Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
April 29, 2019
Hello All – Last Friday I attended a Green New Deal "Town Hall" in Manhattan. It was sponsored by several organizations, most notably the Sunrise Movement, several Indivisible groups, and NYC350.org. It drew more than 200 people. The presentations ranged from impassioned calls to action to speeches by four members of Congress focused on federal legislation. The Town Hall was one of several hundred being held across the country. I found it both energizing and worrying.
As the Town Hall took place in lower Manhattan, it was not surprising that most of the speakers referenced what had happened to the city in 2012 wth Hurricane Sandy, a storm whose intensity was/is linked the climate effects of global warming. At least 53 people died and thousands of homes were destroyed, with estimated economic losses totaling $19 billion. That is, New York City people have had experienced the consequences of "climate change" in a way that we in Westchester have not.
We see the destructive effects of this coming climate disaster everywhere: in Puerto Rico's hurricane, in the California wildfires, and so on. An article linked below describes the destruction recently inflicted on Mozambique by a hurricane that literally wiped out a city the size of Atlanta; and today's news reports that an even stronger storm is raging in Mozambique right now. We're not talking about preventing climate disaster; we're working to mitigate worst cases.
The young people in the Sunrise Movement get this in a way that older people don't. Based on proven science, they know that their lives and especially the lives of their children will be structured, battered, and for many totally ruined by the climate disaster that has gone unchecked over the last 40 or more years. A video of the Town Hall has been placed on the Sunrise Movement's Facebook page, and watching the many good speeches is recommended. But the speech by Sunrise's Aracely Jimenez, beginning at 11:00 into the video, displays a passion and an urgency that is not so evident in the other speakers and the congressional representatives.
I hope we can find a way to support the passion and urgency of the young people in the Sunrise Movement and their many co-agitators. Most of the "adults" now shaping climate policy and electoral strategies will be long dead by the time that climate chaos shapes the daily lives of the world's population. Humans as a species have never faced a crisis like this one. It is obvious that "adults" are a long way from knowing how to collaborate worldwide to do what has to be done. We must find that dime that we need to turn on and do it. To help frame what we need to do, here again is the terrific short video from AOC and Naomi Klein called "Imagining the Future."
News Notes
Amazon, Delta Air Lines, Chevron, General Motors, and lots more corporate giants paid $0 federal taxes in 2018; and many of them got tax rebates. For a useful chart to get your blood boiling, go here.
The Pentagon budget request for the next fiscal year is $718 billion. What do they want to buy with all the money? To read their shopping list, go here.
Last Friday marked the 56th weekly protest by residents of Gaza against their enforced imprisonment at the hands of Israel. No Gazans were killed last week, though Israeli forces wounded 110 civilians, including 37 children and 4 paramedics. For more on this on-going atrocity, go here.
As reported in the last Newsletter, several dozen people, led by Code Pink, have occupied the Venezuelan embassy in Washington. As the Trump people pretend that Venezuelan right-winger Juan Guaido is now the "legitimate" president of Venezuela, they are planning to take over the embassy and install "legitimate" ambassadors and staff. The Code Pink occupation is intended to prevent that. For an update, go here.
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Ongoing – Weather permitting, the CFOW stalwarts gather every Saturday from 12 to 1 PM at the VFW Plaza in Hastings (Warburton and Spring St.) to protest war and other evils. Please join us!
Ongoing – The Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Hastings still has room for a few dozen members. CSA's connect local/regional farms with consumers, providing fresh organic vegetables (as they come into season) in exchange for a pre-payment that helps the farmers get their new season off the ground. The CSA in Hastings is managed by CFOW stalwart Elisa Zazzera, and the shopping/eating season runs from June 5 to November 13. You can learn about the CSA partner, Stoneledge Farm, here. For more information, email Elisa at hastingsCSA@gmail.com.
Ongoing – Our "Raging Grannies" is one of the groups supporting Code Pink's campaign to expose the military and other nefarious investor financing by BlackRock, one of the world's largest investor organizations. To learn more about BlackRock and Code Pink's campaign, go here.
Sunday, May 5th – CFOW's next monthly meeting will be held at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs, from 7 to 9 p.m. At these meetings we review our work/the happenings of the past month and make plans for the month to come. Everyone is welcome at these meetings.
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 (usually) 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 if you would like to support our work by making a contribution, 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. As always, we have some excellent "Featured Essays." I also encourage you to check out an update on "Russia-Gate," and some fair-and-balanced assessments of the Joe Biden candidacy for President. In the War & Peace section there are some very good articles on the wars and looming wars in Yemen, Iran, and Venezuela, and some excellent assessments of what really happened during eight years of war in Syria. Also useful imo are the climate/cyclone disaster in Mozambique; two articles on important legal developments re: BDS; another fiery article by Israeli reporter Amira Hass; and a new and delightful essay by one of my favorite historians, Peter Linebaugh ("Our History"). Read on!
Rewards!
The Newsletter's rewards are intended as a rest stop between the editorial & intro business and some serious reading. This week's Rewards are from the back-in-the day song bag. First up is some Andy Warhol film of The Velvet Underground (1966) and a good instrumental, "I'm gonna move right in." Next, we remember Norma Egstrom, who took a bus from North Dakota to Hollywood at the age of 17 and became Peggy Lee. Here she is in "Stage Door Canteen" with Benny Goodman (1943) and "Why Don't You do Right." And finally, from Port Arthur, Texas, here's Janis Joplin and "Piece of My Heart." Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
Suicide Watch on Planet Earth: As the Flames Began to Rise, the Arsonists Appeared
By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch [April 28, 2019]
By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch [April 28, 2019]
---- Among those who will someday be considered the greatest criminals in history, don't forget the Big Energy CEOs who, knowing the truth about climate change from their own hired scientists, did everything they could to increase global doubts by funding climate-denying groups, while continuing to be among the most profitable companies around. … Sooner or later, if the global temperature is indeed allowed to rise a catastrophic seven degrees Fahrenheit or four degrees Celsius, as an environmental impact statement from the Trump administration suggested it would by 2100, parts of the planet could become uninhabitable, hundreds of millions of human beings could be set in desperate motion, and the weather could intensify in ways that might be nearly unbearable for human habitation. … We are, of course, talking about nothing short of the ultimate crime, but on any given day of our lives, you'd hardly notice that it was underway. Even for an old man like me, it's a terrifying thing to watch humanity make a decision, however inchoate, to essentially commit suicide. In effect, there is now a suicide watch on Planet Earth. Let's hope the kids can make a difference. [Read More]
Palestine, International Law, and a Radically Just Future
---- In her new book, Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine, Noura Erakat breaks new ground in her approach to international law as it pertains to Palestine. Analysts have generally considered the law in this context as either essentially beneficent if deployed properly, or fundamentally harmful because of its relationship to power. Erakat, however, makes a more nuanced argument: Law is politics, she says, and though it can be used as a tool of domination by powerful states, it can also be used strategically to advance progressive causes – including that of Palestinian liberation. "Many of the texts about law and Palestine have been framed with the idea that if the law is allowed to operate, we will see a more just outcome," Erakat explains. "But the law is functioning as it's supposed to function. We need to be more critical about it." She argues that law has no set meaning, but is contingent on process and interpretation. "It's not merely a question of legal analysis," she says. "The law reflects a balance of power, strategy, and historical contingencies." [Read More]
The Most Dangerous Time for Women's Rights in Decades
By
---- To grease the wheels, the Judiciary Committee has ended the decades-old practice of seeking advice from the American Bar Association on nominee qualifications and started holding hearings during congressional recesses. Recently the Senate voted to shortcut the process even more by reducing the time between final confirmation votes on district court judges from 30 hours to just two. Currently, 85 percent of Trump's circuit court nominees are members of the Federalist Society, an ultra-conservative legal network strongly connected to anti-abortion organizations. [Read More]
Sudan's Unfinished Revolution: The Dictator Is Gone, but the Fight Continues
By Reem Abbas, The Nation [April 24, 2019]
---- On April 6, the Sudanese Professionals Association asked people to march in protest to the army headquarters in Khartoum—the most dangerous place in Sudan's capital. I was skeptical, but nonetheless I joined the march, knowing the risks but also knowing it was the only way this revolution could succeed. I went in a group for solidarity and protection. Out of the three meeting points, we chose the European Union headquarters. My dad's friend has an office on the same street, and I had worked close by at the University of Khartoum. My old office space could be a refuge if we needed to escape arrest or, possibly, live ammunition…. Figuring it was more dignified to get arrested in a protest and not in hiding, we brainstormed a plan: Sprint to the car and drive away before we are stopped and searched (we had left our phones at home, bringing only old ones for emergencies). Hoping for the best, we drove toward the army headquarters. The air ahead of us was thick with tear gas. [Read More] Also insightful and useful is "Amid U.S. Silence, Gulf Nations Back the Military in Sudan's Revolution," by Declan Walsh, The New York Times [April 26, 2019] [Read More]
RussiaGate Update
The Mueller Report Indicts the Trump-Russia Conspiracy Theory
By Aaron Maté, The Nation [April 26, 2019]
---- For more than two years, leading US political and media voices promoted a narrative that Donald Trump conspired with or was compromised by the Kremlin, and that Special Counsel Robert Mueller would prove it. In the process, they overlooked countervailing evidence and diverted anti-Trump energies into fervent speculation and prolonged anticipation. So long as Mueller was on the case, it was possible to believe that "The Walls Are Closing In" on the traitor/puppet/asset in the White House. The long-awaited completion of Mueller's probe, and the release of his redacted report, reveals this narrative—and the expectations it fueled—to be unfounded. … As a result, Mueller's report provides the opposite of what Russiagate promoters led their audiences to expect: Rather than detailing a sinister collusion plot with Russia, it presents what amounts to an extended indictment of the conspiracy theory itself. [Read More]
An Indictment in All But Name
By David Cole, New York Review of Books [May 23, 2019 issue]
[FB – This article by a leading civil liberties analyst is written as a "review" of Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election, by Robert S. Mueller III.]
---- Special Counsel Robert Mueller's long-awaited report, released to the public in a redacted version on April 18, lays out in meticulous detail both a blatantly illegal effort by Russia to throw the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump and repeated efforts by President Trump to end, limit, or impede Mueller's investigation of Russian interference. Trump's efforts included firing or attempting to fire those overseeing the investigation, directing subordinates to lie on his behalf, cajoling witnesses not to cooperate, and doctoring a public statement about a Trump Tower meeting between his son and closest advisers and a Russian lawyer offering compromising information on Hillary Clinton. …What should be done now? …A third, more realistic form of accountability is for the House to continue its investigation of the Russian interference and Trump's conduct. At a minimum, that investigation will inform what Congress might do to ensure electoral integrity in the future…. The last and most important forum for judging Trump is the ballot box. He will almost certainly run for reelection in 2020, and voters will be able to decide whether he deserves a second term. Elections are determined by many factors, of course, so the 2020 vote will be a referendum on more than Trump's obstruction of justice. But it may be the best chance we have to call him to account for the actions the Mueller report has documented. [Read More]
Also useful/interesting on "Russia-Gate" – "Unanswered Questions in the Mueller Report Point to a Sprawling Russian Spy Game," by James Risen, The Intercept [April 28, 2019] [Link]; "How 'Russiagate' Has Reshaped American and Russian Public Opinion," by James Carden, The Nation [April 11, 2019] [Link]; and "Russiagate was journalist QAnon," by Matt Taibii, Politico [April 23, 2019] [Link].
JOE BIDEN FOR PRESIDENT?
Joe Biden Isn't the Answer
---- For his whole career, Biden's role has been to comfort the lost, prized, and most fondly imagined Democratic voter, the one who's like him: that guy in the diner, that guy in Ohio, that guy who's white and so put off by the changed terms of gendered and racial power in this country that decades ago he fled for the party that was working to roll back the social advancements that had robbed him of his easy hold on power. That guy who believed that the system worked best when it worked for him. … Now it seems, That Guy is widely viewed as the best and safest candidate to get us out of this perilous and scary political period. But the irony is that so much of what is terrifying and dangerous about this time — the Trump administration, the ever more aggressive erosion of voting and reproductive rights, the crisis in criminal justice and yawning economic chasm between the rich and everyone else — are in fact problems that can in part be laid at the feet of Joe Biden himself, and the guys we've regularly been assured are Democrats' only answer. [Read More]
Joe Biden: An Imperial Corporatist Wrapped in the Bloody Flag of Charlottesville
---- Why is this dirty old imperialist and corporatist dog being rolled out to corporate media acclaim as the supposed people's alternative to Trump in the White House? It's all about blocking Bernie Sanders, who is the Democrats' best chance to win back the presidency since he nearly won the Democratic presidential nomination three years ago (Sanders would have prevailed over the vapid centrist Hillary Clinton but for the corrupt shenanigans of the Democratic National Committee) and is still running (as before) in sincere accord with majority-progressive-populist sentiments on key domestic issues. … Biden is part of the corporate "Stop Sanders" campaign inside the Democratic Party. It helps that he is a white male in an election cycle shaped by the Democrats' fear that running a woman and/or person of color might fuel the patriarchal and racist sentiments of the Trump base, increasing its turnout in battleground states. Look for the Democratic establishment to do everything it can to prevent its party from defeating Trump by running its most popular candidate, Bernie Sanders. Surprised? You shouldn't be. [Read More]
For more reasons to doubt the Joe Biden campaign - "The Other Reason Biden Shouldn't Run," by Stephen Zunes, The Progressive [April 2, 2019] [Line]; and "The Fickle Over the Faithful," by Charles M. Blow, New York Times [April 28, 2019] [Link].
WAR & PEACE
Fewer Americans want to serve in the military. Cue Pentagon panic
, The Guardian [UK] [April 10, 2019]
---- Donald Trump's three-quarters-of-a-trillion-dollar defense budget request submitted to Congress last month contains a dirty secret, one that should make us all think twice about perpetual war and public support for it. The youth of America don't want to serve in the military any more. The situation has become so dire that just to maintain America's ground forces – the army and Marine Corps – the two services are resorting to unprecedented pay raises, bonuses and socialist trappings. … These sweeteners are all required even though nearly three-fifths of service members and their families have at least two other immediate family members who serve or have served in the military, according to a survey by Blue Star Families, a non-profit founded by military spouses in 2009. But even that pool of "legacy" recruits is dwindling. The 2017 Blue Star Families Military Family Lifestyle Survey shows that a growing number of military families are no longer willing to recommend that their children join the service. [Read More]
War with Iran?
The Path to War with Iran Is Paved with Sanctions
By Joe Cirincione, LobeLog [April 23, 2019]
---- The Trump administration is laying siege to Iran. Taking pages from the Iraq War playbook, senior officials paint a picture of a rogue, outlaw, terrorist regime bent on acquiring nuclear weapons and whose "malign activities" are the cause of all the chaos in the Middle East. They know what they are doing. They have done it before. They are building a case for war. The "maximum pressure" campaign by the White House, Treasury Department, and State Department accelerated this week with the announcement that the United States would force China, India, Japan, South Korea, and Turkey to cease all imports of Iranian oil or face severe U.S. sanctions. The goal is to cut to zero all of Iran's oil exports, which account for some 40 percent of its national income. This strategy is unlikely to force the capitulation or collapse of the regime, but it very likely could lead to war. [Read More]
Also useful on "War with Iran?" – 'Trump's Iran terrorist designation is designed to lock in endless enmity,' b, The Guardian [UK] [April 12, 2019] [Link]; Trump Officials: China Gets No 'Wind-Down' Period for Cutting Iran Oil Purchases," by [Link]; and "End Of Sanction Waivers For Iran's Oil Will Hurt Trump's Voter Support," from Moon of Alabama [Link].
The War in Syria
The Secret History of America's defeat in Syria
An interview with reporter Sharmine Narwani, by Patrick Lawrence, Salon.com [April 21, 2019]
---- When the war in Syria was recently declared decisively over, there were few correspondents or witnesses to turn to for a credible look at exactly what happened during eight years of conflict. … Having witnessed the Syrian war from start to finish, she now casts it in a usefully broad context. "The Syrian conflict constitutes the main battlefield in a kind of World War III," she said during our lengthy exchange. "The world wars were, in essence, great-power wars, after which the global order reshuffled a bit and new global institutions were established." This, in outline, is what Narwani sees out in front of us, now that the Western powers' latest "regime change" operation has failed. Narwani and I conducted our exchange via email, Skype and WhatsApp over a period of several weeks in late March and early April. In this, the first of two parts, Narwani dissects the role of various constituencies — radical jihadists and the nations that backed them, the Western press, the NGOs — in prolonging a war that, in her view, could have ended far sooner than it did. I have edited the transcript solely for length. Part 2 will follow. [Read More]
Coalition Airstrikes in Raqqa Killed at Least 1,600 Civilians, More Than 10 Times U.S. Tally, Report Finds
By Alex Emmons, The Intercept [
---- Mohannad al-Tadfi is one of more than 400 witnesses or survivors interviewed by Amnesty International, which, along with the monitoring group Airwars, released their most comprehensive report Thursday on the coalition's air and artillery campaign during the four-month offensive to retake the city in 2017. The groups found that coalition strikes killed at least 1,600 civilians. … The Trump administration has looked to other countries to provide recovery funding for cities like Raqqa and Mosul. In March 2018, the White House put a freeze on more than $200 million the State Department had set aside for Syrian reconstruction under former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The administration later informed Congress that money would be reallocated to "other, unspecified areas," according to the Washington Post. [Read More]
The War in Yemen
Yemen death toll to surpass 230,000 by end of 2019: UN report
James Reinl, Middle East Eye [April 26, 2019]
---- By the end of 2019, fighting in Yemen will have claimed about 102,000 lives, according to new figures from the United Nations that indicate the war has killed far more people than previously reported. A UN-commissioned report by University of Denver also revealed that more Yemenis were dying of hunger, disease and the lack of health clinics and other infrastructure than from fighting. About 131,000 Yemenis will have died from these side effects of the conflict between the beginning in 2015 and the end of 2019, according to the 68-page study, called Assessing the Impact of War on Development in Yemen. The combined death toll from fighting and disease is 233,000, or 0.8 percent of Yemen's 30 million-strong population. Researchers also said that those five years of conflict will have cost Yemen's economy $89bn. … According to Moyer, the vast majority of the victims of Yemen's conflict are children under five. [Read More] For another perspective, read "More Than 70,000 Killed in Yemen's Civil War: Database Tracker," b[Link]
The War on Venezuela
Economists Warn Trump's Sanctions Targeting Venezuela 'A Death Sentence for Tens of Thousands of People'
By
---- Two American economists warn that U.S. sanctions targeting Venezuela "are a death sentence for tens of thousands of people" and that the nation's humanitarian crisis will worsen as long as the sanctions continue. … The broad sanctions Trump imposed in 2017 fueled a sharp decline in oil production that impeded the Maduro government's ability to "import medicine, food, medical equipment, spare parts and equipment needed for electricity generation, water systems, or transportation," and the U.S. president has ramped up economic pressure since offering his support to Guaidó earlier this year. [Read More]
GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE BREAKDOWN
It's Time to Pay Our Climate Debt to Countries Like Mozambique
By Ben Ehrenreich, The Nation [April 22, 2019]
---- Bad things happen all the time in places with unfamiliar names. Disaster piles upon disaster: Last month a cyclone, somewhere else a flood. The newscasters don their most solemn expressions, frown for a quick, respectful pause, and move on. With Idai, it was a city larger than Oakland or Atlanta, simply washed off the map. And it will almost certainly happen again. More heat in the oceans means extra energy for storms. Idai was the seventh of nine cyclones in the southern Indian Ocean this season, more than twice the usual average. More severe hurricanes are hitting the Atlantic—remember Maria, and the nearly 3,000 killed in Puerto Rico?—and more severe cyclones are forming in the Indian Ocean. Many more people will die. Others will profit. The latter, insists Dipti Bhatnagar, a climate activist in the Mozambican capital of Maputo, have a bill to pay. [Read More] And just days ago Cyclone Kenneth, the strongest storm in Mozambique history, hit the already battered country. Here are preliminary accounts from Democracy Now! and The New York Times.
THE STATE OF THE UNION
Bring Back May Day
By April 24, 2019]
---- Most of the world recognizes May 1 — May Day — as International Workers' Day. Here in one of the few countries that doesn't, it's worth pausing to ask how U.S. workers are doing. At an event marking the launch the Poor People's Campaign, Fight for $15 organizer Terrence Wise recalled "going to bed at night, ignoring my own stomach's rumbling, but having to hear my three little girls' stomachs rumble. That's something no parent should have to endure." Last year, the Institute for Policy Studies and the Poor People's Campaign released The Souls of Poor Folk, a report on 50 years of change in the issues that affect working people, and particularly those at the bottom. We looked at systemic racism, poverty, militarism, and ecological devastation. We found some startling and unhappy results. For the most part, workers like Wise are struggling hard to get by. … Of course, these changes haven't happened in a vacuum. It's not a coincidence that while most Americans are struggling, just three individuals — Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffett — together own as much wealth as half of the country combined. It's also probably no coincidence that the American politicians backed by billionaires don't recognize May Day. [Read More]
Universal Health Care Might Cost You Less Than You Think
By Matt Bruenig, People's Policy Project [April 29, 2019]
---- As the national debate about health care kicks off ahead of the 2020 presidential election, we're going to be hearing a lot about the costs of increasingly popular progressive proposals to provide universal health care, like Bernie Sanders's Medicare for All plan. One common refrain on the right and the center-left alike: Since the rich can't foot the bill alone, are middle- and working-class supporters of a more socialized health care system really ready to pay as much for it as people do in some of the high-tax nations that have one?The problem is, we already do, and we often pay more. … Unlike workers in many other countries, the vast majority of American employees have private health insurance premiums deducted from their paychecks. If we reimagine these premiums as taxes, we'd realize that Americans pay some of the highest and least progressive labor taxes in the developed world. Just how heavy is the burden placed on American workers by employer insurance premiums? [Read More]
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
Soldiers Have to Shoot at Palestinians. It's Israel's Way to Keep Them in Check
---- The soldiers have no choice but to shoot. They have no choice but to hit demonstrators, stone throwers and paramedics who volunteer during confrontations, to kill and wound those who brandish knives. Surprise that the soldiers fire even at youths who are handcuffed and blindfolded belongs to a different era. It belongs to the 1970s or '80s, when we still thought that military domination over a population of noncitizens was an accident, a temporary deviation that would soon be corrected. When we hadn't yet recognized that the soldiers' role is to protect the spoils of war rather than our existence. When there weren't yet cameras everywhere to shatter our naivete. If the Palestinians don't receive a clear message every day that they're risking their own lives when they resist our rule, tomorrow they will march by the thousands and tens of thousands, empty-handed or armed with spades and stones, toward the Israeli settlements, outposts, checkpoints and military bases in the heart of a civilian population. [Read More]
The logic behind US humiliation of the Palestinians
By Marwan Bishara, Aljazeera [Quatar] [April 24, 2019]
---Changes to the traditional US foreign policy in the Middle East have come at the initiative of Trump's three top Middle East advisors: his son-in-law Jared Kushner and his two former New York lawyers, Jason Greenblatt and David Freedman, who have been actively promoting pro-Israeli policies for decades. These three proud radical Zionists have clearly demonstrated their enthusiasm for Israel's illegal settlements in the Palestinian territories and their rejection of the label "occupied" for the West Bank and Jerusalem. They are part of a group of American Zionist hardliners who opposed the "Oslo Peace Process" in the 1990s and have even made comparisons between Israeli peacemakers and Nazi collaborators. They have dismissed Palestinian national and historical rights out of hand and defended Israel's actions as ordained by God. [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
The Earth for Their Possession
[FB – Peter Linebaugh writes in the tradition of E. P. Thompson and others who explore "history from the bottom up." His books are insightful ("The Commons") and sometimes at first sight quirky (Piracy as the best job a sailor could get in the 17th century). His new book is Red Round Globe Hot Burning: A Tale at the Crossroads of Commons & Closure, of Love & Terror, of Race & Class, and of Kate and Ned Despard. It is a collection of interesting-lookiing essays. The essay below is written as reflections on his recent speaking appearance in Hawaii.]
---- At the University a circle of fifty people came to hear about Red Round Globe Hot Burning whose title comes from William Blake. I recited,
They told me that night and day were all that I could see;
They told me that I had five senses to inclose me up,
And they inclos'd my infinite brain into a narrow circle,
And sunk my heart into the Abyss, a red round globe hot burning
Till all from life I was obliterated and erased.
They told me that I had five senses to inclose me up,
And they inclos'd my infinite brain into a narrow circle,
And sunk my heart into the Abyss, a red round globe hot burning
Till all from life I was obliterated and erased.
The apparent confusion in these lines between the cosmos (the round globe) and the subject (my heart, my brain) no longer seems quite so deranged in our age of planetary warming, ocean acidification, and species extinction. It explains why Blake's moment of truth is upon us. In response to the anthropocene we could do worse than Blake's "The whole business of man is the arts and all things common." Apart from the beach (and the "weeds") nothing much is common any more in Honolulu. [Read More]
(Video) Defying Gravity: American Power in the Long 20th Century
By Adam Tooze, London Review of Books [March27, 2019]
---- The history of American power, as it is commonly written, is a weighty subject, a matter of military and economic heft, of 'throw-weight', of resource mobilization and material culture, of 'boots on the ground'. In his LRB Winter Lecture, Adam Tooze examines an alternative, counterintuitive vision of America, as a power defying gravity. This image gives us a less materialistic, more fantastical and more unstable vision of America's role in the world. The lecture was delivered at the British Museum on 22 February 2019. [See the Program]
CFOW Newsletter - Climate Crisis and the Sunshine Movement; Biden for President?; Russia-Gate
