May, 10 2017, 04:45pm EDT
Dozens of Local Protests Outside Senate Offices Nationwide Tonight to Demand Independent Investigation into Trump/Russia; 500+ Gather Outside White House
The nationwide noise-making protests, including a major protest today outside the White House, come after Trump fired FBI Director Comey, a “constitutional crisis.”
WASHINGTON
Dozens of local protests are taking place outside Senate offices nationwide at 5 p.m. local time tonight demanding that Congress launch an independent investigation and appoint a special prosecutor immediately after Trump summarily fired FBI Director James Comey. Earlier today, more than 500 people gathered in protest outside the White House with the same demand.
The nationwide protests come less than 24 hours after Trump fired Comey, compromising the only semi-credible and somewhat-resourced investigation into Trump and his administration's ties to Russia.
TONIGHT: Dozens of Emergency Protests: Comey Fired; Investigate Trump Now
WHEN: Wednesday, May 10, 2017, 5 p.m. LOCAL TIME
WHERE: See a list of all protests here: moveon.org/soundthealarm
RSVP / QUESTIONS: press@moveon.org
The actions are a form of Cacerolazo, a protest that consists of a group of people making noise by banging pots, pans, and utensils that is popular in Latin American countries. MoveOn is celebrating the work of allies United We Dream and Working Families Party, which have held two similar actions in this time of Trump.
The Trump administration, under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has a questionable record in the first 100 days on more than just FBI investigations. The police state under Sessions has terrorized immigrants and ignored violence against Black lives. This investigation is just the beginning of holding the Trump administration responsible for their disastrous, corrupt, and dangerous domestic agenda.
Earlier today, more than 500 people gathered outside the White House in protest of Comey's firing and to demand an independent investigation.
** See video the White House protest here: https://www.facebook.com/moveon/videos/10154396299975493/
** See photos from the White House protest here: https://www.facebook.com/moveon/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10154398165590493
The White House protest was organized by MoveOn.org, Indivisible, Working Families Party, Americans Against Trump, Bend the Arc Jewish Action, the People for the American Way (PFAW), CREDO, Resist With Me, Alliance for Quality Education, Action Alliance, CAP Action, Every Voice, Free Speech for People, the Center for Popular Democracy, Strong Women Action Network, Women's March on Washington, Human Rights Campaign, Common Defense and other allies.
"We now face a constitutional crisis," said MoveOn.org Campaign Director Jo Comerford in response to the news. "Donald Trump just fired the one person in America who was leading the most thorough and long-lasting investigation of Donald Trump. There now is no question that we need an independent commission established immediately to ensure that there is a fair, non-partisan and independent investigation into Trump, his administration, and his associates.Members of Congress--of both parties--who care about the security of our democracy and the well-being of our nation must not waste another second in calling for a full, bi-partisan, independent investigation to look into Russia's known hacking of the 2016 U.S. election to benefit Donald Trump, as well as into Donald Trump and his associates' potential collusion with Russia. Nothing short of the integrity and fate of our democracy is on the line."
MoveOn.org petitions calling for an independent investigation and/or a special prosecutor have more than 900,000 signatures, including more than 500,000 on this petition calling for a House investigation into Trump/Russia.
For more information, please contact press@moveon.org.
MoveOn is where millions mobilize for a better society--one where everyone can thrive. Whether it's supporting a candidate, passing legislation, or changing our culture, MoveOn members are committed to an inclusive and progressive future. We envision a world marked by equality, sustainability, justice, and love. And we mobilize together to achieve it.
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On Kent State Massacre Anniversary, Progressives Decry Repression of Student Protests
"The militarized repression of young people speaking out against a terrible war was shameful then and it's shameful now," said one state lawmaker.
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As U.S. Republicans push for the deployment of National Guard troops to quell nationwide student demonstrations against the Gaza genocide, progressive lawmakers marked the anniversary of the 1970 Kent State Massacre by condemning police repression of peaceful protesters and reaffirming the power of dissent.
"On the 54th anniversary of the Kent State Massacre, students across our country are being brutalized for standing up to endless war," Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-Mo.) said on social media. "Our country must learn to actually uphold the rights of free speech and assembly upon which it was founded."
Fellow "Squad" member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said that "54 years ago, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed students at Kent State."
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On May 4, 1970, 28 Ohio National Guard troops fired 67 live rounds into a crowd of unarmed Kent State students rallying against the expansion of the U.S.-led war in Vietnam into Cambodia. They murdered students Allison Krause, Jeffrey Glenn Miller, Sandra Lee Scheuer, and William Knox Schroeder—all aged 19 or 20. Nine other students were wounded, including one who was permanently paralyzed.
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Protests against Israel's assault on Gaza—which according to Palestinian and international officials has killed, maimed, or left missing more than 123,000 Gazans—have spread to dozens of campuses across the U.S. and around the world. Police have been called in to break up protest encampments at numerous schools. Hundreds of students, faculty, and journalists have been arrested, sometimes violently.
At the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), police stood by this week as a pro-Israel mob attacked a campus protest encampment before officers arrested peaceful protesters and supporters.
As law enforcement officials have tried to justify the crackdown by claiming "outside agitators" are behind the protests, some observers noted historical parallels.
"Watching what is happening at UCLA," Virginia state Sen. Mamie Locke (D-2) said on social media. "Old enough to remember Kent State, Jackson State, South Carolina State, and the dog whistles of 'law and order,' 'outside agitators.' So reminiscent of 1968."
On February 8, 1968, police shot 31 students—most of them in the back—at a protest against Jim Crow segregation at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, murdering three young Black men: Samuel Hammond Jr., Delano Middleton, and Henry Smith.
Eleven days after Kent State, police opened fire on a crowd of Black students protesting the bombing of Cambodia at Jackson State College in Jackson, Mississippi, killing Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green and injuring 12 others.
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While U.N. agencies have warned since March that famine was imminent in Gaza, McCain's remarks—which came during an interview with Kristen Welker that is scheduled to air on Sunday's edition of NBC News' "Meet the Press"—make her the most high-profile international official to date to publicly acknowledge a state of famine in parts of the Palestinian territory.
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UN World Food Program @WFPChief: “There is famine — full-blown famine — in the north of Gaza, and it’s moving its way south.”
pic.twitter.com/eyk0OeOEzr
— Waleed Shahid 🪬 (@_waleedshahid) May 4, 2024
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According to Palestinian and international officials, Israel's 211-day assault on Gaza—which many experts including Israelis call genocidal—has killed or maimed more than 123,000 Palestinians since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks, including an estimated 11,000 people who are believed to be dead and buried beneath the ruins of the hundreds of thousands of destroyed or damaged homes and other buildings.
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Republican Georgia Congressman Mike Collins came under fire Friday over a social media post applauding video of white University of Mississippi students racially abusing a Black woman participating in a campus protest for Palestine.
Collins posted the video—in which numerous people can be heard grunting like apes and one young man is seen jumping up and down like a monkey in front of the Black woman—with the caption, "Ole Miss taking care of business."
Collins—or whoever's in charge of his social media accounts—sparred with Black leaders who called out his racism. When former Democratic Ohio state senator Nina Turner said the video showed "anti-Blackness," the congressman shot back, "*Anti-terroristness."
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Around 30 protesters were rallying in support of Palestine in the Ole Miss Quad when counter-protesters gathered near the demonstrators. Some booed and chanted, "We want Trump!" Others singled out the Black woman—who NBC Newssaid is a graduate student at the school—chanting "Lizzo, Lizzo, Lizzo," "take a shower," "your nose is huge," "fuck you, fat bitch," and "lock her up!"
The counter-protesters also sang the "Star-Spangled Banner." Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves shared a separate video of the singing students on social media, captioning his post, "Warms my heart" and "I love Mississippi."
No racist language can be heard in the video shared by Reeves.
The Daily Mississippianreports the demonstrators were escorted off the Quad after counter-protesters threw water bottles at them.
Collins is no stranger to accusations of racism. Earlier this year, he suggested murdering migrants by throwing them from helicopters into the sea, in the manner of U.S.-backed South American dictators in the 1970s.
He also
introduced the Restricting Administration Zealots from Obliging Raiders (RAZOR) Act, which would ban the federal government from removing or altering "any state-constructed barriers installed to mitigate illegal immigration," such as the razor buoys installed in the Rio Grande by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
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accused of antisemitism after he amplified a social media post by an avowed neo-Nazi targeting a Washington Post reporter for being Jewish.
Ole Miss said Friday that "statements were made at the demonstration on our campus Thursday that were offensive and inappropriate."
"We cannot comment specifically about that video, but the university is looking into reports about specific actions," the school added. "Any actions that violate university policy will be met with appropriate action."
The Ole Miss incident comes amid rapidly spreading campus protests across the U.S. and around the world in response to Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza, which has killed, maimed, or left missing around 5% of the embattled strip's 2.3 million people, most of them civilians, while forcibly displacing nearly 9 in 10 people and driving hundreds of thousands to the brink of starvation.
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