UK: Bring Back Bottle Deposits To Stop Plastic Pollution In Our Oceans [Petition]

Image via 38degrees.org

The following is an email I've recently received from the peeps at 38Degrees.org... It's about an interesting idea on how to reduce the marine plastic pollution. Worth a read (even if you don't live in the UK). 

Those of you who live in the UK are (obviously) very welcome to read that email and sign the petition. Thanks in advance :-)

Stay safe!

Loup Dargent


The Email:
"Dear Loup,

Plastic bottles are littering our high streets, parks and beaches. They don’t rot, so they end up clogging up landfill sites and the sea. [1]

Right now, the government is drawing up a plan to tackle litter in Britain. [2] And there’s a simple solution. They’re considering starting a bottle deposit scheme: 10p is added to the price of a drink and if you return the bottle you get the money back. It would mean that millions of bottles would get recycled.

But they haven’t made up their mind yet, and sugary drinks company lobbyists are pushing hard to get them to drop the idea. [3] A huge petition would prove to the government the public supports it, and could convince them to introduce the scheme.

‘Surfers Against Sewage ’ are an environmental charity - and they’ve started a petition on the 38 Degrees website. [4] Can you add your name now? It takes less than a minute:

SIGN THE PETITION

Plastic pollution is a huge problem, and a bottle exchange might feel like a small step. But from the 5p plastic bag charge to persuading supermarkets to switch to paper cotton buds, these little changes are adding up. It means we’re turning the tide on plastic litter and pollution. [5]

Other countries are already using bottle deposits to tackle plastic pollution. In Norway, 96% of bottles are returned by people for recycling. [5] We can clean up Britain’s towns, cities and beaches too. But first, we need to show the government that thousands of us want a bottle deposit scheme. 

Can you add your name to the petition now? 

SIGN THE PETITION

Thanks for all you do

Lorna, Trish, Robin and the 38 Degrees team"

NOTES:

[1] BBC: Plastic bottle litter on beaches up 43%, conservationists say:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35878760

[2] The Telegraph:Plastic bottle 'tax' could be introduced to tackle waste:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/20/plastic-bottle-tax-could-introduced-tackle-waste/

[3] You can read the Greenpeace investigation here:

energydesk.greenpeace.org/2017/01/25/investigation-coca-cola-fight-back-plans-tackle-plastic-waste/

[4] You can find about more about Surfers Against Sewage here:

www.sas.org.uk/

[5] The Guardian: England plastic bag usage drops 85% since 5p charge introduced:

www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/30/england-plastic-bag-usage-drops-85-per-cent-since-5p-charged-introduced

The Guardian: Tesco and Sainsbury’s ban plastic cotton buds:

www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/30/tesco-and-sainsburys-ban-plastic-cotton-buds-to-cut-waste

[6] Sky News: Sky Ocean Rescue: How bottle deposit scheme boosts recycling:

news.sky.com/story/sky-ocean-rescue-calls-for-uk-plastic-bottle-deposit-scheme-10741655 

Stop the Dakota Access Pipeline! [Petition]

The following is an email I've received earlier from Change.org, regarding Trump's executive action advancing the Dakota Access Pipeline... Feel free to read it (or/and watch the video) and act accordingly.

Stay safe!

Loup Dargent

Image via rezpectourwater.com

The Email:
"Loup – There's a new petition taking off on Change.org, and we think you might be interested in signing it.

Petitioning U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Stop the Dakota Access Pipeline Petition by Anna Lee, Bobbi Jean & the Oceti Sakowin Youth Fort Yates, North Dakota Sign the petition I’m 13 years-old and as an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, I’ve lived my whole life by the Missouri River. It runs by my home in Fort Yates North Dakota and my great grandparents original home was along the Missouri River in Cannon Ball. The river is a crucial part of our lives here on the Standing Rock Reservation. But now a private oil company wants to build a pipeline that would cross the Missouri River less than a mile away from the Standing Rock Reservation and if we don’t stop it, it will poison our river and threaten the health of my community when it leaks. My friends and I have played in the river since we were little; my great grandparents raised chickens and horses along it. When the pipeline leaks, it will wipe out plants and animals, ruin our drinking water, and poison the center of community life for the Standing Rock Sioux. In Dakota/Lakota we say “mni Wiconi.” Water is life. Native American people know that water is the first medicine not just for us, but for all human beings living on this earth. The proposed Dakota Access Pipeline would transport 570,000 barrels of crude oil per day, across four states. Oil companies keep telling us that this is perfectly safe, but we’ve learned that that’s a lie: from 2012-2013 alone, there were 300 oil pipeline breaks in the state of North Dakota. With such a high chance that this pipeline will leak, I can only guess that the oil industry keeps pushing for it because they don’t care about our health and safety. It’s like they think our lives are more expendable than others’. So we, the Standing Rock Youth, are taking a stand to be the voice for our community, for our great grandparents, and for Mother Earth. Join us, and sign to ask the Army Corps of Engineers to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Sincerely, Anna and the Standing Rock Youth Learn more about our campaign at rezpectourwater.com." Sign the petition

The Video:




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2017 Isn't '1984' – It's Stranger Than Orwell Imagined

REUTERS/Toby Melville

By John Broich, Case Western Reserve University

A week after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, George Orwell’s “1984” is the best-selling book on Amazon.com.

The hearts of a thousand English teachers must be warmed as people flock to a novel published in 1949 for ways to think about their present moment.

Orwell set his story in Oceania, one of three blocs or mega-states fighting over the globe in 1984. There has been a nuclear exchange, and the blocs seem to have agreed to perpetual conventional war, probably because constant warfare serves their shared interests in domestic control.

Oceania demands total subservience. It is a police state, with helicopters monitoring people’s activities, even watching through their windows. But Orwell emphasizes it is the “ThinkPol,” the Thought Police, who really monitor the “Proles,” the lowest 85 percent of the population outside the party elite. The ThinkPol move invisibly among society seeking out, even encouraging, thoughtcrimes so they can make the perpetrators disappear for reprogramming.

The other main way the party elite, symbolized in the mustached figurehead Big Brother, encourage and police correct thought is through the technology of the Telescreen. These “metal plaques” transmit things like frightening video of enemy armies and of course the wisdom of Big Brother. But the Telescreen can see you, too. During mandatory morning exercise, the Telescreen not only shows a young, wiry trainer leading cardio, it can see if you are keeping up. Telescreens are everywhere: They are in every room of people’s homes. At the office, people use them to do their jobs.

The story revolves around Winston Smith and Julia, who try to resist their government’s overwhelming control over facts. Their act of rebellion? Trying to discover “unofficial” truth about the past, and recording unauthorized information in a diary. Winston works at the colossal Ministry of Truth, on which is emblazoned IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. His job is to erase politically inconvenient data from the public record. A party member falls out of favor? She never existed. Big Brother made a promise he could not fulfill? It never happened.

Because his job calls on him to research old newspapers and other records for the facts he has to “unfact,” Winston is especially adept at “doublethink.” Winston calls it being “conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies… consciously to induce unconsciousness.”

Oceania: The product of Orwell’s experience

A wall painting in Dusseldorf, Germany, on Jan. 4, 1984. AP

Orwell’s setting in “1984” is inspired by the way he foresaw the Cold War – a phrase he coined in 1945 – playing out. He wrote it just a few years after watching Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin carve up the world at the Tehran and Yalta conferences. The book is remarkably prescient about aspects of the Stalinist Soviet Union, East Germany and Maoist China.

Orwell was a socialist. “1984” in part describes his fear that the democratic socialism in which he believed would be hijacked by authoritarian Stalinism. The novel grew out of his sharp observations of his world and the fact that Stalinists tried to kill him.

In 1936, a fascist-supported military coup threatened the democratically elected socialist majority in Spain. Orwell and other committed socialists from around the world, including Ernest Hemingway, volunteered to fight against the rightist rebels. Meanwhile, Hitler lent the rightists his air power while Stalin tried to take over the leftist Republican resistance. When Orwell and other volunteers defied these Stalinists, they moved to crush the opposition. Hunted, Orwell and his wife had to flee for their lives from Spain in 1937.

George Orwell at the BBC.

Back in London during World War II, Orwell saw for himself how a liberal democracy and individuals committed to freedom could find themselves on a path toward Big Brother. He worked for the BBC writing what can only be described as “propaganda” aimed at an Indian audience. What he wrote was not exactly doublethink, but it was news and commentary with a slant to serve a political purpose. Orwell sought to convince Indians that their sons and resources were serving the greater good in the war. Having written things he believed were untrue, he quit the job after two years, disgusted with himself.

Imperialism itself disgusted him. As a young man in the 1920s, Orwell had served as a colonial police officer in Burma. In a distant foreshadowing of Big Brother’s world, Orwell reviled the arbitrary and brutish role he took on in a colonial system. “I hated it bitterly,” he wrote. “In a job like that you see the dirty work of Empire at close quarters. The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups, the gray, cowed faces of the long-term convicts…”

Oceania was a prescient product of a particular biography and particular moment when the Cold War was beginning. Naturally, then, today’s world of “alternative facts” is quite different in ways that Orwell could not have imagined.

Big Brother not required
Orwell described a single-party system in which a tiny core of oligarchs, Oceania’s “inner party,” control all information. This is their chief means of controlling power. In the U.S. today, information is wide open to those who can access the internet, at least 84 percent of Americans. And while the U.S. arguably might be an oligarchy, power exists somewhere in a scrum including the electorate, constitution, the courts, bureaucracies and, inevitably, money. In other words, unlike in Oceania, both information and power are diffuse in 2017 America.

Those who study the decline in standards of evidence and reasoning in the U.S. electorate chiefly blame politicians’ concerted efforts from the 1970s to discredit expertise, degrade trust in Congress and its members, even question the legitimacy of government itself. With those leaders, institutions and expertise delegitimized, the strategy has been to replace them with alternative authorities and realities.

In 2004, a senior White House adviser suggested a reporter belonged to the “reality-based community,” a sort of quaint minority of people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.… That’s not the way the world really works anymore.”

Orwell could not have imagined the internet and its role in distributing alternative facts, nor that people would carry around Telescreens in their pockets in the form of smartphones. There is no Ministry of Truth distributing and policing information, and in a way everyone is Big Brother.

It seems less a situation that people are incapable of seeing through Big Brother’s big lies, than they embrace “alternative facts.” Some researchers have found that when some people begin with a certain worldview – for example, that scientific experts and public officials are untrustworthy – they believe their misperceptions more strongly when given accurate conflicting information. In other words, arguing with facts can backfire. Having already decided what is more essentially true than the facts reported by experts or journalists, they seek confirmation in alternative facts and distribute them themselves via Facebook, no Big Brother required.

In Orwell’s Oceania, there is no freedom to speak facts except those that are official. In 2017 America, at least among many of the powerful minority who selected its president, the more official the fact, the more dubious. For Winston, “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four.” For this powerful minority, freedom is the freedom to say two plus two make five.


About Today's Contributor:
John Broich, Associate Professor, Case Western Reserve University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. 

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How Coldplay Blew The Crowd Away With One Trick

It was the adventure of a music-lovers’ dream at the latest Coldplay concert as the band’s sound swelled over “Yellow” and fans raised hands that glowed in joyful celebration of the band’s intended musical unity.

Coldplay concert-goers flipped the switch on the usual live concert show experience with a twist of the wrist using the innovative Xylobands LED Wristbands.

Beat by beat, the Xylobands LED Wristbands follow the flow of the music onstage. Coldplay’s fans raise their hands in unity and dance to the beats of the Xylobands as they pulse in unison with Chris Martin’s voice and Jonny Buckland’s strumming. The wearer syncs in with their fellow music lovers with each turn of their wrist, making the live concert onstage an intimate dance party in the seats. The multiple, flash pattern light show with RGB LED’s has the capacity to change colors along with the music, whether yellow, blue or gold. There are more colors than you can truly know inside this bit of wrist flicking magic.

And the band loves it.
Up and up went the energy as concert goers bonded over the experience of glowing wristbands that moved to the music at a recent concert. Joining wrist bands that vibrated with color, Coldplay admirers fell in love with Xylobands as the bracelet of color changed with each sway to the unique tunes onstage. Thousands of music lovers every night clipped on the slick Xylobands in anticipation. And they were not disappointed. Fans with the Xylobands were in for a treat each night. With the bands happily encircled around their wrists, fans received a profound, beautiful and bonding live music experience with the internationally-known band that loves a good tech twist. The band responds to the flashing Xylobands, amping up the energy of the live concert.

Coldplay has continued to use the stunning Xylobands that create a fabulous light show during live shows, much to their fans’ delight.

The colorful flashing bands were introduced at Coldplay’s American Express Unstaged concert in Madrid in October 2011. Since then, Coldplay fans have made it a joyful thing, with the band giving a shout out to the playful patterns of light that Xylobands brings to each and every concert.

The one-centimeter wide, radio-activated LED-equipped glow wristbands continually get the crowd to join together in an unusual way at Coldplay concerts.

With the playful wrist art of the slick Xylobands, Coldplay interacts with the crowd, having them join in with the band in a more intimate way with each song. The communally shared Xylobands bring each concert-goer further into the splendid live music of Coldplay. Concert-goers feel ignited in their passion for the music with each pulse of the glowing Xlyobands. The colorful, flashing bands are a rainbow of moving energy between users.

The latest tune-tastic accessory, Xylobands, will only cost you on average about $7. That's much less than a T-shirt or bumper sticker bought at a major venue. Coldplay’s sound comes alive in the hands of music lovers around the world with Xylobands.

The rainbow is overdue, and Xylobands LED Wristbands bring it closer to you, the music lovers.

The Xylobands USA technology team come from 35 years of experience and are simply the best.  From TLC Creative, their expertise will not only provide you with exceptional ideas for how to make your event stunning and memorable, but they will take the stress out, knowing that their experience, reliability and dedication will kick in to be sure everything goes off as you envision.

Statement by Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, in Response to President Trump's Executive Orders on Immigration

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), the world's largest Hispanic Christian organization, which serves as a representative voice for the more than 100 million Hispanic Evangelicals assembled in over 40,000 U.S. churches, made the following statement regarding President Donald J. Trump's executive orders pertaining to immigration and the building of a wall:

"While I have had differences of opinion with the Trump Administration on how exactly to achieve our shared goal of securing our national borders, we at the NHCLC have made ourselves available to the Trump Administration throughout this process and have made our position clear.

First, when President Trump builds his wall, he must also - and as passionately - build bridges with the Latino community. Secondly, we have made it clear that we will vigorously oppose any action that would forcibly remove the 11 million undocumented people living, working and raising their families in the United States with the exception of criminals, drug dealers and others who bring shame and pain on our community.

I am grateful that our concerns have been met with both an open mind and a willingness to work together. In fact, after a call with the Trump transition team in December—a call organized by the NHCLC and which included other Hispanic heads of major denominations and networks—then President-elect Trump made it clear that he would not oppose DACA but would find a way to assist our young people.

I agree with President Trump that securing our borders is critically important to ensuring the safety of all Americans. I also agree with the administration that the American people have a right to determine who comes into our country, and to demand that our laws are respected in the process. However, our goal and our continued focus at the NHCLC will be to ensure these policies are always balanced by a respect for the sanctity of all life and the well-being of the immigrant."

NHCLC/CONEL is the world's largest Hispanic Christian organization, which serves as a representative voice for the more than 100 million Hispanic Evangelicals assembled in over 40,000 U.S. churches and hundreds of thousands of additional congregations spread worldwide throughout the Spanish-speaking diaspora. 

SOURCE: National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference

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#SpicerFacts: How The White House's Relationship With The press Will Play Out

Click here to see Tweet on Twitter

By Jon Herbert, Keele University

Journalists would have anticipated the first press conference of the Trump presidency with some trepidation. Not only had his briefing at Trump Tower as president-elect been something of a shambles as Trump excoriated some journalists and ignored others, but the whole election campaign had been traumatic for many. Reporters had been submitted to ritual humiliation at Trump rallies, ushered through baying crowds to be labelled “liars” and “disgusting” by a candidate who did not seem overly burdened by the concept of truth himself.

But campaigning is different from governing. Journalists, who had endured a storm of criticism from Trump’s transition team, were hoping for a transformation of campaign Trump into a more presidential Trump – or perhaps a press liaison operation sympathetic to the press’ needs.

The first press “briefing” from White House press secretary Sean Spicer, delivered the day after Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States made it clear that this transformation has not happened. In a six-minute tirade, Spicer told journalists why their coverage of the inauguration had been wrong, told them what they should be reporting and left the stage with no opportunities for questions and answers.

Any impression that a mutual trust might be nurtured between presidency and media – or even that a deal for mutual benefit might be negotiated – was shattered. Journalists’ worst fears, articulated widely and openly during the transition, are now realised and both sides are now digging in for an extended battle.

Written out
From Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency at the turn of the 20th century onward, presidents have traditionally nurtured a relationship with journalists. Franklin Roosevelt held briefings in the Oval Office and Jack Kennedy traded on his own journalistic experiences in talking to the press. The relationship was symbiotic and mutually beneficial; presidencies broadcast their messages to the public and the media had stories and pictures to run.

But the relationship has soured since the 1970s – and the Trump presidency may come to represent the logical conclusion of a half-century’s development in presidential relations with the media.

The disillusionment of the media with the presidency is well-documented. The Watergate scandal and misinformation over the Vietnam War caused journalists to examine their assumptions about the trustworthiness of the country’s commander-in-chief.

But the media still needs the presidency. The presidency, on the other hand has long struggled to wriggle free of the media’s grasp. Frustrated by increasingly negative coverage from mainstream outlets, presidents pull away from the media over their term, offering fewer press conferences as their term develops. Obama’s administration built a reputation for unusual levels of secrecy due to its refusal to release information in response to press requests. Worse, administration threats to prosecute journalists for not revealing their sources permanently tarnished Obama’s standing with the media and generated many hostile stories.

During George W. Bush’s administration, journalist Ryan Lizza offered the term “pressless presidency” to capture the Bush team’s assessment of the press, not as a Fourth Estate with a legitimate role to check governmental and presidential power, but as just another interest group to be serviced.

The holy grail now for an administration is to bypass the hard questions and unforgiving judgements of the Washington media to reach the people directly. Each new technology seems to offer this potential. Obama attempted to bypass the Washington press corps through use of Reddit and YouTube, while Trump has done more than most to cut loose while calculating that he can use other means to communicate – Twitter being his favourite medium.

US vs them
Instead of working with the media, Trump has made it integral to his core message: his anti-establishment status. Trump’s rhetoric relies upon simple oppositions – and the media has been particularly important in this. In Trump’s populist rhetoric the media have become part of giant conspiracy of politicians, business and media working against the interests of the American people. And the press makes an excellent target – public trust in the media has dropped precipitously.

Declining trust in the news media. Gallup, CC BY

Usually there is something of a “honeymoon period” as the two sides develop their relationships and work out a basis of cooperation. Both the incoming administration and the media usually focus on appointments and leading policy proposals. But instead of trying to build that relationship for mutual advantage early on, Trump’s team is launching a full frontal assault on the media’s credibility. The Trump team is “pressless” from the start.

Not only is Trump to be pressless, then, but the logic of this position extends to discrediting the media as a competitor in setting the agenda or even describing reality. When Spicer highlights the delayed nomination of Mike Pompeo as CIA director and tells the press: “That’s what you guys should be writing and covering,” the attempt to control what is considered news is obvious. But this position extends to portraying the media as a malevolent force. Accusing the media of “dishonesty” allows the administration to claim a new role.

To quote Spicer: “We’re going to hold the press accountable as well.” The administration has appointed itself the guardian of truth against the evildoers of the press. Theatrical denials of the media’s legitimacy suit the administration very well: much as Trump’s tweets have done before, Spicer’s press briefing made the tension between the media and the new administration the main news story. The administration portrays itself as the insurgency against the establishment. As long as the media continue to run the conflict stories, Trump will remain happy to trigger them.

High-risk strategy
But this approach carries substantial risks. As a rocky transition focused on Putin’s influence over the election and Trump’s conflicts of interest proved, the new administration has not found a way to control the media agenda. Trump’s familiar campaign technique of picking fights over Twitter has served to distract from the worst stories but has not refocused attention on the presidency’s priorities.

The stories in each policy area are of uncertainty and confusion around the administration’s direction and the overall image of Trump’s presidency has been damaged from the start.

So far, the media has expressed substantial doubt that the Trump administration has a clear direction or clarity over priorities, a claim reinforced by Trump’s own tendency to make bold, incredible and contradictory statements. Attacking the press is a serious – and unforced – error that will generate negative coverage. Trump and Spicer’s calculation, that the new president’s support can endure a relentless stream of negative stories, is an extraordinary gamble. It relies on Trump’s supporters resisting the influence of negative media coverage, while the administration communicates with them directly.

Without doubt, there is much to suggest that some partisans will remain loyal to their president amid media criticism. News accessed only through selective social media “bubbles” is likely to reinforce this effect. However, experience suggests that Republicans will not be blindly loyal. As Nixon and George W. Bush discovered, Republicans can turn on their own.

As the administration’s credibility falls, the same rhetoric from Trump blaming media demons for Americans’ perceived plight will sound less like a promise of conflict, victory and transformation and more like excuse-making in the face of under-achievement. Trump attacks on those merely trying to report on his presidency will come to look like the product of a paranoid mindset.


About Today's Contributor:
Jon Herbert, Senior Lecturer in Politics, Director of Learning and Teaching, Keele University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. 

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Upcoming New Superhero Movies

With their collection of super powers, superior fighting skills, great looks and victorious nature, superheroes are attractive to kids and the young at heart. Their colorful costumes and often unique residences keep us entertained and inspired at the same time.

Examples of superheroes include:
• Superman
• Spiderman
• Batman
• The flash
• Aquaman
• Wonder Woman

Every superhero has a nemesis. In most cases, the nemesis is just as impressive as the superhero and whenever they fight, it is a sight to behold. Originally presented in comic books, superheroes now grace the big screen thanks to Hollywood.

This year, there are some upcoming new superhero movies to look forward to. Read on to learn more.

The Lego Batman Movie
Many kids have played with Legos and loved the experience. Now, Batman is about to be expressed in Lego format for you.

The Lego Batman Movie is slated for release on February 20, 2017. It will be directed by Chris McKay and features Mariah Carey, Zach Galifianakis and Ralph Fiennes as part of the cast. The director plans to show the dark, crime-fighting, caped crusader in Lego form against his arch-nemesis, the Joker.

This movie is bound to attract audiences worldwide.

Logan
The X-Men are famous superheroes who save the world with their mutant powers. Wolverine is one among them who has received his own movie spin-off story and it has caught on like wildfire.

On March 3, 2017, Logan will be released. It is the last of a series of movies featuring the clawed mutant. Hugh Jackman again takes the lead as Wolverine for the last time. He is supported by Patrick Stewart, Boyd Holbrook, Richard E. Grant among others.

Directed by James Mangold, Logan will explore the later years of the Wolverine and maybe even introduce a new mutant to the world, X-23. It is definitely worth the watch!

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
The first movie about the Guardians of the Galaxy was received with wide international acclaim. In this one, director James Gunn hopes to make a splash again with a deeper story and some surprise appearances too. The cast for this movie includes Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel and others.

The movie explores the parents of the Star Lord and introduces a new, adorable character, Baby Groot.

Wonder Woman
This is the first superhero movie ever to have a woman as the lead character and a female director too. Gal Gadot makes history playing the role of the iconic Wonder Woman while Patty Jenkins will sit in the director's chair.

Wonder Woman first showed up in Superman: Dawn of Justice and is slated to appear in the Justice League movie too. However, she appears in her own movie first. It tells the story of a World War 1 soldier who washes on the paradise island of Diana Prince. He tells her of the war going on in the outside world and Wonder Woman swoops in to save the day.

The movie is slated for released on June 2, 2017 and will feature Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Elena Ayana and Danny Huston among others.

Justice League
This is one of the most anticipated superhero movies of the year, find more information about it on our blog. Its release is planned to be on November 17, 2017.

The movie wil be directed by the legendary Zack Snyder. It will have a star studded cast of Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Jeremy Irons, Ezra Miller and others. Produced by Warner Bros., the movie will depict this group of superheroes fighting against an evil brought forward by Steppenwolf who was summoned by Lex Luthor to earth.

It is bound to be a big screen blockbuster and fans are at the edge of their seats in anticipation.

Conclusion
Superhero movies bring a fantastic world of wonder into cinemas and living rooms. These characters inspire and empower. We look up to them and believe in them too. This year, there is a slew of new movies from this genre that is bound to satisfy even the most ardent fans.

These are just a taste of the expected releases for 2017.

About Today's Contributor:
This article was prepared by Gaetano Esposito, he is a famous avid traveler and wild life lover.

You Participated In The Women's March...Now what?

This past weekend, scores of Americans took to the streets to voice their concerns about a new political paradigm under President Trump. Over 1.2 million women marched in Washington D.C. alone, while over a million participated in cities across the country. In total, there were 673 "sister marches" taking place around the world at the same time.

Which leads to the question: What is this surge of activists going to do next?

Enter RISE Movement, the newest wave in politics. (www.risemvmt.org). A group aimed at rebuilding the broken political system in America, RISE is strategically coordinating the ground efforts of the left side to win again. 

"At RISE, we've created a series of quarterly reports to explain how we lost, and what we can do to win again," states RISE co-founder Genevieve Thiers.  The first RISE report launches today at www.riseparty.org/quarterly_report.  The report is paired to a high-level dashboard to coordinate all the armies and individuals on the ground.  "There's no reason that this information should be in some DNC corner office somewhere," states Thiers.  "Everyone's a general."  The report is 32 pages, and explains how the left side lost, and an approach that can help it win again in 2020.

The RISE dashboard, referenced in the report, is in beta, but a template can be seen at www.riseparty.org/dashboard.  The interactive version is in progress.  The dashboard is powered by RISE and a number of other tech-savvy entities including flippable, ballot-ready, popvox and re:act. It coordinates over six critical pieces of how to win back the White House in 2020—everything from winning open seats to fighting bills to protesting executive actions and appointments to flipping Republican-held states to getting non-voters back to the polls and non-registered voters registered. It also contains a countdown to the 2020 elections, daily action items, a 30-day forecast, and a 4-year elections calendar.  

Activists can zoom into details or stay high-level and just stick to daily activities...it's their choice. 

"On the left side, we tend to be super intelligent, but uncoordinated," states Thiers.  "We can be a bit like ping-pong balls flying around in an empty room.  We need to work as a coordinated unit, and the RISE dashboard lets us do that."  

RISE is approaching left-leaning groups now about how to best use the dashboard to coordinate their armies, and the RISE report also includes a breakout of progressive groups for readers by function, so activists can easily figure out how to manage their time.  As events unfold in politics, the report will "react" in real time, designing new plans to win based on how current factors are playing out.

RISE members include former OFA-ers, Hillary team members, workers from Google, Microsoft, Apple, entrepreneurs, activists, artists, designers, developers, writers, immigrants, economists and more. "We're sort of like a tech startup jammed into a political action group," states co-founder Ellie Bahrmasel.  

The group is determined not only to resist the Trump agenda, but to change politics as well.  They are targeting four critical races in 2017—NC, NJ, VA and LA municipals—and building on-the-ground armies to head door to door and ask people who they want to see running, and what they want solved. 

"We're going back to basics," states Bahrmasel.  "People need to be a part of the process again." 

The goal of the RISE field organization is to crowdsource the right candidate and solution set for an area, then galvanize local efforts around both in combination.  They theorize that if people are part of making something, they will care about promoting it. 

So...if you have some free time post the march, consider letting your voice RISE.

The Video:

About RISE:

RISE movement is the next wave in political disruption offering a new narrative. By showing how we are more united than divided, we will make America stronger and future focused. With a focus on interpartisan communication, voter outreach and education, real actionable economic policy and an irrefutable-fact-based narrative RISE will get all Americans back to voting for their own best interests and the best interests of this great nation as a whole.  The group has 5-full-time hires, over 10,000 volunteers in 34 states, and is a 527 PAC format. Welcome to the Re-United States of America.  Welcome to RISE.  www.riseparty.org 

SOURCE: RISE Movement

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