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| Chicago JAC II, a JAC group for young professionals, with founders Gail Eisenberg and Kristina Schanbacher. |
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Week In Review Commentary
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This week, we honored the victims of the Holocaust. According to a study from the Claims Conference, there are critical gaps both in awareness of basic facts as well as detailed knowledge of the Holocaust amongst young adults. Nearly half of millennials cannot name a single death camp.
That lack of knowledge, dwindling eye-witness accounts, and a rise in the alt-right are creating a dangerous situation. This coupled with Sinclair Media's production of right wing, coordinated propaganda news that is being disseminated to unsuspecting people is cause for further worry. (Click here to see if your local channel is Sinclair owned.)
Sinclair, the largest local broadcaster in the country, has been mandating that its local news stations air commentary segments from former Trump aide and right-winger Boris Epshteyn. It's essentially force-feeding local audiences Trump propaganda according to Media Matters, a watchdog group. Now Sinclair wants to buy even more stations, enabling them to reach 72 percent of U.S. households.
During his time at the White House, Epshteyn pushed for scaled back White House press briefings in an effort to stifle the public's information about their elected officials.
The first action taken by governments and leaders that seek to consolidate their power, oppress their people, and rule with disregard to law and order, is to squash public voices. News outlets become government-owned, thereby turning them into a propaganda vehicle.
The writers of the Constitution never could have imagined television and 24-hour cable news. Nevertheless, they still incorporated provisions to protect a free press. They understood, even then, the implications this would have on the strength of democracy.
The importance of a free, uncensored press cannot be understated. Thomas Jefferson said he would choose to have newspapers without a government, rather than a government without newspapers.
Fascism cannot thrive when there is freedom of expression; democracy cannot thrive when there is no freedom of expression. History sadly teaches us what happens when racial and religious hatred grows, fueled by propaganda and unchecked by uncensored media.
What you can do?
- Urge Congress to stop Sinclair's efforts to buy more local television stations
- Stay informed
- Support JAC candidates who will stop Trump's dangerous agenda
- Join JAC
Source: Media Matters, Claims Conference |
202.224.3121
Call your Senators and tell them
VOTE NO
on MIKE POMPEO
for Secretary of State
As a Congressman, he voted 32 times to restrict women's reproductive rights.
- Cosponsored 'personhood' legislation that would make abortion illegal nationwide in almost all cases and would ban some of the most common forms of contraception, stem cell research, and invitro fertilization
- Suports a 20-week abortion ban
- Voted to defund Planned Parenthood
- Denies climate change
- Is against LGBT rights
Mike Pompeo is the WRONG nominee for U.S. Secretary of State
Find your Senators & Representatives here.
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Prospect of U.S. Attacks in Syria Raises Security Concerns in Israel
Israel held top-level security consultations amid concern it could be targeted by Syria or Iran if the U.S. strikes Syrian government forces over an alleged poison gas assault. Israel has pledged not to allow Iran to establish a military foothold in Syria and it has carried out strikes against suspected arms convoys believed destined for Lebanon's Hezbollah group.
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The Next Israeli War
Last week, Hamas raised the level of incitement on the Gaza Strip border with Israel and began making moves to boost violent activity in the area. This time, it was a procession that involved intense terrorist activity that culminated in a number of deaths on the Palestinian side. Hamas has been bolstering its efforts slowly over the last few months.
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The Israeli Airstrike on Syria Monday: A Message to Iran, Russia-and Trump
For the first time Israel chose not to pre-warn the Russian Ministry of Defense of its strike plans--sending a strong message about the increasing intensity of its concerns about the scale of Iran's presence in Syria and Russia's apparent failure to contain or limit it. Russian troops and its aircraft frequently conduct operations from its runways, making an unannounced Israeli strike even more of a bold move, and an escalatory development.
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Holocaust Survivor on Trump's America: It's '1929 or 1930 Berlin'
"We thought our country had changed. In fact, it didn't. People thought we elected a black president! Look how far we've come!' We haven't," said the 79-year-old Buchenwald survivor.
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'It Is like We Have Regressed 100 Years': Report Warns of Resurgent Global Anti-Semitism
Jewish life around the world is under attack once again by "classic traditional antisemitism," according to a report by an Israeli university. While acts of violent anti-Semitism dropped by 9 percent between 2016 and 2017, other incidents such as abuse and harassment are on the rise and have led to a "certain corrosion of Jewish life." The study blames the surge on "the constant rise of the extreme right, a heated anti-Zionist discourse in the left, accompanied by harsh antisemitic expressions, and radical Islamism."
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To Save Abortion Rights, We Have to Think Beyond Roe
Conventional understanding of pro-choice politics tends to fixate on Roe v. Wade as the center of the fight for abortion rights. But though Roe faces genuine peril down the road if the Trump administration gets another Supreme Court appointment, state-level restrictions that aim to shut down abortion clinics are chipping away at the rights of millions of Americans this second. Legality doesn't mean much without access. If abortion and reproductive health care are important to you, this is your fight.
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Trump Offers Obamacare Exemption to Foes of Abortion Rights
The Trump administration has expanded the list of Affordable Care Act (ACA) "hardship exemptions," which waive the fine for lacking health insurance coverage, to include people who object to abortion care. The new guidelines allow a person who lives in an area where all affordable health plans in the federal exchange "provide coverage of abortion, contrary to one's beliefs" to apply for an exemption.
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Muslims Find Jews Standing Behind Them in Opposition to Pompeo's Confirmation
As members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee begin hearings on whether to confirm Mike Pompeo as secretary of state, they will consider dozens of objections from Muslim groups - and a number from prominent Jewish ones. Both accuse him of maligning Muslims.
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'Concerned' Evangelicals Plan to Meet with Trump as Sex Scandals Swirl
As allegations continue to swirl about the president and a payout to a porn star to cover up a sexual encounter, evangelical leaders are organizing a sit-down with President Trump in June. "We're very concerned" about the allegations, said a leader of a faith-based ministry. The leader is involved in hosting the gathering, which organizers are aiming to take place June 19 at Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
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With $2 Million, Kaiser Permanente Wants to Help Revive Underfunded Gun-Violence Research
"We should be thinking about this problem and studying interventions for it in the same way we study heart disease or diabetes or any other leading cause of death," said officials. Research will help Kaiser figure out high risk patients and try to steer away from potential gun violence.
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Trump Wants Wendy Vitter, Who Thinks Planned Parenthood Kills 150,000 Women a Year, to Be a Federal Judge
Wendy Vitter, Trump's nominee for a district court in eastern Louisiana, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee facing questions about her anti-abortion advocacy and about speaking at pro-life events that she failed to disclose on her Senate questionnaire. Her background has alarmed reproductive rights advocates.
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This Kind of Shooting Happens Every Day in America - and We Usually Ignore It
It's not what the public would consider a mass shooting, however it represents a much deadlier form of gun violence. Everyday shootings rarely come up in the national debate about gun control, the evidence is actually strongest for stricter gun laws preventing the more common shootings, including suicides.
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Justice Gorsuch Confirms Conservatives' Hopes, Liberals' Fears in First Year on Supreme Court
Neil Gorsuch has not retreated from his core beliefs - he has not disappeared from the public following reviews that he was impudent toward colleagues, pedantic in his rhetoric, and tone-deaf to criticism that he was cozying up to conservatives.
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Go, Paul, Go
President Trump - his morality, his ethics, his honesty, his competency, his stability and his cockeyed policies - is the biggest issue facing this country. No one knows that better than Paul Ryan, outgoing House speaker whose legacy is a roaring silence about the damage Trump is doing to American democracy. You will not be missed.
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Firing Rosenstein Won't Save Trump
Let's be blunt. Given what we know about President Trump's impulsive nature, there are good odds that sometime soon he will fire the special counsel, Robert Mueller, or perhaps the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein (who, because Attorney General Jeff Sessions is recused, is currently supervising the Mueller investigation as acting attorney general). No doubt some of his advisers will convince him that this will help avoid scrutiny of his conduct. But that's mostly wrong.
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Could Armed Jews Have Prevented the Holocaust?
It is now 73 years since the end of World War II, and since the liberation of the concentration camps. But rather than offering us more clarity, as the decades tick by, the Shoah offers us only new, or ever-new, questions and mysteries. But, there is one question that many people are now raising. It is an obscene question: if the Jews had had guns, couldn't they have prevented the Holocaust?
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Israeli TV Show Wins Best Series at Inaugural Cannes Competition
An Israeli television series won best series at the first Canneseries festival, a new competition aimed at highlighting international television shows. "When Heroes Fly" is the story of four veterans of a special commando unit from the 2006 Lebanon War who reunite for a final mission - to rescue the girlfriend of one of the commandos who was abducted by a cartel in Colombia.
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Introducing JACII, a JAC group for young professionals, advocates, and those young at heart who are looking to get involved. Groups have started in Detroit, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
Events will feature elected officials and speakers in lively settings. JACII is by and for young people. Now is the perfect time to get involved.
Know someone who would be interested in joining or hosting a meeting? Let us know at [email protected]. We will be happy to help organize a JACII in your city.
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JACII Detroit has an upcoming event focusing on women in politics. See details below.
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"It is the saddest of ironies that they (Planned Parenthood) kill over 150,000 females a year."
Wendy Vitter, Trump Nominee for Federal Bench
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The 17th Annual
Women's Power Lunch
with Rep. Jan Schakowsky
Come sit at the JAC table
Monday, April 23
Chicago, IL
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JAC II Detroit
Thursday, April 26 5:30-7:00 pm
Farmington Hills, MI
RSVP to
[email protected]
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Conversation with
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Tuesday, May 1
3:15 pm
Chicago
Contact JAC office for details
847.433.5999
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Talking Points on Gun Violence with
Mark Jones
Project Director
the National Law Enforcement Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence
Thursday, May 3rd
9:30-11:00 am
Deerfield, IL
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Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs (JACPAC) is a pro-Israel PAC with a domestic agenda. We support a strong U.S.-Israel relationship and advocate for reproductive health and the separation of religion and state and incorporate other issues of importance to the Jewish community, including gun violence prevention and climate change. In addition to providing financial support for U.S. Senate and House campaigns, JACPAC educates our membership with outreach events designed to inform and activate their participation in the political process.
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Federal law requires political committees to report the name, mailing address, occupation and employer for each individual who contributed to JACPAC. Maximum contribution per person may not exceed $5,000 per calendar year. According to law, JACPAC cannot accept corporate contributions. Membership, gifts, or other payments to JACPAC are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.
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