The U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) is a federal government institute created by a bill signed into law in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan and funded annually by Congress as well as sometimes receiving funding from the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the military.[1] The law states that the "Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and the Director of Central Intelligence each may assign officers and employees of his respective department or agency, on a rotating basis to be determined by the Board, to the Institute." The Institute has never opposed a U.S. war and claims that it can only support things, not oppose them. But in fact, the law only forbids it from seeking "to influence the passage or defeat of legislation ... except that the personnel of the Institute may testify or make other appropriate communication when formally requested to do so by a legislative body, a committee, or a member thereof." Most U.S. wars, including the war on Libya, the newly revived war on Iraq (and Syria), and the drone wars on Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen, have been launched without legislation. And, even if there were legislation involved, it would not be at all difficult for USIP to ask a single member of Congress to request its opinion, thereby freeing it to provide its views and its research. USIP makes no claim that it cannot provide the public with information on the negative results of U.S. wars; it simply fails to do so. The Institute in fact makes recommendations to Congress, including in formally presented testimony, it just recommends things like supporting the Syrian opposition, training and arming troops to fight both ISIS and the Syrian government, and creating a "no fly zone" in Syria, rather than working toward an arms embargo or aid or diplomacy.[2] The Institute has recommended diplomacy with Iran, and could do so in a dozen other cases, although its notion that weapons sales is part of diplomacy may be less than helpful.[3] The law requires that the USIP Board include 15 voting members, including the Secretaries of State and "Defense," the President of the National "Defense" University, and 12 members appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, and each having "practical or academic experience in peace and conflict resolution." The law also states that "No member of the Board may participate in any decision, action, or recommendation with respect to any matter which directly and financially benefits the member or pertains specifically to any public body or any private or nonprofit firm or organization with which the member is then formally associated or has been formally associated within a period of two years." There are a number of mechanisms for removing a board member, including 8 or more board members making that recommendation to the President. The USIP does do some work aimed at peace, including hosting speakers and producing publications aimed at peace, sending skilled mediators into conflict zones, making research grants, holding essay contests, and conducting conflict-resolution trainings, but such efforts are deeply compromised by the following concerns: USIP board member and chairman, Stephen Hadley, urges the bombing of Syria and the militarization of Ukraine, while encouraging European nations to double their military spending, and himself profiting from war as a board member of Raytheon.[4] USIP board member Eric Edelman, a former undersecretary at the Pentagon, promotes higher military spending, an attack on Iran, and deployment of nuclear weapons to nations on Russia's border.[5] USIP board member Major General Frederick M. Padilla, USMC, is career military. USIP promotes the overthrow of the Syrian government.[6] USIP is not known to have ever opposed a U.S. war, U.S. weapons exports, U.S. foreign bases, or U.S. military spending.[7] USIP promotes trade embargoes, economic austerity programs, and electoral interventions as tools of aggression, not peace building.[8] USIP funds many more supporters than opponents of militarism.[9] USIP hosts pro-war talks by leading war advocates.[10] Appropriate board members for USIP exist in large numbers, and many of them would no doubt be happy to serve. Here are a few examples of the many possible names: Kathy Kelly, Michael McPhearson, Ann Wright, Paul Chappell, Noura Erekat, Dennis Kucinich, David Vine, Matt Daloisio, John Dear, Bruce Gagnon, Phil Donahue, Mel Duncan, David Hartsough, Mubarak Awad, Leslie Cagan, Roy Bourgeois, Cornell West, Lennox Yearwood, Osagyefo Sekou, Phyllis Bennis, Andy Shallal, Helena Cobban, Noam Chomsky, Elliott Adams.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a trade agreement dictated by the corporate and wealthy interests who will reap its rewards. If adopted, the majority of Americans will be the losers. They’re using negotiations that they have branded as “trade talks” to impose many non-trade policies that could lower our standard of living, export our jobs and undermine our rights. TPP is being negotiated in secret. Corporations are at the table. The American people are not. Congress won't even know what it is voting on until all the negotiations are over. Congress' decision to give the president Fast Track authority means TPP can't be modified or amended to protect the American people. If you like NAFTA, you'll love TPP! Requirements like “renewable/recycled” or “sweat free” and obligations for firms to meet basic health, safety, minimum and prevaling wage, child labor, human rights and other standards could be challenged, even on work for the government paid for with our tax dollars. Corporations will be able to sue our government for unlimited compensation if they believe labor, environment, food safety or other standards affected their "expected future profits". More American workers will lose their jobs and incomes as companies export our jobs to wherever they can pay the lowest wages with the fewest restrictions, including places with child labor and modern forms of slavery. Shouldn't the American people get to vote whether we are subjected to this corporate power grab dressed up as a trade agreement? Shouldn't we have at least as much democracy as the Greek people in deciding our fate?

The TPP is a disaster that towers over considerations of gentility and lesser-evilism. This is Congress, as our supposed representatives, giving the power to overturn its own laws to corporations. This is NAFTA on steroids, economically and environmentally destructive at home and abroad. Most of it has nothing to do with trade, but is rather about empowering banks and corporations with powers that couldn't be passed separately or transparently because they're too terrible and unpopular. It's time we take a stand against wrecking the world, even with corrupt politicians who can find someone slightly more corrupt to run against. Here are the senators who voted for Fast Track: http://1.usa.gov/1GtAdTH And the House members who voted for Fast Track: http://1.usa.gov/1GAl1TT Let them know the consequences if they vote for the TPP.

The CIAs "Third World War" (1947-now) is the third bloodiest war in the history of the world. This is our (trillions and counting) Tax Dollars At Work. Imagine what positive effects that money could have accomplished, with no bloodshed or destruction. Major inroads on poverty,poor health,clean water,illiteracy....? Cheap word wide Solar Energy? Nuclear and other toxic waste solutions?

For the last 3 decades, many Americans whether they are regular patients, injured workers or veterans are being denied access to real medical care and other benefits. This effects the poorer folks, the elderly, minorities, the disabled & the sick. Under the Affordable Care Act, this was to stop. It has not. The conditions to deny are worse.Why? Because the insurance industry has impunity against its many humane rights abuses which include denial and refusal of the proper medical care, paying for the wrong care & "care" that will make a patient medical condition worse which will create more injuries or illnesses. such as injecting patients with unknown drugs that not only make the condition worse but actually harms the patient immeasurable for life, preventing them from ever working again. Patients that try to fight back in getting the right care or speaking against the denial or refusal of medical care are retaliated against. One way is to have them under constant and illegal surveillance, in many cases, years of surveillance even by local or top law enforcement such as the FBI. Surveillance that involves stalking the patient while out in public and public or private business and while in vehicles with GPS monitoring and causing car accidents, phone tapping, computer hacking, breaking & entering a patient's home or other owned properties. The police break into patients homes under guise that there are illegal drugs in the home. Private investigators are hired to go into churches to spy on ill or injured patients. There is also the theft of U.S.mail evidence that could prove to win against the insurers. Patients are now claiming that they are afraid of their medications and their food being tampered with. Patients or family members who try and speak out for themselves or their families have been stopped by police, looking for "drugs" and or arrested with no charge. Then there are the insurance doctors reports that are falsely altering medical reports and these same doctors will then deem these patients as mental cases. Now it is happening to our veterans, those who are coming came back from the wars in the Mideast. After listening to patients and injured workers for many years, it has become quite clear that being injured or ill makes one a target of inhumane treatment which includes not getting their right medical care treatment or any other benefit. The SSA & Medicare (tax payer money) should not be the only insurance companies to pick up the tab for insurers who continue to ultimately deny any rightful and owed benefits. This has to stop! AND the only way is for our leadership in our Washington D.C. leadership should hold the insurance cartel/monopoly fully accountable with enforcement of the laws that guarantee us our civil, constitutional & human rights. No insurer should have impunity or immunity that results in the delays and denials for the right to receive medical treatment and benefits or in the targeting with inhumane AND illegal practices on those of whom are the most vulnerable, the sick and injured.

Help keep Oregon beautiful, natural, independent, and HEALTHY! If you live in, or care about, the state of Oregon then there is something happening that you should know about. Cascade Locks is trying to sell Nestle rights to Oregon's water and permission to build a bottling plant in our state without so much as a by-your-leave from the Oregonians who currently own this water and who will be affected by this plant. If you do not already know why this would be a problem I invite you to take a moment to look at Nestle's recent actions around the world: http://www.corp-research.org/nestle and how Californians feel about the deals they made with Nestle now that they have the benefit of hindsight http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/20/nestle-water-bottling-california-drought This is an invasive and abusive company that will promise anything to get in and then, once they are established, they proceed to ignore any and all restrictions or complaints about their abuses unless they are constantly and very aggressively enforced. You can see the destructive pattern repeated over and over in Colorado, California, China, and South America. The jobs they promise the community either mysteriously never seem to manifest or they are minimum wage and temp jobs while all high pay positions are filled with imported personnel. Meanwhile the plant continues to sprawl across the previously gorgeous countryside and suck up increasingly precious clean water. Once Nestle owns water rights they are NEVER so stupid as to sell them back again (that alone should indicate that you have something more valuable than what they are offering for it) and it becomes almost impossible to effectively enforce water usage restrictions, as California is discovering. Oregon has some of the most beautiful and unspoiled wetlands in the world, and fresh, clean WATER IS THE MOST VALUABLE RESOURCE IN THE WORLD. Nestle knows that. They see the droughts rampaging across the entire globe and they know how pricelessly precious these springs and aquifers are, so they will offer any price to acquire them and then never let them go. I don't want these unscrupulous profit-hounds anywhere near us, but since Nestle has gone behind the public's back (after the Cascade Locks community rejected their proposals multiple times) nobody plans on giving any of us a real say! This will not simply affect the Cascade Locks area. This is upstream of a lot of other Oregonians who are being given NO say whatsoever in this decision even though they also depend upon this water source. I plan on yelling directly at the Oregon Water Resources board, Governor Kate Brown, and the Cascade Locks City Council to let them know I will NOT quietly sit by while they sell off our most precious natural resource, all on the promises of a known liar! I invite you to join me.

Palestine is under brutal occupation, with thousands of their citizens being killed every year. The U.S. protects the security of those who oppress them; it needs to protect Palestinian security, also.

2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the United States atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It also marks 45 years since the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entered into force, obligating all States parties to undertake good faith negotiations for the elimination of nuclear weapons. Instead, the world’s nuclear-armed nations are spending over $100 billion per year to maintain and modernize their nuclear arsenals. The danger of wars among nuclear-armed States is growing, and with it the threat of unimaginable death and suffering. From April 27 – May 22, 2015 representatives of the 189 members of the NPT, including the original nuclear-armed States (the U.S., Russia, the U.K, France, and China) will come together at the United Nations in New York City to review the Treaty’s operation. The recent Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons set up the potential for a direct challenge to the nuclear- armed States: States not possessing nuclear weapons will be demanding a new diplomatic process to achieve nuclear disarmament. It is long past time for the world’s governments to implement the global obligation to achieve a nuclear-weapon-free world. We are at a crucial juncture, a time when the unresolved tensions of a deeply inequitable society, great power ambitions, and the destructive effects of an unsustainable economic system are exploding into overlapping crises. This petition campaign is part of the Peace & Planet Mobilization for a Nuclear-Free, Peaceful, Just and Sustainable World. In a demonstration of their determination to build a fair, democratic, ecologically sustainable, and peaceful future, people will gather in New York City and around the world for international days of action April 24 – 26, 2015.

It has been estimated that over a trillion dollars in profits earned by the largest and richest Fortune 500 corporations are being deposited in offshore banks in the Cayman Islands and elsewhere in order to avoid paying U.S, income tax. This deprives the U.S. Treasury of billions of dollars in tax revenue; money that could go toward infrastructure, healthcare, and education.

For too long (over a century) the Federal Reserve Board has been shielded legally from disclosing its financial dealings to "We the People", yet it has sweeping power to tax US citizens and to spend such income in any fashion that it desires, including bailout of "too-big-to-fail" banks, financing its favorite major corporations and "rescuing" other national currencies. Additionally, the Federal Reserve has printed trillions of dollars to intentionally inflate our currency, making our hard-earned money worth less, while it destroys savings and retirement funds. This deliberate attack on middle income Americans continues because Congress also benefits from the availability to "loose money", enabling them to fund pork-barrel projects and thus ensuring their re-election. Although the name "Federal Reserve" appears to give it the appearance of being a real Federal Agency, it is truly NOT a Federal agency, but is a BANKING CARTEL, given a misleading name so as to deceive the American people. Currently, Janet Yellen, the head of the Federal Reserve Board, is leading a campaign aimed at Congress to block any legislation which would require the Federal Reserve to become transparent in its operations. Criminals prefer to operate in secrecy. Truly the Federal Reserve is the largest Ponzi scheme ever devised ... defrauding US citizens of not millions or even billions of dollars, but multiple TRILLIONS of dollars! If Congress will pass a bill that requires a full, publicly available audit of Federal Reserve operations and financial dealings, then the result will be immediate outrage by American citizens at the Fed's massive plunder of our financial system. Once aware, our outage will bring swift reform to the banking industry and likely result in many criminal prosecutions. The House of Representatives has already passed legislation which would require a full audit of the Fed. However, both Republican and Democrat Senators continually kill such bills. Your support of this petition can finally bring an end to the massive looting of our economy by the 1% !!!!

The militarized lockdown and attack on Ferguson's Black community is not an anomaly. Police repression is growing across the US and globally through coordinated efforts to militarize policing tactics and weapons. Local police departments are now directly funded by the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense. From September 4th-8th, one such DHS-backed program, Urban Shield, will be hosted by Oakland's Marriott Hotel Convention Center through a contract with the City of Oakland. This event - hosting SWAT training, national and transnational police networking, and weaponry sales - is coordinated by the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI.) UASI is an initiative in which the St. Louis area police actively participate. The military tanks, tear-gas, rubber bullets and SWAT armor attacking the people of Ferguson are there because of these programs. People across communities are rising up to resist policing. We cannot allow this engine of state repression to continue. Take a stand with War Resisters League and our partners in Oakland to oppose Marriott's profiteering from the militarized repression of our communities. Build pressure against Urban Shield and the Marriott Hotel - sign and share this petition as a nonviolent demonstration of people power!