The Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
October 25, 2020
Hello All – Do we, in the USA, have a Democracy? Do we have "rule of the People"? This election season, with its concerns about the Electoral College, voter suppression, Citizens United, and highly fallible voting machinery has been a sustained lesson on how far the USA is from a democracy in which the People determine who governs in their name. And because of this initial failure of democracy, it is not surprising that the resulting state and government favors the rich, and taxes and distributes resources in a way that benefits the well-to-do, not lower-income people.
This state of affairs long-preceded the Regime of Trump; but under his presidency the unequal distribution of power, of "rights," of resources, and of income has become obscene, rivaling the Gilded Ages of aristocracies of old. This is unacceptable not only as a matter of ethics, but it has engendered a State that is simply incompetent, that poisons its citizens, houses and educates them abominably, and can't heal them when they are sick. Our Military-Industrial Complex is simply grotesque, bringing misery to millions of poor people around the world. The avariciousness of our fossil-fuel industries is wrecking our civilization. Nuclear war threatens. It is tragic that humans, who could be so great, have come to this.
The defeat of President Trump and his Republican Gang won't end this mess, but without their (sound) defeat we don't have a chance to restore all that has gone wrong. The chances of victory are looking good, but we can't be sure, and Trump has blathered about not leaving office if the election is so unfair that he loses. If he tries this, we must fight like Hell to stop him. Our slogan will be "Count Every Vote!" In hundreds of cities and towns, organizations, unions, and regular people are getting ready to protest and do civil disobedience in case Trump and his lawyers try something funny.
To join this Election Protection effort, an excellent source of information on what can be done is the training seminars presented by Choose Democracy, featuring veteran non-violence activist George Lakey. For protecting the election on Election Day, and especially to learn about preventing voter intimidation, I think the place to go the Election Defenders Training Series. And for what to do if Trump et al. try to stop the vote count or dispute the vote-count, the major effort (national) is directed by Protect the Results. Please check them out and join in the Common Effort to protect whatever of our democracy remains.
News Notes
News outlets report that "The Trump administration is considering declaring that several prominent international NGOs — including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam — are anti-Semitic and that governments should not support them." [Link]. This is in line with the rightwing rendering of all criticism of Israel or its government as "anti-Semitic." Leading this push is Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, even though this action is strongly opposed by State Department lawyers. Human Rights Watched responds to Pompeo's accusations here.
For most people, the Covid Economy has been rough, but a recent report from Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies finds that US billionaires have increased their wealth by $931 billion since the beginning of the pandemic. That is, their wealth has increased by almost one-third. Read more here.
Environmental groups sued the Department of Homeland Security and its acting secretary, Chad Wolf, in federal district court today over their use of what the suit called "a vast arsenal of weapons" on Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland. According to a report in The Intercept, "among the weapons mentioned in the complaint are rubber bullets; CS tear gas; OC spray, also known as pepper spray; and hexachloroethane smoke grenades. … Along with a thick smoke, the grenades release chemicals associated with short- and long-term human health effects, including nausea, vomiting, central nervous system depression, kidney and liver damage, and cancer."
Finally, between now and November 3rd, The New York Review of Books is taking down its pay wall and making articles in the archives available free. Lots of good stuff, back to 1963. Check it out here.
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 5:30 to 6 pm, in Yonkers at the intersection of Warburton Ave. and Odell. In this time of coronavirus, we are meeting by Zoom conference; if you would like to join one of our Zoom meetings, Tuesday and Thursday at noon and/or Saturday at 2 pm, please send a return email. 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!
This week's Rewards for stalwart readers celebrate the work of folksinger Malvina Reynolds. You may know her for her 1963 musical critique of suburbia, "Little Boxes," which was later featured on the TV series "Weeds." Here is a short documentary film about her life & songs, "Love Like A Fool." And in the early 1960s, when we were endangered by fallout from nuclear testing, she gave us "What Have They Done to the Rain?" Malvina Reynolds, get to know her!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION …
The Real Reason the GOP Suppresses the Vote
By Yochai Benkler, Boston Review [October 2020]
---- Last month Donald Trump ended the presidential debate falsely alleging that mail-in voting is subject to mass voter fraud and refusing to commit to accepting the results of the election should he lose. A week later Mike Pence repeated the falsehood. These statements capped a months-long disinformation campaign by the Republican Party, led by Trump, designed to persuade Republicans and uncommitted voters that mail-in voting is unsafe and that Democrats are planning to use it to steal a "RIGGED!!!" election… The statements by both the president and vice president strongly suggest that part of the strategy is to develop ammunition for a rearguard battle over the outcome of the election, should the results be closer in battleground states than polls now suggest they may be. Close examination of the disinformation campaign makes clear that it is not the whim of an individual, but a sustained effort led by Republican Party elites. … The Republican assault on voter participation in 2020 reflects the deeper reality that the Republican strategy of the past fifty years has reached an electoral dead end. [Read More]
Swing County, USA [Pennsylvania & the Democrats]
By Akela Lacy and Ryan Grim, The Intercept [
---- Pennsylvania could be closer than the polls suggest, making the state's eccentric politics all the more important. Ever since Obama's election, the political realignment in areas similar to the Lehigh Valley — a region with a significant minority population and sprawling suburbs — has favored Democrats, yet in 2016 the Lehigh Valley went in the opposite direction and, arguably, took Pennsylvania and the White House with it. … Overall, in 2008, Obama won the Lehigh Valley and nearby Carbon County by more than 40,000 votes. In 2016, Trump took the area by nearly 6,000 votes. Trump won the state by 44,292 votes. What happened? [Read More]
… AND THE DAY AFTER….
How Workers Can Help Defeat a Trump Coup
By Jeremy Brecher, Labor Network for Sustainability [October 22, 2020]
---- If President Trump loses the November election but refuses to concede defeat and leave office, whatever words are used to justify his action the result will be a coup d'etat–an illegal, unconstitutional takeover of government power. Here's how workers–whatever their degree and kind of previous organization – can play a crucial role in resisting usurpation and restoring democracy. While the US doesn't have a tradition of popular mobilization to overcome coups, around the world popular resistance has repeatedly helped defeat attempts to overthrow democratic governments. Two studies, The Anti-Coup by Gene Sharp and Bruce Jenkins and Civil Resistance Against Coups by Steven Zunes, examine civilian resistance to 15 coups. In 13 cases the resistance succeeded in overcoming the coups, primarily through nonviolent mass action. … How do we apply these principles to the specific situation of a Trump coup and the specific role of workers in defeating it? … Preparations to respond are already under way. A manual titled Hold the Line lays out how to form local "election protection" committees and start organizing for coup resistance. Numerous organizations and coalitions are actively preparing for responding if Trump and his supporters disrupt the election and attempt to nullify its results. They include Choose Democracy, National Council On Election Integrity, Keep Our Republic , Stand Up America , and People's Strike!. Others are keeping a low public profile unless and until open resistance is necessary. Protect the Results, a joint project of Indivisible and Stand Up America, has already organized actions in 233 locations for 5:00 p.m. local time on November 4. [Read More] For an update on what some labor unions are doing to Get Ready, read "Labor Prepares for Last-Minute General Strike If Trump Tries to Steal Election," [Link].
---- If President Trump loses the November election but refuses to concede defeat and leave office, whatever words are used to justify his action the result will be a coup d'etat–an illegal, unconstitutional takeover of government power. Here's how workers–whatever their degree and kind of previous organization – can play a crucial role in resisting usurpation and restoring democracy. While the US doesn't have a tradition of popular mobilization to overcome coups, around the world popular resistance has repeatedly helped defeat attempts to overthrow democratic governments. Two studies, The Anti-Coup by Gene Sharp and Bruce Jenkins and Civil Resistance Against Coups by Steven Zunes, examine civilian resistance to 15 coups. In 13 cases the resistance succeeded in overcoming the coups, primarily through nonviolent mass action. … How do we apply these principles to the specific situation of a Trump coup and the specific role of workers in defeating it? … Preparations to respond are already under way. A manual titled Hold the Line lays out how to form local "election protection" committees and start organizing for coup resistance. Numerous organizations and coalitions are actively preparing for responding if Trump and his supporters disrupt the election and attempt to nullify its results. They include Choose Democracy, National Council On Election Integrity, Keep Our Republic , Stand Up America , and People's Strike!. Others are keeping a low public profile unless and until open resistance is necessary. Protect the Results, a joint project of Indivisible and Stand Up America, has already organized actions in 233 locations for 5:00 p.m. local time on November 4. [Read More] For an update on what some labor unions are doing to Get Ready, read "Labor Prepares for Last-Minute General Strike If Trump Tries to Steal Election," [Link].
A Common Defense: Mobilizing Veterans in Labor
----- In blue collar communities in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin which suffered some of the highest post 9/11 combat-casualty rates, veterans and their neighbors helped Trump carry those decisive swing states four years ago. To repeat that regional sweep next month and give Trump a second term, the Republican Party has again targeted the nation's 20 million veterans as a key voting bloc. Among the groups trying to prevent the GOP from out-organizing the Democratic Party among veterans and military families are the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and Common Defense, a national organization of progressive veterans. CWA and Common Defense unveiled their joint initiative in the fall of 2019, when CWA President Chris Shelton, an Air Force veteran and former telephone worker, launched a "Veterans for Social Change Program." … CWA seeks to counter these Trump-era threats by encouraging veterans in its own ranks to engage in grassroots campaigns with community allies and increase awareness of veterans' issues within CWA, like the need for a strong fully funded veterans' healthcare system. [Read More]
FEATURED ESSAYS
"We're Not a Democracy"
By James Risen, The Intercept [October 21, 2020]
---- It is time to take stock of America. Heavily armed terrorists plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan while President Donald Trump, sick with Covid-19 and probably high on a cocktail of steroids and experimental drugs, tries to shift the blame to her. The president of the United States calls American soldiers who died in war "losers and suckers." An anti-abortion zealot who served as a "handmaid" in People of Praise, a splinter group of charismatic Christians, is nominated for the Supreme Court by a man accused of sexual misconduct by more than two dozen women. The nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, is the mask-less guest of honor at a Covid-19 superspreader event in the White House's Rose Garden and may only be a few Zoom calls away from overturning Roe v. Wade. This is who we are now. [Read More]
Angela Davis
---- There's a wall on Throop Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, that is painted with a mural of Black icons. It begins with Bob Marley and Haile Selassie before going on to include Martin Luther King Jr., Betty Shabazz (Betty X) and Nelson Mandela. The last portrait is of Angela Yvonne Davis — scholar, activist and the only surviving hero of the global African diaspora. … For the mural's context, we have to return to the fall of 1969, when Davis, then an assistant professor in the philosophy department at the University of California, Los Angeles, was fired at the beginning of the school year for her membership in the Communist Party, and then, after a court ruled the termination illegal, fired again nine months later for using "inflammatory rhetoric" in public speeches. She had recently become close to a trio of Black inmates nicknamed the Soledad Brothers (after the California prison in which they were held) who had been charged with the murder of a white prison guard in January 1970. One, George Jackson, was an activist and writer whom Davis befriended upon joining a committee challenging the charges. In August 1970 — after Jackson's younger brother, Jonathan, used firearms registered to Davis in a takeover of a Marin County courthouse that left four people dead — Davis immediately came under suspicion. In the aftermath of that bloody event, she was charged with three capital offenses, including murder. [Read More]
It's 'Court Reform,' Not Court Packing
By Marshall Auerback, The Nation [October 23, 2020]
---- With the likely imminent confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, the Republicans will succeed in entrenching a solid 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court for many years to come. Already, questions have arisen as to how Democrats should respond. There has been much discussion of blunting the impact of this ideological coup through the expedient of court-packing. The term "court packing" itself evokes President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's controversial proposal to appoint up to six additional justices to the Supreme Court—one for every justice older than 70— after he was decisively reelected for a second term in 1936. … Despite FDR's ultimate legislative successes, "court packing" remains an emotive term suggesting something underhanded or even illegal, akin to stacking a deck of cards. Yet there is nothing in the Constitution that specifies the number of justices or justifies treating the current complement of nine as sacrosanct as the Holy Trinity. Still, the GOP thinks they are on to a winning issue, and Democrats remain defensive about the concept. They needn't be—if the message is framed as a broader issue of court reform and social justice, as well as one that is consonant with historic precedent. [Read More] And for some insights, watch (Video) "A Barrett Confirmation Is a Catastrophe," an interview with Zephyr Teachout, Democracy Now! [Link].
Bolivia: The people defeat the coup
By Federico Fuentes, Green Left [Australia] [October 22, 2020]
----- With almost 90% of the October 18 vote counted, MAS presidential candidate Luis Arce has won with 54.5%, thumping his nearest rival, Carlos Mesa (29.26%). Arce even managed to win more votes than former MAS president Evo Morales did in the October 2019 elections. While Morales won that election, opposition protests against supposed fraud culminated in a police-military coup that forced him into exile just weeks later. The vote for Arce, who was economy minister during most of Morales' 14 years in power, represents a clear rejection of those who sought to trample on Bolivia's democracy and the many achievements of the MAS government, in particular its empowerment of the country's indigenous majority. It also represents a defeat for those internationally, such as the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United States government, who backed the coup and subsequent illegitimate regime headed by right-wing senator Jeanine Áñez. [[Read More]
WAR & PEACE
Danger in the South China Sea
By Ann Wright, former military officer [October 16, 2020]
---- Over the past two years, the United States has dramatically increased the number of U.S. Navy aircraft carriers and destroyers sent into the South China Sea as freedom-of-navigation show-of- force missions to remind the Chinese government that the U.S. considers the Western Pacific and the South China Sea as a part of the oceans of America and its allies. Additionally, in 2020, the Trump administration ratcheted up tensions with China by sending to Taiwan the highest-ranking U.S. officials in over 40 years. The Chinese government has responded with the largest naval exercises in its history and sending flights of 18 aircraft to the edge of Taiwan's air defense zone. … Besides pressure on China through its actions with Taiwan, in the past six months, the confrontation and competition between the U.S. and Chinese navies has increased dramatically. In response to increased U.S. military operations in the Western Pacific, China has increased its pressure on issues in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. [Read More]
Trump's quiet war against civilians in Iran continues amid the pandemic
By Niloofar Adnani, Responsible Statecraft [October 22, 2020]
---- With people in Iran already suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic and crippling U.S. sanctions, the Trump administration earlier this month unveiled yet another set of sanctions that could restrict Iranians' access to food and medicine even further. This move has gone largely unnoticed in the United States, with the first presidential debate passing without mention of Trump's disastrous "maximum pressure" policy on Iran. But for Iranians, it is impossible to ignore… In a recent publication, U.N. experts, along with many activists and scientists have stated that sanctions are silent weapons of mass destruction during the COVID-19 pandemic and that U.S. humanitarian exemptions are not working. In short, civilians in Iran have no room to breathe under the catastrophic and life-threatening economic blockade. [Read More]
THE COVID-19 CRISIS & THE STATE OF THE UNION
We're Never Going Back to Normal
By Gregg Gonsalves, The Nation [October 22, 2020]
---- Last Friday, the United States recorded 70,000 cases of SARS-CoV-2, the largest single-day tally since the end of July. Meanwhile, the president of the United States is trashing Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, saying, "People are tired of hearing Fauci and these idiots, all these idiots who got it wrong." … The winter is most likely to be grim. While it's hard to predict with any reliability months out from now, the upward trajectory of cases over the past couple of weeks (34 percent over the previous two-week average) is all but certain to be followed by an increase in deaths. We already have more deaths per day than we did in July. This time around, the upper Midwest and Great Plains states are being slammed by the virus, hitting new records for their local epidemics. … What will help us survive this long winter is not sinking into anger and resentment, looking behind us to make America great or "normal" again. And this isn't meant to be a moment of spiritual uplift but an invitation to work. Components of the public health response are there to use to help us through the pandemic, but they are only one set of tools we need right now. We have a lot of damage to repair and then we have to imagine and then create a world where we are all less vulnerable to new and unknown viruses, to the growing impact of climate change, to the next unforeseen challenge that will greet us when we least expect it. [Read More]
The Pandemic Sent Americans' Health Care Coverage Into Free Fall
By Bryce Covert, The Nation [October 21, 2020]
---- This is the first recession the country has faced with the ACA in place. And in the states that have established private health insurance exchanges and expanded Medicaid coverage, the crisis of losing a job has not necessarily precipitated the crisis of losing health insurance. But in the states that did not expand Medicaid, there is a gaping hole in the patchwork of health coverage, and as people face widespread job loss, unprecedented numbers of them are tumbling into it. Between February and May, 5.4 million people who lost their job in the United States also lost their health insurance coverage—the highest increase ever recorded. Losses have been heavy in many nonexpansion states like Texas, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. [Read More]
Trump Sets Up Pharma Billionaires for Coronavirus Payday
By Sharon Lerner, The Intercept [
[FB – Adding to the interest of this story is the fact that Regeneron, the company at the core of this story, is located in Tarrytown.]
---- The development of the antibody cocktail used to treat President Donald Trump for Covid-19 — which he heralded as a cure for the disease — was funded largely by the U.S. government, yet the Trump administration has apparently failed to set any guarantees that the treatment would be affordable. The biopharmaceutical company Regeneron, led by the two highest paid executives in the industry, received hundreds of millions in public funds during the research and development of the antibody therapy, and now stands to make a killing from its potentially lifesaving treatment. … While Regeneron initially estimated that it would have between 70,000 and 300,000 doses "as early as end of summer and completed this fall," Schleifer admitted on CBS News' "Face the Nation" that, as of October 11, it had only produced 50,000 doses, which is fewer than the number of coronavirus infections diagnosed on a single day in the U.S. last week. And although Regeneron has committed to selling some of the antibodies to the government, which in turn is obligated to distribute them "to the American people at no cost," according to the government's July 6 agreement, that deal applies only to "a fixed number of bulk lots." After that, the pricing is up to the company — a prospect that frightens some economists. [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
"The Trial of the Chicago 7"
By Frank Brodhead
---- Aaron Sorkin's film, "The Trial of the Chicago 7," now streaming on Netflix, is thought-provoking. If there had been no Vietnam War, if the Democratic Convention of 1968 had not happened, if there had been no police riot in Chicago, if Nixon had not won the presidency … (and so on), "The Trial of the Chicago 7" would be entertaining, like a good Seinfeld episode. But Sorkin's film is premised on the claim that the courtroom drama actually happened; and it is implied that the conflicts and their resolution teach us something about our past. But by stripping most of the context from the people and the events in the film, and misrepresenting much of what is depicted (compared, for example, to the trial transcript and witness testimonies, the basis for a film 30+ years ago, "Conspiracy. The Trial of the Chicago 8"), one asks what Sorkin had in mind by fictionalizing a key moment in the protest against the Kennedy/Johnson/Nixon war against Vietnam that killed millions of people and so divided the USA. (To help recall some of the context of the events leading up to the trial – mostly missing in Sorkin's story – check out this clip from Democracy Now! on the 50th anniversary of the Chicago demonstrations, which includes an interview with Bobby Seale.) It's a tragedy that we have to fight so hard simply to keep our own story straight, a story that includes our movement's bravery, imagination, and stalwartism, so necessary today. For additional views on Sorkin's interpretation of events, I recommend "I Was in the Room Where It Happened: One Woman's Perspective on "The Trial of the Chicago 7" by Nancy Kurshan, at that time married to Jerry Rubin [Link]; and "Chicago 7: Counter Cultural Learnings of America for Make Money Glorious Nation of Post-Truthvaluestan" b [Link].
