Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
October 17, 2017
Hello All – The crisis in Puerto Rico is a test of our humanity and our nation's democracy. Despite the fact that people in Puerto Rico are US citizens, President Trump has blamed the Puerto Ricans themselves for their difficulties in recovering from the hurricane disaster, and has threatened to terminate recovery help. (As one commentator noted, when it is a matter of aid to hurricane victims, Puerto Rican's don't have the complexion for protection afforded to similar victims in Florida and Texas.) President Trump has also warned Puerto Rico that to qualify for mercy Puerto Rico must pay down its unpayable debt, much of which is owed to US-based hedge funds. One of these hedge funds is owned by new Hastings resident David E. Shaw, apparently a significant player in the consortium of Puerto Rican bondholders now demanding the money due them.
So thinking globally and acting locally, please join CFOW next Saturday when we will rally at the VFW Plaza in Hastings at noon, and then march 1/3 of a mile to Mr. Shaw's new $75 million estate at 663 Broadway to deliver a letter asking Mr. Shaw and his fund to forgive Puerto Rico's debt, and to use his position among the other bondholders to make the same request of them. As noted in this statement by US congressman Luis Gutierrez, and in the articles on Puerto Rico's debt linked below, Puerto Rico's economic crisis stems largely from its status as a US colony, with the negative effects that colonies have always suffered. Compounded by the billions of dollars of hurricane damage, it is simply impossible to extract any money at all from Puerto Rico without causing immense human suffering. So please read some of the articles about Puerto Rico below, and join us on Saturday, October 21st, at noon, at the VFW Plaza in Hastings (Warburton and Spring St.) to deliver a request to Mr. Shaw to forgive Puerto Rico's unpayable debt.
The War in Yemen – This war is being waged by a coalition of countries – headed by Saudi Arabia – that is intervening in a civil war. Thousands have died, millions are at risk for starvation, and a war-generated cholera epidemic has infected almost a million people, with over 2,000 dead. (The World Health Organization has stated that the epidemic in Yemen is the largest and fastest-spreading outbreak of the disease in modern world history. The war is one of the most heartless mass murders of our time, and it is to the lasting shame of our country that our government is supporting it. Indeed, without US support (beginning under Obama and continuing now under Trump), the Saudi war would not be possible. Finally pushing back, four members of the House of Representatives, two Republicans and two Democrats, have introduced a Resolution that says that the war in Yemen is not covered by the 2001 "Authorization to Use Military Force," and thus US participation is illegal, and thus the United States should end it's active support of this war. While the Resolution has several dozen co-sponsors, our Representatives – Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey – are conspicuously absent from the list. Of additional importance, the Resolution is now in the House Foreign Relations Committee, where Engel is the "ranking member" (i.e., leading Democrat). So please call Representatives Lowey (914-428-1707) and Engel (718-796-9700) and ask them to sign on to/support "House Concurrent Resolution 81" (H. Con. Res. 81).
News Notes
I'm way behind the curve on the Harvey Weinstein epoch, but I thought this New York Times essay from Canadian actress and director Sarah Polley was especially insightful about gender and power in Hollywood. Check out "The Men You Meet Making Movies."
Did you notice that Trump/the United States just quit the UN agency UNESCO? (That's the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.) Trump said it was because the UN agency was anti-Israel. Here's some of the background
The US torture regime at Guantanamo Bay has now decided to let prisoners on hunger strike starve themselves to death. Read the short statement by Khalid Qassim, one of the prisoners: "I am in Guantánamo Bay. The US government is starving me to death." [Link].
Kathleen Hartnett White is Trump's new senior adviser on environmental policy. White worked previously for Texas governor Rick Perry, who is now (gasp!) the Secretary of Energy. This Democracy Now! report states that White is a climate-change denier "who has argued that carbon dioxide is harmless and should not be regulated, has described solar and wind power as 'unreliable and parasitic,' and has called climate change 'a dogma that has little to do with science.' In a 2014 blog post titled "Energy and Freedom," White wrote that coal "dissolved the economic justification for slavery." [Link]
Jazz great Alvin Queen, a native of Mt. Vernon, now lives in Switzerland and holds a Swiss passport. He will not be able to perform at a Washington, DC concert organized by the French-American Cultural Foundation, however, because he can't enter the United States. It seems he was arrested 50 years ago, when he was a minor. Thus we are protected from terrorist jazz drummers.
Coming Attractions/Things to Do
Saturday, October 21st – There will be a benefit concert for the "Tie the Trash" project, from 8 to 10 p.m., at the Upstream Gallery on Main St. in Hastings. The concert will benefit a terrific project by James Dean Conklin, whom many of you know from the band Solar Punch. The organizers write: "
Saturday, October 28th – This will be the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. The People's Climate March will hold an event on this day to demand that our government take serious steps to stop global warming/climate breakdown. More news when I have it.
Wednesday, November 1st – Westchester for Change, WESPAC, and many more groups will host a County Executive Candidate Forum on Housing, from 5 to 7 p.m., at the Yonkers Riverfront Library. The organizers write: "Westchester is ranked one of the 5th most expensive places to live in the United States. At the same time, nearly 100,000 of its residents live below the poverty line and 1,797 residents are homeless. Join us to ask County Executive Candidates George Latimer (confirmed) and Rob Astorino (invited) how they plan to address the housing crisis in Westchester County." For more information, go here.
Sunday, November 5th – CFOW's monthly meeting is held at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs, from 7 to 9 p.m. All are welcome at these meetings; please join us!
Sunday, November 19th – Save the date for WESPAC's "night of comedy, dance, and music," "Made in Palestine." It's at the Tarrytown Music Hall; doors open at 5 p.m. For more information, including ways you can help support/sponsor this program, go here.
This Newsletter
Articles linked in the CFOW newsletter are intended to illuminate some of the main action-issues about which we are concerned. Coming mostly from the "dissenting media," they provide an alternative to the perspectives of the mainstream media. In addition to the set of articles about Puerto Rico, and the excellent readings found in "Featured Essays," please also check out the sets of articles/videos on the war in Yemen and the possible unraveling of the Iran nuclear agreement; two good Democracy Now! segments on climate breakdown and the fires in California; and some good articles ("Our History") on remembering and mis-remembering the Vietnam War.
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. We meet for a vigil/rally each Saturday in Hastings, from 12 to 1 p.m., at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) Our leaflet and posters for our vigils are usually about war or climate change, but issues such as racial justice or the Puerto Rico crisis are targeted from time to time, depending on current events. We meet on the first Sunday of each month, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society. Our weekly newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page.
Contributions, Please
Our treasury is getting a little low, so if you are able to support our work, please make your check out to "CFOW" and mail it to PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
Rewards!
The reward for reading stalwarts this week is some great music. Most of us know George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" from Woody Allen's "Manhattan" or other modern versions of this classic. Last night I listened to the original 1924 recording (Paul Whiteman's orchestra, Gershwin on the piano) and found it different and interesting. Check it out here. And also: this newsletter was put together with the help of background music from some class boogie woogie piano. Check out two of the founders of "stride piano" technique, Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons, on "Pine Creek Boogie" (1943); and there's lot more of this stuff here. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
THE CRISIS IN PUERTO RICO
In Puerto Rico, Disconnection and Chaos, but Grace Under Pressure
By Ed Morales, The Nation [October 13, 2017]
---- As Donald Trump's rule-by-disinformation strategy intensifies, three weeks after Hurricane Maria, a reeling Puerto Rico is becoming more of a sideshow for his callous stereotyping and ruthlessness. He is subjecting the island's citizens to layers of anguish, at once revealing the resourcefulness of a sturdy rural culture and the banality of government by public relations. Puerto Ricans, meanwhile, are suffering that all-too-human affliction, the desperate need to connect. … Members of the opposition Popular Democratic Party are lobbying for a federal humanitarian grant of between $15 billion and $30 billion. On Thursday, the House passed a $36.5 billion disaster-relief bill—but it's for the storms affecting Houston, South Florida, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, as well as the wildfires affecting the West. And the relief designated for Puerto Rico comes in the form of roughly $5 billion in loans. Not only is it a cruel joke for a territory already drowning in debt; the amount doesn't figure to leave Puerto Rico with anything close to the $10–15 billion that would seem to be the low end of Rosselló's expectations. [Read More]
'The People of Puerto Rico Are Dying': Action Is Needed Now
By
---- RNRN deployed 50 volunteer nurses to Puerto Rico on October 4, as part of an AFL-CIO deployment of skilled workers, to help with relief efforts. Nurses are beginning to return home, and their eyewitness testimonies should inspire horror, and, more urgently—action. While the federal government claims that everything is going well in Puerto Rico, nurses describe a FEMA presence on the island that is sparse at best, and many times, ineffective. People are often standing in line for hours in blistering heat waiting for desperately needed water and food, only to finally see federal disaster officials with paperwork "to collect data," rather than handing out critical supplies. [Read More]
Also useful/interesting about the crisis in Puerto Rico – Joan Walsh, "As FEMA warns of massive food shortages, Trump says the island has "survived" the hurricanes and shouldn't expect help 'forever,'" The Nation [October 12, 2017] [Link]; Phil McKenna, "Puerto Rico: Hurricane Maria Laid Bare Existing 'Inequalities and Injustices'" Inside Climate News [October 16, 2017] [Link]; and from The Watchers, "As Trump disses Puerto Rico Again, 83% in dark, 36% Drinking Dirty Water" [October 13, 2017] [Link].
What About "Debt Foregiveness"?
Political Support Growing to Wipe Out Puerto Rico's Wall Street Debt
By Aída Chávez and Ryan Grim, The Intercept [October 7, 2017]
---- President Donald Trump, Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Illinois Democratic Rep. Luis Gutiérrez are all on the same page when it comes to how to handle Puerto Rico's crushing debt load in the wake of Hurricane Maria: The hedge funds need to take the hit. "They owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street, and we're going to have to wipe that out," Trump said on Fox News this week. "You can say goodbye to that. I don't know if it's Goldman Sachs, but whoever it is, you can wave goodbye to that." Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney quickly tried to dial back the comments, saying his remarks should not be taken literally, but if there is one issue Trump is deeply familiar with, it's bankruptcy and the wiping out of debt. … But underneath the doomsday talk is a simpler reality: A federal judge is currently overseeing a case that could very easily result in Puerto Rico's debt being entirely or almost entirely wiped out. Before the storm, the judge had already agreed to write down 79 percent of it. Contra Hatch, that is, in fact, the way the economic system works. And thanks to Trump's comments, which sent Puerto Rican bond prices crashing, hedge funds that own the debt might be lucky to get anything at all. [Read More]
Puerto Rico Is On Track for Historic Debt Forgiveness — Unless Wall Street Gets Its Way
By Kate Aronoff, The Intercept [
---- For bondholders sitting on Puerto Rican debt, Hurricane Maria may have come just when they needed it, just as a years long battle over the fate of the island's financial future was beginning to turn against them. Or, depending on how the politics shake out, they could see their entire bet go south. Ahead of Maria, the federally appointed fiscal oversight board now in control of Puerto Rico's finances had developed a plan that would wipe out 79 percent of the island's annual debt payments, taking a massive chunk out of the payday hedge funds had been hoping to land from the island. In the wake of the storm, that fight could go one of two ways: Advocates for Puerto Rico are making the case that the devastation means that 79 percent should be ratcheted up all the way to a full debt cancellation. The hedge funds, meanwhile, see an opening to attack the oversight board and reclaim ownership of the process. While Congress focuses on the size and shape of the relief package, the battle over the much larger debt — at least $74 billion — is being overshadowed. As hedge funds attempt to undermine the board's legitimacy in the courts, resentment toward the board from a different end of the political spectrum has made the body unpopular for entirely different reasons: It's colonial and undemocratic. The difference between the two? The left wants debt relief for Puerto Ricans. Many bondholders want the opposite. [Read More]
FEATURED ESSAYS
(Video) Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton on Duty to Warn: Trump's "Relation to Reality" is Dangerous to Us All
From Democracy Now! [October 13, 2017]
---- I also belong to a group called the Duty to Warn, which is a group of psychiatrists and psychologists who feel we have the right and the obligation to speak out about Trump's psyche when it endangers the country and the world. And what we're seeing—you mentioned the potential unraveling of the pact with Iran. There's also the potential unraveling of Donald Trump, which seems to be occurring. It's hard to read him, because his behavior, as I understand it, is completely solipsistic. He sees the world through his own sense of self, what he needs and what he feels. And he couldn't be more erratic or scattered or dangerous. [See the Program]
Wrongful Rhetoric
By Kathy Kelly, Waging Nonviolence [October 15, 2017]
---- Mordechai Vanunu was imprisoned in Israel for eighteen years because he blew the whistle on Israel's secret nuclear weapons program. He felt he had "an obligation to tell the people of Israel what was going on behind their backs" at a supposed nuclear research facility which was actually producing plutonium for nuclear weapons. His punishment for breaking the silence about Israel's capacity to manufacture nuclear weapons included eleven years of solitary confinement. Yesterday, reading about President Donald Trump's new strategy on Iran, Vanunu's long isolation and sacrificial commitment to truth-telling came to mind. … Mordechai Vanunu took extraordinary risks and endured incredible suffering to rescue the human species from the foolhardiness of building and maintaining nuclear arsenals. I wonder if people worldwide can rise to a level of courage and seriousness needed to simply recognize, and then, where possible, act in response to the world's real threats. Within the U.S., can several decades of U.S. government bipartisan lying about Iran be overcome with saner, more humane narratives? Can the threat of U.S. invasion be lifted long enough to allow Iran's people a window for once again considering democratic reforms? Silence about these issues seems ominous. But silence can be broken. We have Vanunu's courageous example. Let's not waste the precious time we have in which to follow it. https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/wrongful-rhetoric/
---- Mordechai Vanunu was imprisoned in Israel for eighteen years because he blew the whistle on Israel's secret nuclear weapons program. He felt he had "an obligation to tell the people of Israel what was going on behind their backs" at a supposed nuclear research facility which was actually producing plutonium for nuclear weapons. His punishment for breaking the silence about Israel's capacity to manufacture nuclear weapons included eleven years of solitary confinement. Yesterday, reading about President Donald Trump's new strategy on Iran, Vanunu's long isolation and sacrificial commitment to truth-telling came to mind. … Mordechai Vanunu took extraordinary risks and endured incredible suffering to rescue the human species from the foolhardiness of building and maintaining nuclear arsenals. I wonder if people worldwide can rise to a level of courage and seriousness needed to simply recognize, and then, where possible, act in response to the world's real threats. Within the U.S., can several decades of U.S. government bipartisan lying about Iran be overcome with saner, more humane narratives? Can the threat of U.S. invasion be lifted long enough to allow Iran's people a window for once again considering democratic reforms? Silence about these issues seems ominous. But silence can be broken. We have Vanunu's courageous example. Let's not waste the precious time we have in which to follow it. https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/wrongful-rhetoric/
We Will Soon See What the Word "Unity" Means for the Palestinian People
---- "Unity" is the most misused and misunderstood word in Arabic. "Ittihad". Every dictatorship, every nation in the Middle East must believe in "ittihad". And the Palestinans – the poor, divided Palestinians more than all others. For years they have been torn apart between Hamas and Fatah, between Islamism (if you believe in such a thing) and the Palestinian Authority, between Islamic rule – again, if you believe in this – and secular authority. And when Mahmoud Abbas was called by the United States to be told of America's "concern" that Hamas would be involved in such a government, you knew there would be a problem. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced, of course, that 'Abu Mazen' (Mahmoud Abbas) had said "Yes to terrorism and no to peace." This was ridiculous. If Abbas has managed to bring Hamas to heel – through financial threats – then the old PLO of Yassir Arafat has been re-created once more. … The real question is: do the Israelis want peace with the Palestinians? Or do they want the land of the West Bank? If the latter is the case, then the Netanyahu government will refuse to accept a new PLO-Hamas accord. [Read More] Also interesting/important on Palestinian reunification is Ramzy Baroud, "What Is Behind the Hamas-Fatah Reconciliation?" [Link]
A Tale of Two Islands [Cuba and Puerto Rico]
By V. J. Prashad, Frontline [India] [October 27, 2017]
---- While Cuban journalists and brigades fanned Cuba to provide information to the authorities about destruction and reconstruction, Puerto Rico went dark. Communications collapsed and information about the damage was not easily available. While in Cuba the authorities tried to get exact information of the damage done to each home, in Puerto Rico the numbers thrown about were the price tag for recovery—between $40 billion and $85 billion is the estimated insurance claims that will likely be triggered by the devastation. It says a great deal about the different approaches to disaster: one makes sure each person is tended to and the other worries about the cost of the recovery. … Here is a tale of two islands, one a poor socialist state with infrastructure in grave need of modernisation and the other a territory of one of the richest countries in the world. One has slowly emerged out of the chaos caused by a hurricane's wrath, while the other cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. [Read More]
WAR & PEACE
Under the Trump Administration, US Airstrikes Are Killing More Civilians
By
---- According to research from the nonprofit monitoring group Airwars, the first seven months of the Trump administration have already resulted in more civilian deaths than under the entirety of the Obama administration. Airwars reports that under Obama's leadership, the fight against IS led to approximately 2,300 to 3,400 civilian deaths. Through the first seven months of the Trump administration, they estimate that coalition air strikes have killed between 2,800 and 4,500 civilians. Researchers also point to another stunning trend – the "frequent killing of entire families in likely coalition airstrikes." In May, for example, such actions led to the deaths of at least 57 women and 52 children in Iraq and Syria. The vast increase in civilian deaths is not limited to the anti-IS campaign. In Afghanistan, the U.N. reports a 67 percent increase in civilian deaths from U.S. airstrikes in the first six months of 2017 compared to the first half of 2016. The key question is: Why? Are these increases due to a change in leadership?[Read More]
The War in Yemen
(Video) "Stop the Unconstitutional War in Yemen": Rep. Ro Khanna on Growing Opposition to U.S.-Backed War
From Democracy Now! [[October 16, 2017]
---- The U.S.-backed, Saudi-led war and naval blockade in Yemen has sparked a cholera epidemic that has become the largest and fastest-spreading outbreak of the disease in modern world history. There are expected to be a million cases of cholera in Yemen by the end of the year, with at least 600,000 children likely to be affected. The U.S. has been a major backer of the Saudi-led war. But in Washington, opposition to the U.S. support for the Saudi-led war is growing. Lawmakers recently introduced a constitutional resolution to withdraw all U.S. support for the war. In an op-ed for The New York Times, Congressmembers Ro Khanna, Walter Jones and Mark Pocan wrote that they introduced the resolution "in order to help put an end to the suffering of a country approaching 'a famine of biblical proportions.' … We believe that the American people, if presented with the facts of this conflict, will oppose the use of their tax dollars to bomb and starve civilians." We speak with Ro Khanna, Democratic congressmember from California. [See the Program]
Congress, end America's role in Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen
By Lawrence Wilkerson and Gareth Porter, [The Hill] [October 12, 2017]
---- The Saudi Arabia-led war in Yemen is a tragedy of epic proportions in which the United States is deeply and directly involved. The war has caused mass starvation and a cholera epidemic that is worse than any the world has witnessed in the past 50 years, with the latest estimate of Yemeni victims at well over half a million. This horrific situation is the result of Saudi/UAE bombing of roads, hospitals, bridges, water and sewage facilities, and the main port of Hodeida combined with a Saudi/UAE naval and air blockade that prevents large-scale humanitarian assistance from reaching the Yemeni war victims. The Saudi/UAE coalition could not execute the war without U.S. direct involvement — specifically the refueling of their planes carrying out the bombing — and the further assistance of providing bombs and targeting intelligence. [Read More]
The War in Afghanistan
No Good Reasons to Continue America's Longest War
By Sonali Kolhatkar, Truthdig [October 5, 2017]
---- Afghan civilians are caught between corrupt, U.S.-backed warlords in government, U.S. troops on the ground and airstrikes from above, Taliban forces, and now an emerging Islamic State presence. The war has hardly improved their lives and will likely mean many more years of violence. The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, the oldest women's political organization in the country, warned 16 years ago against U.S. intervention. A member of RAWA (who uses the pseudonym Heela to protect her identity) told me in a recent interview that Trump's plan is "not really a new strategy for Afghanistan or for the Afghan people. Nor was it a surprise." She explains that his plan "is actually a very small tactical change in the wider strategy that the U.S. has in the entire region and especially in Afghanistan." [Read More]
Profiting from America's Longest War: Trump Seeks to Exploit Mineral Wealth of Afghanistan
---- October 7th marked sixteen years since the start of the US War in Afghanistan – America's longest war. In an effort to justify the continued and expanded presence of US troops in the country, President Trump is seeking a plan to have US companies extract minerals from resource-rich Afghanistan. Afghanistan's deposits of iron, copper, zinc, gold, silver, lithium and other rare-earth metals are estimated to be worth roughly $1 trillion, a price tag which has intrigued the business mogul-turned-President Trump. … the mineral wealth of Afghanistan has the attention of President Trump, who is looking for a reason to continue America's longest war. "Trump wants to be repaid," a source close to the White House explained. "He's trying to see where the business deal is." [Read More]
The USA and the Iran Nuclear Agreement
Trump's Speech Against Iran Deal a National Disgrace
By
---- Trump is single handedly destroying U.S. credibility and all but guaranteeing that no country in their right mind would agree to a deal with the U.S. again. The U.S. has shredded alliances through go-it-alone approaches before, to disastrous effect. Trump's has reduced America's allies on Iran to just Benjamin Netanyahu and the Saudi royal family. Trump's "coalition of the willing" on Iran makes George W. Bush's old coalition on Iraq look like a diplomatic masterstroke. The most insulting of Trump's lies was when he sought to pass himself off as a champion of the Iranian people. As we speak, Trump is banning nearly all Iranians from the United States. The majority of people targeted by Trump's Muslim ban are Iranian. Iranian Americans are being cut off from their family members in Iran thanks to Trump. Congress must step in and make it clear that it will restrain this President and that the U.S. is fully committed to upholding its word on the Iran deal. [Read More]
Can the Iran Deal work without the US?
By Navid Hassibi, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists [October 13, 2017]
---- Media reports say that President Donald Trump may soon inform Congress that Iran is not complying with its end of the nuclear deal, despite numerous IAEA reports to the contrary and his own two previous certifications. … From the Iranian point of view, if sanctions are re-imposed by the US Congress, the United States would be in material breach of the deal, which would give a pretext for its unravelling—unless the deal can in some way survive without the United States. What are the chances of this happening? Can Washington withdraw from the deal without facts on the ground to back up this action? Can the dispute resolution mechanism contained in the deal save it? What about the role of the other five countries that negotiated with Iran alongside the United States: France, Germany, China, Russia, and the United Kingdom? (And the European Union, which coordinates the JCPOA.) Can the deal survive? [Read More]
Also useful/interesting on the USA and the Iran Nuclear Agreement – Eli Clifton, "Trump Ignores Advisers on Iran Deal, Follows Money," LobeLog [October 16, 2017] [Link]; Patrick Cockburn, "The only person who loses out from America's refusal to certify the Iran deal is Trump," The Independent [UK] [October 13, 2017] [Link]; John Nichols, "Donald Trump's Lies About the Iran Deal Reveal He Is Dangerously Out of Touch with Reality," The Nation [October 13, 2017] [Link]; and Trita Parsi, "5 Reasons Why Trump Is Moving Towards War With Iran," [Link].
War with North Korea?
U.S. Military to Begin Drills to Evacuate Americans From South Korea
---- The United States military said on Monday that it would practice evacuating noncombatant Americans out of South Korea in the event of war and other emergencies, as the two allies began a joint naval exercise amid heightened tensions with North Korea. The evacuation drill, known as Courageous Channel, is scheduled from next Monday through Friday and is aimed at preparing American "service members and their families to respond to a wide range of crisis management events such as noncombatant evacuation and natural or man-made disasters," the United States military said in a statement. It has been conducting similar noncombatant evacuation exercises for decades, along with other joint military exercises with South Korea. But when tensions escalate with North Korea, as they have recently, such drills draw outsize attention and ignite fear among South Koreans, some of whom take them as a sign that the United States might be preparing for military action against the North. [Read More]
GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE BREAKDOWN
(Video) Scientist Daniel Swain on "Unprecedented Climate Conditions" Contributing to Deadly CA Wildfires
From Democracy Now! [[October 16, 2017]
---- In California, at least 40 people have died, hundreds are missing, and thousands of homes have been destroyed by uncontrollable wildfires. More than 11,000 firefighters are battling the wildfires, with the support of hundreds of fire engines and dozens of helicopters and airplanes. Many of the firefighters are prisoners, who are working for as little as $1 a day. Among the victims of the wildfires were elderly residents of Sonoma County, where authorities say their bodies were so charred, the only way to identify some of them was by the serial numbers on artificial joints or other medical devices. We speak with Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and author of Weather West, the California Weather Blog. [See the Program] Also insightful/alarming from Democracy Now! is (Video) "As Deadly Wildfires Rage in California, a Look at How Global Warming Fuels Decades of Forest Fires" [[October 11, 2017] [Link]
CIVIL LIBERTIES/"THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR"
"Enemy Combatants" Again? Will Washington Never Learn?
By Karen J. Greenberg, Tom Dispatch [October 16, 2017]
By Karen J. Greenberg, Tom Dispatch [October 16, 2017]
---- Eight years ago, when I wrote a book on the first days of Guantanamo, The Least Worst Place: Guantánamo's First 100 Days, I assumed that Gitmo would prove a grim anomaly in our history. Today, it seems as if that "detention facility" will have a far longer life than I ever imagined and that it, and everything it represents, will become a true, if grim, legacy of twenty-first-century America. … The term "enemy combatant" is back and who knows what's about to come back with it? Was the Trump administration's very use of that label meant to get our attention, to signal the potential Guantanamo-ish future to come, to quash any cautious hopes that the modest gains realized during the Obama years might actually last? Remember that, during the 2016 election campaign, Donald Trump swore that he would add some "bad dudes" to Guantanamo and insisted that even American citizens could end up in that persistent symbol of American injustice. In the meantime, in August it was revealed that the Pentagon was already requesting from Congress $500 million dollars to build new barracks for troops, a hospital, and a tent city for migrants at Gitmo. In other words, the United States now stands at a worrisome and yet familiar crossroads in its never-ending war on terror and the signs point to a possible revival of some of the worst policies of the national security state. [Read More]
(Video) COINTELPRO 2? FBI Targets "Black Identity Extremists" Despite Surge in White Supremacist Violence
From Democracy Now! [[October 16, 2017]
---- A leaked FBI counterterrorism memo claims that so-called black identity extremists pose a threat to law enforcement. That's according to Foreign Policy magazine, which obtained the document written by the FBI's Domestic Terrorism Analysis Unit. The memo was dated August 3, 2017—only days before the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where white supremacists, Ku Klux Klan members and neo-Nazis killed one anti-racist protester, Heather Heyer, and injured dozens more. But the report is not concerned with the violent threat of white supremacists. Instead, the memo reads: "The FBI assesses it is very likely Black Identity Extremist perceptions of police brutality against African Americans spurred an increase in premeditated, retaliatory lethal violence against law enforcement and will very likely serve as justification for such violence." Civil liberties groups have slammed the FBI report, warning the "black identity extremists" designation threatens the rights of protesters with Black Lives Matter and other groups. Many have also compared the memo to the FBI's covert COINTELPRO program of the 1950s, '60s and '70s, which targeted the civil rights movement. [See the Program]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
The Empire Comes Home: Counterinsurgency, Policing, and the Militarization of America's Cities
By Danny Sjursen, Tom Dispatch [October 15, 2017]
By Danny Sjursen, Tom Dispatch [October 15, 2017]
---- As in Baghdad, so in Baltimore. It's connected, you see. Scholars, pundits, politicians, most of us in fact like our worlds to remain discretely and comfortably separated. That's why so few articles, reports, or op-ed columns even think to link police violence at home to our imperial pursuits abroad or the militarization of the policing of urban America to our wars across the Greater Middle East and Africa. I mean, how many profiles of the Black Lives Matter movement even mention America's 16-year war on terror across huge swaths of the planet? Conversely, can you remember a foreign policy piece that cited Ferguson? I doubt it. Nonetheless, take a moment to consider the ways in which counterinsurgency abroad and urban policing at home might, in these years, have come to resemble each other and might actually be connected phenomena. [Read More]
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
Israel Moves Ahead on West Bank Settlements, but Guardedly
---- Israel is moving ahead with plans for a significant expansion of its settlements in the occupied West Bank, including apartments in the volatile city of Hebron and the first approval of a new settlement in 20 years. But while the latest plans call for the eventual construction of thousands of new homes on the West Bank, when Israeli officials meet this week to review them, only several hundred housing units appear likely to be granted final approval. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is once again maneuvering on familiar ground, trying to balance the demands of his pro-settlement coalition partners with the opposition from the international community. [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
The Vietnam War is Not History for Victims of Agent Orange
By and
---- Watching the Ken Burns-Lynn Novick 18-hour series, "The Vietnam War," is an emotional experience. Whether you served in the US military during the war or marched in the streets to end it, you cannot remain untouched by this documentary. … In one of its most serious omissions, the series gives short shrift to the destruction wreaked by the US military's spraying of deadly chemical herbicides containing the poison dioxin over much of Vietnam, the most common of which was Agent Orange. This is one of the most tragic legacies of the war. Yet, aside from a few brief mentions, the victims of Agent Orange/dioxin, both Vietnamese and American, are not portrayed in the series. More importantly, the ongoing harm created by this chemical warfare program is never mentioned. [Read More] Also of interest re: the history of the Vietnam War is "The Myth of the Spitting Protester," by Jerry Lembcke, New York Times [October 13, 2017] [Link].
For George Pepper, the Blacklist Isn't Over
By Margot Pepper, ZNet [October 15, 2017]
---- October 27, 2017 will mark the 70th anniversary of the first day that ten courageous screenwriters and directors, known as the Hollywood Ten, refused to answer the illegal questions about their political associations and friends put to them by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) escalating the resistance to McCarthyism. As a result of McCarthyism, thousands of radicals were blacklisted throughout dozens of industries as "potential communists," which eventually resulted in their termination or exclusion from their professions, fines, jail time, even suicide. Supposedly, the blacklist began to disintegrate thirteen years later, on January 20, 1960, with Director Otto Preminger's announcement that blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo would receive full credit for the script of his film, Exodus. In reality, for others, like my father, the blacklist is still in place. … Today, if most Hollywood movies are insulting to average intelligence, perhaps it's because the blacklist purged the industry of content and any rendition of reality at odds with the "American dream" and prevailing economic system. [Read More]
