Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
July 27, 2020
Hello All – It is hard to exaggerate the importance of the struggle now underway in the USA. On the nightly news it is encapsulated in the stand-off between federal police and protesters in Portland. At a deeper level, the struggle is about the threat of fascism and the control of the state. While the congressional Republicans are beginning to waver in their fealty to the madman in the White House, Trump retains a significant base of support that he intends to use to ensure his re-election, his only discernable policy goal.
What make this larger struggle so significant are the ticking clock of our climate crisis and the possibility of nuclear war. This week on Democracy Now! Noam Chomsky was uncharacteristically emotional in stressing the historical uniqueness of this crisis – "nothing like this before in human history" - and similar attempts to get through to his audience that, if Trump is re-elected (or stays in office), we may be approaching humankind's last stand.
While Joe Biden is currently leading in the polls, there are many reasons to think/fear that November's presidential election will end up in a mess, with the outcome disputed. This gives extra importance to the efforts election/voting integrity activists to prevent intentional or "accidental" disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of people and to ensure an accurate vote count. Based on recent experience, however, both in Westchester and in the USA, it is hard to be optimistic that this goal can be fully realized by November. A contested election outcome seems possible.
It is possible that the Black Lives Matter movement and a city-by-city conflict with Trump's federal police force may frame the election campaign until November. Certainly for Trump, this would be preferable to a focus on Covid-19 or unemployment. Will spectacular displays of police violence and citizen resistance on the nightly news work for Trump, spreading the fear of chaos among "moderate" and conservative voters? Non-violence activist and theorist George Lakey thinks the outcome will depend on whether protesters can force the mass-media framing to reflect that their cause is defensive and in support of basic rights, and he cites lots of history in support of this argument.
A second framing of "Portland" is that Trump and his federal police are rehearsing counter-insurgency strategies and tactics to use if/when a disputed election outcome results in Trump refusing to leave office, amidst nationwide protests against this de facto coup. The Pentagon's military has repeatedly signaled that they are not going to defend Trump's attempt to involve them in his political fights; thus Trump's recourse to police units that he personally can control, and well as his support from right-wing militia groups. But will these be enough?
The success of the grassroots mobilizations for Black Lives Matter and against the federal police, therefore, are not incidental to the defense of democracy this November, but are at the very center of the struggle. They are Democracy's "first-responders"; we owe them a lot and must defend/support/join them.
Some useful reading on Portland and "Portland"
Why Portland Became the Test Case for Trump's Secret Police
By Zoë Carpenter, The Nation [July 22, 2020] [Link]
In Portland, Questions Swirl Around Local Police's Coordination With Federal Officers By Arun Gupta, The Intercept [July 24, 2020] [Link].
Before Portland, Trump's Shock Troops Went After Border Activists
By Ryan Devereaux, The Intercept [[Link]
Why Are Mayors Inviting Trump's Federal Agents Into Their Cities?
By Alex S. Vitale, The Nation [July 24, 2020] [Link]
News Notes
One of the innovations of the Portland protests is the Wall of Moms, with mothers forming a front-line of defense between the police and the protests. The Wall of Moms has gone viral, and is being imitated in many areas, including Westchester. Moms who would like to join/check out a now-in-formation Westchester group should email brookita@protonmail.com.
One of the innovations of the Portland protests is the Wall of Moms, with mothers forming a front-line of defense between the police and the protests. The Wall of Moms has gone viral, and is being imitated in many areas, including Westchester. Moms who would like to join/check out a now-in-formation Westchester group should email brookita@protonmail.com.
Kamal Flowers of New Rochelle was shot and killed by police on June 5th. The killing was immediately protested in New Rochelle, but the Mayor and police claimed that Flowers had a gun and the police shot in self-defense. The stalwart community newspaper "Talk of the Sound" has followed the case closely, and last week published a summary of the evidence so far showing that both the Mayor and the police are lying. Read about it here and in earlier issues of the paper.
The Westchester Board of Elections is poised to purchase voting machines regarded by election experts as insecure. Why they want to do this – and not use the machines currently available – is unclear, though Wednesday's meeting of the Board of Legislators (see below) may clarify this. In the meantime, two dozen Westchester organizations (including CFOW) have sent a letter to the BoL demanding that the new, insecure machines not be funded. The letter is posted on the CFOW Facebook page.
Today is the 67th anniversary (1953) of the Armistice that ended the fighting of the Korean War. Yet there is still no peace treaty – one of the perennial demands by North Korea in its negotiations with the USA. Why is this? What was/is it about the Korean War that has makes it invisible in our public memory? One of the best books on the subject is by Bruce Cumings; here is a short book review that I hope will stimulate curiosity.
Finally, this week congresswoman Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez gave one of the great speeches in the History of Congress, delivering a crisp and cogent analysis of the deeper issues behind Rep. Yoho's calling her a "Fucking Bitch" on the steps of the Capitol. If you are one of the few people in the USA who hasn't seen/heard it yet, click here.
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Monday, July 27th – CFOW/Yonkers and friends will hold a Black Lives Matter vigil from 6 to 6:30 pm on Warburton Ave. at Odell Ave. in Yonkers.
Monday, July 27th – The Institute for Policy Studies (Wash., DC) presents a zoom/webinar, "No Warming, No War: Connecting Militarism with the Climate Crisis" – 5 to 6:30 pm. For more info, and to register, go here.
Tuesday, July 28th – Smart Elections (Lulu Friestadt) continues its Election Security webinars this evening at 7 pm. The webinar wil feature two election-security experts and include a clip from the film "Killchain." For more information and to register, go here.
Tuesday, July 28th – The Sister District Project for the Bronx & Westchester [Link] will host Dr. John Kennedy, speaking on "The Fight for Fair Redistricting" [gerrymandering, etc.] on Zoom from 7 to 8 pm. For more info and to register, go here.
Wednesday, July 29th – The Westchester Board of Legislators will hear from the county's Board of Elections Commissioners at 10 a.m. The discussion will be about how to improve Westchester voting conditions in light of the disaster of June 23rd. To listen in (no speaking), the BOL writes: "A live link to the stream will appear on the Upcoming Events section of our online meeting calendar at https://westchestercountyny.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=1 when the meeting begins."
Saturday, July 30th – CFOW will continue its 18-year tradition of a weekly vigil/rally for peace and justice, convening from 11 to 11:30 at the VFW Plaza in Hastings (Warburton and Spring St.) This week's focus (probably), "Solidarity with Portland – Black Lives Matter."
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. Taking the Covid Crisis into account, we meet (with safe distancing) for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, from 11 to 11:30 a.m., at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) Another vigil takes place on Mondays, from 6 to 6:30 pm, in Yonkers at the intersection of Warburton Ave. and Odell. In this time of coronavirus, we are meeting (by Zoom conference) each Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. If you would like to join our meeting, please send a return email to get the meeting's access code. 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!
Rewards!
While late-nite comedians find scads of good material in Donald Trump's antics, comedienne Sarah Cooper finds it easier just to be Donald Trump. Sarah started out working in the corporate world, and so – like Dilbert – gained valuable experience in the b.s. that passes for Deep Thinking among our leaders. In an interview with the Washington Post, Sarah describes how natural it was to make the transition from corporate drone to stand-up comedy. As for example, here is her latest oeuvre, an appreciation of Donald Trump's cognitive skills. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
(Video) Noam Chomsky on Trump's Troop Surge to Democratic Cities & Whether He'll Leave Office if He Loses
From Democracy Now! [July 24, 2020]
---- President Trump is desperate. His entire attention is—there's one issue on his mind; that's the election. He has to cover up for the fact that he is personally responsible for killing tens of thousands of Americans. It is impossible to conceal that much longer. Just compare the United States with Europe or even Canada; it's becoming a pariah state to the point where Americans aren't even permitted to travel to Europe. Europe won't accept them. His chances of victory depend on his doing something dramatic. He was trying very hard to set up military confrontations that you mentioned, martial law. It's moving toward martial law. He might even be able to try to cancel the elections. There is no telling what he would do. He is completely desperate. This is like the actions of some tin-pot dictator in a neo-colony somewhere, small country that has a military coup every couple of years. There is no historical precedent for anything like this in a functioning democratic society. If he could send Blackshirts out in the streets, he would be happy to do that. Exactly how this will eventuate is very hard to say. The courts are unlikely to do anything. We may even get to a point where the military command has to decide which side they are on. The man is desperate. He is psychotic. He is in extreme danger of losing his position in the White House and will do anything he can to prevent it. [See the Program]
King Joe and the Round Table: Biden's America in a Multipolar World
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies, Code Pink [July 23, 2020]
---- In an article in Foreign Affairs in March titled, "Why America Must Lead Again," Joe Biden claimed that "the world doesn't organize itself," and promised to "put the U.S. back at the head of the table" among the nations of the world. But the premise that the world can only organize itself under the direction of the United States and Biden's ambition to restore the U.S. to such a dominant position at this moment in history are out of touch with global reality. This view is already being challenged by governments and social movements around the world, and Americans should also challenge it if we mean to avoid endless war and a debilitating new arms race. … The continuing chaos caused by the U.S.'s wars in the Greater Middle East, the guerrilla wars now raging across much of Africa, and the rubble and unmarked graves of Ramadi, Kobane, Mosul, Raqqa and other cities in Iraq and Syria are a damning testimony to the cynicism of the Obama and Trump administrations' war policies. They have succeeded in reducing U.S. casualties and shifting America's wars off our TV and computer screens, but only at the cost of hundreds of thousands of largely uncounted civilian deaths. … Biden's past loyalty to military-industrial interests does not bode well for the kind of leadership we need, and which we have not seen from any U.S. president of this generation. So if Biden is elected, it will be up to peace-loving Americans to demand a foreign policy that takes illegal military "options," brutal sanctions and a new arms race off the table and replaces them with a new commitment to the rule of law and "Round Table" diplomacy. [Read More]
(Video) How Trump Stole 2020 [Election/Voting Integrity]
[FB – To mark publication of Greg Palast's new book, How Trump Stole 2020: The Hunt for America's Vanishing Voters, Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky, and LaTosha Brown join Palast in a video roundtable to discuss his book and the threat to USA elections.] [See the Program]
Yavne: A Jewish Case for Equality in Israel-Palestine
By Peter Beinart, Jewish Currents [July 7, 2020]
[FB – This article by Peter Beinart has become a lightening rod for debate within liberal Zionism on "Israel as a Jewish state."]
---- What makes someone a Jew – not just a Jew in name, but a Jew in good standing—today? … In the broad center of Jewish life—where power and respectability lie—being a Jew means, above all, supporting the existence of a Jewish state. In most Jewish communities on earth, rejecting Israel is a greater heresy than rejecting God. … I grew up with these assumptions, and they still surround me. They pervade the communities in which I pray, send my children to school, and find many of my closest friends. Over the years, I've learned how to live in these spaces while publicly questioning Israel's actions. But questioning Israel's existence as a Jewish state is a different order of offense—akin to spitting in the face of people I love and betraying institutions that give my life meaning and joy. Besides, Jewish statehood has long been precious to me, too. So I've respected certain red lines. Unfortunately, reality has not. With each passing year, it has become clearer that Jewish statehood includes permanent Israeli control of the West Bank. With each new election, irrespective of which parties enter the government, Israel has continued subsidizing Jewish settlement in a territory in which Palestinians lack citizenship, due process, free movement, and the right to vote for the government that dominates their lives. … Now Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to annex parts of the land that Israel has brutally and undemocratically controlled for decades. And watching all this unfold, I have begun to wonder, for the first time in my life, whether the price of a state that favors Jews over Palestinians is too high. After all, it is human beings—all human beings—and not states that are created b'tselem Elohim, in the image of God. [Read More]
Full Steam Ahead on Reopening Schools? No Way, Say Teachers
By Monique Dols and Peter Lamphere, Labor Notes [July 21, 2020]
---- Donald Trump has launched an all-out war to reopen schools across the country this fall. Educators are standing up to resist plans that would put our students, their families, or our co-workers in danger. … Teachers recognize the educational and socioemotional damage that is being done to students through remote learning, and we desperately miss our students and classrooms. But many of us are coming to the conclusion that any opening of school buildings, however partial or "hybrid," carries tremendous risks and can't be achieved safely—especially while the community spread is increasing nationally. Calls to refuse to return to unsafe conditions in school buildings are gathering steam. There is a growing sentiment among educators across the country that if the politicians won't keep our communities safe, we will. … All of these scenarios and problems point back to the elephant in the room: that as long as there is community spread of COVID-19 in the U.S., as long as the government continues to mishandle the crisis and refuses to learn from other countries' successes, opening schools will be unsafe. Educators now have the opportunity to lead the way in changing the course of how this country deals with this crisis. We do not have to live with the deaths and the suffering. Those in power have made it unsafe for us to return to school this fall, and it's up to us to force the government to change course and pay people to stay home with their kids. [Read More] For another perspective, check out ""I Love My Students. I Also Want to Live": Teachers Demand Safety as Trump Pushes Schools to Reopen," from Democracy Now! [Link].
OUR HISTORY
July 26th – The Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution
[FB – Cuba celebrated the anniversary of its revolution yesterday, July 26th. On this day in 1953, Fidel Castro and his comrades attacked the Cuban military barracks at Moncada, Cuba, seeking to oust the recently installed dictator of the country, Battista. They were unsuccessful. Castro, age 27, and other survivors were sentenced to prison; some years later were pardoned, went to Mexico, and started again. On January 1, 1959, the victorious rebels rolled into Havana, toppling the US-supported dictator. So Cuba celebrates its Revolution on the anniversary of the Moncada attack - here and here are some visuals from the years of struggle; below, on the death of Fidel Castro in 2016, is a overview of Cuba's revolutionary arc in "imperialism's backyard."]
The Cuban Revolution: Defying Imperialism From Its Backyard
---- Fidel Castro died at age 90. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States and Cuban exiles had tried for decades to kill him. In the U.S. Congress' Church Committee Report (1975), U.S. politicians wrote: "The proposed assassination devices ran the gamut from high-powered rifles to poison pills, poison pens, deadly bacterial powders and other devices which strain the imagination." One of these devices was an exploding cigar, which was to be given to Castro at the United Nations. None of these succeeded. … Cuba's new revolutionary government in 1959 made noises that sounded awfully familiar to the elites in Washington, D.C. They did not hear echoes from the Soviet Union (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or the USSR) since Castro had not made his intentions towards communism clear. What they found objectionable was Castro's agenda: to conduct land reforms, to expropriate the entrenched elite and to expel the American mafia. The template for the U.S.' displeasure at the Castro government was set in Guatemala, where the CIA conducted a coup in 1954 against the democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz. [Read More]
Present Absences - A century of struggle in Palestine.
By Kaleem Hawa, The Nation [July 27, 2020]
---- The Hundred Years' War on Palestine [by Rashid Khalidi] proves once again [that history is] the key to understanding the present. He builds on his previous work, interspersing personal and family stories with political ones and tracing the lineage of violence that has engulfed a land that has been known by many different names. In doing so, Khalidi identifies many of the actors who have been instrumental to the Palestinian cause, the revolutionaries, women, and young people who helped build the fabric of Palestinian life within the shadow of endless war, displacement, and occupation. The "war" in Khalidi's title is conceived as both singular and plural. It includes but also transcends the military conflicts most commonly used to narrate Palestinian history. He chooses to tell this story through six distinct periods, beginning with the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and moving on to the UN General Assembly's 1947 resolution on the partition of Palestine and the ensuing Arab–Israeli War and the Nakba. Charting Palestinian life after the Six-Day War in 1967, he considers Israel's de facto control over all the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean and then turns to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the first intifada of 1987, and finally the ceaseless bombings of Gaza and the expanding occupation of the West Bank today. … Ultimately, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine is a pessimistic book, a catalog of a century of sad stories. While this outcome is partly a result of the failures of the Western media and its abetting of Palestinian erasure, it is also the logical result of an ossified power imbalance that will finally crack only under the pressure exerted by a popular campaign of moral condemnation and economic nonparticipation. [Read More]
