Protest Franklin Graham's Fascist America
This week, Franklin Graham, son of the late Billy Graham, brings his "Decision America" tour to Berkeley to take a stand against California's "blue wall." Billed as religious "revivals", Graham's campaign-style rallies across California and the Pacific Northwest advance opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.
Join Refuse Fascism
Friday June 1, 6:00 pm
University Ave & Sixth Street
Berkeley
Graham's sponsorship of Donald Trump's program of white supremacy, misogyny and xenophobia is billed as a religious revival, but make no mistake: "Decision America" is about mobilizing a blind, obedient, and fervent fascist base for the Trump/Pence regime.
Thanks to U.S. Senate, Torture Is 'Legal'
The Senate Intelligence Committee voted 10-5 to support Gina Haspel's nomination for CIA director Wednesday. Haspel's defense of torture practices she facilitated at a CIA black site in Thailand in 2002 -- that they were "legal" at the time -- disqualifies her from assuming the role of CIA director, argues professor emerita Marjorie Cohn. Failure to condemn the rescinded opinions of John Yoo invites a repetition of the brutality the professor authorized. Haspel provides little assurance that she wouldn't, like former vice president Dick Cheney says, "do it again."
Why “Torture Doesn’t Work”
Intro., by Patrice Greanville: The appointment by Donald Trump of Gina Haspel, a CIA official directly involved in supervising torture, as head of the agency, has thrown the world of liberal pretensions and their mouthpieces into turmoil. Liberals do not mind imperialist crimes as bloody and vicious as they come, provided that a mask of civility and deniability is maintained by the exceptional nation, something impossible in the case of Haspel, whom even some former colleagues find a questionable choice and whose offences remain a matter of record. This is nothing new, of course. This kind of pickle is inherent in the US empire, which requires refined hypocrisy and massive public ignorance—abetted confusion would be a more appropriate term— to conduct its criminal plutocratic agenda. We are being literal here. Most American politicians earn their epaulettes by learning the craft of imposture, Obama being the most recent example of true mastery of this devious art, but Trump, a non-professional politician, and a clumsy oaf by nature, is incapable of delivering in that regard, his regime inevitably defined by coarse impulsiveness, pervasive chaos, and petulant recklessness, where the true, ugly and sociopathic face of imperial power is often revealed.
The Dangers of Mike Pence
The call to impeach Trump has been stated by many, but impeaching Trump means that Mike Pence would become the next president. To some, this is an even scarier option than Trump: not only because of his conservative beliefs, but because of his prior political experience and the controversial laws he has signed into effect.
Gina Haspel Should be Prosecuted, Not Confirmed to Run the CIA
The CIA nominee supervised detainee torture at a “black site” in Thailand
Gina Haspel arrived to run “Detention Site Green” in late October 2002, after the harsh interrogation of Abu Zubeydah that reportedly reduced attendant personnel to tears.
She supervised the interrogation of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who was subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques during at least four separate periods.
Interrogators at the site sought to make terror suspects talk by slamming them against walls, keeping them from sleeping, holding them in coffin-sized boxes and forcing water down their throats — a technique called waterboarding.
This Nightmare Must End: The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!
In the Name of Humanity,
We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America
We are horrified and angered at the shocking damage already done to lives here and around the world by the Trump/Pence regime. We recognize that they are poised to do far worse, including threatening WAR, even nuclear war. Through an unrelenting barrage of daily outrages and twitter outbursts, the Trump/Pence regime is radically remaking society – step by step hammering into place a vicious American fascism. This is not insult or exaggeration, it is what they are doing.
'This Is Not America. This Is Not Who We Are.' Except It Is.
The U.S. "War on Terror" has always been about persecuting Muslims, torture being the modus operandi of a cruel system of institutionalized Islamophobia. The nomination of Gina Haspel to head the Central Intelligence Agency confirmed what we already knew: political impunity thrives in an authoritarian environment. And blaming the subjects of abuse endears you to white supremacists.
NO BAN, NO WALL IV
One of my readers recently remarked that, by addressing themes of immigration, and immigrant detention and deportation, this newsletter seemed to be wandering off topic. I hereby remind readers that the issue continues and will always be personal to me: much of my childhood misery originates from my Mexican father’s undocumented status. In the years before my birth, the U. S. suffered one of its periodic attacks of xenophobia, deporting up to 2,000,000 Mexicans. My father had every good reason to live in fear—despite his many advanced degrees, despite his exceptional linguistic abilities. But more centrally, the overarching topic is and always has been the total oppression which subsumes all other issues, and to which all other issues are related.
Cancel the Rapture
“It would be a mistake to be dismissive of End Times believers,” says humanist David Niose, “because their influence in American policymaking is far from marginal.” Apocalypse cheerleaders might seem silly, even inconsequential, but there’s no denying the danger they pose to humanity and a planet facing environmental collapse.
How Many Millions Have Been Killed in America’s Post-9/11 Wars? Part 3: Libya, Syria, Somalia and Yemen
In the first two parts of this report, I have estimated that about 2.4 million people have been killed as a result of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, while about 1.2 million have been killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan as a result of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. In the third and final part of this report, I will estimate how many people have been killed as a result of U.S. military and CIA interventions in Libya, Syria, Somalia and Yemen.
Protests Across the U.S. and Around the World Demand: Hands Off Syria!
Last weekend, Trump's Make America Great Again move was airstrikes on what was reportedly the Syrian government's chemical weapons facility. The Pentagon could show no proof that chemical weapons had been used by the Syrian government in Douma, and said so; then suddenly the Pentagon had "proof," although it did not and could not wait for international inspectors to search for it. Journalist Robert Fisk, in Douma, reported on a horrific scene, with civilians at the mercy of all forces in the conflict, living in underground tunnels at the edge of survival. Doctors he interviewed said people were treated for hypoxia from dust storms not gas but that rumors spread it was poison gas.
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