Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
August 6, 2019
Hello All – Many people believe that President Trump should be impeached. The demand to bring the President to justice is strong. The congressional Democrats are debating "Impeach" v. "Investigate." But whichever path the Democrats choose, the scope of the investigation should focus on the massive crimes of the Trump Agenda, and not on small details of petty criminality. The President and his Republican Party is essentially a fascist gang, what Noam Chomsky calls the most dangerous organization in human history. Their crimes are not just against the procedures laid out in the Constitution, but against the people of the United States and the World, against the present and the future. Among the crimes of the Trump presidency are:
● The President has endangered the future of humanity by withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement, ending or abridging laws and regulations that attempt to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and staffing climate regulatory agencies with representatives from fossil fuel and allied industries who vow to sabotage the purposes of their agency.
● The President has endangered the people of the United States and the World by pursuing a military strategy that brings us closer to nuclear war. He has withdrawn from key arms control agreements that attempted to limit the danger of nuclear weapons. He has continued a policy of projecting US/NATO military power to the very borders of Russia. And his termination of the Iran Nuclear Agreement has brought the danger of military conflict to the Persian Gulf.
● President Trump has violated the US Constitution and the Charter of the United Nations in his support or initiation of wars of aggression. In defiance of the War Powers Resolution, he has continued to selling weapons to murderous regime in Saudi Arabia that is pursuing its genocidal war in Yemen. He is complicit in what the United Nations calls "the world's greatest humanitarian disaster."
● The President has violated international treaties and US laws in refusing to treat immigrants and refugees in accordance with the law. He has caused great suffering and in many cases death and injury by cruel and sadistic policies towards immigrants and refugees. He has brought shame on the USA by inflicting terror on tens of thousands of people least able to bear further pain.
● And the President has broadcast in foul-mouthed language his support for white nationalism and his racism toward all people of color. He has instigated an unprecedented level of hatred among Americans. He has conspired to reject immigrants on the basis of their religion. He has praised fascists at home and abroad. He has attacked members of Congress on the basis of their color, their religion, and their national heritage. He has supported policies and rhetoric that attempt to divide Americans along racist lines.
And of course there is much more. The point is that the investigation and impeachment proceedings against President Trump should be based on his major, world-class crimes. Nitpicking about "collusion" and "obstruction" is an insult to the millions of people who have suffered or who are endangered by this madman. Let's shine a light on this presidency's fascist political agenda. Anything short of this will be a waste of time.
News Notes
The El Paso and Dayton massacres have raised, yet again, demands for gun control. USA mass killings are a truly amazing/American problem. For a useful survey of USA as gunfighter nation, read "America's Shame: 15,549 Gun Homicides in US in 2017," by Juan Cole.
A near majority of congressional Democrats – including Westchester's Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey – now support impeaching President Trump. In this useful article on the pros and cons of impeachment, the author concludes that "Impeachment is a vital protection against the dangers a president like Trump poses. And, crucially, many of its benefits—to the political health of the country, to the stability of the constitutional system—accrue irrespective of its ultimate result." [Link]
Last week's newsletter reported (optimistically) that the mainstream media and the Trump Team were losing interest in overthrowing the government of Venezuela. Silly us! Today The New York Times reports that "Trump Imposes New Sanctions on Venezuela" [Link], and earlier in the week Antiwar.com wrote that "Officials Say US Headed Toward Blockade of Venezuela" [Link]. The threat of war is not over until it's over.
Following Robert Mueller's testimony and his report on "Russia-gate," a remaining area of curiosity and controversy is, what is the actual evidence that Russian agents "hacked" (via the Internet) the DNC emails? There is good evidence for the claim that the emails were downloaded, not "hacked," and thus were an inside job. Trump's Attorney General William Barr may be about to investigate this. For a good overview of what we know and don't know about "hacking" v. "downloading," read "Finally Time for DNC Email Evidence, by Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News [August 6, 2019] [Link]. Also this week, Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi has a good article on "The rise and fall of superhero Robert Mueller" [Link].
The useful/lively Westchester-based website Mondoweiss provides imo excellent commentary on events in Israel/Palestine and on the USA-based politics about this issue. This week the site posted links to the first two (short) installments of a five-part (video) miniseries that looks back on the 2014 Gaza war. See parts 1 & 2 of "Remembering the Gaza War" here.
Finally, today – August 6th – marks the 74th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, which killed 70,000 Japanese and injured 70,000 more, many of whom were to die later. The belief still lingers in the USA that the bomb was somehow "necessary," saving – as later claimed by President Truman – a million USA lives because the bomb made an invasion of Japan unnecessary. Over the last several decades, historians have shown that this is simply a fabrication and a lie, known to be false at the time; and that Truman delayed modifying the "unconditional surrender" formula so that the war would continue past June and July, in order that the bomb could be tested and then used in wartime. A day that will truly live in infamy. I've linked a good/useful article below, under "Our History." For now, perhaps you will find some (mostly suppressed) film footage from back then of interest – see "Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the cutting room floor," from today's Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists [Link].
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. The next CFOW monthly meeting will be on Sunday, August 4th, at 7 PM, at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs. 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 highly recommend the set of articles on the fascist, white supremacist background to the El Paso massacre; Cora Currier's excellent article on US immigration policy ("Pushing Out the Border"); an update on how US business interests are trying to capture Puerto Rico's economy ("disaster capitalism"); and a good article ("Our History") on the myth that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was "necessary," and where this madness has come to.
Rewards!
The El Paso massacre brought to light (again) the US branch of the international, white supremacist, fascist movement. So the Rewards this week have some fighting back themes (and also good music).
First up is one of my favorites, Leonard Cohen's "The Partisan." Next is a modernized version of the Italian 1943-45 song of partisan resistance, "Bella Ciao," from the UK anarchist group Chumbawamba. And also from World War II, here are Sonny Terry and Woody Guthrie with "All You Fascists Bound to Lose." Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
(Video) Toni Morrison & Cornel West: A Historic Discussion on the State of the World, the 50th anniversary of the Brown Decision and Condoleezza Rice
From Democracy Now! [May 28, 2004]
[FB – Toni Morrison, one of America's great novelists, died yesterday at the age of 88. A survey of her life and work can be read in this New York Times obituary. The New Yorker has posted a good article about "How Toni Morrison fostered a generation of black writers." [Link]. Today Democracy Now! linked a broadcast from 2004 – on the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that ruled school segregation unconstitutional – in which Morrison and Cornel West talked about the state of Black America and much else.]
--- On March 24 at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, The Nation Institute sponsored a conversation between Toni Morrison and Cornel West. They spoke about the blues, love and politics. [See the Program]
The Meaning of Israel's Massive Housing Demolitions in East Jerusalem
By Jeff Halper, The Nation [August 6, 2019]
---- The act itself wasn't unusual. Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes is a routine, almost daily occurrence. What set it apart was the scale, the impunity, and the political implications. On July 22, the Israeli Civil Administration—that's the Orwellian term Israel uses for its military government in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)—deployed 900 IDF soldiers and Border Police to demolish 13 apartment blocks, evicting 17 people in 70 apartments that were slated to house hundreds more in the Palestinian neighborhood of Wadi al-Hummus, to the southeast of Jerusalem. The action in July had all the elements of the slow-moving but relentless process of demolition that has plagued Palestinian life in both the OPT and within Israeli itself these past seven decades… The message from Israel goes further: If you think the international community will come to your aid, just watch the reactions to our in-your-face demolitions. The US government supports us totally. [Read More] Also of interest are "What Israel's Demolition of 70 Palestinian Homes Was Really About," by Gideon Levy, Haaretz [Israel] [August 3, 2019] [Link] and "Trump/ Kushner Total Adoption of Israeli Colonial agenda toward Palestine kills Negotiations," by Ramzy Baroud, Middle East Monitor [August 6, 2019] [Link].
Trump Has Brought Back 'Conditional Citizenship'
By Laila Lalami, The Nation [August 2, 2019]
---- The demand to "go back" rests on an assumption that the archetypal American is white—an idea that dates back to the early days of this nation. The first piece of legislation to delineate the boundaries of Americanness was the Naturalization Act of 1790, which limited citizenship to "free white persons." Some of the rights that came from this status, such as the right to vote, were further restricted to propertied white men. Under this view, rich white men were to be governed by consent, and everyone else was to be governed by force. Over the next 230 years, restrictions on citizenship—and the rights and liberties associated with it—were incrementally loosened and tightened and loosened again. For example, the 14th Amendment granted citizenship to all people born in the United States, including formerly enslaved people, but it was followed by a slew of laws in the South that made it virtually impossible for black people to vote. Other limitations on citizenship flowed from immigration laws, like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, that sought to prevent or decrease the arrival and eventual naturalization of different groups of nonwhite people. So when the president tells his supporters that four female representatives of color should "go back," he's articulating this antiquated idea, rooted in settler colonialism and white supremacy, about who gets to be American. It's a philosophy that regards whites as full citizens, who are entitled to all rights and protections under the law, and nonwhites as conditional citizens, whose rights are subject to challenge if they dare to express criticism of their country. [Read More]
India, Pakistan, and Kashmir: Does This Mean War?
India Moves to Strip Kashmir of Autonomy, Potentially Setting Up Conflict in Disputed Territory
By Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept [August 5, 2019]
---- Early Monday morning, the Indian government announced a change to its constitution, revoking the autonomy of the disputed northern state of Jammu and Kashmir and potentially setting the stage for a major new conflict. The change opens the door to a situation similar to Chinese policy in Tibet and Xinjiang and Israeli policy in the West Bank, allowing the Indian government to move huge numbers of settlers into Kashmir, the country's only Muslim-majority region, thereby forcibly transforming its demographics. The decision to revoke the statute, Article 370, comes amid an unexpected crackdown by the Indian government on the Indian-controlled half of the province, over which neighboring Pakistan also lays claim. Over the last several days, prominent Kashmiri political leaders and activists — including many seen as supportive of Indian government rule — have been detained or placed under house arrest. Thousands of Indian soldiers and paramilitaries have been deployed to the region, adding to the whopping 600,000 already stationed in a place widely referred to as the most militarized region on earth. … In addition to further strife for long-suffering Kashmiris, there is another looming threat: a possible war between India and Pakistan. In tandem with military deployments, there has been increased shelling on the India-Pakistan border in recent days, and the Indian Air Force has also been placed on alert. [Read More] Also useful is "What Is Article 370, and Why Does It Matter in Kashmir?" New York Times [August 5, 2019] [Link].
Kashmir Is Potentially The Flashpoint For A Future Nuclear War
By Arundhati Roy, Common Dreams [March 1, 2019]
---- With his reckless "pre-emptive" airstrike on Balakot in Pakistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inadvertently undone what previous Indian governments almost miraculously, succeeded in doing for decades. Since 1947 the Indian Government has bristled at any suggestion that the conflict in Kashmir could be resolved by international arbitration, insisting that it is an "internal matter." By goading Pakistan into a counter-strike, and so making India and Pakistan the only two nuclear powers in history to have bombed each other, Modi has internationalised the Kashmir dispute. He has demonstrated to the world that Kashmir is potentially the most dangerous place on earth, the flash-point for nuclear war. Every person, country, and organisation that worries about the prospect of nuclear war has the right to intervene and do everything in its power to prevent it. [Read More] Arundhati Roy also spoke about Kashmir last May during a Democracy Now! interview [Link]. She was also interviewed a few weeks ago ("Democracy in Peril") while in New Zealand [Link]. "Kashmir" plays a major role in her recent novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Check it out!
THE EL PASO MASSACRE AND WHITE SUPREMACY
The Boundaries of Whiteness Are Protected With Blood and Bullets [The "Great Replacement"]
By Talia Lavin, The Nation [August 5, 2019]
---- The desire to uphold white rule has always been a potent force in American politics. And since the era of eugenics ushered in a fanatical obsession with breeding, that goal has been aided by rhetoric that inflames fears of the extinction of whiteness. From the anti-immigration statutes of the 1920s to anti-miscegenation laws to Trump's Muslim ban, racists have sought to protect the boundaries of white racial purity. It's a boundary often drawn in blood and bullets. … Ninety-eight years later, a similar dread of white "replacement" has motivated four mass shootings in the past year—a sentiment little changed over most of a century. But today the Internet has allowed the message to be transmitted globally and reduced the time it takes for violent events to inspire one another… In America in 2019, "great replacement" theory has filtered from the margins to the mainstream. Donald Trump has made anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy the linchpin of his presidency. A fear of "invasion" was the centerpiece of the president's electoral strategy during the 2018 midterms, centered around an immigrant "caravan" that was heading toward the Southern border. Harshly punitive policies toward asylum seekers and the detention of thousands in horrific conditions serve as propaganda for an administration that describes immigration as "infestation." [Read More]
El Paso Gunman's Fear of a Migrant "Invasion" Echoes Donald Trump and Fox News
By Robert Mackey, The Intercept [August 5 2019]
---- The white supremacist who killed at least 22 people in El Paso, Texas on Saturday appears to have been driven by a racist conspiracy theory — that the United States is under "invasion" by migrants and asylum-seekers from Central America — which has been repeated again and again on Fox News broadcasts, and amplified by that network's most powerful viewer, President Donald Trump. … In recent months, however, the network, and the president, have clearly been using this rhetoric of invasion to instill fear in voters ahead of elections. According to Natalie Martinez, a researcher on extremism for Media Matters for America, Trump's 2020 reelection campaign has run more than 2,000 Facebook ads warning of a coming invasion. …Trump embraced this rhetoric during his 2016 campaign for the presidency. Trump's closing argument in that campaign, overseen by Steve Bannon, seemed to embrace a version of the so-called "great replacement" theory developed by white supremacists in Europe — the idea that there is a secret conspiracy to "import" Muslims from the Middle East and Africa to dilute the Christian character of the continent by making it a multicultural society. [Read More]
Also useful/illuminating on USA white supremacy - (Video) "Ex-FBI Agent Speaks Out: Federal Authorities Have Downplayed White Supremacist Violence for Too Long," from Democracy Now! [August 5, 2019] [Link]; and "After El Paso, We Can No Longer Ignore Trump's Role in Inspiring Mass Shootings," by Mehdi Hasan, The Intercept [August 4 2019] [Link].
WAR & PEACE
More Money, Fewer Jobs: The Stubborn Truth About Employment and the Defense Industry
By Nia Harris, et al., TomDispatch [August 5, 2019]
By Nia Harris, et al., TomDispatch [August 5, 2019]
---- The Trump administration has stopped at nothing to push the argument that job creation is justification enough for supporting weapons manufacturers to the hilt. Even before Donald Trump was sworn in as president, he was already insisting that military spending was a great jobs creator. He's only doubled down on this assertion during his presidency. Recently, overriding congressional objections, he even declared a national "emergency" to force through part of an arms sale to Saudi Arabia that he had once claimed would create more than a million jobs. While this claim has been thoroughly debunked, the most essential part of his argument — that more money flowing to defense contractors will create significant numbers of new jobs — is considered truth personified by many in the defense industry. The facts tell a different story. [Read More]
Why The End Of The INF Treaty Will Not Start A New Arms Race
By Bernard, Moon of Alabama [August 5, 2019]
---- Yesterday the U.S. left the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. The end of this and other treaties that eliminated or restricted the deployment of nuclear systems is seen by some as the beginning of a news arms race: [William J. Perry - @SecDef19 – "The U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty today deals a great blow to nuclear arms control and global security, we are sleepwalking into a new arms race."] The former Secretary of Defense is wrong. The race will not happen because Russia (and China) won't run. Or said differently, they already won. To understand why that is the case we have to look at the history if the nuclear treaties and their demise. … It was John Bolton who was behind the demise of the ABM treaty and it was John Bolton who convinced Trump to terminate the INF treaty. With Bolton in the lead the New Start treaty, which limits intercontinental systems but ends in 2021, will likely not be renewed. Soon the whole system of treaties that limited U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons and delivery means will be gone. Why is the U.S. so eager to end all these? It is known John Bolton hates anything that restricts the U.S., but there is also a larger strategy behind it. The U.S. believes that it defeated the Soviet Union by creating an arms race that the Soviets lost. It hopes that it can do the same with a recalcitrant Russia. But that calculation is wrong. President Putin has long said that Russia will not fall for it. [Read More]
THE DEMOCRATS AND 2020
There was not one question about Israel or Palestine during the Democratic debates
By Michael Arria, Mondoweiss [August 1, 2019]
---- There were two Democratic debates this week with the 20 candidates split between back-to-back nights. The debates lasted two and a half hours each and featured a variety of questions on important subjects like health care, climate change, and criminal justice. However, none of the candidates were asked about Israel or Palestine. In 2016, the United States government signed an agreement to give $38 billion in military assistance to Israel over the next decade. This fact should presumably generate at least one debate question on the subject (especially since both featured discussions about how to pay for social programs) but the omission feels especially egregious occurring at this specific time. That's because last week the House of Representatives passed three pro-Israel bills. … H.Res.246 was a resolution condemning the BDS movement. Despite the fact it passed easily with just 17 NO votes, it attracted a large amount of media attention because it allegedly pointed toward a greater rift developing in the Democratic Party over the subject of Israel. The resolution's critics contended that its passage would merely pave the way for more severe anti-BDS legislation and their concerns were validated right away. Republicans immediately began citing the resolution while calling for a House vote on a bill that would allow states to penalize BDS supporters more readily. The resolution was also seemingly the inspiration behind a new resolution introduced by Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar that affirms the right of Americans to boycott foreign countries. [Read More]
Joe Biden Proves That There's Nothing Moderate About 'Moderates'
By Norman Solomon, TruthDig [August 1, 2019]
---- If Joe Biden is a "moderate," the soothing adjective obscures grim realities. The framing was routine hours after the debate Wednesday night when the front page of The New York Times began its lead story by reporting that Biden "delivered a steadfast defense of his moderate policies in the Democratic primary debate." But how are policies really "moderate" when they perpetuate and increase extreme suffering due to vast income inequality? Or when they support U.S. wars causing so much death and incalculable anguish? Or when they refuse to challenge the fossil-fuel industry and only sign onto woefully inadequate measures in response to catastrophic climate change? [Read More]
Kamala Harris's Phony Medicare for All Plan
By Tim Higginbotham, Jacobin [July 2019]
---- Kamala Harris has long claimed to be a supporter of Medicare for All. But the rollout of her new health-care plan finally gives us clarity: she will fight on behalf of insurance companies, not against them. Kamala Harris has long said she supports Medicare for All. It's now clearer than ever that she really wants anything but. Her new health-care plan — which steals the name of Bernie Sanders's popular single-payer bill despite looking nothing like it — is a slap in the face to single-payer supporters. Phased in over ten years, the plan ultimately expands the role of private insurers in Medicare by massively increasing the number of private Medicare Advantage plans sold. [Read More]
CIVIL LIBERTIES/ "THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR"
In Rejecting DNC Lawsuit Against WikiLeaks, Judge Strongly Defended First Amendment Rights Of Journalists
By Kevin Gosztola, Shadowproof [August 1, 2019]
---- In a clear defense of the First Amendment, a federal judge ruled the Democratic National Committee cannot hold WikiLeaks or its founder, Julian Assange, liable for publishing information that Russian agents were accused of stealing. The DNC sued President Donald Trump's campaign, the Russian Federation, Assange, and WikiLeaks on April 20, 2018, alleging the dissemination of materials "furthered the prospects" of the Trump campaign. … However, Judge John Koeltl in the Southern District of New York saw through the DNC lawsuit and recognized the impact it would have on press freedom. Koeltl highlighted the case of the Pentagon Papers, where the Supreme Court held there was a "heavy presumption" against the "constitutional validity of prior restraints" (suppressing) the publication of information. Whether or not WikiLeaks knew the materials were obtained illegally, they were protected by the First Amendment. [Read More]
Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US
By Mark Harris, The Guardian [UK] [August 2, 2019]
---- The US military is conducting wide-area surveillance tests across six midwest states using experimental high-altitude balloons, documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reveal. Up to 25 unmanned solar-powered balloons are being launched from rural South Dakota and drifting 250 miles through an area spanning portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, before concluding in central Illinois. Travelling in the stratosphere at altitudes of up to 65,000ft, the balloons are intended to "provide a persistent surveillance system to locate and deter narcotic trafficking and homeland security threats", according to a filing made on behalf of the Sierra Nevada Corporation, an aerospace and defense company. [Read More]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
Pushing Out the Border: How the U.S. Is Waging a Global War on Migration
By Cora Currier, The Intercept [August 3 2019]
---- A principal goal of the Trump administration's policy at the U.S.-Mexico border —and in Central America, considered of late only in relation to that border — has been to get other governments to handle the increase in migrants seeking to enter the United States. This means getting Mexico to send troops to its border with the U.S.; to enforce the system of "metering," which limits the number of asylum-seekers who may approach a U.S. port of entry each day; to surveil caravans; and to deport more non-Mexicans than the United States does. It means sending Mexican forces to the border with Guatemala — and ignoring those forces' record of human rights abuses, particularly of migrants. It means promoting the fiction that Mexico and Guatemala have the capacity and responsibility to process large numbers of asylum claims from people fleeing violence and persecution in other parts of the world; declaring Guatemala "safe" for U.S.-bound refugees; making vulnerable asylum-seekers wait in some of Mexico's most dangerous cities before their case can be heard in the U.S.; and, this summer, adopting an unprecedented policy that declares anyone who arrives at the U.S.-Mexico border via another country ineligible for asylum if they did not first ask for protection in that country. Another way to describe these efforts is what the U.S. security establishment has long referred to as "pushing out the border." [Read More]
The Opioid and Trump Addictions: Symptoms of the Same Malaise
By Marshall Sahlins, Counterpunch [August 2, 2019]
---- Donald Trump did very well, much better than Mitt Romney had in 2012, in the areas hardest hit by a raging drug epidemic. Indeed, one could describe the main opioid victims in exactly the same demographic terms that pundits use to characterize the core of Trump's electoral support: non-Hispanic, mostly working-class whites without a college education living in rural areas and small cities. The opioid and Trump addictions, the one individual and the other collective, are symptoms of the same malaise. … Yet according a sophisticated analysis that appeared last year in JAMA, "socioeconomic conditions" account for only about two-thirds of the Trump-opioid connection—which is to say, the economic decline is not sufficient to explain it. What is immediately different for indigent people in rural Kentucky or the Mahoning Valley of Ohio is that so far as they are concerned, they didn't simply lose their jobs, the Blacks got them–because the Government favors Blacks. [Read More]
As Puerto Rico Erupts in Protests and Governor Resigns, "La Junta" Eyes More Power
By Kate Aronoff, The Intercept [July 24 2019]
[FB – I didn't see this excellent article about Puerto Rico's Financial Control Board in time for the last newsletter. For an update on the struggle for control of Puerto Rico, here is something from today's
--- Embattled Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló announced his resignation July 24 amid massive protests on the island and around the world. A demonstration in the capital city of San Juan on Monday drew an estimated 1 million people — almost a third of the island's total population — to protest a decades-long economic crisis that peaked in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. The unelected and Washington-appointed body now overseeing the island's finances — the Fiscal Oversight and Management Board, called la junta by Puerto Ricans — may use a democratic explosion in Puerto Rico to further curtail its democracy. … [Read More]
On How Latinos are America's Greatest Hope for Economic Growth and Renewal
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment [August 6, 2019]
---- Hispanics or Latinos have been a key population in North America for four hundred years. They are now often coded as immigrants by white Americans, but they were in what is now New Mexico, Arizona and Texas centuries before English-speakers arrived. The white nationalist talking point that they are "invading" places like Texas is backward historically. In the mid-19th century the US took half of Mexico, including Texas, and many Latino families in Texas just remained there. It was the northern Europeans who invaded the state. But as I will demonstrate, in 2019 it is ridiculous to divide Americans by ethnicity. We all need each other to thrive. Without the 40% of the Texas population that are Latinos, the state's economy would collapse over time. It is important that we understand that Latino-Americans are not an "other." We're all Americans together. [Read More]
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
The Real Reason So Many Republicans Love Israel? Their Own White Supremacy
By Peter Beinart, The Forward [August 4, 2019]
---- If you listened earlier this month to Republican responses to Donald Trump's call for Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley to "go back" to the "places from which they came," you noticed something odd. Trump's defenders kept mentioning Israel. "They hate Israel," replied Lindsey Graham when asked about Trump's attacks on The Squad. Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin called Omar and Tlaib "anti-Israel." Trump himself responded to the controversy by declaring that Omar "hates Israel." This is strange. As reprehensible as it is to demand that an American politician leave America for allegedly expressing insufficient patriotism, the demand is at least familiar. "America, love it or leave it," has been a conservative slogan since the 1960s. What's virtually unprecedented is demanding that an American politician leave America because they've expressed insufficient devotion to a foreign country. [Read More]
---- If you listened earlier this month to Republican responses to Donald Trump's call for Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley to "go back" to the "places from which they came," you noticed something odd. Trump's defenders kept mentioning Israel. "They hate Israel," replied Lindsey Graham when asked about Trump's attacks on The Squad. Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin called Omar and Tlaib "anti-Israel." Trump himself responded to the controversy by declaring that Omar "hates Israel." This is strange. As reprehensible as it is to demand that an American politician leave America for allegedly expressing insufficient patriotism, the demand is at least familiar. "America, love it or leave it," has been a conservative slogan since the 1960s. What's virtually unprecedented is demanding that an American politician leave America because they've expressed insufficient devotion to a foreign country. [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
Don't Whitewash the Hiroshima Bombing
By Peter Van Buren, The American Conservative [August 6, 2019]
---- August 6 usually doesn't make headlines in America. But mark the day by what absence demonstrates: On the 72nd anniversary of the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and some 140,000 non-combatants, there is no call for reflection in the United States. In an era when pundits routinely worry about America's loss of moral standing because of an offish, ill-mannered president, the only nation in history to employ a weapon of mass destruction on an epic scale, against an undefended civilian population, otherwise shrugs off the significance of an act of immorality. Beyond the destruction lies the myth of the atomic bombings, the post-war creation of a mass memory of things that did not happen. This myth has become the underpinning of American war policy ever since, and carries forward the horrors of Hiroshima as generations of the August 6 anniversary pass. The myth, the one kneaded into public consciousness, is that the bombs were dropped out of grudging military necessity, to hasten the end of the war, to avoid a land invasion of Japan, maybe to give the Soviets a good pre-Cold War scare. Nasty work, but such is war. As a result, the attacks need not provoke anything akin to introspection or national reflection. The possibility, however remote, that the bombs were tools of revenge or malice, immoral acts, was defined away. They were merely necessary. [Read More]
