Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
July 30, 2023
Hello All – So July has been the hottest month in human history. There is no doubt that in a few years a new record will be set. If we really cared about this – if we felt we had an obligation for the well-being and "pursuit of happiness" of future generations – what would we do?
The effects of global cooking are very visible and thus well known: the fires in Canada and Greece, draught and climate refugees in the Middle East and Africa, etc. But in the USA, our mainstream media is still reluctant to connect "the weather" with "climate change," and still more reluctant to connect the climate crisis with the burning of fossil fuels. President Biden refuses to recognize a "climate emergency," and has approved several drilling and infrastructure projects that can only be regarded – under the circumstances – as insane.
Clearly an existential danger to humans rests in the "private property" protections extended to the fossil fuel companies, and to the political power that their billions in profits gives them. When will one or more nations simply nationalize these industries and, for starters, cancel all fuel exploration projects? Should we think of "martial law" and taking over the management of fossil fuel giants as something that is taboo, something that is simply not done by responsible governments? Sham "climate summits" are not working. Can't we think of anything more effective to save ourselves?
Some useful reading about Global Boiling
(Video) As the U.N. Warns "The Era of Global Boiling Has Arrived," Biden Resists Declaring a Climate Emergency
From Democracy Now! [July 28, 2023]
---- July is on pace to be the hottest month ever recorded, and the impact of the soaring temperatures is being felt across the globe in massive heat waves, wildfires, flooding and more. On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said the world has entered the "era of global boiling," and President Joe Biden gave a major speech to unveil new measures to combat the crisis but resisted calls to declare a climate emergency.[Guests are climate journalists David Wallace-Wells and Dharna Noor.] [See the Program].
Gulf Stream could collapse as early as 2025, study suggests
By Damian Carrington, The Guardian [July 25, 2023]
---- The Gulf Stream system could collapse as soon as 2025, a new study suggests. The shutting down of the vital ocean currents, called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (Amoc) by scientists, would bring catastrophic climate he new analysis estimates a timescale for the collapse of between 2025 and 2095, with a central estimate of 2050, if global carbon emissions are not reduced. …A collapse of Amoc would have disastrous consequences around the world, severely disrupting the rains that billions of people depend on for food in India, South America and west Africa. It would increase storms and drop temperatures in Europe, and lead to a rising sea level on the eastern coast of North America. It would also further endanger the Amazon rainforest and Antarctic ice sheets. [Read More] Also of interest is "Scientists detect sign that a crucial ocean current is near collapse," by Sarah Kaplan, Washington Post [July 25, 2023] [Link].
An important action re: dumping radioactive water at Indian Point
The dumping is scheduled for August. There will be an important rally tomorrow, Monday, at 4 pm at the Cortlandt town hall. Here's a short video that explains the issues and why the rally is important.
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. Weather permitting, we meet for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, at 12 noon at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) A "Black Lives Matter/Say Their Names" vigil is held in Yonkers on Monday from 5:30 to 6:00 pm at the intersection of Warburton Ave. and Odell. Our newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page. Another Facebook page focuses on the climate crisis. If you would like to join one of our Zoom meetings, each Tuesday and Thursday at noon, please send a return email for the link. 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 remember the Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor, who died this week at the age of 56. As a musician, she is especially remembered for her 1990 hit "Nothing Compares 2 U" (and much more); but instead of a "star," she preferred to be a rebel and a fighter for justice, and so this is how we remember her today. A transforming moment was her appearance in 1992 on "Saturday Night Live," where she sang the Bob Marley hit "War," and finished by tearing up a picture of Pope John Paul 2 in protest against the Catholic (esp. Irish) Church's sexual abuse of children. Since her death, the many memories/articles about her are stunning in their revelations of a person with wide-ranging concerns and angers. Ones I liked include "Making the radical case for Sinéad O'Connor: She was right all along," b Meredith Blake [Link]; "The Other Sinead O'Connor, Pro-Palestinian Critic of Violent Israeli Extremist Ben-Gvir, and Muslim Convert," by Juan Cole, [Link]; and "I Will Rise and I Will Return: The Lucidity of Sinéad O'Connor," by Lee Hall [Link]. And of course, there's her music. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
CFOW Weekly Reader
The War in Ukraine
The long-awaited Ukrainian "counteroffensive" against the Russian invaders officially began this week. On Monday The Wall St. Journal observed that "Ukraine's Stalled Offensive Puts Biden in Uneasy Political Position." But on Wednesday, according to The New York Times: "The main thrust of Ukraine's nearly two-month-old counteroffensive is now underway in the country's southeast, two Pentagon officials said on Wednesday, with thousands of reinforcements pouring into the grinding battle, many of them trained and equipped by the West and, until now, held in reserve." In effect, Ukraine's military is on probation, with military planners in the USA and NATO countries assessing whether the war remains a good investment, considering the risks and costs.
The cost of the war took a dramatic turn this week as Russia ended its participation in the deal brokered by the UN and Turkey that allowed Ukraine to export food from its ports on the Black Sea. Thousands of tons of grain were destroyed this week in attacks on Odessa ("enough to feed more than 270,000 people for a year, according to the U.N. World Food Program") and Kherson ("In two or three months, we may not have a single port left," said a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian southern command); and a secondary port on the Danube River, bordering Romania, was also hit. How will the USA/NATO respond to a Black Sea blockade of Ukraine? Lots can go wrong.
Finally, significant escalations of the war took place last week, as Ukraine hit Moscow with several drones, Belarus (now with tactical nuclear weapons from Russia) moved a "training exercise" to the Polish border, and the Biden administration announced that it was sending a $400 million military package to Ukraine, bringing the total military shipments since the start of the war (February 2022) to $43 billion, drawing from a congressionally authorized fund of $113 billion.
Some useful reading about the war in Ukraine
Why Ukraine's counter-offensive is failing
By Daniel L. Davis, Responsible Statecraft [July 19, 2023]
---- Combat reality, however, has now swept away those optimistic claims and exposed the harsh truth: Ukraine is unlikely to militarily evict Russia out of its territory, no matter how many men they feed into battle. As unpalatable as it is for all supporters of Ukraine, the most prudent course for Zelensky may now be to seek a negotiated settlement that preserves as much freedom and territory as possible for Kyiv. Ending the war now would end the deaths and injuries for tens of thousands of Ukraine's brave and heroic fighters — men and women whom Kyiv will need to rebuild their country once the war ends. [Read More]
The Global Crisis at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Site Demands Immediate United Nations Intervention
---- The global crisis at six Ukrainian atomic reactors and fuel pools has escalated to an apocalyptic threat that demands immediate action. Protecting our lives on this planet now demands immediate deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping force to operate and protect this plant. … The six reactors and six fuel pools at Zaporizhzhia are burdened with far more potentially apocalyptic radiation than was released at Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Chernobyl or Fukushima. [Read More]
Solidarity needed for Russian anti-war socialist Boris Kagarlitsky
By Federico Fuentes, Greenleft [July 27, 2023]
---- Internationally renowned Marxist sociologist and anti-war socialist Boris Kagarlitsky is currently being held in a Russian pre-trial detention centre and faces the possibility of up to 7 years' jail if found guilty of the trumped-up charge of "justifying terrorism". Kagarlitsky's arrest is a politically-motivated attack against one of the most vocal critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It is also part of a broader campaign to clamp down on anti-war dissidents in Russia. [Read More]
Featured Essays
(Video) Demand U.S. End Korean War After 70 Years as Biden Admin Ramps Up "Nuclear Blackmail"
From Democracy Now! [July 26, 2023]
---- North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea Monday, hours after a second American nuclear-armed submarine arrived in South Korea. Meanwhile, peace activists are gathering in Washington, D.C., for a national mobilization to call on President Biden and Congress to officially end the Korean War, 70 years after the signing of the July 27, 1953, Korean Armistice that ended active military conflict. To discuss the renewed call for peace and the history of "the dirtiest war of the 20th century," we're joined by two guests: Bruce Cumings, professor of history at the University of Chicago and the author of several books on Korea, and Christine Ahn of the organization Women Cross DMZ and the coordinator of the campaign Korea Peace Now! Ahn calls for the U.S. government to "atone" for its role in the war by replacing the ceasefire with a peace agreement, not feeding into the peninsula's nuclear hostilities. [See the Program]
---- Ahead of Italy's election last fall, Giorgia Meloni was widely depicted as a menace. By this summer, everything — her youthful admiration for Benito Mussolini, her party's links to neofascists, her often extreme rhetoric — had been forgiven. … But the comforting tale of a populist firebrand turned pragmatist overlooks something important: what's been happening in Italy. Ms. Meloni's administration has spent its first months accusing minorities of undermining the triad of God, nation and family, with dire practical consequences for migrants, nongovernmental organizations and same-sex parents. … For Italy, this is bad enough. But much of its significance lies beyond its borders, showing how the far right can break down historic barriers with the center right. Allies of Ms. Meloni are already in power in Poland, also newly legitimized by their support for Ukraine. In Sweden, a center-right coalition relies on the nativist Sweden Democrats' support to govern. In Finland, the anti-immigrant Finns Party went one better and joined the government. Though these parties, like many of their European counterparts, once rejected membership in NATO and the European Union, today they seek a place in the main Euro-Atlantic institutions, transforming them from within. In this project, Ms. Meloni is leading the way. [Read More]
(Video) U.S. Developed First-Strike Weapon and Used Japan to Prove it
A discussion with Paul Jay and Peter Kuznick, The Analysis [July 27, 2023]
---- The biggest shortcoming is this failure to accurately assess what scientists knew and what others knew before the United States dropped the atomic bombs on Japan. There was quite a bit of controversy, and that does not come across. … The final word is always given to Oppenheimer or military people who say that if we don't drop the bomb, we're going to have to invade, and America is going to lose about a half million boys in an invasion. That is the fundamental myth of the atomic bombing. The idea that the only way to avoid an American invasion of Japan and fighting against these fanatical Japanese who were preparing to resist and would have cost a half million to a million to several million American and Japanese lives, that the only way to do that was to drop the bomb. What we know in reality is there were two other major factors that could have ended the war. [See the Program]
They faced the first atomic blast's fallout. 'Oppenheimer' ignores them.
By Karin Brulliard and Samuel Gilbert, Washington Post [July 29, 2023]
---- The atomic bomb dropped on [Hiroshima] had been developed and tested in Tularosa's own backyard — that pre-dawn blast jolting communities across southern New Mexico, shooting a mushroom cloud 10 miles into the sky, then raining radioactive ash on thousands of unsuspecting residents. What happened here in the aftermath, surviving "downwinders" and their relatives say, is a legacy of serious health consequences that have gone unacknowledged for 78 years. Their struggles continue to be pushed aside; the new blockbuster film "Oppenheimer," which spotlights the scientist most credited for the bomb, ignores completely the people who lived in the shadow of his test site. War & Peace
(Video) 'War Made Invisible' With Norman Solomon
From the Katie Halper Show [July 25, 2023] – 60 minutes
---- Norman Solomon talks about how America hides the human toll of its military machine. Norman Solomon is co-founder of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. [See the Program]
Soldiers Mutiny in U.S.-Allied Niger
By Nick Turse, The Intercept [July 26, 2023]
[FB – We remember a similar pattern during the civil wars/state terror in Central America during the 1980s, where the most blood-thirsty attacks on civilians or dissenters were by battalions trained by the USA at Ft. Bragg, etc.]
---- Soldiers from Niger's presidential guard blockaded the office of President Mohamed Bazoum on Wednesday, according to published reports. The West African regional and economic bloc ECOWAS has termed it an "attempted coup." The mutiny is the latest in a long line of military uprisings in West Africa, many of them led by U.S.-trained officers. It was not immediately clear [FB – but now is] if any of the Nigerien troops involved were trained or mentored by the United States, but the U.S. has trained members of Niger's presidential guard in recent years, according to Pentagon and State Department documents. U.S.-trained officers have been involved in at least six coups in neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali since 2012. In total, America's mentees have conducted at least 10 coups in West Africa since 2008, including in Burkina Faso (2014, 2015, 2022); Gambia (2014); Guinea (2021); Mali (2012, 2020, 2021); and Mauritania (2008). [Read More]
The State of the Union
The Teamsters' Proposed Agreement With UPS Is a Great Victory by and for the Workers
By Jane McAlevey, The Nation [July 27, 2023]
---- Six days before their national contract with the United Parcel Services was set to expire—the moment US labor law officially removes complex pro-employer barriers banning workers from waging a strike—the Teamsters announced that they had reached a Tentative Agreement (TA) in their national negotiations with UPS. Teamster members will have from August 3 to August 22 to read, celebrate, debate—and ultimately vote to ratify or reject the proposed TA. … For now, I want to celebrate the real wins we know about and focus our collective attention on some vexing questions about how workers can—and must—win when key windows of opportunity and leverage open up in this increasingly nightmarish political, ecological, and economic terrain for working people. How can we move from clawing back losses—and there have been plenty—into actually changing the terms of the game in workers' favor? [Read More] The Teamsters for a Democratic Union have played an important role in making the union more democratic and effective; read about their work here.
Housing Is a Human Right — Governments Need to Recognize It
By Farrah Hassen, Otherwords [July 20, 2023]
---- In the wealthiest country on the planet, too many people still lack access to housing. The pandemic revealed the full extent of the U.S. housing crisis. Where were the roughly 580,000 people living unhoused in 2020 to go under "stay at home" orders? And what about those facing eviction? At the same time, the pandemic proved that federal intervention could ease the crisis. Eviction moratoria and unemployment relief helped keep more people housed, fed, and secure. But these initiatives ended too quickly. Lifting federal pandemic eviction protections in 2021 put as many as 17 million people at risk of becoming unhoused. [Read More]. Also of interest is "Other Countries Know Housing Is a Human Right. Why Doesn't America?" by Sasha Abramsky, The Nation [July 28, 2023] [Link]
Israel/Palestine
(Video) Israel's Fight over Judicial Changes Ignores Occupation & Apartheid
From Democracy Now! [July 25, 2023]
---- We speak with two Israeli journalists in Tel Aviv after lawmakers in Israel passed a highly contested bill Monday weakening the power of the Supreme Court by preventing it from blocking government decisions it deems unreasonable. The bill is part of a broader set of judicial reforms pushed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that has sparked months of unprecedented protests, which continued last night. …It's time for the U.S. to show Israel there are consequences for apartheid and anti-democratic legislation, says Gideon Levy, columnist for Haaretz. "What kind of democracy can exist in an apartheid state?" he asks. [See the Program]
Israel's One-State Reality: It's Time to Give Up on the Two-State Solution
By Michael Barnett, et al., Foreign Affairs [April 14, 2023]
[FB – This article is of interest in part because it is published in the flagship journal of the US foreign-policy Establishment. The ideas, familiar to most readers of this newsletter, have now reached the level of "mainstream," though still rejected by the Biden administration and most of the US political elite.]
---- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's return to power in Israel with a narrow, extreme right-wing coalition has shattered even the illusion of a two-state solution. Members of his new government have not been shy about stating their views on what Israel is and what it should be in all the territories it controls: a Greater Israel defined not just as a Jewish state but one in which the law enshrines Jewish supremacy over all Palestinians who remain there. As a result, it is no longer possible to avoid confronting a one-state reality. [Read More]
