republican Party, she suggested that the best way for the party to appeal to women is to talk down to them. “Men do tend to talk about things on a much higher level,” Ellmers said. “Many of my male colleagues, when they go to the House floor, you know, they’ve got some pie chart or graph behind them and they’re talking about trillions of dollars and how, you know, the debt is awful and, you know, we all agree with that.” But, she went on to say, “We need our male colleagues to understand that if you can bring it down to a woman’s level and what everything that she is balancing in her life — that’s the way to go.”

4. Congressional Candidate: Most Energy Problems ‘Are Caused By Environmentalists’. George Cicotte, a Republican candidate for Washington’s fourth congressional district, said at a candidate forum Saturday that if environmentalists hadn’t “stopped nuclear in its tracks” in the 1970s, there would be a lot less greenhouse gas pollution today. “Really, when we talk about energy problems, most of the energy problems are caused by environmentalists,” he said. “Wind energy? I’ll be honest — give me a break.”

5. GOP Congressman: Kids At Border “Gang Members” From Culture Of “Rape”. A Florida Republican congressman called undocumented immigrant children at the border not children at all but gang affiliated persons from a culture of thievery, murder, and violence.
“A lot of these children … quote-unquote … ya know, the first caller mentioned it, ya know, they’re gang members. They’re gang affiliated,” Florida Republican Rep. Rich Nugent said on WOCA radio Monday.

6. TX GOP Lawmaker: Teens He Saw At U.S. Border Looked Like ‘Threat’. The Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security went on “Fox News Sunday” this morning and told host Brit Hume that many of the teenagers he saw at the United States-Mexican border facilities looked like a “threat.” Representative Michael McCaul (TX) said that “it’s very heart-wrenching as a father to see that — mothers with their babies.” He then added, “I also saw some 17-year-olds that I thought looked more like a threat.” McCaul did acknowledge that these teenagers were “caught in the middle, between [administration] policy and what the drug traffickers are doing in Central America.”

SMH.