Project 2025 and other Plans for a Trump Dictatorship by John M Repp In 1980, the Heritage Foundation wrote up a plan that Ronald Reagan asked his cabinet members to read and study. The plan helped the Reagan Administration implement its policies of increased defense spending, cutting regulations implemented by executive agencies and departments, and lowering the top tax rate from 73% to just 28% in eight years. Starting in 2022, Heritage began working on Project 2025, a plan for the next Republican Administration. The plan wants to bypass civil service in the hiring of the employees of the executive agencies and departments. They have been gathering a list of “conservative” employees. They will be tested and trained before starting…

Calm is a Form of Resistance by John M Repp One of the memorable ideas that Naomi Klein gives us in her new book Doppelganger: a Trip into the Mirror World (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023) is: “calm is a form of resistance”. (p.226) The book examines what has happened to us during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The opposite of calm is fear, and fear is contagious. But the key point is that fear helps to create an environment where conspiracy theories spread. Today too many of us live in a world of disconnected facts. And many of us are in a state of shock, after such events as the election of Trump in November 2016 (and the fact…

2024 Spring Assembly by David Lambert While experiencing a deep emotional response listening to Holly Gwinn Graham’s song leading up to the official beginning of this annual event, I found myself wanting to savor the moment listening to the music, but I had to focus on preparing myself to give the upcoming welcome to the Assembly participants. The Assembly planners decided to honor Holly during this year’s event, for her songs and even more as a person and advocate for justice and peace. It didn’t take long into the program to experience another emotional pull as Larry Kerschner, during his introduction of Kathy Kelly, read the poem, Blessed Are the Peacemakers, from his experience in Iraq. Larry had spent time with Kathy…

Pacific Call editor John M Repp writes about several aspects of the current war in Gaza and the Israel-Palestine history since 1948. Many in the US are unfamiliar with the way the nation of Israel was created in 1948, with massive destruction of Palestinian villages and massive deaths, as well as the intolerable conditions under which many Palestinians were forced to live “As if history started on October 7, 2023.” US policy has been largely uncritical while Israel has violated international law concerning warfare, such as avoiding harm to civilians. READ THE ARTICLE at https://wwfor.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/GazaAndStudentProtests.pdf [If you are on the main newsletter page, click the box “READ FULL ARTICLE” to get a live link to the pdf version of the…

6 great new articles compiled and some written by newsletter editor, John M Repp! You can read or download the full Pacific Call March 2024 issue in pdf format by clicking here [full URL https://wwfor.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/March2024PacificCall.pdf ] or go right to the individual articles listed below. CONTENTS and links to individual articles (page numbers refer to the pdf version) Spring Assembly p.1;  Democracy is In our Genes p.1 Democracy in the New World p.2-3;  Dark Money and the Supreme Court p.3-5;  The Annihilation of Gaza. P.5-6;  Testimony on Nuclear Free Bellingham p. 7;  Letters to Editors p.8.

by John M Repp Many people assume that groups of animals follow the lead of dominant individuals called alphas when the group has to make decisions. For example, when a herd needs to move to another area for feeding, how do they decide? That question had never been examined until two scientists decided to take a closer look. Their subjects were herds of red deer, social animals with dominant individuals. Obviously, the deer cannot vote and count votes when they make a collective decision. But what the scientists, Conradt and Roper, observed was nevertheless democratic behavior. As the herd was lying down chewing its cud, when more than half the group stood up, the group was ready to move. Conradt…

by John M Repp Many of our founders, like Franklin, Jefferson, and John Adams had extensive experience with native Americans as boys and young men. Adams in 1813 wrote to Jefferson that when he was a kid he used to go over to a native family’s wigwam where they gave him berries, apples, plums, and peaches. Native leaders visited Adam’s father’s house often. (From Thom Hartmann. The Hidden History of American Democracy: Rediscovering Humanity’s Ancient Way of Living (Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler, 2023, pp10-11) Jefferson’s father was a map maker, and a famous Cherokee Ontassetě often visited his house from the time Thomas was nine until age fourteen when Jefferson’s father died. They conversed long into the evening, and young Thomas…

by John M Repp Senator Sheldon Whitehouse was elected to the U.S. Senate from Rhode Island in 2007. He wanted the Senate to act to mitigate climate change. Every month for nine years, when the Senate was in session, he spoke to the empty chamber making two hundred and sixty nine speeches, that are all available on YouTube. Here is the first one: Time to Wake Up | US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse | TEDxProvidence – YouTube where he talks about what is going to happen in Rhode Island as a consequence of climate change, specifically, the flooding of parts of the small state as the sea level rises.  Sadly, the normal condition of the Senate chamber is to be empty…

by Marjorie Prince When my brother and I were children and arguing about who started it, our mother always said: “two wrongs don’t make a right.” Surely this concept applies to Hamas and Israel. The Hamas October 7 attack on Israeli civilians is deplorable. The Israeli genocide of over 29,000 civilians (as of Feb 19, 2024) including thousands of children as reported by the Hamas Health Ministry is an unwarranted brutal act of revenge. Worse yet, the U.S. government is funding this genocide by supplying Israel with weapons of mass destruction (e.g. two-thousand pound bombs). President Joe Biden can tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to limit the revenge assault on Gazans, but words have no effect on Netanyahu. Cutting…

Testimony on Nuclear-Free Bellingham Resolution      January 29, 2024 by Nicholas Mele Good evening, my name is Nicholas Mele and I spent most of three decades as a U.S. Foreign Service officer. At times, I held security clearances which gave me access to highly secret information about our nuclear weapons. Currently, I am an adviser on nuclear issues to Pax Christi USA, a faith-based movement dedicated to nonviolence and reconciliation. I also serve on the nuclear disarmament committee of Pax Christi International, which includes roughly 100 member organizations from countries around the world. Why should our city, or any city, pass a resolution on nuclear policy? The national government of this country pays lip service to nuclear disarmament but last year…