Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
September 30, 2018
Hello All – The extraordinary developments in the Kavanaugh confirmation drama uncover many of the central dynamics shaping the United States. Let's start with the heroism of a 23-year-old graduate of Ardsley high school, Marie Gallagher. It was Gallagher and a compatriot who confronted Republican Senator Flake as he was marooned in an elevator towards the conclusion of the hearing. The two women demanded that Flake listen to their personal experience of sexual assault, and he did so while cameras sent the confrontation out live to a national audience of millions. Did this the last straw lead to his demand that there be a limited FBI investigation of some of the allegations against Kavanaugh? As this account from The Intercept concludes, "Protest Matters." Thank you, Marie Gallagher.
I see the Kavanaugh nomination and possible confirmation as being at the intersection of two powerful currents that have driven US politics over the past 50 years. The first is the revolution in the status of women and people of color, and the counter-revolution organized around white and male supremacy. This counterrevolution used to be called "the New Right," but after half a century it is essentially the social base of the Republican Party. The second current is that of "Neo-liberalism," the political/economic view that economic markets should regulate the economy and much of our lives. Accompanying the development of Neo-liberalism, essentially the Rule of the Very Wealthy, have been legal philosophies supporting unchecked power for the Executive, i.e. the President, who is essentially above the law because whatever he does is lawful.
As illustrated in his jaw-dropping testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kavanaugh embodies male supremacy. And as we learned earlier in the confirmation process, in the superficially examinations of his attitude towards the power of business and the power of an unchecked Executive power, his confirmation would cap the decades-long campaigns of big business and rightwing ideologues to move the United States in what is essentially a fascist direction. The fight to stop these malevolent currents will continue for decades.
Last Wednesday a Resolution was introduced into the House of Representatives declaring that the US military activity in support of the Saudi Arabian war in Yemen was not approved by Congress, and is thus subject to the War Powers Act of 1973. This Act requires that the President must get congressional approval to use military force after 60 days. In this case, it is also argued that the Authorization to Use Military Force passed by Congress a few days after 9/11 does not cover the US in Yemen. As noted in the several readings about Yemen linked below, a similar Resolution was attempted last year, but did not have enough votes. Over the past few weeks, however, some two dozen addition supporters have signed on to the proposed Resolution, including Westchester's Nita Lowey and Eliot Engel. A vote on the Resolution is expected shortly. As the war in Yemen is generally considered the world's worst humanitarian crisis, ending the US support that enables the Saudi's bloody war is long overdue.
News Notes
Though largely invisible now in the US mainstream media, since March 30th, nonviolent protests by Palestinians have continued every Friday at Gaza's border fence with Israel. Last Friday seven more Palestinians, including two boys aged 12 and 14, were killed. Another 505 more people were wounded, including 89 by gunshots. In total, in the six months of protests, at least 191 people have been killed and thousands have been wounded. For useful reports/updates, go here and here.
Tomorrow the USA begins a new fiscal year and thus a new federal budget. Federal expenditures are divided into "mandatory" and "discretionary." [Link]. "Mandatory" expenditures are monies that must be spent no matter what, such as interest on the federal debt or Social Security payments. "Discretionary" expenditures are things that Congress actually votes on, including military and "defense" expenditures. As usual, more than 50 percent of next years discretionary spending will go to the Pentagon, CIA, etc. The federal debt for next year – expenditures minus revenue – will be more than $900 billion. Indeed, just in time for the November elections, House Republicans passed a $3 trillion tax cut over ten years – thus about $300 billion a year – with most of the windfall going to the richest one percent of taxpayers.
Last Monday the Hudson Valley Community Coalition held a press conference to announce that the Guambana family, who faced with deportation, was entering sanctuary at the South Presbyterian church in Dobbs Ferry. But it transpired that, at the last minute, ICE agreed to suspend the deportation order pending appeal. To learn more about the Coalition's sanctuary work, go to their Facebook page.
The Army Corps of Engineers proposes to construct sea gates or other obstacles in the Hudson River to protect against storm surges. There will be a public hearing about these proposals at the Westchester County Center in White Plains on Wednesday, October 3rd, from 3 to 5 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m.
The last day to register to vote for the November elections is coming up. You must register in person at the Board of Elections (White Plains) by October 12th. If you are registering by mail, your form must be postmarked no later than October 12th and received no later than October 17th. If you want to change your party registration to vote in next year's primary elections – those registered as None or Independent and want to vote in the Democratic primaries – you must also get your form to the Board of Elections by October 12th.
Finally, I'm sad to announce that Jean St. George, CFOW stalwart and the friend of many people in the Rivertowns, died last week at the age of 91. This obituary notice focuses on her early life; I hope we can collect some memories and share them about her time with us in the Rivertowns. Until then, as Jean would say, "Be Bad!"
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!
Sunday, October 7th – CFOW's monthly meeting will be held at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs. We meet from 7 to 9 p.m. At these meetings we review our work over the past months and make plans for what's coming next. Everyone is welcome at these meetings!
Tuesday, October 23rd – What will probably be the final court case in the Stop the Algonquin Pipeline campaign will be heard at the Cortlandt town court, 1 Heady St. in Cortland, starting at 9 a.m. This case involves defendants who crawled into a pipeline to halt construction. They defendants face serious charges, but the case is also important because the judge has stated she will allow the "necessity defense," allowing the defendants to argue that what they did was not illegal, because they were attempting to stop a greater harm. I'll post more about this as details emerge.
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 the set of articles about Yemen and the War Powers Act; the extended essay by a Guantanamo inmate's legal adviser on the torture his client has suffered; the account of a former member of the US Border Patrol on the sadism of the system; news that incarcerated immigrant children are being snatched from their custodial care in the middle of the night and sent hundreds of miles away to a huge new tent city; and in "Our History," the extraordinary story of the kidnapping and cultural stripping of Indian children in the late 19th century, and an activist's attempt to recover this history today. Read on!
Rewards!
This newsletter has no choice but to lead off this week's Rewards! with Matt Damon and the Saturday Night Live version of the Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh. And as we know, 2018 is the 50th anniversary of the zillion things that happened in 1968. Here is a short film on the San Francisco State student strike of that year, which succeeded in establishing a Black Studies department. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
What Brett Kavanaugh Really Learned in High School: Make the Rules, Break the Rules and Prosper
---- He had his talking points. Ambition says, Stick to the script; play it safe even at the risk of appearing to be a depthless drone. Wisdom would say otherwise. Intellectual curiosity and a feeling for justice would say otherwise. When Kavanaugh was assistant White House counsel from 2001-2003, his office was immersed in one of the most momentous debates in this country's history. His boss, Alberto Gonzales, was seeking legal justifications for torture, for detention without trial, for ignoring the Geneva Conventions and pissing on habeas corpus, the 'great writ', legal obstacle to tyranny since the 12th century. Put another way, the Bush administration was debating how to break the rules and get away with it. At issue was not the anodyne "power of the president" but the power to inflict pain. … Job duties notwithstanding, everyone in the White House counsel's office was confronted with a moral choice, which was also a choice about justice and humanity: Will you accommodate suffering? Will you be any part of the machinery that seeks to exact and justify it? Kavanaugh was willing to accommodate suffering. [Read More].
Also of interest on the Kavanaugh nomination – "Ten Items Corroborate Dr. Blasey Ford's Allegation Kavanaugh Tried to Rape Her," b Why Do We Tolerate Kavanaugh's Complicity With Torture?" b A Limited FBI Investigation of Brett Kavanaugh Is Entirely Insufficient," by John Nichols, The Nation [September 29, 2018] [Link].
[Audio] American Dissident: Noam Chomsky on the State of the Empire
From The Intercept [September 26, 2018]
[FB – As usual, Chomsky covers a wide range of topics in this extended interview with Jeremy Skahill on Intercepted. The Chomsky segment begins 10 minutes into the program.] [Link].
America Was in Decline Long Before Trump Stepped Into Office
By Tom Engelhardt, Tom Dispatch [September 28, 2018]
---- Think back to [1991] when the other superpower, the lesser one of that era, so unbelievably went down for the count. Try to recall that moment when the Soviet Union, its economy imploding, suddenly was no more, its various imperial parts—from Eastern Europe to Central Asia—having largely spun free. It's hard now to remember just how those months after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and that final moment in 1991 stunned the Washington establishment. Untold sums of money had been poured into "intelligence" during the almost half-century of what became known as the Cold War (because a hot war between two nuclear-armed superpowers seemed unimaginable—even if it almost happened). Nonetheless, key figures in Washington were remarkably unprepared for it all to end. They were stunned. It simply hadn't occurred to them that the global standoff between the last two great powers on this planet could or would ever truly be over. [Read More]
17 Years of Getting Afghanistan Completely Wrong
By David Swanson, ZNet [September 29, 2018]
---- There are, as far as I know, no polls on the percentage of people in the United States who know that the war is still going on, but it seems to be pretty low. Polling Report lists no polls at all on Afghanistan in the past three years. For longer than most wars have lasted in total, this one has gone on with no public discussion of whether or not it should, just annual testimony before Congress that this next year is going to really be the charm. Things people don't know are happening are not polled about, which contributes to nobody knowing they are happening. Possible reasons for such ignorance include: there have been too many wars spawned by this one to keep track of them all; President Obama claimed to have "ended" the war while explicitly and actually not ending it, and pointing this out could be impolite; a war embraced by multiple presidents and both big political parties is not a useful topic for partisan politics; very few of the people suffering and dying are from the United States; very similar stories bore journalists and editors after 17 years of regurgitating them; when the war on Iraq became too unpopular in the United States, the war on Afghanistan was fashioned into a "good war" so that people could oppose one war while making clear their support for war in general, and it would be inconvenient to raise too many questions about the good war; it's hard to tell the story of permanent imperial occupation without it sounding a little bit like permanent imperial occupation; and the only other story that could be developed would be the ending of the war — which nobody in power is proposing and which could raise the embarrassing question of why it wasn't done 5, 10, or 17 years ago. [Read More]
---- There are, as far as I know, no polls on the percentage of people in the United States who know that the war is still going on, but it seems to be pretty low. Polling Report lists no polls at all on Afghanistan in the past three years. For longer than most wars have lasted in total, this one has gone on with no public discussion of whether or not it should, just annual testimony before Congress that this next year is going to really be the charm. Things people don't know are happening are not polled about, which contributes to nobody knowing they are happening. Possible reasons for such ignorance include: there have been too many wars spawned by this one to keep track of them all; President Obama claimed to have "ended" the war while explicitly and actually not ending it, and pointing this out could be impolite; a war embraced by multiple presidents and both big political parties is not a useful topic for partisan politics; very few of the people suffering and dying are from the United States; very similar stories bore journalists and editors after 17 years of regurgitating them; when the war on Iraq became too unpopular in the United States, the war on Afghanistan was fashioned into a "good war" so that people could oppose one war while making clear their support for war in general, and it would be inconvenient to raise too many questions about the good war; it's hard to tell the story of permanent imperial occupation without it sounding a little bit like permanent imperial occupation; and the only other story that could be developed would be the ending of the war — which nobody in power is proposing and which could raise the embarrassing question of why it wasn't done 5, 10, or 17 years ago. [Read More]
THE WAR IN YEMEN – AND HOW WE CAN STOP IT
House Resolution Directs Trump to End U.S. Support for Yemen War
By Alex Emmons, The Intercept [
---- In Congress, frustration with the U.S. role in Yemen is nearing a breaking point. Sen. Bob Menendez — the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — is holding up a $2 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over concerns that the two countries routinely bomb civilian targets. Meanwhile, in the House, U.S. assistance to the Saudi- and UAE-led coalition is about to face another major hurdle. On Wednesday, California Democrat Ro Khanna introduced a resolution invoking the 1973 War Powers Act, declaring that Congress never authorized U.S. support for the coalition in Yemen and directing President Donald Trump to withdraw U.S. troops from "hostilities" against the Houthis, the Iranian-backed rebel group at war with Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The resolution would not affect U.S. forces who are on the ground in Yemen fighting Al Qaeda. The legislation closely resembles a similar measure Khanna introduced last year, but now has 23 other co-sponsors, including Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the minority whip, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the House Armed Services committee, and Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., the leading Democrat on the House Foreign Relations Committee. As a "privileged" resolution under House rules, the bill can bypass a committee vote and is overwhelmingly likely to receive a vote on the floor. [Read More]
Additional views on the War Powers Act & Yemen – "'Glimmer of Hope' for Yemen as Khanna Invokes War Powers Act to End US Support for Saudi-Led Slaughter of Civilians," by [Link] and "Centrist House Democrats Join the Progressive Movement to Stop the War on Yemen," by James Carden, The Nation [September 28, 2018] [Link]. To read how the Democratic leadership in the House defeated a similar effort last year, read "House Democratic Whip Resists Effort to End U.S. Involvement in Yemen War," by Lee Fang, The Intercept [October 31, 2017] [Link].
In Yemen and Beyond, U.S. Arms Manufacturers Are Abetting Crimes against Humanity
By and , Foreign Policy in Focus [September 26, 2018]
---- The Saudi bombing of a school bus in Yemen on August 9, 2018 killed 44 children and wounded many more. The attack struck a nerve in the U.S., confronting the American public with the wanton brutality of the Saudi-led war on Yemen. When CNN revealed that the bomb used in the airstrike was made by U.S. weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin, the horror of the atrocity hit even closer to home for many Americans. But the killing and maiming of civilians with U.S.-made weapons in war zones around the world is an all too regular occurrence. U.S. forces are directly responsible for largely uncounted civilian casualties in all America's wars, and the United States is also the world's leading arms exporter. … Five U.S. companies — Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and General Dynamics — dominate the global arms business, raking in $140 billion in weapons sales in 2017, and export sales make up a growing share of their business, about $35 billion in 2017. [Read More]
MORE WAR & PEACE
Russian-Israeli Conflict in the Skies of Syria
By Paul Pillar, LobeLob [September 28, 2018]
---- The Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu—who has traveled to Moscow to confer with Putin three times so far this year—has the narrower perspective of seeking to throw its military weight around outside its borders with impunity. Its focus in Syria is on Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah. Neither of those two players could hope to overcome Israel's military superiority in the area, but for the Israeli government it is the impunity that matters as much as the ability to launch strikes. Its strikes in Syria over the past two years—now numbering about 200—are exactly the kind of operation for which the Israelis do not want to have to worry much about costs and complications. [Read More]
The War in Afghanistan
How Afghanistan's Peace Movement Is Winning Hearts and Minds
By Roshni Kapur, Waging Nonviolence [September 22, 2018]
---- In May 2018, a group of seven Afghans in the mostly Taliban controlled province of Helmand set off on a more than 370-mile peace journey to the capital city, Kabul, sparking a nationwide movement. Residents of Helmand have been paying a high price ever since the province turned into a battleground between Afghan forces and the Taliban. The catalyst for the peace march was a car bomb attack during a wrestling match in March that killed 14 people. The protesters began with a hunger strike and a sit-in protest in the province's capital, Lashkar Gah, within 24 hours of the suicide attack to demand an end to the violence. The activists held meetings with both the government and the Taliban, but when no results were produced they decided to walk to Kabul to further advocate for their peace message. The war-weary Afghans traveled across the country, passing through difficult terrain in the scorching hot sun. The final leg of their march happened during the holy month of Ramadan, which they continued while observing their fast. They were welcomed in the villages which they passed through and were offered food, water and places to rest. [Read More]
War With Iran?
Trump is now targeting Iran
By Patrick Cockburn, The Independent [UK] [September 30, 2018]
---- Denunciations of Iran as the root of all evil by Trump, Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and UN ambassador Nikki Haley are simple minded to the point of idiocy. Haley responded to the Ahvaz massacre by telling the government to "look in the mirror". Bolton last year promised the exiled Iranian opposition group, the very weird cult-like Mojahedin-e Khalq, that by 2019 they would be ruling Iran. This week he was saying that there would be "hell to pay" if Iran stood in the way of the US. The blood-curdling rhetoric may be arrogant and puerile but should be taken seriously because it reflects the same attitude of mind that proceeded past US interventions in the Middle East: the enemy is demonised and underestimated at the same time. There is credulity towards self-interested exiled groups who claimed that US intervention would be easy (Iraqi opposition groups were privately cynical in 2003 about how far they were misleading the Americans on this score). Israel, Saudi Arabia and UAE have an interest in luring the US into fighting Iran, though they are not intending to do much fighting themselves. [Read More] For another useful analysis of Trump's UN speech and the threats to Iran, read "Beating War Drums at the UN," by Mitchell Plitnick LobeLog [September 26, 2018] [Link].
---- Denunciations of Iran as the root of all evil by Trump, Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and UN ambassador Nikki Haley are simple minded to the point of idiocy. Haley responded to the Ahvaz massacre by telling the government to "look in the mirror". Bolton last year promised the exiled Iranian opposition group, the very weird cult-like Mojahedin-e Khalq, that by 2019 they would be ruling Iran. This week he was saying that there would be "hell to pay" if Iran stood in the way of the US. The blood-curdling rhetoric may be arrogant and puerile but should be taken seriously because it reflects the same attitude of mind that proceeded past US interventions in the Middle East: the enemy is demonised and underestimated at the same time. There is credulity towards self-interested exiled groups who claimed that US intervention would be easy (Iraqi opposition groups were privately cynical in 2003 about how far they were misleading the Americans on this score). Israel, Saudi Arabia and UAE have an interest in luring the US into fighting Iran, though they are not intending to do much fighting themselves. [Read More] For another useful analysis of Trump's UN speech and the threats to Iran, read "Beating War Drums at the UN," by Mitchell Plitnick LobeLog [September 26, 2018] [Link].
War Against Venezuela?
(Video) Trump Threatens Venezuela with New Sanctions Even as It Faces Economic & Humanitarian Crisis
From Democracy Now! [September 27, 2018]
---- President Nicolás Maduro addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday in a surprise visit, just one day after Donald Trump accused him of corruption and announced new sanctions against his wife Cilia Flores and other members of his inner circle. "Despite all of the differences … I am willing to reach out my hand to the president of the United States and sit down to talk about the issues of bilateral differences and the issues of our region," Maduro said. Trump said Wednesday that he would be willing to meet with Maduro and that all options are on the table to help end the political, economic and humanitarian chaos in Venezuela. [See the Program] To keep up to date with events in Venezuela, the most useful site is Venezuelanalysis. Based on Trump's UN speech, check out "Trump Sets Sights on Venezuela with New Sanctions and Coup Threats" [Link].
GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE CHAOS
The Trump Administration Anticipates Catastrophic Global Warming by 2100
---- Last month, the Trump administration released a report that predicted global temperatures will be four degrees higher by the end of this century, assuming current trends persist. World leaders have pledged to keep global temperatures from rising even two degrees (Celsius) above pre-industrial levels, with the understanding that warming beyond that could prove catastrophic. The last time the Earth was as warm as the White House expects it to be in 2100, its oceans were hundreds of feet higher. Which is to say: The Trump administration ostensibly, officially expects that, absent radical action to reduce carbon emissions, within the next 80 years, much of Manhattan and Miami will sink into the sea; many of world's coral reefs will be irreversibly destroyed by acidifying oceans; vast regions of the Earth will lose their primary sources of water; and a variety of extreme weather events will dramatically increase in frequency. And the White House believes that this fact is an argument for loosening restrictions on carbon emissions. [Read More]
Climate Change Made Florence a Monster
By Jim Naureckas, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting [FAIR] [September 23, 2018]
---- That Hurricane Florence broke rainfall records for tropical storms in both North and South Carolina shouldn't be surprising, as global climate change has increased extreme precipitation in all areas of the continental United States. One analysis released before the massive storm hit, by researchers at Stony Brook, Berkeley National Lab and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, projected that warming would cause Florence to bring twice as much rain compared to a similar storm with normal temperatures. But news audiences were rarely informed about the contribution of human-caused climate disruption to the devastating storm, according to a study of hurricane coverage by Public Citizen. Less than 8 percent of Florence stories in the 50 top-circulation US newspapers (9/9–16/18) mentioned climate change—and only 4 percent of segments on major TV outlets. [Read More]
---- That Hurricane Florence broke rainfall records for tropical storms in both North and South Carolina shouldn't be surprising, as global climate change has increased extreme precipitation in all areas of the continental United States. One analysis released before the massive storm hit, by researchers at Stony Brook, Berkeley National Lab and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, projected that warming would cause Florence to bring twice as much rain compared to a similar storm with normal temperatures. But news audiences were rarely informed about the contribution of human-caused climate disruption to the devastating storm, according to a study of hurricane coverage by Public Citizen. Less than 8 percent of Florence stories in the 50 top-circulation US newspapers (9/9–16/18) mentioned climate change—and only 4 percent of segments on major TV outlets. [Read More]
CIVIL LIBERTIES/"THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR"
The Innocence of Abu Zubaydah
By Joseph Margulies, New York Review of Books [September 2018]
---- The "facts" recounted above to justify this torture were all false. Abu Zubaydah was no lieutenant to Osama bin Laden. He held no position in al-Qaeda, senior or otherwise. … The short answer to the question "Is Abu Zubaydah Hollywood-innocent?" is that it doesn't matter. At least, it shouldn't. It shouldn't matter in the legal sense, because if the law were humane, it would not authorize the government to imprison someone for the rest of his days unless he had some specific responsibility for the event that triggered our entry into this endless war. And it shouldn't matter in the moral sense, because regardless of what he may have done, regardless of whether he is "innocent," we should not authorize the government to treat him in a way that we would never tolerate if it were done to a dog, or to imprison him incommunicado, in a small, windowless cell, without charges or meaningful process, until he dies, forgotten by a world that has long since moved on. [Read More]
Mass Surveillance Begins at the Local Level. So Does the Resistance to It.
By Andrew Tan-Delli Cicchi, The Nation [September 28, 2018]
---- Suspicious Activity Report is just one element of the mass surveillance that Americans across the country are increasingly subject to. To Hamid Khan, campaign coordinator of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, [such incidents] are a demonstration that, for all the sensationalist coverage of Russian hacking and social-media monitoring, surveillance is often happening intrusively in person, closer to home. … Over the past decade, local law enforcement, often in tandem with national-security agencies, have rolled out surveillance apparatuses unparalleled in their reach and scope. The evolution of procedures, intelligence-sharing, and technology have enabled dubious policing tactics to be carried out on an unprecedented scale, allowing for a greater breadth and depth of personal information to be surreptitiously harvested and circulated. Most of this takes place at the local level, at the hands of police departments, and as laws are outpaced and legislators strain to even grasp the basic mechanisms of the Internet, it has fallen to grassroots movements to lead the charge against the surveillance state. [Read More]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
"Kick Ass, Ask Questions Later": A Border Patrol Whistleblower Speaks Out About Culture of Abuse Against Migrants
By John Washington, The Intercept [
---- A military veteran, Mario enlisted in the Border Patrol in 2009 and resigned in 2011. Although he has been out of the Border Patrol for years, his account sheds light on practices that reportedly continue today, and provides a rare insight into the culture of an agency that has been rhetorically emboldened by the Trump administration and promised more money, personnel, and technology to carry out aggressive border enforcement. In wide-ranging conversations, Mario discussed assaults and other abuses against migrants, a lack of effective oversight, and a disturbing culture of dehumanization in the agency. He says that he has decided to step forward to tell the American public about conduct he found embarrassing, cruel, and unregulated. [Read More]
Hundreds of Migrant Children Quietly Moved to a Tent Camp on the Texas Border
By Caitlin Dickerson, New York Times [September 30, 2018]
---- In shelters from Kansas to New York, hundreds of migrant children have been roused in the middle of the night in recent weeks and loaded onto buses with backpacks and snacks for a cross-country journey to their new home: a barren tent city on a sprawling patch of desert in South Texas. … To deal with the surging shelter populations, which have hovered near 90 percent of capacity since May, a mass reshuffling is underway and shows no signs of slowing. Hundreds of children are being shipped from shelters to South Texas each week, totaling more than 1,600 so far. The roughly 100 shelters that have, until now, been the main location for housing detained migrant children are licensed and monitored by state child welfare authorities, who impose requirements on safety and education as well as staff hiring and training. … Several shelter workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being fired, described what they said has become standard practice for moving the children: In order to avoid escape attempts, the moves are carried out late at night because children will be less likely to try to run away. For the same reason, children are generally given little advance warning that they will be moved. [Read More]
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
The Real Reasons behind Washington's War on UNRWA
By Ramzy Baroud, ZNet [September 28, 2018]
---- The US government's decision to slash funds provided to the United Nations agency that cares for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, is part of a new American-Israeli strategy aimed at redefining the rules of the game altogether. As a result, UNRWA is experiencing its worst financial crisis. The gap in its budget is estimated at around $217 million, and is rapidly increasing. Aside from future catastrophic events that would result in discontinuing services and urgent humanitarian aid to five million refugees registered with UNRWA, the impact of the US callous decision is already reverberating in many refugee camps across the region. Currently, UNRWA has downgraded many of its services: laying off many teachers, reducing staff and working hours at various clinics. Nearly 40 percent of all Palestinian refugees live in Jordan, a country that is already overwhelmed by a million Syrian refugees who sought shelter there because of the grinding and deadly war in their own country. Aware of Jordan's vulnerability, American emissaries attempted to barter with the country to heed the US demand of revoking the status of the two million Palestinian refugees. Instead of funding UNRWA, Washington offered to re-channel the funds directly to the Jordanian government. Thus, the US hopes that the Palestinian refugee status would no longer be applicable. Unsurprisingly, Jordan refused the American offer. … Washington and Israel are seeking to simply remove the 'Right of Return' for Palestinian refugees, as enshrined in international law, from the political agenda altogether. [Read More]
---- The US government's decision to slash funds provided to the United Nations agency that cares for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, is part of a new American-Israeli strategy aimed at redefining the rules of the game altogether. As a result, UNRWA is experiencing its worst financial crisis. The gap in its budget is estimated at around $217 million, and is rapidly increasing. Aside from future catastrophic events that would result in discontinuing services and urgent humanitarian aid to five million refugees registered with UNRWA, the impact of the US callous decision is already reverberating in many refugee camps across the region. Currently, UNRWA has downgraded many of its services: laying off many teachers, reducing staff and working hours at various clinics. Nearly 40 percent of all Palestinian refugees live in Jordan, a country that is already overwhelmed by a million Syrian refugees who sought shelter there because of the grinding and deadly war in their own country. Aware of Jordan's vulnerability, American emissaries attempted to barter with the country to heed the US demand of revoking the status of the two million Palestinian refugees. Instead of funding UNRWA, Washington offered to re-channel the funds directly to the Jordanian government. Thus, the US hopes that the Palestinian refugee status would no longer be applicable. Unsurprisingly, Jordan refused the American offer. … Washington and Israel are seeking to simply remove the 'Right of Return' for Palestinian refugees, as enshrined in international law, from the political agenda altogether. [Read More]
Israel Doubles its Construction of Illegal Squatter Settlements in Palestine in 2018
[September 27, 2018]
---- Construction rates for Israel's illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank more than doubled in the second quarter of 2018. According to data published by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Israel began constructing 794 new dwellings in the occupied West Bank in the second quarter of 2018. This figure is more than double that of the first quarter, when 279 new dwellings began construction. This year's figure is also higher than that of the same time in 2017, demonstrating an increase in the pace of Israel's illegal settlement of Palestinian land. … Although settlements were designated a "final status issue" under the Oslo Accords in 1992, Israel has pursued a consistent policy of settling the occupied West Bank in the 25 years since. In 1992 there were approximately 105,000 illegal Israeli settlers, according to data by NGO Peace Now. By 2017 Peace Now estimated there were over 413,000 illegal Israeli settlers, an almost four-fold increase. [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
Where Are The Indigenous Children Who Never Came Home?
By Nick Estes and Alleen Brown, High Country News [September 25, 2018]
---- When Yufna Soldier Wolf was a kid, she was made well aware of why her family members only spoke English, and why they dressed the way they did. Her grandfather and other elders used to recount their experiences at boarding schools, where the government sent hundreds of thousands of Indigenous children, from nearly every Indigenous nation within U.S. borders, to unlearn their languages and cultures. "A lot of them were physically abused, verbally abused, sexually abused," she said. At the center of the stories were the children who never came home from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, where her grandfather was a student. "My grandpa used to say, 'Don't forget these children. Don't forget my brother — he's still buried there,'" Soldier Wolf said. She promised that she would remember. The school, which opened in 1879 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and closed its doors 100 years ago this month, was the United States' most notorious Indian boarding school and the starting point for more than a century of child removal policies that continue to tear apart Indigenous families today. Carlisle, and hundreds of federally funded boarding schools like it, were key to the U.S. government's project of destroying Indigenous nations and indoctrinating children with military discipline and U.S. patriotism. It was Soldier Wolf's closeness to her family and their stories of abuse at the school that inspired her to become the Northern Arapaho tribal historic preservation officer and work on the return of the children lost at Carlisle. [Read More]
