July, 02 2015, 02:30pm EDT
For Immediate Release
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Neil Young invites Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir to Open for 'The Monsanto Years' Show
Sharing their opposition to Monsanto and Starbucks and Walmart, Reverend Billy and the 40 singing-activists join forces with the radicalized rocker on Tuesday, July 21, at Jones Beach Theater in New York. Accompanying Neil Young is the band "Promise of the Real," with Lukas and Micah Nelson, sons of Willie Nelson.
WASHINGTON
Sharing their opposition to Monsanto and Starbucks and Walmart, Reverend Billy and the 40 singing-activists join forces with the radicalized rocker on Tuesday, July 21, at Jones Beach Theater in New York. Accompanying Neil Young is the band "Promise of the Real," with Lukas and Micah Nelson, sons of Willie Nelson.
Monsanto is also the Devil of the Church of Stop Shopping. This summer, the Rev & singers will perform "Non-Violent Dramatic Actions" to support a ban on Monsanto's Roundup, the world's most frequently used herbicide. New York City sprayed Monsanto's Carcinogenic Roundup more than 1,300 times on its parks and playgrounds in 2013. Glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup, was declared a likely carcinogen by the World Health Organization.
This spring, the singing and preaching activists invaded London's British Museum for an unsanctioned concert against BP, a company that buys prestige by giving money to the old museum. During a recent trip to Chicago to lead the March Against Monsanto, they exorcised Monsanto from Home Depot and their new office building. They also visited the sacrifice community of Marktown, IN. This small town suffers extreme rates of cancers and asthma, living in the shadow of the largest tar sands refinery in the United States, the Whiting Refinery, owned by BP and the Koch Brothers.
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Privacy advocates responded with outrage Thursday to news that the Biden administration has decided to pursue a year-long extension of warrantless spying authority in court rather than working with Congress to enact reforms that are popular across party lines.
The decision, first reported by The New York Times, came after the House Republican leadership last month abruptly canceled planned votes on proposed changes to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
While Section 702 is supposed to only allow U.S. agencies to spy on non-citizens located outside the country, the communications of American journalists, activists, and others are regularly collected under the surveillance authority, sparking widespread support for an overhaul.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a leading advocate of Section 702 reform, said in a statement Thursday that "it is utterly ridiculous that the Biden administration and the Justice Department would rather risk the long-term future of an important surveillance authority than support a single meaningful reform to protect Americans' rights."
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Introduced by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), S.B. 4—a companion to H.R. 14, introduced last September—is named in honor of John Lewis, a late civil rights icon and longtime Georgia congressman. Republicans filibustered the previous iteration of the bill.
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We just re-introduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. I’m joined by @SenSchumer, @SenatorWarnock, and civil rights group leaders now.
Our message it’s clear: we must ensure that democracy works for all of us. https://t.co/SH7ujaLfjw
— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) February 29, 2024
Warnock said: "I was Congressman Lewis' pastor, but he was my mentor and hero because he believed voting is a sacred undertaking that's about more than a person's voice, it's about their humanity. That's why this legislation is more important than ever, because the fight to protect voting rights and voting access for every eligible American remains unfinished and even worse, so much of the progress Congressman Lewis fought for is being rolled back."
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