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For Immediate Release
August, 30 2008, 04:11pm EDT
Contact:
Nancy Mancias, CODEPINK RNC coordinator, 415-342-6409 Jodie Evans, co-founder, 310-621-5635 Jean Stevens, national media coordinator, 508-769-2138
CODEPINK To "Raise A Ruckus" at Republican Convention!
WHAT: CODEPINK to bring peace message and tough questions to RNC
WHEN: Aug. 30 to Sept. 4 WHERE: Republican National Convention, St. Paul.
CODEPINK headquarters: Black Dog Cafe, 308 Prince St. St. Paul
MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL
WHAT: CODEPINK to bring peace message and tough questions to RNC
WHEN: Aug. 30 to Sept. 4 WHERE: Republican National Convention, St. Paul.
CODEPINK headquarters: Black Dog Cafe, 308 Prince St. St. Paul
ST. PAUL/MINNEAPOLIS - For the past week, the leading anti-war
group CODEPINK brought the peace message to delegates at the Democratic
National Convention and made headlines from The Denver Post, Salon.com to Comedy Central with their vivacious, creative peace spirit!
At this week's Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities,
nearly 100 members of the women-initiated group will make more
headlines with vibrant demonstrations, interruptions, creative
costumes, songs, banners and hard questions for delegates and
politicians gathered there. Some of our major events include:
On Sunday, Aug. 31:
*From 1 to 2 p.m., CODEPINK
members will march, ride pink peace bikes, sing and rally down Nicollet
Mall to Loring Park in Minneapolis, in the Liberty Parade 2008, a
nonpartisan musical celebration of shared values - liberty, freedom,
justice and free speech. (For more details, visit https://www.libertyparade2008.com/site/).
*From 5 to 7 p.m. they will host the "Reclaiming the
Constitution" event at the RNC's Civic Fest at the Convention Center at
1301 2nd Ave. S. They'll carry an enormous paper Constitution - carried
by several people at once -- and celebrate freedom of speech by saying
"Dissent is Patriotic!" "We Want A Peace Candidate!" "Close
Guantanamo!" "Restore Habeus Corpus!" and "I Miss America!"
*At 9 p.m. CODEPINK will host its "They Spy, They Lie, We Pay,
They Profit!" protest outside the AT&T Salute to Screen Actors
Guild at the Fine Line Music Cafe at 318 First Ave N. Minneapolis.
We'll protest Republicans passing of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillence Act (FISA) that gave telecoms like AT & T
(unconstitutional wiretapping and access to our communications without
a warrant. (We'll host this again 8 p.m. Weds. outside an AT & T
event at Brit's Pub at 1110 Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis).
On Monday, Sept. 1:
*At 10 a.m. CODEPINK will host the
a "Pro-Life, Pro-Democracy" pink parade within the anti-war march and
rally at the Assembly at Cass Gilbert Memorial Park (at Cedar St and
Sherburne Ave.) in St. Paul. Their parade will be non-confrontational,
with puppets, colorful props and banners meant to inspire curiosity and
hope for change.
On Tuesday, Sept. 2:
*At 4 p.m., CODEPINK will "drop"
huge banners with "Build Bridges, Not War!" messages off of the
overpasses over highways 94E and 35E, perfectly timed for when
Republican delegates are bussed through to St. Paul to the Xcel Center.
*At 8:30 p.m., they will stage a protest outside a Big Oil
fundraiser at Epic Entertainment, at 510 1st Ave. N Minneapolis, to
demonstrate against the Republican's devotion to the interest of Big
Oil companies instead of the American people. Wearing yellow "Support
Our Oil Companies" ribbons, waving "Freedom Flags" (flags with the
logos of the major oil companies) and showering our fellow delegates
with millions of "Oily Dollars, " CODEPINK will mock Republicans
support for more oil wars, surging gas prices and obscene profits for
Big Oil, drilling everywhere regardless of consequences, and "no" to
clean and renewable energy funding.
On Wednesday, Sept. 3:
*At 10 a.m., in full costume,
CODEPINK will host a "Women Say No To War Pageant" at 5th St. and
Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis, right outside the Republican National
Committee's "welcome rally" for John McCain.
On Thursday, Sept. 4: *At 10 a.m., wearing in pink
police uniforms, peace "gardeners" gear, "pink slips," and formal "I
Miss America" wear, CODEPINK will raise a ruckus to "Bust McCain"
around Peavey Plaza, near the delegate hotels.
*At 4 p.m., CODEPINK members and friends will form a human peace
sign in Harriet Island Park (Plato Blvd.), to be photographed from the
sky as a beautiful, living art image. It'll be as powerful as our "Make
Out Not War" image created at the DNC (view it on The Huffington Post here).
For more CODEPINK RNC events, and to check for updates, please visit our online DNC and RNC calendar, updated frequently, here: www.codepinkalert.org/conventionscalendar. For questions, please call Jean Stevens at 508-769-2138.
******************************************
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Nancy Mancias, CODEPINK RNC coordinator, 415-342-6409 Jean Stevens, national media coordinator, 508-769-2138
Join
CODEPINK, Global Exchange, Oil Change, Rain Forest Action Network and
the Ronald Reagan Home for the Criminally Insane as we "Support Our Oil
Companies!"
WHAT: Demonstration against party hosted by Gov. Haley Barbour's and American Petroleum Institute (API) WHEN: 8:30 p.m., Tues., Sept. 2 WHERE: 510 1st Ave N, Minneapolis, MN
MINNEAPOLIS
- Join CODEPINK and other coalition groups in our demonstration against
the Republican party hosted by Mississippi Gov. Haley "Offshore
Drilling" Barbour and the American Petroleum Institute (API), the
leading "Big Oil" lobbyist group in D.C., whose board is composed of
the chief executive officers of every major oil company.
Minneapolis-based agribusiness giant Cargill is teaming up with Big
Oil to rapidly consolidate control over the entire agrofuel sector.
Agrofuels are not low emissions, they are driving massive tropical
deforestation, are linked to human rights abuses, and they pit food
against fuel.
We'll mock Republican support for more oil wars, surging gas prices
and obscene profits for Big Oil, drilling everywhere regardless of
consequence and saying "no" to clean and renewable energy funding by
wearing yellow "Support Our Oil Companies" ribbons, waving "Freedom
Flags" (flags with the logos of the major oil companies) and showering
our fellow delegates with millions of "Oily Dollars" that Big Oil gives
back to Republican candidates (74 percent of their contributions) and
the $1.1 million Senator John McCain received from oil executives and
employees immediately after reversing his previous opposition to
offshore drilling.
CODEPINK, Global Exchange, Oil Change, Rain Forest Action Network
and the Ronald Reagan Home for the Criminally Insane had no part in
organizing this Republican Rally. For more CODEPINK RNC events, and to check for updates, please visit our online DNC and RNC calendar, updated frequently, here: www.codepinkalert.org/conventionscalendar. For questions, please call Jean Stevens at 508-769-2138.
####
CODEPINK, founded in 2002, is a women-initiated
grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the war in
Iraq, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into health care,
education and other life-affirming activities. We reject the Bush
administration's fear-based politics that justify violence, and instead
call for policies based on compassion, kindness and a commitment to
international law. With an emphasis on joy and humor, CODEPINK women
and men seek to activate, amplify and inspire a community of
peacemakers through creative campaigns and a commitment to
non-violence. www.codepinkalert.org.
CODEPINK is a women-led grassroots organization working to end U.S. wars and militarism, support peace and human rights initiatives, and redirect our tax dollars into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming programs.
(818) 275-7232LATEST NEWS
'This War Is Dumb as Hell': Military Historian Assesses Trump's Disaster in Iran
"Every day this war goes on makes both the United States and Iran weaker, poorer, and less secure."
Mar 25, 2026
Even as President Donald Trump signaled this week that he'd like to quickly wrap up his unconstitutional war with Iran, some experts are warning that the president has put himself in a situation with no easy way out.
Military historian Bret Devereaux, a teaching assistant professor at North Carolina State University, published a lengthy analysis of the war on Wednesday in which he described it as a failed gamble that Iran's regime would simply crumble in the face of a well-executed series of aerial strikes.
Devereaux said that this was highly unlikely given the nature of the Iranian regime, which is structured to maintain itself up and down the chain of command if one or even several of its leaders are killed.
And now that it's very clear that Trump's gamble of overthrowing the regime hasn't paid off, Devereaux wrote, he will be at the mercy of events beyond his control.
"Once started, a major regional war with Iran was always likely to be something of a 'trap,'" he contended, "not in the sense of an ambush laid by Iran—but in the sense of a situation that, once entered, cannot be easily left or reversed."
While Iran's response to the strikes carried out by the US and Israel in June 2025 was relatively tepid, Devereaux said, once Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the goal of their latest operation would be regime change, the Iranian government took the extraordinary step of shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, sending global energy prices skyrocketing.
It has been this threat to shut down the strait, as well as the massive difficulty and cost it would take to occupy a nation of 90 million people, the historian continued, that has kept every US president for the last five decades from launching an invasion of Iran.
At the same time, he continued, Trump cannot now simply walk away while leaving Iran with the ability to take the global economy hostage whenever it pleases.
"The result is a fairly classic escalation trap: Once the conflict starts, it is extremely costly for either side to ever back down, which ensures that the conflict continues long past it being in the interests of either party," he wrote. "Every day this war goes on makes both the United States and Iran weaker, poorer, and less secure but it is very hard for either side to back down because there are huge costs connected to being the party that backs down."
Summing up his argument, Devereaux declared, "This war is dumb as hell."
Devereaux's analysis was echoed by Ilan Goldenberg, senior vice president and chief policy officer at J Street, who wrote in a social media post Wednesday that the US and Iran appear to be caught in an escalation trap, as exemplified by the Trump administration's recent decision to send more military personnel to the Persian Gulf.
"The much more important story right now isn’t diplomacy—it’s the thousands of US troops being mobilized and moving toward the Middle East," he wrote. "That movement strongly suggests preparation for further escalation, with Kharg Island emerging as the most likely target. For any objective observer, the likely Iranian response to a US move on Kharg is obvious: escalation, not capitulation. Tehran would almost certainly respond by expanding attacks on energy infrastructure across the Gulf."
Goldenberg added that "the most plausible off-ramp" will involve Trump simply declaring victory while leaving the regime intact and with vague promises to not produce a nuclear weapon, although he said that likely wouldn't come until after more escalation and destruction.
"Better to accept this likely outcome today rather than six months from now," he advised.
In a Wednesday analysis published at Liberal Currents, University of Illinois political scientist Nicholas Grossman cast doubt on Trump's ability to simply wash his hands of the Iran conflict and walk away.
Part of the issue, said Grossman, is that Iran simply might want to keep inflicting economic damage on Trump to make him think twice before launching a future attack on the regime.
"In hard power dynamics, this is the strongest position the Islamic Republic has ever been in, the most leverage they have over the United States since the 1979-80 hostage crisis," Grossman wrote. "Iran is likely thinking of longer-term security. If they can endure more US-Israeli bombing—and the war so far indicates that they can—then they can increasingly establish their ability to crash the global economy, a deterrent even the United States must respect."
Given that Trump is unlikely to want to be seen as a "loser" for simply accepting Iran's control of the strait, Grossman concluded, "that points to stablemate or escalation, more death and destruction, and a global economic disruption that will be bigger than many currently expect."
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'Earthquake for Big Tech': LA Jury in Social Media Addiction Trial Finds Meta, YouTube Harmed Child
"Between yesterday’s historic verdict in New Mexico and today’s ruling in California, it is clear that Big Tech’s free rein to addict and harm children is over," said one campaigner.
Mar 25, 2026
A Los Angeles jury on Wednesday found that Meta and Google acted negligently by harming a child user with their social media platforms' addictive design features in a landmark verdict that came on the heels of Tuesday's $375 million fine imposed on Meta by New Mexico jurors.
The California jury—which deliberated for 40 hours over nine days—ordered the companies to pay $3 million in compensatory civil damages to a now-20-year-old woman, known in court as Kaley G.M., for pain and suffering and other damages.
Meta—the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—must pay 70%, while Google, the Alphabet subsidiary that bought YouTube, will pay the rest.
The jury also found the companies acted fraudulently and with malice, and will impose an additional fine.
Kaley's legal team successfully argued that the social media companies designed products that are as addictive as cigarettes or online casinos, and that site features like infinite scrolling and algorithmic recommendations caused her anxiety and depression. Attorneys said Kaley began viewing YouTube videos when she was 6 years old and started using Instagram at age 9.
Attorney Mark Lanier called YouTube Kaley's "gateway" to social media addiction. Later, features like Instagram's "beauty filters" made her feel "fat" and unattractive.
Still, Kaley was hooked, testifying in court last month: “Every single day I was on it, all day long. I just can’t be without it.”
Kaley's lawyers submitted evidence including internal communications in which officials at the two companies privately acknowledged their products' addictiveness.
"If we want to win big with teens, we must bring them in as tweens," one YouTube strategy memo states.
A communication from an Instagram employee says: “We’re basically pushers... We’re causing reward deficit disorder, because people are binging on Instagram so much they can’t feel the reward.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says, “Kids under 13 aren’t allowed on our services.” That's a lie. 2015: Internal review found 4 million kids on Instagram.2017: Meta employees, we're "going after <13 year olds” – Zuckerberg had been talking about this “for a while.”
[image or embed]
— Tech Oversight Project (@techoversight.bsky.social) February 20, 2026 at 10:18 AM
Kaley's attorneys said in a statement following Wednesday's verdict: "For years, social media companies have profited from targeting children while concealing their addictive and dangerous design features. Today’s verdict is a referendum—from a jury, to an entire industry—on that accountability.”
One of those attorneys, Joseph VanZandt, told The New York Times that “this is the first time in history a jury has heard testimony by executives and seen internal documents that we believe prove these companies chose profits over children."
As Courthouse News Service reported:
Kaley is the first of nearly 2,500 plaintiffs in a consolidated case in Southern California suing four tech companies—Google, Meta, TikTok, and Snap—who say their social media and streaming platforms were designed in ways that caused or worsened depression, anxiety, and body dysmorphia in minors.
TikTok and Snap settled with Kaley in the weeks before her bellwether trial but remain defendants in the broader consolidated litigation. The trial’s outcome could help spur a global settlement, though eight more bellwether trials are being prepared, with the next one scheduled to start this summer.
A Meta spokesperson told Courthouse News Service that “we respectfully disagree with the verdict and are evaluating our legal options.”
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's CEO and co-founder, insisted during the trial that Instagram is “a good thing that has value in people’s lives.”
Appeals by the companies could drag on for years, and, as Fox Business correspondent Susan Li noted on X, "if it’s just money that they have to pay, in the end it’s just a speeding ticket as they have deep pockets of cash."
Wednesday's verdict comes amid numerous pending lawsuits against social media companies and follows Tuesday's $375 million penalty imposed on Meta by a New Mexico jury, which found that the company violated the state's Unfair Practices Act by misleading users and exposing children to harm on its platforms.
Child welfare and digital rights advocates hailed Wednesday's verdict, which The Tech Oversight Project, an advocacy group, called "an earthquake for Big Tech."
"After years of gaslighting from companies like Google and Meta, new evidence and testimony have pulled back the curtain and validated the harms young people and parents have been telling the world about for years," the group's president, Sacha Haworth, said in a statement.
"These products were purposefully designed to harm [and] addict millions of young people, and lead to lifelong mental health consequences," Haworth added. "This trial was proof that if you put CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg on the stand before a judge and jury of their peers, the tech industry’s wanton disregard for people will be on full display."
Alix Fraser, vice president of advocacy at Issue One, said, “Today’s verdict is a victory for young people, their families, and all Americans, marking a critical turning point in the fight to hold Big Tech accountable."
"The message is clear: The industry cannot continue to treat the youngest generation as its guinea pigs without consequences," he continued. "The trial process exposed how these platforms are designed, how risks to young users are understood internally, and how those risks have too often been outweighed by the pursuit of growth and profit."
"Today’s verdict builds on that truth. It affirms that young people are not test subjects for unproven products that prioritize profit at all cost," Fraser added. “No other industry enjoys the level of legal protection tech companies have relied on. This verdict begins to crack that shield and move us closer to a system where accountability is the norm, not the exception."
Josh Golin, executive director of the children's advocacy group Fairplay, said, “We are so pleased that a jury has confirmed what Fairplay and the survivor parents we work with have been saying for years: Social media companies like Meta and YouTube deliberately design their products to addict kids."
"Between yesterday’s historic verdict in New Mexico and today’s ruling in California, it is clear that Big Tech’s free rein to addict and harm children is over," he added.
JB Branch, the artificial intelligence and technology policy counsel at the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said in a statement that "the parallels to Big Tobacco litigation are becoming harder to ignore."
"Like tobacco companies before them, social media firms built massive business models around dependency, denied or minimized mounting evidence of harm, and resisted meaningful safeguards while millions of young people were exposed to escalating risks," Branch explained. "Infinite scroll, push notifications, algorithmic amplification, and behavioral targeting were commercial design choices built to maximize attention, addiction, and revenue."
“Now more than ever, it’s time for Congress and federal regulators to establish enforceable safeguards for youth online while preserving the right of states to adopt stronger standards, including stronger product safety requirements, transparency obligations, limits on manipulative design practices, and accountability mechanisms for platforms whose business models depend on prolonged youth engagement," Branch added.
While many campaigners are urging congressional lawmakers to pass the Senate version of the Kids Online Safety Act, civil rights groups including the ACLU argue that KOSA is overbroad and poses serious risks of censorship of free speech.
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Critics Slam Meeks, Jeffries Pushing Off War Powers Bill Just as It Gets Enough Votes to Pass
"Each day we delay increases the risk of deeper US involvement and more lives lost," said one progressive policy adviser. "Failing to act now means owning what comes next."
Mar 25, 2026
Democratic Party leaders are under fire after it was reported that they plan to wait until mid-April to hold a vote to rein in President Donald Trump's powers to wage war with Iran.
Punchbowl News reported on Tuesday that US House lawmakers had abandoned plans to hold a vote this week on a war powers resolution introduced by Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
With a two-week recess beginning next week, postponing the vote means the earliest Democrats could force it again is April 13.
A previous war powers resolution, which came to the floor just days after the US and Israel launched the war at the end of February, failed by a razor-thin margin when four pro-war Democrats—Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), Jared Golden (D-Maine), Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), and Juan Vargas (D-Calif.)—joined the bulk of Republicans to kill it.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said at a press briefing on Tuesday that there are “ongoing conversations” about passing a war powers resolution “sooner rather than later." He said, “When we present something on the floor, it’s our determination to win.”
But Democrats would likely be in a position to "win" the vote if it were held this week. Andrew Solender reported on Tuesday for Axios that following intense criticism from the grassroots base and pressure from party leadership, "most, if not all, of the four defectors are expected to flip and vote for the measure this time."
Solender later reported that Meeks was undecided about the measure. While the New York Democrat confirmed to Axios that the party had gotten defectors on board, he said he "hasn’t decided whether to force a vote on his war powers resolution this week or in mid-April."
Democratic leadership has already been accused of attempting to sabotage a previous resolution introduced by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) in late February by waiting to vote on it until after Trump launched the war.
Independent journalist Aída Chávez, who reported on these stall tactics in February, noted that Meeks "previously tried to delay a vote by warning 40 Democrats could oppose it. In the end, just four did."
"Now Meeks is saying he may not hold the vote because one member could vote no," Chávez wrote on social media. "If Democrats are unified, this Iran war powers resolution could actually pass... That makes Democratic leadership’s refusal to force a vote ASAP even more indefensible."
The decision to punt yet another resolution for nearly three weeks has ignited even more outrage and suspicion among progressives, especially amid reports that Trump is sending thousands more US troops to the Middle East and is mulling a ground invasion of Iran.
"It would be extremely alarming for Reps. Jeffries and Meeks to waver now on forcing a war powers vote," said Cavan Kharrazian, the senior policy adviser for Demand Progress. "Delaying a war powers vote now effectively gives Trump two more weeks to continue and escalate the war in Iran."
Ryan Grim, co-founder of Drop Site News, went further, accusing Meeks of backing off the resolution precisely "because it now may have the votes to pass." He contended that "Democrats secretly want this war to continue because it hurts Trump."
The war is indeed highly unpopular, with 59% of Americans saying it has "gone too far," according to an Associated Press-NORC poll published Wednesday. Its cascading effects throughout the economy—particularly the sharp increases in gas prices across the US—also have the potential to harm Trump, who has shed support for failing to address the high cost of living.
Andrei Vasilescu, the director of communications for Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Common Dreams that Meeks was "whipping a vote precisely so it passes, and any accusations to the contrary are absurd."
He said many members of the House are not currently in DC and that passing the resolution would require all of the "yes" votes to be present.
"Ranking Member Meeks could not be clearer about his opposition to the war, and is working through this resolution and all other available tools to hold President Trump accountable for his reckless war of choice," he added.
He noted that Meeks also introduced a motion on Wednesday to subpoena Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to testify about the war.
According to the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA), a US-based human rights monitor for Iran, at least 1,443 civilians, including 217 children, have been killed by US and Israeli strikes since the war began on February 28. Lebanon's Ministry of Health reported last week that more than 1,000 civilians have been killed by Israeli attacks as it expanded its military campaign there in early March.
"This war is a disaster, it’s unpopular, and civilians across the region are dying," Kharrazian of Demand Progress said. "This is a moment for anti-war leadership, not hesitation. The House should be on the record now, especially when reporting suggests the votes are there to pass a war powers resolution."
"Each day we delay increases the risk of deeper US involvement and more lives lost," he added. "Failing to act now means owning what comes next."
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