Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
December 17, 2017
Hello All – They're like a swarm of drones – the Texas state police or the ICE immigration enforcers, hovering over America's immigrants, who never know if this day will be their last in the USA, or what will happen to their families nd sent back to where they fled from. Check out this powerful video from the American Civil Liberties Union and imagine the trauma that the fear of deportation spreads throughout our land. Or imagine the organized sadism that goes into the random stops of people of color. For the most part this is far from Westchester, but it is happening every day to many of our fellow humans.
The next week will see a critical struggle in the attempt to stop this and restore a measure of sanity to our country. Immediately at stake is the fate of "the Dreamers," the young people who are protected from deportation by the DACA program (Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals). In a great many cases, the 800,000 Dreamers were brought to the United States as very young children, and have few memories of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, or wherever they were born. President Trump has announced the end of the program, scheduling that for March. The Dreamers and their allies are urging the congressional Democrats to include legislation that would protect them into the money bill that Congress must pass to keep the government "running" beyond next Friday, December 22nd. As Democratic votes are needed to pass the money bill in the Senate, the Dreamers and their congressional allies have some leverage.
What will the Democrats do? On one hand, support for the Dreamers and legislation on their behalf is overwhelming. To take just one example from many, a recent poll shows that 81 percent of those polled – including 67 percent of Republicans – said they wanted the beneficiaries of the DACA program to remain in the USA. Those supporting this position include business organizations and many other components of the Trump coalition. But a few days ago, Democratic congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer said that they would not fight for the inclusion of "Dream Act" language in the money bill needed to keep the government running. Why is this? According to the polling organization Five Thirty-Eight, the Democratic Party leadership believes that they have the wind at their back in approaching the 2018 congressional elections, and that "shutting down the government" risks alienating voters who have already been alienated from Trump and his congressional team. (But, according to 538, polls show that most voters would blame the Republicans if the government were shut down over the DACA issue.)
The reluctance of the Democratic Party leadership to support the Dreamers on this issue has led, to my knowledge, to the first significant break between the Democrats and the Indivisible movement, which has asked its local chapters to push their Democratic representatives to vote against the spending legislation if no deal is reached over DACA. According to Angel Padilla, the policy director of Indivisible, "Even though Democrats love to take pictures with Dreamers and love to give big speeches about the Dream Act, when it comes down to their vote, they're not willing to throw down for the Dream Act." (Locally, the Indivisible movement is represented by NYCD16 Indivisible [Eliot Engel's district] and Indivisible Rivertowns [from Hastings to Ossiining]. Use these links to follow their statements and action on DACA.)
The wavering or capitulation of the Democrats' leadership on this issue has also generated many demonstrations and sit-ins at congressional offices, with some actions targeting Senator Schumer. In the week ahead, supporters of the Dreamers and of immigrant rights can put our thumbs on the scale by phoning the offices of Senators Schumer (212-486-4430) and Gillibrand (212-688-6262) and demanding that they make support for the DACA program part of the funding legislation that must be passed by Friday. We can also lend a hand by supporting the Yonkers Sanctuary Movement, which is holding a rally tomorrow, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m., at Lincoln Memorial Park (South Broadway and Post St.) in Yonkers. For other actions this week, please check in to CFOW Facebook page.
News Notes
Last Monday, the day after the UN's "Human Rights Day," the Catholic Workers, the War Resisters League, and other groups organized a protest and civil disobedience at the United Nations calling for an end to US weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and demanding that the blockade of food and medicine attempting to reach Yemen be ended. Photographer Erik McGregor, everywhere as usual, has a good set of pictures here. One of the participants, Brian Terrell of Waging Nonviolence, writes about the action and his experiences that day in "A Story of Two Blockades."
Mark your calendars for the Big Day when the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere will be sufficient to boost the Earth's temperature by the dreaded 2 degrees Celsius, thus rendering human survival problematic. This interactive site lets you make optimistic or pessimistic assumptions, but the moderate/mainstream assumptions predict that we will reach the one-trillion-tons-of-CO2 marker on Wednesday, October 22, 2036. Just in time for Halloween!
The Third-Worldization of the Unites States proceeds apace. A recent tour of some African-American communities in the South by the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights concluded that "African-American areas have the worst poverty in the industrialized world." MAGA! .
In the world of weaponry, science fiction morphs into reality and back again. Check out this short (faux) promotional video for "Slaughterbots," miniature drones with a facial-recognition ap and a small explosive charge that can assassinate designated individuals in crowds, in schools, etc. The 8-minute video, "As Much Death As You Want," is supplemented with explanations by a narrative about the shape of things to come. And just in time for Christmas. Check out "Slaughterbots."
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Monday, December 18th - #Stop Spectra asks support for a tsunami of phone calls to the office of Governor Cuomo, demanding a halt to the build-out of fracking infrastructure (e.g. pipelines and compressor stations) in New York. (This is a recurring event – every Monday.) This week's call focuses on the "Independent Risk Assessment" re: the Spectra high-pressure pipeline built next to the Indian Point nuclear plant. The study was promised 657 days ago. We're still waiting, Gov. Cuomo.! For more information, go here.
Saturday, December 30th – Please come to CFOW's annual holiday party, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs. Everyone welcome! And please invite some friends to come along, meet the CFOW stalwarts, and have a good time.
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 excellent "Featured Essays," I especially recommend Nick Turse's article on the incredible expansion of the use of Special Forces in US military operations; the set of articles on the on-going war crimes in Yemen; the several articles that give some historical background to the crisis in Korea; the in-depth photo/journalist essay on the humanitarian crisis in Appalachia; the useful primer on the "net neutrality"; and the review of a new book by old friend Linda Gordon on the "Second KKK," which enrolled a significant number of Americans in the 1920s.
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
Serious readers can't be serious all of the time. We need occasional rest stops, a detective novel between chapters of Proust or the latest from Noam Chomsky. First up - for wish fulfillment, what could beat this amazing video of the FBI arrest of the Trump team and the Orange One himself? And next - this week the Trump administration told the Center for Disease Control and Prevention that seven words – not six or eight – are no longer acceptable in budgets or reports. The intern who thought this up was obviously channeling the late, great George Carlin, whose elucidation of the seven words that you cannot say on television can be seen here. (Potty-mouth alert!) Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
Bombed into famine: how Saudi air campaign targets Yemen's food supplies
By Iona Craig, The Guardian [December 12, 2017]
---- Since Saudi Arabia launched its military intervention in Yemen in March 2015, more than 10,000 civilians have died. More than 250 fishing boats have been damaged or destroyed and 152 fishermen have been killed by coalition warships and helicopters in the Red Sea, according to Mohammed Hassani, the head of the fishermen's union in Yemen's western port of Hodeidah. … Yemen's fishing industry has become an ever more vital lifeline for a country in the midst of the world's worst humanitarian crisis. More than eight million Yemenis are now facing famine after Saudi Arabia tightened a blockade on the country on 6 November. Restrictions were slightly eased on 26 November, allowing some aid in for the 20 million Yemenis relying on humanitarian support. But aid agencies have predicted mass famine if key ports such as Hodeidah remain closed to commercial imports. … Millions of Yemenis can no longer afford to buy food, forcing them into the more than 75% of the population who are in need of humanitarian assistance. [Read More] Iona Craig was interviewed this week on Democracy Now! – (Video) "U.S. Support 'Vital' to Saudi Bombing" [December 15, 2017] [See the program]
For more on Saudi Arabia's war-through-starvation in Yemen – From Reuters, "More than 8 million Yemenis 'a step away from famine' - U.N." [December 11, 2017] [Link]; "USAID Chief: No Sign Saudis Easing Yemen Blockade," from Antiwar.com [December 12, 2017] [Link]; Gareth Porter, "The US Provided Cover for the Saudi Starvation Strategy in Yemen," [Link]; and "U.S. arms sold to Saudis are killing civilians in Yemen. Now the Trump administration is set to sell them more," Los Angeles Times [June 13, 2017]
The Israeli Military First Took His Legs, Then His Life
By Gideon Levy, Haaretz [Israel] [December 17, 2017]
---- The killing of the young disabled man passed almost without mention in Israel. He was one of three demonstrators killed Friday, just another humdrum day. One can easily imagine what would happen if Palestinians had killed an Israeli who used a wheelchair. What a furor would have erupted, with endless ink spilled on their cruelty and barbarism. How many arrests would have resulted, how much blood would have flowed in retaliation. But when soldiers behave barbarically, Israel is silent and shows no interest. No shock, no shame, no pity. An apology or expression of regret or remorse is the stuff of fantasy. The idea of holding those responsible for this criminal killing accountable is also delusional. Abu Thuraya was a dead man once he dared take part in his people's protest and his killing is of no interest to anyone, since he was a Palestinian. {Read More] Gideon Levy, one of Israel's foremost critics of the Occupation, spoke in Greenburgh several years ago, where his talk was disrupted by so-called "supporters of Israel." For some excellent pictures of Friday's demonstrations in Gaza, including some of Abu Thuray in his wheelchair, go here. For a round-up of Friday's demonstrations in Israel/Palestine, in which four Palestinians were killed and a least 300 injured, go here. I could find no news reporting of any of this in the New York Times ("the newspaper of record"), but in an editorial The Times boldly called on "the Palestinian leadership and others to discourage violence that could engulf the region at great cost to all sides." If by "others" they include the Netanyahu government and Israel's "security" forces, The Times is certainly right; but I sense that the editors are calling on the Palestinians to return to their cages and respect the orders of their Masters.
Don't let the alt-right hijack #MeToo for their agenda
, The Guardian [UK] [December 10, 2017]
---- That was fast. In this #MeToo moment, feminism has been coopted by both people who don't understand it and by people who oppose it. Worse: it's now being used against people who are feminists and allies. … We're now at the point where people are being canned for jokes, by people who don't get the jokes, don't get feminism, don't get that maybe there should be some proportion in this thing, and don't get that right-wing men with a public record of misogyny might not be your best guides through all this. … That's why people who've been thinking about gender politics and women's rights should be in charge of this moment. We need to be led through this by people who've experienced harassment and denigration and discrediting. People who've spent years listening to others and who have been thinking about the dynamics, ethics and consequences of these things before. [Read More]
Also useful on sexual harassment issues – Ann Jones, "Sexual Harassment Has Not Changed So Much Since the 1970s," The Nation [December 12, 2017] [Link]; and Zephyr Teachout, "I'm Not Convinced Franken Should Quit," [Link].
Honduras Holds Democracy Hostage
By Suyapa Portillo, Javier Lopez-Casertano, and Cristian Padilla Romero, NACLA [North American Committee on Latin America] [December 12, 2017]
---- To this day, the TSE [the Election Commission] has not declared a winner. And even more inconsistencies have come to light: for example, the TSE claimed that the rural vote from low population departments had tilted the election in favor of Juan Orlando Hernández, a numerically impossible claim given Nasralla's win in populous urban centers. Meanwhile, international observers, including the Organization of American States (OAS) and the European Union (EU) have now denounced the non-transparent manner in which the TSE has been handling the vote counting process. Hondurans have yet to hear anything from first-world presidents on the fraud claims, though on November 28 the U.S. certified that Honduras has made enough progress on human rights to receive its full security aid package this year. A group of U.S. Members of Congress did release a statement condemning the action and ongoing opacity of the Honduran elections. But the deafening silence of the world's most powerful countries begs the question: are such machinations going to be a modus operandi for the right wing in Latin America in the 21st century? [Read More] Also useful on the Honduras crisis is Elisabeth Malkin, "U.S. at a Crossroad as It Confronts Turmoil in Honduras," [Link].
WAR & PEACE
Trump Signs $692 Billion Military Spending Bill
By Jason Ditz, Antiwar.com [December 12, 2017]
---- After passing through both the House and Senate, President Trump of Tuesday signed the latest National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which will see the US military spend $692 billion over the next year, plus any other emergency funding authorized beyond that. The NDAA is far in excess to the level sought by President Trump originally. … In the signing statement, Trump suggested several NDAA provisions were objectionable given his own estimation of his power, and that he intended to ignore those provisions. [Read More]
For some additional/useful perspectives on the military budget – Lawrence Wittner, "Should We Pay the Staggering Economic and Human Costs of Nuclear Weapons?" [Link]; Thomas Knapp, "Here Comes the Next 'Defense' Shakedown," December 14, 2017] [Link]. And J. P. Sottile, "The US Military Is the Biggest 'Big Government' Entitlement Program on the Planet," December 10, 2017] [Link].
Donald Trump's First Year Set a Record for Use of Special Operations Forces
By Nick Turse, The Nation [December 14, 2017]
---- In 2017, U.S. Special Operations forces, including Navy SEALs and Army Green Berets, deployed to 149 countries around the world, according to figures provided to TomDispatch by U.S. Special Operations Command. That's about 75 percent of the nations on the planet and represents a jump from the 138 countries that saw such deployments in 2016 under the Obama administration. It's also a jump of nearly 150 percent from the last days of George W. Bush's White House. This record-setting number of deployments comes as American commandos are battling a plethora of terror groups in quasi-wars that stretch from Africa and the Middle East to Asia. … The Trump White House has attacked Barack Obama's legacy on nearly all fronts. When it comes to Special Operations forces, however, the Trump administration has embraced their use in the style of the former president, while upping the ante even further. [Read More] For more on how the US military helps govern The Empire, read Monica Duffy Toft, "The United States engaged in forty-six military interventions from 1948–1991, from 1992–2017 that number increased fourfold to 188," The National Interest [UAE] [December 10, 2017] [Link].
The Saudi-US War Against Yemen
How the Saudis Escalated Yemen Struggle Beyond All Control
By Justin Podur, AlterNet [December 10, 2017]
---- Saudi Arabia began bombing Yemen in support of Hadi in March of 2015. The Saudi intervention magnified the humanitarian impact of the civil war into a full-blown catastrophe, bombing, besieging, and blockading the entire country to try to force the Houthis out. The Saudi blockade and bombing have scaled up a local power struggle to genocidal proportions. They believe Yemen is their backyard and that it is their right to impose a solution. Military victory has proven elusive for them, but their unlimited resources and the wide license given them by the Western media to freely commit crimes has allowed them to keep raising the stakes and nudging Yemen towards catastrophe. The Houthis have held on, however, withstanding the bombardment and siege, even as the humanitarian catastrophe continues to expand. … The UN, Oman, Iran, and others have put forward peace plans to end the Yemeni civil war. Most feature a national unity government that includes the Houthis, who will convert their movement into a political party, with elections to follow. Saleh switching sides and the Houthi killing him makes a peace deal much less likely in the short term. But the biggest obstacle to peace remains Saudi Arabia, which has also been the biggest escalating force of the war. [Read More]
For more on the war against Yemen - Will Porter, "Yemen's Silent Numbers: Official Death Count Masks War's Toll on Civilians," Libertarian Institute [December 11, 2017] [Link]. For the USA as an obstacle to a peace settlement, read Alex Emmons, "The U.S. Ambassador to Yemen's Hard-Line Approach Is Jamming Up Peace Efforts," The Intercept [December 13, 2017] [Link].
A US War Against North Korea?
How the U.S. Could Provoke a New Korean War
By , Foreign Policy in Focus [December 11, 2017]
---- On the U.S. side, a successful negotiation would require ditching denuclearizing North Korea as Washington's long-standing end goal and being willing to live with the country as a nuclear state.
This is perhaps not as unlikely as it might seem: The administration is reportedly considering a Cold War-style deterrence strategy toward the North. And given the choice between a devastating war and grudgingly accepting one more nuclear state in the world, the majority of the American public would probably choose the latter. Indeed, it is — unsurprisingly — Trump's Republican base that is most eager for a war. And given the transfixing hold he's demonstrated over this portion of the country, the president could easily spin a negotiated settlement with Kim Jong-un as another notch in the win column for America. In such a scenario, he would even be right. The more important consideration, then, is what would North Korea demand? Or, to put it another way, what is the end goal for the regime? [Read More]
North Korea: The Costs of War, Calculated
By , Foreign Policy in Focus [December 13, 2017]
---- Donald Trump is contemplating wars that would dwarf anything that his immediate predecessors ever considered. He has dropped the mother of all bombs in Afghanistan, and he's considering the mother of all wars in the Middle East. … But no war has acquired quite the same apparent inevitability as the conflict with North Korea. Here in Washington, pundits and policymakers are talking about a "three-month window" within which the Trump administration can stop North Korea from acquiring the capability to strike U.S. cities with nuclear weapons. … This aura of inevitability should put prevention of conflict with North Korea at the top of the urgent to-do list of all international institutions, engaged diplomats, and concerned citizens. A warning about the costs of war may not convince people who want Kim Jong Un and his regime out regardless of consequences (and nearly half of Republicans already support a preemptive strike). But a preliminary estimate of the human, economic, and environmental costs of a war should make enough people think twice, lobby hard against military actions by all sides, and support legislative efforts to prevent Trump from launching a preemptive strike without congressional approval. [Read More]
The legacy of the Korean War – Virtually unknown in the United States, the events of the Korean War (1950-53), including the devastating bombing of all the North Korean cities, still plays a central role in North Korea's defense planning and public consciousness. A good perspective is the article by Ted Nace, "State of Fear: How History's Deadliest Bombing Campaign Created Today's Crisis in Korea," [Link]. Prof. Bruce Cumings is the major US historian on the Korean War, and some years ago he produced a fabulous seven-part video history of the Korean War, based on his book, Korea: The Unknown War. You can see Part 1 of the series (the background to the war) here. Especially relevant to the current crisis is this short segment from the film and an interview with Cumings, "Firebombing North Korea - The US and the Korean War" [Link].
GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE BREAKDOWN
Cashing Out From the Climate Casino
----It's hard to be optimistic about climate action, not in a week when federal scientists reported that "the Arctic shows no sign of returning" to the "reliably frozen region of recent past decades." Not in a month when California's wildfires show every sign of burning straight through Christmas. And not in a moment when the federal government keeps scrubbing basic climate information from its websites. But something big is starting to shift. After years of effort from activists, there are signs that the world's financial community is finally rousing itself in the fight against global warming. A foretaste came last month when Norway's sovereign wealth fund — the world's biggest — said that it is considering divestment from holdings in fossil fuel companies. … It's true that no environmental action is possible in Donald Trump's Washington. It's also true that congresses and parliaments are not the only halls of power. Finance, not politics, may turn out to be the soft underbelly of the climate monster. [Read More]
How Global Warming Fueled Five Extreme Weather Events
---- Extreme weather left its mark across the planet in 2016, the hottest year in recorded history. Record heat baked Asia and the Arctic. Droughts gripped Brazil and southern Africa. The Great Barrier Reef suffered its worst bleaching event in memory, killing large swaths of coral. Now climate scientists are starting to tease out which of last year's calamities can, and can't, be linked to global warming. In a new collection of papers published Wednesday in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, researchers around the world analyzed 27 extreme weather events from 2016 and found that human-caused climate change was a "significant driver" for 21 of them. The effort is part of the growing field of climate change attribution, which explores connections between warming and weather events that have already happened. [Read More]
For more on global warming/climate chaos - "What Republicans Think About Climate Change — in Maps," [Link]. Twelve year old Sonia Zinkin Meyers has started a newsletter for kids on 350.org. Check it out! "Climate Change in My Eyes," 350.org [December 13, 2017] [Link].
THE STATE OF THE UNION
A Year in the Ohio River Valley: Hard Times in Trump Country
By Stacy Kranitz and Alice Speri, The Intercept [
---- Jamie Stewart voted for Donald Trump, but she thinks the president is a "jackass." She doesn't really love to talk about what he's doing or why she voted for him. "They should take his phone away from him," she says. "He posts stupid shit all the time." In a series of interviews that stretched over a year, Stewart was ambivalent when pressed about the president's accomplishments or any promises he might have kept. "I don't really pay attention," she says. "I don't have time to give a shit." Since Trump astonished himself and the world on election night last year, observers have scrambled to figure out people like Stewart, Middle America's "white working class." Why did they vote as they did? And were they going to do it again? [Read More]
Tax Plan's Biggest Cuts Could Be in Living Standards
By Eduardo Porter, New York Times [December 12, 2017]
---- The evidence underscores a not-insignificant weakness in the Republicans' longstanding economic platform: Tax cuts are not the secret sauce to power the American economy. They have, in fact, very little power to affect economic growth. However strenuously Republicans may argue that tax reform is about increasing economic efficiency, encouraging investment or promoting competitiveness, tax cuts are always primarily about redistribution. That's because the main effect of tax cuts is in changing how the fruits of economic growth are distributed. This means that for policymakers interested in improving the welfare of the American people, the first and most important item to consider is whose welfare is most worth improving. [Read More] Also useful/interesting is "Latest Student Loan Debacle Is Ultimate Example of Trump's Campaign Con," by Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone [December 12, 2017] [Link]
(Video) It's Time to End Mass Incarceration
By Brave New [December 13, 2017]
---- The United States is the wealthiest country in the world, but it also jails more people than any other nation, including China and Russia. Over 2.3 million adults are currently in American prisons and jails.
On a per capita basis, the United States still stands far above all other nations in locking people behind bars. The incarceration rate has shot up 500 percent over the past four decades. But why? We're spending billions of dollars on incarceration, why aren't we safer? We explore the scope and source of mass incarceration in our new short film, Sentencing Reform: Part I–The Power of Fear. It's the first in a forthcoming series that will highlight the symptoms and ultimate solutions to the ongoing mass incarceration epidemic. [Read more/see the video]
Battle for Democratic Party: After the Unity Reform Commission
By
---- When the latest Unity Reform Commission meeting got underway, Perez talked a lot about unity. But kicking Sanders supporters off of key DNC committees is the ugly underside of an ongoing dual discourse. (Are we supposed to believe Perez's soothing words or our own eyes?) And party unity behind a failed approach—internally undemocratic and politically hitched to corporate wagons—would hardly be auspicious. "Emerging sectors of the electorate are compelling the Democratic Party to come to terms with adamant grassroots rejection of economic injustice, institutionalized racism, gender inequality, environmental destruction and corporate domination," says the recent report "Autopsy: The Democratic Party in Crisis" (which I co-authored). The report adds: "Siding with the people who constitute the base isn't truly possible when party leaders seem to be afraid of them." [Read More]
Net Neutrality Repeal Is Only Part of Trump's Surrender to Corporate Media
By
---- The FCC is under attack—and so too is the First Amendment. As the primary regulator of how media and information gets to our nation's citizens, the Federal Communications Commission has a critical role to play in protecting the open Internet, free speech, and free press in our democracy. Though the agency has always enjoyed a cozy relationship with the industries it regulates, ever since the Trump administration arrived in Washington, the FCC's mission to preserve the public commons has been threatened, assaulted and torn asunder. And like a bad horror movie cliché, these calls to eviscerate the FCC have been coming from inside the agency. Repealing net neutrality has drawn a huge amount of public visibility—and rightly so—but that decision is just the latest in a string of ominous, industry-friendly giveaways by the Trump administration's FCC. [Read More] Also interesting/useful on this FCC outrage is John Nichols, "Gutting Net Neutrality Is the Trump Administration's Most Brutal Blow to Democracy Yet," The Nation [December 14, 2017] [Link]; "F.C.C. Repeals Net Neutrality Rules," New York Times [Link]' and "Killing Net Neutrality Has Brought On a New Call for Public Broadband," The Intercept [December 15, 2017]
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's Capital
By Richard Falk, ZNet [December 16, 2017]
---- With the deftness of a bull in a china shop, Donald Trump has ignored the advice of several close advisors, disregarded the fervent pleas of several of Israel's closest Arab neighbors, ignored warnings of America's traditional allies in the Middle East and Europe, and ruptured a key element of an international consensus that had long prevailed at the UN, by going ahead to proclaim formally Washington's view that Jerusalem is and will be the capital of Israel. Such a declaration serves also to rationalize the prior pledge to move the American Embassy from Tel Aviv, the city where every other country in the world insists on maintaining its government to government relationship with Israel, to the city of Jerusalem, sacred to all three of the monotheistic religions. The most obvious question to pose is one of motivations: Why? Strange as it may seem to those living in the Middle East, the most persuasive explanation is that Trump saw this act of recognition as an opportunity to show his most fervent supporters at home that he was being true to his campaign promises. [Read More]
---- With the deftness of a bull in a china shop, Donald Trump has ignored the advice of several close advisors, disregarded the fervent pleas of several of Israel's closest Arab neighbors, ignored warnings of America's traditional allies in the Middle East and Europe, and ruptured a key element of an international consensus that had long prevailed at the UN, by going ahead to proclaim formally Washington's view that Jerusalem is and will be the capital of Israel. Such a declaration serves also to rationalize the prior pledge to move the American Embassy from Tel Aviv, the city where every other country in the world insists on maintaining its government to government relationship with Israel, to the city of Jerusalem, sacred to all three of the monotheistic religions. The most obvious question to pose is one of motivations: Why? Strange as it may seem to those living in the Middle East, the most persuasive explanation is that Trump saw this act of recognition as an opportunity to show his most fervent supporters at home that he was being true to his campaign promises. [Read More]
In Jerusalem we have the latest chapter in a century of colonialism
---- With colonialism always comes anti-colonial resistance. Against the active project to disappear the indigenous people, take their land, dispossess and disperse them so they cannot reunite to resist, the goals of the Palestinian people are those of all colonised peoples throughout history. Very simply, they are to unify for the struggle to liberate their land and return to it, and to restore their inalienable human rights taken by force – principles enshrined in centuries of international treaties, charters, and resolutions, and in natural justice. The US has been blocking Palestinian attempts to achieve this national unity for years, vetoing Palestinian parties in taking their legitimate role in sharing representation. Palestinians' democratic right to determine their path ahead would allow our young generation – scattered far and wide, from refugee camps to the prisons inside Palestine – to take up their place in the national struggle for freedom. The US assists the coloniser and ties our hands. [Read More]
For more on Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital – Robert Fisk, "Recognising Jerusalem," The Independent [UK] [December 13, 2017] [Link]; Joey Ayoub, "Palestinians Aren't Surprised by US Jerusalem Move As World Already 'Ignores Their Existence'," Global Voices [December 9, 2017] [Link]; Medea Banjamin and Ariel Gold, "Why Are Democratic Senators Enabling One of Trump's Worst Decisions?" [Link]; Ali Harb, "Prophecies and politics: How US evangelical Christians pushed for Jerusalem move," Middle East Eye [December 11, 2017] [Link]; and "Poll: 44% of American Jews oppose moving US embassy to Jerusalem," Middle East Monitor [September 15, 2017] [Link].
OUR HISTORY
The Second Klan
By Kevin M. Kruse, The Nation [December 13, 2017]
---- To many Americans, the warm relationship between the White House and white supremacists appears to be a new and shocking development. But as Linda Gordon reminds us in The Second Coming of the KKK, white-supremacist politics have entered our political mainstream before. The "second Klan" of the 1910s and '20s—unlike the vigilante group that preceded it in the Reconstruction era or the racist terrorists who targeted the civil-rights movement in the 1950s and '60s—operated largely in the open and with broad support from white society in general and white politicians in particular. Moving beyond the regional and racial boundaries of the South, this version of the Klan spread across the country, targeting a broader range of enemies: Asians and Latinos alongside African Americans, as well as large swaths of religious minorities like Catholics, Jews, and Mormons. …This, then, is the stark reminder provided by Gordon's book: No matter how much we may wish to believe that they are foreign to our system, the politics of racism and white resentment have been a perennial feature in our politics. The draw of white-supremacist organizations can't be dismissed as irrational or irrelevant; their influence is ignored at our own peril. They are, as the Klan insisted a century ago, "100% American." [Read More] The Second Coming of the Ku Klux Klan was also reviewed in The New York Times, and Linda Gordon was interviewed on a NYT podcast (following a few minutes of introductory chit chat).
Assassins of the Image: the CIA as Cultural Gatekeeper
[FB – The classic study of the CIA and the art world is Frances Stonor Saunders' The Cultural Cold War (2001). – IMO, the interesting questions are, "How did abstract expression influence the Cold War struggle for 'hearts and minds' in Europe and the Third World?" and "How did the CIA's adoption of different artists and art movements for propaganda purposes affect the development of the arts in the USA/'The West'?"]
---- Recent writing on CIA's role in the kulturkampf against the Red Menace paints an image of debonair spooks recruiting the most interesting Western artists and using them, unbeknownst, as a liberal wedge against radical movements at home and abroad. The Agency created cultural institutions, magazines and, most importantly, a financial market to support movements such as Abstract Expressionism; it penned articles in favor of a liberal-leftish ideology of self-expression that could exist only in the 'democratic' West; it organized exhibits, printed books, organized press conferences and it paid grants. … But the failure of an art movement is always at least debatable, like the historical failure of counterespionage projects in Vietnam and Syria. Perhaps Motherwell, Pollack and Phoenix were all successes, erasing the difference between art and espionage and between espionage and life once and for all. [Read More] Also interesting on this subject is "CIA money laundering during the Cold War to finance modern art" [Link]; and "Berlin exhibition questions CIA's influence on global art scene" [Link].
