By TUESDAY MORNING: make two quick calls for PEACE. June 11 2017 special edition

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Word arrived early Monday morning that the US Senate has now scheduled the vote for TUESDAY at or after 2 pm Eastern time (11 am Pacific). Please read the original message below, because this remains VERY important.
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We can all do the kumbaya and sing songs for world peace. But sometimes, your voice for peace is most effective in other ways. Like RIGHT NOW, when you can take the quickest of brief moments to make two phone calls and speak truth to power in Washington, DC.

Please don't blow this off as part of the endless parade of haranguing political boolshite.

Here at the Guide, we carefully consider before we ask you to do anything. That's especially the case before we share anything here that isn't about music or the arts. Longtime readers know that's true, and that we seldom make the decision to interrupt your world with something else.

So this isn't about the crap the mainstream media drones on, and on, and on, about in their "ugly dog contest" between Comey and Trump or whatever is their breathless fixation du jour.

This is important. It's about preventing the next war. So it's as important as it gets.

We were among the few voices opposing the invasion of Iraq 14 long years ago. Now, who among us in the arts community could choose to be silent in the face of the next one?

Because now, all of us, not just artists, not just Americans, not just those with family members in the military, but ALL of us — all citizens of the world — are looking at the next round of endless wars. And for one brief, shining moment, we share the briefest chance to stop it.

It's up to each of us. No one will do it for you. Because it's insidious, it never stops, it's deadly, and the masters of war do not stop. Things have re-invented themselves as all our endless wars have continued, and fewer "boots on the ground" are intended to keep you from noticing.

Now, TODAY, the US is most likely to engage in a new "proxy war" after agreeing to add even more to the record arms sales (by both the UK and the US) to the military juggernaut of Saudi Arabia. That oil-rich desert kingdom, which oppresses its women citizens and has supplied most of the world's terrorists, is the "go-to" proxy attack machine when US diplomatic policy wants to assert itself with explosions and death in the Middle East region.

They don't even take time to get the bodies buried from the latest salvos in one proxy war before they start firing-up public sentiment for another one. That's just one (of too damn many) examples of the news the mainstream media is currently minimizing about Saudi Arabia. In addition to what they're doing to the people of Yemen, the Saudis are leading a boycott of food supplies to the people of Qatar. It has many dimensions, but a lot of it is because both the Al Jazeera global news networks and a massive US military base (THE biggest US overseas military base) are in Qatar, and the Saudis don't like playing second fiddle to another of their terrorist-supporting, women-suppressing, oil dripping, odiously intolerant, fundamentalist Islamic neighboring Arab nations.

The Guide's editor is a longtime political journalist, and he has studied these phenomena for a long time — even as ISIL has flourished because of the debacle in Iraq, even as massive starvation of children in besieged Yemen has been declared a crisis by the UN. So, recommending here in the Guide that YOU join us in taking action on this one? Well, it's neither a trivial fixation nor some passing whim.

We have decided to share the Sunday evening message from "Just Foreign Policy." (They don't use the word "just" like "only" — they use it as the root word of "justice," striving for an American foreign policy based on peace, justice and real diplomacy for the peoples of the planet (all based on what America claims it believes) and they oppose intimidation, attacks and bullying by those with superior military power.

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Here's that message.

Robert Naiman, Director of Just Foreign Policy, writes:


"I need you to make a plan to call your Senators at 1-855-68-NO-WAR. [1-855-686-6927].

"With the Senate, it's always hard to know for sure when a vote will be. But on Saturday afternoon we were told that a Senate vote on Trump's Saudi arms deal is expected Monday.

"This isn't just about an arms deal. This vote is a Senate referendum on U.S. participation in the Saudi-UAE war and blockade on Yemen, which has pushed Yemen to the brink of famine, with millions of human beings at risk of starvation.

"This is a big deal. As Kate Gould of FCNL [Kate Gould is the Legislative Representative for Middle East policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation] says, the most precious commodity in Washington is floor time in Congress. A consequential floor debate on war and peace is a once-in-a-blue-moon thing. By 'consequential floor debate,' I mean one that is followed by a floor vote. When they talk about war and peace, Members of Congress love to say things like 'the President doesn't have a strategy,' which sounds critical but doesn't commit them to anything. But when they are forced to vote, Members have to publicly choose sides between less war and more war.

"If your schedule permits it, the best time to call your Senators would be first thing Monday morning, soon after Senate offices open around 9 AM ET (6 AM Pacific). Make an appointment with yourself to call, however you make such appointments - Google calendar, iPhone alarm, post-it note, string around your finger...


Your two US Senators from California are:

Dianne Feinstein: (202) 224-3841

Kamala Harris: (202) 224-3553


Make a quick separate call to EACH of them.


Naiman adds, "But if you can't call Monday morning, call your Senators now and try to leave a message.


1-855-68-NO-WAR. [1-855-686-6927]


"WHEN YOU REACH A STAFFER OR LEAVE A MESSAGE, YOU CAN SAY SOMETHING LIKE:

" 'Save Yemen from Saudi-imposed famine. Vote to support the [bipartisan] Paul-Murphy-Franken resolution against Trump's Saudi arms deal. Make a public statement on how you'll vote.' "


Naiman adds that there a few "Who you don't need to bother: Sens. Paul, Murphy, Franken, Merkley, and Cardin, because they've publicly committed to voting against the deal."

But the rest are up for grabs by the campaign cash of the arms merchants of the military-industrial complex.

He closes, "Thanks for all you do to help make U.S. foreign policy more just."

— Robert Naiman,
Just Foreign Policy


If you want to report that you made your calls, you can register online at:

http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/call-in-vote-delay-saudi-bomb-deal

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Thank you, and PEACE!
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Find all the music news, concerts, festivals and other info on tuneful times in the latest edition, which has tons o' links to everything else. It's the:

"'Master Finder' edition — concerts, festivals, 'n tuneful times, next couple weeks"

Published June 9th (along with a bunch of separate editions on individual festivals).

It's at:

http://acousticamericana.blogspot.com/2017/06/master-finder-edition-concerts.html


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PLENTY is archived, back to when Lassie was a little bitty puppy dog, Napoleon was a private, and banjos only had four strings.

The entire Guide, since we moved the archival editions to Blogspot years 'n years ago, is there and searchable at the basic url:

http://acousticamericana.blogspot.com


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See you next time!

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LEGALESE, CONTACTING US, 'N SUCH...

Boilerplate? Where's the main pressure gauge? And the firebox?

What "boilerplate"? Who came up with that goofy term for the basic essential informational stuff...
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♪ The ACOUSTIC AMERICANA MUSIC GUIDE endeavors to bring you NEWS — and views of interest to artists everywhere — more specifically to musicians and the creative community and music makers and fans of acoustic and Folk-Americana music. That includes both traditional and innovative forms. From the deepest roots to today’s acoustic renaissance, that’s our beat. We provide a wealth of resources, including a HUGE catalog of acoustic-friendly venues (now undergoing a major update), and inside info on FESTIVALS and select performances in Southern California in venues from the monumentally large to the intimately small and cozy. We cover workshops, conferences, and other events for artists and folks in the music industry, and all kinds o’ things in the world of acoustic and Americana and accessible classical music. From washtub bass to musical spoons to oboe to viola to banjo to squeezebox, from Djangostyle to new-fangled-old-time string band music, from sweet Cajun fiddle to bluegrass and pre-bluegrass Appalachian mountain music to all the swamp water roots of the blues and the bright lights of where the music is headed now.
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The Acoustic Americana Music Guide. Thanks for sittin' a spell. The porch'll be here anytime you come back from the road.

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