July, 06 2017, 12:00pm EDT
UltraViolet Targets GOP Senators With 'Women Resist TrumpCare' Week of Actions
This week, as Senators are at home for the Fourth of July recess, UltraViolet Action, a national women's advocacy group, is preparing to confront Republicans over the recently introduced health care repeal bill as part of the organization's "Women Resist TrumpCare" week of action. The group warns that the Republican bill would decimate the American health care system.
As part of their week of action, UltraViolet Action has commissioned mobile billboards to run in the following cities between July 6th and July 7th.
WASHINGTON
This week, as Senators are at home for the Fourth of July recess, UltraViolet Action, a national women's advocacy group, is preparing to confront Republicans over the recently introduced health care repeal bill as part of the organization's "Women Resist TrumpCare" week of action. The group warns that the Republican bill would decimate the American health care system.
As part of their week of action, UltraViolet Action has commissioned mobile billboards to run in the following cities between July 6th and July 7th.
- In Portland, Maine -- calling on Senator Susan Collins to vote "no" on the Republican health care plan. The billboard truck will travel throughout downtown Portland and circle Senator Collins' Portland office multiple times before the end of the week. The truck billboard will also be outside a small protest happening at Senator Collins' Portland office on Thursday, at 2pm.
- In Columbus, Ohio -- calling on Senator Rob Portman to vote "no" on the Republican health care plan. The billboard truck will travel throughout downtown Columbus and circle Senator Portman's Columbus office multiple times before the end of the week. The truck billboard will also be outside a small protest happening at Senator Portman's Columbus Office on Thursday, at 12:00pm.
- In Charleston, West Virginia -- calling on Senator Shelley Moore Capito to vote "no" on the Republican health care plan. The billboard truck will travel throughout downtown Charleston and circle Senator Capito's Charleston office multiple times before the end of the week.
- In Phoenix, Arizona -- calling on Senator Jeff Flake to vote "no" on the Republican health care plan. The billboard truck will travel throughout downtown Phoenix and circle Senator Flake's office locations multiple times before the end of the week. The truck billboard will also be outside a small protest happening at Senator Flake's Phoenix Office on Thursday at 9:30am.
** FOR A FULL ITINERARY OF EACH MOBILE BILLBOARD'S ROUTE, please contact brett@unbendablemedia.com.
UltraViolet Action has also launched homepage takeovers of local newspapers in West Virginia, Arizona and Maine, emphasizing the number of people in each state that stand to lose their insurance as well as the estimated cost of premium increases under the Republican health care plan. The newspaper homepage takeovers will occur on Thursday, July 6th:
- The Charleston Gazette Mail urging Senator Capito to oppose the Republican health care plan. The ads point out that under the Republican health care plan more than 118,000 people in West Virginia would lose their health insurance, and that premiums on West Virginia residents would rise by 20% next year.
- The Arizona Daily Star urging Senator Flake to oppose the Republican health care plan. The ads point out that under the Republican health care plan more than 461,000 people in Arizona would lose their health insurance, and that premiums on Arizona residents would rise by 20% next year.
- The Bangor Daily News urging Senator Collins to oppose the Republican health care plan. The ads point out that under the Republican health care plan more than 117,900 people in Maine would lose their health insurance, and that premiums on Maine residents would rise by 20% next year.
In addition to the mobile billboards and newspaper homepage takeovers, local UltraViolet members will be partnering with the Democracy Spring coalition and Indivisible to organize sit-ins, rallies, speak-outs, and more, urging Republican senators in key states to oppose TrumpCare.
In Little Rock, Arkansas - local UltraViolet members will hold a sit-in at Senator Tom Cotton's office urging him to oppose the Republican health care plan:
- WHEN: Thursday, July 6th. 11:00am LOCAL TIME
- WHERE: Senator Tom Cotton's Little Rock office in the Victory Building, 1401 W. Capitol Ave, Little Rock, AR 72201
- FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://www.facebook.com/events/1378599262255450/
- LOCAL CONTACT: Christina Mullinax, 501-352-5328
In Anchorage, Alaska - local UltraViolet members will hold a sit-in at Senator Lisa Murkowski's office urging her to continue to oppose the Republican health care plan:
- WHEN: Thursday, July 6th. 12:00pm LOCAL TIME
- WHERE: Senator Lisa Murkowski's Office, 510 L Street, Anchorage, AK 99501
- FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://www.facebook.com/events/1544945065535813
- LOCAL CONTACT: Shoshanah Stone, 907-360-6302
In Reno, Nevada - local UltraViolet members will hold a sit-in at Senator Dean Heller's office urging him to continue to oppose the Republican health care plan:
- WHEN: Thursday, July 6th. 9:30am LOCAL TIME
- WHERE: Senator Heller's Reno Office, 400 S Virginia St # 738, Reno, NV 89501
- LOCAL CONTACT: Autumn Zemke, 206-218-9435
FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://act.weareultraviolet.org/event/women-resist-trumpcare-attend/
"This week, as Senate Republicans wheel and deal trying to buy votes, women across the country will be showing up in force to make it clear to their Senators that no band-aid will fix this cruel bill. And make no mistake, this bill is crueler than we could have ever imagined: making health care worse for everyone, especially women and especially women of color," explained Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of UltraViolet Action. "Repealing the Affordable Care Act and replacing it with a plan that covers less people and makes insurance less affordable for those with insurance, all to give massive tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans isn't a plan, it's the making of a national health care crisis. We won't stop until opposing the Republicans' extreme health care agenda - until repeal is off the table and this bill is dead."
UltraViolet is a powerful and rapidly growing community of people mobilized to fight sexism and create a more inclusive world that accurately represents all women, from politics and government to media and pop culture.
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US Dodges Growing Calls for Probe of Mass Graves at Gaza Hospitals
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Apr 24, 2024
While continuing to give Israel billions of dollars in support to wage war on the Gaza Strip, the Biden administration this week has declined to join the growing global demands for an international probe into mass graves discovered at hospitals in the besieged Palestinian enclave.
Two journalists on Tuesday questioned Vedant Patel, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, about the administration's response to the hundreds of bodies found at Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital and Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis as well as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk's call for an independent investigation.
"Would you support such an independent investigation?" Said Arikat asked during a press briefing. Patel responded, "Right now, Said, we are asking for more information... That is squarely where we are leaving the conversation."
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When Said asked a follow-up about potential U.S. support for a probe, Patel reiterated that the administration is awaiting information from the Israeli government.
Later, Niall Stanage asked Patel to explain U.S. "resistance" to supporting a probe, the spokesperson insisted that "it's not about resistance to this particular situation, it is me not wanting to speak in detail about something which Said posed as a hypothetical question when, from the United States' perspective, I don't have any additional information on this aside from the public reporting."
After Patel again stressed that the administration has asked Israel for more information, Stanage inquired, "And do you believe the government of Israel is a credible source in enlightening you?"
The spokesperson interrupted Stanage to say, "We do."
While supporting the six-month Israeli assault on Gaza that the International Court of Justice has found to be plausibly genocidal, the Biden administration is also arming Ukrainians' resistance to a Russian invasion. Brian Finucane, a senior adviser for the Crisis Group's U.S. program and a former legal adviser at the State Department, pointed to the latter.
"Somehow I don't think the U.S. State Department would defer to Russia as a credible source to investigate itself if a mass grave were discovered in Ukrainian territory it had occupied," Finucane said on social media in response to Stanage's questioning.
Meanwhile, European Union spokesperson Peter Stano made clear Tuesday that the E.U. supports an independent probe.
"This is something that forces us to call for an independent investigation of all the suspicions and all the circumstances, because indeed it creates the impression that there might have been violations of international human rights committed," Stano said. "That's why it's important to have independent investigation and to ensure accountability."
Human rights groups around the world joined the call for an independent investigation on Wednesday, as the official death toll in Gaza hit 34,262 with 77,229 people injured and thousands more missing and presumed dead beneath the rubble.
In an Arabic statement translated by Al Jazeera, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said that the number of bodies found in the mass graves is "alarming, and requires urgent international action, including the formation of an independent international investigation committee."
The group added that some of those killed were subjected to "premeditated murder as well as arbitrary and extrajudicial executions while they were detained and handcuffed."
Amnesty International senior director of research, advocacy, policy, and campaigns Erika Guevara Rosas said in a statement that "the harrowing discovery of these mass graves underscores the urgency of ensuring immediate access for human rights investigators, including forensic experts, to the occupied Gaza Strip to ensure that evidence is preserved and to carry out independent and transparent investigations with the aim of guaranteeing accountability for any violations of international law."
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Guevara Rosas continued:
Mass grave sites are potential crime scenes offering vital and time-sensitive forensic evidence; they must be protected until professional forensic experts with the necessary skills and resources can safely carry out adequate exhumations and accurate identification of remains.
The absence of forensic experts and the decimation of Gaza's medical sector as a result of the war and Israel's cruel blockade, along with the lack of availability of the necessary resources for the identification of bodies such as DNA testing, are huge obstacles to the identifications of remains. This denies those killed the opportunity to have a dignified burial and deprives families with relatives missing or forcibly disappeared the right to know and to justice—leaving them in a limbo of uncertainty and anguish.
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"Third states must pressure Israel to comply with the ICJ orders by allowing the immediate entry into the Gaza Strip of independent human rights investigators and forensic experts, including the U.N.-appointed Commission of Inquiry and investigators of the International Criminal Court," she added. "There can be no truth and justice without proper, transparent independent investigations into these deaths."
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U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday opened an investigation into an "outrageously overpriced" medication manufactured by a Denmark-based company whose value by market capitalization is larger than the Scandinavian country's gross domestic product.
Sanders (I-Vt.), who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, sent a letter to Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, CEO of Novo Nordisk. The company makes semaglutide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist used to treat Type 2 diabetes under the brand name Ozempic and, when sold as Wegovy, to treat obesity in adults with at least one weight-related comorbidity.
"The scientists at Novo Nordisk deserve great credit for developing these drugs that have the potential to be a game-changer for millions of Americans struggling with Type 2 diabetes and obesity," Sanders acknowledged. "As important as these drugs are, they will not do any good for the millions of patients who cannot afford them."
"Further, if the prices for these products are not substantially reduced they also have the potential to bankrupt Medicare, Medicaid, and our entire healthcare system," he added.
Sanders continued:
Today, Novo Nordisk is charging patients in the United States up to 15 times more for Ozempic and Wegovy than it charges patients in Canada, Europe, or Japan. For example, your company charges $969 in the United States for one month of Ozempic but just $155 in Canada and just $59 in Germany. Further, Novo Nordisk charges Americans $1,349 for one month Wegovy but just $140 in Germany and just $92 in the United Kingdom.
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Sanders also pointed out that Novo Nordisk is charging different prices for Ozempic and Wegovy, even though they're "the exact same drug."
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"As chairman of the committee, I am asking Novo Nordisk to substantially reduce the price of Ozempic and Wegovy so that these important drugs can be available to Americans with Type 2 diabetes and obesity," he wrote.
Existing law empowers the government to step in to lower drug prices in service of the public interest. Under the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980—legislation meant to promote the commercialization and public availability of government-funded inventions—federal agencies reserve the right to "march in" and authorize price-lowering generic alternatives to patented medications developed with public funding.
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This is a developing story... Please check back for possible updates...
Civil rights advocates on Wednesday expressed alarm at a rapid escalation by Texas state troopers who descended on a student-led protest at University of Texas at Austin, which was organized in solidarity with Gaza and other U.S. college students taking part in a growing anti-war movement.
UT students gathered on campus at midday and were promptly given two minutes to disperse by state troopers, who had already been called to the scene.
The troopers were equipped with riot gear, with some carrying assault rifles and several stationed on horses.
Erick Lara, a 20-year-old sophomore, told The Dallas Morning News that the nonviolent protest transformed "within minutes" after the police began arresting demonstrators.
"I didn't think it would escalate this far," he told the outlet. "And I didn't think there would be this much police intervention from what's supposed to be a peaceful protest. Not very peaceful when there's a bunch of aggressors around, especially on horses."
The organizers called the gathering "The Popular University" and said it was aimed at pressuring UT to "divest from death."
The protesters walked out of their classes to demand UT divest from weapons manufacturers in order to end its complicity in Israel's U.S.-backed assault on Gaza, which has killed at least 34,262 Palestinians.
Student-run newspaper The Daily Texanreported roughly 50 state troopers were deployed to stop the initial protest of about 150-200 people.
Ryan Chandler, a reporter for NBC affiliate KXAN-TV and UT alum, reported that there were at least 10 students detained.
"Went here for four years, never saw anything like this," said Chandler, posting a video of a group of police pushing one student to the ground and arresting them.
Joseph Pierce, a Stony Brook University professor who attended graduate school at UT, also said the escalation was an unusually "drastic response to students advocating for an end to the genocide of the Palestinian people."
"It is a response that did not occur when in 2005 we protested the anti-gay marriage bill; in the late 2000s when we protested anti-immigration bills; in the 2010s when we protested the open-carry bill," Pierce said. "It is a clear attempt at silencing Palestinian and anti-Zionist Jewish voices."
The students faced the state troopers in a standoff on the university's main street.
"This violence against peaceful student protesters at UT Austin is absolutely horrifying—and should be condemned in the strongest terms by every politician and mainstream journalist," said former New Yorker editor Erin Overbey.
UT media and Middle East studies professor Nahid Siamdoust said the university "brought out everything but the kitchen sink to make sure" students couldn't erect an anti-war encampment like students at Columbia University, New York University, and other schools across the U.S. have in recent days.
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