03 Apr 2018
Whisleblowers Permalink

Reality Leigh Winner is a whistleblower who has been jailed without bail since June 3, 2017

April 3, 2018

Reality Leigh Winner is a whistle blower who has been jailed without bail since June 3, 2017 for helping expose Russian hacking efforts leading up to the 2016 US election. 

Charged under the Espionage Act for sending a classified document to the media, she faces 10 years in prison. She is the first victim of the Trump Administration’s “war on leakers.” 
Her trial is expect to begin late 2018 or early 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. Please donate to her defense, write her a letter, and
sign the petition! http://standwithreality.org/sign-the-petition/

On June 3, 2017 my daughter Reality Leigh Winner was arrested and jailed and later charged under the Espionage Act for allegedly releasing a top-secret document to a media outlet, The Intercept.  The document analyzed information about Russian online intrusions prior to the 2016 presidential election. Reality had been employed by a contract agency and worked at the NSA in Augusta, Georgia following her honorable discharge from the U.S. Air Force in December of 2016.

Reality has pleaded not guilty to this one charge, and her defense team is working furiously to defend against the Espionage charge, but the Court in Georgia continues to rule against Reality at every turn.  Reality has been denied pretrial bail and awaits trial in a small county jail in Lincolnton, Georgia.

The impact this has had on Reality and our entire family is devastating. Because of her special diet, Reality’s nutritional and medical needs are not met in jail.  She has been spontaneously denied mail, books, and visits.  In order to assist in her defense, she must be transported to the Federal Courthouse in Augusta, Georgia and spends up to 12 hours in full shackles and is strip-searched multiple times during the day.

Reality is an extraordinary woman and she remains very strong, despite the situation she is in.  I remain forever grateful to all who have written her and continue to support her.  There are some very good people out there and this has been one of the blessings to come out of this struggle.  As the days pass, our hopes for a quick resolution have disappeared, and I am now realizing that we have a very long and hard battle ahead of us. 

Reality needs support long term and I am hoping that she will have this.
                                     
Always,
Billie J. Winner-Davis (mother)
http://standwithreality.org/

Please write to Reality at:
Reality L. Winner
Inmate # 3342                                     
Lincoln County Jail
PO Box 970
Lincolnton, GA 30817

03 Apr 2018
Commentary Permalink

We Are the Antidote – Every Choice a Revolutionary Act

April 3, 2018

S. Brian Willson, June 5, 2008

There is a deeply uncomfortable but clearly structural explanation for the pattern of historic U.S. war-making that continues to this very moment. US Americans, people like you and me, are addicted to insatiable consumption that makes the American Way Of Life totally dependent upon massive exploitation of others and their resources, and the earth herself.
The political-economic market system we have grown up with and support with our tax dollars and voting patterns is a significant contributor to the problem.

Part of the revolutionary antidote, if it occurs, will be in radically changed choices each of us makes as to how we travel, what we eat, what we consume or don’t consume, etc. Take travel, for example.

Air and private auto travel not only emit massive amounts of carbon molecules, accumulating as particles of mass destruction in our biosphere, they also consume inordinate amount of petroleum for each passenger mile traveled.

If we are not committed to taking radical leaps in our own consciousness that manifests in corresponding radical changes in our lifestyles, then we choose complicity in business as usual, i.e., continuing to live as we have been conditioned and to which we are now addicted – comfortable materialism. It is absolutely and totally unsustainable. We now have an evolutionary opportunity for a leap in consciousness to integrate ourselves into a cosmological reality of living in mutual respect with all other life.

But we are the antidote, not the government or the market. As we become conscious, each daily choice we make from eating, traveling, and consuming, or not, is a revolutionary act.

Website

03 Apr 2018
Uncategorized Permalink

For a Global Nonviolent Revolution, We Need to Connect the Dots

April 3, 2018

Published on Common Dreams

For a global nonviolent revolution, we need to connect the dots, and make that connection visible, and address the whole darn global spectrum of violence and death that is killing us and millions of sisters and brothers and the creatures and the planet itself.

READ FULL ARTICLE
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/03/26/global-nonviolent-revolution-we-need-connect-dots

03 Apr 2018
Uncategorized Permalink

Co-Director Matt Howard speak about the anniversary of the invasion of IRAQ on Democracy Now!

April 3, 2018

It was 15 years ago today when the U.S. invaded Iraq on the false pretense that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction. The attack came despite worldwide protest and a lack of authorization from the United Nations Security Council. At around 5:30 a.m. in Baghdad on March 20, 2003, air raid sirens were heard as the U.S. invasion began.
http://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/20/a_criminal_war_15_years_after

25 Jan 2018
Education, Families of Veterans, Militarization of Youth Permalink

Truth in Recruitment Monthly Meetings

January 25, 2018

http://truthinrecruitment.org/

Find out about monthly meetings in Santa Barbara, CA

Hear reports from our volunteers about activities at Santa Barbara and Santa
Maria High schools.

Strategize on next steps to enforce the local recruiter policy, meetings with
high school principals, organizing with parents in Santa Maria, and
updates on the Opt Out form.

Truth in Recruitment is a non-profit, student advocacy group based in Santa Barbara, California.  We are students, families, veterans, youth groups, teachers, social justice activists and members of faith communities. Our goal is to help students ask the right questions about the stakes of a military career, provide non-military options for academic and professional success, inform parents of their privacy rights, and to implement school policies regulating recruiter presence on campuses.

If you are a student or family member, please take a look at our page Life After High School for information on ways to make a difference in your community and set yourself up for an enriching career. Also, take a look at our many resources to learn about your family’s privacy rights, and how to opt out of having your child’s information released to recruiters.
You can join our movement by sharing our message and resources with your community, volunteering for community service, joining our mailing list, or making a tax-deductible donation here.
Schools are for the education of students!

Watch this video before you enlist: http://truthinrecruitment.org/2016/12/13/watch-before-you-enlist/

25 Jan 2018
News Permalink

AFRICOM and the Invasion of Africa

January 25, 2018

This past weekend was epic.

Several BAP members attended the Conference Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases, bringing a Black internationalist perspective that has long been absent in the anti-war movement.

You can watch a conference plenary on AFRICOM   and the invasion of Africa featuring three BAP members—Maurice Carney, Netfa Freeman and Margaret
Kimberley—and National Organizer Ajamu Baraka. In fact, Maurice Carney’s talk on the Democratic Republic of Congo came at a good time: Yesterday marked the 57th anniversary of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected prime minister of the DRC.

Other BAP members such as Nellie Bailey,Mekdes Ferguson,Asantewaa Mawusi Nkrumah-Ture and Efia Nwangaza offered insights from the audience that shed light on the antiquated mentality still present in this space. The conference marked a significant departure point for building the anti-war, anti-imperialist movement and makes clear the importance of focusing on Africa, especially as the Trump
administration expands the work of the U.S. empire in exploiting the continent of our ancestors. It is our responsibility—being in the center   of this empire—to do the work of decolonizing movement spaces and stop the U.S. war machine.

 

25 Jan 2018
Action Alerts, Families of Veterans, For Veterans, Heathcare, Los Angeles Veterans, Veterans Issues Permalink

We Oppose VA Healthcare Privatization Petition

January 25, 2018

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/we-oppose-va-healthcare-privatization

VA PRIVATIZATION IS HERE WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!

I assume you all know the VA healthcare system is being massively privatized.  Today 40% or more of all vets going to the VA for outpatient care are now funneled into the Choice and Community Options programs (per VA records).  We do not know how well those vets like private care.  We do know that the VA
was to report to the Congress and public last summer after they surveyed vets on that issue.  They knew this had to be done for 3 years.  VA management refused to
conduct the survey and now they tell us it will be done in mid or late 2018 before the survey is completed and reported out.

By that time, possibly, 45% of all outpatient vets may have been pushed into the private sector.

This is the same trick Mr. Bush and the boys used on Medicare in 2004.  If you are an old guy like me, you know about the Medicare Advantage (MA) program.  This is
privatization of traditional single payer Medicare.  They plopped the insurance companies between you and your healthcare.  MA costs the feds about 20% MORE than traditional Medicare.  Because of this additional 20% cost which is tens of billions per year, the Medicare Trust Fund will run short of money faster and then the Republicans will call for canning the whole Medicare system.

With the Choice program which costs about 30% more than VA provided care in VA facilities, they want to run the VA out of money and then close down the VA completely and contract out all VA now done by civil service staff plus bust the
unions.

Vets who use VA hospitals and clinics for their care are satisfied with their care, want to continue to go to the VA and want the VA fixed and funded.

YOU NEED TO TAKE ACTION!
PETITION: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/we-oppose-va-healthcare-privatization

The VFP Working Group Stop VA Privatization, Fix, Fund & Fully Staff the VA was formed about 8 months ago to STOP THE PRIVATIZATION. http://www.veteransforpeace.org/take-action/stop-privatization-veterans-health-administration/

There are 13 or so Save Our VA Action Teams forming across the US.  YOU need to form one in your community.  YOU can start this by clicking on this survey link to read about Action Teams and sign up. http://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MTF76TP

08 Jan 2018
News Permalink

The United Nations has asked its member states to observe an Olympic truce

January 8, 2018

http://worldbeyondwar.org/north-korea-south-korea-threatening-seek-peace/

The United Nations has asked its member states to observe an Olympic truce during the upcoming February 9-25 Winter Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, and for one week on either side. That would be February 2 to March 4.

South Korea has asked the United States to delay its war rehearsal flights over South Korea until after the truce.

Please sign a petition that can be printed out and delivered to every nation on earth, urging their abstention
from war and from provocative war “exercises” during this period, and urging them to continue the truce
indefinitely thereafter.

SIGN http://worldbeyondwar.org/peace-treaty-north-korea-can-sign/

More information: http://worldbeyondwar.org/north-korea-south-korea-threatening-seek-peace/

08 Jan 2018
Costs of War Permalink

Military Causing Noise Pollution from Okinawa to Vermont

January 8, 2018

VFP Board of Directors member Adrienne Kinne speaking outside Kadena Air Base in Okinawa. The local community has been demanding the closure of Kadena Air Base, an airfield that constantly disrupts daily life on the island. Military aircraft are conducting missions all throughout the day and night. Also, the U.S. Air Force wants to base the F-35 fighter jets our of Vermont and a huge movement is building in opposition of that decision. Learn more about the Vermont Issue here: http://www.stopthef35.com/