Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
November 28, 2017
Hello All – Today's news from North Korea is obviously not good. For clearer heads it should underline the importance of renewing negotiations between the several parties who have intervened in this conflict in the past, obviously including the United States and North Korea. But the Trump administration continues to reject negotiations, as have both the Democrats and the mainstream media. Yet to confine the debate about "what to do" to the questions of "bomb now" or "bomb later" is insane, though sadly it's where we seem to be stuck. Check out Marjorie Cohn's article below (or Link) about the military's obligation not to obey an illegal order to launch a nuclear strike; but in today's climate, this is a weak reed. What to do?
In this week's news from Yemen, UNICEF reports that 11 million children are in "acute need of humanitarian assistance." Yet with US assistance, the Saudi war goes on, bombs are falling everywhere, and ports are blocked and thus food and medicine cannot be delivered. The war, however, is good news for arms-makers like Raytheon and Boeing, who this week were reported to have signed a $7 billion contract with Saudi Arabia to deliver "precision guided munitions." This may be the occasion for a serious debate in Congress, and if so this will be a time to encourage our representatives Eliot Engel (718-796-9700) and Nita Lowey (914-428-1707) to vote against the arms deal.
The failure of this atrocious war to generate more than a few peeps of opposition will be recorded in history as a great failure on the part of the American people. The facts are clear, the moral issues are out there, and yet Americans "pass by on the other side," averting our eyes in pretending that we just can't see. Rebecca Solnit's article (below) directed me to some words by James Baldwin (The Fire Next Time) that, while written for a different context, seem on the mark:
I know what the world has done to my brother and how narrowly he has survived it. And I know, which is much worse, and this is the crime of which I accuse my country and my countrymen, and for which neither I nor time nor history will ever forgive them, that they have destroyed and are destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and do not know it and do not want to know it. One can be, indeed one must strive to become, tough and philosophical concerning destruction and death, for this is what most of mankind has been best at since we have heard of man. (But remember: most of mankind is not all of mankind.) But it is not permissible that the authors of devastation should also be innocent. It is the innocence which constitutes the crime.
There should be no contradiction between Stopping the Trump Agenda and struggling against the larger Agenda of the American Empire, whose hideousness in now in full display in Yemen. Please, let's act.
News Notes
Heavy hitters in the NY Democratic Party are pushing for the reunification of the party by the end of 2017, warning in letters to both the "regular" Democrats and leaders of the Independent Democratic Conference – eight Senate Democrats who caucus with the Republicans – that the IDC must end its independence or it will be attacked strongly by the party hierarchy and infrastructure. With luck, this could spell the end of Republican dominance of the Senate, paving the way for more progressive legislation. For more on this important development, go here.
As reported in previous newsletters, on October 11th five climate activists shut off the emergency valve of the Enbridge tar sands pipeline in rural Montana, to protest the threat of this carbon-intensive fuel to our environment. Last week one of the five, Leonard Higgins, was convicted and faces years in jail and a heavy fine. The judge in the case refused to let Higgins present a "necessity defense," saying that his actions were justified in light of the certain dangers of fossil fuels and global warming. For more on this story, go here.
Some CFOW stalwarts have been at work for several years combating conservative attempts to corrupt our electoral system, either through machine hacking or efforts to eliminate meaningful voting rights for low-income people and people of color. Last week The New York Times published a useful article, "Culling Voter Rolls: Battling Over Who Even Gets to Go to the Polls."
On Veterans Day, CFOW stalwarts passed out leaflets about the Trump administration's plans to limit and/or privatize healthcare for veterans. For some new developments, read Suzanne Gordon's article, "VA Officials Continue to Discuss Proposed Health-Care Changes Out of Public View" [Link].
For those keeping score at home, a new and user-friendly study of the cost of our wars since 9/11 – in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Syria – finds that we have spent $5.6 trillion. [Link].
From 1973 to 1982 I lived in Somerville, Massachusetts, at that time a working-class city of about 100,000 people just north of Cambridge. Needless to say, gentrification has taken its serious toll over the years, and one can no longer rent five rooms for $150 a month. Following on organizing for the Sanders campaign, a movement called Our Revolution Somerville just succeeded in electing two socialists to the Somerville Board of Aldermen, giving the leftists power to govern the city. One of the two socialists, I'm pleased to say, is Ben Ewen-Campen, the son of old friends from back in the day. For an interesting story about a grassroots socialist campaign for local government, read "Somerville's turn to 'sewer socialism' [Link].
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Wednesday, November 29th – The Israel Action Committee of Temple Israel in New Rochelle will host two speakers from "Combatants for Peace," former fighters in Israel/Palestine who have laid down their weapons and are now working for peace. (For more information about Combatants for Peace go here.) 7 p.m. at 1000 Pinebrook Boulevard in New Rochelle. For more information about the program, contact Mark Rosing at rosingm@yahoo.com.
Sunday, December 3rd – CFOW's monthly meeting is held this day from 7 to 9 p.m. Everyone is welcome at these meetings.
Ongoing – Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct has a new exhibition at the Keeper's House called "Existing Conditions," photographs of the trail from 20 years ago. The fixed-up Keeper's House is also interesting, imo. – The building is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. It's at 15 Walnut St. in Dobbs Ferry.
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. The "Featured Essays" include offerings from newsletter favorites Rebecca Solnit and Naomi Klein. Please especially check out the set of articles updating the dire situation in Puerto Rico; thought-provoking essays about legal prohibitions on nuclear war, the conflict in the USA over the Iran Nuclear Agreement, and the obscene war against Yemen; an interview with Israeli writer about his new book on Gaza; and the interesting articles about "Our History."
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. We meet for a protestl/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 rallies 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!
This newsletter was made possible by the incredible work of CFOW stalwart Jackie L, who saved the day after the demise of my 20-year-old computer; and so I now have a new/rehabbed computer that does twice is much in half the time. While on the job, Jackie introduced me (lagging years behind popular culture) to some music/videos that I think you will like. First up are two amazing productions from the British/Tamil singer M.I.A. - "Borders" and "Bad Girls." And here is another new-to-me find from Christine and the Queens. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
Let This Flood of Women's Stories Never Cease
---- Women spend their lives negotiating survival and bodily integrity and humanity in the home, on the streets, in workplaces, at parties, and now on the internet. The torrent of stories that has poured forth since the New Yorker and New York Times broke the long-suppressed stories about Weinstein tells us so. They tell us so in the news about famous women at the hands of famous men, in social media about the experiences of not-so-famous women and the endless hordes of abusers out there, whether we're talking rape, molestation, workplace harassment, or domestic violence. This seems to be what's produced the shock in a lot of what we are supposed to call good men, men who assure us they had no part in this. But ignorance is one form of tolerance, whether it's pretending we're in a colorblind society or one in which misogyny is some quaint old thing we've gotten over. It's not doing the work to know how the people around you live, or die, and why. … What would women's lives be like, what would our roles and accomplishments be, what would our world be, without this terrible punishment that looms over our daily lives? [Read More]
Canada Prepares for a New Wave of Refugees as Haitians Flee Trump's America
By Naomi Klein, The Intercept [
[FB – This article has more information about the situation and vulnerability of immigrants in the USA than is implied in the title: an in-depth discussion.]
----- Near the town of Lacolle, Quebec, just across the border in upstate New York, a cluster of blue-trimmed beige trailers has just arrived to provide temporary shelter for the unending wave of refugees, many of them from Haiti, who walk up on foot from Trump's America. Inside the new heated trailers are beds and showers, ready to warm up frozen hands and feet, while processing and security checks take place. Last winter, after Donald Trump's inauguration, there was a sharp increase in "irregular border crossings" all across the Canada-U.S. border: people sidestepping official ports of entry and trying to reach safety by walking through the woods, across clearings, or over ditches. Since January 2017, Canadian authorities intercepted nearly 17,000 migrants from the U.S. (and others crossed without detection). The applications for asylum begin once migrants are safely in Canada, rather than at border crossings, where they would likely be turned back under a controversial cross-border agreement between the two countries. [Read More] For more background on the expulsion of Haitians from the USA, read "The Trump Administration Strips Residency Protections for 50,000 Haitians," The Nation [November 2017] [Link].
What If? An Alternative Strategy for 9/12/2001
By Danny Sjursen, Tom Dispatch [November 2017]
By Danny Sjursen, Tom Dispatch [November 2017]
---- Whatever else it did, 9/11 presented the United States with an opportunity, a Robert Frost-like fork in a divergent path. And we Americans promptly took the road most traveled: militarism, war, vengeance — the easy wrong path. A broad war, waged against a noun, "terror," a "global" conflict that, from its first moments, looked suspiciously binary: Western versus Islamic (despite Bush's pleas to the contrary). In the process, al-Qaeda's (and then ISIS's) narratives were bolstered. There was — there always is — another path. Imagine if President Bush and his foreign policy team had paused, taken a breath, and demonstrated some humility and restraint before plunging the country into what would indeed become a war or set of wars. There were certainly questions begging to be asked and answered that never received a proper hearing. Why did al-Qaeda attack us? Was there any merit in their grievances? How did bin Laden want us to respond and how could we have avoided just such a path? Finally, which were the best tools and tactics to respond with? Let's consider these questions and imagine an alternative response. [Read More]
Puerto Rico Update
In Puerto Rico, the 'Natural Disaster' Is the US Government
By
---- The wreckage of Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricanes Maria and Irma teaches us that there is no such thing as a "natural disaster." This trope drives the federal response to environmental traumas under the Stafford Act, which allows the U.S. president to direct funds to any "state," including Puerto Rico, when it is felled by events such as hurricanes. The failures of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), show the illusions of the "disaster" story: It characterizes environmental traumas as short-term, one-size-fits-all catastrophes that are nobody's fault. It also positions the federal government as a savior of victims, who should be thankful for U.S. aid that is given a matter of largesse. … Interviews with Puerto Rican residents and responders that I conducted in November, however, reveal a different tale — one where FEMA administrators misunderstood the real dimensions of environmental "disasters," which may begin far before the event, unfold in highly site-specific ways, and can continue for decades if not longer. [Read More]
Also interesting/useful on the Puerto Rico crisis – Vijay Prashad, "Puerto Rico: Ruined Infrastructure and a Refugee Crisis," [Link]; and Editorial, "Mr. Trump's Paper Towels Aren't Helping Puerto Rico," [Link].
WAR & PEACE
The Duty to Disobey a Nuclear Launch Order
---- On November 19, Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of the US Strategic Command, declared he would refuse to follow an illegal presidential order to launch a nuclear attack. "If you execute an unlawful order, you will go to jail," the general explained at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia. "You could go to jail for the rest of your life." Gen. Hyten is correct. For those in the military, there is a legal duty to obey a lawful order, but also a legal duty to disobey an unlawful order. An order to use nuclear weapons -- except possibly in an extreme circumstance of self-defense when the survival of the nation is at stake -- would be an unlawful order. There is cause for concern that Donald Trump may order a nuclear strike on North Korea. Trump has indicated his willingness to use nuclear weapons. In early 2016, he asked a senior foreign policy adviser about nuclear weapons three times during a briefing and then queried, "If we have them why can't we use them?" During a GOP presidential debate, Trump declared, "With nuclear, the power, the devastation is very important to me." [Read More]
The Future of the American Empire [An interview with Alfred McCoy]
By Nick Turse, The Nationt [November 24, 2017]
----In the early 1970s, before he was an award-winning author and the Harrington professor of history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Alfred McCoy was a young rebel academic who waded into the war zone in Southeast Asia to investigate the relationship between the CIA, crime syndicates, and local drug lords. The result, which the Agency tried unsuccessfully to suppress, was his classic The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade. In the 45 years since, McCoy has consistently probed the underside of American global power, analyzing how the United States uses covert interventions, local proxies, torture, and worldwide surveillance to maintain its global empire. Those decades of investigation have yielded a new book, In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power, which investigates America's use of cyberwar, space warfare, trade pacts, and military alliances and reveals the contours of the shadow war that Washington wages to maintain its status as the world's sole superpower. I recently asked McCoy to tell me about the book, the world of covert interventions, the deep state, and whether Donald Trump is accelerating the fall of the American empire. [Read More]
The USA and the Iran Nuclear Agreement
Who Wants the Iran Deal Canceled?
---- It is no surprise that Donald Trump is eager to cancel the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, one of the few Obama policies that increased the prospects for world peace. Trump is closely allied with the extreme right of the Republican Party, which opposed the deal from the start and which is eager to eliminate the Islamist government in Iran either through a direct U.S. invasion or by outsourcing the deed to Israel. The surprise is that most of the U.S. foreign policy establishment wants to preserve the deal and lobbied hard, though unsuccessfully, to push Trump to recertify Iranian compliance. … This split among elites over Iran policy is longstanding, but since 2015 has matured into more institutionalized form. … In the near term, the outcome of this fraught process will also tell us a lot about the current policy dynamics in the United States. Is there still a cohesive ruling elite that can override narrow parasitic interests? Or can a fraction within the elite use a focused campaign – fueled by money and well-placed political allies – to determine policy on a single issue and/or region to benefit their narrow interest, even at the cost of disrupting the systemic stability that benefits the rest of their class? [Read More]
The Saudi-US War Against Yemen
The Quality of Mercy
"The quality of mercy is strained in the Middle East," reads a New York Times op-ed from mid-November, 2017, turning to literature to point out the unspeakably brutal throttling of Yemen where, according to the NYT op-ed, "Saudi Arabia closed off the highways, sea routes and airports in war-torn Yemen, forbidding humanitarian groups from even shipping chlorine tablets for the Yemenis suffering from a cholera epidemic…The International Red Cross expects about a million people to be infected by cholera in Yemen by December." The op-ed clearly links the epidemic to U.S. policy and emphasizes the Saudi-led campaign's dependence on military assistance from the U.S…. The comfortable nations often authorize the worst atrocities overseas through fear for their own safety, imagining themselves the victims to be protected from crime at all costs. Such attitudes entitle people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen to look in our direction when they ask, "Who are the criminals?" They will be looking at us when they ask that, until we at last exert our historically unprecedented economic and political ability to turn our imperial nations away from ruinous war, and earn our talk of mercy. [Read More]
Congress must end American support for Saudi war in Yemen
By Mark Weisbrot, The Hill [November 20, 2017]
---- The famine and shortages of medicine result from the Saudis deliberately blockading Yemeni ports, including Hodeida, through which 80 percent of Yemen's food imports arrive. Combined with the destruction of Yemen's water and sanitation infrastructure, the Saudi war and blockade has also delivered the world's worst cholera epidemic to Yemen. More than 900,000 people have been sickened, and although cholera is normally easily treatable, thousands have died. All of this is well known, although neither the atrocities nor the U.S. role in perpetrating them have gotten the attention they deserve. But the efforts of humanitarian and anti-war groups, as well as lawmakers who believe that U.S. military involvement without congressional consent is unconstitutional, are beginning to close in on the perpetrators. Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution, by a margin of 366–30, which did two unprecedented things. First, it acknowledged the U.S. role in the war, including the mid-air refueling of the Saudi-led coalition planes, which is essential to the bombing campaign, and help in selecting targets. Second, it recognized that this military involvement has not been authorized by Congress. … The House resolution has now set the stage for the fight to proceed in the Senate, which is more evenly divided. It is important for as many people as possible to get involved in this next phase of the fight because this is the world's best chance of ending this nightmare. [Read More]
More on the Yemen war – Megan Specia, "Yemen's War Is a Tragedy. Is It Also a Crime?" New York Times [November 22, 2017] [Link]; and Rick Gladstone, "U.S. Agency Foresees Severe Famine in Yemen Under Saudi," [Link].
The War in Syria
American policy totally failed in Syria — let's be thankful
---- When Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed to sponsor the Astana talks a year ago next month — quickly declaring themselves guarantors of a settlement in Syria — they effectively outlined an alliance that seems about to replace Washington's traditional strategic framework. That has long rested primarily on ties to Israel, the Saudis and the Gulf monarchies. But the Moscow–Tehran–Ankara triangle starts to make that look like yesterday. Renewed alignments and realignments have proceeded apace for much of this year. King Salman spent four days summiting in Moscow a few months ago — a stunning signal of new thinking in Saudi Arabia since he took the throne not quite two years ago. Turkey and Russia, viciously at odds when the latter first entered the Syrian conflict on Damascus' behalf, are now cooperating as allies. Note in this connection a senior Turkish minister's suggestion last week that Turkey's NATO membership has to be reconsidered. Where does this end, you have to ask? [Read More]
For more on the war in Syria – Jason Ditz, "Pentagon to Admit to 2,000 Troops in Syria," Antiwar.com [Link]; and from Agence France Presse, "Syria war has killed more than 340,000: new toll" [November 24, 2,017] [Link].
GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE BREAKDOWN
Climate Summit's Solution to Global Warming: More Talking
---- Should all the pledges made at the Paris Summit actually be met, the increase in global temperatures will be about 2.7 degrees, according to Climate Action Tracker. The group calculates that fulfillment of the national pledges would result in an increase in the global temperature of 2.2 to 3.4 degrees C. (with a median of 2.7) by 2100, with further increases beyond that. In other words, global warming would advance at a slower pace that it would have otherwise should all commitments be fulfilled. But there are no enforcement mechanisms to force compliance with these goals; peer pressure is expected to be sufficient. … The bottom line is that business can't continue as usual. That means wrenching changes to the economy in a system, capitalism, which offers no alternative employment to those whose jobs would be eliminated.
Trump still wants Expensive Coal but the Market wants Cheap wind & Solar
By Jonathan Marshall, Consortium News [November 26, 2017]
---- Market trends now favor renewable energy as a cost-effective alternative to fossil fuels, but President Trump's resistance to this good news is doing real damage in the fight against global warming, reports Jonathan Marshall. With petrochemical billionaires Charles and David Koch paying many of the GOP's bills these days, it's no wonder conservative policymakers are pushing hard to protect dirty fossil fuels against competition from clean, renewable energy. But entrepreneurial capitalists whom conservatives claim to worship are fighting back, slashing costs for wind and solar power to the point where few customers can refuse them. [Read More]
CIVIL LIBERTIES/"THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR"
FB – Is it possible for the United States to commit war crimes and human rights violations? Of course it is, and critics of our many wars say such acts happen routinely. Yet no American –military or civilian – has ever been prosecuted in an international arena for such acts. In part this is because the United States refused to ratify the Rome Treaty of 1992, which established the International Criminal Court. But now the ICC's chief prosecutor has started an action to investigate torture, rape and other atrocities in Afghanistan. In the article below ace journalist Peter Maass notes that General Mladic, just convicted of war crimes in the Bosnia wars in the 1990s, was found guilty of the conducting "siege warfare," arguable the same thing that Saudi Arabia and the United States are doing to Yemen today.]
Gen. Ratko Mladic Was Convicted of Siege Warfare in Bosnia. Will the U.S.-Backed Siege in Yemen Face Justice?
By Peter Maass, The Intercept [
---- Ratko Mladic got what he deserved, which is the beginning of the story. Forget, for a moment, the legal jargon that defines what are known as crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. Think, instead, of this simpler thing: siege warfare. In plain language, that's one of the many outrages Mladic, a former general, presided over during the war in Bosnia — for which an international war crimes tribunal has just condemned him to spend the rest of his life in prison. … Whatever congratulations anyone might feel about this news should be tempered with shame. Siege warfare is happening at this very moment in Yemen, where whole cities and regions have been cut off by a Saudi-led military alliance. The generation-ago crimes for which Mladic has been justly condemned are happening again right now. … The real twist, of course, is that the siege warfare for which Mladic has been vilified is, in its Yemeni iteration, actively facilitated by the U.S., which provides munitions, targeting intelligence, and mid-air refueling to Saudi bomber jets. [Read More]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
National Democratic Party – Pole Vaulting Back into Place
, Counterpunch [November 24, 2017]
----Seeking to capitalize on the Republicans' disarray, public cruelty and Trumpitis, the Democratic Party is gearing up for the Congressional elections of 2018. Alas, party leaders are likely to enlist the same old cast and crew. The Democratic National Committee and their state imitators are raising money from the same old big donors and PACs that are complicit in the Party's chronic history of losing so many Congressional, gubernatorial and state legislative races—not to mention the White House. Without authentic policies for the people of our country, "message" following "money" simply becomes the same political consultants' con game. "Mobilization" is not possible when voters feel there is no political movement prepared to work on their behalf. [Read More]
A Growing Lawyer 'Army' Is Banding Together to Protect Immigrants
By Tania Karas, The Nation [November 23, 2017]
---- In the days after the election of Donald Trump Shira Scheindlin co-founded the American Immigrant Representation Project (AIRP). It aims to harness the power—and deep pockets—of the nation's biggest law firms to assist undocumented immigrants facing deportation. With about $500,000 in donations so far, the group's 150 volunteers have started representing detainees along the East Coast and will soon spread across the country. AIRP works by recruiting lawyers from big law firms through their pro bono committees. Volunteers are assigned cases referred by overburdened legal services groups. And because corporate lawyers may lack experience in immigration law, they are trained and supervised by the Immigration Justice Campaign, a deportation defense initiative run by the American Immigration Council and American Immigration Lawyers Association. … The cause is critical at a time when Trump has overseen a dramatic rise in arrests of undocumented immigrants. … Because immigration is a civil matter, and not a criminal one, immigrants have no Sixth Amendment right to counsel. The government, meanwhile, is always represented by attorneys, creating an unfair playing field with high stakes for immigrants—namely, deportation to dangerous home countries. One immigration judge likened the system to "death-penalty cases heard in traffic-court settings." [Read More]
If Trump's FCC Repeals Net Neutrality, Elites Will Rule the Internet—and the Future
By John Nichols, The Nation [November 24, 2017]
---- Citizens love net neutrality. "The overwhelming majority of people who wrote unique comments to the Federal Communications Commission want the FCC to keep its current net neutrality rules and classification of ISPs as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act," Ars Technica reported in August. How overwhelming? "98.5% of unique net neutrality comments oppose Ajit Pai's anti–Title II plan," read the headline. The media monopolists of the telecommunications industry hate net neutrality. They have worked for years to overturn guarantees of an open Internet because those guarantees get in their way of their profiteering. If net neutrality is eliminated, they will restructure how the Internet works, creating information superhighways for corporate and political elites and digital dirt roads for those who cannot afford the corporate tolls. No one will be surprised to learn which side Donald Trump's FCC has chosen. [Read More] For more on the "net neutrality" issue, read "Will Congress Bless Internet Fast Lanes?" by Corynne McSherry and Elliot Harmon, Electronic Frontier Foundation [November 20, 2017] [Link].
The Human Right to Not Be Poor
An interview with Peter, ZNet [November 25, 2017].
---- Peter Bohmer: The Universal Basic Income (UBI) is getting increasing attention in the United States, in particular from Silicon Valley, and many other countries in the world. The idea of the universal basic income is that every resident in a society would get a certain income that's not attached to their work. The numbers I'm suggesting to start with are $1,000 a month for each person over 18 and $500 a month for each person under 18. These amounts would increase annually to keep up with inflation and would also rise as productivity increases. To illustrate the idea, let's take a family of two adults—two parents 18 and over and two children under 18. They would receive $1,000 for each adult and $500 for each child, which would total 3,000 a month. That is $36,000 a year, which is about 1 1/2 times the official poverty line. In addition, it would offer a housing allowance in high rent cities. That's the basic idea. [Read More]
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
How Israel turned Palestine into the biggest prison on earth
An Interview with Ilan Pappé, Middle East Eye [November 2017]
[FB – Ilan Pappé's most recent book is called The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories. I had the good fortune to read it recently and highly recommend it, not only for its depiction of the history and present-day realities of Gaza, but also for the story – unknown to me – of the meticulous planning that the Israeli military and government had undertaken to administer a long-term occupation, many years before the 1967 war made it possible.]
---- Middle East Eye: How does this book build on your previous book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine about the 1948 war?
---- Ilan Pappé: It is definitely a continuation of my earlier book The Ethnic Cleansing that describes the events of 1948. I see the whole project of Zionism as a structure not just as one event. A structure of settler colonialism by which a movement of settlers colonises a homeland. As long as the colonisation is not complete and the indigenous population resists through a national liberation movement, each such period that I'm looking at is just a phase within the same structure. Although The Biggest Prison is a history book, we are still within the same historical chapter. It's not over yet. So in this respect, there should be probably a third book later on looking at the events of the 21st century and how the same ideology of ethnic cleansing and dispossession is being implemented in the new era and how it is resisted by the Palestinians. [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
The Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated the United States
By Richard Rothstein, Zinn Education Project [November 14, 2017]
---- Racial segregation characterizes every metropolitan area in the United States and bears responsibility for our most serious social and economic problems — it corrupts our criminal justice system, exacerbates economic inequality, and produces large academic gaps between white and African American schoolchildren. … In truth, however, residential segregation was created by racially explicit and unconstitutional government policy in the mid-20th century, including the racially explicit federal subsidization of whites-only suburbs in which African Americans were prohibited from participating. Only after learning the history of these policies can we be prepared to undertake the national conversations necessary to remedy our unconstitutional racial landscape [Read More]
John Steinbeck, The Dust Bowl, and Farm-Worker Organizing
By Harry Targ, Portside [November 23, 2017]
---- Steinbeck is most known for his iconic novel, The Grapes of Wrath, 1939, which described in detail the migration of the Joad family from their dust storm devastated farm land to California seeking work and eventually, they hoped, to accumulate enough money to buy land in this presumed mecca. Their travels involved encounters with thousands of other migrants, called "Okies," desperately leaving their homelands in several Southern and Midwest states to find a livelihood. … But the natural disaster is in fact a part of a long history, political economy, politics and culture. New agricultural technologies, shifted the means of production and the products produced making small farming obsolete. This and a debt system that kept tenant farmers in bondage all created an inextricable connection between a crisis-prone capitalist political economy and the delicate balance of the natural environment. [Read More]
The Party of Lincoln or the Party of Booth?
---- The Confederacy lingers in the country's imagination. Removing the statues of Confederate heroes was opposed by sixty-three percent of voters in Virginia's recent election. Is that because the full story and history of some of those who defended slavery hasn't been aired? The Confederacy has been romanticized by historians who are awed by those whom they consider great men, and by Hollywood movies, like "Gone With The Wind," where slaveholders are referred to as "Knights and Ladies," and the only harm to a slave occurs when Scarlett, regarded by some as an early feminist, slaps Prissy, an image that might mirror the relationship between Black and White feminists over the last hundred or so years. Defenders say that we can't impose the standards of today on the practices of slave owners. Bunk! [Read More]
