Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
December 1, 2019
Hello All – After two months of protests, resulted in 400 protesters being killed, the Prime Minister of Iraq has announced his resignation. Yet this is far from sufficient to end the protests, which according to Al Jazeera "are demanding the overthrow of a political class seen as corrupt and serving foreign powers, while many Iraqis languish in poverty without jobs, healthcare, or education." The total collapse of the US project in Iraq, after 16 years of invasion and occupation, should induce some serious thought about what the USA is doing in the world.
Like so many of the protests that are sweeping the world this year, whatever is the trigger that sets them off, the backbeat of dissent is motored by deep poverty and rampant inequality, and very often fueled by the massive corruption of the ruling elite. The case of Iraq is illuminated this week by a useful article by Nicolas J. S. Davies that calls our attention to "16 Years of 'Made in the USA' Corruption." Much of the corruption stems from the massive sums of "reconstruction aid" that flowed into the pockets of Iraq's politically connected, a great many of whom had been in "exile" in the West and flowed back into Iraq in the wake of the 2003 US invasion. "The government Iraqis are protesting against today," Davies says, "is still led by the same gang of U.S.-backed Iraqi exiles who wove a web of lies to stage manage the invasion of their own country in 2003, and then hid behind the walls of the Green Zone while U.S. forces and death squads slaughtered their people to make the country "safe" for their corrupt government."
We have learned little about the Iraqi protests, and especially their background or context; why is this? One clue might come from the extensive media coverage of the protests in Hong Kong, the subject of hundreds of news reports and New York Times editorials. In Hong Kong, I believe only two protesters have died, while (noted above) about 400 have been killed in Iraq. Given the US involvement in Iraq and the expenditure of billions of dollars to create a pro-US government there, one would think that the Iraq protests, and the government overturn, would receive at least as much media coverage as the events in Hong Kong. But this has not been the case. One way to unravel this knot is to employ the concept of "worthy" and "unworthy" victims, often used by Noam Chomsky. In Hong Kong, the protesters are (at least indirectly) challenging the US rival China; while in Iraq, the protesters are challenging a US-created regime. Consequently, according to this Iron Law of media analysis, the former are "worthy victims," deserving our attention and concern, while the latter are "unworthy victims," un-persons expiring in non-events. (Similar comparisons can be made between the "worthy" victims of state violence in Venezuela, and the nearly invisible indigenous victims of the recent military coup in Bolivia.) In sum: as is so often the case, the War on Terror generates an increase in upheaval and turmoil, requiring more US military adventures and a compliant mass media to help the medicine go down easier. Bring the troops home!
News Notes
In local news, a Hastings Board of Education hearing will be held tomorrow, Monday, December 2, at 7:30 in the Lecture Room of the Farragut Complex, 27 Farragut Ave. in Hastings. One purpose of the meeting is to use/empty the BoE reserve funds to supplement expenditures approved earlier for the Hillside school. (BoE info here.) Also of interest is a proposal to hire a consultant for three days at $9,900 per day. (Can this be right?) So if the use of your tax money is of interest, go to the hearing!
Media reporting on why life expectancy is declining in the USA has focused on "the plight of white Americans in rural areas who were dying from so-called deaths of despair: drug overdoses, alcoholism and suicide." But a new study has found that increased deaths rates are affecting a broad range of people in midlife, in urban and suburban as well as rural areas. "Death rates are actually improving among children and older Americans, perhaps because they may have more reliable health care — Medicaid for many children and Medicare for older people." Read more here.
For the first time in (my) living memory, Westchester's two congressional seats will have serious primary contests. Rep. Eliot Engel has two challengers; and as Nita Lowey retires, her open seat has attracted at least seven candidates. I'll post useful articles as they appear: this week, The Intercept has an article focusing on the issue of Israel/Palestine in the coming primaries; Riverdale's Jennifer Scarlet has an article reviewing "Eliot Engel's real record on the environment"; and Mondaire Jones, a candidate for Rep. Lowey's seat, writes about "Why I'm running to be America's first black, gay congressman."
This week the House Judiciary Committee will receive a report from the joint committee that has held hearings on Impeachment, and will begin to put together Articles of Impeachment. These are likely to include the "obstruction" issue left over from the Mueller investigation, as well as issues relating to the July 25 phone call with the President of Ukraine and the withholding of military aid to Ukraine last summer. Perhaps much more. News reports say that the Articles of Impeachment will be ready by Christmas, and then sent over to the Senate for a trial. Will all this be good for the Democrats? Here is a useful assessment of the pitfalls that may await the Democrats if/as they proceed with a trial in the Senate. In connection with this, please read the article about "the Whistleblower" by Scott Ritter (also linked below), an illustration of how a Republican-run impeachment trial could go off the rails for the Democrats. As the Senate will almost certainly vote to acquit Trump, should the Democrats consider "censoring" Trump rather than going on to the Full Monty Impeachment? Is this even an alternative? We will see.
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Sunday, December 8th – CFOW meets (usually) on the first Sunday of the month at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs, from 7 to 9 pm. We review our work of the previous month and make plans for the month to come. Everyone is welcome at these meetings.
Friday, December 6th – The next youth-led climate mobilization will take place across the USA. It coincides with the 2019 UN Climate Change Conference. There will be a demonstration at City Hall Park in NYC from 12 to 3 pm; and the Rivertowns students will be rallying in Ardsley at Pacone Park from 3 to 4 pm. More news when we get it.
Saturday, December 7th – WESPAC'S annual "Margaret Eberle Fair Trade and Crafts Festival" will be held from 10 am to 4 pm at the Memorial United Methodist Church, 250 Bryant Ave. in White Plains. Fair-trade crafts and good food for sale; suggested admission $5, but no one wll be turned away. Live music through the day; always an enjoyable visit/event.
Sunday, December 8th – Dr. Elizabeth Rosenthal of the New York Metro chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program will speak about "Universal Healthcare: The Road Ahead," at the Riverfront branch of the Yonkers Public Library, 1 Larkin Center in Yonkers, from 2 to 4 pm. The program is sponsored by NYCD-Indivisible, Indivisible Westchester, Indivisible White Plains and BlueBlast! Free. To register (necessary), go here.
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 the climate crisis, 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!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
THIS WEEK'S FEATURED ESSAYS
The 'Whistleblower' and the Politicization of Intelligence
By Scott Ritter, Consortium News [November 27, 2019]
[FB - Scott Ritter is a former Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control treaties, in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm, and in Iraq overseeing the disarmament of WMD.]
---- While the whistleblower, through counsel, had expressed a desire to testify before the House Intelligence Committee about the issues set forth in his complaint, he was never called to do so, even in closed-door session. The ostensible reason behind this failure to testify was the need to protect his anonymity. …But the apparent reason Schiff and Bakaj refused to allow the whistleblower to testify, or to be identified, was to avoid legitimate questions likely to be asked by Republican committee members. … Answers to these questions, and more, would have been useful in understanding not only the motives of the whistleblower in filing his complaint—was he simply a concerned citizen and patriot, or was he part of a larger conspiracy to undermine the political viability of a sitting president? [Read More]
---- While the whistleblower, through counsel, had expressed a desire to testify before the House Intelligence Committee about the issues set forth in his complaint, he was never called to do so, even in closed-door session. The ostensible reason behind this failure to testify was the need to protect his anonymity. …But the apparent reason Schiff and Bakaj refused to allow the whistleblower to testify, or to be identified, was to avoid legitimate questions likely to be asked by Republican committee members. … Answers to these questions, and more, would have been useful in understanding not only the motives of the whistleblower in filing his complaint—was he simply a concerned citizen and patriot, or was he part of a larger conspiracy to undermine the political viability of a sitting president? [Read More]
Meet the Men Fueling the Climate Crisis
By Ben Ehrenreich, The Nation [November 27, 2019]
---- Earlier this year, the climate writer Kate Aronoff laid out the case for trying fossil-fuel executives for crimes against humanity. The effort, she argued, "would put names and faces to a problem too often discussed in the abstract" and "channel some populist rage at the climate's 1 percent." Not all of us anthropoids, after all, are equally responsible for anthropogenic climate change: More than 60 percent of all the carbon spat into the atmosphere since 1854 can be traced to 90 corporations and state-owned industries. Over the last half century, just 20 firms produced more than a third of all emissions. … As the seas rise, the fires burn, the storms swell, and the Arctic melts, remember that we are in this disastrous predicament because the leaders of a few dozen companies—including lobbyists, financiers, various government enablers, think tank hacks, and related shills and swindlers, perhaps a few thousand people over a century and half—enriched themselves by selling off the future…, but no language yet has come up with a term large enough to contain the guilt of fossil fuel executives. Last month, New York prosecutors put Aronoff's most-wanted climate criminal Rex Tillerson on the stand in a fraud suit against Exxon Mobil, and a Massachusetts DA filed a second case against the oil giant for its long history of deceptive denialism. Activists elsewhere are fighting to get the International Criminal Court to recognize ecocide as an offense up there with genocide and war crimes. Real accountability is still likely a long way off, but there is no need to wait on the lawyers, or the revolution: Let the populist rage begin. [Read More]
You Can Have Brandeis or You Can Have Debs [That is, Warren or Sanders]
By Shawn Gude, Jacobin Magazine [February 19, 2019]
---- Elizabeth Warren's political tradition is the left edge of middle-class liberalism; Bernie Sanders hails from America's socialist tradition. Don't confuse the two. Elizabeth Warren understands better than most the difference between her and Bernie Sanders. "He's a socialist," Warren explains, "and I believe in markets." She's a "capitalist to [her] bones," and Sanders is a democratic socialist. … She and Sanders draw their lineage from distinct political traditions. Warren is a regulator at heart who believes that capitalism works well as long as fair competition exists; Sanders is a class-conscious tribune who sees capitalism as fundamentally unjust. Warren frames her most ambitious reforms as bids to make capitalism "accountable"; Sanders pushes legislation called the "Stop BEZOS Act" and denounces ceos for exploiting workers. Warren seeks a harmonious accord between workers and employers; Sanders encourages workers to fight back. … Warren's political tradition is the left edge of middle-class liberalism; Sanders hails from America's socialist tradition. Or, to put the distinction in more personal terms: Warren is Louis Brandeis, Sanders is Eugene Debs. [Read More]
Our History
(Video) 20 Years After The Battle of Seattle: The Historic 1999 World Trade Organization Protests
From Democracy Now! [November 27, 2019]
---- Twenty years ago this week, tens of thousands of activists gathered in Seattle to shut down a ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization. Grassroots organizers successfully blocked world leaders, government trade ministers and corporate executives from meeting to sign a global trade deal that many called deeply undemocratic, harmful to workers' rights, the environment and Indigenous people globally. On November 30, 1999, activists formed a human chain around the Seattle convention center and shut down the city's downtown. Police responded by firing tear gas and rubber bullets into the mostly peaceful crowd. The protests went on for five days and resulted in 600 arrests and in the eventual collapse of the talks, as well as the resignation of Seattle's police chief. See the Program The same Democracy Now! broadcast also featured a segment on " Reflections on 20 Years of Indymedia, a Radical Media Movement," which is also very interesting. See it here.
The Invention—and Reinvention—of Impeachment
By Jill Lepore, The New Yorker [October 21, 2019]
---- Impeachment is a terrible power because it was forged to counter a terrible power: the despot who deems himself to be above the law. The delegates to the Constitutional Convention included impeachment in the Constitution as a consequence of their knowledge of history, a study they believed to be a prerequisite for holding a position in government. From their study of English history, they learned what might be called the law of knavery: there aren't any good ways to get rid of a bad king. Really, there were only three ways and they were all horrible: civil war, revolution, or assassination. England had already endured the first and America the second, and no one could endorse the third. " … Because impeachment happens so infrequently, it's hard to draw conclusions about what it does, or even how it works, and, on each occasion, people spend a lot of time fighting over the meaning of the words and the nature of the crimes. Every impeachment is a political experiment. Read More]
