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The words A Fierce Green Fire over a green background that turns into fire in the sky

A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet
Tuesday, April 25, 7-9pm at the Drexel Theater, 2254 E. Main St.
Earth Day and People's Climate Mobilization Special Event - FREE!
This powerful film is the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement - grassroots and global activism spanning fifty years from conservation to climate change. From halting dams in the Grand Canyon to battling 20,000 tons of toxic waste at Love Canal; from Greenpeace saving the whales to Chico Mendes and the rubbertappers saving the Amazon; from climate change to the promise of transforming our civilization... the film tells vivid stories about people fighting - and succeeding - against enormous odds. Donations support the nonprofit Drexel theatre. Reserve free tickets on Eventbrite.

A Morning Consult poll winks at me from my inbox: 57 percent of Americans support more airstrikes in Syria.

My eyeballs roll. Hopelessness permeates me, especially because I’m hardly surprised, but still . . . come on. This is nuts. The poll could be about the next move in a Call of Duty video game: 57 percent of Americans say destroy the zombies.

This is American exceptionalism in action. We have the right to be perpetual spectators. We have the right to “have an opinion” about whom the military should bomb next. It means nothing, except to those on the far end of the Great American Video Game, where the results are real.

After Hillary Clinton’s devastating loss nearly six months ago, her most powerful Democratic allies feared losing control of the party. Efforts to lip-synch economic populism while remaining closely tied to Wall Street had led to a catastrophic defeat. In the aftermath, the party’s progressive base -- personified by Bernie Sanders -- was in position to start flipping over the corporate game board.

 

Aligned with Clinton, the elites of the Democratic Party needed to change the subject. Clear assessments of the national ticket’s failures were hazardous to the status quo within the party. So were the groundswells of opposition to unfair economic privilege. So were the grassroots pressures for the party to become a genuine force for challenging big banks, Wall Street and overall corporate power.

 

In short, the Democratic Party’s anti-Bernie establishment needed to reframe the discourse in a hurry. And -- in tandem with mass media -- it did.

 

The reframing could be summed up in two words: Blame Russia.

 

Los Angeles, April 21, 2017 - The Russian Revolution is coming to L.A.!

 

As Angelenos commemorate the L.A. urban rebellion’s 25th anniversary the 1927 documentary THE FALL OF THE ROMANOV DYNASTY- about Russia’s 1917 urban uprisings - is being screened as part of the “TEN FILMS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD” series, a cinematic centennial celebration the of the Russian Revolution.

 

What: THE FALL OF THE ROMANOV DYNASTYscreening.

 

When: Friday,7:30 p.m., April 28, 2017.

 

Where: The L.A. Workers Center, 1251 S. St. Andrews Place, L.A., CA 90019.

words Charter Schools in yellow on black surrounded by dollars

Dennis Kucinich will have a Press Conference about the issue of the impact of the Charter Schools Movement and other privatization schemes on Public Education and Ohio Taxpayers at the Statehouse Women’s Gallery on Monday, April 24, at 10:00 AM. Please come and support former Cleveland mayor and former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich as he exposes the corruption behind the charter schools. 

Tuesday night, April 25, 6:30 PM - there will be a Columbus: Town Hall Meeting at First Unitarian Universalist Church, 93 W. Weisheimer Rd. Dennis Kucinich will talk there about  large privately-owned for-profit corporations lobby their way into the educational system, donate vast sums to legislators, get themselves classified as "Public Schools" and operate, in many cases, without accountability and oversight.

Sounds like we’ve heard it all before, because we have, back in August 2013, and that turned out to be less than convincing. Skepticism is likewise mounting over current White House claims that Damascus used a chemical weapon against civilians in the village of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province on April 4th. Shortly after the more recent incident, President Donald Trump, possibly deriving his information from television news reports, abruptly stated that the government of President Bashar al-Assad had ordered the attack. He also noted that the use of chemicals had “crossed many red lines” and hinted that Damascus would be held accountable. Twenty-four hours later retribution came in the form of the launch of 59 cruise missiles directed against the Syrian airbase at Sharyat. The number of casualties, if any, remains unclear and the base itself sustained only minor damage amidst allegations that many of the missiles had missed their target. The physical assault was followed by a verbal onslaught, with the Trump Administration blaming Russia for shielding al-Assad and demanding that Moscow end its alliance with Damascus if it wishes to reestablish good relations with Washington.

Remarks in Burlington, Vermont, April 22, 2017
http://worldbeyondwar.org/f-35-incinerating-ski-slope/

Thank you all for inviting me. There is no place I’d rather be on earth day. And that includes marching for science at the March for Science in Washington. Although I certainly support marching for honesty, and I’d even march for the cause of getting more scientists to march — and any other group that hasn’t yet found the time to bother.

Unless resisting madness becomes mainstream, the madmen will decide our fate.

James Q. Whitman's new book is called Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law. It is understated and overdocumented, difficult to argue with. No doubt some will try.

In cartoonish U.S. historical understanding, the United States is, was, and ever shall be a force for good, whereas Nazism arose in a distant, isolated land that lacked any connection to other societies. In a cartoonish reversal of that understanding that would make a good strawman for critics of this book, U.S. policies have been identical to Nazism which simply copied them. Obviously this is not the case.

While much of the world is engulfed in violence of one sort or another (whether violence in the home or on the street, exploitation, ecological destruction or war), a global network of individuals and organizations is committed to ending this violence in all of its manifestations.

With individual signatories in 100 countries and organizational endorsements in 35 countries, each of these individuals and organizations works on one or more manifestations of violence in their locality and some of the organizations and networks have considerable national or even international reach.

However, as you might understand, there is a great deal to be done and the Charter network continues to expand as more people and organizations are motivated to join this shared effort.

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