CFOW Weekend Update
July 12, 2018
Hello All – We have a busy weekend ahead. Please join us for our weekly rally/vigil on Saturday, from 12 to 1, at the VFW Plaza in Hastings. This week our signs and leaflet will reflect the chaos of Trump's meeting with NATO, as we critique our government's many wars – Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, etc. – supported by Republicans and Democrats alike.
And on Sunday, please join us to hear Mr. Soobok Kim, an expert on what's happening in North and South Korea. The event will take place at the James Harmon Community Center in Hastings, 44 Main St., starting at 2 p.m. Mr. Kim has visited North Korea five times – most recently last November – and will provide useful context to the talks underway between the United States and North Korea.
In the last newsletter I pointed out that the United States and North Korea seem to have different understandings about what "denuclearization" of the Korean peninsula means, and whether concessions/agreements by North Korea must be met by concessions by the United States. These differences were apparent at the third meeting between US and North Korean negotiators last week, when North Korean spokespeople accused the United States of "bullying" and "gangster tactics." From the sketchy details that have been reported, it appears that the United States demanded a full and verified list of North Korean military and nuclear sites before negotiations will proceed. Secretary of State Pompeo also announced that no US economic sanctions would be lifted until North Korea had completely dismantled its nuclear program.
Does this hard-line approach to the negotiations represent a change in US goals and strategies? In the good/useful weekend reading linked below, I have included an article by Gareth Porter about the U.S. dimension/background to these important talks. Please read it, as it presents a view not readily available in the US mainstream media. Porter describes an apparent split among US policymakers regarding the US-North Korean negotiations, with recently appointed National Security Adviser John Bolton taking steps to derail the prospects for success. Porter points out that Bolton used a similar strategy in an attempt to derail the semi-successful negotiations that took place in the 1990s. To this end, an "intelligence" report from the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was fortuitously "leaked" to NBC and to the Washington Post, which put into play the claims that North Korea was "insincere" in stating that it would end its nuclear program, and that North Korea was actually taking steps right now to expand and strengthen its nuclear weaponry. Whether such claims derail the next rounds of nuclear negotiations remains to be seen, but we hope that Sunday's forum on North and South Korea will strengthen our defenses against pro-war misinformation coming from John Bolton and the mainstream media.
The other pieces of good/useful weekend reading linked below are also timely. Nation magazine Katrina vanden Huevel speaks on Democracy Now! about Trump's performance at the NATO meeting, and the threats of war embodied in current NATO doctrine and practice; immigration activist Sonia Nazario writes about the violations of the rule of law in the drama underway at the US southern border; and Nation writer Julianne Hing asks, "What do we mean when we say "Abolish Ice"?
Rewards!
Although this "Update" is a mere note, it nevertheless includes a Reward for faithful readers. As Saturday is July 14th, the anniversary of the French Revolution (1789), our rewards honor this great event. First up, as it is each year, is the scene from Casablanca in which Resistance leader Victor Laslo (also husband of Ingrid Bergman – complications!) strikes up the band with the French national anthem, La Marseillaise. But what are they actually singing? Next up, as it is each year, we have the chanteuse Mireille Mathieu singing the song, but now with some translation! As you see, this is not a pacifist song, but a marching song against the Royalists and their European allies who are trying to destroy the new French Republican: blood soaks the earth, etc. – Finally, for context, here is some documentary footage from Jean Renoir's great 1938 film, La Marseillaise. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
SOME GOOD/USEFUL WEEKEND READING
Media, Hardliners Play Up North Korean Nuclear 'Deception' Claim
July 11, 2018]
---- Just as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was about to leave for denuclearization negotiations in Pyongyang, a spate of media stories reported that North Korea is deceiving the Trump administration by seeking to hide some of its nuclear facilities. Those stories suggest an effort by some Trump administration officials, led by National Security Adviser John Bolton, to derail the US-North Korea negotiations by pressuring Trump and Pompeo to embrace the narrative that Kim Jong Un is deceiving the US. Before becoming national security adviser, Bolton had made no secret of his opposition to any Trump effort to reach an agreement with North Korea. … The timing of the two stories, appearing within hours on June 29 and 30, suggests that the decision to leak the intelligence assessment to the two news outlets was part of an effort to create pressure on Trump to integrate the narrative of deception by Kim Jong Un into his negotiating policy. [Read More] Porter's previous articles on this topic are also very useful. Read "How Corporate Media Are Undermining a US-North Korea Nuclear Weapons Deal" [May 23], "How Corporate Media Got the Trump-Kim Summit All Wrong" [June 11], and "An Elite Coalition Emerges Against a Trump-Kim Agreement" [June 21].
(Video) Katrina vanden Heuvel on NATO Military Spending & Avoiding Cold War Nuclear Catastrophe with Russia
From Democracy Now! [July 12, 2018]
---- At the NATO summit, President Trump called on member states to double their military spending to 4 percent of gross domestic product, and hailed the meeting as a success. He is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday. Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, joins us to discuss NATO, the militarization of U.S. foreign policy and avoiding a second Cold War with Russia over allegations of election meddling. "I would argue that the bipartisan establishment consensus is bankrupt. … We believe you can have secure elections and avoid nuclear catastrophe," said vanden Heuvel. [See the Program]
Do You Care About the Rule of Law? Then Act Like It
By Sonia Nazario, The New York Times [July 11, 2018]
---- Opponents of immigration have long had one rallying cry: rule of law! But most of the people seeking asylum at the Adelanto Detention Facility followed the law to a T. They presented themselves at ports of entry on our southern border and asked for asylum. The Trump administration seems to be using every tactic possible to prevent them from gaining that asylum, even if they clearly qualify. … Instead of supporting people running from harm, we have built a machine designed to psychologically break them in the hopes that they will give up and go home. This gutting of our asylum system has been going on for some time. In the immigration courts, which decide asylum cases for people who are caught or turn themselves in at the border, 45 percent of applicants were rejected in the 2012 fiscal year. In 2017, asylum denials jumped to 62 percent. [Read More]
What Does It Mean to Abolish ICE?
By Julianne Hing, The Nation [July 11, 2018]
---- Activists and politicians want a total overhaul of immigration enforcement—but do we have a real plan? People's outrage at ICE and politicians' public statements are now feeding off each other, accelerating the movement to overhaul immigration enforcement. Trump's practice of tearing children from their parents has woken up the country like little else in the president's extreme anti-immigration agenda or in Barack Obama's record-setting deportation spree before that. But what does "Abolish ICE" actually mean? Is the slogan just a hashtag-friendly social-media phenomena? Can this rallying cry make the jump to a successful policy agenda? [Read More]
