Tag Archives: Non-Violence

Jill Stein: In 2017, Occupy, Resist, Build Power

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From Jill2016.com:

The 2016 Presidential election has left our nation reeling.

Donald Trump’s shock victory is the result of the massive failure of the corporate two-party system, which imposed a whiteout on progressive and independent campaigns while producing the most disliked and untrusted major-party candidates in history.

This toxic election has delivered a uniquely toxic result: right wing extremists, bigots and blowhards will take control of government starting in January, casting a distressing shadow over our future.

As the two-party system hits rock bottom, momentous grassroots struggles are being waged outside the political establishment: at Standing Rock, in the Black Lives Matter movement, the Fight for 15,and more. In these emerging political spaces, we can make this breaking point for the establishment a tipping point towards a new politics for people, planet, and peace over profit.

Greens are uniquely positioned to help lead the way.

Read more.

Join fellow Greens at Occupy Inauguration.

Hearing will seek input on new death penalty protocol

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From the Lincoln Journal Star:

People will get a chance to record their views Friday, Dec. 30, on a controversial new death penalty protocol.

While Attorney General Doug Peterson called the scheduled administrative hearing just part of the required process, Department of Correctional Services Director Scott Frakes last week promised to keep an open mind about testimony during the scheduled five-hour hearing.

ACLU of Nebraska and Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers are expected to weigh in with their objections. And the Nebraska Pharmacists Association will send a letter with that group’s concerns.

The protocol was developed within weeks after three-fifths of voting Nebraskans nullified the Legislature’s 2015 repeal of the death penalty. It comes at a time when death sentences nationwide are down 39 percent in 2016 from the record low set last year.

The hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Friday, December 30, at the State Office Building, 301 Centennial Mall, Lower Level Conference Room.

Read the full story.

Nebraskans renew vow to fight Keystone XL, if needed

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From InsideClimate News:

President-elect Donald Trump has signaled his plan to move quickly to re-start the Keystone XL pipeline as part of his goal to revive a fossil-fueled future. But his administration would be heading quickly into the same legal and political thicket where the Canada-to-Texas tar sands oil pipeline project was stuck for seven years.

If anything, Keystone’s path forward may be more difficult, because economic pressure for Canadian producers to get the pipeline built has eased. While TransCanada’s Keystone was stuck in limbo, producers found other routes to get oil to the U.S. Gulf coast and Midwest, and on Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau approved two pipelines to export tar sands oil to global markets.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the resolve of about 100 Nebraska landowners who have refused to agree to TransCanada’s right-of-way across their properties. “For us and for a good number of the resisters, this is a fourth- and fifth- generation land holding,” said Jeanne Crumly, whose family owns a ranch and farm in Page, 40 miles south of the South Dakota border. “It’s not a possession. It’s an inheritance. And it comes with responsibilities.”

Read the full story.

What to do now: Sustained protest and organizing

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From the Green Party US:

“The Green Party and Green candidates and activists represented political revolution throughout the 2016 election year. We’ll continue to do so during the next four years and beyond,” said Jill Stein, the Green Party’s 2016 nominee for president.

“For Greens, political revolution means supporting front lines of struggle from Black Lives Matter, to pipeline blockades, ending immigrant deportations and bailing out students. It also means fighting Sen. Charles Schumer’s corporate tax break proposal as well as the Trump-Pence agenda. It means offering a Green alternative to neoliberalism, white supremacy, and the two-party political establishment that made the election of someone like Donald Trump possible,” said Dr. Stein.

Read the full list of talking points and action plans from Greens around the country.

Nebraskans demand that their State Troopers come home from North Dakota

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From the Lincoln Journal Star:

Nebraskans who don’t want this state’s troopers responding to anti-pipeline protests in North Dakota slid a wad of petition signatures through the Governor’s Mansion gates Monday.

The two petitions contained names of more than 29,000 people calling for Gov. Pete Ricketts to bring the troopers home, said organizer Joseph Hams, a 21-year-old University of Nebraska-Lincoln student.

“At the very least, I hope he recycles them,” Hams said of the petitions, joking. He added, “I hope that he’s moved by how many people were offended by his actions.”

Thousands of Nebraskans along with people from other states and countries signed the online petitions, one started by Hams and the other by Bold Nebraska.

Read the full story.

Check out Election Central from the Green Party US

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From the Green Party US:

Check out Election Central from the national Green Party all day on election day and into the evening. You can:

Go to Election Central.

Mother Jones on Gov. Ricketts vs. the Retain campaign

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From Mother Jones:

On May 20, 2015, the Nebraska state Legislature voted to repeal the state’s death penalty. When the Republican governor, Pete Ricketts, vetoed the legislation six days later, the Legislature overrode his veto. It was an extraordinary move, making Nebraska the first solidly conservative state in more than 40 years to end the death penalty.

But the victory for death penalty opponents was short-lived. Having failed in his role as governor to protect the death penalty, Ricketts worked to reinstate it in a different capacity: As a man of deep pockets. Ricketts and his billionaire father, Republican megadonor Joe Ricketts, spent $300,000 on an effort to collect enough signatures to put the death penalty question to voters, in the form of a referendum on November 8. The governor donated another $100,000 this fall to fund a campaign to sway voters to reinstate the death penalty.

Read the full story at Mother Jones.

Nebraskans stand with those at Standing Rock

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From the Lincoln Journal Star:

Flashing signs that read “We Stand with Standing Rock, #NoDAPL” and “Can’t Drink Oil,” about 200 Nebraskans rallied Saturday afternoon at the state Capitol to oppose a controversial pipeline being constructed more than 400 miles away.

Should it be completed, the Dakota Access oil pipeline will run underground in close proximity to the Missouri River, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s main water source. It also would require tearing apart land the tribe considers sacred burial grounds.

Protests escalated last weekend when demonstrators set up camp on private land along the pipeline’s path, and more than 140 people were arrested Thursday.

Quieter protests continued Friday and Saturday.

Lincoln’s rally and march were organized by a 17-year-old high school student.

Read the full story.

Get Your Stein/Baraka Yard Sign

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Yard signs for Stein/Baraka are available:

  • IN OMAHA: Pick up signs any day after 7:15 p.m. at 2028 N. 65th Avenue. Phone Dave at (402) 570-2187 to make special arrangements if necessary.
  • IN LINCOLN: Phone Charise Grimes, (402) 720-6760, if you’re in Northeast Lincoln, or phone Mj, (402) 489-0598, in Central Lincoln.

Meet the first U.S. death-row exoneree and support the Retain campaign Nov. 1 in Omaha

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From Retain A Just Nebraska:

Please join us on Tuesday, November 1, from 5 to 6:45 p.m. for a reception with death row exoneree, Kirk Bloodsworth. A screening of the documentary Bloodsworth: An Innocent Man about his life will follow the reception.

An honorably discharged former Marine, Mr. Bloodsworth is the first person in the United States exonerated from death row by DNA testing. In 1984, he was arrested for the rape and murder of nine-year-old Dawn Hamilton. He was sentenced to death in Baltimore County, Maryland, in 1985. Kirk was released from death row in 1993 after DNA tests incontrovertibly established his innocence.

  • WHEN: 5:00 pm – 6:45 pm on Tuesday, November 1, 2016
  • WHERE: The Session Room, 1506 Mike Fahey Street, Omaha
  • COST: $50 suggested donation, $35 for young professionals

Mr. Bloodsworth will join us at the reception. Following that, there will be a screening of the film about his experience on death row at Film Streams, which is just around the corner from The Session Room, followed by a Q &A with him.

Learn more and RSVP.