Immediately withdraw your $2.2 million investment in the GEO Group.

Sign Presente.org’s petition

One of the world’s biggest social good foundations is contributing to one of society’s biggest ills — the private prison industry. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust has invested more than $2 million in GEO Group, one of the largest and most abusive private prison corporations in the United States.

GEO makes a business of jailing those with the fewest resources, profiting from their labor, stripping them of their dignity, and leaching precious human capital from already-distressed communities.

GEO Group and other private prison companies have a perverse profit motive to drive criminal justice and immigration policy towards more incarceration of citizens and immigrants in prisons, jails, and immigrant detention centers. They spend millions of dollars — dollars provided in part by investors like the Gates Foundation Trust — lobbying local, state, and federal governments to institute longer sentences, to incarcerate more people for mi nor crimes, and to terrorize immigrant communities.

If that weren’t bad enough, GEO’s prisons are notorious for their awful treatment of prisoners. Accounts of sexual assault, physical abuse, medical neglect, rotten and inadequate food, forced signing of immigration papers, and death have been well-documented at GEO facilities. A federal judge called the inhumane conditions at GEO’s now-closed Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility, “a picture of such horror as should be unrealized anywhere in the civilized world.”

In light of this evidence, it is shocking that the Gates Foundation Trust would maintain its investment in the GEO group. The Gates Foundation prides itself on the good it does in the world. But this investment fundamentally contradicts the Foundation’s stated mission: to “ensure that all people — especially those with the fewest resources — have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life.”

If enough of us speak out now, we’ll be able to create a powerful media narrative that exposes this contradiction and shames the Gates Foundation Trust to withdraw its investment.

Join Presente, Enlace, and 25 other organizations in calling on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust to immediately withdraw its investment in the GEO Group.

Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.

Thanks!

–Presente.org

This petition was created on MoveOn’s online petition site, where anyone can start their own online petitions. Presente.org didn’t pay us to send this email—we never rent or sell the MoveOn.org list.

By CAP Action War Room

Candidates Who Support The Affordable Care Act Are Going On Offense

It has been widely reported this week that Senator Mark Pryor released an ad touting his support for Obamacare in his re-election campaign in Arkansas. While Pryor’s ad shows that those running in tough races see access to affordable health care as a strong issue to highlight, this is not the first time a candidate has run on all or part of the Affordable Care Act, even if conventional wisdom has suggested otherwise.

As The New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn noted yesterday, Republicans tried the repeal argument two years ago, which led to the President touting the benefits of the law during his campaign. He was obviously re-elected. In the past, the most notable piece has been the Medicaid expansion, which has insured millions of Americans in states that have chosen to implement it, while stubborn conservative governors let their states fall behind.

Below is a selection of headlines from around the country on the issue.

ACA supporters on the offense:

• Politico: Democrats embrace Medicaid expansion on trail
• Huffington Post: Pro-Mark Begich Ad Touts Success Story
• The Hill: Pryor pushes foe on ObamaCare program
• TPM DC: Vulnerable Democrat Gives Stunningly Strong Obamacare At Hearing
• The Daily News: Mary Landrieu takes aim at “Jindal Gap”
• Washington Post: Medicaid expansion becomes weapon against GOP governors
• Tallahassee Democrat: Medicaid expansion talk key in Fla. governors race
• Wisconsin State Journal: Mary Burke rips Scott Walker for regusing Medicaid expansion money
• Atlanta Journal Constitution: Jason Carter sharpens call for a Medicaid expansion
• Rapid City Journal: Medicaid expansion big issue for South Dakota governor candidate

BOTTOM LINE: For months, we’ve seen those who voted for the ACA embrace it on the campaign trail and use it to go on offense, particularly in competitive races. Pryor is just the latest example. The conventional wisdom is that candidates want to avoid talking about the many benefits of the Affordable Care Act. But as we are increasingly seeing, the conventional wisdom is wrong.

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Charles Erwin is a Vietnam Veteran suffering from a number of debilitating and life-threatening ailments resulting from his exposure to Agent Orange.

I’ve met, served with, and led men like Charles – service members with the courage to fight and willingness to sacrifice for their country.

But their courage stands in sharp contrast to the cowardice Mitch McConnell demonstrated when his Republican Senate Caucus blocked improvements to veterans’ health care during the crisis earlier this year.

So when I heard VoteVets was set to run an ad giving voice to Charles’ story and the role Senator McConnell played in blocking improvements designed to help him, I knew that I had to help.

Can I count on you to join me with your $10 contribution to help VoteVets expand their Kentucky ad buy?

I’ve been a proud supporter of VoteVets since their launch back in 2006, serving on their Board of Advisors from day one. Their work gives voice to veterans and military family members in all of the important issue and political campaigns of our time.

But this effort is especially important. Thank you for supporting it.

General (Ret.) Wesley Clark
VoteVets.org