Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
November 6, 2017
Hello All – Next Saturday, November 11th, is Veterans Day. It's worth taking a moment to reflect on the meaning of this day, and the use and misuse of war veterans. Perhaps a place to start is the statistic that at least 20 veterans commit suicide each day, and that the leading cause of this tragedy is typically linked to post-traumatic stress syndrome, or PTSD. Homeless is also very high among veterans, with estimates ranging from 50,000 to 250,000. And many problems encountered by veterans stem from underfunding and administrative dysfunction of the Veterans Administration. But in the end, to help veterans heal and to regain a productive life, we have to start with ending war itself.
Veterans Day used to be called Armistice Day. It commemorated that day that an Armistice ended the fighting of the First World War in 1918. But in 1954 Congress renamed Armistice Day as Veterans Day. Several reasons are given for this, but the most convincing is that the United States was then in the Cold War, and had just suffered a semi-defeat in the Korean War. As the Veterans for Peace puts it: "After World War II, Congress rebranded November 11 as Veterans Day, which has morphed into honoring the military and glorifying war. Armistice Day has been flipped from a Day for Peace to displays of militarism." And so it will be this year again … but perhaps not forever.
News Notes
Tuesday's election in Westchester will select the next County Executive and say yea or nay to three ballot propositions. Although Democrats in Westchester have a nearly two-to-one registration over the Republicans, incumbent Rob Astorino won four years ago because Democrats failed to turn out for their candidate. In this useful map of the county, analyst Kathy Kaufman breaks down the turnout by election district. (The Rivertowns are included in Greenburgh.) As you can see, the turnout for Democrats in 2013 was lower in every single municipality than the Republican turnout. And therein lays the election.
Also about tomorrow's election, Allegra Dengler (Citizens for Voter Integrity) forwarded this article from the Gotham Gazette about the "deep dysfunction" in the operations of the NYC Board of Elections. And in response to a statement about voting Yes on Question #3 (modifying "Forever Wild" status) on tomorrow's ballot, several anti-pipeline activists forwarded me these reasons to vote No on Question #3.
A small piece inside The Daily News [10/31] noted that Wall St. profits totaled $12 billion for the first half of 2017, a 33 percent increase over 2016, which itself had a 21 percent increase over 2015. In other words, whatever Trump is doing to the country, Wall St. is doing well by Trump. In the year since Trump was elected, the Dow-Jones average has grown by 30 percent; thus the owner of a million-dollar stock portfolio "earned" $300,000, just by being rich.
Some months ago, the CFOW newsletter included several articles about the assassination of a Honduran environmental stalwart, apparently by company-connected thugs. Now an extensive New York Times investigation has confirmed these suspicions. This contract killing is a model of the predatory, extractive capitalism now at work throughout much of the world. For a user-friendly explanation about this tragedy and the wider picture, see this excellent Democracy Now! segment.
Coming Attractions/Things to Do
Tuesday, November 7th – Election for Westchester County Executive and three ballot questions. Don't forget to vote!
Saturday, November 11th – CFOW friend James Dean Conklin invites us to a special preview screening of his documentary film, "Go Without Fear." At Andrus-on-Hudson (185 Broadway) in Hastings, starting at 6:30 p.m, with live music and much more. To learn more about this project, go here.
November 14th – Our friends in Croton will be showing the film, "SEED: The Untold Story." They write: "Few things on Earth are as miraculous and vital as seeds. They've been worshipped and treasured since the dawn of humankind. In the last century, 94% of our seed varieties have disappeared. The film, SEED: The Untold Story, follows passionate seed keepers protecting our 12,000 year-old food legacy." It's at the Croton Free Library at 7 p.m. "Discussion and refreshments to follow the screening."
Sunday, November 19th – Save the date for WESPAC's "night of comedy, dance, and music," "Made in Palestine." It's at the Tarrytown Music Hall; doors open at 5 p.m. For more information, including ways you can help support/sponsor this program, go here.
Ongoing – Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct has a new exhibition at the Keeper's House called "Existing Conditions," photographs of the trail from 20 years ago. The fixed-up Keeper's House is also interesting, imo. – The building is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. It's at 15 Walnut St. in Dobbs Ferry.
This Newsletter
Articles linked in the CFOW newsletter are intended to illuminate some of the main action-issues about which we are concerned. Coming mostly from the "dissenting media," they provide an alternative to the perspectives of the mainstream media. In addition to the excellent "Featured Essays," this newsletter has useful sets of articles about the US invasion of Africa, the humanitarian and economic crisis in Puerto Rico, the crisis in the Democratic Party, and the consequences of the Balfour Declaration, on its centenary. Please also check out Kathy Kelly's essay on Afghanistan, Mike Klare's warnings about the danger of war with North Korea, and Pete Dolack's article about the Bolshevik Revolution, on its 100th anniversary.
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. We meet for a vigil/rally each Saturday in Hastings, from 12 to 1 p.m., at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) Our leaflet and posters for our vigils are usually about war or climate change, but issues such as racial justice or the Puerto Rico crisis are targeted from time to time, depending on current events. We meet on the first Sunday of each month, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society. Our weekly newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page.
Contributions, Please
Our treasury is getting a little low, so if you are able to support our work, please make your check out to "CFOW" and mail it to PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
Rewards!
This is a substantial newsletter, so serious readers might want to pause for something completely different, before pressing on. Given the wall-to-wall media coverage about bad gender behavior, I thought it might be useful to encore some tips from Norah Jones on dealing with bad relationships. So here are Happy Pills and Miriam. (For reflections on happier circumstances, here is one more from Ms. Jones.) Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
The Pity of It All [The Vietnam War]
By Frances FitzGerald, The New York Review of Books [November 23rd issue]
---- For those under forty, for whom the Vietnam War seems as distant as World War I or II, the film will serve as an education; for those who lived through it, the film will serve as a reminder of its horrors and of the official lies that drove it forward. In many ways it is hard to watch, and its battle scenes will revive the worst nightmares of those who witnessed them firsthand. … Their aim, the filmmakers said, was to explore whether the war was a terrible mistake that could have been avoided. They might have added that some consider it no mistake but the result of a deliberate policy. … Burns and Novick say the US was initially "trapped in the logic of the cold war." As Kennedy's phrase suggests, the war was never really about South Vietnam. Rather, Washington viewed it as a piece on a chessboard, or a domino whose fall to communism might have caused the rest of Southeast Asia to fall. Before the commitment of American combat troops in 1965, Burns and Novick make clear, there were several occasions when the US could have withdrawn without much public opposition. [Read More]
How the 'Millennium Migration' from Latin America Shaped the U.S. for the Better
By , Foreign Policy in Focus [October 30, 2017]
---- Over the past half-century, Mexicans and Central Americans immigrants haven't found as many streets to pave. But they've been drawn northward by the same voracious demand for their labor in fields like agriculture, residential construction, food services, and lodging. They too have taken hard, low-paying jobs, and stimulated the economy as workers, consumers, and entrepreneurs. The newcomers have been criminalized, unjustly imprisoned, and deported. Nevertheless, many have put down deep roots where they've settled. In many dimensions, they've enriched the "gorgeous mosaic" that we're still struggling to become. In the end, the benefits of this mass migration have far outweighed the costs. But you'd never know it from a debate distorted by decades of anti-immigrant demagoguery. To understand this disjunction, we need to take a hard look back at what actually happened. [Read More]
Osama Bin Laden's America: Niger, 9/11, and Apocalyptic Humiliation
By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch [November 2017]
By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch [November 2017]
---- The question was: With such limited resources, what kind of self-destructive behavior could he goad a triumphalist Washington into? The key would be what might be called apocalyptic humiliation. Looking back, 16 years later, it's extraordinary how September 11, 2001, would set the pattern for everything that followed. Each further goading act, from Afghanistan to Libya, San Bernardino to Orlando, Iraq to Niger, each further humiliation would trigger yet more of the same behavior in Washington. After all, so many people and institutions — above all, the U.S. military and the rest of the national security state — came to have a vested interest in Osama bin Laden's version of our world. … In twenty-first-century Washington, failure is the new success and repetition is the rule of the day, week, month, and year. [Read More]
WAR & PEACE
From America With Love: U.S. Commandos Are a "Persistent Presence" on Russia's Doorstep
By Nick Turse, Tom Dispatch [October 30, 2017]
By Nick Turse, Tom Dispatch [October 30, 2017]
---- Since 9/11, U.S. Special Operations forces (SOF) have grown in every conceivable way from funding to manpower, the pace of operations to geographic sweep. On any given day, about 8,000 special operators -- from a command numbering roughly 70,000 in total -- are deployed in around 80 countries. Over the course of a year, they operate in about 70% of the world's nations. … This year, U.S. commandos could be found in nations all along Russia's borders. In March, for example, Green Berets took to snowmobiles for a cold-weather JCET alongside local troops in Lapland, Finland. In May, Navy SEALs teamed up with Lithuanian forces as part of Flaming Sword 17, a training exercise in that country. In June, members of the U.S. 10th Special Forces Group and Polish commandos carried out air assault and casualty evacuation training near Lubliniec, Poland. [etc.] [Read More]
Trump Is Killing Record Numbers of Civilians
By Marjorie Cohn, Truthout [October 31, 2017]
---- The George W. Bush administration unlawfully detained and tortured suspected terrorists. Determined not to send more suspects to Guantánamo, Barack Obama's administration illegally assassinated them with drones and other methods, killing many civilians in the process. Now the Trump administration is killing record numbers of civilians and weakening the already-flimsy targeted killing rules Obama put in place. … Trump granted increased authority to the CIA and the Pentagon to conduct drone strikes. He also loosened the targeted killing rules in large areas of Yemen and Somalia by designating them "areas of active hostilities." In March alone, the Trump administration killed 1,000 civilians in Iraq and Syria, according to Airwars, a non-governmental organization that monitors civilian casualties from airstrikes. [Read More]
Will Congress Ever Limit the Forever-Expanding 9/11 War?
---- These American combat deaths — along with those of about 10 service members killed this year in Afghanistan and Iraq — underscore how a law passed shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has been stretched to permit open-ended warfare against Islamist militant groups scattered across the Muslim world. The law, commonly called the A.U.M.F., on its face provided congressional authorization to use military force only against nations, groups or individuals responsible for the attacks. But while the specific enemy lawmakers were thinking about in September 2001 was the original Al Qaeda and its Taliban host in Afghanistan, three presidents of both parties have since invoked the 9/11 war authority to justify battle against Islamist militants in many other places. [Read More]
The War in Afghanistan
From the Ground Up
By Kathy Kelly, Creative Nonviolence [October 31, 2017]
---- On a recent Friday at the Afghan Peace Volunteers' (APV) Borderfree Center, here in Kabul, thirty mothers sat cross-legged along the walls of a large meeting room. Masoumah, who co-coordinates the Center's "Street Kids School" project, had invited the mothers to a parents meeting. Burka-clad women who wore the veil over their faces looked identical to me, but Masoumah called each mother by name, inviting the mothers, one by one, to speak about difficulties they faced. From inside the netted opening of a burka, we heard soft voices and, sometimes, sheer despair. Others who weren't wearing burkas also spoke gravely. Their eyes expressed pain and misery, and some quietly wept. Often a woman's voice would break, and she would have to pause before she could continue: [Read More] And check out this shocking report re: the war in Afghanistan: Thomas Gibbons-Neff, "Afghan War Data, Once Public, Is Censored in U.S. Military Report," [Link].
The US Invasion of Africa
The U.S. War Machine Is on a Death March Across Africa
By Vijay Prashad, AlterNet [November 1, 2017]
---- The Americans not only have thousands of troops across Africa, but also have many bases. The most public base is in Djibouti (Camp Lemonier), but there are also bases in Ethiopia and Kenya, as well as forward operating positions across the Sahel. The United States is also building a massive base at the cost of $100 million in Agadez. Air Base 201 will be mainly a drone base, with the MQ9 Reapers flown out of Agadez to collect intelligence in this resource-rich and poverty-stricken area. This base is being constructed in plain sight It is, therefore, surprising to hear Sen. Lindsey Graham — who is on the Committee on Armed Services — say, 'I didn't know there were 1,000 troops in Niger.' He meant US troops. … The root causes of the conflicts are the same as elsewhere: environmental destruction, joblessness, war and the commodities (such as Cocaine and Uranium) that are essential to the West. None of this will be addressed. More troops will arrive in Niger. More destruction will follow. More sorrow. More anger. More war. [Read More]
U.S. Troop Deaths in Niger: AFRICOM's Chickens Come Home to Roost
By Mark P. Fancher, The Black Agenda [October 18, 2017]
---- The U.S. maintains two facilities in Africa that qualify as military bases. However, according to NBC the U.S. increased the number of embassy-based military missions called "Offices of Security Cooperation" from nine in 2008 to 36 in 2016. Researchers say the U.S. military now has a presence in at least 49 African countries, presumably to fight terrorism. … While it may be true that on this occasion, the deaths in Niger faded quickly from media focus, and consequently from the attention of the U.S. public, there is good reason to believe there are more deaths to come. Africans are not stupid, but U.S. military officials are if they ignore the possibility that even the most humble African villagers passionately resent an ever-widening presence of U.S. military personnel in their communities. These humble people may lack the wherewithal to effectively demonstrate their hostility, but the recent killings in Niger with the suspected assistance of villagers evidence the possibility that there are forces eager to exploit African anger and confusion about the presence of U.S. troops. [Read More]
For more on the US invasion of Africa – Williams Rivers Pitt, "The US, Africa and a New Century of War," Truthout [October 26, 2017] [Link]; Rick Gladstone, "U.S. Pledges $60 Million for Antiterrorism Force in Africa,"" [Link].
The War in Iraq/Kurdistan
Iraq may be coming to the end of 40 years of war as the government wins two big victories
By Patrick Cockburn, The Independent [UK] [October 27, 2017]
---- Iraqis in Baghdad are rightly wary of predictions of a return to normal life after 40 years of permanent crisis. There have been false dawns before, but this time round the prospects for peace are much better than before. The biggest risk is a collision between the US and Iran in which Iraq would be the political – and possibly the military – battlefield. Barzani and the KDP are promoting the idea of Iranian-backed Hashd al-Shaabi Shia paramilitaries being at the forefront of every battle, though in fact Kirkuk was taken by two regiments from Baghdad's elite Counter-Terrorism Service and the 9th Armoured Division. The success of the Iraqi regular forces is such that one danger is that they and the Baghdad government will become overconfident and overplay their hand, not making sure that all communities in Iraq get a reasonable cut of the national cake in terms of power, money and jobs. A golden rule of Iraqi politics is that none of the three main communities can be permanently marginalised or crushed, as Saddam Hussein discovered to his cost. The end of the era of wars in Iraq would not just be good news for Iraqis, but the rest of the world as well. [Read More]
US War with North Korea?
Is the United States Planning to Attack North Korea?
By Michael T. Klare, The Nation [November 1, 2017]
---- The aircraft carriers USS Nimitz, USS Theodore Roosevelt, and USS Ronald Reagan—three of the most powerful warships in the world—have now converged on the western Pacific in a mighty show of force on the eve of President Trump's 10-day trip to Asia. The three carriers, along with their accompanying cruisers, destroyers, and submarines—all armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles or other advanced munitions—are capable of raining immense destructive force on any nation targeted by the commander in chief. Not since 2007 has there been such a concentration of US firepower in the Asia-Pacific region. There can be only two plausible explanations for this extraordinary naval buildup: to provide Trump with the sort of military extravaganza he seems to enjoy; and/or to prepare for a pre-emptive military strike on North Korea. [Read More]
Lawmakers Want to Forbid Trump From Launching Unauthorized Preemptive Strike Against North Korea
By
---- With diplomacy between Washington and Pyongynag on its "last legs" and President Donald Trump continuing to ratchet up tensions, scores of U.S. lawmakers just introduced legislation to prevent him from launching a pre-emptive strike against North Korea. Denouncing Trump's "reckless" conduct, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, explained why many feel the president needs to held in check. "During the campaign," he said, "people feared a President Trump with the power to initiate a nuclear conflict—less than a year later, those fears are far too close to being realized." Conyers was joined by fellow Democrat Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts in sponsoring the bicameral legislation called the "No Unconstitutional Strike Against North Korea Act of 2017," which was introduced Thursday. Among the 61 co-sponsors are two Republicans—Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Walter Jones of North Carolina. [Read More] Needless to say, neither Reps. Elliot Engel nor Nita Lowey is among the sponsors of this legislation.
The USA and the Iran Nuclear Agreement
Nuclear Scientists Urge Congress to Protect Iran Deal
---- More than 90 top American experts in atomic sciences, including a designer of the hydrogen bomb, publicly threw their weight behind the Iran nuclear agreement on Monday, exhorting Congress to preserve the accord in the face of President Trump's disavowal of it. In a letter to Senate and House leaders of both parties that emphasized the "momentous responsibilities" Congress bears regarding the agreement, the scientists asserted that the accord was effective in blocking Iran's pathways to a nuclear weapon. [Read More] You can read the scientists' letter here. Recently, the head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency went on television to announce that Iran is living up to the deal.
GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE CRISIS
US Climate Assessment Exposes 'Simply Terrifying' Recklessness of Trump
---- With the release of its National Climate Assessment on Friday, the U.S. government has released a report—which states the current period is "now the warmest in the history of modern civilization"—that critics say directly and irrefutably undermines the climate denialism and inaction of President Donald Trump and his administration. [Read More]
Climate Emergency: Heat Trapping Gases make largest Jump in recorded history
From TeleSur [October 31, 2017]
---- Carbon dioxide or CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere have reached unprecedented high levels, a United Nations watchdog group reports, warning that urgent measures are needed to achieve the targets set by the Paris climate agreement and avoid cataclysmic changes in the earth's climate conditions. "Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surged at a record-breaking speed in 2016 to the highest level in 800,000 years," the World Meteorological Organization said. "The abrupt changes in the atmosphere witnessed in the past 70 years are without precedent." "Globally averaged concentrations of CO2 reached 403.3 parts per million in 2016, up from 400.00 ppm in 2015 because of a combination of human activities and a strong El Nino event," it added. [Read More]
PUERTO RICO UPDATE
Profiting from Puerto Rico's Pain
By Sheelah Kolhatkar
---- In 2012, Cate Long was working at the news service Reuters, where she wrote a daily column on the municipal-bond market. Municipal bonds are typically a sleepy corner of investing. They are forms of debt issued by states, counties, or cities, usually to fund infrastructure projects, such as airports and highways, and they are generally considered a safe investment, paying relatively low levels of interest. Finding a compelling story about the municipal-bond market is not an easy task, so when Long came across a document related to an eight-hundred-million-dollar bond sale that Puerto Rico would be undertaking that spring, she decided to look at the numbers more closely. What she found was startling. "I sat down and read it for a couple of hours, and I said, 'These people are going to default,' " she told me recently. "It was pretty obvious." [Read More]
U.S. Response to Storm-Hit Puerto Rico Is Criticized by U.N. Experts
---- United Nations experts faulted the United States' response to hurricane devastation in Puerto Rico in a report on Monday, calling it ineffective and lagging far behind the support provided for storm-struck states on the mainland. More than five weeks after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico with winds of up to 155 miles an hour, conditions remained "alarming" for the island's 3.5 million people, the group of 11 United Nations independent experts said, calling for a "speedy and well-resourced emergency response." … "We can't fail to note the dissimilar urgency and priority given to the emergency response in Puerto Rico, compared to the U.S. states affected by hurricanes in recent months," said Leilani Farha, the United Nations special rapporteur on housing. [Read More]
Puerto Rico Suffers While Defending Against Disaster Capitalism
By Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan, Democracy Now! [November 2, 2017]
---- "Democracy Now!" traveled to Puerto Rico last weekend to see the devastation firsthand. Well into the second month after Hurricane Maria hit, the island remains dark. By official estimates, almost two-thirds of the island is without electricity. In the meantime, the 3.5 million U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico struggle to obtain the basic essentials of life, as thousands leave the island for the mainland U.S., perhaps never to return. [Read More]
And Democracy Now! was in PR and broadcast these segments – "Mayor Carmen YulÃn Cruz Condemns "Indefensible" Whitefish Contract & Calls for PREPA Chief's Firing" [October 31, 2017] [Link]; "San Juan Mayor Carmen YulÃn Cruz on Trump, Shock Doctrine & "Disaster Capitalism" in Puerto Rico" [October 31, 2017] [Link]; "Puerto Rico: As Whitefish Contract Faces Scrutiny, Fluor and Other Companies Move to Privatize Water" [November 1, 2017] [Link]; and "As Elon Musk Proposes Taking Over Power Authority, Puerto Ricans Demand Community-Owned Solar Power" [November 1, 2017] [Link].
THE STATE OF THE UNION
Donna Brazile Confesses that DNC Rigged Primaries
By Michael Sainato, Politico [November 2, 2017]
---- Brazile cites the existence of a document signed by the DNC, the Hillary Victory Fund, and Hillary For America that outlined the arrangement, signed by Attorney Marc Elias who has represented the DNC and Clinton Campaign. "In exchange for raising money and investing in the DNC, Hillary would control the party's finances, strategy, and all the money raised," Brazile writes. "Her campaign had the right of refusal of who would be the party communications director, and it would make final decisions on all the other staff. The DNC also was required to consult with the campaign about all other staffing, budgeting, data, analytics, and mailings." This agreement was signed in August 2015, long before a single person voted in the primaries, but secured that Clinton would be the Democratic Presidential Nominee. [Read More] And here's a sign of more to come: "Was Democratic Primary Rigged Against Sanders? Warren Says Definitively 'Yes'," by Jake Johnson, Common Dreams [November 3, 2017] [Link].
What Killed the Democratic Party?
By William Greider, The Nation [October 30, 2017]
---- The Democratic Party lost just about everything in 2016, but so far it has offered only evasive regrets and mild apologies. Instead of acknowledging gross failure and astounding errors, the party's leaders and campaign professionals wallowed in self-pity and righteous indignation. The true villains, they insisted, were the wily Russians and the odious Donald Trump, who together intruded on the sanctity of American democracy and tampered with the election results. Official investigations are now under way. While the country awaits the verdict, a new and quite provocative critique has emerged from a group of left-leaning activists: They blame the Democratic Party itself for its epic defeat. Their 34-page "Autopsy: The Democratic Party in Crisis" reads more like a cold-eyed indictment than a postmortem report. It's an unemotional dissection of why the Democrats failed so miserably, and it warns that the party must change profoundly or else remain a loser. [Read More]
Dennis J. Banks (1937 – 2017): "Make No Mistake America, We are Going to be on Your Back"
---- Dennis J. Banks (Ojibwe), the co-founder of the American Indian Movement, who led a movement that brought to light the injustices American Indians still endured during the past half-century, walked on Sunday night at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota with his family and friends at his side. He was 80. His death was the result of complications after undergoing open heart surgery on Wednesday, October 18, 2017. During the past week, he developed pneumonia and his condition worsened. True to the name of his autobiography entitled Ojibwe Warrior, Banks was a tireless fighter for American Indians issues, causes and concerns. Banks became one of the most renowned American Indian leaders of the last century. [Read More]
Dennis Banks and the American Indian Movement – Still in prison (and nearing death), Leonard Peltier writes about "My Brother Dennis Banks," ZNet [November 3, 2017] [Link]. The New York Times had a surprisingly positive obituary on Banks' life and times: "Dennis Banks, American Indian Civil Rights Leader, Dies at 80," b[Link]. But there were deaths and controversy; read "The Conflicted Legacy of Dennis Banks: AIM, the FBI and the Murder of Anna Mae Aquash," b [Link].
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
Who Is Afraid of the Iranian Bomb?
---- I hate self-evident truths. Ideals may be self-evident. Political statements are not. When I hear about a self-evident political truth, I immediately doubt it. The most self-evident political truth at this moment concerns Iran. Iran is our deadly enemy. Iran wants to destroy us. We must destroy its capabilities first. Since this is self-evident, the anti-nuclear agreement signed between Iran and the five Security Council members (plus Germany) is terrible. Just terrible. We should have ordered the Americans long ago to bomb Iran to smithereens. In the unlikely event that they would have disobeyed us, we should have nuclear-bombed Iran ourselves, before their crazy fanatical leaders have the opportunity to annihilate us first. All these are self-evident truths. To my mind, all of them are utter nonsense. There is nothing self-evident about them. Indeed, they have no logical basis at all. They lack any geopolitical, historical or factual foundation. [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
The Revolt that Shook the World
By Pete Dolack, The Indypendent [NYC] [October 19, 2017]
---- Neither the Bolsheviks nor any other party had played a direct role in the February revolution that toppled the tsar, for leaders of those organizations were in exile abroad or in Siberia, or in jail. Nonetheless the tireless work of activists laid the groundwork. The Bolsheviks were a minority even among the active workers of Russia's cities then, but later in the year, their candidates steadily gained majorities in all the working class organizations — factory committees, unions and soviets. The slogan of "peace, bread, land" resonated powerfully. The time had come for the working class to take power. Should they really do it? How could backward Russia with a vast rural population still largely illiterate possibly leap all the way to a socialist revolution? The answer was in the West — the Bolsheviks were convinced that socialist revolutions would soon sweep Europe, after which advanced industrial countries would lend ample helping hands. The October Revolution was staked on European revolution, particularly in Germany. … The march forward of human history is not a gift from gods above nor presents handed us from benevolent rulers, governments, institutions or markets — it is the product of collective human struggle on the ground. If revolutions fall short, or fail, that simply means the time has come again to try again and do it better next time. [Read More]
Balfour: Then and Now
By Richard Falk, ZNet [November 3, 2017]
---- Today, November 2, is exactly 100 years after the issuance of the Balfour Declaration, the pledge given to the World Zionist Movement in a letter signed by the British Foreign Secretary to support the establishment of a 'national home' in the then Ottoman millet of Palestine. Certainly 'a day of infamy' for the Palestinian people and their friends around the world, while unfortunately treated as 'a day of pride' by the British Government, and all in the West those morally bankrupt enough to regret the passing of the colonial era, and to pretend without embarrassment that the Balfour legacy is something to celebrate, rather than to mourn, in the year 2017. The British pledge was an unabashed expression of colonialist arrogance in 1917, ironically made at the dawn of the worldwide movement of national upheavals that would lead in the course of the century to the collapse of European colonialism. At the end of World War I colonialism was being increasingly questioned morally, but not yet challenged legally or politically. Such challenges only began to emerge as the struggles of national liberation gained political traction globally after 1945. [Read More]
---- Today, November 2, is exactly 100 years after the issuance of the Balfour Declaration, the pledge given to the World Zionist Movement in a letter signed by the British Foreign Secretary to support the establishment of a 'national home' in the then Ottoman millet of Palestine. Certainly 'a day of infamy' for the Palestinian people and their friends around the world, while unfortunately treated as 'a day of pride' by the British Government, and all in the West those morally bankrupt enough to regret the passing of the colonial era, and to pretend without embarrassment that the Balfour legacy is something to celebrate, rather than to mourn, in the year 2017. The British pledge was an unabashed expression of colonialist arrogance in 1917, ironically made at the dawn of the worldwide movement of national upheavals that would lead in the course of the century to the collapse of European colonialism. At the end of World War I colonialism was being increasingly questioned morally, but not yet challenged legally or politically. Such challenges only began to emerge as the struggles of national liberation gained political traction globally after 1945. [Read More]
For more about the history/significance of the Balfour Declaration – Ofer Aderet, "The Alternative Balfour Declaration The Jews in Pre-state Israel Who Called for a Binational State," Haaretz [Israel] [October 30, 3017] [Link]; James Renton, "The Balfour Declaration's Deep anti-Semitism and Racism - and Why It Still Matters," Haaretz [Israel] [October 26, 2017] [Link]; and Gideon Levy, "Balfour's Original Sin," Haaretz [Israel] [October 28, 2017] [Link].
Imperial Blind Spots and US Interventions in Africa
By Fran Shor, Counterpunch [November 3, 2017]
---- Upon being informed of the death of four US Green Berets in Niger, Senator Lindsey Graham exclaimed: "I didn't know there were 1000 troops in Niger." Although the number was slightly inflated, Graham's willful ignorance as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee is not only a sad commentary on the lack of oversight but also a reflection of the continual imperial blind spots that inform US interventions in Africa. Coming from South Carolina, it is not surprising that Senator Graham's perspective on Africa is rather blinkered. While South Carolina may have recently removed the Confederate flag flying atop its state Capitol building, a more radical reckoning with the state's slave past remains elusive, especially to its white politicians, population, and tourist industry. One can still take a tour of Charleston and its waterfront mansions without being informed that what made Charleston the richest city in North America during the late 18th and early 19th centuries was the slave trade. [Read More]
