Friends,
A group of went to the State Department on April
1, 2019 to deliver a letter to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo seeking a
meeting to force a major change in Trump’s foreign policy misadventures.
Dick Ochs was one of the advocates for radical change in US foreign policy. I
will do a write-up of the action undertaken at the State Department at a later
date.
However, after our adventure at the State
Department, we went to the building which houses the Organization of American
States. A vote on enacting further sanctions on Venezuela was to take
place, and about 30 of us demonstrated outside the building. For whatever
reason, the vote was postponed.
However, around 5 PM, the police started moving
protesters away from the OAS front entrance to the sidewalk on 17th Street. For
those who failed to move to the sidewalk quickly enough were to be
arrested. In fact they police handcuffed Dick and Mary Elieisar.
Mary was released from custody after explaining she was acting as Dick’s
lawyer. But Dick was taken to a precinct and was being processed. More
information will shared as the details unfold.
Kagiso, Max
. Monday, April 01, 2019
'Trump's Brand Is Crisis': Progressives,
Dems, and Pope Sound Alarm Over Threat to Close Border
"Builders of walls, be they made of razor wire or
bricks," declared Pope Francis, "will end up becoming prisoners of
the walls they build."
commondreams.org
President Donald
Trump's threat to close the southern border was met with criticism and concern
from politicians, activists, the public—and Pope Francis.
Trump is taking the
action, he said, because of what he believes is a crisis in drug
smuggling and human trafficking.
In remarks to reporters
Sunday on the papal plane en route from Morocco to Rome, Pope Francis said that Trump—and people who think the way the U.S.
president does about migrants—are ultimately trapping themselves in an inhumane
situation.
"Builders of
walls, be they made of razor wire or bricks, will end up becoming prisoners of
the walls they build," the pope said.
Pope
Francis denounced immigration barriers when he was asked about President Donald
Trump’s threat to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border.
The comments preceded a
tweet made by the pope Saturday in which he celebrated the rights of migrants
to self-determination.
"Every human being
has the right to life, to dream and to find his or her rightful place in our
'common home!'" posted the pontiff. "Every person has a right to the
future."
Every
human being has the right to life, to dream and to find his or her rightful
place in our “common home”! Every person has a right to the future. #ApostolicJourney
The measure to close
the border comes as the administration plans to cut aid to Central American
countries—a move that experts argue is almost certain to increase, not curtail,
the number of immigrants at the border.
Acting Chief of Staff
Mick Mulvaney, speaking to ABC News anchor Jon Karl Sunday,
said that unless "something dramatic" changed, the closure would
happen this week.
Acting
White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney tells @jonkarl it would take
"something dramatic" for President Trump not to close the U.S.-Mexico
border https://abcn.ws/2U8i3sJ
#ThisWeek
Mulvaney pushed back on
the idea that an increase in aid would lead to lower numbers of people on the
border in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, also aired
Sunday.
"If we're going to
give these countries hundreds of millions of dollars, we would like them to do
more," said Mulvaney. "If it's working so well why are the
people still coming?"
Whether or not Trump
actually goes through with his threat is, as with most actions the president
proposes, an open question. Rep. Tom Kole (R-Okla.) told MSNBC's
Hallie Jackson Monday that Trump may be bluffing.
Republican
@TomColeOK04
tells @HallieJackson
he doesn’t think President Trump is actually prepared to shut down the border.
So he’s bluffing? “That’s my view.”
So he’s bluffing? “That’s my view.”
Democrats took a hard
line against the proposal.
"It is actions
like these in which the president is announcing a potentially devastating
action to close the border for the state of Texas and the economic well-being
for the nation," Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said in a tweet thread.
"Such actions will
backfire," Lee continued, "cause greater pain to countries and do
nothing to stop the flow of desperate migrants."
It is actions like these in which the president is
announcing a potentially devastating action to close the border for the state
of Texas and the economic well-being for the nation - in addition, a reckless
decision to deny aid to three of the poorest countries in the world...
...Guatemala,
El Salvador and Honduras, out of spite is not foreign policy, it is punitive
and ineffective - such actions will backfire, cause greater pain to countries
and do nothing to stop the flow of desperate migrants. We need a real
immigration policy from...
"We need a real
immigration policy from this White House," added Jackson Lee.
Rep. Juan Vargas
(D-Calif.) was more blunt.
"Millions of
people would ultimately lose their jobs," said Vargas. "It's really
dumb."
Rep.
Juan Vargas on Trump threatening to close the border: "Millions of people
would ultimately lose their jobs. It is really dumb."
Some critics took a
broader view of the action and said it might indicate something more
unsettling: a new push for authoritarianism from the president.
"I studied
democratization in college, which means I learned a lot about dictators and
autocrats," said Kelly Crowley. "They always eventually close
the borders."
"This guy isn't
into democracy," Crowley added. "He's checking all the
boxes."
I
studied democratization in college, which means I learned a lot about dictators
& autocrats. They always eventually close the borders (usually to stop
people from fleeing). This guy isn’t into democracy. He’s checking all the
boxes. https://nyti.ms/2TI8qfd
Shutting down the
border is "exactly the sort of move many in the GOP have—before
Trump—admired in European autocrats like Viktor Orban," said Sarah Posner,
a reporter with Type Investigations, referring to the far right Hungarian
leader.
Trump
is threatening to close the southern border? That's exactly the sort of move
many in the GOP have--before Trump--admired in European autocrats like Viktor
Orban:https://newrepublic.com/article/153276/republicans-congress-courted-nativist-authoritarian-leaders …
Trump's motivation may
be even baser than that, said Philadelphia Enquirer columnist
Will Bunch—the president may be doing nothing more than creating a crisis on
the border to help him win reelection.
"Trump's brand is
crisis," wrote Bunch, pointing to the myriad ways the president
has presented the country's woes in ways that recall "carnage" rather
than hope in the first two years of Trump's administration.
"Nothing aids the
president's goal of portraying himself as a defender against invading hordes
than images of large crowds of asylum seekers," said Bunch.
This work
is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325
E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email:
mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject
class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and
nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything
to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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