Next Meeting of NYC Truth Action Project - 7 PM - 11/11/16 at 6th Street Community Center

We had a great meeting of the NYC Truth Action Project, last week. Below are the minutes.

Some inspirational quotes from us here.

Please come to our next meeting: 11/11/16, 7-9 PM, at 6th Street Community Center.

 Minutes of the Monthly Meeting of Truth Action Project, NYC Area Meeting

Coordinated by Sander Hicks

Present: 21 Activists - a  24% Growth in Attendance from Last Meeting.

Intro:

We had a very positive meeting. We have officially formed four separate Action Teams, to do focused work, that is results oriented. I am so grateful to everyone who came to this meeting. Many other activists are on the email list, and were not able to come, but will try to make the next meeting, (Nov. 11, Friday, Location probably the same, to be announced.)

We started and finished the meeting with a brief meditation, in the name of peace and light.

Notes from Round Robin Shares:

“Inverted Totalitarianism” by Sheldon Wolin was a book and concept mentioned by Joel Simpson. This is what we are dealing with.  Read up on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism

“We scare because we care” was the Disney movie slogan for Monsters, Inc. Came out right after 9/11. Fern noted this.

Sander suggested everyone watch the YouTube that Richard Squires made - “Kangaroo Court.”

Tony Esper is an IT consultant - wants to give our website some love.

Ross Muir: Suggested “Strap-hangers for 9/11 Truth” doing outreach (and maybe fund-raising) on the subways. (My contribution to this idea is to suggest a printed brochure - small, hand-held. My company just printed 25,000 units of a full color, 10 page, 4x6”, accordion fold-out, for less than $1,300. Once we have some money together, we could print something like this, and have something to give to people, to explain “We Why Care” and invite people to join, and contribute….)

Ground Zero Outreach: Charlie and Scott are doing outreach at Ground Zero, from 3-5 PM down near the Port Authority Station. John M. visited them. We should continue to support them, and invite them to come to our next meeting. John, do you have their contact info?

Formation of Arts Action Team:

Arts Action Team:

Tony Esper

Richard Squires

Ross Muir

John Migletti

Joel Simpson

Sander Hicks

Who else wants to join? I will create a separate Google Group for this Action Team….

Legal Work Action Team

The legal team reported they are still assembling a “packet of evidence.” We brainstormed about how to best contribute to the creation of a formal fund-raising mechanism for Truth Action Project. Jerry mentioned the $50K raised by the professional fund-raiser for Gloria Mattera’s old political campaign, for Brooklyn Borough President. Also JK mentioned the name “Ivana Edwards.”

In other states, a legal petition to the DA has to result in a Grand Jury, but not in NY.

Is the DA elected? Yes they are.

When is the term up? It coincides with the Mayor’s term in NYC.

More on Cyrus Vance, Jr, current DA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_Vance_Jr.

My talking points are: he worked for Gary Hart, as a young person, and he’s opposed to the death penalty. RFK Jr. endorsed him.

I believe that Bill Jacoby told me that someone DID contact Cy Vance at one point, about WTC 7 is that right?

His next race for re-election will culminate at the polls Nov. 7, 2017.

A primary challenge would be a great way to get this issue into the public sphere. We need an attorney to be a candidate.

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Not sure who said this but I have in my notes “we need to build a coalition. How to do it? Make this an Action Item.”

David said: Clarify the legal limits of a 501 ©(3)’s political activism. What can we do and not do? “We need a new way of thinking.”

David talked about a “heaven on earth” quotation from Buckminster Fuller - I couldn’t find those, but I did find these two:

Tony suggested we treat TAP as a start-up. What is our mission statement? Objectives? Strategic Plan? (Bill J. later said TAP has one but it needs to be shared.)

How will this non-profit be run? Who is in charge of branding and identity? Logo?

Create sub-groups and define goals for each of them (this is great and each Action Team should do this.) Use a white board  - FOCUS on structure. Who is our target audience to reach with our message?

Rebecca S. said that we have a “culture in denial” - this is acceptable.

Mitchell Cohen - “why not use the U.N.?” there are seats there for NGOs (non governmental organizations) - let’s form a new Action Team on this (done, see below)- Mitchell suggested we use the projector that Occupy used. Put out a “why we care” brochure.

Eric Rassi - “Each action team can be autonomous” - no one needs to agree with every single other thing the other action teams are doing….(i.e. Not everyone one has to believe in the electoral politics stuff).  We must go after what is “most feared” by the upper class - “losing control of their political monopoly.” We need to strategize. Electoral politics and entering campaigns would be a “educational bonanza.”

Lucy: at the UN there are “Special Rapoteurs” - maybe we could get one for 9/11.

Special Rapporteurs often conduct fact-finding missions to countries to investigate allegations of human rights violations. They can only visit countries that have agreed to invite them.

Aside from fact-finding missions, Rapporteurs regularly assess and verify complaints from alleged victims of human rights violations. Once a complaint is verified as legitimate, an urgent letter or appeal is sent to the government that has allegedly committed the violation. If no complaint has been made, Rapporteurs may intervene on behalf of individuals and groups of people of their own accord.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Special_Rapporteur

Bill Jacoby: “let’s go from 20 to 200” people

Sati: what about The Hague?

Henry: Let’s do a literature table at the Left Forum, and on campuses

Ross - get a psychologist to join the group

SIGN UPS for the ELECTORAL POLITICAL ACTION TEAM:

Sati

Sander

Carl Person

Eric Rassi

(Matt Mills?)

UN OUTREACH ACTION TEAM:

Lucy

Sander

WEBSITE ACTION TEAM:

Joel

Tony

Sati

Action Team Groups should meet in a week or two, and create their own goals and actions. Report back to the main group at next meeting.

Sander will help create Google Group email lists for each action team, coming later tonight.

Next Meeting: 11/11/16

7-9 PM at 6th Street Community Center

9/11 VOTING BLOC?

What are you doing tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 14, 7-9 PM?

We are doing a meeting of the Truth Action Project, the new group birthed by AE911 Truth - and we have a pretty good head of steam, after our big conference at Cooper Union at the Annivesary. 

 

The new legal avenues open to us are pretty significant, in light of the 28 Pages release, and JASTA. Here's my full report on the two day conference and the testimony and hearings we heard:
https://www.911tap.org/557-news-releases/655-9-11-movement-presents-evidence-for-a-legal-case

Our meeting tomorrow is at 6th Street Community Center. 7-9 PM. 638 E. 6th St NYC.

We are talking about launching a new project, and I specifically want to discuss it with the group - the possibility of creating a "voting block" that could have the option to branch out and create a new third party/coalition.

It might be the "9/11 Party" or the "Truth Party" or something like that. I will be doing an interview on YouTube with candidate and attorney Carl E. Person on this topic, very soon! Stay Tuned!

Guest Blogger: Rep. Cynthia McKinney

INTRO by Sander Hicks:


The anti-Free Speech spirit of this editorial in Bloomberg is alarming: Writer Jonathan Bernstein attacks Howard Dean for suggesting that Trump was coked up at the debate. I actually had the same suspicion, and so did author Daniel Hopsicker, who posted in on Twitter that night. How else to explain Trump's sputtering and megalomania? It was extreme, even for Donald. 

But to call on Hillary Clinton to denounce Dean for making this observation is just unnecessary. The spirit of the First Amendment is to allow a diversity of opinions, and the "truth will win out" as Milton said in Areopagitica.

Bernstein suffers from an acute sense of Conspiracy-Phobia. He's in denial that great people like Rep. Cynthia McKinney and Rep. Alan Grayson have something important to say. So, he gloats in their political defeats and holds up their silencing as the new standard for Democratic Party behavior.  But let me remind you that Alan Grayson alone, as a member of Congress, had the courage to levy hard questions at Fed Reserve officials after the meltdown of 2008. (They make for educational, and very entertaining viewing on YouTube here and here.)

Then there's the defamatory swipe that Bernstein makes at former Representative Cynthia McKinney. McKinney, in a similar way, had the courage, to confront the negligent Donald Rumsfeld, about missing trillions at the Pentagon budget, defense contractor DynCorps involvement in child prostitution, and the mysterious "war games" on 9/11 which distracted normal air defenses.

As you can see from these videos, these instances were not about "peddling conspiracy theories" but were sourced, professional, and severe for Rumsfeld and Richard Myers.

Here is Cynthia McKinney in her own words, responding to Bernstein, today. 

Bloomberg refused to publish this, so I would like to do my part, in a small way, by welcoming McKinney today as a guest blogger:

Truth Foretold, Specious Journalism, And Spurious Assertions:

The Case of Jonathan Bernstein, Bloomberg View, and The Charlotte Observer

While it is true that I was “booted” by pro-war Democrats who worked in concert with like-minded Republicans, your assertion of my being booted for “peddling conspiracies” deserves a deeper look.  My booting, by the way, resulted in the GOP takeover of my home State of Georgia, an outcome that seemingly makes both pro-war Democrats and Republicans (now called “globalists”) comfortable.  Therefore, I want to take a deeper look at what I did “peddle:”

1.  That Presidential candidate George W. Bush worked with his Florida Governor brother, Jeb, to orchestrate election theft in the 2000 Presidential election. Now that the public has caught up with the facts that I put on the table in 2000 and 2001 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdPhXuTzQeI), this position is supported by evidence that is available to all;

2.  That President George W. Bush received warnings about an impending attack on the US (http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/11/cia-directors-documentary-911-bush-213353) and actively blocked an investigation (http://edition.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/01/29/inv.terror.probe/) into the September 11, 2001 attacks.  Now that the public has caught up with the facts that I put on the table in 2001, this position is supported by evidence that is available to all;

3.  That the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund (https://www.vcf.gov/faq.html) was really set up to thwart 9/11 wrongful death lawsuits because it prevented victims’ survivors from getting justice in US Courts; I felt that victims and victims’ survivors should be able to sue the culprits as well as receive support from the Fund.  The President recently vetoed legislation that would allow lawsuits to move forward against Saudi Arabia and Congress just overrode his veto.  Fourteen years later, I am pleased that, once again, my position has been supported by evidence that has been clearly available to all for at least a decade;

4.  That the US was not justified in attacking Iraq in 2003.  The most thorough investigation into the 2003 decision to go to war against Iraq is the Chilcot Report (http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/the-report/) which found that war was not the last option and that U.S. allegations of Saddam Hussein possessing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq were not justified.  Now that the public has caught up with the facts that I put on the table in 2002, this position is supported by evidence that is available to all;

5.  That the then-Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, failed to perform his job during Hurricane Katrina and that thousands needlessly died because he failed the Gulf States and the country.  After joining with Republicans and writing a Congressional Report on the subject that is available to the public (www.nola.com/katrina/pdf/mainreport.pdf), my position is supported by evidence that is available to all;

6.  That a specific allegation had been made to my Congressional Office that thousands of bodies had been dumped in Louisiana swamps after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Now, we know that 9/11 human remains were dumped in a landfill (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/us/panel-recommends-more-oversight-and-training-at-dover-mortuary.html?_r=0) with such action having been deemed “dereliction of duty,” so who has conducted an independent investigation into what happened in Louisiana, in particular, with respect to body disposal?

7.  That racism exists in Capitol Hill Police Department similar to what exists in other police departments around the U.S. and that I was a victim of that discrimination after I supported a lawsuit filed by Black police officers after one of their superior officers used the word “nigger.”  Black police officers have been waiting fifteen years for justice and recently held a demonstration in support of their claim (http://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/former-capitol-police-call-attention-discrimination-lawsuits).  One need only hear the moving testimony of the U.S. Senate’s lone Black GOP Member and his interactions with the Capitol Hill Police (http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/floor-speeches/tim-scott-black-republican-emotional-powerful-dramatic-race-speech-targeted-capitol-police) to understand that my experience was surely possible.  Now, again—after the fact— that the public has caught up with the evidence that I put on the table in 2006, my position is supported by evidence that is available to all, sadly now most of all, the family of Keith Lamont Scott and all of those young people who were just recently in Charlotte’s streets.

If only the press had decided to investigate my assertions rather than castigate me for making them!  Maybe things would be far different than they are today in Iraq, Libya, Louisiana, and elsewhere.  But, instead of investigation of the inconvenient or unpleasant facts that I repeatedly put on the table, the response was a frenzy of specious journalism and spurious assertions where true journalism was needed.  Your column, with mention of my name, is an example of that.  Such “reporting” is precisely why Trump’s attacks on the media resonate so well with the American and global public.  The polling data on the public perception of the U.S. media is a damning indictment of the role the media has played in this country for too many years.  That is why the U.S. public more and more now seeks its information from foreign media outlets, the internet, “alternative” media, and less and less from “newspapers” like yours.

Cynthia McKinney, Ph.D.

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Silence is the deadliest weapon of mass destruction.  OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING!

"My weapon is media, lectures, protest, organization."  Kenneth S. Carr (Dedon Kamathi)

“It’s organized crime. All you do is you call the Republicans the Genoveses and you call the Democrats the Gambinos. The people at the top, they treat it like a crap game. It’s their crap game, like they’re making lots of money. Occasionally, somebody at the table shoots each other, but the moment anything threatens their crap game, they all unite to protect it. ... They’re both controlled by the same financial, economic and corporate interests.” -Michael C. Ruppert (excerpted from the film America Freedom to Fascism)

"We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values."  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The biggest weapon in the hands of the oppressors is the minds of the oppressed." Steve Biko

"Make your spirit flexible, and nothing will ever bend you out of shape."  Wisdom by Taro Gold