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Uncategorized August 29, 2017

Which will it be: Unequivocal support for Israel or our First Amendment rights?

CT Viewpoints By Justin McCabe AUGUST 3, 2017 An alarming paradox has taken shape in legislation before Congress: Our representatives would violate Americans’ First Amendment rights in order to protect the State of Israel. This draconian legislation is H.R. 1697/S. 720, the “Israel Anti-Boycott Act,” is a proposed law that could harshly penalize the free speech of Americans who support the international Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. By amending existing laws (Export Administration act of 1979 and the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945), this bill would prohibit Americans from supporting BDS against Israel, as an ally of…

Uncategorized August 21, 2017

Antifa and the Green Party

By B. Sidney Smith Sunday, August 20, 2017 INTRODUCTION I wish to address the following question: What ought to be the position of the Green Party of the United States with respect to the movement known as Antifa? This is an urgent question. The resurgence of an emboldened white-nationalist community, evidenced for instance by the recent rallies and violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, has brought forth a correspondingly emboldened community in opposition to them. While all Greens are opposed in principle to white nationalism and racism, there is no consensus regarding the appropriate responses to white nationalists themselves, or to their…

Uncategorized August 17, 2017

Violence Via Water

This past weekend America saw on display the ugliness of a most despicable and heinous aspect of our country. White supremacist movements, movements that largely supported Donald Trump for President, feel they have a license to push the kind of agenda that is anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim, anti-anybody who is not like them. It was horrible to see these groups displaying their twisted beliefs through flags and chants from past times of global and national horror. But there is another form of violence occurring during these first weeks of August—right here in New Jersey. it is violence through SILENCE. It is…

Uncategorized June 12, 2017

Debunking the Pendulum Theory

By Todd Thompson June 09, 2017 Democrats and other anti-Trump politicos sense that their prey is in distress. There is growing optimism about the opportunities it presents for the Left. For instance, some are saying that Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris agreement is an opportunity to seize a moment (see Joe Ware’s article in Counterpunch), that in four years, the issue of climate change could be the major topic of the 2020 presidential election, and they believe it would bode well for progressives. Others are pushing the moment to pass single payer health care because Trump has…

Uncategorized June 5, 2017

Ranked Choice Voting

By Jon Olsen Well informed readers will know that we in Maine succeeded in becoming the first in the country to initiate a vote for ranked choice voting (RCV) statewide with a referendum and winning that vote 52-47 percent last November. However, there is a problem. The opponents of our victory requested the Maine Supreme Court to offer an opinion on its Constitutionality, on the basis of RCV in its function requires a majority for the final result, but the Constitution just mandates a plurality. We had legal experts of high caliber expressing the view that it was likely Constitutional,…