Op-Eds and Media Coverage
Posted 8/19/17
EDITOR'S PICK
Letter: Local residents step up to resist hate groups
President Trump cannot keep us safe from domestic Nazi terrorists because he is their leader. Is it not time to impeach him yet? Our ship of state is floundering on the rocks. The future of the biosphere hangs in the balance.
By his blind allegiance to our corrupt and dissolute president, Rep. Rob Wittman is complicit in the terroristic white supremacy movement. Wearing overt symbols of fascism while carrying weapons of mass destruction. Using a car for murder and mayhem? Where is Wittman’s outrage? Call him and tell him to start defending Virginians from racist domestic terrorism.
I was moved by the fact that over 60 people demonstrated to resist racism at the corner of Williams Street and Blue and Gray Parkway in Fredericksburg on Sunday. These demonstrators rallied in solidarity with Charlottesville and to reject hate. Among the peaceful demonstrators were local candidates for elected office: Greg Bundrick, Josh Cole and Edwin Santana. We Are For America, the Fredericksburg Democratic Committee, Sister & Misters, Resisters, and other groups rally there every Sunday from 1 p.m. to 2:30 pm.
Link to article (leave a comment):
http://www.fredericksburg.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-local-residents-step-up-to-resist-hate-groups/article_4a909962-b2b6-51d9-85fa-fc1e5e925012.html
Letter: Local residents step up to resist hate groups
President Trump cannot keep us safe from domestic Nazi terrorists because he is their leader. Is it not time to impeach him yet? Our ship of state is floundering on the rocks. The future of the biosphere hangs in the balance.
By his blind allegiance to our corrupt and dissolute president, Rep. Rob Wittman is complicit in the terroristic white supremacy movement. Wearing overt symbols of fascism while carrying weapons of mass destruction. Using a car for murder and mayhem? Where is Wittman’s outrage? Call him and tell him to start defending Virginians from racist domestic terrorism.
I was moved by the fact that over 60 people demonstrated to resist racism at the corner of Williams Street and Blue and Gray Parkway in Fredericksburg on Sunday. These demonstrators rallied in solidarity with Charlottesville and to reject hate. Among the peaceful demonstrators were local candidates for elected office: Greg Bundrick, Josh Cole and Edwin Santana. We Are For America, the Fredericksburg Democratic Committee, Sister & Misters, Resisters, and other groups rally there every Sunday from 1 p.m. to 2:30 pm.
Link to article (leave a comment):
http://www.fredericksburg.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-local-residents-step-up-to-resist-hate-groups/article_4a909962-b2b6-51d9-85fa-fc1e5e925012.html
Posted 7/29/17
Letter: Wittman complicit in destabilization of U.S.
printed in the Free Lance-Star Jul 28, 2017
Every day that Rep. Rob Wittman (R-1st) supports Trump is another day that he is complicit in the Russian destabilization of our country. The evidence is abundant and clear—the Trump campaign colluded with Russian agents to neuter the democratic election process. Team Trump conspired with a foreign nation to undermine the validity of our elections and put a puppet into the presidency.
Under this puppet regime, our State Department has been dismantled. Funding and staffing of almost every governmental agency has been attacked. This is advantageous to the Russians and disadvantageous to the United States. America's geopolitical agenda is in shambles.
The White House and the complicit Republican Party attack the common good in kicking millions of people off the current health care system, reducing access to the internet, and defunding EPA and other major departments of government.
While our security agencies investigate Russian hacking of our elections, Trump wants to form a “joint task force” on cyber security with the Russians and collect every state’s voter information. Is the fox in charge of the hen house? Assuredly, yes.
Wittman is not alone in his support of the traitorous Trump clan. He is joined by most of the Republican Party. That makes them complicit in the weakening of our government and sacking of our national safety net.
Rob Wittman deserves, at the very least, to be defeated in 2018. I would prefer that he be removed from office more quickly.
Click HERE for link to letter at Free Lance-Star online.
printed in the Free Lance-Star Jul 28, 2017
Every day that Rep. Rob Wittman (R-1st) supports Trump is another day that he is complicit in the Russian destabilization of our country. The evidence is abundant and clear—the Trump campaign colluded with Russian agents to neuter the democratic election process. Team Trump conspired with a foreign nation to undermine the validity of our elections and put a puppet into the presidency.
Under this puppet regime, our State Department has been dismantled. Funding and staffing of almost every governmental agency has been attacked. This is advantageous to the Russians and disadvantageous to the United States. America's geopolitical agenda is in shambles.
The White House and the complicit Republican Party attack the common good in kicking millions of people off the current health care system, reducing access to the internet, and defunding EPA and other major departments of government.
While our security agencies investigate Russian hacking of our elections, Trump wants to form a “joint task force” on cyber security with the Russians and collect every state’s voter information. Is the fox in charge of the hen house? Assuredly, yes.
Wittman is not alone in his support of the traitorous Trump clan. He is joined by most of the Republican Party. That makes them complicit in the weakening of our government and sacking of our national safety net.
Rob Wittman deserves, at the very least, to be defeated in 2018. I would prefer that he be removed from office more quickly.
Click HERE for link to letter at Free Lance-Star online.
Posted 11/5/16
Posted 8/29/16
Posted 8/28/16
I recently attended a Democratic Party event in Fredericksburg to support Matt Rowe, who was one of the speakers. While I was there I participated in the Q & A session with Bellamy Young and Judith McHale and was quoted in the local paper for my comments on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP):
"Fredericksburg resident Shelley Pineo-Jensen attended the Women for Hillary event in Fredericksburg despite supporting Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary. She said she now supports Clinton because of the candidate’s opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
But she added: “She needs to be stronger on these progressive issues.”
"Fredericksburg resident Shelley Pineo-Jensen attended the Women for Hillary event in Fredericksburg despite supporting Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary. She said she now supports Clinton because of the candidate’s opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
But she added: “She needs to be stronger on these progressive issues.”
Please click the link, recommend and share!
Column: Record shows Sanders right on wars, veterans / Campaign 2016 "War must be a last resort"
Column: Record shows Sanders right on wars, veterans / Campaign 2016 "War must be a last resort"
The original letter that engaged my interest is reproduced below:
GUEST VIEWPOINT
Help Merkley, DeFazio stop TPP in its tracks
By Shelley Pineo-Jensen
For The Register-Guard
JUNE 11, 2015
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Perhaps elected representatives who favor the Trans-Pacific Partnership have good intentions, but I doubt it — it’s more likely that the bobsled to hell is paved with influence peddling. The TPP will cede national, state and local control of environmental and labor regulations to transnational corporations.
An International Business Times poll found that 62 percent of Americans opposed Trade Promotion Authority, or fast track — the legislative process that would grease the skids for congressional approval of the TPP — with 43 percent “strongly” opposing it. Eighty-five percent of moderate and conservative Republicans opposed fast track. One of the top concerns was that it’s unfair to expect U.S. workers to compete with a flood of imports made under conditions less costly to employers.
In response to widespread criticism of the secrecy surrounding the TPP, the trade deal will now be available to the public for two months before the president signs it. This claim that the TPP process is now transparent ironically sends the message that no matter what the American public thinks about the TPP, the president is going to sign it.
Key players who will benefit from the TPP include tobacco companies such as Philip Morris, fossil fuel companies such as Exxon, financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, military-industrial profiteers such as Halliburton, makers of genetically modified organisms such as Monsanto, lobbyists such as the Business Roundtable, polluters such as PPG industries, agribusinesses such as Cargill, and companies that exploit workers such as Wal-Mart and Nike. These power players are spending a fortune to corrupt our public officials, and they are succeeding.
Oregon has two members of Congress who represent the people and not corporate masters. If you are still uncertain about the TPP, read Rep. Peter DeFazio’s column in the April 10 Register-Guard, or watch the YouTube video of Sen. Jeff Merkley’s floor speech, in which he said, “The trade agreement would undermine U.S. sovereignty by allowing foreign countries to challenge American laws.” DeFazio and Merkley are joined by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in strongly opposing the TPP in its current form, as well as the fast track process. They are not lying, and they are not mistaken.
But Oregon’s members of Congress who support the TPP are not confused or uninformed. They are tools. They serve the interests of corporations instead of fighting for human beings and life on the planet.
Rep. Greg Walden supports the Keystone XL Pipeline and privatization of Social Security. He strongly opposes taxes on the wealthy, protections for clean air and water, and funding for green energy. It is no surprise he supports the TPP.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer was thought to be a strong environmentalist, but he mysteriously dropped his advocacy for the environment to follow Sen. Ron Wyden’s lead and support the TPP and fast track.
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici has increased her net worth by more than $2 million since her election to Congress in 2012, an annual increase of 52 percent. Her district is home to Nike, a key advocate of the TPP, which claims a global workforce of more than 800,000, of whom 6,625 are Oregonians — less than 1 percent. Nike extracted massive tax concessions from Oregon before it would agree to keep some of its operations in the state. Rep. Kurt Schrader supports the Keystone XL Pipeline, and reasoned that since the current version of the TPP is better than the older one, he will support it. He has fallen in step with Wyden.
And then there’s Wyden, whose estimated wealth in 2010 was $6.8 million, a 365 percent increase since 2004. He has received large campaign donations from Akin Gump, the lobbyist who successfully represented Monsanto in its U.S. Supreme Court seed patent case. Environmentalists, labor activists and community rights advocates have been petitioning Wyden for years to stop supporting the TPP. He isn’t listening; his true constituency lies elsewhere.
These legislators disingenuously point to improvements in the TPP to justify their support, instead of acknowledging the real dangers of the trade pact. First and foremost is the lack of transparency; the only reason we even know what is in it is because brave individuals have shared the documents with WikiLeaks. The leaked passages reveal a massive handover of national rights to corporations.
What can you do? Call, write, text or visit your representatives in Congress. We have the power to halt the voracious consumption of resources in the service of profit; there are more of us than there are of them. We can save our beautiful planet — or, more precisely, the biosphere that supports all life. At least it’s worth a try.
Shelley Pineo-Jensen, a retired public school teacher and union leader, blogs at drpj.weebly.com/tpp.
Help Merkley, DeFazio stop TPP in its tracks
By Shelley Pineo-Jensen
For The Register-Guard
JUNE 11, 2015
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Perhaps elected representatives who favor the Trans-Pacific Partnership have good intentions, but I doubt it — it’s more likely that the bobsled to hell is paved with influence peddling. The TPP will cede national, state and local control of environmental and labor regulations to transnational corporations.
An International Business Times poll found that 62 percent of Americans opposed Trade Promotion Authority, or fast track — the legislative process that would grease the skids for congressional approval of the TPP — with 43 percent “strongly” opposing it. Eighty-five percent of moderate and conservative Republicans opposed fast track. One of the top concerns was that it’s unfair to expect U.S. workers to compete with a flood of imports made under conditions less costly to employers.
In response to widespread criticism of the secrecy surrounding the TPP, the trade deal will now be available to the public for two months before the president signs it. This claim that the TPP process is now transparent ironically sends the message that no matter what the American public thinks about the TPP, the president is going to sign it.
Key players who will benefit from the TPP include tobacco companies such as Philip Morris, fossil fuel companies such as Exxon, financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, military-industrial profiteers such as Halliburton, makers of genetically modified organisms such as Monsanto, lobbyists such as the Business Roundtable, polluters such as PPG industries, agribusinesses such as Cargill, and companies that exploit workers such as Wal-Mart and Nike. These power players are spending a fortune to corrupt our public officials, and they are succeeding.
Oregon has two members of Congress who represent the people and not corporate masters. If you are still uncertain about the TPP, read Rep. Peter DeFazio’s column in the April 10 Register-Guard, or watch the YouTube video of Sen. Jeff Merkley’s floor speech, in which he said, “The trade agreement would undermine U.S. sovereignty by allowing foreign countries to challenge American laws.” DeFazio and Merkley are joined by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in strongly opposing the TPP in its current form, as well as the fast track process. They are not lying, and they are not mistaken.
But Oregon’s members of Congress who support the TPP are not confused or uninformed. They are tools. They serve the interests of corporations instead of fighting for human beings and life on the planet.
Rep. Greg Walden supports the Keystone XL Pipeline and privatization of Social Security. He strongly opposes taxes on the wealthy, protections for clean air and water, and funding for green energy. It is no surprise he supports the TPP.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer was thought to be a strong environmentalist, but he mysteriously dropped his advocacy for the environment to follow Sen. Ron Wyden’s lead and support the TPP and fast track.
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici has increased her net worth by more than $2 million since her election to Congress in 2012, an annual increase of 52 percent. Her district is home to Nike, a key advocate of the TPP, which claims a global workforce of more than 800,000, of whom 6,625 are Oregonians — less than 1 percent. Nike extracted massive tax concessions from Oregon before it would agree to keep some of its operations in the state. Rep. Kurt Schrader supports the Keystone XL Pipeline, and reasoned that since the current version of the TPP is better than the older one, he will support it. He has fallen in step with Wyden.
And then there’s Wyden, whose estimated wealth in 2010 was $6.8 million, a 365 percent increase since 2004. He has received large campaign donations from Akin Gump, the lobbyist who successfully represented Monsanto in its U.S. Supreme Court seed patent case. Environmentalists, labor activists and community rights advocates have been petitioning Wyden for years to stop supporting the TPP. He isn’t listening; his true constituency lies elsewhere.
These legislators disingenuously point to improvements in the TPP to justify their support, instead of acknowledging the real dangers of the trade pact. First and foremost is the lack of transparency; the only reason we even know what is in it is because brave individuals have shared the documents with WikiLeaks. The leaked passages reveal a massive handover of national rights to corporations.
What can you do? Call, write, text or visit your representatives in Congress. We have the power to halt the voracious consumption of resources in the service of profit; there are more of us than there are of them. We can save our beautiful planet — or, more precisely, the biosphere that supports all life. At least it’s worth a try.
Shelley Pineo-Jensen, a retired public school teacher and union leader, blogs at drpj.weebly.com/tpp.
Click HERE for link to op-ed at Register Guard website.
Click HERE for a link to the "Recall an Elected Official" page on the website of the Oregon Secretary of State.
Click HERE for a link to the "Recall an Elected Official" page on the website of the Oregon Secretary of State.
1/27/14
KLCC in Eugene Oregon reported:
Trade Agreement Protesters Deliver Message to WydenClick HERE for a link to the text and audio recording
Trade Agreement Protesters Deliver Message to WydenClick HERE for a link to the text and audio recording
