Nominate Kamala Harris Vice President.

”The Constitution shall never be construed... to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.” -Samuel Adams In an effort to keep our 2nd Amendment right intact and un-infringed upon, we the people sign this petition urging law makers to neither repeat any form of the ‘1994 Assault Weapons Ban,’ nor to sign into law any similar new legislation. There is very little meaningful evidence that the previous 10-year ban in the U.S. had any noticeable beneficial effects on society as a whole during and after its implementation. Most statistics show that an incredibly insignificant number of crimes are actually committed with so-called ‘assault weapons’ and that in almost every violent gun crime, fewer than 10 shots are ever fired regardless of magazine size. On the contrary, the evidence shows that the more lawful citizens are armed in a community, then the violent crimes trend downward. “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” -Ben Franklin We stand fast with our forefathers and urge you to uphold our Bill of Rights, as you have sworn to do so, and to not succumb to the swarms of fear and panic of those who would wish to chisel down our rights as a free people in return for a fleeting false sense of personal and social security. There are, however several more logical and reasonable ideas on the table; Improved and available background check systems, stronger penalties for ‘gun crimes’ and illegal possession, and mandatory reporting of lost or stolen firearms may all be effective courses to help limit the availability of firearms to violent criminals and dissuade future gun violence. However, banning any further specific types, features, magazines, or ammunitions for firearms to law abiding Americans imposes unjustly on the 2nd Amendment rights promised to all free peoples by the founders of this great nation and is therefore unconstitutional and cannot be tolerated. ”A well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country.” -James Madison The proposed ban of ‘assault rifles,’ semi-automatics, and 10+ round magazines will only serve to limit the people’s capacity to defend our rights and safety in our local communities. Furthermore it will only serve to provide a higher level of firepower to the criminal community, as well as the local and federal governments, all while limiting the power of the individual citizen – this is unquestionably contrary to all that the founders of this great nation fought for, and provided guarantees against. Any further limitation of firearms to the lawful citizens of America directly upsets the balance that our nation’s architects indomitably granted us, as a free people, the right and obligation to uphold. “Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples' liberty's teeth.” -George Maurice Washington

We call on you, Governor Romney, to immediately release your tax returns dating back to 2000. Despite requests from your opponents, from your supporters, and from the general public, you have failed to do so, or even acknowledge the importance of doing so, and don’t intend to release any returns until April 15. High profile supporters of yours who have called on you to release these returns now include New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, and Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown. The editors of the conservative National Review, and numerous other editors and writers, have also publicly urged you to disclose the records now, rather than in April. The release of your tax returns may not hurt you one bit. Or it could derail your candidacy. But either way, Americans deserve to know more about the man who’s likely to receive the Republican nomination. Republicans yet to vote in primaries should know now, instead of voting for you and waiting until April to find out facts that may have changed their vote. Governor Romney, you, who have “lived in the real streets of America,” need to get real, and release your tax returns now. As your opponent Newt Gingrich has done. As President Barack Obama has done. As many, many presidents and candidates have done. And as your father, former Michigan Governor George Romney, did during his 1968 presidential bid. Your dad said, "No presidential candidate should be afraid to confront the electorate with the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it might be for either of them." You would be wise to heed his words. During his campaign, President Obama released eight years of tax returns, dating back to 2000, prior to releasing his 2007 tax return at the time of filing. He has continued to release his returns each year. At the very least, we demand that you similarly release your last 11 tax returns, dating back to 2000, like your potential opponent has done. In doing so, and releasing your 2011 return on April 15, you will also be following in the footsteps of your father, who released 12 of his tax returns. (Your dad paid a 37% tax rate, in case you can’t remember.) If you truly honor transparency, and put real value in presenting truth to your electorate, release your returns dating back to 1984, when you founded Bain Capital. We the people demand transparency in our government. If you continue to refuse disclosure, then you’ll be on record for ignoring bipartisan, popular sentiment. And if you do decide to release your returns, we’ll get the transparency we deserve, and you’ll get credit for being honest and open.

By signing this petition you will be signing two letters: One to the Editor and Associate Editors at Cognition and one to the Editorial Board. The text of these letters appears below, and will be sent on Wednesday, January 27. Whether you are a faculty member, postdoctoral fellow, graduate student, undergraduate, or consumer of research in the cognitive sciences, we ask you to sign this letter if you believe that the time is right for discussing the future of Open Access in the cognitive sciences. --- Recently the editorial team of the journal Lingua, led by Johan Rooryck, petitioned Elsevier to support a transition to a Fair Open Access model of publishing. When Elsevier rejected their proposal, the 6 Editors of Lingua resigned en masse, and created a new Fair Open Access journal, Glossa. The 31 members of the Lingua editorial board followed suit, joining the editorial board of Glossa. This turn of events has captured the interest of researchers throughout academia, including in the cognitive sciences, and has brought attention to the high fees we currently pay to make our work available to the public. We hope that Cognition will benefit from this episode and use the opportunity to transition to a Fair Open Access model, making knowledge available to all researchers, and to the public that funds it. We believe that Fair Open Access is the future of publishing not only in linguistics, but also in cognitive science and academia more generally. Whereas most research in the cognitive sciences is funded by public money, almost none of this research is available to the general public, nor to researchers at many international institutions. Currently, the cost of openly sharing the research that we have created and collectively funded is $2150 / article at Cognition, whereas fees at Glossa are now approximately $400 USD (waived for those who lack access to funds). This is a full $1400 less than at Lingua. While there may be reasons why costs at a larger journal like Cognition would be higher, we would like to request that this value equation be investigated by the Cognition Editorial team, and that significantly lower fees be pursued. More generally, we ask the Editorial team at Cognition to pursue a transition to Fair Open Access in collaboration with Elsevier. This request naturally raises a number of important challenges, both logistic and financial. But we now know that these challenges are not insurmountable. We hope that together we can capitalize on the current excitement regarding Fair Open Access to renew the legacy of Cognition. Most important, we support Cognition, its mission, and its editorial team, which together have made Cognition a premier journal in the cognitive sciences and a model for the field as a whole. [Version for the editors: We ask you to consider this proposal, as an editorial team, to determine whether it is in the best interests of the Cognition community. If you find that it is, we ask that you present your requests - whatever form they take - to Elsevier for formal consideration.] [Version for the editorial board: If you believe that these concerns are valid and a discussion of Open Access would benefit the Cognition community, we ask you to send a note to the Editor or Associate Editor that you work with most, expressing your views.] Sincere regards, Jesse Snedeker David Barner Faculty Lila Gleitman, University of Pennsylvania Tania Lombrozo, University of California, Berkeley LouAnn Gerken, University of Arizona Amy Perfors, Adelaide University Sarah Creel, University of California, San Diego Susan Carey, Harvard University Lisa Feigenson, Johns Hopkins University Jenny Saffran, University of Wisconsin, Madison Elizabeth Spelke, Harvard University Laurie Santos, Yale University Johan Rooryck, Leiden University Noam Chomsky, MIT Randy Gallistel, Rutgers University Rochel Gelman Rutgers University Stan Dehaene, INSERM Dorothy Bishop, University of Oxford Roger Levy, University of California, San Diego Adele E. Goldberg, Princeton Josh McDermott, MIT Michael Tanenhaus, Rochester University Tom Bever, University of Arizona Alison Gopnik, University of California, Berkeley Gary Marcus, NYU Simon Fisher, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Hilary Barth, Wesleyan University Ben Bergen, University of California, San Diego Hal Pashler, University of California, San Diego Daniel Ansari, University of Western Ontario Florian Jaeger, Rochester University Cristine Legare, UT Austin Noah Goodman, Stanford University Lera Boroditsky, University of California, San Diego Kristen Syrett, Rutgers University Franck Ramus, Ecole Normale Supérieure Ed Vul, University of California, San Diego Hyowon Gweon, Stanford University Gergely Csibra, Central European University Rebecca Saxe, MIT Steve Piantadosi, Rochester Tim Brady, University of California, San Diego Yarrow Dunham, Yale University Charles Kemp, Carnegie Mellon University Linda Smith, Indiana University Marlene Behrmann, Ca...

Just days before July 4, police in Akron, Ohio, brutally executed Jayland Walker, a 25-year-old Black man. In solidarity with his family, the Akron community, and The Freedom BLOC, we demand transparency and accountability from Akron’s elected officials, as well as a full independent investigation. Akron's city and elected officials must immediately end the use of tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and excessive force against protesters demanding justice for Jayland, and release all protesters from jail, expunge their records and eliminate all fines and fees. Akron must fund an unarmed traffic enforcement unit, a separate unit to respond to mental health calls and programs that prioritize violence prevention. The city must also invest in real, community-led public safety solutions, that keep Black communities safe, such as housing, public transportation, food security, health care, reparations and community-controlled public safety alternatives.

I would like to start this petition off with some quote from a few very important people to the foundation of this nation. “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” GEORGE WASHINGTON, Farewell Address, Sep. 17, 1796 Now, I Know these next quote are not against political party, but I believe that the fears in them can be felt in how parties in our country have and are acting. James Madison argues in the Federalist that the only problem comes from majority factions because the principle of popular sovereignty should prevent minority factions from gaining power. Madison offers two ways to check majority factions: prevent the "existence of the same passion or interest in a majority at the same time" or render a majority faction unable to act. Madison concludes that a small democracy cannot avoid the dangers of majority faction because small size means that undesirable passions can very easily spread to a majority of the people, which can then enact its will through the democratic government without difficulty. Federalist No. 10 James Madison “The founders intentionally created a Republic and not a democracy to weaken the tyranny of the majority over the individual. Then they separated powers among three seperate branches of government.” The Federalist on the tyranny of the majority, Alexis de Tocqueville. I believe it to be self-evident that these fears that the founders had direct and pointed out by Tocqueville have come to fruition, but not in the form of the common man coming together to strip the right and freedoms of the minorities. Instead in the form of the fall of the Roman Republic and that is death by the party (political parties). Like with the squabbling between the optimates and Populares we are head quickly to an impasse that must be avoided. So, I would to propose and idea that I wish to be brought to both houses of the legislative branch and that is we need to fully dissolve and ban political party. I would also propose that a two term limit should be place on the houses as it has become self-evident that the want/need to be reelected has in recent history put United States Representative in a position to put external variable ahead of the people and/or the nation. With this stated, I believe these action are justified in this insert from the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness”. If you find this compiling I would like you to sign this petition and spread the word for other to sign. P.S Thank you very much for reading this.

To Mayor Cummings and Santa Cruz Council members, We, the undersigned, are demanding true racial and economic justice for people of color (POC) and working class communities, not more performative gestures. For many centuries, our country’s police system has been responsible for the many senseless acts of violence and oppression of marginalized peoples. The police system was born out of slave patrol and suppressing worker movements and continues to do so to this day, in many different ways. When we say #blacklivesmatter, we are talking about putting an end to systemic racism and inequality once and for all. No more Breonna Taylors. No more George Floyds. We want to see a future where we are funding services and providing resources for our marginalized communities, not policing them because of the lack thereof. This cannot be done with an over-inflated police budget. We are calling on you to defund the Santa Cruz Police Department and instead divert funding to programs that will truly keep POC safe, lift marginalized communities into healthy lives, and keep them out of the situations that have been forced on them due to poverty and inequality. Our City spent a third of its budget on the Police in the last fiscal year, while working class people and POC continue to struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Over 70% of crimes reported were property theft in 2019. When members of our community cannot maintain their homes or are in dire economic hardship, they are forced to do whatever it takes to survive. Our city cannot police itself out of economic inequality. Instead of spending money on policing poverty, we should be looking towards compassionate and restorative solutions that get at the root cause of the problem. Our city council could instead be investing in truly affordable housing projects and economic relief for both working-class families and homeless people. As we’ve seen across the country, police interactions with communities of color and those with mental disorders often result in violence or worse, death. And solutions like body cams or racial bias training have not been effective. Cities across the country have tried police reforms to minimize violent interactions with little to no success. Instead of spending so much city resources responding to petty crimes of which police are ill-equipped to handle, we could be sending crisis intervention specialists like those from CAHOOTS in Eugene, Oregon. CAHOOTS send a trained mental health crisis counsellor and EMT to respond to non-violent and non-life-threatening calls, providing resources to those who may need it when they arrive. This approach is a much more compassionate and cost-effective way to respond to those who need help, not someone carrying lethal weapons. We hope that you will do the right thing and not just take into consideration our demands but also make real steps to achieving these meaningful, systemic changes. How you vote on these important issues today will affect who we vote for tomorrow. Thank you.

*PLEASE POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA + SHARE WITH FRIENDS!* This petition encourages people concerned about government actions eroding our democracy to write to former Presidents Bush, Clinton, Obama, and Biden, encouraging them to act individually and together to publicly state their support for democracy over party. At a time when core democratic principles are under assault, together we can urge these former presidents to speak out publicly in defense of the Constitution, the rule of law, and the peaceful transfer of power. The hope is that they will influence elected officials—from city council members to senators—who take their cues from national leadership. Below is a letter you can copy & paste - or write a message in your own words. The postal addresses and emails of the former presidents are provided below. The organizer also will send a collective message from petition signers to each of the former presidents: Bush, Clinton, Obama, and Biden the first week in July 2025. Of course, you can send direct letters to the former presidents at any time. Thanks for taking the time to read and consider this. *TOGETHER, LET'S MAKE POSITIVE CHANGES HAPPEN!* ---------------------------- To the Honorable Former Presidents of the United States, At a time when core democratic principles are under assault, I write to urge you—together—to speak out publicly in defense of the Constitution, the rule of law, and the peaceful transfer of power. Across the country, we are witnessing efforts to undermine free elections, weaken judicial independence, restrict press freedom, and erode trust in democratic institutions. These are not ordinary political disputes; they are fundamental threats to the system you each swore to protect. Your voices carry unmatched moral authority. A unified, nonpartisan statement from you would remind Americans that democracy must come before party—and that no individual is above the Constitution. Such a message would not only steady the public but also powerfully influence every elected official in the country—from city council members to senators—who take their cues from national leadership. Your courage could embolden others to act with conscience rather than calculation. This is not about endorsing a party or policy. It is about defending the framework that makes peaceful political disagreement possible. History will ask what was done when democracy was threatened. A statement from all of you—former leaders of different parties, united in principle—could mark a turning point. With deep urgency and respect, [Your Name] [Your City, State] --------------------------------------------------- Office of William J. Clinton 1200 President Clinton Avenue Little Rock, AR 72201 📨 Complete online contact form at https://www.clintonfoundation.org/about/contact-us/  Office of George W. Bush P.O. Box 259000 Dallas, TX 75225-9000 📨 Send email to [email protected]    Office of Barack and Michelle Obama P.O. Box 91000 Washington, DC 20066 📨 Send email to [email protected]    Joseph R. Biden   c/o The Biden Institute   44 Kent Way   Newark, DE 19716  📨 Send email to [email protected] 

We call on the United States Office of the Attorney General to appoint a Special Counsel to investigate whether crimes were committed by anyone in the United States government who committed or authorized torture.

Mumia's human rights are being violated here in USA. He's a political prisoner, who's not getting adequate medical care, for a possible diabetic coma.