We are now four weeks from the critical congressional elections that will decide whether the Democrats can break the hold of the MAGA Republicans on one or both houses of Congress. A continuation – and probably escalation – of Trump’s cruel and fascistic agenda endangers the whole world. We the People must do whatever we can to prevent this. In our neighborhood, sadly, we must work to elect the deeply flawed Democrat candidate Caitlin Conley to Congress, to replace the odious Michael Conley and to help ensure a Democrat-led House of Representatives for the next two years. These are the cards we’ve been dealt.
Trump has promised – or threatened -- to do many things “after the mid-terms.” Not least is his promise to “obliterate” Iran if it doesn’t agree to end the war on Trump’s terms. While these “terms” vary from day to day, the threat does not. Just this week Trump dispatched an aircraft carrier – it would be the third carrier when it gets there – and 10,000 more troops to the Middle East. This lot will arrive in the region at the end of November, joining the 50,000 US troops that are already there. While the several articles linked directly below agree that neither the USA nor Iran has a military path toward “victory,” Trump and Hegseth may think that the additional forces soon to arrive off of Iraq would allow a ground invasion and a US victory. Of course, they are both seriously crazy.
On October 11th there will be hundreds of rallies and actions across the USA to encourage early voting and to “get out the vote.” CFOW will hold an event in Hastings starting on noon on October 11th that will line Warburton Ave. with signs (and sign-holders) urging the defeat of Trump and the Trump agenda. We can meet at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring) and then cross over to line Warburton Ave. Please join us.
ESSAYS ILLUMINATING THE US/ISRAEL WAR ON IRAN
Why the War Equation is Changing, and Why a Third War May be Closer than it Seems
By Mohammad Amin Ahmadi, Informed Comment [October 1, 2026]
---- It appears that the main actors involved in the previous 40-day war are increasingly moving toward another confrontation for their own reasons. The regional equation has changed significantly in recent weeks, and that change is making the continuation of the current ceasefire less attractive. Iran is under growing economic pressure because it cannot export its oil normally. The Houthis have moved closer to controlling the approaches to Bab el-Mandeb. Israel is approaching an important election. And the United States is facing a decision over whether to continue the current stalemate or return to major military operations. The argument here is simple: when the equation changes, the policies that made sense under the previous equation may stop making sense. The longer the new conditions continue, the stronger the incentives for the main actors to change them. … Several actors now have their own reasons to change the current situation, and some of those reasons directly conflict with the interests of the others. As the equation continues to change, maintaining the status quo becomes harder. That is what makes a third war more plausible than it appeared only a few weeks ago. [Read More]
The New Forever War: Why America and Iran Fight On Without Victory
By Ali Vaez, Foreign Affairs [September 29, 2026]
---- All wars eventually end, and after months of rising energy prices, the world is especially eager for this one to stop. Yet the unsettling reality is that the conflict is nowhere near over. The war’s two principal belligerents cannot achieve their desired goals, yet they both feel they are accomplishing enough to make continued fighting through a mix of military and economic tools worth it. The United States cannot topple the Iranian regime, get it to give up its missile program, force it to abandon its nuclear program, or make it stop supporting its regional partners. But Washington can keep degrading Iran’s military and constricting its economy. Iran cannot evict the world’s only superpower from the Middle East. Yet it can keep damaging U.S. regional bases, bombing the United States’ regional allies, and disrupting international commerce. … But for now, the war seems sustainable. Washington has not achieved any of its stated objectives, and it has burned through expensive munitions. Yet the United States can still afford to battle, and it believes that the costs of giving in exceed the costs of continuing. Iranian society is facing years of impoverishment and insecurity. Yet the Islamic Republic itself is stable, and it does not think it can afford to make meaningful concessions. Such is the paradox of this conflict. Both sides have emerged weaker. Neither can win. But they fight on regardless, because they find the alternatives to be completely unpalatable. [Read More]
(Video) War on Iran: Is escalation more likely than a deal?
From Aljazeera [“The Bottom Line”] [October 4, 2026]
---- Former Iranian and US diplomats agree that the war on Iran is likely to get worse in the coming weeks. When US leaders insist that the war on Iran is about nuclear weapons and not about oil, Iran’s leaders don’t believe them, argues former Iranian diplomat Hossein Mousavian. Mousavian and former US diplomat Alan Eyre – both of whom were involved in previous negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme – tell host Steve Clemons that the conflict is not heading to a peace deal or even a “permanent stalemate” any time soon. The administration of US President Donald Trump prefers quick wins to diplomacy, argues Eyre, “and the responsibility is on the countries in the region to take more of the lead … with US buy-in, not US leadership”. [Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “The Iran War Is Becoming an Election Issue,” by Michael Harrison, Foreign Policy in Focus [October 2, 2026] [Link]; and “Exchange Ratio,” by Ervand Abrahamian, New Left Review [September 5, 2026] [Link].
NEWS NOTES
CFOW has endorsed Kisha Skipper for election in the (Yonkers) district 15 for the county legislature. Kisha is the president of the Yonkers NAACP and an active voice in the community. She has spoken at several CFOW rallies, and we are on the same page in terms of program, etc. To learn more about her and her campaign, go to her campaign website - https://www.kishaforwestchester.com/. And of course she NEEDS MONEY – To make a donation to her campaign, go here.
The fabulous film NAZA is playing now at the IFC Center at 323 6th Ave. in NYC. The New York Times’ review, “Intimate Interviews About War’s Human Costs,” calls it a “haunting documentary” as it “interviews anymous Israeli intelligene officers and soldiers as their recount their military actions in Gaza.” You can see the “official trailer” here.
People paying attention know that the official war budget is now at $1 trillion per year, and the Trump people want $1.5 trillion for next year. HOWEVER, there’s more to the story. In “The Pentagon’s Secret Budget,” written by David Vine for The Intercept, “Data shows that the budget was already between $1.5 trillion and $1.8 trillion in the last full fiscal year, 2025, Trump’s requests would add another $781 billion, bringing the potential total to at least $2.581 trillion in 2027..” That is, more than $7,500 per person (342 million in the USA). Too much!
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!
This week’s Rewards for stalwart newsletter readers honors the giant of 1970s music, Stevie Wonder. Fifty years ago – on September 28, 1976 – Stevie Wonder released his double-album “Songs in the Key of Life.” The album included many great songs. On-line in several parts, you can listen to Part I here and Part 2 here. And there are more Parts where they came from. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
“I Taste Ashes in the Wind” – [Nuclear Weapons]
By Jerry Brown, New York Review of Books [October 8, 2026 issue]
----Nuclear weapons pose an apocalyptic threat, and yet the issue has largely faded from public consciousness. In the era of Trump and Putin, it is imperative that we pursue international disarmament. This dark reality is so apocalyptic that most people just ignore it. Public opinion surveys consistently show that while many say nuclear weapons are a danger, they don’t rank them as a major concern. Nuclear issues are nowhere to be found in Gallup’s polling of the most important problems facing the country. Those in authority rarely talk about nuclear war. The news media rarely mention it. Attention to the issue has been confined to a cadre of professionals—government officials, college professors, think tank specialists, and nuclear lab employees—who think, write, and talk in such abstract language that the horrors of nuclear destruction are obscured or minimized. The danger not only remains, it is increasing. [Read More]
(Video) “The School That Became a Grave”: Jeremy Scahill on U.S Bombing of Minab, Killing 120+ Iranian Kids
From Democracy Now! [October 2, 2026]
---- Drop Site News released a major investigation this week into the U.S. bombing of the Shajareh Tayyebeh children’s school in the Iranian city of Minab on February 28, the first day of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Drop Site spoke to survivors, first responders, parents and witnesses in one of the most in-depth reports on the massacre to date. The bombing killed at least 156 people — 120 of the victims were children, 26 were teachers, and the rest were parents. A United Nations fact-finding mission recently concluded that the U.S. strike was a war crime, but the Trump administration has not yet even acknowledged U.S. responsibility. “This was not a single bombing or collateral damage,” says Drop Site News’s Jeremy Scahill, lead author of the investigation. “There were at least two direct hits on a school packed with children … and a couple of hours after those initial hits, as first responders came, as parents came, the U.S. launches more strikes.” [See the Program]
Why French Students Are Revolting
By June Loper and Harrison Stetler, The Nation [October 2, 2026]
---- The elephant in French classrooms, as just about anyone who has recently taught or studied in the country’s education system will tell you, is stretched resources. Classes are filled to the brim, with teaching increasingly delegated to intermittent instructors. Behind the façade of “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité”—the republican promise emblazoned on each public school building in the country—stand deteriorating buildings, squalid facilities, poorly stocked libraries, unreliable IT, if any, and outnumbered critical support staff like nurses and counselors. Videos circulating on social media from students’ accounts document the most disastrous conditions: rats running around across the hall; collapsing ceilings; walls leaking with humidity; broken doors and dysfunctioning lighting in bathrooms. … The scope of the protests is perhaps best summed up in the clampdown that has followed, as media and government figures alike harp on the exceptional incidents of violence, such as the burning of Lycée Nelson Mandela in Nantes. On October 1 alone, nearly 2,000 people were arrested, with scores of schools now closed by administrative order and conducting online courses, in an effort to mitigate the effects of the blockades. As of Friday afternoon, however, the situation shows few signs of slowing down. A day of national mobilization and strikes is called for October 6. [Read More]
(Video) The Real Existential Risk Is AI CEOs Avoiding Oversight: “Alternative Nobel” Winner Timnit Gebru
From Democracy Now! [October 1, 2026]
---- We speak to the prominent AI researcher and leading critic of the AI industry, Timnit Gebru, who was recently awarded a 2026 Right Livelihood Award for her work investigating the harms and hype behind the global buildup of artificial intelligence. “Instead of discussing faulty, unreliable systems,” Gebru says tech leaders like SpaceXAI’s Elon Musk, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei are “marketing their systems as all-knowing, superpowerful, superintelligent,” and lobbying for “self-policing and self-regulation” to avoid being held “liable through existing laws.” Gebru expresses skepticism over increasingly widespread claims that AI algorithms pose an existential risk to humanity, warning that such claims are overblown and that “what is actually happening is regulatory capture.” [See the Program]
THE WAR ON PALESTINE
Let Gaza Be: Israel Must Abandon Its Fantasy of Destroying Hamas
By Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz [Israel] [October 1, 2026]
---- Reconstruction of Gaza has yet to begin; the world has still not recovered from the sights of the Strip, or exacted a price from Israel for its crimes despite a total and amazing global consensus about the gravity of those crimes – but as far as Israel is concerned, not enough blood has been shed. A central theme in Benjamin Netanyahu’s warmongering is a return to talk about wiping out Gaza. Defense. … Anyone now talking about destroying Hamas is, in effect, talking about destroying Gaza. After three years of bloodshed and devastation, from which Hamas emerged alive and kicking, it is clear that Hamas cannot be destroyed other than through the total annihilation of Gaza. It is imperative to recognize this fact. What was not achieved in three years of a genocidal war will not be achieved through another three such years. If life remains in Gaza, Hamas will manage it. If structures remain standing, Hamas will occupy them. If children remain, Hamas will raise them. Thus, anyone calling for a return to a war meant to annihilate Hamas is calling for an all-out war of annihilation meant to finish the job. … Instead of continuing to prattle about vanquishing Hamas, it’s time to learn how to live with an enfeebled Hamas and to try to talk to it. Nothing can be worse than another war. Not just for the miserable Gazans, but for Israel too. There are no magical moves or miraculous solutions in Gaza. But one thing is clear – another round will be the worst of all worlds, for everyone. [Read More]
(Video) “Buying More Time for the Genocide”: Muhammad Shehada on Trump’s Gaza Plan 1 Year Later
From Democracy Now! [September 29, 2026]
---- The Palestinian death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza has surpassed 74,000, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. While this figure represents the official death toll as confirmed by local authorities, the true number could be much higher when missing people and indirect deaths are taken into account, such as from disease, exposure, denial of medical treatment and the destruction of civic infrastructure. And since the so-called ceasefire brokered by Trump last October, nearly 1,400 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks. “The [ceasefire] plan ended up just buying more time for the genocide,” says Muhammad Shehada, a writer and analyst from Gaza speaking to Democracy Now! in Copenhagen. “Instead of suspending attacks on Gaza, Israel has been bombing Gaza every day.” “The idea of the plan was to divide the reconstruction, rehabilitation, Israeli withdrawal, decommissioning of Hamas and Palestinian statehood into three phases,” says Shehada. “So far, only one item of the 20 items on the Trump plan has been fulfilled, and that is the release of every single Israeli hostage in Gaza.” [See the Program]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “Zionism or Democracy: Take Your Pick,” from Infinite Jaz [October 4, 2026] [Link]; (Video) “What’s driving Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank?: from Aljazeera [“Inside Story”] [October 1, 2026] [Link]; “West Bank Raids Spread as UN Reports Over 6,500 Palestinians Displaced,” from The Palestine Chronicle [October 1, 2026] [Link]; and “New Google Maps images reveal massive scale of devastation in Gaza,” by Jason Burke and Eithne Staunton, The Guardian [October 1, 2026] [Link].
LEAVING IRAQ
Goodnight Baghdad: US troops leave Iraq after 23 years
By Dan Grazier, Responsible Statecraft [September 30, 2026]
---- The Iraq War was already four-years-old when I walked down the ramp of a C-17 at Al Taqaddum Air Base in April 2007. The fact that I am writing these words is proof that I survived that deployment and a subsequent one to Afghanistan in 2013. In the years since, I transitioned back into civilian life, established a new career, and saw my kids grow up and escape the nest. During nearly all of that time, there were still American troops on the ground in Iraq. I have a son serving in the military today. He has never been to Iraq, but I can absolutely sympathize with the Iraq veterans who came home from the war only to see their sons or daughters deploy to the same war zone. Because American military service has increasingly become a family affair, there must be a quite a few Thanksgiving conversations where a father listens to his son’s Iraq stories and then retells his own adventure tales that begins with “back in my day in Iraq…” Had anyone told me while I was dodging IEDs in the summer of 2007 that I would be asked to write a column at the age of 48 about the last American troops leaving Iraq today, I would have rightly questioned what the United States was doing there. I believed at the time that we were fighting terrorists and helping to create a free Iraq. Two decades later, I have no idea why we were really fighting there. [Read More]
WILL TRUMP STEAL THE ELECTION?
Trump’s Plan B for the Midterms
By Seymour Hersh, Substack [October 2, 2026]
---- So here comes the GOP’s Plan B, which still depends on election deniers who have been voted into office in states with contested Senate seats that could decide the fate of Trump’s last two years in office. I was told that the targets, in terms of putting election deniers to work, are now limited to five states where a few thousand votes could make the difference in the political makeup of the Senate: Ohio, Texas, Alaska, Iowa, and Kansas. The election counting machinery in each state is now in the control of elected Republican voting officials who are Trump supporters. In two other states, Georgia and North Carolina, Republican candidates are in trouble and Democratic candidates are comfortably ahead in polling. “If the election is close,” one insider explained to me, “you would only have to disqualify as few as seven thousand voters” in primarily Democratic precincts “to change the outcome.” [Read More] - ALSO OF INTEREST - “Flurry of Lawsuits Shows Both Parties Preparing for Post-Election Challenges,” by Richard Fausset, New York Times [October 2, 2026] [Link].
CIVIL LIBERTIES/”THE WAR ON TERROR”
(Video) “No Land to Stand On”: Mahmoud Khalil on His Memoir, Palestine, Fighting Deportation & Suing Columbia
From Democracy Now! [September 30, 2026]
---- We speak with Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil about his new memoir, No Land to Stand On: Notes from Detention. It details his 104 days of detention inside a Louisiana ICE jail after he was targeted for arrest and deportation by the Trump administration over his pro-Palestine campus advocacy at Columbia University. Khalil missed the birth of his first child, Deen, while he was separated from his wife, Noor Abdalla, who is a U.S. citizen. The administration is still trying to deport Khalil, who has launched civil rights lawsuits against the government and Columbia University over his treatment. “Eighteen months after my arrest, this administration has never charged me with any crime or even presented any evidence that I committed any crimes, yet they are able to get away with this because I’m Palestinian,” Mahmoud tells Democracy Now! Khalil’s memoir also looks beyond his own case, recounting the people he met behind bars and what their stories taught him about the broader human cost of the U.S. immigration detention system. “This book is about a story of so many incredible men, fathers and workers who came here seeking safety and a better future, only to be snatched off the street,” he says. [See the Program]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
Amnesty International calls for abolition of ICE for the first time in new report
By Alyssa Chen, Minnesota Reformer [September 24, 2026]
---- International human rights organization Amnesty International has called for the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a new report alleging human rights abuses in the Trump administration’s immigration operations. The report focuses on documenting human rights violations in ICE operations in the Twin Cities, Chicago, New Orleans and Washington, DC, including racially discriminatory immigration enforcement; unjustified use of force by federal agents; unlawful killings by federal agents; repression of protests through tear gas and pepper spray; unlawful surveillance; and inhumane detention conditions. It’s the first time the organization has called for the abolition of ICE. Amy Fischer, Amnesty’s director of refugee and migrant rights, said it’s rare move for the organization to call for an agency to be fully abolished, but that the report shows the agency has reached a tipping point after decades of “mass impunity.” [Read More[
OUR HISTORY
Boxcar to Nowhere
By Caroline Fraser, New York Review of Books [October 22, 2026 issue]
[FB – This is a review of The Hobo: A History of America’s First Climate Migrant, by Robert Suits.]
---- A hundred years ago, it seemed as if everyone wanted to be a hobo, at least if you were listening to the radio. Carl Sandburg’s 1927 American Songbag featured a whole section of hobo songs presenting the bum as a beau ideal. Children, most of whom would never see the inside of a boxcar, grew up singing “Hallelujah, I’m a Bum!,” recorded first by Harry McClintock in 1928 and repopularized by the New Christy Minstrels in the 1960s. Along with loads of other songs, it celebrated the paradoxical appeal of the rails and the open road: freedom allied with loneliness and destitution. ... Dreams of a tramp utopia, once termed “hobohemia,” produced classics of Americana. Recorded in the 1920s by McClintock, the rollicking hobo anthem “Big Rock Candy Mountain” envisions an itinerants’ paradise where cigarette trees bloom and streams of alcohol trickle down the rocks. … The contradictory nature of the hobo, a character without home or possessions who embodied good-natured liberty and a gap-toothed joie de vivre, gave rise to a persistent sense of envy. As a result, Woody Guthrie’s fictionalized 1943 autobiography, Bound for Glory, exaggerated the extent of his riding the rails, and he would lean heavily on the bindle stiff gospel throughout his life and career, disappearing for weeks at a time after telling his wife he was going out for cigarettes. https://archive.ph/XtZ8x
“The Mighty Sparrow” Passes – With some commentary from CLR James
[FB] - “The Mighty Sparrow, known for more than 60 years as the king of calypso, who almost single-handedly gave the music of his Trinidadian homeland an electrifying international appeal, died on Sunday in Queens. He was 91.” So began a longish story in the New York Times last week. The Times story continued: “A singer, songwriter and guitarist, Sparrow — his given name was Slinger Francisco — was renowned for his sonorous voice, unremitting energy and extraordinary command of the verbal prestidigitation and sly double-entendre that are among the hallmarks of calypso lyrics.” A half-century ago, the Trinidadian intellectual and revolutionary CLR James wrote and spoke about Sparrow in the context of great artists of the Western world, in the shadow of Shakespeare. By good luck I came across this recording of James speaking on the topic of “The Artist in the Caribbean.” He thought that the same conditions that had produced Shakespeare were now working in Latin America, and that the Mighty Sparrow would not be the last artistic hero to make their voices heard.
