As heat deaths run into the thousands across the Northern Hemisphere, we are reminded that, beyond the possibility of war ending us all, there is the certainty that our grandchildren are living through what will probably be one of the coolest summers of their lives. One of the tragedies of the Russia-Ukraine war that paralyzes Eurasia, and the endless Israeli-instigated wars the paralyze the Middle East, is that the “Great Power” cooperation and coordination that must be achieved to prevent climate disaster now seems far off, out of reach just when humans need it in order to sustain an approximation to the kind of life that we are used to.
Can the wars be ended? Addressing only the wars in the Middle East, so much seems to depend on the crazy people running Israel and the USA. In our country, antiwar forces have made significant advances, with one analyst having determined that “the Iran war is the most unpopular major conflict in US history.” Yet unless/until the US congressional elections in November produce a dramatic change in the House and the Senate, traditional legislative actions toward peace may be impossible. That leaves only us, “the people,” with the potential power to re-direct the Ship of State.
Along with hot weather, the 250 celebrations have given us a few days of relief from wars and the threat of escalation. Perhaps this will give us the opportunity to appreciate the events going on today in Iran, where millions of people, joined by representatives from hundreds of countries, are participating in the long-delayed funeral of their assassinated leader Ayatollah Khamenei. As Middle Eastern expert Juan Cole wrote this morning, “For ‘half the world,’ Khamenei funeral a declaration of independence – from Trump.” For most Americans, from Trump on down, the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei was just another precision strike in another illegal and unnecessary war. For much of the Muslim world and its allies, whether one “likes” the Iranian regime or not, the massive turnout for the funeral is a protest against what Cole calls “the Mafia-like tactics adopted by Tel Aviv and Washington, of simply rubbing out rival leaders from the sky.”
So, what do we say about the war for next week and “coming soon”? Israel gave us a clue today by bombing southern Lebanon during the Ayatollah’s funeral. In doing this, Israel managed to violate both the US-Iran MoU cease fire and the just-completed treaty between the government of Lebanon and Israel. Israel will do whatever it can to prevent peace from breaking out in its neighborhood. Indeed, as Middle East expert Trita Parsi wrote a few days ago, Iran expects that Israel will attack it again sometime before Israel’s October elections. “The question is, once again, not how Trump will react, but if Trump will prevent Netanyahu from deliberately shaping and limiting Trump’s options. This is the test Trump has repeatedly failed.”
SOME USEFUL COMMENTS ON THE US-ISRAEL WAR ON IRAN & LEBANON
The only logical outcome of a completely irrational war
By Lior Sternfeld, 972 Magazine [Israel/Palestine] [June 26, 2026]
---- The memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States, signed but not yet fully executed, has effectively secured a ceasefire in the war that began in late February — with the potential to achieve much more. It removes the U.S. naval blockade, lifts sanctions on Iranian oil exports, unfreezes significant Iranian assets, and proposes a framework for a broader regional end to hostilities. The MoU also leaves many key issues unresolved: Iran’s support for its proxy network, how Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon will be enforced, and, most notably, the Iranian nuclear program (although that is in the plans for the coming 60 days). But the mere fact of the agreement — and of the Islamic Republic’s survival, despite the assassination of its senior leadership and months of U.S.-Israeli attacks — should not be taken for granted. [Read More]
The Iran talks expose the collapse of US diplomacy
By Josh Paul, Aljazeera [July 1, 2026]
---- The purpose of a professional diplomatic corps is to ensure that a nation has negotiators acting on its behalf whose only stake in the outcome of their work is the welfare of their nation. As the United States continues what may be the most critical negotiations of the second Trump administration – those with Iran – its negotiating team is led by the vice president of the US, and by two real estate investors with a side hustle in cryptocurrency. Jared Kushner and Steven Witkoff are not the natural fit for a high-stakes matter of international diplomacy. Although Trump has argued that experience in business negotiations is transferable to diplomacy, inexperience is not the only qualification deficit for Kushner and Witkoff. In 2021, Kushner founded Affinity Partners, an investment firm that has, according to 2025 reporting, more than $5bn in assets under management, the majority of it from the Saudi government’s sovereign wealth fund, [Read More]
The Middle East, Hormuz and the New Mercantilism
By Craig Murray, Znet [June 30, 2026]
---- Israeli withdrawal from Southern Lebanon has been a major negotiating point for the Iranian government and is a key – indeed the very first – point of the Iran/USA MOU. But in an extraordinary coup aimed at negating that deal, the USA has signed a deal with Israel and its puppet Aoun regime in Lebanon which seeks to legitimise Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon through the agreement of the “Lebanese government”. … Of course, everybody knows that Israel will never withdraw voluntarily, any more than they withdrew from the Golan Heights. Annexation is plainly the goal and expansion of Greater Israel at least to the Litani River and probably further. [Read More]
MAYOR MAMDANI WATCH
(Video) Mayor Mamdani Delivers Address Marking America’s 250th Birthday
[Link] – 15 minutes
How Is Zohran Mamdani Doing? - Nine New Yorkers discuss the first six months of the Mamdani administration.
From Hammer & Hope #11 [Summer 2026]
---- Propelled by an army of volunteers inspired by his vision and agenda for a truly affordable city, he took on all comers and won handily in both the Democratic primary and the general election. But as one of the writers in our forum put it, “Now the real work begins.” We asked a range of New Yorkers — leaders of community, political, and advocacy groups, left writers, and more — to tell us how they evaluate the first half year of Mamdani’s term and what they hope to see going forward. [Read More]
NEWS NOTES
The Trump tantrum over his failure to turn the Reflecting Pool blue is giving pond scum a bad rap. This week, thanks to a New York Times science reporter, we learned that “green pond scum is as American as red, white, and blue.” “In our rush to discern a reflection, we have overlooked the plain surface truth, the eternal and omnipresent marvel that are algae,” writes the science guy. “Blithely we dismiss them. Yet algae are the most original and persistent life among us; they appeared early on Earth and fuel our continuing existence.”
In an email, the Hastings Dems report the unofficial vote count for the recent election of Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner. Against Barry McGoey, Feiner won 56 percent of the vote in all of Greenburgh, though in Hastings McGoey won 57 percent of the vote. The Hastings turnout was 28 percent of active voters, the highest of any municipality. More details here.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a Gazan pediatrician and hospital director, has now spent 555 days in an Israeli prison, where he has been tortured and mistreated, and is now in danger of losing his life. In the Israeli liberal newspaper Ha’aretz, journalist Nir Hasson writes: “Gaza Hospital Director Jailed in Israel in Life-threatening Danger, Lawyer Says,” based on a visit last Thursday. [Read More]
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.) The Northwest Yonkers Neighbors for Black Lives Matter holds a Monday afternoon vigil at 5:30 pm at the corner of Warburton Ave and Odell. The CFOW newsletter can be read on Substack, and is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook group. Another Facebook group 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 make out your check to “Frank Brodhead,” write “CFOW” on the memo line, and send your check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks.
REWARDS!
The rewards for stalwart newsletter readers this week come from the interesting publication Barn Raiser, which printed an article on “The Music of Progressive Patriotism.” The article focuses on a founder of SDS (i.e. 1962), who for 44 years has hosted a radio program in Santa Barbara, CA featuring music inspired by social struggles. To learn about the program host, Dick Flacks, go here. And here are some samples of his work: “Ballad for American,” with Paul Robeson; Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Was Made for You and Me:”; and “The House I Live In,” with Frank Sinatra, Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
CFOW WEEKLY READER
AMERICA AT 250: A HARD LOOK AT HISTORY
A Few Words on Independence Day
By Noam Chomsky, Covert Action Quarterly, 1995 [Link].
(Video) “America, U.S.A.”: Eddie Glaude on the 250th Anniv., Race & “The Madness at the Heart of the Country”
From Democracy Now! [June 29, 2026]
--- “I do not love America, and never have, especially now.” Those are the opening words of America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries, a new book from Princeton historian Eddie Glaude. Released ahead of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, the book is a critical look back at how the United States has celebrated previous milestone birthdays, including what narratives were left out of the official commemorations. [See the Program]
The Contradictions of the American Revolution
By Gerald Horne, The Nation [June 10, 2026]
---- Joseph J. Ellis is one of the most celebrated historians in the nation. A winner of the Pulitzer Prize and once the holder of an endowed chair at Mount Holyoke, he was hailed by The Washington Post as the “most widely read scholar of the Revolutionary period and…probably the most influential as well.” His best-selling books on Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and other founders have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and have been instrumental in forging a remarkable consensus, from left to right, that sees July 4, 1776, as a sacred date and a great leap forward for all of humanity. But in his latest book, The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding, Ellis reconsiders the essence of his oeuvre and this consensus, which is akin to the pope reconsidering Catholicism. Focusing “on two unquestionably horrific tragedies the founders oversaw”—the “failure to end slavery, and the failure to avoid Indian removal.” [Read More]
(Video) “What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?”: James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass’s Historic Speech
From Democracy Now! [July 3, 2026]
---- We begin our July Fourth special broadcast with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, Douglass gave one of his most famous speeches, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” He was addressing the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. The late actor James Earl Jones read the historic address during a performance of Voices of a People’s History of the United States, which was co-edited by Howard Zinn. [See the Program]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “’Do You Understand Your Own Language?’ Black radicals read the Declaration of Independence,” by Robin D. G. Kelley, Hammer and Hope #11 [Summer 2026] Link]; “The Founders Never Meant the US to Be a Democracy,” by Doug Henwood, Jacobin Magazine [Link]; “How America Became the Progenitor of Environmentalism,” by Bill McKibben, The Nation [June 29, 2026] [Link]; “We Were Founded on Anti-Monopoly Principles,” by Zephyr Teachout, The Nation [June 29, 2026] [Link]; and “America at 250: A roundtable,” from The Boston Review [July 1, 2026] [Link].
FEATURED ARTICLES & ESSAYS
What Is the American Economy?
By Robert B. Reich, The Nation [June 30, 2026]
---- The founders of the American experiment provided an outline for an economic system in 1776, and again in 1787. They were revolting against an empire that imposed its demands on them, and they sought to create something new. Over time, they did. But where are we at now that 250 years have passed? The standard measures we use for the economy show a system that’s functioning fairly well. Look deeper, though, and you will see something so far off track that most inhabitants of the United States may soon be ready to support revolutionary change—just as a good many of their colonial predecessors were when they soured on the British East India Company’s manipulations in the 1770s. … So why are so many people feeling bad about the economy? [Read More]
How to Win the Next 250 Years for the Working Class
By Sara Nelson, The Nation [June 30, 2026]
---- As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, you’ll hear a lot about the progress that’s been made in this country. What you won’t hear about is the progress that’s been undone by the oligarchs, who have been horrifyingly successful at exploiting our labor for their profit. For the past 80 years—beginning with the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, which limited the right to strike and engage in other forms of mass action—corporate interests have been fighting to restrict union power. … After generations of assaults on working people, the ultra-rich have now hoarded more wealth than the industrial tycoons of the Gilded Age. … Today, the ultra-billionaires and their allies believe they have won. They embrace corruption with the bravado of people who think that no one is ever going to hold them to account. But the American people disagree. Unions are more popular now than they have been for generations. [Read More]
What the DSA Influx Means for Albany
By Ross Barkan, The Nation [June 30, 2026]
---- Come next year, the contingent of self-identified socialists in the New York State capital will have dramatically expanded. The democratic socialist wave, a product of one of the more remarkable election nights for the New York left in history, may mean 16 Democratic Socialists of America members in Albany: four state senators and 12 Assembly members. DSA, in New York City, won every single race but one. All of this came as Claire Valdez and Daraliza Avila Chevalier won seismic victories in their congressional primaries. If Zohran Mamdani’s triumph in the mayoral primary represents the most stunning victory over the Democratic establishment that progressives and socialists have ever won in New York, the primaries of last week were a proper sequel, affirmation of the socialist left’s growing strength and the frailty of a Democratic elite that was used to, for many decades, always getting its way. [Read More] – ALSO OF INTEREST is “Corporate Pundits Panic Over Democratic Voters’ Socialist Preferences,” by Raina Lipsitz, FAIR [Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting] [July 2, 2026] [Link].
THE WAR ON PALESTINE
“More Than a Human Can Bear:” On Israel’s Systematic Sexualized Violence and the Silence That Enables It
By Lama Khouri, Counterpunch [July 3, 2026]
---- The report concludes, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Israel has perpetrated systematic sexualized and gendered violence against the Palestinian people, constituting the crime of genocide. It is not alone. In January 2024, the International Court of Justice found the claim of genocide plausible enough to order binding provisional measures against Israel. The International Association of Genocide Scholars named it as such. The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded in March 2025 that Israel has “employed sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians to terrorise them and perpetuate a system of oppression that undermines their right to self-determination” and confirmed the finding of genocide in September 2025 (UN OHCHR, 2025b). [Read More]
The Israeli Activists Aiding Palestinian Victims of Settler Violence
By Gershom Gorenberg, The New Republic [July 2, 2026]
---- The Palestinian farmers and their children came on foot up the terraced hillside near the town of Halhul in the high country of the West Bank, carrying shears to prune their grapevines. With them came Israeli activists from Bnei Avraham (The Children of Abraham), a religious peace group. From above came other Israelis, at least two men carrying assault rifles, along with teenage boys, from a settlement outpost on Halhul’s land, some of the boys with spray canisters in hand, and then the fierce stink of pepper spray was in the air and an old man and a girl lay on the ground, wounded by spray in their eyes, their pain caught in shaky video footage from an activist’s phone. The settlers, as if they were the ones in danger, alerted an army unit, and soldiers arrived, bearing a military document that declared the area off-limits to civilians. … This picture of one day in the West Bank, in the lush farm country between Hebron and Bethlehem, is pieced together from the accounts of two of the activists and one of the Palestinians, from the brief video footage, and from an oblique response from the Israel Defense Forces spokesperson’s office to my questions. It’s a scene in the ongoing saga of Halhul’s vineyards, and in the larger story of settler harassment and violence. But it’s also part of the story of a growing number of Israelis engaged in a form of activism known as “protective presence”: accompanying Palestinian farmers and shepherds, putting themselves at risk of arrest and injury, and in doing so bringing settler terror into the spotlight of Israeli media and political debate. [Read More]
THE WAR ON CUBA
Cuba: Blockades and Capitulation…or Canny Compromises?
By Eve Ottenberg, Counterpunch [June 30, 2026]
---- Events in Cuba have flown under the radar lately, but big changes are afoot. Noted by PBS June 19 but only belatedly by anybody else, Cuba’s new free-market reforms include 176 measures “to further decentralize Cuba’s state-run economy…[with] more space for private businesses, imports and exports without state intermediation, free hiring of personnel, authorization for private banks and investment by Cubans abroad.” There will even be fast-food chains on the island. If this echoes to you the so-called opening up of Eastern Europe after the Soviet collapse, you’re onto something – namely the corporate blueprint for privatizing a state-run, aka communist, economy. This was not inevitable for Cuba before Donald “Nail the Commies” Trump quite repulsively blockaded the island, but once he did, it arguably became so. Cuba’s state monopoly on foreign trade and centralized production are now kaput, PBS reports. However, in a happy sign of governmental sanity, “Cuban authorities cautioned that…measures will not be viable if the U.S. does not lift the energy and financial embargo on the island.” [Read More] ALSO OF INTEREST is “The Rubio Cable on Cuba,” by Peter Kornbluh, The Nation [July 2, 2026] [Link].
THE CLIMATE CRISIS
This Heat is Fatal. We Need to Talk About it.
By Mark Hertsgaard. The Nation [July 2, 2026]
---- Fifty years ago, the recent deadly heat wave that shattered temperature records across Europe would have been virtually impossible. That’s according to a new scientific study by the nonprofit World Weather Attribution. … At least 1,300 people have died, an initial WHO accounting estimated, as France, Germany, and other countries reel from the hottest temperatures on record. Now it’s North America’s turn. This weekend, an estimated 250 million people across the eastern half of the US will face a ferocious heat wave, with temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in many places. Then it will be Europe’s turn again, as another surge of extreme heat is projected to hit the continent. Despite the unequivocal link between climate change and extreme heat, a distressing number of news stories have not made the climate connection to this unfolding disaster. In the United States, the evening news shows of ABC, CBS, and NBC led their June 23 broadcasts with the European heat wave but “failed to mention climate change even in passing,” reported the media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy In Media. Given the advanced state of climate attribution science in 2026, that is simply not journalistically defensible. [Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “See How Europe’s Heat Waves Melted the Alps’ Glaciers,” by Raymond Zhong and Mira Rojanasakul, New York Times [July 2, 2026,] [Link]; and “International Climate Negotiations at a Cross Road,” by Robin Hahnel, Znet [June 29, 2026] [Link].
New York Gov. Huchul’s Push for Nuclear Power
By Karl Grossman, Counterpunch [June 30, 2026]
---- New York Governor Kathy Hochul has just issued a statement headed: “Governor Hochul Announces Major Milestone To Facilitate New Advanced Nuclear Development.” It repeats her declaration in her State of the State address in January to have five gigawatts of new nuclear power—the equivalent of five standard-size nuclear power plants—built in New York State. … While pushing nuclear power, Hochul at the same time is delaying implementation of the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act—heralded when it was enacted in 2019 as the way to offset climate change by utilizing green, renewable, clean energy sources led by solar and wind. … Meanwhile, in the State Legislature in recent months there’s been an effort, led by Senator Kevin Parker of Brooklyn, chair of the Senate Energy Committee, to pass the New York State Ratepayer Protection Nuclear Moratorium Act to deal with Hochul’s nuclear push. [Read More]
CIVIL LIBERTIES
Birthright Citizenship Lives to Die Another Day
By Elie Mystal, The Nation [June 30, 2026]
---- That is the essential lesson of today’s Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. Barbara, the case involving Donald Trump’s Executive Order No. 14160, which denied citizenship to children born to temporary immigrants and children whose parents are in the country without authorization. The ruling is a victory, to the extent that upholding a bedrock principle hard-coded into the Constitution for more than 150 years is what passes for a “win” these days. But the ruling was far closer than it should have been. There were a number of dissents, and when you read those dissents, the ruling looks less like the final word and more like the prologue to what will be a long and ugly attempt to write xenophobia and bigotry back into the Constitution. The case hinged on two objections to Trump’s executive order: that it violated federal statute and that it violated the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment. [Read More] - ALSO OF INTEREST is “Barely Stopping Trump’s Assault on Birthright Citizenship,” by Marjorie Cohn, Consortium News [July 3, 2026] [Link].
THE STATE OF THE UNION
[FB – How important are the issues of Israel/Palestine and the US-Israel war against Iran and Lebanon in affecting the outcome of the wave of elections that have brought radical and/or DSA-supported candidates to victory? Polling typically finds that gas and grocery prices and the cost of housing top the list of “voter concerns,” while war and peace issues hover near the bottom of the list. This should be a question briskly debated by the Democratic Party leadership. It is certainly an issue We the People need to understand. Here is a useful article assessing the role of Israel/Palestine in the recent NYC elections. DOWN BELOW I’ve linked to several articles where progressive candidates are benefiting from their pro-Palestinian positions.]
When Trump Sounds the Alarm Against Mamdani’s “communists” and Their Electoral Triumphs!
By Giorgos Mitralias, Znet [June 30, 2026]
---- Victories by DSA activists in the Democratic Party primaries are now becoming the norm, with or even without the overt support of Mamdani—whom the American media currently describe as a “kingmaker”—while there are already DSA mayors in New York, Seattle, soon in Washington, D.C., and in a few months likely in Los Angeles. On the other hand, the Democratic Party leadership is terribly unpopular, demoralized, completely discredited among its base, lacking in ideas, without a platform, without figures capable of rivaling Mamdani, Bernie Sanders, or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and above all, devoid of any will to stand up to Trump. The result is that little-known or virtually unknown young women, as well as young men from the DSA, have recently managed to defeat—and often even crush—incumbent representatives and senators who are part of the Democratic establishment, supported and financed by the wealthy and other billionaires, and above all by AIPAC, the Israeli lobby that until recently was all-powerful. [Read More]
Climate Was Missing From New York’s Progressive Wave
By Ilana Cohen, The Nation [July 1, 2026]
---- Recognizing these candidates’ priorities as a real-time response to deep-seated voter frustration, the exclusion of climate from the agenda only years after it played a vital role for Democrats in the 2020 presidential election begs the question: Is climate change no longer a hot topic? According to a just-released analysis by Inside Climate News, Democrats are indeed withdrawing from tackling the climate crisis. Democratic Members of Congress “have embraced [a] message of ‘climate hushing,’ with mentions of climate change plummeting since 2025.” … Affordability means climate action and climate justice. Too often, a just green transition gets confused for a rose, but this fight is about having our bread—not just for tomorrow but for every day after and for generations to come https://archive.ph/vUuKC
ALSO OF INTEREST - “Can a Democratic Socialist Win Wisconsin? Fran Hong Says “Yes!” by John Nichols, The Nation [July 2, 2026] [Link]; “Another Blow to Democratic Establishment as Melat Kiros Unseats 30-Year Incumbent in Colorado,” by Jake Johnson, Common Dreams [July 1, 2026] [Link]; and “Abdul El-Sayed Becomes First Senate Candidate Backed by Pro-Palestine Jewish Group,” by Jonah Valdez, The Intercept [June 29 2026] [Link].
