Texas is the latest climate wake-up call & Please sign my petition – tell Congress to take bold action to fight the climate crisis 22&20FEB21

CALLS to action from the NRDC, Our Revolution, & Sen Bernie Sanders I VT to address the corporate greed and republican politics that allowed death and destruction to happen in Texas this last week and a petition to keep the pressure on the Biden-Harris administration to take bold action to address climate change so last week is not repeated....ted cruz backpfeifengesicht

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The winter storms that barreled through Texas and other states last week are another devastating wake-up call: The climate crisis is here, and we are not prepared. As snow fell and temperatures dropped below zero in Texas, more than 4 million people lost power, and nearly 15 million have lacked safe water. Families were burning whatever they could find to keep their children from freezing; heating rocks over fire pits to take inside for warmth; dying from carbon monoxide fumes after leaving cars running for heat; and risking contracting COVID-19 by gathering in makeshift shelters rather than freezing at home. Low-income communities, Black people, and Latinos in the state have suffered most, in yet another manifestation of the environmental injustice that inflicts the greatest harm on the most vulnerable people. Learn more about the devastating impacts communities are facing in Texas — and how you can help — on NRDC's Instagram. What's happening in Texas is part of a larger story about the mounting costs and widening dangers of climate change. Here's what you need to know: While it might seem counterintuitive, scientists see a strong link between the harsh winter temperatures and the warming of the planet. Higher temperatures are disrupting the jet stream, allowing arctic air to make its way farther and faster southward than normal, bringing icy temperatures that can make winter storms more devastating. Climate-busting fossil fuels were to blame for the vast majority of power outages in the state. About 80 percent of the power outages in Texas were caused by systems that rely on gas, coal, or uranium, which provide about three-fourths of the state's electricity. Read more. Texas gets about a quarter of its electricity from wind turbines. While some turbines froze last week, when properly equipped, wind turbines perform well in cold temperatures, as they do in Canada, Sweden, and for that matter, Iowa. The extreme cold and power outages froze and burst water pipes and shut down water treatment systems, leaving millions of people without safe drinking water. This latest tragic example reveals once again a disastrous lack of preparedness to deal with drinking water emergencies in the United States. The same thing has happened over and over in recent decades — in Louisiana, Puerto Rico, California, Ohio, and elsewhere — after hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and other disasters, with low-income communities and communities of color hardest hit. Read more. The outages also caused a tremendous spike in health-harming, climate-warming air pollution. With no power, oil refineries along the Gulf Coast burned gas to prevent damage from taking place in their processing units, sending thousands of tons of dangerous pollution into the atmosphere. In Houston last week, energy facilities burned off over 703,000 pounds of pollutants like carbon monoxide, benzene, hydrogen sulfide, and sulfur dioxide. This disaster underscores the need for the U.S. to invest even more in clean and reliable renewable energy and to prepare our energy and water infrastructure for the effects of climate change. We know we need to cut our use of fossil fuels like oil, coal, and gas in half by 2030, and stop adding more carbon pollution to the atmosphere altogether by 2050, to avert the worst of raging wildfires, floods, storms, and, yes, frigid blasts of arctic air, going forward. To prevent massive power failures and resulting devastation to vulnerable communities in the future, we must also invest in a smarter, more resilient electric grid in Texas and across the country that can withstand the extreme weather fueled by climate change. In addition, states' repeated failure to ensure access to safe drinking water during emergencies proves that our water infrastructure is not equipped to withstand the impacts of climate change, and current emergency response plans are inadequate. We need a massive, systemic overhaul. President Biden has committed to combating climate change, improving America's infrastructure, growing our clean energy economy, and ensuring clean and safe drinking water for all. Last week's storms demonstrate yet again the urgency of that work. We need systems that are built to survive severe weather — including hurricanes, flooding, and winter storms — and that have the flexibility to deliver additional power when demand spikes due to heat waves and arctic blasts. We have the technology to do it — now we need to put it into action. Read more about the devastation in Texas, what it means for our climate future, and how you can help, in my blog post on NRDC.org. Thank you for fighting alongside us for a just transition to clean energy and a safer, healthier, and better future. Sincerely,   Mitch Bernard President, NRDC

The mission of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.

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 Big energy companies have been flooding Texas politicians with big money for years to get their way, and this week we got the tragic results of their corruption of our government and power grid.

Vulnerable Texans don't have access to water, old folks risk freezing to death, and rolling blackouts have turned into 4-day power failures, causing havoc. This is because oil and gas companies spent a lot of money to make sure that Texas energy is deregulated and not on the national grid.

That means that we can't borrow power from other states, and it means that the power giants don't have to spend money on making sure our power system is protected from cold winter weather.

Craig, the bottom line is this: the Texas GOP has spent YEARS taking oil money and neglecting our energy grid. Blood is now on their hands, and what's very clear is that we can't let these very dangerous people control our state.

Onward,

Jim Hightower
National Board Member

My name is Kristi, and I’m an Our Revolution organizer in Texas and have been a part of the Bernie Sanders movement from the start. In this email, I’m going to talk about how my fellow Texans are suffering because of Republican greed. I’m also going to talk about how we can beat them through organizing. Decades ago, corporations paid off politicians to support the deregulation of the Texas energy market and limit federal oversight of our energy grid. This week, like so many fellow Texans, I lost sewer and water service for days, our water pipes burst. I know many apartment complexes have been literal disaster zones. The hell we are experiencing from this storm disaster is shared by millions of Texans. Senator Ted Cruz, who gets millions of dollars from energy companies that profit from the deregulation that directly led to my misery, decided to escape Texas last night and flee to a luxury vacation resort in Mexico. To them, the suffering of millions of Texans this week is a game. Human beings froze to death, and Ted Cruz thought it was a good time for a cocktail on the beach. More than anything else, this week has strengthened my resolve as an Our Revolution Texas organizer. We can’t let these greedy sociopaths run our lives any longer. That’s why Our Revolution launched our Power To The People Campaign last night on Facebook Live to denounce the privatization and plunder of public services. We are demanding that Ted Cruz and other Texas officials resign, and we are going to fight for a Green New Deal and public energy for all, not just the privileged few. Craig - In Texas today, following an unprecedented winter storm, millions of people are without drinking water due to power failures at water treatment facilities. Millions were without electricity as a result of major disruptions to Texas's power grid and people were unable to heat their homes while temperatures were below freezing. And many experienced serious damage to their homes from frozen and burst water pipes. Let me be very clear: When we talk about the existential threat of climate change, this is what we are talking about. And unless we have the courage to take on the greed and lies of the fossil fuel industry, and transition to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, we will continue to experience the catastrophic effects of the climate crisis. What the scientists are telling us very clearly is that if we, and countries around the world, do not act boldly within the next few years in transforming our energy systems away from fossil fuel and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy, the planet we will be leaving our kids and future generations will become increasingly unhealthy and uninhabitable. It is past time for the United States to treat climate change like what it is: an emergency that is an existential threat to humanity that requires an urgent, massive response. The good news is that Congress will soon be taking up a second reconciliation package that will, among other things, address the climate crisis by creating millions of jobs to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and toward energy efficiency and sustainable energy. The goal of this second reconciliation bill is to deal with the structural changes our country desperately needs and create a government that works for all of our people, not just the 1%. The bad news is that we will be going up against the fossil fuel industry, which is one of the most powerful political forces in the country with an army of lobbyists, PACs, and bought-and-sold legislators. But it is a fight that is worth having if we care about saving our planet for generations to come. The only way that we can be successful in the fight against climate change is if the American people stand up to the fossil fuel industry and make their voices heard. So I’m asking you today: Please sign my petition — tell Congress to take bold action to address the climate crisis and create millions of good-paying jobs in the process. We must act now before it is too late. Let's be clear. Failure to act decisively on climate change will mean more drought, more famine, more rising sea levels, more floods, more ocean acidification, more extreme weather disturbances, more disease, more strain on electrical grids, more blackouts, and more human suffering. Climate change is about our survival of the human race. But some people — including my colleagues in the Senate — will say, "Well, Bernie, how can we afford to act on climate change?" The question we should really be asking is how can we afford to do nothing while climate change causes more destruction and human suffering? The scientists have said very clearly that if we do not act boldly within the next few years to transition to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, the planet we leave our kids and future generations will be increasingly unhealthy and uninhabitable. I wish I could say we could address our climate crisis with a few tweaks at the edges. But I cannot say that. Now more than ever, we need Congress to have the courage to act boldly to effectively address the existential threat of climate change. We can meet the challenges of this moment AND create millions of jobs in the process. These jobs will be good-paying jobs building the new electric cars and high-speed rail systems that we need, weatherizing millions of homes and buildings, rebuilding our nation's infrastructure, and generating sustainable energy. During this difficult time in American history, we must not turn to despair. Now is the time to fundamentally rethink our national priorities and imagine the kind of country that we want to become. That means ending the disgrace of the fossil fuel industry destroying the planet to make a profit. I cannot do it alone, which is why I am asking you to say you will join me in this effort: Add your name if you agree: Congress must act immediately to address the climate crisis, transition to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, and create millions of good-paying jobs. If we are going to save our planet for future generations, now is not the time to think small. Thank you for being a part of our fight to confront the climate crisis. In solidarity, Bernie Sanders ADD YOUR NAME

10 Reasons Americans Should be Wary of Rand Paul's Libertarianism, Especially Young People 2APR14

SEN +rand paul r t-b KY wants to transform the US into a plutocracy. His immoral agenda of greed and lust for power is being spread by a propaganda campaign financed by his corporate masters, and it is deceiving and manipulating the very people it will hurt if any part of it becomes law. He may be good looking, he may be well spoken, but a closer look exposes a man with a cold and corrupt soul. This from AlterNet.....

Sen. Rand Paul is trying to attract millennials. Don't fall for it!

April 2, 2014  |  

 Republican Senator Rand Paul has been making a big play for millennials lately, most notably by taking his civil liberties pitch to colleges around the country. Paul has got the right idea when he says his party must “evolve, adapt or die” (although I think the first two are virtually the same thing). Katie Glueck of Politico wrote that “The Kentucky senator drew a largely friendly reception at the University of California-Berkeley as he skewered the intelligence community."

Sen. Paul spoke of “dystopian nightmares” and added that “your rights, especially your right to privacy, are under assault.” Paul also said he perceives “fear of an intelligence community that’s drunk with power, unrepentant and uninclined to relinquish power.” 

Virtually all of the other politicians taking that stand come from the left side of the political spectrum. They include figures like independent socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and Democratic senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall. Rand Paul is not like these other defenders of civil liberties.

Rand Paul, like his father, prefers to package his fairly old-school brand of economic conservatism under the trendier name of “libertarianism.” That’s not just a labeling change. It also means Paul has paired his retrograde economic ideas with a very outspoken stance against militarism and the espionage state. It’s a mixture that Paul hopes can make inroads with groups that are not traditionally Republican voters.

Paul’s play for millennials was almost inevitable. As a recent Pew study reported, that generation’s disaffection with the two-party system appears to be at record levels. Fifty percent of millennials polled said that they do not associate themselves with either party, which is the highest percentage recorded thus far. It’s also a 10 point jump from their equivalent age group’s level of political affiliation only seven years ago.

But Rand Paul gravely misunderstands the nature of that political disaffection. Yes, millennials feel alienated toward political and other institutions. They have a right to feel that way. As Joshua Holland says, millennials didn’t abandon these institutions. The institutions abandoned them.

But Rand Paul and libertarianism are not the answer. His economic strategy can be summed up in a quota used for one of his bills: “remove the shackles of big government by reducing taxes, regulations, and burdensome union work requirements.”

In other words, more of the same conservative philosophy that got us in this mess in the first place. Here are 10 reasons why millennials should be extremely wary of the senator from Kentucky.

1. His philosophy of deregulation created your jobs problem.

Rand Paul loved to preach the gospel of deregulation. He went so far as to proclaim that Obama was putting his “boot heel” on the neck of—get this—British Petroleum. Why? Because BP was being asked to bear part of the cost for the oil spill it created.

That’s right. Rand Paul believes “regulation” is evil, even when it’s only asking a reckless private corporation to clean up its own messes.

Wall Street deregulation crashed the economy in 2008. As a result, the millennial generation is entering the job market at the worst time in modern history. Millennials are facing record levels of unemployment and under-employment. What’s Rand Paul’s solution? More of the same.

2. He doesn’t believe in jobs programs.

Those of us who are fighting for jobs programs and infrastructure investment—two things that would help the millennial generation significantly—have a fierce opponent in Rand Paul. Paul believes government spending is inherently bad, and tax cuts are inherently good. There are jobs proposals that target millennials for assistance. Rand Paul is against them.

3. He thinks “tax cuts” create jobs.

There’s a simple answer to that, once we remember that the wealthy and corporations are paying lower taxes than at any time in modern history.

So where are the jobs?

Rand Paul’s solution is to eliminate the income tax altogether. That would be a red letter day for billionaires, millionaires and corporations. It would spell the end of vital services for the rest of us, in everything from public health to military defense.

Create jobs? Not so much.

4. Those “burdensome union work requirements” gave us Saturdays and Sundays off.

Without unions we would still be working six or seven days a week with no overtime pay. The weekend as we know it wouldn’t exist if we lived in Rand’s world.

Neither would paid vacations, the minimum wage, health and disability benefits, and quite a few other things a lot of working people count on to help them get by. (Sen rand paul is against every one of these benefits listed in my post 36 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD THANK A UNION http://bucknacktssordidtawdryblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/36-reasons-why-you-should-thank-union.html )

5. Civil rights for African Americans and other minorities wouldn’t exist.

Rand Paul believes businesses have the right to discriminate against minorities, or against pretty much anybody, because he thinks that’s part of their First Amendment rights.

The First Amendment, as most of you may know, reads as follows: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

There’s nothing in there about “businesses that want to force women like Rosa Parks to stand at the back of the bus when there are empty seats in the front of the bus,” or “lunch counters that won’t serve black folks.”

No, the First Amendment doesn’t say that. But Rand Paul thinks it does. He also says he would’ve voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Here’s a newsflash for Sen. Paul: Millennials come in all races, religions, genders and sexual orientations. They value their rights just as much as Americans of other generations do.

6. He wants to eliminate Social Security.

Because, you know, the “free market” has done so well in protecting Americans’ financial security when they’re disabled or elderly.

Many millennials are collecting Social Security survivor benefits, like Rand Paul compatriot Paul Ryan did. Or disability benefits. Or they have parents and grandparents who are collecting retirement benefits.

Most millennials will live to collect those benefits themselves—if Rand Paul doesn’t get to them first.

7. He wants to eliminate Medicare, Obamacare, and even the private insurance you get through your employer.

“The fundamental reason why Medicare is failing is why the Soviet Union failed,” said Sen. Paul. “Socialism doesn't work.”

Unfortunately for Paul, Medicare is not failing. It has lower overhead than private insurance, lower cost than private insurance, and a lower rate of inflation than private insurance. It is the most successful, and the most popular insurance program in the country.

But as flawed as it is, private health insurance is critical to a lot of people’s physical and financial health. Rand Paul’s so right wing he doesn’t even like that. “We need to get insurance out of the way and let the consumer interact with their doctor the way they did basically before World War II," said Paul. (A lot of people didn’t interact with doctors at all before World War II; the morbidity and mortality statistics show it.)

Speaking as an ophthalmologist, which he is, Paul also said this: “If you think you have the right to healthcare, you are saying basically that I am your slave.” Sen. Paul is not just a conservative, he someone with a poor grasp of concepts like slavery. Healthcare providers are in fact paid under all systems of public and private insurance. They are also free to change professions, take a day off, set their own schedules, and do any number of things that are not associated with the practice of slavery.

Millennials need to know that medical care will be available when they need it. That’s not just something they want. It’s a right.

8. He wants to eliminate Roe v. Wade and have a woman’s right to choose decided by politicians at the state level.

Said Paul, “I would introduce and support legislation to send Roe v. Wade back to the states.”

Why? So that decisions about what a woman does with her body can be made by politicians like that guy in Virginia wanted mandatory transvaginal ultrasounds for any woman who wanted to terminate a pregnancy?

It may come as a surprise to Sen. Paul to learn that a great many millennials are, in fact, women.

The Supreme Court has established that a woman’s right to choose is constitutionally protected. Since then that right has been eroded in a thousand different ways at the state level. Rand Paul would remove this right forever, turning this fundamental principle of autonomy into a campaign issue to be decided by right-wing career politicians.

Way to go, “Mr. Civil Liberties.” And about that …

9. He’s not as strong and advocate for civil liberties as he seems.

At least Rand Paul is uncompromising in his defense of civil liberties, right? Well, not so much. Consider this quote:

“I'm not for profiling people on the color of their skin, or on their religion, but I would take into account where they've been traveling and perhaps, you might have to indirectly take into account whether or not they've been going to radical political speeches by religious leaders. It wouldn't be that they are Islamic. But if someone is attending speeches from someone who is promoting the violent overthrow of our government, that's really an offense that we should be going after— they should be deported or put in prison.”

“It wouldn’t be that they are Islamic,” says Rand Paul. But it’s clear that he’s only talking about a certain kind of terrorism. A lot of Tea Party leaders have “threatened the violent overthrow of the government.” Does Rand Paul think “they should be deported or put in prison”? Or are his brand of civil liberties only for white conservatives?

10. He’s picked the wrong oppressor.

Rand Paul’s brand of libertarian believes that “liberty” is freedom from an oppressive government. But in a democracy the government is us. The real oppressors in today’s economic and political system are the corporations which increasingly dominate all aspects of our public and private lives.

Rand Paul doesn’t have much to say about that. We applaud his stand against drone murders by the US government, but where is his stand against the kind of espionage Amazon and other corporations could use through the use of unregulated drones in the United States? We admire his stand against the NSA, but where is an equally courageous stand against invasions of privacy by corporations like Google? (For more on that topic, see our interview with Yasha Levine.)

Rand Paul would have us turned against the “oppression” of the Democratic process, while turning us over to the real oppression of the Corporate State. That’s not fighting for liberty. It’s fighting for corporations.

Underneath all the freedom jargon, Rand Paul’s pushing the same kind of economic conservatism that has increasingly dominated our political discourse over the last 40 years. He’s resolutely opposed to all of the civil rights advances of the last 50 years, and to any of the government interventions that could make things better for millennials and other Americans now.

Rand Paul wants more of the same tax cuts we’ve already given to him billionaires and corporations. He wants more of the deregulation that ruined the economy in 2008 and has caused so much harm to the environment.

How’s that working out for you?

Feel free to admire Rand Paul’s stands on civil liberties and military action, as selective as those stands may be. Then look for politicians who represent the full spectrum of your moral and economic beliefs. Better yet, become those politicians. We need your talents and your energy, to make right what previous generations (in the Paul family and elsewhere) have gotten so tragically wrong.

RJ Eskow is a senior fellow with the Campaign for America's Future.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/10-reasons-americans-should-be-wary-rand-pauls-libertarianism-especially-young-people?paging=off&current_page=1 

The Dumbest 'Bipartisan' Move Since Repealing Glass-Steagall 22MAR12

FRAUD is the best way to describe the JOBS Act legislation passed by congress. It doesn't promote investment in small business, the engine of economic growth. It does provide the wealthy, the 1% a legal way to bilk funds from investors for projects that will only lead to loss by those who can least afford it while further enriching the wall street financiers who brought the great recession of 2008, which we are still struggling to recover from. Greed again ruled the day on Capital Hill and no doubt the 99% will pay for this...
Here we go again. Once again the 'bipartisan' consensus in Washington, fueled by an intoxicating brew of conventional wisdom laced with campaign cash, has repealed some of those 'cumbersome regulations' that do nothing of value -- nothing, that is, except prevent catastrophes. There will be celebrating on both sides of the aisle when the President signs this bill.
And when disaster strikes a few years from now, as it inevitably will, they'll all say "Nobody could have seen it coming." Plus ça change, plus c'est la même crap. Creationism can't disprove the theory of evolution - but a little time in Washington will make you think twice.
Here we are, surrounded by still-smoldering financial wreckage, and almost everyone in Washington is falling over themselves to repeat exactly the same kinds of actions that got us into this mess. Last time around it was the repeal of Glass-Steagall, introduced by Republican Sen. Phil Gramm and enthusiastically signed by President Clinton in the presence of Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
This time it's the deceptively named "JOBS Act," introduced by the far-right Republicans in Congress and passed overwhelmingly by members of both parties. The President indicated his eagerness to sign the bill early on. Once again basic protections for investors, including individuals and families, are being recklessly overturned in a deregulating frenzy. Some of those protections were enacted in the wake of the Enron scandal, in which sociopathically unscrupulous business people conducted a hoax that ruined thousands of families and deprived many of their life's savings.
We haven't learned a damn thing.
The hype that led Washington honchos to name this tragic bill the "JOBS Act" is the same brand of patented b.s. that inspired lawmakers to call Gramm-Leach-Bliley, the law that overturned Glass-Steagall, the "Financial Services Modernization Act." That act of "modernization" actually turned the clock back -- from 1999 all the way back to 1929, stripping away some of the common-sense measures that prevented the formation of too-big-to-fail banks that could gamble with their customers' money or bring the economy to the brink of ruin -- which they promptly did, less than a decade later.
What did our wise leaders say when that bill was signed? "The world changes, and Congress and the laws have to change with it," said Phil Gramm. "In the 1930s ... it was believed that government was the answer ... We have learned that government is not the answer. We have learned that freedom and competition are the answers."
''This legislation is truly historic,'' said Bill Clinton. ''We have done right by the American people.''
''With this bill,'' said Larry Summers, ''the American financial system takes a major step forward toward the 21st Century -- one that will benefit American consumers, business and the national economy.''
Actually that bill helped crash the economy, costing trillions and leaving millions of people un- or underemployed. They, on the other hand, all got rich.
And they weren't done. Phil Gramm then passed something called the Commodities Futures Modernization Act, which Bill Clinton signed, opening the floodgates for Enron's abuses. Gramm's wife was then appointed to the Board of Directors of Enron, making him even richer. Later, after Enron's fraud caused so much tragedy, a shell-shocked nation passed Sarbanes-Oxley. But the Commodities 'modernization' act wasn't done with its worked: It enabled a division within my former employer, AIG, to gamble in a way that helped trigger the crisis of 2008.
Now we have the "JOBS" Act, which undoes Sarbanes-Oxley's key provisions. In a typically cynical move, the corrupt dealmakers of DC have appropriated two good ideas -- "crowdfunding" by individuals, as is done on Kickstarter, and the need to find investment capital for small and medium-sized businesses that are the engines of job growth.
But this bill will actually hurt both those efforts. Kickstarter finances creative projects, where it's fairly easy for investors to decide whether they feel a project has artistic merit. But this bill will unleash a torrent of unscrupulous scam artists onto the public, leaving them unable to decide which project has merit and which doesn't. Since these ventures won't be required to provide some basic financial data, many of them will bilk their investors -- drying up the pool of available capital for truly worthwhile startups.
Besides, why have we been pumping capital into the nation's banks through the Fed? Wasn't the purpose of all that support -- including TARP -- to prop them up so that they would lend to American businesses?
Worse, the bill is designed so that even billion-dollar corporations can be considered "startups," leaving the door open for a dozen Enrons of tomorrow to shaft the unwary. The common-sense protections proposed by Sen. Jeff Merkley were rejected, while the equally rational protections of Sens. Scott Brown and Jack Reed, which were passed, will be fairly easy for clever sharks to swim around. We've seen this play before, and it never has a happy ending. That will no longer be required of them, thanks to the "JOBS" Act.
Even that phony name -- "JOBS Act" -- isn't new. Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley used the same acronym for an equally cynical bill in 2004, the "Jumpstart Our Business Strength" Act. Then, as now, the bill was supposed to create jobs. What it really did was provide $39 billion in tax cuts for overseas earnings by US corporations. Create jobs? Not so much.
Now we can look forward to another signing ceremony, filled with smiling and happy bipartisan faces. None of the people at that ceremony will pay the price when the bill for their actions comes due a few years from now. But you and I will.
And unless we change our political system, soon after that the whole process will begin again. When will we ever learn?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/the-dumbest-bipartisan-mo_b_1374301.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications

Reagan’s Legacy (at 100) & REMEMBERING BENJAMIN LINDER from SOJOURNERS 3FEB11 & LIBERATIONTHEOLOGY.ORG

IT was during reagan's presidency that I was arrested at the cia for taking part in a non violent protest against his illegal covert wars in Central America. I still remember the event that outraged me enough go to the protest and be arrested. Benjamin Linder was a 27 year old American performing humanitarian work in Nicaragua when he was murdered on 28 APR 1987 along with two Nicaraguans, Sergio Hernandez and Pablo Rosales by cia supported contra rebels. To me, this represented the real reagan, someone who would be smiling at you while sticking a knife in your gut, and then walk away laughing. His administration was evil, corrupt and served the greedy interest of the wealthy and the military-industrial complex. This remembrance of him on what would be his 100th birthday this Sunday, 6 FEB 2011, from Sojourners followed by a remembrance of Benjamin Linder, Sergio Hernandez and Pablo Rosales from LiberationTheology.org
This Sunday would be Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday, and the predictable tributes have come from across the political spectrum. President Barack Obama, for instance, wrote in USA Today, “No matter what political disagreements you may have had with President Reagan, and I certainly had my share, there is no denying his leadership in the world, or his gift for communicating his vision for America.” Mitt Romney called Reagan “a transformative president.”
Most commentators praise Reagan for his “optimism” and personal affability. But, as we wrote after his passing in 2004:

[P]residents — as all leaders — must be judged by history not on the basis of their personal likeability, but by the real-world effects of their policies. And Reagan’s policies were disastrous and destructive. While poverty worsened at home and abroad, he spent hundreds of billions of dollars on the largest peacetime military buildup in history, including $80 billion (and counting) for the fantasy of Star Wars and tens of billions for first-strike-capable nuclear weapons. Conventional wisdom, of course, holds that Reagan’s militarism “brought down the wall” of communism. Historians might well debate the opposite view: That his militaristic approach helped bolster the hardliners in the Soviet Union and forestalled rather than caused the inevitable downfall of the USSR and the end of the Cold War.
The Reagan administration ignored the burgeoning AIDS epidemic while tens of thousands died. Reagan’s crew sold arms to Iran — illegally — to support the U.S.-initiated contra war in Central America, where tens of thousands of other people died. The U.S. wars in Central America — mostly fought through death squads, paramilitaries, and U.S.-backed local armies — resulted in the death of untold thousands throughout the region, bookended by the 1980 murders of four U.S. churchwomen and the 1989 assassination of six Jesuits and their housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador.
Closer to home, Reagan’s policies were equally devastating. He opposed virtually every civil and human rights initiative, from the 1964 Civil Rights Act through and including efforts to dismantle South Africa’s apartheid regime. On virtually every social issue – from race, welfare, and tax policy to school lunch programs and the environment – Reagan’s policies worked against the interests of the poor and marginalized and further enriched the wealthy and powerful.

Reagan’s most destructive legacy could very well be the mania for “deregulation” that he unleashed, starting with his declaration in his first Inaugural address that “Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.” Reagan’s intensive assault on checks and balances and the removal of reasonable constraints started a wave that washed up decades later as the tsunami that swamped Wall Street.
So go ahead, praise Reagan as a likeable man. Hold him up as a model of civility in contrast to the flame-throwing rhetoric his successors wield today. Even give him credit for recognizing the horror of nuclear weapons and seeking their abolition. But don’t let the revisionists whitewash one of the most damaging presidencies of the 20th century and the dangerous legacy it left us.
Jim Rice is editor of Sojourners magazine.

Ben Linder (1959-1987) The gift of a dreamer

Adapted from the web site of the Religious Task Force on Central America and Mexico
 

"Ben Linder reminds me very much of those women and men who came from the South in the Civil Rights movement and by whose sacrifice and suffering we have the opportunity to be as free as we are in these United States... Black and white, Protestant, Catholic and Jewish. Ben Linder, I understand happened to be Jewish. The intensity of his dedication is really one of the finest examples of the prophetic and service tradition of Judaism in the world today." "This was not an accidental death. This was a deliberate assassination. They knew he was an American. They knew what he was doing. He was simply building dams to provide fresh water and electricity to people in villages. But when you look at the other people the [Nicaraguan] contra have killed -- there were eight other foreign volunteer workers killed before Ben Linder. Approximately 100 medical workers killed. And a Baptist Center burned to the ground. There were more than 300 school teachers that have been killed. The war of the contras is not a war against the Sandinista government. It's a war against the Nicaraguan people -- against teachers, doctors, people trying to grow food." "The United States of America cannot consider itself a bastion of freedom and human dignity if it continues to support the likes of these contras..." "Ben Linder gave his life for us, that we might become partners in development, partners in freedom, with the people of Central America. God has blessed us by his sacrifice and his service. Hopefully your response tonight indicates that it will not be in vain." Mayor Andrew Young Memorial Service Decatur, Georgia May 3, 1987

Benjamin Linder had a dream. He wanted his life to make a difference. He wanted to contribute something important, something of service to those in need, something of his own to give back to others.

In his three and a half years in Nicaragua, this is exactly what he did. Graduating in 1983 with a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Washington, he left his home in Oregon to live and work in Nicaragua, developing and building small hydroelectric plants in the town of El Cuá and San José de Bocay, bringing electricity to villages in northern Nicaragua for the first time.

The challenges were enormous -- battles with agency bureaucracies, uncertain water supplies through the dry and wet seasons, logistical challenges that required great ingenuity, the struggles of trying to fit into isolated communities where he was decidedly the stranger -- and always around him, the dangers of war, the fears of imminent attack by contras bent on destroying any efforts to make a success of the Nicaraguan revolution.

He didn't have to make this choice. He did not have to work in one of the most dangerous parts of the country. His doing so was a witness, a countersign to the policies of his own government in the United States.

In July 1979, the US-backed dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza was overthrown by a popular insurrection led by the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN). Not long after, the administration of President Jimmy Carter authorized the first financial and logistical assistance for the remnants of Somoza's brutal, US-trained National Guard. The original intent was to harass the new revolutionary government and try to influence the direction of its policies.

With the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan, the intent changed. Soon the secret policy goal of the US was to overthrow the Nicaraguan government. This goal was not officially acknowledged, since it is against the law. US CIA and military intelligence personnel began training the contras, built base camps for them along the border in Honduras, provided sophisticated weapons and equipment, carried out surveillance, provided logistical support, ordered the mining of Nicaraguan harbors, and provided an infamous counterinsurgency training manual that encouraged executions, torture, and other forms of terror.

The policy mushroomed into a full-fledged war, the infamous contra war, the main strategy of which was to undermine or destroy the Nicaraguan revolutionary experiment. By the war's end in 1990, over 30,000 Nicaraguans had been killed.

The US Central Intelligence Agency helped direct the war, sometimes selecting contra targets. Destruction of the country's electrical system was an essential part of the strategy.

This support continued even after Congress prohibited military aid to the contras, leading to the infamous Contragate scandal in which it was revealed that numerous US officials were involved in an illegal contra supply network.

Ben Linder's dream was cut down when he was only 27 years old. Linder and two Nicaraguans -- Sergio Hernández and Pablo Rosales -- were murdered in a contra ambush on April 28, 1987, as they had begun a day's work at the construction site for a new dam near San José de Bocay. The autopsy showed that Ben was first wounded by a grenade, then shot at point-blank range in the head. The two Nicaraguans were also murdered at close range, Rosales by a stab wound to the heart.

Linder's electrification project was indeed typical of contra targets, as were other sites in the area. Near El Cuá, the agricultural cooperative of El Cedro had been attacked three times resulting in several deaths. On March 19, 1987, four coop members tried to stave off a contra attack, providing cover for residents as they fled the assault. Two of them were killed, one a close friend of Linder's. The health clinic at the coop, its food supply center and a house were burned to the ground.

Many people involved in civilian projects supported by the government armed themselves in self-defense militias because of these attacks, and workers, including Linder, began to carry rifles. While this was later used as an excuse to justify Linder's murder by both contra and US officials, at the time of the ambush, Linder's rifle was lying on the ground and he was writing in a notebook.

In addition to sudden attacks and ambushes, land mines were a constant threat. The contras placed them on roadways used by civilian transport. Because of the poverty and isolation of the area, the main mode of transportation for most people was walking, horseback-riding, or grabbing a ride on a truck. By April 1987 scores of people had been killed or maimed in mine explosions. Even the simplest trip became a test of nerve. On May 24, 1986, a contra mine killed nine health workers on the road between El Cuá and San José de Bocay. Two months later, 35 people, including 12 children, were killed when a public transport truck ran over a mine.

Just one month before Linder's death, some 100 contras attacked the power plant in El Cuá. A mortar shell destroyed the home of the plant operators who barely escaped with their lives. In another incident, contras kidnapped a relative of one of the plant operators and threatened to kill everyone working on the project. The contras who killed Linder later admitted that they knew Linder and his work crew were building the hydroelectric plant.

The ambush was deliberate, part of a strategy to undermine support for the Sandinistas by destroying any benefits the revolution brought to the poorest of Nicaraguans, and demonstrating the cost to the people if they continued to support their government.

"My brother's death was not an accident. His death was policy," said John Linder after Ben's death.

Edgar Chamorro, a former contra leader who left the movement because of its brutality, claimed, "The CIA is very much in control of the contras. The CIA is sending a message to those in the international community who provide political support for Nicaragua that they are no longer safe there. The CIA and the contras are killing the best, the people who want the best for Nicaragua" (Witness, Vol. 70, No. 6, June 1987).

The Center for Constitutional Rights which took up the case on behalf of the family issued a report in April 1988 in which lawyers conclude: "The ambush was planned in advance and under the direct supervision of high-ranking contra leaders. The contras knew they were attacking a civilian development project and that there was at least one foreigner among its workers.

"The assassination of Benjamin Linder was part of a deliberate contra policy to murder civilians working in education, health and development programs. In 1986 the contras extended this policy of targeting development workers to include foreign as well as Nicaraguan civilians. Their goal was to dissuade foreigners from working in Nicaragua and to cut off support for development programs.

"The murder of Benjamin Linder also typifies the contra practice of executing prisoners.

"The government of the United States has armed and supplied the contras. It has trained and supervised them, and encouraged them to commit abuses through, for example, the CIA manual [Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare, 1985]. As the contras developed the policies of targeting civilians and foreigners and carrying out summary executions, the US government served as an apologist for contra behavior. By its consistent and uncritical support of the contras, the US government shares responsibility for the assassination policy which resulted in Linder's murder."

Ben's death created a sensation in the US. The personal tragedy of one family became the subject of fierce ideologically divided political debate. US embassy officials in Nicaragua admitted that they not only did not investigate the incident, but had no interest in doing so.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater blamed the victim, saying US citizens working in Nicaragua "put themselves in harm's way" (NYT, April 30, 1987). Of course, this was exactly the fear that Linder's murder was designed to instill in others. Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams, one of the contras' foremost champions and key player in the illegal network, said Linder simply should have known better than to be in a combat zone.

In May 1987, a Congressional hearing turned into a sordid display as contra apologists on the House Western Hemisphere Subcommittee made personal attacks on Linder's family and other witnesses who came to testify in support of Linder and his work. The Village Voice reported one exchange between Ben's mother Elizabeth, who had just given moving testimony to her son's work and motivations, and rightist Republican Rep. Connie Mack of Florida.

Said Mack: "I guess what really has me upset is that I just cannot understand how you can use grief that I know you feel, use it to politicize this situation. Or to allow yourself to be used to politicize this situation... I guess the reason I find this so difficult is that I don't want to be tough on you, but I really feel you have asked for it."

Over the visible gasps and hissing from the audience, Linder responded, "That was about the most cruel thing you could have said" (Village Voice, May 26, 1987).

The murder of Ben Linder and the growing distaste in the US for the dirty war in Nicaragua finally led to the prohibition of US military aid to the contras. But the contra policy, combined with a tight economic embargo on the impoverished country, had its effect. The country has never recovered.

In Nicaragua in the last days of April 1987, people around the world were deeply moved by the dignity and grief of the Linder family as they arrived in the country to bury their son. They walked at the head of a procession that stretched for seven blocks along the streets of Matagalpa.

Included among the grief-stricken throng was a group of children dressed as clowns. Besides being an engineer, Linder was an accomplished amateur juggler and clown. He had brought his unicycle with him to Nicaragua and delighted children and adults alike in many communities by riding through the streets, participating for a time in one of the country's circuses. He used his clowning to help children overcome their fears in vaccination campaigns, or to educate them on the dangers of diseases.

Just three weeks before his death, he participated in a vaccination campaign in Bocay by dressing up as the "Measles Monster," then went house to house on his unicycle to remind families to come to the clinic to be vaccinated.

The clowns in the funeral procession had been trained by Ben, and their presence in costume was their way of paying tribute to him.

The love of the people was a mirror reflecting who Ben Linder was in Nicaragua, a human being in a place of terrible violence inflicted on the hopes of the people. He was an expression of that hope, of the belief that with determination and persistence, dreams can come true -- lights can go on even in an impoverished isolated community such as El Cuá.

Said Elizabeth Linder: "My son was brutally murdered for bringing electricity to a few poor people in northern Nicaragua. He was murdered because he had a dream and because he had the courage to make that dream come true. Not many of us can say that. What was the dream? to make it possible for the peasants of a few villages to have a light bulb in their homes so their day doesn't have to end at six o'clock when it gets dark, to get drinking water to them so that their children don't have to die of diarrhea in the first years of their lives, to raise them out of poverty so they can raise their children with hope for the future... We understand why Ben came to Nicaragua, and we now understand even better why he stayed... Ben told me the first year that he was here, and this is a quote, 'It's a wonderful feeling to work in a country where the government's first concern is for its people, for all of its people.' I am grateful that he had his three and a half years in Nicaragua."

For the Nicaraguan people, Ben's witness showed the best, instead of the worst, of North Americans. A banner held at his funeral read: El pueblo norteamericano no es el pueblo de Reagan, es el pueblo de Benjamin Linder!!! -- "The people of the United States are not the people of Ronald Reagan, they are the people of Benjamin Linder!!" The importance of this witness to a people under siege for their very hopes of light and life is incalculable -- as it is to this day -- the meaning of solidarity.

Said brother John at the funeral, "He came here because Nicaragua represents hope... He knew that the suffering of a person knew no boundaries, and that, for him, to give all he had in a country where he was not born was just the same as giving it to his people... This hope is too deep to die with one person... This hope lies within all of us. Today all of us take a part of my brother, take a part of his hope, take a part of your hope, to do what we have to until Nicaragua can live in peace."

In a journal entry dated October 5, 1984, Ben wrote into his journal the words of Rabbi David Einhorn, a pioneering reform rabbi of the 1800s: "When justice burns within us like a flaming fire, when love evokes willing sacrifice from us, when, to the last full measure of selfless devotion, we demonstrate our belief in the ultimate triumph of truth and righteousness, then your goodness enters into our lives; then you live within our hearts, and we through righteousness behold your presence.

"The bush is burning, but the Voice has not yet spoken aloud; we can only feel, guess, hope; we cannot yet hear. But it may be that we must act in order to hear.

"I'm working in El Cuá. It is...the reality of the war. Zelaya province is falling under Contra control. They are killing children.

"I've asked myself what is my path. I've asked myself about my love for Alison and my family. I've asked myself about my love for my people. But we must act before we hear.

"I must not cower from the task ahead. In Nicaragua I was shown the trail ahead. Tonight I vow to set forth upon that trail...

"Great is the eternal power at the heart of life; mighty the love that is stronger than death."

Benjamin Linder, Sergio Hernández, Pablo Rosales, ¡Presente!

 http://www.liberationtheology.org/library/ben_linder_remembrance.htm

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The Death of Ben Linder
Book about Ben Linder by Joan Kruckewitt