Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
September 18, 2017
Hello All – Since our last newsletter, we have passed another 9/11 anniversary, suffered two of the biggest hurricanes ever, and seen the launching of a significant escalation of the US war in Afghanistan. All this is taxing for a few dozen peace & justice stalwarts in the Rivertowns, and if you are also concerned to put your thumb on the scale of hope, please join us. We'll be at the VFW Plaza in Hastings next Saturday at noon, probably focused on something Trump announces/threatens in his speech at the UN tomorrow.
At last Saturday's CFOW vigil, and in several of the articles linked below, stress was/is put on the failure of the US mainstream media and our political class to recognize and take action about the dangers of global warming and climate breakdown. Despite record-breaking floods, wind, and rainfall, very few media outlets connected what was happening to global warming, or pointed out that the Trump administration is moving AWAY from the too-weak efforts of the Obama administration to take climate breakdown seriously. One sign in taking our climate crisis seriously is to recognize that our economic system simply can't go on as it is if human civilization is to endure. (See especially the articles by George Monbiot and Naomi Klein.) In this respect, Rivertowns residents have the opportunity to strike a blow for humans by putting a stop to the Coast Guard's plans to promote the oil industry's take-over of the Hudson River. If our goal is to keep fossil fuels in the ground, preventing the Hudson from becoming an oil-export highway would be a significant contribution to this effort. Let's do it!
Please observe carefully what the Trump administration is doing in Afghanistan. In essence, they are digging in for an endless war, greatly enlarging the administrative "Green Zone" in Kabul, organizing another layer of village militias (what could go wrong?), and allowing the CIA to get into the drone assassination business, which up until now has been the prerogative of the Pentagon. The number of US troops on the ground is scheduled to rise from about 12,000 to 16,000; but it would be foolish to think of this as other than an opening wedge, with many more thousands to come. Just about nobody in the USA supports the war in Afghanistan, but New York is blessed by two pro-war Senators, and Westchester is the home to two pro-war hawks, Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey. Is it possible for the local Democrats and the Indivisibles to take a few minutes out of their campaign to defeat Astorino and make some anti-war noises in the direction of our Democratic lawmakers whom they so loyally support?
And after all that ranting, let me mention that last Tuesday, September 12th, was the 16th anniversary of the founding of CFOW. Needless to say, such longevity was not in the original plan.
News Notes
Meteorologists maintained that Hurricane Harvey produced "the worst flooding disaster in recorded US history." Here is a useful/interesting round-up of the great floods of the USA.
The Trump administration recently moved to require the Russian news broadcasting service RT to register as a foreign agent. This interesting article asks, "Israel's Foreign Agents Don't Register, Why Should Russia's?"
Earlier this summer, The Nation organized an interesting panel (Alicia Garza, Walter Mosely, etc.) to discuss "How Do We Build a Racial Justice Movement Too Powerful to Ignore?" You can hear a one-hour audio of the roundtable discussion here.
This in-depth investigative report from The Intercept shows the power of the Exxon Mobil and other oil companies to manipulate regulatory agencies such as the EPA and keep poisoning people. Read Sharon Lerner's remarkable story, "A Legacy of Environmental Racism: Exxon Mobil Is Still Pumping Toxins Into Black Community in Texas 17 Years After Civil Rights Complaint." [Link]
Last month a coalition of 100 organizations called on Congress to oppose the Israel-sponsored Anti-Boycott Act. You can see what good company WE are in here.
This Newsletter
The purpose of the newsletter is to provide good/useful reading that supports and illuminates the many sides of CFOW's main issues, especially antiwar and climate chaos. In addition to the excellent articles grouped under "Featured Essays," please check out the set of articles about Myanmar and the Royhingya, and the articles about "Hurricanes and Climate Breakdown." In the War & Peace section, NB especially the set or articles about the Trump team's escalation now underway in Afghanistan, and the excellent article by Gareth Porter about the options for peace and war re: North Korea. There's also a good set of articles about the struggle to protect the rights of "Dreamers" and refugees. Too much! But do your best.
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 Hudson River barges 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. And of course we welcome contributions 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!
As this is a late/long newsletter, stalwart readers deserve a reward before moving on. This week we offer some music from the Civil Rights era, from the marvelous group Sweet Honey in the Rock. Check out and enjoy "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize"; "Ain't Gonna' Let Nobody Turn Me Around"; and "We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder."
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
9/11: The Beginning of the End of the US Empire Project
By Dahr Jamail, Truthout [September 11, 2017]
---- Today, it has been 16 years since the events of September 11, 2001, in the United States. Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks, and more than 6,000 were injured in the spectacular violence across New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC. The Bush/Cheney administration used these horrible events to justify projecting the US empire deeper into the Middle East by invading Iraq, as well as launching into war-torn Afghanistan. They also used the opportunity to pass the so-called PATRIOT act, which amounted to a vicious attack on civil liberties and human rights at home. Any pretense that the US intended to seek justice or increase world stability via its so-called War on Terror has been dramatically overshadowed by increased global resentment toward the US, which has in fact generated more terror attacks around the world. It is precisely this legacy that continues today: ongoing US military violence abroad, increased domestic surveillance and repression at home, and a world more violent and less safe for all. [Read More]
The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: Robert Jay Lifton and Bill Moyers on 'A Duty to Warn'
A Bill Moyers interview with Robert J. Lifton [September 14, 2017]
[About Robert Jay Lifton, Bill Moyers writes: He is renowned for his studies of people under stress — for books such as Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima (1967), Home from the War: Vietnam Veterans — Neither Victims nor Executioners (1973), and The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide (1986).]
---- There will not be a book published this fall more urgent, important, or controversial than The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, the work of 27 psychiatrists, psychologists and mental health experts to assess President Trump's mental health. They had come together last March at a conference at Yale University to wrestle with two questions. One was on countless minds across the country: "What's wrong with him?" The second was directed to their own code of ethics: "Does Professional Responsibility Include a Duty to Warn" if they conclude the president to be dangerously unfit? [Read More]
Neoliberalism Is Destroying Our Democracy
An interview with Noam Chomsky, ZNet [September 2017]
[FB - Linked to this mid-length portion of the interview is an audio of the whole thing; and on the link page are many more Chomsky interviews and videos.]
---- The one barrier to the threat of destruction is an engaged public, an informed, engaged public acting together to develop means to confront the threat and respond to it. That's been systematically weakened, consciously. I mean, back to the 1970s we've probably talked about this. There was a lot of elite discussion across the spectrum about the danger of too much democracy and the need to have what was called more "moderation" in democracy, for people to become more passive and apathetic and not to disturb things too much, and that's what the neoliberal programs do. So put it all together and what do you have? A perfect storm. [Read More]
Why Jews Shouldn't Be Scared of the Palestinian Right of Return
By Rebecca Vilkomerson, (ED, Jewish Voice for Peace), Haaretz [Israel] [September 17, 2017]
---- JVP's support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights is the most common barrier for many people who share a critique of Israeli policies towards Palestinians. Surprising as it may be to some, JVP did not always fully support BDS. We supported forms of economic pressure on Israel, including ending military aid, but it took us a full 10 years from the initiation of the call from Palestinian civil society for us to sign on as an organization. We endorsed the full call for BDS, including the Palestinian right of return, in 2015, following a multi-year organization-wide process of study and discussion. Ultimately, we came to the collective understanding that recognizing the trauma of the Nakba, the displacement of Palestinians and the ongoing inability of many Palestinian families to unite in their homeland is a core obstacle to moving towards justice. [Read More]
Crime and Punishment: Will the 9/11 case finally go to trial?
By Andrew Cockburn, Harper's [September 2017]
---- After years of glacial legal progress, the momentous charge that our Saudi allies enabled and supported the most devastating act of mass murder on American soil may now be coming to a resolution. Thanks to a combination of court decisions, congressional action, and the disclosure of long-sequestered government records, it appears increasingly likely that our supposed friend and peerless weapons customer will finally face its accusers in court. Over the years, successive administrations have made strenuous efforts to suppress discussion of Saudi involvement in the September 11 attacks, deploying everything from abusive security classification to the judiciary to a presidential veto. Now, at last, we stand a chance of discovering what really happened, largely because of a court case. [Read More] Last week the author of this article, Andrew Cockburn, was interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! [See the Program]
The Rohingya Tragedy
Buddhists in Myanmar Are Unifying Behind a Deadly Nationalism
By Francis Wade, The Nation [September 15, 2017]
---- In southeastern Bangladesh, already-crowded refugee camps are swelling each day with arrivals from Myanmar. Upward of 400,000 stateless Muslim Rohingya have crossed the border in the past three weeks, fleeing a brutal military campaign launched in response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents on August 25. The Myanmar government has stated that 176 Rohingya villages have been emptied of their inhabitants, and satellite images show that more than 80 have been burned to the ground. Eyewitnesses describe indiscriminate killings of civilians. … Understanding the game Suu Kyi is playing—not just with the military, but also with her vast support base—helps to illuminate just how diametrically opposed the qualities that drive her international reputation and her domestic reputation are on this issue. Outside the country, many indeed consider her stance a moral failure, but that's because the international community sees the Rohingya as victims. Inside the country, the narrative is wholly different. [Read More]
Is Rohingya persecution caused by business interests rather than religion?
By Saskia Sassen, The Guardian [UK] [January 4, 2017]
---- Religion and ethnicity might be only part of what explains this forced displacement. The past two decades have seen a massive worldwide rise of corporate acquisitions of land for mining, timber, agriculture and water. In the case of Myanmar, the military have been grabbing vast stretches of land (pdf) from smallholders since the 1990s, without compensation, but with threats if they try to fight back. This land grabbing has continued across the decades but has expanded enormously in the last few years. At the time of the 2012 attacks, the land allocated to large projects had increased by 170% between 2010 and 2013. By 2012 the law governing land was changed to favour large corporate acquisitions. We must ask whether the sharpened persecution of the Rohingya (and other minority groups) might be partly generated by military-economic interests, rather than by mostly religious/ethnic issues. Expelling Rohingya from their land might well be good for future business. [Read More] For a similar analysis of the events in Myanmar and corporate land-grabs by oil interests, read Ramzy Baroud, "The Genocide of the Rohingya," ZNet [September 13, 2017] [Link].
Also useful/depressing about Myanmar and the Rohingya – Austin Ramzy, "At Risk in Rohingya Exodus: 230,000 Children, Hundreds All Alone," [Link]; and this report from Human Rights Watch, "Burma: Rohingya Describe Military Atrocities," [September 8, 2017] [Link].
HURRICANES AND CLIMATE BREAKDOWN
Why are the crucial questions about Hurricane Harvey not being asked?
---- It is not only Donald Trump's government that censors the discussion of climate change; it is the entire body of polite opinion. This is why, though the links are clear and obvious, most reports on Hurricane Harvey have made no mention of the human contribution to it. In 2016 the US elected a president who believes that human-driven global warming is a hoax. It was the hottest year on record, in which the US was hammered by a series of climate-related disasters. Yet the total combined coverage for the entire year on the evening and Sunday news programmes on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News amounted to 50 minutes. Our greatest predicament, the issue that will define our lives, has been blotted from the public's mind. … Reporters and editors ignore the subject because they have an instinct for avoiding trouble. [Read More].
For another good/useful article by George Monbiot, read "A lesson from Hurricane Irma: capitalism can't save the planet – it can only destroy it," [Read More]. The watchdog group Public Citizen prepared a report that documents how most mainstream media sources ignored/suppressed global warming/climate chaos in reporting on the hurricanes. See Democracy Now! (Video) "A Storm of Silence: Study Finds Media Is Largely Ignoring Link Between Hurricanes and Climate Change" [September 12, 2017] [See the Program].
Irma Won't "Wake Up" Climate Change-Denying Republicans. Their Whole Ideology Is on the Line.
By Naomi Klein, The Intercept [
---- Here is what we need to understand in a hurry: Climate change, especially at this late date, can only be dealt with through collective action that sharply curtails the behavior of corporations, such as Exxon Mobil and Goldman Sachs (both so lavishly represented at Trump's cabinet meeting). Climate action demands investments in the public sphere — in new energy grids, public transit and light rail, and energy efficiency — on a scale not seen since World War II. And that can only happen by raising taxes on the wealthy and on corporations, the very people Trump is determined to shower with the most generous tax cuts, loopholes, and regulatory breaks. … The members of Trump's cabinet — with their desperate need to deny the reality of global warming, or belittle its implications — understand something that is fundamentally true: To avert climate chaos, we need to challenge the free-market fundamentalism that has conquered the world since the 1980s. [Read More]
WAR & PEACE
U.S. Wars and Hostile Actions: A List
By David Swanson, Antiwar.com [September 17, 2017]
---- There is a reason that most countries polled in December 2013 by Gallup called the United States the greatest threat to peace in the world, and why Pew found that viewpoint increased in 2017. … Since World War II, during a supposed golden age of peace, the United States military has killed some 20 million people, overthrown at least 36 governments, interfered in at least 82 foreign elections, attempted to assassinate over 50 foreign leaders, and dropped bombs on people in over 30 countries. The United States is responsible for the deaths of 5 million people in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and over 1 million just since 2003 in Iraq. [Read More]
How the Pentagon Snatched Innovation From the Jaws of Defeat
By Alfred McCoy, Tom Dispatch [September 10, 2017]
---- Working in secrecy, the Obama administration was presiding over a revolution in defense planning, moving the nation far beyond bayonets and battleships to cyberwarfare and the future full-scale weaponization of space. From stratosphere to exosphere, the Pentagon is now producing an armada of fantastical new aerospace weapons worthy of Buck Rogers. In 2009, building on advances in digital surveillance under the Bush administration, Obama launched the U.S. Cyber Command. … And what is all this technology being prepared for? In study after study, the intelligence community, the Pentagon, and related think tanks have been unanimous in identifying the main threat to future U.S. global hegemony as a rival power with an expanding economy, a strengthening military, and global ambitions: China. [Read More]
---- Working in secrecy, the Obama administration was presiding over a revolution in defense planning, moving the nation far beyond bayonets and battleships to cyberwarfare and the future full-scale weaponization of space. From stratosphere to exosphere, the Pentagon is now producing an armada of fantastical new aerospace weapons worthy of Buck Rogers. In 2009, building on advances in digital surveillance under the Bush administration, Obama launched the U.S. Cyber Command. … And what is all this technology being prepared for? In study after study, the intelligence community, the Pentagon, and related think tanks have been unanimous in identifying the main threat to future U.S. global hegemony as a rival power with an expanding economy, a strengthening military, and global ambitions: China. [Read More]
Victory at Last! In America's Wars, Failure Is the New Success
By Tom Engelhardt, Tom Dispatch [September 2017]
By Tom Engelhardt, Tom Dispatch [September 2017]
---- It was bloody and brutal, a true generational struggle, but give them credit. In the end, they won when so many lost. James Comey was axed. Sean Spicer went down in a heap of ashes. Anthony Scaramucci crashed and burned instantaneously. Reince Priebus hung on for dear life but was finally canned. Seven months in, Steve Bannon got the old heave-ho and soon after, his minion, Sebastian Gorka, was unceremoniously shoved out the White House door. In a downpour of potential conflicts of interest and scandal, Carl Icahn bowed out. Gary Cohn has reportedly been at the edge of resignation. And so it goes in the Trump administration. Except for the generals. Think of them as the last men standing. They did it. They took the high ground in Washington and held it with remarkable panache. [Read More]
The War in Afghanistan
C.I.A. Wants Authority to Conduct Drone Strikes in Afghanistan for the First Time
---- The C.I.A. is pushing for expanded powers to carry out covert drone strikes in Afghanistan and other active war zones, a proposal that the White House appears to favor despite the misgivings of some at the Pentagon, according to current and former intelligence and military officials. If approved by President Trump, it would mark the first time the C.I.A. has had such powers in Afghanistan, expanding beyond its existing authority to carry out covert strikes against Al Qaeda and other terrorist targets across the border in Pakistan. The changes are being weighed as part of a broader push inside the Trump White House to loosen Obama-era restraints on how the C.I.A. and the military fight Islamist militants around the world. … In the past three years, the number of military drone strikes there has climbed, from 304 in 2015, to 376 last year, to 362 through the first eight months of this year. [Read More]
Digging In for Next Decade, U.S. Expands Kabul Security Zone
---- The expansion is part of a huge public works project that over the next two years will reshape the center of this city of five million to bring nearly all Western embassies, major government ministries, and NATO and American military headquarters within the protected area. After 16 years of American presence in Kabul, it is a stark acknowledgment that even the city's central districts have become too difficult to defend from Taliban bombings. But the capital project is also clearly taking place to protect another long-term American investment: Along with an increase in troops to a reported 15,000, from around 11,000 at the moment, the Trump administration's new strategy for Afghanistan is likely to keep the military in place well into the 2020s, even by the most conservative estimates. [Read More]
Also useful/interesting on the war in Afghanistan – Mjuib Mashal, "U.S. Plan for New Afghan Force Revives Fears of Militia Abuses," [Link]; and Rod Nordland, "The Empire Stopper," [Link].
The War in Yemen
How Media Obscure US/Saudi Responsibility for Killing Yemeni Civilians
By Ben Norton, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting [FAIR] [August 31, 2017]
---- A coalition of Saudi Arabia, the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, with minor support from several other Middle Eastern nations, has relentlessly bombed Yemen since March 2015. This August, the coalition ramped up the ferocity of its airstrikes, killing dozens of civilians. … Major Western media outlets have, however, obscured the responsibility Saudi Arabia, and its US and European supporters, bear for launching these airstrikes. There are no other parties presently bombing Yemen, so media cannot feign ignorance as to who is responsible for the attacks. But reports on the bloody US/Saudi coalition airstrikes were nonetheless rife with ambiguous and downright misleading language. [Read More]
Also useful reading on this horrible war - From Human Rights Watch, "Saudi-led Airstrikes on Yemen Deadly for Children" [September 16, 2017] [Link]; and from Xinhua [China], "More than 5,000 killed in Yemen conflict: UN report" [September 6, 2107] [Link].
War with North Korea?
Can the US and North Korea Move From Threats to Negotiations?
---- For months, the Trump administration and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have each made a series of moves that have appeared to take them ever closer to the brink of war. But a closer review of the escalation of the conflict reveals that both sides are consciously maneuvering for what they know will be extended serious negotiations on a new framework for peace on the Korean peninsula. The Trump administration is well aware that it has no real military option against the North, and the Kim Jong-un regime seems to have sought to use missile launches as signals to the Trump administration to convey not only North Korea's determination not to give in to pressure, but also its hopes to stabilize the situation and avoid further escalation in US-North Korea military relations. [Read More]
How History Explains the Korean Crisis
By William R. Polk, Consortium News [August 28, 2017]
The U.S. and North Korea are on the brink of hostilities that if begun would almost certainly lead to a nuclear exchange. This is the expressed judgment of most competent observers. They differ over the causes of this confrontation and over the size, range and impact of the weapons that would be fired, but no one can doubt that even a "limited" nuclear exchange would have horrifying effects throughout much of the world including North America. So how did we get to this point, what are we now doing and what could be done to avoid what would almost certainly be the disastrous consequences of even a "limited" nuclear war? [Read More] [Part one of two]
Also useful/depressing on possible war with North Korea – Andrew Cockburn, "'Missile Gap' Redux: Heroic Days of Threat Inflation Aren't Over," August 30, 2017] [Link]; and from Antiwar.com, "Gallup Poll: US Majority Backs Attacking North Korea" [September 15, 2017] [Link].
War with Iran?
The Endangered Iran Nuclear Deal
September 9, 2017]
---- Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the United Nations, said the other day that Iran had violated the spirit of the 2015 nuclear accord and that President Trump was likely not to certify Iran's compliance with it next month. There is no legitimate reason for such a step, but if Trump – who must certify compliance every six months – takes it, he would almost certainly set in motion another nuclear crisis side by side with the one with North Korea. Two basic facts are before us: first, that the nuclear accord is very much in the interest of all parties, the US in particular; and second, that Iran is not in violation of the agreement. [Read More]
Also useful/interesting on the US, Israel, & Iran – Gardiner Harris, "If Report Says Iran Is Abiding by Nuclear Deal, Will Trump Heed It?" [Link]; and Barak Ravid, et al.,"Netanyahu at Odds With Israeli Military and Intelligence Brass Over Whether to Push Trump to Scrap Iran Nuclear Deal," Haaretz [Israel] [September 16, 2107] [Link].
CIVIL LIBERTIES/"THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR"
How Muslim Americans are fighting Islamophobia and securing their civil rights
---- The past year has been a difficult one for American Muslims. According to a July 2017 Pew survey, 48 percent of Muslims report experiencing at least one incident of discrimination in the past 12 months. The Council on American-Islamic Relations and other Muslim advocacy organizations found these trends were particularly intense during the 2016 campaigns and the early months of the Trump presidency. And while the survey shows that Americans report warmer feelings toward Muslims today than they did in 2014, Muslims continue to be the most negatively rated religious group – followed closely by atheists. In fact, about half of Americans (49 percent) believe that at least "some" Muslim Americans are anti-American. [Read More]
Free Speech for the Right? A Primer on Key Legal Questions and Principles
---- The rise in national attention to the "alt-right" and fascist-white supremacist protesters has raised questions about the parameters of free speech in America. When can free speech be limited, if ever? What are the implications of attempting to limit controversial speech? And what precedents has the Supreme Court set regarding free speech? …. In a neoliberal era in which leftist views are under assault, discussions about regulating the right's speech seem increasingly naive, counter-productive, and dangerous. The last thing progressives need to be doing is make far-right fascists and white supremacists look like victims. Their hatred deserves no sympathy from the public. Far-right voices have already taken over American media discourse and the political system. Why should we lend legitimacy to this development? [Read More]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
Immigrants and Refugees
US judge sides with 'sanctuary cities' in Trump immigration battle
From Middle East Eye [September 15, 2107]
---- US District Judge Harry Leinenweber says Justice Department cannot deny grants to sanctuary cities nationwide. A federal judge on Friday barred the US Justice Department from denying public-safety grants to so-called sanctuary cities that limit cooperation with the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration. The preliminary injunction issued by US District Judge Harry Leinenweber was in response to a legal challenge brought by Chicago, the third-largest city in the United States, but the judge ruled that his order would be applied on a nationwide basis. … More than 400 places throughout the US have some sort of sanctuary policy, [Read More]
We Need to Fight for All Undocumented Migrants, Not Just Dreamers
By Sujatha Fernandes, The Nation [September 8, 2017]
---- In the past few days, a range of voices from across the political spectrum have risen in support of DACA, from religious clergy to members of Congress to academics, corporations, and activists. Hopefully this rising tide will create the momentum to overturn Trump's decision, just as grassroots action has achieved with SB 4, the Muslim travel ban, and other Trump policies. But it is important that this defense of migrant youth does not replicate the hierarchies present in the early Dream campaign that distinguished Dreamers as more desirable migrants because of their willingness to assimilate, their contributions to the economy, and their innocence. … Other migrants, those who do not or cannot work, who do not identify as American, who are not upwardly mobile, are not seen to deserve the same compassion. But migrants are more than their labor power; they must also be valued as rights-bearing human beings. [Read More]
Also useful/interesting on Immigrants and Refugees – John Washington, "How to Stand in Solidarity With Undocumented Immigrants," The Nation [September 15, 2017] [Link]; Editorial, Los Angeles Times, "Ending DACA would upend the dreams of a generation of immigrants without fixing a thing" [August 29, 2017] [Link]; and Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, "The Psychic Toll of Trump's DACA Decision," [Link].
Colonialism and "Austerity" in Puerto Rico
(Video) Austerity, Divestment & Irma: Why 300,000 in Puerto Rico are Without Power
From Democracy Now! [September 12, 2017]
---- FEMA Administrator Brock Long is traveling today to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to see firsthand the damage caused by Hurricane Irma. In Puerto Rico, 300,000 remain without power—despite the fact that the island was barely hit by the storm. Authorities have warned parts of Puerto Rico could be without electricity for up to six months, in part due to the island's economic crisis. We speak with Juan González about how U.S.-imposed austerity and divestment are contributing to the electricity crisis after Irma. [See the Program]
Hurricane Irma Unleashes the Forces of Privatization in Puerto Rico
By Kate Aronoff, The Intercept [September 12, 2107]
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
Crusaders and Zionists
September 2, 2017]
---- A few days ago I found myself in Caesarea, sitting in a restaurant and looking out over the sea…. For some years in my life I was obsessed with the Crusaders. It started during the 1948 "War of Independence", when I chanced to read a book about the crusaders and found that they had occupied the same locations opposite the Gaza strip which my battalion was occupying. It took the crusaders several decades to conquer the strip, which at the time extended to Ashkelon. Today it is still there in Muslim hands. … Both the Crusaders and the Zionists saw themselves, quite consciously, as "bridgeheads" of the West in a foreign and hostile region. The Crusaders, of course, came here as the army of the West, to regain the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, wrote in his book Der Judenstaat, the bible of Zionism, that in Palestine we shall serve as the outpost of (Western) culture against (Muslim) barbarism. [Read More]
The United States Was Responsible for the 1982 Massacre of Palestinians in Beirut
By Rashid Khalidi, The Nation [September 14, 2017]
---- Washington had explicitly guaranteed their safety—and recently declassified documents reveal that US diplomats were told by the Israelis what they and their allies might be up to. … On the night of September 16, 1982, my younger brother and I were baffled as we watched dozens of Israeli flares floating down in complete silence over the southern reaches of Beirut, for what seemed like an eternity. We knew that the Israeli army had rapidly occupied the western part of the city two days earlier. But flares are used by armies to illuminate a battlefield, and with all the PLO fighters who had resisted the Israeli army during the months-long siege of the city already evacuated from Beirut, we went to bed perplexed, wondering what enemy was left for the occupying army to hunt. [Read More]
Also useful/interesting on Israel/Palestine – Gideon Levy, "Israel's Minister of Truth," Haaretz [Israel] [September 1, 2017] [Link]; Jonathan Fenton-Harvey, "Gaza: Over 1 million children in 'unlivable' circumstances," Informed Comment [September 5, 2017] [Link]; and "UN to name Companies linked to W. Bank Settlements," from Ma'an News Agency [Palestine] [September 14, 2017] [Link].
OUR HISTORY
Was Charlottesville the Exception or the Rule?
---- It's been a month since the K.K.K. amplified America's ingrained commitment to white supremacy. In the interim we've had major natural storms and the proposed end of DACA, among many other events, to confront. But our lives are not separate from the practices that frame them. How we apprehend climate change or how we protect our immigrant communities is not separate from our recognition of the hold white supremacy has on us. It's on us to invent other ways to unearth white supremacy from the taken-for-granted. People of color have been opposing white supremacy for as long as they have been fighting for equal rights or, in other words, for as long as black people have been on American soil simply trying to live. That's also how long they have been demonized and punished for it. And white Americans have been in collusion with white supremacy for as long as they have refused to see their own investment in it. As much as I flinch when I hear people say this moment is an opportunity, it is. As will be all of the next ones. [Read More]
Attacking the Non-Violent Berkeley Movement in the 1960s
---- After graduating UC Berkeley in 1968, I returned to Berkeley to visit friends May 1969 when People's Park was being built. I had gotten arrested for Free Speech in 1964, and had seen for months how the "mainstream" press had attacked our non-violent Free Speech Movement (FSM). For months my boss told me that she believed the Oakland Tribune newspapers that the leaders of the FSM were Communists. … Despite the Berkeley protests being non-violent, the U.S. mass media for five years kept up a barrage of untrue attacks on the Berkeley movement. The negative press affected the police. In our first non-violent anti-war March in 1965 Oakland cops got on the rooftops and pointed shot guns at us. The march leaders turned away from marching into Oakland instead leading the marchers to camp overnight in a Berkeley park where the campers were tear gassed. At the second anti-war march Hell's Angels attacked the marchers. And so it went with mass media attacks helping elect Governor Reagan in 1966 on a promise to crack down on protestors at Berkeley. Reagan called UC Berkeley "a haven for communist sympathizers, protesters, and sex deviants." [Read More]
