Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
September 3, 2018
Hello All – Tomorrow the Senate will begin hearings on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The Republicans, in control of the Senate and thus the hearings, expect to conclude the process by Friday, after which the full Senate will vote. The Republicans' slight majority in the Senate means that it is likely that Kavanaugh's nomination will be approved. Unless… unless what?
The congressional Democrats have focused on the illegitimacy of the confirmation process itself, giving less attention to how Kavanaugh is likely to act on the Court. Thus the Democrats, rightly, point to the Trump administration's failure to give adequate time to read Kavanaugh's writings and records of decisions, and its refusal to make available more than 100,000 documents. But the attempt to delay confirmation – ideally until after the November congressional election had returns a Democratic Senate majority – now seems doomed to fail.
Of course "more documents" are not needed to know that Justice Kavanaugh comes to the Court with strong rightwing views. As a member of the Court, he is likely to join in overturning Roe v. Wade, oppose workers' rights, environment protections, and regulations on business, and to implement the big-business Agenda. As noted in an article below ("How the Trump Administration Is Remaking the Courts"), his nomination is part of a larger process that will shift the governing legal philosophy of the United States to the Far Right for decades to come. Not surprisingly, Kavanaugh has little popular support, and is overwhelmingly opposed by women.
New York's Senators Gillibrand (202-224-4451) and Schumer (202-224-6542) have stated their intention to vote against Kavanaugh; but there's no harm in giving them a call to let them know that their constituents stand behind them on this one. – For those who would like a closer look at the gory details, I recommend "How Brett Kavanaugh Would Transform the Supreme Court," from The New York Times [Link]; "Business Looks to Kavanaugh to Extend Supreme Court Hot Streak," from Politico [Link]; and "So Many Guns, So Much Smoke," from Slate [Link].
"John McCain" – At Theaters Everywhere
The death of John McCain, his funeral, and the zillions of memorial tributes to his greatness are one of those blank slates on which America has painted its colors. McCain in death has become the Not Trump, to whom all of the Not Trump qualities – honesty, civility, statesmanship, etc. – are ascribed. No matter that McCain was a bomber of civilians, not a "hero," in Vietnam, or that he was an unrelenting advocate for war and more war during his time in Congress, all else is forgiven. Historians will find this week's production of "John McCain" an insight into our times. For those with some interest in "straight talk," check out "McCain as Confederate" by Sam Husseini [Link] and "Why Did John McCain Continue to Support War?" by Matt Taibbi [Link].
News Notes
Labor Day – so what's with that? For starters, it originated in NYC, when in 1882 the Central Labor Union called for a "monster labor festival" to celebrate and to strengthen the city's hard-charging trade union movement. (This offering from the New Yorker includes a useful short video with some good pictures.) But how are things today? According to government statistics, real weekly earning of full-time workers are about the same today as they were in 1979. Here's a useful report on what Trump has done to hurt the labor movement and keep wages down (and profits up), and here's an excellent report from Sarah Jaffe on the revival of workers' militancy since Trump took office.
With most jobs for young people low-paying, and with college costs skyrocketing, it's not surprising that the student debt problem is getting worse. According to a new report, the average student borrower graduates with $22,000 in debt. Down the road, hundreds of thousands of young (and no longer young) people are in default, with about one-third of all student borrowers "facing serious struggles."
The media have moved on, but 497 immigrant children are still in federal custody, despite a court order that demanded they be re-united with their parents. Among the children are 22 under the age of five years. About two-thirds of the children have parents who have already been deported, according to court papers filed last Thursday. Read a Washington Post story here and a New York Times editorial here.
Saturday was the anniversary (1939) of the German invasion of Poland, the beginning of World War II in Europe. W. H. Auden wrote his sad and bitter poem "September 1, 1939" "as the clever hopes expire of a low, dishonest decade." About 60 million people died in this war. What will come out of the "low, dishonest decade" that we are living through now?
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Ongoing – CFOW holds a vigil/rally each Saturday at the VFW Plaza in Hastings (Warburton and Spring) from 12 to 1 p.m. Everyone invited; please join us!
Saturday, September 8th – Croton Climate Initiative, Safe Energy Rights Group, the Care for Creation Ministry, and other organizations invite us to join the Rise for Climate: Croton March. On September 8th there will be marches around the world to demand prompt and strong action to save our climate. The march starts at 10 a.m. at the Croton Free Library, 171 Cleveland Drive, Croton-on-Hudson. For more information, go here.
Sunday, September 9th - Please join us for the next CFOW monthly meeting. At these meetings we discussed events and our work of the past month and make plans for what's ahead. We meet at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs, from 7 to 9 p.m
Thursday, September 13th – The League of Women Voters in the Rivertowns will hold a breakfast/forum to explain what the US Army Corps of Engineers is proposing to do re: storm barriers on the Hudson. The event will be held at the Jazz Forum Club, 1 Dixon Lane in Tarrytown, from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. A free Continental breakfast will be served; $10 donation optional. For more info, go to info@lwv‐rivertowns.org.
Friday, September 14th – CFOW music favorites, "Hudson Valley Sally," will be at the BeanRunner Café in Peekskill with "Songs to Inspire Hope and Change." The program goes from 8 to 10 p.m. The BeanRunner is located at 201 S. Division St.
Thursday, September 20 and 27 – Westchester for Change, the Greenburgh Human Rights Advisory Council, and many other groups invite you to attend a two-part voter turnout/civic engagement workshop. The workshop will take place at the Theodore Young Community Center, 32 Manhattan Ave. in White Plains, from 7 to 9 p.m. To learn more, go to the event's Facebook page. If you plan to attend, please RSVP.
Sunday, September 30th – Countering the Muslim Travel Ban and Deportations will be the subject of a forum sponsored by the Westchester Coalition Against Islamphobia, at the Ethical Cultural Society of Westchester, 7 Saxon Wood Rd. in White Plains, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. They write: "Religious discrimination, xenophobia, and racism are being channeled to close our borders to immigrants and asylum-seekers. This panel discussion will describe what is happening and how we can overcome it. Q&A will follow." Speaking will be Debbie Almontaser President, Board of Directors, Muslim Community Network; CEO/Founder of Bridging Cultures Group Inc. ; Albert Fox Cahn Legal Director, Council on American-Islamic Relations, New York (CAIR-NY); member, Immigrant Leaders Council of the New York Immigration Coalition; and Karina Davila Co-founder of the Yonkers Sanctuary Movement; Current DACA recipient and President, John Jay DREAMers. This event is free and open to the public. Donations gratefully accepted. Parking available on site.
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. We meet for a protest/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 Trump's immigration policies are often targeted, 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.
Please Support CFOW
CFOW runs on a shoestring; but with the price of shoestrings these days, we're asking for your support. If you can make a financial contribution to our work, please send your check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
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 private eye Judith Coburn's essay on the end of privacy; an important essay on the Trumpification of our nation's courts; and a blockbuster report on Israel's "meddling" with student and other US organizations critical of Israel. Read on!
Rewards!
This week's Rewards for stalwart newsletter readers are sung by Aretha Franklin. Here are "Think" from "The Blues Brothers" and Aretha's performance of "Natural Woman" at the Kennedy Center. (h/t JaniG). Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
Fire Alarm
By Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker [September 1, 2018]
---- The Ranch Fire broke out sometime on the morning of Friday, July 27th, east of Ukiah, California, in Mendocino County. Extreme heat and windy weather made the blaze difficult to fight; by early Sunday, it had spread to thirteen thousand acres, and by the end of the following week it had burned a hundred and fifteen thousand acres. That weekend, it jumped four streams, a major road, and a fire line that had been cut by a bulldozer, and in the process it spread to another hundred thousand acres. By August 12th, it had become the largest wildfire in California's history. … It was against this infernal backdrop that the Trump Administration recently unveiled its plan to roll back rules limiting greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants. The fires, according to Donald Trump, had nothing to do with global warming, and instead were the result of "bad environmental laws," which, he claimed, were preventing "readily available water" from being used to fight the blazes. Under the headline "TRUMP TWEETS WHILE CALIFORNIA BURNS," the Los Angeles Times editorial board dismissed the President's theory as "wingnut drivel." Somewhat less colorfully, Newsweek observed that it had "little basis in fact." [Read More]
Glenn Greenwald, the Bane of Their Resistance
By Ian Parker, The New Yorker [September 3, 2018]
[FB – The writings (and videos) of Glenn Greenwald, who is the main reporter at The Intercept, are often included in the CFOW newsletter. It turns out that, as well as being a great reporter, he's also a bit quirky. But his marginalization from the media mainstream is a function of his worldview and his writing, which makes him a valuable resource for all serious dissenters.]
---- Greenwald, a former lawyer who, in 2013, was one of the reporters for a Pulitzer Prize-winning series in the Guardian on Edward Snowden's disclosures about the National Security Agency, is a longtime critic, from the left, of centrist and liberal policymakers and pundits. During the past two years, he has further exiled himself from the mainstream American left by responding with skepticism and disdain to reports of Russian government interference in the 2016 Presidential election. On Twitter, where he has nearly a million followers, and at the Intercept, the news Web site that he co-founded five years ago, and as a frequent guest on "Democracy Now!," the daily progressive radio and TV broadcast, Greenwald has argued that the available evidence concerning Russian activity has indicated nothing especially untoward; he has declared that those who claim otherwise are in denial about the ineptitude of the Democrats and of Hillary Clinton, and are sometimes prone to McCarthyite hysteria. These arguments, underpinned by a distaste for banal political opinions and a profound distrust of American institutions—including the C.I.A., the F.B.I., and Rachel Maddow—have put an end to his appearances on MSNBC, where he considers himself now banned. [Read More]
A Tale of Two Tweets: Left Politicians' Responses to McCain's Death Show Promise and Peril of Electing Socialists to Office
[FB – As this article details, DSC – the Democratic Socialists of America – has been growing rapidly since the Sanders campaign of 2016 helped to normalize "socialism" as a practical alternative to our ills. Peace and justice activists need to pay attention to DSA. Who's in it? How is it organized? What do its members want and what campaigns has DSA engaged in? And why doesn't it speak out against our many wars, and when/how will this change?]
---- This is a tale of two tweets. The first is by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America who is expected to be elected to Congress from Queens this November. Following the death of Sen. John McCain, she tweeted that his "legacy represents an unparalleled example of human decency and American service. … He meant so much, to so many." The next day, Kshama Sawant issued her evaluation of McCain. A two-term Seattle City Council member and leader of the Socialist Alternative Party, Sawant said, "An enthusiastic supporter of every imperialist war while in office, John McCain shares responsibility for hundreds of thousands of deaths. To whitewash that is to disrespect those who died in Iraq, Afghanistan, elsewhere … Not to mention the countless working people's lives damaged by McCain's support, as a Senator, for brutal neoliberal social and economic policies in the United States." Ocasio-Cortez sparked criticism on the left as her comments come across as pandering to neoliberal and neoconservative elites. Sawant was praised by many while barely causing a ripple in the media as she often makes provocative statements from a left perspective. … DSA is left trying to figure out how to hang on to their stars when the gravitational force of media, lobbyists and Democratic Party honchos will pull them ever closer to elites, compromising their principles. [Read More]
The New Socialists
By Corey Robin, New York Times [August 24, 2018]
---- Throughout most of American history, the idea of socialism has been a hopeless, often vaguely defined dream. So distant were its prospects at midcentury that the best definition Irving Howe and Lewis Coser, editors of the socialist periodical Dissent, could come up with in 1954 was this: "Socialism is the name of our desire." That may be changing. Public support for socialism is growing. Self-identified socialists like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib are making inroads into the Democratic Party, which the political analyst Kevin Phillips once called the "second-most enthusiastic capitalist party" in the world. Membership in the Democratic Socialists of America, the largest socialist organization in the country, is skyrocketing, especially among young people. What explains this irruption? And what do we mean, in 2018, when we talk about "socialism"? … Socialism means different things to different people. For some, it conjures the Soviet Union and the gulag; for others, Scandinavia and guaranteed income. But neither is the true vision of socialism. What the socialist seeks is freedom. [Read More]
WAR & PEACE
The 'Left' Gone Mad: Mainstream Liberals as Modern Day Warhawks
By Maj. Danny Sjursen, Antiwar.com [August 28, 2018]
---- On paper, Rachel Maddow may be the brightest host on all of cable news. Educated first at Stanford and then earning a PhD as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, she's an eloquent speaker and distinguished author. But these days Maddow and her fellow "mainstream" progressives at MSNBC and CNN sound like hysterical, bellicose neocons. It's all Russia all the time. To listen to the rhetoric, whether focused on the inconclusive case that the president colluded with Russia during the 2016 election, on the war in Syria, on the recent NATO summit, or the ongoing drama in Ukraine, the message from the center-left, establishment "adults in the room" is the same – President Trump is a stooge of Putin and the U.S. must brace itself for impending, inevitable conflict with the Russians. It makes for one heck of a story, and as a CBS executive admitted it's no doubt "damn good" for media ratings – but is it sound policy? This author thinks not. [Read More]
The War in Yemen
Why Yemen Suffers in Silence
By Eric Schewe, JSTOR [August 23, 2018]
---- [In 2015], Saudi Arabia launched "Operation Decisive Storm" in a coalition with eight regional allies including the United Arab Emirates, invading the country with ground troops to fight the Houthis, in addition to the air raids and blockade. It has justified this choice to the world by claiming it is countering Iranian support for the Houthi movement. … Saudi Arabia has taken this tactic thanks to its long-term alliance with the United States, America's long-term diplomatic tensions with Iran, and the friendship of the Trump administration in particular. It can rely not only on unlimited military sales from the U.S., but also U.S. intelligence and mid-flight refueling of its bombers by the U.S. Air Force. Until just last month, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. military could also depend on the blind eye the American newsmedia has turned on the crisis. Although outlets such as PBS have covered the conflict, major cable TV networks have broadcast little news on the Yemeni war. Even liberal-tilting channels such as MSNBC covered Stormy Daniels 455 times but Yemen not once from January 1st to July 25th. Yemen is a poor and marginalized country without the strategic importance even of Iraq and Afghanistan, where more U.S. wars continue mostly unreported. [Read More]
Also useful reading on the war in Yemen – "No More Forgotten Wars: End US Support for Saudi Coalition War Crimes in Yemen," b [Link]; "The U.S. Has Blood on Its Hands in Yemen, and Can't Wash It Off," b[Link]; and "Less Than 24 Hours After Senate Rejected Effort to Curb Slaughter, 26 More Children Killed by US-Backed Bombing in Yemen," [Link].
GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE CRISIS
Writing a New Chapter, Not an Obituary, for the Planet
By , et al., Common Dreams [August 31, 2018]
---- A recent New York Times Magazine article suggests action to address climate change is futile. … No, it's not too late to address climate change. No, families with minivans aren't equally to blame for failing to address the climate crisis as are oil executives who have stopped at nothing to protect their profits. And with respect, no, the only meaningful attempts to address climate change haven't stemmed primarily from a couple of white men in the US three decades ago — however valiantly they've fought. Now is our chance to defend — not lose — the Earth.. … For starters, even a tenth of a degree Celsius means the difference between life and death for millions of people, especially in the Global South and communities least responsible for this crisis. [Read More]
For more on climate destruction and the fossil fools - Jason Mark, "The Climate-Wrecking Industry… and How to Beat It,," The Nation [August 30, 2018] [Link]; Elliott Negin, "Why Is ExxonMobil Still Funding Climate Science Denier Groups?" [Link]; and "'Victory For All Of Us': Federal Court Of Appeal Quashes Approval Of $9.3-Billion Oil Pipeline Expansion," by Gordon Hoekstra et al., Vancouver Sun [August 31, 2018] [Link].
CIVIL LIBERTIES/"THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR"
Goodbye to All That: A Private Investigator on Living in a Surveillance Culture
By Judith Coburn, Tom Dispatch [August 2018]
By Judith Coburn, Tom Dispatch [August 2018]
---- Now that we know we are surveilled 24/7 by the National Security Agency, the FBI, local police, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, hackers, the Russians, the Chinese, the North Koreans, data brokers, private spyware groups like Black Cube, and companies from which we've ordered swag on the Internet, is there still any "right to be forgotten," as the Europeans call it? Is there any privacy left, let alone a right to privacy? … The authoritarian snoops of the last century would have drooled over the surveillance uses of the smartphones that most of us now carry. Smartphones have, in fact, become one of the primo law enforcement tools other than the Internet. "Find my iPhone" can even find a dead body -- if, that is, the victim left her iPhone on while being murdered. And don't get me started on the proliferation of surveillance cameras in our world. [Read More].
THE STATE OF THE UNION
Why It Can Happen Here: We're very close to becoming another Poland or Hungary.
By Paul Krugman, New York Times [August 27, 2018]
---- What Freedom House calls illiberalism is on the rise across Eastern Europe. This includes Poland and Hungary, both still members of the European Union, in which democracy as we normally understand it is already dead. In both countries the ruling parties — Law and Justice in Poland, Fidesz in Hungary — have established regimes that maintain the forms of popular elections, but have destroyed the independence of the judiciary, suppressed freedom of the press, institutionalized large-scale corruption and effectively delegitimized dissent. The result seems likely to be one-party rule for the foreseeable future. And it could all too easily happen here. There was a time, not long ago, when people used to say that our democratic norms, our proud history of freedom, would protect us from such a slide into tyranny. In fact, some people still say that. But believing such a thing today requires willful blindness. The fact is that the Republican Party is ready, even eager, to become an American version of Law and Justice or Fidesz, exploiting its current political power to lock in permanent rule. [Read More]
How the Trump Administration Is Remaking the Courts
By Jason Zengerle, New York Times Magazine [August 22, 2018]
---- While Trump has lagged behind other presidents in political appointments, the streamlining of the judicial-selection process has helped him deliver a historic number of judges to the federal bench. In 2017, the Senate confirmed 12 of Trump's appeals court picks — the most for any president in his first year in office. This year, the Senate has already confirmed 12 appellate judges and, according to a Republican Judiciary Committee aide, hopes to confirm at least four more. The White House refers to every new batch of judicial appointees Trump selects as "waves" — in early June, it announced the "Fifteenth Wave of Judicial Nominees"— as if they're soldiers landing on the beaches of Normandy. … In short, a radically new federal judiciary could be with us long after Trump is gone. Brian Fallon, a veteran Democratic operative who leads Demand Justice, a group formed to help Democrats with research and communications in the judicial wars, says, "We can win back the House this November, we can defeat Trump in 2020 and we'll still be dealing with the lingering effects of Trumpism for the next 30 or 40 years because of the young Trump-appointed judges." [Read More]
Is Donald Trump Above the Law?
By James Risen, The Intercept [August 24, 2018]
---- Ever since the federal investigations of President Donald Trump and his lackeys began, most outside observers have argued it was highly unlikely that Trump himself would face criminal prosecution. The conventional wisdom has been that federal prosecutors would bow to long-standing tradition and decades-old Justice Department legal opinions and not seek an indictment of a sitting president. Trump might face impeachment in Congress, which is a political process, but it seemed far-fetched that prosecutors would try to send him directly from the White House to prison. But that line of thinking was upended Tuesday, when Trump became the unnamed "Individual-1" in a federal criminal case. Tuesday was the day that the chances that Trump will face indictment and criminal prosecution surged higher than ever before. [Read More] Should the Democrats win control of the House of Representatives in November, more trouble will be coming Trump's way. Read "The End of Impunity: What Democrats can do with subpoena power," by Michelle Goldberg, New York Times [August 27, 2018] [Link]; and "Donald Trump's Worst Nightmare May Come In The Form Of Rep. Elijah Cummings," by Kurt Bardella, Huffington Post [August 26, 2018] [Link].
(Video) Update on Prison Strike Demanding End of "Slave Labor": After 10 Days, Protests Spread to 11 States
From Democracy Now! [August 30, 2018]
---- Prisoners across the country join work stoppages, hunger strikes and commissary boycotts in at least 11 states to protest prison conditions and demand the end of what they call "prison slavery." Organizers report prisoners in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Indiana are demonstrating. Individuals in Texas, California and Ohio have gone on hunger strike, including some in solitary confinement. Meanwhile, at least six people have been hunger-striking inside the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, for more than a week. We speak with Amani Sawari, prison strike organizer working on behalf of Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, a network of prisoners who are helping organize the nationwide strike. [See the Program]. For additional information, read "Incarcerated Workers Strike Against Dehumanizing Prison Conditions," by Fizz Perkal, Inequality [August 23, 2018] [Link].
Nearly 3,000 Deaths in Puerto Rico Linked to Hurricane Maria, Report Says
By Sheri Fink, New York Times [August 28, 2018]
---- A long-awaited report on the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico has found that nearly 3,000 more deaths than expected occurred in the months after the storm, the first official outside evaluation of the toll in a disaster whose damage in some cases took months to unfold. The report, made public on Tuesday by researchers at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health, was commissioned by the governor of Puerto Rico after The New York Times and other media outlets and researchers last year estimated that the death count far exceeded the government's official toll of 64. [Read More]
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
How Israel Spies on US Citizens
By Alain Gresh, The Nation [August 31, 2018]
---- The documentary was expected to be a media sensation, bringing outraged denials and intense controversy. But then the broadcast was postponed, with no official explanation. Eventually, articles in the US Jewish media revealed that it would never be shown. The documentary had been sacrificed to the fierce battle between Qatar on one side and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on the other for US support in the feud that began in June 2017. What better way to do this than by winning the favour of the pro-Israel lobby, known for its influence on US policy in the Middle East?.... What was striking to see was the feverish mood of the pro-Israel lobby over the last few years due to a blind fear of losing its influence. How can that be, when support for Israel is massive in the United States, and both Republicans and Democrats unfailingly back it, no matter what its ventures? And when, since Trump's election, Washington no longer wishes to act as "unfair" broker in the Israeli-Arab conflict, and has sided with Israel's most right-wing government ever? Despite this apparently favorable climate, a specter haunts the lobby: the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). [Read More]
The Sea is the Same Sea [A new biography of Benjamin Netanyahu]
By Adam Shatz, London Review of Books [September 2018]
[FB – This is a review of Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu. There are copies in the WLS.]
---- Pfeffer, a correspondent for Haaretz, has written a biography of Benjamin Netanyahu as a way of explaining today's Israel – by no means an enviable task. Say what you will about Netanyahu's predecessors, they had their fascination, from the monastic self-discipline of David Ben-Gurion to the gluttony of Ariel Sharon. Netanyahu comes across as a hollow figure: a 'marketing man', in the words of Max Hastings, who met him while writing a biography of his brother Jonathan. Yet Netanyahu can hardly be avoided, or his survival skills denied. If he is not forced out of office on corruption charges before July 2019, he will be Israel's longest-serving prime minister, overtaking Ben-Gurion. [Read More]
Shame on You, America
---- Now it's out in the open: America has declared war on the Palestinians. With his son-in-law Jared Kushner, an expert on humanitarian organizations and Palestinian refugees, the great bully Donald Trump decided to end aid to the UN agency that aids Palestinian refugees. The official explanation: The business model and fiscal practices of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency made it an "irredeemably flawed operation." Trump and his son-in-law, the keepers of the seal of good government, found that the agency isn't properly run. The annual U.S. contribution of $360 million will end. Even in Israel, which rejoices at every Palestinian calamity and is positive that everything is a zero-sum game, people think the state's greatest friend of all time went a little overboard. The new America treats small slights and major crimes equally. Allocations to U.S. aid organizations operating in the territories, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development, have been cut by $200 million. … In the next decade, the United States is set to pour $38 billion into Israel, among the most developed countries on the planet with one of the best-equipped armies in the world — which of course follow the right business model. Not a single dollar can be cut. Humanitarian aid to a needy country that doesn't waste a single cent. [Read More] For details on what the cut in funding will mean for the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency, read "US Ends Funding for UN Palestinian Refugee Agency," Informed Comment [Link].
OUR HISTORY
In the Year of the Pig: the Real Vietnam War Heroes
---- I'll be glad if I never hear John McCain's name again, but his death made me look back and try once more to understand the US War with the Vietnamese People's Army, whose anti-aircraft gunners shot him out of the sky during his 23 bombing raids over North Vietnam. I don't think "everybody's a hero," least of all Bomb- Bomb-Iran John McCain, but I hugely admire the soldiers who ended the Vietnam War by refusing to fight. … I felt for the wounded foot soldiers writhing in agony in the final moments of Emile de Antonio's brilliant Vietnam War documentary In the Year of the Pig, and I felt angry at the politicians and anti-communist ruling class who sent them off to suffer and die. I hadn't watched In the Year of the Pig for nearly 20 years, but it's one of the most profound films I've seen about the USA's Vietnam War, so I watched it again, and I recommend it to anyone reading this. Emile de Antonio doesn't narrate the film; it's simply his composition of documentary footage. It's also one of the few documentaries made while the war was still going on. [Read More] To see "In The Year of the Pig," imo the best of the early (1968) Vietnam films, go here.
Why McCain Lost: a Flashback
[FB – In late 2008 it seemed certain that John McCain would beat Barack Obama for the Presidency. Then the financial crisis peaked, and no one – certainly not the presidential contenders – knew what to do. This article from Counterpunch ten years ago is an interesting flashback to those days of political chaos and confusion.]
---- When it came time for voting (on matters ranging from war in Iraq to apartheid in South Africa), McCain was an unvarnished creature of the far right. Politically he wasn't far removed from the political savages of our time: Jesse Helms, Trent Lott and Dick Armey. Those spitting cobras have been rightly consigned to a kind of historical detention for their racism and warmongering, but McCain has been almost universally venerated, largely because he knew that the easiest way to manipulate the press was to preen for the cameras and give them an occasional pat on the head. As a parting shot, here's the last piece Cockburn and I wrote on McCain for the print edition of CounterPunch, shortly after he blew what should have been a sure thing against Barack Obama in 2008. [Read More]
